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“SCIENCE 


Pe NtILIVe TRATED JOURNAL 
PUBLISHED WEEKLY 


VOLUME II 


JULY—DECEMBER 1883 


SMITHSON AK 
JUL 23 1986 


CAMBRIDGE MASS. 
igh Ol eN CoE s.C O.M PANY 
1883 


CONTENTS 


OF VOLUME ILI. 


SPEOIAL ARTICLES 


PAGE 

Abbott, C. C. csmeence a of macnn ee ad wae in 
New Jersey. Jil. - a ae - - 3 258 
The intelligence of birds . . “pe. et A Ree 
Acoustic rotation apparatus. Ji... ©. fate 818 


American association for the advancement of science, 151, 181, 211 
Proceedings at the Minneapolis meeting, 190, 227, 272, 314, 358 


American explorations at Assos. Jl. 2... . . 646 
American oriental society. . . 651 
American society of civil engineers, fifteenth annual con- 
vention of . . FP ee . 75, 100 
American society of microscopists | </4eeees - 465 
Authors, suggestion to . . 755 
B a. The electric light on the U.S. fish-com- 
mission steamer Albatross. Jil... 5 642, 671, 705 
Baldacci, L. The earthquake of ay, "28, 1883, in ‘the 
island of Ischia. Ji... . . ettaieraina t 396 
Balloon, fallof. Jil. . . 5 POT RA asc S Ame ont) 
Barrande, Joachim. Portrait. -699, 727 


Beal, W. J. Agriculture: its needs and opportunities . 328 
Bell, "a. Melville. A universal language and its vehicle, 


—a mutvorsel alphabet . . 350 
Brooks, W = he phylogeny of the higher Crustacea, 790 
Carhart, H.S. The aac Honey diek dag site wnt. mw 1OUe 
Cc nter, Frank D. Y. Minnesota weather . . . 262 
Cayley, A. Obligations of mathematics to pilosa hy, 

and to questions of common life. . .... 477, 502 
Chief signal-officer’s report . . .- 811 
Cook, C.S. The use of the spectroscope i in meteorology. 

488 
Cope, E.D. ‘he evidence for evolution in the history of 

extinct mammalia . . 272 
Coues, Elliott. A hearing of birds’ ears. Zi. 422, 552, 586 
Coulter, J. M. Some glacial action in Indiana. . 6 
Dana, <i D. ‘Evidence from southern New England 

inst the iceberg theory of the drift. . . 4 390 
Davis, W. M. Whirlwinds, cyclones, and tornadoes. 

Il. . . - + « 589, 610, 639, 701, 729, 758 
Dawson, J LW Some unsolved problems i in geology 190 
Diller, J. S. Notes on the geology of the Troad .. 255 
eens, George: The Arago pues as Banyuls. 

556 
Dolbear, A. E. The conditions necessar y “for the sensa- 
ton of light. ee es 


Eclipse of 1882. . . 11 
Eddy, H. T. Kinetic considerations as to the nature of 
the atomic motions which probably originate radia- 
tions... ee is 
On the kinetic theory of the specific heat of solids |: . 
Evans, G. W jometers with curved vanes . . 
Farquhar, Henry. Experiments in binary arithme- 
Field-clubs and local societies ae aa cy tas 1 
S.A. Climate in the cure of ‘consumption . -426, 457 
French association for the advancement of science. . . - 
Geographic control of marine sediments. JU. . 
Germicide value of certain therapeutic agents, experiments 
todetermine . . 433 
Gilbert, G. K. Drainage system and loess distribution 
of eastern Iowa . . St teh vere 
Sih Seed H.H. The Himalayas ans 
Goode, G. B. The international fisheries exhibition. 71. 
129, 612 
Government asa publishinghouse ......... 381 
Greenwich observatory. . eps yee pee ec 
HH. A. Sun-spot observations | - SNC 
,E.H. Auroral epee in Lapland 11 ae Ae 
Halsted, Byron D combination walnut. a ate 
Notes on saasafras-leaves. Jil... . » ae 
Heer, Oswald. Portrait... . saa eee 
Hell’s observations of the transit of Venus in 1769. |; 219 
Hitchcock, C. H. The early sacs of of the North 
* American'continent . 293 
Hitchcock, R. Water-bottles and thermometers for 
deep-sea research at the International fisheries exhibi- 
tion. a . 155 
malage, be) A ‘system of local ‘warnings against tor. 


- 521 
The ferdiniserital catalogue ‘of the Berliner Jahrbuch : 


PAGE 
Holden, E. S., and Hastings, C.S. A list of twenty- 
three double stars Siscovere at Caroline 1 alias between 


April 27 and May 7, 1883... . 6 apie 
Horn, George H. John Lawrence LeConte. Portrait. 783 
Hough, F. The methods of statistics . . . . . 371 
Intelligence of American turret spider . 43 
International geodetic commission, resolutions “of, in rela- 

tion to the unification of longitudes and of time 814 
Java Sa Il. 469 


King, F.H. The influence of gravitation, ‘moisture, and 
light, 0 upon the direction of growth in the root and stems 
of plants. . : J" She balan ee 
Kinnicutt, Leonard P. ‘Ret magnus’ Eves 


Kneeland, S. The wild tribes of Luzon. J1/.. 522 
Koch. Report of the German cholera commission. . 675 

Lankester, E. R. The endowment of BiaIbgieel) re. 
search . + 504 
Leidy, Joseph. Crystals i in the bark of trees. "Zi. 707 
Lesseps. F.de. French geographical explorations. . .>.. , 508 

Lewis, H.C. The great terminal moraine across Penn- 
sylvania. 2 71S ER ae te te ee Pe eS 
Lick trust. . in ® ke nets 
Lyon, D. G. “Recent Babylonian research. | 1) 1. 40 
Manayunkia speciosa . - « 162 
Marcou, J.B. The affinities of Richthofenia + «ee 

Marey, E. J. The physiological station of Paris. 2. 
678, 709 

Mason, O.T. The scope and value of anthropological 
studies . - 358 

Merriman, G. B.  Iilustrative apparatus for astronomy. 
218 

Minot, on 4 ‘Balfour's last researches on _Peripatus, 
= - 306 
Composition of themesoderm : 1. ....;, orien 
Histology of insects a atts 430 
Origin of the mesoderm. mM. + ors vabglel We IR 
Miiller, Hermann. Portrait. . . oe) SBT 
National academy of sciences, November meeting of. er) 
National observatory . ... - Aa a2 pra 415 
National traits in science . . 455 


Neale, D. H. eae. The national “railway expoai- 
tion. Tl. - 3, 32, 97, 125, 417 
Newcomb, Simon. The Psy chological meehaniyy of 


direction .. » . 554 
The units of mass and force | . 493 
Nordenskiéld, A. E., on the inland ice of Greenland. “mM. ~ 732 
Osborn, Henry F. Francis Malay, Balfour. Por. 
trait . . eer oo eye Suniel, a minty, opiate Cee 
Paris observatory oe ct ae eer ee || 
Peale, A.C. Some geyser comparisons | é 101 
Peirce, G. 8. A new rule for division in arithmetic . | 788 
Pengelly, William. The Devonshire caverns and their 
contents. . . 3 562 
Pickering, W. HH. Surface conditions on the other 
planets. . a 5) sage 
Precision of observation asa branch of instruction | ° - 519 
Railway time, standard. . . Siew, ak 
Rathbun, R. *Sponge- culture in Florida ae . 213 
The U.S: fish-commission steamer Albatross. _J2/. . 6, 66 
Reade, John. Sonnet. a 255 
Rogers, W. A. te German survey of the northern 
e@avens. . .« oe ee oy 2D 
Rowland, H. A. a plea for pure faclence. -..) hea 242 
Ryder, J. A. Oyster-culture in Holland 79 
earing oysters from artificially fertilized eggs at Stock- 
ton, Md.. . 465 
Salmon, D.E. Reliability of the evidence obtained in 
the study of contagia. . . 212 
Saaieae: H. E. The zodlogical station of Holland. 
Wied . os be yt ue 
Sawin, A. M. Real roots of cubics |; 158 


Schwatka, Frederick. The igloo of the Innuit. TU. 
182, 216, 259, 304, 347 
Scott, i iB. On the development of teeth in the lam- 
prey. 
On the actetopment of the pituitary body in Petromyzon, 
and the significance of that organ in other types. Jil. . 
Shaler, N.S. The Americanswamp cypress .. . 


iv SCIENCE. — CONTENTS 


PAGE 
Shufeldt, R. W. Remarks upon the osteologye of BRAS 
crocorax bicristatus. Jil. . 0 = 640 
Romalea microptera. With a plate Hin 811 
The habits of Muraenopsis tridactylus in captivity; with 
observations onitsanatomy. Ji. . 159 
State weather services, July reports of, 399; August reports 


of, 359; Se tember reports of, 681. 
Storer, FP. Symmetrical linear figures sisehneer by 
reflection along a river-bank. Jil. . . . ce itdie S13 
Superstition, from, to humbug . . ........ « 687 
Swiss naturalists, meeting of. . 400 
Tanner, Z. L. A four- Baye) cruise of the “Albatross. : 
SiS foes 615 
Thurston, R. H. The ex aleion of the Riverdale. . . 464 
Tylor, HE. B. The natural history of implements . . . 48 
w., W. July reports of state weather services . . . . 399 
The French eclipseiexpedition -.. Ss. 8) 4). 591 


United States national museum . é 63, 119 


OF VOLUME I. 


PAGE 
United States signal-service . . giger eat, 811 
United States signal-service and ‘standard time ho 75d 
Urnatella gracilis. Jl... 6 789 


Verrill, A. E. Recent explorations i in the “region of the 
Gulf Stream off the eastern coast of the United States 
by the U.S. fish-commission . . ee OS. 


Virchow, R. The invention and spread of bronze |. 527 
Vivisection question. . . 551 
-, W.C. The American association at Minneapolis - 181 
The lessons of the meeting . . 5 cue et 


Wadsworth, M. EB. Ocean water and bottoms |. . 41 

Weather in May, 1883, il/. 34; in June, 1883, idl. 186; in 
July, 1888, i//. 394; in AuguS&t, 1883, é//. 5245 in Sep- 
tember, 1883, ¢//. 671; in October, 1883, ill. 786. 

Whitman, C. ’O. The advantages of study at the Naples 


zoological station. Portraitof Anton Dohin . . 93 
Williamson, Nafe Se: The yeceration of the ‘earbonitfer- 
ousage. . oi fietane a there a (ego Smee 


BOOK REVIEWS. 


PAGE 
Adams’s Lecture on evolution . . a. ©6609 
Alnwick Castle antiquities. By Henry | W. “Haynes « « « 186 
Archeology in Portugal . maior ON 
Bell’s Primer of visible speech f - « 204 
Bremiker’s Logarithmic tables. By Baward ‘s. Hotden. . 174 
Briggs’s Steam-heating . . 2 = = 686 
Bulletin of the U.S. fish- commission, “vol. ii. » . 685 
Burnham’s History and uses of limestones and marbles. | 203 
Cornell mathematical library. . Bee ice ey elon ich SPA 
DeLong’s Voyage of the Jeannette, DRG Nae EIN) 
Fergusson’s Parthenon. . . AE a pins sites ema a Ae dO 
Hinley’s Tornado studies . . . - - =. . «=. -. « = 403 
Fletcher’s Human proportion . ...... =. . . . dad 
Flynn’ iS Hydraulictables ~ 2. 2 1 1 1 1 ew se ess GOT 
Foye’s Chemical problems . ..... +--+ - + « + 627 
Galton’s TRUE MEAN) Sold As OV Buen tap nto vo 6 al ne) 
Geikie’s Text-book of geology . aie egy Rees INOS 
Gottsche’s Pebbles of Bohlea wiz: Holstein 31) sos See geh Semen ee 
Green’s Eureka . . es Bmobe Pec ecmeciy yo At cust h 0) 
Haeckel’s Visit to Ceylon DRC AnUCh Ieee aia cl Syd... tdi) 
Hale’s Troquois book of rites. Rperee ch 67 CO: wal ACY) 
Harrington’s Life of Sir William Logan nape Ceol Sper ae 
Heer’s Fossil flora of Greenland . . etre oo eet) 
Herrick’s Types of animallife . ...... . =. « « 688 
Hicks’s Critique of designarguments .. . ... . . 309 
Ideas of motion, Some recent studies on. By Josiah Royce, 713 
Inspired science . . ST Moai d ety fork al psultethien theiey eatnemeTL OD 
Joly’s Man before metals. 1. Bei tdeesd: ap hay Mon can GA 
Konkoly’ 's Astronomical instruments. . . .. . . . . 202 
Ledger’s Sun andits planets. ...... +... -.. (Ii 
Lewis’s Geology of Philadelphia . . ..... =. . . 269 
Macloskie’s Elementary WELK? chin Mold fo-%o1.00 Oo ed Moe 163 
Maudsley’s Body andwill. . .....-.... . . 600 
Maynard’s Manual of taxidermy . . iG reste uey ees ol 
Miller-Hauenfel’s Theoretische meteorologic Oh laeNoven bo. i: sy 
Minor DOOKINOLICER <ineoe stelle viten egiis =e pi ualetnnsw tenn G2O 


PAGE 
Moncel’s, du, Electro-magnets . . . <n 
Morton’s Biographical history of astronomy . of ot ro anne 
Mourlon’s Géologie dela Belgique . . 3 a een 


Ormerod’s Report on injurious insects in England . + tote eee 
Packard’s Phyllopod Crustacea. By S.f. Smith... . 571 


Proctor’s Great pyramid’ . . os) opens get eynOau: 
Remsen’s Principles of theoretical “chemistry o . 826 
Report, First, of the New-York state agricultural station . 687 
Restoration of ancient temples... wi je dgelane - 740 
Ribeiro’s Etudes préhistoriques en Portugal aa” ae tal ag 
Ross’s Early history of landholding . ...... . 768 
Saunders’s Insects injurious tofruits. . ... .. . . I74 
Scott’s Elementary meteorology 0 <)) =) Yar ve) neh eee CE 
Seebohm’s English village community ...... . . 386 
Siemens’s Conservation of solarenergy. . ... . . . 108 
Stearns and Coues’ New-England bird-life. . . . . . . 857 
Step’s Plant-life . . . oe te ode 
Stevenson’s Geology of southern Pennsylvania <> eee 
Stowell’s Microscopical diagnosis . . 83 


Stricker’s Studien iiber die bewegungs ‘Yvorstellungen. ‘By 
SOSA LOYCE! civ ppiedie) siite Vail) lee) tel nst eu teen ann 
Taylor's Alphabet Aiwa PuCMCIEC MEET Os Oy. ce si: 
Thompson’s Philipp Reis. . Zl. . ae fe 
Thomson and Tait’s Treatise on natural philosophy - 497, 795 
Transactions of the American society of mechanical engi- 


neers. . . 267 
Transactions of the International geodetic association of 

Europe. By 0.4.8... ... 656 
Trutat’s Traité valemeriaive du mier oscope. ‘By 0. cc 

Stowell . . . : 313 
Tryon’s Structural and systematic sgonchology, vol.ii. . 658 
Tudor’s Orkneys and Shetland. Ji/.. . . 743 
Ward’s Dynamic sociology ...... = “45, 105, 171, 222 
Ware’s Modern perspective . . . . B54 
Winslow’s Report on the Chesapeake oy ster: beds. Tl. : 440 
Ziegler’s Pathologicalanatomy . ... . . of 5S Baer 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF 


THE PROGRESS OF 


SCIENCE. 


** Under this heading the boldfaced numerals refer to the separate paragraphs ; the others, as elsewhere, to the pages. 


Acoustics, 50. 

Seneniture, 20, 110, 141, 176, 205, 628, 661, 690, 719, 746, 771, 801, 
29, 

Anthropology, iJ. 24, 56, 89, 114, 145, 179, 207, 383, 411, 448, 548, 
578, 632, 669, 694, 723, 751, 775, 805, 833. 

Arachnids, 664, 

Astronomy, 17, 49, 175, 444, 545, 575, 627, 660, 688. 

Birds, 89, 447, 578, 664, 722, 749, 834. 

Botany, 21, 53, 87, 112, 178, 381, 410, 447, 548, 577, 630, 663, 691, 
720, 772, 802, 831. 

hemintty, 19, 51, 85, 141, 176, 205, 380, 407, 546, 576, 770, 800, 


Coelenterates, 22, 692, 773, 832. 

Crustaceans, 22, 410, 664, 693, 833. 
Cryptogams, 21, 112, 831. 

Early institutions, 57, 146, 383, 688, 695, 752. 
EOROTIE entomology, 143. 

Electricity, z//. 83, 140, 175, 407, 545. 


Engineering, 19, 51, 110, 140, 380, 407, 445, 545, 575, 628, 660, 689, 
718, 746, 770, 799, 828. 

Fish, 53, 144, 722. 

Geography, 20, 52, 86, 112, 142, 177, 206, 881, 409, 446, 547, 576, 
630, 662, 690, 719, 830; (Africa), 58, 87, 142, 206, 381, 547, 691, 
720, 831; (dipina), 4i6; (Arctic), 20, 86, 142, 206, 409, 576, 662, 
719, 830; (Asia), 86, 112, 177, 547, 663, 690; (ALurope), 177; 
(North America), 630; (South America), 52, 142, 409, 446, 
630. 

Geology, 20, 52, 85, 111, 141, 380, 446, 546, 629, 661, 771, 801, 829. 

Insects, 22, 0d. 55, 148, 632, 748, 778, 833. = 

Lithology, 52, 111, 141, 446, 629, 829. 

uaa) 24, 89, 144, 178, 207, 448, 548, 693, 722, 750, 775, 803, 

Man, 145, 448, 750, 804. 


Mathematics, 18, 50, 83, 109, 189, 175, 879, 407, 444, 575, 628, 689, — ee 


717, 745, 769, 799, 827. 
Metallurgy, 83, 380, 408, 628, 661. 


at PY ev eee? a 


SCIENCE. — CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. 


Meteorites, 380. 
Meteorology 


, 111, 206, 408, 446, 576, 629, 662, 690, 747. 


Mineralogy,-141, 176, 381, 408, 547, 629, 690, 719, 747, 772, 830. 
Mollusks, 22, 54, 113, 206, 381, 447, 663, 692, 721, 748, 773, 803. 


Optics, 18. 

Phanerogams, 22, 112, 831. 
Photography, 18, 140, 445. 
Physical geography, 111, 802. 


Physics, 18, 50, 83, 140, 175, 407, 445, 545, 769. 


Protozoa, 88, 143, 831. 


Reptiles, 24, 56, i//. 207, 447, 548. 
Vertebrates, 23, 55, 88, 118, 143, 207, 382, 411, 447, 548, 578, 664, 


693, 722, 749, 774, 803, 833. 


Worms, 88, 382, 631, 721, 748, 832. 
Zovlogy, 22, 54, 87, 113, 143, 178, 206, 381, 410, 447, 578, 631, 663, 


692, 721, 747, 772, 802, 831. 


LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS WHOSE NAMES APPEAR BY INITIALS IN THE WEEKLY SUMMARY. 


W. F. Aven. 
H. P. AnMsBy. 
W. K. Brooks. 


W. H. Datu. 
W. M. Davis. 
W. G. Fartow. 


L. LesQuer 
Cc. 


J. A. JEFFRIES. 


F. MABERY. 


8S. L. PENFIELD. 
EUX. 
J. W. PowELt. 


E. Burcess. G. L. GoopALe. M. McNEr. R. H. Ricwarps. 
J. H. Comstock. C, E. GREENE. J. B. Marcov. D. W. Ross. 

T. Crate. E. H. Haut. O. T. Mason. 8. H. ScuppErR. 
Cc. R. Cross. H. A. Hazen. C. 8. Minor. 8. I. Smirn. 


G. E. Curtis. 


W. H. Howe tt, 


}. E. MUNROE. 


C. A. STUDLEY. 


W. H. PICKERING. 


R. H. Tourston. 
D. P. Topp. 

W. TRELEASE. 

J. TROWBRIDGE. 

F. W. True. 

W. Upton. 

M. E. Wapsworru. 
OC. A. Youne. 


LIST OF PERSONS WHOSE WRITINGS ARE QUOTED IN THE WEEKLY SUMMARY. 


Abbott, C. C., 436. 
Agardh, 565. 
Albrecht, 211. 

Allen, G., 394. 
Allen, H., 35. 
Amezaga, C. de, 344. 
André, G., 12. 
Andrews, E. A., 372. 
Andrews, R. R., 284. 
Angot, 364. 

Antisell, 117. 

Aoust, 410. 

Apgar, A. C., 434, 436. 
relia 41, 382. 
Ardissone, F., 426. 
Areschoug, J. E., 21. 
Arnstein, 462. 
Arntz, 581. 

Arthur, J. C., 22, 23. 
Arzruni, 539. 
Ashburner, C. A., 18. 
Asbford, C., 525. 
Assaky, 579. 

Aubry, A., 298. 
Aymé, L. H., 286. 


Baber, E. C., 379, 405. 

Baerwald, C., 418. 

Baeyer, A., 511. 

Bailey, W. W., 226, 228. 

Bainier, 122. 

Baird, Mrs. H. 8., 377. 

Banks, E., 268. 

Barber, E. A., 169. 

Bardeleben, K., 283. 

Barros, 562. 

Baumann, E., 478. 

Baur, C., 137. 

Bechterew, 438, 458. 

Becke, F., 557. 

Bellonci, 98. 

Bellonci, G., 90. 

Bellot, A., 365. 

Benedict, B. G. and F. L., 198. 

Beni, 586. 

Bergh, 454. 

Bertrand. 
Bertrand. 

Bertrand, A., 131. 

Beseler and Miircker, 361. 

Beyer. See Conn and Beyer. 

Birge, E. A., 575. 

Blake, L. J., 291. 

Blake, W. P., 482. 

Blanchard, R. See Regnard, 
P., and Blanchard, R. 

Blandy, J. 'T., $2. 

Bloxam, C. L., 218. 

Borgen, 422. 

Botiger, 230. 

Bitticher, E., 539. 

Bon, Gustave le, 193. 

Bongartz, J., 479. 

Bonney, F., 540. 

Boog-Watson, R., 27. 

Born, 521. 

Borodine, 49. 

Bor-ies, 475. 


See Pauchon and 


Bosshard. See Schulze and 
Bosshard. 

Bouchen-Brandely, 58. 

Boulvin, 384. 

Bourne, F. 8, A., 235. 

Bove, 254, 365. 

Bowditch, H. P., and Warren, 
J.C., 497. 

Bozzoli and Graziadei, 97. 

Brefeld, 368. 

Bremer, L., 258. 

Brooks, W., 267. 

Brooks, W. K., 489. 

Brush, G. J., and Penfield, 8. 
L., 223. 

Buchner, -M., 56, 195. 

Biisgen, 486. 

Burckhardt, 31. 

Butler, Fielding, and Reid, 580. 

Butler, J. D., 351. 


Cadiat, 463. 

Caldwell and Roberts, 145. 

Caldwell, W. H., 432. 

Canefri, Tapparone, 490. 

Canini and Gaule, 279. 

Capitan, L., 168. 

Caspary, 2. 

Cattani, Mile. J., 460. 

Cayley, A., 541. 

Chanute, O., 309. 

Chareyre, 25. 

Charnay, D., 260. 

Chatin, J., 432,573. 

Chernaieft, 296. 

Chester, F. D., 221. 

Ciaccio, 162. 

Clamageran, J. J., 116. 

Clark, B. F., 213. 

Cobbold, T. 8., 432. 

Cohnheim and Roy, 499. 

Comstock, J. H., 159. 

Conn and Beyer, 396. 

Cooke, M. C., 346. 

Cope, E. D., 17, 26, 66, 163. 

Copeland, R., 53. 

Cornevin, 130. 

Cornu, 40. 

Cornu, 121. 

Cornu and Obrecht, 173. 

Corre, A., 132. 

Coryell, M., 477. 

Coulanges, F. de, 470. 

Couty, 534. 

Cragin, F. W., 29. 

Craig, T., 383. 

Cramer, G., 6. 

Cresson, H. T., 305. 

Cross, C. Z., and Higgin, A. 
F., 244, 

Crosse and Fischer, 371. 


Dally, 212. 

Damour, 250. 

Damour and Des Cloizeaux, 
249. 

Dana, E. 8., 295. 

Dana, J. D., 118. 


Darboux, 441. 

Dareste, 354. 

Dartre and Morat, 401. 

D’Auria, L., 292. 

Davidson, T., 526. 

léhérain and Maguenne, 388. 

Des Cloizeaux, 389. See also 
Damour and Des Cloizeaux. 

Diller, J. 8., 52. 

Ditte, A., 242. 

Doberck, 390. 

Débner, O., 50. 

Doelter, C., 298, 484. 

Dogicl, 462. 

Donaldson and Stevens, 530. 

Dowdeswell, 67. 

Drasche, R. v., 572. 

Dunbar, J. B., 104. 

Duncan, W.8., 70. 

Dybowski, 402. 


Ebell, P., 546. 

Ebermayer. See Giimbel, v., 
and Ebermayer. 

Edlund, 177. 

Egoroff, 327. 

Ebrmann, C., 268. 

Eimer, 164. 

Elliott, A. H., 218. 

Ely. See Howell and Ely. 

Emery, 161. 

Emmerling, 180. 

Engelmann, I’. W., 487. 

Erckert, von, 539. 

Ercolani, 528. 

Ewald and Kobert, 160, 210. 


Farlow, W. G., 255, 275. 

Farsky, 335, 360, 446, 447. 

Fewkes, J. W., 94. . 

Fick, A., 204. 

Fielding. See Butler, Fielding, 
and Reid. 

Fineman, 363. 

Fischer. See Crosse and Fis- 
cher. 

Fischer, P., 208, 278. 

Fisher, 110, 

Fletcher, R., 503, 585. 

Floquet, G., 134. 

Foettinger, A., 455. 

Fol, H., 321, 523. 

Fontaine, W. F., 338. 

Forbes, 280, 281, 375, 435. 

Forbes, H. O., 406. 

Forbes, S. A., 158, 577. 

Franck, 444, 

Frankland, P. F., and Jordan, 
F., 109. 

Fraser, A., 191. 

Frazer, P., 113. 

Frere, H. Bartle, 73. 

Frohlich, J., 138. 

Froidevaux, H., 152. 

Fuller, A. J., 411. 


Gadow, 437. 
Gaidoz, 504. 


Galle, 391. 

Galton, F., 533. 

Gardner, C., 237. 

Garson, J. G., 465, 505. 

Gatschet, A. 8., 536. 

Gaule. Sce Canini and Gaule. 

Gazan, 476. 

Geuther, A., 312. 

Gilbert. See Lawes, Gilbert, and 
Warington. 

Gill, T., 64, 65. 

Girard, J., 183. 

Gissler, C. F., 256. 

Glasson, 408. 

Golgi, C., 578. 

Gomme, G: L., 171. 

Goodyear, W. A., 219. 

Gorgen, A., 13, 313. 

Gosse, P. H1., 30. 

Graff, F., 411. 

Gram, J. P., 329. 

Grant, J. A., 403. 

Gray, A., 394. 

Graziadei. See Bozzoli 
Graziadei. 

Gregorio, Marquis de, 430, 
524. ° 

Griesbach, H., 432. 

Griveaux, 45. 

Groneman, 75. 

Grouven, H., 15. 

Gruber, 570. 

Griinwedel, 539. 

Giimbel, v., and Ebermayer, 
185. 

Giissfeldt, 153. 

Giittler, H., 197. 


and 


Hadley, H. N., 243. 

Halbert, H. 8., 440. 

Hall, Maxwell, 290. 

Haller, B., 398. 

Hamson, 569. 

Hamy, E. 'T., 234, 325. 

Hansen, 347. 

Harger, O., 574. 

Harnack, 308. 

Harris, V., 32. 

Harrison, J. P., 466. 

Haupt, 411. 

Hautreux, 364. 

Haviland, E., 276. 

Haynes, H. W., 324. 

Heath, E. R., 274. 

Hebner, O., 142, 

Heiden, 548. 

Heilprin, A., 362, 399. 

Heim, 108. 

Heinrich, 112. 

Hellriegel, 112, 417. 

Hemsley, 125. 

Hermite, 542. 

Heude, 59. 

Higgin, A. F. See Cross, C. Z., 
and Higgin, A. F. 

Hildebrandsson, 451. 

Hinde, 8. H., 196, 

Hoffmann, 369. 


vi 


Hoggan, G. and F., 63. 
Holden, E. 8., 306. 
Hollrung, M. U., 556. 
Hopkins, E, W., 535. 
Hovelacque, 72. 

Howell and Ely, 584. 
Howitt, A. W., 69, 540. 
Hubrecht, A. A. W., 232, 348. 
Hudson, C. T., 92. 
Huggins, 380. 

Hurwitz, 3. 

Hussey, L., 140. 
Huxley, T. H., 376. 


Igelstrém, L. J., 450. 
Irving, R. D., 51. 


Jager, de, 527. 

Jeffreys, J. G., 27, 126, 431, 
453. 

Jessen, 303. 

John. See Teller and John. 

Johnson, J. B., 269. 

Jones, E. H., 61. 

Jones, M. A., 124. 

Jordan, F. See Frankland, P. 
F., and Jordan, F. 

dJusserand, 353. 


Karzin, 560. 

Keane, A. H., 500, 540. 

Kent, W., 332. 

Kessler, H. L., 311. 

Kirbach, P., 576. 

Kittredge, C. 8., 252. 

Klein, C., 224. 

Klemensiewicz, 8., 350. 

Klug, 582. 

Kobelt, 370. 

Kobert. See Ewald and Ko- 
bert. 

Kohlrausch, F., 176. 

Kollman, J., 37. 

Konchin, $5. 

Korevaer, P. A., 508. 

Korotneff, 571. 

Krause, Aurel, 419, 539. 

Kiihn, J., 101. 

Kaulischer, 539. 

Kummell, C. H., 473. 

Kunzé, 227. 

Kuster, 59. 


Lachowicz, B., 510. 

Lacoe, R. D., 60. 

Lagerheim, 564. 

Lang, 251. 

Lang, A., 538. 

Lankester, 59. 

Laroche. See Prat and La- 
roche. 

Lasaulx, A. v., 558. 

Last, J. T., 502. 

Layocat, 129. 

Lawes, Gilbert, and Waring- 
ton, 16. 

Lawes, W. G., 119, 324.: 

Lebedeff, 400. 

Lefort, 43. 

Legoux, A., 105. 

Lemaire, 123. 

Lemstrém, 75. 

Levinsen, G. M. R., 572. 

Lewis, H. C., 182. 

Linstow, v., 432. 

Lippmann, E. O., 76. 

Lloyd and Symes, 507. 

Lockington, 532. 

Lockwood, 8., 373, 494. 

Loew, 144. 

Lovett, 261. 

Lovisato, 344. 

Lubboek, Sir J., 157. 


McCook, H. C., 374,493,495. 

Macdonald. See Stirling and 
Macdonald. 

MacMunn, C. A., 452, 


Marcker, 181, 513, 548, 549. 
550. See also Beseler and 
Mircker. 

Magitot, 464. 

Maguenne. See Déhérain and 
Maguenne. 

Major, M. F., 302. 

Malahide, 103. 

Malair, 567. 

Maltzan, v., 229. 

Mangoldt, v., 74. 

Manhés, P., 333. 

Manouyrier, 194. 

Marcy, H. O., 528. 

Markham, C. R., 274. 

Marsh, O. C., 209. 

Martel, 165. 

Martens, E. y., 429. 

Martin, 62. 

Matthews, W., 468. 

Maudslay, A. P., 262. 

Maumené, E., 11. 

Mayer, Ad., 200. 

Mayo, Ear! of, 404. 

Meehan, T., 294, 519. 

Mendelssohn, 433. 

Merrill, G. P., 481, 553. 

Merrill, S , 364. 

Merton, Henry, & Co., 359. 

Metschnikoff, 34.9. 

Meyer, H., 136. 

Meyer, W., 306, 307, 381. 

Mises, v., 36. 

Mitchell and Reichert, 34. 

Ménninghoff and Piesbergen, 
285. 

Moret. See Dartre. 

Moreaux, F., 385. 

Morgan, A. P., 24, 425. 

Morlet, L., 231. 

Miiller, 99. 

Miiller, 319. 

Miiller, Fritz, 189. 

Muir, T., 265. 

Murphy, H., 411. 


Napoli, D., 443. 

Nehrling, 282. 

Néis, 187. 

Nessler, 516. 

Neve, 568. 

Newbury, 146. 

Neyreneuf, 44, 

Nourse, J. H., $4. 

Obrecht. See Cornu and Ob- 
recht. 

Olszewski, K. See Wroblew- 
sky, and Olszewski, K. 

O'Neill, H., 407. 

Oppert, G., 489. 

Osborn, H., 320. 

Osborne, 491. 

Owen, R., 459. 


Packard, A. 8., jun., 457. 

Parker, G. W., 38. 

Parker, W., 545. 

Partsch, J., 155. 

Patterson, A. J., 133. 

Pauchon and Bertrand, 42. 

Pawlewsky, B., 293. 

Peacock, 367. 

Pechuel-Loesche, 55. 

Peet, 8S. D., 378. 

Penfield, S. L., 483. See also 
Brush, G. J., and Penfield, 
8. L. 

Perpetue, 341. 

Peter, y. See Schrodt and yon 
Peter. 

Petrie, 467. 

Pettersson, O., 420. 

Pfliiger, E., 190. 

Picard, 266, 472. 

Pickering, 8. U., 10. 

Piesbergen. See Monninghoff 
and Piesbergen. 


Poincaré, 506. 

Poirier, J., 432. 

Porter, C. T., 330. 

Poulton, E. B., 461. 

Powell, W., 501. 

Prat and Laroche, 247. 

Precht, H. See Wittjen, B., 
and Precht, H. 

Prevost. See Swanwick and 
Prevost. 

Prillieux, 563. 

Putnam, F. W., 304. 


Rath, G. v., 449. 

Rauber, 33. 

Ray, 316. 

Regnard, P.,and Blanchard, R., 
238. 


Reichert. See Mitchell and 
Reichert, and Wood and 
Reichert. 


Reid. See Butler, Fielding, and 
Reid. 

Rein, G., 583. 

Reisenegger, H., 78. 

Repiachoff, 488. 

Ricco, 172. 

Richardson, R, A., 9. - 

Richter, V. v., ‘77. 

Ringer and Sainsbury, 96. 

Rink, 150. 

Roberts. See Caldwell and 
Roberts. 

Robertson, 554. 

Robertson, D., 126. 

Robinson, 8. W., 216, 543. 

Rochas, A. de, 537. 

Rochebrune, A. T. de, 587. 

Roeback, 492. 

Rohlfs, G., 154. 

Romanis, R., 337. 

Roy. See Cohnheim and Roy. 


Sabatier, 95, 393. 

Saceardo, P. A., 345. 

Sainsbury. See Ringer and 
Sainsbury. 

Saint-Loup, 456. 

Salensky, W., 432. 

Salomon, C., 424. 

Salterain, $1. 

Sandoy, 245. 

Schacko, 429. 

Schaeffer, C. A., 270. 

Scharizer, R., 271. 

Schiaparelli, 264, 289. 

Schieffelin, 365. 

Schiff, R., 547. 

Schleh, 386. 

Schmidt, F., 420, 559. 

Schneider, A., 156. 

Schrodt and yon Peter, 552. 

Schulze and Bosshard, 517. 

Schulze, B., 202. 

Schwarz, H., 314. 

Schweinfurth, G., 39. 

Sedgwick, 395. 

Sharp, B., 397, 522. 

Shedd and Ward, 217. 

Sibree, J., jun., 236, 540. 

Siemens, Werner, 328. 

Sluiter, C. P., 93. 

Smith, E. F. See Thomas, N. 
W., and Smith, HE. F. 

Smith, J. L., 222. 

Smith, 8. L., 257. 

Soleillet, P., 298. 

Spring, W., 14. 

Staude, 471. 

Steel, F. A., 259. 

Stejneger, 402. 

Sterneck, R. v., 175. 

Stevens. See Donaldson and 
Stevens, 

Stirling and Macdonald, 68. 

Stokes, A. C,, 428. 

Sturm, R., 215, 238. 

Sturtevant, E. 1.., 485, 


SCIENCE.— CONTENTS OF VOLUME II. 


Stutzer, 387. 

Sutherland, W.5., 246. 
Swanwick and Prevost, 199. 
Symes. See Lloyd and Symes. 
Szabo, J., 336. 


‘Tacchini, P., 115, 263. 

Tait, 5. 

Talausier, C., 357. 

Taljanzeff, 496. 

Tarchanoff, 322, 323. 

Tate, 46. 

Taylor, 427. 

Taylor, W. B., 355. 

Teller and John, 271. 

‘Tenison-Woods, J. E., 520. 

Thomas, N. W., and Smith, E. 
¥F., 141. 

Tremlett, 540. 

Tryon, 371. 

Tuttle, A. H., 531. 

Twitchell, E., 178. 


Urban, 57, 566. 
Uskow, 100, 233. 


Valentini, P. J. J., 287. 

Vambery, H., 102. 

Van Bemmelen, 127. 

Van Calker, F. J. P., 148. 

Van Hasselt. See Veth and 
Van Hasselt. 

Vayssiére, 207. 

Venukoff, M., 83. 

Verdonck, H., 344. 

Vesque, 88. 

Veth and Van Hasselt, 273. 

Vierordt, K., 239. 

Vieth, 144. 

Vignier, C., 432. 

Voelcker, 416, 448. 

Vossler, 512. 


Waddington, H. J., 91. 
Wagner, F., 111, 480. 

Wake, C. 8., 540. 

Walcott, C. D., 518. 

Walecki, 409. 

Walker, J. T., 120. . 
See Shedd and Ward. 


Ward. 

Warington, See Lawes, Gilbert, 
and Warington. 

Warren, J. See Bowditch, 


. H.P., and Warren, J. 0. 

Warrington, J. N., 442. 

Waterford, 469. 

Watteville, de, 166. 

Wauters, 423. 

Weingarten, 174. 

Weinland, 59. 

Werner, R. R., 48. 

Westmacott, 310. < 

White, R. B., 54. 

Whitham, J. M., 413. 

Whitman, C. O., 348. 

Wieler, 188. 

Wiesner, 300. 

Wildt, 416. 

Williams, G. H., 149. 

Willoughby, E. F., 143. 

Wiltheiss, E., 214. 

Winslow, 128. 

Wittjen, B., and Precht, H., 
555. 

Wolff, W., 529. 

‘Wood and Reichert, 581. 

Wortmann, J., 299. 

Wright, E. R., 301. 

Wroblewsky, S., and Olszew- 
ski, K., 4. 

Wundt, 59. 


Young, C. A., 1. 
Young, J., 526. 
Young, 8. H., 253. 


Zawarykin, 192. 
Zuntz, 551. 


ss SCIENCE. — CONTENTS OF VOLUME IL vii 


INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 


GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. 


Bureau of ethnology, 580. 

Geological survey, 633, 724, 11, 807, 836. 

Magnetic observato! a en Los Angeles, Cal., ill. 58. 
National museum, 

Naval! bureau of ordnance, ‘58. 


STATE INSTITUTIONS. 
Illinois state laboratory of natural history, 483. 


Towa weather service, 27, 339. 
Massachusetts institute of technology, 449. 
Missouri weather service, 26. 

Ohio Wesleyan university, 91. 

State university 
University of 


of Kansas, 90, 340. 
ichigan, 208. 


PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS, 


Dudley observatory, 449. 
Williams college, 808. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR, 12, 44, 105, il/. 182, ill. 167, 201, 221, il/. 265, ill. 309, 353, 402, 435, 470, 496, 539, 569, i//. 599, 620, id. 652, 


ill. 682, 712, 789, 764, il2. 793, ill. 820. 


Nores AND NEWS, 27, 61, 91, 115, 146, 179, 209, 258, 297, 340, 384, é//. 412, 450, 484, é//. 516, 549, 580, i7/, G04, 634, 665, 696, 725, 752, il. 


778, i22. 808, 837. 


REcENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS, 30, 62, 92, 118, 150, 180, 210, 254, 298, 342, 453, 486, 518, 550, 582, 608, 636, 668. 


LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 


PAGE 
Acoustic rotation 9 om (5 figs.). . . - . .818, 819 
Albatross, U.S. fish-commission : 3 longitudinal 

section of, 8,9; captain’s cabin, 67; main laboratory, 

forward end, 83; same, after end, 69; the Sigsbee 

sounding-machine on, 70; forward deck of, 71; electric 

light on (17 figs.) . . . . 643, 644, 645, 673, 674, 675, 707 
Assos, city walls of, 647; corner of oldest poly. gonal Sty 

WAILOF 22. = a. Va ahaa) ee sen 648 
Astronomy, illustrative ‘apparatus Torco wae tek 218 
Aurora borealis, ae of Lemstrém’s wires in experi. 

mentson . « -. 84 
Auroral experiments i in Lapland, diagram explaining. « - 820 
Balfour, Francis Maitland, Boreal and esaclaniire Of is « 299 
Balloon, fall ofa (6 figs.) . - "3 "189, 190 
Banyuls, Arago mboratoce at, 568; “as seen from the labora- 

tory .. oe) ge > o DOD 
Barrande, Joachim, portrait and signature ‘of oesa,+; Var op G09 
A A IS eS Cs eg 
Bennett Island. . . 543 
Bombinator, section through’ head of embryo of, 186; sec- 

tion through head of tadpoleof . . . . .... . 186 
Boyle’s law, apparatus for (2 figs.) . . ..... +. . 284 
Brontosaurus, restoration of . . 207 
Cars, racks of postal, 418; suspension truck for, 49; dump, 

419; diagram showing action of suspension truck for, 

419; elipHe spring for, 420; prewbae for, 420; automat- 

ic brake for . . Ruts 421 
Chick’s skull, anatomy of @ figs. 4 BA * 43, 552, 553, $87, 588 
Crystals in bark. . Ee ers 708 
Dissociation of salts, diagram showing results of Ror iw pei ) 
Dobrn, Anton, portraitand signatureof ....... 98 
Figures, symmetrical, by reflection . . . ..... . 38 
Fish-hooks, bone . . . « 653 
Fisheries exhibition, ‘American section of International. : 
French soldiers resting. . . Se eee bal. b 
Frog ovum, frontal section through SMe ay at abhaties Fen tel, DAE 
Galvanometer, method of calibrationof . . i, . 
Glacial scratches on Scotland and Shetland, map of Bitte 
Gravity, method of finding centre of . . 283 
Greenland, map of western coast of, 413; map of Norden- 

skidld’s journey on, 733; fissure in inlandiceof . . . 735 


Gulf slope, chartof. . . PP hie Ahrens) C3 

Heer, Oswald, portrait and signature of Pensa satel rhe. DOG 

Heliostat . . . ; ARR She ROO 

Ice-chart for June, 1883. . 188 
_ Igloo, making an ice, 216; ice, with snow ‘capping, 217; ; 


diagram showing method of building, 259; a snow-block 

for, 260; half-built, 260; finishing touches to, 261; ver- 

tical cross-section through wall of, 261; diagram show- 

ing method of laying the snow- blocks for, 260; vertical 

section of, 304; plan of, 304; Lieut. Schwatka’s party 

encamped in snow, 348; section through ge 3495 

Innuit tight-ropesin . . ‘ . . 349 
Ischia, earthquake of July 28, 1883, on island of. + « «897, 485 
dJavaearthquake,mapof .......-. ow ert 5: 400 


PAGE 
Jeannette Island . . 542 
Lamprey, sagittal section through head ‘of embryo of, 134: 

section through head of older embryo of, 185; section 
through peed of young larva of, 185; section “of inner 


side of lipof . . . ayy <l, Wao 
LeConte, John Lawrence, portrait ‘and signature of... : 788 
Lightning, singular . . seus) 20 80 


Locomotive, logging, 126; logging, With ‘geared wheels, 126; 
indicator diagrams for, 127; metallic packing for piston- 
rods of, 128; Mack’s improved lifting injector for. . . 128 


Luxotype, apecimen of.’ . «ss ss ots oe 6 ee 80D 
Tene aeeroee of, 523; Gadaks fe as Gaddan woman 

0 . aD an Dad oo ua A Seah 
Magnetic curves re} figs. ) wate «te je pe be ORO 
Magnetic observatory at Los ‘Angeles, plan OM oy 60 
Magnetophone, 393; for production of the “eg notes of the 

Maajorchord 2. . .) ss 2 o.oo :9) ke ja epeee 
MEOVEADINGKR MODINE. <6 cet ich no 6, “oo su ist sy, SeMEM 
Monument Hill, Jenadelta . . . - 543 
Moraine across Pennsylvania, map of the great terminal - 165 
Miiller, Hermann, portrait of . 487 


Muraenopsis tridactylus, life-size head of, 159; skull “of, 
162; hyoidean and branchial apparatus of, 163; right 


fore-arm and rudimentary shoulder-girdle of . . . . 163 
Omahas, diagram explaining marriage lawsof . . . . . 599 
Oysters, growth of, on tiles (3 figs.) . . 442, 443 


Peripatus, horizontal section through the head of, 306; gen- 
eral anatomy, 307; anterior portion of nervous system, 
807; section of tracheal orifice, 307; part of segmental 
organ, 308; embryo, 308; section rough the open 


Dlastopore of the embryo . 308 
Phalacrocorax bicristatus, skull of, 640; sternum of, én; 
knee-joipntof . . M2 


Physiological station at Paris, “680; " photographie car at 


(2 figs.), 681; photographs of running men at (5 figs.), 
709, 710, 711 
Pipe, mound-builder’s . oe ee e 28 
Pristiurus, section through head of embryo Off cas Shen 186° 
Rocks, diagrams showing sections of. . . . 169 
Romalea microptera . hms facing page 811 
Roray Head and the Old Man of Hoy of abe ee, 744 
Sassafras-leayes . . - war Gs 1492, 684 
Scalloway from the north-east . a, hosel 
Sediments, geographic control of marine (5 ) tge. Ete + 660, 561 
Shovel, bone . iene) «mb ye See mare re 
Signals, electrical @ figs.) © 6 Le ee a ee ee 
Skulls, diagram of breadth Indices of . 24 
Snow-testers, 218; knife, modern, 259; knife of bone, 259; 
shovel . . P 262 
Spectroscope for use in meteo srology (4 figs. ne + 489, 490, 491 
Sun-spot, 266; repeated . 309 


Switches and signals, interlocking, at Wiimington, 33; levers 
operating interlocking, 33; semaphores, 98; device for 
keeping rods tight for, 993 com ensating joint for ex- 
pansion of rods for, 99; automatic block system for. . 99 


Telephone, Philipp Reis’s (4 figs.) . 
Thermometers, deep-sea (3 figs.) - 
PMUnicycle, water’ ey Ws enllei si tei 
SapOrashkaws So sick cue) mile 
Urnatella gracilis (2 figs.). . . + 
‘Walnut, peculiar. . . . . . - sh 
Weather map for May, 1888, 35; for June, 1883, 187; fo 


a lee me 


<o 


Peo NCE. 


AN ILLUSTRATED JOURNAL PUBLISHED WEEKLY. 


Vérité sans peur. 


CAMBRIDGE, MASS.: MOSES KING, PUBLISHER. 


FRIDAY, JULY 6, 1883. 


’ 


FIELD-CLUBS AND LOCAL SOCIETIES. 


Wirnin the last twenty years there have 
been a good many experiments made in this 
country towards the development of science in 
districts where access to public instruction, in 
the way of lectures and large museums, was 
not to be had. Some of these efforts have 
been successful, but many of them have failed, 
_ principally from a want of understanding of 
the conditions that make success possible. 
There are few country towns, in this or any 
other land, where it is possible to maintain an 
academy patterned on the great societies. 
Such institutions can only do good when they 


are sure of the support of many earnest work- — 


ers, —of men to whom science is a matter of 
all-absorbing interest. Very few societies can 
be maintained without a system of publication 
which is very costly, and often of no measure 
of utility compared with their expense. 
To make a society successful there must be 
a distinct object for it to attain, — one which 
is well within the reach of such efforts as its 
members can bestow upon it. The success 
must be of a tangible sort, — one that is con- 
stantly and readily attainable, and: in which 
many can take an active part. In the great 
- societies of the world, this end is honor, or at 
least notoriety, that may simulate the nobler 
motive. In a village, a town, or even a 
provincial capital, neither of these ends can be 
had with sufficient certainty to secure the 
talent that is open to temptation. So the 
local society languishes, or, doing better by 
itself, dies out altogether. 
There is another form of associated action 
among the lovers of science that escapes the 
No. 22,— 1833. 


dangers of the more pretentious associations 
which take the name of society or academy. 
This is found in the field-club or purely local 
society, which proposes for itself the study of 
the problems that lie at the very thresholds of 
its people. Such associations have already 
proved wonderfully successful in the old world. 
They abound in England, and are numerous on 
the continent. They have found a place in the 
affections of the people, and a certainty of 
continued life, where academies have dwindled 
away. 

We do not have to look far into human 
nature to see why this success has been gained. 
It is happily natural for men to take more inter- 
est in near than in remote things. The prim- 
rose by the ‘rivulet’s brim,’ provided it is 
one’s own rivulet, is more interesting than the 
Victoria regia of far-off wildernesses. ‘The 
geology of the township where a man lives is 
more interesting than that of the Colorado 
canon, which has never concerned him. So 
it is that any association for the study of 
near things has a certainty of support that 
cannot be secured for any general work in 
science; and field-clubs which try to promote 
the study of a township, or at most of a county, 
are likely to find a support that surprises their 
founders. 

Then, if the proper method be followed by 
these clubs, there enters into their life an 
element of the holiday which is very far from 
the senatorial methods of the more dignified 
society. Their meetings should be principally 
in the outer air; for they thus secure the best 
that the study of nature can give, something 
of the freshness of woods and field, and 
the cheerful contact with other fellow-mortals 
beneath the open sky, —a relation that has a 
charm that is denied within four walls. 

Wherever there is a single zealous student 


2 SCIENCE. 


of nature, there is the germ of such an asso- 
ciation. He or she can easily gather together 
a dozen of boys and girls, men and women, 
who will find in open-air inquiry a rich reward 
for all the time and force that such activity 
demands. There should be as little of the 
machinery of a society as the circumstances 
will admit: a council of three to five persons 
to direct the scheme of studies, and a secre- 
tary, will serve all the first needs of the asso- 
ciation. A few winter-time meetings will find 
an interest in the discussion of the problems 
that the neighborhood affords, in the review of 
work that has been done, and of work there is 
to do; but the most of the work should be 
done in the field-meetings. 

When there are enough engaged in the work 
to warrant it, it will perhaps be well to have 
particular inquiries placed in special hands. 
Each field-meeting should be for some partic- 
ular end or ends; and, after the field-work is 
done, the members should be gathered to- 
gether, still by preference in the open air, for 
a discussion of the results obtained. 

In those cases where the circumstances 
admit, it is well for such a society to begin 
the making of a little museum devoted to the 
illustration of the field with which they have 
to deal. The cost of such a collection need 
not be great; and the utility of the work is 
very great, provided it be not too much of a 
burthen to the association. It would best not 
be undertaken unless the club can see its way 
to a well-assured income of at least five hun- 
dred dollars per annum, beyond the rent of a 
room where it is deposited. Generally it will 
be possible in towns of any size, and where 
public spirit reigns, permanently to secure a 
room in some schoolhouse or library build- 
ing, large enough for the needs of the lit- 
tle museum. The walls of a room twenty 
by thirty will serve for the storage of speci- 
mens for many years, and its floor-space will 
be great enough for meetings in the winter 
months. Ps 

The first thing to be secured is as good a 
map as can be obtained, on a tolerably large 
scale, of the region to be studied; for the 


[Vou. IL, No. 22 


awakening of the geographical sense of the 
members is one of the best results that can be 
obtained by a field-club. In proper time this 


map can become the place of record of a 


great deal of fact which cannot be represented 
by the specimens that may be gathered from 
the field that it represents. 

The five hundred dollars’ reyenue upon which 
such a collection should always rest will serve, 
with due economy, to provide shelves for the 
collections, to meet the cost of alcohol, bottles, 


etc., and pay the trifling other charges of the 


society. 

While it is best that the work of such a 
society should be thoroughly autonomous, — 
that the motive for its prosecution should come 


from the people themselves, —it will at times — 


be well to secure the aid of some one specially 
trained in such problems as its field affords, 
in the way of suggestions concerning work to 
be done. Many naturalists will be glad to 
give aid in this way, either by a lecture, or by 
written advice, Every field affords problems 
in geology, botany, entomology, ete., the solu- 


tion of which is within the limits of the 


simplest research if it only be patient and 
truth-seeking in spirit. More of the future of 


natural history lies in the prosecution of such 


inquiries than in all the work that can be done 
in the closet. 

Such collections, as soon as they are begun, 
will at once command the attention of work- 
ing naturalists. They are sure to be visited 


and studied; and this *interest they arouse — 


will, in itself, pave the way to a quickened 


life, and better inquiry on the Pane of the 
members of the club. 

When these societies become numerous 
enough, — when there are a dozen working in 
New England, for instance, —it will be well to 
have a little joint action among them, such as 
could be obtained by an annual meeting of rep- 


resentatives from them, for the discussion of 


methods and of problems to be jointly inyesti- 


gated. The interesting experiment of a state B 


eco system in- Missouri has shown — 
how useful local observers can be in this 


science. 


It might be well for the societies to 


JuLy 6, 1883.] 


arrange for some common system of obserya- 
tion in this branch. So with each of the 
sciences: conjoint action would solve many 
problems that are of the highest interest. 

Then, again, there would be a great influ- 

ence on the extension of science-teaching in the 
public schools, that would certainly come from 
‘the existence of such local societies. The 
greatest danger that now menaces natural 
science is, that the parrot system of teaching, 
so long applied to other branches of learning, 
will be taken in science-teaching. The pres- 
ence of a little band of actual inquirers in 
any town will be the best possible assurance 
against this. Let the children have some share 
in the open-air actual study, and the evil of 
the book-system will surely be mended in 
part; for its imperfections will be seen. 

It will often be possible to organize such a 
club in immediate connection with the schools 
of the town where it started. Experience in 
Europe shows that children readily and zeal- 
ously engage in “such inquiries, and need only 
a little direction in their work. 

However we look at it, we see much to hope 
from the extension of the field-club system of 
science study. 


THE NATIONAL RAILWAY EXPOSI- 
TION. 


I 


Tue exhibition of railway appliances now 
being held at Chicago is probably the most 
complete collection of all the varied apparatus 
used in every department of railroad working 

and construction that the world has ever seen; 
and the management are to be congratulated, 
that, while little has been omitted to make the 
show complete, still less has been included 
which is foreign to the subject of railroads. 
The exhibits range over a wide field, from 
uniform-coats to steel rails, railroad officers’ 
desks to revolving snow-ploughs, and from 
_an electri¢ railroad in full working, and earn- 
ing quite handsome traflic receipts, to George 
Stephenson’s first locomotive, which is shown 
by an English railway company. 

The main questions which are now awaiting 

solution in the railway world are well repre- 
sented in the exposition. The cheap trans- 
port of heavy freight-trains over steep grades, 


\ 


SCIENCE. 3 


the conveyance of perishable articles, such as 
meat and fruit, and the control of the vis viva 
or momentum of trains, are all questions which 
have to a certain extent been solved; and 
further developments of these solutions are 
shown. A locomotive of unprecedented size 
and power, fitted with a valve-gear of novel 
construction, which yields excellent results, is 
shown by the Southern Pacific railroad, and a 
large number of fine engines are shown by the 
Brooks and other locomotive works. The ex- 
hibition of refrigerator cars is very complete, 
and most of them appear to be of simple and 
efficient design. Continuous brakes, applicable 
to freight-trains, are exhibited; and as some 
of them appear worthy of careful examination, 
we shall refer to them later on. 

While there can be no doubt, that as regards 
cheapness and rapidity of construction, general 
excellence of bridges, locomotives, and cars, 
the railways of this country are ahead of the 
rest of the world, the signalling arrangements 
here, with few exceptions, are rudimentary and 
ineflicient, and render fast travelling a matter 
of considerable difficulty, if not danger. It is 
impossible to run a really fast express-train 
if the signals are ambiguous, and if every level 
crossing is made a compulsory stopping-place. 
The saving in time by fast trains can only be 
fully felt in a great country, where very long 


journeys are not only possible, but are fre- 


quently undertaken ; but hitherto this fact has 
been little appreciated, and people have been 
content to travel at a slow speed, and put up 
with frequent stoppages, because the railways 
were new, the rails roughly laid, and many 
bridges unsafe at a high speed. But of late 
years these conditions have been materially 
changed. The wide-spread use of steel rails, 
the greater care bestowed on the road-bed, 
and the introduction of iron bridges of first- 
class workmanship, have rendered high speed 
perfectly safe and easy on most parts of good 
roads in the eastern and middle states; but 
it is rendered unsafe where switches are so 
arranged that they may be left open to an 
approaching train without any signal warning 
the engineer, or the signals are so formed that 
the difference to the eye between a clear or all- 
right signal and a danger or stop signal is 
slight in snowy weather or under certain at- 
mospheric conditions which render the differ- 
ence between colors imperceptible, though a 
difference in form may be perceived. 

The exposition is, however, especially strong 
in signal apparatus; and there can be little 
doubt that the most important result of the 
exhibition will be the wide-spread adoption 


4 ; SCIENCE. 


of some of these safety appliances, rendered 
necessary by the increased number of trains, 
and the fact that the thicker and more numer- 
ous population now demands both safer and 
faster travelling. The real gain of time to a 
business-man, obtained by a difference of a few 
miles an hour in the speed of a long-journey 
train, is best illustrated by an actual case, — 
a man in New York who wishes to do a day’s 
work in Chicago. He takes one of the fastest 
and best appointed trains he can find, — the 
Chicago limited. It leaves New York at 
nine A.m., and lands him at Chicago at eleven 
the next morning, haying accomplished nine 
hundred and eleyen miles in twenty-six hours 
fifty-five minutes, allowing for the difference in 
time between the two cities. This makes an 
average speed of 33.8 miles per hour, includ- 
ing all stoppages. But assume, what is surely 
not extravagant, that as high a speed can be 
attained on the Pennsylvania or any other 
first-class American road as on an English 
main line, and what shape does the problem 
assume? On one English road, the Great 
northern, the distance between Leeds and 
London (a hundred and eighty-six miles and 
three-quarters) is done in three hours forty- 
five minutes, including five stoppages; on 
another, the Great western, the hundred and 
twenty-nine miles and three-quarters between 
‘Birmingham and London is run in two hours 
forty-five minutes, including two stoppages ; 
and as neither of these routes is particu- 
larly level or straight, and both pass through 
numerous junctions with a perfect maze of 
switches and frogs, they give a fair idea of 
what is possible in speed on the railroads 
of this country. These figures give, respec- 
tively, speeds of 49.8 and 47.2 miles per 
hour. Taking as a fair ayerage forty-eight 
miles an hour, including stoppages, the journey 
from New York to Chicago should be done 
in eighteen hours fifty-nine minutes, or, say, 
nineteen hours,—a saving of seven hours 
fifty-five minutes on the present time; so 
that, if the train were arranged to leaye at 
fifty-five minutes past four in the afternoon 
instead of nine o’clock in the forenoon, the 
whole of this time would be saved in the busy 
part of the day, effectually adding a day to 
our imaginary trayeller’s business and dollar- 
making life. 

Itmay be thought that such a deduction is 
unfair, as the English style of car is so much 
lighter than the American ; but, as a matter of 


fact, the average English express-train is con- - 


siderably heavier than the Chicago limited, and 
conyeys about three times the number of pas- 


\[Vou. IL., No. 22. ° 


sengers ; and, as trucks and oil-lubricated axle- 
boxes are not yet universal there, the tractive 
resistance per ton is probably higher. It cer- 
tainly, therefore, seems not only possible, but 
feasible, to attain these high speeds in this_ 
country, where, owing to the long distances to 
be travelled, they are more valuable than in 
England ; and the great step towards attaining 
that end is the adoption of proper and efficient 
signalling arrangements. All the other steps 
are achieved : the American passenger locomo- 
tive of the present day is perfectly competent 
to drag a heavy train at a speed of over sixty 
miles an hour; the cars, as now constructed, 
can travel safely and smoothly at that speeds; 
and the steel rail, the well-ballasted tie and per- 
fect workmanship of the modern iron bridge, 
can well support the thundering concussion of 
an express-train at full speed. But this speed 
can only be maintained for a few miles at a 
time if the engineer who guides this train be 
doubtful whether that dimly-seen signal imply 
safety or danger, or if the laws of the state 
bring him to a full stand where his road is 
crossed by a small corporation with a high- 
sounding title, which owns one locomotive 
with a split tube sheet and two cars down a 
ditch. ¢ 
To run a fast train, a clear, uninterrupted 
road is absolutely necessary ; and the reason is 
not far to seek. To move a body from a state 
of rest to a velocity of sixty miles per hour 
or eighty-eight feet per second, an amount of 
work must be performed equivalent to lifting 
that body a hundred and twenty-one feet. — 
Now, it is apparent to the simplest capacity — 
that it requires a pretty powerful engine to 
overcome the resistance of a train running at 
sixty miles per hour without every few miles 
putting on brakes to destroy this velocity, and 
then to lift it a hundred and twenty-one feet 
again to attain speed ; the resistance of the air, — 
and the friction of bearings on-journals and of 
flanges against rails, going on all the time. As 
amatter of fact, showing what severe work this 
is on an engine, the Zulu express on the Great — 
western railway of England, which is the fast- 
est train in the world, has been repeatedly — 
carefully timed; and it is found, that, though 
running over an almost absolutely level and — 
straight road, it takes a distance of twenty- 
six to twenty-eight miles to attain its full 
speed, about fifty-eight miles and a half an — 
hour. ob 
The adoption of a safe and thorough system — 
of signals, efficiently warning the engineer of - 
a train of any danger in his path, whether 
from a misplaced switch, an open draw, ora — 


4 Jury 6, 1883.] 


 freight-train ahead, may be regarded as of 
great importance to the American railroad 
, System, in a manner crowning the edifice, and 
- enabling roads to be operated with greater 
_ speed, safety, and regularity. 

, (To be continued.) 

“ : 


| THE INFLUENCE OF GRAVITATION, 


_ MOISTURE, AND LIGHT UPON THE 


DIRECTION OF GROWTH IN THE 


_ ROOT AND STEM OF PLANTS. 


} 
. 
i Memeers of my present botany class have 
_ performed some experiments this spring, bear- 
_ ing upon the above caption, which, although 
~ not developing any thing new in the interest 
of the extension of experimental methods in 
the lower schools, it seems to me may be 
found worthy of a record in the columns of 
~ Scrence. 
Seven balls of moss, about four inches in 
diameter, were prepared, in the centre of which 


were planted from fifty to a hundred grains of | 


oats, barley, or corn; in some cases a mix- 
_ ture of two of these grains. 
No. 1 was suspended in free air, lighted on 
all sides. No. 2 was placed on a glass tum- 
bler, in the bottom of which some water was 
kept, but not enough to rise within two inches 
of the lowest part of the ball. No. 3 was fit- 
ted into the mouth of an inverted bell-glass in 
such a manner that one half of the ball was 
within the jar and one half without it. No. 4 
was placed one half within and one half without 
a bell-glass placed in a horizontal attitude. 
No. 5 was in a tight tin can, the ball fitting 
it like a stopper, so as to exclude the light 
and to prevent a circulation of air. One-half 
of the ball protruded from the can, and the 
ean was inverted. No. 6 was placed in a 
ean similar to that of no. 5; but this was 
placed in a horizontal attitude, as in no. 4. 
No. 7 was mounted upon a spindle running 
through its centre. The spindle was attached 
to the stem of the minute-hand of an eight-day 
clock in such a manner that the axis of the 
_ spindle was a continuation of the axis bearing 
the minute-hand of the clock. The spindle 
was a piece of one-eighth inch brass wire hay- 
ing a strip of tin soldered to one end of it. 
The tin was perforated with a square hole, 
exactly fitting the shaft of the minute-hand of 
the clock. ‘The other end of the wire was 
~ filed down to form a small journal, which worked 
in a hole bored in a lump of solder secured to 
the end of a wire which acted as a support to 
the distant end of the spirdle. This supporting 
_ wire was first bent double, forming a narrow 


SCIENCE. 5 


V, and the solder, which served as a box for the 
journal, dropped in the vertex. The two arms 
of the V were then bent upon themselves in the 
same direction so as to form aright angle with 
the plane of the V. Two holes were bored in 
the frame of the clock above the dial, but close 
to it, and the arms of the bent Vinserted. The 
minute-hand was then removed from the clock, 
and also the washer behind it. The tin shoul- 
der of the spindle was then placed upon the 
shaft, and the minute-hand replaced; the 
shoulder serving in the place of the washer, 
which had not been replaced. It was only 
necessary to shorten the pendulum a little to 
enable the clock to record time with its usual 
regularity. 

The results observed after germination were 
as follows : — 

In no. 1 the stems all came out in a clump 
at the top of the ball, and the roots in a cluster 
from the under side. The roots, however, 
after protruding from half an inch to an inch, 
curved upon themselves, and re-entered the ball, 
or else withered. In no. 2 the stems all came 
out at the top, and the roots at the bottom ; but 
the roots in this case continued straight down- 
ward into the water, no one of them turning 
back into the ball. In no. 3 the plants de- 
ported themselves in all respects as those did — 
in no. 1, except that the growth was very much 
more rapid. In no. 4 all of the stems except 
two came out of the ball into free air: two 
grew horizontally into. the bell-jar. A large 
cluster of the roots came out of the ball and 
entered the jar, and continued to grow horizon- 
tally, only depending so much as was neces- 
sary by their own weight. Others of the roots 
emerged from the lower side of the outer half 
of the ball, but soon entered it again. In no. 5 
all of the stems came up in the dark, damp 
atmosphere ; and the roots emerged from the 
lower side of the ball, but re-entered it again, or 
else perished. Many of the stems (oats in this 
case) threw out a pair of opposite bodies, ap- 
parently secondary rootlets, which grew hori- 
zontally, in all cases observed, to a length of- 
about one inch. ‘The color of the stems in 
this case was a pale yellow. In no. 6 all of 
the stems came from the ball upward into the 
light, and very many of the roots protruded 
horizontally into the can, some of them leay- 
ing the ball above its centre. A corn-root 
extended itself horizontally four inches beyond 
the surface of the ball, and in that distance 
was only depressed one-half of aninch. Onthe 
corn-roots back of the sensitive tips, the deli- 
cate root-hairs were so numerous and long as 
to give it a resemblance to the hair-brush for 


6 SCIENCE. 


cleaning lamp-chimneys. In this ball a num- 
ber of roots also emerged from the lower side 
of the ball, but only to re-enter it again, as in 
the other cases. In no. 7 stems “and roots 
came out together indiscriminately, and from 
all sides of the ball; the roots, however, 
after protruding from half an inch to an inch, 
re-entering the ball or withering. This experi- 
ment was twice repeated. Tn the first case 
more stems appeared from the side of the ball 
away from the face of the clock, and the greater 
number of roots made their appearance on the 
opposite side of the ball. It was observed in 
this case, however, that the spindle slanted 
about two degrees toward the clock. In the 
next experiment the spindle was made hori- 
zontal, and no difference as to place of emer- 
cing of root and stem was observed. 

These experiments in combination appear to 
show with clearness the influence of moisture 
and gravitation in determining the course of 
the root, and to suggest that the influence of 
moisture is the stronger of the two. 

The emergence of the sensitive tips of the 
primary roots from the damp ball into the dry 
atmosphere I suppose Darwin would have ex- 
plained as the result of the persistence of the 
impressions in the root behind. The horizon- 
tally extending roots in the damp atmosphere, 
both dark and light, suggest that the response 
to gravitation in both cases was nil. May it not 
be true that the diageotropism of roots is such in 
no other sense than that of direction of growth ? 
that it is in reality simply a growing toward 
the proper amount of moisture? This would 
appear to explain the oblique direction of sec- 
ondary branches, and the largely indifferent 
direction of tertiary ones. The balls in the jarz 
placed in the horizontal attitudes indicate that 
the stem does not grow simply in a direction 
opposite to that of the principal root, for they 
were turned toward each other through an angle 
of nearly ninety degrees. The two inverted 
jars show that the stems did not seek a dry 
atmosphere, for in both cases they grew up 
into that which was more moist. The inverted 
dark jar shows that the effect of the impact or 
absorption of light on the lower half of the ball, 
and the absence of these effects upon the upper 
half, did not produce a sufficient contrast to 
euide the stem into the light; but since, of the 
two jars placed in the horizontal attitude, only 
the ball in the mouth of the glass one sent 
stems into the jar, it seems possible, since 
other conditions were alike, that light may 
exert a small influence in guiding the stems 
from the ground. F. H. Kine. 

River Falls, Wisconsin, May 17, 1883. 


ts 
|Vou. If., No. 22. 


SOME GLACIAL ACTION IN INDIANA. 


Wirt members of my class in geology, I 
have been examining the glacial deposits in” 
this vicinity (Montgomer y county). Our chief 
water-course is what is called Sugar Creek, a 
tributary of the Wabash River, which occupies 
a valley with a general south-westerly bearing, 
virtually the same trend which the Wabash has 
across the state before it makes its sharp bend 
to the south. Along the valleys of the Wabash 


‘and Sugar Creek, there are abundant evidences 


of a glacier which moved in the direction of the 
valleys, and is known as the Lake Erie glacier, 
as it advanced in the direction of the axis of 
that lake, and so up the Maumee, and across 
the low divide at Fort Wayne, into the Wabash. 

Sugar Creek itself has been compelled to bend — 
shar ply to the south a few miles to the west of 
us by the deposits of this old glacier, and has 


‘eut its new channel through the soft subear- 


boniferous’ sandstone. At one place in this 
county, where the creek still occupies its pre- 
glacial valley, it cuts through what we for- 
merly considered a large terminal moraine, 
which lies squarely across the valley. Recent 
floods have swept away some of this moraine, — 
and laid bare the country rock. This rock is 
found to be smoothly planed, and absolutely 
covered with glacial scratches all trending 
N. 20° W., or almost at right angles to the 
valley of the creek and the course of the former 
glacier. These scratches of the second glacier 
are now found in many places throughout the — 
county ; and our old terminal moraine proves 
to be a medial moraine, and bears upomits back 
a line of huge bowlders with the same north- 
westerly trend. ‘These facts are recorded here 
in the hope that they may be of some use in 
the consideration of a much-yexed question. 
Joun M. Courrer. — 
Wabash College, Crawfordsville, Ind. . 


THE UNITED STATES FISH-COMMIS- 


SION STEAMER ALBATROSS. 
I. 


aun ond no department of scientific inyes- 
tigation has made greater progress in its meth- — 
ods of work during the past ten years than — 
that of deep-sea research. The successful 
introduction of steel piano-wire for sounding, 
and of wire rope for dredging purposes, marks 
a new era in this class of exploration, for — 
which credit is mainly due to American skill 
and energy. While claiming so much in behalf — 
of our own country, we frankly acknowledge ; 
that the only feasible method of using sound- 


- 


JuLy 6, 1883, ] 


ing-wire was devised by one of the best known 
of English physicists, Sir William Thomson ; 
but his efforts were entirely ignored by the 
mother government, and first bore fruit on this 
side of the Atlantic, through the liberality of 
the American navy. 

It is needless in this connection to discuss 
the rapid development of this system of deep- 


“sea sounding, which has been so fully described 


by its most zealous advocates, Messrs. Belknap 


SCIENCE. 7 


gested by Mr. Alexander Agassiz, under whose 
supervision it was first put to trial on the coast- 
survey steamer Blake in 1877. To Messrs. 
Sigsbee and Agassiz, and the officers of the 
Blake, is due the greater number of improve- 
ments in deep-sea dredges, trawls, and acces- 
sories to sounding, which are now employed 
on the American coast; while the U. S. fish- 
commission claims priority as to the appliances 
for moderate depths of water, although many 


UNITED STATES FISH-COMMISSION STEAMER ALBATROSS. 


and Sigsbee, of the United States navy. We 
may be pardoned, however, for recalling the 
fact, that it was early in 1874 that Capt. Bel- 
knap made his famous sounding-voyage across 
the Pacific Ocean in the U. S. 8. Tuscarora, 


while the Challenger was still plodding its way 


around the world with its cumbersome hempen 


rope, one of the Thomson machines being care- 
fully stowed below. Since then Commander 
Sigsbee has so perfected the sounding-machine, 
on the proper working of which success with 


wire depends, that further improvements seem 


impossible. 
The use of wire rope for dredging was sug- 


of these are yet to be thoroughly tested in the 
deeper parts of the ocean. 

The great desideratum in marine explora- 
tions has always been suitable vessels for prop- 
erly carrying on the work in all its branches. 
Our coast-survey, however, is gradually build- 
ing up a fleet of steamers which are admirably 
adapted to their special field of surveying and 
sounding ; and several of these, among which 
we may name the Blake, the Hassler, and. the 
Bache, have already rendered distinguished 
services in the line of deep-sea dredging and 
trawling. The latest addition to our ex- 
ploring-fleet has been the construction of a 


8 SCIENCE. 


thoroughly sea-going steamer for the ex- 
press purpose of investigating our maritime 
fisheries, in both a scientific and practical 
manner, by means of every known appliance 
suited to the work. This new undertaking 
is but an advance step in the progressive 
work of the U. S. fish-commission, under 
the able and judicious management of Pro- 
fessor Baird, and was demanded by the urgent 
necessity for a more extended knowledge of 
our off-shore fishing areas. The initiative 
in this direction was taken some three or 
four years ago, when Congress sanctioned the 
building of the steamer Fish Hawk, in the 
combined interests of fish culture and ex- 
ploration. Previously, small naval steamers 
had been adapted to the requirements of 
the fish-commission as their services were 


[Vou. IL, No. 22. 


high seas, chasing schools of fish, or diving 
beneath the surface with the dredge and 
trawl. 

The Albatross is a twin-screw propeller, 
rigged as a brigantine, and was built at Wil- 
mington, Del., during 1882, by the Pusey & 
Jones Company, who were also the builders of 
the steamer Fish Hawk. She was designed 
by Mr. Charles W. Copeland, consulting 
engineer of the U. S. lighthouse board; and 
her entire construction and subsequent prep- 
aration for service have been under the 
immediate supervision of her present com- 
mander, Lieut. Commander Z. L. Tanner, 
U.S.N. The launch was successfully made 
Aug. 19; and the work of fitting up the 
various quarters and of arranging the scien- 
tific appliances was rapidly pushed to com- 


needed; and, considering the pioneer char- pletion. The trial trip began Feb, 9, 1883; 

\v i 
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Seen OLOOLO | =H | 74) (73 EBC OB |) Ae &? 

fo olalls (Dj 72.) }) 7 | jpeg ip 
ist zal ey 


R2. 


LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF UNITED STATES FISH-COMMISSION STEAMER ALBATROSS. 


1. Topgallant forecastle; 2. Fish-davit; 3. Sigsbee sounding-machine; 4. Dredging-engine; 5. Lower end of dredging-boom; 
6. Dredge-rope; 7. Pilot-house; 8. Chart-room; 9. Upper laboratory; 10. Naturalists’ staterooms; 11. Steam-drum; 12. Galley;. 
13. Upper engine-room; 14. Entrance to wardroom; 15. Poop-cabin; 16. Storerooms; 17. Fore-passage; 18. Berth-deck; 


acter of their work, they rendered valuable 
aid. 

In associating fish-culture with scientific 
inyestigation, some sacrifice had to be made 
‘at the expense of one or other of these 
projects; as no steamer, built to enter the 
shallow rivers and indentures of our coast- 
line, could venture with safety to any dis- 
tance from land. Fish-breeding was at that 
time considered the more important; and the 
Fish Hawk, with her shallow draught of 
water, must confine her operations to the 
vicinity of the coast; and yet, from a pe- 
rusal of recent papers in this journal by 
Professor Verrill, it will be seen that her 
contributions to biology have been surpris- 
ingly great. The Albatross, however, as 
the new steamer has been christened, will, 
like her namesake, make her home upon the 


and at the time of writing she is making her 


first long cruise. 

In the construction of the Albatross, sey- 
eral novel features in marine architecture 
have been introduced; as past experience has 
proved that the ordinary form of hull is but 
poorly suited to the work of deep-sea dredg- 
ing and trawling. The most important mod- 
ification is at the stern, which has been 
sharply modelled to enable her to back readily 
and safely in a seaway, her usual method 


of propulsion while engaged in this class of , 


work. The rudder and its attachments have 
also been made of extra strength to withstand 
the hard service to which they are thereby 
subjected. ; 
The greatest length of the vessel is two hun- 
dred and thirty-four feet ; and the length at the 
ordinary water-line, with a draught of twelve 


wy ite (Ae rod Cer) seis 


aK) Ls 
Suny 6, 1883.) 
j 
feet, two hundred feet. The breadth of beam 
moulded is twenty-seven feet anda half. The 


registered net tonnage is four hundred tons, and 
the displacement on a twelve-feet draught, a 
» thousand tons. The frame-work and hull are of 
iron, which also enters largely into the construc- 
tion of thedeck-house. Forward and aft, the 
_ iron sides extend to the level of the upper deck 
to enclose the poop-cabin and top-gallant fore- 
castle, while in the intervening space they 
form a high protecting rail to the main deck. 
The deck-house (7-14), which is eighty-three 
feet long, thirteen feet and a half wide, and 
seven feet and a quarter high, extends from 
just forward of the mainmast nearly to the 
foremast, leaving an ample passageway on 
either side between it and the rail. The after- 
part is built of iron, with wooden sheathing 
but forward of the funnel it is entirely of wood. 


’ 


i ee es 


ao 
ane E 


slecl 
inant HBL 


Pea 


amen 


SCIENCE. , 9 


followed by the steerage (20), main laboratory 
(21), engine and boiler compartments (24, 
22), which extend into the hold, and the 
ward-room (25). 

The forehold contains the magazine (27), 
water-tanks, ice-house (29), and a variety of 
storerooms. Underneath the laboratory is a 
large room (32) for the stowage of natural 
history materials ; and below the ward-room are 
the appropriate storerooms for the use of the 
mess, the navigator, and paymaster. 

The poop-cabin (15), on the main deck, is a 
large, commodious room the entire width of the 
ship, and extending thirty feet forward from 
the stern. It contains two state- -rooms, a bath- 
room, pantry, and office, and is conveniently 
furnished. The ward-room (25) underneath 
is thirty-eight feet long. and has eight large 
state-rooms, a bath-room, and pantry. It is 


Mis. 
Ao 


Ps RE 


LONGITUDINAL SECTION OF UNITED STATES FISH-COMMISSION STEAMER ALBATROSS. 


19. Reeling-engine;, 
room; 26. Cabin storeroom; 27. 


-20. Steerage; 
Magazine; 


21. Lower or main laboratory ; 
28. Magazine passage; 29. Ice. -box} 30. Upper hold; 31. Lower hold; 32. Natural 


22. Boiler; 23. Coal-bunkers; 24. Engines; 25. Ward- 


y history storeroom; 33. Wardroom storerooms; 34. Propeller-wheel; 35. Rudder. 


The forward compartment, which is raised 
about three feet above the general level of 
the honse, is the pilot-house (7), containing a 
steam quartermaster to aid in steering. Fol- 
lowing it in succession are the chart-room 
(8), upper laboratory (9), four state-rooms 
— (10), steam drum (11), galley (12), upper 
- engine-room (15), and entrance to the ward- 
- room stairway (14). 

Below the main deck the vessel is divided 
_ into six water-tight compartments by five trans- 
yerse iron bulkheads, there being also an addi- 
tional bulkhead which is not closed. 

The berth-deck, forward of the collision 
bulkhead, is cut up into storerooms (16), 
reached by scuttles from the main deck. Next 
aft is the berth-deck proper (18), which is forty 
feet long and the width of the ship, with supe- 
rior accommodations for a large crew. It is 


well lighted by a broad skylight overhead in 
addition to the usual side-ports. These quar- 
ters are entirely occupied by the officers of the 
ship, the civilian scientific staff being accom- 
modated in the four state-rooms (10) of the 
deck-house abaft the upper laboratory. The 
latter rooms are better adapted for study than 
any others on the ship; each having a large, 
square side-window at the proper height for 
working with the microscope, should the natu- 
ralists desire to conduct their more delicate 
observations in privacy. 

Of most interest to the student are the sci- 
entific quarters, which are very capacious, and 
amply sutlicient for all possible needs. They 
occupy a central position, being thereby re- 
moved as far as possible from the extremes of 
motion caused by rolling and pitching. They 
extend from just above the keelson to the upper 


10 


deck, and consist of three rooms on as many 
levels : the lowest (32) being a storeroom ; the 
central one (21) a general laboratory, or work- 
room; and the upper one (9) a deck-labora- 
tory for microscopical work and study. These 
rooms communicate with one another by means 
of stairways, but are entirely cut off from all 
the rest of the ship, excepting through the 
side-doors of the upper laboratory. The two 
lower rooms are protected fore and aft by 
water-tight iron bulkheads, reaching to the 
main deck; and the storeroom, which contains 
the supply of alcohol, can be made a tight 
~ box, and instantly filled with steam, in case of 
fire. 

Light is admitted to the upper laboratory 
through a skylight, and two windows on each 
side, and to the general laboratory through 
three ports on each side, and two deck-lights 
overhead ; but in the storeroom artificial light 
is necessary. During the day-time, therefore, 
the working-rooms are sufficiently well lighted 
for all ordinary purposes; but the system of 
electric lamps, which pervades the entire ship, 
reaches its height of development in these 
quarters, and every few feet of space contains 
its little glass globe and horseshoe. The 
effect at night is very brilliant, and work can 
then go on about as comfortably as in the 
brightest sunshine. 

[ Zo be continued.]. 


SURFACE CONDITIONS ON THE OTHER 
PLANETS. 


In the Popular science monthly for June appeared 
an article entitled ‘Cost of life,’ by John Pratt, 
upon the habitability of the other planets. To his 
conclusion that most of the larger planets are prob- 
ably unsuited for habitation by beings like ourselves, 
I think few astronomers would take exception; but 
several of his statements as to their surface condi- 
tions are apparently at variance with modern obser- 
vation, and with the results of the application of the 
principles of mechanics. 

As to the light from the planets, he says, ‘“‘In the 
first place, as might have been conjectured even 
before the revelations of the spectroscope, from their 
great volume of light as compared, with their dis- 
tances from the sun, all of these great bodies [the 
four exterior planets] are self-luminous.’”? There is 
some reason to believe that at certain times portions 
of the surface of Jupiter do shine by their own light, 
but it is certainly very faint, as otherwise, when his 
satellites pass into his shadow, they would still reflect 
some light to the earth. In point of fact, however, 
even to the most powerful telescopes, they absolutely 
disappear. As to the three remaining planets, their 
light is so faint at the best, that any determinations 


SCIENCE. 


(Vor. Il., No. 22. 


as to their self-luminosity are entirely out of the 
question. The spectroscope shows us nothing what- 
ever on this subject with regard to any of these 
bodies. 

Weare then told, that “‘ the density of Jupiter being 


about 1.40, and that of the earth 5.48, it follows that — 


the attraction exerted by Jupiter is roughly 300 times 
that of the earth. A man who weighs 150 pounds 
on the earth, if transported to Jupiter, would shake 
the ground with a ponderous tread of 45,000 pounds, 
or 224 tons. His own weight would at once crush 
him into a mere.pulp. A hickory-nut, falling from 
a bough, would crash through him like a minie-ball. 
Again : water would weigh fifteen times as much 
as quicksilver. A moderate wave would shiver to 
atoms the strongest ironclad, ete.’’ Applying the 


M - 
ordinary formula, W = D» —where M, the mass 


of Jupiter, in terms of the earth, is 318, and D, its 
diameter, is 11, — we find the weight, W, of an object 
on the surface of Jupiter, equals #$4, or 25 times what 
it would weigh here: hence our 150-pound man would 


weigh just 375 pounds there, and would not be seri- — 


ously inconvenienced by a whole battery of hickory- 
nuts, provided he wore his hat. With reference 
to Mars, he writes, that “the relative mass of Mars 
being only about ;\> that of the earth [it is } approx- 
imately] ... our typical man would only weigh 
about 2} pounds. ... An 80-ton locomotive would 
not propel a train of empty cars. .. . A rifle-ball might 
be caught in the hand without harm.” According to 
the law of gravitation, the ‘ typical man’ would weigh 
66 pounds. Supposing the 80-ton locomotive re- 
duced in weight in the proportion he states, the cars 
would be so also: therefore, under any such conditions 
whatever, the 80-ton locomotive would draw precisely 
as great a quantity of matter there as it would upon 
the surface of the earth. As to the rifle-ball, its 


stored energy is proportional to MV; that is, it is~ 


proportional to its mass, and independent of its 
weight. But the mass of a body is the same through- 
out the universe: therefore experiments in catching 
rifle-balls in the hand on the surface of Mars would 
be dangerous. 

Finally, referring to Mars, he says, ‘‘ Nothing can 
be more certain than that there is no liquid in Mars, 
and no life.”” As seen through the telescope, the 
poles of Mars appear of a brilliant white color. 


When one of the poles is turned towards the sun, the 


size of the white spot diminishes, and, when it is 
turned away again, it increases. Some astronomers 
have imagined these white spots to be snow: in that 
case, it is difficult to account for the disappearance, 
unless we suppose that it melts. It therefore seems 
rather a strong way of expressing it to say that 
“nothing can be more certain than that there is no 
liquid in Mars.’’ There are several other points 


raised by our author which would bear mentioning, — 


one or two on the subject of energy, particularly ‘a 
large aspect of the question, which seems to have 
escaped the attention of thinkers;’’ but I think the 
points referred to above will be sufficient for the 
present occasion. W. H. PickERING. ~ 


JuLy 6, 1883.] 


COMPOSITION OF THE MESODERM. 


_. UNDER the title ‘Archiblast and parablast,’ Wal- 


deyer has published a long article (Arch. mikrosk. 
anat., xxii. 1), in which he reviews chiefly His’s views 
concerning the origin of the connective tissue, blood- 
yessels, etc.; but he also considers several cognate 
questions, 

His’s investigations have been confined to verte- 
brates, but he apparently believes that his view is 
also applicable to invertebrates. Professor His dis- 
tinguishes two distinct groups of tissues, — the archi- 
blastic and parablastic. The former includes all the 
epithelial, muscular, and nervous tissues, comprising, 


therefore, the glands, smooth muscles, and neuroglia: 


the parablastic group comprises all the connective 
tissues and blood, with which are counted the blood 
and lymph vessels, and also the leucocytes. The 
parablast arises beyond the embryonic area proper as 
cells which grow into the embryonic region. These 
cells arise, according to His, out of the granules of 
the white yolk; these granules, from cells in the yolk; 
which cells are immigrated leucocytes, that enter the 
ovum while it is still in the follicle of the ovary. 

Waldeyer accepts this division, but he differs from 
‘His mainly in two points, — first, in excluding the lin- 
ing of the peritoneal cavity from the list of endothelia, 
and therefore also from the parablast; second, in 
ascribing a different origin to the parablastic cells. 
(As regards the first point, there can be no reason- 
able doubt that His’s account of the origin of the 
membrane is erroneous: because, 1, the disappear- 
ance of the original epithelium, and the new forma- 
tion by leucocytes of an epithelium on top of it, was, 
to the last degree, improbable, so that a gross error 
of observation would be more probable; 2, His was 
unable to bring forward any definite observations in 
his favor; 3, his conclusion was and has since been 
contradicted by the direct observations of others. 
Waldeyer has done good service in calling general 
attention to these objections, but the matter can 
hardly be considered new.) ; 

As regards the second point, we reproduce Wal- 
deyer’s own summary (p. 47). In the eggs of all 
animals which have blood and connective tissue at 
all, the segmentation of the egg does not continue 
in the same manner up to the end; but one must 
distinguish a primary and a secondary segmentation: 
the first divides the egg, so far as it is capable of seg- 
mentation, into a number of cells which are mature 
for the formation of the tissue, and form the primary 
germinal layers. A remainder of immature segmen- 
tation-cells (in holoblastic eggs), or of egg-protoplasm, 
which has not assumed the cell-form (in meroblastic 
eggs), is left over. In either form, this remainder 
does not directly enter into the germ-layers as an 
integral component, but undergoes first a further cell- 
formation, — the secondary segmentation. From the 
cells thus formed, the parts richer in protoplasm are 
cut off, and make the primitive parablast-cells; while 
the part richer in yolk remains only to be used as 
nutritive material. It will be seen that the essence of 
Waldeyer’s theory is, that a portion of the segmenting 


SCIENCE. 


11 


egg is retarded by the presence of yolk; and so there 
are some cells, or, in meroblastic eggs, some proto- 
plasm, which is laggard in development, and does not 
directly enter into the primitive layers, but becomes 
the parablast. 

The parablast is essentially identical with the mes- 
enchyma of the brothers Hertwig, except that the 
latter include the smooth muscles in the group. 
Waldeyer endeavors to justify his theory of the origin 
of these tissues from laggard cells, but it seems to 
the reporter unsuccessfully. 

There is given also, p. 38-44, a discussion of the 
relation of the yolk to cleavage, in which the views 
advancéd several years ago by Minot (Proc. Bost. soc. 
nat. hist., xix.) are brought forward anew, apparently 
without knowledge of their previous publication by 
another writer. In the discussion of the origin of 
the parablast-cells, p. 9-27, it appears that His’s view 
of their origin from the white yolk is definitely shown 
to be untenable. Incidentally, emphasis is laid upon 
the fact, that, in meroblastic eggs, the protoplasm of 
the animal pole sends down processes into the yolk: 
it is from these processes in the ‘keimwall’ of birds’ 
eggs that the parablast-cells arise, according to Wal- 
deyer. His article, as a whole, is chiefly a discussion 
of the literature of his subject. Cc. S. Minor. 


THE ECLIPSE OF 1882. 


AT the present time, when interest is chiefly 
drawn toward the successes of the astronomers who 
observed the eclipse of the sun month before last from 
the small islands in the Pacific Ocean, the results of 
the eclipse of May 17, 1882, obtained in Egypt, have 
especial significance. These were briefly stated by 
Dr. Schuster at a late meeting of the Royal astro- 
nomical society. During the progress of the eclipse 
three photographic instruments were at work:*one 
took photographs of the corona itself; a second was 
a photographic camera with a prism placed in 
front of it, that is, a spectroscope without a collima- 
tor; and the third was a complete spectroscope. 
Photographs were obtained in all three instruments. 
The direct photographs of the corona indicate its 
variations from eclipse to eclipse, —a matter of much 
importance in solar physics. If the photographs 
taken during eclipses in the past twenty years are 
compared with each other, it will be seen that the 
corona varies in a regular way with the state of the 
sun’s surface, although there are irregular minor 
changes. At the sun-spot minimum the corona is 
much more regular than at the maximum. At the 
minimum there is a large equatorial extension, and 
near the solar poles a series of curved rays. At the 
maximum there is practically no regularity at all: the 
long streamers go up sometimes in one direction, and 
sometimes in another; and this last year, near the 
sun-spot maximum, there was absolutely no symmetry 
in the appearance of the corona, The transparency 
of the streamers was most striking. One streamer 
can sometimes be traced through another, showing 
that the matter, whatever it is, must be very thin. 
The rifts start from the solar surface in an entirely 


12 SCIENCE. 


irregular way, with a tendency very often toward the 
tangential direction at the lower parts of the rifts. 
The photographs extend about a diameter and a half 
from the sun’s limb, and a comet appears on the 
plates about a solar diameter and a half from the 
sun’s centre. It must have been very bright, as it 
appears clearly in the photographs. Measurements 
seem to indicate a small shift in its position during 
the interval between the first photograph and the last. 

Turning now to the photographs taken with the 
camera and prism in front, —an instrument which 
gives an image of the prominences as oft repeated 
as there are rays in the prominence, —the plates 
employed were sensible to the infra-red as well as 
violet rays. One prominence gave a great number 
of lines in the ultra-violet. The fact was brought 
out in this eclipse, that the brightest lines in the 
prominences are due, not to hydrogen, but to cal- 
cium. Besides these and the hydrogen lines, there 
is the line D; in the yellow, and the C line of 
hydrogen in the red, and also a photograph of two 
prominence-lines in the ultra-red. In addition to the 
prominences, there are visible in the photographs 
certain short rings round the moon, which mean that 
at these places the light sent out by the gaseous part 
surrounding the moon is not confined to the prom- 
inences. It is, as would be expected, the green 
coronal line which chiefly corresponds to one of 
those rings. This green line, K 1474, is a true coronal 
Jine, and is only very faintly traceable in one of the 
prominences. 

In considering the results obtained with the com- 
plete spectroscope, it isa striking fact that some of the 
lines cross the moon’s disk, and especially the two 
lines Hand K. This proyes that the calcium-lines, 
H and K, wereso strong in the prominences that the 
light was scattered in our atmosphere, and reflected 
right in front of the moon. 

The prominence-lines are very numerous : thirty 
such lines appear in the photograph, The hydrogen- 
lines are there, including those in the ultra-violet 
photographed by Dr. Huggins; also H and K, and 
other calcium-lines; and still others, chiefly un- 
known. 

Close to the sun’s limb we can only trace a con- 
tinuous spectrum, a very strong one, going up to 
about a quarter of a solar diameter. The photo- 
graphs bear out the distinction between the inner 
and the outer corona, the former being much 
Stronger in light. The boundary at which this con- 
tinuous spectrum ends corresponds to the extension 
of the inner corona. The continuous spectrum is 
stronger on the side where the prominences are 
weaker. In the corona we first of all see a very faint 
continuous spectrum, and in that continuous spec- 
trum one can trace at G the reversal of the dark 
Fraunhofer lines. In addition, a series of faint true 
coronal lines can be traced in the outer regions of the 
corona. We have not traced any known substances 
in the solar corona. The greater number of the 
prominence-lines in the ultra-violet are also un- 
known, but they seem to be present in Dr, Huggins’s 
photograph of the spectrum of a Aquilae. 


[Vou IL, No. 22. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


*,* Correspondents are requested to beas brief as poxsible. The 
writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


The relative ages of planets, comets, and 
meteors. 


THE theory that the sun was once a gaseous mass 
extending beyond the most distant planet, and that 
it has contracted to its present dimensions by the 
continuous action of gravity, and is still so contract- 
ing, is now very generally accepted by astronomers. 
It is well known, moreover, that the condensation of 
a gaseous body produces heat, and that the impact 
of solar matter in consequence of its motion towards 
the centre of gravity is one cause, at least, — perhaps 
the principal one, —of the sun’s high temperature. 
The modern law of the conservation of energy af- 


fords data for determining the amount of heat pro- - 


duced by the condensation of the sun’s mass from 
one volume to another. It is thus found that the 
contraction to its present dimensions, from a primi- 
tive volume extending indefinitely beyond the orbit 
of Neptune, would have kept up a uniform supply of 
heat equal to the present for twenty millions of years.1 
The age of the solar system, however, may be great- 
er or less than this, as the sun’s radiation may not 
have been constant. 

In any form of the nebular hypothesis, Neptune is 
the oldest planet known, and the innermost of the 
number has had the most recent origin. 

A majority of comets probably move in hyperbolas, 
and visit the solar system but once. Some orbits 
have been changed into ellipses by planetary pertur- 
bation. 

For any thing we can know to the contrary, com- 
etary matter has been falling towards the centre of 
our system in all ages of its existence. Whenever 
the perihelion distance has been less than the radius 
of the solar spheroid, the comet’s orbital motion 
must have been arrested, and transformed into heat. 

As the limits of geological dates are determined by 
the strata of the earth’s crust, so the superior limits 
of the age of periodic comets are fixed by the plane- 
tary orbits next exterior to their perihelia. Of the 
comets known to be periodic, the perihelion distances 
of thirteen are less than the earth’s distance from the 
sun. The ages of all these must therefore be less 
than that of the earth. In like manner the ages of 
others are shown to be less than that of Venus, 
while those of a few are found to be less than the 
age of Mercury. We may conclude, then, in general, 
that the ages of comets, as members of the solar sys- 
tem, are less than those of planets. 

But as metevroids, partly at least, are derived from 
comets, their origin as separate bodies in connection 
with our system must be still more recent: in fact, 


_ MINeteoric matter is being constantly detached from 


comets at each successive return to perihelion. The 

indications of this process were unmistakable in the 

case of the great comet of 1832, and many meteoroids 

of the Biela group have been separated from the 

comet in our own day. DANIEL KirRKWoop. 
Bloomington, Ind. 


First use of wire in sounding. 


Professor Verrill is quite right in supposing that I 
was unaware that any report of the sounding expedi- 
tion of Walsh had been published. A casual reference 
to Walsh in the ‘ Depths of the sea’ led me to inquire, 

1 A contraction of the radius equal to a hundred and twenty- 


nine feet per annum would yield the present supply of heat. 
See Monthly notices of the R, A. 8., April, 1872. 


| 


; : 


Juty 6, 1883.] 


through a nayal friend, of an officer in the Navy 
department, unofficially, whether any report had been 
publi-hed., This gentleman was kind enough to make 
inquiries, and finally replied that he could not find 
out that any thing had been printed, but that the log- 
books were at the department. On this account I 
made no further search for printed data; but later, 
on Commander Bartlett’s installation at the Hydro- 
graphic office, I mentioned it to him, and he had the 
goodness to search the log-books, and to send me 
copies of all references to the work with wire, con- 
tained in them, from which my note was compiled. 
Doubtless other note-books might have been used 
also. In regard to the breaking of the wire, it is spe- 
cifically stated in the log-book that it parted ‘ owing to 
some of the links catching at times on others,’ as the 
line was paid out in one or two cases, and in others 
as it was being hauled in. In another instance it 
parted ‘owing to one of the joints catching upon 
another joint on the reel.’ It is nowhere in the 
orivinal log referred to the heaving of the vessel; and 
the last entry repeats, ‘ entirely owing to the short 
nip of the catch upon the reel.’ Having had some 
experience in sounding in great depths of water with 
a small sailing-vessel, I have come to the opinion, 
in which I think most practised hydrographers would 
concur, that it is impossible that a plumb sound 
should be obtained from such a vessel under any cir- 
cumstances likely to occur in actual work. The 
words quoted by Professor Verrill from Walsh’s report 
show that the latter officer deceived himself; for it is 
evident, that, if the wire ‘ served as an anchor to keep 
the vessel steady,’ it could not have been plumb; and, 
even if it appeared to be so at the surface, what it 
was below the surface no man could state with con- 
fidence, except that it was not plumb. A steamer 
may be kept over the wire, and, with wire properly 
spliced and heavily weighted, a plumb sound can be 
had, but not otherwise; and it may be confidently 
said that accurate sounding in deep water dates from 
the combination of these two factors. I may say, also, 
that in my note I did not, nor do I now, consider that 
successful trial of a sounding apparatus has been 
arrived at, until bottom has been reached, and the 
signs of it brought up. Wo. H. DALL. 
Washington, June 23, 1883. 


False claims. 


It is to be regretted that the pages of a popular 
magazine of high standing should be made the vehicle 


-of such an advertisement as appears in the Century 


for July, entitled ‘Cheap food for the million,’ re- 
ee in the publisher's department of SCIENCE 
‘or June 22. Of the merits or demerits of a new 
food-preservative, of which so many have been 


-. brought forward within the last few years, I have 


nothing to say: the testimony of Prof. S. W. Johnson, 
cited in its favor, is certainly entitled to respectful 
consideration. But I wish to call attention to the 
elaim of the inventor of the new nostrum to public 
confidence on the ground that he is ‘‘a fellow of the 
Chemical society of London, and also of the Geological 
society, being elected after unusually severe examina- 
tions. President Huxley, of the latter society, said 
that ‘no American should boast of an election with- 
out a severe struggle.” In evidence of this prejudice 
towards Americans, the fact that Professor Humiston 
was given two hundred and fifty questions (five times 
the usual number) may be cited. He is now super- 
intendent of the company’s works,”’ etc. 

It is not clear what meaning is to be attached to 
the words put into Huxley’s mouth; but it is a well- 
known fact that neither in the societies named, nor 


SCIENCE. 13 


any others with which I am acquainted, is there any 
examination whatever required, or are any ques- 
tions asked. A nomination by three members, one 
of whom must have personal knowledge of the candi- 
date, and the payment of fees, are the only conditions 
necessary to membership of the Geological society of 
London, which has several hundred members upon 
its lists, including many Americans. In the complete 
catalogue of all scientific papers published in Europe 
and America up to 1877 (Roy. soc. cat.) we search in 
vain for the name of the ‘superintendent of the 
company’s works.’ It is not creditable to the adver- 
tisers that the names of illustrious men of science 
and of learned societies, coupled with erroneous 
statements and absurd appeals to national prejudices, 
should be invoked, even indirectly, to recommend 
their wares. T. Sterry Hunt. 
Montreal, June 25, 1883. 


MACLOSKIE’S ELEMENTARY BOTANY. 


Elementary botany, with students’ guide to the exami- 
nation and description of plants. By GrorGe 
Mac osxie, D Sc , LL D., professor of natural 
history in the J. G. Green school of science, 
Princeton, N J., etc. New York, Holt, 1883. 
Stops 12°. 

Scrence is ready to welcome a new text- 
book, asking only for some particular line of 
excellence as a warrant of its reason to be. 
Considering that ‘‘ this volume aims to supply 
areadable sketch of botany,’’ and so to treat 
the subject ‘‘as to meet the wants of a large 
class of readers who wish to know something 
of the fundamental principles and philosophi- 
cal bearings of the science without being dis- 
tracted by technicalities,’’ we think that its read- 
able character and the comparatively sparing 
use of unnecessary technical terms are among 
its commendable features. The style is easy, 
sometimes a little odd in its concatenations, as 
where ‘‘it is said that a monkey first intro- 
duced tea to the notice of the Chinese; the 
English government started its cultivation in 
Assam, whence the best teas now come ;’’ and 
in the following paragraph it becomes even 
sensational. 

‘Their power of increasing in thickness 
imparts to roots their capacity for mischief. 
Their vigor is somewhat surprising. They 
make their way through dense soil, loosening 
it so that it becomes soft and spongy. They 
ean split rocks, overturn walls and buildings, 
stop up sewers, and root up our street-pave- 
ments. They effect more injury to man’s 
handiwork than tempest, fire, and war com- 
bined. . . . We possess a root hugging an 
old bottle in irredeemable captivity.’’ 

In a well-known passage at the close of one 
of his books, Darwin likened the tip of a root 
to the brain of one of the lower animals; and 
brains, we know, are capable of mischief, and 


14 


therefore of demoralization. Whether the 
root which the author is so fortunate as to pos- 
sess is in dipsomaniac captivity to the bottle it 
hugs, or whether the bottle is captivated by 
the caressing root, is not quite clear from the 
context. And how such dire mischief to 
man wrought by roots — more injurious ‘ than 
tempest, fire, and war combined ’—is to be 
reconciled with creative benevolence, we must 
leave for the Princeton theologians to settle, 
and pass on to another topic, that of judicious 
abstinence from technicalities. 

Writers of text-books are prone to employ 
all the technical terms they can find, especially 
new-fangled ones which have not yet proved 
their right or reason to exist by continued 
usage, or which, though convenient in an origi- 
nal treatise or memoir, and harmless or even 
useful in a glossary, may be advantageously 
dispensed with in ordinary scientific teaching. 
We all know of the painter commemorated by 
Punch, who ‘rubbed out a good deal,’ and 
who claimed to ‘ get his best effects that way.’ 
Many scientific books for students’ use might 
be bettered by the same process. Professor 
Macloskie has so well resisted the ordinary 
temptation, or restrained in parenthesis need- 
less terms which he did not like to leave out, 
—such as xylem, Greek for wood, most barba- 
rously Germanized (as if, where a Greek said 
zylon and a Roman said lignum, we might not 
say wood when we meant it), — that it may be 
a little ungracious to complain of his making 
one or two himself, and making them badly. 
Where he says, ‘‘ to avoid confusion, we shall 
call [the seed-coats] exotest and endotest,’’ the 
inference is, that these terms are original. 
Nor, not to insist that confusion is rather made 
than avoided by the substitution of new names 
for well-recognized old ones, we might suggest 
that the coinage is ‘in a small way pedantic, ex- 
cept that a pedant would not violate what our 
author in another place terms ‘ the jus connubii ” 
by hybridizing Greek with Latin. Nor, if we 
must have such Greek-Latin crosses, would he 
have truncated them into quasi English, which 
is as bad as a third cross, but have written exo- 
testa and endotesta in full, vile as the terms 
are. Gametic is certainly new coinage; and 
the author does not clearly say what he means 
it to pass for. But it may be gathered that 
‘gametic affinity” means relationship near 
enough to allow of interbreeding. We are to 
say, then, that species belonging to different 
genera have gametic affinity in the rare cases 
when they can be made to hybridize; and that 
certain species strictly of the same genus, 
which we have failed to hybridize, are devoid 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 22. 


of gametic affinity : so the term has no explan- 
atory value whatever. 

Some of the borrowed woodcuts are very 
good ; most of the original ones are quite the re- 
verse ; and the one which is said to represent a 
‘tip shoot of pea’ is a complete puzzle, after all 
the enlightenment which the letterpress affords. 

Turning over the pages, we now and then 
come upon statements which dampen any en- 
thusiasm of commendation which a reviewer 
might wish to express. On p. 16 we read that 
‘*eymose flowers are always actinomorphic, 
being equally exposed to light in all directions.” 
The implication that ‘ actinomorphic,’ i.e., reg- 
ular, flowers are so because equally exposed to | 
light from all directions is a bit of deductive 
botany of the Grant Allen school. And the 
assertion that cymose inflorescence and actino- 
morphic flowers always go together is by no 
means true, as witness all Labiatae and a large 
share of other didynamous flowers. The seed 
‘*in Lepidium, on being moistened, darts out 
mucilaginous threads.’’ Is Dr. Macloskie sure 
of this, or does he infer that there must be Such 
threads because they exist in various other 
seeds and seed-like fruits which develop muci- 
lage when wetted? The hypocotyledonary 
stem ‘‘in the pea is short because the seed re- 
mains underground.’’ Were it not better to 
say that the seed remains underground because 
this initial stem does not lengthen? On p. 82 
it is asserted, or at least implied, that root- 
hairs last all summer long, and may be renewed 
on a surface that has lost them. To Grant 
Allen, in the year 1882, is attributed the idea 
that neutral ray-flowers of Compositae are 
sterilized members set apart and enlarged for 
purposes of display. Has Dr. Macloskie met 
with no earlier exposition of that doctrine? 

Not to prolong questioning, let us say, that, 
for those who are most likely to use this book, 
it was a good idea to devote a few pages at the 
close to the derivation of common terms, Latin 
and Greek root-words, and prefixes, and to 
help those who do not know the Greek alpha- 
bet by writing out the words, as nearly as may 
be, in Roman letters. 


THE GEOLOGY OF BELGIUM. 


Géologie de la Belgique. Par Mrcuet Mourton. 
2vols. Bruxelles, Hayez, 1880-81. 317; 16+392 
p-; illustr. 8°, — eS 
Tus book, a model in its way, will be read 

with equal profit by the geologist and by the 

general reader. The geologist will find in it, 
critically exposed, and in a short and impar- 


tial manner, the immense amount of labor ~ 


' 
. 


_ Jury 6, 1883.] 


~ author : 


“zoic masses. 


and of detail which is seattered in the numer- 
ous papers of the Belgian geologists. Any 
one of ordinary intellectual culture, and inter- 
ested in Belgium, will find it a dear and read- 


able account of the past history and chief" 


features of the country. Two causes have 
contributed to make easier the task of the 
the works on the geology of Belgium 
by d’Omalius, Dewalque, and especially the 
celebrated ‘ Esquisses géologiques’ of Gosselet, 
have already pointed out the way to success ; 
and, moreover, the natural disposition of the 


country allows a very simple grouping of facts. 


Both geologically and geographically, Bel- 
gium is formed of two distinct parts. The 


‘southern half (the Ardennes) is a hilly region, 


a continuation of the old paleozoic nucleus of 
Europe, — the so-called Hereynian mountain- 


range; the northern half (Flandres, ete.) isa 


flat land or prairie region, and forms part of 
the great plain of northern Europe, the basin 
of the North Sea. The Ardennes is a paleo- 
zoic district; Flandres, a tertiary one; the 
triassic, Jurassic, and cretaceous formations 
forming but a broken belt around the paleo- 
All these formations are, how- 
-eyer, studied by the author in a complete 
manner, and their mineralogical, paleontologi- 
eal, and stratigraphical characters successively 
described. Both their historical divisions and 
their local extension are given with care. 

Beginning with the older rocks, we first meet 
the Cambrian shales, forming two principal 
ranges (massifs de Rocroy and de Stavelot). 
These rocks can be compared to the Ocoe 
conglomerates and shales of the Appalachian 
region; they contain the curious interbedded 
erystalline porphyroids, so well illustrated by 
de la Vallée Poussin and Renard, whose papers 
are here summarized in two good plates. The 
Silurian beds form two small crests extending 
east and west, through Brabant and Condros, 
and have supplied fossils of Barrande’s second 
fauna. These beds, like the underlying Cam- 
brian, have a southerly dip. The upper Silu- 
rian fauna is not represented. 

The folding of the Silurian rocks was the 


q initial cause of the so-called Dinant and 


Namur devono-carboniferous depressions, or 
basins. It was followed by a long-continued 


_ depression of the area, in consequence of 
_which the accumulation of an enormous thick- 


ness of stratified rocks within the great troughs 
‘of Dinant and of Namur took place. This 
downward bending of the earth’s crust did 
not go on continuously, but submitted to some 


irregularities related to the breaks and numer- 


ous stratigraphical divisions of the Devonian 


SCIENCE. 15 


formation. The Devonian formation of Ar- 
dennes is the most complete and best studied 
in Europe, through the labors of Dumont, 
Gosselet, Dupont, and the author. It shows 
a thick series of four thousand metres of 
alternating fossiliferous shales, sandstones, 
and limestones, marine for the chief part, 
though some beds have furnished Psilophyton 
and other plant-remains. After the period of 
the mountain limestone, littoral, brackish’ 
water, and finally lacustrine and _ terrestrial 
deposits, came in, and the coal continued 
forming. 

A general movement of elevation sueceeded 
towards the end of the coal-measures, and 
folded all the paleozoic sediments as if they 
had been crushed from south to north. This 
thrust had a more violent effect in the Namur 
than in the Dinant basin. In the former are 
comprised the celebrated coal-fields of Mons, 
Liége, and Charleroy,—the chief causes of 
Belgian prosperity and wealth. 

At the close of the paleozoic period, the 
mountainous region of southern Belgium was 
formed; and since then it has always been 
exposed to denudation. South of this moun- 
tainous district, the Jura-triassic beds of east- 
ern France now began to accumulate in the 
Gulf of Luxemburg (Buntersandstein and Keu- 
per, and the Jurassic from the Avicula contorta 
beds to the middle odlites). These mesozoic 
seas did not penetrate north of the Ardennes, 
where the lower cretaceous are the most an- 
cient mesozoic formations. 

The cretaceous formations in this district 
possess great interest, notwithstanding their 
small geographical extent. The lower beds 
have furnished the splendid iguanodons of 
the Brussels museum, and the upper ones 
are the well-known Maestricht beds. All are 
chiefly littoral formations; and the so-called 
tourtias of the middle cretaceous are famous 
by the variety and richness of their faunas. 
In the deep and narrow Gulf of Mons, the cre- 
taceous beds are found in a chalky condition, 
as in the Anglo-French basins. 

_In the neighborhood of Mons and Landen are 
found the most ancient representatives known 
in Europe of the tertiary epoch (systémes mon- 
tien, heersien), so well illustrated by Cornet 
and Briart. The Landenian system has a 
wider extension, forming, with the other terms 
of the eocene series, nearly all of lower Bel- 
gium. “Thus it is to the wide-spread mass of 
the London clay, which covers the Landenian 
sands, that Belgium owes its meadows and 
well-cultivated fields, which extend in an im- 
mense plain from the Brabant to the coast. 


16 


and from Dunkirk to Ostend. The Bruxellian 
and Laekenian systems form superficial hills in 
the neighborhood of Brussels, Gand, ete. The 
oligocene system shows two principal divisions 
(tongrian, rupelian), which stretch across the 
lower part of the river Escaut, where it leaves 
the eocene districts, through which it flows 
in the western part of the country. The plio- 
cene formations overlap irregularly the under- 
lying tertiary beds, and extend from Antwerp 
to Louvain. Many fine fossils have been found 
in these beds, where Mourlon admits several 
divisions, — Diestien (in part), Anversien, and 
Scaldisien. The last chapters of the work 
treat of the quaternary (diluvien, hesbayen, 
and campinien) and recent periods. 

Though special attention has here been 
given to the stratigraphical extent and dis- 
position of the beds, the author has treated 
with equal care of their lithological and paleon- 
tological characters, their minerals and fossils, 
and the useful products they furnish to Bel- 
gian industry. It will be enough, to indicate 
what amount of documents are included in the 
book, to state that the lists of fossils occupy 
240, and the bibliographical lists 144 pages. 


DU MONCEL’S ELECTRO-MAGNETS. 


The determination of the elements of 
By Tu. Du Moncet. From 
New York, Van 


Electro-magnets. 
their construction. 
the second French edition. 
Nostrand, 1883. 

The same. Translated from the French by C. J. 
Wharton. London, Spon, 1883. 


Tue great interest in the practical applica- 
tions of electricity demands simple treatises on 
the most economical methods of making elec- 
tro-magnets. ‘ Count Th. Du Moncel has en- 
deavored to supply this want, and has added 
another treatise to the long list he has already 
published upon electricity. He disclaims any 
endeavor to make a treatise on electro-mag- 
nets which shall embody scientific theories 
upon that most difficult of subjects, theoretical 
magnetism. His desire is to give the mech- 
anician a vade mecum by means of which he 
can construct electro-magnets for operations 
outside the laboratory. Indeed, this treatise is 
intended to stand in the same relation to the 
maker of dynamo-electric machines as a trea- 
tise on the practical construction of boilers, 
minus theories of elasticity, would stand to 
the constructor of steam-engines. ‘There is 
need for such a treatise, undoubtedly; for 
much expense can be saved by a little knowl- 
edge where to put the material to the best 
advantage. Most of the dynamo machines 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 22. 


which are before the world at the present time 
are defective in the arrangement of the wire 
of the field electro-magnets. Does the trea- 
tise of Du Moncel supply this want? The 
author follows the antiquated French fashion 
of expressing the resistance of a wire in 
terms of the length and diameter, without 
specifying, in many cases, the specific resist- 
ance. Thus, instead of ohms, we read so 
many metres of telegraph-wire ; and one must 
enter into a troublesome arithmetical drudgery 
to ascertain what is meant. The English edi- 
tion, published by Spon, states in the preface 
the relation between Du Moncel’s units and the 


commonly received units of resistance and ~ 


electro-motive force; but the American edi- 
tion, published by Van Nostrand, leaves the 
reader to find out this relation after he has 
plodded some distance through the treatise. 
The two imprints, one by Spon and the 
other by Van Nostrand, are carelessly edited. 
Thus, on p. 43 in Van Nostrand, we find an 
inconsistency between the values of ¢? and A. 
On p. 47, Van Nostrand gives 


= = 0.000506 ¢/Y/P4 
Es i ( 0.0225 (VPP), 


while Spon gives, on p. 34, 


5 ( .0225 \/ ver) 
£ 000506 \/ Paps, 


We give this as an example of similar mis- 
takes which meet the eye. The question 
arises whether a more carefully prepared 
treatise, which would start with the funda- 
mental system of electrical measurements, is 
not still needed. It is useless for any one to- 
endeavor to become a practical electrician 
to-day, without a sound training in mathe- 
matics as far as the principles of the differ- 
ential and integral calculus. A genius may 
arise, but he will know enough to employ a 
steady plodder who has been steeped in the 
principles of the calculus. Most constructors 


ab 


ab 


‘who desire to build electro-magnets will find 


that the exigences of space and material will 
demand a certain form. Unless they’ under- 
stand the theory of magnetic measurements, 
they will find the treatise of Du Moncel of 
little value ; for so many and so large approx- 
imations must be made, that the final result. 
would not differ much from those obtained by 
a thumb-rule. We commend to the practical. 


—— "= 


—_ 
' JuLY 6, 1883.] 


electrician a study of the fundamental mag- 
netic measurements rather than the perusal 
of treatises of this nature. 


LEDGER’S SUN AND ITS PLANETS. 


The sun, its planets, and their satellites. By Rev. 
Epmunp LepGer, M.A. London, Stanford, 
1882. 432 p. 12°. 

Or late a considerable number of semi- 
popular works have appeared on astronomical 
subjects. They seem to meet a felt want of 
the community, and have been very success- 
ful. We call them semi-popular: because, 
while they are not written for professional as- 
tronomers, they are adapted, in their style and 
mode of treatment, less to the great masses of 
the business and laboring population than to 
the educated people who are engaged in vari- 
ous professional occupations. Those, for in- 
stance, who are busy in teaching, or with the 
practice of medicine or law, or who are pursu- 
ing geological or biological research (in short, 
pretty much all who would naturally subscribe 
for Science), generally wish to keep aw cou- 

“rant of what is going on in other than their 
own special lines of work, and are delighted 
to find what they want, when they can get 
it in an attractive form. 

Mr. Ledger’s book is an excellent one of 
this class. It is less diffuse than Mr. Proc- 
tor’s essays, and not quite so imaginative. 
It is narrower in its scope than Professor 
Newcomb’s Popular astronomy, but easier 
reading, and fuller of detail in respect to the 
subjects of which it does treat. It makes no 
special claims to originality, but is accurate 
and clear, and the style is unpretentious and 
agreeable. The book is nicely gotten up, and 
_very well illustrated. Altogether, we have no 


SCIENCE. 


17 


hesitation in pronouncing it a volume well 
worth reading and possessing. 

Tt is made up of fifteen lectures read in 
1881 and 1882 in Gresham college, London. 
Two are upon the sun, two are devoted to the 
moon, two to the earth, and two to Jupiter and 
his satellites. Each of the other planets has a 
chapter to itself (counting the group of plane- 
toids as one), and there is a chapter entitled 
‘Ptolemy versus Copernicus.’ Naturally, the 
lectures are not all of equal interest and value ; 
but none of them are poor, or could be well 
dispensed with. The chapters upon Mars and 
the planetoids strike us as particularly good, 
and contain information not otherwise very 
easily accessible. The chapters on the sun 
and moon are also excellent, though naturally 
enough, in the main, only an abridgment and 
compilation from the recent books on these 
subjects; to which books the author hand- 
somely acknowledges his obligations. 

There are remarkably few mistakes in the 
work: in fact, in reading it over for this notice, 
we have found none at all, unless we count as 
such, a blunder in the illustration on p. 147, 
representing the comparative size of the sun 
as seen from Mercury at perihelion and aphe- 
lion ; the difference being represented very much 
greater than the truth. Speaking of illustra-_ 
tions, the fine Woodbury-type of the eclipse of 
1871 deserves special mention, and several of 
the pictures of Mars and Jupiter are unusually 
excellent. It is rather a pity that a few pages 
of tables were not appended, containing the 
numerical statistics of the planetary system. 
They would have greatly increased the value of 
the book for those who wish not merely to read 
it once, but to keep it on their shelves for 
occasional reference. 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


ASTRONOMY. 

Flexure of the broken transit. — Professor C. A. 
Young, after alluding to the fact that the flexure-cor- 
rection of this peculiar form of transit is not treated of 
in any of the common text-books on practical astron- 

_ omy (not evenin Sawitsch, who specially describes and 
discusses the instrument itself), states the theory of 
the correction to transits of stars observed with 
the ‘broken transit,’ which is often so great as to 
amount to a large fraction of a second of time at the 
zenith. The constant of flexure must be known, and 
its effect eliminated, before the collimation error can 
be determined by reversal of the instrument on a 
circumpolar star. The correction has the same co- 


efficient with the level-error; and denoting this lat- 
ter, as usually obtained, by b, the flexure-constant 
by f, and the pivot-correction by p, the complete 
formula for the ‘level-constant’ is [b + (f+ p)]. 
Thus, by flexure, the time of transit of a star is af- 
fected by f cos zsecd. The sign of f changes with 
the reversal of the instrument, being always plus 
for eye east, and minus for eye west. Prof. Young 
gives several methods of determining /; by obsery- 
ing zenith stars in reversed positions of the instru- 
ment, by means of the collimating eye-piece and 
mercury-basin, or a vertical collimator supported 
above the instrument, and by least-square treatment 
of equations given by repeated observation of suit- 


18 SCIENCE. 


able stars in both positions of the instrument. 
Some forms of the ‘ broken telescope’ transit, espe- 
cially those with a slender axis, require the addition 
of terms involving other functions of z than its 
cosine. Prof. Watson found for a Stackpole transit a 
flexure-correction of the form (fcosz+//" cos2z) sec d. 
But if the axis is reasonably stiff, the second term is 
never sensible. — (Sid. mess., June.) D. P. T. [2 


MATHEMATICS. 


Double theta-functions.— M. Caspary gives an 
account of some of the more elementary theorems 
concerning the theta-functions of two variables. He 
proves first, in a very simple manner, that the squared 
functions can be arranged in the form of a determi- 
nant of the fourth order which satisfies all the condi- 
tions of a determinant of an orthogonal substitution. 
He derives also the Gopel relations between these 
functions and their application to Kummer’s surface. 
A number of other fundamental theorems are also 
arrived at in a very elementary manner, making the 
paper a valuable introduction to the study of the 
double theta-functions. — (Journ. reine ang. math., 
xciv. no. 1.) T. c. {2 

Periodic functions. — M. Hurwitz discusses sin- 
gle-valued 2 n-fold periodic functions which through- 
out a finite region have the character of rational 
functions, and which are real for real values of their 
arguments. More exactly he examines the properties 
of the periods of such Abelian integrals as belong toa 
real algebraic form (gebilde). 
form he means the aggregate of all pairs of values of 
(x, y) which satisfy an irreducible algebraic equation 


(F(x, y) = 0) whose coefficients are all real. Defin- 
ing a periodic function by the equation 
$(u, + Py, U2 + Po... -Un+ Pn) = $(uj, Us. -- Un), 


the complex of quantities Pa is called a period of the 


function 9, a single one of these quantities being 


called a modulus of periodicity. A period is then 
real or pure imaginary when the moduli of periodicity 
which constitute it are real or pure imaginary. The 
principal theorem arrived at by the author is as 
follows: let ¢(u,, U2... %) denote a single-valued 
2n-fold periodic function which everywhere through- 
out a finite region possesses the character of a rational 
function, and which takes real values whenever its 
arguments are real; then there are always n period- 
pairs, : 

(Pip,P28--- Png), (Pi,n+p,P2,n+p--+Pn,n+s), 
which form together a system of primitive periods of 
the function, and which are of such a nature, that, for 
each pair, one of the two conditions following is satis- 
fied: either the first period (Pig . . . Pyg) is real, and 
the second period (Pi, n+ ,--- Pn, n +8) is purely 
imaginary; or the first period is real, and the period 
(2Pi,n+p— Pisg---2Pn, n+p — Png) is purely 
imaginary. — (Journ. reine ang. math., xciv. no. 1.) 
T. Cc. [s 
; PHYSICS. 

Liquefaction of nitrogen and carbonic oxide. 
—S. Wroblewsky and K. Olszewski give a more 
detailed account of the liquefaction of nitrogen 
(ScrmncE, i. 970). The gas remained invisible when 


By a real algebraic | 


[Vor. II., No. 22. 


submitted to a pressure of one hundred and fifty at- 
mospheres and a temperature of — 136°; but, when 
the pressure was slowly reduced to fifty atmospheres, 
the gas was liquefied, presenting a visible meniscus, 
and evaporating very rapidly. Under the same con- 
ditions, the authors succeeded in liquefying carbonic 
oxide, which formed a colorless liquid with a visible 
meniscus. — (Comptes rendus, xevi. 1225.) Cc. F. M. 
4 
Optios, : 

Mirage.—In an article entitled “State of the 
atmosphere which produces the forms of mirage ob- 
served by Vince and by Scoresby,’ Prof. Tait presents 
some very interesting researches regarding these par- 
ticular forms of mirage. After an historical note, in 


which he refers to two valuable contributions to the . 


subject by Wallaston and by Biot, which go far to- 
ward a solution of the problem, but have unfortu- 
nately fallen into oblivion, he presents his own 
investigations. His method consists in treating the 
curvature of a ray of light in the same way as the 
motion of a projectile; the two cases corresponding 
when, in the case of mirage, the square of the index 
of refraction of the air is proportional to the distance 
from a given horizontal plane. 

He finds, however, that, ‘‘ whatever be the law of 
refractive index of the air (provided it be the same 
at the same elevation), all we have to do to find the 
various possible images of an object at the same 
level as the eye is to draw the curve of vertices for 
all rays passing through the eye in the vertical plane 
containing the eye and the object, and find its inter- 
section with the vertical line midway between the eye 
and the obdject.’’ By making suitable suppositions 
regarding the change of density, he finds that “ the 


‘conditions requisite for the production of Vince’s 


phenomenon are a stratum in which the.refractive 
index diminishes upwards to a nearly stationary state, 
and below it a stratum in which the upward diminu- 
tion is either less, or vanishes altogether.’”’ It will be 
seen that the solution of the problem of atmospheric 
density and refraction by this means is entirely in- 
determinate. The supposition of Prof. Tait satisfies 
the conditions presented by the observations of Vince; 
but that it is the only law or the true law must be 
verified by investigations of a different nature. 

The method is especially valuable in its inverse form 
as affording a test of supposed laws of density and re- 
fraction in their ability to furnish the various phe- 
nomena of mirage. — (Nature, May 24.) a. B. c. 

(Photography.) [s 

Concentrated developer in one solution. — 
Where the photographer intends to travel, and devel- 
ope on the route, it is very desirable to reduce his 
chemical outfit to the smallest bulk and to the fewest 
liquids possible. Mr. G. Cramer, the dry-plate manu- 
facturer, gives the following formula for a developer, 


which he considers gives the best of results, and at 


the same time has the advantage of extreme porta- _ 


bility. 

Stock solution. 
Sulphite of soda (crystals) . . . . . 8 ounces, 
Bromide of ammonium ... . . . ounce. 


JuLy 6, 1883,] 


Bromide of potassium. . . . . . . 1} ounces. 
Byrogallic acid: «0: i «| «aihefe’s a « 2 Ounces. 
Dissolve in distilled water . . . . . 32 ounces. 
Add sulphuric acid (ce. p.) . . « 120 minims. 
Add aqua ammonia (strongest) - » © 8 ounces, 
Add water to make up bulk to . . . 40 ounces. 


The sulphuric acid and aqua ammonia should be 
measured very exactly. Instead of three ounces of 
crystals, two ounces of granular sulphite of soda may 
be substituted to produce the same effect. Dilute a 
sufficient quantity for one day’s use as follows: for 
ordinary purposes, one part in eleven; for very short 
exposures, one part in three to six; for over-exposed 
plates, or in all cases where great intensity and con- 
trast are desirable, one part in twenty. This devel- 
oper may be used repeatedly if it is always returned 
immediately to the pouring-bottle, which should be 
provided with a tight-fitting rubber stopper. As long 
as the solution remains transparent, it is good; but 
when it looks muddy its use should be discontinued. 
—(Philad. phot., June.) w. 4. P. [6 


. 3 ENGINEERING. 


Mill-engines.— The Southwark iron foundry has 
constructed for Messrs. Cheney Brothers of South 
Manchester, Conn., a compound ‘ Porter-Allen’ en- 
gine, having steam-cylinders 12 and 21 inches diam- 
eter, 2-feet stroke, to run at 180 revolutions per 
minute. The power is given at 200 horse-power. The 
ratio of expansion is 16. The expenditure of water 
was 18.5 pounds per horse-power and per hour. Of 
this, 11.75 was aceounted for by the indicator: the 
rest was wasted by condensation in the steam-cyl- 
inders and by leakage. In these engines the low- 
pressure cylinder is steam-jacketed, and the exhaust 
from the high-pressure cylinder passes into an inter- 
mediate reservoir, from which the large cylinder is 
supplied. The reservoir acts as a separator for the 
water carried in with the steam; and this water is 
trapped off, and does not reach the low-pressure cyl- 
inder. — (Mechanics, May 19.) Rk. H. T. (7 

Compressed steel.— Tests have been made at 
the Watertown arsenal on cold-worked steel made 
by Naylor & Co, at the Norway steel and iron works, 
Boston, Mass. The elastic limit is raised from 26,540 
pounds per square inch (1,966 kgs. per sq. em.), in 
the hot-rolled bar, to 61,000 pounds (4,288 kgs.) in the 
cold-rolled steel. The ultimate strength is increased 
from 55,400 pounds (3,895 kgs.) to 70,420 (5,140 kgs.), 
in one case, and to 81,890 (5,757 kgs.) in another. The 


results of tests made at the mechanical laboratory of 


the department of engineering of the Stevens insti- 
tute of technology are given, showing the increase 
due to cold rolling to be 70 per cent of the original 
torsional strength with iron, and over 150 per cent 
with soft steel. The resilience, or shock-resisting 


_ power, was increased, in an average of three tests, 


nearly 300 per cent in iron, and to double the latter 
quantity in steel. —(Ibid.) R. H. T. |8 
Time-fuze for artillery.— Col. Richardson, R.A., 


finds that all the forms of time-fuzes at present in 


use are unsatisfactory, since they depend for their 


SCIENCE. 19 


accuracy on the length of time during which a given 
column of composition burns; and this is a matter 
which is difficult of control at the best. He proposes 
to take advantage of the rapid and regular rotation 
of the shell during its flight by which to work a 
mechanism, which shall liberate a concussion-fuze 
at any desired moment. —(Proc. roy. artill. inst., 
April, 1883.) c. E. M. {9 


. CHEMISTRY. 
(General, physical, and inorganic.) 


Basic sulphates of copper.— By continued boil- 
ing of a solution of cupric sulphate, S. U. Picker- 
ing obtained a basic sulphate, to which he assigns 
the formula 6CuO.2S0,.5H,0O. Precipitation 
in the cold with potassie hydrate gave the basic salt 
4CuO . SO;.— (Chem. news, xlvii. 181.) c. F. M. 

{10 

The hydrates of chlorine. — EF. Maumen? thinks 
that the hydrate Cl . 10 H.O, mentioned by Faraday, 
does not exist. Maumené observed the formation of 
the hydrate Cl .4H,.O, which erystallized in cubes, 
and of the hydrate Cl. 7 H,O in well-marked crystals. 
With an excess of water, the hydrate Cl. 4H,O is 
converted into the form Cl. 12H.O, which forms 
orthorhombic crystals, — (Bull. soc. chim., xxxix. 
397.) C.F. M. ’ {11 

Ammoniacal bromides and oxy-bromides of 
zinc. — When zine oxide is dissolved with the aid 
of heat in a solution of ammonic bromide, G. André 
states that the compound 3ZnBr, .3NH,.H,O is 
formed. This compound is completely decomposed 
when boiled with a large quantity of water, leaving 
only the oxide. The compound 3 ZnBr, .4NH,;.H,O 
is formed when the experiment is conducted in the 
cold. On passing dry ammonia gas into a solution 
of zine bromide, it is absorbed, with the formation of 
the product 3 ZnBr. .5NH,.H,O. The compound 
2ZnBr, .5 NH, results when the ammoniacal bro- 
mide 2ZnBr, . 5NH,; . 2H.O is heated. The follow- 
ing oxy-bromides were prepared by methods similar 
to those which give the oxy-chlorides: ZnBr, . 
4Zn0O . 13H-.O, ZnBr, . 4ZnO . 19H,O, ZnBry . 
5ZnO.6H.,0, ZnBr, .6ZnO. 35H,O. —(Bull. soc. 
chim., xxxix. 398.) c. F. M. [12 

Artificial hausmannite. — By heating manganous 
chloride to the point of fusion for several hours, A. 
Gorgen obtained crystals, on cooling, which possessed 
all the properties of the mineral hausmannite. — 
(Comptes rendus, xevi. 1144.) c. F. M. fa3 

Formation of sulphides by pressure. — W. 
Spring submitted finely divided magnesium with the 
amount of sulphur calculated for one atom to a press- 
ure of sixty-five hundred atmospheres. The prod- 
uct proved to be a homogeneous mass which gave 
off hydric sulphide when heated with water to 50° or 
60°. Zine sulphide was formed by subjecting a mix- 
ture of zinc and sulphur to the same pressure. Iron 
united with sulphur, forming, probably, a polysul- 
phide. Cadmium gave a yellow powder, from which 
hydrochloric acid liberated hydric sulphide. Sul- 
phides of aluminum, bismuth, lead, silver, copper, 


20 


tin, and antimony were obtained by this process, — 
(Berichte deutsch. chem. gesellsch., xvi. 999,) C.F. M. 
{14 

(Analytical.) 

Determination of nitrogen.— A new method 
for determining nitrogen, applicable to all nitrogen 
compounds, is proposed by H. Grouven. It consists 
essentially in burning the substance at a bright-red 
heat in a current of superheated steam. He first ap- 
plied the process on the large scale to the production 
of ammonium salts from peat, but has since perfected 
it as an analytical method. The substance is burned 
in a boat, and the vapors arising from it are passed 
over a glowing layer of small fragments of a prepa- 
ration called by the author ‘ contact-mass’, and then 
through standard acid, as in the soda-lime method. 
The contact-mass consists of an ignited mixture of 
peat, chalk, and cement clay in certain proportions, 
and must be renewed after about fifty combustions., 
The advantages claimed for the method are, that com- 
bustions may succeed each other rapidly in the same 
apparatus (constructed of iron, with asbestos stop- 
pers), that large quantities of material (two to three 
grams) may be used, that no drying or pulverization is 
necessary, and that it may be combined with an ash 
determination. Nitrates are dissolved with addition 
of sugar, sufficient clay is added to make a stiff 
dough, and the latter is introduced into the appa- 
ratus. The method is said to give concordant results, 
which are slightly higher than those obtained by the 
soda-lime method. — (Landw. vers.-stat., xxviii. 343.) 
H. P. A. [15 


AGRICULTURE, 


Chemistry of ‘fairy-rings.’— The formation on 
pasture-land of so-called ‘fairy-rings,’ that is, of circles 
of dark-green grass more luxuriant than the sur- 
rounding herbage, has long been supposed to be con- 
nected with the growth and decay of fungi, which 
serve as manure for the grasses which succeed them. 
The effect has by some been ascribed chiefly to the 
ash of the fungi, while others attribute it largely to 
their nitrogen. Two views.are possible in regard to 
the way in which the fungi enrich the soil. They 
may have the power of attacking those organic and 
mineral matters in the soil which are not available 
-as food for higher plants, and so of converting them 
into an available form, or it is possible that they 
have the power to assimilate free nitrogen from the 
air, and thus increase the store of this element in 
the soil. Lawes, Gilbert, and Warington have en- 
deavored to decide between these alternatives by ana- 
lyzing samples of soil from within, on, and outside of, 
several such rings. Almost uniformly the percent- 
age of nitrogen in the surface-soil to the depth of 
nine inches was greatest outside the ring, least 
within it, and intermediate onthe ring. The results 
of the carbon determinations were similar, but less 
uniform. The authors conclude that the fungi sim- 
ply render more available to vegetation materials 
already existing in the soil ; and that, as these mate- 


rials are taken up and removed in the more abundant | 


growth which follows, the soil is naturally impover- 
ished. This conclusion applies, in the first place, to 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 22.: 


1 . 

the nitrogen ; but it would seem that it must be equal- 
ly true of the ash ingredients. Whether there nay 
not also be an evolution of free nitrogen by the fungi, 
or whether, on the other hand, nitrogen may not be 
assimilated from the air, are undetermined questions ; 
but the phenomena are explainable without these sup- 
positions. — (Journ. chem. soc., ecxlvi. 208.) uu. P. A. 

[16 

GEOLOGY. 


Puerco beds in France. — Professor E. D. Cope 
referred to an analysis by Dr. Lemoine of the marsu- 
pial types belonging to the faune cernaysienne as 
having been made considerably later than the speak- 
er’s diagnosis of similar forms from the Puerco beds, 
which belong to the same geological horizon. He 
claimed, that, as the age of the American formation - 
had been the first to be definitely determined, its name 
should be applied to the corresponding French de- 
posits. — (Acad. nat. sc. Philad.; meeting June 12. 

(17 

The Allegheny oil-sands. — Mr. C. A. Ashburner 
stated that he had recently examined the Allegheny 
oil-fields of western New York, and had been able to 
determine one or two points of interest both to com- 
merce and to geology. After defining the Bradford 
and Allegheny oil-fields, the varying horizons of the 
oil-supply were alluded to. He had determined that 
the Allegheny oil-sands of New York were not above 
the Bradford sands of Pennsylvania, but were the 
same. Investigations extended into Livingston, Steu- 
ben, and Wyoming counties, N.Y., established the 
belief that the sands alluded to belong to the 
lower Chemung group. Mr. Ashburner further re- 
marked, that, while these sands are doubtless for the 
most part reservoirs of oil produced in lower strata, 
some of the material was formed from plants con- 
tained in the sands themselves. The oil in Pennsyl- | 
vania never reaches the reservoirs from above. 

Mr. Benjamin S. Lyman stated his belief that the 
oil always originates in the sand where it is found. — 
(Acad. nat. sc.; meeting June 12.) [1s 


GEOGRAPHY. 
(Arctic.) 

Northern notes, Atlantic region. — The Ger- 
mania sailed from Hamburg, June 20, with provisions 
and instruments for the German expedition at Cum- 
berland Inlet. —— The departure of the Willem 
Barents in search of the Dutch expedition on the 
Varna took place as proposed. ——The account 
recently published of the wintering at Cape Flora, 
Franz Josef Land, by the Hira party, contains numer- 
ous items of interest in connection with the proposed 
use of this land as a starting-point or base for more 
northerly expeditions. As might be expected from the 
insularity of the land, the winter is milder than in 
the same latitude on the west Greenland coast. The 
land is probably slowly rising, like most other aretie 
land. ‘Terraces ninety feet above the sea-level were 


observed. Resident land-animals, such as reindeer, __ 


arctic hares or rabbits, and ptarmigan, there are none, 


’ Of wandering arctic animals who live in the sea or 


on the ice, and are common to the whole frozen re- 


JuLy 6, 1883.]. 


gion, and sea-birds, there is a certain supply, the for- 
mer being present the year round, though only male 


* bears oecur in winter, and the small auks for two- 


thirds of the year. The lowest temperature observed 
was forty-three degrees below zero, Fahrenheit, and 
this in latitude 80°. Tromholt, whose researches 
into the aurora borealis have proved its connection 
with electrical discharges from the earth, proposes to 
spend the winter 1883-84 in Iceland, devoting himself 
to similar studies with Lemstrém’s apparatus, and on 
the lines indicated by him. —— The U.S.S. Yantic 
sailed June 14, from New York, to join the Proteus 
at St. Johns. Ensign H. G. Dresel, U.S. N., accom- 
panies the Yantic as naturalist. Later advices an- 
nounce the departure of both vessels from St. Johns 
for Lady Franklin Bay, June 29. The Danish 
South Greenland expedition has arrived at its field 
of work, and at last accounts expected to begin 
operations immediately. — w. H. D. fig 
Northern notes, Pacific region.—June 2, the 
steamship Dakota left San Francisco for an excur- 
sion throughout south-eastern Alaska with a large 
number of excursionists. Similar excursions are 
planned for July and August. —— The schooner Leo 
has sailed from San Francisco to Point Barrow, to 
relieve Lieut. Ray and his party, and to obtain 
absolute magnetic astronomical and pendulum ob- 
servations at the station. Returning, Mr. Clarke of 
the signal-service will relieve the present officer at 
St. Michaels, Norton Sound, and take charge of the 
station, which will be the most northern signal-ser- 
vice station then in operation. —~ A vessel for the 
hydrographic exploration of the waters of Alaska, 
under the auspices of the U.S. coast-survey, is about 
to be constructed on the Atlantic coast, and sent out 
vid Cape Horn, it being found that the expense of 
building her on the Pacific coast would considerably 
‘exceed the funds available. The last reports from 
the mines near Juneau, Alaska, are very favorable: 
the owners of one mine ‘cleaned up’ $9,000 in April; 
$80,000 have been refused by the owners of another 
elaim. A number of miners will have preceded 
Lieut. Schwatka on his journey down the Lewis and 
Yukon rivers this season, bound to join the Schreffelin 
party on the Tananah. If these numerous prospect- 
ors and adventurers were to record their observa- 
tions, doubtless much valuable information on other 
than mining topics might be preserved. The 
rock upon which the steamer Eureka was lost last 
month proves to be a previously unknown danger. 
— The decrease of salmon in the rivers of Oregon 
and elsewhere has led to much activity in pushing 
out into the new north-west in search of unpillaged 
‘streams. A great many new salmon-fisheries have 
been established at various points in British-Colum- 
bia and Alaska. —— The U.S. 8S. Adams is to visit 
the island of Kadiak on her summer cruise. —— The 
authorities of British Columbia have instituted an 
exploration of the Queen Charlotte Islands with 
reference to agricultural lands. The north-eastern 
portion of the northern island has been noted for 
nearly a century for its attractive aspect. The Hudson 
Bay company has long had a station at the entrance 


SCIENCE. 


21 


of Massett Inlet (named Hancock River by Capt. 
Crowell of Boston in 1791), where potatoes and other 
vegetables flourish ; and the fat and sleek appearance 
of the cattle has been often mentioned by more recent 
visitors. The western coast of these islands has 
hardly been visited by explorers since Ingraham, in 
1791, made his sketch-map of the coast. It is high 
and mountainous as far as known, and, like the 
south-eastern part of the group, likely to be chiefly 
valuable for its timber, minerals, and fish. —— The 
body of a white man murdered by the British Indi- 
ans has been found near Milbank Sound, concealed 
near the shore; while two Alaskan Indians, who 
enlivened a visit to British Columbia by slaying two 
Chinamen, have been sentenced to be hanged at 
Victoria, V.I. The steamer Vinta of the U.S. 
navy, which was prepared for police-duty and explo- 
ration on the Alaskan coast, and lately pronounced 
unseaworthy, has been re-examined, and the decision 
reversed : she will sail shortly vid Cape Horn under 
the command of Lieut. Uriel Sebree, U.S.N. This 
voyage will offer excellent opportunities for scientific 
observations en route. —— The U.S. S. Corwin, under 
the command of Capt. Healy, has sailed under in- 
structions to visit Juneau, and settle certain quar- 
rels between American and British miners there, 
then to proceed to the Pribiloff Islands to protect the 
seal-fisheries; after which St. Lawrence Bay, Bering 
Strait, will be visited, and the presents from the gov- 
ernment to those hospitable Chukchis who preserved 
the lives of the Rodgers party will be delivered, arc- 
tie whiskey-smugglers looked after, and the usual 
observations made. — W. H. D. [20 


BOTANY. 
Cryptogams. 

Notes on Laminariae, —In the fourth part of his 
Observationes phycologicae, Prof. J. E, Areschoug 
gives a revision of some species of Laminaria and 
related genera, including several of the forms found 
in the United States. Ie considers that L. platy- 
meris, De la Pyl., is the same as L, Cloustoni, which 
he places in the genus Hafgygia, to which he considers 
that L. Andersonii also belongs. — W. G. F. weak 

Iowa fungi.— Professor J. C. Arthur gives very full 
descriptions of twelve species of Iowa Uromyces, 
including one new species, U. acuminatus, on Spar- 
tina, At the end is an index of synonyms and 
host-plants. — (Bull. Minn. acad.,ii.) W.G.F. [22 

Injurious Algae. —In a paper on some Algae of 
Minnesota supposed to be poisonous, Prof. J. C. 
Arthur gives an account of a species of Rivularia 
infesting the water of ponds at Waterville, Minn., 
and supposed to be the cause of death or injury to 
cattle. He also describes the condition of Lake 
Phalen, near St. Paul, in which he found several 
species of Nostochaceae. —(Bull. Minn. acad., ii.) 
Wro.ken [23 

Ohio fungi.—In a continuation of his paper on 
the mycologic flora of the Miami valley, Mr, A. P. 
Morgan gives a description of the Hyporhodii, Der- 
mini, Pratelli, and Coprinarii of the region mentioned, 
including sixty-five species, —W. G. F. [24 


22 SCIENCE. 


Phenogams, 


Formation of cystoliths.—Chareyre has exam- 
ined the development of these bodies with special 
reference to the source of the materials from which 
they are produced. He finds that the food-reserve in 
seeds of Urticaceae is composed of aleuron grains 
possessing ‘globoids;’? and yet the calcareous mat- 
ter forming the globoids, though disappearing at the 
period of germination, does not contribute to the 
formation of the cystoliths. Sometimes, when grown 
upon pure sand, the seedlings exhibit the pedicle of 
the cystolith, but nothing more. Upon chalky soil, 
or even ordinary earth, the cystoliths appear very 
soon, —in fact, as soon as the cotyledons are disen- 
gaged from the seed-coats. If the seeds are made to 
germinate in darkness, even if other conditions are 
favorable, the cystoliths remain in the rudimentary 
state. Furthermore, in some cases, cystoliths already 
formed disappear upon keeping the plants in dark- 
ness. — (Comptes rendus, May 28.) G. L. G. [25 


ZOOLOGY. 
Coelenterates, 


A new hydroid polyp.— Professor E. D. Cope 
described an interesting form of hydroid polyp found 
in large numbers on the bark of submerged trees in 
Upper Klamath Lake, Oregon. Its coenoecium is a 
mass of creeping yellowish stems embedded in sar- 
code. Each zooid is of an elongate oval form, sessile, 
and with six rays of equal size, each one-half as long 
as the body. The zodids are translucent, but with 
two oval bodies in the lower half of the body-cavity 
of a yellow color. These are collected in masses as 
large as the fist. The length of each zodid is one 
millimetre. They did not extend themselves beyond 
this length, neither did the rays elongate to beyond 
half the same during the time they were observed. 
They retracted themselves on being irritated. They 
do not possess any fringes like the arms of the 
polyzoa. As the possession of a coenoecium dis- 
tinguishes this genus from all the fresh-water hy- 
droids, it was proposed to distinguish it as the type 
of a new genus with the name Rhizohydra, the 
species being named flavitincta. An attempt to pre- 
serve some of the masses of zodids in alcohol was 
not successful. —(Acad. nat. sc. Philad. ; meeting 
June 19.) [26 

Mollusks, ‘ 

Abyssal mollusks.— The fifth part of the Mol- 
lusca of the Lightning and Porcupine expeditions, 
by Dr. J. Gwyn Jeffreys, has been received. It treats 
of the Solenoconchia, Polyplacophora, Docoglossa, 
and scutibranchiate limpets, contains supplementary 
notes to the preceding four parts, and is illustrated by 
_two excellent plates. The number of species first 
described herein is not large; but a surprising num- 
ber of facts as to distribution, synonymy, biography, 
and external anatomy, are brought together. In 
adopting a later name than Acmaea for that genus, 
he observes that in the original description no type 
or species was mentioned by Eschscholtz, but has 
apparently overlooked the fact that the same is true 
of the genus Tectura, by which he would replace 


‘and Ostracoda. 


[Von. IL., No. 22. 


Acmaea. —— Parts xv. and xvi. of the preliminary 
descriptions of the Mollusea of the Challenger expe- 
dition, by Rev. R. Boog-Watson, are at hand. They 
cover the Ranellidae, Muricidae, Scalariidae, and 
Solariidae in the first, and the Fissurellidae and 
Cocculinidae in the second part. Quite a number of 
the species are from comparatively shallow water. 
Hight new species of Puncturella were obtained 
from one dredging at a locality north of Culebra 
Island, near St. Thomas, in the Danish West Indies. 
One of these is the largest yet known. The common 
Puncturella noachina Linn. of British, north-east 
American, and Alaskan seas was obtained in the 
Straits of Magellan, at Kerguelen Island, and at a 
station between these two, which seems truly re- 
markable. The operculum of Nassaria kampyla 
Watson, and the dentition of a new species of Coccu- 
lina from the Philippine Islands, are figured. The 
teeth closely resemble in general features those of 
the American species, except that the median tooth 
is more, and the major laterals less, developed than 
in the forms obtained by the U. S. fish-commission. 
The descriptions are in the full and faithful manner 
characteristic of Mr. Watson’s work. — w. H. D. 
: (27 

y k Crustaceans, 

Haemoglobin in the blood of Branchiopoda. 
— Some years ago E. Van Beneden discovered a dou- 
ble system of circulation in some of the parasitic 
Copepoda like that in many annelids, and deseribed — 
a complicated system of vessels with true walls, filled 
with a red fluid containing haemoglobin, but no cor- 
puscles, and entirely distinct from the lacunar sys- 
tem with colorless fluid containing corpuscles. P. 
Regnard and R. Blanchard find a similar system in 
Apus, and believe that it exists also in some Cladocera 
Chemical examination convinces 
them that true haemoglobin is present in the blood 
of Apus, is always combined with oxygen, and plays 
some part in respiration. — (Zool. anz., May 7, 1883.) 
8. I. S. [28 

Fresh-water Copepoda.— F. W. Cragin enu- 
merates the genera of free-swimming Copepoda 
known to inhabit inland waters, describes and fig- 
ures ten species of Cyclops, half of them new, from 
Cambridge, Mass., and publishes a translation of de- 
scriptions in Russia of several species of Cyclops by 
Poggenpol. Mr. Cragin notes the occurrence of the 
gregarinian, Lagenella nobilis, in North American 
species of Cyclops. — (rans. Kansas acad. se., viii. 
1883.) Ss. I. S. [29 
“Insects. 

The male genital armature of Lepidoptera. — 
Considering how important a use has been made of 
these organs to distinguish species in nearly all other 
groups of insects, it is a little surprising to see how 
few lepidopterists have availed themselves of the 
excellent marks of distinction they afford. Rambur 
in 1839 (whose writings Gosse in the paper before us 
entirely overlooks), de Haan in 1842, and recently Bu- 
chanan White, are the only European authors who 
have paid any attention to these organs in butterflies ; 
and Scudder and Burgess stand alone in this country. 


Jury 6, 1883.] 


_In the present paper, Gosse describes and figures their 


appearance in eleven species of Ornithoptera, and 
fifty-six species of Papilio, including our own Thoas 
and Turnus. In one, P. Schmeltzi, he found a slight 
asymmetry in the armature of the two classes. 
Gosse gives new names to nearly all the parts. The 
side-plates, or flaps, which conceal the whole, he 


terms, as usual, ‘valves;’ the inwardly projecting 


armature of the interior of these, the ‘harpes ;’ the 
beak-like mesial prolongation of the eighth abdominal] 
segment, the ‘uncus ;’ the unpaired appendage lying 
between it and the intromittent organ, the ‘scaphium.’ 
He has done particular service in the care with which 
he has reproduced the scaphium, — an organ consist- 
ing, in the swallow-tails, of chitinous points on a mem- 
branous body, and therefore badly distorted in dried 
specimens. This portion was studied and drawn after 
it had been made to assume its natural fresh appear- 
ance by absorbing a drop of water. The variety and 
strangeness of form and armature assumed by these 
parts, and particularly by the so-called scaphium and 
harpes, is very remarkable. In his naming of these 
parts anew, Gosse has burdened us with new terms 
for organs which are abundantly named already ; but 
they will, perhaps, have their advantages, if they do 
not survive after homologues in other insects are 
pointed out. In his remarks on these organs in 
other butterflies, Gosse fails to see the homologies 
which exist, and which Burgess points out in part 
in a paper which Gosse appears not to have seen 
(Anniv. mem. Bost. soc. nat. hist.), and Buchanan 
White as well (Trans. Linn. soc., Zoél., i. 358). In 
brief, it may be stated that the organs in butter- 
flies consist, besides the intromittent organ, of 
‘simply an unpaired upper organ, and paired lower 
appendages ; both of which are attached, the upper 
immovably, to the ninth abdominal segment. The 
upper organ usually takes the form of a hook, and the 
lower, of claspers. In the Papilionides, however 
(including in that both swallow-tails and pierids), the 
dorsum of the eighth segment of the abdomen is pro- 
longed posteriorly into a terminal hook overlying and 
concealing the true upper appendage, and at first 
readily mistaken for it, as shown in the swallow-tails 
by White and in the pierids by Burgess. Burgess 
also shows that false claspers exist in Danais, differ- 
ing only from true claspers in not being articulated. 
Bearing in mind the attachment of the different ex- 
ternal organs ancillary to generation, their homolo- 
gies throughout the insects are not difficult to trace. 
Buchanan White termed the ‘upper organ’ of Scud- 
der and Burgess the ‘tegumen,’ and their ‘clasps,’ 
‘harpagones.’ The uncus of Gosse (which on rare 
oceasions is wanting in some swallow-tails) is there- 
fore no proper part of the ordinary organs ancillary 
to generation, but a prolongation of the eighth abdom- 
inal segment. The scaphium is the upper organ, or 
the tegumen, of White; the valves of Gosse, the 
clasps of Scudder and Burgess or the harpagones of 
White ; and the harpe, merely the armature of the 
clasp, which is extremely varied and complex, not 
only in the group where Gosse has so well illustrated 
it, but also in many skippers : indeed, this bizarre form 


SCIENCE. 23 


of armature, both of ‘scaphium’ and ‘harpe,’ is anew 
indication of the alliance between the swallow-tails 
and skippers. We may further remark, that, if the 
old genus Papilio is the sooner broken up by the 
additional help afforded by these new studies, Gosse 
will have done systematists a real service. — (Trans. 
Linn. soc. Lond., Zodl., ii. 265.) s. mH. s. [30 


VERTEBRATES. 


Chemistry and physiology of blood-serum. — 
In dogs which have been starved for a period of five 
or six days, and which previous to the commence- 
ment of the starvation had been fed for two or three 
weeks on horse-flesh freed as far as possible from fat, 
Burckhardt finds a diminution in the total amount 
of proteids in the blood-serum, the loss varying from 
4% to 16% of the original amount of proteids present. 
Of the two proteids of serum, the quantity of serum- 
globulin increases during starvation, the increase 
ranging in his experiments from 22.8% to 66.4% of 
the quantity present before starvation. Serum-albu- 
men, on the other hand, suffers a marked diminu- 
tion, from 5.3% to 21.66% of the normal quantity. 
A calculation of the probable loss of albumen from 
the blood and lymph on the basis of his experiments, 
when compared with the amount of urea excreted 
by dogs, according to Voit, in the first five days of 
starvation, shows that the quantity of albumen lost 
from the circulating liquids is much too small to 
account for the proteid destruction indicated by the 
urea. Burckhardt made use of dialysis chiefly in 
determining the quantity of serum-globulin present 
in serum. The serum-albumen was estimated as the 
difference between the total proteids and the serum- 
globulin. He states that Hammarsten’s method of 
obtaining serum-globulin by means of MgSO, is not 
reliable. Complete saturation with MgSO, throws 
down not only the serum-globulin, but also a large 
amount of proteid, which resembles seruin-albumen, 
as usually understood, in every respect except in its 
precipitation by Mg.SO,. — (Arch. exper. path. phar- 
mak., Xvi, 322.) W. HW. H. [31 

Double staining blood-corpuscles.— Dr. Vin- 
cent Harris has made a series of systematic ex- 
periments on double staining of nucleated blood 
corpuscles with aniline dyes, and gives in connection 
therewith a table of the aniline dyes, and their solu- 
bility in water and alcohol. A little blood was dried 
rapidly in a thin layer on a slide, and treated with 
two dyes in succession. The only entirely successful 
combinations were the following: rosein and aniline 
green, fuchsin and methylen blue, fuchsin and Bis- 
marek brown, eosin and resuyin, iodine green and 
Bismarck brown, Hoffman’s violet and Bismarek 
brown, aniline violet and metbylen blue. The 
greens were not at all permanent. The results were 
often variable and uncertain. For success the solu- 
tions must be quite fresh. The time each dye is al- 
lowed to remain greatly affects the results. — (Quart. 
journ. micr. sc., 1883, 292.) ©. 8. M. [32 

The primitive mouth of vertebrates. — Accord- 
ing to Rauber, the gastrula mouth (original blastopore 


24 


or prostoma) is represented by various parts in verte- 
brates. In Pretromyzon, sturgeons, and Amphibia it 
is undivided. In sharks it is divided into two parts ; 
i.e., primitive furrow, and posterior marginal open- 
ing. In birds it consists of the primitive furrow and 
marginal notch of the germinal area, and includes 
also the various small openings formed at the termi- 
nal swelling of the embryo; viz., the neurenteric 
canal, the passage observed by Gasser in the embryo 
of the Cochin-China breed of hens, and the break 
which sometimes occurs between the allantois sack 
and the ectodermal ingrowth behind the tail (caudal 
sack). 

Rauber also asserts in the same paper that the 
bilateral outgrowths from the primitive streak of 
amniote embryos are homologous with the divestic- 
ula forming the mesoderm in Amphioxus. — (Zool. 
anz., Vi. 148, 163.) [s3 


« Reptiles, 

Venom of serpents. — The constitution of the 
venom of certain of the poisonous serpents has been 
examined by Mitchell and Reichert with interesting 
_and somewhat remarkable results. According to 
them, three distinct proteids may be isolated from 
the venom of the moccason and the rattlesnake (C. 
adamanteus). These they propose to call respective- 
ly, venom-peptone, venom-globulin, and venom-albu- 
men. The venom-peptone may be obtained from 
fresh yenom, or from the aqueous solution of the 
dried material by dialysis, or by boiling and filtering 
off from the precipitated proteids. It is soluble in 
water, not coagulated by boiling, and readily dialyza- 
ble. Its solutions, while answering to all the general 
tests for peptones, exhibit certain peculiar reactions 
which distinguish it from the class of peptones as 
usually understood. The most marked of these spe- 
cific reactions are its precipitation from aqueous 
solutions by saturation with potassium hydroxide or 
sodium chloride, and by the addition of dilute acetic 
acid. Its solutions possess the poisonous properties 
of venom, though in a less marked degree, giving 
rise to putrefactive changes when injected into the 
living animal. : : 

The solution of the peptone obtained by boiling 
venom, and filtering from the precipitate of coagu- 
lated proteids, breaks up on drying with the forma- 
tion of two proteids, one of which is soluble, and 
gives all the reactions of the original substance, with 
the exception that it is not poisonous. The other is 
insoluble in water, and likewise innocuous. 

If an aqueous solution of yenom is allowed to 
stand for some time, a precipitate occurs which gives 
the usual reactions of globulins. This substance 
possesses all the toxic powers of fresh venom. 

After the separation of the peptone and globulin, 
a third proteid remains in solution which is apparent- 
ly closely connected with the albumens, though the 

_authors have not been able to obtain it in a state of 
sufficient purity to make decisive tests. It is soluble 
in water, coagulates below 70° C., and is precipitated 
from its solutions by weak alkalies and acids. It is 
probably not poisonous. — (Medical news, April 28, 
1883.) Ww. H. H. [34 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 22. 


Mammals, 

Cutaneous nerves in mammals. — Dr. Harrison 
Allen has succeeded in tracing nerve-filaments to the 
larger setae-bearing hair-follicles in mammals as ex- 
posed after depilation. He believes that the hair- 
follicles of the oral, the mental, the supra-orbital and 
the disto-carpal tufts, as well as those placed on the lat- 
eral aspects of the limbs, are in all cases supplied with 
nerve-filaments, as are the pteryls of birds. In speci- 
mens in which the follicles are rudimentary there is 
a corresponding failure of the nerve, thus indicating 
a close relation between the two. — (Acad. nat. sc. 
Philad. ; meeting June 12.) [35 

Nerves of the human eyelid.— Von Mises de- 
scribes the results of his studies. The nerves enter 
in bundles from the sides as well as from above, and _ 
are distributed more or less parallel with the blood- 
vessels, and form a rich plexus along the edge of the 
lid. Some details are given as to the distribution of 
the nerves to the conjunctiva. — (Sitzungsb. akad. 
wiss. Wien, 1xxxv., abth., iii. p.172.) oc. s.M. [86 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


The autochthones of America.—Dr. J. Koll- 
man of Basel gives his views of American craniol- 
ogy, based on a study of the breadth indices of 1,500 
crania, quoted from published measurements, and 
representing all the countries between Bering Strait 
and Tierra del Fuego. Five curves are appended, 


Dolicho- Meso- Brachy- 


which reproduce graphically the breadth indices of 
five groups of American skulls. Curve I. represents 


1,292 crania of aborigines of America, whether from 


- 


Jury 6, 1883.] 


ancient Indian burying-places or picked up on recent 
battle-fields; curve II., 917 North Americans, inelud- 
ing the territories of the United States and British 
America, with the exception of the Eskimo; curve 
IIL., 248 Central and South Americans, including the 
- Mexicans on account of their peculiar civilization; 
curve IV., 127 Eskimo, consisting of all crania from 
the arctic regions of North America; curve V., 
208 pre-Columbians, discriminated from other North 
Americans by their manner of burial, i-e., mound- 
builders and stonegrave people. A study of these 
teaches, 1°. The plurality of varieties in America; 
2°. The diffusion of these varieties over the whole 
{ continent. As an illustration, the stonegrave people 
' of Tennessee are cited. Their remains are those of 
a single people, as Mr. Putnam has shown by the 
correspondence of their customs, and grade of civili- 
_ zation; while the measurements of their skulls by 
} Mr. Carr show a varying proportion of dolichoceph- 
ali, mesocephali, brachycephali, and artificially shor- 
‘ tened crania. A people is an ethnic unity, which, 
according to the results of craniology, may consist 
of an anatomical plurality of races; but a race is an 
anatomically characteristic variety of the human spe- 
cies. Like the Germans, the mound-builders consist 
. of many races, which have combined to an ethnic 
unity. The term ‘race,’ as here employed, is equiv- 
_ alent to a sub-species of the species Homo sapiens of 
Dr. Kollman’s system, illustrated by the following 
diagram. 


; 18 


Varieties. 


Dolicho- Meso- Brachy- # Dolicho- Meso- Brachy- 
cephali. cephali. cephali - cephali. cephali. cephali. 
VI. Ve IV. & ur. ul. ry 
, 2 
s 
MA oe te ee oo | 
— ne 


Chamaeprosopo-mesocephali. 


(Stem. | form.) 


Species: Homo sapiens. 


‘The varieties are distinguished by peculiarities of 
_ the hair: 1, 4, 7, being smooth-haired, indicated by 
_ the sign O; 2, 5, 8, etc., straight-haired, by the sign 
 @; 3, 6, 9, etc., woolly-haired, by the sign V. So far 
_asis known, only straight-haired varieties have im- 
migrated into America, of the following sub-species: 
1. Broad-faced dolichocephali (Eskimo) ; 2. Broad- 
faced mesaticephali (Indians) ; 3, Broad-faced brachy- 
cephali (mound-builders) ; 4. Long-faced brachyceph- 
ali (ancient Peruvians). 


SCIENCE. 25 


Like the European, the American varieties of the 
species Homo sapiens have long since passed into the 
condition of permanent types. The time of elasti- 
city, of the organization of new physically diverse 
forms, has long gone by. Wherever human remains 
are found in the glacial formations of Europe, they 
are as highly organized as to-day. Undoubtedly they 
represent men of a lower plane of civilization. It is 
erroneous at every footstep of advance in civilization 
to infer a new and more highly organized race. Cra-~ 
niology demonstrates that varieties, unchanged phys- 
ically since the glacial epoch, are continually making 
their way to higher grades of civilization. — (Zeitschr. 
ethnol., 1883, 1.) c. A. 8. (37 

Madagascar.— The vast island of Madagascar, 
960 by 300 miles in extent, is unique in its proximity 
to a continent with which it has such feeble connec- 
tions. Its population is about 4,000,000; but it is 
subject to great fluctuations through epidemics, witch- 
craft, infanticide, intertribal wars, and murders. The 
peculiar formation of the island effects a tropical, 
malarial climate around the coast, and a nearly tem- 
perate climate elsewhere. All around the island there 
is a belt of forest, often splitting into two parts, which 
enclose fertile valleys teeming with people. The na- 
tives are the Hovas, of Malay origin, and the Malaga- 
sy proper, of African origin, who forthe past hundred 
years have been augmented by importation of slaves 
from central Africa. The system of government 
among the negro tribes is purely African in form. 
Among the Hovas, however, a queen holds sway, 
through the agency of a prime-minister, who is ex-offi- 
cio husband of the queen. The religion of all the 
Malagasy is fetishism, with a shadowy recognition of 
a superior power. They believe in ghost-souls who 
are capable of good or harm to us, and this belief 
leads to great respect for the dead. Their beliefs, 
witchcraft, burials, roads, commerce, and language 
have been carefully studied by Dr. G. W. Parker, 
who has communicated a paper on the subject to the 
London anthropological institute. The island became 
known to the Portuguese, Dutch, French, and English 
early in the seventeenth century; although the Arabs 
traded there long before that. At the beginning of 
the present century the Hovas became the firm 
friends of the English, —a connection which has re- 
mained unbroken except during the reign of Queen 
Ranavalona I, Upon the assassination of her son, 
Radama IT., the present system of queens and prime- 
ministers began. 

The languages belong to the class of purely spoken 
tongues, no one of them having ever been reduced to 
writing by the natives. The vowels are ah, ay, ed, 0, 
oo; the consonant sounds, }, d, f, g, h, j, k,l, m, ny 
NY, P, *, 8, t, v, 2; the diphthongs are eye and ow. 

The number of consonantal combinations is very 
small, which occasions many euphonie changes in 
compounds. The meaning of words and sentences 
depends little on the tone, but much on accent, posi- 
tion, and the discriminative particle no. 

* Onomatopoeia is common. The grammatic struc- 
ture is quite regular. A large percentage of the words 
are traceable to verbal and denominative roots, which 


26 SCIENCE. 


are affixed and compounded to an indefinite extent. 
Gender is indicated by the affixes for male and female, 
and there is no distinction between animate and in- 
animate. The numeral system is decimal, and ends 
With tapitrisa (ended are the numbers), the word for 
amillion, There are two moods of the verb,— the in- 
dicative and the imperative. There are two classes of 
personal pronouns,— the inclusive of the speaker, and 
the exclusive. Other peculiarities in grammar are 
pointed out by Dr. Parker in an exhaustive diction- 
ary of fourteen dialects, which unite the Malagasy 
with the Malay stock-language. To account for this 
anomaly of race and language, Dr. Hildebrand sup- 
poses the Hovas to have first settled the island, and 
to have been overpowered by African marauders, who 
killed most of the Hova men, and married their 
wives. The children, learning their language from 
the mothers, perpetuated at the same time their 
African blood and their Malay language. But Dr. 
Parker seriously objects to this explanation. Mr. 
Keane is of the opinion that the Africans were intro- 
duced as slaves, who, while gradually corrupting 
the blood, would have little effect upon the language. 
Dr. G. Oppert also commented upon the paper. — 
(Journ. anthrop. inst., xii. 478.) J. Ww. P. [38 


° 


[Vox II., No. 22. _ 


The flora of ancient Egypt.— The student of 
anthropology is repeatedly charmed and surprised by 
the varied and brilliant illumination thrown wpon 
his subject by sister sciences. He is not less pleased 
to know that quite frequently the light proceeds 
in the other direction, and that human custom pre- 
serves for other sciences their sibylline leaves. In 
1881 Emil Brugsch Bey discovered in the vault of a 
king of the twentieth dynasty a large number of 
plants contained in the funeral offerings, repasts, and _ 
wreaths of the dead. Among these are several 
species not known to have belonged to ancient Egypt. 
Mr. G. Schweinfurth, deputed by M. Maspero, has 
studied these plants, and classified them in the Egyp- 
tological museum of Boulak, according to the high 
personages for whom they were intended. A very. 
extended and interesting account of these labors was 
communicated to Sir Joseph D, Hooker, together with 
a set of the wreaths, flowers, etc., described. Ex- 
cellent illustrations accompany the paper of Mr. 
Schweinfurth. These objects were exhibited at the 
annual soirée of the Royal society on the 25th of 
May, and are now on view at the Royal gardens, 
Kew. — (Nature, May 31.) J. w. P. [39 


INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCLENTIFIC STATIONS. : 


STATE INSTITUTIONS. 


Pence: weather service, St. Louis, 

Weather report for May.—The average tempera- 
ture for May at the central station has been 63.4°, 
which is 2.8° below the normal temperature, and 3.5° 
above the temperature of May, 1882. Since 1837 the 
May temperature has fallen below that of last month 
five times. The extremes during last month at the 
central station were 38.0° and 88.4°; although, in the 
suburbs of St. Louis, the temperature fell to 36.0° on 
the evening of the 21st. In 1851 Dr. Engelmann 
observed a temperature of 29.0° in May, but it was in 
the early part of the month. The lowest minimum 
temperatures reported were, 29.5° at Centreville; 
31.0°, at Big Creek, Warren county; 32.0°, at Steel- 
ville; all other stations reporting over 34.0°. The 
highest minimum temperatures are reported from 
Glasgow, 45.0°, and Harrisonville, 47.0°. The high- 
est maximum temperatures reported were, Corring, 
91.0°; Miami, 98.0°; Harrisonville and Big Creek, 
90.0°.. The highest average temperatures reported 
were, Cairo, Ill., 65.2°; Mascoutah, Ill., 65.0°; Harri- 
sonville, 64.0°: the lowest being at Keokuk, Io., 
59.9°; Macon, 60.4°; Louisiana, 60.5°. 

The rainfall at the central station was 2.61 inches, 
which is 2.2 inches below the normal May rainfall at 
St. Louis. In western Missouri, however, from Harri- 
sonville northward along the Missouri valley, the rain- 
fall has been over seven inches; and a small maximum 
of over seven inches occurs in the region around Iron- 
ton. An area of minimum rainfall of between two 
and three inches occurs in south-west Missouri, 


around Greenfield and Lamar, and another occurs 
along the lower Missouri below Chamois, extending 
along the Mississippi as far south as Cairo. 

On the 13th, tornadoes occurred at various points 
in Missouri and Kansas, as follows: the town of 
Oronogo, Jasper county, was destroyed at about 7.40 
P.M., two persons being killed, and forty injured, 
This tornado is probably the one which passed about 
two miles north of Carthage. Hailstones as large as 
hen’s eggs fell at Springfield at about 10 p.m. An- 
other storm passed two miles south-east of Pattons- 
ville, Davies county, on the same evening. Two 
tornadoes passed through Kansas City at 5 o’ clock, one 


_ passing a few minutes later than the other. Several — 


persons were killed, and a great deal of damage was 
done to property. These whirls were slender whip- 
like vortices, the diameter at the surface of the earth 
being only a few feet, although the destructive path 
was about seventy feet. These storms originated 
apparently in Wyandotte county, Kan., where they 
caused great damage. A later development of this 
storm passed through Macon City, one hundred and 
twenty miles east-north-east from Kansas City, where 
a tornado occurred about 8.30 P.M. The track was 
from one-fourth to three-eighths of a mile wide. 
Three persons were killed at Macon. 

On the 18th, tornadoes occurred in Missouri, Illi- 
nois, and Wisconsin. At 7 P.M. a tornado did con- 
siderable damage at Berger, Gasconade county, Mo. 
At about 8.20 P.M, a tornado passed through Wentz- 
ville from the south-west, causing great destruction 
to property, and loss of life, as far as St. Paul, Mo. 
At about the same time a storm passed from Cottle- 


— ee ©.” © 


- Jury 6, 1883.] 


ville, through Elm Point, to Grafton, on the Illinois 
shore of the Mississippi River. 

Hail-storms have occurred as follows: at Big 
Creek, 10th; Centreville, 9th; eight miles north of 
Savannah, 3d; Hannibal, 9th; Louisiana, 9th and 10th 
(and at Springfield and Dover church, near Louisiana, 
large hail fell on the afternoon of the 18th); Lamar, 
3d; Chamois, 9th, —a violent storm of wind and hail 
at 7 p.M., for seven to ten minutes, the hail completely 
covering the ground, some stones weighing six ounces. 
On the 18th, at 5.50 p.m., a dark cloud in the south- 
west moved to the west with a heavy roaring noise, 
appearing to spend its force when due west, rain and 
small hail following. 

Killing frosts occurred on the nights of the 2Ist 
and 22d. At Big Creek great damage was done to 
wheat, corn, and fruit. At Centreville, at9 P.M., on 
the 2Ist, the temperature was 32°, and fell later to 
29.5°,—the latest frost in sixteen years. Fog pre- 
vented damage in the valleys of the Black River, but 


_ in the dry valleys every thing was killed. Louisiana, 


13th and l4th, 17th and 27th. 


32° at sunrise on the 22d; Chamois, destructive frost 

with ice an eighth of an inch thickin a pan of water; 

Greenfield, heavy frost, which injured foliage of 

“Co so that they looked as though scorched by 
re. 

White frosts occurred at Hannibal, Greenfield, 
Mexico, Chamois, 5th; Hannibal, Louisiana, Cha- 
mois, Miami, 11th; Ironton, 16th; over the entire state, 
21st and 22d, but light in the south-west, where the 
temperature was about 40°; Mexico, Ironton (33° at 
5.30 a.m.), Louisiana, Chamois, Miami, Greenfield, 
23d; Sedalia, Centreville, Greenfield (heavy), Iron- 
ton, Chamois, Miami, 31st. 

ADDENDwM to April report. — At Cairo a heavy 
shock of earthquake was felt at 2.36 A.m. on the 12th, 
which lasted thirty seconds. Vibrations, three per 
second, from south-south-west to north-north-east. 
An old one-story frame-building, which was occupied 
at the time the shock occurred, was shaken down and 
collapsed, the inmates receiving slight injuries. 


Towa weather service, Iowa City. 


Weather bulletin for May.— May was remarkably 
cold, very rainy, with late frosts, westerly and north- 
erly winds prevailing. The mean temperature of the 
air was nearly five degrees below normal. In forty- 
five years, May has been six times as cold or colder 
than this year; namely, in 1882, 1867, 1858, 1851, 
1850, and 1849. The late frosts about the 12th and 
22d were general. 

The rainfall was much above normal throughout 


s Towa, except in middle northern Iowa and down the 


middle Cedar and Wapsipinicon yalleys. The total 
rainfall was highest along the Mississippi and Missouri 
rivers, and from Wayne to Polk county: in the re- 
gions here specified, the rainfall averaged seven 
inches. The rain frequency was also high: two of 
every three days were rainy in most parts of the state. 

The principal storm-days were the 8th and 9th, the 
On the 9th a very 
small tornado did slight damage in Linn county, near 
Norway station: on the other storm-days, Iowa was 


SCIENCE. 27 


spared the visitation of tornadoes, which struck, on 
the 13th, Kansas City; 18th, Racine; 28th, southern 
Indiana. 

While unusually cold and quite wet, the season is 
much more promising than last year, when May was 
much colder. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


Stephen Alexander, professor emeritus of as- 
tronomy at Princeton, died June 26. He was born 
at Schenectady, N.Y., and was educated at Union 
college, where he graduated in 1824. Since 1840 he 
has been connected with Princeton, first as professor 
of astronomy, and later as professor of mechanics as 
well. As an astronomer he became widely known. 

— Sir Edward Sabine, whose death has been lately 
announced, was born in Dublin in October, 1788. 
He studied at the military schools of Marlow and 
Woolwich, and at the age of fifteen entered the 
English army. In 1813 he was made captain, and 
took part in the campaign on the Niagara frontier, 
commanding the batteries at the siege of Fort Erie, 
1814. From 1818 to 1825 he made a number of voy- 
ages from the equator to the arctic regions for the 
purpose of studying terrestrial magnetism, the figure 
of the earth, and other questions in terrestrial 
physics. He was with Ross and Parry on the arctic 
expedition of 1818, and with Parry the following 
year. He edited a number of translations of scien- 
tific books, and published a large number of papers 
on his favorite studies, having read more than forty 
before the Royal society, and haying contributed 
many to the proceedings of the British association. 
From 1827 to 1830 he was secretary of the Royal 
society, and president for the ten years 1861 to 1871, 
and president of the British association in 1853. In 
1875 the French academy elected him as a corre- 
sponding member. 

—A few weeks ago (April 26) Nature gave a sketch 
of the life of Spottiswoode. In the number for June 
14 we find a regret expressed at his absence, on ac- 
count of sickness, from the Royal society meeting of 
that week. On June 27 he died. Born in London, 
Jan. 11, 1825, he began his education in a private 
school at Laleham, and then at Eton and Harrow; 
his stay at Eton being short on account of some 
experiments with detonating mixtures, in which he 
was found to be interested. In 1842 he entered 
Balliol college, Oxford, where, in his last year (1845) 
as undergraduate, he read with the Rey. Bartholomew 
Rice. After graduation he held university mathe- 
matical scholarships for two years, and for a short 
time lectured on geometry of three dimensions. But 
he soon took an active part in the management of 
the large printing-business about this time resigned 
to him by his father, and which he largely developed. 
His scientific work was mainly in mathematics, 
although of late years he has devoted himself to 
physics, his recent investigations in electricity being 
well known. When a young man, he travelled 
widely, and, among others, published a very lively 
account entitled ‘‘A Farantasse journey through 


28 SCIENCE, 


eastern Russia in the autumn of 1856.” He also 
studied languages, both oriental and European, and 
gave evidence of the thoroughness of these studies 
in his contributions to our knowledge. 

— The Dickson expedition, in charge of Professor 
Nordenskisld, which left Thurso May 29, is report- 
ed as having called at Reikiavik, Iceland, June 6, 
and was to sail for Greenland on the 10th. When 
the expedition started, it was the intention that 
- Count Stromfeldt(botanist), Dr. Arpi (philologist and 
archeologist), and Mr. Flink (mineralogist) should 
disembark at Reikiavik, and remain in Iceland for 
study and exploration. It is reported by recently 
arrived whalers that the condition of the seas west 
from Iceland, as regards ice, is at present not un- 
favorable to the success of the expedition. The Sofia, 
upon which the party is embarked, is a little iron 
propeller of less than two hundred tons, capable of 
a speed of eleven knots, and draws ten feet of water, 
—a vessel much better suited to her purpose than 
the unwieldy craft which have been used in many of 
the English expeditions. It was originally intended 
that Palander should command the Sofia, but cir- 
cumstances intervened to prevent this ; and the ves- 
sel has been intrusted to Capt. Emil Nilsson, who is 
well qualified by experience, and who will be ably 
seconded by the well-known Norwegian ice-master, 
Johannesen. The scientific staff does not compre- 
hend any of the members of the Vega expedition, 
who are mostly engaged in working up the inves- 
tigations made on that voyage, but, after Baron 
Nordenskiéld, is composed of Dr. Kolthoff, ento- 


mologist and ornithologist ; Dr. Nathorst, geologist. 


and paleontologist; Dr. Berlin, surgeon, botanist, and 
general biologist ; Mr. Forsstrand, taxidermist and 
preparator ; Dr. Hamberg, hydrographer ; Mr. Kjell- 
strom, photographer. Beside these, there are a har- 
pooneer, two mountain Lapps (in accordance with 
the suggestion of Professor Fries, to which we have 
already alluded), and eight or nine picked men, to 
accompany the party over the inland ice. This 
party will be provided with fourteen months’ provis- 
ions in the most compact shape possible. The crew 
of the Sofia comprises twenty-four men. The party 
is thoroughly equipped with scientific apparatus, and 
even includes a flying-machine contributed for trial 
by its inventor, according to the Swedish papers. 

— Among the most interesting of the living animals 
in the gardens of the London fisheries exhibition are 
two British-born beavers from the Isle of Bute in 
Scotland. They were members of a colony estab- 
lished by the Earl of Bute upon his estate of Rothe- 
say several years since. A considerable tract of land 
was walled in, and beavers were imported from 
Canada, which soon established theniselves, gnawing 
down the trees, building a dam, and forming a lake 
of considerable size. The ‘beaver wood’ is consid- 
ered one of the most interesting features of the 
island. Mr. R. B. Matthews writes to the Field, 
complaining, that, in capturing the two beavers to 
send to the exhibition, the colony has been broken 
up, the dams destroyed, the houses pulled down, 
and all the other beavers killed. It is to be hoped 


[Vou. IL, No. 22. 


that the damage is not so serious as is represented, 
for the acclimation of the American beaver in Scot- 
land isa task which is not likely to be often at- 
tempted. 

— The next issue of the Proceedings of the nayal 
institute (vol. ix. no. 3; whole no. 25) will be entire- 
ly devoted to an article by Lieut. Edward W. Very, 
on the development of armor for naval use. The 
number will thus be a complete work of itself, fully 
illustrated, and will possess more than ordinary 
interest in being the only work extant devoted 
exclusively to the details of armor development. 
Orders for this number should be sent to the seere- 
tary U. S. naval institute, Annapolis, Md., as early 
as possible. Price $1. 

—The extraordinary meeting of the geological 


society of France for this year is to take place at ~ 


Charleville (Ardennes) on Sunday, Sept. 2, and the 
excursions will end Tuesday, Sept. 11. 

—The yearly meeting of the Schweizerischen 
naturforschenden gesellschaft will take place from 
the 6th to the 9th of August in Zurich, where the 
national exposition is attracting many people this 
year. 

—G. Valentin, for forty-five years professor of 
physiology at the university of Berne, died on the 
24th of May at the age of seventy-three. He was a 
native of Breslau. He was formerly one of Louis 
Agassiz’s collaborators; and the fourth livraison of 


Agassiz’s ‘Monographies d’echinodermes vivants et — 
fossiles’, containing the anatomy of the genus Echi- 


nus, is by Valentin. 
— Past assistant-engineer N. B. Clarke, U.S. N., 
read a paper on water-line defence and gun-shields 


for cruisers, at the meeting of the U. 8. nayal insti- _ 


tute (Washington branch) on June 7. 

— The bureau of education has issued, as one of 
the ‘ circulars of information,’ a pamphlet containing 
the legal provisions respecting the examination and 
licensing of teachers. 

— A contributor’s note in the Ailantic monthly for 
June calls attention to the question of the spelling 
and pronunciation of geographic names, on which 
several articles have lately appeared in foreign jour- 
nals. The question is not always settled by adopting 
local spelling and sound, for in many cases foreign 
names are well Anglicized, and will so remain ; the 
difficulty is rather in knowing where to begin using 
the original pronunciation. As we do not say Paree 
and Bairleen, why may we not say Prague and 
Hague, even though we do drop a visible s from 
Calais, and attempt the difficulties of Rouen, Amiens, 
Chartres, and Blois? As to St. Petersburg, the 
error of sanctification is not ours, but the Russians’, 
from whom we have taken it. 
one, is in putting ans after Peter, for this seldom 
occurs in the original. A similar but incorrect ad- 
dition is often made in Prince Edward Island. The 
back-and-forth method of naming seen in the Ger- 
man Vogesen, which the contributor explains as 
coming from the original German Wassigen (watery), 
through the French Vosges, is found again in the 
same polyglot borderland in the Laacher See. : 


Our mistake, if it be- — 


3 


Jury 6, 1883]. 


Ecole des mines. 


ees 2S SM a Ry 
Ke aed oat : 7 


— The Comision del mapa geologico de Espafia 
has just published, for the Exposicion de mineria at 
Madrid, a brief account of the history of the survey 
from its beginning, about the year 1831, under D. 
Angel Vallejo, down to the present time. Two maps 
show the condition of the work in March, 1873, at 
the beginning of the present system of the survey, and 
in March of the present year, showing how great an 
amount of work has been done in the last ten years, 
Eighteen provinces are finished ; viz., Oviedo, Mar 
drid, Santander, Castellon, Albacete, Murcia, Te- 
ruel, Cadiz, Zaragoza, Cuenca, Caceres, Valladolid, 
Huesca, Avila, Salamanca, Guadalajara, Barcelona, 
and Valencia. More or less has been published con- 
eerning twenty-three other provinces, but their full 
descriptive memoirs are still to appear ; viz., Corufia, 
Lugo, Orense, Pontevedra, Segovia, Palencia, Ba- 
leares, Alicante, Burgos, Logrofio, Soria, Alava, Gui- 
ptizeoa, Vizcaya, Tarragona, Huelva,Toledo, Badajoz, 
Cordoba, Ciudad-Real, Granada, Navarre, and Al- 
meria. Seven provinces are entirely unpublished or 
under study ; namely, Leon, Lérida, Zamora, Malaga, 
Gerona, Jaén, and Sévilla. A rough draught of the 
final map, on the scale of 1 : 400,000, is shown in the 
exposition, upon which all the work done up to date 
is entered. 

— The Belgian photographie association has orga- 
nized an international exhibition of photography to 
be held, during the month of August, 1883, in the 
palais des beaux-arts at Brussels. 

— The sixth international congress of orientalists 
will be held at Leyden, Sept. 10. 

— The international congress of societies for the 
prevention of cruelty to animals will be held at 
Vienna in September. A number of local societies, 
among them those of Berlin, Cologne, Munich, 
Dresden, and Hanover, besides several Spanish 
Italian, and Russian, have expressed their intention 
to be represented. 

— The British association for the advancement of 
science meets this year at Southport, Sept. 10. 

—Dr. William Lee read before the Philosophical 
society of Washington, June 2, a paper on medical 
history as illustrated by medals; Prof. Theo. Gill 
discussed analogues in zodgeography. The society 
then adjourned till October. 

The Mathematical section of the society adjourned 
for the summer on June 6. At the last two meet- 


ings, Mr. G. W. Hill discussed the planetary pertur- 


bations of the moon, Mr. G. K. Gilbert explained the 
construction of graphic tables for use in connection 
with his new method of determining heights from 
barometric data, and Mr. E. B. Elliott gave an im- 


_ proved system of electrical units. 


— An excursion to northern Norway and Spitzber- 
gen is projected for some of the students at the Paris 
Two French naturalists will ac- 
company the party, which will charter a steamer 
directed by a competent arctic navigator for the pur- 
pose. 

— Professor Fries has proposed the colonization of 


Greenland by Lapps, on the hypothesis that in the 
¥ interior, in summer, abundant reindeer-pasture can 


SCIENCE. 


29 


be found. How the reindeer are to get at it does not 
seem to have been considered, nor how they are to 
be subsisted during their travels over the continental 
ice-sheet. 

—Mr. Oliver W. Huntington, assistant in the 
chemical laboratory of Harvard college, has edited a 
book of five-place logarithms, which will finally form 
part of a set of tables mostly for use in chemical cal- 
culations, but is now published in separate form. 
The logarithm tables are well arranged, and very 
clearly printed. The book is published by Moses 
King, Cambridge. 

— The museum at Oxford, Eng., has lately bought 
the unique collection of Silurian fossils of Dr. Grin- 
drad of Malvern. 

— It is rare to find, at the present time, a scientific 
memoir in Latin. Aloysius Molina, a student at 
Pisa, has, however, recurred to the ancient custom, 
and has published a memoir, ‘ De hominis mamma- 
liumque cute,’ in volume y. of the Alti della sociel& 
Toscana, The opening sentence sufficiently describes 
the paper: ‘‘Expectans dum Ranyierus in lucem 
perfecte proferat conclusiones omnes suarum inves- 
tigationum de intima structura cutis, prodesse exis- 
timo breviter quae praecipua facta sunt resumere, 
nonnullas considerationes addens, quas ipse feci dum 
per duos annos ad. Anatomicam Scientiam meum 
adhiberi studium in Laboratorio Anatomiae Com- 
parativae hujus universitatis.”’ The ‘nonnullas 
considerationes, quas ipse feci’ one finds not very 
numerous, the chief value of the paper being as a 
summary. A good bibliography is appended. 

— Much progress has been made at the Lick obser- 
vatory during the past year. The dome for the 
twelve-inch equatorial has been entirely completed 
ina very thorough manner. It is, without any doubt, 
the most convenient and complete dome of the size 
in the country. The four-inch transit-house, and 
the buildings for the photoheliograph, are in capital 
working order. They were utilized last December 
in a very successful observation of the transit of 
Venus. The walls of the main building are half 
done, and the cellar for the dome of the thirty-six- 
inch equatorial is excavated. Many of the original 
arrangements of the buildings and grounds were 
only provisional, and these are being replaced by 
others more substantial and permanent. A brick 
reservoir containing 83,000 gallons of water (derived 
from three springs) has been built during the season; 
another of 20,000 gallons (spring-water), and another 
of 83,000 gallons (rain-water), will shortly be begun. 
The roads have been extended. The house for the 
meridian circle (Repsold) will be begun in a few 
weeks, as well as a house for the astronomers, and 
buildings to contain the appliances for heating and 
lighting the buildings and moving the dome. The 
end of this season will show great progress. 

— The division of entomology of the U.S. depart- 
ment of agriculture has begun the publication of a 
series of bulletins for the purpose of placing before 
the public, current matter that would either lose 
much of its value if kept for the annual report, or 
find no space in the limited pages of that volume. 


30 


Two numbers have been issued. The first includes 
reports of experiments, chiefly with kerosene, upon 
the insects injuriously affecting the orange-tree and 
the cotton-plant. The second includes reports of 
observations on the Rocky Mountain locust and the 
chinch-bug, together with extracts from the corre- 
spondence of the division on miscellaneous insects. 

—The University of Pennsylvania has conferred 
the degree of M.A. on Professor Lewis M. Haupt, 
C.E.; and of Se.D. on Professor Isaac Sharpless, 
professor in Haverford college. 

— At the meeting of the Royal astronomical society, 
May 11, Professor C. Pritchard of Oxford gaye an 
account of his recent expedition to Cairo, and of the 
work on which he has for the last two years been 
engaged; viz., the measurement of the magnitude of 
the stars visible to the naked eye from the pole to the 
equator, including at present all those brighter than 
the fifth magnitude. This work is now complete. 
He found, that, at Oxford, Laplace’s law of alteration 
of astar’s light as measured in magnitude —accord- 
ing to the secant of the star’s zenith distance —did 
not hold good for zenith distances exceeding 65°, 
and that for stars at lower altitudes the alterations 
in apparent magnitude were conflicting and not satis- 
factory. For the purpose of accurately investigating 
the effect of atmospheric extinction of light under 
better circumstances, he chose the climate of Upper 
Egypt, where the atmosphere is uniform and stable, 
as the proper locality for repeating the Oxford obser- 
vations, and rendering the research complete. A 
duplicate set of instruments was left at Oxford in 
charge of the senior assistant, who observed the same 
stars with Professor Pritchard at Cairo. The results 
of both sets of observations are embodied in the 
formulae, — 


Atmospheric absorption 
At Gairo = 0.187 X Sec. Z.D. in magnitude; 
At Oxford = 0.253 X Sec. Z.D. in magnitude. 


Thus the whole effect of the atmosphere at Cairo is 
to diminish the brightness of stars seen in the zenith 
by about two-tenths of a magnitude, and at Oxford 
by about one-fourth of a magnitude. At an altitude 
of about 30°, the stars at Cairo will be brighter 
than in England by about one-fifth of a magnitude, 
and consequently many more faint stars are just 
visible at Cairo than can be seen at Oxford. 

— Alexander Melville Bell has written a primer, 
which will soon be published, for use in elementary 
schools in teaching the methods of visible speech. 
The book can be used by any teacher without spe- 
cial training in the peculiarities of the system. 

—A correspondent states that the shortest scien- 
tific article known to him, and perhaps the shortest 
eyer published, is by William Griffith, in the bulletin 
of the U. S. fish-commission for 1882, p. 12, under 
the title ‘Result of planting shad in the Ohio River.’ 
The article contains twenty-six words, and occupies 
two lines. 

— At the meeting of the Cambridge entomological 
club, June §, Mr. S. H. Scudder discussed the homol- 
ogies of the male abdominal appendages of butter- 


SCIENCE. 


FVox. IL, No. 22. 


flies, and Mr, G. Dimmock showed a living Buthus 
occitanus, and described some of its habits. 

— The Argentine government has sent Col. Sola, 
with a party of two hundred soldiers, to explore 
the Pileomayo in its course through the Gran Chaco. 
The party is accompanied by a delegate of the Argen- 
tine geographic institute, whose chief object is to dis- 


cover the remains of Creyaux, and ransom two of his ~ 


men who are reported to be held as prisoners by the 
Indians. 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 


** Continuations and brief papers extracted from serial 
literature without repagination are not included in this list. 
Exceptions are made for annual reports of American insti- 
tutions, newly established periodicals, and memoirs of con- 
siderable extent. 


Adam, L. Les idiomes négro-aryen et maléo-aryen, essai 
ahybuldelonie linguistique. Paris, Jaisonneuve, 1885. 76 p. 


Bisson, E. Nouveau compas de mer donnant la direction 
vraie du méridien magnétique sur les nayires en fer. Paris, 
impr. Ohaix, 1888. 20p.,4 fig. 8°. 

Boutillier, L. Des corallaires 4 madrépores et de leur 
action géologique. Rouen, impr. Cagniard, 1883. 30p. 8° 

Camoy, J. B. Biologie cellulaire: étude comparée de la 
cellule dans Jes deux régnes au triple point de yue, anatomique, 
chimique et physiologique. Aachen, Barth, 1883. 8°. 

Crié, L. Les origines de la vie, essaisur la flore primordiale ; 
organisation, développement, affinités; distribution gcologique 
et géographique. Paris, Doin, 1883. 79 p., illustr. 5°. 

Crozals, J. Les Peulhs, étude d’ethnologie africaine. Paris, 
Maisonneuve, 1883. 271p. 8°. 


Desdevises du Dezert, T. 
marches de la langue d’oyl. 
28p. 8°. 

Duguit, L. Quelques mots sur la famille primitive, con- 
férence faite 4 Bordeaux, le 16 mars 1888. Paris, Larose, 1888. 
32p. 8°. 

Elsner, F. Recepte fiir pharmacie und chemische grossin- 
dustrie. Halle, Knapp, 1883. 9+216p. 8. : 

Fabre, J. H. Cours de physique (programmes de 1882). 
Paris, Delagrave, 1888. 304p., illustr. 18°. 


Ferri, L. La psychologie de l’association depuis Hobbes jus- 
qu’a nos jours (histoire et critique). Paris, Sailliére, 1583. 
44882 p. 8°. ; 

Fricero; A. Considérations diverses sur |’emploi des huiles 
minérales lourdes dites oléonaphtes comme lubrifiants. Mar- 
seille, impr. Grangé, 1883. 12p. 8°. 5 

Greer, H. Recent wonders in electricity, electric lighting, 
magnetism, telegraphy, telephony, etc., N.Y¥., Agent Coll. 
electy’. eng., 1883. 168 p., illustr. 8°. : 

Guyot, A. Memoir of Louis Agassiz, 1807-73. Princeton, 
Robinson pr., 1888. 49 p. 8°. 

Instructions relatives 4 l’éstablissement des pépinitres de 
yignes américaines. Paris, impr. nat. 1883. 3836p. 8. 

Le Breton, G. Lacéramique polychrome ’ glagures met. 
alliques dans lantiquité. Rouen, impr. Cagniard, 1583. 45 p- 
8°. 

Leplay, H.. Chimie théorique et pratique des industries du 
sucre: étude historique, chimique, et industrielle des procédés 
d’analyse des matiéres sucrées, etc., suivie de la description d’un 
nouveau procédé d@’analyse chimique industrielle des matiéres 
sucrées. V.i. Paris, Baudorn, 1883. 28+452p. 8°. 

Marin La Meslée, E. L’Australie nouvelle. Paris, Plon, 
1883. 12+298 p., illustr. 18°. 

Quenstedt, F. A. Die ammoniten der schwibischen Jura. 
i. heft, mit ein atlas. Stuttgart, Schweizerbart, 1883. 48 p., 
illustr. 8°. Pet 

Schneider, A. Zoologische beitriige. i. band, i. heft. 
Breslau, Kern, 1883. 3463 p.,12lith. 8°. 

Tellier, ©. Etude sur la’ thermo-dynamique appliques a 
la production de la force motrice et du froid. fasc.i. Paris, 
impr. Mowillot, 1883. 7+97 p. Sra 

Thompson, D’Arcy W. A catalogue of books and papers 
relating to the fertilization of flowers. London, Macmillan, 
1883. (2)+86 p. 8°. 


Le noyau central et les 
Rouen, impr. Cagniard, 1888. 


! 


, 
‘ 


* 


SCIENCE. 


: 
: 


_. FRIDAY, JULY 13, 1883. 


‘ THE GOVERNMENT AS A PUBLISHING 
HOUSE. 

WE have called attention to the report of 
Messrs. Ames, Spofford, and Baird upon the 
distribution of public documents, and noted 

' the propriety of the recommendations made 
to the government by the committee. If these 
recommendations were to be carried out, some- 
thing would be gained; but we have little faith 
that any real reform would be effected, for the 
evil lies deeper, and requires more radical 
treatment. 

Eyer since the government went definitely 
into the printing business in 1861, the evil has 
been growing, until now there is waste, con- 
fusion, and public mischief. It is no more 
essential to government to carry on the large 
printing business which it conducts than it is 
for it to manufacture paper. Let us make 
a distinction. There is a necessity’, in the 
ordinary administration of Congress and the 

_ executive department, for a large printing- 

q office in the immediate vicinity ; and we are 

- quite ready to grant, as immaterial to our 

t argument, that it is better to have such an 

establishment, with its manager as a civil of- 
 ficer of the United States, immediately under 
the control of Congress. There is a vast deal 


of printing required in the exigencies of the 

daily business of government, and there is 

_ reason for this being done by persons hired 
‘ 


J 


directly for the purpose. 

There the necessity stops, but the business 
of the printing-office does not. Costly scien- 
tific reports are manufactured year after year, 
and then published ; that is, given away reck- 
lessly and with little discrimination. The 
report of scientific experts, to which we have 
referred, points out the desirability of a single 
agency for distribution, which should act upon 
some systematic plan. We do not object to 
a policy by which government shall put before 
| > No. 23.—1888. 


the public the results of the surveys and ex- 
periments which it is carrying on; but we 
contend, that, in doing this, it should employ 
economic agencies already existing, which are 
far more efficient than any immediate govern- 
mental agency can be. 

Government should contract with publishers 
to print and publish its scientific reports. The 
plan is perfectly feasible. Every copy which 
the government might wish to give away to 
public libraries could be bought of the pub- 
lisher at a cost fifty per cent less, we venture 
to say, than government now pays for the 
same work. It would be the publisher’s busi- 
ness to make the work known everywhere ; 
and such a work would be far more read than 
it now is, for it would be made as other books 
are, and brought before the people intelli- 
gently. By such a policy no scientific organi- 
zation or student of science now in commu- 
nication with the distributing-office would 
suffer loss, while a great many people who 
are accustomed to get their books from book- 
sellers would come into possession, in the most 
natural way, of this important body of litera- 
ture. 

The effect of such a system would be to 
contract the business of the government print- 
ing-office, and that is an end devoutly to be 
wished for by every honest citizen who sees 
the necessity of checking corruption .by limit- 
ing the opportunities for corruption. The 
fewer salaried offices this government has, the 
less chance there is for an abuse of the civil 
service ; and science will gain nothing by ask- 
ing favors of the machine. ‘There is an excel- 
lent opportunity here for the educated classes 
to enter a protest, and to encourage a reform 
in administration. We have been demanding 
that the administration should be conducted 
on business principles ; and the present system 
by which government prints and publishes 
books is un-businesslike, extravagant, and in 
peril of being scandalous. 


THE NATIONAL RAILWAY EXPOSI- 
TION.1—Il. 


Tue numerous accidents that have occurred 
owing to the signals showing ‘ clear’ when the 
switches were set for a side-track led to the 
invention of ‘interlocking,’ which is now used 
extensively in England, and is being intro- 
duced into this country. The term ‘ interlock- 
ing’ applies to a system where the switches 
and signals ean be so worked by levers con- 
centrated at one point, that no safety-signal 
can be given for any track until the switches 
are properly set for the safe passage of the 
train; and, when the signal is set to safety, 
none of the switches can be moved until the 
signal is again made to indicate danger. The 
advantages of this system are, that one man 
can operate a large number of switches and 
signals, and the interlocking apparatus acts as 
a check upon him, and renders it impossible 
for him to commit a mistake and move a wrong 
lever; and the mechanism is so arranged that 
a certain definite routine must be gone through 
in making a safe course for a train. The sig- 
nals standing at their normal position of ‘ dan- 
ger,’ the switches are first moved, then they 
are locked firmly in position: then only can 
the danger-signal be changed to safety for the 
passage of the train when all possible conflict- 
ing signals or switches are locked, so that they 
cannot be operated. When acertain track has 
been prepared for the safe passage of a train, 
the necessary alteration of switches and signals 
is begun at the point farthest from the train, 
and ended at the signal nearest to it, this signal 
being locked to indicate danger until the track 
is ready for the train; and the setting of this 
signal to safety shall lock to danger all conflict- 
ing signals not already locked. 

The amount of safety secured by the adop- 
tion of interlocking apparatus is thus laid down 
by an English author: ‘If a man were to go 
blindfold into a signal-box with an interlock- 
ing apparatus, he might, as far as accordance 
between points and signals is concerned, be 
allowed with safety to pull over any lever at 
random. He might doubtless delay the trafiic, 
because he would not know which signal to 
lower for a particular train; but he could not 
lower such a signal, nor produce such a combi- 
nation of position of points (switches) and 
signals, as would, if the signals were obeyed, 
produce a collision.’ 

Interlocking has been very generally adopted 
in England, but hitherto little attention has 
been paid to the subject in this country ; though 

1 Continued from No. 22. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 23. 


- 


in some crowded depots, such as Lowell, Wil- 
mington (Del.), and Boston (Boston and Al- 
bany railroad), it has recently been introduced 
with great success. 

The two principal exhibits of interlocking 
and signalling apparatus at the Chicago exposi- 
tion are those of the Pennsylvania steel com- 
pany and the Union switch and signal company ; 
Mr. George Westinghouse, so well known as 


the inventor of the break bearing his name, — 


being the president of the latter company. 
The Union switch and signal company exhibits 
several distinct methods. of working switches 


and signals controlled by interlocking appara- 


tus. First, the Saxby and Farmer. method, 
which is very generally used in England, and 
in some station-yards on the continent; Brus- 
sels, for example, — 
moving the signals and switches is effected by 


In this the whole work of 


the manual power of the signalman. But as” 


this involves considerable physical exertion in’ 
places where the levers are numerous, and some 
of the signals are a considerable distance away, 
Mr. Westinghouse has introduced a system 
whereby the “signalman only moves valves ad- 
mitting either compressed air, or a mixture of 
water and wood, or methylated spirits of wine, 
to cylinders, the pistons of which perform the 
actual hard work of shifting the switches and 
signals. The Pennsylvania steel company 
shows an American invention, which proceeds 
on similar lines to the Saxby and Farmer ap- 
paratus, attaining, however, the same end by 
the use of fewer levers. As, therefore, these 


two systems are very similar, except as re- — 


gards mechanical details, into which we need 


: 


not enter here, the following description of — 


the general methods and purposes of interlock- 


ing mechanism will apply to both exhibits. — 


The whole question is novel on this side of the 


water, and will well repay a careful study by — 


all those who are interested in the progress of — 


railroads. 


One of the points that has been equipped” 


with interlocking apparatus by the Pennsyl- 


vania steel company is shown in the accom- 


panying plan of tracks at the Union Junction 


of the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Balti- 
more railroad, at Wilmington, Del. 


junction is one mile west of the passenger- 
station, at the crossing (at grade) of the Wil- 
mington and northern railroad and of the 
Delaware western railroad, where the Dela- 
ware railroad branches from the main line of 
the Philadelphia, Wilmington, and Baltimore 
railroad. Through trains pass this junction 
at lightning express speed. The main line 
is protected from crossing roads by dead 


& 


This _ 


) 


4 


JULY 13, 1883.] 


~ 


switehes on the cross- 
ing roads, so that cross- 
ing trains running 
against signals will be 
turned into aside-track, 
and cannot, therefore, 
cross or foul the main 
line. There are, in all, 
fifteen switches handled 
and controlled, and 
three other switches 
not handled (owing to 
the infrequent use, or 
being required only for 
hand-drilling) , 
are ‘also perfectly con- 


trolled. Twelve facing 


point locks and seven- 
teen signals are em- 
ployed, some of them 


2,150 feet from the sig- 
nal-tower. 


To operate 
the above, twenty-eight 
interlocking levers are 
used, with two spare 
levers in the frame for 
future improvements. 
At this writing, the 
apparatus at Union 
Junction has been in 
use over one year with 
perfect success, and it 


will probably repay any 


railroad manager to 
visit it, and study its 
workings. 

In arranging a yard 
on the interlocking sys- 
tem, it is important to 
concentrate the switch- 
es so that they can be 
worked by one man 
from one machine, 
where as many as fifty 
levers operating 
switches and signals 
can be conveniently ar- 
ranged. Provided that 
the yard is well laid 
out, it is possible not 
only to gain greater 
safety and security in 
switching and drilling, 
but a saving in time 
and labor is effected, 
as one man who is 
always on the same 


_ spot can perform the 


which © 


SCIENCE. 33 


ui) 


work of several men scattered about a yard, 
and having continually to move from one 
spot to another. The levers should be placed 
in a house constructed so as to shelter the 
signalman from the weather, and enable him 
to have a good view of the whole yard; and 
the latter object is generally best attained by 
placing him at some distance above the ground- 
level, so that his view is not obstructed by 
passing engines and cars. 

The levers, which resemble the reverse 
lever of a locomotive, are mounted close to- 
gether in a line, and a name or number plate 
on each lever shows its use and purpose ; and, 


to further distinguish the levers, all those 
operating switches may be painted one color, 
locking levers another color, and so on. 
Each hand-lever carries a spring-catch, which 
secures the lever at either end of the stroke ; 
and the detent, forced down by the spring, 
and pulled up by the action of the signalman’s 
hand in grasping the handle-end of the lever 
and its catch, instead of engaging m a notched 
rack, as on a locomotive, slides in a curved 
slot in a pivoted bar. This bar, or ‘ rocker,’ 
is therefore moved about its pivot by the very 
action of the signalman grasping the lever. 
Interlocking virtually consists of mechanism 
attached to this pivoted bar, which renders 
it immovable under certain circumstances. 
These controlling circumstances are the posi- 


34 


tions of certain of the other levers in the 
frame. To exemplify this, we will take three 
levers, A, B, and C. If A and B be in such 
position that a signal given by the movement 
of lever C will be dangerous or misleading to 
a train, the pivoted bar connected to lever C 
is locked, and cannot be moved by any exer- 
tion of strength on the part of the signalman ; 
and therefore he cannot even begin to move 
lever C, and the possibility of giving a wrong 
signal is put beyond doubt. Similarly, nothing 
is effected unless the lever completes its stroke. 
The pivoted bar or ‘ rocker,’ through which the 
whole work of interlocking is done, moves 
only at the extreme ends of the stroke of the 
levers, and then is only moved by the rising 
or falling of the spring detent. This inven- 
tion, simple as it seems, is the result of many 
years’ experience, accidents having often oc- 
curred through a lazy signalman pulling his 
lever through part only of the stroke, and thus 
only partially effecting the locking. This is 
now impossible ; and the intention of a switch- 
man to move a lever, expressed by his grasping 
the lever and so moving the spring-catch, inde- 
pendently of his putting the intention into 
force, actuates all the necessary locking. 

The details of locking-apparatus are some- 
what complicated, but the principle is simple. 
Certain bars carrying lugs or projections are 
made to slide or move by the movements of the 
rockers. Certain other bars, which are also 
moved by the action of one or more rockers, 
are slotted or pierced with holes, so that, in 
certain positions, the lugs in the first'set of bars 
can enter the holes in the second set of bars, 
and, in other positions, the lugs strike against 
the bars, and cannot be moved. It is, of 
course, obvious that the arrangement is such 
as to prevent unsafe or contradictory signals 
being given, and permit only of safe or harmo- 
nious signals; and, by a careful arrangement 
of the locking-apparatus, it is sometimes pos- 
sible to make a few movements effect important 
changes of the switches and signals with a 
minimum of levers and complication. 

It is obvious, that, when switches are worked 
from a distance, there is a chance of the switch 
being incompletely closed, owing either to 
dirt, or a stone, or ice, choking the switch 
itself, or the switch-rods working it. There 
is also a danger that the switch-rod ‘might 
break or become disconnected, and that, 
though the signalman moved all his levers, and 
all the locking and unlocking was properly per- 
formed in his cabin, yet the switch itself might 
remain unshifted, or be left half open. To 
obviate this, the facing point lock was invented. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vox. IL, No. 23. 


This is a holt which can only be shot into 
a crossbar connecting the two rails of the 
switch when the switch is either properly 
closed, or wide open. A failure of the switch 
connections, or an obstruction in the switeh, 
will render it impossible for the bolt to enter 
the opening to lock the switch; and, as the 
signalman’s lever actuating this lock inter- 
locks with the signal levers, no train can be 
signalled to approach until the switch is either 
closed, or wide open, as the case may be, and 
firmly locked in its proper position. But an- 
other danger has to be guarded against: signal- 
men, to save time, will generally throw a signal 
again to danger directly the engine of an ap- 
proaching train has passed ; his other levers are 
then set free, and he can unlock his switch, 
and actually change the switch, before the whole 
train has passed, thus probably throwing the 
rear vehicles off the track, and causing a 
serious accident. To guard against this, a 
locking or detector bar is used, which lies near 
the rail, but clear of a wheel, when the switch 
is either shut or full open; but directiy the 
switch is moved from either of these positions, 
the bar moyes close to the tread of the rail, and 
takes such a position that it must come in 
contact with any wheel approaching the switch. 
As the bar is made longer than the distance 
between any two trucks, it follows, that, as” 
long as a train is passing over the switch, one 
or more wheels of the train must prevent this 
bar being moved, and, as the switch-lock and 
the bar are arranged to move together, it fol- 
lows that the switch cannot be unlocked until 
the last truck of the last car of a train has 
passed. The Union switch and signal com- 
pany adheres to Saxby and Farmer’s arrange- 
ment of this bar where it moves vertically. 
The Pennsylvania steel company shifts it later- 
ally. The latter movement is more easily per- 
formed, ‘and the bar can serye as a Quard-rail ; 
but its movement,'seems somewhat liable to be 
impeded by snow falling between the rail and 
bar. 
(To be continued.) 


THE WEATHER IN MAY, 1888. 


TueEre have been two periods of very severe 
storms, and at many places of tornadoes. ‘The 
first of these accompanied a ‘ low,’ first noted 
in Colorado? on the 13th. This moved with 
considerable energy over Colorado and Ne- 
braska. On the 14th, increasing in energy, 


1 It has been found necessary, owing to the smallness of the 
appropriation, to give up all telegraphing reports west of the 
Rocky Mountains: hence the charts are made up only to the east. 


SECRETARY OF WAR. 


“ 
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° 
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u 
2 
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ry 
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“ 


MONTHLY MEAN ISOBARS, ISOTHERMS, AND WIND-DIRECTIONS, MAY, 188% REPRINTED IN REDUCED FORM 
BY PERMISSION OF CHIEF SIGNAL-OFFICER. 


36 


it advanced into Ohio. At the morning obser- 
vation of this date, pressures .5 to .6 inch below 
the mean were noted in Lowa. 

Reports of hail on the 13th, 14th, and 15th, 
sometimes of astonishing size, have been sent 
from thirty-six stations, mostly in Iowa, Kan- 
sas, Missouri, Indiana, and Illinois. The 
following is a brief summary of tornado reports. 
Indiana: Amity, 14th, 7.30 p.m.; Waterloo,, 


night of 14th, only three houses left standing ; , 
Muncie, night of 14th; Indianapolis, 14th, 6. 


p.m. InKansas: Troy, 13th, 5 p.m. ; Muncie, 
13th, 4.30 p.m., most violent storm ever known 
in the county. In Michigan: White Pigeon, 
14th, 4 p.m.; Sturgis, 14th, 3.30 p.m., came 
from south-east. In Missouri: Kansas City, 
13th, 4.30 e.m,, from south-west, track from a 
hundred and fifty to two hundred and fifty 
yards wide, damage $300,000; Cameron, 13th, 
5 p.m.; Macon, 13th, 8 p.m.; Pattonsburg, 
13th, 5 p.m. In Ohio: Frederickstown, 14th, 
afternoon. 

The second period was ushered in by a deep 
‘low’ in Colorado on the 17th. At 11 P.m., 
Washington time, pressures at Yankton and 
North Platte were 29.16 inches, or more than 
.7 inch below the mean. On the 18th the ‘ low’ 
moyed into Minnesota, and on the 20th a por- 
tion of it moved east into the St. Lawrence 
valley ; while its influence was felt in forming 
a second subsidiary ‘low’ in western Tennes- 
see on the same date. The latter moved slow- 
ly, and passed off the Atlantic coast on the 
24th. Tornadoes are reported as follows. In 
Arkansas: Eureka Springs, 18th; it cut a 
path a quarter of a mile wide through a dense 
forest, and destroyed several buildings. In 
Illinois: Hillsboro’, 18th, 10 e.m., a funnel- 
shaped cloud moving north-east, the width of 
destruction, ten to thirty rods; Grafton, a car 
loaded with stone weighing twenty-one tons 
was lifted from the track, and the stones were 
scattered; Chemung, 18th, before 6 P.M. ; 
Chicago, night of 18th; Springfield, 18th, 
7.10 p.m.; Pesotum, 18th, 11.30 p.m. ; Little- 
berry was nearly destroyed ; Jacksonville, 18th 
evening, severest storm ever known ; Edwards- 
ville, 18th evening, came from south-east, width 

‘of track six- hundred to eight hundred feet ; 
Tallula, 18th,9 e.m. Up to midnight of 19th, 
the number of deaths in Illinois caused by the 
tornadoes of this date was sixty-three. In 
Missouri: Moody, 18th, 19th, every house 
blown down; Berger, 18th, 7 P.m., six houses 
and one mill destroyed; Oronogo, 18th, 7.40 
P.M., six persons killed, $75,000 damage. 
New York: 21st, one of the severest storms 
that ever visited Long Island. In Tennessee: 


iY 


[Vou. IL, No. 23. 


Chattanooga, 20th, 4 p.m. In Wisconsin: 
Janesville, 18th evening ; Racine, 18th, 7 p.m., 
twenty-five people killed, damage $60,000, 
track five hundred yards wide. 

The chart of monthly isobars, isotherms, and 
wind-directions is given on p. 35. The per- 
manent summer low-pressure area has en- 
larged a little, and moved only slightly from its 
position last month. Mean pressures are in 
general below the normal, except in Florida 
and the upper Missouri valley. The mean 
temperature east of the 100th meridian was 
3.1° below the mean; highest temperature, 
109° at Eagle Pass, Tex., and Yuma, Cal. 
Illinois and Missouri report damaging frosts — 
on the 22d. 

A comparison of floating ice with May, 1882, 
shows the eastern limit 3° west of last May, but 
the southern limit is the same. The number 
and size of icebergs are much less than last year, 
while there has been no field-ice. The Gulf of 
St. Lawrence, blocked last year, is clear this. 

There were deficiencies in rainfall: Middle 
Atlantic, .58 inch; West Gulf, 1.50; Rio 
Grande valley, 2.953; extreme north-west, 
1.65 ; and middle plateau, .69. Excesses: New 
England, 1.41; South Atlantic, 2.91 ; Tennes- 
see, .54; Ohio valley, .77; lower lakes, 3.02; 
upper lakes, .85; upper Mississippi valley, 
.68 ; Missouri valley, 3.03 ; middle slope, 1.09 ; 
southern slope, 1.91; northern plateau, .99; 
North Pacific coast, .86; Middle Pacific coast, — 
2.383; and Southern Pacific coast, .80. In 
California the rain has been four times the 
usual May fall. 

A hundred and thirty-nine cautionary sig- 
nals were displayed, of which 84% were justi- 
fied by winds of 25 miles or more per hour, at 
or within 100 miles of the station. 


SYMMETRICAL LINEAR FIGURES PRO- 
DUCED BY REFLECTION ALONG A 
RIVER-BANK. - 


In July, 1882, I noticed on the Magaguida- 
vie River, in New Brunswick, some figures, 
apparently formed through combination of 
actual fissures in the rocks at the water’s edge, 
and the reflections of these fissures from the 
surface of the water, which were not a little 
remarkable. 

It was late in the afternoon. 
shower had just ceased, and another was about 
to begin. The sky was somewhat overcast, 
and the water more or less shaded by the forest 
which covers most of the adjacent land. The 


banks of the river are bold, the shore being lined ~ 


in many places with steep rocks having abrupt 


One thunder- ; 


- oe ” oe we en ae 
ww ph v . 


SCIENCE. 


| SuLy 18, 1883.) 


4 


faces. Thanks to the lifting of the salt or 
brackish water by the tides, the boughs of the 
trees which overhang the river are trimmed off 
sharply and squarely, as if by shears, at a plane 
which marks the limit reached by the water 
of the highest tides. By the same means, the 
rocks on the strand are kept clear of vegeta- 
tion; so that there is ordinarily a well-defined 
wall of bare rock between the water and the 
trees, even when the tide is high, and the river 
not far from being full. At the time I am 
speaking of, there was no wind: the surface 
of the water was absolutely glassy, and a 
superb reflection of the foliage of the forest was 
_ to be seen in the mirror which the river made. 
I had just remarked to a chance companion on 
(our little steamboat how difficult it was to 
distinguish between the water and the land, so 
j completely were the real rocks and trees blended 
_ with their reflections, when my attention was 
. attracted by a rock, apparently at the water’s 
edge, which was covered with symmetrical lines 
and figures. I called out to a friend, who was 
4 standing at some distance from me on the 
deck of the boat, to ‘look at the pictured 
rock,’ and, on turning from him to again look 
at the shore, I perceived that it was not one 
- rock alone that bore figures: there was a long, 
broad ribbon or dado of similar picturing at 
_ the edge of the water, running along the shore 
- between the real trees and the picture e produced 
by the reflection of the trees in the water. I 
am fortunate in being able to say that my 
friend saw the picturing on the rock to which 
his attention was thus hastily directed, for the 
fact enables me to dismiss the notion that the 
figures might possibly have been ‘ subjective ’ 
tomyself. I had, however, hardly time enough 
to get a fair view of the picture before a new 
shower of rain ruffled the water, hid the shore, 
and drove us under cover. 
Beside herring-bone patterns, there were 
symmetrical lines, bars, and flutings of various 
lengths, together with figures suggesting short 
maces, staves, or even spears and arrows, as 
well as others in the semblance of hieroglyph- 
ies. Indeed, the whole effect was very Poy p- 
tian-like ; while many of the lines recalled those 
so commonly used of late years for ornament- 
ing furniture, — such lines as are, I believe, 
_ technically called * reeding.’ 
On thinking the matter over, I was at first 
inclined to believe that I must have been look- 
ing into a great natural kaleidoscope ; but, on 
further consideration and observation, it seems 
plain that simple reflection — that is to say, 
duplication by the water-mirror of lines, cracks, 
dents, or scars upon the rocks — might account 


~~ 


SCIENCE. 37 


for most, if not for all, the appearances I wit- 
nessed. I regret that the attitude of mere 
wonder and admiration into which my mind 
was thrown should have hindered me for the 
moment from making a proper critical exami- 
nation of the figures ; but I have been impressed 
by the conceptions that similar appearances 
cannot possibly be infrequent when the water 
of the river is still, and that some of the first 
rudiments of primitive art did probably origi- 
nate in efforts made to copy such natural line- 
ations as these. 

There is, I believe, an old, perhaps it is an 
endless, dispute as to whether, in the history 
of human art, such kinds of ornamentation as 
herring-bone figures, reeding, and fluting have 
ever been derived from a direct imitation of 
natural objects, or whether they have not 
always arisen from mental conceptions. It 
has seemed to me that the observation here 
recorded should bear with considerable foree 
in favor of the view of those students who 
refer the beginnings of all things to facts of 
actual observation and experience. 

I am well aware that the atmospheric con- 
ditions were of somewhat exceptional character 
at the moment when I saw the picturing ; but 
it is evident that rock-fissures, properly placed 
as regards a body of still water, will naturally 
be duplicated by reflection therefrom. There is 


every reason to suppose that figures analogous 


to those I witnessed may often be seen where 
rocks and water meet, and it is hard to believe 
that they have not been seen frequently by 
persons favorably situated. There is conse- 
quently no improbability in the idea that some 
of the primitive designs of savage nations may 
have been copied fromthem. Different effects 
would, of course, be produced in different locali- 
ties, according to the quality and mode of 
stratification of the rocks, and to the nature of 
the jointings, seams, and scars which the rocks 
bear; and it is not unlikely that the rocks on 
the Magaguidavic River may be peculiarly 
well fitted for exhibiting these pictorial effects. 
But the capital fact of duplication by reflection 
must be common to all localities; and there 
are probably many places where ornamental 
figures would be produced by mere force of 
repetition even of very simple forms; that is 
to say, by the formation, at one and the same 
time, of a series of figures comprising many 
individual reflections, each one of which was 
similar to all the rest. A general idea of some 
kinds of forms that may possibly be seen where 
cracks in rocks are reflected from a body of 
calm water may be got by drawing figures like 
those of the diagram which I have selected 


38 


from a hundred or more that occurred to me. 
No effort has been made in the diagram to copy 
the actual appearances seen on the river-bank. 


Can MST in Vo a 
Th Sci rons ed Oe 


WAN NN 
/f2 “0 > ISX A 


fie ie 
She eas 


An essentially different style of representation 
would be needed in order to convey a just con- 


fem) 
aaa] 
| 
(=a 


ception of the effect of the scene I witnessed. 


With the exception of the herring-bone figure, 
I cannot profess that either of the figures of 
the diagram is like any of those I saw in New 
Brunswick. It is to be remembered, however, 
that, whatever the forms may be that are pro- 
duced by reflection from one particular bank 
of rock, the same kinds of forms will usually 
and probably be repeated again and again with 
the result that a pattern or ‘design’ will be 
produced. 

I consider myself so little qualified to lools 
up a matter wholly foreign to my usual studies, 
that I have made no effort. to search for rec- 
ords of observations similar to the one here 
described, though I am strongly inclined to 
believe that such records must exist. I would 
say merely, that on again steaming up the 
Magaguidayic River at a time when a breeze 
was stirring, and the surface of the water was 
ruffled, I saw none of the picturing excepting in 
one quiet nook or cove, where a series of really 
superb herring-bone figures was produced by 
reflection from the surface of the calm water 
of the lines of stratification between the beds 
of rock, which were here tilted at a consider- 
able angle. Although during this second visit 
I saw none of the ‘ reeding,’ or of the other 
kinds of symmetrical figures which had so much 
impressed me before, the multiplicity of the 
herring-bones, i.e., the continued repetition of 
this figure, was specially noteworthy. A pecul- 
iar kind of beauty or sense of satisfaction to 
the eye was thus obtained, which a single figure 
would clearly not have been competent to give. 
It is reasonable to suppose, that wherever 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 23. 


complete herring-bone figures are formed, as. 
here, by reflection of those lines between the 


layers of rock which are continuous, and, so to » 


say, perfect, a variety of related or derived 
figures will be produced by the reflection of 
lines which are not continuous; that is to say, 
the reflections from lines that are imperfect in 
any way, or broken into various lengths, would 
give rise to hieroglyphic characters in consid- 
erable variety, though they might all belong to 
one common group or kind. 

At the time of my second visit to the river, I 
could see no reason to doubt that the figures 
might be seen almost any day when the time 
of high tide, and consequently of a full river, 
happened to be coincident with the calm 
moments so common in summer at the hours 
not far from sunrise and sunset. 

As bearing on the question of human imita- 
tion, it is of interest to note, that while herring- 
bone patterns would naturally be produced 
wherever the lines of stratification of tilted 


layers. of rock are reflected from calm water, — 


i.e., in numberless localities, it is precisely these 
figures which have been most frequently de- 
lineated by savages upon pottery and other im- 
plements as one of their earliest artistic efforts. 

Excepting the two instances here recorded, 
I have never noticed any such figures in the 
course of my own travels, nor have i heard of 
their being seen by others. I am assured, 


moreover, by several of the most competent. 


and experienced observers of my acquaintance,. 
that they have never witnessed any thing simi-- 
lar. 
see such figures from this time forth, when 
opportunity offers, and I trust that many other 
persons will do so. It is to be hoped, withal, 


that some of the more noteworthy effects of 


this sort may be accurately depicted. 


F. H. Srorer.. — 


THE AMERICAN SWAMP CYPRESS. 


THE following observations on the bald or 


swamp cypress of the southern states are 
condensed from the forthcoming second yolume 
of the memoirs of the Kentucky geological 
survey. They embody the results of certain 
inquiries which show that this peculiar tree: 
deserves more study than has been given to. 
it by our botanists. 

The Taxodium distichum is, as is well 
known, a common tree in the swamps of the 
southern states, extending from New Jersey 
to Texas, and northwardly in the Mississippi 
valley, to the lowlands of southern Illinois. 
It has several titles to distinction: it is not. 


I expect, however, for my own part, to- 


— 


— 


—— ae ee lCUC 


a 


- 


r 


a ee ee a 


é JuLy 13, 1883.] 


have this nature. 


only in all its proportions the noblest of all 
our coniferous trees east of the Rocky Moun- 
tains, vying in girth and height with the yellow 
poplar (the Liriodendron tulipifera of the 
botanists), but it is by far the most stately 
all the of trees belonging on the eastern face of 
the continent. Moreover, it has certain habits 
which are altogether peculiar to its species, 
and which constitute it a very exceptional 
member of the Coniferae. 

When this tree grows on the dry ground, 
or on a surface where the water does not stand 
during the summer half of the year, it differs 
in no important feature from its kindred 
species ; but, when it grows in swamps which 
are flooded during the spring or summer 
months, the roots form excrescences, which rise 
so that their crests overtop the level of the 
water during these seasons. These excres- 
cences are of varying height, their projection 
above the level of the roots depending on the 
depth of the swamp-waters during those sea- 
sons of growth. These conditions may be 
satisfied by projections, or ‘ knees’ as they 
are called, that rise only a few inches above 
the root, or they may rise to the height of five 
or six feet above the soil. These knees are 
sub-cylindrical in form ; near the base they are 
elongated in the direction in which the root 
extends; above, they give a nearly circular 
section; at the top they are crowned by a 
eabbage-shaped expansion of bark of irregular 
shape, rough and warty without, often hollow 
within. They are often as much as eighteen 
inches in diameter. They are so commonly 
hollow, and of such size, that they are sometimes 
used by the natives for beehives or for well- 
buckets, for either of which uses they are toler- 
ably well adapted. A tree of large size, say 
six feet in diameter, will often have as many 
as thirty or forty of these knees projecting 
above the swamp-water which surrounds its base. 

Looking closely at these knees, we observe, 
that, unless they are evidently decayed, they 
generally have a very porous, spongy bark 
over the surface of their crests; and the bark 
on this summit, peeling off from time to time, 
often exposes a singularly spongy surface, such 
as we find in the inner bark of the pine-tree 
when the coarse outer bark is peeled away. 

There have been many conjectures as to the 


_ function of these knees. It has been supposed 


that they were in the nature of suckers or 
branches from the roots, which gave rise to 
new trees; but, after examining thousands of 
these ‘knees, I am convinced that they never 
In no ease have I seen or 
heard of any buds appearing on them. The 


ee " 


SCIENCE. 


39 


only clew to their function I have obtained 
in the following way : whenever it happens that 
the knees become entirely submerged during 
the growing season, the trees to which they 
belong inevitably die. Very extensive proof of 
this point was given by the general submer- 
gence of extensive districts during the earth- 
quakes of 1811-13, in the region near the 
Mississippi, where the cypress-trees over a 
region several hundred miles in area were 
killed by a subsidence that brought the water 
a foot or two below the crests of the knees. 
In Reel-Foot Lake, in Kentucky and Tennes- 
see, thousands of these long ordinary cypress- 
boles still stand in the shallow waters, though 
it is now seventy years since they were killed 
by the slight submergence of their knees. 

The same thing can be seen on a smaller 
scale in several mill-ponds in western Ken- 
tucky, where the change in level of the swamp- 
water has brought these excrescences below 
the surface of the water. These facts — viz., 
the absence of the knees when the tree grows 
on high land, and the death of the tree when 
the knees are permanently submerged — lead 
me to the opinion that the use of these ex- 
crescences is to bring the sap while in the 
roots in contact with the air. That they have 
this function is made more probable by the 
fact that their heads, i.e., the parts which 
always project above the water during the 
growing season, remain yery vascular, and, by 
a process of desyuamation, secure the expos- 
ure of the inner bark to the air. 

It is evident that this tree affords us a very 
interesting instance of a specialized structure, 
that only develops when the plant occupies a 
certain position. We often find this tree arti- 
ficially transplanted to the gardens of the 
western country. It then shows no distinct 
tendency to form knees, though the surface of 
the roots show a few short spurs not over an 
inch or so high. 

It is a well-known fact that the genus Tax- 
odium dates back into the early tertiaries. I 
am not aware, however, that fossil knees have 
ever been found. We have only to examine 
the borders of the swamps to see that it can- 
not, on the uplands, maintain a battle with the 
contending broad-leaved trees, though in any 
artificial open place it will grow with singular 
luxuriance. 

It seems to me likely that we have here a 
very interesting case of a species owing its 
survival to a peculiar habit of growth. There 
can hardly be a doubt that the kindred of this 
Taxodium held an important place on the 
continent before the development of the broad- 


40 


leaved trees. It seems not unlikely that it 
was crowded out on the higher ground, and 
forced to limit itself to this station which the 
swamps afford. In these permanent though 
shallow waters it clearly has an advantage over 
the broad-leaved forms of trees. 

Lam not aware that any structures resem- 
bling these knees are found among other plants. 
If it be the fact that they are peculiar to the 
Taxodium distichum, we have in this species 
a yery remarkable case of a peculiar organ 
developed for a special purpose. 

There is another interesting problem con- 
cerning this species. The seeds seem to ger- 
minate beneath the water. I have seen many 
young trees growing in what must be perma- 
nent swamp, where the soil was buried to the 
depth of a foot or more. I have long desired 
to try some experiments on this point, but 
haye not been able to do so. Lhope that some 
observer will undertake the inquiry. 

This tree is certain to have a great economic 
value. Its great size, its favorable position 
in relation to our great water-courses, its very 
rapid growth and excellent timber qualities, 
are all calculated to commend it for use as a 
constructive wood. There are many million 
acres of land in the southern states where it 
could be cultivated to advantage. If kept 
from competition with the deciduous trees, it 
will do as well on any moist lowlands as in the 
actual swamps. Its growth is more rapid than 
that of any other of our timber-trees; the 
wood is said to be much stronger than that of 
any pine; it endures well in the open air with- 
out paint, as is shown by the fact that the 
trunks of trees killed in 1811 still stand unde- 
cayed in the EWACApS near the Mississippi 
River. ' N.S. Suarer. 


RECENT BABYLONIAN RESEARCH. 


In the Proceedings of the Society of biblical arche- 
ology for November, 1882, Mr. T. G. Pinches, the 
Assyrian scholar of the British museum, reports a 
discovery of more than ordinary interest. This is 
an historical notice on an inscribed cylinder, coming 
from the ancient city of Sippar, and belonging to 
Nabonidus, the last of the native Babylonian kings. 
The cylinder was written before Cyrus had captured 
Babylon, but after his conquest of the Medes. The 
inscription of Nabonidus, after the usual introduc- 
tory formulas, relates the reconstruction of several 
famous temples. The first of these, the temple of 
the Moon-god at Haran, had been destroyed by the 
Medes. Being instructed by the gods Marduk and 
Sin to rebuild it, Nabonidus recalls for this purpose 
his armies from Gaza, on the borders of Egypt. He 
informs us that the temple had once before been re- 


SCIENCE. 


b pat ae 7 ot ~~" 


[Vou. IL., No. 23. 


stored by the Assyrian king Assurbanipal (Sarda- 
napalus), and that he found, while engaged in the 
work, the inscribed cylinders of Assurbanipal and of 
Shalmaneser II. 

The great historic event referred to in this part of 
the inscription is the fall of the Median empire be- 
fore Cyrus the Great. When commanded to restore 
the temple by the god Marduk, Nabonidus replies 
that the Medes have destroyed it, and receives from 
Marduk the promise that they in their turn shall also 
be destroyed. Nabonidus then relates: *‘ At the be- 
ginning of the third year, they (the gods) caused 
them (literally ‘him,’ the Median nation) to go out 
to war; and Cyrus, king of the land Anzan, their (lit. 
“his,’ i.e., the Median nation’s) young servant, over- 


threw with his small army the Median hosts, cap- - 


tured Astyages, king of the Medes, and carried him 
bound to his own (Cyrus’s) land.”’ 

The undoubted value of this passage for the solu- 
tion of the riddle left us by the conflicting testimony 
of the Greek writers, as to the relations of Cyrus and 


~ the Persians to Astyages and the Medes, is in part. 


impaired by the ambiguous use of the pronouns, It 
is partly owing to this ambiguity that the translation 


just given differs from that of Mr. Pinches, who ren- 


ders: “‘In the third year, he [the god Marduk] caused 
Cyrus, king of Anzan, his young servant, to go with 
his little army; he overthrew the wide-spreading Sab- 
manda [Medes], he captured IStumegu (Astyages), 
king of Sabmanda, and took his treasures to his (own) 
land.”’ It is difficult to say whether the words ‘his 
servant’ mean servant of Marduk, as Mr. Pinches 
supposes, or servant (= tributary) of the Median 
people; but the latter seems, for certain grammatical 
reasons, more probable. It is also improbable that 
Nabonidus, a special votary of Marduk, should speak 
of Cyrus, a foreigner, as a servant of the same deity, 
although we know that later, perhaps for state rea- 
sons, Cyrus was friendly to the worship of Marduk (VY. 
Rawl. 35). It is more probable, that, when Naboni- 
dus mentions Cyrus as ‘his small servant,’ he means 
to say that Cyrus was a vassal prince to the Medes. 
The translation ‘him bound’ (kamittsu, lit. “his bond- 
age’), instead of ‘his treasures,’ is well established 
(I. Rawl, 13, 24 ff.), and adds not a little to the in- 
terest of the passage. 

In the cuneiform annals of Cyrus, written after he 
had captured Babylon, we have this monarch’s brief 
account of the war with Media (Zrans. soc. bibl. 
arch., vii. 155 f.). After a renewed careful collation 
of this important passage, Mr. Pinches has published 
the original a second time (Proc. soc. bibl. arch., 
Nov:, 1882). Itis unfortunate that the ends of the 
lines are lost by mutilation of the clay tablet con- 
taining the inscription. Following is a translation 
of this passage: ‘‘[Astyages relied. upon his troops] 
and marched against Cyrus, king of Anan to [eap- 
ture him?]... The troops of Astyages revolted 


against him, made him prisoner [and delivered him] _ 


to Cyrus . . . Cyrus (marched) to Ecbatana, the 
royal city. [He captured] the silver, gold, treasures 
(2), (and) possessions (?), which Ecbatana had gotten 
by plunder and he carried to Ansan the treasures 


7 Te WA 


— 


ee a Ce 


. 
JuLY 13, 1883.] 


and possessions which [he took?].”’ This version 
differs slightly from the one offered by Mr. Pinches, 
but not as to the revolt of the troops of Astyages, his 
delivery to Cyrus, and the capture of Ecbatana. 

_ The accounts of Nabonidus and of Cyrus vary 
somewhat. The language of the former implies a 
battle in which Cyrus defeated the Medes and cap- 
tured Astyages, but does not mention a revolt, nor 
the capture of Ecbatana, the Median capital. The 
account by Cyrus, being the state annals, is likely to 
be the more exact, and enters more into detail than 
that of Nabonidus; but the two are not at all contra- 
dictory. All that Nabonidus wished to record was 
the overthrow of the Median power and the capture 
of their king, and it was unimportant whether this 
took place in battle or by mutiny. It may be that 
’ he did not know the details of the war, or it is possi- 
ble that one division of the Median army gave battle, 
while another mutinied and delivered Astyages to 
Cyrus. There is an apparent difference in the two 
accounts as to the date of the capture of Astyages. 
According to the Cyrus text, this event took place in 
the sixth year of Nabonidus, while Nabonidus says 
that it occurred in the ‘third year.’ It is, however, 
; not clear from what point Nabonidus reckons, — per- 
. haps from the date of his dream. 

1 There is nothing in either of these accounts to 
) show whether Cyrus was in any way connected by 
] 

} 


eee ee 


birth with Astyages. As to the relation of the coun- 
tries of Media and Persia at this time, it is clear, 
from the language of Nabonidus, that Persia was a 
very small power; and if the word ‘his servant’ 

(aradsu), as applied to Cyrus, means the servant of 
the Medes, the conclusion would be that Cyrus was 

a tributary king to the Median power. This agrees 
with the statement of Herodotus (i. 107), that Cam- 
__ byses, the father of Cyrus, was considered by As- 
P tyages as of respectable family, but inferior to an 
; ordinary Mede, Nicolaus of Damascus also makes 
‘ Persia subject to Media (Miiller, Frag. hist. Gr., iii. 
399, Fr. 66). 

It is certain that the mystery surrounding the rela- 
tions of the Median and Persian courts and people 
can never be cleared up with the aids hitherto pos- 
sessed. Nothing but the contemporaneous literature 
of these peoples themselves, and of neighboring peo- 

ples, can ever solve the problem. In another inserip- 
q tion Cyrus calls himself the king of Babylon, son of 
Cambyses king of AnSan, grandson of Cyrus king 
of AnSan, descendant of SiSpiS king of Ansan, royal 
offspring (V. Rawl. 35). This language is, however, 
not inconsistent with the tradition, so strongly repre- 
sented by the Greeks, that the Persians were tribu- 
tary to the Medes. To leave the government of 
subject nations in the hands of native kings was the 
rule in the later centuries of the Assyrian empire, 
and the Medes may well have practised the same 
policy. It was sufficient that the vassal king sent 
his yearly tribute, and, on proper occasion, kissed 
the foot of his master; but further than this was not 
required, and he was regarded as king in his own 
tribe or nation. 


A word as to AnSan and Anzan. These are geo- 


SCIENCE. 


41 


graphical terms, — the first a city; the second appar- 
ently a land, because preceded by the sign for a 
country. But since this sign often represents a city 
also, it may well be that Ansan and Anzan are only 
two different ways of writing the name of the same 
place. ‘This seems to be also the opinion of Profes- 
sor Sayce (Trans. soc. bibl. arch., iii. 475). Probably 
there was both a city and a country AnSan, or Anzan. 
But what was Ansan? In the same inscription 
Cyrus calls himself king of Ansan and king of Per- 
sia (Parsu, Trans. soc. bibl. arch., vii. 155, 159). Pos- 
sibly Ansan, or Anzan, was originally the name of a 
tribe, city, and district, to which Cyrus and his fam- 
ily belonged. 

Another temple which Nabonidus restores is the 
celebrated temple of the Sun-god at Sippar. Nebu-~- 
chadnezzar, he relates, had restored this edifice, and 
had sought for cylinders, but without success. But 
Nabonidus was determined to find the inscription of 
the founder of the temple; and his search was re- 
warded, for, at a depth of eighteen cubits, he came 
across the cylinder of Naram-Sin, son of Sargon, 
which no king preceding him had seen for ‘three 
thousand two hundred years.’ According to the 
custom of the kings, he placed an inscription of his 
own by the side of that of Naram-Sin. As the date 
of Nabonidus was about 550 B.C., that of Naram- 
Sin would go back to 3750 B.C. But even at this 
time civilization must have been far advanced, for 
Sargon, the father of Naram-Sin (if the same as the 
Sargon of Agane), had in his library an astronomical 
work comprising seventy tablets. With this ancient 
date would agree the statement of Sargon IL, king 
of Assyria 721-705 B.C., that three hundred and ~ 
fifty princes had preceded him on the throne (Cylin- 
der inscription, l. 45), and the long list of Babylonian 
kings, numbering, before the tablet was broken, two 
hundred or more. 

A third temple, which Nabonidus restores, is that 
of the goddess Anunit at Sippar. By digging he 
found the inscription of the last king who had re- 
stored the temple, Saggasti-Burias, son of Kudii- 
Bel, about 1050 B.C. Anunit, goddess of this temple, 
seems to be the planet Venus as morning and as 
evening star. 

These two celebrated temples at Sippar are men- 
tioned several times in the cuneiform literature. 
From Berosus, also, we know that the people of Sip- 
par were devoted to the worship of the sun, for he 
calls the place ‘city of the sun’ (év m6Aet HAiou Lunna- 
pow). It was also, no doubt, as a part of this worship 
that the people of Sippar, whom the Assyrian king 
settled in the land of Samaria, burned their children 
in the fire (2 Kings, xvii. 31). D. G. Lyon. 


OCEAN WATER AND BOTTOMS. 


THE ocean explored by the Norske Nordhavs 
expedition, 1876-78, was a part of the North Atlan- 
tic lying to the west and north of Norway. The sea- 
water was especially studied in order to ascertain, if 
possible, whether the relation subsisting between its 


42 


component parts varies sufficiently"to admit of deter- 
mining its fluctuations by the most exact analytical 
methods, and whether, in that case, it were possible 
to deduce some definite rule regarding them, 

As the result of the analyses, L. Schmelek con- 
cludes, ‘‘The hypothesis which assumes the ocean to 
consist throughout its entire depth of one homoge- 
neous fluid, in which the most accurate of chemical 
analyses shall fail to detect dissimilarity of composi- 
tion, has received from the experiments here described 
probably stronger confirmation than from any that 
have gone before them.’”’ Some of the most interest- 
ing results are tabulated as follows, the first table 
showing the mean amounts of certain substances in 
sea-water at various depths, and the second showing 
the same for different parallels of latitude: — 


I. 
_ | Inter- Nien 
Surface.|Bottom./mediate 
depths. value. 
Specific gravity 1.0265 | 1.0265 | 1.0266 | 1.0265 
Chlorine . 5 1.930 1.933 1.934 1.932 
Calcium oxide . 0.0576 | 0.0581 | 0.0577 | 0.0578 
Magnesium oxide 0.2205 | 0.2207 | 0.2200 | 0.2203 
Sulphuric oxide . 0.2211 | 0.2208 | 0.2223 | 0.2214 
Il. 
80°-71°. 71°-66°. 66°-62°. 
Specific eravily 1.0264 |_ 1.0265 1.0268 
Chlorine . bn eos 1.929 1.937 = 
Calcium oxide... . 0.0580 0.0579 0.0577 
Magnesium oxide 0.2190 0.2219 0.2205 
Sulphuric oxide . . . 0.2208 0.2210 0.2223 


The mean value of the salts occurring in sea-water 
is given as follows: — 


KCl, 


CaGO;, CaSO,, MgSO,, MgCl, NaHCO,, NCI. 
0.002, 0.1395, 0.2071, 0.8561, 0.0747, 0.0166, 2.682. 
Hence 100 parts of dry sea-salt contain — 

CaCO;, CaSO,, MgSO,, MgCl, KCl, NaCO,, NaCl. 
0.057, 4.00, 5.93, 10.20, 2.14, 0.475, 76.84. 


The ocean-bottom studied is especially interesting 
from the amount of present and past volcanic and 
glacial activity in the lands surrounding it. Here, as 
elsewhere, depth was found to be the principal factor 
in determining the character of the deposits. Along 

' the coasts of Norway and Spitzbergen, generally at a 
less depth than five hundred fathoms, the bottom 
was found 1o be covered with a more or less plastic 
gray clay. Its coarseness or fineness varies consid- 
erably; and grains of quartz, as a rule with rounded 
edges, constitute the chief portion of the mineral 
particles in it. At the approximate depth of from 
five hundred to a thousand fathoms, a brown clay is 
found, forming a transition from the gray clay to the 
true oceanic deposits. 

At nearly all depths below a thousand fathoms, and 
oftentimes at less depths, is a fine light to dark brown 
colored deposit containing minute white shells of the 
genus Biloculina, in size and shape like a pin-head. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 23. 


This shell gives name to the clay, which corresponds 
approximately to the Globigerina ooze of the Chal- 
lenger expedition. The ground is taken, that the 
power of sea-water to dissolve the carbonate of lime 
of the foraminiferal shells is not owing to the greater 
amount of carbonic acid at great depths in the ocean; 
for the observations of Mr. Torn¢ge showed that the 
sea-water invariably reacted as an alkali, and hence 
the carbonic acid could not be free. Again: the 
latter was found to be about the same in the depths 
of the ocean as on the surface; while the general 
uniformity of composition of the sea-water, as shown 
by numerous investigations, renders it improbable 
that any deviation in amount of carbonic acid oc- 
curs; hence the power possessed by sea-water to 
dissolve carbonate of lime does not depend upon the 
greater or less proportion of free carbonic acid. 

The bottom of the shallow ocean between Norway, 
Beeren Eiland, Spitzbergen, and Novaia Zemlaia, was 
found to be covered with a greenish-gray clay con- 
taining but few animal remains. Minute and gen- 
erally sharp-edged quartz grains were the principal 
constituent. This deposit was termed the Rhabdam- 
mina clay, from a genus of Foraminifera which often 
abounds in that part of the ocean-bed. ‘This clay, 
according to Schmelck, originates from the ‘decom- 
position of quartzitic rocks,’ especially those of 
Beeren Hiland. 

Off the volcanic island of Jan Mayen, above the 
six-hundred-fathom line, occurs a deposit of dark- 
gray sand, and sabulous clay containing fragments of 
basaltic lava, olivine, augite, etc., which seem to have 
been derived from the volcanic débris of the island. 

An important fact bearing on the question of the 
distribution of débris by bottom-currents in the 
ocean is the statement that ‘‘all samples of water 
brought up from the bottom were perfectly clear, 
without a trace of floating particles.’’ 

The occurrence of numerous stones and pebbles on 
the sea-floor, as well as not uncommonly a rocky bot- 
tom, is of interest. The pebbles decrease in size and 
number in going from the shore towards deep water. 
While rare in the deep water south of the 72d par- 
allel, they are quite common in that to the west 
of Spitzbergen and Beeren Eiland, where drift-ice 
abounds. Out of three hundred and seventy-five 
stations, pebbles and fragments of minerals and rocks 
were dredged at a hundred and twenty-three of 
them, while at many others no sample of the bottom 
could be obtained on account of its rocky condition. 
Of especial interest is the finding of numerous frag- 
ments of flint and chalk, a fossil (belemnite) from 
the chalk, fragments of coal, and some striated stones. 
Other pebbles and fragments found were marble, 
limestone, granite of various kinds, sandstone, argil- 
lite, quartzite, flint, chalk, granitic veinstone, quartz 
porphyry, gabbro, basalt, pumice, amygdaloidal rocks; 
chloritic, hornblendic, quartz, mica, and other erystal- 
line schists; calcite, quartz, mica, hornblende, fel- 
spar, asbestos, coal, olivine, augite, coral, shells of 
various kinds, rotten wood, ete. 

Schmelck concludes that organic agency is a sub- 
ordinate factor in the formation of the floor-deposits 


Pah. 


Sa, 


.”.* =~ 


——— 


—_ 


» 


JuLy 13, 1883.] 


of the northern ocean, as is volcanic débris, but that 
the chief portion of the material consists of the solid 
matter carried out to sea by drift-ice and glacial riv- 
ers. M. E. Wapswortna. 


THE NATURAL HISTORY OF IMPLE- 
MENTS. 


“WHEN will hearing be like seeing?’’ says the 
Persian proverb. Words of description will never 
give the grasp that the mind takes through actual 
sight and handling of objects; and this is why, in fix- 
ing and forming ideas of civilization, a museum is so 
necessary. One understands the function of sucha 
museum the better for knowing how the remarkable 
collection formed by Gen. Pitt-Rivers came into ex- 
istence. About 1851 its collector, then Col. Lane 
Fox, was serving on a military sub-committee to ex- 
amine improvements in small arms. In those days 
the British army was still armed (except special rifle- 
men) with the old smooth-bore percussion musket, 
the well-known ‘ Brown Bess.’ The improved wea- 
pons of continental armies had brought on the ques- 
tion of reform; but the task of this committee of 
juniors to press changes on the heads of the service 
was not an easy one, even when the Duke of Welling- 
ton, at last convinced by actual trial at the butts, 
decreed that he would have every man in the army 
armed with a rifle-musket, Col. Fox was no mere 
theorist, but a practical man, who knew what to do 
and how to do it; and his place in the history of the 
destructive machinery of war is marked by his hav- 
ing been the originator and first instructor of the 
School of musketry at Hythe. While engaged in this 
work of improving weapons, his experience led his 
thoughts into a newchannel. It was forced upon 
him that stubbornly fixed military habit could not 
accept progress by leaps and bounds, only by small 
partial changes, an alteration of the form of the bul- 
let here, then a slight change in the grooving of the 


- barrel; and so on, till a succession of these small 


changes gradually transformed a weapon of low or- 
ganization into a higher one, while the disappearance 
of the intermediate steps, as they were superseded, left 
apparent gaps in the stages of the invention, — gaps 
which those who had followed its actual course knew 
to have been really filled up by a series of interme- 
diate stages. These stages Col. Lane Fox collected 
and arranged in their actual order of development, 
and thereupon there grew up in his mind the idea 
that such had been the general course of develop- 
ment of arts among mankind. He set himself to col- 
lect weapons and other implements till the walls of 
his house were covered from cellar to attic with series 
of spears, boomerangs, bows, and other instruments, 
so grouped as to show the probable history of their 
development. After a while this expanded far beyond 
the limits of a private collection, and grew into his 
Museum. There the student may observe in the ac- 

1 Extract from a lecture on anthropology, delivered Feb. 21, 


at the University museum, Oxford, by E. B. Tytor, D.C.L., 
F.R.S. From Nature of May 17. 


SCIENCE. 


43 


tual specimens the transitions by which the parrying- 
stick, used in Australia and elsewhere to ward off 
spears, must have passed into the shield. It is re- 
markable that one of the forms of shield which lasted 
on latest into modern times had not passed into a 
mere screen, but was still, so to speak, fenced with. 
This was the target carried by the Highland regiments 
in the low countries in 1747. In this museum, again, 
are shown the series of changes through which the 
rudest protection of the warrior by the hides of ani- 
mals led on to elaborate suits of plate and chain 
armor. The principles which are true of the develop- 
ment of weapons are not less applicable to peaceful 
instruments, whose history is illustrated in this col- 
lection. It is seen how (as was pointed out by the 
late Carl Engel) the primitive stringed instrument 
was the hunter’s bow, furnished afterwards with a 
gourd to strengthen the tone by resonance, till at last 
the hollow resonator came to be formed in the body 
of the instrument, as in the harp or violin. Thus the 
hookah or nargileh still keeps something of the shape 
of the cocoanut-shell, from which it was originally 
made, and is still called after (Persian, ndrjil = cocoa- 
nut). But why describe more of these lines of de- 
velopment when the very point of the argument is 
that verbal description fails to do them justice, and 
that really to understand them they ought to be fol- 
lowed in the series of actual specimens? All who 
have been initiated into the principle of development 
or modified sequence know how admirable a training 
the study of these tangible things is for the study of 
other branches of human history, where intermediate 
stages have more often disappeared, and therefore 
trained skill and judgment are the more needed to 
guide the imagination of the student in reconstruct- 
ing the course along which art and science, morals 
and government, have moved since they began, and 
will continue to move in the future. 


THE INTELLIGENCE OF THE AMERI- 
CAN TURRET SPIDER. 


AT the meeting of the Academy of natural sciences 
of Philadelphia, June 19, Rev. Henry C. McCook 
exhibited nests of Tarentula arenicola Scudder, 
—a species of ground spider of the family Lyco- 
sidae, properly known as the turret spider. The 
nests in natural site are surmounted by structures 
which quite closely resemble miniature old-fashioned 
chimneys composed of mud and crossed sticks, as 
seen in the log cabins of pioneer settlers. From 
half an inch to one inch of the tube projects above 
ground, while it extends straight downward twelve 
or more inches into the earth. The projecting por- 
tion, or turret, is in the form of a pentagon, more or 
less regular, and is built up of bits of grass, stalks 
of straw, small twigs, etc., laid across each other at 
the corners. The upper or projecting parts have a 
thin lining of silk. Taking its position just inside 
the watch-tower, the spider leaps out, and captures 
such insects as may come in its way. Nests had 
been found at the base of the Alleghany Mountains 


d4 SCIENCE. 


near Altoona, and in New Jersey on the seashore. 
In the latter location the animal had availed itself 
of the building-material at hand by forming the 
foundation of its watch-tower of little quartz pebbles, 
sometimes producing a structure of considerable 
beauty. In this sandy site the tube is preserved 
intact by a delicate secretion of silk, to which the 
particles of sand adhere. This secretion scarcely 
presents the character of a web-lining, but has suf- 
ficient consistency to hold aloft a frail cylinder of 
sand when it is carefully freed from its surroundings, 
A nest recently obtained from Vineland, N.J., fur- 
nished an interesting illustration of the power of 
these araneids to intelligently adapt themselves to 
varying surroundings, and to take advantage of cir- 
cumstances with which they certainly could not 
have been previously familiar. In order to preserve 
the nest with a view to study the life-history of its 
occupant, the sod containing the tube had been care- 
fully dug up, and the upper and lower openings 
plugged with cotton. Upon the arrival of the nest 
in Philadelphia, the plug guarding the entrance had 
-been removed; but the other had been forgotten, and 
allowed to remain. The spider, which still inhabited 
the tube, immediately began removing the cotton 
at the lower portion, and cast some of it out. 
-Guided, however, apparently by its sense of touch, to 
the knowledge that the soft fibres of the cotton would 
be an excellent material with which to line the tube, 
she speedily began putting it to that use, and had 
soon spread a soft smooth layer over the inner 
surface and around the opening. The nest in this 
condition was exhibited, and showed the interior to 
be padded for about four inches from the summit of 
the tower: The very manifest inference was drawn, 
that the spider must for the first time have come in 
contact with such a material as cotton, and had im- 
mediately utilized its new experience by substituting 
the soft fibre for the ordinary silken lining, or by 
adding it thereto. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 
Equations of third degree. 


THE second or third terms of any equation may 
be made to disappear, and we may therefore assume 


w+ Ac? + B= 0; (1) 
and the solution of this equation must involve the 


general solution of cubics. Assume 
v= ys — yses + 2. (2) 
Hence 
ys = Va = faze + 428 
3 
LD = ApS BEE AO e — 82% 
y+ 2— 3028 = Vea + ta ye 
beatles aime eg ls aa Reh cl 
Ky 3.x? 
feed oe AE iy WOR 
aa =\| 12a + oa,” 
a ‘ey Lyte, dlytz)? [ee = Fee 


1222 re 4x2 12 02 


[Vou. IL, No. 23, 


432 2°(z — y)? = 
640° + 240 x5(y + z)? + 192 a3(y + z)* — B4(y + z)% 


x —8a8(y +z)? +328(y + z)t—(y+2z)8= 


—27 zyx, 
+3 Vay a — (y +22 = i (3) 
In (1) and (8), equating coefficients, 
te A’ 
3 Vy =A, y= a" (4) 
—(y+2)?=B, y2+2yz2+22=—B. (5) 


Whence, from (4) and (5), 
Br Tp PaaS 


oe. 
-= [4 a _\az8 


Substituting these values of y and z in (2), 


BA 
oo pe anil — ot 
(ee + |-4-2 On ROB al 
See pies cae AY formula (a) 
4 4° OF 


3 3 RB? A&B 
2a? A i 


2 aT N4 27 
3 [2 a |B, 2B 
Na 3 7 + {2 aia a formula (b) 


In the-case of the irreducible case of formula (6), 
which is similar to Cardan’s formula, formula (a) may 


eB) 
be used. In such case, only one part, as Tn ae of 
wee 3 B AB 
formula (a) is imaginary, and a “qlee is real; 
and if the signs of the roots of equation (1) be 
changed, which is done by changing simultaneously 


the signs of A and Bin equation. (d i — converse is 
BD) ees 


Tees 


true, that is, \jJ— a3 real, and \ = is im- 
aginary- 
then, arbitrarily chosen. Hence, factoring prepara- 


tory to expansion by the binomial theorem, the co- 
efficient of V —=1 may be made less than unity when 
the real term is unity. A. M. SAwIn. 
Evansville, Wis. 
Solar constant. 


It is feared that the letter of Mr. Hazen (ScrENCE, 
i, 542) in relation to above topic may not entirely re- 
move the confusion of which he justly complains. It 
should be premised that there are two units of heat 
in common use among physicists: the smaller being 
the quantity of heat required to raise the temperature 
of one gram of water 1° C.; the larger, the quantity 
of heat required to raise the temperature of one kilo- 
gram of water 1° C. The larger of these units is 


a thousand times as great as the smaller; and. in ordi- 


nary applications, no confusion is liable to arise. In 
either case, the number of units of heat received by 
the unit-mass of water is (sensibly) proportional to 
the number of degrees of rise of temperature. . 

With regard to the ‘solar constant,’ two additional 
units are required, —a unit of surface, and a unit of 
time. This constant may be defined in general terms 


Which shall be the nee term is, 


ee 


Jury 13, 1883.] 


‘to be the number of units of sun-heat incident per- 
pendicularly on a unit-surface, in a unit of time, at 
the upper limit of the earth’s atmosphere; or it is the 
number of degrees Centigrade a unit-mass of water 
would be raised in temperature by the sun-heat inci- 
dent perpendicularly on a unit-surface, in a unit of 
time, at the upper limit of the atmosphere. The three 
units here indicated are, of course, arbitrary. But most 
physicists, following the example of Pouillet (Comp- 
tes rendus, vii. 24), take the gram, square centime- 
tre, and minute, as respectively the units of mass, 
surface, and time. With regard to time, there is no 
diversity, the minute being universally used; but, 
for mass and surface, some employ the larger units of 
a kilogram and a square metre, and hence the ap- 
arent confusion. To obtain a general expression 
or the value of the ‘solar constant,’ let 
Q = Quantity of sun-heat incident normally on a 
unit-surface in a unit of time = solar con- 
stant. 
S = Area of surface receiving the_heat. 
T = Time of receiving the heat. 
m = Unit mass of water. 
n = Number of unit masses of water heated. 
i? = Rise in temperature of the mass of water. 
Then we have 
QxSxT=nxmx te 


Consequently, when S, T, and n are severally equal 
to unity, we have Q = m X 1t°; and, when m = 1, 
Q = t° = rise in temperature of a unit-mass of 
water = value of solar constant in units of heat. 

Now, when the unit of time remains the same, but 

the units of mass and surface are changed, the value 
; of ¢° (which measures the solar constant) will be 
altered, unless both of these units are changed in the 
. Same ratio. For, from the equation Q = m X 1°, it 
mn 
portional to the magnitude of the unit of surface: 
unit of surface 
unit of mass of water " 
_ For example: using Pouillet’s units, Langley’s 
recent experiments make the solar constant = 2.84; 
‘that is, the sun-heat incident normally on one square 
centimetre, in one minute, at the upper limit of the 
atmosphere, would raise the temperature of one gram 
of water 2.84° C., or would heat 2.84 grams of water 
1° C. Now, the unit remaining the same, if we 
assume the unit of mass to be one kilogram (1,000 
grams), and the unit of surface to be one square 
metre (10,000 square centimetres), we should have 
10,000 
1,000 
: kilogram-units of heat; that is, the sun-heat incident 
: normally on one square metre, in one minute, at 
_ the upper limit of the atmosphere, would raise the 
j temperature of one kilogram of water 28.4° C., or 
would heat 28.4 kilograms of water 1° C. 
Moreover, as it requires a definite number of units 
of heat to liquefy a unit-mass of ice, or to evaporate a 
unit-mass of water, or to produce a unit of mechanical 
energy, it follows that this constant may be measured 
by either of these units. 

The exact determination of the value of this con- 
stant is a most refined and difficult experimental 
roblem; for it involves the precise estimation of 

@ amouné of solar heat absorbed in traversing the 
earth’s atmosphere, or the law of extinction of sun- 
heat in passing through it: hence it is, that, although 
Several excellent physical experimenters have at- 
tacked the problem, their results are not so accordant 


: follows that 1° varies as = but evidently Q is pro- 


hence ¢° varies as 


the value of the constant ¢° = 


SCIENCE. 


‘the one that follows. 


- - 


45 


as would be desirable. The following are some of 


the results: — 


| SOLAR CONSTANT. 
EXPeERt- Dare. | 
MENTER. *|Gram-units of heat |Kilogram - units of 
| | per square centi-| heat per square 
| metre per minute. | metre per minute. 
’ 
Pouillet . . | 1838 17.633 
Forbes - | 1842 28.47 
Crova . | 1876 23.23 
Violle . | 1876 25.40 
Langley . .| 1882 28.40 


Joun LECONTE. 
Berkeley, Cal., June 25, 1883. 


WARD'S DYNAMIC SOCIOLOGY. 


Dynamic sociology, or applied social science, as based 
upon statical sociology and the less complex sciences. 
By Lester F. Warp, A.M. 2 vols. New 
York, Appleton, 18838. 20+706; 7+690p. 8°. 

ie 

Tuts work of Mr. Ward is composed of two 
distinct parts. The first gives the outlines of 
his philosophy, as a basis for his reasoning in 
The second is a discus- 
sion of the causes and consequences of prog- 
ress, or evolution, in human society. For 
some purposes it would have been wise to 
give each part a distinct title, reserving for 
the last part the one used; but the philo- 
sophie system propounded in the first part has 
evidently been prepared as a_ basis for the 
second, and in itself would not be considered 
by the author as a complete exhibit of his 
philosophy. 

Vol. i. contains: first, an outline of the 
work, in which the author’s purposes are 
clearly set forth ; second, an historical review, 
chiefly devoted to a discussion of the philoso- 
phies of August Comte and Herbert Spencer ; 
third, the cosmic principles underlying social 
phenomena, in which the outlines of the new 
system are set forth. Under the general title 
of ‘primary aggregation,’ he discusses the 
constitution of celestial bodies and chemical 
relations. Under that of ‘ secondary aggrega- 
tion,’ he discusses biology, psychology, and 
the genesis of man. Under that of ‘ tertiary 
aggregation,’ he discusses the genesis of so- 
ciety and the characteristics of social organiza- 
tion. The purpose of this preliminary volume 
on general philosophy, and of the introduction 
to thé second volume, is tersely given by Mr. 
Ward himself, as follows : — 

‘*The purpose of the present chapter 
[chap. viii. ], as already announced, has been 
to accomplish the complete orientation of 


46 


the reader for the voyage before him. With- 
out this, much that is to come might appear 
meaningless, or at least lose its point. 

‘¢ Men think in systems. Most systematic 
treatises are unintelligible unless followed 
from the beginning and grasped in their en- 
tirety. A fundamental tone runs through 
them which prescribes the special sense of 
every line, and which is wholly unheard in 
isolated passages. The careful reader of such 
works, without necessarily acquiescing in the 
author’s views, is able at least to comprehend 
them and to do justice to them.”’ 5 

“In the following argument, now to be 
briefly stated, and subsequently to be fully 
elaborated, the statements made in this chap- 
ter, as well as those contained in the preced- 
ine volume, are to be taken as.the basis, or 
premises, and must be granted ‘for the sake 
of the argument’ at least, however unsound 
they may be deemed in themselves.” 

Elsewhere the theory is more fully elabo- 
rated, that the more complex sciences can be 
erasped only as the more simple, sciences upon 
which they are based are properly understood, 
and that anthropologic sciences in general 
must rest firmly upon physics and biology. 
Though the reader may differ from Mr. Ward 
in relation to his classification and conclusions, 
he will still be interested in the symmetry of 
his system and the perspicuity.of his presen- 
tation. 

The essential principle running through the 
treatise is, that progress in society is based 
upon the struggle for happiness in the same 
manner as biologic progress is based upon the 
struggle for existence. It is therefore a new 
system, in radical contrast with that taught in 
our schools and enunciated by the majority of 
publicists of the present day, of whom Her- 
bert Spencer is the chief. For this struggle 
for happiness the term ‘ conation’ (conari, to 
endeavor) is used, taken from Sir William 
Hamilton ; and he says, ‘‘ The term ‘ conation ’ 
will be employed in this work to represent the 
efforts which organisms put forth in seeking 
the satisfaction of their desires, and the ends 
thus sought will be designated as the ‘ ends of 
conation.’”” 

Again, the author classifies phenomena as 
genetic and teleologic. Genetic phenomena 
are such as appear in series, with natural ante- 
cedents and consequents, unaffected by design 
or purpose. Teleologic phenomena do not 
appear in natural series, the antecedents being 
physical phenomena controlled by design ex- 
isting in mind, and the consequents being 
the purposes for which the will is exercised. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 23. 


Throughout the work these two classes of phe- 
nomena are clearly distinguished ; but it is 
impossible, in a brief review, to set forth fully 
the importance of the distinction, as the author 
himself has done. In general terms, it may 
be stated that biologie progress is due to the 
struggle for existence, and inyolves genetic 
phenomena; while sociologic progress is due 
to the struggle for happiness (conation), and 
involves teleologic phenomena. 

‘« All progress is brought about by adapta- 
tion. Whatever view we may take of the 
cause of progress, it must be the result of a 
correspondence between the organism and the 
changed environment. This, in, 
sense, is adaptation. But adaptation is of 
two kinds. One form of adaptation is pas- 
sive or consensual, the other form is active or 
previsional. The former represents natural 
progress, the latter artificial progress. The 
former results in a growth, the latter in a 
manufacture. The one is the genetic process, 
the other the teleological process. In passive 


adaptation the means and the end are in im- | 


mediate proximity, the variation takes place 
by infinitesimal differences; it is a process of 
differentiation. In active adaptation, on the 
contrary, the end is remote from the means ; 
the latter are adjusted to secure the former 
by the exercise of foresight; it is a process 
of calculation.’ 

By the term ‘dynamic sociology,’ as used 
by the author, is to be understood a systematie 
treatise on ‘the forces which impel mankind 
into social relations, to develop social organi- 
zation, and to provide and modify the insti- 
tutions of society. The subject-matter of 
dynamic sociology, appearing in the second 
volume, is arranged in the following order, as 
set forth by the author : — 

‘¢The remainder of this work will chiefly 
consist in the discussion of six terms; and 
therefore, before entering upon such discus- 
sion, it is a primary necessity to furnish rigid 
definitions of each of these terms. 

‘« For a purpose which will presently appear, 


we will assign to each of these terms a letter, — 
which will fix their order in a series not ad- 


mitting of any alteration. 
‘“‘The first of these terms, ebioh we will 


designate by the letter A, is happiness; the — 


second, which we will designate by B, is prog- 
ress; the third, which we will designate by C, 
is dynamic action; the fourth, which we will 
designate by D, is dynamic Ce the fifth, 
which we will designate by E, is knowledge ; 
and the sixth, which we yall designate by F, 
is education. 


its widest . 


_ follows: 
; ‘* A. Happiness. — Excess of pleasure, or 
- enjoyment, over pain, or discomfort. 

‘*B, Progress. — Success in harmonizing 
natural phenomena with human advantage. 

**C, Dynamic action. — Employment of the 
intellectual, inventive, or indirect method of 
conation. 

‘*D. Dynamic opinion. — Correct views of 
the relations of man to the universe. 

**E. Knowledge. — Acquaintance with the 
environment. 

‘* FB. Edueation. — Universal distribution of 
extant knowledge. 
j ‘Corresponding to these six terms thus 
defined, there are six theorems of dynamic 
sociology, which require to be elaborated and 
established, and to each of which a separate 
chapter will be devoted. : 

‘* Continuing the literal designations, these 
theorems are the following : — 

‘* A. Happiness is the ultimate end of cona- 
tion. 

‘*B. Progress is the direct means to happi- 
~ ness; it is, therefore, the first proximate end 

of conation, or primary means to the ultimate 

end. 

**C. Dynamic action is the direct means to 
progress; it is, therefore, the second proxi- 
mate end of conation, or secondary means to 
the ultimate end. 

‘“*D. Dynamic opinion is the direct means 
to dynamic action; it is, therefore, the third 
proximate end of conation, or tertiary means 
to the ultimate end. 

‘““E. Knowledge is the direct means to 

- dynamic opinion; it is, therefore, the fourth 
proximate end of conation, or fourth means to 
the ultimate end. 

‘*F, Education is the direct means to knowl- 
edge ; it is, therefore, the fifth proximate end 

of conation, and is the fifth and initial means 
to the ultimate end.’’ 

The remaining six chapters of the work, 
namely, chapters ix., x., xi., xii., xili., xiv., 
treat of these six subjects seriatim. 
In chapter ix., then, the doctrine is set forth 
__ that happiness is the ultimate end of conation, 

or human endeavor. Here Mr. Ward discusses 
_ the nature and genesis of feeling, as the proper 
basis of a philosophic system involving the 
interests of man; and he subsequently en- 
deavors to show, that, what function is to 
biology, feeling is to sociology. And after a 
discussion of the intellectual method as com- 
pared with the physical method of conation, 
and seyeral collateral subjects, he sets forth 


+ ig i 4 


by _. % 
Jury 13, 1883,] ; SCIENCE, 47 
__ * The definitions of these six terms are as_ the doctrine that degree of feeling is con- 


comitant with degree of organization, and that 
the pursuit of happiness by man leads to 
higher physical, mental, and social organi- 
zation; that, in turn, such higher organization 
increases feeling, and thus increases pleasure, 
and thus increases happiness. 

Chapter x. is devoted to the consideration of 
progress as the primary means to happiness, 
and includes : a discussion of the difference be- 
tween dynamic sociology and moral science ; 
then a discussion of the growth of the means 
for communicating ideas, — language in all its 
forms; then of the arts and industries which 
are developed in the pursuit of subsistence ; 
then the origin of government and the institu- 
tions of government; and, finally, the origin 
and institutions of religion. , 

Chapter xi. is entitled *‘ Action,’ —a term 
chosen in preference to the more common ex- 
pression, conduct. The chapter is chiefly de- 
voted to the discussion of a systematic classi- 
fication of actions, first, as involuntary and 
voluntary; and yoluntary actions are again 
divided into impulsive or sensori-motor, and 
deliberative or ideo-motor. Each of the latter 
classes consists of two groups ; namely, actions 
possessing moral quality, and actions devoid 
of moral quality. 

It is no part of the author’s purpose to treat 
of action possessing moral quality ; although, 


_in order to make clear the irrelevancy of such 


actions to his discussion, he occupies some 
space in going over the ground usually covered 
by writers on ethics. Actions devoid of moral 
quality are those upon which progress essen- 
tially depends, and chiefly that branch which 
falls under the more general head of delibera- 
tive or ideo-motor actions. They are further 
subdivided into static and dynamic, the former 
group embracing the great bulk of human 
activities in the performance of the ordinary du- 
ties of life. Static actions of this class do not 
result in progress, but tend simply to preserve 
the existing social status. Dynamic actions 
constitute the really progressive class of actions. 

The chief fact which distinguishes dynamic 
actions from all others is, that they are per- 
formed by the indirect or inventive method. 
All the progress that has taken place in society 
has been due to such action. However spon- 
taneous such progress may appear, it has, 
nevertheless, been the result of teleologic meth- 
ods in adjusting natural phenomena in such a 
manner that they will accomplish desired ends, 
—remote in themselves, but foreseen by the 
intelligence of the developing intellect. The 
results are the essential elements of human 


48 


-art ; and consequently civilization is fundamen- 
tally and wholly artificial. Here Mr. Ward 
introduces a series of illustrations of typical 
dynamic actions performed in the course of 
social progress, for the purpose of elucidating 
the central idea which he desires to embody in 
the term ‘ dynamic action.’ 

Chapter xii. is a discussion of opinion as 
the direct means to progressive action. As 
dynamic actions are ideo-motor, such actions 
must result from the possession by the agent 
of certain underlying and directing ideas. 
The truism that ‘ideas rule the world’ simply 
means, that opinions determine actions. But 
in order to produce dynamic actions, — that 
is, actions which will, in fact, result in progress, 
—it is essential that the opinions which under- 
lie them be in rigid harmony with objective 
reality. Dynamic action can only flow from 
-eorrect opinion. 

Opinions must not only be correct, they 
must be important. Unless important, no 
appreciable dynamic result will flow therefrom. 
The most important opinions, or ideas, are 
arranged under four general heads: first, cos- 
mologic ideas; second, biologic ideas; third, 
anthropologie ideas ; fourth, sociologic ideas. 
Correct ideas belonging to these four great 
classes constitute the primary motive power to 
all human progress. 

Chapter xiii. is upon knowledge, — the im- 
mediate data of ideas. Opinions cannot be, 
directly reached. They are not subject to the 
will, either of the party holding them or of any 
other : they are simply consequents. Obviously, 
the antecedents of ideas consist in the data 
possessed by the mind relative to the mate- 
rials and phenomena of nature. Such data are 
grouped by the author under the general term 
‘knowledge.’ Knowledge, therefore, must first 
exist ; and, if it exist, no effort need be expend- 
ed in determining opinion. In this chapter 
the author shows that the chasm which in fact 
separates the intelligence of the lowest and 
the highest classes of mankind is chiefly due 
to inequality in the possession of the data for 
thought. He shows that the capacity of the 
mind is, in any particular class of society, prac- 
tically equal; that, even in what are known as 
semi-civilized or barbaric races, the capacity 
exists for a far greater amount of knowledge 
than is ever obtained. 

Chapter xiv. is on education as the direct 
means to knowledge. The possession of 
knowledge, therefore, if it could be secured, 
would constitute the true means to the proxi- 
mate end, and thus secure the ultimate purpose. 
But the human mind is so constituted that it 


SCIENCE. 


bai 


[Vou. IL, No. 23. 


cannot be safely intrusted to secure this end 
for itself; for the individual cannot understand 
the necessity for this knowledge, or guide 
himself wisely in its attainment, prior to its 
acquisition: that is, the period of acquisition 
is in the earlier years of the life of the indi- 
vidual, when he must be guided by others. 
The initial means in the entire series is there- 
fore education, actively considered as a func- 
tion of society. 

The work closes with a condensed but fun- 
damental treatment of the general subject of 
popular education, in which appears a review 
of the various theories that have been held, and 
that still control human action on this subject. 
He divides the general body of publie opinion 
into five parts, which he denominates ‘ the five 
kinds of education.’ These are: first, edu- 
cation of experience; second, of discipline ; 
third, of culture ; fourth, of research; fifth, of 
information. The first four of these kinds 
of education are considered for the purpose 
of showing, that, however important in them- 
selves, they are insufficient to accomplish the 
great end of securing an artificial civilization 
as the product of direct social action. 
last of these forms of education, therefore, is 
the only one which embodies such promise. 

The author sees little hope in the imperfect 
and desultory attempts of individuals to secure 
this great need in society. To render it of any 
value, he claims that education must be the sys- 
tematic work of society in its organized capa- 
city. Ceasing to exert itself longer in yain 
attempts to secure directly the various proxi- 
mate ends, society should vigorously adopt this 
inital means, and concentrate its energies on the 
work which is clearly practicable, — that of fur- 
nishing to all its members the data actually in 
its possession. 

Under the heading ‘ Matter of education ” 
the author briefly, but without dogmatism, dis- 
cusses the general theorem that the subject- 
matter should be a knowledge of nature, —a 
knowledge of the environment of the individ- 
ual and of mankind. His treatment of the 
methods of popular instruction is brief, main- 
taining that this is merely a matter of supply 
in the politico-economic sense, which will cer- 
tainly come as soon as there shall be an ade- 


quate demand. He says, ‘‘ The methods and — 
the teachers have always been as good as the © 


popular notions of education, and they will 
doubtless continue to be so.’’ The only crite- 


rion which he does lay down with regard to 


method is that it be teleologic. He insists that 
education, like every other department of civili- 
zation, must be an artificial product; that it 


The. 


tos. 


ae San 


JULY 13, 1883.] 


_ must be undertaken deliberately, planned by 
‘human intelligence, and achieved through hu- 
man effort. 
The author discusses, in a broad and philo- 
sophic manner, a great body of questions in 
- which civilized, man is deeply interested. He 
has therefore written for a wide reading; and 
happily his style, in its essential character- 
istics, will not repel those to whom it is pre- 
sented. 


GEOLOGY OF SOUTHERN PENNSYL- 
: VANIA. 


Second geological survey of Pennsylvania. — Report 
of progress T*.—The geology of Bedford and 
Fulton counties. By J. J. Stevenson. Harris- 
burg, Survey, 1882. 154382 p.,2 maps. 8°. 
Proressor Stevenson has made a detailed 

survey of the district, which has led to but few 
_ material changes in the map of the first survey. 
‘The descriptions of the structural geology are 
careful, plain, and easily understood; and the 
second part of the report, consisting of a day- 
book of observations along the roads, with ref- 
erence to outcrops, mines, and quarries, will 
doubtless prove very useful. 

It is well that Professor Stevenson has not 
completely neglected paleontology in his de- 
__ seriptions of the various formations; but this 

feature of his report is capable of much im- 
_ provement, only about sixty species being 

cited as occurring in a section that extends 

from the upper coal-measures to the calcifer- 
ous. The value of his determinations, and 
the scientific interest of his work, would have 
been much increased, if care had been taken 
to collect and determine the fossils found in 
each group, and lists of them published, 
together with the localities in which they oc- 
curred. It is not meant to infer that Profes- 

'sor Stevenson’s determinations are incorrect, 

-but simply that he gives no evidence in sup- 

port of them. For instance: he says, ‘‘ Some 

- of these layers contain fossils which are dis- 


ASTRONOMY. 

Eclipses of Jupiter's satellites.— Cornu pro- 
‘poses to observe these eclipses photometrically, com- 
paring the light of the satellite during the time 
_ while it is entering or emerging from the shadow 
_ with that of an artificial satellite visible in the same 

field, and made to vary in brightness at pleasure by 
“an adjustable ‘ cat’s eye,’ so called. He shows that 
the moment when the light of the satellite is half 


SCIENCE. 


? 
49 


tinctly Chemung, none whatever of Portage 
type being present; but, owing to the weath- 
ering, the forms can be identified only generi- 
eally.’? The writer does not think he is alone 
in doubting whether there are any fossils which 
are distinctively Chemung. At any rate, it 
would be interesting to know what these gen- 
eraare. He mentions no fossils in his Hudson 
River group, and in the Trenton mentions only 
three forms, which are also very common at the 
top of the lower Silurian. The director of the 
survey, in his letter of transmittal, makes 
the following curious remark, which seems to 
indicate a peculiar conception of the objects of 
paleontology. He says, ‘‘ Paleontologists will 
find it an easy task to copy out from the index, 
separately, the whole list of fossil names, and 
arrange them afterwards to suit their own pur- 
poses.’’ Certainly, paleontologists do not want 
to arrange fossils to suit themselves, but to 
find out how nature has arranged them. The 
two maps accompanying the report are of very 
indifferent quality, as it is difficult, especially 
over the Broad Top area, to follow on the maps 
the descriptions in the text. Mr. Stevenson 
disclaims responsibility for several things in 
them, which may account for the discrepancies 
between the text and the maps. Professor Les- 
ley seems to think that the maps may be easily 
followed by a person familiar with the country ; 
but the maps should have been constructed so 
that others, also, may be able to understand 
them. He seems to apply preconceived no- 
tions of orography, whether it agrees with the 
geology as studied in the field or not; and, if 
the responsibility of preparing the maps rested 
with the same person who has done the field- 
work and prepared the text, the result would 
probably be more intelligible. Mr. Stevenson 
mentions a bed 195 feet above the Pittsburg 
coal. This would apparently belong to the 
upper series, considered Permian in other re- 
ports of the survey; but this does not appear 
to be represented anywhere on the map. 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


that of its unobscured condition is the one which 
can be most accurately determined, and urges that 
the photometric observations should be so arranged 
as to give an automatic record. Admiral Mouchez 
has authorized the application of the necessary ap- 
paratus to one of the large equatorials of the Paris 
observatory. 

M. Cornu does not seem to be aware that a very 
similar, but really more precise, method of observa- 


50 SCIENCE. 


tion has been in use at the,Harvard college obser- 
vatory for the past two years. Prof. Pickering, 
however, very wisely prefers to compare the eclipsing 
satellite with one of the other satellites, or with an 
image of the planet, rather than with an artificial 
star; and he uses polarization apparatus instead of a 
cat’s eye to equalize the brightness of the objects 
compared. — (Comptes rendus, June 4.) ©. A. ¥. 
[40 
MATHEMATICS. 

Theory of functions. —In a series of three me- 
moirs, M. Appell has reproduced in a more extended 
form a number of investigations which he has 
recently communicated to the French academy of 
sciences. The first of the three memoirs treats of 
uniform functions of an analytical point (2, y); the 
term ‘analytical point’ meaning simply the system of 
values of (a, y) formed by any arbitrary value of x 
and the, say, m corresponding values of y, The first 
section of the memoir contains three theorems con- 
cerning the development in rational fractions of such 
functions. In the second section a uniform function 
is defined, and also the poles and essential singular 
points (points singuliers essentiels, Weierstrass’ wesent- 
liche singuldére stelle). Functions with a finite num- 
ber of singular points are then taken up, and a 
generalization of a known theorem concerning the 
coefficients in the development of a uniform func- 
tion is given: viz., if F(a, y) is a uniform function 
of the analytical point (a, y), haying a finite number 
of singular points (aj, 6;), and if R; are the residues 
relatively to these points; if, further, in a certain 


region of the analytical point (@= ee, lim 2 = Ch), 


v=o . 
we have F(z,y) = = A® a — then we have 
y=—o vay 

the relation 

AD +A +...+A™ = Ri+Rot... +R, 

Tn this, 7 has all values from 1 up to n, and & has all 
values from 1 up to m; m denoting the number of 
values of y corresponding to a given value of 2. 
After a brief review of some of the properties of the 
Abelian integrals, the author gives a generalization 
of a holomorphic function of x in the interior of a 
circle whose centre is a in terms of ascending powers 
of (c—a). The subject of functions with an in- 
finite number of singular points is then taken up, and 
a generalization is first given of Mittag-Zeffler’s 
theorem concerning these functions; viz., if a series 
of distinct analytical points (a,,6,)... (505): ahs 
are such that lim. (a,, b,) = (ab) for » = o, and if 
F(x, y), Fo(a, y)... F(a, y) isa series of rational 
functions of « and y which become infinite only in 
the two points (a@,, b,) and (a, b) respectively, then 
there exists a uniform function ®(z, y) having only 
the point (a, b) as an essential singular point, and 
admitting as poles the points (q@,, b,) in such a man- 


ner that the difference ®(x, y) — F(a, y) is regular 


in the point (q,, D,). 

The second memoir by M. Appell is a continuation 
of the first. In it he considers the decomposition into 
prime factors of a uniform function of an analyti- 


(Vou. IL, No. 28. 


cal point (x,y) having only one essential singular 
point, and also gives a theory of doubly periodic 
functions with essential singular points. The author 
examines, first, functions having in a parallelogram of 
periods a finite number of singular points, and gives 
an interesting theorem; viz., the sum of the residues 
of F (u) relative to the singular points situated in a 
given parallelogram of periods is equal to zero. A 
general expression is then obtained for a doubly 
periodic uniform function F (uw) having in‘a given 
parallelogram of periods only one singular point. __ 

In the third memoir, M. Appell considers the de- 
velopment of functions in series inside an area 
bounded by arcs of circles. These three memoirs 
by M. Appell, taken with a memoir by M. Poincaré, 


which precedes them, and which has already been © 


referred to in these pages, constitute a very valuable 
series of papers on the modern theory of functions. 
— (Acta math., i. no. 2.) T. Cc. [41 
PHYSICS. 
Acoustics, 

Upper limit of audibility.—Pauchon and Ber- 
trand have investigated the question of the effect of 
the intensity of the sound upon this limit. A siren 
blown by steam with pressures varying from 0.5 to 
1.5 atmospheres gave from 24,000 to 30,000 double 
vibrations as a limit; but, with certain modifications 
and a higher pressure (24 atmospheres), the most acute 
sound that could be produced by the instrument, due 
to 86,000 vibrations, was still heard. Metallic rods 
of different lengths, set into longitudinal vibration 
in the usual manner, gave the following results: 1. 
The length of the rod giving the highest perceptible 
sound is independent of its diameter ; 2. For steel, 
copper, and silver, the lengths are proportional to 
the velocity of sound in those media, These results 
disagree with those reached with the siren. The 
authors find, however, that, if the ear is aided bya 
resonating trumpet, the limit is slightiy raised ; 
that the limit is raised with substances like rosin, 
producing the most energetic friction ; and that the 
sound, even when too high to affect the ear, still acts 
on a sensitive flame. 

These results of Pauchon with the siren agree with 
the fact observed several years since by Dr. H. P.. 
Bowditch of Boston, that, with a Konig’s bar of 
exceedingly large diameter, the limit of audibility is 
higher than with one of the ordinary size, — (Comp- 
tes rendus, April 9.) c. R. c. [42 

Production of whispered vowels.— Lefort 
calls attention to the wide range of whispered vowels 
that can be artificially produced by blowing across 
resonant tubes or spheres: ou, 0 (closed), 0 (open), 
U, eu, @, i, € (closed), é (open), —all being produced as 
the capacity of the resonator is diminished. By 
diminishing the length of an open tube the vowels 
a, &, e, eu, u, &, é, 7, are successively heard, while 
ou, 6, 0, are obtained by closing the upper end of the 
tube more or less.— (Comptes rendus, April 23.) 
Cc, R. CG. [43 

Transmission of sounds by gases.— Ney- 
reneuf has studied the relative transmission of sound 


bd 


| Jury 13, 1883.) 


7 through air, carbonic oxide, carbonic acid, and illu- 
minating-gas. The sound is transmitted through a 
tube two metres long, containing the gas experimented 
upon, and the intensity is studied by noticing the 
distance at which a sensitive flame ceases to be acted 

upon by it. He finds that air and carbonic oxide 

_ have the same transmissive power, air and illuminat- 

_ ing-gas give very variable results, and carbonic acid 

_ has a much greater transmissive power than air, A 

_ table of results for air and carbonic acid is given. — 

_ (Comptes rendus, April 30.) ©. R. c. [44 


Experimental demonstration of velocity of 
sound.—Griveaux arranges a glass tube and a bar 
of pine wood of equal length, so that the passage of 
a pulse through either the column of air in the 
tube or the wooden rod shall move one of two light 
screws, and so break an electric contact. The cur- 
rent from a battery is divided, and passes into the two 
coils of a differential galvanometer; the light screw 
_ resting on the end of the rod being placed in one 

circuit, and a similar screw, resting on a membrane 

closing the end of the tube, in the other. The re- 
_ sistances are so arranged that the needle of the dif- 
ferential galyanometer remains normally undeflected. 

If a sound is produced by striking a drum, the needle 

of the galvanometer is deflected in such a direction 

as to show that the contact is broken by the move- 
) ment of that screw resting on the end of the wooden 
rod, thus illustrating the greater velocity of the 
sound-wave in wood than in air. —(Journ. phys., 
f May.) ©.-B. c. [45 


P ENGINEERING. 


bs Electric stop for steam-engines.— Mr. Tate, an 
_ English engineer, has combined the Leclanché bat- 
tery, an electro-magnet, an auxiliary steam-cylinder, 
and a stop, to the closing of the stop-valve of the 
steam-engine, if its sudden stoppage should become 
necessary. It has been applied by Mr. Tate to the 

{ driving-engines of his large woollen-mills in Bradford. 
_ The mechanism consists of a weighted suspension 
4 rod attached to the stop-valve by a bracket, and actu- 
ated by a small steam-cylinder, the piston of which 
is supplied with steam through a valve which is 
opened by the action of the electro-magnet and the 
weighted rod. The movement of this auxiliary en- 
gine shuts the stop-valve of the engine in a small 
fraction of the time usually required to close it by 
hand. The wires of the battery are carried to vari- 
ous parts of the mill, so that the engine can be * shut 
down’ at any instant, and from any one of a number 
of promptly accessible points. This arrangement is 
proposed to be attached to the engines of steam-vessels, 
the wires being led to the bridge, and to other parts 
of the vessel where the officers can easily reach the 
button. — (London times, Oct. 21.) RB. A. T. [46 


_ Forms of steamers.— Two vessels recently built 
by the Messrs. J. & G. Thompson have been compared 
to determine their relative economy as a means of 
transportation as affected by a considerable differ- 
ence in proportions, One was 390 feet long, 42 feet 
beam, and drew 18 feet of water : the second was 375 
by 45 by 20 feet. The longer vessel had less fine ends 


_ = 
$ 


SCIENCE. 51 


than the broader ship. The former required 5,100- 
horse power to drive her 15 knots an hour, while the 
latter only demanded 3,900. At 13 knots, the power 
demanded was the same for both ; but at higher 
speeds the difference became greater and greater, and 
more and more in favor of the shorter, broader, but 
finer ended vessel. The gain to be expected from 
giving ships greater beam, and, at the same time, 
finer ends, is expected to be observed in larger and 
faster vessels. — (Mechanics, May 26.) Rk. H. 7. [47 

Efficiency of the steam-engine.— Professor R. R. 
Werner, of the Technical high school at Darmstadt, 
publishes a paper describing his trial of a compound 
engine driving a mill in Augsburg. The engine has 
an indicated power of 132 horses. The cylinders 
have a proportion of 2.75 to 1; they are steam-jacket- 
ed, as is the intermediate reservoir ; the ratio of ex- 
pansion is 14. The boilers carry a pressure of about 
7 atmospheres, and the steam supplied contains 3 
per cent water. The steam-jackets condense about 
11 percent of the steam, and the cylinders demand 
about 7 kilograms (15.4 lbs.) of steam per horse-power 
and per hour, beside that condensed in the jackets, 
This is about the amount required as a minimum in 
the best-known English and American engines. In 
this country, a very similar figure has been reached by 
Corliss and by Leavitt. — (Zeitschr. ver. deutsch. ing., 
May.) 8. H. T. [48 

‘Compound’ locomotives.—M. Mallet com- 
municates to the French society of engineers a note 
from M. Borodine, giving the results of experiments 
to determine the relative economy of the simple and 
the compound system of engine for locomotives. The 
engines experimented with were those designed for 
the railway from Bayonne to Biarritz by M. Mallet. 
The trials extended over a considerable period of 
time, and the comparisons were made fairly com- 
plete. The result showed the compound system to 
have an economy of from ten to twenty per cent, 
according to the conditions under which they are 
carried out. The variation in the ratio of expan- 
sion is very greatly restricted in the compound 
engine. The use of the steam-jackets with which 
the engines were provided did not prove to be of 
advantage. The expenditure of steam was greater 
when they were in use than when they were shut 
off. —(Mem. soc. ing. civ.) BR. H. T. [49 


CHEMISTRY. 
( Organic.) 

Compounds of benzotrichloride with phenols 
and phenylamines. — When a mixture of one mole- 
cule of benzotrichloride and two molecules of phenol 
is heated gently, O. Débner finds that the following 
reaction takes place: — 

O,H,0OH 
C,H,CCl, + 20,H,OH = O,H,CCl ® + 2HOI. 
ots 
The remaining chlorine atom is replaced by a 
hydroxyl group when the product is heated with 
water, forming dioxytriphenylcarbinol, — 
(OH), _/0,H,0H 


C,H,“ \C,H,OH” 


52 


By reduction, dioxytriphenylmethan 
Bee 
(age ne) 
is formed. An analogous reaction takes place if 
resorcine is used instead of phenol. * The resulting 
resorcine benzein, by reduction, gives tetraoxytri- 
phenylmethan, — 
C,H,CH CHG OLS: 
With primary aromatic amines, benzotrichloride 
united readily. When added to a mixture of di- 
methylaniline and zine chloride, it formed malachite 
green, — 
(OH) CyHiN(CH3)2 
Cry CyHyN(CH)» 
By reduction, this substance gave the corresponding 
leuko-base, — 
H C,H,N(CHg)>. 
CH, CoH (CH) | 
The base malachite green was easily decomposed, 
when heated with hydrochloric acid, into dimethyl- 
amine and benzoyldimethylaniline. This reaction 
points. to the following structure for malachite 
green: — 


(CHy)> pe = G as ie (CH) >. 


The action of benzoyl clam upon hydroxyl or 
amido compounds seems, therefore, to be normal to 
the para position with respect to the amido or the 
hydroxyl group. — (Ann. chem., ccxvii. 223.) C.F. M. 
50 
GEOLOGY. ! 
Lithology: 

The Potsdam and St. Peters sandstones. — 
The surface induration of the friable Potsdam and 
St. Peters sandstones, as determined by macroscopic 
observations in 1871-73, was brought to the notice 
of the readers of ScrmeNcE some time ago (i. 
146), while a recent interesting paper by Prof. 
R. D. Irving gives the results of his microscopic 
investigations on the same subject. Irving finds, 
as Sorby had previously, that ordinary quartz grains, 
formerly rounded and worn, have been built out 
and supplied with crystal facets from silica depos- 

‘ited later on them. He finds that the induration of 
the above-mentioned sandstones arises from the depo- 
sition of intersticial quartz cementing the grains. 
The deposited quartz is found to be optically ori- 
ented, the same as the enclosed grain, which is dis- 
tinguished by its cloudiness and worn surface, and 
frequently by a coating of oxide of iron upon it. 

To the deposition of quartz upon worn quartz 
grains is ascribed the occurrence of quartz crystals in 
the Potsdam sandstone described in 1882 by Rev. A. 
A. Young. Credit should have been given by both 
Irying and Young to Rev. John Murrish for calling 
attention to the occurrence of quartz crystals in 
Potsdam sandstone in 1870-72 (Bull. Wise. acad., ii. 
32), especially since Murrish’s observations were dis- 
credited at the time. 


SCIENCE. 


All quartz crystals in sandstone have not this 
derivation, as the writer showed for the Lake Supe- 
rior sandstone in 1880, the crystals of which come 
from old eruptive rocks owing to the decomposition 
of the matrix. It is pleasant to find my earlier 
observations on the surface induration of the Wis- 
consin sandstones, and the formation in them of 
quartz crystals, sustained by the much more complete 
and valuable work of Irving, made, as his was, with- 
out any knowledge of mine. 

Irving holds that the quartz deposited may come 
from the action of water on the occasional felspar 
particles in the rock, although sometimes from an 
external source. He further regards the induration 
of quartzites and quartz schists as caused by the 


same deposition of intersticial quartz. — (Amer. jowrn. « 


sc., xxv. 401.) M. E. W. [SL 


Antase as an alteration product of titanite.— 
The titanite in a biotite amphibole granite from the 
Troad was found by Mr. J. S. Diller to be replaced 
by a light wine-yellow to honey-yellow mineral, 
showing, under the microscope, quadratic and rhom- 
bic sections. The former are isotropic, and have a 
well-marked cleavage parallel to their sides; the 
latter are strongly doubly refracting, extinguish 
parallel to the diagonal, and have one cleavage par- 
allel to the short diagonal and another to the edges. 
In order to isolate the substance, the finely pulver- 
ized rock was separated into two portions, one of 
lighter and the other of heavier specific gravity than 
2.72, by means of the potassium-iodine-mereury solu- 
tion. The yellow mineral was found in the second 
portion, which contained also iron ore, zircon, and 
apatite. The ore was removed by the electro-magnet, 
and the apatite by nitric acid. By means of the cad- 
mium-boron-tungstate solution it was shown that the 
yellow mineral had a specific gravity between 3.6 and 
4.5. Some grains were picked out, and found to be 
insoluble in hot aqua regia. 

The mixed zircon and yellow mineral powder gave 
a reaction for titanium, while the pure zircon would 
not: hence it was inferred that the mineral contained 
titanium. Its angles were found to be 98° 24° and 
136° 16’, while the corresponding ones of antase are 
97° 51’ and 136° 36’. From its optical, chemical, 
and crystallographic characters, it was then inferred 
that the yellow mineral was antase. — (Neues jahrb. 
miner., 1883.) M. E. W. [52 


q GHOGRAPHY. 


(South America.) 
The Puno railroad, Peru.—Dr. R. Copeland 


gives a readable account of a journey over this re- 


markable railroad from its beginning at Mollendo on 
the coast, through Arequipa, to Puno on Lake Titi- 


caca, and of his farther travels by boat on the lake, 


and by stage, beyond to La Paz in Bolivia, The 
features that attracted his special attention were the 
deep, narrow valleys followed by the road in its sharp: 
windings while ascending from one pampa level to 
the next; the broad, flat, barren pampas at great and 
greater altitudes; and the superb views of the vol- 


canic peaks and ranges of the Cordillera, — Misti, 


[Vou. IL, No. 23... 


Jury 13, 1883.] 


; Chaycam, and Pichupichu, eighteen to nineteen thou- 
sand feetin height. On the pampa of La Joya (4,100 
feet) he saw countless hillocks of pure, sharp sand 
: (médanos), in half-moon form, with the curve to 
the west or windward (see Scrence, i. 488). A 
; mirage gave these white hills the appearance of drift- 
ice in an arctie sea.—(Deutsch. geogr. bliitter, vi. 
1883, 105.) Ww. M. D. [53 
: Colombia.— R. B. White, for several years resi- 
dent in Colombia, and a companion of Stiibel and 
Reiss in some of their expeditions, furnishes a sum- 
Mary account of the more attractive parts of this 
republic, and of its productions, and chance of devel- 
opment. Several of the rivers that flow northward 
between parallel ranges of the Cordillera are navi- 
gable for small steamers for many miles into the in- 
terior, opening districts well adapted to agriculture, 
and well supplied with timber and mineral products. 
_ Above the low plains the climate is healthy. A good 
share of the world’s platinum supply is obtained 
from the upper valley of the San Juan, and gold 
oceurs in profitable quantity in many of the river- 
gravels. Brief mention is made of an ascent of the 
snowy volcano, Puracé; and the extensive view from 
the Cerro Munchique, nearly ten thousand feet high, 
west of Popayan, is highly praised. The geological 
observations on the origin of mountain and valley 
form do not carry conviction, and the frequent men- 
tion of volcanic upheaval and valleys of fracture re- 
mind one of the theories of fifty years ago. — (Proc. 
roy. geogr. soc., Vv. 1883, 249.) Ww. M. D. [54 
(Africa.) 
_The Kongo. — Dr. Pechuel-Loesche, a member of 
the German-African expedition to Loango in 1873-76, 
and later in charge at Stanley Pool while Stanley 
went to Europe, recently read an address on the 
Kongo and the neighboring mountains of western 
_ Africa before the German geographical congress at 
_ Frankfort. The river is remarkable for the rapids 
all along its course, and especially in its narrow 
__ passage through the mountains below Stanley Pool, 
where it falls nine hundred and twenty-eight feet in 
some three hundred and forty miles, Of the several 
falls in this part of its course, only one is vertical, 
that of Isangila, with a height of sixteen feet. There 
are two periods of high water, with a rise of twenty 
feet, when the falls disappear in a uniform rushing 
flow. The water rises from September to January, 
falls from January to March, attains its greatest 
height in the rainy months (April and May), and its 
lowest level in July and August. Many of the 
mountain brooks have cut deep channels, and join 
the main stream on a level; but some of the larger 
- rivers of the interior, flowing over horizontal rocks, 
 haye not cut their way so deeply, and, on joining the 
_ Kongo, form cataracts. Thus the Luenga falls 
three hundred feet, and the Luvubi five hundred 
feet. (This, if correctly reported, is certainly a 
yery abnormal arrangement.) The mountain belt is 
about two hundred miles wide, rising from a sloping 
plain at about one thousand feet to rounded and 
monotonous elevations with a maximum of three 
thousand feet. The higher land is grassy, with small 


SCIENCE. 53 


trees and apparently leafless bushes : the more lux- 
uriant growth of lofty trees and palms is hidden in 
the valleys. It is these deep and steep-sided valleys 
that make the rather open upland difficult to 
traverse. Near the river, the natives have destroyed 
all the forest-trees, either by burning or cutting. The 
villages are built on high and bare summits. Dr. 
Pechuel-Loesche regarded the Makoko (ruler of the 
stream), with whom de Brazza had made a treaty two 
years ago (SCIENCE, i. 7), as a local ruler of no general 
authority. The Makoko’s son had reported that his 
father had ceded no land to de Brazza, and that he 
had no French flag in his possession. There are four 
Makokos in this region; and none of them has a right 
of precedence over the others, or any title to be 
sovereign of the Bateke population of this part of 
the Kongo. — (Proc. roy. geogr. soc., vy. 1883, 286.) 
W. M. D. [55 

The muatiamvo of the southern Kongo basin. 
— Max Buchner, the fourth European who has been 
in this region in the last two centuries, spent half 
a year at the residence of the ‘muatiamvo,’ or king 
(ScIENCE, i. 19), and reports on the peculiar form 
of his government. The kingdom on the southern 
side of the Kongo basin, the special field of the 
German-African explorations, includes an area about 
as large as Germany. Its population can hardly 
exceed two millions, and its power cannot compare 
with that of Mtesa’s country, farther east, where 
an army of a hundred thousand men can take the 
field. Here the army is not more than one thousand 
strong at the highest ; and Buchner says he could 
go where he chose with fifty European soldiers, 
if they were not attacked by that more dreaded 
enemy, the African fever. And yet, through a large 
part of south-western Africa, the muatiamvo is the 
greatest native power. The most notable peculiarity 
of the government consists in the presence of a 
second high authority besides the muatiamyo, 
namely, the ‘lukokessa,’ or queen: she is not the 
wife of the king, who has some sixty wives of his 
own, but is free and independent of him, having her 
own chief consort, the ‘shamoana,’ and numerous 
frequently changing husbands of lower order. Buch- 
ner traces the origin of this form of government, 
and gives a list of thirteen muatiamvos, down to 
Shanana or Naoesh-a-kat, the present king, and de- 
seribes the different parts of the kingdom and its 
neighboring states. — (Deutsche geogr. blitter., vi. 
1883, 56.) W. M. D. [56 

BOTANY. 

Pollination of Rutaceae.— Urban has studied the 
adaptations for fertilization in a considerable number 
of species of this heterogeneous order, using living 
material at the Berlin botanic garden. As few of the 
genera have been previously studied in this respect, 
a rather full translation of his tabulated summary 
is given. : 

I. MONOCLINOUS SPECIES. 
A. With dichogamous (protandrous) flowers. 

1. Nutation successively places the dehiscent an- 
thers at the point which the receptive stigma occu- 
pies later, 


See es ae | Be ae es Lk i ; Zt 


" 


54 SCIENCE. 


a. Style undeveloped in the staminate stage. 

a. The filaments rise from their original horizon- 
tal position, place themselves against the ovary, re- 
sume their original position, and again become erect, 
but without lengthening; petals plane; self-pollina- 
tion usually impossible: Ruta. 

8. The originally short, erect filaments length- 
en, curye inwards, and again straighten; petals 
united below in a tube; close pollination possible 
by gravitation: Coleonema. 

b. Style developed in the staminate stage, though 
not always to its full length; so placed as to oppose 
self-pollination. 

— Flowers zygomorphic. 

a. The stamens which lie on the lower lip suc- 
cessively bend upward, and, after dehiscence, resume 
their original position; the end of the style likewise 
bends up at maturity: Dictamnus. 

8. The stamens, originally bent upwards, suc- 
cessively straighten at maturity, then bend outward; 
the style, bent downward when young, straightens 
when the stigma becomes receptive: Calodendron. | 

= Flowers actinomorphic. The filaments suc- 
cessively elongate after dehiscence. 

a. In the staminate stage the style is bent hori- 
zontally across the ovary; the stamens bend over 
the pistil successively at maturity, then lengthen, and 
turn outward between the finally erect petals: Diosma 
tenuifolia. 

8. Similar to the last; but the staminodia, and 
not the petals, become erect, the stamens bending 
outward but little: Adenandra. 

y. After flowering, the style bends outward and 
downward between the staminodia, the petals remain 
horizontal, the staminodia lie against the ovary, and, 
after dehiscence, the fertile stamens resume their 
original horizontal position: Barosma. 

2. The stamens nutate but once, and simultane- 
ously. In the staminate stage they are perpendicu- 
lar, or incline but little toward each other, so that 
the anthers are in contact at their margin; in the 
pistillate stage they have bent outward. 

a. The anthers fall away when the filaments 
curve outward: Ravenia. 

b. Anthers persistent on the bent filaments. 

— Pollen may fall on the unreceptive stigma, and 
so effect self-fertilization. Even later this is not im- 
possible, as the wind or gravitation may carry pollen 
from the reflexed stamens to the mature stigma. 

a. In the pistillate stage the style elongates: 
Zieria and EHriostemon. 

8. With normally developed stigma: Boronia 
(ex parte). 

y. When the style lengthens, the stigma may 
encounter the anthers of the still erect stamens: 
Erythrochiton. 

= The viscidity of the pollen, and the situation of 
the anthers, prevent self-pollination: Metrodorea. 

3. The stamens do not nutate at all. 

a. Self-pollination possible in the pendant flowers 
after the separation of the lobes of the stigma: 
Correa. 

b. The style is surrounded by staminodia in the 


[Vou, IIL., No. 28. 


first stage; in the second stage spontaneous pollina- 
tion by neighboring flowers may occur if insect- 
crossing has not been effected: Agathosma (ex parte). 


B. With synacmic flowers. 


1. Self-fertilization impossible. 
a. With viscid pollen: Boronia (ex parte). 


b. The stigma surpassing the anthers: Triphasia. 


2. Spontaneous self-pollination impossible because 
of the situation of the filaments, but spontaneous 
crossing between neighboring flowers favored: Aga- 
thosma (ex parte). 

8. Spontaneous pollination of either sort opposed; 
crossing by insects inevitable: Crowea. 

4, Spontaneous close fertilization possible; cross- 


ing favored: Cusparia, Choisya, Skimmia (ex parte), - 


Murraya, Citrus. 


II. DIcLINOUS SPECIES. 

Self-fertilization impossible; crossing necessary: 
Ptelea, Skimmia (ex parte). — (Jahrbuch bot. gart. 
Berlin, ii.) Ww. . [57 

ZOOLOGY. 
Mollusks, 

Credit to an American naturalist.—In an 
official report by M. Bouchen-Brandely, secretary 
of the college of France, the author states that he 
has learned by two years of study that the sexes of 
the Portuguese oyster are confined to separate indi- 
viduals ; that after this discovery he conceived that 
it might be possible to artificially fertilize the eggs of 
this mollusk ; and that, after two years more of experi- 
menting, this attempt has been successful. Ameri- 
cans will be interested to learn that in 1879 an 
American naval officer, Lieut. Francis Winslow, 
who was stationed at Gibraltar for a few weeks, 
determined the unisexuality of the Portuguese oys- 
ter, and reared it from artificially fertilized eggs. 
His results were printed in the American naturalist 
in 1879 or 1880; but, as I have no opportunity for 
reference at present, I cannot give the exact date. 
—w. kK. B. [58 


Notes. — In the year-book of the Verein fir 
vaterlandische naturkunde in Wirttemberg, published 
lately at Stuttgart, Weinland has a paper on the mol- 
lusk fauna of the Wiirttembergisch Franken, and 
Wundt one on the zone of Ammonites transversarius 
in the Suabian white Jura. —— The second part of 
the Quarterly journal of microscopical science con- 
tains a paper by Lankester on the existence of Spen- 
gel’s olfactory organ and of paired genital ducts in 
Nautilus pompilius. —— Heude’s ‘Conchyliologie 
fluviatile’ of Nanking and Central China approaches 
completion. The ninth and concluding fasciculus 
will appear during the present year. It is luxuri- 
ously illustrated, and printed in large quarto, —— 
Kuster’s continuation of Martini and Chemnitz 
Conchylien cabinet bids fair to go on, like Tenny- 
son’s brook, forever. Lieferung 322 is announced. 
This work would be much benefited by the total 
exclusion of the frightful engravings which illus- 
trated the earlier editions and are still pressed into 
the service. —— J. B. Gassiés, known by his concho- 


oe 


JuLy 138, 1888.] 


logical researches in New Caledonia and Southern 
France, has recently died. —w. H. D. [59 


Insects. 

American paleozoic insects.—R. D. Lacoe, 
whose collection of these objects must be one of the 
largest, if not the largest, in the country, has prepared 
a list of those hitherto published, including twenty- 
six genera and forty-eight species of hexapods, five 
genera and species of arachnids, and nine genera 
and nineteen species of myriapods, —a total of forty 
genera and seventy-two species, This embraces, how- 
ever, three genera and fourteen species still unpub- 
lished. The list is purely bibliographical, excepting 
that it contains careful statements of the place of 
discovery of the fossils, the name of the finder, and 
the place of present deposit. About half of the 
described species have been published within the last 
five years. — (Wyom. hist. geol. soc., publ. 5.) [60 

A monstrous caterpillar.— E. H. Jones figures 
a curious larva of the geometrid moth Melanippe 
montanata of Europe, which he exhibited at an 
entomological reunion at the Royal aquarium on 
March 5. It has the antennae and legs of the perfect 
insect fully developed, while in other respects a 
normal larva. It was reared from the egg with a 
dozen others. Last November this one, then normal, 
was considerably larger than the rest of the brood, 


Abnormal larva of Melanippe montanata. 


and was noticed as a constant feeder. ‘‘On Feb, 15 
I was astonished to find that this forward individual 
__ had developed the antennae of the imago, but with- 
out in any other way altering its laryal appearance. 
For a space of two or three days the antennae were 
beautifully pectinated, and then the prolegs [thoracic 
legs ?] of the imago became perfect... . Both 
antennae and legs then gradually shrank and dried 
until the 20th.’’ — (Entom., xvi. 121.) [61 


VERTEBRATES. 


: Temperature and pulse rate.— By means of 
his new method of isolating the mammalian heart, 
_ Prof. Martin has been able to make an accurate 
study of the effect of variations of temperature on 
the rate of beat of the dog’s heart when completely 
separated physiologically from all the rest of the 
body except the lungs. In the brief abstract of his 
_ work which has been published, a short description 
of the method of operating is given, together with 
“some of the more important results which have been 
obtained. He finds that in the mammalian heart, as 
in that of the frog, the rate of beat is gradually in- 
creased as the temperature of the blood is raised 
from 27° to 42° C. The quick pulse of fever can 
‘therefore be explained by the direct action of the 


ae eas ee el 


SCIENCE. 5d 


heated blood on the heart itself, without assuming 
any special action upon the extrinsic inhibitory or 
accelerator nerve-centres, 

The rate of beat of the heart is found to bear a 
much more direct relation to the temperature of 
the blood in the coronary arteries than to the tem- 
perature of the blood in the right auricle or ven- 
tricle. 

An interesting point which comes ont of the method 
of work is, that, although the defibrinated calf’s 
blood used to nourish the heart was repeatedly cir- 
culated through the heart and lungs for several 
hours, it gave no evidence of clotting at the end of 
an experiment, showing that fibrinogen is not formed 
in these organs. — (Proc. roy. soc., no. 223, 1883.) 
W. H. H. [62 

Lymphatics of periosteum.— George Hoggan 
and Frances Hoggan criticise the previous writings on 
this subject, and give the results of their own studies, 
They assert that what Budge described as the lym- 
phatics are really capillary blood-vessels, Their own 
conclusions they summarize as follows :— 

1. The lymphatics of the periosteum exist only 
on the outer surface, or within the outer gelatinous 
(white fibrous) stratum of the membrane. They 
never ramify upon the inner or bony surface. 2. 
When the periosteum is thin, more especially when 
the animal is old, the whole lymphatic plexus lies 
free upon the outer surface; but when the periosteum 
is thick, lymphatic twigs may pass part way through, 
but they never reach the inner surface. 3, The lym- 
phatics accompany the blood-vessels, as if arranged 
to drain them. 4. No lymphatics exist on the sur- 
face of the great cavities of the bone. ‘‘ There is 
thus every reason to believe that the lymphatics 
neyer come in contact with the bone itself, and that 
bone possesses no lymphatics apart from those found 
within the periosteum, which may be physiologically 
considered, therefore, as the lymphatics of bone.’’ 
— (Journ. anat. physiol., xvii. 308.) Cc. S. M. [63 

Fish. 

Classification of the Petromyzontids. — The 
Lampreys have been systematically considered by 
Gill, and are differentiated into two sub-families: 1. 
The Petromyzontinae, ‘ with the suproral lamina me- 
dian and undivided ;’ and 2. The Caragolinae, ‘ with 
two lateral suproral Jaminae.’ The former embraces 
six genera, one of which is named for the first time 
Exomegas, and is intended for the Petromyzon ma 
crostomus of Buenos Aires: the Caragolinae are con- 
fined to the southern hemisphere; i.e., Australia and 
Pacific South America. —(Proc. U. S, nat. mus., iv. 
521.) [64 

Characters of the Ephippiids.— The family of 
Ephippiids is distinguished by T. Gill from the Chae- 
todontids by ‘the bifurcation of the post-temporal 
bones, and the wide, scaly isthmus extending from 
the pectoral region to the chin, and separating the 
branchial apertures.—(Proc. U. S. nat. mus., iv. 557.) 

(65 

Extinct fauna of Idaho and Oregon. — 

Professor E. D. Cope, referring to the remains of 


56 erence 


fishes from the middle valley of the Snake River in 
Idaho and eastern Oregon, stated that bones collected 
from sections now dry, but which had formerly been 
portions of lake-basins in the Oregon district, in- 
dicated a close relationship with the fishes now found 
in the remaining lakes and rivers. The number 
of species of fishes collected from the Idaho beds 
amounts to twenty-two. They are all distinct from 
those found in the Oregon basin, and cannot be iden- 
tified with existing forms, although, with two excep- 
tions, they belong to existing genera. 
families of fishes obtained from these beds are ‘not 
now found west of the Rocky Mountains, except a 
single species of one of them (Percidae) in California. 
Of eyen greater interest was the fact that this 
fauna includes representatives of the Cobitidae, —a 
family of fishes entitely absent in the living fauna 
of North America. The presence of their remains 
in the Idaho beds indicates a probable former con- 
nection between North America and Asia. The 
names ‘Idaho Lake’ and ‘Idaho - deposits’ were 
proposed for the lake and deposits now first described. 
The formation is distinct from any previously known, 
and is older than the Oregon lake-deposit. With the 
exception of fishes, the remains of but few vertebrates 
were found in the Idaho beds, although the Oregon 
deposits are full of the bones of mammals and birds. 
The means of indicating the exact geological position 
of these pliocene beds, as compared with those of 
Europe, was as yet wanting. —(Acad. nat. sc. 
Philad.; meeting June 19.) [66 


Reptiles and batrachians. 


Spermatozoon of newt.— Dowdeswell describes 
avery minute barb at the tip of the head of the 
spermatozoon of the newt: it measures 1.5“ in breadth 
by 2/in length. He looked for it in other animals, 
but did not find it. —(Quart. journ. micr. sc., 1883, 
836.) C. S. M. ; [67 

Werves of the frog’s palate. — Stirling and Mac- 
donald describe fully the palatine nerves of the frog, 
their origin, and their general and minute distribu- 
tion. There is a coarse plexus of medullated fibres 
and a finer plexus of naked fibres, which last inner- 
vate the blood-vessels and the glands, besides forming 
the ultimate ramifications of the nerves. In the 
course of the former plexus are scattered unipolar 
cells, each with a straight and a spiral fibre. There 
are, besides, many details given. This well illus- 
trated and admirably written paper may be specially 
commended to histologists engaged in laboratory prac- 
tice. — (Journ. anat. physiol., xvii. 293.) cC. Ss. M. 

; [68 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


Australian class systems.—In the Australian 
division of the tribe the communes are represented 
by two primary classes, each of which has a group 
of totem names, which are chiefly names of things 
animate or inanimate. The two primary inter- 
marrying classes are over a large part of south-eastern 
Australia called Eaglehawk and Crow. Each group of 
totem names is a representation of its primary; and, 


ee 5 oe 


Four of the 


[Vou. IL, No. 23. 


as a general rule, any one of the group may marry 
with any other of the complementary group. If the 
primaries are A and B, and the groups, 1, 2, 3, etc., 
and i, ii, iii, etc., in certain localities, A 1 must 
marry Bionly, andsoon. The next change is the 
subdivision of A and B as in the Kamilaroi, thus :— 


a 
A 1, 2, 3, etc. 
@ n 
b 
B i, li, iii, ete. 
B 


The effect of this is to remove the woman of the 
second generation from the possibility of marrying 
her father. Were this not so, the law ‘A (male) 
marries B (female)’ would permit A to take his 
daughter to wife, the simpler law forbidding the 
marriage of brothers and sisters only. 


Under the form a+a¢=A and b+ 8=B, each - 


half of an original class has marital rights over the 
women of one particular half of the other class, 


whose children do not take the class name of the 


mother, but of the sister class. For example: a+ 
=b, who must marry a; and the children of the 
third generation, by mother right, will be again a and 
8. Mr. Howitt, who has worked out these systems 
with great patience, is of the opinion that this subdi- 
vision into classes was designed to render impossible 


tliose unions which were considered, and are now 


considered, as deep pollution. He has certainly given 
the most rational explanation of aversion to mothers- 
in-law. Under the old régime a daughter was of the 
clan of her mother, and B could marry any A. The 
law against looking at a mother-in-law, therefore, 
was to prevent the possibility of marrying her. 

Mr. Howitt sums up his labors in the following 
conclusions: 1. The primary division prevented 
brother and sister marriage; 2. The secondary, in- 
termarriage between parents and children; 3. The 
prohibition of intercourse between a woman and her 
son-in-law prevented connections not to be reached 
by class rules; 4. These changes were all reformatory 
in the community. — (Journ. anthrop. inst., xii. 496.) 
J. W. P. [69 

Region of man’s evolution. — Mr. W. S. Duncan 
is the author of a paper upon the probable region of 
man’s evolution, in which the following points are 
made. Man formed one of a set of families of man- 
like animals, somewhat similar to the present apes. 
Since only the lowest members of the Primates have 
been distributed to the eastern and the western con- 
tinent, it is probable that the Primates originated 
within the. arctic circle, while the higher groups 
sprang from the eastern continent : man, therefore, 
did not originate within the arctic circle, nor in the 
new world. The Cynopithecidae, since tertiary time, 
have been spread over nearly the entire eastern con- 
tinent. The Semnopithecidae have been dispersed 
over central and western Europe to southern Europe 
and south-eastern Asia, as far south as Ethiopia. The 


anthropoid apes have been more circumscribed, but 


all the genera of living apes are derived from south- 
ern Europe and subtropical Asia, 


As apes existed 


bee. ane 


ee 


y 


a JuLy 18, 1883.] 


in Europe and Asia before they reached the tropics, 
so we may infer that man existed in Europe and 
Africa before the low types, the Akkas and the Aetas, 
occupied tropical Asia and Malasia. The present 
habitat of the apes is not conducive to change : we 
must look to some region where apes were com- 
pelled to change their food and modes of locomotion. 
The stoppage of the southern migration by vast sheets 
of water shut up the apes in temperate regions. The 
crowding of other animals in the same locations 
sharpened the intelligence of the precursor of man. 
Here, then, Mr. Duncan supposes the great conflict 
and transition from man-like apes to ape-like men 
took place. — (Journ. anthrop. inst., xii. 513-525.) 
J. W. P. [70 


Tylor’s lectures at Oxford.—The concluding 
_ portion of Dr. Tylor’s lectures on anthropology, de- 
livered in the Oxford museum in February (see i. 
- 1055), is devoted to the history of the growth of 
practical art. ‘In considering the claims of anthro- 
pology as a practical means of understanding our- 
selves, we have to form an opinion how the ideas 
and, arts of any people are to be accounted for as 
- developed from preceding stages. To work out the 
lines along which the process of organization has 
‘actually moved, is a task needing caution. A tribe 
may have some art which plainly shows progress from 
aruder state of things: and yet it may be wrong to 
suppose this development to have taken place among 
themselves; it may be an item of higher culture, 
that they have learned from sight of a more advanced 
nation. It is essential, in studying even savage and 
barbaric culture, to allow for borrowing.’’ Illustra- 
tions are given by Dr. Tylor of this borrowing, one of 
which is quite amusing. The later Danish travellers 
among the Eskimo enter very minutely into the de- 
scription of the tools and dress of these people, before 
contact with Europeans, meaning the post-Columbian 
voyagers; but, unwittingly in many instances, they 
are describing fashions and forms borrowed from the 
_ Skraelling ancestors of these very writers a thousand 
years ago. Another very important point discussed 
in the lectures is the possibility of national degrada- 
tion. Dr. Tylor was the first to discover, after the_ 
battle between the advocates of ‘degradation’ and 
those of evolution, that both were right, and that a 
proper view of human history must include both vi- 
cissitudes over and over again, and the commingling 
of both in every degree of complexity. Mr. Tylor 
gives a succinct account of the formation of the Pitt- 
Rivers collection, now housed at Oxford, and, in com- 
menting upon the evolution of gesture-speech, pays 
this tribute to our country: ‘‘The labor and ex- 
pense which anthropologists in the United States 
are now bestowing on the study of the indigenous 
tribes contrasts, I am sorry to say, with the indiffer- 
ence shown to such observations in Canada, where 
the habits of yet more interesting native tribes are 
allowed to die out without even a record.’’ With 
very great shrewdness the speaker discussed the sub- 
ject of magic and the benefit derived from even such 
useless search as that for the ‘lost tribes of Israel.’ — 
(Nature, May 17.) J. w. Pp. [71 


SCIENCE. 


-) fd ba lS 


a7 


The North-American Indians and the horse. — 
Professor Hovelacque, in his recent work Les races 
humaines, gives as one of the important character- 
izations of the North-American Indians the state- 
ment that they do not breed horses, leaving it to be 
inferred from the context that they obtain their 
supply from wild herds. It may be remarked, that, 
however general the use of horses is at this time 
among the Indian tribes of the great plains, an 
ethnologic distinction based upon any treatment of 
that animal — a European importation and intrusion 
—is hardly legitimate. For centuries after the 
Columbian discovery but a small proportion of the 
tribes of North America ever saw a horse. The fact 
that the horse was not known to or used by them in 
their prehistoric condition constitutes an important 
element in establishing their position in the ethnic 
scale, their rise from savagery and barbarism having 
been retarded by that deprivation. ~ Further, it must 
be suggested that there is little evidence, apart from 


the novels of Capt. Mayne Reid and similar au- 


thorities, of the existence in North America of herds 
of wild horses similar to those in South America, 
sufficiently large to supply the Plains tribes. There 
were, doubtless, some wild horses, the descendants of 
those imported by the Spaniards, in a condition to 
be captured by a past generation ; but probably no 
living Indian has relied upon recruiting his stock 
from such herds, and his horses have been obtained 
by the civilized method of purchase or the more 
convenient process of stealing. The latter expe- 
dient has of late years been stopped by the powers of 


' the United States authorities: so some of the tribes 


have learned to breed from their horses, though as 
yet the practice is limited by the same want of pru- 
dence as is shown in their neglect to provide food and 
shelter for their ponies. The whole connection of 
the tribes with the horse simply shows a course of 
education to a certain extent by a foreign civilization. 
The statement of M. Hovelacque is therefore as 
untrue in fact as it is unphilosophie as an ethnic 
characterization. —J. w. P. (72 


EARLY INSTITUTIONS. 


Land-holding in South Africa.—Sir H. Bartle 
Frere gives us an account of the systems of land- 
tenure among the aboriginal tribes of South Africa, 
— Bushmen, Hottentots, Kaffirs. Among the Kaflirs, 
if a man wishes to leave the paternal kraal, he seeks 
a tract of unoccupied land, and builds a kraal for 
himself. His wives proceed to cultivate as much 
land as they please, and the live-stock is turned out 
to pasture. The settlement descends from father to 
sons, unless, as often happens, this is prevented by 
the chief oranenemy. Titles rest simply on force. 
A man owns the land he occupies as long as he can 
hold it by his own might, or with the aid of the 
chief, or the tribe, if this is given, Authority of 
the chief or elders to resume or recognize possession 
has not been discovered by Sir Bartle Frere; but he 
says that it may, perhaps, be discovered by future in- 
vestigators. — (Journ. anthrop. inst., Feb.) D. w. R. 

(73 


Lea ae. Raney be 
\ : 


* 


38 


SCIENCE. 


ae 


my 


[Vou. IL, No. 23- 


INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 


GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. 


Naval bureau of ordnance, 


Experiments at Annapolis. — By direction of the 
Naval bureau of ordnance, experiments with the 
six-inch steel gun were resumed at the experimental 
battery recently, the chief object being to develop 
and encourage the home manufacture of steel pro- 
jectiles. Steel projectiles manufactured by the Mid- 
vale steel company near Philadelphia, having different 
physical characteristics as to toughness, extensibility, 
ete., were fired at a target consisting of two mild steel 
five-inch plates strongly bolted together, and backed 
with twenty inches of live-oak. The first and the 
second shots broke up; the third pierced the plates, 
and was stopped by the backing ; while the fourth 
perforated target and backing, and buried itself in a 
mound of earth beyond the target. This projectile 
had an initial velocity of 1,983 feet, and weighed 75 
pounds. The charge of powder was 32 pounds, and 
the striking energy per inch of shot’s circumference 
was 108 foot-tons. The results indicate that there 
will be no serious difficulty in procuring the proper 
material for armor-piercing shells in this coun- 

try. 
- A somewhat remarkable result was obtained with 
a projectile weighing 52 pounds, and a charge of 33 
pounds of powder. The muzzle velocity obtained 
was 2,323 feet per second, with a pressure of about 13 
tons. The ratio of charge to projectile was adopted 
as being nearly that which will be used in the 
new ten-inch guns designed by Commodore Sicard. 


These guns will be manufactured at the Washington. 


nayvy-yard, and are intended for the batteries of the 
four double-turreted monitors. 

It does not necessarily follow that results equally 
favorable will be obtained with the ten-inch gun, 
since the masses of ‘both charge and projectile will 
be greatly increased. The pressures will doubtless be 
higher; but these guns will be sufficiently strong to 
withstand a working pressure of more than 25 tons 
to the square inch. The indications, however, are, 
on the whole, extremely favorable to the success of 
the ten-inch gun. : 

This experiment is likewise interesting when com- 
pared with the record of a six-inch gun constructed 
by Sir William Armstrong, in which, with an 80- 
pound projectile and a charge of 55 pounds of pow- 

der, a muzzle velocity of 2,297 feet was reached 
with a pressure of 21 tons. In the latter case the 
ratio of charge to projectile is 11:16, whereas in the 
former case the ratio is 11:17. It is to be regretted 
that the size of the chamber of this experimental 
gun does not permit the employment of a larger 
charge of powder. 

Two six-inch guns, representing the types proposed 
for the broadside batteries of the new steel cruisers, 
are now in process of construction at the Wash- 
ington navy-yard, and will be ready for testing in 
August. —J. M. RB. 


ry 


U, §, magnetic observatory at Los Angeles, Cal.t 


Magnetic observations. — There is at present but. 
one self-registering magnetic observatory within the 
limits of the United States. That observatory is 
located in Los Angeles, Cal. ; and the object of the 
present article is to present a brief description of 
the observatory and its work, together with a short 
account of its origin. 

Continuous series of magnetic observations, cover- 
ing longer or shorter periods, have been made at 
several stationsin North America ; but, with two ex- 
ceptions, they have all been made on the eastern side 
of the continent. 
of five years (1840-45) at Girard college, Philadel- 
phia, by A. D. Bache; six years’ observations at Key 
West, Fla. (1860-66), by the U. S. coast-survey; and 
a long series, still continuing, at Toronto, Canada 
(1841-83). We have, further, a series of nearly five 
years of photographic records taken at Madison, 
Wis., by the U. S. coast and geodetic survey. 

On the western coast the only continuous series of 
magnetic observations we have, were made by the 
Russian government at Sitka at the magnetic and 
meteorological observatory established in March, 1842, 
and maintained until the cession of Alaska to the 
United States in October, 1867; and the series of 
hourly observations at Point Barrow in 1852-54 by 
Capt. Maguire, R.N. Up to the present time, a great 
part of these observations have remained undigested 
and undiscussed. 

It was therefore contemplated by the coast-survey, 
many years ago, to obtain a continuous series of mag- 
netic records from some station on the western coast 
of the United States ; and, with this end in view, an 
Adie magnetograph of the latest and most approved 
pattern was purchased in 1860. The outbreak of the 
war, however, prevented the carrying-out of this 
plan. 

The instruments remained packed until 1878, when 
a favorable time seemed to have arrived to put it 
touse. Assistant C. A. Schott, aided by Mr. Suess, 
then set it up for trial in the basement of the coast- 
survey office in Washington. Some minor defects 
of construction were remedied, and the magneto- 
graph set to work in January, 1879. It was kept 


- going for about two weeks on trial, and found to 


perform satisfactorily. During this time, it was in- 
spected by Superintendent Patterson, and its work- 
ings observed by various members of the survey. At 


the close of this trial it was packed up for shipment 


to some station in California. 

It was found, however, that more money would be 
required to run the instrument than could be then 
set apart for this work, and it therefore remained 
in the eoast-survey office. — > 

In response to the invitation of the International 
polar conference, our government consented, in 1881, 


1 Communicated, with permission of the superintendent of 
the U.S. coast and geodetic survey, by MaRcus Baker, acting 
assistant in charge of the observatory. 


We have a series of observations © 


Se eee ee ae 
y 


a ee 


Juuy 13, 1883.) r 


to the establishment of two observing stations in high 
northern latitudes. Observations, especially of mete- 
orology and magnetism, were to be undertaken; and 
it was arranged to carry on these observations under 
the joint auspices of the signal-service and coast 
and geodetic survey. The executive management 
of these stations, the selection of observers, etc., were 
put under the direction of the chief signal-officer. 
The coast-survey co-operated by furnishing such mag- 
netic instruments as were on hand, and by training, 
during the short time available for their work, the mag- 
netic observers selected by the signal-office. It is to 
be regretted that there was not time enough to pro- 
cure suitable differential instruments for the sta- 
tions. 

Two parties were despatched to the north, — one to 
Lady Franklin Bay, near the northern end of Green- 
land, under the charge of Lieut. A. W. Greely ; and 
the other to Point Barrow, Alaska, under the direc- 
tion of Lieut. P. H. Ray. Both these parties reached 
their destination in the fall of 1881. 

It was the wish of the International polar confer- 
ence that, all the northern stations should be occu- 
pied three years; and a special effort was to be made 
to secure a complete and continuous record from 
August, 1882, to August, 1883. In the spring of 1882, 
additional observers were selected by the signal-oftice 
to replace any of the former ones that might have 
become disabled, or to act as auxiliaries, should such 
be needed. These magnetic observers, like their 
predecessors, received instruction at the coast-survey 
office prior to their departure for the north ; and a 
set of differential magnetic instruments, hastily con- 
structed, was sent to Point Barrow. 

' The spring of 1882 seemed, therefore, a peculiarly 
favorable time to put the Adie magnetograph to 
work, and to secure at one and the same time the 
long-desired series of magnetic observations from the 
western coast, and a series whieh would also be avail- 
able for comparison with those observations made at 
the International polar conference stations. It was 
therefore mutually agreed by the signal and coast 
survey offices to establish a magnetic station at the 
joint expense of the two offices. In the case of the 
northern stations, the management was intrusted to 
the signal-office. The expense of the Lady Franklin 
Bay station was specifically provided for by act of 
Congress. The expense of the Point Barrow station 
was to be borne by the signal-service and coast and 


geodetic survey jointly. In the new station to be 


established in California, and which was to be de- 
voted to observations of magnetism only, the man- 
agement was left entirely to the coast-survey. 

At first San Diego was suggested as the site of the 
new station, it being the place on the western coast of 
the United States farthest from the northern stations. 
A somewhat better location, nearly as far south, was, 
however, finally selected in Los Angeles, Cal. 

Plans for a building were prepared in Washington, 
and forwarded to Assistant J. S. Lawson of the coast 
and geodetic survey, who proceeded to Los Angeles, 
and superintended the selection of a site, and erec- 
tion of a building, in June and July, 1882. 


i. ie | 


SCIENCE. 


.. il 


59 


In July, 1882, the instruments, were shipped to Los 
Angeles, Cal., in the care of Mr. Werner Suess, a 
skilful mechanician in the coast-survey, and who had 
attended to the mounting of the instrument in 1878, 
and to its packing up after the test trial was com- 
plete. 

At the same time, the writer was assigned to the 
charge of the observatory, with instructions to mount 
and adjust the instrument, determine its constants, 
and proceed to bring out a continuous record of the 
changes in the elements of the earth’s magnetism. 
Leaving Washington July 26, he arrived in Los 
Angeles Aug. 7, 1882, where he found Mr. Suess in 
waiting, and the observatory complete. 

After arranging preliminaries, the work of mount- 
ing and adjusting the instrument was begun, and 
pushed forward as rapidly as possible. Observations 
for the determination of the constants and scale 
values were made; the compensation of the vertical- 
force magnet for temperature was made; tempera- 
ture. coefficients were determined; and finally, on 
Sept. 28, every thing was in readiness, and the first 
sensitive paper was put upon the cylinders, and the 
first record made. The first few days were in the 
nature of atrial. A slight re-adjustment was made 
on Oct. 13, after which every thing worked satis- 
factorily. On Oct. 31 the horizontal and vertical 
force constants were redetermined; and since that 
date the instrument has continued to work almost 
perfectly, and to make a complete and continuous 
record of the changes of all the magnetic ele- 
ments. 

The observatory is situated in latitude 34° 03’ N., 
longitude 118° 15’ W. from Greenwich, and 317 feet 
above the level of the sea. It is on a rather steep 
hillside sloping to the south-west in the grounds of 
the Branch normal school in the city of Los Angeles, 
exactly one mile, in a direct line, from the centre of 
the plaza, or park, in the centre of the old town, 
or about a mile from the central business part of 
the town. Street-cars run within two squares of the 
observatory. It is on adobe soil underlaid by clay, 
and in the midst of an orange plantation formerly 
known as Belle Vue Terrace. 

The observatory is built of redwood fastened with 
copper nails, is double walled, with an air-space 
2.5 feet between the walls; which walls are four- 
teen inches thick, and filled with adobe soil. It 
is twenty-eight feet long by twenty-one feet wide, 
and painted white. The entrance to the observatory 
is on the south side. On the north side is the pho- 
tographic or dark room, P, where the various photo- 
graphic processes are carried on, This room is 
twelve feet long by ten feet wide. The accompany- 
ing plan will show the arrangement of rooms and 
instruments. The three magnets are placed, the uni- 
filar or declinometer, U, to the east, the bifilar or hor- 
izontal-force magnetometer, B, to the west, and the 
vertical-force magnetometer, V, to the north, of the 
central driving-clock, C. A picture of the instrument, 
showing it as a whole, and also showing details, may 
be found in Gordon’s Electricity and magnetism, 
For illumination, student-lamps burning kerosene-oil 


60 


are used, and yield satisfactory results. The record 
is made on paper sensitized by the bromo-iodide 
process. The paper is sensitized at the observatory. 
Each trace contains two days’ record; and the record 
is absolutely complete and continuous, except the 
time lost in changing papers to begin a new record, 
and in ‘ moving spots,’ or shifting the luminous dots 
to get the second day’s record on the same sheet. 
The time required for the first operation is from 
seven to eight minutes; for the second, from two to 
three minutes. Thus only about ten minutes are lost 
in two days, or an average of five minutes per day, — 

RON 

pe 7 


Scale of feet 
QR ANON AIO OMA, ae OMIT ITO! 


a quantity too small to be of any importance on any 
‘occasion thus far observed. 

ORE minute of time on the traces is represented 
by y4o of an inch approximately, and a movement 
through one minute of are by the unifilar magnet 
is represented on the trace by 72> of an inch. A 
motion of the bifilar magnet of one scale division, 
represented on the trace by 0.027 inch, corresponds 
to a change of horizontal force of about its gqoy part. 
The traces can readily be read off within half a scale 


division, or changes of force of its tsto9 part are 


recorded. This adjustment has not proved too sen- 
sitive, as the luminous dot has never left the recording 
cylinder, except once for a short time during the great 
magnetic storm of November, 1882. 


es ae ee 


SCIENCE. 


Dec. 14° 32 
Dip 59°30" 


[Vou. IL, No. 28. 


, 


Visitors are admitted to the observatory, and the 
traces generally show their presence by a break in 
the curve. 

The instrument records, as is well known, changes 
of declination, changes of horizontal force, and 
changes of vertical force. Each of these changes 
is recorded on a separate sheet, or trace as it is 
called; and thus, on an average, forty-five traces 
are produced each month. These traces are six 
inches by sixteen inches and a half, and are made 
on plain photographic paper prepared for use at the 
observatory. 

This préparation consists of two processes, 
salting and silvering.. The salting process, as 
it is called, consists in soaking the paper from 


ten to fifteen minutes in a bath of iodide and | 


bromide of potassium, with a little tincture of 
iodine added, after which the paper is hung 
up to dry. This process is carried on in the 
daylight. 

“The silvering or sensitizing process is car- 
ried on in a room as dark as can well‘be made, 
and then lighted up dimly with a red lantern. 
Some difficulty has been found in keeping the 
room dark enough, and on some occasions 
the silvering has been done at night. 

«For silvering, four wooden trays are placed 
in a row: the first containing a bath of nitrate 
of silver, acetic acid, and water; the second, 
distilled water; the third, a weak solution of 
chloride of ammonium; and the fourth, dis- 
tilled water. A sheet of salted paper is then 
floated on tray no. 1, special care and some 
skill being required to prevent (a) any of the 
solution from getting on the back of the sheet, 
and (b) any air-bubbles from clinging to the 
front side of the sheet. The first defect pro- 
duces stains, and the second, spots. In about 
nine minutes the paper is transferred to tray 
no. 2, being floated on as in the case of no. 
1, and a new sheet is floated on tray no. 1. 
In about nine minutes more, the sheets are 
moved forward, as before; the paper in no, 2 
is floated on no. 3; that in no. 1 is transferred, 
as before, to no. 2, and a new sheet floated on 
no. 1. This continues till tray 4 is reached; 
after which the sensitizing is complete, and 
the paper is then hung up to dry in the dark. 


Special care is necessary in hanging up the wet 


paper to avoid stains from the fingers, from the 
line, or from the pin which holds the paper on 
the line. 

After drying thoroughly, the papers are taken down, 
packed in a large envelope, and kept in a dark drawer 
to be used as needed. From this envelope the sheets 
are transferred to the three recording cylinders pre- 
pared to carry them. They remain two days upon 
the cylinders, and thus receive two days’ record. At 


quarter-past nine A.M. of each alternate day the ~ 


papers are changed. 

‘Over the central driving-clock is hung a heavy 
orange-flannel curtain. To change papers, the at- 
tendant, with the envelope of sensitive paper, goes 


Sie . : 
) EO a aes a 


— eo 


usually found inferior. After the development is 
complete, the traces are fixed in hyposulphite of 
soda cleansed in a saturated solution of alum, washed 
for about two hours in running water, and then hung 
uptodry. After drying, the date is stamped upon 
them. The exact instant of beginning and ending of 
each line on the trace, together with the correspond- 
ing scale value, is written on. Time observations, 
with sextant and artificial horizon, are taken from 
time to time, usually monthly, to regulate the stand- 


‘ard chronometer. 


After the traces have been thus completed, they 
are practically paper negatives, from which any num- 
ber of copies may be made photographically. Two 
sets are made by the well-known blue-print process. 
The traces require no special treatment, such as oil- 
ing, waxing, etc., for the successful application of 
this process. 

For tabulating from the traces, it is found most 
convenient to use a ruler subdivided into hourly 
divisions for the time scale, and a triangular piece of 
card-board upon the edge of which is ruled the scale 
corresponding to the trace to be read. The unifilar 
and bifilar traces have all been read, tabulated, and 
the means calculated. The vertical-force traces have 
not yet been read. 

There is also in the magnet-room of the observa- 
tory a thermograph, which records the temperature 
every half-hour. From the records produced by it, 


_ the time of maximum temperature in the observatory 


is found to be about five p.M., and the time of mini- 
mum temperature, about half-past eight A.M. At 
these hours the thermometers under the bel] glasses 
and near the magnets are read; and from these read- 
ings it appears that the magnets are subjected to 
an average daily range of temperature of about 
17°C. 

On the 14th, 15th, and 16th of each month, obser- 
vations are made to determine the absolute decli- 
nation, dip, and intensity. These observations are 
made in the usual manner of taking such obser- 
vations by field parties in the coast and geodetic 
survey. Monthly reports and returns of results are 
made to the superintendent of the survey. 

The declinations and dips have all been computed, 
but the intensities only approximately as yet. The 
following table contains the declinations and dips 
resulting from the monthly absolute determinations. 
Each declination is the mean derived from the elon- 
gation on three successive days, and each dip is the 
mean of six sets with two needles on the same three 
days. 


a 4 J F ~~ a: Mi s 7 >. =" 
. 
JOLY 13, 1883.] SCIENCE. 61 
behind this flannel curtain, through which sufficient U. 8S. magnetic observatory at Los Angeles, 
light from the three lamps comes to enable the lat. G08, Rone. 118915’ W. G. 
change to be made without further artificial Jight. —-— 
The orange flannel serves to satisfactorily exclude | Declination. | Dip. 
actinic light. 7 
1882, Sept. 14,15,16. . . °35.0 5 

The traces, removed from the cylinders, are then "Oct. 14, 15, 18 cee uw 46 7B. / * 30. 2 
carried in a large envelope to the dark room, and ay. a SEE Oem. ca it! 
there developed, the developer used being pyrogallic 1883, Jan. isis. 2] ] 35.1 | is 
acid. The best developments are those which take Loe ee . 31.5 | dy 
place rather quickly, in about ten to fifteen minutes, April MY AGHABP She) ee ene a } mx 
‘When the development is slower, the traces are May 14,15,16...... 825 | 29.7 


The horizontal intensity is approximately 5.97 in 
British units = 0.275 dyne. 


U. 8. magnetic observatory, 
Los Angeles, Cal., June 1, 1883. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


Professor Huxley has been elected president of the 
Royal society of London, in the place of Mr. Spottis- 
wood, 

— The recently issued report of the signal-office 
for 1881 contains a record of primary and secondary 
observing stations, established in that year in Alaska, 
with summaries of observations at. some Alaskan 
stations in preceding years. There is also some 
account of the fitting-out of the Greely expedition 
to Lady Franklin Bay and that to Point Barrow. 
But the most important article for arctic students is 
the report of Prof. E. W. Nelson on the meteorology 
of St. Michaels, Norton Sound, where, as is well 
known, he had been stationed for four years; his 
leisure being employed in pursuing investigations 
into the natural history and ethnology of the region 
with the greatest energy, devotion, and success, 
The article itself being a summary and an abstract, 
with somewhat wider limits in regard to the treat- 
ment of auroras and the so-called ‘polar band’ 
formation of clouds, it will not be attempted to con- 
dense it here, but merely to call attention to some 
of its leading features. According to observations 
by Danenhower, the position (hitherto somewhat 
uncertain) of St. Michaels is latitude 63° 282’, and 
longitude 162° 043?’ west. The mean annual temper- 
ature for the period is 25°.5 F. The highest observed 
temperature was 75°, and the lowest,—55° A 
curious fact was noted with great regularity. In 
early winter darkness comes on between three and 
four P.M., and the temperature falls until about six 
P.M., when a rise follows of two or three hours’ dura- 
tion, and sometimes five or six degrees in extent, fol- 
lowed by the usual steady nocturnal fall. It does 
not result from changes in the wind, but may be due 
to greater radiation immediately after sunset from 
the land, resulting in local atmospheric movements, 
causing warmer air from the adjacent sea to flow in 
the vicinity of the station. 

Alongshore, winds N., N.E.,S., S.E.,S.W., are most 
prevalent. Winds off the sea, N.W. and W., are the 
least frequent, not exceeding together over ten per 
cent of the whole. Topographical bias is, however, 
distinctly evident, as at most stations in Alaska. 


62 SCIENCE. 


, 


The measured precipitation averaged twelve inches 
and a quarter, to which Mr. Nelson estimates a 
correction of one-half more must be added for un- 
measurable drizzle and blown snow. The record and 
discussion of the aurora is a valuable contribution 
to the subject, and cannot be summarized. Thunder- 
storms are almost unknown. Lightning was observed 
but twice, and no thunder was heard during the whole 
period. It is referred to as reported common on the 
upper Yukon in summer; but in 1865-68, by the ex- 
plorers of the Telegraph expedition on the upper 
part of the river, thunder and lightning were not 
observed on a single occasion. There are but two 
seasons at St. Michaels, — winter (October—May) and 
summer (the remaining five months), The sea is 
open until about Oct. 15; and the ice disappears 
in the spring, usually in early June. The tides are 
small, but over the shallow sea adjacent the rise in 
level due to gales is often sufficient to submerge the 
marshy shores for miles inland. Gardening is not 
a success, except for turnips, radishes, and lettuce. 
The earliest birds, chiefly geese, begin to arrive in 
April; and the migration continues to June, the main 
body of birds arriving between May 15 and 25. 

. Most of the birds leave for the south in August, 
and the first sharp frost of September sends away 
the laggards. - 

—On the Ist of January, 1883, there were in exist- 
‘ence 79 societies of geography, distributed all over 
the world, with about 38,000 members. 

— The American society of mechanical engineers 
met at Cleveland, O., June 14, President E. D. 
Leavitt, jun., of Cambridge, Mass., in the chair. 
Highty members were present, and fifty-four were 
elected, raising the total membership to four hundred 
and sixteen. The papers were generally short, plain, 
and practical. Mr. J. K. Holloway described a steam 
starting gear for throwing marine engines ‘ off the 
centre.’ It consists of a steam-cylinder and a friction- 
wheel on the main shaft, which can be actuated by 
the auxiliary steam-cylinder. The device works either 
way, and may be applied repeatedly if necessary. 
Mr. Charles N. Comly detailed “his experience with 
lubricating materials, resulting in the substitution of 
grease for oil. Other members had found grease the 
cheaper lubricant, but had observed that it had a 
much higher coefficient of friction than oil. Mr. J. 
E. Sweet described a new method of casting iron pipe 
having flanges, making chilled flange-faces and cored 
bolt-holes. Other papers remain to be reported. 
During the session, it was announced that an honor- 
ary degree had been conferred on President Leavitt 
by the Stevens institute of technology. 

—W. H. Edwards announces that he will not, at 
present, complete the Synopsis of species commenced 
in the tenth part of his Butterflies of North America, 
but substitute for it a mere list of species, which will 
be issued with the next (concluding) part of the sec- 
ond series. ’ 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 


Annuaire de Vélectricité pour 1883. (lre année), par A. 
Réyérend. Paris, Gauthier- Villars, 1883. 216p., illustr. 8°. 


Saint Nazaire, impr. Fronteau, 1883. 


[Vou. IL, No. 28. 


Blanchet. Notice sur la naturalisation & Bayonne d'une 
nouvelle plante exotique. Dax, impr. Justére, 1883. 15 p. 8°. 


Delfau. De la maladie de Ja vigne causée par le piviloxem. 
et de’son traitement efficace, facile et économique. Perpignan, 
impr. de VIndépendent, 1883. 34p. 8°. 


English, T. Alfred, Haussen, C. Julius, and Sturgeon, J. 
Report on a scheme for supplying compressed air motive-power 
in the town of Birmingham ; ‘vith tables and formulae for cal- 
culating the useful effect obtained from compressed air, and 
examples and diagrams showing the application thereof; with 
confirmatory report by Prof. H. Robinson. New York, Spon, 
1883. 60p., illustr. 4°. 


Farmer, E. J. The resources of the Rocky Mountains; 
being a brief description of the mineral, grazing, agricultural, 
and timber resources of Colorado, Utah, Arizona, ete. Cleve- 
land, 1883. illustr. 8°. 


Forbes, P. R. Sciences and spiritualism. 
Schlaeber, 1888. 16p. 8°. 


Forestier, C. Paralléle entre l’instruction des sourds-muets 
par le langage des signes et leur enseignement par l’articuiation 
artificielle, suivi de quelques observations sur la méthode du 
célébre Périére et sur les résolutions qu’a votées contre l’enseigne- 
ment par le langage des signes le congrés international tenu & 
Milan du 6 au 12 septembre 1880 pour Famélioration du sort des 
sourds-muets. Lyon, impr. Pitrat, 1883. 8+90p. 8. 


Frankland, P.F. Agricultural chemical analysis. Founded 
upon ‘ Leitfaden fiir die agriculturchemiker,’ vou Dr. F. Krocker. 
London, Dacmillan, 1883. 320p. 8°. 


Guenot, C. Les chinois et, les indous. 
1883. Bibliothéque morale. 87 p. 12°. 


India-rubber and gutta-percha and their cultivation. Lon- 
don, Haddon, 1888. 8° 


Jaffré, P. Théorie complete plenionbalrg des occultations. 
24s) D Loni ace a 
Keeping, W.- The fossils and paleontological affinities of 
the neocomian deposits of Upware and Brickhill; with plates: 
being the Sedgwick prize essay for 1879. .London, Cambridge 
warehouse, 1883. 8°. 


Knight, D. Morphology of the vertebrata. With plates. 
London, Dryden, 1883. 8°. 


Kuropatkin. Kashgaria (Eastern or Chinese Turkestan) : 
Historical, geographical, military, and industrial. Translated by 
Major Gowan. London, Thacker, 1883. 8°. 


Ladureau, A. W’acide sulfureux dans Vatmosphére de 
Lille, Lille, impr. Danel, 1883. 8p. 8°. > 


‘Leplay, H. L’Osmose et l’osmogene Dubrunfaut dans la 
dabriention, et le raflinage des sucres. Paris, impr. Dubreuil, 1883. 
104p. 8°. 

Macrobe, A. La flore pornographique, glossaire de l’école 
naturaliste extrait des oeuvres de M. Emile Zola et de ses disci- 
ples. Paris, Doublelzerie, 1883. 230 p.,illustr. 18°. 

Merrifield, J. A treatise on navigation, for the use of 
students. London, Longmans, 1883. 306p. 8°. 

Miller, W. The heavenly bodies: their nature and habita- 
bility. London, Hodder, 1883, 3854p. 8°. ; 

Murgue, Daniel. The theories and practice of centrifugal 
ventilating machines. Translated and with an introduction by A. 
L. Steavenson. New York, Spon, 1883. 81p. 8°. 


Owen, T. C. Notes on cardamon cultivation. 
Haddon, 1883. 8°. 


— Thecinchona planter’s manual. London, Haddon, 1883. 8°. 


Pickering, E. C. Elements of physical manipulation. 
Parts 1, 2. London, Maemillan, 1883. , 


Rowan, T. Disease and putrescent air: some principles 
which must govern the eflicient ventilation of sewers, and the 
effective hygienic treatment of sewer-gas; also the sanitary ven- 
coeur house drains and connections. New York, Spon, 1883. 

Dewoa ; 

Roy, C. Destruction des phylloxéras par le sulfure de car- ~ 
bone au moyen des cubes gélatineux, exposé scientifique et pra- 
tique. Bordeaux, Feret, 1883. 40p. 8°. 


Scientific Californian. Vol. 1, no. 1. San Francisco and 


Paris, impr. 


Limoges, Barbou, 


London, 


Oakland. 14p.,illustr. 4°. m. 


Scott, J. Draining and embanking: a practical treatise em- 
bodying the most recent experience in the application of im- 
piored a Oue. (Weale’s series.) London, Lockwood, 1883. 

p. 12°. 
Smyth, W. W. Evolution explained. London, Stock, 1883. 8°. 


Watt, A. The history of a lump of chalk: its family circle 
and theiruses. London, A. Johnston, 1888. 96 p.,illustr. 12°. 
_ Witz, A. I’Keole pratique de physique, cours de manipula- 
tions de physique préparatoire a la licence. Paris, Gauthier- 
Villars, 1883. 14+506 p,. illustr. 8°. 


» - SAY By Sie 


FRIDAY, JULY 20, 1883. 


THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. 


ie 

Tue brief pamphlet recently issued by the 
assistant director of the museum as his special 
report for 1881 is, perhaps, one of the most 
important documents which has yet appeared 
in the history of science in this country. It 
represents the institution which in the natural 
course of events should become the leading 
organization of its kind on this continent, 
and also furnish the motive and the pattern 
for the many similar copies which will natu- 
tally follow its example in other parts of 
our extensive possessions. It also presents 
to foreign nations the ideals, which, they will 
naturally suppose, represent our existing scien- 
tific culture and the tendencies of science in 
this country. They will hardly imagine that 
it has not been debated at all by scientific men 
at large, that it is the work of no represen- 
tative commission, and that it cannot in any 
sense be considered as the deliberate result 
of consultation with the leading men of the 
United States in all departments. 

In this respect, we think that the action of 
the government —if the plan is, as we under- 
stand, already adopted in the museum — is 
open to the severest criticism, and that it shows 
a curious want of prudence to definitely settle 
the future of an institution in which the whole 
country is more deeply interested than any 
other of its kind, without allowing the voice 
and criticisms of scientific men to be heard. 
It is certainly a wide departure from the wise 
example of the Smithsonian, and shows, that, 
at Washington, success has already begun to 
dull the edge of the wise forethought which 
led to such successful results in the planning 
of that institution. 

That the museum must be a loser in influ- 
ence by such a proceeding lies in the nature 

No. 24.— 1883. 


of things. The science of this country is 
certainly not responsible for the plan, and, 
however good it may prove to be, has had no 
proper opportunities for expressing its opinion 
about a matter in which its deepest interests 
are concerned. 

In his opening considerations, Mr. Goode 
divides museums into three classes, — those for 
record, those for research, and those for educa- 
tion. He considers that all three of these ob- 
jects are essential to the development of any 
comprehensive and philosophically organized 
museum. By record, the author means the 
preservation of collections which haye served 
as the instruments of past research; and by 
research, the accumulation of materials of 
all kinds to provide for new investigations. 
The author here assumes an historical stand- 
ard, and thinks that the objects of museum 
administration determine their classification ; 
whereas, in our opinion, practical considera- 
tions really settle the class to which a given 
museum should be referred. There is, as the 
author remarks, no separation of the two pur- 
poses of record and research; and it would 
perhaps have been clearer to the inexperi- 
enced in this branch of technology if the 
preservation of records, and accumulation of 
materials for research, together with adequate 
provision for the publication of original results, 
which is not mentioned by him, had been de- 
fined as the inseparable trinity of a museum 
of the first class. Mr. Goode’s opinion, that 
such museums should have exhibition-rooms, 
and display both their records and the results of 
research, indicates a broad and well-balanced 
judgment of the aims of museum administra- 
tion. The prevalent opinion among young 
investigators, that no public display of records 
should be made, arises from obstacles which 
the expenses of exhibition have heretofore 
presented to the successful performance of the 
proper functions of this class of museums in 
the encouragement of research, and also to 


64 SCIENCE. 


their frequent failures as instruments for the 
education of the public. 

Two functions, that of museums of research 
and that of museums of education, have been 
confused in their display of specimens; but, 
while this shows the necessity of a separation 
and a change of policy in their choice of col- 
lections for exhibition, it does not justify the 
withdrawal of valuable and useful records from 
public view. Leave to consult original speci- 
mens cannot be lightly granted, and the idio- 
syncrasies of their guardians is a large element 
of uncertainty in the way of those desiring to 
see such treasures. There are also classes of 
persons daily on the increase who should, at 
any rate, have the privilege of seeing them, 
though not fit to be trusted with their direct 
handling; and the wants of this class cannot 
be justly disregarded. We are therefore most 
heartily in sympathy with Mr. Goode in his 
opinion, that the highest value of original rec- 
ords is given to them when they are placed 
on exhibition; but we probably differ in think- 
ing that this should be done in museums or 
collections: exclusively devoted. to research, 
and meant for the use of the special student 
rather than the general public. 

Mr. Goode’s third class of museums, the 
educational, we should designate as the second 
class; since these are often separated from 
the former, and ought always to be conducted 
with distinct purposes, and governed by a class 

.of men who are familiar with the educational 
wants of the public, i.e., all those classes of 
persons who must get their information through 
the glass, and are not permitted to handle 
specimens. The needs of this class are but 
imperfectly understood by the investigator, or, 
if understood, very apt to be considered by 
him as of slight importance. It is certainly 
not his essential function to satisfy these de- 
mands, as in the ease of the true educator, 


and as should be the case with the curator of 


an educational collection. 

Mr. Goode’s ideal of a great educational mu- 
seum is accomplished by the union of the natu- 
ral history and industrial museums; and this 
has eyidently arisen from his experience and 


.[Vou. IL, No. 24 


study of similar unions occurring more or less 
accidentally in the different great exhibitions 
held in civilized countries of late years. He 
points out, that, while these great industrial 
exhibitions have shown a tendency to become 
purely commercial, they have served, wherever 
they have been held, as the starting-points, in 
time and materials, of permanent industrial mu- 
seums. The effect of the world’s fair in Phila- 
delphia in 1876, in accordance with this law, 
demonstrated the educational value of a more 
permanent industrial museum, and suggested 
that an immense field of usefulness would be 
open to an institution which should be based 
upon similargrounds, but which would endeay- 
or, by a more efficient and scientific arrange- 
ment of its specimens, to impart ‘‘ a consistent 
and systematic idea of the resources of the 
world and of human achievement.’’ 

This novel and somewhat startling aim is 
announced as the future guiding-star of the 
National museum, which is declared to be in 
the best possible trim for the accomplishment 
of such a purpose, since it is now starting 
anew, and is not encumbered by the immense 
masses of duplicates which have become the 
most serious obstacles in the path of the older 
museums. It is, in other words, free to choose 
the path of its future work ; and while this seems 
to be true, and the author must be acknowl- 
edged the best judge of the fact, we do not 
find any allusion to the accumulations formerly 
stored in the Smithsonian, nor as to how these 
and other collections, made upon the old basis 
for purely scientific research, are to be brought 
into harmony with the new ideal. It is much to 
be regretted, that, in this preliminary announce- 
ment of so important a national enterprise, the 
author had not taken more space for such in- 
teresting explanations, and also for the fuller 
consideration of the arrangement of topics 
according to their relative importance. 

This treatise shows, nevertheless, in all its 


1 Though we do find (as quoted in italics immediately below), 
that these collections, and we presume those which will be con- 
tinually flowing in from the Geological survey, the Fish.com- 
mission, and other sources, are to be arranged on a different plaw 
from all the other collections. It would have greatly enlightened 
us if we could have known what this plan was, but nothing fur- 
ther is said of it. 


ae wa 


JULY 20, 1883.] 


parts, that the practical aspects and difficulties 
of the question have been studied with great 
thoroughness and ability, and have naturally 
absorbed the time and thoughts of the author, 
and taken, therefore, the most prominent place. 

What seem to us the most valuable and fun- 
damental of all the considerations are brought 
in as secondary. Thus we find an intimation 
only that the museum ‘‘ attempts to show 
the evolution of civilization ;’’ we cannot be 
wrong, it appears to us, in imagining that this 
is to be the great aim of the National muse- 
um; and again, ‘‘ the collections should form 
a museum of anthropology, the word ‘ anthro- 
pology’ being applied in its most compre- 
hensive sense. It should exhibit the physical 
characteristics, the history, the manners (past 
and present) of all peoples (civilized and sav- 
age), and should illustrate human culture and 
industry in all its phases. The earth, its 
physical structure and its products, is to be 
exhibited with special reference to its adapta- 
tion for use by man and its resources for his 
future needs. The so-called natural history 
collections —that is to say, the collections in 
pure zoblogy, geology, and botany — should 
be grouped in separate series, which, though 
arranged on another plan, shall illustrate and 
supplement the collections in industrial and 
economic natural history.’”” We felt immedi- 
ately the deepest interest in knowing how so 
large a part of the National museum could be 
arranged on another plan without confusing 
the effect of the whole, but looked for ex- 
planations in vain. 

The idea of making the National museum 
a museum of anthropology must, we think, 
command unqualified respect ; and it seems to 
us to contain so much of future promise, that 
we feel all the more regret that the details of 
the scheme had not received the healthy pur- 
gation of general and expert criticism. The 
classification is also highly original, and shows 
the result of extensive study, and practical 
knowledge of ways and methods. 

The general outlines of the scheme of clas- 
sification, which is announced as _ provisional 
and open to necessary] modification, are as 


SCIENCE. 65 
follows: the exhibition of articles is to be 
divided into eight large divisions, or ‘ sec- 


tions,’ including sixty-four smaller divisions ; 
which last we shall, for convenience, designate 
under the name of ‘topics,’ to distinguish 
them from the sections into which they are 
grouped by Mr. Goode, —‘‘ Section I., Man- 
kind; II., The earth as man’s abode; III., 
Natural resources; IV., The exploitative in- 
dustries ; V., The elaborative industries; VLI., 
Ultimate products and their utilization; VII., 
Social relations of mankind; VIII., Intel- 
lectual occupations of mankind.’ 

We recognize the enormous difliculties in the 
way of the author of this scheme; and, while 
we congratulate him upon the successful han- 
dling of the details, — which we have not the 
space to quote in full, and therefore cannot do 
him personally full justice, —we must dissent 
strongly from the main ideas, which, we think, 
show the want of a broad and masterly com- 
prehension of the philosophical ideas which 
should govern the classification and purposes 
of our National museum. ‘The scheme itself, 
in this respect, is a curious mixture of the old 
notion, that, in order to understand man, we 
must necessarily start with the study of man- 
kind, and of the modern idea of evolution. 
The legitimate process of instruction from this 
stand-point begins with the simplest forms of 
life, and follows up their developmental and 
evolutionary history in organization and in 
time, until we arrive at the most highly spe- 
cialized forms. Man is the most highly 
specialized of all animals, physically and 
psychologically, and therefore, it is claimed, 
needs to be viewed in the light of all knowl- 
edge, unobscured by the prejudices and mis- 
conceptions which are liable to arise from the 
adoption of the opposite modes of study. 

Certainly the former mode is incompati- 
ble with the thorough and direct method of 
studying the principles of evolution, whether 
these relate to one set of objects or another, 
and is not accordant with the idea of the ‘ evo- 
lution of civilization’ and the evident neces- 
sity of expressing, in all the minor industrial 
collections, *‘ the steps by which man has ar- 


66 


rived at the present condition in every direc- 
tion in which human industry has been exerted, 
—a graphic history of the development of the 
human culture and civilization.’’ 

These are Mr. Goode’s own declarations of 
what seem to be the vital intentions of his 
scheme; and it is therefore a serious error, 
both practically and theoretically, when he 
places the natural history of man, including 
his psychology and individual manifestations, 
at the head of his scheme, in place of making 
this department the terminal one, to be viewed 
by visitors only after they had gone through 
with all the other departments. 

The author has arranged the sections and 
sixty-four topics according to a system which 
is artificial, and irreconcilable with his inten- 
tions and his general objects, and shows this 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. IL, No. 24. 


in the place assigned to mankind. Man is 
essentially the product of the forces which 
have acted upon this earth. Without going 
into the question of whether these forces were 
divine or material, which is of no value in 
such a technical discussion, it is certainly very 
illogical to place the conclusion before the be- 
ginning, the consequent before the antecedent, 
man before the earth. This may be very satis- 
factory to those who need, or think they need, 
to perpetually swing the censer before the old 
idol of man’s supremacy in the universe; but 
it is none the less unnatural and illogical to 
have one mode of arrangement for the parts 
of a great collection, and another for the 
whole. 

In a future number we shall consider some 
of the minor features of this elaborate scheme. 


LIST OF TWENTY-THREE NEW DOUBLE STARS, DISCOVERED AT CAROLINE ISLAND, 
SOUTH PACIFIC OCEAN, BETWEEN APRIL 27 AND MAY 7, 18838, BY E. S. HOLDEN 


AND C. 8S. HASTINGS. 


, 


| 
Star. a, 1880.0 5, 1880.0. p. s Mags. Observer. Date. 
h. m. 8. 
Soc, WS 5 5 5 6 6 6 10 28 35 —5£° 467 250° 2 8.5 - 9 Holden .« .| Mayl. 
ION Socal oe a oD 11 31 28 —60 14 380 15 8.5 — 9.5 Holden . . | April 28. 
INC CRED GG a0 te We) vos ‘11 48 58 —5d 20 230 2 75-8) Holden . .| Mayl. 
ZNO, co Gere BR) von 11 57 40 —5T 5 240 1} 8.5 — 9.5 Holden ...| May 4 
Ween BYP BIG LG) an. coded 12 31 24 —5d 16 205 i 7.3 - 9.3 Holden . . | Mayl 
JANOS eo a 13 1 16 —52 5 200 1h 9.5 — 9.5 Holden « | May 4 
AD) BYES UE Riyals Siniubict iG 13° 6 59 —62 o7 40 1 7.5 -10 Holden . . | May 6. 
Lac., 5738 18 48 28 —53 33 330 2 6.5 - 8.5 Russell . . A. roa 
12 carat NAM ony Sty 290 25 6.5 -13 Holden . .| May2,A.C. 

Ws MS ae eo 38 13, 59 56 —49 18 30 } 7.5 - 7.5 Hastings . May 1, 
TLE GUL Gans ould 5 14 6 14 —6l 9 180 3e v= 9 Hastings . May 2 ‘ 
Wevecg GNA 9 lo G6 abo 14 41 16 —72 42 90 1; 6 -8 Hastings . May 2 
Ae (MII. cd aac! a 14 50 35 —67 30 0 5 7 -10 Hastings . April 27. 
ANIONS Ie biG ya) ay Dilot Cana 1s 2 18 —40 31 70 4 7-8 Hastings . May 4 
SHOES S2c0)e we yelele el a ls 1b) 3 (33 —51 38 220 3 7.5 -9 Holden . .| May 2 
WAC AO2ZOO Rare, si Nepean ae 15 6 36 —60 27 300 12 6.5 -13 Hastings . . | April 27, 
ZNOAZ Gv Oidae on OND lori Loma tacue —68 8 0 1} 7.5 -9 Hastings . . | May 2 
Anon. . ciel ee eahehis 15 8 40 —53 30 170 3 8 -10 Hastings . .| May 1 
Stone, Gein te Mae 15 14 18 —47 29 225 1k 8.0 - 8.5 Hastings . May 1. 
Elio s gle bo ola oO 15 14 32 —44 15 175 A 3-6 Hastings . .| April 27. 
ac 0488 cetera larsis palee 15 36 li —50 24 210 2 7 -9 Holden May 4 
IEE GEM) 5 55g ino 5 15 44 44 —60 23 85 1 65-9 Hastings. . | May 2. 
Stoney O22 ae mieiecssetianie 16 50 15 —56 25 125 2 7.5 -10 Holden . .| May7 
WEN RIGS G5 a ola oO) 17 23 16 —40 57 95 1 8.0 - 8.5 Holden . .| MayT. 


THE UNITED STATES FISH-COMMIS- 
SION STEAMER ALBATROSS.1— II. 


Tue fitting-up of a small floating scientific 
laboratory, which might remain at sea for a 
month or more at a time, and yet include 
every necessary convenience, was a somewhat 
novel problem, and required a considerable 


1 Concluded from No. 22. 


amount of planning, based mainly upon past 
experiences of the fish-commission. The gen- 
eral arrangements are now, for the most part, 


complete, but they are subject to alteration 


and improvement. 


The main laboratory (see figures, pp. 68, 69) 


is twenty feet long, twenty-six feet wide, and 
nearly eight feet high. The forward-end of the 


room is devoted to storage, and the sides and: 


JULY 20, 1883.] 


after-end to work-tables. The storage-case 
consists of a series of six double racks, with 
wire doors in front for holding the trays of bot- 
tles and jars, the trays being all of the same 
size, so as to fit any part of the case. Under 
the racks are six large bins for the tanks of 
alcohol in use, the large fish-pans, dishes, and 
other heavy laboratory utensils, and at either 
side is a small case for chemicals and preserva- 


SCIENCE. 


67 


as the general laboratory, though of less height, 
and is entirely fitted up for the storage of jars, 
bottles, tanks, alcohol, zodlogical specimens, 
and the lighter kinds of collecting apparatus. 
A single series of bins on a level with the floor 
extends around the entire room, excepting in 
front of the stairway, and serves as compart- 
ments for the copper tanks of alcohol, which 
are contained in uniform-sized boxes. In these 


ETAT 


FE Se 


aii) wt 
Ce 


CAPTAIN’S CABIN. 


tives. In one of the after-corners is a photo- 
graphic dark room, and opposite to it the sink 
and water-supply. The remainder of the space 
on each side is occupied by a sorting-table, one 
being at the proper height to work while stand- 
ing, the other while sitting. The after-bulkhead 
contains the arrangements for chemical and 
physical investigations, consisting of a broad 
table, with drawers and cupboards underneath, 
and racks above. 

The storeroom is of about the same size 


bins there is room for fifty tank-boxes, each 
with a capacity of sixteen gallons, making a 
total of eight hundred gallons of alcohol which 
it is possible to carry in this way. Against 
the fore and after bulkheads, above the bins, 
are two sets of racks for bottle-trays, similar 
to those in the general laboratory. They are 
intended for the storage of the main supply of 
bottles and jars ; and, as rapidly as those in the 
laboratory become filled with specimens, they 
are carried below, and their places supplied 


68 


SS = MANY ry 
at 


LITZ, 
= a 


salatrntantnn 
sherse, 
BO 


Maiaelalannreegnitast 
ieloenatarennelaa 
OO 


[Vou. IL, No. 24. 


MAIN LABORATORY, FORWARD-END, 


with empty ones, without the necessity of re- 
moving any from the trays. On the two sides 
of the storeroom are large, deep bins for nets 
and other light appliances, the dredges and 
trawls being stored elsewhere: 

The deck-laboratory, which receives the 
greatest amount of light, is more especially 
arranged for study. The after-end is oceu- 
pied by a bookease, with a cupboard for the 
physical apparatus on one side; and the for- 
ward-end, by the medical case, and stairway to 
the lower laboratory. A large square table, 
with accommodations for four persons, stands 
in the centre of the room, under the skylight. 
Under one window is the sink, and beside it 
two upright cylindrical tanks for sea-water 
and alcohol, which empty by means of faucets. 
The other window-spaces are supplied with 
folding tables, which, when not in use, can be 
shut down against the wall. _ Arrangements 


are yet to be made in this room for small work- 
ing-hquaria, where the living forms and colors 
of delicate marine animals can be studied and 
pictured. They will probably be modelled after 
the new style of hatching-jars, recently intro- 
duced at Washington, for the propagation of 
shad and salmon. 

The Albatross is furnished with two pro- 
peller-screws instead of the usual number, one, 
to enable her to execute more readily the vari- 
ous manoeuvres demanded by the peculiar 
character of her work. ‘They are right and 
left handed,—one being placed under each 
counter, — and measure nine feet in diameter. 
By their means the steamer can be turned 
completely around almost within her own 
length, and placed in position for dredging 
and sounding without the delays incidental to 
most exploring steamers. The motive power 
is furnished by two compound engines, with 


Hl 


JuLy 20, 1883.] 


two cylinders each, — one of high, the other 
of low pressure, — the stroke of piston being 
thirty inches. The engines are. slightly in- 
clined, the upper ends of the cylinders being 
drawn inboard over the condenser, which is 
common to both engines, and forms their 
framing. The boilers are two in number, of 
the overhead return-flue pattern, and measure 
twenty-one feet and a half in length by eight 
feet and a half in diameter. 

The proper ventilation of all parts of the 
ship was carefully considered during her con- 
struction, and the plan adopted has given the 
greatest satisfaction. It consists simply in 
withdrawing the foul air from the lower parts 
of each room through small ventilators, by 
means of a Sturtevant exhaust-fan with Wise’s 


Pill 


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I 


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ry 


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eo 

<— 

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= 
REPENS 


SCIENCE. 69 


steam-motor attachment. The influx of air is 
from above, through open doors or ports; and 
a constant circulation is maintained, even in 
the lowest inhabited portions of the ship. 

One of the most interesting features of the 
Albatross is the system of electric lighting, 
which has already been referred to. Some 
such method of replacing the dingy lamps 
common to most ocean vessels was rendered 
imperative from the fact that this steamer is 
supposed to continue her observations as regu- 
larly through the night as through the day, 
and the surrounding surface of the sea must 
also be lighted. To accomplish this, a hun- 
dred and twenty eight-candle B lamps of the 
Edison incandescent system are distributed 
through the ship; every portion, including the 


LULL] 
FAGHY _— 


MAIN LABORATORY, AFTER END. 


70 


holds, storerooms, and open decks, having its 
share. They are controlled by a Z dynamo, 
driven by an Armington and Sim’s high-speed 
engine. An arc-lamp of great power, designed 
by Dr. O. A. Moses, and intended for illumi- 
nating the surface of the water, works in cir- 
cuit with the same system ; and there is also a 
powerful submarine lamp which can be lowered 
to any depth not exceeding a thousand feet. 
This latter feature is quite noy- 
el, and is to be used to attract 
schools of fish and other free 
swimmers, should its strong 
rays of light. possess the in- 
fluence which they are sup- 
posed to have. 

The sounding and 
dredging appliances 
and working-gear 
supplied to 
the <Alba- 
tross 


SCIENCE. 


Zz “Pre ee or ete RAT” 
PD i : sate 
: y 


[Vou. II., No. 24. 


which the reeling-in is accomplished by hand, 
is extremely simple in its workings, and is in- 
tended for moderate depths of water only. It 
is attached to the rail on the port side of the 
main deck, forward of the pilot-house. The 
Sigsbee machine can be used in all depths of 
water, down to the deepest parts of the ocean, 
and is worked by steam. It occupies a promi- 
nent position on the port side of the top-gallant’ 
forecastle deck (see opposite page). The 
principal accessories to sounding are the Sigs- 
bee sounding-rod, with detachable weights ; 
the Sigsbee water-cup; and the Negretti and 
Zambra deep-sea thermometer, with a new 
style of reversible metal case recently devised 
by Messrs. Bailie and Tanner of the fish-com- 
mission. ~With these appliances, samples of 
the bottom formation and water, and the tem- 
perature of the latter, can be obtained at each 
cast of the lead; and, by using a heavier 
sounding-wire (No. 18 wire gauge), several in- 
termediate samples and temperatures are also 
-procurable without much additional trouble. 
The dredging appliances are as nearly per- 
fect as are those for sounding, and comprise 
every improyement which has been hitherto 
suggested. Steel-wire dredge-rope meas- 
uring only an inch and an eighth 
in circumference replaces the old 
style of three-inch hempen rope, 
which is no longer recognized by 
deep-sea dredgers on this side of the 
Atlantic. The principal advantages 
of wire rope are its ‘compactness, 
strength, and durability, and the 
ease and speed with which it can 
be handled. The working-reel of 
the Albatross, on which 4,000 
fathoms can be stored at a 


THE SIGSBEE SOUNDING-MACHINE. 


are mainly patterned after those which have 
been successfully introduced by the U. S. coast- 
survey and fish-commission in recent years. 
All sounding operations are to be con- 
ducted with steel piano-wire of No. 21 Ameri- 
can gauge, on the system of Sir William 
Thomson, for which purpose two styles of 
sounding-machines ate furnished. One of 
these is the invention of Commander Sigsbee, 
U.S.N., and the other of Lieut.-Commander 
Tanner, U.S.N. The Tanner machine, in 


on the ship that its presence 
is scarcely noticeable. 


sists of a powerful hoisting-en- 
gine on the main deck directly 
in front of the foremast, and a reeling-engine 


and reel on the berth-deck underneath. <A _ 


strong dredging-boom, thirty-six feet long, 
and pivoted to the foremast about seven feet 
above the deck, carries the dredge-rope clear of 
the vessel, and can be raised and lowered, or 
bent aside at any angle, to suit the convenience 
while dredging or trawling. Sudden strains 
on the dredge-rope are relieved by a Sigsbee 
accumulator, consisting of about thirty-five 


rubber car-buffers arranged for compression — 


on an iron-rod. This important accessory 
hangs suspended from the masthead above the 


time, occupies so small a space — 


LO yee, eee ea 
> ‘ 


The dredging machinery con- — 


ae - — oo | (| 


JULY 20, 1883.] 


hoisting-machine. The course taken by the 
dredge-rope while in use is as follows: start- 
ing from the reel on which it is contained, it 
passes through a pulley on the berth-deck to 
the drum of the hoisting-engine, thence up 
to and throngh an iron block at the lower end 
of the accumulator, and down again through a 
sheave in the heel of the boom, from which it 


extends to the outer end of the boom, where 
there is another large pulley. The free end 
of the rope is spliced into the eye of a set of 
_safety-hooks, to which the dredge or trawl is 
_ fastened, and which are so arranged as to open 
and release the apparatus, should the strain, 
by reason of fouling on the bottom, exceed a 
certain amount. These hooks can be adjusted 
to detach at any point between three thousand 


SCIENCE, 


— 7c = 


71 


and six thousand pounds, which is less than 
the tensile strength of the rope they are intended 
to secure from breakage. The amount of rope 
out atall times is recorded by a register attached 
to the sheave in the heel of the boom, the sheave 
measuring just half a fathom in circumference. 

In preparing for work, the dredging-boom 
is topped up at the requisite angle over the 


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FORWARD DECK. 


starboard bow, and the loaded dredge or trawl 
is hoisted above the deck, on which stands the 
sieve or tubs ready to receive its contents. 
Two methods of sifting or washing the ma- 
terials are followed. For the trawls, which 
generally bring up a heavy load, a large and 
deep, square sieve, standing upon legs at a 
convenient height for working, is used. As 
the tail of the trawl is lifted above the deck, 


ween 


72 


the sieve is shoved under it, and the contents 
of the former are released. In case no wash- 
ing is necessary, the specimens are rapidly 
transferred to their proper receptacles; but 
if, as usually happens, the load consists mainly 
of mud or sand, a stream of water from a 
hose is turned upon it, and it is thoroughly 
washed down. <A nest of three or four small 
circular sieves, each having a different mesh, 
is generally employed for washing the contents 
of the dredges. 

To describe the various appliances of research 
belonging to the outfit of the Albatross would 
carry us beyond the proper limits of this article : 
suffice it to say, that every method of obtain- 
ing results known to the fishermen and marine 
zoologist will be tried. The scientific appara- 
tus is mainly such as has already been thor- 
oughly tested by American expeditions, and 
much of it has been described in published 
reports. There are many additional features, 
however, which have been lately added. The 
fisherman’s outfit is complete, and comprises 
all kinds of seines and gill-nets, line-trawls, 
and hooks and line. The principal appliances 
for deep-sea research will be the dredges and 
beam-trawls, both in their original and modi- 
fied forms ; and, in connection with the latter, 
two large towing-nets will always be used. 
They are fastened, one at either side of the 
trawl, in the shape of wings, which name they 
now bear in the dredger’s vocabulary. They 
were introduced as an experiment two years 
ago by the fish-commission ; and, proying an 
invaluable adjunct to the trawl, they soon be- 
came a permanent fixture. The simple open 
towing-nets are to skim the surface of the 
sea at all times, when the speed of the vessel 
will permit ; and occasional trials will be made 
with the Sigsbee trap for ascertaining the 
amount of animal life within any prescribed area 
below the surface. 

The chemical department has not yet been 
completely furnished, but all the more impor- 
tant apparatus for making the principal tests, 
and glassware for saving water-samples, have 
been supplied. The photographic section has, 
however, been placed in perfect running-order, 
and affords the means of illustrating all sorts 
of objects, whether large or microscopic. It 
also contains improved appliances for register- 
ing the intensity of light at different depths. 

Among the small boats with which the Al- 
batross is liberally provided are two steam 
launches of the Herreschoff pattern for use in 
setting and hauling nets, and in spearing por- 
poises and large fish which cannot be reached 
from the high deck of the steamer. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 24, 


From the above brief account, it may be 
rightly assumed that this new addition to our 
coast-marine is the most perfect floating work- 
shop and laboratory for scientific purposes ever 
constructed. Its first cruise, during which it en- 
countered severe winds, gave proof of its supe- 
rior sailing qualities ; and, judging of its outfit 
from past experiences, we are justified in pre- 
dicting for it a long lite of usefulness to science 
and the fishing interests. Rrcnarp RaTHBun. 


' SUN-SPOT OBSERVATIONS. 


Tue U.S. signal-service has published month. 


by month since June, 1877, observations of 
sun-spots, made by Prof. D. P. Todd (now 


of Amherst college) with a telescope less than 


three inches aperture. 

As a maximum of solar spottedness seems to 
have passed, it has been thought wise to collate 
these observations in the accompanying table, 
and present them for comparison and study. 

In this table the Roman figures are the actual 
observed values, and interpolated values in 
Italic type are added for the sake of complete- 
ness. 

The observations for August, 1878, were 
made by the Signal-service at Fort Whipple, 
Va. The mean monthly results combine both 
actual and interpolated values, and show that 


the last minimum epoch was at 1878.9, and the ~ 


last maximum was at 1882.4.! 

Professor Fritz of Zurich gives the follow- 
ing table of maxima and minima of sun-spots 
for the present century to 1878. 
in the main with the results of other researches. 


Epochs of maximum and minimum sun-spots 
of the nineteenth century. 


Maximum. Period. Minimum. Period. 
1804.2 . 5 1810.6. 
1816.4. eet lpeae cr, ie 
1829.9 . 73 1333.9 . 9.6 
1837.2. . : TR N.S acne oho f 
3 10.9 iS 12.5 
1848.1... BRO a6 
12.0 rl ‘ 11.2 
1860.1. 10.5 USCA G fo Ss 11.7 
1870.6 . 118 1878.9 . a 
1882.4 . i 
Mean . 11.2 /Mean’. 2. 11.4 


Taking the mean of each twelve months, we 
have mean yearly numbers, in 1878, 2.2; 1879, 
2.0; 1880, 14.3; 1881, 26.7; and, in 1882, 
28.3. The last two agree with the observa- 
tions of Tacchini in Rome. 


These agree — 


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[Vou. IL., No. 24. 


SCIENCE. 


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ra 8°61 LE \et |8r\oa\7a\z |og | gels | 9E\ ce | ee |FE\os |G |oe |0G)er\oe)\02 |02 |9r/6 \9 |e |% |e |F 9 18 + + TaquieAoNy 
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91 1° 6 |lé6 le |2 |# |e |¢ |e |OZ \ar |e jos | ea |¢a | 02 | oz | 08 | 08 | 9a) 054 92 | 0a) 02 | 9a | 08 | OF | 99 | OL | 28 | COT * + qaquieydog 
td o9e |ozz|oaz\ozt|ort|os |o2}09 |og |ce jor jo |g |e |# |s8 JO Jo |e |8 Jor] Ex | 0a | 0% | 92 | 94 | Gz) 6 | oz | Ge | OF | OF + + qsngnyz 
¥G #TS 09 149 |¢9 |¢9 |a9/09 |¢9 Jor Jez | 0a |e | er|ct |er |et | 02 |6z)0z | sa )\Gc | 08 | se | ce jos | 4a) 90 |e | 92 | Ge | OF | op 74 + snp 
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6L 6°61 e lt |g lor|zriar|9z |ez|e |et |oa) cs | oz | 2c | et jor | or | St | Sr | 2a) 9e | oF | oF | 9a | Ga | 9% | ce | oF + + Axentqayy 
&I gsr |g |e |o2lee jos jee |sejos js |e jor) 9r| sz | oz | a or\9 |r |e |e |F 19 |S \Or\2L\eL\FL| EL\ ox | 1 | OF * + + Avenoep 
; ‘TSst 
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ie 9°GL oz |aa|oalee |er\#r\or|ct |e |oz |sz |ce |galog|4n |ct |az|s je jo |a |e je |e |OL) 92) 0a) Fa )\ Gz | ce * = Taq meAON, 
91 rie |or |\#r |9r\sr\oz |\aa|Fa)ez |Fa)\ 0s |ez | 9a\ea |9L| Gr) or |r |r| er] | Fo | co | 20 | OL | aE | ot | SZ} 02 | 09 | Sg) ce + 5 = 1090390 
02 Pee 02 |o¢ |or|ee|zec |x |x |S Jon |oz |aa\eo | oz |er | 8a | Sr | 89 | G4 }08 | 98 |e2 | 99|OF |OE)Oe\It | |& |2 | SE * + saquiaydag 
st oe or \0c |0z |st jor |9 |e |¢ jor }ez |oe | or | a | 9F| SE 0S | oF | OF | 98 Jog | 9G) Fa | ce | Sa | eo |9L|SL)OL/T |e |g ss qsnsny 
he SIL 9 19 |er lor |st |e |aaloz jo |ez |ezis |g |F |o |o Jo Jo Jo |o |0O |&@ Jor |Os)os | se) oe) or | et | oz) 97 Bo 8 Ane 
ye Chal 0c |sales |os|eel|oe\re|voe |re |co |eaieo jkr jor |4 |# |Z 10 Je |e |% |e |4 1G |G IF J9 [2 8 |eE 29 8 2 ati 
‘O88T 
‘shup| “Uo 
jo | PAtesqo | te | og | 62 | 8a | 12 | 92 | Go| ta | eo] 2 | 12] 02) GL | SL} AU) OL | SL} FL] SL | cL} Ir] 0r}6 |8 |2 |9 |G |r |S ye | F “you Jo Aug 
‘ox | fine 


‘paprjouog — ‘suoTyearesqo 4yods-uns sppog, ‘d ‘d JOid 


JULY 20, 1888.] 


Plotting the monthly numbers, it will be seen 
that there are plain indications that the maxi- 
mum has passed, though it is thought by some 
that it is still to come. 1a Gils 


FIFTEENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF 
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL 
ENGINEERS. —I. 


Tue members of the society began to 
assemble in Chicago as early as Thursday, 
June 14, to visit the exposition of railway ap- 
pliances, and to take part in the excursions 
planned for their benefit by the Engineers’ club 
of the north-west. 

By Monday morning, June 18, the number 
of those intending to take the special train for 
St. Paul, generously tendered by the officers 
of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul rail- 
way, had swelled to three hundred. ‘The train 
of eight cars, well filled, left Chicago at 7.30 
A.M., arriving at St. Paul at 10 Pp... But few 

_ stops were made on the way, the principal one 
being at the crossing of the Wisconsin River, 
for the object of inspecting the railway bridge, 
and taking a better view of the fine scenery at 
that point. Quite an accession to the party 
~ came on board at Milwaukee. 

Upon reaching St. Paul, an engine of the 
| St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba railroad 
> 


was attached; and the train was drawn over 
that line, through Minneapolis, to Lake Min- 
- netonka,—a beautiful sheet of water some 
thirty miles long, where, at Hotel Lafayette, 
_ thirty-three miles from St. Paul, the members 
of the society and their invited guests were to 
be quartered during the convention. 
i The two cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul, 
— only a few miles apart, and each containing 
over eighty thousand inhabitants, were rivals 
for the opportunity of entertaining the society ; 
and to prevent any ill-feeling, as well as to 
avoid crowding any of the city hotels, already 
- taxed to accommodate their own patrons, this 
summer hotel, just opened for the season, only 
built one year, newly enlarged and furnished, 
and capable of providing for the comfort of 
ve hundred or six hundred guests, was chosen 
for headquarters. With the exception that 
‘some valuable time was lost in going to and 
returning from the place of holding, the daily 
‘sessions, this selection is to be commended ; 
for the location was extremely pleasant, and 
the air fresh and cool. Those who did not 
desire to go to the meetings each day could find 
‘rest and enjoyment at this agreeable summer 
resort. A special train was at the service of 
the convention each day throughout the entire 


a 


SCIENCE. 75 


week. A large accession to the number of 
members present was made as the week pro- 
gressed, so that the attendance was larger than 
at any previous convention. 

On Tuesday morning the engineers took the 
special train for St. Paul, and thence went to 
the state capitol, where the first meeting was 
called to order in Representatives’ hall. After 
formal announcements of programme and ar- 
rangements, the usual addresses of welcome 
were made. | 

The first paper read was by the late Major 
F. U. Farquhar, U.S. eng., on the building of 
the dike for the preservation of the Falls of St. 
Anthony. 

The falls, which furnish the water-power for 
the mills of Minneapolis, were first described. 
A stratum of upper magnesian limestone, eleven 
feet thick at the lower edge, is underlaid by an 
extremely soft sandrock, which is rapidly worn 
away; and the limestone is thus undermined 
and broken off. The recession of the falls was 
rapid ; and, as the limestone outcrops with a 
thin edge twelve hundred feet above the pres- 
ent brink of the falls, their final reduction to 
rapids would occur, if not prevented.  Citi- 
zens dug a tunnel for a tail-race in the sand- 
rock, and the river broke in at the upper end. 
The immediate destruction of the falls was 
imminent; and attempts to check the rush of 
water, which rapidly enlarged the tunnel and 
repeatedly broke through in different places, 
proved ineffectual. The citizens, after building 
cofferdams at various weak points, discouraged 
by failures at times of high water, obtained an 
appropriation from the U.S. government, on 
the ground that the wearing-away of the fails 
would injure navigation above. <A plan was 
finally proposed by Major Farquhar, of exca- 
vating a tunnel across the entire river, through 
the sandrock, from the limestone overhead to 
the sound rock below, some forty feet, and 
filling it solidly with concrete. This work was 
carried out under his direction, and was fully 
explained in the paper, and illustrated by 
drawings. The dike is eighteen hundred and 
seventy-five feet long, and has successfully shut 
off the water which worked its way through 
the soft sandstone. The detailed statement 
and cost can be found in the Report of chief 
of engineers, U.S.A , for 1879. The action 
of the water has been injudiciously concen- 
trated upon a limited space of some three 
hundred feet by the erection of wing-dams by 
the mill-owners. 

In the discussion on this paper at the time 
of its reading, and in remarks made the next 


morning by the engineer officer now in charge 


76 


of the falls, the other works of preservation 
—the timber apron, the rolling dams above, 
and the crib which had been placed below, 
the falls—were described and commented 
upon. 

Dr. C. E. Emery read a short paper, and 
submitted a table, showing the cost of steam 
engines and boilers complete, and the cost of 
operating the same for three hundred and nine 
days in the year, including repairs and renew- 
als, and giving, upon the data assumed, the 
total cost per horse-power maintained continu- 
ously. He pointed out why small engines 
were comparatively more expensive to main- 
tain than were large ones. The discussion of 
this paper was postponed until the next day. 

The convention re-assembled at the state 
capitol on Wednesday morning. The discus- 
sion of Messrs. Farquhar and Emery’s papers 
was first in order. The question was asked 
whether the amount expended in the preserva- 
tion of St. Anthony’s Falls would not have 
sufficed to establish and maintain an equivalent 
plant of steam-engines. Dr. Emery thought 
not. 

Prof. T. Eggleston followed with a paper on 
¢ An accident to steam-pipes arising from the 
use of blast-furnace wool.’ He attributed a 
corrosion and subsequent explosion of steam- 
pipes at Columbia college to’the setting-free 
of sulphur from the wool by the action of ex- 
tremely diluted solutions of organic acids and 
the rapid corrosion of the pipe by the sulphu- 
ric acid, sustaining his position by reports of 
analyses and tests. 

He was strongly opposed by Dr. Emery, 
who claimed that the corrosion was due to 
leakage and moisture, with alternate wetting 
and drying of the pipes, and that blast-fur- 
nace wool was entirely innocuous. 

Mr. John Lawler of Prairie du Chien de- 
scribed the construction of the two pontoon 
draws in the railway-bridge across the Missis- 
sippi at that place. Each pontoon is four 
hundred and eight, feet long, six feet deep, 
thirty-six feet wide on bottom, and forty-one 
feet wide on top. The interior details, the 
regulation of height of track, the means for 
fastening and for manoeuvring the draws, were 
described at length; and the cost was stated 
as one-sixth of the estimated cost of the usual 
iron swing-bridge. The bridge was built in 
1874, and has been in continued use ever 
since. This bridge was seen from the train on 
the trip from Chicago. 

The last paper at this session, by G. Lin- 
denthal of Pittsburgh, Penn., was upon the 
rebuilding of the Monongahela bridge at that 


Vas APP SS 
ie 


SCIENCE. 


place, from his design and under his direc- 
tion. 
minutely into details of the new structure, and 
was illustrated by tracings. ‘The ‘latter por- 
tion was occupied with a discussion of the old 
suspension-bridge, built in 1846 by John A. 
Roebling, the condition of the same before 
removal, the tests of the material removed, 
and the effect of the excessive overloading to 
which it had been exposed for years by the 
increasing and heavy traffic over the bridge. 
After a brief discussion, the convention then 
adjourned ; a portion of the members repairing 
at once to Lake Minnetonka, and the remain- 


der going to Minneapolis, where visits were 


made to the Washburn flouring-mill and to 
the bridges. 


(To be continued.) Ne 


KINETIC CONSIDERATIONS AS | TO 
THE NATURE OF THE ATOMIC MO- 
TIONS WHICH PROBABLY ORIGINATE 
RADIATIONS.1—1. 


THe assumption that the mean kinetic 
energy of translation of the molecules of a gas 
is the measure of its temperature is one whose 
beautiful agreement with experiment has led 
to its acceptance as a necessary part of the 
kinetic theory of gases, and it has often led to 


‘the thoughtless conclusion that this translatory 


motion is also the mechanical source of the 
disturbances in the ether which originate radi- 
ations. But there are many difficulties in the 
way of accepting this view. One of the first, 
and perhaps the least, is the difficulty of con= 
ceiving how such a motion of translation, which 
is essentially longitudinal, can originate a lat- 
eral vibration, such as light and radiant heat 
must be. 

A greater difficulty appears to be found in 
the extremely moderate mean velocity of trans- 
lation which the molecules of a gas are found 
to have. Molecular velocities, which are of 
the same order of magnitude as that of sound 
or of a rifle-ball, seem hardly fitted to cause the 
necessary compressions or disturbances in a 
medium in which the rate of propagation is so 
immense; or, to state it in another way, if 
molecules, in describing their paths, originate 
radiations, then the motion of a rifle-ball ought 


also to do so, or, indeed, any much more mod- — 


erate motion, such as that of a vehicle or 
animal. 


A still further difficulty is, that there is- 


another part of the kinetic theory which ap- 
pears to be so related to this that both cannot 


1 Presented in abstract to the Section of chemistry and phys- 4a 


ics of the Ohio mechanies’ institute, April 26, 1883. 


[Vou. IL, No. 24. ° 


The first portion of his paper entered © 


SI ee eae 


JULY 20, 1883.] 


be rigorously true at the same time, as appears 
from the following considerations. The most 
probable distribution of the component molec- 
ular velocities of a gas in equilibrium is the 
same as that of errors of observation. This 
distribution is brought about by fortuitous 
molecular encounters, and its permanence is 
insured by reason of them. But in case the 
progressive motion of a molecule gives rise to 
radiations, those molecules whose velocities 
are the greater are the hotter, and consequent- 
ly radiate more heat to other molecules than 
they receive from them. They therefore lose 
part of their progressive energy before the next 
encounter. The whole effect would be to 
retard the motion of those molecules whose 
kinetic energy is greater than the mean, and 
accelerate those whose kinetic energy is less. 
This would cause a constant interference with 
the distribution of velocities according to the 
law of probabilities; and the interference would, 
so far as we are at present able to form an esti- 
mate of its amount, be sufficient to cause the 
kinetic energy of each molecule to approach 
indefinitely near its mean value during the 
time in which it describes a very small fraction 
of the mean path between two _ successive 
molecular encounters. If this is the case, the 
kinetic energy of any molecule does not differ 
for any appreciable time from its mean value, 
and is in effect the same during the whole 
path, so that there is no such distribution of 
velocities as has been assumed. In case the 
interference with the assumed law is not so 
complete as this, it must apparently exert an 
important influence upon the distribution of 
velocities, especially in the case of rarified 
gases, in which the encounters are compara- 
tively infrequent. 

Again : if the progressive motion of the mole- 
cules can originate radiations consisting of 
transyerse yibrations, it would appear highly 
improbable that their rotary motion should not 
also do the same. But, as has been shown in 
a former paper,’ the kinetic energy of transla- 
tion differs from that of rotation for imperfect 
gases; and the temperature cannot be simply 
proportional to the mean rotary energy, though 
it might possibly be proportional to the sum of 
the rotary and translatory energies combined. 

But aside from these difficulties, which may 
serve to show the intrinsic improbability of the 
supposition that the progressive motion of the 
molecules originates radiations, we seem to 
reach pretty decisive evidence against the sup- 
position, when we consider the specific heats 


1 An extension of the theorem of the virial, ete. — (Se. proc. 
Ohio mech. inst., March, 1383.) See also Scrence, i. 65. 


SCIENCE. 77 


of solid bodies, or when we consider the nature 
of the radiation itself as revealed by the spec- 
troscope. 

The experimental law of Dulong and Petit, 
and the analogous results of Neumann,’ show 
that in solid bodies we must consider the tem- 
perature to be measured more nearly by the 
energy of the atom than by that of the mole- 
cule. Now, it is hardly supposable that the 
translatory motion of a gaseous molecule should 
originate radiations, while that of a solid should 
not. We shall not, at this stage of the dis- 
cussion, consider the spectroscopic evidence as 
to the nature of the motions which originate 
radiations, further than to notice that the echar- 
acteristic spectra of gases appear wholly inex- 
plicable, on the supposition that they are 
originated by translatory motions, with veloci- 
ties distributed according to the law of proba- 
bilities, or with velocities reduced by radiation 
to.an. approximate equality, as it has been 
shown they might be; for even the simplest 
gases have spectra consisting of at least several 
lines. 

If these reasons compel us to distrust the 
supposition that radiations originate in the 
progressive or rotary motions of the molecules, 
does the supposition that radiations originate 
in the vibratory motion, with respect to each 
other, of the atoms in the molecule, afford a 
better explanation of the facts? Such a mo- 
tion, analogous to the elastic vibrations of a 
bell or other sonorous body, might very readily, 
perhaps, be shown, in case of a complex mole- 
cule, to have such a relation to the molecular 
encounters, and thus to the mean kinetic 
energy of translation, that its energy would 
be directly proportional to it for each given 
gas. In case this were established, such vibra- 
tions, considered as the physical cause of radia- 
tions, would explain the phenomena of gases 
as well as the supposition that they are due to 
the progressive kinetic energy ; and they might 
possibly be shown to explain those of solids 
also. 

But there is at least one difficulty, in the way 
of accepting this supposition, which seems in- 
superable in the case of monatomic molecules ; 
for, if radiations could only originate in the 
vibrations of atoms with respect to each other 
within the molecule, monatomic molecules 
could not radiate heat at all, and could not 
have a temperature. That this should be true 
is not only inconceivable, but contrary to the 
known fact that monatomic mercury gas has 
a perfectly ascertainable temperature: hence 


- 1 Ann. phys. chem., xxiii. Wiillner’s Experimental-physik, 
. 506. 


78 SCIENCE. 


the motions which originate radiations are not 
confined to such vibrations of atoms, even if it 
be possible that such vibrations do originate 
radiations. And this consideration leads us to 
what appears to be the truth of the matter, 
which is, that the atoms themselves are in a 
state of internal vibration. As will be seen 
subsequently, this internal vibration is, no 
doubt, accomplished under the action of internal 
forces, which permit extremely small deforma- 
tions only of the atom by any external forces 
which can be brought to bear upon it; i.e., the 
modulus of elasticity of an atom is very large 
indeed, and very large, no doubt, when com- 
pared with that of the molecule. Indeed, if 
‘such vibrations exist within the atom itself, it 
is not difficult to prove that the force which 
binds the parts of an atom together (and con- 
sequently its modulus of elasticity) is much 
greater than the chemical force binding the 
atoms together into a single molecule ; for it 
has been shown, in my paper upon the internal 
molecular energy of atomic vibration, that the 
amount of energy which can be imparted to a 
system like this is inversely as the modulus of 
elasticity. But chemical atoms are bodies 
which we are now supposing to be in internal 
vibration, but to which it has been found im- 
possible to communicate energy in amount suf- 
ficient to cause them to fly to pieces. Since 
atoms do not become decomposed, while mole- 
cules do under various circumstances, it must 
be that their modulus of elasticity is mugh 
larger than that of molecules. 

This view accords with that of ocerens 
who has endeavored to explain the coincidence 
of lines in the spectra of different elements, 
and the relation of temperature to spectra, by 
the supposition that the so-called chemical ele- 
ments are merely molecules which have never 
yet been decomposed by chemists. It must 
be admitted that the experimental evidence he 
adduces is of a very cogent character; and it 
seems to me that the demonstration by which 
I have shown that the mean energy of such a 
vibration would be extremely small explains 
how such a vibration can exist without de- 
composing the more complex atoms even at 
the highest artificial temperatures, though 
Lockyer has reason to think that they are 
decomposed in the hotter stars, where only the 
spectra of the elements of low atomic weight 
are to be found. 

Were it true that every degree of freedom 
must have the same kinetic energy, we could 

1 Discussion of the working hypothesis, that the so-called 
(chemical) elements are compound bodies (Nature, Jan. 2 and 


Jan. 9, 1879).. Necessity for a new departure in spectrum analy- 
sis (Wature, Noy. 6, 1879). 


[Vou. Il., No, 24 


not admit the possibility of such a vibration ; 
for not only would such large amounts of 
energy be required by the degrees of freedom: 
which seem certainly to exist between the 
atoms of complex molecules as to entirely con- 
tradict experimental values of the specific 
heat, but the supposition of additional de- 
grees of freedom within each atom would 
require an amount of energy, on the whole, 
many times the actual specific heat of such 
bodies. But when the amount of energy re- 
quired by such degrees of freedom is nearly a 
vanishing quantity, as I have shown, there is 
nothing to prevent us from assuming that to 
be the truth which spectroscopic evidence 
makes most probable. 

We may notice, in passing, that the principle 
upon which this paper rests, that vibrations of 
this character can exist without absorbing an 
appreciable amount of kinetic energy, enables 
us to explain at the same time the extremely 
moderate rate at which exchanges of heat take 
place between bodies by radiation. They be- 
come only very slowly of the same tempera- 
ture, which fact needs explanation in view of 
the extremely rapid propagation of radiations 
themselyes. Now, according to our supposi- 
tion, during a molecular encounter the mole- 
cules are roughly shaken, and there is a deter- 
minate distribution of energy to be found among 
the atoms, at its conclusion, in the form of in- 
ternal atomic vibration; which distribution is 
due to the circumstances of the encounter. 
Those atoms which by chance have more energy 
than others radiate more rapidly ; and since the 
velocity of radiation is so great, and the 
atomic distance so small, we may assume 
that the several atoms acquire almost instan- 
taneously an energy of internal vibration 
sensibly equal to the mean, so that in a gas 
this is their condition during almost the entire 
free path of a molecule. In case the gas is 
becoming cooler by radiation to surroundjng 
bodies, the atoms which radiate to these bodies 
lose more of their vibratory energy than they 
otherwise would, and thus have less mean 
energy of internal vibration than they should 
have under the law of distribution which de- 
termines what fraction this energy shall be 
of the mean kinetic energy of the molecules. 
At the next encounter, the atoms receive their 
proper share of the mean kinetic energy, 
which, being partially lost by radiation, is again 
supplied ; and so on. And because this trans- 
formation into internal atomic vibration must 
take place before it can be radiated, and be- 
cause at the same time the energy of this 
vibration is but an unappreciable fraction of 


- Suny 20, 1883.] 


: 


the total kinetic energy, the process of ex- 


change by radiation is, on the whole, slow. 
Were, however, the translatory motion the 
direct cause of radiation, the exchanges be- 
tween diathermous bodies must apparently be 
nearly instantaneous. 


(To be continued.) 


OYSTER-CULTURE IN HOLLAND. 


THE first of a series of papers on the European 
oyster and oyster industry of the Eastern Schelde? 
has just been published by Mr. P. P. C. Hoek, secre- 
tary of the commission of the zodlogical station of 
the zodlogical society of Holland. It is to be fol- 
lowed by a series of papers gotten up in similar style 
by eminent specialists: 1°. On the embryology of the 
European oyster; 2°. On its food, parasites, and com- 
mensals; 3°. A review of the fauna of the Eastern 
Schelde; 4°. A report on the physical conditions pre- 
sented by the Eastern Schelde; 5°. A report on ex- 
periments made to determine the conditions under 
which the fixation of the larval oyster occurs. 

In this report the author devotes a short chapter 
to a discussion of the classical allusions to the animal, 
from the Homeric period to the time of Oppian. Then 
comes a chapter on the references to the oyster found 
in Conrad Gesner’s Historia animalium, lib. iv., 
edition of 1620; followed by an exhaustive bibliog- 
raphy of ninety pages, in which the works of up- 
wards of two hundred and seventy-five authors are 
mentioned, covering the period from 1685 to 1883, or 
nearly two hundred years. 

Then follows a paper on the organs of generation 
of the oyster, by Mr. Hoek, accompanied by an 
excellent series of lithographic plates representing 
microscopic transverse sections of the European 
oyster. The text of this is in Dutch and French on 
alternate pages. A chapter is devoted to a historical 
résumé of our knowledge of the anatomy of the gen- 
erative organs, and is succeeded by an account of the 
author's investigations. 

A second part is devoted to the physiology of re- 
production, and is preceded by an historical sketch of 
this part of the subject, from the time of Leeuen- 
hoek to the present. The author gives a Summary 
of his results, both anatomical and physiological, as 
follows: the genital gland is not a compact organ: 
it lies on the surface of the body of the animal under 
a thin layer of counective tissue (mantle), below which 
branched ducts spread out over the reproductive 
organ, connected on the innerside with the reproduc- 
tive follicles, Which have a generally vertical direction 
to the surface of the visceral mass, and which anas- 
tomose with each other. The generative products 
develop on the walls of the follicles, the ova and 
spermatozoa being formed side by side. The author 


1 Verslag omtrent onderzoekingen op de oester en de oester- 
cultuur betrekking hebbende. Aflevering i. (With title in 
French : Rapport sur les recherches concernant Uhuitre et 
Vostréiculture. Livraison i.) Leiden, #. J. Brill, 1883. 253 
p-, 5 lithographic plates. 8°. 


SCIENCE. 79 


inclines to the belief that the generative products are 
developed from the ectoderm. The ova are devel- 
oped from single epithelial cells adherent to the wall 
of the parent follicle; while the mother-cells of the 
characteristic masses of spermatozoa are only por- 
tions of such cells. The organ of Bojanus does not 
have a compact structure as in other lamellibranchs, 
but is composed of a mass of ducts and blind sacs, 
which forms a thin flat plate of considerable extent. 
Contrary to what may be noted of the reproductive 
glands, the organ of Bojanus extends somewhat into 
the mantle. The ducts and cavities of the organ of 
Bojanus pour their contents into a longitudinal cay- 
ity, —the urinary chamber, — the walls of which are 
also excretory in function, and open outwardly by 
way of a short urinary canal. The external orifice 
of the renal organ opens into the same cleft as the 
genital duct, a little behind the latter, but they do 
not actually join. These genito-urinary sinuses lie 
below the adductor on either side of the ventral pro- 
cess of the body-mass. A reno-pericardiae canal 
connects the urinary chamber with the pericardiac 
cavity. It is probable that the auricles of the heart 
also exercise an excretory function. 

An oyster which has fry in the branchiae is the 
parent of the same. At the moment of emission 
from the ovaries, not only have the ova been ferti- 
lized, but they have also passed through the first 
stages of segmentation. The sperm necessary for 
fecundation does not come from the same parent. 
The water which flows over other oysters in the vi- 
cinity charged with sperm, which they have set free, 
is carried into the mantle-cavity of egg-bearing in- 
dividuals, and into their genital ducts and their 
branches. The oysters of the Eastern Schelde are 
two years old before they have brood; they are most 
prolific at the age of four or five years. There are 
more sperm-bearing oysters in the Eastern Schelde 
than egg-bearing ones. All of the mature eggs are 
laid at once; the production of sperm is probably 
continued for a longer time. In every instance that 
was investigated, the production and emission of ova 
is followed by,a period during which no sperm is pro- 
duced. A large proportion of the spat found fixed 
on the banks in the Eastern Schelde was probably 
not derived from the oysters inhabiting the culti- 
vated beds. Culture appears to act injuriously upon 
the reproductive powers of the animal. In old oys- 
ters the liver is much more developed than in younger 
ones. This greater development of the liver is de- 
pendent upon the less marked development of the 
reproductive organs. J. A. RYDER. 


GALTON’S HUMAN FACULTY. 


Inquiries into human faculty and its development. 
By Francis Gatton, F.R.S. New York, Mac- 
millan, 1883. 12 + 380p.,6 pl. 8°. 

Mr. Gatron’s researches have for a good 
while attracted the attention of English and 
American students of psychology and anthro- 
pology. As they are here brought together, 


80 


the practical purpose of their author is im- 
pressed upon us more clearly than ever. Mr. 
Galton means to introduce to our notice new 
aspects of the study of human character. He 
wishes to make this study more exact and sci- 
entific by founding it upon detailed investiga- 
tions of facts previously neglected; and he 
proposes to offer the results as useful for a 
future science or art of eugenics, which shall 
teach the human race how to breed so that its 
best stock shall be preserved and improved, and 
its worst stock gradually eliminated. This 
seemingly utopian end is to be gradually ap- 
proached by the formation of a public senti- 
ment that shall encourage a new sort of family 
pride and exclusiveness; namely, when eu- 
genic science has taught us what are the most 
useful human qualities, what their accompany- 
ing marks, what qualities are best transmitted 
to posterity, and what are the conditions that 
favor such transmission, then people otherwise 
not known to fame will be able, by a proper 
study of their family history, to discover their 
inherited wealth of valuable qualities, and their 
resulting eugenic rank ; and such persons will 
be respected by an enlightened public accord- 
ing to their rank. People who rank high in 
the eugenic scale will be unwilling to contam- 
inate their stock by unions with persons much 
lower in the scale, and their feelings in this 
matter will be appreciated. Thus marriages 
will become less blind, and civilization will 
progress faster. 

That Mr. Galton’s researches will be of 
much immediate use to young people about to 
marry, no truthful reviewer can promise ; but 
to the psychologist, at least, they are in their 
present condition both attractive and useful ; 
and, for the rest, it is much for Mr. Galton 
merely to have suggested, more definitely than 
Plato was able to do, that there ought to be, 
and some day may be, a real art of eugenics, 
which may be of practical importance for man- 
kind. Just yet, neither Mr. Galton nor any 
one else can hope to do much more than to 
insist that the best parents may be expected 
to produce the best children; but there are 
many ways of insisting. Mr. Galton’s most 
important contribution to this practical aspect 
of the subject lies in the facts that he has col- 
lected to give new importance to the matter 
by proving the vast predominance in ordinary 
cases of the influences of nature over those of 
nurture. Nature means for Mr. Galton the 
sum of all the inherited qualities of the indi- 
vidual, while nurture stands for the educating 
influences of the environment. In case of 
twins, Mr. Galton collects facts to show that 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 24. 


in one strongly marked class of such persons 
the resemblance between the twins is very 
strong from the outset, and then often extends 
through life to the smallest possible matters of 
physical and mental condition, even when the 
twins live far apart. But in other cases, which 
form a second equally marked class, the twins, 
contrasting somewhat strongly from the outset, 
never are brought nearer to likeness, notwith- 
standing all the similarity of the circumstances 
of their nurture and training. Thus, when the 
physiological conditions of their origin give 
them like nature, difference of nurture does 
not prevent very striking similarity throughout 
life ; while, where the conditions of origin favor 
unlikeness, likeness of nurture goes but a little 
way to overcome the contrast. A similar result 
is indicated, according to Mr. Galton, by our 
experience with races of animals, some of 
which seem by nature disposed to domestica- 
tion, while the stubborn nature of others resists 
the advantages of any nurture, so that they 
remain wild, however much we may try to 
tame them. From whatever side, then, the 
matter is viewed, nature seems superior in 
its persistence to the forces of nurture that 
opposed this persistence; and, if we want 
human stock to grow better through volun- 
tary effort, we must undertake to study and 
improve pre-natal and ancestral influences yet 
more than we try to better the influences of 
education. 

This, then, is Mr. Galton’s most significant 
practical result. His researches upon various 
problems of the science of character, that have 
not yet been long enough studied to have much 
immediate practical significance, cannot easily 
be summed up in one short notice. The psy- 
chologist is most interested in his researches on 
mental imagery and on association of ideas. 
Mr. Galton is of the opinion that introspec- 
tion-can be made a more exact science than 
psychologists have previously found it. And 
so, indeed,.it can be, no doubt, at least when it 
is limited to the lowest orders of mental facts. 
Here introspection is greatly aided by plain 
and simple questions. Ask a man to tell you all 
he can about what now goes on in his mind, and 
he will answer as wildly as you could wish; 
but ask him to call up in mind the picture of 
his hat or of his house, or to tell you whether in 
some concrete instance he can vividly remem- 
ber musical harmony as distinct from melody, 
and most honest men can then answer intelli- 
gibly and usefully. It is Mr. Galton’s ser- 
vice to have shown how much can be done by 
thus systematizing and simplifying the method 
of introspection, so that people who are 


JuLy 20, 1883.] 


not psychologists may be able to furnish to 
_ the psychologist important and trustworthy 
' data. 

3 We do not remember that our author is quite 
: _ plain in defining one of the safeguards needed 
to make this method useful. He says, in de- 


s 


_ (p. 87), ** The conformity of replies from so 
many different sources, which was clear from 
_ the first, the fact of their apparent trust- 
worthiness being on the whole much increased 
. by cross-examination, and the evident effort 
‘made to give accurate. answers, have convinced 
me that it is a much easier matter than I had 
anticipated, to obtain trustworthy replies to 
psychological questions. Many persons, es- 
pecially women and intelligent children, take 
_ pleasure in introspection, and strive their very 
best to explain their mental processes. I 
think that a delight in self-dissection must be 
a very strong ingredient in the pleasure that 
_ many are said to take in confessing themselves 
| to parish priests.’’ But there is an obvious 
moral from all this. The method, with its ques- 
tions and cross-questions, with its interested 
subjects and their pleasure in confessing them- 
selves, is indeed fruitful; but the outcome 
must be controlled by the maxim that the sub- 
ject’s statements, when he is not himself an 
expert, must be trusted implicitly only when 
they are out of relation to any preconceived 
theory of his own about his mind, and equally 
out of relation to any popular prejudice or 
superstition that could influence him. Gener- 
ally Mr. Galton seems to follow this maxim 
without explicitly recognizing it. The sim- 
plicity of his questions is itself a security. If 
you ask about one’s mental picture of his 
breakfast-table or of his hat, you can be tol- 
erably sure that he has no prejudices or su- 
perstitions that will affect his answer. But 
it is another thing, in case one is inquiring 
about the ‘visions of sane persons,’ and men- 
tions some great man, say Napoleon, who 
is declared by some one to have had visions 
of his ‘ star,’ and to have boasted thereof. 
Here such evidence as can be got would be 
worthless, even if the great man in ques- 
tion were not a notorious liar. For super- 
 stition, once for all, attributes stars to great 
men; and, when a story exactly corresponds 
to a known and wide-spread superstition, we 
may usually disregard the story save for 
the purposes of folk-lore. Yet, on p. 176, 
Mr. Galton makes a story of this sort the 
‘basis of reflections that of course may pos- 
sibly be true; so that his caution is not quite 
perfect. 


—— 


seribing his researches into mental imagery — 


ar 


SCIENCE. ; 81 


In fact, we should be disposed to apply the 
maxim just stated yet more carefully ; namely, 
if the subject shows an uncommon visualizing 
power, he is both instructive and dangerous, 
and ought to be treated very tenderly. He can 
furnish many facts, but his replies are by so 
much the more apt to be influenced by some 
theory of his own. Accustomed all his life to 
his vivid imagery ; very possibly a member of 
a family several of whom are uncommonly 
gifted in this respect; accustomed, therefore, 
to notice and talk about his power, and per- 
haps to boast of it, ——he may have formed 
already some vain-glorious idea of what he can 
do or ought to do; and, when you set him at 
the task of talking about himself, you must be 
careful how you accept all that it may occur 
to him to say. A brief experience with one 
such subject as we have just described has 
convinced us that serious danger would arise 
from applying Mr. Galton’s method to him 
without great care. And if we intended to 
publish any of his experiences, we should con- 
fine him strictly to commonplaces, should not 
publish his stories of what he used to see 
when a child, and should not introduce any 
thing that he connected with ‘elevated spir- 
itual experiences,’ or with any other artistic 
excellence of which he seemed to feel proud. 
We fear that some of Mr. Galton’s subjects 
needed more such watching. In fine, though 
Mr. Galton’s researches on mental imagery, 
since their first publication in the form of 
memoirs, have greatly helped introspective 
psychology, no one, doubtless, would fear or 
deplore more than himself any misuse of them 
that should tend once again towards the myth- 
ological. Our suggestion is intended to help 
to ward off such a sad result, which, for the 
followers whom Mr. Galton is certain to have, 
might not be very far off. What might not 
our author have to mourn over, if ‘ psychologi- 
cal associations’ were to become fashionable 
in country towns, and were to produce acres 
of manuscript or printed proceedings contain- 
ing elevated spiritual visualizing experiences 
by old maids and semi-spiritualistic reform- 
ers? Yet, in these days of popular science and 
associations, who knows what Mr. Galton’s 
pleasing way of speech might not produce, if 
he does not add to every new chapter of facts 
a note strenuously insisting that the exact and 
cautious methods that are commonplaces for 
him should be studied and followed by every 
ambitious one that would do likewise, however 
simple the subject-matter investigated may 
seem to be? 

Mr. Galton can claim especial credit for his 


82 SCIENCE. 


investigations into visualized number-forms. 
Here the nature of the facts is the best guar- 
anty of their general accuracy. They have 
generally been unknown, save to the subjects; 
they are not things of which people are apt 


to boast; their psychological significance is far _ 


greater than their popular interest ; they have 
nothing of the elevated or of the spiritual about 
them; the research is quite new. All this 
secures the substantial correctness of the re- 
sults, though, plainly, further accurate research 
will become harder when Mr. Galton’s facts 
become more popularly known. 

F: One general result that Mr. Galton seems to 
haye established is, that growth in the power 
of abstract thought is opposed to the free de- 
velopment of the visualizing faculty. Scien- 
tific men have, as a rule, less vivid imagery 
than persons of less abstract habits of mind. 
Adults visualize less clearly than children. 
But this loss of visualizing power does ‘not 
signify, he tells us, loss of clear memory of 
details. ‘‘ Men who declare themselves en- 
tirely deficient in the power of seeing mental 
pictures can, nevertheless, give lifelike de- 
scriptions of what they have seen.’ Again: 
‘Cit is a mistake to suppose that sharp sight is 
accompanied by clear visual memory.’’ Yet 
more: ‘‘ the visualizing and the identifying 
powers are by no means necessarily com- 
bined.’’ Thus our author tells us that one 
distinguished subject is good at recognizing 
faces, but cannot visualize them at all. All 


these facts, and many others, seem to us to 


point to a result that Mr. Galton sometimes 
approaches, but does not distinctly formulate. 
‘On the contrary, in one place he says some- 
thing directly opposed to it. ‘‘ A visual im- 
age,”? he says (p. 113), ‘‘is the most perfect 
form of mertal representation, wherever the 
shape, position, and relations of objects in 
space are concerned.’’ And he thinks that 
mere laziness is responsible for the common 
starvation of this faculty ; but, if this were so, 
it is hard to see how a healthy mental organ- 
ism should, in the course of its normal deyelop- 
ment, generally tend to outgrow the visualizing 
faculty. ‘The most perfect form of mental 
representation ’ for any purpose will not be the 
one that we should, as evolutionists, expect to 
find growing naturally less as the mind de- 
votes itself more to that purpose; yet who 
are more concerned with the exact relations of 
thing's in space than workers in the details of 
descriptive natural science? And they, we are 
told, are apt to lack the faculty in question. 
The statement just quoted seems, then, to lack 
probability, and to be against the main result 


[Vou. II., No. 24. 


to which, as we have said, all these researches 
seem to lead. ‘ 

This result, we think, is that the clearest 
memory, in the long-run, tends to be the 
memory of acts, and not of the content of a 
sensation apart from its immediate relation 
to an action. This seems reasonable from 
the point of view of evolution. The life of 
an animal consists in doing what seems best 
under the circumstances ; and the seeming is 
determined by instinct or individual experi- 
ence, coupled with immediate sensation. All, 
then, that sensations mean for the animal, is 
summed up in saying that the sensation is 


useful as the sign of the need of a certain kind — 


of action. The association of a given kind of 


-sensation with a given kind of action results 


from individual or ancestral experience ; but, 
in forming this association, not the whole of an 
experience need be remembered, but only so 
much as shall serve as a sign of a given sort 
of action. The mouse, even if it fled from the 
cat, not by instinct, but voluntarily, would still 
not need to visualize cats, but only to remem- 
ber so much of the sensations aroused by a cat’s 
presence as should suffice to arouse the right 
action. 

On the other hand, if a given action is to 
be not automatic, but voluntary, the action 
must be conceivable clearly and in detail. If 
this is so, it will follow that the memory ‘for 
ideas connected with muscular sensations, and 
so for actions, both bodily and intellectual, 
would not merely be capable of substitution 
for visualized images, but would normally tend 
to be so substituted. In fact, if a visualized 
image were the ‘most perfect form of mental 
representation ’ for space relations, then geo- 
metrical reflection and definition would be a 
useless amusement in all cases of small ob- 
jects. The other facts noted above, such as 
the relative power to identify without being able 
to visualize, seem to us capable of explana- 
tion in a similar fashion, by the relative prepon- 
derance of the memory for actions, and conse- 
quently of relations (which we know by virtue 
of our own bodily and mental actions) , over the 
memory of the contents of bare sensation. 

‘But we have said nothing of Mr. Galton’s. 
composite photographs, of his researches on 
association, or of the many other topies that. 
render his book not only very amusing, but 
especially instructive, as showing how what in 
the hands of another man would be mere dilet- 
tanteism becomes in the hands of the master a 
very valuable series of contributions to science. 
And with these suggestions we must leave a 
very pleasant topic. 


JuLy 20, 1883.] 


STOWELL’S MICROSCOPICAL DIAG- 
NOSIS. 


Microscopical diagnosis. By Cuarites H. Srow- 
ELL, M D., and Louisa Reep Stowe t, M.S. 
Detroit, G. S. Davis, 1883. 84+93+4+118+35 p., 
10pl. 8°. 


Tue title of this book led us to expect a 
work specially referring to the applications of 
the microscope in medical practice, and we 
felt that a good book of that scope would be 
welcome and valuable, As in the opening 
sentence of the preface Professor Stowell says 
it has been his good fortune to be so situated, 
during the past few years, that his entire time 
has been devoted to the study of histology 
and microscopy, with special reference to the 
microscope in its relation to the practice of 
medicine, our anticipations seemed confirmed, 


and the expectation added, of finding much 


new and original matter. An examination of 
the body of the book was disappointing, be- 
cause it gave us acquaintance with contents so 
miscellaneous and varied that we were re- 
minded of those so-called ‘ happy families’ 
where discordant associates live in compulsory 
peace, — something quite unlike a natural and 
well-proportioned assemblage. 

The first eighty-two pages alone deal with 
clinical microscopy, and.we think not satis- 


factorily ; for the treatment is hurried and 


incomplete, though certainly accurate, what 
there is. The best part is the few pages on 
urinary deposits, with the accompanying ad- 
mirable plates by Mrs. Stowell. ‘The portion 


SCIENCE. 


83 


on parasites and tumors is extremely inade- 
quate. The three specimens of Demodex fig- 
ured, must have encountered some frightful 
disaster before they were drawn. We regret, 
that, instead of all this, the author did not 
prepare a translation of Bizzozero’s Manuale 
di microscopia clinica. 

The bulk of the book is made up of botani- 
cal articles, by Mrs. Stowell, on starch, wheat, 
and various medicinal plants. These are pleas- 
antly written, and the ‘illustrations display the 
authoress’s skill in drawing ; but we miss in 
these, as in the other parts of the yolume, any 
definite purpose, either of text-book writing. 
or original research. In this connection, we 
are impressed by the absence of references to 
scientific literature. 

Part iii., by Mr. Walmsley, describes the 
methods employed by him in the commercial 
manufacture of microscope slides. It is ex- 
tremely elementary, and the methods most 
employed in scientific biology are in large part 
unmentioned. The same subject of methods 
has been far better treated by numerous pre- 
vious writers. 

In short, we. are quite at a loss to discover 
the raison W’étre of this pleasantly and clearly 
written, as well as beautifully illustrated work. 
The new and original matter which we looked 
for, after reading the preface, we have not 
found ; yet the facts and figures seem all to 
rest upon personal observation. 

To the amateur microscopist, the book may 
well serve asa guide to certain things not else- 
where so well described. 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


MATHEMATICS. 
Classification of surfaces.—In a memoir con- 


tained in the Abhandl. kén. akad. wiss. zu Berlin 


for 1868, M. Christoffel treated of the classification 


_ of surfaces by formulating the changes which took 


place in a geodetic triangle on the surface when it 
was displaced or moved along on the surface. M. 
Christoffel was thus led to a classification of surfaces 
which divided them into fourgroups. The first group 


contained all surfaces upon which no displacement of 
a geodetic triangle could take place without altering 


the triangle; the second group contained surfaces upon 
which a geodetic triangle might be displaced without 
alteration, provided its angles moved upon certain 
determinate curves; the third group contained sur- 
faces upon which the geodetic triangle might be dis- 


_ placed without alteration in a singly infinite number 


of ways; and the fourth group contained surfaces 
upon which the triangle could be displaced in any 
manner without alteration. In the present paper, 


M. y. Mangoldt revises this classification, and shows 
that the surfaces contained in the third and fourth 
groups are identical, and that they include all sur- 
faces with a constant measure of curvature, and only 
these. Also he shows that the second group con- 
tains all surfaces which are developable upon sur- 
faces of rotation which have not a constant measure 
of curvature, and only these. The author further 
revises a paper of Weingarten’s, correcting an error) 
which appeared there.—(Journ. reine ang. math., 
xClVsede) RCs (74 

PHYSICS. 

Electricity. 

Aurora borealis. — Professor Lemstrém has now 
given a somewhat detailed account of his apparatus 
and experiments in Lapland. He ‘and others had 
years ago in that country observed a pecular luminos- 
ity, which he calls ‘phosphorescent,’ in the form of 
‘tiny flames’ playing about the tops of small moun- 
tains. 


84 


As long ago as 1871 an attempt was made to assist 
the production of the aurora upon these hilltops; but 
the results obtained were not, to scientific men in 
general, entirely satisfactory. Accordingly, in 1882, 
Prof. Lemstrém prepared to repeat his experiments 
upon a more extended scale. 

Upon the top of Oratunturi Mountain (lat., 67° 21’; 
long., 27° 17’.3 east of Greenwich), about 540 meters 
above sea-level, he laid out, upon insulators raised 
about 24 m. above the ground, a bare copper wire 
in the form shown in the illustration, the wires 
being about 1.5 m. apart. The area covered in this 
way was about 900 square metres. The single wire 
which made up this spiral was provided with numer- 
ous points soldered on; and the inner end was con- 
nected by an insulated line with the observing-station 
at the foot of the mountain, where the circuit ran 
through a galvanometer and into the earth. 


SCALE 04100 FEET 


ARRANGEMENT OF WIRES. 


From the day the apparatus was finished, viz., Dec. 
' 5, ‘‘there appeared almost every night a yellowish- 
white luminosity around the summit of the moun- 
tain, while no such luminosity was seen around 
any one of the others! The flames were variable in 
intensity, and in constant oscillation as those of a 
liquid fire. Three times it was tested, 24 miles off in 
south-east, by a Wrede spectroscope (small size with 
two prisms), and it returned a faintly continuous 
spectrum from D to F, in which the auroral line 
2 = 5569 with soft variable intensity was observed.’’ 
The galvanometer, meanwhile, showed an extremely 
variable positive current from the wire at the top of 
the mountain to the earth. 

An attempt was made to determine approximately 
the electromotive force of this current by occasionally 
introducing into the circuit a Leclanché element, and 
observing the change thus produced. As the insula- 
tion of the line leading up the mountain was not 
good, however, we must accept with caution, as Prof. 
Lemstrom admits, the results thus obtained. The 
current from the mountain top was apparently some- 
times less, and sometimes considerably greater, than 
the Leclanché element produced. 

Similar results were obtained at Pietarintunturi 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 24. 


Mountain (950 metres above the sea, in lat., 68° 
32’.5; long., 27° 17/.3 east of Greenwich), where a 
smaller spread of wire was used. 

There seems to be very little doubt that Prof. Lem- 
strom has succeeded in producing the aurora at will, 
or rather in assisting nature to produce it. Some of 
the conclusions which he draws from his experiments, 
however, will, no doubt, be received with caution, 
not because they set forth any thing in itself improb- 
able, but because the experiments described seem too 
few and rough to decide the matter beyond a doubt. 
Thus he believes that ‘‘ the electricity which descends 
into the auroral belt [the cireumpolar belt of maxi- 
mum auroral activity] is the primary cause of the 
greatest part of the terrestrial current, and, through 


this. of the variations of the magnetic elements.” | 


Moreover, finding that in several cases observers in 


different stations were near mistaking different auro- 


ral ares for the same one, he concludes that “‘ all meas- 
urements of the height of the aurora, calculated on 
those with a long base north and south, are always 
erroneous, as the two observers never see the same 
aurora. And even those calculations which are based 
on the measurements of the height and length of an 
are from one point, and the hypothesis that the are 
extends around the magnetic pole, must be consid- 
ered very unreliable, as no satisfactory answer can 
be given as to what results would have been obtained 
a little farther north or south. This is also the case 
with aurorae with long bases east and west,”’ etc. 
He says, therefore, ‘‘That the height of the aurora 
borealis is very variable I fully admit, but In my 
opinion it has been greatly over-estimated.”’ 

It seems probable that a great many people incline 
to a similar opinion,! and will merely regret that Prof. 
Lemstrém has not given them some better founda- 
tion for their disbelief. For many years, however, 


the doctrine has been current that auroras frequently 


exist. at a height of a hundred-miles:or-more; and the 
substance of Prof. Lemstrom’s present arguments 
against such a belief must have been old for a long 
time.? 

On several occasions it was observed by Prof. Lem- 
strém’s party that the peculiar spectroscopic auro- 
ral line ‘‘ was returned from every quarter of the 
horizontal plane, (and) even from the zenith, without 
any aurora being visible.”’ 

Another phenomenon of Sanne interest is a ‘‘ pecul- 
iar phosphorescent ‘shine,’ or diffused luminosity, 
which possesses several phases, but the general char- 
acter of which is a luminosity of a yellow-white 
color, which renders the night as light as the moon 
with a thick hazy air.’”? On one occasion “ every 
object around stood out clearly in a yellow-white 
hazy phosphorescent luminosity of quickly-shifting 
intensity.”’ 
at this time; but on another night, when a similar 
‘shine,’ less bright, but still sufficient to nearly ob- 
scure the stars upon the horizon, was seen, an at- 
tempt to discover the auroral line was unsuccessful. 
It is true that the spectroscope used was/not\well 


1 Proc. roy. soc., 1879-80, xxx. 332. 
2 Amer. journ. 8c. Xxxix. 286. 


Apparently no spectroscope was at hand” 


Be 


- JuLy 20, 1883] 


adapted for the purpose; and Prof. Lemstrém at- 
tributes the phenomenon to the same origin as the 
aurora. 

Prof. Lemstrém refers to Groneman’s meteoric 
theory of the aurora, and no doubt considers it to 
be disposed of by the experiments above described. 
It happens, however, that the same number of Na- 
ture contains an article from Dr. Groneman, in 
which he says, “I believe I have proved by this 
research that there existed with the aurora of Novy. 
17, 1882, cosmic dust, passing through the upper 
1 Strata of our atmosphere with great velocity, and 
giving, according to the most interesting observation 
of Mr. Rand Capron, ‘the usual green line’ of the 
aurora spectrum ;’’ and, further, ‘‘ It is very remark- 
able that this experiment comes at the same time 
as the interesting experiment of Prof. Lemstrém, 
showing that electric currents are able to give a 
development of light in our atmosphere, possessing 
the same number of undulations in a second as the 
auroral light. Now our meteoroid being part of an 
aurora, it gives a stronger proof of the origin of that 
phenomenon than Prof. Lemstrém’s experiment, the 
greatest attraction of which is that we are able to 
repeat it arbitrarily and with our own means. Fur- 
ther, I have always maintained that electricity, ex- 
cited easily by friction, must be one of the causes of 
the auroral light . . . and it seems to me very plau- 
sible that cosmic matter, approaching the earth, in- 
duces electric currents through the air. Therefore I 
think that the results of Prof. Lemstr6ém are in full 
harmony with the idea of a cosmic origin of aurorae.”’ 
_ —(Nuature, May 17, 31, June7.) §. H. H. [75 


J 


. 


CHEMISTRY. 

( Organic.) 
A new acid occurring in the juice of the 
_ beet. — E. O. Lippmann claims to have discovered 
_ a new acid in the inerustations which form in the 
evaporating-pans from the juice of unripe or par- 
tially decomposed beet-roots. Analyses gave results 

corresponding to oxycitrie acid 


I oD ). 
COOH COOH 
obtained by Pawolleck by boiling chlorcitrie acid. — 
(Berichte deutsch. chem. gesellsch., xvi. 1078.) c. F. 
| (76 
: % Cinnoline - derivatives. — VY. y. Richter found, 
that, by warming an aqueous solution of the diazo- 
ce of orthophenylpropiolic acid, a carboxylic 


; (coon — CH, — Cc —— 


acid of cinnoline was formed, a substance which he 
aia as an analogue of chinoline. 


a hay you= CH a CH= cH 

e- ee ON RRs 
mM ' Chinoline. Cinnoline. 
— (Berichte deutsch. chem. gesellsch., xvi. 677.) 
Cc. F. M. (77 


_ Compounds of the ketones with hydrazine. 
—The, action of phenylhydrazine upon ketones seems 
to be analogous to that of hydroxylamine. With 


acetone, H. Reisenegger obtained the compound 


SCIENCE. 


895 


C,;H,N,HC(CH,)., which was decomposed, by warm- 
ing with dilute acids, into acetone and phenylhydra- 
zine. Acetophenonphenylbydrazine resulted from 
the action of phenylhydrazine upon acetophenon. 
Oenanthol gave the substance C,H,N,HC;H,,. 
With dimethylhydrazine, acetophenon formed 


chiefly (CH) .N.CGi!. — (Berichte deutsch. chem. 


gesellsch., xvi. 661.) c. F. M. {78 


METALLURGY. 


Sulphuric acid from pyrites.— There are very 
evident advantages in using pyrites instead of brim- 
stone for the manufacture of sulphuric acid, provided 
the right kind of pyrites is at hand. The qualities 
necessary are a high per cent of sulphur and iron, in 
order that the cost of handling may be a minimum. 
Lead, zine, calcium, and magnesium can only be 
present in very sinall quantity, as they will roast to 
sulphates, and so cause a loss of sulphur; moreover, 
they lessen the value of the iron as a by-product. 
Copper to the amount of two or three per cent is 
found in some of the best pyrites for this purpose, 
and is extracted asa by-product. But the especial 
element to be avoided is arsenic, both on account of 
the rapid corrosion of the chambers, and the render- 
ing of the acid unfit for many uses. The cost of a 
ton of oil of vitriol made from brimstone is estimated 
at $13.58; made from pyrites, at $8.22. A number 
of localities in America furnish pyrites of good qual- 
ity. The only alterations in the plant are the addi- 
tion of a Glover tower, and the substitution of suitable 
kilns. of which illustrations are given, as well as of 
the Schaffner shelf-burners. — (Eng. min. journ., May 
Co) YN i : ea {79 

The Henderson gas-furnace.— This furnace 
attempts to attain to the highest heats required in the 
shortest possible time, and with a complete utiliza- 
tion of the fuel. These objects are reached by the 
use of separate engines, one for the supply of air for 
the generation of the gas, and the other for its com- 
bustion. The details of a trial and illustrations of 
the furnace are given. The consumption of fuel, three 
hundredweight per hour for the two-ton furnace, is 
low. —(Eng. min. journ., May 19.) R. H. R. [so 


GEOLOGY. 


The mines of Cuba.—Salterain gives a brief 
account of the mines now worked, or that have been 
worked in the past, at least so far as known by the 
general inspection of mines. The ‘ minas de asfalto 
y de aceites (oils) bituminosos’ are divided into 
mines of asphalt, of petroleum, and of naphtha, and 
number seventeen in all. The prospects are con- 
sidered favorable, about eleven or thirteen hundred 
tons being produced annually. They are situated 
mostly in the provinces of Pinar del Rio, Matanzas, 
Santa Clara, Pto. Principe, and Habana. The copper- 
mines are thirty in number, almost all situated in 
the province of Santiago de Cuba, and a few in Santa 
Clara. The mineral consists of veins of! sulphate 
of copper, oxide of copper, native copper, carbonate of 
copper, and indications of copper pyrites, all of which, 


86 


at a certain depth, are supposed to unite in one vein 
of sulphate of copper. The iron-mines, seventeen in 
number, are all situated in the province of Santiago 
de Cuba. The iron consists of large superficial 
masses of oligist and magnetic iron ore. Manganese 
is very abundant in the province of Santiago de Cuba, 
but only two mines have been registered on account 
of its small commercial value. There are five gold- 
mines situated in the provinces of Santiago de Cuba 
and Santa Clara, whose prospects are considered 
good, but which are not worked at present. Guano 
is worked in the islets south of Cuba, and 104 work- 
men were employed on this work last year. — (Breve 
resena miner. Isla de Cuba.) J. B. M. [81 

The Prescott (Arizona) mining region. — A 
map of this region, with some account of the rocks 
and veins, has been published by John T. Blandy. 
The rocks appear to be mainly granites, argillites, and 
schists. The majority of the veins trend approxi- 
mately north and south. In the stratified rocks 
many veins occur having the strike and dip of the 
enclosing rock, but they are of limited extent. Inthe 
Peck district the veins are of quartz, carrying silver 
in the form of chlorides, sulphides, and in galena. 
The argillite has been eroded away so that some of 
these veins stand as much as fifty feet high, while they 
are not. more than six feet thick at the base. In the 
granite ridge next north, the veins are quartz and 
barite, carrying silver, while in the gneissoid rocks 
they are part silver and part gold bearing. The veins 
in the Mount Union granite are principally gold bear- 
ing, the gold being free on the surface, but in pyrite in 
depth. The chief portion of the remaining veins in 
the region are mixed gold and silver bearing, some 
being as much as thirty feet. in thickness. Some 
veins of copper pyrites also occur. — (Trans. Amer. 
inst. min. eng., Boston meeting.) M. E. Ww. [82 


GEOGRAPHY. 


Russian cartography.—M. Michel Venukoff 
presents frequent brief reports of Russian explora- 
tions and topographic work to the French geographi- 
cal society, and has recently described the annual 
exhibition of astronomical and geographical works 
held last April in the Winter palace at St. Peters- 
burg. The number of exhibits exceeded one hundred 
and forty, among which the more notable were a 
route-map of Russia in Europe (1: 1,050,000), in twen- 
ty-five sheets, of which seventeen are finished; the 
latest sheets of the special maps of the same coun- 
try (1:420,000), published under the direction of Gen. 
Strelbeitsky; the general map of ‘Russia in Asia 
(1: 4,200,000), in eight sheets, extending to lat. 30° N; 
maps of the provinces of Finland and Bessarabia; 
of the peninsula of Kamtchatka, prepared at Irkutsk; 
of the territory of Semipalatinsk, lithographed at 
Omsk; the Chinese and Persian frontiers (1: 840,000); 
and many others of regions concerning which our 
chief knowledge comes from Russian surveys. — 
W. M. D. . [83 

(Aretic.) 

Notes. — Professor J. E. Nourse of Washington 

announces that he has in preparation a work relat- 


SCIENCE. 


gests that the observations of the 


[Vot. IL., No: 24. 


ing to American polar expeditions. —— The Russian 
imperial geographical society of St. Petersburg sug- 
international 
polar stations be prolonged over another year, on the 
ground that a single year’s observations cover too 
short a time to afford really satisfactory comparative 
results; and, moreover, it will be necessary for some 
of the more advanced parties to make an end of their 
observations before the full year is out in order to 
be sure of returning during the present autumn. —— 
Reports from Bering Sea indicate that the winter 
there has been a severe one. Early in the spring 
there was an abundance of ice as far south as St. 
Paul Island. Very few whales had been taken up 
to latest advices. The report of the court of 
inquiry into the circumstances of the loss of the. 
Jeannette and the death of members of the expedi- 
tion is just printed. It does not contain the private 
journals of De Long and Collins, nor the papers of 
the latter which were before the court.’ The text of 
the report has been mostly summarized by the daily 
press, and contains nothing new of importance. It 
is presumed that the log-books, and records of obser- 
vations, etc., are reserved for a report on the results 
of the voyage, to be hereafter issued. The most 
valuable thing in the whole document, which contains 
a number of maps and diagrams, is the map of the 
Lena delta constructed by Nindemann, which con- 
tains additions to and corrections of the maps in 
present use. —W. H. D. [84 
(Asia.) 

Notes.— The Revue géographique presents its 
subscribers with a new chart of Asia on a scale 
1: 34,000,000. Although containing some new 
matter, it is not up to date, and is of very imperfect 
mechanical execution. ——The Russian explorer 
Konchin telegraphs from Krasnovodsk, that, in cross- 
ing the steppe between Charzhui and Uzboi, he has 
discovered that Kalitin was mistaken in supposing it 
to be traversed by an ancient channel of the Oxus, 
What the latter explorer, three years ago, took for 
the dry bed of the Charzhui-Daria, is really only a 
plain bounded on the north by a series of elevations, 
and appearing to have no definite limits toward the 
south. —— Potanin and Skassi are about to explore 
the Chinese province of Gan-su and the adjacent 
parts of Mongolia. Sukhacheff, a young proprietor 
of Siberian gold-mines, has contributed 20,000 rubles 
toward the expenses of the exploration. —— The 
topographic and geodesic work in northern Khorassan 
and southern Turkestan being finished, the boundary- 
line between Russia and Persia from the Caspian to 
the Heri Rud River of Afghanistan will be established 
immediately. —— The definite establishment of the 
boundary between the Russian province of Semipa- 
latinsk and the Chinese district of Tsungari will also 
be concluded this summer. By recent conventions 
a considerable part of the basin of the upper, Irtish 
River is annexed to Russia. Topographers are busily 
engaged in determining its limits, while others con- 
tinue the work of demarcation of the districts of 
Kuldja and Tarbagatai, which is already well ad- 
vanced. Still others are developing the official limits 


JuLY 20, 1883.] _ 


between the basins of the Syr Daria and the Tarim 
rivers. —W. H. D. [85 
Oxus and Caspian. — A recent report on the lev- 
 ellings undertaken by the Russian engineers to de- 
termine if the Oxus (Amu-daria) could be turned 
from its present channel, which leads to the sea of 
Aral into the Usboi channel, leading to the Caspian 
Sea, decides that it is impossible without extended 
artificial works. A canal would have to be con- 
structed for a length of over two hundred versts, 
at a cost of at least fifteen to twenty million rubles, 
before it would be possible to divert the Oxus from 
its present course. —(Peterm. geoyr. mitth., 1883, 231.) 
W. M. D. [86 
J (Africa.) 

Notes. — Joseph Thompson’s party has been heard 
from, having been obliged to retreat to Mombasa, on 
account of hostilities excited by a caravan in advance 
of them. All well, and would make another start 


with a different caravan. —— Schweinfurth has made 
a scientific journey from Cairo to Mirsa Tobruk in 
Cyrenaica. ——News has been received from the 


delayed Italian expedition to Abyssinia and the coast 
of the Red Sea, according to which the principal 
official party are detained at Debra Tabor by King 
John, while the explorer Antonellé has succeeded in 
getting away from Assab and in travelling through 
the Aussa country, previously closed to Europeans, 
to Schoa. ——Dr. Pogge has returned to Mukenge, 
according to a letter forwarded by Portuguese traders 
from Malange, and will shortly depart for Europe. 
— The German traveller Flegel has returned to 
the coast from his journey in Adamaur, —— The 
British government has annexed the territory lying 
south-east of the former limits of Sierra Leone as 
- far as the Liberian boundary, between that and the 
Sherbro Islands. —— Several French trading-stations 
have recently been established on the Futa Diallon 
4 coast, northward from Sierra Leone, in the hope of 
~ opening a lucrative traffic with the rich interior dis- 
_ tricts. —— The French naval surgeon Colin has been 
intrusted with a mission to the old gold-country of 
Buré on the upper Senegal. ——-The Morocco au- 
thorities have permitted Spain to undertake a topo- 
graphical investigation of the country around Santa 
Cruz de Mar Pequena, on the coast opposite the 
Canary Islands. ——The khedive has appointed 
the minister of the interior and former governor 
of the Soudan, Eyoub Pacha, to the presidency of the 
Société de géographie de Cairo. The general secre- 
tary is Dr. Bonola. —— The credits granted for the 
Algerian administration, by the commission to revise 
the estimates, amount to about twenty-eight and a 
“half million franes, of which about three million 
francs are for purposes of colonization. The imports 
into the colony from all sources in 1880 were about 
eighty millions, and the exports about fifty-six 
millions. The customs receipts from all sources 
were about ten million francs. —— Lieut. Angelo 
Cardozo of the Portuguese navy has just returned 
from Mosambique, where he has been eight months 
engaged in explorations in Sofala-land. He ascended 
last September from Inhambane toward Mulamula 


SCIENCE. 


87 


and Pachano, along’the mountains to Maringua, and 
across the Sabia River to Goanha; thence, descend- 
ing the Gorongoza to Sofala, he returned to Inham- 
bane by the seacoast. Herr Beine has just been 
sent by the International African association to 
relieve Becker and replace M. Maluin, whose state of 
health requires an immediate return to Europe. —— 
M. J. Lapeyre, second in command of the Giraud 
expedition, whose health had given way, was obliged 
to return from Aden to France on that account. — 
W. H. D. (87 


BOTANY.’ 

Systematic histology. — By this term, Vesque 
designates the systematic classification of plants on 
the basis of histology. The variations of histological 
elements, as regards size, shape, and distribution, 
even in a single genus or species, are very wide, and, 
with limited exceptions, have not hitherto been re- 
garded as very useful characters in classification. 
Vesque endeavors to show by an examination of the 
orders Capparidaceae, Cruciferae, and Frankeniaceae, 
that some histological characters are so nearly con- 
stant as to justify their employment in systematic 
botany. Such, for instance, are the stomata and 
hairs, the mucilage-cells, the palisade-cells, the shape 
and composition of the fibro-vascular bundles, etc. 
But, as was to be expected, the cases in which the 
histological characters are uncertain are so numerous 
as to be discouraging. That the species in many 
genera can be arranged in natural groups on the basis 
of their minute structure appears to be pretty clearly 
made out by Vesque’s contributions, —(Ann. sec. 
nat., Oct., vi. xv. 2.) G. L. G, (88 

Flowers of Aesculus glabra.— One of Prof. 
Coulter’s students finds that the perfect flowers of 
the buckeye are protogynous, while others, which at 
first sight appear protandrous, really have imper- 
fectly formed pistils. They are thus polygamous, 
with, it is thought, a tendency to monoicism. Bees, 
especially Apis, visit them, but go only to unopened 
buds, from which they obtain nectar by crowding 
their tongues between the petals. ‘‘ The open flowers 
were avoided, and could only have been fertilized by 
the chance of being near the buds; for the bees had 
evidently learned that the latter contained the 
nectar... . It isa case of an insect attracted by a 
flower which it does not visit, but may accidentally 
fertilize, and obtaining nectar from a flower which it 
can neither fertilize nor obtain pollen from.’’ The 
species is worthy of further study, — (Bot. gazette, 
June.) W.T. [89 


ZOOLOGY. 
(General anatomy and physiology.) 


Olfactory lobes of insects and vertebrates. 
—G. Bellonci, in continuation of his two previous 
articles (Mem. arcad. sc. Bologna, 1880, and Atti 
accad. reale lincei, 1880-81) on the olfactory lobes of 
arthropods, now reports his further observations, 
which he has also extended to vertebrates, The 
same fundamental plan determines the structure and 
relations of the olfactory lobes in both the higher 
arthropods and the vertebrates. The olfactory and 


88 


commissural fibres of the lobes are resolved into a 
fine reticulum, which, grouped in certain spots, forms 
what Bellonci calls the olfactory glomeruli. The lobes 
of arthropods have an outer portion with a diffuse 
reticulum, and an inner portion with glomeruli. In 
vertebrates the ganglion-cells lie within the region of 
the glomeruli. In vertebrates and crustaceans there 
are numerous small, and fewer large, cells. In in- 
sects the elements are of small or medium size. In 
both arthropods and vertebrates the fibres establish 
both a direct and a cross (chiasma) communication 
between the olfactopy and optic lobes; likewise be- 
tween the olfactory lobes and the higher centres 
(reniform bodies of Squilla, fungiform of insects, and 
hemispheres of vertebrates). These resemblances 
the author attributes to an analogy of function, and 
not to a morphological homology between vertebrates 
and arthropods. The observations were made on 
Squilla, Gryllotalpa, the eel and frog. — (Arch. ital. 
biol., iii. 191. A wrong title is given at the head of 
the pages.) Cc. S. M. [90 
Protozoa. 


Action of tannin on Paramecium.—H. J. 
Wadiington states, that, by bringing a drop of a 
solution of one part tannin in four parts glycerine in 
contact with a drop containing a Paramecium, the 
motion of the animal is stopped, and the cilia become 
beautifully distinct. They appear quite straight and 
surprisingly long, equal to the short diameter of the 
body. Previous ideas as to the size and number of the 
cilia have been very incorrect. To kill infusoria he 
recommends a saturated alcoholic solution of sul- 
phurous acid; for, if a small quantity be added to 
water, the gas is set free, and the animals in the 
water poisoned. He also reports an ingenious device 
to catch infusoria: crumbs of very hard baked biscuit 
are put in the water, where they will be held up by 
confervae; fungoid growths spring from each crumb, 
the infusoria collect between the filaments as in a 
favorite resort, and the whole colony may be cap- 
tured by pulling out the crumb.—(Journ. roy. 
micr. soc. Lond., iii. 185.) c. Ss. ™M. {91 

Descriptions of rotifers. — To the eight species 
previously described of the genus Floscularia, C. T. 
Hudson now adds three, and gives also some notes 
on F. regalis Hudson. These four last-mentioned 
species are described and figured, and a synoptic 
table of all the species is added. In an appended 
note, the author comments on Leidy’s Acyclus and 
Dictyophora (cf. SCIENCE, i. 37). Hethinks Acyelus 
is related to the floscules. ‘‘Its ‘oral cup’ with the 
“ineurved beak’ may be fairly said to be the buccal 
funnel of a floscule reduced to the possession of one 
lobe, viz., the dorsal one.’”?’ The remainder is con- 
cerned with details, and with the degradation of 
certain rotifers, considered in connection with the 
absence of the trochal disk. — (Journ. roy. micr. soc. 
Lond., iii. 161.) c.s. mM. [92 


Worms, ; 


Anatomy of Gephyreans.—Dr. C. Ph. Sluiter 
gives a preliminary notice of his observations on the 
anatomy of various species. An abstract will be 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 24. 


given of his definite memoir when published. — 
(Zool. anz., vi. 222.) ©. 8. M. 93 

Annelid messmates with a coral.—J. W. 
Fewkes finds annelid tubes formed on the rim of 
young Mycedium fragile. As the coral grows, it 
spreads round the worm-tube ; but the latter grows 
usually equally with coral. The presence of these 
tubes affects the regular growth of the coral. The 
species of worm does not appear to haye been deter- 
mined. —(Amer. nat., xvii. 595.) ©. 8. M. [94 

Spermatogenesis of Nemertines.— In an article 
in the Revue sc. nat., 1882, 165, Sabatier describes 
the development of the spermatozoa in nemertean 
worms. The parent cells separate into two parts, the 


central blastophore and peripheral bodies, which be- 


come independent, and attach themselves to the wall 
of the spermisac. From these bodies the spermato- 
zoa arise by differentiation of the peripheral part 
into spherules, which elongate and become sperma- 
tozoa. In his theoretical conclusion, the author 
adopts the theory first advanced by Minot (J3iol. cen- 
tralbl., 1882), that the ordinary cells are neuter, or 
combine both sexual elements, and that when a sep- 
aration takes place the sexual products are gener- 
ated. He makes an addition, however, to the theory, 
by the hypothesis that the central portion is female, 
the peripheral male. (There are many facts which 
appear at present irreconcilable with this view of the 
sexual relations within the cell.) —(Journ. roy. micr. 
soc. Lond., April, 1883.) c. Ss. M. [95 


VERTEBRATES. 


Action of alcohols on the heart.— The rela- 
tive effects of different alcohols of the marsh-gas se- 
ries of hydrocarbons upon the ventricle of the frog’s 
heart have been compared experimentally by Ringer 
and Sainsbury. The method of experimenting was 
to place the heart in a Roy’s tonometer, and feed 
it with the extract of dried bullock’s blood until it 
was beating normally; the alcohol used was then 
added to the circulating liquid in such quantities, 
determined by previous experiments, as to completely 
arrest the contractions of the heart within an hour. 
The toxic action of the alcohols used was measured 
by the dose sufficient to arrest the activity of the 
heart. The following results were obtained. Nor- 
mal methyl, ethyl, and propyl alcohol, —all three stop 
the heart in diastole, the ventricle losing its power 
to beat spontaneously, and refusing to respond to 
external stimulation. The excitability of the heart 
to electrical stimulation is diminished, The ‘ period 
of diminished excitability’ is shortened. The pri- 
mary effect of the alcohols on the heart is not, as 
might be supposed from their therapeutical use as 
cardiac stimulants, to increase the force or frequency 
of the ventricular contractions. The height of the 
curve given by the tonometer diminished steadily 
from the first application of the alcohol, and the fre- 
quency of the beats remained unaffected, except in 
the later stages, when the power of the hang to beat 
spontaneously was lost. With regard to the toxic 
action of the different alcohols, the following num- 
bers are given (the figures represent the number of 


: 


> 


JULY 20, 1883.] - 


minims of absolute alcohol in a hundred cubic centi- 
metres of the circulating liquid, necessary to cause 
complete arrest of the heart): methyl, 205.5; ethyl, 
114; propyl (primary), 59.3; isobutyl, 17; isoamyl 
(amyl alcohol of fermentation), 6.6. The activity of 


- the higher members of the series increases rapidly; 


and as the propyl, butyl, and amyl alcohols are con- 
stituents of fusel oil, we have evidence of the directly 
injurious effect of this impurity of ordinary alcoholic 
drinks. — ( Practitioner, xxx. v. 339.) W.u. Hu. [96 

Pulmonary epithelium. — Bozzoli and Graziadei 
publish a note chiefly to claim priority for certain of 
their observations on the lungs. We have only to 
notice that they have not seen any hyaline plates 
without nuclei in the epithelium, such as Feurstack 
has described. They also again insist upon the pres- 
ence and pathological importance of groups of little 
cells, not yet differentiated into the special] pulmonary 
epithelial cells (plates). — (Arch. ital. biol., iii. 222 ) 
Cc. 8. M. [97 

Birds, 

Molecular layer of the retina.— According to 
Bellonci, the formation of the inner molecular layer 
of the retina begins in the chick on the eighth day of 
incubation. At that time there is a special row 
of clear cells just outside the layer. The cells in the 
situation of the layer disappear on the ninth day: 
the clear cells undergo fatty degeneration of the 
nucleus, and disappear by the twelfth day. They 
form the molecular layer, which, however, continues 
to enlarge. Both the inner and outer molecular 
layer are penetrated by optic nerve-fibres. Thus is 
produced a structural relation with the molecular 
layers of the brain. —(Arch. ital. bivl., iii. 196.) 
c. 8. M. [98 

The birds of Tonkak.— In this paper Herr Miil- 
ler has given us an elaborate review of the birds of 
this island, based on a collection of sixteen hundred 
skins of one hundred and fifty-five species. The 
paper contains many systematic notes of interest. 
The author has prepared an extended set of tables 
from which he concludes that the Tonkak birds be- 
long rather to the Indo-Chinese sub-region than to the 
Indo-Malayan as given by Wallace. — (Journ. f. 
ornith., Xxx. iv.) J. A. J. {99 


Mammals, 

Development of the liver and lungs.—In 
connection with his researches on the development 
of the body-cavity Uskow made some observations 
on the liver and lungs of embryos. From the sinus 
venosus there grow out irregular cavities into the 
septum transversum, which extend into papillary 


_ growths, projecting into the pericardial cavity. The 


papillae are, of course, covered by a continuation of 
the epithelium of the pericardial cavity. They after- 
wards unite into a spongy mesh of tissue, into which 
the liver extends as it grows. The further history 
was not followed, but it is probable that the hollow 
outgrowths from the sinus venosus become hepatic 
vessels. 

Concerning the lungs, from a study of a rabbit 
embryo of a little less than ten days, Uskow draws 


SCIENCE. 


89 


the following conclusions. At the time of the closure 
of the ‘vorderdarm,’ the separation of oesophagus 
and trachea is already indicated. The lung is an un- 
paired evagination of the ventral wall of the ‘ vor- 
derdarm.’ The trachea and the lung arise at the same 
time, and independently; but the separation of the 
lung from the * vorderdarm’ precedes the separation 
of the trachea. The lung arises immediately in front 
of the liver; at the same time the cells of the meso- 
derm around the lung proliferate; and Uskow believes 
that the pleural (i.e., coelom) epithelium forms not 
only the pleural epithelium, but also the deeper-lying 
mesodermic elements (muscles, etc.) of the lung. — 
(Arch. mikr. anat., xxii. 219.) ©. Ss. M. [100 

A hybrid between the gayal and zebu.— Dr. 
Julius Kiihn announces the birth, at the agricultural 
institute of the Halle university, of a hybrid between 
the gayal of eastern India and the long-horned race of 
zebus known as sangas, which was held in domesti- 
cation by the ancient Egyptians, and is now abundant 
in Soudan and Abyssinia. The hybrid in question 
is a female; it weighed, at birth, 21.5 kilograms, or 
about one-twentieth the weight of the sanga mother. 
The latter is of a mottled red and white color, while 
the calf is of a clear red brown, only the belly and 
inner sides of the legs and the fetlocks being white. 
The hump on the withers, so characteristic of the 
zebu, is only slightly developed. ‘* In the birth of 
this animal it is shown that animals of the most 
primitive forms, which for thousands of years have 
had unchanged surroundings, by suitable treatment, 
may remain unimpaired in fertility, even when 
placed in relations which are in the greatest degree 
different from those of their native home.’’ — (Zool. 
garten, xxiv. 1883, 126.) ¥F. w. T. {101 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


Origin of the Magyars.— Mr. Herman Vambery 
published a work in Leipzig last year, in which he 
takes the ground that the Hungarians are of Turkish 
and not of Finno-Ugrian origin, as is believed by 
most ethnologists, and especially by M. Hunfalvy. A 
census of the Turco-Tatar stock is given, which may 
be of service to some of our readers. 


Turco-Siberians 141,992 
Eastern Turkestan + 1,040,000 
Kirghiz - 2,299,366 
Kara-Kirghiz ~ » 850,000 
Turcomans - 1,000,000 
Kara-Kalpaks . 70,000 
Usbegs . + 2,500,000 
Kipehaks . 70,000 
Kuramans 77,301 
Sarts 900,000 
Bushirs 500,000 
Tatars . 638,710 
Nogajs. . . 200,000 
Kuvaks [?] . + 600,000 
Kalmuks . 2 AF -' 71,000 
‘Transcaucasic Turks 900,000 
Ita 6 es} fe és 200,000 
Osmanili « 10,000,000 

21,558,369 

— (Archiv. per Vanthrop., xii. 297.) J. w. Pp. [102 


Macrobiotia.— The narrative of Genesis about 
the long lives of the patriarchs has very, frequently 


90 


led to the collation of the ages of persons who have 
lived to a very great age: Lord Malahide is inclined 
to give credit to the great number of cases of recorded 
longevity occurring among the inscriptions recovered 
from old Roman graves in Algeria and Tunisia. Mr. 
Renier has published a collection of these, and a still 
more complete series is by Mr. Willman, under the 
auspices of the Royal academy of Berlin. Upwards 
of ten thousand inscriptions are thus calendared. 
The following is a list from Numidia: — 


101... . . iJ4persons. MLO) foveal tial fe 5 persons. 
OLE. creivinptreyy epee LO lined MLS peebatg st Met rele 
HOSS acrig re micae a8 IP 5 By 
LOSWeaneysiii-ty ren persons DO laren stare iece) nie) onde Se 
WE wot bo we imesh |p Wa a 6 5 1 person. 
LOGE yep -ti tet Lp erEONs EDT aie st tem het tees s6 
LO Teaeliterieie ny boy teeta LS Uiareiiely PERG) itepd leds 
LOSI ris onelter al ital) tig tiaeninn DEP Aeere! ns MOpee WER MeL The 


At Mastar, a small town, the cemetery yields the 
following: — i 


JMET Gg sd! - 101 | Marcela 5.) c2 Ui 20 
Coecilius . ... . . 100 | Januarius. ...:+. . 101 
Gargilius . . . .. . 103 Martialisy . (2). “allue wa nelOD 
Graninsi) f5).0 =) fe) - 110 “Another? jassat cor roma me ello 
WHEE So coh ood ce. alls) Jussata. . . . . . . 105 
Petreiaise Fo eits\ sale «pho 


Lord Malahide, in order to show the credibility of 
these figures, speaks at length upon the duties of the 
Roman censors. — (Journ. anthrop. inst., xii. 441.) 
J. W. P. } [Los 

The Pawnees.— Mr. John B. Dunbar of Bloom- 
field, N.Y., has brought together in a quarto pam- 


SCIENCE, 


[Vou. II., No. 24. 


phlet his researches into the Pini family of North 
American Indians. The tribes embraced in this 
group are the Pawnees, Arikaras, Caddos, Huecos 
or Wacos, Keechies, Tawaconies, and Pawnee Picts 
or Wichitas. The last five are the southern or Red 
River branches. A brief account of each of these is 
given in the first few pages of the pamphlet. The 
third paragraph is devoted to the Arikaras, and the 
remainder of the monograph to the Pani, or Pawnees. 
A very extensive bibliography of the stock has 
been collected, commencing with the expedition of 
Lewis and Clarke, and including the publications of 
Pike, Long, J. T. Irving, Murray, Hayden, and the 
reports of the several commissioners of Indian af- 
fairs. Earlier notices are found in la Harpe, du 
Pratz, and Charlevoix, ; 

The name ‘ Pawnee’ is probably derived from Pd- 
rik-i (a horn), referring to their peculiar scalp-lock. 
The original hunting-ground extended from the Nio- 
brara, south to the Arkansas, but no definite bounda- 
ries can be fixed. ° 

Mr. Dunbar has collected from various sources the 
traditions of their origin and migrations (§ 8), their 
conflicts (§ 9), their census (§ 10), and their later his- 
tory since the beginning of our century. Consider- 
able space is given to their tribal organization, 
physical characteristics, social usages, dress, names, 
lodges, arts, trade, feasts, hunting, war, medicine, 
mourning, religion, calendar, present condition and 
prospects. Brief chapters are deyoted to the cele- 
brated chiefs, Pitale-sharu, Lone Chief, and Medi- 
cine Bull. —J. w. P. [104 


INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 


STATE INSTITUTIONS. 
State university of Kansas, Lawrence. 


Weather report for June.— The chief meteoro- 
logical features of this month were the low mean 
temperature and the abundant rainfall. During the 
fifteen preceding years, three Junes have been cooler 
than this, and only one (1876) has had a larger rain- 
fall. 

Mean temperature, 71.38°, which is 2.87° below the 
June average. The highest temperature was 94°, on 
the 22d and 30th. The mercury reached or exceeded 
90° on only six days. The lowest temperature was 
48.5°, giving a range of 45.5° for the month. Mean 
temperature at 7 A.M., 66.22°; at 2 P.m., 80.39; at 
9 P.M., 69.5°. 

Rainfall, 7.73 inches, which is 2.80 inches above the 
June average. There were seven thunder-showers, 
one of which, on the night of the 11th, continued for 
six hours, and brought 2.92 inches of rain. The entire 
rainfall for the six months of 1883 now completed 
has been 21.80 inches, which is 5.05 inches above the 
average for the first half-year of the past fifteen years. 

Mean cloudiness, 38.56% of the sky, the month 
being 3.64% clearer than the average. Number of 


clear days (less than one-third cloudy), 14; half clear 
(from one to two thirds cloudy), 12; cloudy (more 
than two-thirds), 4. There were four entirely clear 
days, and only one entirely cloudy day. Mean at 7 
A.M., 42.67%; at 2 P.M., 39.83%; at 9P.M., 33.67%. 

Wind: S.W., 24 times; S.E., 24 times; N.W., 17 
times; N.E., 14 times; N., 4 times; S., 4 times; E., 
3 times. The entire distance travelled by the wind 
was 10,737 miles, which is just two miles above the 
June average. This gives a mean daily velocity of 
357.90 miles, and a mean hourly velocity of 14,91 
miles. The highest velocity was 45 miles an hour, 
on the 22d and 28d. The thunder-storm of the 
11th was ushered in at 11.30 p.m. by a very strong 
‘straight’ wind, which unroofed a portion of the Cen- 
tral school building at Lawrence, but was in no sense 
a tornado. 

Mean height of barometer, 29.028 inches; at 7 A.M., 
29.050 inches; at 2 P.M., 29.013 inches; at 9 P.M., 
29.020 inches; maximum, 29.217 inches, on 14th; 
minimum, 28,671 inches; monthly range, only 0.546 
inch. 

Relative humidity: mean for month, 74.3; at 7 A.M., 
83.1; at 2 P.m., 57.7; at 9 P.m., 82.1; greatest, 97, on 
23d and 24th; least, 37, on 14th. 


JULY 20, 1883,] 


PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS, 
Ohio Wesleyan university, Delaware, 0. 


Additions to the museum. — The increase to the 
collections for the year amounts to 9,202 specimens. 
The aim of the curator is not to build up a great 
museum, but one of great educational value, which 
shall in time contain every specimen needed to ex- 
plain the facts of natural history as presented in the 
text-books of the department. All purchases and 
solicited exchanges are for this end, and even the vol- 
unteer exchanges are turned in this direction as far 
-as practicable. W. F. Falconer has given an exten- 
sive collection made at the phosphate beds of Charles- 
ton, S.C. An elephant’s tooth in this collection 
measures ten by fourteen inches, and weighs twenty- 
nine pounds. 

Prof. R. E. Call of Nebraska, a most enthusiastic 
naturalist, spent the summer of 1882 on a collecting 
trip through Georgia. The museum joined with oth- 
er institutions in defraying his expenses, and sharing 
the results. Although all the material has not been 
distributed, over five thousand specimens have been 
received, and a large number of new and valuable 
species. 

The U.S. fish-commission has presented a collec- 
tion illustrating the marine fauna of. the New Eng- 
land coast. It contains nearly one hundred species, 
many of which were obtained by dredging at depths 
as great as two hundred fathoms. 

Collections of importance have also been received 
from the late Mr. C. R. McClellan, a former assistant, 
_and from Revs. J. M. Barker of Mexico, and H. Man- 
sell of India, and the Brothers Willis, recently re- 
turned from a tour of the world. 

The shelves in all the cases are overcrowded; and 
at least twenty-five thousand specimens are packed 
away in boxes and drawers, awaiting study, and room 
in which to display them. The erection of one or 
more new cases is required. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


The summer courses of instruction in chemistry, 
offered to teachers by Harvard university, opened 
July 6, in the chemical laboratories of Boylston hall, 
and will continue six weeks. The course in general 
and descriptive chemistry is taken by twelve persons, 
the course in qualitative analysis by ten, and quanti- 
tative analysis by five. There are also eight persons 
who are engaged on advanced quantitative analysis, 
organic chemistry, and original research. Lectures 
are given twice a week on general chemistry, daily on 
qualitative analysis, and twice a week on quantitative 
analysis. The laboratories are open daily from 8 A.M. 
to 6 p.m. The following states are represented: 
Maine, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Ohio, 
Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Nebraska, and Geor- 
gia. Of the thirty-five persons mentioned above, five 
are women, and eight are continuing their work from 
former courses. As in previous years, these courses 
are under the direction of Dr. C. F. Mabery. 


SCIENCE. 91 


— Upon the death of Charles Darwin, last year, 
the advocates of evolution in the Paris anthropo- 
logical society organized a Conférence annuelle trans- 


Jormiste, in which one of their number who is a 


specialist shall set forth the manner in which the 
doctrine of transformism has affected his department 
of research, and also the arguments which his studies 
have furnished for the substantiation of the doctrine. 
The opening lecture of the course was delivered by 
M. Mathias Duval, upon the mutual relations of 
evolution and the embryology of the eye, and is 
published in the Revue scientifique for May 12. The 
first part of the discussion is an attack upon the 
doctrine of special creation and final causes. It 
does not seem to have come to the notice of our 
French colleagues, that the doctrine of special crea- 
tion, like all other doctrines (evolution, for instance), 
has modified itself from time to time by the increase 
of knowledge. ‘‘ These admirable appropriations 
of an organ to an end,’’ says M. Duval, ‘‘are ex- 
plained by the gradual perfecting of a mechanism, 
which, setting forth from simple and elementary 
adjustments, develops, by heredity and_ selection, 
the forms that are more and more advantageous to 
the individual. Upon the question whether embry- 
ology confirms this theory, it is proposed to examine 
the successive forms which the eye presents in the 
animal series, and the successive stages of its de- 
velopment in man or the higher vertebrates. In 
other words, the phylogeny will first be questioned, 
and afterward the ontogeny, of the globe oculaire, to 
see whether these two series of facts are a repetition 
the one of the other.’’ Briefly passing over the 
unicellular forms, and those in which the eye is un- 
differentiated, the author commences his more spe- 
cial investigation with the tunicates and amphioxus, 
from which point the argument is conducted with 
great precision, and is well illustrated. 

— The French academy of sciences proposed as a 
subject for one of its 1882 prizes the following: ‘‘To 
find the origin of the electricity of the atmosphere, 
and the causes of the great development of electrical 
phenomena in storm-clouds.’’? Several memoirs were 
received by the academy; but no one of them was 
adjudged worthy of the prize, although a reward and 
encouragement of a thousand franes was granted to 
one of the competitors. The academy, therefore, 
continues the above as one of the prize subjects for 
1885. Memoirs will be received up to June 1, 1885. 
Each must be accompanied by a sealed envelope con- 
taining the name and address of the author. The 
envelope will not be opened unless the memoir is 
successful. The value of the prize is three thousand 
francs, 

— The sixth annual convention of American libra- 
rians will be held in Buffalo, Aug. 14 to 17. The 
opening address will be delivered by the president, 
Justin Winsor. Excursions will be made down the 
Niagara River, and, at the close of the session, to 
Niagara Falls. Further details may be obtained 
from Mr. John N. Larned, Young men’s library, 
Buffalo. 

— The Smithsonian institution will soon publish 


92 


Professor Bolton’s Catalogue of scientific and techni 
cal periodicals. Proof-sheets have been sent to the 
leading libraries of the country, with the request that 
it should be noted what journals might ‘be on their 
shelves; so that we shall have a complete list of 
available scientific periodicals. 

— The Johns Hopkins university circular for June 
is given up to a statement of the work of the past 
year, and a programme of the courses offered for the 
year 1883-84. 

— According to Nature, the emperor of Austria, 
on June 5, inaugurated the new Vienna observatory 
on the Turken Schanze, in the northern outskirts of 
the town. The new building has taken nine years 
to construct; and during that time the present di- 
rector has travelled all over Europe and America in 
order to study the construction and equipment of the 
best observatories. The result is, that the Vienna 
observatory is probably one of the most complete in 
existence. 

— Dr. Ph. Paulitschke’s work on the ‘ Geograph- 
ische erforschung des afrikanischen continents’ (Vi- 
ena, 188U), in which he gave a brief statement of 
the work of all explorers from ancient times down 
to the date of publication, is now supplemented by 
his ‘ Afrika-literatur in der zeit von 1500 bis 1750 n. 
Chr.’ (Vienna, 1882), —a work of 122 pages, with 
1,212 titles. Valuable cartographic aid to study in 
the same direction is given in H. Kiepert’s maps 
of the progress of African exploration from 1750 to 
1873, and of the expeditions of this century, col- 
ored according to their nationality; these being pub- 
lished in the journal of the Berlin geographical 
society in 1873 and 1874, and again in the ten larger 
seale charts of inner Africa by Petermann and Has- 
senstein, issued as a supplement to the Miltheilungen 
in 1863. i 

— Mr. W. G. Black is preparing tbe index for his 
Folk-medicine, already in print, and to be issued im- 
mediately by the Folk-lore society. The work treats 
of the origin and communication of disease, and the 
influence in folk-medicine of charms, saints, and 
heavenly bodies. ev) 

The same society hopes soon to obtain for publi- 
cation a collection of Zulu nursery literature, which 
has been in the hands of Bishop Callaway for ten 
years. This will be an addition to folk-lore of very 
great interest and value. 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 


Adrian, T. Ueber projectivitiits- und dualitiits-beziehungen 


im gebiete mehrfach unendlicher kegelschnittschaaren. Berlin, 
1882. 54p. 8°. 
Ambthl, G. Anleitung zur milchpriifung. St. Gallen, 


Huber, 1883. 43 p. 8°. 

Amundtegui, M. L. El terremoto del 13 mayo de 1647. 
Santiago de Chile, 1883. 620 p. 4°. 

Ballard, H. H. Hand-book of the St. Nicholas Agassiz 
association. Pittsfield, Axtell & Pomeroy, pr., 1882. 5+85 p. 
24°. 

Barron, A.F. Vines and vine-culture: being a treatise on 
the cultivation of the grape-yine, with description of the prin- 
cipal varieties. London, 1883. 240 p., illustr. 8°, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 24. 


Bastian, A. 
schaftliche nachbarn. 
pl. 8°. 

Bechamps. : 
Vhéterogénie, Vhistogénie, la physiologie et la pathologie. 
1883. 8°. 

Behrend, G. Eis- und kiilteerzeugungs.maschinen, nebst 
einer anzahl ausgefiihrter anlagen zur erzeugung von eis, abkiih- 
lung von fliissigkeiten und rdumen. Halle, 1883. 8°. 

Bersch, J. Die verwerthung des holzes auf chemischem 
wege. Iie fubrikation von oxulsaure, alkohol und cellulose, der 
gerbstoff- und farbstoff-extracte aus rinden und hélzern, der 
atherischen oele und harze. Wien, 1883. 368 p., illusur. 8°. 

Bleunard, A. Le mouvement et la matiére. Lectures sur 
Ja physique et la chimie. Paris, 1883. 37tp., illustr. 8°. 

Branco, W., und Reiss, W. Ueber eine fossile siiugethier- 
fauna von Punin bei Riobamba in Ecuador. Mit geologischer 
einleitung. Berlin, 1883. 166 p. gr. 4°. 

Brown, J.E. The forest flora of South Australia. 
London, 18838. pl. f*. 


Volkerstiimme am Brahmaputra und verwandt- 
Berlin, Diimmlers, 1883. 70+130 p., 2 col. 


Les microzymas dans leurs rapports avec 
Paris, 


part i. 


Buccola, G. La legge del tempo nei fenomeni del pensiero; 


saggio di psicologia sperimentale. Milano, Dumolard, 1883. 


Bibl. intern. 15+482 p. 8°. 


Buckland, F. Log-book of a fisherman and zodlogist. New 
edit. London, 1883. 352 p., illustr. 8°. 


Candolle, A. de. L’origine delle piante coltivate. 
1883. 644 p. 8°. 

Cantor, G. Grundlagen einer allgemeinen mannigfaltigkeits- 
lehre, mathematisch-philosophischer versuch in der lehre des 
unendlichen, Leipzig, /ewbner, 1883. 51 p. 8°. 


Cer6n, 8. Estudio sobre los materiales y efectos usados en 
la marina. Cadiz, 1883. 652 p., illustr. 4°. 


Congresso g¢ografico internazionale terzo tenuto. a Venezia 
dal 15 al 22 settembre, 1881. vol. i. Notizie e rendiconti-. 
Roma, Soc. geogx. itul., 1882. 404 p., pl. 8°. 

Cotteau, Peron, et Gauthier. Echinides fossiles de 
PAlgeérie. fase. i. Terrains jurassiques. Paris, 1883. 79 p., 
illustr. 8°. 

Credner, H. Geologische profile durch den boden der stadt 
Leipzig und deren nichster umgebung. Leipzig, Hinrichs, 1883. 
5+71p., pl. f. 

Dawidowsky, F. Fabrication of glue, gelatine, cements, 
pastes, mucilages, ete. Translated from the German, with addi- 
tions, by W. T. Braunt. Philadelphia, 18838. 275 p. 12°. 

Dodel-Port, A. Illustrirtes pflanzenleben. Gemeinyer- 
standliche originalabhandlungen iiber die interessantesten und 
wichtigsten fragen der pflanzenkunde. Ziirich, 1883. 490 p., 


Milano, 


illustr. 8°. 

Faa di Bruno, F. Théorie des formes binaires. Turin, 
1883. illustr. 8°. : 

Faber, G. L. The fisheries of the Adriatic and the fish 
thereof, with a systematic list of the Adriatic fauna. Preceded 
by an introduction by Giinther. London, 1883. illustr. 4°. 


Falkenburg, C Neue schieberdiagramme und neue theo- 
rie der dampfvertheilung in anwendung auf die steuerung der 
stationsien und locomotorischen dampfmaschinen. Leipzig, 
1883. 5 

Faramelli, T. Descrizione geologica della provincia di 
Payia, con annessa carta geologica a calori nella scala di 1 per 
200,000. Milano, 1882. 104 p, 4°. 


Graetz, L. Die elektricitét und ihre anwendungen zur 
beleuchtung, kraftiibertragung, metallurgie, telephonie, und 
telegraphie. Stuttgart, 1883. illustr. 8°. 

Gross, V. Les Protohelvétes ou les premiers colons sur les 
bords des lacs de Bienne et Neuchatel. Avec préfuce de Vir- 
chow. Berlin, 1883. 120 p., illustr. 4°. 

Halphen. Mémoire sur la réduction des équations différen- 
tielles linéaires aux formes intégrales. Paris, 1883. 301 p. 4°. 

Harting, J. E. Sketches of bird life from 20 years’ observa- 
tions of their haunts and habits. 
8°. 

Heen, M.P.de. De la dilatabilité de quelques liquides or- 
ganiques et des solutions salines.. Bruxelles, 1883. 51 p., illustr. 
8° . 


Helderich, T. de. Flore de l’ile de Céphalone ou catalogue 
des plantes, qui croissent naturellement et se cultivent le plus 
frequemment dans cette ile. Lausanne, Beide/, 1883. 90 p. 8°. 

Hellrieg], H. Beitriige zu den naturwissenschaftlichen 
grundlagen des Ackerbaues. Braunschweiy, 1883. 8°. 

Herbert, ID., edit. Selection from the prize essays of the 
International fisheries exhibition, Edinburgh, 1882. New York, 
1883. illustr. 8°. > 


Hofmann, E. Der kiifersammler. Stuttgart, 1883. illustr. 
8°. 


——S ee 


London, 1883. 302 p., illustr. 


TE ING F. 


FRIDAY, JULY 27, 1833. 


THE ADVANTAGES OF STUDY AT THE 
NAPLES ZOOLOGICAL STATION. 

Tue opening of the marine laboratory in 
Naples in 1874 marks an important epoch in 
the progress 
of biological 
studies, as 
seen, not only 
in the prodi- 
gious and 
ever-increas- 
ing amount of 
work which 
it produces, 
but also in 
the general 
interest which 
its success 
has inspired 
in other quar- 
ters. As in 
America sea- 
side schools 
and laborato- 
ries may be 
traced to the 
example set 
at Penikese, 
so in Europe 
most of the 
marine labo- 
ratories owe 
their origin 
to influences 
emanating 
from Naples. 
But the ben- 
eficial _influ- 
ence of the 
Naples station is by no means confined to 
Europe. Already we hear of marine stations 
in Algiers, in Sydney, and in Java. In Japan 
too, as we are informed, a laboratory has been 
established by Professor Mitsukuri in a Buddh- 

No. 25.— 1888. 


ist temple, —anexample the moral of which 
is easily drawn. Thus the prediction made 
by the founder of the Naples station, Profes- 
sor Anton Dohrn, some ten years ago, — that 
marine zodlogy was destined to become para- 
and that the would soon be 
encircled by 
a net-work 


earth 


mount, 


of zodlogical 
stations ,— 
seems to be 
rapidly 
proaching its 
fulfilment. 
Every one 
can now see 
that the Na- 
ples ‘labora- 


ap- 


tory was a gi- 
gantice enter- 
prise, mag- 
nificent alike 
in concep- 
tion and in 
achievement, 
although few 
are aware of 
the magni- 
tude and ya- 
ried nature of 
the difficul- 
ties which 
opposed _ its 
progress. It 
is a matter 
for rejoicing, 
that this in- 
stitution was 
planned on 
such broad 
and liberal 
views, and with such wise prevision of the 
course its development should take in order 
to secure a long and prosperous existence. 
With the addition of a physiological depart- 
ment now determined upon, it becomes a bio- 


94 


logical station in the broader sense of the 
word, —an organization on a grand scale for 
the study of marine life in all its aspects. Its 
brilliant career during the first nine years of 
its existence not only insures its permanency, 
but also gives pledge of future growth com- 
mensurate with the ever-expanding needs of 
biological research. 

The station is no less liberal in its manage- 
ment than comprehensive in its aims; for it 
opens its doors to naturalists from all quarters 
of the globe on like conditions. It is the in- 
ternational character of the station, combined 
with the natural advantages of situation, which 
has made it, in so short time, the Mecca of 
biologists, and a seat of unprecedented prolific 
activity. The mild and equable climate of 
Naples, the unsurpassed richness of the fauna 
and flora of its bay, and the best equipped 
laboratory in the world, conspire to give the 
Naples station pre-eminence among institu- 
tions of its kind, and to render it probable 
that it will remain what it is now acknowl- 
edged to be,—the world’s great biological 
station. 

The detailed account given in Miss Nunn’s 
valuable article (Scmmncr, Nos. 17 and 18) 
makes it unnecessary to enter here into a de- 
scription of the laboratory ; and Mr. Cunning- 
ham’s excellent review of the work which it 
has already accomplished (Natwre, March 15) 
is doubtless accessible to most of the readers 
of Science. i 

Let us rather consider the practical question 
of our own interest, as Americans, in this 
institution. Except in a single and note- 
worthy case of very recent date, we have thus 
far taken no active interest in this matter. 
The distance between us and Naples has 
seemed to foster the idea that we have no 
immediate and common concern with European 
nations in opportunities that lie so much near- 
er their doors than ours. But recent events 
have demonstrated that there is a demand on 
the part of American naturalists for just such 
opportunities as are now offered at Naples, and 
nowhere else; and with them political isola- 
tion is not likely to be mistaken for scientific 


SCIENCE. 


Spi AR ee ee ae ere 


[Vou. IL, No. 25. 


isolation. That this demand does not arise 
from whimsical reasons will certainly be con- 
ceded by all who understandits meaning. Still 
there may be some who will ask if the field for 
investigation is not sufficiently broad at home, 
and the facilities for work sufficiently ample, 
to satisfy the requirements of American natu- 
ralists. With all due respect to such queries, 
we would suggest that they do not contain 
the gist of the matter: for even on the pre- 
posterous supposition that our facilities for 


biological research are fully as great as those — 


at Naples, no one could claim that they are 
identical; so that it would still be pertinent to 
ask, Can we not profitably add the advantages 
in Naples to those enjoyed at home? The real 
question comes to this: Are there advantages 
at Naples which are not offered here, and are 
they worth the time and money required to 
obtain them? » Now, it is no disparagement 
to home talent and resources, to say that the 
advantages of study at the Naples station 
are incomparably greater, and certainly more 
numerous, than those at our command. More 
than this, there is not a single laboratory in 
Europe where the student of natural history 
can pursue his studies under so favorable cir- 
cumstances as at Naples. This is doubtless 
much to say, when we remember that the 
laboratories of Huxley, Lankester, Lacaze- 
Duthiers, Van Beneden, Leuckart, Haeckel, 
Gegenbaur, Claus, Semper, Kolliker, Barrois, 
and Giard are of world-wide repute; but it 
is not merely our private opinion, it is an 
acknowledged fact. Of course, we are not 
now speaking of the comparative merits of this 


institution for students just beginning their ~ 


studies, but for those who are already more or 
less prepared for independent work. 

The Naples station makes no pretension 
to fulfilling the functions of a school or a 
college: its aim is to advance biological re- 
search; and to this end it consecrates all its 
energies. It is a laboratory organized and 
equipped, not for training the inexperienced, 
but for aiding the investigator. It represents, 
in many respects, the excellences of all the 


best laboratories of Europe combined, and sur- 


a 
, 


: 


JULY 27, 1883.] 


passes them all in the inexhaustible wealth of 
its resources, and in the many exceptional 
advantages that naturally spring from its inter- 
national character. 

Although no lectures or courses of instruc- 
tion are provided for, an able staff of assistants 
are constantly employed, whose aid and counsel 
in all matters pertaining to methods of work 
leave nothing to be desired. It is one of the 
great advantages of work at the station, that 
it gives one opportunities for the acquisition 
of methods. An institution which pushes 
research with such energy and success will 
naturally be prolific in the discovery of ways 
and means. The station brings together a 
body of zealous workers from the best labora- 
tories of Europe, and thus, besides giving a 
rare opportunity for the formation of valuable 
acquaintances, direct interchange of thought, 
and discussion of problems, opens another way 
for the accumulation and refinement of meth- 
ods. It is in this way that it becomes a sort 
of international depot for the reception of dis- 
coveries and improvements made elsewhere. 
The heterogeneous material thus obtained is 
sifted, systematized, tested, further elaborated 
and refined, and redistributed. The methods 


_ of microscopical research published by Paul 


Mayer, and the well-known discoveries of 
Giesbrecht, show that the station is doing 
no less important work as an originator than 


as an accumulator and a distributer of meth- 


ods. 

Now, whoever knows the value of methods 
—and we need not argue with those who do 
not — will admit, that, in this particular, the 
Naples station is unrivalled, and that, from 
the nature of things, it will probably remain 
so indefinitely. However successful we may 
become in the development and application of 

methods, we are not likely to see the time 
when it will not be desirable to see, and to 
know by experience, how work is done at 
Naples. This one but all-important matter, 
‘to say nothing of the many other advantages 
that must accrue to an occupant of a table at 
the station, — such as social intercourse, direct 
knowledge of a very important fauna, and 


SCIENCE. 


95 


opportunities of acquiring a knowledge of the 
four languages with which every naturalist must 
now be familiar, — makes it very desirable, 
particularly for our younger naturalists, to 
spend some time at Naples. 

‘One of the indispensable requisites to suc- 
cessful work in natural history is an extensive 
library ; and this is precisely one of the needs 
most felt in seaside laboratories. As a rule, 
naturalists are compelled to select a few of the 
books which they conjecture will be useful to 
them, and transport them to the place of study. 
This method is, of course, very unsatisfactory, 
for reasons too obyious to be mentioned. The 
Naples station has met this difficulty by estab- 
lishing a permanent library in an apartment 
adjoining its laboratory. Already this library 
has become one of the most complete biologi- 
cal libraries in Europe, and forms one of the 
chief attractions of the station. Its manage- 
ment, we are happy to say, is the least con- 
spicuous thing about it. Those accustomed 
to depend upon public libraries, open only at 
stated hours, approached only through officials, 
and encumbered with rules, blanks, fines, ete., 
have a pleasing sense of relief on finding the 
doors of this rich library thrown open to them, 
with the liberty of helping themselves at any 
time to whatever books are desired, with no 
further requirement than to place a card bear- 
ing their name in the place of each book taken. 
This simple device enables others who chance 
to want the same books to know precisely 
where to find them. 

The supply of material furnishes another 
topic well worth consideration in this connec- 
tion. It is the method of supply, rather than 
its richness, which merits attention. An organ- 
ized body of men is constantly employed for 
this purpose; and they make it their busi- 
ness not only to know what material can be 
obtained, but also when and where. These 
men now work with all the advantages of long 
experience and systematic training. The 
occupant of a table has only to announce 
what object he wishes to study, and it is de- 
livered alive at his table. In this way the 
investigator is able to accomplish the largest 


96 SCIENCE. 


amount of work in a given time, and with the 
least possible annoyance. 

The furnishing of the table also selon: 
attention. Within twenty-four hours after 
notice is given, one finds his table ready for 
use, supplied with drawing-material, a large 
variety of reagents, staining-fluids, and all the 
appurtenances required for the most difficult 
kinds of research. It is not the raw material 
that one finds on his table, but every thing 
actually prepared and ready for immediate use. 
Further needs are promptly supplied on request. 
Thus every thing is arranged to save the time 
of the investigator, and render his work as 
effective as possible. Compare these facilities 
for study with those offered anywhere else, and 
the contrast is at once apparent. 

The conseryator’s department, under the 
direction of Salvatore Lo Bianco, has become 
one of unusual interest and importance; and 
the work it is doing deserves to be generally 
known in this country. The work of this de: 
partment is the preservation of all the material 
brought to the station, except what is required 
to supply the tables and the public aquarium. 
The success with which this most difficult busi- 
ness of preserving marine animals in lifelike 
appearance is accomplished, is certainly mar- 


vellous, and richly deserves the highest tribute. 


of praise. This department is producing 
results of immense value to science, and its 
usefulness is. now widely recognized. Its 


beautiful preparations adorn the shelves of 


nearly every museum in Europe; and it is 


constantly sending out supplies to laboratories 


for teaching purposes. Many naturalists who 
find it inconvenient to work at Naples are 
supplied by this department with material in 
such perfect state of preservation for anatomi- 
cal and histological study, that they are en- 
abled to carry out their investigations without 
once visiting the station. There are undoubt- 
edly museums and laboratories in this country 
that would do well to avail themselves of this 
opportunity. This department has been cre- 
ated for the special purpose of serving science 
in the above-named ways, and not for increas- 
ing the funds of the station; and hence the 


[Vou. IL, No. 25. 


preparations are made for a sum that scarcely 
more than covers the expense of the alcohol and 
other reagents used in their preservation. 

There is still another way in which this de- 
partment of the station might be of importance 
to this country. Doubtless some arrange- 
ments might be made between our naval au- 
thorities and the director of the station, such 
as have been made in the case of Germany 
and Italy, which would enable us to send an 
officer from time to time to the station, with 
a view to gaining a practical knowledge of 
the methods of preserving animals. In this 
way each of our war-ships might be supplied 
with one officer prepared to take advantage of 
the rare opportunities for advancing our knowl- 
edge of marine life which arise in the course 
of their distant cruises. 

In view of the considerable number of Amer- 
ican students in ‘the biological laboratories of 
Europe, and the many applications on their 
part for permission to work at Naples, there 
has naturally been some surprise at the fact 
that America has hitherto declined to con- 
tribute any thing towards the support of the 
station. The honor of taking the first step 
towards rectifying our mistake in this matter 
belongs to Williams college. It is to be 
hoped that the example set by President Car- 
ter and the trustees of this college will not 
long remain the only evidence of our appre- 
ciation of the Naples station. Three or four 
tables will at least be required to meet the 
demands of our zodlogists alone, judging from 
the number now at work there. It is not 
right that American students should go to 
Naples as beggars, to be received out of cour- 


tesy, or indirectly through the liberality of © 


English or German universities. Of the twen- 
ty-six tables now taken at the station, Ger- 
many controls twelve; Italy, four; England, 
two; Russia, two; Belgium, two; Holland, 
one; Hungary, one; Switzerland, one; and 
Williams college, one. There are four tables 
not yet disposed of, two of which, at least, 
should be secured at once by America. Will 
not some one or more of our universities take 
this matter in hand? 


eS eee ee ee ee ee 


JULY 27, 1883.] 


The establishment of a biological station at 
Wood’s Holl, which, in the hands of Professor 
Baird, will doubtless be pushed to a speedy 
completion, will create facilities for the study 
of marine life on a much larger scale than we 
have hitherto seen in this country; and the 
successful issue of this enterprise, we venture 
to predict, will increase rather than diminish 
the number of American naturalists at Naples. 
Whatever improves our facilities for study 
will tend to increase the general interest in 
biology, and to augment the number of natu- 
ralists who will seek the best that the world 
affords in the way of methods. The time will 
neyer come when direct interchange of thought, 
and comparison of methods of research, will 
cease to be of the highest importance to the 
biologist. On the contrary, these things will 
become more and more a necessary part of the 
experience of every one who aims to be a use- 
ful and successful student of life. The prog- 
ress of biological studies will soon create a 
- demand for more than one international labora- 
tory, and we certainly hope that the new sta- 
tion at Wood’s Holl will take this character. 
The establishment of several great stations at 
different points, selected according to the rela- 
tive richness and importance of the fauna and 
flora, each offering facilities for study similar 
to those enjoyed at Naples, and open to nat- 
uralists of every country, would prepare the 
way for a concentration and organization of 
forces, and inevitably raise the standard of 
work, and check the accumulation of drift- 
wood. It is obvious that the usefulness of 
one station would not be impaired by the exist- 
ence of others, since the work of each would 
be supplementary to that of the others. 

The character and importance of the publi- 
eations of the station have been so well stated 
by Mr. Cunningham in the article before re- 
ferred to, that little remains to be said on this 
topic. In looking over the list of subscribers 
to the Fauna and flora, we are again forced 
to acknowledge the slender interest which 
America has taken in the Naples station. 
Here is a colossal series of magnificent mono- 
graphs, designed to give an exhaustive treat- 


SCIENCE. 


97 


ment of the plants and animals found in the 
Gulf of Naples, and published at a price that 
ought to insure them a place in the private 
library of every zodlogist and botanist in the 
country ; and yet the list of subscribers, ac- 
cording to the last circular, numbers only eight. 
Eyen such countries as Holland and Switzer- 
land outdo us. Austria and Russia have each 
twice this number of subscribers ; Italy has 
nearly four times, England about five times, 
and Germany ten times, as many. 

As our poor representation cannot be at- 
tributed wholly to indifference, it is safe to 
conclude that these monographs are not so 
generally known as they deserve to be. Thirty 
of the series have already been announced, six 
of which have been completed. From two to 
four are published each year in quarto form, 
and illustrated with numerous expensive plates, 
at an annual subscription-price of only twelve 
dollars and a half. The number of subscribers 
is now two hundred and seventy, and the three 
hundred and fifty copies of Dr. Chun’s Mono- 
graphie der Ctenophorae — the first in the se- 
ries —have been already nearly exhausted. 
The monographs are written either in English, 
German, French, or Italian, according to 
the preference of the authors. Such brilliant 
achievements in the line of exhaustive research 
as are embodied in these monographs certain- 
ly command our homage, and assuredly de- 
serve a more generous recognition than they 
have yet received in this country. 

C. O, Wuirman. 


THE NATIONAL RAILWAY EXPOSI- 
TION. — Ill. 


In England and Europe generally, signals 
of every conceivable variety have been used ; 
but experience has shown that the semaphore 
is the best signal, and its universal adoption 
in Great Britain and on the busiest railways 
on the continent of Europe is a gopd exam- 
ple of the doctrine of the survival of the 
fittest. The exposition, we regret to observe, 
contains many forms of signals that are 
neither distinct in appearance nor positive in 
meaning. It is hard to say whether some of 
them mean safety or danger. A mere change 

1 Continued from No, 23. 


A le et A ed eR ee 


98 - SCIENCE. 


of color from red "to white, without any 
change of form, conveys no information what- 
ever in certain states of the weather and with 
certain backgrounds. Other signals are alike, 
back and front. Facing the train, they signify 
danger ; standing edgewise, they mean safety : 
but unfortunately it is difficult to know 
whether they refer to an east-bound train or a 
west-bound train; and, though they may be 
placed on the right hand of the engineer to 
whom they refer, this’ arrangement is not 
always free from ambiguity. 

The semaphore signals, as shown at the ex- 
position, consist of vertical posts which have 
one or more arms pivoted at their upper ends ; 
and these arms are capable of moving through 
a right angle in a vertical plane. An arm 
raised to a horizontal position signifies danger ; 
inclined at an angle of about 45°, it signifies 
safety. A powerful lamp is fixed near the top 
of the post; and, when the arm stands hori- 
zontally, a disk of red glass stands in front of 
the lens of the lantern, which then, of course, 
shows a red light, indicating danger. When 
the arm drops to an angle of 45°, the red disk 
moves, and leaves the lantern unobscured, 
showing a white light, and indicating safety. 

The semaphore arms are weighted, so that 
their normal position is horizontal, indicating 
danger; and the signalman has to overcome 
this weight in pulling them to safety. The 
object of this arrangement is, that the break- 
age of the connection between the lever in the 
signalman’s cabin and the semaphore will 
release the signal, and let it fly to danger. 

It is usual to place one signal at or as near 
as possible to both the signalman’s cabin and 
the spot where the engine of an advancing train 
should stop if the signal is against the train. 
This signal is called the ‘home’ or ‘ main’ 
signal. Another signal is placed some dis- 
- tance off in the direction from which the train 
comes: this is termed the ‘distant’ signal. 
The object of this arrangement\is, that, on 
catching sight of the distant signal, the engi- 
neer is warned, and has some time and distance 
in which to stop his train before he reaches 
the home signal, beyond which the danger lies. 

As the levers work switches and signals at 
a considerable distance, the connections be- 
tween them have to be carefully made and 
protected from accidental injury and the 
effects of the weather, while the difference in 
length due to difference in temperature has 
to be compensated for; so that the signal is 
moved with certainty, though the wire or 
pipe connecting it to the lever vary in length 
several inches in the twenty-four hours, owing 


[Vou. IL., No. 25. 


to the difference in temperature ‘between 
the day and night. The Pennsylvania steel 
company exhibits an especially neat device 
for keeping the wire or connection to a dis- 


SEMAPHORE. 


tant signal always tight. The wire is kept 


stretched by an ingenious application of the 
pull of a weight, which acts only when the 
signal is in its normal position of danger to 
which it is weighted. When the signal is 


Rey 


JULY 27, 1883.] 


pulled to safety, it is directly controlled by 
the signalman. 

Connections to switches are generally made 
by means of rods or pipes jointed together, 


DEVICE FOR KEEPING SIGNAL-WIRE TIGHT. 


and running on rollers. A ‘trunking’ or 
wooden covering is then placed over them to 
protect them from snow and the feet of any- 
one walking about the yard. 

As it is very important that 
the movement of switches should 
be absolute and exact under all 
conditions, — that is to say, 
that the switch be always either 
tightly closed or wide open, and 
never stand partly open,—a compensating 
arrangement is introduced half way between 
the switch and the signal, so that, whatever 
the variation of length of connection from tem- 
perature, the switch is unaffected, and its 
movements can always be under exact control. 


COMPENSATING JOINT FOR EXPANSION OF RODS. 


The full lines show the position in cold 
weather; the dotted lines, in hot. It is evi- 
dent, however much the rod expand, the 
distance between switch and signalman is un- 
altered, and therefore the movements of the 
switch and lever are unaffected. 

In working railroads, some difficulty has 


SCIENCE. 


— =e AXLE ANO PAIR OF WHEELS 


always been experienced in keeping trains 
running in the same direction, on the same line 
of rails, from running into one another, as 
naturally, on a crowded line, an accidental stop- 
page to even a fast train may enable a slow 
train to overtake it and cause a rear collision. 
The Pennsylvania railroad adopted, some years 
ago, what is known as the block system, by 
which a definite interval of space (the dis- 
tance between two adjoining signal-cabins) 
can always be maintained between two follow- 
ing trains. ‘The system is too well known to 
need description here; but Mr. George West- 
inghouse has invented a system in which the 
same results are obtained, not by men signal- 
ling from one cabin to another, but by the 
trains themselves operating signals through 
the medium of electricity. The principle of 
the invention is easily understood, although the 
details are complicated and the results mar- 
vellous. A battery is connected to each signal 
by means of the rails, the current flowing 
to the signal by one rail, and returning by 
the other. The presence of an axle and pair 
of wheels on the track enables the current to 
flow through them, instead of through the 
signal apparatus. Directly the current is thus 
short circuited, the signal flies to danger. 

This simple principle is so ingeniously worked 
out in detail, that a train approaching a road- 
crossing rings a bell fixed on a post at the 


AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC BLOCK SYSTEM. 


crossing until the crossing is reached, when the 
bell stops ringing ; and this is done by trains 
travelling in either direction. In working on 
an ordinary piece of road, two signals behind 
the train are always kept at danger; and, on 
a single line, two signals in advance of the 
train are always kept at danger against a train 
advancing in the opposite direction. In afew 
words, the trains warn one another of their 
proximity. 

We have dwelt on the subject of signals at 
considerable length, as the question is novel, 
and of great and growing importance; and 
we have no doubt that those who take an inter- 
est in railroads have found much to be gained 
by visiting the exposition, and studying this 
question on the spot. The two exhibits we 
have mentioned represent the best results 
attained in England after forty years’ patient 
and careful study of signals, under such trying 


100 


conditions that the very existence of railways 
there depends upon the handling of enormously 
concentrated traffic with safety, certainty, and 
rapidity ; and the results of these labors are 
probably not far from a perfect solution of the 
problem, and deserve our most careful study. 


(To be continued.) 


FIFTEENTH ANNUAL CONVENTION OF 
THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF CIVIL 
ENGINEERS. — Il. : 


On Thursday the convention again assem- 
bled at St. Paul, at 11 a.m., and listened to a 
paper by J. P. Frizzell of St. Louis, upon the 
water-power at St. Anthony’s Falls. The 
height of fall, watershed, rainfall, and horse- 
power utilized were given. He criticised the 
means taken for preserving the falls, the build- 
ing of storage-dams at the head waters of the 
Mississippi, and the method of using the water 
at Minneapolis. He condemned the waste of 
power occasioned by a gross disregard of the 
laws of hydraulics, and pointed out the remedy. 
He stated that three things should be done, — 
the U.S. government must be induced to with- 
draw wholly, leaving the work of preservation 
of the falls to the owners of water-power; the 
two companies controlling the power must be 
~ united under one management; the natural 
width of channels at the falls must be restored. 

Capt. O. E. Michaelis, U.S.A., followed with 
a short paper on metrological investigations, 
which he said were brought about by the at- 
tempt to determine how much a certain bullet 
was ‘out of true.’ He constructed and exhib- 
ited an instrument closely allied to the sphe- 
rometer, to which he gave the name of ‘ tripod 
caliper.’ He read results of measurements with 
this instrument, and applied it further to testing 
the accuracy of one turn of a screw-thread. 

Mr. D. J. Whittemore, chief engineer of the 
Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul railway, 
read a brief paper on the use of the Nasmyth 
steam-hammer for driving piles, and gave in- 
stances of the hindrance which a very slight 
‘brooming’ of the pile-head offered to the 
effective action of the hammer. He also sub- 
mitted a section from the top of a green Nor- 
way pine pile, where the friction of the fibres, 
under the rapid blows of the hammer, had 


generated sufficient heat to burn the heart of. 


the head of the pile quite across. 

Papers by Benjamin Reece, of Toledo, O., 
upon railway-track repairs, and by J. W. Put- 
nam, upon cause of decay in timber, were read 
by title, and ordered printed in the proceedings. 

1 Concluded from No. 24. 


SCIENCE. 


Eds 2. vey" Pe py Fe ee eee See 
? ; ak 


[Vou. II., No. 25. 


In another room, before the persons most 
directly interested, a paper was read by F. P. 
Stearns of Boston, upon the current meter, 


~ giving a theory for the maximum velocity of 


water, flowing in an open channel, being found 
below the surface. 

The society then held a business-meeting, in 
which a committee for nominating officers of 
the society was elected. Committees on uni- 
form tests of cement and on the preservation 
of timber were granted further time. The 
committee appointed to procure aid from Con- 
gress to carry on the tests of iron and steel 
reported progress, and was continued. 

The special committee on standard time 
made a report through Dr. Eggleston to the 
effect that they had obtained a general expres- 
sion of opinion from men prominent as engi- 
neers, railway managers and operators, and 
others in all parts of the United States and 
Canada, and found that exceptional unanimity 
prevailed with respect to the fundamental prin- 
ciple which should govern in the adoption of 
a system of standard time for the whole coun- 
try. The benefits of a change from the present 
lack of system were illustrated, and it was 
claimed that the time had arrived for action in 
the matter. The report was accepted, and the 
committee continued. 

The convention at St. Paul then adjourned. 


The U.S. engineer officers on duty in this — 


vicinity had an exhibit, in another room, of 
plans showing the various works of improve- 
ment under their charge. 

On Friday, June 22, the convention met in 
Minneapolis. The party was carried from 


Hotel Lafayette across Lake Minnetonka by 


steamer, and thence by a narrow-gauge railway, 
in open cars, to the city. The meeting took 
place in the opera-house. A welcome ~was 
given by ex-Mayor Rand in behalf of the city ; 
a reply and the annual address, in the absence 
of President Charles Paine, was read by 
Director William Metcalf, who took for his 
subject ‘ Engineering improvements in the 
Mississippi valley.’ 

Mr. William P. Shinn then read a paper 
upon the subject, ‘ How can railways be made 
more efficient in the transportation of freight? ’ 
which is a sequel to his paper of similar title 
read at the annual meeting in 1882, and aims 
to sum up the discussion, and more particularly 
to reply to the criticisms of Mr. O. Chanute 
thereon. He claims that facts and figures, 
which he adduces, prove that the present, mile- 
age basis for the adjustment of car accounts be- 
tween different railroad companies is unjust to 
the companies furnishing the cars; that it is 


f 
1 
” 
} 
4 


EE rr eee 


ey ee eS a a a 


JuLy 27, 1883.] 


costly and discouraging to prompt shippers ; 
that it leads to slow movement of loaded cars 
and to non-movement of empty cars; that it 
is not practised in other countries, nor does 
any like practice obtain in any other business in 
this country. The per-diem basis, on the con- 
trary, is perfectly practicable, as proved by two 
years’ trial on the Union Pacific, and Chicago, 
Burlington, and Quincy railroads, and its use 
in a modified form in two European countries. 
At noon the convention adjourned. The 
rest of the day, and Saturday, were given up 
to the very pleasant excursions and entertain- 
ments furnished by the people of the vicinity. 
If one-half as much is done to render the 
coming meeting of the American association 


pleasant, those who attend will find themselves 


well entertained. 


SOME GEYSER COMPARISONS. 


Haypen’s twelfth annual report, published 
by the U. S. interior department, has been in 
the printer’s hands for some time, and will 
doubtless be shortly issued from the govern- 
ment printing-office. Part ii. of this report 
relates to the Yellowstone national park, and 
in it the hot-springs are fully described, and 
the geology and topography of the park treated 
of in detail. 

It is proposed here to point out briefly some 
of the differences in relation to geysers be- 
tween the results of the work in the park and 
those reached by Bunsen in his study of the 
Iceland field. It is not necessary to present 
Bunsen’s conclusions in detail, nor to describe 
his theory, with which doubtless the majority 
of the readers of Scrence are familiar. 

Bunsen’s conclusions, as presented here, are 
mainly the same as stated by LeConte in his 
Elements of geology, although not considered 
in the same order. 

1. Bunsen found in Iceland two kinds of 
springs, viz., acid springs and alkaline car- 
bonate springs; and he says that only alkaline 
carbonate springs become siliceous, and that 
only silicated springs form geysers. 

2. The silica in solution does not deposit 
on cooling, but only by drying. 

Our observations in the Yellowstone national 
park in the main verify this last conclusion, 
and it is inserted, because LeConte takes ex- 
ception to it as follows: ‘* This, however, is 
not true; for the Yellowstone geyser-waters, 
which? deposit abundantly by cooling, evidently 
because they contain much more silica than 
those of Iceland.’’ 


1 This is evidently a grammatical error. 


SCIENCE. 


a tu, if x a . 


101 


The following table gives the results of the 
observations in the park as far as. they have 
been made in regard to the points just enu- 
merated. 


y fat | Grains of | Condition of water 
Wine Perea | | silica to | peo after three years, 
: | imperial or. | When bottles were 
Spring. gallon. ere tl opened. 
2 ee = 
Jug «| Quietspr’g,, 14.56 | Alkaline, Perfectly clear, no 
# 1 it 
deposit. 

Echinus.|Geyser. .| 10.60 | Acta aes Perfectly clear, no 

| deposit. 

Pearl. .|Geyser. .| 7.84 | Alkaline, Clear, with small 
| deposit of gelati- 
| nous silica. 

Opal . .|Quietspr’g,) 53.76 | Alkaline, Opaline as vie 

bottled, no e 
posit in bottle. 


Here, then, we have an alkaline spring and 
an acid spring, both of which are geysers. We 
see, also, that the mere fact of cooling has little 
to do with the throwing down of the silica, 
nor does the precipitation appear to be due to 
the amount of silica held in the water. Ordi- 
narily the formation of siliceous sinter or 
geyserite must be explained by the evapora- 
tion or drying of the water as it flows from the 
springs, or falls from the geysers. 

The chimney-like form is very noticeable in 
the craters of the Yellowstone geysers; and 
LeConte attributes it to the greater abundance 
of silica in solution in the waters of the Yel- 
lowstone geysers.? 

As a fact, however, the analyses already 
made of geyser-waters from the park show 
usually a smaller percentage of silica than do 
those of Iceland. Opal spring (see table 
above) is an exception, and it is a spring 
without the least appearance of a crater or 
chimney. The real explanation is probably 
in the greater age of our geyser region. 

3. Bunsen’s conclusions as to temperature 
are as follows : — 

a. The temperature increases with the depth 
of the tube. 

b. At no point in the tube does the water 
have the temperature of ebullition which it 
should have under the pressure to which it is 
subjected. 

c. The temperature depends on the time 
that has elapsed since the last eruption; and, 
as a great eruption approaches, the nearer it 
comes to the boiling-point. 

d, At a depth of forty-five feet in the Great 
geyser, the difference “between the observed 
temperature and. the calculated boiling-point 
of the water for that depth and pressure was 
the least. 

1 Elements of geology, p. 104. 


102 


In the Yellowstone national park, wherever 
deep temperatures were taken in active springs 
and geysers, they were found to increase with 
the depth; but temperatures of ebullition were 
found at the surface of many springs, and in 
some the temperatures exceeded the boiling- 
point. As the time for an eruption in a geyser 
approached, the temperature increased, which 
fact agrees with Bunsen’s observations. 

In 1865 a Mr. Bryson of Edinburgh found 
that the tube of the Great geyser of Iceland 
has a ledge about forty-five feet below the top 
of the tube, and that, from beneath this ledge, 
steam-bubbles rose while the tube was filling. 
A thermometer sunk to this point was violently 
dashed about and broken, but, when sunk 
below it, was quiet and undisturbed. The 
conclusion is, that here is an opening by which 
steam and superheated water have access to 
the main geyser-tube from the side. Similar 
side-openings are known to exist in Strokhr; 
but the Great geyser is so full of water that its 
structure cannot be so readily studied as in 
the case of the smaller Strokhr. In Bunsen’s 
theory this point forty-five feet below the sur- 
face plays an important part. He allowed his 
thermometer to remain at the bottom of the 
geyser-tube during a great eruption, and it 
was undisturbed. Mr. Bryson’s discovery 
explains its safety. It was below the active 
side-vent of the geyser. 

Bunsen’s conclusion would therefore prob- 
ably have to be modified so far as relates 
to the temperature of ebullition not being 
reached ; for, could he have obtained temper- 
atures in the side-conduit, there is but little 
doubt that the boiling-point would soon haye 
been reached, ‘even for the pressure of that 
depth. The mass of water in the main tubes 
prevents that condition at the surface; and, 
when it is attained opposite the See an 
eruption occurs. 

Bunsen’s theory of the formation of geyser- 
tubes also requires some modification: Con- 
trary to his opinion, the deposit of silica is 
not necessary for geyseric action. In the 
Gibbon geyser basin in the national park are 
several geysers conspicuous from the small 
amount of siliceous deposit surrounding them ; 
and one in 1878 was entirely without a deposit, 
having just broken out as a steam-vent. By 
the following year it had settled down to regu- 
lar geyser action. 

As already mentioned, there are, in the park, 
geysers the water of which is acid in reaction ; 
and therefore the theory that before develop- 
ing into a geyser the spring must pass through 
a ‘preliminary tranquil or non-eruptive stage 


SCIENCE. 


No. 25. 


[Vou. IL, 


(in which it is an acid spring) is not war- 
ranted by the facts observed in the Yellow- ~ 
stone region. Jt is probable that all geysers 
are originally due to a violent outbreak of 
steam and water, and that the first stage is 
that of a huge steam-vent. Under such con- 
ditions, irregular cavities and passages are 
more likely to be formed than regular tubes. 
The lining of the passages and tubes takes 
place afterwards, and is a slow process. 
Whether the subterranean passages in which 
the water is heated are narrow channels, en- 
largements of tubes, or caverns and tubes, is 
probably of little consequence, except as the 
periods or intervals of the geyser are influenced. 
If water in a glass tube be heated rapidly 


“from the bottom, it will be violently expelled 


from the tube, or, if boiled in a kettle that has 
a lid and a spout, either the lid will be blown 
off, or the water will be forced out of the 
spout. In the first case we have an’ explana- 
tion, in part at least, of Bunsen’s theory ; and 
the second exemplifies the theories which pre- 
suppose the existence of subterranean cavi- 
ties and connected tubes. The simpler the 
form of the geyser-tube, the less is the im- 
pediment to the circulation of the superheated 
water; and in this fact lies the explanation 
of the difference between constantly boiling 
springs and geysers. The variations and 
modifications of the subterranean water-pas- 
sages, however, must be important factors 
entering into any complete explanation of gey- 
seric action. 

Bunsen’s theory, somewhat modified, is 
probably the best yet proposed, especially that 
part of it which explains the effect of the rise 
of water nearly at the boiling-point to an 
upper portion of the channel where its tem- 
perature is in excess of that necessary to cause 
ebullition. The excess of heat is violently 
and instantaneously applied to the production 
of steam. McKenzie, in 1810, also recognized 
the fact that the sudden evolution of steam 
was the proximate cause of the eruptions ; but 
he could not account for their periodical pro- 
duction. ; 

The water of geysers and hot-springs has 
been boiled and reboiled for an inconceivable 
period, and is freed from air as no other water 
is. Its cohesion is therefore immensely in- 
creased; and this fact, together with the 
obstruction to the free escape of steam caused 
by irregularities in the channels, offers a com- 
plete explanation of the superheating of the 
water; and it is well known, that, when water 
so heated does boil, the production of vapor 
is instantaneous. A. C. PEALE. 


JuLy 27, 1883.] 


THE AFFINITIES OF RICHTHOFENIA. 


Dr. W. WAAGEN considers the results of his recent 
study of the new genus Richthofenia Kays. (Anomia 
Lawrenciana Koninck) so remarkable as to deserve 
a preliminary notice (Rec. geol. surv. India, xvi. 1). 
Mr. Barrande and Professors Valérin and Moller 
were of opinion that this fossil was more nearly re- 
lated to the corals than to any other class of animals, 
while Professors Zittel and Lindstrém seemed to be 
in favor of the view that it was a brachiopod. In 
favor of the latter view, the microscopic structure of 
the shell is the most important point. Its silky 
lustre is identical with that of Productus, though 
this seems to be effected by different means. In the 
shell of Productus it is caused by obliquely ascending 
prisms, whilst in Richthofenia it depends apparently 
on the fine lamination of the shell, as in Placuna or 
similar genera. Of great importance is the prismatic 
structure of the single laminae of which the shell 
of Richthofenia is composed. Such a prismatic 
structure is chiefly characteristic of mollusks and 
molluscoids. Dr. Waagen has never yet observed 
this structure in corals. In Calceola sandalina, 
which seems the most kindred form among corals, a 
microscopic section through the larger valve showed 
well its radial septa ; but all these septa exhibited a 
granular, not a prismatic structure. The punctation 
of the shell is very similar to that of Productus, and 
so are the hollow root-like tubes which penetrate the 
shell-substance of the larger valve, and adhere to other 
bodies. The smaller valve can also be very well 
compared to the same valve of Productus, although 
it is doubtful whether the thick parallel ridges on 
the hinge-line of this valve of Richthofenia can at all 
be compared to a cardinal process, and whether the 
impressions on the valve can be taken as muscular 
impressions. Reniform bodies are most certainly 
absent. Nevertheless, among the brachiopods, the 
Productides are the only ones to which the genus 
Richthofenia might stand in any relation. 

Richthofenia possesses certain points of resem- 
blance with rugose corals, — the irregular parti- 
tions in the lower part of the larger valve ; the 
columella-like portion, which is divided off by three 
vertical septa; these septa themselves, which can 
well be compared to the primary and the two lateral 
septa of a rugose coral ; the cellular structure of the 
shell ; the septa-like ridges on the outer wall of 
the animal chambers, which are in connection with 

' the hollow canals which pierce the substance of the 
shell ; and the tortuous tubes themselves, into which 
the canals are prolonged on the outer side of the 
larger valve. There can be no doubt, that on first 
inspection, ignoring the silky lustre of the shell, one 
would be far more likely to regard this fossil as a 
coral than as a brachiopod. 

The points of similarity between Richthofenia and 
the Rudista, chiefly Hippurites, are not very numer- 
ous. If we make a section of Richthofenia from the 
hinge-line to the opposite wall, so as just to touch 
the median vertical septum, we obtain a figure very 
similar to what a Hippurites shows when cut so as 
to touch the first columellar fold. Another point of 


SCIENCE. , 


103 


similarity consists in the direction of the prisms, of 
which the substance of the shell is composed. The 
Rudista differ from all the other groups of Pelecypoda 
in having the prisms of the outer shell arranged ver- 
tically ; i.e., longitudinally to the whole extension 
of the shell. The same is the case in the median 
shell-layer of Richthofenia, A third point of great 
importance exists in the pallial impression which 
is common to Richthofenia and the Rudista ; and, 
finally, it is not quite certain that the sinuations of 
the large valve of Richthofenia on both sides of the 
hinge-line, which stand in so close a connection to 
the lateral vertical septa, may not be regarded as the 
beginning of the infoldings of the shell, so character- 
istic of the Rudista. The distance in time between 
Richthofenia, which comes probably from the limits 
between the carboniferous and Permian formations, 
and the Rudista, which are for the most part upper 
cretaceous, is so enormous, and the absence of every 
connecting-link so complete, that a close affinity be- 
tween the paleozoic and the cretaceous forms should 
not be expected, It will therefore only be possible 
to prove the connection between the present fossil 
and the Rudista, when further members of such a 
developmental series are discovered. 

As the case now stands, it will be most prudent, 
in accordance with the microscopic structure of the 
shell, to consider the fossil as something like a 
brachiopod. As far as Dr. Waagen’s opinion goes, 
he is convinced that Richthofenia is a member of 
a series, which, branching off somewhere from the 
rugose corals, has reached in Richthofenia a brachio- 
pod-like stage, and is going to terminate its career 
as a Pelecypod, as one of the Rudista. But opinion 
is nothing in science, and proofs are every thing. 
As yet, it cannot be positively denied that Richtho- 
fenia may be a predecessor of the Rudista. 

J. B. MArcov, 


THE GREENWICH OBSERVATORY. 


Amone the leading points referred to in the report 
of the astronomer royal, W. H. M. Christie, F.R.S., 
to the board of visitors of the Royal observatory, 
Greenwich, read at the annual visitation on June 2, 
are the following : — 

Besides the regular subjects of observation with 
the transit-circle,—the sun, moon, planets, and fun- 
damental stars, —a new working-list of 2,600 stars, 
comprising all those down to the sixth magnitude 
inclusive, and not observed since 1860, has been pre- 
pared, and was brought into use at the beginning of 
March. The entire number of transits observed with 
this instrument during the year was 4,188; deter- 
minations of collimation-error, 354; determinations of 
level-error, 323; number of circle-observations, 4,485; 
determinations of nadir-point, 298; reflection-obser- 
vations of stars, 484. Comet a 1882 was observed 
seven times on the meridian, and comet 6 1882, three, 
The routine reductions of all the observations with 
this instrument are reported in an extraordinary 
state of forwardness. From the beginning of this 
year, a correction of — 0”.39 has been applied to the 


104 Is 


results of the nadir-observations to make them agree 
in the mean with the results of the reflection-obser- 
vations of stars. This discordance was insignificant 
in 1878, and is on the increase: its source has not 
yet been traced. Three determinations of flexure 
have been made during the year. The correction for 
R—D, the error of assumed co-latitude, and the posi- 
tion of the ecliptic, have been investigated for 1882. 


The value for the co-latitude, from the observations of . 


1882, is 38° 31’ 21”.93. The correction to the tabular 
obliquity of the ecliptic is + 0”.44, The mean error 
of the tabular right ascension of the moon, from 
observations with the transit-circle, is + 0°.82. 

The observations of the moon with the altazimuth 
have been restricted to the semi-lunation between 
last quarter and first quarter ; and some limitations 
have been adopted in the computations which 
render the reduction of observations with this in- 
strument comparatively light. The movon’s diameter 
has been measured thirty-three times, counting meas- 
ures in both co-ordinates with the transit-circle and 
the altazimuth. 

A very valuable addition has been made to the 
instruments of the Royal observatory by the gift of 
the Lassell two-feet reflecting equatorial, generously 
presented by the Misses Lassell. This is the instru- 
ment with which the Saturnian satellite Hyperion was 
discovered in 1848. It was removed from Maiden- 
head early in March, and has been suitably mounted 
in the grounds of the Royal observatory. The tele- 
scope has two large mirrors available for use; and 
the astronomer royal contemplates attaching one of 
thei to the tube of the ‘south-east equatorial,’ which 
has a firm mounting and a perfect clock-work, and 
employing it for spectroscopic and photographic 
work. The Lassell telescope itself is well suited for 
the observation of faint satellites and comets which 
are beyond the present instrumental means of the 
observatory. ¥ 

The observations of the solar eclipse of 1882, May 
17, with the south-east equatorial, have been com- 
pletely reduced, and the final equations solved. 

Spectroscopic observations during twelve months 
have been somewhat restricted through the pressure 
of photographie reductions at the time of a maxi- 
mum of sun-spot frequency. The solar prominences 
were observed on eight days, and four sun-spots 
were examined on eight days with reference to 
broadening of lines in their spectra. The spectrum 
of the great spot of 1882, Nov. 12-25, showed some 
remarkable reversals of the lines of hydrogen and 
sodium, and extraordinary displacement of the F line. 

As regards determinations of motion of stars in the 
line of sight, a hundred and forty-two measures have 
been made of the displacement of the F line in the 
spectra of twenty-three stars, and twenty-six meas- 
ures of the line 6; in nine stars. The observations 
of Sirius during the past winter tend, on the whole, 
to confirm the impression that the rate of recession 
of this star had diminished progressively since 1877, 
and that its motion is now on the point of being 
converted into one of approach. 


SCIENCE. 


The spectrum of comet a 1882 was examined on 
three nights; that of the great comet 6 1882, also on 
three nights; and that of comet a 1883, on one night. 
The spectrum of the first-named object showed the 
yellow sodium-lines with great brillianey just before 
perihelion passage. The spectrum of the aurora 
was also examined in 1882, Noy. 17. The spectro- 
scopic observations of all kinds are completely re- 
duced to 1883, May 20. 

During the year ending at this time, photographs 
of the sun were taken on two hundred days, and 
three hundred and thirty-nine plates have been 
selected for preservation. The sun’s disk was free 
from spots on seven days; and, since the extraordi- 
nary outburst of last November, the sun has been 
comparatively quiescent. 
poses soon to employ a modified photoheliograph for 
this work, so as to obtain photographs of the sun 
eight inches in diameter instead of four. The meas- 
urement of a large number of Indian and other 
photographs of the sun, required to fill gaps in the 
Greenwich series, has been completed, these photo- 
graphs having been received from the Solar physics 
committee. 

The course of the magnetic observations has 
remained the same as in former years. Improve- 
ments have been made in the methods of photo- 
graphic registration. There has been considerable 
magnetic activity during the year. The disturbances 
of November last are to be detailed graphically in the 
‘Greenwich magnetic results for 1882.’ Particulars 
of magnetic disturbances are regularly communicated 
to the Colliery guardian newspaper, for the infor- 
mation of mining surveyors. 

The mean temperature of 1882 was 49°.6, or 0°.1 
lower than the average. The highest air-tempera- 
ture was 81°.0, on Aug. 6; and the lowest, 22°.2, on 
Dec. 11. The mean monthly temperature was above 
the average from January to May, then below until 
September, and differed little from the average dur- 
ing the remainder of the year. The mean daily 
motion of the air was 806 miles, 27 miles greater 
than the average. The greatest daily motion was 758 
miles, on Noy. 4; and the least, 30 miles, on Dee. 11. 
The greatest hourly velocity was 64 miles, Oct. 24. 
The number of hours of bright sunshine, as recorded 
by Campbell's sunshine instrument, was 1,245; that 
is, 40 hours above the average of the five preceding 
years. The rainfall of 1882 was 25.2 inches, slightly 
above the average. 

In conclusion, the restriction in the observations 
of the moon with the altazimuth enables more 
attention to be given to observations with the equa- 
torials. Two observers are now available for spectro- 
scopic observations during the coming year. Mr. 
Christie characterizes the past year as, in some 
slight degree, one of transition, and preparation for 
future work. Some administrative changes have 
been made; but the regular course of observation 
and reduction has not been disturbed, and the stand- 
ard meridian observations have been maintained in 
full vigor. 


[Vou. II., No. 25. 


The astronomer royal pro- - 


bane tg 


iti 


_~ 


JULY 27, 1883.] 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


Impregnation in the turkey. 

WHEN I was a boy, my father used to send me to 
some of the neighbors with our turkey-hen, and we 
left her there with the cock a day or so. Either this, 
or we would borrow a cock for a day or so, and turn 
him with our hen. This was not only for one year, 
but our custom; as we never wintered a turkey-cock, 
and we did raise turkeys by this process. There was 
no possibility of the turkey-cock getting with our 
hen after the contact mentioned above. I did not 
know that this fact was still unknown to people. 
What is still a question that I should like settled by 
experiment is, whether the spermatozoids are re- 
tained somewhere in the oviduct until the eggs reach 
a certain stage of development, dr whether they at 
once impregnate the eggs. W. MANN. 

Potsdam, N.Y., July 5. 


[We give place to the foregoing extract from Mr. 
Mann’s letter, referring to Mr. Shepard’s communi- 
cation in No. 20, p. 576, on the same subject. There 
are probably many species of birds in which one con- 
nection with the male suffices to impregnate a whole 
batch of eggs. That the turkey, like the common 
hen, is one of these, is a fact which hardly requires 
further confirmation. There can be little question 
that the spermatozoids are retained in the oviduct, 
as in other animals, and the eggs impregnated as 
they successively mature. ] 


Macloskie's Elementary botany. 


The review with which you favor my Elementary 
botany catechises me as to whether I am sure that 
the seeds of Lepidium emit mucilaginous threads. 
Permit me to auswer that I am sure, having made 
the experiment a dozen times. Violets, besides the 
orders cited by the reviewer, prove that the state- 
ment as to cymose flowers being actinomorphic re- 
quires modification. I sympathize with the objection 
to the terms ‘ exotest’ and *endotest;’ but the terms 
* primine’ and *secundine’ are bewildering to authors 
as well a~ students, and give priority to the part which 
is in most cases a result of secondary differentiation; 
‘tegmen’ is obsolete, and the whole subject of the 
development and structure of the seed-wall requires 
revision : hence the provisional use of terms which, 
though hybrid, are easily understood, and not likely 
to mislead the young. G. MACLOSKIE. 

July 10, 1883. 


[We conjecture that Professor Macloskie had mixed 
in his mind, or at least in his statement, two different 
cases, — one, that in which the wall of the surface- 
cells of the seed-coat, changed into asubstance which 
swells into mucilage upon wetting, contains a spiral 
thread, as in Collomia; the other, in which there is 
no contained thread. According to our observations, 
the seeds of Lepidium belong to the latter: hence 
the ‘catechism,’ which was intended to call attention 
to a possible oversight. We have to-day verified our 
observation upon seeds of Lepidium ruderale. Per- 
haps Professor Macloskie will kindly indicate the 
species in which he found fhe threads. — ReVieWER. | 


Primitive streak of vertebrates. 


Dr. Strahl of Marburg has had the kindness to 
write to me concerning the abstract of his researches 
(Science. i. 521). A part of his letter contains an 
explanation which I shall be glad to have published 
in justice to Dr. Strahl. Translated, the passage is 
as follows: — 

** As regards the esteemed remark at the close of 


SCIENCE. 


105 


the abstract, —that I have declared erroneous Bal- 
four’s comparison between the primitive streak and 
neurenteric canal on one side, and the blastopore of 
Amphia and fishes on the other, —the remark may 
be due to a misunderstanding. So far as known to 
me from his descriptions, Balfour placed the neuren- 
teric canal at the anterior end of the primitve streak. 
But, as I have shown in my paper, the neurenteric 
canal originally lies in the middle of the primitive 
streak. The object of my demonstration is to show 
that the premises from which Balfour starts do not 
agree with the observations: this, I believe, was 
accomplished. This would also decide the second 
point made by you, — that my argumentation against 
Balfour was defective.”’ 

I am much indebted to Dr. Strahl for his letter, 
and I think others will value his short statement of 
his position. CHARLES SEDGWICK MINOT, 


- In an Indian grave. 


In an Indian grave in Santa Barbara county, Cal., 
the writer found a beautiful specimen of doubly ter- 
minated limpid quartz, with a cavity half an inch 
long containing water or some other fluid. It was 
about four feet below the surface, and had been care- 
fully deposited with many other stone implements, 
and was doubtless highly prized by its aboriginal 
owner. STEPHEN BoweEks. 


WARD'S DYNAMIC SOCIOLOGY. 
fe 


Ir is proposed to show the relation of Mr. 
Ward’s publication to current thought. 

The law is composed of the rules of conduct 
which organized society endeavors to enforce. 
The law, therefore, represents the quantity and 
quality of regulation, or, in other words, of 
government, which the people of the state 
in their corporate capacity deem necessary for 
their welfare. With respect to the amount 
and kind of government (i.e., of regulation, 
i.e., of law) which the best interests of society 
require, there is a very wide divergence of 
opinion between the chief publicists of civil- 
ized nations and the people themselves as 
they are represented by law-making bodies. 
The publicists tell us we are governed too 
much; but the people are demanding more 
government, and, in obedience to this demand, 
law-making bodies are rapidly extending the 
scope of law. The careful observer of the 
progress of government, who is at the same 
time a careful reader of opinion presented in 
the larger body of works on state craft, in the 
more carefully prepared dissertations.on this 
subject appearing in the great reviews, and in 
many of the best editorials of the daily press, 
is astonished at the extreme conflict between 
opinion and practice. 

There are two classes of law-making bodies, 
—courts and legislatures. The growth of 
law through the courts is almost unrecognized 
by the people at large; yet its development 


106 


by this agency is perhaps more rapid than by 
legislation. The legal principles enunciated 
in “the decisions of a system of courts such as 
we have under the general government and in 
the several states are rapidly developing to 
meet the demands of the vigorous growth of 
civilization. Some months ago the public 
prints announced a decision of the supreme 
court of California which well illustrates this 
statement. In more than two-fifths of the area 
of the United States all agriculture is dependent 
upon artificial irrigation. In 1866 the Con- 
gress of the United States, in order to promote 
mining industries in this region, and inci- 
dentally to promote agriculture, enacted a 
statute giving to individuals and corporations 
the right to. take the water of the running 
streams of that country from the natural 
channels in which they run, and use the same 
for mining and agricultural purposes. Now, 
the nature of this use is such that the water 
itself cannot be returned to the natural chan- 
‘nels to be used again; and by this law the an- 
tecedent common law relating to riparian rights 
was repealed. As the agricultural interests 
of the country were developed, it was soon 
discovered that all agricultural operations were 
under the control of water companies; for 
these companies claimed ownership to the; 
water, and the right to use it themselves or to 
sell it to whom they pleased. But the decision 
mentioned above was to the effect that these 
companies possess only the water-ways, the 
canals and hydraulic appliances connected 
therewith; that they are common earriers of 
water, and are themselves subject to the law 
relating to common carriers. By reflection it 
will be perceived that this decision will affect 
vast interests, and deeply influence the daily 
life of thousands, and eventually of millions, of 
people. This serves to illustrate the nature 
of the court-made law, which is so rapidly 
growing, and affecting in a multitude of ways 
the relations of men, and restricting the rights 
of the few for the benefit of the many, which 
is in the very nature of law. In the above 
statement it will be observed that the initial 
change in the law was the statute of 1866. 
So the national and state legislatures are con- 
stantly engaged in making new laws for the 
government of the people; and this, in the 
main, ever in obedience to popular demand. 
Such is the practice. The legislature stimu- 
lates the court, and legal decisions incite new 
legislation; and thus it is that the public men 
of this country and of other civilized nations 
devote their energies to the development of 
government by devising new laws for the reg- 


SCIENCE. 


8 eg, 


ulation of conduct, and creating new offices 
for the administration of law. : 

Again: in every community there is a body 
of good and earnest people demanding reform, 
or devising methods for the improvement of 
mankind in diverse ways, —for the relief of 
the unfortunate, for the education of the 
masses, to diminish suffering, crime, and 
ignorance; and the energies of these people, 
exerted everywhere, in season and out of 
season, create a sentiment that law-making 
bodies cannot ignore. 

Yet, in opposition to all this, the publicists 
ask for less government, and say, ‘ Let soci- 
ety alone.’ This theoretic opposition to the 
course of progress, manifest in the develop- 
ment of institutions, arises from the stand- 
peint, or phase of the philosophy of evolution, 
at which our thinkers have arrived. The laws 
of biologie evolution are applied to sociology. 
The philosophy of science, which is but in- 
choate, is adjudged to be complete, and prin- 
ciples that require restriction are held to be 
universal. 

In biologic evolution the cause of progress 
is recognized as the survival of the fittest in 
the struggle for existence ; and this has been 
widely accepted as the cause of sociologic 
progress, and Herbert Spencer is the prophet 
of this philosophy. As set forth by him and 
his large following, progress is secured by an 
inexorable law of nature, which brooks no 
interference; and the efforts of mankind to 
improve the condition of mankind do but 
retard the natural process: and the proper 
sphere of government is the direct suppression 
and punishment of crime, and that only. It 
is from this postulate that the theorists are 
antagonizing the practice of all the legislatures 
and courts of civilization. Though Mr. Ward 
does not state the problem as above, yet his 
book is written to controvert the Spencerian 
and generally accepted theory, to present a 
new philosophy of society which shall be suf- 
ficient warrant for the course pursued by 
practical statesmen and jurists, and to support 
the earnest people of the world in their efforts 
to benefit the race. His postulate, though 
stated in other terms, is essentially this: that 
social progress is due to the struggle for hap- 
piness, and the adoptioh of that conduct which 
secures happiness; and that the process, in- 
stead of being natural and genetic, is artificial 
and teleologic; that men devise methods for 
securing happiness, and gradually aitann their 
ends. 

Mr. Spencer looks upon society as an 
organism, and in this he is followed by Mr. 


Pere, een iia 


[Vou. Il., No. 25. 


s 


JoLy 27, 1883.] 


Ward; but the former author makes it the 
eentral point of his sociology, around which all 
other facts are gathered, and he elaborates a 
system of analogies with biologie organization, 
as if, in fact, they were homologies. It will 
perhaps be nearer the truth to speak of a state, 
rather than society at large, as an organism. 

The organization of mankind is twofold, 
—activital and regulative. By the activital 
organization, which is usually discussed in 
works on political economy under the title 
‘ division of labor,’ the industries and other 
occupations of mankind are parcelled out to 
individuals and corporations; so that a man, 
in working for himself, works for many others, 
and an interdependence of parts in the social 
organism is thus established. For the suc- 
cessful operation of the activital organization, 
the regulative organization is established, 
which results in government, with its three 
co-ordinate departments, — executive, legis- 
lative, and judicial. Without division of labor 
and governmental regulation, the individuals of 
the human race would be entirely discrete ; 
with them, mankind is organized into societies 
which we call ‘ states.’ In so far as the people 
of one state are related to the people of another 
through their industries, there is an inchoate 
organization of state with state, which can 
only be completed by the consolidation of such 
states. Though Mr. Spencer devotes an in- 
ordinate space to the demonstration of the 
organization of society, he fails to discover, 
that, in so far as organization is accomplished, 
the method of biologie progress by the sur- 
vival of the fittest is repealed. In the struggle 
for existence, state comes into competition with 
state ; and to this extent the biologic law of 
the survival of the fittest applies. But in the 
relations of the interdependent parts of states, 
i.e., the different classes of people existing in 
a tribe or nation, the law of the survival of the 
fittest in the struggle for existence no longer 
applies; the unfit do not succumb; the wel- 
fare of each class (i.e., each organ, interde- 
pendent part) depends upon the welfare of 
each other part, — of the whole. There may 
be a competition for leadership, or for emi- 
nence in other respects, but not for existence. 

Those who adopt the Spencerian theory 
believe that they find "confirmation of their 
doctrine in the history of legislation. In 
modern times, since the differentiation of ex- 
ecutive, legislative, and judicial organs and 
functions in government, legislation has often 
been unwise, and laws have failed to secure 
the purposes for which they were enacted. 
In this branch of human endeayor it would be 


SCIENCE. 


“Terr, | = “rr bie ad 


107 


strange if it were everywhere and at all times 
characterized by wisdom, when man has so 
frequently failed in other effort. 

But beside the general failure for lack of 
wisdom, there hag been failure for certain 
special reasons. Early law was common law ; 
later law is in part statutory. In the change 
from the former to the latter, many great mis- 
takes have been made. The body of law exist- 
ing in a state, be it tribal or national, is the 
chief body of the ethics of the people of such 
state. But among such people there are 
ethical rules not found in the law, but held 
y individuals in a greater or less number. 
These non-legalized ethics are of two kinds, — 
first, those which have passed from the law, 
and are yet held in veneration by a part of 
the people; second, those which the more 
advanced minds are endeavoring to establish. 
The first are obsolete; the second, inchoate. 
Much of the law which Spencerian philosophers 
have used to illustrate the folly of legislation 
has been in instances where an attempt has 
been made to revive obsolete common-law prin- 
ciples by effective statutory law. Mr. Spencer’s 
illustrations are chiefly of this class; and he 
has been followed by many a writer. This 
source of disaster can be avoided, not by re- 
fusing to legislate, but by a proper knowledge 
of the course of progr€ss in social evolution. 
This course of evolution has not been, as Mr. 
Spencer postulates and elaborately discusses, 
from more regulation to less, from militancy 
to industrialism, but from less to more law, 
and from non-essential to essential regulation. 
When diseases were believed to be the work 
of evil spirits, or to result from the practice 
of sorcery, the relations of men to supposed 
spiritual beings were regulated, and witchcraft 
was punished; but, when diseases are dis- 
covered to be due to unwholesome conditions 
of environment, sanitary laws are enacted. 
And in like manner in every department of 
government the change is going on. Laws are 
sociologic inventions, analogous to the tech- 
nologic inventions of the industries. Along 
with much failure there is much success. As 
the progress of industries would cease were 
no new methods devised, so the progress of 
society would end if new law were not enacted. 

Dynamic sociology, as presented by the 
author, is the philosophy of human’ endeavor, 
and the justification of man in his effort to 
to improve his condition. Those persons, and 
they are many, who are actively engaged in 
the promotion of institutions and regulations 
for the benefit of mankind, will find in it. 
philosophic hope ; while those who are opposed 


ee ae ee 


ow Ps 
HT 


108 


to the course of practical events appearing in 
publie affairs cannot afford to ignore their 
strongest opponent. 

The evolution which is discovered every- 
where in nature, to be properly demonstrated, 
must have its explanation set forth in three 
parts. First, it must be explained why there 
is change, for without change there can be 
no development; second, it must be shown 
by what agency change results in progress, 
for change to inferior or co-ordinaté conditions 
is not evolution; and, third, what is the course 
of progress, for, if there is progress, it must be 
in some direction that can be determined, and 
thus science becomes prophetic. 

Of the three departments of sociology, — 
namely, the causes of social change, the causes 
of social progress, and the course of social 
progress, — the work under consideration, as 


its name indicates, is devoted to but one, 


— the cause of social progress; though it in- 
cidentally discusses many of the subjects of 
evolution in other branches of science, and 
the author ultimately reaches the conclusion 
that education is the chief means to secure 
social progress, and thus secure human hap- 
piness. 


SIEMENS’ SOLAR ENERGY. 


On the conservation of solar energy: a collection of 
papers and discussions. By C. WILLIAMS SiE- 
mens, F.R.S., D.C.L. London, Macmillan & 
Co., 1883. 20+111lp. 8°. : 


Tuis is a collection of the original paper 
read before the Royal society by Siemens, and 
the criticisms from Fitzgerald, Faye, Hirn, 
Archibald, and others, together with the re- 
plies of Siemens. | 

The theory, well summed up on p. 22, sup- 
poses that space is filled with aqueous vapor 
and carbon compounds; that these, at low 
pressures, are dissociated by the radiant ener- 
ey of the sun; that the dissociated elements 
are drawn into the sun at its poles, unite, and 
generate heat sufficient to give a temperature 
of about 2,800° C.; and that the aqueous va- 


‘por and carbon compounds formed are again 


thrown off by centrifugal force at the sun’s 
equator. 

As evidence of the presence of carbon va- 
pors in space, Siemens refers to the analyses 
of meteors, which in some cases have proved 
that hydrocarbons were a component of the 
meteoric mass, and again to the work of Abney 
and Langley on the absorption of the radiant 
energy of the sun. 

The dissociation of vapors at low tensions 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 25. 


is a point which seems to be well established. 
One of the earliest proofs is given in Prof. J. 
Willard Gibbs’s paper on the equilibrium of 
heterogeneous substances.’ He shows, that 
in a mixture of gases, as of oxygen, hydro- 
gen, and vapor of water, in which the vapor 
is formed with a decrease in volume from that 
of the components, it is possible to assign a 
value to the tension such that the mixture may 
be in a state of dissipated energy ; i.e., in such 
a condition that the energy of the system is a 
minimum for its entropy ; and that any change 
in energy can be brought about only by work 
done by some outside system and in propor- 
tion to that outside work. In such a state, ~ 
nothing of the nature of an explosion could be 
caused by an electric spark: the elements 
would cease to show the phenomenon of chem- 
ical affinity. Willard Gibbs writes, ‘‘It may, 
indeed, be true, that at ordinary temperatures, 
except when the quantity either of hydrogen 
or of oxygen is very small compared with the 
quantity of water, the state of dissipated en- 
ergy is one of such extreme rarefaction as to 
lie entirely beyond our power of experimental 
verification.”” In the formula from which 
these results are deduced, the ratio occurs of 
the amounts of the components to that of the 
compound, these’ amounts being raised to 
small powers. This explains the qualification 
as to the amount of components which may 
exist in a free state. 

This last condition may have an important 
bearing on the possibility of the truth of Sie- 
mens’ theory ; for, although Gibbs has shown 
that dissociation may occur in rarefied vapors, 
still the amount of the dissociation is limited 
unless the rarefaction be very great. 

Some two or three years ago Professor Og- 
den Rood succeeded in getting experimental 
evidence of dissociation in rarefied gases at 
ordinary temperatures, but has never published 
his results. 

Dr. Siemens gives, on p. 13, what evidence 
he early obtained of dissociation of gases in 
vacuum tubes under the influence of sunlight. 
What he has done since may be found from an 
account of his recent lecture at the Royal in- 
stitution (Nature, May 3). Objections to the 
theory are well put by Fitzgerald when he asks 
(p. 41) ‘* how the interplanetary gases near the 
sun acquire a sufficient radial velocity to pre- 
vent their becoming a dense atmosphere round 
him ; why enormous atmospheres have not long 
ago become attached to the planets, notably to 
the moon ; why the earth has not long ago been ~ 
deluged when a constant stream of aqueous 


1 Proc. Conn. acad. s¢., iii. 


JULY 27, 1883.] 


vapor, that would produce a rain of more than 
thirty inches per annum all over the earth, must 
annually pass out past the earth in order to 
supply fuel to be dissociated by the heat that 
annually passes the earth; and why we can 
see the stars, although most of the solar radia- 
tions are absorbed within some reasonable dis- 
tance of the sun.”’ 

It can be hardly looked on as a strong 
answer to the first question, that ‘‘ the gases, 
being for the most part hydrogen and hydro- 
gen compounds, have a low specific gravity 
as compared with the denser gases forming the 
permanent solar atmosphere. On flashing into 
flame in the photosphere, their specific gravity 
would be vastly diminished, thus giving rise to 
a certain rebound action, which, coupled with 
their acquired onward motion and with the 
centrifugal impulse they receive by frictional 
contact with the lower atmosphere, constitutes 
them a surface-stream flowing from the polar 
to the equatorial regions, and thence into 
space.’’ It is certainly hard to understand 
why the atmosphere of any member of the 
solar system should not be made up of the 
gases of interplanetary space in the same pro- 
portions in which they may exist in such space, 
if there is the free circulation called for by 
Siemens’ theory. 

Faye objects that the presence of such a 
resisting medium in space as the vapors is 
not to be accepted, with our present knowledge, 
and that the centrifugal force at the sun’s 
equator is far too small for the action required. 

Hirn, starting with the supposition that the 
sun’s temperature is 20,000° C., writes, that, 
although the dissociated gases might unite in 
the chromosphere, they would, on passing down 
through the sun’s atmosphere, be again disso- 
ciated, and absorb as much heat as they had 
given out on combining. To this, Siemens 


SCIENCE. 


109 


might have answered that the gases would 
again combine on passing off at the equator. 
The discussion of the theory at the time of 
its first statement was most earnest; but, in 
spite of the ingenuity displayed in its elabora- 
tion, it as yet cannot be accepted as probable. 


INSPIRED SCIENCE. 


Eureka; or, The golden door ajar, the mysteries of the 
world mysteriously revealed. By Asa T. GREEN. 
Cincinnati, Collins, 1883. 141 p., portr., cuts. 
16°. 


Tue publisher acts as editor of this book, 
interspersing his own chapters among the 
author’s in an odd fashion. The florid periods 
of the one form a curious setting for the rough, 
ungrammatical language of the other. 

The author has ‘revelations’ of a ‘ wonder- 
ful knowledge’ which he obtained, partly in the 
woods, and partly in Oil City, and desires to 
impart them to scientific men. We will offer 
them a bit. 


“Tf we would lay a telegraph-wire down down (sic) 
from every point of the earth, and of water, and all 
points telegraph at one time to a given point, the re- 
sult would be to find that the atmosphere was going 
as fast as the earth, and the earth as fast as the at- 
mosphere. Thus you see it is the atmosphere that 
carries the earth around. .. . 

“Third reason why the earth is round; namely, 
because the mountains are up. If the earth was flat, 
the mountains would be just as liable to be down as 
up, but as the curvature of the earth is up, hence the 
mountains areup,... 

**Tf sound travels by vibration, as science teaches, 
and science teaches that vibration creates heat, that 
if a cricket should stand on one end of a solid slab- 
stone and rub his wings together, why is it that the 
vibration with the particles of stone does not com- 
pletely melt the stone in ten minutes? I deny the 
hypothesis.” 


* Wonderful knowledge,’ indeed ! 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PRO GRESS OF SCIENCE. 


MATHEMATICS. 


Points of inflection. — Let U = x*y8z¥ + ku = 0 
be an equation in homogeneous co-ordinates; x, y, 2, 
are the sides of the triangle of reference, and 
u = ax + by + cz; a, B, y, J, are integers such that 
a+fP+y=<4; a,b, c, are given quantities, and k a 
variable parameter. Fora = 8 = y = 1, this equa- 
tion gives a system of cubics having, as is well 
known, their points of inflection distributed by threes 
upon three right lines; viz., the three real points of 
inflection upon u, and the remaining six points, in 
threes, upon two imaginary lines. 


The author, M. A. Legoux, proposes to consider the 
general case of curves of the order 6. The three sides 
of the triangle of reference are tangents to all the 
curves of the system in the points where these sides 
meet the line uv. The order of contact is 6—1: if dis 
even, the curve in the neighborhood of the point of 
contact lies on one side of the tangent; if d is odd, the 
curve here cuts the tangent, giving a point of inflec- 
tion of a higher order. M. Legoux shows that the 
proposed curves have imaginary points of inflection, 
which are distributed upon two conjugate imaginary 
right lines which are independent of the value of k. 
If dis even, there are no other inflections; but, if dis 


110 


odd, there exist three real points of inflection upon 
the line wu, so that in the last case there exists, as in 
the case of cubics, an inflectional triangle. — (Nouv. 
ann. math., Feb.) T. C. [105 


ENGINEERING. 


Electric-lighting machines on shipboard.— 
More than a dozen of the steamers plying between 
New York and Liverpool are fitted up with electric- 
lighting machinery. Probably three times as many 
are so fitted out on the various other lines of ocean- 
going steamships. The British steamers are largely 
supplied with the Siemens and Swan apparatus, but 
the other systems are well represented. The electric- 
light apparatus of the Arizona consists of two Sie- 
mens compound dynamos, each sufficient to supply 
current to three hundred high-resistance Swan lamps. 
They are driven by a pair of ‘Caledonian’ engines of 
nine and a half inch cylinders and fourteen inches 
stroke of piston. The two machines are mounted 
upon a common foundation, and are set in such 
manner that the driving-pulleys do not interfere with 
each other. The belts are tightened by moving the 
machines away from each other; they are formed of 
one continuous rope carried around each pulley ten 
times. Both cabins, and the steerage as well, are 
lighted by these machines. — (Engineering, May.) 
R. H. T. [106 

New engine for electric-lighting.— Mr. E. D. 
Farcot has designed a new form of compound engine 
for electric-lighting machinery. It consists of two 
cylinders, the larger set above the smaller. ‘Thespace 
between the two pistous is undivided, and is in com- 
munication with the interior of the engine-frame, 
and is never put in connection with the steam-supply 
pipe. The steam first enters the small cylinder, and 
is thence exhausted into the large cylinder, thus 
driving the pistons, which are both on a single rod, 
in opposite directions by a system of intermitted 
expansion. The engine is thus seen to be of the 
“Wolff system.’ The space between the two pistons 
is made to communicate with the larger space in the 
frame, merely to secure a reduced variation of uncoun- 
terbalanced pressure. No stuffing-box is needed in 
this engine in any inaccessible part of the machine. 
The valve-gear is of the plainest possible description, 
and the whole engine is built with a view to simpli- 
city and small cost in construction and operation. It 
is intended to be driven up to four hundred reyolu- 
tions per minute. — (Publication industrielle, May.) 
R. H. T. [107 

Steam-jackets for steam-engines. — Herr Heim 
reports to the German society of engineers the results 
of experiments to determine the economy to be de- 
rived by the addition of steam-jackets to various 
forms of steam-engine, He finds that a six-horse power 
portable engine, unjacketed, demanded an excess 
of thirty-five per cent over the theoretical quantity of 
steam that should have been required to do the work; 
an eighteen inch Wheelock engine required the same 
excess over the calculated quantity. Both were non- 
condensing. Condensing-engines experience a still 
greater loss due to internal ‘cylinder condensation.’ 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No, 25. 


Engines expanding ten times demand seventy-four 
per cent excess; when cutting off at one-fifth, sixty- 
two per cent; and expanding three times, fifty-five 
per cent more than the calculated amount when they 
are unjacketed. By adding a jacket, he concludes 
that the loss can be reduced to sixty-four, fifty-four, 
and forty-eight per cent. The effect of increase of 
piston speed is similar to that of adding a jacket. 
An engine at three feet, and at seven feet piston speed 
per second, gave arecord of loss amounting to ninety- 
six and seventy per cent. The addition of the con- 
denser causes increase of this loss. A twenty-inch 
non-condensing engine, working at five atmospheres 
pressure, was provided with a condenser, and, while 
the power was increased one hundred and forty per _ 
cent, the waste was increased from forty-two to sixty- — 
two per cent. A hoisting-engine, working intermit- 
tently, exhibited a loss of a hundred and forty-two per 
cent of the weight of steam utilized. — (Mechanics, 
June.) R&R. H. T, [108 
AGRICULTURE. 


The gases evolved during the conversion of 
grass into hay.—In a series of experiments on this 
subject, conducted by Dr. P. F. Frankland and Mr. F. 
Jordan, freshly-cut grass in quantities of five grams 
each was allowed to stand in a glass tube over mer- 
cury. The glass tube was filled with air, inert gases, 
and experiments were also performed in vacuo. In 
air all the oxygen was absorbed at the end of three 
days, and 46% of carbonic dioxide was evolved. 
At the end of thirty days the percentage of carbonic 
dioxide reached 85.33, requiring a corresponding 
amount of oxygen, which must have come from the 
substance of the grass itself. Nearly pure carbonic 
dioxide was evolved in an atmosphere of the same 
gas, and a higher percentage seemed to be given off 
in darkness than in sunlight, although the authors 
were somewhat in doubt onthis point. In an atmos- 
phere of pure oxygen, the latter was absorbed com- 
pletely in seven days, and the evolution of nitrogen | 
ceased when the oxygen disappeared. When the 
experiment was conducted in an atmosphere of 
hydrogen, 21.11% of this gas was replaced by car- 
bonic dioxide at the end of three days. It thus 
appears that certain constituents of the grass under- 
go a rapid process of oxidation, and that nitrogen 
is evolved as long as the atmosphere contains free 
oxygen. The decomposition-products of grass, when 
allowed to stand under water, were also examined. 
The grass was first soaked in distilled water, and the 
dissolved air removed with a Sprengel pump. Car- 
bonic dioxide formed about 90 %, and hydrogen about 
9%, of the gases collected at the end of thirty days. No 
gas was evolved when the formation of bacteria was 
prevented by the addition to the water of phenol 
or mercuric chloride, As the other products of the 
fermentation, acetic and lactic acids, and probably 
propionic acid, were identified. — (Journ. chem. soc., 
June, 1883.) c. F. M. [109° 

Absorption of moisture by soils. — Fisher finds 
that, contrary to Knop’s statement, the amount of 
hygroscopic moisture retained by a soil varies greatly 
with the amount of moisture present in the air, as 


JuLy 27, 1883.] 


well as with the temperature. At temperatures ran- 
ging approximately from 20° to 380° C,, about half as 
much water was retained in a half-saturated as in 
a saturated atmosphere. As the temperature was 
raised, more water was absorbed from the saturated 
atmosphere, but less from the half-saturated one. — 
(Rep. Cal. college agr., 1882, 52.) H.P. A. {110 
Influence of organic manures on temperature 
of soil.— In experiments on this subject, F. Wagner 
finds that organic manures raise the temperature of 
the soil to an extent increasing with the quantity 
of the manure, the temperature of the soil, and its 
moisture, so long as the latter is not in such excess as 
to hinder access of oxygen to the organic matter, or 
to cool the soil too much by itsevaporation. Porosity 
and ready decomposability on the part of the manure 
favor the action. The increase of temperature is 
greatest at first, may continue from four to twelve or 
more weeks, but under practical conditions is too 
small to be of much significance. — (Forsch. agr. 
phys., v. 373.) H. P. A. {111 
Moisture of the soil.—In pot-experiments with 
peat, Heinrich obtained the largest crop when the 
peat contained sixty per cent of the total quantity of 
water which it was capable of containing. Earlier 
experiment by Hellriegel on sandy soil gave nearly 
the same results. Whenthe moisture of the peat fell 
below twenty per cent of its water-capacity, no crop 
was obtained, while in case of sand a small crop was 
obtained when the moisture was only ten per cent of 
the total water-capacity.—(Bied. centr.-blatt., xii. 

109.) .P. A. 
GEOLOGY. 


Lithology. 

Cleopatra's Needle. — Ina paper by Dr. P. Frazer 
is given a description of some thin sections of the 
New-York obelisk, made by Prof. A. Stelzner of 
Freiberg, accompanied by four lithographic plates. 
The rock is composed of fresh microcline, showing in 
polarized light its characteristic grating; oligoclase, 
somewhat decomposed, and showing fine twinning 
striation; quartz in grains and granular aggregates, 
containing fluid cavities, trichites, and hematite 
plates; light green hornblende with irregular outlines ; 
biotite in large brown, translucent scales; titanite in 
numerous small yellowish-red grains; water-clear 
acicular apatite crystals; magnetite in opaque irregu- 
lar grains and in octahedrons; minute zircon crystals; 
yellowish-green needles of epidote and viridite. A 
granite from Germantown was regarded as similar 
to the Syene granite. The former is composed of 
microcline, plagioclase, quartz, hornblende, biotite, 
muscovite, titanite, ete. Frazer gives the literature 
of the subject. —(Trans. Amer. inst. min. eng., 
Boston meeting.) M. ©. W. {113 


Journalistic lithology. — A weekly journal was 
established last year in England on the peculiar plan 


_ of publishing descriptions of microscopic slides, with 


figures of the same, while duplicates of the described 
preparations were to be sent to every subscriber. 
This method, if under the direction of competent 
specialists, would serve as a valuable means of home 


SCIENCE. 


[112 


111 


training for those who are unable to place them- 
selves under the direct instruction of competent 
teachers. It promised twenty-six histological, eigh- 
teen botanical, and eight lithological sections a year. 

The lithological descriptions, so far, have embraced 
the following rocks: pikrite, dolerite, diabage,, red 
and white syenite, and serpentine, with some biblio- 
graphical lists. While the journal contains some 
matter of interest to lithologists, it is, on the whole, 
a disappointing and unsafe guide fora student. In 
some cases the style of the lowest grade of ‘ popular 
scientific lecturers’ has been adopted; and the phrase 
‘plugs of exosmotic transference,’ used for veins, is 
too good to be lost. — (Studies in microscopical sci- 
ence, London, 1882-83.) M. E. W. {114 


METEOROLOGY. | 

Sun-spots.— At the university observatory at 
Rome on 269 days in 1881, and 290 in 1882, Tacchini 
has made observations of sun-spots. He shows that 
in 1882 there was an increase in spots over 1881. 
The mean daily number by months was, in 1881, 19.55, 
and, in 1882, 22.57. There were peculiar maxima in 
the number in April and November, 1882, Taking 
each period of constant activity in the daily observa- 
tions in 1882, a second maximum and minimum 
period appears at the half sun’s rotation. For the 
faculae we also find that the increase is less with the 
growth of the spots; the yearly mean in 1881 being 
88.36, and, in 1882, $1.55. It is believed from the 
character of the sun’s activity at the last maximum 
period, as compared with the present, that the maxi- 
mum spottedness will occur in 1883. —(Naturfor- 
scher, May 12.) wu. A. H. [115 


PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 


Artesian wells in Algeria. — In the south of the 
province of Constantine, Algeria, the boring ‘of arte- 
sian wells, begun in 1856, was continued with re- 
newed activity, after the interruption occasioned by 
the Franco-Prussian war, under the direction of M. 
Jus. At the end of 1879 the long line of wells fol- 
lowing the Wady Rir, between Biskra and Tugurt, 
included 434 sunk by the Arabs, and yielding 64,000 
litres a minute, and 68 bored by the French, yielding 
113,000 litres. In the same decade, the number of 
palm-trees in the oases had increased from 359,000 
to 517,000; of fruit-trees, from 40,000 to 90,000; of 
inhabitants, from 6,672 to 12,827. During the first 
half of 1880, twelve new wells were bored, yielding 
22,000 litres, and, at the end of 1881, the total supply 
of water from these underground sources was 209,- 
000 litres a minute. —(J. J. Clamageran, Rev. géogr. 
internat., 1883, 43.) {116 

Currents of the Pacific Ocean.— Antisell dis- 
cusses the general motion of the warm currents of 
the western and northern Pacific, brings together a 
number of data not before correlated, illustrates them 
by maps and diagrams, and comes to the conclusion 
that, 1°, the warming influence of the North Pacific 
is the Kurosiwo, the motor power of which is the 
south-west monsoon, blowing from April to October; 
and, 2°, that the North Pacific Ocean has practically 


112 


no northern outlet, Bering Strait affording no real 
access for ocean-currents into the Arctic Ocean. — 
(Bull. Amer. geogr. soc., ii. 1883.) Ww. H. D. [117 

The Connecticut River in the glacial period. — 
Professor J. D. Dana continues his studies on the 
former lines of flow of the flooded Connecticut at 
the end of the ice time, and finds evidence, from the 
height and coarseness of the terraces, that some of 
the river’s waters found their way southward along 
the Farmington valley (where the Farmington River 
now runs northward), down the upper course of the 
Quinnipiac, and thence directly southward along the 
present Mill River channel, to the Sound at New 
Haven, and not all the way along the Quinnipiac, 
as was formerly supposed. —(Amer. journ. sc., XXv. 
1883, 440.) Ww. M. D. [118 


GHOGRAPHY. 
(Asia.) 

Wew Guinea.— A ten-days’ trip inland from Port 
Moresby, made by W. G. Lawes and two others, 
with a party of natives, led them over the Veriata 
Mountain, about two thousand feet high, and up the 
valley of the Laloke River. From the mountain-sum- 
mit, they had a fine view of sea and coast, hill and 
valley, intersected by many winding streams. In the 
valley, they visited the Rouna Falls, — about two hun- 
dred and fifty feet in height, and a hundred and fifty 
feet wide. The travellers saw many of the natives 
of the Koiari tribes, and found them-all friendly and 
honest. They are smaller, darker, and more hairy 
than the coast tribes, and it was not uncommon to find 
aman with beard and mustache. They have a super- 
stitious belief, that, when a man dies, he has been 
bewitched by a spirit belonging to a neighboring 
tribe, who then must pay for the loss: fighting, 
therefore, always follows the death of a man of any 
consequence. Fruit is very plentiful and in great 
variety. Salt is highly prized, and makes a very ac- 
ceptable present. The native method of getting fire 
is peculiar: a piece of dry, pithy wood is split a little 
way, and held open with a stone; some tinder is put 
in the cleft, and a strip of rattan or bamboo is passed 
through it, and then pulled rapidly one way and the 
other till smoke and fire appear. In the ‘Sogere’ 
district, the villages consist of only eight or ten 
houses, and two or three ‘tree-houses’ which serve 
as forts. The occupants prepare for an attack by 
carrying up a supply of stones into the tree-houses; 
and as they are sometimes over one hundred feet 
high, and command the whole village, they are not 
easily taken. Travelling was not easy, as there were 
numerous streams to cross, and leeches were very 
plentiful in the wet grass. — (Proc. roy. geogr. soc., 
y. 1883, 355.) W. M. D. [119. 

Indian surveys.— A general report on surveys in 
India- during 1881-82, by Gen. J. T. Walker, an- 
nounces the completion of the triangulation of all 
India on the lines long ago marked out by Col. 
Eyerest and sanctioned by the East India company. 
The latest part of this Great trigonometrical survey 
was the eastern frontier series of triangles extending 
from Assam to Tenasserim, where it was brought to 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 25. 


a close on a base line of verification at Mergui. The 
topographical survey has continued its work in vari- 
ous parts of the peninsula, turning ouf maps on sey- 
eral scales embracing nearly twenty-five thousand 
square miles, besides forest and town surveys on large 
scales, A new survey of the Hoogly is begun, as the 
existing maps are out of date and on too small a seale 
for utility in so densely populated and valuable a 
region. 

The chief geographic interest in the yolume is 
found in the reports on trans-Himalayan explorations 
by trained native travellers, and in the reports of vari- 
ous executive officers of the survey on their districts. 


— (Proc. roy. geogr. soc., v. 1883, 368.) Ww. M. D. 
[120 
BOTANY. 
Cryptogams. 


New Ustilagineae. — Cornu gives an account of 
the anatomy and germination of the spores in seyeral 
curious Ustilagineae. Ustilago axicola, Berk. and 
Curt., is made the type of a new genus, Cintractia, 
characterized by the formation of the spores in suc- 
cessive concentric circles. The curious Testicularia 
Cyperi from the United States is figured, and a 
second species of Leersia is described. The new 
genus Doassansia, in which the spore masses aré sur- 
rounded by a peculiar envelope, has one represen- 
tative from North America which is figured by 
Cornu. — (Ann. sc. nat., xv. 269.) W. G. F. {121 

Zygospores of Mucors.—Bainier has ‘studied 
the conditions which favor the production of zygo- 
spores in Mucors, and finds that the conditions vary 
in the different species. The absence of free oxygen or 
of light is not a necessary condition, noris a deficient 
supply of nourishment always required for the pro- 
duction of zygospores. Bainier cites a considerable 
number of cases where he has cultivated different 
species, and gives the manipulations required in each 
case for securing sporangia and zygospores; and he 
adds some observations on the chemical action of 
certain species. It appears that Phycomyces nitens, 
which usually grows on fatty substances, which it 
decomposes, can also be cultivated on cochineal, caus- 
ing it to assume a deeper color, and rendering it more 
valuable commercially. Mucor racemosus, and a 
new species, M. tenuis, are described and illustrated 
in full. — (Ann. se. nat., xv. 342.) W. GF. [122 


Phenogams, 

Lignification of epidermal membranes. — Be- 
sides cutinization, the change which characterizes 
epidermal cell-walls in general, the exposed wall may 
undergo two others: it may be converted into muci- 
lage, thereby becoming weakened, or it may be ren- 
dered firm by the deposition or infiltration of mineral 
matters. To these well-known transformations of 
epidermal cells, Lemaire now adds lignification, hith- 
erto supposed to be confined to internal tissues. For 


the detection of lignine, he uses the useful reagent 


suggested by Wiesner, phloroglucine. A section of 
epidermis is transferred from an alcoholic solution 
of the agent to hydrochloric acid, when the lignified 
membranes assume a rose color, the other parts re- 


JULY 27, 1883.] 


/ 

maining unchanged. For purposes of control, similar 
sections are first treated with either nitric acid or a 
solution of bleaching-powder, by which reagents, 
preferably the latter, the lignineis removed. Lemaire 
has detected lignine in the epidermal walls of Cycads, 
many Coniferae, and in the petiole of certain ferns. 
The stomata of gymnospermous plants have been 
found by him to always have the membranes some- 

what lignified. — (Ann. sc. nat., xv. 302.) G. L. @. 
[223 
Mentzelia laevicaulis as a fly-catcher. — Mar- 
cus A. Jones of Salt Lake City, acting upon Dr. 
Gray’s suggestion, examined this plant with the fol- 
lowing interesting results: ‘‘the leaves are thickly 
beset with coarse hairs, which are furnished with 
several pairs of barbs pointing downward along 
them, while the top’ has an anchor-shaped summit 
twice as large as the other barbs. These hairs stand 
so close together that the barbs almost touch. 
Thickly studding the leaf, were many dead and dying 
mosquitoes, species of aphis, and other small insects. 
Some of these were caught by the head; but most 
of them were held by the proboscis, as their heads 
were too large to slip between the barbs. All 
were more or less mutilated, probably by other in- 
sects. A sweet fluid was secreted by the leaf, and 
this attracted the insects. There was no evidence of 
any digestion going on, as none of the victims could 
get close enough to the surface of the leaf to be 
touched by the fluid.”” — (Bull. Torrey club, June.) 
G. L. G. (124 
Elongation of pedicels in Didymoplexis. — 
Hemsley calls attention to the elongation of the 
pedicels in these Asiatie orchids after fertilization, 
by which the ripening capsules are carried up above 
the decaying vegetable matter in which the plants 


‘grow. It is thus quite different from the elongation 


of the flower-stalks of Arachis and other plants which 
bury their ripening fruit. Whatits exact bearing on 
dissemination may be is not quite clear. — (Journ. 
Linn, soc. bot., June 6.) w. . {125 


ZOOLOGY. 
Mollusks. 


Mediterranean Mollusca.— Dr. J. Gwyn Jetf- 
freys publishes a useful annotated list of species ob- 
tained near Crete by Admiral Spratt in seventy to a 
hundred and twenty fathoms. They are mostly quite 
minute. Ten new species are described and well 
figured. One, an extremely minute shell, which 
might well prove the fry of something larger, is 
globosely conical, imperforate, and with the pillar 
angulated and spread out at its base. It is referred 
to a new genus, Brugnonia, and placed in the Solari- 
idae. A list of Ostracoda and Foraminifera, collected 


with the shells, is added by Mr. David Robertson. 


— (Ann. mag. nat. hist., May.) Ww. H. D. [126 


Structure of the shell in brachiopods and 
chitons. — Van Bemmelen has prepared an English 
abstract of that part of his Dutch paper which relates 
to the brachiopods. The principal points of the 
dissertation are also to be found in the Jenaische zeit- 


SCIENCE. 


—s 7. he 7 7 2. ee “= "> s° 9 


115 


schrift, ix. h, 1-2, 1883. That part relating to the chi- 
tons, which is the more interesting because in a fresher 
field, has not been made available for students who 
do not read Dutch. The paper is decidedly sopho- 
morical, containing much that is important but not 
new, and a little that is new but not important, if 
we except the opinions of the author. The statement 
that there is any difference, except in degree, between 
the structure of the peduncle in Lingulidae and in 
other brachiopods, will require much more demonstra- 
tion before it can hope to be accepted; and the prin- 
ciples upon which he includes the greater in the less 
by placing brachiopods among the chaetopods, would, 
if carried to their logical conclusion, include man 
among the Ascidians. —(Ann. mag. nat. hist., May.) 
W. H. D. [127 

Economic mollusks at the Fisheries exhibi- 
tion.— The catalogue of the economic mollusks 
exhibited by the U. S. fish-commission at London, 
prepared by Lieut. Winslow, U.S.N., has just ap- 
peared, and forms a pamphlet of 85 pages, contain- 
ing much information. —w. H. D. {128 


VERTEBRATES. 


Homologues of the parts of the temporal 
bones. — M. Lavocat, at the close of his revision of 
this subject, offers the following conclusions : — 

1. That the relations of the squamosal and the 
zygomatic process in mammals show how ill applied 


SS  — 


to the oviparous vertebrates are the terms ‘ tympanic — 


bone’ (os tympanique), generally applied to the 
squamosal, and ‘squamous portion of the temporal’ 
(écaille temporale), given to the zygomatic process. 
In the oviparous vertebrates the tympanic bone does 
not exist. 2. That the zygomatic process, always 
included. between the squamosal and the jugal, 
should never be confounded with the squamosal. 
3. That there is a vulgar error relative to the tempo- 
ral of serpents, in which the superior part of the 
squamosal has been considered to be the mastoid ; 
while, in reality, the mastoid is invariably situated 
above or behind the auditory cavity, and is never 
movable. 4. That in birds the squamosal cannot be 
represented by the posterior frontal, because the lat- 
ter is orbital in its relations, while the former is tem- 
poral; also that the zygomatic process should not 
be confounded with the jugal, the one having rela- 
tions with the squamosal, the other with the max- 
illary. 

The author also states concisely that that bone 
must be considered the squamosal which, though 
fixed or movable, is situated in front of the auditory 
eanal, and articulates with the pterygoid and the 
mandible. In the oviparous vertebrates, the squa- 
mosal has commonly been wrongly designated * the 
tympanic.’ The zygomatic process, whether fixed or 
free, is always included between the squamosal and 
the malar. The parts of the temporal are also clear- 
ly distinguishable by their teleological relations. 

The author furnishes the data for the table (see 
p. 114) of the synonymy of the temporal bone in the 
fishes and lower vertebrates. — (Mem. acad. se. Tou- 
louse, iv. 1882, 71.) F. W. T. {129 


114 SCIENCE. [Vou. IL., No. 25. 
Nomenclature of the squamosal bone (temporal écailleux) of the Vertebrata pisciformes. 
Tavocat. | Cuvier. Owen. | St. Hilaire. | Agassiz. Vogt. Bojanus. | M.-Edwards.| Bakker. | Rosenthal. | Hallman. 
| | | 
fue £ ; 
— {SS Epitym- i Symplec- 
Piéce su-/| Tem- Epitym-) | a4. Caisse ty|/mpanique. pity , ticum | Os carré. 
Rene poral. panic. { Sérial. IU l primum. 
[ Carus. ] 
39 . Hypo- s —|\— ( Ptery- ( Symplee- nee 
Piéce in- Hypo- ?} mT “ Hypotym- Os discoi- 
ae Ne ym- 4 5 goid . ; 
férieure. { Tuga bial cotyléal. ) Os ‘ciarre l aieenet panique. anata deum,. 
Ptéry- 
3 7 Fae . ide 
Piece an-)| Tym- Pretym- / | Bpicoty- , Pretym- gor 
térieure. | Daan panic. léal. | Caisse: panique. Le 
Meckel. ] 
= Meso- [ ‘ 
Piéce pos-)| Symplec-) t ois pike Symplec- 
pepe Las fey tal ym- Uro-sérial. Mesotym- 4 
térieure. tique. § panic. § panique.| ea Styloide. 
ANTHROPOLOGY. 


Domestication of the horse. — M. Cornevin, dis- 
cussing the earliest evidence of taming the horse, 
very pertinently sets out with the question, ‘‘ What 
is a domestic animal ?”’ and replies, “‘ One that partici- 
pates in the domus, submits itself to the domination 
of a master, to whom it renders its products or its 
services, reproduces in captivity, and gives birth to 
young, which become more and more submissive to 
control.’? The idea of domestication comports with 
that of property in some form. M. Corneyin, for 
reasons mentioned in his communication, places the 
time of the event in the bronze age contemporaneous 
with the bronze bit. The fact seems incontestable 

_ that the use of bronze was imported into Europe and 
Africa from the orient. M. Pietrement, in his work 
on the origin of the domestic horse, and, before him, 
M. Pictet, in his Origines indo-européennes, have 
proved that the Aryans, of the central Asiatic plateau, 
utilized the horse at a time when Europe was in the 
stone age. In the discussion which followed M. 
Cornevin’s paper, M. Faure remarked, that, while 
the bronze bit was good proof of the domestication 
of the horse, the latter may have been tamed long be- 
fore bronze was known. Indeed, the Gauchos catch 
the wild horses with a simple lasso. Could not pre- 
historic man, after catching a horse by means of a 
lasso, like the Gauchos, have made a simple bridle of 
raw hide, and have managed the animal thereby ? — 
(Bull. soc. anthrop. Lyon, i. 116.) J. w. P. [130 

The troglodytes.—M. Alex. Bertrand, conser- 
vator of the museum of national antiquities of St. Ger- 
maine-en-Laye, delivered an address in December 
last on the cave-dwellers, now published with copious 
illustrations in the first part, vol. ii., of the Revue 
@ ethnographie (Jan.—Feb., 1883). The address is in 
popular language, and gives many valuable particu- 
lars, deduced from their remains, of the environment, 


habits, utensils, and art of the prehistoric inhabit- 
ants of Europe. Perhaps the most interesting points 
are the evidences presented of their domestication 
of the reindeer, and the parallel drawn between 
their supposed mode of life and that of the modern 
hyperboreans. — J. w. P. [131 


The Serers of Joal and Portudal.—Dr. A. 
Corre of the French marine service gives an interest- 
ing and illustrated ethnographic sketch of the re- 
markable people on the west coast of Africa, chiefly 
near Cape Verd, and mentioned by Brue, towards the 
end of the seventeenth century, as being strongly dis- 
tinguished from the surrounding negroes. In many 
particulars, these people show characteristics similar 
to those of tribes separated from them by half the 
circumference of the globe. A short sentence may 
be literally translated in illustration : ‘t They call the 
unele, father ; the aunt, mother; the cousins, male 
and female, brothers and sisters.’? The writer of the 
sketch did not appear to understand, or at least to fol- 


‘low up, this evidence of the system of consanguinity 


and affinity so frequently found in the stage of 
savagery. — (Rev. dethnographie, Jan.—Feb,, 1883.) 
J. W. P. [132 
Roumanian ethnology.— Trajan conquered 
Dacia in A.D. 106, colonizing it with subjects drawn 
from various parts of the empire. When this same 
country became known to the inhabitants of western 
Europe, they found there a people speaking a lan- 
guage derived from the Latin, and evidently descended 
from Roman provincials. With their imperfect 
knowledge of the intervening centuries, it was but — 
natural, says A. J. Patterson, that they should 
connect these facts together, and assume that the 
Wallachs of their own times were the direct descend- 
ants of Trajan’s colonists, and that they had dwelt 
uninterruptedly on Dacian soil. As soon, however, 
as the Rouman language and Rouman institutions 


: a 


- JuLy 27, 1883.] 


were examined in detail, more and more points were 


discovered which could with difficulty be brought 


into harmony with that prima facie view. Inquirers 
who were not subject to the disturbing influence of 
Rouman patriotism came to the conclusion that the 
present Romance-speaking population of Roumania 
and Transylvania have migrated thither from the 
lands south of the Danube since the beginning of 
the twelfth century. In addition to the ordinary 
ethnologic evidence, the philological argument has 
been effectually urged by Paul Hunfalvy. Both in 
the middle ages and at the present time, a people is 
found in various parts of the Balkan peninsula 
whose speech so closely resembles that of the northern 
Roumans as to prove that they are dialects of one 
language, and must have been diffused from a com- 
mon centre. — (Academy, May 19.) J.w.P. [133 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


It was known some months since how Mr. Henri 
Harrisse had made, as he claimed, a discovery that 
the Portuguese had as early as 1502 mapped out the 
eastern seaboard of the present United States from 
Florida to the neighborhood of 40° north latitude. 
A few weeks ago Mr. Harrisse laid a copy of the dis- 
covered map before the French institute with docu- 
mentary proof of its date (1502). A more particular 
statement has reached us in a letter from the Rey. 
Edward E. Hale, written in Paris, where he had in- 
spected Mr. Harrisse’s copy of the map and document 
which were found in the archives of the Este family 
in Modena. We must await conclusive particulars, 
to be published by Mr. Harrisse, before determining 
if this last be one of the important contributions to 
the study of early American cartography, which this 
whilom New-York lawyer has made. Meanwhile it 
is not at all clear whether the new map is going to 
contribute any thing further than what we have 
already known from the old Portuguese chart, which 
Lelewel gives in his Géographie du moyen dge, pl. 43, 
with a conjectural date between 1501 and 1504. This 
gives a rude representation of Florida, with its east- 
erly coast trending northerly, and coming abruptly to 
anend. Lying to the north-east, and in mid-ocean, 
is a bit of continental shore, indicating the Cortereal 
discoveries in its latinized name, ‘ Regalis domus,’ 
with a large island adjacent called ‘‘lerra labora- 
torum,’ or Labrador. The earliest printed map of 
this region bears a strong resemblance to the Por- 
tuguese chart, and would seem to have been based 
on the same or similar information; and this is the 
famous Stobnicza map, which was published at 
Cracow not far from 1512. The 1511 Ptolemy has 
the Cortereal region, but omits Florida. From two 
maps in the 1513 Ptolemy a delineation very like the 
Portuguese chart can be made up; and after this its 
contours became for some years an established type 
frequently met with. Another Portuguese chart is 
well known to students in this field; and that is the 
one which has been reproduced by Stevens, Kunst- 
mann, Kohl, and others, and is usually placed be- 
tween 1514 and 1520. If it embodied current knowl- 


SCIENCE. . 


115 


edge in Portugal, it was certainly not generally 
known there that the eastern coast united with the 
Cortereal region; for the ocean is represented as 
washing uninterruptedly between. 

From what Mr. Hale writes, the newly found map 
would seem to be much the same in character as the 
1513 printed Ptolemy maps, thus carrying back their 
delineation ten or eleven years earlier; and this, we 
have seen, takes us to the supposed date (1501-1504) 
of the Lelewel Portuguese chart, which is essentially 
like the 1513 maps, and seemingly like the Este map: 
but a sight of Harrisse’s discovered chart, in due 
time to reach us, will give us something more than 
conjecture on which to base an estimate of its im- 
portance, 

There is one discovery, however, which we are 
waiting for, and in time it may come; that is, the 
evidence, cartographical we hope, rather than docu- 
mentary, that the Biscayan fisherman knew the 
Grand Banks and the ailjacent coasts long before - 
Columbus. It seems harder not to believe that this 
was the case than to believe it. The hardy fisher- 
men of the Bay of Biscay had stretched their courses 
farther and farther to the north in pursuit of the 
stock-fish or cod, which was the staple food of 
Catholic Europe for more than a hundred days in the 
year. ‘They had gone to Iceland, and, by easy gra- 
dation, to the Greenland seas; and we must remem- 
ber that on this very Portuguese chart of 1501-1504, 
and in the Ptolemy, preceding the time of Columbus, 
Greenland was but a prolongation of north-western 
Europe. Accordingly, following their game, the 
fishermen could easily have cruised still farther 
along the Labrador coast,.and to the neighborhood 
of Newfoundland, without in the least supposing 
they had found a new world, but rather a hitherto 
unvisited region of the old world. So, on their re- 
turn, their sailor’s yarns. would raise no suspicion 
of a new quarter of the globe, such as Europe was 
startled at when Columbus returned from his pur- 
posed quest. It was not the fishermen’s report, ac- 
cordingly, that could have incited Cabot; but, when 
news reached England of the discovery of the 
Spaniards, it can easily be conceived how these 
sailor’s yarns may have been interpreted in the 
belief that the land found by Columbus must, by 
the analogy of continents, have stretched to the 
north, and could be found by sailing west from 
England. Further, so far as Columbus’ views were 
shared, that he had reached the coast of Asia, the 
reports of Marco Polo and the rest showed that the 
Asian coast must lie also in that very direction. 
Now, when Cabot reached the land, and found the 
natives calling the stock-fish or cod, baccalaos, where 
did they get the very term which Biscayan fishermen 
had applied to the same fish for centuries? This has 
always been a puzzle. It seems to us that it will yet 
be discovered that Cabot had only reached by a 
southern passage the region which the Biscayans had 
long been sailing to by the northern, The archives 
of Europe, we are confident, will yet reveal the 
proof. Only last summer the Rey. Mr. Hale, search- 
ing the archives at Madrid, found a sketch by Cortes 

‘\ 


116 


of the Gulf of California, made six years before the 
earliest that had previously been known; and it dis- 
closed the extent of Cortes’ own examination of 
the Pacific coast in advance of his captains. The 
archives of the old world have by no means yet 
yielded all that they may. 

— The funeral of the late Mr. William Spottiswoode 
took place atnoon July 5 in Westminster Abbey, and 
was attended by many distinguished men from the 
various scientific and other societies with which the 
deceased was connected. There was also a large at- 
tendance of the general public, The pall-bearers were 
Marquis of Salisbury, Oxford university; Lord Gran- 
ville, London university; Sir W. Siemens, British as- 
sociation; Sir F. Leighton, Royal academy; Sir J. 
Lubbock, Linnaean society; Sir Bartle Frere, Royal 
Asiatic society; Sir W. Armstrong, Institute of civil 
engineers; Dr. Evans, Royal society; Chancellor of 
the exchequer, H. M. government; Duke of Northum- 
berland, Royal institution; Master of the stationers’ 
company, the company; Lord Aberdare, Royal geo- 
graphical society; G. Busk, Esq., Royal astronomi- 
eal society; Professor Flower, Zodlogical society; 
Mr. Shinn, Mr. Carey, Mr. Hunt, Mr. Millwood, Mr. 
White, Mr. Wilson, representing departments in the 
Queen’s printing-office. 


The Athenaeum says of Mr. Spottiswoode: “Mr. 


W. Spottiswoode’s illness had from the first caused 
serious alarm; still it was hoped that he would tri- 
umph over typhoid-fever, though complicated by 
congestion of the lungs. His strength had, however, 
been shaken by the severe accident he met with some 
months ago, and there is little doubt that his indefati- 
gable attention to duties of various sorts had over- 
tasked even his vigorous constitution. He combined 
with the studies of a physicist and a mathematician 
the supervision of a great mercantile concern. To 
accomplish all this; to make elaborate and delicate 
experiments, contribute a succession of papers to the 
Transactions of the Royal society and The Philo- 
sophical magazine; to mix frequently in general 
society ; to preside over the chief of our scientific 
bodies, and manage a large business, — was possible 
only to a man who would map out the work of every 
day, and never waste a minute of his time. And this 
was the case with Mr. Spottiswoode. His was 
eminently an organizing brain, gifted with great 
clearness, complete mastery of detail, unfailing 
punctuality, and power at once to seize the essence 
of any matter brought under his notice. Personally 
he was most kind and generous, eminently tolerant 
of differences of opinion, and courteous to all with 
whom he came in contact.’’ 

—On Thursday night, July 12, 1883, the newer of 
the buildings of the Indiana university was struck 
by lightning and thoroughly destroyed. The build- 
ing was a four-story brick of Gothic design. Upon 
the first floor were the collections of geology, miner- 
alogy, and archeology, and the chemical laboratory; 
on the second floor were the libraries and the physi- 
cal laboratory ; while the third contained the valuable 
zoological collections of the university, and the mu- 
seum of comparative anatomy. The loss as reported 


. SCIENCE. 


[Vou, II., No. 25. 


is as follows: museum, $75,000; library, $36,000; 
laboratory, $10,000; building, $45,000; total, $166,- 
000; upon which there was a total insurance of 327,- 
454.54. 

The entire Owen collection of 85,000 specimens of 
geology and mineralogy was destroyed. ‘This collec- 
tion contained many types of species described by 
Dayid Dale Owen and others. The geological col- 
lection also contained many noted specimens from 
Europe and America, among the more celebrated of 
which were the large Wiirtemberg Ichthyosaurus, and 
a Megalonyx from Henderson, Ky. The latter has 
fortunately been described and figured by Professor 
Cope for the forthcoming report of the Indiana geo- 
logical survey. A fine set of Ward’s casts was also | 
destroyed, but can readily be replaced. 

Professor Van Nuys’ chemical laboratory, contain- 
ing a number of fine imported pieces of chemical 
apparatus; Professor Wylie’s physical laboratory, 
including a number of the owner’s ingenious mech- 
anisms, and the entire ichthyological collections of 
Professors Jordan and Gilbert,— representing years 
of patient work, and probably the finest private col- 
lection of fishes in the United States, —were also 
destroyed, together with valuable collections belong- 
ing to the U. S. national museum, Yale college, 
Cornell university, and other institutions. 

The Brookville society of natural history, of Brook- 
ville, Ind., has been the first to offer aid to the insti- 
tution: they have placed their entire collection of 
duplicates at the service of the trustees, from which 
several thousand specimens will be received as soon 
as arrangements can be made to accommodate them. 
It is understood that the trustees will proceed at once 
to replace the building which was destroyed; and 
they should erect a substantial fire-proof building in 
which to keep what valuable material they may here- 
after acquire. 

— The circular of the local committee of the Ameri- 
can association announces reduced rates on very 
many railways and at the hotels of Minneapolis. ~ 
The latter, however, are crowded at this season; and 
members are recommended to resort to the subur- 
ban hotels on Lake Minnetonka and Lake Calhoun, 
about twelve miles from the city, to and from many 
of which the railways will carry members free, the 
time being about half an hour. Many members will 
be entertained by the citizens of Minneapolis; and 
a sub-committee will endeavor to find entertainment 
for all who will notify its chairman, Hon. A. C. 
Rand, early, of their intention to be present. 

The usual favors will be granted by the telegraph 
companies. Badges, a daily lunch, and low-priced 
carriages will be furnished, together with a descrip- 
tive and illustrated guide to the city of Minneapolis, 
now in preparation. Express packages containing 
apparatus, specimens, maps, books, drawings, or 
other articles designed for use in the meetings, will 
be forwarded by the American express company, and 
delivered free of charge at the University of Minne- 
sota. Such parcels should be addressed in care of 
Prof. J. A. Dodge, to whom, also, all correspondence 
relating to the same should be sent. After Aug. 12, 


JULY 27, 1883.] 


letters may be addressed to members at Minneapolis, 
in care of the association, and they will be delivered 
from the office of the local committee at the uni- 
versity. 

An excursion will be made to Minnetonka, and 
return, on Saturday afternoon, when a lawn picnic 
will be served at the Lake Park Hotel. If a party 
of a hundred and fifty or more desire to make an 
excursion to Winnipeg, and return, at one-half of 
regular fare, the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba 
railway will send a special train for their accommo- 
dation. No definite arrangements have yet been 
made for other excursions. 

The retiring address of President J. W. Dawson 
will be given at the Westminster church, on Nicollet 
avenue, on Wednesday evening. After the address 
a reception will be held by the local committee at 
the Nicollet House. 

The meeting will probably be one of special inter- 
est to glacial geologists, numerous papers concerning 
the terminal moraine and other glacial phenomena 
being expected. : 

— The annual meeting of the Society for the pro- 
motion of agricultural science will be held in Minne- 
apolis on Aug. 13 and 14, in the Agricultural college 
building, of the State university. 

—A special public meeting of the Cambyidge ento- 
mological club will be held in Minneapolis, at the 
chapel of the university, at two P.M. on Tuesday, 
Aug. 14, to which all persons interested in ento- 
mology are invited. 

— The annual meeting of the American forestry 


congress will be held at St..Paul, Minn., commencing © 


on Wednesday, Aug. 8, 1883. The local committee 
has in charge the arrangement of railroad facilities, 
ete., announcement of which will be sent to all mem- 
bers in due time, and to all those who express their 
desire to attend the meeting. Papers to be read at 
the meeting, or abstracts of the same, should be sent 
in to the corresponding secretary two weeks before 
meeting, according to the by-laws of the congress. 

—A geographical and ethnological exhibition will 
be held in Nancy from Aug. 20 to Sept. 20. 

— The French association for the advancement of 
sciences meet at Rouen, Aug. 16-23. 

— The sixth congress of the French geographical 
societies will meet under the presidency of M. de 
Lesseps at Douai on the 26th of August, and remain 
five days in session. A geographical exposition will 
form a feature of the meeting. The seventh congress 
will meet at Rouen in 1884, and the eighth at Oran 
in 1885. 

— The seventh congress of the Russian scientific 
association will be held in Odessa from Aug. 30 to 


Sept. 9. 


ois 


—The sixth annual meeting of the American 
society of microscopists will be held in Chicago, be- 
ginning Tuesday, Aug. 7, 1883, and continuing four 
days. Ample preparations are making by the com- 
mittee of the State microscopical society of Illinois, 
and the Chicago academy of sciences; and the attend- 
ance of members is expected to be larger than ever 
before. First-class hotel accommodations at reduced 


SCIENCE. 


special rates have been secured, and choice arrange- 
ments made for the comfort and convenience of the 
meeting. ‘Titles of papers may be sent to the secre- 
tary, Prof. D. S. Kellicott, Ph.D., 119 14th St., 
Buffalo, N.Y. Full provision will be made for illus- 
tration, by projection apparatus, of any article when 
the authors may so desire. A special hour will be 
allotted each day to the exhibition of objects and ap- 
paratus referred to or described in communications 
read before the society; an evening will also be set 
apart for the presentation of methods of work, in- 
cluding staining, section-cutting, mounting, micro- 
photography, ete. A general microscopical soirée 
will be held on another evening, and members are 
requested to bring instruments and slides with them. 
The exhibition of instruments and accessories by 
makers and dealers promises to be unusually fine. 

The officers of the society are Albert McCalla of 
Fairfield, Io., president; E. H. Griffith of Fairport, 
N.Y., and George C. Taylor of Thibodeaux, La., 
vice-presidents; D. S. Kellicott of Buffalo, N.Y., see- 
retary; and George E. Fell of Buffalo, N.Y., treas- 
urer. 

— The Société académique of Brest held an exhi- 
bition of matters relating to geography, June 3-17. 
An especial object was to bring to notice the rich 
ethnological material which has accumulated in this 
city during many years. The halls devoted to Japan, 
China, Cochin-China, and West Africa, presented 
much of interest. 

—In the Philosophical transactions for 1817 (p. 
325), Sir William Herschel says, that, ‘‘ beside the 683 
star-gauges published in the Philosophical transac- 
tions for 1785 (p. 221), above 400 more have been 
taken in various parts of the heavens.”’ 

These four hundred unpublished gauges have lately 
been extracted from the original observing-books 
preserved at the Herschel family residence at Colling- 
wood, through the kindness of Sir William Herschel, 
the present baronet, and of his brother, Major John 
Herschel; and the manuscript has been presented 
to Professor Holden, director of the Washburn 
observatory. 

The original records are in the handwriting of 
Miss Caroline Herschel, and by her faithful care 
every detail necessary to their accurate deduction is 
preserved. It will be observed that only two-thirds 
of the star-gauges of Herschel have heretofore been 
known. The new acquisition will be welcomed by 
those interested in this class of observations, They 
are a new gift from an inexhaustible mine. 

—The bureau of education has just published a 
circular of information, containing the results of an 
inquiry into the effects of co-educating the sexes in 
three hundred and forty cities and large towns of the 
Union. Of these, three hundred and twenty-one 
practise co-education throughout the public-school 
course, seventeen co-educate for part of the course, 
and two separate the sexes entirely. A careful 
analysis of the reasons adduced for co-education en- 
ables the editor to formulate them as follows: co- 
education of the sexes is preferred where practised, 
because it is, 1°, natural, following the usual struc- 


118 


ture of the family and of society; 2°, customary, 
or in harmony with the habits and sentiments of 
every-day life and law; 3°, impartial, affording to 
both sexes equal opportunities for culture; 4°, eco- 
nomical, using school-funds to the best advantage; 
5°, convenient both to superintendent and teachers 
in assigning, grading, instruction, and discipline; 
and, 6°, beneficial to the minds, morals, habits, and 
development of the pupils. The pamphlet concludes 
by observing that ‘‘ both the general instruction of 
girls, and the common employment of women as 
public-school teachers, depend, to a very great degree, 
on the prevalence of co-education, and that a general 
discontinuance of it would entail either much in- 
creased expense for additional buildings and teachers, 
or a withdrawal of educational privileges from the 
future women and mothers of the nation.” 

— Mr. Charles B. Dyer, a well-known collector of 
Cincinnati fossils, died at his home on Wednesday, 
July 11, after a painful illness of over three months’ 
duration. He was for many years engaged in amass- 
ing one of the finest collections of local paleon- 
tology in the country, which now reposes in the 
Agassiz museum in Cambridge. His rarest fossils 
were collected by himself, and his industry in the 
pursuit of new and fine specimens was untiring. In 
connection with Mr. 8. A. Miller, Mr. Dyer issued a 
few years ago, at his own expense, a pamphlet with 
two plates, containing descriptions of new forms 
from his collection, entitled ‘ Contributions to paleon- 
tology.’ Thirty years ago Mr. Dyer retired from 
business with a moderate fortune, and devoted all his 
time to collecting. He was an eccentric man, with 
strong feelings, but a fast friend and a pleasant com- 
panion. He was in the seventy-eighth year of his 
age, and had lived in Cincinnati for over fifty-five 
years. His name is attached to one of the common- 
est crinoids of the Cincinnati rocks, Glyptocrinus 
Dyeri, and to several very rare and beautiful forms 
discovered by him. 

— The Imperial geographical society of St. Peters- 
burg has awarded its great gold medal to H. W. 
Abich for his researches into the geology of the Cau- 
casus. The Litké medal was received by W. K. 
Dollen of the Pulkova observatory for improvements 
in astronomical instruments; Vitkoffski, Barsoff, and 
Krasnoperoff have received medals for ethnographic 
and statistical works; Oshanin, for travels in Turkes- 
tan, etc. Silver medals were awarded to Brunoff for 


meteorological researches, and to Lessar, Schultz, 


Gladisheff, Kiseleff, Rodionoff, and Slovtsoff for sur- 
veys and journeys, chiefly on the Asiatic frontier of 
Russia. 

—The observatory at. Moscow was among the 
establishments of the northern hemisphere which co- 
operated with Mr. David Gill, Her majesty’s astrono- 
mer at Cape Town, in securing observations of the 
small planet Victoria, at its late opposition, for a new 
determination of the solar parallax. The ninth vol- 
ume (livraison i.) of the Annales of this institution 
contains the results of these observations, together 
with several papers by its director, Dr. Bredichin, 
relating to comets and allied subjects. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 25. 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 


** Continuations and brief papers extracted from serial 
literature without repagination are not included in this list, 
Exceptions are made for annual reports of American insti- 
tutions, newly established periodicals, and memoirs of con- 
siderable extent. 


Hospitalier, E. Formulaire pratique de lélectricitien. 
année i. 1883. Paris, 1883. 280 p., illustr. 12%. 

Huxley, T.H. Ilgambero. Introduzione allo studio della 
zoologia. Milano, 1883. 3852p. 8°. 

Jobnston’s Botanical atlas; with explanatory text. 2 vols. 
(i. Phanerogams; ii. Cryptogams). London, 1883. 52pl. 4°. 

Jonas, J. Studien und yorschliige auf dem gebiete des le- 
bensversicherungs-geschiftes. Berlin, 1883. 83 p. 8°. 

Kloeber, C. Der pilzsammler. Genaue beschreibung der 
in Deutschland und den angrenzenden liindern wachsenden 
speiseschwimme nebst zubereitung fiir die ktiche, sowie kultur- 
anweisung der champignonzucht. Quedlinburg, 1883, illustr. 8°. 


Kobelt, W. Iconographie der schalentragenden europii- 
pecs meeresconehylien. hefti. Kassel, Mischer, 1883. 16 p., 
4lith. 4°. 


Krok, 0. B., och S. Almqvist. Svensk flora for skolor. 
i. Phanerogamer. Stockholm, 1883 26+198p. 8°. 

Le Monnier, G. Dix legons de botanique. Paris, 1883. 
124 fig. 12°. . 

Lepsius, R. Das Mainzer becken, geologischer beschrei- 
bung. Darmst, 1883. illustr. 4°. 

Luhmann, E. Die fabrikation der dachpappe und der an- 
strichmasse fiir pappdicher in verbindung mit der theerdestilla- 
tion nebst anfertigung aller arten yon pappbedachungen und 
asphaltirungen. Wien, 1883. 256 p., illustr. 8°. 

Magaud, L. Les oiseaux de la France. Premiére mono- 
graphie: corvidés. Histoire naturelle et particuliére des passe- 
reaux déodactyles cultrirostres obseryés en France. Paris, 1883. 4°. 

Medical &ra. vol.i., no. 1. Chicago, Gross & Delbridge, 
July, 1883. 8+82p. 8°. m. 

Mina-Palumbo, F. Monografia botanica ed agraria sulla 
cultivazione dei pistacchi in Sicilia. Palermo, Zauwriel, 1883. 
272 p.; 28'pi. 8%. € 


Wazzani, 1. Trattato @idraulica pratica. yol.i. Milano, 
Toepli, 1883. 646p. 8°. 
Patouillard, N. Tabulae analyticae Fungorum. Deserip- 


tions et analyses microscopiques des champignons nouveaux, 
rares ou critiques. ‘cent.i. Poligny, 1883. illustr. 8°. 

Pattison, M. M. Chemists. London, 1883. (Heroes of 
science.) illustr. roy. 8°. 

Petermann, A. Recherches de chimie et de physiologie 
appliquées & Pagriculture. Analyses de matiéres fertilisantes et 
alimentaires. 1872-82. Bruxelles, 1883. 448 p. 8°. ; 

Peters, P. Darstellung elliptischer functionen durch flaichen. 
KGnigsberg, 1883. 32p. 4°. 

Pucci, E. Fondamenti di geodosia. 
1883. 403 p. 8°. 

Rovelli, C. Lateoria delle funzione potenziale di Green ap- 
plicata allo studio dei fenomeni della gravitazione univyersale. 
Como, Franchi, 1883. 96p. 8. 

Saint-Lager. Des origines des sciences naturelles. Paris, 
1883. 1834p. 8°. 

Sauvage, H.E. La grande péche (poissons). Paris, 1885. 
illustr, 8°. 

Slack, J. H. Practical trout-culture. 
illustr. 8°. 

Strasser, H. Zurkenntniss der funktionellen anpassung der 
quergestreiften muskeln. Stuttgart, 1883. 1145p. 8°. 

Targioni-Tozzetti, A. Ortotteri agrari. Firenze, 1882. 
illustr. 8°. 

Toula, Fl. Geologische karte von Oesterreich-Ungarn nebst 
Bosnien und Herzegovina. Wien, 1882. f°. . 

Vallot, J. Etudes sur la flore du Sénégal. fase. i. Paris, 
1883. 80p.,pl. 8°. [To contain 6-8 fase. ] ‘ 

Vélain, Ch. Cours élémentaire de géologie stratigraphique. 
Paris, 1883. 3816 p., illustr. 12°. 

— Excursion géologique dans le Morvan. Paris,1883. 129p., 
illustr. 4°. 

Violle, J. Cours de physique. tome i. 
laire, partie 1. Paris, 1883. 511 p., 209 fig. 
Wernicke, A. Grundziige der 

Braunschweig, 1883. 448 p., illustr. 8°. 

Zoltz, A.de. Principii della eguaglianza di poliedri e di poli- 

goni sferici. Milano, Brida, 1883. 48p. 8°. 


vol. i. Milano, Hoepli, 


New York, 1883. 


Physique molécu- 


elementar-mechanik. 


ie le a iil 


a 


Tt he Nalin 


oA 


Pole NCE. 


FRIDAY, AUGUST 3, 1883. 


THE U. S. NATIONAL MUSEUM. 
i: 

Ty a former number we reviewed some of 
the important principles of general classifica- 
tion suggested by Mr. Goode’s plan of the 
National museum. We resume the topic to 
discuss some of the salient points in the minor 
groupings of the same scheme. 

Section iii., ‘ natural resources,’ i.e., ‘ force 
and matter,’ appears to be out of place. 
Certainly these are primary subjects; and we 
cannot, as a merely practical matter, under- 
stand why the study of physics and chemistry 


-is placed after that of the earth, which is to be 


treated of earlier under the separate heads of 
‘cosmology,’ ‘ geology,’ ‘ physiography,’ etc., 
in section ii. Imagine a person trying to learn 
something of the relations of force and matter 
to the history of the development of the earth 
and its topography as it now appears, and hay- 
ing in view the applications of these studies to 
the explanation of some of man’s migrations or 
racial differences, or to any other anthropologi- 
cal problem which might reach back to primary 
connections. Is it supposable that his inquiries 
would be facilitated by placing the collection 
in such relations to each other as completely 
to cover up and invert their natural relations 
and logical order? Or is it probable that the 
mind of the visitor would be more enlightened 
by getting his information about the relations 
of the elements after he had passed through 
celestial and terrestrial physics and chemistry, 
and all the applications of these to the history 
of the development of the earth? 

We can readily picture to ourselves the con- 
fusion which might be generated in his mind, 
and the discovery he might make of the neces- 
sity of reviewing all he had passed over before ; 
but we fail in attempts to imagine the advan- 
tages of this inversion. We cannot, therefore, 
understand the considerations which induced 

No. 26. — 1883. 


BS s 


Mr. Goode to adopt this method of arranging 
the sections, nor why he did not place natural 
resources first, and man last, in his natural 
history division ; for that is what the first three 
sections really constitute when taken together. 
They would then have stood in approximately 
natural, and certainly respectably logical, rela- 
tions to each other. 

We should then have had in section i., phys- 
ies, chemistry, and all the mineralogical, botan- 
ical, and zoological collections as introductions 
to the study of section ii., where the princi- 
ples of science learned in passing them in re- 
view would be found of essential assistance in 
understanding the earth, with all the topics of 
cosmology, geology, etc., whether presented, 
as Mr. Goode proposes, solely as man’s abode, 
or in its more natural relation to the universe 
as a planetary body. The last seems to us the 
preferable because more natural mode of pres- 
entation; and the author shows this by bring- 
ing in cosmology. This, if at all effective, 
must show that the earth is a planet primarily 


uninhabitable by man, and evolved without ref-: 


erence to his existence, conducted in its career 
by cosmic forces uninfluenced by his presence, 
and, in all likelihood, destined to become unfit, 
in course of time, for his existence. 

After the earth as man’s abode had been 
passed through by the visitor, we could readily 
conceive of his being all the better prepared 
for the understanding of section iii., ‘ the nat- 
ural history of man and his adjuncts of all 
kinds.’ 

Passing over section iv. (‘ the exploitative 
industries’) and section v. (‘the elaborative 
industries’), which together constitute what 
appears to be a second grand division of the 
museum representing the purely industrial side, 
we come to section vi. In this section are in- 
cluded foods, and drinks in their final stages 
of preparation for the use of man, narcotics, 
dress, buildings, furniture, heating and illumi- 
nation. medicine, hygiene, transportation. All 


es Cl 


120 


of these are supposed to have a more direct 
relation to the physical condition of mankind, 
either from their nature, or in the peculiar 
stages of their manufacture which makes them 
admissible to the cases of this section. 

Section vii., ‘social relations of mankind 
(sociology and its accessories) ,’ is to be an ex- 
position of the appliances and methods made 
use of by man in his social relations, commu- 
nication of ideas and their record, trade and 
commerce, societies and federations, govern- 
ment and law, war, ceremonies. 

Section viii., ‘ intellectual occupations of 
mankind (art, science, and philosophy) ,’ is to 
show the existing intellectual and moral condi- 
tion of man, and the most perfect results of 
human achievement in every direction of ac- 
tivity. Its topics are to be games and amuse- 
ments, music, the drama, the arts, literature, 
folk-lore, science, philosophy, education, and 
climaxes of human achievement. 

The sixth to the eighth sections contain the 
special topics which can be used to illustrate 
the results of the intellectual progress of man 
more completely and directly, perhaps, than 
the industries, in sections iv. and v. ; and these 
are accordingly placed in a succession leading 

‘naturally to their culmination in the topic which 

terminates section vili., and is at the same time 
the sixty-fourth and last of all of the topics. 
This terminal topic is to be an exposition of the 
most remarkable achievements of man. The 
separation of this from the final topic of sec- 
tion i. (‘man in his individual manifestations, 
representative men, biography *) shows, that, 
though Mr. Goode has kept in view the key- 
note of man’s progress in civilization, the 
development of the individual, he has never- 
theless either failed in seeing, or considered of 
subordinate importance, the racial peculiarities 
and advantages of which the representative 
man is necessarily only the concentrated or 
focalized expression. 

In fact, this want of what we might call 
psychological insight is apparent everywhere ; 
and throughout the scheme the race is subor- 
dinated to the notion that man should be pre- 
sented and considered as a whole, whether in 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 26. 


the development of the topics separately, or the 
purely comparative arrangement of the sixty- 
four topics themselyes as assembled in the 
different sections of the museum. In section 
i. man is treated of ‘ psychologically as a unit ;’ 
and it is only in the second topic of this{sec- 
tion, where the natural relations of men force 
the treatment to stand upon a racial basis, that 
we find this policy even apparently abandoned. 
We say apparently ; because, as we understand 
it, the effort here will be not to show the his- 
torical or physical development of the races, - 
so much as to contrast them side by side and 
exhibit the characteristics of each race. 

In all its parts, the arrangement is based 
in each topic upon a comparison of the work 
of different races; and the objects used for 
these purposes must be withdrawn from their 
natural associations in other collections, and 
their significance in the history, physical and 
psychological, of any particular race, be sacri- 
ficed. 

This is the method of comparative anatomy, 
and has certain obvious advantages for the 
study of anatomy if it is confined in applica- 
tion within the well-defined limits of any one 
type of plants or animals; but it is liable to lead 
to serious errors when carried beyond these 
limits. The dismembered organs or parts, 
though similar, are, when found in distinct 
types, unquestionably often distinct in origin. 
The comparative method necessarily cuts across 
the natural order of things in their relations 
to time and to the successive stages of their 
development: and this is an obvious defect, 
which, when applied to anthropological col- 
lections, is destructive of all natural concep- 
tions as to the way in which modifications and 
changes really arise or flow out of pre-existing 
localized or racial conditions. , 

Anthropology as a science is essentially con- 
cerned in tracing the history of different races 
of men: it clings to the race as the safest 
basis of classification at present existing, and — 
it is the test by which all general conclusions 
with regard to the nature of man and the evolu- 
tion of civilization are judged. A museum of 
anthropology departs widely from this basis 


AveusT 3, 1883.] 


and true scientific conservatism when it as- 
sumes the task of harmonizing the psychology 
of all the races of men, especially in the pres- 
ent almost unexplored condition of this field 
in savage races, and when it declares that it 
can present a true picture of the existing con- 
dition of man by the method of general com- 
parison of things whose connections, as they 
stand side by side, are obviously unnatural. 

The presentation of the results of achieve- 
ment in all directions, as attained by each 
race or natural association of races, could 
not have been open to such serious objec- 
tions, would have been far more effectual, 
and more in accordance with the principles of 
modern classification and the practice of mu- 
seums of anthropology. It would, at any 
rate, haye retained the collections in what are 
known to be their natural relations; such a 
presentation could not have failed, therefore, to 
meet the wants of the future and the demands 
of the present in a more effectual way than by 
any artificial classification, whatever its con- 
venience. 

We do not think that the industrial side 
would have suffered from this policy, but, on 
the contrary, we think its subjects would have 
greatly gained in interest from being shown as 
developed by the different races; nor do we 
believe that such a plan would have demanded 
more room than the present plan, required any 
more duplicate collections for its proper illus- 
tration, or yet have greatly increased the diffi- 
culties of the classification of topics which Mr. 
Goode has so ably handled in his scheme. 

The comparative method could then, if 
deemed necessary, have been resorted to as 
a crowning effort to show, side by side in a 
single collection, the ultimate achievements 
and results attained by each race, how far it 
had been able to advance in civilization, and 
what influence, if any, its finest work had had 
upon the existing conditions of that civiliza- 
tion. Such a summary certainly could be so 
limited by judicious selection as to be brought 
within the mental grasp of the intelligent and 
diligent student; whereas a definite concep- 


- tion of Mr. Goode’s sixty-four topics presup- 


SCIENCE. 


a. =.= sty ee at de es i ee 


121 


poses mental powers of a titanie order. In 
fact, the graphic picture of civilization which 
they will present will, from their number and 
mode of arrangement, be necessarily heteroge- 
neous, —an improvement, no doubt, on general 
notions in being composed of objects fnstead of 
individualized mental conceptions, but certain- 
ly not capable of giving the harmonious effect 
which the author aims at producing. 

The National museum is, however, to be 
not only the representative educational mu- 
seum of this country, but is also to be com- 
bined with departments of research. We have, 
therefore, to consider the probable influence of 
the museum of education and its collections 
upon the departments of research, bequeathed 
to its care by the Smithsonian, as well as 
those likely to come under its influence in the 
future. ‘These last collections might, perhaps, 
be safely left to themselves; but it must be 
remembered, that, though at present secure, 
they will eventually obey the law of attraction, 
and their curators must begin immediately to 
take an active interest in the collections which 
are to represent their achievements before the 
country at large, and the relations of these de- 
partments to the prospects of investigators. 

At present the departments of research and 
those of education are not only under one head, 
but the subordinate offices are also united in 
the same persons. Under these circumstances, 
we view with apprehension certain tendencies, 
which are eyident in the pamphlet before us, 
and especially the prominence given to the 
industrial sections. Their present mode of 
arrangement and ideals do not definitively shut 
out all possibility of co-operation with business ; 
on the contrary, if we understand certain pas- 
sages in Mr. Goode’s pamphlet, this co-opera- 
tion is invited, and some firms are already 
providing the cases with collections of indus- 
trial products. We know that science is not 
the weakest now in the National museum, and 
our fears will probably highly amuse the officers 
of the industrial sections ; but nevertheless, we 
cannot see what is to prevent enterprising firms 
from presently finding out the value of these 
departments as advertising mediums, and being 


tes 
. A? 


122 


aggressively if not successfully generous in 
supplying their wants with expensive gifts, 
accompanied by their business-cards. The fer- 
tility of the imagination in the construction of 
wedges may certainly be counted upon as quite 
equal to the opening of any cracks which may 
present themselves ; and we think it would have 
been far more prudent to recognize and provide 
for these dangers, however remote they might 
be considered. 

We are, of course, conscious that the joining 
of hands between science and the industries is 
the general drift of the tendencies of the day, 
especially in this country. That this will ele- 
vate the industries, we have no doubt; but 
that it will also elevate the ideals of science, 
we do not believe. How will the future di- 
rector, however scientific, avoid the necessity 
of becoming, before the government and the 
country, the representative of great commer- 
cial and industrial questions and interests, 
and be in danger of having his interests and 
his thoughts drawn into the vortex of such 
affairs, to the exclusion and neglect of the 
purely scientific aims and objects of the mu- 
seum ? 
to be the case, but simply that we do not see 
how he can avoid the natural results of his 
position at the head of the great industrial 
museum of the country. 

Mr. Goode’s pamphlet also contains other 
matters, which, when viewed in the light given 
by the past history of other museums, show 
the neglect of essential precautions. There is, 
for example, no provision for limiting the ac- 
cumulations of specimens. On the contrary, 
overpowered by the wants of his world-embra- 
cing scheme, he appeals to public-spirited citi- 
zens to come forward and depasit their valuable 
and extensive private collections; and it is 
especially recommended that the officers, by 
a wise forethought, should encourage this pro- 
pensity to the utmost. 

Private collections have been made for the 
most heterogeneous purposes; and it is well 
known that their possessors usually demand, in 
return for their generosity in giving them, that 
they shall be kept together, or have a goodly 


SCIENCE. 


We do not claim that this will be sure 


[Vou. II., No. 26. 


proportion of exhibition space allotted to them. 
Such unqualified appeals, and the neglect of all 
other precautions + against the unlimited acqui- 
sition of materials, are entirely at variance with 
the selective policy previously announced, and 
a complete surrender of the principles which 
should govern a museum starting with a new 
ideal, and bent upon avoiding the errors of 
policy and the unnecessary burdens which had 
been previously and truthfully described by 
Mr. Goode as the greatest obstacles in the path 
of the older museums. 
It does not require a prophetic eye to see in 
the near future, that assisted by the Fish-com- 
mission, the Geological survey, and other de- 
partments of the government, the business 
energy and liberality of the American citizen, 
the pride, energy, and influence of the present — 
staff of museum, uncontrolled by any prudential 
considerations, and stimulated by the universal 
field they are required to cover, will heap up 
materials not only faster than they can be han- 
dled, but in such masses that they will become, 
as in older museums, serious obstacles to the 
progress of the museum of education itself, and 
be still more serious in their effects upon the 
museum of research. The resources of the 
National museum, however great they may be, 
will inevitably find themselves, sooner or later, 
blocked by these accumulations ; and their care 
will occupy the time of the officers in an in- 
creasing ratio. Luckily for science, men in 
such positions have frequently found them- 
selves unable to resist the suggestive seduc- 
tions of research, and allowed collections to 
suffer while they studied ; but many, too con- 
scientious to do this, have been sacrificed to 
the mere preservation of materials, whose labors 
would have repaid the daily wages of many 
more lower-class laborers to any civilized goy- 
ernment. Large accumulations, however, not - 
only directly discourage the investigator by 


1 That we are not misrepresenting the spirit of the museum by 
this remark may be learned in Mr. Goode’s own words: “The 
classification proposed should provide a place for every object 
in existence which it is possible to describe, or which may be 
designated by a name. When the object itself cannot be ob- 
tained, its place should be supplied by a model, picture, or dia- 
gram.” 


_—_ = s- 


oe 


: 
: 
J 
. 
4 
) 


ae hh» ee De 


AuGust 3, 1883.] 


wasting his time, but their necessary preserva- 
tion strikes at a still more vital point in using 
up funds which could otherwise be employed 
for the publication of the results of researches. 
They also equally interfere with the purchase of 
delicate instruments, the employment of labor 
to directly assist in carrying out the purposes 
of' research, prevent the purchase of such 
specimens or collections as may be essential, 
and cut off opportunities for travel and study 
in other museums or parts of the world. 

We think, therefore, that, while the National 
museum may open some paths to the investi- 
gator, it will neither directly do the very best 
work in this direction, nor give us any grounds 
for believing that it will introduce a new era of 
prosperity for abstract investigation. It will 
add one more to the useful scientific institu- 
tions of its kind, it will undoubtedly contribute 
to the progress of science by increasing the 
opportunities for employment and by the ex- 
ample of its officers; but it will not do much 
for them or for us in the way of an exalted 
ideal. 

If the museum of education had been lim- 
ited by a wise policy of selection in its ac- 
cumulations of materials, and placed under a 
distinct staff, we could have made no such ob- 
jections ; then the practical objects of its ex- 
istence would not have suffered, as they now 
surely will, from the psychological tendencies 
of the investigating curators ; nor, on the other 
hand, would the investigators themselves have 
been distracted by having a double purpose 
in all that they were doing, and frequently 
obliged to sacrifice one or the other. We do 
not wish to imply that the museums should 
not be under one general head, and have all 
the benefits of mutual association, but simply 
insist that the ideals are quite distinct, and 
the officers should realize this by being under 


- different regulations, and under a different gov- 


ernment, in each of the two museums. The 
investigator cannot avoid placing on exhibition 
the record of his own and others’ work; and 


he will find a thousand good reasons for crowd- 


ing the cases with fine collections, because they 


are fine, and because they are important in 


SCIENCE. 123 


research, or unique, or remarkable; and the 
educational idea will be subordinate or com- 
pletely lost in such parts of the museum, so 
far as the average student is concerned. 

The cost of the museum will be enormous ; 
but if its lessons can be easily mastered by 
the average student, and in this case the 
student is the average congressman, he will 
not begrudge the funds which are necessary 
for its support. It must be remembered that 
these are keen men, quick to see the advan- 
tages of such lessons as the museum can teach 
them; especially if, like the library, it can 
make itself really useful to them, and keep up 
with the times by illustrating the new results 
of discovery and research in all departments 
of learning in an explanatory and popular way. 
We imagine that they will not be slow in call- 
ing upon the officers of the museum whenever 
they have need of their services, and that they 
will be rather disgusted if any of the require- 
ments of research interfere with their desire for 
information. 

While we wish the greatest success to the 
National museum and its energetic and de- 
seryedly popular director, and have the high- 
est respect and friendliest feeling towards 
their undertaking, and a faith that they will 
finally work out a better result than is prom- 
ised, we think that neither this faith nor their 
great scientific achievements, of which we are 
justly proud, nor the liberality of the govern- 
ment, can entirely make up for the absence of 
the public recognition of a more purely scien- 
tific ideal in ovr National museum. . 


KINETIC CONSIDERATIONS AS TO THE 
NATURE OF THE ATOMIC MOTIONS 
WHICH PROBABLY ORIGINATE RA- 
DIATIONS.1— Il. ‘ 


Havine now sufficiently cleared the field of 
inquiry by this preliminary discussion, let us 
consider the proposed hypothesis somewhat 
more closely, both as to what it is precisely, 
and as to how far it is in accordance with the 
phenomena. The whole outcome of Lockyer’s 
investigations, to which we have referred, 
leads to the conclusion that atoms of the chemi- 
cal elements are complex bodies, all of which 


1 Concluded from No. 24. See also Proc. Ohio mech. inst., ii. 89. 


124 


are formed of ultimate atoms of the same kind ; 
so that, on this hypothesis, there is but one kind 
of substance from which all others are com- 
pounded. Chemical atoms might be compared 
to a chime of bells all.cast from the same ma- 
terial, but each having its own special series of 
harmonic vibrations. 

A necessary result flowing from this hypoth- 

esis would be, that the atomic weights should 
all be exact multiples of some fraction of the 
atomic weight of hydrogen, which would in- 
clude Prout’s hypothesis as a particular case. 
The experimental data are, perhaps, not yet 
sufficiently precise to enable us to obtain a 
trustworthy result as to the probability of the 
truth of Prout’s hypothesis ; yet Clarke’s* re- 
sults as to the atomic weights seem to show 
that the hypothesis has a high degree of proba- 
bility. 
_ If the chemical atoms of all bodies are as- 
sumed to be formed of ultimate atoms, which are 
in all respects equal and alike, this hypothesis 
furnishes a basis for investigation at once defi- 
nite and simple, some of whose consequences 
we shall now endeavor to show to be in ac- 
cordance with experimental facts. 

We wish, in the first place, to show that this 
hypothesis will make the temperature of a gas 
proportional to its mean kinetic energy. A 
chemical atom may be assumed to be a per- 
fectly elastic body, as its deformation is as- 
sumed to be extremely small. But according 
to the mathematical theory of elastic impact,” 

~‘* when two such bodies come into collision, 
sometimes with greater and sometimes with 
less mutual velocity, but with other circum- 
stances similar, the velocities of all particles 
of either body at ‘corresponding times of the 
impacts will always be in tlie same propor- 
tion ;’’ from which it is clear, that in a mix- 
ture of two kinds of gas, as hydrogen and 
oxygen for example, when the mean velocity 
of the molecules is so increased that the vibra- 
tion of the ultimate atoms of the hydrogen is 
increased a certain per cent, then that of the 
ultimate atoms of the oxygen is increased by 
the same per cent. But the circumstances 
of the encounters and the forces acting be- 
tween the ulitmate molecules determine what 
fraction the mean kinetic energy of vibration 
of the ultimate atoms shall be of that of the 
molecules whose encounters cause these vibra- 
tions. Since the circumstances attending the 
encounters are dependent simply upon the 
forces acting between the ultimate atoms as- 


1 Constants of nature, part v. 
. weights. Washington, 1882. 
? Thomson and Tait’s Natural philosophy, 1867, art. 302. 


A recalculation of the atomic 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 26. 


sumed to be in all respects equal, the energy 
of their vibration will be the same in an atom 
of hydrogen as it is in an atom of oxygen; for 
each degree of freedom of every ultimate atom 
of either element is similarly cireumstanced, 
both as regards forces between itself and other 
ultimate atoms of the same chemical atom, and 
also as regards the impacts of other molecules. 
The proposition of the kinetic theory which 
makes the energy of each degree of freedom 
the same, which has been erroneously applied 
to the degrees of freedom of molecules, can 
therefore be correctly applied to the ultimate 
atoms. ; 

But it might not, at first glance, be apparent 
whether these vibrations are caused by, and 
are proportional to, the mean progressive 
energy of the molecules, or to their rotary 
energy combined with it. But it is not dif- 
ficult to show that the vibrations of the chemi- 
cal atoms with respect to each other are pro- 
portional to the mean progressive energy alone, 
and then to show the same for the ultimate 
atoms. Although, in the paper upon the 
vibratory motions of atoms within the mole- 
cule, we have for mathematical purposes con- 
sidered the centrifugal force as causing vibra- 
tions of atoms with respect to each other, yet 
in fact the vibrations so caused are vanishing © 
quantities, compared with those caused by the 
component of the impulsive force acting during 
an encounter along the line joining the atoms 
of a molecule. The magnitude of such a vibra- - 
tion, other things being equal, depends upon 
the suddenness of the impulse; and the sud- 
denness of the force called into play during 
a change of rotary velocity, by deviation from 
motion in a tangent to motion in a circle, can 
bear no comparison to the suddenness of a 
direct impulse along the radius of the circle. 
Hence the direct impulse due to the progres- 
sive motion need alone be considered. 

It thus appears that the energy of vibration 
of chemical atoms with respect to each other 
in a simple gas is proportional to its mean 
progressive energy. The same is true of the 
vibrations, with respect to each other, of the 
ultimate atoms which form a chemical atom, 
and for the same reasons ; for the forces which 
act upon the ultimate atoms are the impulses 
due to the encounters of other molecules, and 
those due to the remaining chemical atoms of 
the same molecule. The energy of the latter 
of these motions is proportional to the former, 
as has just been shown; hence their sum is so 
also: therefore the energy exerted to deform 
a chemical molecule, and set it in vibration, is 
proportional to the mean progressive energy. 


oS 


_ Aveust 3, 1883.] 


== 


a 


But it is to be noticed that the impulses 
due to the vibrations of the chemical atoms 
within a molecule are vastly more frequent 
than the molecular impulses; and it appears 
probable that the vibrations of the chemical 
atoms set up during an encounter will rapidly 

~ decay, even in case they do not themselves 
directly originate radiations. The vibratory 
energy of this kind may then be changed 
almost instantly into that of vibration of the 
ultimate atoms. 

According to the hypothesis which we are 
now considering, the temperature of the body 
and the intensity of the radiation depend solely 
on the vibratory energy of the ultimate atoms ; 
but, since these ultimate atoms are assumed to 
be in all respects equal, they vibrate under the 
action of the same forces, and have the same 
degrees of freedom and constraint within the 
chemical atoms of one element as they do 
within those of a different element. Hence 
it appears, that if the ultimate atoms of two 
different gases haye the same vibratory energy 
(i-e., cause vibrations of the same intensity), 
so that the flow of radiant energy is the same 
from all the ultimate atoms of each gas, then 
there will be no disturbance of this equilib- 
rium when these gases are mixed; in which 
case the distribution of energy is effected by 
molecular encounters, which distribute equal 
mean amounts of energy to each molecule, in- 
stead of by radiations, which distribute equal 
mean amounts of energy to each ultimate atom. 

In attempting to account for the high specific 
heat of liquids, I have elsewhere given reasons 
for supposing that it is due to a certain per 
cent of dissociation, which increases with the 
temperature. It appears probable, that, al- 
though some small amount of dissociation may 
exist in gases also, there is not so large a per 
cent as in the liquid state, nor does the per 
cent necessarily increase with the temperature ; 
for by reason of the free progressive motion in 
a gas, which does not exist in a liquid, any 
dissociated atoms have a much better opportu- 
nity to recombine ; and, as the velocities (espe- 
cially those of free atoms) increase with the 
temperature, these opportunities increase, as 
well as the number of dissociations occurring 
in a unit of time; so that, at a high tempera- 
ture, an atom of gas may not stay dissociated 
so long as at a lower temperature, while in a 
liquid this interval will not be sensibly affected 
by the temperature. 

It is thought that the law of Dulong and 
Petit receives reasonable explanation on the 
hypothesis that the ultimate atoms have each 
the same kinetic energy at the same temper- 


SCIENCE. 


125 


ature, as will be shown in a subsequent paper ; 
but perhaps the strongest direct evidence in 
favor of the proposed hypothesis is found in the 
fact that even the simplest elements, such as 
hydrogen or mercury, have spectra of several 
lines at least, showing that the source of the 
light must be sufficiently complex to be able to 
vibrate in a number of different ways, such as 
may well be possible for an atom formed of a 
number of ultimate atoms, but such as is in- 
conceivable in a molecule consisting of one or 
two perfectly hard atoms. H. T. Eppy. 


THE NATIONAL RAILWAY EXPOSI- 
TION. —IV. 


Tue exhibit of locomotives was remarkably 
complete, and comprised engines differing 
widely in size and power, and adapted for every 
variety of work; but a certain uniformity of 
the design of the main features would seem 
to indicate that locomotive practice has settled 
down into a certain groove, and that the meth- 
ods of construction now adopted are so satis- 
factory that few exhibiters propose to greatly 
improve upon them by any radical alterations, 
though one or two of these new departures, 
such as the Wootten firebox and the Stevens 
valye-gear, seem likely to come into extensive 
use. 

The main tendency of locomotive design 
seems to run rather in the direction of larger 
bearing surfaces and stronger working parts 
than in any novel methods of construction ; 
while sound and accurate workmanship, and 
plenty of good material judiciously distributed, 
are relied on to make a locomotive durable, 
hard-working, and trustworthy under trying 
conditions. 

Mr. E. Shay of Haring, Mich., exhibits a 
model of an engine of peculiar construction for 
‘logging’ purposes. These small railways are 
exceedingly light in construction, and the rails 
and ties are generally laid directly on the sur- 
face of the ground, without any great attention 
being paid to preliminary grading or align- 
ment; and therefore a suitable locomotive must 
unite considerable tractive power with great 
flexibility of wheel-base, and a small weight, 
on any one pair of wheels. Mr. Shay accom- 
plishes this by using a Forney type of loco- 
motive, having a pair of drivers under the barrel 
of the boiler, and a four-wheel truck, carrying 
the tank and fuel, behind the firebox. All the 
wheels being made of the same diameter, a pair 
of vertical engines are secured to one side of 
the firebox, working a longitudinal shaft which 

1 Continued from No. 25. 


126 


SCIENCE. 


Ei, NUIT 


[ 


i 
| 


i 


runs beside the wheels. Bevel pinions on 
this shaft engage bevel wheels on the hubs of 
the wheels, and, as the shaft is provided with 
universal and telescopic joints, the whole of 
the wheels can be driven simultaneously, no 
matter how sharp the curve over which the 
engine may be running; and, owing to the 
interposition of gearing, comparatively small- 
sized cylinders are sufficient to enable the 
engine to haul very heavy loads, and yet run 
sufficiently fast for the nature of the work. 

Mr. Shay informs us that nearly a hundred 
of these engines are at work, some on wooden 
rails, and that they are giving great satisfac- 
tion. The mode of driving appears to be 
noyel, and, despite some complexity, is free 
from many of the disadvantages of the Fairlie 


LOGGING LOCOMOTIVE WITH GEARED DRIVING-WHEELS. 


system, which also utilizes the adhesion of 
radiating axles. 

Messrs. H. K. Porter & Co. of Pittsburgh, 
Penn., also exhibit an engine specially adapted 
for logging railways. Ordinary methods of 
construction are, however, followed; and the 
consequent greater simplicity is of great ad- 
vantage where the work for a few months in 
the year is very severe, and no repair-shops 
are situated within convenient distance. ‘The 
engine exhibited is of the following dimen- 
sions, and is calculated to work safely on a 
rail weighing only thirty pounds per yard : — 

Cylinders, diameter and stroke . 10 in. X 16 in. 


Driving-wheels, diameter . . . «a ORL 
Truck-wheels, diameter . eC he iba 
Rigid wheel, base .- . nuke . 5ft. 3 in. 


LOGGING LOCOMOTIVE EXHIBITED BY H. K. PortTER & Co. 


_ -Avousr 3,183. | SCIENCE. ‘ 127 
Total wheel base . 13 ft. 4 in. ventor, Dr. Holland, proposes to raise steam 


. 
4 
q 


Weight in working order . , 31,000 lbs. 
Weight on drivers. - 26,000 lbs. 
Water-capacity of tank . . 500 gallons. 


Messrs. Porter state that a similar engine, 
working day and night on a road 11 miles in 
length, with grades of 53 feet per mile, has 
handled 350,000 feet of logs in 24 hours, run- 
ning about 180 miles in that time. 

The engine exhibited is well designed, and 
the workmanship is fully equal to that on a 
first-class main-line engine. 

The Cooke locomotive works of Paterson, 
N.J., exhibit an engine for the Southern 
Pacific railroad which is believed to be the 
largest locomotive in the world, the cylinders 
being 20 inches diameter by no less than 30 
inches stroke. The designer of this engine, 
Mr. N. I. Stevens, general master mechanic 
of the Central Pacific railroad, is, however, 
building a still larger engine at the company’s 
shops at Sacramento, Cal., the cylinders of 
which measure 21 inches by 36 inches. This 
latest development will exert a tractive force 
of 278 pounds for every pound per square inch 
average pressure on the pistons ; that is to say, 
with an average pressure on the pistons of 100 
pounds per square inch throughout the stroke, 
this engine would exert a tractive force or 
pull of 27,800 pounds, less the internal friction 
of the working-parts of the engine. Whether 
the average drawbar of the average freight- 
ear is capable of safely standing such a strain 
is a question which experience will probably 
solve in a direction unfavorable to weak draw- 
gear. Apart from their immense size, these 
engines are interesting as being fitted with a 
novel form of valve-motion. The engine ex- 
hibited has four slide-valves to each cylinder, 
two main valves, and two riding cut-off valves. 
An excellent diagram is obtained, the cut-off 
being sharp, and the compression very slight ; 


_ and the gear seems well adapted to a slow-run- 


ning freight-engine. In the later and larger 
engine, but two valves are employed, and but 
one eccentric; motion being taken from the 
engine crossbead. The results of this simpler 


_ gear promise to be equally good, and the trial- 


trip of this engine will be looked forward to 
with great interest. 

The Grant locomotive works are the makers 
of the only engine which departs from the 
sober suit of black in which its competitors are 
arrayed ; and further examination shows that 
its peculiarities are not confined to the outside 
appearance, but extend to the fuel to be used, 
which is entirely novel in character. The in- 


by means of the combustion of decomposed 
water. The heat evolved by burning naphtha 
is used to separate the oxygen and hydrogen 
in superheated steam; and, the carbon of the 
naphtha kindly uniting with the oxygen thus 
set free, the hydrogen is burnt by means of" 
oxygen ‘obtained from atmospheric air. The 
inventor states that the only products of this 
combustion are carbonic acid and water, the 
nitrogen disappearing in some mysterious man- 
ner not yet fully understood. The old fallacy 
that water can be decomposed and then re- 
united, with a positive advantage as regards 
heat, is here again illustrated ; while the strong 
smell of burning naphtha during the trial of the 
engine in the exposition indicated that this 
convenient auxiliary was used to a considerable 
and probably wasteful extent. 


Ql LL al J” 


INDICATOR DIAGRAMS OBTAINED ON LOCOMOTIVE BUILT AT 
THE COOKE LOCOMOTIVE WORKS. 


The Philadelphia and Reading railroad ex- 
hibit a fast passenger-engine fitted with Woot- 
tens’ patent firebox, which is adapted to burn 
any waste or inferior quality of fuel. Re- 
versing the usual practice on locomotives, the 
combustion on this engine is slow, owing to the 
enormous area of the grate (72 square feet), 
instead of a small one (16 or 17 square feet), 
while the blast is not severe, and the fire is one- 
third the usual thickness (4 inches instead of 
10 or 12 inches) ; the result being a less vivid 
combustion, the interior of the fire-box being 
dull red in place of the white heat usual when 


128 7 


a locomotive is at work. Trials at Chicago 
seemed to indicate that the engine was capa- 
ble of maintaining steam with almost any kind 
of fuel, and that the lignite and inferior coal 
of the new north-west, which often contains 
only thirty-five per cent of carbon, can there- 
fore be utilized under locomotives. 

The slow combustion does not produce a heat 
intense enough to fuse the slag, and therefore 
the firebars keep clean and free from clinker ; 
and it need hardly be pointed out that this is 
an important practical consideration in deal- 
ing with fuel which contains over fifty per cent 
of ash. 

The large grate area is obtained by placing 
the fire and grate bars completely over the 
driving-wheels, where plenty of width is ob- 
tainable; and the firebox is accordingly made 
no less then 8 feet wide inside, instead of the 
usual 33 inches. It might be anticipated that 
the increased height of the centre of gravity 
would tend to make the engine unsteady at a 
high speed; but a precisely opposité result is 
obtained, as the engine rides with remarkable 
steadiness and smoothness, even at the highest 
speeds. 

The Shaw engine has been so often de- 
scribed, and been so prominently before the 
public, that it is only necessary to say here, 
that, though exhibited at the Chicago exposi- 
tion, want of time prevented any proper scien- 
tific tests being made to ascertain the real value 
of the invention. 


METALLIC PACKING FOR PISTON-RODS. 


- Various forms of metallic packing for piston- 
rods are now being extensively used with ex- 
excellent results, the wear of both rod and 
packing being very slight, while the use of anti- 


‘ 


SCIENCE.  : 


[Vou IL, No. 26: 


friction metal obviates the frequent renéwals 
necessary with hemp, rubber, and other pack- 
ings which are destroyed by heat rather than 
by wear. In the packing which we illustrate, 
provision is made for any inaccuracy in fitting 
by allowing the piston-rod some play in the 
stufling-box ; the vibrating eup, 4, sliding on 
the ball and socket ring, 3. As the packing 
rings are pressed to their work by a spring, it 
is impossible for a careless engineer to screw 
his packing too tight, or to make it bear on 
one side only of the rod. 


Steam. 


‘To boiler. 
‘ Regulating 


spindle. 


BG 
Water. 
MACK’S IMPROVED LIFTING INJECTOR. 


Overflow. 


The National tube-works of Boston, Mass., 
exhibited an injector at work, which possessed 
some points of novelty, and appeared to be well 
adapted for use on locomotives working with 
bad water. The very fact that a simple ar- 
rangement of hollow cones can enable steam 
to lift and force water into a boiler working at 
the same pressure is in itself a remarkable 
paradox; but Mack’s injector, as shown at 
work in the exposition, forced a small quantity 
of water into a boiler working at two hundred 
pounds per square inch when the injector itself 
was only supplied with steam of half that press- 
ure. The apparatus was so arranged that 
the quantity of water forced against different 
boiler-pressures by the same pressure of steam 
could be readily gauged ; and the results were 
interesting as showing what a large range of 
work can be performed by an apparatus which 
has no moving parts. The injector is made 
in several pieces, so that it can be readily 
taken apart, and cleaned of scale deposited by 
hard or lime water. When the injector is 
started, the water is lifted by means of a jet of 
steam, which rushes through a very fine hole 
running longitudinally through the centre spin- 
dle; the injector becomes full of water, which 
escapes at the overflow ; the regulating spindle 
is then screwed back, and the large volume 
of steam thus admitted is condensed by the 
water already in the injector, mingles with it, 
and the momentum of the steam due to its 
great velocity (some five thousand feet per 
minute) drives the combined steam and water 
into the boiler. 


4 


int 


August 3, 1885. ] 


THE INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EX- 
HIBITION.— THIRD PAPER. 


In eight weeks over seven hundred thousand 
persons have visited the exhibition; and there 
are no signs of any decrease in the daily attend- 
ance, which averages from twelve thousand to 
eighteen thousand, except on Wednesdays, 
when, the price of admission being half a crown 
instead of one shilling, the number is only 
about half as great. Wherever one travels 
by public conveyance, some of his neighbors 
in the car or the omnibus are always laden 
with the ponderous blue catalogue of the ex- 
hibition. London is thoroughly permeated by 
the interest in fish and fisheries. On Sunday 
T felt a desire for a change of topic, and sought 
refuge under the dome of St. Paul’s; but the 
canon of Worcester, who ofliciated at the 
service, preached a sermon on the miraculous 
draught of fishes. 

Since the middle of July the galleries have 
been lighted by electricity until ten o’clock. 
The result has been very satisfactory, the 
illumination in many cases being more effec- 
tive than that by sunlight. The annoyance of 
heavy shadows is avoided by the use of a large 
number of lamps. All the principal systems 
being represented, there is an excellent oppor- 
tunity for comparison. The following ‘is the 
Official distribution of the electric lighting of 
the exhibition : — 


1. Siemens Brothers and company (limited) Main gallery 


Great Britain 

Royal pavilion . ; 
( China, New South Ww ales, ‘ete. ’ 

Caniuda and United States / 
Norway and Sweden we 


Fish-market . 


Aquarium and west corridor 
Machinery in motion 


2. Swan united company (limited) . 
3. Giilcher electric-light company (limited). 2 


; 4. Electric-light supply company (limited) . 


o 


. Ferranti, Thompson, and Ince 


SCIENCE. 


{ Conservatory 


129 


fied that a few large are-lamps are preferable 
to a great number of small ones. The light 
seems softer, more powerful, and more evenly 
diffused, in a room like the main gallery as- 
signed to the United States, where there are 
six lamps in a room fifty by a hundred and 
forty feet, at a distance of perhaps fifteen feet 
from the floor, than by a system like that in 
the British sea-fishery gallery, where the twelve 
hundred Swan incandescent lamps are used 
‘to demonstrate the possibility of lighting large 
areas by incandescence,’ as the official catalogue 
states. Thirty lights of the Giilcher or Ed- 
munds patterns would give a much better effect 
in this great shed, eight hundred and forty by 
fifty feet in dimension. The effect of a large 
number of incandescent lamps disposed along 
the roof of a room in every direction is very 
bewildering: they detract the attention, and 
give one the feeling that a long stay will be 
sure to result in a headache. In the Chinese 
court the Crookes incandescent lamps are used, 
each suspénded under a shade of brightly- 
colored glass: the general effect is rather 
pretty, but the collections are scarcely dis- 
cernible. 

My observations at the exhibition have been 
confirmed by what I saw at the Royal college 
of surgeons at the conyersazione recently given 
by the president and Lady Wells. The museum 
was perfectly lighted by about six are-lamps 
in each of its spacious halls. The arc-lights, 


dare-lights, 6,000-candle powcr. 
{ +e © «© « » + - « 1,200 incandescent lamps (Swan). 


280 incandescent lamps (Swan). 
600 incandescent lamps (Crookes). 


30 are-lights, 1,000-candle power. 


\ 7 are-lights (Volta) 
“; 50 incandescent lamps. 
1,000 incandesceut lights 


26 are-lights (Perranti), 5,000-can- 


| Electric-light machine-shed a } laiowartbatt 
Greece, Italy, Great Briain a Pig Power each. 
a Promenade ' 4 ies > ead 50 are-lights. 
Pe CCIE: ine, we, aie eter et oh tt . } Upper terrace 6 large arc-lights on mast. 
* Eastern corridor and fine arts vestibule, 500 incandescent lamps. 
Council-room } 
TePGNENEw UAVEr SS ee! Ge ee . peel ? Seer ae Leys 28 arc-lamps (Lever). 
Kitchens 
Netherlands, Belgium 
8. Jablochkoff electric-light company (limited) Part of the United ‘States, ete. 60 lamps (Jablochkoff). 
Part of Sweden, ete 
Life-saving apparatus shed 14 arc-lamps (Lea). 
MS MOORIB Gs 241855 wpa GS Nh Board of trade shed . 6 are-lamps (Werrdemann). 
10. BrockiGs si) = 8s _{ North corridors to for exhibition of stutted / 20 are-lamps (Brockie). 
11. Gérard . . . Spain and Russia . 36 arc-lamps (Gérard). 
12. Sun- lamp electric- light company. * Entrance vestibule 24 lamps (Soleile). 
’ { Sixteen stations in different parts of the } Are and incandescent lamps of va- 
718. Goulardand Gibbs... .- - Bat building. : Fase mi tthe rious characters. 


- 


I have been particularly interested in study- 
ing the adaptability of the various lights to 
museum purposes, and am thoroughly satis- 


too, are used in the art museum at South Ken- 
sington with very excellent effect ; six of them 
accomplishing what is done, no more effectively 


130 


though perhaps more agreeably, in a hall of 
the same size by about two hundred gas-jets. 
The expense of lighting some twenty halls by 
gas in this generous manner must be far greater 
than by electricity. 

On the 18th of June the International fishery 
conference began its sessions in the conser- 
vatory of the Royal horticultural society, ad- 
joining the exhibition galleries. Meetings 
haye since been held every day except Wednes- 
days and Saturdays. The inaugural address 
was delivered by Professor Huxley, and was 
an admirable introduction to the papers which 
were to follow. First referring to the an- 
tiquity of fisheries and their influence upon 
the history of man, he spoke at some length 
of the fisheries of the Phoenicians, the Romans, 
and the early Britons. Insisting upon the 
importance of fish as food, he next took up 
the question, ‘ Are the fisheries exhaustible?’ 
and, after tacitly admitting that certain fisheries 
may be destroyed, went on to describe the 
enormous abundance of cod, mackerel, her- 
rings, and sardines, and to express his firm 
belief that their numbers cannot be effected 
by human agency. He concluded with a very 
strong condemnation of unnecessary legis- 
lation. 

Upon this occasion the Prince of Wales 
presided, and there was an impressive assem- 
blage of diplomats and state officials. On the 
following day the prince again was present, 
and read a paper an hour and a half in length, 
written by his brother the Duke of Edinburgh, 
who is absent in Russia attending the corona- 
tion of the czar. This paper, entitled ‘ Notes 


on the sea-fisheries and fishing population of. 


the United Kingdom,’ is in many respects the 
most remarkable which has been presented to 
the conference. It is by far the most exhaus- 
tive and scholarly essay on the fisheries of 
Great Britain which has ever been published, 
and contains a great store of valuable facts 
gathered by the Duke of Edinburgh during the 
three years in which he served as admiral in 
command of the naval reserve, together with 
extensive statistics obtained at his instance 
by the men of the coast-guard. On the 21st 
Sir James Gibson Maitland, the proprietor of 
the most extensive fish-cultural establishment 
in Europe, located at Howieton, near Stirling, 
read a paper on the ‘ Culture of Salmonidae and 
the acclimatization of fish,’ and the following 
day Professor Leone Levi of University college, 
London, on the ‘ Economic condition of fisher- 
men,’ — an important contribution to social 
economy. On Monday, the 25th, the Ameri- 
can commissioner read a paper on the ‘ Fish- 


SCIENCE. 


CE Re ee Se a are 


[Vou. IL, No.. 26. 


eries of the United States and the work of the 
U.S. fish-commission.’ Mr. James Russell 
Lowell occupied the chair, and made one of 
his wise and witty little speeches which are so 
thoroughly enjoyed by the English people. 

On the 28th Mr. R. W. Duff, M.P., spoke 
on the ‘ Herring fisheries;’ on the 29th Prof. 
A.A. W. Hubrecht of Utrecht university, on 
‘ Oyster-culture and the oyster-fisheries in 
Holland,’ and Mr. R. B. Marston, on‘ Coarse 
fish-culture,’— ‘coarse fish’ in England 
signifying fresh-water fish other than the 
Salmonidae. On July 1 Mr. L. Z. Joneas- 
read a paper on the ‘ Fisheries of the Domin- 


ion (of Canada) ;’ and, on the 3d, Professor — 


Huxley spoke most instructively upon the ‘ Dis- 
eases of fishes,’ confining his remarks to the 
history of the salmon-infesting Saprolegnia 
ferax. On the 5th several of the commission- 
ers from continental European nations spoke 
of the fisheries of their respective countries, 
and on the 6th Capt. Temple gave an account 
of the antarctic seal-fisheries. 

The discussions have been in some instances 
important, though the usual disposition to 
ramble has been difficult to check. In fact, 
the ponderous British system of closing each 
session with four formal speeches, in connec- 
tion with the votes of thanks to the chairman 
and the speaker, has rather tended to encour- 
age the utterances of generalities. The ‘ prac- 
tical men,’ as they style themselves, who take 
the very unnecessary precaution of informing 
their hearers that they make no claim to being 
‘scientific,’ have been rampant at these meet- 
ings. Professor Huxley’s inaugural address 
has caused great unhappiness to those who 
believe in legislative protection without limit. 
or reason. Close seasons for river-fisheries 
are needful and useful; but what is to be done ~ 
with economists who claim that legislation will 
relieve the salmon from its pestilential para- 
site, the Saprolegnia ferax ? - 

The juries began their sessions about the 
middle of the month; and the galleries are 
still daily invaded by enterprising little groups 
of men with note-books. Their task is nota 
light one; for the number of exhibiters must 
be at least three thousand, and the heat is 
greater than London has known since 1860. 
Science is well represented among the jury- 
men: Professor Flower, Professor Allman, 
Mr. John W. Clark of the Cambridge museum,’ 
Mr. Henry Woodward of the British museum, 


Professor Moseley of Oxford, Mr. John Mur-. — 


ray of the Challenger, Lord Russell, Dr. 
Murie (secretary of the Linnaean society), Dr. 
Francis Day, Professor Huxley, Mr. R. H. 


Aveust 3, 1883.] 


Scott, Professor Ray Lankester of University 
college (London) and Professor Jeffrey Bell of 
Kings college, Dr. Spencer Cobbold, Mr. 
Romyn Hitchcock of New York, Mr. R. E. 
Earll of Washington, Dr. Hubrecht of Utrecht, 
Professor Smitt, Professor Torell and Dr. 
Trybom of Sweden, Dr. W. A. Buch of Nor- 
way, Professor Giglioli of Florence, Dr. Stein- 
dachner of Vienna, and Mr. E. P. Ramsay of 
the Sydney museum (New South Wales) ,—are 
all here in the work. Just before the opening 
of the exhibition, Nature, in an editorial, after 
stating that the management of affairs had been 
trusted almost entirely to ‘ practical’ men, to 
the exclusion of English men of science, ex- 
pressed some doubt as to whether this policy 
would effect as satisfactory results as that of 
the Berlin exhibition. It would be interesting 
to know how far this hint has influenced the 
action of the executive committee. The com- 
mittee has shown itself singularly . sensitive 
to the voices of well-meaning advisers, and 
changes are constantly being made for the 
better in the management of affairs. For 
instance: the conference chamber has been 
removed from thé conservatory, where it was 
torture either to speak or to listen, to one of 
the picture-galleries near the main entrance ; 
and the experimental fish-market in connec- 
tion with the exhibition has been thrown open 
to the public without admission-fees, and a 
separate entrance cut through from Exhibition 
road. 

The papers read at the conferences are 
being printed in full, together with the discus- 
sions which follow them, and will form a val- 
uable little library, when supplemented by the 
shilling handbooks to the exhibition, which 
are being rapidly printed. Fifteen of these 
handbooks are announced, in addition to the 
eighteen or more ‘ papers of the conferences.’ 
The literature of the exhibition is reserved for 
future discussion. It is much to be hoped 
that the authorities will crown the series with 
an illustrated report, prepared by scientific 
committees, similar to the valuable ‘ Amt- 
liche berichte iiber die Internationale fischerei- 
ausstellung zu Berlin.’ 

The closing address at the conference by 
Professor Ray Lankester will be upon ‘The 
scientific results of the exhibition.’ It would 
not be surprising if Professor Lankester were 
to choose to act the part of the prophet rather 
than that of the recorder, and to point out in 
his discourse what the exhibition ought to do 
for science. A number of prominent educators 
and investigators have already addressed to 
the executive committee a memorial adyocat- 


SCIENCE. 


131 


ing the establishment of a national marine 
zoological station with a part of the surplus 
funds, which, from present appearances, are 
likely to remain over at the end of the exhibi- 
tion. In another letter I hope to review briefly. 
the most important features of the exhibits of 
the several countries. G. Brown Gooner. 
Richmond Hill, July 10. 


THE PARIS OBSERVATORY. 


WE abstract from Nature the items of chief interest 
in the report of Admiral Mouchez, the director of the 
Paris observatory, on the state of that institution 
during the past year. Its service has been consider- 
ably deranged by the preparations for the transit of 
Venus. The various members of the expedition at- 
tended the observatory to be trained either in photog- 
raphy or in the use of the artificial transit, and no 
less than five of the personnel of the observatory 
themselves took part in the work. The grounds of 
the observatory have been extended, the equatorial 
coudé has been installed, and several underground 
chambers have been constructed for the purpose of 
studying magnetism and terrestrial physics generally. 
A revision of Lalande’s catalogue of stars, numbering 
forty thousand, has been going on for the past four 
years. The general catalogue, which will form eight 
volumes in quarto, is well in hand; and four volumes 
will be published during the next three years. Me- 
ridian observations, numbering a hundred and ten 
thousand, have already been made, to assist in the 
construction of the catalogue. 

The common inconveniences attending the use of 
equatorials of the usual form of construction have 
led M. Loewy to conceive the idea of adapting to the 
equatorial the system of ‘ lunette brisée,’ employed 
first in England, and afterward to a greater extent 
in Germany, especially in small transit instruments. 
The new coudé equatorial may be thus described: 
the polar axis of the instrument is supported at its 
extremities on two pillars, like a meridian instrument; 
round this axis the telescope turns, forming a right 
angle at the lower support; by means of a mirror 
placed at the summit of this angle, the light is re- 
flected along the pierced axis, at the end of which the 
eye-piece, or micrometer, is placed. Under these 
conditions, with the telescope at rest, objects on the 
celestial equator pass across the observer's field of 
view. In order to secure the observation of objects 
not on the equator, a mirror free to rotate is placed 
before the object-glass, and connected with the dec- 
lination-cirele.. The inclination of this mirror may 
be changed so as to throw into the tube the light 
coming from a star of any declination. The obsery- 
er may thus explore every part of the heavens with- 
out quitting his position at one end of the polar axis, 
The telescope may practically, by a rotation of this 
axis, be directed toward any part of the celestial 
equator, whilst a star of any declination may be 
made to throw its light down the broken telescope 
by means of the external mirror. Preliminary ex- 


152 


periments have shown that this double reflection does 
-not occasion a great loss of light; and the figure and 
polish of the silver on glass mirrors are very satisfac- 
tory. The observatory possesses this new instrument 
through the liberality of the well-known patron of 
French astronomy, M. Bischoffsheim, 

In regard to physical observations, M. Egoroff, 
professor of physics at Warsaw, was occupied at 
Paris during the months of July and August, as in 
preceding years, with the spectroscopic study of at- 
mospheric absorption, working with a beam of electric 
light sent from Mont Valérien to the observatory. 
In consequence of the decision of Admiral Mouchez 
to separate special meteorological investigations from 
the astronomical work of the observatory, meteoro- 
logical observations of a much higher value are now 
being made, with the special object of determining 
the different corrections, of the nature of refraction, 
_to be applied to the astronomical observations. A 
series of observations is to be made from a captive 
balloon of such size, that, with ordinary gas, it can, 
in calm weather, take self-registering barometers, 
thermometers, and hygrometers up to a height of 
five hundred, and with pure hydrogen to a height 
of eight hundred metres. The balloon cannot be well 
managed if the velocity of the wind exceeds four or 
five metres per second; but this is not regarded as in- 
convenient, because it is during complete calm that 
the greatest abnormal perturbations of astronomical 
refraction manifest themselves, Simultaneous ob- 
servations will be made on the meridian of the Paris 
observatory, north at the observatory of Montmartre, 
and south at the observatory of Montsouris. 

The construction of the great refractor of 16 m, 
focus, together with its dome 20 m. in diameter, is 
steadily progressing. The object-glass figured by M. 
Martin is already complete. The dome is to be of 
the same dimensions as the Pantheon, and the lar- 
gest ever attempted. The arrangement for insuring 
its turning with ease, and which has been adopted 
for its construction, is that proposed by M. Liffel. 
In order to reduce to a minimum the friction of 
circular rollers, he proposes to float the dome by 
means of an annular caisson plunged in a receptacle 
of the same form, and filled with a liquid which will 
not freeze, such as an aqueous solution of chloride 
of magnesium. At the Paris observatory it is quite 
necessary that some such arrangement as this should 
be adopted; for the observatory is situate over the 
catacombs, one result of which has been, that for 
many years the pillars of the meridian-circle erected 
in the gardens have gradually inclined toward the 
east in consequence of the displacement of the soil. 
With mechanism of this form for rotating the dome, 
any probable change of level would not prevent the 
dome from turning. 

The magnetic observatory now being completed 
will be one of the first order. Six subterranean 
chambers of constant temperature have been built 
under the best possible conditions of isolation and 
stability. An outer wall of nearly 2 m. thickness 
encloses a rectangular space 40 m. in length and 
14 m, wide, completely impervious to moisture. The 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 26. 


vaulted roof, 1 m. thick, is covered by earth to the 
thickness of 2 m,, and grass and planks protect the 
soil from the direct rays of the sun and from frost. 
The observing chambers can be lighted either by 
gas, or by reflection from without. 

Advantage has been taken of the existence of these 
chambers by placing in them the clocks from which 
the time is distributed throughout Paris; but, in spite 
of all precautions, the chambers are found to be not 
altogether free from minor trepidations resulting 
from the traffic of the streets. Apparatus has been 
constructed, and is now ready for use in investigat- 
ing the vertical and slow movements of thesoil. This 
will be placed in a gallery in the catacombs 27 m. 
below the surface. : . 

The erection of an astronomical observatory on 
the Pie du Midi, at a height of 2,859 m., is engaging 
the attention of the director. At this elevation, it is 
said to be easy to read at night by starlight alone, 
and fifteen stars are visible to the naked eye in the 
cluster of the Pleiades. It is intended that any as- 
tronomer who wishes to make any special researches 
may take advantage of the observatory on the Pic 
du Midi. 2 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


The right whale of the North Atlantic. 


I HAVE noticed in a late number of your journal 
a criticism on the last Bulletin of the American 
museum of natural history. Being away from town, 
I have not access to works referring to the subject 
of cetology; but with the aid of notes that I have 
with me, as well as drawings of the subjects involved, 
I hope to show conclusively that other views than 
those taken by the critic are the correct ones. 

I shall not attempt to justify the carelessness that 
permits the presence of typographical errors; but, 
when an errata list accompanies a work, it should 
have due credit for its intentions. 

The writer says, ‘“‘ There are errors of statement 
‘of so grave a character as to require notice,’’ and 
continues, ‘‘It would seem, for instance, that only 
the merest novice in cetology could have been mis- 
led,” ete. —referring to the identity of the St. Law- 
rence whales. 

Lesson wrote, ‘‘ What an impenetrable veil covers 
our knowledge of the Cetacea! Groping in the dark, 
we advance in a field strewn with thorns.”’ I believe 
that some in later days, not quite novices, admit a 
degree of unfamiliarity with the great beasts of the 
sea. In that view, let us see if ‘errors of statement 
-of grave character’ have really been made. 

The president of the Quebec historical society, Dr. 
Anderson, with Dr. DeKay’s Report on mammalia 
before him, says, speaking of a large whale that had 
foundered in the St. Lawrence River, ‘‘ It turned out 
to be an aged male, apparently the species Balaena 
mysticetus. . . . The back was black; the belly, fur- 
rowed, presenting the appearance of a clinker-built 
boat. . . . I concluded, after a careful examination, 
it answered fully the description given by Dr. DeKay 
for the mysticetus. . . . As the whale lay upon the 
beach, he was sixty-five feet long; the fluke of his 
tail was twelve feet; his jaw, fifteen feet.’’ 

This whale was noticed primarily by us for the pur- 
pose of directing attention to the fact, that such a 
_great form had really pushed into the fresh-water 


5 , 
: 
> 2 
has 


AuGusT 3, 1883.] 


‘ 
stream as far as Quebec, and to show that possibly 
Professor Flower had misapprehended when he was 
told of stranded whales in the St. Lawrence; he, in 
absence of description, naturally regarding them as 
white Belugas. 

Besides this, several alternatives were presented 
in the absence of the mention of most distinctive 
characters; but no definite statement was hazarded, 
nor was one intended. 

The first paragraph touching on this notice of the 
St. Lawrence whale, and which is included by the 
critic as among the ‘ grave errors of statement,’ is as 
follows: ‘‘It is pretty certain that if the creature 
was really a Balaena, and not a Balaenopter, it was 
an example of unusual size.’’ As we had no inten- 
tion of arguing any case, this cannot be regarded as 
more than courtesy to Dr. Anderson, who had stated 
his unqualified opinion as above. 

The next passage in our text is, ‘‘ The furrows on 
the belly naturally suggest the Balaenopters; but it 
is inferred that there was no dorsal fin.’”?” The dorsal 
adipose fin being an essential feature in the latter, 
absence of any notice of it naturally seemed strange. 

As there was no description of the head, save as 
related to its length, the baleen not being measured, 
the only character that suggested strongly the fin- 
back was the clinker-built aspect of the belly. In 
this view the statement of Scoresby might well lead 
to misapprehension, even by some not wholly 
“novices. 

Scoresby says (in his description of the B. mysti- 
cetus), ‘‘ The skin of the body is slightly furrowed, 
like the water-lines in coarse-laid paper.” 

The fluke of the tail is described as twelve feet in 
length, Here, regarding the possible fact of there 
being two flukes to the tail, the total width of the 
caudal extremity would be twenty-four feet, the act- 
ual measurement of a large example of a right whale. 
That the writer in the bulletin did so regard it is 
true; but, in the light of after-knowledge, we have 
no doubt that Dr. Anderson meant to include the 
whole width as twelve feet. 

In the absence of definite features in Dr. Ander- 
son’s description, and in view of the absence of any 
attempt in the bulletin to argue in favor of any one 
genus or species, we regard it as a subject that hardly 
calls for criticism. In short, taking the evidence 
recorded, to our mind it seems to be quite as easy to 
prove the creature of one genus as the other; and by 
that we mean that Dr. Anderson’s positive state- 
ments should not go for nothing. We are not, how- 
ever, ready to hazard an opinion that the whale was 
not a fin-back, as we certainly did not in the bulletin. 

The next point refers to Scoresby and his drawings. 
That Scoresby did not portray his subject correctly, 
so far as relates to the Greenland whale, is, we feel 
sure, susceptible of demonstration, even if we should 
omit the opinions of three of the most able cetolo- 

ists. The critic claims, ‘‘ That it was the best figure 

Scoresby’s], if not quite correct in all points, of the 
species down to 1874, when Scammon’s admirable 
illustration, was published, has, I think, hitherto 
been unquestioned.’”?’ When we are told that our 
opinion that Scoresby ‘furnished to science an in- 
correct figure’ is ‘an error of statement of so grave 
a character as to require notice,’ we answer by 
quoting from Professors Eschricht and Reinhardt, in 
their article on Greenland whale, in Ray society’s 
publ., p. 29. It is well known that these distinguished 
authors are leading cetologists, whose work is edited 
in English by Professor Flower. The latter, there- 
fore, is supposed to acquiesce in their opinions. 
These authors say, ‘‘ We must confess, that as to 


= 


SCIENCE. 


133 


proportions we confide more in these drawings [refer- 
ring to Marten’s and Zorgdrager’s| than Scoresby’s, 
which certainly represents the Greenland whale (B. 
mysticetus) more slender than it really is.’’ 

Besides this, we claim to be able to demonstrate 
the correctness of our statement by reference to 
the figures. We have before us those of Scammon, 
Scoresby, Zorgdrager, and Lacépede, representing the 
Greenland whale. We also have the Bachstrom 
figure of nordcaper, published in Lacépéde’s work. 
With Capt. Scammon’s figure before us, the one ad- 
mitted by our critic to be an ‘ admirable illustration,’ 
compare now Zorgdrager’s; and we find, that, though 
rude in finish, it is nearly an exact counterpart of the 
Scammon figure. We see that the form is bulky, and 
has avery short ‘small,’ or caudal region; that its 
head is of the proportion of one-third the total length 
of body; its pectoral limbs are situated very closely 
behind the eye and angle of the mouth, not a quarter 
of the total length of the ‘flipper’ distant therefrom, 
—all of which features are recognized as correct. 

Let Scoresby’s figure be compared with Zorg- 
drager’s, which we have seen is essentially the same 
as Scammon’s. We see that the form is not only 
not bulky, with a very short ‘small,’ or caudal region, 
but has the body very slender, with an elongated 
‘small;’ the latter being so slender that it is repre- 
sented whipping the air like the tail of a saurian. Its 
head is one-fourth of the total length of body, in- 
stead of one-third, as in nature, and in the Zorg- 
drager and Scammon figures. Its pectoral limbs are 
situated at a distance from the eye and angle of mouth 
represented by the tofal length of the limbs. It is 
therefore seen, that, in accordance with all evidence, 
Scoresby’s figure was not correct. Hence it is * de- 
plorable that nearly every book published to this day 
has an illustration copied from Scoresby.” 

“°Tis true ’tis pity, and pity ’tis ’tis true.’’ 

Our critic next attributes unfamiliarity with Scores- 
by’s cetological writings, from the fact that we credit 
Godman with ‘an amount of anatomical knowledge 
quite unusual.’ 

The truth is, the edition of Scoresby in our posses- 
sion does not contain the portion relating to interior 
anatomy and physiology, and the plates reprefnt- 
ing the spiracles. It is ‘An account of the arctic 
regions, Edinburgh, 1820.’ The work is not before 
us, but a reference to this edition will verify our 
statement. Since the matter was prepared for the 
bulletin, we find that the several pages relating to 
this portion of Scoresby’s description were probably 
never printed therein. We have, however, found the 
whole in Sir William Jardine’s Naturalists’ library, 
volume on whales, by Col. Hamilton. 

In view of this fact, one may venture to claim a 
degree of immunity from severe criticism, though 
evidently he may be open to the accusation that 
‘he is none too familiar with Scoresby’s cetological 
writings,’ or at least his various editions. 

Not having met with this matter relating to the 
anatomy and physiology in Scoresby’s book, it was 
but natural to attribute to Godman ‘an amount... 
quite unusual.’ 

A point succeeds this, concerning which we must 
take issue with the critic. He says, ‘‘ Phe fact being 
that Godman’s account is an unaccredited compila- 
tion from Scoresby’s work, whole pages being taken 
entire,’ ete. We find in our edition of Godman’s 
Natural history, instead of ‘an unaccredited com- 
pilation,’ the following: ‘* Having never personally 
enjoyed opportunities of studying the whale in his 
native floods, and having derjved all we know in 
relation thereto from Scoresby, we should deem it 


134 


injustice to the reader to give this account in any 
other language than that ‘of the original. We do 
this without Teluctance, as our object is to convey 
the most accurate knowledge, rather than produce a 
work exclusively of our own composition. All that 
follows in relation to the whale is selected from the 
different works of the accurate and philosophical 
Scoresby.’’ If the critic’s edition of Godman has 
played false with him, as our edition of Scoresby has 
with us, perhaps he may think it wise to ‘ery quits,’ 
and join with us in throwing out of the case the two 
slippery points. 

It may be proper to add here, that.we are familiar 
with Scoresby’s second figure of mysticetus, which is 
so far improved as to haye the ‘small’ shortened; 
but unfortunately the first figure, with all its im- 
perfections, is the one that has been brought down 
to us through every book on natural history. 

The reference to Bachstrom’s figure of nordcaper 
is obscure. 

It matters not what that figure is: it was regarded 
as one of nordeaper by Cuvier; and he, in comparison 
with the old figures of mysticetus, which we claim 
were nearer true than Scoresby’s in general propor- 
tion, wisely admitted two species. 

They were both, as we have said, about equally 
incorrect; yet they both had certain features that 
agreed with the descriptions of the two forms. The 
nordcaper had been described in nearly the same 
terms by various authors, great stress being laid on 
its slenderness and mobility. Scoresby now presents 
his figure, which, instead of being bulky, with a very 
short ‘small,’ or caudal region, and a head one-third 
the total, had quite nearly the proportions of the 
figure of Bachstrom, received by Cuvier as that of 
nordcaper, and with no other specific feature to dis- 
tinguish them. 

The mention of inaccuracies, seen near the close of 
the criticism, is not wholly free from error; for ex- 
ample: the citation touching Col. Hamilton and the 
Naturalists’ library is exactly correct, yet it is noticed 
as one of the errors that render the historical résumé 
‘seriously defective and misleading.’ We are now 
willing to rest this showing, trusting to the facts 
hergin referred to for our ‘vindication | in the face of 
this grave charge. J. B. HoupEr. 


Fortunately for Dr. Holder, he did not state directly 
and unequivocally that the St. Lawrence whale was 
a Balaena; but he occupies several pages in trying 
to explain away the obvious discrepancies in the way 
of such an identification and in offsetting them with 


the possibilities in its favor, leaving the reader with | 


the conviction that the specimen is cited as, in Dr, 
Holder’s opinion, an instance of the occurrence of a 
Balaena in the St. Lawrence near Quebec. Indeed, 
he goes so far as to say, ‘‘and the second example 
[the one here in question] . . . shows that the largest 
of the right whales [Balaena] have really found their 
way as far up a fresh-water stream as Quebec and 
' Montreal” (p. 116). Again he says, ‘‘ This example 
is valuable for record, 1°, as a specimen of unusual 
size; 2°, as one of great age; 3°, as one out of 
its usual habitat in so far as to be quite within fresh 
water’’ (p. 115). From the context, the point in 
doubt seems to be, not whether the species is a Ba- 
laena, but whether it is B. cisarctica or B. mysticetus; 
and the whole tenor of the argument (for such it 
really is) is fairly open to only this construction, what- 
ever may have been intended. In evidence that my 
criticism on this poigt is not groundless, or due to 
perversity on my part, I may cite Mr. F. W. True’s 


SCIENCE. 


notice (Scient. lit. gossip, i. 72) of Dr. Holder’s 
memoir, where the same criticism is made. 

As to other points, I will take space to say merely 
that I regret to notice that Dr. Holder forgets to tell 
us where Scoresby got his drawings, which, he (Dr. 
Holder) informs us, ‘ were evidently ill-consilered 
and taken at second hand,’ and to ask for proof that 
Col. Hamilton wrote the ‘Cetacea’ of Jardine’s *‘ Natu- 
ralists’ library.’ The copies of the work I have seen 
are anonymous, but the work is accredited by Gray 
and other cetologists to Jardine; and some time since, 
I took pains to satisfy myself that Jardine was the 
author. As to Godman, I confess to having done 
him injustice in overlooking his credit to Scoresby, 
which my friend Dr. Holder appears to have unfor- 
tunately only recently discovered; otherwise, doubt- 
less my stricture on this point would not have been 
called out. . A. ALLEN. 


The Ainos of Japan. 


On p. 307 of Scrmncr, D. P. Penhallow objects to 
my statement of the number of Ainos. It is rather 
surprising how little he heeds what I said, The 
numbers he gives are official; i.e., he gives the num- 
ber of Ainos known to the Japanese government. 


Therefore he reaches the surprising result, that,_ 


with the exception of the Ainos brought over from 
Saghalien (now about 800), there are but 200 in all the 
province of Ischicari. That province is about as 
large as Hitaka (according to Penhallow, with 5,000 
to 6 ,000). 

Penhallow gives the Aino population in Kitami, 
Kushiro, Tokachi, and Teshiwo as ranging from 350 
to 1,500 in each, when it is well known that they are 
full of Ainos, as any one travelling there will see, their 
villages being thickly scattered along the coast and 
the banks of all the larger rivers. I should estimate 
from those seen at such points that there must be 
more than 50,000 Ainos in all. Taking Penhallow’s 
figures for Iburi and Hitaka as correct, and assum- 
ing that the four provinces named above must have 
as many Ainos as Hitaka, we should have about 
26,000 in these five. Granting that Ischicari, Shiri- 
peshi, and Nemuro have also been taken as much too 
thickly populated, still we must give them 4,000 
more than Penhallow allows; i.e., about 6,000. 

Now add to them Penhallow’s number for Iburi, 
nearly 4,000, and the small remnant of Oshima, 
(Penhallow, 250), and lastly for Chishima (not 
Chisuma) or the Kuriles a minimum of 750, we get 
33,000 as the minimum for Yezo. Saghalien haying 
10,000 to 12,000, and South Kamtchatka 5,000 to 
6,000 (perhaps less), there cannot be fewer than 
50,000 Ainos altogether. D. BRAUNS. 


The Iroquois. 


A close study of the Mohawks of Quebec province, 
Canada, after the plan and in the service of the Bu- 
reau of ethnology, reveals several facts hitherto un- 
noticed in the various histories of the Iroquois. 

Isolated by the early Jesuit fathers from their for- 
mer Pagan friends and surroundings, every trace of 
their old folk-lore and of their Pagan customs has 
disappeared. The division and nomenclature of their 
gentes differ materially from those of any of the other 
tribes, and present an interesting field of inquiry. 
The Mohawk gentes, as given-by Morgan, are the 
wolf, bear, and turtle. Among the Mohawks at Oka, 
we find, in addition to those, the lark and the eel, 
while at Caughnawaga they are the bear, wolf, calu- 
met, rock, lark, turtle, and dove. 

Among the wampum belts of this tribe is a very 


fine one, upon which the calumet is figured in white 


[Vou. IL, No. 26. 


n 


v -, tags ’ > ‘ 


Aveusr 3, 1883.] 


wampum beads, the remainder of the belt being in 
dark purple. This probably belonged to the gens 
bearing the name of the calumet, and whose office it 
was to prepare and present the grand calumet in all 
the solemn a-semblies. 

The effect of the isolation of this tribe upon its 
languaze is also an interesting and important study. 
Through the courtesy of Superior Antoine and Pére 
Burtin, I have obtained access to an invaluable col- 
lection by the French missionary Marcoux, which will 
furnish Mohawk synonymes for a dictionary of the 
six Iroquois dialects, for which thirty thousand words 
have already been gathered. -ERMINNIE SMITH. 

203 Pacific Ave., Jersey City. 


Many snakes killed. 


The number of snakes killed near this city during 
the late overflow of the Nemaha River is almost be- 
yond belief. They were driven by the water from 
the bottom-lands to the higher grounds, and espe- 
cially to the embankments thrown up across the 
bottom for the Burlington and Missouri and the 
Missouri Pacific railways. It is estimated that more 
than three thousand snakes were killed within a mile 
of this town. They were chiefly garter snakes; but 
water moccasons, blue racers, and rattlesnakes were 
also killed. A horse was confined in a pasture sur- 
rounded by a wire fence in the overflowed district, 
and, when released, it was found that several snakes 
had taken refuge in the long hair of his mane. Since 
my residence here, I have travelled nearly all over 
this county, a portion of the time engaged in geo- 
logical explorations; yet, up to the time of the pres- 
ent June overflow, I had failed to see half a dozen 
snakes all told. The overflowed district along the 
Nemaha would not average over a mile in width; and 
it is astonishing where so many snakes found hiding- 
places. Undoubtedly, nearly all the snakes in this 
county are confined to the creek and river bottoms. 

STEPHEN Bowers. 
Falls City, Neb., July 10, 1883. 


Swallows in Boston. 


Has any one seen a swallow in Boston this sum- 
mer? The old proverb says, ‘One swallow does not 
make a summer.’ Have we a summer and not one 
swallow ? Caru REDpDoTS. 


_ Singular lightning. 

On the evening of July 4, 1883, I noticed some 
lightning which differed from any that I have preyi- 
ously seen. About sunset a mass of very threaten- 
ing clouds, accompanied by heavy rain and lightning 
of the usual character, rose in the north-west, and, 
following an easterly course, passed a little to the 
northward, giving us a few drops of rain from its 
ragged southern edge. It was quickly succeeded by 
a comparatively thin cloud-stratum, — apparently the 
after-birth of the main storm, —the course of which 
was directly overhead. During the passage of this 
cloud, rain fell briskly but not heavily for perhaps 
half an hour, and rather frequent flashes of lightning 
preceded and followed the first sprinkle. Owing to 
my position on the eastern side of a large building, 
I could not see the earlier flashes; but their light, 
thrown on the walls of neighboring houses, was 
noticeably rose-colored. At length, however, one 
came that could be accurately noted. It passed di- 
rectly overhead, forking into five fine, thread-like 
lines of vivid yellow light. Each line was distinctly 
zig-zagged with sharp though not prominent angles. 
The divergence of the lines was nearly regular, but 
the outer pair branched at a greater angle than the 


SCIENCE. 


135 


inner three, The relative divergence was similar to 
that of the outstretched fingers of a human hand; 
but a still more accurate idea may be given by the 
following sketch. 


/ > 


The flash above described was followed, in a few 
minutes, by a second one, apparently similar, but 
less satisfactorily noted. After this the rapid pas- 
sage of the storm carried the lightning beyond my 
limited space Of observation. 

I may add that none of the lightning from this 
cloud seemed to come to the earth, its course being 
on an apparently horizontal plane. The accompany- 
ing thunder was unusually deep and grand. 

WILLIAM BREWSTER. 
Cambridge, Mass. 


Deflective effect of the earth’s rotation. 


In Scrence for March 2 (No. 4), Mr. W. M. Davis 
says, ‘A correct knowledge of the deflective effect 
of the earth’s rotation is generally accounted the 
result of studies made within the last twenty-five 
years.”” 

This correct knowledge, he says, is still disputed 
by some authors. 

By transferring the axis of rotation to the tangent 
plane on which the body is supposed to move, and 
resolving the earth’s rotary motion into two motions, 
—one around the meridian of the tangent plane, and 
the other around a vertical to that plane, —it is easily 
seen, without recourse to the equations of motion, 
that the angular motion of the tangent plane with 
respect to a fixed plane will depend upon the angular 
rotation of the earth and the sine of the latitude of 
the tangent plane; from which it follows that the de- 
flective force is the same, in whatever direction the 
body is supposed to move on any given tangent plane. 

But in resolving the actual motion into two mo- 
tions, respectively around the vertical to the tangent 
plane and around the meridian of that plane, we 
have neglected the effect resulting from the latter, — 
a consideration of which would have introduced an- 
other term, containing a function of, and therefore 
varying with, the cosine of the angle contained be- 
tween the meridian and the line of projection of the 
moving body; we have also neglected the effect of 
the centrifugal force resulting from the motion of the 
body, which is a minimum when the motion is in 
the meridian, and a maximum when at right angles 
to the meridian, and therefore also variés with the 
cosine of the angle contained between the meridian 
and the line of projection of the moving body. When 
the velocity is considerable, both these terms become 
sensible; and therefore the deflective force is least 
when the body moves in the meridian, and greatest 
when the motion is at right angles with the meridian. 

This conclusion is in conflict with the ‘correct 
knowledge’ above alluded to; viz., that the deflec- 


136 


tion of the moving body depends ‘not at all on the 
direction of its motion.’ But I may remark, that 
Routh (see Rigid dynamics, p. 192) has also given 
the subject a rigorous investigation by means of the 
equations of motion, and finds for the deviation to 
the right, in north latitude, two terms, —the one 
agreeing with the above, as found from the compo- 
nent about the vertical; and the other, a function of 
the cosine of the angle contained between the merid- 
ian and the line of projection of the moving body. 


J. E. HENDRICKS. 
Des Moines, Io., July 16, 1883. 


ALNWICK CASTLE ANTIQUITIES. 


A descriptive catalogue of antiquities, chiefly British, 
at Alnwick Castle. Printed for private distribu- 
tion. Neweastle-upon-Tyne, 1880. 11+210p., 
43 pl. 4°. 

By the generosity of the Duke of Northum- 
berland, the Boston public library has recently 
been made the recipient of a copy of this truly 
magnificent work, and of the companion vyol- 
ume descriptive of the important collection of 
Egyptian antiquities, also preserved at Aln- 
wick. Inno more satisfactory manner could 
the liberality and public spirit of the noble 
proprietor have been manifested than in thus 
sharing his treasures with the antiquaries and 
art-lovers of other countries. Such sumptuous 
volumes as these constitute a monument aere 
perennius, like those which illustrate the lit- 
erary and artistic treasures of Earl Spencer 
at Althorp, or the magnificent publications in 
which the Archduke Ludwig of Austria has 
recorded his travels. 

In its artistic and mechanical execution, this 
catalogue is beyond praise : never have we seen 
more beautiful or more faithful delineations of 
the various kinds of antiquities. If we cannot 
speak in quite such high terms of commenda- 
tion of the accompanying letterpress, the fault 
should not be laid to the charge of Dr. Colling- 
wood Bruce, upon whom devolved the task of 
preparing the work for the press. His com= 
peteney as an antiquary has been sufficiently 
manifested by his able and thorough study of 
‘The Roman wall,’ whose ‘stations’ have 
yielded to the explorer many of the objects de- 
scribed in the volume. It is to the untimely 
death of Mr. Albert Way, by whose assistance 
and advice much of the collection was gathered, 
who knew its contents thoroughly, and to 
whom the preparation of the catalogue had 
been originally intrusted, that any shortcom- 
ing must be attributed. Although several dis- 
tinguished English antiquaries have lent their 
aid to the editor in their respective departments 
of knowledge, we miss the influence of one 
guiding mind, familiar with the results of re- 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. IL, No. 26. 


cent archeological research in all its various 
branches, and capable of ‘ speaking the latest 
word’ upon the many interesting and impor- 
tant topics suggested. Still the reader cannot 
fail to receive instruction from the accounts 
given of numerous relics of various periods in 
the ages long since past, while the beauty of 
many of the objects delineated goes far to jus- 
tify the claim that, — 


‘Not rough nor barren are the winding ways 
Of hoar antiquity, but strewn with flowers.” 


The expression ‘ chiefly British ’ in the title 
must be understood to mean that the greater 
part of the antiquities described have been 
found in Great Britain. Those first represented 
belong to the prehistoric periods of stone, of 
bronze, and of iron, and consist mainly of 
weapons and implements, such as axes and 
celts of stone, and swords and celts of bronze, 
or of a great variety of those rude, hand-made, 
sepulchral yases found in grave-mounds, in 
which was stored a supply of food for the dead. 
To the same remote ages are to be ascmbed 
those singular markings found upon stones, 
known to archeologists by the name of ‘ cup- 
cuttings,’ of which two remarkable examples 
occurring in Northumberland are represented. ~ 
They are found in countries widely separated, 
and everywhere they closely resemble one 
another, and they have greatly exercised the 
minds of antiquaries as to their origin and sig- 
nificance. They consist of a series of shallow 
pits or cups, incised upon ledges, or, more fre- 
quently, upon bowlders. Of these, a central one 
is often found surrounded by one or more con- 
centric circles; and a characteristic feature of 
such groups is a longitudinal groove extending 
from the central cup to beyond the outermost 
of the circles that surround it. That they are 
religious emblems is generally conceded, as 
the same kind of markings is found upon the 
slabs of stone of which ancient grayes have 
been constructed. It is highly probable that 
they are a conventional representation of a 
primitive system of nature-worship that pre- 
vailed among our Aryan ancestors, symbolizing 
the mysterious origin of life. The whole sub- 
ject has recently been treated in the most able 
and exhaustive manner by the learned arche- 
ologist of the Smithsonian institution, Mr. 
Charles Rau, in the fifth volume of Major Pow- 
ell’s ‘ Contributions to American ethnology.’ 
We cannot help feeling surprised that the 
editor, while quoting largely from Sir James 
Simpson’s ‘ Archaic sculptures,’ makes no ref- 
erence whatever to the late Professor Edouard 
Desor of Neuchatel, whose various writings 


4 


AveusT 3, 1883.] 


upon Les pierres a écuelles have shed much 
light upon this obscure subject. 

Another strange problem bearing upon this 
vexed question of early religious symbols is 
but just touched upon in this volume. We 
refer to the use from a very remote period, 
either for emblematic or decorative purposes, 
of a peculiar form of cross, resembling the 
Greek letter gamma four times repeated. 

This has been called by various names, — 
pate digammated cross,’ or * gamma- 
dion ;’ in “the middle ages the * fylfot :° and 
ay by Sanscrit scholars, the ‘ swastica.’ 
M. Burnouf believes that this, also, is a primi- 


tive religious symbol of the Aryan races, and 


that it represents the two pieces of wood which 
in early times were laid crosswise before the 
sacrificial altar in order to produce the holy 
fire, having their ends bent at right angles and 
fastened in such a way as not “to be “moved. 
Where the pieces crossed there was a small 
hole, in which a third piece of wood was rotated 
by means of a cord until fire was generated 
by friction. This sign occurs upon two Roman 
altars figured in the volume, which have been 
transferred to the museum at Alnwick from 
neighboring stations upon the Roman wall, 
where they had been disinterred. Several ref- 
erences are given to authors who have treated 
of this emblem,—among them, to Dr. Schlie- 
mann, who found it at Hissarlik upon ‘ whorls ’ 
of baked clay ; and the statement is made, that 
it eventually came to have a Christian signifi- 
eation, and is found in the catacombs at Rome 
in conjunction with the usual Christian sym- 
bols. The elaborate study, however, by De 
Mortillet, entitled Le signe de la croix avant 
le christianisme, is entirely overlooked, in 
which its occurrence is traced down from the 
‘terremares ’ of the age of bronze, in Emilia, 
in upper Italy. 

A unique object represented is an example 
of the so-called ‘chrisma,’ the monogram 
formed by uniting the first two Greek charac- 
ters of the name Christ, X and P. This 
combination had long been in use as an se 
abbreviation of different words, and it is 
found upon the coinage of various eastern na- 
tions. Constantine placed it upon the * Laba- 
rum’ as a Christian emblem; and it is often 
met with upon his coins and those of his im- 
mediate successors, and upon terra-cotta lamps 
found in the catacombs at Rome and elsewhere. 
Three, at least, of such ancient Christian 
lamps, haye been discovered in England; but 
the rarity of the present example consists in 
the fact that it is embossed upon the outside 
of a little drinking-cup made of red clay. 


SCIENCE. 


137 


This is of the very uncommon kind of pottery 
oceasionally brought to light in England, which 
was manufactured by the Romanized Britons 
at Caistor, in Northamptonshire, the Duro- 
brivae of the Romans. It is used as an orna- 
ment in association with a very well executed 
representation of the coursing of a hare, and 
it is probably to be referred to about the middle 
of the fourth century. 

Several fine specimens of ancient Roman fic- 
tile ware from Pompeii are delineated, as well 
as those found in Great Britain, among them 
handsome lamps and facsimiles of the potter’s 
stamps, which are often found impressed upon 
their under side. Such stamps were also usu- 
ally placed upon the bottom of the finest kind 
of table-ware that was manufactured by the 
Romans, — that called ‘Samian ware’ from 
the place of its origin, but of which the best 
quality was fabricated at Arezzo, and spread 
by commerce over the whole Roman world. 
It is of a lustrous coral color, and often has 
embossed upon the outside, figures of different 
deities, or of men and animals, especially of 
those gladiatorial scenes of which the Romans 
were so fond. These figures were fashioned 
in moulds, many of which have come down to 
our own times, and are ofa high grade of 
artistic merit. Frequently, however, the orna- 
mentation consists only of harmonious conven- 
tional patterns, or of a scroll-work of leaves 
and vines of much grace and beauty of design. 
The potter’s stamp sometimes contains the 
whole name, sometimes only initials, and occa- 
sionally it consists merely of some symbol. 
One figured in the volume is a representation 
of ‘a tiny human foot,’ which the editor thinks 
is ** probably a rebus upon the name of the 
potter, which may have been Crasstres.’’ 
This is rather an unfortunate conjecture, as it 
was a special whim of some of the potters of 
Arezzo to have their stamps made in the shape 
of a human foot. They are found in this form 
containing a variety of names, as well as no 
name at all. The writer has in his possession 
at least twenty different inscriptions of this sort. 

Itis certainly remarkable that only in Eng- 
land have there been found, it would appear, 
any specimens of the actual shoes or sandals 
worn by the Roman soldiers. One such is 
represented from the ruins of one of the camps 
that mark the line of the Roman wall. Simi- 
lar discoveries upon such sites are recorded, 
angl a few of these objects have been found in 
the bed of the Thames at London. The writer 
saw several that came to light in London in 
1873. in excavating the foundation fora large 
building in the heart of the ‘ city.” On that 


1388 ; 


occasion the ditch that surrounded the fortified 
Roman town was laid bare, formed out of the 
natural bed of a little brook, and in it these 
and many other curious relics were found. 
These ancient Roman shoes are singularly like 
modern ones in pattern and mode of fabrica- 
tion; and, in consideration of their wonderful 
state of preservation, they would seem to jus- 
tify the cobbler’s proverb, ‘ There’s nothing 
like leather.’ 

Among the ‘ medieval remains,’ we find 
figured and described ‘a bronze eagle with up- 
lifted head and open mouth.’ The bird, how- 
ever, strongly resembles one represented in 
Archaeologia, vol. 46, pl. 17, that was discoy- 
ered in the recent excavations at Silchester in 
1870. This, the late John Richard Green, in 
his Making of England, calls ‘‘a legionary 
eagle, hidden away, as it would seem, in some 
secret recess, and there buried for ages to tell 
the pathetic tale of the fall of Silchester.’’ In 
Horsley’s Britannia romana, there is also 
figured a similar bronze eagle discovered in 
England. It is true, that the Roman eagles 
that are delineated upon Trajan’s Column and 
upon the Arch of Constantine are represented 
with expanded wings, and that Montfaucon 
and recent writers upon classical antiquity, 
copying him, have stated that they were invari- 
ably made in this manner. All three of these 
birds, however, have their wings folded, from 
which we may infer that the other fashion of 
representing them may have arisen in part 
from the exigencies of pictorial art. 

We have an example given of one of those 
singular seals, in the shape of a monkey 
perched upon a cube, made of a peculiar kind 
of porcelain, and bearing an inscription in an- 
cient Chinese characters, such as are occasion- 
ally found in the bogs in various parts of 
Treland. At first they were believed to be of 
remote antiquity ; and it was even supposed 
that they had been brought into the country 
by the Phoenicians, since it was asserted that 
they are not to be found in China at the present 
time. But this is not the case, as they can 
now occasionally be procured of the dealers in 
curiosities in that country. The inscriptions 
are engraved in an antique character, now only 
employed for seals, and kuown as the ‘ seal 
character.’ Frequently they consist of some 
poetic quotation like the one given: ‘ When the 
water falls, the rocks appear.’ Their presence 
is undoubtedly due to modern commerg¢e, 
though not of a very recent period. In this 
particular they resemble the little Chinese bot- 
tles used for holding snuff, which are found 
in ancient Egyptian tombs, one of which is 


° 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 26. 


preserved in the museum at Alnwick. They 
are about two inches in height, and have on 
one side a flower, and on the other an inserip- 
tion, which on several specimens reads, ‘ The 
flower opens; lo! another year!’ This is 
known to be a quotation from a poet who 
lived in the eighth century P.C., and the ob- 
ject evidently was intended for a New-Year’s 
gift. Instead of proving, as Rosellini sup- 
posed, the existence of a commerce between 
the two countries in Pharaonic, or at all events 
in Ptolemaic times, it is now known that they 
were brought to Egypt in the middle ages by car- 
avans from western China. They are not of ex- 
ceeding rarity, as Sir Gardner Wilkinson states 
that he has seen more than twenty of them, 
found in the tombs at Thebes and other places, 
and the writer has half adozen obtained in Cairo. 

Unquestionably the most pleasing object de- 
lineated in the volume, and one of the glories 
of the collection, is the well-known ‘ Rudge 
cup.’ This is a little bronze vessel, about four 
inches in diameter and three in height, of a 
simple bowl shape, and adorned in the most 
tasteful manner with different colored enamels, 
in the style called champlevé. In this, the 
metallic field is cut away so as to produce cay- 
ities, in which is inserted the paste that be- 
comes vitrified upon being subjected to heat. 
The ornamentation consists of a series of pan- 
els made up of four squares of various colors, 
alternating with compartments containing four 
crescents of different hues, set back to back. 
The colors‘are turquoise and dark blue, beauti- 
fully contrasted with a narrow border of pale 
red, which outlines and separates the several 
compartments. Around the top runs an in- 


scription which is supposed to contain the - 


names of several localities lying along the line 
of the Roman wall, but which has thus far 
proved a puzzle to the interpreters. It was 
found in the year 1725, at a place called 
Rudge Coppice, near Froxfield, in Wiltshire, 
in a well near the site of some Roman ruins. 
The well was filled with rubbish ; and in it were 
also found four or five human skeletons, some 
animal bones, and several coins of the lower 
empire. It is described as merely ‘ a remark- 
able relic of the Roman times ;’ but this would 
appear to be a very unmeaning designation, 
when we call to mind the fact that ‘ relics’* of 
this description are never discovered in Italy. 
It may be worth the while to give a brief 
account of the more important specimens of 
ancient champlevé enamelling that have come 
to light in Europe, and to state what is known 
or surmised in regard to their probable origin 
and place of fabrication. 


August 3, 1883.) | 


For purposes of comparison, the editor has 
given an engraving of an enamelled bronze cup, 
of similar shape and method of manufacture, 
which was found at Harwood, in Northumber- 
land, and is now in the British museum. He 
also describes a facsimile cast of a beautiful ves- 
sel, known as the ‘ Bartlow vase,’ the original 
of which was nearly ruined in a fire which took 
place in the mansion of Lord Maynard, by 
whom it was discovered in 1832, during excava- 
tions made in a series of remarkable flat-topped 
tumuli situated at Bartlow, in Essex. A plate 
showing it in all its pristine beauty may be found 
in Archaeologia, vol. 26, pl. 35. It is now in 
the British museum, where can also be seen a 
similar vase, discovered at Ambleteuse, near 
Boulogne. Still another of the same charac- 
ter, found in the western part of France, is 
preserved at Angouléme. Finally in the Mé- 
moires de la société des antiquaires du nord,n.s., 
1868, there is represented an exceedingly beau- 
tiful specimen of an enamelled bronze cup of 
the same pattern, discovered in 1867 in a peat- 
moss at Maltboeck, in the southern part of 
the peninsula of Jutland, in Denmark. 

Beside these vases, enamelled fibulae and 
horse-trappings have frequently been found in 
ancient graves, especially in England. Pro- 
fessor Boyd Dawkins, in his Cave-hunting, also 
gives a plate representing several brooches of 
this kind, which were discovered during the 
explorations of the Victoria cave, in Settle, 
Yorkshire. This was so named on account of 
its discovery upon the coronation day of Queen 
Victoria, in 1839; and it is especially interest- 
ing as having been a place of refuge of the mis- 
erable British fugitives who fled before the 
sword of the ‘* conquering Engle.’ 

The art of enamelling was known to the 
ancient Egyptians, the Etruseans, and the 
Greeks ; but the last had ceased to make use 
of it at least two hundred years B.C. By the 
Romans it was never practised at all; and it is 
not alluded to by Pliny in his encyclopedic 


SCIENCE. 


139 


‘ Natural history.’ The only reference to it to 
be found in any ancient author occurs in the 
Imagines of Philostratus the elder (lib. i., im. 
27). In a description of a picture of a boar- 
hunt, after enumerating the different colors of 
the horses ridden by the youthful huntsmen, 
and saying that the bits were of silver and the 
housings enriched with gold and various colors, 
he-adds, ‘‘ They say that the barbarians, who 
dwell near the ocean, pour these colors upon 
heated brass, and that they adhere, and become 
like stone, and preserve the designs made by 
them.’’ Now, Philostratus was a Greek rhet- 
orician, called from Athens, in the beginning 
of the third century, to the court of Julia 
Domna, wife of the emperor Septimius Sev- 
erus. As this emperor passed considerable 
time in Britain, where he built, or at any rate 
repaired, the wall that goes by his name, and 
died at York, it is by no means improbable 
that Philostratus gained his knowledge of the 
processes of enamelling from accounts brought 
to the court from that region. To the English 
antiquaries it seems to be established, by the 
number and the beauty of such objects that 
have been discovered in their own country, that 
this was the principal seat of its manufacture ; 
and Mr. John R. Green does not hesitate to 
call the ‘ party-colored enamel the peculiar 
workmanship of Celtic Britain.’ But from 
the fact that the late Abbé Cochet has found 
precisely similar enamelled objects in his ex- 
plorations of ancient cemeteries in Normandy, 
and from the discovery of cups of the same 
kind upon the soil of France, the antiquaries 
of that nation maintain that their own country- 
men were ‘ the barbarians that dwelt near the 
ocean.’ Non nostrum tantas componere lites ; 
but certainly objects of this character ought 
never to be styled ‘ Roman.’ 

We wish that we had more space at our dis- 
posal to direct attention to the many other 
beautiful objects of antiquity to be found in 
this fine collection. Henry W. Haynes. 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


MATHEMATICS. 

Linear differential equations. — M. G. Floquet, 
in a paper entitled ‘‘ Sur les équations différentielles 
linéaires & coefficients périodique,”’ has made an in- 
teresting and seemingly important addition to the 
literature of periodic functions. He considers a ho- 
mogeneous linear. differential equation of the fonn 
dm—ly 
\dam—1 


a™ qd -? 
Pi), = 54 + + pit 4+. ..+ pny =0, 


the coefficients being uniform functions having all 
the same period, w, and the general integral being sup- 
posed uniform. If the variable be changed by the 
substitution 4 
Qaiz 
é = §, 
the result is a linear transformation of P, in which 
the coefficients are uniform functions of & From the 
known expression for its integrals in the region of a 


140 


singular point, we may, by giving & the above value, 
vary the form of the solutions of P (y)=0. The 
author prefers, however, to treat the question directly, 
inasmuch as he is thus enabled to employ many of the 
results arrived at by M. Fuchs, and as he can use pro- 
cesses identical with those employed by Fuchs in his 
study of the integrals around a singular point. M. 
Floquet obtains thus a fundamental system, S, of 
solutions connected with a certain algebraic equation, 
A=0, which he calls the fundamental equation rela- 
tive to the period w; the first member of A= 0 is a de- 
terminant of degree m with respect to the unknown «, 
The elements of the system S constitute as many 
groups as the equation A=0 has distinct roots; and, 
by applying a process due to M. Hamburger, these 
groups are divided into sub-groups which are mutu- 
ally independent. The particular conclusions arrived 
at are as follows. I. Let ¢,, e:.... &» denote the dis- 
tinct roots of A =0; let A; denote the order parting 
from which the minors of A cease being all zero 
for «=g. 1°. P=0 admits as distinct integrals 
2, + A, 4+... + Ay periodic functions of the second 
kind, and no more. 2°. There exists a fundamental 
system of solutions, including, first, 2; +A22+...+An 
periodic functions of the second kind; second, 
m—(A, + 4.... + d,) expressions, each having the 
form of an integral polynomial in «, and having for 
coefficients periodic functions of the second kind pos- 
sessing the same multiplier. 3°. The multipliers of 
the periodic functions which appear in the funda- 
mental system, either as elements or as coefficients in 
the elements, are equal to the different roots €,,€2... & 
_ of the fundamental equation. II. In order that P=0 
may have m periodic functions of the second kind as 
distinct integrals, it is necessary’and sufficient that 
each of the roots of A=0 shall annul all the minors 
of A up to those of an order equal to the degree of the 
multiplicity of each root. In the above, a periodic 
function of the second kind, with a period #, means a 
function defined by relation F (w + o) =e F(x); ¢is 
the multiplier; and, if «= 1, the function is said to be 
periodic of the first kind. — (Ann. V’école norm. sup., 
Feb.) . C. sae [134 
PHYSICS. 

(Photography.) 

The effect of pressure on the gelatine film. 
— Capt. Abney has shown, that, if pressure is ap- 
plied to the sensitive surface of the gelatine plates, 
the same result is obtained as if the plate had been 
exposed to the light. The editor of the British jour- 
nal of photography, experimenting further, finds that 
abrasion, such as may. be produced by the motion of 
a glass rod drawn out to a fine rounded point, is 
necessary to the action, and that mere pressure, such 
as would be obtained by a carpenter’s vise, produces 
no effect whatever. 
upon the other one, and the markings made with the 
rod upon it, with very heavy pressure. On develop- 
ment with pyro, no effect was at first produced; but, 
by prolonged action, a green fog was created in the 
adjacent regions of the film, leaving the figures clear 
on a dark ground. — (Brit. journ: phot., June 15.) 
W. H. P. mies [135 


SCIENCE. 


long. — (Mechanics, June 23.) 


A stripped film was next placed - 


Cee ely 


[Vou. IL, No. 26. 


Electricity. 

Unipolar conductivity. — Hugo Meyer confirms 
the result previously obtained by him, that the min- 
eral psilomelan possesses the curious property of uni- 
polar conductivity for electricity. He finds, also, that 
the resistance to a constant current is independent of 
the duration of the current, and that different speci- 
mens of the mineral are radically different in elec- 
trical properties: hence the inconsistent results of 
different observers are admissible. — (Ann. phys. 
chem., xix. 70.) J. T. {136 

A cheap bolometer.—C Baur describes a ther- 
moscope which consists of thin gold leaves blackened 
with platinum chloride, and cut so as to combine large 
surface with low resistance. These are attached to 
opposite ends of a cylinder which is hollow and open 
at the ends, and solid in the middle. These leaves 
are made the arms of a Wheatstone bridge, and prove 
to be a much more delicate test for radiant heat than 
the thermopile. The author terms the instrument a 
radiometer. — (Ann. phys. chem., xix. 12.) J. . 

[137 

Measurement of the ohm.—J. Fréhlich de- 
scribes a ‘dynamometric’ method of measuring the 
ohm: the secondary coil is balanced on a rigid hori- 
zontal arm, suspended bifilarly so that the plane of 
winding is perpendicular to the meridian; opposite is 
placed the inducing coil, in which, by an ingenious 
arrangement of keys, the current is made, shunted, 
and broken without a spark. The consequent attrac- 
tions and repulsions are measured by the swinging of 
the suspended apparatus. From a preliminary ex- 
periment, the author is encouraged to consider the 
method a practical one. —(Ann. phys. chem., xix. 
106.) {138 

ENGINEERING. 


Engines of lake steamers.— One of the steam- 
ers of the Western transportation line has engines of 
the ‘compound’ type, two low and two high pressure 
cylinders, of 20 and of 40 inches diameter and of 40 
inches stroke. The steam is cut off at 8 inches in 
the high-pressure cylinder, and the consumption of 
steam amounts to but 19 pounds per hour and per 
horse-power. The boat is 256 feet long, 38 feet beam, 
and 16 feet draught. The engines and boilers weigh 
about 100 tons. The latter have 100 square feet of 
grate-surface, and 3,366 square feet of heating-surface. 
Another vessel, the E. B. Hale, has simple engines, 
carries 1,600 tons of freight at 14 feet draught, makes 
about 10 knots an hour on 1,400 pounds of coal. 
The engines are 36 by 36, and are supplied with 
steam by one boiler 12 feet in diameter by 18 feet 
TP Eh {139 

Heating by superheated exhaust-steam. — 
Mr. Levi Hussey has devised a method of heating 
buildings in winter by the exhaust-steam from en- 
gines by first passing it through a superheater in the 
flue, and there taking up heat which would other- 
wise be sent up the chimney and wasted. The steam 
is thus deprived of all moisture, and then heated 
to so high a temperature that it will heat more 
thoroughly, and with less obstruction by back-press- 


AueustT 3, 1883.] 


7h HT. 


ure, than saturated’ and wet steam. ' Heat is thus 
obtained without cost, and rendered effective for 
useful application to a greater extent than has 
hitherto been possible. — ( Amer. mach., July 1.) 

{140 
CHEMISTRY. 

(Analytical.) 

Electrolysis of bismuth solutions. — Messrs. N. 
W. Thomas and E. F. Smith find that bismuth may be 
accurately determined in solution either as sulphate 
or as citrate by electrolysis. By three bichromate 
cells all the bismuth was deposited in a compact form 
in three hours. It was washed, first with water, then 
with alcohol, dried, and weighed. The reduction 
goes on equally well in a solution containing an ex- 
cess of citric acid. — (Amer. chem. journ., v. 114.) 
Cc. F. M. (141 

Estimation of hardness in water without 
soap solution.—Instead of the usual method for 
estimating the hardness of water, O. Hehner prefers 
titration with standard sulphuric acid and sodie car- 
bonate solutions. He claims that the results ob- 
tained with the soap solution are very variable and 
wholly See May, 1883.) c. F. mM. 

[142 

The presence of copper in cereals.—In an 
article on this subject, Mr. E. F. Willoughby reviews 
the instances in which copper has been found in 
cereals, and he quotes the following results obtained 
by Dr. V. Galippe:— 


Copper ina kilogram. 


Wheat from Central France ... . . 0.0100 erm. 
~ ** La Chatre (Indre) . . . 0. 0080 
= “* Grand Villiers (Oise) . . 0.0052 ‘ 
eS wep MCHICAN. 3). 6, [« net Os OOTO.ciF" 
* America (Redwinter) 0. 0085‘ 
5 ET ORIITOVIID. wa et cup ac¥ oy c hONOOD0 | <5 
‘ Se Napvey GHCthe 2) co a. Os O0DE ye 
Sak “© America, soft. . 0.0108 ‘* 
KS ** Russia, hard (Taganrog) « 0. 0088 * 
Be CorAlsiem shard sJf? <0. bis 0. 0062. ‘* 
RMRE NEDA mai Ruste Cte SPat eles l/ee f 0.0050 *S 
RPM Da Tet fal ris as OSS Jon janes 0. 0084 * 
BOI y se. ist! 298 0.0108‘ 
IGG O FNS toe 0.0016 * 
— (Analyst, May, 1983,) c. F. M. {143 
AGRICULTURE. 


Preserved milk.— Loew found that a sample 
of milk which had been sealed up and heated to 101°, 
and then preserved for eight years, had undergone 
decided change. The color was brownish, and the 
taste intensely bitter. The milk-sagar was changed 
into dextrose and levulose; the caseine and albumen, 
into peptone. A sediment yielded crystals of tyrosin 
after boiling with potash. Milk preserved for a year 
by Scherff’s process was found by Vieth considerably 
altered in taste, but samples kept in a cool cellar for 
several months appeared unaltered. — (Bied. centr.- 
‘blatt., xii. 57.) oH. P. A. {144 

Calculation of feeding-rations.—In two feed- 
ing-experiments with steers, Caldwell and Roberts 
found that a ration calculated to correspond to that 


SCIENCE. 


141 


recommended by Wolff for maintenance caused a 
very decided and steady gain in weight, while a richer 
ration gave much greater gains than have been ob- 
tained by other experimenters from rations calculated 
to furnish the same amounts of digestible matters. 
They conclude that ‘‘ We have not yet sufficient data, 
from actual feeding-experiments, upon which to base 
a reliable calculation of the maintenance-ration, or 
of a ration for the production of a certain effect.”? — 
(Rep. Cornell univ. exp. stat., 1882-83,18.) Ho. P. A. 
[145 
Determination of proteine.— Trials of Stutzer’s 
method of separating true proteine from other nitro- 
genous matters failed to give Newbury concordant 
results in the case of several concentrated fodders, 
and numerous difficulties in manipulation were ex- 
perienced. With coarse fodders the results were 
concordant. — (Rep. Cornell univ. exp. stat., 1882-83, 
34.) HL. P. A. {146 
Determination of phosphoric acid. — Pember- 
ton’s method for the volumetric determination of 
phosphoric acid in fertilizers by titration with a 
standard solution of ammonium molybdate gaye 
results closely agreeing with gravimetric determina- 
tions. Two improvements in the process are de- 
scribed. —(Rep. Cornell univ. exp. stat., 1882-83, 29 ) 
H. P. A. [147 
MINERALOGY. 


Peculiar crystals of fluorite.— On a hand speci- 
men of fluorite, probably from Zinnwald, Bohemia, 
F. J. P. Van Calker noticed that there were on all 
of the small erystals, which were combinations of 
cube, hexoctahedron, and octahedron, well-defined 
markings on each cubic face, making a perfect rec- 
tangle whose sides were parallel to the intersection 
of the cube and octahedron. To account for these 
peculiar markings, which were present on all of the 
crystals, the author suggested that each crystal might 
originally have been of a simpler form, around which 
a subsequent shell of fluorite had been deposited; 
and a section from a single crystal, cut near and 
parallel to a cubic face, showed, when examined by 
transmitted light, a colorless centre, with the rectan- 
gular marking appearing as a dotted line, and outside 
of this another colorless portion completing the erys- 
tal. This fully confirmed the author’s suggestion 
of an enclosure of fluorite in fluorite, showing that 
the crystals were originally of simple form, combina- 
tions of cube and octahedron, which had become 
coated with some pigment, and subsequently another 
deposit of fluorite had taken place, building up the 
hexoctahedron planes on all of the solid angles. — 
(Zeitschr. kryst., vii. 447.) 8. L. P. {148 


GEOLOGY. 


Lithology. 

The eruptive rocks of Tryberg, Schwarz- 
wald.— George H. Williams has published for the 
doctorate degree a valuable petrographical paper on 
the Tryberg region, the country rocks of which are 
gneiss, granitite, and granite, cut by dikes of granite, 
quartz-perphyry, mica-syenite-porphyry, tica-dio- 


142 


rite and nepheline-basalt, while porphyrytuff occu- 
pies a portion of the Kesselberg area. The granitite is 
a crystalline granular mixture of felspar, quartz, and 
biotite, and is regarded as a typical rock of its kind. 
The quartz-porphyry has a compact, red groundmass 
porphyritically enclosing quartz and felspar, also 
biotite, apatite, and magnetite. The mica-syenite- 
porphyry has a compact, deep reddish-brown ground- 
mass, holding biotite and felspar, as well as some 
quartz, apatite, and zircon. 

The nepheline-basalt shows a compact, greenish- 
‘black groundmass, holding erystals and grains of a 
fresh, nearly colorless olivine. The groundmass is 
composed of a mixture of augite, little olivine crys- 
tals, and magnetite grains cemented by a colorless 
mass of nephelite and glass. Some reddish-brown 
biotite was observed, while apatite in little needles 
occurs abundantly. The paper is accompanied by a 
plate and map, while the classification followed is 
that of Prof. Rosenbusch of Heidelberg, with whom 
Dr. Williams studied. This classification of eruptive 
rocks is now the prevailing one in Germany, and, on 
account of the number of Rosenbusch’s students con- 
nected with the U.S. geological survey and with other 
institutions, will be soon generally used in Amer- 


ica. — (Neues jahrb. min., beil., 1883, ii.) M. E. Ww. 
: ' [149 
GEOGRAPHY. 
(Aretic.) 


Danish expeditions in Greenland in 1883.— 
Dr. Rink, who is now resident in Kristiania, gives 
some details as to the proposed work for this sea- 
son. Lieut. G. Holm, assisted by Lieut. Garde, 
geologist Knutsen, botanist Eberlin (who also acts as 
surgeon), and a number of Greenlanders, will under- 
take the exploration of the eastern coast of Green- 
land in umiaks, in the narrow strip of water between 
the great stream of drift-ice and the shore, where 
these boats may be able to accomplish much not 
practicable for a vessel. They will endeavor to pass 
the northern extreme reached by Graah, 1828-30, and 
to penetrate to the interior by some of the deep fiords, 
thus obtaining some idea of the region between them 
and the western coast. The other expedition will 
endeavor to map the unexplored portion of the west- 
ern coast between 67° and 70° N. lat., and will be 
commanded by Lieut. Hammer, assisted by Sylow 
as geologist, and naval Lieut. Larsen. Notice has 
already been taken of the arrival of these parties in 
Greenland. — (Naturen, Mai, 1883.) w.u.p. [150 


(South America.) 

The death of Crevaux. — The details of the de- 
struction of this gallant explorer and his party have 
been obtained from a native interpreter, who was 
made captive at the time, but finally escaped across 
the desert to Ankaroinga, The party had arrived at 
a spot on the right bank of the Pilcomayo, five leagues 
above the Rio Tigre, where there is a village of Toba 
Indians called Cuvarocai. After having been assured 
of a peaceful welcome, the doctor began to distribute 
presents to the natives, who, at the advice of their 
chief, rendered covetous by the sight of the valuables 
in the hands of the party, fell suddenly upon the ex- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 26. 


plorers, and killed those on the shore. Those still in 
the boats attempted to escape by swimming, and 
were pursued, and several of them killed in the water. 
Only two, Haurat and Blanco, being good swimmers, 
succeeded in reaching the opposite shore, and hiding 
themselves in the forest. Nothing has been heard of 
them since. 
prisoner. The bodies were thrown into the water 
or left where they fell, except that of Dr. Crevaux, 
which was carried to a neighboring village, where 
for thirty-six hours the Tobas sang and performed 
incantations around it, after which it was conveyed 
to a spot near to and visible from the huts. The 
Argentine government has sent Col. Sol with two 
hundred men up the Pileomayo to punish the assas- 
sins, while the geographical society of Buenos Ayres 
has sent one of its number to search for the two 
survivors, and report on the whole subject. —W. H. D. 
[151 

Crevauz’s voyages in Guiana.— Henri Froide- 
vaux summarizes previous investigations of the rivers 
of Guiana, and narrates the advances due to Crevaux. 
He notes that the indigenous population of Guiana 
is visibly decreasing, and states that Crevaux believed, 
that, judging by the abundance of village sites and 
relics on the river-banks now absolutely depopulated, 
there was formerly an abundant population. — (Rev. 
géogr., May, 1883.) Ww. H. D. 152 
Notes. — Dr. ,Giissfeldt has made interesting trig- 
onometrical surveys in the Cordillera, together with 
observations on glaciers. He will soon take up the 
region about Aconcagua. —— The English brothers 
Haspold, with the warmest approbation of the goy- 
ernment of the republic, have undertaken a very exact 
geological, mineralogical, and natural history survey 
of the different Argentine states. — (Mitt. geogr. ges. 
Wien, xxvi. no. vy.) W. H. D. [153 


( Africa.) 

Number of Jews in Africa. — According to the 
estimate of Brunialti, the Jews in Africa number 
450,000. Gerhard Rohlfs criticises this as much too 
high, and, by reviewing the estimates of population 
in all parts of the continent, concludes that 220,000 
is much nearer the truth. —(Peterm. geoyr. mitth., 
1883, 211.) Ww. M. D. [154 

The coast-line of Tunis.— In his description of 
the Mediterranean lands, Th. Fischer has included 
Tunis in the area of rising coasts about Sicily, 


The interpreter was carried off as a ~ 


Sardinia, and south-eastern France. The correctness ~ 


of this is questioned by Dr. J. Partsch of Breslau, 
who presents a considerable mass of evidence to show 
that the Tunisian shores have not changed their 
altitude in the historic period, although their out- 
line has varied distinctly at certain points by delta 
growth. The river Medjerda (the ancient Bagradas) 
has shifted its mouth several miles to the north, and 
built out its delta into the Gulf of Tunis; and this 
in combination with the wind-action, by which sand 
has been blown inland from the shore, has added 
nearly one hundred square miles of lowland outside 
of the coast-line of the third century before Christ. 
Former lines of river-flow are distinctly visible at 


' 
in 


Aveust 3, 1883.] 


several points. But all this, and other facts of a sim- 
ilar nature, must not be explained by an elevation of 
the land; for the ruins of Carthage, on a promontory 
a few miles to the south, are still close to the sea, and 
the remains of some of its harbor-works are yet at 
the water’s edge. A variety of ancient and modern 
descriptions of this region are referred to. —(Peterm. 
geogr. mitth., 1883, 201, map.) Ww. M. D. [155 


ZOOLOGY. 
Protozoa. 


New sporozoon.— A. Schneider has discovered 
in the Malpighian vessels of Blaps an amoeboid para- 
site. Multiplication takes place principally by means 
of cysts. Encystment occurs only between individ- 
uals with a single nucleus and of spherical form. The 
two conjugated organisms secrete around themselves 
several envelopes, each marked with an equatorial 
line of dehiscence. Each of the two nuclei divide 
into three. Of the six nuclei thus formed, four, 
together with a part of the granular mass, remain 
unused, while the other two become the spores. The 
species is named Ophryocystis Biitschlii. — (Comptes 
rendus, 1888, 1378; Ann. mag. nat. hist., xi. 459.) 
Cc. 8. Mt. [156 

} Insects. 


Observations on Hymenoptera. —In part x. of 
his Observations, Lubbock answers some of Dr, 
Miiller’s objections to his methods in studying the 
color-preferences of the hive-bee, believing that his 
conclusions are not invalidated by them. To test 


_ the sense of hearing in bees, telephonic communica- 


q 


tion was established between two sets of bees, one 
of which was then excited, but with no effect on 
the other. Others were accustomed to visit honey 
placed near a music-box, the position of which was 
several times changed. The bees did not, however, 
appear to hear the music, though they seem to have 
connected the presence of the instrument with that 
of the honey, and were guided by it, even if it were 
not playing, so long as they could see it; but if they 
could not see it, even if it were playing, it did not 
assist them, It is, however, uncertain but that high 
over-tones, beyond our range of hearing, may be 
audible to bees. 

Further experiments seem to show that the indus- 
try of wasps has been underrated. One individual 
visited some honey no less than a hundred and six- 
teen times in a day, loading herself each time, and 
carrying away more than sixty-four grains of honey. 
Her working-hours extended from 4.13 A.M. to 7.47 
P.M., while a bee, working on honey the same day, 
made but twenty-nine visits, between 5.45 A.M. and 
7.15 P.M. 

A curious demonstration of the recognition of the 
queen by worker-ants was made in the following 
way: “I was starting a new nest of Lasius flavus 
in which were two queens. We allowed the ants to 
take one of them into their new glass house; the 
other we kept with a small retinue in a separate bot- 
tle. If this bottle is placed near the nest, some of 
the retinue leave it, go into the nest, and soon the 


SCIENCE. 


143 


ants come out in large numbers to see, I had almost 
said to pay their respects to, their queen.” 

The dislike of ants for the ultra-violet rays of the 
spectrum, indicated by earlier experiments, was fur- 
ther shown by the use of two screens, —one consist- 
ing of a solution of iodine in carbon bisulphide ; the 
other of indigo, carmine, and roseine, mixed so as to 
produce the same tint, but not, like the bisulphide 
solution, intercepting the ultra-violet rays. The 
ants collected, in most instances, under the iodine 
screen. 

The record of the occurrence of Ponera contracta 
in England, and the description of a new Australian 
honey-ant, Melophorus Bagoti, are of interest to the 
systematist. — (Journ. Linn. soc., zo6l., xvii.) W. T. 

{157 


(Zeonomic entomology.) 

Insects affecting the strawberry. — Professor 
S. A. Forbes summarizes what has been published 
respecting the insects that infest the strawberry in 
the United States, and adds original observations 
respecting several of them. These observations refer 
chiefly to the crown-borer, the root-worm, and the 
crown-miner. A very useful calendar is given, indi- 
cating in a concise form the periods of each of the 
species discussed and the particular place in which 
each insect occurs in each of its stages. — (Trans. 
Miss. Valley hort. soc., 1888.) J. H. Cc. {158 

The hop-vine borer.— Although this pest has 
been very destructive for many years, the life-history 
of the species has not been known till now. Prof. 
Comstock gives an account, with figures, of the insect 
in each of its stages, —(Amer. agric., June, 1883.) 

[159 


VERTEBRATES. 


Are the lungs air-tight ? — That the lungs are nor- 
mally air-tight under the ordinary condition of life 
has been accepted in physiology as an alinost neces- 
sary consequence of the function which they perform. 
Ewald and Kobert have lately reported some experi- 
ments which appear to show that this belief is not 
strictly correct. If the intra-pulmonic pressure is 
raised above a certain limit, not higher than may 
oceur normally during life, there is an escape of air 
from the lungs into the pleural cavity or into the 
blood-vessels of the pulmonary circulation. When 
a curarized dog was exposed to artificial respiration 
at a proportionally high pressure for about an hour, 
the dog killed, and the chest opened under water, 
both the pleural cavity and the heart were found to 
contain air. Experiments made upon excised lungs, 
expanded under water by positive pressure, showed, 
that, at a certain pressure, air escaped, while, if the 
pressure was again lowered, the lungs again became 
air-tight. The authors satisfied themselves in all 
cases that there was no actual gross rupture of the 
lung-tissue or blood-vessels. The maximal expirato- 
ry pressure which a dog can produce was found to 
vary between 50 mms. and 90 mms. of mercury; 
while, to get an escape of air into the pleural cavity or 
heart, it was only necessary to keep the intra-pulmon- 
ic pressure at about 35 mms. of mercury. A similar 
result was obtained with rabbits. The escape of air 


144 


may take place not only through the walls of the 
alveoli, but also through the trachea, with the pro- 
duction of emphyaema of the subcutaneous cellular 
tissue of the neck, which in time may spread as far 
as the extremities of the body. ‘The peculiar pains 
in the chest which sometimes follow upon violent ex- 
piratory efforts may be owing, they think, to a small 
escape of air into the pleural cavity. So many hither- 
to inexplicable cases in which, after sudden death, 
air has been found in the heart or pleural cavity, 
although there was no evidence of any rupture, 
may be explained in this way by the escape of air 
through the lung-tissue. — (Pfliiger’s archiv, xxxi. 
160.) Ww. H. H. [160 

Structureless basal substance. — The structure- 
less substance which forms the basis of the ‘ jelly’ in 
medusae, Emery thinks, is still represented in the 
higher animals, preceding in certain places the true 
connective tissue. Emery employs the name given 
by Hensen, ‘tissue of secretion,’ it being supposed to 
be secreted by the surrounding epithelia. In verte- 
brates an anhistic layer in the cornea precedes the 
true connective tissue (Kessler, Emery). In the 
embryos of teleosts, particularly those that leave 
the egg early, the ectoderm is separated by a thick 
layer of homogeneous, unorganized matter from the 
inner tissues. This hyaline mass also fills out the 
embryonic median fins. It is probably changed later 
into connective tissue by the immigration of cells. 
The clear membranes separating two adjacent epithe- 
lia, or an epithelium from connective tissue, the 
vitreous humor, and the substance filling the segmen- 
tation cavity of the ovum, are also, perhaps, to be 
enumerated here as preservations of a very ancient 
primitive formation, —the tissue of secretion of the 
most distant ancestors of vertebrates. Its excessive 
deyelopment in teleost larvae is probably an acquired 
embryonic characteristic. This interesting little pa- 
per especially deserves attention from those studying 
the embryology of fishes. — (Arch. ital. biol., iii. 37.) 
c. 8. M. : f [161 

Fish. 

Motor-nerve endings. — Ciaccio has investigated 
the motor-nerve plates in the depressor muscle of the 
jaw of Torpedo marmorata by treatment with double 
chloride of gold and cadmium. From the anterior 
third of the muscles, strips one millimetre thick 
were cut with scissors; the strips were then left for 
five minutes in fresh filtered lemon-juice, washed in 
distilled water, and placed for half an hour in a one- 
per-cent solution of gold and cadmium, being kept 
dark; washed again in one-per-cent aqueous solution 
of formic acid, in which they were left twelve hours in 
the dark, then twelve in the light; finally, kept in the 
dark in stronger formic acid for one day, and pre- 
served in glycerine. Such strips may be easily dis- 
sociated into fibres. 

Two forms of nerve-endings are observed. One, 
the rarer, represents probably the initialform: it con- 
sists of bunches of grains, suspended by peduncles 
arising by repeated division of the pale fibres towards 
their termination. The second form has been pre- 
viously described (Mem. accad. se. istit. Bologna, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 26. 


1877), but the following new points deserve mention: 
the end-plate appears to be more closely united to the 
sarcolemma than to the muscular substance; between 
the ramifications of the fibres appear certain corpus- 
cles, probably connective tissue, but whether they 
lie within or without the sarcolemma was not deter- 
mined; a secondary sheath extends over the primary 
and secondary, but stops at the tertiary branches; 
the ultimate terminations are bunches of peduncu- 
lated grains, the grains being colored dark, their 
stalks light; finally, the presence of a granular em- 
bedding substance around the nervous branches. — 
(Arch. ital. biol., iii. 75.) c. Ss. M. [162 

Fishes of the Batstoe River, New Jersey. — 
Professor E. D. Cope stated that eleven species col- 
lected in the confined waters of a broken dam on the 
Batstoe River, New Jersey, represented the fish fauna 
of the Carolinian district of the nearctic realm, only 
three extending into the Alleghanian district. A 
species of Amiurus new to science was at first sup- 
posed to be an unusually dark-colored example of the 
common Amiurus nebulosus. A critical examina- 
tion soon showed that it differs in the important 
characters of the considerably more anterior position 
of the dorsal fin, four to seven more anal radii, and 
more rounded outline of the caudal fin. Its charac- 
ters ally it to the western A. natalis, from which it 
differs by its more slender form and more rounded 
caudal fin. The name A. prosthistius was proposed 
for it. — (Acad. nat. sc. Philad.; meeting June 26.) 

[163 
Mammals, 

Color-markings of mammals. — Professor Eimer 
has continued his studies in regard to the color-mark- 
ings of vertebrates. 

As the result of his observations, he has drawn out 
certain general principles, which he applies to the 
different groups, notably to the mammals. 

The following general statements are elaborated: 
1. That the color-markings of mammals may be re- 
duced to longitudinal stripes, spots, and transverse 
stripes; 2. That the longitudinal stripes are the old- 
est form, and that the other two follow in course; 
8. That the primitive mammalian fauna was a lon- 
gitudinally striped one; 4. That the males have been 
first to take on the new forms of markings, while 
the females hold longer to the older form; 5. That . 
the effects of the law by which the development of the 
markings takes place from the posterior part of the 
body toward the anterior part are not so easily traced 
in mammals as in the case of other groups, such 
as the saurians; 6. That in mammals the develop- 
ment of markings follows a regular course, that is, 
the longitudinal markings are followed by spots, 
which, in turn, run together, and finally form the 
transverse or tiger stripes; 7. That the position of 
the smallest spot on a mammal is not accidental, but 
due to the action of genetic and philogenetic laws, 
from which it follows that markings are an available 
means for the determination of species; 8. That the 
regularity of the development of markings shows 
that they arise from constitutional causes. 

The author takes the Viverridae as the original 


Ds 


Vs! eee Oh .hlL eS: 


AvGusT 3, 1883.] 


types of the carnivores, and believes that in the hyena, 
cats, dogs, bears, and weasels, he can trace the form 
and position of markings possessed by the former. He 
acknowledges several difficulties, however, in the 
case of the leopard, jaguar, and other peculiarly spot- 
ted cats. He believes that the ungulates follow the 
same law in regard to markings as the carnivores. — 
(Jahresb. verein vaterl. naturk. Wiirlt., xxxix. 1883. 
56.) F. w. T. {164 
(Man.) 

Function of the crico-thyroid muscle.— 
Martel brings forward some experiments to show 
that the crico-thyroid, and not the thyro-arytenoid 
muscle is par excellence the muscle used in the 
production of different tones in singing and speaking. 
The most interesting point of the paper, perhaps, is, 
that he shows, by registering with simple levers the 
movements of the thyroid and cricoid cartilages re- 
spectively, that, when the different chest-notes (from 
do” to do*) are sounded, the thyroid cartilage re- 
mains immovable, while the cricoid is brought closer 
and closer to it as the pitch of the note is raised. 


“In the contraction of the crico-thyroid muscle, or, as 


he prefers to call it, the thyro-cricoid muscle, the 
thyroid cartilage is therefore to be considered as 
the fixed point. The action of the thyro-arytenoid 
muscle, according to him, is preparatory to that of 
the crico-thyroid, in that it gives the vocal cords their 
proper position, and acts as an antagonist to the 
latter muscle. The length and tension of the vocal 
cords, however, are governed by the crico-thyroid. 
This view of the function of the crico-thyroid is sup- 
ported by the results obtained when the muscle, or 
the nerve going to it, is divided in the dog, and, 
among men, by the pathological cases in which there 
is paralysis of this muscle. The general result in 
such cases is a pronounced hoarseness, and an in- 
ability to sound any but the lowest tones. — (Arch. 
de physiol., 1883, 582.) Ww. H. H. {165 

Summation of stimuli in the sensory nerves 
of man.—From numerous experiments made upon 
himself with electrical stimuli, de Watteville comes 
to the conclusion that the action of stimuli applied to 
a sensory nerve increases, within certain limits, with 
their frequency. Stimuli which are subminimal, as 
long as they follow at slow intervals, will call forth 
a sensation when made to follow each other with 
greater rapidity. This summation takes place more 
readily when the stimulated nerve is exposed to the 
action of the kathode; and the author is of the opin- 
ion that it is local, as in motor nerves, and not cen- 
tral. The summation may be explained as the after 
action of electrical stimulation; the induction shocks 
following with such rapidity that the excitation in 
each case falls within the period of heightened irrita- 
bility. — (Neurol. centralbl, no. 7, 1883.) W. H. H. 

{166 
ANTHROPOLOGY. 

Tribute to American scholarship. — An inter- 
esting tribute to American scholarship is paid in the 
fact that M. Barbier, on the authority of Mr. Stephens 
and later writers, was setting up Del Rio’s ‘images 
of men in bas-relief’ in front of the model of the 


SCIENCE. 


Temple of the Sun, as he had done in the Trocadero. 
Dr. Rau of the Smithsonian institution drew his 
attention to Del Rio’s description of the Temple of 
the Cross, as well as to the statements of Dupaix and 
Galindo; and the bas-reliefs at Washington will stand 
in their proper place in front of the shrine containing 
the group of the Cross. Again, Prof. Cyrus Thomas 
has discovered that the cast on the left slab of the 
Tablet of the Cross proves conclusively the correct- 
ness of the statement previously made in SCIENCE, 
that Waldeck’s figure of this slab, as published by 
the French scientific commission, 1860-66, was cop- 
ied from Catherwood’s drawing. This is proved by 
the fact that Catherwood’s errors, of which M. Char- 
nay’s cast brings to view quite a number, are all 
faithfully reproduced in Waldeck. — 0. T. M. [167 


Prehistoric trepanning.— The object of reeall- 
ing attention to this much described subject is to 
speak of the novel experiments of L. Capitan. Many 
years ago Dr. Charles Rau, wishing to know how 
long it would take a savage to bore a hole through a 
hard rock with a wooden spindle, using sand and 
water, actually made the experiment, and has put on 
record his experience. M. Capitan has proceeded in 
the same way respecting prehistoric trephining, test- 
ing the various methods of boring and of removing a 
rondelle or fragment of bone. The experiments on 
the skulls of the dead were to study the methods, the 
difficulties in the way of the operation, and the time 
required. It is the trephining of the living among 
savages, and the fatality of the result, that most inter- 
est the student: therefore M. Capitan continued his 
researches upon living canine subjects. The first 
experiment was upon a small spaniel. The skin of 
the head and temporal muscle were removed, and the 
trephining was practised upon the antero-superior 
portion of the right parietal. ‘The operation was not 
very painful, and in twenty minutes a rondelle of 
bone wasremoved. There was little hemorrhage and 
the meninges were not wounded. After a few days 
the spaniel wasas lively as ever. Two other dogs were 
subsequently treated, with like success. Just what 
the method and amount of cicatrization might be, 
after such primitive operations, will be known when 
the autopsy of the subjects takes place in the future. 
—(Bull. soc. anthrop. Paris, v. 535.) J.W.P. [168 

Catlinite. — The beautiful red stone pipes in col- 
lections of Indian culture-objects are made of a stone 
called eatlinite. Mr. E. A. Barber tells us that for 
many generations the aborigines have procured this 
material from the Great. red pipestone quarry, situ- 
ated on the dividing-ridge between the Minnesota 
and Missouri rivers, at a place called by the French 
Couteau des prairies. Catlin, the celebrated travel- 
ler, was the first white man permitted by the Indians 
to visit the place; and therefore Dr. C.’T. Jackson, 
to whom specimens were sent, named the mineral 
catlinite. The myths relating to the quarry, as well as 
surface indications, show that the place has been 
worked for a very long time. In 1673 Marquette 
smoked in peace a catlinite pipe with the Indians of 
the upper Mississippi. Father Hennepin applies the 
term ‘calumet’ to these ceremonial pipes. There is no 


146 


doubt that an extensive traffic was carried on in this 
material for a considerable length of time by the abo- 
riginal tribes, extending from the Atlantic coast to the 
Rocky Mountain system and from New York and Min- 
nesota on the north to the Gulf of Mexico. The fact 
that objects of catlinite have been taken from Indian 
graves in the state of New York, and that others were 
found on the ancient site of an abandoned village in 
Georgia, at opposite points twelve hundred miles’ dis- 
tant from the pipestone quarry of Minnesota, reveals 
the great extent of intercommunication which for- 
merly existed among the North American peoples. 
When we consider that many pipes of catlinite have 
been taken from the bottom of mounds from four to 
seven feet deep, where they were found in connection 
with cloth-wrapped copper axes and many other ob- 
jects of high antiquity, and that some of them are of 
the typical form of the oldest mound-pipes, we are 
forced to ascribe to some of them a high antiquity. — 
(Amer. nat., July.) J. w. P. [169 


The Charnay collection.— Visitors to the Na- 
tional museum at Washington are surprised to find 
the great hall adjoining the last doorway on the south 
side shut off by screens. Looking behind this barri- 


cade, the visitor may imagine himself transported to’ 


Central America, and in the presence of some of her 
grandest aboriginal remains. Here M. Barbier, from 
the Trocadero museum at Paris, is setting up casts of 
the most celebrated relics of Mexican and Central 
American ruins secured by M. Charnay. The read- 
ers of SCIENCE will recall that Mr. Pierre Lorillard 
of New York, conjointly with the French government, 
equipped an expedition in 1880, and’ maintained it 
for two years, for a systematic investigation of the so- 
called ‘ruined cities’ and other remains of ancient 
civilization in Central America and Mxeico. The 
expedition was placed under the charge of M. Désiré 
Charnay, and thoroughly furnished with the means 
of making photographs and casts by the process of 
M. Lotin de Laval. Copies of these casts were first 
to be presented to the Smithsonian institution and to 
the French government, the latter set to be placed in 
the Trocadero museum at Paris. The story of M. 
Charnay’s travels and successes has been told in the 
North American review, commencing with August, 
1880; the editor, Mr. Thorndike Rice, favoring and 
encouraging the expedition from the first. M. Char- 
nay’s moulds having been transported to Paris, he 
proceeded to make his reproductions. With’ refer- 
ence to the Smithsonian series, now being set up in 
the National museum, Mr. Rice writes, ‘“‘ These casts 
are duplicates of those now on permanent exhibition 
at the Trocadero, Paris. The casts have been made 
in order to afford to students of American antiquities 
the fullest opportunity for studying these products 
of indigenous art and the hitherto indecipherable in- 
scriptions.’ The collection includes a bas-relief from 
Ocosingo, the stone of Tizoc, fragment from Tezcuco, 
thirty-eight pieces from Palenque, including the 
most celebrated sculptures and inscriptions, and 
thirty-four pieces from Chichen-Itza. M. Hamy will 
shortly send a detailed account of each piece, and the 
readers of SCIENCE will receive the benefit of his in- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vor. IL, No. 26. 


formation. Professor Baird will have the bas-reliefs of 

the Temple of the Sun and those of the Temple of the 

Cross mounted in wooden frames, the exact reproduc- 

tion of the rooms which they occupied in Palenque. 

—J. W. P. [170 
EARLY INSTITUTIONS. 


The Nottingham records. — The records of the 
borough of Nottingham haye been published by 
Quaritch in London. They cover the period from 
1155 to 1399, and contain much interesting matter 
bearing upon the history of town customs and goyern- 
ment in England. Mr. G. L.: Gomme, the author of 
Primitive folk-moots, reviews the volume, and gives 
us some extracts from it. Assuming that the mu- 
nicipal corporation of the thirteenth century is the 
primitive village community in a late stage of devel- 
opment, he discovers various customs which he 
describes as belonging to the primitive village. The 
history of the primitive village is in this way extended 
and enlarged. Some very interesting passages, illus- 
trative of the right of pre-emption which kinsmen 
enjoyed, are given. It appears, that, ‘‘if a person 
sold his land [in Nottingham], his nearest heirs might 
lawfully enter into such lands and tenements if they 
offered to the purchaser, in the gild hall of the town, 
the money which he had given for the property.” 
Some passages bearing upon the history of the open- 
field system are also cited. Mr. Gomme regards the 
open-field system as ‘the best evidence of the old 
primitive tenure of land.’ The custom of borough 
English —or ‘junior-right,’ as Mr. Elton calls it — 
obtained at Nottingham. — (The antiquary, April, 
1883.) D. w. R. [L71 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


It is hoped that the new section for mechanics 
of the American association for the advancement of 
science will receive the earnest co-operation of all 
interested, who may find it convenient to attend. 
The approaching meeting at Minneapolis will be the 
second held by the section. Those haying matters of 
interest to present are requested to notify the secre- 
tary of section D (A. A. A. 8.) at Minneapolis as 
early as possible. Circulars relating to the meeting 
may be obtained of the permanent secretary of the 
association, F. W. Putnam, at Minneapolis. 

— During the coming year, experiments will be 


made at the physical laboratory of Johns Hopkins ~ 


university with a view to aid in establishing an inter- 
national unit of electrical resistance. The experi- 
ments will be carried on, under the direction of 
Professor Rowland, with an appropriation from the 
government of the United States. The results will be 
communicated to the International commission of 
electricians, meeting in Paris. 

— We alluded a few weeks ago to the award of the 
first Walker prize of the Boston society of natural 
history to Mr. Howard Ayres of Fort Smith, Ark., 
for his memoir on the development of Oecanthus. 
*This memoir is now printing by the society. The 
award of the second prize has now been made. Sey- 
eral papers of unquestionable merit were before the 


ere Ve we eae 
, ; " ve od 


August 3, 1883.] 


committee, and the subjects were so diverse as to 
make it difficult to decide between them. Expert 
aid was sought; and it has been at last concluded to 
divide it equally between William Patten of Water- 
town, Mass., who offered an essay on the develop- 
ment of Phryganidae, and H. W. Conn of Johns 
Hopkins university, who presented an essay on the 
life-history of Thalassema millita. 

— Recognizing the demand for thoroughly trained 
engineers conversant with electrical science, at the 
beginning of the next academic year (Sept. 18, 1883) 
the trustees of Cornell university will receive stu- 
dents who desire to fit themselves to enter this new 
and constantly extending field. While the general 
studies are mainly those of the departments of civil 
and mechanical engineering, the special studies of 
the course embrace the theory of electricity, the 
construction and testing of telegraph lines, cables, 
and instruments, and of dynamo machines, and the 
methods of electrical measurement, electrical light- 
ing, and the electrical transmission of power. 

— During the past year original investigations, the 
results of which either have been or soon will be pub- 
lished, have been made in the biological laboratory of 
Johns Hopkins university, in the following sub- 
jects: the direct action upon the heart of ethyl 
alcohol, the influence of digitaline upon the heart 
and blood-vessels, the influence of quinine upon the 
blood-vessels, the influence of variations in arterial 
pressure upon the time occupied by the systole of the 
heart, the minute structure of the kidney, the life- 
history of Penicillium, viscous fermentation, the in- 
fluence of various illuminations on the growth of 
yeast, the structure of Porpita, the structure of the 
gasteropod gill, the developmer® of the mammary 
gland, the structure and properties of the cavernous 
tissue beneath the olfactory mucous membrane. 

— The U.S. geological survey has appointed Prof. 
H. S. Williams of Cornell university upon its staff, 
Under its auspices he will carry out more fully the 
studies he has long undertaken upon the upper De- 
vonian fossils of the rich localities of his neighbor- 
hood in New York, and extend the work beyond the 
limits of the state, as well as into the immediately 
underlying and overlying strata, for better compari- 
son of the upper Devonian species, and study of their 
faunal relations. Professor Williams has been en- 
deavoring to build up a thorough school of compara- 
tive paleontology at Cornell with good success; and 
the assistance he will gain from his connection with 
the U.S. survey will offer a special attraction to 
those wishing to pursue paleontological studies under 
him. Mr. C.S. Prosser, a recent graduate of Cornell, 
assists him this summer in his geological work in 
connection with the U.S. survey. 

—A very interesting sketch of the life of Count 
Rumford, by Professor Tyndall, is printed in the Con- 
temporary review for July. An account of his sci- 
entific labors is promised in a future issue, 

—W. Hi. M. Christie, F.R.S., astronomer royal, has 
withdrawn from the editorship of The observatory, a 
monthly review of astronomy. This periodical will 
now be edited by E. W. Maunder, F.R.A.S.; and all 


SCIENCE. 


~~? a — i 


147 


communications should be addressed to him at the 
Royal observatory, Greenwich, as formerly. 

—Dr. M. Braun in Dorpat proposes a zodlogical 
investigation of the Gulf of Finland. The Russian 
government will furnish a steamer, and the explora- 
tions are to be made on behalf of the Naturalists’ 
society of Dorpat. 

— The American apiculturist is the ninth periodical 
in the United States devoted to bees and apiculture. 
Several of these papers have a circulation num- 
bering thousands, and one is a weekly. It would 
seem rash to start another bee paper under these cir- 
cumstances. Silas M. Locke, editor of this new jour- 
nal, seems, however, to have counted the cost, and 
means to act on the principle that there is always 
room up higher. He is an experienced bee-keeper, 
and expert in all the manipulations of the apiary. 
He has paid special attention to the qualities of the 
several races of bees, and is alive to the importance of 
great care in breeding bees, if the apiarist would 
secure the highest success. It is evident that he 
intends to give special attention to matters of sci- 
entific interest connected with bees and bee-culture. 

Mr. Locke has also secured the assistance of the 
ablest writers on the apiary in the country, —not 
men who are simply given to fine writing, but prac- 
tical men, who have won eminent success in the art 
which they practise. The paper is published at 
Salem, Mass., and, in typography and general style, 
has no superior among our apiarian periodicals. 

— According to Nature, the report of the sanitary 
commissioner with the government of Bombay 
shows, that, among other causes of death in that 
presidency in the year 1881, 1,209 persons died 
from snake-bite. A comparison of the deaths in 
1881 with the mean of those of five preceding years 
shows, that, in 1881 at least, the number had in- 
creased. These figures prove that one person in 
13,610 of the whole population of the twenty-four 
presidency districts died from snake-bite. Adding 
to this the destruction of human life effected by other 
venomous and carnivorous animals, we see how im- 
portant a matter to the residents of those regions is 
the destruction of this unfavorable environment. 

— All the readers of SCIENCE have been familiar 
with the word ‘wampum’ from their childhood. 
Roger Williams wrote in his Key, ‘‘The New-Eng- 
land Indians are ignorant of Europe’s coyne. Their 
owne is of two sorts, — one white, which they make 
of the stem or stock of the periwincle, which they 
call meteauhok when all the shell is broken off. This 
they call wampam (white). The second is black, 
inclining to blue, which is made of the shell of a 
fish which some English call hens (poquahock),’’ 
This money was called suckauhock (sucki, black). 
Various shells were used in different parts of the 
country under names adopted from the languages of 
the tribes who coined the money. But in the history 
of the early colonies the name ‘ wampum’ has gained 
a footing for all shell-money as well as for its imi- 
tations. Mr. Earnest Ingersoll has brought together 
a large amount of information on the subject in the 
May Naturalist. 


148 


— The death is announced of E. Mohler, secretary 
of the Danube commission, and of Hermann Alexan- 
der von Berlepsch of Zurich, the latter in his seventy- 
first year. 

—The death is also announced of Dr. J. S. Bailey 
of Albany, a young entomologist who had published 
a few papers of some importance on Lepidoptera. 

—In the June number of the Journal of science is 
given the following account of a bird-eating frog. “‘A 
lady living in the George district (Cape Colony) sup- 
plies the G. R. herald with the following particulars 
of the remarkable habits of this creature: ‘I have 
much pleasure in furnishing all the information we 
have, regarding the large frogs which have proved 
so destructive to our young chickens. A water-sluit 
runs round our terrace, and passes through the 


ground over which the poultry range, and in this the © 


frogs harbor. The first time our attention was drawn 
to their bird-eating propensity was by the cries of a 
small bird in a fuchsia near the stream. Thinking 
it had been seized by a snake, several hastened to 
the spot, and saw a beautiful red and green sugar- 
bird in the mouth of a large greenish frog. Only the 
bird’s head was visible; and, its cries becoming faint- 
er, the frog was killed, and the bird released. Its 
feathers were all wet and slimy, and for some days 
after we could distinguish it in the garden by its 
ruffled plumage. Since then the same species of frog 
has on several occasions been killed with young 
chickens, half-swallowed; and once a duckling was 
rescued from the same fate. Whether the noise is 
natural to these frogs, or assumed to decoy the 
chickens within their reach, we know not; but they 
constantly make a chuckling sound so exactly like a 
hen ¢calling her chickens for food that we have seen 
whole broods deceived, and rushing towards the sluit, 
where they supposed the hen to be. The frogs are 
very wary, and it is difficult to find them unless by 
the screams of their victims. We have lost large 
numbers of small chickens in an unaccountable 
manner, and feel sure now that these frogs must be 
answerable for very many of them, as there are no 
rats here, and the chickens are carefully housed at 
night. If I can give you any further details, I shall 
be glad to do so.’”’ i 

— The distinguished spectroscopist, M. Thollon, is 
now working at the observatory at Paris, as has been 
his custom during previous summers. The proposed 
observatory on the top of the Pic du Midi — where the 
brothers Henry saw the planet Venus with the naked 
eye in full daylight, when only three or four degrees 
from the sun, and two days after the transit —is said 
to be making great progress toward completion. It 
is expected that Admiral Mouchez, M. Thollon, and 
other astronomers will visit it toward the end of 
August. 

— The Vierteljahrsschrift der astronomischen ge- 
sellschaft (18 jahrgang, erstes heft) is frontispieced 
with a solar print of Dr. Carl Christian Bruhns, the 
late director of the observatory at Leipzig. In the 
nekrologe are brief notices of Bruhns and C. Baeker, 
and amore extended one of HE. Plantamour, by Dr. 
Rudolph Wolf of Zurich. Among the literarische 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 26. 


anzeigen are the following: Backlund, Zur theorie 
des Encke’schen cometen, by Paul Harzer; Callan- 
drean, Détermination des perturbations d’une petite 


‘planéte par les méthodes de M. Gyldén, by O. Back- 


lund; Ginzel, Astronomische untersuchungen tuber 
finsternisse, by Th. von Oppolzer; and Fischer, Der 
einfluss der lateralrefraction auf das messen yon 
horizontal-winkeln, by Wilhelm Schur. Among the 
newly elected members of the gesellschaft are P. 
Harzer of Leipzig, J. Holetschek of Vienna, J. 
Scheiner of Bonn, and C. Wagner of Kremsmiinster. 
The next meeting of the gesellscha/t will be held at 
Vienna, commencing on Friday, Sept. 14, and lasting 
four days. 3 

—The geological commission of Spain has pre- 
pared a pamphlet of twenty pages for the mineral ex- 
hibition, now open at Madrid, giving a brief account 
of the different geological formations occurring in 
Spain, their geographical distribution, general charac- 
ters, and the minerals of economic interest occurring 
ineach. It also gives a short orographical account of 
the country, which has a higher average elevation 
than any country in Europe excepting Switzerland. 
The highest peak is that of Mulahacen, in the Sierra 
Nevada, 3,554 metres above the sea-level. The for- 
mation which has the greatest extent in Spain is 
the tertiary, which covers 34 per cent of the sur- 
face; next comes the primary, covering 27 per cent; 
the secondary, 18} per cent; the hipogenica, 10 per 
cent; the quaternary, 10 per cent; and the azoic, 4 
percent. Given in numerical order, the miocene and 
oligocene cover together 137,877 O kilom.; the Cam- 
brian and Silurian, 114,382; the hipogenica, 49,665; 
the quaternary, 49,477; the cretaceous, 47,002; the 
eocene, 23,564; thé Jurassic, 22,697; the triassic, 
22,443; the carboniferous, 11,301; the pliocene, 9,064; 
the Devonian, 5,780; and the crystalline strata, 1,694, 
—a total of 494,946 1 kilom. The term ‘rocas hipo- 
genicas’ is applied to what are generally called plu- 
tonic and volcanic rocks, both old and recent eruptive 
rocks. 

— Pére Vidal, French missionary at Tutuila, Nayi- 


. gator’s Islands, announces the discovery, made last 


year, of the place of burial of Commandant Fleuriot 
de Langle, of the unfortunate expedition of la Pe- 
rouse. De Langle and his companions were killed by 
the natives at a point named Massacre Bay,*in De- 
cember, 1787; but up to this recent date their remains 
and place of burial had not been discovered. The 
pious missionary intends to erect an expiatory chapel 
for the converted natives on the spot where their bar- 
barous ancestors’ victims were buried. 

— Mr. Henry H. Howorth, who is our standard 
authority on the Mongols, reviews with favor the 
work of the Rey. James Gilmour, who has lived as 
a missionary among them. We have space only for 
a brief abstract upon the hospitality of these least 
sophisticated tribes of men: ‘‘ Any traveller is at 
perfect liberty to alight at any village he may wish, 
and demand admittance; and any Mongol who re- 
fuses admittance, or gives a cold welcome eyen, is 
at once stigmatized as not a man, but a dog. Any 
host who did not offer tea without money and with- 


-' 


’ 
. 
: 
| 
. 


_of the injured plant. 
are too small or too perishable to be used, drawings 
or models will be substituted. The carrying-out of 


AveusrT 3, 1883.] 


out price would soon earn the same reputation; the 
reason being, I suppose, that Mongolia has no inns, 
and all travellers are dependent on private houses 
for shelter and refreshment. At first sight it seems 
rather exacting to leap off your horse at the door of 
a perfect stranger, and expect to find tea prepared and 
offered to you free; but probably the master of the 
tent where you refresh yourself is at the same time 
sitting likewise, refreshing himself in some other 
man’s tent some hundred miles away; and thus the 
thing balances itself. The hospitality received by 
Mongols in travelling compensates for the hospitality 
shown to travellers.”’ 

— Two noteworthy ornithological papers appear in 
the August magazines. The habits and mental traits 
of the cat-bird in confinement have found an excellent 
student in Olive Miller, who gives us in the Atlantic 
a vivid picture of its curiosity, and its tyranny over 
weaker birds, with proofs of how it can learn by ex- 
perience, and its capacity for jealousy. The article 
is well worth reading. 

The friends of Prof. A. M. Meyer of Hoboken, 
who are aware of his zeal as a sportsman, will be 
less surprised than those who know him only by his 
professional studies, at his interesting paper on the 
quail, or ‘Bob White’ as it is familiarly known, 
which appears as the leading paper in the midsummer 
Century. Eight or nine exquisite woodcuts by Beard 
illustrate the different species of this class of game- 
birds in Europe and America, and far surpass in 
finish, and in excellence of delineation, any previous 
pictures we have seen. 

— An increased interest in economic entomology is 
being shown in England. The Council of education 
(My lords of the privy council) have formed a com- 
mittee of advice and reference regarding the entomo- 
logical collections which have existed for some time 
in connection with South Kensington museum. This 
committee is under Professor Huxley as chairman; 
and among the members are Professor Westwood, 
Mr. Dyer (sub-director at Kew gardens), and Miss 
Ormerod. It is planned to form a collection of cases 
that shall show the insects commonly injurious to a 
serious extent to the crops, fruit and timber trees, of 
the British Isles. Each case is to be accompanied by 
short life-histories of the species in it, and descrip- 
tions of the most serviceable methods of preventing 
their ravages. It is the purpose of the committee to 
make the collection thoroughly plain to be under- 
stood, so that farmers and gardeners may be able to 
consult it serviceably. As far as possible, the insects 
will be shown in all stages, together with specimens 
In those cases where specimens 


this plan in a thoroughly scientific manner has been 
assured by placing the preparation of the cases in 
the hands of Professor Westwood and Miss Ormerod. 

—In order to bring together the greatest amount 
of solid information respecting the natural history of 
man, students have published manuals of anthropol- 
ogy from time to time, formulating the questions they 


_ desire to have answered. In 1800 Degeraudo, a mem- 


SCIENCE, 


149 


ber of the Institut de France, published a quarto of 
fifty-seven pages, entitled ‘Considérations sur les 
diverses méthodes & suivre dans l’observation des 
peuples sauvage.’ The Société ethnologique de Paris, 
in 1839, published its first memoir, which was pre- 
ceded by general instructions addressed to travellers, 
among which were three chapters on the individual, 
family, social, and religious life of peoples. Mr. Gal- 
latin, in our own country, while preparing his com- 
parative Indian linguistics, issued circulars to all army 
officers, Indian agents, and travellers. Mr. School- 
craft prepared a very elaborate scheme. George 
Gibbs published through the Smithsonian institu- 
tion a linguistic circular, and the same institution 
has issued a number of others on anthropological sub- 
jects. The most elaborate published in our country 
are Major Powell’s manual for collectors of linguis- 
ties, and Professor Mason’s directions to collectors 
for the Centennial exhibition, and his pamphlet on 
the study of North American antiquities. In 1875 
the Geographical society of Paris published ‘ Instrue- 
tions aux voyageurs.’ The British association have 
printed three sets of questions, in 1851, 1854, and in 
1874. The last named bears the title ‘Notes and 
queries on anthropology for the use of travellers and 
residents in uncivilized lands.’ The Austrian expe- 
dition in the frigate Novara was furnished with a 
very elaborate volume of questions upon anthropol- 
ogy. In addition to these, we have ‘ Instructions 
anthropologiques’ and ‘ Instructions eraniologiques ” 
by the Paris society, and manuals by Roberts and 
Kaltbrunner, Finally, the last-named society has 
been discussing with much learning and a slight loss 
of temper a ‘ Questionnaire de sociologie et d’ethno- 
graphie.’ 

— The following investigations have been com- 
pleted by advanced students at the chemieal laborato- 
ry of Johns Hopkins university during the past year: 
on the conduct of moist phosphorus and air towards 
carbon monoxide; white phosphorus; oxidation of 
a compound containing the sulphamine and propy] 
groups in the ortho-position with reference to each 
other, showing protection of the propyl; oxidation of 
paradipropylbenzine-sulphamide, showing protection 
of the propyl; on the nature of sinapic acid; the in- 
fluence of light on fermentation; chemical examina- 
tion of minerals from the neighborhood of Jones's 
Falls. 

— Regarding the early telescopic observations of the 
ring of Saturn, Dr. H. G. van de Sande Bakhuyzen, 
the director of the observatory at Leiden, writes to 
the editor of The observatory: It is clear that Bell 
is not the discoverer of the division of Saturn’s ring; 
but that Cassini ought to be accounted the discoverer 
is not quite so certain. In a volume of MS. obser- 
vations by Huygens, in the library of the university 
of Leiden, there is a drawing of Saturn, made 1675, 
Dee. 8 (and which has been copied, and published by 
Kaiser in 1855), wherein the division in the ring, and 
the difference of brightness of the two parts, are clearly 
indicated. Above and on the side of the drawing, 
Huygens wrote, among other things, “‘. . . Saturnus 
eum comite observatus tubo 36 pedum Campani; 


150 


aderat de Cassinius. . . . [A description of the ball 
and the ring as seen by the observer here follows, 
and succeeding the words] quod a Josepho Campano 
jam olim observatum, ut figura ab ipso edita com- 
probat. . . .”’ When Huygens made this observation, 
Cassini was with him; but, from the notice in the 
Philosophical transactions, it is probable that Cassini 
saw the division of the ring in August or September, 
1675; so that there is no sufficient ground to think 
that it was Huygens who showed the division to 
Cassini. But with regard to the allusion of Huygens 
to the observation of the two parts of the ring, made 
by Campani, and the figure of the same which he had 
published, Dr. Bakhuyzen searched in vain in differ- 
ent books for the figure until he found, between a 
number of letters addressed to Huygens from Leopold, 
Prince of Etruria (the same to whom Huygens dedi- 
cated his ‘Systema Saturnium’), a sheet of paper 
with two printed drawings of Saturn and Jupiter. 
The details in the belts of the latter planet show that 
Campani’s telescope was a very good one. The 
shadow of the ring is to be seen on the disk of 
Saturn; and the outer part of the ring, for somewhat 
less than half the total breadth, is dotted, whilst the 
inner part is bright. There is no line between the 
two parts, but they are distinctly separated from one 
another by the difference in brightness. One can 
also see traces of the inner darkring. It is highly 
probable that the above words of Huygens refer to 
this figure of Saturn; and Dr. Bakhuyzen therefore 
concludes that Joseph Campani was the first astron- 
omer who, by means of a very good telescope made 
by himself, saw distinctly the darker and the brighter 
part of the ring in 1664, It is, however, possible that 
Cassini was the first who saw the line of separa- 
tion. The drawings of Saturn and Jupiter made 
by Campani are printed in ‘Stanislai Lubiensecii de 
Lubienietz Theatrum Cometicum,’ Pars prior, page 
574. Lubienietz received the drawings from Athana- 
sius Kircher in Rome. 

— The proprietors of the Melbourne age have sent 
an exploring expedition to New Guinea. 

—In the Proceedings of the American philosophical 
society (xx. no. 113) Professor Pliny Earle Chase has 
along paper, thirty-three pages, on ‘ photodynamics,’ 
in which, starting with ‘combined cometary harmon- 
ics,’ he comes out at ‘lines of force and of motion;’ 
and Professor George F. Barker gives an account of 
his very simple form of constant battery. 

— The aeronautical exhibition was held in Paris, at 
the Palais du Trocadéro, from June 5 to 24,—one 
week longer than was the intention. There were 
a number of plans for flying-machines shown, but a 
strange lack of successful results. 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 


** Continuations and brief papers extracted from serial 
literature without repagination are not included in this list. 
Exceptions are made for annual reports of American insti- 
tutions, newly established periodicals, and memoirs of con- 
siderable extent. 


Adams, KR. C. Evolution; a summary of evidence: a lecture 
peuvered in Montreal, March, 1888. New York, Putnam, 1888. 
4p. 12°. 


SCIENCE. 


= —_ Ne ee eee es oe 


‘ 


[Vou. II., No. 26. 


Amsterdam. — Wiskundig genootschap. Catalogus der 
bibliotheek. Amsterdam, Sikken, 18838. 8+112p. 8°. 


Béguyer de Chancourtois. Questions de géologie 
synthétique; études, documents et modéles exposés & l’exposition 
de 1883 & Madrid. Paris, impr. nat., 1883. 27p. 8°. 


Bentley, R. The student’s guide to structural, morphologi- 
eal, and physiological botany. London, Churchill, 1883. 490 p. 
12°, 


Bernard, G. Champignons observés i La Rochelle et dans 
les environs. Paris, Bailliére, 1883. 300 p., 56 pl., atlas. 8°. 

Boulnois, H. P. The municipal and sanitary engineer's 
handbook. London, Spon, 1883. 3898p. 8°. 


Boussinesq, J. Cours d’analyse infinitésimale de l’Institute 
industriel du Nord. Lille, Dane/, 1883. 28+254 p. 4°. 

Carr, H. Our domestic poisons; or the poisonous effects of 
certain dyes and colors (especially those containing arsenic) used 
in domestic fabrics. London, Ridgway, 1883. 47p. 8°. 

Carton. Solutions raisonnées des exercises de géométrie 
contenus dans les deux cours de M, l’abbé Carton, professeur de 
mathématiques &l’institution Notre-Dame a Valenciennes. Paris, 
Poussielgue, 1888. 312 p. 12°. 

Casseé, E. Aérostation pratique; épure et construction des 
aérostats et montgolfiéres, avec quatre planches explicatives. 
Paris, Hennuyer, 1883. 41p. 8°. 


Crié, L. Cours de botanique: organographie et familles na- 
turelles pour la classe de quatriéme, les écoles normales et les 
€coles d’agriculture. Paris, Doin, 1883. 12+481 p., 865 fig. 18°. 

Daguillon. Entre vignerons 4 la veillée, causeries sur la 
culture de la vigne, la vinification et la conservation du vin. 
Clermont-Ferrand, impr. Mont-Louis, 1883. 463 p. 18°. 


Davy, G. Tout par l’électricité. Tours, Mame, 1883. 475 
Deore 

Dubois, A. 
populaire; grand et petite rapaces, oiseaux chasseurs. 
ges, Barbou, 1888. 124p. 12°. 


The same. Oiseaux fantastiques et oiseaux chasseurs. 
Limoges, Barbou, 1883. 125 p. 12°. 

Duclau, 8. La science populaire: les ballons et les pre- 
miers voyagers aériens. Limoges, drdant, 1883. 143p. 12°. 


Fontannes, F. Note surla découverte d’un Unio plissé dans 
le miocéne du Portugal. Paris. Savy, 1883. 24p., pl. 8°. 

Graeff, A. Traité Vhydraulique, précédé d’une introduction 
sur les principes généraux de la mécanique. 3 Vol. tom.i.: 
partie théorique, 8+333 p.; tom. ii.: partie pratique, 541 p.; 
tom. iii.: tables numériques, notes, errata, planches, 52 p. Paris, 
impr. nat., 1883, illustr. 4°. 


Herrick, C.L. Types of animal life, selected for laboratory 
use in inland districts. pt. i.: Arthropoda. Minneapolis, 
Kimball pr., 1888. 33p., [7] pl. 8°. 

Holmes, A. Bromley. Practical electric lighting. 
York, Spon, 1883. 154 p., illustr. 8°. 

Johnston’s new map of South Africa, with index. London, 
Johnston, 1883. 


Lalande, J. de. Tables de logarithmes pour les nombres 
et pour les sinus. Revues par le baron Reynaud. Edition sté- 
réotype, augmentée de formules pour la résolution des triangles, 
par M. Bailleul, typographe, et d'une nouvelle introduction. 
Paris, Gauthier- Villars, 18838. 42+236 p. 16°. 


Lambert,-J. The germ theory of disease concisely and 
simply explained. London, Bailliére, 1883. illustr. 

Lyras de Moléon. La mer, description de ses merveilles, 
ses curiosités les plus remarquables. Limoges, Ardant, 1883. 
144 p. 12°. 

Martin and Watson. Handbook to the fernery and aqua- 
rium. London, Unwin, 1888. illustr. 


Mascart, E., and Joubert, J. A treatise on electricity 
and magnetism. Translated by E. Atkinson. yol.i. London, 
De la Rue, 1883. 662p. 8°. 


Oliver, J. A. W. Sunspottery; or, What do we owe to the 
sun? A popular examination on the cycle theory of the weather, 
famines, pestilences, commercial panics, ete. London, Simpkin, 
1883. 54p. 8°. 


Pierret, P. Le livre des morts des anciens Egyptiens. Tra- 
duction complete d’aprés le papyrus de Turin et les manuscrits 
du Louvre, accompagnée de notes et suivie d’un index alphabé- 
tique. Paris, Zerowx, 1882. 9+665p. 18°. k 


Simmonds, P. L. A dictionary of useful animals and their 
products: a manual of ready reference for all those which are 
commercially important, 4nd others which man has utilized; in- 
cluding also a glossary of trade and technical terms connected 
therewith. London, Spon, 1883. 1386p. 12°. 


Woolcock, J. Studies in anthropology; or, lectures on 
man. London, Partridge, 1883. 


Histoire naturelle vulgarisée, ornithologie 
Limo- 


New 


ESE ——————————eo es 


Cie oP ald . dee, 20 


- SCTENCE:” 


FRIDAY, AUGUST 10, 1833. 


THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


- Next week will see the annual meeting of 
the American association for the advancement 
of science. Although the pendulum-like swing 
of its migration takes it this year to the 
westernmost. point of its meetings,— to a 
flourishing city that was founded ‘since the 
association began its good work, —there is a 
promise of a larger and more successful meet- 
ing than has been its lot to have for several 
years. Though its roots go down slowly, there 
is good reason to believe that this society is at 
last taking firm hold in our hard and stubborn 
American society, which long seemed to deny 
it a fair chance of growth. It was, in fact, a 
much more serious task than it at first seemed, 
to create in America an association on the 
basis of that which grew so rapidly and so 
well in the British mother-country. The suc- 
cess of the British association was due in the 
main to the fact that the distances the mem- 
bers had to travel were small, so that a large 
part of the working members could be relied 
on to attend from year to year in a regular 
way ; thus giving a continuity to its intellectual 
life that has been denied to our association. 
Then in Britain, and the sister kingdom of 
Ireland, there are a score or more places where 
there exists a strong local life, a pride in the 
reputation of locality, and a mass of inherited 
wealth liberalized by long tradition that could 
easily be brought to the support of such meet- 
ings. Still more effective was the support 
which a centralized government could give, 
and the money that came easily at the call of 
the scientific leaders who made themselves 
responsible for the work the association under- 
took. All these advantages were denied to 
the American association in its earlier years. 
In the most of its meeting-places there was 
No. 27.— 1883. 


little to uphold its work; it toiled as a mis- 
sionary enterprise — patiently, but with scanty 
reward. Its recent gain in public esteem has 
been in part the result of its own good and 
devoted work, but in larger measure it is the 
result of the exceedingly rapid change in the 
condition of American city life. The frontier 
spirit in our American towns, the greed for 
immediate ends, is passing away. Few towns 
of twenty thousand people but have their 
leisured class, or are without some well-shaped 
ambition for a good name among men of 
learning. Although the association was, in its 
earlier years, somewhat before its time, our 
life is fast growing up to be a support for such 
work as it seeks to do. Every friend of learn- 
ing will welcome the assurance of strong life 
that these changes give to the association, and 
will look forward to its future with confidence 
in its work. 

Experience ‘that we may gain from the 
results of the association and of its kindred so- 
Geties in the mother-country and on the con- 
tinent shows us clearly what this work should 
be. First of all is the good-fellowship, the 
solidarity that is bred by bringing together in 
one assembly people who have no other chance 
to get the light from each others’ eyes or the 
spirit from their fellow-workers’ tongues. 
However we may value the material gain of 
fact, there can be no doubt that this is the 
precious thing which the association can give 
to American science. Our workers are neces- 
sarily scattered by the geographical immensities 
of their land; the teaching that the nature 
about their homes gives them is, from the con- 
formity of conditions in almost all neighbor- 
hoods, limited and incomplete. More than 
any other men of science, they need a season 
of contact with those trained amidst other con- 
ditions. Some things grow well in a corner, 
but natural science is not of them. Whoever 
has brought to a meeting of the American 
association memories of similar gatherings in 


152 


Europe must have felt that this social element 
in our society left much to be desired. The 
writer recalls the time when he attended the 
Swiss association at Rheinfelden in one year, 
and the American the next, in a rather gloomy 
manufacturing town. At the Swiss meeting 
all-the members dined together in a garden 
on the banks of the Rhine, after the morning 
session had been gone through with all due 
solemnity. There was, be it confessed, much 
wine, but so much wit and wisdom, withal, 
that the very prophets of teetotalism would 
haye been moved to sympathy. In the social 
fire that only a table can provoke, in ordinary 
mortals at least, these diverse folk, separated 
by race and tongue, were fused into unity and 
brotherhood. © 

Making all due allowance for our inherited 
need of taking diversions a little sadly, it does 
seem that we might heighten the social ele- 
ment in our meetings. Even the most august 
British societies descend to tea after the meet- 
ings, and find their profit in it from the closer 
and more familiar life that it gives. Although 
we use it little, our American folk have an 
unequalled capacity for after-dinner talking ; 
half our folk have the toast-master in them: so 
we need not fear that such gatherings would 
be dull. : 

Coming to the apparently more scientific 
aspects of its labors, maintaining the while that 
the science of good-fellowship is the prince of 
all learning, let us consider some other parts 
of the association’s work. The experience of 
the British association seems to show that they 
succeed in avoiding the extreme haphazard 
nature of the discussions which mark our own 
association. This is in part due to the con- 
tinuity of attendance of its leading members, 
but it seems as if.a part of its gain in this 
direction had been due to the fashion of having 
special committees charged with the study of 
large questions of public interest. Coming to 
the association with their minds full of the 
results of especially designated inquiries, the 
committee-men have been able to give an ele- 
ment of direction to its discussions that have 
often made them admirably deliberative, and 


SCIENCE. 


‘the local effects of these meetings. 


[Vou. IL., No. 27. 


exceedingly profitable to all who heard them. 
If our association would take care to provide 
committees with important inquiries, and could 
furnish them with the money necessary for the 
securing of information when such aid was 
required, we might have each year a solid body 
of matter which would insure a profit to all 
who might attend. Giving these reports and 
their discussion the precedence in the meet- 
ings, the vagarists, the lost tribes of cirele- 
squarers, law-finders, and others who wander 
in the wilderness, would not be able to render 
the sessions unprofitable to students, as they 
not unfrequently do, even in these latter days 
of the association. 

There is yet another chance of bettering the 
association-work. One of its highest aims is 
to foster the spirit of philosophical inquiry 
among the people with whom its lot is cast 
from year to year. Something, but not much, 
may be accomplished by the mere presence of 
notable men, and their wise words. Yet the 
odor of the sanctuary is but fleeting: it is not 
in the least a monumental thing. The ordinary 
citizens or the school-children mark the fact 
that for a week some hall puts on a beehive 
look; the papers have reports, mostly incom- 
prehensible ; and then the matter is forgotten. 
There seem to be several ways of increasing 
First, 
there should be a careful preliminary study of 
the scientific problems that the neighborhood 
affords, a sufficient presentation of those that 
are understood, and a suggestion of inquiries 
thereafter to be made. This should be printed, 
and would serve for a local guide for the use 
of the association, and as an incentive to local 
workers. Then, if it seems well, the associa~ 
tion should offer some small prize to those 
students on the ground who would carry farther 
the inquiries that this report has shown to 
be desirable. If the conditions permit, the 
association would do well to see that some 
local society, such as the field-clubs that were 
recently advocated in these columns, should 
be created, to remain as a successor to its 
objects and a fosterer of its work. In the 
inspiration that these meetings generally 


———s 


Aucust 10, 1883.] 


> e leeiellllaais ail 


‘arouse, such a society might even secure a 
‘smail fund for its maintenance. 


Last, and if such a work be possible, best 
of all, the association might, through a proper 
committee, do much to promote science-teach- 


ing in the schools of the cities where it each 


year bides. Every meeting of the association 
has among its attendants those who have the 
much-needed skill in the matter of teaching 
science. There is hardly a publie school in 
the land where there is not a crying need of 
such help as could best be given at such 
times. There should be a committee, or even 
perhaps a section of the association, devoted 
to the promotion of sound teaching in natural 
science; for the gravest danger before this 
branch of learning is to be found in the radi- 
cal imperfection of the methods of science- 
teaching in use in our schools. These sugges- 
tions may seem to lay heavy burdens of 
advice on the association, but none of them 
seem beyond the promise of its strength. 


RECENT EXPLORATIONS IN THE RE- 
GION OF THE GULF-STREAM OFF THE 
EASTERN COAST OF THE UNITED 
STATES BY THE U. S. FISH-COMMIS- 
SION. 

4. Nature and origin of the deposits. 
Atone part of the Gulf-Stream slope exam- 
ined by us, the bottom, in 65 to 150 fathoms, 

80 to 110 miles from the shore, is composed 

mainly of very fine siliceous sand, mixed with 

a little clay, and containing always a consid- 

erable percentage of the shells of Foraminifera 

and other caleareous organisms, and frequently 
spherical, rod-like, and stellate sand-covered 
rhizopods, sometimes in large quantities. 

Among the Foraminifera, Globigerina is 

abundant ; but many other forms occur, some 

of them of large size and elegant in form. 

Grains of green sand (glauconite) were fre- 

quently met with, but were not abundant. 

Large quantities of the tubes of annelids fre- 

quently occur. Some of these are made of 

cemented mud, fine sand, or of gravel ; others, 
of parchment-like secretions. On the inshore 
plateau, and also in the deeper localities on the 
slope, there is usually more or less genuine 
mud or clay; but this is generally mixed with 

considerable fine sand, even in 300 to 600 

fathoms. The sand, however, is often so fine 


1 Continued from No. 19. 


SCIENCE. 


153 


as to resemble mud, and is frequently so re- 
ported when the preliminary soundings are 
made. In several localities the bottom was so 
‘hard,’ in 65 to 125 fathoms, that the bulk of 
the material brought up consisted of sponges, 
worm-tubes, shells, etc., with some gravel, but 
with neither mud nor fine sand. Such bottoms 
were very rich in animal life. In many 
instances, even in our deeper dredgings (about 
700 fathoms), and throughout the belt exam- 
ined, we have taken numerous pebbles, and 
small, rounded bowlders of all sizes, up to sev- 
eral pounds in weight, consisting of granite, 
sienite, mica schist, etc. These are abundantin 
some localities, and covered with <Actiniae, 
etc. Probably, while frozen into the shore-ice 
in winter and spring, they have been recently 
floated out from our shores and rivers, and 
dropped in this region, where the ice melts 
rapidly under the influence of the warmer Gulf- 
Stream water. Probably much of the sand, 
especially the coarser portions, may have been 
transported by the same agency. 

Another way, generally overlooked, in which 
fine beach-sand can be carried long distances 
out to sea, is in consequence of its floating on 
the surface of the water after it has been ex- 
posed to the air, and dried on the beaches. The 
rising tide carries off a considerable amount 
of dry sand, floating in this way. In our fine 
towing-nets we often take more or less fine 
siliceous sand which is evidently floating on the 
surface, even at considerable distances from 
the shore. The vast sand-beaches, extending 
from Long Island to Florida, afford an inex- 
haustible supply of this fine sand. 

The prevalence of fine sand along the Gulf- 
Stream slope in this region, and the remarkable 
scarcity of fine mud or clay deposits, indicate 
that there is here, at the bottom, a current 
usually sufficient to prevent, for the most part; 
the deposition of fine argidaceous sediments 
over the upper portion of the slope, in 65 to 
150 fathoms. Such materials are probably 
carried along, for the greater part, till they 
eventually sink to greater depths, nearer the 
base of the slope, or beyond in the ocean-basin 
itself, where the currents are less active. 
Doubtless, there are also belts along which the’ 
northern current meets and opposes the Gulf 
Stream, causing less motion, and favoring the 
deposition of fine sediments. It is probable 
that motion of the water along the upper part 
of the slope may also be caused by tidal cur- 
rents, which would modify the north-eastern 
flow of the Gulf Stream, both in direction and 
velocity. Currents produced by protracted 
storms might have the same effect. In depths 


154 


greater than 200 fathoms on the outer slope, 
‘and i in 25 to 60 fathoms on the inshore platean, 
there is doubtless a slow, cold eurrent to the 
‘south-west. It is not probable that these 
bottom-currents are strong enough to move 
even the fine sand after it has once actually 
reached the bottom; nor is it strong enough 
to prevent the general deposition of oceanic 
foraminifera, pteropods, etc. 

The existence of actual currents in this 
region, sufficiently powerful to. directly effect 
an erosion of the bottom, is hardly supposable. 
Such a result may be effected, however, in con- 
sequence of the peculiar habits of certain fishes 
and erustacea that abound on these bottoms. 
Many fishes, like the ‘hake’ (Phycis), of 
which three species are common here, haye the 
habit of rooting in the mud for their food, which 
consists largely of Annelida and other mud- 
burrowing creatures. Other fishes, those with 
sharp tails especially, burrow actively into the 
mud or sand, tail first; and in all probability 
Macrurus, abundant on these slopes, has this 
habit. -Several burrowing species of true eels 
and eel-like fishes are very abundant on these 
bottoms. Many of the crabs and other crus- 
tacea are active burrowers. Such creatures, 
by continually stirring up the bottom sediments, 
give the currents a chance to carry away the 
finer and lighter materials, leaNine the coarser 
‘behind. 
_ In many localities there are great qnantises 
of dead shells, both broken and entire. A 
‘small proportion of the unbroken bivalves have 
been drilled by carnivorous gastropods, but 
there are large numbers that show no such 
injury. These have, for the most part, un- 
doubtedly served as food for the star-fishes and 
large <Actiniae, abundant on these grounds, 
and from which I hav e often taken many kinds 
of entire shells, including delicate pteropods. 
Many fishes, like the cod, haddock, hake, 
fiounders, etc., have the habit of swallowing 
shells entire, and, after digesting the contents, 
they disgorge the uninjured shells. Such fishes 
abound here. Species of Octopus: are also 
known to feed upon bivalves without breaking 
them, and O. Bairdii is common in these 
depths. The broken shells have probably been 
‘destroyed, in large part, by the large crabs and 
other.crustaceans having claws strong enough 
to crack the shells. The large species of Cancer 
and Geryon, and the larger Paguri, abundant 
in. this region, have strength sufficient to break 
most of the bivalve shells. Many fishes. that 
feed on mollusca also crush the shells’ before 
swallowing them. Both fishes and crabs have, 
doubtless, thus helped to accumulate the broken 


SCIENCE. 


([VYou. IL, No, 27. 


shells that are often scattered abundantly over 
the bottom, both in deep and shallow water. 
Such accumulations of shells would soon become 
far more extensive than they are, if they were 
not attacked by boring sponges and annelids. 
Certain common sponges, belonging to the 
genus Cliona, very rapidly perforate the hard- 
est shells in every direction, making irregular 

galleries, and finally utterly destroyi ing them. 
On the outer grounds we dredge up rarely 


fragments of wood; but these are generally. 


perforated by the borings of bivalves (usually 
Xylophaga dorsalis) and other creatures, and 
by them would evidently soon be destroyed. 
We very rarely meet with the bones of 
vertebrates at a distance from the ‘coast. 


‘Although these waters swarm with vast schools 


of fishes, while sharks, and a large sea-porpoise, 
or dolphin (Delphinus, sp.), often oecur in 
large numbers, we very rarely dredge up any 
of their bones. In a few instances we have 
dredged a single example of a shark’s tooth, 
and ‘occasionally the hard otoliths of fishes. 


‘It is certain that not merely the flesh, but most 


of the bones also, of nearly all the vertebrates 


that die in this region, are very speedily de- 


voured by the various animals that swarm on 
the bottom. Echini are very fond of fish- 
bones, which they rapidly consume. Fishes 


‘caught on the hooks in this region, and left 


down an hour or two, were nearly stripped of 


‘their flesh by small amphipod crustacea. 


Relics of man and his works are of ex- 
tremely rare occurrence at a distance from 
the coast, or even at a short distance outside 
of harbors, with the exception of the clinkers 
and fragments of coal thrown overboard from 
steamers with the ashes. As our dredgings 
are in the track of European steamers, such 
materials are not rare. A few years ago, 


even these would not have occurred. A rock — 


forming on this sea-bottom would, therefore, 
not contain much evidence of the existence of 
man, nor even of the commonest fishes and 
cetaceans inhabiting the waters. — 


5. Fossiliferous magnesian limestone nodules. 


_ At several localities in 234 to 640 fathoms, 
we dredged fragments and nodular masses or 


‘concretions of a peculiar calcareous rock, evi- 


dently of deep-sea origin, and doubtless formed 
at or near the places where it was obtained. 
These specimens varied in size from a few 
inches in diameter up to one irregular nodular 
or coneretionary mass taken in 640 fathoms, 
which was 29 inches long, 14 broad, and 6 
thick, with all parts well rounded. These 
masses differ much in appearance, color, tex- 


oe 


— 


Auvcust 10, 1883.] 


ture, and fineness of grain; but they are all 


composed of distinct particles of siliceous sand, 


often very fine, cemented by more or less abun- 
dant lime and magnesia carbonates. Some- 
times small quartz pebbles occurinthem. The 
fine-grained varieties of the rock are often ex- 
ceedingly compact, hard, and tough, usually 
grayish or greenish in color. They are often 
bored by annelids, sponges, ete., and are 
usually weathered brown, due to the presence 
of iron (probably in part as carbonate, some- 
times as pyrite). ‘The sand consists mainly of 
rounded grains of quartz, with some felspar, 
mica, garnet, and magnetite. ‘It is like the 
loose sand dredged from the bottom in the 
same region. The calcareous cementing ma- 
terial seems to have been derived mainly from 
the shells of Foraminifera, abundantly dis- 
seminated through the sand just as we find the 
recent Foraminifera in the same region. In 
some cases, distinct casts of Foraminifera are 
visible in the rock. In some pieces of the rock, 
distinct fossil shells were found, apparently of 
recent species (Astarte, ete.). The larger 
masses appear to have been originally con- 
eretions in a softer deposit, which has been 
more or less worn away, leaving the hard 
nodules so exposed that the trawl could pick 
them up. The age of these rocks may be as 
great as the pleistocene, or even the pliocene, 
so far as the evidence goes. No rocks of this 
kind are found on the dry land of this coast. 
It is probable, however, that they belong to a 
part of the same formation as the masses of 
fossiliferous sandy limestone and calcareous 
sandstone, often brought up by the Gloucester 
fishermen from deep water on all the fishing- 
banks, from George’s to the Grand Bank. 

The chemical composition of these limestone 
nodules is of much interest geologically. 
Analyses made by Prof. O. D. Allen prove 
that they contain a considerable amount of 
magnesia. They are, therefore, to be regarded 
as magnesian limestones, or dolomites, of 
recent submarine origin. ‘They also contain a 
notable quantity of calcium phosphate. The 
presence of the latter is not surprising when 
we consider the immense number of carnivo- 
rous fishes, cephalopods, ete., which inhabit 
these waters, and feed largely upon the smaller 
fishes, whose comminuted bones must, in part 
at least, be discharged in their excrements. 
In fact, it is probable that the greater part of 
all the mud and sand that cover these bottoms 
has passed more than once through the intes- 
tinal canals of living animals. The Echini, 
holothurians, and many of the star-fishes and 
worms, continually swallow large quantities of 


SCIENCE. 


mud and sand for the sake of the minute organ- 
isms contained in it, and from which they 
derive their sustenance. 

The following partial analysis by Prof. O. D. 
Allen gives the percentage of the most impor- 
tant constituents. The sample analyzed*was a 
hard, compact, and very fine-grained magne- 
sian limestone. Its color was yellowish green, ° 
with a darker green surface, weathered rusty 
brown in some places. It contained some 
minute specks of iron pyrite. Its specific 
gravity was 2.73. 

Composition of a deep-water limestone. 
Per cent. 
EiniGegne Wate ts ails 7 ists ye. ot et ee 
Magitenrny ec 6.0 Soar tlt ee ig gllistils! oct aie 
Iron (estimated as protoxide) . . . . . . 2,00. 
Phosphoric acid (uot weighed). 


Insoluble residue (sand) . . . .'. 2. « « 16.97 


WATER-BOTTLES AND THERMOMETERS 
FOR DEEP-SEA RESEARCH AT THE 
INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHI- 
BITION. 


Ir would naturally be expected that at an 
exhibition of this kind in England, where so 
much has been done in the past for deep-sea 
investigations, there would be found a good 
collection of the apparatus used in deep-sea 
work. Great Britain has, in fact, shown al- 
most nothing of the kind; indeed, one may 
say, nothing whatever that especially relates 
to deep-sea investigation. After spending the 
not inconsiderable sum of money required to 
fit out the Challenger, the British government 
seems to have lost all interest in deep-sea ex- 
ploration; and other nations are carrying on 
the work with greatly improved apparatus, 
while Great Britain rests content with the lau- 
rels already won. 

The United States exhibit is the most com- 
plete of all, as regards apparatus of this kind. 
Denmark and Sweden have some apparatus 
for collecting specimens of water and observa- 
tions of temperature, which, with the later 
forms used by the U.S. fish-commission and by 
the coast-survey, will furm the main subject of 
this article. 

The Swedish apparatus was devised by Prof. 
F. L. Ekman, principally for the use of the 
Swedish expedition of 1877, which carried out 
very thorough and systematic hydrographic 
investigations in the waters extending from 
the North Sea, through the Baltie, to the ex- 
treme end of the Gulf of Bothnia. Although 
the apparatus worked with entire satisfaction, 
it would scarcely be used at the present time, 
for it is unnecessarily heavy and large. 


156 


Two forms of apparatus for collecting sam- 
ples of water from different depths are shown, 
both constructed on the same principle. The 
larger, having an ingenious means of closing, 
is chosen for description here. It ‘consists 
of a brass cylinder open at both ends, about 
ten inches in length by four and a half in diam- 
eter, sliding freely through a space somewhat 
greater than its length, between three vertical 
brass rods or guides, which also constitute the 
frame of the apparatus. When the cylinder 
slides down, it encloses a vertical rod having 
a horizontal plate at the top, which forms a 
tight cover for the cylinder, similar to the end 
of a piston. The bottom of the cylinder falls 
into an annular groove in which a sheet-rubber 
ring is fitted, thus making a tight joint below. 
A rubber ring is also employed to make the 
upper joint tight. In the smaller instrument 
the lower groove is filled with a mixture of 
suet and wax; and the cylinder has an annular 
plate on top, the border of which extends in- 
wards sufficiently to’ be bent downward so as 
to fit into a similar groove on the upper surface 
of the horizontal disk forming the top of the 
closed chamber. When the apparatus is sent 
down, the cylinder is suspended at the top. 
When it reaches the desired depth, the cylinder 
is released by a mechanism to be described, 
and falls, enclosing a sample of the water. In 
the smaller apparatus the cylinder is sustained 
during descent by the resistance offered by the 
annular plate above referred to, which is con- 
siderably larger than the diameter of the cyl- 
inder. On drawing up the apparatus, the plate 
also acts to force the cylinder well down into 
the grooves. In the larger instrument the cyl- 
inder is held up by a catch, actuated by a 
system of levers, which are connected with 
a turbine wheel enclosed in a brass case at the 
top. During descent the water passes through 
the case, entering and leaving it freely through 
strainers of brass gauze, and causes the tur- 
bine to revolve. The latter turns freely until 
the desired depth is reached. When ascend- 
ing, the wheel makes a certain number of revo- 
lutions in the opposite direction, and soon acts 
upon the system of levers through a ratchet 
and ratchet-wheel, thus releasing the cylinder. 
This instrument has been successfully used in 
depths of three hundred metres. It is suffi- 
ciently good to enable the quantity of air con- 
tained in the water at different depths to be 
determined. 

Arfwidson’s water-bottle, exhibited by Den- 
mark, is a simple cylinder of brass, shaped 
somewhat like a bell, closed by bottom and top 
plates with bevelled edges connected by a cen- 


SCIENCE. 


rp A Ue Pe 
Ove 
Pip 


(Vou, II., No. 27. 


tral stem. The bell falls. and the whole appa- 
ratus is drawn up by the central rod. ‘The 
joints are made tight by grinding the plates 
and cylinder together. It is very simple, very 
light, and seems to be a good instrument. No 
information concerning its use is available at 
the present moment. 

Another of Professor Ekman’s instruments 
is used to collect samples of water, and also to 
enable the temperature to be correctly deter- 
mined. Although quite different in construc- 
tion from the others, it is the same in principle, 
except that it is made to protect the sample 
from any change of temperature while being 
drawn up, so that a thermometer may be in- 
troduced on deck to get the temperature of 
the stratum of water from which it was taken. 
The instrument has been found to give accu- 
rate results at depths of two hundred metres. 
It is not stated whether it has been used at 
greater depths. 

In this instrument the cylinder is fixed be- 
tween two galvanized iron rods, which, with 
four horizontal circular bands of the same ma- 
terial outside, constitute the frame, resembling 
asort of cage. The top «nd bottom of the cyl- 
inder are formed by what may be described as 
two piston-heads connected together by a hol- 
low rod, which slides up and down on another 
rod running vertically through the middle of 
the apparatus. The piston-heads are made 
of thick gutta-percha secured between brass 
plates. The connecting-rod is also covered 
with gutta-percha, and the cylinder itself is 
lined with it. Rubber is used to make the 
joints perfectly tight. The sample of water is 
thus protected by gutta-percha in every direction 
about two and a half centimetres in thickness. 
The upper piston-head carries a brass plate, 
which offers sufficient resistance to the water, 
while descending, to sustain it at the top of 
the apparatus. On hauling in, the water 
forces the piston down into the cylinder, en- 
closing the sample. The apparatus gives re- 
markably good results, if we may judge from 
some of the figures given in the case of a 
series of temperatures taken in the Baltic, 
where the alternations of cold and warm strata 
were quite remarkable. The temperatures — 
were recorded to tenths of a degree of Celsius’s 
scale, as, indeed, it was necessary that they 
should be, in order to make the results of un- 
questionable value; for the total variation in 
temperature between depths of 50 metres 
(when the temperature was 1°.8) and the © 
bottom, 210 metres, was only 2°.1 C., yet — 
there was a rise to 3°.9 at 100 metres, and a 
fall to 3°.1 at 210 metres. 


i ae PE eal Me 


Avo6ustT 10, 1883.] 


No one would undertake to obtain such 
results with any deep-sea thermometer in use 
at that time. The Miller-Cassella instrument 
would utterly fail to record the temperatures 
at the bottom; and, even if it did re- 
cord them, its readings would not be 
regarded as within half a degree F. 
of the exact temperature. The Sie- 
mens electric apparatus, which has 
been used on the Blake with great 
success, cannot be depended upon for 
greater accuracy than a quarter of 
one degree. 

Capt. G. Rung of the Danish me- 
teorological institute exhibits some 
thermometers enclosed within thick 
layers of cork, only the scales being 
exposed to view. In this way it is 
possible to obtain deep-water temper- 
atures; for the instruments can be 
hauled upon deck, and readings made, 
before any heat can pass through the 
cork. This method, however, seems 
rather primitive ; and, even if practica- 
ble, it is quite too slow to receive 
much commendation. 

There can be no doubt that the best 
deep-sea thermometer is the latest 
Negretti and Zambra form, repre- 
sented in fig. 1. It is so well known 
that a full description is not neces- 
sary; but as a reminder it may be 
said, that, when the instrument is 
upright, the mercury extends up into 
the tube to a height corresponding 
to the temperature. If then inverted, 
the mercury breaks at a particular point in the 
bend A, and runs down to the other end, 
where the temperature is read off. The small 
quantity of mercury in the bore does not ap- 
preciably change its length for slight variations 
of temperature. For a long time this has 
been the favorite instrument for tuking deep- 
sea temperatures singly, but until lately no 
means had been devised for taking serial tem- 
peratures with it at a single cast. At the 
fisheries exhibition are shown three new 
methods of inverting the instrument at a 
given depth. The first we shall mention is 
exhibited by Capt. G. Rung of Denmark, It 
is scarcely worth while to describe this ap- 
paratus in detail’; for, although it is undoubt- 
edly an excellent device, the two other 
methods to be described are much better, 
because they are lighter and smaller. Capt. 
Rung inverts the thermometer by sending down 
a messenger along the line. By causing the 
inversion of each instrument to free a mes- 


Fie. 1. 


SCIENCE. 


157 


senger to inyert the next instrument below it, 
he obtains serial temperatures in the same 
manner as is done with the new device of Mr, 
W. L. Bailie, to be soon described. 

Capt. Rung also exhibits a water-bottle and 
thermometer combined. A brass cylinder, 
perforated at the bottom with three . small 
orifices, has a piston working air-tight within 
it. Within the piston-rod, which is perforated 
here and there, is a Negretti and Zambra 
thermometer, the bulb being at the outer ex- 
tremity of the rod. 

To use the apparatus, the piston is shoved 
in, and the end of the sounding-rope tied to the 
projecting end of the piston-rod. The appa- 
ratus is then inverted; and the lower end of 
the cylinder, being now uppermost, is secured 
to a catch a short distance up on the line. 
In this position it is lowered to the required 
depth, when a messenger is sent down which 
releases the cylinder. It falls, turns over, 
and the weight is then transferred to the 
piston-rod. The thermometer, being now bulb 
up, registers the temperatnre ; while the weight 
of the cylinder causes it to pull the piston-rod 
out to the fullest extent, and, as the piston 
rises, it draws the water into the cylinder 
through the small holes in the bottom. 

In figs. 2 and 3 we have illustrations of the 
ingenious apparatus devised by Commander 
Magnaghi of the Royal Italian navy, and 
exhibited by Messrs. Negretti and Zambra. 
It will be seen that the propeller-wheel C 
screws up or down as it revolves. During 
descent the propeller does not move, as the pin 
F is against the stop G. On reversing the 
motion, the propeller screws upward until the 
screw E releases the case, which then turns 
over, as in fig. 3, and is held in position by 
the spring K. 

A still later form of this instrument has just 
been made, in which the thermometer-case is 
suspended on trunions at the lower end, in- 
stead of near the middle. 

Another method for accomplishing the same 
result has been devised by Mr. W. L. Bailie, 
US.N. In his arrangement the case of the 
thermometer is attached to the sounding-wire 
by a cam-catch at the bottom, and by two 
lateral spring jaws at the top, which encircle 
the wire. 

A brass messenger is sent down the wire 
when the desired depth is reached, which 
opens the jaws, thus releasing the top of the 
case. The latter then falls over, turning on a 
swivel at the bottom. A hook at the bottom 
carries a second messenger, which is released 
as the case turns over, and falls down to invert 


158 


the next instrument; and so on through the 
Series. Instead of sending down a messenger 
on the wire, a propeller- wheel has also been 
arranged to open the jaws, so that cither 
method may be employed. 


The question arises, whether, with thése ex- 


cellent methods of using the instrument, the 


Negretti and Zambra thermometér cannot be’ 
‘made to record accurately to tenths of a: 
It would seem, that, by giving it a’ 


degree. 
short range and a comparatively long tube, 


_ Fie. 2. 


this might be done. If ‘not; the most delicate 


observations for sub-surface temperatures will. 


probably have-to be made with some form of 
apparatus, which, like that used by Professor 
Ekman, brings the water to the surface in a 


case covered with a material through which’ 
heat caunot readily pass, or else by sending. 


down a thermometer enclosed, 


like Capt. 


Rung’s, in a thick case: of non- -conducting . 


material. 
London, June 1, 1883. 


_R. Hircucock. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 27. 


REAL ROOTS OF CUBICS. 


THEOREM I. 

_ [In the equation 2? + Az? + B= 0, when 
the roots. are real, A and B have opposite. 
signs; and simultaneously changing the signs, 
of Aand B changes signs of roots of equation. ) 


Assumé = a,%=0,2 = at bias 
a+b 
2 2 2 
x — le +ab+b*) 2? apy re ACs b’)=0; (1) 
and, ances signs of rots, : 
Ay + (a? +ab+b*)a?— er (2) 


Since ie factors (a* + ab +?) and (a7b*) are 
positive when the roots are real, whateyer the 


sign of pat and B will have opposite signs,, 


and, froin a) and (2), simultaneously chan- 
ging signs of 4 and B changes signs of roots 
of equations 

THEOREM Il. 


. 


As Bix. 
Lai is greater than a in quantity. | 


a?+ab+b a*b? 
Assume (Sa) 4(a-+b) (3) 
‘ 21° 2\3 2 : 
ee (* 1) x wou ("5") 
3 2 
but © (=) > ab. (Algebra) : 
hence inequality (8) is true. 
From (1), omitting the term = 
NE 
G 4 3 
Bas (14 3 7 )'+ 
spear ftir 2527 
Je 
ANG ‘ 
oe 
——+ = 


eee ee cele 


Aueust 10, 1883.] 


In (4) the coefficient of ¥—1 may have any 
magnitude, and in (5) the coefficient of ¥—1 
is the reciprocal of that magnitude. And since 
from any cubic (Theorem I.) (4) or (5) may 


be obtained, it follows, that, when the real part 


is unity, the coefficient of ¥—1 may be made 
less than unity, and real (Theorem II.). 

Put n = coefficient of ¥—1, we have, by 
expansion, 


(1+)! + (1—n)i = 


1 4.7 
or ‘Sees ay — 
2 (575) (as) 


Wee eee 
: Cecstee) aoha 


The series, already converging, is made doubly 

converging by the high powers of n, since n 

has been made a fraction. Putting n, for 

example, no smaller than ;45, the correction 

for the sum of the series at the eighth term 
1 


1,400,000,000,000,000,000° 
And, as the precision of the value of x is de- 
termined proportionally to the accuracy with 
which the series is summed, it follows that a 
good approximation to x may be obtained by 
using a very few first terms of the series. 

A. M. Sawin. 


would be less than 


THE HABITS OF MURAENOPSIS TRI- 
DACTYLUS IN CAPTIVITY; WITH OB- 
SERVATIONS ON ITS ANATOMY. 


Tue Louisianian district of the Austrori- 
parian region is a particularly rich field for 
the herpetologist. Thirty-six species of rep- 
tiles are known to be confined to its limits 
alone, not to mention a 
long list of others that 
range generally over the 
southern states; and to 
these we must add those 
species which are men- 
tioned by the old French 
authors, but have not 
yet been taken by 
American naturalists, a 
knowledge of which fact 
always enhances the in- 
terest of a country in 
the eyes of the explorer, 
who pushes his way 
through its tangled jun- ; 
gles, or visits its unfrequented spots and its 
sultry forests, for the first time. 

After my arrival in New Orleans, the months 


a are included in the pseudo-winter of this 


/ 


SCIENCE. 


Fie. 1.—Life-size head of Muraenopsis tridactylus; adult. 


159 


sub-tropical land came and passed by, before 

my collection could boast of a single specimen 

representing the Amphiumida: indeed, it was 

not until April had almost made its appear- 

ance that a superannuated old negro presented — 
himself one morning with a live but rather 

small specimen of the three-toed siren, the 

subject of this essay. 

He called it a ‘ Congo eel,’ —a name which 
is indifferently applied by every one here, 
intelligent as well as ignorant, to both this 
reptile and Amphiuma means. Long before 
this, reports had come to me from far and near 
of the dreaded ‘ Congo ,’ or ‘ lamprey ’ as it is 
often called. It was universally said that its 
bite was invariably fatal. To such an extent 
was this believed, that, I am told, a physi- 
cian of the city, of undoubted reputation in 
his profession, and a capital chemist, but pos- 
sessing nothing more than a general knowledge 
of natural science, was actually making experi- 
ments with the view of examining the venom 
of this innocent amphibian. When my aims 
became pretty thoroughly known throughout 
my section of the country, I applied a very 
different kind of analysis to this problem: a 
good round sum of money was offered to any 
one.who would bring me the full record of a 
well authenticated case of death from the bite 
of the Congo snake, or eel. It is almost need- 
less to add, that I never had to pay the re- 
ward. One person, more mercenary than well 
informed in such matters, did bring forward a 
case of an hysterical old colored woman who 
had been bitten several years ago by a Congo 
eel, and died six months after the infliction of 
the wound, in spasms! 

The small one, which now came into my 


Drawn from the living specimen 
by the author. 


possession, was placed in water, in a large 
comfortable vessel, for observations upon his 
habits, before he was finally consigned to his 
tank of alcohol. In handling him, he rarely 


160 


offered to bite, unless the examination was pro- 
longed or roughly conducted; then he would 
eurl up, slowly open his mouth, and make an 
awkward longe at the fingers or hand that 
held him. Sometimes he would only open his 
mouth, and hiss in a subdued manner. On 
one occasion, however, this reptile succeeded in 
getting out of his tub during the night. When 
I found him, in the morning, in a distant part 
of the room, he snapped at me quite savage- 
ly several times before he was retaken. It 
was amusing to see the way in which he suc- 
ceeded in leaping out of his place of confine-. 
ment, —a large tin bath-tub, with the water 
seven or eight inches below the brim. He 
swam round and round with increasing rapid- 
ity till the necessary impetus was acquired, 
when he would prettily make a sort of spring 
over the side of his tub on the floor, where he 
would squirm round like an eel until he was 
replaced. In such situations he uses his legs 
to the full extent to which they seem capable 
of being put; in the water, too, these members 
are constantly brought into use, — the fore-pair 
when he desires to move very slowly forward, 
in’ which case he may or may not, generally 
not, use the hind-pair in aiding the action. 
The fore-pair are also used alternately to push 
himself one way or another, when he wishes 
to change his course. A common use for the 
hind-pair, is to throw them forward, and brace 
them against the ground he may be passing 
over, in order to check his onward movement 
either partially or entirely. In swimming 
about he has all the appearance of the com- 
mon eel; and during these times he draws 
both pairs of limbs close beside his body, when 
his action is graceful and interesting to behold. 

When these sirens are at rest, they either 
stretch out in gentle curves, sluggishly along the 
bottom, or, what is not very uncommon for 
them to do, eurl up tightly, in a spiral manner, 
the latter two thirds of their length, while the 
head and remaining third is protruded for- 
ward in a direct line. In this curious position 
they float near the surface, the head being 
lowermost. If two occupy the same vessel, 
they often curl about each other in a rather 
affectionate manner; but I have never wit- 
nessed them quarrel or fight. One time I 
threw a dead king-snake into the tub of my 
first small specimen, the snake being at least 
three times as long as the siren. Imagine my 


surprise to see him fly at the intruder, seize’ 


him just below the head, straighten out as stiff 
.as he could, then rapidly whirl round, as a 
drill does, causing the dead snake to be spirally 
coiled about his body. A moment of quietude 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. IL, No. 27. 


followed this strange manoeuvre, during which 
time one could see a crunching movement on 
the part of the jaws of the siren going on; 
but, finding his enemy showed, no resistance, 
he slowly let go his hold, and, freeing himself 
from the dead snake’s coils, swam about the 
tub without paying him any further attention. 
In a few moments, however, I repeated the 
experiment, when he made the same attack 
with just as much vigor as before ; but all sub- 
sequent trials failed, and I could never induce 
him to take further heed of such a harmless 
enemy. 

This siren will eat crayfish in confinement ; 
but I could neyer induce one to take any thing 
else, although raw meat is the commom bait 
used by the negroes in catching them for me. 
Sometimes before a meal, or may be after, your 
captive will swim gracefully about his limited 
quarters, and, occasionally rise to the surface, 


stick his nose out of the water, and give 


vent to a loud blowing sound, that may be 
heard anywhere in a large room, even if con- 
versation be going on. As remarked above, 
my collectors usually took such specimens as 
were brought me, with the ordinary hook and 
line, baited with fresh meat; but very often 
they are captured in hand dip-nets, or even 
thrown out of a shallow drain or bayou with a 
stick. They are most numerous after heavy 
rains, when their usual places of resort are 
flooded over. When taken by others than 
those who are collecting for me, they are in- 
variably despatched on the spot, and dread- 
fully and wantonly mutilated, so deep-seated 
is the detestation and dread of this harmless 
creature in the minds of all the people here- 
about. ; 

In a large, shallow tank of water, I have be- 
fore me now two fine living specimens of this 
siren, which have been under my observation 
for nearly a fortnight. The larger of these 
two has a total length of eighty centimetres, 
with a mid-girth of fourteen centimetres. I 
have kept specimens alive that measured a 
hundred or more centimetres, but they have 
since been consigned to alcohol. The speci- 
men now before me, just measured, is of a dark 
olivaceous brown above, and entirely so on all 
the parts beyond the hind-pair of limbs. A 
patch of this color is also found upon the 
throat. The color of the under parts is a dull, 
whitish leaden hue, being mottled with an in- 
termediate shade as it joins the darker and 
more sombre color of the dorsal aspect of the 
body. This mottling grows denser as it ap- 
proaches the hinder limbs, where finally it 
merges into the general tint of the upper sur- 


Se ee tt—t 


ded Avene de 


Avueusr 10, 1883.] 


face, which is carried over the tail. A faint 
lateral crease is found along the mid-third of 
the body, with feeble corrugations crossing it 
vertically, that are quite evident as the crea- 
ture writhes about, and the eel-like slime that 
naturally coyers his entire body partially dries. 
The limbs are pretty well developed: each is 
three-fingered, or, better, each possesses three 
digits. The hinder limbs are larger than the 
fore ones, and stronger in every way. The 
body tapers to a tail beyond the genital fissure, 
but no well-marked constriction indicates to us 
its exact commencement, or attachment to the 
body. It is rounded beneath, and finished off 
along the median dorsal line with a thick- 
ened, feebly pronounced crest. Sections made 
through the body itself, between the fore and 
hind limbs, are elliptical, with the major axes 
in the horizontal plane. I have taken other 
measurements from this specimen, which I 
present in the form of a table. 


OS TERRI SS eS © ee pOe eee rey 80.0 cent. 
ROROOMIE te se Sk is les ie ce yee mish Als 14.0 
Weguror fore-liinb sua rie Ms 1 fea 
Aes hind-Minds Wier penesiveyt ketaageh io) bey 1 2.5m 
ee OAC ss, ).6/ ba Lisle te ds cohen oie iA fan) s 6.054 
Distance between theeyes . . .-...--+s 20 
mei ic wih es APO TOStrIS, Pre i I eae 5 
¥ RS mid-points bet’n eyes and nostrils, 2.2 * 
SORE ATOM AIO ee ed del ois ee etd py mize 4.2 
BOGRNCPE EPALG Sic ae We a) se ee a, by ta oy * 
PP a Lome tal fete be ct M iio Pteh siete he! Te iar et 
Length of genital fissure. . 2... ee ew ee 12 “ 
Commissure of jaw from gill-cleft. . . ..... 3.0. « 
From a point midway between hind-limbs to tip of tail, 20.0 


The nasal apertures are very small, and the 
eyes are black, round, a little more than a 
millimetre in diameter, and devoid of lids. 

I may remark here, that, while engaged in 
taking these measurements, this specimen suc- 
ceeded in seizing my thumb in his mouth, and 
immediately commenced his peculiar gyrations, 
turning himself in the long axis of his body; 
but I was too strong for him, and soon disen- 
gaged myself. The bite caused no more in- 
convenience than those I have received from 
alligators a month old. 

The upper lips of the three-fingered siren are 
thin-edged and pendulous, extending from 
the commissure of the jaw to a point nearly 
opposite the nostril on either side, where they 
merge into the rounded snout. The lower lips 
do not meetin front by a centimetre. They are 
likewise thick and sharp-edged, overbanging 
the common integument of the lower jaw, and 
originating posteriorly within the commissure 
and beneath the upper lips. Minute glandular 
openings are seen on the head above, and in 
the maxillary space beneath, symmetrically 
arranged in rows, as on other parts of the 


SCIENCE. 7 


161 


body. We find the gill-clefts with two 
obliquely placed lips, with which they can be 
closed, the anterior one being the larger. The 
internal openings to the gill-clefts are far back 
in the pharynx, nearly opposite the rudimen- 
tary and partially cartilaginous larynx, which 
latter communicates directly with the superior 
extremities of the membranous pulmonary air- 
passages. A pair of normal lungs are among 
the most exquisite of structures in any verte- 
brate. Here they are particularly beautiful, 
being very long, cylindrical in form, extending 
far down into the abdomen, to terminate in 
pointed extremities. The right is thirteen cen- 
timetres longer than the left, and is carried 
nearly down to a point opposite the cloaca. 
From one end to the other, the alimentary tract 
is nearly or quite a straight tube. The oesoph- 
ageal portion is rather small and tubular, with 
a few circular constrictions in its lower third. 
This division soon dilates into a spindle-shaped 
stomach of some size, which, in the specimen 
before me, is fourteen centimetres below the 
pharyngeal aperture. Below this last dilation 
the intestinal tract is carried straight to the 
cloaca, or rectal enlargement, into which the 
urinary and genital organs open. A very 
peculiar feature is noticeable in the circular 
constrictions that occur in the intestine at ir- 
regular intervals along its length. Very dark 
in color, the many-lobed liver is about twenty- 
six centimetres long, and covers at its lower 
tenth, or thicker extremity, an ellipsoidal gall- 
bladder of no small size. Many features of 
interest and importance present themselves in 
the circulatory and renal systems ; but our space 
will not permit us to enter upon them here, as 
we have something to say about the osteology 
of Muraenopsis. Among other organs, a well- 
developed pancreas is to be observed ; and the 
Wolffian bodies are present, and their dilated 
upper extremities are about opposite the lower 
end of the liver. 

The tongue in this siren is in an extremely 
rudimentary stage of development. I will close 
this brief sketch of the anatomy of the soft 
parts — yet it can hardly be termed a sketch, 
for many structures have not even been alluded 
to—by calling the reader’s attention to the 
remarkable length of time that nervous excita- 
bility, if I may apply such a term t6 the phe- 
nomenon, was kept up. My specimen was 
killed with chloroform. That of itself took a 
long time, forty minutes or more ;. but what 
is this, compared with the fact that its 
heart continued to pulsate in good rhythmical 
time during three hours and a half of my 
operations, and after the most extensive dis- 


162 


Fie. 2.— Dorsal, ventral, lateral, and posterior views of the 
skull of Muraenopsis tridactylus (life-size), respectively rep- 
resented in A, B, C, and D, where like lettering has the same 
indicationineach view. Pmzx, premaxillary; Vo, vomer; mz, 
maxillary ; s.e, splen-ethmoid; pa. s, parasphenoid; pt, ptery- 
goid; sg, squamosal; ca, columella auris; e.o, exoccipital; 
0.c, occipital cordyle; pn, foramen for exit of pneumogastric 
and glosso-pharyngeal nerves; ena, external nasal aperture; 
Wa, nasal; F, frontal; p, parietal; on, foramen for the pas- 
sage of of the orbito-nasal nerve, the first division of the fifth 
pair, to the rhinal cavity ; 0s, orbito-sphenoidal region; pr.o, 

ro-otic; d, dental element of mandible; an, angulae; jm, 
foramen magnum; pi, roof of the mouth. 


SCIENCE. 


i 
[Vou. IL, No. 27. 


sections had been made? And four hours and 
a half after, when all the organs had been re- 
moved, and inroads made upon the trunk, this 
creature would still writhe vigorously by simply 
pinching his tail, or close his jaws like a vice 
in a way that would put the hardiest of eels to 
shame, and crush any claim the latter might 
have in standing at the head of the list of those 
animals most tenacious of life. We find the 
cranium of Muraenopsis very thoroughly ossi- 
fied, and many of the sutures observable only 
after close inspection.- The teeth are of the 
pleurodont type, and may be seen in all stages 
of development in the deep grooves that exist 
in the mandible, the maxilla, the premaxilla 
(which usually supports twelve), and the entire 
inner margins of the descending plates of the 
vomers, which meet each other anteriorly (fig. 
2, A). A long, slender, sphen-ethmoid is in- 
serted between these last bones, quite distinctly 
seen on the inferior aspect. 

The premaxilla throws backward a nasal 
process that overlaps the frontals above, and 
passes between the nasals. These latter seg- 
ments are very much honeycombed and grooved, 
—a characteristic which is adopted by the an- 
terior extremities of the frontals and the upper 
parts of the maxilla on either side. The co- 
ronal suture is seen beyond, a demi-lozenge 
shaped and elevated plate, developed by the 
united frontals, directed backward (fig. 2, B). 
Each outer margin of the parietal region 
is raised into a curling crest, as if pushed 
up by the unusually large squamosals, which 
lend to the lateral aspect of the skull of this 
creature such a massive appearance. As in 
other Urodela, a large columella auris is seen 
on either side, external to the extensive pro- 
cesses that project backward, to bear the 
occipital condyles (fig. 2, D). A pro-otie is 
well developed ; but it is difficult to determine 
in the adult cranium whether a separate epi- 
otic and opisthotic exist or not, though I am 
strongly inclined to think they do not. The 
pterygoids are completely ossified, and quite 
extensive, horizontally flattened, and curved 
plates of bone, their anterior extremities being 
prolonged with a fibrous tissue to form the floors 
of the orbits. The lower maxilla is very deep 
and solid; and, although the meeting of the 
dentary elements anteriorly is quite extensive, 
the symphysis is not firm. Nearly the entire 
basicranial region is occupied by the wide- 
spreading and anteriorly produced parasphe- 
noid (fig. 2, A), which, with its serrated margin, 
articulates with the parallel vomerine plates 
beyond. 


We have presented us for examination in — 


Aveust 10, 1883.] 


the hyoidean apparatus (fig. 3) two reniform 
hypo-hyals in cartilage, surmounted by a triple 
piece of the same material that occupies the 
usual site of the glosso-hyal. In the median 
line we have a thoroughly ossified basi-hyal ; 
while curved bony cerato-hyals, with expanded 
cartilaginous anterior ends, are suspended from 
the hypo-hyals. Four branchial arches are 
represented ; the first pair being long, curved 
bones, and the remaining ones cartilage. The 
gill-clefts open to the rear of the last pair on 
either side. 

The spinal column of an adult Muraenopsis 
contains one hundred and ten well-ossified 
vertebrae. The second and third of these have 
suspended from their transverse processes free 
ribs, of which the anterior pair is the larger. 
A strongly marked intercondyloid process is 
formed between the two concave facets on the 
anterior aspect of the atlas. As a rule, all 
these vertebrae, except the first and the ex- 
tremely rudimentary caudal ones, are of the 
amphicoelous type, with lofty neural spines,— 
far-spreading transversed processes that become 
horizontally broadened in mid-spinal region, — 
and with well-marked zygapophysial processes 
to link the series together. None of these 
' vertebrae are modified to form a sacrum in con- 


am 
L 


Fic. 3.—Hyoidean and branchial ‘apparatus of Muraenopsis 
tridactylus; life-size; dotted parts in cartilage; gh, rudi- 
mentary glosso-hyal; AA, hypo-hyal; ch, cerato-hyal; 1, b?, 
68, and J, branchial arches; ge, gill-cleft. 


nection with the pelvis in the precaudal region ; 
beyond which, each segment throws down 
parial hypapophysial processes, which are not 
lost, as we proceed backwards, until we arrive 
at the ultimate nodules that complete the tip 
of the tail. 

In my specimen the thirty-third and thirty- 
fourth vertebrae have coalesced in the most 


: SCIENCE. 


163 


remarkable manner, forming one bone, with 
nearly all the parts double. The appendicular 
skeleton is represented by extremely rudimen- 
tary shoulder and pelvic girdles, supporting 
equally feebly developed limbs, with their seg- 
ments arranged as seen in fig. 4. We find 


22 fi 


Fie. 4.—A, right fore-limb and rudimentary shoulder-girdle; 
B, right hind-limb and rudimentary pelvis, both slightly en- 
larged, of M. tridactylus. From dissections by the author. 


the carpus has three cartilaginous elements in 
its structure, —two in the proximal row, and 
only one in the distal.. This number is in- 
creased by an additional segment in the tarsus, 
which has two elements in each row, articulat- 
ing with the digits, as shown in the figure. 
Osseous tissue of an elementary character 
may be deposited in the humerus, the femur, 
and certain points in the pelvis, more particu- 
larly the projecting rod that appears to repre- 
sent the pubic bone; otherwise all this part of 
the skeleton in our siren remains in cartilage 
throughout life. R. W. SHurevpr. 


THE GREAT TERMINAL MORAINE 
ACROSS PENNSYLVANIA.) 


AFTER describing the investigations which else- 
where had demonstrated the existence of a true ter- 
minal moraine to the glacier covering north-eastern 
America, the author stated, that having obtained the 
aid of the geological survey of Pennsylvania, and, 
during a portion of his work, the assistance of Prof. 
G. F. Wright, he had been able to follow and define 
the southern limit of glaciation for the first time in 
a continuous line four hundred miles in length, and 
to find that it was everywhere marked by a remark- 
able accumulation of glaciated material, which, wind- 
ing across mountains and valleys, from the lowlands 
of the Delaware to the great Alleghany plateau, was 
continuous from end to end, and formed a true ter- 
minal moraine. 

There is a marked distinction between the glaci- 
ated portion of Pennsylvania and that region south 
of glacial action. Although the general topography 
of the two regions is alike, the varied superficial 
features due to glacial agencies, the far travelled 
and seratched bowlders, the smoothed and striated 


1 Abstract of a paper before the American association for 
the advancement of science, in Montreal, August, 1882. By Prof. 
H. Carvitt Lewis. : 


164 


rock-exposures, the unstratified deposit of till, the 
many kames, and especially the numerous glacier- 
scratched fragments and pebbles, — all these deposits 
are in strong contrast with those south of the moraine, 
where all the gravels are stratified and the pebbles 
water-worn, where the rocks are never polished or 
striated, but, on the other hand, often decomposed 
to a great depth, and where, except near the seacoast, 
wide stretches of the more elevated regions are per- 
fectly free from all drift. 

The method employed in discovering the line of 
the moraine was to zigzag along its course from the 
glaciated into the non-glaciated region, and vice versa, 
going each time far enough on the one side to be fully 
satisfied of the absence of glaciation, and, on the 
other, to find undoubted traces of its action. 

Nowhere south of the line of the terminal moraine 
had he found any traces of glacial action, all state- 
ments by other geologists to the contrary notwithstand- 
ing. When typically developed, the terminal moraine 
is characterized by peculiar contours of its own. A 
series of hummocks, or low conical hills, alternate 
with short straight ridges, and enclose shallow basin- 
shaped depressions, which, like inverted hummocks 
in shape, are known as kettle-holes. Large bowlders 
are scattered over the surface; and the unstratified 
till which composes the deposit is filled with glacier- 
scratched bowlders and fragments of all sizes and 
shapes. The average width of the moraine is about 
one mile. } 

At many places, however, the limit of glaciation is 
marked merely by an unusual collection of large 
transported bowlders. This is especially the case in 
front of a high mountain range which has ‘ combed 
out’ the drift from the ice. 

The general course of the moraine across Pennsyl- 
vania was defined as follows: appearing first in 
Northampton county, a mile below Belvidere, at lati- 
tude 40° 49’, it winds in a great curve, first westward 
and then northward, reaching the base of the Kitta- 
tinny Mountain, three miles east of the Wind-Gap. 

Ascending to the top of the Kittatinny Mountain, 
sixteen hundred feet high, the moraine crosses the 
great valley between the Kittatinny and the Pocono, 
and then swings sharply back and around Pocono 
Knob, immediately afterwards to ascend the steep 
face of the mountain to the wide plateau on top, 
twenty-one hundred feet above the sea. Crossing 
this in a fine curve, and heaped up in an immense 
accumulation, it goes first north and afterwards west, 
reaching the gorge of the Lehigh River, some ten 
miles north of Mauch Chunk. It crosses the gorge 
at Hickory Run, and, without swerving from its 
general north-western course, ascends mountain 
range after mountain range, descends to the valley 
of the east branch of the Susquehanna, and cross 
the river at Beach Haven. 

Then, following the base of Huntington or ees 
Mountain, it finally ascends it, and crossing its sum- 
mit, at a height of fifteen hundred feet above the 
Susquehanna just below, descends the north slope of 
the mountain to the broad, undulating valley to the 
north. Taking a northerly course, it follows up on 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 27. 


the east bank of Fishing Creek to the North or 
Alleghany Mountain, enters Lycoming county,”passes 
westward along the base of the mountain, crossing 
in its course the Muncy and Loyalsock creeks, and 
then, near the village of Loyalsock, turns at right 
angles, and ascends the mountain. 

Having reached the summit of the Alleghanies, 
over two thousand feet above the sea, it passes west 
through a wild, wooded region nearly as far as {Pine 
Creek, where it begins a nearly straight north- 
westward course through the south-west corner of 
Tioga county, and the north-west part of Potter. 
In the high ground of Potter county, the moraine 
crosses a great continental watershed, from’ which 
the waters flow into the Gulf of Mexico, Lake 
Ontario, and Chesapeake Bay. The moraine is}here 
finely shown at an elevation of twenty-five hundred 
and eighty feet, being higher than elsewhere in”the 
United States. 

It now enters the state of New York in the south- 
west corner of Allegany county. Passing still north- 
west, and entering Cattaraugus county, it twice 
crosses the winding course of the Allegheny River, 
east and west of Olean; then trending to a point five 
mniles north of Salamanca, in latitude 42° 15’, it forms 
aremarkable apex, whence to the Ohio line its course 
is south-west. Turning at right angles to its former 
course, the moraine passes south-west through the 
south-east corner of Chautauqua county, and, keep- 
ing approximately parallel to the course of the Alle- 
gheny River, re-enters Pennsylvania in Pine Grove 
township, Warren county. Itcrosses the Conewango 
River seven miles north of Warren; then trending 
west, still at a general elevation of nearly two thou- 
sand feet above the sea, it crosses one gorge after 
another, and forms a line separating not only the 
glaciated from the non-glaciated region, but also the 
cultivated from the uncultivated and densely wooded 
region. It crosses the south-east corner of Crawford 
county, skirts the north-west and west boundary,of 
Venango county, crosses Beaver River eight miles 
south of New Castle, and, traversing the extreme 
north-west corner of Beaver county, crosses the Ohio 
state line in the middle of Darlington township, 
thirteen miles north of the Ohio River. 

The moraine thus leaves Pennsylvania at precisely 
the latitude at which it entered the state; and, if a 
straight line were drawn across the state between 
these two points, the line of the moraine would form 
with it a nearly right-angled triangle whose apex 
was a hundred miles distant perpendicularly from 
its base. The total length of the moraine, as here 
shown, is about four hundred miles. The moraine 
crosses the Delaware at an elevation of two hundred 
and fifty feet, the Allegheny at an elevation of four- 
teen hundred and twenty-five feet, and the Beaver at 
an elevation of eight hundred feet, above the sea, 
or two hundred and twenty-five feet above Lake 
Erie. Upon the high lands it rises higher by a 
thousand feet or more. 

Coming to the details of the moraine, many of 
which are of great interest, reference was made to 
its fine development in Northampton county, west of 


«~ 


~ inareie 
Wee Jay 


THE GREAT TERMINAL MORAINE ACROSS PENNSYLVANIA, by H. Carvitt Lewis. 
+s The Glaciated area is shaded. 


166 


Bangor, where it forms a series of hummocky hills, 
which, a hundred to two hundred feet in height, 
and covered with transported and striated bowlders, 
rise abruptly out of a clayey plain to the west. 
Glacial striae upon exposed surfaces near Bangor 
point south-west, or towards the moraine. After fol- 
lowing the moraine to the base of the Kittatinny 
Mountain, it became of great interest to know 
whether a great lobe of ice descended from New 
Jersey along the lower side of the mountain, or 


whether a tongue projected through the Delaware 


Water-Gap, or whether the glacier, even so close to 
its southern limit, came bodily over the top of the 
mountain, unchecked by it, and unchanged in its 
course. ‘The last, the most improbable of these 
hypotheses, and certainly the least expected by the 
author, proved to be undoubtedly the trueone. The 
author had been able to show that the moraine 
crossed the mountain near Offset Knob; that large 
bowlders, derived from lower elevations several miles 
northward, lie perched all along the summit, fourteen 
hundred feet above the sea; and that, as shown by 
the numerous striae on the northern slope of the 
mountain, running wp-hill, the glacier moved diago- 
nally up and across the mountain, uninfluenced in 
any way by the presence of the Water-Gap, and finally 
came to an end in the valley south of the moun- 
tain, as marked out by the terminal moraine. Huge 
bowlders of fossiliferous limestone, sometimes thirty 
feet long, were torn by the ice from their parent 
strata in Monroe county, on the north side of the 
mountain, lifted up a thousand feet, carried across 
the mountain, and dropped finally in the slate valley 
of Northampton county. The author had found one 
of these limestone bowlders upon the very summit of 
the mountain, where the jagged sandstone rocks had 
combed it out of the ice during its passage across. 
The journeys of these bowlders were short; but that 
of a well-rounded bowlder of Adirondack syenite, 
which the author had found in the same county, was 
about two hundred miles. 

. Another interesting point is in Monroe county, 
upon the summit of Pocono Mountain, over two 
thousand feet above the sea, where a great ridge 
of moraine hills twelye miles long, one mile wide, 
and a hundred or more feet high, composed of 
unstratified till, and bearing numerous bowlders 
of Adirondack gneisses and granites, rises out of 
the level, sandy plain of the Pocono plateau, and 
sweeps around from Pocono Knob into Carbon 
county. Known locally as ‘Long Ridge,’ its origin 
had never before been suspected. It encloses re- 
markable little ‘moraine lakes’ without inlet or 
outlet, and is heaped up into just such ‘conical 
hills as may be seen in the moraine in southern 
Massachusetts. Nothing can more clearly show the 
continuity and uniformity of action of the great 
glacier than the identity of its moraine accumulations 
at such remote points. 

In fact, the course of the moraine, as it winds from 
the top of the Kittatinny Mountain down to Cherry 
valley, and then up again on to the Pocono, is a 
complete vindication of the glacial hypothesis. Itis 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No, 27. 


in no sense a water-level, nor could it have been 
formed by floating ice. No other cause than that of 
a great glacier could form a continuous accumulation 
of glaciated material which contains no evidences 
of water-action, and which follows such a course. 
Neither on the mountains nor in the valley does the 
moraine rest against any defined barrier, as would 
be the case were it a shore-line. 

The kames of Cherry valley, fine examples of 
which appear south of Stroudsburg, are interesting 
relics of sub-glacial water-action. They are com- 
posed of stratified water-worn gravel, having often 
an anticlinal structure, and as a series of conical 
hills and reticulated ridges, enclosing ‘ kettle-holes,’ 
form conspicuous objects in the centre of the valley. 
They appear to have been formed by sub-glacial 
rivers, which, flowing from the moraine backwards, 
under or at the edge of the ice, emptied into the 
Delaware valley. They thus probably differ in origin 
from the longer kames in New England, and other 
regions more remote from the edge of the glacier, 

The glacier had produced very slight effect upon 
the topography of Pennsylvania. It neither levelled 
down mountains nor scooped out eafions, The 
glacier passed bodily across the sharp edge of the 
Kittatinny Mountain without having any appreciable 
effect upon it, the glaciated part of the ridge being as~ 
high and as sharp as that part south of the moraine. 

In describing the course of the moraine across 
Luzerne county, the author showed that it crossed 
several mountain chains in succession, by each of 
which it was locally deflected northward. At the 
point where the terminal moraine crosses Buck 
Mountain, in a line diagonally across the mountain, 
the moraine was so sharply defined that he was 
able to stand with one foot upon ihe glaciated and 
the other upon the non-glaciated region. It was 
interesting to find, that in front of a mountain chain, 
such as Huntington Mountain or the Alleghany 
Mountain, the moraine. was poorly developed, as 
though the mountain had ‘combed out’ the drift 
from the ice. 

He described an instructive portion of the moraine, 
where, three and one-half miles north-west of Ber- 
wick, it seems to abut against a high slate hill, which 
furnishes, therefore, a section of the end of the 
glacier. It shows that the extreme edge of the ice 
was here only about four hundred feet thick, and 
that, while the moraine and the scratched pebbles 
were carried along at the base of the ice, sharp frag- 
ments of sandstone were carried on top. 

In speaking of the apex made by the moraine in 
New York, and of the high plateau region of Potter 
county, it was inferred, from the local influence al- 
ready shown by the author to have been exerted by 
single mountain chains, that this region of high 
eleyation had a decided influence upon the general 
course of the moraine. 

Certain facts observed as to the grayel-ridges of the 
Allegheny River rendered it probable that the river 
flowed under a tongue of the glacier, ten miles broad 
and two miles long, through a sub-glacial channel, at 
the time of its greatest extension near Olean, He ~ 


Vi 


as 


Aveusrt 10, 1883.] 


described a great natural dam across the valley of the 
Great Valley Creek, near Peth, where the moraine 
stretches across the valley from side to side: and he 
spoke of the contrast between the numerous drain- 
age valleys which drained the waters of the melting 
ice into the Allegheny River, and those valleys which 
took their rise south of the moraine, and were free 
from all drift. 

After giving some details of the western lobe of 
the ice-sheet, and dwelling upon the agricultural 
significance of the moraine, he spoke of some curious 
deposits of glaciated material which occurred in a 
narrow strip of ground immediately in front of the 
moraine, and which he had named the ‘fringe.’ 
These deposits consisted of bowlders of Canadian 
granite, and other rocks, which he found perched 
upon the summits of hills, sometimes as far as five 
miles in front of the moraine, though never farther. 
This glacial ‘ fringe,’ confined to the western part of 
the state, was found to increase in width from two 
miles in Warren county to five miles on the Ohio line, 
and was at first a puzzling phenomenon. The hy- 
pothesis suggested was, that, like breakers on the sea- 
shore, the top of the ice overreached the lowest strata 
by the width of the ‘fringe,’ and that while the 
moraine marked the halting-place of the bottom of 
the ice, by which it was formed, the far-transported 
bowlders were carried on more rapidly in the top 
strata of the ice, and were dropped outside of the 
moraine to form the ‘fringe.’ It was stated that the 
striae in the western part of the state all pointed 
south-east, being at right angles to those in the 


eastern part of the state, but, like them, pointing ~ 


always towards the moraine. 

In conclusion, the author reviewed the more im- 
portant facts discovered during his exploration of 
the line of the moraine, dwelling upon the character 
of the moraine where crossing river-valleys, the 
absence of proof of any tongues of ice down such 
valleys, the absence of glacial drift south of the 
moraine, the very slight erosion caused by the pas- 
sage of the glacier, and especially upon the deflec- 
tions, large and small, in the line of the moraine, 
which were inexplicable on any other hypothesis 
than that the moraine now described was pushed out 
at the foot of a continuous ice-sheet of immense extent. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


Change of birds’ notes. 


For some years it has been known to many about 
here, that in one locality the cardinal bird (Cardinalis 
virginianus) has been in the habit of imitating the 
notes of the whippoorwill (Antrostomus vociferus). 
From articles I have read from time to time in vari- 
ous scientific journals, I infer that it is not generally 
known that birds ever, in the wild state (especially 
eardinalis), change their song. I therefore thought 
it well to report this case. I have in several instances 
known this bird to change its song, under confinement, 
for one entirely different; but this is the only case I 
have ever known where such a thing has occurred in 
the wild state. I have known of this case for about 
ten years. F, O. JAcoss. 
Newark, Licking county, O. 


SCIENCE. 


167 


St. David's rocks and universal law. 


The article with the above heading in Scrence of 
June 15, by Dr. M. E. Wadsworth, has just come 
under my observation; and, as it refers to questions 
which have arisen chiefly in consequence of my re- 
searches among those rocks, I shall deem it a favor 
if you will allow me space in Science for a few 
remarks in explanation. Professor Geikie’s paper 
was written with, as he states, ‘a sense of duty’ to 
‘defend the views of his predecessors ;’ and it is per- 
fectly certain, from the hasty manner in which the 
work was gone over by Professor Geikie and his two 
assistants, that the object was to vindicate the work 
of the Geological survey of thirty or forty years ago, 
rather than to apply the knowledge gained by the 
work of many independent observers since that time 
to correct the errors well known to have been com- 
mitted by the surveyors, which remain as blots on 
the maps even now issued by the Geological survey. 
In the district of St. David's, these maps show a great 
intrusive mass passing under the city of St. David's, 
about eight miles in length, and with an average 
width of about a mile. The southern portion is 
called syenite, and the other felstone. The rocks ly- 
ing along the north-western edge for about a mile in 
width are colored as altered Cambrian, presumably 
as the result of the intrusion; but on the south-east 
the rocks of the same age are supposed to be in con- 
tact with the mass in an unaltered condition, and 
without even a line of fault to separate them. ‘These 
appearances were curiously anomalous if true: hence 
I felt it necessary to go very carefully into the ques- 
tion. My large acquaintance with the district, and 
the knowledge I bad obtained in my explorations 
among the lower fossiliferous rocks of the area, 
enabled me to do this with some advantage. I had 
also, from time to time, much valuable assistance 
from Professors Harkness, Hughes, and Bonney, and 
from Mr. T. Davies. of the British museum, Mr. 
Tawney, ete. 

I found that under the same name, rocks of very 
different characters had been grouped together. The 
so-called syenite ridge was seen to consist in part of 
granitoid rocks, but also of quartz-felsites, of hille- 
flintas, of breccias, and of porcellanites freely trav- 
ersed by intrusive dikes of various kinds. The so- 
called metamorphic Cambrian on the north-west was 
soon discovered to be an entirely distinct series from 
any Cambrian rocks known in the district, or, indeed, 
anywhere in Wales, and to be largely made up of 
voleanie rocks; and the basal Cambrian conglomer- 
ate, as marked on the survey-maps, was shown to 
overlie the granitoid, the quartz-felsite, hiilleflinta, 
and the voleanic schistose and brecciated series un- 
conformably, and to be mainly made up of fragments 
derived from those series. From the examination of 
the conglomerates also, it was seen that there were 
distinet evidences of their having been deposited 
along old coast-lines, and that their materials varied 
with the rocks upon which they reposed; also that 
these pre-Cambrian rocks must have been much in 
the condition in which they are now found, before 
the Cambrian conglomerates were deposited upon 
them. Curiously, also, I found that many of the 
masses colored as intrusive greenstones 6n the sur- 
vey-maps were highly acid rocks, and others in- 
durated voleanic ashes of pre-Cambrian age. Indeed, 
nearly all the so-called intrusive masses marked so 
abundantly on the survey-map among the older rocks 
in the St, David’s area have been proved beyond doubt 
to be the result of erroneous observation; and yet 
we are told by the present director-general that little 
or no change is required in these maps, and that he 


168 


feels it his duty to ‘defend the views of his prede- 
cessors’ as there indicated. There is a still larger 
area of the Dimetian rocks about ten miles to the 
east of St. David’s; and there, as at St. David’s, these 
granitoid rocks underlie the lowest Cambrian beds 
without producing the slightest alteration in the 
latter. Indeed, I have now found no less than six 
areas in Wales where typical Dimetian granitoid rocks 
occur under the Cambrian or pre-Cambrian rocks; 
and in neither of these areas, though several excellent 
observers have, in addition to myself, searched the 
boundaries carefully, have we found the slightest 
indications of their being intrusive in those rocks, 
though they are all colored as intrusive rocks in the 
survey-maps. In several of these areas the fact that 
they must be pre-Cambrian rocks is rendered perfectly 
certain, as large fragments of the granitoid rocks in 
exactly the same condition in which they are now 
found occur in the basal conglomerates of the Cam- 
brian. In one area only, in Wales, have I found 
Dimetian rocks entirely surrounded by rocks newer 
than the Cambrian; and here the Llandovery con- 
glomerates and sandstones repose upon them, and 
are largely made up of materials derived from the 
Dimetian. In the other areas newer rocks than the 
Cambrian are found occasionally in contact with 
limited portions of the Dimetian exposures; but these 
effects are clearly seen to have been produced by 
faults. 

_ In his paper to the Geological society, referred to 
in Screncr, Professor Geikie maintained ‘‘that the 
“Dimetian group’ is an eruptive granite which has 
disrupted and altered the Cambrian strata, even above 
the horizon of the supposed basal conglomerate.” 
The evidence adduced to support this view was from a 
section at Ogof-Llesugn, where, as he supposed, ‘‘ the 
conglomerate had been torn off and enclosed in the 
granite, and has been intensely indurated so as to be- 
come a sort of pebbly quartzite.’ Professor Hughes 
and myself, along with a number of other competent 
observers, have since examined this spot; and we 
found that the conglomerate lies quite loosely upon 
the Dimetian, that at almost every point we could 
pass our hand between the conglomerate and the 
granitoid rock, and that the Cambrian conglomerate 
had no change whatever induced in it beyond that 
common to it in all parts of the district. Two other 
sections were mentioned, and drawings exhibited to 
show the ‘ Dimetian’ intrusive in the Cambrian, and 
as having eaten deeply into the series at Porthclais. 
These sections I knew perfectly well, at the time, to 
be in the lines of faults; but for greater satisfaction 
I asked Professor Hughes and party to re-examine 
these with me. The result proved that I was entirely 
Tight, and that Professor Geikie and his assistants 
had mistaken a junction produced by well-marked 
faulting for an intrusion, and the beds which he sup- 
posed had been eaten away had simply been dropped 
by the fault. He could not produce a single speci- 
men showing contact alteration between the grani- 
toid (Dimetian series) and overlying rocks. His 
evidence, therefore, fails utterly, on examination; 
and the pre-Cambrian age of the granitoid rocks of 
St. Dayvid’s is rendered, if possible, more than ever 
certain. An attempt was made to show that the 
quartz-porphyries which I had pointed out as being 
intrusive in the Pebidian rocks, which alter the rocks 
in their immediate vicinity, were just such rocks as 
might be apophyses of the ‘ granite,’ but, with a curi- 
ous want of knowledge of the fact that these quartz- 
borphyries are common to many other parts of the 
area far distant from the granitoid series, that they 
also actually in some places cut across the latter. _ 


SCIENCE. 


ae 4 
oad: bi = 


[Vou. IL, No. 27. 


As Professor Geikie did not spend the time neces- 
sary to examine the area where the Arvonian rocks 
are chiefly exposed, but hastily arrived at the conclu- 
sion, without seeing them, that the hiilleflintas, brec- 
cias, and porcellanites must be intrusive felstones, I 
need scarcely refer to Professor Geikie’s views on this 
point. I shall refer fully to this question in my paper, 
in reply, to the Geological society. I may, however, 
mention, that I exhibited a series of magnificent brec- 
cias from this group, and showed large masses of the 
Cambrian basement conglomerates from Ramsey Is- 
land, consisting almost entirely of the rocks of the 
Aryonian group upon which they repose. The latter 
are colored in the survey-map as intrusive in beds high 
up in the Silurian (fossiliferous Arenig). : 

The Pebidian, Professor Geikie says, ‘forms an in- 
tegral part of the Cambrian system.’ He acknowl- 
edges that it underlies the Cambrian conglomerate, _ 
but says the latter rests quite conformably upon the 
former. In the survey-map these Pebidian beds are 
supposed to be Cambrian beds higher than the con- 
glomerate, but altered by the so-called intrusions. 
Here, therefore, some modification of the map is 
acknowledged to be necessary. Had Professor Geikie 
and his assistants used ordinary care in examining 
these conglomerates, they would haye seen also that 
they are constantly in contact with different mem- 
bers of the underlying rocks, that they lie unconform- _ 
ably on the edges of those beds, and also that they 
are very largely made up of the rocks below. 

Professor Geikie did not refer to North Wales in 
his paper; but as the facts are, if possible, clearer 
there than in South Wales, I may be allowed to call 
the attention of the readers of SciENCE to some 
sections just published by the Geologists’ association 
of London, preparatory to the visit to be paid by the 
members to Carnarvonshire and Anglesey, July 23— 


-28. These sections show in a very clear manner how 


the Cambrian conglomerates creep over the Dime- 
tian, Arvonian, and Pebidian rocks in that area. The 
rocks of the first two and lowest groups are in that 
area, as at St. David’s, colored as intrusive rocks in 
the survey-maps, and the last as altered Cambrian 
and Silurian rocks. 

The sections have been prepared by Prof. T. McK, 
Hughes (Woodwardian professor of geology at Cam- 
bridge, and formerly of the Geological survey), who 
has carefully worked out the geology of this district. 
He and I were the first to point out, in the year 1877, 
the similarity of the conditions exhibited here to 
those at St. David’s; and since then he has devoted 
much time to the elucidation of the facts bearing 
upon the questions in that area. 

In a diagram (no. 1) he shows how the basement 
conglomerate of the Cambrian, between Bangor and 
Carnarvon, creeps over no less than four sub-groups 
of the archean rocks: viz., at Bangor, over the Bry- 
niau beds (Pebidian); at Brithdir, the Dinorwig beds 
(Arvonian ?); at another part farther south, the Crug 
beds (upper Dimetian); and at Tut Hill, the Carnar- 
von beds (lower Dimetian). In section 2, the uncon- 
formable overlap of the Cambrian over the Pebidian 
near Bangor is clearly shown; and in no, 3, a diagram 
section showing the sequence of the rocks from Car- 
narvon to Snowdon, the basement beds of the Cam- 
brian are shown rolling over the Carnarvon and Din-. 
orwig groups at different points.- ; , 

Altogether, the evidence afforded by these sections 
is of the most conclusive kind; and it seems impos- 
sible to believe that the surveyors, when they have 
seen and examined these sections, and have had more 
experience with the Welsh rocks, can still cling to the 
antiquated faith that all these pre-Cambrian rocks 


: 
| 


x _ Aueusr 10, 1883.] 


- rian and Cambrian age. 


SCIENCE. 


169 


1.— Diagram plan showing how the Cambrian basement beds creep over the*various divisions of the archean 
between Bangor and Carnarvon (Hughes). 


OARNARYON. 
S.W. 


* Cambrian. 


Bancor. 


Archean. 
~ 


&, Sandstone and shale of Cambrian. 
a, Conglomerate and grit of Cambrian 
basement beds. . 


bidian, ete.). 


- — ~ — - — - ——s 
A, Bryniau beds } Bangor group (= Pe- | C, Crug beds / Carnarvon group (= Dime- 
B, Dinorwig beds } 


D, Twt beds \_ tian). 


*1, Twt Hill; *2, Yscyborwen; *3, Careggoch; *4, Llandeiniolen; *5, Tymawr; *6, Brithdir; *7, Hendrewen; *8, Bryniau Bangor. 


2. — Diagram section east and west across Bryniau Bangor. 
Length of section about one mile (Ilughes). 


102 
é a2s 
S Fe 
g BOs 
= P25 
x Rass 
3 2°58 
e gwLe°9 
= e7-2k 
i=] oe 
> = 

i=) 


a he ze Nee 
a o¢ £9 
S 2k as 
> 24 Pr 
as os Se 
og as, Zo 
us : se 
ef S Sos 
om 2 55% 
2 - 2 
—— = — 


ae a a a”? 


a a* a 


b, Bangor beds (upper Pebidian); a', Conglomerate and sandstone (basement bed of Cambrian); a@*, Sandy mudstone; a, Finer 
felspathic mudstone; a‘, Pale green felspathic mudstone; a5, Cleaved and contorted felspathic mudstone; @*, Purple and green 
fine mudstone and slate; a’, Fine sandy flags, like the Bray beds, purple, and here and there green, passing up into brown; 
a’, Even-bedded thin gray sandstones; a®, Banded flags, passing up into a", Black slates. 


8. — Diagram-section showing the sequence of rocks from Carnarvon to Snowdon. 
Length of section ten miles (Hughes). 


Carnarvon. 
Twt Hill. Pont Seiont. 


NW. 


Oe ee Ee 
Aa c CpFx @ B 


Lianrug. 


Slate 
Cwmglo. Llyn Padarn. quarries. Llyn Peris. 


“a 
T= 


Snowdon. 


Ez ees a, 
Ba SONNE 


Archean. 
‘ A, Carnarvon group (Dimetian); B, Dinorwig group. 
a, Conglomerate and sandstone (basement bed of Cambrian); 6, Lower and middle portions of Cambrian, not subdivided, but 
probably including Harlech, Menevian, Lingula flags, and Tremadoc beds; c, Arenig; p, Pisolitic iron ore; d, Bala group, with 
subordinate volcanic beds; #, Faults; z, Broken ground; D, Dikes. 


are merely intrusive masses or altered beds of Silu- 
The basal conglomerate in 
this area consists in places almost entirely of quartz- 
felsites, at other points of a mixture of granitoid 
(true Dimetian) and felsite rocks, and in some cases 
of schists. I may further mention with regard to 
the crystalline schists in Anglesey and in Scotland, 
supposed by the Geological survey also to be of Cam- 
brian and Silurian age, that the recent researches of 
Bonney, Callaway, Lapworth, and myself, tend to 
make it certain that they are all, like the similar 
rocks in America described by Dr. Sterry Hunt and 
others, of pre-Cambrian age. Henry Hicks. 


Hendon, N. W., London, 
July 5, 1883. 


a a 


Silurian strata near Winnipeg. 


Presuming that it may be of interest to some read- 
ers of ScrENCE to read something on the geology of 
a locality near Winnipeg, I take pleasure in furnish- 
ing information, hitherto unpublished, concerning 
an outcrop of Silurian strata in this: part of the 
north-west. This interesting exposure occurs a short 
distance from Selkirk, situated some twenty-one 
miles north of Winnipeg on the Canadian Pacific 
railway, and near the Red River. 

At this place a quarry was opened about a year 
ago, which, on examination, affords many attractions 
to a student of science. Fossils belonging to some 
sixteen species are readily obtained, not only in the 


170 


solid rock, but also in the innumerable chippings 
that lie scattered about the quarry. 

The rock is magnesian limestone, dresses readily, 
and, when burnt, supplies excellent lime. Stone from 
this place is shipped by rail to Winnipeg, where it is 
used for ordinary and ornamental building-purposes. 
Many of the fossils being in the form of casts, they 
frequently interfere with the successful dressing of the 
stone. About four feet of drift material overlies the 
rock; but at another quarry lately opened, nearer 
the river and a short distance farther north, the drift 
material attains a thickness of twenty feet. The 
rock is much the same, but apparently not so fossil- 
iferous. 

In the quarry first referred to, the remains of cor- 
als belonging to the genera Alveolaria, Halysites, and 
Zaphrentis, are very numerous. Some specimens 
obtained bear a close resemblance to the genus Fayo- 
sites. Another group of very common fossils are 
representatives of the genera Orthoceras, Endoceras, 
Ormoceras, and Cyrtoceras. 

An excellent specimen measuring eight inches in 
diameter, with three whorls, wasfound. ‘The specific 
characters are much obliterated, but in general out- 
line and appearance it bears a close resemblance to 
Trocholites ammonius of the Trenton. 

Several imperfect specimens of Trilobites were 
found. One appears to be a member of the genus 
Illaenus. Fragments of Stromatopora are common, 
showing in all cases distinct lamination, and, in sey- 
eral, well-defined oscula; while in a few, conical 
elevations can be observed. The specimens obtained 
were found among the fragments of rock scattered 
about the quarry; but the characters of all are exceed- 
ingly uniform. The largest obtained measures. 7 
inches across, 5 in depth, and 2 in thickness. The 
laminae are well marked, numbering four to the line. 
They present a wave-like appearance, there being 
three crests in the section under examination. At 
the summit of each crest a large aperture is observed. 
Viewing the specimen from the top, six of these os- 
cula are seen, all about the same distance apart. 
As yet, I have discovered no rods or pillars present; 
but there is no question regarding the presence of 
well-marked laminae and oscula. 

I have read carefully the description of the species 
S. tuberculata, S. perforata, S. granulata, S. mam- 
mnillata, and S. ostiolata, of Nicholson, and S. concen- 
trica of Goldfuss, and none seem to embrace the 
species from this quarry. If any reader of Science 
can suggest the species to which this interesting fos- 
sil from Selkirk belongs, he will confer a great favor 
upon the writer. J. HovES PANTON. 


Pre-Bonneville climate. 


In a critical notice of my preliminary report on 
Lake Bonneville (SctENCE, no. 20), Mr. Dayis points 
out that a certain conclusion as to the history of the 
basin isnot sustained by the phenomena described. 
Since reading his comment, I have not been able to 
consult my text; but, if memory serves, his restriction 
is fully warranted. Still, the conclusion is not of 
necessity overthrown; for it is based in part on 
omitted. data, the report aiming to present only an 
outline of the subject. Now that the matter is up 
for discussion, it may be well to indicate these. 

The facts set forth are as follows. Above the 
Bonneville shore-line the topographic forms are those 
produced by sub-aerial agencies. Below the shore= 
line the details are of sub-aqueous origin, but the 


SCIENCE, 


larger features are sub-aerial in type. Especially 
are the great alluvial cones constituting the pedi- 
ments of some of the mountains continued beneath 
the old water-margin, their surfaces being lightly 
etched and embossed by lake agencies. Lvidently 
these alluvial cones are of pre-Bonneville date; and 
evidently, too, the goal of drainage —‘the base 
level of erosion’ — was lower when they were built 
than during the Bonneville epoch. 

The questioned conclusion is, that the emptiness 
of the basin during the long pre-Bonneville, alluvial- 
cone epoch was due to aridity. Mr. Davis acutely 
perceives, that the adduced phenomena comport 
equally well with the alternative hypothesis that the 
pre-Bonneville condition of the basin was one of 
free drainage to the ocean, the present continuity 
of the basin’s rim haying been instituted either at 
or just before the beginning of the Bonneyille ep- 
och. 

On this hypothesis, the place at which the drainage 
of the basin was discharged must have acquired 
the peculiar configuration of a river-channel; and 
since, as our observations show, alluvial accumulation 
has not been great in the region during Bonneyille 
and post-Bonneyille time, vestiges of this channel 
should remain. The fact that they have not been 
found goes far to show that they are not visible; for 
intelligent search has been made for them, our eyes 
having been trained for their recognition by the dis- 
covery of pre-Bonneville channels within the basin. 
All the low passes of the enclosing rim have been 
scrutinized. At whatever points, then, earlier drain- 
age systems have intersected this rim, the channels 
appear to have been obliterated by the erosive and 
constructive agencies of land sculpture. 

Again: the principal plain of the Bonneville basin 
is at heart mountainous. Its surface is level only 
because the alluvial mountain bases are deeply buried 
by Jater deposits. Of the nature of these deposits 
we know little more than that the uppermost is 
lacustrine, the Bonneville layer concealing all else. 
The deposit representing the pre-Bonneville or 
alluvial-cone epoch must be relatively heavy, and 
may be assumed to dominate in the determination 
of the general configuration of the plain. With the 
basin closed, a certain system of slopes would arise: 
with the basin open, there would arise a certain 
other system, definitely related to the point of dis- 
charge. The actual system of slopes is adjusted to 
the existing status, —a closed basin, with lacustral 
sedimentation. 

Assuming that there was at some remote date a 
channel of outflow, and that the configuration of 
the plain was adjusted thereto, the period consumed 
in the obliteration of the one and the remodelling of 
the other must have been long as compared with the 
Bonneville epoch. The pre-Bonneville portion of 
the period — when the basin was closed, but con- 
tained no lake — was presumably characterized by 
a climate similar to the present. 

The aridity of the pre-Bonneville epoch is one of 
the features associating the Bonneville history with 
glacial history; for, if it be disproved, the Bonneville 
flooding no longer demonstrates a climatic episode 
and the apparent homology disappears. And the 
Bonneville oscillations have, of course, no climato- 
graphic value if they were orographically produced, 
It is well, therefore, to test thoroughly.every link in 
the chain of evidence. G. K, GILBERT. 

Nevada, July 14, 1883. 


[Vou. IL, No. 27. — 


r a ar 


AveustT 10, 1883. } 


WARD'S DYNAMIC SOCIOLOGY. 


III. 


Mr. Warp presents a classification of the sci- 
ences differing from those proposed by August 
Comte and Herbert Spencer. The new classi- 
fication is of great interest, and deserves espe- 
cial mention. The classification of Comte 
was made prior to the great development of 
modern scientific research, and is imperfect. 
The classification of Spencer is, like much of 
his philosophy, a mixture of metaphysical 
speculation and positive knowledge. Does 
the classification of Ward meet the require- 
ments of scientific philosophy ? 

He divides the subject-matter of all science 
into three parts, which he denominates the 
‘ primary,’ ‘ secondary,’ and ‘ tertiary ’ aggre- 
gations. It is a classification of the objects 
of the cosmos by modes of aggregation. The 
primary aggregation is molecular, and gives an 
inorganic kingdom; the secondary is morpho- 
logic, and gives a biologic kingdom; the terti- 
ary is sociologic, and is represented by human 
society. 

A mountain is an aggregation of rocks, or 
geological formations, some of which may be 
erystalline, others detrital. It is an inorganic 
molar aggregate, and must fall into Mr. Ward’s 
first class. But the earth itself is an aggregate 
of solids, fluids, and gases. Its solids are 
molar aggregates of detrital and crystalline 
rocks. These rocks at the surface are arranged 
in mountains, hills, and valleys, with interven- 
ing depressions filled with bodies of water, — 
seas, lakes, and rivers; and beneath, an un- 
known interior; and above, the atmosphere. 
The atmosphere is in motion. The water is 
earried into the air, and moves with it, and de- 
scends again upon the earth. ‘The known solid 
portion of the earth is also in motion, rising 
and falling in its relation to the centre of the 
earth; while portions of the unknown interior 
of the earth are, by extravasation, coming to 
the surface, and the land portions of the earth 
are being carried by the waters into the sea. 

Geology teaches us, then, that the earth is 
composed of interdependent parts; that the 
circulation of the air, of the waters, of the 
solids, and of the interior liquids is carried 
on by the action of the several interdependent 
parts ; and the earth has been not inaptly com- 
pared by eminent geologists to a living or 
organized being. If we properly understand 
Mr. Ward, this aggregation also is to be rele- 
gated to his first class. 

Again: the earth is one of a group of worlds 
composing the solar system, — the solar aggre- 


SCIENCE. 


171 


gation, composed of interdependent parts ; and 
this aggregation is also to be included in the 
first class. 

The inclusion of all of these modes of aggre- 
gation in the one class is tacit. He does not 
clearly set them forth, and his definitions are 
imperfect. It is difficult to understand from 
his discussion whether they were considered 
in his general scheme, or whether he would, 
if considering them, establish one or two more 
grand categories. 

Again: psychology is included in the secon- 
dary aggregation as belonging to biology. As 
the term is now used by scientific men, ‘ psy- 
chology’ includes a consideration. of the bio- 
logie organ of the mind and its operations. 
Through these operations are produced lan- 
guages, giving the science of philology; arts, 
giving the science of technology; societies, 
giving the science of sociology; and opin- 
ions, giving the science of philosophy. With _ 
Mr. Ward, philology, technology, and perhaps 
philosophy, are subordinate parts of sociology. 
Though he does not make direct statement to 
this effect, yet his presentation leads to this 
conclusion, in the same manner as his presen- 
tation of the subject of primary aggregation 
leads to the supposition that he intends to 
include molar and stellar aggregations therein. 

Psychology has its biologic organ in the 
brain and nervous system ; and mind is discovy- 
ered in the lower orders of life, as well as in 
man. The genesis of psychology is manifestly 
in biology. In like manner, the organs of 
speech, active and passive, alike in oral, sign, 
and written language, are biologic; and lan- 
guage is also found in the lower orders of life. 
Language, therefore, has its genesis in biology. 
In the same manner, the organs of the arts 
are biologic ; and rude arts are discovered in 
the lower orders of life. Technology, there- 
fore, has its genesis in biology. The first step 
in sociologie organization is the biologic differ- 
entiation of the sexes, giving husband and 
wife, parent and child ; and rude social organ- 
ization is also found in the lower orders of 
life. Sociology, therefore, has its genesis in 
biology. The same considerations that would 
lead to the relegation of psychology, to biology 
would also lead to the inclusion of philology, 
technology, and sociology, and perhaps of phi- 
losophy. ‘ 

Now, these five sciences are so bound to- 
gether that the absence of one would void all. 
They are interdependent anp co-ordinate in 
such a manner that the evolution of one is 
dependent on the evolution of all. Language 
is a means of communication between individ- 


172 


ual minds. Discrete minds could not develop 
language: it is produced by many co-existing 
individuals of each of a long series of genera- 
tions. Society and mind were necessary to 
its production. The arts are produced by 
many persons in the same manner as languages, 
and involve also the operations of mind; but 
the arts could not have been developed with- 
out the concomitant development of language, 
for art is built on art, and that which remains 
in art must pass from person to person and 
from generation to generation by means of 
language. The arts of absolutely discrete 
men could make no progress. 

For the evolution of society, language is 
necessary for the intercommunication of 
thought. The interdependence of men as 
integral parts of bodies politic would be im- 
possible without language; and _ sociologic 
organization is dependent upon the differen- 
tiation of human activities, or the division of 
- labor, and is therefore dependent upon the 
development of arts or technology. Philos- 
ophy, or the science of evolving opinion, is 
the final product of the mind, and is therefore 
dependent upon psychologic evolution. It is 
dependent upon philology, for language is the 
mould of thought, and determines its form. 
It is dependent upon technology, for by the 
arts men reach knowledge not otherwise attain- 
able; and upon sociology, for it is the com- 
bined knowledge of many, accumulating 
through the generations. 

Again: all that part of the evolution of 
psychology which distinguishes the human 
mind from that of the lower animals is due 
to the tertiary aggregation in the develop- 
ment of philology; technology, sociology, and 
philosophy. In philology the method of evo- 
lution is the survival of the economic in the 
struggle for expression; and the course of 
evolution is through the specialization of the 
erammatic processes, the differentiation of 
the parts of speech, and the integration of 
the sentence. The method of evolution in 
technology is the survival of the useful in the 
struggle to have; and the course of evolution 
is the employment of the forces and materials 
of nature for the benefit of mankind. The 
method of sociologic evolution is the survival 
of justice in the struggle for peace; and the 
course of evolutjon is the differentiation of 
the functions and organs of government, and 
the integration of tribes and nations. The 
method of evolution in philosophy is the sur- 
vival of the true in the struggle to know; 
and the course of evolution is in the discern- 
ment and discrimination of phenomena, the 


SCIENCE. 


7 a er 


[Vou. II., No. 27. 


relegation from analogic to homologic cate- 
gories in classification, and the discovery of 
more and more complex sequences. In these 
psychologic sciences the struggle, i.e., the 
endeavor, i.e., the conation, is teleologic. 

The primary method of psychologic eyolu- 
tion is the survival of the fittest in the struggle 
for existence, and is purely biologic. ‘The 
struggling subject itself survives. The secon- 
dary or indirect method of psychologic evo- 
lution is by the agencies of the philologic, 
technologie, sociologic, and philosophic meth- 
ods; and, combined, they constitute the 
successful struggle for happiness. All that 


part of the evolution of psychology which — 


separates man from the lower animals is due 
to this secondary or indirect method, and is 
teleologic; and progress is due, not to the 
survival of the fittest of the struggling subjects, 
but to the suryival of the object for which 
the struggle is made. These five sciences, 
therefore, constitute one group, through the 
fact that they belong properly to the tertiary 
aggregation of matter, and the further fact 
that the method or cause of evolution exhibited 
therein is radically different from the method 
or cause of evolution in biology. The five 
sciences are co-ordinate, reciprocal, and in- 
terdependent. As biology has its genesis 
through protoplasm and organic chemistry in 
the physical ageregation, so these five sciences 
of the tertiary aggregation have their genesis 
in biology, —in the biologic organs of man- 
kind, and the beginnings of these sciences dis- 
covered among the lower animals. 

Elsewhere Mr. Ward classifies phenomena 
in the manner shown in the table on the fol- 
lowing page, which is copied from his work. 

Of the four groups thus derived, the first, 
inorganic, corresponds to the group embraced 
in his primary aggregation; the second, or- 
ganic, to the group embraced in his secondary 
aggregation, but excludes psychology, philol- 
ogy, technology, sociology, and philosophy. 
If we combine his direct and indirect teleo- 
logic phenomena into one group, the five great 
sciences which include the operations and 
products of the mind are thrown into one. 
Let the first, then, be called physical phenom- 
ena or phenomena of the primary aggregation, 
and the sciences which pertain thereto physical 
sciences; the second, biologic phenomena or 
phenomena of the secondary aggregation, and 
the sciences pertaining thereto biologie sci- 
ences. But what shall the third group be 
called? If the term psychology is used, it 
must be with a wider connoting than that 
which it has heretofore had. Psychology. 


Aveusr 10, 1883.] 


SCIENCE. 


173 


Phenomena are: 


Genetic; physical; unconscious: producing change through 
infinitesimal increments. 


— 
Teleological; psychical; conscious: proceeding from volition 
and involving purpose. 


- ~~ —-— — 
Indirect : 
proceeding according to the 


indirect method of conation, 


Direct: 
proceeding according to the 
direct method of conation. 


—__—"— —_—__-——, 
Inorganic : _ Organic: 
the result of pbysical or me- the result of vital or biologi- 
ehbanical forces. cal forces. 
Zodlogical : 

as manifested by creatures 

below man. 
oS SL Se eee 

Natural : 


taking place according to uniform laws, and produced by true natural forces; capable of prediction and 


modification. 


then, would include the operations of the 
mind, and the products, or results, of those 
operations. If we use anthropology, the 
term will not include the beginnings of psy- 
chology, philology, technology, and sociology, 
found among the lower animals ; for they have 
mind, language, art, and society in a com- 
paratively low form. On the other hand, an- 
thropology has been used so as to include 
the biology of man. If we use sociology, 
following Comte, Spencer, and Ward, the term 
must include more than these authors design, 
and some other term must be selected for that 
differentiated science which forms one of the 
group of five, and which above has been desig- 
nated as sociology. Altogether it seems 
better to use the term anthropology, which 
would then include psychology, philology, 
technology, sociology, and philosophy. 

Mr. Ward does not relegate ethics to any 
place in his scheme. Moral science relates to 
that portion of human conduct in which the 
qualities of right and wrong inhere; and the 
moral quality depends upon the relations which 
exist between men and men: it is therefore 
a part of sociology; and the principal body 
of ethics at any time existing among a people 
is formulated as law, made by the court or 
the legislature. Mr. Spencer, in his essay on 
the classification of the sciences, gives it no 
place, but, in the elaborate scheme of philos- 
ophy embraced in his works, places it above 
sociology. 

It may be asked, What place does logic take 
in the classification here proposed? ‘The reply 
is, that the logic of the ancients has no place 
in science. To modern logic something else 
has been added; and this something else 
belongs to psychology. The logic of the 
ancients, and a large part of that of modern 


_ metaphysicians, is a system designed to dis- 


cover truth by a form of words. If it be 


—- — ———s 
Anthropological : 

as manifested by man. Do- 

main of the social forces. 


— =e | ee eel 


Artificial: 
consisting of nat- 
ural phenomena 


modified by the 
inventive faculty, 


truthfully asserted that an object is white, no 
form of words can prove the truth of the as- 
sertion. If questioned, the questioner must 
perceive that the body is white in the same 
manner as it was perceived by the person 
making the assertion; and the assertor can 
only point out, i.e., demonstrate, the fact. 
And the same is true of any other fact, how- 
soever simple or complex. <A truth or fact 
can be pointed out or demonstrated to the 
eye, or to the mind’s eye, but cannot be proved 
by a logical form of statement. The idea of 
logical proof is a conception of a time when 
powers were occult ; and logic divested of mod- 
ern appurtenances is an occult art. 

It would make this article too long to attempt 
to set forth fully the place of mathematics in 
this scheme; but quantitative relations, like 
qualitative relations, belong to all degrees of 
aggregations, to all complexities of phenom- 
ena, and to all stages of evolution ; and, in the 
science of mathematics, relations of quantity 
are considered apart from other relations, and 
in the abstract. 

Mr. Spencer, although he presents a classi- 
fication of the sciences, does not use it in his 
philosophy of evolution, but practically uses 
the primary classification here set forth, under 
the terms ‘ inorganic,’ ‘ organic,’ and ‘ super- 
organic’ evolution. 

The defect in Mr. Ward’s classification here 
pointed out seriously influences his presenta- 
tion of the subject of dynamic sociology 
proper, appearing in the second volume. It 
also greatly narrows his view of the field of 
successful endeavor for organized society. 
Mankind has made progress, i.e., secured 
happiness, quite as much by the effort for 
peace and the establishment of justice as by 
the effort to know and the acquisition of truth. 
It can be shown in other and diverse ways that 
his view of successful human endeayor is 


174 


philosophically narrow ; and he sometimes uses 
the epithets of the pessimist in a manner un- 
worthy the philosopher. 


FRUIT -INSECTS. 


Insects injurious to fruits. Illustrated with 440 cuts. 
By Wixxi1am Saunpers. Philadelphia, Lippin- 
cott, 1883. 436 p. 8°. 


Tue author has enjoyed exceptional advan- 
tages for the preparation of the work he has 
undertaken. Not only has he been acquainted 
with the work of economic entomologists 
through his own participation in it, and as 
editor of one of our principal entomological 
periodicals, but for twenty years past he has 
been an extensive fruit-grower as well. He is 
thus entirely familiar with what is wanted, and 
has produced a practical book of considerable 
value. Not that it contains much that is ori- 
ginal or of novel presentment: it is rather a 
plain and judicious statement of what is known, 
but accessible to few because scattered in peri- 
odical literature. One is surprised at the size 
of the book when he sees that no effort is 
made to fill it out with unnecessary matter: 
rarely are half a dozen pages given to any one 
insect, and more than two hundred and fifty 
harmful insects are discussed. 

The insects are treated under the head of the 
plants they affect and the parts of the plant 
they attack, —an excellent, method, first used 
in this country by Fitch. They are described 
in brief, untechnical language, almost invaria- 
bly figured, and often in several stages; and 
the account of their injuries is followed by a 
short statement of the best remedies, with 
illustrations of the parasites or other natural 
foes which keep the insects more or less in 
‘check. The plants which receive most atten- 
tion are the apple (64 insects, 127 pages), the 
grape (52 insects, 75 pages), and the orange 
(26 insects, 45 pages). Next after these in 
importance are the plum, pear, the various 
currants, the raspberry, and the strawberry, 
followed at a little distance by the peach; a 
few pages each suffice for the cherry, quince, 
gooseberry, melon, cranberry, olive, and fig. 

The illustrations are familiar friends to ento- 
mologists, almost all of them having already 
done abundant service ; but they are none the 
less valuable for the purpose of this work; 
and the paper on which they are now printed 
permits to many of them a respectability 
they must rejoice to attain after long famil- 
iarity with the crude workmanship of the various 
government presses under which they have 


SCIENCE. 


’ te ee re ee 


7a 


[Vou. II., No. 27. 


been tortured. With a little more care in the 
printing, they would have shown at their best. 

The only serious omission in the book is 
the absence of a systematic summary, or index, 
by which the insects of the same group attack- 
ing different plants should be brought together. 
This would the more readily serve to help the 
fruit-grower distinguish allied forms, and learn 
their different or similar habits. Such an 
index could have been so easily constructed, 
and would have occupied so little space, that 
its absence is the less excusable. 


BREMIKER’S LOGARITHMIC TABLES. 


Bremiker’s Logarithmisch-trigonometrische tafeln mit 
sechs decimal-stellen. Neu bearbeitet von Dr. 
Tu. ALBRECHT, professor and chief of section 
in the Royal Prussian geodetic institute. Tenth 
stereotype edition. Berlin, R. Stricker, 1888. 
18+598p. 8°. 


BreEMIKER’S six-figure logarithms were first 
published in 1852 with a Latin text and title: 
Nova tabula Berolinensis, etc. In 1860 a 
German edition was printed. Both these edi- 
tions were printed from movable types. In 
1869 a stereotyped edition was printed, with 
some changes in the contents of the work. 
The editions of 1852 and 1860 contained a 
capital table of the sines and tangents of small 


ares, which was omitted in the stereotype edi- 


tion; and in this latter edition a table of 
addition and subtraction logarithms was intro- 
duced. The omission of the table of the func- 
tions of small arcs was hardly an improvement ; 
and, in fact, this omission caused the early 
editions to command a higher price than the 
later stereotyped one. 

The present edition by Dr. Albrecht com- 
bines the excellences of both the preceding 
editions. It contains the table of the loga- 
rithmic sines and logarithmic tangents of ares 
up to 5° for each 1”, and also includes the 
addition and subtraction tables. 

The rest of the work is the same as the 
stereotype edition of 1869, except that four 
new pages of convenient constant logarithms 
are inserted, and that certain tables relating 
to units of weight and measure are omitted. 

This collection of tables is a very practical 
and valuable addition to our present means of 
computation, and it will be welcomed as such. 
In the opinion of the writer, it is also the most 
satisfactory single collection of tables for stu- 
dents’ use, although much can be said in favor 
of the best of the five-place tables for this pur- 
pose. Epwarp S. Houpen. 


- Avausr 10; 1883.] 


ASTRONOMY. 

_ Astrophysical observations of Jupiter.— 
Ricco publishes a fine series of eighteen drawings of 
the planet, made, with one exception, in 1881, 1882, 
and 1883, by means of the ten-inch telescope of the 
observatory of Palermo. He gives, also, a large 
number of micrometrical measures, and’ detailed 
descriptions of the appearance of the planet and 
its surface-markings, on forty-seven different dates. 
The effect of the ‘red spot’ upon the contour of the 
‘adjacent belts is well brought out.—(Mem. soc. 
spetir. ital., May, 1883.) ©. A. Y. [172 
. Photometric observations of eclipses of Jupi- 
ter's satellites. — Cornu and Obrecht give the re- 
sults of some experiments upon artificial eclipses 
made to imitate the eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, 
using the method already referred to in these col- 
umns. They find that the probable error in deter- 
mining the time when the light of the satellite is 
reduced to one-half its normal amount is about a hun- 
dredth of the total time of obscuration. They pro- 
pose, also, the use of a polariscopie arrangement in 
place of the ‘cat’s-eye,’ and, in this connection, 
append the following note: ‘‘We have recently 
learned that the astronomers of Harvard college em- 
ploy an analogous arrangement — of which, however, 
the description is not known to us —for the purpose 
of determining the moment of disappearance (pour 
arriver & définir Vépoque. de Véclat nul). If the 
apparatus is analogous, the method of observation is, 
as one sees, entirely different.” They have evidently 
been misinformed; for the very essence of Prof. 
_ Pickering’s plan consists in the determination, not 
of the moment of disappearance, but of half-bright- 

ness. — (Comptes rendus, June 25, 1883.) Cc. A. Y. 
; [173 


MATHEMATICS. 


Surfaces of constant curvature.—M. Wein- 
garten here deals with certain properties of the linear 
elements on surfaces with a constant measure of 
curvature. Certain considerations connected with 
the modern theory of functions, particularly that 
portion of the theory which deals with linear differ- 
ential equations of the second order, have led him 
to conjecture that the determination of the geodetic 
lines upon a surface of constant curvature, by means 
of certain given linear elements, stands in a close 
“relation to the. theory of the linear differential equa- 
tions of the second order. M.,. Weingarten makes the 
remark (which, though not new, is important here) 
that the extension of those properties of curved sur- 
faces, studied. and enunciated by Gauss, which de- 
pend upon a given form of the linear element, is much 
simplified by the introduction of certain functions of 
the position of a point upon the surface. The val- 
ues of these functions are given in terms of the co- 
efficients of the Jinear element in such a way, that, 
_ by the introduction of new (two) variables, we arrive 
again at the original linear element. The functions 
pussessing this (invariantive) property are called 


auf ree 


SCIENCE: 


175 


| WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


flexion-invariants (biegungsinvarianten). As an ex- 
ample of flexion-invariants, we have the ‘measure 
of curvature’ of a surface. From the differential 
coefficients of a flexion-invariant, and the Gaussian. 
coeflicients, EZ, IF’, G, of a linear element of a surface, 
an indefinite number of new invariants can be furmed, 
two only of which are independent. The author 
gives a brief account of Beltrami’s work on these 
functions, and then considers particularly the sur- 
faces of constant curvature, The paper is an ex-) 
ceedingly interesting one to the student of this 
particular branch of geometry, and is a valuable ad- 
dition to the previous memoirs, by M. Weingarten, 
on this and cognate subjects. — (Journ. reine ang. 
math., 1883.) 7. ¢, [174 
PHYSICS. 


Density of the earth — Major R. vy. Sterneck 
of the government Military-geographical institute of 
Vienna, last year, tried Airy’s method of the deter- 
mination of the earth’s mean density in the St. Adal- 
bert shaft of the silver-mines at Pribram, Bohemia, 
at depths of 516 and 972.5 metres. His average re- 
sult was 5 65, which agrees closely with the values 
determined by other methods. On comparing his 
measures with Airy’s, a curious agreement appears 
in the number of. seconds gained by aclock at differ- 
ent depths, and a continual decrease in the deduced 
mean density as the depth increases. Airy found 
(1854), at a depth of 383 metres, that his clock gained 
25.25 a day, and the density was 6.57; v. Sterneck’s- 
figures are 516, 2%.4, and 6.28, and 972, 28.3, 5.01,. 
respectively: whence he coneludes, ‘‘ that, in the in- 
terior of the earth, the resultant of gravity, centrif- 
ugal foree, and the attraction of the superincumbent 
mass, is constant.’? — (Mitth. k.-k. milit.-yeogr. inst. 
Wien, 1882, ii. 77.) WwW. M. D. [175 


Electricity. 

Geographical variation of horizontal in- 
tensity. — F. Kolilrausch proposes to use a form 
of his local-variometer (described in Ann. phys. 
chem., xviii. 545) in which the scale is at a distance 
A from the axis of suspension, and attached to the 
instrument, and obtains between the horizontal in- 
tensities at two different places the relation — 

fs we tan 
Te i ah wl 2; 
@ being the angle through which the frame of the 
instrument is turned, n and w’ the deflections in 
seale-livisions, and » a coellicient of the tempera- 
ture, 4, —(Ann. phys. chem.,,xix. 130.) J.T. [176 

Thermochemical properties of electromotive 
force.— Edlund investigates the thermal changes at 
the electrodes of a voltameter by placing the junc- 
tions of a thermopile in front of the electrodes, and 
enclosing both in a porous membrane. He finds, that, 
when the electrodes are copper and the liquid copper 
sulphate, the electromotive foree between the metal 
and the liquid uses less heat for formation of current 
thau is set free in the formation of copper sulphate. 


176 


The same law holds for zine and zine sulphate, cad- 
mium with-its acetate, and lead with its acetate; but 
for silver, with its sulphate, nitrate, and acetate, the 
law is reversed. In a Daniell cell, a fortiori, less heat 
is used for formation of current than is set free in 
the chemical action of the cell. —(Ann. phys. chem., 
Sey PASI) Aiea [177 


CHEMISTRY. 
(General, physical, and inorganic.) 


Speed of dissociation of brass.—Mr. E. 
Twitchell (under Prof. Robert B. Warder’s direc- 
tion) made the following determinations, which 
were suggested by Bobierre’s method for the separa- 
tion of copper and zinc in alloys. A piece of brass 
wire (no. 17) 150 mm. long and 1.43 mm. in diameter 
was heated to redness in a stream of hydrogen in a 
porcelain tube, The loss in weight, from hour to 
hour, is given in the following table: — 


Time in Weight of Loss si 

hours. alloy. per hour. Za CRE CSe Ds A. 
0 

1 1442 92 

2 -0601 70 

3 0672 66 

4 0437 60 

5 0250 53 

6 0211 48 

9 0111 37 

12 0095 31 


The figures given under A are proportional to the | 


“evefficient of speed,’ as calculated from each obser- 
vation, on the hypothesis that the zine expelled at 
each moment is proportional to the whole quantity 
of zine present. ‘The steady decrease in the last 
column shows that this hypothesis does not obtain 
under the conditions of the experiment, but that an 
appreciable interval of time is required for the trans- 
fer of zine from the central portion to the surface of 
the wire. Further experiments upon this diffusion 
of zine are in progress. —(Sect. chem. phys. Ohio 
mech. inst.; meeting May 31.) [178 


AGRICULTURE. 


Influence of temperature and rainfall on the 
wheat-crop,—A comparison of the average tem- 
perature and the rainfall in England during the 
months of July and August for the last thirty-six 
years, with the corresponding wheat-crop, justifies the 
following conclusions: provided the stand of the crop 
at the beginning of July is promising, a tempera- 
ture above the average for the succeeding two months 
insures more than an average crop as regards quan- 
tity, unless extraordinary circumstances, such as vio- 
lent storms, intervene. Rainy weather may reduce 
the quality of the crop. On the other hand, however 
promising the crop may be at the end of June, a 
temperature below the average in July and August 
jnvolves a small crop. If the weather is clear, the 
quality may be good, while, if cold and rain are 
united, the poorest crops are the result; such as those 
of 1879, when the temperature was 2.8° F. below the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. I1., No. 27.. 


average, and the rainfall four inches above the aver- 
age, or that of 1916 (the poorest crop on record), when 
the temperature was 4.8° F. below the average. — 
( Bied. centr.-blatt., xii. 291.) H. P. A. |179 
Effect of phosphatic manures in drought. — 
In the course of some field-experiments made during 
the very dry season of 1881, Emmerling observed that 
in one ease manuring with ammonia alone produced 
a greater gain than manuring with ammonia and 
superphosphate. The result may have been acci- 
dental, as: no duplicate trials seem to have been 
made; but Emmerling thinks that the manuring with 
phosphorie acid hastened the ripening of the plants, — 
while the ammonia had the opposite effect of post- 
poning the ripening, and keeping the plants green 
longer. (This effect of phosphoric acid has been ob- ~ 
served in water-culture experiments, and silica also 
seems to exert a similar action.) — ( Bied. centr.-blatt., 
xii. 297.) Hu. P, A. [180 
Damage to grain by wetting.— Mircker has 
examined a sample of barley which had been exposed 
to rain for fourteen days after it was cut. A consid- 
erable proportion of the starch had been converted 
into sugar. A loss of about six per cent of starch 
took place. The albuminoids were also altered, both 
the insoluble and soluble proteine having been par- 
tially converted intoamides. The proportion of seed 
capable of germination was reduced from ninety-eight 
per cent to forty-five per cent. Kobus obtained sim- 
ilar results in an examination of damaged wheat. — 
(Bied. centr.-blatt., xii. 326.) uu. P. A. [181 


MINERALOGY. 


Enclosures in muscovite.— The occurrence of 
biotite and muscovite in one crystal is well known, — 
and has been investigated by H. Carvill Lewis. He 
prepared cleavage-sections from one specimen, and 
arranged them in the order in which they occurred. 
The biotite contrasts strongly with the light-colored 
muscovite, and has often well-defined edges. The 
two micas are arranged symmetrically in relation to 
their prismatic planes, as may be shown by the erys- 
tal edges when they are well developed, or by the 
strike-figures which are parallel in the two micas in’ 
the same folia, making it probable that they have 
crystallized together out of the same solution. In 
examining a series of sections from one specimen, it’ 
is found that the proportion of the two micas varies 
in different parts of the crystal; the biotite, the more 
unstable of the two species, gradually giving way, and 
being changed into the more hardy muscovite. 

Of a different nature are the superficial markings 
of magnetite, which occur from various localities. 
These markings forma series of branching lines, 
which run in three directions across the plates of the 
mica, crossing each other at angles of 60°, and haye 
been regarded as repeated twinning around a dodeca- 
hedral axis. These lines, however, as shown by the 
author, bear a fixed relation to the axes of the mica, 
and are not due to any inherent property of the mag- 
netite. If a crystal showing these markings be dis- 
sected, the lines of marking will all be found to lie in 
parallel direction; nor is there any direct connection. 


o- e 


7 


with the markings on adjacent plates: 


—————— —SaS————————< a rr TC CO 


AuGust 10, 1883.] 


one may be 
covered by the markings, the next free from them. 
The magnetite does not penetrate, but lies superfi- 
cially upon the mica plates, and the lines follow the 
direction of the rays of the strike-figure. The author 
regards the magnetite as not derived from any exter- 
nal source, but from the muscovite itself, occurring, 
not along cracks or near the exterior of the crystals, 
but grouped in the interior of the same. —(Proc. 
acad. nat. sc. Philad., Dec., 1882.) 8. L. P. [182 


GEOGRAPHY. 
(£urope.) 

Deformation of the earth's surface. — J, Girard 
calls attention to some interesting observations on 
apparent changes of level of neighboring points. 
One account attested by Girardet (Exploration, June, 
1882) is of villages in the Jura which were hidden 
from each other at the beginning of the century, or 
even only forty years ago, but are nowin sight. First 
the roofs, and later the walls, became visible by the 
slow warping of the ground. Another example is 
recorded in Bohemia, about thirty miles south of 
Karlsbad, where the people of Hohen Zedlixch are 
convinced that their village is rising; for thirty years 
ago they could see only the top of the church-spire 
in Ottenreuth, while now more than half of it is in 
view, and some roofs of lower buildings have also 
risen into sight. A line of levels has been run here 
to detect any further changes (Congres xc. géogr., 
1875). Girard does not attempt any criticism of 
these statements, but accepts them as proved. There 
would seem to be room for other explanations than 
the one suggested. — (Rev. de géogr., 1883, 349.) 
W. M. D. 183 

Maps of Norway. — The Norwegian geographical 
survey (Geografiske opmaaling) has published maps 
as follows: a guide-map, showing the progress of 
triangulation from 1779 to 1876 (only a small part of 
this work remains unfinished), — based upon this are 
several topographic maps on various scales; for the 
southern part of the country some are even | : 50,000 
(or 1: 10,000), in many sheets; the general map of 
southern Norway (1: 400,000), in eighteen sheets; 
district-maps (1 : 200,000); and rectangle-maps (1 : 
100,000), in fifty-four sections, with contours and 
mountain shading, and the larger bodies of water in 
blue. This serves as a basis for the geological survey 
under Prof. Th. Kjerulf. A general geological map 
(1: 1,000,000) is also published. The coast-survey 
publishes charts of the southern shores on 1 : 50,000; 
of the northern, on 1 : 100,000. Thirty-two of the for- 


_ mer and thirteen of the latter are completed. Besides 


these, there are a general coast-map (1 : 200,000) in 
thirteen sheets, and another on a simaller scale in five 
sheets, and fishery-maps (1 : 100,000) in eleven sheets. 


—(AMitth. geogr. ges. Wien, xxvi. 1885, 190.) Ww. M. D. 


[184 

The Bavarian forest.— The physical features of 
this submountainous district, extending north of the 
Danube below Regensburg, are described under its 


_ topography and geology by Dr. C. W. von Giimbel, 


and its climatic relations by Dr. Ebermayer. The 


SCIENCE. 


177 


article is hardly susceptible of concentration, and we 
reproduce only what is said concerning the glaciation 
of the higher ground contemporaneous with that of 
the Alps. It is admitted that the diluvial deposits 
do not point with distinctness to glacial action, that 
striations and moraine-walls can hardly be recog- 
nized, and that the characteristic morainic landscape, 
so pronounced near the adjacent Alps, is absent here; 
but the numerous small lakes in the higher parts of 
the country (Arber-, Rachel-, Bestritzer-, Girgl-See 
and others), and the plentiful peat-swamps, the re- 
mains of extinct water-basins, are accepted as evi- 
dence of former glaciation. Among all the lakes, 
there is not one which cannot be explained as re- 
sulting either from local glacial erosion, or from ob- 
struction of old valleys by drift-deposits. — ( Deutsche 
geogr. blatter, vi. 1883, 21.) Ww. M. D. {185 
( Asia.) 

Telegraph-line in China. —Since the destruction 
of the short railroad from Shanghai to Wusung by 
the Chinese shortly after its building in 1877, it has 
been thought that there would be opposition to fur- 
ther introduction of foreign contrivances; and two 
years ago, when the constriction of a telegraph-line 
was begun between Shanghai and Tientsin, a party 
of soldiers was detailed to guard the foreign engi- 
neers employed on it. The caution proved unneces- 
sary; and the chief difficulties encountered were the 
numerous canals, some of which had to be crossed by 
cables. The want of good roads was a serious embar- 
rassment when the line ran at a distance from the 
grand canal. The line is 938 miles in length, and 
required nearly twenty thousand poles. The con- 
struction was begun in June, 1881, at the two ter- 
mini, and in December was opened to public use. 
— (Pet. geogr. mitth., 1883, 231.) Ww. M. D. {186 

Explorations in Cambodia.—Dr. Néis an- 
nounces his arrival in Laos, on the border of Siam. 
From Sambok to Sombor the Mekong River is a con- 
tinuous series of rapids, passable only for the native 
canoes. Thence above to Laos the left bank is 
encumbered with shoals. The country is chiefly 
covered with forests, which, along the river, are 
infested by Chinese pirates, who render river-traffic 
between Laos and Cambodia very limited. Laos 
contains some two hundred houses, and two thou- 
sand inhabitants, — Laotians and Chinese, who raise 
cotton and rice. The commerce is small, iron money 
is in use, and the Chinese are the chief traders. 
The ruins described by Garnier, to examine which 
was the ehief object of the expedition, were visited. 
No ee. were found, and but a few interest- 
ing carving: A sort of oven was filled with thou- 
sands of aiace of bark stamped, like medals, with 
three figures of Buddha: some retained traces of 
color and gilding. Some statuettes of Buddha of 
JSaience were found in a vessel embedded in the cem- 
ent of the oven. Dr. Néis found the fauna of Laos 
essentially the same as that of Cambodia. He in- 
tended, at the date of writing, to penetrate as far as 
Bassak, in Siam, where he would endeavor to obtain 
as complete collections as possible, — (Comptes ren- 
dus soc. géoyr., no. 11.) W. H. D. {187 


x 


178 SCIENCE, [Vor. IL., No. 27: 


BOTANY. . 

Influence of diminished atmospheric pressure 
on the growth of plants. — Experiments conducted 
by Wieler at Tiibingen show, that, all other external 
conditions being the same, plants will grow more rap- 
idly under diminished atmospheric pressure. Thus, 

“if a specimen of the common Windsor bean (Vicia 
faba) be grown in a receptacle in which the pressure 
of the air can be controlled, it will be found to grow 
faster until the pressure has been diminished to 100- 
390 mm.; the normal pressure under which the an- 
cestors of the plant haye flourished being, of courses 
not far from 760 mm. If, however, the pressure is 
reduced below the smaller figure given above, the 
rate of growth diminishes. Wieler found that the 
eurye of growth of the sunflower is about the same 
as that of the bean. It was further shown by his 
experiments, that growth is retarded by increased 
pressure until the minimum is reached at 2-24 atmos- 
pheres, from which point there is again an increase. 
Although the short abstract of these interesting re- 
sults so far published is meagre in the extreme, it in- 
dicates that the field entered upon by Wieler (and by 
Bert in France) may compel us to revise some notions 
now held in regard to the adaptation of plants to their 
surroundings in past ages, and at the present time 
upon high mountains. — (Botan. zeit., July 6.) G. L. G. 

; {188 

Pollination of Cypella.— Two Brazilian species 
of this genus of Irideae have been studied from time 
to time by Fritz Miiller, who finds a number of inter- 
esting peculiarities in their flowering. ‘The flowers, 
like those of Cordia, etc., are produced in abundance 
only on certain days, which recur more or less regu- 
larly, and apparently independently of climatic con- 
ditions, Nectar is secreted in pockets on the three 
petals, which. are flexible, so that when a Xylocopa 
or Bombus, to which the flowers seein well adapted, 
alights on one in quest of nectar, it bends over with 
the weight of the bee, whose back is brought in 
contact with a stigma and the underlying anther. 
Commonly the bee goes immediately to another 
flower without. trying the other petals of the one on 
which it has. first settled, so that crossing is effected 
by it: One of the species studied proves to have 
self-impotent pollen: the other is fertile with its own 
pollen. The stingless bees (Trigona), though not 
necessarily excluded by structural peculiarities from 
the nectar, do not obtain it readily; yet their visits 
for the protectively colored (pale-bluish) pollen are 
sufiiciently numerous to prevent the larger bees from 
Visiting the flowers in numbers, — (Berichte deutsch. 
bot. gesellsch., April 8, 1883.) w. 7. [189 


ZOOLOGY. 
(General physiology and embryology.) 


Influence of gravity on cell-division. — E. Pflii-_ 


ger, by placing fresh laid frogs’ eggs in a watch-glass, 
and adding a little water with semen, and pouring it 
off in a few seconds, was able to impregnate the eges 
without allowing the gelatinous envelopes time to 
swell. The eggs then adhered to the glass, and so 
could be brought into various positions. The first 


division occurs in three hours, and always in a verti- 
cal plane, no matter how the axis of the egg lies.’ 
When the axis of the egg (from dark to white pole) 
lies horizontally, the plane of division is still always 
vertical, but may form any angle with the ovic axis. 
The influence of gravity is also shown in that the 
upper pole divides more rapidly than the lower. If 
the position of the egg is exactly reversed, this still 
holds true, and development progresses; so that 
repeatedly -the medullary furrow, with its high bor’ 
dering ridges (nervous system), was found upon the 
white side when this was uppermost. Out of seyen- 
teen eggs, twelve developed so that the median plane 
of the body of the embryo coincided with that of the 
first division of the yolk. (This fact of a relation’ 
between the lines of cleavage aud the axes of body is’ 
not novel, as Pfliiger seems to think: there are many 
observations on various animals which prove such a 
relation.) From these experiments it results that 
the topography of the organs is not determined by 
the arrangement of the substance around the axes 
of the egg, but that the axis around which the organs 
are grouped is determined by gravity. —(Pjliger’s 
arch. physiol., xxxi. 311.) ©. 8. M. [190 


Mammals, 

Germ-layers of rodents.— A. Fraser finds in 
the common gray rat and the house mouse the same 
arrangement of the layers as in the guinea-pig. The 
decidua appears to differ in the mode of its forma- 
tion from that which ordinarily obtains; and the very 
early, rapid, and voluminous formation of its solid 
mass appears to have some close and constant rela- 
tion to the peculiar inversion of the blastodermie 
layers which is found in these rodents. — (Journ. 
roy. micr. soc. Lond., June, 1838, 345.) c. Ss. M. [191 


Intestinal absorption of fat by lymph-cells, 
— Zawarykin has studied the small intestine during 
active digestion, making sections stained with per- 
osmice acid and picrocarmine. The material was 
obtained from dogs, rabbits, and white rats. The 
lymph-cells are found between the epithelial cells 
covering the follicle and in the underlying adenoid 


tissue, and finally in the mouths of the chylous~ 


vessels. These cells alone contain any fat, being 
charged with globules of various sizes. Their multi- 
farious irregular forms, and the inconstant shape of 
the nucleus, indicate that they were performing 
active amoeboid movements when fixed by the osmic 
acid. From these appearances Zawarykin concludes 
that the lymph-cells (leucocytes) resorb the fat: they 
enter the epithelium, seize the particles of fat by 
amoeboid movements, then descend between the cyl- 
inder-cells, through the sub-epithelial endothelium 
and adenoid tissue, into the roots of the chylous 
vessels. 


active at those points. (The presence of lymph-cells 
between the epithelial cells of the intestines has been 


known for some time, but the significance of their 


occurrence has not been heretofore understood. Sew- 
all advanced the view that the immigrant cells remain 


aud become epithelial cells; but that appeared highly » 


In Peyer’s patches the cells are present in~ 
crowds, and the resorption-of fat seems particularly ~ 


- Avausr 10, 1883.] 


improbable. The manner im which fat is absorbed 
has been much discussed of late years, but the ex- 
‘planation given by Prof. Zawarykin appears to us 
the first satisfactory one which has been offered.) — 
( Phliiger’s arch. physiol., xxxi. 231.) c.8.M. [192 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


_ Brain-weight of boys and girls.—In the final 
Tesult of the eomparison of the two sexes in the hu- 
man race, anatomical researches will form an impor- 
tant factor. Many anatomists have recognized this 
fact, and have instituted comparisons between the 
‘sexes from various points of view. M. Gustave le 
Bon reviews the work of M. Manouvrier and that of 
M. Budin, both of whom aver that ‘‘ sex has no influ- 
‘ence on brain-weight. With them the influence of 
sex is nothing more than the influence of height; and 
if the females as a whole exceed the males in brain- 
weight, it is simply because the weight of the body in 
the females is much below that of the males.’’ M. 
le Bon puts the theory of his adversaries to the test 
in a yery ingenious manner by comparing the brains 
of males and females having about the same weight. 
By this investigation it is shown that in the great 
majority of cases the male children surpass the 
females of the same weight in their cranial cireum- 
ference. At the same age, height, and weight of 
‘body, the female brain is notably smaller than that 
of the male, — (Bull. soc. anthrop. Paris, v. 524-531.) 
J. W. Pz [193 
The Galibis.— The tribe of Galibis lives on the 
borders of the Sinamari, and not far from Cayenne, 
in French Guiana, and it consists of only a few 
families. A group of fifteen of them were sent to 
Paris in 1882; and several gentlemen, among them 
Mr. Manouvrier, have undertaken to study their 
physique, customs, language, etc, The Galibis were 
domiciled in their native fashion in the jardin d’ac- 
' climatation, and passed their time in their ordinary 
pursuits. The skin is reddish brown, but differs 
with individuals, owing partly to mixed blood: the 
true color is also disguised by the use of paint. The 
hair and eyes are jet black. The other physical 
characters, as well as their language and occupations, 
are given with the greatest minuteness. A single 
observation will show the extreme caution with 
which fine theories should be spun. M. Capitan 
studied carefully the processes of making pottery 
among the Galibis. Hamy took occasion to remark 
upon this as upon the greater rudeness of ornamenta- 
tion in other respects, and concluded that the Galibis 
had much degenerated since they were first studied. 
But Mortillet recalled the discussion to a sober view 
by remarking that the specimens in our museums are 
choice objects, selected by travellers for their great 
beauty, while those made by the Galibis in the jar- 
din were by rude workmen for daily use. They show 
us the cabin of the poor, while the yoyagers had 
despoiled the homes of the rich. Theories of degen- 
eration based upon Hamy’s facts were therefore un- 
substantial. —(Bull. soc. anthrop. Paris, vy. 602. 
J. W. P. [194 
African psychology. — Max Buchner, writing to 


SCIENCE. 


179 


Ausland, speaks rather encouragingly of the. Bantu 
negro character. ‘*The negro in his native condi- 
tion is not apparently of a lower grade of natural 
intelligence than the European of the common class. 
He probably excels the European in a kind of selfish 
cunning, while the restraints of moral scruples and 
of the finer feelings operate less strongly upon him. 
Yet he is not destitute of a sort of moral instinct, a 
kind of taboo conscience, that causes him to hesitate 
to do wrong. For this reason the negro is never an 
open thief.’ Mr. Jefferson used to say that his 
slaves were all honest, but they could beat the world 
finding things. The negro, says Buehner, is above 
every thing positivist, practical, materialist, and is 
inaccessible to intangible considerations. The ques- 


tion ‘ Has the negro a religion?’ cannot be answered 


at once, either affirmatively or negatively. It must 
first be made clear what is to be understood by reli- 
gion. He has a confused mixture of vague wants 
and superstitious impulses. A system of computing 
time ean hardly be predicated of such a people; but 
they have a kind of superficial calendar of the months, 
which they make to help regulate their agricultural 
operations. The negro undoubtedly possesses all the 
capacities for education and civilization to at least as 
great an extent as our primitive ancestors. The 
fact that the psychical and intellectual, as well as 
the physical, differences between particular races of 
men are really insignificant, is destined to be made 
plainer, the more the subject is impartially studied; 
and the efforts of certain men, Jearned in distinctions 
of types, to set up fixed marks of separation between 
them, will not succeed. — (Pop. sc. monthly, July.) 
J. Ws Ps {195 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


The unexampled recent increase in the mem- 
bership of the American association for the advance- 
ment of science, from a little over one thousand just 
before the Boston meeting of 1880, to nearly two 
thousand now, implies a considerable increase in its 
funds, and should imply direet participation by the 
association in the endowment of research, which its 
means have not hitherto permitted. No other way 
is now open for the association to adyanee science 
so securely. 

We desire, therefore, to eall the attention of the 
executive board of the association to the direct advan- 
tage which would certainly result in following the 
example of the British association by making an an- 
nual grant to the Naples zodlogical station, whose 
claims and advantages have already been so well 
stated in our columns by Miss Nunn and Dr. Whit- 
man. The board would find no lack of applicants 
for the table thus secured, the cost of which would 
be four hundred dollars annually. 

—Mr. George M. West of Escanaba, Mich., sends 
us a photograph of a hoe-shaped implement which is 
stated to have been made of native copper by ham- 
mering. The blade has a thin edge, and is said to be 
nearly nine inches long, about three inches wide, and 
onc-half inch thick at the back where it joins the 


180 


shank. The shank is aninch square at its union 
with the blade, six inches long, and half an inch 
square at its distal end, This implement was found 
jn Brown County, Wis., and is, we believe, unique 
among the many copper objects found in North 
America, of which Wisconsin has yielded so large a 
proportion. While we have no reason to doubt the 
statement that this implement is made of native cop- 
per, we should rather have it placed in our hands for 
careful examination before committing ourselves as 
to its character and use. Should it prove to be all 
that the photograph suggests, we should like to give 
a description, with figures. 

—In the first part of an article on ‘ Zodlogy at the 
Fisheries exhibition,’ Nature of July 26 gives un- 
stinted praise to the collections, public and private, 
exhibited by the United States, and admires the 
beauty of the marine objects shown by the Naples 
zoological station. Speaking of the collections shown 
by the U.S. fish-commission, it says, ‘It is not an 
exaggeration to say that this collection, both on ac- 
count of the range and variety of its objects and the 
instructive way in which they have been disposed and 
‘treated by the American commissioner, Mr. Brown 
Goode, has been the admiration of all visitors.” 

— According to Nature, the Berlin academy of 
sciences has granted the following amounts from its 
‘Humboldt fund: 5,000 marks ($1,250) to Dr. Otto 
‘Finch, for working at the collection he made during 
his journey in Polynesia; 6,000 marks ($1,500) to Dr. 
Ed. Arning (Breslau), for researches on the leprosy 
epidemic in the Hawaiian Islands; the same amount 
to Dr. Paul Giissfeldt, to enable him to continue and 
extend his exploring tour in the Andes of Chili. 

— The Société industrielle de Mulhouse has awarded 
its silver medal (médaille d’ argent hors concours) to 
Mr. C. J. H. Woodbury of the Boston manufacturers’ 
mutual fire-insurance company for his book, ‘Fire 
protection of mills.’ : 

—Dr. J. W. Mallet has resigned the professorship 
of chemistry in the University of Virginia. 


RECENT BOOKS. AND PAMPHLETS. 


%,* Oontinuations and brief papers extracted from serial 
literature without vepagination ure not included in this list. 
Exceptions are made for unnual reports of American insti- 
tutions, newly established periodicals, and memoirs of con- 
siderable extent. 


Adams, C. Francis, jun. <A college fetich: address before 
the Harvard chapter of the fraternity of the Phi Beta Kappa in 
Sander’s theatre, Cambridge, June. 28, 1883. Boston, Lee & 
Shepard, 1888. 38p. 8°. 


Caspari, H. Beitrige zur kenntniss des hautgewebes der 
eacteen. Halle, Pausch « Grosse, 1883. 53p. 8°. 


Fletcher, R. Human proportion in art and anthropometry. 
A lecture delivered at the National museum, Washington, D.C. 
Cambridge, King, 1883. 37 p., illustr. 8°. 

Greenwood, Major. Aids to zodlogy and comparative 
anatomy. London, Builliére, 1883. 120 p. 12°. 

Hahn, G. Der pilz-sammler, oder anleitung zur kenntniss 
der wichtigsten pilze Deutschlands und der angrenzenden lander, 
Gera, Kanitz, 1883. 9+87p., 23 col. pl. 5°. 

Hale, H The Iroquois book of rites. Philadelphia, Brinton, 
1888. (Brinton’s libr. aborig. Amer. lit., ii.) 222p. 8°. 

Hann, J. Handbuch der klimatologie. 

horn, 1883. 10+764p. 8. 


Hawkins, B. W. Comparative anatomy as applied to the 
purposes of the artists. Tdited by George Wallis. London, 
Winsor & Newton, 1883. 90 p., illustr. 12°. = 


Stuttgart, Hngel- 


SCIENCE. 


,- ‘v —_ . Pw ree 
- > 


‘ 
: 


[Vou. IL, No. 27. 


Hellmann, G. Repertodrium der deutschen meteorologie. 
Leistungen der Deutschen in schriften, erfindungen, und beo- 
bachtungen auf dem gebiete der meteorologie und des erdmagne- 
tismus von den iiltesten zeiten bis zum xchlusse des jahres 1881. 
Leipzig, Enge/mann, 1883. 23+996 p., illustr. 8°. 

Hofmann, J. Flora des Isargebietes von Wolfratshausen bis 
Deggendort, enthaltend eine aufzahlung und beschreibung der in 
diesem gebiete vorkommenden wildwachsenden und allgemein 
kultevierten gefiisspflanzen. Landshut, Avii//, 1883, 644377 p., 
lcol. pl. 8°. i, 

Jahn, H. Die electrolyse und ibre bedeutung fiir die theo- 
retische und angewandte chemie. Wien, Hé/der, 1883. 9+206 p. 
8°. 

Kalischer, 8. Goethe als naturforscher und Herr du Bois- 


Reymond als sein kritiker. ine antikritik. Berlin, Hempel, 
1883. 90 p. 8°. 


Kingston, W. H. G. Stories of the sagacity of animals. 
Cats and dogs. Lordon, Velsons, 1888. 162 p., illustr. 8°. 

Leon, Néstor Ponce de. Diccionario teenolégico, Inglés- 
Espanol y Espanol-Inglés, de los terminos y frases usados en las 
cieucias aplicadas, artes industriales, bellas artes, mecanica, 
maquinaria, minas, metalurgia, agricultura, comercio, navega- 
cion, manufacturas, arquitectura, ingenicria civil y militar, 
marina, arte militar, ferro-carriles, telégrafus, etc. pt. i., il. 
N.Y., de Leon, 1883. 48,49+96 p. 4°. 

Mann, F. Abhandlungen aus dem gebiete der mathematik. 
Wiirzburg, Stahe/, 1883. 4+43p. 8°. 


Maudsley, H. Body and will: being an essay concerning 
will in its metaphysical, physiological, and pathological aspects. 
London, Paul, 1883. 330 p. 8°. - 

. Meyer, A. Das chlorophyllkorn in chemischer, morpholo- 
gischer, und biologischer beziechung. Hin beitrag zur kenntniss 
des chlorophyllkornes der ungiospermen und seiner metamor- 
phosen. Leipzig, Felix, 18838. 7+91p.,3 col. pl. 4°. . 

Miller-Hauenfels, A. von. Theoretische meteorologie. 
Ein yersuch, die erscheinungen des luftkreises auf grundgesetze 
zuriickzufiihren. Mit einer begleitschreiben yon Dr J. Hann, 
Wien, Spielhagen, 1883. 8+129p., illustr. 8°. 

Wichols, W. R. Water-supply considered mainly from a 
chemical and sanitary stand-point., N.Y., Wiley, 1883. 6+232 
p-, illustr. 8°. E ‘ 

Oborny, A. Flora von Mihren und Osterreich-Schlesien, 
enthaltend die wildwachsenden, verwilderten und haufig ange- 
bauten gefiisspflanzen. i theil: Die gefiisskryptogamen, gym- 
nospermen und mouocotyledonen. Briinn, Winiker, 1882. 268 
Dace F, : 

Pfaff, F. Die entwickelung der welt auf atomistischer 
grundlage. Ein beitrag zur charakteristik des materialismus. 
Heidelberg, Winter, 1883. 10+241 p.,illustr. 8°. 

Salomon, C. Nomenclator der gefiisskryptogamen oder 
alphabetische aufzahlung der gattungen und arten der bekannten 


gefiisskryptogameh mit ihren synonymen und ihrer geograph- 


ischen verbreitung. Leipzig, Voigt, 18838. 10+885 p. 8°. 
Schell, A. Die methoden der tachymetrie bei anwendung 


eines ocular-filar-schrauben-mikrometers. Wien, Seidel, 1883. 
5+49 p., illustr. 8°. 


Seebohm, F. The English village community, examined in 
its relations to the manorial and tribal systems, and to the com- 
mon or open field system of husbandry. London, Longmans, 
1883. 464 p.,13 mapsand pl. 8°. 


Sterne, C. Sommerblumen. Mit 77 abbildungen in farben- 
druck nach der natur gemalt yon Jenny Schermaul und mit 
vielen holzschnitten. lief. i., ii. Leipzig, Freylag, 1883. 64 p. 
8°. 

Suess, EH. 


Das antlitz der erde. Mit abbildungen und 
kartenskizzen. 


abth.i. Leipzig, Freytag, 1883. 310p. 8°. 


Thompson, Silvanus P. Dynamo-electric machinery: lec- 
tures, reprinted from the Journal of the society of arts, with an 
introduction by Frank L. Pope. N.Y., Van Nostrand, 1883. 
218 p., illustr. 24°. 


Villicus, F. Zur geschichte der rechenkunst mit besonderer 
riicksicht auf Deutschland und Oesterreich. Wien, Pichler, 
1883. 6+100 p., illustr. 8°. 


Wilson, E. The recent archaic discovery of ancient Egyp- 
tian mummies at Thebes: a lecture. Loudon, Pau/, 1883. 8°. 


Wood, H. A season among the wild flowers. London, 
Sonnenschein, 1888. 256 p., illustr. 8°. 


_ Zincken, C. F. Die geologischen horizonte der fossilen 
kohlen, oder die fundorte der geologisch bestimmten fossilen 
kohlen, nach deren relativem alter zusammengestellt. Leipzig, 
Senf, 1883. 7+90p. 8°. 


Zwackh-Holzhausen, W. von. Die lichenen Heidel- 


bergs pach dem systeme und den bestimmuangen Dr. W. Nylan- — 


ders. Ileidelberg, Weiss, 1883. 4+84p. 8°. 


q 


——— 


Sel NEE: 


FRIDAY, AUGUST 17, 1883. 


THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION AT 
MINNEAPOLIS. 

Tue number of people who take an interest 
in scientific discovery is very great. We may 
assume that it far exceeds estimates based on 
the support given to scientific periodicals and 
societies. The question is not of thousands, 
but of hundreds of thousands. Of a report 
of Professor Tyndall’s lectures on light in 
New York, there were sold over a half-million 
copies. That was ten years ago: the popular 
interest in science has vastly increased in the 
interval. This is shown by the gain of mem- 
bership in the American association for the 
advancement of science, being within the last 
four years as great as in the previous thirty- 
one years. 

Compared with what may be called the 
scientific following, the number of workers in 
science is small. Upon that following the 
workers must depend for recruits, and, di- 
rectly or otherwise, for support. Science must 
lean on her friends: they are numerous, but 
few of them give help. There are large and 
rich communities where the local developments 
are on a par with the Pickwick club. The men 
and means for good work are not wanting, but 
the impulse is. ‘Oh for the touch of a van- 
ished hand,’ like that of Louis Agassiz, to 
warm the dormant interest into life ! 

For this purpose the American association 
is an effective agency. It unites in one body 
the workers and those who are not profession- 

_ally engaged in scientific pursuits. Its man- 


agement should be and is favorable to the de- 


2 


sires of both classes. In the social features of 


its meetings, all share alike, and perhaps with 


J 
_ 


equal zest. But the workers regard the meet- 
ings chiefly as the occasions for hearing and 
reading ‘ papers.’ Teachers, who form a large 
part of the membership, seek the most recent 
things of knowledge to add to their capacities 


 * «No. 28,— 1883. 


for instruction. A majority of the attendants 
at the meetings come simply with a wholesome 
curiosity for the novelties of science. 

The production and delivery of ‘ papers’ 
at these meetings give rise to some queries. 
Is there any natural reason for expecting 
genius to burst into blossom in August rather 
than in any other month? Ifa man of science 
is diligently pursuing some line of research, 
may not the light that never was on sea or 
land break upon him in any other of the fifty- 
two weeks than the ohe when he can present 
it to the annual meeting? If he keeps back his 
announcement of progress or discovery, or if 
he brings it forward before he is fully pre- 
pared, does he not harm the cause of science 
and himself? 

The ‘ papers’ are of necessity often tech- 
nical and uninteresting to all except experts in 
some special line. At one of the meetings a 
certain mathematician stated the case bluntly, 
thus: ‘‘I shall read my paper by title only, 
as there is nobody but myself here who can 
understand it.”’ The rapidity with which a 
crowd of members thins out when the reading 
of a technical paper fairly begins, is at least 
suggestive. Nor should the departing crowd 
be denounced as simply unworthy of the 
pearls spread before them. They will stay if 
the paper has only a fair trace of popular inter- 
est. Doubtless many of those who leave the 
association in their first year of membership 
are disappointed. They had hoped for some- 
thing not quite so ‘dry.’ Yet, if the reading 
of papers were dropped, the association would 
fail to gather the workers of science at its 
meetings. : 

Plans have at times been considered for 
securing addresses from men who are known 
as popular speakers, capable of attracting 
large audiences, especially if aided by suitable 
apparatus for the display of experiment. In 
various ways such a course might add largely 
to the resources and influence of the associa- 


é 


182 


tion. What is vastly more important, it would 
rouse an enthusiasm for science at the locality 
of the meeting, which, if rightly fostered, 
would give permanent results. 

The association has sought to meet some of 
these wants and difficulties by creating a lar- 
ger number of sections, each of which has a 
presiding officer, who is expected to deliver 
a formal address. This is an advance, but 
only a half-way measure. The papers increase 
in number eyery year; and the several sections 
must all work at once and arduously to finish 
their reading in the allotted time. To many a 
member, even to a specialist who may be en- 
gaged in two distinct lines of research, comes 
the disappointment of missing the hearing of 
valuable papers when two or three are delivered 
simultaneously. 

Many of these features must appear promi- 
nently at the present meeting. The attend- 
ance will consist in greater proportion than 
usual of the popular element. The member- 
ship is now so large that there is no risk of 
the meeting being insignificant in size, as at 
Dubuque in 1872. But, since Minneapolis is 
the farthest point to the west yet tried, its 
distance must withhold many familiar faces. 
After this, we shall know better whether thie 
kind invitations of San Francisco may be 
accepted two or three years hence. 
the meeting should not be too far from the 
British association at Montreal. 

At least eight addresses will be given by 
presidents of sections, — excellent in their 
kind, but not quite a substitute for thoughts 
that breathe and words that burn. If free and 
wide discussion could be encouraged at these 
meetings, the retiring president’s address 
would now give abundant occasion. Dr. Daw- 
son hits hard where he thinks he sees a crevice 
in the armor of the evolutionists or of the gla- 
cialists, and many will chafe if there is no im- 
mediate opportunity to return his thrusts. But, 
while it may fail of excitement, the meeting at 
Minneapolis is very enjoyable. The city and 
vicinity are picturesque and delightful. The 
hospitality of the west is as broad as its 
prairies iets (C= NN 


SCIENCE. 


Next year , 


THE IGLOO OF THE INNUIT.—I. 


Tue Esquimaux of the arctic regions of 
North America call themselves ‘ Innuits,’ and 
their winter-houses, built of ice and snow, ‘ ig- 
loos.’ This short explanation may be needed to 
make clear my somewhat obscure title. 

These strange huts have been incidentally 
described by many travellers in the accounts 
of their arctic explorations. But beyond the 
fact that they are rude domes of snow, in which 
dhese polar people live for the greater part of 
the year, little is known of the manner of their 
construction, their internal arrangement, or of 
the conditions which have led to their exist- 
ence. 

The many inquiries I have been called upon 
to answer in regard to these northern cabins, 
and the misconceptions I have found eyen 
among the better informed of my questioners, 
have led me to believe that an account of the 
igloo as I saw it during my life with the Innuits 
would be of interest. 

The origin of the igloo can only be guessed 
from the few facts we know of early man. I 


will not discuss the ethnological problem which. 


would identify the Innuit of the present day 
with the caye-men of Europe, but, assuming 


[Vou. IL., No. 28. 


a 


that it is true, will sketch a possible history of — 


the ice-hut. 

These caye-men are known to have existed 
along the edges of the mer de glace, which, 
during the ice period, overspread Europe, and 
buried it as Greenland is probably buried at the 
present day. What caused this great flow of 


frigidity to the south, or its retrogression to the — 


north, it is needless to consider; suffice it to 
suppose that our hyperboreans followed it in 
all its migrations. The earliest evidences of 
their history are those they left in the caves 
of middle Europe when the glacier extended 
nearly to the Alps and Pyrenees, beyond which, 
with its outlying polar fauna of caye-men, caye- 
bears, cave-hyenas, mammoths, and reindeer, 
it never extended. 

These caves were the work of nature. When 
these people lived in their vicinity, it is proba- 
ble that they knew no other habitations, winter 
or summer, and disputed their possession with 
the many animals whose bones are found beside 
the implements and bones of the cave-men 
themselves. 

As the mer de glace, with snail-like pace, 
withdrew northward, it was followed by these 
children of the cold (the caye-men), driven, as 
some suppose, by the more powerful river-drift 
men, or following that climate which was the 
more congenial. 


‘ 


_Aveust 17, 1883.] 


The cave-men in their retreat, tightly held 
by other tribes or climatic temper, when they 
reached the older geologic formations which no 
longer gave them the welcome shelter of na- 
ture’s rude houses (the dreary caves), must 
have looked for it from other means; and 
these were only stones and snow-banks. The 
former may have been used for their more 
permanent homes; but the cold interiors of 
stone huts in such a climate must soon have 
driven them to the more comfortable and 
easily built houses that can be excavated from 
a snow-bank, and so greatly resemble their old 
cave-homes. 

During the first part of their retreat, the cave- 
men, cave-men no longer, were in a hilly, 
half-mountainous country, — a character of sur- 
_ face favorable to the formation of snow-drifts 

large enough to allow of pit or excavation, in 
which afamily could comfortably reside. Here, 
then, was the first igloo, rudely cut into some 
protecting bank of snow, its walls knowing no 
other construction than that of nature. Sach 
rough types of arctic architecture are still to 
be found among the mountains, where wood is 
unknown. 

As the migrating sea of ice debouched upon 
the shores of the Arctic Sea, and withdrew its 
icy blanket from these more northern regions, 
the ancient arctic man found himself, as he 
reached those limits near the White Sea and 
the mouth of the Petchora, in a flatter country. 
The snow-drifts no longer lay in such colossal 
eeconthe They were direct functions of the 

~ surface, and flattened with it. It was no longer 
~ possible to construct a deep enough house ‘by 
simple excavation. The problem was proba- 
_ bly met by digging as far as possible, and com- 
 pleting the structure with banks, which in time 
4 

- were made of blocks of snow; for the snow 
: of the arctic winter is not of that plastic nature 
q 


a 


which will allow one to fashion it at will, as 
schoolboys their forts and imitation-men, but 

_ dense and compact from the extreme cold and 

j the packing wind. Such were the first typi- 

eal and perfect igloos, a direct outgrowth of 

“the level barren lands of the arctic zone, — 

features which yet determine its geographical 

limits. 

. Arctic man stopped on the shores of the sea, 
for in the rude means at hand he could follow 
-theice no farther. There was another migration 
to the north, which was to affect the character 

of his dwelling: this was the migration of the 
forests. As soon as wood reached his door, 

either by direct migration of the forests or by 
drifting down the great northward-trending 
rivers, he would naturally use it in the con- 


SCIENCE. 


a... ~~ ££. °")" - a SS 


183 


struction of his permanent houses, as we see 
to-day among the natives thus situated. The 
igloo was probably driven from Europe, then 
from Asia, and is now confined to certain local- 
ities of North America. 

From writing of the igloos of the Innuits, 
the natural inference is, that the geographical 
boundaries of the two would be the same. ‘The 
Innuits reach from Bering Straits (and even 
southward along the Alaskan coast and out- 
lying islands) nearly to those of Belle Isle, 
following the sinuous coast of North America 
at irregular intervals. They populate the 
western shores of Greenland, and once occu- 
pied its eastern side. Yet this vast stretch of 
ocean-line must be shorn of the greater por- 
tion of its length before we can narrow it down 
to the part occupied by the igloo-building In- 
nuits. 

The data I have already given restricting the 
igloo to the barren grounds devoid of even 
driftwood, and the fact that nearly all Esqui- 
maux tribes are a seacoast-abiding people, will 
assist us in a rough but fair approximation to 
its limits, —limits which can be readily made 
clear by reference to a map of the arctic re- 
gions of North America. The mouth of Mac- 
kenzie is about the dividing-line of the timber 
to the west and the barren country to the east. 
For considerable distances on both sides of its 
mouth, there is a good supply of driftwood. 
Where this driftwood ceases on the east is the 
western limit of the igloo, probably fifty to 
one hundred miles from the river. From this 
point they are found all along the coast, on 
the portions of the Parry Islands occupied 
by Esquimaux, the shores of Hudson’s Bay 
and Straits as far as Marble Island, of Cum- 
berland Gulf, and many of the estuaries of 
Baffin’s Bay. The limit on the south is, I be- 
lieve, Hudson’s Strait, and on the east Baflin’s 
Bay. 

The time during which igloos may be built 
depends on the length of the winter. In sum- 
mer the natives use a tent of seal or walrus 
skin. 

The pole of greatest cold is placed by Bent 
to the north of the Parry Islands, nearly upon 
the eightieth parallel, and in about 100° W. 
longitude. I believe the thermometrie obser- 
vations made in the arctic regions, straggling 
as they have been, go far towards’ showing 
that the magnetic and thermal poles are the 
same. This would bring the lowest temper- 
atures six hundred miles to the south of the 
position assigned by Bent. Wherever it may 
be, there would the igloo have the longest ex- 
istence for the year 


7" ,_=- 


184 


In the winter of 1878, being near Depot Is- 
land in North Hudson’s Bay, we moved into 
igloos on the 1st of November. On King Wil- 
liam’s Land, next spring, we abandoned snow- 
houses, and took to tents on the 17th of June, 
having lived an igloo-life for seven months and 
seventeen days. That winter upon King Wil- 
liam’s Land we reared our first igloo on the 
25th of September, being one month and five 
days earlier than at Depot Island the previous 
season. This would give a total of igloo-life 
for the southern part of King William’s Land 
of eight months and twenty-two days, or nearly 
three-fourths of the year. ‘This is the nearest 
to the pole of greatest cold (be it the magnetic 
pole or according to Bent) that any white men 
have lived @ la Innuit. Assuming these two 
physical poles to be identical, and our posi- 
tion haying been so near them, — being really 
only, about a hundred miles distant, — we 
must have experienced about the maximum 
of annual igloo-life. Returning to North 
Hudson’s Bay in the spring of 1880, we, as 
well as the majority of the Esquimaux liy- 
ing around Depot Island, moved into tents 
about the middle of May, giving igloo-life 
for North Hudson’s Bay something over half 
the year, which is probably near the mini- 
mum. 

While, of course, climatic causes principally 
determine the annual longeyity of the snow- 
house, they are not the only ones. As soon 
as the spring thaws commence tumbling in 
the igloos, or making their structure insecure, 
the native would gladly avail himself of a tent ; 
but this he cannot do, unless there be a clear 
spot somewhere near, on which it can be 
pitched. It may be a number of days from 
the time he would accept tent-life before the 
hilltops or ridges commence peeping through 
_ their winter covering. The inland ridges, 
higher and more marked, covered with black 
moss, which, once through the crust, makes sad 
havoe with the snow, appear much sooner than 
those facing the sea, which are flatter, enabling 
the inland reindeer hunters to occupy their tents 
earlier than the seal or walrus hunters of 
the coast. Some igloo-builders will wait until 
they can kill enough seal to make a new tent 
before using “one. The Ooqueesik Salik 
Esquimaux of the Dangerous Rapids of the 
Great Fish River can be said to be practically 
without tents, securing nothing, or almost 
nothing, from which to make them. They hold 
to the “shelter of an igloo late in the spring 
and seek it as soon as one can be made in the 
early winter. 

(To be continued.) 


SCIENCE. 


oe 9g A ey ae ee 


[Von. II., No. 28. | 


ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE PIT- 
UITARY BODY IN PETROMYZON, AND 


THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THAT ORGAN 


IN OTHER TYPES. 


In the Quarterly journal of microscopical 
science (xxi. 750) I published a brief prelimi- 
nary account of the development of the pituitary 
body in the lamprey, stating that it was formed 
from a part of the nasal sac. This account 
of a method of formation so entirely different 
from any thing that was known among the ver- 
tebrates was received with incredulity by Bal- 
four, who says (Comp. embryology, ii. 358), 
‘*] have not myself completely followed its 
development in Petromyzon, but I haye ob- 
served a slight diverticulum of the stomodaeum 
which I believe gives origin to it. Fuller de- 
tails are in any case required before we can 
admit so great a divergence from the normal 
development as is indicated by Scott’s state- 
ments.’’ These fuller details have lone been 
nearly ready for publication, but I have been 


prevented by circumstances from issuing them. - 


I hope shortly to continue my series of studies — 


on the embryology of Petromyzon, but, in the 
mean time, think it advisable to present this 
preliminary account. 

My friend, Dr. Dohrn of Naples, has lately 
investigated this subject, and has come to the 
conclusion that neither Balfour nor myself can 
be correct, but that the pituitary body arises 
from an independent invagination of the epi- 
blast between the nasal epithelium and the 
mouth (Mitth. zool. stat. Neapel, iv. 1 heft). 


On examining Dohrn’s figures, however, I was 


much pleased to find that his disagreement with 
me is rather about terms than facts; for these 
drawings correspond almost exactly with those 
that I have already published, and many more 
as yet unpublished. 


Fie. 1. —Sagittal section through head of lamprey embryo. 
mouth; ply pituitary invagination; Zn, infundibulum; rep 
hypoblast of throat; ch, notochord; /, upper lip. 


The development of the pituitary body, as far 


as I have been able to trace it, is as follows. 
Shortly before hatching, 


the mouth is formed by 


a deep invagination of the epiblast (see fig. 1, 


T. <e 


_ Avcust 17, 1883.] 


taken from my article in the Morphol. jahrb., 
vii). The upper lip is somewhat rounded in 
longitudinal section, and bounded anteriorly by 
a very slight depression, which is the beginning 
of the pituitary body; but, as this is also the 
beginning of the invagination to form the nasal 
sac,’ I have preferred not to separate them, as 
Dohrn has done. In the next stage (fig. 2) 


MAYA Taia 
a> 


= 


Fie. 2.— Section through head of an older embryo just before 
hatching. O@/, olfactory epithelium. Other letters as in fig. 1. 


the nasal epithelium has become much thick- 
ened, the pituitary involution deeper, and the 
upper lip elongated so as to become triangular 
in section. At this time the cranial flexure 
has reached its maximum ; though it is far less 
than in most other groups, owing to the rela- 
tively small size of the fore and mid brains. 
The mouth is ventral in position, corresponding 
very closely to the selachian’ mouth in position 
and shape. 

Shortly after this, the upper lip begins that 


remarkable series of transformations to which, . 


as I long ago pointed out, many of the most 
striking peculiarities of the cyclostome organi- 
zation are due. The posterior edge of the lip 
elongates rapidly, becoming triangular in sec- 
tion; while the whole anterior part of the head 
rotates forwards, thus tending to correct the 
cranial flexure, and bringing the mouth to point 
somewhat forward as well 
as downward. By this 
process the edge of the 
lip, which in fig. 2 is 
directed backwards, now 
comes to point down- 
wards (fig. 3); at the 
same time, the opening 
of the nasal pit points 
forwards instead of down- 
wards. The involution 
for the nasal passage and 
pituitary body has now become a long tube of 
cells, which transverse sections show us to be 


Fie. 3. —Section through 
head of a very young 
larva of the lamprey. 
Letters as before. 


1 By nasal sac, I mean the blind passage, as distinguished 
fram the olfactory epithelium. 


SCIENCE. 


s 


185 


perforated by a small lumen. The end of this 
cellular tube reaches to the infandibulum, with 
which it lies in close contact. This portion 
will give rise to the pituitary body. Up to this 
time there has been no line of separation be- 
tween the pituitary involution and the nasal 
epithelium ; but when the process of rotation 
of the upper lip, and correction of the cranial 
flexure, is completed, the edge of the lip 
points directly forward, having passed through 
an angle of 180°, and the opening of the nasal 
sac is on the dorsal instead of the ventral sur- 
face of the head. At this time a fold appears 
below the olfactory epithelium, separating it 
distinctly from the pituitary passage. 

The pituitary body is formed from part of 
the epithelium of this passage, and consists 
of solid follicles, separated by connective tissue. 
According to Dohrn (loc. cit., p. 178), this body 
is not constricted off from the passage or nasal 
sac at any time during larval life. I have 
not been able to satisfy myself, as yet, upon 
this point; but I am not inclined to agree 
with this view. 

As to the morphological significance of the 
pituitary body, many views have been pro- 
pounded, some of them bearing upon the ques- 
tion of the origin of the vertebrates. Some 
writers have contended that the conario-hypo- 
physial tract through the brain is the remnant 
of the old mouth and gullet, which, in the ances- 
tors of the vertebrates, passed through a ring of 
neryous tissue, as in the annelids. Space will 
not permit a discussion of this hypothesis ; nor 
is such discussion necessary, as Balfour (Elas- 
mobranch fishes, p. 170) has stated the insu- 
perable objections to the view. Dohrn, in the 
pamphlet already quoted, adopts a view some- 
what like one originally propounded by Gotte, 
and adds a suggestion of his own. He consid- 
ers the entire blind nasal sac of the lamprey 
to belong to the pituitary body, and that this 
sac has arisen from the coalescence of a pair 
of gill-slits. 
ing-out of the theory so ably advocated in the 
very suggestive pamphlet ‘ Ueber den ursprung 
der wirbelthiere.’ But, until it can be shown 
that the vertebrate mouth is a new formation, 
the existence of pre-oral gill-clefts hardly mer- 
its discussion. I reserve for a later paper the 
consideration of the origin of the vertebrate 
mouth, —a question which is the turning-point 
of the solution of all these problems. 

Balfour has suggested an explanation of the 
pituitary body. ‘‘It is,’’ he says (p. 359), 
‘* clearly a rudimentary organ in existing crani- 
ate vertebrates ; and its development indicates, 
that when functional it was probably a sense- 


This hypothesis is but the carry-~ 


Te ee ae Pee eS 


186 


organ opening into the mouth, or else a glan- 
dular organ opening into the mouth.’’ It seems 
to me that the facts of its development in Pe- 
tromyzon negative this hypothesis. It is there 
seen to have no connection with the mouth; 
nor is this mode of development so entirely 
exceptional as it would at first seem. Of all 


known embryos of craniate vertebrates, the 
lamprey has perhaps the smallest brain and 
the Jeast cranial flexure; which state of things 
allows space for a distinct invagination from 
In the 
the 


without to reach the infundibulum. 
Amphibia this is seen to a less degree: 
invagination for the 
pituitary body is 
formed before the 
appearance of the 


Fie. 5. —Seetion through head of 
young tadpole of Bombinator 
(after GGtte). Letters as be- 
fore. 


Fie. 4. — Section thro’ 
. head of embryo of 
Bombinator (after 


Gotte). Letters as 


before. 


mouth, and just above it; so that, when the 
mouth appears, the two haye an apparent con- 
nection, being crowded together by the in- 
creased cranial flexure. In other types —such 
as the selachian, bird, mammal, ete. — the 
brain acquires a very great size in early em- 
bryonic stages, and the cranial flexure is con- 
sequently very much increased. In these cases 
almost the only possible way for an epiblastic 
invagination to reach the infundibulum is from 
the epiblast of the mouth. If the reader will 
compare the figures given above for the lam- 
prey with those from Gétte (figs. 4 and 5) for 
jthe amphibian and that from Balfour for the 
selachian (fig. 6), these progressive changes 
will at once be clear. Ifem- 
bryological evidence counts 
for any thing, it would there- 
fore seem extremely proba- 
ble that the connection of 
the pituitary body with the 
mouth is only a secondary 
one, brought about by the 


Fre. 6.— Section thro’ 
head of embryo of 
Pristiurus (after 
Balfour). Letters 


efore. . . 
Sale flexure in the higher types. 


Assuming that the invagination originally took 
place independently of the mouth, “sucha sec- 

~ ondary connection would be almost a mechani- 
eal necessity of the great brain-growth. 


SCIENCE. 


greatly increased cranial: 


[Vou. IL, No. 28. 


7, Bei 


Now, while I am not prepared to follow. 


Dohrn in maintaining that the entire blind 
nasal sac below the olfactory capsule of Pe- 
tromyzon really belongs to the pituitary body, 
yet I quite agree with him that the connection 
of the pituitary body with the olfactory organ 
is a secondary one. Ihave, in a former paper, 
stated the reasons for believing that the un- 
paired condition of the olfactory organ in the 
Cyclostomata is not primitive, but secondary, 
caused by the coalescence of two originally dis- 
tinct pits. Now, if there were an independent 
invagination in the median line of the head, 
the causes which brought about the union of the 
two nasal sacs would also cause the latter to 
coincide with the pituitary involution. This 
is just what I conceive to have happened. 

If the above reasoning be correct, the fact 
would seem clear, that the pituitary body is the 
remnant of some originally independent organ, 
which opened, not into the mouth, but on the 
surface of the head. Almost certainly this 
organ belonged to the invertebrate ancestor 
of the vertebrates. What its function was, is 


a difficult problem. Dohrn’s hypothesis that 


it was formed by the coalescence of a pair of 
gill-clifts is untenable, not only for the reasons 
already given, but on account of the invariable 
epiblastic origin of this organ, while gill-clefts 
always arise in the vertebrates as outgrowths 
of the hypoblast. Perhaps we may modify Bal- 
four’s suggestion, and assume tentatively that it 
was a sense organ or gland which, haying lost 
its function, has become rudimentary. At all 
events, it will be a step gained if we can estab- 
lish the fact that the pituitary body is an organ 
originally independent both of the mouth and 
of the olfactory apparatus. W. B. Scorr. 


Morphological laboratory, Princeton, N.J., 
July 5, 1883 


THE WEATHER IN JUNE, 1888. 


Tue monthly weather review of the U. S. 
signal-service contains in usual detail reports 
from all portions of the country of the weather 
conditions which characterized the month of 
June. There were no unusual meteorological 


features; the month exhibiting the ‘ average 


weather,’ as far as this term can be realized. 
The destructive floods in the lower Missouri 
River, and in the Mississippi River between 
St. Louis and Cairo, the unusual rainfall in 
that section, and severe local storms in many 
of the states, are the special events of note. 


The mean distribution of barometric press-— 


ure is illustrated by the accompanying chart, 


which also contains the mean isothermal lines, 


/ = 
Pustioned BY ORDER oF TH 
SECRETARY OF WAR 


REPRINTED IN REDUCED FORM 


SIGNAL-OFFICER. 


BY PERMISSION OF CHIEF 


MONTHLY MEAN ISOBARS, ISOTHERMS, AND WIND-DIRECTIONS, JUNE, 188%. 


188 


and arrows indicating: the prevailing wind- 
directions. The pressure conditions are quite 
normal, the regions of highest mean press- 
ure being the South Atlantic and Gulf 
states, and the North Pacific coast. Eight 
areas of low pressure haye been traced 
over the United States, with an average 
velocity of 24.2 miles per hour. The dis- 
continuance of telegraphic reports from 
stations west of the Rocky Mountains pre- 
vented the charting of the early portions 
of some of the storm-tracks. The pas- 
sage of the low areas was accompanied 
by wide-extended and in many cases se- 
vere local storms, though they were not 
so numerous nor so violent as those which 
occurred in the month of May. 

The departures from the normal tem- 
peratures were in no section large. On 
the Atlantic coast and west of the Rocky 
Mountains the temperature was slightly 
higher than the average, and over the in- 
terior districts slightly lower. Frosts oc- 
curred in many states in the first days of 
the month. 

The following table contains the rainfall 
Statistics for the month :— 


Average precipitation for June, 1883. 


_Average for June.- 
Sian en observa- Comparison of 
teal at une, 3, Wit! 
Districts. the BNO for 
Bonsey eral For 1883. several years, 
Inches. Inches. Inches. 
New England .... 38.60 3.36 0.24 deficiency. 
Middle Atlantic states. 3.52 5.22 1.70 excess. 
South Atlantic states . 4.57 6.49 1,92 excess. 
Florida peninsula . . 5.70. 4.80 0.90 deticiency. 
Mast Gulls eee ie 4.29 4.91 0.62 excess. 
West Gulf.) 2 2: 3.37" 3.73 0.35 excess. 
Tennessee . SB ALS 4.34 3.49 0.85 deficiency. 
Qhio valley. . . . - 4.64 4,21 0.43 deficiency. 
Lower lakes . . .'. 3.26 4.04 0.78 excess. 
Upper lakes age 4.47 5.38 0.91 excess. 
Extreme north-west 4.10 2.50 1.60 deficiency. 
Upper Mississippi valley, 5.82 5.98, 0.16 excess. 
Missouri valley... . 6.06 7.98 2.92 excess, 
Northernslope . .. . 253 3.43 0.90 excess. 
Middle slope... . 201 2.27 0.26 excess. 
Southern slope Q 3.26 1.70 1.56 deficiency. 
Southern plateau . . 0.40 0.03 0.37 deficiency. 
North Pacific coast. 1.50 0.04 1.46 deficiency. 
Middle Pacifie coast 0,18 0.00 0 18 deficiency. 
South Pacific coast. . 0.02 0.04 0.02 excess. ! 


On account of the excess of rain in the Mis- 
souri valley, disastrous floods occurred in the 
latter part of the month. At St. Louis the 
river reached the highest point since the estab- 
lishment of the signal-seryice station. Much 
delay was experienced by the railways cen- 
tring in St. Louis and Kansas City. ‘ 

Three depressions only are charted upon the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 28. 


Atlantic Ocean in this month. All of these 
are in the eastern portion, and none are traced 


Ick-CHART FOR JUNE, 1883. 


from America to Europe. The weather over 
the North Atlantic was fair; but dense fogs 
prevailed from the coast of the United States 
eastward to the fortieth meridian. Ice was 
found as far east as 42° longitude, and as far 
south as 40°.5 latitude. During the month, 
icebergs drifted about three degrees eastward 
of the position in May. Compared with June, 
1882, there is a marked decrease in the num- 
ber of icebergs, and also in the amount of» 
drifting field-ice. The accompanying chart 
shows the position of the ice in the month. 

An interesting diagram is published in the 
review, showing the observations made on the 
steamship Assyria during her yoyage from 
New York to Bristol, May 27 to June 11. 
Some of the symbols used are unexplained, 
however. The marked features are the rise 
in temperature immediately after leaving the 
Atlantic coast and the corresponding fall east 
of the fiftieth meridian, the agreement between 
the temperature and pressure curves, and the 
agreement between the temperatures of the air 
and sea-water. 
. Minor displays of auroras at various stations 
were reported during the month, and on the 
30th an extensive but not brilliant display 
was noted. The number of sun-spots and 
groups was large. The record of halos, mirage, 
and meteors is large; and two water-spouts 
were reparted, —one on Lake Erie, the other 
on Lake Monroe, Fla. 

The verification of the tri-daily indications 


Avaust 17, 1883.] 


shows the average of 85.1%. Of the caution- 
ary signals displayed, 80.4 % were justified by 
winds exceeding twenty-five miles an hour at 
or within one hundred miles of the station. 


THE FALL OF A BALLOON.! 


In the August (1882) number of U Aeronaute, 
accounts were given of the different ascents made 
on the 14th of July of that year. Among_ these 
ascents that of Cottin and Perron was of especial 


~ Fie. 2. 


interest, not because of the length of the voyage, but 
from its brevity, and on account of the fall which 
ended it. The balloon had barely started from Paris 
when a rent was formed in the upper part, and the 
balloon descended at Saint-Ouen. This occurrence 
is not entirely unknown; but that which does not 


Fre. 3. 


happen often is, that an artist, Mr. Jacque, chanced 
to be at his window, and was able to make rapid 
drawings of the balloon during its descent, and Mr. 
L. Gillon viewed the accident from the Place Wag- 
ram, and made three drawings. 

Mr. Cottin, thinking that the aeronauts had not 
attached sufficient importance to his ascent, has pub- 
lished an account of it in a brochure, illustrating it 
with the drawings of Jacque and Gillon. He begins 
his statement, ‘‘It was sixteen miuutes past four. 
The wind was blowing violently 
from the south-east. The tem- 
perature was 28° C, At starting, 
the voyagers felt nervous, and 
noticed some excitement in the 
movements of those who were as- 
sisting. Nevertheless, they start- 
ed, saluting the crowd, who re- 
sponded as only a sympathetic 
Parisian crowd knows how. 
They rose over the building 
which forms the corner of the 
Place Wagram. Thirty kilograms of ballast was 
thrown out; and, relieved of this weight, the bal- 
1 Taken, with the illustrations, from /’Aeronaute, June, 1883. 


Fie. 4. 


SCIENCE. 


189 


loon shot up. With one bound it was four hundred 
metres; another, and it had reached a height of six 
hundred metres. At this time it was just twenty-four 
minutes past four. The aeronauts felt that the bal- 
loon seemed to stop. They were told afterwards that 
they began to turn. Cottin felt a trembling of the 
basket. Some seconds passed. Then the noise of 
the flapping silk was heard.”’ 

The balloon was torn when at a height of seven 
lundred and three metres, as shown by a pocket 
barometer which Cottin had with him, and saved 
in good condition. For the first hundred and 
twenty metres of the fall the motion was regular. 
Then aswinging motion began, and finally the fall 


Fie. 5. 


increased in speed. The oscillations increased enor- 
mously, and the basket swung through the air with a 
dizzying velocity. At times the balloon took up an 
almost horizontal position in the direction of the 
wind, This swinging continued till a point within a 
hundred and twenty or a hundred and thirty me- 
tres of the earth was reached. Froth this point 
the fall was nearly vertical, as the silk had formed 
itself into a parachute. During this period Mr, 
Perron threw out the last of the ballast, the guide- 
rope, and cut the cords of the anchor. Led by 
Perron’s example, Cottin threw over a bottle of cold 
coffee, which, he remarks, ‘might have injured or 
even disfigured them,’ 


190 


s 


Suddenly, without any shock, the basket seemed 
to drop from under their feet. A moment later they 
were violently thrown down by the sudden stopping 
of their fall. It was twenty-seven minutes past four. 
The ascension had lasted eleven minutes, and two 
minutes were occupied by the fall of seven hundred 
and three metres. 

They found themselves suspended about two me- 
tres from the pavement in the courtyard of a house 


in Saint-Ouen, the ropes and material of the balloon 
having caught on the roof. The yard was not more 
than four metres long by three wide. To complete 
their good luck, there was a flight of steps whieh 
gave them an easy means of reaching the ground. 
Mr. Jacque was in his studio, and saw the balloon 
in the air. Seeing that something unusual was hap- 
pening, he seized a pencil, and hastily drew the suc- 
cessive forms which are reproduced in figs. 1 to 4. 


SCIENCE. 


A Oe ee en ae 


[Von. II., No. 28. 


As to the drawings, he says, ‘“‘I could only indicate 
very imperfectly the ropes and basket, which I could 
hardly see. It is necessary to remark, that the phases 
represented ought to be supposed as following closely 
one another, and constantly changing. I suppose 
that the time during which the fall was visible to me 
was about one minute, and the distance fallen five 
hundred metres. At the moment when I saw the bal- 
loon taking the last form (fig. 4), it was descending 
more rapidly, and disappeared behind 
the left slope of Montmartre. It did 
not seem more than one kilometre 
distant from me; but in this I was 
mistaken.”” 

The sketches (fig. 6) of the fall as 


panied by any explanation. 

The figures are of interest as show- 
ing the form which a balloon takes 
when forming itself into a parachute, 
and give some indication of the resist- 
ance offered by theair. The parachute 
was doubtless of an imperfect form, 
and offered too great a resistance. It 
had, moreover, the fault of not having 
a central opening, on which account 
the air could only escape laterally, and 
gave rise to the fearful oscillations. 
In an actual parachute the central hole, of large size, 
allows easy escape to the air, and the oscillations are 
slight. It can almost be said that the resistance of a 
parachute increases with the size of the opening. 

‘The balloon tore on its upper side on account of 
the disproportion in the ropes. The lower part, 
reversing, formed a closed parachute. It is not sin- 
gular that the balloon should have taken such strange 
shapes while falling. 


AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


ADDRESS OF THE. RETIRING PRESI- 
DENT, DR. J. W. DAWSON, AT MIN- 
NEAPOLIS, AUG. 15, 1888. ; 


SOME UNSOLVED PROBLEMS IN GEOLOGY. 


My predecessor in office remarked, in the opening 
of his address, that two courses are open to the retir- 
ing president of this association in preparing the 
annual presidential discourse, —he may either take 
up some topic relating to his own specialty, or he may 
deal with various or general matters relating to sci- 
ence and its progress. A geologist, however, is not 
necessarily tied up to one or the other alternative. 
His subject covers the whole history of the earth in 
time. At the beginning it allies itself with astronomy 
and physics and celestial chemistry. At the end it 
runs into human history, and is mixed up with arche- 
ology and anthropology. Throughout its whole course 
it has to deal with questions of meteorology, seogra- 
phy, aud biology. In short, there is no department of 


physical or biological science with which geology is not 
allied, or at least on which the geologist may not pre- 
sume to trespass. When, therefore, I announce as 
my subject on the present occasion some of the un- 
solved problems of this universal science, you need not 
be surprised if I should be somewhat discursive. 
Perhaps I shall begin at the utmost limits of 
my subject by remarking that in matters of nat- 
ural and physical science we are met at the outset 
with the scarcely solved question as to our Own 
place in the nature which we study, and the bear- 
ing of this on the difficulties we encounter. The 
organism of man is decidedly a part of nature. We 
place ourselves, in this aspect, in the sub-kingdom 
vertebrata, and class mammalia, and recognize the 
fact that man is the terminal link in a chain of 
being, extending throughout geological time. But 
the organism is not all of man; and, when we 
regard tnan as a scientific animal, we raise a new 
question. If the human mind is a part of nature, 
then it is subject to natural law; and nature in- 


seen by M. L. Gillon are not accom- ~ 


ey 


—* 


> 
, 


Nae ¢ = 


Aueusr 17, 1883.] 


cludes mind as well as matter. On the other hand, 
without being absolute idealists, we may hold that 
mind is more potent than matter, and nearer to 
the real essence of things. Our science is in any 
case necessarily dualistic, being the product of the 
reaction of mind on nature, and must be largely 
subjective and anthropomorphic. Hence, no doubt, 
arise much of the controversy of science, and much 


' of the unsolved difficulty. We recognize this when 


we divide science into that which is experimental, 
or depends on apparatus, and that which is observa- 
tional and classificatory, — distinctions, these, which 
relate not so much to the objects of science as to our 
methods of pursuing them. This view also opens 
up to us the thought that the domain of science is 
practically boundless; for who can set Jimits to the 
action of mind on the universe, or of the universe 
on mind? It follows that science must be limited 
on all sides by unsolved mysteries; and it will not 
serve any good purpose to meet these with clever 
guesses. If we so treat the enigmas of the sphinx 
nature, we shall surely be devoured. Nor, on the 
other hand, must we collapse into absolute despair, 
and resign ourselves to the confession of inevitable 
ignorance. It becomes us, rather, boldly to confront 
the unsolved questions of nature, and to wrestle with 
their difficulties till we master such as we can, and 
cheerfully leave those we cannot overcome to be 
grappled with by our successors. 

Fortunately, as a geologist, I do not need to invite 
your attention to those transcendental questions 
which relate to the ultimate constitution of matter, 
the nature of the ethereal medium filling space, the 
absolute difference or identity of chemical elements, 
the cause of gravitation, the conservation and dissipa- 
tion of energy, the nature of life, or the primary ori- 
gin of bioplasmic matter. I may take the much more 
humble réle of an inquirer into the unsolved or 
partially solved problems which meet us in consider- 
ing that short and imperfect record which geology 
studies in the rocky layers of the earth’s crust, and 
which leads no farther back than to the time when a 
solid rind had already formed on the earth and was 
already covered with an ocean. This record of geol- 
ogy covers but a small part of the history of the earth 
and of the system to which it belongs, nor does it 
enter at all into the more recondite problems in- 
volved; still it forms, I believe, some necessary prep- 
aration, at least, to the comprehension of these. 

What do we know of the oldest aud most primitive 
rocks? At this moment the question may be an- 
swered in many and discordant ways; yet the leading 
elements of the answer may be given very simply. 


The oldest rock formation known to geologists is the 


lower Laurentian, the fundamental gneiss, the Lew- 
isian formation of Scotland, the Ottawa gneiss of 
Canada. This formation of enormous thickness 
corresponds to what the older geologists called the 
fundamental granite, —a name not to be scouted, 
for gneiss is only a stratified granite. Perhaps the 
main fact in relation to this old rock is that it is a 
gneiss; that is, a rock at once bedded and crystal- 
line, and having for its dominant ingredient the 


SCIENCE. 


mineral orthoclase, —a compound of silica, alumina, 
and potash, —in which are embedded, as in a paste, 
grains and crystals of quartz and hornblende. We 
know very well, from its texture and composition, that 
it cannot be a product of mere heat; and, being a bed- 
ded rock, we infer that it was laid down layer by 
layer, in the manner of aqueous deposits. On the 
other hand, its chemical composition is quite differ- 
ent from that of the muds, sands, and gravels usually 
deposited from water. Their special characters are 
caused by the fact that they have resulted from the 
slow decay of rocks like these gneisses, under the 
operation of carbonic acid and water, whereby the al- 
kaline matter and the more soluble part of the silica 
have been washed away, leaving a residue mainly sili- 
ceous and aluminous. Such more modern rocks tell 
of dry land subjected to atmospheric decay and rain- 
wash. If they have any direct relation to the old 
gneisses, they are their grandchildren, not their par- 
ents. On the contrary, the oldest gneisses show no 
pebbles, or sand, or limestone — nothing to indicate 
that there was then any land undergoing atmospherie 
waste, or shores with sand and gravel. For all that 
we know to the contrary, these old gneisses may have 
been deposited in a shoreless sea, holding in solution 
or suspension merely what it could derive from a 
submerged crust recently cooled from a state of fusion, 
still thin, and exuding here and there through its 
fissures heated waters and voleanie products. 

It is searcely necessary to say that I have no con- 
fidence in the supposition of unlike composition of 
the earth’s mass on different sides, on which Dana 
has partly based his theory of the origin of conti- 
nents. The most probable conception seems to be. 
that of Lyell; namely, a molten mass, uniform except 
in so far as denser material might exist toward its 
centre, and a crust at first approximately even and 
homogeneous, and subsequently thrown into great 
bendings upward and downward. This question has 
recently been ably discussed by Mr. Crosby in the 
London Geological mayazine. 

In short, the fundamental gneiss of the lower Lau- 
rentian may have been the first rock ever formed; 
and in any case it is a rock formed under conditions 
which have not since recurred, except locally. It 
constitutes the first and best example of these chemi- 
co-physical, aqueous or aqueo-igneous rocks, so char- 
acteristic of the earliest period of the earth’s history. 
Viewed in this way, the lower Laurentian gneiss is 
probably the oldest kind of rock we shall ever know, 
— the limit to our backward progress, beyond which 
there remains nothing to the geologist, except physi- 
cal hypotheses respecting a cooling, incandescent 
globe. For the chemical conditions of these primi- 
tive rocks, and what is known as to their probable 
origin, I must refer you to my friend Dr. Sterry 
Hunt, to whom we owe so much of what is known 
of the older crystalline rocks,” as well as of their lit- 
erature and the questions which they raise. My 
purpose here is to sketch the remarkable difference 
which we meet as we ascend into the middle and 
upper Laurentian. 


1 June, 1883. ? Hunt, Essays on chemical geology. 


192 


In the next succeeding formation, the true lower 
Laurentian of Logan, the Grenville series of Canada, 
we meet with a great and significant change. It is 
true, we have still a predominance of gneisses which 
may haye been formed in the same manner with those 
below them; but we find these now associated with 
great beds of limestone and dolomite, which must 
have been formed by the separation of calcium and 
magnesium carbonates from the sea-water, either by 
chemical precipitation or by the agency of living 
beings. 
and even pebble beds, which inform us of sand-banks 
and shores. Nay, more, we have beds containing 
graphite which must be the residue of plants, and 
iron ores which tell of the deoxidation of iron oxide 
by organic matters. In short, here we have evidence 
of new factors in world-building, —of land and ocean, 
of atmospheric decay of rocks, of deoxidizing pro- 
cesses carried on by vegetable life on the land and 
in the waters, of limestone-building in the sea. To 
afford material for such rocks, the old Ottawa gneiss 
must have been lifted up into continents and moun- 
tain masses. Under the slow but sure action of the 
carbonic dioxide dissolved in rain-water, its felspar 
had crumbled down in the course of ages. Its pot- 
ash, soda, lime, magnesia, and part of its silica, had 
been washed into the sea, there to enter into new 
combinations, and to form new deposits. The crum- 
bling residue of fine clay and sand had been also 
washed down into the borders of the ocean, and had 
been there deposited in beds.1 Thus the earth had 
entered into a new phase, which continues onward 
through the geological ages; and I place in your 
hands one key for unlocking the mystery of the world 
when J affirm that this great change took place, this 
new era was inaugurated, in the midst of the Lau- 
rentian period. 

Was not this time a fit period for the first appear- 
ance of life? Should we not expect it to appear, 
independently of the evidence we have of the fact ? 
I do not propose to enter here into that evidence, 
more especially in the case of the one well character- 
ized Laurentian fossil, Eozoon canadense. I have 
already amply illustrated it elsewhere. I would 
merely say here, that we should bear in mind that in 
this later half of the lower Laurentian, or, if we so 
choose to style it, middle Laurentian period, we have 
the conditions required for life in the sea and on the 
land; and, since in other periods we know that life 
was always present when its conditions were present, 
it is not unreasonable to look for the first traces of 
life in this formation, in which we find for the first 
time the completion of those physical arrangements 
which make life, in such forms of it as exist on our 
planet, possible. 

This is also a proper place to say something of the 
doctrine of what is termed ‘metamorphism.’ The 
Laurentian rocks are undoubtedly greatly changed 
from their original state, more especially in the mat- 
ters of crystallization and the formation of dessemi- 

1 Dr. Hunt has now in preparation for the press an important 


paper on this subject, read before the National academy of sci- 
ences. 


SCIENCE. 


We have also quartzite, quartzose gneisses,’ 


me ee ee 
5 Oe 


[Vou. II., No. 28. 


nated minerals by the action of heat and heated 
water. Sandstones have thus passed into quartzites, 
clays into slates and schists, limestones into marbles. 
So far, metamorphism is not a doubtful question; 
but, when theories of metamorphism go so far as to 
suppose an actual change of one element for another, 
they go beyond the bounds of chemical credibility; 
yet such theories of metamorphism are often boldly 
advanced, and made the basis of important conclu- 
sions. Dr. Hunt has happily given the name ‘ meta- 
somatosis’ to this imaginary and impossible kind of 
metamorphism, which may be regarded as an extreme 
kind of evolution, akin to some of those forms of 
that theory employed with reference to life, but more 
easily detected and exposed. I would have it to be 


understood, that, in speaking of the metamorphism | 


of the older crystalline rocks, it is not to this meta- 
somatosis that I refer, and that I hold that rocks 
which have been produced out of the materials de- 
composed by atmospheric erosion can neyer, by any 
process of metamorphism, be restored to the precise 
condition of the Laurentian rocks. Thus there is 
in the older formations a genealogy of rocks, which, 
in the absence of fossils, may be used with some con- 
fidence, but which does not apply to the more modern 
deposits. Still, nothing in geology absolutely perishes 
or is altogether discontinued; and it is probable, that, 
down to the present day, the causes which produced 
the old Laurentian gneiss may still operate in limited 
localities. Then, however, they were general, not 
exceptional. It is further to be observed, that the 
term ‘gneiss’ is sometimes of wide and even loose 
application. Beside the typical orthoclase and horn- 
blendic gneiss of the Laurentian, there are mica- 
ceous, quartzose, garnetiferous, and many other kinds 
of gneiss; and even gneissose rocks, which hold lab- 
radorite or anorthite instead of orthoclase, are some- 
times, though not accurately, included in the term. 

The Grenville series, or middle Laurentian, is suc- 
ceeded by what Logan in Canada called the upper Lau- 
rentian, and which other geologists have called the 
Norite or Norian series. Here we still have our old 
friends the gneisses, but somewhat peculiar in type; 
and associated with them are great beds rich in lime- 
felspar, —the so-called labradorite and anorthite 
rocks. The precise origin of these is uncertain, but 
this much seems clear; namely, that they originated 
in circumstances in which the great limestones depos- 
ited in the lower or middle Laurentian were begin- 
ning to be employed in the manufacture, probably by 
aqueo-igneous agencies, of lime-felspars. This proves 
the Norian rocks to be much younger than the Lau- 
rentian, and that, as Logan supposed, considerable 
earth-movements had occurred between the two, 
implying lapse of time. 

Next we have the Huronian of Logan, —a series 
much less crystalline and more fragmentary, and 
affording more evidence of land elevation and atmos- 
pheric and aqueous erosion, than any of the others. 
It has great conglomerates, some of them made up of 
rounded pebbles of Laurentian rocks, and others of 
quartz pebbles, which must have been the remains 

of rocks subjected to very perfect erosion. The pure 


‘ 


August 17, 1883.] 


quartz rocks tell the same tale, while limestones and 
slates speak also of chemical separation of the mate- 
rials of older rocks. The Huronian evidently tells of 
movements in the previous Laurentian, and changes 
in its texture so great, that the former may be 
regarded as a comparatively modern rock, though 
vastly older than any part of the paleozoic series. 

Still later than the Huronian is the great mica- 
ceous series called by Hunt the Mont Alban or White 
Mountain group, and the Taconian or lower Taconic 
of Emmons, which recalls in some measure the con- 
ditions of the Huronian. The precise relations of 
these to the later formations, and to certain doubtful 
deposits around Lake Superior, can scarcely be said 
to be settled, though it would seem that they are all 
older than the fossiliferous Cambrian rocks which 
practically constitute the base of the paleozoic. I 
have, I may say, satisfied myself, in regions which I 
have studied, of the existence and order of these 
rocks as successive formations, though I would not 
dogmatize as to the precise relations of those last 
mentioned, or as to the precise age of some disputed 
formations which may either be of the age of the 
older eozoic formations, or may be peculiar kinds of 
paleozoic rocks modified by metamorphism. Prob- 
ably neither of the extreme views now agitated is 
absolutely correct. 

After what has been said, you will perhaps not be 
astonished that a great geological battle rages over 
the old crystalline rocks. By some geologists they 
are almost entirely explained away, or referred to 
igneous action or to the alteration of ordinary sedi- 
ments. Under the treatment of another school, they 
grow to great series of pre-Cambrian rocks, constitut- 
ing vast systems of formations, distinguishable from 
each other, not by fossils, but by differences of min- 
eral character. I have already indicated the manner 
in which I believe the dispute will ultimately be set- 
tled, and the president of the geological section will 
treat it more fully in his opening address. 

After the solitary appearance of Eozoon in the 
Laurentian, and of a few uncertain forms in the Hu- 
ronian and Taconian, we find ourselves in the Cam- 
brian, in the presence of a nearly complete invertebrate 
fauna of protozoa, polyps, echinoderms, mollusks, 
and crustacea; and this not confined to one locality 
merely, but apparently extended simultaneously 
throughout the ocean, This sudden incoming of 
animal life, along with the subsequent introduction 
of successive groups of invertebrates, and finally of 
vertebrate animals, furnishes one of the greatest of 
the unsolved problems of geology, which geologists 
were wont to settle by the supposition of successive 
creations. In an address delivered at the Detroit 
meeting of the association in 1875, I endeavored to 
set forth the facts as to this succession, and the gen- 
eral principles involved in it, and to show the insuf- 
ficiency of the theories of evolution suggested by 
biologists to give any substantial aid to the geologist 
in these questions. In looking again at the points 
there set forth, I find they have not been invalidated 
by subsequent discoveries, and that we are still nearly 
in the same position with respect to these great ques- 


SCIENCE. 


193 


tions that we were in at that time, — a singular proof 
of the impotency of that deductive method of reason- 
ing which has become fashionable among naturalists 
of late. Yet the discussions of recent years have 
thrown some additional light on these matters; and 
none more so than the mild disclaimers with which 
my friend Dr. Asa Gray and other moderate and sci- 
entifie evolutionists have met the extreme views of 
such men as Romanes, Haeckel, Lubbock, and Grant 
Allen. It may be useful to note some of these as 
shedding a little light on this dark corner of our 
unsolved problems. 

It bas been urged on the side of rational evolution, 
that this hypothesis does not profess to give an expla- 
nation of the absolute origin of life on our planet, 
or even of the original organization of a single cell or 
of a simple mass of protoplasm, living or dead. All 
experimental attempts to produce by synthesis the 
complex albuminous substances, or to obtain the liy- 
ing from the non-living, have so far been fruitless; 
and, indeed, we cannot imagine any process by which 
such changes could be effected. That they have been 
effected we know; but the process employed by their 
maker is still as mysterious to us as it probably was 
to him who wrote the words, ‘And God said let the 
waters swarm with swarmers.’ How vast is the gap 
in our knowledge and our practical power implied in 
this admission, which must, however, be made by 
every mind not absolutely blinded by a superstitious 
belief in those forms of words which too often pass 
current as philosophy! 

But if we are content to start with a number of 
organisms ready made, —a somewhat humiliating 
start, however, — we still have to ask, How do these 
vary so as to give new species? It is a singular illu- 
sion in this matter, of men who profess to be beliey- 
ers in natural law, that variation may be boundless, 
aimless, and fortuitous, and that it is by spontaneous 
selection from varieties thus produced that develop- 
ment arises. But surely the supposition of mere 
chance and magic is unworthy of science. Varieties 
must have causes, and their causes and their effects 
must be regulated by some law or laws. Now, it is 
easy to see that they cannot be caused by a mere in- 
nate tendency in the organism itself. Every organism 
is so nicely equilibrated, that it has no such sponta- 
neous tendency, except within the limits set by its 
growth and the law of its periodical changes. There 
may, however, be equilibrium more or less stable. I 
believe all attempts hitherto made have failed to ac- 
count for the fixity of certain, nay, of very many, 
types throughout geological time; but the mere con- 
sideration that one may be in a more stable state of 
equilibrium than another so far explains it. A rock- 
ing stone has no more spontaneous tendency to move 
than an ordinary bowlder, but it may be made to 
‘move with a touch. So it probably is with organ- 
isms. But, if so, then the causes of variation are 
external, as in many cases we actually know them to 
be; and they must depend on instability or change 
in surroundings, and this so arranged as not to be too 
extreme in amount, and to operate in some determi- 
nate direction. Observe how remarkable the unity 


194 


of the adjustments involved in such a supposition. 
How superior they must be to our rude and always 
more or less unsuccessful attempts to produce and 
carry forward varieties and races in definite direc- 
tions! This cannot be chance. If it exists, it must 
depend on plans deeply laid in the nature of things, 
else it would be most monstrous magic and causeless 
miracle. Still more certain is this conclusion when 
we consider the vast and orderly succession made 
known to us by geology, and which must have been 
regulated by fixed laws, only a few of which are as 
yet known to us. 

Beyond these general considerations, we have others 
of a more special character, based on paleontological 
facts, which show how imperfect are our attempts, as 
yet, to reach the true causes of the introduction of 
genera and species. 

One is the remarkable fixity of the leading types of 
living beings in geological time. If instead of fram- 
ing, like Haeckel, fanciful phylogenies, we take the 
trouble, with Barrande and Gaudry, to trace the forms 
of life throuzh the period of their existence, each 
along its own line, we shall be greatly struck with 
this, and especially with the continuous existence of 
many low types of life through vicissitudes of physi- 
eal conditions of the most stupendous character, and 
over a lapse of time scarcely conceivable, What is 
still more remarkable is, that this holds in groups 
which, within certain limits, are perhaps the most 
variable of all. In the present world no creatures 
are individually more variable than the protozoa; as, 
for example, the foraminifera and the sponges. Yet 
these groups are fundamentally the same, from the 
beginning of the palaeozoic until now; and modern 
species seem scarcely at all to differ from specimens 
procured from rocks at least half-way back to the 
beginning of our geological record. If we suppose 
that the present sponges and foraminifera are the 
descendants of those of the Silurian period, we can 
affirm, that, in all that vast lapse of time, they have, 
on the whole, made little greater change than that 
which may be observed in variable forms at present. 
The same remark applies to other low animal forms. 
In forms somewhat higher and less variable, this is 
equally noteworthy. The pattern of the venation of 
the wings of cockroaches, and the structure and form 
of land-snails, gally-worms, and decapod crustaceans, 
were all settled in the carboniferous age ina way that 
still remains. So were the foliage and the fructifica- 
tion of club-mosses and ferns. If at any time mem- 
bers of these groups branched off, so as to lay the 
foundation of new species, this must have been a 
very rare and exceptional occurrence, and one de- 
manding eyen some suspension of the ordinary laws 
of nature. 

Certain recent utterances of eminent scientific men 
in England and France are most instructive with 
reference to the difficulties which encompass this 
subject. Huxley, at present the leader of English 
evolutionists, in his ‘ Rede lecture’? delivered at 
‘Cambridge, England, holds that there are only two 
“possible alternative hypotheses’ as to the origin of 

+ Report in Vatwre, June 21, corrected by the author. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 28, 


species, —(1) that of ‘construction,’ or the mechan- 
ical putting-together of the materials and parts of 
each new species separately; and (2) that of ‘ evolu- 
tion,’ or that one form of life ‘proceeded from an- 
other’ by the ‘ establishment of small successive 
differences.’ After comparing these modes, much 
to the disadvantage of the first, he concludes with 
the statement that “‘ this was his case for evolution, 
which he rested wholly on arguments of the kind he 
had adduced;” these arguments being the thread- 
bare false analogy of ordinary reproduction and the 
transformation of species, and the mere succession of 
forms more or less similar in geological time, neither 
of them having any bearing whatever on the origin 
of any species or on the cause of the observed suc- — 
cession. With reference to the two alternatives, while 
it is true that no certain evidence has yet been ob- 
tained — either by experiment, observation, or sound 
induction — as to the mode of origin of any species, 
enough is known to show that there are numerous 
possible methods, grouped usually under the heads 
of absolute creation, mediate creation, critical evolu- 
tion, and gradual evolution. It is also true that 
almost the only thing we certainly know in the mat- 
ter, is that the differences characteristie of classes, 
orders, genera, and species, must have arisen, nof in 
one or two, but in many ways. An instructive com- 
mentary on the capacity of our age to deal with these 
great questions is afforded by the fact that this little 
piece of clever mental gymnastic should have been 
practised in a university lecture and in presence of 
an educated audience. It is also deserving of notice, 
that, though the lecturer takes the development of 
the Nautili and their allies as his principal illustra- 
tion, he evidently attaches no weight to the argument 
in the opposite sense deduced by Barrande — the man 
of all others most profoundly acquainted with these 
animals — from the paleozoic cephalopods. 

Another example is afforded by a lecture recently 
delivered at the Royal institution in London by Pro- 
fessor Flower.! The subject is, ‘The whales, past 
and present, and their probable origin.’ The latter 
point, as is well known, Gaudry had candidly given 
up. ‘‘ We have questioned,” he says, *‘ these strange 
and gigantic sovereigns of the tertiary oceans as to 
their ancestors, — they leave us without reply.” 
Flower is bold enough to face this problem; and he 
does so in a fair and vigorous way, though limit- 
ing himself to the supposition of slow and gradual _— 
change. He gives up at once, as every anatomist — 
must, the idea of an origin from fishes or reptiles. 
He thinks the ancestors of the whales must have 
been quadrupedal mammals. He is obliged for good 
reasons to reject the seals and the otters, and turns 
to the ungulates, though here, also, the difficulties are 
formidable. Finally he has recourse to an imaginary 
ancestor, supposed to have haunted marshes and riy- 
ers of the mesozoic age, and to have been interme- 
diate between a hippopotamus and a dolphin, and 
omnivorous in diet. As this animal is altogether 
unknown to geology or zoology, and not much less 
difficult to account for than the whales themselves, 

1 Reported in Nature. 


hisa es = 


- Aveusr 17, 1883.] 


he very properly adds, ‘Please to recollect, however, 
that this is a mere speculation.’ He trusts, however, 
that such speculations are ‘not without their use;’ 
but this will depend upon whether or not they lead 
men’s minds from the path of legitimate science into 
the quicksands of baseless conjecture. 

Gaudry, in his recent work, ‘Enchainements du 
monde animal,’ ! though a strong advocate of evolu- 
tion, is obliged in his final résumé to say, “Il ne 
Igisse point percer le myst®re qui entoure le deve- 
loppement primitif des grandes classes du monde 
animal. Nul homme ne sait comment ont été formés 
les premiers individus de foraminiferes, de polypes, 
d’étoiles de mer, de crinoides, ete. Les fossiles pri- 
maires ne nous ont pas encore fourni de preuves 
positives du passage des animaux d’une classe & ceux 
dune autre classe.” 

Professor Williamson of Manchester, in an address 
delivered in February last before the Royal institu- 
tion of Great Britain, after showing that the conifers, 
ferns, and lycopods of the paleozoie have no known 
ancestry, uses the significant words, ** The time has 
not yet arrived for the appointment of a botanical 
king-at-arms and constructor of pedigrees.” 

Another caution which a paleontologist has ocea- 
sion to give with regard to theories of life has ref- 
erence to the tendency of biologists to infer that 
animals and plants were introduced under embryonic 
forms, and at first in few and imperfect species. 
Facts do not substantiate this. The first appearance 
of leading types of life is rarely embryonic. On the 
contrary, they often appear in highly perfect and 
specialized forms; often, however, of composite type, 
and expressing characters afterwards so separated as 
to belong to higher groups. The trilobites of the 
Cambrian are some of them of few segments, and, so 
far, embryonic; but the greater part are many-seg- 
mented and very complex. ‘The batrachians of the 
earboniferous present many characters higher than 
those of their modern successors, and now appropri- 
ated to the true reptiles. The reptiles of the Per- 
mian and trias usurped some of the prerogatives of 
the mammals. The ferns, lycopods, and equisetums 
of the Devonian and carboniferous were, to say the 
least, not inferior to their modern representatives. 
The shell-bearing cephalopods of the paleozoic would 
seem to have possessed structures now special to a 
higher group, that of the cuttle-fishes. The bald and 
contemptuous negation of these facts by Haeckel 
and other biologists does not tend to give geologists 
much confidence in their dicta. 

Again: we are now prepared to say that the strug- 
gle for existence, however plausible as a theory, 
“when put before us in connection with the produc- 
tiveness of animals, and the few survivors of their 
multitudinous progeny, has not been the determin- 
‘ing cause of the introduction of new species. The 
periods of rapid introduction of new forms of marine 
life were not periods of struggle, but of expansion, — 
those periuds in which the submergence of continents 
afforded new and large space for their extension 
and comfortable subsistence. In like manner it was 
, * Paris, 1883. 


SCIENCE. 


— a as. J v St sa ~ a a =, ca 


195 


continental emergence that afforded the opportunity 
fur the introduction of land animals and plants. 
Further, in connection with this, it is now an estab- 
lished conclusion, that the great aggressive faunas 
and floras of the continents have originated in the 
north, some of them within the aretie circle; and this 
in periods of exceptional warmth, when the perpetual 
summer sunshine of the arctic regions co-existed with 
a warm temperature. The testimony of the rocks 
thus is, that not struggle, but expansion, furnished 
the requisite conditions for new forms of life, and 
that-the periods of struggle were characterized by 
depanperation and extinction. 

But we are sometimes told that organisms are 
merely mechanical, and that the discussions respect- 
ing their origin have no significance, any more than 
if they related to rocks or crystals, because they re- 
late merely to the organism considered as a machine, 
and not to that which may be supposed to be more 
important; namely, the great determining power of 
mind and will. That this is a mere evasion, by 
which we really gain nothing, will appear from a 
characteristic extract of an article by an eminent 
biologist, in the new edition of the Encyclopedia 
Britannica, — a publication which, I am sorry to say, 
instead of its proper réle as a repertory of facts, has 
become a strong partisan, stating extreme and un- 
proved speculations as if they were conclusions of 
science. The statement referred to is as follows: 
““A mass of living protoplasm is simply a molecular 
machine of great complexity, the total results of the 
working of which, or its vital phenomena, depend 
on the one hand on its construction, and, on the 
other, dn the energy supplied to it; and to speak of 
vitality as any thing but the name for a series of 
operations is as if one should talk of the horologity 
of a clock.” It would, I think, scarcely be possible 
to put into the same number of words a greater 
amount of unscientific assumption and unproved 
statement than in this sentence. Is ‘living proto- 
plasm’ different in any way from dead protoplasm, 
and, if so, what causes the difference? What is a 
‘machine’? Can we conceive of a self-produced or 
uncaused machine, or one not intended to work out 
some definite results? The results of the machine 
in question are said to be ‘vital phenomena;’ cer- 
tainly most wonderful results, and greater than those 
of any machine man has yet been able to construct. 
But why ‘vital’? If there is no such thing as life, 
surely they are merely physical results. Can me- 
chanical causes produce other than physical effects ? 
To Aristotle, life was ‘the cause of form in organ- 
isms.’ Is not this quite as likely to be true as the 
converse proposition? If the vital phenomena de- 
pend on the ‘construction’ of the machine, and the 
‘energy supplied to it,’ whence this construction, and 
whence this energy? The illustration of the clock 
does not help us to answer this question. The con- 
struction of the clock depends on its maker, and its 
energy is derived from the hand that winds it up. 
If we can think of a clock which no one has made 
and whieh no one witds,—a clock constructed by 
chance, set in harmony with the universe by chance, 


196 


wound up periodically by chance, — we shall then 
have an idea parallel to that of an organism living, 
yet without any vital energy or creative law; but in 
such a case we should certainly have to assume some 
antecedent cause, whether we call it ‘ horologity’ or 
by some other name. Perhaps the term ‘ evolution’ 
would serve as well as any other, were it not that 
common sense teaches that nothing can be sponta- 
neously eyolyed out of that in which it did not 
previously exist. 

There is one other unsolved problem, in the study 
of life by the geologist, to which it is still necessary 
to advert. This is the inability of paleontology to 
fill up the gaps in the chain of being. In this re- 
spect, we are constantly taunted with the imperfec- 
tion of the record; but facts show that this is much 
more complete than is generally supposed. Over 
long periods of time and many lines of being, we 
have a nearly continuous chain; and, if this does not 
show the tendency desired, the fault is as likely to be 
in the theory as in the record. On the other hand, 
the abrupt and simultaneous appearance of new types 
in many specific and generic forms, and over wide 
and separate areas at one and the same time, is too 
often repeated to be accidental. Hence paleontolo- 
gists, in endeavoring to establish evolution, have been 
obliged to assume periods of exceptional activity in 
the introduction of species, alternating with others 
of stagnation, —a doctrine differing very little from 
that of special creation as held by the older geologists. 

The attempt has lately been made to account for 
these breaks by the assumption that the geological 
record relates only to periods of submergence, and 
gives no information as to those of elevation. This 
is manifestly untrue. Im so far as marine life is 
concerned, the periods of submergence are those in 
which new forms abound for very obvious reasons 
already hinted. But the periods of new forms of 
land and fresh-water life are those of elevation, and 
these have their own records and monuments, often 
yery rich and ample; as, for example, the swamps of 
the carboniferous, the transition from the cretaceous 
subsidence to the Laramie elevation, the tertiary 
lake-basins of the west, the terraces and raised 
peaches of the pleistocene. Had I time to refer in 
detail to the breaks in the continuity of life, which 
cannot be explained by the imperfection of the rec- 
ord, I could show at least that nature, in this case, 
does advance per saltum, — by leaps, rather than by 
a slow continuous process. Many able reasoners, as 
LeConte in this country, and Mivart and Collard in 
England, hold this view. 

Here, as elsewhere, a vast amount of steady con- 
scientious work is required to enable us to solve the 
problems of the history of life. But, if so, the more 
the hope for the patient student and investigator. I 
know nothing more chilling to research, or unfavor- 
able to progress, than the promulgation of a dogmatic 
decision that there is nothing to be learned but a 
merely fortuitous and uncaused succession, amenable 
to no law, and only to be coyered, in order to hide its 
shapeless and uncertain proportions, by the mantle 
of bold and gratuitous hypothesis. 


SCIENCE. 


he Bede 
. ’ a 
~ 4 


[Vou. II, No. 28. 


So soon as we find evidence of continents and 
oceans, we raise the question, “‘ Haye these continents 
existed from the first in their present position and 
form, or have the land and water changed places in 
the course of geological time?’’ In reality both state- 
ments are true in a certain limited sense. On the 
one hand, any geological map whatever suffices to 
show that the general outline of the existing land 
began to be formed in the first and oldest erumplings 
of the crust. On the other hand, the greater part of 
the surface of the land consists of marine sediments 
which must have been derived from land that has 
perished in the process, while all the continental 
surfaces, except, perhaps, some high peaks and ridges, 
have been many times submerged. Both of these 
apparently contradictory statements are true; and, 


. without assuming both, it is impossible to explain the 


existing contours and reliefs of the surface. ° 

In the case of North America, the form of the old 
nucleus of Laurentian rock in the north already 
marks out that of the finished continent, and the 
successive Jater formations have been laid upon the 
edges of this, like the successive loads of earth 
dumped over an embankment. But in order to give 
the great thickness of the paleozoie sediments, the 
land must have been again and again submerged, and 
for long periods of time. Thus, in one sense, the 
continents have been fixed; in another, they have 
been constantly fluctuating. Hall and Dana have 
well illustrated these points in so far as eastern North 
America is concerned. Professor Hull of the Geolo- 
gical survey of Ireland has recently had the boldness 
to reduce the fluctuations of land and water, as eyi- 
denced in the British Islands, to the form of a series 
otf maps intended to show the physical geography 
of each successive period. The attempt is probably 
premature, and has been met with much adverse 
criticism; but there can be no doubt that it has an 
element of truth. When we attempt to calculate 
what could have been supplied from the old eozoic 
nucleus by decay and aqueous erosion, and when 
we take into account the greater local thickness of 
sediments towards the present sea-basins, we can 
searcely avoid the conclusion that extensive areas 
once occupied by high land are now under the sea. 
But to ascertain the precise areas and position of these 
perished lands may now be impossible. 

In point of fact, we are obliged to believe in the 
contemporaneous existence in all geological periods, 
except perhaps the very oldest, of three sorts of areas 
on the surface of the earth: 1. Oceanic areas of deep 
sea, which must always have occupied the bed of the 
present ocean, or parts of it; 2. Continental plateaus, 
sometimes existing as low flats or as higher table- 
lands, and sometimes submerged; 3. Areas of plica- 
tion or folding, more especially along the borders of 
the oceans, forming elevated lands rarely submerged, 
and constantly affording the material of sedimentary 
accumulations. 

Every geologist knows the contention which has 
been occasioned by the attempts to correlate the 
earlier paleozoic deposits of the Atlantic margin of 
North America with those forming at the same time 


' 


_ 


_in a great curve to the west. 


Aveusr 17, 1883.] 


on the interior plateau, and with those of intervening 
lines of plication and igneous disturbance, Stratig- 
raphy, lithology, and fossils are all more or less at 
fatilt in dealing with these questions; and, while the 
“dese nature , of the problem is understood by many 
\ geologists, its solution in particular cases is still a 
source of apparently endless debate. 

The causes and mode of operation of the great 
movements of the earth’s crust which have produced 
mountains, plains, anil tablelands, are still involved 
in some mystery. One patent cause is the unequal 
settling of the crust toward the centre; but it is not 
so generally understood as it’ should be, that the 
greater settlement of the ocean-bed has necessitated 
its pressure against the sides of the continents in the 
Same manner that a huge ice-floe crushes a ship or a 
pier. The geological map of North America shows 
this at a glance, and impresses us with the fact that 
large portions of the earth’s crust have not only been 
folded, but bodily pushed back for great distances. Ou 
looking at the extreme north, we see that the great 
Laurentian mass of central Newfoundland has acted 
as a protecting pier to the space immediately west 
of it, and has caused the Gulf of St. Lawrence to 
remain an undisturbed area since paleozoic times. 
Immediately to the south of this, Nova Scotia and 
New Brunswick are folded back. Still farther south, 
as Guyot has shown, the old sediments have been 
crushed in sharp folds against the Adirondack mass, 
which has sheltered the tableland of the Catskills and 
of the Great Lakes. South of this again, the rocks 
of Pennsylvania and Maryland have been driven back 
Nothing, I think, can 
more forcibly show the enormous pressure to whicl. 
the edges of the continents have been exposed, and 
at the same time the great sinking of the ocean-beds. 
Complex and difficult to calculate though these move- 
ments of plication are, they are more intelligible 
than the apparently regular pulsations of the flat con- 
tinental areas, whereby they have alternately been 
below and above the waters. and which must have 
depended on somewhat regularly recurring causes, 
connected either with the secular cooling of the earth, 


_ or with the gradual retardation of its rotation, or 


with both. Throughout these changes, each succes- 
sive elevation exposed the rocks for long ages to the 
decomposing influence of the atmosphere. Each 
submergence swept away, and deposited as sediment, 
the material accumulated by decay. Every change 
of elevation was accompanied with changes of 
climate and with modifications of the habitats of 
animals and plants. Were it possible to restore ac- 


-eurately the physical geography of the earth in all 


these respects, for each geological period, the data 
for the solution of many difficult questions would be 
furnished. 

It is an unfortunate circumstance, that conclusions 
in geology arrived at by the most careful obser- 
vation and induction do not remain undisturbed, but 
require constant vigilance to prevent them from being 
overthrown. Sometimes, of course, this arises from 
new discoveries throwing new light on old facts; but 
when this occurs it rarely works the complete sub- 


SCIENCE. 


197 


version of previously received views. The more 
usual case is, that some over-zealous specialist sud- 
denly discovers what seems to him to overturn all 
previous beliefs, and rushes into print with a new 
and plausible theory, which at once carries with him 
a host of half-informed people, but the insufticiency 
of which is speedily made manifest. 

Had I written this address a few years ago, I might 
have referred to the mode of formation of coal as 
one of the things most surely settled and understood. 
The labors of many eminent geologists, microscopists, 
and chemists in the old and the new worlds had shown 
that coal nearly always rests upon old soil surfaces 
penetrated with roots, and that coal-beds have in 
their roofs erect trees, the remains of the last forests 
that grew upon them. Logan and I have illustrated 
this in the case of the series of more than sixty suc- 
cessive coal-beds exposed at the South Joggins, and 
have shown unequivocal evidence of Jand-surfaces at 
the time of the deposition of the coal. Microscopical 
examination has proved that these coals are composed 
of the materials of the same trees whose roots are 
found in the underelays, and their stems and leaves 
in the roof-shales; that much of the material of the 
coal has been subjected to sub-aerial decay at the time 
of its accumulation; and that in this, ordinary coal, 
differs from bituminous shale, earthy bitumen, and’ 
some kinds of cannel, which have been formed under 
water; that the matter remaining as coal consists 
almost entirely of epidermal tissues, which, being 
suberose in character, are highly carbonaceous, very 
durable, and impermeable by water,! and are hence 
the best fitted for the production of pure coal; and 
finally that the vegetation and the climatal and geo- 
graphical features of the coal period were eminently 
fitted to produce in the vast swamps of that period 
precisely the effects observed, All these points and 
many others have been thoroughly worked out for 
both European and American coal-fields, and seemed 
to leave no doubt on the subject. But several years 
ago certain microscopists observed on slices of coal 
layers filled with spore-cases, —a not unusual circum- 
stance, since these were shed in vast abundance by 
the trees of the coal-forests, and because they contain 
suberose matter of the same character with epidermal 
tissues generally. Immediately we were informed 
that all coal consists of spores; and, this being at 
once accepted by the unthinking, the results of the 
labors of many years are thrown aside in favor of this 
crude and partial theory. A little later, a German 
microscopist has thought proper to describe coal as 
made up of minute algae, and tries to reconcile this 
view with the appearances, devising at the same time 
a new and formidable nomenclature of generic and 
specific names, which would seem largely to represent 
mere fragments of tissues. Still later, some local 
facts in a French coal-field have induced an eminent 
botanist of that country to revive the drift theory 
of coal, in opposition to that of growth in situ. A year 
or two ago, when my friend Professor Williamson 
of Manchester informed me that he was preparing 
a large series of slices of coal with the view of revis- 

1 Acadian geology, third edition, supplement, p, 68, 


198 


ing the whole subject, I was inclined to say, that after 
what had been done by Lyell, Goeppert, Logan, 
Hunt, Newberry, and myself, this was scarcely neces- 
sary; but, in view of what I have just stated, it may 
be that all he can do will be required to rescue from 
total ruin the results of our Jabors. 

An illustration of a different character is afforded 
by the controversy now raging with respect to the 
so-called fucoids of the ancient rocks. At one time 
the group of fucoids, or algae, constituted a general 
place of refuge for all sorts of unintelligible forms 
and markings; graptolites, worm-trails, crustacean 
tracks, shrinkage-cracks, and, above all, rill-mark- 
ings, forming a heterogeneous group of fucoidal re- 
mains distinguished by generic and specific names. 
To these were also added some true land-plants badly 
preserved, or exhibiting structures not well understood 
by botanists. Such a group was sure to be eventually 
dismembered. The writer has himself done some- 
thing toward this,! but Professor Nathorst has done 
still more;? and now some intelligible explanation 
can be given of many of these forms. Quite recently, 
however, the Count de Saporti, in an elaborate illus- 
trated memoir,®? has come to the defence of the 
fucoids, more especially against the destructive ex- 
periments of Nathorst, and would carry back into 
the vegetable kingdom many things which would 
seem to be mere trails of animals. While writing 
this address, ] have received from Professor Crié of 
Rennes a paper in which he not only supports the 
algal nature of Rusichnites, Arthrichnites, and many 
other supposed fucoids, but claims for the vegetable 
kingdom even Receptaculites and Archaeocyathus. 
It is not to be denied that some of the facts which 
he cites, respecting the structure of the Siphoniae 
and of certain modern incrusting algae, are very 
suggestive, though I cannot agree with his conclu- 
sions. My own experience has convinced me, that, 
while non-botanical geologists are prone to mistake 
all kinds of markings for plants, even good botanists, 
when not familiar with the chemical and mechanical 
conditions of fossilization, and with the present 
phenomena of tidal shores, are quite as easily misled, 
though they are very prone, on the other hand, to 
regard land-plants of some complexity, when badly 
preserved, as mere algae. In these circumstances it 
is yery difficult to secure any consensus, and the 
truth is only to be found by careful observation of 
competent men. One trouble is, that these usually 
obscure markings have been despised by the greater 
number of paleontologists, and probably would not 
now be so much in controversy were it not for the 
use made of them in illustrating supposed phylogenies 
of plants. { 

It would be wrong to close this address without 
some reference to that which is the veritable pons 
asinorum of the science, the great and much debated 
glacial period. I trust that you will not suppose, that, 
in the end of an hour’s address, [ am about to discuss 


1 Footprints and impressions on carboniferous rocks, Amer. 
ourn. 8c., 1873. 

2 Royal Swedish academy, Stockholm, 1881. 

8 Apropos des algues fossiles, Paris, 1883. 


. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. II., No. 28. 


this vexed question. Time would fail me even to 
name the hosts of recent authors who have contended 
in this arena. I can hope only to point out a few 
landmarks which may aid the geological adventurer 
in traversing the slippery and treacherous surface of 
the hypothetical ice-sheet of pleistocene times, and 
in avoiding the yawning crevasses by which it is 
traversed. 
No conclusions of geology seem more certain than 
that great changes of climate have occurred in the 
course of geological time; and the evidence of this 
in that comparatively modern period which imme- 
diately preceded the human age is so striking that it 
has come to be known as pre-eminently the ice age, 
while, in the preceding tertiary periods, temperate 
conditions seem to have prevailed even to the pole. 
Of the many theories as to these changes which have 
been proposed, two seem at present to divide the suf- 
frages of geologists, either alone, or combined with 
each other. These are, (1) the theory of the preces- 
sion of the equinoxes in connection with the varying 
eccentricity of the earth’s orbit, advocated more 
especially by Croll; and (2) the different distribution 
of land and water as affecting the reception and 
radiation of heat and the ocean-currents, —a theory 
ably propounded by Lyell, and subsequently exten- 
sively adopted, either alone or with the previous one. 
One of these views may be called the astronomical; 
the other, the geographical. I confess that I am in- 
clined to accept the second or Lyellian theory for 
such reasons as the following: 1. Great elevations 
and depressions of land have occurred in and since 
the pleistocene, while the alleged astronomical | 
changes are not certain, more especially in regard to 
their probable effect on the earth; 2. When the rival 
theories are tested by the present phenomena of the 
southern polar region and the North Atlantic, there 
seem to be geographical causes adequate to account 
for all except extreme and unproved glacial con- 
ditions; 3. The astronomical cause would suppuse 
regularly recurring glacial periods of which there‘is 
no evidence, and it would give to the latest glacial 
age an antiquity which seems at variance with all 
other facts; 4. In those more northern regions where 
glacial phenomena are most pronounced, the theory 
of floating sheets of ice, with local glaciers deseend- 
ing to the sea, seems to meet all the conditions of 
the case; and these would be obtained, in the North 
Atlantic at least, by very moderate changes of level, 
causing, for example, the equatorial current to flow 
into the Pacific, instead of running northward as a 
gulf stream; 5. The geographical theory allows the 
supposition not merely of vicissitudes of climate 
quickly following each other in unison with the 
movements of the surface, but allows also of that 
near local approximation of regions wholly covered 
with ice and snow, and others comparatively tem- 
perate, which we see at present in the north. 7 
If, however, we are to adopt the geographical theo- 
ry, we must avoid extreme views; and this leads to j 
the inquiry as to the evidence to be found for any 
such universal and extreme glaciation as is demanded 
by some geologists. . d ; 


ae a> 


Auaust 17, 1883.] 


The only large continental area in the northern 
hemisphere supposed to be entirely ice- and snow-clad 
is Greenland ; and this, so far as it goes, is certainly a 
local case, for the ice and snow of Greenland extend 
to the south as far as 60° N. latitude, while both in 
Norway and in the interior of North America the 
climate in that latitude permits the growth of cereals, 
Further, Grinnel Land, which is separated from 
North Greenland only by a narrow sound, has a com- 
paratively mild climate, and, as Nares has shown, is 
covered with verdure in summer. Still further, Nor- 
denski6ld, one of the most experienced arctic explor- 
ers, holds that it is probable that the interior of 
Greenland is itself verdant in summer, and is at this 
moment preparing to attempt to reach this interior 
oasis. Nor is it difficult, with the aid of the facts cited 
by Woeickoff and Whitney,! to perceive the cause of 
the exceptional condition of Greenland. ‘To give ice 
and snow in large quantities, two conditions are re- 
quired, — first, atmospheric humidity; and, secondly, 
cold precipitating regions. Both of these conditions 
meet in Greenland. Its high coast-ranges receive 
and condense the humidity from the sea on both 
sides of it and to the south. Hence the vast accu- 
mulation of its coast snow-fields, and the intense 
discharge of the glaciers emptying out of its valleys. 
When extreme glacialists point to Greenland, and 
ask us to believe that in the glacial age the whole 
continent of North America as far south as the lati- 
tude of 40° was covered with a continental glacier, 
in some places several thousands of feet thick, we 
may well ask, first, what evidence there is that Green- 
land, or even the antarctic continent, at present shows 
such a condition; and, secondly, whether there exists 
a.possibility that the interior of a great continent 
could ever receive so large an amount of precipitation 
as that required. So faras present knowledge exists, 
itis certain that the meteorologist and the physicist 
must answer both questions in the negative. In 
short, perpetual snow and glaciers must be local, and 
cannot be continental, because of the vast amount 
of evaporation and condensation required. ‘These 
can only be possible where comparatively warm 
seas supply moisture to cold and elevated land; and 
this supply cannot, in the nature of things, penetrate 
far inland. The actual condition of interior Asia 
and interior America in the higher northern latitudes 
affords positive proof of this. In a state of partial 
submergence of our northern continents, we can 
readily imagine glaciation by the combined action of 
local glaciers and great ice-floes; but, in whatever 
way the phenomena of the bowlder clay and of the 
so-called terminal moraines are to be accounted for, 
the theory of a continuous continental glacier must 
be given up. 

T cannot better indicate the general bearing of facts, 
as they present themselves to my mind in connection 
with this subject, than by referring to a paper by Dr. 
G. M. Dawson on the distribution of, drift over the 
great Canadian plains east of the Rocky Mountains.* 


1 Memoir on glaciers, Geol. soc, Berlin, 1881, Climatic 
changes, Boston, 1883. 


* Science, July 1, 1883, 


SCIENCE. 


ll ol on, aa” el il >? 


199 


I am the more inclined to refer to this, because of its 
recency, and because I have so often repeated similar 
conclusions as to eastern Canada and the region of 
the Great Lakes. 

The great interior plain of western Canada, be- 
tween the Laurentian axis on the east and the Rocky 
Mountains on the west, is seven hundred miles in 
breadth, and is covered with glacial drift, presenting 
one of the greatest examples of this deposit in the 
world. Proceeding eastward from the base of the 
Rocky Mountains, the surface, at first more than 
four thousand feet above the sea-level, descends by 
successive steps to twenty-five hundred feet, and is 
based on cretaceous and Laramie rocks, covered by 
bowlder clay and sand, in some places from one hun- 
dred to two hundred feet in depth, and filling up pre- 
existing hollows, though itself sometimes piled into 
ridges. Near the Rocky Mountains the bottom of 
the drift consists of gravel not glaciated. This ex- 
tends to about one hundred miles east of the moun- 
tains, and must have been swept by water out of 
their valleys. The bowlder clay resting on this de- 
posit is largely made up of local débris, in so far as 
its paste is concerned. It contains many glaciated 
bowlders and stones from the Laurentian region to 
the east, and also smaller pebbles from the Rocky 
Mountains; so that at the time of its formation there 
must have been driftage of large stones for seven 
hundred miles or more from the east, and of smaller 
stones from a less distance on the west. The former 
kind of material extends to the base of the mountains, 
and to a height of more than four thousand feet. 
One bowlder is mentioned as being forty-two by for- 
ty by twenty feet in dimensions. The highest Lau- 
rentian bowlders seen were at an elevation of forty-six 
hundred and sixty feet, on the base of the Rocky 
Mountains. The bowlder clay, when thick, can be 
seen to be rudely stratified, and at one place includes 
beds of laminated clay with compressed peat, similar 
to the forest beds described by Worthen aud Andrews 
in Illinois, and the so-called interglacial beds deseribed 
by Hinde on Lake Ontario. The leaf-beds on the Ot- 
tawa River, and the drift-trunks found in the bowlder 
clay of Manitoba, belong to the same category, and 
indicate that throughout the glacial period there were 
many forest oases far to the north. In the valleys of 
the Rocky Mountains opening on these plains there 
are evidences of large local glaciers now extinct, and 
similar evidences exist on the Laurentian ghlands 
on the east. 

Perhaps the most remarkable feature of the region 
is that immense series of ridges of drift piled against 
an escarpment of Laramie and cretaceous rocks, at 
an elevation of about: twenty-five hundred feet, and 
known as the ‘ Missouri coteau.’ It is in some places 
thirty miles broad and a hundred and eighty feet in 
height above the plain at its foot, and extends north 
and south for a great distance; being, in fact, the 
northern extension of those great ridges of drift 
which have been traced south of the Great Lakes, 
and through Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and which 
figure on the geological maps as the edge of the con- 
tinental glacier, — an explanation obviously inappli- 


200 


cable in those western regions where they attain 
their greatest development. It is plain that in the 
north it marks the western limit of the deep water of 
a glacial sea, which at some periods extended much 
farther west, perhaps with a greater proportionate de- 
pression in going westward, and on which heavy ice 
from the Laurentian districts on the east was wafted 
south-westward by the arctic currents, while lighter 
ice from the Rocky Mountains was being borne east- 
ward from these mountains by the prevailing wester- 
ly winds. We thus have in the west, on a very wide 
scale, the same phenomena of varying submergence, 
cold currents, great ice-floes, and local glaciers pro- 
dueing icebergs, to which I haye attributed the 
bowlder clay and upper bowlder drift of eastern 
Canada. 

A few subsidiary points I may be pardoned for 
mentioning here. The rival theories of the glacial 
period are often characterized as those of land glacia- 
tion and sea-borne icebergs. But it must be remem- 
bered, that those who reject the idea of a continental 
glacier hold to the existence of local glaciers on the 
high lands more or less extensive during different 
portions of the great pleistocene submergence. 
They also believe in the extension of these glaciers 
seawards and partly water-borne, in the manner so 
well explained by Mattieu Williams; in tle existence 
of those vast floes and fields of current- and tide-borne 
ice whose powers of transport and erosion we now 
know to be so great; and in a great submergence 
and re-elevation of the Jand, bringing all parts of it 
and all elevations up to five thousand feet succes- 
sively under the influence of these various agencies, 
along with those of the ocean-currents. They also 
hold, that, at the beginning of the glacial submer- 
gence, the land was deeply covered by decomposed 
rock, similar to that which still exists on the hills of 
the southern states, and which, as Dr. Hunt has 
shown, would afford not only earthy débris, but large 
quantities of bowlders ready for transportation by 
ice. 

I would also remark, that there has been the great- 
est possible exaggeration as to the erosive action of 
land-ice. In 1865, after a visit to the alpine glaciers, 
I maintained that in these mountains glaciers are 
relatively protective rather than erosive agencies, and 
that the detritus which the glacier streams deliver 
is derived mostly from the atmospherically wasted 
peaks and cliffs that project above them. Since that 
lime many other observers have maintained like 
views, and very recently Mr. Davis of Cambridge 
and Mr, A. Irving have ably treated this subject.! 
Smoothing and striation of rocks are undoubtedly 
important effects, both of land-glaciers and heavy sea- 
borne ice; but the levelling and filling agency of 
these is much greater than the erosive. As a mat- 
ter of fact, as Newberry, Hunt, Belt, Spencer, and 
others have shown, the glacial age has dammed up 
vast numbers of old channels which it has been left 
for modern streams partially to excavate. 

The till, or bowlder clay, has been called a ‘ground 


1 Proc. Bost. soc. nat. hist., xxii. 


Journ. geol. soc. Lond., 
Feb., 1883. 


SCIENCE. 


Pe = ae 


[Von. IL., No. 28. 


moraine,’ but there are really no alpine moraines at 
all corresponding to it. On the other hand, it is 
more or less stratified, often rests on soft materials 
which glaciers would have swept away, sometimes 
contains marine shells, or passes into marine clays 
in its horizontal extension, and invariably in its em- 
bedded bowlders and its paste shows an unoxidized 
condition, which could not have existed if it had 
been a sub-aerial deposit. When the Canadian till is 
excavated, and exposed to the air, it assumes a brown 
color, owing to oxidation of its iron; and many of its 
stones and bowlders break up and disintegrate under 
the action of air and frost. These are unequivocal 
signs of a sub-aqueous deposit. Here and there we 
find associated with it, and especially near the bottom _ 
and at the top, indications of powerful water-action, 
as if of land-torrents acting at particular elevations 


‘of the land, or heavy surf and ice action on coasts; 


and the attempts to explain these by glacial streams 
have been far from successful. A singular objection 
sometimes raised against the sub-aqueous origin of 
the till is its general want of marine remains, but 
this is by no means universal; and it is well known 
that coarse conglomerates of all ages are generally 
destitute of fossils, except in their pebbles; and it is 
further to be observed, that the conditions of an ice- 
Jaden sea are not those most fayorable for the exten- 
sion of marine life, and that the period of time 
covered by the glacial age must have been short, 
compared with that represented by some of the older 
formations. 

This last consideration suggests a question which 
might afford scope for another address of an hour’s 
duration, —the question how long time has elapsed 
since the close of the glacial period. Recently the 
opinion has been gaining ground that the close of the 
ice age is very recent. Such reasons as the following 
lead to this conclusion: the amount of atmospheric 
decay of rocks and of denudation in general, which 
have occurred since the close of the glacial period, 
are scarcely appreciable; little erosion of river-val- 
leys or of coast-terraces has occurred. The calcu- 
lated recession of waterfalls and of production of 
lake-ridges lead to the same conclusion. So do the 
recent state of bones and shells in the pleistocene 


deposits, and the perfectly modern facies of their 


fossils. On such evidence the cessation of the glacial 
cold and settlement of our continents at their present 
levels are events which may have occurred not more 
than six thousand or seven thousand years ago, 
though such time estimates are proverbially uncer- 
tain in geology. This subject also carries with it 
the greatest of all geological problems, next to that 
of the origin of life; namely, the origin and early 
history of man. Such questions cannot be discussed 
in the closing sentences of an hour’s address. I 
shall only draw from them one practical inference, 
Since the comparatively short post-glacial and recent 
periods apparently include the whole of human his- 
tory, we are but new-comers on the earth, and there- 
fore have had little opportunity to solve the great 
problems which it presents tous. But this is not all. 
Geology as a science scarcely dates from a century ago. 


founded the two? 


August 17, 1883.] 


We have reason for surprise in these circumstances, 
that it has learned so much, but for equal surprise that 
SO many persons appear to think it a complete and 
full-grown science, and that it is entitled to speak 
with confidence on all the great mysteries of the earth 
that have been hidden from the generations before 
us. Such being the newness of man and of his sci- 
ence of the earth, it is not too much to say that 
humility, hard work in collecting facts, and absti- 
nence from hasty generalization, should characterize 
geologists, at least for a few generations to come. 

In conclusion, science is light, and light is good; 
but it must be carried high, else it will fail to en- 
lighten the world. Let us strive to raise it high 
enough to shine over every obstruction which casts 
any shadow on the true interests of humanity. 
Above all, let us hold up the light, and not stand in 
it ourselves, : 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


*,* Correspondents are requested to beas brief as possible. The 
writer's name tx in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


Kalmias and rhododendrons. 


JuNE 16 of the present summer I chanced to be 
floating down Crossweeksung Creek in my canoe; 
and, at a bend in the stream, found myself at the 
foot of a steep bluff some seventy feet high, which 
was densely covered with a luxuriant growth of kal- 
mias and rhododendrons in full bloom. The former 
were laden with magnificent clusters of white, waxy 
flowers; and the more gorgeous pink rhododendron- 
blossoms were scattered through them. It was the 
most beautiful floral display I had ever seen. 

On my return home, I turned to the description by 
Kalm of the smaller of these shrubs, to which Linné 
gave the generic name it now bears in honor of its 
discoverer. Kalm writes, ‘‘ Linnaeus, conformable 
to the peculiar friendship and goodness which he has 
always honored me with, has been pleased to call this 
tree Kalmia.’’ He further says, ‘‘ The spoon-tree, 
which never grows to a great height, we saw this day 
in several places. The Swedes here have called it 
thus, because the Indians, who formerly lived in these 
provinces, used to make their spoons and trowels of 
the wood of this tree. In my cabinet of curiosities 
I have a spoon made of this wood by an Indian.” 
Again he says, *‘ About the month of Mav they begin 
to flower in these parts (central New Jersey), and 
then their beauty rivals that of most of the known 
trees in nature. The flowers are innumerable, and 
sit in great bunches,” ete. 

Kalm was visiting in New Jersey when he wrote 
the above; and it may be that where he was at the 


time (Swedesboro, Gloucester county), the rhodo- 


dendron is not found, At all events, he nowhere 
mentions this shrub, which is here known as ‘ moun- 
tain laurel’ to distinguish it from the true kalmia. 
In calling the latter the ‘spoon-tree,’ has he con- 
Certainly his remarks on the 
character of the wood, and the use to which it was 
formerly put by the Indians, lead to that conelusion. 
At present, it would be difficult to find a sufficiently 
large growth of kalmia to enable an Indian to 
whittle from it a spoon or trowel of respectable size. 
From rhododendron-stocks, implements of consider- 


able size can be made; and Professor Kalm’s descrip- 


tion of kalmia wood is equally applicable to it. He 


- describes it as *‘ very hard, may be made very smooth, 


and does not easily crack or burst.” 


SCIENCE. 


201 


In Britton’s Flora of New Jersey, Kalmia latifolia 
is called ‘spoon-wood,’ which name, I suppose, is 
derived from the remarks made by Kalm, as above 
quoted, [ suggest that it is a misnomer, and that the 
remarks on the uses of the wood made by the dis- 
tinguished Swedish naturalist refer really to the rho- 
dodendron. 

Considering that Kalm was so careful an observer, 
was particularly interested in botany, and further, 
not only enjoyed the friendship of Bartram, but fre- 
quently visited him, in whose celebrated garden was 
a rhododendron-grove, it is strange that no mention 
is made, in his ‘Travels in North America,’ of the 
larger * laurel,’ so called; yet such appears to be the 
case, 

This is an unimportant matter perhaps, but, if I 
am right, should not go uncorrected. 

CuHArLrs C. Asport, M.D. 


Trick of the English sparrow. 


A curious freak of the imported sparrow recently 
eame to my notice at Basin Harbor, on Lake Cham- 
plain, in Vermont. 

The eaves-swallows had attached their mud ‘ re- 
torts,’ as usual, in line under the eaves of the farmer’s 
barn, anticipating, no doubt. a successful and happy 
house-keeping, notwithstanding a colony of feathered 
foreigners had encamped about the premises. 

At sight of these *bottle-nosed’ dwellings, now 
arriving at completion, it occurred to the little tramps 
that these were exactly the thing they wanted; but, 
as the apartments were not to let, a battle ensued, 
which resulted in the rout of Lunifrons. The spar- 
rows then took possession of the mud-houses, and 
furnished them to their own taste. But some of the 
‘masons’ made a successful resistance, and still held 
the castle; so that often a swallow-family had their 
arch enemy at next door. 

Thus in more ways than one does the impudent 
little urchin, which has come to us from over the sea, 
merit the name of parasite. Now that the bird has 
become not only a general nuisance, but a sore annoy- 
auce to our native and useful birds, it is no wonder if 
the ery goes up all over the land, ‘ The sparrow must 
be blotted out!’ F. H. Herrick, 


Achenial hairs of Senecio. 


In a paper read before the American association 
for the advancement of science at Montreal, Profes- 
sor Macloskie referred to the achenial hairs of some of 
the Compositae. ‘The paper was afterward published 
in the American naturalist for January, 1883; and 
here we find a figure showing the tubes issuing from 
the hairs of Senecio. A beautiful experiment showing 
these tubes, or rather threads, can be made with the 
achenes of S. Douglasii. Scraping a few of the hairs 
from an achene, and placing them on a slide under 
the microscope with a two-thirds objective, and apply- 
ing a drop of water to the slide, the threads are seen 
to uncoil. As soon as the water touches the hairs, 
the tips seem to burst, and allow the threads to 
emerge, rapidly twisting round and round in a very 
snake like manner. The experiment is a most satis- 
factory one, and can be readily made. These threads 
were noticed long ago, a3 Lindley ( Veg. king., p. T01- 
705) speaks of Decaisne having seen them. Lindley 
says in regard to them, ** On placing one of these pa- 
pillae in water, it immediately separates into two lips, 
and these emit mucilaginous tubes, which issue forth 
like wires, spirally unrolling themselves, and finally 
much exceed the papillae from which they proceed, 
These tubes are apparently formed by a very consid- 
erable number of threads placed one upon the other 


202 


in the manner of a skein of thread.’ . I do not know 
of any explanation of the use of these threads. Can 
any of your readers suggest a purpose for them? 

Jos. F, JAMES. 
Cincinnati, O., Aug. 2, 1883. 


Seeds of Lepidium. 


I regret to observe, by your issue of July 27, that 
my employment of the expression ‘mucilaginous 
threads’ as to the seeds of Lepidium has led your 
reviewer to understand that I referred to something 
like the seed-fibres of Collomia. Spiral fibres em- 
bedded in mucilage are found on the seeds of Col- 
lomia; radiating processes consisting of mucilage, 
each tipped by a facet of cuticle, are emitted by the 
seeds of Lepidium virginicum, This is shown on the 
application of water with staining-fluid to ripe seeds. 
Other species of Lepidium (including L. ruderale) 
show the same phenomenon, though the experiment 
may fail with immaturesseeds or old herbarium speci- 
mens. . MACLOSKIE,, 

Princeton, N.J., Aug. 3, 1883. 


[‘‘ The exotest may bear long hairs (cotton) or 
spiral threads. . . . In Lepidium (pepper-grass), on 
being moistened, it darts out mucilaginous threads.” 
It certainly may be gathered from this that the 
* spiral threads’ and the ‘ mucilaginous threads’ are 
not the very same. But the darting-out of muci- 
laginous threads so well describes what one sees in 
Collomia-seeds and the like, and so poorly answers 
to what takes place in those of Lepidium, that the 
reviewer supposed there might be some mixing up 
of cases. But he simply asked whether the author 
was sure of the threads in Lepidium. We find nothing 
to which the name of ‘mucilaginous threads’ can 
with any exactness be applied ; nor do we think that 
the term now used of * radiating processes,’ though 
not widely amiss, gives a clear idea of the case, 
which we should describe thus: — 

A superficial pellicle of the seed-coat of Lepidium 
consists of a single and continuous layer of cells, 
the thick walls of which are at maturity converted 
into mucilage, or into an isomer of cellulose, which 
swells up into mucilage ‘upon the application of 
water.’ But the water acts so promptly in forming 
the limbus around the seed or its section, that we fail 
in that way to get an intelligible view of the structure 
and the nature “of the process. To do this, however, 
we have only to soak thin sections of the seed in 
strong alcohol, examine in.them the unaltered muci- 
lage- cells, and then add a little water by degrees, 
The cells then swell up slowly, push outward radially 
(for mutual pressure prevents lateral expansion at 
the beginning), become wedge-shaped or pear-shaped 
as they farther protrude, and at length form the 
well-known mucilaginous limbus. Dr. Macloskie 
will be interested in repeating this experiment, and 
will accept our apology for partially misunderstand- 
ing him. r 


KONKOLY’S ASTRONOMICAL INSTRU- 
MENTS. 


Praktische anleitung zur anstellung astronomischen 
beobachtungen, mit hesonderen riicksicht auf’ die 
astrophysik, nebst einer modernen instrumenten- 
kunde. Von Nicotaus von Konxory. Braun- 
schweig, Vieweg, 1883. 912 p., 345 illustr. 8°. 


.Turs is an important but at the same time 
a disappointing work. It contains the descrip- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 28. 


tion and representation of nearly all the prin- 
cipal modern astronomical instruments, and 
presents such a comprehensive summary as 
can be found in no other existing book. ‘The 
numerous illustrations, largely derived from 
the business catalogues of leading instru- 
ment-makers, are generally excellent, and the 
mechanical execution and press-work are ad- 
mirable. Undoubtedly the book is one which 
must haye a place in every astronomical library.” 

At the same time, the work is far from ex- 
haustive, omitting all mention of many of the 
latest and most useful improvements; and it 
is not always accurate in its description of 
those it does notice. Nor does it deal in any 
thorough or satisfactory manner with the theory 
of the instruments described. It is so full and 
so good, that it is a great pity that it is not 
still better and still more complete, as it easily 
might have been. 

The first chapter, on time-keepers (uhren), 
describes, among clock-escapements, only the 
old Graham dead-beat and a duplex of Jiirgen- 
sen’s. There is no notice of Airy’s detached 
escapement, now in use at Greenwich, nor of 
any of the numerous and excellent gravity- 
escapements now so common in England and 
this country. The account of electric make 
and break circuit apparatus is for this reason 
unsatisfactory, since only escapements of the 
detached class admit of a simple break-circuit 
which does not affect the pendulum. The 
author treats the subject rather extensively, 
describing no less than twelve different forms 
of contact apparatus, some of them very elab- 
orate and complicated. The antiquated con- 
trivances of Locke and Mitchell are described 
as if they continued to be in use. 

The second chapter, a short one, deals with 
the different forms of levels and level-testers, 
and appears to be in all respects satisfactory. 

The third chapter treats of instruments for - 
the determination of time. Under this head 
are included not only transits and transit-cir- 
cles, but all forms of theodolites, sextants, 
passage-prisms, etc. There is also a certain 
amount of information respecting the gradua- 
tion of circles and the methods of testing their 
accuracy, i.e., the optical and mechanical ar- 
rangements ; the mathematical theory remain- 
ing untouched. 

The next chapter, the fourth, is by far the 
most extensive and full of any, occupying two 
hundred and forty-six pages. It treats of 
equatorials and their mounting, and describes 
and illustrates nearly all the important modern 
telescopes. For the most part, it is well done, 
especially the portion relating to driving-clocks. 


i 


2 


Aveust 17, 1885.] 


It is evident, however, that the author does 
not fully grasp all the principles involved in 
these machines, or he would hardly have spoken 
so disparagingly of the ‘* spring-governor’ of 
Bond, which is unquestionably, when properly 
adjusted, one of the most perfect of all. In 
so full a treatment of the subject, one would 
naturally expect to find some notice of the 
ingenious arrangement by which the clock- 
work of the Dun Echt equatorial is brought 
under the electric control of the standard time- 
piece; but it is missing, though Grubb’s less 
perfect apparatus for the same purpose is fully 
described. 

The fifth chapter, dealing with micrometers, 
calls for no special notice, beyond the remark 
that it strikes one as a curious classification 
which treats of chronographs in this connec- 
tion. 

The sixth chapter is a short one, describing 
the different forms of helioscopes and solar eye- 
pieces, and the most convenient arrangements 
for making drawings of sun-spots and deter- 
mining their position. 

The seventh chapter is intended to be a full 
and elaborate description of the different forms 
of astronomical spectroscopes, with their ac- 
cessories. It does describe and figure a great 
many; but there are several mistakes (as, 
for instance, on p. 656, where the temporary 
device which Professor Young employed in 
observing the eclipse of 1869 is said to have 
been used with a heliostat, and is spoken 
of as if it were now used at Princeton), and 
there is the capital omission of failing even to 
mention the use of diffraction-gratings in spec- 
troscopic work. It strikes one as very sur- 
prising that the author should not have learned 
that for solar observations the grating has 
almost entirely supplanted the prism in many 
if not most observatories. The remarkable 
apparatus of Thollon is alluded to, but not 
described with any fulness. 

The remaining chapters of the book treat of 
apparatus for celestial photography, photom- 
etry, and the measure of solar radiation. 

Similar remarks apply to these as to the pre- 
ceding. There are many excellent descriptions 
and illustrations, many important omissions, 
and a few mistakes. We call special attention 
to the fine representation of the most ingen- 
ious mounting — devised by Hansen, and con- 
structed by Repsold — for the photoheliographs 
employed by the German transit of Venus 
parties, — a contrivance which we have never 
seen described elsewhere. But in the chap- 


ter on photography, neither the name of HH. 
Draper nor of Common appears ; and Ruther- 


SCIENCE. 


203 


ford’s photographs of the spectrum are said 
(on p. 827) to have been made with an appara- 
tus he never even saw, the instrument figured 
being a spectroscope which was used at Dart- 
mouth college in attempting to photograph the 
solar prominences, while the description given 
is incorrect in several particulars. In the chap- 
ter on the measurement of radiation the ap- 
paratus of Pouillet and Secchi appears, but 
nothing later,—none of the instruments of 
Violle or Crova, and, of course, not the bolom- 
eter of Langley. The chapter on photome- 
ters is much better brought up to date. 

On the whole, the book is rather a provok- 
ing one. There is a great deal in it of real 
value, collected from various more or less in- 
accessible sources, and very neatly presented ; 
but the Jacunae are serious, and a few detected 
mistakes leave asense of insecurity as to accu- 
racy in other details. 


BURNHAM’S LIMESTONES AND MAR- 
BLES. 


History and uses of limestones and marbles. With 
forty-eight chromolithographs. By S.M Burn- 
HAM. Boston, 8S. E. Casino §& Co., 1883. 15 
+ 392'p. 8°. 

Tue separate crystals of our rocks, when 
they lend themselves to decoration in the form 
of gems, afford a capital opportunity for the 
book-maker. Superstition, tradition, a host of 
human activities, have gathered about them, 
that, in the hands of writers of skill, have 
been worked into very readable books. But, 
when the author of ‘ Limestones and marbles’ 
tries to take something of the same book- 
maker’s way with the coarser though still 
beautiful marbles, he leaves the field of 
thoroughly humanized things, and finds himself 
in a dreary sea of unrelated facts. A writer 
thoroughly conversant with the architectural 
history of building and ornamental stones 
could probably give us a book which would, 
from its connection with the most ‘economic 
of the fine arts, be very readable. <A skilled 
lithologist who would furnish us a careful dis- 
cussion of the nature of those changes which 
give beauty, strength, and endurance to rocks, 
would thereby furnish us with a needed essay ; 
but in this book we have no trace: of these 
capacities, but only the ordinary patience of 
the devoted compiler. 

As a piece of unwearied compilation, unen- 
livened with any higher quality, this is a verv 
remarkable book. In the list of limestones | 
of the United States we have evidence of a 
most universal but most uncritical ransacking 


7 ae a | 


204 


of authorities; for the element of personal 
knowledge is entirely wanting. Nor has the 
compilation the value it might have had if 
authorities had been quoted. Although the 
book is apparently by a New-Englander, he 
omits the limestones of Smithfield, R.I., and 
the serpentines of Lynnfield, Mass.,— both 
interesting, though, as yet, little-used stones. 
Any personal knowledge of the subject would 
have supplied a host of such facts, which are 
not to be found in books, though well known 
to geologists. The same absence of personal 
knowledge leads to such misleading statements 
as that the fossils around Prague are identical 
with those of the same age in Scandinavia, 
Russia, Great Britain, and North America. 
While the book is padded with thirty-eight 
pages on classification of fossils, nothing is 
given to the arts of quarrying or of dressing 
stones, —most important and most releyant 
matters. 

The chromolithographic plates are fairly 
well done: they fail to give the peculiar effect 
of depth or translucency, which is beyond this 
art, but which .is the greatest charm of the 
finest decorative stones. 

The style is not altogether bad, though it is 
frequently inverted ; and the author often gets 
into the subject very much as John Phoenix 
“backed the transit’ into the plane of the 
meridian. Now and then it is strikingly epi- 
grammatic, as in the following phrase: ‘One 
of the caprices of nature is to anticipate the 
works of art.’ 

It is a pity that so much faithful labor 
should have been given to this work. ‘The 
printing of the book, and the index, are very 
satisfactory. Despite its defects, the book 
will have a certain value to those interested in 
the subject ; for, as a compilation, it is, in its 
way, remarkable. 


A PRIMER OF VISIBLE SPEECH. 


Visible-speech reader for the nursery and primary 
school. By Atrx. Metvitite Bert, F.ELS., 
ete. Cambridge, King, 1883. 4452p. 16°. 


Tum science of phonetics made, perhaps, its 
greatest advance through Bell’s Visible speech, 
though it has by no means remained stationary 
since that book appeared. It is this system 
which this primer seeks to bring into practical 
use in teaching, and its alphabet is a great 
improvement over that which we now use. It 
cannot be said, however, that the phonetic 
analysis on which it is based has received 
in all respects the approval of phoneticians. 
With some changes, the vowel system has now 


SCIENCE. 


[Von. II., No. 28. 


won wide acceptance, but the analysis of con- 
sonants has met with serious objections ; for 
instance, for such sounds as f, th, s, sh, in 


English. A discussion of the system itself 
would necessitate reference to recent work 


on phonetics, especially to Sweet’s paper on 
Sound notation in the Transactions of the phil- 
ological society for 1880-81, and to Sievers’s 
Grundziige der phonetik, and such a discus- 
sion would hardly be in place here. One may 
wish, however, that some of Sweet’s changes 
of the Visible-speech alphabet could have been 
adopted. Still, the imperfections of the sys- — 
tem might never attract a child’s notice, and — 
he would probably accept unquestioningly the 
signs given for f and th, without understand- 
ing why they were made to resemble the sign 
for/. For the scientific study of living lan- 
guages, and of the phenomena of linguistic — 
change, some such phonetic system as Visible 
speech, we may hope, will be agreed upon, at 
least provisionally, whether it is found of prac- 
tical value in teaching- children to read or not. 
The test of practice must show whether this 
ingenious alphabet will do better than other 
phonetic primers the work of teaching a child 
to read ordinary printed books. The primer 
is divided into three parts, —first, pictured 
words, containing pictures of a few common 
objects, with their names and some phrases ; 
next, sentences in rhythmical form ; and lastly, 
a vocabulary of common words arranged ac- 
cording to the initial sound, beginning with 
labial consonants, and ending with vowels. 
All this is printed only in Visible-speech letters. 
These three parts are preceded by some direc- 
tions to the teacher; and at the end a key is 
added for the teacher’s use, containing the 
usual forms in Roman type of all the words in 
the primer. Exclusive of the key, the whole 
contains thirty-five pages. At the beginning 
of the key are given a few ‘notes,’ which 
speak of the syllabic J and m, as in castle, lis- 
ten, and of the glides, that is, the vowel van- 
ishes, or final diphthongal elements in such 
words as hear (the sound represented by 7), 
day, go. It must surprise an American stu- 
dent of phonetics to see that American pronun- 
ciation is credited by Mr. Bell with pure long 
yowels in the last two of these words, instead 
of with diphthongs, especially if his own expe- 
rience and observation with foreign languages 
have shown him how hard it is for most Ameri- 
cans to learn the pure long sounds of e and o as 
pronounced on the continent of E turope. Pos- 


‘ sibly the American vanishing vowel in these 


cases is less prominent than in England, and — 
it may be that some Americans do pronounce — 


. 
, 


- simple long vowels in such eases. 


Avaust 17, 1883.] 


In this 
primer these two glides are not used with @ 
and 6. ‘To call the r glide, as in hear, a very 
soft r is misleading, as most of us in the east- 
ern United States pronounce absolutely no 7 at 
all in such words.? * Here, too, what is said of 
American pronunciation is inexact; for surely 
we all have an 7 glide in words like hearing, 
while an English reader of Mr. Bell’s words 
would suppose that Americans pronounce hear 


1 See Whitney, The elements of English pronunciation, in 
his Oriental and linguistic studies, second series. 


SCIENCE. 


205 


as he does, but hearing like he-ring. The 
American rule for the r glide may be thus 
stated for some, perhaps most of us: when 
the r glide is present at the end of a word, it 
is retained before any ending of derivation or 
inflection, the consonant 7 being pronounced 
in addition after the glide if the ending begins 
with a pronounced yowel. Thus the glide is 
heard in boor, boorish, beer, beery, soar, :oar- 
ing, store, storing, stored; but there is no r 
glide in Mary, story, fury. Cases like these 
last seem to have been excluded from the book. 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


CHEMISTRY. 
(General, physical, and inorganic.) 


New explosive.—S. H. Hinde proposes a new 
explosive mixture composed of 64 parts of nitro-gly- 
cerine, 12 ammonium citrate, 0.25 ethyl palmitate, 
0.25 calcium carbonate, 23 coal, 0.50 sodium ecarbo- 
nate. — (Chem. techn. repert., 1883, 153.) c. E. M. 

{196 

Compressed cartridges. — H. Giittler makes car- 
tridges of compressed blasting-powder, which are 
bound together by dextrine. For this purpose he uses 
a hard burned charcoal (brown-red), which he claims 
has the formula C,H,O,. The mixture of charcoal, 
sulphur, and nitre are incorporated with the solution 
of dextrine, corned in grains of one to two millimetres ; 
and after drying they are presse | into perforated cyl- 
inders. These cylinders are then dried and shel- 
lacked. The reaction due to explosion is represented, 
when India nitre is used, by C,H,O,.+SKNO,+45S 
= § CO,+2 H.O+8 N+2 K.SO,+2 K,S. — (Chem. 
techn. repert., 1883, 154.) ©. BE. M. [197 

Fulminating compound. — B. G. and F. L. Bene- 
dict have invented a mixture for use in primers, in 
place of fulminating mercury, consisting of 2 parts 
amorphous phosphorus, 8 of minium, and 2 of potas- 
sium chlorate. The oxides of mercury or manganese 
may be used in place of the minium. — (Chem. techn. 
repert., 1883, 153.) C. E. M. {198 


AGRICULTURE. 


Soluble and insoluble phosphates. — In experi- 


ments on potatoes, Swanwick and Prevost obtained a 
larger yield on plots manured with superphosphate 
than on those manured with the same phosphate 
simply ground. A slight increase in the percentage 
of starch was observed in the potatoes manured 
with superphosphate. — ( Bied. centr.-blatt., xii. 250; 
Trans. highl: agric. soc., 1852.) H. P. A. {199 

Value of artificial butter.— There are, accord- 
ing to Ad. Mayer, three principal points to be regarded 
in judging of the worth of an article of diet; viz., 
harmlessness, taste, and physiological utility. That 
artificial butter is harmful can hardly be seriously 


claimed; while, as regards its taste, the very magni- 
tude of the industry shows that the imitation is very 
successful. The physiological utility of artificial but- 
ter depends essentially on its digestibility; and on 
this point Mayer has experimented, using as subjects 
aman, and a boy nine years old. But slight differ- 
ences were observed between natural and artificial 
butter; but the former was digested a trifle better. 
When the artificial butter was used in preparing 
potatoes, it proved to be almost uneatable; and the 
author suggests that this fact may prove of use in 
detecting the presence of the former. — (Landw. vers.- 
stat, xxix. 215.) H. P. A. {200 

Butt and tip kernels of corn.—The vegeta- 
tion of the butt, central, and tip kernels of corn in 
the field has corroborated the results already pub- 
lished as gained in the greenhouse. The figures of 
vegetations stand as below: — 


>| v Butt Central Tip 
Blauted. kernels. kernels. kernels. 
\June 1. June 4. June. June 4. June}. June 4. 
1A1, May 16 . 533 | 551 581 | 564 600 
1A2, ne see 478 534 515 = 564 564 583 
1A3, Bs b Heh ie fs 497 9 558 490 «70 500 549 
1A4, ee vuka fe 6 428 496 463 560 519 SST 
1A 5, a ot tal eibe 362 «467 456 526) 428 526 
Total vegetated . . | 2211 2588 |. 2485 2801 | 2575 2845 
Total planted . - «| 3420 3420 | 3420 3420 | 3420 3420 
Per cent vegetated . . | 64 75 | 72 82} 75 83 
| 


— (N.Y. agric. exp. stat., bull. xlvii.) mu. rp. A. [201 

Chemistry of asparagin. — B. Schulze finds that 
asparagin is not decomposed to any notable extent 
by heating with water, even under a pressure of three 
to four atmospheres, and in the presence of acid 
plant-juices. Consequently, when fodders contain- 
ing asparagin, of which there are many, are cooked, 
this substance is unaltered; and, since its nutritive 
value has been established, the knowledge of this 
fact is of some importance. When heated with alka- 
lies, asparagin yields asparaginic acid and ammonia, 
while a portion of the acid is further acted on, and 
malice acid is formed. —(Landw. vers,-stut., xxix. 
233.) H. PR. A. [202 


206 


METEOROLOGY. 


Observations on Ben Nevis.— A permanent ob- 
servatory is to be established at the summit of this 
mountain by the Scottish meteorological society. A 
road to the summit has been begun: the building 
will be erected this summer, and it is expected that 
regular observations will be made after Nov. 1. The 
records will be kept hourly, not only at the summit, 
4,406 feet above sea-level, but also at Fort William, 
which is situated twenty-eight feet above the sea, and 
at the base of the mountain. Since June 1, 1881, 
simultaneous observations at these points have been 
made at frequent intervals of the day, in the sum- 
mer-time, by Mr. and Mrs. C. L. Wragge, the former 
of whom made the ascent every day until the storms 
of October rendered this impossible. The results ob- 
tained have been discussed by Mr. Buchan sufficiently 
to warrant the permanent establishment of the ob- 
servatory. — W. U. [203 

The origin of lightning. —In explaining satisfac- 
torily the phenomenon of lightning, a difficulty is 
encountered in accounting for the enormous electric 
tensions which are necessary to explain the great 
length of the spark often observed. The theory is 
advanced by A. Fick, that the.high tensions are pro- 

_duced by the sudden concentration of electricity 
already existing in a free state. This concentration 
is caused by the formation of large drops of rain 
from the small vesicles of moisture existing in the 
clouds, by which the surface upon which the elec- 
tricity exists is greatly diminished. The sudden 
formation of drops of water from the mass of aqueous 
vapor may be due to the advance of cold-air currents. 
The author endeavors to answer two objections which 
may be urged against his theory: 1. That in every 
rain-storm lightning ought to be seen; 2. That it 
ought to rain whenever it lightens. To the first ob- 
jection he replies, that the drops may be formed grad- 
ually, and not suddenly, in which case the tensions 
would be dissipated gradually; and, to the second, 
that drops are always formed in connection with 
lightning, but that in falling to the earth they some- 
times encounter a layer of dry air, and are absorbed 


in their passage. — (Naturforscher, June 23.) Ww. U- 
[204 
GEOGRAPHY. 
(Arctic.) 


Wews from Bering Sea.— News to July § has 
been received from the North Pacific whaling-fleet. 
The promise of a late spring had been fulfilled to 
date. Large quantities of drift-ice were afloat in 
Bering Sea some distance south of Bering Strait as 
late as the end of June. The whalers had taken but 
few whales, — only nine for the whole fleet. St. Law- 
rence Bay did not open until July 1. The Leo, 
bound for Point Barrow to relieve the party at the 
U.S. international polar station, had arrived at Plover 
Bay July 5. During the last few days of June 
strong southerly winds prevailed, driving the ice 
northward, so that at least one of the steam-whalers 
was able to reach ten leagues north of Cape Lisburne, 
The Corwin had not arrived. The bark Mary and 
Susan had been nipped, and was leaking badly; and 


SCIENCE. 


a Pe | ne a 
- > rs 


, 


[Von. If., No. 28. 


the steam-whaler Balaena had returned to Plover 
Bay with the loss of, her propeller-blades. Most of 
the fleet met south of St. Paul Island, in latitude 57° 
N., in April, and were fast in the ice from forty to 
eighty days, encountering very heavy ice and severe 
cold. The whales in their northward migration 
passed Cape Chaplin about July 9. The bark Hunt- 
er had been injured by a serious fire in the fore- 
castle. A small number of walrus had been taken 
in default of larger game. Notwithstanding the 
unfavorable spring, a few weeks suitable weather 
may change the conditions sufficiently to enable the 
fleet to make a fair season’s catch; but it must be 
confessed that the prospect of this; as well as for the 
Leo’s reaching Point Barrow; and securing the 
desired observations there, are not encouraging. — 
W. H. D. ; {205 
(Africa.) 

Revoil’s journey to Somali-land.— M. G. Reyoil, 
recently intrusted with the direction of an expedi- 
tion to Somali-land by the French ministry of public 
instruction, left Zanzibar about the first of May. 
During detentions at Aden and Zanzibar, collections 
of natural history and ethnology were obtained, and 
the members of the party instructed in the methods 
of work. Friendly relations were established with 
several chiefs of the Somali coast, who were on an 
annual visit to Zanzibar, and recommendations to 
various tributary chieftains obtained from the sultan. 
M. Revoil intended to enter the country with Arab 
guides at Mogadoxo. and to ascend the Wabbi River 
to Geledi, whence, after a short stay, he would proceed 
to Gananeh on the Juba River, which he would en- 
deaver to map, while obtaining collections of all 
kinds. After this the Juba would be ascended to the 
region of the Ugadines toward the west, or he would 
enter the Galla country toward Kaffa and Shoa, 
where it is thought the friendly relations of the 
French with King Menelik would insure him a fayor- 
able reception. It is expected that the journey will 
terminate by traversing the country to Harrar, and 
thence to Zeila on the Gulf of Aden. — (Comptes 
rendus soc. géogr., no. 11.) W.H. D. [206 


ZOOLOGY. 


Mollusks, 

Existence of a shell in Notarchus. — Vays- 
sire has demonstrated the existence of a minute 
internal spiral shell in Notarchus. ‘Taken into con- 
sideration with a similar discovery by Krohn in Gas- 
teropteron, the author thinks it very probable that 
both are persistent embryonic shells (in Notarehus it 
is about one-fiftieth as lone as the animal itself), and 
that an analogous appendage will be found eventually 
in most tectibranchs, which, up to the present time, 
have been considered shell-less, — (Journ. de con- 
chyl., xxii. 4.) W. H. D. [207 

New abyssal mollusks.—Fischer describes a 
number of new species from the deep-sea dredgings 
of the Travailleur in 1882, They belong to the gen- 
era Dentalium, Mitra, Sipho, Pseudomurex, and Belo- 
mitra. The latter is a new genus resembling Bela, 
but with numerous small plications on the columella. 


_ Aueusr 17, 1883.] 


One species, Mitra cryptodon, comes from a depth of 
1,900 metres in the Atlantic, — probably the greatest 
depth recorded for any species of that genus up to 
the present time.— (Journ. de conchyl., xxii. 4.) 
W. H. D, [208 
VERTEBRATES. 
Reptiles. 

Restoration of Brontosaurus.—In the con- 
tinuation of his papers on Sauropoda, Marsh gives the 
accompanying restoration of Brontosaurus almost 
entirely from a single individual about fifty feet long. 
“The head was remarkably small; the neck was 
long, and, considering its proportions, flexible, and 
was the lightest portion of the vertebral column; the 
body was quite short, and the abdominal cavity of 
moderate size; the legs and feet were massive, and 
the bones all solid; the feet were plantigrade, and 
each footprint must have been about a square yard 
in extent; the tail was large, and nearly all the bones 
solid.’ Special attention is drawn to the head, 
which is ‘*smaller in proportion to the body than 
in any vertebrate hitherto known,” the entire skull 
weighing and measuring less than the fourth or fifth 


cervical vertebra. The animal is estimated to have © 


weighed more than twenty tons, was more or less 

amphibious, probably fed on aquatic plants, and was 

doubtless a ‘stupid, slow-moving reptile,’ wholly 

wanting any offensive or defensive weapons, — (Amer. 

journ, sc., Aug.) [209 
Mammals. 

Influence of pressure on heart-beat.— Many 


_ observers have noticed that the mammalian heart, 


after the death of the animal, vill, under certain con- 
ditions, continue to beat spontaneously for some 
hours, especially if artificial inflation of the lungs is 
kept up. Ewald and Kobert have made some ob- 
servations on this subject, inflating the heart directly 
with air, and find that hearts which have ceased to 
.beat spontaneously, or after the application of me- 
chanical stimuli, will again give contractions when 
the pressure within their cavities is raised. They 
come to the conclusion that one of the conditions 
which the blood must fulfil, in order to maintain the 
heart in activity, is, that it must exert a certain press- 
ure on the heart-walls. — ( Pfliiger’s archiv, xxxi. 
187.) Ww. H. H. {210 

Epiphyses on the centra of the vertebrae of 
the manatee.— M. Albrecht describes these rudi- 
mentary epiphyses at length. He believes that the 
presence of crests and furrows upon the interverte- 
bral faces is a sure indication of epiphyses; but he 
goes further, and describes these processes. They 
are ‘ partially ossified in a peripheral zone, particular- 
ly in the dorsal region.’ He also forms the hypothe- 


_ sis that the epiphyses are the remnants of more perfect 


ones, basing it upon the fact of the presence of the 


_ ridges and grooyes upon the faces of the centra, — 


(Bull. mus, hist. nat Belg., ii. 1883, 38.) F. w. 7. 
[211 
ANTHROPOLOGY. 
The skulls of assassins.— A short time since, 
attention was called to the investigations made upon 


criminals and delinquents, with a view to study the 


*SQUOVSOLNOUD FO NOILVUOLSAN 


SCIENCE. 


ee ae a. ee 


208 


early stages of humanity. The discussion is kept up 
by the French society, and most elaborate measure- 
ments are reported. M. Dally is not quite satisfied 
with the methods, however, aud makes the following 
remarks. It is very wrung to confound things differ- 
ent inéer se under one abstract term, and to study 
them as a natural group. Assassins, murderers, 
criminals, and even the assassinated, constitute 
juridical categories; but surely they are not philo- 
sophic. Highwaymen, ravishers, the jealous, mono- 
maniacs, avengers, nihilists, etc., may be assassins; 
yet they have nothing in. common, except that their 
actions lead to the same result. The organic con- 
ditions which lead to’ murder are quite different in 
each case. Again: every one knows that nothing is 
more rare than a perfectly symmetrical skull. Before 
establishing the proportions of anomalous crania 
among criminals, it is necessary to fix the standard 
among the virtuous. In fact, all men who have 
heavy lower jaws are not necessarily assassins; nor 
can we assume that all crime is evidence of atavism, 
and argue, hence, that in the anatomy of murderers 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 28. 


we have the portraits of our prehistoric ancestors. — 
(Bull. soc. anthrop. Paris, v. T78.) J. W. P. [212 

Easter Island. — Commander Bouverie F. Clark, 
in June last, visited the Easter Island, landing at the 
village of Malaveri, where the vessel was boarded by 
Mr. Alexander Salmon, agent of the Maison Brander 
of Tahiti, who purchased the property of the mis- 
sionaries four years ago. The latter then left for the 
Gambier Archipelago, taking three hundred natives 
with them. The natives now number a hundred 
and fifty, and are decreasing. About five hundred 
were shipped to Tahiti eight years ago, to work on 
the plantations of the Maison Brander. Among the 
remaining people are no traces of the missionary 
work. They are divided into several small clans; 
and their chief quarrels are about the first eggs of 
the ‘ wide-awake’ every year from Needle rock. 
The myth or ,tradition of their arrival is given by 
Commander Clark, who also speaks hopefully of 
the fertility of the island, as well as its value as a 
provision station. — (Proc. roy. geogr. soc., v. 40.) 
J. W. P. [213 


INTELLIGENCH FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 


PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS. 


University of Michigan, 

« Central laboratory for microscopy and general 
histoloyy. — Instruction is given in this laboratory 
in the fullowing subjects. 1. Microscopical technics, 
or the science and art of microscopy, comprising, 
(a) the theory and construction of the instrument and 
its various accessories; (b) the methods of determin- 
ing magnifications; (c) the methods of microscopic 
drawing, microscopic photography, and microscopic 
projections; (d) the preparation of objects of various 
classes. 2. Human histology. 3. Comparative his- 
tology. 4. Vegetable histology. 5. Dental histol- 
ogy. 6. Pathological anatomy. 7. Completion of 
microscopic study in such other subjects as may be 
desired by professors in charge. 

The following is the plan pursued in the principal 
divisions : — 

Normalhuman histology.—This course con- 
sists of thirty lectures in the amphitheatre on the 
use of the microscope and on histology. In laboratory 
work the student is taught the manipulation of the 
instrument, use of accessories, ete. Then follows 
the study of such subjects as blood, epithelium, bone, 
tooth, cartilage, elastic tissue, muscle, kidney, 
stomach, liver, intestine, brain, spinal cord, and 
various miscellaneous subjects, as the oesophagus, 
tongue, skin, etc. The students are given instruc- 
tion in mounting, so that eacl specimen is preserved 
as it is studied. The average number of mounts per 
stiident is about twenty. Each student is required 
to have at least twelve mounts, and some ambitious 
ones mount as high as fifty or sixty. Over six 
thousand mounts are carried away each year by 
students in this department. ‘The object of the 


course is, first, to make the student better acquainted 
with the structure of tissues, and, second, that he 
may become familiar enough with the microscope 
and its manipulations to work to CANE DLS without 
the aid of an instructor. P: 

Vegetable histology.—The first course con- 
sists of work in structural botany for a term of twenty 
weeks. Special attention is given to the correct re- 
presentation of microscopic objects on paper. Sixty 
accurate drawings of the various structures examined 
during the course are required of each student, the 
specimens being prepared by the students themselves. ° 
Vegetable protoplasm is studied with the special 
view of ascertaining the effects of the various re- 
agents employed in general laboratory work. Then 
follow lessons on the vegetable cells, diatoms, and 
other miscellaneous subjects. 

Course two in vegetable histology consists of work 
in pharmaceutical botany, three forenoons of labora- 
tory work each week for twenty weeks. At the 
close of the course each student chooses a particular 
drug, studies it thoroughly, and presents the results 
of his labors in the form of a thesis. 

Advanced normal and pathological histology. 
— Any student who has completed the primary course 
in the histological laboratory, or who has performed 
an equivalent amount of work in some other institu- 
tion, can enter the class for advanced work, The 
first work here is in testing objectives with test- 
plates and diatoms, and in becoming more familiar 
with a few useful accessories. The art of injecting 
is then taken up, and the frog and cat are experi- 
mented upon, as well as individual organs from 
Jarger animals. Each student then chooses some 
particular organ or tissue, and prepares it in as 
many ways as possible for study. He thus becomes 


4 


, 


Aveusr 17, 1883.] 


familiar with the various methods of hardening, 
cutting, and staining. Pathological structures are 
now carefully studied. This includes the study of 
inflammation and its results, the study of diseased 
organs and tissues, and of the non-inflammatory 
new formations. 

Embryology.—A study of the development of 
the chick, including microscopic sections of the 
same. 

Urinalysis.—A course of six weeks in the 
chemical analysis of the urine, including the use of 
the microscope in determining the character of the 
various deposits and crystals. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


Dr. H. Newell Martin, professor of biology in 
Jolns Hopkins university, has been appointed 
Croonian lecturer of the Royal society of London 
for the current year. The Croonian lecture was 
founded by Lady Sadlier, in fulfilment of a plan of 
her former husband, Dr. Croone, one of the founders 
and the first registrar of the Royal society. By her 
will, made in 1701, she devised ‘one-fifth of the 
clear rent of the King’s-Head Tavern, in or near Old 
Fish Street, London, at the corner of Lambeth Hill, 
to be vested in the Royal society, for the support of a 
lecture and illustrative experiment on local motion.” 
For many years past there has been no formal delivery 
of the lecture. The council of the Royal society 
select from the papers presented to them during the 
preceding twelve months that one dealing with ani- 
mal motion which they think most noteworthy, and 
publish it as the Croonian lecture, sending to the 
author the sum derived from Lady Sadlier’s bequest. 
The amount of money is trivial, but the appointment 
as Croonian lecturer is a highly prized distinction. 
The paper by Professor Martin, which is to be printed 
as the Croonian lecture for 1883, is on the Effect of 
changes of temperature on the beat of the heart. 
It is interesting to note that the first Croonian lecture, 
delivered by Dr. Stuart in 1738, was on the Motion 
of the heart. 

— Nature of Aug. 2 prints the following telegram 
from the Swedish party which wintered at Spitzber- 
gen, and was last heard from in October. ‘‘ Cape 
Thordsen, July 4, 1883. This message will be for- 
warded to-morrow to Capt. Startschin, with the boat 
fetching our first mail this year. ‘lhe wintering of 
the expedition has in every respect been attended 
with success, particularly as the scientific researches 
have throughout been carried on exactly in accord- 
ance with the regulations formulated by the Inter- 
national polar commission. Hydrographical and 
Magnetic studies have also been pursued on the ice 
in the Ice Fjord, as well as parallax measurements 
of clouds, and observations as to the temperature of 
the air, the snow, and the earth. The winter has, on 
the whole, been mild; the greatest cold occurring on 
Jan. 2, when the thermometer registered 35.5° C. 
below freezing-point. Storms have beenfew. Since 
September last the following buildings have been 


SCIENCE. 


209 


erected: a hut on a mountain at an elevation of 
270 metres, containing the anemometer and the wind- 
fan, which were read by a self-registering electrical 
apparatus; two astronomical observatories; another 
magnetic hut; a bath-house, a forge, and a wood 
storehouse. The dwelling-house and working-room 
have also been enlarged. The following game was 
shot during the winter: 61 ptarmigans, 9 reindeer, 
18 wild geese, 20 foxes, and some wild fowl. With 
continuous labor, plenty of food and drink, and 
frequent baths, the members of the expedition haye 
throughout enjoyed excellent health, Descriptions 
of the nature of our labor and life here during the 
wintering will follow.” 

— The new biological laboratory of the Johns Hop- 
kins university, which will be opened next Septem- 
ber, has been especially constructed with reference 
to providing opportunity for advanced work in ex- 
perimental physiology. It contains two large rooms 
for general advanced work in animal physiology, in 
addition to others specially designed for work with 
the spectroscope, with the myograph, for electro- 
physiological researches, and for physiological chem- 
istry. It also contains a special room constructed 
for advanced histvlogical work, and well supplied 
with apparatus and reagents, a ‘room for micro- 
photography, and rooms for advanced work in ani- 
mal morphology. 

Prof. C. H. F. Peters of Clinton, N.Y., announces 
to Harvard college observatory the discovery of a 
new planet by him on the night of Aug. 12. Its 
position at time of discovery was as follows: Aug. 
12, 13 hours, 49 minutes, 27 seconds, Clinton mean 
time; right ascension, 21 hours, 20 minutes, 48.17 
seconds; declination, south, 12 degrees, 29 minutes, 
§.2 seconds. The daily motion of the object is — 36 
seconds in right ascension, and in declination 20 
minutes and 50 seconds south. It is unusually bright 


* for an asteroid, being of the ninth magnitude. 


— The Nation for Aug. 2 calls attention to a very 
interesting feature of the table of ages (table XLII.) 
in the compendium of the tenth census. The table 
exhibits an astonishing preponderance of persons 
whose age is a ‘round number,’ i.e., a multiple of 
five or ten. One of the instances mentioned is, that 
while, according to the table, there are 1,094,324 
persons at the age of 30, there are only 621,852 per- 
sons of 29 years, and only 492,530 persons of 31 years. 
There is a less powerful but still very marked and 
constant attraction to even numbers as compared 
with odd: for example, 42 claims 458,949, while 43 is 
content with 384,259; 47 is credited with 349,512, but 
48 with 400,549. These are from the table of aggre- 
gates for the United States. The peculiarities are, of 
course, much more strongly marked in the columns 
referring to the classes and localities where there is 
most ignorance. Thus the number of the colored 
females in Mississippi who are put down as 30 years 
of age is 10,619, while the years immediately preced- 
ing and following are given only 2,253 and 1,236 
respectively. 

The writer of the interesting note in. the Nation 
attributes the phenomenon to conjectural statements 


210 


by people who did not know their own ages; but 
probably only a small part of it is due to that cause, 
at least in the more intelligent portions of the popula- 
tion. In so intelligent a state as Rhode Island, for 
instance, we find for the years 29, 30, 31, the numbers 
3,965, 6,550, 3,112; which is not, much, better than in 
the aggregate of the United States. How much is 
due to guessing by relatives, servants, masters, etc., 
and especially to suggestions and guesses by the 
census-gatherers themselves, — who, of course, do 
not regard the exact ages as important, and most 
of whom have probably no strong views on the 
subject of the ‘personal equation,’ —no one can 
tell, but probably very much more than to peo- 
ple’s ignorance of their own ages. An examination 
and comparison of the original note-books of the 
various census-takers would furnish materials for an 
interesting exercise, if nothing more, in statistical re- 
search, and might reveal approximately the extent to 
which the personal qualities of the census-takers has 
affected the result; while a comparison of the table 
with well-established tables of mortality might enable 
us to estimate the force of the tendency to under- 
state age which would doubtless be found to exist. 
The whole thing makes a very pretty problem, and 
serves to illustrate in a rather gross and exaggerated 
way the complexity of statistical investigations. 
—We learn from Nature that a meeting which 
may have an important result upon science and art 
instruction in England has been inaugurated at 
Manchester. An association has been established to 
effect the general advancement of the profession of 
science and art teaching by securing improvements 
in the schemes of study, and the establishment of 
satisfactory relations between teachers and the Sci- 
ence and art department, the city and guilds of 
London institute, and other public authorities. It 
proposes also to collect such information as may be 


of service to teachers professionally; and it will en- , 


deavor, by constant watchfulness, to advance the 
status and material interests of science and art 
teachers in all directions. The president of the new 
association is Professor Huxley, and the vice-presi- 
dents are Dr. H. E. Roscoe, Mr. Norman Lockyer, Pro- 
fessor Boyd Dawkins, Professor Gamgee, Professor 
Ayrton, Professor Silvanus Thompson, Dr. John 
_ Watts, Mr. S. Leigh-Gregson, Mr. John Angell, Mr. 
W. Lockett Agnew, Mr. C. M. Foden, and Mr. J. H. 
Reynolds. Mr. W. E. Crowther, of the Technical 
school and mechanie’s institution, Manchester, is 
the honorary secretary; and all communications 
should be addressed to him, especially by those who 
are desirous of forming affiliated unions in other 
districts. We believe that branches are already 
being established at Newcastle-upon-Tyne and Liver- 
pool. 

— The attorney-general of the United States has 
approved the title to the proposed site of the fish- 
commission establishments at Wood’s Holl, Mass.; 
and the contracts for the work on the breakwater, 
pier, and basin, will, it is expected, soon be made. 

— King’s Dictionary of Boston, after the manner 


of Dickens’s Dictionary of London, has recently 


SCIENCE. 


[Vor. IL, No. 28. 


been published, Edwin M. Bacon is the editor. A 
short introduction is written by George E, Ellis, D.D. 
The brief notices of the libraries and scientific asso- 
ciations of Boston are satisfactory, and well brought 
down to date. 

—For the last two years a couple of buck moun- 
tain sheep have been running with the flock of Mr. 
Bailey of Bull Run Basin, Nevada; and there are now 
between twenty and thirty half-breed lambs in the 
lot. According to the Tuscarora mining news, they 
are mostly covered with hair, although there is some 
wool amongst it. They carry their heads high, like 
the wild sheep, but are as easily herded as those of 
pure domestic blood. They are of no value for shear- 
ing, but are said to make excellent mutton. 


— The subsidence of land in the Cheshire salt-dis- - 


tricts of England is again becoming alarming. The 
bed of the river Weaver has widened out below North- 
wich, forming a lake of about two miles square, called 
the Flashes. Crater-like holes suddenly fall in, form- 
ing in a day or two deep ponds of saltish water. In 
one instance, two years ago, the river itself flowed 
backwards into the subsidence for the space of two 
minutes, filling up several old rock-salt mines in the 
neighborhood: from these the water is now pumped, 
and used as brine, Land-owners in the neighborhood 
brought a bill into Parliament during the session of 
1882, to obtain compensation for the damage done by 
the salt-works; but it was argued that subsidence 
would occur by natural filtration, even if the brine 
were unworked, and the bill was thrown out. 

— Mr. Albert Marth, F.R.A.S., has succeeded Dr. 
W. Doberck as astronomer at Col. Cooper’s observa- 
tory, Markree, Ireland. 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 


Albert-Levy. Les nouveautés de la science. Paris, Za- 
chette, 1883. 192p. 18°. 

Alvarez, Llanos, C. Electricidad estiatica. 
militar, 1883. 288 p.,illustr. 8°. 

Bell, A. Melville. Visible-speech reader for the nursery and 
primary school. Cambridge, King, 1883.. 4+952 p. 16°. 

Bernimolin, H. Catalogues des plantes spontanées et 
cultivées du Tournnisis, avec indication des localités om on les 
rencontre. Tournai, Vasseur-Delmée, 1883. 1383p. 12°. 

Beringer, A. Kritische vergleichung der elektrischen 
krafliibertragung mit den gebriiuchlichsten mechanischen kratt- 
jibertragungssystemen. Berlin, 1883. 8°. 

Brandza, D. Prodromul florei romane san enumeratiunea 


Madrid, lidr. 


‘ plantelor pana astade cunoscute in Moldoya si Valachia. Bu- 


curesci, 1883, 652 p. 8°. ' 
Bureau, Th. ‘Technologie des matiéres textiles. 
1883. 285 p.,17 pl. et figures. autogr. 4°. 


Gand, 


Carnoy, J. B. Biologie cellulaire; étude comparée de la — 


cellule dans les deux régnes, au triple point de yue anatomique, 
chimique et physiologique. Lierre, 1883. illustr. 8°. 


Centralbureau der europiiischen gradmessung. Verhand- 
lungen der vom 11 bis zum 15 September, 1882, im Haag verei- 
nigten permanenten commission der europitischen gridmessung, 
redigirt von den schriftfiihren A. Hirsch, und Th. vo. Oppolzer, 
zugleich mit dem generalbericht fiir die jahre 1881 und 1882. 
Berlin, Reime7, 1883. 6+155p.,2 maps. 4°. 

Cervera Bachiller, J. Creencias y supersticiones, tradi- 
ciones, leyendas, consejas, historias misticas y preocupaciones 
populares de todos los siglos y de todos los pueblos. Madrid, 
impr. Riva, 1883. 2304p. 8°. . 

Chamberland, ©. Le charbon et la vaccination charbon- 
neuse d’aprés les trayaux récents de M. Pasteur. Paris, 1883. 
324p. 8. y 


os molt a Ty As el 


5 I A Oe ae 


FRIDAY, AUGUST 24, 1883. 


THE LESSONS OF THE MEETING. 


Tue question as to the distance from the 
eastern seaboard to which the American 
association for the advancement of science 
can carry its annual assemblages is partly 
solved by the meeting at Minneapolis. That 
has registered about three hundred members 
in attendance; a small number, indeed, as 
compared with the Boston and Montreal meet- 
ings, but larger than was at first anticipated. 
One-third came from the Atlantic and New- 
England states. Astronomy and physics are 
fairly represented in the list; geology, as was 
expected, claimed the largest proportion; of 
botanists, there were over twenty-five — this 
was a surprise; the ethnologists were in con- 
siderable force; in all other branches of 
science, the attendance was somewhat meagre. 

This, therefore, has not been one of the 
large meetings. Its addresses and papers 
have not contained any very striking feature 

that appealed to the interest of the general 
public. On the other hand, all that was pre- 
sented, with few exceptions, though not bril- 
liant, was above mediocrity. Looking over 
the list of papers, we find fewer than usual 
_of the kind that brings sorrow to the hearts of 
, scientific students ; that provokes the question, 
How did such things ever pass the standing 
: afid sectional committees? _ 
_ The merits and the disadvantages of the pres- 
ent system of conducting these meetings have 
been placed in very sharp light. Excellent 
addresses were delivered by most of the presi- 
4 dents of sections; in fact, these productions 
this year are a credit to the association. But 
the strain of obtaining such representative 
addresses from so many sections will soon be 
Baeparent it may prove difficult to find the 
men to deliver them, within a very few years, 
especially if the number of sections continues 
No. 20.— 1883. 


to increase. The delivery of two or more of 
these addresses simultaneously, and the com- 
pletion of the delivery of all of them in one 
afternoon, was felt to be a matter of grave 
injustice, both to speakers and hearers. To 
our readers we shall offer the only remedy now 
possible for this injustice, by printing the ad- 
dresses in full, and by detachments. 

Local committees, in cities to which the 
association will hereafter be invited, may learn 
some valuable lessons from the experience at 
Minneapolis. There was no lack of hospi- 
table intention: the hearty courtesies of a 
western community were liberally extended. 
But the generous intentions were not carried 
out in the minor details that are essential to 
comfort if not to success. The meetings were 
held at a distance from the city, at the extreme 
end of a one-horse car route. Consequently 
the conveyances were overcrowded, much time 
was lost in going and coming, and — worse 
than all — few of the citizens of Minneapolis 
attended the sessions. We do not remember 
a meeting of the association at which the local 
interest, so far as audiences indicate it, was so 
deficient. The hotel selected for headquarters 
was not agreeable, because not exactly suit- 
able. Members scattered to distant points, 
finding delicious havens of rest and recreation 
at summer-hotels on the lakes, but having to 
take yet longer time to attend the daily ses- 
sions. Free railroad transportation was pro- 
vided to these distant resorts, but there was 
a confusing uncertainty about late trains that 
caused many embarrassments. These things 
may be trifles, but they are apt to be remem- 
bered when the lavishness of entertainment is 
forgotten. e 

As was anticipated, the association has 
chosen Philadelphia for its next session, where 
we may look again for the great numbers 
which attended the Boston and Montreal meet- 
The exact date for holding it has been 
wisely left in the hands of the executive board, 


ings. 


212 


pending the choice of time by the British 
association for their Montreal meeting. A 
preference, however, has been indicated for the 
week beginning Sept. 3, —a date earlier than 
usual, but welcome to all who know how warm 


Philadelphia can be in August. 
Wako MYA 


RELIABILITY OF THE EVIDENCE OB- 
TAINED IN THE STUDY OF CONTAGIA. 


Ture is certainly a disposition, among some 
of our scientific men, to doubt the possibility 
of making direct and satisfactory demonstra- 
tions of the ré/e played by the schizophytes, 
or microbia, in the production of disease, and 
that which they may be compelled to take in 
its prevention. Recent publications by ac- 
cepted authorities have tended rather to con- 
firm these doubts than to remoye them, and 
we are frequently asked if our results are not 
founded on probabilities rather than on defi- 
nite and conclusive facts. While this uncer- 
tainty is still felt, it is well to occasionally 
review the connection between the facts estab- 
lished and the conclusions drawn from them. 

Though the schizophytes are the smallest of 
living organisms, that is not an insurmountable 
obstacle to their careful study, as is proved by 
the well-known investigations of the Bacillus 
anthracis by Koch. His demonstration that 
this exists in two forms (a vegetating filament 
and a spore), and that the latter survives un- 
favorable conditions which destroy the former, 
enabled him to trace a connection between the 
activity of the virus and the life of the para- 
site, which other investigators had failed to 
establish. Thus, the blood of anthrax vic- 
tims, which contained only Bacillus rods, lost 
its power to reproduce the disease after a few 
days’ putrefaction ; while that which contained 
spores remained virulent an indefinite time. 
A certain degree of cold, and also an insufii- 
cient supply “ot oxygen, prevent the formation 
of spores; and, the filaments being short-lived, 
thé organism loses its vitality in a few days 
under such conditions. If spores had formed 
before the liquid was exposed to these con- 
‘ditions, however, they were unaffected, and 
were capable of germination after weeks or 
months. Again: if a virulent hquid was large- 
ly diluted, the filaments were destroyed, but the 
spores survived. In all these cases the actiy- 
ity of the virus disappeared with the death of 
the organism, and was retained whenever the 
formation of spores had enabled this to resist 
the unfavorable conditions. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 29. 


Here was a proof of the pathogenic charac- 
ter of the schizophyte much more satisfactory 
than the mere demonstration of its presence in 
all cases of the disease, or the additional evyi- 
dence that it might be passed through a certain 
number of cultivation-flasks ; the liquid in the 
last being as virulent as in the first. 

Since Koch’s paper was published, Pasteur 
has added obseryations of an equally convin- — 
cing character. The liquid part of the virus 
may be freed from the organism either by 
filtering through plaster or by decanting after 
it has stood in a constant temperature for a 
few days to allow the germs to gravitate to the 
bottom of the flask. In either case the liquid 
is harmless, and the separated germs still pro- 
duce the disease. Again: compressed oxygen 
destroys the filaments, but does not affect the — 
spores; and a virus containing only the former 
loses its activity when treated with this agent, 
while one in which spores have formed retains 
its virulence. 

We are able to say, therefore, that, in the 
disease known by the French as charbon and 
by the English as anthrax, no liquid is virulent 
unless it contains the living Bacillus anthracis, — 
and that the death of this organism always — 
coincides with the destruction of the virulence. — 

This demonstration of the pathogenic action ~ 
of the Bacillus cannot but be regarded as equal- — 
ly satisfactory with what is obtained by inyes- — 
tigations in other departments of biological — 
science. Ifthe observations of these gentle- ‘ 
men are accurate, and they have been con- — 
firmed too often to be doubted, then there is — 
no escaping the conclusion that the Bacillus — 
anthracis is the essential and only cause of — 
anthrax. 

It is not to be denied, however, that the 
size of the parasite in anthrax, and the fact — 
of its existence under two forms haying such ~ 
unequal resistance to unfavorable conditions, — 
were characters which greatly facilitated the 
demonstration of its pathogenic relation to 
the disease. Is it possible to obtain equally 
satisfactory evidence in regard to the smallest — 
of the schizophytes, and one which only a 4 
in the vegetating condition ? 

The micrococeus of chicken-cholera is of 
this kind, and it is consequently yery inter- 
esting to see just what progress we have made 
in demonstrating its identity with the virulent 
principle. We know from Pasteur’s inyesti- 
gations that it is always present in this dis- 
ease; that it may be cultivated, and passed 
from. flask to flask for many times, withou 
losing its virulence. The filtered liquid loses 
its activ ity ; that from which the germs are 


‘f ~Avaust 24, 1883.] 


| separated by gravitation is equally harmless. 
Taking up the study here, I have proved that 
_ the exact degree of heat which, in a given time, 
kills the micrococcus (132° F. for 15 minutes), 
_ destroys the virulence at precisely the same 
_ point; also that the proportion of carbolic acid, 
of sulphuric acid, and ofa solution of chlo- 
rides (Platt’s), which destroys the virulence 
in from two to four hours, corresponds with 
the proportion which is required to kill the 
organism in the same time. 

The effect of heat and of these disinfect- 
ants on the virus was determined by inocula- 
tion experiments. The point at which the 
micrococcus is killed was learned by placing a 
drop or two of virus in the sterilized liquid of 
a cultivation-tube after the proper proportion 
of disinfectant had been added. In a given 
time a drop was taken from this tube, and 
placed in a second one which contained a 
favorable medium for the growth of the germs. 
If the schizophytes had been destroyed by the 
disinfectant, there would be no multiplication ; 
while, if they had resisted it, they would cer- 
tainly reveal the fact by developing in their 

usual manner. The exact correspondence 
which exists between the results of the two 
series of experiments in every case, is also an 
evidence of the reliability of the method. 
_ While it might be conceived, that, even 
_ though the virulent agent consisted of some- 
thing entirely different from the micrococcus, 
both might be destroyed by the same degree 
of heat in the same time, it is not conceiv- 
able that this would also occur from the effect 
_ of three different chemical agents. If it were 
_ necessary, this line of evidence could probably 
_ be increased indefinitely; but it is already 
equal to what is usually considered necessary 
- to demonstrate a point in other departments of 
science. 
It is possible, then, by present methods of 
research, to determine satisfactorily whether a 
B given organism is the cause of a certain dis- 
ease, or whether it is an epi-phenomenon ; 
and, if there is still much doubt in regard to 

some of these, it would seem to be owing to 
the fact that observers have relied too im- 
_ plicitly upon the microscope, and neglected the 
; cultivation and inoculation experiments, that 
are essential to definite and reliable conclu- 
_ sions. D. E. Sarton. 


SPONGE-CULTURE IN FLORIDA. 


3 - Tue U.S. national museum has lately re- 
 geived from Messrs. McKesson and Robbins, 


7, 


SCIENCE. 


213 


sponge-importers of New York, an interesting 
contribution representing the first. successful 
attempts at sponge-cultivation on the Ameri- 
can coast. It consists of only four specimens, 
all of the finest or sheep’s-wool variety, which 
were raised from cuttings at Key West, Fla., 
by the agent of the above-named firm. The 
localities in which the sponges were planted 
were not the most favorable for sponge-devel- 
opment, and their growth was therefore less 
rapid and perfect than might otherwise have 
been the case. They were fastened to the 
bottom, in a depth of two feet and a half, 
by means of wires or sticks running through 
them, and allowed to remain down a period of 
about six months before they were taken up. 
Fully four months elapsed before they recov- 
ered from the injury done them in the cutting, 
which removes the outer ‘skin’ along the 
edges of the section; and the actual growth 
exhibited was for about two months only. 
The original height of each of the cuttings 
was about two inches and a half. One was 
planted in a cove or bight where there was 
little or no current, and its increase in size 
was very slight. The other specimens were 
placed in tide-ways, and have grown to from 
four to six times their former bulk, which 


certainly promises well for the future of 


sponge-propagation. Two hundred and six- 
teen specimens in all were planted at the same 
date, and, at the last accounts, those which 
remained were doing finely. 

The chief obstacle to the artificial cultiya- 
tion of sponges at Key West arises from the 
fact that the sponge-fishermen infest every 
part of the region where sponges are likely to 
grow, and there is no legal protection for the 
would-be culturist against intruders. The 
enactment of judicious laws bearing upon this 
subject by the state of Florida, or the grant- 
ing of special privileges conferring the right 
to occupy certain prescribed areas for sponge- 
propagation, would undoubtedly tend to in- 
crease the annual production of this important 
fishery, which has remained at a standstill for 
several years past, mainly because of the 
partial exhaustion of several of the most ex- 
tensive sponging-areas. 

Accompanying these artificial growths was 
a collection of over a hundred specimens of 
the various grades of Florida sponges of 
different sizes, each labelled with its supposed 
age, based upon estimates of the average rate 
of growth, by the sponge-collectors. This 
entire collection now forms a part of the 
American exhibit at the great London fisheries 
exhibition. R. Rarusun. 


214 


THE CONDITIONS NECESSARY FOR 
THE SENSATION OF LIGHT. 


Ir is generally assumed that the only condi- 
tion necessary for the production of the sen- 
sation of light by the action of radiant energy 
is, that the radiant energy must be of a certain 
wave-length within the limits of wave-length 
of the visible spectrum, namely, between waye- 
lengths 7.60410 centimetres and 3.933 x 
10-* centimetres ; that, when the eye perceives 
nothing, none of these wave-lengths can be 
present. It is worth while, therefore, to ex- 
amine those physical conditions that result in 
giving the sensation of light to ascertain 
whether such assumption is warranted. As to 
the eye itself, it will not make any difference 
so far as this question is concerned, whether one 
accepts the Young-Helmholtz theory of vision, 
the Herring theory, or any other. The only 
important fact is, that, in either, energy is re- 
quired and is expended in the eye; but it is 
important to know how to measure the energy, 
and to have a tolerably clear idea about its 
form. Without any question, a ray of radiant 
energy, such as is emitted by a heated molecule 
or atom of hydrogen, consists of a single line 
of undulations of a definite wave-length, for the 
molecule cools (that is, loses its heat-energy ) 
by imparting it to the ether; and a ‘ wave- 
length’ is simply the distance to which such 
a disturbance in the ether will be propagated 
during the time of a single vibration of the 
molecule. As each vibration of the latter 
imparts some of its energy to the moving 
ether, it follows that the energy of a ray of 
light must depend upon the number of vibra- 
tions per second ; or, what is the same thing, 
the energy of the ray is proportional to its 
length. As all rays move with the same 
velocity in the ether, it follows that any object 
that should receive such radiant energy would 
receive an amount proportional to the time. 

Suppose, now, that an atom of hydrogen be 
made to vibrate, no matter how, so as to give 
a wave-length C=6.562 x 107° centimetres. If 
such a ray falls upon the eye, it will produce 
the sensation of redness, and, if the eye re- 
ceives the vibrations for one second, it will 
receive 4.577 x 10" vibrations ; that is to say, 
it will receive as many undulations from the 
ether as the generating atom made in the 
interval of one second. Now, we know experi- 
mentally that the eye can perceive when the 
interval is as small as the millionth of a sec- 
ond, when the number of vibrations of such a 
ray as the above would be 4.577 x 10*, a very 
respectable number. It would seem probable 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. IL, No. 29. 


that that number might be considerably re- 
duced, and still leave a sufficient number to 
affect the eye. If the time-interval should be 
made so short as the one ten-billionth of a 
second, there would then be 45,770 such undu- 
lations that would enter the eye. But there 
must be a limit to the number needed to pro- 
duce the sensation; and it is also. probable 
that this limit will differ in different persons. 
Admitting this time-limit, it follows that undu- 
lations of proper wave-length may exist about 
us, and yet not be sufficient in time-quantity 
to affect the eye. If other vertebrates or in- 
sects possess a shorter limit than man, it is 
certain that they will see when man cannot. 
But the energy of vibrations varies as the 
square of the amplitude; and hence, if one of 
two rays of equal length has a greater ampli- 
tude than the other, the latter might be seen, 
while the former might not, although they had 
the same wave-length. : 
According to the kinetic theory of gases, 
the molecules are in incessant motion, in 
which collisions result in changing the direc- 
tions of the free paths of each of the mole- 
cules, and also in making each to vibrate, 
because moiecules are elastic. This vibratory 
motion proper, being a change of form of the 
molecule, is what constitutes its heat-energy. 
The interval between encounters gives oppor- 
tunity to each molecule to vibrate in its own 
periodic time or some of its harmonics. Maxs- 
well computed the number of impacts per 
second for several gases,’ and gives, for hydro- 
gen, 17,750 x 10°. If, then, we divide the num- 
ber of vibrations per second by the number of 
impacts, we shall have the number of vibra- 


7; 8 
tions between impacts : eS = 25,700. 
177.50 x 10° 
This is on the supposition that the vibrations 
produced are all of the wave-length of the C 
hydrogen-line. 

It is highly probable that this hydrogen-line 
is not due to the fundamental vibrations of 
the hydrogen molecule, but that it is some 
harmonic (the twentieth, according to Stoney). 
Whatever its harmonic relation may be, it 
must be highly probable that it will frequently 
be produced when the conditions are as they 
are in ordinary gas; but, in normal conditions 
as to temperature, that gas is not luminous. 
If this reasoning be right, the reason it is not 
luminous at ordinary temperatures and press- 
ures is due solely to the slight amplitude of 
the vibrations of proper wave-length, not to 
their entire absence. When the gas is heat- 

1 Nature, Sept. 25, 1873. 204 


7 oo 
. So 


’ 


. 
, 


AucGust 24, 1883.] 


ed, or is impelled with great energy from the 
terminal of an induction-coil in a Geisler’s 
tube, it is not necessary to assume that the 
molecules are made to vibrate in wholly new 
periods, but that the amplitude of their vibra- 
tions in any and all periods has been in- 
creased, thereby giving greater amplitude, and 
consequent energy, to the radiant undulations 
‘emitted, sufficient to affect the eye. 


When one considers the kinetic energy of 


molecules due to their temperature, it seems 
probable that all bodies — solid and liquid, as 
well as gaseous — must be vibrating in all pos- 
sible periods continuously ; but in solid sand in 
liquids the shortness of the free paths makes 
interference too frequent to allow any mole- 
cule to vibrate many times between impacts, 
and hence the harmonics suffer most, and are 


destroyed before they can have given rise to 


undulations in sufficient number or in ampli- 
tude to perform any optical service. By.heat- 
ing a solid, greater amplitude is given to all 
the vibrations, and we see the red or longer 
undulations first during the process of heating, 
because such are less easily destroyed by im- 
pact than the shorter ones, which cannot have 
at best so great an amplitude. This state- 
ment assumes that it is with molecules as it is 
with visible masses of matter: the greater the 
number of vibrations possible to it, the less 


the possible amplitude. 


With these conditions as stated, it is readily 
seen why common objects are not at all times 
visible, that is to say, are not luminous. It is 
because our eyes are not sensitive enough to 
respond to the slight energy of the undula- 
tions due to both lack of amplitude and short- 
ness of the rays, not because those rays are 
absolutely wanting. A. E. Dorsear. 


RADIOMETERS WITH CURVED VANES. 


Amone the radiometers in a collection which 
TI have recently examined were two with curved 
vanes of silver. The radius of curvature was 
less than 2 em. When placed in front of a 
lamp, the concave side moves towards the 
source of heat. I have found no satisfactory 
explanation of these movements. According 
to a recent article by Dr. Pringsheim, the 
convex side of these vanes is supposed to be 
at a higher temperature than the concave side. 
The grounds for such an hypothesis are not 
obvious; and it would seem hardly possible 
that an appreciable difference could exist. be- 
tween the surfaces of a thin sheet of silver. 

It is more probable that the air on one side 


of the vane is hotter than that on the other. 


SCIENCE. 


215 


Since the ‘ kick’ 
its inerease in 
move tow 
warmer. 

Dr. Pringsheim mentions an experiment in 
which he brought the heat to a focus inside 
the radiometer at a point in front of the vane. 
He found that the air gave no evidence of 
being heated. I repeated the experiment 
with solar heat, using a lens of three inches 
diameter and four inches focal length. The 
heat in air was sufficient to ignite instantly a 
common parlor match. When the focus was 
kept in front of the vane of an ordinary radi- 
ometer for two minutes, no appreciable effect 
was observed: the instant it touched the vanes, 
however, they gave a start, and began to re- 
volve. This. experiment shows that the effects 
observed with curved vanes cannot be attributed 
to concentration of heat-rays from the vanes. 

According to the kinetic theory, this rota- 
tion is set up only if.the molecules arriving 
on the convex side of the vane receive a greater 
positive increment to their velocity than those 
arriving on the concave side. These conditions 
are satisfied in this way: if the vanes are 
warmer than the air, the particles leaving the 

vane in both directions have an increased velo- 
city; but take, for instance, the particles 
moving in lines parallel to the axis of the 
concayity towards the vane from either side, 
those on the convex side are scattered by re- 
flection, those on the concave side are brought 
to a focus at a distance (in this instrument) 
of less than 1 cm. from the vertex of the 
coneavity. The molecules in the vicinity 
of this focus receive an increase of kinetic 
energy; and similar reasoning holds for the 
sets of molecules moving parallel to each other 
in any other direction. Hence the molecules 
on the concave side are hotter than those on 
the convex side, though not necessarily so hot 
as the vane itself. Since the molecules on 
the concave side receive a smaller increase of 
velocity from the vane, ‘they give it a smaller 
reactive push. 

The action of the case in a radiometer is 
very prettily shown by wetting it with cold 
water. The action is best examined with 
curved vanes, or with vanes of metal covered 
on one side with mica. The rotation is at 
first in the same direction as on heating, show- 
ing that the air has become cooled by contact 
with the glass, but is after a time reversed, 
showing, that, by quasi-conduction through 
the air, the vanes have become cool, while the 
glass is regaining its original temperature. 

Grorce W, Eyans. 


of a molecule depends on 
temperature, the vane will 
ards the side on which the air is the 


216 


THE IGLOO OF THE INNUITA—IL. 


Amone the natives of North Hudson’s Bay, 
the first huts of the season, if there is a scarcity 
of compact snow, are made of ice. Rectan- 
gular slabs, three to four by six or six and 
one-half feet, are cut from some neighboring 
fresh-water lake where the ice has formed to a 
thickness of sixinches. As arough approxima- 


SCIENCE. 


slabs weigh nearly half a ton. When dragged 
from the lake, they are turned on edge, and a 
hole cut through their centre. By means of a 
strong seal-skin line passed through this hole, 
two strong men can handle a slab with consid- 
erable ease, moving or sliding it long distances. 
It takes four or five persons to put the first 
two together, the slight inclination which is 


given them holding them up when once in po- 


MAKING AN ICE-IGLOO. 


tion, these slabs may be said to be about the 
size of an ordinary door. ‘The slabs are placed 
almost upright, resting on their ends, and joined 
so as to form a circular pen of from ten to fifteen 
feetin diameter. Over the top of this the sum- 
mer seal-skin tent (tod-pik) is spread for a 
roof; being supported by the tent-poles cross- 
ing at convenient places, and held in place by 
a lashing of seal-skin about a foot below the 
top of the ice-slabs. 

In one of the slabs, generally on the side 
facing the south, a large opening is cut, which 

-is further protected by a smaller storm-igloo 
having an entrance-hole no larger than the 
girth of the most corpulent Innuit of that par- 
ticular village. 

As an aid in cutting, a rectangle is marked 
on the surface of the ice, having : a width equal 
to the length of the praposed slabs, and from 
it they are cut with an ice-chisel (tod-oke). 
This chisel is generally a heavy mortising- 
chisel, securely lashed to the end of a pole 
from six to seven feet long. I have seen bay- 
onets, sabre or sword points, or sharpened files 
made to serve the same purpose. The Es- 
quimaux around King William’s Land used 
the spikes from the wrecked ships of Sir John 
‘Franklin’s ill-fated expedition. The large ice- 


’ + Continued from No. 28. 


sition. After this, two or three are all that are 
needed to add each slab, until the house is 
completed. When two slabs are abutted 
against each other, the edges are trimmed with 
a snow-knife to give as much bearing-surface 
as possible ; and, when permanently set, snow 
dipped in water is applied to the joint inside- 


-and out, completely closing all crevices, and, 


when frozen, binding the two as solidly as if 
but one. A handful is also put in the central 
hole, which held the seal-skin thong, and the 
ice-pen is practically air-tight around its sides. 
The floor of snow has become packed by the 
treading of the builders ; and over it are laid 
flat stones, on which are spread a great many 
coarse robes of reindeer, musk-ox, and polar- 
bear skins, and over these: the finer reindeer- 


skins that make the bed, which occupies over 


half the floor. 
These ice-igloos are as transparent as elass ; 


and before they are covered by the drifting — 
snow, or their interiors dimmed by the smok- 


ing of the sooty lamps, a night-scene in one of 


these villages, especially if it be lar gee, with — 
the brilliant burning stone lamps i in full blaze, 
is one of the most Deautiful sights I have ever 


witnessed, especially in this dvear y land. Could 


one imagine the little Lilliputs living in flat — 
candy-jars with drumhead covers, he would 


[Vo1. If., No. 29. 


my SS ar eee an 


— Avavsr 24, 1883. 


have a fair miniature representation of an ice- 
village. 

Our canvas tent becoming very uncomforta- 
ble on account of the intense cold, which had 
sunk to nearly — 30° F., we had a large ice- 
igloo constructed, into which we mov ed on the 
Ist of November, 1878, and found it decid- 
edly more habitable. 

If the village be small, they generally con- 
struct an ice- -house per day, all w vorking, either 
cutting out the slabs, hauling them to the igloo 
site, putting them into shape, or chinking “the 
tracks with wet snow; and this is continued 
until all are housed. If a large village, they 
divide into parties. 

Sometimes the Innuits will retain their ice- 
igloo, even after the snow has become fit 
for building-purposes, the seal-skin tent being 
removed, and a new dome-shaped roof made 
of Buow-Ulocks. Such cases, however, are 
extremely rare; and unless this combination 
igloo is covered in thoroughly with deep snow- 
drifts, or with snow thrown upon it to a depth 
of at least four to six feet, it will not compare 
in comfort with that of snow alone. ‘The rela- 
tive conductivity of the two materials, snow 
and ice, readily explains the reason. The ice 
also condenses the moisture of the breath, and 


SCIENCE. 


217 


the steam from cooking, more readily upon its 
cold, smooth surface ; and this becomes at last 
an almost unbearable annoyance, — an annoy- 
ance which can be comprehended without ex- 
planation. The advantage of this igloo of ice 
is in its straight upright walls, which give more 
room than the slanting sides of the snow-house, 
while it is also easier to build, the ice portion 
being already constructed. We lived in such 
an igloo during the winter of 1878-79 ; but none 
of the Innuits around us retained theirs, and 
often complained of the cold when in ours, and 
referred it to its peculiar construction. I might 
add, however, that our three bedrooms or bed- 
igloos, which were attached to and communicated 
with the main one of ice, were wholly of snow. 

As the reader must have already surmised 
from the hints given from time to time, the 
true igloo is built of snow, those already de- 
scribed being used but a very small portion of 
the year. It is used on all their winter jour- 
neys, even for a single night; and, as contrary 
to the prevailing belief, the Innuits travel the 
most during this season, one can see that a 
person sharing their life and travels would have 
many opportunities, during two long winters 
with them, to see igloo-building and igloo-life 
in nearly all its aspects. 


AN ICE-IGLOO WITH SNOW CAPPING. 


218 


When the native has decided to relinquish 
his house of ice for one of snow, or on a sledge- 
journey has decided to go into camp, —in short, 
is going to build an igloo, — the first thing done 
is to get out the ‘ snow-testers,’ with which they 
determine the compactness, depth, and general 
availability for building-purposes of the snow- 
drifts. The ancient style of snow-tester, a, and 


SNOW-TESTERS, ANCIENT AND MODERN. 


those yet used by the Esquimaux who have no 
trading communications with the whalers and 
explorers, is one made from reindeer-horn, about 
the diameter of a little finger, and probably 
three feet long. One end is sharpened, and 
the other, formed as a button about the size of 
a quarter of a dollar, is held in the palm of the 
hand. The modern tester, 0, is simply the iron 
rod of the seal-spear with the barb removed. 

Having halted on some lake that they know 
by certain signs has not yet frozen to the bot- 
tom,! the men scatter out like skirmishers 
along the deep snow-drifts near the shore, and 
commence prodding with their testers. Finally 
a shout from one shows that he has been suc- 
cessful; and, leaving the tester sticking in the 
snow to mark the spot, he and the others re- 
turn to the sledges, which are then brought up, 
and the building commences. 

It takes considerable experience, coupled 
with good judgment, to pick out the best 
building-site ; and, while the constant prodding 
with the testers oftentimes looks foolish to a 
spectator, it is no inconsiderable part of the 
performance. Snow which looks perfect on 
the crust may be friable beyond use a few 
inches deeper, and this the tester will reveal. 
Soft drifting snow may cover a bank of splen- 
did building-material. Again, the drift may be 
freely interspersed with hidden stones and 
bowlders, which the testers will bring to light 
if freely used. This testing for good snow 
generally occupies from ten minutes to a quar- 
ter of an hour: but I have seen it drawn out to 
an hour, or so long as it takes to build the igloo 
itself: and, in fact, I have seen them compelled 
to abandon the most favorable looking lake 
after haying skirted its whole outline, and 
move on to the next. 


1 This is generally done by lying flat on the ice, and placing 
their eyes as close to it as the nose will allow, when some vary- 
ing peculiarities of the ice-colors decide their conjectures. 


(To be continued.) 


SCIENCE. 


cle of the equinoctial. 


[Vou. IL, No. 29. 


ILLUSTRATIVE APPARATUS FOR 
ASTRONOMY. 


Tue accompanying figure represents an ap- 
paratus designed for use in teaching astronomy. 
It is mounted so that the axis on which it 
rotates is parallel to the earth’s axis. Two 
circles represent the equinoctial and ecliptic, 
and on the latter is a strip of 
wire cloth to represent the zo- 
diac. The circles are of such 
a size that the meshes of the 
cloth (in this case a half-inch) 
are. one degree in size, and 
larger meshes of five degrees 
are made, extending to the cir- 
The northern halves of 
the two colures help to hold all in position. 
The lower part of these latter circles are dis- 
pensed with, so that one may conveniently 
stand near the centre, the frame being of such 
a height as to bring the centre nearly on a 
level with the eye. 

It helps the beginner to obtain a clear con- 
ception of the fundamental circles so often 
referred to, of their actual position in the 


a 
STII TIT 


heavens, and their apparent diurnal- change 
of motion. It enables him also to represent 
the sun, moon, and planets in their correct 


Aueust 24, 1883.] 


positions at any time, their right ascensions 
and declinations (or longitudes and latitudes) 
being given. For this purpose I use disks of 
cardboard, with small hooks attached by which 
they may be readily fastened to the wires. It 
q 


"ye ae 


is, besides, very convenient to use in the expla- 
| nation of many questions and topics that arise 
| in the course of the subject. A light rod or 
wire attached to a standard serves as a hori- 
: zon when required. 

The apparatus grew out of the need felt of 
something besides the celestial globe and the 
usual means of illustration for use in the lec- 
ture-room. ‘The idea of it was suggested by a 
description of something like it which some 
one had seen ; but the description was so vague, 
Iam unable to say how nearly similar is this 
design, or whether it is any improvement or not 

: on what may be used elsewhere. But I have 
found it to serve a very good purpose in the 
lecture-room, and think it may be serviceable 
to other teachers. G. B. Merrmiay. 


HELL’S OBSERVATIONS OF THE TRAN- 
SIT OF VENUS IN 1769. 


Prorressor Newcomes has lately taken advantage 
. of a visit to the Imperial observatory of Vienna to 
| make, with the consent and support of its director, 
Prof. E. Weiss, an examination of Father Hell’s 
manuscript record, with reference to deciding on the 
alleged falsification of these observations by Hell 
himself. The result of his examination was so dif- 
ferent from that generally accepted, that Professor 
Newcomb prepared and presented to the Royal 
astronomical society a statement of the evidence and 
his conclusions. The story of Hell’s supposed tam- 
pering with his observations of the transit, made at 
Wardhus in 1769, is, in substance, that he delayed 
publishing them so long as to give rise to the suspi- 
cion of intending to alter them; that he showed 
them to no one until after he had received the 
observations made at other stations; that a cloud 
was thus thrown over their genuineness; that the 
suspicions thus excited were confirmed in 1835 
through the discovery and publication by Littrow of 
Hell's original manuscript journal, which its author 
had neglected to destroy; and that the examination 
of this journal showed numerous cases of alteration 
and erasure of the original observed figures, includ- 
ing the seconds of first interior contact, which had 
been completely erased, and replaced by new numbers 
inserted with different ink at some subsequent time. 
And the reason for all this was supposed to be, that 
Hell desired to publish, not his true observations, but 
results which should be in the best possible accord- 
ance with the observations of others. More precise 
statements on some points are these: the transit 
occurred 1769, June 3; Hell’s party sailed from Ward- 
hus, June 27, but meeting with delays from adverse 


ee ee SS ee ee ee 


SCIENCE. 


219 


weather, and stopping to make observations, they did 
not reach Drontheim until Aug. 30; after some stay 
here and in Christiania, Copenhagen was reached 
on Sept. 17; the observations were communicated to 
the Danish academy of sciences in November or 
December; the printing commenced Dee. 13, and*on 
Jan. 13, 1770, Hell received twenty printed copies. 
Professor Newcomb remarks that he does not know 
the original authority for the statement that Hell 
was loudly called upon for his observations before 
he would consent to their publication. 

The document which Professor Newcomb has 
scrutinized is a thin manuscript volume in folio, con- 
taining twenty-seven finely written pages, and nearly 
as many blank ones, bearing the heading ‘‘ Observa- 
tiones Astronomicae et Caetera in Itinere litterario 
Vienné Wardéehusium factae. 1768. A. M. Hell.”’ 
This volume is assumed to be in Hell’s own writing, 
and to be his original journal of his observations. 
Littrow apparently treats of it as the actual first 
record of the observations, but to Professor New- 
comb this seems very improbable. He concludes 
that the writing of this journal was done at the 
observing-station, probably at the close of each day’s 
work or each set of observations. What Hell sent to 
press in December, 1769, was not a transcript of this 
journal, but a more copious account, containing 
eighty-one printed pages, with only an occasional 
identity of language. But, with a single unimpor- 
tant exception, the numbers are all printed with- 
out change from.the original manuscript journal, 
whether corrected or uncorrected in that journal. 
It is very clear to Professor Newcomb that nearly all 
the alterations were made at the station — two, at 
least, before the ink got dry. And he further con- 
cludes, that, whatever the sources from which the cor- 
rections were derived, the numbers as printed by Hell 
were all but one or two obtained at Wardhus. Going 
into these manuscript corrections more in detail, it 
seems quite clear to Professor Newcomb that the 
alterations in the numbers representing the observa- 
tions of first contact were made with the same ink as 
the original; and he regards only one conclusion as 
certain, — that the corrections were mnade at the time 
of writing, and without the slightest intention of 
giving any thing but the actually observed moment 
when Venus was first seen. 

Coming now to the much disputed observations 
of internal contact, the figures of seconds seem at 
first sight to be corrected. Littrow says that the 
paper bears marks of having been scraped, and that 
the original’ figures of seconds had been carefully 
erased, the ink, in consequence, spreading in the 
paper. Professor Newcomb remarks, that one sees 
at a glatice that the latter statement is erroneous; 
and he applies to the question of erasure the test of 
viewing the paper by oblique sunlight, and proves the 
texture of the surface to be still uninjured. The evi- 
dence thus leads to the certain conclusion, that no dif- 
ferent figures from those now visible were ever written 
there. If, then, they are in any way the result of 
calculation from other observations, the place must 
have been left blank until Hell got back to Copen- 


220 


hagen, and made the necesSaty calculations, — an 
hypothesis too fanciful for serious discussion. An- 
other part of the record looks more suspicious, —a 
line, ‘fulmen 9 32 48,’ is not only an interlineation, 


but is written in decidedly different ink from all the_ 


original manuscript. The original journal, up to 
the time that Hell left Wardhus, being all written 
in one kind of ink, we conclude that the inser- 
tion was made after he reached Copenhagen, and 
after he had seen the observations of others. Two 
hypotheses are before us as to how the insertion 
was determined, —we may suppose that Hell, when 
he found he had omitted what other observers con- 
sidered an important phase, tried to remember how 
long after the recorded contact he first saw the sun’s 
limb continuous, and wrote the result in his journal; 
or we may suppose that he made a memorandum at 
the time of the observation, but omitted to copy it 
in the journal, either through inadvertence, or 
because he deemed it too late for contact. When he 
found the phase important, he merely copied the 
omitted record in his journal. The use of the queer 
word ‘fulmen,’ which appears only in the manu- 
script, seems to Professor Newcomb to give color to 
the latter hypothesis. He can hardly conceive of 
one using it deliberately, after six months, to express 
the formation of the thread of light; whereas, at 
the moment of observation, in the excitement and 
hurry, it would be a very natural single word to des- 
ignate the rapid increase of the effulgence of solar 
light around the following limb of Venus, which fol- 
lows true contact at ingress. It is a strong confirma- 
tion of this view, that Mr. Stone, without apparently 
having made any comparison with Hell’s printed 
observations, reached this same conclusion as to the 
probable use of the word ‘fulmen.’ 

With regard to the egress of the planet, the times 
of Hell’s notes of the ‘ gutta nigra’ are each increased 
by two seconds; but obviously this correction was 
made at the time of writing. More serious is a cor- 
rection of the time of observation by Sajnovies, the 
companion and assistant of Hell. They, no doubt, 
discussed their times; and,-in consequence of such 
discussion, Sajnovies concluded that his times were 
late. In the exterior contacts, the only corrections 
are such as were made at the time of writing, and 
to which Professor Newcomb attaches no impor- 
tance. 

Regarding certain collateral circumstances which 


have been supposed to cast suspicion upon Hell’s 


intentions, not only does Professor Newcomb see no 
suspicious delay in making known his observations 
(for the whole paper, containing an account. of his 
instruments, observations, and results, including an 
investigation of his quadrant and clocks, a discussion 
of his latitude, longitude, and time, and a full state- 
ment of his observations, was written, printed, and 
ready for distribution, four months after his return 
to Copenhagen), but it seems difficult for him to 
Suppose that Hell could have had time to make so 
complete a reduction of the observations of others 
as to be able to compare them with his own. That 
his observed times of the contacts were not pub- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 29. 


lished in advance, as were those of many other 
observers, but appeared first in an official form under 
the imprint of the Academy of sciences, seems to 
Professor Newcomb in accord with very proper feel- 
ing, as the observations were made under the au- 


spices of the king of Denmark, and dedicated to him; 


and furthermore, owing to the position of the station 
being unknown, publication in adyance could have 
served no useful purpose. 

In his discussion, Professor Newcomb makes but 
slight allusion to the absence of many circumstances 
which might be expected to accompany manufactured 
observations; but he has presented all the positive 
evidence within reach so fully as to enable every one 
to draw his own independent conclusions. His own 
conclusions are, — 

First, The belief that there was any suspicious 
delay in the publication of Hell’s observations, or 
any thing in his course to give reasonable ground for 
a suspicion that he intended to tamper with his 
observations, is a pure myth. 

Second, Excepting the time of formation of the 
thread of light at ingress; excepting, also, a discrep- 
ancy of one second in the time of internal contact, 
and a change of two seconds in one of Sajnovics’s 
times, —it is proved, not only negatively and presump- 
tively, but by positive evidence and beyond serious 
doubt, that all the essential numbers of observation 
given by Hell, whether relating to the transit, time, 
or longitude, are printed as concluded upon and 
written in his journal at Wardhus, before there was 
any possibility of communication with other ob- 
servers. 

Third, The addition of the time of the formation 
of the thread of light was suggested by the accounts 
of other observers; but the time itself isHell’s own, 
obtained possibly from estimation and memory, but 
more probably from a memorandum made at the 
time of observation, which he neglected to insert in 
his journal. 

Fourth, The alterations in Sajnovics’s time of 
second internal contact were probably made, because 
Sajnovics himself afterward concluded that his re- 
corded time was too late; but it may be assumed, 
that, in reaching this conclusion, he was influenced 
by Hell's observations. 

Professor Newcomb adds, respecting his own pro- 
ceedings in investigating this subject, that, in com- 
mencing the examination of Hell's journal, he had 
no hope of doing more than deciding whether it was 
or was not safe to use Hell’s numbers as actual re- 
sults of observations, and no thought of doubting 
the commonly received view of the case. He soon 
became perplexed to find himself differing entirely 
from the conclusions.of Littrow. Before the latter 
had found the manuscript, suspicion had rested upon 
Hell’s truthfulness; so that when he looked into 
the manuscript, and saw such extensive alterations, 
the indictment seemed so clearly proven that Lit- 
trow’s only duty was to make the facts which proved 
it; known to the world. ile thus unconsciously 
assumed the tone of a public prosecutor, and saw all 
the circumstances from an accuser’s point of view. 


a 
: 


Aveust 24, 1883.] , 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


Errata in catalogues of stars. 


The Washburn observatory possesses a nearly 
complete cullection of such star-catalogues as have 
been printed since the year 1800. A list of them is 
given below. It will be noticed that this list does 
not include the very expensive British association 
eatalogue. Oeltzen’s Argelander’s Northern zones is 
also missing from the list, as I have been unable to 
buy it in Europe during the past two years. An- 
other very scarce catalogue (Weisse’s Lessel’s Zones 
from + 15° to— 15°) I have just obtained after two 
years’ delay. 

In each one of these catalogues, I have had every 
erratum known to me inserted in its proper place, so 
that the set of catalogues really represents what is 
known, freed from an enormous mass of misprints 
and real errors. ) 

Iam not able to say how many material errors have 
been corrected, but certainly not less than twelve 
thousand. I think those who use star-catalogues 
most will be most surprised at the amazing number 
of material errors which still remain in the catalogues 
which they employ daily. 

I have called attention to these errors in order 
to say that I will engage to have any of the cata- 
logues of the following list corrected completely, in 
all respects like my own, for any observatory, or for 
any astronomer who may desire it. 

The catalogue should be sent by American ex- 
press, prepaid, addressed to me, and accompanied 
by a note asking that the work be done. The book, 
when corrected, will be returned by express at the 
owner’s expense. 

The corrections will be made by one of my assist- 
ants, under my direction, and an account kept of the 
number of hours spent on the work. The work 
will be charged for at the rate of fifty cents per 
hour. I may say that the sum so received will be 
paid to the copyist. 

It has appeared to me, that, after the large amount 
of labor which has been expended on my own cata- 
logues, I was under obligations to give the benefit of 
such work to others, and this [ willingly do. 

The first list following gives the names of the 
catalogues owned by the Washburn observatory; the 
second gives the sources from which the errata have 
been derived. 1 shall be much indebted for references 
to errata not there mentioned. 

Epwarp S. HOoLpEn. 


Washburn Observatory, Madison, Wis., 
Aug. 1, 1883. 


I. List of star-catalogues. 


Catalogue of 1,439 stars, 1840.0. 
ce “1,576 ‘* 1850.0 (6-year). 


oo “< cee ae TEREO (Ty **” ). 
— ee pT ele its Te oa 
eu “ee “ee 


2,203 “ “872109, ) 
Argelander: Bonn observations, vols. 1-7. [Vols. 1 
and Z not corrected. | 
— Uranometria 
rected. ] 
Baily’s Lalande. 
Behrmann: Uranometry. |The maps not corrected. | 
Brisbane: Paramatta catalogue. 
Carrington: 3,735 cireumpolar stars, 
Gould: Uranometria argentina. 
— D’Agelet’s Catalogue. 
Heis: Atlas coelestis. [‘The maps not corrected. } 
Johnson: First Radeliffe catalogue. 
Lamont: Catalogues, 6 vols. 


nova. [The maps not cor- 


SCIENCE. 


221 


Main: Second Radcliffe catalogue. 
Robinson: Armagh catalogue. 
Riimker: 12,000 stars. 
Schjellerup: 10,000 stars. 
Stoue: Cape catalogue. 1873. 
es BX 1578. 
x 43 1880. 
Weisse’s Bessel’s Zones I. and II. 
White: Melbourne general catalogue. 1870. 


IT, List of sources where errata are found. 


*,* The name of the author of the catalogue comes 
first, then a brief reference to the particular cata- 
lugue, and, last, a reference to the place where the 
errata are given. No reference is made here to ecor- 
rections which are usually bound in the same covers 
with the original catalogue, or which are given in 
subsequent volumes of the same work. I have also 
included here a few reviews which contain no errata, 
properly speaking. 

Airy: New 7-year catalogue. —v. J. s. 1871, 100. 
Argelander: Bonn obs., vi. —v. 4.8. 1867, 272. 
Durehmusterung. | A single correction to D. M.] 

— Astr. nachr., Ixxi. col. 240. 

— - [Places of two stars not in D. M.] — Astr. 
nachr., Ixxii. col. 55, 

— - Astr. nachr., no. 1765. 

— - Astr. nachr., ‘no. 2396, col. 305; no. 2429, 
col. 69. 


— [Ueber einen in der D. M. feblenden stern. | 
— Astr, nachr., no, 2459. 
—— - Astr. nachr., no, 2478. Same, no. 2527. 
: — Uranometria nova. — Astr. nachr., xxvi. col. 
318. 
—— - Annals Harv. coll. obs., ix. 
— Northern zones. — Bonn obs., v. 
—— - [Fortsetzung von band v.] — Boun obs., vi. 
— |'Theoretical; with a few corrections to the 
zones.]— V. J. S. vol. 8, 221. 
—— Southern zones. — Bonn obs., vi.; Cooper's 
Ecliptie stars, iv. ; 
Baily’s Lacaille: Catalogue.— Bonn obs., vii. 245; 
Cape catalogue, 1880. 
Baily’s Lalande: Catalogue. — Bonn obs., vii. 213 
seq. ; Schjellerup, 10,000 stars, p. 225. 
Behrmann: Atlas des siidlichen gestirnten Him- 
mels. — Vv. J. S. 1875, 89. 
Bessel: Zones. — Bonn obs., iv. p. i.; v. p. xxxii. 
British association catalogue. — Cape catalogue, 
1840; same, 1SSU. 
apnea 7,385 stars. — Cape catalogue, 1840; same, 
1880. 
Cape catalogue: 1840.—Stone, Cape catalogue, 
1880, 559. [A single correction. | 
Catalogues: Errata in standard catalogues of stars, 
— Monthly not. R. A. S., viii. 161. [This volume I 
have not access to at present. | 
Copeland & Borgen: Mitulere oerter sterne zwi- 
schen 0° und —1°.— v. 3. s. 1870, 197. 
D’ Arrest: Siderum neb. obs, hav.—v. J. s. 1868, 
94. 
Dreyer: Supplement to Herschel’s General cata- 
logue. —V. 3.8. 1878, 274. 
Ellery: First Melbourne catalogue. — vy. J. s. 
178; Monthly not. R. A. S., xlii. 808. + 
Fedorenko: Catalogue. — Bonn obs., vi. 
Gilliss: Catalogue U.S. naval astron. expedition, — 
v. J. 8. 1872, 46. 
Gould: Reduction of D’Agelet. — v. 7. s. 
— Standard places of fund. 
1867, 22. 
— Uranometria argentina. —Cordoba observa- 
tions, ii, 205. 


1876, 


1867, 2. 
stars. — V. J. 8. 


222 


Groombridge: Catalogue. —In First Radcliffe cata- 
logue. 


— Bonn obs., vi. 
Heis: Atlas coelestis. —Annals Harv. coll. obs., ix. 
— V. J. 8. vill. 67, 278; ix. 236; xiii. 111. 
Herschel: Gen. cat. nebulae and clusters. — vy. J. s. 
1866, 176. 
— Catalogue of 10,300 double stars.—v. J. s. 
1876. 61. 
Johnson: First Radcliffe catalogue. — Bonn obs., 


Vi. 
Lacaille: Coelum australe stelliferum. — Bonn 
obs., vii. 

Lalande: Catalogue. — Monthly not. R. A. S., xiv. 
195. [This volume I have not access to at present. | 

— Histoire céleste. — Bonn obs., vii. 

— Observations of 1789-90. — Bonn obs,, vi. 

—— Catalogue. — Cooper’s Ecliptic stars, iv. 

Lamont: Catalogues (6 vols.) —v. J. 8s. ix, 94. 

Main, R.: 2d Radcliffe catalogue. —v.g.s. 1870, 
292. 

Newcomb, S.: On the R. Asc. of the eq. fund. stars. 
Ven Se lonorlage 

— Catalogue of 1,098 stars. —yv. J. s. 1882, 259. 

Piazzi: Positiones mediae, 1814. — Bonn obs., vi. 

Riimker: 12,000 stars. — Bonn obs., vi. 

— - Cooper’s Ecliptie stars, iv. 

— Neuer folge. — Bonn obs., vi. 

— Preliminary catalogue of southern stars. — 
Stone, Cape catalogue, 1880. 

Santini: First two catalogues. — Bonn obs., vi. 
Posizioni medie di 1,425 stelle.—v. gs. s. 
1872, 18. f 

Schjellerup: Al-Sufi’s Uranometry. — Monthly not. 
R. A. S., xliii. 266. 

— 10,000 stars. — Bonn obs., vi. 

Schénfeld, E. : Catalog von verinderlichen sternen. 
—v.J.s. 1866, 113. 

— Zweiter catalog von verinderlichen sternen. — 
Vid. S. L570, 13: 

Stone, E. J.: Results of astronomical observations 
at Cape of Good Hope, 1856-58. —v. 3. s. 1875, 192. 
Cape catalogue, 1880. — v. J. s. 1880, 207. 

Strasser: Mittlere oerter von fixsternen. — vy. J. s. 
1878, 88. ; 

Struve (W.): Positiones mediae. — Bonn obs., vi. 

—— - Schijellerup’s 10,000 stars, p. 225. 

Taylor: Madras catalogue. — Bonn obs., vi.; Cape 
catalogue, 1840; same, 1880. - 

—— Astron. obs. at Madras, 1843-47.—v. 3. s. 
1873, 180. 

Vogel, H. C.: Positionsbestimmungen yon nebel- 
flecken, etc. —v. J. S. 1876, 276. 

Weisse’s Bessel’s Zones, +15° to — 15°. — Cooper’s 
Ecliptie stars, iv. 

Gould’s Astronomical journal, iii. 115. 
[This contains all the errata of the Astr. nachr. up to 
1853, June.] 

- Annals Hary. coll. observatory, i., pt. ii., 


p. lviii. 


- Schjellerup’s 10,000 stars, p. 225. 
—— - Weisse’s Bessel’s Zones, + 15° to +.45°, p. 
xly. 


““Catalogue.”? —Monthly not. R. A. S., xiv. 
195. [This volume I have not access to at present. | 
Wilson & Seabroke: Catalogue of measures of 
double stars. —v. J. 8. _1877, 108. 
Yarnall: Catalogue U. S. naval obs.—v. J. 8. 
1880, 20. 


The search for Crevaux. 


Apropos of your recent weekly summary of the 
progress of geography under the titles of the Death 


SCIENCE. 


[Vor. II., No. 29. 


of Crevaux, etc., I may say that a member of the 
French geographical society, M. Thouars, accom- 
panied the U.S. solar eclipse expedition from Panama 
to Callao, March 12-21, of this year. M. Thouars 
had familiarized himself with explorations in South 
America by extensive travels in Columbia and else- 
where, and intended to penetrate the Pileomayo 
region, in search of the relies of the Crevaux expe- 
dition, alone, or with only one companion, the two 
disguised as Catholie priests. The attempt seems 
foolhardy; and, for my part, I am glad to know that 
M. Thouars intends to carry a revolver under his 
priest’s robe, and that he is a braye man and an 
excellent shot. 

If he has not abandoned his daring project, we 
should hear of him during the early part of 1884. 

Epwarp S. HoLpEN. 

Madison, Aug. 6, 1883. 


Occurrence of the swallow-tailed hawk in New 
Jersey. 

Early in the evening of July 28 I was standing on 
the brow of the bluff overlooking the Delaware River, 
near Bordentown, N.J., when my attention was 
called to a large bird sailing in comparatively small 
circles high overhead. Fortunately there was a 
dark blue-black cloud behind it, so that I had an ex- 
cellent opportunity to observe the bird. It was the 
swallow-tailed hawk (Nauclerus forficatus). It re- 
mained in nearly the same position for over an hour, 
when it altered its flight, and, with steady wing- 
strokes, flew rapidly in a north-west direction. 

The appearance of this hawk here is one of the 
rarest events in the experience of New Jersey orni- 
thologists. Cuas. C. ABBotr, M.D. 


A reckless flier. 


ONE might think a tragic end would await such 
birds as the Swifts, so bold and persistent their flight; 
and doubtless such is in store for many, though they 
seem to steer clear of most obstacles. 

A case in point came recently to hand, —that of 
an unfortunate bird impaled to the spear-point of a 
lightning-rod above a chimney. There it remained 
until shot off with a gun, —a warning and a ghastly 
one, indeed, to all this swift race. F. H. HERRICK. 


Swallows in Boston. 


I saw on the 4th of this month the first swallow in 
Boston, at the extreme end of City Point, South 
Boston. I have been on the lookout for them since 
April. Two friends, good observers, report that 
they have not seen one this season. 

CARL Reppots. 
Boston, Aug. 7, 1883. 


“HAs any one seen a swallow this summer in Bos- 
ton?’ inquires a correspondent in ScrencE, Aug. 3. 
Yes: I saw six last week, perched on the state-house. 
Prior to this I had also raised the query. Whether 
it was the pugnacious sparrows, or legislature, that 
had banished these aerial visitors from the capitol, 
their old haunt, was and is a query. 

LEANDER WETHERELL. 
Boston, Aug. 11. 


WARD’S DYNAMIC SOCIOLOGY. 
IV. 


_ Iris Mr. Ward’s theory, that the more com- 
plex sciences should be based upon the less 
complex. This he avowedly derives from 


——S 


eed 
are ss 


eee in acl i 


Aveusr 24, 1883] 


Comte, but himself defends at length; and his 
work is constructed consistently therewith. 
The part which relates to sociology, therefore, 
is based upon principles derived from the 
physical and biologic sciences and psychology, 
which he treats as a biologic science. Some 
general mention is made of languages, arts, 
and opinions, in various portions of the book ; 
but no systematic treatment of these subjects 
is presented. The same is true with respect 
to all that body of facts which, if systema- 
tized, the author would call static sociology. 
He only attempts to treat, at length and in 
order, the forces of society. This theory is 
but a half-truth, and the method of treatment 
resulting therefrom has sometimes led to con- 
clusions that are erroneous. The most im- 
portant failure in this respect is Mr. Ward’s 
presentation of what he denominates the four 
stages of society: viz., ‘‘ (1) the solitary or 
antarchic stage; (2) the constrained aggre- 
gate or anarchic stage; (3) the national or 
politarchie stage ; and (4) the cosmopolitan or 
pantarchic stage.’’ The first or solitary stage 
is that which Mr. Ward supposes to exist 
among animals. In the second stage he sup- 
poses mankind to have multiplied in great 
numbers, to have been widely spread through- 
out the earth, and to have been aggregated 
without organization. The third stage is repre- 
sented by the organized tribes and nations of 
the earth. The fourth stage is a prophecy, when 
all men shall be organized in one body politic. 

Tt will be well to compare this scheme with 
that of Morgan in his ‘ Ancient society.’ Mor- 
gan attempts to establish what he denominates 
ethicalperiods. The three grand periods are 
savagery, barbarism, and civilization; and 
savagery and barbarism are subdivided. The 
following is his scheme : — 


SCIENCE. 


223 


method of aggregation, while Morgan’s scheme 
is based on the development of arts. Ward is 
right in his philosophic plan, but altogether 
wrong in its execution: Morgan is wrong in 
his plan, or method, but more nearly right in 
his final conclusions ; for the three grand stages 
which he endeavors to establish can with some 
modification be fully based on the method of 
aggregation, i.e., on the data of sociology as 
distinguished from technology. This will be 
briefly set forth. 

The inception of social organization is in 
the biologic differentiation of the sexes, giving 
husband and wife, parent and child, brother 
and sister, and other relations of affinity and 
consanguinity. At that time, when the species 
now known as man had made no farther prog- 
ress than have some of the lower animals at 
the present time, this elementary organization 
existed; and a greater or less development of 
this organization is discovered among many 
species of the lower-animals. On it the sub- 
sequent organization was built. The impor- 
tance of this fundamental organization seems 
to have escaped Mr. Ward. 

Archeologie evidence is now abundant to 
show, that man was widely scattered through- 
out the earth at a very early stage in the de- 
velopment of art, i.e., in the paleolithic age. 
Again: there is abundant linguistic evidence 
to show, that man was widely scattered through- 
out the earth at the inception or beginning of 
the development of articulate, i.e., organized, 
speech. In this condition he must have had 
at least something of the social organization 
which is based on sex. The stories which 
have been told, to which Mr. Ward refers 
without giving full credence, of men living in 
utterly discrete conditions, are but idle tales, 
and have-no place in the data of scientific 


yi. 
IL. 
Il. 


Lower status of savagery . 
Middle status of savagery 
Upper status of savagery. . 


Lower status of barbarism 
Middle status of barbarism . 


Upper status of barbarism 


Status of civilization 


Tt will be seen, that Ward’s scheme is con- 
sistent with his philosophy, and based on 


{ From the infancy of the human race to the commencement of the 
*) next period. 

From the acquisition of a fish subsistence and a knowledge of the use 
4 of fire to the commencement of the next period. 

From fhe invention of the bow and arrow to the commencement of 
“4 the next period. 

From the invention of the art of pottery to the commencement of the 
4 next period. 

From the domestication of animals on the eastern hemisphere, and 
in the western from the cultivation of maize and plants by irri- 
gation, with the use of adobe-brick and stone, to fe commence- 
ment of the next period. 

From the invention of the process of smelting iron ore, with the use 
| of iron tools, to the commencement of the next period. 

rom the invention of a phonetic alphabet, with the use of writing, 
ee to the present time. 


anthropology. Mr. Ward says, ‘*‘ The second 
stage embodies none of the elements: of per- 


224 


manency, and cannot be expected to be found 
extensively prevailing at any age of the world. 
It is essentially a transition stage, and, like 
transition forms in biology, is characterized 
by an ephemeral duration. Nevertheless, it 
has numerous living representatives among the 
lower existing tribes, particularly among the 
Fuegians, interior Australians, Wood-Veddas, 
and Bushmen.’’ The illustrations given of 
this second stage are also idle tales. These 
people must also have had the organization 
mentioned above as based on sex; and it is 
now known that some of them at least, espe- 
cially the Australians, have a highly organized 
system of social aggregation based on kinship. 
These people are, in fact, organized as tribes. 
In the presence of facts, the first and second 
periods of Mr. Ward disappear. 

Travellers among savage peoples, seeking 
for the institutions with which they were them- 
selves acquainted among civilized men, have 
found them not, and have sometimes reported 
the peoples to be without institutions, and at 
other times have completely misinterpreted 
what they did discover. If we accept such 
statements, we must believe that some tribes 
were without organization, and some had the 
institutions and governments of civilization. 
And if we compare the statements of a number 
of travellers about the same people, we shall 
discover that most of the savage tribes of the 
earth have been reported, now as being desti- 
tute of government and sociologic institutions, 
and now as having kings, aristocracies, and 
the elaborate paraphernalia of civilized govern- 
ments. None of these accounts are true: all 
are to be rejected. But there yet remains a 
body of sociologic data relating to the lower 
tribes of mankind, collected by scientific an- 
thropologists, chiefly during the last two or 
three decades. We owe much of this knowl- 
edge to Morgan’s researches, and the investi- 
gations of others which have grown out of his 
suggestions. We now know something of the 
organization of almost every tribe on the face 
of the earth, though in many cases our knowl- 
edge is exceedingly meagre and fragmentary. 
Yet perhaps enough is known to warrant the 
assertion, that there is no tribe so low but that 
it has a sociologic organization highly de- 


veloped in comparison with that mentioned 


above as based on sex and exhibited among 
the lower animals. ‘The outlines of this plan 
of organization must be set forth. 

The tribes of mankind, as distinguished 
from nations, have each an organization based 
on kinship. This system of kinship invariably 
recognizes grades, based primarily on degrees 


SCIENCE. 


Wwe OW 


[Vou. IL, No. 29. 


of affinity and consanguinity, and secondarily 
on relative age, or the series of generations 
which may be extant among a people at any 
given time. All of the relations which exist 
among such a people, and which may be de- 
nominated as rights and duties, are deter- 
mined by the kinship relations recognized in 
their social organization, and expressed in 
their language. This subject is too vast for 
thorough exposition here, and a single illus- 
tration must suffice. Among all such tribes 
age gives authority, but no method of de- 
termining the absolute age of any individual 
exists among them. Dates of birth are soon | 
forgotten. 
every such tribe a device by which relative 
age is invariably expressed ; for every man, 
woman, and child accosts and designates every 
other man, woman, and child within the tribe 
by a term which in itself expresses relative 
age. Thus, in these languages there is no 
term for brother; but there is one term for 
elder brother, and another for younger brother. 
A man cannot speak of his ‘ brother’ as such 
simply: he must use a term which says ‘ my 
elder brother,’ or ‘my younger brother,’ as 
the case may be. In the same manner, if he 
speaks to or of any other person in the tribe, 
the term by which that person is designated 
will itself show the relative ages of the persons 
speaking and spoken to or of. Age gives au- 
thority, and this authority is so important and 
so universal that it is woven into the texture 
of every tribal language. Every tribe is or- 
ganized as a great family, —a system of kin- 
dred. t 

From this plan of early tribal organization, 
there is a great development exhibited in 
many ways; for tribes are differentiated into 
classes, or clans, or gentes, which are interde- 
pendent bodies politic. 

This tribal organization, so briefly character- 
ized, has its fundamental idea in kinship; and 
the minds of the people in this stage can con- 
ceive of no other form of organization. If 
two or more tribes form an alliance, temporary 
or permanent, for defensive or offensive pur- 
poses, one or both, the same thought prevails. 
In a council for such an alliance, one of the 
first propositions to be settled is,‘ What shall . 
be the kinship relations existing between us ?’ 
and, before the alliance can be consummated, 
this must be settled. 

Once upon a time the Cherokees, Choctaws, 
Chickasaws, Muskokees, and other tribes met 
in council for the purpose of forming an alli- 
ance against the upper Mississippi tribes of 
the Dakota stock; and it was decided, that, 


TPS eo See 


But there is in the language of © 


Aueusr 24, 1883.] 


as the Cherokees lived at the sources of the 
streams that watered the country occupied by 
the other tribes, they, the Cherokees, should 
be called ‘elder brothers,’ and the tribes living 
on the lower courses of the streams should 
come in order from east to west as second, 
third, fourth, fifth, and sixth born sons, be- 
cause such was the course of the sun as it 
travelled over their lands. Then the people 
of one tribe called the people of another 
‘elder’ or ‘ younger’ brothers, and took pre- 
eedence and authority in council and war 
therefrom. 

This plan of organization is a distinct 
method of aggregation, designated as kinship, 
or tribal; but it gradually developed into 
something else. As tribes, by alliance, by con- 
quest, and various other processes, enlarged, 
it was done by establishing artificial kinship, 
—by what Sir Henry Maine denominates a 
‘legal fiction ;” and in many cases it came to 
be that the whole organization was chiefly a 
legal fiction. Kinship ties were chiefly arti- 
ficial. Under these circumstances the kinship 
bond, composed of marriage-ties and streams 
of kindred blood, was found to be but a rope 
of sand; and gradually, by many steps, the 
basis of aggregation was changed to territory, 
and the bonds of society became the organs of 
government for the regulation of relations 
arising from property. But, before a territo- 
rial system of aggregation is fully established, 
intermediate stages are discovered. First, the 
tribal organization occupies a distinct territory, 
but the territorial organization is latent; then 
aggregations partly by territory and partly 
by kinship supervene; and finally, by many 
steps, kinship organization is abandoned, and 
territorial organization remains. ‘This gives 
two very distinct methods of aggregation or 

_plans of social organization, viz., kinship and 
territorial society, or tribal and national govy- 
ernment; and the two are objectively dis- 
covered, and not simply theoretical. The first 
in its simplest state is Morgan’s Status of 
savagery ; the second in its simplest state is 
Morgan’s Status of civilization. His Status 
of barbarism includes the higher forms of 
kinship organization and the transition forms 
mentioned above. If we confine his Status of 
barbarism to the transition forms, we will then 
have savagery, barbarism, and civilization 
established properly on modes of aggregation ; 
but barbarism will merely be a transition stage, 
and comparatively ephemeral. 

: Of Mr. Ward’s fourth stage, it is simply 

necessary to say that he himself recognizes it 
as an ideal of the future; but it is properly 


SCIENCE. 


225 


based upon history, and is in the manifest 
course of social evolution. Of the myriads of 
languages once existing, and of many of which 
we now have but mere glimpses, few remain, 
and of these few a very small number are rap- 
idly predominating. ‘The many have become 
few, and the few will be completely unified, for 
such is the course of philologic evolution. Of 
the myriads of tribes scattered by the shores 
of the seas, on the margins of the lakes, and 
along the streams of all the habitable earth, 
but few remain. ‘They have been gradually 
integrated into larger tribes, and finally, with 
the most advanced, into nations; and the time 
will come when there will be but one body 
politic, for such is the course of sociologic 
evolution. Every tribe of the myriads that 
have spoken distinct languages has each for 
itself developed a mythologic philosophy. 
These mythologic pnilosophies are: rapidly dis- 
appearing, and now are comparatively but few ; 
anc the time will come when but one philosophy 
will remain, —the philosophy of science, the 
truth, — for such is the course of philosophic 
evolution. The fourth stage of society —the 
cosmopolitan or pantarchic—is a legitimate 
induction, a qualitative but not a quantitative 
prophecy, for who shall say when it shall 
come ? 

Morgan’s method of basing his stages upon 
the arts is unphilosophic: it was simply stages 
of art development, not stages of social organ- 
ization. But, because art and society have 
evolved interdependently together, it very 
nearly represents the truth; but the actual 
condition of the progress of any given society 
or body politic can be determined with less 
accuracy from its arts than from any other de- 
partment of anthropology, and this from the 
fact that art is expressed in material form that 
can be easily imitated. Its use is at once ap- 
parent; and a people may easily borrow an art, 
or an aggregate of arts, without passing through 
the stage necessary for its invention. Arts, 
therefore, travel beyond the boundaries of 
tribes, languages, and philosophies, and are 
rapidly spread throughout the world. Tribes 
that to-day use the bow and arrow may to- 
morrow use the gun, though they have no 
knowledge of chemistry and metallurgy. The 
attempts of the archeologists of modern times 
to trace migrations, or to connect peoples by a 
genetic tie, have been to a large extent ren- 
dered vicious by the failure to recognize this 
principle. Tribes and nations, peoples, bodies 
politic, cannot be classified by arts: but the 
evolution of arts may be marked off in stages, 
as done by Morgan; and his stages are the 


226 


best yet proposed, though he failed as an eth- 
nologist in the attempt to classify races. 

In the same manner, but to a less degree, 
scholars have failed to classify peoples by 
languages; for languages only to a limited 
extent represent genetic connections of peo- 
ples. Tribes speaking diverse languages have 
coalesced ; and languages have thus been com- 
pounded, and lancuage has supplanted lan- 
guage. A linguistic Classification, therefore, 
is not completely ethnic, but it comes nearer 
to the truth than the technologie classification. 
If a classification by philosophies were at- 
tempted, it also would fail, though it would be 
superior to the philologie ; for opinions last 
longer than words. A sociologie classification 
of peoples also fails to exhibit genetic relation- 
ships. Arts, languages, states, philosophies, 

may be classified, each to show genetic relation- 
ships; but they each and all ‘together fail to 
classify mankind in a fundamental and philo- 
sophic manner. 

Scholars have devoted much time and inge- 
nuity to classify mankind by biologic charac- 
teristics, sought for in the color of the skin, 
the texture of the hair, the form of the skull, 
the relative proportion of parts, etc. These 
attempts have all failed. It is probable that 
in the early history of mankind biologic differ- 
entiation progressed so far as to produce some 
well-marked varieties ; but the biologic method 
of evolution by the survival of the fittest was 
more and more repealed as the anthropologic 
methods of evolution gained ground, and the 
scattered and discrete tribes were more and 
more commingled by the union here and there 
of distinct streams of blood, by the spread of 
arts, that placed all peoples under conditions 
of artificial environment, and made them more 
and more independent of natural environment, 
and by various other anthropologic conditions 
too numerous and complex to be here set forth. 
But, altogether, the tendency to differentiate 
into distinct biologic peoples has been over- 
come, and the tendency to unification has been 
steadily increasing : so that the distinctions of 
biologic varieties of mankind, of which we now 
haye but hints in the biologic characteristics 
remaining, are gradually being obliterated ; 
and we may contidently predict that in the 
fourth stage, yet to be reached, race distinc- 
tions will be utterly lost. 

In the short articles of this review an at- 
tempt has been made to give a synopsis of the 
work in question, to show the relation of * Dy- 
namic sociology’ to current philosophy, and 
to point out its more important defects. Little 
space is left for that commendation which its 


SCIENCE. 


‘ & ey 


[Vou. II., No. 29. 


intrinsic merits deserve. Mr. Ward’s presen- 
tation of the subject is simple, clear, syste- 
matic, and courageous. For its preparation he 
has explored vast fields of thought; and his 
conclusions, however they may be questioned, 
cannot, be ignored by those who are interested 
in modern philosophy. Ward’s Dynamic so- 
ciology is America’s greatest contribution to 
scientific philosophy. 


ELEMENTARY METEOROLOGY. 


Elementary metevrology, with meteorological charts 
and illustrations. By RK H. Scorr. London, 
Kegan Paul, Trench, § Co., 1883. 408p. 8°. 
Tuis volume, the latest English contribution 

to the science of meteorology, is not a treatise, 
as the title indicates. It is, however, an ex- 
cellent work, treating the subject from a mod- 
ern stand-point, and sweeping away many 
untenable theories. We especially note the 
chapters on the barometer and on the forma- 
tion of rain and hail. The descriptive chap- 
ters collecting all known facts relating to wind 
and ocean currents are very valuable and well 
presented. 

Our author rejects the once seemingly satis- 
factory theory, attributing the south-west mon- 
soon winds of India to the rising of heated air 
above the plains to the north-east of the Him- 
alaya range, and also the theory that the ex- 
istence of sea-breezes is due to the rising of 
heated air upon the land near oceans. He, 
however, adopts this theory of ascending cur- 
rents of heated air in explaining the formation 
of cumulus-clouds. It is difficult to see how 
the atmosphere can be heated, save gradually, 
in strata parallel to the earth’s surface, except 
on mountain sides. This is the theory adopted 
by Hann, who regards the cumulus-cloud as 
simply indicating the layer at which the air has 
the temperature of the dew-point. 

Mr. Scott seems to indorse the theory that 
there is an ascending current in the centre of 
a barometric depression, though his storm- 
chart on p. 855 shows all the wind-directions 
near the low centre tangent to the isobars. 
This shows that the air- motion, which at the 
outside of the storm is directed more or less 
toward the centre, gradually becomes circular 
as it approaches the centre. Such a whirl 
moving over the earth’s surface, losing a part 
of the air in its path, does not require ‘any 
ascending current at its centre. The same 
may be said of our author’s theory that rain 
can be formed by rising currents of heated 
air. In this case, not only is there the doubt- 
ful assumption of an ascending current, but 


_ AuGusT’ 24, 1883.] 


the formation of rain under these circumstances 
seems disproved, in another place, by the 
author himself, who rejects the theory that any 
considerable precipitation can be produced by 
the mixture of masses of hot and cold air. 
Mr. Scott acknowledges that nothing definite 
is known as to the origin of atmospheric elec- 
tricity ; but his conjecture that the coalescence 
of cloud-droplets into rain-drops may be due 
to electricity will hardly be accepted by mete- 
orologists at present. The description of a 
peculiar electrical manifestation observed in 
the Alps, July 10, 1863, is very similar to that 
given by Siemens while on Cheops pyramid, 
April 14, 1859. 

The division of thunder-storms into heat 
and cyclonic is hardly applicable to the United 
States, where it appears as if no thunder- 
storms occur, except as largely influenced by, 
or directly dependent on, the presence of a 
barometric depression. 

The error of more than forty million square 


: 


: SCIENCE. 


227 


miles in the earth’s surface between the equa- 
tor and 30° north latitude should be corrected 
in the next edition. 

The statement, that at great depths in the 
ocean a probable uniform temperature of 32° F. 
prevails, has been disproved by the researches 
of Professor Verrill and the U.S. fish-com- 
mission, 

We notice on p. 362 the surprising state- 
ment, that, asthe central office of the U.S. 
weather bureau is in the eastern part of the 
country, there is a great advantage to those 
predicting storms by the use of the tele- 
graph. 

The chart of mean January isobars does 
not incorporate Stelling’s work in Siberia, 
published in 1879, and accepted by Mohn 
in the last edition’of his Meteorology. Mohn’s 
chart shows a mean pressure over central Si- 
beria of 780 mm. (30.79 in.), while the highest 
figure in Scott for the same region is 30.4 
inches. 


AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Tue thirty-second annual meeting of the 
American association was opened in the halls 


q of the university of Minnesota, Minneapolis, . 


Aug. 15, at 10.30 a.m. Dr. J. W. Dawson, 
the retiring president, introduced the presi- 
- dent elect, Prof. C. A. Young, who briefly 
and gracefully expressed his thanks to the 
association for the distinction they had offered 

him. After welcomes spoken by the governor 
of the state and the mayor of the city, the 
principal address was made by the acting 
president of the university, Dr. W. W. Folwell, 
on behalf of the local committee. From his 
_ address we print the closing sentences : — 


I should do a wrong to my city if I should leave 
upon you the impression that we are so overwhelmed 
_ and engrossed with our material labors as to have no 
care for the things.of the mind and the higher life. 
If that were true, why should we welcome with so 
much sincere ardor the assemblage of your associa- 
tion? From the villages of New England, and the 
_ farmhouses of the Middle states, our people have 

brought that perennial curiosity, that thirst for 
knowledge, that intense though sombre imagination, 
which have given American civilization and American 
‘literature a cast and hue of its own. I must, ina 
word, praise our system of public schools, both city 
and state, which under able management and popu- 
Jar support cannot, we believe, be ranked below those 
of any communities of our size in the Union. Minne- 
ta is the first place which has organized its second- 
as well as its primary education, and offered to 


every child in the state a free course of studies, from 
the alphabet to the degree of master of arts. Our 
churches, goodly in size and number, may speak for 
the interests of religion. The future will attest the 
diligenee and the fidelity of those who love music 
and the sister arts, of whom far older cities might be 
proud. It is thus, however, Mr. President, that we 
Minneapolitans, alert, pre-occupied, pause in the midst 
of our labors to welcome your already venerable asso- 
ciation. We hail youas the survivors of a generation 
of great investigators, —the Sillimans, the Baches, 
the Morses, the Rogerses, who have made their own 
country famous and their own names as imperishable 
as science herself. We hail you as the worthy suc- 
cessors of such.a generation, perpetuating and enlar- 
ging their work. In common with civilized people, we 
recognize the immense debt of the modern world to 
science; yet often, no doubt, while we are filling the 
sky with applause to some lucky inventor, we are not 
remembering the years, perhaps generations, of incon- 
spicuous and painful labors, carried on in our studies 
and laboratories, which made the invention possible. 
Let the inventor have his glory and his profit without 
envy and without stint; but let us not fail to bnild 
the cenotaph of a thousand nameless geometers, star- 
gazers, and natural philosophers, who, working in 
silence and obscurity, without thought of fame or 
hope of reward, put it in his power to bless and ecapti- 
vate the world. We are grateful, therefore, to science 
for the telegraph and the microscope, for chloroform, 
for the photograph, for all the nameless applications 
of electricity. To science we owe that magnificent 
apparatus of transportation which is the crowning 
and distinctive feature of modern material life. To 


228 


science we owe the thousand appliances which yield 
comfort and even elegance to the humblest house- 
hold. Immense as are these contributions of science 
to material comfort and happiness, she has still, I 
think, performed greater services to mankind. The 
scientific method developed in the study of nature 


has spread to all branches of investigation. It has 
permeated all our education: it has boldly leaped the 
boundary between physics and metaphysics. It has 


even penetrated into industry and business and com- 
mon life. The modern man first collects what knowl- 
edge he can about his enterprise or adventure, and 
assures himself of its value. He then makes the best 
quest he can in regard to the future. Then he as- 
sembles new ficts, and, as the facts require, revises 
and amends his theory, till at length it becomes a 
working rule, maxim,and principle. He knows not 
merely how to know, but how to guess. The pene- 
tration of the scientific method into the operations of 
trade in great commercial centres is very conspicuous. 
We even endeavor to gamble scientifically. No Drew, 

- or Armour, or Gould ever forms his corner without a 
most careful study of the situation; and his yenture 
is his bet on the correctness of his theory. The 
farther extension of the scientific method, till it 
shall become the guide of conduct in the every-day 
life of all men, is now the chief problem in educa- 
tion. 

In the next place, I think science may at length 
fairly claim to have wrought out, under great diffi- 
culties, a working hypothesis of our universe in the 
nebular iy potdhees and its almost necessary corollary, 

‘evolution.’ It cannot be denied that we are all, 
in some sense, evolutionists, —some of us against 
our prepossessions, some of us by insensible but 
progressive lapses. I am not competent to argue out 
this great theme. I feel bound to admit that the 
evolution doctrine, in one form or other, has quietly 
taken possession of the modern mind. Why may we 
not gladly accept it as a most useful working hy- 
pothesis of the mode of creation? I say, of the mode 
of creation; for the mystery of creation will forever 
mock the powers of man. Only this we know: that 
unless human consciousness is a juggle, and human 
language a mockery, there can never be to man a 
creation without a creator, nor an evolution without 
an eyolver. 

Another great service of science is the mainte- 
nance in the world of a body of men, a lay priest- 
hood, devoted to the search for truth for its own 
sake and its own value. In a mercenary age, when, 
in the opinion of a distinguished contemporary, 
mercantilism has become a huge disease and excres- 
cence on society, the example of such a body of men 
is of supreme value in the training of the new gener- 
ations. Youth are formed, a wise Greek has taught 
us, not so much by schools as by the example of dis- 
tinguished men. 

A still greater benefit of science to mankind is the 
emancipation it has wrought for us, in the last genera- 
tion, from superstition and the’ dominion of: imagi- 
nary pow ers. It isno long time since it was cenerally 
believed by civilized men, that human affairs were 


SCIENCE. 


_relief to childhood ! 


[Von. IL, No, 29. 


under the control of the spirits of the air, good or 
evil. Men walked in cringing terror, by day and 
night, of demons and goblins damned. The earth- 
quake, the tornado, the lightning’s stroke, they 
looked upon as instruments of punishment for the 
sins of rulers and peoples. Thanks to science, the 
modern world has emerged from this cloud of gloom. 
We have some certain knowledge. Knowledge is not 
merely qualitative, but quantitative. Truth ever 
makes free. Above all, we know that all things in 
nature are governed by law, — law, ‘t whose seat is in 
the bosom of God, whose voice is the harmony of the 
world.”? The beautiful conception of the Greeks of 
the universe as a kosmos, that is, an embodiment of 
divine and perfect order, is pervading modern thought. _ 
We now know that the phenomena of nature have no 
relation to human conduct, the impartial rain falling 
alike on the just and unjust. Men walk the earth 
erect and free, fearing no bogies, or warlocks, or 
demons of any kind. How vast and how blessed the 
In dispelling superstition, sci- 
ence has incidentally wrought her greatest service to 
mankind in the purification of religion. The time is 
coming when grateful thanks will be rendered by the 
minister of religion for the emancipation which sci- 
ence has wrought for the faith; when the conflict of 
science and religion will only be remembered as the 


‘antagonism of.crude theories on the one hand, and 


cruder superstitions on the other. Grateful we are 
for the knowledge which science has collected and 
collated and perpetuated to our use. All honor to 
the men who are consecrated to truth in her service! 
We may not know what marvels, far surpassing all 
the gifts of the past, the science of the future may 
reveal. Still, we must remember that the human 
mind is finite, while truth is infinite. The vast un- 
known engirdles our little circle of light. The mys- 
tery of life and death, no son of earth has eyer 
penetrated. Welcome, then, the faith which points 
to the continuance of life in a land where study will 
be no weariness to the soul, where no veil of flesh 
will cloud the vision, where science and religion shall 
be forever one, where men shall know even as they 
were known. = 

To welcome you as a body of scientists, lovers 
and seekers after truth from love of it and of your 
kind, would be well worth our while, were it our 
only motive to improve and inspire the children and 
youth of our city. In doing you honor, we give 
them a lesson no books nor masters could impart, 
For their sake we renew our welcome. 


President Young briefly responded : — 


GENTLEMEN, — On behalf of my fellow-members 
of the association, I return you my sincerest thanks 
for the hearty welcome we have received to this mag- 
nificent state, this young and beautiful city, this vig- 
orous, energetic, warm-hearted community. When 
you first invited us here, it was not in our power to 
come; but your second invitation we have accepted 
most gladly, and hope and believe that our meeting 
here will prove a benefit and pleasure to all con- 


iat. oP ee a edd FP anaials 


ge 


Aueust 24, 1883.] 


cerned. Some of us have known you personally be- 
fore, and most of us have long been more or less 
familiar at second hand with your state and city; 
and yet, I think, to many of us it is something like 
a new revelation to see for ourselves what a few 
years have accomplished. I am not enough of a 
Latin scholar to quote my Virgil well; but I have 
been all the time most forcibly reminded of the pas- 
sage in which Eneas first comes in sight of rising 
Carthage. Most emphatically the work ‘hails’ 
here. We see no drones or sluggards; but every 
shoulder is at the wheel, and every thing is moving. 
It may, perhaps, seem to you sometimes, when in our 
sectional meetings we discuss some question about 
the stars, or some hypothesis as to the formation of 
rock-strata, or the structure of some worm or insect, 
that we are out of the current, and contributing 
nothing to the advancement of the world. But you 
know it is not so, and your invitation to hold our 
‘Ineeting here shows that you know it. The world 
advances, not on one line only, but on many, —on 
lines material, intellectual, spiritual. To some ex- 
tent, the movements are indeed independent, but 
not very far. Any true advance on either line im- 
plies corresponding movement on each of the others, 


SCIENCE. 


if not absolutely simultaneous, yet surely consequent. 
There is no need to ask you here how much this city 
owes to modern science, when I see on every side, in 
your streets and storehouses and mills, the practical 
application of the highest engineering, mechanical, 
and electric art; and in the future it is almost certain 
that science is to contribute still more liberally to 
business. But not mainly f6r this reason do I claim 
your regard to science; but because, made in the im- 
age of God as we are, knowledge and understanding 
are as truly wealth and power as lands and food and 
money. 

I need not add that, as you have invited us here, so 
we on our part cordially invite you to attend all our 
meetings, to listen to the papers and their discus- 
sion. We cannot promise that every paper will be 
interesting to all, but each one, I think, will be able 
to select certain ones he will be glad to hear; and if 
any of you choose to join us, and enroll yourselves as 
promoters of the advancement of science, our mem- 
bership is open on easy terms. Once more, gentlemen, 
we thank you for the cordial welcome, and address 
ourselves to our business, in the hope and confidence 
that our meeting here is to be in the highest degree 
pleasant and successful. 


PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION A.—MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. 


ADDRESS OF WILLIAM A. ROGERS, 
OF CAMBRIDGE, MASS., VICE-PRESI- 
DENT OF THE SECTION, AUG. 15, 1883. 


THE GERMAN SURVEY OF THE NORTH- 
ERN HEAVENS. 

THE illustrious Argelander was accustomed to say, 
in the quaint form of speech which he often em- 
ployed, ‘‘ The attainable is often not attained if the 
range of inquiry is extended too far.”” In no under- 
taking is there greater need of a judicious applicatitn 
of this sound maxim than in the systematic determi- 
nation of the exact positions of all the stars in the 
visible heavens which fall within the reach of tele- 
scopes of moderate power. 

The first subject which engaged the attention of 
the Astronomische gesellschaft, at its formation in 
1865, was the proposition to determine accurately the 
co-ordinates of all the stars in the northern heay- 
ens down to the ninth magnitude. To this associa- 
tion of astronomers (at first national, but since 
become largely international, in its character and or- 
ganization) belongs the credit of arranging a scheme 
of observations by which, through the co-operation of 
astronomers in different parts of the world, it has 
been possible to accomplish the most important piece 
of astronomical work of modern times. With a fea- 


‘ sible plan of operations, undertaken with entire unity 


=— 


of purpose on the part of the observers to whom the 
several divisions of the labor were assigned, this great 
work is now approaching completion. While it is yet 
too early to speak with confidence concerning the 
definitive results which the discussion of all the ob- 


servations are expected to show, we may with profit 
consider the object sought in the undertaking, the 
general plan of the work, the difficulties which have 
been encountered, and the probable bearing which 
the execution of the present work will have upon the 
solution of a problem concerning which we now 
know absolutely nothing with certainty, —a problem 
of which what we call universal gravitation is only 
one element, if, indeed, it be an element, —a problem 
which reaches farther than all others into the mys- 
teries of the universe, —the motion of the solar and 
the sidereal systems in space. 

Our first inquiry will be with respect to the con- 
dition of the question of stellar positions at the time 
when this proposal was made by the gesellschaft in 
1865. All the observations which had been made up 
to this time possess one of two distinct characteris- 
tics. A portion of them were made without direct 
reference to any assumed system of stellar co-ordi- 
nates as a base, but by far the larger part are differ- 
ential in their character. This remark holds more 
especially with reference to right ascensions. ‘Nearly 
all of the observations of the brighter stars made pre- 
vious to about 1830 were referred to the origin from 
which stellar co-ordinates are reckoned by correspond- 
ing observations of the sun; but since that date it has 
been the custom to select a sufficient number of ref- 
erence stars, symmetrically distributed both in right 
ascension and declination, and whose co-ordinates 
were supposed to be well known. The unequalled 
Pulkova observations for the epoch 1845 form, I be- 
lieve, the only exception to this statement. From the 
assumed system of primary stars are derived the clock 
errors and instrumental constants which are employed 


230 


in the reduction of all the other stars observed. The 
positions of these secondary stars, therefore, partake 
of all the errors of the assumed fundamental sys- 
tem, in addition to the direct errors of observation. 

The following list comprises the most important 
of the catalogues which have been independently 
formed; viz., Bessel’s Bradley for 1755, the various 
catalogues of Maskelyne between 1766 and 1805, 
Gould’s D’Agelet for 1783, Piazzi for 1800, Auwer’s 
Cacciatore for 1805, Bessel for 1815, a few of the 
earlier catalogues of Pond, Brinkley for 1824, Bessel 
for 1825, Struve for 1825, Bessel for 1827, Struve for 
1830, Argelander for 1830, and Pulkova for 1845. 

The important catalogues of secondary stars pub- 


lished previous to 1865 are comprised in the following 
table. 
[ Zable omitied.] 

An analysis of these catalogues reveals four impor- 
tant facts: — 

First, that a large share of the observations relate 
to bright stars, at least to stars brighter than the 
eighth magnitude. 

Second, that in a large number of cases the same 
star is found in different catalogues, but that no rule 
is discoverable in the selection. 

Third, that with the exception of the polar cata- 
logues of Fedorenko, Groombridge, Schwerd, and 
Carrington, the double-star observations of Struve, 
and the zone observations of Bessel and Argelander, 
the observations were not arranged with reference to 
the accomplishment of a definite object. 

Fourth, that each catalogue involves a system of 
errors peculiar to the observers, to the character of 
the instrument employed, and to the system of pri- 
mary stars selected, but that thus far there had been 
no attempt to reduce the results obtained by differ- 
ent observers to a homogeneous system. In esti- 
mating the value of these observations it will be 
necessary to refer to the researches which have been 
made subsequent to 1865. 

The systematic deviations of different catalogues 
in right ascension inter se were noticed at an early 
date by several astronomers; but the first attempt to 
determine the law of these variations seems to have 
been made by Safford in a communication to the 
monthly notices of the Royal astronomical society in 
1861 (xxi. 245), ‘On the positions of the Radcliffe 
catalogue.’ I quote the equation derived by Safford, 
since it appears to be the first published account of 
a form of investigation almost exclusively followed 
since that time. It is as follows:— 

Diff. of R. A. (Greenw. 12- Year cat. — Rad.) = 
— 0.588. + 0.328, sin (@ + 5h. 32m,). Extending this 
expression to terms of the second order, it may be 
put under the form, A = a constant + (m sina+n 
cos a) + (m’ sin 2a+ n/ cos 2a) +, ete. 

Safford also seems to have been the first to notice 
the connection between the observed résiduals, and 
the errors in position of the primary stars employed. 
He remarks, “In investigating the causes * which 
would give rise to such systematic discrepancies, I 
was struck with the fact that the same or nearly the 
same variations were apparent in the assumed places 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 29. 


of the time stars for the years since 1845; that, if the 
correct positions of the time stars had been assumed, 
the resulting positions would have been free from 
these small errors.”” That the relation given by Saf- 
ford should have been observed at all, is the more 
remarkable, since the primary stars upon which the 
Radcliffe positions depend are nearly the same as 
those employed at Greenwich. In reality, the sys- 
tematic errors of both catalogues have since been 
found to be considerably greater than is here indi- 
cated, and the deviation pointed out by Safford is in 
the nature of a second difference. The speaker has 
shown (Proc. Amer. acad., 1874, 182) that the weight 
of the errors of the provisional catalogue assumed, 
fell between the first and the third quadrants in the 
Radcliffe observations’ for 1841-42, on account of 
the omission of certain clock stars which were used 
at Greenwich. 

Since the discordances which exist between two 
catalogues may arise from errors in either one or in 
both, it is clearly impossible either to determine the 
nature of the erorrs, or to assign their true cause, 
until a fundamental system has been established 
which is free both from accidental and from periodic 
errors, — from accidental errors, since a few abnormal 
differences may easily invalidate the determination 
of the errors which are really. periodic; from periodie 
errors, because a relative system can only become an 
absolute one when one of the elements of which it is 
composed becomes absolute. 

We owe to the researches of Newcomb, published 
in 1869-70, a homogeneous system of stellar co-ordi- 
nates in right ascension, which are probably as nearly 
absolute in their character as it is possible to obtain 
from the data at present available. He determined 
the absolute right ascensions of thirty-two stars of 
the first, second, and third: magnitudes, and comprised 
between the limits — 30° and + 46° declination. A 
comparison of the places of these stars fora given 
epoch, with the same stars in any catalogue for the 
same epoch, enables us to determine with consider- 
able precision the system of errors inherent in that 
catalogue. Several cireumstances prevent the exact 
determination of this relation. Among them may be 
mentioned the fact that Newcomb’s system cannot 
safely be extended far beyond the limits in decli- 
nation of the stars.composing the system, that the 
stars are not symmetrically distributed in declination, 
and that the system of errors derived from bright 
stars is probably not the same as that derived from 
stars of less magnitude. 

To a certain extent all of these objections have 
been met in the later discussion by Auwers, to which 
reference will presently be made. The substantial 
agreement of these two systems, independently deter- 
mined, furnishes satisfactory evidence that we have 
at last obtained a foundation system with which it is 
safe to make comparisons, from which we may draw 
conclusions with comparative safety. When the eata- 
logues which were formed between 1825 and 1865 
are compared with Newcomb’s fundamental system, 
through the medium of these thirty-two stars, the 
following facts are revealed. 


4 
: 

’ 

: 

; 

: 


_ AuGusrT 24, 1883.] 


a. The only catalogues in which there is freedom 
from both accidental and periodic errors are Arge- 
lander’s Abo catalogue for 1830, and the Pulkova 
catalogue for 1845. One is reminded, in this connec- 
nection, of the remark of Pond, that ‘‘ we can hardly 
obtain a better test of our power of predicting the 
future positions of stars than by trying by the same 
formula how accurately we can interpolate for the 
past. Ina variety of papers which I have submitted 
to the Royal society, I have endeavored to show, that, 
with us, the experiment entirely fails.”’ 

b. During this interval the constant differences be- 
tween the earlier catalogues and Neweomb’s system 
vary between + 0.17§ for Pond, 1820; and —0.19* for 
Pond, 1830: and for later catalogues, between +- 0.07§ 
for Cambridge, 1860; and +.02* for Greenwich, 1860. 

ec. All the right ascensions determined at English 
observatories, and especially those which depend upon 
_the positions published by the British Nautical al- 
manac, are too large in the region of five hours, and 
too small in the region of eighteen hours. The gen- 
eral tendency of the constant part of the deviation 
from Newcomb’s system is to netitralize the periodic 
errors in the region of five hours, aud to augmept 
them in the region of eighteen hours, where, in the 
case of a few catalogues, the error becomes as great 
as 0.108, — a quantity which can be readily detected 
from the observations of two or three evenings with 
an indifferent instrument, if it relates to a single star. 

The right ascensions determined at French obserya- 
tories exhibit systematic errors, which follow nearly 
the same law as those which characterize English 
observations. 

Distinctively German observations are nearly free 
from systematic errors. As far as they exist at all, 
their tendency is to neutralize the errors inherent in 
distinctively English and French observations. 

d. In the case of several catalogues, residual errors 
of considerable magnitude remain after the syste- 
matic errors depending upon the right ascensions 
have been allowed for. These errors are found to 
be functions of the declination of the stars observed, 
and without doubt have gome connection with the 
form of the pivots of the instrument with which the 
observations were made, This statement holds true, 
especially with respect to the observations at Paris, 
Melbourne, and Brussels, between 1858 and 1871; 
and to the Washington observations between 1858 
and 1861. 

e. The systematic errors which exist in observations 
previous to 1865 follow the same law, and have nearly 
the same magnitude, as the errors of the same class 
which are inherent in the national ephemerides of 
the country in which they were made. 

- The British Nautical almanac and the Connaisance 
des temps are largely responsible for the perpetua- 
tion of this class of errors. Fora few years before 
and after 1860, the ephemerides of the Nautical 
almanac were based upon the observations of Pond, 
which contain large periodic errors. It is found that 
the errors of this system have been transferred with- 
out sensible diminution to every catalogue in which 


the observations depend upon Nautical almanac clock 


ee ee ge et eR 


SCIENCE. 


231 


stars. At English observatories it has been the cus- 
tom to correct the positions of the fundamental stars 
by the observations of each successive year; but this 
has produced no sensible effect on the diminution of 
the periodic errors, which belong to the fundamental 
system. The periodic errors of the American ephem- 
exis follow nearly the same law as the errors of the 
Nautical almanac, but their magnitude is somewhat 
reduced. The error of equinox is also less. 

Wolfer’s Tab. reg., upon which the Berliner jahr- 
buch is based, has no well-defined systematic errors; 
and the correction for equinox is nearly the same in 
amount as in the American ephemeris, but with the 
opposite sign. The accidental errors seem to be 

rather larger than in the system of the American 
ephemeris. 

f. A general estimate may be formed of the rela- 
tive magnitudes of the errors of secondary catalogues 
by comparing the average error for each star of the 
primary catalogue. The numbers given below rep- 
resent the average deviation for each star, expressed 
in hundredths of seconds, after the various catalogues 
have been reduced to a common equinox. 


/ 

Average 

error for 

each star. 
Argelander . . - + + 2 + s+ « : 1830 / 1.1 
Paolerivaie tewie. ete Anka ee 1845 | 11 
Greenwich & ls = © 2 + sew 1845 2.0 
Greenwich . P 5 1860 | 2.0 
D’Agelet (Gould) - yy 1783 om 
Cape of Good Hope (Henderson) « of 1883 | 22 
Greenwich . . . Fae 1850 | 2.2 
Greenwich Setanta eo Feil 1871 2.2 
Paris . e ° / 1867 24 
Ww ashington . sp isp doet tet yf 1846-52 2.5 
—_ whos Bh oo Neie eo eul 1830 2.5 
Cape of Good Hope P | 1856 2.8 
Radcliffe .. . Gan ee . 1860 | 3.1 
Greamwiah OREN ae 1840 , | 3.1 
Bessel . ’ ieee | 1825 3.2 
POndig ge pa =! so fe ne) sore we | 1830 3.7 
Gillis. . . oa 1840 3.8 
a (Tay lor) . ‘ 1880 3.9 
Cape of Good Hope (Faitows) : 1830 3.9 
Radcliffe ....-.- - 7 1845 45 
AliNGKe Strats. @ tee ves Ye ais 1840 5.0 
Piazzi . pen ose hetie os teil 1800 5.3 
Bessel’s Bradley eae pet ae CON | 1755 7a 
Lalande) .'. 9. 5 « « - 1800 13.2 
Lika eeete ee wm «Pouce! ot tall igo 175 24.9 


It is obvious from these relations, that previous to 
about 1825 the magnitude of the accidental errors of 
observation, combined with the errors of reduction, 
prevent any definite conclusions with respect to the 
periodic errors inherent in these early observations, 
It is probable, also, that early observations of stars 
of the eighth and ninth magnitudes are subject to a 
class of errors peculiar to themselves, the nature of 
which it is now well-nigh impossible to determine. 

The systematic errors in declination which belong 
to the various secondary catalogues named are even 
more marked than those in right ascension. The 
experience of Pond in 1535 is the experience of 
every astronomer who has attempted to compare 
observations of the same star made at different times, 
under different circumstances, with different” in- 


232 


struments, and by different observers. He says, 
“‘ With all these precautions, we do not find, by com- 
paring the present observations with those of Bradley 
made eighty years ago under the same roof, and com- 
puted by the same table of refractions, that we can 
obtain by interpolation any intermediate catalogue 
which shall agree with the observations within the 
probable limits of error.’’ 

“We owe to the investigations of Auwers (Astron. 
nachr., nos. 1532-1586), the first definite system of 
declinations which is measurably absolute in its 
character. Yet the deviations of this system from 
that derived by the same author, but from much 
additional data in publication xiv. of the gesellschaft, 
is no less than 1.2’. The present difference outstand- 
ing between the Pulkova and the Greenwich systems 
at 10° south declination is 1.7/. 

Within the past five years, the labors’ of Auwers, 
of Safford, of Boss, and of Newcomb, have resulted 
in the establishment of a mean system of declinations 
from which accidental errors may be considered to 
be eliminated in the case of a large number of stars; 
but the different systems still differ systematically 
inter se by quantities which are considerably greater 
than the probable error of any single position. 

When the discussion of the question of a uniform 
determination of all the stars in the northern heavens 
to the ninth magnitude was taken up by the gesell- 
schaft at its session in Leipzig in 1865, Argelander, 
who was then president of the society, appears to 
have been the only astronomer who had a clear ap- 
prehension of the difficulties of the problem. He 
alone had detected the class of errors whose existence 
subsequent investigations have definitely established. 
He alone had found a well-considered plan by which 
these errors might be eliminated, as far as possible, 
from future observations. 

Argelander, however, always claimed for Bessel 
the first definite proposal of the proposition under 
consideration (see Astron. nachr., i. 257). It was in 
pursuance of this plan that the zones between — 15° 
and + 15° in declination were observed. These 
zones were to form the ground-work of the Berlin 
charts; and Argelander, in the execution of the 
Boun Durchmusterung, simply carried out the second 
part of Bessel’s recommendation. 

With the exception of the observations of Cooper 
at Makree observatory, and the charts of Chacornac, 
these two great works—the second being a con- 
tinuation of the first, under a better and more feasible 

plan — are the only ones in existence which give us 
any knowledge of the general structure of the stellar 
system. 

The observations of stars to the ninth magnitude, 
found in the catalogues of Bessel, Lalande, and 
Piazzi, form the ground-work of these charts. The 
co-ordinates in right ascension and declination of the 


stars found in these authorities were first reduced to . 


the epoch 1800; the resulting right ascension being 
given to seconds of time, and the declination to 
tenths of minutes of are. With these places as points 
of reference, all other stars were filled in, down to 
the ninth magnityde, by observations with equatorial 


SCIENCE 


[Vou. II., No. 29. 


instruments. The work was divided into zones of 
one hour each. Bremiker undertook five zones; 
Argelander and Schmidt, two; Wolfers, three; and 
Harding, two. The remaining zones were under- 
taken by different astronomers in widely separated 
localities. ; 

The work seems to have been performed with 
somewhat unequal thoroughness, some zones con- 
taining nearly all the stars to the ninth magnitude, 
while in others a large number of stars haying this 
limit in magnitude are wanting. 

The Durchmusterung undertaken by Argelander 
at Bonn was a far more serious and well-considered 
undertaking. This unequalled work consists in the 
approximate determination of the co-ordinates of 
324,198 stars situated between — 2° and -++ 90° decli- 
nation. It includes stars to the 9.5 magnitude, the 
co-ordinates being given to tenths of minutes of 
time, and the declinations to tenths of minutes of 
are. 

The first definite proposal of this work undertaken 
by the gesellschaft, however, appears to have been 
made by Bruhns. In the course of a report upon the 
operations of the Leipzig observatory, he stated, that, 
in his view, the time had come for undertaking a 
uniform system of determinations of the places of 
stars to the ninth magnitude in the northern hemi- 
sphere by means of meridian circles; but he pro- 
posed, at the same time, that the positions of stars 
fainter than the ninth magnitude should be deter- 
mined by means of differential observations with 
equatorial instruments. After explaining certain 
plans and arrangements relating particularly to his 
own observatory, he introduced the following resolu- 
tion: — 

* “The Astronomische gesellschaft regards it as need- 
ful that all the stars to the ninth magnitude, occurring 
in the Durchmusterung, should be observed with 
meridian circles, and commissions the council to 
arrange for the execution of the work.”’ 

This proposal occasioned a long and somewhat 
animated discussion, in which Argelander, Hirsch, 
Bruhns, Forster, Schonfeld, and Struve took part. 

Argelander declared himself surprised at this pro- 
posal, which called for the rapid realization of a:plan 
of organization which he had been considering for 
years with the greatest care, the difficulties of which 
he had maturely considered, and the execution of 
which still demanded the most careful deliberation 
and preparation. One of the necessary preliminary 
steps was a plan which he had already prepared, pub- 
lished and presented to the society in an informal 
way, which provided for contemporaneous and cor- 
responding observations of the brighter stars. As 
president of the society, he felt unequal to undertak- 
ing the charge whieh the acceptance of the resolution 
proposed would involve; as this procedure seemed to 
him premature without previous preparation. He 
would admit, however, that every call to action of 
this kind tended to stimulate enthusiasm, and should 
therefore be encouraged; but he felt obliged to ask 
the society not to require from him the immediate 
execution of the plan, but to intrust the serious con- 


2 
August 24, 1883.] 


he ik es. ) ie Oe al 


P? 


sideration of it, and the preparation for it, to his 
zealous friends in the council. P 

Upon the motion of Struve, the society by a rising 
vote, expressed its confidence in the assurance of the 
president that he would bring forward his plan at the 
proper time, as soon as the means for its execution 
could be assured. 

At the meeting held at Bonn in 1867, Argelander 


~ again brought up the subject in a communication 


which appears to have been an exhaustive discussion 
of the whole problem. This paper is not printed in 
the proceedings of the gesellschaft; but at its con- 
clusion a committee was appointed to take definite 
action with respect to the recommendations which it 
contained. The committee reported at the same 
session; and their report, which is published in the 
place of the paper presented by Argelander, is prob- 
ably identical in substance with it. The plan pro- 
posed and adopted was finally published in the form 
of a programme, in which the details of the work 
are arranged with considerable minuteness. As this 
programme has been widely distributed, it seems 
unnecessary to give any thing more than a general 
abstract of it. Since it differs in a few minor poiuts 
from the first report of the committee at the Bonn 
meeting, the essential features of this report will be 
given instead of an abstract of the programme itself. 

They are as follows: — 

a. The limits in declination of the proposed series 
of observations are—2° and + 80°. The first limit 
was chosen on account of the lack of suitable funda- 
mental stars south of the equator. It is probable, 
also, that Argelander had a suspicion of the fact, 
since proven, that the uncertainty with respect to 
the systematic errors of southern stars is, of necessity, 
considerably greater than for northern stars, and that 
on this account it would be better to defer this part 
of the work until further investigations in this direc- 
tion could be made. 

The limit + 80° was chosen because the repetition 
of Carrington’s observations between 81° and 90° 
was considered superfluous, and Hamburg had already 
undertaken the extension of Carrington’s observa- 
tions from 81° to 80°. 

b. Within these limits, all stars in the Durchmus- 
terung to the ninth magnitude, and, in addition, all 
Stars which have been more exactly observed by La- 
lairde, by Bessel at Koenigsberg, and by Argelander 
at Bonn, are to be observed. 

c. The observations are to be differential. The 
clock errors are not to be found from the fundamen- 
tal stars usually chosen for this purpose, and the 


equator point corrections are not to be derived from 


observations at upper and lower culminations, but 
these elements are to be derived from a series of 500 
or 600 stars, distributed as uniformly as possible over 
the northern heavens. The exact co-ordinates of 
these stars are to be determined at Pulkova,, thus 
securing the unity necessary in order to connect in 
one system the observations of different zones. 

d. Every star is to be observed twice. If the two 
observations differ by a quantity greater than ought 
to be expected, a third observation will be necessary, 


SCIENCE. 233 


e. In order to facilitate the work, it will be desira- 
ble to use only three or four transit threads, and only 
one or two microscopes. In order to facilitate the 
reductions to apparent place, the working-list of stars 
should be comprised within narrow limits. 

f. Before the commencement and. after the close 
of each zone, two orthree fundamental stars are to 
be observed upon the same threads and with the same 
microscopes as were used in the zone observations. 
When the seeing is not good, and when for any other 
cause it seems desirable, one or more fundamental 
stars may be observed in the course of the zone. 
The number and selection of the stars will depend 
upon the character of the instrument employed. If 
it remains steady for several hours, and has no 
strongly marked flexure or division errors, or if these 
errors have been sharply determined, the fundamental 
stars may be situated ten degrees or fifteeu degrees 
away from the zone limits. However, there must 
remain many things for which no general rule can 
be given, and which must be left to the judgment of 
the observer, aided by an accurate knowledge of his 
instrument. 

g. With a Repsold or a Martin instrument, one 
microscope will be sufficient, if its position with re- 
spect to the whole four can be determined. It will 
be sufficient, if the change in position during the 
observations can be interpolate] to 0.2”. 

h. It will be desirable to divide beforehand the 
zones into such time intervals that the observations 
ean be easily made. 

i. Zones exceeding one and one-half or at the most 
two hours are not advisable, first, because the zero 
points will be too far apart, and, second, because a 
longer duration will involve too much fatigue physi- 
eally and mentally. 

At the conclusion of this report, all the astron- 
omers present who were willing to take part in this 
work were requested to communicate with the coun- 
cil, stating the region of the heavens which they pre- 
ferred to select for observation. 

At this meeting, Berlin, Bonn, Helsingfors, Leip- 
zig, and Mannheim signified their intention to share 
in the work.. Leiden also expressed its intention of 
taking part as soon as the work already undertaken 
should be completed. 

When the stars to be observed had been selected 
from the Durchmusterung, it was found that the 
number would not vary much from 100,000, requiring 
rather more than 200,000 observations. Preparations 
for the work of observation were immediately com- 
menced; and, by the time of the next report in 1869, 
considerable progress had been made. 

In the report for this year, the provisional places of 
a catalogue of 539 fundamental stars were published. 
This catalogue is compo:ed of two parts. The list 
of hauptsterne consists of 336 stars to the fourth 
magnitude, observed at Pulkova by Wagner with” 
the large transit instrument, and by Gyldén with the 
Ertel vertical circle. The list of zusat-sterne consists 
of 203 stars fainter than the fourth magnitude. As 
the details of the work in the formation of the pro- 
yisional places of the stars of this list are not given 


234 


in the report, it is not quite clear upon what authority 
they rest. The work assigned to the Pulkova observa- 
tory by the zone commission was the exact determi- 
nation of the places of the stars of this list. The 
observations were undertaken by Gromadski with 
the Repsold meridian circle. In accordance with the 
plan adopted, each star was observed eight times, — 
four times in each position of the instrument. The 
observations were differential with respect to the 
hauptsterne. 

The results were published by Struve in 1876; and 
the places there given were used in the first reduction 
of the Harvard-college observations for 1874-75, and 
perhaps in some other cases. 

About this time a change seems to have been made 
in the original plan with respect to the formation of 
the final catalogue of fundamental stars, of which I 
have been unable to find a clear account. The origi- 
nal intention was to make the positions depend en- 
tirely upon the observations at Pulkova. The zone 
commission established by the gesellschaft, bowever, 
committed the formation of this catalogue to Atuwers; : 
and it is to him that we owe the most complete and 
the most perfect catalogue of fundamental stars yet 
published. The Pulkoyasystem for 1865 was adopted 
as the basis; but, in order to obtain greater freedom 
from accidental errors for individual stars, the final 
catalogue was obtained by combining with the Pul- 
kova series, the Greenwich observations from 1836 
to 1876, the Haryard-college observations for 1871-72, 
the Leipsic observations, in declination only, between 
1866 and 1870, and the Leiden observations in declina- 
tion between 1864 and 1870. Before this combination 
was made, however, these observations were all re- 
duced to the Pulkova system. 

The following observatories have taken part in the 
zone observations :— 


Limits of Limits of 
Observatories. zones in = Observatories. zones in 
declination. | declination. 
1 
Nicolajeff . . . |= 2°to + 1°! Lund «= |t385° to +40° 
Albany > Ss eS Boon +40 © +50 
Leipsie . . . . i+ 4 * +10|| Harvard college . +50 ** +55 
Leipsic . . . ./|+10 “ +15]|| Helsingfors . . |+55 “ +60 
Bevin. 3s +15 “ +25 || Christiana. . . |+65 “ +70 
Cambridge CEng.) +25 *f +30]! Dorpat . =. : 2 |+70 “+75 
Leiden . +30 ‘* +35 || Kasan . .-. . |+75 ** +80 
\ 


The zone between —2° and +1° was originally un- 
dertaken at Palermo, that between +1° and +4° at 
Neuchatel, that between +4° and +10° at Mannheim, 
and that between +25° and +40° at Chicago. 

In the latter case, the great fire at Chicago crippled 
the resources of the observatory to such an extent, 
that Safford was compelled to relinquish the work, 
which was at that time quite far advanced. 

The chief items of interest in connection with this 
work are found in the following tabular statement: — 


[ Zable omitted.] 


Attention was called, at an early date, to the im- 
portance of continuing the survey of the northern 
heavens beyond the southern limit fixed by Argelan- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No, 29. 


der. The preparation necessary for the execution of © 


this werk consisted in the extension of the Dureh- 
musterung to the tropic of Capricorn. ‘This was 
undertaken by Schonfeld at Leipsic. 

In the report to the gesellschaft at the meeting held 
at Stockholm in 1877, he has given an account of this 
work, in which he stated that it was sufficiently near 
completion to invite the consideration of the question 
of the meridian circle determinations of the places of 
stars to the ninth magnitude. The lack of southern 
fundamental stars whose positions were well deter- 
mined was still a hinderance to the immediate com- 
mencement of the work. Relatively more stars of 
this class are required than in the northern observa- 
tions, in order to eliminate the inequalities due to 
refraction. Schénfeld stated, that, while the burden 
of the determination of the places of these southern 
fundamental stars must rest mainly upon southern 
observations, it seemed necessary to connect them 
with the Pulkova system by a connecting link (mit- 
telglied), through observations at some observatory 
well situated for this purpose. At this meeting Sande 
Bakhuysen, at Leiden, gave notice of intention to 
take part in this work. Gyldén urged the importance 
of securing the co-operation of Melbourne; and Pe- 
ters suggested the advantage of securing Washington 
as an additional ‘mean term’ (V. J. S. 1877, p. 269). 

The next reference to this work is contained in 
the vierteljahrsscbrift for 1881, xv. p. 270. A list of 
803 southern stars is here given, whose exact places 
were at that time being determined at Leiden and at 
the Cape of Good Hope. This list was selected by 
Schénfeld and Sande Bakhuysen, in a way to meet 
the requirements referred to in previous discussions. 


A final catalogue of 83 southern fundamental stars — 
by Auwers appears in this number of the vierteljahrs-. 


schrift. The places depend upon the same authorities 
as for the northern stars, with the addition of the Cape 
of Good Hope catalogue for 1860, Williamstown, Mel- 
bourne for 1870, and Harvard college (Safford) for 
1864, For stars not observed at Pulkoya, the general 
catalogue of Yarnall (1858-1861), and the Washing- 
ton observations, with the new meridian cirele be- 
tween 1872 and 1875, were employed. As in the ease 
of the northern stars, these observations are all re- 
duced to the Pulkova system for 1865. It is under- 
derstood that the co-ordinates of the list of: 303 stars 
are to deperid upon this extension of the general 
system of publication xiv. to the limits required by 
the southern Durchmusterung of Schonfeld. 

It would be surprising if all the conditions of sne- 
cess were fulfilled in the first execution of a work 
having the magnitude, and involving the difficulties, 
of the scheme of observations undertaken under the 
auspices of the gesellschaft. The extent of the dis- 
cordances which are to be expected between the 
results obtained by different observers can only be 
ascertained when the observations by which the dif- 
ferent zones are to be connected haye been reduced, 


Each observer extended the working-list of his own _ 


zone 10’ north and south; and it is expected that a 
sufficient number of observations of this kind has 
been made to determine the systematic relations 


‘in right ascension and 2.3 


"xe 


Aveusr 24, 1883.] 


existing between the co-ordinates of each zone with 
those of its neighbor. . 

It is probable, however, that the experience of Gill 
will be repeated on a larger scale. In 1878 he solicited 
the co-operation of astronomers in the determination 
of the co-ordinates of twenty-eight stars, which he 
desired to employ in the reduction of his heliometer 
observations of the planet Mars for the purpose of 
obtaining the solar parallax. The results obtained 
at twelve observatories of the first class are published 
in vol, xxxix. p. 99, of the monthly notices of the 
Royal astronomical society. Notwithstanding the 
fact that the final values obtained at each observa- 
tory depend upon several observations, the average 
difference between the least and the greatest results, 
obtained by differeut observers for each star, is 0.245. 

3” in declination. In four 
eases the difference in right ascension exceeds 3.0, 
and in four cases the difference in declination ex- 
ceeds 3.0.” 

Even after the results are reduced to ahomogeneous 
system, the following outstanding deviations from a 
mean system are found: — 


| | 
Authority. | Aa} A& } Authority. |} Aa As 
~ ae | 
8 ” | . 8 | ” 

' Koenigsberg . .|+.005|-0.71 |} Leiden. . |—.053 | —0.19 
Melbourne, . .|+.026|-049 || Paris . . . . +.055) +0.01 
Pulkova. . . .|+.905|+0.36 || Washington . . |—.120 | +0.78 
Leipsic .. . . |+.049 |+0.40 || Harvard college, |—.072 | +0.09 
Greenwich. + |+.009 |—-0.56 || Cordoba . . . |—.032 | —0.20 
LON aa oe Cb May || Oxford. . . \* 076 | +0.21 


The observations of a second list of twelve stars, 


. one-half of the number being comparatively bright, 


and the remaining half faint, showed no marked im- 
provement, either with respect to the magnitude of 
errors which could be classed as accidental, or in 
regard to the systematic deviations from a mean 
system. 

This discussion revealed one source of discordance 
which will doubtless affect the zone observations; 
viz., the difference between right ascensions deter- 
mined by the eye-and-ear method, and those deter- 
mined with the aid of the chronograph. 

The programme of the gesellschaft makes no pro- 
vision for the elimination of errors which depend 
upon the magnitude of the stars observed; but 
special observations have been undertaken at several 
observatories for the purpose of defining the relation 
between the results for stars of different magnitudes. 
At Harvard-college observatory, the direct effect of a 
reduction of the magnitude has been ascertained by 
reducing the aperture of the telescope by means of 
diaphragms, Beside this, the observations have been 
arranged in such a manner that an error depend- 
ing upon the magnitude can be derived from an in- 
vestigation of the observations upon two successive 
nights. 

At Leiden, at Albany, and perhaps at other 
observatories, the effect of magnitude has been deter- 
mined by observations throngh wire gauze. But 


SCIENCE. 235 


notwithstanding all the precautions which have been 
taken in the observations, and which may be taken 
in the reductions, it will undoubtedly be found that 
the final results obtained will involve errors which 
cannot be entirely eliminated. 

In the experience of the speaker, two other sources 
of error have been detected. It has been found, that 
there is a well-defined equation between the observa- 
tions, which is a function of the amount, and the 
character of the illumination of the field of the tel- 
escope. It has also been found that observations 
made under very unfavorable atmospheric conditions 
differ systematically from those made under favorable 
conditions. When the seeing was noted as very bad, 
it is found that the observed right ascensions are 
about -085 too great, and that the observed declina- 
tions are about 0.8” too great. 

There are doubtless other sources of error which 
the discussion of the observations will bring to light. 
The effect of the discovery of these and other errors 
will probably be to hasten the repetition of the zone 
observations under a more perfect scheme, framed in 
such a manner as to cover all the deficiencies which 
experience has revealed, or may yet reveal. One 
would not probably go far astray in naming the year 
1900 as the mean epoch of the new survey. If the 
observations are again repeated in 1950, sufficient 
data will then have been accumulated for at least an 
approximate determination of the laws of siderial 
motion. 

What is the present state of our knowledge upon 
this subject? It can be safely said that it is very 
limited. First of all, it cannot be affirmed that there 
is a sidereal system in the sense in which we speak 
of the solar system. In the case of the solar system, 
we have a central sun about which the planets and 
their satellites revolve in obedience to Jaws which 
are satisfied by the hypothesis of universal gravita- 
tion. Do the same laws pervade the inter-stellar 
spaces? Is the law of gravitation indeed universal ? 
What physical connection exists between the solar 
system and the unnumbered and innumerable stars 
which form the galaxy of the heavens? Do these 
stars form a-system which has its own laws of rela- 
tive rest and motion ? or is the solar system a part 
of the stupendous whole? Does the solarsystem re- 
ceive its laws from the sidereal system? or has Kepler 
indeed pierced the depths of the universe in the discoy- 
ery of the laws which gave him immortality ? Are we 
to take the alternative stated by Ball, — either that our 
sidereal system is not an entirely isolated object, or 
its bodies must be vastly more numerous or more 
massive than even our most liberal interpretation of 
observations would seem to warrant? Are we to 
conclude, for example, that stars like. 1830 Groom- 
bridge and a Centauri, ‘‘after having travelled from 
an infinitely great distance on one side of the heavens, 
are now passing through our system for the first and 
only time, and that after leaving our system they 
will retreat again into the depths of space to a dis- 
tance which, for any thing we can tell, may be prac- 
tically regarded as infinite’? ? Can we assert with 
Newcomb, that in all probability the stars do not 


236 


form a stable system in the sense in which we say 
that the solar system is stable, — that the stars of this 
system do not revolve around definite attractive cen- 
tres? Admitting that the solar system is moving 
through space, can we at the present moment even de- 
termine whether that motion is rectilinear, or curved, 
to say nothing of the laws which govern that motion ? 
How much of truth is there in the conjectures of 
Wright, Kant, Lambert, and Mitchel, or even in the 
more serious conclusions of Moedler, that the Aleyone 
of the Pleiades is the central sun about which the 
solar system revolves ? 

These are questions which, if solved at all, must be 
solved by a critical study of observations of precis- 
ion accumulated at widely separated epochs of time. 
The first step in the solution has been taken in the 
systematic survey of the northern heavens undertaken 
by the gesellschaft, and in the survey of the south- 
ern heayens at Cordoba by Dr. Gould. The year 
1875 is the epoch about which are grouped the data 
which, combined with similar data for an epoch not 
earlier than 1950, will go far towards clearing up the 
doubts which now rest upon the question of the di- 
rection and the amount of the solar motion in space; 
and it cannot be doubted that our knowledge of the 
laws which connect the sidereal with the solar system 
will be largely increased through this investigation. 
The basis of this knowledge must be the observed 
proper motions of a selected list of stars, so exactly 
determined that the residual mean error shall not 
affect the results derived; or, failing in this, of groups 
of stars symmetrically distributed over the visible 
heavens, sufficient in number to affect an elimina- 
tion of the accidental errors of observation, without 
disturbing the equilibrium of the general system. 

For an investigation of this kind, a complete sys- 
tem of zone observations, at widely separated inter- 
vals, will afford the necessary data, if the following 
conditions are fulfilled. 

First: The proper motions must be derived by a 
method which does not involve an exact knowledge 
of the constants of precession. In every investiga- 
tion with which I am acquainted, the derived prop- 
er motions are functions of this element. 

Second: The general system of proper motions 
derived must be free from systematic errors. Errors 
of this class may be introduced either through the 
periodic errors inherent in the system of fundamental 
stars employed in the reduction of the zone observa- 
tions, or in a change in the constants of precession. 
It is in this respect that the utmost precaution will 
be required. If from any cause errors of even small 
magnitude are introduced into the general system of 
proper motions at any point, the effect of these errors 
upon the values of the co-ordinates at any future 
epoch will be directly proportional to the interval 
elapsed. We can, therefore, compute the exact 
amount of the accumulated error for any given 
time. 

When this test is applied to the fundamental stel- 
lar systems independently determined by Auwers, 
Safford, Boss, and Newcomb, we find the following 
deviations inter se at the end of a century. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 29. 


Maximum 
systematic 
deviation in a 


Maximum 
mean 
deviation in a 


century. century. 
Aa a6 
Auwers minus Safford . —0.228-} +0.2%) 0.238] 1 
Auwers minus Boss. . . . - +0.8 - 2) 
Auwers minus Newcomb . —0.09 40.8 0.06 2.2 


It is the common impression, that both the direction 
and the amount of the motion of the solar system in 
space are now well established. The conclusions of 
Struve upon this point are stated in such explicit 
language that it is not surprising that this impres- 
sion exists. He says, ‘‘ The motion of the solar sys- 
tem in space is directed to a point in the celestial 
sphere situated on the right line which joins the two 
stars measured from 7 and » Herculis. The velocity 
of this motion is such that the sun, with the whole 
cortége of bodies depending on him, advances annu- 
ally in the direction indicated, through a space equal 
to one hundred and fifty-four million miles.” 

It must be admitted that there is a general agree- 
ment in the assignment by different investigators of - 
the co-ordinates of the solar apex. This will be seen 
from the following tabular values. 


Authorities. yr Rughe x Declination. 
icrschel; 1783) yeeen~ iter = 257° OOF +25° OOF 
TERE Ale oho. ko ON ole 1. 230 00 +25 00 
ies busy ss oo so a 5 260 00 +27 00 
Herschel, 1805 ...... . 245 52 +49 38 
Argelander, 1837 . . . . = . 257 49 +28 50 
IPHENN 6 6°96 55 3 Gos co 252 24 +14 26 
SHURE laeeg Merah oo ES 261 22 +37 36 
Galloways ier sh le uetnl ten ac 260 O01 +34 23 
MIRON So 6 oe 6 eB ooo 261 38 +39 «(54 

J 256 54 +34 29 
FANE AG Ser vel sYe! he he inital lain hag 99 +26 ot 
s 261 14 +82 «55 
penn 203 4 $35 0 


In estimating the value which should be attached 
to these results, several considerations must be taken 
into account. 

(a) All of the results except those of Galloway de- 
pend practically upon the same authorities at one 
epoch, viz., upon Brodley. 

(b) The deviations inter se probably result, in a 
large measure, from the systematic errors inherent in 
one or both of the fundamental systems from which 
the proper motions were derived. For example, 
Lundahl employed Pond as one of his authorities, 
and it is in Pond’s catalogue that the most decided 
periodic errors exist. 

(c) Brot in 1812, Bessel in 1818, and Airy in 1860, 
reached the conclusion that the certainty of the move- 
ment of the solar system towards a given point in the 
heavens could not be affirmed. 


(d) The problemisindirect. Inthe case of a mem- 


= 


AvuGusT 24, 1883.] 


ber of the solar system, exact data will determine the 
exact position in orbit at a given time; but here we 
have neither exact data, nor can we employ trigono- 
metrical methods in the solution. We simply find 
that the observed proper motions are probably some- 
what better reconciled under the hypothesis of an as- 
sumed position of the apex of the solar motion. The 
method of investigation employed by Safford, who 
has of late years given much attention to this sub- 
ject, consists in assuming a system of co-ordinates 
for the pole of the solar motion, from which is deter- 
mined the direction each star would have if its own 
proper motions were zero. Comparing this direction 
with the observed direction as indicated by the ob- 
served proper motion, equations of condition are 
formed from which a correction is found to the as- 
sumed position of the apex, by the methods of least 
squares. 

It must always be kept in mind, that the quantities 
with which we must deal in this investigation are 
exceedingly minute, and that the accidental errors of 
observation are at any time liable to lead to illusory 
results. The weak link in the chain of Miidler’s 
reasoning is to be found here. I think we can as- 
sume 0.2” as the limit of precision in the absolute 
determination of the co-ordinates of any star, how- 
ever great the number of observations upon which it 
depends. Beyond this limit it is impossible to go, 
in the present date of instrumental astronomy. 

It is safe to say, that there is not a single star in 
the heavens whose co-ordinates are known with cer- 
tainty within this limit. Do not misunderstand me. 
Doubtless there are many stars in which the error 
will at some future time be found to fall within this 
limit. The law of probabilities requires this, if the 
maximum limit falls within 1”. But who is prepared 
to select a particular star, and say that the absolute 
position of this star in space cannot be more than 
0.2” in error ? 

e. At present an arbitrary hypothesis is necessary 
in the discussion of the problem. Airy assumed that 
the relative distances of the stars are proportional to 
their magnitudes; and he found slightly different 
results according to different modes of treatment. 
Safford assumed that the distances are, at least ap- 
proximately, in inverse proportion to the magnitude 
of the proper motions. The general result of his 
investigations, up to this point, is, that there is some 
hope of using the solar motion as a base, to advance 
our knowledge of stellar distances. Later investiga- 
tions have been made by De Ball, but the details 
have not yet come to hand. It is understood, how- 
ever, that his results coincide in a general way with 
those previously obtained. 

It is clear from this brief review, that we have 
here a field of investigation worthy of the highest 
powers of’ the astronomer. The first step has been 
taken in the survey of the heavens carried on under 
the auspices of the gesellschaft. It remains for the 
astronomers of the present generation to solve the 
difficulties which now environ the problem, and pre- 
pare the way for a more perfect scheme of observation 
in the next century. 


SCIENCE. 


237 


PAPERS READ BEFORE SECTION A. 


The total solar eclipse of May 6, 1883. 


BY EDWARD S. HOLDEN, OF WASHBURN OBSERVA- 
TORY, MADISON, WIS. 


Tus eclipse had the longest totality of any which 
has been observed. 

An expedition was sent by the National academy 
of sciences and the U. S. coast-survey jointly, under 
direction of a committee from the former. Ex- 
penses were met by an appropriation of $5,000 by 
congress and by the National academy of sciences 
from a fund left by Professor Watson. The navy 
department also placed the U.S. steamer Hartford 
at the disposal of the academy, to transport the ex- 
pedition from Peru to Caroline island, where the 
eclipse was to be observed, and thence to Honolulu. 

The efforts of Mr. Rockwell to provide money by 
private subscription for this undertaking, though 
directly unsuccessful, prepared the way by drawing 
public attention. 

Professor Young was the chairman of the com- 
mittee of the National academy of sciences: it was 
at one time hoped that he would take charge of 
the observing-party, but this proved impracticable. 
The reports of different members of the party are to 
be submitted to the National academy of sciences in 
November. Mr. Holden has, however, permission of 
the academy to present an account of the observation 
before the American association. It is understood 
that the present is not by any means a final report. 
This especially applies to the observations of Dr. 
Hastings, from which that gentleman concludes 
that the solar corona is chiefly a phenomenon due 
to the diffraction of the solar light at the moon’s 
limb. The computations to demonstrate this are 
not yet at hand, but are to be completed in a few weeks. 

The American party consisted of Edward S. 
Holden, director of Washburn observatory, Madison, 
Wis. ; Charles 8. Hastings, professor of physics in the 
Johns Hopkins university, Baltimore, Md.; Charles 
H. Rockwell, Tarrytown, N.Y.; E. D. Preston, aid 
U.S. coast and geodetic survey, Washington, D.C.; 
Winslow Upton, U.S. signal-office, Washington, D.C. ; 
and Ensign S. J. Brown, U.S.N., U.S. naval observa- 
tory, Washington, D.C: 

The original six members of the party were joined, 
on April 20, by four volunteer observers, all officers 
of the U.S. ship Hartford: these were Lieut. E. F. 
Qualtrough, U.S.N.; Passed assistant-surgeon W. S. 
Dixon, U.S.N.; Midshipman W. S. Fletcher, U.S.N.; 
and Midshipman J. G. Doyle, U.S.N. 

On March 11 the party was strengthened by the 
joining (at Colon) of the two English gentlemen who 
were sent out by the Royal society of London to 
make photographic observations of the eclipse, under 
instructions from J. Norman Lockyer, Esq., F.R.S., 
and Capt. W. de W. Abney, R.E., of the science and 
art department of the South Kensington museum. 
These were H. A. Lawrance, London, Eng., and 
C. Ray Woods, London, Eng. 

During the stay of the party on Caroline island 


238 


(April 21 to May 9), ten petty officers and men of the 
Hartford remained, and rendered very intelligent 
assistance. 

In all, the party on the island consisted of twenty- 
two persons. 

After giving details of the proceedings of the 
expedition, its arrival, and the preparations for the 
eclipse, Mr: Holden states, as to the event itself, that 
the following atmospheric conditions prevailed: The 
sky proved clear at first contact, cloudy at inter- 
vals till near totality, clear during totality except 
a slight haze in its first minutes, cloudy a few 
minutes after third contact, and finally clear at fourth 
contact. 

The meteorological observations (for which due 
credit is given to the members of the party that had 
them in charge) are noteworthy. In two weeks, 
April 25 to May 9, twenty showers were recorded; 
but the rainfall in each was very small, the total in 
the two weeks being about 8 inches. Half of this 
fell during the only considerable disturbance of the 
weather, which took place May 4, when it rained 
from midnight to 9.50 A.M. 

The barometer was notably uniform. Its diurnal 
movements were plainly marked; the maxima being 
at 9 A.M.-and p.m., the minima at 3 A.M. and P.M. 
The indications of the thermometer were very con- 
stant. The daily range was 9.3°, the highest reading 
89.3°, the lowest 72.4°, the daily maximum at noon, 
the minimum at 6 A.M. The relative humidity 
ranged from 70 per cent at midday to S4 in early 
morning, and at no time fell below 61. The island 
lies in the region of the south-east trades, but the 
wind (which was very steady) blew constantly be- 
tween north and east. The average velocity of the 
wind was 6.05 miles; the largest during twenty-four 
hours was 212 miles, the least 59 miles; the highest 
velocity, registered in a squall, was 16 miles per 
hour. , 

The botanical and zodlogical observations are not 
yet ready for publication. During the voyage a series 
of observations was made by Mr. Upton on southern 
variable stars. Dr. Hastings and Mr. Holden, 
while on the island, discovered twenty-three new 
double stars, a list of which has appeared in 
SCIENCE. 

In preparing for the eclipse? Mr. Holden assigned 
to each observer a single duty, not requiring him to 
move trom one instrument to another. The excel- 
lent photographic apparatus, prepared under the di- 
rection of Prof. W. Harkness of the U.S. naval 
observatory, was not used: the entire field of pho- 
tography was left to the English party accompanying 
our own, and to the French party under M. Jan- 
ssen, who were very successful in photographing the 
corona. 

The combination of polariscope and telescope was 
used, but not with successful results, the apparatus 
proving unsuitable. Dr. W.S. Dixon, who attended 
to a telescopic examination of the details of the inner 
corona, will report on the same separately, giving a 
drawing of the corona. : 
chief point of observation was as to the relative 


SCIENCE. 


With the spectroscope, the - 


[Vox. IL, No. 29. 


lengths of the line 1474 east and west of the sun. 
At second contact, this line was 12! longitude east and 
3’ west. The length of 1474 east diminished, while 
1474 west imcreased. At mid-totality these were 
equal. Before the third contact, the appearances 
were reversed: 1474 west was longer and brighter 
than 1474 east. 

At the beginning of totality, the lines C, D3, F, 
and (near G) were seen brilliant but very short. At 
mid-eclipse the spectrum was deliberately examined. 
On a continuous spectrum, two lines only were seen: 
1474 bright, and the D line dark. -C, EB, b, F, were 
certainly wanting. Near the end of totality, C, Ds, 
and Ff appeared again, very short. Five seconds 
after second contact, four curved lines were seen, — 
C, D3, 1474, F. A light cloud passed over the sun; 
and on its disappearance the spectrum showed a 
small line, of about one-third the height of the 
others, between 1474 and #. One hundred seconds 
after second contact, three coronal rings took the 
place of the lines: they were red, yellowish-green, 
and green, and are supposed to be C, Dz, and 1474. 
Two hundred seconds after second contact, the red 
ring was decidedly the brightest, and it continued to 
increase in brightness during sixty seconds. Two 
hundred and ninety seconds after second contact, 
the four curved lines, C, D3, 1474, F, appeared. The 
reversal of the bright lines at third contact was 
observed. The change was instantaneous, or nearly 
so. The reversal of the Fraunhofer lines was not 
seen. The only bright line seen for the first 190 
seconds was 1474. <A dark line was seen, which was 
probably D. 

Mr. Rockwell, using a Rutherford grating and. 
a narrow slip tangential to the limb, reported 
that 1474 K was not seen until a minute and a 
half had passed. It was followed4’ or 5’ west of 
the limb, twice; and it was seen only on the west- 
ern side of the.moon. Two green lines were also 
seen, each brighter and broader than 1474, but much 
shorter. 

Due credit is given by Mr. Holden to each of the 
observers of the party. His own observations were 
confined to a search for the planet Vulcan, reported 
to exist by Professors Watson and Swift. Mr. Hol- 
den’s search continued during the whole of totality 
(five minutes and twenty-five seconds), with a six- 
inch telescope with a power of 44 and field of 57 in 
declination. He saw every star on the map which he 
had previously published in ScteENCE (Feb. 23, 1883), 
down to the sixth magnitude, inclusive, except the 
thirty-sixth magnitude stars nearest to the sun; and 
he saw only these stars. One of the stars of the map 
was of the same magnitude as Watson’s ‘ Vulcan.’ 
This was a conspicuous object. No star half so 
bright as this could possibly have escaped obseryva- 
tion. Mr. Holden is therefore confident that Vulcan 
did not exist within the limits swept over. Mr. Hol- 
den also determined the direction of the motion of 
the diffraction bands before and after totality. This 
was an observation which he could not make suc- 
cessfully in Colorado in 1878, and which he believes 
has not been before made. 


+ 
ws. 


hs 


ae ee eh 


4 
Bah 


AvGuSsT 24, 1883.] 


A new method of investigating the flexure 
corrections of a meridian circle. 


BY PROF. W. A. ROGERS OF CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 


Tue error due to refraction, the flexure of the 
circle itself, and the astronomical flexure, the three 
being functions in themselves, are most prolific 


_ errors respecting flexures of a meridian circle. 


The theory which suggested itself was arrived at 
from the use on the telescope of a level of a differ- 
ent construction from any the author had ever seen. 
He had been a disbeliever in a level, but this device 
converted him into an advocate of the level. The 
level tube is attached to a plate, and the plate 
attached to the cube of the telescope. Then set 
the telescope at the north point, and reverse it to 
the south, reading the circle north and south. It 
would be much better were the point fixed upon a 
ring so that it can be readily placed at any inclina- 


_ tion. 


Results of tests with the almacantar, in 
time and latitude. f 


BY S. C. CHANDLER, OF CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 


Tue instrument which has been named the ‘al- 
macantar’ was described and figured in a paper 
presented to the association at its meeting in 1880. 
In its general nature it is an equal altitude instru- 
ment. A hollow rectangular trough containing mer- 
cury revolves horizontally on an upright central pillar. 
The trough contains a float which is perfectly free to 
obtain equilibrium, while it is constrained to revolve 
with the trough. ‘The float carries a telescope which 
turns on a horizontal axis, and can be clamped at any 
desired altitude. When this instrument is revolved 
on its vertical axis, any given point in the field of 
view describes a horizontal small circle, or almacantar, 
in the heavens. The transits of stars over a series 
of horizontal lines will thus afford means of deter- 
mining the altitude of the instrument, the error of 
the clock, the latitude or the declinations of stars, 
by a proper distribution of tbe observations in 
azimuth. 

A higher degree of accuracy is attainable by this 
instrument than by a transit or a zenith telescope of 
same size. The author’s comparison of results is as 
follows: The probable error of a single star in deter- 
mining the clock error is only +£0.05" or 0.06%. 


‘With a transit instrument of the same size, the quan- 


tity is not less than +£0.08". With the almacantar 
the probable error in determining the latitude of a 
single star is £0.55”, including the error of the star’s 
place. . This is about equal to the probable error of a 
pair of stars by Talcott’s method, with the larger 
telescopes of the United-States coast-survey. 

The instrument was a small one, —1} inches aper- 
ture and 25 inches focus. It was constructed for ex- 
periment only, in a provisional way, at a cost of $150. 
There are obvious defects in design and construction: 
when these are remedied, the error can be much re- 
duced. , 

A series of observations with this instrument are 
given by the author, for the latitude of a pier about 


SCIENCE. 


239 


80 feet north of the Harvard-college observatory. 
The value obtained by averaging these is 0.7” less 
than given by Professor Peiree in his discussion of 
the prime vertical transit observations taken by the 
Messrs, Bond, and adopted as the standard value of 
the latitude of the observatory. The author con- 
cludes that Professor Peirce’s value is too large by 
fully three-quarters of a second. By way of proof 
the author gives a series of observations on the five 
stars used by Professor Peirce. These are compared 
with those of Auwers and Boss, and the correction of 
the hitherto accepted value of the latitude now indi- 
cated by the almacantar is thereby confirmed. 

The clock errors of two nights selected at random, 
as given by the almacantar, were exhibited by the 
author. ‘The results both in time and latitude would 
be considered satisfactory with an ordinary instru- 
ment of two or three times the size. The almacan- 
tar can be made much larger than the one under 
trial, certainly of five or six inches aperture, with cor- 
responding increase of precision along with greater 
optical power. Its mechanical construction is simple, 
and reduces the sources of error. Thus in the older 
instruments there are.involved: 1°. The accurate 
construction of parts, as of pivots, level, graduated 
cireles, 2°, Fixity of mounting, to avoid a shifting 
of the instrumental plane. 3°. Rigidity of the in- 
strument itself, to secure constancy of collimation 
and flexure. In the almacantar only the last condi- 
tion has to be satisfied, and it is by far the easiest of 
the three to be attained mechanically. 

The author regards the principle of flotation 
adopted as being as delicate an indication of the di- 
rection of gravity as is obtained by the spirit-level. 

The almacantar gives promise of a new instrument- 
al resource in the higher practical astronomy. It is 
competent to deal with the most delicate problems. 
It will evade some of the minute sources of error 
that still cling to meridian instruments. Especially, 
it furnishes a method for obviating difficulties, 
hitherto regarded as almost insuperable, connected 
with flexure and refraction, in observations with the 
meridian circle. 


Internal contacts in transits of the inferior 
planets. 


BY J. R. EASTMAN, OF WASHINGTON, D.C. 


TuE author began by reviewing the different values 
obtained in observing transits of Venus, and by com- 
putations thereon since 1761. Eventually it became 
certain that the differences of these values depended 
chiefly upon the computer’s interpretation of the 
observer’s record. The phenomenon known as the 
‘black drop’ began to be considered as an element 
in the calculation. Stone regarded it a$ a necessary 
phenomenon. He gave an explanation of its origin, 
and stated that the moment when a dark ligament 
appears to connect the apparent limbs of the sun and 
Venus is the time of real internal contact. The 
second phase, when the limbs of Venus and the sun 
appear in contact, Stone says, is ‘the apparent in- 
ternal contact.’ 


240 


In 1876 M. André, the astronomer in charge of the 
French expedition to Nowméa, in 1874, announced 
that “‘the bridge, black ligament, or black drop, as 
it is variously called, is a necessary phenomenon under 
certain circumstances, and not merely accidental.” 
He noticed, however, that ‘‘it is always possible to 
get rid of the ligament, and reduce the phenomenon 
to geometrical constants, either (a) by reducing suf- 
ficiently the intensity of the source of light, or aug- 
menting the absorbing power of the dark glass 
employed; or (b) by covering the object-glass with a 
dark diaphragm composed of rings alternately full 
and empty, all very thin, and bearing a certain pro- 
portion to the focal length of the lens.”’ 

These results and opinions of M. André were not 
generally known at the time of the transit of Mercury 
in 1878; although his theories were confirmed by his 
observations at Utah at that date, the results being 
published by him in 1881. The black drop was seen 
and recognized in 1878 by many observers of Mer- 
cury; some evidently regarding their success in find- 
ing it asa proof of accuracy of observation, others 
apologizing for failing to perceive the phenomenan. 

The author of this paper regards it as noteworthy, 
that every observer, so far as ascertained, who got, 
by means of shade-glasses, the best definition of the 
sun’s limbs, with an illumination less than the eye 
could easily bear, did not see any trace of the black 
drop. Before seeing any account of M. André’s ex- 
periments, and having given little attention to his 
deductions announced by Father Perry, the author 
became independently convinced, after observation 
of the transit of Mercury in 1878, tliat the theory of 
a necessary black drop was fallacious. 

While, in 1874, many American observers perceived 
the black drop, none appear to have seen it, among 
the eight American parties organized by the transit- 
of-Venus commission of 1882. ; 

The paper winds up with an account of the ob- 
servations of contact at the transit-of-Venus station 
at Cedar: Keys, Fla., last December. The observa- 
tion of first contact was prevented by a cloud covering 
a part of the sun’s disk. On the disappearance of 
the cloud, the illumination was reduced by a sliding 
shade-glass, till easily endured by the eye. The defi- 
nition of the sun’s limb was perfect. When haze 
or cirri interfered, a less density of shade-glass was 
permitted; the steadiness and definition of the limb 
remaining, and that of Venus being ‘all that could 
be desired,’ with no modification, at the edge of the 
disk, of its dense black color. 

Before the second contact, the entire disk of Venus 
was visible for several minutes. The portion beyond 
the sun’s disk was bordered by a narrow line of light 
much less bright than the limb of the sun, and of a 
lighter tint. About one minute before contact, the 
apparent motion of the cusps of the sun, as they closed 
around the planet, noticeably increased, although the 
movement was perfectly steady. The cusps swept 
around the planet in.a line of sunlight of the same 
tint as adjacent parts of the sun. This line was as 
narrow as could be seen with the power used, —216 
diameters, — and was free from tremors or pulsations. 


SCIENCE. 


There was no agitation in the limb of either body 
near the point of contact, no trace of black drop, 
ligament, or band, no change of tint or color on the 
limb of Venus, and no indication of any clinging of 
the limbs. The contact was as easily, and perhaps 
as accurately, observed as the transit of a star within 
8° of the pole, under the best conditions. The un- 
certainty of noting the time of the visible contact 
could not have been greater than three-tenths of a 
second.~ The phenomena at the third contact were 
similar to those at the second, but, of course, in a 
reversed order, 

In conclusion, the author urges his belief, founded 
upon his own experience as well as on study of the 
work of other observers, that, with a properly arranged 
telescope and shade-glass, no observer need have 
trouble from any phase of the ‘black drop.’ To 
attain this end satisfactorily, the observer of contacts 
must have no other purpose in view than such ob- 
servation. The study of any branch of solar physics, 
or searching for some new thing, may, and probably 
will, detract from the accuracy of his work, which 
should be confined to obtaining the record of a good 
definition of the sun’s limb, as a reference-point in 
the passage of the limb of the planet. 


An improved method of producing a dark-field 
illumination of lines ruled upon glass. 


BY PROF. W. A. ROGERS OF CAMBRIDGE, MASS, 


By repeated and careful tests the author found that 
by letting the light, which is held at an angle of 45°, - 
into the telescope, and then splitting the rays by 
means of two opposite mirrors, throwing them on the 
horizontal line, an almost perfect light is secured. 


Thereby it becomes practicable to see with distinct- 


ness stars of the smaller magnitudes upon a dark field. 
Other astronomers present expressed a preference 

for the use of red light. Professor Rogers claimed 

that his method was better for minute observation. 


Physical phenomena on the planet Jupiter. 
BY G, W. HOUGH OF CHICAGO, ILL. 


TuHE rapid motion of revolution of the planet, by 
changing the positions of the markings on the surface 
to our line of sight, makes great apparent differences 
in their shapes and sizes. This has perhaps been the 
occasion of reports of sudden and great changes upon 
the surface. The changes are not sudden, but are 
gradual; and many of the features are permanent. 
Minor changes are constantly in progress in the 
equatorial belts. The author recently observ¢d the 
belt drifting down toward the red spot; but although 
it partly surrounded it, they did not coalesce, and the 
spot forced a scallop into the belt, —a very curious 
phenomenon. The author saw a satellite pass over 
this red spot, though the satellites are not visible 
when on the white part of the disk. He had also had 
a chance to eompare shadows of satellites on the disk 
and on the spot, and both are dark. The red spot 
has seemingly retrogaded during the past four years; 
that is to say, the rotation of Jupiter has seemingly 


DVoxr;. LE; No: 20suem 


- Aveusr 24, 1888.] 


increased from 9 h. 55 m. 33 s., to 9 h. 55 m. 38s. 
The future observer should attend more carefully to 
what he sees, and theorize afterward. 


} 


French observations on the solar eclipse of 
May 6, 1883. 


BY DR. J. JANSSEN OF PARIS, FRANCE, 


A LETTER from the French astronomer Dr. Jan- 
ssen, who passed through this country on his return 
from an eclipse expedition, was addressed by him for 
the use of the association to Professor Eastman, who 
translated it, and read the translation in Section A. 
It was thus entered as one of the papers. Dr. Jan- 
ssen says, — 

“*The principal object of the observations was the 
study of the dark rays in the corona. The visibility 
of these rays depends more on the light-power of the 
instrument than upon the perfection of the images. 
At first the ordinary brilliant rays which the corona 
presents were recognized; but what was new, and 
more complete than ever expected, was that the back- 
ground of the coronal spectrum presented the Fraun- 
hofer’s spectrum. All the dark rays were theoretically 
visible. Phenomena were observed, which indicated 
that there were some portions of the corona which 

reflected, much more abundantly than others, the 
_- light emanating from the solar sphere: this would 
indicate the existence of cosmic matter circulating 
around the sun. The rings of Rispighi were not 
found arranged symmetrically around the sun. The 
light of the corona was strongly and radially polarized. 

All these things were associated with the problem of 
circumsolar cosmic matter, The observations went 
to show that no important intra-mercurial planet 
exists.”” 


Some hitherto undeveloped properties of 
squares. 


BY 0. 8. WESTCOTT OF CHICAGO, ILL. 


THE paper began by ascribing due credit to a 
- method for obtaining squares and square roots, de- 
_ scribed by Samuel Emerson in 1865. The principles 
and details of that method were briefly summarized. 
Mr. Westcott then stated the general principles of his 
own method, which is very expeditious. He first 
shows that the tens and units figures of all perfect 
squares of numbers, from 26 to 49 inclusive, are the 
_ same as the tens and units figures of perfect squares 
_ of numbers from 24 to 1 inclusive. A table is pre- 
sented as follows: 

* (24)? = 576, add 100, = 676 = (26)? 
(23)2 = 529, add 200, = 729 = (27)? 
(22)2 = 484, add 300, = 784 = (28)? 
and so on, to ' 
D (1)2=1, add 2400, = 2401 = (49)? 

To determine the square of any number between 
25 and 50, find the corresponding number below 25, 
and augment its square by the number of hundreds 
indicated by its remoteness from 25. Or, more con- 
_yeniently, take the excess above 25 as hundreds, and 


SCIENCE. 


241 


augment by the square of what the number lacks of 
50. 
Thus: (43)? = (48 — 25) . 100 + (50 — 43)? 

= 1800 + 49 = 1849 

Conversely: To obtain the square root of 1764. 
The root is plainly between 25 and 50. The tens and 
units figures indicate 8. Therefore the square root 
of 1764 is 50 —S = 42. 

It is further observable, that the tens and units fig- 
ures of perfect squares of numbers from 51 to 99 in- 
clusive, are the same as the tens and units figures of 
the squares of numbers from 49 to 1 inclusive. Since 
4 X any number of hundreds + 25, 50, or 75, gives an 
exact number of hundreds, it follows that the tens 
and units figures of the squares of numbers less than 
25 represent all the possible combinations of figures 
in those orders of units for all square numbers. The 
terminations of all perfect square numbers are 22 in 
all: viz., 00, 01, 04, 09, 16, 21, 24, 25, 29, 36, 41, 44, 
49, 56, 61, 64, 69, 76, 81, S4, SO, 96. 

The following rule is then deduced: To square any 
number from 50 to 100, take twice the excess above 
50 as hundreds, and augment by the square of what 
the number lacks of 100. 

Thus: (89)? = 200 (89 — 50) + (100 — 89)? 

= 7800 a. Lo = 7921 


Conversely, 3249 : The root is plainly between 50 
and 60 ; the tens and units figures indicate 7 ; there- 
fore ¥3249 = 50 + 7 = 57. ; 

For greater convenience it is noted, that in such a 
case as ¥7921 the root is 50 + 39 or 100 — 11, andit is 
easier to use the latter form. That is, if the root 
is in the fourth quarter of the hundred, subtract the 
number indicated by the tens and units from 100, and 
the difference is the root. Thus /g28] = 100 —9= 
91. 

To square any number from 100 to 200, take four 
times the excess above 100 as hundreds, and augment 
by the square of what the number lacks of 200. 

To square any number from 125 to 250, take one- 
half the excess above 125 as thousands, and augment 
by what the number lacks of 250. 

By a series of steps of this character, the author 
gives methods for squaring higher numbers, and con- 
versely for obtaining their square roots. A choice of 
methods is also indicated. The facility which was 
obtained by such means was deftly illustrated on the 
blackboard by the author, who in a few seconds per- 
formed such exploits as raising 5 to the 16th power, 
and then showed in detail the processes which he had 
mentally executed. The paper sets forth the reason 
for each rule, deducing it from the usual binomial 
theorem, with almost obvious simplicity. 

The demonstrations were received by+the section 
with hearty applause. In response to an inquiry, Mr. 
Westcott stated, that he had been very successful in 
teaching this method in classes, about a tenth of his 
pupils becoming rapid experts in the methods of 
solution, which were especially useful in handling 
quadratic equations, and determining at a glance 
whether a given number is or is not a perfect square. 


242 


SCIENCE. 


PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION B.— PHYSICS. 


ADDRESS OF H. A. ROWLAND OF BAL- 
TIMORE, MD., VICE-PRESIDENT OF 
SECTION B, AUG. 15, 1888. 


A PLEA FOR PURE SCIENOE.1 


THE question is sometimes asked us as to the time 
of year we like the best. To my mind, the spring is 
the most delightful; for nature then recovers from 
the apathy of winter, and stirs herself to renewed 
life. The leaves grow, and the buds open, with a 
suggestion of yigor delightful to behold; and we 


revel in this ever-renewed life of nature. But,this 
cannot always last. The leaves reach their limit; 
the buds open to the full, and pass away. Then we 


begin to ask ourselves whether all this display has 
been in vain, or whether it has led to a bountiful 
harvest. 

So this magnificent country of ours has rivalled the 
vigor of spring in its growth. Forests have been 
levelled, and cities built, and a large and powerful 
nation has been created on the face of the earth. 
We are proud of our advancement. We are proud of 
such cities as this, founded in a day upon a spot over 
which, but a few years since, the red man hunted the 
buffalo. But we must remember that this is only the 
spring of our country. Our glance must not be back- 
ward; for however beautiful leaves and blossoms are, 
and however marvellous their rapid increase, they are 
but leaves and blossoms after all.. Rather should we 
look forward to discover what will be the outcome of 
all this, and what the chance of harvest. For if we 
do this in time, we may discover the worm which 
threatens the ripe fruit, or the barren spot where the 
harvest is withering for want of water. 

I am required to address the so-called physical 
section of this association. Fain would I speak pleas- 
ant words to you on this subject; fain would I re- 
count to you the progress made in this subject by my 
countrymen, and their-noble efforts to understand 
the order of the universe. But I go out to gather 
the grain ripe to the harvest, and I find only tares. 
Here and there a noble head of grain rises above the 
weeds; but so few are they, that I find the majority 
of my countrymen know them not, but think that 
they have a waving harvest, while it is only one of 
weeds after all. American science is a thing of the 
future, and not of the present or past; and the prop- 
er course of one in my position is to consider what 
must be done to create a science of physics in this 
country, rather than to call telegraphs, electric lights, 
and such conveniences, by the name of science. I do 
not wish to underrate the value of all these things: 
the progress of the world depends on them, and he is 
to be honored who cultivates them successfully. So 
also the cook who invents a new and palatable dish 
for the table benefits the world to a certain de- 

1Tn using the word ‘ science,’ I refer to physical science, as I 
know nothing of natural science. Probably my remarks will, 
however, apply to both, but I do not know. 


gree; yet we do not dignify him by the name of a 
chemist. And yet it is not an uncommon thing, 
especially in American newspapers, to have the ap- 
plications of science confounded with pure science; 
and some obscure American who steals the ideas of 
some great mind of the past, and enriches himself 
by the application of the same to domestic uses, is 
often lauded above the great originator of the idea, 
who might have worked out hundreds of such appli- 
cations, had his mind possessed the necessary ele- 
ment of vulgarity. I have often been asked, which 
was the more important to the world, pure or applied 
science. To have the applications of a science, the 
science itself must exist. Should we stop its prog- 
ress, and attend only to its applications, we should 
soon degenerate into a people like the Chinese, who 
have made no progress for generations, because they 
have been satisfied with the applications of science, 
and have never sought for reasons in what they have 
done. The reasons constitute pure science. They 
have known the application of gunpowder for cen- 
turies; and yet the reasons for its peculiar action, if 
sought in the proper manner, would haye developed 
the science of chemistry, and even of physics, with 
all their numerous applications. By contenting them- 
selves with the fact that gunpowder will explode, 
and seeking no farther, they have fallen behind in 
the progress of the world; and we now regard this 
oldest and most numerous of nations as only bar- 
barians. And yet our own country is in this same 
state. But we have done better; for we have taken 
the science of the old world, and applied it to all our 
uses, accepting it like the rain of heaven, without 


_ asking whence it came, or even acknowledging the 


debt of gratitude we owe to the great and unselfish 
workers who have given it to us. And, like the rain 
of heaven, this pure science has fallen upon our 
country, and made it great and rich and strong. 

To a civilized nation of the present day, the appli- 
cations of science are a necessity; and our country 
has hitherto succeeded in this line, only for the reason 
that there are certain countries in the world where 
pure science has been and is cultivated, and where 
the study of nature is considered a noble pursuit. 
But such countries are rare, and those who wish to 


pursue pure science in our own country must be — 


prepared to face public opinion in a manner which 


requires much moral courage. They must be prepared — 


to be looked down upon by every successful inventor 
whose shallow mind imagines that the only pursuit of 
mankind is wealth, and that he who obtains most has 
best succeeded in this world. Everybody can com- 
prehend a million of money;. but how few can com- 
prehend any advance in scientific theory, especially 
in its more abstruse portions! And this, I believe, 
is one of the causes of the small number of persons 
who have ever devoted themselves to work of the 
higher order in any human pursuit, Man is a grega- 
rious animal, and depends very much, for his happi- 
ness, on the sympathy of those around him; and it is 


[Vou. II., No. 29, 


_ Aueust 24, 1883.] 


rare to find one with the courage to pursue his own 
ideals in spite of his surroundings. In times past, men 
were more isolated than at present, and each came in 
contact with a fewer number of people. Hence that 
time constitutes the period when the great sculptures, 
paintings, and poems were produced. Each man’s 
mind was comparatively free to follow its own ideals, 
and the results were the great and unique works of 
the ancient masters. To-day the railroad and the 
telegraph, the books and newspapers, have united 
each individual man with the rest of the world: in- 
stead of his mind being an individual, a thing apart 
by itself, and unique, it has become so influenced by 
the outer world, and so dependent upon it, that it 
has lost its originality to a great extent. The man 
who in times past would naturally have been in the 
lowest depths of poverty, mentally and physically, 
to-day measures tape behind a counter, and with 
lordly air advises the naturally born genius how he 
may best bring his outward appearance down to a 
level with his own. A new idea he never had, but 
he can at least cover his mental nakedness with ideas 
imbibed from others. So the genius of the past soon 
perceives that his higher ideas are too high to be 
appreciated by the world: his mind is clipped down 
to the standard form; every natural offshoot upwards 
is repressed, until the man is no higher than his fel- 
lows. Hence the world, through the abundance of 
its intercourse, is reduced to a level. What was 
* formerly a grand and magnificent landscape, with 
mountains ascending above the clouds, and depths 
whose gloom we cannot now appreciate, has become 
serene and peaceful. The depths have been filled, 
and the heights levelled, and the wavy harvests and 
smoky factories cover the landscape. 
As far as the average man is concerned, the change 
is for the better. The average life of man is far 
pleasanter, and lis mental condition better, than be- 
, fore. But we miss the vigor imparted by the moun- 
tains. We are tired of mediocrity, the curse of our 
eountry. We are tired of seeing our artists reduced 
to hirelings, and imploring congress to protect them 
against foreign competition. We are tired of seeing 
our countrymen take their science from abroad, and 
boast that they here convert it into wealth. We are 
tired of seeing our professors degrading their chairs 
by the pursuit of applied science instead of pure 
science; or sitting inactive while the whole world 
is open to investigation; lingering by the wayside 
while the problem of the universe remains unsolved. 
We wish for something higher and nobler in this 
country of mediocrity, for a mountain to relieve the 
landscape of its monotony. We are surrounded with 
mysteries, and have been created with minds to enjoy 
and reason to aid in the unfolding of such mysteries. 
Nature calls to us to study her, and our better feel- 
ings urge us in the same direction. 
_ For generations there have been some few students 
¥f science who have esteemed the study of nature the 
most noble of pursuits. Some have been wealthy, 
and some poor; but they have all had one thing in 
common, — the love of nature and its laws. To these 
w men the world owes all the progress due to ap- 


SCIENCE. 


243 


plied science, and yet very few ever received any 
payment in this world for their labors. 

Faraday, the great discoverer of the principle on 
which all machines for electric lighting, electric rail- 
ways, and the transmission of power, must rest, died 
a poor man, although others and the whole world 
have been enriched by his discoveries. And such 
must be the fate of the followers in his footsteps for 
some time to come. : 

But there will be those in the future who will study 
nature from pure love, and for them higher prizes 
than any yet obtained are waiting. We have but 
yet commenced our pursuit of science, and stand 
upon the threshold wondering what there is within. 
We explain the motion of the planet by the law of 
gravitation; but who will explain how two bodies, 
millions of miles apart, tend to go toward each other 
with a certain force ? 

We now weigh and measure electricity and electric 
currents with as much ease as ordinary matter, yet 
have we made any approach to an explanation of the 
phenomenon of electricity? Light is an undulatory 
motion, and yet do we know what it is that undu- 
lates? Heat is motion, yet do we know what it is 
that moves? Ordinary matter is a common sub- 
stance, and yet who shall fathom the mystery of its 
internal constitution ? 

There is room for all in the work, and the race has 
but commenced. The problems are not to be solved 
in a moment, but need the best work of the best 
minds, for an indefinite time. 

Shall our country be contented to stand by, while 
other countries lead in the race? Shall we always 
grovel in the dust, and pick up the crumbs which 
fall from the rich man’s table, considering ourselves 
richer than he because we have more crumbs, while 
we forget that he has the cake, which is the source of 
allecrumbs ? Shall we be swine, to whom the corn and 
husks are of more value than the pearls? If I read 
aright the signs of the times, I think we shall not 
always be contented with our inferior position. 
From looking down we have almost become blind, 
but may recover. In a new country, the necessities 
of life must be attended to first. The curse of Adam 
is upon us all, and we must earn our bread. 

But it is the mission of applied science to render 
this easier for the whole world. There is a story 
which I once read, which will illustrate the true posi- 
tion of applied science in the world. A boy, more 
fond of reading than of work, was employed, in the 
early days of the steam-engine, to turn the valve at 
every stroke. Necessity was the mother of invention 
in his case: his reading was disturbed by his work, 
and he soon discovered that he might become free 
from his work by so tying the valve to some mov- 
able portion of the engine, as to make it move its 
own valve. So I consider that the true pursuit of 
mankind is intellectual. The scientific study of na- 
ture in all its branches, of mathematics, of mankind 
in its past and present, the pursuit of art, and the 
cultivation of all that is great and noble in the world, 
— these are the highest occupation of mankind, Com- 
merce, the applications of science, the accumulation 


244 


of wealth, are necessities which are a curse to those 
with high ideals, but a blessing to that portion of the 
world which has neither the ability nor the taste for 
higher pursuits. 

As the applications of science multiply, living be- 
comes easier, the wealth necessary for the purchase 
of apparatus can better be obtained, and the pursuit 
of other things beside the necessities of life becomes 
possible. : 

But the moral qualities must also be cultivated in 
proportion to the wealth of. the country, before much 
can be lone in pure science. The successful sculptor 
or painter naturally attains to wealth through the le- 
gitimate work of his profession, The novelist, the 
poet, the mucician, all have wealth before them as 
the end of asuccessful career. But the scientist and 
the mathematician have no such incentive to work: 
they must earn their living by other pursuits, usually 
teaching, and only devote their surplus time to the 
true pursuit of their science. And frequently, by the 
small salary which they receive, by the lack of in- 
strumental and literary facilities, by the mental 
atmosphere in which they exist, and, most of all, by 
their low ideals of life, they are led to devote their 
surplus time te applied science or to other means of 
increasing their fortune. How shall we, then, honor 
the few, the very few, who, in spite of all difficulties, 
have kept their eyes fixed on the goal, and have stead- 
ily worked for pure science, giving to the world a most 
precious donation, which has borne fruit in our 
greater knowledge of the universe and in the applica- 
tions to our physical life which have enriched thou- 
sands and benefited each one of us? There are also 
those who have every facility for the pursuit of science, 
who have an ample salary and every appliance for 
work, yet who devote themselves to commercial work, 
to testifying in courts of law, and to any other work to 
inerease their present large income. Such men would 
be respectable if they gave up the name of professor, 
and took that of consulting chemists or physicists. 
And such men are needed in the community. But 
for a man to occupy the professor’s chair in a promi- 
nent college, and, by his energy and ability in the 
commercial applications of his science, stand before 
the local community in a prominent manner, and be- 
come the newspaper exponent of his science, is a dis- 
grace both to him and his college. It is the death- 
blow to science in that region. Call him by his proper 
name, and he becomes at once a useful member of the 
community. Put in his place a man who shall by 
precept and example cultivate his science, and how 
different is the result! Young men, looking forward 
into the world for something to do, see before them 
this high and noble life, and they see that there is 
something more honorable than the accumulation of 
wealth. They are thus led to devote their lives to 
similar pursuits, and they honor the professor who has 
drawn them to something higher than they might 
otherwise have aspired to reach. 

I do not wish to be misunderstood in this matter. 
It is no disgrace to make money by an invention, or 
otherwise, or to do commercial scientific work under 
some circumstances. But let pure science be the aim 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IIL., No. 29. 


of those in the chairs of professors, and so prominently 
the aim that there can be no mistake. If our aim in 
life is wealth, let us honestly engage in commercial 
pursuits, and compete with others for its possession. 
But if we choose a life which we consider higher, let 
us live up to it, taking wealth or poverty as it may 
chance to come to us, but letting neither turn us 
aside from our pursuit. 

The work of teaching may absorb the energies of 
many; and, indeed, this is the excuse given by most 
for not doing any scientific work. But thereis an old 
saying, that where there is a willthereisa way. Few 
professors do as much teaching or lecturing as the 
German professors, who are also noted for their elab- 
orate papers in the scientific journals. I myself — 
have been burdened down with work, and know what 
it is; and yet I here assert that all can find timefor 
scientific research if they desire it. But here, again, 
that curse of our country, mediocrity, is upon us. 
Our colleges and universities seldom call for first-class 
men of reputation, and I have even heard the trustee _ 
of a well-known college assert that no professor should 
engage in research because of the time wasted! Iwas _ 
glad to see, soon after, by the call of a prominent scien- 
tist to that college, that the majority of the trustees 
did not agree with him. : 

That teaching is important, goes without saying, A 
successful teacher is to be respected; but if he does 
not lead his scholars to that which is highest, is he not 
pblameworthy? We are, then, to look to the colleges 
and universities of the land for most of the workin _ 
pure science which is done. Let us therefore exam- 
ine these latter, and see what the prospect is. 

One, whom perhaps we may here style a practical 
follower of Ruskin, has stated that while in this 
country he was variously designated by the title of 
captain, colonel, and professor. The story may or 
may not be true, but we all know enough of the cus- 
toms of our countrymen not to dispute it on general 
principles. All men are born equal: some men are 
captains, colonels, and professors, and therefore all 
men are such. The logicis conclusive; and the same 
kind of logic seems to have been applied to our 
schools, colleges, and universities. I have before me™ 
the report of the commissioner of education for 1880. 
According to that report, there were 389,1 or say, in 
round numbers, 400 institutions, calling themselves 
colleges or universities, in our country! We may 
well exclaim that ours is a great country, having 
more than the whole world beside. The fact is suf- 
ficient. The whole earth would hardly support such 
a number of first-class institutions. The curse of 
mediocrity must be upon them, to swarm in such 
numbers. They must be a cloud of mosquitoes, in- — 
stead of eagles as they profess. And this becomes — 
evident on further analysis. About one-third aspire 
to the name of university; and I note one called by © 
that name which has two professors and 18 students, — 
and another having three teachers and 12 students! 
And these instanees are not unique, for the number ~ 
of small institutions and schools which eall them- . 
selves universities is very great. It is difficult to : 

1 364 reported on, and 25 not reported. 


: 


\ 


~~ 


‘ 


Avausr 24, 1883.] 


decide from the statistics alone the exact standing 
of these institutions. The extremes are easy to man- 
age. Who can doubt that an institution with over 
800 students, and a faculty of 70, is of a higher grade 
than those above cited having 10 or 20 students and 
two or three in the faculty? Yet this is not always 
true; for I note one institution with over 500 students 
which is known to me personally as of the grade of 
ahigh school. The statistics are more or less defec- 
tive, and it would much weaken the force of my 
remarks if I went too much into detail. I append 
the following tables, however, of 330 so-called col- 
leges and universities : — 


218 had from 0 to 100 students. 


ss “ “ 100 se 200 “ 

12 *« “ 200 * 300 “ 
6 ae “ 300 oe 500 “ 
6 over 500 


Of 322 so-called colleges and universities: — 


206 had 0 to 10 in the faculty. 
99 “oe 10 “ 20 aa “ 
Lt **. 20-or over. -* ns 


If the statistics were forthcoming,—and possibly 
they may exist,— we might also get an idea of the 
standing of these institutions and their approach to 
the true university idea, by the average age of the 
scholars, Possibly also the ratio of number of schol- 
ars to teachers might be of some help. All these meth- 
ods give an approximation to the present standing 
of the institutions. But there is another method of 
attacking the problem, which is very exact, but it only 
gives us the possibilities of which the institution is 
capable. I refer to the wealth of the institution. In 

estimating the wealth, I have not included the value 
of grounds and buildings, for this is of little impor- 
tance, either to the present or future standing of the 
institution. As good work can be done in a hovel as 
ina palace. I have taken the productive funds of 
_ the institution as the basis of estimate. I find: — 


234 have below $500,000. 


8 “ between $500,000 and $1,000,000, 
8 “ over $1,000,000, 


There is no fact more firmly established, all over the 


maide to pay for itself. Usually the cost to a college, 


of educating a young man, very much exceeds what 
he pays for it, and is often three or four times as 


} 
} 
: 
F world, than that the higher education can never be 


much. The hizher the education, the greater this 
proportion will be; and a university of the highest 
elass should anticipate only a small accession to its 
jneome from the fees of students. [lence the test 
I have applied must give a true representation of 
the possibilities in every case. According to the fig- 
ures, only 16 colleges and universities have $500,000 
or over of invested funds, and only one-half of these 


_ have $1,000,000 and over. Now, even the latter sum 


SCIENCE. 


245 


is a very small endowment for a college; and to call 
any institution a university which has less than 
$1,000,000, is to render it absurd in the face of the 
world. And yet more than 100 of our institutions, 
many of them very respectable colleges, have abused 
the word ‘university’ in this manner. It is to be 
hoped that the endowment of the more respectable 
of these institutions may be increased, as many of 
them deserve it; and their unfortunate appellation 
has probably been repented of long since. 

But what shall we think of a community that gives 
the charter of a university to an institution with a 
total of $20,000 endowment, two so-called professors, 
and 18 students! or another with three professors, 
12 students, and a total of $27,000 endowment, mostly 
invested in buildings! And yet there are very many 
similar: institutions; there being 16 with three pro- 
fessors or less, and yery many indeed with only four 
or five. 

Such facts as these could only exist in a democratic 
country, where pride is taken in reducing every thing 
to a level. And I may also say, that it can only exist 
in the early days of such a democracy; for an intelli- 
gent public will soon perceive that calling a thing by 
a wrong name does not change its eharacter, and 
that truth, above all things, should be taught to the 
youth of the nation. 

It may be urged, that all these institutions are 
doing good work in education; and that many young 
men are thus taught, who could not afford to go to a 
true college or university. But I do not object to the 
education, — though [ have no doubt an investiga- 
tion would disclose equal absurdities here, — for it is 
aside from my object. But I do object to lowering the 
ideals of the youth of the country. Let them know 
that they are attending a school, and not a university; 
and let them know that above them comes the college, 
and above that the university. Let them be taught 
that they are only half-educated, and that there are 
persons in the world by whose side they are but 
atoms. In other words, let them be taught the truth. 

It may be that some small institutions are of high 
grade, especially those which are new; but who can 
doubt that more than two-thirds of our institutions 
calling themselves colleges and universities are un- 
worthy of the name? Each one of these institutions 
has so-called professors, but it is evident that they can 
be only of the grade of teachers. Why should they not 
be so called? The position of teacher is an honored 
one, but is not made more honorable by the assump- 
tion of a false title. Furthermere, the multiplication 
of the title, and the ease with which it can be obtained, 
render it seareely worth striving for, When the man 
of energy, ability, and perhaps genius is rewarded by 
the same title and emoluments as the commonplace 
man with the modicum of knowledge, whe takes to 
teaching, not because of any aptitude for his work, 
but possibly because he has not the energy to com- 
pete with his fellow-men in busines<, then I say one 
of the inducements for first-class men to become 
professors is gone. 

When work an! ability are required for the position, 
and when the professor is expected to keep up with 


246 


the progress of his subject, and to do all in his power 
to advance it, and when he is selected for these rea- 
sons, then the position will be worth working for, 
and the successful competitor will be honored accord- 
ingly. The chivalric spirit which prompted Faraday 
to devote his life to the study of nature may actuate 
a few noble men to give their life to scientific work; 
but, if we wish to cultivate this highest class of men 
in science, we must open a career for them worthy of 
their efforts. 

Jenny Lind, with her beautiful voice, would have 
cultivated it to some extent in her native village; 
yet who would expect her to travel over the world, 
and give concerts for nothing ? and how would she 
have been able to do so if she had wished? And so 
the scientific man, whatever his natural talents, must 
have instruments and a library, and a suitable and 
respectable salary to live upon, before he is able to 
exert himself to his full capacity. This is true of 
advance in all the higher departments of human 
learning, and yet something more is necessary. Itis 
not those in this country who receive the largest 
salary, and have positions in the richest colleges, who 
have advanced their subject the most: men receiving 
the highest salaries, and occupying the professor’s 
chair, are to-day doing absolutely nothing in pure 
science, but are striving by the commercial applica- 
tions of their science to increase their already large 
salary. Such pursuits, as I have said before, are 
honorable in their proper place; but the duty of a 
professor is to advance his science, and to set an ex- 
ample of pure and true devotion to it which shall 
demonstrate to his students and the world that there 
is something high and noble worth living for. Money- 
changers are often respectable men, and yet they 
were once severely rebuked for carrying on their trade 
in the court of the temple. 

Wealth does not constitute a university, buildings 
do not: it is the men who constitute its faculty, 
and the students who learn from them. It is the 
last and highest step which the mere student takes. 
He goes forth into the world, and the height to which 
he rises has been influenced by the ideals which 


he has consciously or unconsciously imbibed in his. 


university. If the professors under whom he has 
studied have been high in their profession, and have 
themselves had high ideals; if they have considered 
the advance of their particular subject their highest 
work in life, and are themselves honored for their in- 
tellect throughout the world, —the student is drawn 
toward that which is highest, and ever after in 
life has high ideals. But if the student is taught 
by what are sometimes called good teachers, and 
teachers only, who know little more than the student, 
and who are often surpassed and even despised by 
him, no one can doubt the lowered tone of his mind. 
He finds that by his feeble efforts he can surpass 
one to whom a university has given its highest honor; 
and he begins to think that he himself is a born 
genius, and the incentive to work is gone. He is 
great by the side of the molehill, and does not know 
any mountain to compare himself with. 
A university should not only have great men in its 


SCIENCE. 


ae eee Cee oo oa 
i 


[Vou. IL, No. 29. 


faculty, but have numerous minor professors and 
assistants of all kinds, and should encourage the 
highest work, if for no other reason than to encour- 
age the student to his highest efforts. 

But, assuming that the professor has high ideals, 
wealth such as only-a large and high university can 
command is necessary to allow him the fullest devel- 
opment. 

And this is specially so in our science of physics. 
In the early days of physics and chemistry, many of 
the fundamental experiments could be performed 
with the simplest apparatus. And so we often find 
the names of Wollaston and Faraday mentioned as 
needing scarcely any thing for their researches. 
Much can even now be done with the simplest appar- 
atus; and nobody, except the utterly incompetent, 
need stop for want of it. But the fact remains, that 
one can only be free to investigate in all departments 
of chemistry and physics, when he not only has a 
complete laboratory at his command, but a friend to 
draw on for the expenses of each experiment. That 
simplest of the departments of physics, namely, 
astronomy, has now reached such perfection that no- 
body can expect to do much more in it without a 
perfectly equipped observatory; and even this would 
be useless without an income sufficient to employ a 
corps of assistants to make the observations and com- 
putations. But even in this simplest of physical 
subjects, there is great misunderstanding. Our coun- 
try has very many excellent observatories: and yet 
little work is done in comparison, because no provis- 
ion has been made for maintaining the work of the 
observatory; and the wealth which, if concentrated, 
might have made one effective observatory which 
would prove a benefit to astronomical science, when 
scattered among a half-dozen, merely furnishes tele- 
scopes for the people in the surrounding region to 
view the moon with. And here I strike the keynote 
of at least one need of our country, if she would 
stand well in science; and the following item which 
I clip from a newspaper will illustrate the matter: — 

“The eccentric old Canadian, Arunah Huntington, 
who left $200,000 to be divided among the public 
schools of Vermont, has done something which will 
be of little practical value to the schools. Hach dis- 
trict will be entitled to the insignificant sum of $10, 
which will not advance much the cause of educa- 
tion.’” 

Nobody will dispute the folly of such a bequest, or 
the folly of filling the country with telescopes to look 
at the moon, and calling them observatories. How — 
much better to concentrate the wealth into a few 
parcels, and make first-class observatories and insti- 
tutions with it! ( 

Is it possible that any of our four hundred colleges — 
and universities have love enough of learning to 
unite with each other and form larger institutions? 
Is it possible that any have such a love of truth that 
they are willing to be called by their right name? 


I fear not; for the spirit of expectation, which is — 


analogous to the spirit of gambling, is strong in the 
American breast, and each institution which now, 
except in name, slumbers in obscurity, expects in — 


| 


time to bloom out into full prosperity. Although 


many of them are under religious influence, where 
truth is inculeated, and where men are taught to take 
a low seat at the table in order that they may be hon- 
ored by being called up higher, and not dishonored 
by being thrust down lower, yet these institutions 
have thrust themselves into the highest seats, and 
cannot probably be dislodged. 

But would it not be possible to so change public 
opinion that no college could be founded with a less 
endowment than say $1,000,000, or no university 
with less than three or four times that amount ? 
From the report of the commissioner of education, 
Tlearn that such a change is taking place; that the 
tendency towards large institutions is increasing, 
and that it is principally in the west and south-west 
that the multiplication of small institutions with big 
names is to be feared most, and that the east is al- 
most ready for the great coming university. 

The total wealth of the four hundred colleges and 
universities in 1880 was about $40,000,000 in build- 
ings, and $43,000,000 in productive funds. This 
would be sufficient for one great university of $10,- 
000,000, four of $5,000,000, and twenty-six colleges 
of $2,000,000 each. But such an idea can of course 
never be carried out. Government appropriations 
are out of the question, because no political trickery 
must be allowed around the ideal institution. 

In the year 1880 the private bequests to all schools 
and colleges amounted to about $5,500,000; and, 
although there was one bequest of $1,250,000, yet the 
amount does notappear to be phenomenal. It would 
thus seem that the total amount was about five mil- 
lion dollars in one year, of which more than half is 

‘given to so-called colleges and universities. It would 
be very difficult to regulate these bequests so that 
they might be concentrated sufficiently to produce an 
immediate result. But the figures show that gener- 
osity is a prominent feature of the American people, 
and that the needs of the country only have to be 
appreciated to have the funds forthcoming. We 
must make the need of research and of pure science 
felt in the country. We must live such lives of pure 


devotion to our science, that all shall see that we ask 


for money, not that we may live in indolent ease 
at the expense of charity, but that we may work 


_ for that which has advanced and will advance the 


world more than any other subject, both intellectu- 
ally and physically. We must live such lives as to 
neutralize the influence of those who in high places 
have degraded their profession, or have given them- 
selyes over to ease, and do nothing for the science 
which they represent. Let us do what we can with 
the present means at our disposal. There is not one 
of us who is situated in the position best adapted to 
bring out all his powers, and to allow him to do most 
for his science. All have their difliculties, and I do 


not think that circumstances will ever radically 


change a man. If a man has the instinct of research 
in him, it will always show itself in some form, But 
circumstances may direct it into new paths, or may 
foster it so that what would otherwise have died as a 
bud now blossoms and ripens into the perfect fruit. 


SCIENCE. 


247 


Americans have shown no lack of invention in 
sinall things; and the same spirit, when united to 
knowledge and love of science, becomes the spirit of 
research. The telegraph-operator, with his limited 
knowledge of electricity and its laws, naturally turns 
his attention to the improvement of the only electri- 
cal instrument he knows any thing about; and his 
researches would be confined to the limited sphere of 
his knowledge, and to the simple laws with which he 
is acquainted. But as his knowledge increases, and 
the field broadens before him, as he studies the math- 
ematical theory of the subject, and the electro-mag- 
netic theory of light loses the dim haze due to dis- 
tance, and becomes his constant companion, the tel- 
egraph-instrument becomes to him a toy, and his 
effort to discover something new becomes research 
in pure science. . 

It is useless to attempt to advance science until 
one has mastered the science: he must step to the 
front before his blows can tell in the strife. Further- 
more, I.do not believe anybody can be thorough in 
any department of science, without wishing to ad- 
vance it. In the study of what is known, in the 
reading of the scientific journals, and the discussions 
therein contained of the current scientific questions, 
one would obtain an impulse to work, even though it 
did not before exist. And the same spirit which 
prompted him to seek what was already known, 
would make him wish to know the unknown. And 
I may say that I never met a case of thorough knowl- 
edge in my own science, except in the case of well- 
known investigators. I have met men who talked 
well, and I have sometimes asked myself why they 
did not do something ; but further knowledge of 
their character has shown me the superficiality of 
their knowledge. Iam no longer a believer in men 
who could do something if they would, or would do 
something if they had a chance. They are impostors. 
If the true spirit is there, it will show itself in spite 
of circumstances. 

As I remarked before, the investigator in pure 
science is usually a professor. He must teach as 
well as investigate. It is a question which has been 
discussed in late years, as to whether these two func- 
tions would bettey be combined in the same individual, 
or separated. Itseems tobe the opinion of most, that 
a certain amount of teaching is conducive, rather 
than otherwise, to the spirit of research. I myself 
think that this is true, and I should myself not like 
to give up my daily lecture. But one must not be 
overburdened. I suppose that the true solution, in 
many cases, would be found in the multiplication of 
assistants, not only for the work of teaching but of 
research. Some men are gifted with more ideas than 
they can work out with their own hands, and the 
world is losing much by not supplying them with 
extra hands. Life is short: old age comes quickly, 
and the amount one pair of hands can do is very 
limited. What sort of shop would that be, or what 
sort of factory, where one man had to do all the work 
with his own hands? It is a fact in nature, which no 
democracy can change, that men are not equal, — that 
some have brains, and some hands. And no idle 


248 


talk about equality can ever subvert the order of the 
universe. 

[ know of no institution in this country where as- 
sistants are supplied to aid directly in research. Yet 
why should it not be so? And even the absence of 
assistant professors and assistants of all kinds, to aid 
in teaching, is very noticeable, and must be remedied 
before we can expect much. 

There are many physical problems, especially those 
requiring exact measurements, which cannot be 
carried out by one man, and can only be success- 
fully attacked by the most elaborate apparatus, and 
with a full corps of assistants. Such are Regnault’s 
experiments on the fundamental laws of gases and 
vapors, made thirty or forty years ago by aid from the 
French government, and which are the standards to 
this day.. Although these experiments were made 
with a view to the practical calculation of the steam- 
engine, yet they were carried out in such a broad 
spirit that they have been of the greatest theoretical 
use. Again, what would astronomy have done with- 
out. the endowments of. observatories? By their 
means, that science has become the most perfect of 
all branches of physics, as it should be from its sim- 
plicity. There is no doubt, in my mind, that similar 
institutions for other branches of physics, or, better, 
to include the whole of physies, would be equally suc- 
cessful. A large and perfectly equipped physical 
laboratory with its large revenues, its corps of pro- 
fessors and assistants, and its machine-shop for the 
construction of new apparatus, would be able to ad- 
vance our science quite as much as endowed ob- 
servatories have astronomy. But.such a laboratory 
should not be founded rashly. The value will de- 
pend entirely on the physicist at its head, who has to 
devise the plan, and to start it into practical work- 
ing. Such a man will always be rare, and cannot 
always be obtained. After one had been successfully 
started, others could follow; for imitation requires 
little brains. ; 

One could not be eertain of getting the proper man 
eyery time, but the means of appointment should be 
most carefully studied so.as to secure a good average. 
There can be no doubt that the appointment should 
rest with a scientific body capable of judging the high- 
est work of each candidate. 

Should any popular element enter, the person 
chosen would be either of the literary-scientific order, 
or the dabbler on the outskirts who presents his small 
discoveries in the most theatrical manner. What is 
required is aman of depth, who has such an insight 
into physical science that he can tell when blows will 
best tell for its advancement. 

Such a grand laboratory as I describe does not exist 


in the world, at present, for the study of physics. But 


no trouble has ever been found in obtaining means to 
endow astronomical science. Everybody can appre- 
ciate, to some extent, the value of an observatory; as 
astronomy is the simplest of scientific subjects, and 
has very quickly,reached a position where elaborate 
instruments and costly computations are necessary to 
further adyance.: The whole domain of physics is so 
wide that workers have hitherto found enough to do. 


SCIENCE. | 


[Vor. IL, No. 29. 


But it cannot: always be so, and the time has even 
now arrived when such a grand laboratory should be 
founded. Shall our country take the lead in this mat- 
ter, or shall we wait for foreign countries to go be- 
fore? They will be built in the future, but when and 
how is the question. 

Several institutions are now putting up laboratories 
for physics, They are mostly for teaching, and we 
can expect only a comparatively small amount of 
work from most of them. But they show progress; 
and, if the progress be as quick in this direction as in 
others, we should be able to see a great change before 
the end of our lives. 

As stated before, men are influenced by the sym- 
pathy of those with whom they come in contact. It 


is impossible to immediately change public opinion 


in our favor; and, indeed, we must always seek to 
lead it, and not be guided by it. For pure science is 
the pioneer who must not hover about cities and 
civilized countries, but must strike into unknown 
forests, and climb the hitherto inaccessible mountains 
which lead to and command a view of the promised 
land, —the land which science promises us in the 
future; which shall not only flow with milk and honey, 
but shall give us a better and more glorious idea of 
this wonderful universe. We must create a public 
opinion in our favor, but it need not at first be the 
general public. Wemust be contented to stand aside, 
and see the honors of the world for a time given to 
our inferiors; and must be better contented with the 
approval of our own consciences, and of the very few 
who are capable of judging our work, than of the 
whole world beside. Let us look to the other physi- 
cists, not in our own town, not in our own country, 
but in the whole world, for the words of praise which 


are to encourage us, or the words of blame which are ~ 


to stimulate us to renewed ‘effort. For what to us is 
the praise of the ignorant? Let us join together in 
the bonds of our scientific societies, and encourage 
each other, as we are now doing, in the pursuit of 
our favorite study; knowing that the world will some 
time recognize our services, and knowing, also, that 
we constitute the most important element in human 
progress. 

But danger is also near, even in our societies. 
When the average tone of the society is low, when the 
highest honors are given to the mediocre, when third- 
class men are held up as examples, and when trifling 
inventions are magnified into scientific discoveries, 
then the influence of such societies is prejudicial. A 
young scientist attending the meetings of such a so- 
ciety soon gets perverted ideas. To his mind, a mole- 
hill is a mountain, and the mountain amolehill. The 
small inventor or the local celebrity rises to a greater 
height, in his mind, than the great leader of science 
in some foreign land. He gauges himself by the 
molehill, and is satisfied with his stature ; not knowing 
that he is but an atom in comparison with the moun- 


tain, until, perhaps, in old age, when it is too late. 


But, if the size of the mountain had been seen at 
first,, the young scientist would at least have been 
stimulated in his endeavor to grow. } 

We cannot all be men of genius; but we can, at 


' 
” 


r 


. 
1 


_ papers and enjoy social intercourse. 


. 


G 


_ Auaust 24, 1883.] 


deast, point them out to those around us. We may 
not be able to benefit science much ourselves; but 
we can have high ideals on the subject, and instil 
them into those with whom we come in contact. For 
the good of ourselves, for the good of our country, 
for the good to the world, it is incumbent on us to 
form a true estimate of the worth and standing of 
persons and things, and to set before our own minds 
all that is great and good and noble, all that is most 
important for scientific adyance, above the mean and 
low and unimportant. 

It is very often said, that a man has a right to his 

opinion. This might be true for a man on a desert 
island, whose error would influence only himself. 
But when he opens his lips to instruct others, or even 
when he signifies his opinions by his daily life, then 
he is directly responsible for all his errors of judg- 
ment orfact. He has no right to think a molehill as 
big as a mountain, nor to teach it, any more than he 
has to think the world flat, and teach that it is so. 
The facts and faws of our science have not equal 
importance, neither have the men who cultivate the 
science achieved equal results. One thing is greater 
than another, and we have no right to neglect the 
order. Thus shall our minds be guided aright, and 
our efforts be toward that which is the highest. 

Then shall we see that no physicist of the first 
class has ever existed in this country, that we must 
look to other countries for our leaders in that sub- 
ject, and that the few excellent workers in our coun- 
try must receive many accessions from without before 
they can constitute an American science, or do their 
share in the world’s work. : 

But let me return to the subject of scientific socie- 
ties. Here American science has its hardest problem 
to contend with. There are very many local societies 
dignified by high-sounding names, each having its 

_ local celebrity, to whom the privilege of describing 
some crab with an extra claw, which he found in his 
morning ramble, is inestimable. And there are some 


_ academies of science, situated at our seats of learning, 
* which are doing good work in their locality. 


But 
distances are so great that it is difficult to collect men 
together at any one point. The American associa- 
tion, which we are now attending, is not a scientific 
academy, and does not profess to be more than a gath- 
_ ering of all who are interested in science, to read 
The National 
academy of sciences contains eminent men from the 
- whole country, but then it is only for the purpose of 
advising the government freely on scientific matters, 
It has no building, it has no library; and it publishes 
nothing except the information which it freely gives 
to the government, which does nothing for it in re- 
turn. It has not had much effect directly on Amer- 
ican science; but the liberality of the government in 
the way of scientific expeditions, publications, etc., 
is at least partly due to its influence, and in this 
way it has done much good. But it in no way takes 
_ the place of the great Royal society, or the great acad- 
emies of science at Paris, Berlin, Vienna, St. Peters- 
burgh, Munich, and, indeed, all the European capitals 


_ and large cities. These, by their publications, give 
‘. 


Tt. temwitt 2. ”-* ee | ay ea 


SCIENCE. 


249 


to the young student, as well as the more advanced 
physicist, models of all that is considered excellent; 
and to heecome a member is one of the highest honors 
to which he can aspire, while to write a memoir which 
the academy considers worthy to be published in its 
transactions excites each one to his highest effort. 

The American academy of sciences in Boston is 
perhaps our nearest representation of this class of 
academies, but its limitation of membership to the 
State deprives it of its national character. 

But there is another matter which influences the 
growth of our science. 

As itis necessary for us still to look abroad for our 
highest inspiration in pure science, and as science is 
not an affair of one town or one country, but of the 
whole world, it becomes us all to read the current 
journals of science and the great transactions of for- 
eign societies, as well as those of our own countries. 
These great transactions and journals should be in 
the library of every institution of learning in the 
country, where science is taught. How can teachers 
and professors be expected to know what has been 
discovered in the past, or is being discovered now, if 
these are not provided ? Has any institution a right 
to mentally starve the teachers whom it employs, or 
the students who come to it? There can be but 
one answer to this; and an institution calling itself a 
university, and not having the current scientific jour- 
nals upon its table or the transactions of societies 
upon its library-shelves, is certainly not doing its best 
to cultivate all that is best in this world. 

We call this a free country, and yet it is the only 
one where there is a direct tax upon the pursuit of 
science. The low state of pure science in our coun- 
try may possibly be attributed to the youth of the 
country; but a direct tax, to prevent the growth of 
our country in that subject, cannot be looked upon as 
other than a deep disgrace. I refer to the duty upon 
foreign books and periodicals. In our science, no 
books above elementary ones have ever been pub- 
lished, or are likely to be published, in this country; 
and yet every teacher in physics must have them, not 
only in the college library, but on his own shelves, 
and must pay the government of this country to 
allow him to use a portion of his small salary to buy 
that which is to do good to the whole country. All 
freedom of intercourse which is necessary to foster 
our growing science is thus broken off: and that which 
might, in time, relieve our country of its mediocrity, 
is nipped in the bud by our government, which is most 
liberal when appealed to directly on scientific sub- 
jects. 

One would think that books in foreign languages 
might be admitted free; but to please the half-dozen 
or so workmen who reprint German books, not 
scientific, our free intercourse with that country is 
cut off. Our scientific associations and societies must 
make themselves heard in this matter, and show those 
in authority how the matter stands. 

In conclusion, let me say once more, that I do not 
believe that our country is to remain long in its 
present position, The science of physics, in whose 
applications our country glories, is to arise among us, 


‘ 


250 


and make us respected by the nations of the world. 
Such a prophecy may seem rash with regard to a nation 
which does not yet do enough physical work to sup- 
port a physical journal. But we know the speed with 
which we advance in this country: we see cities 
springing up in a night, and other wonders performed 
at an unprecedented rate. And now we see physical 
laboratories being built, we see a great demand for 
thoroughly trained physicists, who have not shirked 
their mathematics, both as professors and in so-called 
practical life; and perhaps we have the feeling, com- 
mon to all true Americans, that our country is going 
forward to a glorious future, when we shall lead the 
world in the strife for intellectual prizes as we now 
do in the strife for wealth. 

But if this is to be so, we must not aim low. The 
problems of the universe cannot be solved without 
labor: they cannot be attacked without the proper 
intellectual as well as physical tools; and no physicist 
need expect to go far without his mathematics. No 
one expects a horse to win in a great and long race 
who has not been properly trained; and it would be 
folly to attempt to win with one, however pure his 
blood and high his pedigree, without it. The prob- 
lems we solve are more difficult than any race: the 
highest intellect cannot hope to succeed without prop- 
er preparation. The great prizes are reserved for the 
greatest efforts of the greatest intellects, who have 
kept their mental eye bright and flesh hard by con- 
stant exercise. Apparatus can be bought with money, 
talents may come tous at birth; but our mental tools, 
our mathematics, our experimental ability, our knowl- 
edge of what others have done before us, all have to 
be obtained by work. The time is almost past, even 
in our own country, when third-rate men ¢an find a 
place as teachers, because they are unfit for every thing 
else. We wish to see brains and learning, combined 
with energy and immense working-power, in the pro- 
fessor’s chair; but, above all, we wish to see that high 
and chivalrous spirit which causes one to pursue his 
idea in spite of all difficulties, to work at the problems 
of nature with the approval of his own conscience, 
and not of nen before him. Let him fit himself for 
the struggle with all the weapons which mathemat- 
ics and the experience of those gone before him 
can furnish, and let him enter the arena with the 
fixed and stern purpose to conquer. Let him not 
be contented to stand back with the crowd of medi- 
ocrity, but let him Press forward for a front place in 
the strife. 

The whole universe is before us to study. The 
greatest labor of the greatest minds has only given 
us a few pearls; and yet the limitless ocean, with its 
hidden depths. filled with diamonds and precious 
stones, is before us. The problem of the universe is 
yet unsolved, and the mystery involved in one sin- 
gle atom yet eludes us. The field of research only 
opens wider and wider as we advance, and our 
minds are lost in wonder and astonishment at the 
grandeur and beauty unfolded before us. Shall we 
help in this grand work, or not? Shall our country 
do its share, or shall it still live in the almshouse of 
the world ? 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. II., No. 29, 


PAPERS READ BEFORE SECTION B. + 


Determination of the relation between the im- 
perial yard and the metre of the archives. 


BY WILLIAM A. ROGERS OF CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 


THIS paper was a continuation of one upon the 
same subject presented at the Montreal meeting. 
The mean result of the determinations up to that 
time was as follows: Imperial yard + 3.37015 inches 
= Metre des archives. 

The writer stated at that time, that he should not 
like to be held to a very strict account with regard to 
the last decimal figure, or even the last two decimal 


figures, on account of the difficulty of obtaining the 


requisite data, 

Since the meeting last year, additional data have 
been obtained. In February of the present year, a 
combined yard and metre was received from Paris. 
The yard was compared with the imperial yard, in 
1880, by Mr. Chaney, the warden “of the imperial 
standards. During the interval between 1880 and 
February of the present year, this metre has received 
repeated comparisons with the metre of the Inter- 
national bureau, under the direction of Dr. Pernet. 
According to his report, this metre is 310 mikrons 
too short at 0° centigrade; for the same temperature, 
the yard was found by Mr. Chaney to be 20.7 mikrons 
too short. 

Comparing the metre and the yard upon this bar 


with the bronze yard and metre described at Mont- _ 


real, and combining the results with those previously 
found, the relation was found as follows: Imperial 
yard + 3.37039 inches = Metre des archives. 


The magnetophone, or the modification of the 
magnetic field by the rotation of a perfo- 
rated metallic disk 


BY PROF. H. S. CARHART OF EVANSTON, ILL. 
Tur experiments of Bell, Preece, and others, on 


the radiaphone, suggested the possibility of interrupt- « 


ing, or at least periodically modifying, the lines of 
force proceeding from the poles of a magnet, by 
means of a disk of sheet-iron, perforated with a series 
of equidistant holes, and rotated so that the holes 
should pass directly in front of the magnetic pole. 
It is well known that the armature placed on the 
poles of a permanent magnet diminishes the strength 
of the external field of force by furnishing superior 
facilities for the formation of polarized chains of 
particles from pole to pole. This is the case even 
when the armature does not touch the poles, but is 
in close proximity to them. 

If a piece of sheet-iron be placed over the poles 
of a magnet without touching, and magnetic curves 
be developed on paper above the iron, they will be 
found to exhibit less intense and less sharply defined 
magnetic action than when the sheet-iron is removed. 


If, however, a small hole be drilled directly over each — 
* magnetic pole, the screening action of the sheet-iron 


is modified in much the same way as when a hole is 
1 This paper will shortly be published in Scrence in full. 


—_e~ 


; 


be deflected by the moist river-valleys. 


AvGust 24, 1883.] 


made in a screen opaque to light; for the developed 
curves show distinctly the outline of the holes. If, 
therefore, the sheet-iron in the form of a circular 
plate, piercei with a number of holes, be rapidly ro- 
tated between the poles of a magnet and small 
induction bobbins, the action of the magnet on the 
core of the bobbins will be periodically modified, be- 
cause of the passing holes: and hence induced cur- 
rents will flow through a circuit including the bobbin. 
A disk of sheet iron was pierced with two circles of 
quarter-inch holes concentric with the disk, the num- 
ber of holes in the two circles being thirty-two and 
sixty-four respectively. On one side of the disk was 
placed a horseshoe magnet with its poles very near 
the rows of holes; on the other side were arranged 
two corresponding induction bobbins. The circuit 
was completed through a telephone and either bobbin 
at pleasure. Upon rotating the disk rapidly, a clear 
musical sound was produced in the telephone, the 
pitch rising with the rapidity of rotation. Moreover, 
the bobbin opposite the circle of sixty-four holes 
gave the octave above the other, and each gavea note 
of the same pitch as was produced by blowing a 
stream of air through the corresponding holes. 


Magnetic survey of Missouri. 
BY F. E, NIPHER OF ST. LOUIS, MO. 


Iw the spring of 1878 -a survey of Missouri was 
begun, which was expected to determine all points in 
regard to terrestrial magnetism: 160 points have been 
covered. The work was undertaken under private 
auspices, most of the money tendered unasked, and 
the work has been carried on successfully until the 
present time. The first {three years were spent in 
making a preliminary survey. In the early part of 
the survey we labored under great difficulties, because 
I supposed that the lines of equal value, laid down 
upon the observations given in the coast-survey 
charts, were substantially correct; so that time was 
frequently lost in repeating values at stations left 
behind, in order to be certain that no error had been 
committed. But when we settled down to the con- 
clusion that we really knew nothing about the mat- 
ter, we had very much less trouble. At first, intensity 
determinations were made at each station; but in later 
years, since the magnets have proved so satisfactory, 
the plan was adopted of making absolute determina- 
tions only at regular tntervals during the summer. 
The temperature corrections for the magnet were 
made twice, — once in 1878, and once two years 
ago,— and they agreed very closely with each other. 

The dip circle was a large one, such as was for- 
merly much used, and which was found to be an 
excellent instrument, though rather clumsy to carry. 
The charts which have been prepared show what the 
results were. In a former communication to the 
association at Cincinnati, I suggested an explana- 
tion of the peculiar flexures of the isogonic lines, 
as being due to earth-currents which seemed to 
The map 
upon which that hypothesis was based represented 
observations taken over the entire state. By re-deter- 


SCIENCE. 


a as = <3  - ere yr we | 


251 


mination we have found that those observations were 
all correct; but more detailed work shows that this 
explanation is not admissible. There is no explana- 
tion of the fact that contour has any thing to do with 
the deviation of the needle from the normal values. 
Similar flexures are also seen in the lines of equal in- 
clination and the lines of intensity. One and perhaps 
two years will be required to accomplish the work 
properly. There is nothing new in the subject, ex- 
cept the rather unexpected flexures which we found 
in these lines. Itshows very clearly that the isogonie 
lines which are published for the use of surveyors are 
of no earthly use. Work ought to be done in a de- 
tailed way over the whole country; and I hope we 
shall some time be able to combine with these deter- 
minations a series of magnetic values at ten or twelve 
different stations in the state of Missouri, and also 
simultaneous determinations of earth-currents upon 
lines making angles with-each other at the different 
stations. Similar variations would probably be found 
in the states of linvis and Iowa. « 


In the discussion which followed, President Row- 
land said, that with respect to the earth-eurrents, he 
himself never saw any experiments which gave steady 
earth-currents, Earth-currents are usually supposed 
to vary very quickly. ‘They do not pass ina steady 
direction anywhere; and therefore he would inquire 
whether Professor Nipher has any reason to suppose 
there are such earth-currents, and, further, whether 
these local changes of these lines may not be due to 
hidden mines of iron, or something or other, rather 
than to earth-currents, 

The question was also asked, whether, in comparing 
earlier observations with the later, there are varia- 
tions from year to year which would soon invalidate 
any survey that could be made, and render it com- 
paratively of no value. 

I suppose, replied Professor Nipher, that, over 
rather large areas of country, the annual change 
does not vary very rapidly in-space. In the western 
states, so far as I know at present, it is pretty nearly 
constant, though I do not know as we have any rea- 
son to say that it is really constant. Replying to the 
president’s last qnestion, I should say that the deter- 
mination to which I have referred, as regards earth- 
currents, was not for the purpose of testing the theory 
which I formerly had, but simply for the purpose of 
examining a cause which certainly has some effeet. 
I think it is well enough known that it is a faet, and 
it is well to investigate it, since we found so many 
unexpected things. I should suppose that the ex- 
planation, that it is due to magnetie matter under the 
surface of the earth, is the much more probable one, 
as the case stands now. As to the disposition of that 
magnetic matter, you can make a great variety out of 
that, and locate your mines in various parts of the 
state, 

Prof. A. E. Dolbear inquired whether any inves- 
tigations have been made as to the direction of 
earth-currents; and whether Professor Nipher knew 
of any device which would enable him to detect the 


direction of them in any place. He had made some 
observations on a line of his own, half a mile long, 
and had invariably found that in that line the current 
is in one direction ; and its electro-motive force varies 
from about one-tenth of a volt up to three volts. 

In regard to these lines, said President Rowland, 
quick flexures of that sort must be due to local causes. 
- They cannot be due to any thing at the centre of the 
earth. With respect to using a line in determining 
earth-currents, I think it is unsatisfactory. Ido not 
believe very much in it, myself. You can get a cur- 
rent in the line, but you are not certain it is in the 
earth. . 

A member remarked that in 1881, in Boone County, 
Missouri, he had a line in which a continuous current 
was evinced with an electro-motive force of from two 
to four volts. From 8 to 10 in the morning was the 
maximum, and 5 P.M.the minimum. The line being 
east and west, the direction of the current was from 
east to west. R 

President Rowland said: If you put the wire on the 
earth’s surface from one point to another, you mere- 
ly determine the difference of intensity between those 
points. It shows there is a current there when the 
wire is there, but not when the wire is not there. 
| 
A method of distributing weather forecasts by 

means of railways. 


BY T. C. MENDENHALL OF COLUMBUS, OHIO. 


TuHIs system has only been in operation in Ohio for 
aboutayear. To distribute forecasts, we place signals 
upon the sides of the baggage-cars, as distinct as 
possible from each other, so as to be easily recog- 
nized at considerable distances, and also to convey 
as much meaning as possible, so as to predict as 
many different conditions. We adopted a combi- 
nation of form and color. The signals are three 
in number as to form, and two in number as to 
color; The red signals are confined to predictions 
as to temperature, —rise in temperature, stationary 
temperature, falling temperature. The other color 
is blue, and that is confined to predictions in 
regard to the general state of the weather. The 
question of form was a good deal considered, and 
three forms were adopted. We adopted the sun, 
moon, and star, because everybody was familiar with 
those words. We experimented with the triangle, 
and finally rejected it. The device for attaching to 
the car is due to Mr. Anderson, who has been in the 
service of the board of commissioners for the past 
year; and it is a really happy device. The signal is 
made as large as possible, and the disk can be seen a 
long distance. 
higher temperature and general rain. The crescent 
means lower temperature ; the full disk of blue means 
general rain; the star represents local rains. With 
regard to the proper working of the system, though 
it has’ been in operation but a short time, it has 
really done good work. We receive special telegrams 
every morning, and they are transmitted to the train- 
despatchers at five o’clock. We are as yet operating 
it only on one railroad. It happens, fortunately, that 


2 Sl, SOTENOE. 


-The red sun and blue moon mean ~ 


[Vou. II., No. 29. 


. 
that road goes through an agricultural region of con- 
siderable importance. It is the road connecting the 
cities of Columbus and Cleveland. Two trains start 
out in the morning, at the middle point between 
those cities. The signals are put on the ears at five 
o’clock in the morning; and as they run through the 
morning hours, the farmers along the line can have 
an opportunity of seeing them, and predicting the 
weather for the day. The railway company cireu- 
lated through the whole line little cards, having 
these signals displayed in colors, with their meaning 
in every combination. This helps us, because it en- 
ables everybody to understand what is meant. A 
recent communication from Gen. Hazen indicates a 
disposition on the part of the general government to 
take hold of the matter, and bring it into general 
operation as far as possible. Postal-cards have been 
sent to various persons along the line, with questions 
in regard to the practical working of the system, 
which are answered and sent in at the end of every 
week; and we find, that, on the average, $0 per cent 
of the predictions are verified. 


Plan for a state weather service. 
BY F. E. NIPHER OF ST. LOUIS, MO. 


WHILE a good many are accommodated by the 
weather-signals which Professor Mendenhall has 
already inaugurated, many live a distance from the 
railroad, and cannot be interested in a scheme which 
makes it necessary to travel eight or ten miles to learn 
about the weather, because they might be interested 
in a different kind of weather by the time they got 
home. The information might be most easily circu- 
lated by telegraphing from picket-stations to the west- 
ward. There might be a line of stations on the rail- 
road north and south; and stations mght be found 
necessary in Nebraska, which would give immediate 
warning to the central office whenever it began to 
rain at the station; and a code might be arranged, so 
as to give the idea of the operator as to the probable 
violence or duration of the rain. Of course it would 
be necessary to make special study of the general 
laws for the progress of summer rains. Supposing 
the information is telegraphed to the central station, 


the predictions can easily be made out as soon as the ~ 


picket-stations could be reached, and a clear idea ob- 
tained as to the probable direction of the storm, and 
the time at which it would redch the different por- 
tions of the state. That information could be trans- 
mitted by the railway companies. Finally, we should 
make more intimate connection between these and 
private telegraph-lines which can be constructed by 
the persons who are to be served with the weather- 
signals. This plan contemplates the erection of pri- 
vate telegraph-lines leading in from the country to 
the stations. Upon a twenty-mile line, which would 
be a frequent length in Missouri, ten farmers will 
have to pay for the erection of a couple of miles 
of wire, and the instruments, which can be put up 
for $30 a mile. Some person could be sent from the 
vicinity to the director of the service, and instructions 
given him in regard to the manner of operating the 


i I 


“Aa, tr 


Aveust 24, 1883.] 


line and the management of the batteries. The cost 
of the line, therefore, to each farmer, would be, say, 
$75, which might be distributed over ten years, Mr. 
Nipher stated that in several localities the farmers 
will undertake it just as soon as the information can 
be furnished them, At the stations the lines could 
easily be made to terminate in the store of some mer- 
chant, who is anxious to secure the trade of the peo- 
ple on theline. This can be done at once in Missouri. 
The only thing necessary is for the state to appro- 
priate a small amount of money to supply the persons 
and instruments for observations, rain-gauges, ete. 
The two things necessary to make it successful are 
information as to rainfall, and time of beginning and 
ending of rains. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


— The next meeting of the American association 
for the advancement of science will be held in Phila- 
delphia, probably during the first week in September, 
1884. At the session in Minneapolis last Tuesday, 
the following persons were chosen as officers for the 
Philadelphia meeting: President: Dr. J. P. Lesley, 
of Philadelphia. Vice-presidents: Section A (mathe- 
matics and astronomy), Prof. H. T. Eddy, of Cincin- 
nati; B (physics), Professor John Trowbridge, of 
Cambridge; C (chemistry), Prof. J. W. Langley, of 
Ann Arbor; D (mechanical science), Prof. R. H. 
Thurston, of Hoboken; E (geology and geography), 
Prof. N. H. Winchell, of Minneapolis; F (biology), 
Prof. E. D. Cope, of Philadelphia; G (histology and 
microscopy), Prof. T. G. Wormley, of Philadelphia; 
H (anthropology), Prof. E. S. Morse, of Salem; I 
(economic science and statistics), Hon. John Eaton, 
of Washington. Permanent secretary: Mr. F. W. 
Putnam, of Cambridge. General secretary: Dr. Al- 
fred Springer, of Cincinnati. Assistant general sec- 
retary: Prof. E. S. Holden, of Madison. Secretaries 
of the sections: A, Mr. G. W. Hough, of Chicago; 
B, Mr. N. D. C. Hodges, of Salem; C, Prof. R. B. 
Warder, of Cincinnati; D, Prof. J. B. Webb, of 
Ithaca; E, Prof. E. A. Smith, of Tuscaloosa; F, 
Prof. C. E. Bessey, of Ames; G, Dr. Romyn Hitch- 
cock, of New York; H, Mr. W. H. Holmes, of Wash- 
ington; I, Mr. Charles W. Smiley, of Washington. 
Treasurer: Hon. William Lilly, of Mauch Chunk. 

— A course of eighteen special lectures will be given 
next year to members of Johns Hopkins university 
on topies relating to instruction in the higher insti- 
tutions of learning. They will be informal lectures, 
connected only by the general purpose of helping 
advanced students who are looking forward more or 
less definitely to the work of teachers to become 
familiar with the principles and methods followed by 
other persons, and with the results which have been 
obtained in different types of educational establish- 
ments. The following are announced: — 

' The present state of university and collegiate in- 
struction in this country, by D. C. Gilman; Recent 
observations on educational foundations in Europe, 
by D. C. Gilman; Natural and ethnic history of arith- 
metic, by J. J. Sylvester; The educational value of 


SCIENCE. 


253 


grammar, by B. L. Gildersleeye; The future sphere 
of classical philology, by B. L. Gildersleeve; Educa- 
tional value of the study of chemistry, by Ira Rem- 
sen; What to teach in biology, by H. Newell Martin; 
One lecture by H. A. Rowland; The observational 
element in mathematics, by C. 8. Peirce; The a pri- 
ori element in physies, by C. 8. Peirce; The naive in 
education, by H. Wood; Modern methods in the 
study of history, by H. B. Adams; Methods of com- 
parative philology as pursued to-day, by M. Bloom- 
field; The new impetus given to the study of Latin 
by the application of the historical method, and by 
the study of inscriptions, by Minton Warren; Hy- 
giene in collegiate training, by E. M. Hartwell; 
Rhythm and education, by G. Stanley Hall; The 
educational value of specialization and original work, 
by G.. Stanley Hall; The uses of libraries in educa- 
tion, by D. C. Gilman. 

A course of nine lectures specially designed for 
college students will also be given, as follows: — 

The choice of a profession, by D. C. Gilman; The 
light which biography throws on college life, by D. C. 
Gilman; Reading as an auxiliary to study, by W. Hand 
Browne; The right use of translations, by C. D. Mor- 
ris; Historical fiction, by H. B. Adams; The English 
universities, by J. Rendel Harris; Recreation, by 
E. M. Hartwell; Mental hygiene, by G. Stanley Hall; 
Science work, by Ira Remsen. 

— The Imperial meteorological observatory of 
Japan has established a telegraphic weather-service, 
and at present receives reports from twenty-two well- 
distributed stations. No forecasts are yet attempted, 
although it is the intention to make them as soon as 
sufficient experience will justify the step. Tri-daily 
maps and bulletins are, however, prepared. It is 
interesting to note that but one telegram is received 
each day from the several stations. This is sent by 
the aid of a cipher, which consists of a simple com- 
bination of figures, not of words, as is the case in the 
cipher used by the U.S. signal-service. The daily 
despatch is the equivalent of about eight words, and 
contains all the usual meteorological data for each of 
the three preceding observations. 

— The Meteorological council publishes the aerate 
of rainfall observations at three hundred and thirty- 
six stations in Great Britain, made without interrup- 
tion from 1866 to 1880, under the supervision of Mr. 
G. J. Symons. The monthly means are given for 
each year, for each period of five years, and for the 
whole fifteen years. No discussion of the observa- 
tions is made, though it would seem that valuable 
conclusions could be derived from them. 

—Mr. V. T. Chambers, an entomologist well 
known for his studies on the Tineina, died at his resi- 
dence in Covington, Ky., at two o'clock on the morn- 
ing of Aug. 7. During the afternoon of Aug. 6 he 
had a stroke of paralysis, and died from its effects, 
He was fifty-two years old on that morning. He was 
a constant contributor to the Canadian entomoloyist 
and many other entomological journals. In the Bul- 
letin of the U.S. geological survey there are several 
papers from his pen: viz., the Tineina of Colorado; 
notes On a collection of tineid moths made in Colo- 


254 


rado in 1875 by A. S. Packard, jun.; on the distribu- 
tion of Tineina in Colorado; new Entomostraca from 
Colorado; descriptions of new Tineina from Texas, 
ete.; Tineina and their food-plants; and an index to 
the described Tineina’ of the United States and Can- 
ada. He also contributed a number of papers to the 
Journal of the Cincinnati society of natural history, 
of which he was a member, and at one time presi- 
dent. The most important of these papers were: 
on the tongue (lingua) of some Hymenoptera; on 
Pronuba yuccasella Riley, and the habits of some 
Tineina; his annual address as president of the soci- 
ety on the metamorphoses of insects, as illustrated in 
the tineid genus Lithocolletis of Zeller; descriptions 
of some new Tineina, with notes on a few old species; 
illustrations of the neuration of the wings of Ameri- 
ean Tineina; and on the antennae and trophi of 
lepidopterous larvae. Many of these papers are illus- 
trated by his own drawings. A lawyer by profession, 
he found time to do much excellent work in science, 
and formed a large collection, which has been for 
some years in the Museum of comparative zoology at 
Cambridge. He was also proficient as a microscopist 
and a botanist. He leaves a wife and three sons, 
and his loss will also be felt by all the entomologists 
of the country. 

— Dr. John A. Warder, for many years one of the 
most prominent horticulturists and foresters in the 
west, died at his home at North Bend, O., on July 14, 
in the seventy-second year of his age. He has been 
identified with the west, and especially with Cincin- 
nati, for nearly fifty years. He was president for 
many years of the Horticultural society, and has 
written many papers on botanical and kindred sub- 
jects. He was one of the founders of the American 
forestry association, always took an active interest in 
its proceedings, and contributed many papers to its 
meetings. 

— Professor Simon Newcomb has taken passage for 
home in the Bothnia, which sails to-morrow from 
Liverpool to New York. He was to attend the meet- 
ing of the French association for the advancement of 
science at Rouen, just closed. Prof. B. C. Pickering, 
who has been spending the summer in Europe, will 
return in October. 

—‘‘Atthe end of May,” says Dr. G. Hinrichs in 
his July Iowa weather bulletin, ‘‘this year’s growing 
season, counted from April 1, was sixty degrees in 
the aggregate ahead of last year’s. We had gained 
nothing more at the end of June; for last year’s June 
was moderate, the same as this season’s June. But 
during July we gained in the aggregate one hundred 
degrees over last year’s July; so that, on the 1st of 
August of this year, we have received in the aggre- 
gate one hundred and sixty degrees of heat more than 
last year at this period. This fact, together with the 
fair sky and generally favorable distribution of rain- 
fall, accounts for the greatly superior condition of 
our crops this year. 

*“The storm-record,’’ he adds, ‘‘ has Been given in 
sufficient detail to help to dispel the exaggerated 
notions of danger from whirlwinds in Iowa. It will 
readily be seen, that if squalls extending simulta- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 29. 


neously over a large storm-front, and progressing for 
hours like a huge wave, are heralded as ‘ tornadoes’ at 
every place they reach, people at a distance will soon 
wonder that towns exist at all in the north-west, and 
our own people will be scared into expensive tornado 
insurance. In time our buildings will be substantial 
enough to withstand our summer squalls and winter 
blizzards successfully. As to genuine tornadoes, 
they are rare, and very limited in extent.’’ ‘ 
—For some months the electricians of Paris have 
held a monthly dinner. These dinners owed their 
origin to Count Hallez-d’ Arros, and were attended by 
no organized society, but were re-unions of those 
interested in electrical science. Lately it has been 


thought better to give the gatherings more stability _ 


by some manner of permanent organization; and at 
the June meeting a Société des électriciens was 
formed. 

— During the past year, original investigations in 
the following subjects, among others, have been car- 


ried on in the physical laboratory of Johns Hopkins’ 


university under the direction of Professor Rowland 
and Dr. Hastings: on the photography of the spec- 
trum by means of the concave grating (the photo- 
graphs of the spectrum, so far made, extend down to 
4, the original negatives being about % the scale of 
Angstrém’s map from B to b, equal to Angstrém’s 
from b to G, and 14 Angstrém’s from G to the ex- 
treme ultra-violet; they show 150 lines between the 
H lines, and give the 1474 and b; and 6, widely dou- 
ble and the # line indistinctly double); on the deter- 
mination of the B. A. unit of electrical resistance in 
absolute measure; the determination of the specific 
resistance of mercury; the variation of the specific 
heat of water with the temperature; the relative 
wave-lengths of the lines of the spectrum by means 
of the concave grating; the effect of difference of 
phase in the harmonics on the timbre of sound; 
and on the variation of the-magnetic permeability of 
nickel by change of temperature. 

— Professor Palmieri announces the existence in 
the lava of Vesuvius of a substance giving the spec- 
trum line of ‘helium,’ —an element, hitherto recog- 
nized only in the sun. He considers the late disaster 
at Ischia to be due to subsidence of land consequent 
on the unusual activity of Mount Vesuvius. 

— There will shortly be published by Allen & Co. 
of London a book by A. H. Swinton, entitled ‘The 
influence of the sun on natural phenomena.’ One 
may judge of the book’s value by the following quo- 
tation from the prospectus: “‘The multitude who 
read the morning’s newspaper may find in it some 
reason for their successes and losses, further than 
blind fatality.” 


\ 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 


Cogniaux, A. Petite flore de Belgique 4 Pusage des écoles. 
Mons, ‘Manceauzx, 1883. 232 p. °12°. 

Cock, A. de. Flora der Denderyallei. ‘Analytische sleutel 
der familien en geslachten (zaadplanten af phanerogamen). 
Gand, Weyer-Van Loo, 1883. 108 p. 8°. 

Dandois de Mellet. Du réle des organismes inférieurs 
dans les complications des plaies. Bruxelles, 1883. 3382p. 8°. 


. 


- 


_least. well characterized by its fossils. 


tT. oe ey ae tS 


ere Ne 


FRIDAY, AUGUST 31, 1883. 


SONNET. 


Tue years through which aught that hath life,O Sun! 
Hath watched or felt thy rising, what are they 

To those vast aeons, when, from night to day, 

From dawn to dark, thy circuit thou didst run, 
With none to greet thee or regret thee; none 

To bless thy glowing harbinger of cloud, 
Rose-tinted ; none to sigh, when, like a shroud, 

The banner of Night proclaimed her victory won? 


Yet through that reign of seeming death, so long 
To our imperfect ken, the marvellous force 
Which means to ends adjusts in Nature’s plan 
Was bringing to the birth that eye of man 
Which now, O Sun, surveys thy farthest course, — 
A speck amid the countless starry throng. 
JOHN READE. 


NOTES ON THE GEOLOGY OF THE 
TROAD. 


A brief summary of the results derived from the ob- 
servations made in connection with the Asses expe- 
dition. 

Tue terranes of the Troadic peninsula com- 
prise a variety of stratified and massive or 
eruptive rocks. The former, excepting the 
most recent deposits, which are not considered 
in this connection, may be divided into three 
groups, according to their mineralogical con- 
ditions and geological age. 

The most ancient group is highly ery auieed, 
and, in all probability, belongs to the mica- 
schist zone of the ‘ grundgebirge > or archean 
formation. 

The youngest group, embracing the miocene 
and pliocene tertiary deposits, is, in part at 
The 
middle group is not defined, excepting by the 
widely separated limits of the other two groups. 
It embraces rocks which may be paleozoic or 
pre-paleozoic, as well as others which are prob- 
ably of cretaceous and eocene age. 

The crystalline schists have their greatest 
development in Mount Ida, of which they form 
almost the entire mass. They are of many 
varieties, all conformably interstratified, as if 
all belonged to the same great terrane. 


True gneisses are not abundant, and occur 


chiefly upon the north side of Mount Ida, under 


such conditions that they appear to overlie the 


No. 30. — 1883. 


schistose rocks. In Hagi ouldduren-dagh the 
mica is in large part replaced by hornblende, 
so that the gneiss has a somewhat dioritic 
aspect. 

In the schistose rocks, chiefly amphibolites, 
hornblende is one of the most widely distrib- 
uted and abundant minerals. It generally 
appears as actinolite, and not infrequently con- 
stitutes almost the whole of the rock in which 
it occurs. With amphibole, at times, are as- 
sociated, besides plagioclase, more or less 
quartz, epidote, magnetite, titanite, and rutile. 
True mica-schists are of less common occur- 
rence interstratified with the amphibolites. 

Near the centre of Mount Ida, the oldest 
rocks crop out; and among them are tale- 
schists, which, by the gradual addition of oli- 
vine, pass into small Jens-shaped masses com- 
posed almost exclusively of the latter mineral. 
According to the nomenclature of Brogger, 
this rock should be called olivine-schist. By 
alteration it gives rise to serpentine with the 
characteristic reticulated structure which ever 
marks the serpentine derived from olivine. 
Occasionally the fibrous serpentine forms veins 
of considerable size in the adjacent rocks. 

The olivine-schist, where purest, has no schis- 
tose structure. The passage from tale-schist, 
in which no olivine occurs, to that composed 
almost completely of olivine, takes place some- 
times within a short distance. The chief mass 
of the rock, however, is a middle stage between 
the two extremes, having a distinct schistose 
structure, and composed for the most part of 
olivine and tale, besides considerable quantities 
of pyroxene, as well as other minerals not yet 
determined. At various intervals through- 
out the zone of schistose rocks, occur rather 
coarsely crystalline white limestones. 

The structure of Mount Ida is a compara- 
tively simple anticlinal, with so short an axis 
extending east and west that the upper portion 
of the mountain is approximately a dome. 

The highly crystalline stratified rocks are 
perhaps the chief topographical determinants 
of that region. Their position and distribution 
indicate, that, in the early stages of its deyel- 
opment, the peninsula of the Troad was repre- 
sented by several islands, which furnished much 
of the detritus for subsequent formations. 

The rocks of the middle zone are for the 
most part semi-crystalline limestones, a very 
ferruginous quartzite, together with greenish, 


— 


qe a 


256 


somewhat schistose rocks, and others: whieh 
are macroscopically like argillites, but contain 
too large a proportion of quartz. The lime- 
stone is generally compact, gray or reddish 
colored, yery like the cretaceous (according to 
Professor Neumayr) in the acropolis at Athens, 
and has often large quantities of silica so 
irregularly accumulated as to produce a yery 
rough weathered surface like the cretaceous 
limestone west of Smyrna. This limestone is 
found chiefly about the base of Mount Ida, at 
Edremit, Qojikia-dagh, and Chaly-dagh, as 
well as between Qayalar and Ahmadja, and 
several kilometres south-west of Ilisfagy. At 
Qojikia-dagh it is peculiar in containing many 
small needle-shaped quartz crystals. The fer- 
ruginous quartzite was observed only upon the 
acute summit of Dikili-dagh. 

The greenish, somewhat schistose rocks, with 
sandstones of the same color, near Ahmadja..as 
west of Smyrna, overlie the limestone. The 
cretaceous age of the limestone at the locality 
last named appears to be quite definitely de- 
termined by Strickland, Tchihatchetf, and 
Spratt; but the age of that near Ahmadja is 
yet uncertain. Only one fossil has been found 
in it. Concerning this, Professor Neumayr 
writes, ‘* It is a Rhynconella which is so widely 
distributed that it cannot be used as a certain 
means of determining the age-of the strata in 
which it occurs; but the limestone is probably 
cretaceous.’” 

That these rocks are younger than those of 
the mica-schist zone is indicated, not only by 
the fact that they contain fossils, and are less 
crystalline than that group, but also by the 
fact that they are made up of sediments derived 
from the crystalline schists. On the other 
hand, that they are, at least in part, old rocks, 
is shown by the contact zone produced in them 
by the quartz diorite. : 
In 1881 Mr. Frank Calvert, American con- 

sul at Dardanelles, discovered undoubtedly 
eocene fossils (determined by Professor Neu- 
mayr) at several places in the Troadic penin- 
sula outside of the region visited by the 
geologist of the expedition. ‘The same rocks, 
in all probability, occur also in the southern 
Troad; but, until further investigations are 
made, their appearance must be left doubtful. 

It seems probable, therefore, that in the 
intermediate zone there are a number of ter- 
ranes of different age. It should be stated in 
this connection, that the rocks of the southern 
Troad, placed by Tchihatcheff provisionally in 
the lower tertiary, are, according to Professor 
Neumayr, of more recent origin. 

The third or youngest group of stratified 


SCIENCE. 


YEU we ky, sews 


deposits, embracing those which are certainly 
not older than the miocene, may be divided 
into two portions. 
entirely distinct, and their stratigraphical rela- 
tions are yet uncertain. 

The rocks of the sarmatic stage (tufa) of 
the miocene, so well exposed at Eren-kiéui, are 
now known to border the western coast from 


‘the Trojan plain to beyond the mouth of the 


Touzla, near the promontory of Baba-bournou. 

At the site of ancient Hamaxitos, several 
kilometres south-west of Kinlahly, the ‘ mactra- 
kalk,’ with its characteristic fossils, forms the 
acropolis. This limestone_is undoubtedly of. 
marine origin; and although it has a wide dis- 
tribution north-eastward, toward the Caspian 
and the Vienna basin, yet it has not been rec- 
ognized farther south-west than the coast of 
the Troad. 

Beneath the limestone, as at Eren-kieui, is 


a great thickness-of sand and clay beds which — 


are underlaid by a conglomerate, and probably 
at the bottom of the series a stratum of red 
clay. The conglomerate is composed chiefly 
of fragments of andesite and liparite. Fossils 
have not been found in these beds near He- 
maxitos ; but at Eren-kiéui, according to Cal- 
vert and Neumayr, organic remains are not 
infrequent, and of a mixed character, indicating 
that the strata belong, at least in great part, 
to the sarmatic stage. The marine beds which 
overlie the mactra limestone are largely deyel- 
oped south of the mouth of the Touzla, and 
contain great numbers of fossils, among which 
are many Ostrea and gastropods. 


The second portion of the tertiary deposits 
occupies a large part of the interior of the — 


Troad about the great plain of the Menderé, 
between Ezine and Bairamitch, as well as along 
the southern coast, west of Papazly. It has 
furnished but few fossils, and they are of such 
a character that its age cannot be determined 
with certainty. However, according to Profes- 
sor Neumayr, who has kindly undertaken the 
determination of the fossils collected by the 
expedition, it must be upper miocene, mio- 
pliocene, or lower pliocene. That it is in 
great part a fresh, or at most a slightly brack- 
ish water deposit, cannot be doubted. As has 
already been shown in a preliminary report, 
where these deposits are deseribed at some 


[Vou. IL, No. 30. — 


Geographically they are 


4 
a 


length, the basis of the series is a conglomer- 


ate in which fragments of the basalts, andesttes, 
and liparites, have not been found. It is over- 
laid by a series of shales, upon which, between 


Demiedji-kiéui and Narly, rests a puzzling rock, — 


regarded by Tchihatcheff as limestone. It is 


usually pale-yellowish colored, soft, light, and — 


¥ 
. 
a) 
; 


\ 


AveustT 31, 1883.] 


porous, and generally shows no trace of effer- 
vescence in hydrochloric acid. In general ap- 
pearance it closely resembles an impure siliceous 
limestone from which the greater portion of 
the carbonate of lime has been leached away. 
Having a thickness of about a hundred and 
thirty metres, it becomes the chief topographi- 
cal determinant of that region, and gives rise 
to profound gorges and bold escarpments. 
Throughout the greater portion of the mass, 
it is uniformly fine-grained, but under the mi- 
eroscope has the structure of a tufa. 

The upper beds of the series, consisting of 
thin fresh-water limestones, sandstones, shales, 
and a large proportion of stratified tufas, with 
conglomerates, have not been seen east of 
Demirdji-ki@ui. The fossils collected were 
found in this portion of the series; and it is 
evident that the ejection of the andesites began 
before the deposition of those beds was com- 
pleted. 

Numerous oscillations of the land, as indi- 
cated by the varying character of the strata, 
must have occurred during the miocene and plio- 
cene; and, in all probability, these were con- 
nected with the extrusion of the eruptive rocks 
so abundant in that region. 

The massive rocks of the Troad belong in 
part to those of pre-tertiary origin, but the 
greater portion were extruded since the begin- 
ning of the tertiary period. The older group 
includes biotite-hornblende-granite, quartz-por- 
phyry, quartz-diorite, augite-porphyrite, mel- 
aphyre, and serpentine, while the younger 
group embraces liparites, andesites, augite- 
andesites, basalts, and nepheline-basalt. 

The biotite-hornblende-granite occurs in a 
stock-like mass, forming the serrated ridge of 
Chigri-dagh. It is distinctly younger than the 
highly crystalline stratified rocks which it pen- 
etrates, and is especially interesting from the 
fact, that, where it is altered, the titanite is 
changed to anatase. The alteration of titanite 
and ilmenite to anatase is doubtless a common 
and widely distributed occurrence ; but, as the 
crystals of anatase are so small, they have gen- 
erally been overlooked. 

The quartz-porphyries are chiefly microgran- 
ites, and are younger than the biotite-horn- 
blende-granite through which they have been 
extruded. The dikes in which they occur are 
comparatively small, and do not exercise much 

‘inflaence upon the topographical features of 
the country. 

The quartz-diorites form a number of com- 
paratively small stécke about the base of 
Mount Ida, and are evidently younger than the 

quartzose argillite of the middle zone of strati- 


SCIENCE. 257 


fied rocks, which, in one case, has been meta- 
morphosed into a cordierite and andalusite 
hornfels. It is to be especially noted that 
these eruptive rocks do not, as formerly sup- 
posed, enter into the structure of Mount Ida. 

The augite-porphyrites (diabase-porphyrites) 
and melaphyres are, as far as yet known, lim- 
ited to five outcrops, all lying in a line near 
the southern coast of the Troad, and, with the 
exception of that between Alhmadja.and Qyalar, 
are not important. At the locality just named 
it is of especial interest from the fact that 
melaphyre was the first rock extruded in that 
isolated (completely surrounded by tertiary 
strata) voleanic centre, and was followed later 
by mica-andesite, hornblende-andesite, augite- 
andesite, basalt, and, late if not last, by a large 
outpouring of liparite. 

The serpentine in the anterior part of the 
Troad about Qari-dagh has been derived 
from olivine-enstatite rocks of a truly eruptive 
nature. The almost entire absence of the 
characteristic reticulated structure in some of 
the serpentine from the Kemar valley leaves, 
perhaps, some doubt as to the original rock 
from which it has been derived. As previously 
stated, the serpentine about the summit of 
Mount Ida has been derived from olivine-schist 
which undoubtedly belongs to the stratified 
rocks. 

Although the ancient eruptive rocks are ap- 
parently not nearly so abundant as those of 
more recent origin, yet they represent very 
nearly the same range in chemical and minera- 
logical composition. The granite and quartz 
porphyvries have their modern equivalents in 
the liparites; the quartz-diorites, in the mica 
and hornblende andesites ; the augite-porphy- 
rites, in the augite-andesites; the melaphyre, 
in the basalt. However, no equivalents were 
found for the nepheline-basalts and the ancient 
olivine-enstatite rocks. On the other hand, the 
syenites, and their modern representatives 
the trachytes, which were once supposed to be 
abundant in the Troad, are now known to be at 
most only very sparingly represented. 

The liparites occur in various types, with 
many varieties, and are limited to the south- 
ern part of the Troad. They appear also 
south of Molivo on the island of Mitylene, and 
at Sal Mosae south-west of Aivaly. . They are 
generally in the stony condition, but frequently 
glassy upon the boundaries, and contain many 
fragments of the andesites which they have 
penetrated and overtlowed. They always occur 


in dikes, as at Qozlou-dagh and the great pla-' 


teau, which give rise to the peculiar drainage 
of the Touzla River, That some of the liparites 


258 


were extruded before the deposition of the 
‘ mactrakalk’ is certain ; but, from the fact that 
the exact age of the tertiary deposits in the 
southern part of the Troad has not been defi- 
nitely determined, the time of the extrusion of 
the great mass of the liparites cannot be stated. 
However, it occurred most likely at the begin- 
ning or in the early part of the pliocene, when 
the land was raised above the sea, and the 
islands converted into a peninsula. 

The andesites embrace typical mica-ande- 
sites and hornblende-andesites, as well as a 
great variety in which mica and hornblende 
occur in nearly equal proportion. These, with 
augite-andesite, occupy a great area between 
the Mendere and the southern coast; and, un- 
like the liparites, they seem to have reached the 
surface, at least in some cases, through volcanic 
vents. Not unfrequently they occur in dikes 
also, and have evidently overflowed a large 
area of late tertiary deposits. 

Their extrusion along the western coast 
began before the deposition of the ~ mactra- 
Kalk,’ and along the southern coast during the 
formation of the fresh-water deposits of that 
region. Pyroxene is generally a prominent 
constituent of the andesites, and frequently 
both rhombic and monoclinic pyroxenes occur 
together. The former is generally the most 
abundant, and has in one case been proved to 
be hypersthene. It occurs not only in the 
mica-andesite at Assos and Smyrna, but also 
in the hornblende-andesite north-west of Qoz- 
lou-dagh, and the augite-andesite west of 
Sivriji-bournou. Among the great variety of 
andesites may be mentioned the oldest which 
flowed from the crater at Assos. It is a mica- 
andesite, in the groundmass of which is a large 
proportion of apparently primary mica and 
hematite. 

The basalts occur in dikes, and, although 
widely distributed, do not occupy large areas. 
Along the southern coast of the Troad it is of 
an andesitic type, and the olivine is occasionally 
altered to distinctly cleavable pleochroitic ser- 
pentine. : 

The same phenomenon is better developed 
in the typical nepheline-basalt which forms the 
prominent hill called Qaralyly or Qapandja- 
tepe, near the centre of the Troadic peninsula. 
The basalts and nepheline-basalt are evidently 
younger than the tertiary deposits with which 
they are associated ; but the time of their ex- 
trusion with reference to that of the other 
eruptive rocks of the Troad cannot he defi- 
nitely determined. J. S. DER. 


Greason, Cumberland County, Penn., 
June 4, 1883. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 30. 


OCCURRENCE OF MOUND-BUILDERS’ 
PIPES IN NEW JERSEY. 


Unrix recently the one form of stone imple- 
ment which is characteristic of the mounds of 


Ohio and westward, and that has not been - 


duplicated in surface finds in New Jersey and 
elsewhere on our northern Atlantic sea-board, 
is the so-called mound-builders’ pipes, such as 
were discovered in great numbers, and de- 
scribed in detail by Squier and Davis in the 
‘ Ancient monuments of the Mississippi Valley,’ 
and more recently by several authors. ‘These 


pipes may be characterized as having a small 


bowl, usually in the shape of a bird, mammal, 
or human head, placed upon a short, flat, and 
slightly curved base, so perforated that it was 
used as the stem of the pipe. In other words, 
it was a complete smoking implement, and 
therefore unlike the ordinary pipes or pipe- 
bowls found in New Jersey and the New- 
England states, which, as a rule, required the 
addition of a stem of reed or hollow bone, to 
be used as the mouthpiece. 


Within a few weeks, a pipe of the pattern I 
have described, assumed to be peculiar to the 
mound-builders, has been found in New Jersey. 
While the bowl is perfectly plain, except a 
slight scalloping of the rim, it will be seen at 
a glance, that the specimen is essentially of the 
same pattern as the ‘animal pipes’ found in 
Ohio, and recently also in Iowa. 

Previous to 1882, I had been unable to find 
any pipes of this pattern, or traces of native 
copper implements of any kind; but since 
then copper spears, such as are found in Wis- 
consin, have been found in New Jersey, and 
now the pipe that I have described, and of 
which an illustration is given. Recently, also, 
specimens of flint arrow-heads have been col- 


lected, which in size, and delicacy of finish, are — 


equal to the best examples from Oregon. 
These specimens are now briefly referred to, 

as indicative of the fact, that in skill in work- 

ing flint, and in the range of handiwork, 


whether in stgne, bone, or clay, the difference — 


_ of the igloo is the snow-knife. 


Aucust 31, 1883.] 


between those people that erected the extensive 
earth-works of the Ohio valley and elsewhere, 
and the ‘wild tribes’ of the Atlantic sea- 
board, is practically nothing. I still hope to 
find unmistakable artificial mounds in New 
Jersey; basing my expectation upon the fact, 
that natural hillocks or knolls were frequently 
used as places of burial, and were chosen as 
desirable sites for the erection of wigwams. 
Cuartes C. Assorr, M.D. 


THE IGLOO OF THE INNUIT.‘—Ill. 


Tue only instrument used in the construction 
Where the In- 
nuits have intercourse with white men, they bar- 


MODERN SNOW-KNIFE. 


ter for cheese-knives or long-bladed butcher- 
knives, remove the double handle from the 
tang, and put on a single one about three times 
as long, which can be readily grasped by both 
hands. The old knives were made of reindeer- 
horn or from the shin-bone of the reindeer. 


SNOW-KNIFE OF BONE. 


Among the Esquimaux in and around King 
William’s Land I found snow-knives made of 
copper stripped from Sir John Franklin’s 
ships, the imprints of the queen’s broad arrow 
still showing on many, the blades double-edged 
or dagger-shape, and the handles of musk-ox 
and reindeer horn rudely attached by sinew 
lashings. 

The snow-knife of iron, while more conven- 
jent in many ways, is far more liable to break 
in the intense cold of the winter weather, such 
accidents with them being very common. I 
have seen igloos built when the thermometer 
registered —70° F. At such temperatures the 
snow becomes almost stone-like in its coim- 
pactness. The snow-knife is often used as a 
substitute for the snow-tester whenever that 


‘instrument is broken or left behind, for the 


Esquimaux are a very careless and absent- 
minded people. 

Before starting to cut the snow-blocks, the 
builder gets from the sledge a pair of gauntlets 
used for this purpose, only being of finer and 
softer reindeer-fur, so as to give the hands the 
most complete freedom of motion. These 


1 Continued from No. 29. 


‘SCIENCE. 


a we Og ee eee ee 


259 


gloves extend half way up the fore-arm, and 
have a puckering-string around the top, which 
the builder’s wife pulls tight, and ties so as to 
completely exclude the snow while he is at 
work in it. 

The igloo is built on the sloping drift of 
snow, the entrance being at the lowest point. 
The first trench from which the snow-blocks 
are cut is so disposed as to have its axis coin- 
cident with the diameter of the igloo, which 
runs directly up and down hill, or which makes 
the greatest angle with the horizontal. These 
snow-blocks are from a foot to a foot anda 
half wide, from a foot and a half to two or 
three feet long, and eight or ten inches thick. 
The first block cut from the trench is a thick 
triangular one, which is thrown away (see a, 
which is a vertical section through the axis of 
the trench). A ground plan of the blocks 


, would show that they are partially curved, but 


in no manner to such an extent as would be 
needed to conform to the curvature of the igloo. 
This curvature is the result of their manner of 
cutting by a swinging motion of the whole body, 
held almost rigid, and rotating about the foot 
steps, a,in the figure. This motion of the whole 
body gives them considerable power; and the 
resulting curved blocks, if large, are in the 
best shape for the first part of the structure. 
In cutting the block 8, first the right-hand edge, 
ed, is cut by three or four powerful downward 
strokes of the knife, and then the opposite 
edge, cd’. The knife, with its blade held hori- 
zontally, is passed under the block in front of 
the toes of the builder’s feet. About three or 
four inches in depth of the line d’d is cut; and, 


roms nets 


with the knife in the right hand, two or three 
deep vertical thrusts are made along this line, 
which generally separate the snow-block from 
its bed, and itis caught with the left hand as it 
falls furward. I have tried to represent these 
gashes in the figure. They are plainly visible 
on the snow-block inside and out, and a good 


artist would represent them in his pictures of 


the huts. The blocks are carefully lifted out and 
placed beside the trench, as, under some cireum- 


iin k= 


260 


stances, they are extremely liable to break in 
handling. It the snow has been properly tested, 


A SNOW BLOCK. 


this should, however, seldom oceur. The trench 
coinpleted, and enough blocks secured to form 
the first or base course, the floor 


SCIENCE. 


|Vor. II., No. 20. 


this to be almost impossible, as the first block 
in the course, after they had commenced to 
lean considerably, would have to be supported 
until it was flanked by others ; and these, again, 
would be very unstable. In fact, one often 
wonders how a snow-block will hold in place 
against its own weight, leaning far inwards, 
almost horizontal, and supported only on two 
sides, and will imagine that the native work- 
manship must be very good to give such re- 
sults. As the blocks approach the top, — where. 
they are more nearly horizontal and more lia- 
ble to tumble down, —their figure becomes 
trapezoidal in order to keep the vertical joints — 
pointing to the centre and top; and, while sup- 
ported on but two sides, these form a more or 
less acute angle, — more acute as it is needed 
and approaches the top, where the last few 
blocks are made triangular and meet at a point. 
The workman stands inside until it is com- 
pleted. Despite all the care, the falling of 


is laid out by a circular sweep of 


the knife, varying in diameter, of 


course, according to the number 


of intended occupants. _Com- 


mencing at the left hand, this 


course is laid until the first block, 


a, is reached, which is cut in 


halves from its first lower corner, 


¢, along the ascending diagonal ; 
and the top half, h, is thrown 
away. The last block, 6, has its 
‘contiguous corner cut off; so that 
the next block, shown in broken ~ 
outline, ascends and forms the 
first block of the next course. 
The igloo is then formed of this 


spiral of snow-blocks, each course 


inclining inward slightly more 


than the one previous, until the 


Iast, which may be called the 
key-block, is perfectly horizontal, 
and firmly wedges in and binds 
the whole structure. This spiral 
‘form of the courses I have tried 
to show in the illustration of one 
of the half-completed igloos. 

1 know that the general idea is, that each 
course is complete within itself, like a course 


of lricks on a round tower in our method of 
-bui ding ; but a moment’s thought would show 


THE HALF-BUILT,IGLOO. 


blocks is a very common occurrence, and hap- 
pens with nearly every building. He 
~ It will be remembered that the base course — 

has been laid upon a sloping bank of snow, thie 
lowest point being at the door, which has been 
formed by the trench running into the buil- 
ing. Therefore, when the builder is coming 
down with a course of blocks on the left side, 
they are peculiarly prone to tumble in. The — 
fact that this side is used for starting up on the 


ht Tie! de elaine Se 


Aveust 31, 1883.] 


spiral course, as already explained, assists some- 
what to overcome this ; but it is mostly reme- 
died by the builder, as each round is made, 
trimming down the up-hill part of the course 
to about half, until, by the time the blocks are 
leaning considerably, the course is level (leav- 
ing out the spiral inclination). 

As each block is being fitted, it is held near 
its intended position by the left hand of the 
builder, who at one stroke cuts off the triangle 
on the right edge, giving a trapezoidal form. 
The left edge of the preceding block receives the 
same treatment, and the block is shoved into 
place. The snow-knife is rapidly passed back- 
wards and forwards in the joints at the side 
and bottom, cutting off all inequalities, and 
making a fine powdery snow, which acts as a 
binding mortar. The last act is to give the 
block a sharp shoving blow with the open 
hand from the top, and another from the left 
side, which firmly sets it in place. The blocks 
all laid, the igloo is now complete, except the 
‘chinking ’ of the joints to render it air-tight, 
there being many large crevices. The chink- 
ing of an igloo is a very ingenious affair ; 
the material being cut diagonally from the 


SCIENCE. 


261 


lower edge of the upper block on the horizon- 
tal joints, and from the left edge of the right 
block on the vertical ones, if the person be 


eft hand 
clinched. 


VERTICAL CROSS-SECTION THROUGH WALL OF IGLOO, 


right-handed. As the knife in the right hand 
thus trims the edges, the left fist, tightly 
clinched, follows the knife, and rams the cut 
portion tightly into the crevice, rendering it 


THE FINISHING TOUCHES. 


262 


as perfectly air-tight as the body of the snow- 
block itself. An active Innuit will go com- 
pletely around the igloo on a single joint in 
about a minute, and it seldom takes over ten to 
do all the chinking in a large hut. This part 
is generally assigned to the boys and women, 
especially the former, who are much lighter, 
as it is necessary to go on top to complete 
their work. <A well-built igloo, however, will 
readily bear the weight of two large men 
on their hands and knees ; and yet I have seen 
asmall boy fall through one made of friable 
snow. 

Meanwhile the boys and women have been 
busy throwing the loose snow from the trench- 


THE SNOW-SHOVEL, 


es, and piling it on the house, eften following 
closely upon the work of block-laying, coyer- 
ing the whole to a depth of from six inches to 
half as many feet. The depth to which this 
is carried depends on the length of time they 
expect to use the hut, and on the temperature. 

The common pictures of the huts, showing 
the block-work so conspicuously, are largely 
the work of the imagination of the artists, all 
that is seen being rounded heaps of rough 
granular snow. Such artistic license may, 
however, be allowable to show the essential 
features ; and, so far as my criticism is con- 
cerned, I do not wish to be understood as saying 
that such uncovered igloos never occur. 


SCIENCE. 


a ae es 


[Vou. II., No. 80. 


‘I have spoken of the snow-walls, when 
chinked, as being perfectly air-tight. This is 
not strictly correct; the snow being more or 
less porous, and allowing a slow but ample 
current of air to pass through. In fact, at 
night the door is sealed, and the only means of 
ventilation is through the body of the snow. 

In 1879, during a heavy north-east gale, I 
was in an igloo on the west bank of Back’s 
River. The walls were of a granular snow, but 
were covered to a depth of three or four feet. 
Yet, with all this thickness, a candle-flame 
held near the wall on the windward side was 
deflected constantly at an angle of from thirty 
to thirty-five degrees from the vertical. 

The banking is done with a snow-shovel 
made of half-inch boards, tapering off to a 
short handle for one hand: a bent piece of 
musk-ox horn fastened in at the centre fur- 
nishes a hold for the other. The cutting edge 
is protected by a sharpened shoe of reindeer- 
horn, neatly bound on with reindeer sinew, 
which is also used to sew the boards together. 
The Netschilluks use shovels of cedar, walnut, 
and mahogany from Franklin’s ships. 

(To be continued.) 


MINNESOTA WEATHER. 


Mucs has been said about the sanitary prop- 
erties of the climate of Minnesota as a heal- 
ing-place for the consumptive; and in this 
connection a great deal of erroneous informa- 
tion has been published, often to the serious 
injury of the invalid, who is misled by it. As 
might be expected, the newspaper is the prin- 
cipal agent in the dissemination of such litera- 
ture. Here is an extract from the editorial 
page of the St. Paul and Minneapolis Pioneer 
press, the leading journal between Chicago 
and San Francisco : — 

‘¢ Of the aid that may be given by a pure, 
rarefied. and dry atmosphere, thousands of 
people now living in Minnesota, who have been 
rescued from impending death, can bear sub- 
stantial and grateful testimony.’’ 

Written in the haste of a newspaper office, 
by one who is practically pledged to the lau- 
dation of his state, as the western editor is, 
such a paragraph would scarcely deserve 
notice, were it not a summation in brief of 
some of the most popular errors afloat on this 
subject, and which one meets with everywhere 
in that land, from the drawing-room gossip to 
the medical journal. As such, it may profit- 
ably serve as text for analysis. 

In the matter of pure air, Minnesota is not 
different from other northern states in which 
the face of nature has been moiled by the 


VLE et ieee ae 
: 


/ 


_— eo 


AveustT 31, 1883.] 


hand and habitation of man. On the prairies 
and in the pine-woods the atmosphere yet 
retains a large share of its pristine purity: in 
the cities it is the reverse. Especially is it 
vitiated in the large and rapidly growing cities 
of St. Paul and Minneapolis, whose systems 
of water-supply, drainage, garbage-removal, 
and sanitary inspection, cannot keep pace with 
their increase of population. This fault will 
be remedied in time, however, when the 
authorities shall have learned that the dou- 
bling or trebling of a city’s people in a decade 
brings with it new responsibilities as well as 
new prosperity. It is an easy and pleasant 
thing to boast that one’s town is gaining popu- 
lation at the rate of a thousand a month, and 
that the values of real estate are rising ac- 
cordingly ; but the real-estate owner is slow 
to appreciate the necessity of advancing the 
salaries of city officials, and the appropriations 
for city improvements, with corresponding 
alacrity. Minneapolis, although built upon 
the flat surface of the prairie, has admirable 
opportunities for drainage into the adjoining 
gorge of the Mississippi River; but its dila- 
toriness in this and other works of sanitary 
improvement has been severely punished by 
the scourge of typhoid-fever. The prevalence 
of this disease has caused Minneapolis at times 
to stand at the head of the column of death- 
rates of the cities of the United States. 


_ While there may be malaria in Minnesota, — 


and, indeed, the term is sometimes found in 
the reports of the physicians,—it is by no 


-means the popular disease that it is in the south 


and east, where it is almost the fashion. A 
person may spend a year there without hearing 
the word mentioned ; and that immunity alone 
should be enough to stimulate emigration in 
that direction. 

Dryness of atmosphere is claimed for Min- 
nesota; and if we consult only the amount 
of rainfall, whose annual value ranges from 
twenty to forty inches, there is apparent jus- 
tice in this claim. But the manner as well as 
the amount of the pluvial precipitation must 
be considered. They have in that state a 
good deal of the lachrymose English weather, 
in which a drizzling dampness takes the place 
of the short, sharp, and decisive showers of 
equatorial lands. At the close of a rainy day 
the observer will go to his rain-gauge, and 
find its bottom scarcely covered. The effect 


of effort without accomplishment is always a 


depression of spirits in the looker-on; and 


this rule is never truer than when applied to a 


rainy day. Those who spent the month of 


October, 1881, in Minnesota, will remember 


SCIENCE. 


263 


it as a season of almost continual storm, 
during which, even when there was no absolute 
rainfal!, there was an unwholesome mist float- 
ing in the air. Occasionally the sun shone, 
but not with sufficient power to make an im- 
pression. Farm-labor was almost suspended. 
The potatoes rotted in the ground, and the— 
wheat grew in the stack. The streets of Ven- 
ice were scarcely more liquid than the streets 
of St. Paul. Danger-signals were erected 
in the fashionable avenues to warn teamsters 
away from fathomless depths of mud. Hack- 
ney-coaches were stalled there, and _ their 
horses were detached, leaving the vehicles 
to be extracted by the processes of engineer- 
ing. So impassable were the roads, that the 
fuel-supply was unequal to the demand, and 
invalids were obliged to go to bed to keep 
warm, and public schools were closed because 
their pupils were frozen out. 

Still the rainfall of this month was less than 
four inches and a half, Many a single shower 
in the warm latitudes precipitates an equal 
amount of water. Indeed, there are records 
of rains in which as much water has fallen in 
one day as falls in Minnesota during the year ; 
but, as a light rainfall does not necessarily 
mean a dry atmosphere, neither does an exces- 
sive precipitation invariably make a wet one. 
The water may flow away quickly, leaving no 
sign; and the next day the sun may shine as 
brightly as ever. Better, therefore, for the 
lungs, is an occasional drenching than a per- 
petual drizzle. While it must be admitted 
that the weather of the October just quoted, 
although not so bad as that of the September 
preceding, was yet exceptional in the extreme, 
still such exceptions could hardly occur in a 
very dry climate. 

The student of physical geography would 
scarcely expect to find the climate of Minne- 
sota a dry one. An average of such statistics 
as the writer has at hand indicates that rain 
or snow falls at least every third day in St. 
Paul. The state is almost directly under the 
influence of the Great Lakes, and is itself 
threaded with rivers, and dotted with lakes, 
Of the latter there are eight thousand worthy 
of the name, besides innumerable ponds. Two 
large river-systems receive their waters from 
the drainage of this region. The swamp- 
lands of the state play an important part in 
its area, as the maps of the land-office show. 
A large share of its forests are afloat upon 
ancient marshes. Cranberries and rheumatism 
abound. The Red River region is celebrated 
for its floods. At one time that stream wa’s 
popularly said to be thirty miles wide; and 


264 


the traveller down its valley was obliged to 
proceed by alternate stages of land and water, 
the steamboat being utilized when the railway- 
cars began to swim. Then it was that the 
facetious pilgrim from St. Paul to Winnipeg 
was, according to his habitual description of 
the journey, three days out of sight of land. 
It was a joke, to be sure; but such jokes are 
not heard in a dry climate. 

The moisture of the atmosphere of Minne- 
sota is the salvation of the state: it makes 
agriculture a possibility and asuccess. Given 
the same amount of rainfall in another lati- 
tude, and under more arid climatic condi- 
tions, and her wheat-fields would be blighted. 
As it is, her scanty rains, with the exception 
of a few showers in summer, fall slowly and 
gently; in times of drought the thirsty air 
freights itself with moisture from the abundant 
water-surface of the state; and these sources 
of humidity are re-enforced by the prolonged 
irrigation resulting from the melting of the 
winter snows and the thawing of the frozen 
ground in spring. 

The beneficial effects of an unclouded sun 
in the treatment of consumption may, per- 
haps, be overrated. The dweller in a rainless 
atmosphere, dazzled by the perpetual bright- 
ness, and with lungs parched by the heat and 
dust and dryness of the air, might come at 
last to long for an occasional rainy day, as the 
traveller in the desert longs for the shadow of 
thepalm. But, atany rate, our weather bureau 
could scarcely do better work than to give us 
a ‘sunshine map,’ upon which the statistics 
of hourly observations the year round, upon 
the state of the sky, should be graphically 
portrayed. Such frequent observations could 
be taken without inconvenience, as it would 
not be necessary for the observer to remain at 
a fixed station for that purpose. Such a map 
would show by depths of shading the relative 
amounts of sunshine and cloud at any place; 
and the invalid could select at a glance a resi- 
dence which would have the desired propor- 
tion of these conditions. The complexion of 
Minnesota upon such a map would probably 
not vary widely from the average. 

As has been seen, there is also a popular 
belief that the air of Minnesota is ina very 
rarefied condition. In the interests of meteor- 
ology, that superstition must be met and com- 
bated. The only cause of rarefaction of 
atmosphere worth considering here is elevation 
above the sea. Minnesota, as one might 
guess from its position in the Mississippi val- 
ley, is a low country. The mean elevation of 
the United States above sea-level is about 


SCIENCE. 


yer ete ee 
- 


[Vou. IIL., No. 30. 


twenty-five hundred feet. The average ele- 
vation of Minnesota is considerably less than 
half that number. Indeed, its ‘ height of 
land’ falls much. below twenty-five hundred 
feet. Therefore a large proportion of visitors 
to that state move into a heavier atmosphere 
than that which they have left; but unfortu- 
nately they do not know that fact, and, under 
the influence of their imaginations, they find 
their breath wonderfully shortened. The ele- 
vation of St. Paul above the sea is seyen hun- 
dred or eight hundred feet ; that of the plateau 
region of New York is from a thousand to two 
thousand feet. I once knew a lady to remove 
from the latter to the former place, thus going 
down hill and into a denser atmosphere. Ar- 
riving in St. Paul, she could with difficulty 
climb a flight.of stairs, owing to the lightness 
of the air, as she expressed it. When in- 
formed of her mistake, she was indignant, and 
resented the information. People do not like 
to give up their errors, even if they are un- 
comfortable ones. Having come a thousand 
miles in search of novelty, it was strange and 
eruel if she could not be allowed to enjoy that 
noyelty which is supposed to be characteristic 
of the west, —a rarefied atmosphere. With 
all its benefits, science works mankind an oc- 
casional mischief. The mountaineers of old 
suffered no inconvenience from their exalted 
position until the meteorologist came along, 
and explained to them that the air grew con- 
stantly thinner as they approached the clouds. 
Even to-day the unlearned inhabitants of our 
Rocky Mountain region make no complaints 
of a difficult respiration. It is only the scien- 
tific tourists who pant by the aneroid, and 
cough up a little blood when they cross the 
timber -line. Whether appreciated or not, 
however, it is certain that the air of the up- 
lands is less substantial food for the lungs 
than that of the low countries; and it is the 
density of the atmosphere, and not the reverse, 
which is to the advantage of Minnesota as a 
home for the consumptive. There are many 
people who advise this unfortunate to seek out 
some elevated region in which to live, but 
there are very few who can give any reason 
for this counsel. A learned doctor tells us in 
one of the late magazines, that the harmful 
substance known as carbonic-acid gas is more 
abundant near the level of the sea. Certainly ; 
since there is more air to the cubic measure 
at a low elevation, there is naturally more 
carbonic acid, which exists in the atmosphere, 


whether high or low, in a certain percentage — 


of the whole; but there is at the same time 
more of the saving grace of oxygen, which 


oe 
Es 5 ‘. 


_Aveusr 31, 1883,] 


the invalid is after. It is true that carbonic 
acid has a way of accumulating in low and 
unventilated recesses; but there are cellars, 
crevices, and deep and narrow valleys in the 
highlands as well as on the lower levels. As 
well recommend thin soup to the hungry man 
as to advise the sick man, whose one lung must 
do the duty of two, to breathe thin air. 
Should he climb the mountains to Leadville, 
he will be warned away by the inhabitants of 
that city, who will inform him, in the rude 
poetry of the mines, that a healthy man has 
to fan the air up into a corner in order to get 
enough for a breath. ‘ 

The atmosphere is not necessarily dry at a 
great altitude, as some suppose, nor damp in 
the lowlands. There are lofty swamps and 
low deserts. The mountain peaks, according 
to the poet, milk the clouds ; and in some parts 
of the world the mountaineer is more sure of 
his daily rain than of his daily bread. Mount 
Taylor, in New Mexico, is called the ‘ Mother 
of rain’ by the imaginative Indians. On the 
other hand, the deserts of California, which 
are below the level of the sea, are so dry, that, 
in the language of the plains, the jack-rabbit 
has to pack his water with him when he goes 
upon a journey. 

As to the thousands who have been rescued 
from death by the ‘ pure, rarefied, and dry 
atmosphere’ of Minnesota, this is a matter 
of town talk, which impartial observation does 
not confirm, and which there is no census to 
deny. In this connection I would challenge 
the champion of the most celebrated sanita- 
rium for consumptives to produce a list of the 
patients who have ‘got better’ under his 
notice, and I will match against him an equally 
honest observer from some undistinguished 
and unpretentious and confessedly unhealthy 
locality, whose proportional record of improve- 
ments will be equally favorable. Why, then, 
should the sick man become a wanderer, as 
he certainly will if he once starts in chase of 
the ignis fatuus of a climate cure? 

Frank D. Y. Carpenter. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


Prehensile feet of the crows. 


In nos. 16, 18, and 20 of ScreNcE are communica- 
tions by different writers on the intelligence of crows, 
suggested by one of mine in no. 13. I beg to add 
one more, concluding what I have to say on this 
subject. 

All seem agreed as to the intelligence of these 
birds; but few, I find on inquiry, haye seen them 
seize or carry objects in theirclaws. Yet no amount 
of negative testimony should invalidate my observa- 
tion on the Italian bird, when taken in connection 


: 
Te we 


SCIENCE. 265 


with the further evidence to be given. We all look 
at nature piecemeal; and it is certainly unreasonable 
to assume that one is in error because he claims to 
have seen through his pin-hole something which an- 
other has not observed through his. 

I agree with the doubters, that crows ordinarily use 
their bills, and not their claws, in seizing and carrying 
their food. In confirmation of what I claim to have 
seen, I will adduce similar instances, noticed by 
others as well as myself, in the Corvidae. I cannot 
positively assert that the bird I saw was C. corone: 
it might have been C. cornix, possibly C. frugilegus, 
but, at any rate, a crow, for it had the flight, the 
proportions, the color, the voice, and the boldness of 
these birds. 

As to crows not nesting among rocks, this is gen- 
erally true of the American crow (C. Americanus); 
but the European C. corone, a larger and more soli- 
tary species, prefers the sides of steep rocks, as also - 
does the hooded C. cornix. Both the American and 
European ravens often nest in inaccessible cliffs, and 
so do the rooks. 

To begin with the largest. Ihave seen C. corax 
in Iceland holding and carrying in its claws fish- 
heads from the beaches, and, when disturbed, from 
one barren crag to another, —an object too large and 
too heavy to be conveniently carried in the bill, and 
too precious to be left behind where food is so searce. 
I have seen C. carnivorus, in the winter wilderness 
of Lake Superior, carrying in the same way what 
looked like a squirrel or rabbit. It is well known 
that both these birds, when wounded, will strike 
savagely with their claws, like a bird of prey; which, 
being perching birds, according to our classifications 
they had no scientific right to do. 

Of the fish-crow (C. ossifragus), Wilson (Amer, 
ornith., v. 27) writes, “their favorite haunts being 
about the banks of the river, along which they usu- 
ally sailed, dextrously snatching up with their claws; 
[the italies are mine] dead fish or other garbage that 
floated on the surface ;”’ and, on p. 28 (up. cit.), ‘‘ These 
(a singular kind of lizard) the crow would frequently 
seize with his claws, as he flew along the surface, and 
retire to the summit of a dead tree to enjoy his re- 
past.’’ Audubon (Orn. biog., ii. 269) says the same. 
Clark’s Columbian crow is said to do the same thing, 
and its claws are sharp and raptorial. I have seen 
this species, along the shallows of the coast of North 
Carolina, seize and carry off in its claws living fish 
from the shoals over which it flew. 

Buffon, Chenu, Wilson, and Nuttall allude to the 
custom of capturing crows by fastening one on its 
back, feet upward, on the ground: its cries bring its 
companions to the rescue, one of whom is sure to be 
seized and held by the claws of the prisoner. 

For several summers [ lived in the next house to a 
tame and speaking crow, which often came in front 
of the kitchen in quest of food. One day a half- 
eaten ear of boiled corn was thrown to him. While 
engaged in picking it, holding it by the claws, as is 
the habit with the crows, he was disturbed by the 
attacks of a barking terrier. Keeping him at bay for 
a time by vigorous pecks, he finally tried to carry the 
ear in his bill to a favorite perch in a low cedar. As 
he seized it, first at one end and then at another, the 
leverage of the free end was such that it gave his 
head and neck very uncomfortable twists. He finally 
perched upon the ear in defence of his food, and, 
clinching it tightly in his claws, flew with it, in my 
sight, to his perch a few feet distant. 

Mr. E. A. Samuels (author of the ‘Birds of New 
England’) writes to me (Aug. 2, 1883), “I have 
known of its seizing with one foot—and hopping 


266 


with the other—various small articles of food, in 
one case a small frog;’’ and also, ‘*I have often seen 
the crow hold a frog or acorn firmly, with one foot 
on the ground or on a fence-rail, while he pecked 
away with his bill.’? Similar instances’ I remember 
to have read about, and one in the Bulletin of the 
Nuttall ornithological club, where it is deseribed as 
holding a small bird, which it had killed in an aviary, 
in its claws, while it tore it in pieces with its bill, like 
a bird of prey. 

The claws of the shrikes, weaker than those of 
the crows, and quite as insessorial, are used to seize 
and carry prey. A few winters ago I saw a shrike 
killed on the Boston:publie garden by the city for- 
ester’s men, which had in its claws, during its flight, 
a still living English sparrow. That the crows in 
the above-mentioned instances, though perching 
birds, do use their claws as prehensile organs, I 
regard! as evidence of their intelligence and reason- 
ing power, which enable them, under exceptional 
circumstances, to use their pereching feet for raptorial 
purposes. We must not measure animal intelligence 
by our imperfect and arbitrary zodlogical classifica- 
tions. Since the writings of F. Cuvier, Flourens, 
and Fée, it seems impossible to deny the possession 
of a reasoning intelligence to animals below man. 

Leaving out of view the instance mentioned in 
no. 13, I think I have adduced sufficient evidence 
that the crows do sometimes — that is, when they find 
it necessary —seize and carry objects in their claws, 
like birds of prey. SAMUEL KNEELAND. 


An interesting sun-spot. 


The accompanying sketch represents the remarkable 
sun-spot of July (which was visible to the naked eye), 
and is of particular interest. I did not see it in its 

early or formative period, when this was taken; but 

from my knowledge of Mr. Very’s experience and 
skill I have no doubt of the trustworthiness of the 
drawing in all its details. His remarks supply all 
the further information needed, §. P. LANGLEY. 

Cambridge, Aug. 21, 1883. 

I enclose a sketch of a large and unusually inter- 
esting sun-spot, as it appeared through the great 
equatorial of the Allegheny observatory, of 15 inches 
aperture, with the polarizing eye-piece. The drawing 
was made on the 26th of July, 1883. 


“a 


inn Noi i ! 


oe Meyeinehtt 

|i dg WE 

SPE ai q 

= a as 

eS 

HS | & 

Ste PANS 

| uf ANS 
BAIN SS 

jes Avie 


The spot, while not so large as some, exhibited 
considerable activity and a remarkable assembly of 
odd forms, some of which appear so conflicting that 
it is difficult to imagine how they can exist side by 


SCIENCE. ; 


« * a So ie) oS a 7 


[Vou. IL, No. 80. 


side. The strong inrush from the following side gave 
one the idea of a viscid shvet or ribbon, rather than 
that of a bundle of filaments. It bore a striking re- 
semblance to some of the forms which taffy assumes 
under the confectioner’s manipulation. On the upper 
or northern side the filaments were more graceful, 
slender, and grass-like. The southern part was re- 
markable for the length and intensity of its curved 
filaments. (The longest could certainly be traced 
through more than 15,000 miles.) But perhaps the 
most curious portion was tlie centre, where a mass, 
possessed of photospheric brilliancy and fringed with 
curved and tangled threads, gave one the impression 
that a recently erupted facula, formed somehow in 
the very middle of the spot, was being torn to pieces 
by conflicting currents. 

Numerous local whirls were evident, and the south- 
east half of the spot had a decidedly cyclonic appear- 
ance, the rotation being in an opposite direction to the 
hands of a watch. (It is to be remembered, that 
the drawing gives the appearance of a projection, and 
is therefore the reverse of a view by direct vision.) 
The north-west half of the spot did not show any 
such rotational tendency. F. W. Very. 

Allegheny, Aug. 20, 1883. 


The right whale of the North Atlantic. 


Iam sufficiently impressed by the utter absurdity 
of occupying your valuable pages in discussing non- 
essentials; yet I am called upon by your critic to clear 
up two points remaining, both of which in any case 
hardly deserve serious notice. I will endeavor to close 
this correspondence by stating the facts. 

Referring to Scoresby’s pictures of the Greenland 
whale, I was led to attribute to the first or earlier 
one another authorship, from seeing in it so much 
error and exagveration; and this because I had just 
read in Scoresby’s book the following (Arct. reg., vol. 
i. p. 447. 1820): ‘‘I have confined my engravings, as 
well as my descriptions, to those animals that have _ 
come immediately under my own examination, or 
have been sketched by persons on whose accuracy 
and faithfulness I could fully depend; while drawings 
that I have met with, when the least doubtful, haye 
been altogether rejected.” 

His second figure being so nearly correct, having 
evidently been carefully drawn from an entirely dif- 
ferent and natural study of the animal, it was easy 
to assume, that, having first taken at second-hand an 
ill-considered sketch, he promptly replaced it by a bet- 
ter one. In this view it should not be assumed that 
we had any thing but the kindliest motives in thus 
speaking of this most eminent and valued man’s 
work. In Scoresby’s ‘ Arctic regions’ (ed, 1820) the 
second figure of the Greenland whale appears. The 
caudal region, including the flukes, is entirely re- 
drawn, showing the various elements that make up 
the beauty of those parts, as the carinae, ete. The 
other features, unfortunately, are not improved; yet 
more unfortunate is the fact that the earlier figure, 
with all its imperfections, has come down to us in 
most of the more important works, 

With reference to the corrections of Scoresby’s 
figures, we may point to an old work in the library 
of the American museum, which, by the way, is not 
noticed in Mr. Allen’s bibliography; namely, ‘* His- 
toire des péches, des découvertes et des établisse- 
mens des Hollandois dans les mers du Nord, ete. 
Par Le C. Bernard DeReste. Tome premier. A 
Paris, 1801.”’ ‘This is an octavo volume, devoted 
almost entirely to cetaceans, and has large copper- 
plate engravings, one of which contains a right whale 
labelled B. franche, and another the sperm whale. 


| 


Se eet Le 


Aveust 31, 1883.] 


The former figure is in some respects better than 
Scoresby’s, as to form and proportions; but a most 
singular treatment has evidently been accorded it. 
The elements of the figure have been transposed, and 
the belly made to serve the purpose of back, and vice 
versa. It is evident that the figure was copied from 
a real model, as the baleen is shown correctly, though 
it projects in one place outside the mouth. 

The remaining point relates to the authorship of 
the volume on whales in the ‘ Naturalists’ library.’ 
The portion of the titlepage of our edition relating 
to this point reads as follows: ‘* Mammalia — whales, 
ete. By Robt. Hamilton, Esq., M.D., F.R.S.E., ete.” 

We now desire to ask our critic how much remains 
to justify the serious charges which he has caused to 
be distributed wide-cast over the scientific world, to 
more or less inevilable damage to institution and 
person. J. B. HoLpER. 


If Dr. Holder is satisfied with the way he has met 
*the serious charges,’ [ ain quite willing to here rest 
the matter; failing, as I do, to see that any of them 
are materially vitiated by his defence, while, amid the 
obscurity of much irrelevant matter, all of the more 
important ones are virtually conceded. 

In regard to the authorship of the volume on whales 
in the * Naturalists’ library,’ not only have I, as I have 
said before, examined anonymous copies of the ori- 
Binal edition, and found it given as anonymous in 

ibliographies, but have seen it attributed by contem- 
porary British cetologists to Jardine, The discovery, 
however, of a copy by Dr. Holder, having Hamilton's 
name as author on the titlepage, of course settles the 
question. 7 J. A. ALLEN. 


Achenial hairs of Senecio. 


Mr. Jos. F. James does not know of any expla+ 
nation of the use of the threads which are projected 
from the hairs on the achenia of most species of Sene- 
cio, ete. Before calling on ScleNCcE to help him, he 
might read up his text-books, say Gray’s Structural 
botany, p. 306. Boranicu.us. 


Kalmia or rhododendron. 


In reply to Dr. Abbott, in Scrence for Aug. 17, I 
will call his attention to the fact that the woods of the 
kalmia and the rhododendron are quite distinct in 
appearance, and are not likely to be mistaken the one 
for the other. The kalmia wood is frequently found 
in commerce, in the form of handles for tools, such as 
chisels and the Jike. The wood is of a very light pink, 
with darker streaks through it resembling cells filled 
with woody fibre. 

The rhododendron wood is destitute of such mark- 
ing. As to size, I have seen plenty of the kalmia, 
four and five inches through the butt, in the moun- 
tains of Virginia; and have had in my possession 
sticks, large enough for any such purpose as the 
Doctor names, from eastern Pennsylvania. The rho- 
dodendron is an extremely rare plant in Chester and 
Delawaré counties, Penn., but the kalmia is common. 

S. P. SHARPLES, 
Boston, Aug. 22. 


THE SOCIETY OF MECHANICAL 
ENGINEERS. 

Transactions of the American society of mechanical 
engineers. Vol. iii. New York, 1882. 350 p. 
illustr. 8°. 

Tus third volume of the transactions of the 
youngest of the three great societies of engi- 
neers in the United States is a well-printed large 


SCIENCE. 


267 


octavo of over three hundred pages. It con- 
tains a list of the officers and members of the 
society, its rules, the proceedings of the Phila- 
delphia meeting of 1882, and the proceedings 
at a memorial session in remembrance of Dr. 
A. L. Holley, a distinguished engineer and a 
founder of the society. The proceedings at 
the latter meeting consisted of an introduc- 
tory address by president R. H. Thurston, in 
eulogy of the deceased, and a formal tribute 
to his memory by Mr. J. C. Bayles, the ora- 
tor appointed by a committee for the occasion. 
Many members, as well as the appointed ora- 
tors, paid earnest and eloquent tribute to the 
great engineer. : 

Among the more generally interesting and 
important papers, are those of Professor Kgles- 
ton, on the appointment of a government com- 
mission to test iron, steel, and other metals; 
G. W. Bond, on the Pratt & Whitney ‘ stand- 
ard gauge system ;’ Professor Robinson, on the 
thermodynamics of the Worthington pumping- 
engine ; an essay on the progress of engineer- 
ing science from 1824 to 1882, by Mr. Fraley 
of the Franklin institute; the windmill as a 
prime motor, by Mr. Wolff; and a long paper 
on the several efficiencies of the steam-engine, 
by Professor R. H. Thurston. 

Professor Egleston gives a history of a 
movement among the engineers and scientific 
and business men ofthe country, to secure the 
establishment of a permanent commission to 
determine, by direct investigation, the absolute 
and relative values of constructive materials in 
the United States. Under the lead of the So- 
ciety of civil engineers, such a commission was 
demanded by a very large number of the lead- 
ing men of the country, and was created by act 
of Congress in the year 1875. It consisted of 
Col. Laidley, Gen. Gilmore, Com. Beardslee, 
Chief-engineer Smith, Dr. A. L. Holley, and 
Professor Thurston, the latter acting as secre- 
tary. This commission, in the course of two 
years, working amidst many discouragements, 
did an enormous amount of work; the results 
of which are published in a report consisting 
of two large and fully illustrated volumes re- 
cently issued from the government press. The 
commission was not well sustained. Congress 
refused to continue its appropriations ; and it 
ceased to exist, despite the protest of all the 
leading technical societies, polytechnic schools, 
the principal colleges, and such assocjations as 
that of the iron and steel makers. The effort 
is now making, to revive this commission, and 
to secure the continuance of its work. The 
publication of the enormous mass of informa- 
tion acquired by the board during the period of 


268 


its short life is hoped to give good argument 
in favor of prompt and liberal action by an- 
other congress, in which, it is believed, there 
may be a sufficient number of intelligent and 
patriotic members to carry the measure through 
without regard to politics. 

Mr. Bond describes the method adopted by 
Professor Rogers of Cambridge, and himself, 
to secure for Messrs. Pratt & Whitney of Hart- 
ford a standard system of exact measures for 
use in creating a basis for gauges to be used 
in the United States in general machine con- 
struction. The comparator built by the firm, 
under the advice of these gentlemen, is used. 
Its readings, with its ‘B’ microscope, are 
made from divisions measuring 0.000016 
inches. The company has now a set of end 
measures running by sixteenths to four inches, 
and.a complete plant for making them accur- 
ately to within the forty-thousandth of an 
inch, a magnitude which can be detected by 
an expert workman. 

Professor Robinson gives the theory of the 
peculiar form of pumping-engine known as the 
Worthington engine. This is a Wolff form of 
compound ‘engine in its general arrangement, 
built without fly-wheel and in pairs, and so con- 
structed that each double engine has its yalve- 
motion operated by the opposite machine. He 
shows that, theoretically, the ‘ tandem’ type of 
this combination excels all the other possible 
adjustments of the engine, in its probable 
efficiency. ‘The efficiency is not modified per- 
ceptibly by the ordinary slight variations of the 
exponent of the expansion curve. Numeri- 
cal results of the use of the formulas are given 
in tabular form. ‘The paper is illustrated by 
engravings of the several forms and parts of 
these engines. 

Dr. Fraley describes the formation, the 
growth, and the work of the Franklin institute 
of the state of Pennsylvania. It was organized 
in 1824, and has been in active operation ever 
since. It established the first regular draw- 
ing-school in the United States, and has kept 
it in successful operation for fifty years. It 
has occasionally given exhibitions of domestic 
manufactures and products, has gathered to- 
gether a great library, cabinets of materials, 
models, and machines, and has for many years 
regularly published a journal devoted to ap- 
plied science and the arts. 

Mr. Wolff gives the results of investigations 
of the efficiency and power of windmills, and 
presents a table, calculated in the course of 
his studies of the subject, of the relations be- 
tween the pressure and the velocity of the 
wind at various temperatures, —the first in 


SCIENCE. 


. 


[Vou. IL, No. 30. 


which the density and- temperature of the at- 
mosphere are taken into account. 

Professor Thurston occupies nearly fifty 
pages in the discussion of the several eflicien- 
cies of the steam-engine, including the total 
commercial efficiency. Expressions are given 
by which to determine the best proportions of 
steam-boilers for given costs of boiler and fuel, 
storage, etc. The best area of heating surface 
per pound of fuel burned on the grate varies 
as the square root of the quotient of all annual 
expenses variable with the cost of fuel, reck- 
oned per pound of coal and per square foot of 
grate, by the sum of all annual expenses per 
square foot of heating surface and per square 
foot of grate, the latter being reckoned only 
so far as they are dependent on the size of 
boiler. The efficiency of engine is found to 
be dependent upon both the ratio of expan- 
sion, and the method of variation of waste by 
internal cylinder condensation with the point 
of cut-off. Tables are given of the probable 
best points of cut-off in the various standard 
types of engines, at various pressures of steam ; 
and also_of the probable minimum weights of 
steam and of good coal required by such en- 
gines at various best ratios of expansion. 

The ‘efficiency of capital’ is found to be 
dependent upon similar quantities, as well as 
upon the costs of fuel, attendance, operation, 
etc. The theory of the efficiencies of the ideal 
engine with non-conducting cylinder is given, 
and both algebraic and graphical methods of 
solving problems are presented and illustrated. 
The theory of the efficiencies of real engines is 
next treated, and the defects of the Rankine 
system are remedied. The ‘general equation 
of all steam-engine efficiencies’ is given, as 
deduced by Professor Thurston, and a series 
of problems falling under the general head are 
treated by the production of the necessary 
formulas and by a graphical construction in- 
volving the use of his newly discovered ‘ curve 
of efficiency.’ One-half of the paper is de- 
voted to the solution of various important 
problems arising in the practice of the engineer 
and previously “unsolved. Tables follow giv- 
ing the results as applicable to the common 
forms of steam-engine, and showing the enor- 
mous differences in economy and in the best 
ration of expansion, size of engine, etc., pro- 
duced by the occurrence of cylinder condensa- 
tion, a form of waste hitherto untreated by 
writers on thermodynamics and the theory of 
the steam-engine. He says, ‘‘ By the use 
of this, or some more exact method, the art 
of proportioning the steam-engine can be ele- 
vated to the rank of a branch of the science of 


AvGusr 31, 1883.] 


_ engineering ; and that part of the science which 


has hitherto been in a most unsatisfactory con- 
dition, as viewed from the standpoint of the 
engineer engaged in its application, may be 
found to take a comparatively complete and 
useful form.’’ 


GEOLOGY OF PHILADELPHIA, 


The geology of Philadelphia: a lecture delivered be- 
Sure the Franklin institute, Jan. 12, 1883. By 
Professor Henry Carvitt Lewis. Philadei- 
phia, 1883. 21p. 8°. 

Tue author has distributed his pamphlet 
edition of this important paper, which deserves 
extended notice, and has placed him in the 
front rank of the young prosecutors of original 
research in the field of geology in this country. 
This memoir, and his previous lecture on the 
Ice age in Pennsylvania, have the rare merits 
that they are solid contributions to our knowl- 
edge from the first to the last pages; that 
they are almost exclusively due to the personal 
labors of the young geologist who brings them 
in their very complete form before the world; 
that they are closely and fairly reasoned out, 
and lueidly expressed. The great societies of 
the learned which require for membership the 
production of a work showing important, new, 
and original researches, have accepted many 


essays inferior in all these particulars to the 


subject of this review. To fully appreciate its 
merit, one must consider how very vague were 
the notions of geologists (including the large 
and growing class of Philadelphia geologists) 


as to our superficial deposits, before its appear- 


ance. The great influence of Louis Agassiz, 
and his theories of universal glaciation, had 
restricted the number of those who sought to 
define the action of glaciers in our continental 
geology, by extending the limits of this action 
over the tropics. The explanation of any thing 
obscure by the words ‘ glacial action’ became 
almost as common as the explanation of any 
thing difficult in physiology used to be by the 
words ‘ lusus naturae.’ 

It required, therefore, peculiar independence 
of thought to break loose from these fictive 
(always the most insurmountable) fetters, and 
to see the phenomena with-one’s own eyes. 
Besides this, it required laborious journeys, 
patient note-taking, and attentive reading of 
what others had done, in order to do justice to 
the subject, and prepare a monograph upon it. 
All these Professor Lewis has accomplished ; 
and, though much remains to be done, few 
presented so complete and neat-a view of 
subject as he has. 


SCIENCE. 


269 


It will already appear to be the writer’s 
view,-that his matter, and his manner of pre- 
senting it, have been found admirable, though 
as to the latter, his system, while supported 
by a clear style, will necessarily present some 
difficulties to the superficial reader. He could 
either have begun from the exterior and older 
boundaries of his superficial formations, and 
have proceeded inwards towards the present 
river Delaware ; or he could have adopted his 
present plan of commencing in the middle 
with the red gravel, — inverting somewhat the 
order of the overlying sediments by consider- 
ing the alluvium next (which is at the top of 
all), taking next the Trenton gravel (which 
underlies the latter), and completing the upper 
part of the column by treating of the Phila- 
delphia brick clay (which belongs between the 
upland terrace material, first mentioned, and 
the Trenton gravel),—and then following the 
column downward through the red, yellow, and 
Bryn-Mawr gravels, finishing by a short sketch 
of the underlying rock formations ; or he might 
have proceeded geographically from the newer 
deposits on the river, outwards to the Bryn- 
Mawr terrace. 

The writer confesses, that, in view of the per- 
fectly consistent theory which Professor Lewis 
has evolved, it would seem easier to follow the 
chronological order of the events which this 
theory comprehends, even though the geo- 
graphical sequence were somewhat disturbed ; 
but this criticism does not affect the real value 
of his results. 

Those who read this essay as carefully as it 
deserves will be rewarded by obtaining a very 
probable history of this portion of our conti- 
nent during post-tertiary time, with its suabmer- 
gences and elevations and the consequences 
thereof. It is perhaps to be regretted that 
Professor Lewis has not treated with the same 
care the subordinate part of his subject, to 
which he devotes a few concluding words ; 
that is to say, the ‘ gneiss,’ the * auroral lime- 
stone,’ and the ‘ triassic sandstone.’ ‘Thus, he 
confounds the views of two masters of our 
American geology in ascribing the gneiss of 
Philadelphia in the same breath to the Huroni- 
an and the Mont Alban.? 

It is also somewhat vague to say ‘ the gneiss 
of the Rocky Mountains of Colorado;’ since 
there are different gneisses belonging to differ- 
ent ages there, some of them probably Mont 
Alban, some Huronian, and some very likely 
Laurentian. 

Again: it is conceded by most Philadelphia 


! Compare Dr. T. Sterry Hunt's view, 20 geol. surv. of 
Penn., yol. E. p. 200. 


ES On) a MET We Nr ee ee re Stn ee a 


270 


geologists, that the section of gneiss along the 
left bank of the Schuylkill in the Park fs not 
a fair representation of the stratigraphy of the 
measures. The structure here does not agree 
with that on the other side of the river for long 
distances within the limits of the Park, nor 
with that exposed by the:cuts made for streets, 
ete., at short distances back from the river on 
this bank. Nor is it exact to say that the 
measures here dip ‘ at high angles ;’ since with 
the exception of a few hundred feet north of 
Lemon Hill, where one dip of 60° occurs, the 
dips for three miles are usually 30°, and never 
over 40°. 

Under the caption of ‘ Primal sandstone,’ 
it is the perpetuation of an error to call the 
‘sagging’ of rocks standing at high angles 
‘creep.’ This term is employed by glacialists 
and mining engineers in two senses quite dif- 
ferent from that which Professor Lewis intends 
to convey, and different from each other. 
Again: ‘ hydro-mica slates’ is a contradiction 
in terms, though not infrequently used. If the 
rocks are slates, they cannot contain hydro- 
micas, except as adventitious components. The 
last paragraph of this little pamphlet is very 
neat and well put; but we may be allowed to 
dissent from Professor Lewis in the statement 
that the marble of our doorsteps ‘tells of an 
ocean inhabited by no fishes:’ at least, mine 
does not tell me what were not in the ocean 
in which it was formed. 

The blemishes in the main work are both few 
and superficial. Thus (p. 9), it is a little too 
hasty to infer, merely from the absence of shells 
or organic remains in a brick clay deposited 
on a gravel, that the water ‘ had a temperature 
too low to support life;’ p. 11, the colors of 
the red and yellow gravels are not satisfacto- 
rily accounted for by the ‘ presence of a large 
body of water;’ there is a slightly subjective 
trace in the assertion on the same page, that 
“‘there is no trace of glacial action in Penn- 
sylvania south of the terminal moraine, noé- 
withstanding all statements to the contrary 
hitherto made by other geologists,’’ — which 
is in contrast with the modest style of other 
parts of the work; p. 14, ‘Bryn Mawr age’ 
is not a perfectly clear designation for the 
time or times when the gravels called by this 
name were being deposited, especially as there 
are crystalline rocks exposed at Bryn Mawr. 

Notwithstanding these trivial faults (as the 
writer conceives them to be), the memoir will 
serve not only to teach our young students of 
geology to reason from these facts, but will 
live long, if not permanently, in our literature. 
June 25, 1883. PERSIFOR FRAZER. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 30. 


THE IROQUOIS BOOK OF RITES. 


The Troquois book of rites. Fdited by Horarro 
Hae. Philadelphia, Brinton, 1883. (Brinton’s 
Libr. Amer. lit., no ii.) 222 p. 8 


Tose who still hold in remembrance the 
valuable contributions to linguistics made by 
Mr. Horatio Hale while connected with the 
‘Wilkes exploring expedition’ will be pleased 
to know that from his retirement in Canada he 
now sends forth this most interesting work. 
The reputation of the author, added to this fas- 
cinating title, will insure its favorable reception 
not only by ethnologists, but also the reading 
public. This aboriginal ‘ Iroquois Veda,’ which 
furnishes the title, and which may be consid~- 
ered a remarkable discovery and indisputably 
of great ethnological value, is presented in its 
original Mohawk, with the English translation. 
An introduction of ten chapters precedes the 
Book of rites. These are devoted to the gen- 
eral history of the Iroquois, their league and 
its founders, condolence council, clans and 
classes, laws of the league, historical tradi- 
tions, and their character, policy, and language. 
Portions of these chapters are deductions trom 
the book which follows them. 

The boundary-line between either folk-lore 
or myths, and actual history, is always so 
vague, that, even in the relation of facts, it is 
no easy task in their details to so discriminate 
as to keep truth clear from the brilliant color- 
ing of tradition and conjecture. Especially is 
this the case when an author with inherited 
literary taste and vivid imagination enters a 
realm where the temptation to allow them full 
scope is as great as in the early history of the 
Iroquois. Accordingly, we find among these 
chapters, many of which indicate immense 
research and are of great value both ethno- 
logically and philologically, those (such as the 
‘league and its founders’) wherein the charac- 
ters are portrayed in so exalted a manner that 
the sceptical reader will be disposed to assign 
the story of Hiawatha, as given in all its mi- 
nute details, not to the realm of mythology 
even, but to that of classic historical romance. 
Much less will they be willing to accept it as 
sober Indian history five hundred years behind 
its present semi-civilized condition. The chap- 
ter on the ‘ Iroquois language ’ may be consid- 
ered one of the most important, scientifically, 
of those in the introduction ; and it is probably 
one of the best outlines of their formation and 
structure ever published in English, concern- 
ing any one of the Iroquois dialects. ‘This fact 
quite throws the doubt on Mr. Hale’s state- 


ment that no one except Father Cuoq would 


- Aveusr 31, 1883.] 


be competent to prepare a grammar of these 
dialects. With due respect for the great erudi- 
tion of Father Cuoq, whose special studies have 
been in Algonquin, although a missionary to 
both tribes, we would say that the materials 
from which the reverend father prepared both 
his Lexique and the Iroquois portion of his 


_ Langues sauvages are through the courtesy of 
_ the Rey. Fathers Antoine and Burtin, of the 


order Oblat, now in the temporary possession 
of our Bureau of ethnology at Washington, 
where, already nearly translated, they will in 
time be published in connection with the oth- 
er Iroquois dialects. We allude to the works 
of that greatest of all Mohawk scholars, the 
Rey. Father Marcoux. That the rules, the re- 
sult of so much time and labor, can be clearly 
and distinctly presented to us in our own 
tongue, Mr. Hale has exemplified in the few 
which he presents in this chapter. - The‘ forms’ 
and ‘ particles’ which he has given are all from 
the Mohawk dialect, although he follows the 
example of all the Canadian authors, who dig- 
nify one dialect with the title which others 
contend belongs properly to a group. The 
examples he gives will many of them not apply 
to some of the other dialects, more especially to 
the Onondaga and Tuscarora. 


- In following too closely the rules of the 


French missionaries, great discrimination must 
naturally be exercised. 

We do not agree, for example, with Mr. 
Hale, in the illustration given with his remarks 
upon the duplicative form, on p. 111. 

The prefix of this form is te; the verb se- 
lected, ikiaks,— the same verb as given by 
Father Cuogq to illustrate this form. 

_ J-ktiks, I cut, in the act of cutting; te- 
kiaks, I it cut in two, or divide ; hwisk is the 
Mohawk numeral jive; hwisk té-kiaks, I cut 
it into five pieces: hence te, the prefix, can- 
not be a synonyme of, or a literal translation 
of, the Latin bi in bisecto (I cut in two), but 


om" sign that the act of cutting is or may be re- 


peated as often as necessary. 
Again, concerning gender (p. 106): the old 
French missionary idea of a ‘ noble’ and ‘ ig- 
noble’ gender — the former of which included 
‘man and deities,’ and the latter ‘ woman, evil 
spirits and objects’ — is explained away very 
satisfactorily by Mr. Hale, until he admits with 
them the absence of any neuter form. This 
leads him into the error (p. 108) of following 
their form of conjugation. 
The model containing the verbs ‘to love’ 
and ‘to see’ are as given originally by Father 
- Marcoux, and presented to the public by Fa- 
ther Cuog. Here the French form of conjuga- 


SCIENCE. 


271 


tion is used, which lacks the neuter pronoun 
‘it,’ but which is supplied with the indetermi- 
nate pronoun‘on.’ ‘The neuter pronoun, how- 
ever, does exist in these dialects as presented 
in five different chrestomathies already pre- 
pared. 

The translation of the third person neuter 
(p. 108), wat-kah-tos, by ‘she sees,’ should 
be rendered by ‘ it sees ;’ and the third person 
singular, translated as indeterminate ‘ one 
sees,’ is, in fact, the third person feminine ; 
and the same mistakes occur with the verb * to 
love.’ 

“hese few exceptions are simply advanced 
to show how much study is yet to be given to 
these dialects, and that we cannot accept un- 
reservedly the opinions of even the best ac- 
knowleged authority upon languages, which, 
we are learning, cannot be made amenable to 
the grammatical rules of any known tongue. 

The author’s opinions concerning clans are 
deserving of great attention; although many 
will be unwilling to agree with his conclusion, 
that, before the division of the Iroquois into 
tribes, there existed but the three presented in 
the Book of rites. It may be true that clans in 
some instances have been added, but we know 
of many more in our own day which have died 
out. The last male representative of the 
Rhut-kun-yah clan now occupies its chieftain’s _ 
seat without a single constituent, upon the 
Tuscarora reservation, while among the same 
tribe the female remnants of the snipe clan 
have been passed over into that of the turtle. 
The examples of the added Onondaga and 
Oneida (p. 52) among the Iroquois of east- 
ern Canada bear directly upon some rem#rks 
from a correspondent of Science in relation to 
the extra clans found among those Mohawks. 
This subject is referred to by our correspond- 
ent as ‘an interesting field of inquiry.’ Mr. 
Hale’s remarks, while suggesting a clew, are 
not free from objections. The clans are not 
called by the above names. One is termed 
the ‘ ealumet,’ and has the pipe as its symbol, 
which it was the province of one chosen from 
this clan to present in solemn assemblies ; and 
the chief of this clan also named the deputies, 
ambassadors, etc.: hence its title of * Ro-te- 
sen-na-kéh-te,’ from which name Mr. Hale evi- 
dently christens it ‘ Onondaga,’ whose council, 
not tribal name, is the same, signifying ‘ name- 
bearers.’ The council name of the Cayuga 
tribe translates literally the ‘ great-pipe people’ 
(p. 79): so might there not be as feasible a 
foundation for naming it the Cayuga clan? 
Moreover, would the same reasoning hold 
good concerning the rock clan, as the council 


J ‘ 


- 


972 


name of the Oneida tribe differs on pp. 42 
and 78? Before leaving this interesting sub- 
ject, we would call attention to note 5 on 
p. 147: ‘*It is deserying of notice, that the 
titles of clanship used in the language of cere- 
mony are not derived from the ordinary names 
of the animals which give the clans their desig- 
nations. Okwaho is ‘ wolf;’ but a man of the 
wolf clan is called ‘ Tahionni.’’’? The simple 
explanation is, that, in both the Seneca and 
Oneida, ‘ Tui-hyo-ni’ is the name of that ani- 
mal. One might be tempted to theorize upon 
this ; but so much is yet to be learned regayd- 
ing this intermingling, retention, and coin. 1g 
of words, that for the present'we have but to 
collate facts which can only be clearly ex- 
plained or understood by a more full and com- 
plete comparison of the Iroquois dialects than 
has heretofore been obtainable. 

The chapter entitled the ‘ Book of rites’ ex- 
plains its origin and character, the manner of 
its discovery by Mr. Hale, and the character 
of the Indians in whose possession it was 
found. That it is a genuine Indian produc- 
tion there can be no manner of doubt; and 
Mr. Hale’s conclusions concerning its age are 
in all probability correct. 

The Book of rites comprises the speeches, 
songs, and other ceremonies, which, from the 
earliest period of the confederacy, are sup- 
posed to have composed the proceedings of 
their council when a deceased chief was la- 
mented, and his successor installed into office. 
The fundamental laws of the league, a list of 
their ancient towns, and the names of the 


SM eM DO a, ae EC a i 


SCIENCE. 


= 
[Vou. IL, No. 30. 


chiefs who constituted their first council, all 
chanted in a kind of litany, are also comprised 
in the collection. ‘These contents are said to 
haye been preserved in the memory for many 
generations, and were written down by desire of 
the chiefs when their language was first reduced 
to writing. This manuscript, the original of 
which had been lost, Mr. Hale has, with the 
most competent Mohawk assistants, translated 
into English, and drawn from it most interest- 
ing conclusions regarding the character and 
policy of the Iroquois tribes, quite dissimilar 
from those generally accepted. ‘The transla- 
tion, notes, and glossary exhibit the work of a 
careful student. In the free translation ren- 
dered by Mr. Hale to the songs, he has given 
them a metre almost suggesting the peculiar 
melody, which, in the original Mohawk, was 
produced by intonations; for it must be re- 
membered, that it is one orator who must un- 
tiringly continue to sing and chant, sometimes 
for twenty-four hours; and only by varying 
his key-note is he able to accomplish this 
feat. 

A book which is as suggestive as this must 
bear good fruit. We have called the attention 
of our readers to many disputed points in the 
hope of awakening a spirit of inquiry upon 
subjects of such vital importance, many of 
which are here presented for the first time. 
We feel assured that the hopes of the author 
regarding it will be fully realized, and that 
students of history and of the science of man 
will here find new material of permanent in- 
terest and yalue. 


AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


The evidence for evolution in the history of 
the extinct Mammalia 


BY E. D. COPE OF PHILADELPHIA. 


THE subject to which I wish to call your attention 
this morning requires neither preface nor apology, as 
it is one with the discussion of which you are perfectly 
familiar. My object in bringing it before the general 
session of the association was in view of the fact 
that you were all familiar with it in a general way, 
and that it probably interests the members of sec- 
tions which do not pursue the special branch to which 
it refers, as well as those which do; also, since it has 
been brought before us in various public addresses 
for many years, during the meetings of this associa- 
tion, I thought it might be well to be introduced at 
this meeting of this association, in order that we might 


1 A lecture given in general session, Aug. 20, 1883. 
graphically reported for Sc1ENCE. 


Steno- 


not omit to have all the sides of this interesting ques- 
tion presented. 

The interests which are involved in it are large: 
they are chiefly, however, of a mental and metaphysi+ 
cal character; they do not refer so much to industrial 
and practical interests, nor do they involve questions 
of applied science. They involve, however, ques- 
tions of opinion, questions of belief, questions which 
affect human happiness, I venture to say, even more 
than questions of applied science; certainly, which 
affect the happiness of the higher grades of men and 
women more than food or clothing, because they re- 
late to the states of our mind, explaining as they do 
the reasons of our relations to our fellow-beings, and 
to all things by which we are surrounded, and the 
general system of the forces by which we are sur- 


rounded. So it has always appeared to me: hence I yi 
have selected the department of biology, and haye 


taken a great interest im this aspect of it. 


$ 
: 


g 


= ss 


© 


Avueust 31, 1883.] 


The doetrine of evolution, as taught by the biolo- 
gists of to-day, has several stages as grounds or parts 
of its presentation. First, the foundation principle 
is this: That the species of animals and of plants, 
the species of organic beings, as well as the various 
natural divisions into which these organic beings 
fall, have not always been as we see them to-day, 
but they have been produced by a process of change 
which has progressed from age to age through the 
influence of natural laws; that, therefore, the spe- 
cies which now exist are the descendants of other 
species which have existed heretofore, by the ordinary 
processes of reproduction; and that all the various 
structures of organic beings, which make them what 
they are, and which compel them to act as they now 
act, are the result of gradual or sudden modifications 
and changes during the periods of geologic time. 
That is the first phase or aspect which meets the 
naturalist or biologist. 

Another phase of the question relates to the origin 
itself of that life which is supposed to inhabit or 
possess organic beings. There is an hypothesis of 
evolution which derives this life from no-life, which 
derives vitality from non-vitality. That is another 
branch of the subject, to which I cannot devote much 
attention to-day. There is still another department 
of the subject, which relates to the origin of mind, 
and which derives the mental organization of the 
higher animals, especially of man, from pre-existent 
types of mental organization. This gives us a gene- 
alogy of mind, a history of the production or creation 
of mind, as it is now presented in its more complex 
aspects as a function of the human brain. This 
aspect of the subject is, of course, interesting; and 
upon that I can touch with more confidence than 
upon the question of the origin of life. 

Coming now to the question of the origin of 
structures, we have by this time accumulated a vast 
number of facts which have been collated by labo- 
rious and faithful workers, in many countries and 
during many years; so that we can speak with a 
good deal of confidence on this subject also. As to 
the phenomena which meet the student of zodlogy 
and botany at every turn, I would merely repeat, what 
every one knows, —and I beg pardon of my biological 
friends for telling then a few well-known truths, for 
there may be those present who are not in the biolo- 
gical section, —the phenomena which meet the stu- 
dent of biology come under two leading classes: the 
one is the remarkable fidelity of species in reprodu- 
cing their like. ‘ Like produces like,’ is the old theo- 


_ rem, and is true in a great many eases; just as coins 


are struck from the die, just as castings are turned 
out from a common mould. It is one of the most 
wonderful phenomena of nature, that such complex 
organisms, consisting of so many parts, should be 
repeated from age to age, and from generation to 
generation, with such surprising fidelity and pre- 
cision. This fact is the first that strikes the student 
of these sciences. The general impression of the 
ordinary person would be, that these things must con- 
tinue unchanged. When I began to study zodlogy 
and botany, I was remarkably surprised to find there 


SCIENCE. 


273° 


was a scienee of which I had no conception, and 
that was this remarkable reproduction of types one 
after another in succession. After a man has had 


* this idea thoroughly assimilated by his honest and 


conscientious studies, he will be again struck with an- 
other class of facts. He will find, not unfrequently, 
that this doctrine does not apply. He will find a series 
of facts which show that many individuals fail to eoin- 
cide with their fellows precisely, the most remarkable 
variations and the most remarkable half-way attitudes 
and double-sided aspects occurring; and he will come 
to the conclusion, sooner or later, that like does 
not produce like with the same precision and fidelity 
with which he had supposed it did. So that we have 
these two classes of facts, —the one relating to, and 
expressing, the law of heredity; the other, which 
expresses the law of metamorphosis. I should not 
like to say which class of facts is the most numer- 
ously presented to the student. In the present fauna 
we find many groups of species and varieties before 
us; but how many species we have, how many genera 
we have, and families, we cannot definitely state. The 
more precise and exact a person is in his definition 
and in his analysis, the more definite his science be- 
comes, and the more precise and scientific his work. 
It is a case of analysis and forms. What thescales are 
to the chemist and the physicist, the rule and meas- 
ure are tothe biologist. It isa question of dimension, 
it is a question of length and breadth and thickness, 
a question of curves, a question of crooked shapes or 
simple shapes, — rarely simple shapes, mostly crooked, 
generally bilateral. It requires that one should have 
a mechanical eye, and should have also something of 
an artistic eye, to appreciate these forms, to measure 
them, and to be able to compare and weigh them. 

Now, when we come to arrange our shapes and our 
measurements, we find, as I said before, a certain 
number of identities, and a certain number of varia- 
tions. This question of variation is so common and 
so remarkable, that it becomes perfectly evident to 
the specialist in each department, that like does not 
at all times produce like. It is perfectly clear, and I 
will venture the assertion that nearly all the biologists 
in this room will bear me witness, that variability is 
practically unlimited in its range, unlimited in the’ 
number of ifs examples, unlimited in the degree to 
which itextends. That is to say, the species vary by 
failing to retain certain characteristics, and generic 
and other characters are found to be absent or present 
in accordance with some law to be discussed farther 
on. 

I believe that this is the simplest mode of stating 
and explaining the law of variation: that some forms 
acquire something which their parents do not pos- 
sess; and that those which acquire something addi- 
tional have to pass through more numerous stages 
than those which have not acquired so much had 
themselves passed through. 

Of course we are met with the opposite side of the 
case, —this law of heredity. We are told that the 
facts there are not accounted for in that way; that 
we cannot pass from one class of facts to the other 
class of facts; what we find in one class is not 


274 


applicable to the other. Here is a question of ration- 
al processes, of ordinary reason. If the rules of 
chemistry are true in America, I imagine they are 
true in Australia and Africa, although I have not 
been there to see. If the law.of gravitation is effec- 
tive here, I do not need to go to Australia or New 
Zealand to ascertain whether it is true there. So, 
if we find in a group of animals a law sufficient to 
account for their creation, it is not necessary to know 
that others of their relatives have gone through a 
similar process. I am willing to allow the ordinary 
practical law of induction, the practical law of infer- 
ence, to carry me over these gaps, over these inter- 
ruptions. And I state the case in that way, because 
this is just where some people differ from me, and 
that is just where I say the simple question of ration- 
ality comes in. I cannot believe that nature’s laws 
are so dissimilar, so irregular, so inexact, that those 
which we can see and understand in one place are 
not true in another; and that the question of geo- 
logical likelihood is similar to the question of geo- 
graphical likelihood. If a given process is true in 
one of the geological periods, it is true in another; 
if it is true in one part of the world, it is true 
in another; because I find interruptions in the 
series here, it does not follow that there need be 
interruptions clear through from age to age. ‘The 
assumption is on the side of that man who asserts 
that transitions have not taken place between forms 
which are now distinct. 

We are told that we find no sort of evidence of 
that transition in past geological periods; we are 
assured that such changes have not taken place; we 
are even assured that no such sign of such transition 
from one species to another has ever been observed, 
—a most astonishing assertion to make to a biolo- 
gist, or by a biologist; and such persons have even 
the temerity to cite special cases, as between the wolf 
and the dog. Many of our domestic dogs are nothing 
but wolves, which have been modified by the hand 
of man to a very slight extent indeed. Many dogs, 
in fact, nearly all dogs, are descendants of wild 
species of various countries, and are but slightly 
modified. 

To take the question of the definition of species. 
Supposing we haye several species well defined, say 
four or five. In the process of investigation we ob- 
tain a larger number of individuals, many of which 
betray characters which invalidate the definitions. 
_ It becomes necessary to unite the four or five species 
into one. And so, then, because our system requires 
that we shall have accurate definitions (the whole_ 
basis of the system is definitions: you know the very 
comprehension of the subject requires definitions), 
we throw them all together, because we cannot define — 
all the various special forms as we did before, until 
we have but one species. And the critic of the view 
of evolution tells us, ‘‘I/told you so! There is but 
one species, after all. There is no such thing asa 
connection between species: you never will find it.’’ 
Now, how many discoveries of this kind will be neces- 
sary to convince the world that there are connections 
between species? How long are we to go on finding 


SCIENCE. 


: ‘ 
# 
q 


[Vou. IL., No. 30. 


connecting links, and putting them together, as we 
have to do for the sake of the definition, and then 
be told that we have, nevertheless, no intermediate 
forms between species? The matter is too plain for 
further comment. We throw them together, simply 
because our definitions require it. If we knew all 
the known individuals which have lived, we should 
have no species, we should have no genera. That is 
all there is of it. It is simply a question of a univer- 
sal accretion of material, and the collection of infor- 
mation. I do not believe that the well-defined groups 
will be found to run together, as we call it, in any 
one geological period, certainly in no one recent 
period. We recognize, however, that they diverge to 
a wonderful extent: one group has diverged at one 
period, and another one has become diversified in a 
different period; and so each one has its history, 
some beginning farther back than others, some 
reaching far back beyond the very beginning of the 
time when fossils could be preserved. I call atten- 
tion to this view, because it is a very easy matter for 
us to use words for the purpose of confusing the 
mind; for, next to the power of language to express 
clear ideas, is its power of expressing no ideas at 
all. As we all know, we can say many things which 
we cannot think. It is a very easy thing to say 
twice two is equal to six, but it is impossible to think 
it. 

I would cite what I mean by variations of species 
in one of its phases; I would just mention a genus 
of snakes, Ophibolus, which is found in the United 
States. If we take the species of this snake-genus 
as found in the Northern States, we have a good 
many species well defined. If we go to the Gulf 
States, and examine our material, we see we have 
certain other species well defined, and they are very 
nicely defined and distinguished. If, now, we go to 
the Pacific coast, to Arizona and New Mexico, we shall 
find another set of species well defined indeed. If 
we take all these different types of our specimens of 
different localities together, our species, as the Ger- 
mans say, all tumble together: definitions disappear, 
and we have to recognize, out of the preliminary list 
of thirteen or fourteen, only four or five. That is 
simply a case of the kind of fact with which every 
biologist is perfectly familiar. 

When we come to the history of the extinct forms 
of life, it is perfectly true, then, that we cannot 
observe the process of descent in actual operation, 
because, forsooth, fossils are necessarily dead. We 
cannot perceive any activities, because fossils have 
ceased toact. But if this doctrine be true, we should 
get the series, if there be such a thing; and we do, 
as a matter of fact, find longer or shorter series of 
structures, series of organisms proceeding from one 
thing into another form, which are exactly as they 
ought to be if this process of development by de- 
scent had taken place. 

Iam careful to say this; because it is literally true, 
as we all must admit, that the system must fall into 
some kind of order or other. You could not collect — 
bottles, you could not collect old shoes, but you 
could make some kind of a serial order of them. 


There are, no doubt, characters by which such and 
such shoes could be distinguished from other shoes, 
these bottles from other bottles; but it is also true, 
that we have, in recent forms of life in zoology and 
botany, irrefragable proofs of the metamorphoses, 
and transformations, and changes of the species, in 
accordance with the doctrine with which we com- 
menced. 

We now come to the second chapter of our subject. 
With the assumption, as I take it alread  satisfac- 
torily proven, of species having changed over into 
others, in considering this matter of geological suc- 
cession or biological succession, I bring you face to 
face with the nature and mode of the change; and 
- hence we may get a glance, perhaps, at its laws. 

I have on the board a sketch or table which repre- 
sents the changes which took place in certain of the 
mammalia. I give you a summary of the kind of 
thing which we find in one of the branches of pale- 
ontology. I have here two figures, one represent- 
ing a restoration, and the other an actual picture, of 
two extinct species that belong to the early eocene 
periods, One represents the ancestor of the horse 
line, Hyracotherium, which has four toes on his an- 
terior feet, and three behind; and the other, a type 
of animal, Phenacodus, which antedated all the 


SCIENCE. 


275 


defined, or that a specific intermediate form of life, 
will not be found, I think it is much safer to assert 
that such and such intermediate forms will be found. 

I have frequently had the pleasure of realizing anti- 
cipations of this kind. Ihave asserted that certain 
types would be found, and they have been found. 
You will see that I attend to the matter of time 
closely, because there have been a great many things 
discovered in the last ten or fifteen years in this de~- 
partment. In these forms I give the date of the dis- ~ 
covery of the fauna in which they are embraced. 

Here we have the White-River fauna discovered in 
1856; then we skip a considerable period of time, and 
the next one was in 1869, when the cretaceous series 
was found. Six or seven cretaceous faunae have 
been found. Then we have the Bridger fauna in 
1870, the Wasatch fauna in 1874. Next we have, in 
1877, the Equus beds, and the fauna which they em- 
brace, which also was found in 1878. The Permian 
fauna, which is one of the last, is 1879: and the last, 
the Puerco, which gives the oldest and ancestral 
types of the modern forms of mammalia, was only 
found in 1881. When I first commenced the study of 
this subject, about 1869, there were perhaps 250 spe- , 
cies known. There are now something near 2,000, 
and we are augmenting them all the time. I have 


No Astra- C: Ulno- 
Formation. es Feet. malta: Argh radiate. Superior molars. | Zygapophyses. Brain 
Miocene. .| 1-1 | Digitigrade. | Grooved. | Interlocking.| Faceted. | 4-tubercles, crest-| Doubly invo-| Hemispheres larger, 
\ 2-2 | (Plantigrade.)) (Flat.) (Opposite.) ed and cement-| lute. convoluted. 
cone wes s vel aro ed. Singly do. 
(Loup Fork.) | 4-4 
(5-3) 
Middle. . . 2-2 | Digitigrade. | Grooved.| Interlocking.) Faceted. | 4-tubercles, and | Singlyinvolute. Hemispheres larger, 
(John Day. » 3-3 Smooth. | crested. Doubly do. convoluted. 
444 
Lower. . . .| 8-3 | Digitigrade. | Grooved. | Interlocking. | Smooth. 4-tubercles, and |? Singly invo- | Hemispheres small; 
(White River.)| 4-3 | Plantigrade. | _ | Faceted. | crested. lute. and larger. 
4-4 
Eocene . .| 3-3 | (Digitigrade.) Grooved.) Opposite. | Smooth, | 4-tubercles. | Singly involute.| 
ai ad . - | 4-3 | Plantigrade. | (Flat.) Interlocking. 3-tubercles, and | Plane. | Hemispheres small. 
( ridger.) 45 crested. 
5-5 
Middle. . . 4-2 | Plantigrade. | Flat. Opposite. Smooth. | 4-tubercles. Plane. | Hemispheres small; 
(Wasatch.) 4-5 | (Digitigrade.) (Grooved) Interlocking. 3-tubercles, afew | Singly involute. mesencephalon 
5-5 crested. | sometimes exposed. 
Lower. . . 5-5 | Plantigrade. | Flat. Opposite. Smooth. | 3-tubercles. Plane. Mesencephalon ex- 


(Puerco.) 


(4-tubereles), none 
crested. 


posed ; hemisphere 
small and smoother. 


horse series, the elephant series, the hog, the rhi- 
- noceros, and all of the other series of hoofed ani- 
mals. Each presents us with the primitive position 
in which they first come to our knowledge in the 
history of geological time. 

I have also arranged here a series of some leading 
forms of the three principal epochs of the mesozoic 
times, and six of the leading ones of the tertiary time. 
I have added some da? + to show you the time when 
the faunae which are entombed in those beds were 
discovered, in the course of our studies; and you will 
- easily see Low unsafe it is to say that any given type 
of life has never existed, and assert that such and 
such a form is unknown; and it is still more unsafe, 
~ «think, to assert that any given form of life properly 


found many myself: if they were distributed through 

the days of the year, I think in some years I should 
have had several every day. But the accessions to 
knowledge which are constantly being made make it 
unsafe to indulge in any prophecies, that, because such 

and such things have not been found, therefore such 
and such things cannot be ; for we find such and 
such things really have been and reaJly are discoy- 
ered. 

The successive changes that we have in the mam- 
malia have taken place in the feet, teeth, and brain, 
and the vertebral column, The parts which present 
us the greatest numbers of variations are those in 
which many parts are concerned, as in the limbs and 
feet. In the lower eocene (Puerco), the toes were 


ea oo 


4 ° 7 
.. . ze ime q = - ee & 5. OM) 


276 


5-5. In the Loup-Fork fauna, some possess toes but 
1-1. Prior to this period no such reduction was 
known, though in the Loup-Fork fauna a very few 
Species were 5-5. Through this entire series we have 
transitions steady and constant, from 5-5, to 4-5, to 
44, to 4-3, to 3-38, to 2-2, to 1-1. In the Puerco 
period there was not a single mammal of any kind 
which had a good ankle-joint; which had an ankle- 
joint constructed as ankle-joints ought to be, with 
tongue and groove. The model ankle-joint is a 
tongue-and-groove arrangement. In this period they 
were all perfectly flat. As time passes on we get 
them more and more grooved, until in the Loup- 
Fork fauna and the White-River fauna they are all 
grooved. In the sole of the foot, in the Puerco fauna, 
they are all flat; but in the Loup-Fork fauna the 
sole of the foot is in the air, and the toes only are 
applied to the ground, with the exception of the line 
of monkeys, in which the feet have not become erect 
on the toes, and the elephant, in which the feet are 
nearly flat also, and the line of bears, where they are 
also flat. As regards tle ungulation between the 
small bones of the palm and of the sole, there is not 
a single instance in which the bones of the toes are 
locked in the lower eocene, as they are in the later 
and latest tertiary. 

When we come to the limbs, the species of the 
Puerco fauna have short legs. They have gradually 
lengthened out, and in the late periods they are 
nearly all relatively long. 

Coming to the vertebrae as a part of the osseous 
system, I will mention the zygapophyses, or antero- 
posterior direct processes, of which the posterior looks 
down, and the anterior looks up. They move on each 
other, and the vertebral column bends from side to 
side. In the lower forms of mammals they are al- 
ways flat, and in the hoofed mammals of the Puerco 
period they are all flat. In the Wasatch period we 
get a single group in which the articulation, instead 
of being perfectly flat, comes to be rounded; in the 
later periods we get them very much rounded; and 
finally, in the latest forms, we get the double curve 


and the locking process in the vertebral column, — 


which, as in the limb, secures the greatest strength 
with the greatest mobility. In the first stages of the 
growth of the spinal cord, it is a notochord, or a 
cylinder of cartilage or softer material. In later 
stages the bony deposit is made in its sheath until it 
is perfectly segmented. 

Now, all the Permian land-animals, reptiles, and 
batrachians retain this notochord with the begin- 
nings of osseous vertebrae, in a greater or less de- 
gree of complexity. There are some in South Africa, 
I believe, in which the ossification has come clear 
through the notochord; but they are few. This 
characteristic of the Permian appears almost alone, 
—perhaps absolutely alone as regards land-ani- 
mals. ‘There is something to be said as to the condi- 


tion of that column from a mechanical standpoint, | 


and it is this: that the cord exists, its osseous ele- 
ments disposed about it; and in the batrachians re- 
lated to the salamanders, and the frogs, these osseous 
elements are arranged under the sheath in the skin 


SCIENCE. 


eo oe el eee ee 
yi ef ~ 


[Von. II., No. 30. 


of the cord; and they are in the form of regular 
concave segments, very much like such segments as 
you will take from the skin of an orange, — parts of 


spheres, and having greater or less dimensions ac-. 


cording to the group or species. Now, the point of 
divergence of these segments is on the side of the 
column. ‘They are placed on the'side of the column 
where the segments separate,—the upper segments 
rising and the lower segments coming downward. 
To the upper segments are attached the arches and 
their articulations, and the lower segments are like 
the segments of a sphere. If you take a flexible 
cylinder, and cover it with a more or Jess inflexible 
skin or sheath, and bend that cylinder sidewise, you 
of course will find that the fractures of fhat part of the 
surface will take place along the line of the shortest 
curve, which is on the side; and, as a matter of fact, 
you have breaks of very much the character of the 
segments of the Permian batrachia. It may not be 
so symmetrical as in the actual animal, for organic 
growth is symmetrical so far as not interfered with; 
for, when we have two forces, the one of growth and 
the other of change or alteration, and they contend, 
you will find in the organic being a quite symmetri- 
cal result. That is the universal rule. In the ecylin- 
der bending in this way, of course the shortest line 
of curve is right at the centre of the side of that 
cylinder, and the longest curve is of course at the 
summit and base, and the shortest curve will be the 
point of fracture. And that is exactly what I pre- 
sume has happened in the case of the construction 
of the segments of the sheath of the vertebral column 
in the lateral motion of the animal swimming, always 
on one side, and which, at least, has been the actual 
cause of the disposition of the osseous material. in 
its form. I have gone beyond the state of the dis- 
cussion in calling attention to one of the forees which 
have probably produced this kind of result. That 
is the state of the vertebral column of many of the 
vertebrata of the Permian period. 

I go back to the mamumalia, and call attention to 
the teeth. The ordinary tooth of the higher type of 
the mammalia, whether hoofed or not, with some ex- 
ceptions, is complex with crests or cusps. In cutting 
the complex grinding surfaces we find they have been 
derived by the infolding extensions of four original 
cusps or tubercles. They have been flattened, have 
been rendered oblique, have run together, have folded 
up, have become spiked, have descended deeply or 
have lifted themselves, so that we have teeth of all 
sorts and kinds, oftentimes very elegant, and some- 
times very effective in mechanism. In many pri- 
mary ungulates, the primitive condition of four con- 
ical tubercles is found. In passing to older periods 
we find the mammalia of the Puerco period, which 
never have more than three tubercles, with the ex- 
ception of three or four species. In the sueceeding 
periods, however, they get the fourth tubercle on the 
posterior side. Finally, you get a complicated series 
of grinding or cutting apparatus, as the case may be. 

Last, but not least, we take the series of the brain. 
No doubt the generalization is true, that the primi- 
tive forms of mammalia had small brains with smooth 


, 
; 
’ 
; 


4 _ Avausr 31, 1883. ] 


‘ 


_ hemispheres; later ones had larger brains with com- 
plex hemispheres. In general, the carnivora have 
retained a more simple form of brain, while herbivor- 

ous animals have retained a most complicated type 

q of brain, The lowest forms of mammalia display 

d the additional peculiarity of having the middle brain 

{ exposed; and the hemispheres or large lobes of the 

: brain, which are supposed to be the seat of the men- 

tal phenomena, are so reduced in size at the back 
end that you see the middle brain distinetly, though 
it is smaller than in reptiles and fishes. It is beyond 
the possibility of controversy, that these series have 
existed, and that they have originated in simplicity, 
and have resulted in complication; and the further 
deduction must be drawn, that the process of sueces- 
sion has always been towards greater effectiveness of 
~mechanical work, There are cases of degradation, 

; as in the growing deficiency in dentition in man. 

There is no doubt that a large number of people are 

now losing their wisdom-teeth in both jaws. 

We are now brought to the question of the rela- 
tions which mind bears to these principles. The 

. question as to the nature of mind is not so complex 


Aas) SS owe. 


— 


as it might seem. There is a great deal of it, to be 
sure; but on examination it resolves itself into a few 
ultimate forms. An analysis reduces it to a few 

) principal types or departments, — the departments of 
_ -_the intelligence and of emotions (with their modified 
: smaller forms, likes and dislikes), and the will, if 
such there be. Those three groups, proposed by 

Kant, are well known, and adopted by many meta- 

physicians; and they stand the scrutiny of modern 

Science perfectly well in both men and the Jower 

animals. But the question of the material of the 
mind, the original raw stuff out of which mind was 
made, is one which is claiming attention now from 
biologists, as it always has done from physiologists 
proper and physicians. This is sensibility, mere sim- 
ple sensibility, unmodified sensibility or conscious- 
ness. Sensibility, in connection with memory, is 
sufficient for the accomplishment of wonderful re- 
sults. It is only necessary to impress the sensibility 
with the stimuli which this world affords, whether 
from the outside or the inside, to have the record 
made, and to have the record kept. Among wonder- 
ful things this is perhaps the most wonderful: that 

_ any given form of matter should be able to retain a 

record of events, a record which is made during a 
_ state of sensibility for the most part, a greater or less 

degree of sensibility, which is retained in a state of 

insensibility, and is finally returned to the sensi- 
- bility by some curious process of adhesion, and the 
results of impresses which are found on the material 
tissue concerned. 

And these simple elements of mind are found in 
animals. No zodlogist who has perception or hon- 
esty, nor any farmer or breeder, nor any person who 
_ has charge of animals in any way, can deny sensibil- 
~ ity to all the lower animals at times. The great 
stumbling-block in the way of the thinker in all this 
.. field is the great evanescence of this sensibility: the 
great ease with which we dissipate it, the readiness 
with which we can deprive a fellow-being of his 


? 


SCIENCE. _ 


Tee TER ee eee a 


- 


277 


sense, is a stumbling-block in more ways than one. 
While it is a question of the greatest difficulty, nevery 
theless, like other departments of nature, doubtless 
it will ultimately be explained by the researches of 
physiologists. I only need to call attention to the 
fact as an important factor in evolution. 

Of course, if these structures are suggested, affect- 
ing the mechanical apparatus, the question arises, 
whether they were made ready to hand, whether the 
animal, as soon as he got it, undertook to use it, and 
whether he undertook to use the organism under the 
dire stimuli of necessity, or amended through ages 
these modifications in his own structure. We are 
told by some of our friends, that law implies a law- 
giver, that evolution implies an evolver: the only 
question is, Where is the lawgiver? where is the 
evolver? where are they located? I may say, it is 
distinetly proven in some directions, that the constant 
applications of force or motion in the form of strains, 
in the form of impacts and blows, upon any given 
part of the animal organism, do not fail to produce 
results in change of structure. I believe the changes 
in the ungulates to which I have called your atten- 
tion are the result of strains and impacts, precisely 
as [have shown you the manner of the fracture of 
the vertebral column of the primitive vertebrates of 
the Permian period. This would require long dis- 
cussion to render clear: nevertheless, I venture to 
make the assertion that this series of structures is 
the result of definite and distinct organic forces, 
directed to special ends. We have yet to get at the 
conflicting forces which have produced the results we 
see. Mechanical evolution will give us a good deal 
to do for some time to come. Of course, if motion 
has had an effect in modifying structure, it behooves 
us to investigate thuse forces which give origin to 
motion in animals. First in order come the sen- 
sibilities of the animal, which we have traced to sim- 
ple consciousness; stimuli, upon notice of which he 
immediately begins to move. The primary stimulus 
of all kinds of motion is necessarily touch. If a 
stone falls upon the tail of some animal which has a 
tail, he immediately gets out of that vicinity. If 
a jelly-fish with a stinging apparatus runs across an 
eel which has no scales, the eel promptly removes. 
External applications of unpleasant bodies will al- 
ways cause an animal to change his location. Then 
he is constantly assaulted by the dire enemy of 
beasts, hunger, an instinct which is evidently uni- 
versal, to judge from the actions of animals. This 
seems to have fashioned, in large part, all forms of 
life, from the least to the greatest, from the most 
unorganized to the most complex. Each exercised 
itself for the purpose of filling its stomach with 
protoplasm. Then come the stimuli, which should be 
included under the class of touch, changes of tem- 
perature. No animals like to be cold or too hot; and 
when the temperature is disagreeable, the tendency 
is to go away from that locality. Among primary 
instincts must be ineluded that of reproduction. 
After that comes the sensation of resistance, or, 
carried to a high degree, of anger: when an animal’s 
interests are interfered with, its movements re- 


rae 


278 


stricted, it prompts to the most energetic displays. 
“So, you see, it is a matter of necessity that mental 
phenomena lie at the back of evolution, provided 
always that the connecting link of the argument — 
that motion has ever affected structure—be true. 
That is a point which, of course, admits of much 
discussion. I have placed myself on the affirmative 
side of that question; and, if I live long enough, I 
expect to see it absolutely demonstrated. 

Of course the development of mind becomes pos- 
sible under such cireumstances. It is not like a man 
lifting himself up by his boots; which it would be if 
he had no such thing as memory. But with that mem- 
ory which accumulates, which formulates first habits, 
and then structures, especially in the soft, delicate 
nervous tissue, the development of the mind as well 
as the machinery of the mind becomes perfectly pos- 
sible. We develop our intellect through the accumu- 
lation of exact facts; through the collation of pure 
truth, no matter whether it be a humble kind of 
truth, —as the knowledge of the changes of the sea- 
sons, which induces some animals to lay up the win- 
ter’s store, — whether it be knowledge of the fact that 
the sting of the bee is very unpleasant, or knowledge 
of the fact (of which the ox, no doubt, is thoroughly 
aware) that the teeth of the wolf are not pleasant 
to come in contact with; or whether it be the com- 
plex knowledge of man. When the cerebral matter 
has become larger and more complex, it receives and 
retains a much greater number of impressions, and the 
animal becomes a more highly educated being. 

As regards the department of emotions or passions, 
it is also much stimulated by the environment. Ani- 
mals which live in a state of constant strife, naturally 
have their antagonistic passions much developed; 
while amiable, sympathetic sentiments are better and 
more largely produced by peace-loving animals. Thus 
it is that the various departments of the mind have 
the beautiful results which we now find in the human 
species. : : 

There are some departments of the mind which 
some of our friends decline to admit having had such 
an origin. The moral faculty, for instance, is ex- 
cepted by many from this series. But the reasons 
why they object to its production in this way are, to 
my mind, not valid. The development of the moral 
faculty, which is essentially the sense of justice, ap- 
pears to them not to fall within the scope of a theory 
of descent or of evolution. It consists of two parts. 
First is the sentiment of benevolence, or of sympathy 
with mankind, which gives us the desire to treat them 
as they should be treated. It is not sufficient for jus- 
tice that it is unmixed mercy, or benevolence, which 
is sometimes very injurious, and very often mis- 
placed. It requires, in the second place, the criticism 
of the judgment, of the mature intellect, of the ra- 
tional faculty, to enable the possessor to dispose of 
his sentiments in the proper manner. The combina- 
tion of rational discrimination and true judgment, 
with benevolence, constitutes the sense of justice, 
which has been derived, no doubt, as a summary of 
the development of those two departments of. the 
mind, — the emotions and the intellect. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 30. 


It is said, that a sense of justice could not be de- 
rived from the sense of no justice; that it could not 
have been derived from the state of things which we 
find in the animals, because no animal is known to 
exhibit real justice: and that objection is valid as far 
as it goes. I susp ‘ct that no animal has been ob- 
served to show a true sense of justice. That they 
show sympathy and kindness, there is no question; 
but when it comes to real justice, they do not display 
it. But do all men display justice? Do all men under- 
stand justice? Iam very sure not. There are a good 
many men in civilized communities, and there are 
many tribes, who do not know what justice is. It does 
not exist as a part of every mental constitution. I 
never lived among the Bushmen, and do not know 
exactly what their mental constitution is; but in a 
general way the justice of savages is restricted to 
the very smallest possible circle, —that of their tribe 
or of their own family. There isa class of people who 
do not understand justice. Ido not refer to people 
who know what right is, and do not do it; but to 
the primitive state of moral character, in which, as in 
children, a sense of justice is unknown. I call atten- 
tion to the fact, because some of our friends have 
been very much afraid that the demonstration of the 
law of evolution, physical and metaphysical, would 
result in danger to society. Isuspect not. The mode 
in which I understand this question appears to me to 
be beneficial to society, rather than injurious; and I 
therefore take the liberty of appending this part of 
the subject to its more material aspect. 

To refer to another topic, and that is to the origin 
of life, the physical basis of life. The word ‘life’ is 
so complex that it is necessary to define it, and so to 
define it away that really the word ‘life’ does not 
retain its usual definition. Many phenomena of life 
are chemical, physical, mechanical. We haye to 
remove all these from consideration, because they 
come within the ordinary laws of mechanical forces; 
but we have a few things left which are of a differ- 
ent character. One is the law of growth, which is 
displayed in the processes of embryonic succession; 
secondly, the wonderful phenomena of sensibility. 
Those two things we have not yet reduced to any 
identity with the ordinary laws of force. In the 
phenomena of embryology the phenomena of evolu- 


tion are repeated. only concentrated in the early — 


stages through which animals have to pass. So 
whatever explains the general phenomena of evyolu- 
tion explains the phenomena of embryology. 

What is the nature of physical sensibility? In 
this planet, it is found residing only in one form of 
matter, which has a slightly varied chemical consti- 
tution, namely, protoplasm ; so-called from a physi- 
eal standpoint. Now, this world, as you all know, 
has passed through many changes of temperature. 
Its early periods, it is probable, were so very hot that 
protoplasm had a very poor chance. The earth has 
passed through a great many changes of temperature. 
many of which would not permit the existence of 
protoplasm. Again, can we assume for a moment 
that this little speck in the great universe is the only 
seat of life? J suppose scarcely any scientific man 


_ Aveusr 31, 1883.] 


will venture to do so. If, therefore, life exists in 
other parts of this great universe, does it necessarily 
occupy bodies of protoplasm in those different, remote 
spheres ? It would be a great assumption. It is al- 
together improbable. The certainty is, that in those 
planets which are in proximity to the sun’s heat 
there could be no protoplasm. Protoplasm in the 
remote planets would be a hard mineral, and near 
the sun it would be dissipated into its component 
gases. So that, if life be found in other parts of this 
universe, it must reside in some different kind of 
material. It is extremely probable that the physical 
conditions that reside in protoplasm might be found 
in other kinds of matter, It is in its chemical inert- 
ness, and in its physical constitution, that its adap- 
tation to life resides; and the physical constitution 
necessary for the sustentation of life may be well 
supposed to exist in matter in other parts of the uni- 
verse. I only say the door is open, and not closed: 
any one who asserts that life cannot exist in any 
other material basis than protoplasm is assuming 
more than the world of science will permit him to 
assume, And that it is confined to this single planet, 
and not in the great systems of the universe, — that 
assumption will not for a moment beallowed. There- 
fore the subject is one which allows us a free field 
for future investigation: it is by no means closed in 
the most important laws which it presents to the 
rational thinker. I hope, therefore, that, if the evi- 
dence in favor of this hypothesis of the creation of 
living forms be regarded as true, that no one will 
find in it any ground for any very serious modifi- 
eation of existing ideas on the great questions of right 
and wrong which have long since been known by 
men as a result of ordinary experience, and without 
any scientific demonstration whatsoever. 


A classification of the natural sciences,’ 
BY T. STERRY HUNT, LL.D., F.R.S.. OF MONTREAL. 


To frame a rational classification of the natural 
sciences, and to define their mutual relations, have 
often been attempted. The present writer, in an 
essay read before the National academy of sciences 
in April, 1881, and since published in the Philosophi- 
cal magazine, with the title of ‘The domain of phy- 
siology,’ suggested the basis of such a scheme, and 
now, at the request of some of his readers, ventures, 
for the first time, to embody in a concise and tabu- 
lated form the views then and there enunciated, in 
the hope that other students may find it not unworthy 


of their notice. ‘ 


The study of material nature constitutes what the 
older scholars correctly and comprehensively termed 
physics (the words ‘physical’ and ‘natural’ being 
synonymous), and presents itself in a twofold aspect, 


—first, as descriptive; and, second, as philosophical, 
—adistinction embodied in the terms ‘natural his- 


tory’ and ‘natural philosophy,’ or, more concisely, 
in the words ‘ physiography’ and ‘physiology.’ ‘The 
latter word has been employed, in this general sense, 
to designate the philosophical study of nature from 


1 Abstract of paper read in general session, Aug. 17, 1883. 


SCIENCE. 


the time of Aristotle, and will so be used in the pres- 
ent classification. 

The world of nature is divided into the inorganic 
or mineralogical, and the organic or biological, king- 
doms; the division of the latter into vegetable and 
animal being a subordinate one. The natural history, 
or physiography, of the inorganic kingdom, takes cog- 
nizance of the sensible characters of chemical species, 
and gives us descriptive and systematic mineralogy, 
which have hitherto been restricted to native species, 
but, in their wider sense, include all artificial species 
as well. The study of native mineral species, their 
aggregations, and their arrangement as constituents 
of our planet, is the object of geognosy and physical 
geography. ‘The physiography of other worlds gives 
rise to descriptive astronomy. 

The natural philosophy of the inorganic kingdom, 
or mineral physiology, is concerned, in the first place, 
with what is generally called dynamics or physics; 
including the phenomena of ordinary motion, sound, 
temperature, radiant energy, electricity, and magnet- 
ism. Dynamics, in the abstract, regards matter in 
general, without relation to species; chemism gener- 
ates therefrom mineralogical or so-called chemical 
species, which, theoretically, may be supposed to be 
formed from a single elemental substance, or materia 
prima, by the chemical process. Dynamics and chem- 
istry build up our inorganie world, giving rise to 
geogeny, and, as applied to other worlds, to theoreti- 
cal astronomy. 

Proceeding next to the organic kingdom, its physi- 
ographical study leads us first to organography, and 
then to descriptive and systematic botany and zodlogy, 
two great subdivisions of natural history, Coming, 
then, to consider the physiological aspect of organic 
nature, we find, besides the dynamical and chemical 
activities manifested in the mineral, other and higher 
ones which characterize the organic kingdom. On 
this higher plane of existence, are found portions of 
matter which have become individualized, exhibit 
irritability, the power of growth by assimilation, and 
of reproduction, and which establish relations with 
the external world by the development of organs, all 
of which characters are foreign to the mineral king- 
dom. These new activities are often designated as 
vital; but since this word is generally made to in- 
clude at the same time other manifestations which 
are simply dynamical or chemical, I have elsewhere 
proposed for the activities characteristic of the organ- 
ism the term bioties (Guortxo¢, pertaining to life). The 
physiology of matter in the abstract is dynamical, 
that of mineral species is both dynamical and chemi- 
eal, while that of organized forms is at once dynami- 
cal, chemical, and biotical. All of these, I may 
remark, I regard as successive manifestations of an 
energy inherent in matter. 

The study of the biotical activities of matter leads 


to organogeny aud morphology, while the relations. 


of organisms to one another and to the inorganic 
kingdom give us physiological botany and zoblogy. 
We thus arrive at a comprehensive and simple 
scheme of the natural sciences, which I have endeay- 
ored to set forth in the subjoined table. 


280 


SCIENCE. 


InorGANic NATURE; 


[Von. IT., No. 30. 


OrGantc Nature. 


NATURAL SCIENCES; | 
| 
| 
| 


DESCRIPTIVE. 


General Physiography, 
or | 


History. 


Descriptive 


Natural Geognosy 


MINERAL PHYSIOGRAPHY. 


and 
Mineralogy ; 


BlorpuysioGRaray. 


Systematic | Organography ; 
| Deseriptive and Systematic 
Geography; Botany and Zodlogy. 


Descriptive Astronomy. | 
| 


PHILOSOPHICAL. 


MINERAL Puysionoey. 


BIOPHYSIOLOGY. 


General Physiology, Dynamics Physics ; | Biotics. 
or Chemistry. | Organogeny ; Morphology ; 
Natural Philosophy. Geogeny ; | Physiological 


Theoretical Astronomy. 


Botany and Zodlogy. 


PROCEEDINGS OF 


PAPERS READ BEFORE SECTION A. 
[Continued.] 


Orbit of the great comet of 1882. 
BY EDGAR FRISBIE OF WASHINGTON, D.C. 


Tus is a partial record of observations at Wash- 
ington. Mr. Winlock is preparing a description of all 
the physical phenomena of the comet which were 
there observed. The first Washington observation 
of the comet was at two o’clock on a September 
afternoon, and a comparison was then made with 
the position of the sun. Good observations were ob- 
tained on the meridian for three days. 
tions from these served to fix the place of the comet 
with fair approximate accuracy for three months, 
which was a somewhat remarkable success. After- 
ward a difficulty occurred in obtaining accurate ob- 
servations; because there were several different points 
of light presented in an ill-defined nucleus, and it 
was uncertain whether the observations always re- 
ferred to the same luminous point. These observa- 
tions were made in October and November. The fol- 
lowing ephemeris was calculated: — 


Sept. 17.2282 0) 89° 13’ 42.70” 
Q 3469 1”. 4.91% log. a © 1.9331366 

mT 69 36 12.79 log. q 7.8904739 

d 141 59 52.16 period 793.689 


The author compared the foregoing with the obser- 
vations of other astronomers. The most prominent 
variation was in respect to the period, which others 
gave as 659, 997, 852, and 654 years. A contrivance 
was exhibited, showing the respective positions of 
the earth and comet, and their directions of motion, 
by means of pasteboard planes attached at an angle. 


The rotation of domes. 
BY G. W. HOUGH OF CHICAGO, ILL. 


OBSERVATORY domes are in general very heavy. 
Ass they grow old, owing to the settling of walls and 
other changes, they are apt to become almost un- 


The caleula-- 


SECTION A.—MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. 


manageable. The dome at Chicago is very weighty, 
every thing about the observatory being built in a 
very substantial manner. When Dr. Hough first 
tried to move the dome, he found its two sides work- 
ing with unequal friction; and this was afterward 
remedied to some extent, but by no means fully. 
About two months ago a gas-engine was placed in 
position to revolye the dome. It was a great satisfae- 
tion to see the dome go round continuously, without 
hitches. The cost of moying the dome by such 
means is a mere trifle, aside from the first cost of 
the engine. The use of water-power where that was 
easily accessible must, however, be preferred in many 
instances where a sufficient head is supplied by street 
mains. 

Dr. C. A. Young said, in discussing the foregoing, 
that when he came to Princeton he found a very heavy 
dome there. One man, using thirty pounds pressure 


on a two-foot crank, was very tired after giving the * 


dome one turn, <A gas-engine has since been put im 
below, and the power is communicated by a belt. A 
revolution can be made in four minutes, and the 
shutter raised intwo. In general, the dome is placed 
and the shutter opened withia five minutes. Dr. 
Young expressed a hope that the Brush storage bat- 
teries would furnish electrical illumination and power 
for the work of observatories, as the electricity might 
be stored even from a gas-engine operating a dynamo 
during hours of the day when there was no other use 
for its power. At present the direct action of a gas- 
engine on a dynamo, with no intervention between 
the dynamo and the light, was too irregular to serye 
the purpose. 


Descriptive-geometrical treatment of surfaces 
of the second degree. 


BY J. BURKITT WEBB OF ITHACA, N.Y. 


For the purpose of greater conciseness the speaker 
confined his remarks to the general ellipsoid, remark- — 
ing that the usual treatment of problems upon this 
surface —as, for instance, such problems as finding 
the shade and shadow, or drawing tangent planes — 
is lacking in generality; the body being taken in such 


\ 


- to the centre of the track. 


dl 
Avaust 31, 1883.] 


" 


special position, or referred to such special axes, as 
reduce the general problein to a specially simple one. 

The speaker then drew the projections of three 
conjugate diameters of a general ellipsoid upon the 
board, stating that this was the best metho: of de- 
fining that body. He then proceeded to find the pro- 
jections of the enveloping cylinders, and the shadow 
of the body; which he showed could as easily be done 
for the general ellipsoid, in a perfectly general posi- 
tion, as for special cases. In fact, it appeared that 
problems on this body gained nothing in simplicity 
by special methods and devices which detract from 
the generality of the treatment. 


List of other papers. 
The following additional papers were read in this 


eae ee eee eee te 
bee 


SCIENCE. 


281 


section, some of them by title only : Tidal observa- 
tions on soundings distant from shore, by J. M. 
Batchelder. Investigation of light variations of 
Sawyer’s variable, by S. C. Chandler. Standard time- 
pointer and a time longitude dial; System of alge- 
braic geometry, by Samuel Emerson. The calculus of 
direction and position, by 2. W. Hyde. Observations 
on the transit of Venus made at Columbia college; 
Description of the new observatory at Columbia 
college, by J. K. Rees. The light variations of T. 
Monocerotis, by 2. F. Sawyer. Method of observing 
eclipses of Jupiter's satellites, by D. P. Todd. 
Conic sections in descriptive geometry, by J. B. 
Webb. Deseriptive geometry applied to the general 
ellipsoid, by C. M. Woodward. Some observations 
on Uranus, by C. A. Young. 


PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION B.— PHYSICS. 


PAPERS READ BEFORE SECTION B. 


[ Continued.] 


The tornado at Racine, May 18, 1883. 
BY P. R. HOY OF RACINE, WIS. 


A cURIOUS mistake preceded the reading of this 
paper. There was some confusion between the ab- 
stracts of this and another paper ona tornado, which 
were submitted to the sectional committee; and the 
other paper was entered on the daily programme, but 
was withdrawn. 

Mr. Hoy’s paper began by stating that the early 
part of the day was pleasant, but about 6.45 in the 
eyening two clouds of ominous appearance joined, 
from opposite quarters of the heavens, and at once 
the cyclone began. Its general direction was to the 
north of east. There was no rain at Racine with the 
storm, but there was noticed a very strong odor of 
ozone while the cyclone was at its height. At the 
start it was barely two rods wide, but when it reached 
Racine it had expanded to twenty rods. Its motion 
Was rotary and oscillatory, and all débris was thrown 
When the cyclone crossed 


the lake it formed huge waterspouts, one central, and 


- few have observed this. 


seven to eight accessory, whirling about the main 
trunk. . 
_ Prof. H. A. Rowland proceeded to discuss the paper 
as follows: Most observers of tornadoes just perceive 
that there is a whirling motion of the air, and it 
knocks down objects, and that is the principal thing 
they see. But that is very ordinary observation. Of 
course, a column of air in such swift rotation will 
tear houses down, spurt water up, and do every thing 
of that sort. The particular point which I observed 
in this paper was the description of the formation of 
the tornado. The phenomenon which is to be ex- 
plained is the formation of the tornado, and very 
This description was very 
short; merely, that, over in the west or south-west, the 


clouds formed. Of course, to an observer from the 


west, one would appear north, and the other south. 


The point I wish to bring out is, that there was 
lightning passing between the two clouds, In Mr. 
Finley's description of six hundred tornadoes, I do 
not see any similar account. Many observers have 
seen lightning play around these clouds, but not pass- 
ing between the twoclouds. Mr. Finley applied to me 
to know whether there was any thing in the electrical 
theory of a tornado. Of course, any theory of the 
destruction being caused by electricity, houses being 
attracted, etc., — all thatismere nonsense. Weknow 
that the attraction of electricity is only a mere frac- 
tion of an ounce to the square inch. Before the 
force becomes sufficient to raise a great weight, a 
spark passes, and a discharge of electricity takes place. 
But in this case (these two clouds passing from north 
to south, and boiling up, having flashes of lightning 
playing round them), I thought there might be some- 
thing in the electrical, theory, as far as formation 
was concerned; and I calculated for the signal-service 
and Mr. Finley what amount of energy there was in 
two clouds approaching each other in this way. The 
rotation of the earth will cause them to come together, 
not in a straight line, but a little aside from each 
other, forming a spiral motion. The direction of the 
rotation of the tornado is a necessary consequence of 
the earth’s rotation: so that it might be possible to 
have these electrified clouds approach each other by 
mutual attraction, and form a tornado at the point 
where they meet. I calculated the energy, and found 
there was sufficient for a rather small tornado in the 
case I took. I would not be willing to say that is 
the theory of all tornadoes. I say that it is only 
possible. There is a great deal more energy in a mass 
of air heated up to a considerable temperature, and 
rising, by force of gravitation, —a great many times 
more. If it were not for the electrical phenomena 
observed in the case, I should say there was very little 
probability of the electrical theory. I believe Mr. 
Finley will direct the signal-service observers to 
watch the direction of the wind. If it flows in from 
all directions at the point where the tornado is formed, 
we should determine it to be due to the rise of hot air 
at that point. When the ground is very hot and the 


ae tet de heel oe 


282 


air very sultry, we have two causes; and it is only by 
observation that we can find out its true manner. I 
do not lay very much stress upon the electrical theory. 
But it is an interesting point, to me, to notice that 
flashes of lightning have been observed between these 
two clouds, showing that they were differently elec- 
trified, and that there was some plausibility for the 
theory which I sent to the signal-service. 

Prof. F. E. Nipher continued this discussion the 
next day, as follows: One matter connected with the 
effects of this tornado contained a point, it seems to 
me, of sufficient interest to call the attention of ob- 
servers to the matter, in case any one should have 
an opportunity to observe the effect of a tornado 
upon water. Mr. Ferrel, I think, in his description 
of a tornado, states that we have a rising of the water, 
forming a sort of cone in the centre of the tornado; 
the effect being, of course, ascribed to the diminution 
of pressure which is known to be there. In the 
eyclone proper, where we have a large area, we have 
a storm-wave as the principal element in the case, 
and there is an upheaval of the water in the area of 
low pressure. In the tornado it seems to me very 
questionable whether that occurs. I base that upon 
this observation: A smaller wind-whirl which was 
observed by myself in northern Missouri, which was 
rather violent though not destructive, —a column of 
dust several hundred feet high being raised, — passed 
out upon a pond of water five or six feet deep, and a 
depression was formed in the water, extending to the 
bottom of the pond,—an immense cup. The water 
was revolving rapidly; and it was thrown into rota- 
tion with a centrifugal, effect, —the same effect as 
when a vessel is whirled. It seems to me that this 
is an element which has not been-considered as it 
should be. If the whirl is small, and you have not 
only a diminution of pressure in the centre, but of the 
whole body of the water, the friction producing a 
rotation of the water, if the result is sufficiently 
small you might get a depression instead of an ele- 
vation. I call attention to this, so that those who 
may be fortunate enough to see a tornado on the 
water may not take it for granted that it is all 
known. 

As to the remarks of Professor Rowland in regard 
to the possible electrical origin of a tornado, I know 
that he was very careful to say that he did not think 
any of the destructive effects could be ascribed to the 
action of electricity. I gathered the idea that he 
thought a tornado might originate in that way, — that 
two electrified clouds will attract each other, and come 
together; and he calculates the energy of the attrac- 
tion which bodies can have for each other in air. It 
seems to me that the simple observation that was 
made by Mr. Hoy, together with another fact which 
we know, —that when the discharge passes between 
electrified bodies they are almost wholly discharged, — 
would show that when that happens the cause for 
that motion has disappeared. When these two clouds 
approach, a spark passes, and the whole thing is 
gone. So long as there is no spark passing, we know 
very well that the attraction is very much less than 
the maximum attraction of 744, of an ounce on the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 30. 


square inch. I think, perhaps, that is a matter Pro- 
fessor Rowland did not consider, It does not seem 
to me at all likely that any such origin can be as- 
cribed to the tornado. When it is developed, you 
may have a rarefied column which may be very highly 
rarefied, connecting the earth with the upper regions, 
which is precisely the reason that the lightning which 
was observed in the case of the Racine tornado was 
not accompanied by thunder. 

Prof. J. T. Lovewell said it occurred to him, from 
his observation, that a good deal of care is necessary 
in order that the observer may know exactly what 
he sees. It was my fortune, said he, to witness a 
small whirl at a distance of three or four miles. I 
saw the funnel-shaped cloud descend toward the 
earth, and it looked to me as though there were a 
column of water. Many people who saw it spoke of 
it as a waterspout. It might have been water, for 
aught that we could have said fiom our point of sight. 
I immediately drove to the spot, and it appeared that 
not a drop of rain had fallen in that track. The 
whirl had been sufficient to overturn a few stacks of 
grain and hay, and a man was thrown about with his 
team in the road. I think, if it had struck a body of 
water, I should be slow to believe that it lifted any 
solid column of water into the air one hundred feet. 
It would have made a grand scattering of the water, 
and a great deal of it would have been thrown up 
into the air. I believe that a good deal of that which 
is commonly ascribed to columns of water rising up, 
and pouring down the sides in cataracts, is optical 
illusion. I should be slow to take the testimony of a 
person seeing them, unless he had his mind disabused 
of the common notions about these waterspouts. So 
far as their electrical origin is concerned, I quite 
agree with Professor Nipher that it is not by any 
means proven that electricity has any thing to do 
with them, except that it is a necessary adjunct, of 
course, to all such disturbances. 


A method for the calibration of a 
galvanometer. 
BY B. F. THOMAS OF COLUMBIA, MO. + 
Ss 
A BATTERY of any sort is joined in circuit with 


a sensitive galvanoscope H, a galvanometer G, and 


any variable resistance R. When the circuit is closed 
af 4X, the current is so adjusted by varying R, as to 
give the highest desirable deflection of the galvanom- 
eter needle. The needle of H will be forced against 
the stops. By means of magnets m and m, the needle 
of His brought back to zero. If these magnets and 
the galvanoscope be undisturbed, the original current 
strength will be indicated when the needle stands at 
zero, whatever changes may have been made in the 
circuit. If now the shunt S be connected at 1, 2, 
and the resistance of the shunt is made equal to that 
of the galvanometer (positively determined), and the 
needle of H brought back to zero (by increasing R, 
as insertion of the shunts lowers the total resistance 
of the circuit, and therefore increases the current 
strength, deflecting H), a new deflection of the gal- 
vanometer needle will be produced, the deflection 


Avaust 31, 1883.] 


being that due to a current of one-half the strength 
of the original current. By giving to S values equal 
; to », 3, 2, 1, 4, 4, 4, ete., times the resistance of G, 
3 and bringing the needle of H to zero each time, 
deflection of G@ will result, due to currents whose 
strengths are as 1, }, 3, 4, 4, 4,4, ete. The curve is 
_ __ then plotted with deflections and current strengths as 
co-ordinates. Any desired number of points in the 
3 

; 


a 


curve may be obtained by giving S the proper values. 
_ The calibration may be checked by making a new 
adjustment for the united current, so that the detlec- 
tion of G shall be about two-thirds the first deflection, 
‘and proceeding as above. Plotting the new values 
obtained, the curves will coincide if the work is 
correct. If it be found desirable, the battery may be 
exchanged for another during the determination. 


_ The utilization of the sun's rays for warming 
and ventilating apartments. 


. BY E. S. MORSE OF SALEM, MASS. 


Mr. Morse drew attention to this device a year 
ago, before the National academy of sciences. At 
that time he was able to offer only crude computa- 
tions as to the operations of the heater, derived from 
its use at the museum of Salem, Mass. 

The device consists mainly of a slaty surface 
painted black, standing vertically upon a wall, out- 
side the building, with flues to conduct warmed air 
to the inside. The slates are inserted in a groove, 
much as one might place glass in a frame. One 
made within the last year was three feet wide and 
eight long. It was placed where it received the sun’s 
rays as directly as practicable. Its service was to 
warm a room used for a library. During an entire 
winter the room was thus made comfortable, except 
on a few of the coldest days. The current of air 
passing through it, when the sun’s rays impinged 

- directly upon it, was raised about 30°; it discharged 
3,206 feet of warmed air in an hour. This was in 

the morning. At 11.45 the air of the apartment was 
raised 29°, with 3,326 cubic feet of air discharged; at 

+ 12.45, 20° and 4,119 feet; at 1.55, 24° and 3,062 feet; 
at 2.45, 20° and 1,299 feet. The room measured 
20x 14, and was ten feet high. 

The apparatus works to most advantage in a room 

_ that is ventilated by an open chimney. But some 
very good results have been obtained in closed rooms. 


_ 


Se ee 


: 


a 


SCIENCE. 


283 


One was cited, where the air in a public building 
was raised by such means to nearly 40° above the 
outside temperature. In general, a difference of 
30° to 35° can thus be secured during four or five 
working hours of the day. 

Professor Mendenhall stated that he had seen the 
working of the apparatus, and it proved very satis- 
factory. Professor Rogers gave similar testimony. 
New form of selenium cell, with some remark- 

able electrical discoveries made by its use. 


BY C. E. FRITTS OF NEW YORK. 


PROFESSOR MENDENHALL stated that in the ab- 
sence of the author he was able to give only a brief 
summary of the paper. In the ordinary method of 
making selenium cells, they are constructed of a great 
many portions put side by side; the resistances are 
necessarily very high in these cells, and the light 
is allowed to strike in the direction of a right angle 
to the direction of the passage of the current. Mr, 
Fritts seems to have devised a different mode of 
operating these cells by using a very large surface, 
and in that way has succeeded in diminishing the 
resistance very greatly, which is very desirable. He 
has resistance as low as nine or ten olms in the dark, 
The radieal point of difference is, that in this case the 
light is allowed to strike upon the cell in the same 
direction as the current. He states that he has dis- 
covered many remarkable properties by means of his 
investigations with the instrument. When a cell of 
this kind breaks down, it can easily be remedied and 
repaired: in fact, there is no danger or difficulty of 
their breaking down permanently. 


A method of determining the centre of gravity 
of a mass. 


BY B. F. THOMAS OF COLUMBIA, MO. 
A BAR, LL, is balanced ona knife-edge, F, so as to 
form a very sensitive balance. The body, B, of mass, 
M, is placed with a marked point in contact with a 
fine point, d; and another body of mass, W, is placed 
a. e 
Pr Aa F XS “ 
Ai dB s : 
at A, 8o as to nearly balance B. A small body of 
mass, p, is placed at S, to complete equilibrium. B 
is then rotated 180° horizontally, bringing its marked 
spot in contact with a second fixed point, 2. Equi- 
librium is restored by placing p at R. The equations 
of moments in the two positions are, respectively, — 
WX AF + p X SF= M (Fd + dc); 
(c being centre of gravity); and . 
WX AF + p X RF = M (Fe — dc); (ec = de). 
Subtracting the first equation from the second, — 
p X RS = M (de — 2ca); 
de px RS 
A! er SALTS fp 
cd is therefore the distance from the marked spot 


‘ 


284 


to a vertical plane containing the centre of gravity. 
Taking a second marked spot in the plane thus 
found, the operation is repeated, with the plane 
horizontal. This gives a second plane through the 
centre of gravity. A third operation, with the inter- 
section of the two planes in the line de, locates the 
centre of grayity. 


The kinetic theory of the specific heat of 
solids. 


BY H. T. EDDY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO. 


Tas paper was based upon the well-known views 
of its author respecting the use to be made of the 
different degrees of freedom of motion among the 
atoms of solid bodies, in deducing a theory that will 
explain their diverse powers of conducting heat, and 
of transmitting or causing the transmission of radi- 
ant energy. The theory is based upon the concep- 
tion that all bodies are constituted of equal ultimate 
atoms, whose combination, in different degrees of 
freedom, in different molecules, gives rise to the char- 
acteristic differences of elementary substances. This 
paper shows that the same hypothesis would cause 
solids, which are kept in equilibrium by radiation, to 
be also in thermal equilibrium when brought into 
contact; the equilibrium depending upon collisions 
of the molecules. 


A kinetic theory of melting and boiling, 
BY H. T. EDDY OF CINCINNATI, OHIO. 


Iy a solid in which the molecules are evidently 
held at nearly fixed mean distances by cohesive and 
elastic forces, there are two kinds of partially con- 
strained freedom of motion possible for each mole- 
cule as a whole: first, a motion of its centre in a 
small orbit of more or less irregular shape about a 
mean position; and, second, a more or less irregular 
pendular motion of oscillation about a mean direc- 
tional position. Both of these motions can be treated 
as vibratory motions; and the laws of force under 
which the motions occur, though somewhat unlike, 
haye a general resemblance. 


Two forms of apparatus for Boyle’s law. 
BY B. F. THOMAS 0F COLUMBIA, MO. 


THBSE pieces are intended to enable one to adjust 
with accuracy and ease the mass of air to be experi- 
mented upon. 

V is an iron cistern into which the open or pressure 
tube O, the closed tube C, and the reversible air- 
syringe S are screwed air-tight, and the cistern nearly 
filled with mereury. The syringe being connected 
for exhausting, and operated, air is withdrawn from 
C, until the mercury sinks to the bottom of the open 
tube, when air escapes from it, and rises through the 
mercury. No more air can be withdrawn from C. 
The mass of air remaining in C will evidently depend 
on the difference in depth of immersion of Cand O. 
Let d= this difference, and let it be required to find 
such a value of d as will permit just enough air to 
remain in C to fill it from the zero of the scale, 


SCIENCE, 


[Vou. IL, No. 30. 


when at atmospheric pressure H. Let I = length of 
C from top to zero, and let /’= the length from zero 


to the open end of C. If uow the mass of air which 


will fill the length / at Hf be expanded to fill the length 

U’, the pressure H’ at the bottom of C by Boyle’s law is 
IT 1 ; 

HH’ = ier 

The pressure at the open end of O= H. The dif- 
ference in pressure at the ends of C and O is that 
due toa column (d) of mercury. Hence H’= H—d, 
H penal 
Fe MO py 

On reversing the syringe, and forcing air in, the 
mercury will be found to rise and stand at zero in 
both tubes together. The demonstration is continued 
by forcing in more air. 

A second form consists of two glass tubes con- 
nected by a strong rubber tube, and mounted on a 
stand with scales. The closed 
tube C is sealed into the serew- 
eover of an iron cistern D, 
Mercury being poured in, it will 
expel the airin D, and rise in 
an open screw-hole S in the 
cover. The hole being sealed 
by insertion of the screw, and 
O lowered, the air in C ex- 
pands, filling Cand D. On rais- 
ing O, the mercury rises, and 
cuts off communication between 
Cand D, preventing the return 
of some of the air. By making 
D of proper volume, the desired mass of air will 
remain in ©. Let the volume of C above the zero = 
V. Let the entire volume of C=V’, and the volume 
of D above the open end of C=V™%. Following the 
above steps it will be seen that a volume V“ at H be- 
comes a volume V’+ V” at H’; also that a volume 
V at H becomes a volume V’ at H*’. Hence the 
propontions: Vi se] sic Vases Vode ies ren anes 


re 
(=> 1A) as The use of the rubber tube is not 


new: the method of adjusting the air-mass is be- 


a 


Equating, H— d= 


Avausr 31, 1883.] 


lieved to be. This form is convenient because it 
answers for demonstrating the law at pressures above 
and below one atmosphere. Of course, for the latter, 
the air in D must be removed through S as at first. 


Natural snow-balls or snow-rollers. 
BY SAMUEL HART OF HARTFORD, CONN. 


The author carefully described the production and 
appearance of snow-balls or snow-rollers, the result 
of natural causes, of which a fine example was pre- 
: sented in Connecticut and southern Massachusetts 

last February. Snow had fallen, and had been coy- 
ered with a frozen surface by a light subsequent rain. 
Upon this surface fresh snow fell, and this under the 

influence of wind was collected in masses of differing 
‘ Shapes. Some were spherical, from one to nine inches 
in diameter; most were rollers shaped like muffs, 

cylindrical, with a conical depression at each end 
reaching nearly to the middle. The largest observed 
by the author was 18 inches long, and 12 inches in 
diameter; but some were reported much larger. The 
path of formation showed that the roller had started 
with a small pellet, and, gaining both in length and 
diameter, had rolled up a long isosceles triangle of 
snow from its vertex. These paths were observed 
of alength of 25 to 30 feet, and others were reported 
as of 60 feet. The paths of the round balls were of 
_ nearly the same width throughout, None of these 
masses could be lifted without breakage. Such rollers 
were seen over an area of 40 miles in length: the 
author believed that they must haye been millions in 
number. 


Remarks on the tracings of self-registering in- 
struments, and the value of the signal-service 
indications for Iowa, in June and July, 1883. 


BY GUSTAVUS HINRICHS OF IOWA CITY, I0, 


_ This paper was mainly a severe criticism on the 
work of the signal-service bureau. The author 
claimed that the predictions of the weather for Iowa 
in June had been quite untrustworthy, only 50 per 
cent proving correct. His views as to the value of 
this service were vigorously combated in a discussion 
which followed the reading of his paper. 


A new heliostat. 
BY B. F. THOMAS OF COLUMBIA, MO. 


The instrument is intended to throw the reflected 
ray horizontally in the meridian. 

A polar axis A C, driven by clockwork, is provided 
with a declination-arm EZ F, with arc, pivoted at C, 
and pivoted to the longer axis of the mirror at 2 and 
-F. A ‘horizontal axis’ B GH, with the shaft por- 
tion B supported (by proper bearings in the standard 
‘not represented) in the same vertical plane with the 
_ polar axis, is pivoted to the mirror in its shorter axis 
at Gand H, the points E C FG H being always in 
one plane, and G and H so adjusted that a line 
through them will pass through C perpendicular to 
CF. Moreover, the axis of the shaft portion B, 
mded, is perpendicular to and bisects G C H at 


- SCIENCE. 


285 


C. In order that the reflected ray be thrown hori- 
zontally in the meridian by our mirror, two condi- 
tions must be met: viz., 1°. The longer axis of the 
mirror must make and maintain the proper angle be- 
tween itself and a line from C to the sun; or, what is 


the same thing, the angle A C 2 must equal latitude 
plus one-half the sun’s altitude at noon. 2°. The 
shorter axis must move in a vertical plane, perpen- 
dicular to the meridian; or, in other words, the prime 
vertical. These conditions are rigidly met by the 
above combination. 


The static telephone. 
BY PROF. A, E. DOLBEAR OF COLLEGE HILL, MASS, 


In the static telephone, a ring of hard rubber is 
used, within which are two parallel metal-plates sepa- 
rated by a body of air (a non-conductor), one plate 
connected with the line carrying the current. The 
electrifying of one plate then causes attraction or 
repulsion of the free plate, and thus a sound in the 
receiver. This does away with magnetism. This 
system therefore requires a very large electro-motive 
power, and uses an induction coil of 2,000 ohms. A 
ground or return circuit is not present here, The 
equivalent is the body itself. ‘There is no passage of 
electricity from plate to plate: the action is purely 
inductive through space. The insulation is aceom- 
plished by the intervening air-space, and by a coating 
of varnish, — an excellent di-electric, There is a de- 
vice to discharge the induction plate in connection 
with this instrument, which keeps it constantly up to 
its full possibilities. When this instrument is fully 
charged, and the electrical conditions are perfect, the 
receiver may be entirely disconnected from the trans- 
mitter, and sounds and conversation can still be heard, 
even across a room. 

He also called attention to the fact, that instru- 
ments that have been in use work much better than 
new ones, as each plate acts as a condenser. 


In the discussion which followed, Dr. Dolbear was 
asked if the state of the atmosphere, in any way, 
affects the operation of the instrument, I have used 
these instruments, said he, on an actual line between 
Boston and New York, in a night when it rained over 
the whole length of the line, and the whole line was 


286 


as badly insulated as it well could be. I have also 
used it on the same line under the most favorable 
conditions for insulation, and could not really per- 
ceive much difference. It seemed to be as loud at 
one time as at another. 

Pres. H. A. RowLAnp. — Of course this is on an 
entirely different principle from our telephone. What 
interested me considerably was the fact, that one 
could hear better when the plates were charged. 
The explanation theoretically is very simple, and it 
is the same as that the Thompson electrometer is 
more sensitive when the jar is charged than when it 
is not charged; the reason being, that the attraction 
is proportionate to the square of the difference of 
the potentials, rather than the simple difference of the 
potentials. Therefore a small difference in the quan- 
tity, when it is large, produces a greater effect than 
when it is small. So the explanation is exactly the 
same as that the Thompson electrometer is more 
sensilive when you have the jar charged than when 
you do not. So, the higher the charge one would get, 
the more sensitive the instrument would be. I was 
especially interested in it, because it was on such an 
entirely different principle from the Bell instrument. 
I don’t wish to say any thing about patent laws or 
decisions on this subject, for they have nothing to do 
with this; but, scientifically, this is an entirely differ- 
ent instrument from the Bell instrument, and I am 
especially interested on that account. 

Prof. T. C. MenDENHALL. —I profess not to have 
quite understood the statement made by Professor 
Dolbear. I should like to hear your own (the presi- 
dent’s) opinion with regard to that charge which 
remains in spite of the fact that the two poles of the 
condenser are connected by conductors. I may have 
misunderstood the statement; but if that is correct, I 
should like to know whether that can be explained 
or not. 

President RowLAND. — Well, I suppose we all know 
how retentive an electroscope is of a charge. I sup- 
pose the idea is very similar in this case. I do not 
suppose the plates have a difference of potential. If 
you should leave them fora moment, I should suppose 
they would soon have a little return charge. If the 
two plates of the condenser were together, they would 
have the same potential. I understood it as merely 
areturn charge. Ido not know how Professor Dol- 
bear understands it. 

Professor DOLBEAR. — The instrument itself is a 
most delicate electrometer when tested in this way; 
and when it is charged and really in good working 
order, the gentlest tap upon the instrument serves to 
show that it is in good working order, for one can 
apply the instrument to his earand hear himself talk. 
This is the case, even when the two plates of the con- 
denser are connected with each other through the 
induction coil; and so, although they may have been 
there for hours, or even for days, — the difference be- 
tween an instrument that has not been used and one 
that has been charged is very appreciable. 

President RowLanp.—I suppose in that case it 
would be simply from the charge of the varnished 
surface ? 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 80, 


Professor DoLBEAR. — Yes: I think they retain 
their charge for a much longer time if the surface is 
varnished. Ido think there is a difference between 
the behavior of this and the charged cable. If a 
cable be charged for half an hour by battery, it will 
require half an hour to run out again, but it will be 
at that time quite discharged. But that is not the 
case with this instrument. 

President RowLanp. —I should suppose it was the 
charge in the varnished surface. 

Prof. W. A. Antuony.— Professor Dolbear did 
not say any thing about one advantage that this tele- 
phone has over the other, that struck me when I read 
the descriptions of it earlier, —that, in consequence 
of using this electricity at such a high potential, the 
ordinary telegraph-lines or other instruments would 
have very little effect upon it: therefore the tele- 
phone is very free from induction. ; 

Professor DOLBEAR. — My experience has been in 
accordance with that theory. Electro-motive force 
from induction from telegraph-lines is ordinarily 
tolerably small, although there may be at times con- 
siderable strength of current. But, the electro-motive 
force being so strong in my circuit, it follows that the 
action of such induced currents is very slight, and 
does not interfere with work. 

Prof. C. A. Youne. —I would like to inquire 
whether you have tried any experiments in putting 
the end of the wire to the ear to illustrate the sensi- 
tiveness of the ear ? 

Professor DoLBEAR. — Yes: I have heard simply 
by putting the end of an insulated wire to my ear, 
and listening. I consider the instrument as simply 
the enlarged terminal of a wire, and that you are 
actually listening at the end of a wire. 

Mr. E. Gray. —I have made a good many experi- 


‘ments in another line, which I may state briefly, 


which may throw some light upon this, and yet I think 
it is very well understood. You remember, some 
of you, reading of such experiments made in 1874, 
relating to the reproducing of music on a plate by 
simply rapping with the finger or with some animal 
tissue. Now, I made this experiment, which seems 
to prove to my mind that the operation is as Profes- 
sor Dolbear has explained it. I set my revolving 
disc, which was asimple dise of zine, revolving at a 
steady rate, giving if a pressure with the fingers. 
Then I had fifty cells of battery set-up, as much 
as I could bear, passing through them, and had 
some one close the circuit with a Morse key. At the 
same time the key was closed, my finger would be 
jerked forward in the direction of the rotation of the 
disc; and it would remain in that forward condition, 
showing an increase of friction, until the key would 
be opened, and then it would drop back; showing 
that from some cause there was an increase of friction, 
either due to molecular disturbance, or, what is prob- 
ably the case, to attraction between the finger and 
the plate. It is necessary, to produce this experi- 
ment, that the cuticle be perfectly dry. You must 
rub it a long time, and have it perfectly polished; and 
then the cuticle becomes a dielectric, and the body is 
charged with one kind of electricity, and the wire or 


“ 


- 


_ AveusT 31, 1883.] 


the plate with another. 


- tee, the only feasible one at present. 


Later I got some fairly good 
results in articulation by using a small diaphragm 


- with all the conditions as nearly right as possible; 


and, having a current of sufficient electro-motive 
force, I could actually understand words produced on 
the end of my finger. 

President RowLanp. — What is the difference be- 
tween that and Edison’s motorphone ? 

Mr. Gray.—In Edison’s motorphone, when the 
current was thrown on, there was a decrease of fric- 
tion; there was chemical action taking place on the 
surface. In this case there is none, and there is an 
increase of friction when the current is on: perhaps 
‘current’ is a bad word to use. 

President RowLanp. — The principle is the same. 

Mr. Gray.— One is a chemical action, which causes 
the friction to be less at the moment of charge. In 
this case, however, this is purely static contact, and 
increases the friction in the same manner that the 
plates are thrown together when they are charged 
in this telephone. And the motion, of course, or 
sound, is produced by a letting-go of the finger from 
the plate, and not by actual vibration, in the same 


ee Te ee ee eee ee 


SCIENCE. 


287 


sense that it takes place between the two plates in 
this receiver of Professor Dolbear. 

President RowLanp. — You attribute it to attrac- 
tion? 

Mr. Gray. — Yes: my experiments seem to prove 
that; I presume, because there was adhesion, there 
was an increase of friction during the time of the 
charge and the letting-go, when the circuit was open. 
There was really no circuit except when the charge 
was taken off. 

Sec. F. E. NipHer. — In regard to the case of 
which Professor Dolbear spoke, when it might be 
supposed that electricity does actually pass from the 
line into the ground, it seems to me that that fact, so 
far as it did exist, would be prejudicial to the action of 
the instruments; that what we want to bring about 
is not a current, but as great a difference of potential 
as possible, between the plates. 


List of other papers. 


The following additional paper was read in this 
section: — An extension of the theorem of the virial 
to rotary oscillation, by H. T. Eddy. 


PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION C.—CHEMISTRY. 


Report of the committee on indexing the 
literature of chemical elements. 


Tue undersigned, a committee appointed at the 
Montreal meeting of the American association for 
the advancement of science, ‘“‘to devise and inau- 
gurate a plan for the proper indexing of the litera- 
ture of the chemical elemeunts,’’ respectfully submit 
the following report. 

The members have conferred with each, other orally 
and by correspondence. Several plans have been 
suggested, and their merits discussed. Three meth- 
ods of collecting material for the indexes may be 
named: — 

1°. Revising the Catalogue of scientific papers 
published by the Royal Society (8 vols. 4to). 

2°. Indexing special journals by different individ- 
uals, and collating the matter. 

3°. The independent plan, whereby each chemist 
indexes all the journals available to him with refer- 
ence to a given element, in which he is presumably 
especially interested. 


’ Each of these schemes is open to objections, and 
has its difficulties. The first would necessitate an 
‘enormous amount of clerical labor, for which volun- 
teers would scarcely be secured; besides, data previ- 
ous to 1800 could not be obtained from this catalogue. 

The second involves, also, securing a large num- 


ber of self-sacrificing volunteers; and both plans 


would require a vast amount of editorial work on the 
part of this committee. 

The third plan seems, to a majority of the commit- 
On the inde- 
pendent plan, seven indexes have already been com- 
piled. The best arrangement of material has also 


been considered; and here again a threefold prob- 
lem oceurs ; — 

1. Chronologically. 

2. Alphabetically, by authors. 
3. Topically. 


The committee do not venture to dictate to inde- 
pendent workers, but recommend the chronological 
arrangement, with the understanding that a topical 
index accompany each monograph. 

The best channel of publication has also been con- 
sidered’ by the committee. All the indexes hitherto 


published have been printed in the annals of the 


New-York academy of sciences; and the academy 
has generously offered, through its officers, to con- 
tinue its good work. The Smithsonian institution 
further agrees to distribute, free of expense, all 
circulars and documents in furtherance of this un- 
dertaking; an offer which is of greatest importance, 
and for which this committee expresses sincere 
thanks. 

Since the appointment of the committee, Mr. 
Webb’s index to the literature of electrolysis has 
been published in the annals of the New-York 
academy of sciences; and several chemists have 
expressed a willingness to co-operate in the proposed 
undertaking. Prof. R. B. Warder of Cincinnati has 
promised an index to the literature of the velocity 
of chemical reactions; and Dr. Henry Leffmann of 
Philadelphia proposes to index the important element 
arsenic. 

Your committee present to the association this 
brief report of progress, and respectfully desire to 
be continued. 

H. C. Boiron, Chairman; IRA Remsen; F. W. 
CLARKE; A. R. LEEps; A. A. JULIEN, 


288 


PAPERS READ BEFORE SECTION C. 


‘On y-dichlordibrompropionic and y-dichlor- 
bromacrylic acids. 
BY C. Fr. MABERY AND H. H. NICHOLSON. 

WHEN dry chlorine is passed through (-dibroma- 
crylic acid, the reaction is easily accomplished, and 
the product may be purified without difficulty by 
crystallization from carbonic disulphide. This acid 
is very sparingly soluble in water, more soluble in 
hot than in cold carbonic disulphide and chloroform, 
It melts at 100°. Its salts were carefully studied, 
but the silver salt was found so unstable that it 
could not be prepared in a state of purity. Since 
B-dibromacrylic acid has, without doubt, the form 
Woe 


CH , the chlorine addition product would have 
COOH 
CBr.Cl 
| 
the form CHCl This acid is entirely decomposed 
| 


COOH 

when heated with an excess of any alkaline hydrate. 
If, however, the reaction is allowed to progress in 
the cold, keeping the hydrate in slight excess, the 
elements of hydrobromiec acid are easily removed, 
with the formation of the corresponding dichlordi- 
bromacrylic acid. In order to distinguish this from 
two other products which have already been obtained, 
it will be called the y-acid. It is prepared by the ac- 
tion of baric hydrate upon y-dichlordibrompropionic 
acid, and the reaction proceeds so rapidly that it is 
difficult to keep the solution alkaline. Upon acidi- 
fying the baric hydrate solution with hydrochloric 
acid, y-dichlorbromacrylic acid is precipitated partly 
as a crystalline solid, and is easily purified by crys- 
tallization from hot water. It is sparingly soluble 
in cold, readily in hot water, and in alcohol, ether, 
carbonic disulphide, and chloroform. It crystallizes 
in pearly-white scales, which melt at 78° to 80°. _ For 
further identification, the acid was analyzed, and its 
salts submitted to careful study. 


The sub-aqueous dissociation of certain salts. 


BY JOHN W. LANGLEY AND CHARLES EK. M°GEE 
OF ANN ARBOR, MICH. 

THE question as to whether salts are dissociated 
into their components when simply dissolved in water 
has been attacked by different chemists in various 
ways. The method described in this paper seems to 
haye furnished some remarkable results, which may 
help in pointing the way to the final answer of this 
important problem. 

Sainte Claire Deville has called attention to ap- 
parent chemical changes which a salt may undergo 

by the mere fact of solution, and that such changes 
may increase in extent with the mere addition of 
water. He concludes that there is no absolute dis- 
tinction between solution and chemical union; that 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 80. 


the difference is rather of degree than of kind. 
From this point of view, a salt in dissolving has its 
particles separated much as if it were vaporized by 
heat, and the heat units necessary to perform this 
sort of vaporization are taken from surrounding 
bodies. As the heat absorbed increases with the de- 
gree of dilution, it will eventually become sufficient to 
dissociate into its elements a salt dissolved in a suita- 
bly large quantity of a neutral solvent, such as water. 

Assuming that salts tend to dissociate by solution, 
and are decomposed when sufficiently diluted, we 
should expect them to break into simpler molecules 
first, and, of course, along the lines of least resist- 
ance. We may take three views of the possible con- 
dition of a salt dissolved in a small quantity of water 
—as, for instance, one molecule of sodic sulphate in 
two molecules of water: 1. That it is attached to 
the water by a sort of physical adhesion, which may 
be represented by .[Na2 SO, , 2H». Oj. 2. That the 
water and salt are united in a new group which acts 
as a compound molecule so long as the amount of the 
solvent is small; this might be [2 (Na OH), Hs SO,], 
the comma indicating a molecular as distinguished 
from an atomic union, 3. That we have in these 
cases a certain quantity of different kinds of mat- 
ter held momentarily in equilibrium, but ready to 


form definite combinations when the external forces- 


change. The last view would be expressed by [Nas 
H, SO,], and does not require that Na be combined 
with H, S, or SO,. 

The heat of combination between H, SO, and 
2Na OH is less than that in the formation of sodium 
hydrate starting with metallic sodium and water, or 
of sulphuric acid starting with SO; and water. There- 
fore, in the group Na» H, SOg, the line of least resist- 
ance probably passes through where the comma is 
placed in the arrangement [2 (Na OH), Hy SO,]. 
Then the first stage of dissociation will be the appear- 
ance of free sodium hydrate and free sulphuric acid. 
The change will be partial for finite ratios between 
quantities of the salt and the water, and should grad- 
ually increase with augmented dilution to a point 
where free acid can be shown quantitatively. 


For the present occasion, advantage was taken of — 


the circumstance that in some neutral salts the bases 
have less power to turn litmus blue than the acids 
have to turn it red; and also, that in certain other 
salts the converse is true. Thus the power of the 
hydrates of zinc, iron, and copper, to turn litmus blue, 
is quite feeble; while the power of the mineral acids 
to redden litmus is very great. On the other hand, 
the hydrates of the alkaline metals are singularly 
powerful in turning litmus blue. Now, if the power 
of the base to produce the blue is not the exact quan- 
titative counterpart of the acid to produce red, the 
difference of color-producing power must increase in 
proportion as the solution becomes more dilute, if the 
theory of dissociation is well founded. 

The method of experiment may be briefly stated. 
A series of test tubes was prepared, holding respect- 
ively one, two, three, four, ete., portions of. sul- 
phurie acid; and each was then diluted with litmus 
solution to an equal amount. The tubes thus filled 


presented a series from neutral purple to decided 
red. This formed a scale of colors for reference. 
Saturated solutions were prepared of the sulphates 
of Zn, Cu, Pb, Ag, Ca, Na, Hg, Mn, Al, and Fe, and 
Zn Cl,. To each of these solutions, enough litmus 
solution was added, in a series for each salt, to exactly 
correspond in amount with the sulphuric-acid tubes. 
As each tube of a dissolved salt was prepared, and 

also as it was successively diluted with increasing 
amounts of litmus, it was compared with the tubes 
in the ¢olor-scale, by looking across the two tubes, 
until its corresponding tint was found. A complete 
record of these correspondences was made; and it 
furnished the means for constructing a diagram, in 
which the results are plotted in curves. 


SCIENCE. 


Prat eT ere 2é t NS eae he 


289 


neutral under all degrees of dilution. 2°. Sulphates 
of the R. SO, type, where R is a dyad metal, show an 
amount of dissociation proportioned to the degree of 
dilution. 8°. Aluminie sulphate, and other double 
triads, are not neutral when concentrated. When 
diluted they soon become strongly acid. When the 
dilution exceeds a certain limit, they lose acid at a 
decreasing rate. 


Suggestions for computing the speed of chemi- 
cal reactions. 


BY R. B. WARDER OF CINCINNATI, 0. 
Tuts paper urges a thorough discussion of data 
upon the subject indicated in its title, for the follow- 
ing reasons: 1°. To discover and investigate the 


GRA) 
F 
SULP 


ACID 


25) €0 70 8 


_ ‘The following were the chief results:]Ca So, and 
_ Naz So, each continued to act as a neutral salt, with- 
_ out effect on the litmus throughout the range of dilu- 
tions. Ag, SO, was the only salt which changed the 
solution toa blue. The results with Fe, (SO,), and 
_ Fe SO, were unsatisfactory because of a dirty pre- 
- cipitate, but both made the litmus red. Zn Cl, pre- 
_ sented a similar difficulty. There is a doubt about 
_ the result with Hg SO,, and some obscurity about the 
greatly diluted solutions of Al, (SO,), and Cu So,. 
On account of instability of color, probably caused 
by oxidation, a fresh color-scale had to be prepared 
_ every day, and the mixtures were made under a film 
_ of paraffine. 
These experiments seem to indicate that: 1°. Sul- 
” phates of the alkali metals, except silver, are strictly 


causes of certain discrepancies between published 
observations and current theories. 2°. To obtain 
more definite information as to the nature of certain 
reactions and the conditions determining their speed. 
3°. To afford numerical data for a fuller study of 
relations between the speed of reactions and other 
physical constants. 4°. To suggest fruitful lines for 
further research in chemical dynamics. 

As instances of the need of such discussion, the de- 
terminations by Professor Menschutkin, of the speed 
and limits of the etherification of the several alcohols 
and acids, give numbers for the initial speed of reac- 
tionin one hour which are not proportional to speeds 
during the first minute. Prof. L. Meyer in his Dyna- 
mik der atomen passes very lightly over both the theory 
and the obseryations of speed during a reaction. 


mae 


290 
The prevalent theory of the action of mass is ex- 
pressed, oe = kuv... in which the differential 


expresses the rate of change in any substance, u and v 
represent the masses taking part in the change, and & 
is a constant. Some observations by Ostwald and 
- others indicate that some modifications of this theory 
are needed. Determinations of the speed of reaction 
require special care, both to measure time in relation 
to mass, and to control temperature and other condi- 
tions. The chemical section of the Ohio mechanics’ 
institute has recently undertaken some work of the 
sort, and invites co-operation. 

The following provisional system is suggested: for 
volume, one cc.; for mass, the chemical equivalent 
expressed in mg.; and for time, one hour. The unit 
of speed would be the transformation of unit of 
each active body per unit of volume and time. 
Possibly the comparison of the constants of speed 
or of chemical affinity with those of heat, elec- 
tricity, etc., could be better made from the unit of 
one second or 1,000 seconds. At least two observa- 
tions of time and two of mass are required, and 
preferably several, to determine the limits of error. 
Determinations which do not accord with the hy- 
pothesis that diminished speed and diminished prod- 
uct vary in the same ratio, need special investiga- 
tion. In reciprocal reactions, some of the ratios 
may be combined with constants of speed already 
determined. By bringing all the facts into syste- 
matic order, these data can be made of use for com- 
parison in other physical-science fields. The paper 
concludes with an extended bibliography of the sub- 
ject, which will be very serviceable to workers in 
this branch of research. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. II., No. 80. 


Twelve months of lysimeter record at the New- 
York agricultural experiment station, 


BY E. L. STURTEVANT OF GENEVA, N.Y. 


Tue lysimeters were described. They are boxes 
of peculiar construction, containing selected samples 
of soils in layers. The relative percolation of rain- 
fall through these different soils, and the evaporation, 
are determined by observations of the instrument. 
The results are summarized as follows: Sod land 
allowed 11.68 of the rainfall to percotate; soil of 
which the surface was simply bared allowed 25.88 per 
cent percolation; the cultivated soil passed 37.93 per 
cent. ‘The evaporation from the first of these was, 
of course, 88.82 per cent; from the second, 74.12; from 


the third, 62.07; the sum of percolation and evapora- - 


tion being held to account for the entire rain-fall. 


The composition of American wheat and corn. 
: e 
BY CLIFFORD RICHARDSON OF WASHINGTON, D.C. 


THIS paper gave an account of results obtained by 


the author in his work as first assistant chemist of 
the U. 8S. department of agriculture. 
analyses of wheat, and 100 of corn, have been made 
during the last ten years under his supervision. It 
appears that while our wheats are of somewhat lighter 
weight, they contain less water, about the same ash, 
more oil, less fibre, and less albumen, than the foreign 
wheats. Among our wheats, only those from Colo- 
rado, Dakota, and Minnesota equal the European in 
albuminoids and in size of grain. The wheats of the 
Atlantic states are poor in nitrogen. Corn, compared 
with wheat, contains twice as much oil, less starch, 
more water and fibre, and less of albuminoids, The 
following table gives a condensed statement of the 
wheat analyses: — 


Average percentage of nitrogen, albumen, etc., in wheats of the world. 


Per cent | Per cent A Weight . 
CounrRres. NOL OR of of Highest Tower of 100 Hiphesk Lowery Authority. 
analyses. | nitrogen, |albumen, | 2/>umen. | albumen. | yeynojs, | Weight. | weig 2 
INDEIE GD io GGG aio o 24 3.12 19.48 24.56 10.68 - - - Laskowsky. 
IRIIBBIAplck. iia tena cien se a he 5 2.34 14.63 16.56 14.24 3.610 5.350 2.000 Von Bibra. 
North Germany ..... 25 2,24 14.00 18.26 9.80 4.498 5.400 4.000 as os 
South Germany ..... 13 2.17 13.56 17.76 10.21 4.485 7.000 2.875 es ny 
Germany GF BRE Mech nani - 2.11 13.19 - - - - = Kiihn. 
Germany. . ...... - 2.08 13.09 - - - = = Wolff. 
SPAM Giom retails steted tauae havens 8 2.10 13.18 15.29 11.26 4.270 5.125 3.275 | Von Bibra. 
IBNAN CEN ticlivetn vac lc memes nt - 2.08 13.00 = = = - - Reiset. 
Scotland CAP Ou D hone ate Or sit 14 2.01 12.56 - - 4,680 5.200 4.250 Von Bibra, 
INOS oy ve a) eve dl 4 2 1.60 10.00 - - - - - - G 
Egypt .. gee) iis! Verh nclish is 5 1.47 9.19 9.92, 8.75 5.540 - - ic ce 
Allbut Russia. . . .. . 176 2.29 13.65 19.10 5.33 = - = Koenig. 
America GriBulcncon iy ola a 254 1.92 12.00 17.15 8.05 - 5 924 1.830 Various. 
America, except Colorado. . 163 1.86 11.62 16.63 8.05 3.532 5,079 1.8380 a 
Colorado, WNT OG dee 33 2.14 13.40 15.94 11.19 4.833 5.924 3.851 Richardson. 
Colorado, UG ed al Go /8 12 2.09 13.06 14.88 11.55 4.299. 4.670 3.976 wo 
Minnesota QO) Une acu dls 12 2.05 12.79 17.15 10.85 3.394 3.699 3.116 CG 
Michigan Boi UdP AL OLY Oy ccanics 38 1.92 12.00 14.47 9.13 4.116 - - Kedzie. 
IUESOUIET cai of yk oo be 10 1.83 11.44 12.44 10.50 3.502 3.867 3.098 Richardson. 
Oregon DALI Act «ie Ose Oe) 7 1.46 9.17 10.63 8.05 4.800 = = & 
Atlantic State) mPitey heck aie pats 56 1.79 11.18 14.00 8 93 3.057 4.628 1.8380 W 
Pennsylvania Pea Toe. (ie 23 1.80 11.25 12.78 9.45 8.211 4.063 2.526 ag 
eNoxthiCarolina <2). ee 21 1.67 10.46 12.43 8.93 3.782 4.628 2.780 se 
LEY GP Boa a ol | |G 17 1.82 11.32 13.65 9.80 3.137 4.647 2,011 Co 
is ny 


More than 200 


| 


: 


q Avausr 31, 1883.] 
ie 


; water, and heat is applied beneath. 
4 


The sotol, a Mexican forage plant. 
BY CLIFFORD RICHARDSON OF WASHINGTON, D.C. 


Tus plant, Dasylinion texanum, grows wild and 
extensively on the borders of the Rio Grande and 
elsewhere in Texas, and in Mexico, on a rocky and 
gravelly soil. The plains covered with it look like a 
vast cabbage-field. Sheep feeding on it go without 
water for many weeks, Only the bulb is eaten. It 
is split open by the shepherd, who carries a knife for 
the purpose. Mexicans eat the bulb after roasting or 
baking it in pits. Also a liquor is obtained from it, 
by fermenting and distilling after roasting, called 
“sotol mescal,’ and possessed of highly intoxicating 

_ powers. 

The plant is described in Watson's Revision of the 
North-American Liliaceae. About 18 per cent of 
Sugar can be obtained from the outer husks; in the 
interior, more than 10.5 per cent exists; and in the 
whole head of the plant there is probably more than 
15.5 per cent of sugars. No starch seems to be pres- 
ent. 

A proximate analysis of the soft interior of the 
head gave 17 percent sugars: 65 per cent, of this 
soft substance in the head, when fresh, is water. 

As a food-plant in dry districts, the sotol is of 
great value; as a fibre-producing plant, it will not be 
of any importance, owing to the shortness of the 
cells. 


American butters and their adulterations. 
BY H. W. WILEY OF WASHINGTON, D.C. 


A SERIES of elaborate experiments and analyses of 
various samples of butter, oleomargarine, tallow, and 
lard, have been made by Professor Wiley, chemist 
of the U.S. department of agriculture. The paper 
contained a description of Professor Wiley’s method. 
He takes a weighed quantity of the butter, puts it in 
a sand-bath, and dries for two hours at 100°. The 
eurd or caseine is determined by ignition: five grains 
are used for the purpose. Dry combustion in a tube 
is difficult and unsatisfactory: he therefore uses the 
moist-combustion method, with permanganate and 


nesslerizing. The amount of salt he considers im- 
portant. It is usually determined by ignition, and 


_ weighing the residue; but he found that so much 
chlorine was thereby lost, that the result was not 
trustworthy. He washes the butter by shaking it in 


- a separating funnel with hot water, and then deter- 


Mines the chlorine with standard silver nitrate and 
potassium bichromate as an indicator. 

Professor Wiley has devised several novelties for 
these analyses. One of the neatest is for ascertain- 
ing the melting-point. The butter is packed in a 
U-shaped tube, of which one leg is longer than the 
other. The tube is placed upright in a vessel con- 


y 
: taining sufficient mercury to overflow the top of the 


tube. This vessel is placed in another containing 
The water, 

heated, in turn heats the mercury surrounding the 
_ tube, until the contents of the tube are melted. As 
_ soon as the melting takes place, the melted material 


SCIENCE. 


291 


leaves the tube, and floats on the surface of the mer- 
cury. Another method consisted in laying platinum 
wires upon the sample of butter, ete., heating the 
wires, and noting the heat required to cause them to 
disappear by sinking into the sample. These meth- 
ods determined not only the melting-point of samples 
of butter, oleomargarine, tallow, and lard, but also of 
the fatty acids. But the variations in the melting- 
point of genuine butter are so wide, that no certain 
conclusion can be arrived at by comparison with 
melting-point of oleomargarine, ete., to test the 
question of genuineness. Thus it was found that 
first-rate butter from an Alderney cow at one time, 
owing to special feeding, had a higher melting-point 
than oleomargarine; while a few weeks later, with 
different food, the same cow supplied milk from 
which was made butter with a lower melting-point 
than oleomargarine. 

In regard to other tests, concerning which full 
details were given in the paper, it may be briefly 
stated, that, as a general rule, the amount of casvine 
present in pure butter is much greater than in oleo- 
margarine. The specific gravity of genuine butter is 
lower. The saturation co-efficient for the insoluble 
acids in the genuine butter is low, in the imitations 
itis high. Professor Wiley seems to place more reli- 
ance on tests for saturation co-efficient than on other 
methods, The soluble fatty acids in pure butter 
range from three to five per cent; while in oleo- 
margarine, tallow, etc., they are either absent, or 
show a mere trace. The author also called attention 
to polarization tests. The genuine butter gives a 
uniform field in polarized light: oleomargarine gives a 
field with mottled and crystalline structure. He had 
made no analysis of butter known or suspected to be 
adulterated by mixture. He considered it unwise to 
decide the question of genuinehess from any one of 
the constituents or conditions of a sample; believing 
that all the different tests should be brought to bear, 
He presented elaborate tables of analyses of different 
kinds of butter, ete. ; specifying for exch the place of 
purchase, name sold by, price, color, percentage of 
water, of casvine, of salt, specific gravity at 409, melt- 
ing and solidifying points, percentage of soluble and 
of insoluble acids, and the melting and solidifying 
points aud the saturation equivalent of the insoluble 
acids. 

The discussion respecting the analysis of butter 
which was brought about by this paper revolved 
around the question of the value of the data pre- 
sented for the practical work of the determination of 
actual proportion of adulteration. Mr. Noyes held 
that the variations in puré butters in specifie gravity, 
in melting-point, in saturation co-efficient, and in 
caseine, as determined by Professor Wiley, would be 
of little value except in cases where the agulteration 
was very great. Mr. Springer held that the principal 
constituent to be taken into account in the determi- 
nation of adulteration was the amount of caseine, and 
that although there were some difficulties in the way 
of its accurate determination, they might be removed, 
and he should then have more faith in Uns than in 
the comparison of other data. He suggested that the 


292 


accurate determination of caseine might be effected 
by some rapid-fermentation process by which caseine 
could be broken up into other organic products that 
could be separated by albumen. He held to this 
point as to caseine, because it cannot conveniently be 
added in the manufacture of oleomargarine; while 
the acids upon which the saturation co-efficient 
depends could readily be added as sodium com- 
pounds. 

On account of the difficulty of getting accurate 
results in determining nitrogen, it was thought best 
to use the wet-combustion method with permanga- 
nate, because a small quantity of material might be 
used, and there would be fewer chances for loss that 
otherwise occurs in nitrogen determinations that are 
effected by the combustion of butters. 

Dr. Wheeler called the attention of the section to 
the use of what is known as ‘cotton-seed-oil stock,’ 


PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION 


PAPERS READ BEFORE SECTION D. 


A comparison of terra-cotta lumber with other 
materials. 


BY T. R. BAKER OF MILLERSVILLE, PENN. 


TuHE material called ‘terra-cotta lumber’ is made 
out of clay and sawdust. The investigation which 
formed the subject of this paper was to ascertain 
certain qualities of this artificial product. The paper 
also described the apparatus used for the tests. The 
results indicated that the material was 875 times as 
permeable to air as pine, and 135 times as brick. Air 
was forced by pressure of a column of Water. Other 
tests showed that the material was tour times as hard 
as pine, but not so hard as brick. Its grip on nails 
driven into it was about half that of pine. The 
author was careful to disclaim any intention of adver- 
tising the merits of the material, but he evidently 
regarded it as serviceable for the purposes for which 
itis intended. Specimens were exhibited. 


Improvements in shaping-machines. 


BY J. BURKITT WEBB OF ITHACA, N.Y. 


Iy the ordinary shaping-machine there are two. de- 
fects, one of which is found also in the planer. The 


ram of a shaping-machine is a bar sliding in bearings, — 


and carrying at one end the cutting-tool. If we rep- 
resent by a the variable horizontal distance from the 
tool to the first bearing (or nearest end of the long 
bearing), and by 6 the variable horizontal distance 
from the tool to the second or farthest bearing (baclx 
end of long bearing), and by ¢ the length of stroke, 
we shall have, — ‘ 

Maximum yalue of a = (minimum yalue of a) + ¢. 


Maximum yalue of b = (minimum ‘value of 6) +c. . 


In other words, the length of the ram is variable, 
and the spring of the ram from the work is variable, 
the tool springing away from its work more at the end 
of its stroke. This springing takes place mostly in 
the joint between the ram and its bearings, and cannot 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. II., No. 80. 


.in the manufacture of oleomargarine. This, doubt- 
less, contains considerable nitrogen, and, of course, 
would reduce the value of the caseine-test for adul- 
teration, A sample was shown, supposed to contain 
cotton-seed-oil. 

The sense of the discussion was, that it was very 
desirable that Professor Wiley should continue his 
experiments, as they are of great value; but there is 
yet a great deal of work to be done in the. investiga- 
tion. 

List of other papers. 

The following additional papers were read in this 
section: — The formation and constitution of chlordi- 
bromacrylic acid, by C. F. Mabery and Rachel Lloyd. 
Orthiodtoluolsulfonie acid, by C. F. Mabery and G. 
M. Palmer. 
organic compounds, by C. Leo Mees. 
burettes, by W. H. Seaman. 


New forms of 


D.— MECHANICAL SCIENCE. 


be wholly avoided without a change of construction. 
To remedy the defect, the author proposes a reversed 
construction of the sliding parts; the two bearings 
(preferable to a long bearing) to be formed on the 
ram, so as to make the distances a and 6 constant, 
and the long slide being part of the bed of the ma- 
chine. 


The second defect, which is also common to the. 


planer, is in having a ‘drop-block’ which fits but in- 
differently between the jaws and against the bottom 
of its seat. From the necessity of the usual construc- 
tion, the tool attached ta this block will have more or 
less spring. The remedy is to dispense with the drop- 
block, and introduce an automatic motion to lift the 
tool on the return stroke, as has been done, the author 
has understood, on some large machines, 


Regularity of flow in double-cylinder rotary 
pumps. 


BY J. BURKITT WEBB OF ITHACA, N.Y. 


Tue speaker introduced his subject by exhibiting a 
number of models of these pumps from the cabinets 
of Cornell university, which has recently purchased 
copies (243 in number) of the celebrated models of 
the Reuleaux collection in Berlin. Class I. of this 
collection is devoted to these pumps. The speaker 
then produced and demonstrated a formula for the 
flow of these pumps, and showed that the regularity 
of flow depended upon other principles opposite to 
those which have been given for determining this 
point. The formula given for the flow was:— 

F mR? + Rk’? — (r2 + r’?)] = Flow for 
one revolution, when R’ and R” (generally equal to 
each other) are the extreme radii of the two revoly- 
ing wheels; and 7‘ and 7” are the radii (often, per- 
haps generally, variable) from the point of contact 
between the wheels to their centres. It was shown 
that the regularity of flow depends upon r@ + 72 = 
constant. R’and R” may be called the ‘ piston radii,’ 
and # and +” the ‘valve radii.’ 


Estimation of carbon and nitrogen in” 


These pumps are 


a 
- c 
vat 
ws 
by * 


se i lait 


1 


Jo: See phe | ¢ Bae 


Avaust 31, 1883.] 


ealled by Reuleaus ‘ Kapsel riiderwerke,’ or ‘cham- 
ber-crank trains,” according to Kennedy. 


List of other papers. 


The following additional papers were read in this 
_ section, some of them by title only: —A method of 


PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 


ADDRESS OF C. Il. HITCHCOCK OF ITAN- 
OVER, N.1., VICE-PRESIDENT OF SEC- 
TION L, AUG. 15, 1888. 


TNE EARLY HISTORY OF THE NORTII- 
AMERICAN CONTINENT, 

TUERE is a special appropriateness in the associa- 
lion of geography with geology, as indicated in the 
assignment of sciences to section E; for the latter 
gives us an account of the origin of every topograph- 
ical feature of the earth’s surface, whether island, 
continent, mountain, plateau, valley, or oceanic de- 
pression. If we would properly understand the sig- 
nificance of the earth’s contours, we must unravel 
the mysteries of geology: so a knowledge of topog- 
raphy is essential to the complete comprehension of 
the geological features of any country. If a geologist 
were taken by a balloon to an unexplored part of the 
earth, he would instantly recognize, from their topo- 
graphical outlines, voleanic and granitic cones, lime- 
stone hills, elevated plateaus of basalt or horizontal 
sandstones, and special types of orographie structure. 
Hence the modern geologist first draws the contours 
of his district befure applying the colors of geological 
age. The existing relief features of the earth have 
been produced one by one in successive periods; and 
it ix the task of the geologist to discover what were 
the characteristic physical developments of the 
several ages. He can delineate a connected historical 
sketch of the beginuing, growth, and completion of 
acontinent, Such histories are rare, because atten- 
fiou has but recently been turned into this direction. 
~ One of the first American geologists to frame such 

an outline is Prof. J. D. Dana, to whom we owe the 

euunciation of this fundamental truth, — that the 
first formed land has always remained above water, 
aud has been a nucleus about which zones of sedi- 
ment have accumulated. We can now recognize 

_ this primitive continent, with all its successive stages 
of growth, upon every geological map. 

Time would fail us to present the entire physical 
history of our continent; and we will therefore confine 
our atténtion chiefly to its earlier chapters, noting 
those points which are under discussion, As we are 

- endeavoring to advance science, we must touch upon 
debatable topics, and hope by friendly discussions 
to become wiser. 

~ We mu-t assume the correctness of the commonly 
received opinions concerning the earlicst history of 
our planet, —that it passed throngh the condition 
of a nebula, and then of a burning sun, the period of 


SCIENCE. 


_-_- 


testing long plane surfaces, applicable to the align- 
ment of;planer-beds, lathe-beds, heavy shafting, ete., 
by W. A. Rogers. The commercial and dynamic 
efficiencies of the steam-engine ; Centrifugal action 
in turbines, by R. H.. Thurston. Velocity of the 
piston of a crank engine, by C. M. Woodward. 


— GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY. 


igneous fluidity. By subsequent refrigeration it has 
become either partially or wholly solid. Not until a 
crust had formed, and the earth had cooled enough 
to allow water to remain permanently, was it pos- 
sible to talk of dry land and ocean, With these prem- 
ises allowed, it seems to us evident that the material 
of the earth must be disposed in concentric zones, 
arranged according to density, the heaviest being at 
the centre. If the various elements were free to 
move, as is the case in all natural or artificial igneous 
fluids, we must expect to find the heavier metals 
situated beneath the others; and, following the 
analogy of extra-terrestrial bodies, the central nucleus 
may be principally iron, like the heavier meteors. 
Zones corresponding to stony meteors, lavas, the trap 
family, and granites would naturally succeed in order, 
the last named being at the surface. This outer 
zone is also characterized by the presence of much 
silica and oxygen. ‘The primeval ocean came from 
the vapors surrounding the igneous sphere, con- 
densed to liquidity as soon as water could remain 
upon the solid crust without immediate vaporization, 

This original crust may have been essentially a 
plain, and consequently entirely covered by water; 
for if the land were now levelled off, the ocean would 
submerge every acre of the continents. As refrige- 
ration progressed, ridges and valleys would form 
in accordance with that fundamental principle that 
the outer envelope must conform to the shrunken 
nucleus; and this contraction gives rise to that 
tangential force or lateral pressure which has acted 
through all time. Whether these earliest ridges rose 
above the ocean would depend upon the amount of 
elevation. Some authors argue that. these ridges fol- 
low the course of great circles. If there are causes 
adequate to produce such results,—or any other 
world-wide arrangement,—they must have com- 
menced to operate at the very beginning of contrac- 
tion, Most authors maintain that the yery thick 
strata of the older rocks have been formed just like 
modern sediments, having been broken off the ledges, 
and transported into oceanic basins in horizontal 
attitude. If so, there must have been great moun- 
tainous elevations, deep oceanic depressions, and 
extensive aqueous action; since the thickness of the 
crystalline schists is greater than that of, the strata 
in the fossiliferous ages. The amount of distortion, 
erumpling, and faulting of the erystalline rocks is 
also greater. These same authors hold that the 
original strata were in all respects like modern sands, 
gravels, and clays, and that their present crystalline 
structure is due to metamorphism. No one has yet 
discovered any uncrystalline pre-Cambrian beds; nor 


294 


have the original foundation rocks been pointed out, 
since the oldest known layers are stratified, and 
canuot therefore have constituted part of the original 
unstratified crust. 

Professor Dana thinks the primitive land originated 
because of a difference in the rate of conduction 
of heat during the process of refrigeration. Cooling 
would be fastest where the heat was conducted most 
rapidly. The first areas to cool would be the first to 
solidify. The first solidified crust was heavier than 
the adjacent liquid: so it sank until it found a 
fluid as dense as itself. Then the liquid above this 
crust would in turn become solid, and sink; and this 
process is supposed to have continued until a perma- 
nent shell had become fixed in the earth’s circum- 
ference, which constantly increased in breadth and 
thickness, becoming continents. Meanwhile the 
other portions remained liquid; and their surfaces 
must have stood at the same level with the first- 
formed crust till that congealed, and became depressed 
because of the diminution of volume in solidifica- 
tion. These depressions became the ocean’s beds. 
From this beginning down to the present time the 
processes of growth have consisted in the thicken- 
ing of the continents and the settling-down of the 
oceanic depressions, while the chief force employed 
has"been the lateral pressure derived from contrac- 
tion. LeConte and Pratt express the process thus far 
described by the term ‘unequal radial contraction.’ 
The total gravity of the particles of matter along 
each radius is supposed to be the same; and hence, 
if the heat is conducted most rapidly over the shorter 
radii composed of denser minerals, the ocean-basins 
would cool first. These two views thus demand a 
different arrangement of the lighter and denser 
materials; the one necessitating that the continents, 
and the other the depressions, were first to congeal. 
Both, however, make the gratuitous and unproved 
assumption, that the surface was not uniform in 
composition; the differences being probably like 
that between granite and trap. The principle stated 
above —that, where all the particles are free to move 
in a liquid, the lighter elements must rise to the sur- 
face, and the heavier minerals sink down in propor- 
tion to their specific gravity —is at variance with this 
assumptions Fortunately it is not essential toa right 
theory of continental growth. There is no reason, 
therefore, to doubt that the original crust had 
essentially a uniform thickness over the whole 
earth. Contraction would originate ridges and val- 
leys in the normal way, most likely of similar 
dimensions. There must soon burst forth ejections 
of igneous matter, owing to tidal attraction; and 
these would show themselves along the weakest lines. 
At the outset it is difficult to assign reasons why 
either the elevations or depressions would be the 
weaker; and hence we should look for a multitude 
of locations of igneous overflow, both over the future 
continents and oceans. There may be no better 
reason for the eventual enlargement of certain of 
these volcanoes than that circumstances only very 
slightly favored them; but, this favor being con- 
tinued, they would exist and enlarge at the expense 


SCIENCE. 


[Vor. IL, No. 30. 


of the others, affording us another illustration of the 
‘survival of the fittest.’ 

It seems to us there is now afforded an opportunity 
for reviving in a modified form the view of Poulett 
Serope in regard to the origination of the earlier 
crystalline deposits. Suppose we say, that, besides 
the original unstratified igneous granitic material, 
the oldest stratified crystalline rocks are derived 
from voleanic ejections; being the continued enlarge- 
ment in size, and reduction in number, of the early 
indeterminate vents. The several ejections would 
increase in size till they became islands, either gneis- 
sic or granitic; and, if an archipelago is allowed us, 
we can easily show how continents would accumulate, 


using only the universally acting forces of lateral } 


pressure and sedimentary accumulation. 

Of other theories relating to the origin of the 
earlier crystalline beds I may mention two. The 
first is that advocated by Lyell, who termed these 
rocks hypoyene. After the solid granitic crust had 


been formed by refrigeration, ‘‘ the hot waters of the 
ocean held in solution the ingredients of gneiss, — 


mica-schist, hornblende-schist, clay slate, and marble, 
—rocks which were precipitated one after the other 
in a crystalline form”’ (Lyell’s Principles of geology, 


10th ed., i. 142). In such a menstruum, life could 
not have existed. A very similiar view was advocated 
by Dr. T. Sterry Hunt in his presidential address 


before this association in 1871. 

The second is the view more commonly entertained, 
— that, after the solidification of the crust, sedimen- 
tation accumulated stratified systems from the 
granitic foundations, as ordinary sand, gravel, and 
clay, which were subsequently acted upon by thermal 
and aqueous influences termed metamorphic, and 
thus converted into crystalline schists. The wide- 
spread and powerful action of metamorphism is 
conceded; but it is a more appropriate adjunct to 
volcanic than sedimentary accumulation. 

A few of the considerations favoring our eea 
will now be presented. + 

1. Considering the igneous origin of the earth, 
voleanie energies would naturally continue their 


action as soon as there was a crust to be broken — 


through, and immense piles of melted rock would 
ooze from the numerous fissures. Up to Laurentian 
times all admit the universality of igneous outflow, 
while but few have ventured to speak of any thing 
like volcanic action, except as it has been manifested 
in the formation of dikes in these early periods. 
There has been a tendency to class the ancient 
granites and porphyries with rocks of sedimentary 
origin, and consequently to restrict the action of 
igneous agencies to phenomena of slight importance. 
Several English writers, and, in our country, Dr, 


eee 


Se a 


Selwyn-of Canada, have been calling our attention 


to the existence of a volcanic group in later Huronian 


or early Cambrian times. These are the rocks so 
largely developed about Lake Superior, New Eng- 
Jand, and’ the Province of Quebec, consisting of 
stratified schists, diorites, diabases, amygdaloids, and — 


felsites, identical in composition with true eruptive — 
Investigation shows that 


masses of ‘the same name. 


: 
; 


; 


% 


Aveust 31, 1883.] 


oftentimes these schists are disposed like the lavas 
ejected from one series of volcanic vents. Suppose, 
for example, that Etna or Vesuvius should become 
extinct. In the course of ages the rains would 
obliterate the craters, aud reduce the lavas to a 
rounded dome of greater or less regularity. We 
should recognize the volcanic origin of the mountain 
in the absence of craters from the lithological simi- 
larity of the rocks to those known to have been 
melted and ejected from vents, while the disposal of 


_ the material in a conical attitude shows us that it 


might once have been covered by craters. So we find 
in our eastern country many domes of diabasiec or 
protogenic schists, whose volcanic origin may be 
predicated, both from their lithological character and 
physical aspect. 

Now, this voleanic group of Huronian times in- 
dicates the existence of a greater degree of igneous 
activity than has been described for the paleozoic 
ages, even those of Great Britain ; and consequently 
this is an indication pointing signiticantly towards 
the predominance of thermal influences in the still 
earlier periods. In the Laurentian age the fires 
should have been yet more vigorous, because the 
time of universal igneous fluidity was less remote. 

2. A careful study of the erystalline rocks of the 
Atlantic slope indicates the presence of scattered 
ovoidal areas of Laurentian gneisses. Those best 


’ known have been described in the Geology of New 


Hampshire. Instead of a few large synclinal troughs 
filled to great depths with sediments, the oldest 
group is disposed in no less than twenty-two areas of 
small size, scattered like the islands in an archipelago. 
In a chapter upon the physical history of the state, I 
have proposed the theory that the earliest land with- 
in its limits consisted of this series of islands, not 
packed as closely together as now, in an area of per- 
haps:three thousand five hundred square miles, but 
as rhuch more widely separated as would be deter- 
mined by smoothing out the various anticlinals and 
synclinals that were formed later. By reference to 


- our maps in Maine, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Penn- 


sylvania, Virginia, North Carolina, and Georgia, many 


similar ovoidal Laurentian areas may be specified, 


usually larger than those of New Hampshire. This 
may be due partly to a less thorough knowledge of 
the exact areas occupied by this older gneiss, and 
partly to the existence of a greater number of vol- 
eanic vents, giving rise to a more widely spread and 
thicker mass of ejected material. Over the Atlantic 
slope and Canadian highlands these primeval islands 
have, in later periods, been cemented together by a 
subsequent deposition of material; but in Missouri, 
Arkansas, and Texas, we recognize, even now, these 
early islands. 

3. The lithology of the Laurentian and other crys- 
talline rocks is very like that of igneous ejections. 
It is proper at this point to recall the proper restric- 
tion of the term Laurentian. As originally defined 
by Logan, it included every formation that ante- 
dated the Huronian. In the Report upon the geology 
of Canada for 1877-78, Selwyn proposes to restrict 
the Laurentian outcrops to ‘all those clearly lower, 


SCIENCE. 


295 


unconformable, granitoid, or syenitie gneisses in 
which we never find interstratified bands of calea- 
reous, argillaceous, arenaceous, and conglomeratic 
rocks.’? The Hastings and Grenville series, and all 
the schists containing the eozoon, are excluded from 
the Laurentian by this definition, as well as the 
Bethlehem, Lake Winnipiseogee, and Montalban 
groups of the Atlantic slope. The Laurentian is 
azoic, the other groups eozoic; and, unless newer 
distinctions are to be made hereafter, it looks as if we 
might claim these various azoic Laurentian islands 
as the first-formed dry land, as they certainly are the 
nuclei of the existing continents. 

There are no minerals in these Laurentian islands 
that do not occur in eruptive granite; and the schis- 
tose structure is often so faint that the field geologist 
need not be blamed if he acknowledges his inability 
to detect it. Likewise we discover the same fluidal 
inclusions and the vacuoles that pertain to granite. 
lf we follow Sorby and Clifton Ward in saying that 
granite has been formed beneath a pressure equiva- 
lent to a weight of forty thousand feet of strata, the 
same must be said of the early gneisses. With this 
general assertion of the identity of gneiss and erup- 
tive granite, we must be satisfied at present, without 
entering into detail. 

4. The analogy of the origin of oceanic islands 
at the present day suggests the igneous derivation 
of the Laurentian areas. Most of the high islands of 
the Pacific are composed of lava, with the voleanoes 
frequently in action. lawaii, of the Hawaiian 
group, may illustrate their position and shape. Its 
aurea above the water-line is 4,210 O miles, and its 
cubical contents above the sea-level are about the 
same with those of New Hampshire. It rises from a 
plateau over 16,000 feet deep, thus forming a cone 
30,000 feet high, whose cubical! contents must be 
twenty times greater than the portion making dry 
land. The length of the entire series of islands, all 
of similar character, is 350 miles, and the area of the 
base of the lava must be about 100,000 O miles. 
These cones have been built up by the accumulation 
of lava ejected from the interior of the earth, and they 
are entirely isolated, the nearest land being 1,000 
miles distant. The ground-plan of this volcanic 
mass is that of two elliptical areas, either of which is 
like some of our Laurentian islands, and is certainly 
as large as any of these ancient lands south of the St. 
Lawrence. The land area of the Hawaiian Islands is 
Jess than that of Massachusetts, but their base must 
be equal to the whole of New England and New 
York combined. Surely it cannot be avowed that 
voleanic areas are too small to be compared with the 
space occupied by our oldest formation. 

The so-called lowlands are likewise of volcanic ori- 
gin; since coral polyps have built up reefs upon the 
igneous area after the disappearance of the fire, and 
the Hawaiian areas are encircled by reefs. After the 
voleanoes have become cold, loose material would be 
worked in between them, coral reefs would grow, 
and, in various ways, the land area would be enlarged, 
and finally an archipelago may become a large island. 
It needs only time and a repetition of these construc- 


296 


tive agencies to make a continent out of a series of 
archipelagos. 

There are two points requiring explanation in this 
connection, — first, the supposed deeply seated locali- 
ties where granite is produced; and, second, the ori- 
gin of foliation in the schists. 

We should naturally expect that the earlier igneous 
rocks would have been derived from reservoirs quite 
near the surface, because of the thinness of the crust. 
With this notion agrees the presence of cavities con- 
taining liquid, and of hydrated minerals, whicli are 
more common in the older eruptive rocks, and have 
led to the aqueo-igneous theories of the origin of 
granite. Water would be scarce at great depths, and 
lience these rocks ought to originate near the surface 
where moisture was abundant. It seems to us that 
this consideration should more than balance the argu- 
iments usually cited in favor of the origin of granite 
at enormous depths, as it is difficult to see how both 
ean be true. ; ; 

Mr. H. C. Sorby has led the way in studies of the 
mineral constituents of eruptive rocks. He measures 
the included cavities in the component minerals, and 
ealeulates how much the contained substances must 
have contracted in cooling, allowing for an increase 
in the temperature of the point of vaporization under 
pressure. By assuming the temperature to be cor- 
rectly determined, he ascertains the amount of press- 
ure indicated by mathematical formulae, and finds 
it to be the equivalent of a thickness of 40,000 feet 
of overlying rock in Cornish granites, and of 60,000 
feet in Scotch granites. Later writers seem to have 
regarded this pressure as certainly: produced in the 
way thus suggested, and that its appearance at 
the surface has been due to an enormous erosion 
which has denuded the overlying blanket. This 
conclusion is not necessary; for, 1°, an enormous 
pressure would result from the tangential force of 
eontraction, which would be entirely adequate to 
have produced the cavities. 2°. The necessity of an 
erosion of 40,000 feet over all the granites in every 
part of the world cannot be maintained. In North 
America, for example, it would necessitate the sup- 
position that nearly eight miles’ thickness of rock 
liud been remoyed from one-fourth of the surface 
since the Laurentian, for the blanket removed would 
lave equalled in dimensions the erystalline areas. 
The mere statement of the amount of denudation re- 
quired refutes the theory. 3°. By reference to existing 
yoleanoes, it is plain that a column of lava will often 
be adequate to exert the needed pressure. Teneriffe 
rises 12,000 feet above the ocean, and its cone de- 
scends 18,000 feet more to the submarine plateau. 
When the crater is full of melted lava, there must be 
a pressure of 3,000 feet at the base of the cone: 
hence the lava from the reservoir supplying Teneriffe 
might exhibit the vacuities produced by a pressure of 
30,000 feet without any weight above the peak. 

When molten lava pours down the side of a crater, 
the included vapors and liquids must disappear be- 
cause of the removal of the pressure; but, after.asub- 
stantial crust has formed, the peculiar markings 
imprinted at the great depth would remain: hence 


SCIENCE. 


[Vor. IL, No. 30. 


we can understand how it is that the vacuilies are to 
be seen both in granites and lavas that have been sub- 
jected to great pressure. At the Boston meeting of 
this association I endeavored to show that there are- 
mountain masses of granite in New England possess- 
ing all the physical characteristics of volcanic cones. 
The material must have been liquid, hot, ejected 
from a vent, and flowed over a plateau, building up @ 
cone, and indurating the underlying floor. It was 
claimed that such phenomena could be explained 
only by supposing the granite to have been erupted 
just like lava. This granite contained the usual 
vacuities indicative of great pressure just as they 
are also found in the lava of Monte Somma or the 
trachyte of Ponza. 


When one examines the interior structure of mod-— 


ern laya-flows, he is surprised to find beds nearly as” 
well defined as the foliation of schists. Around 

vents like Vesuvius or Etna the lava accumulates 

naturally in quaquayersal sheets, no one eruption 

being very extensive. When steam and hot water 
are copiously supplied from the caldron, there may. 
be flows of hot mud and tufa. The closing phases 
of eruptions are usually showers of ashes falling 

upon the cone or beyond. If the vent is beneath the 
ocean-level, the lava is minutely subdivided and the* 
deposit will be like sand or gravel. Between the ig- 

neous flows the ordinary aqueous agencies will wear 

off excrescences, and scatter the fragments down the 

slope. These various agencies will produce a con- 

centric stratiform arrangement in the whole mass, 

Where the eruption is massive, a similar set of layers 

will be formed. 

This mass of voleanic material will be very sus- 
ceptible to metamorphic influences when placed 
under the proper conditions of heat and pressure. 
As the result, new minerals will be formed, arranged 
in foliated beds or schists. Thus briefly stated may 
be the origin of foliation. So long ago as 1825, 


Poulett Scrope advocated essentially this doctrine for — 


the arrangement of the crystalline particles in the 
crystalline schists, having found an analogous strue- 
ture in certain voleanic accumulations. 

Sufficient has now been said in advocacy of our 
doctrine that the first land consisted of voleanic” 
islands. This was the Laurentian or azoic accuniu- 
lation. Cartographers have not yet distinguished the 
several crystalline deposits, so that it will not be 
practicable at present to point out the supposed vol- 
canic areas of the Hastings, Grenville, Montalban, 
Huronian, and other eozoic periods. Sedimentation 
would also act so that in this age many beds must be 
referred to an aqueous derivation. By the close of 
the eozoic tlhe continent was outlined; or at least the 
framework of the future superstructure was put into 
position. The broader patches about to be men- 


tioned had their origin in the earlier numerous is- — 


lands cemented by detrital accumulations. 
The more important areas developed in the eozoic 


must have been Greenland, Canada east of Lake — 
Winnipeg, the Atlantic district, the Rocky Moun-— 
tains, the Sierra Nevadas, and numerous buttes over — 
the Cordilleras. The three great depressions of Hud-— 


~~ © 


= 


_ 
4 


_ it southerly to Mexico. 


ware Ke ro eS 
NP 


Acoust 31, 18S3.] 


son’s Bay, the Mississippi valley, and the Salt-Lake 
and Nevada basins commenced to sink very early, 
and the future growth of the continent consisted 
largely in filling them up with marine sediments. An 
inspection of a map drawn upon a correct scale will 
dissipate the fancied resemblance to the letter V, 
in the Canadian dominion, so often insisted upon. 
Neither has the development of the land been in 
bands parallel to the north-west and south-east arms 
of this supposed angle. A better conception would 
find three great basins, excluding the unknown re- 
gions of Mexico and Alaska, in each of which opera- 
tious were conducted independently. The best 
known is that of the interior of the United States, or 
the Mississippi hydrographic basin. This depression 
was nearly encircled by a crystalline border of high 
land. Beginning at Alabama, we follow it to New 
England, thence by a slight gap to the Adirondack 
promontory, thence across the Lakes to the Dakota 
promontory. In Minnesota and Dakota the schists 
are more or less covered by cretaceous clays and ter- 
tiary sands; but they evidently constitute the floor 
for the surface strata occasionally piercing through the 
Jater deposit, as in the Black Hills. Thus we may 
connect the Dakota and Rocky Mountain crystal- 
lines. From Wyoming southerly the granites are 
again conspicuous into New Mexico. Thus the cir- 
cuit is not complete: it is like a borseshoe, with the 
lower Mississippi valley in the gap; yet this may have 
been filled in the Cambrian age, since Laurentian 
islands are found in Texas, Arkansas, and Missouri, 
We might give reasons for believing in the recent 
origin of the depression between New Mexico and 
Alabama. 

‘The map will show, around the borders of this 
Mediterranean Sea, the primordial sea-beach, whether 
examined in Virginia, New York, Michigan, Colo- 
rado, or Texas. Could we dissect the land, we should 
find an immense platter of Cambrian sediments co- 
extensive with the crystalline highlands surrounding 
and underlying it. In Cambro-Silurian times the 
story is repeated. Marine limestones formed other 
dishes, each limited in size by the upturned edges of 
the platter underneath. ‘The rest of the history is 
given in ourtext-books. Our Mediterranean Sea was 
not closed till the end of the cretaceous, when the 
salt-water was expelled, never to return. 

In the west a similar ovoidal, crystalline border can 
be traced, holding paleozoie sediments, Beginning at 
the Rocky Mountain chain in Wyoming, we follow 
Across Arizona are many 
gneissic outlines, but not sufficiently numerous to 
close the gap. In California we reach a country en- 
tirely gneissic beneath the sands of the desert, which 
eonnects with the Sierra Nevadas, and is traceable 
along the Nevada line nearly to Oregon. There the 
course is changed, the rocks trend north-easterly, 
show themselves conspicuously in the Blue Moun- 
tains of eastern Oregon, the Salmon River Moun- 


tains of Idaho, and western spurs of the Rockies 


again in Montana, which are continuous to our start- 
ing-point in Wyoming. Our erystallines do not pass 
north of the parallel of 49° into Coluinbia. We have 


SCIENCE. 


297 


therefore found a complete crystalline border for the 
depressions of our western territories, and, within 
this ovoidal line, all the members of the paleozoic, 
mesozoic, and cenozoic groups, but not arranged with 
the simplicity of their distribution in the east. 

Less is known of the aretic basin than of the 
others; but the scattered sketches afforded by voy- 
agers indicate the presence of the more important 
members of the geological column. Where these 
basins adjoin, there is a much wider area of ancient 
land. 

In conclusion, I will simply recapitulate the more 
important phases of the growth of our continent. 

We start with the earth in the condition of igueous 
fluidity. 

It cools so as to become incrusted and covered by 
an ocean. 

Numerous volcanoes discharge melted rock, build- 
ing up ovyoidal piles of granite, which change gradu- 
ally into crystalline schists, When these hills are 
high enough to overlook the water, they constitute 
the beginnings of dry land. 

At the commencement of paleozoic time the conti- 
nent is composed of three immense basins, located 
near Hudson’s Bay, the Mississippi hydrographic area, 
and the great Nevada series of land-locked valleys. 

The later history of the development of the couti- 
nent presents the details of the filling-up of these 
depressions, the expulsion of the Mediterranean seas, 
and the description of the varied forms of life that 
successively peopled the land and water. 

The history opens with igneous agency in the 
ascendant. Aqueous and organie forces became 
conspicuous later on, and ice has put on the finish- 
ing touches to the terrestrial contours. The eom- 
pleted structure we must acknowledge to be ‘ very 
good,’ 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


Our leading article of June 29 was based in 
part upon a mistake, which we desire to correct. 
Foreign periodicals received by mail-in single num- 
bers have not been dutiable within the last five years, 
Nevertheless, the writer of the article, who subscribes 
to three foreign scientific journals, and receives them 
by mail, had been forced to pay duty on each number 
for the past nine or ten months; and the same has 
been the case with others of our acquaintance. Our 
post-office regulations are so frequently changed that 
one can rarely tell whether he is the victim of a 
blunder or a whim. 

—M. Pasteur, who has just obtained a grant of 
fifty thousand francs from the French Chambers to 
send a scientific mission to Egypt to investigate 
whether the cholera be not due to the development 
of a microscopic animal in the human body, states, 
in a letter to Voltaire, the reasons which induced him 
to recommend the board of health to send out the 
mission in question. He says, ** L urged the sending- 
out of this mission on account of the great progress 
that science has made since the last cholera epidemic 
respecting transmissible diseases, Every one of those 


298 


diseases that have been the subject of a thorough 
investigation has led biologists to the conclusion 
that they were caused by the development, in the body 
of man or the animals, of a microscopic animal, caus- 
ing therein disturbances frequently fatal. All the 
symptoms of the disease, all the causes of death, are 


directly under the influence of the physiological prop- 


érties of the microbes. What is needed at present 
to meet the requirements of science, is to ascertain 
the primary cause of the scourge. Now, the present 
state of our knowledge indicates that we should direct 
all our attention to the possible existence in the blood, 
or in such or such an organ, of an infinitesimally 
small being whose nature and properties would in all 
likelihood account for all the peculiarities of cholera, 
‘both as regards its morbid symptoms and the mode 
of its propagation. The existence of that microbe 
once ascertained would speedily settle the question 
as to the measures to be taken to check the spread of 
the disease, and might possibly suggest new thera- 
peutic means to cureit.’”? The mission consists of 
four young savants, doctors, and biologists, — Drs. 
Roux, Thuillier, Straus, and Nocard. M. Pasteur 
hopes, that, by scrupulously attending to the hygienic 
precautions he has written down for them, the great 
danger they are incurring may be minimized. 

— The September Century has several papers to 
which our readers’ attention may be called. One of 
the illustrated articles relates Lieut. Schwatka’s 
personal adventures in the hunt for the musk-ox. 


Ernest Ingersoll gives an excellent account of Mr. 


Agassiz’ private laboratory at Newport, and of the 
methods he has-so successfully introduced for carry- 
ing delicate sea-animals through their earlier stages. 
An admirable portrait, engraved by Velten, from a 
photograph of Notman’s, will interest many. It has 
more spirit than one formerly published in the Har- 
vard register. Under the title, ‘The tragedies of 
the nests,’ John Burroughs writes of the difficulties 
birds encounter in rearing their young. The at- 
tempts: toward the unification in railway time in 
this country are briefly discussed by W. F. Allen. 

A writer on ornamental forms in nature gives 
several striking illustrations of the effects pro- 
ducible, with due study, by ‘the naturalistic school’ 
of decorators. With eyes capable of seeing the 
stream, moth, vine, and skunk-cabbage ‘in nature’ 
as they appear to our writer, we may doubt the 
possibility of their evolutionary limit in art being 
ever reached. Like the Spanish-Moorish designer, 
he ‘evidently did not care three straws for what 
all the botanists and florists on earth might think 
of his work,’ so long as it teach us to regard nature 
from the standpoint of art, and tend in some 
measure to straighten the devious paths of the 
modern conventionalizer. 

— The Tribune of Minneapolis, for Aug. 16, printed 
Dr. Dawson’s address before the American associa- 
tion in full, as well as long abstracts of several of the 
sectional addresses. Subsequent issues gave very 
fair reports of the papers read. 

— The first number of Kobelt’s Iconographie der 
schalentragenden europaischen Meeres conchylien has 


> 


SCIENCE. 


[Vor. IL, No. 30. 


appeared. It is in quarto, with colored plates, and 
this number is devoted to species of Muricidae. The 
descriptions are in Latin, with German text. 

—The Washington, of the Italian navy, under 
command of Capt. Magnaghi, is engaged in its 
annual cruise for the study of the western Mediter- 
ranean. 

— One of the Akkas (African pygmies) taken to 
Italy in 1873 by Miani has just died of consumption 
at Verona. vd 

— The newspapers of yesterday announce that Mr: 
J. A. Ryder has sueceeded in rearing the American 
oyster from the egg. His experiments were made in 
natural enclosures, and so conducted as to preclude 
any doubt that the spat obtained has been derived 
from any source except that of the spawn artificially’ 
fertilized and introduced into the enclosure. The — 
greatest obstacle to the cultivation of the oyster is 
now removed. 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 


Delogne, C.H. Flore cryptogamique de la Belgique. livr. 
i,: mousses. Bruxelles, 1888. 8°. . 

Delpino, F. Teoria generale della fillotassi. Genova, 1883. “J 
345 p. 4°. ‘ 

Depérais, C. Hygiéne publique: nouveau traitement des 
cadavres ayant pour but la destruction des germes contagieux 
qu’ils peuvent contenir. Naples, Jnst. roy. d’encouragement, 
1888. 19p., pl. autogr. 8°. > q 

Drinker’s Explosive compounds and rock drills. Forming 
a supplementary volume to the first edition of Drinker’s Tun- 
nelling. N.Y., 1853. 4°. 

Duclaux. Microbiologie. Paris, 1883. 908 p., 111 fig. 8°. 


Gerland, E. Der leere raum, die constitution der kérper 
und der aether. Berlin, 1883. 8°. 

Grindon, L. H. The Shakspeare flora. Guide to all the 
principal passages in which mention is made of trees, plants, 
flowers, and yegetable productions. 
ical particulars.. Manchester, 1883. 3830p. 8°. 


With comments and botan- 
EAU NIESESS, J. Leverre et le cristal. Paris, 1883. atlas, 
26 pl. 8°. + 

Heriz, E. Construccién de mapas. Barcelona, Ramirez, 
1882. 12p.,8pl. 4°. er 

Herrmann, G. Der reibungswinkel. Aachen, 1883. fig. 4°. 

Heukels, H. Schoolflora yan Nederland. Bewerkt naar O. — 
Wiinsche’s Schulflora yon Deutschland. Groningen, 1883. 62+ 
368 p. 8°. 

Israels, A. H., en Daniéls, C. E. De verdiensten der 
hollandsche geleerden ten opzichte van Harvey’s leer yan den i 
bloedsomloop. Utrecht, 1883. 1483p. 8°, ; 

Jordan, D.S,and Gilbert, C.H. Synopsis of the fishes : 
of North America. Washington, 1883. 1,018 p. 8°. \ 

Jordan, W. L. New principles of natural philosopby. 
London, 1883. illustr. 8°. ‘. 

Koehler, R. Recherches sur Jes echinides des cOtes de 
Provence. Marseille, 1883. 167 p.,7pl. 4°. : 

Kohlfiirst, L. Die elektrischen einrichtungen der eisen- 
bahnen und das signalwesen. Wien, 1883. (elektro-techn. bibl., 
xii.) 288 p., illustr. 8°. an 

Lambert, E. Traité pratique de botanique. Propriétés 
des plantes, leur utilité et lear emploi dans la médecine, l’indus-— 
trie, etc. Paris, 1883. illustr. 8°. q 

Larden, W. School course on heat. N.Y., 1883. 321 p., 
illustr. 8°. 4 

List of British birds. Compiled by a committee of the British — 
ornithologists’ union. London, 1883. 258 p. 8°. 

Lubbock, J. Fourmis, abeilles et guépes. Etudes expéri- 
mentales sur l’organisation et lés moeurs des insectes hyménop- — 


teres. 2 vols. Paris, 1883. illustr. 8°. ~ f 
Mann, L. Die atomgestalt der chemischen grundstoffe. 
Berlin, 1888. illustr. 8°. ‘ i 


Martini, A. Manuale di metrologia, ossia misure, pesi e 
monete in uso attualmente e anticamente presso tutti i popoli. 
Torino, 1883. 912p. 8°. — aye 


ee Nae. 


FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 1883. 


FRANCIS MAITLAND BALFOUR. 
ApovuT a year ago came the sad news of the 


ber last, to found the Memorial studentship, 
— was remarkable in many ways: rarely have 
been heard such words of admiration and love 
for one man as were then expressed for Bal- 


sudden death of Professor Balfour of Cam- four. Many spoke at length of the debt Cam- 


bridge. If the 
loss was felt less 
severely in this 
country than in 
England, it was 
only because he 
had fewer person- 
al friends here; 
and to fully un- 
derstand his worth 
one must have 
known and talked 
with him. It is 
true that it re- 
quired no unusual 
insight to read the 
fine qualities of the 
man in his writ- 
ings; but none 
save those who 
knew him could 
appreciate his re- 
markable personal 
attractiveness. 
Not the least part 
of the wonderful 
work of his short 
life was that 
which he accom- 
plished as a teach- 
er: here as every- 
where, his person- 
al influence had a 
large share; and 
a sketch of Bal- 


four’s scientific work would be incomplete 
without a recognition of the bearing which his 
noble character had upon it. 

The meeting of leading biologists in Octo- 


q No. 31.— 1883. 


bridge owed him. 
It may be said that 
he divided with 
Foster the honor 
of giving the great 
impetus to the bi- 
ological movement 
in the English uni- 
versities. | What 
Huxley had done 
for Foster, the lat- 
ter did for Bal- 
four, giving him 
the first hearty en- 
couragement and 
support; together 
they raised biolo- 
gy from the third 
to the level of the 
first rank of stud- 
ies at Cambridge, 
equalling that held 
by mathematics. 
Oxford soon fol- 
lowed this impor- 
tant movement, 
trying to secure 
Balfour for the 
professorship left 
vacant by the 
death of Rolle- 
ston. His con- 
nection’ with nat- 
ural science at 
Cambridge was 


described in warm language by Foster, his 
teacher, and by Sedgwick, one of his pupils: 
he advanced morphology there by his brilliant 
success in teaching and in research. 


300 


In teaching he combined manly force with 
a delicate regard for the feelings of his pupils. 
From the writer’s personal impressions of him 
as a lecturer, he did not aim at eloquence, but 
to be understood in every step; rarely looking 
at his hearers, he spoke rapidly and with in- 
tense earnestness, crowding a vast deal into 
the hour. The main qualities of his character 
shone forth in his lectures, — energy, which he 
infused into his hearers; truthfulness, which 
soon gaye implicit confidence in his state- 
ments ; modesty and sympathy, which inspired 
effort and free exchange of thought. 

Balfour’s love of truth came constantly into 
play in his laboratory instruction. While 
looking oyer a student’s shoulder, he would 
sometimes say with a laugh, ‘‘ You must in- 
terpret that specimen with the eye of faith; ” 
but this was very far from being a serious in- 
junction, for he exacted of his students the 
greatest caution in the progress of their mi- 
croscopic work. However tempting a certain 
interpretation of a specimen might be, Balfour 
neyer accepted it until it rested on the clear- 
est evidence. An instance of this sort is re- 
called by the writer, which related to the much 
disputed origin of a well-known embryonic 
structure. A number of sections had been 
prepared, seeming to confirm the view which 
Balfour himself had advocated some time be- 
fore; it required considerable self-control not 
to attach 
them: this was, however, forbidden; and it 
was not until several days afterwards that 
fresh sections established the fact beyond 
question. 

To Foster, Balfour repaid his student-debt 
by extending, in turn, continued encourage- 
ment to others. He did not fear, as many 
creat teachers have, that joint labor with his 
juniors would derogate from his reputation: 
his joint articles are numerous; he was zeal- 
ous to recognize research done by his pupils, 
seeming to be prouder of this than of his own 
work. Nothing could be more stimulating to 
the young men about him, still distrustful of 
their powers, than this generous co-operation. 
Is it surprising, then, that the voluntary attend- 


SCIENCE. 


a somewhat forced meaning to - 


Pe ee Se a eee ek ee 


(Vou. IL, No. 31. 


ance upon his lectures increased in seven years 
from ten to ninety, and that at the time of his 
death twenty students were engaged in difficult 
research in his laboratory? Only those who 
are familiar by experience with the few incen- 
tives among younger students to the study of 
biology: can appreciate what these numbers 
mean. 

We need not attempt to give a full list of 
Balfour’s writings. They began in 1873, his 
twenty-first year, with a few short papers ap- 


pearing over Foster’s name and his own in the — 


Quarterly journal of microscopical science : they 
terminated nine years later, with his fine work 
upon Peripatus, published posthumously in 
the same journal, and of which a full abstract 
will be found farther on. His extensive in- 
termediate works, the Elasmobranch fishes 
and Comparative embryology, are universally 
known. 

From the first he devoted himself to embry- 
ology. While this, as among the youngest of 
the biological sciences, admits of rapid work, 
it is far from admitting rapid generalization. 


No other branch of morphology requires more 
the very materials one has to 


painstaking ; 
study ave minute and indefinite ; and two minds 
will often place different constructions upon 
the same specimen.” 
tunity for scientific guesswork, with the feeling 
of security that disproval will be difficult. 
Balfour understood the real value of guessing 
at truth, but he always made it very clear to 
the reader when he was so doing; his hy- 
potheses were accompanied by definite state- 
ments, in which the reasons pro and con were 
set forth in all impartiality to each. Herein 
lies a chief charm and merit of his work, its 
brilliant suggestiveness, side by side but 
never in confusion with well-established facts. 
Every chapter contains half a dozen invita- 
tions to other investigators to prove or dis- 
prove certain. provisional statements. 
as is the information contained in his Com- 
parative embryology, Balfour himself appreci- 


ated, that, as far as mere’ facts went, the first — 


volume would be somewhat out of date before 


the second was in press. Not so, however, ; 


Vast - 


There is abundant oppor- — : 


> ee 


» 


, 


. 


modest opinion of his work; 


- of a lifetime. 
_ fold, — first, upon those with whom he came 
in personal contact, especially his scientific as- 
-sociates and students (an influence which can- 


with his masterly discussions of these facts, 


which are found on every page, and the value 
of which, to embryologists, cannot be estimated. 
Moreover, to his authorship is largely due the 
rapidly spreading interest in embryology in 
England and America, —a branch of science, 
it will be remembered, which had previously 
been mostly in German hands. 

One frequently heard from him his own very 
this was not at 
all inconsistent with striking independence 
and originality of thought, and adherence to his 
convictions. His modesty added more to the 
recognition of his genius than any assertions of 
his own could have done. Many were press- 
ing forward to assert his claims, and honors 
were fast showered upon him in England and 
abroad. He was admired and beloved by all 
who knew him. In scientific discussion he 


-had the rare quality, which Richard Cobden 


is said to have possessed, of remaining on 
the pleasantest personal terms with his oppo- 
nents. 

His energy in all matters was great, and his 
power of writing was unusually rapid ; but, ad- 
vised by kind friends, he rarely overtaxed his 
strength, which was limited. He spent most 
of his evenings with his friends, throwing off 
from his mind the labors of the day, and talk- 
ing vivaciously upon the topics of the times. 


When the first volume of Comparative embry- 


ology was being written, he generally worked 
but five hours daily, giving much time to 
physical exercise, bicycling, or tennjs, into 


which he entered with all the enthusiasm of 


his nature. He was courageous, but not reck- 
less; and nothing in his previous life would 


lead us to suppose that the mountain climb 


which proved fatal was undertaken in a fool- 
hardy spirit. 

Balfour in a few years accomplished the work 
His influence was and is two- 


_ not fail to endure, well expressed by Professor 
® Kitchen Parker: ‘‘ I feel that his presence is 


still with me; I cannot lose the sense of his 


SCIENCE. 


7." tr eee 


presence’’) ; and, secondly, the influence of 
his scientific work, which for genius, breadth, 
May the 
splendid memorial which has been raised for 
him perpetuate his noble example as a teacher 
and man of science ! Henry F. 


and truth, can never be surpassed. 


OSBORN. 


THE INTELLIGENCE OF BIRDS. 


HavinG met with many instances wherein 
birds have shown considerable ingenuity in 
overcoming the ill results of accidents to their 
nests, such as often arise during violent storms, 
it occurred to me, at the outset of the bird- 
nesting season of the present year, to endeavor 
to test their intellectual powers generally, by 
a series of simple experiments, hoping there- 
by to be able to determine to what extent 
birds exercise their reasoning faculties. 

My experiments, and the inferences I drew, 
are as follows : — 

Noting the material being gathered for the 
nest, partially constructed, ofa chipping-spar- 
row (Spizella socialis), I placed a small quan- 
tity of the same in a conspicuous position near 
the nest. It was seen by the sparrows, and 
examined, but none was removed. I placed 
a portion of it upon the margin of the unfin- 
ished nest: it was promptly removed by the 
male bird, who used only such materials as 
were brought to him by his mate. The follow- 
ing day the task of lining the nest with hair was 
commenced. I placed a quantity of this mate- 
rial on a branch near by, but it was passed 
unnoticed. I next placed a few hairs on the 
margin of the nest: they were promptly re- 
moved. On replacing many of these in the 
nest, the entire lining was thrown out. I re- 
placed it, and the nest was abandoned. 

A week later, finding another nest with 
three eggs, I added a few white cat-hairs to 
the lining: these were removed. Others of 
dark colors were added: they, also, were re- 
moved. I replaced both dark and white hairs : 
the eg@s were broken, and the nest abandoned. 

Four eggs found in a third nest were re- 
moved without touching the nest, a wooden 
spoon whittled for the purpose being used. In 
three days the female commenced layi ing again : 
four days later three eggs had been laid. Re- 
placed the four I had removed: they were 
promptly thrown from the nest. I then re- 
moved the nest, and, substituting another, 
carefully replaced the eggs without handling 
them. After what appeared to be a serious 
consultation, the new nest was accepted. 


301. 


te oe ee 


302 


These birds suffered no further annoyance, and 
reared their brood without mishap. 

Why should not these have utilized the ma- 
terial for their nest which I offered, rather 
than gather similar stuff from distant points? 
They could not have been frightened by any 
odor attached to the material through han- 
dling, as I was careful not to touch a particle 
of it, using a pair of wooden tweezers in every 
ease. Neither did they see me carrying any 
thing to or from their nests. As these, in 
all cases, were nearly or quite completed, the 
birds had necessarily become thoroughly fa- 
miliar with the surroundings, and doubtless 
recognized the fact that these offered twigs 
and the hair had suddenly appeared in, to 
them, some unexplained manner, and the 
mystery surrounding it made them suspicious. 
Suspicion, I suggest, is a complicated mental 
effort. Again: the sparrows were sorely per- 
plexed when a nest not of their building, but 
of the same character, was substituted for 
their own. Here, these birds exhibited fear ; 
but finally the maternal instinct overcame the 
timidity of the female, and she resolved to 
brave the danger or solve the mystery, and 
cared for her eggs as usual. The male bird 
kept aloof for several days, I think; but of 
this I am not positive. These sparrows were 
moved by conflicting emotions, — evidence, I 
think, of an advanced degree of intelligence. 

Another series of experiments were as fol- 
lows: finding a nest of the summer warbler 
(Dendroeca aestiva) in a low alder, the foliage 
of which was about one-third grown, I girdled 
the supporting growths a few inches below the 
nest. The leaf-buds withered, and the nest, 
which under ordinary circumstances would have 
been quite concealed from view by the full- 
grown leaves, was now exposed. The nest 
was abandoned. : 

The next girdling experiment was made on 
the nest of a white-eyed vireo (Vireo nove- 
boracencis) found attached to a low limb of a 
small beech. The leaves quickly shrivelled, 
and the nest, although just finished, was aban- 
doned. 

A second experiment of the same sort was 
tried, with identical result. 

A nest of the summer warbler was found in 
a low shrub, containing young birds, and the 
supporting branches girdled. The leaves with- 
ered and fell, exposing the nest to full view. 
The parent birds remained, and successfully 
reared their brood. 

In these cases we have evidence of mental 
operations of a more complicated character 
than any exhibited by the sparrows. It is evi- 


SCIENCE. 


dent, that in every case, these birds, in selecting 
the position for their nests, knew that the growth 
of the foliage would afford a desirable, if not 
necessary, protection to them. Finding that 
the growth of the foliage had been checked, 
that the little shelter at first afforded was daily 
growing less, they foresaw that the nests, under 
these circumstances, would be too much ex- 
posed to be safe from molestation, and they 
were abandoned, even after a full complement 
of eggs had been laid. Can we explain this by 
any other means than by using that yery sug- 
gestive term ‘foresight’? But mark: when 
the same circumstance occurred after the 
young had appeared, the claims of the brood 


upon the parents were too strong to be over- 


come, and the danger of occupying an exposed 
nest was readily braved. 

Experiments of another character were as 
follows: I placed a series of short pieces of 
woollen yarn, fastened together at one end, 
near the tree containing a partially constructed 
nest of a Baltimore oriole (Icterus Baltimore) . 
These yarns were red, yellow, purple, green, 
and gray. An equal number of strands of 
each color were thus offered to the orioles as 
building-materials. I purposely placed the red 
and yellow strands on the outside of the tas- 
sel-shaped mass, so that these would be first 
taken, if the color was not objectionable. To 
my complete surprise, the gray strands only 


were taken, until the nest was nearly finished, 


when afew of the purple and blue yarns were 
used. Nota red, yellow, or green strand was 
disturbed. Here we have an instance of the 
exercise of choice, on the part of a bird, which 
is full of interest. The woollen threads being 
otherwise identical, it was the color only that 
influenced the choice of the birds: they real- 
ized that the red or yellow yarns would render 
the nest conspicuous, although well protected 
by the foliage of the branch to which it was 
attached. Why the green threads were not 
taken I cannot imagine. As a result of this 
experiment, I anticipated that the orioles 
would reserve the brightly colored yarns for 
the lining of the nest, and the gray and green 
for the exterior. This was a result obtained 
two years ago, when I tried a similar experi- 
ment; but the use of red yarn as a lining may 
have been merely accidental. 

Out of mere curiosity, for I could not an- 


[Vou. II., No. 31. 


ticipate what might be the result, I made a few Ky 


transfers of the eggs of one species into the 
nest of another bird. ‘The results were not, 
however, particularly suggestive. I placed 
the eggs of a cat-bird (Mimus carolinensis) in 
the nest of a song-thrush (Turdus mustelinus) , 


and vice versa. 


SEPTEMBER 7, 1883. ] 


The eggs of the former are 
dark green; of the latter, light blue. No act 
indicative of recognition of the change was 
observed. I placed eggs of the song-sparrow 
(Melospiza melodia) in the nest of a pee-wee 
(Sayornis fuscus), and vice versa. ‘The fly- 
catchers rejected the eggs of the sparrow ; but 
the latter accepted the situation, although dis- 
turbed by it. Many other changes were made, 
with similar results ; and I coneluded, that, un- 
less the eggs were greatly different in size and 
color, about one-half would be accepted ; but, 
when a single egg was placed in the nest of 
another bird, it was destroyed in nearly every 
ease. This I found to be true, even when I 
tested such birds as are subjected to the annoy- 
ance of the cowpen bird’s egg being deposited 
in their nests. I was surprised at this result, 
and am led to believe that large numbers of 
the eggs of this bird are destroyed. It is well 
known that our summer warbler frequently out- 
wits the cowpen bird by building a new nest 
directly above the old, —a two-story nest, in 
fact, —and leaves the egg that has been left to 
her care to rot in the basement, while she 
rears her young on the floor above. It will be 
seen that from these experiments no very posi- 
tive results were obtained. I did note, how- 
ever, that, where the change was accepted, it 
was not because it passed. uinoticed, but was 


_ submitted to, notwithstanding the evidences of 


much misgiving on the part of the birds. In 
one case, the nest was practically deserted for 
twenty-four hours, and the eggs were chilled 
in consequence. The birds sat upon them for 
five days, when, as they did not hatch, the 
nest was abandoned. In previous years I 
have made these changes occasionally with 
success, but was not able to determine that 
the young were recognized as not the offspring 
of the parent birds. In such cases the young 
were tended with the usual care up to the time 
for leaving the nest. This may possibly be 
indicative of stupidity. It appeared so to me 
at the time ; but I am now disposed to see in it 
an indication that the maternal instincts here, 
as in other cases I have mentioned, overcame 
all other feelings, and that the fact was accepted 
by the birds with as good grace as they could 
command. 

The co-operation of birds, when construct- 
ing their nests, is a subject that demands a 
good deal of close attention, and is one surely 
worthy of more systematic observation than 
has as yet been given it. The many ways 
in which birds assist each other in nest-build- 
ing offer, perhaps, the clearest evidence that 
they have a very intelligent notion of what 


SCIENCE. 


303 


they are doing, or propose to do. I feel war- 
ranted at the outset in making the somewhat 
startling assertion, that the choice of location 
for a nest is made only after protracted joint 
examination of suitable sites, and is the choice 
of both birds. I doubt if it ever happens 
that one of a pair of birds ‘ gives in’ to its 
mate. Certainly such a thing as madame 
giving up to her lord is unknown in the bird- 
world. My impression is, that the female 
birds of every species are exacting, obstinate, 
and tyrannical. I have seen marked instances 
of this among house-wrens, pee-wees, and 
even known a cooing turtle-dove to exhibit 
unmistakable evidences of a quick temper. 
These may seem to be trivial matters, and not 
within the range of the scientific study of 
animal intelligence ; but it is an error to look 
upon such proofs of individuality in this light : 
they are among the most convincing evidences 
of a high degree of intelligence. If a hun- 
dred or more nests of the same species of 
birds are carefully compared, it will be found 
that there is a considerable range of variation 
in their construction, and a varying degree of 
merit in the skill shown by the builders. Is 
not this evidence of different degrees of mental 
strength occurring among birds of the same 
species ? 

But to return to the subject of co-operation 
in nest-building. I have found, that where 
very long, fibrous materials are used, as in the 
case of the globular nests of the marsh-wrens, 
the birds work together in weaving the long 
grasses that form the exterior. I have seen 
one of these birds adjusting one end of a 
long blade of rush-grass, while its mate held 
the other end, until the former had completed 
its task to its satisfaction. It was evident that 
the weight. of the ribbon-like growth that the 
bird was using, quite a metre in length, was 
too heavy to be moved to and fro, and at the 
same time prevented from slipping from the 
unfinished nest. Only by assistance could 
such materials be utilized, and only by intel- 
ligent joint labor could these little birds build 
such large and complete globular nests. Many 
birds, too, have been known to jointly carry 
away a long string or piece of muslin too 
heavy or cumbersome for either one to move. 
Again: materials are often brought by one of 
a pair of birds to a nest which thé other con- 
siders unsuitable, and fierce quarrels often 
arise from this circumstance. In such cases 
we have instances of a difference of opinion 
among birds, which is a marked indication 
of mental activity. 

Cuartes C. Asporr, M.D, 


304 


THE IGLOO OF THE INNUIT.1—IV. 


Tue interior of an igloo can be best under- 
stood by reference to the diagrams. ‘The one, 
fig. 1, is a vertical section through the en- 
trance; and the other, fig. 2, a ground-plan. 
Directly opposite the entrance is raised a plat- 
form of solid snow, eighteen inches to two feet 


SSNS 
SSNS 


SS 


SCIENCE. 


\ Ee 


[Vou. II., No. 31. 


very small: but in compensation their igloos 
are the warmest and most comfortable in the 
whole arctic region. These Netschilluks (in 
and around King William’s Land) nearly al- 
ways have to jump out in front of their beds to 
get standing-room to dress in, although all 
Innuits are adepts in the art of putting on the 
most intricate clothing in the smallest space 
conceivable. 

The Kinnepetoo In- 
nuits (around Chester- 
field Inlet, especially 
north of it) use few or 
no lamps to warm their 
snow-huts, and, despite 


\\ inv) \j a5 \ ie the high beds and low 
BRK CK Wy\ TS. S Rey roofs, they are cold, 
[ Nai. N Kr cheerless, and uncom- 

AXICRCRREREXRKE CTS SSS fortable beyond measure. 
Fie. 1. These Innuits are es- 


in height, which takes up about two-thirds of 
the floor; and on this are spread the reindeer- 
skins which make the bed. Sometimes, if the 
party be large and but one igloo built, there are 
two of these snow-beds, separated by a narrow 
aisle running from the entrance; the persons 
then sleeping at right angles to the positions 
shown in the illustration. But such large igloos 
are rare, unless of a permanent or 
semi-permanent character. On an 
extension of the platform forward, 
on the woman’s side, is placed the 
stone lamp; and here the food is 
cooked, and the native skin clothes 
are dried. The height of this plat- 
form or snow-bed is nearly always 
above the top of the low door; for 
the Innuits are instinctively masters 
of the simple laws of pneumatics, 
and try to keep the snow-bed as 
high as possible to reach the upper 
or warmer strata of air, especially to 
keep higher than the cold air, which 
can come in through the open door. 
The height varies with the perma- 
neney of the abode, the tempera- 
ture, and with’the tribe. If very 
cold, or if intending to occupy the 
igloo for some time, the beds are 
made higher than they would be otherwise. 
The Netschilluks and Kinnepetoo always make 
much higher beds than the Iwilliks or Iglooliks. 
There is also much variation in the flatness of 
the dome ; those of the former tribes, especially 
the Netschilluks, being very flat. This, with 
their high beds, makes the space between them 


1 Continued from No. 30. 


sentially reindeer killers 
and eaters, and lay in an insignificant stock of 
seal-oil to burn in their lamps. Walrus-kill- 
ing is unknown to them. For light they use 
a piece of rendered reindeer suet, laid beside 
a piece of lighted moss, all being on a large flat 
stone. The light of the stone lamp in all 
igloos where it js used is sufficient for all pur- 
poses of sewing and repairing. It is certainly 


equal to the light from three or four kerosene- 
lamps, and, with the white snow-walls, gives 
ample illumination. 

The Oo-quee-sik Salik Innuits (around the 
mouth of Back’s River), who are salmon-eaters, 
are another tribe that dispense with warming 
the snow-houses for want-of oil; and this with 


their very poor stock of clothing, they being 


~ 


SEPTEMBER 7, 1883.] 


almost constantly in rags, makes them a most 
forlorn, uncomfortable-looking, and dejected 
lot of human beings. ‘The powers of these two 
tribes to withstand the cold seem almost phe- 
nomenal. : 

The flatness of the domes, however, is not 
wholly a tribal peculiarity, but is also a func- 
tion of the season of the year. In the winter- 
time, when the snow is hard and compact, 
the roof can be made much flatter than in 
the spring, when the warm, sunny days bring 
on a thaw, and threaten to tumble it in. At 
such times it is made very peaked, to gain 
strength for its weakest points, the inclining 
blocks. 

The Iwilliks and Iglooliks (among the estu- 
aries of North Hudson’s Bay) have ample 
supplies of whale, seal, and walrus oil, and, 
despite their higher roofs, have very comfort- 
able houses in the way of warmth, while they 
exceed all others in roominess, and ease and 
comfort in dressing and undressing. 

The heated air, of course, rises to the top; 
and, should it grow too warm inside, this heat 
soon cuts its way through the joints of the top 
blocks, and enough fresh air enters to quickly 
reduce the temperature below freezing again, 
especially if it be very cold on the outside. 
Sometimes this ascending heat makes so much 
impression on the edges of the top blocks that 
they commence to thaw and drip in an annoy- 
ing manner. This is always remedied by tak- 
ing a handful or a small block of snow from 
the floor, where the temperature is very low, 
and applying it to the dripping spot, where it 
freezes immediately, and, like a sponge, ab- 
sorbs the drippings. These little pests have to 
be watched closely, however : for when they are 
saturated with water, and thawed from their 
frozen fastenings, they will come down like a 
slushy ball of lead; and it seems as if they 
would defy all the laws of gravity to get down 


a person’s-back, or hit a sleeper in the face. 


I orice had a large one fall in a pint cup full of 
hot reindeer-soup just as I had it near my nose, 
blowing it to hurry up the meal and get away 


_ froma delayed camp. 


Small store-igloos are built outside to hold 
the bulky material, and often connect with the 
main igloo or its entrance, if their contents are 
needed from time to time. 

Where several families, generally related, 
build a family igloo, it is done by making a 
large central one, without bed-platforms or 
other impediments to roominess; and around 
this are built the smaller family igloos, — two, 
three, or even a half-dozen, — connecting with 
the central one by high groined arches that 


SCIENCE. 


305 


will generally allow of passing from one to the 
other without stooping ; and conversation can 
be readily carried on between them, these 
smaller igloos being more like radiating al- 
coves than separate structures. Then the 
entrance to the main part is made very long 
(fifteen or twenty feet), and its outer end is 
changed from time to time to face away from 
the wind, if it be at all strong. The usual en- 
trance is.so low that one always has to enter 
on his hands and knees; but in these family 
igloos the greater part one can accomplish by 
stooping considerably. There is always a 
crowd of hungry dogs ready to take advantage 
of a person’s entering to crowd in close behind, 
so as to steal a stray piece of blubber from the 
lamp-platform or floor. At all other times 
two or three of their heads can be seen closing 
the entrance, waiting a good opportunity for a 
dash. The matron of the house, sitting a /a 
Ture on the edge of the bed, keeps a good 
stout club convenient, and whacks them over the 
nose whenever they make an unusually impu- 
dent intrusion. At night-times, and during 
cold, windy weather, the more belligerent of 
these camels of the cold monopolize the en- 
trance for sleeping-apartments ; but they gen- 
erally manage to get into some sort of fight, 
breaking in the door, and the master then arises 
and vacates these canine compartments with 
the butt-end of a whip or a sledge-slat, and they 
remain quiet for the rest of the night. 

The temperature inside ranges from freezing 
(above which, of course, it cannot ascend) to 
about ten to twenty degrees below. Late in 
the winter, when all have inured themselves to 
the cold, the same tribe will keep their houses 
much colder with the same apparent comfort. 
At these temperatures one feels very warm 
after coming in from the outside. The outer 
clothes are taken off, and even baths are in- 
dulged in; the little children, stark naked, 
playing on the reindeer-skins of the bed with 
the little puppies and toy harness. Those 
tribes that do not use oil-lamps are, of course, 
much colder in their houses, having only the 
warmth of the body and a few lights, with 
occasionally some cooking from the lamps; 
yet I do not think it ever gets below zero. 
Even in these igloos I have known a Kinne- 
petoo to take a reindeer-skin that had been 
soaked to rid it of hair, and that Was appar- 
ently frozen as solid as boiler plate iron, and, 
putting it under his coat against the bare skin, 
hold it there not only until it was thawed out, 
but also until it was dry, and fit to be used for 
a drumhead for their superstitious rites. Jug- 
gernaut could show no greater devotees among 


306 


his followers. Such are the iron Innuits of 
the unwarmed igloos of the Arctic. 

A recently constructed igloo is more comfort- 
able than one long used, the alternating heat 
and cold of the day and night soon converting 
the latter into a translucent mass of ice, that 
becomes uncomfortably chilly on a cold night ; 
besides, the steam from the cooking and the 
moisture from the breath congeal upon the 
roof, and, in the course of ten or twelve days, 
become so thick as to form a base for a 
constant liliputian snow-storm, which is disa- 
greeable beyond measure. One of the most 
conspicuous comforts of arctic travelling is the 
constant changing of igloos. 


(To be continued.) 


BALFOUR’S LAST RESEARCHES ON 
PERIPATUS. } 

AT the time of his death, the late lamented Prof. 
F. M. Balfour was engaged upon an investigation of 
the anatomy and development of Peripatus, the low- 
est known form of Tracheata (insects). Unfortu- 
nately, he left his work far from complete; but two 
friends, Mr. Sedgwick and Professor Moseley, both 
thoroughly competent, have undertaken and com- 
pleted the grateful task of editing what could be 
gathered from Balfour’s material. We have, how- 
ever, hardly more than a descriptive account of the 
.anatomy and development of the animal. We miss 
the fruitful thought with which Balfour enriched his 
writings before committing them to the press. - 

The article is published in the April number of the 
Quarterly journal of microscopical science, and is ac- 
companied by numerous beautiful plates. A portion 
of these were drawn by. Miss Balfour. Their excel- 
lence graces this quiet expression of a sister’s close 
relation to a gifted brother. 

Balfour's investigations were directed especially 
upon Peripatus capensis. The memoir opens with 
a careful description of the external characters of the 
species. The account of the legs is the first satisfac- 
tory one published. The number of legs is variable, 
but usually there are seventeen pairs. Each leg has 
the form of a cone, with a pair of claws at the apex: 
it bears a succession of rings of papillae, but towards 
the tip the papillae in part fuse together to form three 
ventrally placed pads. The foot is distinct, being 
separated by a constriction from the upper part of 
the limb, and has several pads upon its ventral sur- 
face, and bears the two conical recurved claws. 
the middle of the ventral line of junction of the leg 
with the body lies the opening of the segmental or- 
gans. The disposition of this opening on the fourth 
and fifth legs is slightly different. The last leg has 
a papilla with a slit-like gland opening at its apex. 
The gland itself is large, and runs far forward, and is 
probably a modified crural gland. 

Part IT. is a monograph of the internal anatomy. 
In the alimentary canal, a nearly straight tube slightly 


SCIENCE. 


On 


‘- ee al 


[Vou. IL., No. 31. 


longer than the body, five parts may be distinguished, 
1. The buccal cavity. Its opening is surrounded by 
a tumid lip, covered by a soft skin raised into papilli- 
form ridges. Attached to the median dorsal wall of the 
cavity is a muscular protuberance (tongue), covered 
by the oral epithelium, and furnished with organs of 
special sense, like those in the skin, and with chitinous 
teeth. On each side of the tongue is placed the jaw, 
with recurved chitinous teeth. The jaws are, no 
doubt, modified limbs: their structure and action are 
miuutely described. The salivary glands open into the 
buccal cavity by a short common duct, are variable in 
length, but stretch usually two-thirds the length of 
the body. They consist of two parts: the first runs 
backward as a wide, straight tube; the second runs 


forward and upward, is small in diameter, and ap- — 


parently branching in the figures, though the fact is 
not mentioned in the text. The anterior end of the 
first part serves as a duct, and is lined by a eubical- 


celled epithelium; while’the rest of the same part is 


© \ 
i i : \ 
i : ! ; 


irp sal v1) i 


Fre. 1. Horizontal section through the head: trp, tracheal pit; 
sal, salivary gland; J/, mouth; sd, common salivary duct; 
J, jaw; oj, outer jaw, or muscular portion; between the two 
jaws lies the section of the tongue. 


sd J sal oj 


glandular, and lined by very elongated epithelial cells 
with their nuclei at their bases. 2. The pharynx is 
a highly muscular tube, with a triangular lumen, 
which extends from the mouth to about half way be- 
tween the first and second pair of legs. (It appears 
to me that the author is in error when he statgs that 
such a structure is not characteristic of insects.) 3. 
The oesophagus, on the dorsal wall of which occurs 
the junction of the two sympathetic nerves. 
stomach, by far the largest part of the alim@ntary 
tract, has its walls irregularly, not segmentally, folded. 
The walls themselves are composed principally by the 
internal epithelium, the cells of which are elongated, 
fibre-like, with their nuclei about one-fourth of the 
way from the base; and around their bases are short 
cells irregularly scattered, and having round nuclei. 
5. The short rectum is chiefly remarkable because the 
circular muscular layer is outside the internal layer 
formed of isolated longitudinal bands. rt 


The nervous system is particularly interesting; for — 


it consists of two ventral cords united by numerous 
transverse bands, and having an enlargement corre- 


4. The 


7 
.. 
a 


_ sponding to each leg. 
_ above the oesophagus, to form the cephalic ganglia, 


The cords are united in front, 


and are also united behind over the anus. The 
arrangement of the commissure and nerves of the ven- 
tral cords is minutely described. The supra-oesopha- 
geal ganglia give origin to the immense antennary 
_ herves, and a few small epidermal nerves; laterally, 
one-third of the way back, the optic nerves, and two 
pairs of smaller nerves near the optic; still farther 
__ back, a large median nerve from the dorsal surface; 


5 


ee eee 


~ac 


a . 

_ Fig. 2. General anatomy; the digestive tract is supposed to be 

excised; the nervous system is represented in black: ant, 

antenna; op, oral papilla; br, brain; sad, salivary gland; pA, 
harynx; oes, oesophagus; com, conmmissures; #1, #2, F 17, 
vet; mo 4, 806,8017, segmental organs; ag, accessory gland; 

+g, genital opening; an, anus; ac, anal commissure, 


ale nM als 


from the ventral surface, the sympathetic nerves, 
which follow the grooves of the pharynx, and unite 
upon the dorsal wall of the oesophagus. The gan- 
glion-cells are confined, for the most part, to the sur- 
_ face in the supra-oesophageal ganglia, and to the 
_ ventral layer in the longitudinal cords. On the under 
_ side of each lobe of the brain is a conical protuberance 
; of ganglion-cells, which Grube regards as an organ of 
hearing; but Balfour questions that interpretation. 

The skin resembles that of other insects, The cuti- 
cle is thin, and forms a separate conical cap over each 


ef”. 


SCIENCE. 


cell. 


are organs of special 
sense, which I think 
resemble the olfactory 
organs of insects; but 
Balfour regards them 
as tactile. Each is a 
broad, conical, cutic- 
ular spine supported 
by large specialized 
sensory cells. 

The tracheae arise 
from openings be- 
tween the ridges of 
the skin, Each aper- 
ture leads into a pit 
formed by the invagi- 
nated skin; and from 
the bottom thereof 
springs a bunch of 
fine tracheal tubes, 
which display large 
adherent nuclei on 
their walls, and trans- 
verse lines indicating 
the presence of a spi- 
ral fibre. The open- 
ings form two rows 
(subdorsal) on the 
back, and two rows 


307 


The surface of the cuticle is dotted over with 
minute spinous tubercles. 


Scattered over the skin 


I a uuulf SEY sag 


Fig. 8. Anterior portion of nervous 
system: ‘ant, antennal nerve; oc, 
eye; d, ventral appendages; co 7, 
first commissure; J n, nerves of 
the jaw; sy, sympathetic nerves; 
pe, posterior lobe of brain; orn, 
nerves of the oral papillae; org, 
ganglion of oral nerves; en, lat- 
eral nerves of ventral chords; pn, 
pedal nerves; sg I, enlargement 
corresponding to pedal nerves; 
co, commissure. 


on either side of the 
median ventral line; they are also found on the feet, 
around the bases of the feet, and on the head. 

The muscles of the jaws are alone striated: all 
others are unstriated. ‘The muscles of the body form 
an external double layer of circular fibres, an inner 
Jayer of longitudinal muscles forming five bands (une 


. Pp . 
Fie. 4. Section of tracheal orifice: 0, external orifice; p, pit; 
tracheae; n, tracheal nuclei. 


being median and ventral), and vertical septa of trans- 
verse fibres (one septum on each side of the alimen- 
tary canal): so that the body-cavity is divided into 
three regions, — a median, containing the alimentary 
tract, slime-glands, ete.; aud two lateral, containing 


308 


the nervous system, salivary glands, segmental or- 
gans, etc. 

The vascular system is imperfectly known. Bal- 
four describes a dorsal tube without apparent muscu- 
lar walls as the probable representative of the heart, 
and mentions a less distinct ventral vessel. (Cf. note.) 

The segmental organs, which were first recognized 
by Balfour,! conform to the structures designated by 
the same name in annelids. 
vesicular portion opening to the exterior; 2°.,a coiled 
portion, which is again subdivided into several sec- 
tions; 3°. a terminal section ending by a somewhat en- 
larged opening into the lateral compartment of the 
body-cavity. The first two pairs, corresponding to the 
fourth and fifth legs, differ somewhat from the rest, 
which are all similarly constructed. They are lined 


by an epithelium, which varies in character in the ° 


different parts of the organs: in the first portion, the 
cells are large, flattened, and have large protuberant 
nuclei; the second portion has a columnar epithelium 
in its outer part, in which, further, two regious may 


dos * 


Fie. 5. Part of segmental organ: os, external opening of the 
segmental organ; d, terminal portion of duct; v, vesicle; sc, 
1, 2, 3, 4, successive portions of segmental canal: p//, inter- 
nal opening; s ot, terminal portion. 


be distinguished histologically; a third region within 
this outer part has large, flat, granular cells, with 


disk-like nucleolated nuclei; while a fourth region,’ 


the innermost of the middle portion again, has a lin- 
ing of small columnar cells. The inner portion has 
a thick columnar epithelium crowded with oval nuclei, 
and opens with reflected lips into the body-cavity. 
The generative oryans are briefly described by the 
editors, who do not, however, deal with their histology. 
The male organs consist of a pair of testes, a pair of 
prostates, and vasa deferentia and accessory glandular 
tubules. The female organs consist of a median un- 
paired ovary and a pair of oviducts, which are dilated 
for a great part of their course to perform a uterine 
function, and which open behind into a common ves- 
tibule communicating directly with the exterior. In 
all the legs except the first there are glandular bodies. 
The large accessory gland opening in the last leg of 
the’ male is probably a modification of one of the 
series for which the name ‘crural glands’ is proposed: 
Part III., also entirely written by the editors, treats 


1 Balfour: Quart. journ. microsc. sc., xix. 1879. 


( 


SCIENCE. 


They consist of: 19°. a. 


Lf om er a ee Ae a at's 


[Vou. II., No. 31. 


of the development. This contains illustrations, 
serving to accompany the notice published in the 
Royal society’s proceedings (SctmNcE, i. 453); certain 
requisite explanations are added; then follow deserip- 
tions and figures of older 
embryos than had been pre- 
viously described by Bal- 
four. Special attention is 
called to the following more 
important facts: — 

‘‘1, The greater part of 
the mesoblast is developed 
from the walls of the ar- 
chenteron. 

“2. The embryonic 
mouth and anus are derived 
from the respective ends of 
the original blastopore, the 
middle part of the blasto- 
pore closing up. 

“3. The embryonic 
mouth almost certainly be- 
comes the adult mouth; 
i.e., the aperture leading 
from the buccal cavity into 
the pharynx, the two being 
in the same position. The 
embryonic anus is in front 
of the position of the adult 
anus, but in all probability shifts back, and persists 
as the adult anus. } 

‘4, The anterior pair of mesoblastic somites give 
rise to the swellings of the pre-oral lobes and to the 
mesoblast of the head.! 

‘There is no need for us to enlarge upon the impor- 
tance of these facts. Their close bearing upon some 


Fie. 6. Embryo, ‘stage C,’ 
with five somites: a, anal 
(?) end. The lips of the 
blastopore haye united in 
the middle. 


Fi. 7. Section through the open blastopore of the embryo drawn 
in fig. 6: Ud, blastopore; mes, mesoderm; ec, ectoderm; ent, 
entoderm. l 


of the most important problems of morphology will 
be apparent to all.’’ 

The paper terminates with a few appropriate and 
telling quotations from Balfour’s ‘Comparative em- 
bryology.? The memoir displays the best qualities 


1 «We have seen nothing in any of our sections which we can 
identify as of so-called mesenchymatous origin.” 


7 


‘ 


- 


' 


ne 


SEPTEMBER 7, 1883.] 


of Balfour’s work, and can only enhance the respect 
which all biologists feel for him. 

[LNoTE. —Since writing this notice, I have learned 
of the paper since published by Gaffron upon Peri- 
patus (Schneider’s Zoologische beitriige, i. 33). The 
original I have not seen, but only a notice in the 
Biologisches centralblatt, iii. 319. From the latter it 
appears that Gatfron has independently observed 
many of the facts discovered by Balfour, and in some 
respects has added to them. The following is the ab- 
stract of his description of the heart. ‘As in the 
tracheate arthropods, it lies in a special pericardial 
sinus, completely embedded in a cellular mass, most 
developed laterally. Its walls are perforated by fis- 
sures, corresponding tothe body-segments, and which 
must be sought in the upper half of the tube. Along 
the dorsal median line runs a round cord, which is 
held (probably wrongly) to be anerve. The pericar- 
dial sinus and the body-cavity communicate through 
numerous oval openings in the septum.’’| 

CHARLES SEDG@WICK MINOT. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


Prairie warbler in New Hampshire. 


Several seasons ago the prairie warbler (Den- 
droeca discolor Bd.), was found nesting at Northfield 
in New Hampshire, in June I believe, though I can- 
not give the exact date. Two of the nests, however, 
and an egg, are preserved, and place the identity be- 
yond question. 

The locality was a high, bush-grown pasture in the 
vicinity of a town; and tbe nests were pitched about 
head-high from the ground, in the crotch of a thorn- 
bush. ‘The birds made no demonstrations at the ap- 
proach to their haunts, but retired noiselessly, seeking 
to screen themselves from view. One nest contained 
three eggs, a second four. They are substantially the 
same, finely and firmly wrought, cup-shaped struc- 
tures, with a well-turned rim. In the latter instance, 
the external depth is 24 inches, the internal 1}; outer 
diameter 24, inner 14. The nest is composed essen- 
tially of bark strippings, Andromeda chiefly, fine 

rass, and blasted vegetable fibre intermingled, and 
fined with hairs and the reddish filaments of Poly- 


trichum. The exterior is covered with much cobweb ~ 


silk and some soft compositaceous substance, which 
serves to compact the whole and secure it in position. 

The egg is pointed at one end, dull white, rather 
finely and sparsely specked with lilae and marble 
markings, aggregating in a circle about the crown, 
measures .68 X .50 inches, resembling occasional speci- 
mens of the chestnut-sided warbler. 

So faras I am aware, there is no previous authentic 
record of this warbler breeding north of Massachu- 
setts in New England. ; F. H. Herrick. 


Kalmia. 


In your issue for Aug. 17, Dr. Abbott doubts if Kal- 
mia grows sufficiently large to be used for making 
spoons. The abundant thickets of Kalmia latifolia, 
beautiful but troublesome, are among the clearest 
recollections of my youth in southern New Hamp- 
shire. This shrub is there familiarly known as 
*spoonhunt;’ and its stems, near the ground, are not 
infrequently three or four inches in diameter. 

Cuas. H, CHANDLER. 
Ripon, Wis., Aug. 23, 1883. 


SCIENCE. 


Letters in a surface film. 


Can any one suggest an explanation of the phe- 
nomenon described below ? 

In a box four feet square, and sunk five feet below 
the surface of the ground, was a water-meter con- 
nected with pipes for supplying a factory. Over the 
face or dial of this meter was a cast-iron cover, on 
the outside of which the maker's name was inscribed 
in raised letters. During the spring thaws, the box 
was half full of surface-water, submerging the top 
of the meter some eight or ten inches. After a time 
a greasy film collected on the water, and in this film 
appeared a counterpart of the raised letters. That 
it was not a reflection or other optical illusion, was 
proved by carefully introducing a shovel under these 
filmy letters, when they were raised and taken out- 
side of the box, being still visible. 

In the course of a few hours, fresh letters would 
appear on the surface, A Po HG 

Boston, Aug. 28, 1883. 


An interesting sun-spot. 


Owing to a misunderstanding, the scale given with 
the sketch of a sun-spot, in the letter from S. P. 
Langley and F. W. Very (Scrence, ii. 266), was 


=e 


. 


" 
Pm 


Si 


s 
= 
ga). 
o 
= te 
soi a 
2 
s +2 
rs] & 
~ 
-3 
he et | 
= Fe 
-R/s 
= 
4 
= 
S be 


printed too large. We reprotiuce the illustration 
showing the spot, with a corrected scale. — Ep, 


A CRITIQUE OF DESIGN ARGUMENTS. 
A critique of design arguments. A historical review 
and free evamination of the methods of reasoning in 
natural theology. By L. E. Hicks, Professor of 
geology in Denison university, Granville, Ohio. 
New York, Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1883. 11 + 

417 p. 8°. 

Tuar men can talk about the most serious 
problems without passion, is certainly shown 
by our author, whose candor and excellent 
aims have already been recognized on all 
hands. For the rest, we must regard the book 
with mixed feelings. When we undertook to 
read it. we did not go forth to see a reed 
shaken by the wind, nor did we find such; we 
did not venture to look for a. prophet, nor did 
we find one: but we were prepared for just a 


310 


little more definiteness of philosophic thought, 
for just a little more acquaintance with the his- 
tory of the subject, and, in general, for just a 
little more strength. But we must not be too 
exacting. This is the work of a student of a 
special science. He comes with suggestions 
that have been a good while in maturing; he 
expresses himself in clear language, with great 
and generally successful effort at fairness ; and 
he shows no small ingenuity. His book will 
do good both to theological and to scientific 
students if they read it. And it can do no 
harm to philosophy. Such discussion is, in 
fact, so timely that one cannot wish that the 
book had been kept any longer out of print; 
but one must wish that the author had begun 
to study the history of thought a good deal 
earlier. Achilles at the trench will always be 
a sublime figure ; but the lack of armor is not 
just that feature in the situation of Achilles 
which it is safest for other, people, at other 
trenches, to imitate. 

The argument from design, says the author, 
is in fact twofold. In one form it is teleo- 
logical. Certain events or things are judged 
to be intended for certain purposes. This 
argument has less signifiance for the men of 
to-day than it had for former generations. 
The advance of science throws it somewhat 
into the shade. But the advance of science 
itself tends to bring into clearer light the other 
design argument. This is the argument from 
the order of nature. Order, it maintains, im- 
plies intelligence, is itself a mark or sign of 
mind. The more order we discover, the more 
intelligence is indicated in the world. This 
does not necessarily mean that we infer intel- 
ligence as the cavse of order; but it means 
that we regard order, however it may actually 
be connected with intelligence, as a mark of 
intelligence. This argument needs a name; 
and Mr. Hicks proposes to call it the eutaxio- 
logical argument, to distinguish it from the 
teleological. 

The teleological argument alone is not satis- 
factory. ‘To prove that any thing implies in- 
telligence as the cause whereby it was adjusted 
to an end, you must know what the end or 
purpose of this thing is. And to do this, you 
must know that there are ends or purposes for 
things at all; but to assume that you know 
this is to beg the question. Teleologically, 
therefore, intelligence as the cause of things 
cannot be proven; but only particular adjust- 
ments, made by an intelligence already known 
to be the cause of things, can be teleologically 
discovered. Teleologically you could at best 
show, that, if there is intelligence in connection 


SCIENCE. 


with the world as a whole, then this intel- 
ligence works for certain special aims. But 
teleologically it would be impossible, without 
aid from some other source, to make certain 
that any mind at all is associated with the 
world as a whole. It is impossible ‘to prove 
the existence of intelligence by means of the 
definite direction given to intelligence,’ because 
the existence of intelligence ‘ must be assumed 
in order to ascertain its direction.’ 

On the other hand, maintains our author, the 
eutaxiological argument escapes the analogous 
objection. Teleology has to assume the exist- 


ence of purpose, in order to use it as a proof - 


of intelligence. But eutaxiology has not to as- 
sume the existence of order. Order is the first 
and Jast word of natural science ; and from first 
to last science continues to deepen the mean- 
ing, and to widen the application, of the word 
‘order.’ The difficulty of the eutaxiologist 
begins not at this point, but later. Are we sure 
that order is asign of intelligence? An orderly 
arrangement of things is a mark of intelligence 
in many cases. ‘‘ Suppose we find smooth 
stones or shells on the beach, arranged at 


_ regular intervals in a straight line, or in three 
straight lines to form a triangle: we should 


say that an intelligent being had done this.’’ 
To be sure, in this case we should suppose 
that some man had done it; but that would 
not affect the matter, for, ‘‘ if we saw such 
figures upon the moon or upon any of the 
planets, we should at once conclude that they 
were inhabited by intelligent beings.’’ Thus 
in these eases, reasons Mr. Hicks, order is 
inductively connected by us with intelligence. 
‘“* We see intelligence producing orderly re- 
sults; and we project the inference thence 
derived over those cases of orderly phenomena 
of which we do not know the cause.’ But 
what is done in special cases of order observed 
in forms or in groupings of objects, ought 
fairly to be done in regard to the whole of 
nature ; and that especially because every case 
of orderly connection that we find, and that 
suggests intelligence, is found not alone, but 
itself in connection with other cases, so that 
we could not finally stop with our examination 
of one case of order before we should know 
its connections with the whole of the rest of 
the universe. ‘The more, then, we know of 
nature, the more orderly and connected does 
it seem, and the more reason we have to apply 
our induction to the world as a whole. 

All this, of course, implies no definite view 
about the way in which intelligence is con- 
nected with the order of the universe. Whether 
it be that arbitrary collocations of matter are 


[Vot. II., No. 31. 


| 
} 
‘ 


SEPTEMBER 7, 1883.] 


the immediate sources of the order, or whether 
the order follows from the fundamental prop- 
erties of matter, the result,is the same. And 
for a like reason eutaxiology has nothing to 
say of divine attributes over and above intel- 
telligence. Eutaxiology does not even by 
itself prove the existence of God. It simply 
proves that intelligence exists in the universe. 
It leayes to other proofs the discussion of 
other divine attributes. Eutaxiology having 
proved intelligence, teleology can then be used 
to prove that this intelligence is somehow 
associated with will and power, and works 
(through evolution or otherwise) for definite 
aims ; and other proofs may be used for other 
purposes. In conclusion, why may not the 
various theistic arguments agree to divide 
labor, and combine the outcome, so that each 
one shall undertake to prove just that divine 
attribute to whose defence it is especially fitted ? 
Thus confusion might be avoided, and the 
cause of natural theology advanced. Mr. 
Hicks even goes so far as to suggest, in a very 
generous outburst (p- 389), that possibly that 
despised creature, the ontological proof, might 
find some kind of mission in the midst of 
his desired association of theistic arguments. 
The ontological proof, having very long. been 
able to say, — 


**T lie so composedly now in my bed, 
That any beholder might fancy me dead,’’— 


must regard the kindness of Mr. Hicks with 
very mixed emotions. He thinks that it might 
be ‘ just the thing to supplement’ the others. 
But during its natural life the ontological proof 
used to think that the others might possibly 
be of use to supplement itself. 

Such, then, is our author’s own line of 
argument. Between the introduction and the 
final exposition of this argument, he inserts a 
discussion of the history of design arguments. 
This is a mere collection of notes, with more 
or less ingenious reflections that suggested 
themselyes to the mind of the collector here 
and there in the course of his work. The 
‘Natural theology of the Greeks and Romans’ 
is treated in some thirty pages, which are 
devoted to Socrates, Cicero, and Galen. 
How, one may ask, would it look for one to 
head a chapter with the title ‘ The astronomy 
of modern times,’ and then to treat the subject 
by briefly expounding some statements of 
Galileo, Lord Brougham, and Dr. Whewell? 
Thirty pages might well be the limit allowed 
by the plan of our author; but such a space is 
not too limited for a really connected historical 
sketch, with some attention to the perspective 


SCIENCE. 


311 


in which every man’s thought ought to be 
viewed. The author’s account of Spinoza is 
similarly imperfect, because no effort has been 
made to see what the man, with his odd, 
crabbed method, really had in mind. We are 
told, what we all knew before, that Spinoza’s 
method is unsuccessful; but, for the rest, we 
learn more in this chapter about Mr. Lewes 
than about Spinoza. ‘ Reimarus, Kant, Hume, 
and Reid’ are somewhat embarrassed to find 
themselves side by side in one chapter; and 
poor Kant especially is made to speak as he did 
in 1763, instead of being allowed to present 
himself as he does in the ‘ Critique of pure 
reason,’ nearly twenty years later. Although 
this erroris in just this discussion not so 
serious as the corresponding error would be in 
expounding other parts of Kant’s doctrine, yet 
the method is unhistorical; and the result is, 
that, in summing up, Mr. Hicks hopelessly 
confuses Kant’s pre-critical and critical periods. 
In short, our author shows himself in general 
no historian of thought. Throughout the 
whole sketch, there is a lack of a sense of the 
development of thought. Each man’s notions 
stand beside his neighbor’s, as if the philoso- 
phers were all speakers in a debating-club. 
And Mr. Hicks, as intelligent listener, adds 
his applause and his comments in brackets, 
and is not afraid to express himself with even 
boyish freedom of speech. But he is always 
good-humored, and his criticisms often hit the 
mark very well. Yet it is to be hoped that 
nobody will undertake to judge the history of 
natural theology on the basis of this account. 
Now as to the result. What shall we say 
of eutaxiology? We have no hesitation in 
declaring the argument, as our author presents 
it, an altogether defective one. For, as he 
presents the eutaxiological argument, it is an 
inductive argument, and solely inductive. If 
we saw a triangular arrangement of objects on 
the moon, we should conclude that some intel- 
ligence had done this. We should extend the 
known association of intelligence and order, 
as we find it about us, to cases_of order more 
remote from our direct observation. We 
should conclude that order is a sign of intel- 
ligence, even where we have no other evidence 
of the presence of intelligence. So reasons 
Mr. Hicks. But is this sound? And, firstyis 
the author’s suggestion about the supposed 
geometrical figure seen on some planet a 
correct one? Should we, if we saw such a 
figure on some planet, at once conclude that 
intelligence had caused it, or was in any way 
associated with it? Surely not everybody 
would feel the foree of such an induction. 


312 


Most scientific astronomers, observing such a 
regular figure for the first time, would at once 
look for some ordinary physical explanation 
of its presence, even as they now try to 
explain the shapes of the planets ; and, failing 
to find such an explanation, they would be 
content to call the triangle a mystery. Only 
some man whose position as a public lecturer 
on astronomy demanded that he should have 
a new sensation ready for each new lecture- 
season would be apt to insist on the existence 
of some set of geometrically disposed plan- 
etary giants. More sober people would he 
content with an ignoramus. But how much 
less satisfactory becomes such an induction 
when applied to the whole of nature! At best 
would not such an argument be like the induc- 
tive reasoning of a man, who, having already 
learned the modern doctrine of the relation of 
the colors of flowers to the habits of insects, 
should for the first time, and without any pre- 
vious knowledge of marine zodlogy, find a 
colored shell by the sea-shore, and who should 
then at once expect to find some race of insects 
in some analogous relation to the inhabitant 
of this sheil? Or, again, if one extended even 
to the rainbow, or to the sunset, an explanation 
derived from the case of colored flowers, and 
their relations to insects, would not the 
argument possibly be no more absurd than the 
induction upon which Mr. Hicks lays so much 
stress? Men and beavers and other creatures 
make orderly groupings of things. Hence 
‘order implies intelligence, and that wherever 
we find order. Is this argument any better 
than the old teleology ?. Mr. Hicks is deceived, 
it would seem, by the vast wealth of facts to 
which his areument appeals. He neglects the 
difficulty of bringing such various facts within 
the control of an induction that has for its 
narrow basis such intelligent activity as we 
see about us among men and animals. As 
induction, pure and simple, eutaxiology seems 
to us simply worthless. 

But is the order argument in any form there- 
fore worthless? Certainly not. Mr. Hicks 
does fine service in bringing before the public, 
just at this moment, a thought that is by no 
means new, and that is profoundly suggestive. 
‘What does the order in the world imply?’ 
Tnis is a great question, not of inductive 
science, which is concerned solely with dis- 
covering the actual order itself, but of general 
philosophy. And Mr. Hicks is, we doubt not 
at all, quite right in saying that order implies 
intelligence. But how, and what intelligence? 
Such questions he leaves wholly unanswered. 
The critical philosophy of Kant would, strictly 


SCIENCE. 


Se a ee 


[Vor. IL, No. 81. 


speaking, affirm that order in the world implies 
only the intelligence of the thinking subject 
to whom the world appears. The world is 
orderly, because only as orderly could it be- 
come known to an intelligent being. Not the 
world in itself, but the world for thinking 
beings, is to be viewed as orderly.: This view 
would make short work of our author’s ‘ in- 
duction,’ but it would not satisfy him. He 
would then need to know and build beyond 
Kant. In short, Mr. Hicks has very ingeniously 
set his reader down at the beginning of a great 
philosophic problem. It would argue a lack 
of intelligence in the reader if he did not seek 
to bring his thoughts into a better order than 
that in which Mr. Hicks will have left them ; 
and the author’s service lies in making it im- 
possible for an inquiring mind to rest content 
with what is here offered to him. This, how- 
ever, at least, he has very well suggested, 
though he has not proved his suggestion : viz., 
that the postulate of natural science is the 
rationality’ of the world. Whether we find 
order, or only seek it in nature, we are always 
a priori sure that the world is actually full 
of connections that admit of expression in 
rational terms, of explanation to an intelligent 
mind. And so we assume a fundamental like- 
ness of nature and intelligence that suggests — 
to us very strongly some kind of real unity 
or identity of nature and intelligence. But 
whether this suggestion has any ground, 
whether this identity of nature and mind is 
to be accepted at all, or is to be accepted in 
Kant’s sense only, or in Berkeley’s sense, or 
in Hegel’s sense, or in some other sense, this 
is a matter for philosophy to discuss. We 
thank Mr. Hicks for having shown afresh the 
necessity for such discussion. His eutaxiol- 
ogy is not so original as he thinks; but his 
offering on the altar of philosophy deserves 
the reward due to every gift that a special 
student of natural science finds time to offer 
in the true spirit of calm investigation. 


MAYNARD’S MANUAL OF TAXIDERMY. 


Manual of taxidermy: a complete guide in collecting 
and preserving birds and mammals. By C. J. 
Maynarp. Boston, S. EB. Cassino § Co., 1883. — 
16+ 111 p., illustr. 12°. 
A REALLY complete guide in collecting and 

preserving the objects named in the title of 

this work, which can safely be relied upon for 
information under all cireumstaneces and in all 
climates, has long been sorely needed by the 
host of amateurs, taxidermists, travellers, and 
even professional naturalists interested in yerte- 


SEPTEMBER 7, 1883.] 


brate zodlogy. Notwithstanding the presence 
of the neat little volume before us, and its prom- 
ising title, a complete guide is still as much a 
desideratum as ever. Like all other books 
which have appeared in English on this subject, 
this volume is small and thin, and, we are com- 
pelled to add, wretchedly illustrated. Of the 
one hundred and one pages of subject-matter, 
sixteen are frittered away in an effort to inform 
the reader where birds of the various families 
from Turdidae to Alcidae are to be found. 
How much better to have devoted this space to 
adequate instructions for mounting dried skins, 
which important branch of the subject is sum- 
_ marily disposed of on a single page, instead 
of to such cheap information as that ‘the 
chimney-swift inhabits chimneys,’ that king- 
fishers are found ‘in the vicinity of streams,’ 
- andthelike. With the exception of the above, 
all the information and advice contained in the 
chapter on collecting is valuable, and bears the 
stamp which experience places upon its work. 
The chapters on ‘ skinning birds’ and ‘ mak- 
_ ing skins’ would be very satisfactory but for 
one thing. While the author strongly con- 
demns dry arsenic as a dangerous poison, and 
. says not a word about arsenical soap, the only 
preservative he recommends as fit for use is 
one compounded only by himself. After extol- 
ling its virtues to the extent of two pages, but 
carefully withholding all information as to its 
composition, he coolly informs the reader 
that its price is ‘twenty-five cents per single 
pound.’ We are told that tannic acid, alum, 
salt, or black pepper (!) may be used to tem- 
porarily preserve skins until the other can be 
procured. The ‘ dermal preservative,’ which, 
strange to say, is not a poison, is recommended, 
or rather exclusively directed, in no fewer than 
- fourteen places throughout the work, for mam- 
mals, birds, reptiles, and fishes, as a non-poi- 
sonous astringent, absorbent, deodorizer, and 
insecticide ; and, if the reader is at all credu- 
lous, he will be led to exclaim, There is but 
one preservative, and C. J. Maynard is its 
maker! If this little book is honestly in- 
tended to meet the wants of amateur collect- 
ors wherever it may find them, and not to 
increase the sale of a nostrum of doubtful 
yalue, nor to advertise the author’s business, 
the author has taken a queer way to show it. 
It will not be surprising if his readers resent 
such unfair treatment. 
-_ While there is much that is practical, valua- 
_ ble, and new in the chapter on mounting birds, 
-and in those detailing the treatment of mam- 
mals, reptiles, and fishes, they are all deplor- 
ably incomplete ; and we vainly regret that the 
el 


x 


SCIENCE. 


313 


author did not go as deeply into the subject, 
and with as good diagrams and illustrations, as 
he might have done. The information given 
is valuable as far as it goes; but there are only 
one-quarter as many facts stated, and direc- 
tions given, as the unskilled operator needs to 
know. 

As an example of the doubtful value of such 
highly condensed instructions, we may take 
those for skinning small mammals. The an- 
thor says, ‘‘ . . . peel down on either side 
[of the body] until the knee-bones are exposed, 
then cut the joint, and draw out the leg, at 
least as far as the heel.’’ Nota word is said 
about skinning the foot, and removing the flesh 
under the metacarpal and metatarsal bones: 
hence we suppose it is left to decompose, which 
it will generally do right speedily, and at the 
expense of the hair and epidermis above. We 
should like to see the author remove and pre- 
pare the skin of any monkey according to his 
own directions. ; 

We are ‘honestly sorry we cannot freely 
recommend this manual —nor any other in 
our language, for that matter —as being well 
calculated to meet the wants of those for whom 
it is intended. An epitome of the subject is 
no longer wanted, but a handbook which shall 
be really complete is needed very much. 


ELEMENTARY TREATISE ON THE 
1 MICROSCOPE. z 


Traité élémentaire du ‘microscope. Par EvuGENE 
Trutar, Conservateur du musée d’histoire natu- 
rellede Toulouse. Paris, Gauthier- Villars, 1883. 
322 p., 165 ill. 

Few are aware of the magnitude to which 
microscopical work has grown. The modern 
methods of research in the physical and bio- 
logical sciences have involved more and more 
an appeal to the microscope. As a result of 
this growth,-we find whole volumes devoted to 
a description of the microscope and its appli- 
cation to the various departments of study. 

Microscopy has been taught in our schools 
only a very few years. This is partly due to 
the fact that formerly the instruments were 
both expensive and imperfect. There was 
also an almost total lack of literature upon» 
the subject. At the present time, ‘however, 
there are plenty of good works on microscopical 
technology, and the microscope as applied to 
the study of medicine in all its branches, in- 
cluding biological research. 

In a work like this before us, it is necessary 
to present a large amount of material of such 
an elementary character that it is of value 


314 


only to the novice. It is decidedly a French 
work, written by a true Frenchman. Neither 
an instrument nor an accessory is mentioned, 
unless either invented or manufactured by a 
Frenchman. The stands of Verick are given 
great prominence, as are also those of Hartnack. 
When we consider how beautiful and useful 
are the instruments of our own country, to 
say nothing of the fine productions of English 
houses, we are forced to call the work ‘ an 
elementary treatise on the French wicro- 
scope.’ For convenience, elegance of design, 
and varied adaptability, the French microscope 
will not compare with those of our own coun- 
try, while we far excel in the superior quality 
of our objectives. 

The microscopist will be much interested in 
reading the chapter on the projection micro- 
scope. Electricity will soon furnish us with 
proper illumination. 


AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 
PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E.—GEOLOGY AND GEOGRAPHY. ‘ 


Reports of committees on geological subjects. 


To the call for a report of the Committee to memo- 
rialize the legislature of New York for a new sur- 
vey of Niagara Falls, Prof. James Hall responded, 
that several surveys had been made, or were in 
progress, in connection with legislation by the State 
of New York for preserving the scenery. These 
would supersede the need of any work of the kind 
by the association. The committee was discharged. 

To the call for a-report of the Committee on state 
geological surveys, Prof. N. H. Winchell responded, 
that the committee had never been called together, 
and there was no probability of its action. 
committee was discharged. 

To the call for a report of the Committee on the 
international congress of geologists, Dr. T. Sterry 
Hunt (by request of the chairman, Professor Hall) 
responded as follows: — 

The committee held a meeting in the month of 
November last. Two important questions came up, 
—of geological nomenclature, and topography. It 
was suggested by Professor Hall, that the only action 
which could be taken in support of the system of 
uniform mapping and colors, and signs and symbols, 
would be to prepare maps of the United States as 
a whole, and perhaps also maps of portions of the 
United States, and to color them by different 
systems; the system adopted being that of Major 
Powell of the U. S. geological survey, and one or 
two others. Major Powell has been good enough 
to say that he would endeavor to prepare such maps, 
and aid in every way the carrying-out of the scheme. 
I have no doubt that the matter will be so well man- 


SCIENCE. 


The?* 


[Vou. II., No. 31. 


More information is given under the head 
of mineralogical research than in any work 
brought to our notice. Among the accessories 
mentioned is the camera lucida of Oberhauser. 

It is a form little used in America, and yet 
itis one of the most convenient and perfect 
of its kind. 

The new pattern of Malassez’s Compte- 
globules, by Verick, is minutely described. 
The results obtained by this instrument promise 
to be very accurate: we have practically tested 
its merits, and can give testimony to its pre- 
cision. The method for photographing from 
the microscope is not so simple as that em- - 
ployed here by the use of dry plates; and, if 
the frontispiece be taken as a sample, itis not 
more satisfactory. ‘The author shows perfect 
familiarity with the instruments and accesso- _ 
ries, together with their applications as made 
and used in his own country. OC. H. Stowern. 


aged that the whole question of geological topography 
will be settled. 

As to the question of geological nomenclature. 
we had much difficulty in getting reports of the 
previous meetings; and we have named several 
persons, some of whom have already handed in, 
or have in process of preparation, their abstracts 
of geological nomenclature; and I have every rea- 
son to hope that in the course of a few weeks we 
shall have the whole of that matter in shape to 
transmit to the Berlin congress a full and proper 
representation of the views of American geologists 
with regard to our geological nomenclature. There 
is one thing very much to be regretted, —the possi- 
bility that the meeting of the American association J 
and the British association will come in collision 

: 


OE EE 


_——— = 


—_—— 


with the meeting of the Berlin congress. Nothing 
definite has been arranged, so far as I can learn*>by 
letters. I have met with no response, but I was told 
that the time of the Berlin congress had not been 
fixed. In the committee which was held to consider — 
arrangements for the meeting of the British associ- — 
ation, it was suggested that we put ourselves in com- ~ 
munication with the local authorities of the Berlin ~ 
congress, and endeavor to get them to fix the time of — 
their meeting so late in September as will allow 
members of the American and British associations 
to leave this continent after the meeting of our asso- 
ciations so as to be present at the Berlin congress. — 
The committee was continued. 7 
The Committee to confer with the United-States 
geologist in regard to co-operation between govern- 
ment and state geological surveys was called on for a 
report. Prof. James Hall of Albany responded in- 


SEPTEMBER 7, 1883.] 


to be materially influenced by the law of the general 
government extending the U. S. geological survey 
over the states. Proper deference to the head of 
the U. S. survey required that some action should 
be taken by which we could confer with Major 
Powell, to understand our relations to the survey. 
To prevent any jealousy or uncertainty with regard 


. to what might be the relation of the state survey 


and the general survey, I suggested the appointment 
of this committee. I had no intention myself of 
taking any active part in the matter; and I think 
there are gentlemen on the committee, much younger 
than myself, who will do all the work. I believe 
several members of the committee have had very 
pleasant interviews with Major Powell, as I have 
myself, since these meetings commenced; but I had 
forgotten that I was to make a report. I think it is 
desirable that there should be very frank intercourse 
between the gentlemen who are conducting the state 
surveys and the head of the general government 
survey, so that we may know what is to be the result 
of their various surveys which are so very important 
to geological science. Workers at a distance from 
each other cannot, without some means of inter-com- 
munication, — which, I think, may be established 
with the head of the general survey,—bring the 
results of their labors to a fair comparison with those 
which are done a thousand miles away. 

Major Powell expressed the hope that the commit- 
tee would be continued. Several members of the 
committee had conferred with him with reference to 
the surveys, but they had not conferred as a com- 
mittee. Practical relations have been established 
between the general survey of the United States and 
several of the state surveys. He thought it was 
probable that such arrangements could be established 
as would make it satisfactory to all. 

The committee was continued. 


PAPERS READ BEFORE SECTION E. 


(PAPERS ON GLACIAL PHENOMENA.) 
The life history of the’ Niagara river. 
BY JULIUS POHLMAN OF BUFFALO, N.Y. 


A SERIES of observations whose points were given 
in detail had convinced the author that the forma- 
tion of the gorge of Niagara had been a matter of 
tens of thousands, rather than of hundreds of thou- 
sands, of years. The beginning of the history might 
be stated as in the pre-glacial epoch. A lake then 
occupied the valley of the Tonawanda; its outlet 
was the line of the ancient Niagara River from the 
falls to the whirlpool; thence, by way of the St. 
Davids valley, into the Ontario valley. All these val- 
leys were closed during the glacial period. The sub- 
sidence of Lakes Erie and Ontario was that of one 
body or region, until they were separated by the 
Lewiston escarpment; after that» the drainage of 
Lake Erie found its path through drift deposits 


SCIENCE. 


| formally: The condition of the state survey is likely 


315 


and old existing valleys to Lake Ontario. The lat- 
ter lake subsided slowly, and no waterfall was 
formed at its entrance. The river excavated its 
gorge to the whirlpool, not by means of a retreating 
fall, but as a rapid in an old shallow valley. At the 
third pool, this path met the ancient river-valley: it 
was along that valley only, that the falls receded to 
their present site. The retreat of the fall was not 
the means of excavation, for at least seven miles 
usually ascribed to it; the portion which would offer 
the most resistance, between the falls and the whirl- 
pool, being already excavated. 

From that point to Lewiston, the progress was 
very rapid in cutting the gorge; a shallow valley had 
partly remoyed the hard limestone, and the softer 
underlying shale rock was a barrier much more 
easily penetrated. We have no exact data of the 
retrocession of the falls within periods of modern 
observation. A comparison of Professor Hall’s 
map of the falls in 1841, and that of the United- 
States lake survey in 1875, shows wide discrepancies. 
After all reasonable allowance for inaccuracies, we 
must admit that parts of the Horse-shoe fall have re- 
ceded in thirty-four years at least one hundred feet, 
and on the American side the recession is from 
twenty to forty feet. These facts all tend toward a 
shortening of the history of the present river. 

In the discussion that followed, Professor Hall ex- 
pressed a doubt as to the dependence that could be 
placed on differences between surveys made by dif- 
ferent persons, using differing methods. That there 
had been retrocession within the period of our obser- 
vation, he did not doubt; but it could scarcely be so 
rapid as was indicated by the estimates of Dr. Pohl- 
man. Other speakers discussed the paper, which was 
of special interest, because it fired the first gun of the 
glacialists in the geological section, and it roused their 
opponents. 


Glacial caiions. 
BY W. J. McGEE OF SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH. 


Tus paper was read, in the absence of its author, 
by Mr. Warren Upham. It considered the action of 
a glacier as being, to a certain extent, capable of 
representation by mathematical formulae. It was 
admitted, however, that some of the quantities in 
the equations must remain very indefinite. The 
paper was almost wholly theoretical, and arrived at 
the following conclusions : The temporary occupancy 
of a typical water-cut cafion by glacier-ice will, 1°. 
increase its width; 2°. change the V to a U cross 
profile; 3°. cut off the terminal portions of tributary 
cafions, and thus relatively elevate their embouchures; 
4°. intensify certain irregularities of gradient in the 
cafion bottom; 5°. excavate rock basins; 6°. develop 
cirques; and, in general, transform each’ cafion into an 
equally typical glacial cafion. It follows that these 
features do not necessarily imply extensive glacial 
excavation, or indicate that glaciers are superlatively- 
energetic engines of erosion. 

Owing to the custom of abstaining from discussion 
on a paper in the absence of its author, the dissen- 
tient opinion of many who were present was not 


316 


fully elicited. The general expression was to the 
effect, that the theory had been framed without suf- 
ficient observation of the facts, and that, if the author 
had taken the trouble to see and examine various 
cafions, he would haye come to a widely different 
set of conclusions. 


The ancient glaciation of North America: its 
extent, character, and teachings. 


BY J, S. NEWBERRY OF NEW YORK. 


WHILE the glacial area on our continent has not 
been fully explored, there is abundant proof for the 
following propositions: 1°. Glaciers covered most of 
the elevated portions of the mountain belts in the far 
west as far south as the 36th parallel, and in the 
eastern half of the continent to the 40th parallel of 
latitude. 2°. The ancient glaciers, which occupied 
the area above described, were not produced by local 
causes, but were evidences of a general climatic con- 
dition. 3°. They could not have been the effect of 
a warm climate and an abundant precipitation of 


moisture, but were results of a general depression 


of temperature. 

The traces of glaciation are similar in kind, and 
apparently in date, over the whole area: they are 
therefore effects of general, not of local, causes. Hast 
of the Mississippi, the evidence is even more wide- 
spread and impressive than in the far west. The 
area bearing marks of ice action, and strewn with 
drift, extends from New England westward, parallel 
with the Canadian highlands, in a belt five hundred 
miles wide and over two thousand miles long. Its 
northern extension has not been traced beyond 
Winnipeg; but there are reasons for believing that 
it reached to the Arctic ocean, and that the great 
lakes are pre-glacial river-valleys, scooped out and 
modified by ice. Fully half the continent north of 
the 36th parallel was glaciated. So far as we now 
know, the glaciation was synchronous. 


The iceberg theory was opposed by Dr. Newberry, 


on the following grounds: It postulated a waterline 
with irregularities of level that are irreconcilable. 
The direction of the scratches, and the lines of devi- 
ation of the bowlders, require’ that the northern por- 
tion of the continent should have been all submerged, 
leaving no land for the origin and starting-point of 
icebergs. If the icebergs could have been formed 
and floated, an incomprehensible tangle of ocean- 
currents would be required to account for their move- 

ments. The evidence of sea-covering, in the form of 
marine shells, is totally absent from the great drift 
area of the interior, while they are found abundantly 
in the Champlain and bowlder clays of the coast. 
Finally, the inscription left by the eroding agency is 
characteristic and sui generis. 

The record of the ice period on our continent is far 
more extensive and impressive than it has heen rep- 
resented. The phenomena were due to an extrane- 
ous and cosmical cause, not to any thing local or even 
telluric. The question here passes from the geolo- 
gist, and must be addressed to the astronomer. Pro- 
fessor Newberry briefly recapitulated some of the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 31. 


theories which have been suggested by Croll, New- 
comb, and others, to account for the glacial epoch. 


Result of explorations of the glacial boundary 
between New Jersey and Illinois. 


BY G. F. WRIGHT OF OBERLIN, OHIO: 


AFTER citing reasons for desiring a careful résumé 
of the subject, — the observations being scattered in , 
the works of different explorers, —the author pro- 
ceeded to name those who had determined, for dif- 
ferent regions, the southern boundary of the glacial 
area. Starting at the eastern coast, President 
Edward Hitchcock was the first to intimate that the 
backbone of Cape Cod was a part of the terminal 
moraine if the theory of Professor Agassiz were true. 
Clarence King made a similar assertion as to ac- 
cumulations near Wood’s Holl and on the Elizabeth 
islands. Professor Charles H. Hitchcock declared 
that the backbone of Long Island was the foot of a 
terminal moraine. Warren Upham went over this 
field, from the end of Cape Cod to Brooklyn, to verify 
the hypothesis. Professors Cook and Smock traced 
the moraine across the state of New Jersey. Pro- 
fessor Lesley commissioned Professor Carvill Lewis 
and the author of the paper to continue the explora- 
tion across Pennsylvania. In Ohio, Professor New- 
berry has approximately outlined the boundary; but 
in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, the survey was carried 
on by a number of different persons before the most 
distinctive glacial features were fully understood. 

The chief indications on which reliance can be 
placed to determine glacial action are striated rocks, 
striated stones, bowlders, and till. Rocks near the 
margin are often so deeply embedded in till, that 
their markings are not apparent. The softer rocks 
do not always retain their striae: this has often been 
the case in Ohio. In certain situations, stones might 
be striated by a landslide, or the grounding of an 
iceberg; but the area over which striated stones are 
found is too vast for such explanation of their pres- 
ence. The bowlders are of granite and metamor- 
phosed rocks from northern Canada and the shores 
of Lake Superior: their presence is relied upon only 
when they are on such high lines as to preclude the 
likelihood of their having been transported by the 
agency of rivers. ‘Till is spread over the whole area: 
it is defined as an unstratified deposit, containing 
striated stones of various sizes, — fragments of rock 
foreign to the locality. Its composition varies, 
through mixture with underlying material. It covers 
and gives fertility to northern Ohio, Indiana, and 
Illinois. Till has been characterized by Professor 
Newberry as the grist of the glacier. 

Briefly told, the boundary-line of the glaciated area, 
so far as now accurately known, is as follows: Begin- 
ning on the island of Nantucket, it runs through Mar- 
tha’s Vineyard, No Man’s Land, Long Island from east 
to west, across Staten Island, entering New Jersey at 
North Amboy, and after bending northward and mak- 
ing a right angle near Dover, crosses the Delaware 
at, Belvidere. Thence it runs north-westerly through — 
Northampton, Monroe, Luzerne, Columbia,’ Lycom- 


_ SEPTEMBER 7, 1883.] 


ing, Tioga, and Potter counties in Pennsylvania, and 
Cattaraugus county, New York, reaching its most 
_northerly part about five miles north of Salamanca. 
From here it runs through Warren, Venango, Butler, 
Lawrence, and Beaver counties, to the Ohio line, 
crossing Beaver creek at Chaintown about fifteen 
miles above the Ohio river. 

The boundary enters Ohio in the northern part of 
Columbiana county, and proceeds nearly west to the 
middle of Stark; then turns more to the south, 
touching the corner of Tuscarawas, and dividing 
Holmes into two nearly north-and-south sections. 
Near the north-east corner of Knox, the line makesa 
right angle, and runs south through Knox, Licking, 
the north-west corner of Perry, Fairfield, Ross, High- 
land, Adams, and Brown counties. Then it follows 
the line of the Ohio river across Clermont, and enters 
Kentucky near the boundary between Pendleton and 
Campbell counties, and, after crossing the northern 
part of Kenton and Boone counties, recrosses the 
Ohio, entering Indiana a little below Aurora. 

In Indiana the line still continues to bear in 
a southerly direction through Ohio and Jefferson 
counties, grazing the edge of Kentucky again oppo- 
site Madison, and reaching its southernmost point 
near Charleston in Clarke county, Ind. From here 
it bears again to the north, through Scott and Jack- 
son counties, to the line between Bartholomew and 
Brown, and follows this to the north-east corner of 
Brown. There again it turns to the south-west, 
touching the north-east corner of Monroe, where it 
again bears north for ten miles, to near Martinsville 
in Morgan county. Here again the line turns west 
and south, passing diagonally through Owen and 
Green counties, and in Knox as far as Harrison town- 
ship, ten miles south-east of Vincennes. Beyond 
this point, the author did not propose at present to 
trace the line. 

The signs of glaciation cease where there is no 
barrier to account for their cessation, and where 
no barrier ever could have existed such as must be 
supposed if the so-called glacial phenomena are the 
product of floating ice. Of the correctness of this 
inference, the different elevations at which the signs 
of glacial action cease are sufficient proof. For in- 
stance, the line is near sea-level in New Jersey; in 
Pennsylvania it rises over Mount Kittatinny to a 
height of 1,200 feet, then descends 800 feet into a val- 

ley, and, again rising, reaches the summits of moun- 
tains 2,000 feet above sea-level. Crossing tlte valley 
of the Susquehanna at an elevation of only 500 feet, 
the line mounts the Alleghanies diagonally, and runs 
over them at a height of 2,500 feet. 

The paper proceeds to describe certain marked 
features of glaciated areas. South of New England, 
the terminal line is characterized by a series of gla- 
-cial hills, 100 to 300 feet high. These are also ob- 
servable in New Jersey, near Plainfield and Menlo 
Park. 

Among the most interesting results of the author's 

_ survey in Ohio, was the demonstration of the exist- 


ence of an ice-dam across the river at Cincinnati. 


_ The line bounding two glacial accumulations crosses 


SCIENCE. 


Pee. a en Ne 4 ih eh oF. Fe? Oe 


* 


317 


the Ohio river into Kentucky, near the boundary 
between Campbell and Pendleton counties, about 
twenty-five miles above Cincinnati, and recrosses it 
near Aurora, Ind., about twenty-five miles below 
Cincinnati, thus filling the channel for about fifty 
miles of its course. The Ohio, it should be said, 
oceupies, throughout nearly its whole extent, a nar- 
row valley of erosion, not often. more than a mile 
wide, and from 300 to 500 feet deep. Emptying into 
the main channel there are subordinate channels all 
along, of smaller dimensions, but of nearly equal 
depth. The proofs that the ice bodily crossed the 
river at the point indicated are, that till and granitie 
bowlders are found in the Kentucky hills south of 
the river to a certain distance, and not beyond it. 

To the question, Why is the boundary of the glacial 
area so crooked ? the author replied at some length; 
assigning as a principal cause, aside from differences 
of level, the probability that unequal amounts of 
snow fell over different regions of the north. The 
effect of such differences of accumulating snowfall, 
in determining the extension of the glacial outline, 
is illustrated by supposing that two loads of sand are 
placed in one pile, and one load in an adjoining pile; 
when the sand will flow downward to unequal dis- 
tances upon a level. 

A little reflection will show that the glacial theory 
will not make extravagant suppositions as to the 
amount of ice required. The ice was indeed 600 feet 
deep over New England, and, very likely, of an 
equal depth over the area to the west; but it is not 
necessary to suppose a great increase of this depth to 
the north. All that is necessary is to suppose great 
accumulations of ice to the north of the granitic hills 
of Canada, starting a movement past them to the 
south. This movement may have been kept up to- 
ward the margin by fresh accumulations of snow 
upon the spreading giacier. An accumulation of 
snow over the glacier in any part of it would spend 
its effective force in giving impetus to the movement 
of the front along the lines of least resistance. 

The discussion which followed the reading of this 
paper took a wide range, as the paper itself contained 
many points of interest. The opponents of the gla- 
cial theory, or of the younger theories which have 
sprung from its loins, based their criticisms chiefly 
upon doubts of the evidences of glaciation. The 
questions raised, as to the distinctive characteristics 
of glacial and subaqueous deposits, gave tone to the 
paper of the next speaker, which was delivered orally, 
and was, at least in part, extemporaneous. 


The terminal moraine west of Ohio. 
BY T. C. CHAMBERLIN OF BELOIT, WIS, 


Tus paper was introduced by a statment of the 
author’s views on some points that had been alluded 
to in the discussion of Professor Wright’s paper. Dr. 
Chamberlin had himself observed the features of the 
drift-bearing area west of the Rocky Mountains. 
Certain of the drift clays are unquestionably glacial: 
others have quite as certainly had a wholly different 
origin. He specified with great particularity the 


J ph 


o 


318 


means for discrimination between the clays, but ad- 
mitted that there were instances where the different 
types seem to blend insensibly into each other. 

West of the Scioto valley, the border of the drift- 
bearing area is not marked by what is regarded as a 
moraine. There is, however, an extension of what 
Professor Wright has characterized as the ‘glacial 
fringe,’ consisting of bowlders. In Dakota county, 
Minn., this fringe is very wide. At Crystal lake 
there is a well-marked moraine, and possibly there is 
another a little to the westward. Farther to the 
west, there is no accumulated morainic drift. West 
of the Missouri, there is no evidence of glacial 
ploughing. 

A. line of drift-hills known as the Potash Kettle 
range, in eastern Wisconsin, had been regarded as an 
old beach-line. Dr. Chamberlin has ascertained that 
the range is a glacial moraine. He described it as 
an interlobate moraine, formed jointly by glacial lobes 
occupying the valleys of Lake Michigan and Green 
Bay, respectively. This was correlated with mo- 
raines to the westward in Wisconsin. 

Furthermore, there was a system of moraines, — 
a belt or group, including the glacier lobes at Lake 
Michigan, in the Chippewa valley, at the western ex- 
tension of Lake Superior, and in the valley of the 
Minnesota River, and Red River of the North. These 


moraines were more pronounced, with a few excep- 


tions, than those on the outer edge. Investigations 
were being carried eastward with a view of showing 
their correlation with other moraines in that direc- 
tion. The hypothesis of their exact correlation, of 
course, would imply that they were contemporane- 
ous; but there are doubts upon that point. 

The author claimed, that there were evidences that 
the lake-basins were caused in part by depressions 
during the ice age, caused by the exceptional accu- 
mulation of ice in the basins. He deprecated the no- 
tion that subsidence must always take as long a period 
as elevation, or that the reverse is true. He applied 
this to the case which he alleged of the depression 
during the presence of ice in the lake-basins, and the 
elevation since. ; 

In discussing this paper, Professor Lesley said it 
was time to cry halt as to this theory of depression 
by weight of ice. It was made to do duty for a 
great variety of emergencies. In point of fact, ice 
was much lighter, very much lighter, than any rock. 
Professor Lesley pointed out instances where this 
theory had been advanced to account for depressions 
which now contained a greater weight than the ice 
could have made with any reasonable hypothesis of 
its thickness. 

Professor Chamberlin explained the theory further, 
and claimed that in instances which he cited the 
depression was greatest at the weakest part of the 
strata. 

Prof. E. S. Morse referred to some English ex- 
periments to determine the question whether the 
moon’s attraction deformed the earth’s outline. It 
was found (according to newspaper report), that the 
weight of the incoming tide deformed the surface to 
such an extent that the effect of the moon’s attrac- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vor. IL, No. 31. 


tion could not be separately calculated. Major 
Powell called attention to the theory, that, if the 
earth were divided into conical sections radiating 
from its centre, there would be found an equal press- 
ure in each. Every sediment, every erosion of the 
surface, must be balanced by corresponding depres- 
sion or rise elsewhere. Finally, the case of Lake 
Saltonstall was cited by Mr. Hovey. It is evidently 
situated in a valley that was ploughed out by the foot 
of a glacier; certainly not in a hollow caused by 
pressure. Professor Cox clung to another theory 
entirely, as to the great lakes. He believed them to 
be prolongations of a sea-coast which had at one 
time extended to them through the valley of the St. 
Lawrence. 


The Minnesota valley in the ice age. 
BY WARREN UPHAM OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 


‘THE paper was based upon the author’s observa- 
tions for three years as assistant on the geological 
and natural-history survey of Minnesota, under the 
direction of Professor Winchell. To the question: 
During what ages was the glacial, rock-walled chan- 
nel of the valley of the Minnesota River formed ? — 
the paper offered an answer. Deposits of cretaceous 
clay were found in water-worn hollows at several 
enumerated localities; and, in other places, cretaceous 
sandstone and shale occasionally containing lignite. 
It thus appears, that, before the cretaceous age, a 
deep channel had been cut by some river in the lower 
magnesian sandstone, and the Potsdam formation. 
The slopes, the drainage, perhaps even the channel, 
of that river, were not widely different from those of 
the present; but that channel was probably eroded 
during the later paleozoic and earlier mesozoic ages, 
before the cretaceous subsidence. 

In the first epoch of glaciation, when the ice coy- 
ered its greatest area, a thick drift-sheet, mostly un- 
modified, probably covered all this region, including 
the preglacial valley, with an unbroken, though un- 
dulating, expanse of till. During the ensuing in- 
terglacial epoch, the drainage cut a channel, whose 
position was largely determined by the slopes of the 
erosion which had preceded the glacial epoch. The 
preglacial, and also the interglacial river, lay far be- 
low the present stream. The till of the later epoch 
blocked the course of the river only in part of its ex- 
tent, and the obstacle was soon channelled anew. 

During the recession of the last ice-sheet, the val- 
ley was filled with modified drift. After the ice was 
melted in the Minnesota basin, this avenue of drain- 
age was, for a long period, the outlet of Lake Agassiz. 
The volume of water that it carried was very large, 
being supplied by the melting ice-fields of North- 
western Minnesota, and from the region of Lake 
Winnipeg and the Saskatchewan. While streams ~ 
poured into this river from the melting ice-sheet, its 
modified drift continually increased in depth; but, 
when the great glacier had sufficiently retreated, the 
water from Lake Agassiz not only ceased to contain 
drift, but became a powerful eroding agent. The de- 
posited drift was mostly swept away, and the channel — 


va 


a>? 


_ SEPTEMBER 7, 1883.] 


_ Was again excavated, perhaps to a greater depth than 
the present river, possibly to the bottom of the gravel 
and sand, at a point in the valley which is 150 feet 
below the river there, and 135 feet below low water 
in the Mississippi at St. Paul. 

When the ice-barrier which had made Lake Agassiz 
disappeared, that lake was drained northward toward 
Hudson bay. Thenceforward, the rivers of the Min- 
nesota and Mississippi valleys carried only a fraction 
of the former volume of water from this source. 
They have since become extensively filled with al- 
luvial gravel, sand, clay, and silt, brought in by the 
tributaries of those rivers. The changes produced 
by this post-glacia] sedimentation have been ably dis- 
cussed by Gen. G. K. Warren, and were briefly sum- 
marized in the paper of Mr. Upham. 

Lake Superior seems to have been held by an ice- 
barrier at a level of about 500 feet from its present 
height. The locality of its overflow was stated, and 

_ various results detailed. Lake Michigan, until the 
ice-sheet receded from its northern border, dis- 
charged southward by the Illinois river, which, like 
the former outlet of Lake Superior, was eventually 
obstructed by alluvium, so that now it has a very 
slight current for two hundred miles. 

The paper closed with a proposition to call the 
ancient river of the glacial age, the river Warren, in 
honor of Gen. G. K. Warren. 

The discussion which followed was, in part, a con- 
flict between the glacialists and their opponents, and, 
in part, a debate upon the general question of nam- 
ing geological features after distinguished investi- 
gators, 


_ Changes in the currents of the ice of the last 
‘ glacial epoch in eastern Minnesota. 


_ BY WARREN UPHAM OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 


WirHour a map, or a thorough familiarity with 
the region referred to, this paper would not convey 
very definite ideas. Through some inadvertency the 
map intended to be used was not on hand when the 
paper was read. The author’s observations had led 
him to conclusions of a very definite character. He 
conceived, that, when the ice of the last glacial epoch 
attained its maximum extent, there were two ice- 
currents. One moved south-westerly from Lake 
Superior, across the north-east part of Mignesota, 
_ spreading a reddish till with bowlders and pebbles, 
_ and limited by a line from Lake St. Croix south-west 

across the Mississippi, and thence bending north- 
_ west by Lake Minnetonka, and through Wright and 
_ Stearns counties. The other portion of the ice-sheet 
was pushed from the region of Lake Winnipeg, south 
and south-east. The two met along a line from 
Stearns county, south-east by Lake Minnetonka to 
_ Crystal Lake, Dakota county. Afterward, when the 
ice had partly melted and retreated, a second and 
_ inner terminal moraine was formed. Owing to cli- 
matic changes (the rationale of which was carefully 

and yery explicitly set forth in the paper), the current 
_ from the north-west pushed back that from the east, 
and covered the reddish till, already deposited, with a 


a 


SCIENCE. ¥ 


319 


blue till from the west and north-west, also abundant 
in its peculiar bowlders and other evidences of its 
source, 


The kame rivers of Maine. 
BY Gy H, STONE OF COLORADO SPRINGS, COL: 


In the absence of its author, this paper was read by 
Mr. Upham. After defining and describing the char- 
acteristics of kames, and stating that they are very 
numerous in Maine, where he had observed them, the 
author proceeded to discuss a single question in rela- 
tion to these geological features. Most glacialists are 
agreed that the kame gravels of the drift region were 
chiefly deposited by glacial streams. The question is, 
whether these streams were sub-glacial or super-gla- 
cial. In exploration during the past five years, the 
author had found evidences of both kinds of streams; 
but he nowhere found stratified or even water-classi- 
fied material enclosed in this formation, except within 
a few miles of the coast. 

The essayist sought to answer the question by con- 
sidering the processes of melting which take place in 
aglacier. Strict analogy with existing glaciers —even 
with those of Greenland—should not be supposed. 
In modern glaciers, nearly all the water of their lower 
extremities is sub-glacial. The ice is so broken by 
crevasses that melting waters soon find their way to 
thebottom. But a different state of affairs may have 
prevailed in the continental glacier. Several of these 
kame rivers are a hundred or more miles in length. 
Granting all reasonable development of sub-glacial 
streams, these kames can scarcely be thus accounted 
for. Superficial water flowing along the surface 
would gradually deepen its channel: when the melt- 
ing had so far proceeded that the bottoms of these 
streams reached the moraine stuff in the lower part 
of the ice, the kame gravel would begin to gather on 
the bottoms of their channels. During the final melt- 
ing, when the condition was such that few if any ad- 
ditional crevasses would be formed, there would be 
no time to extend the previously formed sub-glacial 
channels. The sudden floods would pass over the 
lowest part of the ice as they would over ground. A 
great and rapid northward extension of the superfi- 
cial streams would result. 

In discussing this paper, Mr. Upham stated that 
erosion does not appear in kames. They are not un- 
frequently a hundred feet in height: one on the bor- 
ders of the Merrimac river was instanced. They 
appear to be gravel deposits laid down before the 
glacier was fully melted. 


Relation of the glacial dam at Cincinnati to 
the terrace in the upper Ohio and its tribu- 
taries. 


BY I. C. WHITE OF MORGANTOWN, W. VA. 


Tuts paper, in the absence of its author, was read 
by Professor Winchell. 

In a paper read before the Boston society of natu- 
ral history, March 7, 1883, Rev. G. F. Wright showed 
that the southern rim of the great northern ice-sheet 


ee 3. Tae 


320 


covered the Ohio river near the site of New Rich- 
mond, a few miles above Cincinnati; and presented 
the hypothesis, that one effect of this invasion of the 
Ohio valley by the glacial ice was to form an im- 
mense dam of ice and morainic débris, which ef- 
fectually closed the old channel way, and set back the 
water of the Ohio and its tributaries, until, rising 
to the level of the Licking River divide, it prob- 
ably found an outlet through Kentucky, around the 
glacial dam. The writer of the essay, after review- 
ing the evidence, regards Mr. Wright’s hypothe- 
sis as proved beyond a reasonable doubt. He also 
claimed, that during the period of the continuance 
of the dam, the principal tributaries of the Ohio had 
their valleys filled with sediment carried down and 
dumped into them by the mountain torrents and 
other streams which drained the area south from 
the glaciated region; that subsequently, when the 
barrier disappeared, the rivers recut their channels 
through the silt deposits, probably by spasmodic low- 
ering of the dam, in such a manner as to leave the 
deposits in a series of more or less regular terraces, 
which in favored localities subsequent erosion has 
failed to obliterate, though from steep slopes it 
has removed their every trace. The elevation of 
this dam at Cincinnati, as determined from the upper 
limit of the fifth Monongahela River terrace, would 
be somewhere about 625 feet above low water there 
in the present Ohio. 

In discussing this paper, Professor Lesley said 
that there were two separate glacial formations to be 
considered, and the two could not be correlated. 
The ice-dam could not thus be explained. Professor 
Wright had discussed the subject’ with clearness, 
claiming that the dam was glacial; but at best there 
were only a few places in the west where the height 
of the ice could be measured. 


The eroding. power of ice. 
BY J. 8S. NEWBERRY OF NEW YORE. 


THE object of this essay was to enter a protest 
against the theories of certain geologists who claim 
that glacial ice has not played an important part in 
the erosion of valleys. They have undertaken to 
deny that ice has any great excavating power. Ex- 
amples of utterances of this school, the speaker said, 
were to be found in Prof. J. D. Whitney’s Climatic 
changes; in papers by Prof. J. W. Spencer, on the 
Old outlet of Lake Erie; by Mr. W. M. Davis, on the 
Classification of lake basins, and the erosive action 
of ice; and remarks on the same subject by Prof. 
J. P. Lesley. 

The most important heresies which had been ad- 
vanced in regard to this subject were, first, the denial 
that there was ever a glacial period; second, if there 
was an ice period, it was a warm and not a cold one; 
third, that the phenomena usually ascribed to glacial 
action in the record of an ice period were generally 
due to icebergs; fourth, that ice has little or no erod- 
ing power, and that glaciers have never been an im- 
portant geological agent. Professor Newberry pro- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 31. 


ceeded, in controversion of these theories, to give the 
results of his extended studies of geological action in 
the Alps and in many different regions of the United 
States and Canada. These observations lead to the 
conclusions, 1°. That the glacial period was a reality, 
and that its record constitutes one of the most impor- 
tant and interesting chapters of geological history; 2°. 
That this was a cold period; 3°. That ice has a great, 
though unmeasured and perhaps immeasurable, erod- 
ing power; and that, in regions which they have 
occupied, glaciers have been always important, and 
often preponderating, agents in effecting geological 
changes. : 

No cautious geologist would assert cr concede that 
all lake-basins had been excavated by ice, but to deny 
its influence in their formation would be a far greater 
error. The basins of our great lakes, and of many of 
our smaller ones, bear the traces of ice that has 
moyed in the line, at least approximately, of their 
major axes. The broad, boat-shaped basins indicate 
the work of this same agency. The islands of Lake 
Erie are carved from the solid rock: their surfaces 
and sides, and the channels between them, are all 
glaciated. The plastic ice has inwrapped those 
islands, fitting into every irregularity, and carving, 
with the sand it carried, every surface. The marks 
of glaciation are to be seen on mountain belts from 
Canada to Mexico. Even at the present day glaciers 
are transporting enormous loads. In midsummer the 
Aar glacier brings down 280 tons per day; the Juste- 
dal glacier of Norway wears down, it is estimated, 
69,000 cubic meters of solid rock annually. These 
measurements of the eroding power of two small 
glaciers should show the fallacy of a denial of the 
excavating power of ice. Dr. Newberry concluded by 
citing authorities on the subject. 

This paper elicited the most acrimonious discussion 
of the meeting. Professor Lesley took exception to 
certain phrases in the paper which seemed to cast a 
reflection upon the methods of his coadjutors, —men 
who were conscientiously engaged in scientific inves- 
tigation, and had seen reason for breaking away from 
the trammels of opinion formulated by Agassiz and 
Ramsey. For himself, he did not believe in the theory 
of erosive glacial processes, and he asserted that there 
was no good reason for believing that the basins of 
the great lakes were so produced. He claimed that 
the basin of Ontario was a Silurian valley; the basins 
of Erie, Michigan, and Huron, were Devonian val- 
leys. Ice had no more eroding effect than a piece of 
sandpaper has upon arough board. He believed in 
the eroding of water, and represented his idea of the 
relative power of ice and water, as follows: Ice, 1; 
rain-water, 10; acidulated water, 100; ice set with 
stones, 1,000; water set with stones, 10,000. 

Professor Newberry disclaimed any intention of 
attacking the young men of science who were labor- 
ing in this field. He re-affirmed the positions taken 
in his paper. On the other hand, Professor T. Sterry 
Hunt declared his substantial agreement with the 
views of Professor Lesley. On account of the length 
of this debate, the five-minute rule for discussions 
was adopted and subsequently enforced. 


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SEPTEMBER 7, 1883. ] 


Informal remarks on moraines and terraces. 


BY J. W. DAWSON OF MONTREAL, AND J. W. 
POWELL OF WASHINGTON. 


Av the opening of the morning and afternoon 
sessions of the geological section in its last day’s 
work, Dr. Dawson and Major Powell made respec- 
tively some informal remarks of interest. Dr. 
Dawson objected to the loose significance with which 
the term ‘moraine’ had been used, and especially 
to the definition of it as ‘detrital matter heaped up 
by the forcible mechanical action of ice.’ He pointed 
out that such a definition would include work which 
certainly was not performed by lan glaciers. 

Dr. Dawson described the glacial deposits exposed 
along the line of the Canadian Pacific railway, from 
the Laurentian areas west and north of Lake Superior 
to the Rocky Mountains, noticing the lacustrine 
deposit of the Red-river valley, containing only a 
very few, small, ice-borne stones; the second prairie 
level covered with Laurentian drift from the north- 
east, and with an interrupted ridge of scrub material 


_ extending along the middle of it, northward from 


Turtle mountain. He referred to the great Missouri 
coteau, at an elevation of 2,500 feet, and made up 
of local mud, and sand, with Laurentian bowlders 
piled up against the higher prairie steppe; the drift 
on the surface of this steppe being partly Laurentian 


'and Silurian from the east, and partly from the 


Rocky Mountains. He finally stated, that huge 
Laurentian and Huronian bowlders were placed at 
an elevation of more than 4,000 feet on the foot-hills 
of the Rocky Mountains, more than 700 miles from 
their original site. He did not intend to offer any 
explanation, as investigations into the matter were 
still being carried on by his son; but he wished to 
say briefly, that it appeared to him perfectly plain 
that we could not account for such phenomena as 
had been described, without taking into account 
great changes of level, or, without doubt, great sub- 
mergence and remergence, 

Major Powell called attention to the fact, that 
wholly different agencies, each acting in its own 
way, produced a class of geological features that 
went under the general name of ‘terraces.’ We 
have sea-beach terraces, lake-shore terraces, and 
yet another class of terraces exceedingly common in 
the Rocky and the Cascade mountains. The last- 
named class of terraces is due to a different cause 
from the others. Some of this class in the east have 
been relegated erroneously to the class of beach ter- 
races: those which are said to dam the Ohio, and 
others found in the Alleghanies, have been formed 
by a process which can be briefly sketched. 

We have a valley. It runs irregularly between 
bluffs and mountains. We havea force in the river 
which simply tends down stream; it is itself ir- 
regular, its energy depending upon its transient 
volume and local depth. If the region is upheaved, 
the river no longer keeps its old course. It seeks 
the line of least resistance, and may form a new 
flood-plain below. Then the river, for a while at 
least, excavates laterally instead of vertically. No 


SCIENCE. 


321 


longer occupying its old place in the valley, it grad- 
ually cuts a new path. But the old terrace may 
remain. In some places there are more than twenty 
systems of terraces: in a locality near Pittsburgh, 
there are fifty-three such systems. These the speaker 
regarded as chiefly due to changes in the level of the 
regions, —to elevations and depressions. Further 
explanation by the speaker was cut short under the 
five-minute rule, 


(OTHER GEOLOGICAL PAPERS.) 


The earth’s orographic framework; its seis- 
mology and geology. 


The ‘continental type,’ or the normal orography 
and geology of continents. 


BY RICHARD OWEN OF NEW HARMONY, IND. 


THESE papers were read successively, as being 
closely related. They refer to a well-known theory 
of their author, which traces the frame-work of the 
earth in its mountain chains. He finds such a frame- 
work running from east to west in numerous parallel 
ranges near the equator, and instances those of Su- 
matra and.of South America. This he calls the 
*strong girdle’ of the earth: it is of mesozoie age, 
terminating its heights in the cenozoic age. Re- 
motely parallel are the arctic and antarctic belts. 
Great braces come down to meet this girdle, having 
at least four ramifications in Asia, starting from the 
great plateau, and in America forming the great 
‘backbone’ of the continent. The five equidistant 
continental trends of mountain chains often mark 
paleozoic belts. But the later as well as the older 
results tell of strong interior forces that have pro- 
duced the mountains, and the central belt gives 
marked evidence that an intense reaction from within 
aided in its construction. 

The similarity of the five great continents has often 
been the occasion of remark. They seem to have a 
general plan of construction, that may have been con- 
nected with their appearance as land above the ocean. 
The similarity extends even to their present geo- 
graphical area. If we cut cross-sections from W.S. W. 
to E. S. E. through the geographical centre of each con- 
tinent, we shall find in each case a seismic belt near 
one rim of the continent, and often near both rims. 
Thus the continent is usually basin-shaped, and com- 
paratively low in its central area with its chief river 
drainage, and low near the ocean borders; rising in 
an eastern and western main range, with usually sev- 
eral parallel subordinate ridges. These eastern and 
western mountains converge southerly, thus assum- 
ing a somewhat irregular form, evolving usually on 
the west some table-land. The eastern river is 
usually paleozoic, with perhaps some mesozoic on the 
flanks and cenozoic on the ocean border. The west- 
ern elevation is more commonly mesozoie in its main 
range, and cenozoic in the flanks or subordinate ridges. 
A section running north and south through the three 
northern continents would successively expose Cam- 
brian, paleozoic, mesozoic, and cenozoie cuts, which 
would generally increase in area as we go south, 


322 


The papers of Professor Owen elicited, for the 
greater part, unfavorable comment. It was urged 
against them, that their generalizations were too broad, 
and that they were based rather upon closet study 
than actual observation. As to at least one of the 
continents, we know as yet far too little of its geol- 
ogy, especially in the interior, to frame a theory of its 
history and constitution. 


The pre-Cambrian rocks of the Alps. 
BY T. STERRY HUNT OF MONTREAL, CAN. 


THE writer began by reyiewing the history of 
Alpine geology, and noticed first that speculative 
period when the crystalline rocks of the Alps, in- 
cluding gneisses, hornblendic and micaceous schists, 
euphotides, serpentines, etc., were looked upon as 
altered sedimentary strata of carboniferous or more 
recent times. He then traced the steps by which 
these views have been discarded, and more and more 
of these rocks shown to belong to eozoic or pre- 
Cambrian ages. In this connection the labors of 
von Hauer, Gerlach, Heim, Favre, Renevier, Lory, 
Gastaldi, and others, were analyzed; and reference 
was made to the great progress since the writer in 
1872 published a review of Favre on the geology of 
the Alps. 

The sections by Neri, Gerlach, and Gastaldi in the 
western, and those of von Hauer in the eastern Alps, 
were described; and it was shown that all these 
agree in establishing in the crystalline rocks four 
great divisions in ascending order: 1°. The older 
granitoid gneiss with crystalline limestones, graphite, 
ete., referred by Gastaldi to the Laurentian. 2°. The 
so-called pietre verdi, or greenstone group, consisting 
chiefly of dioritic, chloritic, steatitic, and epidotic 
rocks, with euphotides and serpentines, including 
also talecose gneisses, limestones, and dolomites, and 
regarded by Gastaldi as Huronian. 3°. The so-called 
recent gneisses of von Hauer and Gastaldi, inter- 
stratified with and passing into granulites and mica- 
ceous and hornblendic schists, also with serpentines 
and crystalline limestones. 4°. ‘The series of argillites 
and soft glossy schists with quartzites and detrital 
sandstones, including also beds of serpentine with 
tale, gypsum, karstenite, dolomite, and much crystal- 
line limestone. This fourth series, well seen at the 
Mont Cenis tunnel, is still claimed by Lory and 
some others as altered trias; but the present writer’s 
view, put forth in 1872, that it is, like the preceding 
groups, of eozoic age, was subsequently accepted by 
Fayre and by Gastaldi, and is now established by 
many observations. To this horizon belong the crys- 


talline limestones of the Apnan Alps, including the: 


marbles of Carrara. 

The writer next recalls the fact that he, in 1870, 
insisted upon the existence of a younger series of 
gneisses in North America, alike in the Atlantic 
states, in Ontario, and to the north-west of Lake 
Superior. These, in his address before the Ameri- 
can association for the advancement of science, in 
1871, he further described under the name of the 
White-Mountain series, and subsequently, in the 


SCIENCE. 


Alps. 


ie ee ee 


[Vou. IL, No. 381. 


same year, called them Montalban. ‘These rocks 
were then declared to be younger than the Huronian, 
and to overlie it; though, in the absence of this 
latter, it was pointed out that in Ontario and in New- 
foundland the Montalban reposes unconformably 
upon the Laurentian. When these newer gneisses 
and mica-schists were first described, in 1870, there 
was included with them an overlying group of argil- 
lites, quartzites, and crystalline limestones; and for 
the whole the name of Terranovan was suggested, 
provisionally. But in defining, in the following year, 
the White-Mountain series, this upper group was 
omitted, and was subsequently referred to the Taco- 
nian series, —the lower Taconic of Emmons, and the 
so-called altered primal and auroral of H. D. Rogers, 
in eastern Pennsylvania. 

The writer next describes his own observations in 
the Alps and the Apennines in 1881. He affirms the 
correctness of Gastaldi in referring the groups one 
and two to Laurentian and MHuronian, finds the 
third, or the younger gneiss and mica-schist group of 
the Alps, indistinguishable from the Montalban, and 
regards the fourth as the representative of the 
American Taconian. It was maintained by Gastaldi, 
that these pre-Cambrian groups of the Alps underlie 
directly the newer rocks of northern and central 
Italy, forming the skeleton of the Apennines, re- 
appearing in Calabria, and, moreover, protruding in 
various localities in Liguria, Tuscany, and elsewhere. 
The serpentines, euphotides, and other resisting 


rocks thus exposed, have been regarded as eruptive 


masses of triassic and eocene time. The writer, how- 
ever, holds with Gastaldi, that they are indigenous 


rocks of pre-Cambrian age, exposed by geological 


accidents. 

The uncrystalline rocks of the mainland of Italy 
are chiefly cenozoic or mesozoic, and the only paleo- 
zoic strata known are carboniferous, the organic 
forms in the limestone of Chaberton having been 
shown to be triassic. Triassic, liassic, cretaceous, 
eocene, and miocene strata are found in different 
localities, resting on the various pre-Cambrian groups. 
In the island of Sardinia, however, all these are oyer- 
laid by a great body of uncrystalline lower paleozoie 
rocks, in which the late studies of Bornemann and 
Meneghini have made known the existence of a 
lower Cambrian fauna, including Paradoxides, Con- 
ocephalites, and Archeocyathus, succeeded by an 
abundant fauna of upper Cambrian or Ordovian age. 

The existence of the younger or Montalban gneiss 
in Sweden and in the Harz and the Erzgebirge was no- 
ticed, and to it were referred the Hereynian gneisses 
and mica-schists of Giimbel. The presence both in 
Sweden and in Saxony of conglomerates, as described 
by Hummel and by Sauer, wherein pebbles of the 
older gneiss are enclosed in beds of the younger 
series, was discussed, and the direct unconformable 
superposition of the latter upon the older gneiss, in 
the absence of the Huronian, was considered; evi- 
dences of the same relations being adduced from the 
The gneisses of the St. Gothard, as seen on 
the Italian slope, were also referred to the newer 
series; and the important studies of Stapf in this 


ij SEPTEMBER 7, 1883.] 


connection were discussed. It was declared that the 
views put forth by the author in 1870-71, on the rela- 
tions and succession of the crystalline stratified rocks 
in North America, and then extended by him to 
Europe, have been fully confirmed by the labors of 
a great many European geologists, as already shown. 
Those of Hicks, Hughes, Bonney, Callaway, Lap- 
worth, and others, in the pre-Cambrian rocks of the 
British islands, were cited in support of these con- 
clusions. It was said, that, whatever may have 
been the conditions under which these vast series of 
crystalline stratified rocks were deposited, there is 
evidence, in the similarity of their mineralogical and 
geognostical relations, of a remarkable uniformity 
over widely separated regions of the earth’s surface, 
as well as of long intervals of time, marked by great 
foldings and disturbance, and by vast and wide-spread 
erosion of the successive series of rocks. 

In conclusion, the writer took occasion to call 
attention to the important labors of the present 
school of Italian geologists, and their great zeal, skill, 
and disinterested service, as shown in the memoirs 
of the R. accademia dei lincei, and in the work of 
the Royal geological commission, including the special 
Studies, maps, and memoirs prepared by it for the 
International geological congress of Bologna in 1881. 
The new Geological society of Italy, founded at the 
same date, gives promise of a brilliant future, and 
has already published many important memoirs. 


The serpentine of Staten Island, New York. 
BY T. STERRY HUNT OF MONTREAL, CAN. 


THE serpentine of Staten Island appears as a north- 
and-south range of bold hills rising out of a plain of 
mesozoie rocks, which on the west side are triassie 
sandstones like those of the adjacent mainland, in- 
cluding a belt of intrusive diorite, and on the east the 
overlying, nearly horizontal, cretaceous marls, which 
are traced south and west into New Jersey. The only 
rocks besides these mentioned, seen on the island, are 
small areas of a coarse-grained granite, having the 
character of a veinstone or endogenous mass, and 
others of an actinolite rock; both exposed among 
the sands on the north-east shore of the island. 

Mather, who described this locality more than forty 
years since, looked upon the serpentine as an eruptive 
rock, related in origin to the parallel belt of diabase 
which is included in the triassie sandstone to the west. 
Dr. Britton, of the School of mines, Columbia college, 
who in 1880 published, in the transactions of the New- 
York academy of sciences, a careful geological de- 
scription and map of the island, regarded the serpeii- 
_ tine belt as a protruding portion of the eozoie series, 
including serpentine, which is seen at Hoboken, on 
Manhattan Island, and in Westchester County, New 


_ York, —a conclusion which the writer regards as un- 


questionably correct. 
The appearance of isolated hills and ridges of ser- 


SCIENCE. 


ee 4 > yar » ae | - 


. 323 - 


gneisses to clay; the removal of which rocks leaves 
exposed the included beds and lenticular masses of 
serpentine. Similar appearances are seen in many 
parts of Italy, where ridges and bosses of serpentine 
are found protruding in the midst of eocene strata, 
and have hitherto by most European geologists been 
regarded as eruptive masses of tertiary age. The 
problem is there often complicated by the fact that 
subsequent movements of the earth’s crust have in- 
volved alike the older crystalline strata (of which the 
serpentines form an integral part) and the uncon- 
formably overlying eocene beds; faulting and folding 
the latter, and even giving rise to inversions by which 
the newer rocks, overturned, are made to dip towards 
and beneath the ancient crystalline masses. This 
the writer illustrated by reference to localities re- 
cently examined by him in Liguria and in Tuscany, 
where this relation of the serpentines had already 
been pointed out by Gastaldi. The structure in 
question was declared to be analogous to that pre- 
sented by similar foldings and overturns to be seen 
along the western base of the Atlantic belt through- 
out the Appalachian valley. 

The speaker further alluded to the fact, that, al- 
though the sub-aérial decay of serpentine was far less 
rapid than that of most other rocks, it had not eseaped 
this process; and described the decayed layer on por- 
tions of the Staten Island serpentine hills, including 
a chromiferous limonite segregated from the decayed 
serpentine. This was a slow pre-glacial process, and 
in the subsequent erosion of the serpentine ridges 
the decayed layer has been in parts entirely removed. 
The details of this decay, and its relations to the 
limonite, and to glaciation in this locality, have 
been described by the writer in an essay on the de- 
cay of rocks, to appear in the American journal of 
science for September, 1883. He gratefully acknowl- 
edged his personal obligations to Dr. Britton for the 
many facts contained in his memoir and map, as well 
as for personal guidance during a late visit to Staten 
Island. 


The equivalent of the New-York water-lime 
group developed in Iowa. 


BY A, 8. TIFFANY OF DAVENPORT, I0. 


Tue author stated, that the upper Silurian rocks 
of Iowa had hitherto been classed wholly as of the 
Niagara limestone. There has, however, been some 
dispute as to the magnesian buff-colored limestone 
of the Le Claire and Anamosa quarries. Such dis- 
putes must, of course, be settled by the fossils; but 
he had been for more than twelve years seeking 
organic remains in that formation, without success 
until February of last year, when he found them in 
considerable quantities. Specimens of, the fossils 
were exhibited. Mr. Tiffany considered that they 
gave conclusive evidence of belonging to a group 
higher in the scale than the fossils of the Niagara 


Se SSS a eee 


limestone, that their affinities were with those of 
the water-lime group of the lower Helderberg, and 
that the identity of many species had been deter- 


mined, 


_ pentine is common in other regions, and is by the 
_ writer explained by the consideration that this very 
insoluble magnesian silicate resists the atmospheric 
agencies which dissolve limestones, and convert 


© 824 


Clay pebbles from Princetown, Minn. 
BY N. H. WINCHELL OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 


THIS paper was accompanied by an exhibition of 
specimens. The pebbles were of various shapes and 
sizes, several of them somewhat cylindrical. Out- 
side, they are composed of fine sand and gravel ; 
inside, they consist wholly of a fine sedimentary 
clay, such as is deposited by standing water, and 
contain no interior pebbles. Professor Winchell had 
compared these with pebbles found in till-deposits, 
and with various others, without finding any thing 
exactly similar. 

Professor Newberry examined the pebbles, and ad- 
mitted that they were not exactly like any that he 
had seen, but he thought they bore a general resem- 
blance to pebbles found throughout the range of 
geological strata wherever there is a bed of sand- 
stone capped by clay. Professor Claypole claimed 
to have seen similar specimens in Pennsylvania 
deposits. 


The ‘earthquake’ at New Madrid, Mo., in 1811, 
probably not an earthquake. 


BY JAMES MACFARLANE OF TOWANDA, PENN. 


AFTER dwelling upon the fact, that the locality of 
the alleged earthquake was not the seat of any ap- 
parent volcanic action, the author proceeded to state 
his view that the event in question was due to a 
different cause. He claimed that the locality was 
underlaid by cavernous limestones of the St. Louis 
group. He believed that what took place was a sub- 
sidence, due to the solution of underlying strata. He 
alluded to the descriptions afforded by Humboldt and 
Lyell, the latter having visited the locality, and given 
it a careful examination. The inhabitants described 
it as a convulsion, taking place at intervals during 
several months, creating new lakes and islands, 
changing the face of the country. The graveyard 
was precipitated into the Mississippi river; forest- 
trees were tilted in all directions; vast volumes of 
sand and water were discharged on high. 

The author claimed that the long continuance of 
such phenomena, which lasted for several months, 
was an evidence that they proceeded from mere sub- 
sidence, and not from earthquake shock. In respect 
to the geology of the region, he stated that New 
Madrid and its vicinity rested on tertiary or quater- 
nary strata. Underlying sub-carboniferous formations 
are represented near the borders of the depression. 
The sinking of a shaft brought to light coal, or coal- 
shales; also there were coaly shales found in the 
erevices and sink-holes thirty-five years after the so- 
called earthquake. 

This paper elicited strong expressions of dissent 
from several members. Professor Cox declared that 
there were no sub-carboniferous rocks in that locality, 
no caverns, no soluble limestones underlying the 
surface. The shocks were sudden. There was great 
destruction of life. No mere subsidence can account 
for what actually happened. A question as to the 
truthfulness of the reports from that region brought 
out very contradictory opinions in the discussion 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 31, 


Professor Cox, who had personally examined the 
scene of the occurrences, declared that he had found 
evidences of great disturbance. Professor Nipher 
suggested that the position of the trees, whether 
upright or not, which were alleged to be at the bot- 
tom of Reelfoot Lake (a lake formed at the time of 
the earthquake), would help to determine whether a 
subsidence, or an earthquake, had taken place. Some 
doubt was expressed as to whether any submerged 
trees were there. To these doubts and queries, Pro- 
fessor Cox was able to give a definite answer: he 
had seen the trees still upright beneath the water. 


Comparative strength of Minnesota and New- 
England granites. 


BY N. H. WINCHELL OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINN. 


HAVING had recent occasion to test the qualities 
of the building-stones of Minnesota, the author sub- 
jected them to the usual tests of crushing, using for 
this purpose specimens of two-inch cube. The spe- 
cimens included sandstones, limestones, granites, and 
trap-rocks, and numbered about 100. Great care was 
taken in preparing them accurately. They were sent 
to Gen. Gillmore at Staten Island, and there sub- 
jected to the tests, which were applied by crushing 
the samples, one in the direction of the schistose 
structure and one across it. The following were the 
results with twenty samples of Minnesota granites: 


Strength in 
pounds. 
Kind of stone. | Location of quarry.| Position. Per 
Of cubic 
sample.) inch. 
Dark trap-rock,|( Taylor’s Falls, On bed .| 105,000 | 26,250 
TaRE a aed ae URES count] On edge, | 105,000 | 26,250 
Figther’ 's creek, 
Dark trap-rock, On bed .| 105,000} 26,250 
from adyke . ne i On edge, 105,000 26,250 
, 
Gray _ gabbro, nee Points) | On bed .| 109,000 | 27,250 
massive, fine, innit oars ‘S On edge, | 105,000 | 26,250 
, 
Red, fine sien-| { Beaver evel On bed .| 106,000 | 25,000 
igen hy Lake county,.) | On edge, | 103,000 | 25,750 
Red quartzose | ake aca On bed .| 103,000} 25,750 
sienite. . county . On edge, | 103,000!) 25,750 
Red quartzose | { Bast, Bt, Cloud, On bed .| 112,000 28,000 
sienite . county . On edge, | 105,000 | 26,250 
‘ Pipestone City, )| on pea .| 111,000! 27,760 
Red quartzite . asta stone | On edge, 1087000 27,000 
Massive gray | ( Hast a Cloud, On bed .| 105,000] 26,250 
auanizonelsls ane dees ef On edge, | 103,000} 25,750 
Fine - grained | { Past oe On bed .| 112,000 28,000 
gray sienite . county . On edge, | 105,000 | 26,250 
Fine - grained On bed .| 86,000} 21,500 
gray sienite,? { Sauk Rapids | On edge, | 100,000 | 25,000 
Average of | twenty samples, - | 104,800 | 26,675 


Allowing for eleven per cent difference between 
processes of crushing between steel-plates and be- 
tween wooden cushions, this gives an ayerage for 
Minnesota granites of 23,318 pounds. 


1 Estimated. 2 Probably imperfect sample. 


The following are the records of tests of New-Eng- 
land granites : — 


| 
Strength in 
4 ‘ pounds. 
Kind of stone.) Location of quarry. | Position. Pp 
er 
| Of cubic 
] 
| | sample. inch 
} } ; 
Blue . . .| Staten Island, N.Y..| On bed 89,250 
| Fox Island, Me. . .| - —- | 59,500 
Dix Island, Me. . .| - = | 60,000 
Dark . -| Quincy, Mass.. . .| - = | 71,000 
Light . . .| Quincy, Mass... .| = = | 59,000 
Flagging . .| Hudson River, N.Y.) - — | 53,700 
Cape Ann, Mass.. .| On bed .| 59,750 
Porter’s rock, | Mystic River, Conn. | On bed «| 72,500 
Gray . . .| Stony Creek, Conn. .| On bed .| 60,000 
Gray . . .| Fall River, Mass.. .| On bed .| 63,750 
Bluish-gray .| Keene, N.H. . . | On bed .| 41,000 
Bluish-gray .| Keene, N.H. . . «| On bed .| 51,500 
Millstone Pt., Conn.) - - 64,750 | 
Greenwich, Conn. .| - — | 45,200 | 
Niantic river, | New London, Conn.) - - | 50,000 
Niantic river, | New London, Conn. | On edge,! 56,700 14,175 
Vinalhaven, Me.. ./ -  — | 52,600 1 
Vinalhaven, Me.. .| - = 67,000 | 
Westerly, R.I. .| On bed .| 58,750 14,689 
Westerly, R.1. -| On edge, | 59,750 | 14,937 
Average of | twenty granites . . |. . 59,785 | 14,946 


AD 


After discussing several supposable causes of error, 
and showing that they could not have applied to the 
present case, the author proceeds to suggest causes 
why the Minnesota granites may be stronger than 
those of New England. He thinks those of the west 
may have been less changed by decay. The lateness 
of the glaciation to which they were exposed may 
_ have left them comparatively fresh through the recent 
removal of a considerable thickness. On this point 
we shall be more certain when the glacial moraines 
have been fully traced from east to west, and the 
western analogues are determined. 


The singing beach of Manchester, Mass. 


BY A. A. JULIEN OF NEW YORK AND H. C, BOLTON 
OF HARTFORD, CONN. 

Sanps were taken from the so-called ‘ singing beach’ 
on the coast of Massachusetts, near Manchester-on- 
the-Sea, arfd subjected to microscopical examination. 
In this beach, the felspathic rocks are intersected 
by numerous dykes of igneous rocks, among which 
_ porphyritie diorite is noticeable. The phenomenon 
which gives rise to the name of the beach is confined 
to the portion of sand lying between the water-line 
and the loose sand above the reach of ordinary high 
tide. Portions emit the sound; but closely contigu- 
ous areas fail to do so, or answer feebly. The sound- 
ing sand is near the surface; at the depth of one or 
two feet it ceases, perhaps because of moisture. The 
sound is produced by pressure, and may be likened to 
a subdued crushing; it is of low intensity and pitch, 
is not metallic nor crackling. It occurs when the 
sand is pressed by ordinary walking, increases with 

sudden pressure of the foot upon the sand, and is 
perceptible upon mere stirring by the hand, or even 
plunging one finger and removing it suddenly. It 
ean be intensified by dragging wood over the beach. 


SCIENCE. 


325 


The authors review and cite very fully the litera- 
ture of the subject, giving in full a description of the 
singing sands of the island of Kaui, one of the Ha- 
waiian group. That gives a sound as of distant 
thunder, when any thing of weight is dragged over 
it. Dampness prevents the sound. That sand is 
calcareous. Hugh Miller cites similar instances at 
Jebel Nakous in Arabia Petrea, and Reg Rawan near 
Cabul. Those are silicious sands. ‘The sounds were 
a sort of humming. 

In Churchill county, Nevada, a similar phenomenon 
is described with regard to a sand-hill, as like the 
sound of telegraph-wires when wind blows them. 

The authors also review and characterize the vari- 
ous sands of different mineral origin. 

To explain the sonorous peculiarity of the sand, 
several theories are considered. That of equality, or 
of the unequal size of the grains, is rejected. Cellu- 
lar structure has been supposed, but is not found in 
the present instance. Effervescence of air between 
moistened surfaces does not apply to this case. So- 
norous mineral, such as clinkstone, is not present. 
There is no evidence of electrical phenomena being 
concerned. The hypothesis adopted is that the sand, 
instead of being, as ordinarily, composed of rounded 
particles, is made up of grains with flat and angular 
surfaces. In the present instance, the plane surface 
of felspar is apparent in many of the grains. Prob- 
ably a certain proportion of quartz and felspar grains 
is adapted to give the sound, while less or more of 
either component would fail of the result. 

Dr. Bolton has himself examined a sand of similar 
quality, on the island of Eigg in the Hebrides, and 
has described its properties. That is largely caleare- 
ous. Its constitution is a mixture of large and small 
grains, the larger ones being rounded quartz. Many 
small, angular fragments of quartz are also con- 
tained, and many dark granules of chert, the last 
being about three or four per cent of the whole, and 
having a cellular structure. 

It is concluded, that the sound is produced either 
by the intermixture of grains having cleavage planes, 
or of grains with minute cavities. The paper ends 
with a table of the physical structure of the sands of 
many localities. 


(PALEONTOLOGICAL PAPERS.) 


Preliminary note on the microscopic shell- 
structure of the paleozoic Brachiopoda. 


BY JAMES HALL OF ALBANY, N.Y. 


In the earlier studies of the Brachiopoda, the nu- 
merous species were referred to few generic terms, 
determined from their perforated apex and external 
form, and later from the study of the interior as 
these became known. The author said, that from 
time to time, as these characters had become known 
to him from the study of large collections, he had 
found it necessary to propose the separation of eigh- 
teen new generic forms from those previously known 
in this class of fossils. Other authors had also pro- 
posed new generic terms, until the list had become 
many times greater than it was twenty-five years ago. 


326 


While the interior structure of the hinge, and the 
muscular and vascular markings, were now pretty well 
known for most of the generic forms in use, com- 
paratively little attention had been given to the 
minute structure of the shell. Little more had been 
done than to show that some forms possessed a punc- 
tate and others a fibrous texture. 

The study of this structure had been commenced 
by him many years ago, but he had been thwarted in 
his efforts to procure the required cutting and polish- 
ing of specimens of the shells for microscopic study. 
He had now been able to obtain such thin slices of 
the shell as were required for this purpose, and had 
already several hundred slides prepared for the mi- 
croscope. 

A few of these only were shown, exhibiting the 
shell structure of as many genera. A considerable 
number of photographs had been made, illustrating, 
in a very satisfactory manner, the minute structure 
of each one, enlarged to twenty diameters. The 
photographs exhibited were illustrations of several 
species of Orthis, Leptaena, Strophomena, Stropho- 
donta, Chonetes, ete. 

The study of this shell-structure has shown very 
satisfactorily, what was partially known before, that 
the genus Orthis, as now defined and constituted, 
includes very heterogenous material. External form, 
hinge characters, and interior muscular impressions, 
have been the chief guide; and yet forms have been 
included under this genus, showing widely different 
muscular markings. On further microscopic study, 
it has been found that these differences in form of 
muscular imprints are accompanied by important 
differences in the shell structure. 

These differences may be noted in the illustrations 
presented, where the shell of Orthis biforata, O. bo- 
realis, O. tricenaria, O. occidentalis, O. flabella, are 
non-punctate and coarsely fibrous. Orthis (?) stro- 
phomenoides is, like Streptorhynchus, fibrous. Orthis 
subquadrata has, like O, occidentalis, a few large 
punctae. e 

In the second group, Orthis testudinaria, O. Vanu- 
xemi, O. perveta, O. penelope, O. elegantula, O. clytie, 
and O. hybrida, have one or more rows of punctae to 
each ray, the rows well defined, and the intermediate 
shell finely fibrous. 

The third group, consisting of Orthis multicostata 
of the lower Helderberg, O. jowensis of the Hamilton 
group, O. tulliensis of the Tully limestone, O. im- 
pressa of the Chemung group, are highly punctate 
with a fine fibrous texture of the shell substance. 

The punctae usually come out along the summits 
of the radiating striae or plications of the shell. In 
some species the minute tubes perforating the shell, 
and producing these punctae, bifurcate and diverge 
before coming to the external surface of the shell. 

This difference in shell structure, in forms known 
as Orthis, will require a separation of the species into 
groups based upon the shell structure, and character 
of muscular impressions. Already we see that the 
shells of compact fibrous texture have a form of mus- 
cular impression quite unlike those with the punc- 
tate structure; and we shall probably find that all 


SCIENCE. 


' garded these bodies as spore-cases, and as the chief 


[Vou. II., No. 31. 


accompanied by differences in the microscopic struc- 
ture, 

This method of determining the shell structure, in 
cases where the specimens may be imperfect, and 
thereby enabling the determination of obseure or 
fragmentary material, and its geological relations, 
will be of much importance to the geologist. 

The structure of the shellin Strophomenais closely _ 

‘ 


the interior modifications of the muscular system are 
| 
, 
‘ 
i 
: 


fibrous, with distant large punctae. In Stropho- 
donta, the punctae are more numerous. In Chonetes, 
the punctae are large, and arranged parallel to the 
radii, having a pustulose aspect. ‘ 

In many other forms, the punctate texture of the 
shell is characteristic, and of importance in the de- 
termination of the generic forms. ; 

The physiological significance of this peculiar shell 
structure will be considered upon some future occa- 
sion, illustrated by more numerous examples. 


Rhizocarps in the paleozoic period. 
BY J. W. DAWSON OF MONTREAL, CAN. 


THE author referred to a previous memoir, entitled ~ : 
‘Spore-cases in coal,’ published in 1871. This de- 
scribed fossil remains in a shale from the Erian for- 
mation at Kettle Point, Lake Huron, supposed to be 


4 
on'the horizon of the Marcellus shale of New York. . 
The remains are minute brownish discs scarcely more __ 
than one-hundredth of an inch in diameter. They 


were recognized as probably spore-cases or macro- 
spores of some acrogenous plant. The shale also con- 
tains vast numbers of granules, which may be escaped 
spores or microspores. In 1882 Dr. Dawson’s atten- 
tion was called to the discovery of similar bodies in 
yast numbers in the Erian and lower carboniferous 
shales of Ohio. The discoverer, Professor Orton, re- 


source. of the bituminous matter in those shales. 
Professor Williams found similar bodies in the Ham- __ 
ilton shales of New York; and Prof. J. M. Clarke, 
in the Genesee shale and in the corniferous lime- _ 
stone. The last named are of larger size than the 
others. 
No certain clew had been thus far afforded to the 
affinities of these widely distributed bodies. But last 
March, specimens were found in the Erian formation 
of Brazil, by Mr. Orville Derby, which threw new 
light on the subject, containing as they did, along 
with the Sporangites, abundant fronds of Spirophy- 
ton. The Sporangites of Brazil resemble in every 
respect the involucres or spore-sacs of modern rhizo- 
carps, and especially the sporocarps of the genus Sal- 
vinia. 
Dr. Dawson describes with technical exactness two 
leading types which he has named provisionally Spo- 
rangites braziliensis and §. bilobatus. The paper 
offers the suggestion that these plants, now so insig- 
nificant, culminated in the paleozoie age, and, oceu- 
pying the submerged flats of that period with abun- 
dant vegetation, produced a great quantity of the 
bituminous matter found in resulting beds. A rich 
rhizocarpean vegetation in the early paleozoic and 


: 


SEPTEMBER 7, 1883.] 


eozoic ages may have preceded the great development 
of acrogens in the later paleozoic. 

In the diseussion which followed, Dr. Dawson dis- 
claimed any intention to assert that the Sporangites 
were the sole source of the bituminous matter. 


Rensselaeria and a fossil fish from the Hamil- 
ton group of Pennsylvania. 


BY E. W. CLAYPOLE OF NEW BLOOMFIELD, PENN. 


Tue Hamilton sandstone of Pennsylvania is found 
in ridges just before we come to the Blue Mountains. 
The sand tapers off from a centre in these ridges 
both ways. At places it is eight bundred feet in 
thickness, some of it quite hard and flinty. Perhaps 
this sand was left by rivers; but, at all events, where 
it is missing it must have been cut away by erosion. 
The author believed that an ancient river had occu- 
pied nearly the place of the present Susquebanna, but 
running in an opposite direction,—to the north, — 
and probably debouching where the city of Harrisburg 
now stands. That locality had previously been below 
the sea: it was raised so as to become dry land 
through which this river runs. That land and that 

_ river again sank slowly. Then the sunken land re- 
ceived sand from the river. Afterward this region 
became the bed of asea. It is a fan-shaped deposit, 
thickening toward the centre of the fan. 

The author exhibited a model of a fish whose re- 
mains were discovered in this sandstone. He also 
showed specimens of alleged Rensselaeria found in 
the Hamilton sandstone. The latter were shown to 
Prof. James Hall, during the reading of the paper. 
Mr. Claypole thought them identical with the Rens- 
selaeria of the Oriskany sandstone, there being a 
difference of a thousand feet between the two hori- 
zons; and he believed this the first instance of such 
discovery. The strata were tilted on edge in the lo- 
eality where the fossils were found. Mr. Claypole 
made a diagram of the geological structure of the 
region. The fossils were in the middle of the sand- 
stone, which is six hundred to eight hundred feet 
thick. A Spirifer very much like S. formosa is found 
there in great quantities. 

Profesor Hall, after a brief examination, said that 
anybody was excusable for supposing the fossils to be 
Rensselaeria. The differences between them and the 
Oriskany fossil were slight though well marked. 
Professor Hall described some of these differences, 
and Mr. Claypole acknowledged that a certain V- 
shaped groove was wanting in his specimens. Pro- 
fessor Hall thought that possibly the fossils should be 
referrred to Amphigenia, which had many similari- 
ties to Rensselaeria. Professor Newberry thought 
the fish fossil new. 


A large crustacean from the Catskill group of 
if Pennsylvania. 

-BY E. W. CLAYPOLE OF NEW BLOOMFIELD, PENN. 

Or this fossil the author exhibited a cast. It 

showed no evidence of fish structure. Its apparent 

aflinities were with the king crab, yet it was not a 


SCIENCE. 


327 


true Limulus nor even a limuloid. A cast in gutta- 
percha was also shown, which better exhibited the 
markings. There was a resemblance in the fine sur- 
face-marks to Eurypterus. But the eurypterids, with 
a single exception, were all found in strata vertically 
distant six thousand feet. 

Professor Hall said that the eurypterids were widely 
distributed. They were found in the coal-measures, 
inthe Waverly sandstone, and perhaps — though that 
was not quite certain —in the Portage group. 


Animal remains from the loess and glacial 
clays. 


BY WILLIAM McADAMS OF ALTON, ILL. 


Tue drift clays proper at Alton, Ill., had a maxi- 
mum thickness of about one hundred feet, and the 
bluff clays were nearly of the same thickness. These 
clays were remarkably rich in animal remains, such 
as teeth and bones, attached to calcareous nodules 
or claystones. Remains of thirteen different species, 


now perhaps all extinct, had been found. The ro- 


dents were well represented in the bones of seven 
species, including three or more beavers and some 
gophers. Nearly seventy teeth were found in the 
quaternary deposits, a majority of them in a single 
quarry. 


A new vertebrate from the St. Louis lime- 
stone. 


BY WILLIAM M°ADAMS OF ALTON, ILL. 


OnE of the groups of subcarboniferous limestone 
is quarried extensively near Alton and St. Louis. It 
lies beneath the coal, and in some places the coal 
rests directly upon it. A number of vertebrate re- 
mains have been found in one of the quarries near 
Alton. Specimens were shown by the author of the 
paper. In the judgment of Professor Newberry, the 
fossils shown were the bones of some large fish. 
One appeared to be the mandible or dental bone of 
the lower jaw. Without pronouncing a final opinion, 
he would say that it bore a general resemblance to a 
group of fossil fishes in which the teeth were in- 
serted in sockets; but the animal itself was large and 
hitherto unknown. 


List of other papers. 


The following additional papers were read in this 
section, some of them by title only: Thermal belts, 
by J. W. Chickering. The Hamilton sandstone of 
middle Pennsylvania, by 2. W.Claypole. Evidences 
from southern New England against the iceberg 
theory of the drift, by J. D. Dana |this paper will ap- 
pear in full in Science]. ‘Topaz and associated min- 
erals from Stoneham, Oxford county, Me.; Colored 
tourmalines and lepidotite crystals from a new 
American locality; A note on the finding of two 
American beryls; Andalusite from a new American 
locality; On a white garnet from near Hull, Canada, 
—by G. F. Kunz. The genesis and classification of 
mineral veins, by J. S. Newberry. 


328 


PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F.— BIOLOGY. 


ADDRESS OF W. J. BEAL OF LANSING, 
MICH., VICE-PRESIDENT OF THE 
SECTION, AUG. 15, 1883. 


AGRICULTURE: ITS NEEDS AND OPPOR-_ 


TUNITIES. 


InsTEAD of presenting a summary of the progress 
made in biology during the past year, I have chosen, 
rather, to speak of the ‘Needs and opportunities of 
agriculture,’ —a subject which has heretofore scarce- 
ly been mentioned at the meetings of this association. 
Within the past few years the progress of agriculture, 
which I use in its broadest sense, has been greater 
than ever before. This may be attributed to a varie- 
ty of causes; such as the general thrift and intelli- 
gence of our people, and the advancement of science. 

Many agricultural schools have been established, 
experiment-stations organized, the rural press has 
been much improved in quality and quantity, clubs 
and societies are flourishing, and thousands of granges 
have helped to stimulate thought and investigation. 
Though there is much chance for improvement, the 
U. S. department of agriculture in several of its sec- 
tions has done excellent work. It is true, and it is 
strange that it should be true, that, until within a 
comparatively recent period, but very little of the best 
thought, even of civilized nations, has been devoted 
to subjects intended to advance agriculture. 

Columella, eighteen hundred years ago, keenly felt 
the want of more thought in agriculture when he 
said, ‘‘ Husbandry alone, which, without doubt, is 
next to, and, as it were, near akin to, wisdom, is in 
want of both masters and scholars. Of agriculture, 
I have never known any that professed themselves 
either teachers or students.”? Many of our states 
have freely appropriated money to conduct surveys 
in geology, mining, with a little attention given to 
zoology and botany, not neglecting to provide liber- 
ally for coast-surveys. : 

The nation, considering its age, has also been yery 
generous with money in support of surveys of vari- 
ous kinds, including, also, anthropology, construction 
of lighthouses, improving rivers and harbors, inves- 
tigating the supplies of fish, and even astronomy has 
been generously supported. It is true that some of 
this work performed by the government has been 
very poorly done, and has been enormously expen- 
sive; but the methods of work are improving. 

This munificence of the United States in support 
of science is encouraging, and, as far as it goes, speaks 
well for the country and our law-makers. Doubtless, 
in many cases, the close connection with politics is one 
great hindrance to successfully conducting investiga- 
tions in science for the government. The chances of 
losing positions are often too great to make them 
desirable, especially to persons who dislike political 
contests. Frequent changes are fatal to good, long- 
continued work. 

Notwithstanding the large sums of money expended 


SCIENCE. 


[Vor. IL, No. 81. 


. 


by our national and state governments in support of 
science, but a small sum, considering its importance, 
has been appropriated in the interest of agriculture. 
Even private gifts have gone to endow literary col- 
leges, schools of physical or natural science, astro- 
nomical observatories, public libraries, and not to 
endow something which is directly intended to en- 
courage agriculture. The men like Lawrence, Shef- 
field, Smithson, Peabody, Washburn, Swift, Stevens, 
are numerous, but not numerous enough. All honor 
to the noble names of those who have so generously 
contributed to the advancement of science. 

To illustrate the hesitancy of men to bequeath 
money for the promotion of agriculture, I take the 
following from an address given by President T. C. 
Abbot :— 

““T met a very pleasant and intelligent gentleman, 
who, from his large wealth, was about to give some 
sixty or seventy thousand dollars for the adyance- 
ment of higher education. He had been for some 
years, and was still, the president of a state agricul- 
tural society. Hewasafarmer, Did he then endow 
some chair of agriculture, or agricultural chemistry, 
of veterinary science, of horticulture ? Did he fit out 
an experiment-station to analyze fertilizers, to study 
the value of cattle-foods? Did he establish an agri- 
cultural library? None of these. He found the 
science that was the most advanced of any, the one 
that government supports at a great expense from 


the public treasury. This farmer gave his thousands 


to endow another workshop of astronomy.”’ 

Yet, even in respect to private endowment, there are 
approaching signs of better days for agriculture. A 
few far-seeing men haye observed the needs of this 
interest, and have set a noble example by giving of 
their-wealth bounteously. Cornell, Bussey, Purdue, 
Valentine, Storrs, in this country, are names which 
will long be honored for liberal gifts in the interest of 
agriculture. They showed great sagacity, and not a 
little originality, by placing endowments in a new 
field, where gifts are few, and the opportunities for 
good are boundless. It is hoped that these ilfustrious 
examples will stimulate others to make similar be- 
quests. 

Where agriculture thrives, there we always find a 
prosperous people. She needs more trained minds 
to work in her interest. With better thought would 
come great and needed improvements in the agri- 
cultural department of the nation. It lacks means, 
strength, and stability. 

The matter of plans, and the naming of a compe- 


tent director of the geological survey, was referred to 


the National academy of sciences, whose suggestions 
the government authorities sought and adopted. 
The same body, or the standing committee of this 


association, or the members of the Society for the 


promotion of agricultural science, would be amply 
competent to name a good man for commissioner of 
agriculture. 
more out of politics, and it would be more likely to 


‘ 


Such a plan would throw the position — 


¥ 
: 


Tae Ane ee 
‘bls f 


art 
_ SEPTEMBER 7, 1883.] 
: 

_ run smoothly on, like the work of the Smithsonian 
institution. 

Greater permanency would tend to make the de- 
partment more efficient, and help it to co-operate 
with the agricultural departments of the several 
states and the agricultural colleges and experiment- 
stations. : 

The leading object of these remarks is to call the 
attention of those who are working for the advance- 
ment of pure science to the great needs of agricul- 
ture, the grand opportunities for making discoveries, 
and the lasting gratitude which such workers are 
likely to receive from the people. Of course, we 
grant that all science is valuable, that much of pure 

science has a practical bearing, that no one can 

foretell what practical results may be reached by 

investigations in pure science; still there is a ten- 

dency among scientific men to ignore economic sci- 
| ence. 

I will illtstrate my meaning. The U.S. signal- 
service is generally supposed to have been established 
in the interest of science, with the avowed intention, 
also, of benefiting navigation. The benefits in these 
respects are certainly worth all they cost, but these 
are not all the benefits which the service should rec- 
ognize. 


. 
: 


I note the following as given by Dr. R. C. Kedzie 


science and the government to promptly grant assist- 
ance to the interests of agriculture. 

_ “No industry, except navigation, is so completely 
‘at the mercy of the weather as agriculture, in its 
_ widest sense. In the magnitude of the interests 
thus threatened, agriculture outweighs all others in 
importance. Indeed, without the sustaining in- 
fluence of agriculture, commerce itself would vanish 
like the dew of morning. Timely warnings of im- 
pendiug meteorological dangers might be given by 
_ the signal-service, which would be of incalculable 
_ worth to agriculture.” 

He illustrates the subject by referring to the pro- 
tracted rainy weather during the wheat-harvest of 
1882, in Michigan, where the loss was very great. 
“The approach of a protracted storm was known for 
days before the damage was done. If specific warn- 
_ ing had been given our farmers at that time, most 
of the wheat might have been safely housed, and 
the farmers of Michigan saved from a loss of more 
than $1,000,000. ‘The damage inflicted in this way 
is not isolated and exceptional.” 

At length the growers of cotton and tobacco in the 
south, and of cranberries in New Jersey, have been 
recognized by the government, and warnings of ap- 
_ proaching frosts have been promptly given. ‘* The 
general government, through the signal-service, 
should hold the shield of its protection over land as 
over sea, over corn-field as over tobacco-plant, over 
hay-field as over cranberry-marsh, over wheat-field as 
over cotton-plantation, over orchards and vineyards, 
and the cattle upon a tltousand hills and prairie leas, 
_ Why not extend this work into wider fields by doing 
r the producer what it has so well done for the 
carrier?” 


} 
q 
some months ago, to illustrate the tardiness of 
q 


TVR ee Pee ee ea. oe 


SCIENCE. 


—— =F oe 


329 


The opinion seems to be too prevalent that few 
experiments in agriculture are worth attempting, 
unless it be those conducted by a chemist. This is 
by no meaus the case, though it is true that none but 
a chemist is capable of making those of a certain 
nature, A physicist will still find in the soil much to 
interest him, and there is, no doubt, a chance to make 
discoveries valuable to agriculture. 

With regard to the great importance of investiga- 
tions and united action concerning the control of 
various plagues of our domestic animals, we should 
suppose no one would give a dissenting voice. Some 
valuable investigations have been made concerning 
the cause and nature of these diseases, among the 
most interesting of which, it seems to me, are the 
experiments made by Dr. Salmon in using an attenu- 
ated virus for inoculating animals, and inoculating 
again and again with a stronger virus those not 
affected by the attenuated virus. If the subject of 
animal plagues and the means of controlling them 
were fully discussed at meetings of this association, 
it would tend to allay prejudice, enlighten the minds 
of our citizens, and stimulate our law-makers to 
action. That there is need of a more general knowl- 
edge of this subject, I quote from a recent article by 
Professor Law in the proceedings of the Society for 
the promotion of agricultural science. ‘‘The present 
agitation on behalf of legislation for the extinction 
of this lung plague in America began actively in 1878, 
and, notwithstanding that the subject has been con- 
tinually before federal and state legislators for four 
years, but little real progress has been made, Among 
the drawbacks that may be specially named is the 
ignorance of legislators, of executives, and even of 
electors, on this subject.’’ 

In learning how to economically feed domestic 
animals, there is a great opportunity for investigation. 
There is much of interest and value to be learned in 
reference to the causes of fluctuation in weight of 
auimals which are carefully fed and watered in a 
uniform manner. 

Concerning the great need of continued and in- 
creasing efforts to investigate our injurious and bene- 
ficial insects, I need say but little; for the subject 
has been kept before the people, and the people are 
always interested to know something about an insect 
as soon as it injures their crops, or causes them 
trouble in any way. There is especially much need 
of more experinients to find better remedies for inju- 
rious insects. Attention to this portion of the sub- 
ject cannot fail to meet with some degree of success. 
Success here is sure to win the gratitude of every one 
engaged in agriculture. Success in finding good, 
cheap, and safe remedies for injurious insects will 
tend to make science popular, and make endowments 
for research much easier and more frequent than 
ever before. 

I need hardly add, that he who finds or breeds a 
race of honey-bees which is hardier, more industrious, 
longer-lived, quieter, possessed of longer tongues, 
and, last but not least, possessed of blunter stings, 
with less inclination to use them, — he who can suc- 
ceed in any or all of these objects is entitled to rank 


en ee 


330 


with the man who shall cause two blades of grass to 
grow where only one grew before. 

The U.S. commission on fish and fisheries is an 
example of good scientific work, with prospects of 
early returns in the form of an increase in knowledge 
and a large increase in the supply of fish. A some- 
what similar work, conducted by Prof. S. A. Forbes 
of Illinois, is in progress, where the object of the 
survey is to inquire into the food of birds and the food 
of fishes. 

Some valuable scientific work of an economic 
nature has been done in connection with the tenth 
census, conspicuous among which is that performed 
by Prof. C. S. Sargent, in the study of forestry. 

Botanical explorers in every land have repeatedly 
and liberally contributed plants of economic impor- 
tance to the horticulturist, — a few new fruits, but 
more especially flowers and foliage-plants. An occa- 
sional contribution has been made to agriculture in 
the form of plants which promised to be of value for 
seeds or forage, or for some other purpose. 

I have often been surprised that more attempts had 
not been made to secure the introduction of some 
new foreign grasses, and test them to ascertain their 
value for meadows and pastures. To be sure, grasses 
from western Europe have been tried; but we need 
others. 

More than twelve years ago this idea appeared in 
my address on grasses, as given before the North- 
western dairymen’s association, where the advice was 
given to get other grasses from Japan, China, central 
Asia, and the dryer portions of South America. The 
cereals and pasture-grasses, the world over, are of 
more value to man and his domestic animals than all 
other plants taken together; yet the list of pasture- 
grasses now generally sown in any state can be 
counted on the fingers of one hand. In Great Brit- 
ain, where much attention has been given to the 
subject, twenty-five or thirty species are much cul- 
tivated. It is hard.to give all the reasons why so 
few grasses are employed in this country; but the 


fact remains, that few are cultivated. The grass fam- — 


ily is a large one, containing from thirty-one hundred 
to four thousand or more species. They are widely 
distributed in nearly al! parts of the habitable globe, 
in every soil, in society with others, and alone. This 
does not convey an adequate idea of their value in 
unwooded regions, because the number of individ- 
uals of several of them is exceedingly large. 

I have recently found the following in the Ameri- 
can agriculturist for 1858, a statement probably made 
by Dr. Thurber. ‘A dozen sorts, probably, cover 
nineteen-twentieths of all the cultivated meadow- 
land from Maine to Texas. It can hardly be sup- 
posed that so limited a number meets, in the best 
manner possible, all the wants of so great a variety 
of soil and climate. This is one of the pressing 
wants of our agriculture. Experimental farms are 
needed where the value of new grasses and kindred 
questions can, be determined. A single new grass, 
that would add but an extra yield of a hundred pounds 
to the acre, would add millions of dollars annually to 
the productive wealth of the nation.” . 


SCIENCE. 


‘were enterprising enough to see that a complete eco- — 


en Lae 


[Vou. IL, No. 81. 


Still farther back, in 1853, the late I, A. Lapham 
of Wisconsin expressed similar views; and still longer 
ago, in 1843, forty years ago, in a prize-essay, J. J. 
Thomas said, ‘‘The great deficiency in the number 
and variety of our cultivated grasses has been long 
felt by intelligent cultivators.’? In this subject, but 
very slow progress has been made in forty years. . 
In the extensive unwooded regions west of the Mis- 
sissippi, the native grasses afford much pasture; but 
many of them start very late in spring, and stop 
growing early in autumn. They do not completely 
occupy the ground: they are easily stamped out by the 
hoofs of cattle and sheep. Some of the tame grasses 
will thrive better, and afford much more pasture. } 
In ScIENCE, vol. i. p. 186, of this year, Prof. N.S. 
Shaler refers to this subject. He says, ‘It seems 
possible to improve this pasture by the introduction 
of other forage-plants indigenous to regions having 
something like the same climate. The regions likely — 
to furnish plants calculated to flourish in a region of — 
low rainfall include a large part of the earth’s sur- 
face. Those that would succeed in Dakota are not 
likely to do well in Texas or Arizona. Forthe north- — 
ern region, the uplands of northern Asia or Patagonia 
are the most promising fields of search; while for the 
middle and southern fields, the valley of the La 
Plata, southern Africa, Australia, and the Algerian — 
district, may be looked to for suitable species.” He — 
recommends three experiment-stations, —one in Nee i 
braska, one in Texas, and one in Arizona. : 
In this connection, when we remember that exotic 
plants often thrive better than natives, we see what 
a vast field lies ready for experimenting with the 2 


# 


studied them; so that farmers — in fact, none except 
botanists are likely to attempt experiments. This is _ 
a strong reason why the state and national govern 4 
ments should assist agriculture in an undertaking 
which seems so fruitful of good results within a short : 
* 


grasses. . 
Grasses look much alike to all who have not closely — 


time, at so trifling an expense. Expeditions are sent 
at, great. expense to explore polar seas, with a view 
to slightly extending our knowledge of a barren por- — 
tion of the earth’s surface. Large sums are employed _ 
to fit up in magnificent style, and send to the re- ’ 
motest parts of the earth, expeditions to spendafew 
minutes in observing an eclipse or a transitof Venus. 
Would the sending of competent persons around the 
earth in search of better grasses be an unde 7 
less praiseworthy ? iW 

The men who control the Northern Pacific railway — 


nomic survey of the adjacent territory would help 
the sale of their lands. Among other things, the 
grasses will be carefully examined. 

For the past ten years the writer has been testing, — 
in a small way, some hundred and fifty species of — 
grasses. These, with few exceptions, are natives of 
the eastern United States and western Europe. Lam — 
fully convinced that further experiments, carefully 
made on a larger scale in several portions of our 
country, will be quite sure to result in pet gain iy 
agriculture. 


fi 


_ terminates at once. 


SEPTEMBER 7, 1883. ] 


Grasses suitable for the western prairies, to take 
the place of those which will be rapidly stamped out 
by close feeding, are sure to be found even without 
the aid of the government; but greater time will be 
required. : 

Prof. E. M. Shelton of Kansas agricultural college 
has probably done more than any one else in the west 

. to test grasses and clovers, and diffuse information 
in regard to the results, which are most gratifying. 
At nearly all gatherings of farmers in the west, this 
question of new grasses is a prominent topic of dis- 
cussion, 

Wherever irrigation has been well tried, especially 
on land which is light and well drained, the results 
have been quite surprising, converting a dry, hungry 
meadow into a little oasis. Such a meadow is the 
triumph of agricultural art. 

One of the most remarkable results of irrigation, 
as viewed by a scientific man, is this: the list of 
grasses will not remain the same, or maintain the same 
proportion. The bad grasses will nearly all die out, 
or improve in quality; while the best ones will rapidly 
increase. And again: experiments in England have 
shown that irrigation causes many herbaceous plants, 
distinct from grasses, such as plantain and butter- 
cups, to give place to good grasses. Docks are not di- 
minished by irrigation. The best grasses are a sign 
of good land in fine condition. Such grasses are 
hearty feeders, and are most sensitive to good treat- 
ment. In a well-managed meadow, irrigation.in four 
years increased the value threefold. 

Solon Robinson long ago expressed the view, that, 
if the streams of Connecticut were properly utilized 
in irrigating the soil, they would be more productive 
in value than by turning all the water-wheels of the 
state. More experiments in irrigation are much 
needed in this country. 

Baron J. B. Lawes, a most renowned experimenter 
in agriculture, possessed an old pasture having been 
in permanent grass over a century. No fresh seed 
of any kind was sown during this period. For some 
seven years or more, he experimented by applying 
to this old pasture, on different plats, twelve different 
kinds of manures. The results were very interesting 
and gratifying. ‘‘The manures, which much in- 
‘ereased the produce of hay, at the same time very 
much increased its proportion of graminaceous herb- 
age. The total miscellaneous herbage (chiefly weeds) 
was the most numerous in kind, and nearly in the 
greatest proportion, on the unmanured land, — viz., 
sixteen per cent, — while on the manured plat it de- 
creased to two percent. Every description of manure 
diminished the number of species and the frequency 
of occurrence of the miscellaneous or weedy herbage. 
A few weeds were increased by the manures, such as 
Rumex and Achillaea.”’ 

“The plants of a meadow,’’ in the words of the 
Agricultural gazette, “live in harmony on the unma- 
nured open park, having nothing to fight for in a state 


of nature ; but toss them a bone, ground fine. or any 


- other choice bit, and their harmonious companionship 
Every act of improved cultiva- 


tion occasions instant war. A grass likes the best 


SCIENCE. 


331 


that can be got. It will swallow soda, but not when 
it can get potash. Asa general principle, all manures 
tend to drive out the weeds by increasing the better 
herbage.”? A repetition of like experiments in this 
country could not fail to give valuable results. 

In Europe some success has been reached in select- 
ing and cultivating different varieties of Lolium pe- 
renne, Dactylis glomerata, and Trifolium pratense. 

The field is a promising one for any careful and en- 
thusiastic student. For three years past, I have been 
studying hundreds of plants of red clover at all sea- 
sons and stages of growth. I have plants growing, 
the seeds of which came from marked plants which 
varied much from each other. Plants in the fields 
of red clover vary amazingly in many respects, which 
influences their value for forage-crops, I believe our 
fields of red clover to-day contain nearly or quite as‘ 
great a variety of plants as would a field of Indian 
corn, if we were to mix in a little seed of all the 
varieties cultivated in any one state. 

Some of our grasses in cultivation are quite varia- 
ble, notably the fescues, orchard-grass, and peren- 
nial rye-grass. It was some time ago observed that 
alfalfa of California, and lucerne of Europe, were 
quite different in their capacity to endure dry weath- 
er, though they belong to the same species. Differ- 
ent treatment in widely separated countries for many 
years has wrought a great change. 

The subject of changing seed, planting old seed, 
mixing seed, raising it one year or more in a remote 
country, and then returning to the starting-point, 
deserves the attention of careful experimenters. 

The late Charles Darwin experimented on the 
effects of cross and self fertilization of plants, and 
found that in most cases plants from crossed stock 
were earlier, hardier, germinated better, and yielded 
more seeds, than those from seed of self-fertilized 
plants, while crossing with foreign stock of the same 
variety is a far greater improvement. The idea is to 
cross the flowers of a plant with pollen from other 
plants of the same variety, the seeds of which were 
raised pure for five or more years in a remote locality, 
fifty miles or more away. 

Mr. Darwin said, “It is a common practice with 
horticulturists to obtain seeds from another place, 
having a very different soil, so as to avoid raising 
plants for a long succession of generations under the 
same conditions; but, with all the species which 
freely intercross by the aid of insects or the wind, it 
would be an incomparably better plan to obtain seeds 
of the required variety, which had been raised for 
some generations under as different conditions as 
possible, and sow them in alternate rows with seeds 
matured in the old garden. The two stocks would 
thén intercross, with a thorough blending of their 
whole organizations, and with no loss of purity to 
the variety; and this would yield far more favorable 
results than a mere exchange of seeds,’’ 

In a word, with plants which may be easily crossed, 
get some foreign seed of the same sort to mix with 
your own seeds to raise seeds for ensuing crops. ; 

In 1877 I began some experiments of this kind 
with Indian corn and with beans, and have since 


332 


made others. The advantage shown by crossing of 
corn over that not crossed was as 151 exceeds 100, 
and in the ease of black wax-beans it was as 236 
exceeds 100. Since then similar experiments have 
several times resulted in showing a large increase in 
favor of crossing with foreign stock. 

In a review of Darwin’s book, the Gardener’s chron- 
icle of England said in 1877, “‘ It is certain that these 
practical results will be a long time filtering into the 
minds of those who will eventually profit most by 
them.”? The results of my experiments have been 
widely printed in the agricultural papers of the day, 
and haye been given at numerous farmers’ institutes 
and granges, beginning in the winter of 1877, nearly 
six years ago; and yet I cannot learn that any other 
person in this country has attempted similar experi- 
ments. I will make one exception, in case of Prof. 
W. A. Henry of Wisconsin university, who tried the 
experiment in connection with myself. The results, 
so far, fully accord with the prophetic statement above 
quoted from the Gardener’s chronicle. 

In originating new varieties and races, see what has 
already been done, largely in our own country, ina 
haphazard way, with strawberries, raspberries, black- 
berries, gooseberries, and grapes, to say nothing of 
improvements in ornamental plants. 

I need hardly add, that some of the best results, 
considering the time and means employed, have been 
obtained by persons who have crossed and hybridized 
according to some well-devised plan. 

Our yarieties of fruits in cultivation have become 
so numerous, that to describe them. by the fruit and 
foliage alone often baffles the skill of the most expert 
pomologist. In the proceedings of the American 
pomological society for 1877, 1879, and 1881, I have 
shown that much help can be obtained by noticing 
the peculiarities of the flowers of appies and pears. 
‘he same is no doubt true, to some extent, with 
grapes, peaches, gooseberries, and other fruits. 

Here is a promising field, full of interest to the 
botanist, —a field where he may accomplish much to 
-aid the horticulturist, and something to advance 
science. A new variety of any cultivated fruit can 
no longer be considered as well described, unless 
some account be made of the flowers. 

It has often been shown that many kinds of insects 
are beneficial to plants by aiding the fertilization of 
the flowers. The subject has still about it much that 
is new. Even Mr. Darwin said he did not suppose 
that he fully understood all the contrivances fof fer- 
tilization in any one flower. 

If it be true, as my experiments during the past 
six years help to indicate, that bumble-bees aid in 
fertilizing red clover, then farmers should try to 
encourage these interesting insects, even though 
they be disagreeable companions: Bumble-bees prefer 
to raise their colonies in old nests of meadow-mice. 
I mentioned in my last report, that it had been sug- 
gested that we should not keep many cats, nor allow 
hawks, foxes, or dogs to catch these mice; for they 
make nests which are quite necessary for the bum- 
ble-bees, which help fertilize our red clover, and 
thereby largely increase the yield of seed. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 81. 


Perhaps it may not be altogether visionary to pre- 
dict that men will yet engage in raising bumble-bee 
queens, and sell them to farmers at a fair profit, for 
starting colonies to improve the yield of cloyer-seed. 
We may yet have conventions and societies where 
the leading object shall be to discuss the merits of 
different sorts of bumble-bees. 

A few years ago experiment-stations in Europe 
began testing seeds which were offered for sale in the 
markets. Adulterations were discovered most ingen- 
ious in character, harmful in effect, and remarkable 
in amount. 

The more the subject was investigated, the worse 
it seemed to be. Something of the same sort has 
been undertaken in this country, showing that even _ 
in Michigan some worthless seeds are put on the ~ 
market. In 1877 and later I tested large numbers of 
vegetable-seeds purchased of fifteen of our large 
dealers and growers. Not one of these is free from 
selling seeds that are worthless. The remedy is not 
easy. On account of its effect on their advertising, 
publishers are unwilling to print for their readers the 
results of these experiments. Only a few people can 
acquire the information after experiments are made. 

In making tests of seeds, we still lack information 
in regard to the surest and best mode of testing each __ 
sort. Here is a good work for some accurate andin- 
genious scientist to invent new apparatus, learn the “ 
proper amount of heat, air, and moisture, for produ- 
cing the best results, find out whether seeds will 
thrive best with a constant temperature, or a varia- 
ble temperature; and learn the best modes of presery- 
ing seeds alive from one year to another. : 

I need hardly mention to intelligent students, that 
there is an extensive field, a very attractive one,in 
the study of fungi. The agriculturist who deals with 
plants, not only wants to know the kinds, but the re- 4 
quirements which are favorable or unfavorable to 
their development. In the study of effectual reme- 
dies against fungi, something has been done; but — 
there is still much demand for more knowledge. 
Successful experiments in regard to fungi are nob 
likely to be made except by botanists. 

I have only glanced at a few points where the 
biologist can find interesting work which will give 
threefold returns by advancing science, helping 
to elevate agriculture, and benefiting our country. 
There are many experiment-stations in Europe, and 
some in this country. We hope their number may — 
soon increase, and that liberal and permanent endow- 
ments will not be lacking. This association, and all 
other societies working in the interest of science, can — 
render a great service by doing what they can to en- 
courage experiments in all departments of agriculture, 
Men can be encouraged to prepare papers, and com- 
mittees can make reports pertaining to the subject. 
There is a need of thorough state surveys, solely with 
a view to the interests of agriculture and kindred 
subjects. More knowledge of our soils, water, build- 
ing-materials, plants, timber, injurious fungi, insects, 
and birds, would return to a state, fivefold the cost of 
acquiring such information. In brief, then, as one 
of the humble workers in the interests of agriculture, — 


SEPTEMBER 7, 1883.] 


TI most cordially invite you to turn your attention to 
some of the problems which vex the husbandman. 


PAPERS READ BEFORE SECTION F. 


On the use of vaseline to prevent the loss of 
alcohol from specimen jars. 


BY B. G. WILDER AND S. H. GAGE OF ITHACA, N.Y. 


Iy the absence of the authors of the paper, an 
abstract of it was read by the secretary of the sec- 
tion, Professor Forbes. Vaseline, when used for the 
purpose indicated, proves to be an agent unaffected 
by temperature, and by most chemical substances. 
It is sparingly soluble in cold alcohol, but wholly 
soluble in hot alcohol, solidifying on cooling. It can 
be fitly applied in sealing specimen-jars, and meets 
many requirements when so used. 


A new plan of museum-case. 
BY E. S. MORSE OF SALEM, MASS. 


THE author described, and exhibited by means of 
drawings, a new plan of museum-case. He said his 
observations in the museums of Paris proved the 
great inferiority of the cases there to those in the 
United States. He gave, in addition to a detailed 
plan of a case, some suggestions as to the best method 
of arranging articles within. Mr. Morse has had the 
subject of arrangements for museum exhibitions 
under consideration for several years, and the pres- 
ent plan includes contrivances which he has previ- 
ously suggested as separate devices. 


(BOTANICAL PAPERS.) 


A supposed poisonous seaweed in the lakes 
of Minnesota. 


BY J. C. ARTHUR OF CHAKLES CITY, I0. 


In the summer of last year many cattle and hogs 
died in the vicinity of Waterville, Minn. Residents 
in the locality believed that the animals were poisoned 
by drinking the water of adjoining lakes. There are 
two lakes of considerable size in the neighborhood: 
they are free from marsh, and have wooded borders; 
through them runs a somewhat sluggish river. 

At the time of the occurrence, the lakes showed a 


quantity of dark-green scum on the surface, as well 


as disseminated through the water. The surface- 
layers of the scum were in places several inches 
thick. The scum proved to be a water-weed, having 
some characteristics like those of the nostoc, but is 
known to botanists as Rivularia fluitans, and las 
been described by Cohn, a European naturalist. The 
plant is spoken of by the author of this paper as a 
seaweed: he supposed it did not occur in this coun- 
try elsewhere than in Minnesota, and it is not fre- 
quent in Europe. i 

Last year Mr. Arthur visited the locality of the 
occurrence, and he repeated his visit this summer; 
but in each instance too late in the season to examine 
the scum in situ. It appears to be composed of in- 
numerable small round bulbs of a transparent gelat- 


a 
a 

+ 
Bs. — 


SCIENCE. 


333 


inous substance, which are filled with a dark-green 
material. After they first begin to be seen on the 
water, the bulbs increase in number with marvellous 
rapidity. In about two weeks they begin to decay, 
and their entire disappearance quickly ensues. These 
phenomena take place usually in June. As no actual 
experiments have been made upon animals, the deadly 
qualities ascribed to the so-called seaweed are as yet 
a matter of conjecture, though the reported facts 
tend strongly to strengthen the belief that the plant 
is poisonous, 


Relations of certain forms of algae to disa- 
greeable tastes and odors. 


BY W. G. FARLOW OF CAMBRIDGE, MASS, 


ALTHOUGH large masses of any decaying vegetation 
may render water unfit for drinking, the only group of 
plants to be feared, as far as their effect on the taste 
and odor is concerned, is the members of the nostoe 
family, which form floating scums of a bluish-green 
color. When exposed to a bright sun, especially in 
shallow water, they are transformed into fetid, repul- 
sive-looking masses of slime, which give to the water 
the so-called pig-pen odor. The water-supplies of sey- 
eral eastern cities have been thus contaminated, and 
principally by species of Coelosphaerium, Clathro- 
eystis, and Anabaena. In Minnesota is the represent- 
ative of a fourth genus, Rivularia, which was first 
found last year at Waterville by Professor Arthur, 
and which has been found to be very abundant this 
year in Lake Minnetonka; and in all probability it 
occurs in most of the other lakes of this region. The 
singular fact is, that while unknown elsewhere in this 
country, the species was found several years ago by 
Cohn in Silesia, who named it Rivularia fluitans; and 
it was detected also by Gobi near the Gulf of Riga. 
Tt appears also to be very closely related to, if not 
identical with, an alga abundant in certain parts of 
England, referred by Harvey and more recently by 
Philips to Echinella articulata, Ag. This is another 
illustration of the very wide distribution of the 
species of the nostoc family, of which we have other 
recent illustrations in the Nostochopsis lobatus of 
Wood, first described from the northern states, but 
which has since been found to be identical with 
Mazea Rivulariaides subsequently discovered in Bra- 
zil, and with Hormactis Quoyi found only at Fal- 
mouth, Mass., and the Marianne islands in the Pacific. 

There is astrong probability, that in the future Min- 
neapolis may be troubled by the decay of the different 
nostocs floating in the lakes near the city, where they 
are very abundant. As far as avoiding trouble from 
these plants is concerned, undoubtedly river-water 
is to be preferred to Jake-water; but before many 
years the Mississippi near Minneapolis: will be con- 
taminated by sewage, and the water will probably 
then be obtained from the lakes. If the shallower 
lakes near the city are used, there can be little doubt 
that in summer Minneapolis will have the same 
trouble as that experienced in Boston. Even at 
greater expense, the water should be brought from 
large and deep lakes, especially those across which the 


334 


winds sweep so as to keep the surface-water rough- 
ened. 


The spread of epidemic diseases in plants. 
BY w. G. FARLOW OF CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 

In the ease of animals it can be said, that, except- 
ing the diseases attributed to bacteria, they are subject 
to but few diseases caused by fungi. In the case of 
plants, however, the greater part of the diseases to 
which they are subject are caused by parasitic fungi; 
excepting, of course, the injuries caused by insects, 
which need hardly be considered in speaking of epi- 
demic diseases. Most of the violent epidemic diseases 
of plants are caused by fungi of the orders Uredineae, 
rusts, and Peronosporeae, rots. Fortunately the spe- 
cies of these orders attack only a single species of 
host, or at most several species closely related botan- 
ically; so that, for instance, a rot which would attack 
the potato would not probably attack the grape, 
although it might be expected to attack the tomato, 
which is botanically closely allied to the potato. As 
might be expected, the most violent epidemics occur 
during, or just after, unusually wet periods. An 
epidemic disease spreads either by the dispersion of 
its’spores through the air, or by the transportation 
of the host-plant on which it is growing; the latter 
being probably the means by which diseases are 
carried across large bodies of water, as the Atlantic. 

With the introduction of food-plants from Europe 
to this country come, of course, many of th 2ir parasitic 
diseases. It should be noted, however, that the most 
violent plant-epidemics of recent times have advanced 
not from east to west, but from west to'east. The 
best-known case is that of the potato-rot in 1845, and 
since then the very accurately recorded case of the 
grape-mildew, Peronospora viticola, has arisen. In 
the first case, the disease is supposed to have reached 
Europe from the west coast of South America, by way 
of the United States. In the latter case, the grape- 

‘mould, which is a native of North America, can, as I 
showed by experiments in 1876, be transferred to the 
European vine;and it was prophesied that the disease 
would extend to Europe, and do more harm than with 
us. The prophesy was very soon fulfilled, as you all 
know. In the two diseases just mentioned, it is a 
characteristic of the spores, that in germinating, in- 
stead of giving off a filament, they discharge a number 
of motile zodspores, each of which is capable of propa- 
gating the disease. We have several other species of 
Peronospora, which produce zoéspores, some of which 
have apparently crossed from America to Europe; 
and there are others which, although common in this 
country, have not yet appeared in Europe, although, 
following the grape-mould, they may be expected to 
appear there hereafter. Among these may be men- 
tioned Peronospora Halstedii, which grows on com- 
posites, and may later be found in Europe on the 
Jerusalem artichoke. Professor Trelease has recently 

* found a Peronospora on Sicyos in Wisconsin, which 
resembles the grape-mould in general appearance. 
The germination of the spores has not yet been ob- 
served, but judging by analogy one would expect 
them to produce zodspores. It would not be surpris- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 31. 


ing if the Peronospora on Sicyos should also be found 
hereafter causing a disease of squashes or melons; 
and its progress eastward might be expected as in 
the cases previously cited. : 

The speaker then referred to a modification of the 
spores sometimes observed in Peronospora, Mr. 
Earle of Cobden, Ill., collected species on Geranium 
and Viola, where, instead of the usual branching 
spore-stalks, the spores were borne on the mycelium 
close to the breathing-pores; the spores themselves 
being very much larger than in the common form, 
A similar monstrosity has been noted by Cornu in the 
erape-mould. The specimens were collected by Mr. 
Farle in April, and the speaker suggested that this 
form of spores might perhaps be an adaptation to 
the cold and wet weather of spring. The conditions 
which produce the monstrous forms are worth con- 
sidering by collectors. 

Of the diseases caused by Uredineae which have 
advanced from west to east, the hollyhock-disease, 
Puccinia malvacearum, is the best-known instance. 
Its original home was probably Chili; but it spread 
through Europe about ten years ago, not, however, by 
way of this country, as was probably the case with 
the potato-rot. The diseases produced by fungi of 
other orders, as Ascomycetes, do not spread with the 
same rapidity as the rusts and rots. This is shown 
by the black knot, which is so destructive in this 
country to plums and some kinds of cherries. It is 
a native of this country, and is found on most of our 
wild species of Prunus, especially the choke-cherry, 


a shrub which has been introduced into many places — 


in Europe. As yet, however, the black knot has not 
made its appearance in Europe. 

The speaker then said that he had just found the 
grape-mildew growing on the Virginia creeper (Am- 
pelopsis quinquefolia) near Minneapolis. 
plant is closely related to the vine, the occurrence of 
the mildew might have been expected. In attempt- 
ing to prevent the spread of the disease to countries 
where it is now unknown, the discovery is of impor- 
tance. It is evident, that, to prevent the spread of 
the disease, the importation of Ampelopsis as well as 
of grape-vines must be prohibited. 


Parallelism of structure of maize and sorghum 


kernels. 
BY E, L. STURTEVANT OF GENEVA, N.Y. 


Ir kernels of flint, pop, sweet, and Tuscarora maize 
be split parallel to the germ, each race will be seen to 
present a definite arrangement of structure. Thus, 
the flint corn presents a germ surrounded by starchy 
matter, and this in turn by a corneous envelope; in 
the pop-corn proper, the germ is enclosed in the cor- 
neous matter, the starchy matter being absent except 
as the pop variety intrenches upon the flints; the 
sweet corn has a similar structure to the pop, but the 
corneous matter is translucent and wrinkled. 

By means of blackboard diagrams, the relative 
arrangements were exhibited of the ‘chit’ or germ, 
the corneous matter, and the starch, in the kernels 


of the above-named varieties of maize and in sorghum. 


As this 


. 


: 
. 
| 
: 
: 
. 


| 


SEPTEMBER 7, 1883. | 
*» » 

_ These different arrangements are constant, and do 
_ not pass into each other. The proportion of these 
elements is also, in general, constant throughout the 
development of the kernels. The parallelism which 
is apparent may be accounted for on the familiar 
axiom that similar forces acting under like circum- 
stances produce similar results. 


Agricultural botany. 
BY E. L. STURTEVANT OF GENEVA, N.Y. 


Ir kitehen-garden plants be closely studied, in 
many varieties it will be found that selection has 
differentiated the various natural species in accord- 
ance with desired uses. It will be noticed, that, while 
there is a striking uniformity within varieties in those 
portions of the plant which have not been selected 
for improvement, there is a great variation between 
those portions which have secured attention on ac- 
count of their uses. Thus, in forty-five varieties of 
onions growing side by side, the foliage is all similar; 
yet the bulbs vary in size, color, shape, and habit of 
formation. The effect of selection concentrated upon 
visible forms has been to produce and fix changes 
from the natural plant to such an extent as in cases 
‘to mask the original plant, so that historical data 
must supplement morphological data in order to con- 
nect the genetic record. It is clearly evident, that 
conscious selection is a powerful agency for the 
changing of form, and by long exercise can overcome 
the type affixed by nature to a species. In the do- 
mesticated plant, the power of intelligence to elimi- 
nate, modify, and direct the action of natural laws 


influence plant-growth; and forms designed for uses 
mask genetic resemblances in those portions of the 
plant where change means value to man. If these 
views are correctly stated, then it is seen that an 
agricultural botany, as an annex to natural botany, 
is imperatively required for the purpose of furthering 
classification of domesticated plants; and such an 
annex must vary in its methods as widely from the 
‘methods of the natural botany as cultivated plants 
vary from feral plants, the key to the motive being in 
one case the use, while in the other it is the floral 


organs. 


The present condition of the box huckleberry, 
Vaccinium brachycerum, in Perry county, 
_ Pennsylvania. 


A 
_ BY E. W. CLAYPOLE OF NEW BLOOMFIELD, PENN, 


THIS was an interesting account of a plant that 
may become extinct. The discovery of this plant 


_ took place over hundred years ago, in Virginia, and 


it subsequently disappeared until 1846, when it was 


R again discovered by Prof. Spencer F. Baird in Penn- 


’ 


sylvania. This peculiar plant exists in Perry county, 


- Penn., and in New Castle county, Md., and in no 


other known locality in the world. It exists in lim- 
ited quantities there. Its geographical limits are 


- indicating a probability of its extinction. 


; sharply defined, and never extend, but rather recede, 


“ 


SCIENCE. 


wnder a given purpose introduced a new factor to” 


ee ae eee! Se ol 


339 


Relation of root and leaf areas; corn. 
BY D. P. PENHALLOW OF MONTREAL, CAN. 


In the absence of the author of the paper, the sec- 
retary of the section briefly stated the contents. The 
paper sets forth the importance of the relations be- 
tween the aérial and subterranean surfaces of plants, 
especially in respect to area, The experiments of 
the author were mainly upon the growth and devel- 
opment of maize, of which he has tabulated careful 
measttrements showing the proportions of areas above 
and beneath the soil. 


Influence of position on seed. 
BY E. L. STURTEVANT OF GENEVA, N.Y. 


Tire ‘ position’ referred to in the title of this paper 
is that of the individual seeds grown on a spike. The 
object of experiment was to ascertain the differences 
of germinating force between seeds from the middle 
and from the ends of the spike. In trials carried 
forward at the New-York agricultural experiment- 
station 4ast winter, it was found, that, for an average 
of 91 per cent of butt kernels, 88 per cent of central 
kernels, and 98 per cent of tip kernels, of flint corn, 
germinated. Other experiments gave the following 
results: In the butts planted, 79 percent germinated; 
of the centres, 84 per cent germinated; and of the tips, 
86 per cent germinated. For flint-corn, the tip-ker- 
nels have the stronger vegetative power. 


Periodicity of Sabbacia angularis. 
BY MARY E, MURTFELDT OF ST. LOUIS, MO. 


TuE attention of the authoress was first drawn to 
this plant in Missouri. It is a matter of pgpular be- 
lief there, that the plant flowers only once in seven 
years. Mindful of the story in the Greek Reader, of 
the scholasticus who bought a turtle to ascertain 
whether it would live a hundred years, Miss Murt- 
feldt obtained some seed of the Sabbacia, and planted 
it at once. Seven years have expired since the 
planting, and now the plant is for the first time in 
flower. In a brief discussion on this paper, Pro- 
fessor Mason showed reasons for doubting in general 
the popular notions about periodicity in the flower- 
ing of certain plants. 


An abnormal orchid, Habenaria hyperborea. 
BY W. R. DUDLEY OF ITHACA, N.Y. 


Tue peculiarities of this orchid, as observed by the 
author of this paper, consist of the spur character- 
istic of its generic relations, the smaller size of the 
plant, the narrowness of the side petals, and the 
broad spatula-form of the lips of the flower. These 
changes are apparently in a direction from an irregu- 
lar to a regular form of flower. The peculiar cases 
observed, of which mounted specimehs were ex- 
hibited to the section, may be due to arrested de- 
velopment; but, the author suggested, they possibly 
indicate a tendency to revert to older and simpler 
forms. The habitat of this orchid is not invariably 
in swamps, but also in dry beech-woods, where they 
are found to bloom much later than in damp regions. 


ad 
~< 


336 


In the discussion of the paper, Prof. E. D. Cope 
inquired as to the likelihood of a reversion to a 
variety of non-spurred orchids, an idea which met 
with a fayorable response from the author. 


Origin of the flora of the central New-York 
lake region. 


BY W. R. DUDLEY OF ITHACA, N.Y. 


s 


Tue region referred to contains a series of lakes, 
and is bounded on the west by the Genesee river 
and on the east by Oneida lake. It is of a low, sandy 
character, the shores of the lakes haying but a slight 
elevation; but towards the north the country gradu- 
ally rises to a level of 2,000 feet above the sea. The 
whole region may be regarded as a series of old 
eroded valleys, filled with drift deposits, and having 
occasional lake-basins; its entire characteristics being 
such as would naturally give rise to a peculiar flora. 

Professor Dudley deseribed seven species among 
a large and varied flora peculiarly localized in this 
lake-country, the natural or ordinary habitat of 
which is variously situated to the south-west, west, 
and north-west. The conclusion he sought to estab- 
lish was that the waters of the great lakes had 
formerly flowed through these valleys, and carried 
with them these several varieties of a widely scat- 
tered flora. 

The remarks which followed the reading of the 
essay favored this theory, and pointed especially to 
the abrupt eastern limit of the species in question. 


‘ Development of a dandelion flower. 
BY J. M. COULTER OF CRAWFORDSVILLE, IND. 


By means of crayon illustrations, the author of 
this paper displayed the changes which the different 
parts of a dandelion-flower undergo in the process of 
growth to full maturity. The main object was to 
demonstrate the place, and method of origin, of the 
ovule, 


(ZOOLOGICAL PAPERS.) 


Mya arenaria: its changes in pliocene and 
prehistoric times. 


BY E. 8S. MORSE OF SALEM, MASS. 


AT a previous meeting of the association, the au- 
thor showed that the species of shells found in the 
Indian shell-heaps along the coast of New England 
differed in their proportionate diameters from the 
same species living to-day. He pointed out, more- 
over, that species belonging to similar genera, in the 
shell-heaps of Japan, had changed in precisely simi- 
lar ways. It was important to find out, if possible, 
the’ cause of these changes. A comparison between 
the shells of two common species, found north and 
south of Cape Cod, gave indications that temperature 
was the inducing cause. The two species selected 
were Mya arenaria and Venus mercenaria; the for- 
mer extremely variable, the latter very constant, 
in its characters. Specimens of these species had 
been collected in great numbers, both recent and an- 


SCIENCE. 


a ee ee oe ee, eee 


[Vou. II., No. 81. 


cient. The following are the indices, of Mya are- 
naria:— 
RECENT. ANCIENT. 
pokes Je —_ SSS 
South of North of South of North of 
Cape Cod, Cape Cod, Cape Cod, Cupe Cod, 
61.42. 61.67. 62. 62.78. 
of Venus mercenaria: — 
RECENT. ANCIENT. 
Se TE pee See 
South of North of South of North of 
Cape Cod, Cape Cod, Cape Cod, Cape Cod, 
$1.01. $1.10. $1.51. 81.81. 


Since the waters south of Cape Cod are much 
warmer than those north of Cape Cod, it was reason- 


able to suppose that these changes were due to tem- — 


perature, and that the higher index of the ancient 
specimens found in the Indian deposits might indi- 


eate a colder climate. This supposition receives some. 


support in the fact that a measurement of specimens 
found in the glacial'clays about Portland, Me., and 
on the Kennebec river in the same state, gave the high 
index of 66, and a number of Norwich and Red Crag 
fossils of Mya, which he had the opportunity of meas- 
uring at the British museum, had an index of 64; 
recent Mya from South End, Eng., having the low 
index of 58.30. 4 

It was interesting to observe, that measurements of 
Myzin Japan gave, for the southern form, an index 
of 61.10, and, of a more northern form, 62.50. 

In the discussion which followed, Mr. Morse stated 
that he had made similar observations with regard to 
other shell-fish. 


Some recent discoveries in reference to Phyl- 
loxera. 


BY C. V. RILEY OF WASHINGTON, D.C. 


Every new fact in the life-history of the insects of 
this genus has an exceptional interest, because of its 
bearing on the destructive grape-vine Phylloxera. 
The genus is most largely represented in this country 
by a number of gall-making species on our different 
hickories, and the full annual life-cycle of none of 
them has hitherto been traced. The galls are pro- 
duced, for the most part, in early spring; the winged 
females issue therefrom in early summer; and thence- 


forth, for the remainder of the year, the where-— 


abouts of the insect has been a mystery. The author 
has for several years endeavored to solve this mystery 
and at last the stem-mother (the founder of the gall), 


the winged agamic females (issue of the stem-moth- — 


er), the eggs (of two sizes) from these winged fe- 
males, the sexed individuals from these eggs, and the 
single impregnated eg, 
been traced in several species. There is some evi- 
dence, though not yet absolutely conclusive, that this 
impregnated egg hatches exceptionally the same sea- 
son; also, of a summer root-inhabiting life. In Phyl- 
loxera spinosa, which forms a large roseate somewhat 
spinose gall on Carya alba, and which has been most 
closely studied, the impregnated egg is laid in all 


sorts of crevices upon the twigs and bark and in the ~ 
old galls, in which last case they fall to the ground. 


¢ from the true female, have 


SEPTEMBER 7, 1883.] 


Up to this time they have remained unhatched, and 
will in all probability not hatch till next spring, thus 
corresponding to the ‘ winter egg’ of the grape Phyl- 
loxera, 


q 
‘ Psephenus Lecontei; the external anatomy of 
the larva. 

: BY D. S. KELLICOTT OF BUFFALO, N.Y. 

Tue species referred to is found in large numbers 

at the rapids above the falls of Niagara, and is 

_ scattered throughout the north-eastern part of North 

} America. The author proposed to supplement the 
accounts given of it by earlier observers with a 

- record of his own observations, which differed in 

some respects from those of Dr. LeConte. Sev- 
eral details of anatomical structure were brought to 

_ the attention of the members, and illustrated with 

_ wood-cuts prepared for the purpose and with speci- 
mens mounted in balsam for observation under the 
microscope. 


. The Psyllidae of the United States. 
BY C. V. RILEY OF WASHINGTON, D.C. 


D> ‘Tre Psyllidae, or flea-lice, are rather small homop- 
terous insects, that have remarkable jumping powers. 
_ Some of them injure cultivated plants. ‘This is nota- 
bly true of the Psylla pyri, which blights the buds of 
_ pear-trees; and Phylloplecta tripunctata, which crum- 
_ ples the tips of the blackberry. The family has re- 
ceived little attention in the United States, and 
searcely any thing has been known of the life-history 
and development of the species. The paper enumer- 
ates 17 described species, four of these being syno- 
_ hymes, and one of them (Psylla pyri) introduced 
from Europe. They fall into four subfamilies, and 
represent four genera already characterized, and three 
new genera, — Brachylivia, Pachypsylla, and Phyllo- 
_plecta. The new species characterized are Calophya 
vitreipennis, from Arizona; C. nigripennis, on Rhus 
copallina; C. flavida, on Rhus glabra; Pachypsylla 
celtidis-cucurbita, forming galls on Celtis texana; P. 
¢.-pubescens, P. ¢.-asteriscus, P. c.-umbilicus, and P. 
¢.-vesiculum —all forming galls on leaves of Celtis 
occidentalis ; Blastophysa (nov. gen.) e.-gemma, form- 
‘ing galls on the twigs of the same tree; Ceropsylla 
(noy. gen.) xyderoxyli, a remarkable form developing 
in pits on the leaves of Xyderoxylon masticodendron; 
Trioza sanguinosa, on Pinus australis; T. sonchi, on 
Sonchus arvensis; and Rhinopsylla Schwarzii, from 
_ the cypress-swamps of Florida. The paper records 
discoveries as to the entomography of the species, 
and especially those affecting Rhus and Celtis; the 
- Jatter forming a group peculiar to North America, and 
_ the most perfect gall-makers in the family. 
_ The most interesting portion of Professor Riley’s 
paper, to those who are not entomologists, was that 
where he dwelt on the life-histories and habits of the 
_ insects he described. The eggs are attached to leaves 
.} by a pedicel, and are somewhat pointed at one end, 
and often terminate in a filament. The young are 
broad and flattened, with a fringed margin. They 
are generally pale, and more or less covered with a 


SCIENCE. 337 


flocenlent secretion. Those on sumach are dark, and 
without such flocculence. Those making galls on 
hackberry have stout spines at the end of the body, 
by the aid of which they are able to work out of their 
galls. 
Note on Phytoptidae. 
BY HERBERT OSBORN OF AMES, IO. 


Tue Phytoptidae comprise a group of very minute 
mites, species of which produce galls of various forms 
on the leaves or twigs of various trees. Recent in- 
vestigation in Europe has placed the group in a dif- 
ferent light from that in which it previously was 
considered. Their study is rendered difficult by their 
extreine minuteness, and the care necessary to dis- 
cover the different stages. One of the most common 
species -produces the little wart-like swellings which 
occur so abundantly on soft maple leaves. A species 
on ash leaves produces a swelling which is nearly 
uniform on the upper and under surfaces of the leaf; 
while another species on the same tree produces a 
leafy growth at the end of the twigs, the growth 
sometimes being inhabited also by cecidomyian 
larvae. On the elm occurs a large deformed leafy 
growth, which also contains Phytopti: while still 
another form of gall occurs on box elder, consisting 
of a depression on the under surface of the leaf, this 
depression being filled with a woolly growth, and 
containing Phytopti. 


Notes on the potato-beetle and the Hessian 
fly for 1883. 


BY E. W. CLAYPOLE OF NEW BLOOMFIELD, PENN. 


THE author found that only one brood of the po- 
tato-beetle appeared last year. This seemed an un- 
usual fact, but no second brood had appeared on 
the potatoes under his observation. In the present 
year, no beetles appeared during the early stage of 
the growth of the plant. This fact had been also 
noticed in New York and New Jersey. He attrib- 
uted the cessation in the early part of this year to 
the same unknown cause which had checked the late 
brood of last year, and asked the opinions of members 
in determining the cause. Professor Riley thought 
the disappearance of the beetle could be attributed to 
the drought, But Professor Claypole said that in 
1881, which was an unusually hot and dry season, 
the beetles were more numerous than he had ever 
seen them, and gave him more trouble than ever 
before or since. 

In regard to the Hessian fly, Professor OClaypole 
was of opinion that the insect injured the later 
wheat much more than the early crop, beeause the 
crops that gain full strength are best able to resist 
the attack. Wheat sown before Sept. 10 escaped the 
ravages of the fly. The winter wheat béing chiefly 
attacked, the observations on the insect had been 
directed especially to that crop. Contrary to the 
opinion of many farmers, Professor Claypole believes 
there are two broods, one in the autumn, and one 
in the spring. The insect, it is thought, often 
killed the stalk in the fall, and then probably died 
with it. 


sa ‘ 
ae > Te. ae. es ee 


7 


338 


Professor Riley thought that this class of observa- 
tions could apply only to certain localities, and that in 
the southern states the conditions might be entirely 
changed. Professor Forbes thought there were three 
distinct broods per year in Illinois. As late as July 
he had found eggs of a brood already abroad. 


The structure of the skull in Diclonius mira- 
bilis, a Laramie dinosaurian. 


BY E. D. COPE OF PHILADELPHIA, PENN, 


A BLACKBOARD sketch of this dinosaur, as recon- 
structed by Professor Cope, attracted much attention. 
The animal existed in the mesozoic age, and is esti- 
mated to have been 38 feet long. The skull, which 
is about four feet in length, is in profile a good deal 
like that of a goose, but, seen from above, is some- 
what like that of a spoonbill. Skulls of this type of 
reptiles are rarely found, and this one throws much 
light on the question of the classification of the order. 
The arrangement of the teeth is very peculiar; and 
the number is very great, amounting to nearly 2,000. 
The general form of the animal is that of a gigantic 
kangaroo. The food evidently consisted of very soft 
aquatic vegetation. 


The trituberculate type of superior molar, and 
the origin of the quadrituberculate. 


BY E, D. COPE OF PHILADELPHIA, PENN. 


In the lower eocene, Professor Cope finds all the 
mammalian molar-teeth to be trituberculate. He 
has now a complete series of molar-teeth from differ- 
ent mammals in successive horizons, showing all the 
steps of transition from trituberculate molars of 
somewhat triangular form and very simple structure, 
up to the regular quadrituberculate tooth, which is 
defined as of nearly square section and having four 
tubercles. Man has quadrituberculate molars: all 
the monkeys are similarly equipped. Some of the 
lemurs haye trituberculate teeth. Among lower 
types, such as marsupials and hedgehogs, about half 
have the tri- and half the quadri-tuberculate develop- 
ment. The insectivora are similarly divided, about 
half having the old eocene molars and half the 
modern form. The various steps of development 
were illustrated by blackboard-drawings, 


Two primitive types of Ungulata. 
BY E. D. COPE OF PHILADELPHIA, PENN. 


TuE author announced the discovery of a new 
mammalian fauna of the eocene, having the follow- 
ing characteristics: 1°. All the fingers and toes are 
retained; they are plantigrade, each limb having five 
digital extremities. 2°. The limbs are shorter than 
usual. 3°. They invariably have a flat astragalus. 
To the second specification there is one exception, a 
swimming animal whose hind-limbs were long. One 
of the discoveries is of a hoof-type animal with 
carnivorous jaws. It existed in the eocene, and 
appears to have been of short duration. 

In the discussion on this paper, Dr. Dawson stated 
that some of the plants he had traced in the eocene 


SCIENCE. 


[Von IL, No. 8h. 


? 
were well adapted, by the circumstances under which 
they grew, for supplying food to the creatures de- 
scribed. Professor Cope received this announce- — 
ment with expressions of pleasure. ‘Thus the new " 
mammal of the old eocene not only bridged the 
interval between ungulates and carnivores, but also 
the wider gulf between Dr. Dawson and Professor 
Cope. 


aS 


Pharyngeal respiration in the soft-shelled tur- — 
tle, Aspidonectes spinifer. 


BY 8S. H. GAGE OF ITHACA, N.Y. 


DurRinG the last twenty-five years, respiration in 
the Chelonia has been investigated with considerable — 
thoroughness, both in this country and in Europe; — 
and at present the chelonian form of respiration is — 
considered to be comparable with that of the mam- — 
mal, rather than with that of the frog as formerly sup- ~ 
posed. While, however, the mechanism of respira-— 
tion has been very fully investigated, there has been, 
so far as the author is aware, but one investigator 7 
who has considered the organs of respiration in the — 
different groups of turtles. The author showed rea- — 
sons for believing that a true aquatic respiration, and — 
a true aérial respiration, co-existed in the soft-shelled h 
turtle. It is hoped, that, during the coming year, — 
investigations may be completed which shall detenay 
mine the exact proportion of the pharyngeal respira- — 
tion, and the structure of this unusual respiratory — 
organ. ; 


The application of nitrous oxide and air 
to produce anaesthesia; with clinics on ~ 
animals in an experimental air-chamber. _ i 


BY E, P. HOWLAND OF WASHINGTON, D.C, 


wy 

THE paper opened with the conclusion of the ; 
author that a mixture of nitrous oxide and oxygen, ; 
administered in a clused air-chamber, would event- 
ually take the place of ether and chloroform as an 4 
anaesthetic for all surgical operations. As ordinarily 4 
administered, nitrous oxide cannot be used for pro- 
longed operations, because the blood does not separate — 
oxygen from the gas. Nitrous oxide is expelled from 
the lungs without change: if it is supplied to them | 
without air or oxygen, death ensues from asphyxia, — 
The author claimed to have administered nitrous 
oxide for dental and surgical operations in over 30,000 : 
cases. He has found that where unmixed nitrous — 
oxide is used, in the average of cases insensibility is 
produced in fifty seconds, and recovery from uncon-— 
sciousness takes place intwo minutes. With animals — 
experimented upon, in the average of cases, death 
ensued within two and a half minutes, where air or 
oxygen was excluded. 

If, at the ordinary pressure of the atmosphere, — 
enough air is mixed with nitrous oxide to support 
respiration, the mixture fails in producing anaesthe- 
sia. But the increase of pressure which can be 
effected by administration in an air-tight chamber 
changes the result materially. In such a chamber, 
with suitable air-pressure, equal parts of air and 
nitrous oxide breathed from a gas-bag, or a mixti 


ere & 
SEPTEMBER #/, 1883.] 
= 
' of 85 parts oxide and 15 parts oxygen, can be breathed 
_ for an indefinite time without danger or injury, pro- 
ducing perfect anaesthesia while thoroughly oxygen- 
4 ating the blood. The effect of the pressure of air in 
- the chamber is simply to concentrate the mixture in 
the gas-bag into smaller space; and, when thus con- 
_ centrated, the oxide does the work of producing insen- 
sibility, while the air or oxygen of the mixture keeps 
up the vital processes. 
The author gave an historical account of the dis- 
covery of this method of administration by Paul 
Bert in 1878, and its subsequent applications. Hay- 
ing used it for many capital operations, Dr. Howland 
_ recommends the system unhesitatingly. Some points 
of its excellence, in addition to those already men- 
_ tioned, were stated as follows: By augmenting or 
diminishing the pressure, the degree of anaesthesia 
may be regulated at will, and with mathematical 
_ precision. Therefore there is no danger of any of 
the accidents incurred through the use of ether or 
chloroform. When inhalation of nitrous oxide and 
| oxygen is stopped, the patient recovers consciousness 
_ in a few seconds, and feels no subsequent discomfort. 
- The action of compressed air on the surgeon and his 
_ assistants is not injurious. 
_ After the reading of the paper, the operation of the 
_ system was exhibited. The air-chamber in this case 
_ was a tight box with glass sides; and the patient was 
acchicken. Perfect anaesthesia was produced and 
_ proved; and then, after the chicken was restored to 
consciousness, it was again placed in the chamber, 


. \ 


SCIENCE, 


339 


and killed by the administration of unmixed nitrous 
oxide. 
Conscious automatism. 
PY C. P. HART OF WYOMING, 0. 

THE author confined his inquiry to the manifesta- 
tion of conscious automatism in man. The question 
was whether the centres in the cortex of the brain 
were essential to the production of automatic func- 
tions of this character. Claiming that the destruc- 
tion of these cortical centres induces complete and 
permanent motor paralysis, the author drew the con- 
clusion that conscious automatism depends upon the 
integrity of that portion of the brain in which arise 
consciousness and volition. 

Prof. E. D. Cope, discussing the paper, hinted 
that the author had raised the question upon mis- 
taken grounds; that conscious automatism, of neces- 
sity, originated in the cortical portion of the brain, 
but by the influences of use and heredity became so 
far habitual that it is independent of volitional im- 
pulses. The question is evidently not one of auto- 
matical origination, but of functional independence. 


List of other papers. 

The following additional ‘papers were read in this 
section, some of them by title only: A fact bearing 
upon the evolution of the genus Cypripedium, by ZF. 
S. Bastin; Leaves of the Gramineae with closed 
sheaths, by W. J. Beal; Observations on Cephalo- 
poda, by Alpheus Hyatt ; Position of the Compositae 
in the natural system, by Joseph F. James. 


INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 


: GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. 


*s At National museum. 

 Priestley’s apparatus. — Priestley’s chemical and 
physical apparatus, now in the possession of his 

descendants in Northumberland, Penn., has been 

_ presented by the latter to the National museum, and 

will be placed in the collection illustrating the his- 
tory of science. 


STATE INSTITUTIONS. 


Iowa weather service, Iowa city. 

_- Weather bulletin for July. — The weather of July, 

_ 1883, was very favorable to the crops, being fair, 

_ nearly normal in temperature, with an excess of rain- 

- fall, and southerly winds prevailing. 

_ The mean temperature of the air was but a little 
over one degree below normal: last year July was 

nearly five degrees below normal. The number of 
hot days has been high, especially during the first and 
last decade, while the middle decade was cool. 

Insolation has been high, because, even during the 

stormy period, cloudy days were rare, and during 

the month clear days were numerous. The sun 

thermometer exceeded 140° on twenty-one days; its 

highest reading was 161°, on the 23d. 

The total rainfall was below normal in southern- 


aS = CU 


central Iowa, from Union to Jasper counties: in the 
balance of the state it was considerably above 
normal, averaging about six inches in the north-west 
and in the south-east, and nine inches in the north- 
east. The highest rainfall, of fourteen inches, for 
the month, was measured at Decorah. The number 
of rainy days averaged ten for the east and north- 
west, and about six for the balance of the state. 

As usual during July, very heavy rains have oc- 
curred, but only in the north. The highest rainfall 
measured on one day was nearly six inches, at Home- 
dale, south of Sibley, in Osceola county, on the 23d; 
next to this stands Algona, Kossuth county, with 
over five inches on the same date. But the most 
notable rain period of the month occurred in north- 
eastern Iowa, from the 20th to the 23d inclusive, 
giving very nearly ten inches of rain in Howard and 
Winnesheik counties. 

No tornadoes have occurred, but several squalls 
have visited parts of Iowa; yet the most destruc- 
tive of these storms have but touched Iewa. The 
squall of the 4th started about 5 P.M. in central 
Iowa, and reached south-eastern Iowa about 9 P.M.: 
it was not very severe. The squall of the 12th 
started about 6 p.m. in Black Hawk county, reached 
the Mississippi in Scott and Clinton counties about 
9 p.w., doing much damage by wind and hail : it 


3.40) 


continued to spread over central Illinois till about 
11 p.m. About noon on the 13th another very severe 
squall started from south-western Iowa, where con- 
siderable damage was done in Fremont and Page 
counties: the storm increased in fury while spreading 
over north-western Missouri till about 3 p.m. Another 
storm of less severity visited north-eastern Missouri 
and southern Illinois on the evening of the same 
day. A severe squall with hail reached, on the after- 
noon of the 18th, into north-western Iowa, coming 
from Dakota. A southerly squall reached Polk and 
Jasper counties early on the 16th. 

On the whole, the weather during July has been 
very fine: bright skies, aglow with ripening sunshine, 
alternated with enriching rains, —summed up in 
splendid crops of small grain and hay, and excellent 
pastures, and giving promise of a good crop of corn, 
for the fall season promises well also. 


State university of Kansas, Lawrence. 


Weather report for July. —In four of the past fif- 
teen years, the July mean temperature has been 
lower than in this year; but the July rainfall has 
been but once exceeded during that period (in 1871). 

Mean temperature, 76.18°, which is 2.17° below the 
July average. The highest temperature was 96.5°, 
on the 23d; the lowest was 56°, on the 9th: giving a 
monthly range of 40.5°. The mercury reached or 
exceeded 90° on seventeen days. Mean temperature 
at ‘7 A.M., 71.279; at 2 p.m, 85.719; at 9 P.M., 73.909. 

Rainfall, 7.23 inches, which is 2.94 inches above the 
July average. Rain fell in measurable quantities on 
nine days. There were five thunder-showers. The 
rain of the 30th yielded 3.10 inches. The entire rain- 
fall of the seven months of 1883, now completed, has 
been 29.03 inches, which is 7.99. inches above the 
average for the corresponding period of the preceding 
fifteen years, and is 1.43 inches above the total rain- 
fall of the year 1882. 

Mean cloudiness, 39.46% of the sky, the month 
being 1.89% cloudier than the average. Number of 
clear days (less than one-third cloudy), 18; half-clear 
(from one to two thirds cloudy), 7; cloudy (more 
than two-thirds), 6. There were three entirely clear 
days, and three entirely cloudy. Mean cloudiness at 
7 A.M., 38.39%; at2 P.M., 45.48%; at 9 P.M, 34.52%. 

Wind: S.W., 39 times; N.E., 15 times; N.W., 12 
times; N., 9 times; S., 7 times; W., 5 times; 5.E., 
5 times; E., once. The entire distance trayelled by 
the wind was 10,901 mile8, which is 2,229 miles above 
the July average. This gives a mean daily velocity 
of 351.64 miles, and a mean hourly velocity of 14.65 
miles. The highest velocity was 40 miles an hour, 
from 1.30 to 2 A.M, onthe 12th. 

Mean height of barometer, 29.086 inches; at '7 A.M., 
29.111 inches; at 2 p.m., 29.071 inches; at 9 P.M., 

29.078 inches; maximum, 29.381 inches, on the 18th; 
minimum, 28.679 inches, on the 11th; monthly range, 
0.702 inch, 

Relative humidity: mean for the month, 71.4; at 7 
A.M., 80.3; at 2 p.m., 54.7; at 9 p.M., 79.1; greatest, 
97, on the 31st; least, 20, on the 2d. There was no 
fog. ; 


SCIENCE. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


Circumstances were not favorable to the produc- 
tion of remarkable essays at the recent meeting of 
the American association. The attendance was not 
large. The officers of the meeting, and especially 
those who had to make addresses, could searcely be 
expected to produce elaborate papers in addition to 
their other labors. As the number of addresses per 


meeting has increased, we may observe more readily — 


some of the effects of the system that demands them. 
The most evident result is, that usually, where we gain 
one good address, we lose two or three good papers, 
The distance of the meeting from their homes 
affected especially members of sections A, B, C, and 
D, devoted to the exact sciences. Perhaps it affected 


the quality as well as the number of their papers. — 
There were not many from the east to present essays, — 


though quite as many as could have reasonably been 
expected; but there were scarcely any from the local- 
ity of the meeting and its neighborhood. Local in- 
terest, both as to authors and hearers, was of course 
deficient. In short, there was nothing remarkable 
in those sections to spur production, and the product 
was not remarkable. It was good, but not great. 
Some of the papers seem to have lost their way 


among the sections; a paper that was chiefly botan- 


ical having gone before the chemists, and the paleon-— 


tological papers being divided between biology and 
geology. 
rather than of subjects may have been consulted, 
though probably the discrepancy was mostly created 
in efforts to equalize the amount of work in the dif- 
ferent sections. 

During the progress of the meeting, it being found 
that botanists were present in unusual numbers, a 
botanical club was formed. The immediate object 
was the organization of botanical excursions. An 


In some cases the affinities of authors 


be 


ultimate object is to arrange for preparing a petition — 


to memorialize congress respecting differences be- 
tween the rulings of the post-office department as 
to the sending of plants by mail at home and abroad. 
The organization of the club was somewhat informal. 
Prof. W. J. Beal of Lansing, Mich., was appointed 
president, and John M. Coulter of Crawfordsville, 
Ind., secretary. The roll was signed by twenty-five 
botanists who were present at the first session of the 
club, and their number was increased before the 
meeting of the association adjourned. 


We have before alluded to the singular want of 


executive ability, or of co-ordination in achieving re- — 
sults, which marred the work of the local committee. — 
That continued throughout the meeting, with many — 


embarrassing results. We again refer to it, not to 


find fault anew, but to mention that the committee- — 
men themselves acknowledged their blunders most 


heartily in their farewell speeches, and that their — 


kind intentions were manifest throughout. } 
—Students of meteorology will be interested in a 


paper lately read by M, Faye before the French acad- 


emy of sciences on the whirlwinds of sand observed by - 


Col. Prejevalsky in central Asia. M. Faye believes 


that such sand-storms, like those of Mexico, India, — 


Cs Ty ae 


ford the Sahara, have the same origin and mechanical 
‘action as the tornadoes of the United States and all 
water-spouts. They are vertical spiral movements, 
‘moving horizontally and nearly in a straight line. 

— The operations of France in the region of Annam 
have naturally excited great interest in the geography 
and ethnography. statistics and commerce, of Annam. 
_A crowd of publications of all sorts are constantly 
appearing. References of the briefest sort to some 
of the more notable may be of interest to those who 
ignore the political side of the question. J. Gaultier 
publishes for Mallard-Cressin a chart of the region 
on the scale of 1: 850,000. This is stated to be on the 
largest scale of any of the maps of this region, and as 
perfect as the state of knowledge will admit. An- 
other map by Henri Mager, though smaller, is very 
carefully executed, and includes a plan of the fortress 
of Hanoi. The oriental studies of the author have 
enabled him to unify and correct the nomenclature 
in a satisfactory manner. NRomanet du Caillaud has 
published a long memoir on the protectorate of France 
over Annam, and the relations between the latter state 
and China, in the quarterly bulletin of the Société de 
géographie. 

—The enterprise of Johns Hopkins university is 
“shown by the publication of one of its cireulars in mid- 
‘summer, filled with scientific notes in mathematics, 
physics, biology, and philology. They are all abstracts 
of papers read before the different active associations 
in the university, and in most cases will probably be 
published in full elsewhere. The circular also re- 
prints, from the Royal society’s proceedings, the ab- 
-stract of Dr. Martin’s Croonian lecture; and, from the 
London Times, an account of the eclipse observations 
of May 6, to which Dr. Hastings appends a brief note, 
pointing out one mistake made by the writer. A list 
of mathematical models belonging to the university, 
and of works in the Assyrian and other oriental lan- 
guages found in the Peabody institute, are also given. 
_—The following appointments to fellowships in 
jience in Johns Hopkins university are published: 
‘Tn mathematics, G. Bissing and E. W. Davis of Bal- 
timore, and A. L. Daniels of Kendallville, Ind.; in 
physics, Gustav A. Liebig, jun., of Baltimore, anid 
Charles A. Perkins of Ware, Mass. ; in chemistry, D 
T. Day of Baltimore, J. R. Duggan of Macon, Ga., 
and E. H. Keiser of Allentown, Penn.; in biology, 
W. H. Howell and L. T. Stevens of Baltimore. 

- —Miiller’s record of the literature of pollination 
d dissemination for 1889-81 has recently appeared 
in Just’s Jahresbericht, containing abstracts of one 
hundred and forty-nine papers, with many useful 
items, both critical and supplementary, by the able 
“reviewer. Though these records are very useful 
“when they reach us, their value would be much 
‘increased if it were possible to present them to the 
public more promptly after their preparation. As 
‘itis, they are usually two or three years in appearing. 
_ — Nature states that the Dutch government have 
“ecided not to grant the sum of thirty thousand 
guilders, which Baron Nordenskiéld claims as the 
scoverer of the north-east passage. The decision is 
ounded on the motive which led the States-general, 


SCIENCE. 341 


in 1596, to offer this award; viz., to find a passage 
of commercial value to the nation. Baron Norden- 
skiéld having, however, discovered what may be 
termed a purely scientific one, the award, it is argued, 
has not been earned, As several reasons have been 
advanced for this claim made by the gallant Swedish 
explorer, we do not think we err, says Nature, when 
we assert that it was his intention to have expended 
the sum in the interest of science; viz., on an ex- 
pedition to the arctic regions. : 

— George Mantoux has just edited a volume con- 
taining the letters and journals of La Pérouse, on 
his celebrated and unfortunate voyage around the 
world; preceded by a memoir of that officer, who was 
last heard from at Botany Bay, and, with his entire 
party, was wrecked on one of the South Sea Islands, 
where the survivors were murdered by the natives. 
It forms*one of the Bibliotheque d’aventures et de 
voyages issued by Dreyfous of Paris, 

—A Yokohama paper states that Mr. John Milne, 
whose researches on earthquakes, as explained by 
him to the British association at Southampton, have 
excited great interest in scientific circles, and who 
has since returned to his duties in Japan, has applied 
to the Japanese authorities to establish an observa- 
tory, in order that he may be able to thoroughly 
investigate underground phenomena. He has sent 
the authorities a long treatise upon the earthquakes 
of Japan. 

—The London daily news says that the Darwin 
memorial fund has risen to £3,300. Among the most 
interesting of the sums that the treasurer has re- 


. ceived is a cheque for £94.4, collected in Finland. 


— The next number of the Journal of the Cincin- 

nati society of natural history will contain an illus- 
trated paper by Professor Mickleborough, upon a 
specimen found by Mr. D. A. McCord of Oxford, Os 
which has been creating much interest among the 
paleontologists of Cincinnati and vicinity. It is a 
small slab of limestone showing on one side the shell 
of an Asaphus, and on the other the legs of the animal. 
Fortunately, the rock was split in such a way as to 
show both the legs and their cast. The characters of 
the ambulatory appendages of the trilobite are finely 
shown, and confirm in a remarkable manner the dis- 
coveries of Mr. Walcott, who several years since 
established beyond a doubt the existence of legs in 
specimens of Calymene. 

—The bodies of Professor Palmer, and his com- 
panions Capt. Gill and Lieut. Carrington, assassi- 
nated by the Bedouin, have been discovered by Capt. 
Warren, and transported to England, where it is 
anticipated they will find a resting-place in St. Paul's 
cathedral. 

— Mr. Charles Depérais read a paper before l’ Insti- 
tute royal d’encouragement de Naples, April 4, in 
which he advocated the embalming of bodies by 
boiling them in a solution of chloride of calcium, 
and then in a solution of sulphate of soda. 

—The government of Ontario has published for 
the Entomological society of that province a general 
index to the thirteen annual reports upon injurious 
insects which the society has made to the commis- 


ae eee, of te oe Oe eee 


342 


sioner of agriculture. The index is prepared by Wil- 
liam Baynes-Reed, and consists of a serial and a 
classified list of illustrations, and a general index to 
the text. It appears to be prepared and printed care- 
fully. 

— The death of the famous M’tesa, King of Uganda 
and baiter of missionaries, is announced, 

— The following papers were prepared during the 
past year by members of the Lawrence scientific 
school, Harvard university, under the supervision 
of Dr. E. L. Mark in the embryological laboratory 
at the Museum of comparative zodlogy : — 

On the development of Oecanthus, and its parasite 
Teleas, by Howard Ayers of Fort Smith, Ark.; on 
the development of the posterior fissure of the spinal 
cord, and the reduction of the central canal, in the 
pig, by William Barnes of Decatur, Ill.; notes on 
the development of Phryganidae, by William Patten 
of Watertown, Mass.; the relation of the external 
meatus, tympanum, and eustachian tube, to the first 
visceral cleft, by Albert H. Tuttle of Dorchester, 
Mass. 

The papers by Mr. Ayers and Mr. 
been awarded respectively the first and one of the 
second Walker prizes by the Boston society of natural 
history, as already stated in these columns. All are 
to be published in the course of a few weeks. 

* —The eighth annual report of the Buffalo micro- 
‘scopical club shows a membership of forty-six,—a 
gain of fifteen during the year. The average attend- 
ance at the monthly meetings is stated to have been 
about twenty-five, —certainly a very large percent- 
age. 

, —-Prof. D. P. Penhallow, having resigned his con- 
nection with the experiment department of Houghton 
farm as botanist and chemist, has accepted the lec- 
tureship of botany at McGill university. 

— Messrs. Allen, Coues, and Brewster sign a call 
for a convention of American ornithologists, to be 
held in New-York City, beginning on Sept. 26, 1883, 
for the purpose of founding an American ornitholo- 
gists’ union, upon a basis similar to that of the ‘ Brit- 
ish ornithologists’ union.’ The object of the union 
will be the promotion of social and scientific inter- 
course between American ornithologists, and their 
co-operation in whatever may tend to the advance- 
ment of ornithology in North America. <A special 
object, which it is expected will at once engage the 
attention of the union, will be the revision of the 
current lists of North-American birds, to the end of 
adopting a uniform system of classification and no- 
menclature, based on the views of a. majority of the 
union, and carrying the authority of the union, 

It is proposed to hold meetings at Jeast annually, 
at such times and places as may be hereafter deter- 
mined, for the reading of papers, and the discussion 
of such matters as may be brought before the union. 
Those who attend the first meeting will be considered 
ipso facto founders. Active and corresponding mem- 
bers may be elected in due course after organization 
of the union, under such rules as may be established 
for increase of membership. . Details of Seta ae 
will be considered at the first meeting. 


SCIENCE. 


Patten have - 


[Vou. IL, No. 81. 


—‘The books of science’ is the title of a work 
announced by Leypoldt as in preparation by William 
C. Lane of Harvard college library. It is to be an 
annotated catalogue of the most trustworthy works 
for the study chiefly of the physical and mathemati- 
cal sciences. From what we know of the compiler 
and of the manuscript, a portion of which we have 
examined, we may confidently predict a very useful 
work. 

— In his address before the American forestry con- 
gress last year at Cincinnati, recently printed in the 
American journal of forestry, Prof. F. L. Harvey 
gives a catalogue of the forest-trees of Arkansas; of 


which he enumerates a hundred and twenty-nine 


indigenous species. According to his summary, Ar- 
kansas is remarkable for its extensive belts of pine, 
for the area of hard-wood growth, and for the number 
of species usually classed as shrubs, which here attain 
the dimensions of trees. More than half the species 
belong. to the six orders Magnoliaceae, Rosaceae, 
Urticaceae, Oleaceae, Juglandaceae, and Cupuliferae, 
Professor Harvey believes that physical conditions, 
rather than geological horizon, affect the specific 
character of the vegetation in Arkansas, where the 
north-western part of the state is upland and paleo- 


zoic, and the remainder lowland and of more recent — 


date. 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 


Paluzie, F. Ua historia natural explicada 4 los ninos, se- 
gun las clasificaciones de Couyier. Madrid, Perdiguero, 1883, 
160 p. 8°. 

Registro general de la industria espaiiola, con una seccién 
extrangera, en que figuran las fabricas y estahlecimientos indus- 
triales mas importantes de los diversos paises de Europa y 
América, y agenda del industrial, continuacién del Almanaque 
publicado desde 1875, por la Gaceta industrial. Ano primero 
(1881-82). Madrid, Yed/o, 1882. 238p. 4°. 

Ritsema Bos, J. Insektenschade op bouwen Weiland. 
Handleiding voor de kennis van de kleine vijanden van akker-en 
weidebouw. Groningen, 1883. 216 p. 8°. 

Roiti, A. Elementi di fisica. Firenze, 1883. 124356 p. 16° 

Roura, J. Tratado sobre los yinos, su destilacién y aceites. 
Madrid, Perdiguero, 1888. 1123p. 8°. 


Sack, J. Die verkehrs-telegraphie der gegenwart. 
1883 (Hlektro-techn. bibl., v.). 272 p., illustr. © 8°. 

Sieiro y Gonzdlez, J. Principios de psicologia 6 anthro- 
polegia paiduica, légica y ética. (Oreuse), impr. Ramos, 1882. 
319 p. 8°. ? 

Smith, Ch. Conie sections. London, 1883. 8°. 

Smith, J. M. The Hades of Ardenne, a visit to the caves of 


Han. Described and illustrated by the T. T. Club. London, 
1883. illustr. 8°. 


Wien, 


Sonklar v. Innstaedten, C. Von den ueberschwem- 


mungen, enthaltend die ueberschwemmungen im allgemeinen, 
chronik der ueberschwemmungen und mittel derabwehr. Wien, 
1883. 151 p. 8°. 


Sundman, G., and Reuter, 0. M. The fishes of Finland 
(and Sweden). pt. i. 
Will contain about 30 parts. 


Tobler, A. Die elektrischen uhren und die feuerwehr-tele- 


graphie. Wien, 1883 (Elektro-techn. bibl., xiii.). 240 p., illustr. 8°. 


Ungarn, Geologische special karte von. Herausgeceben 
von der k. ungarischer geologischen reichsanstalt. Budapest, 
1883. 


Walras, L. Théorie mathématique de la richesse sociale. 
Leipzig, 1888. 256p.,6pl. 8. 3 


Helsingfors, 1883. 9 p.,8 col. pl. £% 


Wittstein, G. C. Handwérterbuch der pharmekognosie = 


des pflanzenreichs. 


Zacharias, J. Die elektrischen leitungen und ihre anlage. 
Wien, 1883. (Hlektro- techn. bibl., xvi.) 272 p., illustr. 8°. 


Breslau, 1883. 994 p. gr. 8°. 


mee CCT 


FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14, 1883. 


THE U. S. SIGNAL-SERVICE. 
Tt 

Tue annual report of the chief signal-officer 
for 1881, recently issued, is a volume which 
ought to be of great interest to all concerned 
in the progress of meteorological science in 
this country ; and it would be, were it not for 
certain characteristics too apt to be found in 
government publications. Of these, the most 
notable at first sight is its ponderous bulk. 
After one has received the polite notice, ‘a 
package too large for the carrier,’ etc., and 
has achieved its safe delivery in one way or 
another, he is likely to wonder what end it may 
be best made to serve. If he be interested in 
meteorology, he will find it well worth his while 
to give at least one volume of the series a 
eareful examination, in order that he may 
know what not to read in the next. 

In its thirteen hundred broad pages, together 
with its maps, charts, etc., he will find much 
that is valuable; much that, to him, is per- 
fectly useless; and, if his tastes be not too 
circumscribed, much that is amusing. A goy- 
ernment report is not a likely place in which to 
seek entertainment; but, considered as a sci- 
entific publication, the report will furnish its 
share. In this respect it is, doubtless, clear 
ahead of all other scientific documents issued 
by the government. 

As a scientific document it must be con- 
sidered; for, since the organization of the 
weather bureau of the signal-service, by far 
the larger part of the operations of that service 
have had to do with meteorology ; in fact, the 
work in the way of practical meteorology con- 
stitutes the only raison d’étre of the service as 
at present organized and equipped. 

A fair examination of this work can only be 
made by a comparison of this report with those 
of the several preceding years: indeed, justice 
could not be done the present administration 


No. 32. — 1883. 


without such a comparison, as it indicates 
changes of considerable moment, which seem 
likely to greatly increase the efliciency and 
value of the service. 

The first part of the volume consists of the 
report proper of the chief signal-oflicer. This 
seems, in each case, to be made up almost 
entirely by copying from the report of the 
previous year. It must have been written, of 
course, at some time, and by somebody; but 
when and by whom will soon be lost to the 
history of meteorological science. A few ad- 
ditions are made, fewer subtractions, and now 
and then a linguistic blunder has been eradi- 
cated, after it has done faithful service for 
several years. The impression is everywhere 
conveyed, that the preparation of this, which 
one might expect to find the freshest and most 
readable portion of the volume, is annually 
committed to the skill of a copying-clerk. It 
is not to be denied, that certain statements in 
regard to the service will bear, and deserve, 
repetition ; and, indeed, the chief signal-oflicer 
himself inserted a sort of an apology for this 
repetition a few years ago, which has been 
faithfully reprinted along with the rest ever 
since. But whole pages are repeated year 
after year, when it would appear that they had 
served their purpose in a single publication ; 
and this seems all the more uncalled-for in the 
case of much which might better have never 
been published at all. 

We are annually informed, that ‘* meagre re- 
ports only have been received of the instruction 
for the field duties of the signal-service else- 
where than at Fort Myer;’’ and we wonder 
why whoever is responsible for this neglect 
is not urged to remedy it, through some other 
avenue than the annual report. The need of 
a fire-engine at the post was a standing item 
for several years; but, as it does not appear 
in the last report, it may be assumed that the 
want has been supplied, possibly through the 
generosity of some distressed reader. 


344 


The space occupied by the fire-engine is now 
filled, however, by the extraordinary and inter- 
esting announcement, that ‘‘ the post-garden 
is in good condition, and has, for some time, 
been a source of supply to the company mess.”’ 
The importance of this statement entirely over- 
shadows that of many others which might be 
quoted, — such as that the enlisted men have 
succeeded in managing the coal-oil lamps 
which have been supplied them, that the build- 
ings of the post will require painting the com- 
ing season, etc. 

In some instances the annual reprint has 
not received that attention which might be 
expected even from clerical supervision. One 
of the statements which has regularly made 
its appearance for several years is this: ‘‘ It 
is needless, with such facts in view, and 
after years of continuous service, to re- 
iterate the adyantages secured to the signal 
service by its military organization.’’ In spite 
of this declaration, the reiteration has been 
religiously kept up; and it was evidently in- 
tended that the above blank should be properly 
filled as the years rolled by. In the report 
for 1879, it is filled with the word ‘ nineteen,’ 
and this is exactly copied in that for 1880. In 
the report for 1881, the word ‘ twenty’ is sub- 
stituted ; so that, unless an effort is made to 
‘catch up’ in the next report, the corps will 
be deprived of one ‘year of continuous ser- 
vice,’ and the argument will be proportion- 
ately weakened. : 

Mlustrations of useless and careless reprint- 
ing might be continued to almost any extent ; 
but it will be of greater interest to pass to Ap- 
pendix I., which contains the courses of in- 
struction furnished at Fort Myer for the 
training of officers and men belonging to the 
service. 

If this is to be considered as a school for 
the education of meteorological observers, its 
curriculum is certainly marvellous. Although 

.certain portions of the course of study are 
given in the report in great detail, — even to 
the paragraph and page at which each lesson 
begins and ends, other portions are not so 
well defined; and some assumptions must be 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 32, 


made as to the time occupied in certain parts 
of the work. It is thought that no injustice 
is done in the following estimate of the distri- 
bution of study and practice : — 

Officers who are assigned to the school for 
instruction in the duties of the service remain 
there about one year. The instruction is 
theoretical and practical. In the theoretical 
course, about 37 per cent of the whole time is 
spent in the study of meteorology and meteor- 
ological observations. In the practical course, 
8 per cent is a high estimate for the time de- 
voted to that subject. Indeed, out of the 
year’s work, it is prescribed that eight days 
shall be spent in the meteorological observa- 
tory ; in which time the officer is expected to 
learn ‘‘ the use of all instruments used at ob- 
servation offices of the signal-service, care of 
and repair of same, and making out of me- 
teorological forms.’’? The remainder of the 
year is devoted to the study and practice of 
military signalling, wand- practice, military 
surveying, electric telegraph, international sig- 
nals, ete. Jt is fair to add, however, that for 
officers who are assigned to the headquarters 
of the chief signal-officer, and are candidates 
for service in the ‘ indication-room,’ a very 
liberal course of advanced study and reading 
in meteorology is prescribed to be carried on 
at the office of the weather-bureau accom- 
panied by practice in the preparation of charts 
and in ‘ forecasting.’ 

The enlisted men, however, upon whom falls 
the burden of collecting the great mass of me- 
teorological material, which is daily digested 
in the central office, do not fare so well. The 
period of their stay at Fort Myer is limited 
to about six months, during the first two of 
which they cannot be placed under class in- 
struction, but are required to recite in cavalry 
tactics, to attend wand and telegraph practice, 
to stand guard, and attend to other military 
duties. When, at last, they are permitted to 
begin the study of meteorology, the percent- 
age of their time given to it is not noticeably 
greater than that of the officers. During their 
six months at the fort, ten days are spent in the 
meteorological observatory ; and in that time 


SEPTEMBER 14, 18S83.] 


they are expected to learn, and probably do 
learn, all that the officers acquire in the eight 
days which is allowed them for practice in me- 
teorology. When it is remembered that the 
sole occupation of the great majority of these 
men, during the entire period of their enlist- 
ment after leaving Fort Myer, is to make and 
record meteorological observations, it seems 
little short of folly to subject them to such a 
course of training in prepuration. That only 
ten days, out of the one hundred and eighty 
spent in the school, should be occupied in 
practical training in observation, and the use 
of instruments, is certainly an inversion of the 
true order of things. It is diflicult to see 
the value, to such men, of the long training 
in ‘cavalry tactics,’ the ‘manual of the car- 
bine,’ the ‘ manual of the kit,’— whatever that 
may be, —and many other things found in the 
course. It is true, that, to observers stationed 
on the seacoast, a knowledge of naval signals 
is necessary ; and, toall, a degree of familiarity 
with the practical working of the electric tele- 
graph would be desirable: but the business of 
the great majority of the observers is purely 
scientific, and, it is to be hoped, peaceful in 
its character. It is clear that the skill and 
knowledge necessary to the successful per- 
formance of these duties must be largely ac- 
quired after active service has begun. 

The chief signal-officer very properly re- 
marks, that the criticism to which the service has 
been subjected is evidence of its success. No 
well-informed person can fail to feel great pride 
in the results achieved by the signal-service 
since the organization of the weather-bureau. 
The general increase in the accuracy of its 
forecasts, the efforts made to communicate im- 
portant meteorological information to locali- 
ties likely to be seriously affected by probable 
changes in the weather, and its valuable 
services in the display of cautionary and dan- 
ger signals, have given it a hold upon the con- 
fidence of the people not easily weakened. 

The percentages of verification of predictions 
since the organization of the weather-service, 
as given in the various reports, are as fol- 
lows: 


SCIENCE. 345 


Per cent of | Y Per cent of 


Year verification. ee verification. 
19GLi, iw es 69 1STa) aS be 86 
ISB. we awe 77 1873 4 ws eeheu ik 84 
1873 i7 1S7Q Ss tes 86 
1874 84 1680340 AWS, outa 86 
1875 87 1681 <i. 5 she 85 
1876 - 


In the display of cautionary and danger signals, 
the success has been about equally great. In 
forecasting, in which the character of the 
weather only is considered, the percentage of 
verification is generally as high as ninety. 

While these figures do not indicate any 
marked progress during the past five years, it 
must be remembered that a point has been 
reached from which farther advance must 
necessarily be difficult and slow. 


‘REX MAGNUS,’ 


At the suggestion of the editors of Sctencr, 
I have carefully examined the ‘ viandine’ 
brand of the new preservative ‘ Rex magnus,’ 
and find it contains boracie acid, sodium, 
potassium, and water as ingredients; and L 
believe its composition can be roughly form- 
ulated as follows : — 

Boracic acid | 

Borax 


Potassic'‘chloride.. ... . ~ 
Woy ee Ae 


67 per cent. 


15 “c 
18 “ 


The mixture also contains very small 
amounts of sulphur and magnesium. Both, 
however, are probably accidental impurities. 

To determine the preservative properties of 
the viandine brand, a number of experiments 
were undertaken, the general result of which 
can best be shown by copying some of the 
notes taken during the course of the experi- 
ments, and supplementing them with a for- 
mulated table. 

July 5, I dissolved one-half pound of vian- 
dine in one gallon of water contained in a 
stone jar, and placed one pound of beef-steak, 
one pound of yeal-steak, and one pound of 
fresh mackerel in the solution. 

July 6, the beef, veal, and fish, which had 
remained in the solution twenty-six hours, 
were removed, and, after allowing them to 
drain for two or three minutes, were placed 
on plates i in the laboratory. 

July 7, I boiled the solution which had been 
used with the meats and fish, and removed the 
scum that rose to the surface. When cold, I 
added about two ounces of viandine, and poured 
the solution into a stone jar containing one 
pound of mutton-chops and one pound of liver. 


346 


Tabular statement of experiments with 


SCIENCE. 


[VoL. 


‘Rex magnus.’ 


IL, No. 32. 


duly. qlemiper. Beef-steak. Veal. Mackerel. Liver. Mutton-chops. OAs HIE PiEDe Leg of mutton. 
5 86° Placed in solu- | Placed in solu- | Placed in solu- - - = - - - - - 
tion. tion. tion. 
6 85 Taken from} Taken from] Taken from - - - - - - - - 
solution. solution. solution. 
7 84 No odor. No odor. No odor. Placed in solu- | Placed in solu- - - - - 
tion. tion. 
8 73 No odor. No odor. No odor. Taken from| Taken from - - - - 
solution. solution. 
9 70 No odor. No odor. No odor. No odor. No: odor. - - - - 
10 72 No odor. No odor. No odor. No odor. No odor. - - - - 
abe 71 No odor. No odor. No odor. No odor. No odor. - - -- - 
12 79 No odor. No odor. No odor. No odor. No odor. - - - - 
13 78 No odor. Slight odor. No odor. No odor. No odor. - - - - 
14 79 No odor. Slight odor. No odor. Leathery look, | No odor. 2 - - - 
slight odor. 
15 79 No odor. Slight odor, No odor. Slight odor. No odor. - - - - 
16 17 No odor. Odor. No odor. Slight odor. No odor. - - - - 
17 80 Eat a piece, | Odor. No odor. Odor. No odor. - - - - 
palatable. 
18 79 No odor. Odor. No odor. Odor. No odor. Placed in solu- | Placed in solu- 
tion. tion. 
19 73 No odor. Odor. No odor. Odor. No odor. - - - - 
20 74 No odor. Odor. No odor. Odor. No odor. Taken from so-| Taken from s0- 
lution. — lution. 
21 76 No odor. Very disagree- | No odor. Thrown away. | No odor. No odor, No odor. 
xble. 
22 79 No odor. Strong odor. No odor. - - No odor. No odor. No odor. * 
23 75 No odor. Strong odor. No odor. - - No odor. No odor. No odor. 
24 17 No odor. Thrown away. | No odor. - - No odor. No odor. No odor. 
25 76 Slight odor. - - No odor. - - Slight odor. No odor. No odor. 
26 79 Tasted apiece, - - No odor. - - Tasted a piece, | Slight odor. Slight odor. 
not palatable. not palatable. 
27, 17 = = = = No odor. = - - - Cooked, did | Odor stronger. 
not dare to 
taste, odor 
: very strong. 
28 75 - - - - Hat a piece, - - - - - - Cooked, odor 
2 palatable. so strong I 
could not re- 
main in the 
room. 


Nore.— The temperature is the mean of three daily observations taken at about nine o’clock A.M. and three and ten P.M. 
laboratory in which the meats were placed was well ventilated, and protected from flies and insects by wire screens. 
the viandine used was obtained from the office of ScrENCE, the rest by express from the Boston oflice of the company. 


July 8, I took the mutton and liver out of 
the solution, allowed them to drain, and placed 
them on plates in the laboratory. 

July 13, the plate in which the liver had 
been placed was nearly full of a red-colored 
liquid, and the liver had a hard leathery 
appearance. The liver and veal had both 
acquired a slight odor. The other meats and 
fish smelled sweet. 

July 16, the odor of the liver and veal had 
become stronger than on July 13. The liver 
was placed on a clean plate, as the first plate 
was full of the red-colored liquid. The beef, 


The 
One pound of 


mutton, and fish still looked and smelled 
fresh. : 

July 17, I had one-half of the beef-steak 
which had been treated with the viandine 
solution on July 5 cooked for breakfast. It 
was tender and palatable: still, it was not like 
a fresh steak. There was a slight taste of 
borax; and there was also a want of flavor, 
something like what fresh beef-steak might 
have if it were washed with cold water before 
cooking. Poured a little viandine solution 
oyer the veal and liver. 

July 18, a roasting piece of sirloin beef, 


SEPTEMBER 14, 1883.] 


weighing five pounds, also a lee of mutton 
weighing four and one-half pounds, — being 
first punctured in a number of places, espe- 
cially in the neighborhood of the bones, with 
an iron skewer, — were placed in two gallons of 
the viandine solution made up like the solution 
of July 5. The liquid was in a stone jar, and 
completely covered the meats. 

July 20, the beef and mutton, which had 
remained in the viandine solution thirty-six 
hours, were removed, allowed to drain for two 
minutes, and placed on plates in the labora- 
tory. 

July 21,1 was obliged to throw away the 
liver, the odor being very offensive. The veal 
had a disagreeable odor. A few mould-spots 
were removed, which had appeared on the 
steak. No odor, however, was perceptible. 
The mutton-chops and fish also smelled fresh. 
Placed steak and mutton in viandine solution 
for one half-hour. 

July 24, it became necessary to throw away 
the veal. Beef-steak, mutton-chops, mackerel, 
roasting piece of beef, and leg of mutton ap- 
peared fresh. 

July 25, the beef-steak and mutton-chops 
smelled slightly old. 

July 26, I had the remaining half of the 
beef-steak which had been treated on July 5, 
and the mutton-chops which had been treated 
on July 7, cooked for dinner. No odor was 
noticeable ; but they had a very high taste, so 
much so as to be unpalatable, save to a starv- 
ing man. The roasting piece of beef and the 
leg of mutton smelled slightly. The mackerel 
appeared and smelled fresh. 

July 27, the mackerel, which had remained 
in the laboratory since July 5, was cooked for 
breakfast. It was fresh and fairly good, like 
mackerel that are served at the average hotel 
table. There was no taste of borax. The 
roasting piece of beef was to be served for 
dinner. On cooking, a very offensive odor was 
given off. An examination showed a small 
piece near the bone that had become decayed. 
The rest of the beef appeared good ; but pieces 
cut from different parts all had a strong odor 
of putrefaction. ‘The mutton in the laboratory 
had a perceptible odor. 

July 28, the mutton was cooked for dinner ; 
but, when placed on the table, the odor was 
so strong that I could not remain in the room. 

The results obtained from the above ex- 
periments seem to show, that pieces of meat 
having large surfaces in comparison to their 
thickness, as steaks and chops, and also small 
fish, can be kept a considerable length of time, 
although with some deterioration in taste, by 


SCIENCE. 


347 


the use of the viandine brand of Rex magnus. 
In the case of larger pieces, such asa roasting 
piece of beef, or ‘leg of mutton, having tried 
only two experiments, I do not care at this 
time to speak positively. I can, however, 
state, that I should have some hesitation in 
again allowing to be cooked in the house large 
pieces of beef and mutton that had been kept 
in a warm room for ten days after treatment 
with the solution of viandine. 

Lronarp P. Kiynicurr. 


; 


Worcester free institute, July 28, 1883. 


THE IGLOO OF THE INNUIT.A—V. 


As the spring wears on, and thawing 
weather comes, the igloo falls into a decline ; 
and when an exposed place can be found to 
pitch the seal-skin tent, it is abandoned. 
Before this can‘be found, however, the igloo 
assumes a new combination phase, which must 
be described. When several igloos have fallen 
in and buried their contents (the women, babies, 
and puppies managing to wriggle out, and a 
good share of the things being lost in the débris 
of snow-banks), the Innuit ceases to build any 
thing more than the walls of snow, using the 
prospective tent for aroof; this being thes same 
as the autumn igloo, excepting the bod y, which 
is of snow, and not of ice. This phase of the 
igloo is so well shown in the illustration on 
the next page, taken from the German book of 
a member of my party, Mr. Klutschak, entitled 
‘ Als Eskimo unter den Eskimos,’ that I trans- 
fer it to this article. His sketch of our spring 
igloos was taken on Cape Herschel, King 
William’s Land, on the 16th of June, 1879, — 
the day before we abandoned them for the 
summer, and moved into tents. 

The tenacity of some igloos, however, before 
they tumble in, is tr uly wonderful. They 
always give ample warning by slowly sinking 
on the top and side towards the sun or war m 
wind; and this the inhabitants counteract by 
thrusting a pole from the inside through the 
dome at its most threatening point, and there 
firmly lashing several small cross-pieces to pre- 
vent further sinking, which it will do if not too 
warm, or some small dog with bone in mouth, 
and pursued by a larger, does not take refuge 
on top, as is their wont, — when the show-dome, 
dogs and all, come tumbling in on the heads 
of the hyperboreans. The foot of this pole 
rests on the floor, hardened by tramping, or a 
board is put under it to give it support. I 
have, however, seen a high-domed, abandoned 

1 Concluded from No. 31. 


348 SCIENCE. [Vor. IL, No. 32. 


= 
oT 


LJEUT. BCHWATKA’S PARTY, ENCAMPED IN SPRING 1G100Q8, IN KING WILLIAM'S LAND, TUNE 16, 1879, 


SEPTEMBER 14, 1883.] 


igloo, which had been well chinked and lightly 
banked (the whole mass nearly homogeneous 
from long use), slowly subside from the top 
until this touched the floor, and so remain 
without tumbling in, the igloo being actually 
Here 


inverted in its upper half or two-thirds. 


it would remain for a few days before warm 
weather would cause it to fall to pieces. I 
have tried to show a cross-section through 
such an igloo, the broken line showing its 
original position. 

When food is readily procured without much 
effort, as in seasons of great plenty, the natives 
do not wholly abandon the necessary exercisé 
to keep them in good muscle and bodily 
health, as is the general opinion respecting 
these people, but have been known to keep 
it up by various gymnastic devices, one of 
which (tight-ropes made of thongs 
of walrus-hide neatly and strongly 
lashed within an empty igloo) is 
well portrayed by Capt. Hall in 
the illustration. 

I should like to give a few brief 
descriptions of those appurtenan- 
ces that might be strictly called 
igloo accessories, as the native 
stone lamp and kettle, the well 
to fresh water through the thick 
ice, beside the snow-hut and 
many other minor items all grow- 
ing out of the igloo itself; but 
this article has already grown to 


SCIENCE. 


349 


privations of a spring tent-life in the many 
expeditions wherein they were used, and under 
circumstances that would have been absolute 
pleasure to my party. I have read so often 
of their sufferings while journeying in tents, and 
the discomforts and even dangers they risked 

while living in ships 

and other unsuitable 


ae arctic abodes, during 


aes, short journeys from 
seis these places, under 

ZS ees : : 
SSM; such intensely low 


temperatures as 
—50°, —60°, or even 
—70° F., when under 
almost the same con- 
ditions my party was 
prosecuting a com- 
fortable sledge-jour- 
ney four hundred to 
five hundred miles 
from its base of sup- 
plies, with no provisions extept such game as 
was killed from day to day, that the conviction 
becomes two-edged that the accessories of 
igloos, and their constant companion of the 
cold, the reindeer clothing, are absolutely 
essential to a well-managed arctic sledge-jour- 
ney. With their help, strange as it may 
seem, the subject of temperature becomes 
entirely of secondary importance, if it enters 
the arctic travelling problem at all; and, were 
it not for the long dark night which accom- 
panies these thermometrical depressions, I 


such dimensions that they must 
be laid aside. 

The utility of the igloo cannot 
be exaggerated. Habituated as my little party 
of white men were, during our two winters in 
these desolate zones, to a constant life in these 
simple habitations, and the many comforts 
accruing therefrom, I have often maryelled 
how white men could stand the hardships and 


INNUIT TIGHT-ROPES. 


believe that a protracted sledge-journey could 
be carried successfully forward in the continu- 
ous cold of the lowest recorded temperature, 
all other things being favorable. 

FReDERICK SCHWATKA, 


Lieut. U.S. Army. 


300 


A UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE AND ITS 
VEHICLE,—A UNIVERSAL ALPHABET. 


Smart the world ever see an end of the 
confusion of tongues? Shall differences of 
language cease? Or shall, at least, some 
selected medium of thought be established 
throughout the world, by which all men may 
understand each other on occasion, while still 
preserving their vernaculars for intercourse at 
home? A consideration of the subject may 
enable us to answer these questions. 

Language in all its varieties is a growth; 
and every living language is still growing, 
shedding leaves here, and pushing out new 
leaflets there, according to its vigor of vitality. 
The most copious language of to-day was 
smaller yesterday, and smaller still in every 
generation through which we can trace its his- 
tory. We cannot go back to its beginning, 
for it properly had none: it did not spring 
from a seed, and so take the definite form of 
a parent language; but each tongue arose 
from the crossing and interlocking and blend- 
ing of shoots from older languages, until they 
grew together, and became a new stem, from 
which, in turn, shot other branches, to repeat 
the process to the end of time. 

In the comparative study of languages, and 
in what we know of human history, we can 
trace the evidences of this continuous cross- 
grafting of branch on branch in various direc- 
tions; and the oldest tongues are those to 
which some peculiar form of growth can be 
traced back and back through the greatest 
number of stages. 

If we could follow these oldest languages 
up to their respective sources, we should find 
at last a very small vocabulary of simple 
utterances used to denote an extremely limited 
number of ideas. But we should find no 
primitive natural germ of speech from which 
the first language had sprung into life and 
shape. The faculty of expression, and the 
instinct of imitation, are the only primitive 
parts of language; but these, at first, were, 
like primitive creation, ‘without form, and 
void,’ until consenting minds agreed on some 
few associations of sound and sense, and so 
commenced a form of language. 

Any number of different forms may have 

‘ been thus commenced by isolated families or 
groups of men. Individual members of dif- 
ferent families or groups would occasionally 
come together, and each would enlarge the 
other’s vocabulary, or modify his methods of 
expression. Thus one may have previously 
used only a dual number to indicate plurality ; 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 82. 


another, only an indefinite plural: but mutual 
intercourse would incorporate, in the common 
language that would be developed, both of 
these methods of expressing and defining the 
idea of plurality. ~ Primitive languages may 
thus have acquired from each other the many 
words and forms of speech which they pos- 
sessed in common; while their independent 
characteristics would increase in the absence 
of association. 

On the same principle, a closer intercourse 
between modern nations must have an amal- 
gamating effect on their languages, and so 
tend to produce an ultimate unification of 
human speech. This closer intercourse is 
being accomplished in our days by railroads 
and steamships ; and strange ears in all quar- 
ters of the world are being familiarized with 
the languages of visitors and immigrants. 
The interests of commerce, and the influence 
of example and of social feeling, lead to a 
more and more general acquisition of the lan- 
guages thus introduced ; so that, without dis- 


placing local forms of speech, other media of” 


wider intercommunication are being gradually 
extended everywhere. A universal language 
is thus growing up. Whether it will ultimately 
take the lines of English, French, German, 
or some other tongue, will depend on the rel- 
ative fitness of the competing languages for 
universality. At all events, the fittest will 
survive, and the survivor will gradually occupy 
the whole field. 

The present diffusion of English over the 
continents of America and Australia, and 
among sailors of all nations; its growing ac- 
ceptance throughout the continental: countries 
of Europe; its establishment in many nuclei 
in Asia and Africa, and over the vast empire 
of India, as well as the grammatical simplicity 
of the language, and its power of incorpora- 
tion of foreign elements, — all point to English 
as the probable universal tongue of the future.” 

The only alternative to such adoption of the 
fittest among existing languages would be 
the creation of a new form of scientific speech ; 
but this would require a universal consent 
among nations, and a combined effort, that 
may fairly be considered impossible as prelimi- 
naries to the institution of such a language. 
The creation of a new form of speech adapted 
for universal use is certainly within the power 
of science and invention to accomplish; but 
the aid of a pre-existing language, all but 
universal, would be required for its introdue- 
tion and establishment. In the far future, 
such a form of scientific speech may find the 
world prepared for it, and the medium for its” 


> 


—a-  - = .* 
ey - 

rie 
, . 


SEPTEMBER 14, 1883.] 


diffusion in sufficiently general use: but, in 
the mean time, the confusion of tongues is 
being gradually reduced by the struggle for 
supremacy among established languages ; and 
this process will go om until one tongue shall 
be intelligible, if not predominant, every- 
where. 

All languages have their physical material 
in common: they use the same vocal organs, 
and essentially the same elementary sounds. 
The voice is susceptible only of a limited num- 
ber of modifications, and the lips and the 
tongue only of a limited number of articula- 
tive actions; and, from the combinations of 
these, all the varieties of human utterance re- 
sult. This elementary simplicity and uniformi- 
ty are not, however, reflected in the writing of 
languages. Alphabets are wholly arbitrary ; 
and, although the same letters are used in 
many alphabets, a different value is, in nearly 
every case, associated with the individual let- 
ters. A universally intelligible method of rep- 
resenting the sounds of speech is a necessary 
prerequisite for a universal language. Ordi- 
nary alphabetic writing is, indeed, as much a 
hindrance to combined effort for the unification 
of language as was the confusion of tongues to 
the building of the tower of Babel. Some 
method of classifying and representing all 
known modifications of voice and articulation; 
if not of discovering all possible moditications, 
had long been the great desideratum of philolo- 
gists. Attempts were made to frame a uni- 
versal alphabet by collating the elements from 
local alphabets, ancient and modern; but the 
number of shades of difference discovered 
among the elementary sounds, and the diffi- 
culty of recognizing sounds under varied as- 
sociations, rendered any complete classification 
impracticable. So far as the discovery of the 
entire category of possible sounds was con- 
cerned, the object of endeavor was considered 
to be hopeless; and the attempt to realize it 
was finally and forfnally abandoned at a con- 
vention of philologists of different countries, 
held at London in 1854. The declaration of 
this convention stands on record, that — 

‘© Tt would be useless and impossible to at- 
tempt to find for each possible variety of sound 
a different graphic sign.”’ 

This ‘impossibility’ has, however, been 
since accomplished with completeness and 
simplicity, in the system entitled ‘ Visible 
speech,’ the principles of which will now be 
explained. In this system no sound is arbi- 
trarily represented, but each letter is built up 
of symbols which denote the organic positions 
and actions that produce the sound. ‘The let- 


SCIENCE., 


301 


ters are thus physiological pictures, which in- 
terpret themselves to those who have learned 
the meaning of the elementary symbols of 
which they are composed. 

The first letter of our ordinary alphabet, 
which we call @, is known in other countries as 
ah; but we discover, in using the letter, that 
it represents both a and ah, and a variety of 
other sounds in our own language, the letter 
a being employed for the six diverse vowels in 
the words ale, air, an, agree,.ah, and all. In 
Visible speech each of these sounds has a sepa- 
rate letter, and each letter explains to the eye 
the organic means by which its sound differs 
from other sounds. For example: 

The letter for the vowel in the word ale tells 
the reader to — 

Advance the front of the tongue towards the 
Sront of the palate, so as to leave a channel of 
medium breadth for the passage of the voice. 

The letter for the vowel in air tells him to — 

Place the tongue in the same position as 
befure, but to expand the back cavity of the 
mouth. 

The letter for the vowel in an tells him to— 

Broaden to the utmost degree the channel 
between the front of the tongue and the palate, 
and at the same time expand the back cavity of 
the mouth. 

The letter for the sound of a in agree tells 
the reader to — 

Place the tongue in a neutral position, — 
neither advanced nor retracted, raised nor de- 
pressed, — and expand the back cavity of the 
mouth. 

The letter for the sound ah tells him to — 

Depress the tongue backward as fur as pos- 
sible, and expand the back cavity as before. 

The letter for the vowel in ali tells him to— 

Place the tongue in the same position as for 
AH, but compress the back cavity, and round 
the corners of the lips. 

All these directions are perfectly conveyed 
at a glance in the different letters; and yet the 
letters, so far from being complex, consist of 
forms more simple than the letters of the 
Roman alphabet. Here, for example, are the 
symbols, — four in number, — from the combi- 
nations of which, not merely the sounds above 
illustrated, but every vowel in every language, 
can be expressed to the eye, so as to be at once 
pronounced with exactitude by the reader. 


ELEMENTARY SYMBOLS OF VOWELS. 


OPT 


These synibols have the following invariable 
meanings : — 


302 


1. The straight line means voice. 

2. The bar across the line means contrac- 
tion or rounding of the lips. 

3. The solid point means compression of the 
back cayity of the mouth. 

4. The open hook means eapansion of the 
back cavity of the mouth. 

The position of the point or hook on the 
straight line denotes the position of the tongue 
in reference to the palate. Thus :— 

a. When on the right side, the meaning is, 

‘that the tongue is advanced towards the front 
of the palate. 

b. When on the left side, that the tongue is 
retracted towards the back of the mouth. 

c. When on both sides, that the tongue oc- 
cupies a middle position between front and 
back. - 

d. When at the top of the line, that the 
tongue is raised towards the palate. 

e. When at the bottom, that the tongue is 
depressed. 

f. When at both ends, that the tongue oc- 
cupies a middle position between high and low. 
_ Nothing could be simpler than these ele- 
ments, the meanings of which are remembered 
by every person after a single explanation ; 
yet from*these four elements alone the entire 
series of normal vowels, thirty-six in number, 
are built up. Two diacritic sighs extend the 
possible number of shades of yowel-sound, 
which these four elements can be made to 
represent, to the largely superfluous total of 
one hundred and eighty. 

The English alphabet contains only five 
yowel-letters, while our speech makes use of 
at least sixteen vowel-sounds, without includ- 
ing diphthongs. No wonder, therefore, that 
the relation between letters and sounds is one 
of irreconcilable confusion. A purely phonetic 
alphabet, in addition to the common system 
of letters, is a necessity for the intelligible 
writing of English alone; much more is it in- 
dispensable for the writing of all languages 
intelligibly to all readers. 

The system of Visible speech is the ready 
vehicle for a universal language, when that 
shall be evolved; but it is also immediately 
serviceable for the conveyance of the diverse 
utterances of every existing language. No 
matter what foreign words may be written in 
this universal character, they will be pro- 
nounced by readers in any country with ab- 
solute uniformity. The means have been 
explained by which vowels are represented for 
this purpose. The principles are now to be 
shown on which consonants are written with 
the same effect. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. IL, No. 32. 


ELEMENTARY SYMBOLS OF CONSONANTS. 


Five elementary symbols furnish letters for 
all the consonant actions of the lips and 
tongue. ‘These symbols are — 


Cres as 


As with vowels, so with consonants: all the 
elements of each class have one symbol in 
common. The vowel-symbol was shown to be 
a straight line: the consonant-symbol is a 
curve; and the direction in which the curve is 
turned denotes the part of the mouth by which 
the consonant is formed. Thus : — 

a. The curve turned to the right denotes the 
lips. 

b. The curve turned to the left denotes the 
back of the tongue. 

c. The curve turned archwise, with its end 
down, denotes the top of the tongue. 

d. The curve turned with its end up de- 
notes the point of the tongue. 

The five radical symbols have the following 
meanings in every combination : — 

1. The first (C ) is the sign of a part of the 
mouth used to form a consonant. 

2. The second (¢ ) is the sign of a part of 
the mouth which divides the breath. 

3. The third (|) is drawn across the ends 
of a curve to denote a consonant that stops 
the breath. 


4. The fourth (§) is the sign of emission — 


of breath through the nose. 

5. The fifth ( 2) is added to the ends of a 
curve to denote simultaneous modification by 
two parts of the mouth. 

These elements, combined into sta forms of 
letters, suffice for the whole series of conso- 
nant actions of the lips and tongue. The six 
forms turned in the four directions, as above, 
yield twenty-four letters; and the uniform ad- 
dition of one sign for voice —a straight line in 
the centre of the curves —converts the twenty- 
four into forty-eight letters.° 

Every part of every letter has thus a mean- 
ing legible at a glance; and the most complex 
letter in the alphabet — combining four of the 
elementary symbols to exhibit the sound of m 
—jis as simple in form as the common Roman 
letter for the same consonant. Thus :— 


9 M, m. 


The following are the four symbols com- 
bined in this letter : — 

1. A curve to the right, which denotes the 
lips. 

2. A centre straight line, which denotes 
voice. 


SEPTEMBER 14, 1883.] 


3. A waving line, which denotes nasal 
emission. 

4. A line closing the curve, which denotes 
stoppage of the breath. 

The letter thus says to the reader : — 

Stop the breath by means of the lips, and 
sound the voice through the nose. 

It must be obvious that such directions, 
conveyed without words, will be uniformly in- 
terpreted by readers of any nationality who 
have simply learned the meaning of the radical 
symbols. All the Visible-speech letters are 
formed in this way, by synthesis of two or 
more out of a total number of nine elements. 
Such letters, consequently, make up an alpha- 
bet adapted for universality, because independ- 
ent of explanatory language ; also because its 
symbols are physiological pictures, and because 
the writing, even of unheard foreign tongues, 
is self-explanatory to the reader’s eye. 

Visible speech was first published sixteen 
years ago (August, 1867) ; and it has been very 
generally studied by philologists, and adopted 
in théoretical works as a necessary exponent 
of linguistic phonetics. It has also been widely 
utilized in America for the teaching of articu- 
lation to the deaf. But its popular uses for 
the teaching of vernacular languages to. chil- 
dren and illiterates, and of foreign languages 
in schools and colleges, as well «is for the litera- 
tion of hitherto unwritten Indian and other 
tongues, have not yet been correspondingly 
developed. People generally do not take the 
trouble to investigate the nature of the charac- 
ters, but suffer themselves to be repelled by 
fancied difficulty, — as if what is strange must 
needs be difficult. But the difficulty is only 
to eyes unacquainted with the principles of the 
symbolization. When these are known, there 
is no comparison, in point of simplicity, be- 
tween Roman letters and Visible-speech letters. 
To children and illiterates, all letters are equal- 
ly strange. To one who can already read, the 
eye is simply prejudiced in favor of established 
letters. In the present exposition the letters 
of Visible speech have not been made the basis 
of illustration, but only the rudimentary sym- 
bols from which all the letters are derived. 
This mode of treatment will, it is hoped, leave 
no room for prejudice to act. 

In this stage of the world’s history we do 
not need to concern ourselves about a uni- 
versal language: that will develop itself in 
due time. But a universal medium for the 
communication of languages is a_ practical 
necessity, which every day renders of more 
and higher importance. Without a universal 
alphabet there never could be a uniyersal lan- 


aa ss allied > a¥ [AS os I™ © te) 


} SCIENCE. 


353 


guage; with a universal alphabet the progress 
of the fittest language towards universality 
will be enormously accelerated. At present, 
English seems the most likely to achieve this 
distinction ; but its natural fitness is antago- 
nized by its defective and irregular system of 
letters. Give English the advantage of an 
alphabet simple and phonetically perfect, and, 
whereas it is now the most diflicult of all 
tongues for foreigners to learn, it will become 
by far the easiest. 

In the system of Visible speech a universal 
alphabet is for the first time attained: the 
system is of English birth. Let its native 
language have the benefit of this instrument 
of diffusion, and the world-wide predominance 
of the speech of Britain and America will be 
assured. A. Metvitte Bett. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


Variations in butterflies. 

BETWEEN the 20th of June and the 10th of July, 
I obtained three hundred and eighty Vanessa Anti- 
opa from eaterpillars fed on swamp willow. Twenty- 
five of these were varieties, and the balance were of 
the usual form. ‘Two of the varieties were Lintne- 
ri, from which all the blue had disappeared. The 
third had the primaries Lintneri, while the secon- 
daries had the usual blue spots. The fourth had 
the secondaries Lintneri, while the primaries bore the 
blue spots. In the remaining twenty-one, the whole 
upper surface of the wings had a mottled appearance, 
showing that the colors had been disturbed. They 
retained the blue spots, but the spots were much 
smaller than usual. 

The veins in the twenty-five varieties remained 
soft for several days; not becoming firm and hard, 
like the veins in the others, although treated in the 
same manner. I have also found this softness of 
the veins in the varieties of Turnus, where the red 
is suffused, and in the rust-colored specimens. 

All the Vanessa Antiopa which I have seen this 
season have the yellow of a much deeper shade than 
I have ever before noticed. 

Colias Philodice is also remarkable this season in 
this respect. S. LoweLei EL ior. 

New York City, 3d August, 1883. 


Function of the colorless blood-corpuscles. 

The interesting abstract of Zawarykin’s important 
investigations into the function of the leucocytes in 
the absorption of fats from the intestinal canal 
(ScrencK, ii. 192) calls to mind an investigation by 
Franz Hofmeister, into the absorption and assimila- 
tion of the peptones, which will be of interest in 
connection with the abstract referred to. 

In a series of papers published in 1881, Hofmeister * 
comes to the interesting conclusion, that ‘‘ absorption 
of peptones in the intestinal canal is, accordingly, no 
simple mechanical process of diffusion or filtration, 
but is rather a function of particular living cells, the 
colorless blood-corpuscles; and these play, in the nu- 
trition of the organism, a similar réle to that of the 
red corpuscles in respiration.” 

In his discussion he calls attention to the presence 


1 Zeitschr. phys. chem., v. 151, 


304 


of the leucocytes, in great numbers, in the adenoid 
tissue during digestion; and, also, to certain proofs 
of the ability of the leucocytes to combine with pep- 
tones in a loose form of combination. 

The similarity of these two functions of the color- 
less corpuscles, as determined by Hofmeister for pep- 
tones, and by Zawarykin for fats, cannot fail to suggest 
the probability of a very definite and important func- 
tion of these corpuscles in general nutrition. Pos- 
sibly, also, the anomalies observed in the absorption 
of saccharine food, and in the glycogenic functions 
of liver and muscles, may in time receive some ex- 
planation through the functions of the colorless cor- 
puscles. 

It seems as if we were, at last, beginning to obtain 
an idea of the functions performed by these impor- 
tant cells, whose close connection with the life of the 
organization has been generally recognized, though 
put vaguely understood. J. M.S. 


HUMAN PROPORTION. 


Human proportion in art and anthropometry: a lecture 
delivered at the National museum, Washington, D.C. 
By Rosert Fuetcuer, M. R.C.S.£. Cam- 
bridge, King, 1883. 3837p. illustr. 8°. 

From the earliest ages, man has found his 
standards of measurement most conveniently in 
some bodily measure, like the digit, the palm, 
the span, the foot, or the cubit. As these 
measures necessarily vary with the size of the 
individual, the attempt to ascertain their aver- 
age led to the first systematic measurements 
of the human body: hence have sprung the 
innumerable schemes of human proportion de- 
vised by artists and anatomists, all founded 
on the belief that some one part of the body 
was a standard of measurement for all its 
other dimensions. The Egyptians first de- 
veloped a canon of proportion as early as the 
thirty-fifth century B.C-., which was twice sub- 
sequently changed. Their last canon adopted 
the length of the middle finger as the stand- 
ard, reckoning it precisely one-nineteenth of 
the entire stature. But in the ‘ canon of Poly- 
kleitos,’ the famous sculptor who flourished 
about 450 B.C., was embodied the highest 
tule of Greek art in its most flourishing pe- 
riod. This has fortunately been preserved in 
a well-known passage of Vitruvius, and is illus- 
trated by a recently discovered drawing by 
Lionardo da Vinci. The restless spirit of 
modern life has not remained content with 
this, as more than a hundred different at- 
tempts bear witness by men of all nations, 
including the celebrated English sculptor Gib- 
son and our own Story. All these methods 
have been based upon the theory that there is 
a fixed relation between some one portion of 
the body and all its other dimensions; and 
their number proves the fallacy of the idea. 
Anthropometry, on the other hand, measures 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. Il, No. 82. 


\ 
with the strictest scientific accuracy the living 
man, and from an immense mass of measure- 
ments obtains the mean of the human form, 
and thus ‘arrives at the perfect human type. 
The father of this science is the Belgian Que- 
telet, and the enormous number of measure- 
ments rendered necessary by the draft during 
our civil war have greatly advanced it. By its 
tests many a time-honored dogma bearing upon 
human proportion has been exploded. ‘Thus 
it has been proved that the length of the out- 
stretched arms is somewhat greater than, and 
not exactly equal to, the height of the body; 
that not eight, but seven and a half heads 
make up the entire stature; and that only in 
the negro skeleton can be found the length of 
humerus bestowed upon the Apollo Belvedere. 

All these matters the author has illustrated 
with great learning and in a clear and ani- 
mated style. We have noticed, however, that 
his knowledge of archeology is sometimes at 
fault, —as where he calls the ‘ crua ansata’ in 


the hand of the Egyptian standard figure ‘a 


key,’ which is really a cross with a loop or 
handle attached to it, and is the symbol of 
eternity ; or suggests that the ‘ golden fleece” 
was in reality ‘ the secret of Egyptian art;’ or 
states that the Doryphoros of Polykleitos was 
‘a beautiful youth in the act of throwing a 
spear,’ instead of its being one of the ‘ spear- 
bearers,’ the body-guard of the Persian king. 
The most marvellous statement, however, is, 
that ‘‘ prior to the time of Phidias, the face, 
hands, feet, or other exposed parts of the body 
were carved in marble, and fastened to a 
wooden block, which was covered with real 
drapery.’’ ‘This is a complete misunderstand- 
ing of the nature of the archaic foava, or 
wooden statues, which in Greece preceded 
those made of stone or metal. 


WARE’S MODERN PERSPECTIVE. 


Modern perspective: a treatise upon the principles 
and practice of plane and cylindrical perspective. 
By Witt1Am R. Ware, Professor of architecture 
in the School of mines, Columbia college. Bos- 
ton, James R. Osgood & Co., 1883. 321p. 12°. 
Proressor WaAreE’s Modern perspective is in 

substance a series of papers printed two or 

three years ago in the American architect, but 
with additions which extend its range, and give 
it more the scope of a scientific treatise. Sci- 
entitic it is, both in its idea and its methods; 
though its treatment is naturally freer than 
would be given it for scientific uses alone, — 
freer, perhaps, than the author would have given 
if it had originally been written as a formal 


hg 2 ithe Neate d ~~ 


SEPTEMBER 14, 1883.] 


treatise. The purely geometrical method comes 
out most clearly in the chapters added in the 
revision, particularly in two (xvii., xviii.), in 
which, after going over the ground of practical 
perspective, Professor Ware sums up, first the 
principles and relations, and then the chief 
problems, in the most abstract and generalized 
form. ‘This portion is, therefore, scientifically 
the essence of the book, and is that which a 
reader versed in pure mathematics, but unac- 
quainted with perspective, might properly read 
first. Such a reader would find pleasure in 
its neatness and comprehensiveness of state- 
ment, and in the skilful way in which the whole 
subject is cast in condensed and logical form ; 
every phenomenon or process being first pre- 
sented in its most general aspect, — against the 
usual habit of books on perspective, — and 
particular cases deduced from it afterwards. 
These chapters make a sort of inner treatise, 
whose appeal will be to the geometer and the 
special student. They are probably too ab- 
stract and too concise to be acceptable to the 
ordinary student, and he may be left to skip 
them. 

The methods of the book are naturally those 
of descriptive geometry. We could wish Pro- 
fessor Ware had held to the received termin- 
ology when he names the perspective of the 
vanishing-line of a plane its ‘ trace,’ and diverts 
the word from its received sense as the inter- 
section of the plane with the plane of projection. 
What in descriptive geometry is called the 
trace, Mr. Ware calls the ‘ initial line’ of the 
plane: the point where a line pierces the pic- 
ture-plane, which might by proper analogy be 
called the trace of the line, he calls its ‘ initial 
point.” The use of ‘horizon’ for the actual 
yanishing-line of anysystem of planes is hap- 
pier. The subscript notation employed is the 
author’s own, and is cleverly contrived to suit 
the manner of his exposition. It contains in 
itself a symmetrical record of the principal 
data and relations, and its neatness and effi- 
ciency make one the more regret that the 
author has not cared to follow an accepted 
terminology where there is one. 

The phenomena of planes in perspective are 
first discussed, according to the author’s uni- 
formly analytical method: first oblique planes, 
then parallel and normal. So much of the 
perspective phenomena of lines is accounted 
for by treating them as intersections of planes, 


_ that their separate consideration is much short- 


ened by anticipation; and by the time the 
point is reached, its discussion is reduced to a 
minimum. In like manner, instead of confin- 
ing the discussion of points of distance, as is 


SCIENCE. 


et ae et Oe ee ee 


Bi) 


common, to points in the horizon-line, or the 
prime vertical, the most general case is first 
considered, and the circular locus of all the 
points of distance of a given line is determined. 
We miss the categorical statement, — implied, 
to be sure, but worth making distinctly, —that 
the points of distance are the same for all par- 
allel lines ; as in another place it is apparently 
taken to go without saying, that the vanishing- 
point of a line, or the vanishing-line of a plane, 
is enough to determine problems relating to its 
direction, even when its position is unknown. 
The chapter of abstract problems presents 
pretty much all the problems of descriptive 
geometry, so far as concerns planes and right 
lines, applied in perspective, and therefore 
covers, except for a few special cases, all the 
elements of perspective practice. Here, again, 
generalization and condensation are carried 
very far: some, indeed, of the problems in 
which many alternatives are grouped together 
are perhaps too succinet and comprehensive to 
be satisfying to the student. 

The same method and quality are found in 
the other chapters of the book, so far as suits 
with its practical purpose. Thus parallel per- 
spective, usually taken first, is postponed, and 
treated as a special case. There is throughout 
a watchful eye to the needs of the architectural 
draughtsman and the painter. The work is 
made interesting by observation of natural and 
pictorial phenomena, many of which are, so far 
as we know, new to the books. Some special 
topics which are taken up in the advanced 
treatises are here hardly mentioned, —the per- 
spective of curved surfaces and of solids of 
revolution, for instance; even vaulting being 
left untouched, and the problems not going 
beyond plane figures and solids with plane 
faces. But within its limits, the discussion is 
very complete ; and some subjects are enlarged 
upon which it is usual to dismiss with slight 
mention, —the perspective of reflections, and 
of shadows by both parallel and divergent light, 
and especially the chapters on. the perspective 
of the circle, and on perspective distortions and 
corrections. The method of the perspective 
plan is made much of, as it deserves ; and some 
space is given to M. Adhémar’s ingenious 
devices for avoiding remote vanishing-points, 
and carrying on all the operations on a small 
sheet by means of what Mr. Ware calls ‘ small- 
seale data,’ — points of fractional distance, 
scales of depth, marginal co-ordinates, and the 
like, —a method which is much less known than 
it deserves to be. Mr. Ware adds an ingen- 
ious alternative for M. Adhémar’s device of 
enlarging the remote parts of the perspective 


356 


plan by planes of successively steeper inclina- 
tion. 

The plates which accompany the book are 
as thoughtfully and ingeniously composed as 
the text. We commend the whole treatise as 
the most complete, so far as we know, and the 
most interesting and instructive for practical 
use, that has been published in this country. 


SEEBOHM’S VILLAGE COMMUNITY. 


The English village community, examined in its rela- 
tions to the manorial and tribal systems, and to the 
common or open field system of husbandry: an 
essay mm economic history. By FREDERIC SEE- 
BOHM. London, Longmans, Green, § Co., 18838. 
464 p., 13 maps and plates. 8°. ' 


Ir is now many years since G. L. von 
Maurer wrote his Introduction to the history 
of marks and manors. Since then the subject 
has attracted many students, and has been much 
looked into and talked about. Many books 
have been written upon it; those of Nasse, 
de Layeleye, and Maine being the best known 
to American readers. The impression con- 
veyed by these writings is, that the mark 
or village community, though almost always 
found upon a manor, under manorial overlord- 
ship, was in its origin independent. Manorial 
overlordship arose, we are told, in later times. 
The village community was drawn under it, 
and became subject to it. It has been the 
work of modern times to restore it to its 
ancient independence. ‘This is the theory of 
von Maurer and his followers, which we have 
gathered from their books. Objections to this 
theory are from time to time raised. It is 
urged that the village community is usually 
found under manorial landlordship ; that it is, 
therefore, an open question whether the village 
community, or the landlordship oyer it, is the 
earlier institution. In Mr. Seebohm’s book, 
which now lies before us, it is maintained that 
landlordship is more ancient than the village 
community, that the village community arose 
under landlordship, as a community of slaves 
or serfs, that it has been slowly emancipated 
from slavery and from serfdom in the course 
of centuries. Our economic history, we are 
told, begins with the serfdom of the masses un- 
der manorial landlordship. Looking through 


the records, back to the earliest period, we find ~ 


no free village communities, only manors with 
village communities in villenage upon them. 
The argument upon this point is almost con- 
clusive. The existence of a manorial system 
during the Saxon period of our history is 
established beyond doubt. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 32. 


But there were parts of Britain which were 
not. manorial, where village communities (the 
village community being considered a part of 
the manor) did not exist. What was there in the 
parts of Britain where there were no manors? 


By the side of the manorial system was a tribal 


system more ancient, perhaps, than the mano- 
rial system. Then follows an account of the 
tribal system of the Welsh and Irish, which is 
extremely interesting. It is not clear at first, 
why, in a work upon English economic history, 
so much space should be given to the institu- 
tions of the Welsh and Irish; but we find out» 
directly: it is that we may the more clearly 
understand the statements of Caesar and Taci- 
tus regarding the Germans. It is well known 
that the statements of Caesar and Tacitus are 
very vague; that they become intelligible only 
in the light of extraneous eyidence. We 
ourselves should not have presumed to draw 
this evidence from the Welsh laws, nor from 
the Brehon tracts. It has always seemed to us 
best to keep the records of different peoples 
quite distinct. We should, therefore, have 
turned from Caesar and Tacitus to the German 
folk-laws, formulae, and documents. ‘The tri- 
bal system of the Germans is very well de- 
scribed in the German records. It happens, 
however, that the tribal system ofthe Germans 
resembles very closely that of the Welsh and 
Irish: so, though we do not follow all the steps 
of Mr. Seebohm’s argument, we come, at last, 
to very nearly the same conclusion. What we 
have in the time of Caesar and Tacitus, and 
afterwards in many places where the manorial 
system has not been developed, are tribal 
households (to use Mr. Seebohm’s phrase) , — 
isolated farmsteads, occupied by groups of de- 
scendants and heirs; the land being held by 
them as an undivided inheritance for two or 
three generations, and then divided, several 
households arising where there was but one 
before. Mr. Seebohm finds a vestige of this 
system in the custom of Gavelkind in Kent, 
where we have divisions among male heirs, 
with traces of the right of the youngest to the 
original homestead. Almost everywhere else 
in England the tribal system has quite passed 
away. 

Already, however, in the time of Tacitus, 
the manorial system was germinating. The 
free tribesmen who lived in the tribal house- 
holds here and there —vut fons ut campus ut 
nemus placuit —had slaves who cultivated 
the land for them. These slaves were dis- 
tributed by the tribesmen in village com- 
munities, in regard to which they were yery 


much in the position of the later manorial 


* 


SEPTEMBER 14, 1883.] 


lords. It was only a step, indeed, from this 
condition of things to the manorial system. 
This step was taken immediately after the 
permanent settlement of the Germans within 
the limits of the Roman empire. The land 
system of the later empire was very much like 
& manorial system. So it happened, that, 
while the Germans were approaching this sys- 
tem on the one hand, the Romans were ap- 
proaching it on the other. They reached it 
together. 

This is the briefest possible réswmé of Mr. 
Seebohm’s extremely interesting and valuable 
book. The argument is well arranged and 
very convincing. It is, perhaps, a little too 
much encumbered by details; but we should 
be sorry not to have these details, and the 
book is quite readable in spite of them. The 


‘account of the manorial system is the most 


complete that we have. The book is a ‘mine 
of information upon the subject. It will be 
found indispensable to students. It is very 
well printed, and illustrated by plates and 
maps. It would be worth having for these 
alone. In conclusion, we must heartily con- 
gratulate the writer upon the completion of so 
excellent and useful a work. 


STEARNS AND COUES’ NEW-ENGLAN 
BIRD-LIFE. : 


New-England bird-life ; being a manual of New- 
England ornithology. Revised and edited from the 
manuscript of Winfrid A. Stearns, by Dr. 
Elliott Coues. Boston, Lee & Shepard, 1851, 
1883. 324+409 p. IIllustr. 8°. 


Unver this title Mr. Winfrid A. Stearns 
and Dr. Elliott Coues have just produced an 
excellent and much-needed work. Previous 
to its appearance we have had no complete or 
satisfactory exposition of the subject, despite 
several attempts on the part of inexperienced 
or otherwise incompetent authors to cover the 
interesting field: hence the present book is 


doubly welcome. 


It has appeared in two volumes, or parts. 
Part i., issued two years ago, begins with 
Turdidae, or thrushes, and carries the subject 
through Oscines, ending with the family 
Corvidae. In addition to the 270 pages occu- 
pied by its main portion, there is an ‘ Intro- 
duction ’ of fifty pages, which includes useful 
chapters on the classification and structure of 
birds; the ‘Preparation of specimens for 
study ;’ the ‘ Subject of faunal areas ;’ and 
the ‘ Literature of New-England ornithology.’ 
Including those-devoted to its special index 


SCIENCE. 


397 


as well as to the introduction, part i. contains 
324 pages. 

Pari ii. was published early in the present 
year. It has in all 409 pages, of which ten 
are occupied by an ‘ editor’s preface,’ and 
eight by the index; the remaining 597 pages 
treating the general subject from Tyrannidae 
through the successive families to Alcidae, last 
and lowest in the scale of New-England bird- 
life. Both volumes are rather copiously illus- 
trated with fairly good woodeuts; some of 
which are full-length figures, others represen- 
tations of the heads, feet, wings, ete., of birds, 
designed to show technical or distinguishing 
characters. Most of these cuts have done 
similar duty before, but on this account they 
are none the less useful in the present connec- 
tion. 

The plan of the book is so clearly and 
tersely outlined in the preface to part i., that 
we cannot do better than give it in the editor’s 
own words : — 


**Tt is the object of the present volume to go care- 
fully over the whole ground, and to present, in con- 
cise and convenient form, an epitome of the bird-life 
of New England. The claims of each species to be 
considered a member of the New-England fauna are 
critically examined, and not one is admitted upon 
insufficient evidence of its occurrence within this 
area; the design being to give a thoroughly reliable 
list of the birds, with an account of the leading facts 
in the life-history of each species. The plan of the 
work ineludes brief descriptions of the birds them- 
selves, enabling one to identify any specimen he may 
have in hand; the local distribution, migration, and 
relative abundance of every species; together with 
as much general information respecting their habits 
as can conveniently be brought within the compass 
of a hand-book of New-England ornithology.”’ . 


This plan is consistently and faithfully car- 
ried out. The descriptions of the birds, to 
be sure, are a little meagre and unsatisfactory 
at times; but it must be remembered that they 
are intended primarily for a class of amateurs 
who are not fitted, either by experience or in- 
clination, to wade through more exact, tech- 
nical diagnoses. 

The biographical matter is written in the 
editor’s well-known and eminently character- 
istic style, —a style not wholly free from 
faults perhaps, but, in the main, so finished 
and picturesque that it is sure to attract and 
interest every lover of birds. In the present 


* instanee, the only fault we have to find with 


these biographies is that they are often too 
brief and general, —in short, that there is 
too much condensation. Especially is this the 
case among water-birds, where the account of 
habits, distribution, etc., is frequently crowded 
into a few lines. Doubtless this was necessary 


358 


to keep the work within its assigned limits, 
but it is none the less a disappointment. 

One of the most valuable features of the 
book —to the scientific ornithologist, at least 
— is the bringing together of previous records 
pertaining to the rarer birds. In almost all 
eases these have been exhaustively collated, 
a work chiefly, if not wholly, performed by 
Mr. Purdie, whose well-known fitness for the 
task is a practical guaranty of its thorough 
‘accomplishment. 

The weakest spot in the structure is that 
of the editor’s rulings on questions affecting 
the comparative abundance and seasonal dis- 
tribution of the less-known birds. In many 
—far too many — cases, his conclusions are 
more or less unwarranted or premature; in 
not a few, they are positively and demonstrably 
erroneous. This was to be expected, how- 
ever, in view of the fact that neither editor 
nor author is known to have had an exten- 
sive experience in New-England fields or 
woodlands; and, considering such limitations, 
it is chiefly remarkable that they have done 
so well. 

But, despite its shortcomings, ‘ New-England 
bird-life,’ as a whole, may be honestly charac- 
terized as a work of real merit and unques- 
tioned utility. Its faults are seldom vital, its 
excellences many and obyious.. Although a 
manual, rather than a comprehensive general 
treatise, it cannot fail to take a high and 
permanent place among the literature of North- 
American ornithology. To the student of New- 
England birds, it is sure to prove a valuable 
hand-book, adequate for the determination of 
most problems which the limited field is likely 
to furnish. There is still room, of course, for 
the more extensive structures which some 


NY (ey ee Re aes ae 
; 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 32. 


future builders will doubtless rear on this sub- 
stantial corner-stone. 

Before concluding, we find it necessary to 
reyert to arather delicate subject, — that of 
the ostensible authorship of the book. In the 
preface to part i., the editor touches on this, as 
follows : — 


‘Mr. Stearns undertook this work several years 
ago, at the writer’s suggestion, that such a treatise 
was much to be desired, and could not fail to subserve 
a useful purpose. Having been diligently revised 
from time to time, in the light of our steadily inereas- 
ing knowledge, Mr. Stearns’s manuscripts have been 
submitted to the editor’s final corrections. In revis- 
ing, and to some extent rewriting, them for publica- 
tion, the editor has been influenced by the author’s 
request that he would alter and amend at his own 
discretion.”’ 


Perhaps we are bound to accept this ex- 


planation literally ; but the reader familiar with - 


Dr. Coues’s characteristic style and methods 
will find few traces of Mr. Stearns’s alleged 
participation. Clearly the ‘revising’ was 
very thoroughly done. We might go even 
farther, and venture the surmise that Dr. 
Coues not only edited, but wrote, the entire 
book. But is this a matter with which we 
have any business to meddle? Probably not 
so far as Dr. Coues’s interests are at stake. 
If he chooses to do all the work, and take 
less than half the credit, it is his own affair. 


Nevertheless, it certainly 7s our right to chal- 


lenge a reputation unfairly won, and until fur- 
ther proofs are forthcoming we shall refuse to 
believe that Mr. Stearns’s agency in ‘ New- 
England bird-life* has been much more than 
nominal. Perhaps the inside history of the 
book will never be made public, but intelli- 
gent ornithologists are likely to see through a 
millstone with a hole in the middle. 


¥ 


AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 
_ PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION H.— ANTHROPOLOGY. 


ADDRESS OF OTIS T. MASON OF WASH- 
INGTON, D.C., 
THE SECTION, AUG. 15, 1888. 


THE SCOPE AND VALUE OF ANTHROPO- 
LOGICAL STUDIES. 


EVERY thing that comes before the human mind 
has to pass through a process of weighing and meas- 
uring, and receives a valuation according to the 
thinker’s standards of merit. In this critical spirit 
let us pass in review those studies called anthropole- 


VICE-PRESIDENT OF. 


- tive study of man. 


gical, in order to form some estimate of their value 
according to the measures commonly applied to vari- 
ous departments of learning. 

Anthropology is the application of the instrumen- 
talities and methods of natural history to the induc- 
The anthropologist, in this sense, 
is not a dilettante philosopher, who inquires into old 
things because they are old, or into curious things 
while they are curious, omitting all the great move- 
ments and needs of society, and overloading the 
baggage-train of progress with trumpery picked up 
along the march. The practical spirit of our age de- 
mands that we ask what truth, or good, or beauty 


SEPTEMBER 14, 1883.] 


comes from such investigations, and how we can 
make them subservient to human weal. 

As to the scope of anthropology, we may be in- 
structed by the work of others. The natural history 
of any species, say of the domestic horse, includes 
many inquiries, such as the time and place of its 
origin; its ancestry; its pristine size, appearance, and 
mode of living. We should afterwards inquire con- 
cerning the archeology or the paleontology of the 
Equidae, their embryology, anatomy, physiology, 
diseases, abnormalities, and external characteristics. 
Mr. Romanes would have a chapter on the intelli- 
gence of the animal, as to its nature and amount, 
supplementing the discussion with notes on the vari- 
ous ways in which the horse manifests its mind, its 
wills, emotions, and opinions. Horses do not con- 
struct elaborate houses like the ants and the beavers; 
but the members of all species occupy their daily 
lives in some habitual industries by means of which 
they wear out the excess of muscle. Sir John Lub- 
bock would lead us farther, and show us that horses 
go in droves, follow a leader, plan migrations, at- 
tacks, and defenee, amuse themselves, enjoy one 
another’s company, improve in appearance, intelli- 
gence, and usefulness by cultivation, —in a thousand 
ways show themselves to be social creatures. At last 
Mr. Mivart would insist that the horse has its habi- 
tude (é&¢), its manner of action, its economy (oecol- 
ogy), and its members are affected in a characteristic 
manner by heat, light, moisture, winds, the kind and 
quality and abundance of food and drink, by bene- 
ficial or injurious animal neighbors, and by the vital, 
procreative, inheritable energy with which they are 
endowed. These and many other kindred inquiries 
concerning this homogeneous group would constitute 
the science of hippology. 

The conscientious devotee to this science would 
frequently ask himself what practical good would re- 
sult from all this expenditure of time, thought, and 
resources necessary to collect specimens and facts, 
and to formulate his science. Could they be em- 
ployed on some subject more ennobling and profitable 
to himself, better calculated to inform, enrich, and 
beatify mankind ? 

Now, instead of horses, let us substitute the genus 
homo, laying aside all predilections; and, if possible, 
let us imagine the student of anthropology to belong 
to quite another genus than the subject of his re- 
search. He would have, in the fourteen hundred 
millions of human beings now living on the earth, 
and the remains of their congeners slumbering in 
its bosom, perhaps tbe best defined group of ani- 
mals. Calling them a genus or a species, as you like, 
they are so -well hedged off from all other animal 
groups that not the least embarrassment has ever 
disturbed the naturalist in distinguishing the an- 
thropos even from the anthropoid. No one was ever 
puzzled to tell, concerning any living thing, whether 
or not it was a human being. The earth has never 
yielded a bone concerning which the practical anato- 
mist stood in doubt whether it had been once part of 
a human body. 

Now, Iake it for granted that any inquiry what- 


SCIENCE. 


359 


ever which would be useful or entertaining respect- 
ing another species would be intensified in importance 
having man for its object. Indeed, there are few 
questions which naturalists are wont to propose to 
their groups whica ought not to be carefully consid- 
ered when we are studying man. Before entering 
upon the weighing process, therefore, it may make 
our task more easy if we consider the present scope 
of anthropology, and briefly pass in review some of 
the questions which are being propounded by an- 
thropologists every day. 

When did man first appear on earth, —at what 
time and in what geological horizon? 

Have all the individuals of our race descended 
from a common human ancestry? in other words, are 
we monogenists, or polygenists ? 

Where was the birthplace of humanity ? 

What manner of creature was that first man in 
specific characteristics, in size, aspect, intelligence, 
and social condition ? and how did he get here? 

To all such queries, Haeckel aptly gives the name 
of anthropogeny: therefore, in order to be anthropol- 
ogists we must be anthropogenists. 

Another set of questions relates to that stretch of 
time which lies between the pristine man, or the 
pristine condition, and the beginnings of recorded 
history. 

Have we complete, irrefragable evidence that our 
race has progressed from a brute-like condition, in 
which it was devoid of all experience and appliances ? 

What application must we make of Professor 
Tylor’s belief that civilization has progressed up- 
ward like a column of vapor, some parts advancing 
while other parts are being rolled downward, but, 
on the whole, ascending and expanding ? 

Granting that there has been improvement, what 
paths have been pursued ? 

Speaking of our own peculiar province, what is the 
real import of such discoveries as those of Dr. Abbott 
and Professor Whitney in establishing the great an- 
tiquity and early rudeness of the Aierican savage ? 

Who were the builders of the mounds, earthworks, 
cliff-dwellings, and the stone structures of Middle 
America? 

What were the functions of these various edifices ? 

What credence is to be given to the early historians 
of American culture ? 

Already we have our schools of interpretation, 
such as the Bancroft school and the Morgan school. 
Where, among these opposing schemes, does the 
truth lie? 

In the administration of this science, there is oc- 
ecupation for the greatest diversity of talent. The 
biologists of our time are entering into the minutest 
inspection of the life-history of each animal form. 
With enthusiasm the embryologists trace the modifi- 
cations of structure as they succeed one another in 
the germ. [Before their eyes the very play of creation 
is dimly shadowed, and organic structure built up. 
They pass their work on to the anatomists and physi- 
ologists. Now, the anthropologist must endeavor to 
comprehend the whole in its synthesis. As Newton 
and Laplace grasped the unity and organization of 


360 


the stellar world, as Humboldt gazed upon all cre- 
ated things as elements of the universal cosmos, as 
Darwin first conceived the consanguinity of all liv- 
ing beings and their mutual help or harm, so the an- 
thropologist seeks to unite all that can be known 
respecting man into a comprehensive science, and to 
study the innumerable correlations which bind the 
most incongruous actions and thoughts together in 
harmony. 

May we gain help, in solving questions of human 
origin, by carefully observing the evolution of the 
embryo? 

Does a knowledge of the life history of the indi- 
vidual furnish a clew to the life history of the species ? 

What does a comparison of the anatomy of man 
with that of the quadrumana say respecting the gene- 
alogy of the species ? 

What are the proper methods and instruments of 
anthropometry, — observing the growth of children, 
the dimensions, angles, and curves of the cranium, 
the diversity and size of the brain according to age 
and sex and race, the weight of the body, the color of 
the skin, hair, and eyes, the muscular movements, the 
development of faculties, longevity, fecundity, plas- 
ticity under change of environment, and vigor? and 
what are the legitimate inferences to be drawn from 
such investigations ? 

Finally, by what devices can the multitudinous 
correlations of structure and function in the human 
body find expression in graphic methods ? 

Another set of observers must now be brought into 
this great laboratory. We have to deal with a group 
of animals in which intelligence has manifested itself 
to such a degree as to dominate all other functions. 
Teleological inquiries can be no longer excluded. 
Hitherto the application of scientific methods to the 
mind has required that we should be satisfied with 
sensuous results of thought, and forbidden us to in- 
quire into the nature of the mind itself. Now, we are 
met at the outset with this puzzling question: Shall 
consciousness or introspection be admitted as an in- 
strument of observation? 

How are we to record its dicta? and how (to bor- 
row a term from the astronomers) shall we eliminate 
the personal equation ? 

Or, if we are not in a position to admit introspec- 
tion among our tools of observation, can we not in- 
vent some delicate apparatus by means of which the 
strength of feeling and the inmost thoughts may be 
known and measured ? 

Does the brain generate thought as the liver gen- 
erates bile? 

What can science tell us concerning the existence 
of a human soul, non-material, and not susceptible 
of measurement by the standards of well-known 
forces ? r 

Hlow does it come about that children inherit the 
traits, tendencies, and faculties of their progenitors ? 

By what routes does the mind pass on its way from 
infancy to maturity? 

What use should be made of the multitudes of in- 
quiries prosecuted with reference to the minds of 
animals, in the study of human reason? 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 32. 


The student of anthropology frequently finds him- 
self in sympathy with Wordsworth, singing, — 
Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting; 
The soul that rises with us, our life’s star, 
Hath had elsewhere its setting, 
And cometh from afar.” — 

If, as Mr. Spencer says, that which we inherit rep- 
resents the accumulated experiences of a thousand 
generations, is it also possible to retain the conscious- 
ness of those experiences? Will the sensitiveness of 
consciousness keep pace with the growth of knowl- 
edge, and obviate the necessity of laborious records? 
In which case we should have mental and spiritual 
atavism explained, and that universal sympathy felt 
by cultivated people for those standing on the lower 
steps of civilization. 

Now, whatever thoughts any other creature than 
ourselves may have, and leaving out the possibility of 
mechanical mind-reading in the future, up to this 
time the only knowledge men have gained about one 
another’s thoughts has been acquired from expression. 
The expression of thought is language. Dr. Hoffman 
finds language in rock paintings and carvings; Col. 
Mallery, in gestures; Mr. Thomas, in the Maya hiero- 
glyphies; and the glossologists, in human utterance, 
Happily for us, they are a clever set, and well up in 
their craft. Let us hear some of the questions they 
are discussing: — 

What are all the devices employed by living crea- 
tures to express their thoughts, emotions, and vyoli- 
tions ? 


Which took precedence in the origin of language, 


signs, or vocal utterances ? 

What is the explanation of the origin of language ? 

What light does language throw upon the origin of 
species ? 

Is the evolution of language a safe gnide to the 
knowledge of the unfolding of the human mind? 

By what lines have the forms of speech progressed ? 

How far is similarity of language an evidence of 
consanguinity among peoples? i ; 

Is there a genetic relationship between monosyl]la- 
bism, polysynthetism, and inflection ? } 

What credit must be given to the ear, and the in- 
vention of writing, in the conservation, and lines of 
progress, of language ? 

How should languages be classified ? 

Here we may leave the students of language, and 
take anew guide. Looking over the earth, we behold 
men divided into races or consanguineous groups, 
filled with race prejudices, and restricted by race capa- 
bilities. 

What are those external and anatomical charaecter- 
istics which have become transmissible by inherit- 
ance? When and how were they fixed? Are we to 


imagine, with Dr. Kollmann, that certain race forms" 


were fixed far back in the past, just as the chemical 
elements were made irresolvable by a former state of 
matter? 

Of these heritable marks, which is the best criterion 
of race, — the skull, the color of the skin, the texture 


of the hair, language, art, social organization, or — 


mythology ? or is it certain fixed correlations of these 


SEPTEMBER 14, 1883.] 


and other characteristics? If so, what are the laws 
of correlation and conservation in the races? Should 
the same set of structures be depended on in each 
race? How many races of men are there? and are 
these species, or varieties ? 

In what manner should the question of race enter 
into the administration of polities, economy, educa- 
tion, and colonization ? > 

It is impossible to say when this subject of race 
first became attractive to human minds. In the old- 
est histories and on very ancient monuments, are to 
be seen attempts to classify the families of mankind. 
In all the encyclopaedias, under the word ‘ ethnology’ 
will be found the schemes of modern writers. But, 
since the commencement of our century, the subject 
has been taken out of the hands of individuals, and 
has engrossed the attention of societies. Manuals of 
instruction have guided the voyager and the traveller 
in recording the characteristics of races. In Stan- 
ford’s Compendiums, based on von Hellwald, Mr. A. 
H. Keane has commenced a codification and synonymy 
of all the tribes of men. This he proposes to follow 
up with a biographical dictionary of tribes. The 
Bureau of ethnology has collated the names, priscan 
homes, migrations, and bibliography of all the North- 
American Indian tribes. So that we are in a fair 
way to know something about the races of men, by 
proceeding from particulars to a general view. 

Passing from man to his works, we are face to face 
with aesthetic and practical art as a unique study. 
Allart relates to human desires for food, clothing, 
shelter, for activity in peace and war, for beauty, for 
social and spiritual happiness. Mr. Tylor has taught 
us to look upon art products as species that have had 
an evolution, a life history; and this was very much 
the plan of Gustav Klemm. This sort of study has 
captivated many anthropologists, and they are asking 
such questions as these: — 

Admitting that the arts have been progressive, 
what have been the lines of their elaboration ? 

May we, by a process of elimination, trace backward 
the life history of each art, as a patent attorney or a 
chancery lawyer ? 

At what degree of workmanship may we be sure 
that flakes of flint, gashed bones, and wrought wood, 
give evidence of human handicraft ? 

When does similarity of art-forms indicate social or 
commercial contact? when, consanguinity? and when, 
merely the same gradus of culture ? 

Is degenerate art a facsimile of early, progressive 
art? : 

Js it allowable to fill up the gaps in the arts of any 
tribe by seemingly intermediate forms from other 
tribes ? 

Whence is the sense of beauty ? 

The answers which we unconsciously give to these 
queries are the major premises of our arguments re- 
specting the history of civilization. 

By marriage in some of its forms, human beings are 
united into consanguineous groups, whose other needs 
demand and produce other bonds of union, and widen 
the separatio; from other groups. With reference to 
each set of duties in the tribe, unwritten or written 


‘ 


SCIENCE. 


a» Di tal a 4 ee C8 ry A A Bens 


> 
, 


codes embody a system of ethics, regulating conduct 
in every particular. Farther on in their history, 
groups have relations of war and peace, and the ab- 
sorption of homogeneous and heterogeneous peoples 
into a defined area gives rise to nationalities. 

Were men ever herded together in promiscuity ? 

What were the earliest forms of social life ? 

What were the most primitive forms of marriage in 
groups ? 

Have all the tribes of men passed through the same 
systems of consanguinity and affinity? 

Can the highest systems of altruistic ethics be ex- 
plained by natural processes ? 

What are the most beneficial relations of labor to 
natural resources ? and how have the present relations 
been brought about ? 

What is the history of the control of the body 
politie over the individual, and of the jurisdiction of 
corporations ? and to what extent may individual free- 
dom be controlled without discouraging private 
ambition? 

What has been the life history of communism, 
crime, fashion, and politics? 

Is it possible to regard and define facts in sociology 
by the terms of physical scieuce? 

Again, these human beings spend a great portion 
of their time acting and speaking as if other eyes 
and ears than those of mortals were cognizant of 
them. In the darkest nights, at the rising sun, 
throughout the day, at certain seasons of the year, 
this unseen world isinvolved. In groves, in caverns, 
in estufas, or in costly temples, it is all the same: 
praises, petitions, and offerings confront the inscru- 
table power that cau work men weal or woe. 

How did man come to believe in the animation of 
things, fetiches, the wanderings of ghost-souls, spirits 
benevolent and malignant, the gods of classic myth- 
ology, and the Great Father of all? 

What are the first conceptions of children respect- 
ing such things? and will these guide us aright to 
the childhood of faith? 

Has the history of mythology run paraliel with the 
history of material and intellectual progress ? 

How may we divest ourselves of the personal 
equation, and learn the true psychology of savage 
worship ? 

Is Dr. Brinton right in applying the rules of inter- 
pretration adopted for Aryan mythology to American 
Indian myths, and in assuming that their crude 
stories are disguised deificationus of the phenomena 
and powers of nature ? 

Finally, as men wander about the earth, and certain 
families are to be found chiefly in certain localities, 
so is it with races. Longevity, fecundity, and vigor 
are influenced by such causes as height above the 
sea-level, purity of the atmosphere, amount and dis- 
tribution of heat, moisture, winds, fertility of the 
soil, and proximities, whether they be vegetal, animal, 
or human, whether they be beneficial or injurious. 

By what subtle chemistries of the things around 
us, by what exposures in this terrestrial camera, come 
to pass the various hues of the skin and hair and 
eyes, the long skull and the short skull, the long face 


and the broad face, and the fixed compounds called 
natural characteristics ? 

By what processes of selection and adaptation has 
this cosmopolitan species come to occupy the whole 
earth, its genial climes, its frozen areas, and its fever- 
cursed tropics ? 

Is it possible to control these phenomena, or to 
adjust the human machine so as to anticipate and 
assist nature, to expedite natural selection and the 
survival of the fittest? or even to subdue nature, and 
decide for her what shall be the fittest to survive ? 

From this hasty survey of the scope of anthro- 
pology, we return to inquite what benefit the world 
derives from the cultivation of this science. 

I answer, firstly, that every study is improved by 
study. All things become clearer to him who steadily 
fixes his gaze upon them. The sciences all began 
with vain speculations, —astronomy with astrology, 
chemistry with alchemy, geology with cosmogonies, 
biology with nature-worship, and theology with myth- 
ology. Long before the word ‘anthropology’ was 
employed in its present acceptation, Alexander Pope 
wrote, ‘‘The proper study of mankind is man.” 
But, millenniums before his day, mankind studied 
mankind by the light of their time. The study of 
man is no new thing, therefore. Now, since human 
thought has run, and will continue to run, in that 
direction, it becomes our privilege to rejoice that the 
stream has in these last days run wider and deeper 
and clearer. The proper study of mankind is the 
scientific study of man, the multiplication of rigor- 
ously exact observations, the collection of thousands 
of well-authenticated specimens, the classification 
of both observations and specimens on rational bases, 
and the limitation of our conclusions to the extension 
of our premises. Some of my hearers have worked 
systematically and patiently for years at American 
archeology, or the anthropology of the modern In- 
dians ; and you rejoice with me to-day that our 
science has at last attained dignity and respect. 
With profound veneration I mention the names of 
Hildreth, Atwater, Stephens, Gibbs, Schoolcraft, 
Morton, Gallatin, Wyman, Squier, and Davis: with 
what buoyant hope they looked forward to this day, 
and with what exquisite pleasure must such living 
witnesses of the beginning as Horatio Hale, Col. 
Whittlesey, Dr. Jones, and Mr. Hempstead now con- 
template the progress of solid work! The Smith- 
sonian institution will have to republish Squier and 
Davis, with many additions and corrections by Dr. 
Rau; the Bureau of ethnology will antiquate School- 
eraft and Gallatin and Gibbs; Morton’s and Wyman’s 
work will be entirely susperseded by that of the Pea- 
body museum and the Army medical museum. The 
Archaeological institute of America will throw new 
light upon the researches of Stephens; and Mr. H. H. 
Bancroft will make it entirely unnecessary to wade 
through thousands of pages of ancient Spanish 
literature. Therefore the first and most beneficial 
result of'modern anthropology has been the direction 
of an immense amount of rambling and disorganized 
labor into systematic and rational employment. 
This clearing of rubbish, correction of misconcep- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 32. 


tions, cultivation of a modest spirit, willingness to 
abide the result, multiplication of materials, refine- 
ment of instruments, improvement of processes, in 
a study which thousands are determined to pursue, 
must strike every thinking person as a wonderful 
reformation. ; 

Secondly, the value of a study must be estimated 
by its effects upon human weal. Farmers, miners, 
fishermen, lumbermen, mechanics, are slow to rec- 
ognize their debts to the man of science. But who 
can estimate the millions of dollars saved by such 
studies as those of Packard, Riley, and Thomas, on 
the grasshopper, potato-beetle, and army and cotton 
worms, and the confidence engendered by the belief 
that a knowledge of the habits of these animals 
would lead to their conquest? It would take but a 
few moments to show that this argument applies 
with manifold force to the study of man himself. 

It is not enough for the good physician to know 
the nature of remedies, or the use of knives and 
diagnostic apparatus. Sad will be his use of these if 
he has not familiarized himself with the structure 
of the human body in health and in disease, and, 
above all, if he has not made a correct diagnosis of 
his patient’s case. Are not all the questions asked 


‘in the first part of this discourse, and many others 


agitated by anthropologists, connected with human 
welfare? Do they not relate to the body, mind, and 
speech of man, to the races of mankind, their arts, 
amusements, social needs, political organizations, 
religion, and dispersion over the earth? For instance, 
the French in Africa, the British in India, and our 
own Citizens in malarious and fever-laden regions, — 
have they not learned from loss of treasure, ruined 
health, and the shadow of death, that there is a law 
of nature which cannot be transgressed with im- 
punity? 

It is the same with sociology and religion. The 
pages of history glow with the narratives of crusades 
against alleged wrongs, which were in reality cam- 
paigns against the sacred laws of nature. Social 
systems, which had required centuries to crystallize, 
have been shattered in the effort to bend them to 
some new order of things. Arts and 
planted in uncongenial soil, at great expense, have 
brought ruin upon their patrons, who had notstudied 
the intricate laws of environment. 

What a modification of temper, for instance, has 
been wrought among Indo-Germanic peoples by those 
studies in comparative philology which have led them 
by the hand back to their priscan home, and demon- 
strated, that though they may have aggregated into 
antagonistic nationalities, and fostered inimical in- 
dustries, the same blood courses through their veins! 

The better knowledge of race and race peculiarities 


has revolutionized and humanized the theories of 


aborigines. The doctrine of extermination, formerly 
thought to be the only legitimate result of coloniza- 
tion, has hecome as odious as it is illogical. 

The inductive study of mind has hardly begun; 
but how much more successfully and rapidly will 


education and the development of the species progress — 
when the teacher and the legislator can proceed at 


industries — 


Re Pe 


SEPTEMBER 14, 1883.] 


once from diagnosis to safe prescription, when natural 
selection and human legislation shall co-operate in 
the more speedy survival of the fittest! The time 
seems to me to have arrived when our great anthro- 
pological societies and institutions should institute a 
Systematic, co-operative study of psychology. 

In a Jand where the archeologist may tally off 
most of his finds by savage implements in use at his 
very door, it seems like presumption to speak to you 
of the advantages of the most careful archeological 
methods. But there is a difference between the old 
and the new archeology. There are times in the 
settlement of a new country, when every man is his 
own carpenter, smith, and physician. But how soon 
your energies have worked out of that! Now [speak 
only ef professional archeology and its advantages. 
How many mistakes of his predecessors has Mr. 
Putnam alone corrected? We have all read with 
pleasure his recent correction of Dr. Hildreth’s mis- 
takes about iron in the mounds. It is so with your 
archeological collections: only those gathered in a 

Uscientitic spirit will have any lasting value. But in 
the accumulation and preservation of such, you are 
the storers of force of the greatest value. You are 
recovering the scattered fragments of an ancient 
mosaic which will one day be reset, and its legend 
will be the lost history of prehistoric man. 

The third benefit to which I will call your attention 
is the opportunity which the science affords for the 
exercise of every talent, even the highest. The dif- 
ficulty of any problem depends upon the number or 
the degree of its unknown quantities. When facts 
were few, and the data of the science were beclouded 
with many sources of error, no wonder that men of 
logical minds left these investigations to those of a 
more imaginative disposition. Their crude, prelim- 
inary efforts have given place to organized work, 
directed by men of the greatest executive ability, 
assisted by skilful specialists, and endowed both by 
private munificence and by public appropriation. 
Not to go beyond the limits of our own country, we 
all point with pride to the Peabody museum, the 
Archaeological institute of America, the American 
antiquarian society, the museums of New York city 
and of Philadelphia, the Smithsonian institution, 
National museum, Bureau of ethnology, Army 
medical museum, and the Anthropological society at 
Washington, the academies of Cincinnati, St. Louis, 
and Davenport, and the historical societies of many 
of our states, including the Minnesota collections. 

Now, the special merit of such great centralization 
of resources is that everybody can study something. 
It is possible for every craft and profession thus to 
prosecute its researches and to make its contributions. 
During the past winter, papers were read before the 
Anthropological society at Washington by compara- 
tive anatomists, biologists, archeologists, geologists, 
physicians, paleographers, sign-linguists, philolo- 
gists, patent-examiners, artists, statisticians, sociol- 
ogists, clergymen, metaphysicians, and ethnogra- 
phers. And this does not exhaust the scheme. 
Mothers, school-teachers, those in charge of the 
insane, the criminal, and the defective classes, law- 


SCIENCE. 


363 


yers, mechanics, musicians, philanthropists, legis- 
lators, may all contribute to this science some handi- 
work which will help to make the.pilecomplete. ‘To 
be still more personal, permit me to say to each one 
before me, that there is anthropological work which 
your peculiar occupation fits you to do better than 
any one else on earth. For example, a distinguished 
ornithologist, Mr. Henshaw, has recently identified 
all the birds in the well-known mound-pipes. An 
artist, Mr. Holmes, has succeeded in bringing order 
out of confusion in the shell ornaments of the 
mounds. A patent-examiner, Mr. Seely, traces back- 
ward aboriginal art. A general in the British army, 
Pitt-Rivers, worked out the history of the elaboration 
of the implements of war. An educator, Mr. Peck- 
ham, has recently given us the result of a laborious 
investigation on the growth of children. The geolo- 
gists must interpret for us the significance of our 
discoveries in the drift. Where can I stop? I will 
boldly avow that the day of tyros is gone. There is 
a great multitude of collectors throughout our states 
who will have to go to school to Professor Putnam, 
or Dr. Rau, or Dr. Thomas, before they will have 
the faintest conception of the significance of their 
treasures. 

The inevitable result of speciat research is general- 
ization. Kepler, Newton, Count Rumford, Kirchhoff, 
Bunsen, and Dgrwin, are names that stand for these 
processes in material science. To Herbert Spencer 
we are indebted for the first effort in this direction 
respecting human phenomena, and his work will be 
revised and corrected by those who will approach 
the task with better instruments and more reliable 
material. 

In this heaving mass of humanity, returning into 
itself ever with vast gulf-streams and eddies, each act- 
uated by its special forces, there is, after all, orderly 
motion. We discover that our little circle is part of 
a greater circle, and for a moment the mind is satis- 
fied in the contemplation of this wider truth. Recov- 
ering, and renewing our investigation, the fact is 
reached, that this and its congeneric circles are part 
of a greater movement more complicated and per- 
plexing. By the pursuit of this wider knowledge the 
intellect is strengthened, and tliereby is brought about 
the natural selection of the mind. While many tire, 
or are unable to comprehend the situation, others 
press on, and grow strong by the effort. 

The last advantage of which my time will allow 
me to speak is the assistance which such studies 
render to philanthropy and legislation. 

Standing on the deck of a steamer, and looking at 
the land left behind, we seem to be but a mile or two 
away. Weare surprised with the information, that 
what seems so near is many miles distant. It is so 
with human history. In our childhood we believed 
that the first. man walked the earth only a few cen- 
turies ago. All the events known to us then could 
easily have occurred in that brief period. The in- 
crease of knowledge expands the boundaries of time, 
and the origin of man is now lost in the mists of the 
past. Could any thing fill our minds with greater 
love for our race than the maguificent struggle they 


364 


have made in these millenniums? At the other end 
of the journey we were no better than brutes, and 


now we look out upon the cosmos as something . 


reasonably comprehended. 

If ‘ pity for a horse o’er-driven’ fills the heart of 
the poet, with what tenderness should we look upon 
the savage races, and remember that the whole family 
of man has stopped, some time or other, at that way- 
side inn! Each aberrant form, abnormality, criminal, 
dwarf, and giant shows the by-paths of human growth 
into which our life-stuff may have wandered. The 
arrow is the parent of the cannon-ball ; the stone or 
bone spear-point, of the bayonet; the flint chip, of all 
edged tools ; the cave-man, of the French savant ; 
the hut, of the palace; the tattoo, of regalia; the 
gorget, of the crown jewels ; the quipo and picto- 
graph, of the printed book ; promiscuous concubin- 
age, of holy wedlock ; the hunting-party, of society ; 
the clan, of the state ; the fetich, of the pantheon ; and 
universal animism, of universal causation. Instead 
of our ancestral belief in a tree with roots in the 
earth and branches in heaven, our tree has its roots 
in the past, and is ever putting forth leaves and 
flowers in a brighter present. 

All sciences are retrospective. The astronomer, 
the physicist, the biologist, find the bases of their 
prophecies in the past history of the universe. The 
statesman, if he be wise, will imitate gheir example, 
and feel secure of his legislation for the future only 


so far as it is founded upon an intimate knowledge 


of the past. 

The value of this study to philanthropy is easily 
shown. With what admiration do we read of the devo- 
tion of those missionaries who have suffered the loss 
of all things in their propagandist zeal! Science has 
her missionaries as well as religion, and the scientific 


-study of peoples has notably modified the methods of 


the Christian missionary. The conviction that savage 
races are in possession of our family records, that 
they are our elder kindred, wrinkled and weather- 
beaten mayhap, but yet worthyof our highest re- 
spect, has revolutionized men’s thoughts and feelings 
respecting them. The Bureau of ethnology has its 
missionaries among many of the tribes in our domain, 
no longer bent on their destruction, but treating them 
with the greatest consideration, in order to win their 
confidence, to get down to their level, to think their 
thoughts, to charm from them the sibylline secrets. 
It sounds something like the old Jesuit relations, to 
hear of Mr. Cushing at Zufi, eating vile food, wear- 
ing savage costume, worshipping nature-gods, subject- 
ing himself to long fastings and vigils, committing to 
memory dreary rituals, standing between disarmed 
Indians and their white enemies on every hand, in 
order to save their contributions to the early history 
of mankind. You will recall the fact, that an honor- 
able senator more than a year ago offered, as an ar- 
gument against sudden disruption of tribal affinities, 
an elaborate scheme of the Wyandotte confederacy. 
Max Miiller says, ‘* He who knows little of those who 
preceded him is likely to care little for those that 
come after. Life would be to him a chain of sand, 
while it ought to be a kind of electric chain that 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 32. 


makes our hearts vibrate with the most ancient 
thoughts of the past as well as the most distant hope 
of the future.” 

In the study of this anthropo-cosmos, as in other 
studies, we are brought face to face with the inseru- 
table. In these voyages of discovery we have no right 
to expect that we shall ever find a passage to the ulti- 
mate truth. As with the child, so with the man; as 
with the individual, so with the race; as in the 
past, so in the present and the future, — the solution of 
one problem only prepares the way for many far more 
complicated. With all our sciences comes the con- 
sciousness of new ignorances. There is more known 
to be unknown now than when wise men knew that 
they did not understand many things well known to 
us. Sowillit ever be. Just about one hundred*years 
ago, Peter Camper’s measurements of the facial angle, 
with a few observations on height and weight, were 
thought to be all that anthropometry could furnish 
to the natural history of man: In 1881 Paul Broca 
laid down for the skull and the encephalon more than 
one hundred and fifty measurements; and the Ger- 
mans go beyond that. Think you, the weighing and 
measuring will stop at these? We are just on the 
threshold of applying experienced training and in- 
struments of precision to the study of man. Exam- 
ine, if you please, the circulars for information issued 
by the old Paris ethnological society, Albert Gallatin, 
Lepsius, Max Miller, and the Smithsonian institu- 
tion, with those published for the Novara expedition, 
by the British association, Kaltbrinner, Roberts, the 
uew Paris society, or Major Powell, and you will 
have ocular evidence of the advance of anthropology. 

But there is no Ultima Thule in science. No ques- 
tion propounded to nature will ever be answered. I 
can imagine the night of despair that would settle 
around any one of my hearers when he had reached 
the consciousness of having gathered the whole har- 
vest of truth. On the other hand, I am sorry to hear 
any of our great thinkers uttering the words igno- 
ramus et ignorabimus as a wail of despair. They 
should be to all the sweet voice of hope. They do 
not mean that we know nothing, or that we shall 
ever remain totally ignorant. Fresh, vigorous, buoy- 
ant, science feels itself to be on a pleasant journey, 
whose destination may remain unknown, but every 
mile of whose progress unfolds new vistas of beauty 
and variety in nature, each transcending the other. 

I congratulate you, dearfriends, that the American. 
association has delegated to you such an important 
trust. The illustrious names to be found among our 
members and fellows are a sufficient guaranty that 
you have lighted your torches, and that our science 
will not be a laggard in this grand march. Professor 
Henry said, in 1859, ‘‘ The statement cannot be too 
often repeated, that each branch of knowledge is con- 
nected with every other, and that no light can be 
gained in regard to one which is not reflected upon 
all’? (Smith. rep., 1859, p. 15). We may go farther, 
and say, that, whenever, any marked generalization is 
made in any science, all other sciences proceed at 
once to put themselves in line with the new order. 
It is the duty of the anthropologists, therefore, not 


SEPTEMBER 14, 1883.] 


only to rejoice in the growing light of chemistry and 
biology, but, quickened by their warmth, to put forth 
new life and vigor, and to apply to their investiga- 
tions the most refined instrumentalities and the 
mostsubtle thought; believing with Lord Lytton that 
man. is a subject of far nobler contemplation, of far 
more glowing hope, of a far purer and loftier vein of 
sentiment, than all the ‘floods and fells’ in the uni- 
verse, 


PAPERS READ BEFORE SECTION H. 


(MOUNDS AND MOUND-BUILDERS.) 
The great mounds of Cahokia. 
BY WILLIAM MoADAMS OF ALTON, ILL. 


THE mounds referred to are in the locality known 
as the ‘ American bottom.’ The region so called is 
a strip of alluvial land in the state of Illinois, lying 
between the bluff and the Mississippi river, and ex- 
tending from the city of Alton to a point below the 
city of East St. Louis. A map of the locatity, show- 
ing the places and dimensions of the mounds, was 
exhibited before the section. The mounds are over 
two hundred in number, and are the largest in the 
United States. A group of seventy-two mounds on 
the Cahokia creek was specially considered. The 
central mound of the group is the largest: it is a 
hundred feet high, and covers fourteen acres of 
ground, It is a truncated pyramid with two terraces: 
its flat top has an area of one and a half acres. The 
surrounding mounds are thirty to forty feet high: 
they are square, in this respect differing from the 
conical mounds of Ohio. The mounds on the bluff 
seem to be of a different order, being only four or 
five feet high, and round or oval. Unquestionably 
the mounds of the Cahokia valley are artificial, being 
made of black alluvial earth, entirely different from 
the ground on which they rest. 

The author accounted for the fact that there were 
few mounds on the banks of the Mississippi river, by 
supposing that the mound-builders were afraid of 
their enemies beyond the stream. 

Numbers of relics have been found in the Cahokia 
mounds, mostly of flint, some of them eighteen 
inches long. The finest is a white flint axe, which 
is of a smoothness and polish like ivory. In reply 
to an inquiry, the author stated that there had been 
considerable alluvial deposit formed since the mounds 
were built. The subsoil is a yellow clay loam: under 
the mounds is a floor of white sand. 

In discussing the paper, Gov. Bross stated that be 
had discovered, on the top of the only round mound 
of the group, a large flat stone, which he thought 
might have been used for sacrificial purposes, A 
skeleton had been found, of a man more than six feet 
high: the whole series of mounds gave evidence of 
the energy and industry the men of that time had 
possessed. Dr. Hoy said that there was in Africaa 
mere bird that threw up a mound fifteen feet high, 
so that these men might not have been even large. 
Mr. Putnam expressed the opinion that the mounds 


SCIENCE. 


365 


were simply a site for a town, and not a worshipping- 
place. Mr. MeAdams said he had been led to believe 
they were places of worship, by the use of just such 
mounds for places of worship in Mexico, their sun- 
worship being their government. There are few, if 
any, evidences of habitation. 


Metrical standard of the mound-builders, by 
the method of even divisors. 


BY CHARLES WHITTLESEY OF CLEVELAND, 0. 


In the absence of the author, an abstract of the 
paper was read by the secretary of the section. An 
endeavor was made, by the method named, to ascer- 
tain the standard of linear measurement which was 
used by the mound-builders. It is supposed that 
they, in common with other early races, used the 
length of some part of the human body as a linear 
unit. Several theories of the kind were tested math- 
ematically, but, thus far, with only negative results. 


The mound-builders identified. 
BY JOHN CAMPBELL OF MONTREAL, CAN. 


Tus paper was read by the secretary of the section, 
in the absence of the author. 

It was a pains-taking attempt to trace the origin 
of the mound-builders in the eastern hemisphere, 
chiefly by means of a comparison of ancient lan- 
guages along the line of a supposed route. The line 
of similarity was believed to indicate that the origi- 
nal people were Khitan or Khitos, Kathaei, Katei, 
Khilon, or Citem; and that they had made their way 
across Europe and northern Asia to Alaska, and 
thence to the United States, down the Mississippi 
valley, to Mexico. 

Professor Mason, the president of the section, ex- 
pressed the opinion that Professor Campbell was on 
the wrong track, while complimenting him upon his 
exceeding zeal and patience in his research. Pro- 
fessor Mason consoled himself, however, with the 
thought that the author had so thoroughly ex- 
hausted the subject that no one would ever attempt 
a similar experiment. Mr. D. A. Robertson of St. 
Paul differed from the president, and expressed the 
opinion that Professor Campbell was on the right 
track, and that the migration of the mound-builders 
would be traced from Siberia, or by the European 
isles, and, if not in one migration, in several. 


Typical shapes among the emblematic ~_ 
mounds. 


BY 8S. D. PEET OF CLINTON, WIS. 


By means of diagrams, the author exhibited the 
ground-outlines of different mounds which he had 
surveyed in Wisconsin, which showed,that they had 
been made in the form of animals, in different pos- 
tures. There were flying geese, eagles, jack-rabbits, 
panthers in the act of jumping upon their prey. 
Many of the supposed effigies were of great size, 
the tail of one squirrel having a length of three 
hundred feet. One of the mounds was in the shape 
of an elephant, with a very pronounced trunk. 
This mound, however, is now destroyed; and the 


366 


only authority for its existence is that of a man 
uow dead. There were mounds, also, in the shape 
of water-animals, such as turtles, crawfish, etc. His 
theory of these mounds was, that the animals were’ 
supposed to be scattered about to guard the central 
sacrifice or altar mound. He was led to this belief 
by observing that the altar mounds are nearly always 
situated on high ground, overlooking a river, while 
the emblematic mounds are so disposed around the 
altar mounds, as to suggest the notion of guarding 
the latter. 


Personal observations of the Missouri mounds 
from Omaha to St. Louis. 


BY E. P. WEST. 


In the absence of the author, the paper was read 
by Dr. Case of Kansas City. 

Observations were given with some detail, by which 
it appears that the Missouri mounds are built on the 
lower bluffs or terraces. The author shows also 
that these mounds must have been coeval with the 
loess deposits. He says we have reason to believe 
that the occupaney of the mound-builders was 
prior to the subsidence of the Missouri river and 
Kansas lakes, and that it was not continued long 
thereafter. It must have begun previous to the 
subsidence; since the remains and implements of 
this people are found in the undisturbed primitive 
deposits. Their ingress was probably from the south, 
and extended northward after the close of the glacial 
period. Turning northward after the close of the 
ice reign, they found the warm waters:of the Cham- 
plain lakes filled with fish, inviting an occupancy 
along their hospitable shores. Here they erected 
their abodes, and drew their principal food-supply 
from the lakes. In time, owing to geological changes, 
the lakes were drained: The conditions for existence 
being altered, the lake-dwellers either suffered ex- 
tinction, or were forced to change their mode of life. 
Their distinctive characteristics, at any rate, ceased 
long before the European touched foot on this con- 
tinent. We have no means of knowing whether they 
were exterminated by neighboring nomadic tribes, 
or became themselves nomadic in their habits. 


Game-drives among the emblematic mounds. 
BY S. D. PEET OF CLINTON, WIS. 


INDIAN mounds are divided by the author into five 
classes, as follows: 1, Emblematic, and built by hunt- 
ers who worshipped animals. 2. Burial-mounds: 
this class mostly prevails in Michigan, Illinois, and 
Minnesota. 8. Mounds which are probably the re- 
mains of the stockades of an agricultural people. 
4. Village mounds, —the remains of villages, and 
their high places for worship. 
mounds of the Pueblos and Aztecs. 

The first of these classes was the special subject of 
the paper. The author’s theory is, that the emblem- 
atic mounds, having the form of the animals hunted, 
served a useful, as well as a religious. purpose. He 
regards tllem as having been employed by the hunt- 
ers as screens from behind which to shoot the ani- 


SCIENCE. 


_ adversary. 


5. The peculiar - 


[Vor IL, No. 32. 


mals which would pass along the game-drives between 
the mounds. Diagrams and charts were used to illus- 
trate the theory. 


(OTHER ANTHROPOLOGICAL PAPERS.) 


In-door games of the Japanese. 
BY E. 8. MORSE OF SALEM, MASS. 


In introducing this subject, Mr. Morse said that 
there are curious affiliations between the Japanese 
and the American Indians, which may some time 
show a connection by family ties. Among the sim- 
ple in-door games of the Japanese are some that are 
played with balls, jackstones, and cat’s-cradle; but 
all these are more elaborate than with us, and the 
cat’s-cradle goes through a far greater variety of 
changes. The author believes that the greater intri- 
cacy of Japanese simple games is due to the fact 
that older people take more interest in them. Among 
these games, there is one similar to ‘Simon says 
thumbs up;’ there are tricks with the hands, much 
like our own; and there are numerous games of strik- 
ing hands, which appear easy, but require much prac- 
tice to acquire adroitness. There are many games 
that test strength or endurance; among them are 
some in which ears and noses are pulled, and others 
where the competitors each hop on one foot, and try 
to push their rivals over. 

They have a more elaborate game of checkers than 
ours. The pieces are placed on intersections instead 
of on squares. It frequently takes a month to play 
one game, and the players often deliberate over a 
move fur an hour or two. Experts in the game 
acquire a wide reputation. Japanese chess is prob- 
ably the most intricate game in the world. The 
board has 81 squares, and 20 pieces are used, which 
have moves somewhat like our own, though none are 
exactly similar. The pieces change in grade when 
they arrive at a certain position on the board. The 
strangest feature of the game is, that either player 
can take any piece which has been captured from 
him, replace it on the board, and use it against his 
This makes the game utterly bewilder- 
ing to a foreigner. 

The Japanese have no games with spotted and 
court cards like ours; but they have a card game of 
‘authors,’ which compels players to cap verses of 
classic poetry. Mr. Morse was delighted to find this 
intellectual amusement a favorite with the Japanese; 
and he hopes they will never substitute for it our 
inferior struggles in seven-up, whist, and euchre. 


Life among the Mohawks in the Catholic mis- 
sions of Quebec province. 


BY ERMINNIE A. SMITH OF JERSEY CITY, N.J. 


THE paper was an interesting account of the In- 
dians brought under Roman-Catholic influence by 
missionary labors continued through many genera- 
tions. These Indians regard their priests as temporal 
directors as well as spiritual fathers. The manners 
and customs of the Indians were described, and some 
account was given of the studies of the author in the © 


SEPTEMBER 14, 1883.] 


Indian dialects of the province; roting, especially, 
the more curious peculiarities of the language, the 
dialectie differences of the tribes, and the modes in 
which such changes have been effected. 

The principal occupation of the men is that of 
boatmen on the St. Lawrence, though the bead-work 
goods of the tribe are sold everywhere. The speaker 
detailed her exciting experience in shooting the rapids 
of the St. Lawrence, on a raft, under the skilful 
charge of these Indian boatmen. Many of the laws 
of the old aboriginal Mohawks are forgotten by the 
tribe described. The significance of some of the 
Wampum-belts was outlined; and the speaker recited 
the legend of the old bell in the chapel, closing with 
a tribute to the zeal and the results of the labors of 
the old Catholic priests who have worked so ‘long 
among these Indians. 

An exhibition was made, in connection with the 
reading of the paper, of wampum-belts, drawings of 
ornaments, and the work of the earlier priests, in- 
cluding some literature. 


Observations on the laws and privileges of 
the gens in Indian society. 


BY ALICE C. FLETCHER OF NEW YORK. 


Tus paper was read by the secretary of the sec- 
tion, in the absence of the author. 

An elucidation of the customs and circumstances 
under which the gens system in Indian tribes super- 
sedes parental ties, was the chief feature of this 
paper. The author had an excellent opportunity for 
observations of this character, during the work of 
placing the Omaha tribe of Indians upon their lands 
in severalty, and while adjusting the line of descent 
and inheritance according to our laws. 

** A child who has lost its father or mother is con- 
sidered an orphan. Its particular place is gone, and 
it passes into the gens.” Beyond the foregoing state- 
ment, the paper does not make it quite clear, whether, 
in case of the death of the mother only, the child 
remains somewhat under direction of the father, or is 
wholly assigned to a family of the father’s relatives. 

But as to the results when the father dies, leaving 
offspring, the paper is quite explicit. In that case, 
the mother loses all maternal rights. Each child, 
unless of very tender age, will be separated from the 
mother, and will go into the family of some one of 
the father’s relatives. It may thereafter be claimed 
as his own child by the male head of the family to 
which it has been allotted. This separation of her 
children from a widow is permanent. Sbe usually 
marries again, and in that event is not burdened 
with her offspring by previous husband or husbands ; 
but if she should remain unmarried, she would be 
expected to work for the family that has adopted her 
children, rather than for the children themselves. 
Tf she dies when her children are young, it is proba- 
ble, that, at maturity, they will have forgotten even 
her name. 

The women are not wanting in affection for the 
children of whom they are bereft; but the separation 
is looked upon as a matter of course, none of the 


Pas eae is Ce nse” OA, eee CP 


SCIENCE. 367 


interested parties regarding it as a grievance, or even 
a hardship. It surprises an Indian to have the pro- 
priety of this arrangement questioned. No point of 
our law of inheritance is so difficult for him to under- 
stand, as that whieh binds together the child and the 
surviving parent. 

Young men whose mothers are of the same gens 
are accounted brothers to each other, and the broth- 
ers of the mothers are uncles. Between these uncles 
and the nephews aud neices, there is an easy famil- 
iarity, not unlike that of parents and children. 

The author has observed a decided lack of family 
likeness among Indians. This observation applies, 
however, to entire families, which include cousins, 
aunts, and uncles; a striking resemblance between 
parents and children being not unusual. 

The Indian may be ‘the stoic of the woods;’ but 
he is neither averse to pleasantry, nor deficient in 
sensitiveness of a certain kind. He delights in chaff- 
ing his fellow Indian; and dreads, more than aught 
else, being made a laughing-stock. 


Symbolic earth formations. 
BY ALICE C. FLETCHER OF NEW YORK. 


Tuis paper was read by the secretary of the section, 
in the absence of the author. 

By the foregoing title, the author refers to certain 
heaps of earth which are piled up with care and 
formality during religious ceremonies of Indian tribes. 
Miss Fletcher has in previous papers described the 
preparation ofthese little mounds among the Sioux, 
where it formed part of every religious ceremony she 
witnessed. The present paper described this prac- 
tice among the Winnebagoes in the ‘ buffalo-dance,’ 
which is given by them four times in May and early 
June. The Winnebagoes, the author says, are ad- 
mitted to be one of the older branches of the great 
family to which their tribe belongs. Their antiquity 
is shown by the construction of their language, by 
finding many religious ceremonies of different tribes 
referred to the Winnebagoes, and by Winnebago 
words used by other tribes in connection with reli- 
gious ritual. 

The buffalo-dance was described in detail. As the 
dancers enter, each woman brings in a handful of 
fine earth, and deposits it, so that two small mounds 
are raised midway between the eastern entrance and 
a fire which is about fifteen feet from the entrance. 
The mounds thus formed are truncated cones; and 
an old Indian said to Miss Fletcher, ‘‘ That is the 
way all mounds were built: that is why we build so 
for the biffalo.”? The mounds were about four inches 
high, and not far from eighteen inches in diameter, 
When the mounds were completed, the head-gear of 
the four male dancers was placed upon them, consist- 
ing of claws, tails, and other trophies of the chase. 
The men imitate the buffalo in his wild tramping 
and roaring. The women follow in single file, each 
with her feet nearly straight and her heels together, 
propelling herself by a jerk of the body, or a kind of 
hop. The appearance of the entire line of female 
dancers is suggestive of the undulating movement of 


368 


a herd of buffaloes. The track left by the women’s 
feet is aregular pattern like a close-leaved vine, each 
woman hopping exactly into her predecessor’s foot- 
steps. 

The fire before: referred to is built east of the cen- 
tre of the tent, and contains four logs placed with 
their inner ends joining, and their outer ends toward 
the points of the compass. During the initiation of 
a candidate, at a certain point in the ceremony when 
he has fallen dead to the old life, and is raised to the 
new, the four logs are taken away, and the ashes are 
heaped in a sharply conical mound. 

The essayist also described one of the sacred rest- 
ing-places for spirits on the bluffs of the Missouri 


river. Such places are at intervals about fifty miles 
apart. They are cleared and cleaned by sacred hands 
every year. The place contained a depression in the 


ground, of circular form except as to an extension of 
the outline in an elongation or entrance exactly point- 
ing to the east. The depression is just one foot in 
circumference, and about six inches deep. An ad- 
joining tree, now partly blown down, has the reputa- 
tion among Indians of being haunted by spirits. The 
author hoped that other observers would be able to 
trace the probable connection between these obsery- 
ances and the building of the larger mounds. 


Osage war customs. 
BY J. 0. DORSEY OF WASHINGTON, D.C. 


THE paper was read by the president of the sec- 
tion, in the absence of the author. A 

By means of an illustration the preparations were 
shown which the tribe makes for a war-march, the 
order followed being that of rank in the tribe. The 
paper described the tactics by which the Osages camp 
in a circle, the war-men on one side, and the non- 
combatants on the other. The road travelled by the 
Indians forms the line down through the centre of 
the camp, and the division-line. The great war-tent 
is placed with the rear to the west, the place of honor 
being at the east. The author detailed at consid- 
erble length, with the aid of illustrated charts, the 
method of selecting the forces, and the ceremo- 
nials preparatory to war, the decoration of the Kean 
Woctake, or Cheezhoe peacemaker, the form of the 
dance around the village, the nature of the moving 
dance, the order of march from home by twos four 
abreast. Marriage ceremonials and funeral rites 
were also described and explained in detail. A 
marked feature of this paper was its use of draw- 
ings illustrating the grouping of bantieipants in 
ceremonies. 


Tae Charnay collection at Washington. 
BY 0. T. MASON OF WASHINGTON, D.c. 


Tue collection referred to contains the material 
obtained by the Charnay expedition to Mexico and 
‘Central America. ‘The expenses of the expedition 
were defrayed by Mr. Pierre Lorillard. The author 
of the paper called attention to the fact that Mr. Lor- 
illard was not himself proficient in any branch of 


SCIENCE. 


science. ‘Thesuccess of the expedition showed how 
a gentleman of fortune might render valuable service 
to the cause of science, although not specially con- 
versant with scientific lore. 

In this expedition, a point was made by obtaining, 
as far as possible, casts (in plaster strengthened with 
tow) of the objects of antiquity. By means of these 
casts, the drawings of this and other exploring expe- 
ditions can be verified and corrected. Great success 
was attained, as to casts from little-known and almost 
inaccessible ruins; and many new objects of beauty 
and curiosity were brought to light, among them a 
large number of interesting reliefs and statues. The 
casts will be preserved in the museum at Washing- 
ton, and in duplicate at the Trocadéro museum in 
Paris. Numerous photographs and drawings were 
obtained; and measures have been taken, under the 
auspices of the Smithsonian institution, to reproduce 
several of the more important ruins by correctly 
arranging the casts in position with suitable acces- 
sories. Good success has already been attained, both 
in making restorations of ancient temples and other 


_ Tuins, and in correcting recorded measurements and 


drawings. 


The correspondence between the prehistoric 
map of North America and the system of 
social development. 


BY 8S. D. PEET OF CLINTON, WIS. 


In introductory remarks, the author claimed that 
the American continent was peculiarly favorable for 
the study of primitive life. The isolation of the 
continent, and the freedom from historical impres- 
sions, had contributed to a unique development. 
There is no trace of a Homeric age. Thesymbolism 
and mythology are homogeneous. In the eastern 
hemisphere, we have mountain ranges running east 
and west, which divided races: here we find little 
trace of such divisions, and the people were to be 
regarded as a unit. 

The theory of the author was, that the develop- 
ment of the North-American aborigines depended 
upon their surroundings. Dividing the development 
into three successive grades of savagery, barbarism, 
and civilization, he found these in successive paral- 
lels from colder to warmer climates. The isothermal 
lines of this continent do not follow parallels of 


latitude; aud due allowance must be made for their 


deflections to the north and south, in considering 
the effect of climate upon development. The author 
differed from Mr. Morgan on certain points. The 
production of pottery is not so certain an evidence 
of emergence from barbarism as is the pursuit of 
agriculture. While Mr, Morgan regarded the devel- 
opment of village-life as a distinguishing feature, 
Dr. Peet had found traces of village-life everywhere 
among the aborigines. 

In respect to the origin of the American races, the 
author believed that some aboriginal tribes came 
from the east, and others from the west. It is pos- 
sible that this diversity of descent can be detected 
by careful observation of the tribes on the Pacific 
coast. 


N 


[Von. II., No. 82. 


SEPTEMBER. 14, 1883.] 


The kitchens of the east. 
BY E. 8. MORSE OF SALEM, MASS. 


Tue author, during his travels in eastern Asia, had 
made some observations on the cooking-apparatus 
there in common use. The Japanese largely employ 
amere fireplace, over which the vessels containing 
food are suspended by hooks: they have, however, 
two or three kinds of regular stoves of different 
designs. In China, stoves of a definite character are 
in use: one was*found in Canton which was very 
elaborate; it was long, and had numerous openings. 
In Singapore, there appears to be only one kind of 
stove; and it is of decidedly primitive construction. 
In fact, it is little more than a rough trough filled 
with earth and sand, on which are laid rough stones 
selected with reference to pots of various sizes; and 
the fire is built among the stones. The kitchens in 
which these constructions are found are invariably 
very dark and dirty. In northern Java the author 
found a stove made of arched clay, as half an 
earthen pipe would be if cut through the axis of the 
eylinder. This half-cylinder is set with the open 
part down, and fire is built under its arch. Holes 
are cut through the crown of the arch, to hold some 
of the pots, while others are merely set upon the 
surface. 


Methods of arrow release. 
BY E. S, MORSE OF SALEM, MASS. 


Tue author recited the rules at present applied 
in the American system of archery; the bow being 
drawn with the right arm, the arrow being placed on 
the left side of the bow, and three fingers being used 
to hold the arrow. Among the Japanese, a different 
system prevails: the arrow is placed on the right side 
of the bow as it is held perpendicularly, and the draw- 
ing of the bow is performed with only the thumb 
and one finger on the shaft. China, Japan, and the 
Corea are alike in this manner of drawing the bow. 
Among Indian tribes, the methods of arrow-release 
differ very widely. In general it may be stated that 
our system of arrow-release (which the author des- 
ignated as the Saxon metho) is substantially the 
same as that of the majority of European races, 
the modifications of the system among them not 
being important. 

The Japanese use a glove with a heavy thumb, and 
sometimes a heavy ring on the thumb. Mr. Morse 
exhibited the Japanese archery-glove. It has a fill- 
ing of wood and pitch in the thumb, which aids in 
grasping the arrow. He considered this glove the 
best of its kind. 

Our system of three-finger release is certainly as 
good as any other, and probably is the best. With 
this system our archers—for instance, some in 
Ohio —are able to outshoot any Indian, tried by all 
the usual tests. As to the methods of stringing the 
bow, the author had not been able to find much 
uniformity. A number of different modes were 
exhibited. 


SCIENCE. 369 


Vestiges of glacial man in central Minnesota. 
BY FRANC E, BABBITT OF LITTLE FALLS, MINN. 


In the absence of the author, this paper was read 
by Mr. Upton. 

The field of the discoveries detailed in this paper 
lies on the bank of the Mississippi river, in central 
Minnesota, about one hundred miles north-west of St. 
Paul, and within the township and village of Little 
Falls, Morrison county. In his report for 1877, Prof. 
N. H. Winchell, state geologist of Minnesota, de- 
scribed certain rudely worked pieces of quartz dis- 
covered by him in this locality. The author of this 
paper describes a discovery of worked bits of quartz 
in a much older stratum than the one explored by 
Professor Winchell. 

Fragments of sharp, opaque quartz were found by 
the author in 1879, in a gap or notch, eut by drain- 
age, in an‘ancient river-terrace, which has an eleva- 
tion of twenty-five feet above the present river. The 
gap had been deepened by use as a wagon-track, 
which has latterly become a highway. Ultimately 
the source of these fragments was traced, and found 
in the form of a thin layer, situated from ten inches 
to two feet above the point in the notch where Miss 
Babbitt began her discoveries. 

The ancient terrace consists of stratified gravel and 
sand. The layer of quartz-chips extended in a nearly 


horizontal plane into the terrace, and was partially « 


broken up on the edge where the gap, with its wagon- 
road, had disturbed a portion. Both the inferior and 
superior planes of the quartz-bearing stratum were 
sharply defined : its thickness averaged a few inches, 
varying a little with the size of included pieces. The 
quartz-bed rested upon a few inches of sandy soil, 
which passed downward into a coarse water-worn 
gravel immediately overlying till. Above the quartz- 
bed, stratified gravel and sand extend up to the sur- 
face of the terrace, which is twelve to fifteen feet 
higher than the plane of the quartz. The pebbles of 
the gravel lying directly on the quartz were small 
well-rounded, and less angular than those of the gravel 
below. ¢These observations show that the quartz- 
chips were spread originally upon an ancient surface 
that was afterward covered deeply by the modified 
drift that forms the terrace. The quartz-chips and 
implements discovered by Dr. Winchell were in the 
upper stratum of the terrace-plain. ‘The two sets of 
objects cannot be synchronous in deposit: between 
the periods when they were left there, an interval of 
time must have passed sufficient for the deposit of 
twelve or fifteen feet of modified drift. 

The specimens are mostly small, and very numer- 
ous. Among them are some of a type unknown to 
the author, of which the most finished have delicate, 
fragile edges, formed by a single thin leaf of the 
quartz prolonged beyond the mass of the object in 
a series of minute, irregular notches. The speci- 
mens of different types were found in groups, each 
of its own type, in this deposit. Some are thus de- 
scribed: ‘Axe-like quartzes,’ ‘rasping-stones,’ ‘long 
prong-shaped objects,’ ‘hammer-stones of different 
shapes, sharp pieces adaptable as cutting-blades, and 


370 


a great many sharp and long splinters.’ They are 
made of many different varieties of the quartz min- 
eral; but the greater part appears to have been taken 
from quartz-bearing slate in the vicinity. Numbers 
have evidently been formed from water-worn pebbles. 
Objects shaped from some special variety or tint of 
quartz were found generally together in loose groups 
of two or three to a dozen pieces. Where a piece is 
of large size, the chips surrounding it are usually 
much smaller. 4 

Professor Henry W. Haynes of Boston, to whom a 
collection of the specimens was submitted, has writ- 
ten, that he believes some of them to be implements; 
many, chips and refuse struck off in the work; many 
are natural forms, and a few are rolled pebbles. 
Those which he thinks are implements, he supposes 
were held in the hand of the workman; masses of 
quartz were fitted for use by having most of their 
projections battered off by another stone. He be- 
lieyes, also, that he has found traces of moss or 
leaves being used to soften the roughness of these 
implements when held in the hand. 

Mr. Warren Upham, assistant of the state geologi- 
eal survey, contributed the following statement on 
the subject, showing how man could live while the 
modified drift was deposited, and how relics of his 
work might be enclosed within that formation. He 
says, — 

“As soon as the ice had so far retreated as to 
uncover the present valley of the Mississippi river 
in Morrison county, the deposition of the modified 
drift, constituting the terrace-plain in which are 
found the quartz chippings, ensued, during the con- 
tinued retreat of the ice. It seems very probable, 
that vegetation and animals followed close upon the 
retiring ice-border; and that even man, who lived 
near the Atlantic coast in this closing stage of the 
glacial period, as abundantly proved by recent dis- 
eoveries in the drift-gravel near Trenton, N.J., may 
also have lived here at that time, and occupied the 
Mississippi valley directly after the ice-sheet retired. 
While the deposition of the valley-drift at Little Falls 
was still going forward, men may have lived there, 
and left, as the remnants of their manufacture of 
stone implements, the multitude of quartz fragments 
here described. By the continued deposition of the 
modified drift, lifting the river upon the surface of . 
its glacial flood-plain, these quartz-chips were deeply 
buried in that formation. The date of this valley- 
drift must be that of the retreat of the ice of the last 
glacial epoch, from whose melting were supplied both 
this sediment and the floods by which it was brought. 
The glacial flood-plain, beneath whose surface the 
quartz-fragments occur, was deposited in the same. 
manner as additions are now made to the surface of 
the bottom-land; but the flooded condition of the 
river, by which this is done, was doubtless maintained 
through all the warm portion of the year, while the 
ice-sheet was being melted away upon the region of 
its head waters. In spring, autumn, and winter, or, 
in exceptional years, through much of the summer, | 
it seems probable that the river was confined to a 
channel, being of insufficient volume to cover its 


SCIENCE. 


[Von. II., No. 32. 


flood-plain. At such a time this plain seems to have 
been the site of human habitations and industry, as 
shown in this paper. After the complete disappear- 
ance of the ice from the basin of the upper Missis- 
sippi, the supply of both water and sediment was so 
diminished that the river, from that time till now, 
has been occupied more in erosion than in deposition, 
and has cut its channel far below the level at which 
it then flowed, excavating and carrying to the Gulf 
of Mexico a great part of its glacial flood-plain, the 
remnants of which are seen as high terraces or plains 
upon each side of the river,’’ 

An animated discussion followed the reading of 
Miss Babbitt’s paper. Mr. Putnam referred briefly 
to the discoveries made by Dr. Abbott in New Jersey, 
some of which are unquestionably artificial produc- 
tions, and prove that man resided in that region 
prior to the last glacial deposit, or, as some claim, 
between two glacial deposits. The discoveries made 
here seem to be of the same character as those in 
New Jersey. Their age belongs to geologists to as- 
certain. He considered the discovery very important, 
and the paper one of great value. Rev. Mr. Peet 
took issue with Mr. Putnam as to the value of the 


discoveries, and thought, that, if paleotiths had to 


depend upon such a shallow foundation as was fur- 
nished by these alleged discoveries, the matter would 
better be dropped. He thought there was absolutely 
no evidence that the specimens discovered by Miss 
Babbitt were the work of man, and was of the opinion 
that the whole theory was without any foundation 
whatever. 


A classification of the sciences. 
BY J. W. POWELL OF WASHINGTON, D.C. 


Tus is an endeavor to classify sciences in the order 
of the evolution of phenomena, and with reference 
to complexity. The first group of science, relating 
to physics, the author divided into molecular, stellar, 
and mechanical science. In the second group, the 
biological sciences, he placed botany and zoology. 
In the third group, anthropology, we have pyschol- 
ogy, sociology, philology, technology, and philosophy. 
Geology is a compound of the first group; paleon- 
tology, of the second. 

The following subdivisions of the third group 
were suggested: As branches of philology: 1. sign 
language: 2. spoken language; 3. written language. 
Under technology: 1. activital; 2. regulative; 3. 
ethics. Under philosophy: 1. mythology; 2. meta- 
physic; 8. scientific. Technology is also either 
industrial or aesthetic. The author explained in 
further detail the reasons for this order of classifica- 
tion, and the relations of the members of different 


' groups to each other. 


List of other papers. 


TuHE following additional papers were read in this 
section, some of them by title only: An ancient 
village of the emblematic mound-builders; caches 
guarded by effigies; effigies guarding the village and - 
sacrificial places not far away; high places connected 


Serremben 14, 1883.] 


with ancient villages; The religious structures com- 


mon to villages in prehistoric time, by S. D. Peet. 


An abnormal human skull from a stone grave in 
Tennessee; A new stand for mounting skulls, devised 


ale win 


SCIENCE. 


Let hc ili lalla "yo +. =| oe 


371 


by E. E. Chick, by F. W. Putnam. Accidents, or 
mode-signs of verbs in the Iroquois dialects; Studies 
in the Iroquois concerning the verb ‘to be,’ and its 
substitutes, by Erminnie A. Smith. 


PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION I.— ECONOMIC SCIENCE AND STATISTICS. 


ADDRESS OF FRANKLIN B. HOUGH OF 
LOWVILLE, N.Y., VICE-PRESIDENT OF 
THE SECTION, AUG. 15, 1883. 


THE METHODS OF STATISTICS. 


I INVITE your attention to afew thoughts upon 
the methods of statistics—using the term *‘statis- 
ties’ in its broadest sense, as a ‘statement of facts.’ 

The subject naturally divides itself into two dis- 
tinct operations, —the collection of the data from 
which information is to be obtained, and their classi- 
fication in a manner that shall without error, and 
with the least labor, present the results in a form 
most convenient for use. 

Commencing with the first of these, — the collec- 
tion of facts, —it would be needless to remark, that 
every thing depends upon the simplicity, accuracy, 
and completeness with which they are obtained, and 
that by no subsequent operation can their errors be 
eliminated, ‘or their deficiencies satisfactorily sup- 
plied. % 

It may be remarked, in general, that no intelligent 
person, business firm, or corporation, can safely begin 
any enterprise, — nor can any government, from the 
lowest municipal to the highest national form, under- 
take any measure with prudence,— without first 
knowing all that can be ascertained beforehand con- 
cerning it. 

In private business, inquiries are naturally made 
as to the cost and the profits. If it requires the use 
of a raw material, the parties will endeavor to make 
themselves sure as to its abundance,— the probability 
that the supply will be maintained, —or, if it be of 
limited amount, the quantity, and the time that it will 
hold out. They will need to know the changes that 
may happen in amount, quality, and cost; and similar 
inquiries will be made as to the expenses that may be 
incurred while in their hands, — the chances of loss, 
or of change in value, — and, finally, the extent of the 
demand for whatever may be the product of their 
skill, industry, and investment, its probable perma- 
nence, and its tendencies to change. 

These questions, being well considered in the begin- 
ning, will enable the careful operator to avoid losses 
from imprudent investment, from over-supply of the 
markets, or from the depression of receipts below 
the limits of cost. 

By a train of reasoning analogous to this, those 
intrusted with the government of towns, cities, or 
states, may determine as to how far the cost and 
maintenance of publie enterprises will be justified by 
the results; but with this difference, that the benefits 
or profits, instead of being measured by a money 
value, are often to be found in an advancement of 


the public welfare, and in the security, convenience, 
and prosperity that may ensue. 

But, whether in private enterprise or public under- 
taking, we may attribute success alike, in both, to an 
attentive notice of the facts and the circumstances 
upon which they depend; and, if loss or failure fol- 
low, the reasons may very generally be traced to igno- 
ranee or inattention as to the facts and probabilities 
that should have been known beforehand. 

These thoughts lead us directly to the point we are 
first to consider; viz., How shall the knowledge of 
the required information be obtained ? In the prim- 
itive way (and for a small business this may be the 
best one), the person will, from his own observation, 
‘look over the ground,’ and consider the various ~ 
points to be taken into the account. He will make 
inquiries of others, as to the supply, demand, pros- 
pects of competition, and the like; and thus aceumu- 
late a certain amount of information, upon the extent 
and aceuracy of which, his success or failure will in 
a great degree depend. 

Advancing a step farther, we find, in most great 
industries and interests of the country, that those in 
the same business or pursuit, whether in the arts or 
sciences, or in financial operations, however they may 
be influenced by local rivalries or petty jealousies, 
are constantly tending to the formation of associa- 
tions or societies, for the advancement of their com- 
mon interests. They meet for the discussion of 
methods by which expenses may be saved, or profits 
inereased. They inquire of one another as to their 
experience or observation upon doubtful points. 
They seek to gather light and aid from science, to 
stimulate and reward invention, and to excite rival- 
ries in the comparison of improved products. ‘They 
discuss financial and national questions that may 
affect their welfare; and not unfrequently they ap- 
point committees or agents, from their own num- 
ber, to gather statistical facts and details for their 
own use and guidance. 

We consider the information thus obtained, as de- 
serving high rank in point of accuracy. It is chiefly 
taken from records, without a motive for conceal- 
ment or evasion, and with a full knowledge that self- 
deception and loss would result from error, whether 
above or below the truth. 

From this combined experience, each member who 
participates obtains a standard for comparing his own 
results with the general average. He cannot afford 
to fall below it,,-and he has the strongest motives for 
reaching the highest limits that have been reached by 
others. 

Still these statistics, however accurate they may 
be, are necessarily special, and often technical in 
their nature. They cannot be compared with those 


372 


of another business, and may be incomplete within 
themselves, as naturally relating to methods, rather 
than to financial details. They might show how, 
rather than how much. They will seldom contain a 
balance-sheet of profit or loss, or any thing that would 
advance the fortunes of a rival in business, or reveal 
the secrets of an unprofitable enterprise. We must 
receive them as we find them, —good only as far as 
they go. 

’ Besides these associated business inquiries, prompt- 
ed and guaranteed by self-interest, we find various 
others, voluntarily undertaken with reference to par- 
ticular subjects, often for the promotion of a moral, 
religious, benevolent, educational, or political object, 
and ranging in value all the way between the accu- 
racy of statements taken from records, or gathered by 
faithful inquiry, by chosen special and zealous agents 
on the one hand, and the random conjectures ecare- 
lessly returned by those who know but little, and 
care still less, about the subject of inquiry, on the 
other. It would be wholly impossible to assign a 
seale of value to statistics thus obtained, where every 

‘thing depends upon the circumstances of the case, 
and the accuracy of information on the part of those 
who make returns, — the fulness with which they are 
reported, and the care with which they are combined. 

We have another class of non-official statistics col- 
lected and published by private enterprise, for the 
information of particular trades or professions, or for 
use by the general public; their reputation and suc- 
cess depending wholly upon their accuracy, and being 
brought to the test of local and personal knowledge 
every day and everywhere, we may naturally expect 
them to be as accurate as they can be made. In this 
class, we may include directories, trade and market 
reports, financial transactions, and the current com- 
mercial statistics generally. 

There may be instances where they are tainted with 
a suspicion of private or speculative motive: but such 
is the vigilance of rival enterprise, that detection will 
quickly follow; and an exposure would at once de- 
grade a reputation for independence and impartial 
statement, to the rank of a private job for a specula- 
tive end. j 

Exhibits openly made, for the avowed purpose of 
presenting the favorable side of a business enterprise, 
may be taken for what they are worth, and are often 
trustworthy; but, when concealed under a false pre- 
tence, they deserve suspicion, and, when exposed, 
they generally injure the interest that they represent. 

The best of these statistics are taken from records, 
and are entirely correct; others are collected by spe- 
cial agents, and should be approximately near the 
truth; and there is still another class, made up from 
the estimates of those supposed to know the facts, 
and which must wander more or less from the actual 
conditions that they attempt to represent. 

It may be said of all of them, that their greatest value 
is for present use. ‘They quickly pass by, to give place 
to the next issue, and remain only as historical records; 
but, as such, they still afford a most valuable means 
of comparison between the present and the past, and 
become landmarks of progress, ever instructive to 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 32. 


those who may be seeking to trace the origin and 
growth of our industries and our resources; and now 
and then they are recalled as precedents, where new 
questions arise, under circumstances deemed similar 
to the past. 

We will next consider some points relating to 
inquiries undertaken by authority of government, 
either for the intelligent discharge of its own func- 
tions, or for general information, the good of its eiti- 
zens, and the advancement of knowledge among 
mankind. 

We may, in general, remark, that nothing can be 
properly done, in the machinery of government, with- 
out leaving its record. If money or property is re- 
ceived, there is an entry; if a payment is made, or if 
property is issued, there is also an entry, and a receipt 
to proveit. Inshort, the whole theory of our goyern- 
ment involves the necessity of a record of every offi- 
cial transaction; and it is only in cases of intentional 
fraud, or gross neglect, or unavoidable accident, that 
the history of every public act cannot be traced from 
these records. P 

A record, to be trustworthy, should be made at the 
time of the transaction, and while all the facts as to 
time, subject, and amount, or other points of state- 
ment, are fresh in mind. Nothing should be trusted 
to the memory, and for record at a more convenient 
season. It should be concise, and easily understood, 
and may often be very greatly assisted by tabular 
arrangement. 

The summaries of these records, as published by 
the government, are, we believe, with few exceptions, 
entitled to great confidence, as far as they present 
transactions done by authority, or passing under the 
notice of government agents. 

We may classify the official statistics of the govern- 
ment under the following heads: — 

First, Summaries of current business, published 
annually or at shorter intervals. . 

Second, Periodical inquiries made at wider inter- 
vals, as in the census, and requiring special agencies 
for their execution. 

Third, The inquiries made by experts, or by special 
commissions or agencies created for a particular pur- 
pose. This class is sometimes associated with one or 
the other of the preceding. 

Taking from among these classes the census, as one 
of the most important, let us notice some of the 
methods by which it has been taken. 

Ths earliest returns that I have found, in colonial 
times, were made by sheriffs and constables. Ata 
later period, the national census was for along period 
taken by the marshals of the district courts, or their 
deputies, — officers whose duties are quite analogous 
to the former; and this practice of assigning the 
task to sheriffs still prevails in several of the states. 

In many other cases, assessors discharge the duty. 
In New York, before 1855, special agents were ap- 
pointed by local authorities; and, commencing with 
that year, they have since been appointed by the 
secretary of state. The appointing power has been 
vested in state boards, in boards of county eom- 
missioners, and in the judges of inferior county 


- Sepremper 14, 1883.] 


courts. Assuming what I think all will admit, that 
census inquiries should be made entirely free from 
“any suspicion that some tax or some personal liabil- 
ity is to be incurred, it is evident that an assessor 
cannot question an ignorant man about his property 
and his erops, without exciting his fears that some 
tax is to be laid. The sheriff or the constable seldom 
makes a professional call, except to serve some papers 
ormake an arrest. There is, therefore, a strong reason 
for appointing persons who are to make the census 
inquiries their only business, and for making it widely 
known that there is no taxation, enrolment, or other 
liability incurred by giving full and true returns, and 
that there is no sectarian or political end to be served 
by the inquiry. 

This excellent end is now well enough secured 
under the national law, and in several of the states. 
They have a still better method in Great Britain, where 
a system of registration of births, marriages, and 
deaths, has its districts and its agents under constant 
organization, and to which, once in ten years, the 
census can be assigned, without creating new offices. 
In Sweden, where a system of registration, including 
also a record of change of residence, is in charge of 
the parish-clerks, they take a census whenever they 
choose to post the books, without any special inqui- 
ries being made, more than what these records con- 
tain. 

In the national census before 1850, — in New York 
before 1855,—and in some of the states still, each 
family had one line upon the blanks; and the number 
of persons of different ages, sexes, and colors, was 
entered in columns provided. The limit of classifica- 
tion was of course restricted to these columns; and, 
although the totals of each class were easily obtained 
by adding, the results were meagre and unsatisfac- 

» tory. 4 

The change that allowed a line for each name, one 
column for the exact age, and other columns for native 
country, profession or occupation, ete., while it sim- 
plified the labor of taking, allowed ample field for 
classification; and it made it necessary to employ a 
large force of clerks, in a central office, for the reduc- 
tion of the returns for publication. 

By a method now generally used in Europe, the 
eensus is taken upon ‘householders’ schedules,’ 
which are distributed one to each family, some days 
beforehand, filled out by the head of the family, and 
collected upon one day. The only instance in which 
this has been done in the United States, within my 
knowledge, was in the District of Columbia, upon 
the 11th of November, 1867. This census was taken 
by the metropolitan police, under my own direction, 
and with entire success. It was attempted in the 
city of Baltimore some months afterwards, and failed, 
apparently from want of proper management on the 
part of those in charge. 

For all kinds of official inquiries, relating to busi- 
ness, as well as to personal statistics, I think the true 
and proper method is, by means of special blanks, 
carefully prepared, simple, and fully explained. 
These should be distributed some little time before- 

_hand, and should be taken up, if not in one day, 


SCIENCE. 


373 


within a short period of time, but with reference to 
agiven day. The chief difficulty to be encountered 
is the illiteracy of thuse who should fill the blanks; 
but in the District of Columbia, which in 1867 con- 
tained a large number of colored families, but recently 
freed from slavery, the blanks had been, in almost 
every case, filled out by some one to whom they had 
been carried. 

In following our subject, — the ‘ methods of statis- 
tics,’ — we may notice some points in the condensa- 
tion and arrangement of facts that may be of interest. 

With a vast amount of information before us, as, 
for example, in the returns of a census, let us con- 
sider what is to be done, and how it can be done with 
the least labor and greatest certainty. After inspec- 
tion to make sure that the work is all together, in 
proper order and condition, it will be found that sey- 
eral distinct operations are necessary, in preparing 
the results for the press. Columns of figures must of 
course be added, and carefully revised. As the totals 
of several sheets will often be consolidated into one 
sum, it is best to use spare sheets of the same sched- 
ule for entering the totals of pages, so that these 
partial totals can be easily combined. It is always a 
good practice, where long columns, of many figures 
in each, are to be entered for adding, to provide paper 
with narrow vertical ruling, that shall allow of but 
one figure in a space. In cases where the first two 
or three right-hand characters are generally ciphers, 
they may be left out altogether, the significant figures 
only being entered in their proper places. It savesa 
little time and labor, and does not lead to error. 

Where a great amount of statistical material is re- 
ported, — as, for example, the names in a census,— the 
blanks should always be plainly divided by herizontal 
and vertical lines, printed in preference toruled. The 
horizontal lines should be numbered from the top 
downward, upon both margins. This numbering is 
the more important where an entry is carried across 
to another page. Each line should contain but one 
entry, and there should be, if possible, no blank lines 
except at the end. Then, with a little multiplica- 
tion-table at hand, showing the number of lines in a 
full sheet, and for each number up to the highest that 
are likely to be found in a return, the totals can be 
rapidly and accurately ascertained, as follows: The 
number of sheets is first counted on the back edge, 
and the number of entries they should contain, if 
full, is set down. Then, by glancing over each page 
separately, it is easy to notice whether there are any 
lines with two entries, any blanks, or any lines in 
excess. The deficiencies are set down in one column, 
the excess in another, and their difference is added or 
subtracted, as the case may require, when the true 
sum is at once found. This operation, which is the 
first thing done, should be repeated by another per- 
son; and, when found to agree, it should be kept as a 
test-number for verifying the accuracy of much of the 
work that is to follow. In measuring parts of pages, 
a scale made of a strip from the margin of a blan 
schedule, and pasted upon a card, will save all labor 
of counting. 

In statistical labors, where the same returns afford 


374 


material for a considerable number of deductions, — 
as, for example, the population sheet of the census, — 
it is generally best to take but one thing at a time. 
Thus, the ages, professions, nativities, civil condition, 
etc., should be taken by separate operations, and not 
two or more at once. There is not, however, the least 
need of confusion in keeping the subdivisions of these 
subjects, in two or four classes, —as, for example, 
ages by sex and color, —by a simple arrangement of 
heavy and light horizontal lines upon the tally-sheet, 
and a little practice in its use. 

There is much to be gained, both in time and accu- 
racy, by a proper arrangement of a tally-sheet. The 
grouping together of tally-marks, by making four 
down and one across, so as to divide the work into 
groups of fives, is so natural and obvious a method, 
that few who have had occasion for this kind of work 
could have failed to adopt it. By an arrangement 
which I have used to a large extent in census work, 
Ihave had my tally-sheets printed off into squares, 
so that each compartment should receive one group 
of five, and no more. Then, by a series of numbers 
with a common difference of five, printed across the 
top of the sheet, at the head of each vertical column, 
the number of tally-marks in a horizontal row can 
be known at once, by glancing along the vertical col- 
umn containing the last full group of fives, to the 
number printed at the top, and then adding the marks 
in excess, but less than five, in the next compartment. 
This saves all counting, and a considerable amount 
of time. There is also an advantage, on account of 
the eye-sight, in having the tally-sheets of some other 
color than white: a neutral tint might-be best, but I 
have found common manilla paper answer every pur- 
pose. ; 

Plans have been proposed for using cards of differ- 
ent sizes and colors, properly inscribed or numbered, 
as counters, for classifying a variety of facts, forming 
together a definite whole. By using colors, the eye 
becomes, without mental effort, a guide to the hand, 
in their distribution into piles or cells in a case; and, 
when the work is done, their number may be accu- 
rately known by weighing, or by measuring the height 
of each pile. Those of different sizes could be sepa- 
rated by mechanical devices, without handling, and, 
by a little practice, without liability to error. 

It may be said generally, that the chief, indeed the 
only real, difficulty, in the preparation of statistical 
data, consists in getting the facts correctly. There is 
nothing in the operation of a central office that needs 
to involve error; or, if an error is committed, there 
should be no difficulty in tracing it to the clerk who 
is responsible for it. An efficient way to secure accu- 
racy in work would be, to make a money-charge 
against the clerk who commits an error, to be paid to 
the one who finds it. I believe that something of 
the kind is done in some of the statistical offices in 
Europe, a class of revisers being employed, who are 
paid by the fines thus imposed upon the careless. 

With respect to statistics obtained by circulars ad- 
dressed to persons supposed to have the information 
desired, we have every grade of value, from good to 
good for nothing. The result depends upon many cir- 


SCIENCE. 


mediante a A ene ee 
“4 . 
‘ “Tt 


[Vou. IL, No. 32. 


cumstances: as, for example, whether the person 
making the return is paid, or is under some obliga- 
tion to, or expects some favor from, the person or 
office making the inquiry; whether the inquiry can 
be answered by reference to a record, or by some 
research more or less conveniently made, or is to 
be supplied from personal opinion, and a general 
knowledge of the subject; or, finally, whether the 
question can be answered by any thing better than a 
guess, by one who knows perhaps very little about it. 

I would hold it to be the general rule, that where 
the inquiries are few and simple, exact as to their 
object, and, if they refer to a record, exact as to time 
and subject, and especially if they can be returned 
upon the same blank, and without expense for postage 
or otherwise,a very large percentage will be answered 
without a second application. A repeated call would 
probably bring a third or a half of the remainder; - 
but there will be, now and then, one who will fail 
to reply, unless under official or personal obligation 
to do so. 

We have thus far considered the dealing with sta- 
tistics that have been gathered from the whole of a 
given field of inquiry: there are other methods that 
deserve notice, and the first of these is that ‘by 
samples.’ A portion of some whole is carefully 
studied, and the results obtained are deemed appli- 
cable to the entire field. ; 

The French statistician Moreau de Jonneés has 
given some instances of this method, as applied in 
times past, by persons who had acquired eminence, 
and whose work gained confidence; and yery prop- 
erly asks, ‘ What is such work worth ?’ 

Vauban, distinguished as a military engineer, at 
the beginning of the eighteenth century, wishing to 
know the agricultural production of France, and the 
revenue it would yield, resorted to a method which 
would appear strange enough now, but still may be 
called ingenious. He attempted to reach his object 
by taking an exact account of the production of a 
square league, reckoning the arable land, vineyards, 
pastures, and woodlands, with their products in 
quantity and value; and then, by the simple ‘‘rule of 
three,’’ he said, “‘as 1 is to 25,000, so is the result to 
the whole of France.” 

The English agriculturist, Arthur Young, sought 
to ascertain the proportions of meadow-land, mount- 
ains, and the like, in France, by cutting up a map by 
lines following these features of the surface, and 
weighing the parts. 

In 1790 Lavoisier, distinguished in science, and 
for this reason consulted by the national assembly 
upon a question of imposts, found no existing data 
that applied to the internal resources of the country, 
until he himself supplied them, by a method that is 
now altogether neglected*in statistical researches. 
He proposed to ascertain the number of ploughs in the 
country, and from this to calculate the quantities, 
production, and consumption of agricultural crops. 

In 1784 M. Necker, the distinguished statesman, 
deduced the population of France from an assumed 
percentage of the birth-rate; and this was taken for a 
census! 


SEPTEMBER 14, 1883.] 


But coming down to a much later period, we find a 
remarkable application of the law of induction ina 
work upon the industries of France, by the minister 
Chaptal. He presents agricultural tables, which have 
been received with great confidence, since they bear 
the appearance of official statistics, and were exe- 
cuted under the Empire. His tables are found to 
have been computed, without acknowledgment, from 
a statement addressed by M. Hennet, director of the 
cadastral survey, in 1817, at a time when not more 
than a seventh part of this work had been finished. 
The other six-sevenths were obtained by a simple 
multiplication of the finished part. 

Many years ago, a ‘distinguished statistician’ 
published, with great apparent precision, the yield of 
potatoes in France. There had been no official in- 
ventory taken; but when one came to be made, some 
time afterwards, it was found that this deduction 
had been obtained by mutiplying the yield of a single 
commune by 37,000, the number of communes in 
France. 

These examples might be multiplied indefinitely; 
and we need not cross the Atlantic, nor go far back in 
time, to find them. There is scarcely a day, but that 
we see passing through the newspapers, estimates, 
deductions, and statements, that have no more solid 
foundation than those that we have cited. Never- 
theless, we must not wholly disregard the inductive 
method in statistics: there are many cases in which 
we can get nothing else. 

The chemist must analyze the soils and the ores 
fromsamples. In every operation of testing the qual- 
ity and the value of any commodity whatever, we 
must select from the material before us what appears 
to be the average quality. And so of.statistics gen- 
erally: if there is no actual and general inventory 
made, we must collect from what is deemed a fair 
average, and, from these data, obtain such conclusions 
as they afford. The result in this, as in every thing, 
will depend upon the intelligence and honesty of the 
person who makes the estimate, the extent of his 
opportunities, his experience, and his skill. 

Returning to the field of exact statistics, we may 
remark, that we can never have an accurate census 
of the population until we have a thorough and uni- 
form registration of births, marriages, and deaths; 
a measure which this association undertook to pro- 
mote, more than a quarter of a century ago, but 
which has not made successful progress, 

We cannot have a faithful statement of the indus- 
tries, without a record kept of the production, the 
consumption, and the cost of operation. This is 
already done by most of the important ones, as an 
incident of business; but we lose the advantages by 
the hurried manner in which the official inquiries are 
made, Yet upon these returns we rely for all that is 
collectively kuown about them, 

It follows, that, until we can realize these desirable 
features, the best we can expect is, to afford more 
time for previous preparation, by submitting before- 
hand the questions that are to be answered; which 
can only be done by the aid of ‘ householders’ sched- 
ules’ for population, on ‘special blanks’ for each of 


SCIENCE. 


375 


the industries, or other subjects, that’come within the 
range of inquiry. 

It was my intention to dwell at some length upon 
the illustration of statistical facts by graphic methods; 
but time will not permit, and opportunity for full 
preparation has not been found. For more than 
thirty years [have been accustomed to note down the 
principles involved in these methods, whenever, in 
the course of a wide and varied range of opportunity, 
a new one was found; and it has been with me a 
cherished intention to present the whole subject in 
a systematic form. 

We may concisely state, that graphic illustrations, 
using lines, areas, or angular spaces, often supple- 
mented by colors, may be employed for representing 
either — 

1. Quantities, with or without reference to time. 

2. Time, in recurring, interrupted, or progressive 
periods. 

3. Direction, or relative position ; and 

4. Intensity or force. 

In general, but two elements can be clearly pre- 
sented at once; but by a skilful use of different 
colors, or kinds of lines, subjects of the same nature 
may be admirably compared, and the relations of 
cause and effect not only illustrated, but even discov- 
ered and proved. It is often admissible to introduce 
subjects having dissimilar notation, —as, for exam- 
ple, degrees of temperature, and height of barometer, 
—in the same drawing; but in these cases each must 
have its own scale, and, in a general way, every dia- 
gram must haye a scale for every element of the sub- 
ject that is represented, either expressed or implied. 

Quantities may be shown either as they exist at 
certain periods of time, or as they form parts of a gen- 
eral total; and they may be presented so as to exhibit 
successive subdivisions, down to any desirable degree. 
If the divisions of a general total do not require sub- 
division, they may best be shown by angular spaces, 
as sectors, which together make up the whole of a 
circular area. If the divisions have some qualities in 
common, the shades of color may be of different in- 
tensity, significant of the degrees of quality that may 
exist. But where there are successive subdivisions, 
or parts of parts of a whole, there is no way so exact 
as by means of rectangular areas, which may also be 
shaded in different tints, as well to separate them one 
from another as to show differences of intensity or 
degree. 

In both of these methods, as well of angular spaces 
as of rectangular areas, we can only show quantities 
as they exist at a given point of time. We catch, as 
it were, the conditions, as does the light, the image in 
a camera. They admit of no such thing as motion 
or change; but these changes may often be strikingly 
represented by a series of diagrams, presenting the 
conditions at different periods of time. 

Where time and quantity are combined, we have 
an easy and striking means of illustration; and in this 
the time may be in recurring periods, such as the 
hours of a day, or the months of a year, or it may be 
progressive, as in a series of years. 

For the recurring periods, I think there is nothing 


376 


® 
so convenient and instructive as the circle, in which 
the quantities are measured along the radii, from the 
centre as their base. The entire radius may some- 
times represent the whole of that of which these 
partial measurements are a part. 

For a progressive series, the ordinates representing 
quantities should be measured from a level base-line, 
and the scale of graduation shown upon the side 
margin, while the time is measured from left to right 
by a scale along the upper margin. 

For simple comparison, a series of bars or lines, 
measured from a common base, and either horizontal 
or vertical, is a convenient and striking mode of illus- 
tration, and has now come into very common use. 

A rectangular area, with parallel divisions, amounts 
to the same thing as a line; but with this difference, 
that a secondary subdivision may sometimes be repre- 
sented with great effect. 

Having thus stated some points in reference to 
graphic illustrations upon a true principle, I should 
not leave the subject without a word of censure for 
some that are false. I willspecify, particularly, such 
as attempt to represent comparativé quantities by 
concentric figures, such as circles or squares. The 
eye has, in these cases, no means of just comparison; 
.and they are very apt to mislead, where they are 
intended to instruct. 

_ . The same objection may be made against similar 
geometrical solids; for, although they may be literally 
true, their contents being to each other as the cubes 
of similar lines, the eye does not readily see the 
difference. It would be better, in such cases, to use 
cylinders or prisms of the same base, but proportioned 
in length to the quantities that they represent, 


PAPERS READ BEFORE SECTION I. 


Life-insurance and self-insurance. 


BY ELIZUR WRIGHT OF BOSTON, MASS. 


Tus subject has been a favorite theme with Mr. 
Wright for several years. His ability as an actuary 
is acknowledged; and his theory.on this subject has 
at least the merit of disinterestedness, so far as in- 
surance-companies are concerned. Without going 
into the technicalities and mathematical considera- 
tions that must be met in a thorough review of Mr. 
Wright’s theory, its object may, perhaps, be stated 
correctly in a few words. A reserve is accumulated 
by the practical workings of life-insurance in a well- 
regulated company, which is more than sufficient to 
meet the claims upon it as fast as they mature. The 
usual system divides that reserve, less the amount 
which the company withholds as a surplus for ex- 
traordinary emergencies, among the policy-holders. 
Mr. Wright takes the view that each policy earns, 
during its continuance, an ascertainable part of that 
reserve. He supplies the means for determining what 
this part is, for each policy: of course, it is a matter 
of calculation for each. He denominates this part of 
the reserve, or surplus, the ‘self-insurance.’ By his 
system it is possible to ascertain at any time how 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 32. 


much this self-insurance on a given policy amounts 
to, or how much it will amount to at any future time, 
if kept in force. Mr. Wright believes that the self- 
insurance is the property of the policy-holder; and 
that, if not payable to him on demand, it should at 
least be applicable for a renewal of the policy to pre- 
vent forfeiture. 


The increase of the colored population of the 
United States. 


BY C. S. MIXTER OF WASHINGTON, D.C. 


Tr is frequently asserted that the colored population 
of the United States is increasing more rapidly now 
than it did prior to 1861. The large apparent increase 
shown by a comparison of the census-returns of 1880 
with those of 1870 seems to justify this opinion; but 
the results of investigations made by the superin- 
tendent of census in South Carolina and Mississippi 
show that the census in 1870 was seriously defective 
in this respect, while that of 1880 was very full and 
complete. The accompanying statistical table pre- 
sents the returns of these people according to each 
U.S. census from 1840 to 1880, and gives the num- 
bers reported from the South in detail. These results 
seem to indicate that they are not increasing as 
rapidly as formerly. The burden of supporting their 
minor children, and their disregard of the rules of 
health, seem to furnish additional reasons for think- 
ing that their future rate of increase will be less than 
it has been heretofore. 


Resided in 1880. 1870. 1860. 1850. 1840. 
Alabama. . . 600,103) 475,510) 437,770) 345,109) 255,571 
Arkansas. . 210,666} 122,269) 111,259) 47,708) 20,400 
Delaware. . . .| 26,442) 22,794) 21,627) 20,363) 19,524 
Dist. of Columbia .} 59,596) 43,404) 14,816) 13,746) 18,055 
Florida .. .| 126,690} 91,689) 62,667) 40,242) 26,534 
Georgia . . . .| 725,183) 545,142] 465,698) 384,613] 283,697 
Kentucky. . . .| 271,461) 222,210) 236,167) 220,992) 189,475 
Louisiana . . .| 483,655} 364,210) 350,373) 262,271) 198,954 — 
Maryland . 210,280) 175,391) 171,181] 165,091) 151,815 
Mississippi . . | 650,391) 444,201) 437,404) 310,808) 196,577 
Missouri . . . .| 145,850) 118,071) 118,503) 90,040) 59,814 
North Carolina. .| 531,277) 391,650) 361,522) 316,011) 268,249 
South Carolina . 604,382) 415,814) 412,320) 398,944) 335,514 
Tennessee 403,151) 322,331) 283,019) 245,881) 188,583 
Texas . . 393,383} 253,415) 182,921) 58,538) - 
Virginia * 631,616) 512,841) 527,763) 526,861) 498,829 
West Virginia . 25,886) 17,980) 21,144 - - 
Other States . 481,540) $41,127) 226,219 196,570) 171,857 

Total U. 8. ‘ peal men 4,441,830|3,638,808) 2,873,648" 


Oyster-farming in Connecticut waters. 
BY H. C. HOVEY OF NEW HAVEN, CONN. 
AN explanation of the difference between seed 


oysters and those fit for market gave the author oc- — 


casion to mention that ‘saddle rock’ oysters in their 
best edible condition were six or seven years old. 
A history of Connecticut experience and legislation 
in relation to oysters was given in detail. There 
are now 325,000 acres of disposable space for oyster- 


beds, and 100,000 are occupied. The area of the _ 


natural beds is only 6,000 acres, and this furnishes 


. SEPTEMBER 14, 1883.] 


the seed for new beginners. The present expansion 
of oyster-farming is due to the use of steam-power in 
gathering the harvest. 

The first thing done on an oyster-farm is to stake 
it out into sections, and then the bottom is ex- 
amined. The next step is to scatter oyster shells 
over the farm, and the oyster spawn is scattered. 
After this, in some muddy localities, small trees, 
mainly birch, are thrust into the water, in a standing 
position; and the young oysters set on these trees. 
The spawn is cast out from June until November, and 
for a few days the young oysters swim everywhere 
they please, leading a happy life for a brief period. 
Shelling begins about June 15, and ends about Aug. 
15. When the oysters fill the trees, the latter are 
pulled up and cleaned off. From one acre of bushes, 
1,000 bushels of oysters have been gathered in one 
year. ,The oysters set on anything which is clean. 
They had been found on old boots, old wrecks, and 
a pair were found on an old padlock. Oyster-farm- 
ing was not profitable every year; one firm having 
lost $20,000 by the ravages of the star-fish in one bed, 
and another firm $100,000 in two years from the same 
eause. Oysters were formerly imported, but are now 
exported in immense quantities. 


The German carp, and its introduction into the 
United States. 


BY C. W. SMILEY OF WASHINGTON, D. C. 


“THE United States fish-commission, he said, had 
some years ago imported from Germany thirty or 
forty pairs of this fish. They were placed in breeding- 
ponds in Washington, and have increased many-fold, 
the number spawned this year being 400,000. The 
carp is naturally a warm-water fish, and in the waters 
of the southern states grows with astonishing rapid- 
ity, and to great size. They will also do well in the 
cold water of the north, even in Minnesota, Nearly 
every state and county in the United States has a 
fish-commission, and they are all propagating carp. 
It has also been taken up as a private speculation, 
and carp are sold for breeding-purposes as high as $5 
per pair. 

The carp roots about in the mud for aliment, and 
much resembles poultry in its manner of getting food. 
Carp aged three years are often found to weigh twelve 
to fifteen pounds, and a gain in weight of four pounds 
has been observed ina carp in one year. The carp is 
sluggish; while trout, bass, and other lively fish frisk 
about, and do not fatten so fast as the carp. Experi- 
ments have shown that female carp spawn at the age 
of one year in southern waters, at two years in colder 
waters, and in the extreme northern waters of the 
United States at three years. Other fish, turtles, 
muskrats, snakes, and even birds, eat young carp. A 
bird shot in Washington recently hadin its stomach 
the heads of seventy-nine youngcarp. The U.S. fish- 
commissioner recently sent out requests for informa- 
tion about carp experimented with in this country; 
most of the replies placing the carp on an equality with 
trout, bass, and shad as a food fish, while a few classed 
them with pike, and a very few said they had a mud- 


eS Sea Te ee, 


SCIENCE. 


Jd alive Fr Be , 


dy taste. The carp is the best pond fish yet known, 
and in a very small pond will thrive well, so that 
families may easily have their own fish-garden if they 
have enough water to make a permanent pond. The 
carp is a’very hardy fish for shipment, requiring little 
water to keep alive in. The U.S. fish-commissioner 
is giving away carp, sending them by express to any 
point, the receiver paying express charges. The fish 
will thrive on table-refuse and almost any thing edi- 
ble. Carp can be kept in winter in a tub in the 
cellar, the water requiring to be kept fresh. Care 
should be taken to keep poisonous substances out of 
carp-ponds, and too much food should not be thrown 
in. In cooking carp, thorough cleansing is needed; 
and frying should be done in hot pans and hot grease. 

As to the economics of this subject, Mr. Smiley 
said that fish-culture was more and more becoming a 
part of the farmer’s occupation, and thought that, not 
very long in the future, most of the farmers of the 
country would have little fish-ponds in their door- 
yards, both as a method of obtaining food and as an 
ornament to the homestead. 


Cable-cars for city passenger traffic. 
BY E. T. COX OF NEW HARMONY, IND. 


ProFEssOR Cox, though devoted to geology, has 
always taken a kindly interest in schemes for indus- 
trial advancement. In the present paper he describes 
the success of the cable system as a substitute for 
horse-cars; and urges ils general adoption, on the 
ground of its convenience and comfort to humanity, 
as well as the diminution of suffering to the horse. 
Some of the collateral statistics presented in the paper 
are interesting; e.g., the figures given by Mr. Moody 
Merrill, chairman of the horse-car railroad convention 
held at Boston last March: ‘‘ There are in the United 
States and Canada 415 street-railways, giving employ- 
ment to about 85,000 men, 18,000 cars, and 100,000 
horses in daily use. These horses consume 150,000 
tons of hay, and 111,000,000 bushels of grain. 3,000 
miles of track represent an invested capital of $159,- 
000,000. The number of passengers annually car- 
ried is 1;212,460,000. In the city of New York there 
are 110 miles of horse-railway, and 11,866 horses 
are used to operate them. The horses, together with 
their harness, expensive lands and stables, feed and 
grains, make the operating expenses, by including 
interest, $5,104,596.79 per annum. ‘The average life 
of the street-car horse in New York is less than three 
years.”’ 

The paper quotes an opinion of Gen. W. Sewell 
of .New Jersey, a practical railroad engineer, who 
prophesies that, within ten years, the cable system 
will supersede horse-cars on every considerable street 
line. The great advantage of the system is its appli- 
cability to very steep grades. The paper states, in 
respect to the most vital question to capitalists, that 
the cost of the plant in the cable system is shown to 
be about $70,000 per mile of roadway. We have 
heard it recently stated, in other quarters, at $120,000; 
but perhaps one estimate applies to single and the 
other Lo double tracks. This makes it, at best, some- 


378 


what expensive as an experiment; and that is the light 
in which it is regarded by many horse-railroad man- 
agers at present. 


Improved method of spraying trees for pro- 
2 tection against insects. 


BY C. V. RILEY OF WASHINGTON, D.C. 


THE paper gave a summary of results obtained 
from experiments made during the past two years at 
the U. S. department of agriculture. An ordinary 
barrel is used as a reservoir, in which is inserted a 
force-pump with automatic stirrer. A long rubber 
hése extends from the pump, and is attached to the 
spraying apparatus. The nozzle has been called 
the cyclone or eddy nozzle; its action carries out new 
principles of spraying. It is a shallow, circular, 
metal chamber, with two flat sides, in the centre of 
one of which is a small circular outlet. The fluid is 
forced into this chamber tangentially, producing 
rapid rotation, and a spray which is easily regulated 
from a mist scarcely visible to a strong shower. This 
nozzle is adjusted to the end of a bamboo rod (of 
varying length, according to requirement), through 
which the rubber hose has been passed; or several 
nozzles may be attached, in different positions, to the 
sides of a stiff metal tube, sufficiently slender to 
be handled by the operator, and thrust among the 
branches of the tree. By these means, trees from 
twenty to thirty feet high can be rapidly sprayed 
without the use of a ladder. The substances used 
are either London purple, one-half pound, and flour, 
one pound, in from forty to fifty gallons of water; or 
Paris green, one pound, to the same amount of flour 
and water; or petroleum emulsions made as Profes- 
sor Riley indicated at the last meeting of the associ- 
ation. 


Enhancement of values in agriculture by rea- 
son of non-agricultural population. 


BY J. R. DODGE OF WASHINGTON, D.C. 


Tur paper begins by showing that national indus- 
try is prosperous in proportion to its diversity. The 
productions of agriculture would be unsalable if all 
the people were agricultural producers. A civilized 
nation, with the smallest proportion of non-agricultu- 
ral workers in it, will be low in the scale of prosperity : 
with the largest proportion of non-agriculturists con- 
sistent with proper food-supply, the nation will be 
most prosperous. To a great extent, this is true also 
of the subdivisions of this country. It may be illus- 
trated by the statistics of geographical sections that 
embrace groups of states, or by comparison of indi- 
vidual states. The author is even prepared to show, 
that, in a partly agricultural community, the increased 
employment of labor in industries that are non-agri- 
cultural stimulates improvement, compels higher 
culture, and makes the products of land, and the land 
itself, more valuable. Such is the theory. In sup- 
port of it, the author adduces striking facts, obtained 
by compilation from U.S. census returns of 1880. 

The states and territories are grouped for this com- 
parison in four classes, which are thus designated: 


SCIENCE. ‘ 


[Vor. II., No. 32. 


first class, having less than 30 per cent of agricultural 
workers; second, having over 30 and less than 50 per 
cent; third, having 50 and less than 70 per cent; 
fourth, having over 70 per cent, z.e., being almost ex- 
clusively agricultural states, 


Ba ses 
Soe Value |= 22 
Classes. |.°° @| Acres. Value. per jos 
SSE acre. |° 5% 
oad 52a 

Zz es 
First class. .| 15 77,250,742 |$2,985,641,197 | $40.91 | 16.59 
Second class .| 13 112,521,257 3 430,915,767 22.21 | 40.12 
Third class .| 18 | 237,873,040] $,218,108,970 18.03 | 58 85 
Fourth class . 6 | 108,636,796 562,430,842 5,28 | 77.46 


In the first class are Massachusetts, Connecticut, 
New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania in the east, 
and some of the mining states and territories of the 
west, diverse in many sara, yet alike in the fact of 
a large non-agricultural population. This class has 
only one-sixth of the population in agriculture. The 


fourth class consists of North and South Carolina,: 


Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. It has nearly 
four-fifths engaged in agriculture, on lands worth 
only an average of $5.28 per acre. The states having 
only two-fifths in agriculture have farm-lands valued 
at $22.21 per acre, while those having nearly three- 
fifths in agriculture have lands valued at $13.03. 
These figures speak for themselves, and scarcely need 
comment from the author. 

When individual states are compared, the results 
are equally marked. The author compares pairs of 
states, — Virginia and Pennsylvania, Kentucky and 
Ohio, Iowa and Dlinois, —as follows (for convenience 
we place these comparisons in tabular form) : — 


2 
a 
= S > 
< o = 4 > 
Items of comparison. 2 @ E . : a 
Bho Sle egbpase | ie |) S 
Be | NS Sais 
Per cent of penieulcural 
workers . . 51.41] 20.68} 61.67) 39.97) 57.46) 43.65 
Value of farm lands per 
Che) Ay is $10.89)$49.30)/$13.92)$45.97|$22.92/$31.87 
Wages of agricultural. 
laborers per annum . | 180.00} 431.00) 199.00) 394.00} 1 |467.00 


Similar computations give figures for the State of 
New York not widely different from those for Penn- 
sylvania. The average value of farm-lands per acre 
in New Jersey is greater than in any other state, viz., 
$65.16: this is owing to a position between two great 
city markets, with proximity and easy access to 
both. Her percentage of agricultural workers is only 
14.92; their average annual wages are $501. It will 
be seen that the wages of agricultural labor are sub- 
ject to the same law. If computed for the first table 
in this paper, the wages per month of the agricultural 


1 The annual wages of agricultural labor in Minnesota are 
$376. 


SEPTEMBER 14, 1883.] 


laborer would be found, for the first class of states, 
fully $25; for the second, nearly $25; for the third, 
less than $20; for the fourth, about $13.50. 

An application of the same test to the value of 
annual production for each man engaged in agricul- 
ture brings equally interesting results in the follow- 
ing table: — 


Sas 
_No. engaged Value Value | 2 2 
Classes. in of products of | per | 222 
agriculture. | agriculture. | capita.| °5 = 
SEa 

eae 
First class . 1,060,681 484,780,797 $457 16.51 
Second class 1,566,875 616,850,959 394 40.12 
Third class . 3,017,971 786,681,420 261 58.85 
Fourth class 2,024,966 325,099,388 161 77.46 


The states with teks than 30 per cent in farm- bor 
realize nearly three times as much per man as those 
which have over 70 per cent in farm-work. In other 
words, one man in the first class realizes as much as 
the three men who are competing with each other, 
having little outlet for surplus production. Three 
brothers in Alabama, laboring through the year, get 
as much for their aggregate produce as one farmer 
receives in Pennsylvania, simply because that farmer 
has a brother engaged in manufacture and another in 
mining. It is because in one case there is a market 
for one product only, thousands of miles away: in 
the other, there are markets at every door. 

It appears evident that the proportion between 
agricultural and non-agricultural population is a 
measure of the values of the land, of the production, 
and of the labor of the farm. These values are rapid- 
ly enhanced by the increase of non-agriculturists. 
This is the lesson of the most authentic statistics of 
our own and of other countries. 


Sei i lle 1a 


SCIENCE. 


Sn eee ee ee, 


379 


A new system for the treatment of sewer-gas. 
BY T. E. JEFFERSON, HUDSON, WIS. 


In this paper, which was well illustrated by dia- 
grams, special reference was made to a series of im- 
portant inventions which of late have attracted much 
attention both in this country and Europe. This 
system chiefly consists in making sewers approxi- 
mately air-tight by sealing the sewer inlets so as to 
admit sewage, but exclude the air; making pipe con- 
nections between sewers and buildings, and different 
heating-apparatus arranged to admit the in-flow of 
atmosphere and the products of combustion into the 
sewer, and, at the same time, prevent the back-flow 
of gas; when by the connection of a powerful suction 
apparatus with the sewer, near its outlet, the removal 
of sewer-gas and smoke from furnaces and fires, and 
the thorough ventilation of buildings, is positively 
effected and regulated as desired. 

By employing mechanical force for creating draught 
for fires, the large percentage of heat heretofore re- 
quired for this purpose is retained, effecting a corre- 
sponding saving in the consumption of fuel. 

The main portion of these important discoveries, 
including the removal of sewer-gas, and the positive 
means of yentilating buildings and carrying the vi- 
tiated atmosphere and poisonous vapors away from 
contact with the inhabitants, was recently made by 
Hon. John Comstock of Hudson, Wis., and first in- 
troduced in one of the districts of the city of Paris, 
France, during the present year, where its great 
utility and practical success are fully demonstrated. 


List of other papers. 
THE following papers were also read in this sec- 
tion: Building associations, by Edgar Frisby; and 
Health foods, by 7, S. Haight. 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


MATHEMATICS. 

Hyperelliptic functions. — M. E. Wiltheiss starts 
out from a memoir of Prof. Kronecker’s which ap- 
peared in the Monatsberichte of the Berlin academy 
for the year 1866, in which a method was developed 
for obtaining the parameters tT of those theta-func- 
tions, which, for a certain definite transformation, 
remain unaltered. Prof. Kronecker started out from 
a purely algebraical stand-point, and solved the equa- 
tions which connect the original and the transformed 
parameters ti and 7’z. Corresponding to the trans- 
formation of the theta-functions, there is a transfor- 
mation referring to the integrals belonging to these 
functions, Noting this fact, the author of the present 
paper has arrived at these singular values of the 7x 
in another manner, and his results bring into evidence 
acertain property which is analogous to the complex 
multiplication of elliptic functions. The author con- 
fines his attention solely to the theta-functions of two 
variables. — (Math. ann., xxi.) 1. €. {214 


Curvature of surfaces. — M. Rud. Sturm has 
given here a very interesting theorem analogous to 
Gauss’ well-known theorem concerning the measure 
of curvature at a point on.a surface. Gauss’ theorem, 
stated briefly, is, that if a curve p enclosing an area F 
is drawn around a point P of a surface, and if a cor- 
responding curve p’ enclosing an area F” is traced out 
on a sphere of radius unity by the extremities of 
radii drawn parallel to the normals to the given sur- 
face at each point of p, then the limit value of the 
ratios of F’ and F will be equal to the inverse 
product of the radii of curvature R,, Re, of the given 
surface in the point P. M. Sturm’s theorem is, that 
if the curve p is cut out of the given surface by a 
sphere whose centre is at P, then the mean curvature, 
viz., 4 Ry a5 x -), is equal to the limit value of the 
ratios of the two a6 p and p’. — (Math. ann., 
Xxijem..0. [215 


ee a0 Ree 


380 


ENGINEERING. 


Pressure on valves.— Professor S. W. Robinson 
presented to the American society of mechanical 
engineers, at its meeting in New York, November, 
1882, a paper on the theoretical and the experimental 
determinations of the mean pressure on steam-valves 
exposed to pressure both above and below. He finds 
that a line can be determined, circumscribing an area 
which he calls the equilibrium area of the valve. 
This area being multiplied by the maximum pressure 
gives the total mean pressure acting to hold the valve 
to its seat. The extent of this area is determined by 
experiment; and a theory of the case is constructed, 
which is given at length, with the practical formulas 
derived by means of it for use in designing. —(Van 
Nostrand’s mag., July.) 8. H. T. [216 

The performance of the Worthington pump- 
ing-engine.— Messrs. Shedd and Ward present to 
the water-commissioners of the city of Buffalo a re- 
port upon the performance of a Worthington pump- 
ing-engine, recently built for the city. The delivery 
was 28.8% greater than was demanded under the 
contract with the makers, amounting to above 19,- 
000,000 gallons per day; and the ‘duty’ was some- 
thing above 70,000,000 pounds of water raised one 
foot high per thousand pounds of steam used. This 
was above the duty demanded by the city. — (Ibid.) 
R. H. T. [217 

CHEMISTRY. 
(Organic.) 

Reconversion of nitro-glycerine into glycer- 
ine.— Great difficulty having been experienced in 
destroying the dynamite recently captured in Eng- 
Jand, Prof. C. L: Bloxam has tried several methods for 
decomposing its nitro-glycerine constituent. 1. Nitro- 
glycerine was shaken with methylated alcohol, and 
the solution was mixed with an alcoholic solution of 
KHS. Considerable rise-in temperature resulted, 
the liquid became red, a large quantity of sulphur sep- 
arated, and the nitro-glycerine was entirely decom- 
posed. 2. Nitro-glycerine was. shaken with a strong 
aqueous solution of commercial KS. The same 
changes were observed as in 1; but the rise in tem- 
perature was not so great, and the liquid became 
opaque very suddenly when the decomposition was 
completed. 8. The ordinary yellow solution of ammo- 
nium sulphide was mixed with the nitro-glycerine, 
and the mixture evaporated to dryness on the steam- 
bath, when bubbles of gas were evolved, due to the 


decomposition of the ammonium nitrite. The pasty 


mass was treated with alcohol to extract the glycer- 
ine. 4. Calcium sulphide, made by boiling flowers 


of sulphur with slaked lime, was used. Reduction: 


took place as above, but more slowly, and more agita- 
tion was required. This last is the cheapest process. 
— (Chem. news, April 13.) 

The reducing action of alkaline sulphides on nitro- 
glycerine was pointed out some time since, and 
A. H. Elliott, F.C.S., showed in the School of mines 
quarterly, Sept. 15, 1882, that the method admitted of 
quantitative application. — Cc. B. M. [218 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 32. 
! 


METALLURGY. 


Water-gas as a fuel.— Mr. W. A. Goodyear be- 
lieves that the fuel of the future in cities, for all do- 
mestic as well as for most manufacturing and metal- 
lurgical purposes, will be gas of some kind. The 
ease and cheapness of its distribution, the cleanliness 
and economy of its use, will, in his opinion, cause at 
no distant day a revolution in the present use of 
fuel. As a contribution to that end, he describes an 
apparatus of his own devising for the manufacture 
of water-gas, by means of which, he claims, this gas 
can be made in any desired quantity; and, while 
leaving a handsome profit to the manufacturers, it 
can be supplied at a cost that will render its general 
use more economical than that of any kind of solid 
fuel. —(Trans. Amer. inst. min. eng., Boston meet- 
ing.) M. E. W. [219 

The recovery of the volatile constituents of 
coal. — The attention at present paid to the utiliza- 
tion of products heretofore wasted is well illustrated 
in an account of the Jameson process of coking coal, 
given before the London society of arts, April 26. 
The coking-ovens of England are estimated to have 
a capacity of some 20,000,000 tons a year; and only a 
slight and inexpensive alteration in the plant would, 
it is said, recover oil and ammonia to the yalue 
of $16,000,000, and good heating-gas to the value of 
$12,500,000. From the experiments of Sir J. B. 
Lawes, it has been estimated, that, if all the ammonia 
from all the raw coal burned in England were utilized 
in agriculture, 250,000,000 dollars’ worth of bread- 
stuff would be added to the yearly produce. The 
use of raw coal is characterized asa relic of barbar- 
ism. — (Iron, May 4.) R. H. R. [220 


GEOLOGY. 


Stratified drift in Delaware.—F. D. Chester 
describes the relations of the gneissic rocks of Dela- 
ware, with their rolling, hilly, and local soils, to the 
unconfurmably overlying cretaceous clays extending 
to the south-east, with stratified gravels derived from 
the gneiss. These gravels and similarly derived 
deposits extend even over the top of Polly Drum- 
mond’s hill, the highest land in the state, two hun- 
dred and fifty feet above the cretaceous plain, and 
three hundred and thirty feet above the sea, Large 
dolerite bowlders of undetermined origin, sometimes 
twenty-five feet in circumference, lie on this hill; 
and a little farther south there are two hills of un- 
stratified detritus and bowlders, which are thought to 
have been dropped from ice floating in the sea, that 
deposited the stratified gravels during the submer- 
gence of the Champlain period. As the highest point 
in Delaware was then covered, this measure gives a 
minimum yalue of three hundred and thirty feet — 
for the submergence. — (Amer. journ. sc., xxy. 1883, 
436.) W. M. D. [221 

Meteorites, 

Concretions in meteoric iron.— Professor J. 
Lawrence Smith gives a connected statement regard-_ 
ing the concretions found from time to time in 
the interior of various meteoric irons. Six kinds — 


SEPTEMBER 14, 1883.] 


of simple nodules occur, composed respectively of 
pyrrhotite (troilite), schreibersite, graphite, daubré- 
elite, chromite, and lawrencite. Others consist of 
several minerals aggregated together. Smith holds, 
from the study of these concretions, that the contain- 
ing ‘iron was at one time in a plastic state from the 
effect of heat.” —( Amer. journ. sc., June.) M. E. W. 

[222 

MINERALOGY. 

Scovillite.— Under this name, Messrs. G. J. 
Brush and S. L. Penfield have described a new phos- 
phate from the Scoville ore-bed, Salisbury, Conn. It 
occurs as a thin crust of a pinkish or brownish color, 
coating iron and manganese ores. Hardness, 3.5; 
specific gravity, 4. Before the blowpipe the mineral 
is infusible, and, with borax and salt of phosphorus, 
gives beautiful rose-colored beads (didymium) in both 
oxidizing and reducing flames. It is readily soluble 
in dilute acids. Chemical analysis yielded P.O; 
(24.94) . (Y,Er),O, (8.51). (La,Di),O, (55.17) . FezO3 
(0.25) . HO (7.37) . CO, (3.59) =99.83 % The pres- 
ence of carbon di-oxide is regarded as due to an 
admixture of lanthanite, —(La,Di), (CO,), 9H.O; 
and, deducting the constituents corresponding to the 
above formula, there is left 82.79 % of a phosphate, 
which, calculated up to 100 %, gives P.O; (30.12). 
(Y,Er).O, (10.28) . (La. Di),O; (55.75) . FeO; (0.30). 
H,O (3.57) =100 %. This corresponds closely with 
the formula R,(PO,), H,O, where R=(Y, Er, La, 
and Di). The new mineral is therefore a normal 
phosphate of the above metals, plus one molecule of 
water. — (Amer. journ. sc., June.) 8. L. P. [223 

Ulimannite.— Crystals of this mineral from Mon- 
tenarba, Sardinia, have been crystallographically in- 
vestigated by C. Klein. The crystals were embedded 
in calcite, and were obtained by dissolving the calcite 
in dilute acetic acid: they were of cubical habit, pos- 
sessed a perfect cubical cleavage, and showed on the 
eubie faces the striations so common in pyrite, and 
characteristic of the parallel or pyritohedral hemihe- 
drons. Besides the cube, the faces of the rhombic 
dodecahedron and pentagonal dodecahedron, x~ O», 
were observed. The chemical analysis was made by 
P. Jannasch, and yielded S (14.02) . Sb (57.43). As 
(trace) . Ni (27.82) . Co (0.65) . Fe (0.03) = 99.95 %, 
corresponding closely with the formula Ni Sb S. 
Gravity, 6.84. The mineral is therefore closely re- 
lated to pyrite, crystallizing like it in parallel hemi- 
hedrons, and having an analogous composition in that 
the nickel and antimony are isomorphous with iron 
and sulphur. — (Jakrb. min., 1883, 180.) s. L. p. [224 


GEOGRAPHY. 
(Africa.) 

French missionary-work in eastern Africa. 
— The French missionaries sent from Algeria have 
successfully established a station at Tabora in charge 
of Pere Hautcoeur. Their missions at Ujiji and 
Usanzé are progressing favorably. That at Uganda, 
owing chiefly to the petty persecution experienced 
from king M’tesa, has been abandoned, and the party 
have taken refuge on the southern shores of Lake 
Tanganyika. Six new missionaries have been de- 


SCIENCE. 


381 


spatched from Algiers to re-enforce the staff at sta- 
tions in Central Africa. The station at M’rogoro, less 
than six months old, already presents the aspect of 
civilization, stone buildings replacing thatched huts; 
and the adjacent land, until lately covered with for- 
ests and jungle, has been cleared, and planted with 
coffee-bushes, which appear likely to succeed. Other 
establishments are equally flourishing. — (Comptes 
rendus soc. géogr., no. 11.) W. H. D. [225 


BOTANY. 


Protogyny of grasses.— Bailey gives as an ex- 
ample, Spartina juncea. — (Bull. Torrey club, July.) 
Write (226 

Pollination of prickly pear.— Dr. Kunzé sees, 
in the irritable stamens of Opuntia vulgaris, a pro- 
vision for securing close fertilization by insect aid. 
In fair weather each flower opens on two successive 
days. Hive-bees, flies, and humble-bees were seen 
to visit the flowers for nectar, in obtaining which 
they grasp clusters of stamens, which, when released, 
fly up against the pistil, from which they slowly re- 
cede to their former position. Although the legs of 
the insects were covered with masses of pollen after 
visiting a flower, they were not seen to creep over 
the stigmas: ergo, the pollen grains are supposed to 
be thrown between the stigmas after the sudden 
movement following the retreat of an insect. It 
is hardly necessary to add, however, that crossing 
is well effected by the insects in question, the mo- 
tion of the stamens insuring a thorough dusting of 
their bodies with pollen, — (Bull. Torrey club, July.) 
Ww. T. [227 


Mimicry.— Bailey notes the resemblance of a 
spider to the involucral scales of the swamp thistle, 
on which it lies in wait for insects which visit the 
flowers. — (Bot. yazette, Aug.) W. T. [228 


ZOOLOGY. 


Mollusks. 

Pleurotomidae of Senegambia— Baron von 
Malizan reviews the Pleurotomidae of this region, 
especially of the Island of Goree. He obtained 
thirty-six species and varieties, of which about one- 
third are new. Only four were known to Adanson, 
who first monographed this fauna. About fifteen 
per cent are European forms, which are smaller and 
rarer than those of the same species in the Mediter- 
ranean. — (Jahrb. mal. ges., vii. ii.) W.H.D. [229 

Mollusca of the Caucasus. — Bottger offers an 
important paper on the land-shells of the Caucasus, 
supplementary to others printed in preceding years, 
Rich material has been brought together by Gen. 
Komaroff and Hans Leder. The Limacidae afford 
several new forms: the new section Gigantolamax is 
proposed under Amalia, and Paralimax under Li- 
max. A new genus of Testacellidae, Selenochlamys, 
is proposed for a form resembling Daudebardia ex- 
ternally, but without an internal shell, and with 
the respiratory orifice at the right anterior part of 
the very small clypeus. No known mollusk closely 
resembles this remarkable slug, which was found 


382 


near Kutais. A large number of new species and 
varieties are described. — (Jahrb. mal. ges., vii. ii.) 
W. H. D. [230 

Monograph of Ringicula.— L. Morlet has pub- 
lished a second supplement to his valuable mono- 
graph of Ringicula, in which four new recent and as 
many new fossil forms are made known, and a synop- 
sis, after Seguenza, of the tertiary Italian species, is 
added. — (Journ. de conchyl., xxii. 3.) w. H. D. [231 


Worms, 


New worm with remarkable nervous system. 
— The Willem Barents on her third voyage captured 
a worm, which A. A. W. Hubrecht describes under 
the name of Pseudonematon nervosum. He gives a 
general account of its structure, and promises a fuller 
monograph. The animal is about sixty-five milli- 
metres long, one and three-quarters millimetres 
thick, tapering behind. The digestive tract runs 
straight through from end to end. On the ventral 
side, about forty-five millimetres from the head, is a 
disk, probably a sucker. No traces of sexual, excre- 
tory, or sensory organs were found. The epidermis 
is thin. The-muscles form three layers, —a thick 
external longitudinal, a middle transverse or circu- 
Jar, and an internal longitudinal layer, — variously de- 
veloped in different parts of the body. The nervous 
system is very remarkable: it forms a continuous 
layer completely around the body, and lies immedi- 
ately inside the layer of circular muscular fibres. It 
consists, 1°, of a fine network of delicate filaments, 
appearing as if felted, barely tinged by the staining 
reagents; and, 2°, of scattered nuclej belonging partly 
to connective tissue, partly to ganglion-cells. The 
layer forms a continuous tube from the head, where 
there is no ganglionic enlargement, back through the 
body to the caudal region, where the layer is present 
dorsally only. 

Hubrecht further discusses the phylogeny of the 
nervous system in continuation of his previous paper 
(Quart. journ. micr. s¢., Xx. 431). He points out, 
that, 1°, in its lowest form (Medusae), the nervous 
system is diffuse, and there are no nerve-fibres prop- 
erly so called; 2°, in a little more advanced stage it 
tends to form a layer spread out under and parallel 
with the ectoderm; the general histological character 
is the same as under 1°, —a felted network of fine 
fibrillae, which spring from the ganglion-cells (Acti- 
niae, Psuedonematon); 3°, the diffuse layer is still 
present, but certain tracts are more developed, mal- 
ing the primitive nerve-cords (Chaetognathi, Chiton, 
ete.); 4°, the diffuse part is gradually lost, and the 
cords are retained. These conclusions are confirmed 
by citations from numerous recent researches. Dr. 
Hubrecht has, we think, suecessfully established 
two very important generalizations, — first, that in 
the lower animals there prevails a uniform type of 
nervous tissue, ganglion-cell and nerve-fibre being 
incompletely differentiated, and the nerve-fibres being 
in the form of a network; secondly, that the nerves 
were developed by concentration of the diffuse tissue 
along certain pathways. His paper is certainly one 
of much value and originality. Systematically the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 82. 


position of Pseudonematon is uncertain, but it proba- 
bly belongs somewhere near the nematods and plat- 
helminths. —(Verh. acad. wetensch. Amst., xxii. 3d 
art.) C.S. M. [232 
VERTEBRATES. 

Development of the diaphragm and pexicar- 
dium. — Our knowledge of the changes which lead 
to the partitioning-off of the anterior end of the 
body-cavity in vertebrates to form the pericardial and 
pleural cavities has heretofore remained obscure, 
Uskow has investigated the subject under Wal- 
deyer’s direction, at Strassburg, and publishes an 
important memoir. The essay opens with a review 
of the previous literature. The research was car- 
ried out principally on rabbits, but also extended to 
other mammalia, and classes of vertebrates. At 
nine days (in rabbit embryos) the omphalo-mesaraic 
veins enter the body from the sides, along the lower 
wall of the body-eavity, into which they bulge up. 
The part of the body-cavity in front is cylindrical; 
behind, fissure-like. ‘The two cylindrical halves meet 
anteriorly, and unite below the heart, forming the 
primitive pericardial division of the coelom. The 
posterior wall of this cavity is pierced by the sinus 
venosus, and receives the name of septum transver- 
sum: it isa thin membrane, which separates the 
pericardial space from the fore-gut of the embryo. 
In the next stage, the pericardial space has enlarged, 
the most important effect of which is to drive the 
septum transversum backwards until it lies together 
with the omphalo-mesaraie veins, so producing the 
membrane which supports the great veins, and di- 
vides off the ventral portion of the pericardial space 
from the dorsal portion and the general body-cavity, 
or paired coelom. This membrane then forms part 
of the wall of the pericardial cavity; but it also 
forms the primitive diaphragm, the dorsal portion 
of the original pericardial space becoming, in con- 
junction with the anterior end of the coelom, the 
pleural cavity. 

The pericardial wall consists, according to its devel- 
opment, of three parts: 1°. part of the original wall 
of the coelom (this includes that portion which 
remains permanently attached in mammals to the 
anterior thoracic wall); 2°. the septum transversum, 
which becomes the pleuro-pericardiac membrane; 
3°. the principal part derived from the body-wall, 
its separation being consequent upon the enlarge- 
ment of the pleural cavities. The part from the 
septum is originally continuous with the diaphragm. 

The diaphragm is at first a connective tissue struc- 
ture. The’muscle grows in later from the dorsal side, 
appearing first in embryos (rabbits) of nine milli- 
metres length. It probably is derived from the 
muscle plates, but that was not determined with 
certainty. The primitive diaphragm arises in its 
ventral part from a papillary growth of the septum 
transversum; in its dorsal part, laterally from the 
tissue carrying the Jarge omphalo-mesaraic veins; 
medianly, from the outgrowth of the septum trans- 
versum known as the massa transversa. 

From the comparative study of other types, the fol- 
lowing grades of development of the diaphragm 


SEPTEMBER 14, 1883.] 


were ascertained. 1. The ventral and dorsal por- 
tions of the diaphragm are completely developed: 
they completely divide the coelom, and have muscles. 
The pericardium, except two thin lamellae, is entirely 
separated from the diaphragm (rabbit). 2. Same as 
1, save that a part of the diaphragm remains united 
with the pericardium (man). ‘ Same as 2, but the 
diaphragm contains no muscles; and its ventral part 
is completely fused with the pericardium (hen). 4. 
Same as 3, but the dorsal part is not completely de- 
veloped, remaining in a primitive condition (lizard) 
or in an early stage (frog). Here might properly be 
reckoned certain imperfect developments in man. 
5. Same as 4, but the diaphragm, or its ventral part, 
forms a united whole with the pericardium, remain- 
ing at the stage of the septum transversum (Myxi- 
noids, —Ammocoetes). 6. The teleosts stand apart, 
in that, although, as seen in the salmon, there is a 
certain separation of the diaphragm from the peri- 
ecardium, even more than in birds, yet the dorsal 
portion of the diaphragm is completely wanting. 
The paper contains numerous details. The au- 
thor’s. nomenclature is confusing, and we have 
found it very difficult to follow his account. — (Arch. 
mikr. anat., xxii. 143.) c. Ss. M. [233 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


Mutilations of the teeth.— Ethnographers who 
have minutely described mutilations of the teeth in 
other parts of the world have said nothing of a 
similar practice among the natives of the two Amer- 
icas. The practice is not common in the western 
world; and it is a little singular that people who 
deform to an extraordinary degree their lips, noses, 
cheeks, and ears, respect the integrity of their teeth. 
The historians of this practice overlook the abrasions 
noticed by Vancouver among the Indians of Trini- 
dad Bay, and by Petitot among the Tchiglits at the 
mouth of the Mackenzie and of the Anderson.  Fi- 
nally, no notice is taken of dental mutilations for- 
merly in use in Mexico and Yucatan, upon which 
Sahagun, Landa, and Mota Padilla have furnished 
information. M. Hamy has gathered from the last- 
named writers their allusions to these subjects, and 
prepared an illustrated monograph. The drawings 
indicate both filing and perforations. — (Bull. soc. 
anthrop. Paris, y. 879.) J. W. P. [234 


Imperial Chinese tombs.— Among the moun- 
tains east of Peking are the imperial tombs. The 
Great Wall forms the northern boundary of an en- 
closure five miles square. Besides this, a wide tract 
outside the boundary-wall belongs to the mausolea, 
and is forbidden ground, wherein man is not permitted 
to build dwellings or to bury his dead. Shun-chih 
(1644-62) and four of his successors sleep here, with 
the heavens, the hills, and the streams around them. 
The earlier Manchu princes are buried at Movkden. 
The tombs are all alike in essential features, built 
on a southern slope, with a stream in front. In ap- 
proaching the tomb, the explorer passes first two 
lofty stone pillars, that serve as a gateway to figures 
of men and animals in pairs, facing one another on 


SCIENCE. 383 


opposite sides. An ornamental archway opens upon 
a curved marble bridge of several arches, with finely 
carved balustrade. After crossing the stream, the 
traveller passes guard-houses and the sacrificial hall 
on the right and left, and comes upon a small build- 
ing, in the centre of which stands, supported upon 
the back of a huge marble tortoise, the memorial 
tablet, on which is written an account of the deeds 
of the departed. Halls of entertainment flank this 
building; and farther on in a direct line are the chapel 
of the dead, the bright pavilion, and, last of all, the 
earth-palace, or tumulus, within which the coffin lies. 
When the body is laid in this earth-palace, the door 
is shut. Behind the door, inside, is a round hole in 
the stone floor; and, when the door is shut, a large 
ball of stone follows it, and, falling into the hole, 
prevents the stone door ever opening again. The 
emperor is then said ‘to be at peace forevermore.’ 
Mr. F. 8. A. Bourne, who gives the information above 
quoted, entered this enclosure with great difliculty. 
A minute account of the appearance and function 
of the two rows of sphinx-like figures adds much 
interest to the author’s narrative. The mausoleum 
prepared for the present empress’s regent is just com- 
pleted, and cost about £1,500,000. — (Proc. roy. geogr. 
soc., Vv. 23.) J. W. P. [235 


EARLY INSTITUTIONS. 


Malagasy place-names. — We have a long article 
upon local names in Madagascar by the Rev. James 
Sibree, jun. The object of the writer is to show how 
the names of places illustrate the mental habits of 
the people and their powers of observation. Many 
names of villages include Malagasy equivalents for 
the Anglo-Saxon words tun, ham, buryh. Personal 
names are very common. Villages are named after 
distinguished chiefs. The article will interest some 
of our readers.— (Journ. roy. <Asiat. soc., April, 
1883.) D. W. R. [236 

Chinese laws and customs.— An article upon 
this subject by E. H. Parker appeared in the China 
review, viii. 67. Now we have another by Christo- 
pher Gardner. The two writers are of one mind upon 
most points. It is only upon a few matters of detail 
that they differ. Mr. Gardner tells us that the laws 
and customs of China have been very little changed 
since the seventh century. Chinese law, we are 
told, cannot be ‘squared’ with the theory of Ben- 
tham and Austin, which resolves all laws into com- 
mands imposed by a lawgiver. It is based upon 
publie sentiment and opinion, and upon previously 
existing custom. It ‘follows the instincts of the peo- 
ple ‘Then we are told that the tribe has been 
derived from the family, not the famjly from the 
tribe. Exogamy has in China prevailed over enog- 
amy. As for the land, it is held by single families 
(house communities), or by groups of families (vil- 
lage communities). It is a pity that the writer does 
not describe the house community and village com- 
inunity more fully, and in more exact language. 
The article is interesting. — (Journ. roy. Asiut. soc., 
April, 1883.) Dp. w. R. (237 


384 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


Wirtu this number our report of the meeting of the 
American association is completed. No session of 
section G was held, and no vice-presidential addresses 
delivered in sections C, D, or G. In our next num- 
ber we shall print in full the promised papers of 
Messrs. Carhart and Dana. At some future time we 
may also take occasion to refer more particularly to 
the report of the committee upon the removal of 
duties on imported text-books and the discussion 
of the same, of which we havea full account. Few 
other committees besides this, and those already 
announced, made any reports; and the several com- 
mittees on weights, measures, and coinage, on stand- 
ard time, on primary meridian and international 
standard time, and on the records of science, were 
discontinued, that on standard time in consequence 
of the favorable action of the railways of the country 
in the proper direction. The committee on the intro- 
duction of science teaching in the public schools, on 
the registration of deaths, births, and marriages, 
on stellar charts, and on an international convention 
of scientific associations, reported progress, and were 
continued. 

A by-law to the constitution was passed, providing 
that every member should have the privilege of regis- 
tering the members of his family at meetings of the 
association (not including men over twenty-one years 
of age), by paying three dollars for each registration; 
the person so registered being entitled to all privileges 
offered members by the local committee. The stand- 
ing committee also passed a rule that hereafter no 
paper will be accepted for reading before any of the 
sections, unless accompanied by such abstract as 
the writer deems ready for publication. 

Sections H and I had, in some respects, a similar 
experience at Minneapolis. Both were unable to 
organize until the week of the meeting was half over. 
To each there came, almost at the very last moment, 
a. paper of unusual interest. In the anthropological 
section, Miss Babbitt’s paper announced the dis- 
covery, in Minnesota, of traces of human labor be- 
neath a deposit of twelve or fifteen feet of the material 
which forms one of the terraces of an ancient river. 
This seems to be a confirmation of the theory ad- 
vanced by Dr. Abbott, respecting his similar dis- 
coveries in New Jersey, that man existed on this 
continent during at least a portion of the glacial 
epoch. There will, of course, be a lively discussion 
between experts, as to whether these quartz speci- 
mens are actual relics of human industry. Thus 
far, at best, the glacial workman is known only by 
his chips. 

In the section devoted to statistics, Mr. Dodge an- 
nounced what may perhaps be accounted a discovery 
in that dry branch of science. He has found thata 
singular and quite definite relation exists, in large 
communities, between an excess of non-agricultural 
over agricultural workers, and an increase of values 
in the land, products, and wages of agriculture. The 
figures may soothe the fears of those political econo- 
mists who from time to time predict national disaster 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 32. 


because so few American youths take kindly to farm- 
ing pursuits. An obvious inference from the statis- 
tistics is that prosperity comes where industry is 
diversified. Weapons of argument may thence be 
drawn by those who believe in a public policy tend- 
ing to encourage non-agricultural industries. 

— The Royal academy of medicine of Turin has 
unanimously awarded the Riberi prize of 20,000 
franes ($4,000) to Prof. Bizzozero for his researches 
on the ‘Physiopathology of blood,’ the subject 
proposed by the academy. The commissioners of 
award received several essays: those of Wharton 
Jones, Norris, Hayem, and Bizzozero were consid- 
ered to deserve special consideration. The last two 
were assigned the first rank. The most important 
matter in both of these is the investigation of the 
third morphological element of the blood (Hayem’s 
haematoblasts). The commissioners, all well-known 
savants, judged that Hayem did not completely dem- 
onstrate that the red globules are derived from the 
haematoblasts. Bizzozero solves the important prob- 
lem of the origin of the red globules, determines the 
relation of the haematoblasts to coagulation, and 
throws new light on the formation of thrombi. 
His memoir was therefore deemed the more impor- 
tant, and to Bizzozero accordingly the very valuable 
award has been made. 

— The officers of the Cincinnati society of natural 
history inaugurated about June 1 a course of free 
lectures on botany. The first was given on June 9, 
to a company of forty-seven, many of them teachers 
in the public schools. The lectures have been con- 
tinued weekly, and the last was given on Aug. 11. 
The object of the society in the establishment of this 
course was to get the public generally interested in 
scientific pursuits; and the success of this, the first 
attempt of the kind in this city for many years, has 
been most gratifying. The average attendance has 
been over thirty, notwithstanding the hot weather, 
lateness of the season, and the absence from the city 
of many who would otherwise have attended. ‘The 
officers hope, in the autumn, to have courses in other 
branches of science, so that a general interest may be 
awakened among the citizens, and attention called 
to the importance of the study. 

— News has been received from the French meteor- 
ological station at Orange Harbor, Patagonia: all 
were in good health, and work progressing favorably. 
The cattle which had been brought from Montevideo 
had perished, but those from. Punta Arenas were 
flourishing. The surgeon of the party, Dr. Hyades, 
had made full anthropological investigations of the 
Fuegians who were settled near the station. Casts 
of heads and limbs had been secured, and many 
photographs taken. A collection of utensils, ete., 
had been brought together, including a large canoe 
with its entire outfit. He was engaged in studying 
the language, which appeared to be somewhat dil- 
ferent from the vocabularies collected by Darwin 
nearly half a century ago, 

— Professor W. A. Rogers wishes us to state that 
the relation between the imperial yard and the metre 
des archives is wrongly given in our abstract of his 


SEPTEMBER 14, 1883.] 


paper on p. 250. It should have been stated as fol- 
lows: Imperial yard + 3.37027 inches = metre des 
archives. 

— Matthew Arnold’s ingenious argument for the 
survival of literature, from its relation to conduct, 
encounters an objection in the apparent effect of sci- 
entific pursuits upon the character of his country- 
men. When one affirmed of Clerk Maxwell, that 
“he was free from every taint of the world, the flesh, 
and the devil,’’ it seemed no exaggeration to those 
who knew him. Darwin, Balfour, Sir Rowan Hamil- 
ton, and H. J. S. Smith, each in his turn was scarce- 
ly less endeared by his genial virtues than admired 
for his lofty powers. None of these was so largely 
identified with the world, its business temptations, 
its social allurements, as William Spottiswoode, the 
late president of the Royal Society; and none left the 
memory of a purer life, a heart more “ full of exer- 
cised humanity.”’ 

In his funeral sermon, referring to the text, ‘‘ The 
world passeth away, and the lust thereof; but he 
that doeth the will of the Lord abideth forever,’ the 
Dean of Westminster Abbey said, ‘‘ Apart from gen- 
eral considerations of life and death, the words have 
special reference to that last one of our own time ac- 
counted worthy to rest with the illustrious dead within 
these walls. . . . To his great talents and his pro- 
found knowledge were united such graces of charac- 
ter as the most modest unselfishness and the most 
spotless integrity. He was ever anxious, earnestly 
and justly, to place before his fellow-men such knowl- 
edge as would conduce to their welfare; and so well 
did he do this work among his countrymen, that: it 
might be doubted whether his philanthropy did not 
predominate over his love of science.’’ 

—M. Pasteur has proved that the burial of diseased 
animals does not destroy the germs of disease, or 
obviate the chance of infection to any animals who 
may afterwards feed on the ground above where the 
body of the diseased animal was buried. M. Aimé 
Girard proposes to destroy the germs in the dead 
bodies of diseased animals by treating the carcasses 
with cold concentrated sulphuric acid. The destruc- 
tion of the germs is proved to be complete, Experi- 
ments made at St. Gobain show that three hundred 
and twenty-one kilograms at 60° proof, dissolved in 
ten days nine sheep, weighing two hundred and 
four kilograms, The resulting liquid, mixed with four 
hundred and forty kilograms of coprolites from Ar- 
dennes, produced nine hundred and forty kilograms 
of superphosphate of lime, containing thirty-six per 
cent of nitrogen. Thus, by a simple process, most 
dangerous bodies are destroyed, and a valuable fer- 
tilizer obtained. 

— Nature announces that the Lords of the com- 
mittee of council on education, of England, have, 
by a recent minute, decided to withdraw the prizes 
hitherto given to candidates in the science examina- 
tions who obtain a first class in the elementary stage 
of the various subjects of science, substituting cer- 
tificates of merit, and retaining only the prizes given 
in the advanced stage. ‘The money hitherto devoted 
to prizes will be employed in providing thirty-six 


SCIENCE. 


385 


national scholarships, —twelve each year, — which 
will be offered in competition to students of the in- 
dustrial classes, and awarded at the annual examina- 
tions of the department. The National scholarship 
will be tenable, at the option of the holder, either at 
the Normal school of science, South Kensington, or 
at the Royal college of science, Dublin, during the 
course for the associateship,— about three years. 
The scholar will receive thirty shillings a week during 
the session of nearly nine months in the year, second- 
class railway fare to and from London or Dublin, and 
free admission to the lectures and laboratories. This 
is a most important step in advance. 

— The Rev. Father Emile Fortuné Stanislas Joseph 
Petitot, well known for his valuable contributions to 
American linguistics and his extended journeys over 
the Hudson Bay territory, has received a medal from 
the Royal geographical society. He is the first French- 
man thus honored since Francis Garnier. He has 
now retired from mission-work, and will devote him- 
self to study for some years. 

— The Delaland-Guerineau prize has for the second 
time been bestowed by the French academy upon 
M. Savorgnan de Brazza, of Congo notoriety. The 
military medal for ‘exceptional services’ has been 
given to the sergeant Malamine, a native of Senegal, 
for his defence of Brazzaville against all comers dur- 
ing the absence of his superior. 

— The last number of the bulletin of Nuttal club 
contains part of Burrows’ list of birds from the 
lower Uruguay, which is sufficiently full to be of 
value. The critical list of birds in vicinity of Col- 
orado Springs is of great interest. Mr. Allen’s yal- 
uable list of minor ornithological publications should 
also be mentioned. 

— Mr. E. H. Miller states, in the American agricul- 
turist, that wherever the ornamental shrub commonly 
called Deutzia scabra grows near grape-vines, the 
rose-bugs prefer the flowers of the Deutzia, and thus 
the grapes are protected. Grape-growers may there- 
fore cultivate a charming shrub with a double pur- 
pose. 

— Rev. W. W. Meech recommends, in the American 
agriculturist, judicious salting to prevent the blight 
which troubles quinces, and burning affected parts 
to overcome the ravages of the fungus Roestelia au- 
rantiaca. 

— The sixth annual report on the birds of Ger- 
many in the Journal fiir ornithologie contains many 
interesting notes on migrations and breeding-dates, 

—At a lecture recently given at Mauch Chunk, 
Penn., by Mr. Charles A. Ashburner, geologist in 
charge of the anthracite surveys in that state, the 
lecturer made some general statements in regard to 
the amount of coal which has been mined, and which 
still remains in the region, which we copy from the 
Mining herald of Shenandoah, ‘The total amount 
of coal produced from the anthracite fields up to Jan. 
1, 1883, was 509,333,695 tons. It is hard to realize 
this amount. To place it in a popular form, it was 
stated that it would form a solid compact wall of coal 
(25 eubie feet = 2,240 pounds = 1 ton) 100 feet wide 
and 100 feet high for a distance of 241 miles, or it 


386 


would form a similar wall along the railroad between 
Philadelphia and New York 100 feet wide and 268 
feet high. It was estimated that the region originally 
contained 25,000,000,000 tons. If it be assumed that 
in the production of 509,333,695 tons an area has 
been practically exhausted which originally contained 
1,500,000,000 tons, there is 94% of the coal origi- 
nally contained which still remains untouched. In 
comparing the anthracite region with the bitumi- 
nous fields of England, the estimated contents of the 
former is about one-sixth of what the most recent 
estimates assign to the latter. About the same pro- 
portion exists between the annual production of 
Pennsylvania anthracite and English bituminous. 
Mr. Ashburner stated the estimates were based upon 
very general, but at present the most reliable data. 
The geological-survey estimates have not yet ex- 
tended beyond the Panther Creek basin, between 
Mauch Chunk and Tamaqua. It was stated that 
this basin originally contained 1,032,000,000 tons of 
coal, —double the amount which has already been 
shipped from the entire region. An area had been 
mined over in this basin, up to last January, which 
originally contained about 92,000,000 tons, so that 
91% of the original coal still remains untouched. 
About 88% of the coal which has been mined from 
this basin was taken from the mammoth bed.” 

In a subsequent communication to the same paper, 
Mr. Ashburner disclaims having made any statements 
with regard to the exhaustion of the anthracite coal- 
fields of Pennsylvania, with which he had been 
credited by various newspapers. He adds, however, 
that Mr. P. W. Sheafer, who has probably given this 
subject more careful consideration than any one else, 
has made a very general statement that the field 
still contains about 25,000,000,000 tons of coal. Upto 
Jan. 1, 1883, he had estimated that the total produc- 
tion amounted to 509,333,695 tons. It has been gener- 
ally thought that but one-third of the coal contained 
has been consumed as fuel; so that, up to last January, 
an area had been exhausted which originally contained 
about 1,500,000,000 tons, 23,500,000,000 tons remain- 
ing untouched. If this same proportion of produc- 
tion to original content be applied to that which still 
remains, about §,000,000,000 tons would represent the 
possible future production. According to the mine- 
inspector’s report, there was produced last year 
31,281,066 tons. If this production should remain 
constant for all future time, the field would be ex- 
hausted in a little over 250 years. Such a conclusion 
is quite untenable, for our.yearly production is rap- 
idly increasing. In 1870 there was shipped from the 
region 16,182,191 tons, and in 1880, 23,437,242 tons. 
The abrupt exhaustion of the coal-fields is a practical 
impossibility; nor is it reasonable to suppose, that, 
if on an average for every ton of coal won there are 
two lost, this will be the practice in future mining. 
The geological survey has already in its possession 
many valuable facts to throw light on this subject; 
but, as it is hoped that the survey will be completed 
before this question of ultimate exhaustion will be- 
come one of practical concern, it would be folly to 
make any statement as to how long the coal will last. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 82, 


—M. Daubrée has been examining an interesting 
meteorite which fell not far from Nogoga, in the 
province of Entre Rios, Argentine Republic. Chemi- 
cal analysis proves that the meteorite contains iron, 
lime, and magnesia; but its most important feature 
is, that it is said to contain carbon in an organie 
form, which is chiefly proved by the action of potash 
in it. M. Daubrée from this is led to hope that he 
may yet find organic remains in a meteorite. 

—In the September Atlantic, Bradford Torrey prints 
some studies in the temperaments of birds, which 
will interest ornithologists, as they are made from 
personal observation. The chickadee, goldfinch, 
brown thrush, towhee, blue-jay, shrike, white-eyed 
vireo, and chat, and the New-England species of 
Hylocichlae, are discussed. 

— The Florence newspapers announce the acqui- 
sition of a skull of Mastodon arvernensis by the Isti- 
tuto distudii superiori. Professor d’Ancona writes to 
La nazione, that it was found through excavations that 
were making in pliocene deposits in the neighbor- 
hood of Percussina, situated about two hundred 
metres above the sea, between Siena and Florence. 

—In his recent work on cultivated plants, DeCan-— 
dolle says, ‘‘ In the history of cultivated plants I haye 
found no indication of communications between the 
inhabitants of the old and new world anterior to the 
discovery of America by Columbus. The Gulf Stream 
has equally been without effect. Between America 
and Asia, two transportations may have been effected; 
one by man (the batatas), the other by man or by the 
sea (cocoa-nut).”? Drs. Gray and Trumbull, in com- 
menting on this in the last number of the American 
journal of science, say, ‘“‘ Perhaps the banana should 
be ranked with the sweet-potato in this regard. And 
we may merely conjecture that the purslain came 
to our eastern coast with the Scandinavians or the 
Basques.”’ 

— Ostrich-chicks are hatching out at the ostrich- 
farm near Anaheim, Cal., at the rate of one a day. 
When they first come out of the egg, they are about 
the size of a half-grown duck. They haye good ap- 
petites, and grow rapidly. 

— Means of transportation are rapidly increasing 
on the borders of countries not within the recognized 
bounds of civilization, Thus it is announced that 
the journey from Paris to Algiers will shortly be re- 
duced to thirty-three hours rail and steamer travel, 
of which only sixteen will be by boat. Hitherto 
passengers by the Marseilles line, in the regular rou- 
tine of travel, have spent forty hours on the water 
alone, beside the railway journey from Paris. 

—At the meeting of the French entomological 
society, held July 11, Mr. E. Lefévre showed a large 
solitary ant allied to Ponera, found about Hong Kong, 
remarkable for the extraordinary development of its 
mouth parts, and for its power of leaping; being able, 
when disturbed, to make bounds of twenty to twenty- 
five centimetres. The statement was confirmed by 
the experience of earlier observers. As the legs are 
in no way developed for springing, Mr. Lefevre was 
inclined to think that it was accomplished in some 
way by its buceal organs. 


, 


Sak hi Ss a el aii 
‘ : * E * 
oe 
: 


Pee, NEE. 


FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 1885. 


THE U. S. SIGNAL SERVICE. 
I. 


Tr must be said that the annual report would 


be vastly improved by being made either one ° 


thing or the other, or, better, two separate 
things. 
meteorological work done during the year, and 
a government blue-book. As the former, it 
falls far short, not of the ideal, but of the possi- 
ble: it is probably equally deficient considered 
as the latter. 
summarized results of such great labor, com- 
prehending so vast a field, should be published 


annually in such a form as to be useful’ to those 
who are engaged in meteorological study and 


research, and it ought to be done with reason- 
able promptness. 


The size of the volume might be reduced to 
at least one-half of what it is at present, and - 
The report proper 


that without material loss. 
of the chief signal officer ought to be rewritten ; 


and it does not seem too much to ask that it be 
prepared afresh every year, and that it should 
be confined to a statement and discussion of the 


actual progress made during the year. Expen- 


sive reprinting is a luxury that only govern- 
ment offices can afford to indulge in, and it is 
sometimes carried to an extent that is not only 
A large 


wasteful, but positively objectionable. 
portion of this annual report is made up of a re- 


publication of the monthly weather-reviews for 
These have already been printed and 
circulated among those to whom they would be 
Another large part consists of material 


the year. 


useful. 
_ already printed and circulated as ‘ Instructions 
to observers,’ and might well be dispensed with 
here. ‘The ‘ annual meteorological summary,’ 
occupying about one-fourth of the volume, is 
susceptible of considerable condensation with- 
out loss of value to the student of meteorology. 


Many of the appendices are made up entirely of 


matter which is, of itself, not without value, and 
No. 33,— 1883. 


At present it is at once a résumé of 


It is certainly desirable that the 


which may well be kept on file and accessible at 
the central office, but which is entirely without 
interest or value to the majority of those into 
whose hands this report is intended to fall. A 
much smaller volume, embodying the real me- 
teorological work of the year, with such discus- 
sions thereof as could be given, as everybody 
knows, by persons in the employ of the govern- 
ment at the central office, would be welcomed 
everywhere, and would be a real boon to stu- 
dents. As at present issued, the report is un- 
manageable, uninviting, and unsatisfactory. 
As already intimated, the report for 1881 
contains evidence of some important changes 
in the organization of the central office, and in 
the general policy of the service. It seems 
now to be recognized, that meteorology is, or 
will be, a science, and that it is wisdom on the 
part of the government to secure the coopera- 
tion of scientific men in the work which it has 
undertaken, as well as to employ an important 
portion of its own staff in the investigation of 
meteorological problems, and the carrying-on 
of special researches. This is a step which, 
although tardy, will be highly appreciated. 
Among the most tangible results thus far 
may be mentioned the permanent establish- 
ment of a ‘ scientific and study division.” The 
wisdom of placing this entirely under the con- 
trol of Professor Abbé, and of permitting him 
to select his own assistants, cannot be too 
highly commended. His selection of Messrs. 
Upton, Hazen, and Waldo for this important 
service has been justified by the numerous 
valuable contributions which they have already 
made under his direction. The transfer of 
Professor Ferrel from the coast survey to the 
meteorological bureau is another step in the 
same direction, which is likely to materially 
increase the strength of the division. In many 
other directions, the chief signal officer has 
shown his appreciation of the ‘ eternal fitness 
of things.’ He has sought and obtained the 
cooperation of the National academy, in the 


388 


appointment of a permanent committee of that 
body to which he may refer such questions con- 
cerning meteorological science as may seem 
desirable. He has inaugurated the custom of 
consulting specialists upon various matters 
pertaining to the service, and has shown a dis- 
position to aid scientific research in all matters 
related to meteorology, as instanced in Profes- 
sor Langley’s expedition to Mount Whitney, in 
the offer to the coast-survey of cooperation 
in the making of pendulum-observations, and 
in the interest shown in polar research. The 
publication of professional papers by members 
of the staff; the work undertaken in the way of 
a revision and definitive establishment of stand- 
ards of pressure and temperature ; a promise 
that after a while something will be attempted 
in the way of a study of atmospheric electri- 
city; and the proposition to offer prizes for 
essays upon various meteorological problems, 
competition to be open to the world, —are all 
straws that show which way the wind is blowing.- 

At the same time, the general observation 
work has been much extended by the wise and 
hearty interest which the chief signal officer 
has shown in the establishment of state weather 
services, which have rapidly increased in num- 
ber through his encouragement and material 
aid. This is particularly fortunate just now, 
when the general service has unfortunately 
been crippled by the failure on the part of con- 
gress to make sufficient appropriations. In 
short, it is only just to Gen. Hazen, to say that 
he has greatly enlarged the scope of the service, 
and that he has materially strengthened it by a 
broader recognition of the relations which ought 
to exist between it and the science of the country. 

It is difficult, however, to review the past 
without indulging in speculations concerning 
the future. It must be admitted, that the work 
of the meteorological bureau falls far short of 
the standard which many of its friends have set 
for it. Many, indeed, believe that it will con- 
tinue so as long as it remains a military rather 
than a civil service. Hach successive report 
of the chief signal officer has contained long 
arguments in defence of its military organiza- 
tion ; and, unintentionally no doubt, the same 


SCIENCE. 


One ae 
ee 


[Vox. II., No. 33. 


reports have furnished strong arguments against 
such organization. In order to improve the 
character of the observing corps, considerable 
efforts have been made, for two or three years 
past, to induce well-educated and well-trained 
men to enlist in the service. Under the pres- 
ent organization, it does not seem that the work 
could have any great attraction for a college- 
bred man. In the first place, he must enlist as 
a private in the army for a period of five years. 
It is true that the service is special, and that — 
his chance for promotion up to a certain point 
is fair; but before beginning his work as an 
observer, he is obliged to go through months 


~of military drill, study, and discipline, the 


relation of which, to the duties which afterward 
devolve upon him, it is difficult to see. Pro- 
ficiency in the ‘manual of sabres’ or the 
‘manual of the kit’ will not greatly facilitate 
his making a barometric reduction or a dew- 
point determination. Even after the service 
is fairly entered, objections to the military sys- 
tem are not less strong. Permanency of posi- 
tion is very desirable in any occupation, and it 
goes farther than most other things in securing 
the best attainable results; but it must be a 
permanency very different from that which ob- 
tains in a military service. 

The difference is best seen by a comparison 
of the relations existing between the service 
and the two divisions of the staff of the chief 
signal officer, the civil and the military. The 
young civilians who have recently become 
attachés of the central office have been led to do 
so, it is almost certain, by their own fondness 
and predilection for the study of meteorology. 
They bring to their work a vigor and enthusiasm 
resulting from a thorough collegiate training, 
followed by post-graduate work in which obser- 
vation and research have played the most impor- 
tant part. The permanency of their positions, 
and their advancement to. more responsible 
places, will, or at least should, depend solely 
on the value of their services. With the laud- 
able ambition to establish a reputation among 
scientific men, they have every incentive tohard 
work, that success may be achieved, and failure, Bs 
which would be to them disastrous, avoided. — 


SEPTEMBER 21, 1883.] 


But by far the greater portion of the work 
at the central office, and that which is doubt- 
less the most.immediately effective, is done by 
commissioned officers of the army. While it 
is true that many of them have fairly earned 
distinction through their conscientious labors 
in the weather bureau, it cannot be claimed 
that the relation which they sustain to it, and 
which is no fault of theirs, is that which would 
be for the best interests of all concerned. 
Except the very few who have been promoted 
from observer sergeants, they have been 
ordered to the service from other occupations 
and other branches of the army. As a special 
training to fit them for the work, they have 
the year at Fort Meyer, during which the study 
of meteorology is not allowed to interfere ma- 
terially with other occupations. They enter 
the central office at the close of this year, hay- 
ing had an experience of eight days in practical 
meteorology. When, after further study and 
practice, they become really useful, they are 
likely to be transferred to some other post and 
duty for which this training has in no way fitted 
them; for the policy of the army seems to be 
in the direction of frequent changes of location 
of its officers. But by far the worst feature of 
the case is that there is no particular incentive 
to induce them to devote themselves earnestly 
to the work. If, through interest and industry, 
one succeeds, he is probably retained in the 
office longer than he otherwise would be: if, 
through indifference and neglect, another fails, 
he is likely to be transferred to some other 
branch of the general service without loss of 
rank or reputation. It is also true that the 
meteorological work of the signal service is 
looked upon with disfavor by many army 
officers, as not being a legitimate addition to 
their duties. Under such conditions, and for 
many other reasons not necessary to mention, 
it does not seem possible for the weather ser- 
vice to reach that high degree of efficiency 
which is believed to be possible under a differ- 
ent organization ; and it will require weightier 
arguments than those annually reprinted in 
the report of the chief signal officer to prove 
the contrary. 


SCIENCE. 


389 


THE FRENCH ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


ROUEN MEETING, AUG. 16-23, 1883. 


Tus association has just held its twelfth 
annual session at Rouen, the ancient capital 
of Normandy, situated on the Seine, between 
Paris and Havre. It is, I believe, the young- 
est association of its kind, but is not, for that 
reason, the less worthy of study. Perhaps, 
to an American, its most striking feature is its 
resemblance, in its organization and proceed- 
ings, to its sister across the water. It has its 
permanent secretary to organize its business 
and give information to members, its daily 
programmes, its general meetings, its sectional 
meetings, and its excursions, all fulfilling the 
same objects as with us. It has even gone 
through the same process of evolution, and 
reached the same stage of development, in 
becoming a representative of popular and 
applied, rather than of very ‘ high,’ science. 
Its members already complain, that, when one 
is elected a member of the Academy of sci- 
ences, he no longer affiliates with the associa- 
tion. Ihave recognized but two academicians 
at the meeting, and doubt if there are more. 
But it must not be inferred from this, that the 
members and their papers are unimportant: 
on the contrary, the number of eminent teach- 
ers, authors, and investigators, who read papers 
and take part in the proceedings, is decidedly 
greater than in the American association. If 
there are fewer academicians than with us, 
there are also fewer circle-squarers, essayists, 
and propounders of school-boy problems. On 
the list of papers presented, there is not one 
upon atoms, ether, the nebular hypothesis, or 
the origin of the present form of the universe. 

The range and treatment of subjects are 
much wider than with us, and one is especially 
struck with the prominence assumed by social 
science and engineering. It would seem as if 
the blind passions, which are so apt to stir the 
laboring population of France and to lead them 
toward a policy of general social disintegration, 
had led the thinking and wealthy classes to 
give especial attention to the question of the 
welfare and pacification of the workingman. 
Not only is political economy one of the most 
prominent subjects, but discussions of plans 
for improving the condition of thé laboring- 
class form a leading feature of the proceed- 
ings. The plan which seems to have met with 
most success is that of making the workmen 
in large establishments sharers in the profits. 
One speaker described, at length, the working 
of this plan in a great dyeing-establishment, 


390 


where it would seem to have proved a great 
success, although coupled with conditions 
which would hardly have been accepted by an 
American artisan. Ido not know what inter- 
est our railway-companies take in the personal 
welfare of their employees; but the examina- 
tion of what is done by the Western railway 
of France, as exhibited and explained to the 
association, is suggestive of a philanthropic as 
well as of a business institution. Bedrooms, 
baths, eating-rooms, medical attendance, say- 
ings bank, and life-insurance are among the 
privileges provided by the company, of which 
each and every employee may avail himself 
according to circumstances. 

The prominence of engineering questions 
was due to a cause which shows that human 
nature is much the same through the civilized 
world. Rouen is engaged in river improve- 
ments, of which the object is to make it a 
great seaport; in fact, to make it to Paris 
what Liverpool is to London. Great pains 
were therefore taken to secure the attendance 
of distinguished engineers from abroad as well 
as from home; and harbor improvements, 
especially those of Rouen, formed the most 
prominent subjects of discussion in the section 
of engineering. How far the French associa- 
tion is ready to go beyond its fellows in this 
direction, is further shown by the fact that one 
of the prominent papers in the engineering 
section was devoted to the exposition of a 
scheme for a metropolitan railway in Paris, 
similar in its object to those of London and 
New York, which could be built at a cost of 
two hundred million francs. No one hinted 
that the subject was not germane to the ob- 
jects of the society. 

There is at least one custom of the meeting 
worthy of imitation by the American: associa- 
tion; namely, evening lectures by members, on 
subjects of general scientific interest. These 
lectures are not gotten up at hap-hazard on the 
spot, but are arranged by the secretaries, long 
enough in advance of the meeting to admit 
of careful preparation. ‘Those of the Rouen 
meeting were: The transit of Venus, by Mr. 
Hatt, chief of one of the French expeditions ; 
and on the Transmission of energy, by Profes- 
sor Comberousse. The general character of 
these lectures was the same so familiar to us 
at home; but it was noteworthy, that French 
science was almost exclusively considered. 
Occasional references to the works of other 
nationalities were rather to show that the 
speaker knew something about them, than to 
give full information respecting them. 

In two points the French association makes 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. IL, No. 33. 


a decidedly more favorable showing than our 
own. One has already been mentioned, — the 
absence of the respectable gentleman who 
writes interminable essays on scientific subjects 
of which he knows nothing except from cur- 
rent literature. In the mathematical section, 
the papers read were of decidedly greater im- 
portance than those to which the American 
association is accustomed. ‘The other is the 
financial condition of the society. In few re- 
spects does American science show to greater 
disadvantage, beside that of Europe, than in 
its power of raising money to promote its ob- 
jects. The income of the French association 
for the current year was reported at 85,000 
francs. It has already an invested capital of 
about 450,000 francs. It expended 39,000 
francs in printing its proceedings, 20,000 in 
administrative expenses, and 14,000 in grants 
for researches of various kinds. 

Let us compare this sum total with the in- 
come of the American association. 


Income of French association . $16,600 
ee American ‘ 8,948 
Difference in favor of France . $7,657 


And we must remember that this is not a 
case in which the excess is due to greater age ; 
for the French society is only one-fourth the 
age of the American. The comparison will 
afford us food for profitable reflection. 


EVIDENCE FROM SOUTHERN NEW 
ENGLAND AGAINST THE ICEBERG 
THEORY OF THE DRIFT. 


In presenting to the association evidence 
from southern New England with regard to the 
insufficiency of the iceberg theory of the drift, 
I shall have to say some things that have often 
been said before, and by various investigators. 
But I may claim for what is here brought 
forward, that it is, in my own mind, the fortified 
conclusion of long-continued investigation. 

The arguments on the subject are derived 
from three sources, — 

I. The scratches and groovings over the 
rocks. 

II. The transported bowlders and other 
material. 

Ill. The facts as to the relative level of 
the land and sea. 

I. The scratches or grooves over the rocks. 

Under this head there is, first, the old argu- 
ment based on the universal distribution of 
the scratches over the region of all New 
England. ‘These effects of abrasion are to be 


1 Read at the Minneapolis meeting of the American associa- 
tion for the advancement of science. 


SEPTEMBER 21, 1883.] 


found everywhere beneath the soil, each fresh 
exposure of the rocks bringing them to light. 
This was said years ago; and the conviction 
of its truth has been gaining force with every 
year of additional observation. 

a. In view of this fact, it is urged rightly 
that only an abrading agent that pressed 
heavily against the broad rocky surface could 
have produced the effects ; and such is not an 
occasionally grounding iceberg, or a succes- 
sion of them. Neither is it the still more 
locally acting shore-ice. 

6. Floating ice would have found little bare 
rock over the sea-bottom to be abraded. Like 
the bottom of existing seas, and eminently 
those of the continental borders, the sub- 
merged region would have had for the most 
part a bottom of detritus, its former detritus, 
and additional detritus from later depositions. 
The removals would have been local, and rela- 
tively of small area. Consequently, the drift- 
ing ice would rarely have reached down to the 
rocks. Shore-ice carried along by the cur- 
rents would have had a better chance, and yet 
a poor one, for the work to be done. 

c. The character of the groovings and 
ploughings is, to a great extent, such as float- 
ing ice could not have produced. As has been 
often said, the close uniformity of direction 
and parallelism over large areas, which so 
generally prevails, is not a possible result of 
iceberg action. The needed pressure and 
steadiness of movement are wanting. Troughs 
in hard granite even six inches deep are the 
work of one and the same moving tool for a 
long period ; and one year would be long for 
the steady action of an iceberg. If grounded, 
it would do almost nothing; if floating free, 
absolutely nothing ; and a nice adjustment to 
depth would be required for any steady abra- 
sion, much nicer than would have long con- 
tinued anywhere over the uneven bottom. 

In the triassic sandstone of East Haven, 
Conn. (just east of New Haven), at a place 
where the sandstone is a very firm, thick- 
bedded, gritty rock, the ploughing ice ploughed 
out a piece of moulding, somewhat like the 
ogee of the carpenter, which was 8 feet deep. 
25 feet wide, and over 150 feet long, and 
perfectly even in surface as well as direction. 

d. The currents that would have borne along 
the icebergs over submerged New England, in 
case of a submergence sufficient to cover the 
highest striated surfaces, —3,000 to 5,500 feet, 
— would have been those of the present ocean, 
the Labrador current, and Gulf stream; and, 
with less submergence, the same in part, modi- 
fied by the courses of the valleys and the tides. 


SCIENCE. 


eh hg i ee i ee > 7 + . - Vie - a 


391 


It is to be noted, that the New-Haven region, 
in Connecticut, is the southern extremity of the 
Connecticut valley. The mean trend of this 
valley in Connecticut is about S. 15° W., and, in 
southern Connecticut, S. 18° W. Now, the nu- 
merous scratches over the eastern portion of 
the New-Haven region average in direction 
S$. 16° W. ; but along its western border, where 
the rapidly rising slopes give the region rather 
an abrupt limit 150 to 350 feet high, the 
scratches have an average course of S. 33° W., 
the extreme being S. 27° W., and S. 55° W.; 
and §. 33° W. is the almost uniform trend over 
the undulating surface of the country for six 
to nine miles west. It is, as far as I can see, 
impossible that the valley stream should have 
had on its west side so wide a divergence 
from the direction of the Connecticut valley: 
all the features of the region oppose it. The 
scratches are well exposed over the metamor- 
phie rocks in many places; and large and per- 
fect examples of roches moutonnées here occur. 

Again: over the higher lands of western 
Connecticut (and of New England generally, 
according to the observations of Prof. Edward 
Hitcheock, Prof. C. H. Hitchcock, and others), 
the direction of the scratches is south-eastward. 
To have produced them, if icebergs were the 
agent, the submergence should have exceeded 
2,500 feet, and this would have given a chance 
for the full play of the oceanic currents ; and 
yet the above direction does not correspond 
with that of either of the great currents. 


IT. Distribution of the drift. 


Bowlders of trap, from 50 to 1,000 tons in 
weight, are numerous in the New-Haven region, 
especially along its western border. All are 
Connecticut - valley travellers; for the trap 
ridges of the valley —400 to 1,300 feet in 
height — are the only possible source. They 
were gathered up by the ice from these trap 
ridges, and were carried 15 to 60 miles down 
the valley. It is mechanically impossible that 
the larger bowlders should have been taken up, 
or gathered in any way, by floating ice ; either 
shore-ice, where the water was but 1,000 feet 
deep and less, or by that of icebergs, where 
the depth was greater. 

It is well known, that the distance of drift 
transportation is in general less than 20 miles. 
Hills of but 100 feet often have their long 
trails. A moving glacier would easily gather 
and carry along the material from hills, high 
or low, wherever loose or detachable masses 
of rock or gravel existed to be gathered ; while 
floating ice would be very poor at gathering, 
and hence ineflicient in distributing. 


392 


III. Relative level of the land and seu. 


I have examined carefully along southern 
New England for proofs of the quaternary 
submergence which the iceberg theory assumes 
to have existed in the glacial era. I thought 
at one time that I saw evidence about New 
Haven of a submergence of 45 to 50 feet. But 
the terrace that afforded the evidence was 
situated six miles back from Long Island 
Sound, adjoining the rivers; and on further 
examination I found that the deposits had 
precisely the structure of those along the river- 
valleys farther north, and that, in fact, they 
were nothing but fluvial formations. The 
highest terraces on or near the shores of the 
sound, in the vicinity of New 
Haven, have a height above 
mean tide of 23 to 26 feet; 
and on Milford bay, nine 
miles west, a similarly situ- 
ated terrace has a height of 
30 to 33 feet. Along the 
hills facing the waters, and 
the southern extremity of 
the valleys, no traces of any 
higher level exist. Twenty- 
five to thirty-five feet is the 
greatest amount of submer- 
gence the facts sustain. Sea- 
border deposits exist at a 
higher level on the coast of 
Maine and on the shores of 
the St. Lawrence, and show 
what was the position of the 
shore-line in those regions. 
But the level along southern 
New England is not proved 
by the facts there gathered, 
neither is it established by 
the demands of the iceberg theory. 

In conclusion, if icebergs, or floating masses 
of ice, were not capable of covering with 
scratches great continuous areas, and would 
have had a chance for little rock-abrasion on 
account of the covering of detritus; if they 
could not have made, in their hitching and 
swinging way of action, when touching bottom, 
scratches over great areas, that had the even 
course and parallelism characterizing those of 
drift regions, or could not have ploughed out 
the deep furrows ; if they could pot have gath- 
ered the great bowlders for transportation ; 
and if the sea along the sound did not cover 
the land, in any part of the era of ice, to a 
greater depth than 30 or 35 feet, — the iceberg 
theory of the drift may be reasonably pro- 
nounced unsatisfactory for southern New Eng- 


SCIENCE. 


. 


[Vou. IL., No. 33. 


land; and similar facts show that it is equally 
unsatisfactory for the rest of New England. 
James D. Dana. 


THE MAGNETOPHONE.1 


The experiments of Bell,? Preece,® Merca- 
dier,* and others on the radiophone, suggested 
to me the possibility of interrupting, or at 
least periodically modifying, the lines of foree 
proceeding from the poles of a magnet, by 
means of a disc of sheet iron, perforated with 
a series of equidistant holes, and rotated so 
that the holes should pass directly in front of 
the magnetic pole. It is well known that an 
armature, placed on the poles of a permanent 
magnet, diminishes the 
strength of the external field 
of force by furnishing supe- 
rior facilities for the forma- 
tion of polarized chains of 
particles from pole to pole. 
This is the case eyen when 
the armature does not touch 
the poles, but is in close 
proximity to them. 

If a piece of sheet iron be 
placed over the poles of a 
magnet without touching, 
and the magnetic curves be 
developed on paper aboye 
the iron, they will be found 
to exhibit less intense and 
less sharply defined mag- 
netic action than when the 
sheet iron is removed. If, 
however, a small hole be 
drilled directly over each 
magnetic pole, the screen- 
ing action of the sheet iron 
is modified in much the same way as when 
a hole is made in a screen opaque to light; 
for the developed curves show distinctly the 
outline of the holes. If, therefore, the sheet 
iron in the form of a circular plate, pierced 
with a number of holes, be rapidly rotated 
between the pole of a magnet and a small 
induction bobbin, the action of the magnet 
on the core of the bobbin will be periodi- 
cally modified because of the passing holes ; 
and hence induced currents will flow through 
a circuit including the bobbin. A dise of sheet 
iron was pierced with two circles of quarter- 


1 Read at the Minneapolis meeting of the American associa- 
tion for the advancement of science. 

2 Proceedings Amer. assoc, adv. sci., xxix. 115. 
misc. col., xxv. 143. 

8 Proééedings Royal society, xxxi. 406, 

4 Journ. phys. x. 33. . 


Smithsonian 


_- (eile as a a bb Re 


SEPTEMBER 21, 1883.] 


inch holes concentric with the disk, the number 
of holes in the two circles being thirty-two and 
sixty-four respectively. On one side of the 
disk was placed a horse-shoe magnet with its 
poles very near the rows of holes; on the other 
side were arranged two corresponding induc- 
tion bobbins. The circuit was complefed 
through a telephone and either bobbin at pleas- 
ure. Upon rotating the 
disk rapidly, a clear 
musical sound was pro- 
duced in the telephone, 
the pitch rising with 
the rapidity of rota- 
tion. Moreover the 
bobbin opposite the 
circle of sixty-four 
holes gave the octave 
above the other, and 
each gave a note of 
the same pitch as was 
produced by blowing a 
stream of air through 
the corresponding holes. Hence, as a beam 
of light, focused upon a circle of equi-dis- 
tant holes in an opaque disk, is rendered 
periodically intermittent by the rotation of the 
disk, and produces a musical tone when falling 
upon the proper receiving-apparatus ; so the 
lines of force proceeding from a magnet may 
be rendered periodically intermittent in their 
action onan induction bobbin by a similar 
metallic disk, set in rapid rotation; and the 
induced currents, arising from the periodic 
change of magnetism in the core of the bobbin, 
produce a musical tone in a telephone, the pitch 
depending in both cases only upon the num- 
ber of holes passing in unit time. 


EFFECT OF SCREEN OF SHEET IRON. 


The experiment was modified by so placing 
the poles of the magnet that the same circle 
of holes passed them in succession. By the 
proper connections, the currents from the two 
bobbins were made to pass either in the same 


SCIENCE. 


MAGNETIC CURVES OVER HORSE-SHOE MAGNET. 


393 


or in opposite directions through the telephone. 
In the latter case, an almost perfect neutraliza- 
tion of currents took place, so that the sound 
was scarcely audible. 

Non-magnetic metallic disks produce similar 
musical notes by the periodic modification of 
the magnetic field by means of the distortion 
or bending of the lines of force. The solid 
parts of the conducting 
disk deflect the lines of 
force in the direction of 
the rotation; but upon 
the passage of a hole, 
they fall back toward 
their normal position. 
A periodic movement 
of the lines of force 
will, therefore, take 
place when the disk 
rotates. Disks of zine 
and copper produce a 
clear musical sound, 
somewhat less intense 
than that given by iron under the same con- 
ditions. Any discontinuity in the rotating 
disk recurring periodically will produce cor- 
responding induction currents in the bob- 
bins. Thus, V-shaped notches round the 
circumference of the disk are quite as efli- 
cient as the holes in effecting the requisite 
modification of the magnetic field. Moreover, 
it is not necessary that the holes extend en- 
tirely through the disk. Two disks of zinc, of 
the same diameter and thickness, were placed 
together on the same rotating spindle, one 
pierced with a circle of holes, and the other not. 
The combination proved as eflicient in produ- 
cing the sound as the single perforated disk. 


EFFECT OF HOLES THROUGH THE IRON SCREEN. 


A sheet of tinfoil, with a circle of small holes, 
was pasted on the continuous zine disk. The 
perforations, extending only the thickness of 
the tinfoil into the compound disk, constituted 
a suflicient discontinuity to produce a clear, 


394 SCIENCE. [Vox. IIL., No. 33. 
though somewhat faint, musicalsound. About clearly defined, but not so loud as with the 


the same result was given by a disk consisting 
of the same sheet of tinfoil pasted on card- 
board. 

Any periodic variation from uniformity in the 
disk appears to produce corresponding varia- 
tions in the magnetic field when the disk is 
rotated. Depressions made with a punch, at 
regular intervals, in a zine disk, rendered it a 
sound-generator when rotated in this appara- 
tus. 

Since the pitch of the note obtained depends 
only on the number of holes passing the pole of 
the magnet in a second, it is easy to construct 
a piece of apparatus to illustrate musical inter- 
vals. <A cylinder of galvanized iron, with four 
rows of holes in the ratio of 4:5:6:8, was 


mounted on a whirling table, and provided with 


two U-magnets and two electro-magnets for 
induction. The latter were placed inside the 
cylinder, and the former outside. By means 
of four keys, any one of the bobbins, or all of 
them, can be put in circuit with the telephone. 
By depressing the keys, the four notes of the 
common, or major, chord are brought out with 
great distinctness and clearness. In fact, the 
intensity of the sounds obtained by the mag- 
netophone is sometimes so great as to be pain- 
ful to the ear when the telephone is hel 
closely against it. 
The above experiment was simplified by 
employing a disk perforated in four concentrie¢ 
circles with 24, 30, 36, and 48 holes respect- 
ively. A telephone with the mouthpiece and 
diaphragm removed, was presented to the four 
rows of holes in succession, with the production 
of the four notes of the major chord as before, 


Further experiments are in 
H. 8. Carmarr. 


other apparatus. 
progress. 
Eyanston, Ill. 


THE WEATHER IN JULY, 1883. 


Tue monthly weather review of the U.S. 
signal service shows that the most noteworthy 
characteristics of July were the large de- 
ficiencies in rainfall in the southern states and 
in the north-west, the low mean temperature in 
nearly the whole country, and the severe local 
storms, which were frequently accompanied by 
lightning and hail. 

The pressure was nearly normal, the de- 
partures in few instances exceeding .05 inch. 
The progress of eight depres- 
sions has been charted. Only 
one of these passed south of 
New England, and none visited 
the southern states. None were 
traced from the Pacific coast, 
and four apparently developed 
in the Rocky-mountain region. 
One only of these depressions 
is deserving of the name of a se- 
yere storm. This developed in 
Colorado on the 4th, and reached 
Nova Scotia on the 7th, accom- 
panied by heavy rains in, the 
lake region, and violent local 
winds at Hatteras and Sandy 
Hook. The storm proceeded 
across the Atlantic, and on the 
11th was central off the north- 
western coast of Ireland, caus- 
ing heavy squalls and high seas 
during its passage. 

The chart of ocean-ice shows, that, since 
the preceding month, the eastern limit has 
moved about 2° westward, and the southern 
limit about 2° northward. There is a marked 
diminution in the number of icebergs observed, 
compared with July, 1882. 

The temperature has been below the average, 
except in the Pacific districts, the northern 
plateau region, the south Atlantic and east 
gulf states; but the departures have been 
small. In New England, the middle Atlantic 
and west gulf states, the temperature was less 
than 1° below the normal, while the greatest 
difference was 3° below in the extreme north- 
west. A maximum of 112° was recorded at 
Pheenix, Arizona; and frosts occurred in north- 
ern New York, Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, 
New Hampshire, and Pennsylvania. 

The special feature in the precipitation record 


SO bi 


“MYM 40 AUYLENOIg 


7 
ec. 
. 
c 
e 
= 
a 
0 
a 
< 
° 
2 
cy] 
a 
2 
° 
. 
“a 
= 
® 


MONTHLY MEAN ISOBARS, ISOTHERMS, AND WIND-DIRECTIONS, AUGUST, 1883. REPRINTED IN REDUCED FORM 
BY PERMISSION OF CHIEF SIGNAL-OFFICER. 


396 


is the large excess in the upper lake region, New 
England, and the upper Mississippi valley ; and 
the large deficiency in the southern states, which 
materially affected the crops in that section. The 
following table contains the rainfall record : — 


Average precipitation for July, 1883. 


Average for July. 
Signal-service observa-| Comparison of 
Districts. ons. July, 1883, with 
the averse for 
For several several years. 
Years, | For 1888. ™ 
Inches. Inches. Inches. 

New England .... 3.92 5.76 1.84 excess. 
Middle Atlantic states 4.04 3.28 0.76 deficiency. 
South Atlantic states . 5.65 4,92 0.73 deficiency. 
Florida peninsula . . 5.77 4.49 1.28 deficiency. 
Hast gulf... 29. 2 8 5.04 2.50 2.54 deficiency. 
Wiesticnlfie i. 65 28s = 4.16 2.44 1.72 deticiency. 
Tennessee... s « 4.06 3.07 0.99 deficiency. 

QOhiovalley ..... 4.55 5.35 0.80 excess. 

Lowerlakes ... . 3.84 4.51 0.67 excess. 

Upper lakes . . . . 3.36 5.42 2.06 excess. 
Extreme north-west . . 2.83 2.44 0.39 deficiency. 

Upper Mississippi valley, 4.02 5.58 1.56 excess. 
Missouri valley . ... 4.44 3 37 1.07 deficiency. 
Northern slope . . . . 1.94 0.82 1.12 deficiency. 
Middleslope. . .. . 277 2.57 0.20 deficiency. 

Southern slope . Ss 2.50 3.19 0.69 excess. 
Northern plateau . . - 1.01 -0.00 1.01 deficiency. 

Southern plateau Ba 2.35 2.50 0.15 excess. 
North Pacific coast. . . 0.58 0.00 0.58 deficiency. 
Middle Pacific coast . . 0.01 0.00 0.01 deficiency. 

South Pacific coast. . 0.08 0.15 0.07 excess. 


In some portions of the southern states, the 
deficiencies were even greater than those re- 
corded in the above table: at New Orleans 
the rainfall was 5 inches less, and at Vicks- 
burg 6.82 inches less, than in July, 1882. 
Eastport, Me., reports a fall of 5.24 inches in 
10 hours, on the 14th inst. 

The local storms reported are very numerous, 
and much damage resulted from rain, lightning, 
and hail. The greatest damage from rain was 
at London, Ont., on the 10th, due to the over- 
flowing of the river Thames. Much damage 
to crops, especially in the west, was caused by 
hail. A vessel in lake Michigan reports a 
hail-stone weighing two pounds. ‘The rivers 
were not high, except at the very beginning 
of the month; and navigation was suspended 
in the Savannah and Cumberland rivers on 
account of low water. 

Among miscellaneous phenomena may be 
noted the brilliant aurora on the nights of the 
29th and 30th, which was observed from 
Dakota eastward to New England, and south- 
ward to southern Virginia. Slight earthquake 
shocks were experienced in Nevada, Illinois, 
California, and Kentucky ; though insignificant 
in comparison with that on the island of Ischia, 
of which a condensed account is given. Sun- 
spots were numerous ; and an instance is noted 
in Oregon, of their observation with the naked 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 33. 


eye, taking advantage of the smoky state of 
the atmosphere caused by forest-fires. 

The accompanying chart represents the dis- 
tribution of the mean pressure, temperature, 
and wind direction for the month. 


THE EARTHQUAKE OF JULY 28, 1888, 
IN THE ISLAND OF ISCHIA 


HAvine visited the island of Ischia by order of 
the inspector-in-chief of the Royal corps of mining 
engineers, a few days after the earthquake of the 
28th July, I present some observations made during 
my short tour; and begin with a brief account of 
the topographical and geological conditions of the 
island, which last are, without doubt, the chief cause 
of the terrible disaster. 

The formation of the island of Ischia is wholly 
volcanic, with the exception here and there of some 
argillaceous elevations, of marine formation, but de- 
rived from the disintegration of pre-existing volcanic 
matter. In connection with the islands of Vivara 
and Procida, it belongs to the volcanic group of the 
Campi Flegrei, and forms its western limit. 

The aspect of the island as seen from the north is 
pleasant and delightful, although with deep hollows 
crowned by the towering and indented crest of 
Epomeo, rising to an elevation of 792 metres. 

The town of Casamicciola, now destroyed by the 
terrible scourge, was built on the side of Epomeo 
sloping towards the north, upon two small hills, be- 
side which flow two of the principal streams of the 
island, one near the mountain, fed chiefly by the 
waters of thermal springs, the other emptying into 
the sea near Lacco Ameno, a little farther to the 
west; these run from south to north; and another 
more important stream, called the Scarrupato, runs 
from north to south, flowing through a deep and pre- 
cipitous valley on the southern slope of the island, 
having on its banks the villages of Fontana, Serrara, 
Moropane, and Barano. These last two streams are, 
in my opinion, very important; being, as we shall 
see, situated directly in one of the principal gorges 
of the island. 

Forio is on the west coast, upon a plain gently 
rising towards Epomeo, bordered upon the north by 
Mount Zale. Eastward of Casamicciola are seen the 
volcanoes of Monte Rotaro and Montagnone (respec- 
tively 215 and 236 metres in height.) 

According to Fuchs, the most ancient terrane of 
the island is composed of the tufa of Epomeo, of a 
clear green color, containing numerous sanidin, and 
sometimes pumice and lapilli. On this rest, here 
and there, strata of pumice and trachytic tufa, and 
depositions of trachytic lava, with beautiful sanidin 
from the mountains Rotaro, Montagnone, Tabor, 
Garofali, etc., which may also be seen on the road 
from Lacco Ameno to Forio, forming the promontory 
of Zale. 

On the tufa of Epomeo rests a great extension of 


1 Translated from the Italian of L. Baldacci of the Royal 
corps of mining engineers (Boll. R. com. geol. 1883, nos. 7, 8). 


SEPTEMBER 21, 1883.] 


a product of decomposition of this tufa, of submarine 
origin, which passes occasionally into a plastie argil- 
lite well suited for the making of brick. Casamic- 
ciola was built upon this disintegrated clayey soil; 
while Lacco is partly upon trachyte, and partly upon 
the tufa of Epomeo; and Forio, as also Fontana, 
Serrara, etc., are built exclusively upon the above- 
mentioned tufa. 

To these formations constituting the island must 
be added the trachytic lava and scoriae of Arso, the 


= NE a 


SCIENCE. 


y 
she) Vonte. 


397 


are of three classes, — hot mineral springs, stufas or 
jets of aqueous vapor, and fumaroles. These will be 
easily seen on the accompanying chart. They could 
not all be given with so small a scale, but I was 
obliged to limit myself to the most important. 

The northern coast contains the chief evidences of 
voleanie activity. Thus, traversing the coast from 
east to west, we find the thermal springs of Pontano, 
Fornello, and Fontana, near Ischia; the stufas and 
thermal springs of Castiglione, near the point of that 


Gurgitello 


: — Cacciutp 

: i_A Castiglione 

N 

fet bow e ~ 7 
S\ 


O41 cs Castiglione 
e 


P« S$ Pietro 
=~ t 
AS TADS, 
EMRoiar Y & 
ay xe f 
2 Moutagnone ot X 
J Sg Iscuta 


i *< 


ISLAND OF ISCHIA, EARTHQUAKE OF JULY 28, 1883. 
© Hot mineral springs. @ Stufas and jets of steam. O ag te CD, supposed fissures. 
since July 28. 


last eruption of which occurred in the year 1301; 
and, finally, the gravelly or clayey deposits, contain- 
ing numerous marine fossils of species now living, 
indicating, that, in an epoch not very remote, a zreat 
part of the island was submerged. 

For the description and analyses of the rocks form- 
ing the soil of Ischia, we must refer to the very 
important monograph of Fuchs previously cited: 
what chiefly interests us now is to observe how they 
are connected with the manifestations of innate 
activity which are developed in the island, These 


E, F, Land-slides, happened 


name; the stufas of Cacciuto, on the trachytic lava 
of Tabor; the rich and abundant thermal springs of 
Gurgitello, near the mountain (il Monte) at Casamic- 
ciola, besides others, less important, in that neighbor- 
hood; the fumaroles of Monte Cito, to the west of 
Casamicciola, which on the day of my visit was act- 
ively emitting steam and sulphuric acid from different 
crevices in the tufa of Epomeo; and, finally, trending 
slightly to the south-west, the thermal springs which 
are so valuable at the Bagno Cotugno or Paolone of 
Forio, and which flow from the side of Monte Nuovo 


398 


at the east of that town. In these jets of water, steam, 
and gas, the temperature always ranges from 40° to 
100° C. 

From these elements, it appears to me, we may 
reasonably conclude that there exists a large curving 
line of cleavage from which arise such manifestations, 
turning its convexity chiefly to the north, running 
between the baths of Ischia and Forio, and passing 
exactly through Casamicciola (A B on the chart). 

Examining now the other principal manifestations 
from north to south, we find in Monte Zale and 
Marecocco, near Lacco Ameno, the thermal springs 
of Santa Restituta and the stufas of San Lorenzo, 
the fumaroles of Monte Cito, already mentioned, in 
the stream which flows into the sea near Lacco; and 
in the same direction, on the other slope of Epomeo, 
we have the valley of the Scarrupato, at the southern 
end of which we find the hot springs of Fondolillo 
and the stufas of Testaccio. I am assured that on 
this line will be found other similar but much less 
important fumaroles, also on the heights of Monte 
Epomeo; but for want of a guide or exact indications, 
I cannot verify the assertion. Therefore, also, there 
is evident to me the existence of another fracture 
Tunning from north-north-west to south-south-east, 
which crosses the first exactly at Monte Cito, almost 
under the town of Casamicciola (CD). These two 
grand lines of fracture are designated by broken lines 
drawn upon the annexed chart. 

The reason which inclines me to believe that there 
are two principal fractures, and not an intersection 
of the fracture C D with the line of superposition 
of one crater (that of Epomeo) upon another, sub- 
marine and more ancient, according to the opinion of 
the celebrated Prof. de Rossi, is the identity of the 
manifestations along the two lines, A B and CD; 
the thermal springs, the stupas, and the fumaroles 
being identical in the two cases, I believe that they 
may be more simply attributed to an identical cause, 
without having recourse to hypotheses hitherto not 
entirely demonstrable by facts. 

As to the phenomena which heralded the terrible 
disaster, the information collected on the spot is some- 
what contradictory. It iscertain only, that, for some 
days previous, slight shocks were felt with faint 
rumblings; that the springs of Gurgitello, etc., had 
shown irregularities of quantity and temperature ; 
and that the fumaroles of Monte Cito, hitherto almost 
inactive, had evinced symptoms of excitement, emit- 
ting a peculiar hissing and quick jets of steam and 
sulphurous acid. It issaid that the wells of Casamic- 
ciola and Forio were almost dried up, but that asser- 
tion does not agree with the facts. There are no 
spring wells in Casamiccola and Forio, only cisterns; 
and a scarcity of water observed in some, not all, of 
these, might perhaps be attributed rather to the 
drought prevailing for some time in Ischia, than to 
cracks in the walls of the cisterns. At Forio, I 
learned from trustworthy persons, that, in the cis- 
terns between San Pietro and the upper part of the 
town, a remarkable increase of temperature was 
observed in the water. That seems highly prob- 
able, such cisterns being exactly in the direction 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 33. 


and neighborhood of the great fracture above de- 
scribed. 

The shock which brought desolation upon these 
lovely regions occurred on the evening of 28th July, 
at 9.25 p.m. Ineed not dilate upon its deadly effects, 
which are already too familiar from numerous ac- 
counts. The shock was accompanied by a horrible 
bellowing, and lasted, apparently, twenty seconds, 
Casamicciola, Lacco Ameno, and Forio were almost 
levelled to the ground, with a frightful sacrifice 
of life; Serrara, Fontana, and other lesser villages 
suffered terrible injury. The seismic disturbance 
was felt at Ischia, — where, however, it did but little 
damage, — and extended to great distances, having 
been indicated by the seismographs at the geo- 
dynamic observatory of Rome. 

At Casamicciola and Lacco Ameno, the shock was 
vertical at first, and then undulatory. Information 
obtained at the place, and the few observations which 
I was able to make, indicate that the direction of the 
wave at Casamicciola was from west to east, then 
from north to south; at Lacco Ameno, from south- 
east to north-west; at Forio, the shock was first 
vertical, then undulatory, and the direction from 
north-east to south-west. In examining the localities 
destroyed, I could observe but little in respect to the 
greater or less resistance offered to the shock by build- 
ings according to their orientation: this idea was 
advanced by Prof. de Rossi in his account of the 
earthquake at Casamicciola, in March, 1881, and is 
certainly based on sound reasoning and also on 
proved facts. But, in the first place, this shock was 
so violent and complete that but few walls had been 
left standing; and secondly, at the time of my visit 
to Casamicciola, eight days after the catastrophe, the 
state of the ruins was no longer such as was caused 
by the earthquake alone: many walls had been torn 
or thrown down, in order to render less difficult and 
dangerous the work of rescuing the living, exhuming 
the dead bodies, and searching among the ruins. 

Among other things, I could perceive that some of 
the walls still standing presented crevices at an angle 
inclined 30° or 40° from the vertical, with the apex 
upward, indicating a prevailing upward and down- 
ward movement. 

On the upper portion of the front wall of the church 
of the Anime del Purgatorio, in Forio, I observed a 
clean horizontal crack, showing here, also, the decid- 
edly vertical character of the shock. This character 
seems confirmed by the condition of a large gate at 
a short distance to the east of Forio: only the two 
blocks of stone forming the lower part of the jambs 
remain in place; the two blocks upon them are thrown 
towards each other, projecting about six centimetres 
from those beneath, while the upper parts and the 
arch have fallen down. 

Between Forio and Casamicciola, it seems as if the 
greatest seismic activity had been manifested along 
the road joining the two towns, passing by 8. M. delle 
Grazie, and under Fango. The road is, in fact, eom- 
pletely destroyed, and the little cottages that bor- 
dered it are ruined. Besides this, the shock has 
produced two great land-slides, which, descending 


oem 


SEPTEMBER 21, 1883.] 


from the precipitous flanks of Epomeo, have covered 
a wide extent of chestnut-groves and vineyards; and 
on the southern slope are great fissures in the earth. 

In summing up my observations of all the locali- 
ties most devastated by the calamity, I am convinced 
that the buildings standing upon the trachyte at 
Laceo Ameno and Monte Zale suffered inealculably 
less than those built upon the tufa of Epomeo and 
the argillite resulting from its disintegration. Casa- 
micciola was almost entirely built upon this argillite; 
and it can be said without exaggeration, that not one 
stone rests upon another. Forio was built upon tufa; 
and of this town, also, very little remains standing. 
At Lacco, the houses and walls erected on the tra- 
chyte offered, as was stated above, great resistance to 
the shock, while those built upon the tufa were 
destroyed. 

This agrees completely with the theory of Mallet. 
Mallet says, that when a seismic or a terrestrial wave 
passes rapidly from a soil possessing limited elasti- 
city, —as would be the case with our tufas and 
clays, —to another soil of great elasticity, like the 
trachytic lavas, it changes not only its velocity, but 
in some degree also its direction; one part being re- 
flected, the other refracted. The seismic wave, be- 
ing thus checked, produces a shock in the opposite 
direction, causing great injury to buildings by the re- 
coil. At the same time the shocks are diminished in 
force when they reach the more elastic soil, such as 
granite or trachyte. 

This would explain very satisfactorily why Ischia, 
separated from the cleft AB by the great masses of 
trachytic lava of Rotaro, Montagnone, and Arso, 
which would absorb much of the energy of the seis- 
mic wave, felt it in so slight a degree. 

With respect to the causes of these seismic disturb- 
ances, which still continued after the great earth- 
quake of the 28th July, other shocks, accompanied 
by subterranean rumbling, being felt even when I 
was on the island and afterwards, it seems to me that 
they must be attributed to an awakening of the re- 
sidual voleanie activity of Epomeo. The opinion has 
been advanced by the illustrious Professor Palmieri, 
that the violence of the shocks might be especially 
attributed to the fact of the existence of great sub- 
terranean caverns directly beneath Casamicciola, and 
to the giving-way of the supports which upheld these 
vaults, caused by seismic action, and facilitated by 
the weakening of these supports by the underground 
flow of thermal waters. This opinion does not ap- 
pear to me to be fully demonstrable. There exist, 
it is true, in the neighborhood of Casamicciola, cav- 
erns of plastic argillite, formed by the lapse of ages; 
but certainly it is not of these that the illustrious 
professor of Naples intends to speak: the cause would 
assuredly be insufficient to produce effects so im- 
posing, and such far-reaching seismic disturbances. 
I could not enter these caves, for want of persons 
disposed to serve as guides at such a time; but it is 
certain that they could be only more or less tortuous 
galleries of small diameter and but a few metres in 
height, as is generally the case in such formations. 
I have been assured also, by persons worthy of trust, 


SCIENCE. 


399 


and experienced in these caverns, that this is the 
case. Besides, neither at Casamicciola nor in the 
vicinity could I see any lowering whatever of the 
level of the soil: the roads which lead from Guar- 
diola or the shore to Casamicciola, from Casamicciola 
to Lacco, from Lacco to Forio, have preserved their 
level perfectly, and show only the longitudinal or 
transverse fissures inevitable after such a telluric 
commotion. The only road completely destroyed 
(but not depressed) is that which leads from Forio to 
Casamicciola, along the side of Monte Epomeo, 
which, as we have seen, is directly along the cleft 
A B. 

In any event, when this period of desolation and 
ruin has passed, when perhaps the time shall have 
come to decide upon the fittest place to rebuild the 
shattered dwellings, it would be useful to make a 
most accurate inspection of all the ancient and mod- 
ern caverns of the island, and to determine what in- 
fluence they may have upon the stability of the soil 
and the superincumbent buildings. 

In conclusion, then, it appears to me, 1°. that no 
other cause need be sought for the shocks which 
have desolated the island than the volcanic activity 
which still remains, and awakes at intervals; 2°. that 
the residual voleaniec activity of the island is mani- 
fested along two principal fissures, one, A B, a curve 
with its convexity to the north, from the baths of 
Ischia to Forio, the other, C D, directed approxi- 
mately north-north-west and south-south-east, be- 
tween Lacco Ameno and the stufas of Testaccio; 
3°. that the place where Casamicciola stood is upon 
the intersection of these two lines, and, therefore, at 
the very focus of seismic activity, and that it has 
been, and always will be, the locality most liable to 
be devastated by earthquakes; 4°, finally, that build- 
ings erected upon trachytic lava offer a resistance to 
the shocks, far superior to that of buildings erected 
upon tufa or clay, and that this cireumstance should 
be borne in mind when it is proposed to restore the 
ruined villages. 

Rome, Aug. 9, 1883. 


JULY REPORTS OF STATE WEATHER 
SERVICES. 

A NUMBER of states have organized weather ser- 
vices which are of material benefit to the people. A 
brief summary of the July reports that have been 
received is here given. 

Georgia. — The July crop report contains meteoro- 
logical data from fifteen stations. The special feature 
is the drought, of which it is said, ‘‘In northern and 
middle Georgia, the drought has been almost con- 
tinuous since April 23, — the date of the last general 
rain in the state, — broken only by light and ineffee- 
tive showers at considerable intervals. A few 
points reported sufficient rain, but the northern 
half of the state, with these exceptions, has suf- 
fered a most prolonged drought, which is yet un- 
relieved.” 

Illinois. — Minimum temperatures of 47° were re- 
ported, and maximum of 99°. The prevailing wind 


400 


direction was south-west to south; the highest wind 
velocity was eight miles per hour. ° 

Indiana. — The special feature of this report is the 
minimum temperature of 50°; the highest temper- 
ature noted was 96°, and the rainfall varied from 2.83 
to 7.72 inches. 

Towa. — In this state the weather ‘‘ was very favor- 
able to the crops, being fair, nearly normal in tem- 
perature, with an excess of rainfall, and southerly 
winds prevailing.’ The greatest rainfall was that 
of nearly ten inches in north-eastern Iowa, from the 
20th to the 23d inst. A number of severe squalls 
and local storms were reported, which did much 
damage. Insolation has been high, because cloudy 
days were rare; the sun thermometer exceeded 140° 
on twenty-one days. 

Kansas. — The report includes one station only, — 
Topeka; and the month is reckoned from June 20 to 
July 20. On fifteen days the temperature exceeded 
90°, the maximum being 98°. ‘‘On June 23, just 
after a heavy rainstorm, the air having had a tem- 
perature of 65° to 70° all the forenoon, the tem- 
perature suddenly rose more than 20°, in consequence 
of a hot current of air from the south. This lasted 
but half an hour, when the temperature fell as sud- 
denly as it had risen.”’ 

Missouri. — The temperature has been considerably 
below the normal: there being but five instances 
since 1837, when lower average temperatures in July 
have been recorded. A minimum of 52° was ob- 
served. On the 13th a destructive wind-storm passed 
through the north-western and northern portions of 
the state. A railway train, near Browning, was 
blown from the track, and many towns suffered 
much damage. This storm was not a tornado, but ‘a 
steady straight blow for upwards of half an hour.’ 

New Jersey. —The maximum temperatures range 
from 91° to 98°, the minimum from 52° to 61°, the 
rainfall from 2.21 to 4.38 inches. 

Ohio. — The mean height of the barometer, 30.025 
inches, was higher than that of either of the three 
months preceding. A minimum temperature of 43° 
was reported. The rainfall ranged from 1.55 at 
Lebanon to 7.23 at Quaker City, and was above the 
July normal. ‘The railway weather signals were 
continued during July, and by examination of the 
reports it is found that eighty-six per cent of the 
predictions were verified.” The predictions are those 
of the U.S. signal office. 

Tennessee. — The temperature ranged from 56° to 
98°, A range of 0° was reported from Smithville on 
the 7th. Therainfallranged from 1.20 to 7.99 inches. 
Rain fell on the average on nine and two-thirds days, 
but the rainfall was rather unevenly distributed. 
“In some localities the extensive rains have greatly 
injured the crops of wheat, oats, aud hay that had 
been cut, causing the former to sprout, and render- 
ing much of it unmarketable, while in other localities 
a continuous drought has materially lessened the 
chances for the growing crops, which were full of 
sap, and it will require very favorable conditions 
during the coming month to even partially restore 
them.”’ W. Uz. 


SCIENCE. 


[Von. ITI., No. 38. 


THE MEETING OF SWISS NATURAL- 
ISTS. 


THE sixty-sixth annual reunion of the Société hel- 
vélique des sciences naturelles took place this year at 
Zurich, Aug. 6-9. As at all these Swiss meetings, 
di-cussions were happily mingled with daily banquets, 
at which toasts were offered to fatherland, to guests, 
and to the older honored names in Swiss science, — 
Studer, Heer, and Mousson, founders of the society. 
Sometimes German, and sometimes French, was 
spoken, and sometimes both by one speaker in the 
same speech. This year this venerable society 
gathered men of many countries, and Zurich received 
them cordially. Daubrée and Hébert of Paris were 
there; Lory of Grenoble, Credner of Dresden, 
Fritsch of Halle, Fontannes of Lyons, Hughes and 
Madame Hughes of Cambridge, Blanford of London, 
Dewalque of Liége, Kolliker and Fick of Wurzburg, 
Kundt of Strasburg, Clausius of Bonn, Szabo, 
Schuler, and Wartha of Budapest, Wislicenus of 
Wurzburg, Krauss of Stuttgart, von Hauer, Suess, 
Neumayr, Mojsisovies, and Goldschmidt of Vienna, 
Vilanova of Madrid, Beyrich and Richthofen of 
Berlin, Capellini of Bologna, Giordano of Rome, 
Wiedmann and His of Leipsic, and Seguin of New 
York. 

From communications to the Journal de Geneve, 
under initials which we presume, to refer to the well- 
known physicist, Raoul Pictet, we glean the following 
account of the scientific sessions of the meeting, 
which began on the morning of Aug. 7. 

Mr. Cramer, professor of botany at the university 
of Zurich, and president of the assembly, opened the 
meeting with a very noteworthy address before an 
interested audience of more than three hundred per- 
sons. He reviewed the chief progress of the natural 
sciences, and laid particular stress on the study of 
those minute organisms which constitute life within 
life, and whose appearance and development accom- 
pany epidemic diseases among men. 

Reports on the various commissions (on finance, 
geology, geodesy, earthquakes, etc.) were followed 
by two communications from Profs. V. Meyer of 
Zurich and H. Fol of Geneva. 

Mr. Meyer traced the progress of chemistry under 
the influence of the ideas of Mendelejeff and L. 
Mayer. He explained how these investigators had 
been able to classify all simple solids under five dis- 
tinctly separated families. All these bodies are 
similar as to their general properties, the gradual in- 
crease of their atomic weights, the similarity of their 
chemical reactions, their atomic volume, ete. “These 
likenesses are so striking, that the memorable dis- 
covery of gallium by M. Lecog de Boisbaudran of 
Paris was foreseen three years before that simple 
body was separated. The density and atomic weight 
of this metal had been determined by calculation 
before its actual presence was demonstrated beyond 
doubt by the well-known experiments of the French 
chemist. 

Professor Meyer concluded by showing the in- 
debtedness of science to men who think, to men 


SEPTEMBER 21, 1883.] 


who found theories on experiments, and then verify 
the truth of their hypotheses by renewed investiga- 
tions. It is beyond question, that the labors of 
Mendelejeff and Meyer are the point of departure 
of a rational classification of matter, and that they 
have been a fertile source of useful chemical dis- 
coveries, 

Professor Hermann Fol of the university of 
Geneva described his studies on animal individuality, 
In the lower animals, individuality is a different 
thing from what it is in the higher, such as the mam- 
mifers. But this law of individuality among the 
vertebrates is not without exception; and we all 
know the wonder which is excited by the sight of 
creatures with some member double, such as are 
often exhibited at shows, or may be seen in mu- 
seums. 

For a long time we have tried to explain the origin 
of these anomalies. Two theories have been pro- 
posed, — that of the creation of two distinct beings, 
and that of the partial division of one primitive 
simple. Neither of these theories quite accounts 
for the phenomena observed. The new and essential 
fact which Mr. Fol presented comes under the general 
law, that in these abnormal cases two heads always 
appear in the egg at the commencement of its devel- 
opment. The body forms immediately behind; and 
these two trunks, coming together, are so perfectly 
united that the two primitive heads are very near 
each other at the outset. In the first place, then, 
only the higher part of the body is duplicated in 
these montrosities; yet these two parts may become 
completely separated, resulting in twins, which so 
closely resemble each other that even the parents 
find difficulty in distinguishing them. 

Mr. Fol has investigated the causes of the appear- 
ance of two embryos in one egg, by a very neat 
method. He asphyxiated the eggs of Echinus by 
immersion in Seltzer water (containing pure carbonic 
acid); and he ascertained that in this unhealthy con- 
dition, maintained for a moment, two germs at the 
instant of passage into life could simultaneously 
have birth. 

Our individuality is one of our most cherished 
ideas. The great philosophers Descartes, Kant, etc., 
did not investigate even the possibility of a multiple 
individuality: it is interesting to observe the flexi- 
bility of that idea under the disturbing influence of 
special conditions of the origin of life. 

Mr. Fol exhibited plates representing different 
kinds of montrosities: two heads and one body, a 
little body projecting from the eye of a child other- 
wise relatively well formed, etc. 

Professor Herzen of Lausanne, in closing the 
session, invited all the doctors present to observe 
an exceedingly interesting case, — that of aman who 
was on the point of dying from hunger, the results 
of strangling, when M. de Cérenville of Lausanne 
began his experiments. This skilful surgeon ar- 
ranged a stomachic fistula by which the man ate. 
He was regularly supplied with food, recovered his 
strength, and rapidly improved. Mr. Herzen took 
eare of this man at his laboratory, and studied the 


SCIENCE. 


401 


phenomena of digestion according to the process 
which recalls the well-known Canadian case of M. 
de Beaumont. 

The next morning the association met in sections 
in different halls. Unfortunately the gift of omni- 
presence was not given to man, and the members of 
one section could with difficulty glean here and there 
any knowledge of what was taking place in the 
neighboring halls. Besides it would take a volume 
to contain such a quantity of material, of which a 
résumé will appear in the September number of the 
Archives des sciences physiques et naturelles. 

The following account treats only of the subjects 
taken up in the single section of physics. 

Professor Clausius of Berne was elected, by ac- 
clamation, president; and Mr. Weber of Neuchitel, 
secretary. Mr. F. A. Forel submitted a very in- 
teresting paper on the variations of temperature 
which the Swiss lakes undergo, from summer to 
winter, and from morning to night. It seems that 
in an average year the variations of temperature in 
the year are scarcely noticeable at a greater depth 
than 60 to 80 metres; above that, the surface of the 
water is for these lakes between 4° and 5.4°, the 
highest temperature corresponding to that of Lake 
Geneva. The variations are felt ata mean depth of 
ten metres. 

After a lively discussion of the manner in which 
the currents of water influenced by these variations 
of temperature are set in motion, Prof. Charles 
Soret of the university of Geneva submitted the 
results obtained with his new apparatus, the refrac- 
tometer. This first set of experiments dealt especially 
with the crystals of the alum-series whose radical is 
an alkaline metal. This very clear communication 
was especially remarkable for the skill with which 
the young professor set forth his subject with a great 
number of new facts in a comparatively short time. 
He was followed by his father, Prof. L. Soret, 
who presented a paper for Mr. L. E. Sarasin, and 
demonstrated by figures and curves the values of 
the index of refraction of fluor spar, a crystal, which, 
since the important works of Cornu and L. Soret, 
has taken so important a place in the construction 
of the achromatic lenses of spectroscopes. This 
paper was marked by extreme precision. 

Mr. L. Soret presented a communication to the 
section of chemistry, belonging in great part to the 
section of physics. He set forth how the absorption 
bands seen in the spectra of solutions of albuminoid 
substances could be used in ascertaining the chemical 
nature of these solutions. These absorption bands 
are found especially in the ultra-violet; and, thanks 
to the fluorescent eye-piece invented by the speaker, 
their presence renders an analysis very rapid and 
simple. Y 

Professor Clausius of Bonn gave us a lesson in 
mechanical electricity: he considered the problem of 
the production of electric currents by mechanical 
means. All the knowledge of this scholar, this en- 
thusiastie and ingenious investigator, was necessary 
to obtain the final solution of so complicated a prob- 
lem. ‘The paper was heartily applauded. 


402 


Mr. Casimir de Candolle repeated, before the mem- 
bers who were present, some experiments to show 
how sand-ripples at the bottom of our lakes are 
formed. These facts were applied, in accordance 
with the ideas of Professor Strasburger of Bonn, to 
explain certain appearances of envelopes and vege- 
table cells in fossils. 

Mr. Raoul Pictet presented an experimental demon- 
stration of the second law of thermo-dynamics, 
deduced from the simultaneous working of steam- 
engines and frigorific apparatus. 

Professor Weber of Zurich presented two interest- 
ing papers: one, on a dynamic method for the exact 
measurement of the coefficient of conductibility of 
heat in liquids; the other paper, on the apparatus for 
measuring electric units. 

Mr. H. Dufour of Lausanne distributed among 
the audience a set of photographs showing the electric 
condition of the air, which were obtained by means 
of a registering electrometer in the new physical 
laboratory at Lausanne. These curves are so con- 
nected with the condition of the heavens, that it is 
no exaggeration to expect to predict the weather 
several days in advance, through a careful examina- 
tion of the variations of electric tension of the air. 
For fine weather, the electric tension is strong; it 
sensibly decreases during and before storms; the 
rapid falling of the curve of the electric potential of 
the air is always an indication of rain or storm. 

The late hour made it impossible to listen to five 
additional communications which had been an- 
nounced. The boat for an excursion on the lake 
awaited its guests; science paled before the beauties 
of nature. Though continuing to converse on the 
subjects treated, we all together betook ourselves to 
the pier. The excursion was delightful. On our 
return, the streets were illuminated; Bengal and elec- 
tric lights mingled their dazzling rays. The citizens 
of Zurich gave us a magnificent reception; and the 
Jéte, enlivened by an excellent orchestra, was con- 
tinued to a late hour. 

The next morning, Thursday, we listened to three 
scientific papers which closed the intellectual part 
of the reunion. 

The honors of that morning belong to Professor 
Suess of Vienna. With consummate skill he set 
before us the chief points of the modern theory of 
the upheaval of mountains: he held his audience 
with great ease, and left a refreshing memory with 
all who heard him. 

This paper, with that of Mr. Heer which followed, 
will be issued in full in the memoirs of the society. 

The afternoon was given up to leave-takings. 
Seated around the long tables of the hotel L’ Uetliberg, 
thanks and farewell were said again and again. 
Toasts of gratitude, toasts to the absent, to the pres- 
ent, to Clausius, to Mousson, Oswald Heer, and 
Studer, founders of the society, were applauded by 
all, glass in hand. 

Appended to this account, appears a list of the 
principal papers offered in the other sections. 

In the botanical section, Professor Heer spoke of 


the cretaceous and tertiary flora of Greenland; Mr.. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 33. 


Schnetzler, of a Chinese primrose in which the sexual 
organs corresponded to an earlier stage in the evo- 
lution of Primulaceae, and on certain relations be- 
tween an aérial alga and lichen; Mr. Favrat discussed 
the hybrids of two species of primrose and of other 
plants, and called attention to the changes in a Car- 
damines growing in turfy soil. Mr. Andreae spoke 
of pasturage on the Jura; and Mr. Casimir de Can- 
dolle drew attention to a curious Cytisus bearing both 
red and yellow flowers. 

In the chemical section, Professor Krafft read a 
paper on the preparation of saturated alcohols; 
Professor Soret, on the absorption of the ultra- 
viole rays by the albuminoid substances; Professor 
Schulze, on the composition of cheese; and on 
phenylamido-propionie acid; Prof. Victor Meyer 
gave a new method for determining the vapor density 
of Cl. Br. I. for high temperatures, and reported on 
a new series of bodies, which he termed thyophenes, 
contained in benzol. Professor Wislicenus of Wurz- 
burg offered a contribution to the theory of Van 
t’ Hoff; and made a communication on the action of 


‘chloride of phtalyle and of phtalic anhydride on the 


ethers of malic acid; Professor Schaer recalled the 
forgotten works of De Saive (in 1756) on zine com- 
bustion; Dr. Goldschmidt showed the action of 
hydroxylamine on ketones; Dr. Ceresole spoke of 
acetacetic acid; Professor Lunge, of the manufacture 
of sulphuric acid; Dr. Schumacher gave analyses 
of foods; and Dr. Urech exhibited a laboratory- 
lamp. 

In the geological sections, papers were offered by 
Messrs. Favre, Neumayr, Schardt, Goll, Mihlberg, 
Fellenberg, Jaceard, Koch, Chevannes, Mosch, 
Fratech, and Suess. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


*,* Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The 
writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. 


Geology of Philadelphia. 


In Dr. Frazer’s notice of my lecture upon the 
geology of Philadelphia, there is so little of adverse 
criticism, that it may seem ungracious to reply to 
the few points regarded as blemishes. Merely in 
defence of the use made of certain terms called in 
question, a few words here may not be out of place. 

In describing the Philadelphia gneiss as both Hu- 
ronian and Mont Alban, there is no confusion, if, as 
is held by many geologists, the former term is generic, 
the latter specific. 

The term ‘creep,’ as applied to the pulling-over 
of softened or broken strata downhill, by the action 
of gravity, frost, etc., is one frequently used in de- 
scribing such phenomena in regions south of glacial 
action. It is used repeatedly in this sense, in a report 
issued by the Geological survey of Pennsylvania, in 
1880. 

The term ‘ hydro-mica slates,’ objected to, is not 
only used by Rogers, Lesley. Dana, Hall, and others, 
but occurs repeatedly in Dr. Frazer’s recent geological 
reports on Lancaster and Chester counties, being 
used by himself. 

The positive statement regarding the absence of 
glaciation in Pennsylvania south of the terminal mo- 


SEPTEMBER 21, 1883.] 


raine (the immediate ‘fringe’ in the western part 
of the state excepted) was made because of certain 
Statements to the contrary quite recently made by a 
distinguished authority. It was made only after a 
thorough investigation of eyery locality supposed to 
be glaciated. 

In conelusion, I may be permitted to say that 
while, owing to the necessarily limited length of a 
public lecture, the rocks of Philadelphia could not 
be so fully treated of as the superficial formations, 
this latter— and in this region more debatable — sub- 
ject will form the topic of future lectures, which may 
perhaps be worthy of further comment by my friendly 
critic. HENRY CARVILL LEWIs. 

Philadelphia, Sept. 7, 1883. 


The pre-Cambrian rocks of Wales. 


Those who are interested in the questions raised 
by Dr. Henry Hicks in his criticism of Professor 
Geikie in Science for Aug. 10, may find it to their 
advantage to consult my paper entitled ‘ History of 
some pre-Cambrian rocks in Europe and America,’ 
which appeared in the American journal of science 
for April, 1880 (vol. xix. p. 268-283). I had the good 
fortune, in 1878, to spend several days with Dr. Hicks, 
in going over the typical localities previously studied 
by him, not only at and near St. Davids in South 
Wales, but also those of Carnarvon, Dinorwic, and 
Anglesea, Messrs. Tosell and Tawney being our com- 
panions, in North Wales. Asa result of these stud- 
ies, I am satisfied that the views of Messrs. Hicks 
and Hughes are correct, and their criticisms of Pro- 
fessor Geikie well founded. 

The Dimetian, alike in North and South Wales 
and in Anglesea, has both the lithogical characters 
and the stratigraphical relations of the Laurentian of 
North America. The Arvonian corresponds in like 
manner to the great series of hédlleflintas or petrosilex 
rocks, jaspery and porphyritic, whose distribution on 
the coast of Massachusetts and of New Brunswick, in 
the Blue Ridge of Pennsylvania, in Missouri, and on 
Lake Superior, Ihave studied and elsewhere discussed 
(Second geol. surv. Penn., rep. E, p. 189-195). Simi- 
lar rocks have also been described by Irving in the 
Baraboo river in central Wisconsin, a locality which 
I have lately had an opportunity of examining. The 
conglomerates of Arvonian pebbles, which form the 
basal beds of the Cambrian near Snowdon, are indis- 
tinguishable from those found at Marblehead and 
elsewhere on our eastern coast, lying on or near the 
Arvonian. 

The Pebidian of Hicks is our typical Huronian, as 
seen in eastern Canada and around the lakes Huron 
and Superior, Professor Bonney, who has lately 
received a collection of these, is struck with their com- 
plete resemblance to the Welsh Pebidian which I had 
seen and called Huronian thirteen years since. The 
succeeding gneisses and mica-schists (upper Pebidian 
or Grampian of Hicks, and Caledonian of Callaway), 
which are our Montalban series, are not met with in 
Wales, but appear not only in Scotland, but, as I have 

inted out, across the channel, in the Dublin and 

icklow hills in Ireland. ‘ 

The similar succession in the Alps, [have described 
in a late paper, of which an abstract appeared in 
Scrence for Sept. 7 (p. 322). The student who com- 
pares the succession of stratified crystalline rocks 
alike in North America, in the British Islands, and 
in southern Europe, can scarcely fail to recognize, in 
their constant stratigraphical and lithological rela- 
tions, something like a ‘ universal law.’ 

T. Sterry Hunt. 

Montreal, Sept. 11, 1883. 


SCIENCE. 


403 


SERGEANT FINLEY’S TORNADO STUD- 
IES. 

Report on the character of six hundred tornadoes. Pro- 
Sessional papers of the signal service, No. vii. 
By J. P. Fintey, Washington, Signal service, 
1882. 19 p., 3 maps, 4°. 

Tornadoes: Their special characteristics and dangers. 


By J. P. Fintey. Kansas City, 1882. 30 p. 


So striking a phenomenon as a tornado, and 
one so destructive in its effects, would natur- 
ally receive much attention; yet, curiously 
enough, the competent treatment which these 
storms have received is remarkably inadequate. 
Those omniscient gentlemen, the reporters of 
the newspapers, have written much about tor- 
nadoes, and many columns of our summer 
dailies are filled with accounts of them; but, 
aside from the books of Peltier and Reye, the 
scientific literature is fragmentary. Half a 
century ago, at the time of the battle between 
Reid, Redfield, Piddington, Espy, Hare, and 
others, over the rotatory theory of storms, the 
tornado-literature took a considerable develop- 
ment; but it soon fell to small dimensions, and 
here it has remained until quite recently. The 
present activity in this field is largely due to 
the signal service, and Sergeant Finley’s con- 
tributions form an important part of the current 
literature. 

Mr. Finley’s specialty is the collection of 
facts concerning tornadoes. He has accounts 
of individual tornadoes in many of the annual 
reports of the chief signal oflicer. They repre- 
sent the facts collected by him on the field of 
destruction itself. They are evidently gotten 
together with great care; measurements are 
made when practicable, and explanatory maps 
and sketches are numerous. His evident ob- 
ject is to put before the reader the accurate 
representation of what he saw, encumbered as 
little as possible by explanatory theories. The 
result is that his reports are interesting read- 
ing, and afford a mine of wealth for the future 
Kepler of tornadoes. 

Not quite so important, perhaps, from a 
scientific point of view, but of far more general 
interest, is his report. Its principal feature is 
the tabulation of the tornadoes discussed, with 
headings for time, dimensions, velocity, clouds, 
and other meteorological features. These are 
summed up, and from the results,are drawn 
various interesting conclusions concerning 
maxima, minima, and averages. 

Mr. Finley’s search for accounts of tornadoes 
has been extensive; but as he has unfortu- 
nately given no references, we cannot tell how 
extensive it may have been. Evidently he has 
not gone through the Proceedings of the Amer- 


404 


ican association for the advancement of science, 
or he would have found the tornado of Aug. 9, 
1851, in Connecticut, recorded, and that of 
May 3, 1868, at Shanghai, Ill. Nor has he 
searched through the state agricultural reports, 
where he would have found that of June 3, 1860, 
in Illinois, and doubtlessothers. Again, Niles’s 
American register gives one at Keene, N.H., 
on July 25, 1807, and at Knoxville, Tenn., on 
May 25,1808. The Philosophical transactions 
would have yielded him one in New England, 
July 10, 1760; and several others could have 
been picked up in Blodgett, Piddington, and in 
the American journal of science. Even that 
of May 22, 1873, in Illinois and Iowa, reported 
in the publications of his service for 1873, 
seems to have escaped his attention. 

As average results like those deduced by 
Mr. Finley depend for their value on the num- 
ber of individual cases taken into considera- 
tion, would it not have been wise for him to 
have collated those occurring in other coun- 
tries, so far as they were accessible without 
difficulty? Peltier would have yielded him 
quite a crop, some of which, by the way, come 
curiously near home. Other text-books would 
haye given other European ones; and Chinese 
and African ones have been described, the 
latter frequently. Tornadoes are by no means 
exclusively American; and by: a comparison 
with those in the other countries their essential 
features could be more easily sifted out, and 
the incidental ones given their proper promi- 
nence. 

In the pamphlet, ‘ Tornadoes, their special 
characteristics and dangers,’ the author classi- 
fies the rotatory storms. It was in the pursuit 
of a classification of storms, that he first had 
his attention called to the insufficiency of our 
knowledge of this species. Tornadoes are here 
described in some detail, and numerous direc- 
tions given for the protection of life and 
property on their occurrence. It is the best 
description of the storm known to the writer. 

Mr. Finley considers the tornado a much 
better-defined species than is likely to be 
acknowledged by meteorologists generally. 
Right names are extremely useful, but we must 
not permit them to conceal any underlying 
unity. By his anxiety to get a clear species, 
the author shuts out the light which he might 
get from the study of storms of so similar 
character that one is compelled to believe that 
their differences are due only to difference in 
surroundings. Thus water-spouts are only tor- 
nadoes on the water, with circumstances remark- 
ably favorable for observation. They occur 
not infrequently on the Great Lakes, and the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 33. 


change from tornado to water-spout has been 
observed more than once. Judging from the 
only description known to me of the riband 
storms of British North America (Cosmos, 2d 
series, iii. 274, 275), they are also somewhat 
modified tornadoes. And while the name 
cloudburst refers rather to a single feature of 
subordinate meteorological importance, the 
phenomenon is probably often of tornado char- 
acter. Indeed, leaving out of account eddies, 
which it is not, the tornado differs only quan- 
titatively from the other members of that list 
of storms which begins with the formation of 
a cumulus cloud, passes on to thunderstorms 
and hailstorms, and culminates in the ‘ low- 
centre,’ the hurricane, and the typhoon. They 
all find their origin in the transformations of 
water; and to overlook the relations they have 
to each other, is to refuse assistance in a prob- 
lem well-nigh insoluble with that assistance. 

It is expressly stated (see p. 4 of the last- 
mentioned pamphlet), that the gyratory motion 
is always from right to left. The writer would 
point out the exceeding difficulties which sur- 
round the determination of this point. Some 
of the early observers saw only indications of 
a radial inpour, and in the descriptions of 
tornadoes one frequently finds dextral whirls 
mentioned. In so small a storm, the earth’s 
rotation would surely have no appreciable dis- 
turbing effect ; and that, in a difference of lati- 
tude of only a few rods, it should originate 
velocities of a hundred or more miles an hour, 
is so unlikely that it need hardly be considered. 
Furthermore on p. 7 the author admits varia- 
tions in the gyration of the tornado’s other 
self, —the water-spout. So, while unwilling 
to differ from so experienced an observer on 
such a point, both the records and general con- 
siderations lead the writer to think that the 
direction of gyration may be indifferently dex- 
tral or sinistral. 

There is one possible feature of tornadoes 
which has not yet been definitely proven, but 
of which we ought now to be able to ascertain 
the truth or falseness by an investigation like 
that just discussed ; viz., Are tornadoes dis- 
posed to return on the same path? The writer 
spent his childhood in northern Illinois, where 
heavy hail and other tornado-like storms are 
not rare. He remembers several instances of 
their following the exact path of their prede- 
cessors. Professor Whitfield (Amer. journ. 
sc., 3d series, ii. 99) says in regard to south- 
ern tornadoes, ‘‘ It is not an established fact, 
but it is commonly believed, and with some 
reason, that the tornado does, in the course of 
years, return along its beaten path, and that 


evres 


SEPTEMBER 21, 1883.] 


it is unsafe to build where one has ever passed. 
The house in Pickens county stood on a hill 
from which a log-cabin had been blown away 
some thirty years before. I witnessed the 
last of three, which have passed along the same 
track. Near Hernando, Miss., three have fol- 
lowed an unvarying line.’? He suggests that 
some places are more favorable than others for 
the production of these storms, which would 
make them of a more locai character than Mr. 
Finley would be willing to admit. 

While Mr. Finley’s work, like that of all 
others, is capable of improvement, the writer 
believes he has done great service to this branch 
of science, and deserves the sincere gratitude 
of both the student of science and the resident 
in tornado districts. In enabling him to pur- 
sue his investigations, the signal service de- 
serves the commendation of the scientific and 
general public. 


ZIEGLER’S PATHOLOGICAL ANATOMY. 
A text-book of pathological anatomy and pathogenesis. 


By Ernst Zi£G er ; translated by Donald Mc- 
Alister. London, Macmillan, 1883. 360 p. 8°. 


Tus book is a translation, from the German, 
of a portion of Professor Ziegler’s work on 
pathological anatomy, which appeared two 
years ago. The work is not as yet completed 
in German, nor does the translation contain all 
that has yet been published, covering only the 
ground of general pathological anatomy. 

Professor Ziegler is a young man who has 
already gained distinction in Germany by his 
original investigations in connection with tuber- 
culosis and certain of the processes inyolved 
in inflammation. 

The scope of the present work is to afford 
to students and physicians a text-book which 
shall give a short and concise statement of 
what is known upon the subjects treated, in- 
cluding the results of the most recent investi- 
gations. 

The book opens with a section of three chap- 
ters on malformations. This is condensed and 
dry ; and further, as there are no plates to illus- 
trate the monstrosities, the student wishing to 
acquire a knowledge of this difficult subject will 
do better to fall back upon the earlier mono- 
graphs of I. G. St. Hilaire, Foerster, and 
Ablfeld. 

Then follow four chapters on the pathology 
of the blood and lymph, which, though short, 
are very good, containing essentially what is 
known upon the subject. Very little space is 
devoted to thrombosis and embolism; but this 
is not a neglect on Ziegler’s part, as he treats 


SCIENCE. 


405 


of it in detail in that portion of the book which 
has not yet been translated. 

The succeeding chapters on the retrograde 
disturbances of nutrition are worthy of much 
praise, giving as they do a very clear, though 
concise, account of these changes, including 
also the results of the latest work on coagula- 
tion-necrosis. 

The chapter on cysts, consisting of but a 
single page, is incomplete, and does not treat 
with sufficient fulness this important subject. 

The three chapters devoted to hyperplasia, 
regeneration, and metaplasia of tissues, give a 
good account of the somewhat meagre knowl- 
edge on these points. 

In treating of inflammation, the author gives 
a short historical sketch of the ideas held at 
various times upon the conditions present in 
this process, and then devotes considerable 
space to the ideas now in vogue, as expressed 
by Cohnheim, Samuel, and others; the exu- 
dation from the vessels, due to presumable 
changes in the vessel-wall, now forming the 
anatomical basis. The parenchymatous inflam- 
mations of Virchow find no place in the cate- 
gory, nor will Ziegler allow that the connectiye- 
tissue corpuscles take any part in the process, 
as advanced by Virchow, and still maintained 
by von Recklinghausen. 

The secondary changes occurring in the 
products of an inflammation are well treated ; 
a point in regard to which Ziegler has himself 
contributed some original work. 

The infective granulomata are removed from 
the category of tumors, and are classed with 
the inflammations. Under this head are con- 
sidered tubercle, syphilis, leprosy, glanders, 
lupus, and actinomycosis. 

The anatomy of tubercle and its develop- 
ment are fully and well treated, and the rela- 
tion of the Bacillus tuberculosis to the disease 
detailed so far as the present knowledge per- 
mits. 

Virchow’s classification of tumors is adopted, 
with the exception, as already stated, of the 
omission of the granulation-tumors. In refer- 
ence to the aetiology of tumors, the author 
does not regard Cohnheim’s embryonic-foci 
theory as sufficient to explain all cases, though 
undoubtedly applicable to many. 

Of the increasing importance of the subject 
of parasites in relation to disease, no better 
proof is to be found than in the greater number 
of pages devoted to this point in the newer 
hooks ; and among the parasites the Schizomy- 
cetes claim the lion’s share of attention. 

The author gives Cohn’s classification of the 
latter, together with a description of their gen- 


406 


eral morphological characters. He then de- 
votes considerable space to a consideration of 
the conditions, such as temperature, nutritive 
substances, and the like, favoring their growth ; 
their effect in causing the groups of changes 
included under the terms fermentation and 
putrefaction ; finally, discusses their relation to 
disease. Of their method of action, he very 
properly refrains from expressing an opinion. 

The list of pathogenic microbia, according 
to Ziegler, is a larger one than the strictly cau- 
tious-observer will admit. For, to go beyond 
asa proven fact that specific organisms have 
been found in connection with other diseases 
than anthrax, relapsing fever, septicaemia of 
mice, and probably with tuberculosis. gland- 
ers, malignant oedema, and, under the Hypho- 
mycetes, actinomykosis, is, in the present state 
of our knowledge, unwarrantable. 

In regard to the mutability of bacteria, the 
views of various writers pro and con are given, 
but no definite conclusion is expressed. 

To the Hyphomycetes a chapter is devoted ; 
and. while giving a very good account of what 
is known in regard to their pathogenic qualities, 
one can but be impressed with the fact of the 
extreme meagreness of knowledge of the rela- 
tion which the ever-present mould-fungi bear 
to disease. 

The chapter on animal parasites contains 
nothing of special interest. 

The book as a whole shows evidence of hav- 
ing been written by a young man. All that is 
new has special stress laid upon it, while the 
work of the earlier generation receives less 
attention. ‘The author inclines to state things 
positively, with but little of the cautious scep- 
ticism which marks the writings of the older 
and more conservative worker who is prepared 
to weigh every objection, and combat every 
point. 

This latter quality, however, does not in the 
least detract from the value of the work, for 
the object for which it was intended; on the 
contrary, much enhances it. For nothing can 
be more disheartening to the student beginning 
a subject, than to be plunged at first into that 
mire of doubt which is ever present for him 
who attempts a deeper insight into a science. 

The English translation is a remarkably good 
one. It is certainly as agreeable as it is rare, 
to read a smooth translation, where one is not 
constantly reminded of the tongue from which 
it had its origin. 

The letter-press and wood-cuts are much 
superior to those usually found in text-books ; 
and Macmillan deserves with Dr. McAlister 
the thanks of the English-reading profession 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 33. 


for presenting Professor Ziegler’s work in so 
attractive and readable a form. 

As a text-book for students, physicians, and 
those men of science who are interested in the 
sciences upon which medicine rests, it fills a 
gap which has long been felt. 


ECONOMIC ENTOMOLOGY IN ENGLAND. 


Report of observations of injurious insects during the 
year 1882, with methods of prevention and remedy, 
and special report on wire-worms. By ELEANOR 
A. Ormerop, F. M.S, ete. London, 1883. 
98 p., illustr. 8°. 

Tuis is the fourth of a series of reports 
prepared by Miss Ormerod for the use of the 
farmers of Great Britain. The plan of these 
reports is peculiar. They consist largely of 
abstracts from the writer’s correspondence ; 
the greater part of which is presumably in 
reply to circulars issued by her. In thus col- 
lecting and publishing the results of the ex- 
perience of the more observing agriculturists, 


’ Miss Ormerod is doing an important work, 


and the enthusiasm and energy which she has 
displayed in it are deserving great praise. It 
is fortunate, however, that she has not confined 
herself to the work of compilation, but has 
recorded the results of personal obseryations. 
And we venture to suggest that what she 
states on her own authority will be read with 
more interest than the quoted portions of her 
work. For no one but herself can judge of 
the relative value of the conclusions of her 
various correspondents. We realize, however, 
that the publication of the reports of these 
correspondents is probably a considerable part 
of the incentive to their co-operation with her ; 
and the system has produced such good results 
that one should be slow to criticise it. 

The report for 1882 contains notes on more 
than thirty different species of insects infest- 
ing fruit, garden-vegetables, field-crops, and 
forest-trees. The most serious injury recorded 
for that year is that to hops by Aphides. It 
is estimated that the loss to the hop-growers 
of the United Kingdom from this cause was 
not less than £1,750,000. This injury is the 
greatest which has been incurred for many 
years. 

Nearly one-half of the report is devoted to 
an article on wire-worms, or click beetles. This 
article was compiled from notes contributed in 
reply to a circular issued by the council of the 
Royal agricultural society, and it doubtless 
gives a very good idea of the popular beliefs 
now held in the British isles respecting these 
pests. We wish that the above-named society 


1a 


ae 


. 3 


FaPgER! Wont tees, 


SEPTEMBER 21, 1883.] 


would now afford their entomologist, Miss 


Ormerod, an opportunity for directing a series 
of comparative experiments to test the truth 
of these beliefs. 


SCIENCE. 


407 


The report is well illustrated, partially by 
some of the well-known figures of Curtis, and 
partially by original figures drawn by the 
authoress. 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


MATHEMATICS. 


The elliptic differential equation.— M. Rud. 
Sturm has here given a method of integration for the 


a. d 
general elliptic differential equation Te BS ‘ee = 0, 


where X and ¥ are quartic functions of z and y re- 
spectively, say, X = E(x—a) («—b) (c—c) (ex —a), 
and Y asimilar function of y. He shows that this 
equation can be integrated directly by aid of an 
integrating factor which he determines. Denoting 
by Ya... Yas... the products of two of the 
factors; & — id, © —'O a0 «5 ke DET « se, then 
dy 


the left-hand side of the equation —— + —— = 0 is 
ae VY 
made the oo differential of 
z—y = {yXe¥ea a V¥er¥ent 
by tre it by the quantity 


{oe + y) (a+b) — 


ea —— ab}\/ XcaY ar 


= E(aty) (e+d) —azy — dpe : 
— (Math. ann., xxi.) T. [238 


PHYSICS. 
Electricity. 

Efficiency of telephones. — K. Vierordt meas- 
ures the weakening of sound through telephones by 
diminishing the sound at the transmitter until it 
just becomes inaudible at the other end. The sqund 
is measured by the mass and height of a small 
leaden sphere, which is dropped upon a tin plate. 
Using two Siemens-Halske telephones, of 205 and 
208 S. U. resistance respectively, he found that the 
loss over thirty-four m. of wire was less than seventy- 
five per cent of the loss in air. —(Ann. phys. chem., 
xix. 207.) g. 3. [239 

Electric lighting.— Ganz & Co. of Budapesth 
find, that, with a continuous current, the carbon 
filament of an incandescent lamp gives out first at 
the end where the positive current enters, a spot of 
carbon being deposited on the neighboring part of 
the glass. If alternating machines are used, the life 
of the lamp is almost exactly doubled, and when the 
deposit forms it is all around the case, — (Engineer- 
ing, June 15.) J. T. [240 


ENGINEERING. 


A great ‘Sound steamer.’—The steamer Pil- 
grim, of the Old Colony steamship company, was re- 
cently added to the fleet now plying through Long 


Island Sound. The vessel is the largest and the 
most expensively fitted up of all steamers which have 
yet been built for those waters. The hull is of iron, 
double, and built incompartments. The boilerspace 
is so enclosed by iron bulkheads that the danger of 
fire is wholly avoided. The engines are of the stand- 
ard beam-engine type, and fitted with the Stevens 
valve-gear. They were designed by Messrs. Fletcher 
& Harrison, and built by Messrs. John Roach & 
Son. The steering is done by means of a Sickles 
steam steering gear, and the lighting is performed by 
Edison dynamos. The hull is 390 feet long on deck, 
375 on the load line; the beam is 50 feet over the hull 
and 87.6 feet over the ‘guards;’ the depth of hold 
is 18.6 feet; draught of water, 11 feet. The engine 
has a steam-cylinder 110 inches in diameter and 14 
feet stroke of piston. There are 12 boilers of steel, 
and calculated for a pressure of 50 pounds per square 
inch. The total power is estimated at 5,500-horse 
power. The wheels are of the radial type, and are 41 
feet in diameter, weighing 85 tons each. The shafts 
are 26 inches in diameter, The cylinder weighs 30 
tons; the bed-plate, 30 tons; the beam, 33 tons; the 
condenser, 60 tons. The machinery will weigh, alto- 
gether, with water in the boilers, 1,365 tons. There 
are 103 water-tight compartments; and it is consid- 
ered that it will be impossible to sink the vessel by 
collision or grounding. There are 912 electric lamps 
operated by two Edison dynamos of a total of 11,400- 
candle power. They are driven by an Armington & 
Sims engine, built at Providence, of 150-horse power. 
The grand saloon is the largest in the world: it is 350 
feet long, and accommodates 1,400 passengers, for 
whom state-rooms are provided. — (Sc. Amer., June 
30.) RB. HT. [241 
CHEMISTRY. 
(General, physical, and inorganic.) 

Apatites containing iodine. — In continuing the 
study of the formation of artificial apatites, A. Ditte 
fused baric iodide with a mixture of sodic iodide and 
ammonic phosphate, the latter in small quantity. On 
slow cooling, the mass crystallized in hexagonal prisms 
of the composition Bal,.3Ba,(PO,)o. When am- 
monic arseniate was substituted for the phosphate, the 
corresponding iodarseniate, Bal, . 3 Bas(AsO,)., was 
formed. The iodvanadate, Bal, . 3 Bag(VO,)s, erys- 
tallized in transparent prisms. The strontium com- 
pounds, Srl, . 3Sr3(PO,)o, and Sry. 3Sr3(AsO,)», 
and calcic iodvanadate, Cal, . 8 Cag(VO,)2, were ob- 
tained. — (Comptes rendus, xcvi. 1226.) Cc. F.M. [242 

The spectrum of beryllium.— Mr. H. N. Had- 
ley finds that the spectrum of beryllium shows no 
marked analogy with the spectrum of calcium, mag- 


408 


nesium, or aluminum. It does not resemble the 
spectrum of carbon, boron, or silicon; but it is more 
closely allied to that of lithium. The author therefore 
concludes that it is the first member of a dyad series 
of elements homologous to calcium, strontium, and 
barium. — (Journ. chem. soc., June, 1883.) ©. F. M. 
[243 
Decomposition of water by the metalloids.— 
When distilled water is boiled with sulphur, C. Z. 
Cross and A. F. Higgin find that it is decomposed 
according to the equation 2H,O0+3S =2H.S+S0O.. 
They also noted that sulphur distilled with steam or 
with the vapor of dilute alcohol. On boiling arsenic 
with water, it was converted into arsenious acid and 
hydric arsenide. Arsenious sulphide was changed 
into a sulfoxy-compound. — (Berichte deutsch. chem. 
gesellsch., xvi. 1195.) C.F. M. [244 
Pyronome. — This is the name given by M. Sandoy 
to a new explosive, consisting of sixty-nine parts of 
saltpetre, nine of sulphur, ten of charcoal, eight of 
metallic antimony, five of potassium chlorate, four 
of rye-flour, and a very small quantity of potassium 
chromate. The materials are mixed with an equal 
quantity of boiling water, and the mass is evaporated 
to a paste, dried, and powdered as wanted. This 
mixture is said to be much cheaper than dynamite, 
but its manufacture and use must be attended with 
considerable danger. — (Chem. techn. rep., 1883, 154.) 
C. E. M. [245 


METALLURGY. 


Gaseous fuel in iron manufacture. — Mr. W. 
S. Sutherland read a paper before the British iron 
and steel institute, on the production and utiliza- 
tion of gaseous fuel in iron manufacture, in which 
he claims that the seams of boilers can be welded in- 
stead of riveted, if the heat can be applied uniformly, 
and of sufficiently high temperature, without excess of 
air or admission of dirt. This kind of heat he has ob- 
tained only by the use of coal-gas, Siemens-producer 
gas, or water-gas, the preference being given to the 
latter. To secure the requisite air in constant pro- 
portion, the gas being in excess, gas and air are mixed 
before combustion; probably the first instance of such 
a utilization of the principles of a Bunsen burner on 
a large scale. Explosions are prevented by having an 
outlet lightly covered by india-rubber, at some corner 
of the main; and when the wave, or disk of flame, 
which does not readily turn a corner, reaches this 
cover, it breaks the rubber just asa blow would. The 
method has been worked some ten years without acci- 
dent. From all his experience, Mr. Sutherland con- 
cludes, that to produce a good, true, wrought iron, 
Siemens gas with varying proportion of air, instead of 
air alone, should be blown into the iron in the Bes- 
semer converter. —(Hng. min. journ., July 14, 21.) 
R. H. R. [246 

Wickel extraction.— Prat and Laroche of Bor- 
deaux add powdered nickel ore to a bath of sul- 
phuric acid 56° to 66° Baumé: on stirring the mass it 
becomes heated, and in half an hourit is nearly solid. 
The soluble salts of the metals, thus formed, are 
leached out with boiling water. From this solution, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 33. 


oxalate of nickel is formed by boiling with oxalic 
acid; the precipitated oxalate of nickel is boiled with 
caustic soda, yielding oxide of nickel and oxalate of 
soda. The oxalic acid is recovered from the latter 
salt. —(Eng. min. journ., June 2.) R. H. R. [247 

The Doetsh copper extraction process. — This 
process has been in use by the Rio Tinto mine for 
some years. The ore is crushed to .4 inch in size, and 
piled in heaps forty-five feet wide, with suitable chan- 
nels at the bottom, and vertical draught-holes. About 
two per cent of salt is sprinkled over the top. A 
basin thirty feet square is made on the top of the 
heap, and the regenerated liquors from the last oper- 
ation are run into it. The dissolved and leached 
copper is precipitated by scrap iron, the iron liquors 
remaining are regenerated by sprinkling them down 
through a coke tower, while mixed chlorine and hy- 
drochloric acid are forced upward.—(Eng. min. 
journ., July 14.) B&. H.R. [248 


MINERALOGY. 


Picro-epidote.— MM. Damour and Des Cloizeaux 
have investigated a gray crystalline mineral from 
Lake Baikal, and found it closely related to epidote 
in crystalline form and optical properties. A com- 
plete chemical analysis was not made; but qualita- 
tive tests proved it to be a silicate of alumina and 
magnesia, with only a trace of calcium. It is sup- 
posed to be a magnesium epidote, and the name 
‘picro-epidote’ is proposed for it. — (Bull. soc. min., 
vi. 23.) 8. L. P. [249 

Jeremeieffite.— A new mineral from the Soktoui, 
south-east of Adun-Tschilon in western Siberia, has 
been described by M. Damour. It occurs in nearly 
colorless, transparent, hexagonal prisms, thus resem- 
bling some varieties of beryl and apatite. Hardness, 
6.5; specific gravity, 3.28. Qualitative analysis proved 
it to be essentially a borate of alumina. Before the 
blowpipe it is infusible, loses its transparency, and 
colors the flame green (boron); with cobalt solution, 
it assumes a blue color. It is insoluble in acids, 
except after strong ignition, when sulphurie acid dis- 
solves it. Chemical analysis yielded B,O3, by dif- 
ference (40.19) . Al2O3 (55.03) . Fe.O; (4.08) . K,O 
(0.70) = 100%, from which the formula (Al, Fe), BO; 
is derived. It is named after the Russian mining 
engineer, Mr. Jeremejew. —(Bull. soc. min., vi. 20.) 
s. L. PB. [250 

METEOROLOGY. 

Bavarian meteorology. — The quarterly publica- 
tions of the meteorological stations in Bavaria deserve 
special mention for the model way in which the ob- 
servations are recorded, and for the excellent dis- 
cussions which accompany them. The concluding 
number of the series for 1882 contains a monograph 
by Dr. Lang upon the observations at Munich for 
sixty-seven years. Among the results reached is that 
the mean pressure for any day can be better obtained 
by taking the mean of the observations at six A.M., 
two and ten P.M., than by any other of the eight dif- 
ferent combinations tested. The mean of the maxi- 
mum and minimum for the day gives in general 
nearly as good a result. Similarly of the tempera- 


de 


an 


SEPTEMBER 21, 1883.] 


ture, the best combination is the mean of the seven 
A.M., two and nine p.m. observations, but the mean 
of the maximum and minimum is nearly as good. — 
(Beob. met. stat. in Bayern, iv. 4.) Ww. U. (251 

Rainfall at Hawaii.— The meteorological condi- 
tions of the island of Hawaii are so peculiar, that, 
though the island is not large, in one portion rain 
seldom falls, and the land is a desert; while in another 
the rainfall is so excessive that it is said it should be 
measured, not in inches, but in feet. In proof of the 
excessive rainfall, the following figures have been 
furnished by Dr. C. S. Kittredge of Hilo, Hawaii. 
The observations were made by Dr. Wetmore at 
Hilo. 


Rainfall at Hilo, Hawaii. 


1880. 1881. 1882. 


_ 
| @ 
| o 

oo 


H 
my 
w 


January . 
February. 
March. . 
April . 
May 

June 

July 
August : 
September . 
October . . 
November . 
December 


no 


ne 
(rrr ry Be een 


= 

Scat oe TS 
Ea 
toatl 


ied 
Hon itHHion 


ee 
gh aa 
_ 
oe Om oo org cn 
| DIO wW HOD wIDeH* 


7 
2 
0 
1 
9 
0 
6 
9 
4 

=F 


Neg 
tp 


! 
= 
a 
> 
an 


164. 


Sums. 


For the three years April 1, 1880 to April 1, 1883, the 
total amount is 463.6 inches, averaging 154.5 inches 
each year. — W. U. [252 


GEOGRAPHY. 
(Arctic.) 

North-west America. — Reports from the island 
of Kadiak, Alaska, state that the spring has been un- 
usually late, and on the 6th of June summer seemed 
to have just set in. During the preceding three 
months, the rainfall had averaged eleven inches per 
month. Salmon-canneries had been established at 
Karluk, on the island of Kadiak, and at Seal bay, 
Afognak island. On Cook’s inlet, a cannery had 
been established at the Kassilax river. Exploring 
parties were examining the shores of the inlet for 
minerals. One party was ascending the Sushitno 
river, where Doroschin reported gold many years ago. 
Another party had sailed for Kamishak bay, Aliaska 
peninsula. An experiment in sheep-raising has been 
going on, on the island of Kadiak, for three years. 
Success seemed certain, as the wool improved in 
quantity and quality, and was free from burrs and 
impurities. In adding to the number, an epidemic 
disease was introduced; and of the flock of three 
hundred, only about thirty survived. —— Rey. S. Hall 
Young has been making a study of the religious be- 
lief of the T’linkit Indians of the Alexander archi- 
pelago, which will shortly be made public. —— The 
U. S. revenue-steamer Corwin left Sitka on her 
Arctic cruise, June 16.——At Juneau City, the 
largest shipment of gold-dust ever made was sent by 
the June steamer. The troubles among the miners 
here have caused many to depart. It appears that 


oe 


I.” © 


SCIENCE. 


409 


the rock containing the gold is of a loosely crystalline 
or granular nature, which weathers to a gravel. The 
lighter portions of this wash away in the rains; but 
the gold settles down into the remainder, which be- 
comes much richer than the original rock in equal 
quantities. This gravel is said to exist on the upper 
parts of the auriferous mountain-belt. Prospectors 
claim this gravel as placers, and desire to work it 
under the law governing placer-mining. The com- 
panies who have taken up-quartz-claims desire to 
have it regarded as quartz or vein mineral: hence 
the conflict, which was to have been settled by 
the officers of the U.S. S. Corwin. The decision 
has not been made public. Prospectors have 
gone to explore the country about Yakutat bay, 
where the Indians have hitherto been hostile. Re- 
ports-as to its richness in gold have long been preva- 


‘lent; but so many have met their death from the 


natives, that hitherto no one has dared attempt ex- 
ploration. The party consists of five men, with six 
months’ provisions, and was transported by the 
U.S. S. Adams. The prestige of the naval vessel, 
it is hoped, will afford them protection. —— The 
schooner Alaska has sailed from San Francisco, 
for Golovine sound, Alaska, taking with her a small 
stern-wheel steamer and a complete mining equip- 
ment and some twenty-five miners. The mines are 
situated on the Fish river, which forms part of the 
water-communication between Grantley harbor and 
Golovine sound. It is stated that the ore is a very 
rich argentiferous galena. The parties engaged in 
the enterprise have been several years investigating 
the deposit, and feel sufficiently encouraged to begin 
a regular prosecution of the business. In this vicin- 
ity, graphite is known to occur in a sienitic rock, 
in considerable quantities. This will be the most 
northern mine actually worked in the western hem- 
isphere. — W. H. D. [253 
(South America.) 

Bove’s new expedition.—Lieut. Bove pro- 
poses a new expedition to complete studies begun 
during his last journey in the southern part of the 
Argentine republic. He proposes to investigate the 
present physical and economic condition of the coun- 
try, with a view to closer commercial relations with 
Italy. He will take up the exploration of Patagonia 
and Tierra del Fuego, especially the basin of Santa 
Cruz, the canals of western Patagonia, and the habit- 
able country extending from the Ona to the Cioniu 
Chonos. The inhabitants are totally unknown. The 
explorer has placed himself at the disposition of the 
Argentine government for the purpose of placing 
light-houses on Staten island and other points need- 
ful for navigation, an arrangement which will facili- 
tate the prosecution of his other investigations. For 
transportation he will depend partly on the English 
missionary board, who have promised co-operation, 
and will afterward equip for exploration one of the 
small vessels always obtainable for such purposes 
either at the Falkland islands or Punta Arenas, The 
journey will occupy a year, and cost about five thou- 
sand dollars. — (Revue géogr. June, 1883.) W. H. D. 

[254 


410 


BOTANY. 


Ellis’ North American fungi.— Dr, Farlow, who 
edited the third and, in part, the eleventh century of 
this collection, contributes valuable notes on some of 
the Peronosporeae and Uredineae so far distributed, 
with some pertinent remarks on the nomenclature 
of the latter group. Though desirous of retaining 
the earliest specific names wherever practicable, the 
writer does not believe, with Winter, in applying the 
name given to the Aecidium of a Puccinia or other 
teleutosporic form to the species, when its several 
stages are grouped under the generic name of the 
latter form. ‘‘ For practical reasons, if for no other, 
the custom of substituting an aecidial specific name, 
for aname given to a Uredo or teleutosporie form, 
should by all means be avoided. Of all the Uredi- 
neae described by older writers, probably none are 
more difficult to determine satisfactorily at the pres- 
ent day than the species of Aecidium, so called. Origi- 
nal specimens of that genus are, as a rule, not so well 
preserved as those of other genera of the order; and, 
if one usually gets little satisfaction from examina- 
tion of what is left of the original types, he is scarce- 
ly better off on reading the older descriptions. It 
was not unfrequently the habit of older mycologists, 
to describe as varieties of one Aecidium forms found 
on the most diverse plants; and most certainly it is 
going too far to substitute for the name of a Pucci- 
nia, let us say, which has passed current for many 
years, the name given by an old authority, like Per- 
soon or Link, to what he considered a variety of an ill- 
defined Aecidium. It cannot be said that any want 
of respect to the older writers is shown by abandon- 
ing their aecidial names in such cases.’? 

With respect to the Uredo name, however, the case 
is held to be somewhat different. ‘‘ As a matter of 


fact, the types of the earlier-described Uredo forms are } 


much better preserved than Aecidia, and examinations 
of older herbaria frequently enable one to determine 
With accuracy what form was meant by an older 
author. Furthermore, the Uredo and teleutosporic 
forms frequently are found together in the same 
sorus, or in close proximity; and examinations of 
authentic specimens often show the relation of an 
old-described Uredo to a more recently described 


teleutosporic form. The most important considera- - 


tion, however, is the following. Many of the forms 
now recognized as teleutosporic have one-celled 
spores, and were originally described as forms of 
Uredo; and, in such cases, one must go back to the 
original specific names.’? He adds, however, “If I 
have advocated retaining the older Uredo name 
in cases where we know with certainty what was 
meant by the earlier mycologists, I have by no means 
intended encvuraging the use of names about which 
there is doubt, either from the absence of typical 
specimens, or confusion of several species by older 
writers. Rather than favor that method —if one 
may say so—of forcing priority, I should prefer to 
give up the substitution of all old Uredo names, ex- 
cept, possibly, in the case of species now referred to 
Uromyces.”” The use of the parenthesis for the or- 
iginal authority for the species, though somewhat 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 38. 


cumbrous and generally discarded by phenogamic 
botanists, is, on the whole, advocated, especially since 
the genera of fungi are often not very definitely 
fixed. ‘‘A species of Fries, for instance, may, dur- 
ing five years, be dragged through no one knows how 
many new genera; and it is with a mildly malicious 
satisfaction that one sees those modern writers who 
adopt minute generic subdivision, forced by the pre- 
vailing custom to add the ‘(Fr.)’ as a slight tribute 
to the past.” 

Besides the characters of eight species, previously 
nondescript, the notes also contain much critical m- 
formation concerning the synonymy of many of the 
species, and the geographical distribution of others. 
An interesting fact is the preponderance, among our 
Peronosporae, of species germinating by the produc- 
tion of zodspores, though this would appear to better 
adapt them to an insular climate than to ours, which 
is a continental one, subject to extremes of heat and 
moisture. — (Proc. Amer. acad., May 9, 1883.) W. . 

[255 


ZOOLOGY. 


Crustacea, 

Parasite of the salmon.— Carl F. Gissler in an 
anonymous article, in the American naturalist for 
August, describes and figures, as a new species of 
Caligus, a parasite of the salmon of Puget sound. 
The species is probably Lepeophtheirus salmonis, 
which infests the salmon upon both sides of the 
North Atlantic. —s. 1. s. [256 


Brachyura and Anomura off the coast of 
New England.—In a preliminary report on the 
Brachyura and Anomura dredged in deep water off 
the south coast of New England by the U. 5S. fish 
commission in 1880-82, S. I. Smith enumerates 
thirty-one species taken in sixty-five to six hun- 
dred and forty fathoms, and gives full descriptions 
and figures of the new forms discovered. The report, 
although only a supplement to a notice of the crus- 
tacea dredged in the same region in 1880, describes 
three new genera and seven new species. Of the 
thirty-one species enumerated, only four were known 
from the south coast of New England previous to 
1880, and more than half of the whole number were 
new to science; and yet none of the species belong 
to the abyssal fauna proper, and nearly all of them 
were taken most abundantly in less than two hundred 
fathoms. . The dredgings off Martha’s Vineyard in 
1882 revealed the total, or almost total, disappearance 
of several of the larger species of crustacea, which 
were exceedingly abundant, in the same region, in 
1880 and 1881. The disappearance of these species 
was apparently connected directly with the disappear- 
ance of the tile-fish (Lopholatilus) from the same 
region; and on this account complete tables are given 
of the specimens examined from all the dredgings in 
the region in question. Five species, which were ex- 
ceedingly abundant in 1880 and 1881, were not found, 
or found only very rarely, in 1882; and five others, 
taken several times in 1880 and 1881, were not taken 
at all in 1882. These species were specially charac- 
teristic of the narrow belt of comparatively warm 


a ig 


SEPTEMBER 21, 1883.] 


water, — in sixty to one hundred and sixty fathoms, 
—which has a more southern fauna than the colder 
waters either side. Professor Verrill has suggested 
that there was a great destruction of life in this belt 
in the winter of 1881-82, caused by a severe storm 
agitating the bottom-water, and forcing outward the 
cold water that occupies the great area of shallow 
sea along the coast, thus causing a sudden lowering 
of the temperature along the warm belt. 

Among the forms described are two new genera of 
Galatheidx, in one of which there are no appendages 
on any of the first five abdominal somites of the 
adult male. But the most interesting forms are two 
genera of hermit-crabs, — Parapagurus and Sympa- 
gurus,—in which the branchiae present types of 
structure intermediate between the phyllobranchiae 
of ordinary paguroids, and the trichobranchiae of the 
Astacidae, etc. — (Proc. nat. mus., vi., June, 1883.) 
8. 1. 8. [257 

VERTEBRATES. 


Development of muscle fibres and their union 
with nerves. — Although very numerous researches 
have been made on the differentiation of striped 
muscles, and on the termination of their motor nerve- 
fibres, yet the multifarious observations have often 
been too incomplete to lead to any but conflicting 
and unsatisfactory theories. An important contribu- 
tion toward reducing this unfortunate and excessive 
confusion to order is made by L. Bremer, who has 
studied the post-embryonic changes in lizards, frogs, 
and mice. The nucleus of the muscle-fibre, together 
with the protoplasm surrounding it, constitutes the 
so-called muscle-corpuscle; the corpuscle is much 
more prominent in young than in old muscles, for 
its protoplasm is gradually differentiated into muscu- 
lar substance; a small number of corpuscles enters 
into the formation of each fibre; the substance of the 
muscle forms a network, which was first partially 
recognized by Heitzmann (Wien. sitzuwngsber. xvii. 
abth. 3, 1878); the meshes of this network appear 
polygonal in transverse, rectangular in longitudinal 
sections; the network is a modification of the proto- 
plasmatic network of the corpuscles, and is so arranged 
that there are alternating rows, both transverse and 
longitudinal, of fine knots and large knots (correspond- 
ing to the fine and broad striae); the fine knots are 
connected by fine threads, and the large knots by 
coarse threads; hence there is a fine and a coarse net. 

The post-embryonic multiplication of fibres takes 
place by means of the structures described by Margo 
(Wien. sitzungsber. xxxvi. 229) under the name of 
*sarcoplasten ;’ there are lines or chains of muscle- 
corpuscles, united by the protoplasm net, and derived 
by proliferation from the corpuscles of the original 
fibres; the sarcoplast gradually separates from the 
parent fibre, undergoing muscular differentiation 
meanwhile, and also becoming connected with the 
nerve. The growth of the fibre is initiated by a 
multiplication of the corpuscles; the sarcolemma is 
not present at first, but appears later, being probably 
formed by the fused cell membranes of the corpus- 
cles, to which appears to be added a coat of connec- 
tive tissue, and also around the motor plate between 


SCIENCE. 


411 


the two sarcolemmic coats, an extension of Henle’s 
sheath of the nerve. 

The motor nerve plates are formed as follows: , 
When the sarcoplast begins to change to muscle, the 
nerve grows towards it until the two meet and unite. 
In lizards only a single nerve-fibre, in the frog and 
mouse several together, thus approach the future 
muscle. At the point of contact, the muscle-cor- 
puscles change, so that an accumulation of proto- 
plasm and a proliferation of nuclei occur there. 
These accumulations were first described by Kihne 
under the name of ‘muskelspindeln’ (Virchow’s 
arch., 1863, 116), and are mentioned by many subse- 
quent writers: Bremer now shows that they are 
young ‘end-plates.’? Into these the ramifications of 
the nerve penetrate, after the medullary sheath has 
been lost. The details of the process, of course, vary 
in different animals, as do also the final forms of the 
motor plates. 

Besides the motor terminations, there are others, 
which the author believes to be probably those of the 
sensory nerves. The fibres running to them are 
either small and medullated, or naked and end in 
ramifications upon the muscle, without any conspic- 
uous collection of nuclei and protoplasm at the place 
of junction. The smaller nerve endings occur on 
the same fibres with the motor plates, and probably 
both exist on every fibre. The smaller endings, 
Bremer designates as ‘enddolden’ in contradistine- 
tion to the ‘endplatten.’ (Sach’s paper on the sensory 
nerves of muscles is not cited by Bremer.) 

Hensen has advanced the view that the connection 
between the nerves and the peripheral cells exists 
from the first in the embryo, and that, as the cells 
divide, so do the nerves. Bremer’s observations 
show that with muscles this is not the case. More- 
over, Kleinenberg’s theory of the evolution of muscle 
and nerve must be at least modified, if not set aside. 
(That the union of the nerve-filament with the pe- 
ripheral organ is secondary, is shown also by His, 
ScreNCcE, i. 956.) — (Arch. mikr. anat. xxii. 318.) 
c. S. M. [258 

ANTHROPOLOGY. 


Folk-lore in the Panj*b.— Mrs. F. A. Steel is 
collecting the folk-stories among the natives in 
the Panjib. No. 18 is a charming shepherd-tale 
common among the cattle-drover’s children in the 
forests of the Gujranwalé. It is about Little Ankle- 
Bone. Once upon a time a little shepherd was eaten 
by a wolf, that hung the ankle-bone of his victim 
to a tree. Some robbers, dividing their spoil, were 
startled by the falling of the bone, which became a 
little lad, and did many wonderful things, taming 
all the beasts of the field, and fowls of the air. He 
changes a pond into milk, by the side, of which he 
sits under an oak-tree, playing his shepherd’s pipe, 
while all the animals come to listen, and to drink out 
of his marble basins. The series will be continued. 
— (Indian antiquary, xii. 105.) J. W. P. [259 

Lorillard City. — After his researches at Chichen- 
Itza, M. Charnay made an excursion into the country 
of the Lacandones, —a fierce, indomitable tribe, of 
whom it is most desirable to have more information, 


412 


M. Charnay found the ruins of an ancient city, which 
he named after his generous patron. In his explora- 
tions here, he was assisted by a young Englishman, 
“Mr. Alfred Maudslay, with whom he shares the honor 
of discovery. The town is about 17° N., on the 
left bank of the Usumacinta, on the boundaries of 
Guatemala and the two Mexican provinces of Chiapas 
and Tabasco. The ruins resemble those of Palenque 
in the material, arrangement of interiors, decorations, 
and glyphs. The. great stone slabs of Palenque 
carved with inscriptions and bas-reliefs, are replaced 
here by lintels covered with superb sculpture (cf. i. 
1008.) — (Proc. roy. geogr. soc., Vv. 44.) J. W. P. 
[260 

Shaking towers.—Col. Lovett, in his journey 
through northern Persia, visited the shrines of some 
dervishes, near which is a minar, curious for possess- 
ing the same property that makes the shaking towers 
of Ispahan famous. When shaken by a man stand- 
ing on the top, it oscillates sufficiently to cause a 
brick placed on the edge of the cornice to fall. It 
is about thirty-five feet high, and six feet diameter 
at the base, tapering gently upwards. This property 
of vibrating is attributed at Bostam, as it is at 
Ispahan, to miraculous interposition of the local 
saint. It is, of course, due to the elasticity of the 
bricks and cement used, the latter becoming more 
elastic with age. —(Proc. roy. geogr. soc., v. 80.) 
J. W. P. [261 

Explorations in Guatemala.— Mr. A. P. Mauds- 
lay, mentioned in M. Charnay’s researches, has pub- 
lished separately some of his own personal explora- 
tions, with a map and ground-plans. Starting from 
Livingstone, Guatemala, he first visited Quirigua, 
whose ruins consist of raised mounds and terraces, 
usually faced with stone, and near to these, carved 
monoliths. The latterare of two kinds: high upright 
stones, ornamented with human figures and tables 
of hieroglyphics; and low broad stones, in the shape 
of some animal. The first named measure three to 
five feet across, and 12 to 25 feet out of the ground. 
On both back and front, the principal ornament is a 
human figure in relief, decked out in the barbaric 
splendor usual throughout Central America, Mr. 
Maudslay suggests that the inevitable human face on 
the thorax may explain the function of the great num- 
ber of masks from this quarter. The second class of 
carvings is very interesting. One specimen, weigh- 
ing about eighteen tons, represents a turtle having a 
human head, with projecting ears richly ornamented. 
In place of the tail is the life-sized figure of a woman 
sitting cross-legged, and holding a manikin sceptre 
in her hand. The whole surface of the block is pro- 
fusely ornamented. Nowhere in the neighborhood 
are there traces of houses. The exploration at Qui- 
rigua led to an attempt to fix the site of Chaciyal, 
mentioned by Cortez. 

Leaving this spot, Mr. Maudslay visited Copan, 
where the sculptures impressed him as being above 
those of Quirigua in execution. From Copan our 
traveller wandered next to Tikal, north-east of Lake 
Peten, only once before visited by a foreigner, Ber- 
nouilli. All the houses here are built of stone, and 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou, IL, No. 33. 


coated with plaster. Inside, the walls are seven to 
eight feet high, and the stone roof forms a narrow 
gable. The rooms within are very narrow, resem- 
bling long passages. The town was laid out in a rect- 
angular form, the slopes terraced with sustaining 
walls. The houses are often built on raised founda- 
tions, stone-faced in the same manner, The most 
imposing buildings are the five temples raised on 
pyramidal foundations, in front of which are steep 
stairways leading up to the doors of the temples. 
There is no trace of any idol or object of worship in 
these buildings, but carved slabs and circular altars 
are found in the plaza. The next point of interest 
was a ruined town on the Usumacinta. On the top 
of a steep bank 60 feet high stands the first row of 
houses, and the townis built on a succession of stone- 
faced terraces reaching more than 250 feet in height. 
Instead of the long, narrow interiors as at Tikal, the 
houses are broken into a number of recesses by but- 
tresses supporting the roof at intervals, and stone is 
used instead of sapote-wood for lintels. One of the 
houses at Usumacinta is minutely described by Mr. 
Maudslay. In nearly all the houses, around the idols, 
stand earthen pots partly filled with some resinous 
substance, which the Lacandon Indians probably 
placed there, showing that the old faith has not died 
out. At this point Mr. Maudslay met M. Charnay. 
This very important paper closes with a short 
sketch of the Lacandones. — (Proc. roy. geog. s0C.. 
v. 185.) 0. T. M. ' 262 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


News of a serious character has been received 
from the Greely relief expedition. The Proteus 
and Yantie sailed from St. Johns, Newfoundland, 
June 29. They arrived safely at Disco on the 6th 
and 12th of July respectively. The Proteus with 
Lieut. Garlington and the relief party, with sup- 
plies, ete., sailed from Disco for Cory island, arriving 
on the 16th. On the 21st she started for Smith 
sound, and reached a point in latitude 78° 52’, lon- 
gitude 74° 25’ W., a few miles north and west of 
Cape Sabine, where she was beset and crushed in 
the pack. The party succeeded in saving boats and 
provisions sufficient to sustain them during their re- 
treat, and made their way across Smith sound and 
along the eastern shore to Cape York, and reached 
Upernavik on the 24th of August, all well. Records 
had been left at Littleton island which apprised the 
Yantic, on her arrival, of the disaster. A search 
was immediately instituted, and on reaching Uper- 
navik, Sept. 2, it was found that the Proteus party, 
after suffering severe hardships, and traversing six 
hundred miles of the Arctic sea, had arrived in 
safety. No news was obtained of the Greely party, 
no supplies had been landed for them, and their situ- 
ation must be considered as graye. Some rumors 
had reached the Danish settlements by parties of 
Eskimo, which, however, are not to be considered as 
of any weight; and there is yet no reason for sup- 
posing that any ill fortune, further than the loss of 
anticipated supplies, has befallen Lieut. Greely and 


RN Sk ao 


SEPTEMBER 21, 1883.] 


his companions. The failure to land supplies was 
probably due to the conditions of the ice at Littleton 
island, but nothing can be stated with certainty in 
advance of more explicit information. The Yantic, 
with the rescued party, arrived at St. Johns, Sept. 13. 

— At a meeting of the Scottish meteorological soci- 
ety, July 26, the following scheme, according to 
Nature, was adopted, looking to the establishment 
of a zodlogical station in the Firth of Forth: — 

It is proposed to enclose the Granton quarry, which 
has an area at high water of about ten acres, and 
depths varying to sixty feet, so as to regulate the in- 
flow and outflow of the tide in 
such a manner, that, while ad- 
mitting abundance of sea-water 
at each tide, fish and other ani- 
mals will be prevented from 
escaping out of the enclosure. 
This will be done by means of 
stakes and wire, with other 
kinds of netting. The quarry 
will then be stocked with all 
kinds of fish and marine inver- 
tebrates. When it is desired 
to separate fish or other animals 
for special study, this will be 
done by floating or fixed wire 
and wood cages. 

A barge about sixty-four feet 
by twenty-seven feet, of great 
stability, will be moored in the 
enclosure; upon this will be 
built a house with laborato- 
ries, workrooms, and a library ; 
it will also be furnished with 
a small windmill to pump up 
sea-water into a tank on the 
roof. The water in this tank 
will be conveyed by pipes to 
the various tiled tables, glass 
jars, and aquaria of the estab- 
lishment. A small cottage will 
be built on the shore for the 
accommodation of the keeper 
and engineer, with one or two 
spare rooms. A steam pinnace 
for dredging and making obser- 
yations in the Firth of Forth 
and the North sea will be at- 
tached to the station. 

A naturalist will be appointed whose duty will be 
to make continuous observations and experiments, 
assisted by the engineer and keeper. There will be 
ample accommodation for four other naturalists to 
work at the station, and carry on investigations; and, 
so far.as the accommodation will permit, British and 
foreign naturalists will be invited to make use of the 
station free of charge. : 

Towards the carrying-out of this scheme, the Duke 
of Buccleuch has liberally granted a lease of the 
quarry at a nominal rent, with permission to erect 
a cottage on the shore. A gentleman who takes a 
warm interest in the progress of research in Scotland 


SCIENCE. 


413 


has offered 1,0001. to construct the barge, and fit 
it up with laboratories and workrooms. Mr. J. Y. 
Buchanan has promised to fit up one of the rooms on 
the barge as a chemical laboratory suited to the re- 
quirements of the station; Mr. Thomas Stevenson, 
the society’s honorary secretary, has agreed to give 
his professional services in enclosing the quarry 
gratuitously; and Mr. John Anderson has under- 
taken to provide the station with a salmon and trout 
hatehery. Mr. John Murray will furnish the labora- 
tories with apparatus, and place his large zodlogical 
library at the service of workers. A number of gen- 
tlemen have promised to sup- 
port the undertaking when 
once commenced; and it is 
expected that within a few 
months the station will be pre- 
sented with a steam-pinnace 
and with funds for the erec- 
tion of a cottage on the shore, 
—the only desiderata to com- 
plete the scheme. 

The society granted three 
hundred pounds for the first 
year, and two hundred and fifty 
pounds each for the two suc- 
ceeding years, toward the ex- 
penses of the station. Itis ex- 
pected that by the beginning of 
November the proper work of 
the station will be begun. AlJ- 
ready several distinguished 
naturalists have signified their 
intention to avail themselves 
of the altogether unique facili- 
ties which will be afforded by 
this zoélogical station for the 
successful prosecution of bio- 
logical research. 

—In a report on the mineral 
resources of the United States, 
during 1882 and the first half 
of 1883, shortly to be published 
by the U. S. geological survey, 
Mr. Albert Williams, jun., has 
compiled a series of special 
statistics, of which the follow- 
ing totals will be of interest 
to our readers, 

Omitting the local consump- 
tion, there were mined 43,130,863 tons of Pennsylva- 
nia anthracite, and 87,965,038 tons of other qualities 
of coal, including a small amount of anthracite won 
outside of Pennsylvania; the respective colliery val- 
ues being $97,044,442 and $109,953,797. Of iron, 
1,350,000 tons were mined, worth $44,775,000; while 
there were consumed in all the iron and steel works, 
including furnaces, 5,610,000 tons of anthracite and 
9,740,000 tons of bituminous coal, 5,130,000 tons of 
coke, 145,750,000 bushels of charcoal, and 5,800,000 
tons of limestone. The product of gold is estimated 
at $48,750,000, and of silver at $70,200,000. In other 
words, the mint value of the precious-metal product 


414 


was $88,048,239 less than the colliery value of the 
coal produced during the same eighteen months. 

Of crude petroleum, 41,415,163 barrels, valued at 
$35,010,476, were produced, — a diminishing product 
with an increasing value; while 149,646,252 pounds 
of copper were mined, valued in New York at $24,- 
538,091, — an increasing product with a diminishing 
value. 

The lead product was 202,890 tons, worth in New 
York $18,924,550; and of zinc, 51,765 tons, valued at 
$5,311,620. 175,472 flasks, or 5,873,508 pounds, of 
mercury were produced, worth in San Francisco 
$2,100,750. Of nickel, the product in 1882 was 281,- 
616 pounds, worth $209,777, but the reduction-works 
closed in 1883; while of cobalt, ore and matte, the 
product for 1852 was valued at $15,000. 

Of other metals, there were mined in 1882, 3,500 
tons of manganese, with a spot value of $52,500; 
2,500 tons of chromium, worth in Baltimore $100,000; 
and 60 tons of antimony, worth about $12,000. It is 
stated that a trifling amount of tin ore has been 
mined, and the production of metallic tin on a small 
scale begun. 

The estimated value of the building-stone quarried 
in 1882 is $21,000,000; grindstones, $700,000; soap- 
stone, $90,000 (6,000 tons); brick and tile made, 
$34,000,000; whiteware, $5,000,000; lime, $21,700,000 
(31,000,000 bbls.); cements, $3,672,750 (3,250,000 
bbls.); pumice quarried, $1,750 (70 tons); phos- 
phates dug, $1,992,462 (332,077 tons); marl, $540,000 
(1,080,000 tons) ; mica, $250,000 (75,000 lbs.) ; barytes, 
$160,000 (20,000 tons); asbestus, $36,000 (1,200 tons) ; 
and asphaltum, $10,500 (3,000 tons): There were 
further produced in 18582 and 1883, 9,618,569 barrels 
(2,693,196,520 lbs.) of salt, valued at 36,450,210; 2,- 
100,750 pounds of borax, worth $562,903; and in 
1882, of sodic carbonate, over 1,600,000 pounds; 
and of copperas, 15,000,000, worth $112,500. 

The value of precious stones found in 1882 was, 
before cutting between $10,000 and $15,000; after 
cutting, between $50,000 and $60,000. And there 
were mined 500 tons of corundum, valued at $6,250; 
75,000 tons of quartz; and in 1882 and 1883, 687,500 
pounds of graphite, worth 355,000. : 

The total value of the metals produced in the 
United States, during 1882, is estimated at $219,756,- 
004; and of the non-metallic mineral substances, 
$234,156,402: making the total mineral product 
$453,912,406. 

No data seem to have been obtained regarding 
many of the minor mineral products, while in the 
majority of cases the figures appear to be ap- 
proximations only. These defects can doubtless be 
remedied, in the future, by the adoption of better 
laws and methods for the collection of our mineral 
statistics. 

— Hachette publishes a book of travel by Edmond 
Cotteau, entitled ‘De Paris au Japon @ travers la 
Siberie’ It is well illustrated, and, apart from the 
illustrations, is especially valuable as indicating how 
unchanged and identical the civilization of old Rus- 
sia, as seen in Moscow and similar cities, has been 
transplanted, as it were bodily, to successive and nu- 


SCIENCE. 


RR ae i i Sy le 
Tey 


[Vou. IL, No. 33. 


merous localities stretching from the Ural to the 
Pacific, and to the borders of the Arctic Sea. 

—A dainty and unique little book is published by 
Charles F. Lummis of Chillicothe, O. It is a minia- 
ture quarto, 6.57.5 cm. in size, made of twelve 
leaves cut from the thin paper-like layers of birch 
bark. Appropriate woodcuts cover the slightly thicker 
outer pages, while the interior is given to ‘ Birch- 
bark poems, vol. ii.,? by the publisher. We cannot 
say much for the eight little ‘poems,’ of which only 
the first, on ‘ silver-birches,’ has any special appro- 
priateness; but the setting is excellent and attractive, 
and reflects well the taste and skill of the author. 

—The Manchester guardian of July 18 gives the 
following report of M. Pasteur’s speech at Déle on 
July 14, when his fellow-townsmen placed a memo- 
rial tablet in the wall of the house in which he was 
born. The tablet says simply, “‘ Here was born Louis 
Pasteur, Dec. 27, 1822.”? M. Pasteur’s remarks were 
as follows: “I am deeply touched by the honor 
which the town of Déle has conferred upon me; but 
permit me, while expressing my gratitude, to depre- 
cate this excess of glory. In rendering to me the 
homage which is usually rendered only to the illus- 


trious dead you encroach too hastily upon the judg- . 


ment of posterity. Willit ratify your decision? And 
ought not you, Mr. Mayor, to have prudently warned 
the municipal council against so hasty a resolution ? 
But, having protested against this outburst of an ad- 
miration which I do not merit, permit me to say that 
I am touched to the bottom of my heart. Your sym- 
pathy has united in this commemorative tablet two 
great things which have been at once the passion and 
the charm of my life, — love of science, and reverence 
for the paternal home. —O my father and my mother! 
O my dear departed, who so modestly lived in this 
little house! it is to you that I owe all. Your en- 
thusiasms, my brave mother, you transmitted them 
tome. If I have always associated the greatness of 
science with the greatness of the country, it was be- 
cause I have been full of the sentiments with which 
you inspired me. And you, my dear father, whose 
life was as rude as your rude trade, you showed me 
what patience and sustained effort could accomplish. 
It is to you that I owe the tenacity of my daily work. 
Not only had you the persevering qualities which 
made life useful, but you had an admiration for 
great men and great things. ‘Look above, learn 
there, seek to rise always,’ — this was your teaching. 
I see you again after your day’s labor, reading some 
story of battle from a book of contemporary history 
which recalled to you the glorious epoch which you 
had witnessed. In teaching me to read, it was your 
care to teach me the greatness of France. Be blessed 
both of you, my dear parents, for what you were; 
and let me transfer to you the homage which is to- 
day bestowed upon this house. — Gentlemen, I thank 
you for giving me the opportunity of saying aloud 
what I have thought for sixty years. I thank you 
for this celebration and for your reception; and I 
thank the town of Déle, which does not forget any 
of its children, and which has borne me in such re- 
membrance.”? M, Pasteur’s father was a tanner, 


aa 


Owvarciw 9 <4 


for NCE. 


FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 28, 1883. 


THE NATIONAL OBSERVATORY. 


WE call the naval observatory at Washing- 
ton ‘ national,’ not because we would ignore 
its recognized official title, but because we 
wish to emphasize the facts, so often lost sight 
of, that it is the property of the nation, that 
it is the only observatory of the first class 
which the nation possesses, and that its opera- 
tions should be equally available for every 
department of the government. Such an in- 
stitution is a national one, by whatever name 
it may be called; and the question of its 
direction and supervision is one of interest to 
every government office having need of such 
astronomical observations as can be made only 
at a fixed observatory. The general principle 
that it should be under purely scientific control 
is one that has generally been conceded in the 
abstract, but has not always been acted upon. 
Sears Cook Walker, who, thirty-five years ago, 
was perhaps the most eminent astronomer of 
America, propounded this principle in a pub- 
lished letter; but Maury was then near the 
zenith of his power, and little notice was taken 
of the opinion of the subordinate. From that 
time to this, the superintendency has remained 
in the hands of line-oflicers of the navy. The 
officers of our navy are of too high a charac- 
ter, and have too much self-respect, to pretend 
to a knowledge which they do not possess: 
we may therefore inquire how it happens that 
they claim the exclusive direction of an estab- 
lishment most of whose operations are outside 
the line of their professional qualifications. 
Secretary Chandler has never given official 
utterance to his views; but he is understood 
to have said that he did not feel authorized 
to deviate from a precedent which had been 
sanctioned by forty years of usage. Precedent 
is, in one form or another, the basis of the 
principal argument on which the present sys- 

No. 34. — 1883. 


tem is sustained: we shall therefore inquire 
whether it has any real validity. 

In order that such a supposed precedent 
may afford any sound reason for its continu- 
ance, the system must have resulted from the 
matured judgment of his predecessors, whose 
acts the new secretary followed. Unless this 
was the case, unless he was doing what they 
would have done under the same circumstances, 
the argument could have had no legitimate 
weight. Now, if one looks more closely at the 
case, he will see that there is a great deal of 
precedent on the other side. With one ex- 
ception, not a superintendent had ever been 
appointed before his time who was not a profes- 
sional astronomer, or had not some standing 
in the scientific world. Maury, Gilliss, Davis, 
and Rodgers were all recognized as having, in 
some form, qualifications arising from emi- 
nence in science or from a familiarity with 
scientific affairs ; and it was this consideration 
which prompted their selection, and not merely 
the fact that they were naval officers. We 
might therefore claim that Secretary Chandler 
himself had deviated from precedent in ap- 
pointing superintendents on the sole ground 
of naval rank. Indeed, we believe that Sec- 
retary Chandler was the first who ever gave 
any real hearing to what the astronomers of 
the country had to say on the subject. On all 
previous occasions, vacancies in the super- 
intendency had been filled so quickly, that they 
never had had time to give an organized ex- 
pression to their views at the critical moment, 
even supposing they had been disposed to find 
fault with the selection, which certainly was 
not always the case. A plaintiff whose suit 
had been postponed from time to time for forty 
years might well feel dissatisfied, if, when 
finally heard, the decision of the judge should 
be, that the defendant had remained so long in 
possession, that he must now keep possession, 
no matter what the merits of the case. It 
should not be forgotten that the theory that the 


416 


observatory needs nothing but an administra- 
tive officer, whose sole duty it shall be to take 
charge of the building and grounds, preserve 
order, and conduct the correspondence, leaving 
the scientific work to the professors and lieu- 
tenants, was never heard of, except when no 
other argument was available, and is now not 
likely to be supported even by the line-officers 
themselves. 

The tersest form in which the case is put 
by these officers is this : ‘‘ The system has been 
tried for forty years, and has worked well; let 
us leave well-enough alone.’’ But has there 
been any system? Certainly not, unless a 
total absence of system can be called a system. 
And in what way has it worked well? ‘This 
depends on the standard by which we measure 
it. We may admit that in the eyes of the con- 
servative public every thing which does not 
lead to utter destruction, or against which 
nothing is heard, is looked upon. as working 
well. We once heard a popular superintendent 
highly praised, because, having the professors 
completely in his power, he did not embarrass 
them by vexatious interference, but had the 
forbearance to let them go on with their 
work without hindrance. Last spring, when 
the question had given rise to a lively diseus- 
sion among scientific men generally, one of 
the most eminent foreign astronomers who has 
landed on our shores paid us a visit. He was, 
of course, restrained from any public expres- 
sion of opinion on the subject, but could 
respond frankly to all inquiries. When asked 
for his views, he said in substance that individ- 
ual astronomers had done important works, 
and made great discoveries at the naval ob- 
servatory. But, he added, when we look fur- 
ther, and inquire what the observatory itself has 
done by organized work, we find a great want. 
There has been no unity, no continuous plan of 
work, and few of the results which might have 
been gained by organized action. He might 
have stated the case yet more strongly. The 
published observations of the thirty-five years 
are of every possible character, from the refined 
discussions of the accomplished astronomer to 
the vain efforts of the tyro working in the dark, 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. IL, No. 34. 


and the confused records of careless men who 
did not know what to do, and cared for nothing 
except to draw their pay, — all put in without 
discrimination. The astronomer of the future 
who shall try to make use of the results will 
be surprised by the kaleidoscopic character 
of the impression made upon him as he turns 
from volume to volume. Here a new series 
of observations suddenly begins. He will 
follow them through a few months or a few 
years, and find them as suddenly broken 


off, right in the middle, perhaps, and just 


when they might have led to some useful 
result. New systems of observation and new 
methods of calculation will be found coming 
in from time to time without any apparent 
reason. Every effort he may make to discover 
a method in the madness will be vain. To 
find an explanation, he will have to inquire into 
the personnel of the observers. By careful re- 
search he will then find, as a curious coinci- 
dence, that, when these changes occurred, 
some observer had died or left the observa- 
tory, or there had been a change of observers 
at the instruments. And this is the so-called 
‘system,’ to the perpetuation of which the 
country is asked to dedicate the new observa- 
tory, to be built at a cost of half a million dol- 
lars. 

The attitude of the naval officers, under these 
circumstances, is of much interest, because it 
depends very largely on them to determine 
whether this confusion shall continue indefi- 
nitely, or whether some permanent plan of 
work shall be adopted. If the indications 
of their views and intentions which haye 
reached us since the discussion began are cor- 
rectly interpreted, they have resolved on a 
course which cannot but prove equally dis- 
astrous to naval and national science. Com 
mon report credits them with a determination 


to ‘hold the fort’ at all hazards, and to vig- 


orously contest every effort that may be made 
to place the observatory under scientific con- 
trol. There are even indications that the 
dismissal of some or all the civilian astron- 
omers is desired, in order that none but naval 
officers may be left to do the work. 


ZZ, 


SEPTEMBER 28, 1883.] 


Such a prospect naturally leads us to con- 
sider the relations of the navy to science. 
Scientific organizations have shown on every 
oceasion their high appreciation of the efforts 
of naval officers to secure a scientific training 
for themselves, and to advance knowledge by 
their own efforts. Every thing they have done 
has met with generous recognition from their 
civilian co-laborers, and they are received upon 
terms of perfect equality in every enterprise 
in which they have taken part. There is no 
scientific position which would be denied them 
on the ground that they were naval officers, 
and therefore to be regarded as inferiors. To 
maintain this cordial relationship, nothing 
more is necessary than that the officers should 
admit the equality, and make no claims except 
those which are founded upon merit. When 
they begin to claim precedence and control on 
the ground of naval rank, they assume a posi- 
tion in which they will meet with the combined 
opposition of their scientific co-laborers, and 
render all co-operation impossible. 

The application of these considerations to 
the present case is very simple. Naval officers 
will not find, in scientific quarters, the slight- 
est opposition to their doing any work at the 
observatory which will either advance science, 
or lead to their own professional improvement. 
[t is, indeed, a mooted question, whether the 
work can really be well performed by any but 
a permanent staff of trained assistants, and it 
must be admitted that the observations made 
by naval officers in the early years of the estab- 
lishment were not a success. But the officers 
may justly claim that what they did then is 
no test of what they can do now, when a 
better training has been secured, and a scien- 
tifie spirit has been infused into the service. 
There is no such question raised on the scien- 
tific side as, Shall you or shall we do the work? 
Shall you or shall we superintend it? What 
is, then, the ground taken by the general scien- 
tific sentiment of the country? Of course, in 
answering a question of this kind, differences 
of individual views will be found, and no an- 
swer can be given which all will accept without 
modification. But we are persuaded that there 


SCIENCE, 


417 


will be no difficulty in reaching some7conclu- 
sions which will correctly represent the aver- 
age common sense of the great mass of those 
who are interested in the subject. We state 
them as follows : — 

Give the naval officers every possible chance, 
and let them do every thing which they shall 
prove themselves able to do. Let the super- 
intendent be the man, who, in the opinion of 
the astronomers of the country, is best fitted 
for the place, whether naval officer or civilian. 

But let the questions, what shall the ob- 
servatory do, how shall it be done, and is 
what is done good, be decided exclusively 
by the highest scientific authority, acting, not 
privately, and upon the motion of the super- 
intendent, but officially, with the weight and’ 
responsibility of legal.appointment. Let this 
authority represent, not merely the navy de- 
partment or nayal science, but the science of 
the whole country, and let the superintendent, 
whoever he may be, be responsible for execut- 
ing its decisions. The shape it would natu- 
rally take would be that of a board of control, 
composed of the leading astronomers of the 
country. 

We state these points, not as forming a 
definite plan, or even laying a basis for such a 
plan, but only as indicating the spirit in which 
we hold that the case should be considered by 
the two parties. What we ask is as much for 
the intellectual benefit of the navy itself as 
for the good of science, and we earnestly hope 
that naval officers will meet our views in the 
spirit in which they are put forth. 


THE NATIONAL RAILWAY EXPOSI- 
TION.A— V. 


Tue postal-car shown by the Harrison postal- 
bag rack company of Fond du Lac, Wis., 
appears to be conveniently arranged, and pos- 
sesses many ingenious but simple devices for 
facilitating the conveyance and sorting of letters 
and newspapers. ‘The sorting-tables are not 
fixed, but are hinged by means of hooks on 
movable stanchions ; and each table, measuring 
about forty-two inches by eighteen inches, can 
be detached and stowed away, so that any num- 


1 Concluded from No. 26, 


418 


ber can be utilized, and the remaining space 
left clear. The mail matter can also be sorted 
directly into bags, which are hung open 
mouthed, at their four corners, on cast-iron 
brackets, and these can also be folded out of the 
way when not required. ‘The letter-boxes are 
provided with clips, into which labels can be 
inserted, showing the destination of the letters 
sorted into each particular box. 

The Pullman palace-car company had a very 
large exhibit of sleeping and dining cars, includ- 
ing an emigrant sleeping-car, which will doubt- 
less prove a great luxury to settlers journeying 
to the far west. The berths are arranged as in 
an ordinary sleep- 
ing-car, but consist 
merely of slats of 
ash, the bedding 
and mattress (if 
any) being provid- 
ed by the emigrants 
themselves. 

A new style of 
sleeping - car, -the 
second of its kind 
ever built, was 
shown by the Paige 
sleeping-car com- 
pany. The top 
berth does not fold 
up against the roof 
of the car, but is 
a species of rectan- 
gular hammock, 
hung at the ends 
from partitions be- 
tween the sections. 
These partitions, 
in the day-time, 
are lowered into a 
space between the 
backs of the seats. 
The lower berth is not made on the seat, but 
on a similar canvas hammock. 

A screw lever dump-car on Van Wormer’s 
patent is shown by the U. S. car company of 
Boston, Mass. The centre support on the 
trucks is a species of ball-and-socket joint, 
combined with seements of two-toothed wheels, 
— one segment being bolted to the top of the 
truck-bolster, and the other to the under side of 
the bottom framing of the car; the effect being, 
that, when the caris tipped, it rolls on the 
trucks, the fulerum on which it rolls being 
brought directly under the centre of gravity of 
the car and its load, which, of course, shifts 
as the car is tipped. When the load is dumped, 
the position of the centre of gravity tends to 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 34. 


‘restore the car to its normal position: the 


arrangement, therefore, assists the man in 
charge both in dumping, and in restoring the 
car to its running position. The rockers, with 
the central ball and’ socket and segmental cogs 
or teeth on either side, are shown in our illus- 
tration. When the car is to be dumped, the 
side-supports are withdrawn by means of levers 
on the end-platforms, and the car is tipped to 
either side by means of a worm actuated by a 
hand-wheel. As the bottom of the car is solid, 
it can be made stronger than a hopper-bottom 
car, and can be used for freight, which requires 
a flat floor, and cannot be loaded in a hopper- 
bottom car. It is 
stated that one man 
can unload forty 
thousand pounds of 
coal, sand, ballast, 
or iron ore, in two 
minutes by means 
of a dump-ear, two 
hours being re- 
quired to shovel 
out the same load. 
The Suspension 
car-truck manufac- 
turing company of 
New York exhib- 
ited several trucks 
made on their prin- 
ciple, suited for 
freight, passenger, 
and horse cars, and 
showed a model 
truck which tray- 
ersed an abnormal- 
ly rough piece of 
track with a very 
smooth and easy 
motion. The car 
is connected to the 
truck by means of links, which swing in a yver- 
tical plane parallel with the track, instead of at 
right angles to it, as in the swing-beam truck ; 
while the axle-boxes are connected to the 
trucks by means of links, which permit inde- 
pendent side-motion te each axle. The nor- 
mal position of all the links is vertical, and 
they become inclined as the truck enters a 
curve, and therefore ‘tend to restore it to a 
central position when the truck enters a piece 
of straight track again. ‘ 
The principle 6f the truck is entirely novel, 
and, though really simple, is best understood by 
a few minutes’ examination of a model. Two 
brackets; resembling the letter A reversed, are 
attached to the nnder side of the car. At the 


ite 


POSTAL-CAR RACKS, 


Basi 


SEPTEMBER 28, 1883.] 


apex (now the lowest point) of the A are at- 
tached vertical links, the other end of which are 
attached to the truck at B, B, in our diagram. 
As the truck 
enters a 
curve, one of 
these links 
becomes _in- 
clined for- 
ward, and the 
other back- 
ward. Asthe 
wheel @ 
strikes a- 
gainst the 
outer rail of 
the curve, it 
is thrown to- 
wards the in- 
side of the 
eurve (as- 
suming the 
position 
shown by the 
dotted lines 
in the figure), and the suspension-links force 
that side of the truck forward, while the wheel 
D comes backwards ; and therefore the action 
of the links tends to,make the axles radiate to 
the curve. No centre-pin is used; and there- 
fore, when a car is heavily bumped in switch- 
ing, it merely swings backward on the links 
until they become sufficiently inclined to drag 
the truck after the car. It should be noted 
that the pin Z, which connects the links to the 
truck, is a loose fit in the links, and 
therefore allows of the necessary radial 
motion. The top ends of the links, 
being attached to the truck, are always 
approximately a fixed distance above the 
rails ; and therefore, when they are in- 
clined, the car itself is lifted, and the 
weight of the car, hence, tends con- 


SUSPENSION CAR-TRUCK. 


stantly to keep the links vertical, and maintain 
the truck in its noimal position, with the axles 


SCIENCE. 


419 


at right angles to the axis of the car, so that 
it runs steadily on a straight line. The truck 
appears to be very highly thought of by the mas- 
ter car-build- 
ers, whose 
convention 
was held in 
Chicago dur- 
ing the expo- 
sition ; and it 
is possible 
that if may 
come into ex- 
tended use, 
the experi- 
ence of the 
Boston and 
Albany, Con- 
necticut Riv- 
er, and other 
roads which 
have used it, 
being strong- 
ly in its fa- 
vor. 

The Cliff and Righter company of Oswego, 
N.Y., exhibited a car-spring which gives an 
equal amount of elasticity, with a less amount 
of metal than the ordinary elliptic spring. 
Each half-spring consists of a solid steel bar 
of oval section, properly tapered towards the 
ends. Springs as usually made, of four, five, 
or more plates, resemble a set of somewhat 
elastic girders, the depth of each of which is 
the thickness of the plate; and the strength 


End Elevation. 


DIAGRAM SHOWING ACTION OF SUSPENSION CAR-TRUCK. 


of a spring is the sum of the strength of each 
individual plate or girder, modified by the fric- 


420 


tion between the plates. It is obvious, that, 
were the plates to firmly adhere together, the 
strength of the spring would either be very 
largely increased, or the same strength might 
be attained by 
the use of a 
less number of 
plates ; and the 
latter course 
has been car- 
ried to its limit 
by the patentee 
of the Cliff 
spring. A 
spring made of 
one plate must be of good steel, as, when 
loaded, the difference in the alteration of the 
lengths of its upper and lower surfaces is 
considerable, demanding a highly elastic steel. 
In the spring we illustrate, four springs are 
arranged side by side, — a plan which unites 
the advantages of a plate spring and a solid 
spring. Should one spring break, the other 
three will probably carry the load, while four 
springs side by side weigh no more than a 
spring of the same total strength, composed 
of a single bar of the same thickness, but of 
four times the width. A set of these springs 
for a passenger-car weighs nine hundred and 
twenty-eight pounds, while a set of the Penn- 
sylvania railroad standard springs for the same 
purpose weighs sixteen hundred and thirty- 
two pounds, a difference of seven hundred 
and four pounds in favor of the solid spring. 
These springs have been lately introduced, 
and are being tried on the Boston and Albany 
and other railways. The difficulties of tem- 
pering and making a spring of one solid bar 
are considerable; but it is to be hoped they 
may be surmounted, as the weight of cars is a 
serious evil, ‘* which has increased, is increas- 
ing, and ought to be diminished.”’ 

Mr. S. P. Tallman of New York exhibits a 
safety-drawbar for cars. Two pieces of timber 
are bolted between the middle sills of a car, 
and others are bolted to the under side of these 
timbers and the middle sills, forming a solid 
mass of timber, which 
receives both the buff- 
ing and drawing strains, 
the drawbar running 
through the timber, and 
being provided with 
springs at both ends. 
The spring nearest the draw-head takes the 
buffing-strain, and the spring at the end of 
the drawbar serves as a draw-spring. The 
disposition of the timbers enables them to be 


SCIENCE. 


ELLIPTIC CAR-SPRING. 


DRAWBAR. 


[Vou IL, No. 34. 


secured by more than the usual number of 
bolts, and the arrangement appears to be 
strong and simple, and not so liable to fail- 
ure as the ordinary draught timber. 

Numerous 
refrigerator- 
cars were ex- 
hibited; and 
doubtless im- 
provements 
will be much 
facilitated by 
the opportuni- 
ties thus given 
to secure infor- 
mation, though it is to be regretted that the 
management of the exposition did not take 
steps to secure an efficient competitive trial 
of the cars under practical conditions. Beer, 
fruit, vegetables, etc., might have been placed 
in the cars, and locked up for a few days, 
when a careful examination of the contents 
would have given some indication of the rela- 
tive merits of the cars. 

The use of continuous brakes on passenger- 
trains has been found to be so advantageous, 
that their adoption on freight-trains is merely 
a question of time, Several forms of continu- 
ous -brakes, applicable to freight-trains, were 


‘exhibited ; the Westinghouse brake company 


showing a cheaper form of their well-known 
automatic brake, the reservoir being made of 
cast iron, and bolted to the cylinder. The triple 
valve, however, and other parts, differ little, ex- 
cept in size, from the brake used on passenger 
equipment. A cheaper form of brake, which 
requires no special pump or other fittings on 
the engine, or even a continuous brake con- 
nection through the train, is operated by the 
action of the ordinary hand-brake on the ten- 
der. The consequent compression of the draw- 
heads in the train is made by the peculiar 


mechanism of this, brake-gear to apply the — 


brake-shoes to the wheels of the ears. 

This form of brake is peculiarly applicable 
to freight-service, as it allows of cars not fitted 
with the brake being run in the train without 
interfering with the use 
of the brake on the cars 
equipped. This class 
of brake can hardly be 
termed ‘automatic’ in 
the fullest sense of the 
term, insomuch as it 
does not work, should the train part in two. 
On the other hand, failure on any one car 
cannot impair the efficiency of the brake on 
the rest of the train. 


ari: 


SEPTEMBER 28, 1883.] 


The American brake company of St. Louis, 
Mo., exhibited full-sized working-models of a 
brake of this class. 

Between the floor-sills, and at the inner end 
of the drawbar, is hung a bell-crank lever, B, 
which carries in one of its jawed ends the push- 
bar A, and, in the other, double-pull rods carry- 
ing a spiral spring transmitting the strain to 
bell-crank levers, D,D, suspended from the sills 
by hangers, C,C. The bell-cranks D,D, are 
connected to the brake-beams; and conse- 
quently compression on the draw-head acting 
on the lever A causes the brake-shoes to be 
pressed on the wheels, the amount of pressure 
being regulated by its transmission through the 
spiral spring. But, since a brake simply “made 
ais above described would not admit of a train 
being backed, a device is attached which re- 
moves the objection, and, fur- 
ther, only allows the brake to 
be applied when the car is 
moving at a speed above six 
miles per hour. 

The push-bar A can only 
come in possible contact with 
the draw-head by the centrifu- 
gal force of governor-balls at- 
tached to the axle. These 
balls, Z,EZ, are attached by 
means of links to a movable 
‘disk, #, encircling the axle. 
One end of a lever, G, bears 
against the disk, and the other 
end is connected by means of 
rods, ete., to the push-piece A. 
When the car is running at 
speed, the governor-balls draw 
the disk towards them, leaving 
the lever G free to follow it, 
and permitting the push-bar A to drop behind 
the draw-bar, when the brake is ready for ac- 
tion, going on directly the draw-gear is put in 
compression. When the speed falls below six 
miles an hour, the centrifugal force of the 
governor-weights becomes so feeble, that a 
‘Spring (not shown in the illustration) restores 
the disk to its former position, lifting the push- 
piece A clear of the draw-head. 

The brakes can be released at any time by 
the engineer putting on steam, and giving a 
pull to his train; and the train can be backed 
from a state of rest without the brakes going 
on, the push-piece A lying on the draw-head, 
but being unable to fall behind it. 

The engineer can apply the brake, when 
pushing the train, by momentarily applying 
the brake on the engine or tender, thereby 
putting the draw-gear in tension, and letting 


SCIENCE. 421 


the lever A fall behind the draw-head. When 
steam is again put on, the consequent com- 
pression applies the brake. 

This brake has been in use for some time on 
the St. Louis and San Francisco and many 
other railroads, and appears to give very satis- 
factory results; the wear being very small, 
while the first cost is low enough to allow of 
its extensive application to freight- -cars. 

The brake exhibited by the Tallman auto- 
matic car-brake company of New York also 
acts by the compression of the draw-heads, 
which force together two friction-wheels, one 
of which is keyed on the axle, and the other is 
geared to a drum winding up the brake-chain. 
A ratchet-wheel, which can be shifted by hand, 
prevents the brake from acting when the train 
is backed. 


AUTOMATIC BRAKE. 


The Waldumer electric brake company of 
Chicago exhibited a working-model of a very 
promising form of continuous brake, which is 
just emérging from the experimental stage. 
The weak point of all continuous brakes has 
been the conveyance of the operating force 
— compressed air, vacuum, hydraulic power, 
ete. —along the length of a train, the pipes 
and couplings being generally expensive, and 
formed partly of perishable substances, while 
chains are unsatisfactory from -every point 
of view. Many brakes that work well and 
promptly on a short train become slow and 
irregular in their action, when applied to a 
train of thirty or more vehicles. ‘The instan- 
taneous action of electricity, and the simplicity 
of the means used for its transmission, make 
it probable that an electric brake would be 
especially suited for long freight-trains. The 


422 


brake is automatic, the fracture of wire or 
draw-gear ringing bells on engine and caboose, 
and warning both engineer and conductor that 
the train has parted, each being then at liberty 
to apply the brake or not, on his portion of the 
train, as he may deem best. Owing to the 
system of circuiting, the brake may be out of 
order on one car without affecting the rest of 
the train. 

The street-car starter and brake exhibited 
by Charles T. Brown & Co., Chicago, is an 
ingenious device for storing the momentum 
which is destroyed by the usual form of brake, 
and utilizing it for restarting the car. The 
motion is not checked by friction, but by the 
axle, which, through suitable gearing, winds 
up a spiral spring, the power of which is ayail- 
able to again put the car in motion. The 
mechanical details appear well worked out, and 
the car can be run in either direction, and 
stopped or started on either up or down grades. 
The heavy pull necessary to start a car is 
very severe on horses, and this invention 
would appear to be useful in saving much 
wear and tear of horse-flesh. 

D. H. O’ Neate Nuate. 


A HEARING OF BIRDS’ EARSA—I. 


Tue ‘ musical class’ of vertebrates enjoy the 
sense of audition to a high degree. Otherwise 
birds would cease to sing. They are the only 
animals besides man whose emotions are habit- 
ually aroused, stimulated, and to some extent 
controlled, by the appreciation of harmonic 
vibrations of the atmosphere. Most birds ex- 
press their sexual passions in song, sometimes 
of the most ravishing quality to human ears, as 
that of the nightingale, skylark, or blue-bird ; 
and it cannot be supposed that they do not 
themselves experience the effect of music in an 
eminent degree of pleasurable mental perturba- 
tions. The capability of musical expression 
resides chiefly in the male sex; the receptive 
capacity of musical affections appears to be 
better developed in the female. There is, how- 
ever, no anatomical difference in their ears. 
Quickness of ear is extraordinary in some birds, 
as those of the genus Mimus (mocking-birds) , 
which correctly render any notes they may 
chance to hear, with greater readiness and ac- 
curacy than is usually within human compass ; 


1 Complementary to the article entitled ‘The nature of the 
human temporal bone,’ Journal of otology, January, 1882. Some 
portions of that article may perhaps be made clearer by the pres- 
ent one, especially those relating to the parts of a temporal bone 
as elements of mandibular and hyoidean arches. Figs. 1-4 are 
borrowed from Prof. W. K. Parker’s admirable essay on the de- 
velopment of the fowl’s skull, in Encycl. Brit., 9th ed., art. Birds; 
Besta are from Prof. 1. Ibsen’s beautiful memoir, as cited in 
the text. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 34. 


. 


‘and it may be reasonably doubted whether any 
other animals than some of the world’s greatest 
musical composers have a higher experience of 
acoustic possibilities than many birds possess. 
Birds’ ears have neyertheless a simple ana- 
tomical construction, in comparison with those 
of mammals. The auditory organ is decidedly 
of the reptilian type; and the arrangement of 
the parts is, on the whole, quite like that of 
reptiles. Thus, the cochlea, which in mam- 
mals makes from one and a half to five whorls 
(two and a half in man), is simply a strap-like 
prolongation from the vestibule, lacking modio- 
lus, lamina spiralis, ete.; the stapes is the 
only perfected ossiculum auditts ; the incus is 
scarcely recognizable as such, and inseparable 
from the stapes; the malleus is immense, but 
outside the ear, furnishing the articulation of 
the lower jaw, of the zygomatic arch, and of the 
pterygo-palatal bar; the tympanic bone is rep- 
resented at most by a few specks of ossifica- 
tion. There is ordinarily no external ear; the 
whole tympanic cavity is exposed on removal 
of the membrane, which lies very superficial ; 
the eustachian tubes unite before opening into 
the pharynx ; the periotic bone, constituting the 
otocrane or skull of the ear, is less compact 
and precise than the ‘ petrous portion’ of the 
mammalian temporal bone, its three bony ele- 
ments being more distinct; no mastoid por- 
tion is recognizable as such, but pneumatic 
cells of diploé are numberless, and there is 
direct passage of air from the ear into the hol- 
low of the lower jaw; one of the semicircular 


canals invades the occipital bone. Other pe- 


culiarities will appear as we proceed with our 
description, in which comparisons will be chiefly 
made with the human ear. 
Most birds have no external ear, in the 
sense of a fleshy conch or auricle. In bald- 
headed birds, the meatus externus appears as 
a roundish orifice at the lower back corner of 
the head, just above and behind the articulation 
of the lower jaw. In nearly all birds, the 
opening is hidden by an overlying packet of 
feathers, collectively termed the awriculars or 
ear-coverts, on simply raising and reflecting 
which the meatus is exposed. The auriculars 
are peculiarly modified feathers, haying loos- 
ened barbs, doubtless to lessen interference 
with the passage of sound. In a few birds the 
border of the meatus develops a slight tegu- 
mentary fold, partially occluding the orifice. 
In various owls, as ofthe genera Strix, Aluco, 
Asio, Nyctala, but not even throughout this 
group of birds, an immense tegumentary oper- 
culum, or ear-covyer, is developed, which flap 
shuts down upon the ear-opening like the lid 


. 


SEPTEMBER 28, 1883.] 


of abox. It hinges upon the anterior border 
of the meatus, and shuts backward. In some 
cases the operculum is about as long as the 
whole skull is deep, and half as wide as long 
—say, two inches long by an inch wide. On 
raising such an ear-flap and turning it forward, 
enormous external bony ear-parts, covered with 
‘integument, are displayed. Such expanse of 
the outer ear results 
from extension of oc- 
cipital and squamosal 
bones into a thin shell 
bounding the meatus 
externus above, be- 
hind, and below. In 
the best-marked cases 
of the kind, especially 
in Nyctala, the parts 
are exaggerated un- 
symmetrically on right 
and left sides, and the 
whole cranium is dis- 
torted. This inflation 
of the cranium does 
not affect the inner 
ear-parts, or the es- 
sential organ of hear- 
ing. It should be add- 
ed, in passing, that 
the so-called ‘ears’ 
of various owls, as 
the ‘ long-eared’ owl, 
Asio otus, and ‘ short- 
eared’ owl, Asio ac- 
cipitrinus, are simply 
tufts of feathers on top 
of the head, over the 
eyes; these topknots 
having nothing what- 


SCIENCE. 


423 


which floors the skull from ear to ear, un- 
derlying the basi-occipital and basi-sphenoid, 
also usually contributes to the inferior boundary 
of the meatus. On removing the quadrate 
(malleus), the general tympanic depression is 
seen to be more or less directly continuous with 
the alisphenoid, and so to conduct into the 
orbital cavity; the boundary of the meatus 
being best marked be- 
hind and below by the 
expansive thin-edged 
shell of the tympanic 
wing of the exoccipi- 
tal. ‘To the brim in- 
dicated is attached the 
membrana tympani; 
the’ ear-drum being 
thus from the configu- 
ration of the parts 
quite superficial, in- 
stead of being at the 
bottom of a long cylin- 
drical tube, asin man. 
There is, in fact, in 
birds, no ‘ meatus au- 
ditorius externus,’ in 
the sense of a special 
bony tube; some slight 
specks of ossification, 
when any, about the 
tympanic membrane 
itself, being all there 
is of a tympanic bone 
(* external auditory 
process’ of human 
anatomy). 

Such shallowness, 
openness, and super- 
ficiality of the parts, 


ever to do with the 
ears. Their proper 
name is plumicorns. 

Aside from any 
such irregularities, the 
outer ear, or meatus 
auditorius externus, is 
a considerable, shal- 


Fie. 1.— Ripe chick’s skullin profile, X 8diameters. (After Par- 
ker.) px, premaxillary; ain, ali-nasal cartilage; en, septo- 
nasal; 2, nasal bone; /, lachrymal; pe, perpendicular plate of 
ethmoid; ps, presphenoidal region; as, alisphenoid; /, frontal ; 
P, parietal; sg, squamosal; so, superoccipital; eo, exoccipital; 
oc, occipital condyle; sf, the cross-like object, the stapes, 
whose foot fits fenestra ovalis ; g, quadrate; pg, Perens qi, 

uadrato-jugal; j, jugal; pa, palatine; mz, maxillary; 2, optic 
‘oramen ; 5, foramen ovale, for inferior divisions of the fifth 
nerve. Inthe mandible: —d, se ; Su, 8urangular; a, angu- 
lar; ar, articular; éap, internal angular process; pap, posterior 
angular process. 


brings the cavity of 
the tympanum or mid- 
dle ear into full view 
on removal of the tym- 
panic membrane. On 
looking into this cavi- 
ty, as may readily be 
done in clean, dry 


low, roundish depres- . 

sion, in the situation shown in fig. 1, where the 
reference line 5 crosses it, and where the cross- 
like object (stapes) marked st is seen lying in it. 
Its ordinary boundaries are, the enormous mal- 
deus or quadrate bone, q, in front; the ex- 
panded rim of the sguamosal, sq, above; the 
tympanic wing of the exoccipital (a produc- 
tion of the lateral condylar plate of the occipi- 
tal, teo in fig. 2), behind and below. A bone 
unknown in human anatomy, the basi-temporal, 


skulls of any size, 
many objects of interest may be studied without 
further dissection. We observe in the first place 
a large (inconstant) number of paewmatic fo- 
vamina leading in various directions, conveying 
air from the middle ear-passage into the air-cells 
of bones of the skull, including the lower jaw. 
The most special of these is a neat gristly or bony 
air-tube into the lower mandible. The mouth 
of the eustachian tube is a large orifice at the 
lower anterior part of the cavity. This tube, 


424 


as usual, continues an air-passage to the phar- 
ynx, opening at the back of the hard palate by 
amedian orifice in common with its fellow. In 
sizable skulls, as of a raven, hawk, or eagle, a 
bristle or even a wooden toothpick readily tray- 
erses the conduit which runs between the basi- 
sphenoid and the underlying basi-temporal. 
This whole passageway, from outer ear to 
tympanic cavity, and thence through eustachian 
tube to pharynx, represents the persistently 
patulous part of the first post-oral visceral 
cleft of the embryo, only occluded by the mem- 
brana tympani. Near the eustachian orifice 
are observed two definite openings. The 
anterior and superior of these is the fenestra 
ovalis, fitted, as usual; with the foot of the 
stapes, as seen in fig. 1, closed by membrane, 
which further occludes this opening into the 
vestibular cavity. The other is the fenestra 
rotunda, similarly leading into the cochlear 
cavity. The two are generally close together, 
separated merely by a bony bridge or bar. 
The former lies always in the obliterated 
suture between the proétic and opisthotic ele- 
ments of the petrosal bone, the latter wholly 
in the opisthotic; both are thus as in man. 
Close examination at a point somewhere about 
the fenestra ovalis will discover a minute fora- 
men, corresponding to the human ‘ stylo-mas- 
toid foramen’ inasmuch as it represents the 
orifice of exit of the seventh cranial nerve 
(‘ portio. dura”) from the petrosal bone, here 
in the cavity of the middle ear, there being 
none such upon the outside of the skull. Thus, 
in the dry skull of a bird, the hard parts of the 
tympanic cayity, including the eustachian tube, 
ean readily be inspected from the outside ; even 
the limits of the proGtic and opisthotic ‘bones 
can be determined by the site of the fenestra 
oyalis, and the ossicula auditus be seen in situ. 
To see these things in the human or any ordi- 
nary mammalian ear, requires special prepara- 
tions, as they lie in a tympanum which is itself 
at the bottom of a contracted tube. Details of 
mere size and shape aside, the above general de- 
scription of the passageways will apply pretty 
well to any bird, and should suffice for recogni- 
tion of the parts; though the number and 
variety of the irregular pneumatic openings 
(comparable to those of the human mastoid 
cells) may be puzzling at first sight. 


(To be continued.) 


ON THE KINETIC THEORY OF THE SPE- 
CIFIC HEAT OF SOLIDS. 


In a paper entitled ‘ Kinetic considerations 
as to the nature of the atomic motions which 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 34 


probably originate radiations,’? the writer has 
given reasons in support of the hypothesis that 
different chemical atoms are all composed of 
the same kind of ultimate atoms, which are in 
every respect equal and similar. Reasons were 
also given, tending to show that the vibrations 
of these ultimate atoms originate luminiferous 
and thermal radiations. And further, suppos- 
ing radiations to originate in the vibrations of 
equal and similar ultimate atoms which are set 
in vibration by the collision of moving mole- 
cules, an attempt was made to prove that two 
unlike masses of gas which are in thermal 
equilibrium by radiation will also be so whem 
mixed ; i.e., when the equilibrium depends up- 
on the collisions of the molecules rather than 
upon radiation. 

- The object of the present paper is to consider 
the probable physical state of solid bodies, es- 
pecially as to the amount of energy distributed 
among the different degrees of freedom possi- 
ble in such bodies, and to show that the same 
hypothesis of equal ultimate atoms would cause 
solids which are in thermal equilibrium by ra- 
diation to be also in thermal equilibrium when 
brought into contact, i.e., when the equilibrium 
depends upon the collisions of the molecules. 

Let us notice, in the first place, what is ap- 
parently the mechanical significance of Dulong 
and Petit’s law, which may be stated thus =: 
the amount of heat which must be imparted 
to a chemical atom of a simple solid body to 
increase its temperature one degree is approxi- 
mately the same for all the elements. Neu- 
mann has further shown, that, for compound 
solids, those of similar chemical composition 
require approximately the same amount of 
heat per chemical atom, but the amount is less 
than for simple solids. There are, however, 
a very few unexplained exceptions to these 
laws, which are due possibly to uncertainty as 
to atomic weights. , 

The mechanical explanation of these experi- 
mental laws seems to be contained in the 
statement, that, in simple solids, cohesion and 
chemism are one and inglistinguishable ; or, to 
express it otherwise, we may say that the mole- 
cules of simple solids are monatomic, the cohe- 
sion being, of course, much greater in some 
solids than in others. 

That this is a correct conception of the rela-~ 
tions of the atoms of a simple solid, is made 


* probable by various facts, among which this 


may be mentioned, — mercury and cadmium, 

which are known to be monatomic as gases, as 

solids fulfil Dulong and Petit’s law, and are 

therefore in the same physico-chemical state 
1 ScIENCE, ii. 76. 


Ss 
ce; ? at : 7 ~~ - 


SEPTEMBER 28, 1883.] 


as other simple solids. Another fact is that 
already mentioned, viz., the specific heat of 
compound solids per atom is less than that 
of simple solids; and to this it may be added, 
that the specific heat of simple solids is less 
when the volume is made smaller by hammer- 
ing, compression, or cooling, which facts will 
be considered more at length later. 

It is shown in the kinetic theory of gases, 
that, when molecules of unlike gases are mixed, 
the mean progressive energy of each molecule 
is the same, whatever its weight. 

Now, when a gas is in contact with a solid, 
will the collisions of the gaseous molecules 
with those of the solid cause the latter to have 
the same mean progressive energy of vibration 
as those of the gas? That will depend largely 
upon the duration of the collision. If the time 
occupied by a collision is so brief that only a 
small portion of a vibration of the solid mole- 
cule is described during the collision, then the 
laws of impulsive forces may be applied, ac- 
cording to which the effect of the finite forces 
acting during the interval may be neglected. 

In ease the collision is brief, the distribution 
of the mean kinetic energy between the mole- 
cules of the gas and solid will be very nearly 
the same as between different gases, and the 
mean kinetic energy of a simple solid mole- 
cule will differ little from that of a gas at the 
same temperature. 

In cases, however, in which the modulus of 
elasticity of the solids considered is so great as 
to make the period of vibration of the mole- 
cules also brief, their mean kinetic energy 
would be materially smaller than in the previous 
ease ; and. if a solid could be found whose mole- 
cules were immovably fixed, no vibratory energy 
whatever could be imparted to its molecules. 

Now, Dulong and Petit’s law seems to show 
that all simple solids, even those having the 
highest modulus of elasticity, have an elas- 
ticity so small, compared with that brought 
into action between molecules at the instant of 
free collision, that the distribution of kinetic 
energy is approximately the same as if the 
body were gaseous and monatomic. But since 
the laws of perfect elasticity require that the 
mean potential energy shall be equal to the’ 
kinetic, it follows that the specific heat of a 
simple solid should be approximately twice 
that of a monatomic gas at the same tempera- 
ture and of the same atomic weight. 

The actual specific heats of mercury and 
cadmium gas would be of great interest in this 
connection, were they known, even though they 
could only be determined at temperatures far 
remoyed from those of their solids. 


SCIENCE. 


425 


The foregoing statement has been based 
upon the assumption that any degree of free- 
dom which suffers partial constraint, as do the 
degrees of freedom of translation of a gaseous 
molecule when it becomes solid, will have for 
that reason less kinetic energy imparted to it 
during molecular collision. This subject has 
been treated somewhat at length in previous 
papers upon the kinetic theory; but in this 
connection it may be useful to make a quota- 
tion from Thomson and Tait: ‘‘If a set of 
material points are struck independently by 
impulses, each given in amount, more kinetic 
energy is generated if the points are perfectly 
free to move, each independently of all the 
others, than if they are connected in any 
way.” 

This mechanical theorem not only has spe- 
cial application to the partial constraints intro- 
duced into the freedom of motion of molecules 
when they change from a gaseous to a solid 
state, but it applies, also, to the additional con- 
straints introduced into the degrees of freedom 
of solid atoms when those atoms become more 
closely bound together by chemism into groups, 
i.e., into molecules. Evidently, the bonds of 
union between the atoms of a compound solid 
molecule are such that these degrees of free- 
dom are considerably more constrained than 
those which unite the atoms of different mole- 
cules; so that, in compound solids, the forces 
of cohesion and chemism are different, and 
quite distinguishable the one from the other. 

Now, what, according to the mechanical theo- 
rem aboye quoted, is the effect of introducing 
the additional constraints required in order to 
group a simple solid, or mixture of simple sol- 
ids, into molecules, and thus make it a com- 
pound solid? The effect will be to diminish 
the mean kinetic energy of the system as de- 
rived from the impacts of the molecules of any 
gas surrounding it. This is, in fact, what 
occurs, as appears from the experimental truth 
previously mentioned, — that the specific heat 
per atom of compound solids is less than that 
for simple solids. How much the specific heat 
per atom is diminished should depend upon 
the intensity of the chemical attraction, which 
certainly must be much greater than the cohe- 
sion between atoms of simple solids, to cause 
such marked deviations of specific heat per 
atom as compound solids exhibit. This result, 
when combined with that arrived at in connec- 
tion with the discussion of Berthelot’s law, in 
my paper upon ‘ An extension of the theorem 
of the virial,’ etc., to the effect that the heat 
evolved in chemical decomposition is greater 

1 Nat. phil., art. 315. 


426 


the greater the attractive force, enables us to 
enunciate the following law, the truth of which 
I am at present unable to verify for want of 
sufficient experimental data: those solids, 
other things being equal, which evolve the 
greater amounts of heat of chemical decompo- 
sition in changing from simple mixtures to 
compound solids, are those which have less 
specific heat per atom. The phrase, ‘ other 
things being equal,’ in the above statement, 
refers to the fact that similar compounds which 
are chemically similar are in strictness com- 
parable. Many other circumstances, more- 
over, besides want of chemical similarity, may, 
in special cases, mask the experimental results ; 
yet the truth of the law should be clearly recog- 
nizable in any general comparison of specific 
heats with the heat of formation of compound 
solids. 

.Similar principles evidently apply to the 
eases in which simple solids ate permanently 
decreased in yolume by hammering or com- 
pression ; for then greater cohesive forces are 
brought into action, and the specific heat is 
diminished. It remains to be shown, in con- 
clusion, that thermal equilibrium, which has 
been established by collisions of gaseous and 
solid molecules, will continue to exist when its 
continuance depends upon radiations between 
equal and similar ultimate atoms which are 
set in vibration by molecular collisions ; or, to 
state it differently, it remains to be shown that 
the ultimate atoms of a gas and a solid in 
contact, each have the same mean vibratory 
energy with respect to each of their degrees 
of freedom with respect to each other. ‘This 
appears to be a direct consequence of the laws 
of constrained motion which have been consid- 
ered in this and previous papers. It is only 
necessary that the impacts of a pair of solid 
molecules with each other should be such as 
to mutually impart and receive the same mean 
amounts of energy as would those of a gas- 
eous and a solid molecule at the same tempera- 
ture, to cause it to be a matter of indifference 
whether a given solid molecule is struck by 
another solid molecule or by a gaseous mole- 
cule; and, when so struck, each ultimate atom 
will receive its proper proportion of energy, 
whether it form part of a solid or of a gaseous 
molecule. 

It is my intention to return to this subject 
hereafter, and to treat the vibrations of ulti- 
mate atoms more at length, in the hope of 
being able to show, more precisely than has 
been done so far, how the characteristic differ- 
ences in the spectra of solids and gases arise. 

H. T. Eppy, Ph.D. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. If., No. 34. 


CLIMATE IN THE CURE OF CONSUMP- 
TION. —I. 

Tue prevalence of phthisis pulmonalis is 
such a well-attested fact, that to adduce statis- 
tics to prove it would seem to be labor thrown 
away. Since the eradication of small-pox in 
consequence of the introduction of vaccination, 
phthisis heads ‘the list as the prime cause of 
the large mortality. The insurance companies 
recognize the fact, and the statistics of the 
New-York mutual life-insurance company show, 
that between the ages of twenty and thirty 
years the mortality from phthisis is thirty- 
three per cent of the whole mortality. The 
U.S. census for 1870 shows that in the state 
of Maine the mortality from consumption was 
fifty per cent for the same ages. 

Equally well known is the belief in climate 
as a cure for the disease. There are certain 
well-recognized climatic conditions known to 
be favorable to the prophylaxis and cure of the 
disease. This knowledge is largely empirical, 
based upon trial and observation ; but there is, 
underlying it, a substratum of conviction, that 
is justified, on the one hand, by careful clinical 
observations, and, on the other, by facts ascer- 
tained by carefully conducted experiments. 

The writer proposes, in the thoughts to be 
presented, to make these various elements his 
tests in searching out a desirable climate in 
the United States for the cure of phthisis. He 
offers, as his data for forming an opinion, 
carefully compiled tables, furnished by the Sig- 
nal-service bureau, U.S.A.; and he wishes to 
emphasize the fact, at the outset of his re- 
marks, that a climate may become desirable 
quite as much by comparison as on account of 
its intrinsic properties ; that even though it may 


‘not possess in itself all desirable qualities, yetit — 


may contain so many as to be, by comparison 
with others, the climate par excellence. With 
this thought in view, the writer has prepared ta- 
bles embracing all the chiefresorts in this coun- 
try for phthisical invalids, — tables embracing 
a range of the whole country, from Jacksonville 
to St. Paul, and from Boston to Los Angeles. 
He has given the data for Augusta, Ga., as the 


best substitute for Aiken, §.C., at which place 


there is no signal-station ; and in doing so he 
thinks that he is presenting data which will fairly 


‘represent the climatic conditions of Aiken. 


He wishes to gratefully acknowledge his in- 
debtedness to the chief signal-officer, U.S.A., 
to the observers at each of the stations in- 
cluded in the tables, and especially to Sergeant 
F. M. Neal of the Denver station, for their 
kindness in furnishing him with the data from 
which the tables are compiled. 


Serreamper 28, 1883.] SCIENCE. 427 
TABLE I 
I: II. Iu. Iv. v. | VI VIL. 
Sratron. | i at Se 

Me yeti? ea ee Mean 10 yrs.) Mean 4 yrs. | Mean 4 yrs. | Mean 10 yrs. | Mean 10 yrs. 1 “Mtesw 5 yrs. 

the barometer above sea- Relative Absolute | Prevailing 

level. Elevation. | Barometer. | humidity. | humidity, | Precipitation, Temperature.| wind. 

; ) F eh } 
Augusta, Ga. . 183 30.140 69.2 4.56 48.98 64.2) | N. 
| 
Jacksonville, Fla. 43 | 30.080 69.0 5.38 55.94 ote |! OWE 
Boston, Mass. . . ° -, 142 | 29.840 68.5 2.66 49.47 48°.5 Ww 
Newport, R.1. 34 29.950 74.3 3.07 50.20 00°.3 S.W. 
-New York, N.Y. 164 29.857 70.2 8.02 42.70 51°.3 N.W. 
Philadelphia, Penn. 52 30.084 68.8 3.17 41.89 53°.2 S.W. 
Chicago, Ill. 661 29.317 69.2 2.77 33.47 49°.3 S.W. 
St. Paul, Minn. $11 29.133 67.3 22 | 29.59 | 43°.9 8.E. 
Denver, Col. . . . . 5,294 24.778 45.8 1.81 | 14.77 | 49°.1 8. 
Santa Fé, N. Mex. . 7,046 23.263 414 1.61 / Wz || 48°.5 E. 
| 
| 
Salt Lake, Utah . . . 4,548 25.044 40.3 | 1.76 17.52 | 51°.8 NW. 
Los Angeles, Cal. . 330 29.647 65.8 3.77 18.97 ) 59°.8 W. 
Elevation. work at sea-level, the heart makes 72 beats a 


The effect of a rise in elevation is to dimin- 
ish the atmospheric pressure. The method of 
measuring this effect is by means of the mer- 
curial barometer. Disregarding the variations 
attributable to changes in temperature, humid- 
ity, and latitude, it can be broadly stated that 
the barometer will fall one inch fora rise of 
857 feet above sea-level, two inches for a rise 
of 1,743 feet, three inches for a rise of 2,661 
feet, etc. ; or, for the purposes of a rough cal- 
culation, it may be said that the barometric de- 
pression is one inch for every thousand feet of 
elevation. This depression would indicate a 
diminution in atmospheric pressure of one- 
sixth in weight for an elevation of 5,000 feet; 
or, to state this fact in another way, the atmos- 
pherie pressure at sea-level being 15 lbs. to 
the square inch, at 5,000 feet it would be one- 
sixth less, or 124 lbs. To illustrate: if the 
pressure on the entire surface of the body of 
aman of middle size be 35,560 lbs. at sea- 
level, at 5,000 feet it would be 29,635 lbs., a 
diminution of nearly three tons. 

The question for us to consider is, what 
effect this diminution of pressure has upon the 
vital functions with reference to the cure of 
phthisis. 

1. Effect on circulation. —The heart is a 
muscular organ, habituated to expend a certain 
amount of force, which may be roughly esti- 
mated as 75,000 kilogrammetres, or 542,475 
foot-pounds, per diem. To accomplish this 


minute, or 103,680 beats a day. Allowing, 
now, an increase of two beats a minute for 
every thousand feet of elevation, at 5,000 feet 
there will be an increase of 10 beats a minute, 
or 14,400 beats a day,—an increase in work 
equal to about 74,744 foot-pounds in a day. 

This in itself would prove that such an ele- 
vation is to be avoided in those cases where an 
enfeebled heart is struggling to overcome the 
disadvantages produced by organic lesions. 

What effect does this increase of heart-work 
have upon the circulation? ‘The rapidity of cir- 
culation is influenced by the force and rapidity 
of the heart’s beat, and by the diminution of 
the peripheral resistance. At an elevation 
of 5,000 feet, each of these causes would be 
at work. To just what extent they work, 
in producing given results, it is impossible 
to say; but, allowing that the peripheral re- 
sistance and the force of the heart’s beats 
remain the same at 5,000 feet as at sea-level, 
an increase in frequency of ten beats per 
minute would indicate, that, on account of this 
one factor, the blood would make 29,622 ad- 
ditional circulations through the System per 
diem. What effect would this have upon the 
disease in question? 

It is a frequent remark that both waste and 
repair are more rapid at high altitudes than 
at sea-level. Experience amongst physicians 
shows that cases of fibrinous pneumonia are 
more acute and more rapid in their results at 


428 


high altitudes than at sea-level. My own ex- 
perience is, that resolution in such cases is 
more rapid, and that the chest ‘clears up’ 
sooner. May not this be explained on the 
ground of the increased rapidity of circulation? 
We know that the clearing-up is brought about 
by the expectoration of the morbid products of 
the exudation, and further, and chiefly, by 
their absorption into the circulation. If this 
be true of an acute trouble, is it not also appli- 
cable to a chronic asthenic one? 

Further, the increase of rapidity in the cir- 
culation means that the same blood is brought 
more frequently to the lungs to be oxygenated, 
—an increase in the number of times, which 
we have seen to be equal to 29,622 additional 
times, per diem. This would indicate an in- 
crease in the activity of the metamorphosis of 
tissue, and therefore an increased vital force. 
This is clinically perceptible in the exhilaration 
that invalids experience on coming to higher 
altitudes, and by the increase in appetite de- 
pendent upon the demand for material to meet 
the additional metamorphosis. 

There is the other side, however, which 
must be alluded to. An increase in the rapid- 
ity of the circulation means an increased flow 
or tendency of blood to the diseased parts, in- 
volving, as it does, a greater activity of these 
parts. This is temporarily noticeable in every 
case of phthisis pulmonalis coming to higher 
altitudes, and is evidenced by an increased 
expectoration. This, as we have said, may 
be beneficial by assisting to remove the mor- 
bid products; but in enfeebled cases, where 
the ravages of the disease are great, it may be 
highly injurious in assisting the already great 
breaking-down of the tissues. Again: there 
is an increased demand for oxygen dependent 
on all of these causes, and, in cases where the 
amount of lung-tissue involved is so great as 
to cause a considerable embarrassment of the 
respiration, this additional strain is not desir- 
able. 

2. Effect on respiration. —We must now 
study another effect produced upon the system 
by an increase in elevation, and that is, the 
effect produced upon the respiration. Here, 
too, we shall have to speak of gross results, 
and leave minutiae unexplained. 

Experience shows that the respirations are 
deepened and fuller, and that they are, at first, 
at least, increased in number. 

This can be explained somewhat in the fol- 
lowing way. The nervous action, the effect 
upon the respiratory centre, ete., is so compli- 
cated, that, despite its importance, we shall 
leave it without attempting its solution; and 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 34. 


we shall only attempt an explanation of the 
quasi physical or mechanical results. 

The lungs are elastic bags suspended in a 
closed cavity. During inspirations the respi- 
ratory muscles draw the ribs upwards, enlarge 
the cavity, and produce a partial vacuum, in 
consequence of which the air rushes in to fill 
up this vacuum, and the lungs are inflated. 

It is evident that in inspiration the respira- 
tory muscles, in raising the chest-walls, displace 
a certain amount of air, and overcome a cer- 
tain resistance due to atmospheric pressure, 
and that these muscles, accustomed to exert a 
given amount of force to overcome this resist- 
ance (which may be roughly measured by the 
difference between the positive pressure on the 
outside and the negative pressure on the in- 
side of the chest-walls), would continue to ex- 
ert this force, even though the resistance were 
diminished. As a result of this, we should 
expect either a greater expansion of the chest 
from the same expenditure of force, or an in- 
crease in the number of inspirations. 

The beneficial results of a greater depth of 
inspiration will be more clearly seen if we con- 
trast it with the bad results of diminished res- 
piration. Ruehle, in Ziemssen’s Cyclopaedia, 
says, — 

“The diminished respiration in the upper parts of 
the lungs, and the exaggerated respiration in the lower 
parts resulting from this cause, serve to explain the 
very general fact that pulmonary consumption almost 
always begins at the apices of the lungs. But there 
is probably another cause in the peculiar position of 
these parts. They project from three to four centi- 
metres above the clavicles; and this projecting por- 
tion, being situated outside the chest, is subjected to 
the pressure of the external air. The supraclavicular 
region sinks in during deep inspiration, and conse- 
quently the inspiratory expansion of the apices is 
Jess than that of other parts of the lungs.” 

It is evident, if Ruehle be right, that a dimi- 
nution of atmospheric pressure means a greater 
expansion of the apices, due to a diminution 
of atmospheric pressure bearing on those parts, 
and also a greater expansion of the entire 
chest. 

There is, however, a theory often advanced, 
that the greater depth of respiration is due to 
the fact, that, in consequence of the diminu- 
tion of the amount of oxygen dependent upon 
the decreased atmospheric pressure, an indi- 
vidual will have to breathe more frequently 
and deeper to gain the amount of oxygen neces- 
sary for aerating the blood. The theory, it 
seems to us, is misunderstood, and the ques- 
tion needs investigation. f 

We haye shown that there is an increased 
demand for oxygen dependent upon an in- 
creased tendency of the blood to the lungs. 


eee ee ke 
ae ¥ 


- 


SEPTEMBER 28, 1883.] 


It is known, also, that the transpiration of 
gases through tubes, which the bronchi really 
are, is hindered by a diminution of pressure, 
and that in consequence of this, in a given 
time, under the same conditions of expansion, 
etc., less air will enter the lungs at 5,000 feet 
elevation than at sea-level. This is another 
cause why the respirations should be either 
deeper or more frequent. 

It is further known that the osmose of gases 
through a thin septum, as in the lungs, is less 
rapid “the less the pressure, or, in other words, 
that the rapidity of the osmose of gases is de- 
pendent upon the pressure to which they are 
subjected. This being so, as the density of 
the oxygen and carbonic acid in the blood is 
nearly constant, if the density of these gases 
in the air be diminished, there will be an effect 
produced upon the rapidity of their osmose. 
In the case of oxygen, it is claimed that an 
individual will get less of it at-5,000 feet ele- 
vation than the system requires, and that, un- 
less the conditions of respiration be changed, 
there will be a ‘starvation of oxygen,’ i.e., an 
asphyxia. In consequence of all this, it has 
been claimed that a greater depth and fre- 
quency of respiration is demanded to meet 
this want. 

In regard to the osmose of oxygen, we know, 
that, even though there be a hindrance due to 
the diminished density of the gas in the air, 
there is still, on the other hand, an increased 
rapidity of the circulation, which would favor 
osmose ; and it may be assumed that the effects 
of these two conditions counterbalance one 
another. 

In regard to a starvation of oxygen being 
produced by a diminution in the amount of the 
gas at a higher elevation, the rationale is some- 
what as follows: there exists in the atmos- 
phere, under all pressures, 23 parts by weight 
of oxygen. Atsea-level, there are 130.4 grains 
of the gas in every cubic foot, while, at 5,000 
feet, this amount will be diminished one-sixth, 
so that there will only be 108.6 grains to the 
eubic foot. The question then is, whether a 
density of 108.6 grains to the cubic foot of air 
will produce a starvation of the gas in the 
human economy. 

It has been estimated that the tension of 
the oxygen of the venous blood of the dog is 
2.9%, or 22 mm., of mercury. It has been 
further estimated that the tension of the oxy- 
gen of the pulmonary air-cells is at least 10% 
of the atmospheric pressure, which, at 5,000 
feet, would amount to 63.3 mm. of mercury ; 
so that it is evident, that, even under this 
diminution of pressure, the difference between 


SCIENCE. 


429 


the density of the oxygen in the inspired air 
and in that of the venous blood brought to the 
lungs is sufficiently great to admit of a free 
osmose. 

Further than this, we know that the amount 
of tidal air passing in and out of the chest of 
an average man is 500 cc., or 31 cubic inches- 
Allowing 17 respirations to the minute, this 
will make 510 litres, or 18 cubic feet, of oxy- 
gen inspired per horam. At 5,000 feet this air 
would contain 1 955 grains of oxygen. Now, 
the absolute absor ption of oxygen at sea-level 
is only five per cent of that contained in the 
air, and the amount that is absolutely needed 
each hour, at sea-level, is only 117 grains.. As 
the absolute demand for oxygen is only 117 
grains each hour, and as the actual amount 
contained in the inspired air at an altitude of 
5,000 feet is, for the same time, 1,955 grains, 
it is evident that here, again, the supply is 
greatly in excess of the demand, and that the 
term ‘ starvation of oxygen,’ as explanatory of 
the increased depth and 1 rapidity of the inspira- 
tions at high altitudes, is a misnomer. 

But in addition to the absorption of oxygen 
there is the elimination of carbonic acid to be 
accounted for. It is evident, that, as the ten- 
sion of the gas in the venous blood coming 
to the lungs is nearly constant, any diminution 
of its tension in the air will favor its osmose 
from the blood to the air, and that the effect 
produced upon the osmose of this gas by rise 
of elevation is the reverse of the effect upon 
the osmose of oxygen. 

In concluding this part of our subject, we 
wish to emphasize the fact that we think that 
the benefit to be derived from simple elevation, 
in cases of phthisis pulmonalis, is to be attrib- 
uted largely to the greater depth of the in- 
spirations, and consequently to the greater 
distension and activity of all parts of the 
lungs (the diseased apices as well as the 
healthy bases), and to the increased elimina- 
tion of morbid products brought about by the 
increased rapidity of the circulation. 

3. Ozone.—In addition to the foregoing 
reasons for favoring a high altitude in the 
cure of phthisis, we wish to consider, further, 
the influence of elevation upon the ozone of 
the atmosphere. 

The assertion is generally made, that, as ‘we 
ascend heights, the amount of the ozone rap- 
idly increases ; ”» and yet there does not seem 
to have been any direct experimentation on 
this point. If there be more free ozone, it 
may be due, not to any increased production 
over that of lower levels, but rather to a di- 
minished consumption. Further than this, the 


430 


starch and iodide test is so dependent upon 
other elements than the simple presence of 
ozone, that it is not thoroughly reliable. It is 
also open to the error of reacting to substances 
other than ozone. Still, admitting the state- 
ment that there is more nascent ozone at high 
elevations, the explanation of its action in the 
eure of phthisis is still to be sought. Some 
rather visionary theorists, as it seems to the 
writer, claim that it finds a direct admission 
to the diseased spots in the lungs, and, by its 


poorer oxidizing, it burns up im loco the mor- 


bid products. 

We should rather attribute its influence to the 
fact, that, where ozone exists free, there is no 
decomposing matter to be oxidized. It seems 
to us to be indicative of the existence of pure 
air, rather than a direct agent in destroying 
the morbid products in the lungs. 

4. Immunity from phthisis. — Another ar- 
gument in favor of elevation in the cure of 
phthisis is, that at certain heights there exists 
an immunity from the disease. The disease 
is not endemic at such elevations. 

This is in the nature of negative evidence ; 
but it is certainly valuable as an element of 
prophylaxis, and we think that it can be ap- 
plied as an argument in favor of cure. Ruehle 
(op. cit.) says, ‘‘ A height of at least 1,800 or 
2,000 feet seems to be requisite for this pur- 
pose. Phthisis is rare on the Hartz, Styrian 
(in Purzgau), and Swiss mountains.’”? Jac- 
coud (Flint’s Practice of medicine, p. 296) 


‘< states that the observations for fifteen con-— 


secutive years warrants him in asserting, that, 
in Alpine situations elevated 4,000 feet, tuber- 
culosis is unknown; and especially is this true 
of villages at an elevation of 5,500 feet.” 
Dr. Irwin reports for Fort Defiance (6,500 
feet), north-western New Mexico, ‘‘ During a 
service of some seven years in New Mexico 
and Arizona, I never saw or heard of a case 
of tuberculous disease amongst the native in- 
habitants of those territories.’ And Dr. 
Denison, in his work entitled ‘Rocky Moun- 
tain health resorts,’ writes, ‘‘ After having 
quite thoroughly canvassed the subject among 
physicians of Colorado, I place the altitude of 
approximate immunity of this state at 6,000 
feet.”’ 

Taking a mean of all these quotations, we 
may safely assert, that, broadly speaking, an 
altitude of from 5,000 to 6,000 feet affords an 
approximate immunity from this disease. 

5. An aseptic atmosphere. — Lastly, we will 
speak of the influence of elevation in the 
cure of phthisis in producing an aseptic at- 
mosphere. In these days of germ-theories 


SCIENCE. 


- sirable elevation. 


[Vou. II., No. 34. 


and of Koch’s experiments, we cannot but 
give emphasis to this element of antisepsis as 
an element of prophylaxis and cure of phthisis. 
Professor Tyndall’s experiments show the 
abundance of germs floating in the air at sea- 
level, and an entire absence of such germs at 
the altitude of the ‘ Belle Alp’ hotel (7,000 
feet). Whether a lower elevation will furnish 
this aseptic atmosphere has not been proven 
experimentally ; but it would seem to be rea- 
sonable to argue that an elevation correspond- 
ing to that of immunity from phthisis would 
furnish such an atmosphere. 

Résumé. — There are other elements, such 
as humidity of the air, temperature, precipi- 
tation, etc., more or less dependent upon ele- 
vation, which we shall have occasion to speak 
of more at length. But, to make a résumé of 
our study to this point, we can say that a rise 
in elevation increases the heart-beat and the 
rapidity of the circulation, thereby hastening 
the absorption of the morbid products in phthi- 
sis, and increasing the metamorphosis of tissue, 
and hence the vital force; that it likewise 
produces greater depth of respirations, and a 
more healthy action of the diseased portions 
of the lungs; that it gives a purer air, and 
affords an approximate immunity from the 
disease; and, finally, that it affords an asep- 
tic atmosphere, in which the Bacillus tubercu- 
losis does not exist. The extent of elevation 
desirable for the production of this effect can 
be stated to be at least 5,000 feet. 

Having arrived at these conclusions, it re- 
mains for us to apply them to our subject. 
By consulting table I., columns i. and ii., it will 
be seen, that, of all the resorts for the cure of 
phthisis in this country, the eastern slopes of 
the Rocky Mountains alone furnished the de- 
The distance between Den- 
ver and Santa Fé is in the neighborhood of 
375 miles in extent. Throughout this whole 
extent, pleasant locations for invalids are to be 
found at elevations varying from 5,000 to 
6,000 feet. 


(To be continued.) 


HISTOLOGY OF INSECTS. 


INSPIRED by Weissmann’s well-known researches 
on the post-embryonice development of insects, Vial- 
lanes has studied the structure and changes of 
various tissues, principally in Musca vomitoria, but 
also in other insects during their metamorphoses. 
His results occupy nearly an entire volume,! and 
make an important addition to knowledge, the more 
welcome because the author deals chiefly with those 
tissues which have heretofore been least worked 


1 Vol. xiv. sér. vi. of Ann. se. nat., zool. 


SEPTEMBER 28, 1883.] 


upon. The long memoir embodies a large number 
of valuable data, the outcome of work which we 
believe to be thorough and careful. The collation 
of the literature is good, but not complete, some 
omissions being important. We are unable to give 
here more than the chief general conclusions. 

The skin of the larvae studied consists of a single 
layer of large flattened cells, covered externally by 
the hard chitinous cuticula (containing lime in 
Stratiomys), which is smooth in Musca and Eristalis, 
but divided in Stratiomys into fields corresponding 
to the cells. Below the cells, and lying directly 
against them, is a thin anhistic membrane, which is 
comparable to the basal membrane in crustacea and 
adult insects. 

The peripheral nervous system is of great interest. 
Between the integuments and the muscles of the 
larvae are found peripheral ganglia, which do not 
belong either to the ventral chain or to the stomato- 
gastricsystem. No analogous observation has hither- 
to been made upon insects. The peripheral ganglia 
of the larva of Tipula are very remarkable from 
their regular disposition and their symmetry: there 
is a pair in each segment. Those of Musca are 
irregularly scattered between the skin and the 
muscles, “Analogous ganglia are found in Eristalis, 
but are localized in the plexus, whence spring the 
nerves of the special sense-organs in the anterior 
region of the body. In the description of the pe- 
ripheral nerves the authoradds little to what was 
previously known. 

The sensory nerves end in two ways,—either by 
a connection with sensory hairs of the epidermis, or 
with free terminations. In the former case the axis- 
cylinder dilates, at the base of the sensory hair, into 
a bi-polar ganglion cell. The sensory hair is a 
conical hollow process of the cuticula. It is secreted 
by a special, large, slightly modified epidermal cell, 
the protoplasm of which fills the cavity of the hair, 
and lines its base. The distal prolongation of the 
bi-polar cells unites with the protoplasm of the hair- 
cell, and does not run directly to the hair. This 
apparatus appears to subserve touch, smell, ete. 
The free terminations are found beneath the epider- 
mis, as thread-like prolongations of a very rich dermal 
plexus, formed by very numerous multi-polar anas- 
tomosing nervous cells, (Besides the description of 
similar structures in other animals cited by Viallanes, 
cf. Canini and Gaule, ScrENCE, ii. 279.) 

Involuntary striated muscles. The larval heart 
is histologically comparable to a vertebrate capillary, 
being formed of flat cells soldered border to border, 
In the protoplasm of these cells, muscular fibres are 
formed, so that the cells are at once comparable to 
the endothelium and muscularis of the capillary. 
Within each single cell the fibrilla begins and ends 
with a thin disk or stria; therefore the space between 
the two disks is the unit of the fibril. In young 
larvae the heart is a simple tube without lateral 
openings. The striated muscles of the digestive 
tube are probably histologically identical with those 
of the heart, i.e., modified single cells; but Viallanes 
was unable to make out the cell-limits. In the walls 


SCIENCE. 


431 


of the stomach of Tipula is an intramuscular gan- 
glionated nerve-plexus, which probably innervates the 
muscles; but the final terminations were not seen. 
This is regarded as confirmatory of Ranvier’s law 
(Leg. @anat. génér., 1880, 463). 

In regard to the voluntary muscles the following 
conclusions are drawn: the fibrillae of insects are 
homologous with those of vertebrates, although the 
latter are indivisible, while in insects certain fibrillae 
(of the wing-muscles) may be decomposed into fi- 
briculae. In insects, as in vertebrates, the fibrillae 
are united into ‘ colonettes,’ or little clusters, being 
closely cemented together by a homogeneous and 
continuous substance, into which neither protoplasm 
nor nuclei ever penetrate. In vertebrates a large 
number of colonettes are united within a com- 
mon envelope, the sarcolemma, to form the fibre or 
primitive bundle. In insect larvae this disposition is 
maintained, but in the wing-muscles the sarcolemma 
is absent; the primitive bundle then consists of a 
few colonettes (Musca), or even of one colonette only 
(ef. Ciaccio, ScrencE, i. 247, whose paper is not 
cited). In the leg-muscles there is but a single 
colonette in each fibre, and the sarcolemma is scarcely 
developed. As regards the motor plates the follow- 
ing points are noted : 1°. In the larva of Stratiomys 
chamaeleon, each of the fibres, constructed on the 
vertebrate type, has seyeral Doyére’s cones, to the 
summit of each of which runs an axis-cylinder ac- 
companied by a nucleated sheath. Before innervat- 
ing the muscle, the nerves form a plexus; in the cone 
the axis-cylinder forms a terminal arborization 
by successive dichotomous branchings inside the 
sareolemma; the fundamental substance contains 
neither granular matter nor nuclei. 2°. In Tipula 
there is a similar arrangement, but only one cone to 
each fibre; the terminal arborization is much more 
extended, and bears nuclei; and the basal substance 
of the cone is granular, and nucleated as in the 
terminal plates of Amniota. 3°. In the caudal mus- 
cles of Eristalis and the leg-muscles of Dytiscus, 
each fibre of which contains only a single colonette, 
the motor nerves form no arborization, but break up 
into their constituent fibrils as-soon as they reach 
the sarcolemma. 

The second part of the memoir deals with the 
very remarkable changes in the larval tissues at 
pupation. The corpuscles of the blood of the larva 
are embryonic cells analogous to the leucocytes of 
vertebrates, and are found in the same form in the 
pupae. The muscular fibres of the larva disappear 
at the commencement of pupal life, and in two ways: 
— First, by ‘ évolution régressive :’ the nuclei of the 
muscle become spherical, and each surrounded by a 
coat of protoplasm, thus becoming, a muscle-cor- 
puscle, which proliferates, and gives rise to a great 
number of rose-colored granules, which multiply 
until the muscular substance entirely disappears, as 
if it supplied nutriment to the granules; these last 
finally separate, and spread themselves through the 
body cayity. Second, by degeneration: the nuclei 
keep becoming rarer until they all disappear, and 
meanwhile the contractile substance disappears as if 


432 


dissolved away on the outside. In consequence of 
these processes, the body cavity is charged with a 
quantity of matter resembling the vitelline elements 
of birds. The cells of the so-called fat-body produce, 
during the first days of pupal life, numerous granules, 
which enlarge, and are ultimately set free by the 
rupture of the cell-membrane. These granules arise 
independently of the nucleus, but closely resemble 
small cells. The cells of the tracheae and salivary 
glands do not disappear at the time of metamorphosis, 
as has been thought, but, on the contrary, they pro- 
liferate by endogenous cell-formation, the parent 
cell being first enlarged; the parent nucleus is finally 
discharged; the embryonic cells thus generated sep- 
arate, and fall into the general body cavity. The 
kérnchenkugel produced by pupal histolysis, and 
described by Weissmann, are of two kinds, and do not 
arise from the disintegrated matter, as supposed; but 
the smaller are derived from the muscle-corpuscles, 
the larger from cells of the fat-body. The epidermis 
of the larval head and thorax dries up and falls off. 
It is not immediately replaced by the definite cell- 
Jayer, but first by a thin cuticle, which Viallanes 
considers to be probably the thickened basement 
membrane of the larva. 

Part third treats of the histogenesis of the tissues 
of ‘the imago. The skin-of the head and thorax is 
developed from Weissmann’s imaginal disks. In the 
description of these, Viallanes follows Ganin in 
general, but he thinks that the mesoderm of the 
disks is formed at the expense of some of the embry- 
onic cells in the body cavity. Other points are also 
brought forward, among which we note espécially 
that the wing of the pupa contains at first numerous 
tracheae, which disappear before the end of the 
stage. In the abdomen, also, there are imaginal disks, 
four in each segment, and formed by local thicken- 
ings of the epidermis; all other parts of the epidermis 
or hypoderm degenerate, and are resorbed. The 
disks form two layers, the outer making the new 
epidermis, and the inner the mesoderm; the disks 
grow at their borders until they everywhere meet, 
and form a continuous tissue. The method of re- 
generation is the same as in the thorax, except 
that the disks are developed later: the difference 
assumed by Weissmann and Ganin is not real. The 
author compares the imaginal disks with the plates 
in Pilidium. 

The internal muscular mass of the thorax is derived 
from a single anlage, composed of little cells embedded 
in a small amount of homogeneous basal substance. 
This anlage then separates into six cords, corre- 
sponding to the definite muscles; these grow by 
peripheral accretion; the muscular substance is then 
differentiated around the cells, which are disposed 
with great regularity in the midst of the colonettes, 
becoming, in fact, the muscle-corpuscles (the neces- 
sity of omitting a fuller account is much regretted. — 
Rep.). The muscles of the legs are derived from the 
‘mesoderm of the imaginal disks; the general process 
of their histogenesis, despite many interesting differ- 
ences, is the same as that of the wing-muscles. The 
author makes an excellent comparison between the 


SCIENCE. 


-exoderm cell. 


[Vou. IL, No. 34. 


unicellular muscles (heart, stomach) and the pleuri- 
cellular (wings, legs), or, as we might name them, the 
mesenchymal and myothelial muscles. 

Nearly a fifth of the entire memoir is devoted to 
the development of the eye. The brief résumé ‘(p. 
302-305) is the most succinct and perfect account of 
the structure of the compound eye with which we 
are acquainted. In the first section the structure of 
the developed eye of the pupa, before it becomes 
pigmented, is described. The following is the au- 
thor’s table of the parts of the visual apparatus: — 


{couche & facettes. it 

. 5 ouche des cellules cristalliniennes. 
Guiliconip areas Couche des rétinules ou rétine. 

| Limitante postérieure de l’@il composé. 


Couche des fibres post-rétiniennes. 


( Limitante antérieure de la lame ganglion- 

naire. 

Couche des cellules ganglionnaires. 

Couche des fibres en palissade. 

Limitante moyenne de la lame ganglion- 
naire. 

Couche des fibres nuclées. 

Limitante postérieure de la lame ganglion- 
naire. 


Couche des fibres préganglionnaires. 


Névrilemme. 
Couche des cellules en chapelets. 
-4 Croissant du noyan central. 
\yentail du noyau central. 
corce grise du ganglion optique. 


Lame ganglionnaire 


Ganglion optique 


Concerning the development of the eye, we give 
the following conclusions. In the larva, before met- 
amorphosis, the eye is represented by three parts, — 
the imaginal disk of the eye proper, the neural stem, 
and the optic ganglion. The disk of the eye com- 
prises the same three layers as the other imaginal 
disks. Before the metamorphosis of the larva, the 
superficial cells of the exodermic layer become en- 
larged and elongated, and acquire a strong affinity 
for coloring-matters; they are the optogenic cells. 
This change begins in the centre, and spreads to- 
wards the periphery of the disk. The mesoderm of 
the disk of the eye, unlike the other two layers, is 
different from the corresponding portion of other 
disks, since it is composed of fine nerve-fibrillae 
mingled with nuclei; by teasing, it can be shown that 
each fibril is connected with the inner end of an 
The nervous stem unites the disk of 
the eye with the optic ganglion, and is composed 
of the nerve-fibrils mingled with nuclei. The optic 
ganglion is constituted by the outer portion of the 
brain; its nucleus consists of white, its cortex of 
gray, matter; in the lateral portion of the cortex, is 
the complex anlage of the lame ganglionnaire, in 
which all the principal constituent parts of the 
definite lame ganglionnaire can be recognized. At 
the moment of metamorphosis the following phe- 
nomena occur: the provisory layer of the disk of 
the eye disappears, the exoderm enlarges, its borders 
unite with the neighboring disks, its cuticle becomes 
the faceted cornea, and its optogenic cells each form, 
by the known process, an elementary eye. The 
anlage of the lame ganglionnaire emigrates from the 
optic ganglion, then enlarges, and spreads out so as 
to intervene between the ganglion and the eye. The 


SEPTEMBER 28, 1883.] 


details of the differentiation of the lame are care- 
fully described. 

I cannot conclude this notice without referring to 
the admirable manner in which this valuable memoir 
is written, and the great clearness with which the 
facts and conclusions are presented. 

CHARLES §, Minot. 


EXPERIMENTS TO DETERMINE THE 
GERMICIDE VALUE OF CERTAIN 
THERAPEUTIC AGENTS. 


In the American journal of medical sciences for 
April, Dr. Sternberg gives an account of his study of 
this important question. The objects of the author 
were, — 

To ascertain the exact value, as germicides, of some 
of the agents most frequently employed in medical 
and surgical practice, with a view to the destruction 
of pathogenic micro-organisms, hypothetical or de- 
monstrated. 

To compare this value, established by laboratory 
experiments, with the results of clinical experience, 
for the purpose of ascertaining what support, if any, 
the germ-theory of disease receives from modern 
therapeutics. 

Assuming that the active agent in infective mate- 
rial is a living micro-organism, or ‘germ,’ disinfec- 
tion will be accomplished by those chemical agents 
only, which have the power of destroying the vitality 
of this organism. We require to know: — 

a. What is the absolute germicide power of various 
disinfecting agents, in order to select the best with a 
view to economy and efficiency; 

b. Are all disease-germs destroyed by these agents 
in the same proportion? and, if not, 

c. What agents are the most available for special 
Kinds of infective material ? 

In therapeutics we should know, in addition to 
this: — 

d. What is the minimum quantity of each of these 
agents which will restrict the multiplication of each 
specific disease-germ in a suitable culture-medium ? — 
this with reference to medication, with a view to ac- 
ecomplishing a like result within the body of an in- 
fected individual. 

Evidently, any thing like a complete answer to these 
questions is quite impossible in the present state of 
knowledge, and we must content ourselves with such 
partial or approximate answers as can be obtained by 
laboratory experiments upon the comparatively small 
number of pathogenic organisms which abound in 
organic liquids undergoing putrefaction. 

The experiments were conducted by using small 
sealed flasks containing bouillon free from micro- 
organisms. The smallest quantity of a fluid contain- 
ing such organisms introduced into one of the flasks 
would cause it to ‘break down’ within twenty-four 
hours, it being exposed during this time to a temper- 
ature of 100° F. 

To test the germicide power of a chemical reagent, 
living bacteria are subjected to its action in a known 
proportion for a given time, and are subsequently used 


SCIENCE. 


433 


to inoculate sterilized bouillon in one of the flasks. 
Failure to multiply in this fluid, when exposed for 
twenty-four hours or more to a temperature of 100° 
F., is evidence that reproductive power — vitality 
—has been destroyed by the reagent used. On the 
other hand, failure to disinfect, i.e., to destroy the 
vitality of the bacterial organisms used as a test, is 
shown by the ‘ breaking-down’ of the culture-fluid. 

Standard solutions of the reagents to be tested are 
prepared with distillled water. The germs are ex- 
posed, in small glass tubes, to the action of these 
agents for two hours. The tubesare sterilized in the 
flame of an alcohol-lamp immediately before each ex- 
periment; they are open, and covered by a bell-glass 
during the time of exposure. 

At the end of the time of exposure, a small quan- 
tity of the fluid from one of the tubes is introduced 
into a flask containing sterilized bouillon, and this is 
exposed to a temperature of 100° F. for twenty-four 
hours. 

The micro-organisms which have been used in the ex- 
periments herein reported, to test the germicide power 
of the reagents named, were obtained from the fol- 
lowing sources : — 

a. A micrococeus from gonorrhoeal pus. 

b. A micrococcus from pus obtained from an acute 
abscess (whitlow) at the moment that it was opened 
by a deep incision. This micrococcus is morphologi- 
cally identical with the preceding. 

c. A pathogenic micrococeus, having distinct mor- 
phological characters obtained from the blood of a 
septicaemic rabbit. 

d. Bacterium termo, and other bacterial organisms 
(micrococci and bacilli) from ‘ broken-down ’ beef-tea 
which had been freely exposed to the air. 

In the following table, which is arranged according 
to the germicide value of the agents named, all ex- 
periments are given in which the micrococcus from 
pus was used as a test. 


Mercurie bichloride (0.005 per Pas efficient in the pro- 


portion of one purt in - 20,000 
Potassium permanganate (0.12 per cent); efticient in the 

proportion of one partin . 833 
Iodine (0.2 per cent), efficient in the’ proportion of one 

partin . « 500 
Creosote (0.5 per pent): efficient in the proportion of one 

partin . . 200 
Sulphurie acid (0.5 per ce ent), ‘effici ient in the propértion. of 

one partin . F 200 
Carbolic’ acid (1 per cent), efic iont in 1 the. proportion of 

one partin . . 100 
Hydrocblorie acid (1 per cent), efficient in the proportion 

of one part in : 100 
Zinc chloride (4 per cent) efficient in the proportion of one 

partin . . 50 
Tine. ferri chloridi a per cent), efficient in the proportion 

ofone partin . 25 
Salicylic acid dissolved by sodium porate | ( per cent), 

efficient in the proportion of one partin . ° 25 
Caustic potash (10 per cent), efficient in the proportion of 

one partin . . 10 
Citric acid (12 per cent), ‘eflicient in the proportion of one 

partin . 8 
Chloral hydrate (20 per cent), efficient in the ¢ proportion of 

onepartin. . . + rePLQTy Uris 5 


The following-named reagents, as far as the experi- 


434 


ments go, are not shown to have any germicide value; 
viz., — 


é Per cent. 
Fowler’s solution failed in the proportion of . 3, ier) eae 
Sodium hyposulphite failed in the proportion of. a . 32 
‘Sodium sulphite, exsiccata, failed in the proportion of ° 10 
Ferric sulphate er cai solution) failed in the propor- 
tion of . - . : 16 
Potassium serie Ealedh in the aannantion we . 5 . 8 
Liq. zinci chloridi failed in the proportion of . 8 
Boracic acid (saturated solution) failed in the propor tion of 4 
Zine sulphate failed in the proportion of — - 20 


Sodium borate Renlanae Gost failed in the arate 
tion of . . : 
Sodium salicylate Failed in the propor tion of 


ca 


Having ascertained the germicide value of certain 
reagents for a single micro-organism, the question 
arises as to whether we are justified in assuming that 
other organisms of the same class, and especially 
pathogenic bacteria, will be destroyed by the same 
reagents in like proportion, or, in other words, wheth- 
er we can generalize from the data obtained. It is 
evident, that, if each of the reagents named gives iden- 
tical results with several distinct species of bacteria, 
we shall be justified in assuming that the value ob- 
tained will be constant for other organisms, known 
or unknown, of the same class; whereas, if marked 
‘differences are found as to the vital resistance of 
different bacterial organisms to these reagents, no 
generalization will be possible, and the value for 
each distinct organism of the class can only be fixed 
by experiment. To solve this question, experiments 
have been made as follows: — 

a. Upon the micrococcus of pus. ‘ 

b. Upon the micrococcus of septicaemia in the rab- 
bit. 

c. Upon bacterium termo, in its active motile stage, 
as found in afresh culture. 

d. Upon the bacteria in broken-down beef-tea which 
had been freely exposed to the air, and in which all 
active development had ceased. 

The results show, that, in general, those reagents 
which destroyed the vitality of the micrococcus from 
pus are destructive to organisms of the same class, 
and that their relative value as germicides is not 
changed when a different micro-organism is used as 
the test of this value. Moreover, the reagents which 
were found to be practically valueless as germicides 
in the first series of experiments—e.g., ferric sul- 
phate, sodium sulphite, and hyposulphite, boracic 
acid, etc. — proved to be equally without value when 
the test was extended to other micro-organisms of 
the same class. But the reagents found to possess 
decided germicide power have, in some cases, a dif- 
ferent value for different organisms: in other words, 
the vital resistance of ditferent bacterial organisms to 
the reagents in question is not in all cases the same. 

Thus, sulphuric acid failed to destroy B. termo and 
the micrococcus from pus in the proportion of 0.25 %; 
but one-fourth of this amount (0.06 %) destroyed 
the vitality of the septic micrococcus. 

Caustic potash destroyed the septic micrococcus in 
the proportion of 2 %, but failed to kill the micrococ- 
cus of pus in four times this amount (8 %). The 
value, as a germicide, of the solution of ferric sul- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. II., No. 34 


phate and sulphuric acid in water, which has beem 
extensively recommended by sanitarians as a disin—_ 
fectant, evidently depends upon the sulphurie acid 
which the solution contains, To insure the destrue- 
tion of all bacterial organisms and of the reproduc 
tive spores of those speciés which multiply by spores: 
as well as by transverse fission, such a solution should 
be used in sufficient quantity to subject the material 
to be disinfected to the action of the acid in the pro- 


portion of at least five per cent for a period of two 


hours. 

The quantity of carbolic acid used to accomplish 
the same result should not be less than five per 
cent, for it is necessary to keep on the safe side; ana 
we do not know, at present, whether all of the path— 
ogenic bacteria, hypothetical or demonstrated, form: 
spores or otherwise. In the case of the anthrax ba- 
cillus and of Koch’s bacillus of tuberculosis, this has 
been proved to be true; and we have ample experi-— 
mental evidence to show that these reproductive 
bodies possess very great resistance to heat and to- 
those chemical reagents which destroy bacterial or— 
ganisms in their ordinary condition of rapid growth 
and multiplication by fission. 

Evidently, therapeutic value—assuming the cor~ 
rectness of the germ-theory—cannot be gauged by 
germicide power alone, for it is possible that a re— 
agent which possesses this power in but slight degree, 
or not at all, may nevertheless be capable of restrict— 
ing the development of pathogenic organisms, and 
thus limiting their power for mischief. 

The following table shows the percentage required 
to destroy vitality, and also that required to prevent - 
the development of the micrococeus of pus: — 


perceniers pei 
r capable 0: 
eaz eats Aa aceRtoy tenes 
vitality. development. 
Mercurie bichloride 4 S 0.005 0.003 
Iodine . : c 3 : c 0.2 0.025 
Sulphuric acid sles . 0.25 0.12 
Carbolic acid . 5 0.8 0.2 
Salicylic acid and satire asiaeae Dike 0.5 
Alcohol . J 6 2 2 5 40 “tM 
Ferric sulphate : : . . ( Failed in 0.5 
Boracic acid. - = ° - saturated 0.5 
Sodium biborate l solution. 0.5 


An inspection of the table shows that the potent 
germicides in our list restrict multiplication in quan-— 
tities considerably less than are required to destroy 
vitality. In the case of iodine the difference is 
eightfold; in that of carbolic acid, fourfold; in that. 
of sulphuric acid, twofold, etc. 

We also see that the agents at the bottom of the 
list, —ferric sulphate, boracic acid, and sodium bibo- 
rate, —in the proportion of five-tenths per cent, pre- 
vent the multiplication of bacterial organisms, and are 
consequently antiseptic agents of value, although in | 
saturated solution they fail to kill these organisms, 

In the case of ferric sulphate, and also of zine sul-~ 
phate and zine chloride, this power to prevent the 
development of micro-organisms seems to be due to 


SEPTEMBER 28, 1888.] 


precipitation of the organic material in the nutritive 
medium rather than to any direct action upon the 
living organisms, which, as we have seen, are not 
killed by a far greater quantity of the reagent. 

The conclusions at which Dr. Sternberg arrives, 
are, that the vital resistance of bacterial organisms 
to chemical reagents differs, within certain limits, for 
different species. And certain species show special 

‘susceptibility to the germicide action of particular 
reagents; e.g., the septic micrococcus to alcohol, and 
B. termo to boracic acid. 

There is, therefore, reason for supposing that dif- 
ferent pathogenic organisms may differ in like manner, 
as to susceptibility to the action of various reagents 
administered medicinally with a view to their de- 
struction. Nevertheless, the comparative germicide 
value of the reagents tested is the same for the sey- 
eral test-organisms, and, allowing certain limits for 
specific peculiarities, it is safe to generalize from the 
experimental data obtained in the practical use of 
these reagents as disinfectants. But it must be re- 
membered that the resisting power of reproductive 
spores is far greater than that of bacterial organisms 
in active growth (multiplication by fission), and the 
data obtained for the latter cannot be extended to in- 
elude the former. 

The antiseptic value of the reagents tested depends 
upon their power to prevent the multiplication of 
putrefactive bacteria; and this is not necessarily con- 
nected with germicide potency, for some reagents 
which fail to kill these micro-organisms are, never- 
theless, valuable antiseptics, e.g:. ferric sulphate and 
boracie acid. 

Clinieal experience has demonstrated the value of 
all the potent germicide reagents tested in one or 
more of the diseases which there is the most reason 
to believe are due to the presence of pathogenic 
micro-organisms in the primae viae, in the blood, or 
in the tissues; e.g., intermittent-fever, typhoid-fever, 
dysentery, erysipelas, syphilis, etc. The ‘germ-the- 
ory’ as to the causation of these diseases receives, 
therefore, very strong support from modern thera- 
peutics: but the experiments do not justify the belief 
that anyone of the reagents tested can be admin- 
istered as a specific in germ-diseases generally. This 
also accords with the results of clinical experience, 
and makes it possible to believe that the specific, self- 
limited diseases are also ‘ germ’ diseases. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


The practical value of soil-analysis. 

In Bulletin lvi. of the New York agricultural ex- 
periment-station, Dr. Sturtevant gives the reasons for 
which the station declines to make soil-analyses ‘for 
the purposes of the individual farmer;’ summarizing 
them in the statement that such ayalyses “can offer 
no solution of the problem of what fertilizer, and how 
much, to apply.” 

Were this statement made in a somewhat less gen- 
eral and absolute manner, I should have no fault to 
find with it; for in the case of the long-cultivated 
fields of the state of New York, which have been sub- 
ject to indefinitely varied culture-conditions and the 
use of fertilizers, the cases in which chemical analysis 


SCIENCE. 


435 


alone would point with any degree of certainty to the 
true cause of failure to produce profitable crops would 
be exceptional; and the station would be likely to be 
overrun with requests for an indefinite amount of 
comparatively useless routine work. 

But when Dr. Sturtevant broadly adds his denial 
“that analyses of soils can give us definite informa- 
tion concerning their productiveness,’’ he seems to go 
beyond the limits justified by the record, and beyond 
what the context following would appear to show he 
intended to say. If the clause above quoted were 
to read, instead, ‘‘ while denying that analyses of cul- 
tivated soils can giye us definite information regarding 
their present productiveness,’’ I should agree with him 
so far as the great majority of cases is concerned, —so 
much so, that it is only exceptionally that I under- 
take the analysis of a cultivated soil, but usually go 
back to its virgin ancestor for information as to its 
general character; and from this, and the usually sim- 
ple history of its cultivation, pretty definite inferences 
as to the prominent wants even of a cultivated soil 
can in very many cases be deduced, as is proved by 
the practical results. Dr. Sturtevant’s own statement 
as to the frequency and consequent practical impor- 
tance of such inquiries would seem to justify the tak- 
ing of some pains to approach its solution, before 
proclaiming an absolute non possumus. 

As for virgin soils, which over wide areas have been 
subject to uniform or uniformly variable conditions, 
it is apriori reasonably presumable, and I think expe- 
rience confirms the inference, that, otherthings being 
equal, the amount of available plant-food, and there- 
fore the durability of a given soil under the usual 
culture, without replacement, is sensibly proportional 
to the plant-food percentages shown by the usual 
method of analysis. Whether or not other things are 
really equal can only be ascertained by intelligent 
examination in the field as well as in the laboratory; 
and soil-specimens taken by non-experts rarely fulfil 
this condition. 

While, therefore, believing that Dr. Sturtevant’s 
action in this matter is well advised under the cir- 
cumstances, I nevertheless believe that my contrary 
practice in regions but sparsely or recently settled is 
at least equally well justified, and that the impor- 
tance of affording the settler at least an approximate 
insight into the present and ultimate durability of his 
soil, and its general character and adaptations, is so 
great as to justify a considerable public expenditure, 
upon a well-considered plan carefully carried out by 
competent persons both in the field and in the labo- 
ratory, even with our present limited knowledge of 
the chemistry of soils — which, I cannot but remark, 
is not likely to be increased very rapidly if the com- 
position of soils serving for culture-experiments con- 
tinues to be ignored, as has so largely been thé case 
heretofore. The prime importance of the presence 
of acertain minimum percentage of lime, for exam- 
ple, is manifestly so great, that no experimenter can 
afford to be ignorant of the presence or absence of a 
proper supply of that substance in his soil ; and the 
cases in which analysis shows the extreme scarcity or 
extreme abundance of lime, phosphates, or potash, in 
virgin soils and subsoils, are far more. frequent than 
the contemners of soil-analysis suppose. In the 
former case the practical value of the indication is 
too obvious to be overlooked, and is amply attested 
by the results following the application, e.g., of phos- 
phate fertilizers in such cases. We might not be able 
to detect the addition thus made to the phosphates of 
the soil by the most careful analysis; but the fact 
that the soil is naturally poor in phosphates will re- 
main a fruitful truth forever after. 


436 


' I trust that the record which will be shown in the 
census report of cotton production, now in press, will 
form a convincing illustration of the legitimate uses 
of soil-analysis. E, W. Hine arp. 

University of California, Sept. 1, 1883. 


Do humming-birds fly backwards ? 


The Duke of Argyll, in his Reign of law (p. 145), 
Jays it down in italics, that ‘no bird can ever fly back- 
wards.’ He mentions the humming-bird as appear- 
ing to do so, but maintains, that, in reality, the bird 
falls, rather than flies, when, for instance, he comes out 
of a tubular flower. But this morning, while watch- 
ing the motions of a humming-bird (Trochilus colu- 
bris), it occurred to me to test this dictum of the 
duke; and, unless my eyes were altogether at fault, 
the bird did actually fly backwards. He was probing 
one after another the blossoms of a Petunia-bed, and 
more than once, when the flower happened to be low 
down, he plainly rose, rather than fell, as he backed 
out of and away from it. I stood within a yard or 
two of him, and do not believe that I was deceived. 

It may not be amiss to add that the Duke of Ar- 
gyll’s objections seem to be purely theoretical, since 
the ‘Reign of law’ was published in 1866, and it was 
' not till 1879 that the author came to America and 
saw his first living humming-bird. 

BRADFORD TORREY. 

Boston, Sept. 14, 1883. 


Wright's ice-dam at Cincinnati. 


I notice on p. 320 of Screncg, vol. ii. no. 31, an 
inaccurate report of what I said at the Minneapolis 
meeting, which does injustice both to Mr. Wright 
and to myself, and which I would beg to have cor- 
rected. 

The reporter makes me speak slightingly of Mr. 
Wright’s discovery of the ice-dam at Cincinnati, as 
not sufficing to explain our Pennsylvania terraces. 
On the contrary, I expressed my admiration for the 
discovery as furnishing precisely the explanation we 
need for the local-drift terraces of the Monongahela, 
and the rolled-northern-drift terraces of the lower 
Alleghany, Beaver, and upper Ohio rivers. 

The reporter probably mixed this up with what I 
said afterwards respecting the rolled-drift terraces of 
eastern Pennsylvania, which only reach a height of 
800’ A. T., in Northumberland county, and require 
some explanation, perhaps, quite unconnected with 
that which Mr. Wright certainly furnishes in a most 
satisfactory manner for the 800’ to 1,100’ A. T. ter- 
races of the Ohio River basin. J. P. LESLEY. 


Second geological survey of Pennsylvania, 
Philadelphia, Sept. 15, 1883. 


Erratic pebbles in the Licking valley. 


While engaged in tracing the outcrop of ‘Clinton 
ore’ in eastern Kentucky, in the fall of 1882, I became 
interested in the pebbles, which in certain localities, 
and up to a certain height, were very abundant in the 
surface-soil. 

Most abundant were rounded quartz pebbles, prob- 
ably from the millstone grit. Somewhat less abun- 
dant were fragments of chert, showing little or no 
wear derived from the sub-carboniferous limestone. 
Still less abundant, though by no means rare, were 
some from the carboniferous, often containing char- 
acteristic fossils. They were confined, so far as I 
could determine, to the valley of the Licking and its 
larger tributaries. Vertically, they range from the 
river-bottoms to the top of the table, formed by the 
upper Silurian rocks, which borders on the Devonian 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 34. 


escarpment; so that these tables are quite uniformly 
covered with the material. 

The distribution of the material is such as could 
only have been made while the valley was tempora- 
rily occupied by a lake. I was therefore led, though 
with some hesitation, to suppose that the glacier must 
have crossed the Ohio at Cincinnati, damming the 
river. I was not at the time aware of the labors of 
Mr. Wright in tracing the glacier across the Ohio. 

Having now the certainty that there was a dam at 
the required point, I think I may have no hesitation 
in saying, that, during a portion of the glacial period, 
the valley of the Licking was occupied by a lake which 
overflowed laterally, and whose bottom became littered 
with materials brought from the mountains of eastern 
Kentucky by floating ice. They are most abundant 
where the ice may be supposed to have had freest ac- 
cess. 

Terraces which might have been expected are want- 
ing in the region in which my observations were made, 
Possibly they may be found in other parts of the 
valley, especially above; their absence in the region 
in question being due to the fact that only small por- 
tions of the region would have reached above the 
lake-level, which, by their disintegration, could fur- 
nish the material for terraces. 

The overflow was probably to southward, but I could 
not search for it. Could it be traced, the amount of 
erosion might give some data for an estimate of 
time. G. H. Squizr. 

Trempealeau, Wis., Sept. 14, 1883. 


Depth of ice during the glacial age. 


In the issue of Science for Sept. 7, reporting my 
paper at Minneapolis, I am made to say, that, during 
the glacial period, the ice was indeed ‘‘ 600 feet over 
New England, and very likely of equal depth over 
the area to the west.’’ I said 6,000 feet over New Eng- 
land. The evidences of glaciation are distinct upon 
the Green Mountains to a height of nearly 5,000 feet. 
The lower summits of the White Mountains, like Car- 
rigain (which is 4,300 feet above the sea), are covered 
with transported bowlders; and there can be little 
question that some found by Professor Charles Hitch- 
cock, within a few hundred feet of the summit of 
Mount Washington, were transported thither by gla- 
cial agency. Such is the evidence for New England. 

For the region north of Pennsylvania and the Ohio 
River, direct evidence of such a great depth of ice is 
naturally wanting ; but, according to Ramsay, glacial 
scratches are numerous upon the summit of Catskill 
Mountains in New York, at an elevation of 2,850 feet 
above the sea. In southern Ohio there are numerous 
places where the ice, within a mile or two of its 
farthest extension, surmounted elevations which are 
about 500 feet higher than the plains to the north of 
them. I see no reason why it should not have been 
as deep over the bed of Lake Erie as over the region 
to the north of the White Mountains, though there 
are there no glaciometers like Mount Washington to 
measure the height of the frozen mass. 

G. FREDERICK WRIGHT. 

Oberlin, O., Sept. 18, 1883. 


The ‘stony girdle’ of the earth. 


In your issue of Sept. 7, just received, youare kind 
enough to insert a synopsis of the two abstracts of pa- 
pers which I sent to the Minneapolis meeting. Allow 
me the space necessary to make a correction and some 
brief explanations. Weare required to furnish these 
‘abstracts’ to suit a printed form of small note size, 
which is apt to lead to small chirography: hence I 
suppose the mistake in reading and printing the title. 


lad aaa 


SEPTEMBER 28, 1883.] 


It should read, ‘stony girdle,’ and was in inverted 
commas to show that the name did not originate with 
me. My special object was to call attention to its 
being, in a great measure, the same belt which forms 
the prime-vertical when the pole of the land-centre 
at Mount Rosa is brought to the zenith. The unfavor- 
able comments to which you allude have force as a 
general rule ; namely, that closet geology is not com- 
parable to observations in the field. Yet all general- 


izations may be called closet geology, as being the. 


result of a large number of facts collected in the field, 
and compared subsequently. As it would, however, 
be presumptuous in any one to offer generalizations 
who had not had somewhat extended opportunities 
for observation, I may be permitted to mention, 
as some justification, those I have enjoyed. In 
North America my observations, partly in special 
work, partly during travel, have ranged from Rainy 
Lake, north of Lake Superior, to Saltillo, in Mex- 
ico, and from the Atlantic states to the head waters 
of the Gila, in Arizona. In the eastern continent, 
I travelled from the north of Scotland to Cairo in 
Egypt, ascending Etna, and spending the vacations 
of three summers, during college-life, in Switzerland 
among its mountains, ranging subsequently from 
western France to the Crimea. In 1824 I saw the 
*Perte du Rhéne,’ where that river disappeared for 
miles, and then re-appeared,— a phenomenon no lon- 
ger to be seen, as the superincumbent rocks, some 
years later, caved in, and converted the subterranean 
nto a subaerial bed for that fine stream. 

In 1829 I visited the scene of the catastrophe at 
New Madrid; and while granting a local subsidence 
for the immediate cause, as claimed in the able paper 
by Dr. Macfarlane, of which you give an abstract, I 
am compelled to believe that the remote cause was 
due to a seismic movement, felt, as Mallet states, at 
least two hundred miles from New Madrid, and, in- 
deed, affecting large and more distant areas about 
that time, as mentioned in Key to geology, p. 77. 

These opportunities, in connection with the speci- 
mens and notes of reference brought home, permit a 
review of general geology, which I thought might 
enable me to present to the student of geography and 
geology some broad principles and truths into which 
the details subsequently obtained by him might be 
appropriately fitted: hence the paper read at the Bos- 
ton meeting, showing that the eastern trend of each 

* continent was distant one-fifth of the circumference 
of the globe from its adjoining continental trend; also 
that each continent presented a central focus, from 
which a cirele with radius of 36° would embrace the 
land proper, — sometimes excluding a peninsula, such 
as Hindostan, sometimes including adjacent islands, 
as those of Madeira, Canary, and Cape Verd, as be- 
longing to the main continent, Africa. The Mon- 
treal papers were designed to show the important 
seismic fissurings radiating from the pole of the 
land-centre; also the relation between solar and ter- 
restrial dynamics, where seismic phenomena are 
transmitted along great circles coinciding with the 
sun’s apparent path, or along belts of the earth’s 
crust which are secondaries to the ecliptic, 

The occurrences of the last few weeks seem to 
corroborate the generalization offered, inasmuch as 
Ischia is on the 30° fissure from Rosa, at no great 
distance; while Java and the Straits of Sunda, as 
well as Guayaquil, more recently disturbed, are on 
or close to the prime-vertical. 

If these generalizations belong rather in the cate- 
gory of instruction for the student than of contribu- 
tions to science, perhaps my twenty-five years of 
natural-science teaching may present some excuse. 


SCIENCE. 


437 


Certainly, my great aim and desire are to arrive at 
important scientific truths, especially general laws in 
the dynamics of our globe. RicHARD OWEN. 


Mr. Morse’s papers at Minneapolis. 


A number of errors have been made in the report 
of my papers which were read at the Minneapolis 
meeting. 

In the paper on an apparatus for warming and 
ventilating apartments, the statement that the tem- 
perature of a hall was raised 40° above the outside 
temperature is incorrect. I said that the air, as it 
entered the room from the heater, had been raised 40° 
above the outside air. 

In the paper on the methods of arrow-release, I 
spoke of the English method, which was probably 
that of the Saxon, and said that American archers 
followed the English. The Japanese never use 
thumb-rings, to my knowledge. The Koreans, Chi- 
nese, Manchu Tartars, and Persians use the thumb- 
ring. 

aS more serious mistake occurs in the report of my 
paper on the indoor games of the Japanese. I said 
very distinctly, that, in the game of chess, pieces cap- 
tured could be used by the capturer against his oppo- 
nent. In comparing the Japanese games with ours, 
I made no allusion to seven-up or whist. With every 
one I regard whist as next to chess in character as a 
highly intellectual game. 

You will confer a great favor by publishing these 
corrections. Epw. 8. MorRsE. 

Salem, Mass., Sept. 16, 1883. 


Evidences of glacial man. 


In Scrence, no. 32, p. 384, the statement is made, 
respecting Miss Babbitt’s Minnesota finds, that ‘‘ thus 
far, at best, the glacial workman is known only by 
his chips.”” What better evidence, I would inquire, 
is needed, if those chips are of artificial origin ? 

Is not this sufficient? Are not shavings and saw- 
dust as good evidence of men working in wood, to- 
day, as are the planes and saws they use? From the 
very nature of the case, it is unreasonable to find as 
abundant and easily recognized evidence of man in 
drift-deposits as upon the surface-soils; yet this is 
what some of those present at the Minneapolis meet- 
ing of the American association for the advancement 
of science seemed to require. 

In the case of the ‘paleolithic’ implements of 
the Delaware River valley, other evidence than the 
chipped stones has been found. The human tooth, 
lately described in detail in the Proceedings of the 
Boston society of natural history, is, of itself, evi- 
dence of man’s presence at the time the gravels, in 
which it occurred, were laid down. Other human re- 
mains have also been found. 

A word, too, with reference to the implements. 
These are nearly all as unmistakably artificial as the 
most finished arrow-head. Objects of identical char- 
acter are found among ¢he relics of the recent In- 
dians, and are not questioned. Why, then, should a 
similar class of objects, found in gravel-deposits that 
antedate the superincumbent surface-soils, be ques- 
tioned ? ¥ 

There is no doubt overshadowing the existence of 
man in the Delaware valley as long ago as the close 
of the glacial period: his presence, then, is not merely 
‘a theory advanced by Dr. Abbott,’ as you suggest, 
but a fact susceptible of actual demonstration. 

Professor Mason, in his address (in the same issue), 
asks, “‘ What is the real import of such discoveries 
as those of Dr. Abbott and Professor Whitney in es- 
tablishing the great antiquity and early rudeness of 


438 


the American savage?’ Speaking for myself, I would 
suggest that his question contains its answer. My 
discoveries have established the glacial age of man on 
the Atlantic seaboard of America, and.at that time 
his culture was that stage known as ‘ paleolithic.’ 


Cuas. C. ABsBort, M.D. 
Trenton, N.J., Sept. 18, 1883. : 


THE ALPHABET. 


The alphabet, an account of the origin and develop- 

ment of letters. By Isaac Taytor, M.A., LL.D. 

2 vols. London, Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co., 

1883. 164358; 398 p. 8°. 

Mr. Tayror has produced an admirable 
work on the interesting subject of alphabetic 
writing. It abounds in wealth of collected 
material, down to the very latest discoveries 
(some of them of the utmost importance). 
By lavish and well-chosen illustration it puts 
this material before the apprehension of the 
reader or student with the most desirable clear- 
ness; and its digest and criticism of former 
opinions is made with impartiality and inde- 
pendence of judgment, while the author adds 
abundantly of new views, and arguments to 
support them. No other existing work of a 
like character can bear any comparison with 
it; and it deserves to have, as it doubtless will 
attain, a wide circulation and popularity. 

In the main, these yolumes are filled with 
the history of our own alphabet and its rela- 
tives, or of the ancient Phoenician with its de- 
scendants and probable ancestor, since other 
systems of alphabetic writing are compar- 
atively insignificant in number and in im- 
portance. The Chinese characters are not 
alphabetic, although one or two derivatives 
from them (as the Japanese kata-kuna) have 
that character. The cuneiform mode of writ- 
ing ended its career in an alphabetic system, 
the Persian; but all the peoples using cunei- 
form passed over, more than two thousand 
years ago, to the side of the Phoenician. There 
have been other hieroglyphic schemes, in the 
old world and the new, that made advances, 
_ HO one can say just how far, toward alphabet- 
ism; but they are long since perished without 
descendants. All these, together with such 
theoretic basis as he chooses to lay for the sci- 
ence, Mr. Taylor despatches in the first’ chap- 
ter (seventy pages) of his first volume ; the 
rest is devoted to our alphabet: the various 
kindred Semitic forms of it being treated in 
the former volume, and the Indo-European 
forms, with the few outside stragglers, in the 
latter, under the divisions of Greek, deriva- 
tives of Greek (Italian, Coptic, Slavonic, 
Albanian, Runic, Ogham), Iranian, and In- 
dian. The method is not to be condemned, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vox. IL, No. 34. : 


although we might have desired a more ample 
theoretical introduction. The fundamental 
principle of alphabetic history is distinct, and 
briefly statable: all writing begins necessarily 
with the depiction of scenes and objects, or is 
purely pictorial; it everywhere tends to pass 
over into a depiction of the names of objects ; 
and, when it has fully reached that condition, 
it has become alphabetic. There can be no 
such thing as an alphabet not starting from a 
pictorial stage, any more than a spoken lan- 
guage without an initial imitative root-stage. 
But while in language we can only get baak 
by inference to such a state of things, because 
the beginnings of language are so remote from 
us, in writing we find the pictorial stage abun- 
dantly represented. 

Whether that stage is discoverable in the 
actual history of our own alphabet, is a ques- 
tion not yet absolutely settled. Every step 
by which our familiar letters go back to the 
primitive Semitic alphabet, usually called by 
us Phoenician, is traced out with the utmost 
distinctness. The Phoenician is purely, though 
defectively, alphabetic. It must, then, have 
come from a pictorial original. Three such 
systems of writing are found in its neighbor- 
hood, — Egyptian, cuneiform (the perhaps suf- 
ficient, though rather scanty, evidences of 
whose hieroglyphic origin are given by our 
author), and the recently discovered and still 
obscure Hittite. Did it come demonstrably 
from one of these, or has it an ancestor now 
lost to us? As is well known, De Rougé’s 
work, published less than ten years ago, at- 
tempted to show its derivation from Egyptian, 
from hieratic characters, of known hieroglyphic 
originals; and his view is widely, though by 
no means universally, accepted. Mr. Taylor 
is a firm believer in it, and sets it forth with 
much clearness and force. We find ourselves 
unable fully to share his conviction. De 
Rougé endeavored to prove more than was 
reasonable, and found it so easy to prove all 
he undertook, that his very success casts a 
shade of unrealityy over the whole comparison. 
We may allow that. his identifications are both 
possible, and, as a whole, plausible quite be- 
yond any others yet made. Yet whereas the - 
derivation of the Greek or of the Arabic 
alphabet, for example, is.past all doubt, and 
he would rightly be passed by as a time-waster 
who should attempt to re-open the question, no 
reproach can attach to the scholar who, uncon- 
vinced by De Rougé, should try to find an- 
other and better solution of the problem, as 
some are actually doing. Mr. Taylor over- 
states the desirableness of acquiescing in the 


SEPTEMBER 28, 1883.] ; 


best solution hitherto discovered ; the right to 
doubt an inference not yet made certain is a 
precious and indefeasible one. It would be 
highly gratifying to regard the derivation of 
Phoenician from Egyptian as not less certain 
than that of English from Phoenician, since 
then we should have followed up the history 
to its very beginning ; for the character of the 
Egyptian as a wholly original mode of writ- 
ing, carrying on its face the evidence of its 
steps of development from the initial stage, 
is beyond dispute. Considering that Mr. Tay- 
lor holds the hieroglyphics to be the antecedent 
phase of Phoenician letters, we wish that he 
had made his exposition of the system some- 
what fuller, and especially that he had told in 
more detail how he regards the alphabetic 
value of certain of the hieroglyphs as having 
been arrived at: the point is by no means so 
clear as were to be wished. 

It would take far too much space to go 
through the book and notice all the points of 
special interest in it; but attention may be 
called toa few. Mr. Taylor has a new and 
well-supported theory as to the Mediterranean 
alphabet from which the Germanic runes were 
taken: he holds it to have been the Greek of 
the Euxine colonies and Thrace, transmitted in 
peaceful intercourse along the commercial route 
of the Dnieper, some centuries before the Chris- 
tian era. His discussion of the Ogham crypto- 
grams is less satisfactory. The Glagolitic (an 
early Slavonic) alphabet receives from him a 
suggested explanation which has met with 
general favor. The earliest Semitic mon- 
uments—the sarcophagus of Sidon, the Mo- 
abite stele, the recently discovered Siloam 
inscription — are fully treated, the last being 
given in facsimile. Some of the most origi- 
nal parts of the author’s work lie in the dis- 
cussion of the South Semitic alphabets and 
their derivatives. It is to them that he traces 
the immense group of the alphabets of India 
by a theory which wears a more plausible and 
acceptable aspect than any other yet suggest- 
ed; it must, of course, stand the test of time, 
and of examination by other experts, before 
it can be admitted as final. Even in so old 
and well-worked departments as the varieties 
of Semitic and Greek writing and their mu- 
tual relations, Mr. Taylor brings to light 
much that is new and interesting, laying under 
contribution the most recent finds, and com- 
bining them with independence of judgment 
and sound sense. There is nowhere any effort 
at brilliancy or show of profundity: sober, 
earnest work is the keynote of the treatise, 
which in this respect compares favorably with 


SCIENCE. 


439 


certain other recent publications, French and 
German, on the same subject. 

In conclusion, we may notice adversely a 
point or two. The now accepted explanation 
of Pehlevi, as needing to be read out of its 
Semitic signs into Iranian words, should not be 
credited to ‘ the sagacity of Professor Haug’ 
(ii. 239). That explanation was distinctly 
offered by the veteran Westergaard, in the 
preface to his Zendavesta, in 1854, when Haug 
was fresh from the university ; and in the lat- 
ter’s earliest article ‘on the Pehlevi language 
and the Bundepesh,’ published in the same year, 
there is to be found no hint of the doctrine. 

It. is hardly correct to ascribe the success 
of right methods in paleography in any meas- 
ure to Darwinism (ii. 363). That every suc- 
cessive phase of a historical institution is the 
outgrowth of a preceding phase, and differs 
little from it, is a truth long coming to clear 
recognition and fruitful application in every 
department of historic research, prior to and 
in complete independence of any doctrine of 
evolution in the natural world. Only error 
and confusion have come of the attempts made 
to connect Darwinism and philologic science. 
On the other hand, Mr. Taylor appears to make 

a too mechanical application of the doctrine 
of historical development in denying altogether 
the possibility of an element of free inven- 
tion in alphabetic growth. Man is capable 
of devising something a little different from, 
or like and additional to, what he has already 
won and knows how to use. One who has a 
language can invent another, regarded by 
him as an improvement on the former: the 
thing has happened repeatedly, and is no vio- 
lation of the law of gradual and unconscious 
growth of human speech. So, notwithstanding 
the law of alphabetic development, a man who 
practises various modes of writing can devise 
a new one, for cryptographic or tachygraphic 
purposes, or other. And a community that 
is receiving and adapting an alphabetic system 
from another community may, in like manner, 
well enough add a sign or two of its own 
device: hence the question whether our X 
is an out-and-out invention of the Greeks, or a 
differentiated K, is one of paleographie prob- 
abilities, not to be settled in favor of the lat- 
ter alternative by denying the possibility of 
the former; and so in other like cases. 

The number of interesting questions to 
which this work furnishes a trustworthy reply 
is surprising; and, while sparing of notes, it 
yet gives references suflicient to set upon the 
right track any one desirous of investigating 
more fully the matters with which it deals. 


440 


THE FOSSIL FLORA OF GREENLAND. 
Die fossile flora der polarldnder. Von Dr. OSWALD 
Heer. Vol. vii. Ziirich, Wurster, 1883. 275p., 

62 pl. 4°. 

Tuis volume contains, 1°, the flora of the 
upper cretaceous schists of Patoot ; 2°, the ter- 
tiary flora of Greenland; 3°, a short memoir 
on insects’ remains found*‘in connection with the 
plants (ef. Scmnor, i. 1095); 4°, general re- 
marks on the affinities of the plants in relation to 
their geological age and the climatic circum- 
stances indicated by their characters; 5°, a 
memoir by Steenstrup on the geology of the 
localities where remains of plants and coal- 
deposits haye been found; 6°, the marine 
fauna, with descriptions of the species of in- 
vertebrate animals found especially in connec- 
tion with the plants of Patoot. 

This last locality represents the upper mem- 
ber of the cretaceous of Greenland ; the lowest 
being that of Kome, the middle that of Atane. 
The flora of Patoot has a predominance of 
conifers: and ferns, no Cyeadeae, and few 
monocotyledons, about one-half of the plants 
being dicotyledons. The table of distribution, 
which represents the whole cretaceous flora of 
Greenland, enumerates 335 species, —88 for 
Kome, 177 for Atane, and 118 for Patoot. 
From the characters of the plants, the schists 
of Kome are referable to the Neocomian. 
Atane, whose flora is related to that of the 
' Dakota group of Kansas, represents the Ceno- 
manian, while Patoot is apparently Senonian. 
Most of its species are related to those of 
. Atane, only a few being identified with eocene 
species from Sezanne and with some miocene 
types. The plants of the tertiaries of Green- 
land have been procured from twenty different 
localities. Their description is also followed 
by a table of distribution. Of the 282 species 
enumerated, 33 are known from the tertiary 
of North America, 10 of them from the Lar- 
amie group. The greater number are identi- 
fied with species found in the lower miocene 
of Europe, the Aquitanian group, whose flora 
is widely represented in most of the states, 
from Hungary to England and France, and 
from Italy to North Germany. This tertiary 
flora of Greenland has been predominant, and 
has preserved its characters for many thou- 
sands of years; for the lower strata, where 
its remains have been found, are separated 
from the upper, which have the same kinds of 
plants, by thousands of feet of basaltic masses 
the deposits of which haye been continuous for 
long periods of time. 

In the general remarks considering the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 34. 


climatie conditions which have governed the 
vegetation as indicated by the characters of 
the flora, Heer says, that in 1868, from data 
derived from the determination of 105 species 
of plants, he had estimated the mean tem- 
perature at 9° C.; but now the tertiary flora 
of Greenland, known by a larger number of 
plants of various types, —among them a palm, 
species of Laurus, Magnolia, Diospyros, Sa- 
pindus, Zizyphus, ete., whose analogues are 
now found in Virginia, the Carolinas, ete., — 
indicates by its constituents a mean tempera- 
ture of 10° to 11°. 

The few mollusks and star-fishes, mostly 
found at Patoot, have been determined by the 
French paleontologist, de Loriol. He con- 
siders them to be related to some of those 
described by Meek from the Fox Hill group. 
Steenstrup’s memoir on the geology of the 
localities where the plants have been found 
is precise and detailed. It is illustrated by a 
number of good sections. 

The work is accompanied by a map of the 
western coast of Greenland between 69° 15” 
and 72° 30’ north latitude. 


THE CHESAPEAKE OYSTER-BEDS. 


Report on the oyster-beds of the James River, Virginia 
(ete.). Coast-survey report for 1881. Appen- 
dix, no. 11. By Francis Winstow, U.S.N. 
Washington, Government, 1882. 87 p., 22 pl., 
3maps. 4°. 

Amone the various investigations of the: U.S. 
coast survey since its organization, the bear- 
ing of which is not confined to their geodetic, 
topographic, or hydrographic relations, the 
present publication is conspicuous. 

By direction of the late superintendent Pat- 
terson in 1878, an investigation of the oyster- 
reefs or natural beds of the Chesapeake and 
vicinity was entered upon by Lieut. Winslow 
with the coast-survey schooner Palinurus. 
The intention was to determine the limits of the 
beds, their hydrographic features, the nature 
of the natural and artificial changes which they 
undergo, and the present distribution of living 
oysters upon them. It was proposed to thor- 
oughly investigate a limited area, subsequent 
extension of the work to all the Chesapeake 
beds to be left for future decision. Under the 
term ‘ Chesapeake ’ we include here not only 
the beds in the waters of the bay specifically 
so called, but those in the extensions of salt 
water from the bay into the various inlets, 
arms, rivers, etc., adjacent to and continuous 
with it. 

Originally the oyster beds or ‘ rocks,’ as 


/ 
SEPTEMBER 28, 1883.] 


they are not inappropriately termed by the 
fishermen, were patches of suitable ground 
upon which these bivalves had lived for ages, 
and, dying, left their shells to be overgrown 
by successive generations. Matted together 
by this living cement, the successive layers of 
dead shells and associated débris gradually 
rose toward the surface, covered with dis- 
torted, misshapen bivalves in masses like those 
of the Floridian *‘ coon oysters.’ These beds 
were separated pretty sharply from the ad- 
jacent muddy bottoms, a differentiation which 
the vertical increase tended to intensify. 
Horizontal increase doubtless took place, but 
very slowly. From an economical stand-point 
the oysters upon these beds were inferior on 
account of their inconvenient shape and exces- 
sive crowding. Among the various conflicting 
statements drawn out by investigations into 
the oyster-industry, one fact seems to be 
generally admitted by fishermen and by ex- 
perts; namely, that a moderate amount of 
dredging over the original ‘ oyster-rocks ’ was 
beneficial. This dredging extended the area 
of the beds, 1°, by dragging the dead shells 
and ‘ cultch’ over upon adjacent muddy bot- 
toms, and placing it where new spat could settle 
and grow; and, 2°, by distributing the living 
oysters more sparsely over the ground, so that 
they had a chance to grow into regular and 
even shape and relatively larger size. It is 
recognized by dealers, — even when the dredg- 
ing has been carried on, as at present is the 
case in the Chesapeake, to a disastrous extent, 
—that the few remaining oysters which are 
obtained are of larger size and finer flavor than 
common. 

Since the trade in oysters began, the beds 
have undergone great changes in area and pro- 
ductiveness, until, at present, in two years, 
on certain beds, the product has diminished in 
the ratio of six to one, the market-price has 
nearly doubled, while the demand is constantly 
increasing. If it were not for supplies re- 
ceived from other sources, the oyster-eaters 
of cities about the Chesapeake would have to 
pay nearly European prices for their favorite 
shell-fish. 

It is true that there are numerous laws on 
the statute-books of Maryland and Virginia ; 
that police steam-launches and men have been 
enlisted and a sort of war enacted, in time 
of peace, by state authorities, — all ostensibly 
in protection of the oyster-beds. Actually the 
laws are a dead letter ; dredging is boldly car- 
ried on in close time before the eyes of the 
‘oyster police,’ without the offenders being 
molested; and the only occasion for active 


SCIENCE. 


441 


measures arises when a Virginia dredger tres- 
passes in Maryland waters, or vice versa. 
Gore is then apparently in demand, but, in 
spite of vehement protestations, turns out 
almost as scarce as oysters. 

It was upon this state of things that Lieut. 
Winslow entered, when he undertook this work 
without previous experience, or any knowledge 
of the biological queStions involved, except 
such as might be gleaned from the valuable little 
work of Moebius on the North Sea fisheries 
of Europe. Many of the observations which 
he was directed to take, are, in the present 
state of our knowledge, productive of no 
definite result, though eventually they may 
prove very useful. Thus, observations of the 
specific gravity and temperature of the water 
at the bottom and surface, when the total 
depth was only a few feet, may be said to be 
almost absolutely fruitless. It is well known 
that our common oyster flourishes in water 
which varies at different seasons from the 
freezing-point to 80° F., and that similar differ- 
ences of specific gravity must occur between 
the extremes of its geographical range. Con- 
sequently the differences, in summer, of frac- 
tions of degrees of temperature in the water 
over oyster-beds, are of no consequence what- 
ever. What these changes of temperature 
may signify, when taken in connection with the 
act of spawning or the development of the 
embryo, is quite another question, purely bio- 
logical, and which can be properly treated only 
by a biological expert of high rank and long 
experience. 

The result of these superfluous observations 
and detailed description of each individual 
bed, even condensed as they are, as far as 
possible, by the author, is to overload the text 
with details of no interest, and thus to obscure 
to the reader the value of the investigation, the 
really interesting facts, and the merits of the 
investigator, which are neither few nor small. 
They will amply repay any one who has 
patience to wade through the mass of details, 
and pick out those of present value, of which 
there are many. Space forbids any attempt 
to summarize them. A large area of the beds 
was delineated, and the approximate number 
of marketable oysters upon them determined. 
Profiles of the beds were obtained in numerous 
instances, and the character of the subsoil, or 
bottom under the beds. determined as were the 
conditions of sedimentation. Nearly all the 
beds examined are described in detail. Valu- 
able biological data were obtained through the 
efforts of Dr. W. K. Brooks and Mr. H. J. 
Rice, most of which have been already made 


442 


public in other ways. Much information on 
the general topic was obtained by questioning 
the fishermen, whose replies, though biassed 
by self-interest, may be set off against one 
another, and a residuum of useful facts ob- 
tained. 


FIG. 1.—LOWER SIDE OF TILE EXPOSED JULY 9-AUG, 2. 
(TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE.) 


To our judgement, apart from the survey and 
delimitation of many oyster-beds, the most 
important results of this investigation are, 1°, 
the determination of the approximate quantity 
of oysters to the square yard over a great 
portion of the beds; and, 2°, the data in regard 
to the rapidity of growth of the young mol- 
lusks as indicated by the tile-collectors, and 
the proportion of mortality among them from 
causes not yet fully explained. The deter- 
mination of the small mollusk Astyris, as an 
enemy of the infant oyster, though not con- 
clusive, is of interest, and, if finally confirmed, 
important. 

The determination of the number of oysters, 
though as a matter of course approximate 
only, is important as giving a point of com- 
parison by which future decrease may be 
measured by repeating the investigation in 
similar fashion. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No, 34. 


There is no doubt that in a comparatively. 
limited time the majority of the Chesapeake 
beds will be practically destroyed, so far as 
producing oysters for a market is concerned. 


_Some forty thousand people will have to seek 


employment in a different field. Probably, 
under the circumstances, this is the best thing 
that could happen; for it is doubtful if any 
less drastic medicine would have the slightest 
effect on the population residing in the vicinity 
of the oyster-beds, who, in the face of all the 
facts, have persisted in setting themselves 
like flint against any modification or check . 
on their career of destruction. ‘The present 
observations on the growth and surviving per- 
centage of young oysters on the tile-collectors 
would have been much fuller and more yalu- 
able, had not the oystermen cut the buoys 
adrift, stolen the thermometers and lines, and 
destroyed such collectors as they could reach 
unseen, with the stupid notion that some reser- 
vation of Neds, or limitation of. fishing, was 
to result from the investigation. ‘Twenty-four 
bundles of tiles were set and buoyed between 
July 1 and 14, and by Aug. 1 all but one were 


FIG. 2.—LOWER SIDE OF TILE EXPOSED JULY 9-AUG,. 28. 
(TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE.) 


removed or destroyed. Fig. 1 represents a 
portion of one of these tiles, which was placed 
in position July 9. On July 19, when first 


SEPTEMBER 28, 1§83.] 


examined, there were a few oysters upon it, 
but so small that a microscope was necessary 
to regognize them. On Aug. 2 it was again 
examined, and the tile of which a portion is 
figured was removed from the bundle. There 
were then from 26 to 348 young oysters on a 
tile ; the total number upon the whole bundle 
was 1,506. 

The third examination was made Aug. 23, 
when it was found the oysters had increased 
very much in size and numbers. On the tiles 
remaining, there were 1,334 oysters. <A tile 
of which a portion is represented in fig. 2 
was then removed. On Oct. 10 the bundle was 
again examined. The oysters had decreased 


fifty-five per cent in numbers; but two-thirds 
of them were now over three-quarters of an 
inch, and two specimens over two inches 
long, though the shells were still extremely 


SCIENCE. 


445 


value of Lieut. Winslow’s work, the intel- 
ligence and assiduity with which it was carried 
on, and the wide field which awaits further 
investigation. 


THE PEBBLES OF SCHLESWIG-HOL- 
STEIN. 

Die sedimentir-geschiebe des provinz Schleswig-Hol- 
stein. Von Dr. C. Gorrscue. Als manuscript 
gedruckt. Yokohama, Lévy § Salabelle, 1883. 
6+66 p., 2 maps. 8°. 

Tuts treatise by Dr. Gottsche, who is at 
present in Yedo, was an accepted thesis for 
admission to the position of private teacher 
at the Kiel university in 1880, printed pri- 
vately in German at Yokohama in 1883, and 
seems to be a very painstaking and pretty 
thorough description of the pebbles, whether 


FIG. $.— UPPER SIDE OF TILE EXPOSED JULY 9-ocT. 10. 


delicate. Part of one of these tiles is repre- 
sented by fig. 5. 

It was thus determined, that in 1879 the at- 
tachment of the young oysters began about 
the middle of July, and continued about a 
month, as after Aug. 20 there were no signs of 
fresh attachments; that fully fifty per cent 
died from natural causes within six weeks, no 
traces of predacious mollusks being noticed 
on the dead shells, though the evidence on 
this point is imperfect; that, the attachments 
being far more profuse on the concave under 
side of the tiles, the spat just previously must 
be on or near the bottom, and must rise to 
attach themselves; lastly, that the rate of 
growth is much more rapid than had _pre- 
viously been supposed, and may reach two 
inches in length in three months. Numerous 
other points of interest may be gleaned from 
the report, for which we have not space. 
Enough has been said, however, to show the 


(TWO-THIRDS NATURAL SIZE.) 


of rocks, minerals, or fossils (seventy-six 
kinds in all), found in four quaternary sedi- 
mentary beds at Kiel, with especial reference 
to the identification of their source, and is 
accompanied by two maps, — one showing 
with straight lines thirty directions in which 
such pebbles of the lowest bed appear to have 
been transported, and the other giving with 
similar lines the dissemination of three partic- 
ular kinds of rock in the same Baltic region. 
Many of the lines are only a couple of hundred 
miles long, but some are six hundred or more, 
The author himself points out that the pebbles 
have not by any means necessarily been car- 
ried along those straight lines; and the place 
of origin may not necessarily have been exactly 
at the points where identical rocks are only 
found at present. Nevertheless the lines show 
that the transfer has in general been from the 
north-east, north, or north-west, and never from 
the westward or southward of Kiel. Of course, 


444 


there need have been no more than two direc- 
tions of movement, south-westerly and south- 
easterly ; for the pebbles carried a part of their 
course in one direction may have been carried 
the rest of the way in the other, and so pro- 
duced any resultant direction between the two; 
or materials carried by floating ice may have 
come in a far more crooked course (and the 
places of origin are all on the shores of the 
Baltic, or on streams flowing into it). The 
lower sedimentary bed, with only a couple of 
exceptions, contains, so far as now known, 
every kind of pebble found in the upper ones, 
so that no inferences can yet be drawn as to 
changes with time in the direction of trans- 
port. The main result would seem then to be, 
that the Kiel sediments have all come from 
more northern parts of the Baltic basin, and 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 34. 


might haye been carried chiefly by floating 
ice, without a climate so very different from 
the present one. 

The author is highly to be commended for 
his liberality in printing his pamphlet of sixty- 
six large octavo pages at his own expense, and 
that, too, in a country where good European 
printing is particularly troublesome. ‘The two 
maps might, perhaps, have been advantageously 
combined in one, if one of the two sets of lines 
had been of a different character (say, dotted 
or broken) or of another color; for the very 
object of cartographic representation is to show 
at one view as much as can possibly be dis- 
tinguished clearly of any given subject, —to as- 
semble for convenient comparison on one sheet 
as many as may be of the scattered facts of 
nature bearing upon any giyen point. 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


ASTRONOMY. 


Spectra of comets observed in 1881.—P. 
Tacchini discusses the varying appearances presented 
by the spectra of the comets b and ¢ 1881, and ac- 
companies his remarks with an extensive series of 
nearly forty lithographed drawings illustrating the 
changes which occurred. These changes, for the 
most part, consist merely in variations of the bright- 

' ness and diffusion of the observed bands, and not in 
any alterations of position. He gives also a single 
figure of the spectrum of Encke’s comet, observed 
the same year, and a set of twenty drawings of the 
comets (b and c) themselves. The paper, with its 
accompanying plates, constitutes an important col- 
lection of observed data; and some slight discre- 
pancies between these representations and those of 
other observers raise interesting questions. — (Mem. 
soc. spettr. ital.) Cc. A. ¥. [263 

Uranus. — Within the last few months, considera- 
ble attention has been paid to this planet, and a 
number of series of observations upon it have been 
published. Safarik (Astr. nachr., 2505), Meyer 
(Astr. nachr., 2524), and Schiaparelli (Astr. nachr., 
2526), all present the results of their measures made 
for the purpose of determining its diameter and 
ellipticity. The observations of Schiaparelli are the 
most numerous and complete. He finds for the 
equatorial diameter of the planet 3.911, and, for 
the polar, 3.555 (both reduced to the mean distance 
19.1826). This gives the ellipticity of the planet 
a> nearly the same as that of Saturn. He also re- 
ports the existence, upon the planet’s disk, of spots 
and changes of color, too faint, however, to admit of 
delineation by means of a telescope of only eight 
inches aperture. In fact, to have seen them at all 
with such an instrument is a most remarkable evi- 
dence of the wonderful clearness of the Italian sky. 


The writer of this notice also made a series of 
observations upon the same object, in May and June, 
with the twenty-three inch equatorial of the Prince- 
ton observatory. Markings upon the planet’s disk 
were unmistakably visible as belts resembling those 
of Jupiter and Saturn. The equatorial diameter 
determined by the writer’s measures is 47.280, and 
the polar, 3”.974, giving an ellipticity of 4. Madler, 
in 1843, obtained 47.304 and 3”.869 for the two 
diameters, and an ellipticity of +). There can no 
longer be any doubt that the planet has a rapid 
rotation nearly in the plane of the satellite-orbits. — 
Cc. A. Y. [264 
MATHEMATICS. 


Perimeter of the ellipse.— Mr. Thomas Muir, 
referring to arecent article by M. Mansion, infers that 
the following formula, which he has known for some 
time, for calculating approximately the perimeter of 
an ellipse, has not yet been published. Denoting as 
usual by a and b the semi-axes of the ellipse, the 
expression for the perimeter is 


or, the perimeter of an ellipse is approximately equal 
to the perimeter of a circle whose radius is the semi- 
cubic mean between the semi-axes of the ellipse. — 
(Mess. math., xii. no. 10.) T. c. [265 

Calculus of variations.— The general problem 
of the calculus of variations is to find the variation 
of an n-tuple integral of a function of n independ- 
ent variables, and of depending also upon a number 
of arbitrary functions of these variables, together 
with the differential coefficients of the functions. 
M. Picart in his paper, which he entitles Theorie nou- 
velle du calcul des variations, confines his attention 
to a triple integral containing only one arbitrary 


SEPTEMBER 28, 1883.] 


function, and golves several of the more fundamen- 
tal problems connected with the determination under 
various conditions of the variation of the integral. In 
particular, he shows how the problem of relative maxi- 
ma orminima can be conducted to that of absolute 
maxima or minima. — (Nouv. ann. math., Feb.) T. c. 
(266 

PHYSICS. 

(Photography.) 

Photographing Reichenbach’s flames.— The 
question of the actual existence of these flames, sur- 
rounding the poles of powerful magnets, has again 
been brought up for discussion in scientific circles. 
Numerous persons have claimed to be able to see 
them, and some even to be able to distinguish be- 
tween the poles and the color of the flames. Rei- 
chenbach himself attempted to photograph them by 
the daguerrotype process, but was apparently dis- 
satisfied with the results he obtained. Mr. William 
Brooks has taken the matter up, and thinks he has 
obtained actual impressions of the flames, by means 
of photography, on sensitive dry plates prepared 
especially for the purpose. In total darkness a per- 
forated blackened card was placed one-eighth of an 
inch above the poles of a permanent horseshoe- 
magnet, and a sensitive plate placed an eighth of an 
inch above the card. With five minutes exposure he 
obtained a result; and this was repeated many times, 
the most remarkable thing being, that sometimes 
he obtained a positive and sometimes a negative 
image, under precisely the same conditions. Another 
curious effect obtained was, that some printed matter, 
which was under the wash of Indian ink used to 
blacken the card, was perfectly readable when the 
plate was developed. This latter result, however, 
was obtained on only one occasion. He also suc- 
ceeded in obtaining prints through a glass plate on 
which were painted figures in black varnish. This 
was contrary to the experience of Reichenbach, 
who considered that the rays were not transmitted 
through glass. —w. H. P. [267 

Hydrokinone.— Of this new developer, first in- 
troduced by Capt. Abney, Mr. Charles Ehrmann says, 
“The best results I have obtained with ten grains 
of hydrokinone to eight ounces of water, and caustic 
ammonia (1 to 7) added gradually as the develop- 
ment progressed. ‘The negatives are of a non-actinic 
color, similar in tone to one slightly intensified with 
uranium and prussiate of potash; therefore the devel- 
opment need not be carried on very far, thus preserv- 
ing all finer modulations. An injudicious amount 
of alkali will produce green fog.’? —(Phot. times, 
July.) 

Of this same developer, Mr. Edwin Banks claims 
that it is much more powerful than pyro, and that it 
will bring out a fully developed picture with at least 
half the exposure that is necessary when pyro is em- 
ployed. At first sight this seems strange, when it is 
observed how much more powerfully the latter absorbs 
oxygen; but the explanation probably lies in the fact 
that hydrokinone is more gradual in its action, and 
has a greater selective power, than pyro. With a 
collodio-bromide film, for instance, which is not so 


SCIENCE. 


445 


much protected from chemical action as one of gela- 
tine, pyrogallic acts with such energy when mixed 
with an alkali, that the whole film is reduced imme- 
diately, and no image, or only a faint one enveloped 
in fog, appears: hence a powerful restrainer must be 
used to keep this action within bounds. A soluble 
bromide, which is the salt commonly used, has this 
effect, but, unfortunately, at the same time partially 
undoes the work which the light has done, rendering 
it necessary to give a longer exposure. But with hy- 
drokinone no restrainer is necessary, unless a great 
error in exposure has been made. It does its work 
rapidly and cleanly, in this respect resembling ferrous 
oxalate. It does not discolor during development so 
much as pyro, and consequently does not stain the film 
so much, whilst full printing vigor is very easily 
obtained without having to resort to intensification. 
The color and general appearance of the negative are 
more like those of a wet plate, since the shadows 
remain quite clear, and free from fog. It seems 
almost impossible to fog a plate with it. One grain 
of hydrokinone to the ounce is strong enough for 
most purposes. With some samples of hard gelatine 
it is advisable to use two; but with most kinds and 
with collodion, one grain is sufficient. Two or three 
drops of a saturated solution of washing-soda to the 
ounce of the hydrokinone solution rapidly develops 
the image, and the addition of a few drops more to 
complete development is all that is needed. A 
soluble bromide acts very powerfully as a retarder 
and restrainer. With a mere trace added, develop- 
ment is very much slower. —(Brit. journ. phot., 
July 6.) W. H. P. [268 


ENGINEERING. 


Sources of error in spirit-levelling. — Precise 
levelling in this country has been done by the U.S. 
lake survey, which has determined the elevation of 
all the great lakes with a probable error of less than 
one foot; by the coast and geodetic survey, which is 
carrying a line of leyels across the continent from 
Chesapeake Bay to San Francisco; and by the Mis- 
sissippi River commission, which has a line from the 
Gulf as far north as central Iowa, to be connected with 
Lake Michigan, and thence with the sea-level at New 


. York. Mr. J. B. Johnson has been connected with 


some nine hundred miles of this work, and discusses 
the sources of error. He first classifies errors into com- 
pensating and cumulative. Then he treats them as, 
1°, errors of observation, in the instrument or in the 
rod; 2°, errors from instrumental adjustment ; 3°, 
errors from unstable supports ; 4°, atmospheric errors, 
from wind, from tremulousness of the air caused by 
difference of temperature, and from variable refrac- 
tion. He concludes, that, with good instruments and 
proper care, thirty miles of line should be duplicated a 
month with one Y-level and a target-rod, and all 
discrepancies brought within five-hundredths of a 
foot into the square root of the distance in miles; or 
with the U.S. precise levels and speaking-rods, read- 
ing three horizontal wires, one instrument should 
bring the discrepancies within two-hundredths of a 
foot into the square root of the distance in miles. 


446 


The Mississippi River levels have been well within this 


limit. — (Journ. assoc. eng. soc., March.) Cc. E. @. 
[269 
GEOLOGY. 
Lithology. 


Gold in limestone. — According to Prof. C. A. 
Schaeffer, gold occurs in a ferruginous cretaceous lime- 
stone from Williamson county, Tex. This rock lies 
near the surface, and fifty-two samples procured in 
situ by him ayeraged $15.20. Twenty contained no 
gold, while thirty-two assayed from $1.00 up to $231.50 
perton. He regards the gold as having originally 
existed in the limestone in pyrite, which has since 
been removed and the gold locally concentrated. — 
(Trans. Amer. inst. min. eng., Boston meeting.) 
M. E. W. [270 

The Ottendorf basalt.— Rudolf Scharizer dis- 
cusses the occurrence, microscopic and chemical com- 
' position, of this Silesian (Austria) basalt, its alteration, 
and contact phenomena with the grauwake-sand- 
stone. The paper is quite full of chemical analyses. 
Olivine, somewhat serpentinized, is the predominat- 
ing mineral, enclosed in a ground-mass of augite, 
Magnetite, biotite, anorthite, nepheline, etc. The 
chemical analysis indicates that the rock is closely 
allied to the peridotites, if it does not belong to them. 
—(Jahrb. geol? reich., xxxii. 471.) 

The same journal contains an extended paper by 
Messrs. Tellergand John, on the geological and litho- 
logical characters of the dioritic rocks of Klausen in 
the South Tyrol, a series of very diverse rocks in- 
eluding gabbros or norites. — (Ibid., 589.) M. E. w. 

[271 


METEOROLOGY. 


The rain-storm in Ontario on July 10.— The 
Canadian meteorological service has made a special 
investigation of this storm, which caused such un- 
usual destruction in the vicinity of London, Ontario. 
Observations from over one hundred observers were 
received and studied. The isobaric curves show only 
such undulations as generally accompany showers 
and thunder-storms in the summer season; and there 
was nothing in the maps to warrant the expectation 
of any storm, beyond the ‘local showers’ which were 
officially predicted, and which occurred in other parts 
of Ontario. The fluctuations in barometric pressure 
were hardly appreciable, and there was but little 
wind. Indeed, the only peculiarity of the storm was 
the unaccountable and unexpected precipitation, 
which exceeded four inches where the maximum 
occurred. This amount was recorded in an elliptical 
area of country, extending in a direction about north- 
west and south-east, and covering a territory of about 
twenty by fifty miles. The devastation at London 
was due to the fact that the two branches of the 
Thames River, which there unite, approach from 
nearly contrary directions, the river flowing away 
nearly at right angles tothe branches, The question 
is therefore raised, whether it would not be advisable 
to divert one of the branches, that it may meet the 
other at an acute angle, and thus lessen the prob- 
ability of a repetition of the catastrophe. The need 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 34. 


of an increased number of rainfall observers is 
pointed out, that means may be afforded for exten- 
sive study into the little-known subject of the course 
and causes of local rains. —(Can. weath. rev., July.) 
W. U. [272 
GEOGRAPHY. 
(Alpina.) 

Ascent of Indrapura, Sumatra.— An account is 
recently published of the persevering and first suc- 
cessful attempt of Veth and Van Hasselt, several 
years ago (1877), to ascend this highest of the Suma- 
tran voleanoes. They had to choose a way through 
the dense forest of the lower slopes, and over the 
sharp, loose rocks nearer the summit; and sudden 
heavy rains caused them much delay, so that eight 
days were spent in reaching the highest point, 
although the rim of the crater was gained a day ear- 
lier. Elephant-tracks were not found above 1,500 
met., rhinoceros-tracks not above 2,600 ; but wild 
goats had been on the very summit. Above 2,500 
met., large trees were absent; and above 3,000 only a 
few plants had found place to grow on the naked yol- 
canic rocks. The barometer read 482.4 mm., and 
the thermometer, 8° C., corresponding to a height of 
about 38,700 metres. The surrounding country had 
the appearance of a uniform forest wilderness, occa- 
sionally broken by volcanic peaks and ranges, and 
showing a cultivated region by its lighter color in the 
distance near the coast. A deep crater lay within the 
sharp, ragged walls ; several streams ran down to a 
pool at the bottom, a thousand metres below the rim, 
whence sulphurous vapors and clouds of steam rose 
into the great caldron. The volcano was in eruption 
in 1842, when described by Junghuhn. The descent 
was accomplished without serious difficulties. — 
(Deutsche geogr. blatter, vi. 1883, 130.) w.M.D. 

[273 
(South America.) 

Bolivian rivers.—On the occasion of Dr. E. R. 
Heath’s account of his exploration of the Beni and 
other rivers flowing from the Andes north-eastward 
to the Amazon system, Mr. C. R. Markham, secretary 
of the Royal geographical society, gave a general 
description of the region, part of which he had 
visited in 1853. The mountains in which the rivers 


‘rise are part of the eastern range of the Andes, 


rising into great peaks like Illimani and Illampu, to 
a height exceeding 21,000 feet, with fossiliferous silu- 
rian rocks up to their summits. To the west is 
the great interior plateau of the Titicaca basin; to the 
east, the rivers descend, bearing gold gravels to the 
great plains, covered with unbroken forest. This 
eastern region has been very little explored; and the 
india-rubber and cinchona bark gathered about the 
upper streams are carried westward over the moun- 
tains to the Pacific ports, rather than down the rivers 
to the Amazon and the Atlantic. Markham sketches 


ies 


the history of exploration here from the time of the » 


Inca expedition in the fifteenth century to the expe- 
ditions of Maldonado down the Amarumayu in 1866, 
and Heath down the Beni in 1880; these being the 
only travellers who have followed the rivers down to 
their junction. Dr. Heath mapped the whole course 


SEPTEMBER 28, 1883.] 


of the Beni with great care, taking astronomical 
observations, and measuring the width, depth, and 
velocity of the water. On reaching the Madeira, as 
the river is called below the junction of the Beni and 
Mamoré, he ascended the latter to Exaltacion, and 
then followed Yacuma, and crossed the country be- 
yond its source to Reyes again on the Beni, where 
his return was celebrated by a public reception and a 
special mass. The people here were greatly excited 
over his report on the number of rubber-trees in the 
country he had passed through; and’ from 185 men 
engaged in collecting 104,000 pounds of rubber in 1880, 
the number increased to 644 in four months, and must 
now reach one or two thousand. From Reyes he 
ascended the Beni to La Paz. His report is very 
brief, and contains little beyond an itinerary ; rapids 
and rocks are occasionally mentioned, and a few 
lakes were passed, but there is no material given 
toward a physical description of the country.—( Proc. 
roy. geogr. soc., V. 1883, 313, map. [Dr. Heath’s paper 
is also given in the Bull. Amer. geogr. soc., 1882, 
no. 3.]) W. M. D. [274 
BOTANY. 

American smuts. — Farlow, in some notes on Us- 
tilagineae, gives the first account of American Entylo- 
mata, his list including eight species, one only of 
which appears under another genus in earlier lists. 
Four of these are, for the present, described as new, 
though two may prove to be identical with species 
growing on the same host genera, in other countries. 
One is doubtfully considered to be a form of a Euro- 
pean species; the balance occur also in the old world. 
Two American species of Cornu’s new genus Doas- 
sansia— D. Farlowii Cornu and D. epilobii Farlow — 
are recorded; the former in the ovaries of Potamoge- 
ton, the latter.in leaves of Epilobium. — (Bot. gazette, 
Aug.) Ww. T. (275 

Pertilization of Leptospermum.—In a fourth 
paper on the indigenous plants of Sydney, E. Havi- 
land considers the structure of the reproductive organs 
of this genus and its mode of fertilization. Cross-fer- 
tilization is regarded as probably the rule, brought 
about, 1°, by the difference in the times of maturing 
of the anthers and stigma; and, 2°, by changes in 
their relative positions. — (Zinn. soc. N. S. Wales; 
meeting June 27.) [276 

ZOOLOGY. 


Mollusks, 

Astarte triquetra Conrad. — This minute and 
peculiar shell, recently rediscovered by Mr. Hemp- 
. hill in Florida, but described by Conrad more than 
thirty years ago, proves to be a new form, Callicistro- 
nia, perhaps related to Tivela, with a small sinus in 
the pallial line, two large cardinal teeth in one valve, 
and one in the other. It isviviparous. More than 
fifty young ones were found in a single specimen, re- 
ealling the habit of Psephis. —w. nH. D. [277 

Anatomy of Urocyclus.— Dr. Paul Fischer has 
examined the soft parts of Urocyclus longicauda F. 
from Madagascar. The digestive tract resembles that 
of Parmacella and Limax. There is a large mucus- 
vesicle analogous to the vestibular prostate in Parma- 
cella, Tennentia, and Ariophanta. Otherwise the 


SCIENCE. 


447 


reproductive organs resemble those of Helicarion, 
and a slug described in detail by Keferstein under 
the name of Parmarion in 1866, and which proves to 
be a true Urocyclus. This genus is African, while 
Parmarion is of Asiatic and East-Indian distribution. 
Urocyelus has an oxygnathous arcuate jaw, a rha- 
chidian, thirty-nine lateral and thirteen uncinal teeth 
in one hundred and twenty-five rows. Dendrolimax 
of Heynemann appears to differ from Urocyclus 
merely in the absence of the mucus-vesicle, and will 
fall into synonymy. — (Journ. de conchyl., xxii. 4.) 
W. H. D. {278 
VERTEBRATES. 
Reptiles. 

Nerve-endings in the caudal skin of tad- 
poles.— The epidermis of the skin of tadpoles has 
two layers of cells. In the deeper cells, on the tail, 
appear peculiar bodies, first seen by Eberth (Arch. 
mikros. anat., ii. 90) and Leydig (Fortschr. naturf. 
ges. Halle, 1879, taf. ix, fig. 32). The latter compared 
the bodies in question with the nettles of lasso-cells, 
giving to the cells containing the bodies the strange 
name of ‘byssuszellen.’ Pfitzner (Morph. jahrb. vii. 
727) showed that these bodies are united with nerve- 
filaments, every one of the cells being so supplied. 
The nerves of the skin had been studied by Eberth 
(l.c.) and Hensen (Virchow’s arch., xxxi. 51; Arch. 
mikros. anat., iv.,11). Caniniand Gaule have studied 
the subject afresh, rectifying and supplementing the 
previous writers. The bodies in the basal epidermal 
cells appear as thick rods curved into bizarre and 
varying shapes. Each is connected with a nerve-fila- 
ment (sometimes, but not always, as maintained by 
Pfitzner, two filaments run to one cell), The filaments 
descend through the gelatinous corium (cutis), to 
unite just below with a thick nucleated network of 
threads, which, from their reactions, are regarded as 
nervous tissue, and distinct from the cojacent plexus 
of connective-tissue corpuscles. This network, again, 
is connected with a deeper-lying, coarser plexus, cor- 
responding to Ranvier’s plexus fondamentale. These 
peculiar end-organs are not found, except in the tail: 
they are probably sensory, but Gaule hesitates to 
deny Leydig’s interpretation. — (Arch. anat. physiol., 
physiol. abth., 1888, 149.) c. s. M. [279 

Birds, 

Xenicidae, a new family. — On dissection of a 
specimen of Xenicus longipes and one of Acanthositta 
chloris, Mr. Forbes found the syrinx to be strictly 
mesomyodian. On account of this, the long tenth 
primary and the non-bilaminate tarsus, the birds are 
removed from the vicinity of Sitta as a family, Xen- 
icidae, of non-oscinine Passeres in the vicinity of 
the Pittidae. —(Proc. zodl. soc. Lond., 1882, 569.) 
J. Ad, {280 

Anatomy of the todies. — After a‘careful exami- 
nation of the structure of this group, Mr. Forbes con- 
cludes that the todies are an isolated form of anomal- 
ogonatous birds, with no clear affinity to any living 
group. He therefore proposes to raise them to the 
group Todiformes, equivalent to the Passeri, or Pici- 
formes.—( Proc. zodl. soc. Lond., 1882, 443.) J. A. J. 

(281 


448 


Illinois birds. — Nehrling continues his annotated 
list of Illinois birds in the full and learned manner 
so distinctive of German work. The present instal- 
ment contains thirty-nine species, from the bobolink 
to the great horned owl inclusive.—(Journ. f. ornith., 
xxxi. 84.) J. A.J. [282 


Mammals, 

The os intermedium of the foot. — Dr. Karl Bar- 
deleben gives a résumé of his observations upon the 
bones of the foot. A well-developed intermedium is 
present in many species of marsupials, but not in all. 
Its presence in a given species does not always imply 
its existence in closely allied species. For example: 
it oceurs in Chironectes variegatus, but not in C. 
palmatus. ‘The bone varies in size from one centi- 
metre to a fraction of a millimetre. It does not ex- 
ist in marsupials of which the hand has undergone 
regressive alterations, e.g., Halmaturus Bennetti, 
H. giganteus, ete. The separation of an intermedi- 
um is indicated in the monotremes, many edentates, 
as well as in the genera Elephas, Hippopotamus, and 
Tapirus, by a fissure, more or less deep, in the as- 
tragalus. Dr. Bardeleben suggests the name ‘os 
trigonum’ for the bone in question. — (Zool. anz., no. 
139.) ¥F. W. T. ; [283 

Odontoblasts and dentine.— R. R. Andrews 
has studied the development of teeth in pig embryos, 
and publishes the remarkable conclusion that the 
odontoblasts entirely disappear, forming the matrix 
of the dentine, and have nothing to do with the den- 
tinal fibrils, which he claims arise from deeper lay- 
ers, probably from nerve-fibres. (We are not prepared 
to agree with these views.) —(N. E£. journal of den- 
tistry, ii. 193.) Cc. S. M. [284 


(Man.) 

Measurements of the depth of sleep. — Two of 
Vierordt’s pupils, Monninghoff and Piesbergen, have 
made the depth of sleep the subject of an investiga- 
tion. They worked upon the principle that the 
depth of sleep is proportional to the strength of the 
sensory stimulus necessary to awaken the sleeper, 
that is, to call forth some decisive sign of awakened 
consciousness. As a sensory stimulus they made 
use of the auditory sensation produced by dropping 
a lead ball from a given height. The strength of the 
stimulus was reckoned, in accordance with some re- 
cent investigations of Vierordt, as increasing, not 
directly as the height, but as the 0.59 power of the 
height. For a perfectly healthy man, the curve 
which they give shows that for the first hour the 
slumber is very light; after 1 hour and 15 minutes, 
the depth of sleep increases rapidly, and reaches its 
maximum point at 1 hour and 45 minutes; the curve 
» then falls quickly to about 2 hours 15 minutes, and 
afterwards more gradually. At about 4 hours 30 
minutes, there is a second small rise which reaches 
its maximum at 5 hours 30 minutes, after which the 
curve again gradually approaches the base line until 
the time of awakening. Experiments made upon 
persons not perfectly healthy, or after having made 
some exertion, gave curves of a different form.— 
(Zeitsch. f. biol., xix. 114.) Ww. u. H. [285 


SCIENCE. 


[Vor. IL, No. 34 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


Notes on Mitla.—In July, 1881, Mr. Louis H. 
Aymé visited the ruins of Mitla, which lie in Oaxaca 
directly south of Vera Cruz. Mitla is not so grand, 
so magnificent, as Uxmal; but it has a beauty of its 
own, as it nestles quietly at the foot of the mighty 
mountains, the ruins of grim ‘ Fortin’ standing sharp 
against the evening sky; and, as the sun sinks, one 
might fancy he heard the weird chant of the priests, 
the lament of the mourners for the dead who rest in 
Lyobaa, the Centre of Rest. Appended to M. Aymé’s 
itinerary is a translation by Mr. S. Salisbury, jun., of 
the description of Mitla, by Francisco de Burgoa, 
written in 1674. Then follows a report of the various 
buildings constituting the north and south groups, 
which for detailed statement and brevity is a model 
archeological document. Mr. Aymé is able to correct 
some of the errors of his predecessors. It is gratify- 
ing to quote the following: ‘‘ The buildings are care- 
fully looked after by the government, and have an 
intelligent guardian in the person of Don Felix 
Juero.”? Comparing the present account with Bur- 
goa’s, Mr. Aymé concludes that in 1644 the ruins 
were practically as they are to-day. — (Proc. Amer. 
antiq. soc., li. 82.) J. W. P. [286 

The Olmecas and the Tultecas. — Mr. Philipp J. 
J. Valentini gives some very cogent reasons for think- 
ing that the sanguine hopes of the decipherers of Amer- 
ican hieroglyphics will never meet the realization of 
those who unrayelled the sacred languages of Egypt 
and Mesopotamia. Except for the wonderful similar- 
ity which early Mexican civilization bears to that of the 
ancient nations of the eastern hemisphere, only a frac- 
tion of the workers could have been induced to under- 
take the labor. The right way to treat these matters 
is to moderate our expectations. With such motive, 
the author then endeavors to fix the main epochs, and 
to inquire who were the Olmecas and the Tultecas. 
‘The former search results in fixing the dates of all we 
know concerning Mexican history between the years 
232 and 1521 of the Christian. era. Mexican history 
begins with the record of a race of giants, the Qui- 
name, or Quinametin, who are claimed to have been 
a people of Maya origin, found by the Nahuatls on 
the Atoyac River, when they were migrating south- 
ward. When the name of the Olmecas appears in 
the early Mexican records of the Nahoas, we must 
not hesitate to recognize in them that people east of 
Anahuae who spread along the Atlantic slopes and 
south through Yucatan, Tabasco, and the whole of 
Guatemala, and whom we designate to-day by the 
collective name of Maya. No nation, empire, or 
language of Tultecas ever existed. The Tultee exo- 
dus is shown to refer to the migrations of the Colhuas 
who shared with the Mexicans the rule of the up- 
lands. Their journey to Culiacan was not from the 
Pueblos, but from the borders of the Gulf of Mexico. 
— (Proc. Amer. antig. soc., ii. 1938-230.) J. w.P. [287 

Worth-eastern Borneo and the Sulu Islands, — 
Although north-eastern Borneo is close to the Sulu 
group, there is a great difference in the people. The 
Sulus are Malays, with a considerable infusion of 
Arab and Chinese blood. The Bajaws,or sea-gypsies, 


SEPTEMBER 28, 1883.] 


lead a nomadic life in their boats, each boat contain- 
ing an entire household. The Sulus are divided into 
coast Sulus and the Orang Gumber, living among the 
hills, and they are much above the Bajaws in char- 
acter. The latter are stronger in physique, but timid 
and treacherous. On the coast-line of Borneo is an 
extraordinary mixture. At Melapi, sixty miles up 
the Kina Batangan, are Sundyaks, Malays, Javanese, 
Sulus, Bajaws, Bugis, Chinese, Arabs, Klings, and 
many others ; while of the Buludupies, the indige- 
nous inhabitants, there are hardly any of pure blood 


SCIENCE. 


449 


left. These indigenes are an interesting people, 
their ancestry showing distinct signs of a Caucasian 
type. The rest of north-eastern Borneo is inhabited 
by tribes of the race styled Eriaans, Dusuns, or Sun- 
dyaks, who are of Dyak blood, with perhaps an infu- 
sion of Chinese. The Chinese language, dress, etc., 
are entirely lost, however. Slavery of aclan or feudal 
type is universal, and the Mohammedan religion pre- 
vails. The Sundyaks are divided into many tribes, 
some of which are gaining in power. Cf. i, 552,— 
(Proc. roy. geogr. soc., v. 90.) J. W. P. {288 


INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 


PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS. 
Dudley observatory, Albany, N.Y. 

Comet b, 1888 ( Brooks). — By means of observations 
secured at the Dudley observatory on Sept. 5, 9, and 
18, I derived on the 19th the following parabolic 
elements, marked I, The remarkable similarity of 
these elements to those given by Schulhof and Bos- 
sert for the Pons comet of 1812 pointed unmistakably 
to their identity. The elliptic elements of the Pons 
comet (here marked II.) are transcribed from the 
memoir of Schulhof and Bossert (p. 150), except that 
they are reduced to the mean ecliptic and equinox of 
1883.0, and a value of 7, derived from observations 
of the present apparition, is substituted. 

I. I. 
7T=1884, Jan., 25.788 (G.M.T.). | 7’=1884, Jan:, 25.696 (G.M.T.). 
Nod Ser lat a See ane . 254° 9/8 


C Ser ‘ MOOG es eu aaye 
Node to perihelion . 199 14 .4| Node to peribelion . 199 12.9 
Inclination . + 74 47.1| Inclination . - 74 03.3 
Log. g. *. 9.87944 | Log. g. . . . 9.88930 
Eccentricity . 0.95527 


The value of 7 in II. was determined by approxi- 
mation from the observation of Sept. 5. The re- 
maining observations do not indicate any important 
change in its value. The following ephemeris results 
from elements II. The geocentric positions are re- 
ferred to the mean equinox of 1883.0. 


Greenwich, 12 hours. a & Log. a \Light. 
1 ma, Seat Pal (ied Ud 
Sept. 2. . . .. . «| 16 36 87] 65 03.0 | 0.8725 .03 
Soe NOLS rhe bt sa. oR pace, 2 19 | 64 13.9 | 0.3648 | .03 
rar 10's 29 06 | 63 23.0 | 0.3569 04 
eee . 26 53) 62 381.1 | 0.8487 | .04 
Ss: 18. | 25 37/61 38.3 | 0.3400 04 
32. 25 15) 60 45.2 | 0.3310 +05 
01) 28 25 45 | 59 52.4 | 0.8215 -05 
SL 27 «+O1) 58 59.6 | 0.8115 06 
Oct. 4. 29 06 | 58 07.5 | 0.3009 06 
ie. 31 57 | 57 16.5 | 0.2897 07 
a 35 32 | 56 26.5 | 0.2779 08 
Cate 39 52) 55 37.6 | 0.2653 08 
1 20°, 44 56) 54 49.9 | 0.2518 09 
8 OE o 50 47 | 54 03.8 | 0.2377 10 
28. 57 25 | 58 17.8 | 0.2226 | .12 
Nov. M1). 17 04 53/52 33.3 | 0.2065 | .14 
le et? =F = 18 15 | 51 49.6 | 0.1893 | .16 
et 22 34/51 06.0 | 0.1708 | .19 
cat Ear a 32 56/50 22.4 | 0.1512 22 
ConlT y le 44 26 | 49 37.0 | 0.1302 26 
alee. 3 . 57 14 | 48 49.4 | 0.1077 32 
id 5 18 11 27] 47 57.1 | 0.0836 38 
Oo 2D va 27 16 | 46 58.1 | 0.0580 46 
Dee . . . 44 50 | 45 43.2 | 0.0300 a7 


In the light scale, .19 corresponds to that of dis- 
covery in 1812, and 1.00 to the time when the comet 
was reported as visible to the naked eye in the appari- 
tion of 1812. The places of the above ephemeris 
represent the observations already made within about 
30” in each co-ordinate, and with a very uniform 
minus value of ‘c-o’ throughout. This seems to be 
the fault of the elliptic elements. Any considerable 
change in the time of perihelion passage diminishes 
the discrepancy in one co-ordinate at the expense of 
the other. 

It is remarkable that the present comet should have 
been picked up when its light ratio was six times as 
small as it was at discovery, in 1812. It was then 
regarded as a faint object. Were it not for the over- 
whelming testimony from other sources, one might 


’ doubt, on the ground of brightness, the identity be- 


tween the present comet and that of 1812. The fol- 
lowing rough ephemeris may be of interest : — 
! | | 
| a & wom a : & |Light. 
| 
/ | j 
1888. | A.m. oo | 1984. h. m. ® 
Dec. 3.) 18 45)+ 45.7) 6 Feb. 1.) 0 34/—283 2.3 
“13 «| 1987) +417) 1.0 |! “ 11 .| 1 02)—37.2 | 1.5 
“© 93 .| 20 41|+ 33.9) 18 || ‘ 21 .| 1 23|—43.7 | 1.0 
1884. 
Jan. 2 .| 21-58) + 22.1) 3.5 ||Mar.2 .| 1 43/—48.5  .6 
«Jo2) 23 01) + 2:5] 41 |) © 12 .| 2 02)/—58.0 | 4 
© 92 ,| 23 53|—15.2} 3.0 || “ 22 ‘| 2 26|/—56.2 |) 4 


The identity of the Pons comet of 1812 with comet 
b, 1883, was announced in an ‘associated press’ de- 
spatch from the Dudley observatory on the evening 


of Sept. 19. Lewis Boss. 
Sept. 21, 1883. 


Massachusetts institute of technology, Boston, Mass. 


Extension of the course in biology. — Advantage is 
at once to be taken of the extension inthe building 
accommodations, and the improvement in the finan-* 
cial resources of the institute, to greatly enlarge the 
space heretofore given to biological work, and to in- 
crease the instructing staff of this department of the 
school. 

The removal of the physical laboratory to the new 
building on Clarendon Street affords the long-desired 
opportunity for the expansion of the biological labora- 
tory, heretofore confined to a single small room in the 


450 


low brick annex. The large north room (90x28 ft.) 
on the first floor of the main institute building (the 
Rogers Building), with its admirable light and its 
many facilities, will be devoted to the purposes of the 
natural-history course, and will be fitted up with ap- 
propriate apparatus and instruments. Within a short 
time, it is also anticipated that a room in the base- 
ment (being one of those now occupied by the chemical 
or by the metallurgical department) will be available 
for use in dissections and in the coarser work of a 
biological laboratory. 

Dr. W. T. Sedgwick, a graduate of the Sheffield 
scientific school, and recently connected with the 
biological department of the Johns Hopkins univer- 
sity, having been appointed assistant professor of 
biology, will assume charge of the biological labora- 
tory at the opening of the next school year, and will 
give the instruction in physiology, botany, and general 
biology, now provided for in the regular courses of the 
institute, especially in the so-called natural-history 
course, as well as take charge of the work of special 
students in these branches. 

The instruction given in geology by Professor Niles, 
and in zodlogy and paleontology by Professor Hyatt, 
will be continued. Mr. W. O. Crosby has been ap- 
pointed assistant professor of mineralogy and lith- 
ology, and will hereafter give, throughout the school 
year, the instruction which has heretofore been 
confined to a single term. The advantages of the 
extension of the chemical and physical laboratories, 
abundantly provided for in the new building of the 
institute, will be enjoyed by the students of the natu- 


ral-history course, in common with those of the other. 


regular courses. 

In view of the foregoing enlargement of facilities 
and opportunities for study and research in the 
branches especially embraced in this course, it is rec- 
ommended to students looking forward either to be- 
coming naturalists, or to the subsequent study and 
practice of medicine. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


The comet recently detected by W. R. Brooks at 
Phelps, N.Y., has become an object of unusual in- 
terest since its identification with the comet of 1812, 
the return of which has been anticipated about 
this time. Mr. Brooks first noticed the comet as a 
suspicious object on the night of Sept. 1, and di- 
rected the attention of astronomers to it, after a 
second observation. During the first half of Septem- 
ber it was repeatedly observed at various places; but 
its great distance and consequently slow movement 
made it difficult to obtain trustworthy approxima- 
tions to its orbit, and thus delayed the recognition of 
its character. Its identity with the comet of 1812 
was' first announced, so far as we are informed at 
present, by the Rev. George M. Searle of New York, 
in a letter published on Sept. 18. A communication 
from him to Harvard college observatory, with which 
he was formerly connected, was received there on 
the morning of Sept. 20, and contained a statement 
of the process by which he reached the interesting 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 34. 


conclusion previously announced. This consisted in 
determining, from the positions of the Brooks comet, 
the corresponding points of intersection with Encke’s 
orbit of 1812; the result for the time of perihelion 
passage being 1884, Jan., 25.17, and the longitude of 
the perihelion being closely accordant with that given 
by Encke. 

Professor Boss of the Dudley observatory, as will 
be seen on an earlier page, arrived independently at 
the same conclusion by computing parabolic elements 
from observations of Sept. 5, 9, and 18, which exhib- 
ited a close similarity with those of the orbit of 
1812. The circular which he has issued upon the 
subject states that he communicated his result to the 
associated press on the evening of Sept. 19. 

The communication of Father Searle to Harvard 
college observatory, already mentioned, induced Mr. 
Chandler to examine the question, with the aid of the 
most recent observations. The result was to furnish 
further confirmation of the asserted identity; and 
the positions obtained at the observatory as late as 
Sept. 22 make it still more evident. The difference 
between the observed place and that resulting from 
the orbit of 1812, as corrected by the recent publica- 
tion of Schulhof and Bossert, but with the time of 
perihelion passage assumed as 1884, Jan., 25.780, is as 
follows : — 

Diff. R.A. — 08.1. 
“Decl. + 66”. 

This agreement is entirely within the uncertainty 
of the orbit of 1812, from the old observations. 

The comet has also exhibited phenomena of great 
interest in regard to the development of its structure 
by its approach to the sun. When first observed this 
year, it was a very faint and small nebulous object, 
but the appearance of a stellar nucleus was noted at 
Harvard college observatory by Mr. Wendell on Sept. 
3. The nucleus was afterwards less distinct. This 
may have been due to unfavorable conditions of ob- 
servation, or it may possibly indicate a preliminary 
series of changes like those which the comet has just 
exhibited. On Sept. 21, as seen at Harvard college 
observatory, the comet was still very faint. A slight 
condensation at one place could be seen with the large 
equatorial, but this could hardly be called stellar. 
The next night, Sept. 22, the appearance of the comet 
had so completely changed that it was difficult fo 
believe it the same object previously seen. It now re- 
sembled a star nearly as bright as one of the eighth 
magnitude. Very little nebulosity could be detected 
about it, but some was seen early in the evening, 
while the comet was sufficiently high in the sky. 
During the evening it appeared to be gaining percep- 
tibly in brightness. The next night, Sept. 25, it was 
seen at times between clouds, and was found to have 
again changed its appearance. It was now eyen 
brighter than before (although still slightly inferior 
to a star of the eighth magnitude), but it had lost 
its stellar appearance, and had become blurred, re- 
gaining the ordinary character of a cometic nucleus. 
Traces of the development of a tail were also percep- 
tible. Therapidity of this series of changes is very 
unusual, if not unexampled. 


(O—C.) 


SEPTEMBER 28, 1883.] 


The comet will doubtless become visible to the na- 
ked eye, and will prove an interesting object, although 
it cannot at present be confidently expected to rival 
the fine comets of recent years in apparent dimen- 
sions and brilliancy. 

— Nordenskiold has returned from his exploration 
of the interior of Greenland, without fully effecting 
his purpose. From the contradictory reports that 
have been published by the daily press, we gather 
that he entered the interior from Auleitsivik Bay, 
near Disco Island, and himself penetrated to the 
distance of nearly ninety miles, when the snow be- 
came too soft for sledges. His Laplanders pushed 
much farther on snow-shoes, or about half way across 
the continent, if they took a direct easterly course, 
of which we are not assured. On the east coast his 
vessel subsequently pushed as far northward as Cape 
Dan, but was prevented from making its way farther 
northward by the ice. 

— The first of the authoritative publications of the 
International fisheries exhibition contains an excel- 
lent account, by G. Brown Goode, of the fishery in- 
dustries of the United States, both historical and 
statistical, including all the marine products that are 
derived from the animal and vegetable life of the seas, 
as well as a careful though condensed account of the 
labors of the federal fish commission. 

— Professor Simon Neweomb, U.S. Navy, superin- 
tendent of the American ephemeris and Nautical 
almanac, Washington, and Dr. Benjamin Apthorp 
Gould, director of the National observatory at Cor- 
doba, Argentine Republic, have been elected corre- 
sponding members of the Berlin Akademie der wis- 
senschaften. 

—According to Nature, the balloon of the Paris 
observatory has been in working order for some 
weeks. Its capacity being only sixty cubic metres, 
it was found difficult to use it, except in calm weath- 
er. The motions of the registering apparatus are an 
obstacle to correct readings. The experiments, con- 
ducted by Admiral Mouchez, are stated to be only 
preliminary to further aerostatical experiments. The 
subject is quite new, scientific ballooning being only 
in its infancy; and it is only by gradual investigation 
that the extent of the services it can render to sci- 
ence can be ascertained. 

— Professor P. Denza discusses in the Comptes ren- 
dus the question of the connection between eclipses 
and terrestrial magnetism. From the time of the 
total solar eclipse of Dec. 22, 1870, regular observa- 
tions of magnetic declination have been made at the 
observatory of Moncalieri during the progress of all 
eclipses of the sun, as well as some eclipses of the 
moon. The needle has been observed at intervals of 
only a few minutes on such occasions; and the entire 
series of observations extends through twenty eclipses, 
the last being the Egyptian solar eclipse of May 17, 
1882. His discussion indicates no connection be- 
tween the amount of magnetic disturbance and the 
magnitude of solar eclipses; and in general it may 
be regarded as established from his investigation, that 
the passage of the moon between the earth and the 
sun in eclipses of the latter, and the passage of the 


SCIENCE. 


moon through the shadow of the earth in eclipses of 
the former, have no influence whatever upon terres- 
trial magnetism. 

— The Iilustriste zeitung reports that the fossil re- 
mains of several iguanodons have been found at Ber- 
nipart, in Belgium. The skeleton of one of these 
fossil monsters has been carefully put together, and 
removed to the Natural history museum at Brussels, 
where a special case has been made for it, and placed 
in the courtyard, no convenient space being found 
inside. The same journal reports the discovery of 
the remains of animals of the bronze age, made 
during the extension of the fortifications of Spandau. 
Among other things were the bones of a species of 
dog, the leg-bone of a gigantic horse, and the bones 
of a small species of pig, somewhat like the present 
Indian one. The remains have been examined by 
Professor Nehring, who also discovered the remains 
of a small-limbed goat and of a sheep. 

— Mr. Winslow Upton, of the U.S. signal office at 
Washington, has been elected professor of astronomy 
at Brown university, Providence, R.I. It is under- 
stood that his acceptance of the position is conditional 
upon the erection of an astronomical observatory 
which the college authorities have under considera- 
tion. 

— Professor Piazzi Smyth has published his views 
upon the subject of a prime meridian for the whole 
world. They furnish an excellent illustration of the 
fact that a man’s peculiar opinions on any one sub- 
ject may warp his judgment upon matters wholly 
removed from it. He advocates the adoption of the 
meridian of the Great pyramid, because it ‘‘ passes 
over solid, habitable, and for ages inhabited, land 
through nearly the whole of its course from north to 
south. Its line is capable, therefore, of being laid 
out along almost all that distance by trigonometrical 
measurement, and marked by masonried station-sig- 
nals.” Among other equally cogent arguments are 
the statements that the pyramid ‘‘dates from before 
all human written history, all known architecture, 
all living architecture;’’ that ‘‘its meridian divides 
the lands and numbers of the people of the earth 
much more nearly than any other;’’ and that it 
passes not very far from Jerusalem, near which the 
prime meridian of the world ought to be located by 
Christian people. 

The last idea is developed more fully by M. du 
Caillaud, who has addressed a letter to the president 
of the Paris geographical society, urging the adop- 
tion of the meridian of Bethlehem, thus harmoniz- 
ing the longitude reckoning with the customary 
minethod of numbering the years from the birth of 
Christ. 

— At Wabash college, Crawfordsville, Ind., a new 
laboratory is in process of erection, which is to be de- 
voted entirely to biological work. One room, 50x 100 
feet, with balcony and side-aisles, will contain the 
general collection of many thousand specimens; a 
second room will contain the herbarium of twenty 
thousand species; and a third will be devoted to other 
collections. Special students are directed to the 
fact that the collection of crinoids from the Keokuk 


= ae 1S 


452 


beds in the vicinity is complete, and that botanical 
material is on hand in great abundance for consulta- 
tion. There will be three laboratories provided with 
every needed appliance, —one for general botanical 
work, the second for zodlogical work, the third for 
special work with compound microscopes. The last 
laboratory, in particular, is to be devoted exclusively 
to original research. 

— Frederick A. Fernald, in criticising, in the Sep- 
tember Century, Mr. A. Melville Bell’s paper in 
Scrmncr for June 1, objects to the forms of the visi- 
ble-speech letters which Mr, Bell would employ as 
symbols for the six consonant sounds in our lan- 
guage which have no proper letters to represent 
them, and suggests the discarding from their pres- 
ent use in our alphabet of the duplicated symbols q, 
x, and c, and using them instead for the sounds 
represented by ny, zh, and ch. “Perhaps it will be 
decided to replace w and y by vowels, as in Franklin’s 
scheme; if so, these, with one Anglo-Saxon letter, 
alredy lookt upon with favor, would make up the 
six lacking consonants.”’ To this suggestion it may 
be objected, that the use of familiar letters in an un- 
familiar sense would be a source of constant confu- 
sion. For example, we should have to read cat and 
coke as chat and choke, pleaxure as pleasure, roux as 
rouge, sig as sing, etc. The alterations of spelling, 
4oo, would be seriously numerous; as in siks for six, 
egzist for exist, kueen for queen, kuite for quite, 
ete. The use of the Anglo-Saxon P and 6 for the 
two sounds of th would certainly be an improvement 
on present practice; but the writing of w (in way) 
and y (in yea) as vowels would be altogether wrong, 
as these sounds are demonstrably not vowels, but 
consonants. Wh, also, is a true consonant, — the 
non-vocal correspondent of w,— and has not, as al- 
leged, the sound of hoo. If wh had this sound, the 
sentence, ‘‘I saw the man whet the knife,” would 
not be—as it is—unmistakably distinct from “TI 
saw the man who ate the knife.’ Ch (in chair) is 
not, as alleged, a simple consonant, but a compound 
consisting of a shut position of the tongue (t), fol- 
lowed by a hiss (sh) ; and either the silent position 
or the hiss may be prolonged ad libitum. 


«“ Byen such a man, 80 woe-begone,” etc. 


Give due lingering emphasis to the word ‘such,’ in 
the above quotation, and the compound character of 
the ch — misunderstood by many writers — will be 
apparent. The letter ¢ should consistently stand for 
sh, not ch, in Mr. Fernald’s proposition; but, if a 
better method of completing our alphabet cannot be 
adopted, by all means rather let the A B C remain 
as it is. 

—Le Temps has published the following direc- 
tions by Pasteur to those exposed to the contagion of 
cholera. 

The precautions to be taken, indicated to the mem- 
bers of the French cholera commission, all relate to 
the case when it is necessary to guard against the 
excessive causes of contagion. 

1°. Do not use the potable water of the locality, 
when the commission enters on its investigations, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 34. 


without having first boiled the water, and, after it 
has cooled, shaken it for some minutes (two or 
three minutes are sufficient) in a bottle half full and 
corked. 

One may use the waters of the locality, provided 
one draws them at a spring, in vessels which have 
been purified by exposing them to a temperature of 
150° C., or, better, toa higher heat. One can adyan- 
tageously employ natural mineral waters. 

2°. Use wine which has been heated in bottles 
some 50° to 60°, and drink from glasses likewise 
purified. 

3°. Only make use of food thoroughly boiled, or of 
fruits well washed with water which has been boiled, 
and which has been kept in the same vessels in 
which it was boiled, or which has been transferred 
from these vessels to others disinfected by heat. 

4°, The bread used should be cut in thin slices, and 
kept at a temperature of 150° C. for twenty minutes 
or more. 

5°, All vessels used for food should be exposed to 
a temperature of 150° C. or more. 

6°. Bed linen and towels should be plunged in boil- 
ing water, and dried. 

7°. Water for washing should be boiled, and have 
added to it, after cooling, one five-hundredth part 
of thymic acid (one litre of dilute alcohol for two 
grams of acid) and one-fiftieth part of phenie acid 
(one litre of water for twenty grams of acid). 

8°. Wash the hands and body often during the day 
with the boiled water to which the thymic or phenic 
acid has been added. 

9°. It is only in case one has to handle the bodies 
of those who have died from cholera, or the clothes 
and linen soiled with their discharges, that it is neces- 
sary to cover the mouth and nostrils with a mask, 
formed of two pieces of fine wire gauze, with wad- 
ding between, one centimetre thick, The mask should 
be exposed to a temperature of 150° each time before 
it is used. 

—The Wisconsin agricultural experiment-station 
was organized by the board of regents of the Univer- 
sity of Wisconsin, in June, 1883. The work of the 
station is. in charge of W. A. Henry, agriculture ; 
William Trelease, botany and horticulture; H. P. 
Armsby, agricultural chemistry. The bulletins of 
the station will be sent to all interested. The first 
number contains an account of experiments at the 
station in feeding skim-milk to calves and pigs. 

— Mr. C. F. Mabery has resigned his position at 
Harvard college, and accepted the chair of chemistry 
at the recently organized Case school of applied 
science at Cleveland, O. 

— The British association for the advancement of 
science will meet next year in Montreal, on Aug. 27. 

—WNext year’s meeting of the Swiss naturalists 
will be held at Lucerne. 

— The jury which will examine the electric light- 
ing machinery offered for competition at the Cincin- 
nati industrial exposition has begun its work. It is 
hoped that the comparative tests will be the most 
satisfactory yet obtained. Awards of five hundred 
and three hundred dollars will be made for the best 


SEPTEMBER 28, 1883.] 


and second best systems of electric lighting, both 
incandescent and are. 

— We learn from Symons’ meteorological magazine 
for August, that the government has granted Professor 
Lemstrém a sum of 37,000 marks for the continua- 
tion of his auroral experiments in Finnish Lapland. 
These investigations will include the electrical cur- 
rent which produces the aurora, terrestrial currents, 
and magnetic perturbations. 

—Professor Henry F. Osborn of Princeton has 
published in the July number of the Quarterly jour- 
nal of microscopical science, in a more extended form 
and with the accompaniment of a lithographic plate, 
the results of his researches on the foetal envelopes 
of marsupials. The interest and importance of these 
investigations are already known, at least to the em- 
bryologists among our readers, for Professor Osborn’s 
conclusions were first published in ScrENCr. 

— The thirty-eighth volume of the Mémoires du 
dépdt de la guerre, recently printed by the Russian 
general staff under the editorship of Rylke. and of 
which only one hundred and fifty copies are issued, 
contains, among other things, an account of the 
astronomical and trigonometrical work in eastern 
Siberia, by Bolsheff, Polianoffski, and Kramereff; 
a memoir of Kulberg on the Russian geodetic opera- 
tions in Armenia; a report by Lebedeff on triangula- 
tion, topographic and astronomical work in Bulgaria; 
a list of astronomical stations in the Khirgiz steppes 
by Bondorf; and Stebnitzki’s report on the results of 
his experiments with a reversible pendulum, Of this 
important work, absolutely necessary for those seri- 
ously interested in the study of the geography of 
Russia and adjacent countries, there is probably not 
a copy in America, 

—Mr. Miles Rock, assistant astronomer at the 
U.S. naval observatory, has accepted the appointment 
of chief astronomer and engineer commissioner on 
the international boundary commission of Guatemala, 
to locate the boundary between that country and 
Mexico. He will sail from New York Oct. 1, and 
expects to be absent about a year. 

— Professor H. M. Paul, late of the Imperial uni- 
versity of Tokio, has returned to this country, and 
accepted a position in Washington under the Transit 
of Venus commission. 

— The Comptes rendus of Aug. 13 gives some ex- 
tracts from a letter of M. A. Richard to M. de Lesseps, 
on the cultivation of date-palms. M. Richard states 
that these palms grow best on a soil saturated with 
salt, as has been proved at Alicant and elsewhere. 
The land around Elche, in Valencia, is irrigated from 
the Vinalopo, which is extremely salt, rising, as it 
does, in Mount Pinoso, the rocks of which contain 
much salt and sulphate of lime. This water, having 
been used for centuries for watering the palm-plan- 
tations, has at last formed a crust, which has to be 
broken with a pick-axe to admit the water below. 
The town of Alicant has planted its beautiful boule- 
yard along the shore with date-palms, and, as fresh 
water is very precious there, the trees are regularly 
watered with sea-water. All the plantations recently 
made along the shore from Huertas to Rio Monegro 


SCIENCE. 


4538 


have their roots literally in the sea-water, being 
planted at but a few feet from the sea. 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 


Baillon, H. Traité de botanique médicale phanérogamique 
fasc.i. Paris, Hachette. (To be completed in two fascicules.) 
2,301 fig. 8°. 

Belfield, W.T. On the relations of micro-organisms to dis- 
ease. Chicago, 1883. 12°. 

Bergstedt, N. H. Bornholms flora. deli. Phanerogamae. 
Nexoe, 1883. 8°. 

Berlin. Kénigliche museum. Amerika’s nord-west-kiiste: 
neueste ergebnisse ethnologischen reise. (Ed. by Bastian.) Ber- 
lin, Asher, 1883. 4+13(+13) p., 18 pl. 

Bert, P. Histoire naturelle. Anatomie et physiologie ani- 
males. Paris, asson, 1883. 8+382 p., 270 fig. 18°. 

Black, William George. Folk-medicine; a chapter in the 
history of culture. London, Stock, 1883. (Publ. Folk-lore soc. 
12.) (10)+228 p. 8°. 

Borzi, A. Studi algologici. 
gia delle alghe. fase. i. Chlorophyceae. 
p., illustr. 4°. 

Buffalo microscopical club. Eighth annual meeting. Sec- 
retary’s annual report; president’s annual address; list of offi- 
cers and members. Buffalo, Baker, Jones, & Co., pr., 1883. 2+ 
lj7p. 8. 

Chabaud, N. Des accidents observés dans les appareils & 
air comprimé employés aux travaux sous-marins et particuliére- 
ment de ceux dus & une décompression trop brusque. Paris, 
impr., Davy, 1883. 55 p. 8°. 

Chalon, J. Résumé de cosmographie. 
Gilon, 1883. 128 p., illustr. 12°. 

Cocconi, G. Flora della provincia di Bologna. Bologna, 
1883. 602p. 16°. 

Coleopterorum novitates, recueil spécialement consacré a 
Vétude des coléoptéres. tomei., livr. i. Rennes, impr. Ober- 
thiir, 1833. 32p. 8°. - 

Crié, L. Nouveaux éléments de botanique, contenant l’organo- 
graphie, l’anatomie, la morphologie, la physiologie, la botanique 
rurale et des notions de géographie botanique et de botanique fos- 
sile. Paris, 1883. 1160 p., 1,332 fig. 12°. 

Dejernon, R. Les vignes et les vins de l’Algérie. tome i. 
Toulouse, 1883. 319 p. 8°. 

Derosne, ©. La photographie pour tous, traité élémentaire’ 
des nouveaux procédés. Paris, Gauthiers-Villars, 1883. 106 
p. 8. 

Devos, A. De quelques moyens pratiques pour reconnaitre 
les plantes pendant les herborisations. inant, Delplace-Le- 
moine, 1883. 38p. 8. 

D’Ovidio, ©. Le proprieti fondamentali delle superficie di 2. 
ordine, studiate sulla equazione generale di 2. grado, in co-ordi- 


Saggio di ricerche sulla biolo- 
Messina, 1883, 119 


Verviers, impr. 


nate cartesiane. Torino, 1883. 182p. 8°. 

Du Bois, A. J. The strains in framed structures. New 
York, 1883. illustr. 4°. 

Duincke, 0. Beitrige zur kenntniss des bernsteinéls. 


Inaug. diss.. Kénigsberg, Grdfe & Unzer, 1883. 31p. 8°. 

Edinburgh, Duke of. Notes on the sea-fisheries and fish- 
ing population of the United Kingdom, arising from infor- 
mation gained during three years’ command of the naval reserves. 
London, 1883. 64p. 8°. 

Engel, T, Geognostischer wegweiser durch Wiirttem- 
berg. Anleitung zum erkennen der schichten und zum sammeln 
der petrefakten. Stuttgart, 1883. 1613826 p., illustr. 8°. 

Flitigge, C. Fermente und mikroparasiten. Leipzig, 1883. 
308 p., 69 fig. 8°. 

Flynn, P. J. Hydraulic tables for the calculation of the 
discharge through sewers, pipes, and conduits; based on Kut- 
ter’s formula. New York, Van Nostrand, 1883. (Van Nostrand’s 
se. ser. 67.) 135 p. 32°. 

Forsyth, A. RK. Memoir on the theta-functions, particu- 
larly those of two variables. London, 1883. S0p. 4°. 

Forwerg, M. Fruchtformen. Systematische und verglei, 
chende darstellung in natiirlichen gréssen. T)resden, 1883. f°. 

Gegenbaur, ©. Lehrbuch der anatomie des menschen. 
Leipzig, 1888. 508 fig. 8°. 

Goode, G. Brown. The fishery industries of the United 
States. (Great intern. fish. exhib. — Papers of the conferences.) 
London, Clowes, 1883. 84p.,2tab. 8°. 

Gottsche, ©. Die sedimentiir-geschiebe des provinz 
Schleswig-Holstein. Als manuscript gedruckt, Yokohama, Dr. 
Lécy u. Salabelle, 1883. 6+66 p.,2 maps. 8°, 

Gradle, H. Bacteria and the germ-theory of disease: eight 
lectures at the Chicago medical college. Chicago, Keener, 1883. 
4+219 p. 8°. 


bs es -, oo We 34. Pee” 


454 


Graff, E. V. de, and Smith, M. K. Development lessons 
for the senses on size, form, place, plants, and insects. New 
York, Zovell, 1883. 31llp. 12°. 

Groot, J.J. M. de. Jaarlijksche feesten en gebruiken van 
de Emoy-Chineezen. Hene yergelijkende bijdrage tot de kennis 
yan onze Chineesche medeburgers of Java, met uitgebreide 
monographién van godheden, die te Emoy worden yereerd. 
2deelen. Batavia, 1883. 8°. 

Haeckel, Ernst. Indische reisebriefe. Berlin, Paete/, 1883. 
13+356 p. 16°. 

Hahn, F. G. Insel-studien. Versuch einer auf orographische 
und geologische verhiltnisse gegriindeten eintheilung der inseln. 
Leipzig, 1883. 208 p., illustr. 8°. 

Helmholtz, Hermann. Wissenschaftliche abhandlungen. 
2v. Leipzig, Barth, 1882-83. 8+938 p., portr., 3 pl.; 7+1021 p., 
Spl. 8°. 

Hoefer, F. Histoire de la botanique, de la minéralogie et 
de la géologie, depuis les temps les plus reculés jusqu’aé nos jours. 
Paris, Hachette. 416p. 18°. 

Hoffmann, ©. K. Die bildung des mesoderms, die anlage 
der chorda dorsalis und die entwickelung des canalis neurenteri- 
cus bei vogelembryonen. Amsterdam, 1883. 109p., 5 pl. 4°. 

Hofmann, E. Der schmetterlingsfreund. 23colorirte tafeln 
mit 286 abbildungen und begleitendem text. Stuttgart, 1883. 8°. 

Holst, E. Synthetische methoden in der metr. geometrie, 
mit anwendungen. Christiania, 1883. 123 p. 8°. 

Jametel, M. L’encre de Chine, son histoire et sa fabrica- 
tion d’aprés des documents chinois traduits. Paris, 1883. 
125 p., illustr. 12°. 

Kindberg, N. C. Die arten der laubmoose (Bryineae) 
Schwedens und Norwegens. Stockholm, 1883. 167p. 8. 

Klebs, G. Ueber die organisation einiger flagellaten-grup- 

en und ihre beziehungen zu algen und infusorien. Leipzig, 
1883. 1380 p., illustr. 8°. 

Knop, W. Ackererde und culturpflanze. Leipzig, 1883. 
139p. 8. 

Koltz, J.P. J. Traité de la pisciculture pratique. Procédés 
de multiplication et d’incubation naturelle et artificielle des pois- 
sons d’eau douce. Paris, 1883. iUlustr. 12°. 

Kratzer, H. Chemische unterrichtsbriefe. Fiir das selbst- 
studium erwachsener. Mit besonderer beriichsichtung der neues- 
ten fortschritte der chemie. (In circa 60 briefen.) brief i—yviii. 
Leipzig, Leopold & Bar, 1883. 144p. 8°. 

Krimmel, 0. Die kegelschnitte in elementar-geometrischer 
behandlung. Tiibingen, Laupp, 1888. 8+115p. 8°. 

Larison, C. W. The tenting school: a description of the 
tours taken and of the field work done by the class in geography 
in the Academy of science and art at Ringos, N.J., during the 
year 1882. Ringos, Larison, 1883. 8+292 p., illustr. 12°. 

Le Docte, A. Contréle chimique de la fabrication du sucre. 
Tableaux numériques supprimant les caleuls des analyses. fasc. 
j., ii. Bruxelles, impr. Guyot, 1883. 144p. 4°. 

Lubbock, J. Chapters on popular natural history. Lon- 
don, 1883. 226p. 12°. 

Liittig, E. Die bewegung einer starren gleichmdssig mit 
masse belegten geraden auf cylinder-flacken, speciell auf einem 
parabolischen cylinder, unter dem einfluss der schwere und yon 
anfangsstossen. Inaug. diss. Jena, 1883. 39p. 8°. 

Macfadzean, J. The parallel roads of Glenroy, their ori- 
gin, and relation to the glacial period and the deluge. Hdin- 
burgh, 1883. 8°. 

Maingie, J. Receuil de problémes de géométrie 4 usage des 
écoles moyennes et des écoles normales. Namur, Wesmael- 
Charlier, 1883. 23p. 18°. 

Mach, E. Die mechanik in ihrer entwickelung. Leipzig, 
1883. 493 p., illustr. 8°. 

Masi, ©. Unripetitore di planimetria e stereometria elemen- 
tari teorico-pratiche. Montegiorgio, 18838. 141p.,22pl. 12°. 

Meyer, W.F. Apolaritat und rationale curven. Hine sys- 
tematische yoruntersuchung zu einer allgemeinen theorie der 
linearen riume. Tiibingen, 1883. 8°. 

Minneapolis. Handbook of Minneapolis, prepared for the 
32d annual meeting of the American association for the advance- 
ment of science, held in Minneapolis, Minn., Aug. 15-22, 1883. 
Minneapolis, 7ribune, pr., 1883. 4+126p., illustr., map. 8°. 

Mohn, H. Meteorology of the Norwegian North-Atlantic 
expedition, 1876-78. Christiania, 1883. 150p.,3pl.,map. 4°. 

Mougeot, A.,Manoury, Ch.,et Roumeguere, C. Les 
algnes des eaux douces de France. Distribution systématique, 
figures des genres, exsiccata. cent.i. Toulouse, 1883. 4°. 

Miiller, F. von. Systematic census of Australian plants, 
with chronologic, literary, and geographic annotations. p. i. 
Vasculares. Melbourne, 1882. 152p. 4°. 

Muller, H. The fertilization of flowers. Translated and 
edited by D’Arcy W. Thompson. With a preface by Ch. Dar- 
wn ae complete bibliography of the subject. London, 1883. 
illustr. 8°. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 84. 


Neumann, F. LEinleitung in die theoretische phyaike He- 
rausgegeben von ©. Pape. Leipzig, 1883. 301 p., 111 fig. 8°. 

New-York state experiment-station. First annual report 
of the board of control for the year 1882. Albany, State, 1883. 
2+156 p. 8°. 

Newcomb, 8. G. Astronomical papers prepared for the 
use of the American ephemeris and Nautical almanac. Yol. i. 
Washington, 1883. 501p. 4°. 

O’Brine, D. The practical laboratory guide in chemistry. 
Columbus, O., Smythe, 1883. 10+183p. 8°. . 

Ontario.— Entomological society. General index to the 
thirteen annual reports; compiled by E. Baynes-Reed, sec.-treas. 
Toronto, Robinson, pr., 1883. 35p. 8°. 

Owen, R. Essays on the condrio-hypophysical tract, and 
on the aspects of the body in vertebrate and invertebrate animals. 
London, Taylor, 1883. 48p. 8°. 

Pein, A. Aufgaben dersphiarischen astronomie, gelést durch 
planimetrische konstruktionen und mit hiilfe der ebenen trigono- 
metrie. Leipzig, Tewbner, 1883. 8+48p. 4°. 

Pigorini, P. Cenni sul progresso degli studii fisici negli 
ultimi tempi. Parma, 1883. 72p. 4°. 

Poncelet. Turbine and water-pressure engine and pump. 
Prefaced by a short treatise on the impulsive action of inelastic 
fluids, by W. Donaldson. London, 1883. plates. 4°. © 

Practical naturalist, The. Edited by H. 8. Ward and H. J. 
Riley naee i., nos. 1-8, Jan.-Aug. Manchester, Heywood, 1883. 

p- . 

Publications des membres actuels de la Société de physique 
et (histoire naturelles de Genéve et de la section geneyoise de la 
Société helvétique des sciences naturelles. Genéve, Soc. de 
phys., 1883. 4+121p. 8°. 


Reitlechner, C. Die bestandtheile des weines. Wien, 
1883. illustr. 8°. 

Richthofen, F. v. Aufgaben und methoden der heutigen 
geographie. Leipzig, 1883. 72p. 8°. 


Ricordi, E. I movimenti infinitesimi nella generale determi- 
nazione di misura projettiva. Viterbo, 1882. 68p. 8°. 

Rohlfs, Gerhard. Meine mission nach Abessinien, auf befehl 
sr. maj. des deutschen kaisers im winter 1880-81 unternommen. 
Leipzig, Brockhaus, 1883. 20+348p. 20pl.,map. 16°. 

Salverda, M. Handleiding bij de beoefening van de kennis 
der natuur, ten dienste van onderwijzers en aankomende on- 
derwijzers. 2deelen. (I. Beschrijvende natuurwetenschappen. 
—II. Experimentecle natuurwetenschappen, bewerkt door H. 
Wefers Bettink.) Groningen, 1888. 587, 344 p. 8°. 

Schlegel, V. Theorie der homogen zusammengesetzten 
raumgebilde. Leipzig, 1883. 9 pl. 4°. 

Schneider, A. Das ei und seine befruchtung. Breslau, 
1883. 92p,illustr. 4°. 

Selenka, E. Studien iiber entwicklungsgeschichte der thiere. 
hefti. Keimblatter und primitivorgane der maus. Wiesbaden, 
1883. 23p,illustr. 4°. 

Stanford’s compendium of geography and travel, based on 
Hellwald’s ‘ Die erde und ihre vélken.’ North America; edited 
and enlarged by F. V. Hayden and A. R. C. Selwyn. London, 
Stanford, 1883. 16+652 p., 25 maps and pl., illustr. 8°. 

Stebler, F. G. Die besten futterpflanzen. Abbildungen 
und beschreibungen derselben, nebst ausfiihrlichen angaben be- 
treffend deren kultur, Gkonomischen werth, samengewinnung, 
-yerunreinigungen, -verfalschungen, ete. theil i. Bern, 1883. 
104p. 4°. 

Sternberg, G. M. Photo-micrographs, and how to make 
them; illustrated by 47 photographs of microscopic objects : 
photo-micrographs reproduced by the heliotype process. Bos- 
ton, James R. Osgood & Co., 1883. 8°. 

Thompson, Sylvanus P. Philipp Reis: inventor of the tele- 
phone. A biographical sketch, with documentary testimony, 
translations of the original papers of the inventor, and contem- 
porary publications. London, Spon, 1883. 9+182 p., 3 pl., 
illustr. 16°. 

Thring, E. ‘Theory and practice of teaching. 
Cambr. univ. press, 1888. 270 p. 8°. 

Vallot, J. Recherches physico-chimiques sur la terre végé- 
tale et ses rapports avec la distribution géographique des plantes. 
Paris, Lechevalier, 18838. 16+344p. 8°. 

Ville, J. Propriétés générales des phénols. 
Chamerot, 1883. 84p. 4°. 

Weismann, A. Die entstehung der sexualzellen bei den 
hydromedusen. Jena, 1883. 13+295 p., illustr. 4°, 

Welsh, Alfred H. Essentials of geometry. Chicago, Griggs, 
1883. 10+267p., illustr. 8°. 

Wisconsin agricultural experiment-station. Bulletin no. 
1: Sweet skim-milk; its value as food for pigs and calves. 
Madison, Hrp. stat., 1883. I1p. 8°. 

Zittel, K., et Schimper, P. 
Traduit par Ch. Barrois. tome i. 
800 p., 563 fig. 8°. 


London, 


Paris, impr., 


Traité de paléontologie. 
Paléozoologie. Paris, 1883. 


Oe eae aS ee 


oer NCE, 


FRIDAY, OCTOBER 5, 1883. 


NATIONAL TRAITS IN SCIENCE. 


TuHere are at present three principal currents 
of scientific work, — German, English, and 
French. The scientific writings of each nation- 
ality are characteristic, and, taken as a whole, 
offer in each case distinctive qualities. Ger- 
man influence is now predominant oyer the 
_ scientific world, as French influence was upper- 
most during the earlier part of this century ; 
but the sway of Germany over western thought 
is far more potent and wide-spread than was 
ever that of France. As students once gath- 
ered in Paris, so they now flock to Germany ; 
and thence back to their own lands they carry 
the notions of German science, and labor to 
extend, imitate, andrivalthem. Thus German 
ideas have been spread abroad, and established 
in foreign countries. This has set a common 
~ standard for scientific work, which is accepted 

in most European countries. German influ- 
ence is evident by its effects in Switzerland, 
Russia, Italy, Poland, Belgium, England, and 
Ameriea, and in degrees indicated by the 
order given: in France, Spain, and Portugal, 
it is hardly noticeable. Holland and the Scan- 
_ dinavian countries have for many years achieved 
so much and so excellent work, that their scien- 
tifie development may be said to have accom- 
panied rather than to have followed that of 
Germany. 

German science has unquestionably distine- 
tive qualities. Its pursuit is a special and hon- 
ored calling, attractive to the highest talent: 
its productions have the stamp of professional 
work. ‘The German scientific man is first and 
principally an investigator: he is obliged to 
be so, otherwise he loses in the race. He wins 
his position in the hierarchy of learning by 
the original researches he carries out. To suc- 
ceed under these circumstances, a man must 

‘discover something which is a real addition to 
No. 35.— 1888. 


knowledge; and to do this, he must be thor- 
oughly familiar with all that has been previously 
accomplished in his field. Moreover, to ad- 
vance beyond his peers, the investigator must 
utilize every possible extraneous advantage ; 
more especially must he have a mastery over 
the methods to be employed, and be familiar 
with all novelties and refinements therein. It 
cannot be gainsaid that these requirements are 
more fully answered in Germany than any- 
where else. It is certain, that, excepting of 
course a small minority, German scientific pub- 
lications always contain something really new, 
and unknown before: each article is a scientific 
progress, which, however slight, still brings an 
actual increment to our store of information. 
Another result of this professional thoroughness 
is equally striking and characteristic. Being 
fully posted as to the status of his department, 
the German often displays a singularly just and- 
keen appreciation of what problems are for the 
moment best worth studying, as being open for 
solution, and leading to something farther, or 
else filling a gap left. He is thus enabled to 
render his work efficient. It is sad to think 
how much scientific work is wasted because the 
labor is not wisely directed. ; 

In German scientific writings the excellence 
of the matter usually contrasts vividly with’ 
the defective style and presentation., Indeed, 
the Germans, despite the superiority of their 
modern literature, are awkward writers, and 
too often slovenly in literary composition. 
Conciseness and clearness are good qualities, 
which may assuredly be attained by the ex- 
penditure of thought and pains; but these the 
German investigator seems unwilling, in many 
cases, to bestow upon his pen-work, but follows 
the easier plan of great diffuseness. Besides 
this, another defect is not uncommon, —the 
ill-considered arrangement of the matter. This 
occurs in all degrees, from a well-nigh inecredi- 
ble confusion, to be sometimes found even 
in elaborate and important essays, to a slightly 


456 


illogical order. In this regard, a curious and 
not infrequent variety of this fault deserves 
mention. According to the headings of the 
_ chapters or sections, the division of topics is 
perfect ; but under each head the matters are 
tumbled together as if a clerk was contented 
to stuff his papers in anyhow, if only he 
crammed them into the right pigeon-hole. 

Speaking broadly, the German mind lacks 
conspicuously the habits of clearness and order. 
There have been celebrated exceptions, but 
they were individual. The nation regards it- 
self as having a decidedly philosophical bent, 
meaning a facility at taking broad and pro- 
found views of the known. We venture to 
contradict this opinion, doing it advisedly. 
Their profundity is mysticism, their breadth 
vagueness, yet a good philosopher must think 
clearly. It is a remarkable but little heeded 
fact, that Germany has not contributed her 
share to the generalizations of science: she has 
produced no Linné, Darwin, Lyell, Lavoisier, 
or Descartes, each of whom bequeathed to 
posterity a new realm of knowledge, although 
she has given to the world grand results by 
the accumulated achievements of her investi- 
gators. The German’s imperfect sense of hu- 
mor is another obstacle which besets him on 
every path. He is cut off from the percep- 
tion of some absurdity, like that of Kant’s 
neumenon, for instance. One cannot explain 
this to him: it were easier to explain a shad- 
ow to the sun, who always sees the lighted 
side. To state the whole epigrammatically, 
German science is the professional investiga- 
tion of detail, slowly attaining generaliza- 
tions. . 

English science is the opposite of this, — 
amateurish rather than professional. Some 
might call it insular, yet we should hardly join 
them in so doing. In fact, the professional 
investigator has hardly been a recognized char- 
acter in the English social organization: until 
recently he was barely acknowledged, even by 
the universities, which sought instructors who 
knew and could teach, who might investigate 
and discover in a subsidiary, and, as it were, 
unofficial way. A large number of English 


SCIENCE. 


ae” I) oR Ing ee 
Yas €* 


[Vox. IL, No. 35. 


scientific men were disconnected from the uni- 
versities and colleges after their own student 
years, and were half or wholly amateurs; and 
their writings show the effects of this separa- 
tion, not always, to be sure, but in many cases 
with painful evidence, by a lack of thorough- 
ness, an imperfect acquaintance with other 
investigations, and a failure to grasp the essen- 
tial part of the problem : in brief, such writings 
appear behindhand and superficial. Yet amid 
these poorer productions are to be found a 
right goodly number of the best scientific arti- 
cles we possess in any language. Of late 
years the proportion of the good has steadily 
increased, and investigation is now more cor- 
rectly appreciated than ever before. Indeed, 
there is no more encouraging event in the 
recent progress of science than the sudden 
elevation of the standard of original research 
in England. The English are trained writers : 
their scientific articles excel the German in 
literary merit, being seldom slovenly either in 
arrangement or style, and rarely wearisome 
from sheer diffuseness. Very noteworthy is 
the fertility in generalizations of the English: 
this is with them the outcome of individual 
endowments, a single master attaining a broad 
conclusion, —a process of individual effort 
quite unlike the German democratic method of 
generalizing by the accumulations of many. 
Is it too much to say that the English and 
Scotch are the Greeks of modern philosophy? 
French science is decidedly provincial: it is 
apart, having only an imperfect, uncertain ac- 
quaintance with the great world outside, and 
its international interests of original research. 
The French have lagged far behind the great 
movements of recent years. Consider only how 
backward they have been in the comprehension 
and acceptance of the Darwinian theory; and 
remember, too, that it were wiser to take out 
the mainspring from a watch than to eliminate 
evolution from biology. French scientific arti- 
cles are well written, the matter is admirably 
classified, it is all very clear. The keen, artis- 
tic sense of the nation displays itself here ; but 
it also deludes them into presenting a rounded 
survey of a greater field than is demanded by - 


\ 


ey 


Lee 


“OcTOBER 5, 1883.] SCIENCE. 457 
‘the actual discoveries they report. To satisfy CLIMATE IN THE CURE OF CONSUMP- 
this yearning for artistic completeness, elabo- TION.A—Il. 

rate and tedious disquisitions, and hackneyed Humidity 


principles, and facts long known, are interpo- 
lated ; and even worse may be, when the imagi- 
nation helps to create the completeness. Most 
‘scientific men harbor a little distrust of French 
work. This sentiment is further fostered by 
the almost systematic neglect of German re- 
search on the part of the French. Such a 
frank exhibition of rancor makes one suspect 
the impartiality of the French in science gen- 
erally: indeed, we believe that science has 
never been so depressed in France as at pres- 
ent. Italy is above her; but Italy, with all 
her innate ability, is striving to learn from 
‘Germany, and has already risen high, and will 
rise higher. We trust and believe that the 
present phase of French science which abounds 
in inefficient work will soon end, and the people 
terminate their present voluntary isolation. 
The French stay at home: they used to travel 
‘abroad much. Let us hope that they will soon 
resume their ancient habit, and, above all, that 
they will re-establish mental intercourse with 
foreigners. There are savants in France who 
are esteemed throughout the scientific world : 
‘may their number rapidly increase ! 

America’s contributions to pure science are 
‘by no means very extensive, or often very im- 
portant: compared with the great volume of 
‘German production, they seem almost insig- 
vnificant. 
search, for we have bestowed upon it neither 
the proper esteem nor office. There are, we 


: "suppose, at least six thousand ‘ professors’ i 


the United States: are one hundred and fifty of 

them active investigators? The time seems 
‘remote when eyery American professor will be 
expected to be also an investigator ; but among 
us is a little band of men who have before them 
the model of Germany, and who are working 
earnestly for the intellectual elevation of their 
country. ‘Their first object is necessarily to 
render research more important in public esti- 
mation, and so to smooth the way for a corps 
-of professional investigators. Every thought- 
ful person must wish success to the attempt. 


We have never duly fostered re-° 


Tuere is a unanimity of opinion amongst 
authorities in regard to the relation of moist- 
ure to the production of phthisis. The sey- 
enth annual report of the registrar-general of 
Scotland showed that the death-rate from 
phthisis diminished in proportion to the dry- 
ness of the location. Dr. H. I. Bowditch of 
Boston has shown that phthisis is prevalent in 
damp soils in the United States. ‘It is also 
common in Holland, and other countries liable 
to damp fogs and an atmosphere saturated 
with moisture’’ (Reynold’s System of medi- 
cine, ili. 548). Ruehle, in Ziemssen, says, 
‘*Tt appears that moist air favors consump- 
tion.’’ Dr. Austin Flint says, ‘‘ It may be 
stated that the prevalence of the disease is 
less in climates either uniformly warm and dry 
or uniformly cold and dry.’? And Dr. C. T. 
Williams writes, ‘‘ As to the desirability of 
moist climates for consumptive patients, the 
evidence is decidedly against their use in the 
treatment of ordinary chronic phthisis.’’ 

If we attempt to explain why it is that 
phthisis is more prevalent in moist climates 
than in dry, we might assign as a cause the 
prevalence of germs, or the impurity of the 
air, containing the effluvia of decay, or per- 
haps the greater susceptibility of the system 
to cold in moist climates; or it may be that 
the air, being so near saturation, cannot take 
up the requisite amount of the aqueous vapor 
exhaled from the lungs. Causa latet vis est 
nota may adequately express the state of our 
knowledge in regard to this point. A moist 
climate is acknowledged to be a breeder of 
phthisis; and, aw contraire, a dry climate is 
known to afford a certain exemption from the 
disease. This is shown, by the fact that the 
disease is rare in Iceland, in the island of 
Morstrand, on the steppes of Kirghis, and in 
the interior of Egypt; in all of which places 
the element of elevation is wanting. It may, 
then, be conceded, that dryness of the air is an 
important element in the prophylaxis and cure 
of phthisis. 

The method of determining the’ humidity of 
the air is that introduced by Regnault, known ~ 
as the wet- and dry-bulb test. It can easily 
be seen that the results obtained will depend 
on the exposure of the thermometers, and on 
the accuracy of the readings. Moreover, the 
amount of moisture that the air is capable of 


1 Concluded from No. 34. 


458 


holding varies with the atmospheric pressure 
and temperature. 

While it seems to us that a table showing 
the relative humidity, ie., the percentage of 
saturation of the air, would be sufficiently 
accurate as a basis of comparison, yet, as it 
might be objected that such a table would be 
subject to error, we have appended another 
table, giving the absolute moisture, or the 
number of grains of vapor to the cubic foot of 
air. This second table we have computed 
from Glaisher’s tables. 

Consulting these tables (table I., columns 
iii. and iy.), it is seen that Denver and Santa 
Fé afford a very low relative and absolute 
amount of atmospheric moisture,—a rela- 
tive amount, which, as between Denver and 
Jacksonville, is as 1 to 3, and, as between 
Denver and Los Angeles, is as | to 2. 

This proves, that, on the eastern slopes of 
the Rocky Mountains, we have, in addition to 
the favorable element of elevation, a second, 
that of dry air, as an element of climatic influ- 
ence in the cure of phthisis. 


Precipitation. 


Closely related to the foregoing, is a consid- 
eration of the mean annual precipitation, or 
the mean annual amount (in inches) of rain 
and melted snow. Its bearing on our subject 
is apparent in several ways. 

1. Of the precipitation, a certain part is 
lost by evaporation, and tends to increase the 
humidity of the air. This amount will depend 
upon the amount of moisture in the air, or its 
degree of saturation, and also upon the amount 
of the precipitation left upon the surface of 
the ground to be evaporated. It is evident 
that the greater the porosity of the soil, the 
greater will be its absorptive power, and the 
less the evaporation from it. Such a porous 
soil is found on the eastern slopes of the Rocky 
Mountains. Loose, sandy, and gravelly, it 
eagerly drinks up all the rainfall; and such a 
thing as mud is rarely seen. 

2. It is well known that pulmonary troubles 
are most prevalent during ‘thaws,’ in those 
places where the snow lies upon the ground 
in winter. Now, in the district of the Rocky 
Mountains under consideration, there is, in the 
first place, only a slight amount of snowfall, 
so that sleighing is exceptional, and, in addi- 
tion, the warm sun soon melts the snow, and 
the thirsty, porous soil drinks it up; so that 
the annual ‘ spring thaw’ of our Eastern States 
is a res incognita in this country. The writer 
remembers very distinctly several snowfalls of 


SCIENCE. 


_ beneficial for consumptive patients. . 


[Vou. IL, No. 35. 


fourteen to twenty-two inches on a level, of 
which there was not a vestige left in ten days ; 
and during that time the air was not chill and 
raw, and there was but little slush. 

3. Further than this, the amount of the 
precipitation has a bearing upon our subject, 
as indicating approximately the ability of the 
invalid to lead an out-of-door life. We shall 
defer our discussion of this point toa later part 
of this paper. 

Turning, now, to the tables, we see (table I., 
column y.) that in Denver the mean annual 
precipitation for a period of ten years is only 
14.77 inches in rain and melted snow, — an 
amount which is only one-fourth of that at 
Jacksonville, and which, with Santa Fé, gives 
the smallest showing in our range. 

We can therefore add this element of cli- 
mate to the other two of eleyation and dry air 
as a point in favor of the Rocky Mountains in 
the cure of phthisis. 


Temperature. 

The writer in Reynold’s System (op. cit.) 
says of this matter of the relation of the tem- 
perature of climate to the cure of phthisis, ‘* It 
was formerly supposed that warm climates were 
. . But it 
will be invariably observed that unaccustomed 
warmth is injurious. .. . Whatis really required, 
is a cool, temperate climate, free from great 
alterations of temperature.’’? Dr. Austin Flint 
(op. cit.) calls attention to the fact, that ‘‘ the 
disease is oftener developed during the spring 
months and the hot months of summer,’’ when 
either there is a great deal of moisture in the 
air, or the debilitating effects of heat are pres- 
ent as factors. On the other hand, Ruehle 
says that the temperature has ‘‘ nothing to do 
with the prevalence of consumption.”’ 

It is Known that the effect of heat is to raise 
the body temperature, to lessen the number of 
respirations, to quicken the pulse, to lessen 
the digestive powers and the appetite, to di- 
minish the excretion of urea because of the 
diminishing of the ingesta, and to depress the 
nervous system, especially if the heat be ac- 
companied with excessive moisture. It seems, 
then, that it can be stated as a fair inference 
from the foregoing, that a dry, temperate cli- 
mate is to be sought by the phthisical invalid. 
The Rocky Mountains furnish a dry climate. 
The table (table I., column vi.) shows that the 
mean temperature is nearly a mean between 
the extremes in ourrange. The question will, 
however, be presented in a better form far- 
ther on. ; 


‘% rt gr oe 


OcroBer ‘5, 1883.] 


Winds. 

The points of importance in regard to the 
winds are their velocity and direction. It is 
well known that they are regulated somewhat 
by changes in atmospheric pressure and tem- 
perature. 

Velocity. —It is known that a cold wind 
abstracts body-heat, and in proportion to its 
velocity. By consulting our tables (table I1., 
part ii.) it will be seen that the mean daily 
velocity of the winds at Denver is less than it 
is in the Eastern States ; and that as a conse- 
quence, while the mean temperature is nearly 
the same, the chilling effect will be much less. 
On the other hand, as it has a considerably 
greater velocity, and as there are fewer calms 
than at either Augusta or Los Angeles, it has 
a proportionately greater purifying power in 
bringing fresh ozone, and in blowing away the 
products of decomposition. 

Direction. — Of more importance than the 
velocity, is the direction of the winds. The 
favorable and unfavorable directions vary for 
different places, according to their geographi- 
eal location. The east and north winds are 
known to be the trying ones along the Atlantic 
coast ; and our table shows that the north-east 
wind is the prevailing one at both Augusta 
and Jacksonville. The west wind, blowing 
from the Pacific Ocean, and bringing fogs, is 
the trying one on the California shore; and 
the table shows that this is the prevailing one 
at Los Angeles. The south wind is the salu- 
brious one for the eastern slope of the Rocky 


SCIENCE. 


459 


Mountains, in Colorado; and our table shows 
that this is the wind that blows there most 
frequently. 

We can therefore add this element to the 
others, —of elevation, dryness of air, small 
amount of precipitation, and mean tempera- 
ture, —as favorable to the Rocky Mountains 
as a place for phthisical patients to resort. 


Clear, fair, and cloudy days. 


We now come to the consideration of our 
last general point, that is, to an investigation 
of the number of clear, fair, and cloudy days ; 
or, in other words, to a consideration of the 
amount of sunshine. 

As to the direct effect upon health produced 
by light and sunshine, we are still in igno- 
rance. Whether the blood is made to course 
more rapidly, and the nerves transmit impulses 
more readily, under the influence of the solar 
ray, is not known. It is well known that the 
actinic rays have a powerful chemical effect 
upon vegetation ; but whether or not they have 
a like influence upon the human economy is 
unknown, 

Without attempting to refine, there are cer- 


“tain broad and positive effects in the cure of 


phthisis attributable to sunshine. The expe- 
rience of the profession is fittingly expressed 
by the words of Dr. Austin Flint: ‘*I would 
rank exercise and out-of-door life far above 
any known remedies for the cure of the dis- 
ease.”’ 


TABLE II.— Winns. 


DIRECTION. . PREVAILING 
|| VELociry. 
Sex arons MEAN FOR THREE YEARS. A fig 
N. | N.E.| E. | S.E./ 8. | sw. WY = NW. Calm. | Mean daily. | Mean 5 years. 
Augusta, Ga, . ° » 2 . 4 57 | 154 68 118 86 109 4 / 120 ) 304 | 79 miles. N.E. 
Jacksonville, Fla. . > ° . . | 77 | 282 120; 116} 102 ' 180 83 76 60 | ps a N.E 
Boston, Mass. . . . . . . 70 59 88 72 85 | 155 | 286) 186 60 Co w. 
Newport, R.I. . 118 80 51 73 | 112 299 | 183 | 164 28 236 =“ S.W. 
New York, N.Y. . . . . -| 76) 186 54 98 83 | 175 | 188 | 290 14 207 , ** | N.W. 
Philadelphia, Penn. 123 | 157 92 40 | 102; 162} 179] 208 9 256 8.W. 
Chicago, Il. / 147 122 85 99 142 . 239} 151 114 30 203 8.W. 
St. Paul, Minn. . . 3 ° 3 95 37 91] 223 72} 122} 129] 223 70 mh oe 8.E. 
Denver, Col. 150 95 78 150 | 307/ 67 76| 155| 12 145 “ 8. 
Santa Fé, N. Mex. . 139} 109] 157} 100) 78) 142| 59] 119 | go1 || 152 E. 
Salt Lake, Utah erect. v . * 81 64 56 | 252 39 33 49 | 269) 249 135 “* N.W 
Los Angeles, Cal. . 104} 155 80 58 55 | 208) 274 53 142 i 1038" +* Ww 
| 


460 


In the table which we present (table III.), 
and which is a mean of daily observations for 
a period of five years, a cloudy day is one in 
which the heavens are from seven-tenths to 
entirely obscured by clouds; a fair day is one 
in which the heavens are from four to seven- 
tenths clouded; all else are classed as clear 
days. From this it will be seen, that for our 
purposes clear and fair days may be classed 
as one, and may be put into juxtaposition with 
the cloudy days. Consulting these tables, it 
will be seen, that in Denver the mean number 
of cloudy days in a year is only one-half of 
what it is in either Augusta or Jacksonville, 
that it is less than a half of what it is in St. 
Paul, and that it is slightly less than what it 
is in Los Angeles. 


TABLE III. 
MEAN FOR 5 YEARS. 
STATION. 
Clear. | Fair. | Cloudy. 

PATE UIBHA NCL afin Men feeulait het (ie) el ehite 123 150 92 
Jacksonville, Fla. . ...... 126 152 87 
iyo INEREKIG ooo 6 5 a alo 105 145 115 
ING WpOrt, MEY lene teuL meee ols tale mek 108 140 11 
Newework; NY. (1 2). HS 101 155 109 
Philadelphia, Penn... <9.) 2.) a). 114 139 112 
Chicagonlit yh phen iyitn s See clei lihet 4h | est Of 
StebaulssMunmne es ceecee ct: b/s hope teks 103 158 104 
Menvery Colecy.cprl haus vie jsial cuttehcsbers 1i7 142 46 
Santa és INe Mex. ey.) jen by sel 174 148 41 
Salt Lake,Utah ......4.-. 141 1381 93. 
ospAmeeler, Calemuc tl iciiep eset 164 148 51 


To put this fact in another way, it is seen, 
that in Denver there is only about one-eighth 
of the entire year when an invalid would be 
kept in the house on account of the weather ; 
in Jacksonville and Augusta he would be con- 
fined to the house, for the same reason, one- 
quarter of the year; in St. Paul he would be 
kept in-doors between a third and a quarter of 
the time ; while in Boston he would have to be 
housed a good third of the time. 

Admitting, then, the force of Dr. Flint’s 
statement, our tables show that there is no 
place in this whole country, where it is possible 
for the invalid to enjoy so much fresh air and 

- sunshine, as in the Rocky Mountains. For 
three hundred and twenty days out of every 
three hundred and sixty-five it is possible to 
roam at large, and to breathe! in health. 

We feel, that, so far, our tables have shown 
that the Rocky Mountains furnish climatic con- 
ditions of elevation, humidity, precipitation, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 35- 


temperature, winds, and sunshine, which rec- 
ommend them as a resort for phthisical inva- 
lids superior to any thing to be found in this. 
country. 


Observations by seasons. 


Having arrived at these general conclusions, 
the writer wishes to call attention very briefly 
to their accuracy and importance as applied to 
the different seasons of the year. He wishes 
to lay stress upon the evidence which goes to- 
show that Colorado and New Mexico furnish 
favorable resorts for phthisical invalids during 
the winter and spring, —the very seasons that 
are most trying in the east, the seasons that. 
they are obliged to avoid, and to seek new 
abodes at the resorts. The elemeats of eleya- 
tion and barometric pressure will remain near- 
ly constant the year round. But how is it in 
regard to the humidity of the air in Colorado 
during the winter and spring? The writer has. 
selected at random, and-without reference to 
whether the showings would be fayorable or 
unfavorable for a given place, the year 1880: 
as his basis for comparison. By referring to 
table IV., part i., it will be seen, that both the 
relative and absolute humidity for Denver 
during the winter and spring is absolutely, and 
by comparison, very small; that, as comparedi 
with Augusta and Jacksonville, it makes a 
wonderful showing in these respects ; and that. 
the ratio of the absolute humidity as between 
Denver and Los Angeles is as 1 to 3 for these 
seasons. 

When we turn to our tables (table IV., part 
ii.), we learn that the amount of precipitation 
at Denver for these seasons was almost nil; 
that the mean: monthly precipitation at Den- 
ver for the given time was only a small fraction 
of an inch in rain and melted snow. Carry 
out, now, the comparison between Denver and! 
Augusta, Jacksonyille and Los Angeles, and 
see the tremendous difference in this particular 
between these places, — a showing immensely 
in favor of Denver. It will be seen that our 


“general conclusions are very much strength- 


ened by this particular application, and that 
we have brought strong additional evidence in 
favor of Colorado as a resort for persons 
affected with phthisis pulmonalis. 

When we turn to our tables to learn in re- 
gard to the winds at these places for the given 
seasons, we see that the conclusions previously 
reached in regard to Denver, in this particular, 
still hold true (table V.). 

Temperature. — We come now to our last 
observation, and to a brief discussion of what 
some may consider the weak point in regard 


ae) a ee ee 

all ——, 
ste 
Ocroser 5, 1888.] SCIENCE. 461 
, TABLE Iv. 
1880. | 1880. 
RELATIVE AND ABSOLUTE HUMIDITY. i PRECIPITATION. 
STATION. j “ ¢ . 
Spring. Summer. Autumn. Winter. & g | 8 
| s =I 
} £ =| 2 c| 
R.H.| G. Vt | RH. | G.V. | RH. | GV. || R.H. |°G.V. & 2 4 5 
——| ies be 
Augusta, Ga. “68 4.7 64 72 || 74 4.9 2 3.2 5.0 4.2 2.8 3.9 
Jacksonville, Fla. -| 6 | 55 | 6 8.0 |} 75 56 || 7 | 30 || 35 | 59 | 95 | 3.5 
| | } 
Boston, Mass, 61 | 25 70 5.4 67 3.0 69 15 || 26 | 35 | 26 | 88 
Newport, RI... «| 71 2.7 76 5.0 75 3.5 78 19 |} 39 | 50 | 34 | 36 
New York, N.Y. 65 2.9 79 5.5 70 3.8 65 2.0 25 | 42 | 25 |) 2.8 
Philadelphia, Penn. . S0i he 27 66 6.1 68 | -3.0 72 21 21 as | 16° | me 
Chicago,T. . 63 2.9 7o | 59 66 2.3 69 1.8 41 | 37 | 24 | 24 
St.Paul, Minn... 62 2.9 69 5.1 |} 66 2.9 71 = 21 4.0 | 28 1.5 
Denver, Col. rita ees as | 33 || 55 | 28 |} ot | of || o5 | 18 | 20 | 02 
Santa Fé, N. Mex. 35 1.2 36 2.6 50 2.5 50 - | o2| 17 | ov | 06 
Salt Lake, Utah 41 15 25 1.5 33 | 16 50 | (18 16:] 08 | 0.7 11 
Los Angeles,Cal. . .| 4 3.6 13 48 63 3.8 68 2.9 HpSah 061-4038) if SS 
if if 


1 Relative humidity. 


to Colorado as a resort for invalids. It has 
been seen that most authorities favor a cold 
climate; but they add the proviso that it 
should be free from change. By consulting 
table VI., part ii., it will be seen that the mean 
monthly range of temperature is larger for 
Denver than for almost any other point in our 
scale. It will be seen, further, that the minima 
(table VI., part i.) of temperature are very 


* Grains vapor. 


nearly the lowest in the scale, — not so low, 
to be sure, as the minima at St. Paul, but de- 
cidedly lower than at Augusta, Jacksonville, 
and Los Angeles. This state of affairs de- 
mands an explanation. 

We have seen that the air of Colorado | is 
both dry and rare, —two conditions that favor 
rapid radiation. We have seen, further, that — 
the soil is of a porous, sandy nature, —a kind ~ 


TABLE V.— Winps, 1880. 


DIRECTION. | VELOCITY, MEAN DAILY. 
STATION, aa ai | 
Spring. |Summer.| Autumn.) Winter. Spring. | Summer: Autumn. | Winter. 
Aneonte, Gass eh. | CPA PA | S.E, 8.E. N.E. N.W. 102 7 67 | 101 
Jacksonville, Fla. . . 5 . 5 4 N.E S.W. N.E. N.E. ) 226 162 157 ) 189 
Boston, Mass. S.W. 8.W. Ww. N.W. | 257 184 223 H 281 
MeeagparhsRTs Oy. 143)! hen nehPneeey Mew sel LESIVS 8.W. S.W. SW. 243 168 232 266 
New YorksN.Y.. 0. 0 So) Dona }osiw. | Naw waw. || od7 177 192 222 
Philadelpbia, Penn. . . «es 8.W. SW. | NW. S.W. 294 218 228 178 
OHICARO, Toei eh ele | Ws | BW. | BW. |” BL, 182 | = 188 a | 198 
RtreaniyMinn, sos bie el ns 8.E. SE. | NW, Se. |}. 210 180 189 193 
DROS Shs ss oe te Ee |B. 8. 8. || 156 us | 15 | dar 
SantaFé,NiMex. ....- «)- =} BW..| NE. | NE. |New. 167 134 wo | 148 
SaltLake,Utah .  . . 8.E. N.W. | SE. 8.E.. }}, 122 130 102 108 
TpsAngeleny Cala) Oat - vice. | We) payee. We] W. w. NE. |} 187 131 78 112 


462 SCIENCE. \ [Vor. IL, No. 35. 
TABLE VI.— TEMPERATURE, 1880. 
SPRING. SUMMER, AUTUMN. || WINTER. SPRING. SuMMER AUTUMN WINTER 
— coon | 

Sleleleielel4lelelsieleielsie\s 
Augusta, Ga. . -| 90 30 99 60 91 28 81 7 AT 66 32 81 45 63 54 61 
Jacksonville, Fla. -| 95 42 || 100 69 91 39 78 19 43 71 || 29 82 39 69 45 59 
Boston, Mass. . «| 92 12 |} 101 47 93 | 3 59 |—5 58 47 48 69 52 61 52 33 
Newport, RI. . -| 84 14 88 49 87 15 61 1 44 47 33 69 42 53 48 36 
New York, N.Y. . «| 94 16 92 48 91 14 65 |—6 54 51 36 72 45 53 52 36 
Philadelphia, Penn. ./| 96 20 95 51 91 10 67 | —5 56 54 37 73 49 55 53 37 
Chicago, Ill. . ° | 85 19 95 52 || 85 1 63 | —15 47 51 42 72 53 48 | 57 31 
St. Paul, Minn. . 2 |) OL 0) — 1% 98 AT 90 | —18 59 | —27 59 46 43 69 62 42 67 21 
Denver, Col.. * -| 89 | —10 | 96 39 89 | —13 59 | —11 66 48 48 69 60 44 72 29 
Santa Fé, N. Mex. «| 80 0 88 33 80 | —11 56 |—3 67 47 45 66 59 48 61 27 
Salt Lake, Utah . : 78 5 95 40 88 3 49 2 51 45 51 68 51 49 44 31 
Los Angeles, Cal. E |) 197, 36 87 50 91 3d 80 30 45 56 38 64 47 61 46 54 


that will easily absorb heat, and as easily give 
it off. Furthermore, there is but little yerdure 
or shade, — another condition, too, which will 
fayor both absorption and radiation of heat. 
In consequence of these conditions, the soil 
and air are, on the one hand, rapidly heated 
in the morning, and they are equally rapidly 
cooled at night. The nights are always cool 
in Colorado, — a condition that renders the 
summer months enjoyable and invigorating. 
But the question, after all, is, whether this 
‘diurnal change of temperature is injurious to 
Colorado as a resort for invalids. We claim 
that it is not, and for this reason: it makes 
but little difference to the invalid how cold the 
nights are, for at that time he should be in- 
doors, where he can regulate the temperature ; 
but it is of importance that it should be warm 
at mid-day, so that he can take his exercise 
regularly and comfortably. We have seen, 
that so far as conditions of sunshine, humid- 
ity. and rain and snow fall are concerned, 
the invalid can lead an out-of-door life a 
greater percentage of the time in Colorado 


than anywhere else in this country; and we 
claim that he will never find these factors 
counterbalanced by the element of tempera- 
ture. An experience of several years war- 
rants the writer in asserting that an invalid 
can, with perfect comfort and safety, spend 
several hours in the saddle nearly every day 
of the three hundred and sixty-five. One has 
but to read ‘H. H.’s’ writings to learn how 
attractive out-of-door life is in Colorado, even 
in mid-winter; and we can positively assert 
that we have known of picnics being held 
day after day, in the open air, in the very 
heart of the winter, and that there are days 
and weeks in mid-winter when one can sit 
with doors and windows open. 

As proof of what we say, we append the 
mid-day temperature at Denver for each month 
of the year for three years. 

In conclusion, the writer would state, that 
while his personal experience in regard to a 
desirable climate for the cure of phthisis has 
been such as to convince him of the great 
superiority of the climate of the Rocky Moun- 


TABLE VII.— DENVER, MEAN MONTHLY TEMPERATURE, 1 P.M. 


YEAR. | dan. | Feb. | March.| April. | May. | June. | July. | Aug. | Sept. | Oct. Nov. | Dec. 
1880. * 5 = “ 5 45°.7 37°.6 44°.3 56°.7 67°.2 78°.5 79°.9 79°.6 | 71°.3 56°.8 30°.3 35°.8 
1881. > ; ci -| 33.5 36 .4 46.1 62 .2 69 82.5 84 .6 81.3 70 69.7 42.8 AT 6 
1882, c 5 . E, .| 87 46 .2 52.3 55 .5 59.3 73 81.6 81.4 73.9 69 4 46 .5 43 .2 


# . . . 


OcTOBER 5, 1883.] 


tains over any other in this country, yet in 
this article he has tried to put aside any per- 
sonal bias, and he desires to carry conviction 
only in so far as he has been able to adduce 
facts, and to interpret them rationally and logi- 
cally. He would state, further, that, if the 
reader should take exception to any interpre- 
tation given to the facts, the tables still stand 
as the best and most reliable data of these 
facts attainable, and they are not to be con- 
troverted. Sami. Auc. Fisk, M.D. 


Denver, Col. 


REARING OYSTERS FROM ARTIFICIAL- 
LY FERTILIZED EGGS AT STOCK- 
TON, MD. 


In order to test the feasibility of such an un- 
dertaking on a considerable scale, a pond three 
and ahalf feet deep was excavated on the prem- 
ises of Messrs. George V. Shepard and H. H. 
Pierce, not far from Stockton, near the shore 
of Chincoteague Bay, and connected with the 
latter by a trench ten-feet long, two feet wide, 
and three and a half feet deep. Before the 
water was let into the trench connecting the 
pond with the bay, a wooden diaphragm — 
made in the form of a box three feet deep, and 
two anda half feet wide, and two inches thick, 
and lined on the inside with gunny-cloth; the 
sides of the box being perforated with numer- 
‘ous auger-holes, and filled with clean sharp 
sand, so as to form a filter — was placed in the 
trench vertically and transversely, and so se- 
cured that no water, except such as had first 
filtered through the diaphragm, could gain ac- 
ess to the pond. In this way the natural fry 
from the bay was effectually excluded from our 
artificial enclosure from the very, start, so that 
the results of our experiment might not be 
vitiated. In the construction of this simple 
apparatus we depended entirely upon the rise 
and fall of the tide to partially renew the water 
in the pond in the intervals between the tides. 
The tidal rise and fall of the water in the en- 
closure was from four to six inches, or from six 
to eight inches less than the rise and fall of the 
tide in the open bay. Into the enclosure, cov- 
ering about fifty square yards, artificially fertil- 
ized spawn was poured at odd dates, from July 
7 to the first week of August. 

The spawn was taken from the adults much 
in the same way as from fishes ; the right valve 
of the adult animals being removed, and the 
ducts of the reproductive organs stroked with 
a pipette to force out the eggs and milt from 
the females and males. The products mixed 
together in water were then allowed to stand 


SCIENCE. 


463 


in pails for a few hours, until the eggs had de- 
veloped as far as the swimming stage. The 
spawn so prepared was then distributed over 
different parts of the pond, and left to take care 
of itself. 

The collectors used were simply oyster-shells 
strung upon galvanized wire; strings of shells 
being suspended to stakes driven into the bot- 
tom of the pond at intervals corresponding to 
the dates when fresh lots of spawn were intro- 
duced, each stake being marked with the date 
when it was put in place. The suspended 
oyster-shells were introduced so as to afford 
the young fry clean surfaces to which it could 
attach itself. On the 22d of August Mr. 
Pierce found that some of the shells hanging 
to the stakes had spat attached, ranging from 
one-fourth to three-fourths of an inch in di- 
ameter, and which had undoubtedly been de- 
rived from some of the brood placed in the 
pond by us. Some specimens of these young 
oysters are now in my possession, attached to 
the petforated oyster-shells used as collectors. 

To our great surprise, we found that the 
water in the pond maintained about the same 
specific gravity as that in the bay, or 1.0175 to 
1.018, and that the temperature of the water 
was also the same as in the open bay. The 
microscopic vegetable food upon which the oys- 
ter feeds was found to multiply rapidly in the 
enclosure, inasmuch as it was confined by the 
gate or diaphragm, so that it could not escape. 
The water in the pond was also found to remain 
sweet, and free from putrefactive odors. It 
will accordingly be seen, that all the conditions 
of success had been established, as was fully 
proved by the result. 

While it is too soon to affirm that artificial 
breeding may be profitably available on an 
extensive scale in practical oyster-culture, our 
experiment has demonstrated a number of very 
important. facts. These are: 1. Oyster-spat 
may be reared from artificially fertilized eggs ; 
2. The spat will grow just as fast in such 
enclosures as in the open water; 3. Food is 
rapidly generated in such enclosures; 4. The 
density of the water in the ponds is not mate- 
rially affected by rains, or leaching from the 
banks; 5. Ponds are readily excavated in salt- 
marsh lands, and can in all probability be used 
for fattening and growing Ostrea virginica for 
market just as successfully as Ostrea edulis 
and angulata are grown by a similar method 
on the coasts of France. Pond-culture, where 
there are salt-marshes adjoining arms of the 
sea the waters of which have a density below 
1.020, can doubtless be carried on profitably 
in connection with the intelligent use of simple, 


, 


. 


464 


cheap collecting-apparatus placed in both open 
and confined waters to catch a ‘set’ of spat, 
which can then be transferred to ponds or open 
beds. The methods of spawn-taking and pond- 
culture introduced by the writer are inexpen- 
sive and very simple, and can be understood 
and conducted by any person of ordinary in- 
telligence, and are fully described in papers 
already published, or in course of publication, 
by the U.S. fish-commission, under the au- 
spices of which he has been enabled to carry 
out his investigations. The experimental dif 
ficulties have been overcome. It remains for 
practical men to ayail themselves of whatever 
of value has been determined by these experi- 
ments. There are thousands of acres of salt- 
marsh land along the eastern coast of the 
United States, which, with proper preparation, 
might be made to yield a living to a large 
number of persons, and which is now not pro- 
ductive of any thing except mosquitoes and 
malaria. 

Pond-culture has one other decided adyan- 
tage over culture in the open water; namely, 
that it is possible to effectually exclude from 
the artificial enclosures certain enemies of the 
oyster, such as whelks and star-fishes. 

J. A. RyprEr. 


THE EXPLOSION OF THE RIVERDALE. 


Tue boiler of the steamer Riverdale exploded 
on the 28th of August, a few minutes after the 
boat had left her wharf at New York, and 
started for her destination on the Hudson River 
above the city. Several lives were lost, and 
the boat itself was sunk in sixty feet of water. 
The boiler was raised, and placed upon the 
wharf near the Delamater iron-works ; and the 
boat, a worthless wreck, was towed to the New- 
Jersey side of the river. 

The steamer had two‘ flue-boilers’ 25 feet 
(7.6 m.) long, 6 feet 4 inches (1.93 m.) in 
diameter, containing four ‘direct’ flues 14 
inches (0.36 m.) in diameter, two of 9 inches 
(0.23 m.) diameter, and five ‘return’ flues 
of 114 inches (0.28 m.) diameter. ‘The shell 
was of no. 3 iron, and the area of heating- 
surface was 676 square feet (63 sq.m.). The 
iron was of good quality, and was in good 
condition throughout, except along the bot- 
tom, where it gave way. The form, propor- 
tions, and workmanship of the boiler were 
good. The builders, Messrs. Fletcher & Har- 
rison of New York, were among the most repu- 
table constructors of engines and boilers in 
that city, and were noted for doing good work. 

On examination, it was found that the bot- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 35. 


tom was corroded along its whole length, and 
had been patched in a number of places where 
the iron had become dangerously thin, and 
that in some places the sheets were reduced 
to one-fourth their original thickness. The 
shell had been repeatedly patched, and five 
‘soft patches * were found on the girth-seams. 
The rupture seems to have started in the thin 
parts of the bottom, and to have followed the 
weakened girth-seams quite around, and di- 
vided the mass into two parts of nearly equal 
size, tearing the middle sheet out of the shell 
entirely. 

A coroner’s jury made an inspection, exam- 
ined such witnesses as could be found and 
such experts as could be induced to testify, 
and rendered a verdict to the effect that the 
boiler ruptured in consequence of the weakness 
of the sheets on the bottom of the shell, which 
were unable to sustain the working pressure 
allowed by the U.S. inspector; which weak- 
ness had been produced by corrosion on the 
interior, due to the action of the feed-water. 
It was further asserted, that the boiler was 
tested in June up to a pressure of 62 pounds 
(5 atmos. abs.), and burst ten weeks later 
under a pressure of but 32 pounds (3 atmos.), 
in consequence of the neglect of the inspector 
to observe its condition at the time of testing 
it. The engine-driver and the inspector were 
censured by a vote which was not unanimous. 
The jury expressed the opinion that the pres- 
ent law is not sufficiently explicit and manda- 
tory, and that the use of the test by hydrostatic 
pressure is insufficient to detect and reveal such 
defects as here existed. 

The inspector acknowledged that he did not 
try the strength of the boiler with the hammer, 
as is now usual in all thorough examinations 
by competent engineers, but merely looked it 
over; and that at previous inspections he had 
not entered the boiler, but had only looked in 
at the manhole. The evidence of the most 
superficial and inefficient ‘ inspection ’ was con- 
elusive ; and the fact that proper inspection 
would have revealed the dangerous condition 
of the boiler was equally well proven. The 
so-called ‘inspection’ was a farce; and the 
inspector, in a spirit of indifference or indo- 
lence, took the chances of an explosion. 

The exploded boiler weighed 27,000 pounds 
(12,247 kilos), and contained 25,000 pounds 
(11,340 kilos) of water. The explosion was 
not remarkably violent, but was what old engi- 
neers are accustomed to call a ‘burst’ rather 
than an explosion. The consequences were, 
however, sufficiently serious. The energy 
producing the effects seen in the case of a 


OcToBER 5, 1883.] 


true explosion may be imagined, when the 
amount of heat-energy stored up in such a 
boiler is calculated. The quantity of heat 
transformed into mechanical energy by a mass 
of water and of steam of such magnitude, set 
free, and expanding down to the pressure and 
temperature of the atmosphere, from the press- 
ure and temperature at which it existed in 
the boiler of the Riverdale, would amount to 
above 1,500,000,000 foot-pounds (over 200,- 
000,000 kilogrammetres). This would be suf- 
ficient to throw the boiler and its contents, were 
the heat all utilized, as in a perfect steam- 
engine, five miles high. This may give some 
faint idea of the enormous forces at work, and 
the tremendous energy stored in a steam-boiler, 
even where the pressure of the steam is very 
low, as it was in this case. 

It will be concluded, from what has been 
above stated, that a steam-boiler of the most 
ordinary and least dangerous type has stored 
within it an inconceivable amount of available 
energy in the form of heat, which may be at any 
moment transformed, in part, into mechanical 
energy with terribly destructive results, both 
to life and property ; that this powerful agent 
for good or for evil can only be safely utilized 
when the utmost care, intelligence, and skill, 
are employed in its application, and in the pres- 
ervation of the vessel in which it is enclosed ; 
that the present code of law relating to the 
care, management, and inspection of steam- 
boilers, is entirely inadequate to insure safety ; 
that the inspection of steam-boilers, as at pres- 
ent practised by the employees of the govern- 
ment, is not only liable to be inefficient, but is 
likely to prove worse than none, as it gives to 
the owner, and perhaps often to the man in 
charge, of the boiler, a feeling of security which 
is entirely without basis in fact, and which 
may therefore cause the neglect of that watch- 
fulness which might otherwise prevent acci- 
dent; that simple pressure produced by the 
test-pump, as. now provided for by the law, is 
not a sufliciently effective method of detecting 
weakness in the boiler, or to be relied upon to 
the exclusion of other better and well-known 
methods of test. 

The fact that the hydrostatic test is not con- 
clusive as to the safety of a boiler has long 
been well known and admitted among intelli- 
gent engineers. The steam ferryboat West- 
field met with precisely such an accident a dozen 
years ago; and it was shown at the coroner’s 
inquest, at which the writer assisted that offi- 
cial in the examination of his expert witnesses, 
that the boiler had been inspected, and had 
been tested, but a few weeks before, by the 


SCIENCE. 


465 


U.S. inspector, who applied a pressure con- 
siderably in excess of that at which the explo- 
sion took place. ‘The cause of the accident, 
by which a large number of people lost their 
lives, was precisely that which caused the 
explosion of the Riverdale’s boiler, and the 
method of rupture was the same. In either 
case, proper methods of inspection would have 
saved the lives of the sufferers. 

It is undoubtedly true, that many of the in- 
spectors are conscientious, experienced, skil- 
ful, and painstaking men, and do their duty. 
in spite of the defects of the existing law; 
but it is also true that now and then a care- 
less or incompetent inspector will neglect the 
simplest details of his work, and that we must 
expect occasional repetition of this sad expe- 
rience, until the law is intelligently framed, and 
so administered that the passing of a defective 
boiler by the inspector shall become as nearly 
as possible an impossibility. 


‘ Roserr H. Taursron. 
Hoboken, Sept. 23, 1883. 


THE AMERICAN SOCIETY OF MICROS- 
COPISTS. 


THe sixth annual meeting was held this year in 
Chicago, Aug. 7-11. The usual number of members 
was present, and the meeting was full of interest 
from the beginning to theend. The forenoon session 
of Tuesday was given to organization, and the report 
of the president on the official action of the execu- 
tive officers for the year. At the afternoon session, 
papers were read as follows. Microscopical examina- 
tion of seminal stains on cloth, by F. M. Hamlin, 
After pointing out the defects of Koblanck’s method, 
that usually given in the manuals, he explained his 
own, which he had found eminently successful. It is’ 
in brief as follows. ‘‘1. If the stain to be examined 
is upon any thin cotton, linen, silk, or woollen fabric, 
cut out a piece about one-eighth inch square, lay it 
upon a slide previously moistened with a drop of 
water, and let it soak for half an hour or so;.. . 
then with a pair of needles unravel or fray out the 
threads at the corners, put on the glass cover, press 
it down firmly, and submit to the microscope. 2. If 
the fabric is of such a thickness or nature that it 
cannot be examined as above, fold it through the 
centre of the stain, and with a sharp knife shave off 
the projecting edge thus made, catching upon a slide 
moistened with water the particles removed. After 
soaking a few minutes, say five to ten, the powdery 
mass will sink down through the water, and rest 
upon the slide. The cover-glass may now be put on, 
and the preparation examined.”’ 

. College microscopical societies, by Sarah F. Whit- 
ing. The author discussed, first, the question ‘ What 
use can a microscopical society subserve?’ second, 
‘ How can it be made a success?’ Such a society, in 
its range of topics, can take in almost all the physica! 


466 


and social sciences; and an enthusiasm created in it 
will help many of the departments of college-work. 
The society welcomes the incoming classes, and 
affords an opportunity for a change to those accus- 
tomed to years of dry drill in the mathematics and 
languages of the preparatory schools. It opens their 
eyes to the perfections of nature, awakens in them a 
curiosity, and stimulates interest in all the scientific 
studies of the college course. There are interesting 
subjects of microscopical investigation, carried on 
in society, which do not come under any department 
of college instruction. The live college microscopi- 
cal society will not only awaken interest in students 
and teachers, but will attract the attention of the 
authorities who control the funds, and the commu- 
nity generally. The conditions of success in such a 
society are just what they are in every other scientific 
society the object of which is not alone investigation, 
‘but instruction of its members and others. There 
must be desirable members, those who are willing to 
work: all must have something to do. ‘The fresh- 
men, by their exclaiming, fan the flame of enthusiasm, 
and, before they can do any thing alone with the 
microscope, can serve the society on the lamp com- 
mittee”? There should bea class in microscopical 
technology, apparatus, a library, and especially the 
current scientific journals. 

Cataloguing, labelling, and storing microscopical 
preparations, by Simon H. Gage. This paper pointed 
out the advantages of properly cataloguing, etc., one’s 
microscopical preparations, and then gave in detail 
the course found to be successful by the author. ‘‘ The 
catalogue should indicate all that is known of a speci- 
men at the time of its preparation, and all the process- 
es by which it is treated. It is only by the possession 
of such a complete knowledge of the entire history 
of a preparation that one is able to judge with cer- 
tainty of the comparative excellence of methods.” 
The card method is advocated. ‘‘The cards are 
postal-card size, and- each preparation has its own 
card. ... These may be arranged alphabetically; 
and, as new preparations are made, new cards may 

_be added in their proper order, while those of 
destroyed or discarded preparations may be removed 
without in any way marring the catalogue. Finally, 
the cards may be kept in a neat box which occupies 
but little more space than a manuscript book.”? The 
cabinet should allow the slides to be flat, exclude 
dust and light. Each slide should have a separate 
compartment, numbered to agree with the slide. 
The floor of the compartment should be beveled at 
the end, so as to facilitate removal; and the drawers 
of the cabinet should be independent, but so close 
together that slides will not fall out when tipped; 
and each should be numbered with Roman letters. 

The president, Albert McCalla, delivered his an- 
nual address, Tuesday evening, in Weber music- 
hall. His theme was ‘ Verification of microscopical 
observation.’ Referring to the scientific spirit and a 
common bond of the society’s organization, he said, 
“Tn this intensely practical age of ours, we are in 
danger of forgetting that the true aim of science is 
simply the pursuit of truth, and that the mighty 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 35. 


benefits, the invaluable and almost countless gifts, of 
wealth and ease and safety, which result from scien- 
tific discovery, and which so greatly bless the world 
to-day, will result most surely when science has an 
eye single to the search for simple truth, — truth that 
to the Seti world seems often abstract and un- 
important. ... We are not all botanists, not all 
zoologists, nor r all students of lithology; yet we have 
a well-defined common ground. We are all deeply 
interested in the physics of the microscope and in the 
methods of its use; and, in order to be skilled in 
that department of investigation we have severally 
chosen, we must be more or less fully practical in 
microscopical work in many fields.’’ To prove that 
“fonly as theories are submitted to repeated and 
varied forms of verification is error eliminated and 
final truth obtained,” numerous facts were cited from 
the history of scientific progress; after which, the 
means of verification of microscopical observation 
were discussed. These are repetition of observation, 
use of the camera lucida, photomicrography, media 
and reagents, improved lenses and apparatus, and a 
better knowledge of optics. 

Wednesday forenoon was devoted to papers on 
bacteria. T. J. Burrill read a paper on preparing 
and mounting bacteria. He stated that the elements 
of successful staining are as follows: ‘‘1. The organ- 
isms should be decidedly and conspicuously stained; 
2. The general mass of embedding-material should 
be left unstained, or so different in color that the 
organism can be distinctly seen; 8. There should 
be no granular or other precipitations from the 
staining-material; 4. The color should be suitable 
for the purposes required, and permanent if the 
object is to be mounted; 5. The process should be 
as simple as possible, and free from manipulative 
difficulties. .. . Except for a few special results, 
aniline dyes are by far the most serviceable in stain- 
ing bacteria. However, no one staining-material, 
nor any single method of procedure, can be made 
to answer well the requirements for all kinds of 
bacteria.”” 

Dr. H. J. Detmers presented some conclusions 
reached by himself while studying the diseases of cat- 
tle in Texas. Bacteria he regarded as unquestionably 
the cause of certain fevers. Under certain conditions, 
all bacteria become pathogenetic; but these condi- 
tions are not yet fully understood. 

Dr. George E. Fell read a paper on the clinical ad- 
vantages Of ozone, and its effects on the micro-organ- 
isms of infusions. After giving the favorable results 
of the use of ozone by Dr. F. W. Bartlett in scat- 
let-fever, diphtheria, whooping-cough, typhoid-fever, 
etc., he gave in tabular form the results of a series of 
experiments by himself, — experiments in which 
bacteria, and other forms indigenous in infusions, 
were subjected to the influence of air charged with 
ozone. 

Following the discussion on the three preceding 
papers, Dr. G. E. Blackham presented the report of 
committee on oculars. The report recommends nam- 
ing oculars, like objectives, by their equivalent focal 
lengths in English inches. For the tubes of oculars 


- 


ae 


s 


OcTOBER 5, 1883.] 


the standard medium size, 1.25 inch is recommended, 
with the alternatives of 1 inch and 1.35 inch for those 
who wish smaller or larger tubes; also for the upper 
tube of the ocular .75 inch, and, for sub-stage tube, 1.50 
inch. The purpose of the society is to secure uniform- 
ity in these sizes, so that apparatus of different makers 
shall be interchangeable, as objectives have been since 
the adoption of the ‘ society screw.’ 

The first paper in the afternoon was a critical study 
of the action of a diamond in ruling lines on glass, by 
Prof. William A. Rogers. The author stated his the- 
ory relating to the method which Nobert may possibly 
have employed in the production of his plates briefly 
thus: “‘The lines composing Nobert’s finest bands are 
produced by a single crystal of the ruling-diamond, 
whose ruling qualities improve with use. .. . When 
a diamond is ground to a knife-edge, this edge is still 
made up of separate crystals, though we may not be 
able to see them; and a perfect line is obtained only 
when the ruling is done by a single crystal. When a 
good knife-edge has been obtained, the preparation 
for ruling consists in finding a good crystal. Occa- 
sionally excellent ruling-erystals are obtained by 
splitting a diamond in the direction of one or more 
of the twenty-four cleavage planes which are found 
in a perfectly formed crystal. A ruling-point formed 
in this way is, however, very easily broken, and soon 
wears out. Experience has shown that the best re- 
sults are obtained by choosing a crystal having one 
glazed surface, and splitting off the opposite face. By 
grinding this split face, a knife-edge is formed against 
the natural face of the diamond, which will remain 
in good condition for a long time. When a ruling- 
erystal has been found which will produce moderately 
heavy lines of the finest quality, it is at first generally 
too sharp for ruling lines finer than 20,000 or 30,000 
to the inch, even with the lightest possible pressure 
of the surface of the glass. But gradually the edges 
of this cutting-crystal wear away by use, until at last 
this particular crystal takes the form of a true knife- 
edge which is parallel with the line of motion of the 
ruling-slide> in other words, when a diamond has 
been so adjusted as to yield lines of the best character, 
its ruling-qualities improve with use. If Nobert had 
any so-called ‘ secret,’ I believe this to have been its 
substance. 

“The problem of fine ruling consists of two parts, 
— first, in tracing lines of varying degrees of fineness; 
and, second, in making the interlinear spaces equal. 
The latter part of the problem is purely mechanical, 
and presents no difficulties which cannot be over- 
come by mechanical skill. It will be the aim of the 
present paper to describe the more marked character- 
istics of lines of good quality ruled upon glass... . A 
perfect line is densely black, with at least one edge 
sharply defined. Both edges are perfectly smooth. 
Add to these characteristics a rich black gloss, and 
you have a picture of the coarser lines of a perfect 
Nobert plate. In the study of the action of a dia- 
mond in producing a breaking fracture in glass, the 
microscope seems to be of little service; but we can 
call it to our aid in the study of its action in ruling 
smooth lines, One would naturally suppose that a line 


SCIENCE. 


467 


of the best quality would be produced by the stop- 
page of the light under which it is viewed by the 
opaque groove which is cut by the ruling-diamond. 
Without doubt, this is the way in which lines are gen- 
erally formed; but it is not the only way in which 
they can be produced. An examination under the 
microscope will reveal the fact, that in some instances, 
at least, a portion of the glass is actually removed 
from the groove cut by the diamond; and that the 
minute particles of glass thus removed are sometimes 
laid up in windrows beside the real line, as a plough 
turns up a furrow of soil. . . . The particles of glass 
removed take four characteristic forms: (a) They 
appear as chips scattered over the surface of the glass; 
(b) They appear as particles so minute, that when laid 
upon a windrow, and forming an apparent line, they 
cannot be separated under the microscope; (c) They 
take the form of filaments when the glass is suffi- 
ciently tough for them to be maintained unbroken; (d) 
They take acircularform. ... It must not, however, 
be supposed that lines of the best quality always pre- 
sent the appearance described above.’ These char- 
acteristic results were illustrated by plates, with the 
fragments and fibres in place. The author also re- 
ferred to Mr. Fasoldt’s claim, that he has succeeded 
in ruling lines one million to the inch, He thinks 
the limit just a trifle too high; but, if reduced one- 
half, he is by no means sure but that it may be 
reached. 

Following this was a paper by A. H. Chester, de- 
scribing a new method of dry mounting, in which 
the cover-glass is easily remoyablé. The object is 
fastened to the slide in the usual way, and a tin 
cell built up about it sufficiently high for the cover 
to clear the object; then a ring of larger bore is 
cemented on, making a flange to receive cover. The 
latter ring, having been punched out of tin foil by a 
gun-wad punch, and put in place with the smaller 
hole uppermost, makes a groove above the cover, into 
which a spring-brass ring is put, holding the cover in 
place. The advantages of this method are many, — 
the objects may be easily viewed uncovered; dust or 
moisture accumulating in the cell may be removed; 
the mounting is quickly done, ete. 

In the evening session, Mr. W. H. Walmsley read a 
paper giving the latest and best results and methods, 
by himself and others, in the art of photomicrog- 
raphy. ‘The photographs in illustration were exhib- 
ited by L. D. McIntosh by means of his solar micro- 
scope with ether oxygen light. 

Following this was a short paper by D. S. Kellicott, 
giving an account of certain stalked infusoria found 
in the crayfish. Two species, believed to be peculiar 
to the gill-chambers, were described. One of these is 
new to science, and was named Cothurnia variabilis. 
The well-marked varieties seem to be due to situa- 
tion; i.e., those on the hairs of the lining-membrane 
are relatively longer, with a spine at the upper edge 
of the aperture of the lorica, but without a spine on 
the ventricose front of the same, while a stouter 
variety, situated on the membrane itself, has a spine 
in front, but none on the edge of the aperture. A 
third variety occurs on the gills: it also has a spine 


468 


on the ventricose part of the shell, but the aperture 
is horizontal instead of vertical. They are so abun- 
dant as to encumber the gills of the host, rendering 
them brown to the eye. An Epistylis from the same 
host was named E. Niagarae: it is close to E. bala- 
nhorum, a marine form. The same writer, at another 
session, described Cothurnia lata n. s., found on Di- 
aptomus, and also gave a general account of two inter- 
nal parasites of the crayfish. 

The first paper Thursday morning was on the 
effects of division of the vagi on the muscles of 
the heart, by A. M. Bleile. The object of the paper 
was the demonstration of nutritive or trophic nerves 
for the heart, and was a continuation of work re- 
ported in the Proceedings of the society last year. 

Following this, T. S. Up de Graff described certain 
fresh-water worms. One, a rotifer, is new: it was 
named Brachionus Gleasonii. Independent of the 
spines, its length is 0.145 inch, the front of the car- 
apace without spines. The posterior edge bears five 
curved spines: there is one, also, on the dorsal part 
of the shell, —a peculiar feature. 

The remainder of the session was occupied by 
short papers, by Francis Wolle, on fresh-water algae, 
and one by John Kruttschnitt on ferns and their 
development. 

In the afternoon the session was opened bya re- 
port upon a standard centimetre, prepared by the 
U.S. bureau of weights and measures, by W. A. 
Rogers. The lines of the centimetre are ruled on a 
plate of platinum-iridium soldered to brass with silver. 
The report describes the plate, and compares its 
divisions with a standard. ‘The original basis of this 
unit is a metre upon copper, prepared for Professor 
Rogers by Professor Tresca of the Conservatoire 
des arts et métiers at Paris. The report concludes 
thus: — 

1. That the centimetre A, measured by the middle 
defining line, is exactly a hundredth part of the 
metre des archives reduced to sixty degrees Fahren- 
heit. It can therefore be safely adopted as the unit 
in all measures with low-power objectives. 

2. That the second millimetre of the scale is ex- 
actly a thousandth part of the metre des archives 
when at the same temperature. 

The centimetre is now the property of the society; 
it having been tendered to it by the national com- 
mittee on micrometry, and accepted and adopted as 
a standard or basis for future studies and discussions 
in micrometry. The scale is in the hands of Dr. 
George HE. Fell. A committee was appointed for 
securing copies on glass. The rules for its control 
and use will soon be published. 

After this report, Dr. George E. Blackham read a 
‘communication on the relation of aperture to ampli- 
fication in the selection of a series of microscopic ob- 
jectives. The author showed that amplification is 
not the only element which enters into the problem 
of rendering visible minute details, but the aperture 
of the objective forms another element. Working, 
then, on the general lines laid down, he had selected 
as a set of powers, sufficient for all the work of any 
microscopist, the following: — 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 35. 


One 4-inch objectiye of 0,10 n.a.= 12° an angle, nearly. 


Weep ence “ “© 0.26 n.a. 2 30° « “ “ 
“ ; “ “ “ 94 n.a. = 140° “ “ 
“ 7 “ “ “ 1.42 n.a. 


“The first two to be dry-working objectives, with- 
out cover-correction; the third to be dry-working, with 
cover-correction; and the fourth to be a homogene- 
ous immersion objective, with cover-correction; and 
all to be of the highest possible grade of workman- 
ship. The stand should have a tube of such length 
that standard distance of ten inches from the front 
surface of objective to diaphragm of eye-piece can 
be obtained on it, and to be furnished with six eye- 
pieces; viz., 2-inch, 1-inch, and ?-inch Huyghenian, 
and 34-inch, }-inch, and +-inch solid.’ 

In the evening the annual soirée took place, in con- 
nection with the State microscopical society of Illi- 
nois, at the Calumet club-house. There were two 
hundred and fifty microscopes on the tables. A great 
variety of objects were shown to a party of five hun- 
dred guests of the club. 

There were, a number of reports and papers to 
be disposed of on Friday, the society adjourning at 
five P.M. 

The first paper was by Dr. W. T. Belfield, on the 
detection of adulteration in lard. Photographs rep- 
resenting crystals of pure and adulterated lard were 
exhibited. Those of the former are long, thin 
plates, with beveled ends, while the crystals of tal- 
low are plume-shaped, resembling somewhat an os- 
trich feather. 

Dr. V. 8. Clevinger presented a paper on the pa- 
thology of the brain. 

Dr. Thomas Taylor’s paper, on internal parasites in 
the domestic fowl, was read. The parasites referred 
to were a mite from the lungs, another mite in the 
cellular tissue, and an encysted nematoid from the 
crop. 

A paper on the termination of the nerves in the kid- 
neys was presented by M. L. Holbrook. The author’s 
method may be stated thus: ‘‘The fresh kidneys, 
as well as those preserved in chromic-acid solutions, 
were frozen in the freezing-microtome of Dr. Taylor, 
and the sections allowed to remain in the gold so- 
lution for varying periods of time, from forty min- 
utes to several days. When removed, they were 
carefully washed in distilled water, and placed in a 
strong formic acid of a specific gravity of a hundred 
and twenty degrees for from five to eight minutes, or 
in a twenty-five-per-cent solution of the same for 
hours and even days. Sometimes I obtained very good 
specimens by placing the sections first in a dilute 
twenty-five-per-cent solution of formic acid for twen- 
ty-four hours, and afterward staining them with 
chloride of gold until they reached the color desired. 
. . . The nerves supplying the kidneys are mainly 
of the non-medullated variety. They accompany the 
larger arteries of this organ, either in bundles, or in 
flat, expanded layers; and the latter features I found 
more common than the former. Sometimes an artery 
would be found encircled by a network of non-me- 
dullated nerves in a bewildering number. Hundreds 
of such nucleated bundles of fibres could be traced 


ee ee 


OcroBER 5, 1883.| 


around, above, and below an artery, freely branching, 
bifureating, and supplying all the neighboring forma- 
tions with a large number of delicate fibrillae. .. . 
The bundles of nerve-fibres give off delicate ramules 
to the afferent vessels by which they enter the tuft; 
and here they produce a delicate plexus spun around 
its capillaries. It was impossible to decide where the 
ultimate fibrillae branch in the capillaries of the tuft. 
. . . Sometimes I obtained specimens in which it 
seemed as if the ultimate fibrillae branched beneath 
the covering, flat epithelia in the delicate connective 
tissue between the conyolutions of the capillaries. 
- . . In perfect specimens there is no difficulty in 


Vorlaten 1. Lavigi. * 
ws 'KRAKATOWA 1.\) 
- Volcano % 
< 2623 ‘ 
60 » 


"OS" East of Greenwich 


Henghts wr feet, Depths wr j 
satisfying one’s self of the fact that every tubule is 
encircled by a plexus of non-medullated nerve-fibres, 
coursing either in the immediate vicinity of the tu- 
bule, in the interstitial connective tissue, or within 
the dense layer subjacent to the epithelia, known 
as the membrana propria, or even with the layer 
along the feet of the epithelia themselves.” 

Short papers were read by Dr. Salmon Hudson, on 
the yeast-plant; by J. M. Mansfield, on division of 
labor among microscopists; by Dr. L. M. Eastman, 
on egg-like bodies in the liver of the rabbit; by Dr. 
George E. Fell, on a peculiarity in the structure of 
the human spermatozoon. Dr. Lester Curtis made 
some observations on vessels of the spinal cord of 


SCIENCE. 


106" 


469 


the cat; and Dr. F. M. Hamlin, on mounting fo- 
raminifera. New apparatus was described as follows: 
new microscope-stand with concentric movements, 
by J. D. Cox; new modification of the Spitzka micro- 
tome, by V. S. Clevinger; and a new binocular 
arrangement, by Edward Bausch. 

The next annual meeting will be held at Rochester, 
N.Y., in August, 1884. 

The officers for the present year are: president, 
Hon. Jacob D. Cox; vice-presidents, William A. 
Rogers, T. J. Burrill; secretary, D. S. Kellicott; treas- 
urer, George E. Fell; executive committee, Albert H. 
Chester, William Humphreys, and H, A. Johnson. 


= ) BATAVIA 
fangerang 


RE evo nc Y 


OF BATAVIA 


ly, Pe sue, 
Pe 
ff i ry 


8 


\oe 106"S0" 


THE JAVA UPHEAVAL.} 


THE details which have reached us during the past 
week, of the terrible seismical manifestation at Java, 
prove it to be one of the most disastrous on record. 
Probably, moreover, it is the greatest phenomenon 
in physical geography which has occurred during at 
least the historical period, in the same space of time. 
The accompanying sketch-map will afford some idea 

-of the extent and nature of the change which has 
taken place, and the character of the sea-bed and the 
land in the region affected. 

The voleanie island of Krakatoa lies about the 

1 Taken from Nature, Sept. 6. 


470 


middle of the north part of the passage between Java 
and Sumatra, a passage which has formed an impor- 
tant commercial route. The strait is about seventy 
miles long and sixty broad at the south-west end, 
narrowing to thirteen miles at the north-east end. 
The island, seven miles long by five broad, lay about 
thirty miles from the coast of Java; and northwards 
the strait contracts like a funnel, the two coasts in 
that direction approaching very near to each other. 
A few weeks ago, as we intimated at the time, the 
voleano on the island began to manifest renewed 
activity. The whole region is volcanic; Java itself 
having at least sixteen active volcanoes, while many 
others can only be regarded as quiescent, not extinct. 
Various parts of the island have been frequently 
devastated by volcanic outbursts, one of the most 
disastrous of these having proceeded from a volcano 
which was regarded as having been long extinct. 
The present outburst in Krakatoa seems to have 
reached a crisis on the night of Aug. 26. The deto- 
nations were heard as far as Soerakarta; and ashes 
fell at Cheribon, about 250 miles eastwards on the 
north coast of Java. The whole sky over western 
Java was darkened with ashes; and, when investiga- 
tion became possible, it was found that the most 


wide-spread disaster had occurred. The greater part, 


of the district of North Bantam has been destroyed, 
partly by the ashes which fell, and partly by an enor- 
mous wave generated by the wide-spread voleanic dis- 
turbance in the bed of the strait. The town of Anjer, 
and other towns on the coast, haye been overwhelmed 
and swept away; and the loss of life is estimated at 
100,000. The island of Krakatoa itself, estimated to 
contain 8,000,000,000 cubie yards of material, seems 
to have been shattered, and sunk beneath the waters; 
while sixteen volcanic craters haye appeared above 
the sea between the site of that island and Sibisi 
Island, where the sea is comparatively shallow. The 
Soengepan volcano has split into five; and it is stated 
that an extensive plain of ‘voleanic stone’ has been 
formed in the sea, near Lampong, Sumatra, probably 
at a part of the coast dotted with small islands. A 
vessel near the site of the eruption had its deck 
covered with ashes eighteen inches deep, and passed 
masses of pumice-stone seven feet in depth. The 
wave reached the coast of Jaya on the morning of the 
27th, and, thirty metres high, swept the coast between 
Merak and Tijiringin, totally destroying Anjer, Merak, 
and Tjiringin. Five miles of the coast of Sumatra 
seem to have been swept by the wave, and many lives 
lost. At Taujong Priok, fifty-eight miles distant 
from Krakatoa, a sea seven feet and a half higher 
than the ordinary highest level suddenly rushed in, 
and overwhelmed the place. Immediately afterwards 
it as suddenly sank ten feet and a half below the 
high-water mark, the effect being most destructive. 
We shall probably hear more of this wave, as doubt- 
less it was a branch of it which made its way across 
the Pacific, and that with such rapidity that on the 
27th it reached San Francisco harbor, and continued 
to come in at intervals of twenty minutes, rising to a 
height of one foot for several days. The great wave 
generated on May 10, 1877, by the earthquake at 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 35. 


Iquique, on the coast of Peru, spread over the Pacific 
as far north as the Sandwich Islands, and south to 
New Zealand and Australia; while that at Arica, om 
Aug. 13 and 14, 1869, extended right across the Pacifie 
to Yokohama (Nature, vol.i. p. 54). It is misleading 
to speak of such waves as tidal: they are evidently 
due to powerful, extensive, and sudden disturbances 
of the ocean-bed, and are frequently felt in the Pacific 
when no earthquake has been experienced anywhere, 
though doubtless due to commotions somewhere in 
the depths of ocean. So far, these are all the facts 
that are known in connection with this last stupen- 
dous outburst of volcanic energy. It has altered the 
entire physical geography of the region, and the con- 
dition of the ocean-bed. The existing charts of the 
strait, with their careful soundings, are useless for 
purposes of navigation; and, when quiescence is re— 
stored, a new series of soundings will be necessary. 
Doubtless the results of the outbreak will receive 
minute attention at the hands of the Dutch goyern— 
ment; and, when all the data are collected, they will 
form valuable material for the study of the physical 
geographer. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


Humblebees vs. field-mice. 


In Scrence of Sept. 7 the vice-president of section: 
F (biology), in his address of Aug. 16, referring to- 
the aid given by humblebees in fertilizing Trifolium 
pratense, is reported as saying, ‘‘ Bumblebees pre— 
fer to raise their colonies in old nests of meadow- 
mice. I mentioned in my last report, that it had 
been suggested that we should not keep many cats, 
nor allow hawks, foxes, or dogs to catch these mice; 
for they make nests which are quite necessary for 
the bumblebees, which help fertilize our red clover, 
and thereby largely increase the yield of seed.” 

I would beg leave to differ from the author of the 
suggestion referred to, on the ground, that, if carried 
out, the effect produced would be apt to be quite the 
contrary of that intended. As field-mice prey upon 
the nests and combs of the humblebees, acting as a 
great check to their increase in numbers, the greater 
the precautions taken to prevent the killing of the 
mice, the greater would be the tendency towards 
the extermination of the humblebee, and therefore 
the less would be the yield of seed, resulting from the 
lack of aid rendered by these insects in fertilizing 
the red clover. 

In support of my objection, I would refer to Dar— 
win’s Origin of species, sixth edition, third chapter, 
where, under the head of ‘‘ Complex relations of all 
animals and plants to each other in the struggle 
for existence,’ he says, ‘‘The number of humble- 
bees in any district depends in a great measure on 
the number of field-mice, which destroy their combs 
and nests; and Col. Newman, who has long attended 
to the habits of humblebees, believes that ‘more 
than two-thirds of them are thus destroyed all over 
England.’ ”’ E, Nugent. 

Pottstown, Penn., Sept. 15, 1883. 


The influence of winds upon tree-growth. 


I observe that in the vicinity of Cambridge and 
Boston, wherever the common New-England elms. 
stand in a moderately isolated site, and one exposed 
to the wind, they lean, in a large majority of cases, 
trunk and all, to the south-east. This is true, also, 


Sa 
. P ‘ 4 


OcroBeER 5, 1883.] 


to a less extent, of maples; but the oak, ash, poplar, 
and pine stand sturdily erect. I believe the leaning 
of the elastic-fibred elms is due to the prevailing 
winds, which are from the west and north-west, 
these winds being also the strongest and coldest. At 
the office of the U. S. signal-service in Boston, obser- 
vations are taken three times a day. In 1882, out of 
1,095 observations taken, 298 showed the wind to be 
in the west, and 225 showed it to bein the north- 
west: in other words, about half (or forty-seven per 
cent) of the observations showed the wind to be 


somewhere between west and north-west. For the 
other five years the record is as follows: — 
1877. | 1878. 1879. | 1880. 1881. 
! / / 
247 W. 229 W. 273 W. 301 W. 278 W. 


much for the prevailing direction of the wind. 
re seems to be no other cause than this, to which 
‘We can assign the phenomenon of growth in ques- 
tion. All the many exceptions to the rule are to 
be explained, doubtless, by local causes, — shelter, 
neighborhood of other trees, and other more occult 
conditions of fibre. The works on forestry and bot- 
any seem not to notice the fact of asymmetry in tree- 
growth. It is only a repetition, on a larger scale, of 
the graceful deviation from monotonous symmetry 
which characterizes a]l leaf and branch structure. 
W. S. KenneEDyY. 


Importance of lime-juice in the pemmican fo 
arctic expeditions. ; 
The recent failure to relieve the party under Lieut. 
W. Greely at Lady Franklin Bay leads us to 
recur to the repeated difficulties which have marked 
the history of former arctic expeditions, We have 
re-examined the accounts of the English expedition 
of the Alert and the Discovery, under Nares and Ste- 
phenson, which left England, May 29, 1875. It was 
the first English arctic expedition which had orders 
to endeavor to reach the North Pole. It had the 
advantage of the advice of experienced arctic navi- 
gators, its commander Nares having been a member 
of several such expeditions. 
Thus it surprises the reader, that more thorough 
recautions were not made against the scurvy. The 
ondon quarterly review for January, 1877, has the 
fullest account of the ravages committed by that dis- 
ease with the sledge-parties sent out by Nares. Of 
the sledge-party under Commander Parr it says,— 
“Of seventeen of the finest men of the navy, who composed 
the original party, but five were (on return) able to walk along- 


side. One was dead, and the remainder in the last extremity of 
illness.” , 


It gives a minute account of the prostration by 
scurvy of the two other sledge-parties, —one under 
Commander Beaumont, and one under Commander 
Aldrich. Concerning the latter, the Review says, — 


Tq quote from the journal of Commander Aldrich, who led 
the western division, would be to repeat the same dreadful de- 
tails. The party broke down, and were supported by the same 
pak and brought back alive —that is all one can say — by the 

elp of God and the same determined courage. Surely, nothing 
finer was ever recorded than this advance of three sledges, — one 
to the north, another to the east, a third to the west, —laden down 
with sick and dying men, in obedience to an order to do their 
best, each in their separate direction. It is the old story,—too 
common in English annals, —the organization broke down, and 
individual heroism stepped in to save the honor of the day. But 
at what a cost!” 


SCIENCE. 


471 


All this was because the parties had no lime-juice. 
And Capt. Nares, ‘‘ with a chivalry and candor which 
do him honor, whether he has failed in judgment or 
not, declared that such was the fact, and that the 
omission was made by his orders and on his respon- 
sibility.’? He said, — 

* Acting on my lights and experience at the time, I followed 
the example of such men as M‘Clintock, Richards, Michan, and 
McClure, of the Investigator, and started off our sledges with as 
nearly as possible the same rations as had proved fairly success- 
ful on all previous occasions; that is, without lime-juice for issue 
as a ration, a small quantity for use as a medicine being carried 
by the sledges, which were not expected to be able to obtain 
game. . . . Up to the middle of May the lime-juice remains as 
solid as arock. No sledge-party employed in the arctic regions 
in the cold month of April has ever been able to issue a regular 
ration of lime-juice. In addition to the extra weight to be 
dragged, that its carriage would entail, there is the even more 
serious consideration of the time necessary in order to melt suf- 
ficient snow.” 


He added, — 


“ Of course, hereafter, lime-juice in some shape or other must 
be carried in all sledging-journeys; and we earnestly trust that 
some means will be found to make it in a lozenge, for, as a fluid, 
there is, and will always be, extreme difficulty in using it in cold 
weather, unless arctic travelling is considerably curtailed.” 


The Quarterly review, in quoting these manly re- 
marks of Capt. Nares at Guildhall, says, — 

“Even if it should be found that Sir George failed in judg- 
ment in this matter, be has in our opinion shown the finer form 
of fitness for command, in his readiness to assume the responsi- 
bility of his acts.” 

His frankness and manliness in assuming the 
whole blame to himself have evidently, in great meas- 
ure, disarmed criticism. 

But this brings us to the main object in this letter; 
and that is, to recur to the remedies which this story 
has suggested. If lozenges of lime-juice in a shape 
for arctic exploration haye not been manufactured, 
they certainly can at least now be found at the drug- 
gists in a shape to be used as troches for colds. 

But the efficient remedy is to have pemmican made 
which is permeated with lime-juice, as recommended 
in the ‘ Report of the surgeon-general of the navy for 
1880’ (see p. 356). Gen. P. S. Wales said, — 

“The indispensable necessity of lime-juice in the sledging- 
parties, and the difficulties of carrying it, and preparing it for 
use, induced me to suggest the propriety of combining the juice 
and pemmican in the proportion of one ounce to the pound of 
the latter. The pemmican is greatly improved in taste and 
flavor, and will, believe, be more assimilable. This is an 
important modification, as there are persons who cannot eat the 
ordinary article.” 


The article was prepared as proposed, and tried in 
Washington, and pronounced to be very palatable. 

Gen. pees H. Thomas, in preparing for one of 
his battles, issued a general order, enjoining upon his 
whole army strict attention to minutiae, saying that 
“the loss of a battle might be due to one missing 
linehpin.”’ 

In recurring to this recommendation from the office 
of the surgeon-general of the navy, we have thought 
that it may be considered opportune, when the minds 
of many are now turned upon the arctic expeditions. 
We think that recommendation was followed, so far 
as the preparations of the Jeannette and the Rodgers 
were concerned; but, alas! they never’got so far as 
to turn their attention to fitting out explorations with 
sledge-parties. BENJAMIN ALYORD. 


Rensselaeria from the Hamilton group of Penn- 
sylvania. 

Will you kindly afford me a small space to correct. 
an error in your report of the discussion which fol- 
lowed the reading of my paper at Minneapolis? On 
p. 327 of your issue for Sept. 7 occur the following 
sentences: — 


472 


“The differences between them [the fossils exhib- 
ited and the Oriskany species of Rensselaeria] were 
slight, though well marked. Professor Hall described 
some of these differences, and Mr. Claypole acknowl- 
edged that a certain V-shaped groove was wanting in 
his specimens. Professor Hall thought that possibly 
the fossils should be referred to Amphigenia, which 
had many similarities to Rensselaeria.”’ 

The V-shaped groove in question is one of the 
generic marks of Amphigenia; and its absence, there- 
fore, was urged by me as excluding the fossils from 
that genus, and inferentially as a strong argument in 
favor of placing them in Rensselaeria. 

As the above-mentioned error places me (and I 
think Professor Hall also) in false positions, and 
involves a grave mistake in paleontology, I am in- 
duced to ask your insertion of this correction, which 
I have submitted to Professor Hall for his approval. 

I ought to add that the suggestion of Amphigenia 
by Professor Hall was only the result of a momen- 
tary impression on the first sight of the fossil, and 
one which he immediately withdrew, on observing 
the absence of the V-shaped groove above alluded to. 

E. W. CLAYPOLE. 


Aurora. 


The auroral display here to-night was unusually 
brilliant. I observed it first at 7.04 p.m. At this 
time a low but rather brilliant arch of light spanned 
the north-eastern horizon, the crest of the arch hay- 
ing an altitude of about 20°. During the next three 
minutes, the lights rapidly took on the ‘streamer’ 
form, gradually shooting upward to a little beyond 
the zenith, and at this time stretching from east, 10° 
south, around to west, 15° north, on the horizon. 
During about two minutes, the waving-curtain 
aspect was very pronounced in the north-east, after 
which only striated patches flamed out here and 
there, moving alternately west and east. These 
patches all converged toward the zenith, but left 
with one the impression of being pendulous and 
very near. The atmosphere appeared very clear, 
the moon full and bright, the twilight still strong; 
and there was light enough yet to enable one to read 
a newspaper, but with difficulty. The streamers, 
however, lay in sharp contrast against the blue sky, 
even where the twilight was strongest. 

At 7.15 the lights began to die rapidly away, and 
at 7.50 none were to be seen; but at S, and again at 
8.18, there were distinct but small curtains to be seen 
in the north-west. At 8.20 there began a magnifi- 
cent display. Three large curtains formed one above 
the other, the lowest about 20° above the horizon 
in the north-west. They drifted gently toward the 
zenith, swaying and folding just enough, it seemed, 
to suit the almost imperceptible breeze which was 
stirring. The lights could be easily seen within 7° of 
the moon; and yet it cast its shadow on the carpet in 
a room 13 by 14, where two kerosene-lamps were burn- 
ing, one of them a no. 1, and the othera no. 2, burner. 
At 9.10 scarcely a trace of the aurora could be seen. 
A little later, a very faint diffuse light covered the 
northern sky to an altitude of about 25°. This soon 
became striped, and afterwards appeared to move 
bodily toward the zenith. At 10.20 the lower sky 
had become a deep blue; and just above it, at an alti- 
tude of 30°, a broad arch of bright but uniform light 
formed across the sky; and above this, extending past 
the zenith, were similar but much fainter bands. 
Five minutes later, the bright band unfolded a curtain 
which dropped in exquisite folds toward the horizon. 
This lasted less than two minutes, the whole belt of 
light becoming striated, but leaving a clear space next 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 35. 


to the horizon; then followed about five minutes dur- 
ing which the illuminated portion of the sky seemed 
to be throbbing, and sending out waves of subdued 
light, which spread southward over the blue vault, dy- 
ing away before the zenith was reached. This move- 
ment soon became more violent; and between 19.40 
and 10.45 the lights had more the appearance of 
flames bursting rapidly from the sky, and spreading 
to the zenith, where they often turned abruptly 
toward each other, and met. This appearance con- 
tinued growing gradually less marked until 12.15 A.M., 
when there was scarcely a trace of auroral display. 
At 12.40 a faint arch of diffuse light could be seen in 
the north, like that already described. 


F. H. Kine. 
River Falls, Wis., Sept. 16, 1883. 


THOMPSON’S PHILIPP REIS. 


Philipp Reis: inventor of the telephone. A biographi- 
cal sketch, with documentary testimony, trans- 
lations of the original papers of the inventor, and 
contemporary publications. By SyLVANUS 
Tuomeson, B.A., D.Sc., professor of exp 
mental physics in University college, Bristol. © 
London, #. § F. N. Spon, 1883. 9+182 p., 
3pl. 16°. 

Tue rapid development of the literature of 
the telephone, and the wide-spread interest in 
matters relating to it, have rendered the most 
important details of its history familiar to the 
general reading public, as well as to the scien- 
tifie world. The account of the life and labors 
of Philipp Reis, by Prof. S. P. Thompson, 
while repeating many of these well-known de- 
tails, contains some interesting notices of the 


- life and personal characteristics of the invent- 


or, and of the various steps by which he brought 
his instruments to their final stage. Following 
the brief biographical sketch, are descriptions 
of the various forms of apparatus devised by 
Reis, with numerous illustrations ; a statement 
of what the author terms the inventor’s claim ; 
copies of Reis’s own publications respecting 
his invention, and of certain contemporary ac- 
counts of it and its operation; with the testi- 
mony of persons who witnessed his experiments. 
An appendix discusses the variable resistance 
of imperfect. contacts, a comparison of Reis’s 
receiver with later instruments, the doctrine 
of undulatory currents, with some additional 
notes and references relating to Reis’s inven- 
tion. 

Had the efforts of the author been directed 
to the presentation of these things as matters 
of history merely, the book might be regarded 
as a valuable and interesting summary of facts 
relating to an important invention, and would 
demand but a brief notice here; but a cursory 
examination of it is sufficient to show that the 
author has failed to maintain that judicial atti- 
tude of mind which is indispensable to the just 


niet aii es 
_ , sae Ls 


OcroBeER 5, 1883.] 


and impartial record of historic verities. His 
book is throughout a labored special pleading, 
with the attempt to prove that Reis’s invention 
not only anticipated, but actually embodied, the 
essential features of the present telephonic ap- 
paratus. Space will not permit the considera- 
tion of all the points which might be criticised, 
nor is it necessary. A few of the most impor- 
tant are sufficient to illustrate the spirit which 
pervades the work, and to show how the facts 
of history are perverted in the endeavor to 
maintain a false and illogical position. 

It has been generally accepted as true, that 
Reis designed his transmitter to act as a con- 
tact-breaker, which should open and close the 
circuit once for each vibration produced by the 
sound to be transmitted. The support for this 
view is found not only in the repeated state- 
ments of Reis himself, but also in the con- 
struction of the apparatus. Reis says, in his 
own description of his transmitter (p. 56), 
“each sound-wave effects an opening and a 
closing of the current; ’’ and again, in his let- 
ter to Mr. Ladd (p. 84), ‘‘ If a person sing at 
the station A, in the tube (2) the vibrations 
of air will pass into the box and move the mem- 
brane above ; thereby the platina foot (c) of the 
movable angle will be lifted up and will thus 
open the stream at every condensation of air in 
the box. The stream will be re-established at 
every rarefaction. For this manner the steel 
axis at station B will be magnetic once for 
every full vibration.’’ 

With these and other most distinct state- 
ments of Reis, as to the intention and action 
of his apparatus, before him, Professor Thomp- 
son, nevertheless, asserts that it was never 
designed to break the circuit. Thus, on p. 14 
he says, ‘‘ Theoretically, the last was no more 
perfect than the first, and they all embody the 
same fundamental idea: they only differ in the 
mechanical means of carrying out to a greater 
or less degree of perfection the one common 
principle of imitating the mechanism of the 
human ear, and applying that mechanism to 
affect or control a current of electricity by vary- 
ing the degree of contact at a loose joint in the 
cireuit.”” And again (p. 132), ‘* Now this 
operation of varying the degree of pressure in 
order to vary the resistance of the interruptor 
or contact-regulator, was distinctly contem- 
plated by Reis.’’ Further, the author main- 
tains that the combination of an adjusting-screw 
with a spring shows that Reis intended the 
platinum contact-piece to have a following 

» motion, so as to make a contact with varying 
pressure. He says on p. 133, ‘* By employ- 
ing these following-springs, he introduced, in 


SCIENCE. 


* jis present, and works against a spring ; 


473 


fact the element of elasticity into his inter- 
ruptor ; and clearly he introduced it for the very 
purpose of avoiding abrupt breaking of the 
contact.’’ If we examine the illustrations of 
the different forms 
of the transmitting 
apparatus, we shall 
see that this device 
was employed for a 
very different pur- 
pose. In the ear- 
liest form, repre- 
sented in fig. 1, the 
screw presses the 
spring away from 
the membrane, and, 
when the latter re- 
cedes in its vibra- 
tion, the spring 
carrying the plati- 
num point is pre- 
vented by the screw 
from following it, 
—an arrangement 
that tends to pre- 
vent, and was de- 
signed to prevent, 
a following contact, and insures a breaking of 
the circuit when the distance of the point is 
properly adjusted. The same is the case with 
the form of transmitter illustrated in fig. 2. 
In the form represented in fig. 3, the screw 
but 
the screw passes through a stout and firm piece 
of metal, and presses the spring which carries 
the contact-piece forward, that is, toward the 
membrane, thus giving it a rigid support. The 
spring serves merely to push back the con- 


Fie. 1. 


Fig. 2. 


tact-piece when the screw is reversed, a very 
simple and common mechanical device for giv- 
ing motion in opposition to the thrust of a screw. 
In the lever form, seen in figs. 4 and 5, the 


474 


screw is arranged in a similar manner, so as to 
regulate the distance of the contact-piece from 
the end of the leyer most remote from the 
membrane. Inall these instruments the screw 
acting upon the spring is expressly contrived 
to facilitate such an adjustment as will insure 


Fie. 3. 


the breaking of contact under the impact of 
the sound-waves. Its function is related to the 
tension and elasticity of the membrane, to 
make a pressure so light in any case, that the 
vibrations should be able, without fail, to sepa- 
rate the contact-pieces. 


To say, as Professor Thompson repeatedly 


does, that Reis employed his mechanism with 
the express intention of producing a variable 
current by the change of contact-resistance, and 
that he consciously and purposely utilized this 
principle, —at that time hardly recognized any- 
where, and of which the practical application 
was not discovered till several years later, —is 
a gross misrepresentation, and an utter perver- 
sion of the facts. Reis did not know, and 
could not know, that the strength of a current 
could be controlled by the varying pressure 
of the conducting-surfaces between which it 
passes. Nowhere in his writings, — whether in 
his description of the instruments, or in the pro- 
spectus issued with them, or in his letter to 
Mr. Ladd, —nor in the article of Professor 
Bottger and the report of Von Legat, is there 
the remotest suggestion that the transmitter 
acted, or was intended to act, otherwise than by 
breaking the cireuit. Nor is any thing of the 
kind to be found in any of the publications of 
the day, relating to this matter. With the 
knowledge which we now possess, of the vary- 
ing resistance of pressure-contacts, it is indeed 
easy, by a slight modification, to cause the 
contact-pieces to vary the current by change of 
pressure, and thus reproduce the vibration-form 
with approximate accuracy. But to do this, it 
is necessary to prevent them from separating so 
as to break contact and interrupt the current. 
Such a modification, however slight it may be, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 35. 


totally changes the function of the contact- 
pieces, and amounts to a radical transformation 
of the apparatus. It is the very thing Reis 
studiously sought to prevent. 

That Reis speaks of the form of acoustical 
vibrations, and their graphical representation 
by a curve, is no proof that he supposed his. 
transmitter to act otherwise than by break- 
ing the circuit. Yet Professor Thompson 
says (p. 165), ‘‘ It is certain that Reis did 
not in any of his writings explicitly name 
an undulatory current: but it is equally 
certain that, whether he mentioned it or 
not, he both used one and intended to use 
one.’’ Reis nowhere claims that his appa- 
ratus realized the normal vibration-form, 
even in the case of a simple tone; and 
there is no evidence in all his writings to 
show that he had ever considered the mo- 
tions at the receiver to be the same as those 
of the original sound, except so far as there 
was a correspondence in period or rate of these 
motions with those at the transmitter. The 
idea of causing the motions in the receiver to 
have the same yibration-form as those in the 
transmitter originated with Bell, as did the 
method of securing this correspondence, which 
is indispensable to the reproduction of spoken 
words, by the use of an undulatory current. 
Says Sir William Thomson (Tel. journ. and 
electr. rév., v. 293), ‘‘ Mr. Graham Bell con- 
. ceived /the idea —the wholly novel and origi- 
nal idea — of giving continuity to the shocks, 
and of producing currents which would be im 
simple proportion to the motion of the air pro- 


VcOAEsSSFIILESTEUIATISITIOIIA 


duced by the voice, and of reproducing that 
effect at the remote end of a telegraphic wire.’’ 
The author of this book will scarcely have the 
hardihood to assert that his illustrious country- 
man, one of the greatest masters in electrical 
science, uttered these words in ignorance of a 
thing so well known as Reis’s telephone. 


ea 


SCIENCE. 475 


OcToOBER 5, 1883.] 


As a further support to his position, the speech. A further proof of this is found in 


author lays great stress upon the statement 
that Reis’s apparatus could and did transmit 
spoken words so as to be understood. As to 
the fact of speech having been transmitted oc- 
casionally, it is doubtless true that some words 
were recognized, but imperfectly, and with 
difficulty ; and it is true, also, that when im- 
perfectly meeting the conditions set upon it by 
the inventor, the apparatus, when applied to 
transmit spoken words, will, with skilful han- 
dling, sometimes ‘ deviate into sense’ so far, 
that an oceasional word or short phrase can be 
made out with effort, by attentive listening with 
the ear close to it. Professor Béttger, who 
took an enthusiastic interest in the matter, 
says that the operators 
could communicate 
words with each other, 
but adds, ‘ only such, 
however, as they had 
already heard frequent- 
ly.’ Of the other ex- 
perimenters and wit- 


the addition of the telegraphic signal-appara- 
tus to the later forms of the instrument, to 
enable the experimenters to communicate with 
each other. Professor Thompson’s argument 
that the Morse signal-apparatus, if intended 
for verbal communication, should have been 
reversed, meets the facts but half way ; for the 
complete telephonic installation required a 
transmitter and a receiver at each end of the 
wire, so that the Morse signals could be sent 
in either direction with the same facility as the 
telephonic. Moreover, as if to prevent any 
possible question as to its use, Reis himself 
expressly says that the Morse apparatus is for 
the purpose of enabling the operators to com- 


d 


cr 


4 


ia 
K | 
hd 


nesses whose testimony 


is given in the book, 
some were able to under- 
stand portions of what 
was said; others failed. 
Every one familiar with 
telephonic experiments 
knows how easy it is to 
recognize these familiar 
phrases by the mere in- 
tonation, and how dif- 
ferent this is from un- 
derstanding words not 
previously known. Is 
it any thing surprising, 
that the words of a fa- 
miliar song should ap- 
pear to be recognized when the air is heard? 
Granted that the spoken words were some- 
times reproduced so as to be understood, it 
must also be admitted that the apparatus ac- 
complished this so imperfectly as to be of no 
practical value. To make it practically efli- 
cient required a modification that was in it- 
self a radical change and a distinct invention. 
That this was also Reis’s opinion, will be seen 
from the extracts given in a subsequent para- 
graph. 
There is good evidence, in the later writings 
and advertisements of Reis, that he had come 
_ to the conclusion that the faithful reproduction 
of the complex motions which occur in articu- 
late speech was impossible, and that he had 
silently abandoned the idea of reproducing 


Fie. 5. 


municate with each other; and, in the prospec- 
tus issued with the instruments, he describes a 
special alphabet, which he had devised to enable 
words to be spelled out. If these could be 
transmitted telephonically, why take this un- 
necessary trouble? This very provision is a 
most emphatic testimony that Reis, at this 
time, had become convinced that the apparatus 
as a transmitter of speech was a failure, and 
that, his original idea having proved impracti- 
cable, he had contented himself with sending 
musical tones. 

In respect to this point, the letter of Reis, 
written by himself in English to Mr. Ladd, and 
given at p. 81, is most significant. He says, 
‘“Tunes and sounds of any kind are only 
brought to our conception by the condensations 


476 


and rarefactions of air or any other medium in 
which we may find ourselves.’’? And again, on 
p- 82, ‘‘these were ‘the principles wich (sic) 
guided me in my invention. They were sufti- 
cient to induce me to try the reproduction of 
tunes at any distance.’’ And again, on the 
same page, ‘‘ The apparatus consists of two 
separated parts; one for the singing-station 
A, and the other for the hearing-station B.’’ 
Also in the same letter, p. 84, ‘‘ If a person 
sing at the station A, in the tube («) the vi- 
brations will pass into the box and move the 
membrane aboye.’’ Respecting the word 
‘¢unes,’ used by Reis, the author remarks, in 
a foot-note to p. 81, ‘‘ This word, as the con- 
text and ending of the paragraph shows, should 
have been written tones. The letter, written 
in English by Reis himself, is wonderfully free 
from inaccuracies of composition ; the slip here 
noted being a most pardonable one since the 
plural of the German ton is ténen, the very 
pronunciation of which would account for the 
confusion in the mind of one unaccustomed to 
write in English.’” The resemblance of tonen 
to tunes is not so remarkably close that it would 
be likely to mislead one whose knowledge of 
English is such as Reis shows himself in this 
letter to possess. The author does not attempt 
the explanation of the words ‘singing’ and 
‘sing’ in the same letter. It is surprising 
that he should have allowed these words to 
pass unnoticed, for it was vital to his argument 
to prove that Reis mistook them for ‘ speaking’ 
and ‘speak.’ The resemblance is about as 
close as in the other case, but in neither is the 
explanation likely to be admitted by the un- 
prejudiced reader. j 

In taking himself back to the time of Reis’s 
telephone, the author has failed to identify him- 
self with the conditions of that time, and to 
leave behind him the subsequent acquisitions 
of science. He makes statements and claims 
which could only find their justification in a 
world very differently furnished with facts from 
this one. As anillustration of the mental dis- 
position resulting from this, the following sen- 
tence from the author’s preface may serve: 
‘‘The testimony now adduced as to the aim 
of Philipp Reis’s invention, and the measure of 
success which he himself attained, is such, in 
the author’s opinion, and in the opinion, he 
trusts, of all right-thinking persons, to place 
beyond cayil the rightfulness of the claim which 
Reis himself put forward of being the inventor 
of the Telephone.’’ But did any one ever dis- 
pute this claim during his life? and has the 
author forgotten that no possible basis for a 
rival claim existed until more than two years 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. Il., No. 35. 


after Reis’s death?—unless we except the 
suggestions of Bourseul, in 1854, which, while 
they certainly did anticipate the general idea 
of Reis’s invention, were never carried to the 
stage of experiment, and were never set up in 
opposition to him, unless it has been done 
recently. The author can hardly have been 
ignorant of these suggestions ; but, if not, he 
has carefully refrained from mentioning them. 
Reis never claimed that no new principle could 
ever be discovered which would enable the 
ends he sought to be attained in a different way, 
and more perfectly. His first article upon the 
subject ends with these words: ‘‘ There may 
probably remain much more yet to be done for 
the utilization of the telephone in practice. 
For physics, however, it has already sufficient 
interest in that it has opened out a new field 
of labor.’? And Von Legat closes his report 
with this remark: ‘‘ There remains no doubt, 
that, before expecting a practical utilization 
with serviceable results, that which has been 
spoken of will require still considerable im- 
provement, and, in particular, mechanical sci- 
ence must complete the apparatus to be used.’”’ 

The chief aim of the book is clearly this, — 
to endeavor, in direct opposition to the facts, to 
establish the untenable proposition that the 
Reis transmitter was designedly contrived by 
him to vary the contact-resistance by pressure, 
giving it a microphonic action, failure to ac- 
complish which is fatal to its success in con- 
veying spoken words. Professor Thompson 
has not always been of this opinion, and in 
another place he has given a correct account 
of the relation of Reis’s invention to that of 
Bell. In his ‘ Elementary lessons in electricity 
and magnetism,’ published in 1881, we find, on 
pp. 405 and 406, these words, —‘‘ The first 
attempt to transmit sounds electrically was 
made in 1852 [misprint for 1862] by Reis, who 
succeeded in conveying musical tones by an 
imperfect telephone. The transmitting part 
of Reis’s telephone consisted of a battery and 
a contact-breaker, the latter being formed of a 
stretched membrane, capable of taking up 
sonorous vibrations, and having attached to it 
a thin strip of platinum, which, as it vibrated, 
beat to and fro against the tip of a platinum 
wire, so making and breaking contact... . 
Reis also transmitted speech with this instru- 
ment, but very imperfectly, for the tones of 
speech cannot be transmitted by abrupt inter- 
ruptions of the current. . . . In 1876 Graham 
Bell invented the articulating telephone. In 
this instrument the speaker talks to an elastic 
disk of thin sheet-iron, which vibrates, and 
transmits its every movement electrically to a 


OcrToBER 5, 1§83.] 


similar disk in a similar telephone at a distant 
station, causing it to vibrate in an identical man- 
ner, and therefore to emit identical sounds.’’ 
Here we have Reis spoken of as inventing ‘ an 
imperfect telephone,’ while Bell invented ‘ the 
articulating telephone.’ Reis’s instrument was 
a ‘contact-breaker,’ and conveyed ‘ musical 
tones.’ Reis’s instrument transmitted speech 
‘very imperfectly,’ and there is not the slight- 
est suggestion of microphonic action in the 
transmitter. Yet two years later we have 
statements diametrically opposed to these. 

The least that can be said of such varying 
and contradictory evidence is, that it totally 
destroys the credibility of the witness, and 
nullifies his claim to be accepted as a scientific 
authority, unless good reason is shown for the 
different opinion. The documents quoted in 
the book give no substantial reason for this 
change of ground, as they add very little of 
any importance to what was already generally 
known. The motive for the later opinions may 
be more intelligibly traced in the following 
items, which will be found in the Telegraphic 
journal and electrical review, vol. xii. p. 72, 
Jan., 1883, and p. 317, April 14, 1883, in the 
list of English patents : — ‘*‘ 2578. Telephonic 
instruments. SytvanusP.THompson. Dated 
May 31. 6d. This invention relates to tele- 
phonic instruments, and chiefly to improve- 
ments in receivers of a well-known form or 
type, invented by Phillip Reis.’’ ‘* 3803. Im- 
provements in telephonic apparatus. Sytva- 
nus P. Tuompson. Dated August 9. 6d. 
Relates to telephonic transmitters based upon 
the principle discovered by Philipp Reis in 
1861, namely that of employing current-regu- 
lators actuated, either directly or indirectly, by 
the sound-waves produced by the voice. By 
the term ‘current-regulator,’ the inventor 
means a device similar to that employed by 
Reis, wherein a loose contact between two parts 
of a circuit (in which are included a battery and 
a telephonic receiver) offers greater or less 
resistance to the flow of the electric current, 
the degree of intimacy of contact between the 
conducting-pieces being altered by the vibra- 
tions of the voice.’’ 

For a contrast of colors, we may put side by 
side with these sentences the following, from 
the preface to the book now under considera- 
tion: ‘*To set forth the history of this long- 
neglected inventor and of his instrument, and 
to establish upon its own merits, without special 
pleading, and without partiality, the nature of 
that much-misunderstood and much-abused 
invention, has been the aim of the writer. . . . 
He has nothing to gain by making Reis’s in- 


SCIENCE. 


477 


vention appear either better or worse than it 
really was.’ 

Further comment upon the value of such tes- 
timony as is contained in this book is surperflu- 
ous. What Reis accomplished, and what he 
failed to do, are now familiar matters of his- 
tory. His well-earned fame can only suffer 
from such misstatement of facts, and the un- 
just exaggeration of his actual achievements. 


OBLIGATIONS OF MATHEMATICS TO 
PHILOSOPHY, AND TO QUESTIONS 
OF COMMON LIFE1—I. 


SINCE our last meeting, we have been deprived of 
three of our most distinguished members. The loss 
by the death of Professor Henry John Stephen Smith 
is a very grievous one to those who knew and admired 
and loved him, to his university, and to mathematical 
science, which he cultivated with such ardor and 
success. I need hardly recall that the branch of 
mathematics to which he had specially devoted him- 
self was that most interesting and difficult one, the 
theory of numbers. The immense range of this sub- 
ject, connected with and ramifying into so many 
others, is nowhere so well seen as in the series of re- 
ports on the progress thereof, brought up, unfortu- 
nately, only to the year 1865, contributed by him to 
the reports of the association; but it will still better 
appear, when to these are united (as will be done in 
the collected works in course of publication by the 
Clarendon Press) his other mathematical writings, 
many of them containing his own further develop- 
ments of theories referred to in the reports. There 
have been recently or are being published many such 
collected editions, — Abel, Cauchy, Clifford, Gauss, 
Green, Jacobi, Lagrange, Maxwell, Riemann, Steiner. 
Among these, the works of Henry Smith will occupy 
a worthy position. 

More recently, Gen. Sir Edward Sabine, K.C.B., 
for twenty-one years general secretary of the associa- 
tion, and a trustee, president of the meeting at Bel- 
fast in the year 1852, and for many years treasurer, 
and afterwards president of the Royal society, has 
been taken from us at an age exceeding the ordinary 
age of man. Born October, 1788, he entered the 
Royal artillery in 1803, and commanded batteries at 
the siege of Fort Erie in 1814; made magnetic and 
other observations in Ross and Parry’s north-polar 
exploration in 1818-19, and in a series of other voy- 
ages. He contributed to the association reports on 
magnetic forces in 1836, 1837, and 1838, and about 
forty papers to the Philosophical transactions ; origi- 
nated the system of magnetic observatories, and other- 
wise signally promoted the science of terrestrial 
magnetism. 

There is yet a very great loss, — another late presi- 


1 Inaugural address by ArnTHuR Caytey, M.A., D.C.L 
LL.D., F.R.S., Sadlerian professor of pure mathematics in the 
University of Cambridge, president of the British association for 
the advancement of science, for the Southport meeting. From 
advance proofs kindly furnished by the editors of Nature. 


478 


dent and trustee of the association ; one who has done 
for it so much, and has so often attended the meet- 
ings; whose presence among us at this meeting we 
might have hoped for, — the president of the Royal 
society, William Spottiswoode. It is unnecessary to 
say any thing of his various merits. The place of his 
burial, the crowd of sorrowing friends who were pres- 
ent in the Abbey, bear witness to the esteem in which 
he was beld. 

I take the opportunity of mentioning the comple- 
tion of a work promoted by the association, — the 
determination, by Mr. James Glaisher, of the least 
factors of the missing three out of the first nine 
million numbers. The volume containing the sixth 
million is now published. 

I wish to speak to you to-night upon mathematics. 
I am quite aware of the difficulty arising from the 
abstract nature of my subject; and if, as I fear, 
many or some of you, recalling the presidential ad- 
dresses at former meetings, — for instance, the résumé 
and survey which we had at York of the progress, 
during the half-century of the lifetime of the associa- 
tion, of a whole circle of sciences (biology, paleontol- 
ogy, geology, astronomy, chemistry) so much more 
familiar to you, and in which there was so much to 
tell of the fairy-tales of science; or, at Southampton, 
the discourse of my friend, who hasin such kind terms 
introduced me to you, on the wondrous practical appli- 
cations of science to electric lighting, telegraphy, the 
’ St. Gothard Tunnel and the Suez Canal, gun-cotton, 
and a host of other purposes, and with the grand 
concluding speculation on the conservation of solar 
energy :—if, I say, recalling these or any earlier ad- 
dresses, you should wish that you were now about to 
haye, from a different president, a discourse on a dif- 
ferent subject, I can very well sympathize with you 
in the feeling. 

But, be this as it may, I think it is more respectful 
to you that I should speak to you upon, and do my 
best to interest you in, the subject which has occu- 
pied me, and in which I am myself most interested. 
And, in another point of view, I think it is right 
that the address of a president should be on his own 
subject, and that different subjects should be thus 
brought in turn before the meetings. So much the 
worse, it may be, for a particular meeting; but the 
meeting is the individual, which, on evolution princi- 
ples, must be sacrificed for the development of the 
race. 

Mathematics connect themselves, on the one side, 
with common life and the physical sciences; on the 
other side, with philosophy in regard to our notions 
of space and time, and in the questions which have 
arisen as to the universality and necessity of the 
truths of mathematics, and the foundation of our 
knowledge of them. I would remark here, that the 
connection (if it exists) of arithmetic and algebra 
with the notion of time is far less obvious than that 
of geometry with the notion of space. 

As to the former side: I am not making before you 
a defence of mathematics; but, if I were, I should 
desire to do it in such manner as in the ‘ Republic’ 
Socrates was required to defend justice, — quite irre- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 35. 


spectively of the worldly advantages which may ac- 
company a life of virtue and justice, —and to show, 
that, independently of all these, justice was a thing 
desirable in itself and for its own sake, not by 
speaking to you of the utility of mathematics in any 
of the questions of common life or of physical sci- 
ence. Still less would I speak of this utility before, 
I trust, a friendly audience, interested or willing to 
appreciate an interest in mathematics in itself and 
for its own sake. I would, on the contrary, rather 
consider the obligations of mathematics to these dif- 
ferent subjects as the sources of mathematical theo- 
ries, now as remote from them, and in as different a 
region of thought, — for instance, geometry from the 
measurement of land, or the theory of numbers 
from arithmetic, —as a river at its mouth is from its 
mountain source. 

On the other side: the general opinion has been, 
and is, that it is indeed by experience that we arrive 
at the truths of mathematics, but that experience is 
not their proper foundation. The mind itself contrib- 
utes something. This is involved in the Platonic 
theory of reminiscence. Looking at two things— 
trees or stones or any thing else — which seem to us 
more or less equal, we arrive at the idea of equality; 
but we must have had this idea of equality before the 
time when, first seeingt he two things, we were led 
to regard them as coming up more or less perfectly to 
this idea of equality; and the like as regards our idea 
of the beautiful, and in other cases. 

The same view is expressed in the answer of Leib- 
nitz, the ‘nisi intellectus ipse,’ to the scholastic dic- 
tum, ‘Nihil in intellectu quod non prius in sensu’ 
(‘There is nothing in the intellect which was not 
first in sensation’ — ‘except [said Leibnitz] the intel- 
lect itself’). And so again, in the ‘Critick of pure 
reason,’ Kant’s view is, that while there is no doubt 
but that "all our cognition begins with experience, 
we are nevertheless in possession of cognitions @ 
priori, independent, not of this or that experience, 
but absolutely so of all experience, and in particular 
that the axioms of mathematics furnish an example 
of such cognitions a priori. Kant holds, further, 
that space is no empirical conception which has 
been derived from external experiences, but that, 
in order that sensations may be referred to some- 
thing external, the representation of space must al- 
ready lie at the foundation, and that the external 
experience is itself first only possible by this repre- 
sentation of space. And, in like manner, time is no 
empirical conception which can be deduced from an 
experience, but it is a necessary representation lying 
at the foundation of all intuitions. 

And so in regard to mathematics, Sir W. R. Hamil- 
ton, in an introductory lecture on astronomy (1836), 
observes, ‘‘ These purely mathematical sciences of 
algebra and geometry are sciences of the pure reason, 
deriving no weight and no assistance from experi- 
ment, and isolated, or at least isolable, from all out- 
ward and accidental phenomena, The idea of order, 
with its subordinate ideas of number and figure, we 
must not, indeed, call innate ideas, if that phrase be 
defined to imply that all men must possess them with 


OcToBER 5, 1883.] 


equal clearness and fulness: they are, however, ideas 
which seem to be so ‘far born with us that the posses- 
sion of them in any conceivable degree is only the 
development of our original powers, the unfolding of 
our proper humanity.” 

The general question of the ideas of space and time, 
the axioms and definitions of geometry, the axioms 
relating to number, and the nature of mathematical 
reasoning, are fully and ably discussed in Whewell’s 
“Philosophy of the inductive sciences ”’ (1840), which 
may be regarded as containing an exposition of the 
whole theory. 

But it is maintained by John Stuart Mill that the 
truths of mathematics, in particular those of geome- 
try, rest on experience; and, as regards geometry, the 
same view is on very different grounds maintained 
by the mathematician Riemann. 

It is not so easy as at first sight it appears, to make 
out how far the views taken by Mill in his ‘System 
of logic ratiocinative and inductive’ (ninth edi- 
tion, 1879) are absolutely contradictory to those which 
have been spoken of. Theyprofessto beso. There are 
most definite assertions (supported by argument): for 
instance, p. 263, ‘‘It remains to inquire what is the 
ground of our belief in axioms, what is the evidence 
on which they rest. I answer, they are experimental 
truths, generalizations from experience. The propo- 
sition ‘ Two straight lines cannot enclose a space,’ or, 
in other words, two straight lines which have once 
met cannot meet again, is an induction from the evi- 
dence of oursenses.’’ But I cannot help considering 
a previous argument (p. 259) as very materially modi- 
fying this absolute contradiction. After inquiring, 
““Why are mathematics by almost all philosophers 
. .. considered to be independent of the evidence 
of experience and observation, and characterized as 
systems of necessary truth ?’’ Mill proceeds (I quote 
the whole passage) as follows: ‘‘The answer I con- 
ceive to be, that this character of necessity ascribed 
to the truths of mathematics, and even (with some 
reservations to be hereafter made) the peculiar cer- 
tainty ascribed to them, is a delusion, in order to 
sustain which it is necessary to suppose that those 
truths relate to and express the properties of purely 
imaginary objects. It is acknowledged that the con- 
clusions of geometry are derived, partly at least, from 
the so-called definitions, and that these definitions 
are assumed to be correct representations, as far as 
they go, of the objects with which geometry is con- 
versant. Now, we have pointed out, that, from a 
definition as such, no proposition, unless it be one 
concerning the meaning of a word, can ever follow, 
and that what apparently follows from a definition 
follows in reality from an implied assumption that 
there exists a real thing conformable thereto. This 
assumption, in the case of the definitions of geometry, 
is not strictly true. There exist no real things exactly 
conformable to the definitions. There exist no real 
points without magnitude, no lines without breadth, 
nor perfectly straight, no circles with all their radii 
exactly equal, nor squares with all their angles per- 
fectly right. It will be said that the assumption does 
not extend to the actual, but only to the possible, ex- 


— 


SCIENCE. 


479 


istence of such things. I answer, that, according to 
every test we have of possibility, they are not even 
possible. Their existence, so far as we can form any 
judgment, would seem to be inconsistent with the 
physical constitution of our planet at least, if not of 
the universal [sic]. To get rid of this difficulty, and 
at the same time to save the credit of the supposed 
system of necessary truths, it is customary to say 
that the points, lines, circles, and squares which are 
the subjects of geometry exist in our conceptions 
merely, and are parts of our minds; which minds, by 
working on their own materials, construct an a priori 
science, the evidence of which is purely mental, and 
has nothing to do with outward experience. By 
howsoever high authority this doctrine has been 
sanctioned, it appears to me psychologically incor- 
rect. The points, lines, and squares which any one 
has in his mind are (as I apprehend) simply copies 
of the points, lines, and squares, which he has known 
in his experience. Our idea of a point I apprehend 
to be simply our idea of the minimum visibile, the 
small portion of surface which we can see. We can 
reason about a line as if it had no breadth, because 
we have a power which we can exercise over the 
operations of our minds, — the power, when a percep- 
tion is present to our senses, or a conception to our 
intellects, of attending to a part only of that percep- 
tion or conception, instead of the whole. But we 
cannot conceive a line without breadth; we can form 
no mental picture of such a line: all the lines which 
we have in our mind are lines possessing breadth. If 
any one doubt this, we may refer him to his own ex- 
perience. I much question if any one who fancies 
that he can conceive of a mathematical line thinks 
so from the evidence of his own consciousness. I 
suspect it is rather because he supposes, that, unless 
such a perception be possible, mathematics could not 
exist as a science, —a supposition which there will be 
no difficulty in showing to be groundless.”’ 

I think it may be at once conceded that the truths 
of geometry are truths precisely because they relate 
to and express the properties of what Mill calls 
‘purely imaginary objects.’ That these objects do 
not exist in Mill’s sense, that they do not exist in 
nature, may also be granted. That they are ‘not 
even possible,’ if this means not possible in an ex- 
isting nature, may also be granted. That we cannot 
‘conceive’ them depends on the meaning which we 
attach to the word ‘conceive.’ I would myself say 
that the purely imaginary objects are the only reali- 
ties, the évrwe évra, in regard to which the correspond- 
ing physical objects are as the shadows in the cave; 
and it is only by means of them that we are able to 
deny the existence of a corresponding physical ob- 
ject. If there is no conception of straightness, then 
it is meaningless to deny the existence of a perfectly 
straight line. 

But, at any rate, the objects of geometrical truth 
are the so-called imaginary objects of Mill; and the 
truths of geometry are only true, and a fortiori are 
only necessarily true, in regard to these so-called 
imaginary objects. And these objects, points, lines, 
circles, etc., in the mathematical sense of the terms, 


480 


have a likeness to, and are represented more or less 
imperfectly, — and, from a geometer’s point of view, 
no matter how imperfectly, — by corresponding phys- 
ical points, lines, circles, ete. I shall have to re- 
turn to geometry, and will then speak of Riemann; 
but I will first refer to another passage of the ‘ Logic.’ 

Speaking of the truths of arithmetic, Mill says (p. 
297) that even here there is one hypothetical element: 
“Tn all propositions concerning numbers, a condition 
is implied without which none of them would be 
true; and that condition is an assumption which may 
be false. The condition is, that 1=1; that all the 
numbers are numbers of the same or of equal units.” 
Here, at least, the assumption may be absolutely 
true: one shilling—one shilling in purchasing-power, 
although they may not be absolutely of the same 
weight and fineness. But it is hardly necessary: 
one coin+-one coin=two coins, even if the one be a 
shilling and the other a half-crown. In fact, what- 
ever difficulty be raisable as to geometry, it seems to 
me that no similar difficulty applies to arithmetic. 
Mathematician or not, we haye each of us, in its 
most abstract form, the idea of a number, We can 
each of us appreciate the truth of a proposition in 
regard to numbers; and we cannot but see that a 
truth in regard to numbers is something different in 
kind from an experimental truth generalized from 
experience, Compare, for instance, the proposition 
that the sun, having already risen so many times, will 
rise to-morrow, and the next day, and the day after 
that, and so on, and the proposition that even and 
odd numbers succeed each other alternately ad injini- 
tum: the latter, at least, seems to have the charac- 
ters of universality and necessity. Or, again, suppose 
a proposition observed to hold good for a long series 
of numbers, — one thousand numbers, two thousand 
numbers, as the case may be: this is not only no 
proof, but it is absolutely no evidence, that the propo- 
sition is a true proposition, holding good for all num- 
bers whatever. There are, in the theory of numbers, 
very remarkable instances of propositions observed 
to hold good for very long series of numbers, and 
which are nevertheless untrue. 

I pass in review certain mathematical theories. 

In arithmetic and algebra, or, say, in analysis, the 
numbers or magnitudes which we represent by sym- 
bols are, in the first instance, ordinary (that is, posi- 
tive) numbers or magnitudes. We have also in 
analysis, and in analytical geometry, negative magni- 
tudes. There has been, in regard to these, plenty of 
philosophical discussion, and I might refer to Kant’s 
paper, ‘ Ueber die negativen gréssen in die weltweis- 
heit’ (1763); but the notion of a negative magni- 
tude has become quite a familiar one, and has 
extended itself into common phraseology. I may re- 
mark that it is used in a very refined manner in 
book-keeping by double entry. 

But it is far otherwise with the notion which is 
really the fundamental one (and I cannot too strong- 
ly emphasize the assertion), underlying and pervading 
the whole of modern analysis and geometry, — that 
of imaginary magnitude in analysis, and of imagi- 
nary space (or space as a locus in quo of imaginary 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 35. 


points and figures) in geometry. I use in each case 
the word ‘imaginary’ asincluding real. This has not 
been, so far as I am aware, a subject of philosophical 
discussion or inquiry. As regards the older meta~- 
physical writers, this would be quite accounted for 
by saying that they knew nothing, and were not 
bound to know any thing, about it. But at present, 
and considering the prominent position which the 
notion occupies, — say, even, that the conclusion were: 
that the notion belongs to mere technical mathemat- 
ics, or has reference to nonentities in regard to which 
no science is possible, —still it seems to me, that, 
as a subject of philosophical discussion, the notion 
ought not to be thus ignored. It should at least be 
shown that there is a right to ignore it. 

Although in logical order I should perhaps now 
speak of the notion just referred to, it will be con- 
venient to speak first of some other quasi-geometri- 
cal notions, — those of more-than-three-dimensional 
space, and of non-Euclidian two- and three-dimen- 
sional space, and also of the generalized notion of dis- 
tance. It is in connection with these, that Riemann 
considered that our notion of space is founded on 
experience, or, rather, that it is only by experience 
that we know that our space is Euclidian space. 

“It is well known that Euclid’s twelfth axiom, even 
in Playfair’s form of it, has been considered as need- 
ing demonstration, and that Lobatschewsky con- 
structed a perfectly consistent theory, wherein this 
axiom was assumed not to hold good, or, say, a system 
of non-Euclidian plane geometry. There is a like 
system of non-Euclidian solid geometry. My own 
view is, that Euclid’s twelfth axiom, in Playfair’s 
form of it, does not need demonstration, but is part 
of our notion of space, of the physical space of our 
experience, — the space, that is, with which we be- 
come acquainted by experience, but which is the rep- 
resentation lying at the foundation of all external ex- 
perience. Riemann’s view, before referred to, may, I 
think, be said to be, that, having in intellectu a more 
general notion of space (in fact, a notion of non-Eu- 
clidian space), we learn by experience that space (the 
physical space of our experience) is —if not exactly, 
at least to the highest degree of approximation — 
Euclidian space. 

But suppose the physical space of our experience 
to be thus only approximately Euclidian space: what 
is the consequence which follows? Not that the 
propositions of geometry are only approximately true, 
but that they remain absolutely true in regard to that 
Euclidian space which has been so long regarded as 
being the physical space of our experience, 

It is interesting to consider two different ways in 
which, without any modification at all of our notion 
of space, we can arrive at a system of non-Euclidian 
(plane or two-dimensional) geometry ; and the doing 
so will, I think, throw some light on the whole ques- 
tion. 

First, imagine the earth a perfectly smooth sphere; 
understand by a plane the surface of the earth, and, 
by a line, the apparently straight line (in fact, an are 
of great circle) drawn on the surface. What experi- 
ence would in the first instance teach would be Eu- 


OcTOBER 5, 1883.] 


clidian geometry: there would be intersecting lines, 
which, produced a few miles or so, would seem to go 
on diverging, and apparently parallel lines, which 
would exhibit no tendency to approach each other; 
and the inhabitants might very well conceive that 
they had by experience established the axiom that 
two straight lines cannot enclose a space, and the 
axiom as to parallel lines. A more extended expe- 
rience and more accurate measurements would teach 
them that the axioms were each of them false; and 
that any two lines, if produced far enough each way, 
would meet in two points: they would, in fact, arrive 
at a spherical geometry, accurately representing the 
properties of the two-dimensional space of their ex- 
perience. But their original Euclidian geometry 
would not the less be a true system; only it would 
apply to an ideal space, not the space of their expe- 
rience. 

Secondly, consider an ordinary, indefinitely ex- 
tended plane; and let us modify only the notion of 
distance. We measure distance, say, bya yard meas- 
ure ora foot rule, any thing which is short enough to 
make the fractions of it of no consequence (in mathe- 
matical language, by an infinitesimal element of 
length). Imagine, then, the length of this rule con- 
stantly changing (as it might do by an alteration of 
temperature), but under the condition that its actual 
length shail depend only on its situation on the plane, 
and on its direction; viz., if for a given situation and 
direction it has a certain length, then whenever it 
comes back to the same situation and direction it 
must have the same length. The distance along a 
given straight or curved line between any two points 
could then be measured in the ordinary manner with 
this rule, and would have a perfectly determinate 
value; it could be measured over and over again, and 
would always be the same: but of course it would be 
the distance, not in the ordinary acceptation of the 
term, but in quite a different acceptation. Or in a 
somewhat different way: if the rate of progress from 
a given point in a given direction be conceived as 
depending only on the configuration of the ground, 
and the distance along a given path between any two 
points thereof be measured by the time required for 
traversing it, then in this way, also, the distance would 
have a perfectly determinate value; but it would be a 
distance, not in the ordinary acceptation of the term, 
but in quite a different acceptation; and, correspond- 
ing to the new notion of distance, we should have a 
new non-Euclidian system of plane geometry. All 
theorems involving the notion of distance would be 
altered. 

We may proceed farther. Suppose that as the rule 
moves away from a fixed central point of the plane it 
becomes shorter and shorter: if this shortening take 
’ place with sufficient rapidity, it may very well be that 
a distance which in the ordinary sense of the word is 
finite will in the new sense be infinite. No number 
of repetitions of the length of the ever-shortening rule 
will be sufficient to cover it. There will be surround- 
ing the central point a certain finite area, such that 
(in the new acceptation of the term ‘ distance’) each 
point of the boundary thereof will be at an infinite 


SCIENCE. 


“Epa 


481 


distance from the central point. The points outside 
this area you cannot by any means arrive at with 
your rule: they will form a terra incognita, or, rather, 
an unknowable land (in mathematical language, an 
imaginary or impossible space); and the plane space 
of the theory will be that within the finite area, that 
is, it will be finite instead of infinite. 

We thus, with a proper law of shortening, arrive at 
a system of non-Euclidian geometry which is essen- 
tially that of Lobatschewsky ; but, in so obtaining it, 
we put out of sight its relation to spherical geometry. 
The three geometries (spherical, Euclidian, and Lo- 
batschewsky’s) should be regarded as members of a 
system : viz., they are the geometries of a plane (two- 
dimensional) space of constant positive curvature, 
zero curvature, and constant negative curvature, re- 
spectively ; or, again, they are the plane geometries 
corresponding to three different notions of distance. 
In this point of view, they are Klein’s elliptic, para- 
bolic, and hyperbolic geometries respectively. 

Nextas regards solid geometry : we can, by a mod- 
ification of the notion of distance (such as has just 
been explained in regard to Lobatschewsky’s system), 
pass from our present system to a non-Euclidian sys- 
tem. For the other mode of passing to a non-Euclidi- 
an system, it would be necessary to regard our space 
as a flat three-dimensional space existing in a space 
of four dimensions (i.e., as the analogue of a plane 
existing in ordinary space), and to substitute for 
such flat three-dimensional space a curved three-di- 
mensional space, say, of constant positive or negative 
curvature. In regarding the physical space of our 
experience as possibly non-Euclidian, Riemann’s idea 
seems to be that of modifying the notion of distance, 
not that of treating it as a locus in four-dimensional 
space, 

I have just come to speak of four-dimensional 
space. What meaning do we attach to it? or can we 
attach to it any meaning? It may be at once ad- 
mitted that we cannot conceive of a fourth dimen- 
sion of space; that space as we conceive of it, and 
the physical space of our experience, are alike three- 
dimensional. But we can, I think, conceive of space 
as being two- or even one-dimensional; we can im- 
agine rational beings living in a one-dimensional 
space (a line) or in a two-dimensional space (a sur- 
face), and conceiving of space accordingly, and to 
whom, therefore, a two-dimensional space or (as the 
case may be) a three-dimensional space would be as 
inconceivable as a four-dimensional space is to us. 
And very curious speculative questions arise. Sup- 
pose the one-dimensional space a right line, and that 
it afterwards becomes a curved line: would there be 
any indication of the change? or, if originally a 
curved line, would there be any thing to suggest to 
them that it was not a right line? Probably not; for 
a one-dimensional geometry hardly exists. But let 
the space be two-dimensional, and imagine it origi- 
nally a plane, and afterwards bent (converted, that 
is, into some form of developable surface), or con- 
verted into a curved surface; or imagine it originally 
a developable or curved surface. In the former case 
there should be an indication of the change, for the 


482 


geometry originally applicable to_the space of their 
experience (our own Euclidian geometry) would 
cease to be applicable; but the change could not be 
apprehended by them as a bending or deformation of 
the plane, for this would imply the notion of a three- 
dimensional space in which this bending or defor- 
mation could take place. In the latter case their 
geometry would be that appropriate to the develop- 
able or curved surface which is their space; viz., 
this would be their Euclidian geometry. Would they 
ever have arrived at our own more simple system ? 
But take the case where the two-dimensional space 
is a plane, and imagine the beings of such a space 
familiar with our own Euclidian plane geometry: if, 
a third dimension being still inconceivable by them, 
they were by their geometry or otherwise led to the 
notion of it, there would be nothing to prevent them 
from forming a science such as our own science of 
three-dimensional geometry. 

Evidently, all the foregoing questions present them- 
selves in regard to ourselves, and to three-dimension- 
al space as we conceive of it, and as the physical space 
of our experience. And I need hardly say that the 
first step is the difficulty, and that, granting a fourth 
dimension, we may assume as many more dimensions 
as we please. But, whatever answer be given to 
them, we have, as a branch of mathematics, poten- 
tially if not actually, an analytical geometry of n- 
dimensional space. I shall have to speak again upon 
this. 

Coming now to the fundamental notion already re- 
ferred to, —that of imaginary magnitude in analysis, 
and imaginary space in geometry; 1 connect this 
with two great discoveries in mathematics, made in 
the first half of the seventeenth century, — Harriot’s 
representation of an equation in the form f(x)= 0, 
and the consequent notion of the roots of an equa- 
tion as derived from the linear factors of f(x) (Har- 
riot, 1560-1621: his ‘Algebra,’ published after his 
death, has the date 1631); and Descartes’ method of 
co-ordinates, as given in the ‘Géometrie’ forming a 
short supplement to his ‘Traité de la méthode,’ ete. 
(Leyden, 1637). 

I show how by these we are led analytically to the 
notion of imaginary points in geometry. For in- 
stance: we arrive at the theorem that a straight line 
and circle in the same plane intersect always in two 
points, real or imaginary. The conclusion as to the 
two points of intersection cannot be contradicted by 
experience. Take a sheet of paper and draw on it 
the straight line and circle, and try. But you might 
Say, or at least be strongly tempted to say, that it is 
meaningless. The question, of course, arises, What is 
the meaning of an imaginary point? and, further, In 
what manner can the notion be arrived at geometri- 
cally ? 

There is a well-known construction in perspective 
for drawing lines through the intersection of two 
lines which are so nearly parallel as not to meet 
within the limits of the sheet of paper. You have two 
given lines which do not meet, and you draw a third 
line, which, when the lines are all of them produced, 
is found to pass through the intersection of the given 


SCIENCE. 


[Vox. IL, No. 35. 


lines. If, instead of lines, we have two cireular arcs 
not meeting each other, then we can, by means of 
these ares, construct a line; and if, on completing the 
circles, it is found that the circles intersect each other 
in two real points, then it will be found that the line 
passes through these two points: if the circles appear 
not to intersect, then the line will appear not to inter- 
sect either of the circles. But the geometrical con- 
struction being in each case the same, we say that in 
the second case, also, the line passes through the two 
intersections of the circles. 

Of course, it may be said in reply, that the conclu- 
sion is a very natural one, provided we assume the 
existence of imaginary points; and that, this assump- 
tion not being made, then, if the circles do not inter- 
sect, it is meaningless to assert that the line passes 
through their points of intersection. The difficulty 
is not got over by the analytical method before 
referred to, for this introduces difficulties of its own. 
Is there, in a plane, a point the co-ordinates of 
which have given imaginary values? As a matter of 
fact, we do consider, in plane geometry, imaginary 
points introduced into the theory analytically or 
geometrically, as above. 

The like ‘considerations apply to solid geometry; 
and we thus arrive at the notion of imaginary space 
as a locus in quo of imaginary points and figures. 

I have used the word ‘imaginary’ rather than ‘ com- 
plex,’ and I repeat that the word has been used as in- 
cluding real. But, this once understood, the word 
becomes in many cases superfluous, and the use of it 
would even be misleading. Thus: ‘a problem has 
so many solutions.’ This means so many imaginary 
(including real) solutions. But if it were said that 
the problem had ‘so many imaginary solutions,’ the 
word ‘imaginary’ would here be understood to be 
used in opposition to real, I give this explanation 
the better to point out how wide the application of 
the notion of the imaginary is; viz. (unless expressly 
or by implication excluded), it is a notion implied 
and presupposed in all the conclusions of modern 
analysis and geometry. It is, as I have said, the fun- 
damental notion underlying and pervading the whole 
of these branches of mathematical science. , 

I consider the question of the geometrical repre- 
sentation of an imaginary variable. We represent 
the imaginary variable x + iy by means of a point in 
a plane, the co-ordinates of which are (a, y). This 
idea, due to Gauss, dates from about the year 1831. 
We thus picture to ourselves the succession of values 
of the imaginary variable «+ iy by means of the 
motion of the representative point: for instance, the 
succession of values corresponding to the motion of 
the point along a closed curve to its original position. 
The value X +iY of the function can, of course, be 
represented by means of a point (taken for greater 
convenience in a different plane), the co-ordinates of 
which are X, Y. u 

We may consider, in general, two points, moving 
each in its own plane; so that the position of one of 
them determines the position of the other, and con- 
sequently the motion of the one determines the mo- 
tion of the other, For instance: the two points may 


OcToBER 5, 1883.] 


be the tracing-point and the pencil of a pentagraph. 
You may with the first point draw any figure you 
please: there will be a corresponding figure drawn by 
the second point, —for a good pentagraph, a copy 
on a seale different, it may be; for a badly adjusted 
pentagraph, a distorted copy; but the one figure will 
always be a sort of copy of the first, so that to each 
point of the one figure there will correspond a point 
in the other figure. 

In the case above referred to, where one point rep- 
resents the value c+iy of the imaginary variable, and 
the other the value ¥+iY of some function, 9 («+iy), 
of that variable, there is a remarkable relation be- 
tween the two figures: this is the relation of ortho- 
morphie projection, the same which presents itself 
between a portion of the earth’s surface and the rep- 
resentation thereof by a map on the stereographic 
projection or on Mercator’s projection; viz., any in- 
definitely small area of the one figure is represented 
in the other figure by an indefinitely small area of 
the same shape. There will possibly be for differ- 
ent parts of the figure great variations of scale, but 
the shape will be unaltered. If for the one area 
the boundary is a circle, then for the other area the 
boundary will be a circle: if for one it is an equilat- 
eral triangle, then for the other it{}will be an equi- 
lateral triangle. 

I have been speaking of an imaginary variable 
(at+iy), and of a function, ¢(a+iy)=X+7Y, of that 
variable; but the theory may equally well be stated 
in regard to a plane curve: in fact, the at+iy and 
the X¥+iY are two imaginary variables connected 
by an equation. Say their values are u and »v, con- 
nected by an equation, F (u, v) = 0: then, regard- 
ing u, v, as the co-ordinates of a point in plano, this 
will be a point on the curve represented by the equa- 
tion. The curve, in the widest sense of the expres- 
sion, is the whole series of points, real or imaginary, 


SCIENCE. 


one ef a ie * eee 


483 


the co-ordinates of which satisfy the equation; and 
these are exhibited by the foregoing corresponding 
figures in two planes. But, in the ordinary sense, the 
curve is the series of real points, with co-ordinates u, 
v, which satisfy the equation. 

In geometry itis the curve, whether defined by means 
of its equation or in any other manner, which is the 
subject for contemplation and study. But we also 
use the curve as a representation of its equation; 
that is, of the relation existing between two magni- 
tudes, 2, y, which are taken as the co-ordinates of a 
point on the curve. Such employment of a curye 
for all sorts of purposes—the fluctuations of the 
barometer, the Cambridge boat-races, or the funds — 
is familiar to most of you. Itis in like manner con- 
venient in analysis, for exhibiting the relations be- 
tween any three magnitudes, «, y, z, to regard them 
as the co-ordinates of a point in space; and, on the 
like ground, we should at least wish to regard any 
four or more magnitudes as the co-ordinates of a 
point in space of a corresponding number of dimen- 
sions. Starting with the hypothesis of such a space, 
and of points therein, each determined by.means of 
its co-ordinates, it is found possible to establish a 
system of n-dimensional geometry analogous in every 
respect to our two- and three-dimensional geometries, 
and to a very considerable extent serving to exhibit 
the relations of the variables. 

It is to be borne in mind that the space, whatever 
its dimensionality may be, must always be regarded 
as an imaginary or complex space, such as the two- or 
three-dimensional space of ordinary geometry. The 
advantages of the representation would otherwise 
altogether fail to be obtained. 

I omit some farther developments in regard to 
geometry, and all that I have written as to the con- 
nection of mathematics with the notion of time. 

(To be continued.) 


INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 


STATE INSTITUTIONS. 


Tllinois state laboratory of natural history, Normal, Ill. 


Experiments with diseased caterpillars. — Prof. S. 
A. Forbes is making a special study of ‘ schlaffsucht,’ 
or some very similar disease, among our native cat- 
erpillars. He has so far proven that the disease is 
characterized by an enormous development of bac- 
teria in the alimentary canal, the same forms appear- 
ing in the blood before death; that it is contagious 
by way of the food ingested; that the characteristic 
bacteria may be easily and rapidly cultivated in ster- 
ilized beef-broth; and that caterpillars whose food 
has been moistened with this infected broth, speedily 
show the bacteria in the alimentary canal, and, later, 
in the blood, and soon all die of the disease, Other 
caterpillars of the same lot, receiving the same treat- 
ment, except that the food is moistened with distilled 
water instead of the infected broth, remain unaf- 


fected. These bacteria are likewise cultivable in 
vegetable infusions, but multiply there less freely. 

Every step of the investigation is fortified by 
stained and mounted preparations, which are being 
submitted to cryptogamists. It has already been 
determined that the bacterium infesting a brood of 
Datana ministra in his breeding-cages is identical 
with the Micrococcus bombycis of the silk-worm; 
the form, measurements, modes of aggregation, and 
behavior to reagents, of the two, being the same. 
Datana Angusii, feeding upon walnut, vas also occa- 
sionally infested by this M. bombycis, but much 
more commonly by a spherical species, probably un- 
described. 

In the cabbage-worm (Pieris rapae) occurs still 
another species of Micrococcus, very minute (5 4 in 
diameter), globular, and usually either single or in 
pairs. This is far the most virulent of the insect 
affections, which is being studied by Forbes, — the 


484 


most like a plague. In its earlier stages it can usu- 
ally be recognized by the light tint of the larvae, an 
ashy green, so different from the ordinary color that 
one may pick out the diseased worms at ‘a glance. 
These soon become torpid, and commonly die ina 
few hours. After death, decomposition is peculiarly 
sudden and rapid. A pale individual, picked out in 
the evening while still active, at eight o’clock the 
following morning was dead, blackened, and almost 
deliquescent, the whole body being reduced to a semi- 
fluid condition. This Micrococcus multiplies rapidly 
in beef-broth, rendering the fluid turbid. 

The cultures of these Micrococci are made by the 
most rigorous use of the modern methods of ‘pure 
culture.’ 

Only M. bombycis has thus far been successfully 
used by Forbes for the infection of healthy larvae; 
but experiments with the other species are now in 
progress. Measures are also being taken to learn the 
length of life of these bacteria when kept in her- 
metically-sealed tubes, with the expectation that this 
will furnish a means of preserving and transporting 
them for ‘practical use, if this should prove to be 
worth while. : 

Forbes is also experimenting with the various fer- 
ment-germs appearing spontaneously in organic in- 
fusions, and has noted the occasional appearance of 
large numbers of Saccharomyces in the intestines of 
unhealthy larvae, and of those whose food has been 
treated with fermenting vegetable infusions. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


WE deeply regret to announce the death of Dr. 
Hermann Miiller, on Aug. 25. Next to Darwin, 
Miller has done the most to advance our knowledge 
of the mutual relations between plants and animals 
in one of its many phases. Some notice of his life 
and work will be given in a future number. 

—The boundary-line between Guatemala and 
Mexico, which, as we announced last week, Mr. Miles 
Rock has been commissioned to locate, is about two 
hundred miles in length; and one or two years will 
be required to finish the work, Astronomical sta- 
tions will be established along the line, and topo- 
graphical and profile maps will be made to extend 
as far as time and means will permit. If possible, 
the longitude of Guatemala City will be determined 
telegraphically by connecting with some point on 
the coast occupied by the U. S. hydrographic party 
under Lieut.-Commander Davis. 

Mr. Rock has also been commissioned by the 
Smithsonian institution to collect notes on anthro- 
pology in the country over which his survey extends, 
and to photograph whatever archeological ruins he 
may meet with during the progress of the survey. 
He sailed from New York on Oct. 1, in the steamer 
Acapulco. 

—The annual report of the librarian of the public 
library of Cincinnati for the year ending June, 1883, 
has just been issued. The total number of volumes 
and pamphlets in the library is 149,750. ‘“‘The ay- 
erage number of books loaned daily for home use 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 35. 


has been 680. The average number delivered for 
use in the reading-room has been 379 per day.’? In 
tables showing the number of books issued for home 
use and for consultation are given percentages for 
various classes. Fiction heads the list with 81.4% 
in books for home use, and 28.3% in the reading- ~ 
room. Science and arts are represented by only 2.9% 
for home use, but rise to 24.8% for books consulted 
at the library. The number of volumes of fiction 
circulated during the year was 167,678, and of sci- 
ence and arts only 5,928. In the consulting-room, 
however, 39,539 volumes of fiction were issued, and 
33,916 volumes in science and arts. Though these 
figures show a marked preponderance in the cireu- 
lation of fiction over science and arts, as indeed they 
do over every other class, the preponderance is per- 
haps more apparent than real. As the librarian says 
in his report, these percentages are often mislead- 
ing. “They lead the public to believe that a much 
larger than a true proportion of the work of a library 
is in the distribution of books calculated to entertain 
rather than to instruct. Probably not more than 
one-sixth of the time devoted to a volume of history 
or of science is devoted to a novel by the average 
reader; and yet in these figures volumes of history 
and science count equally with volumes of fiction and 
juvenile literature.” 

In a table ‘showing the number and the classes of 
books used during each month of the year,’ we find 
some interesting figures. More books were used dur- 
ing the months of January and March than during 
any other two months of the year. In philology 
there was nearly a regular increase from month to 
month from July to January, and a decrease to 
June. In history, from 1,387 volumes in December, 
there was an increase to 1,818 in January, decrease 
to 1,885 in February, and increase again to 1,586 
and 1,581 in March and April respectively. In geog- 
raphy and travels, March takes the lead with 1,006. 
In science and arts the increase is regular from July 
(2,558) to January (4,656), when the decrease com- 
mences; and in June we have 2,838. In the totals 
we find that nearly 40% of the books were used during 
the months of December, January, February, and 
March; while only about 28% were used during June, 
July, August, and September. 

— The latest news from the French deep-sea explora- 
tions on the Talisman is comprised in a letter from 
M. Alph. Milne-Edwards, at Teneriffe. Every thing 
had worked in a satisfactory manner. Many sound- 
ings had been made off the coast of Morocco, and 
interesting profiles of the bottom thereby developed. 
Bottom and water specimens were simultaneously 
obtained, and the work was even carried on at night 
by the aid of electric lights. Considerable zodlogical 
collections had been made, and the professor was 
especially devoting himself to the study of their dis- 
tribution in depth. The character of the fauna 
already enabled a tolerable estimation of the depth 
to be made from an examination of the animals con- 
tained in any particular haul of the dredge. By the 
use of extremely large nets, better luck. had been 
secured in the capture of deep-sea fishes than had 


OcroBER 5, 1883.] 


previously attended their efforts, and a large number 
of specimens had been obtained. On leaving the 
Canaries, the expedition would proceed to the Cape 
Verde Islands, and thence along the so little known 
African coast. 

—Mr. H. J. Johnston-Levis publishes the accom- 
panying map of Ischia (scale 1 : 80,000) in Nature, 
with some further account of the recent earthquake. 
In company with Prof. P. Franco of Naples, he trav- 
elled over the whole island without detecting any 
sign of volcanic action. If isoseismal lines are 
drawn over the injured districts, we find, he says, 
“that they assume the form of elongated ellipsoids, 
whose major axes run nearly east and west.’’ In the 


=. 


eenween., 
on" @ 7s. 


ae 


first isoseismal area, a, a, destruction was total; in the 
second, b, b, many ‘houses are fallen, and the rest will 
require rebuilding; in the third, c, c, they were se- 
verely fissured; the fourth, in which houses were only 
very slightly fissured, not only includes the whole 
island, but must extend into the sea some distance. 
“From a careful examination of observed azimuths 
and angles of emergence, all point to a plate-shaped 
focus, whose strike extends in a line from Fontana, 
just west of Menella, to near the beach at Lacco. 
The plane of this fissure is probably roughly perpen- 
dicular to the surface, but may slightly dip towards 
the east, as the isoseismals are slightly nearer on the 
eastern side of the seismic vertical, which, as a neces- 
sity, is not represented by a point, but a line on the 


Mah 


SCIENCE. 


Renan acno™ 


~ 


0 


surface. The rupturing of this plate-like fissure was 
apparently greatest at a point nearly midway between 
its extremities.’’ The ancient eruptive centres and 
craters are marked on the map in dotted circles, 

— Ensign S. J. Brown, U.S. navy, has been elected 
professor of mathematics in the navy, and assigned 
to duty at the Naval observatory in Washington, 

— Thouar writes from La Paz, under date of May 
31 last, that in his search for Crevaux he had ar- 
rived by the way of Tacna, across the Cordilleras, 
on the 28th. The Bolivian government, by Sig. A. 
Quijarro, minister of foreign affairs, had shown great 
interest in the plans, and desire to assist to the extent 
of its power. An expeditionary corps had been 


equipped, and directed to march on Teyo, the Toba 
capital, which it is designed to oceupy while part of 
the force descends the right bank of the Pilcomayo to 
Ascension. This expedition should have left Caiza 
in the month of June last, while, on the 8d, Thouar 
intended to start for Caripari, vid Oruro, Potosi, Sucre, 
and Tarija. i 

— Endeavors have been made during the past ses- 
sion of the English parliament to obtain such amend- 
ments of the Factory acts as would protect not only 
the overworked and overheated workers in the bake- 
houses, but those desperate men who face certain 
death by poisoning in the manufacture of white lead. 
No act of parliament, however, will be of any real 
use until some improved process makes safety as 


486 


cheap as danger. Lately, with this object in view, 
Prof. C. Gardner has perfected an invention through 
which, by electrical energy and the cheap produc- 
tion of carbonic acid, applied through a special 
apparatus, in combination. with the necessary acid 
yapor at the proper temperature, the formation of 
white lead of the purest color and best quality is 
rapidly and cheaply carried out in closed chambers; 
the lead resting upon shelves, which are lifted out 
when converted, and emptied, without any dust being 
raised, into a combination of machinery closed in, 
from which it comes forth as white paint ground 
ready for the market, or, if required, as dry powder. 
In either case the dangerous operations of the ‘ white 
bed,’ and washing and stoving, are completely done 
away with, and no opportunity is given for the dust 
to enter the air, or touch the persons of the workers. 

—Mr. G. Brown Goode, U. S. commissioner to 
the fisheries exhibition, sailed from London for the 
United States on the 19th ult. 

— The summer station of the U.S. fish-commission 
at Wood’s Holl, Mass., will remain open until about 
the 20th of this month, at which time the commis- 
sioner will return to Washington. 

—Dr. R. W. Shufeldt, U.S.A., who was engaged 
in making collections in Louisiana, has been released 
from duty on account of ill health. 

—Mr. Robert Ridgway has left his duties at the 

national museum for the present on account of ill 
health, and is recruiting in New York. 
._—Dr. Charles Rau has in preparation a mono- 
graphic work upon prehistoric fishing-implements. 
‘It will be published as one of the Smithsonian Con- 
tributions to knowledge. 

— Professor Lester F. Ward has returned from the 
west. He reports having thoroughly explored about 
seventeen hundred miles of the Missouri River. 

—The very prevalent idea that aniline dyes have 
poisonous properties has inspired the German chem- 
ist, Dr. Grandhomme, to investigate the subject as 
illustrated in the coal-tar color-works of Messrs. 
Lucius and Briining at H6chst-on-the-Main. No- 
where else could these researches have been con- 
ducted in so satisfactory a manner, as the Hochst 
color-works employ six hundred and seventy-two men 
in the actual manufacture of the colors, exclusive of 
their large staff of mechanics and laboratory assist- 
ants. One regulation provides that no workman 
shall enter any other department than his own; so 
that the works offer an excellent field for accurate 
observation. - The following results were obtained by 
Dr. Grandhomme from personal observation, and the 
tables of accident and illness kept in the works. 
Nitrobenzol is known to be poisonous, yet symptoms 
of nitrobenzol-poisoning only appeared in the cases 
of illness reported in that deparfment during four 
years. Aniline is unquestionably poisonous; yet, out 
of one hundred and seventy-one cases of illness in 
that department, only eighteen were due to aniline: 
none were fatal, and the average duration of the 
illness was one and one-half days. Magentas made 
by the arsenic process, and duly purified, are recog- 


nized as poisons; but the symptoms recorded are 


SCIENCE. 


|Vou. IL., No. 35. 


those produced by arsenic, which, in some inferior 
magentas, exists in the proportion of even eight per 
cent. No illness caused by pure magenta was re- 
corded at Héchst, and aniline no more exists in the 
finished magenta than manure exists in wheat. In 
the department where blue colors were made, only 
one case of aniline-poisoning was recorded; none in 
the violet and green departments. A special disease 
appeared in the eosine department, causing extreme 
perspirations from the pores of the hands, but not 
among the men employed in packing the finished 
colors. No special disease was noted in the naphthol 
and alizarine departments. The use of alcohol was 
found to reduce the power of the constitution to 
bear the action of aniline: so no alcoholic drinks were 
allowed in the Héchst works, and no men addicted to 
drinking admitted. 

—In Namaqua-land, South Africa, no rain has 
fallen since Aug. 15, 1881, and plants, animals, and 
men are dying of drought and starvation. Wheat 
and seeds have been sent by the Cape Colony, and a 
relief committee has been formed. 

— Tillo has determined the total length of naviga- 
ble rivers in European Russia, which is only 72,000 
kilometres for that vast territory, a deficiency due to 
the dryness of the climate. 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 


Bacharach, M. Abriss der geschichte der potentialtheorie. 
Gottingen, Vandenbroeck & Ruprecht, 1883. 3+78p. 8°. 


Birnbaum, K. Die priifung der nahrungsmittel und ge- 
brauchs:gegenstinde im grossherzogthum Baden und die resul- 
tate einiger in der mit dem chemischen laboratorium des poly- 
technikums in Karlsruhe verbundenen priifungs station ausge- 
subchen untersuchungen. Karlsruhe, Braun, 1883. 8+119 p., 
1pl. 8°. : 

Brass, A. Biologische studien. theil i.: Die organisation 
der thierischen zelle. hefti. Halle, Strien, 1883. 8+80p.,4pl. 8°. 


Claus, C. Fragment einer monographie des platins und der 
platinaumetalle, 1865-83, Leipzig, Voss, 18838. 5+92p. 8°. 

Handworterbuch der chemie. Herausgegeben yen Prof. 
Dr. Ladenburg unter mitwirkung von Dr. Berend, Dr. Bieder- 
mann, Prof. Dr. Drechsel, ete. band i. Breslau, Zrewendt, 
1883. 8+712p., illustr. 8°. 

Hopkins, Louisa Parsons. Handbook of the earth: natural 
methods in geography. Boston, Lee & Shepard, 1883. 78 p. 24°. 

Kaempfer, D. Ucber die messung electrischer kriifte mit- 
telst des electriechen flugrads. (Inaug. diss.) Berlin, /riedldn- 
der, 1883. 36p. 8°. 

Lowe, 0. Ueber die reguliiren und Poinsot’schen’ korper 
und ihre inbalts bestimmung vermittelst determinanten. Miin- 
chen, Rieger, 1883. 28p.,1pl. 8°. 

Merkmal, das verlorene, des winkel-begriffes eine folge der 
fortschreitenden bewegung auf dem gebiete der geometrischen 
formenlehre nach wesentlichen ideen und neuen gesichtspunk- 
ten. ‘Teschen, Cotula, 1883. 23 p. 8°. 

Petzoldt, K. Petrographische studier an basaltgesteinen 
der Rhén. (Inaug. diss.) Halle, Zawsch, 18838. 48 p. 8°. 

Samuels, E. A. Our northern and eastern birds. New 
York, Worthington, 1883. 600 p., illustr. 8°. 

Schmitz, F. Die vegetation des meeres, 
1888)" 21"p." 8°. 

Smoke abatement committee, 1882, report of. With re- 
ports of the jurors of the exhibition at South Kensington, and of 
the testing engineer, to which are added the official reports on 
the Manchester exhibition. London, Smith, Hider, & Co., 1883. 
14+193 p., 76 pl. 4°. : 

Taugermann, J.D. Licht, harmonie und kraft. Eine natur- 
wissenschaftlich-philosophische studie. Leipzig, J/utze, 1883. 
7p. 8. 

Tischner, A. The sun changes its position in space, there- 
fore it cannot be regarded as being ‘in a condition of rest.” 
Leipzig, Fork, 1883. 37p. 12°. 


Bonn, Strauss, 


ar Neer. 


FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1883. 


HERMANN MULLER. 


Tue sad news has just reached this country 
of the death of Professor Miiller, at Prad, on 
the 25th of August. 

Since the death of Mr. Darwin, Dr. Miiller 
has occupied the position of most prominence 
among students of the mutual relations be- 
tween flowers and insects, —a study which, in 
the last decade, has contributed as much as 
any branch of biology to 
the substantiation of the 
main points of adaptive 
evolution. Miiller was 
born at Mihlberg, Sept. 23, 
1829, and was a younger 
brother of the well-known 
Brazilian naturalist, Fritz 
Miller, much of whose 
work has passed through 
his hands before its pub- 
lication. 

Between 1848 and 1852 
he studied at the universi- 
ties of Halle and Berlin, 
devoting himself to natural 
history. In the latter year 
he passed the Oberlehrer examinations, and 
served his novitiate in the Berlin realschule. 
In 1854 he received his first appointment as 
teacher in the school at Schwerin, and the 
following year took the natural sciences in the 
realschule at Lippstadt, where he remained as 
teacher and director until his death. 

Previously to the attainment of his degree, 
Dr. Miiller had shown considerable zeal in 
natural history explorations, which were con- 
tinued, in 1855, in the vicinity of Krain, where 
he did some especially interesting work on the 

1 The portrait on this page is engraved from a photograph by 


Ophoven of Lippstadt, kindly furnished by Prof, William Tre- 
lease of the University of Wisconsin. 


No. 36.— 1883. 


blind insects found in the caves at this place, 
the results of his studies appearing in the Stet- 
tiner entomologische zeitschrift for 1856-67. 
After settling at Lippstadt, he gave particular 
attention to botany and entomology, working 
up, in particular, the local phenogamic flora, 
and later the mosses of Westphalia, sets of 
which were distributed by him between 1864 
and 1866. ; 

About this time the classical work of Dar- 
win on the fertilization of orchids by insects 
directed his attention to the pollination of 
flowers, —a subject, which, 
neglected since the time of 
Sprengel, was then attract- 
ing several biologists. His 
familiarity with Westpha- 
lian plants and insects 
fitted him especially for 
work of this nature; and 
his first contributions? 
showed that he was also 
possessed of the requisite 
powers of observation and 
interpretation. 

From this time on, his 
leisure was given to field- 
work in this specialty, 
many of his summers be- 
ing spent in the Alps. While Delpino, Hilde- 
brand, and others were not slow to follow 
in the steps of Mr. Darwin, showing, both 
from the structure of flowers and the results of 
many careful experiments, how they must a 
priori be fertilized, Miller observed, in addi- 
tion, how their pollination is actually effected ; 
and our knowledge of the degree to which the 
reciprocal adaptations of flowers and _ their 
visitors extends may be set down as in large 
part the result of his labors. 

In the past ten years, numerous papers from 


2 Beobachtungen an Westfilischen orchideen ( Verhandl. 
naturh. ver. Preuss. Rheinl. u. Westfdlens, 1868) and Anwen- 
dung der Darwinsche lehre auf bienen (ibid., 1872). 


488 


his pen have appeared in the Botanische 
zeitung, Bienen zeitung, Kosmos, Nature, 
etc., while, as editor of the department of 
Justs’ Jahresbericht, relating to pollination 
and dissemination, he has contributed reviews 
of all of the more important publications bear- 
ing on his specialty. Beside these, he pub- 
lished two books, — Befruchtung der blumen 
durch insekten, und die gegenseitigen anpas- 
sungen beider (which appeared in 1873, served 
‘as the basis of a very instructive series of arti- 
cles in Nature, and was largely drawn upon 
by Lubbock in the preparation of his little 
work on British wild-flowers, and which, sup- 
plemented by the more recent observations of 
its author, has lately been translated into 
English) ; and Alpenblumen, ihre befruchtung 
durch insekten und ihre anpassungen an die- 
selben (a volume of equal size, published in 
1881, and, like its predecessor, filled with 
instructive facts). 

From the first, Dr. Miller was a pronounced 
evolutionist, perhaps erring in too exclusive 
contemplation of a limited part .of the eyi- 
dence of derivation; and, like many others of 
the German school, inclined to push evolution- 
ary logic to its ultimate if undemonstrable 
conclusion of materialism. 

As a teacher he was most excellent, having 
the faculty, not only of imparting ideas to his 
pupils, but of inspiring their enthusiasm. In 
his specialty he was a careful observer. noting 
and accounting for many minute structural 
peculiarities in both flowers and insects, which, 
so long as their utility remained undiscovered, 
were explicable only by the theory of types in 
nature. So far as observation is concerned, 
his work is above criticism. As a rule, too, 
his inferences are correctly drawn, though the 
limitation of his studies to a small part of the 
world has at times rendered his enthusiasm 
over the biological significance of some sup- 
posed new adaptation, subject to the criticism 
of specialists previously familiar with the struc- 
ture, if not with its meaning. 

As a friend, Dr. Miller was always cordial, 
eyer ready with encouragement and assistance 
for younger workers in the line of his specialty. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 36. 


He had, however, little patience with inac- 
curacy in observation, and, both publicly and 
in private, criticised errors with vigor; but, 
though his criticisms were sometimes severe, 
they were seldom unkind, and never unjust. 
By his death, biological science loses not only 
one of its most enthusiastic and able devotees, . 
but also one, who, by the independent and 
thorough nature of his work, may be styled 
not inappropriately an epoch-maker. 


THE USE OF THE SPECTROSCOPE IN 
METEOROLOGY. 


In April last it was thought desirable to add 
to the regular meteorological observation made 
at the Shattuck observatory, Dartmouth col- 
lege, the hygrometric indications of the spec- 
troscope. The observations were made in 
accordance with the directions of J. Rand 
Capron in his ‘ Plea for the rain-band.’ The 
instruments used were two direct vision spec- 
troscopes: one a 34-inch ‘ yest-pocket’ in- 
strument of Hofmann’s; the other 10 inches 
in length, and capable of separating the D lines 
with direct sunlight. The observations made 
in this way were found to be interesting, but 
unsatisfactory. The difficulty which an ob- 
server must always find in estimating confi- 
dently the degree of intensity of the absorption 
lines and bands with the widely varying lights 
of fair and cloudy weather, makes the arrange- 
ment of some method of measurement very 
desirable. After a few trials in other direc- 
tions, the device described below was decided 
upon, and has proved satisfactory. It was 
thought that the absorption lines of aqueous 
vapor, seen with a spectroscope of rather high 
power, are better adapted to delicate measure- 
ment than the broad band seen with a low 
power. ‘The small spectroscope used shows 
the dark band on the red side of the D line 
with great clearness ; but the absorption lines 
are only visible when particularly strong. 
With the larger instrument, however, the spec- 
trum is so elongated that the general darken- 
ing near D is hardly noticeable ; while the two 
moisture lines to be found there are yery 
prominent. The apparatus illustrated is de- 
signed to measure the variation in intensity of 
the darker line of this pair (the a of the D 
group of Janssen’s map). 

The only methods of measurement of the 
intensity of absorption lines, known to the 
writer, are those of Janssen and Gouy. The 


OcToBER 12, 1883.] 


former, in 1871, in his work in mapping the 
atmosphere lines, used for comparison black 
lines of various widths, ruled on white paper, 
and viewed through vessels filled with dark- 
ened water.’ Gouy made some measure- 
ments of solar lines by photometric methods ; 
isolating a narrow strip of the spectrum adja- 
cent to the line, and comparing its light with 
that of a strip of equal width containing the 
line. From these data he calculated the in- 
tensity of the line, not in photometric, but in 
linear units.2 The method adopted by the 
writer is entirely different from either of these ; 
and, as far as known, is new. 


FIG. 1. 


What was desired was the production of an 
artificial absorption spectrum, the intensity of 
whose lines could be varied at will, until one 
of the lines thus produced should be sen- 
sibly the same as the line to be measured. 
Fig. 1 is a section of the attachment to the 
spectroscope made for this purpose. The 
dark lines required are diffraction fringes pro- 
duced at the focus of the positive eye-piece, 
which are therefore seen projected on the 
spectrum. They are produced by placing a 
silk fibre a little beyond the focus of the eye- 
piece. In the figure, the piece @ slides in the 
tube, bearing with it a single silk fibre placed 
vertically and just in the middle of the field of 
view of the eye-piece. The fibre is maintained 
vertical by means of a pro- 
jeeting pin sliding in a longi- 


SCIENCE. 


489 


the lines appear to separate somewhat, grow- 
ing constantly fainter until they disappear. 
The fainter diffraction fringes produced are 
invisible in the rather weak light of the spec- 
trum. Whole revolutions of the screw } are 
read off on the graduation at the side of the 
slot, and fractions (tenths) are read from the 
piece itself, which is graduated as a microme- 
ter screw. The lines thus produced resemble 
closely the D group, particularly when both 
are strong, when a very sharp eye is required 
to distinguish the spurious lines from the genu- 
ine. As the movement of the eye from side to 
side would modify the appearance of the inter- 
ference lines, making one darker than the 
other, the spectrum must be viewed through a 
narrow vertical opening, making such motion 
impossible. For this purpose a piece of black 
paper. (not shown in the figure), provided with 
a vertical slit of perhaps 0.7 mm. width, must 
be placed on the eye-lens at k. Even with 
this, a little care is necessary in the position of 
the eye, that the pair of lines shall always be 
equal. The slight darkening of the spectrum 
between the two lines, which occurs, is in this 
case not objectionable, as it imitates pretty 
closely the general absorption in the space be- 
tween D and the a line of the D group. The 
instrument, as figured, is provided with ‘a 
tangent screw at e, by which the whole tube 
containing the eye-piece can be moyed hori- 
zontally, thus shifting the field of view so that 
any line of the spectrum can be brought to the 
side of the comparison lines. The instrument 
is mounted on a wooden base, grooved at the 
top to receive.it. At the back side is a large 


knob by which the instrument is held when 
taking an observation. 


When directed to any 


tudinal slot in the tube, as 
shown at s in fig. 2. The 
sliding motion is given to it 
by means of the piece b, which 
turns freely, but cannot slide, 
being retained by the screw d fitting in a 
groove made entirely around the piece. Two 
openings are made in the tube, on opposite 
sides, so that b can be turned directly with 
the fingers. One of these windows is shown 
at n in fig. 2. By turning in one direc- 
tion, the silk fibre may be put nearly in the 
foeus: by turning back, it can be made invisi- 
ble. When near the focus, the fibre appears 
as a pair of dark parallel lines and quite close 
together. As it is drawn away from the focus, 


1 Ann. phys. chim., xxiii. 274. 
2 Comptes rendus, \xxxix. 1033 and xci. 383. 


part of the sky, the altitude can be determined 
by means of the graduated circle and hanging 
weight shown in the figure. 

Another device, much simpler, and of use, 


490 


it is believed, for general observation when less 
accuracy is required, is shown in fig. 3. A 
collar represented in section at @ is inserted 
into the tube of the spectroscope, and fastened 
permanently so that its front side shall be 
just in the focus of the eye-piece. From the 
lower front edge to the upper back edge, a silk 
fibre passes, drawing back as it rises. The 
fibre will evidently appear in the field of view, 
as represented at 6, as lines of diminishing 
intensity. A set of horizontal, equidistant 
spider-lines are attached to the front edge, 
hence justin focus. The 
line whose intensity is to 
a ee) be measured is made to 
appear parallel and near 
e De ne to one of the interference 
lines ; and its intensity is 
expressed by the number of the spider-line at 
which the intensities correspond, counting 
downwards. And here it may be mentioned 
that such a seale of intensities (or, indeed, the 
scale afforded by the micrometer screw read- 
ings in the preceding apparatus) is not a scale 
of equal parts, a change of a unit in case of a 
line of high intensity being more than in case 
of a low intensity. This is, however, believed 
not to be a serious disadvantage in practice. 

The advantages of any practicable method 
of measurement over a mere estimation are 
eyident enough. When estimated by the eye, 
it is believed to be impracticable to distinguish 
more than five grades of strength, while by 
this method quite fine shades of intensity can 
be measured ; and what is, perhaps, of equal 
importance, measurements made against dark 
and light sky are apparently identical, a 
change in the brilliancy of the background 
affecting the appearance equally of the ab- 
sorption and interference lines. Evidently an 
unaided estimation would very likely be at 
fault in such a case. 

As to the accuracy actually attained in 
practice, it is found, in looking over the record 
of about a month past, that the whole range of 
the readings made at one observation, in ordi- 
narily favorable weather, averages 0.5 of a 
revolution of the micrometer serew; and, as 
from four to twelve or more readings are always 
taken, according to the amount of yariation 
noted, the probable error of the mean may be 
considered as about 0.03, as computation has 
shown in a number of cases. Now, as the 
whole range of the instrument used is from 1.0 
to 5.7, it is evident that many grades of in- 
tensity are capable of appreciation. It is to be 
remembered, that these readings are purposely 
made in various quarters of the sky, so that 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 36. 


discrepancies in readings are partly due to 
want of uniformity in the hygrometric state of 
the atmosphere. It should be stated, also, 
that such accuracy is not attainable below 2.0, 
as the value of a unit is then considerably less 
than above that value. 

The regular record made at the observatory 
is as follows: The ordinary meteorological 
record is made three times daily. With the 
spectroscope, at least three sets of readings 
are taken, comprising measurements of the in- 
tensity of the moisture line at the horizon, at 
altitudes of 10°, 20°, 30°, and 90°. Im all 
cases, the readings are taken in all quarters of 
the sky where there is sufficient light. A set of 
readings is also taken by setting the microm- 
eter at 2.0, giving a faint line just visible in 
dark weather, and then measuring the altitude 
at which the moisture line is of the same 
strength. Such readings of altitude rarely 
vary more than 2° to 4° in settled weather. 
The strength of line and of the ‘ rain-band ’ 
is also estimated by the eye at each observa- 
tion. At the same time the readings of the wet 
and dry bulb hygrometer are taken, as well as 
of a Regnault’s condensing hygrometer. The 
wet and dry bulb hygrometer can be ventilated 
by means of a bellows, as suggested by Mr. 
H. A. Hazen, in a recent number of ScreNncr. 
Notes are made of the direction and velocity 
of the wind, of the clouds, and condition of 
the air. 

One of the most interesting of the powers 
of the spectroscope thus used is its ability to 
detect relatively moist tracts in the atmos- 
phere. While in settled weather entire uni- 
formity at all points of the horizon is generally 
noted, in unsettled weather considerable differ- 
ences are often observed. An excellent ex- 
ample of this power of the instrument occurred 
on May 26. During the morning when the 
observations were made, the air was very 
clear and dry, the moisture line therefore 
weak. At 6 4.mM., measurements made entirely 
around the horizon showed that the line be- 
came invisible very uniformly at an altitude of 
10°, except for about 45° of the north-eastern 
horizon, where the altitude of disappearance 
was 20°, while the intensity of the line at the 
horizon here was about double that elsewhere. 
There was no wind blowing, and no clouds — 
of any kind were visible except a few wisps of 
cirrus cloud high in the east. These facts were 
all noted in the record at the time. At seyen 
o'clock, when the next readings were taken, 
to my surprise this moist tract was found to be 
nearly filled up with a bank of stratus cloud, 
with no other clouds visible. At the same 


iyo e A ee 


OcrToBER 12, 1883.] 


time a similar moist region, of 15° altitude and 
perhaps 35° length, was discovered in the south- 
east; and this in turn was found fifteen min- 
utes later to be partly filled with cloud. After 
an hour or so they had all disappeared. The 
appearance was as though a body of air heavily 
charged with moisture, having become heated, 
was seen rising bodily at six o’clock, while at 
seven the consequent cooling had condensed 
in part its moisture. 

One of the most striking facts noted is the 
suddenness with which a hygrometric change 
occurs, as indicated by the spectroscope. 
During the fine weather of June 50 and July 
1, the spectroscope had indicated unusually 
dry air with almost absolute uniformity. Dur- 
ing July 1, as the diagram shows, there had 
been a very slight increase in the moisture 
present, as indicated by an observation at six 
p.M. Fifteen minutes later, happening to 
glance through the spectroscope, I was greatly 
surprised to see how much blacker the line 
looked. A new set of readings was taken, 
giving a much higher amount of moisture, as 
indicated by the sudden rise in the curve. 
The sky was almost entirely free from clouds, 
with a light breeze from the south - west. 
Measurements were made in both cases all 
along the western half of the horizon, the 
eastern being too dark at that hour. At seven 
o’clock a moderately dense bank of stratus 
clouds had risen in the west to an altitude of 
15° or 20°. The record at seven and seyen- 
thirty showed little further hygrometric change. 
The sky was soon entirely overcast with clouds. 
This hygrometrie change was not a mere mo- 
mentary one, connected with cloud-formation ; 
but the later record showed it to be the begin- 
ning of a period of moist air and showery 
weather. The hygrometer, it will be noted in 
the diagram, gave little sign of change for 
some hours. Other sudden changes of equally 
striking character have been observed. ‘That, 
as has been suggested by Capron and others, 
the physical state of the suspended water, the 
size of the aqueous particles, may have an influ- 
ence in its light-absorbing power, and so ex- 
plain in part such changes, is very possible ; 
but the evidence that such is the case appears 
to be far from conclusive. 

It is believed that a series of spectroscopic 
observations, continued for a considerable 
period of time at different stations, would 
give much light on a number of important 
questions in meteorology, particularly in the 
study of the formation of showers and storms. 
The instrument is apparently admirably adapt- 
ed to do this work, by its ability to trace 


SCIENCE. 


491 


accurately the motions of masses of vapor in 
the upper atmosphere. _ The discussion of the 
more important questions which arise in carry- 


ature of air. 


Moisture line. 


July 1, P.M. 
3 i Oe I RE 


July 2, A.M. 
a 8 AQ wy 2 4 ETS 


ing on this investigation is deferred until a 
larger mass of figures and facts have been 
accumulated. _C. §. Coox. 


NOTES ON SASSAFRAS-LEAVES. 


Tuenre are three distinct forms of sassafras- 
leaves. The simplest is ovate, varying to 
oval and obovate. A second form is three- 
lobed, the incisions running from near the 
middle of the upper half of the leaf’s edge to 
the centre of the blade. The third form: is 
midway between the entire and three-lobed 
sorts, and has but one side-lobe ; the opposite 
half of the leaf being entire. It is as if one- 
half of a three- lobed leaf were joined by the 
midrib to the opposite half of an entire one 
of the same size. This form may be very ap- 
propriately called the ‘ mitten.’ 

In the study of these three forms, branches 
of sassafras have been gathered from a large 
number of places through the- - surrounding 
country. Some have been obtained from the 
woods, and others from the open field. 
Branches were cut from the largest trees and 
from the smallest, from vigorous trees and 
those of slow growth. Ten hundred and fifty 
leaves were examined: and of these, five hun- 
dred and thirteen were entire; four hundred 


OcTOBER 12, 1§83.] 


and fifty-eight, three-lobed ; and seventy-nine, 
‘mitten form.’ 

The first leaves of spring were invariably 
entire, and a lobed leaf was rarely found until 
the fourth leaf was passed in counting from the 
base of the branch toward the tip. No regular 
order was discovered. In one case the arrange- 
ment was as follows: three entire, four three- 
lobed, one ‘mitten,’ one three-lobed, one 
‘mitten,’ one three-lobed, one ‘ mitten,’ one 
three-lobed ; on another branch, four entire, 
one ‘ mitten,’ five three-lobed, one ‘ mitten,’ 
three three-lobed, three ‘mittens.’ The 
leaves on short spurs of old trees were nearly 
all small and entire; when the branches were 
somewhat longer, and the leaves larger, there 
were one or more three-lobed or ‘ mitten’ 
leaves in the middle of the stem. A number 
of branches taken from slow-growing trees 
gave the following aggregate: entire leaves, 
seventy ; ‘ mittens,’ six; three-lobed leaves, 
three. A vigorous young sprout gave twenty- 
seven three-lobed leaves, one ‘mitten’ near 
the middle of the stem, and no entire leaves. 
Another had two entire blades at the base, and 
twelve three-lobed leaves above. A number 
of these rapidly-growing young trees together 
gave twenty-seven entire leaves, fourteen * mit- 
tens,’ and eighty-one three-lobed leaves. 

The entire and smaller leaves are in the 
majority on slowly-growing trees ; while, on the 
young sprouts, larger three-lobed leaves pre- 
dominate. The‘ mitten’ form is mostly found 
with the entire leaves. This form of leaf is 
probably about equally divided between the 
‘ right-handed’ and ‘ left-handed ;’ though, of 
the number found (seventy-nine), those with 
the ‘thumb ’ to the left, when held with under 
side upward, exceeded the other sort by half. 
About every thirteenth leaf is a ‘ mitten,’ —a 
form not found mentioned in the botanical de- 
scription of the sassafras. 

There seems to be no order in the arrange- 
ment of the three forms upon the branch. 
Leaves from the buds were examined, and all 
of the three forms were found. Each kind is 
distinct, from a very early state; and there is 
no indication that one ever passes into the oth- 
er. No intermediate forms have been found. 
The venation of the three forms is very much 
the same. There is a midrib running length- 
wise through the leaf, and a strong lateral vein 
on each side, which runs from near the base 
to beyond the middle of the leaf. Smaller 
veins form the framework of the middle and 
upper parts of the leaf. The portion of par- 
enchyma absent in a lobed leaf is midway 
between the strong lateral veins. This is 


SCIENCE. 


493 


very clearly shown in a ‘ mitten,’ where one 
side is lobed, and the other entire. It would 
seem as if the lobing is a failure to fill up 
the framework, and apparently due to a too 
vigorous growth of the veins, and a lack of 
a sufficient amount of the soft, filling tissue. 
In the formation of leaves the sassafras is 
certainly * at loose ends,’ but in this it is not 
alone. 

Fig. 1 shows an entire sassafras-leaf; fig. 
2, a three-lobed leaf; and fig. 3, a ‘ mitten.’ 
Fig. 4 shows the young leaves of the three 
forms. All the illustrations are drawn from 
nature. Byron D. Hatsrep. 

New York, July 2, 1883. 


THE UNITS OF MASS AND FORCE. 


Ty the original definition of the gram it was 
regarded as a weight, and therefore a force, 
being the weight at the level of the sea, and 
at the latitude of 45°, of one cubic centimetre 
of water at its maximum density. It was thus 
virtually defined as a force. But as we shall 
soon see, although defined as a unit of force, 
it has become in practice a unit of mass. In 
the C. G. S. system of units this change is 
accepted, and the definition is modified accord- 
ingly ; that is, one cubic centimetre of water 
is taken as the unit of mass, and this mass is 
called the gram without reference to its weight. 

In volume i., Cours de physique, M. Jamin 
criticises this change. The high standing and_ 
character of this great work, as well as the emi- 
nence of its author, entitle his views to respect- 
ful consideration, especially as the question 
involves the fundamental elementary concep- 
tions of physics in a way to render it of inter- 
est to the general student. 

We set out with the proposition that what 
we commonly consider units of weight, such as 
the kilogram and pound, practically become 
units of mass in all the ordinary affairs of life. 
The reason is, that in practice bodies are 
weighed by balancing them against pieces of 
metal, and not by means of a spring balance. 
A pound weight is indeed heavier the farther 
north we go; but then, whatever we weigh 
with it is heavier in the same ratio. Accord- 
ingly, if by means of a weight we weigh a 
pound of tea at the equator, at. the poles it 
will still weigh the same as a pound weight, 
although in reality heavier than at the equator. 
This is obviously a great practical and com- 
mercial convenience ; because the quantity or 
mass of the tea is the important question to 
those who deal in it, while its gravitating force 
is of secondary importance. Were a perfect 


494 . 


spring balance used which measured absolute 
weight, the dealer who should purchase tea at 
one latitude, and sell it at another, would be 
subject to a gain or loss, depending upon the 
difference in the force of gravity. 

It is not, however, on merely commercial 
grounds that the change rests. For scientific 
purposes a unit is used as a term of comparison 
between different quantities of the same kind, 
and must be so defined and chosen as to fulfil 
this function with the greatest convenience. 
Now, a unit of force which shall furnish a di- 
rect and convenient standard of comparison 
between forces or weights at different places is 
entirely impracticable. At any one place the 
weight of a given mass of metal may be taken 
as a convenient unit; but this unit will change 
when we go to any other place, owing to the 
difference in the force of gravity. Indeed, 
every student of physics knows that the meas- 
ure of the force of gravity at any one place 
is one of the most delicate and difficult prob- 
lems in physics. In the definition which re- 
fers to the latitude of 45° it is assumed that 
the force of gravity is the same at all points on 
this parallel. We now know that this is not 
the case, and that if we adopt such a unit we 
shall have to define the exact spot on the 
earth’s surface which is taken as the standard. 
Reference to such a standard would be imprac- 
ticable. Hence a unit of force must be sub- 
sidiary to the unit of mass. The most conyen- 
ient way of fixing it is to take the unit of mass 
as known, and to determine the force of gravity 
at the place of observation. The combination 
of the two gives a standard by which weight 
may be expressed in force. To be more ex- 
plicit: if we have a piece of metal the mass of 
which we know to be one gram, and if we deter- 
mine the force of gravity at the place to be n, 
then the gravitating force of that piece of metal 
will be known to be n units of force. In prac- 
tice this must be the method used in physies, 
if an accurate measure of forces is really re- 
quired. 

Let us now consider M. Jamin’s objections. 
He says that the mass of a body is not suscep- 
tible of direct determination ; for to measure it 
we must commence by determining its weight 
in a balance, and afterwards dividing by the 
number which expresses the acceleration of 
gravity at the latitude of 45° and at the level 
of the sea. Jt is difticult to attribute this re- 
mark to any thing but inadvertence, since the 
division by g at 45° is necessary only on the 
French system. If we measure it by means of 
a balance having grams as weights, the result- 
ing weight is at once the mass on the C. G.S. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No, 36. 


system, no matter where the weighing is made, 
and therefore needs no division whatever. 

He then adds, ‘‘ Suppose, on the contrary, 
that we have to measure a force : we determine 
it directly by means of weights at the place of 
observation. Afterwards we «apply to these 
weights the corrections relative to the latitude 
and the altitude, to have an expression of the 
force as the function of a normal gram. We 
must remark that we cannot avoid these correc- 
tions to taking mass as the fundamental unit ; 
because it is always weights that we measure, 
and the course followed in the experiments is 
necessitated by the nature of things.’’ This is 
quite true, but it does not prove that one sys- 
tem affords any more convenient unit of force 
than the other. Snion Newcoms. 


STANDARD RAILWAY TIME. 


Tue problem of simplifying the system of 
time standards used by the railways of this 
country seems to be near solution. The rep- 
resentatives of various railway-lines, who are 
to-day in session at Chicago, will receive the 
report of the secretary, Mr. W. F. Allen, and, 
it is expected, will take final action. For some 
years past, committees of various scientific 
bodies, as the American metrological society, 
the American association for the advancement 
of science, and the American society of civil en- 
gineers, have called attention to the urgent need 
of reform in the standards of time in use, and 
suggested plans for action. The railways,which 
are naturally most interested in the movement, 
have recently taken hold of the matter in ear- 
nest. The plan which has met with the most 
favor is that in which five standards of time, 
differing by consecutive hours, are proposed 
for the whole territory occupied by the United 
States and Canada. These are based upon 
the meridians from Greenwich, but receive 
other names for purposes of convenience. It 
is proposed by the railways that in Canada the 
standard shall be known as intercolonial time, 
and shall coincide with the local time on the 
meridian four hours, or 60°, west of Greenwich. 
In the United States the standards will be 
known as eastern, central, mountain, and Pa- 
cific time, and coincide with the local times on 
the meridians five, six, seven, and eight hours, 
or 75°, 90°, 105°, 120°, respectively, west of 
Greenwich. The advantage of this system is, 
that the standards will differ from the true 
local times of the various parts of the country 
by amounts not greater than thirty minutes, if 
the divisions are made rigidly according to 
longitude, and no one will be inconvenienced 


~~ ae se 


OcToBER 12, 1883.] 


thereby. The great difficulty, however, of the 


_ plan, lies in the selection of the places where 


the changes of one hour are to be made; and 
as some of these, especially that between east- 
ern and central time, must pass through coun- 
try well settled, no matter how much freedom 
is allowed in selecting the points of change, it 
has seemed to many that the inconvenience 
would be great. Railway interests require 
that the changes be made at the termini of 
sections of the road, which are often large 
cities. At these points there will be two times, 
— one for eastern, one for western roads, differ- 
ing by an hour. In dealing with this practical 
difficulty, the railways have shown a desire to 
conform as nearly as possible to the theoretical 
system, but have adopted the principles that 
** changes from one standard to another should 
be made at well-known points of departure,’’ 
and that ‘‘ these changes should be made at 
the termini of roads, where changes now occur, 
except on the transcontinental lines and in a 
few other unavoidable cases, where they can 
be made at the ends of divisions.”’ 

At the railway-time conventions held in St. 
Louis and New-York City in April last, the 
following resolutions were adopted : — 

1°. That all roads now using Boston, New 
York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Toronto, Ham- 
iltlon, or Washington time as standard, or 
standards based upon meridians east of those 
points, or adjacent thereto, shall be governed 
by the seventy-fifth meridian or ‘ eastern time’ 
(four minutes slower than New-York time). 

2°. That all roads now using Columbus, 
Savannah, Atlanta, Cincinnati, Louisville, In- 
dianapolis, Chicago, Jefferson City, St. Paul, 
or Kansas City time, or standards based upon 
meridians adjacent thereto, shall be run by 
the ninetieth meridian time, to be called ‘ cen- 
tral time’ (one hour slower than ‘ eastern time,’ 
and nine minutes slower than Chicago time). 

3°. That west of the above-named section 
the roads shall be run by the one hundred and 
fifth and the one hundred and twentieth merid- 
jan times respectively (two and three hours 
slower than ‘ eastern time ’). 

4°. That all changes from one hour standard 
to another shall be made at the termini of 
roads or at the ends of divisions. 

Another resolution provided that the secre- 
tary should prepare a pamphlet containing an 
explanation of the subject, with accompany- 
ing maps, and endeavor to secure the acquies- 
cence of all parties to the proposed plan, that 
the next convention might take final action. 

The report of the secretary contains a fine 
railway-map, with the standards proposed for 


SCIENCE. 


495 


each road designated by different colors. It 
is the intention to use the eastern standard 
from Maine and the eastern coast to Detroit, 
Mich., and Bristol, Tenn. ; but all the Ohio and 
Georgia railways will use the central stand- 
ard, as well as those in Pennsylvania west 
of Pittsburg. The western railways whose 
termini are in Buffalo, Salamanca, and Char- 
lotte, are allowed to use the central standard 
as far east as those points. The important 
places where the change of one hour from 
eastern to central time occurs, are Detroit, 
Buffalo, Pittsburg, Charlotte, and Augusta. 
The change from central to mountain time is 
made at Bismarck, North Platte, Wallace, 
Coolidge, and others ; from mountain to Pacific 
time, at Ogden, Yuma,‘and others. 

The secretary, Mr. Allen, has received assur- 
ances from the great majority of roads, that 
the system is approved. At the beginning of 
this month, railways operating 70,000 miles 
of road had responded favorably ; and replies 
were coming in daily, none in the United 
States having refused assent. The roads cen- 
tring in Boston gave assent, provided satis- 
factory arrangements could be made with the 
Cambridge observatory, upon which they de- 
pend for their time-signals. Of this there 
can be no doubt, as it may be assumed that 
every observatory in the country will contribute 
its part in the movement which inaugurates 
such a needed reform. The eastern standard 
differs from Boston time by sixteen minutes. 

It seems almost certain, then, that the con- 
vention now in session will authorize the pro- 
posed change, and appoint a time when the 
plan shall be put into practical operation. 
On that date the observatories will make the 
change in their signals which the railways use, 
and the system will at once be under trial. 
The next question will be, whether the cities 
will adopt the railway system for their use. 
Of this there can be little doubt; and, in cases 
where two standards differing by an hour 
come together, it will be necessary to adopt 
one of the two for the city standard. The 
state of Connecticut, which several years ago 
hastily adopted New-York time for the stand- 
ard, will have the small change of four min- 
utes to authorize. All these adjustments may 
be left to the future. They will be made 
or not, as the popular interests demand. Of 
the wisdom of the action of the railway man- 
agers there can be no doubt. Without dis- 
cussing the relative merits of the plan adopted, 
and others which have been suggested, it is 
certain that the present confused arrangement 
should be abolished. The new plan is simple 


496 


and practicable ; and its adoption is an impor- 
tant reform, which is deserving of hearty sup- 
port and encouragement. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


Phalansterium digitatum Stein. 


THERE is no published evidence that the infusorial 
colony here referred to has been seen by any observer 
except its German discoverer. It is stated not to 
occur in English waters; and this uncommon animal- 
cule had not been taken in America, until the writer 
recently found it in considerable profusion, attached 
to the leaflets of Myriophyllum from a millpond near 
this city. The colonies and the enclosed zodids dif- 
fer from their German relatives in no essential char- 
acter, the only perceptible divergence being in the 
somewhat smaller size of the American Infusorium. 

The tubular colonies, which take an irregular digit- 
like form, and branch somewhat dichotomously, are 
in great part built up of granular digestive rejecta- 
menta remarkable for their coarseness. The distal 
extremity of each tubule is slightly inflated, each 
zooid sitting singly in the hollow thus formed, except 
after haying undergone the reproductive process, 
when two or more may be present, the flagellum alone 
extending beyond the aperture. . 

The conical collar, embracing the flagellum for 
some distance above its point of origin, is often 
thickened by an outward flow of the body-sarcode, 
but whether a regular circulation takes place in the 
collar substance could not be determined. 

Although the zodids are apparently entirely free 
from all connection with the walls of the zoocytium, 
they have the power of suddenly darting back into 
the tubules for a distance equal to two or three times 
their length. They seem to exercise this accomplish- 
ment at pleasure, but especially when any unwelcome 
object comes in contact with the flagellum. I have 
seen a large animalcule glide across the front of a 
colony, and each zodid in regular succession, as its 
flagellum was touched, shoot back into the tube, re- 
maining there some minutes before cautiously reap- 
proaching the aperture. k ; 

I have several times witnessed the reproductive 
process, and have verified the statement that it takes 
place by transverse fission. An interesting fact in 
this connection is, that the only other species of the 
genus reproduces itself by dividing longitudinally, a 
method directly the opposite of that which obtains 
with the present form. 

The two posteriorly located contractile vesicles pul- 
sate at intervals of about thirty seconds. 

Dr. ALFRED C. STOKES. 
Trenton, N.J. 


Solar constant. 


I enclose a translation of a portion of a letter to me 
from Dr. Josef Pernter of the Austrian meteorologi- 
cal service. Dr. Pernter writes: — 


“ Speaking of radiation, I remember to haye read several times 
in SclENCE, under the ‘letters to the editor,’ various things con- 
cerning the solar constant, — lately, a letter from John LeConte, 
but which, like former communications, appears to make the 
subject a little unclear. 

«The solar constant isa quantity of heat, and the number which 
is the expression for the solar constant must mean calores. If, 
for example, Violle says the solar constant is 2.54, then it must 
be 2.54 calores. But since the solar radiation is a summation, 
during time, extending over space, the duration and the surface 
certainly come into the question. The minute has been taken 
as the unit of time, and the square centimetre as the unit of 
apace. 

me That the solar constant is 2.54 calores, means, therefore, that 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 36. 


the sun’s rays bring to the outside of our atmosphere, in each 
minute, 2.54 heat-units upon each square centimetre. What be- 
comes of these heat-units, or calores, does not belong at all to 
the conception of the solar constant. 

“ The new solar constant of Langley, 2.84, signifies, consequent- 
ly, that the amount of heat furnished per minute per square centi- 
metre by solar radiation is 2.84 calores. But this number, 2.84 
calores, must be comprehended. Lately the term ‘calore’ has 
been used in two significations, — the large calore, or the amount 
of heat that raises one kilogram of water 1°; and the small calore, 
or the amount of heat which raises a gram of water 1°. The lat- 
ter, or small calore, is applied to the solar constant. Expressed 
in large calores, the solar constant of Langley would not be 2.84, 
but .00284 calores; that is, 1,000 times smaller. 

“ After these explanations, one can immediately say how many 
great or small calores fall upon the square metre per minute from 
the solar radiation; viz., 10,000 times as many as on the square 
centimetre.” 

FRANK WALDO. 
Deutsche seewarte, Hamburg, Germany, 
Sept. 16, 1883. 


Dissemination of Phlox. 


I have had for some time past, on my table, some 
capsules of Phlox Drummondii, which is so com- 
monly cultivated in gardens. The capsules were 
picked while still green, and had dried gradually. 
Several times I have been puzzled at finding small 
seeds and parts of the capsule of a plant on the table, 
and could not think where they came from ; but, a 
day or so since, I heard a sharp pop, and, looking up, 
saw that one of the capsules had burst, and sent the 
seed several feet away. Since then it has often oc- 
curred. This is an evident means for the dissemina- 
tion of the seed. The most of the capsules I have 
examined have perfected only one seed, instead of 
three; and the sudden opening of the capsules have 
sent the seeds flying far and wide. 


Jos. F. JAMES. 
Cincinnati, O. > 


The Iroquois institutions and language. 


The very courteous and complimentary manner in 
which my work on the Iroquois book of rites has been 
noticed in a recent number of this journal has made 
me reluctant to take exception to any portion of the 
review. On further consideration, however, I must 
beg to be allowed, in the interests of both science and 
history, to refer to one or two of the remarks of my 
friendly critic. He expresses the opinion that ‘ the 
sceptical reader’ may be inclined to regard the por- 
tion of the work which relates to ‘ the league and its 
founders’ rather as ‘ classic historical romance’ than 
as history; and this on the sole ground (as I under- 
stand his suggestion) that the Iroquois cannot be 
supposed to have been capable, five hundred years 
ago, of the intellectual efforts implied in this narra- 
tive. This suggestion, it will be seen, opens up the 
entire question of the comparative mental capacity of 
civilized and uncivilized, or rather unlettered, races. 

The question is one altogether too large to be fully 
discussed in this place. Butas regards the particular 
subject now referred to, I may remark that the exist- 
ence of the league itself, with all its judicious and 
statesmanlike regulations, is a fact of which there 
can be no possible question, Any one can see this 
remarkable constitution in full and vigorous opera- 
tion among the three thousand Iroquois on their Cana- 
dian reservation. There is ample evidence to show 
that this league existed in its present form when 
the people who maintained it first became known 
to European explorers. It is clear, therefore, that 
whatever intellectual power was needed for its for- 
mation was possessed by the Iroquois before they ac- 
quired any tincture of foreign civilization. 

But why should their capacity for forming such a 
government be questioned? The Iroquois tribes, when 


OcroBeR 12, 1883.] 


first known to Europeans, and doubtless for centu- 
ries before that time, were in a social stage at least 
as far advanced as that of our German ancestors in 
the days of Tacitus. We know that these barbarians, 
if we choose so to style them, had evolved a regular 
system of government, combining very ingeniously 
the methods of democracy and aristocraey, and com- 
prising the germs of the English constitution. On 
this point the often-cited passage of Montesquieu will 
bear to be requoted and emphasized. ‘‘ In perusing,” 
writes the great legist, ‘‘ the admirable treatise of 
Tacitus ‘On the customs of the Germans,’ we find it 
is from that nation the English have borrowed the 
idea of their political government. This beautiful 
system was invented first in the woods.’? Will any 
one reply that the German barbarians, being of the 
Aryan stock, must be supposed capable of intellectual 
achievements which barbarians of the Indian race 
could not be expected to compass? TI think the able 
and liberal-minded reviewer will agree with me, that 
reasoning of this ‘high priori’ sort, which assumes 
the very point in question, would be any thing but 
logical or satisfactory. 

he reviewer is kind enough to say that many of 
the chapters in my volume ‘indicate immense re- 
search, and are of great value both ethnologically 
and philologically.’”? I can assure him that equal 
diligence was exercised in preparing the chapters on 
the league and its founders, and I know of no reason 
why they should be deemed less accurate or less valu- 
able. In these, moreover, as well as for the other 
portions of the work, I have been careful to indicate 
the sources of my information. Nothing will be easier 
than forany one who has doubts as to its correctness 
to repeat my inquiries, and to satisfy himself on that 
point. But Iam happy to say that the communica- 
tions which reach me from many quarters seem to 
show that no such doubts are likely to be entertained ; 
at least, by any well-informed persons. Writers of 
the highest authority on American and Indian his- 
tory receive the statements of the book as entirely 
authentic, and speak of it in terms too flattering for 
ine to repeat. 

Let me conclude by expressing the pleasure with 
which I have learned from this review that the valu- 
able work of the excellent and indefatigable mission- 
ary-linguist, the late Father Marcoux, on the Iroquois 
language, is about to be published by the Bureau of 
ethnology. The idioms of the Huron-I[roquois group 
stand, perhaps, at the head of the best-known Indian 
languages as subjects of philosophical study. It is 
doubtfulif even the Quichua or the Aztec equals them 
in comprehensive force, or in subtlety of distinctions. 
More than two centuries ago the learned missionary 
Brebeuf was struck with the resemblance of the 
Huron to the Greek; and in our own day Professor 
Max Miller, after a careful study of the Mohawk 
tongue, has expressed the opinion that the people 
who wrought out such a language ‘ were powerful 
reasoners and accurate classifiers.’ The works of 
M. Marcoux, in conjunction with those of his dis- 
tinguished pupil and successor, M. Cuoq, will afford 
ample means for the study of one, and perhaps the 
finest, of this remarkable group of languages. 

In connection with this subject, it is proper to refer 
to the doubt expressed by the reviewer as to the 
correctness of the linguistic works of the French 
missionaries. It is suggested that they have made 
mistakes in grammar, and in particular that they 
have not been able to distinguish between the femi- 
nine and the indeterminate inflections. Now, it must 
be remembered that the intelligent and well-educated 
missionaries, whose competency is thus questioned, 


‘SCIENCE. 


497 


have for many years spoken and written the Iroquois 
language almost as familiarly as their native speech, 
and have published many books in that language for 
the use of their converts. Their predecessors, whose 
experience they have inherited, had been engaged in 
the same work for more than two hundred years. To 
suppose them so grossly ignorant of the grammar of 
the language as is now suggested is much the same 
as supposing a professor of Latin in an English or 
American college to be unable to distinguish between 
the genitive and the accusative cases in that language, 
If the work of Marcoux is so erroneous, it is clearly 
unfit to be published in a national series like that of 
the Ethnological bureau. In justice both to the mis- 
sionaries and the bureau, I am glad to be able to show, 
by the best possible evidence, that the suspected 
errors do not exist. The Iroquois must be supposed 
to know their own language. ‘The text of their Book 
of rites, fortunately, presents a test which is conelu- 
sive. In preparing the translation of this text, with 
the aid of the best native interpreters, I had ocea- 
sion, as the appended glossary shows, to make con- 
stant use of the publications of M. Cuoq on the 
Iroquois tongue, and found them invariably correct. 
In particular, I may mention, the indeterminate 
form frequently occurs, employed precisely as indi- 
cated by him, The bureau may therefore safely 
add the work of M. Marcoux to the other valuable 
publications which have done so much credit. to the 
scholarship of their authors and to the liberality of 
the government. H. HAR. 


THOMSON AND TAIT’S NATURAL 
* PHILOSOPHY. —I. 


A treatise on natural philosophy. By Sir WriLiaAM 
Tuomson LL.D., D.C.L, F.R.S., and P. G. 
Tart, M.A. Vol.i., partii., new edition. Cam- 
bridge, University press, 1883. 25+4527 p. 8°. 


Tus first edition of vol. i. (23+727 p.) of 
this work was published by the delegates of the 
Clarendon press at Oxford, 1867. The authors 
then intended, as appears from their preface, 
to complete the work in four volumes. The 
remaining three volumes have, however, never 
appeared, much to the regret of all students of 
mathematical physics; and the authors state 
that the ‘‘ intention of proceeding with the 
other volumes is now definitely abandoned.”’ 

In 1879 a new and enlarged edition was 
published of a portion of vol. i., entitled part 
i. (17+508 p.), including that part of the 
first edition contained in the first 336 pages ; 
and now we have the remainder of vol. i., en- 
titled part ii., which has been enlarged by im- 
portant additions from 390 to 527 pages. 

At p. 22 will be found a schedule of the 
alterations and additions in part i., and, at 
p- 24, those of part ii. ** The most important 
part of the labor of editing part ii. has been 
borne by Mr. G. H. Darwin,’’ whose remark- 
able papers in the Philosophical transactions 
upon the mathematical physics of the earth, 


498 


past and present, have placed him in the front 
rank of the cultivators of that science. His 
contributions to part ii. are duly accredited to 
him in the above-mentioned schedule. 

The original object of this treatise is stated 
to be twofold ; viz., ‘‘ to give a tolerably com- 
plete account of what is now known of natural 
philosophy, in language adapted to the non- 
mathematical reader, and to furnish to those 
who have the privilege which high mathematical 
acquirements confer, a connected outline of 
the analytical processes by which the greater 
part of that knowledge has been extended into 
regions as yet unexplored by experiment.”’ 

From the nature of the case, the success of 
the authors in the attainment of their first object 
was small, compared with the second; for in 
order to give an intelligible account, to one un- 
accustomed to mathematical reasoning, of the 
general tenor and results of such reasoning, 
requires not only capacities such as few mathe- 
maticians have had in our day, except Clifford, 
but requires, also, an amount of space incom- 
patible with the second and principal object 
which the authors had in view. In order, 
however, better to reach the non-mathematical 
reader, the authors published a work entitled 
‘Elements of natural philosophy, part i.,’ 
which was only an abridgment of “this ‘ trea- 
tise,’ made by simply omitting all the advanced 
mathematical developments. 

The second and principal object, however, 
of the authors, was one in which they, perhaps, 
were better fitted to succeed than any who 
could be selected. Their object was a large 
one, and its attainment was undertaken in a 
large way. It involved the presentation of the 
general subject of kinematics, or the geometry 
of motion considered apart from the forces 
causing it, including the exposition and use of 
generalized co- -ordinates and the considera- 
tion of harmonic motion, which ‘‘ naturally 
leads to Fourier’s theorem, one of the most 
important of all analytical results as regards 
usefulness in physical science,’’ and including, 
also, the higher parts of the analytical discus- 
sion of curves and surfaces in space, of three 
‘dimensions. Next it required an extended 
development of dynamical laws and principles 
founded on Newton’s Principia, comprising the 
dynamics of a particle and of a rigid body, 
and the whole of what is now termed kinetics 
worked oyer and ‘‘ developed from the grand 
basis of the conservation of energy.’’ The 
scope of the work demanded, also, the estab- 
lishment of the principal formulae of spherical 
harmonies, a branch of analysis whose charac- 
ter we shall explain more at length hereafter. 


SCIENCE. 


{Vou. IL, No. 36. 


All these and other subjects, which are usu- 
ally regarded as but distantly related to the 
subject in hand, form a necessary part of a 
work whose object is as wide as that proposed 
by the authors. But it is hardly too much to 
say, that every important theory treated has 
received at their hands, not only elucidation, 
but additions of importance. 

In order to make this paper as useful as 
may be, it has seemed best, in what follows, to 
content ourselves with the attempt to give an 
account to mathematical readers of the more 
important developments contained in the work, 
and not to engage in the task of trying to make 
an elucidation of its contents suitable for the 
general reader. 

When we come to consider in particular the 
contents of part iil., it is found to be upon 
the general subject of statics; though many 
subjects, such as elasticity, the tides, ete., not 
usually treated in works on that subject, are 
here included. It consists of three chapters, 
the first of which is but five pages in length, 
and is merely introductory. It states and illus- 
trates the utter impossibility of submitting the 
exact conditions of any physical question to 
mathematical investigation by reason of our 
ignorance of the nature of matter and molecular 
forces, but shows that approximate solutions 
obtained by neglecting forces which do not af- 
fect the conclusions sought to be established, 
and by regarding bodies as rigid which are 
nearly so, lead to practically the same results, 
as to the equilibrium and motion of bodies, as 
we should be led to by the solution of the infi- 
nitely more transcendent problem which has 
regard to ail the forces acting. 

Tn case, however, we consider the bending 
or other deformations of bodies regarded as 
elastic, we make a second approximation to 
the exact treatment of physical questions ; and, 
by introducing modifications of elasticity due 
to changes of temperature, we should make a_ 
third approximation, which might be carried 
one step farther by taking account of conduc- 
tion of heat, and farther still by considering 
the modifications of ordinary conduction due 
to thermo-electric currents, etc. In view of all 
this, the authors say, ‘‘ The object of the pres- 
ent division of this volume (i.e., part ii.) is 
to deal with the first and second of these ap- 
proximations. In it we shall suppose all solids 
either rigid (i.e., unchangeable in form and 
volume) or elastic; but, in the latter case, we 
shall assume the law connecting a compression 
or a distortion with the force which causes it, 
to have a particular form deduced from ex- 
periment. . . . We shall also suppose fluids, 


7 


+5 a’ alte - 
ge Mia elated Ole 


OcroBEr 12, 1883.] 


whether liquids or gases, to be either compres- 
sible or incompressible, according to certain 
known laws; and we shall omit considerations 
of fluid friction, although we admit the consid- 
eration of friction between solids.’’ 

The next chapter (y.) comprises pp. 6 to 
100, and its especial object is set forth in the 
introductory section (454), as follows: ** We 
naturally divide statics into two parts, —the 
equilibrium of a particle, and that of a rigid or 
elastic body or system of particles, whether 
solid or fluid. In a very few sections we shall 
dispose of the first of these parts, and the rest 
of this chapter will be devoted to a digression 
on the important subject of attraction.’’ In 
other words, this chapter is devoted, with the 
exception of a couple of pages, to an extended 
treatment of attraction according to the law of 
the inverse square of the distance as applied 
to gravitation, electricity, and magnetism. 

After a brief investigation of the usual for- 
mulae for the attraction of the spherical shell, 
circular disk, thin cylinder, circular arc, ete., 
the main subject of the chapter is reached, 
which is the modern mathematical theory of 
potential; which theory is the principal means 
now employed in the discussion of questions 
relating to the distribution of attracting matter, 
and the forces caused by it., This theory, due 
as it is to the analytical discoveries of Laplace, 
Green, Gauss, and others, might, nevertheless, 
have long remained comparatively barren of 
fruitful results in physics, had it not been for 
the genius of Faraday, who, though unskilled in 
the use of analysis, had a most powerful grasp 
of geometric and physical relations. In the 
words of another,? ‘‘ Faraday, in his mind’s 
eye, saw lines of force traversing all space, 
where mathematicians saw centres of force at- 
tracting at a distance; Faraday saw a medium 
where they saw nothing but a distance ; Fara- 
day sought the seat of the phenomena in real 
actions going on in the medium, they were sat- 
isfied that they found it in a power of action at 
a distance.’’ He conceived of lines of gravi- 
tational force as holding the planets in their 
orbits. These lines radiated through all space 
from the attracting body as a nucleus, regard- 
less of the existence or non-existence of bodies 
upon which the attraction could be exerted. 
Furthermore, Faraday thought of each attract- 
ing body as surrounded at different distances 
by successive level surfaces, — like that of the 
ocean, for example, or the upper limit of 
the atmosphere; which surfaces cut the lines 
of force everywhere at right angles. This was 
not only true of gravitating matter, but each 

+ Preface of Maxwelli’s Electricity and magnetism. 


SCIENCE. 


499 


electrified body also had its system of lines of 
electrical force, and its corresponding system 
of level surfaces; and each magnet had its 
magnetic system as well. The geometry of 
these lines and surfaces is the basis of Fara- 
day’s reasoning in his ‘ Experimental re- 
searches,’ and is the geometric truth hiden 
in the analytic discoveries clustering around 
Laplace’s, Poisson’s, and Green’s theorems. 
That we may call these relations more clear- 
ly before the mind, consider for a moment the 
so-called ‘ equation of continuity ’ of an incom- 
pressible fluid ; which equation is divined from 
the geometric truth, that the quantity of such 
a fluid, which flows into any assumed closed 
surface, taken entirely within it, is equal to that 


flowing out, or that the total flow is nil. This 
is precisely expressed by the equation 
/FaS=0, (1) 


in which d S is the area of the element of the 
assumed closed surface, F’ is the normal flow 
per square unit at that element, and the limits 
of integration are so taken that it extends over 
the entire surface. There is also another form 
of the equation of continuity, expressing the 
kinematic truth, that, in an incompressible 
fluid, the variations of the component veloci- 
ties in the directions 2, y, z, balance ; i.e., their 
algebraic sum is nil, which may be written 
thus : — 

du , dv , dw 


dx T dy * dz 


= =0, (2) 


in which u,v, w, are the component velocities 
in the directions x, y, z, respectively. 

Now, it is not difficult to picture to the mind 
the motions occurring within the mass of an 
incompressible fluid ; such as water, for exam- 
ple. In whatever way it may be moving, we 
can think of stream-lines along which the dif- 
ferent parts of it flow. A number of these 
lines, side by side, can be taken to form a 
stream, and can be thought of as bounded by 
a kind of tubular surface ; which surface might 
be regarded as the boundary of the stream, 
which isolates it from surrounding streams. If 
the stream has the same velocity at every point 
along the tube, then its cross-section must be 
uniform; but, where the velocity is less, the 
cross-section is proportionately increased, and 
vice versa. This follows from the fact that 
the same quantity must pass each cross-section 
per unit of time. A tube in which a unit of 
volume passes a given cross-section per unit 
of time is called a unit-tube. Now, the forces 
of attraction in free space, caused by any dis- 
tribution of matter, electricity, or magnetism, 


o 
500 


follow precisely the same laws as the velocities 
and flow of incompressible fluids ; for, consider 
for the moment the lines of force starting from 
the surface of some attracting body (a magnet, 
for example). They gradually diverge as the 
distance increases, and curve away into space. 
Each one of these lines may be taken as the 
representative of a definite amount of attraction, 
whichis the same at all points along it; and if 
a tubular surface be supposed to exist, includ- 
ing everywhere certain of these lines which lie 
beside each other, and no others, the total 
amount of force acting across every cross-sec- 
tion of the tube is the same: hence equations 
(1) and (2) apply as well to forces of attrac- 
tion as to velocities of an incompressible fluid, 
provided F’, uw, v, w, be taken to be the compo- 
nent forces along the normal and along 2, y, 2, 
respectively, and provided that none’ of the at- 
tracting matter be contained within the closed 
surface considered in equation (1), or at the 
point considered in equation (2). In order to 
the farther development of these equations, let 
us compute the work which would be obtained 
in carrying a unit of attracted material from 
one given position to another. 
found from the usual expression 


V=— f(uda + vdy + wdz), (8) 


in which u,v, w, being component. forces, the 
limits of the integration are the co-ordinates of 
the two given points; but what path is taken 
between these points is of no consequence, 
because the amount of work depends alone 
upon their difference of level: 


es es SS (4) 
in which the right-hand numbers are partial 
differential coefficients. V is evidently a func- 
tion of the co-ordinates such that its value de- 
pends upon position, and not upon the kind of 
co-ordinates employed. The point which fixes 
the lower limit of the integral in (3) is usually 
taken at infinity ; and the value of V taken be- 
tween it and the point fixing the upper limit 
is called the potential of the latter point. 

By help of (3), we may put equation (1) in 
the form 


ay enor 
Sq IS =% (5) 


in which dw is the element of the normal to 
the closed surface considered. 
And by substituting in (2) the values given 
in (4), we have, 
BV 


dx? 


GEN YOU GR ee 
dy? na dz? 9, (6) 


which is Laplace’s equation, and is often 


+ 


SCIENCE. 


The worl is. 


le eet 4.) 


[Vou. IL, No. 36. 


written in the abbreviated form, V* V = 0. 
Poisson showed, that, when the point at which 
the potential is to be computed is within the 
mass of the attracting matter, the right-hand 
member of (6) should no longer be nil, but 
4p instead, in which p is the density of the 
matter at that point. Similarly, the right-hand 
member of (5) becomes 47m when an amount 
of matter m is included within the closed sur- 
face considered. 

Equation (6) states that V must be such a 
function of the co-ordinates, that, if we take 
its three partial second differential coefficients 
and add them, their sum is nil. What possible 
algebraic forms are there which fulfil this con- 
dition? They are, of course, to be found by 
attempting to solve the differential equation 
(6). But it is to be seen beforehand, from 
the manner in which that equation was es- 
tablished, that it must have an infinite num- 
ber of solutions ; forsV must be such a function 
as to be capable of expressing the work to be 
obtained from a unit of attracted matter when 
brought from infinity into the presence of 
attracting matter, whatever its distribution in 
space. The function V must therefore, in 
general, be different for every different dis- 
tribution of attracting matter. 

The integration of equation (6), and the 
discussion of its various solutions, constitute 
the branch of mathematics called spherical - 
harmonic analysis; and to it the authors have 
devoted pp. 171 to 219, in part i. The for- 
mulae there obtained are employed, whenever 
required in the present chapter, to express 
the potential, or the attraction of matter dis- 
tributed according to laws not conveniently to 
be treated by less elementary methods. 

As the study of spherical harmonics has 
been. comparatively neglected in this country, 
a short digression, explaining some of their 
properties, may be useful. 

From the nature of attraction, it being to- 
ward fixed centres, it appears that polar co- 
ordinates would be more suitable to express its 
relations than rectangular co-ordinates ; and, 
in fact, equation (6) is usually transformed to 
polar co-ordinates in space before integration, 
which co-ordinates may be taken to be the 
radius vector, the latitude, and the longitude 
of the point at which the potential is com- 
puted. 

It may be shown that there are two general 
forms of solution of this polar differential equa- 
tion, — one in ascending powers of the radius 
vector; and the other in ascending powers of 
its reciprocal, with coefficients depending upon 
sines or cosines of the angular co-ordinates. 


OcTOBER 12, 1883.] 


As these series may be broken off at any point 
by the vanishing of the arbitrary numerical co- 
efficients introduced during integration, these 
solutions may be in terms of the radius vector 
of any degree, positive or negative. 

It is then found that a most important and 
simple class of solutions, called zonal harmonics, 
is those which are independent of the longi- 
tude, and consequently contain but two varia- 
bles, — the radius vector and the latitude. 

If in any harmonic we assume some special 
value of the radius vector for consideration, 
we evidently confine our attention to a spheri- 
cal surface ; and the expression is then spoken 
of as a surface harmonic, in distinction from 
that in which the radius vector is a variable, 
in which case it is called a solid harmonic. 

On the surface of a sphere of given radius, 
it is possible to suppose the values of a surface- 
harmonic to be laid off graphically along the 
radii to each point, toward or away from the 
centre, according to their sign. This will give 
a picture to the mind of the distribution of the 
surface-harmonic. 

Now, in a zonal harmonic of the first posi- 
tive degree (which varies as the sine of the 
latitude) the surface-distribution is all positive 
on one side of the equator, and all negative 
on the other. A simple zonal harmonic of the 
second degree has a distribution like that in- 
cluded between a nearly spherical ellipsoid of 
revolution about the polar axis and a sphere 
when the two intersect along two parallels of 
latitude. The ellipsoid may be prolate or ob- 
late. The number of zones depends, in any 
ease, upon the degree of the zonal harmonic, 
and is such that the number of parallels of lati- 
tude at which the distribution changes sign is 
the same as the degree; and they are symmet- 
rically situated about the equator, so that in 
the odd degrees the equator is itself such a 
parallel. 

There are other solutions, called sectorial 
harmonies, in which the surface-distribution 
changes sign at equidistant meridians, and 
other solutions still, which are a combination of 
these two, called tesseral harmonies, in which 
the sign of the distribution changes, checker- 
board fashion, at parallels and meridians. The 
sectorial harmonics are, however, in reality, 
nothing more than the combination of a num- 
ber of zonal harmonics of the same degree, 
whose poles are situated at equal distances 
along the equator; and the tesseral harmonics 
are combinations of the sectorial with the 
zonal harmonics. Indeed, the most general 
harmonic is one by means of which any sur- 
face-distribution whatever may be expressed by 


SCIENCE. 


501 


properly determining the constant coefficients, 
and is merely a combination of zonal harmon- 
ics superposed one upon another, with poles 
situated in some irregular manner upon the 
surface of the sphere. This brings us to the 
fundamental theorem stated in section 537, 
upon which the special importance and useful- 
ness of these functions rest, —‘‘ A spherical 
harmonic distribution of density (i.e., matter) 
on a spherical surface produces a similar and 
similarly placed spherical harmonic distribution 
of potential over every concentric spherical 
surface through space, external and internal ; 
and so, also, consequently, of radial component 
force. . . . The potential is, of course, a solid 
harmonic through space, both external and in- 
ternal ; and is of positive degree in the internal, 
and of negative degree in the external space,’’ 
as is evidently necessary, if the series express- 
ing the potential in these two cases are to con- 
verge. When we come to treat in the same 
equation the potentials of a given point due to 
two different bodies, or systems of bodies, a 
remarkable relation is found to exist between 
them, called, from its discoverer, Green’s théo- 
rem, which, though somewhat complicated when 
expressed in rectangular co-ordinates, has been 
put by Maxwell in a simple form, which may 
be written 

(7) 


in which the subscripts refer to the first and 
second systems respectively, and the integra- 
tions are to be extended so as to include the 
total masses m, and m, respectively of the 
two systems. lLaplace’s and Poisson’s equa- 
tions are, of course, particular cases of Green’s 
theorem. Thomson has effected an important 
extension of Green’s theorem, given on pp. 
167 to 171, part i. Constant references are 
made to these theorems, not only as to their 
direct application, as we have presented it, but 
in their application to the inverse question of 
determining what the distribution of matter 
must be to produce a given distribution of 
potential. 

The most extended and important applica- 
tion of the theories of attraction and potential 
treated in this chapter is that of ellipsoids and 
ellipsoidal shells, —a subject which is closely 
connected with that of the figure of the earth, 
and one which has engaged the prolonged at- 
tention of many of the most powerful mathe- 
matical intellects of the past. A full account 
of the course of discovery in this field is found 
in Todhunter’s History of the theories of at- 
traction and figure of the earth, 2 vols. 

Ten pages of new matter (pp. 40-50) have 


SV,dm, = f Vidm,, 


502 


been inserted in this edition, embracing modern 
investigations of importance on this subject. 


(To be continued.) 


OBLIGATIONS OF MATHEMATICS TO 
PHILOSOPHY, AND TO QUESTIONS OF 
COMMON LIFE.1—Iyl. 


\ 

I sap that I would speak to you, not of the utility 
of the mathematics in any of the questions of com- 
mon life or of physical science, but rather of the 
obligations of mathematies to these different sub- 
jects. The consideration which thus presents itself 
is, in a great measure, that of the history of the de- 
velopment of the different branches of mathematical 

science in connection with the older physical sci- 
ences, — astronomy and mechanics. The mathemati- 
cal theory is, in the first instance, suggested by some 
question of common life or of physical science, is 
pursued and studied quite independently thereof, 
and perhaps, after a long interval, comes in contact 
with it, or with quite a different question. Geometry 
and algebra must, I think, be considered as each of 
them originating in connection with objects or ques- 
tions of common life, — geometry, notwithstanding 
its name, hardly in the measurement of land, but 
rather from the contemplation of such forms as the 
straight line, the circle, the ball, the top (or sugar- 
loaf). The Greek geometers appropriated for the geo- 
metrical forms corresponding to the last two of these 
the words o¢aipu and K@voc, our sphere and cone; and 
they extended the word ‘cone’ to mean the complete 
figure obtained by producing the straight lines of the 
surface both ways indefinitely. And so algebra would 
seem to haye arisen from the sort of easy puzzles in 
regard to numbers which may be made, either in the 
picturesque forms of the Bija-Ganita, with its maiden 
with the beautiful locks, and its swarms of bees 
amid the fragant blossoms, and the one queen-bee 
left humming around the lJotus-flower; or in the more 
prosaic form in which a student has presented to him 
in a modern text-book a problem leading to a simple 
equation. 

The Greek geometry may be regarded as beginning 
with Plato (B.C. 430-347). The notions of geometri- 
cal analysis, loci, and the conic sections, are attributed 
to him; and there are in his ‘ Dialogues’ many very 
interesting allusions to mathematical questions, — in 
particular the passage in the ‘Theaetetus’ where he 
affirms the incommensurability of the sides of certain 
squares. But the earliest extant writings are those 
of Euclid (B.C. 285). There is hardly any thing in 
mathematics more beautiful than his wondrous fifth 
book; and he has also, in the seventh, eighth, ninth, 
and tenth books, fully and ably developed the first 
principles of the theory of numbers, including the 
theory of incommensurables. We have next Apol- 
lonius (about B.C. 247) and Archimedes (B.C. 287— 
212), both geometers of the highest merit, and the 
latter of them the founder of the science of statics 


1 Address of Professor CAYLEY before the British association. 
Concluded from No. 35. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IT., No. 36. 


(including therein hydrostatics). His dictum about 
the lever, his ‘Efpyxa,’ and the story of the defence 
of Syracuse, are well known. Following these we 
have a worthy series of names, including the astrono- 
mers Hipparchus (B.C. 150) and Ptolemy (A.D. 125), 
and ending, say, with Pappus (A.D. 400), but con- 
tinued by their Arabian commentators, and the Ital- 
ian and other European geometers of the sixteenth 
century and Jater, who pursued the Greek geometry.' 

The Greek arithmetic was, from the want of a 
proper notation, singularly cumbrous and difficult; 
and it was, for astronomical purposes, superseded by 
the sexagesimal arithmetic, attributed to Ptolemy, 
but probably known before his time. The use of 
the present so-called Arabic figures became general 
among Arabian writers on arithmetic and astronomy 
about the middle of the tenth century, but it was 
not introduced into Europe until about two centuries 
later. Algebra, among the Greeks, is represented 
almost exclusively by the treatise of Diophantus 
(A.D, 150), —in fact, a work on the theory of num- 
bers, containing questions relating to square and 
cube numbers, and other properties of numbers, with 
their solutions, This has no historical connection 
with the later algebra introduced into Italy from the 
east by Leonardi Bonaeci of Pisa (A.D. 1202-1208), 
and successfully cultivated in the fifteenth and six- 
teenth centuries by Lucas Paciolus, or de Burgo,: 
Tartaglia, Cardan, and Ferrari. Later.on, we have 
Vieta (1540-1603), Harriot, already referred to, Wal- 
lis, and others. 

Astronomy is, of course, intimately connected with 
geometry. The most simple facts of observation of 
the heavenly bodies can only be stated in geometri- 
cal language; for instance, that the stars describe 
circles about the Pole-star, or that the different posi- 
tions of the sun among the fixed stars in the course 
of the year form a circle. For astronomical calcula- 
tions it was found necessary to determine the are 
of a circle by means of its chord. The notion is as 
old as Hipparchus, a work of whom is referred to as 
consisting of twelve books on the chords of circular 
ares. We have (A.D. 125) Ptolemy’s ‘ Almagest,’ 
the first book of which contains a table of ares and 
chords, with the method of construction; and among 
other theorems on the subject, he gives there the 
theorem, afterwards inserted in Euclid (book vi. 
prop. D), relating to the rectangle contained by the 
diagonals of a quadrilateral inscribed in a circle. The 
Arabians made the improvement of using, in place of 
the chord of an arc, the sine, or half-chord of double 
the arc, and so brought the theory into the form in 
which it is used in modern trigonometry. The before- . 
mentioned theorem of Ptolemy, —or, rather, a par- 
ticular case of it,— translated into the notation of 
sines, gives the expression for the sine of the sum” 
of two arcs in terms of the sines and cosines of the 
component arcs, and it is thus the fundamental 
theorem on the subject. We have in the fifteenth 
and sixteenth centuries a series of mathematicians, 
who, with wonderful enthusiasm and perseverance, 
calculated tables of the trigonometrical or cireu- 
lar functions, — Purbach, Miller or Regiomontanus, 


OcToBER 12, 1882.] 


Copernicus, Reinhold, Maurolycus, Vieta, and many 
others. The tabulations of the functions tangent 
and secant are due to Reinhold and Maurolycus re- 
spectively. 

Logarithms were invented, not exclusively with 
reference to the calculation of trigonometrical tables, 
but in order to facilitate numerical calculations gen- 
erally. The invention is due to John Napier of Mer- 
chiston, who died in 1618, at sixty-seven years of age. 
The notion was based upon refined mathematical rea- 
soning on the comparison of the spaces described by 
two points ; the one moving with a uniform velocity, 
the other with a velocity varying according to a given 
law. It is to be observed that Napier’s logarithms 
were nearly, but not exactly, those which are now 
called, sometimes Napierian, but more usually hy- 
perbolic logarithms, those to the base e; and that 
the change to the base 10 (the great step by which 
the invention was perfected for the object in view) 
was indicated by Napier, but actually made by Henry 
Briggs, afterwards Savilian professor at Oxford (d. 
1630). But it is the hyperbolic logarithm which is 
mathematically important. The direct function e*, 
or exp. x, which has for its inverse the hyperbolic log- 
arithm, presented itself, ‘but not in a prominent way. 
Tables were calculated of the logarithms of numbers, 
and of those of the trigonometrical functions. 

The circular function and the logarithm were thus 


invented each fora practical purpose, separately, and- 


without any proper connection with each other. The 
functions are connected through the theory of im- 
aginaries, and form together a group of the utmost 
importance throughout mathematics: but this is math- 
.ematical theory ; the obligation of mathematies is for 
the discovery of the functions. ‘ 

Forms of spirals presented themselves in Greek 
architecture, and the curves were considered mathe- 
matically by Archimedes. The Greek geometers in- 
vented some other curves more or less interesting, 
but recondite enough in their origin. A curve which 
might have presented itself to anybody, that described 
by a point in the circumference of a rolling carriage- 
wheel, was first noticed by Mersenne in 1615, and is 
the curve afterwards considered by Roberval, Pascal, 
and others, under the name of the roulette, other- 
wise the cycloid. Pascal (1623-62) wrote, at the age 
of seventeen, his ‘ Essais pour les coniques’ in seven 
short pages, full of new views on these curves, and 
in which he gives, in a paragraph of eight lines, his 
theory of the inscribed hexagon. 4 

Kepler (1571-1630), by his empirical determination 
of the laws of planetary motion, brought into con- 
nection with astronomy one of the forms of conic, 
the ellipse, and established a foundation for the theo- 
ty of gravitation. Contemporary with him for most 
of his life, we have Galileo (1564-1642), the founder 
of the science of dynamics; and closely following 
upon Galileo, we have Isaac Newton (1643-1727). 
The ‘ Philosophiae naturalis principia mathematica,’ 
known as the ‘ Principia,’ was first published in 1687. 

The physical, statical, or dynamical questions 
which presented themselves before the publication 
of the ‘Principia’ were of no particular mathemati- 


SCIENCE. 


503 


cal difficulty ; but it is quite otl.erwise with the crowd 
of interesting questions arising out of the theory of 
gravitation, and which, in becoming the subject of 
mathematical investigation, have contributed very 
much to the advance of mathematics. We have the 
problem of two bodies, or, what is the same thing, 
that of the motion of a particle about a fixed centre 
of force, for any law of foree; we have also the 
problem (mathematically very interesting) of the 
motion of a body attracted to two or more fixed cen- 
tres of force ; then, next preceding that of the actual 
solar system, the problem of three bodies. This has 
ever been and is far beyond the power of mathemat- 
ics ; and it is in the lunar and planetary theories re- 
placed by what is mathematically a different problem, 
—that of the motion of a body under the action of a 
principal central force and a disturbing force, —or, in 
one mode of treatment, by the problem of disturbed 
elliptic motion. I would remark that we have here 
an instance in which an astronomical fact, the ob- 
served slow variation of the orbit of a planet, has 
directly suggested a mathematical method, applied to 
other dynamical problems, and which is the basis of 
very extensive modern investigations in regard to 
systems of differential equations. Again: immedi- 
ately arising out of the theory of gravitation, we have 
the problem of finding the attraction of a solid body of 
any given form upon a particle, solved by Newton in 
the case of a homogeneous sphere, but which is far 
more difficult in the next succeeding cases of the 
spheroid of revolution (very ably treated by Maclau- 
rin), and of the ellipsoid of three unequal axes. There 
is, perhaps, no problem of mathematics which has 
been treated by so great a variety of methods, or has 
given rise to so much interesting investigation, as 
this last problem of the attraction of an ellipsoid 
upon an interior or exterior point. It was a dynam- 
ical problem, that of vibrating strings, by which 
Lagrange was led to the theory of the representation 
of a function as the sum of a series of multiple sines 
and cosines ; and connected with this we have the 
expansions in terms of Legendre’s functions Pn, sug- 
gested to him by the question, just referred to, of the 
attraction of an ellipsoid. The subsequent investiga- 
tions of Laplace, on the attractions of bodies differing 
slightly from the sphere, led to the functions of two 
variables called Laplace’s functions. I have been 
speaking of ellipsoids ; but the general theory is that 
of attractions, which has become a very wide branch 
of modern mathematics. Associated with it, we have 
in particular the names of Gauss, Lejeune-Dirichlet, 
and Green ; and I must not omit to mention that 
the theory is now one relating to n-dimensional 
space. Another great problem of celestial mechan- 
ics, that of the motion of the earth about its centre 
of gravity (in the most simple case, that of a body 
not acted upon by any forces), is a very interesting 
one in the mathematical point of view. 

I may mention a few other instances where a prac- 
tical or physical question has connected itself with 
the development of mathematical theory. I have 
spoken of two map projections, —the stereographic, 
dating from Ptolemy; and Mercator’s projection, in- 


504 


vented by Edward Wright about the year 1600. Each 
of these, as a particular case of the orthomorphie pro- 
jection, belongs to the theory of the geometrical rep- 
resentation of an imaginary variable. I have spoken 
also of perspective, and (in an omitted paragraph) of 
the representation of solid figures employed in 
Monge’s descriptive geometry. Monge, it is well 
known, is the author of the geometrical theory of the 
curvature of surfaces, and of curves of curvature. He 
was led to this theory by a problem of earthwork, — 
from a given area, covered with earth of uniform 
thickness, to carry the earth and distribute it over an 
equal given area with the least amount of cartage. 
For the solution of the corresponding problem in 
solid geometry, he had to consider the intersecting 
normals of a surface, and so arrived at the curves of 
curvature (see his ‘Mémoire sur les déblais et les 
remblais,’ Mém. de Vacad., 1781). The normals of a 
surface are, again, a particular case of a doubly infi- 
nite system of lines, and are so connected with the 
modern theories of congruences and complexes. 

The undulatory theory of light led to Fresnel’s 
wave-surface, —a surface of the fourth order, by far 
the most interesting one which had then presented it- 
self. A geometrical property of this surface, that of 
having tangent planes, each touching it along a plane 
curve (in fact, a circle), gave to Sir W. R. Hamilton 
the theory of conical refraction. The wave-surface 
is now regarded in geometry as a particular case of 
Kummer’s quartic surface, with sixteen conical points 
and sixteen singular tangent planes. 

My imperfect acquaintance, as well with the mathe- 
matics as the physics, prevents me from speaking of 
the benefits which the theory of partial differential 
equations has received from the hydrodynamical the- 
ory of vortex motion, and fromthe great physical 
theories of electricity, magnetism, and energy. 

It is difficult to give an idea of the vast extent of 
modern mathematics. This word ‘extent’ is not the 
right one: I mean extent crowded with beautiful de- 
tail, —not an extent of mere uniformity, such as an 
objectless plain, but of a tract of beautiful country 
seen at first in the distance, but which will bear to 
be rambled through, and studied in every detail of 
hillside and valley, stream, rock, wood, and flower. 
But as for any thing else, so for a mathematical the- 
ory, —beauty can be perceived, but not explained. 
As for mere extent, I might illustrate this by speak- 
ing of the dates at which some of the great ex- 
tensions have been made in several branches of 
mathematical science. 

And, in fact, in the address as written, I speak at 
considerable length of the extensions in geometry 
since the time of Descartes, and in other specified 
subjects since the commencement of the century. 
These subjects are the general theory of the function 
of an imaginary variable; the leading known func- 
tions, viz., the elliptic and single theta-functions and 
the Abelian and multiple theta-functions; the theory 
of equations and the theory of numbers. I refer also 
to some theories outside of ordinary mathematics, — 
the multiple algebra, or linear associative algebra, of 
the late Benjamin Peirce; the theory of Argand, War- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 36. 


ren, and Peacock, in regard to imaginaries in plane 
geometry; Sir W. R. Hamilton’s quaternions; Clif- 
ford’s biquaternions; the theories developed in Grass- 
mann’s ‘ Ausdehnungslelre,’ with recent extensions 
thereof to non-Euclidian space by Mr._Homersham 
Cox; also Boole’s ‘Mathematical logic,’ and a work 
connected with logic, but primarily mathematieal and 
of the highest importance, Shubert’s ‘ Abzihlende 
geometrie’ (1878). Iremark that all this in regard to 
theories outside of ordinary mathematics is still on 
the text of the vast extent of modern mathematics. 
In conclusion, I would say that mathematics have 
steadily advanced from the time of the Greek geome- 
ters. Nothing is lost or wasted. The achievements 
of Euclid, Archimedes, and Apollonius, are as admir- 
able now as they were in their own days. Descartes’ 
method of co-ordinates is a possession forever. But 
mathematics has never been cultivated more zealous- 
ly and diligently, or with greater success, than in 
this century, —in the last half of it, or at the present 
time. The advances made have been enormous. The 
actual field is boundless, the future full of hope. In 
regard to pure mathematics we may most confidently 
say, — on 
‘Yet I doubt not through the ages one increasing purpose runs, 


And the thoughts of men are widened with the process of the 
suns.” 


THE ENDOWMENT OF BIOLOGICAL 
RESEARCH. 


Ir has become the custom for the presidents of the 
various sections of this association to open the pro- 
ceedings of the departments with the chairmanship 
of which they are charged by formal addresses. In ~ 
reflecting on the topics which it might be desirable 
for me to bring under your notice, as your president, 
on the present occasion, it has occurred to me that I 
might use this opportunity most fitly by departing 
somewhat from the prevailing custom of reviewing 


_ the progress of science in some special direction dur- 


ing the past year, and that, instead of placing before 
you a summary of the results recently obtained by 
the investigations of biologists in this or that line of 
inquiry, I might ask your attention, and that of the 
external public (who are wont to give some kindly 


. consideration to the opinions expressed on these oc- 


casions) to a matter which is even more directly con- 
nected with the avowed object of our association; 
namely, ‘the advancement of science.’ I propose to 
place before you a few observations upon the pro- 
vision which exists in this country for the advance- 
ment of that branch of science to which section D 
is dedicated; namely, biology. 

I am aware that it is usual for those who speak of 
men of science and their pursuits to ignore altogether 
such sordid topics as the one which I have chosen to 
bring forward. A certain pride, on the one hand, and 
a willing acquiescence, on the other hand, usually 
prevent those who are professionally concerned with 

1 An address to the biological section of the British associa- 
tion. By Prof. E. Ray Lankester, M.A., F.R.S., F.L.S., presi- 
dent of the section. From advance copy kindly furnished by 
the editor of Nature. ao 


OctonER 12, 1883.] 


scientific pursuits from exposing to the public the 
pecuniary destitution, and the consequent crippling 
and languor, of scientific research in this country. 
Those Englishmen who take an interest in the prog- 
ress of science are apt to suppose, that, in some way 
which they have never clearly understood, the pur- 
suit of scientific truth is not only its own reward, but 
also a sufficient source of food, drink, and clothing. 
Whilst they are interested and amused by the re- 
markable discoveries of scientific men, they are 
astonished whenever a proposal is mentioned to 
assign salaries to a few such persons, sufficient to 
enable them to live decently whilst devoting their 
time and strength to investigation. The public are 
becoming more and more anxious to have the opinion 
or report of scientific men upon matters of commer- 
cial importance, or in relation to the public health: 
and yet, in ninty-nine cases out of a hundred, they 
expect to have that opinion for the asking, although 
accustomed to pay other professional men handsomely 
for similar service. There is, it appears, in the pub- 
lic mind, a vague belief that men who occupy their 
time with the endeavor to add to knowledge in this 
or that branch of science are mysteriously supported 
by the state exchequer, and are thus fair game for 
attacking with all sorts of demands for gratuitous 

service; or, on the other hand, the notion at work 
- appears sometimes to be, that the making of new 
knowledge — in fact, scientific discovery —is an 
agreeable pastime, in which some ingenious gentle- 
men, whose business in other directions takes up 
their best hours, find relaxation after dinner or on 
the spare hours of Sunday. Such mistaken views 
ought to be dispelled with all possible celerity and 
determination. It isin part owing to the fact that 
the real state of the case is not widely and persist- 
ently made known to the public, that no attempt is 
made in this country to raise scientific research, and 
especially biological research, from the condition of 
destitution and neglect under which it suffers, —a 
condition which is far below that of these same inter- 
ests in France and Germany, and even in Holland, 
Belgium, Italy, and Russia, and is discreditable to 
England in proportion as she is richer than other 
states. 

It appears to me, that, in placing this matter before 
you, I may remove myself from any suggestion of 
self-interest by at once stating that the great defect 
to which I shall draw your attention is, not that the 
few existing public positions which are open in this 
eountry to men who intend to devote their chief en- 
ergies to biological research are endowed with insuffi- 
cient salaries, but that there is not any thing like a 
sufficiently large number of those posts, and that there 
is in that respect, from a national point of view, a 
pecuniary starvation of biology, a withholding of 
money, which (to use another metaphor) is no less 
the sinews of the war of science against ignorance 
than of other less glorious campaigns. Surely, men 
engaged in the scientific profession may advocate the 
claim of science to maintenance and needful pecun- 
iary provision. It seems to me that we should, if 
necessary, swallow, rather than be controlled by, that 


SCIENCE. 


505 


pride which tempts us to paint the scientific career as 
one far above and independent of pecuniary consid- 
erations: whereas all the while we know that knowl- 
edge is languishing, that able men are drawn off from 
scientific research into other careers, that important 
discoveries are approached and their final grasp relin- 
quished, that great men depart, and leave no disciples 
or successors, simply for want of that which is largely 
given in other countries, —of that which is most 
abundant in this country, and is so lavishly expended 
on arniies and navies, on the development of commer- 
cial resources, on a hundred injurious or meaningless 
charities, — viz., money. 

I have no doubt that I have the sympathy of all 
my hearers in wishing for more extensive provision 
in this country for the prosecution of scientific re- 
search, and especially of biological research. I need 
hardly remind this audience of the almost romantic 
history of some of the great discoveries which have 
been made in reference to the nature and history of 
living things during the past century. The micro- 
scope, which was a drawing-room toy a hundred years 
ago, has, in the hands of devoted and gifted students 
of nature, been the means of giving us knowledge 
which, on the one hand, has saved thousands of 
surgical patients from terrible pain and death, and, 
on the other hand, has laid the foundation of that 
new philosophy with which the name of Darwin will 
forever be associated. When Ehrenberg, and, later, 
Dujardin, described and figured the various forms 
of Monas, Vibrio, Spirillum, and Bacterium, which 
their microscopes revealed to them, no one could 
predict that fifty years later these organisms would 
be recognized as the cause of that dangerous suppu- 
ration of wounds which so often defeated the benefi- 
cent efforts of the surgeon, and made an operation 
in a hospital-ward as dangerous to the patient as 
residence in a plague-stricken city. Yet this is the 
result which the assiduous studies of the biologists, 
provided with laboratories and maintenance by con- 
tinental ‘states, have in due time brought to light. 
Theodore Schwann, professor at Liége, first showed 
that these bacteria are the cause of the putrefaction 
of organic substances; and subsequently, the French 
chemist Pasteur, professor in the Ecole normale of 
Paris, confirmed and extended Schwann’s di-covery, 
so as to establish the belief that all putrefactive 
changes are due to such minute organisms, and that, 
if these organisms can be kept at bay, no putrefaction 
ean occur in any given substance. 

It was reserved for our countryman, Joseph Lister, 
to apply this result to the treatment of wounds, and, 
by his famous antiseptic method, to destroy by means 
of special poisons the putrefactive organisms which 
necessarily find their way into the neighborhood of 
a wound, or of the surgeon’s knife and dressings, 
and to ward off by similar means the access of such 
organisms tothe wounded surface. The amount of 
death, not to speak of the suffering short of death, 
which the knowledge of bacteria gained by the mi- 
croscope has thus averted, is incaleulable. 

Yet, further, the discoveries of Ehrenberg, Schwann, 
and Pasteur, are bearing fruit of a similar kind in 


506 


other directions. It seems in the highest degrce 
probable that the terrible scourge known as tubereu- 
lar consumption, or phthisis, is due to a parasitic bac- 
terium (Bacillus) discovered two years since by Koch 
of Berlin as the immediate result of investigations 
which he was commissioned to carry on at the public 
expense, in the specially erected laboratory of public 
health, by the German imperial government. The 
diseases known as erysipelas and glanders (or farcy) 
have similarly, within the past few months in Ger- 
man state-supported laboratories, been shown to be 
due to the attacks of special kinds of bacteria. At 
present this knowledge has not led to a successful 
method of combating those diseases, but we can 
hardly doubt that it will ultimately do so. We are 
warranted in this belief by the fact that the disease 
known as ‘splenic fever’ in cattle, and ‘malignant 
pustule,’ or anthrax, in man, has likewise been shown 
to be due to the action of a special kind of bacterium, 
and that this knowledge has, in the hands of MM. 
Toussaint and Pasteur, led to a treatment, in relation 
to this disease, similar to that of vaccination in rela- 
tion to small-pox. By cultivation a modified growth 
of the anthrax parasite is obtained, which is then 
used in order to inoculate cattle and sheep with a 
' mild form of the disease, such inoculation having the 
result of rendering the cattle and sheep free from 
the attacks of the severe form of disease, just as vac- 
cination or innoculation with cow-pox protects man 
from the attack of the deadly small-pox. One other 
case I may call to mind, in which knowledge of the 
presence of bacteria as the cause of disease has led 
to successful curative treatment. A not uncommon 
affliction is inflammation of the bladder, accompanied 
by ammoniacal decomposition of the urine. Micro- 
scopical investigation has shown that this ammonia- 
cal decomposition is entirely due to the activity of a 
bacterium. Fortunately, this bacterium is at once 
killed by weak solutions of quinine, which can be 
injected into the bladder without causing any injury 
or irritation. This example appears to have great 
importance; because it is the fact that many kinds of 
bacteria are not killed by solutions of quinine, but 
require other and much more irritant poisons to de- 
stroy their life, which could not be injected into the 
bladder without causing disastrous effects. Since 
some bacteria are killed by one poison, and some by 
another, it becomes a matter of the keenest interest 
to find out all such poisons; and possibly among them 
may be some which can be applied so as to kill the 
bacteria which produce phthisis, erysipelas, glanders, 
anthrax, and other scourges of humanity, whilst not 
acting injuriously upon the body of the victim in 
which these infinitesimal parasites are doing their 
deadly work. Insuch waysas this, biology has turned 
the toy ‘ magnifying-glass’ of the last century into a 
saver of life and health. 

No less has the same agency revolfitionized the 
thoughts of men in every branch of philosophy and 
speculation. The knowledge of the growth of the 
chick from the egg, and of other organisms from 
similarly constituted beginnings, has been slowly and 
continuously gained by prodigious labor, extending 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 36. 


over generation after generation of students who 
have occupied the laboratories, and lived on the sti- 
pends, provided by the governments of European 
states, —not English, but chiefly German. It is this 
history of the development of the individual animal 
and plant from a simple homogeneous beginning to a 
complex heterogeneous adult, which has furnished 
the starting-point for the wide-reaching doctrine of 
evolution. It is this knowledge, coupled with the 
knowledge of the myriad details of structure of all 
kinds of animals and plants, which the faithful oceu- 
pants of laboratories, and the guardians of biological 
collections, have, in the past hundred years, labori- 
ously searched out, and recorded. It is this which 
enabled Darwin to propound, to test, and to firmly 
establish his theory of the origin of species by natu- 
ral selection, and finally to bring the origin, develop- 
ment, and progress of man also into the area of 
physical science. I have said enough, in referring 
only to two very diverse examples of the far-reaching 
consequences flowing from the discoveries of single- 
minded investigators in biological science, to remind 
my hearers that in the domain of biology, as in other 
sciences, the results attained by those who have 
labored simply to extend our knowledge of the struc- 
ture and properties of living things, in the faith that . 
every increase of knowledge will ultimately bring its 
blessing to humanity, have, in fact, led with astonish- 
ing rapidity to conclusions affecting most profoundly 
both the bodily and the mental welfare of the com- 
munity. 

We who know the beneficent results which must 
flow more and more from the labors of those who 
are able to create new knowledge of living things, 
or, in other words, are able to aid in the growth of 
biological science, must feel something more than 
regret, — even indignation, — that England should do 
so small a proportion of the laborious investigation 
which is necessary, and is being carried on for our 
profit by other nationalities. It must not be sup- 
posed, because we have had our Harvey and our 
Darwin, our Hunter and our Lister, that therefore 
we have done, and are doing, all that is needful in 
the increase of biological science. The position of 
this country in relation to the progress of science is 
not to be decided by the citation of great names. 

We require to look more fully into the matter than 
this. The question is, not whether England has pro- 
duced some great discoverers, or as many as any other 
nationality, but whether we might not, with advan- 
tage to our own community and that of the civilized 
world generally, do far more in the field of scientific 
investigation than we do. 

It may be laid down as a general proposition, to 
which I know of no important exception, that scien- 
tific discovery has only been made by one of two 
classes of men; namely, (1) those whose time could 
be devoted to it in virtue of their possessing inherited 
fortunes; (2) those whose time could be devoted to 
it in virtue of their possessing a stipend or endow- 
ment especially assigned to them for that purpose. 

Now, it is a very remarkable fact that in England, 
far more than in any other country, the possessors of 


whe < Jere. 
a 
4 


OcTOBER 12, 1883.] 


private fortunes haye devoted themselves-to scien- 
tific investigation. Not only have we, in all parts of 
the country, numerous dilettanti,! who, especially in 
various branches of biology, do valuable work in con- 
tinually adding to knowledge, quietly pursuing their 
favorite study without seeking to reach to any great 
eminence, but it is the fact that many of the greatest 
names of English discoverers in science are those of 
men who held no professional position designed to 
maintain an investigator, but owed their opportunity 
simply to the fact that they enjoyed a more or less 
ample income by inheritance. Thus, Harvey pos- 
sessed a private fortune, Darwin also, and Lyell. 


+ Such, also, is true of some of the English naturalists, 


who more recently have most successfully devoted 
their energies to research. Those who wish to de- 
fend the present neglect of the government and of 
public institutions to provide means for the carrying 
on of scientific researeh in this country are accus- 
tomed to declare as a justification for this neglect, 
that we do very well without such provision, inas- 
much as the cultivation of science here flourishes in 
the hands of those who are in a position of pecuniary 
independence. Thereply to this is obvious. If those 
few of our countrymen who by accident are placed 
in an independent position show such ability in the 
prosecution of scientific research, how much more 
would be effected in the same direction, were the 
machinery;provided to enable those also who are not 
accidentally favored by fortune to enter upon the 
same kind of work! The number of wealthy men 
who have distinguished themselves in scientific re- 
search in England is simply evidence that there is a 
natural ability and liking for such work in the Eng- 
lish character, and is a distinct encouragement to 
those who have it in their power to do so, to offer the 
opportunity of devoting themselves to research to a 
larger number of the members of the community. 
It is impossible to doubt that there are hundreds of 
‘men amongst us who have as great capacity for scien- 
tific discovery as those whom fortune has favored 
with leisure and opportunity. It cannot be doubted, 
that, were the means provided to enable even a pro- 
portion of such men to give themselves up to scientific 
investigation, great discoveries, of no less importance 
to the world than those relative to the causes of dis- 
ease, and the development of living things from the 
egg, — which I have cited, — would be made asa direct 
consequence of their activity; whereas now we must 
wait until, in due course of time, these discoveries 
shall be made for us in the laboratories of Germany, 
France, or Russia. 

It should further be pointed out, that it is altogeth- 
er a mistake to suppose that the existence amongst 
us of a few very eminent men is any evidence that 
we are contributing largely to the hard work of care- 
ful study and observation, which really forms the 
material upon which the conclusions of eminent dis- 
coverers are based. You will find in every depart- 


1 I use this word in its best and truest sense, and would refer 
those who have been accustomed to associate with it some im- 
plication of contempt to the wise and appreciative remarks of 
Goethe on ‘ dilcttanti.” 


SCIENCE. 


DOT 


ment of biological knowledge, that the hard work of 
investigation is being carried on by the well-trained 
army of Germar observers. Whether you ask the 
zodlogist, the botanist, the physiologist, or the an- 
thropologist, you will get the same answer: it is to 
German sources that he looks for new information; 
it is in German workshops that discoveries, each 
small in itself, but gradually leading up to great con- 
clusions, are daily being made. To a very large ex- 
tent, the business of those’ who are occupied with 
teaching or applying biological science in this coun- 
try consists in making known what has been done in 
German laboratories. Our English students flock to 
Germany to learn the methods of scientific research ; 
and to such a state of weakness is English science re- 
duced, for want of proper nurture and support, that, 
even on some of the rare occasions when a capable 
investigator of biological problems has been required 
for the public service, it has been necessary to obtain 
the assistance of a foreigner trained in the laborato- 
ries of Germany. 

Let me now briefly explain what are the arrange- 
ments, in number and in kind, which exist in other 
countries, for the purpose of promoting the advance- 
ment of biological science, which are wanting in this 
country. 

In the German empire, with a population of 45,- 
000,000, there are twenty-one universitjes. These 
universities are very different from any thing which 
goes by the name in this country. Amongst its other 
arrangements, devoted to the study and teaching of 
all branches of learning and science, each university 
has five institutes, or establishments, devoted to the 
prosecution of researches in biological science. These 
are respectively the physiological, the zodlogical, the 
anatomical, the pathological, and the botanical. In 
one of these universities of average size, each of the 
institutes named consists of a spacious building con- 
taining many rooms fitted as workshops, provided 
with instruments, a museum, and, in the last in- 
stance, with an experimental garden. All this is 
provided and maintained by the state. At the head 
of each institute is the university professor respec- 
tively of physiology, of zodlogy, of anatomy, of pa- 
thology, or of botany. He is paid a stipend by the 
state, which, in the smallest university, is as low as 
£120, but may be in others as much as £700, and 
averages, say, £400 a year. Considering the relative 
expenditure of the professional classes in the two 
countries, this average may be taken as equal to £800 
a yearin England. Besides the professor, each in- 
stitute has attached to it, with salaries paid by the 
state, two qualified assistants, who, in course of time, 
will succeed to independent positions. A liberal al- 
lowance is also made to each institute, by the state, 
for the purchase of instruments, material for study, 
and for the pay of servants; so that the total expendi- 
ture on professor, assistants, laboratory service, and 


1 From the fact that the salaries of judges, civil servants, mil- 
itary and naval officers, parsons, and schoolmasters, as also the 
fees of physicians and lawyers, are in Germany even less than 
half what is paid to their representatives in England, I think that 
we are justified in making this estimate. 


508 


maintenance, averages £800 a year for each institute, 
reaching as much as £2,000 or £3,000 a year in the 
larger universities. It is the business of the pro- 
fessor, in conjunction with his assistants and the 
advanced students, who are admitted to work in the 
laboratories free of charge, to carry on investiga- 
tions, to create new knowledge in the several domains 
of physiology, zodlogy, anatomy, pathology, and bot- 
any. It is for this that the professor receives his sti- 
pend, and it is on his success in this field of labor 
that his promotion to a more important or better 
paid post in another university depends. In addition 
to and irrespective of this part of his duties, each 
professor is charged with the delivery of courses of 
lectures, and of elementary instruction to the general 
students of the university; and for this he is allowed 
to charge a certain fee to each student, which he re- 
ceives himself. The total of such fees may, in the 
case of a largely attended university and a popular 
subject, form avery important addition to the profes- 
sorial income; but it is distinctly to be understood 
that such payment by fees is only an addition to the 
professor's income, quite independent of his stipend, 
and of his regular occupation in the laboratory: it is 
paid from a separatesource, and for a separate object. 
There are thus in the German empire more than 100 
such institutes devoted to the prosecution of biologi- 
cal discovery, carried on at an annual cost to the state 
of about £80,000, equal to about £160,000 in Eng- 
land, providing posts of graduated value for 300 inves- 
tigators, some of small value, sufficient to carry the 
young student through the earlier portion of his ca- 
reer, whilst he is being trained and acting as the as- 
sistant of more experienced men; others forming the 
sufficient but not too valuable prizes which are the 
rewards of continuous and successful labor. 

In addition to these university institutes, there are 
in Germany such special laboratories of research, 
with duly salaried staff of investigators, as the Im- 
perial sanitary institute of Berlin, and the large 
museums of Berlin, Bremen, and other large towns, 
corresponding to our own British museum of natural 
history. ’ 

Moreover, we must be careful to note, in making 
any comparison with the arrangements existing in 
England, that there are, in addition to the universi- 
ties in Germany, a number of other educational in- 
stitutions, at least equal in number, which are known 
as polytechnic schools, technical colleges, and agri- 
cultural colleges. These furnish posts of emolument 
to a limited number of biological students, who give 
courses of instruction to their pupils; but they have 
not the same arrangements for research as the uni- 
versities, and are closely similar to those colleges 
which have been founded of late years in the pro- 
vincial towns of England, such as Bristol, Notting- 
ham, and Leeds. The latter are sometimes quoted by 
sanguine persons, who are satisfied with the neglect- 
ed condition of scientific training and research in 
this country, as really sufficient and adequate repre- 
sentatives of the German universities. As a matter 
of fact, the excellent English colleges in question do 
not present any thing at all comparable to the ar- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. I1., No. 36. 


rangements of a German university, and are, in re- 
spect of the amount of money which is expended 
upon them, the number of their teaching-staff, and 
the efficiency of their laboratories, inferior not merely 
to the smallest German university, but inferior to 
many of the technical schools of that country. 

Passing from Germany, I would now ask your at- 
tention fora moment to an institution which is sup- 
ported by the French government, and which — quite 
irrespective of the French university system, which 
is not, on the whole, superior to our own — constitutes 
one of the most effective arrangements, in any Euro- 
pean state, for the production of new knowledge. 
The institution to which I allude is the Collége de 
France in Paris, —co-existing there with the Sor- 
bonne, the Ecole de médecine, the Ecole normale, 
the Jardin des plantes, and other state-supported in- 
stitutions, —in which opportunity is provided for 
those Frenchmen who have the requisite talent to 
pursue scientific discovery in the department of biol- 
ogy, and in other branches of science. I particular- 
ly mention the Collége de France, because it appears 
to me that the foundation of such a college in Lon- 
don would be one of the simplest and most direct. 
steps that could be taken towards filling, in some de- 
gree, the void from which English science suffers. 
The Collége de France is divided into a literary and 
a scientific faculty. Hach faculty consists of some 
twenty professors. Each professor in the scientific 
faculty is provided with a laboratory and assistants (as 
many as four assistants in some cases), and with a 
considerable allowance for the expenses of the instru- 
ments and materials required in research. The per- 
sonal stipend of each professor is £400, which has 
been increased by an additional £100 a year in some 
cases from the government department charged with 
the promotion of higher studies. The professors in 
this institution, as in the German universities, when 
a vacancy occurs, have the right of nomivating their 
future colleague, their recommendation being accept- 
ed by the government. The professors are not ex- 
pected to give any elementary instruction, but are 
directed to carry on original investigations, in prose- 
cuting which, they may afsociate with themselves 
pupils who are sufficiently advanced to join in such 
work; and it is further the duty of each professor to 
give a course of forty lectures in each year, upon the 
results of the researches in which he is engaged. 
There are at present, among the professors of the Col- 
lége de France, four of the most distinguished among 
contemporary students of biological science, — Pro- 
fessor Brown-Sequard, Professor Marey, Professor 
Balbiani, and Professor Ranvier. Every one who is 
acquainted with the progress of discovery in physi- 
ology, minute anatomy, and embryology, will admit 
that the opportunities afforded to these men have not 
been wasted. They have, as the result of the posi- 
tion in which they have been placed, produced abun- 
dant and most valuable work, and have, in addition, 
trained younger men to carry on the same line of ac- 
tivity. It was here, too, in the Collége de France, that 
the great genius of Claude Bernard found the neces- 
sary conditions for its development. 


— i te ' 
a Sed” gall al J . 


OcTOBER 12, 1883.] 


Let us now see how many and what kind of insti- 
tutions there are in England devised so as to promote 
the making of new knowledge in biological science. 
Most persons are apt to be deceived in this matter 
by the fact that the terms ‘ university,’ ‘ professor- 
ship,’ and ‘ college’ are used very freely in England 
in reference to institutions which have no pecuniary 
resources whatever, and whieh, instead of corre- 
sponding to the German arrangements which go by 
these names, are empty titles, neither backed by 
adequate subsidy of the state nor by endowment 
from private sources. 

In England, with its 25,000,000 inhabitants, there 
are only four universities which possess endowments 
and professoriates; viz., Oxford, Cambridge, Dur- 
ham, and the Victoria (Owens college). Besides 
these, which are variously and specially organized 
each in its own way, there are the London colleges 
(University and King’s), the Normal school of 
science at South Kensington, and various provincial 
colleges, which are, to a small and varying extent, in 
possession of funds which could be or are used to 
promote scientific research. Amongst all these 
variously arranged institutions, there is an extraor- 
dinarily small amount of provision for biological 
research. In London there is one professorship only, 
that at the Normal school of science, which is main- 
tained by a stipend paid by the state, and has a 
laboratory and salaried assistants similarly main- 
tained, in connection with it. The only other posts 
in London which are provided with stipends intended 
to enable their holders to pursue researches in the 
domain of biological science, are the two chairs of 
physiology and of zodlogy at University college, 
which, through the munificence of a private indi- 
vidual,! have been endowed to the extent of £300 a 
year each. To these should be added, in our caleu- 
lation, certain posts in connection with the British 
museum of natural history and the Royal gardens 
at Kew, maintained by the state; though it must be 
remembered that a large part of the expenditure 
in those institutions is necessarily taken up in the 
preservation of great national collections, and is not 
applicable to the subyention of investigators. We 
may, however, reckon about six posts, great and 
small, in the British museum, and four at Kew, as 
coming into the category which we have in view. 
In London, then, we may reckon approximately some 
fourteen or fifteen subsidized posts for biological 
research. In Oxford there fall under this category 
the professorship of anatomy and his assistant, that 
of physiology, that of zodlogy, that of botany. The 
Oxford professorships are well supported by endow- 
ment, averaging £700 or £800 a year; but they are 


inadequately provided with assistants, as compared 


with corresponding German positions. Whilst Ox- 
ford has thus five posts, Cambridge has at present 
the same number, though the stipends are of less 
average value. In regard to Durham, it does not 
appear that the biological professorships (which have 
their seat in the Newcastle college of science) are 


4 Mr. Jodrell. 


a 


SCIENCE. 


509 


supported by stipends derived from endowment: 
they fall under another category, to which allusion 
will be made below, of purely teaching positions, 
supported by the fees paid for such teaching by 
pupils. The Victoria university (Owens college, 
Manchester) supports its professors of physiology, 
anatomy, zoology, botany, and pathology, by means 
partly of endowment, partly of pupils’ fees. By the 
provision of adequate laboratories, and of salaries © 
for assistants to each professor, and of student-fellow- 
ships, Owens college gives direct support to orginal 
investigation. We may reckon five major and eight 
minor posts as dedicated to biological research in 
this college. Altogether, then, we have fifteen posi- 
tions in London and twenty-three in the provinces 
(taking assistantships and professorships and curator- 
ships together), —a total of thirty-eight in all Eng- 
land, with its 25,000,000 inhabitants, as against the 
three hundred in Germany, with 45,000,000 inhabit- 
ants. In proportion to its population (leaving aside 
the consideration of its greater wealth), England 
has only about one-fourth of the provision for the 
advancement of biological research which exists in 
Germany. 

It would not be fair to reckon in this comparison 
the various biological professorships in small col- 
leges recently created, and paid to a small extent by 
stipends derived from endowments in the provincial 
towns of England: for the holders of these chairs 
are called upon to teach a variety of subjects; for 
instance, zodlogy, botany, and geology combined. 
And not only is the devotion of the energies of their 
teaching-staff to scientific discovery not contem- 
plated in the arrangement of these institutions, but, 
as a matter of fact, the large demands made on the 
professors in the way of teaching must deprive them 
of the time necessary for any serious investigation. 
Such posts, in the fact that neither time, assistants, 
nor proper laboratories are provided to enable their 
holders to engage in scientific research, are school- 
masterships rather than professorships, as the word 
is used in German universities. 

One result of the exceedingly small provision of 
positions in England, similar to those furnished by 
the German university system, and of the irregular, 
uncertain character of many of those which do exist, 
is, that there is an insufficient supply of young men 
willing to enter upon the career of zodlogist, botan- 
ist, physiologist, or pathologist, as a profession. The 
number of posts is too small to create a profession, 
i.e., an avenue of success; and consequently, whereas 
in Germany there is always a large body of new men 
ready to fill up the vacancies as they occur in the 
professorial organization, in England it very natu- 
rally does not appear to our university students as 
a reasonable thing to enter upon research as a profes- 
sion, when the chances of employment are so few, 
and far between. . 

Before stating, as I propose to do, what appears 
to me a reasonable and proper method of removing, 
to some extent, the defect in our national life due to 
the want of provision for scientific research, I will 
endeavor to meet some of the objections which are 


, 


510 


usually raised to such views as those which I am 
advocating. The endowment of research by the state, 
or from public funds of any kind, is opposed on 
yarious grounds. One is, that such action on the 
part of the government is well enough in continental 
states, but is contrary to the spirit of English state- 
eraft, which leaves scientific as well as other enter- 
prise to the individual initiative of the people. This 
objection is based on error, both as to fact and theory. 
It is well enough to leave to individual effort the 
conduct of such enterprises as are remunerative to 
the parties who conduct them; but it is a mistake 
to speak of scientific research as an ‘enterprise’ at 
all. The mistake arises from the extraordinary 
pertinacity with which so-called ‘invention’ is con- 
founded with the discovery of scientific truth. New 
knowledge in biological or other branches of science 
cannot be sold: it has no marketable value. Koch 
could not have sold the discovery of the bacterium 
of phthisis for as much as sixpence, had he wished 
to do so. Accordingly, we find that there is not, 
and never has been, any tendency among the citi- 
zens of this country to provide for themselves insti- 
tutions for the manufacture of an article of so little 
pecuniary value to the individual who turns it out 
as is new knowledge. On the other hand, as a 
matter of fact, the providing of means for the manu- 
facture of that article is not only not foreign to 
English statecraft, but is largely, though not largely 
enough, undertaken by the English state. The 
Royal observatories, the British museum, the Royal 
gardens at Kew, the Geological survey, the govern- 
ment grant of £4,000 a year to the Royal society, 
the £300 or £400 a year (not a large sum) expended 
through the medical officer of the privy council upon 
the experimental investigation of disease, are ample 
evidence that such providing of means for creating 
new knowledge forms part of the natural and recog- 
nized responsibilities of the British government. 
Such a responsibility clearly is recognized in this 
country, and does fall, according to the present 
arrangement of things, upon the central government. 
What we have to regretis, that those who temporarily 
hold the reins of government fail to perceive the 
lamentable inadequacy of the mode in which this 
responsibility is met. 

A second objection which is made to the endow- 
ment of research by public funds, or by other means, 
such as voluntary contributions, is this: it is stated 
that men engaged in scientific research ought to teach, 
and thus gain their livelihood. It is argued, in fact, 
that there is no need whatever to provide stipends or 
laboratories for researchers, since they have only to 
stand up and teach in order to make income sufficient 
to keep them and their families, and to provide them- 
selves with laboratories. This is a very plausible 
statement, because it is the fact that some investigat- 
ors have also been excellent lecturers, and have been 
able to make an income by teaching, whilst carrying 
on a limited amount of scientific investigation. But 
neither by teaching in the form of popular lectures, 
nor by teaching university or professional students 
who desire, as a result, to pass some examination- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 36. 


test, is it possible, where there is a fair field and no 
favor, for a man to gain a reasonable income, and at 
the same time to leave himself time and energy to 
carry on original investigations in science. 

In some universities, such as those of Scotland, the 
privilege of conferring degrees of pecuniary value to 
their possessors becomes a source of income to the 
professors of the university. They are, in fact, able 
to make considerable incomes, independently of en- 
dowment, by compelling the candidates for degrees to 
pay a fee to each professor in the faculty for the right 
of attending his lectures, and of presentation to the 
degree: consequently teaching here appears to be 
producing an income which may support a researcher. 
In reality, it is the acquisition of the university de- 
gree, and not necessarily the teaching, for which the 
pupil pays his fee. Where the teacher is unprotected 
by any compulsory regulations (such as that which 
requires attendance on his lectures, and fee-payment 
on the part of the pupils), it is impossible for him to 
obtain such an income, by teaching for one hour a day, 
as will enable him to devote the rest of the day to 
unremunerative study and investigation, for the fol- 
lowing reason. Other teachers, equally satisfactory 
as teachers, will enter into competition with him, 
without having the same intention of teaching for 
one hour only, and of carrying on researches for the 
rest of the day. They will contemplate teaching for 
six hours a day, and they will accordingly offer to 
those who require to be taught, either six hours’ 
teaching for the same fee which the researcher 
charges for one, or one hour for a sixth part of that 
fee: consequently the unprotected researcher will 
find his lecture-room deserted. Pupils will naturally 
go to the equally good teacher who gives more teach- 
ing for the same fee, or the same teaching for a less 
cost. And no one can say that this is not as it should 
be. The university pupil requires a certain course of 
instruction, which he ought to be able to buy at the 
cheapest rate. It does not seem to be doing justice 
to the pupil, to compel him to form one of a class 
consisting of some hundreds of hearers, where he 
can obtain but little personal supervision or attention 
from the teacher, whereas, if he had the free dis- 
posal of his fee, he might obtain six times the 
amount of attention from another teacher. This 
arrangement does not seem to be justifiable, even for 
the purpose of providing the university professor 
with an income, and leisure to pursue scientific re- 
search. The student’s fee should pay for a given 
amount of teaching at the market value; and he has 
just cause of complaint, if, by compulsory enact- 
ments, he is taxed to provide the country with scien- 
tific investigation. : 

Teaching must, in all fairness, ultimately be paid 
for as teaching; and scientific research must be pro- 
vided for out of other funds than those extracted 
from the pockets of needy students, who have a rea- 
sonable right to demand, in return for their fees, a 
full modicum of instruction and direction in study. 

In the German universities, the professor receives 
a stipend ‘which provides for him as an investigator, 
He also gives lectures, for which he charges a fee; 


ee ft oe ae «4 ‘te F 


OcToBER 12, 1883.] 


but no student is compelled to attend those lectures 
as a condition of obtaining his degree. Accordingly, 
independent teachers can and do compete with the 
professor in providing for the students’ requirements 
in the matter of instruction. As a consequence, the 
fees charged for teaching are exceedingly small, and 
the student can feel assured that he is obtaining his 
money’s worth for his money. He is not compelled 
to -pay any fee to any teacher as a condition of his 
promotion to the university degree. In a German 
university, if the professor in a given Subject is in- 
competent, or the class overcrowded, the student can 
take his fee to a private teacher, and get better teach- 
ing. All that is required of the candidate, as a con- 
dition of his promotion to the doctor’s degree, is that 
he shall satisfy the examination-tests imposed by the 
faculty, and produce an original thesis. 

Unless there be some such compelling influence as 
that obtaining in the Scotch universities, enabling 
the would-be researcher to gather to him pupils and 
fees without fear of competition, it seems impossible 
that he should gain an income by teaching, whilst re- 
serving to himself time and energy for the pursuit of 
scientific inquiry. It is thus seen that the necessity 
of endowment, in some form or another, to make 
provision for scientific research, is a reality, in spite 
of the suggestion that teaching affords a means 
whereby the researcher may readily provide for him- 
self. The simple fact is, that a teacher can only 
make a sufficient income by teaching, on the con- 
dition that he devotes his whole time and energy to 
that occupation. 

Whilst I feel called upon to emphatically distin- 
guish the two functions, — viz., that of creating new 
knowledge, and that of distributing existing knowledge, 
—and to maintain that it is only by arbitrary and 
undesirable arrangements not likely to be tolerated, 
or, at any rate, extended, at the present day, that the 
latter can be made to serve as the support of the 
former, I must be careful to point out that I agree 
most cordially with those who hold that it is an ex- 
cellent thing for a man who is engaged in the one to 
give a certain amount of time to the other. It is a 
matter of experience, that the best teachers of a sub- 
ject are, ceteris paribus, those who are actually en- 
gaged in the advancement of that subject, and who 
have shown such a thorough understanding of that 
subject as is necessary for making new knowledge in 
connection with it. It is also, in most cases, a good 
thing for the man engaged in research to have a cer- 
tain small amount of change of occupation, and to be 
called upon to take such a survey of the subject in 
connection with which his researches are made, as is 
involved in the delivery of a course of lectures, and 
other details of teaching. Though it is not a thing 
to be contemplated, that the researcher shall sell his 
instruction at a price sufficiently high to enable him 
to live by teaching, yet it is a good thing to make 
teaching an additional and subsidiary part of his 
life’s work. This end is effected in Germany by 
making it a duty of the professor (already supported 
by a stipend) to give some five or six lectures a week 
during the academical session, for which he is paid 


SCIENCE. 


511 


by the fees of his hearers. The fees are low, but are 
sufficient to be an inducement; and, inasmuch as the 
attendance of the students is not compulsory, the 
professor is stimulated to produce good and effective 
lectures at a reasonable charge, so as to attract pupils 
who would seek instruction from some one else, if 
the lectures were not good, or the fees too high. In- 
deed, in Germany this system works so much to the 
advantage of the students, that the private teachers 
of the universities at one time obtained the creation 
of a regulation forbidding the professors to reduce 
their fees below a certain minimum; since, with so 
low a fee as some professors were charging, it was 
impossible for a private teacher to compete. This 
state of things may be compared with much advan- 
tage with the condition of British universities. In 
these we hear, from one direction, complaints of the 
high fees charged, and of the ineffective teaching 
given by the professoriate; and in other universities, 
where no adequate fees are allowed to the professors 
as a stimulus to them to offer useful and efficient 
teaching, we find that the teaching has passed entire- 
ly out of their hands into those of college tutors and 
lecturers. The fact is, that a satisfactory relation 
between teaching and research is one which will not 
naturally and spontaneously arrange itself. It can 
hardly be said to exist in any British university or 
college, but the method has been thought out and 
carried into practice in Germany. It consists in giv- 
ing a competent researcher a stipend, and a laboratory 
for his research work, and then requiring him to do 
a small amount of teaching, remunerated by fees 
proportionate to his ability and the pains which he 
may take in his teaching. If you pay him a fixed 
sum‘as a teacher, or artificially insure the attendance 
of his class, instead of letting this part of his income 
vary simply and directly with the attractiveness of 
his teaching, you will find as the result that (with 
rare exceptions) he will not give effective and useful 
teaching. He will naturally tend to do the minimum 
required of him in a perfunctory way. On the other 
hand, if you leave him without stipend as a research- 
er, dependent on the fees of pupils for an income, he 
will give all his time and energies to teaching: he will 
cease to do any research, and become, pro tanto, an 
inferior teacher. 

A third objection which is sometimes made to the 
proposition that scientific research must be supported 
and paid for as such, is the following: it is believed 
by many persons that a man who oceupies his best 
energies in scientific research can always, if he choose, 
make an income by writing popular books or news- 
paper articles in his spare hours; and, accordingly, it 
is gravely maintained that there is no need to provide 
stipends, and the means of carrying on their work, for 
researchers. To do so, according to this view, would 
be to encourage them in an exclusive reticence, and 
to remove from them the inducement to address the 
public on the subject of their researches, by which 
the publie would lose valuable instruction. 

This view has been seriously urged, or I should not 
here notice it. Any one who is acquainted with the 
sale of scientific books, and the profits which either 


512 


author or publisher makes by them, knows that the 
suggestion which I have quoted is ludicrous. The 
writing of a good book is not a thing to be done in 
leisure moments; and such as have been the result of 
original research have cost their authors often years 
of labor, apart from the mere writing. Mr. Darwin’s 
books, no doubt, have had a large sale; but that is 
due to the fact, apart from the exceptional genius of 
the man who wrote them, that they represent some 
thirty or more years of hard work, during which he 
was silent. There is not a sufficiently large public 
interested in the progress of science to enable a 
researcher to gain an income by writing books, 
however great his literary facility. A schoolbook or 
classbook may now and then add more or less to the 
income of a scientific investigator; but he who be- 
comes the popular exponent of scientific ideas, except 
in a very moderate and limited degree, must abandon 
the work of creating new knowledge. The profes- 
sional littérateur of science is as much removed by his 
occupation from all opportunity of serious investiga- 
tion as is the professional teacher who has to con- 
sume all his time in teaching. Any other profession 
—such as the bar, medicine, or the chureh—is 
more likely to leave one of its followers time and 
Means for scientific research than is that of either 
the popular writer or the successful teacher. 

We have, then, seen that there is no escape from 
the necessity of providing stipends and laboratories 
for the purpose of creating new knowledge, as is done 
in continental states, if we are agreed that more of 
this new knowledge is needed, and is among the prod- 
ucts which a civilized community is bound to turn 
out, both for its own benefit and for that of the com- 
munity of states, which give to and take from one 
another in such matters. 

There are some who would finally attack our con- 
tention by denying that new knowledge is a good 
thing, and by refusing to recognize any obligation, on 
the part of England, to contribute her share to that 
common stock of increasing knowledge by which she 
necessarily profits. Among such persons are those 
who would prohibit altogether the pursuit of experi- 
mental physiology in England, and yet would not and 
do not hesitate to ayail Ghemeclves of the services of 
medical men whose power of rendering those services 
depends on the fact that they have learned the results 
obtained by the experiments of physiologists in other 
countries or in former times. In reference to this 
strange contempt and even hatred of science, which 
undoubtedly has an existence among some persons 
of consideration even at the present day, I shall haye 
a few words to say before concluding this address. I 
haye now to ask you to listen to what seems to me to 
be the demand which we should make, as members of 
a British association for the advancement of science, 
in respect of adequate provision for the creation of 
new knowledge in the field of biology in England. 

Taking England alone, as distinct from Scotland 
and Ireland, we require, in order to be approximately 
on a level with Germany, forty new biological insti- 
tutes, distributed among the five branches of physi- 
ology, zodlogy, anatomy, pathology, and botany, — 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 36. 


forty, in addition to the fifteen which we may reckon 
(taking one place with another) as already existing. 
The average cost of the buildings required would be 
about £4,000 for each, giving a total initial expendi- 
ture of £160,000; the average cost of stipends for the 
director, assistants, and maintenance, we may calcu- 
late at £1,500 annually for each, or £60,000 for the 
forty, — equal to a capital sum of £2,000,000. These 
institutes should be distributed in groups of five — 
eight groups in all—throughout the country. One 
such group would be placed in London (which is at 
present almost totally destitute of such arrange- 
ments), one in Bristol, one in Birmingham, one in 
Nottingham, one in Leeds, one in Newcastle, one in 
Ipswich, one in Cardiff, one in Plymouth, —in fact, 
one in each of the great towns of the kingdom where 
there is at present, or where there might be with ad- 
vantage, a centre of professional education and high- 
er study. The first and the most liberally arranged 
of these biological institutes —embracing its five 
branches, each with its special laboratory and staff 
—should be in London. If we can haye nothing 
else, surely we may demand, with some hope that our 
request will eventually obtain compliance, the for- 
mation in London of a College of scientific research 
similar to that of Paris (the Collége de France). It 
is one of the misfortunes and disgraces of London, 
that, alone amongst the capitals of Europe, with the 
exception of Constantinople, it is destitute of any in- 
stitution corresponding to the universities and colleges 
of research which exist elsewhere. 

Either in connection with a properly organized 
teaching university, or as an independent institution, 
it seems to me a primary need of the day that the 
government should establish in London laboratories 
for scientific research. Two hundred and fifty years 
ago Sir Thomas Gresham founded an institution for 
scientific research in the city of London. The prop- 
erty which he left for this purpose is now estimated 
to be worth three millions sterling. This property 
was deliberately appropriated to other uses, by the 
Corporation of the city of London and the Mercers’ 
company, about a hundred years since, with the con- 
sent of both Houses of Parliament. By this outra- 
geous act of spoliation these corporations, who were 
the trustees of Gresham, have incurred the curse 
which he quaintly inserted in his will in the hope of 
restraining them from attempts to divert his property 
from the uses to which he destined it. ‘Gresham’s 
curse’ runs as follows: ‘‘ And that I do require 
and charge the said Corporations and cnief governors 
thereof, with circumspect Diligence and without long 
Delay, to procure and see to be done and obtained, 
as they will answer the same before Almighty God; 
(for if they or any of them should neglect the obtain- 
ing of such Licenses or Warrants, which I trust cannot 
be difficult, nor so chargeable, but that the overplus 
of my Rents and Profits of the Premisses hereinbefore 
to them disposed, will soon recompense the same; 
because to soe good Purpose in the Commonwealth, 
no Prince nor Council in any Age, will deny or defeat 
the same. And if conveniently by my Will or other 
Convenience, I might assure it, I would not leave it 


OcToBER 12, 1883.] 


to be done after my death, then the same shall revert 
to my heirs, whereas I do mean the same to the 
Commonwealth, and then THE DEFAULT THEREOF 
SHALL BE TO THE REPROACH AND CONDEMNATION 
OF THE SAID CORPORATIONS AFORE Gop’’). I 
confess that I find it difficult to see how the present 
representatives of the corporations who perverted 
Gresham’s trust are to escape from justly deserving 
the curse pronounced against those corporations, 
unless they conscientiously take steps to restore Gre- 
sham’s money to its proper uses. Let us hope that 
Gresham’s curse may be realized in no more deadly 
form than that of an act of parliament repealing the 
former one which sanctioned the perversion of Gre- 
sham’s money. Such a sequel to the report of the 
commission which has recently inquired into the pro- 
ceedings of the corporation and companies of the city 
of London is not unlikely. F 

Whilst we should, I think, especially press upon 
public attention the need for an institute of scientific 
research in London, and indicate the source from 
which its funds may be fitly derived, we must also 
urge the foundation of other institutes in the provy- 
inces, upon the scale already sketched; because it is 
only by the existence of numerous posts, and of a 
series of such posts, —some of greater and some of 
less value, the latter more numerous than the former, 
—that any thing like a professional career for scien- 
tific workers can be constructed. It is especially 
necessary to constitute what I have termed ‘ assist- 
antships,’ that is, junior posts, in which younger men 
assist, and are trained by, more experienced men. 
Even in the few institutions which do already exist, 
additional provision of this kind is what is wanted 
more than any thing else, so that there may be a 
progressive career open to the young student, and a 
Sufficient field of trained investigators from which to 
select in filling up the vacancies in more valuable 
positions. 

I am well aware that it will be said that the scheme 
which I have proposed to you is gigantic and almost 
alarming in respect of the amount of money which it 
demands. One hundred and sixty thousand pounds 
a year for biology alone must seem, not to my hear- 
ers, but to those who regard biology as an amusing 
speculation, —that is to say, who know little or noth- 
ing about it, —an extravagant suggestion. Unfortu- 
nately, it is also true that such persons are very 
numerous, — in fact, constitute an overwhelming 
majority of the community; but they are becoming 
less numerous every day. The time will come, it 
seems possible, when there will be more than one 
member of the government who will understand and 
appreciate the value of scientific research. There are 
already a few members of the House of Commons 
who are fully alive to its significance and importance. 

We may have to wait for the expenditure of such a 
sum as I have named, and possibly it may be derived 
ultimately from local rather than imperial sources, 
though I do not see why it should be; yet I think it 
is a good thing to realize now that this is what we 
ought to expend in order to be on a level with Ger- 
many. This apparently extravagant and unheard of 


SCIENCE. 513 


appropriation of public money is actually made every 
year in Germany. 

I think it is well to put the matter before you in 
this definite manner; because I have reason to believe 
that even those whom we might expect to be well 
informed in regard to such matters are not so, and, 
as a consequence, there is not that keen sense of the 
inferiority and inadequacy of English arrangements 
in these matters which one would gladly see actuat- 
ing the conduct of English statesmen. For instance: 
only a few years ago, when speaking at Nottingham, 
the present prime-minister, who has taken an active 
part in re-arranging our universities, and has, it is 
well known, much interest in science and learning, 
stated that £27,000, the capital sum expended on the 
Nottingham college of science, was a very important 
contribution to the support of learning in this country, 
amounting, as he said he was able to state from the 
perusal of official documents, to as much as one-third 
of what was spent in Germany during the past year 
upon her numerous universities, which were so often 
held up to England as an example of a well-supported 
academical system. Now, I do not think that Mr. 
Gladstone can ever have had the opportunity of con- 
sidering the actual facts with regard to German uni- 
versities: for he was in this instance misled by the 
official return of expenditure on a single university, 
namely, that of Strasburg; the total annual expendi- 
ture on the twenty-one German universities being, in 
reality, about £800,000, by the side of which a capital 
sum of £27,000 looks very small indeed. I cannot but 
believe, that if the facts were known to public men, 
in reference to the expenditure incurred by foreign 
states in support of scientific inquiry, they would be 
willing to do something in this country of a sufficient 
and statesmanlike character. As it is, the conces- 
sions which have been made in this direction appear 
to me to be in some instances not based upon a really 
comprehensive knowledge of the situation. Thus, the 
tentative grant of £4,000 a year from the treasury to 
the Royal society of London appears to me not to be 
a well-devised experiment in the promotion of scien- 
tific research by means of grants of money; because 
it is on too smallascale to produce any definite effect, 
and because the money cannot be relied upon from 
year to year as a permanent source of support to any 
serious undertaking. 

The Royal society most laboriously and conscien- 
tiously does its best to use this money to the satisfac- 
tion of the country, but the task thus assigned to it is 
one of almost insurmountable difficulty. In fact, no 
such miniature experiments are needed. The experi- 
ment has been made on a large scale in Germany, and 
satisfactory results have been obtained. The reason- 
able course to pursue is to benefit by the experience, 
as to details and methods of administration, obtained 
in the course of the last sixty years in Germany, and 
to apply that experience to our own case. 

It is quite clear that ‘the voluntary principle’ can 
do little towards the adequate endowment of scientific 
research. Ancient endowments belonging tothe coun- 
try must be applied thereto, or else local or imperial 
taxes must be the source of the necessary support. 


514 


Seeing that the results of research are distinctly of 
imperial and not of local value, it would seem ap- 
propriate that a portion of the imperial revenue should 
be devoted to their achievement. In fact, as I have 
before mentioned, the principle of such an applica- 
tion of public money has long been admitted, and is 
in operation. 

Whilst voluntary donations on the part of private 
persons can do little to constitute a fund which shall 
provide the requisite endowment for the scheme of 
biological institutes which I have sketched (not to 
mention those required for other branches of science), 
yet those who are interested in the progress of scien- 
tific investigation may, by individual effort, do some- 
thing, however little, towards placing research in a 
more advantageous position in this country. Sup- 
posing it were possible, as 1am sanguine enough to 
believe that it is, to collect in the course of a year or 
two, from private sources, a sum of £20,000 for the 
maintenance of a biological laboratory and staff: it 
would be necessary, in expending so limited a sum, 
to aim at the provision of something which would be 
likely to produce the largest and most obvious results 
in return for the outlay, and to benefit the largest 
number of scientific observers in this department. 

I believe that it is the general opinion among biolo- 
gists, that there could be no more generally useful 
institution thus set in operation than a biological 
laboratory upon the seacoast, which, besides its own 
permanent staff of officers, would throw open its 
resources to such naturalists as might from time ‘to 
time be able to devote themselves to researches with- 
in its precincts. There is no such laboratory on the 
whole of the long line of British coast. At Naples 
there is Dr. Dohrn’s celebrated and invaluable labora- 
tory, which is frequented by naturalists from all parts 
of the world; at Trieste, the Austrian government 
supports such a laboratory; at Concarneau, Roscoff, 
and Villefranche, the Freich government has such 
institutions; at Beaufort, in North Carolina, the 
Johns Hopkins university has its marine laboratory: 
and at Newport Professor Alexander Agassiz has ar- 
ranged a very perfect institution also for the study of 
marine life. In spite of the great interest which Eng- 
lish naturalists have always taken in the exploration 
of the sea and marine organisms; in spite of the fact 
that the success, and even the existence, of our fisher- 
ies industries, to a large extent depend upon our gain- 
ing the knowledge which a well-organized laboratory 
of marine biology would help us to gain, — there is 
actually no such institution in existence. : 

This is not the occasion on which to explain pre- 
cisely how, and to what extent, a laboratory of marine 
zoology might be of national importance. I hope to 
see that matter brought before the section during the 
course of our meeting. But I may point out now, 
that though it appears to me that the great need for 
biological institutes, to which I have drawn your at- 
tention, can not be met by private munificence, and 
must, in the end, be arranged for by the continued 
action of the government in carrying out a policy to 
which it has for many years been committed, and 
which has been approved by conservatives and liberals 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 36. 


alike, yet such a special institution as a laboratory 
of marine biology, serving as a temporary workshop 
to any and all of our numerous students of the im- 
portant problems connected with the life of marine 
plants and animals, might very well be undertaken 
from private funds. Should it be possible, on the 
occasion of this meeting of the British association 
in Southport, to obtain some promise of assistance 
towards the realization of this project, I think we 
shall be able to congratulate ourselves on having done 
something, though small, perhaps, in amount, towards 
making better provision for biological research, and 
therefore something towards the advancement of 
science. 

In conclusion, let me say, that, in advocating to-day 
the claim of biological science to a far greater meas- 
ure of support than it receives at present from the 
public funds, I have endeavored to press that claim 
chiefly on the ground of the obvious utility to the 
community of that kind of knowledge which is called 
biology. Ihave endeavored to meet the opposition 
of those who object to the interference of the state, 
wherever it may be possible to attain the end in view 
without such interference, but who profess themselves 
willing to see public money expended in promoting 
objects which are of real importance to the country, 
and which cannot be trusted to the voluntary enter- 
prise arising from the operation of the laws of self- 
preservation, and the struggle for wealth. There are, 
however, it seems to me, further reasons for desiring 
a thorough and practical recognition by the state of 


. the value of scientific research. There are not want- 


ing persons of some cultivation, who have perceived 
and fully realized the value of that knowledge which 
is called science, and of its methods, and yet are 
anxious to restrain rather than to aid the growth of 
that knowledge. They find in science something 
inimical to their own interests, and accordingly either 
condemn it as dangerous and untrustworthy, or en- 
courage themselves to treat it with contempt by assert- 
ing, that, ‘after all, science counts for very little,’ 
—a statement which is unhappily true in one sense, 
though totally untrue when it is intended to signify 
that the progress of science is not a matter which 
profoundly influences every factor in the well-being 
of the community. Amongst such people there is a 
positive hatred of science, which finds expression in 
their exclusion of it, even at this day, from the ordi- 
nary curriculum of public-school education, and in 
the baseless, though oft-repeated calumny, that sci- 
ence is hostile to art, and is responsible for all that 
is harsh, ugly, and repulsive in modern life. Tosuch 
opponents of the advancement of science it is of 
little use to offer explanations and arguments. But 
we may, when we reflect on their instinctive hostility, 
and the misrepresentations of science and the scien- 
tific spirit which it leads them to disseminate, con- 
sole ourselves by bringing to mind what science 
really is, and what truly is the nature of that calling 
in which a man who makes new knowledge is en- 
gaged. 

They mock at the botanist as a pedant, and the 
zoologist as a monomaniac; they execrate the physi- 


gee ha 


OcroBER 12, 1883.] 


ologist as a monster of cruelty, and brand the geolo- 
gist as a blasphemer; chemistry is held responsible 
for the abomination of aniline dyes and the pollution 
of rivers, and physies for the dirt and misery of great 
factory towns. By these unbelievers, science is de- 
clared responsible for individual eccentricities of char- 
acter, as well as for the sins of the commercial utilizers 
of new knowledge. The pursuit of science is said to 
produce a dearth of imagination, incapability of en- 
joying the beauty either of nature or of art, scorn of 
literary culture, arrogance, irreverence, vanity, and 
the ambition of personal glorification. 

Such are the charges, from time to time, made by 
those who dislike science; and for such reasons they 
would withhold, and persuade others to withhold, 
the fair measure of support for scientific research 
which this country owes to the community of civilized 
states. Not in reply to these misrepresentations, but 
by way of contrast, I would here state what science 
seems to be to those who are on the other side, and 
how, therefore, it seems to them wrong to delay in 
doing all that the wealth and power of the state can 
do to promote its progress. 

Science is not a name applicable to any one branch 
of knowledge, but includes all knowledge which is of 
a certain order or scale of completeness. All knowl- 
edge which is deep enough to touch the causes of 
things is science: all inquiry into the causes of things 
is scientific inquiry. It is not only co-extensive with 
the area of human knowledge, but no branch of it can 
advance far, without reacting upon other branches: 
no department of science can be neglected, without 
sooner or later causing a check to other departments. 
No man can truly say this branch of science is useful, 
and shall be cultivated, whilst this is worthless, and 
shall be let alone: for all are necessary; and one 
grows by the aid of another, and in turn furnishes 
methods and results assisting in the progress of that 
from which it lately borrowed. 

We desire the increase and the support and the 
acceptance of science, not only because it has a cer- 
tain material value, and enables men to battle with 
the forces of nature, and to turn them to account so 
as to increase both the intensity and the extension of 
healthy human life: that is a good reason, and for 
some persons, it may be, the only reason. But there 
is something to be said beyond this. 

The pursuit of scientific discovery, the making of 
new knowledge, gratifies an appetite, which, from 
whatever cause it may arise, is deeply seated in man’s 
nature, and, indeed, is the most distinctive of his prop- 
erties. Man owes this intense desire to know the 
nature of things, smothered though it often be by 
other cravings which he shares with the brutes, to an 
inherited race-perception, stronger than the reason- 
ing faculty of the individual. When once aroused, 
and in a measure gratified, this desire becomes a 
guiding passion. The instinctive tendency to search 
out the causes of things, gradually strengthening as 
generation after generation of men have stumbled 
and struggled in ignorance, has at last become an 
active and widely extending force: it has given rise 
to a new faith. 


SCIENCE. 515 


To obey this instinct —that is, to aid in the pro- 
duction of new knowledge —is the keenest and the 
purest pleasure of which man is capable, greater than 
that derived from the exercise of his animal facul- 
ties in proportion as man’s mind is something greater 
and further developed than the mind of brutes. It 
is in itself an unmixed good, the one thing which 
commends itself as still ‘ worth while’ when all other 
employments and delights prove themselves stale and 
unprofitable. 

Arrogant and foolish as those men have appeared, 
who, in times of persecution, and in the midst of a 
contemptuous society, have, with an ardor propor- 
tioned to the prevailing neglect, pursued some special 
line of scientific inquiry, it is nevertheless true that 
in itself, apart frem special social conditions, science 
must develop, in a community which honors and de- 
sires it before all things, qualities and characteristics 
which are the highest, the most human of human 
attributes. These are, firstly, the fearless love and 
unflinching acceptance of truth; hopeful patience; 
that true humility which is content not to know what 
cannot be known, yet labors and waits; love of Na- 
ture, who is not less, but more worshipped by those 
who know her best; love of the human brotherhood, 
for whom and with whom the growth of science is 
desired and effected. 

No one can trace the limits of science, nor the 
possibilities of happiness, both of mind and body, 
which it may bring in the future to mankind. Bound- 
less though the prospect is, yet the minutest contri- 
bution to the onward growth has its absolute and 
unassailable value, — once made, it can never be lost: 
its effect is forever in the history of man. 

Arts perish, and the noblest works which artists 
give to the world. Art, though the source of great 
and noble delights, cannot create nor perpetuate: it 
embodies only that which already exists in human 
experience, whilst the results of its highest flights 
are doomed to decay and sterility. A vain regret, a 
constant effort.to emulate or to imitate the past, is 
the fitting and laudable characteristic of art at the 
present day. There is, indeed, no truth in the popu- 
lar partition of human affairs between science and 
art as between two antagonistic or even comparable 
interests; but the contrast which they present in 
points such as those just mentioned is forcible. Sci- 
ence is essentially creative: new knowledge — the 
experience and understanding of things which were 
previously non-existent for man’s intelligence —is its 
constant achievement. And these creations never 
perish: the new is built on, and incorporates, the old; 
there is no turning back to recover what has lapsed 
through age; the oldest discovery is even fresher 
than the new, yielding in ever-increasing number 
new results, in which it is itself reproduced and per- 
petuated, as the parent in the child. 

This, then, is the faith which has taken shape in 
proportion as the innate desire of man for more 
knowledge has asserted itself: namely, that there is 
no greater good than the increase of science; that 
through it all other good will follow. Good-as sci- 
ence is in itself, the desire and search for it is even 


516 


better, raising men above vile things and worthless 
competitions, to a fuller life and keener enjoyments. 
Through it we believe that man will be saved from 
misery and degradation, not merely acquiring new 
material powers, but learning to use and to guide his 
life with understanding. Through science he will be 
freed from the fetters of superstition. Through faith 
in science he will acquire a new and enduring delight 
in the exercise of his capacities: he will gain a zest 
and interest in life such as the present phase of cul- 
ture fails to supply. 

In opposition to the view that the pursuit of 
science can obtain a strong hold upon human life, it 
may be argued, that on no reasonable ground can it 
appear a necessary or advantageous thing to the in- 
dividual man to concern himself With the growth 
and progress of that which is merely likely to benefit 
the distant posterity of the human race. Our reply 
is, let those who contend for the reasonableness of 
human motives develop, if they can, any theory of 
human conduct in which reasonable self-interest shall 
be man’s guide. We do not contend for any such 
theory. By reasoning we may explain and trace the 
development of human nature, but we cannot change 
it by anysuch process. It is demonstrably unreason- 
able for the individual man, guided by self-interest, 
to share the dangers and privations of his brother- 
man; and yet, in common with many lower animals, 
he has an inherited quality which makes it a pleas- 
ure to him to do so. It is unreasonable for the 
mother to protect her offspring, and yet it is the natu- 
ral and inherited quality of mothers to derive pleasure 
from doing so. It is unreasonable for the half- 
starved poor to aid their wholly-starving brethren; 
and yet such compassion is natural and pleasurable 
to those who show it, and is the constant rule of life. 
Unreasonable though these things are, from the point 
of view of individual self-interest, yet they are done 
because to do them is pleasurable, to leave them un- 
done a pain. The race has, as it were, in these re- 
spects, befooled the individual, and, in the course of 
evolution, has planted in him, in its own interests, 
an irrational capacity for taking pleasure in doing 


that which no reasoning in regard to self-interest _ 
As with these lower and more widely. 


could justify. 
distributed instincts, shared by man with some lower 
social animals, so is it with this higher and more pe- 
culiar instinct; —the tendency to pursue new knowl- 
edge. Whether reasonable or not, it has, by the laws 
of heredity and selection, become part of us, and.ex- 
ists. Its operation is beneficial to the race. Its grati- 
fication is a source of keen pleasure to the individual, 
—an end in itself. We maysafely count upon it asa 
factor in human nature. Itis in our power to culti- 
vate and develop it, or, on the other hand, to starve 
and distort it for a while, though to do so is to waste 
time in opposing the irresistible. 


As day by day the old-fashioned stimulus to the - 


higher life loses the dread control which it once exer- 
cised over the thoughts of men, the pursuit of wealth, 
and the indulgence in fruitless gratifications of sense, 
become to an increasing number the chief concerns 
of their mental life. Such occupations fail to satisfy 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. IL, No. 36. 


the deep desires of humanity: they become weari- 
some and meaningless, so that we hear men question- 
ing whether life be worth living. When the dreams 
and aspirations of the youthful world have lost their 
old significance, and their strong power to raise men’s 
lives, it will be well for that community which has 
organized in time a following of and a reverence for 
an ideal good, which may serve to lift the national 
mind above the level of sensuality, and to insure a 
belief in the hopefulness and worth of life. The 
faith in science can fill this place. The progress of 
science is an ideal good, sufficient to exert this great 
influence. 

It is for this reason, more than any other (as it 
seems to those who hold this faith), that the progress 
and diffusion of scientific research, its encourage- 
ment and reverential nurture, should be a chief busi- 
ness of the community, whether collectively or indi- 
vidually, at the present day. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


PurRSUANT to the invitation already noted in 
Scrence, a number of gentlemen met in the library of 
the American museum of natural history in New-York 
City, on the 26th to 28th of September, and founded 
the American ornithologists’ union. ‘The member- 
ship consists of active, foreign, corresponding, and 
associate members. The active membership is lim- 
ited to fifty residents of the United States and Can- 
ada; the foreign, to twenty-five non-residents of the 
United States and Canada; the corresponding, to one 
hundred residents of any country; the associate being 
composed of any number of residents of the United 
States and Canada. The officers of the union for the 
current year are, Mr. J. A. Allen, president; Dr. El- 
liott Coues and Mr. Robert Ridgway, vice-presidents; 
Dr. C. Hart Merriam, secretary and treasurer; Messrs. 
S. F. Baird, George N. Lawrence, H. W. Henshaw, 
and Montagu Chamberlain, councillors, — these nine 
officers constituting the council of the union. Dr. 
Coues presided over the convention, and continued in 
the chair in the absence of the president. Mr. Allen 
and Professor Baird, who were unable to be present, 
were added to the list of founders. After the dis-_ 
cussion and adoption of a constitution, submitted by 
the committee of organization, and the election of 
officers, a large number of members were elected, 
raising the active and foreign membership nearly to 
the limit. The work of the union for the present 
year was laid out by the formation of committees, 
appointed by the chair, on the subjects of classifica- 
tion and nomenclature, of the distribution and migra- 
tion of birds, of avian anatomy, of odlogy, and on’ 
the question of the eligibility or ineligibility of the 
European sparrow in America. The first-named com- 
mittee, besides revising the current lists of North- 
American birds, is expected to consider the subject 
of zodlogical nomenclature at large; and its labors 
may result in the formation of a code of nomenclature 
applicable to other departments of zodlogy, as well 
as to ornithology. It consists of Messrs. Ridgway, 
Allen, Brewster, Henshaw, and Coues. . 


OcTroBER 12, 1883.] 


— Mr. Charles F. Parker, the curator in charge of 
the Academy of natural sciences of Philadelphia, 
died Sept. 7, after an illness of several months. Mr. 
Parker became a member of the academy in 1865, 
and was elected a curator in 1875. Shortly after- 
ward he was appointed by the council curator in 
charge,— a position which he filled with singular effi- 
ciency until last March, when he was compelled to 
avail himself of leave of absence, granted by the 
council in the hope that he would soon be able to 
return. Mr. Parker had paid special attention to the 
botany of New Jersey; and, both in the completeness 
of his herbarium and the accuracy of his knowledge 
of it, he had few. if any, equals. Even before his 
connection with the academy, he was well known 
to the leading botanists of America, and his collec- 
tion was frequently referred to by specialists for 
illustrative material. The many students who have 
visited the academy during his term of office will 
remember the alacrity with which he rendered them 
assistance in their investigations. Although he may 
be succeeded by one having a more general knowl- 
edge of natural history in its several departments, 
or a more profound knowledge of a specialty, the 
academy will probably not be able to secure the ser- 
vices of any one person able and willing to perform 
the same work so economically and efficiently. 

— We copy from the daily press the following tele- 
gram from Lieut. Ray, commanding the Point-Barrow 
expedition, concerning whose safety there were rea- 
sonable grounds for anxiety :— 

“San Francisco, Oct. 7, 1883. —I report my safe 
arrival here to-day with party. Also brought down 
Lieut. Schwatka and party from St. Michaels. 
All work accomplished as ordered by chief signal- 
officer. Pendulum observation not made. Leo 
reached Ooglaamie Aug. 22; was driven away by ice 
the same night; returned on the 24th; again driven 
away and damaged on the 25th; returned on the 27th, 
when party and stores were embarked; sailed on the 
29th, vessel leaking badly; put into Unalaska, where 
she was beached and repaired.’’ 

’ — A large and exceptionally fine collection of fossil 
plants from the Fort-Union group (Laramie) is now 
on its way to Washington, collected in the valley of 
the Yellowstone River, within thirty miles of Glen- 
dive, Montana, by Mr. Lester F. Ward, assisted by 
Mr. Richard Foster. Mention has already been made 
(SCIENCE, i. 559) of a small but interesting collection 
from this locality, which was partially elaborated last 
spring. The same stations were revisited and thor- 
oughly worked. The expedition was very successful, 
and the collection is one of the largest and best ever 
made in the country. Fifty-seven boxes of fossils, 
aggregating nearly four tons in gross weight, were 
obtained. The material was carefully assorted, and 
searcely any but cabinet specimens were taken. In 
the very large number of genera and species repre- 
sented, there can scarcely fail to be some new to 
science. The localities examined embrace several dis- 
tinet horizons within the group, each possessing a 
special facies. Nearly all the old forms described by 
Dr. Newberry appear in abundance, — Populus, Pla- 


SCIENCE. 


alt 


tanus, Viburnum, Rhamnites, Tilia, ete., — bul varied 
by additional species; while such new genera as Tra- 
pa, Rhamnus, Ilex, Eleodendron, Asarum, Ficus, ete., 
are present, often in great profusion, and beautifully 
preserved. Special pains were taken to secure as large 
and complete a representation as possible of those 
forms whose affinities are less obvious or wholly un- 
known. Mr. Ward intends to commence work on this 
collection as soon as it arrives. 

— The 18th of August, 1883, was the hundredth 
anniversary of the successful attempt of the brothers 
Montgolfier to cause their hot-air balloon to rise. 
On that day a monument commemorative of the 


event was unveiled at Annonay, where the Montgol- 
fiers lived and worked. Joseph, the older, is repre- 
sented as holding the balloon, while his younger 
brother, Etienne, fills it with heated air by means of a 
lighted torch. For the three days the streets of An- 
nonay were filled with the crowds gathered to honor 
the memory of the great inventors. In the addresses 
stress was laid upon the aids which the use of the 
balloon may be to the sciences, especially meteorol- 
ogy, and in military operations. Joseph Montgolfier 
was born at Vidalon-les-Annonay, Aug. 26, 1740, and 
Etienne at the same place, the 7th of January, 1745. 
The younger brother died Aug. 2, 1799, at Serriére: 
and Joseph, after a stroke of paralysis in 1809, died 
at Balaruc-les-Bains on the 26th of June, 1810, 

—A notable event of the present season’s field- 


518 


work has been the descent of the Missouri River in a 
‘Mackinaw’ (asort of flat boat) from Fort Benton to 
Bismarek by a party of geologists, consisting of Dr. 
C. A. White, Mr. J. B. Marcou, and Mr. Lester F. 
Ward, with one assistant, for the express purpose 
of geological and paleontological study. 

The distance, according to steamboat schedule, is 
1,059 miles; and thirty days (Aug. 22 to Sept. 20) were 
consumed inthe journey. A large part of the territory 
passed through is occupied by Indian reservations; 
and there is no white population between Benton and 
Poplar Creek Agency, the first post-office, — a distance 
of 567 miles. The river is very low at this season of 
the year; and the current was correspondingly slug- 
gish, though still quite rapid enough in some places. 
Progress was farther impeded by shoals, bars, and 
head winds; and considerable time was, of course, 
occupied in climbing and examining the adjacent 
bluffs and mountains. 

The geology of this region, as all know, is very 
interesting; and the trip is believed to have thrown 
much light upon some of its leading problems. The 
results of the expedition will, of course, be officially 
made known in due time by the several parties par- 
ticipating, who have brought with them ample data, 
both in the form of notes and specimens. 

—Mr. G. Brown Goode arrived in Washington: on 
the 2d inst. from London. 

— Representatives of nearly all the branches of the 
western surveys haye returned to Washington. Dr. 
C. A. White reports having explored a great number 
of miles of the upper Missouri in a row-boat, being 
engaged in extending and confirming his previous 
observations of the formations. 

— The winter session of the Philosophical society 
of Washington opens on the 13th inst. A considera- 
ble number of communications on widely different 
topics are in readiness. Biological papers are not 
numerous. The Biological society will probably be- 
gin its session on the 19th inst. It is possible that 
negotiations for the formation of a Washington acad- 
emy of sciences will be opened for a second time this 
winter, but with what success it is impossible at 
present to say. It seems to be generally considered 
that an academy would be desirable, but there is little 
agreement relative to the proper basis of union be- 
tween the existing societies. 

—Prof. K. A. Zittel of Munich is visiting this 
country, and will probably be in Washington early in 
this month. 

— At the first autumn meeting of the Boston so- 
ciety of natural history, Oct. 3, Mr. F. W. Putnam 
gaye an account of the great serpent-mound in Adams 
county, O., and of some other ancient works in Wis- 
consin and Ohio examined during the past sum- 
mer. 

— The Appalachian mountain-club commenced its 
Boston meetings on the 10th, when papers were read 
on the Route Salvan, by Selah Howell; on a trip 
over Osceola, the Twin Mountain range, and Gar- 
field, by W. L. Hooper; and on an exploration of the 
Traveller Mountain, and the head waters of Mattaga- 
mon River, by G. Hi. Witherle. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 36. 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 


Aymard, J. La poudre a canon; le télégraphe; les mon- 
tagnes et les voleans; les tremblements de terre, les pétrifica- 
tions. Paris, Zefort, 1883. 107 p. 12°. 

_ Barrois, Tf. Catalogue des crustacés podophtalmaires et des 
échinodermes recueillis & Concarneau durant les mois d’aoft- 
septembre, 1880. Lille, impr. Danel, 1883. 68 p., pl., map. 8°. 

Berquin. Les merveilles du firmament, ou le systéme de la 
nature dévoilé & la jeunesse. Limoges, Ardant, 1883. 119 p. 8°. 

Bonnet, E. Petite flora parisienne, contenant la description 
des familles, genres, espéces et variétés de toutes les plantes 
spontanées ou cultivées en grand dans la région parisienne, ayee 
des clefs dichotomique conduisant rapidement aux noms des 
plantes; augmentée d’un vocabulaire. Paris, Savy, 1883. 12+ 


528 p. 18° 

Brass, A. Biglogische studien. ‘Theil i.: Die organisation 
der thierischen zelle. 8°. 

Broca, P. Memoires d’anthropologie. Paris, Reinwald, 
1883. 800p. 8. 


Chatenet, E. du. Pompéi et Herculanum, découverte et 
description de ces deux villes romaines. Limoges, Ardant, 1883. 
120 p. 12°. 

Cole, E. M. Geological rambles in Yorkshire: a popular 
handbook of magnesian limestone, new red sandstone, etc. 
London, Simpkin, 1883. 112 p. 8°. 

Costatin, J. Etude comparée des tiges aériennes et souter- 
raines des dicotylédones. Paris, Masson, 1883. 177 p.,8pl. 8°. 

D’Anvers, U. Flowerless plants. London, Philip, 1883. 
(Se. ladders.) 84p. 12°. 

De Long, Emma. The voyage of the Jeannette; the ship 
and ice journals of George W. De Long. Edited by his wife. 
2 vols. Boston, Houghton, Miglin, & Co., 1883. 22+911 p., 
2 portr., 5 maps, 14 pl., illustr. 8°. 

Dubois, A. La science populaire. Au bord d’une mare, 
entretiens sur Vhistoire naturelle. Limoges, Ardant, 1883. 304 p. 
4°. 


— Les animaux dans les bois. Limoges, Ardant, 1883. 


192 p. 8°. / 
— Les oiseaux et les insectes. Limoges, Ardant, 1883. 
191p. 8°. 
— Les végétaux dans les bois. Limoges, Ardant, 1883. 
192 p. ‘8°. 


Duclau, 8. La science populaire; la chaleur et ses effets. 
Limoges, Ardant, 1883. 120 p. 12°. 


Exposition internationale d’électricité, Paris, 1881. 
reports. 2yols. Paris, Masson, 1883. 484; 4144p. 8°. 


Frenzel, J. Ueber bau und thitigkeit des verdauungskanals 
der larve der Tenebrio moliter mit beriicksichtung anderer ar- 
thropoden. Inaug. diss. Géttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 
1882. 50p. 8°. 5 

Govin, M., and Moireau, M. Notions de cosmographie. 
Paris, Bertaux, 1883. 3836p. 18°. 

Gresley, W.S. A glossary of terms used in coal-mining. 
London, Spon, 1883. 306 p., illustr. 8°. 

Heaford, A.8. Strains on braced iron arches and arched 
iron bridges. London, Spon, 1883. illustr. 8°. 

Illinois — Geological survey. Vol. 7. Geology and paleon- 
tology, by A. H. Worthen. Paleontology, by A. H. Worthen, 
QO. St. John, and 8. A. Miller; with an addenda (sic) by C. 
Wachsmuth and W. H. Barris. (Springfield), State, 1883. (4)+ 
373 p., 31 pl, 1. 8°. 

Kutscher, E. 
wechsel der pflanze. 


Jury 


Die verwendung der gertsiiure im stoff- 
Inaug. diss. Gottingen, Vandenhoeck & 


Ruprecht, 1883. 36 p.,2pl. 8°. 
Lackemann, W. Euler's interpolirte producte. Inang. 
diss. G6ttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1882. 43p. 8°. 


Lange, E. Goethe’s farbenlehre yom standpuncte der wis- 
senschaftstheorie und aesthetik. Inaug. diss. G6ttingen, Van- 
denhoeck & Ruprecht, 1882. 38p. 8°. 

Leydig, F. Untersuchungen zur anatomie und histologie 
der thiere. 8°. 

Mouillefert, P. Vignes phylloxerées; faits ¢tablissant 
Vefficacité et la haute valeur du sulfocarbonate de potassium 


pour combattre le phylloxera, ete. Paris, Narbonne, 1883. 48 
je Sa 

Munro, J. Electricity and its uses. London, Zract society, 
1883. illustr. 8°. 


Pichler, M. von. L’indicateur du travail et du fonctionne- 
ment des machines & piston, & vapeur, A eau, A gaz, ete., et son 
diagramme. ‘Traduit par R. Seguela. Paris, Baudry, 1883. 
5+98 p., 46 fig. 8°. 


ae Ce NR: 


FRIDAY, OCTOBER 19, 1883. 


PRECISION OF OBSERVATION AS A 
> BRANCH OF INSTRUCTION. 

We sometimes find the philosopher envying 
the physicist because the results sought by the 
latter can be expressed exactly. In so doing, 
he doubtless overlooks the fact that all quanti- 
tative work has to be regarded as giving mere- 
ly an approximation to the truth. Numerous 
and refined as are the precautions adopted, 
the careful experimenter must admit that his 
measurements contain errors whose sources are 
more or less hidden. Success will lie, not in 
ignoring this, but in recognizing it, and studi- 
ously avoiding any unwarranted claim to accu- 
racy. His investigation may establish some 
law beyond a reasonable doubt. This law may 
be expressible in exact terms; but, so far as 
the direct quantitative results are concerned, 
he must give up, once for all, the popular 
notion of exactness. He must admit that the 
work merely shows it to be reasonable to as- 
sume the truth to lie somewhere between two 
limits, respectively greater and less than the 
‘one magnitude which he names. Desiring 
that these limits shall fall as near together as 
practicable, he will study the observations for 
internal evidence of the precision attained ; 
but any appearance of accuracy greater than 
might reasonably be expected will often cause 
him more uneasiness than would a greater ap- 
parent error. Until the extent of the error is 
recognized, and found to be in harmony with 
experience derived from other similar observa- 
tions, a cautious observer will not be confident 
of the result reached. 

As the scientific professions are currently 
taught, it is possible to get a fair training 
(as-a chemist, engineer, or electrician, for 
example) without properly appreciating the 
practical limitations to precision. He may 
instinctively acquire correct notions of the 
No. 37.— 1883. 


performances of the instruments he most ‘sfre- 
quently uses; but let a new operation, with a 
different instrument, be required, and he will 
too often develop the wildest notions as to the 
great accuracy attainable by the use of suffi- 
cient care. Whatis needed in our professional 
courses is systematic instruction in the general 
science of planning, conducting, and discuss- 
ing observations, accompanied with adequate 
practice. This should be given as early as 
the student is fitted to profit by it, in order 
that the subsequent practical training in special 
branches may have a firm foundation. 

The field for such instruction is ample. A 
good routine observer is one who, being in- 
formed of the accuracy desired at each step, 
is able to take just care enough to attain it, 
without wasting time and energy in uselessly 
perfecting certain parts of the work. Our 
professional observer must add to this the 
good judgment which is able to discover the 
relative accuracy required in different parts of 
a complex observation, and to decide how ac- 
curate to aim to make a single performance of 
the whole. In general, he will seek to avoid 
errors which usually occur in a single direc- 
tion; but he will not always take the greatest 
care to avoid errors which are as liable to be 
negative as positive. Life is short. Time, 
to most, is money; and the ability to repeat 
an observation will often depend upon the 
ability to do it quickly. Moreover, in many 
cases, mere lapse of time allows additional 
errors to enter. Having avoided the larger 
errors, he will therefore seek to eliminate. 
the effect of the smaller by repeatedly per- 
forming the work. Recognizing, then, the 
importance of reasonable speed, he will allow 
rough measures of certain quantities, pro- 
vided the final error of the complex operation 
is not thereby appreciably affected. All this 
calls for a clear understanding of the causes 
of error, and an ability to reason out their 
effect upon the result. The knowledge of the 


520 

differential calculus jequired is indeed ele- 
mentary; butit must be a tool which can be 
applied *S readily, for instance, as the knowl- 
edge Sf the properties of logarithms. All the 
PTiciples are covered by the customary courses 
in physics and mathematics ; but additional spe- 
cial practice in their employment is very de- 
sirable. 

In the planning of observations, the theory 
of maxima and minima gives important aid ; 
but this theory has so many other applications, 
that we can hardly ask of the regular course 
in differential calculus such attention to this 
one point as would insure the required facility. 
In the absence of such a course of instruction 
as is recommended in this paper, the matter 
is left to slow acquisition through practical ex- 
perience. Knowledge is often thus bought at 
a high cost. 

A general understanding of instruments 
of precision, so necessary to successful plan- 
ning of observations, is also within the field 
of instruction proposed. Instrumental errors 
should be treated systematically: their pre- 
liminary adjustment to zero, their elimination 
from the mean of pairs of observations properly 
taken to that end, their determination in such 
manner that corrections may be duly applied, 
and the cost in time of variously managing 
them, should come to be understood through 
suitable practice. Here, particularly, each 
professional course is liable to inculcate its 
own narrow view. : 

An examination of the proceedings of the 
leading learned societies will convince one of 
the importance of good method in the discus- 
sion of results. It will also develop the fact 
that there exist numerous valuable, analytical, 
and graphical processes, which at present are 
not likely to be brought to the attention of 
the professional student. 

The theory of probabilities as applied to 
observation would naturally be treated in the 
course proposed. If it were previously given 
to the student as a branch of pure mathematics, 
the attention could here be riveted upon its 
which calls for the exercise of much 
It furnishes an 


use, 
practical good judgment. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 37. 


important means of studying the precision 
attained, but just here is a great abuse. Its 
results, demonstrated for a very large number, 
are applied to very limited series of measure- 
ments. Again: its assumption of equal prob- 
ability for equal positive and negative errors is 
allowed, in face of the fact that a preponder- 
ance of error in one direction is unavoidable. 
The rising generation of experimenters in 
every field of applied science should therefore 
be taught the many limitations which surround 
its application, and they should learn to avoid 
that indiscriminate use of its principles which 
has led to so many unfounded claims to ac- 
curacy. 

We have outlined a subject the successful 
teaching of which requires qualifications not 
to be found in every scientific professor, and 
the successful study of which requires a con- 
centration of the attention not likely to be 
given to it as a subordinate part of some other 
course. Already the appearance of treatises 
on probabilities, errors of observation, and 
least squares, has enabled writers on astron- 
omy, geodesy, physics, and engineering, to 
devote their attention to special applications, 
and has saved the waste of space which would 
otherwise be given to the general theory. 
Similarly, we should avoid that distraction of 
the student’s attention from the main subject 
of a professional course which results from 
the necessity of frequently pausing to give 
additional information about the subject of 
this article. 

Although the first object of establishing a 
course of instruction in any branch of applied 
science is to put the students into possession 
of the best methods already reached by workers 
in that field, the end attained is often some- 
thing more. The instructor’s attention is 
speedily called to conspicuous omissions, and 
his energies are consequently bent upon sup- 
plying the defect by demonstrating and testing 
some theorem or method which meets the 
want. Thus the schools come to the aid of 
the professions. Are they yet doing their 
whole duty in regard to the science and art of 
observation ? 


> 


- pie rm 


a 


OcroBER 19, 1883.] 


A SYSTEM OF LOCAL WARNINGS 
AGAINST TORNADOES. 


I nave lately examined with some care the 
excellent compilation by Sergeant Finley of 
the signal-service, ‘ Characteristics of six hun- 
dred tornadoes,’ with reference to the question 
of devising a simple apparatus for saving hu- 
man life. 

Saving property seems to be out of the ques- 
tion, as no structure can withstand the force 
of the tornado-wind. Life may be saved by 
recourse to underground shelters, cellars, etc., 
such as actually have been built in many places 
for this end. 

Two facts may be quoted from the work 
named, —1°. Three hundred and forty-seven 
out of three hundred and ninety-three torna- 
does (that is eighty-eight per cent) originated 
between the west and the south-south-west 
points; 2°. The average velocity of progres- 
sion was about one mile in two minutes. 

From what we already know of the atmos- 
pheric conditions necessary to the production 
of tornadoes, it seems probable that in the 
future it may be practicable for the general 
weather service in Washington to send out 
warnings a day in advance to large regions 
of country within which tornadoes are likely 
to occur. These warnings would necessarily 
be of a very general nature. They would 
simply state that the conditions were such on 
two sides of a large region (like the state of 
Wisconsin, for example) as to make it probable 
that tornadoes would occur somewhere inside 
that region within twenty-four hours. The 
local weather services of states like Ohio and 
Iowa could, perhaps, make these predictions a 
little more specific; but there is no prospect 
whatever that warnings of any particular tor- 
nado can be given in the immediate future. 
It can be said, that, within a district five hun- 
dred miles square, tornadoes are likely to occur 
within twenty-four hours, and such a warn- 
ing would be of value; but it does not seem 
to be probable that it can be said that a par- 
ticular thirty miles square of this region is 
in particular danger. Under these circum- 
stances, it is of interest and importance to in- 
quire whether some efficient method of local 
warnings cannot be devised. If five minutes’ 
warning could have been given at any of the 
late tornadoes, many lives might have been 
saved. If each household could be warned by 
the continuous ringing of a bell, for example, 
that a wind of destructive force (say, seventy 
miles per hour and upwards) was approaching, 
and that five minutes were available in which 


: % Sa if / 
ee Ye eee: aoe 7 - — 


SCIENCE: 


521 


to seek shelter, this wcould be well worth do- 
ing. % 

A wind of seventy miles an».hour is suflicient 
to blow down chimneys and to unteoaf houses, 
unless they are well built. Ordinary trees: will 
not stand under it. The pressure on a squanre 
foot is in the neighborhood of fifty pounds. ~ 
There might be occasions where seventy miles 
would be the maximum wind-velocity ; and the 
person who had taken refuge in the cellar might 
be inclined, after the gust had blown over, to 
find fault with the indicator which had predicted 
a tornado, when only a violent gale occurred. 
But such storms do not occur as often as once 
a year; and it would seem that one could afford 
to be frightened as frequently as this for the 
sake of immunity from an occasional tornado, 
which might be following in the track of such 
a violent gale. 

I have found that it is practicable to erect, 
at a moderate expense (less than five hundred 
dollars), an apparatus which would give from 
three to five minutes’ warning to all the inhabit- 
ants of a small town, by the firing of a cannon, 
for instance ; and in addition, and without any 
increased expense, this apparatus could ring a 
bell in every house. The additional expense 
to each house would be less than ten dollars, 
the cost of maintenance would be less than a 
hundred dollars a year, and the work could 
be done by any intelligent person. The sys- 
tem, for a small town, would be something 
like the following: suppose a circle described 
about the town with a radius of from two to 
two and one-half miles. The only serious 
danger from tornadoes is to be feared from the 
part of this circle between the west point and 
the south-south-west point. Along the cir- 
cumference of this circle, between the south- 
south-west and west points, run a line of single 
telegraph-wire on twenty posts to the mile, 
and from the west point bring the wire into the 
town, letting it end at the telegraph-oftice. 
It is grounded at each end of the line, and at 
the telegraph-office it is connected with a bat- 
tery, which sends a constant current over the 
line. Within the town, connection is made in 
various houses with magnets. Each magnet 
holds a detent, which prevents a bell from be- 
ing rung by the action of a cheap clock-work 
governed by a coiled spring. If the cireuit is 
broken anywhere in the line, each bell begins 
to ring, and continues to sound till its spring 
is run down; for four or five minutes, for ex- 
ample. A cannon could be fired by a simple 
device, which would warn persons in the fields, 
etc., to seek shelter. In a large town the 
circuit might end in one of the engine-houses 


522 


artment, atts ring a bell bi 
soll for the man on watch 
This aimee eS simultaneously through 
BD ie Use: -wircuits as desirable. 
uns en to indicate the way in which the 
‘eis to be broken by the wind. The cir- 
i of telegraph-poles from the south-south- 
west to the west points would contain about fifty 
poles. On every one of these the wire would 
run first to an insulator, then to an iron hori- 
zontal axis screwed into the side of the post. 
On this axis a piece of board one foot square 
‘can revolve freely. An iron rod projects be- 
low this board, and from the lower end of it a 
small wire goes to a pin in the telegraph-pole. 
This pin is connected by wire to a second in- 
sulator. From this the line goes to the next 
pole, and so on. ‘The circuit ordinarily passes 
to the first insulator, thence to the iron rod, 
thenee down the iron rod to the thin wire, 
through the pin and to the second insulator, 
and so to the next telegraph-pole. The thin 
wire is a necessary part of the circuit. It is 
so made that it will break when the pressure 
of the wind on the square board is fifty pounds. 
The apparatus for each post is tested practi- 
cally before itis set up. This can be done at 
any time in a simple manner. Whenever any 
single one of these boards is subjected to the 
pressure of fifty pounds, its wire will be rup- 
_ tured, and the circuit ‘will be broken, thus 
sending the necessary warning along the whole 
line. 

I have made one such indicator, which is 
connected with a small bell in this observatory. 
The wire is arranged so that it breaks at a 
wind-velocity of about ten miles per hour, 
and it works in a perfectly successful manner. 
The extension of the system for the protec- 
tion of a small town is a simple matter. For 
a large city a more expensive system would 
have to be provided, as the wires between 
poles should be carried underground to pro- 
tect them from the chance of disturbance, 

I need not enlarge on the details of the 
scheme, since they can be worked out by any 
one who is at all familiar with electrical con- 
structions. I believe that I have considered 
all the practical difficulties, and that there are 
none of any importance. It is a very simple 
matter to provide for the inspection of the 
line, bells, etc., so as not to interfere with the 
working of the system, and so that false 
alarms will not be given. 

The point I wish to emphasize is, that a prac- 
tical and cheap system of local warnings can 
be had, and that it ought to be considered by 
those who live in districts subject to tornadoes. 


of the fire-dep 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 37. 


The particular manner in which the aboye- 
described device is to be employed is a question 
to be settled by the particular circumstances of 
each case. I have only described the simplest 
and cheapest form, but this has been proved 
by trial to be efficient. 

I may just mention, that, by employing a 
spring balance to hold the board in position, 
it is possible to provide an indicator which 
will break the circuit at any desired velocity 
of wind. 

To any one who has seen the effects of a 
tornado, or even to one who has simply read 
that in this year alone several hundreds of — 
lives have been lost from their violence, it will 
appear that the question of erecting systems 
for local warnings ought to be seriously consid- 
ered by persons living in exposed regions. 

Epwarp S. Horpen. 


THE WILD TRIBES OF LUZON. 


Wuen the Malays took possession of the 
Philippines, they either found there, or were 
soon joined by, Japanese, Chinese, Siamese, 
Javanese, and Dyaks from Borneo and Celebes, 
all waging war against the Papuans, who had 


gone there from the south-east, if they were 


not aborigines. Under these circumstances, 
we should expect to find the present natives a 
very mixed race, who have received different 
names, according to the predominating charac- 
ters in each locality. There is no unanimity of 
opinion among those who have studied the 
people in their own homes, and I think it im- 
possible wholly to unravel the tangled skein of 
races. The following is what, from my obser- 
vation and reading, I think a fair approxima- 
tion to the truth. 

The name of Jgorrote has been applied to 
almost every wild tribe except the Negritos. I 
agree with Dr. Semper that it should be re- 
stricted to those of northern Luzon, who are 
hybrids of Japanese and Chinese with the 
Indians, differing somewhat in features and 
customs, according to the principal admixture. 

In the Igorrote the stature is small, with — 
well-developed form, indicating great strength 
with little symmetry; color very dark; eyes 
oblique ; hair long, and, in the women, combed 
in Chinese fashion; nose flat, lips thick, mouth 
large, and cheeks wide. Houses mere huts, 
on the ground or raised on posts, shaped like 
a beehive, with furniture of the rudest deserip- 
tion, — arms, hatchets, lances, daggers, bows 
and arrows, frequently poisoned, of bamboo, 
and shields. Their presence would be ac- 
counted for as the descendants of the army of 


OcToBER 19, 1883.] 


the Chinese pirate, Li Mahon, whose fleet was 
destroyed after his attack on Manila in 1574. 
The fugitives escaped to the mountains; and 
for more than three centuries these wild hy- 
brids between Chinese and Indian have defied 
the power of Spain. They have many dialects, 
hut the Igorrote proper is spoken by over ten 


iit. 


Niet 


3 aan) wr 
j Mh 


SCIENCE. 


aquiline nose. 


523 


habit northern Ilocos. They are of finer shape, 
lighter color, with less oblique eyes, and more 
In their habits, music, and love 
for porcelain vases, they resemble the Japanese, 
and have probably descended from the union 
of crews of junks, driven to Luzon by the 
northern monsoon, and the neighboring tribes. 


IGORROTES OF LUZON. 


thousand people. ‘They are not wholly savage, 
except in the remote mountainous districts. 
Their customs are simple and patriarchal. It 
is only of late years that they have consented 
to bury their dead, instead of exposing them 
to decay in the air. 

The name of Tinguians has been given to 
the hybrids of Japanese and Indians who in- 


They number over nine thousand: in twenty 
villages. Their dress and arms are much like 
those of the Igorrotes, but they have borrowed 
from their enemies the Gaddans the custom of 
preserving as trophies the heads of those killed 
in battle. They are said to mummify their 
dead by heat. 

The Gaddans and Jfuagos, numbering about 


524 


ten thousand, resemble in-their appearance 
and customs the Dyaks of Borneo. Many 
dwell in the provinces of the Camarines, where 
they have preserved their independence. They 
haye traditions of great antiquity, and speak 
the Vicol dialect as well as their own. They 
were evidently here before the Mahometan 
Malays, by whom they have been driven to 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 37. 


The above-mentioned races are what the 
Spanish writers call the infidels, and may or 
may not be Igorrotes. Samurit KNeeLanp. 


THE WEATHER IN AUGUST, 1888. 


Tue monthly review of the U. S. signal- 
service shows that in August there were two 


GADDAN OF LUZON. 


the mountains. They are hostile to all for- 
eigners. Their mode of life is patriarchal, the 
head of a family recognizing no superior au- 
thority. From the resemblance of the skulls 
of some of these wild tribes to those of the 
people of Sunda, Borneo, and Celebes, and 
the occurrence of similar ones in the long dis- 
used cayerns, it seems undeniable that there is 
among them a considerable Dyalx mixture, and 
that from a very remote period. 


features of special note. ‘These are, 1°, the 
low temperatures which prevailed over nearly 
the whole country ; 2°, the small rainfall, which 
was below the average in nearly every district. 
Other important features were a few destruc- 
tive storms, and the opening of the hurricane 
season, as will be referred to below. 

The pressure has been above the normal, 
except on the Atlantic coast; the greatest 
excess, 0.08 inch, occurring in the upper Mis- 


OcTOBER 19, 1883.] 


sissippi and Missouri valleys, where, also, the 
lowest temperature departures were recorded. 
Six barometric depressions were charted in 
their progress, and a seventh begun, as the 
month closed. Of these, one only visited the 
southern states: this developed in Mississippi, 
passed off the Virginia coast, and across the 
Atlantic to the Irish coast, being a severe storm 
all along its passage. Of the other depressions, 


SCIENCE. 


525 


on the upper lakes on the 22d, and remarkably 
heavy rains on the North Carolina coast on the 
16th. The storms on the Atlantic were espe- 
cially prominent, and the general character of 
the weather on the ocean during the whole 
month was stormy. Five depressions were 
traced nearly across the Atlantic, two of which 
were genuine hurricanes. ‘The first moved 
north-westward at a considerable distance from 


GADDAN WOMAN. 


one developed in the Rocky Mountains, and 
was traced to the British coast, and another 
entered the country in the extreme south-west, 
moved south-easterly to the North Carolina 
coast, and in the ocean probably united with 
a tropical hurricane which was then moving up 
the Atlantic. None of the storms were traced 
from the Pacific coast over the Rocky Moun- 
tains. The storms left no disastrous effects in 
the United States; but there were violent gales 


the Atlantic coast, between the 19th and 24th, 
when it curved to the north-eastward near the 
Bermudas. Reaching the Banks on the 26th, 
it caused great damage to the fishing-fleet, the 
reports showing a loss of eighty lives and one 
hundred dories, while many fishing-vessels were 
swamped ordisabled. Vessels on the Atlantic 
report severe gales during its further passage, 
but its severity decreased as it approached the 
Irish coast on the 29th. The lowest pressure 


Mr] oe ony 


526 2 SCIENCE. [Von Il., No. 87. 


\W.8.HAZEN, 
Siganl Officer. 
Observntian e (or the Signal Service, 
Rp are taken at7AM.3PMeil Z 


and Bvt.Maj, Gea). 0:3 Army 


SECAETARY OF WAR. 


Chiof Si; 


u 
x 
* 
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) 
© 
Ww 
o 
KE 
) 
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a 
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u 
= 
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a 
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Brig, 


MONTHLY MEAN ISOBARS, ISOTHERMS, AND WIND-DIRECTIONS, AUGUST, 1883. REPRINTED IN[REDUCED FORM 
BY PERMISSION OF THE CHIEF SIGNAL-OFFICER. 


OcTOBER 19, 1883.] 


noted was 28.9 inches. The second hurricane 
came from the West Indies about the 24th, and 
reached the Banks on the 29th, only three days 
after the passage of the former hurricane, re- 
peating the disasters to the fishing-vessels. Its 
violence was great as it.continued across the 
Atlantic, and approached the British coasts 
early in September. As this storm passed up 
the Atlantic, very high tides were experienced 
on the coast, much damage being thereby in- 
flicted on the New Jersey shore on the 29th. 
Very few icebergs were reported during the 
month. 

The average temperatures were aboye the 
normal only in Florida, the Rio Grande valley, 
and in the middle and southern portions of the 
Rocky Mountain region, the departures being 
within a degree, except at Salt Lake City (2°). 
In other districts the departures ranged from 
0°.1, in the eastern Gulf states, to 4°.4, in the 
upper Mississippi valley. Yuma, Arizona, 
reports a mean temperature of 91°, and a maxi- 
mum of 111°. Frosts were reported from the 
northern states, especially at the end of the 
month. 


Average precipitation for August, 1883. 


| Average for August. 
Signal-service observa- | Comparison of 
Districts. - tions. August, — 1883, 
with the average 
He cue For 1883. for several years. 
Inches. Inches. Inches. 
New England .. 4.33 1.53 2.80 deficiency. 
Middle Atlantic states. 4.95 3.20 1.75 deficiency. 
South Atlantic states . 6.43 7.51- | 0.72 deficiency. 
Florida peninsula . 7.67 5.69 1.98 deficiency. 
Eastern gulf . 6.33 4.39 1.94 deficiency. 
Western gulf . 4.27 1.62 2.65 deficiency. 
Teunessee. . . . 3.92 3.51 0.41 deficiency. 
Obio valley .. , 3.70 1.94 1.76 deficiency. 
Lower lakes . 2.91 2.30 0.61 deficiency. 
Upper lakes 3.12 1.25 1.87 deficiency. 
Extreme north-west . . 2.50 2.70 0.20 excess. 
ae =e Pers 3.40 1.87 1.53 deficiency. 
rivalley . . 2.81 2.52 0.29 deficiency. 
Northern slope . 1.39 1.83 0.44 excess. 
Middle slope 1.42 3.65 2.23 excess. 
Southern slope . 2.99 1.95 1.04 deficiency. 
‘Southern plateau 3.16 2.26 0.90 deficiency. 
North Pacific coast. 0.78 0.08 0.70 deficiency. 
Middle Pacific coast 0.02 0.00 0.02 deficiency. 
South Pacific coast. 0.22 0.07 0.15 deficiency. 
Mt. Washington, N. a «| 7.67 6.06 1.61 deficiency. 
Pike’s Peak, Col. . . «| 4.81 2.22 | 2.59 deficiency. 
Salt Lake City, Utah | 0.88 0.62 0.26 deficiency. 
Brownsville, Tex... .| 5.94 1.97 3.97 deficiency. 
/ 


The rainfall record can be best shown by 
the above table, which shows the unusual defi- 
ciency of the month in almost every section, 
which especially affected the crops in the south. 
Remarkably heavy rains were recorded in a 
few instancés, —10.38 inches at Griffin, Ga., 
in eight hours ; and 8.14 inches at Kittyhawk, 
N.C., in four hours. In the cotton region the 
rainfall was much less than in August of last 


SCIENCE. 


527 


year, the amount at New Orleans being 2.70 
inches, against §.38 inches a year ago. 

Local storms were not numerous, but were 
quite severe, especially in Iowa, on the 7th and 
8th. -On the 21st there was a veritable tor- 
nado in Minnesota, which devastated the town 
of Rochester, causing a loss of over thirty 
lives, and much damage to property. 

Seven auroral displays occurred, but none 
were of especial note. The following electr ical 
phenomenon is reported from Pike’s ; Peak : — 

‘*The observer on the summit of Pike’s 
Peak, Col., reported that during a sleet and 
thunder storm, on the evening of the 4th, the 
anemometer cups revolved in circles of electric 
light. After a flash of lightning, the light en- 
circling the cups became dim, but would soon 
regain its former brilliancy. The observer 
states, that, by holding up his hands, electrie 
sparks would form on the ends of his fingers, 
and that his hair and clothing were full of them. 
A peculiar crackling noise was heard about the 
anemometer cups; and at the corners of the 
office building there were continuous sparks of 
bright light.’’ 

Earthquake-shocks occurred at Oakland, 
Cal., Carson City, Nev., St. Thomas, W.I. At 
the last-named place a tidal wave occurred on 
the 27th, and at San Francisco on the 27th and 
28th. Earthquake waves, whose height was one 
foot, and time between crests forty minutes, 
were recorded on the Saucelito tide-gauge. It 
is supposed they were caused by the earth- 
quake in Java on the 27th. 

A dense smoke, due to forest-fires in Oregon 
and Washington, Idaho and Montana territo- 
ries, prevailed during a greater part of the 
month, and extended on the Pacific coast as 
far south as Cape Mendocino, and thence east- 
ward to eastern Montana, Dakota, and Min- 
nesota. 

The accompanying chart exhibits the mean 
pressure, temperature, and wind-direction, for 
the month. 


THE INVENTION AND SPREAD OF 
BRONZE. 


AT the thirteenth session of the German anthro- 
pological congress, held at Trier early in August, 
Professor Rudolph Virchow, the president, gave an 
address, the substance of which we quote from the 
Frankfurter zeitung of Aug. 11. 

In beginning the president remarked, that, in the 
choice of Trier as the place of assembly for this 
year’s congress, it was considered that the city and 
its surroundings were especially suited by their situa- 
tion for the solution of the often-broached question 
of celts. The speaker then reviewed in a general 


way the present condition of anthropological re- 
search, paying especial attention to the first appear- 
ance of bronze in Europe. The question, when did 
the metal first come into use in our part of the world, 
is certainly one of the most important which an- 
thropological science has to consider, and in order 
to provide the necessary material for its solution, 
wherever individual investigators or scientific so- 
cieties are active, the territorial relations should be 
first examined, and, without drawing general con- 
clusions, the localities or the strata in which the 
discoveries are made should be determined; for, how- 
ever many investigations have already been under- 
taken in this branch of anthropology, the boundary 
where the stone age ceases and the metal age begins 
has not yet been definitely decided for any locality. 
A difficulty which arises in answering the question, 
does this or that settlement, this or that discovery, 
belong to the stone or bronze age, must not be passed 
in silence, since neglect of it has frequently led to 
mistakes. The difficulty is, that at one time, when 
metal was already common, stone implements were 
used both by poorer people, who were not able to 
obtain the expensive tools, and for ritualistie pur- 
poses. A circumstance which next comes into con- 
sideration, and which renders difficult in no little 
degree the determination of the epoch to which 
certain discoveries belong, is that the river-sand, silt, 
ete., in which the objects were found, often change 
their positions. 

Passing to a general consideration of the bronze 
age, the speaker said that the answer to the question, 
where did the invention of this alloy originate, is 
one of the most important problems for anthropo- 
logical research. There are two widely differing 
views on this subject: 1°, that of investigators who 


assume that bronze was invented at different times - 


and in different places, independently of each other; 
and, 2°, that of those who assert that the invention 
was made at one place, and thence the use of the 
metal spread. In opposition to the first-mentioned as- 
sumption, is the fact that the bronze objects scattered 
over many regions show in their composition a con- 
siderable agreement, and, almost without exception, 
are composed of a mixture of nine parts copper and 
one part tin, as are by far the majority of those 
which are found in the countries lying between the 
Caucasus and Portugal. Even if the moisture of the 
earth and atmospheric influences affect the various 
components of the alloy in various ways, and a part of 
the copper is destroyed or altered, the bronze objects, 
as a whole, are affected in the same way; and the ap- 
pearance of a very similar composition, in regions far 
removed from each other, points with convincing 
foree to the conclusion that the invention of this 
mixture was made in one place, and its use was 
thence spread. Further, as to how bronze was in- 
troduced into Europe, we find also various opinions 
not very harmonious with each other. Some inves- 
tizators naturally claim that it was through the 
Phoenicians, of whom we know that in ancient time 


they carried on a trade extending over the whole - 


Mediterranean, and that while Cyprus, one of the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 37. 


chief centres for copper ore, —from this island cop- 
per (Latin, euprum) received its name,—lay in 
their immediate neighborhood, they passed in their 
voyages the Pillars of Hercules, and visited the ‘ tin- 
island’ (Great Britain). From the Phoenician trade- 
stations on the coast of the Mediterranean, among 
which the Massilian colony (Marseilles) played an 
important part, trade-roads into the interior were 
probably built. Many investigators suppose the 
spread of bronze was through commercial activity. 
Whether this view is true, is not easy to determine; 
since trade-settlements, which, as a rule, exert no, or 
at most only a transient, influence over the majority 
of the colonies and customs with which they come 
in contact, as soon as they cease to exist, can seldom 
be traced. The speaker, in his researches in Sicily, 
where, as is well known, the Carthaginians, also a 
people of Phoenician origin, were for a long time 
settled, could find no traces which indicated ‘this 
settlement. Further, it is also well known that the 
trade supremacy which Pisa on the Mediterranean, 
and Genoa on the Black Sea, once exercised, has left 
on the coasts bordering these seas no traces worth 
mentioning. But, supposing that bronze was scattered 
by the commerce of the Phoenicians, it by no means 
proves that they were the inventors of this alloy. 
The speaker, on the whole, was much more inclined, 
with reservation of his decision, to place this inven- 
tion farther to the east, in central Asia. 

Besides the view just mentioned, which considers 
the commercial activity of the Phoenicians as the 
agent by which that advance in culture signalized 
by the use of metal implements was brought about, 
there is a theory lately advanced by Hochstetter, 
which deserves mention because it completely aban- 
dons the views formerly held. Hochstetter bases 
his assumptions on the discoveries in the graves at 
Hallstadt (first described by Sacken), and on certain 
discoveries at Watsch (Carniola), which show an in- 
teresting similarity to the former.! From these data, 
Hochstetter traces the identity of bronze manufac- 
ture in Hallstadt and upper Italy, and comes to the 
conclusion that this manufacture originated with the 
Aryans, and that the use of bronze for weapons and 
vessels had been common among this people a long 
time before the Aryan races wandered from their 
Asiatic home to Europe; while, at the same time, he 
denies the Etruscan origin of the findings at Hall- 
stadt, Watsch, and Este, and assumes that the 
bronzes found in Italy, so far as they were not 
brought there by the Aryans inhabiting Italy, were 
imported from Greece. 

Against these conclusions, surprising by their noy- 
elty, Virehow asserts, that in case the Aryans, in 
their wanderings to the west, had taken bronze with 
them, we must expect to find traces of its use on the 
highways, which they presumably followed in their 

1A situla dug up at Watsch exhibits the same decoration as 
those found at Hallstadt, and contains, among other things, a rep- 
resentation of warriors, who are equipped with four different 
kinds of helmets, such as may be reconstructed from the discoy- 
eries at Hallstadt. Objects corresponding to the Watsch bronzes 
were found also in Este (North Italy). 


OcTOBER 19, 1883.] 


, 


advance ; for example, in the yalley of the Donau. 
Especially in regard to the Caucasus, his investigations 
in the region convinced him that no people already 
sufficiently civilized to employ metals could have 
passed over this range; and, on account of the geo- 
graphical relations, we must assume that the Aryan 
peoples first divided in central Asia, and separated 
widely along the northern coast of the Aral and Cas- 
pian seas, and then proceeded through modern Rus- 
sia, where the characteristic bronzes are not found, 
or westward through Asia Minor. Once in Greece, 
it is highly probable that Italy was their next step. 
A fact brought forward by Hochstetter in support of 
his theory — viz., the lack of ribbed bronzes, Mestea 
dicordoni— has proved a mistake. A point of attack 
is presented by the same investigator, in his assertion 
that the discoveries at Hallstadt do not date back of 
the second millenary before the Christian era, and 
immediately preceded the Roman civilization; and 
that, at the time of the subjugation of Noricum by 
Rome, the manufacture of bronze already existed. 

At the close of his address, Virchow merely touched 
upon other anthropological questions, and pointed 
out that philology and archeology alone were not in 
condition to relieve the darkness which still con- 
cealed the invention and spread of bronze; and that 
somatic anthropology, i.e., the investigation of the 
physical constitution of the peoples under consider- 
ation, as seen from the bones preserved to us, may 
here have a final word to say, and may, perhaps, 
answer the important question, whether the cultiva- 
tion of central Europe is to be traced to the influ- 
ence of two different families, or to only one, the 
Aryan. 


THE VEGETATION OF THE CARBO- 
NIFEROUS AGE. 


Moca of the second decade of my life was spent in 
the practical pursuit of geology in the field; and 
throughout most of that period I enjoyed almost daily 
intercourse with William Smith, the father of Eng- 
lish geology. But, in later years, circumstances re- 
stricted my studies to the paleontological side of the 
science : hence I was anxious that the council of 
the British association should place in this chair 
some one more familiar than myself with the later 
developments’ of geographical geology. But my 
friend, Professor Bonney, failing to recognize the 
force of my objections, intimated to me that I might 
render some service to the association by placing be- 
fore you a sketch of the present state of our knowl- 
edge of the vegetation of the carboniferous age. 

This being a subject respecting which I have 
formed some definite opinions, l am going to act 
upon the suggestion. To some this may savor of 
*shop-talk;’ but such is often the only talk which a 
man can indulge in intelligently: and to close his 


1 Opening address before the section of geology of the British 
association for the advancement of science. By Prof. W. C. 
Wririamson, LL.D., F.R.S., president of the section. From 
advance sheets kindly furnished by the editor of Nature. 


7 


SCIENCE. 


529 


mouth on his special themes may compel him either 
to talk nonsense or to be silent. 

Whilst undertaking this task, I am alive to the 
difficulties which surround it, especially those arising 
from the wide differences of opinion amongst paleo- 
botanists omsome fundamental points. On some of 
the most important of these there is a substantial 
agreement between the English and German paleon- 
tologists. The dissentients are chiefly, though not 
entirely, to be found amongst those of France, who 
have, in my humble opinion, been unduly influenced 
by what is in itself a noble motive ; viz., a strong rev- 
erence for the views of their illustrious teacher, the 
late Adolphe Brongniart. Such a tendency speaks 
well for their hearts; though it may, in these days of 
rapid scientific progress, seriously mislead their heads. 
I shall, however, endeavor to put before you faith- 
fully the views entertained by my dis‘inguished 
French friends, M. Renault, M, Grand-Eury, and the 
Marquis of Saporta, giving, at the same time, what I 
deem to be good reasons for not agreeing with them. 
I believe that many of our disagreements arise from 
geological differences between the French carbonifer- 
ous strata and those in our own islands. There are 
some important types of carboniferous plants that 
appear to be much better represented amongst us than 
in France: hence we have, I believe, more abundant 
material than the French paleontologists possess, for 
arriving at sound conclusions respecting these plants. 
We have rich sources, supplying specimens in which 
the internal organization is preserved, in eastern 
Lancashire and western Yorkshire, Arran, Burnt- 
island, and other scattered localities: France has 
equally rich localities at Autun and at St. Etienne. 
But some important difference exists between these 
localities. The French objects are preserved in an 
impracticable siliceous matrix, extremely trouble- 
some to work, except.in specimens of small size: 
ours, on the other hand, are chiefly embedded in a 
caleareous material, which, whilst it preserves the 
objects in an exquisite manner, does not prevent our 
dissecting examples of considerable magnitude. But, 
besides this, we are much richer in huge Lepidoden- 
droid and Sigillarian trees, with their Stigmarian 
roots, than the French are: hence we have a vast 
mass of material illustrating the history of these 
types of vegetation, in which they seem to be serious- 
ly deficient. This fact alone appears to me sufficient 
to account for many of the wide differences of opin- 
ion that exist between us, respecting these trees. My 
second difficulty springs out of the imperfect state of 
our knowledge of the subject. One prominent cause 
of this imperfection lies in the state in whieh our 
specimens are found. They are not only too fre- 
quently fragmentary, but most of those fragments 
only present the external forms of the objects. Now, 
mere external forms of fossil plants are somewhat like 
similarities of sound in the comparative study of lan- 
guages: they are too often unsafe guides. On the 
other hand, microscopie internal organizations in 
the former subjects are like grammatical indentities 
in the latter one: they indicate deep affinities that 
promise to guide the student safely to philosophical 


530 


conclusions. But the common state in which our 
fossil plants are preserved presents a source of error 
that is positive as well as negative. Most of those 
from our coal-measures consist of inorganic shale, 
sandstone, or ironstone, invested by a very thin layer 
of structureless coal. ‘The surface of the inorganic 
substance is moulded into some special form, depend- 
ent upon structural peculiarities of the living plants; 
which structures were sometimes external, some- 
times internal, and sometimes intermediate ones. 
Upon this inorganic cast we find the thin film of 
structureless coal, which, though of organic origin, 
is practically as inorganic as the clay or sandstone 
which it invests ; but its surface displays specific 
sculpturings, which are apt to be regarded as always 
representing the outermost surface of the plant when 
liying, whereas this is not always the case. That the 
coaly film is a relic of the carbonaceous substance of 
the living plant is unquestionable ; but the thinnest 
of these films are often the sole remaining represen- 
tatives of structures that must originally have been 
many inches, and in some instances even many feet, 
in thickness. In such cases most of the organic ma- 
terial has been dissipated, and what little remains 
has often been consolidated in such a way that it is 
merely moulded upon the sculptured inorganic sub- 
stance which it covers, and hence affords no infor- 
mation respecting the exterior of the fossil when a 
living organism. It is, in my opinion, from speci- 
mens like these, that the smooth bark of the Calamite 
has been credited with a fluted surface, and the 
Trigonocarpons with a merely triangular exterior and 
a misleading name, as it long caused the inorganic 
casts known as Sternbergiae to be deemed a strange 
form of plant, that had no representative amongst 
living types. In other cases the outermost surface 
of the bark is brought into close contact with the 
surface of the vascular cylinder. I have a Stigmaria 
in which the bases of the rootlets appear to be planted 
directly upon that cylinder, the whole of the thick 
intermediate bark having disappeared. In other ex- 
amples, that vascular zone has also gone. Thus the 
innermost and outermost surfaces of a cylinder, origi- 
nally many inches apart, are, through the disappear- 
ance of the intermediate structures, brought into 
close approximation. In such cases, leaves and other 
external appendages appear to spring directly from 
what is merely an inorganic cast of the interior of 
the pith. I believe that many of our Calamites are 
in this condition. Such examples have suggested 
the erroneous idea that the characteristic longitudi- 
nal flutings belong to the exterior of the bark. 

Fungi. — Entering upon a more detailed review of 
our knowledge of the carboniferous plants, and com- 
mencing at the bottom of the scale, we come to the 
lowly group of the fungi, which are unquestionably 
represented by the Peronosporites antiquarius! of 
Worthington Smith. There seems little reason for 
doubting that this is one of the phycomycetous fungi, 
possibly somewhat allied to the Saprolegnieae; but 
since we have, as yet, no evidence respecting its fructi- 
fication, these closer relationships must for the present 

1 Memoir xi. p. 299. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. Il,, No. 37. 


remain undetermined. So far as I know, this is the 
only fungus satisfactorily proved to exist in the car- 
boniferous rocks, unless the Excipulites Neesii of 
Goeppert, and one or two allied forms, belong to the 
fungoid group. The Polyporites Bowmanni is un- 
questionably a scale of a holoptychian fish. 

Algae. —Numerous objects supposed to belong to 
this family have been discovered in much older rocks 
than carboniferous ones. The subject is a thorny 
one. That marine plants of some kind must have 
existed simultaneously with the molluscous and other 
plant-eating animals of paleozoic times, is obviously 
indisputable; but what those plants were is another 
question. The widest differences of opinion exist 
in reference to many of them. A considerable num- 
ber of those recognized by: Schimper, Saporta, and 
other paleobotanists, are declared by Nathorst to be 
merely inorganic tracks of marine animals; and, in 
the case of many of these, I have little doubt that 
the Swedish geologist is right. Others have been 
shown to be imperfectly preserved fragments of 
plants of much higher organization than algae, 
branches of conifers even being included amongst 
them. I have, as yet, seen none of carboniferous age 
that could be indisputably identified with the family 
of algae, though there are many that look like and 
may probably be such. The microscope alone can 
settle this question, though even this instrument 
fails to secure unity of opinion in the case of Daw- 
son’s Prototaxites; and no other of the supposed sea- 
weeds hitherto discovered have been sufficiently well 
preserved to bear the microscopic test: hence I think 
that their existence in carboniferous rocks can only 
beregarded as an unproven probability. Mere super- 
ficial resemblances do not satisfy the severe demands 
of modern science, and probabilities are an insufii- 
cient foundation upon which to build evolutionary 
theories. 

Seeing what extremely delicate cell-structures are 
preserved in the carboniferous beds, it cannot appear 
other than strange that the few imperfect fungoid 
relics just referred to constitute the only terrestrial 
cellular eryptogams that have been discovered in the 
carboniferous strata. The Darwinian doctrine would 
suggest that these lower forms of plant-life ought to 
have abounded in that primeval age; and that they 
were capable of being preserved is proved by the 
numerous specimens met with in tertiary deposits. 
Why we do not find such in the paleozoic beds is 
still an unsolved problem. 

Vascular cryptogams.— The vascular cryptogams, 
next to be considered, burst upon us almost sudden- 
ly, and in rich profusion, during the Devonian age. 
They are equally silent in the Devonian and carbonif- 
erous Strata as to their ancestral descent. 

Ferns. — The older taxonomic literature of paleo- 
zoic fern-life is, with few exceptions, of little scien- 
tific value. Hooker and others have uttered in yain 
wise protests against the system that has been pur- 
sued. Small fragments have had generic and specific 
names assigned to them, with supreme indifference 
to the study of morphological variability amongst 
living types. The undifferentiated tip of a terminal 


OcroBER 19, 1883.] 


pinnule has had its special name, whilst the more 
developed structures forming the lower part of a 
frond haye supplied two or three more species. 
Then the distinet forms of the fertile fronds may 
have furnished additional ones, whilst a further cause 
of confusion is seen in the wide difference existing 
between a young, half-developed seedling and the 
same plant at an advanced stage of its growth. Any 
one who has watched the development of a young 
Polypodium aureum can appreciate this difference. 
Yet, in the early stages of paleontological research, 
observers could scarcely have acted otherwise than 
as they did, in assigning names to these fragments, 
if only for temporary working purposes. Our error 
lies in misunderstanding the true value of such 
names. At present the study of fossil ferns is afford- 
ing some promise of a newer and healthier condition. 
We are slowly learning a little about the fructifica- 
tion of some species, and the internal organization 
of others. Facts of these kinds, cautiously inter- 
preted, are surer guides than mere external contours, 
Unfortunately, such facts are, as yet, but few in 
number; and, when we have them, we are too often 
unable to identify our detached sporangia, stems, and 
petioles, with the fronds of the plants to which they 
primarily belonged. 

That all the carboniferous plants included in the 
genera Pecopteris, Neuropteris, and Sphenopteris, are 
ferns, appears to be most probable; but what the true 
affinities of the objects included in these ill-defined 
genera may be, is very doubtful. Here and there we ob- 
tain glimpses of a more definite kind. That the Deyo- 
nian Palaeopteris hibernicais an hymenophyllous form 
appears to be almost certain; and, on corresponding 
grounds, we may concludethat the carboniferous forms, 
Sphenopteris trichomanoides, S. Humboldtii,! and 
Hymenophyllum Weissii,? belong to the same group. 
The fructification of the two latter leaves little room 
for doubting their position, whilst the foliage of some 
other species of Sphenopteris is suggestive of similar 
conclusions; but, until their fructification is discov- 
ered, this cannot bedetermined. An elegant form of 
Sphenopteris (S. tenella, Brong.; S. lanceolata of Gut- 
bier), recently described by Mr. Kidson of Stirling, 
abundantly justifies caution in dealing with these 
Sphenopterides. This plant possesses a true sphe- 
nopteroid foliage, but its fructification is that of a 
marattiaceous danaid. The sporangia are elongated 
vertically, and have the round terminal aperture of 
both the recent and fossil Danaiae, — a group of plants 
far removed from the hymenophyllaceous type of 
sphenopterid already referred to. 

Whether or not this Sphenopteris was really marat- 
tiaceous in other features than in its fruetification, is 
uncertain; but I think that we have indisputably got 
stems and petioles of Marattiaceae from the carbo- 
niferous strata. My friend M. Renault, and I, without 
being aware of the fact, simultaneously studied the 
Medullosa elegans of Colta. This plant was long 
regarded as the stem of a true monocotyledon, — a 
decision the accuracy of which was doubted first by 
Brongniart, and afterwards by Binney. M. Renault’s 

1 Schimper, vol. 1. p. 408. 2 Jbid., p. 415, 


7 
“Sa y/? LJ 


SCIENCE. 


531 


memoir, and my part vii., appeared almost simulta- 
neously. We then found that we had alike deter- 
mined the supposed monocotyledon to be not only a 
fern, but to belong to the peculiarly aberrant group 
of the Marattiaceae. As yet we know nothing of its 
foliage and fructification. 

M. Grand-Eury has figured! a remarkable series 
of ferns from the coal-measures of the basin of the 
Loire, the sporangia of which exhibit marked resem- 
blanees to those of the Marattiaceae. This is espe- 
cially the case with his specimens of Asterotheca and 
Scolecopteris,? as also with his Peeopteris Marattiae- 
theea, P. Angiotheca, and P. Danaeaetheca; but there 
is some doubt as to the dehiscence of the sporangia 
of these plants: hence their marattiaceous character 
is not absolutely established. 

That the coal-measures contain the remains of ar- 
borescent ferns has long been known, especially from 
their abundance at Autun. In Lancashire I have 
only met with the stems or petioles of one species 
preserving their internal organization. The Rev. H. 
H. Higgins obtained stems that appear to have been 
tree-ferns from Ravenhead, in Lancashire; and it is 
probable that most of the plants included in the gen- 
era Psaronius, Caulopteris, and Protopteris, are also 
tree-ferns. 

There yet remains another remarkable group of 
ferns, the sporangia of which are known tous through 
the researches of M. Renault. In these the fertile 
pinnules are more or less completely transmuted into 
small clusters of oblong sporangia. In one case, M. 
Renault believes that he has identified these organs 
with a stem or petiole of a type not uncommon at 
Oldham and Halifax, belonging to Corda’s genus 
Zygopteris. Renault has combined this with some 
others to constitute his group of Botryopteridées, an 
altogether extinct and generalized type. This review 
shows, that whilst forms identifiable with the Hyme- 
nophyllaceae and Marattiaceae existed in the carbonif- 
erous epoch, and we find here and there traces of 
affinities with some other more recent types, most 
of the earboniferous ferns are generalized primeval 
forms, which only become differentiated into later 
ones in the slow progress of time. 

Equisetaceae and Asterophylliteae (Brongniart), 
Calamariae (Endlicher), Equisetineae (Schimper). — 
Confusion culminates in the history of this variously 
named group: hence the subject is a most difficult 
one to treat in a concise way. The confusion began 
when Brongniart separated the plants contained in 
the group into two divisions, one of which (Equisé- 
tacés) he identified with the living equisetums, and 
the other (Astérophyllitées) he regarded as being 
gymnospermous dicotyledons. To Schimper belongs 
the merit, as I believe it to be, of steadily resisting 
this division; nevertheless, paleobotanists are still 


1 Flore carbonifére du Départment de la Loire et du centre de 
la France. 

2 Loc. cit., tab. viii., figs. 1-5. 

* Psaronius Renaultii, Memoir vii., p.10; and Memoir xii., pl. 
iv., fig. 16. hese and other similar references are to my series 
of memoirs on the organization of the fossil plants of the coal- 
measures, published in the Philosophical transactions. 


582 


separated into two schools on the subject. Dawson, 
Renault, Grand-Eury, and Saporta adhere to the 
Brongniartian idea; whilst the British and German 
paleontologists have always adopted the opposite 
view, rejecting the idea that any of these plants 
were other than cryptogams. 

A fundamental feature of the entire group is in 
the fact that their foliar appendages, however mor- 
phologically and physiologically modified, are arranged 
in nodal verticils. This appears to be the only char- 
acteristic which the plants possess in common. 

Calamites and Calamodendron.— In his ‘ Prodrome’ 
(1828), and in his later ‘ Végétaux fossiles,’? Bron- 
gniart adopted the former of these generic names as 
previously employed by Suckow, Schlotheim, Stern- 
berg, and Artis. It was only in his ‘ Tableau des genres 
de végétaux fossiles’ (Dictionnaire universel d’his- 
toire naturelle, 1849) that he divided the genus, intro- 
ducing the second name to represent what he believed 
to be the gymnospermous division of the group. A 
long series of investigations, extending over many 
years, has convinced me that no such gymnospermous 
» type exists.! The same conclusion has more recently 
been arrived at by Vom c. M. D. Stur,? after studying 
many continental examples in which structure is 
preserved. What I regard as an error appears to 
have had an intelligible origin, — the fertile source of 
similar errors in other groups. 

Nearly all the Calamitean fossils found in shales 
and sandstones consist of an inorganic, superficially 
fluted substance, coated over with a thin film of 
structureless coal (see * Histoire des végétaux fossiles,’ 
vol. i. pl. 22); the latter being exactly moulded upon 
and following the outlines of the inorganic fluted cast 
that underlies it. Brongniart, and those who adopt 
his views, believe that the external surface of this 
coal-film exactly represents the corresponding exter- 
nal surface of the original plant: hence the conclu- 
sion was arrived at, that the plant had a very large 
central fistular cavity, surrounded by a very thin layer 
of cellular and vascular tissues, as in some living 
equisetums. On the other hand, Brongniart also 
obtained some specimens of what he primarily be- 
lieved to be Calamites, in which the central pith was 
surrounded by a thick layer of woody tissue arranged 
in radiating laminated wedges, separated by medul- 
lary rays. The exogenous structure of this woody 
zone was too obvious to escape his practised eye. 
But, not supposing it possible that any eryptogam 
could possess a cambium-layer and an exogenous 
mode of development, Brongniart came to the con- 
clusion that the thin-walled specimens found in the 
shales and sandstones were true Equisetaceae, those 
with the thick, woody cylinders being mere ex- 
ogens of another type. His conclusion that they 
were gymnosperms was a purely hypothetical one, 
since justified by no one feature of their organiza- 
tion. 

My researches, based upon a vast number of speci- 
mens of all sizes, from minute twigs little more than 
the thirtieth of an inch in diameter to thick stems 

1 Memoirs i., ix., and xii. 
* Zur morphologie der calamarien. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 87. 


at least thirteen inches across, led me to the conclu- 
sion that we have but one type of calamite, and that 
the differences which misled Brongniart are merely 
due to variations in the mode of their preservation. 
It became clear to me that the outer surface of the 
coaly film in the specimens preserved in the shales 
and sandstones did not represent the outer surface 
of the living plant, but was only a fractional remnant 
of the carbon of that plant, which had undergone a 
complete metamorphosis. The greater part of what 
originally existed had disappeared, probably in a gas- 
eous state; and the little that remained, displaying no 
organic structure, had been moulded upon the under- 
lying inorganic cast of the medullary cavity. This 
cast is always fluted longitudinally, and constructed 
transversely at intervals of varying lengths. Both 
these features were due to impressions made by the 
organism upon the inorganic sand or mud filling the 
medullary cavity whilst it was in a plastie state, and 
which subsequently became more or less hardened; 
the longitudinal grooves being caused by the pressure 
of the inner angles of the numerous longitudinally 
vascular wedges, and the transverse ones partly by 
the remains of a cellular nodal diaphragm which 
crossed the fistular medullary cavity, and partly by 
a ‘centripetal encroachment of the vascular zone at 
each of the same points.” 

My cabinets contain an enormous number of sec- 
tions of these plants, in which the minutest details of 
their organization are exquisitely preserved. These 
specimens, as already observed, show their structure 
in every stage of their growth, —from the minutest 
twigs, to stems more than a foot in diameter. Yet. 
these various examples are all, without a solitary ex- 
ception, constructed upon one common plan. That 
plan is an extremely complicated one, —far too com- 
plex to make it in the slightest degree probable that 
it could co-exist in two such very different orders of 
plants as the Equisetaceae and the Gymnospermae. 
Yet, though very complex, it is, even in many of its 
minuter details, unmistakably the plan upon which © 
the living equisetums are constructed. The resem- 
blances are too clear, as well as too remarkable, in my 
mind, to leave room for any doubt on this point. 
The great differences are only such as necessarily 
resulted from the gradual attainment of the arbores- 
cent form so unlike the lowly herbaceous one of their 
living representatives. On the other hand, no living 
gymnosperm possesses an organization that in any 
solitary feature resembles that of the so-called Cala- 
modendra. The two haye absolutely nothing in 
common: hence the conclusion that these Calamo- 
dendra were gymnospermous plants is as arbitrary an 
assumption as could possibly be forced upon science, ~ 
—an assumption that no arguments derived from the 
merely external aspects of structureless specimens 
could ever induce me to accept. 

These Calamites exhibit a remarkable morphologi- 
cal characteristic, which presents itself to us here 
for the first time, but which we shall find reeurs in 
other paleozoic forms. Some of our French botani- 

1 Memoirs i, and ix. 
+ See Memoir i., pl. xxiy., fig. 10; and pl. xxvi., fig. 24. 


OcToBER 19, 1883. ] 


cal friends group the various structures contained in 
plants into several ‘ appareils,’ + distinguished by the 
functions which those structures have to perform. 
Amongst others, we find the ‘appareil de soutiens,’ 
embracing thosé hard, woody tissues which may be 
regarded as the supporting skeleton of the plant, and 
the ‘appareil conducteur,’ which M. van Tieghem 
describes as composed of two tissues,— ‘“‘le tissu 
eriblé qui transporte essentiellement les matiétres in- 
solubles, et le tissu vasculaire qui conduit l'eau et les 
substances dissoutes.’’ Without discussing the scien- 
tific limits of this definition, it suffices for my pres- 
ent purpose. In nearly all flowering plants these two 
‘appareils’ are more or less blended, The support- 
ing wood-cells are intermingled in varying degrees 
with the sap-conducting vessels. It is so, even in the 
lower gymnosperms; and in the higher ones these 
wood-cells almost entirely replace the vessels. It is 
altogether otherwise with the fossil ceryptogams. The 
vascular cylinder in the interior of the Calamites, for 
example, consists wholly of barred vessels, a slight 
modification of the scalariform type so common in all 
eryptogams, No trace of the ‘appareil de soutiens’ 
is to be found amongst them. The vessels are, in the 
most definite sense, the ‘appareils conducteurs’ of 
these plants. No such absolutely undifferentiated 
unity of tissue is to be found in any living plants 
other than cryptogams. 

But these Calamites, when living, towered high 
intotheair. My friend and colleague, Professor Boyd 
Dawkins, recently assisted me in measuring one 
found in the roof of the Moorside colliery, near Ash- 
ton-under-Lyne, by Mr. George Wild, the very intelli- 
gent manager of that and some neighboring collieries. 
The flattened specimen ran obliquely along the roof, 
each of its two extremities passing out of sight, bury- 
ing themselves in the opposite sides of the mine. Yet 
the portion whieh we measured was thirty feet long; 
its diameter being six inches at one end, and four 
inches and a half at the other. The mean length of 
its internodes at its broader end was three inches, 
and at its narrower one an inch and a half. What 
the real thickness of this specimen was when all its 
tissues were present, we have no means of judging; 
but the true diameter of the cylinder represented by 
the fossil when uncompressed has been only four 
inches at one end of the thirty feet, and: two inches 
and a half at the other. Whatever its entire diam- 
eter when living, the vascular cylinder of this stem 
must have been at once tall and slender, and conse- 
quently must have required some ‘appareil de sou- 
tien’ such as its exogenous vascular zone did not 
supply. This was provided in a very early stage of 
growth by the introduction of a second cambium- 
layer into the bark; which, though reminding us of 
the cork-cambium in ordinary exogenous stems, pro- 
duced, not cork, but prosenchymatous cells.2_ In its 
youngest state, the bark of the Calamites was a very 
loose cellular parenchyma; but in the older stems 
much of this parenchyma became enclosed in the pro- 
senchymatous tissue referred to, and which appears 


1 Van Tieghem, Traité de botanique, p. 679. 
» Memoir ix., pl. xx., figs. 14, 15, 18, 19, and 20. 


SCIENCE. 


533 


to have constituted the greater portion of the ma- 
tured bark. The sustaining skeleton of the plant, 
therefore, was a hollow cylinder, developed centrifu- 
gally on the inner side of an enclosing cambium- 
zone. That this cambium-zone must have had some 
protective periderm external to it, is obvious; but I 
have not yet discovered what it was like. We shall 
find a similar cortical provision for supporting lofty 
eryptogamous stems in the Lepidodendra and Sigil- 
lariae. 

The carboniferous rocks have furnished a large 
number of plants having their foliage arranged in 
verticils, and which have had a variety of generic 
names assigned to them. Such are Asterophyllites, 
Sphenophyllum, Annularia, Bechera, Hippurites, and 
Schizoneura. Of these genera, Sphenophyllum is 
distinguished by the small number of its wedge- 
shaped leaves ; and the structure of its stems has been 
described by M. Renault. Annularia is a peculiar 
form, in which the leaves forming each verticil, in- 
stead of being all planted at the same angle upon the 
central stem, are flattened obliquely nearly in the 
plane of the stem itself. Asterophyllites differs from 
Sphenophyllum chiefly in the larger number and in 
the linear form of its leaves. Some stems of this 
type have virtually the same structure! as those of 
Sphenophyllum,—a structure which differs widely 
from that of the Calamites, and of whfch, consequent- 
ly, these plants cannot constitute the leaf-bearing 
branches. But there is little doubt that true cala- 
mitean branches have been included in the genus 
Asterophyllites. I have specimens, for which I am 
indebted to Dr. Dawson, which I should unhesitat- 
ingly have designated Asterophyllites but for my 
friend’s positive statement that he detached them 
from stems of acalamite. Of the internal organiza- 
tion of the stems of the other genera named, we know 
nothing. 

It is a remarkable fact, that notwithstanding the 
number of young calamitean shoots that we haye ob- 
tained from Oldham and Halifax, in which the strue- 
ture is preserved, we have not met with one with the 
leaves attached. This is apparently due to the fact 
that most of the specimens are decorticated ones. 
We have a sufficient number of corticated specimens 
to show us what the bark was, but such specimens 
are notcommon. ‘They clearly prove, however, that 
their bark had a smooth, and not a furrowed, exter- 
nal surface. 

There yet remains for consideration the numerous 
reproductive strobili, generally regarded as belonging 
to plants of this class, Equisetinae. We find some 
of these strobili associated with stems and foliage of 
known types, as in Sphenophyllum;? but we know 
nothing of the internal organization of these sphe- 
nophylloid strobili. We have strobili connected with 
stems and foliage of Annularia,* but we are equally 
ignorant of the organization of these. So far as that 


1 Memoir, part v., pl. i.-v.; and part ix., pl. xxi., fig. 82. 

* Lesquereux, Coal flora of Pennsylvania, pl. ii., fig. 687. 

’ Ueber die fruchtiihren yon Annularia sphenophylloides. 
Von T. Sterzel. Zeitschr. d. deutschen geolog. gesellschaft., 
Jahrg. 1882. 


O84 


organization can be ascertained from Sterzel’s speci- 
men, it seems to have alternating sterile and fertile 
bracts, with the sporangia of the latter arranged in 
fours, as in Calamostachys.! On the other hand, we 
are now very familiar with the structure of the Cala- 
mostachys Binneana, the prevalent strobilus in the 
caleareous nodules found in the lower coal-measures 
of Lancashire and Yorkshire. It has evidently been 
a sessile spike, the axial structures of which were 
trimerous2 (rarely tetramerous), having a cellular 
medulla in its centre. Its appendages were exact 
multiples of those numbers. Of the plant to which it 
belonged we know nothing. On the other hand, we 
have examples supposed to be of the same genus, as 
C. paniculata ® and C. polystachya,* united to stems 
with asterophyllitean leaves; but whether or not these 
fruits have the organization of C. Binneana, we are 
unable to say. \ 

We are also acquainted with the structure of the 
two fruits belonging to the genera Bruckmannia® and 
Volkmannia.* This latter term has long been very 
vaguely applied. 

There still remain the genera Stachannularia, 
Palaeostachya, Macrostachya, Cingularia, Huttonia, 
and Calamitina, all of which have the phyllomes of 
their strobili fertile and sterile, arranged in verticils, 
‘and some of them display asterophyllitean foliage. 
But these plants are only known from structureless 
impressions. That all these curious spore-bearing 
organisms have close affinities with the large group 
of the equisetums cannot be regarded as certain; but 
several of them undoubtedly have peculiarities of 
structure suggestive of relations with the Calamites. 
This is especially observable in the longitudinal 
canals found in the central axis of each type, appar- 
ently identical with what I have designated the in- 
ternodal canals of the Calamites.’7 The position and 
structure of their vascular bundles suggest the same 
relationship, whilst in many the position of the spo- 
rangia and sporangiophores is eminently equiseti- 
form. Renault’s Bruckmannia Grand-Euryi and B. 
Decaisnei, and a strobilus which I described in 1870,§ 
exhibit these calamitean affinities very distinctly. 

One strobilus which I described in 1880° must not 
be overlooked. As is well known, all the living forms 
of esquisetaceous plants are isosporous. We only 
discover heterosporous vascular cryptogams amongst 
the Lycopodiaceae and the Rhizocarpae. My strobi- 
lus is identical, in every detailed feature of its organ- 
ization, with the common Calamostachys Binneana, 


1 M. Renault has described a strobilus under the name of An- 
nularia longifolia, but which appears to me yery distinct from 
that genus. 

2 Tt is an interesting fact, that transverse sections of the strobili 
of Lycopodium alpinum exhibit a similar trimerous arrange- 
ment, though differing widely in the positions of its sporangia. 

8 Weiss, Abhandlungen zur geologischen specialkarte yon 
Preussen und Thiirinaischen Staaten, taf. xiii., fig 1. 

4 Idem, taf. xvi., figs. 1, 2. 

5 Renault, Annales de sciences naturelles, bot., tome iii., 
pl. iii. 

6 Idem, pl. ii. 7 Memoiri. 

8 Memoirs of the literary and philosophical society of Man- 
chester, 3d series, vol. iv. p. 248. 

8 Memoir xi,, pl. liy., figs. 23, 24. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 37. 


excepting that it is heterosporous ; having microspores 
in its upper, and macrospores in its lower part, —a 
state of things suggestive of some link between the 
Equisetinae and the heterosporous Lycopodiaceae. 
Lycopodiaceae.— This branch of my subject sug- 
gests memories of a long conflict, which, though it is 
virtually over, still leaves here and there the ground- 
swell of astormy past. At the meeting of the Brit- 
ish association at Liverpool, in 1870, I first announced 
that a thick, secondary, exogenous growth of vascu- 
lar tissue existed in the stems of many carboniferous 
cryptogamic plants, especially in the calamitean and 
lepidodendroid forms. But at that time the ideas 
of M. Brongniart were so entirely in the ascendant, 
that my notions were rejected by every botanist pres- 
ent. Though the illustrious French paleontologist 
knew that such growths existed in Sigillariae and in 
what he designated Calamodendra, he concluded, that, 
de facto, such plants could not be cryptogams. Time, 
however, works wonders. Evidence has gradually 
accumulated, proving, that, with the conspicuous 
exception of the ferns, nearly every carboniferous 
eryptogam was capable of developing such zones of 
secondary growth. The exceptional position of the 
ferns still appears to be as true as it was when I first 
proclaimed their exceptional character at Liverpool. 
At that time I was under the impression that the 
secondary wood was only developed in such plants 
as attained to arboreal dimensions; but I soon after- 
wards discovered that it occurred equally in many 


small plants like Sphenophyllum, Asterophyllites, and _ 


other diminutive types. 

After thirteen years of persevering demonstration, 
these views, at first so strongly opposed, have found 
almost universal acceptance; nevertheless, there still 
remain some few who believe them to be erroneous 
ones. In the later stages of this discussion the 
botanical relations subsisting between Lepidoden- 
dron, Sigillaria, and Stigmaria, have been the chief 
themes of debate. In this country we regard the 
conclusion, that Stigmaria is not only a root, but the 
root alike of Lepidodendron and Sigillaria, as settled 
beyond all dispute. Nevertheless, M. Renault and 
M. Grand-Eury believe that it is frequently a leaf- 
bearing rhizome, from which aerial stems are sent 
upwards. Jam satisfied that there is not.a shadow 
of foundation for such a belief. The same authors, 
along with their distinguished countryman the Mar- 
quis de Saporta, believe with Brongniart that it is 
possible to separate Sigillaria widely from Lepido- 
dendron. They leave the latter plant amongst the 
lycopods, and elevate the former to the rank of a 
gymnospermous exogen. I have in vain demon- 
strated the existence of a large series of specimens 
of the same species of plant, young states of which 
display all the essential features of structure which 
they believe to characterize Lepidodendron; whilst, 
in its progress to maturity, every stage in the devel- 
opment of the secondary wood, regarded by them 
as characteristic of a Sigillaria, can be followed step 
by step.1 Nay, more. My cabinet contains speci- 
mens of young dichotomously branching twigs, on 

1 Memoir xi., plates xlvii.-lii. 


OcToBER 19, 1883.] 


which one of the two diverging branches has only 
the centripetal cylinder of the Lepidodendron, whilst 
the other has begun to develop the secondary wood 
of the Sigillaria.! 

The distinguished botanist of the Institut, Ph. van 
Tieghem, has recently paid some attention to the 
conclusions adopted by his three countrymen in this 
controversy, and has made an important advance 
upon those conclusions, in what I believe to be the 
right direction. He recognizes the lycopodiaceous 
character of the Sigillariae, and their close relations 
to the Lepidodendra ;? and he also accepts my demon- 
stration of the unipolar, and consequently lycopo- 
diaceous, character of the fibro-vascular bundle of 
the stigmarian rootlet,—a peculiarity of structure of 
which M. Renault has hitherto denied the existence. 
But along with these recognitions of the accuracy of 
my conclusions, he gives fresh currency to several of 
the old errors relating to parts of the subject to which 
he has not yet given personal attention. Thus he 
considers that the Sigillariae, though closely allied 
to the Lepidodendra, are distinguished from them by 
possessing the power of developing the centrifugal or 
exogenous zone of vascular tissue already referred 
to. He characterizes the Lepidodendra as having 
‘un seul bois centripete,’ notwithstanding the absolute 
demonstrations to the contrary contained in my Me- 
moir xi. Dealing with the root of Sigillaria, which in 
Great Britain, at least, is the well-known Stigmaria fi- 
coides, following Renault, he designates it a ‘rhizome,’ 
limiting the term ‘root’ to what we designate the 
rootlets. He says, ‘‘Le rhizome des sigillaires a la 
méme structure que la tige aérienne, avec des bois 
primaires tantét isolés & la périphérie de la moelle, 
tant6t confluents au centre et en un ax plein; seule- 
ment les fasceaux libéro-ligneux secondaires y sont 
séparés par de plus larges rayons,”’ etc. 

Now, Stigmaria, being a root, and not a rhizome, 
contains no representative of the primary wood of 
the stem. This latter is, as even M. Brongniart so 
correctly pointed out long ago, the representative of 
the medullary sheath; and the fibro-vascular bundles 
which it gives off are all foliar ones, as is the case 
with the bundles given off by this sheath in all ex- 
ogenous plants. But in the Lepidodendra and Sigil- 
lariae, as in all living exogens, it is not prolonged 
into the root. In the latter, as might be expected 
a priori, we only find the secondary or exogenous 
vascular zone. Having probably the largest collection 
of sections of Stigmariae in the world, I speak un- 
hesitatingly on these points. M. van Tieghem further 
says, ‘La tige aérienne part d’un rhizome rameux 
trés-développé nommé Stigmaria, sur lequel s’insérent 
& la fois de petites feuilles et des racines parfois 
dichotomées.’’ I have yet to see a solitary fact justi- 
fying the statement that leaves are intermingled with 
the rootlets of Stigmaria. The statement rests upon 
an entire misinterpretation of sections of the fibro- 
vascular bundles supplying those rootlets, and an 
ignorance of the nature and positions of the rootlets 
themselves. More than forty years have elapsed 


since John Eddowes Bowman first demonstrated that 
1 Memoir xi., pl. xlix., fig. 8. 2 Traité de botanique, p. 304. 


SCIENCE. 


535 


the Stigmariae were true roots; and every subsequent 
British student has confirmed Bowman’s accurate 
determination. 

M. Lesquereux informs me that his American ex- 
periences have convinced him that Sigillaria is lyco- 
podiaceous. Dr. Dawson has now progressed so far 
in the same direction as to believe that there exists 
a series of sigillarian forms which link the Lepido- 
dendra on the one hand with the gymnospermous 
exogens on the other. As an evolutionist, I am pre- 
pared to accept the possibility that such links may 
exist. They certainly do, so far as the union of 
Lepidodendron with Sigillaria is concerned. I have 
not yet seen any from the higher part of the chain 
that are absolutely satisfactory to me, but Dr. Daw- 
son thinks that he has found such. I may add, that 
Schimper and the younger German school have always 
associated Sigillaria with the Lycopodiaceae; but 
there are yet other points under discussion connected 
with these fossil lycopods. 

M. Renault affirms that some forms of Halonia 
are subterranean rhizomes, and the late Mr. Binney 
believed that Haloniae’ were the roots of Lepido- 
dendron. I am not acquainted with a solitary fact 
justifying either of these suppositions, and unhesi- » 
tatingly reject them. We haye the clearest evi- 
dence that some Haloniae, at least, are true terminal, 
and, as I believe, strobilus-bearing, branches of vari- 
ous lepidodendroid plants; and I see no reason 
whatever for separating Halonia regularis from those 
whose fruit-bearing character is absolutely deter- 
mined. Its branches, like the others, are covered 
throughout their entire circumference, and in the 
most regularly symmetrical manner, with leaf-scars, 
—a feature wholly incompatible with the idea of the 
plant being either a root or a rhizome. M. Renault 
has been partly led astray in this matter by misinter- 
preting a figure of a specimen published by the late 
Mr. Binney. That specimen being now in the mu- 
seum of Owens college, we are able to demonstrate 
that it has none of the features which M. Renault 
assigns to it. 

The large, round or oval, distichously arranged 
sears of Ulodendron have long stimulated discussion 
as to their nature. This, too, is now a well-under- 
stood matter. Lindley and Hutton long ago sug- 
gested that they were scars whence cones had been 
detached, —a conclusion which was subsequently 
sustained by Dr. Dawson and Schimper,! and which 
structural evidence led me also to support. The 
matter was set at rest by Mr. d’ Arey Thompson’s dis- 
covery of specimens with the strobili in situ. Only 
a small central part of the conspicuous cicatrix char- 
acterizing the genus represented the area of organic 
union of the cone to the stem. The greater part of 
that cicatrix has been covered with foliage, which, 
owing to the shortness of the cone-bearing branch, 
was compressed by the base of the cone. The large 
size of many of these biserial cicatrices on old stems 
has been due to the considerable growth of the stem 
subsequently to the fall of the cone. 

Our knowledge of the terminal branches of the 

1 Memoir ii., p. 222. 


536 


large-ribbed Sigillariae is still very imperfect. Paleon- 
tologists who have urged the separation of the Sigil- 
lariae from the Lepidodendra have attached weight to 
the difference between the longitudinally ridged and 
furrowed external bark of the former plants, along 
which ridges the leaf-scars are disposed in vertical 
lines, and the diagonally arranged scars of Lepido- 
dendron. They have also dwelt upon the alleged 
absence of branches from the sigillarian stems. I 
think that their mistake, so far as the branching is 
concerned, has arisen from their expectation that 
the branches must necessarily have had the same 
vertically grooved appearance and longitudinal ar- 
rangement of the leaf-scars as they observed in the 
more aged trunks: hence they have probably seen 
the branches of Sigillariae without recognizing them. 
Personally, I believe this to have been the case. I 
further entertain the belief, that the transition from 
the vertical phyllotaxis, or leaf-arrangement, of the 
sigillarian leaf-scars, to the diagonal one of the Lepi- 
dodendra, will ultimately be found to be effected 
through the subgenus Fayularia, in many of which 
the diagonal arrangement becomes quite as conspicu- 
ous as the vertical one. This is the case even in 
Brongniart’s classic specimen of Sigillaria elegans, 
long the only fragment of that genus known, which 
preserved its internal structure. The fact is, the 
shape of the leaf-scars, as well as their proximity to 
each other, underwent great changes as lepidoden- 
droid and sigillarian stems advanced from youth to 
age. Thus Presl’s genus Bergeria was based on 
forms of lepidodendroid sears which we now find 
on the terminal branches of unmistakable lepido- 
dendra.! The phyllotaxis of Sigillaria, of the type 
of S. oceulata, passes by imperceptible gradations 
into that of Favularia. In many young branches the 
leaves were densely crowded together; but the ex- 
ogenous development of the interior of the stem, and 
its consequent growth both in length and thickness, 
pushed these scars apart at the same time that it in- 
creased their size and altered their shape. We see 


precisely the same effects produced upon the large. 


fruit-scars of Ulodendron by the same causes. The 
carboniferous lycopods were mostly arborescent; but 
some few dwarf forms, apparently like the modern 
Selaginellae, have been found in the Saarbriicken 
coal-fields. Many, if not all, the arborescent forms 
produced secondary wood by means of a cambium- 
layer, as they increased in age. In the case of some 
of them,? this was done in a very rudimentary man- 
ner; nevertheless, sufficiently so to demonstrate what 
is essential to the matter, viz., the existence of a 
cambium-layer producing ‘ centrifugal growth of sec- 
ondary vascular tissue.’ 

As already pointed out in the case of the Calamites, 
the vascular axis of these Lepidodendra was purely 
an ‘appareil conducteur,’ unmixed with any wood- 
cells: hence the ‘appareil de soutien’ had to be sup- 
plied elsewhere. ‘This was done as in the Calamites: 
a thick, persistent, hypodermal zone of meristem* 


' See Memoir xii., pl. xxxiv. 
2 KE. g. L. Harcourtii, Memoir ix., pl. xlix., fig. 11. 
% Memoir ix., pl. xxv., figs. 93, 94, 98, 99, 100, and 101. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 37. 


developed a layer of “prismatic prosenchyma of enor- 
mous thickness,! which incased the softer structures 
in a strong cylinder of self-supporting tissue. We 
have positive evidence that the fructification of many 
of these plants was in the form of heterosporous 
strobili. Whether or not such was the case with all 
the Lepidostrobi, we are yet unable to determine; 
but the incalculable myriads of their macrospores, 
seen in so many coals, afford clear evidence that the 
heterosporous types must have preponderated vastly 
over all others. : 

Gymnosperms. — Our knowledge of this part of the 
carboniferous vegetation has made great progress dur- 
ing the last thirty years. This progress began with 
my own discovery? that all our British Dadoxylons 
possessed what is termed a discoid pith, such as 
we see in the white jasmine, some of the American 
hickories, and several other plants. At the same time, 
I demonstrated that most of our objects hitherto 
known as Artisias and Sternbergias were merely 
inorganic casts of these discoid medullary cavities. 
Further knowledge of this genus seems to suggest 
that it was not only the oldest of the true conifers in 
point of time, but also one of the lowest of the conif- 
erous types. 

Cycads. —The combined labors of Grand-Eury, 
Brongniart, and Renault, have revealed the unexpect- 
ed predominance in some localities of a primitive but 
varied type of cycadean vegetation. Observers have 
long been-familiar with certain seeds known as Trig- 
onocarpons and Cardiocarpons, and with large leaves 
to which the name of Noeggerathia was given by 
Sternberg. All these seeds and leayes have been 
tossed from family to family at the caprice of difter- 
ent classifiers, but, in all cases, without much knowl- 
edge on which to base their determinations. The 
rich mass of material disinterred by M. Grand-Eury 
at St. Etienne, and studied by Brongniart and M. 
Renault, has thrown a flood of light upon some of 
these objects, which now prove to be primeval types 
of cycadean vegetation. 

Mr. Peach’s discovery of a specimen demonstrating 
that the Antholithes Pitcairniae® of Lindley and 
Hutton was not only, as these authors anticipated, 
‘the inflorescence of some plant,’ but that its seeds 
were the well-known Cardiocarpons, was the first link 
in an important chain of new evidence. ‘Then fol- 
lowed the rich discoveries at St. Etienne, where a 
profusion of seeds, displaying wonderfully their inter- 
nal organization, was brought to light by the energy 
of M. Grand-Eury; which seeds M. Brongniart soon 
pronounced to be cycadean. At the same time I 
was obtaining many similar seeds from Oldham and 
Burntisland, in which, also, the minute organiza- 


1 Memoir xi., pl. xlviii., fig. 4.77’; Memoir ii., pl. xxix., fig. 
42k; Memoir iii., pl. xliii., fig. 17. 

2 On the structure and affinities of the plants hitherto known as 
Sternbergias. Memoirs of the literary and philosophical society 
of Manchester, 1851. M. Renault, in his Structure comparée de 
quelques tiges de la flore carbonifére, p. 285, has erroneously at- 
tributed this discovery to Mr. Dawes, including my illustration 
from the jasmine and juglans. Mr. Dawes’ explanation was @ 
very different one. 

* Fossil flora. p, 82. 


OcTOBER 19, 1883.] 


tion was preserved. Dawson, Newberry, and Les- 
quereux have also shown that many species of similar 
seeds, though with no traces of internal structure, 
occur in the coal-measures of North America. 
Equally important was the further discovery by M. 
Grand-Eury, that the Antholithes, with their cardi- 
ocarpoid seeds, were but one form of the monocli- 
nous catkin-like inflorescences of the Noeggerathiae, 
now better known by Unger’s name of Cordaites. 
These investigations suggest some important con- 
clusions. 1°. The vast number and variety of these 
cyeadean séeds, as well as the enormous size of some 
of them, are remarkable, showing the existence of an 
abundant and important carboniferous vegetation, 
of most of which no trace has yet been discovered 
other than these isolated seeds. 2°. Most of the 
seeds exhibit the morphological peculiarity of having 
a large cavity (the ‘cavité pollinique’ of Brongniart) 
between the upper end of the nucelle and its invest- 
ing episperm, and immediately below the micropile 
of the seed. That this cavity was destined to have 
the pollen-grains drawn into it, and be thus brought 
into direct connection with the apex of the nucelle, is 
shown by the various examples in which such grains 
are still found in that cavity.) 3°. M. Grand-Eury 
has shown that some of his forms of Cordaites pos- 
sessed the discoid or Sternbergiar pith which I had 
previously found in Dadoxylon. And, lastly, these 
Cordaites prove that a diclinous form of vegetation 
existed at this early period in the history of the flow- 
ering plants, but whether in a monoecious or a dioe- 
cious form we have as yet no means of determining. 
Their reproductive structures differ widely from the 
true cones borne by most cycads at the present day. 
Conifers. —It has long been remarked that few real 
cones of conifers have hitherto been found in the 
carboniferous rocks, and I doubt if any such have 
yet been met with. Large quantities of the woody 
_ Stems now known as Dadoxylons have been found, 
both in Europe and America. These stems present 
a true coniferous structure, both in the pith, medul- 
lary, sheath-wood, and bark.2 The wood presents 
one very peculiar feature: its foliar bundles, though 
in most other respects exactly like those of ordinary 
conifers, are given off, not singly, but in pairs.? I 
have only found this arrangement of double foliar 
bundles in the Chinese gingko (Salisburia adianti- 
folia).* This fact is not unimportant when connected 
with another one. Sir Joseph Hooker long ago ex- 
pressed his opinion that the well-known Trigono- 
carpons® of the coal-measures were the seeds of a 
conifer allied to this Salisburia. The abundance 
of the fragments of Dadoxylon, combined with the 
readiness with which cones and seeds are preserved in 
a fossil state, makes it probable that the fruits belong- 
ing to these woody stems would be so preserved; but 
of cones we find no trace, and, as‘ we discover no 
* Memoir viii., pl. ii., figs. 70 and 72. Brongniart, Recherches 
sur les graines fossiles silicifices, pl. xvi., figs. 1, 2; pl. xx., fig. 2. 
? Dr, Dawson finds the discoid pith in one of the living Cana- 
dian conifers. 
* Memoir viii., pl. Iviii., tig. 48; and pl. ix., figs. 44-46. 


* Memoir xii., pl. xxxili., figs. 28, 29. 
* Memoir viii., figs. 94-115. 


a 


SCIENCE. 


537 


other plant in the carboniferous strata to which the 
Trigonocarpons could with any probability have be- 
longed, these facts afford grounds for associating 
them with the Dadoxylons. These combined reasons 
—viz., the structure of the stems with their character- 
istic foliar bundles, and the gingko-like character of 
the seeds — suggest the probability that these Dadoxy- 
lons, the earliest of known conifers, belonged to the 
Taxineae, the lowest of these coniferous types, and 
of which the living Salisburia may perhaps be re- 
garded as the least advanced form. 

Thus far our attention has been directed only to 
plants whose affinities have been ascertained with 
such a degree of probability as to make them avail- 
able witnesses, so far as they go, when the question 
of vegetable evolution is sub judice. But there re- 
main others, and probably equally important ones, 
respecting which we have yet much to learn. In 
most cases we have only met with detached portions 
of these plants, such as stems or reproductive struc- 
tures, which we are unable to connect with their other 
organs. ‘The minute tissues of these plants are pre- 
served in an exquisite degree of perfection: hence we 
are able to affirm, that, whatever they may be, they 
differ widely from every type that we are acquainted 
with amongst living ones. The exogenous stems or 
branches from Oldham and Halifax which I described 
under the name of Astromyelon,! and of which amuch 
fuller description will be found in my forthcoming 
Memoir xii., belong to a plant of this description. 
The remarkable conformation of its bark obviously 
indicates a plant of more or less aquatic habits, since 
it closely resembles those of Myriophyllum, Marsilea, 
and a number of other aquatic plants belonging to va- 
rious classes. But its general features suggest nearer 
affinities to the latter genus than to any other. An- 
other very characteristic stem is the Heterangium 
Grievii,? only found in any quantity at- Burntisland, 
but of which we have recently obtained one or two 
small specimens at Halifax. ‘This plant displays an 
abundant supply of primary, isolated, vascular bun- 
dies, surrounded by a very feeble development of 
secondary vascular tissue. Still more remarkable is 
the Lyginodendron Oldhamium,? a stem not wncom- 
mon at Oldham, and not unfrequently found at 
Halifax. Unlike the Heterangium, its primary vas- 
cular elements are feeble, but its tendency to develop 
secondary zylem is very characteristic of the plant. 
An equally peculiar feature is seen in the outermost 
layer of its cellular bark, which is penetrated by in- 
numerable longitudinal laminae of prosenchymatous 
tissue, which is arranged in precisely the same way 
as is the hard bast in the lime and similar trees, 
affording another example of the introduction into 
the outer bark of the ‘ appareil de soutien.’ As might 
have been anticipated from this addition to the bark, 
this plant attained arborescent dimensions, very large 


' Memoir ix., in which I only described decorticated speci- 
mens. Messrs. Cash and Heik described a specimen in which 
the peculiar bark was preserved under the name of Astromyelon 
Williamsonis. See Proceedings of the Yorkshire polytechnic so- 
ciety, vol. vii. part iv., 1881. 


* Memoir iil. ® Ibid. 


5388 


fragments of sandstone casts of the exterior surface 
of the bark! being very abundant in most of the lead- 
ing English coal-fields. Corda also figured it? from 
Radnitz, confounding it, however, with his lepido- 
dendroid Sagenaria fusiformis, with which it has no 
true affinity. Of the smaller plants of which we 
know the structure, but not the systematic position, 
I may mention the beautiful little Kaloxylons.2 We 
have also obtained a remarkable series of small 
spherical bodies, to which I have given the provis- 
ional generic name of Sporocarpon.? Their external 
wall is multicellular: hence they cannot be spores. 
Becoming filled with free cells, which display various 
stages of development as they advance to maturity, 
we may infer that they are reproductive structures. 
Dr. Dawson informs me that he has recently obtained 
some similar bodies, also containing cells, from the 
Devonian beds of North and South America. Except 
in calling attention to some slight resemblance exist- 
ing between my objects and the sporangiocarps of 
Pilularia,® I have formed no opinion respecting their 
nature. Dr. Dawson has pointed out that his speci- 
mens, also, are suggestive of relations with the Rhizo- 
carpae. 

Iam unwilling to close this address without mak- 
ing a brief reference to the bearing of our subject up- 
on the question of evolution. Various attempts have 
been made to construct a genealogical tree of the 
vegetable kingdom. That the cryptogams and the 
gymnosperms made their appearance, and continued 
to flourish on this earth, long prior to the appearance 
of the monocotyledonous and dicotyledonous flow- 
ering plants, is, at all events, a conclusion justi- 
fied by our present knowledge, so far as it goes. 
Every one of the supposed palms, aroids, and other 
monocotyledons, has now been ejected from the lists 
of carboniferous plants, and the Devonian rocks are 
equally devoid of them. The generic relations of 
the carboniferous vegetation to the higher flowering 
plants found in the newer strata have no light thrown 
upon them by these paleozoic forms. These latter 
do afford us a few plausible hints respecting some of 
their cryptogamic and gymnospermous descendants, 
and we know that the immediate ancestors of many 
of them flourished during the Devonian age; but here 
our knowledge practically ceases. Of their still older 
genealogies, scarcely any records remain. When the 
registries disappeared, not only had the grandest 
forms of cryptogamic life that ever lived attained 
théir highest development, but’ even the yet more 
lordly gymnosperms had become a widely diffused 
and flourishing race. If there is any truth in the 
doctrine of evolution, and especially if long periods 
of time were necessary for a world-wide development 
of lower into higher races, a terrestrial vegetation 
must have existed during a vast succession of epochs, 
ere the noble lycopods began their prolonged career. 
Long prior to the carboniferous age they had not only 
made this beginning, but during that age they had 
diffused themselves over the entire earth. We find 


2 Flora der vorvelt, tab. 6, fig. 4. 
4 Memoirs ix., x. 


1 Memoir iy., pl. xxvii. 
5 Memoir vii. 
5 Memoir ix., p. 348. 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. IL, No. 37.. 


them equally in the old world and in the new. We 
discover them from amid the ice-clad rocks of Bear 
Island and Spitzbergen to Brazil and New South 
Wales. Unless we are prepared to concede that they 
were simultaneously developed at these remote cen- 
tres, we must recognize the incalculable amount of 
time requisite to spread them thus from their birth- 
place, wherever that may have been, to the ends of 
the earth. Whatever may have been the case with 
the southern hemisphere, we have also clear evidence 
that in the northern one much of this wide distribu- 
tion must have been accomplished prior to the Deyo- 
pian age. What has become of this pre-Devonian 
flora? Some contend that the lower cellular forms 
of plant-life were not preserved, because their delicate 
tissues were incapable of preservation. But why 
should this be the case? Such plants are abundant- 
ly preserved in tertiary strata: why not equally in 
paleozoic ones? The explanation must surely be 
sought, not in their incapability of being preserved, 
but in the operation of other causes. But the 
carboniferous rocks throw another impediment in 
the way of constructors of these genealogical trees. 
Whilst carboniferous plants are found at hundreds of 
separate localities, widely distributed over the globe, 
the number of spots at which these plants are found 
displaying any internal structure is extremely few. 
It would be difficult to enumerate a score of such 
spots; yet each of those favored localities has re- 
vealed to us forms of plant-life of which the ordina- 
ry plant-bearing shales and sandstones of the same 
localities show no traces. It seems, therefore, that, 
whilst there was a general resemblance in the more 
conspicuous forms of carboniferous vegetation from 
the arctic circle to the extremities of the southern 
hemisphere, each locality had special forms that 
flourished in it either exclusively, or at least abun- 
dantly, whilst rare elsewhere. It would be easy, did 
time allow, to give many proofs of the truth of this | 
statement. Ourexperiences at Oldham and Halifax, 
at Arran and Burntisland, at St. Etienne and Autun, 
tell us that such is the case. If these few spots which 
admit of being searched by the aid of the microscope 
have recently revealed so many hitherto unknown 
treasures, is it not fair to conclude that corresponding 
novelties would have been furnished by all the other 
plant-producing localities, if these plants had been 
preserved in a state capable of being similarly inves- 
tigated? Ihave no doubt about this matter: hence 
I conclude that there is a vast variety of carbonif- 
erous plants of which we have as yet seen no traces, 
but every one of which must have played some part, 
however humble, in the development of the plant 
races of later ages. We can only hope that time will 
bring these now hidden witnesses into the hands of 
future paleontologists. Meanwhile, though far from 
wishing to check the construction of any legitimate 
hypothesis calculated to aid scientifie inquiry, I 
would remind every too ambitious student that there 
is a haste that retards rather than promotes progress, 
that arouses opposition rather than produces conyic- 
tion, and that injures the cause of science by dis- 
crediting its advocates. 


OcTOBER 19, 1883.] 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


Greenland geology. 


In the seventh volume of Heer’s Flora fossilis 
arctica, just issued, my distinguished colleagues, Pro- 
fessor Heer of Zurich, and Herr K. F. V. Steenstrup 
of Copenhagen, seem to be at cross purposes with me, 
regarding the positions and Eskimo names of the 
localities where the collections of fossil plants discov- 
ered by'us were obtained; Mr. Steenstrup giving the 
spot one name, and I another, while, owing to this 
misapprehension, the exact latitude of at least one 
place is differently entered in our respective papers. 
For instance: we apply the name of ‘ Kudlisaet’ (Kit- 
ludsat) to spots at considerable distances from each 
other, and do not quite understand the same place by 
the word ‘ Unartok.’ Heer, who has, however, never 
been in Greenland, notes (p. 203) that “nach Steen- 
strup fillt Ujarasuksumitok von R. Brown (Flora 
foss. arct., ii. p. 452) mit Unartok zusammen und 
der Name beruht auf missverstindniss.”” Again: 
Steenstrup, in the admirable memoir appended to 
Heer’s work, mentions that ‘Brown zufolge l. c. 
[Philosophical transactions, 1869, p. 445, and Trans- 
actions of the geological society of Glasyow, vol. v. 
p. 36], war es hier [at Unartok], dass er und Whymper 
im jahr 1867 versteinerungen sammelten. Meines 
erachtens riiht der name Browns ‘ Uiarasuksumi- 
tok’ von dem umstande her, dass der Grénlander 
ihn missverstanden und geglaubt hat, dass er gefragt 
wirde, woher er (der Groénlander) wiire, worauf er 
eine antwort gab, die ungefihr bedeutet ‘Ich bin 
aus Ujaragsugsuk’’’ (p. 247). I do not doubt fora 
moment that Mr. Steenstrup may be right; and his 
general accuracy forbids me to assert that he is wrong. 
My acquaintance with Danish was in 1867 (as it is 
still) trifling, while of Eskimo I was all but igno- 
rant. And even with the greatest care, it is always 
difficult to arrive at the exact designation of localities 
in Greenland. However, Mr. Tegner, who accom- 
panied us, was familiar with Eskimo, and of course, 
as a Dane, with Danish; and the names attached to 
my map and paper referred to were arrived at, after 
repeated cross-questioning of our native boatmen, 
and of Paulus, the intelligent Eskimo. catechist at 
Ounartok (Unartok), who wrote them down in a 
note-book, at present before me. Curiously enough, 
in a note in the hand-writing of the late Chevalier 
Olrick, so many years governor of North Greenland, 
the place is called ‘ Ujarasaksumitok,’ which natu- 
rally led me to believe that this was a synonyme of 
Ujaragsugsuk, under which name it is also desig- 
nated by Dr. Rink, in my edition of Danish Green- 
land (p. 349). ‘Ritenbenks Kolbroff’ I regarded as 
the same place as Unartok, for there coal was being 
mined; while Steenstrup seems to consider it the 
same as Kudlisaet. The latter spot, after a series of 
very careful, and, I am certain, accurate, meridian 
altitudes, I place in Lat. 70° 5’ 35” N., while Nares 
puts the Ritenbenk coal-mine, so called (Kudlisaet), 
in Lat, 70° 3’ 4”, which convinces me that this spot is 
what I took to be Unartok. At my Kudlisaet there 
was, in 1867, no coal being dug. Anyhow, in the 
‘Geological notes on the Noursoak Peninsula, Disco 
Island, ete.’ (Trans. geol. soc. Glasgow, vol. v. p. 
55), I have so fully described these localities, that 
no future explorer can mistake them. But as many 
may see Heer’s work who may not be able to con- 
sult my humbler brochure, I ask permission to make 
these explanations in the columns of a scientific 
journal, which, as the mouthpiece of American 
geologists, takes cognizance of far-away Greenland 
also. Moreover, as one might suppose, from Mr. 


i a: i 


SCIENCE. 


539 


Steenstrup’s (inadvertently, no doubt) mentioning 
that Nares and I differed two minutes and thirty-one 
seconds (2’ 31”) in our latitudes of ‘Ritenbenks 
Kohlenbruch,’ that there was some inexcusable 
roughness in the use of the sextant and artificial 
horizon, while in reality we observed at two totally 
different places, the matter is, though not of great 
scientific or geographical importance, in a manner 
personal to myself, if not to Sir George Nares, 
ROBERT Brown. 
Streatham, London, Eng., 
Sept. 24, 1883. 


Human proportion. 


In a review of my lecture on ‘Human proportion 
in art and anthropometry’ (Screncr, ii. 354), the 
accuracy of certain statements contained therein is 
questioned, Permit me space for a brief reply. 

The critic says that the implement in the hand 
of the Egyptian figure is a crux ansata, the symbol of 
eternity, and not ‘a key.’ But M. Charles Blane, 
whose description I was quoting, says ‘la person- 
nage tient une clef de la main droite ;’ and the expres- 
sion is warranted, as it is, in its symbolical sense, 
spoken of by Egyptologists as ‘a key.’ 

His next assertion is, that the Doryphorus of Poly- 
kleitus was not, as I stated, ‘a beautiful youth in the 
act of throwing a spear,’ but a spear-bearer of the 
body-guard of the Persian king. The latter function- 
ary, however, wore a long robe, termed the ‘ candys,’ 
extending from the neck to the mid-leg, and could 
not have been selected for a model, which neces- 
sarily required a naked figure. Pliny (Hist. nat., 
xxxiv. 8) says, ‘Idem et Doryphorum viriliter puerum 
fecit,’ etec.; and many other allusions in classical 
writers confirm this view. 

The last and most surprising criticism is the state- 
ment that my assertion that prior to the time of 
Phidias, the face, hands, feet, ete., were carved in 
marble, and were fastened to a wooden block, is “a 
complete misunderstanding of the nature of the 
archaic Soava, or wooden statues, which in Greece 
preceded those made of stone or metal.’? Now, the 
Soavoy was simply a wooden statue. (Cf. Pausanias, 
Vii., 17, 2, rocdde qv ag’ Gy 72 Edava, ete.) It was suc. 
ceeded by a more elaborate invention, known as an 
acrolith, from dkpoc and Aifoc, stone-ends. Pausanias 
describes one of them (ix. 4): ‘“‘The statue of the 
goddess [the Plataean Athena of Phidias] is made of 
wood, and is gilt, except the face, and the ends of the 
hands and feet, which are of Pentelican stone.’? See 
also Quatremére de Quincy, Monuments et ouvrages 
d’art antiques, vol. ii., Restitution de la Minerve en 
or et ivoire de Phidias au Parthenon, pp. 63-123; 
also Miiller, Handbuch d. archaeol. d. kunst, § 84. 
Dr. William Smith states the case concisely (Dict. Gr. 
and Rom. mythol., vol. iii. p. 250): “Up to his 
[Phidias’s] time, colossal statues, when not of bronze, 
were acroliths ; that is, only the face, hands, and feet 
were of marble, the body being of wood, which was 
concealed by real drapery.”” RoBert FLETCHER. 

Washington, Oct. 8, 1883. 


[The most common of all the Egyptian symbols is 
an emblem in the form of ‘a handled eross,’ symbol- 
ical of ‘life;’ but both the nature of the object rep- 
resented, and the reason of the symbolism, are equally 
unknown. To call it ‘a key’ is certainly wrong, as 
the Egyptians had none ; and by archeologists it is 
usually designated by the conventional term ‘ cruz 
ansata.’s 

That the word ‘Doryphoros,’ ex vi termini, cannot 
mean ‘a youth in the act of throwing a spear,’ as Mr. 


- 40 


Fletcher says, but simply a ‘spear-bearer,’ is what 
our criticism was intended to convey. 

Although it may be true enough that ‘prior to the 
time of Phidias, colossal statues, when not of bronze, 
were acroliths, our criticism was directed to the 
author’s broad assertion, which entirely ignored the 
existence of Sdava.] ‘ 

WRITER OF THE NOTICE OF ‘HUMAN PROPORTION.’ 


Geology of Philadelphia. 


Will Professor Henry Carvill Lewis state where the 
term ‘hydro-mica-slate’ is used by H. D. Rogers, or 
in that portion of the report on Chester county writ- 
ten by the undersigned? 

The word occurs seven times in the Lancaster 
county report; but in every case except the italics on 
p- 10, which the reference on the ninth line below 
shows to be a misprint, it is used in the sense de- 
fined in my criticism, and not as an equivalent for 
hydro-mica-schist. As his defence of the use of the 
other terms alluded to does not meet the objections, 
no further remark is necessary. 

PERSIFOR FRAZER. 
Sept. 28, 1883. 


The chinch-bug in New York. 


We have the chinch-bug (Blissus leucopterus Say) 
in New York in formidable numbers. — Its appear- 
ance with us is of great interest, as hitherto the 
only record of its occurrence is that of Dr. Fitch, 
who, several years ago, saw three individuals of it 
upon willows in the spring. I had never before met 
with it in our state. Dr. Harris, you will remember, 
mentions having seen one example in Massachusetts. 
By'some manner it has been introduced here, and I 
can think of no way so probable as that it has been 
brought in a freight-car from the west. 

The locality of its occurrence is in St. Lawrence 
county, the most western of our northern counties. 
As it was for some time thought that the insect could 
not live north of 40° of latitude, this seems a strange 
locality for its first appearance. : , 

Its operations were first noticed in a field of timo- 
thy-grass last summer, but the depredator was not 
then discovered. This summer the infested area had 
largely extended, and, npon a more thorough search 
being made, it was found in myriads — could be 
scooped up, it is stated, by handfuls — among the 
roots of the living grass bordering the killed area. 
In the fields infested, the timothy, June, and ‘wire 
grass’ are completely killed, so that they are suc- 
ceeded the following season by thistles, weeds, and 
patches of clover. So far, it has not attacked wheat 


or corn, of which, however, very little is grown in 


St. Lawrence county. 

I have just visited the infested locality, and I find 
it to be a very serious attack. It is rapidly extending 
to other than the two farms upon which it was ob- 
served last year, and it in all probability exists in 
many places where it has not yet been detected. 
Great alarm is felt throughout the district invaded, 
as the timothy-grass is the foundation of the grazing 
interests of that region. Clover, owing to the sever- 
ity of the winters, cannot be grown to any extent. 
The most threatening feature of the attack is, that 
it has continued to increase, notwithstanding that 
this year and the preceding have both been unusu- 
ally wet in northern New York. Garden-crops were 
killed by the heavy and continued rains; grass is ly- 
ing in the meadows, which could not be secured ; and 
so cold has the season been, that fields of dats are 
still unharvested. All writers have concurred in stat- 
ing that the chinch-bug could not endure cold and 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 37. 


wet seasons, and that heavy rains were invariably 
fatal to it. It really seems as if the new-comer was 
destined to be a permanent institution in the state. 

The farmers are aroused to the importance of do- 
ing what they can to arrest and repel the invasion. 
I have recommended that it be fought with that valu- 
able insecticide, kerosene-oil, emulsified and diluted; 
and, if generally used the ensuing spring, I have 
great faith in its proving efficient. 

J. A. LINTNER. 
Oflice of the state entomologist 
Albany, Oct. 9, 1583, 
Ziphius on the New-Jersey coast. 

A telegram was received at the Smithsonian institu- 
tion on the 3d inst. from the keeper of the life-saving 
station at Barnegat City, N.J., announcing the strand- 
ing of a large cetacean at that place. Professor 
Baird immediately despatched the writer and a prep- 
arator from fhe museum to take charge of the speci- 
men. On arriving at Barnegat City, I immediately 
perceived that we had to do with an example of an 
aged female of an interesting ziphioid whale; and, 
when the skull was cut out, it became evident that 
the animal was of the genus Ziphius. The specimen 
measures 19 feet 4 inches in length, and was appar- 
ently of a light stone-gray color, darkest on the belly. 
This disposition of color is unusual in cetaceans. 
The species is probably Z. cavisortris. 

Mr. Palmer and myself succeeded in making a 
plaster mould of half the exterior, and in cutting out 
the complete skeleton. 

The genus Ziphius has not, I believe, been hitherto 
recorded as occurring in the north-western Atlantic. 

Freprrick W. TRUE, 
Curator of mammals. 


U. 8. national museum, 
Oct. 11, 1833. 


THE DE LONG RECORDS 


The voyage of the Jeannette. The ship and ice jour- 
nals of George W. De Long, Lieut.-commander 
U.S.N., and commander of the polar expedition of 
1879-81. Edited by his wife, Emma [JANE 
Wotton] Dr Lone. 2vols. Boston, Houghton, 
Mifjlin, § Co., 1883. 12+911 p., illustr. 8°. 
Tue voyage of the Jeannette, owing to its 

connection with a great newspaper, has become, 

in its general features, familiar to all. The 
courage, endurance, and patience with which 
the members of the party met pain, peril, pri- 

vation, and even death, will always remain a 

conspicuous example of manly quality. This 

expedition, however, was unique in several of 
its features, which should be taken into account 
in any judgment rendered upon its results. 

It was not an expedition for scientific research 

in the arctic regions. It was not scientifically 

planned. It had, so far as can be learned 
from the documents, no programme. Of its 
members, but two, a civilian and a seaman, 
had had any experience of an arctic winter; 
none had made any serious study of the physi- 
cal conditions of the polar area; and, without 


1 For the woodcuts illustrating this article, the editor is in- 
debted to the publishers of the work, Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, 
Co. 


or<, 


OcToBER 19, 1883.] 


disrespect, it may be said, that, with the possi- 
ble exception of two civilians, there was no 
one on board whose scientific acquirements 
rose above the daily needs of the intelligent 
practice of his profession. The object of the 
expedition, as far as may be surmised from 
the circumstances made public, seems to have 
been to determine what would be the result 
of a set-to between the arctic pack, cold and 
starvation on the one hand, and a shipful of 
inexperience and ‘ pure grit’ on the other. 
The result is now known; and the innocent 
confidence with which both promoter and ex- 
plorer undertook the task is one of the extraor- 
dinary features of this melancholy history. 
Under the circumstances, it is well that Mrs. 
De Long has made public 
her husband’s records of 


SCIENCE. 


541 


the course of the expedition, showed no serious 
deficiencies. On the whole, then, well provided, 
and with much popular approbation and sym- 
pathy, the expedition departed on the 8th of 
July, 1879, from San Francisco. <A rendez- 
vous was had Aug. 2, at Unalaska, —that cosey 
little harbor which has received so many ex- 
peditions, and bravely borne up the barks of 
Kotzebue, of Liitke, of Levasheff, of Kruzen- 
stern, of Sarycheff, and many more masters of 
exploration. Ten days afterward they an- 
chored at St. Michael’s, Norton Sound. Here 
dogs, furs, and coal were shipped; and then 
the Asiatic coast of Bering Strait was reached, 
and some time spent in endeavoring to deter- 
mine the fate of Nordenskidld. Here several 


the story, already twice 


told elsewhere. The ac- 


count of the voyage is 


preceded by some details 
of the previous life of 


De Long, who, from an 


early age, showed eyvi- 
dence of great force of 
will and audacity, and 
who preserved until his 
death the religious con- 
victions instilled by a 
fond and pious mother. 
There seems to have been 
no special turn for study 


in the lad, whose energy, 
nevertheless, carried him 
through the Naval acad- 
emy with credit. The in- 
troduction to that friend- 
ship with Mr. Bennett 
which finally led to De 
Long’s selection as commander of the arctic 
expedition, is left untold. It is evident that 
these two had a strong and well-founded 
friendship, and perfect mutual confidence. 
The voyage once determined upon, Mr. Ben- 
nett providing the vessel and the means, the 
government lending its naval organization and 
prestige, De Long had only to choose his 
party, and organize his plans. The first was 
soon, and, all must admit, remarkably well 
done. Certainly, no body of men ever stood 
harder test of fidelity to their commander than 
that little party, and with less flinching. 

The vessel, it is now generally admitted, was 
tolerably well adapted to her purpose, and en- 
dured from the ice all that could be expected 
in like circumstances. The provisions, on the 
whole, turned out well; and the equipment, in 


a 


UNALASKA. 


curious bone implements were collected, which 
are figured, but not referred to in the text. 
One of these we reproduce. 

Pushing into the Arctic on Sept. 6, the vessel 
was beset in the pack north-eastward of Herald 
Island. From its rigid embrace she was never 
released, except to sink, a shattered wreck, 
beneath its surface, nearly two years later. 

On Jan. 19, 1880, she received a wrench from 
an under-running tongue of ice, creating a leak, 
which remained a more or less constant source of 
anxiety. From this time until the 16th of May, 
1881, the time passed uneventfully ; the ship 
fast in the ice, which occasionally groaned, 
shrieked, crunched, or thundered, with the vari- 
ous motions imparted to it by wind and tide, 
threatening instant destruction to ship and 
party. A few bear and seal hunts, ordinary 


542 


Vai " il 
SSA 
mu : 


BONE SHOVEL. 


meteorological observations, the quarrels of the 
Eskimo dogs, innumerable devices for say- 
ing coal, pumping the ship dry, or preventing 
condensation of moisture within 
the living-rooms,— these things, 
and such as these, made up the 
characteristics of a life which 
eventually became almost unen- 
durable in its monotony. Good . 
health in general prevailed, 
owing to the extraordinary pre- 
cautions planned by Dr. Am- 
bler, and energetically put in 
force by the commander. No 
extreme temperatures (rated by 
the experience of other arctic 
voyages) were noted: indeed, 
the mildness, arctically speak- 
ing, of the temperatures experienced, is some- 
what remarkable. The auroras do not seem to 
have been sufficiently brilliant to call for espe- 


A POLAR BEAR. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 37. 


cial comment. The ice reached about six feet 
in thickness, and all parts of it contained more 
or less salt; while the precipitation of snow 
was insuflicient to afford a supply of drinking- 
water by melting. On this account, water had 
to be distilled most of the time,—a process 
which used much invaluable fuel. Many of 
their experiences were such as had already 
been recorded by those who drifted with the 
Germania’s crew, the Tegethoff, or the float- 
ing Polaris’ party, of which the indefatigable 
Nindeman had been a member. Payer’s con- 
clusion that the motions of the arctic pack 
result from the friction upon its surface of 
the prevailing winds, was fully confirmed, and 
placed upon an impregnable basis, by the drift 
of the Jeannette. This is perhaps the most 
important generalization the history of the yoy- 
age affords. Another fact of value is the de- 
termination of the shallow character of this 
part of the arctic basin, which nowhere reached 
one hundred fathoms in depth, and was usually 
less than fifty fathoms. From the constant 


though moderate motion of the pack which held 


JEANNETTE ISLAND (FROM A SKETCH BY MR. MELYILLE). 


* the vessel, tidal observations were impractica- 


ble; and the disturbances of the surface so 


occasioned, also prevented the permanent occu- 


pation of an observatory away from the ship. 
Polar bears. seals, a fox or two, walrus, and 
a small number of birds, comprise the air- 
breathing vertebrates obtained. Some fish- 
bones were found on the ice, but it does not 
appear that any fishing was attempted. Vign- 
ettes from the pencil of Mr. Newcomb, who 
acted as naturalist of the expedition, are scat- 
tered through the text, and illustrate the scanty 
fauna ina neat and artistic way. On the 16th of 
May, 1881, land was seen bearing nearly west, 
which was named Jeannette Island. It proved 
to be a small rocky island with bold shores, 
and was situated in latitude 76° 47’, and east 
longitude 158° 56’. Onthe 24th another island 
was observed more to the north and west, which 


_~- 


OcToBER 19, 1883.] 


was named Henrietta Island. This was visited 


by Melville, with a small party, ten days later. 
After great difficulties, caused by the hum- 


BENNETT ISLAND AS SEEN IN THE DISTANCE, JULY 19. 


mocky ice, they succeeded in landing upon it, 
and found it to be a desolate rock, surmounted 
by a snow-cap which discharged in several 
glaciers on the east side. Dovekies nesting on 
the face of the rock were the only sign of life 
about it other than a little stunted vegetation. 
But a great change was at hand. Motions and 
fractures of the ice increased ; and the ship was 
evidently in serious danger, which was accord- 
ingly provided for. On June 12, 1881, the 
Jeannette yielded to the irresistible pressure, 
and at four o’clock the next morning she sank. 
The retreat was then organized and begun, 
with several men on the sick-list in addition to 
the usual difficulties of- 
fered by rough, broken, 
and fissured ice. After 
a little, De Long made 
the painful discovery 
that the ice was drifting 
northward faster than 
they were able to travel 
in a southerly direction. 
The course was therefore 
altered to cross the drift 
in a south-westerly di- 
rection, in the hope of 
escaping from the moy- 
ing area. About the 
middle of July more land 
was observed, and on 
the 28th the party suc- 
ceeded in landing upon 
it after almost incredi- 
ble exertions. This 
land, the loom of which had heen reported 
by Russian explorers on the New Siberian 
Islands many years ago, but which had never 


SCIENCE. 


543 


been definitely verified or charted, was named 
Bennett Island; and we observe that in the 
map accompanying the work, this and the 
others are very appro- 
priately included under 
the name of the De 
Long Islands. Coal, 
hematite, fossiliferous 
limestone, clay, and 
lavas were observed on 
this island, and, more 
important for the party, 
myriads of sea- fowl 
breeding in the rocky 
cliffs. There were sey- 
eral glaciers, and, to 
one hundred feet above 
the sea, masses of drift- 
wood embedded in the 
soil, indicating tolera- 
bly recent elevation of the land. Hence by way 
of the New Siberian Islands, touching at Thad- 
deieff, Kotelnoi, Semeonoffski, the party made 
their way, but became separated in a gale of 
wind on the 12th of September, after which the 
smallest boat, with its crew, was never heard 
from; and finally the two remaining boats 
reached the shores of the Lena delta. De Long 
landed on the north Sept. 17, and Melville the 
previous day reached the south-eastern angle, 
and entered a branch of the river. It is not 
necessary to recapitulate the circumstances 
which attended the retreat, — the heroic jour- 
ney of Nindeman and Noros, the indefatigable 


3 
4 
i 
} 
; 
! 
; 
i 


MONUMENT HILL, JENA DELTA, 


search of Melville, the final recovery of the re- 
mains, and their temporary interment on Mon- 
ument Hill, looking out upon the flat stretches 


544 


of the delta. These facts are the property of 
the public, which has not failed to appreciate 
the heroic qualities exhibited, nor to observe 
that the disastrous result of this unfortunate 
expedition offers in great part its own expla- 
nation. If it teach the aspiring that mere un- 
instructed courage cannot take the place of 
science, De Long and his people will not have 
died in yain. That this lesson should be es- 
pecially emphasized, from recent events in 
another part of the arctic regions, will occur to 
most of our readers. Perhaps it would be well 
to permit future candidates for such work to con- 
vince themselves by trial, that the most exalted 
bravery will not enable the inexperienced to 
milk a fractious cow; and that, if so simple a 
matter requires knowledge and experience, it 
may be well to hesitate before assuming the 
fearful responsibility of hazarding the lives of 
even willing subordinates, without reasonable 
preparation for the problems offered by all se- 
rious arctic work, whether of exploration or 
retreat. Tenderness toward the dead should 
not be for an instant permitted to befog this 
self-evident truth, the statement of which is a 
duty owed, not merely to those who may here- 
after attempt arctic exploration, but on behalf 
of scientific training everywhere. 


STEP’S PLANT-LIFE. 


Plant-life: popular papers on the phenomena of bolany. 
By Epwarp Step. With 148 illustrations drawn 
by the author, and engraved by W. M. R. Quick. 
New York, Holt § Co., 1883. 124+218p. 12°. 


YEAR by year there is what may be termed 
a noticeable amelioration in the character of 
the botanical literature which appears in this 
country. By this we mean no discourtesy to 
the authors of the many excellent works which 
have appeared from time to time. In certain 
scientific lines, the botanical literature of the 
United States has been both voluminous and 
of a high order of excellence. In systematic 
botany, the publications of Torrey, Gray, 
Eaton, and Watson (to mention only a few of 
the later workers) have not been excelled any- 
where. We may justly feel a national pride in 
such magnificent books as the two volumes of 
the Botany of California, the Botany of the 
Clarence King reports and of the Wheeler re- 
ports, the Ferns of North America, ete. Then, 
too, our school and college books have been 
worthy of their authors. What country was 
ever supplied with better field-manuals than 
Gray’s or Wood’s? and where can one find as 
good a treatise on the morphology of the pha- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 87. 


nerogams as Dr. Gray has given us in the 
latest edition of his Structural botany ? 

All these, however, are for students and 
botanists proper. They were not designed for 
the general reader, — the man who does not 
take botany in such dreadful earnest as do the 
botanists, but who asks of the gentle science 
that it shall please and amuse him. Onur scien- 
tific botanists haye been too busy with the 
serious matter of instructing their classes of 


‘young people in school and college, to turn 
J > i a 


aside and furnish entertaining reading for the 
unbotanical. We can scarcely blame them for 
thus neglecting the great outside world, when 
the small world of the classroom required all 
their time and strength; and yet we cannot 
help feeling that it would have been better for 
the botanists, as well as for botany itself, 
had they compelled themselves to find time 
for those lighter works which have, in other 
countries, been at once the recreation of the 
scientific man and the pleasure of the general 
reader. 

In the work before us we have an example 
of what may be done in the way of putting the 
main facts of biological botany before the un- 
botanical in plain and easy English, and in 
such a way as to be attractive and interesting. 
We wish its English author were an American ; 
but, that being an impossibility, it is most 
gratifying that the Messrs. Holt have brought 
out so neat an American edition. ; 

It is, of course, to be expected that there is 
nothing new botanically in,such a book; so 
that those who are fairly well equipped with a 
knowledge of recent botanical literature need 
not take it up in the hope of gleaning any new 
facts. It is only what its titlepage indicates, 
an aggregation of popular papers on some of 
the phenomena of botany. They are not pro- 
found, nor are they so arranged as to present 
themselyes as a series of connected lessons. 
They are rather like lightly drawn sketches, — 
now of this interesting view of a portion of the 
plant-world, and now of that. Thus we have 
a chapter on microscopic plants, another on 
plant structure and growth, one on the ferti- 
lization of flowers, followed by others on pred- 
atory plants, remarkable flowers and leaves, 
and about a fern. Then we have the follk-lore 
of plants, plants and animals, mosses and 
lichens, ete. So the chapters (fourteen in all) 
run on through the book, there being a de- 
lightful alternation of the structural with those 
which deal with sentimental or poetical con- 
siderations. 

Considering the nature of the book, the 
errors are remarkably few. Here and there, 


A pre 


an ied 
b 


OcTOBER 19, 1883.] 


however, are statements which ought to be 
changed in a second edition. The Zygnemae 


- are erroneously described as producing zo- 


ospores (p. 5),—a statement true enough of 
their relatives the Confervae, but not of any 
of the Zygnemae. Of roots it is said positive- 
ly (in italies, p. 29) that ‘ they are never green,’ 
which, to say the least, is a strong statement. 
On p. 34 we find that ‘‘in some plants the calyx 
or corolla is entirely wanting, in which case the 
floral covering is called the perianth,’’ which 
is certainly not in accordance with ordinary 
usage. On the same page the stigma is curious- 
ly described as ‘ the surface of the style.’ The 
Equiseta are not leafless, as they are said to 
be on p. 164. Their leaves are small, it is 
true ; but certainly the whorls of united leaves 
at each joint are evident enough to even the 
casual observer. ‘The formation of the zygo- 


SCIENCE. 


545 


spore in Mucor is not correctly given on p. 184, 
where it is described as resulting from the 
union of two aerial hyphae. On p. 192, in 
deseribing the fly fungus, the reader is given 
the impression that a mycelium upon a surface 
(as a window-pane) attacks its hapless vic- 
tim, the fly, which, when dead, is said to be 
‘* standing upon a mat of delicate silk threads 
spread upon the glass.’’ 

Fig. 21 (repeated in fig. 143) is erroneous 
in showing the hyphae of the potato fungus 
to be septated. Fig. 104 is said to show the 
antheridia of a moss; but certainly no such 
organs are visible in the cut given. 

In spite of the slips noted above, and others 
which we may well pass over, the little book is 
a pleasant one to read, and we feel sure that 
it will receive a hearty welcome from plant- 
lovers everywhere. 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


ASTRONOMY. 


Saturn’s rings. —Enoke’s division in the outer 
ring of Saturn has been examined by M. Schiaparelli, 
who finds that the position and lack of symmetry 
are the same as previously noticed, but the line is 
broader, and more diffused than in 1881. He thinks 
the phenomenon is variable, and accounts for it by 
supposing the middle of the ring to be thinner, and 
by the change of orbit of the particles composing 
it. He also examined carefully the region about 
the inner bright ring and the dark ring. At times 
O. Struve’s division was seen very distinctly, and 
on other occasions very faintly. More observations 
are necessary to determine whether the phenomenon 
is variable. — (Observ., Aug. ; Astr. nachr., 2,521.) 
M. Men, [289 

The great comet of 1882.— Mr. Maxwell Hall 
shows the possible identity of the great comet of 
1882, the comets of 1880, 1843, and 1668, with a comet 
which appeared B.C. 370, and which was said to have 
separated into two parts. The orbits of all are nearly 
identical. Taking a period not greatly different from 
that given by Prof. Frisby for the comet of 1882, he 
identifies the comets of B.C. 370 and A.D. 1843 with 
one which was seen in 1106. No comet is recorded 
for A.D. 368. The comets of 1880 and 1882 may pos- 
sibly be identical with two which appeared in 1131 
and 1132, and with the second part of the comet of 
B.C. 370. If this is the case, this comet also prob- 
ably separated into two parts at its unrecorded ap- 
pearance in A.D. 381 or 382. We already have an 
instance of this separation in Biela’s comet; and the 
comet of 1882 gave evidence, to a certain extent, that 
a process of disintegration was going on. —(Observ., 
Aug.) M. MeN. [290 


f . 
... 
Te Cn em / 


PHYSICS. 
Electricity. 

Atmospheric electricity.— Dr. L. J. Blake has 
found that no convection of electricity takes place by 
the rising vapor from a charged liquid surface, to 
which he gave a potential due to from four to five 
hundred Daniells cells. The plate placed in the track 
of the vapors was, in the different experiments, either 
colder than the vapor, or of the same temperature. By 
connecting the liquid with the electrometer, he finds 
a small negative charge, increasing during the fifteen 
minutes which each experiment lasted, but not suffi- 
ciently to justify the statement that electricity is gen- 
erated by evaporation. In all the work, the lamp was 
removed before connecting with the electrometer; and 
the whole apparatus was within a metallic covering 
connected with the earth. Distilled water, sea-water 
from the North Sea, alcohol, dilute sulphuric acid, 
mercury, and solutions of a number of different salts, 
were tried. — (Ann. phys. chem., xix. 518.) [291 


ENGINEERING. 


A new current-meter.— Mr. L. d’Auria pro- 
poses an apparatus for determining the mean velocity 
at any vertical in a stream, which apparatus consists 
of ascow, or pontoon, to be moored in the desired 
place; a pole with a pulley near each,end, carrying 
an endless cord; a light ball; and a species of net, or 
grillage. The pole is thrust to the bottom alongside 
the scow, at the point where the velocity is to be 
gauged; and the ball is lightly attached to the cord by 
a string, so as to be disengaged by a moderate pull 
when it reaches the pulley at the bottom. The time 
of the disengaging pull is noted, and also the time of 
the appearance of the ball at the surface. As the 


546 


floating grillage has previously been moored over this 
place, the ball is caught at the point of rising, and 
the horizontal distance of this point from the pole 
measured. Ience are known, upon measuring the 
depth, the two co-ordinates of the point at the surface 
from the bottom of the pole. The author proposes 
to weight the ball until it shall be one-half the heavi- 
ness of water. He deduces some equations to prove 
that the ball rises with a practically uniform velocity, 
and observes, that for a depth of 30 feet, from which 
such a ball would rise in about 11 seconds, and a 
mean velocity of current of 4 feet per second, the 
ball would travel horizontally about 44 feet.— (Amer. 
eng., Aug, 24.) ©. E.G. [292 


CHEMISTRY. 
(Physical.) 

Determination of vapor density.—Br. Paw- 
lewsky proposes a modification of Dumas’ method in 
which he uses a globe of 20-30 cubic centimetres vol- 
ume. After heating, the globe is closed by a rubber 

‘cap, which is fitted to a cylindrical tube of glass 
sealed at one end.. The volume is therefore constant 
for different determinations, and the observations 
may be taken in a room of nearly constant tempera- 
ture. In the formula of Dumas, — 


_ 0.0012932. V. Bo I 
m= (i+ at) 760 ° (I.) 
where m is equal to the weight of air, the product 
0.0012932 . V = K& would be constant. The value 
(1 + at) = Nis constant, and may be obtained from 


a table. If, then, the constant, KH, is divided by 
760, a new constant, D, results, and (I.) becomes 
Lite By De 
= Fey a Ne (11) 


In a determination at any temperature, é,, and any 
pressure, B’o, if the weight of air in the apparatus is 
represented by n, its weight is shown in the formula 
_ 0.0012932 V (1+<«t’) By 

iia (1 + at) 760 es 

in which « represents the coefficient of expansion of 
the apparatus. If the temperature is constant, and 
the same apparatus is used in different determina- 
tions, the product 0.00129382 V (1+x«¢#’), and the 
whole denominator, become constant. Representing 
the denominator by R, and the product 0.0012932 V 


(IIL) 


M 
(1+ «¥t’) by M, the fraction ip C is constant, and. 


formula (III.) will take the form 

SM Bos 

C= an = 

The volume of air may therefore be obtained by 

multiplying the constant, C, by B’ reduced to B’o; 

and when the weight, a, of the vapor, and that of 

the air, n, under the same conditions, are known, the 
vapor density may be found by the formula 


a 
D=, 


CBG (1V.) 


(V.) 


The apparatus may be heated in a beaker of medium 
size, containing: water, oil, or paraffine. For a com- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. Il., No. 37 


plete description of the apparatus, reference must be 

made to the original article. A series of determi- 

nations are given, which indicate a high degree of 

accuracy. — (Berichte deutsch. chem. gesellsch., xvi. 

1293.) c.F.M. [293 
GEOLOGY. 

Evidences of modern geological changes in 
Alaska.— Mr. T. Meehan exhibited a piece of wood 
taken from a prostrate tree which had been covered 
with glacial drift on a peninsula of Tlood’s Bay, 
Alaska, formed by the junction of Glacier Bay and 
Lynn Channel. The trunk, which lay under a block 
of granite estimated to measure 2,214 cubic feet, was 
quite sound, and exbibited no evidence of great age 
since it became covered. The shores are strewn with 
rocks and stones of various kinds, as usual in cases 
of glacial deposits. All the surroundings indicated 
that there had been a sudden subsidence of the land, 
accompanied by a flow of water with icebergs and 
huge bowlders, which crushed and tore off the trees, 
The whole surface was afterwards covered to a great. 
depth with drift. Since that time, there must have 
been an elevation of the land bringing the remains of 
trees to their original surface, but with a deep deposit 
above them. A study of the existing vegetation 
might afford an approximation to the time when 
these events occurred. The living forest indicated 
clearly that it could not have been, at the farthest, 
more than a few hundred years since the elevation 
occurred. The trees in the immediate vicinity, in- 
deed, were not more than fifty years old; but unless 
the original parent trees, which furnished the seed for 
the uplifted land, were near by, it might take some 
years for the seed to scatter from bearing trees, grow 
to maturity, again seed, and, in this way, be spread 
to where we now find them. But, as original forests 
were evidently not far distant, two or three hundred 
years ought to cover all the time required. The 
Indians of the region have a tradition of a terrible 
flood about seven or eight generations ago, from 
which only a few of the natives had escaped in a 
large canoe. The probable identity of the sunken 
trees with the present species, and the freshness of 
the wood, indicate no very great date backwards at. 
which the original subsidence occurred. 

In connection with the subject of the comparative- 
ly recent occurrence of great geological changes, as 
indicated by botanical evidence, Mr. Meehan referred 
to an exposure of the remains of a large forest near 
the Muir glacier, — one of five huge ice-fields which 
form the head of Glacier Bay between Lat. 59° and 
60°. This glacier is at least two miles widevat the 
mouth, and has an average depth of ice, at this spot, 
of perhaps five hundred feet. At the present time 
there is not a vestige of arboreal vegetation to be 
seen in the neighborhood. The river which flows 
under the glacier rushes out ina mighty torrent afew 
miles above the mouth, and has cut its way through 
mountains of drift, the gorge being many hundred 
feet in width, and the sides from two hundred to 
five hundred feet high. The torrent, though the bed 
is now comparatively level, carries with it an im- 
mense quantity_of heavy stones, some of which must 


OcroBER 19, 1883.] 


have contained six or eight cubic feet. Along the 
sides of this gorge were the exposed trunks referred 
to, all standing perfectly erect, and cut off at about 
the same level. Some were but a few feet high, and 
others as much as fifteen, the difference arising from 
the slope of the ground on which the trees grew. 
The trunks were of mature trees in the main, and 
were evidently Abies Sitkensis, with a few of either 
Thuja gigantea or Juniperus, perhaps J. occidentalis. 
These trees must have been filled in tightly by drift 
to a height of fifteen feet before being cut off: other- 
wise the trunks now standing would have been split 
down on the side opposite to that which received the 
blow. The facts seemed to indicate that the many 
feet of drift which had buried part of the trees in the 
first instance were the work of a single season, and 
that the subsequent total destruction of every vestige 
of these great forests was the work of another one, 
soon following. As in the case of the facts noted in 
Hood's Bay, the conclusion was justified, that the 
total destruction of the forests, the covering of their 
site by hundreds of feet of drift, and the subsequent 
exposal of their remains, were all the work of a few 
hundred years, —(Acad. nat. sc. Philad.; meeting 
Aug. 28.) [294 
MINERALOGY. 

Stibnite from Japan.— Within the last few 
months most remarkable specimens of stibnite from 
Mount Kosang, in southern Japan, have been received 
in America. For great size and beauty, as well as 
complexity of form, they rival all specimens of the 
same species from other localities, while the crystals 
have arrived at a degree of perfection rarely met with 
in metallic minerals. The crystals have been care- 
fully studied and fully described by E. S. Dana. 
Their great complexity of form is of the highest sci- 
entific interest. There had previously been identified 
on stibnite forty-five crystal planes. Of these, thirty 
have been observed on the Japanese crystals, and, in 
addition, forty new ones. The habit of the crystals 
is quite constant, being prismatic, elongated in the 
direction of the vertical axis, single crystals obtain- 
ing often a length of over twenty inches and a width 
of two inches. The prismatic planes are deeply 
striated. The crystals are usually terminated by a 
few polished pyramidal faces, They are usually 
quite simple in form; very complicated, large crystals 
oceurring only occasionally, while the more compli- 
cated ones are usually small, The planes in the zone 
between the brachypinacoid (010) and unit macro- 
dome (101) are those which ordinarily terminate the 
erystal. Another remarkable zone is between the 
brachypinacoid (010) and macrodome (203), consist- 
ing of ten planes, all but one of which are new, and 
as many as nine of which have been observed on a 
single crystal. A bending in the direction of the 
macrodiagonal axis is a feature of the crystals, and 
seems to be characteristic of the species. In the 
Japanese crystals this bending seems to be confined 
to the termination. A corkscrew-like twist has been 
observed in slender crystals. The lustre of the crys- 
tals is very remarkable, and is to be compared to 
highly polished steel, while the perfect brachy- 


K 
; 
4 
a 
; 
7 


SCIENCE. 


547 


pinacoidal cleavage yields a cleavage-surface of re- 
markable beauty. — (Amer. journ. sc., Sept., 1883.) 
8. 1. PR. [295 
GEOGRAPHY. 
( Asia.) 

Railways in the Caspian region. — General 
Chernaieff, the governor of Turkestan, has recently 
gone over the route from Kungrad to the Caspian in 
person, and finds it well suited for vehicles. Even a 
railway between the delta of the Oxus and the Gulf © 
Mertvi-kuttuk has been talked of. The connection 
of Tiflis and Baku by rail is completed, and the jour- 
ney can now be made between the Black and Caspian 
seas in thirty hours without change. — (Comptes ren- 
dus soc. gévgr., June.) WwW. H. D. [296 


Prjevalski's travels. — This indefatigable explor- 
er has just started for Kiachta, on the Siberian bor- 
der of China, in order to continue his researches in 
central Asia. On this occasion be will endeavor'to 
penetrate the north-west part of Thibet, without 
giving up his original idea of reaching Lassa, or at 
least as far as Batang or Tziamdo. He will have a 
well-armed escort of some twenty men, fully equipped 
for two years’ service. The publication of the third 
volume of his travels has just been finished. During 
these he has travelled 23,530 kilometres; topographi- 
cally sketched over 12,000 kilometres along his line of 
travel, in countries previously quite unknown; de- 
termined the altitude of 212 points, and the latitude 
of 48 localities; and has collected ten or twelve thou- 
sand specimens of animals and plants belonging to 
over two thousand species. — (Comptes rendus soc. 
géogr., June.) W. H. D. [297 


(Africa.) 

Notes. —C. Doelter has ascended the Rio Grande 
as far as Futa Djallun, but was prevented from going 
farther east by a war among the natives. He believes 
that the Rio Grande has been incorrectly mapped, 
and doubts its alleged identity with the Tomani 
River. —— The English have annexed the Guinea 
coast from the right bank of the Mannah River 
toward the Liberian boundary-line,—a distance of 
eight leagues in a north-westerly direction; and the 
Portuguese government has ceded to England the 
fort of St. John de Ajuda, situated on the Dahomey 
coast. Ajuda, or Whydah, is situated a short distance 
from the coast, on a shallow lagoon. The port is a 
poor one, like all those on the Guinea coast; and 
there are very few white residents. It is said that 
the cession was contingent on the recognition, by 
England, of the acquired rights of Portugal on the 
Congo. —— Robert Flegel, during the past season, 
has discovered the source of the Binué, an afiluent 
from the east of the lower Niger, and also of the 
Logué, which discharges into Lake Chad. In this 
way he has been able to trace the watershed between 
the two basins, through a previously unexplored dis- 
trict. —— Hore has arrived at Ujijion Lake Tangan- 
yika, and proposes to establish a regular postal service 
on the lake, between the missionary and other sta- 
tions. —— Dr, Baxter has attempted an exploration 
of the country of the Massai adjacent to Mpuapua, 


948 


These people are extremely hostile to strangers, 
and his success, therefore, is problematical. The 
Mahdi, or false prophet, who has been menacing 
Khartum, is reported to have captured the traveller, 
G. Roth, who was sent out by the Geographical 
society of St. Gall, Switzerland, to explore the upper 
Nile. Yunker has succeeded in passing from the 
basin of the Nile to that of the Congo, and continues 
his explorations, while one of his party has returned 
with the collections made in the Niam-Niam country. 
——Paul Soleillet writes from Ankober of his safe 
arrival at Shoa, the success of his journey, and his 
favorable reception by King Menelik IT., who governs 
all the population of Obok Shaffa and adjacent region 
with a firm rule. Menelik is favorable to trade with 
foreigners; and it is announced that he has been 
named by King John of Abyssinia as his successor, 
in default of direct heirs, to that kingdom. Soleillet 
has formed valuable collections, and has discovered 
wild coffee forming a dense undergrowth in the forest 
along the river Guébé, and indefinitely beyond. He 
reports the product of the wild plant to be of excel- 
lent quality. ——The abbé Trihidez, almoner of the 
army of occupation in Tunis, is reported to haye dis- 
covered at Susa some Phoenician stelae engraved in 
a rather artistic manner, and in a good state of pres- 
ervation. These records have been pronounced to be 
of great interest by such eminent specialists as Renan 
and Berger. ——M. Alphonse Aubry has forwarded 
to the Ministry of public instruction at Paris, reports 
on the geology of the English colony of Aden, which 
is situated in the horseshoe-shaped crater of an ex- 
tinct voleano, and on the French colony of Obok on 
the opposite shore of the Gulf of Aden. —— Gold has 
been found on the Kaap River in the Transvaal. 
Nuggets of half a pound in weight are reported. ary 
Oil has been ‘struck’ in Natal, near Dundee, and also 
large deposits of magnetic iron. A company has 
been formed at Pietermaritzberg to investigate these 
minerals. — W. H. D. [298 


BOTANY. 


Thermotropism.— Julius Wortmann has recently 
shown that radiant heat falling upon a growing organ 
can cause curvatures either toward or away from the 
source of energy, and that the phenomena are in 
general much like those produced by light. His 
experiments are interesting, but are, as yet, incom- 
plete, leaving some questions which seem to us very 
important wholly unanswered. It is pretty clear, 
however, that hereafter we must add the words ‘posi- 
tive thermotropism’ and ‘negative thermotropism’ 
to the already long list of new terms. — (Bol. zeit., 
1883, no. 29.) @.L. G. [299 

On the growth of the epicotyl of Phaseolus 
multiflorus.— In a series of experiments published 
in 1878, Wiesner detected two maxima of growth 
characterizing the younger internodes of many plants, 
whereas Sachs (and more lately Wortmann) had 
recognized only one maximum. To satisfy himself 
of the correctness of his former observations, Wies- 
ner has repeated and extended the experiments. 
His results, derived from more than one hundred 


SCIENCE. 


[Vor. Il., No. 87. 


cases, show that in the plant named there are two 
distinct maxima of growth. The measurements 
were made with Grisebach’s auxanometer. — (Bot. 


zeit., 1883, no. 27.) G. L. G. [300 
VERTEBRATES. 
Reptiles. 


Organ of Jacobson in Ophidia.— Born re- 
garded the cellular columns which form the greater 
part of the thickness of the roof of Jacobson’s organ 
as “die zellige ausftillungsmasse einfacher driisen 
von birnformiger configuration. Sie dicht an ein- 
ander gedrangt die ganze schleimhaut durchsetzen,” 
while Leydig believed them to be largely of gangli- 
onic nature. E. Ramsay Wright agrees with Leydig. 
He has studied the organ in Eutaenia (embryo and 
adult). In conelusion, he says, ‘‘From the above 
data I conclude that the cellular columns in the roof 
of Jacobson’s organ are outgrowths of the nuclear 
stratum of its neuro-epithelium, the polygonal form 
of which has been determined by the meshes of the 
capillary plexus, through which the outgrowths have 
taken place, and that in the course of development 
more and more of the cells of the nuclear stratum 
have been pushed outside the boundary formed by 
the capillary plexus, till eventually little but the 
superficial stratum is left inside that boundary.’? — 
(Zool. anz., vi. 389.) Cc. S. M. [SOL 


Mammals, 

The species of hogs.— M. Forsyth Major is con- 
vinced, from his study of the genus Sus, that the six- 
teen or seventeen species now recognized must be 
reduced to four; namely, Sus vittatus Mill. and 
Schleg., S. verrucosus M. and S., S. barbatus M. 
and S., and S. scrofa Linné. — (Zool. anz., vi. (140), 
1883, 295.) F. w. T. [so2 

Digestion of meats and milk. — Jessen has 
carried out a series of experiments to determine the 
time necessary for the digestion of equal quantities 
of different meats and of milk. Three different 
methods were employed in the investigation: 1. Arti- 
ficial digestion; 2. Introduction of the meats into 
the stomach of a living dog by means of a fistula; 
3. Upon a healthy man, allowing him to swallow 
the foods used, and ascertaining the time of digestion 
by means of the stomach-pump. The results ob- 
tained by the different methods are, on the whole, 
uniform, as far as the relative time necessary for di- 
gestion in each case is concerned, and may be stated 
as follows: raw beef and mutton are digested most 
quickly; for half-boiled beef and raw veal, a longer 
time is necessary; thoroughly boiled and half-roasted 
beef, raw pork, and sour cow’s-milk follow next; fresh 
cow’s milk, skimmed milk, and goat’s milk are still 
less easily digested; while the longest time is required 
for thoroughly roasted meats and boiled milk, — 
(Zeitsch. f. biol., xix. 129.) Ww. H. H. [803 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


Iron in the mounds.— F. W. Putnam has had 
occasion to review some of the statements of the 
older writers on American archeology, — notably, Mr. 


OcToBER 19, 1883.] 


Atwater and Dr. Hildreth, — with reference to the 
occurrence of iron implements in the mounds. From 
these statements, such inferences as the following 
have been drawn: — 

The mound-builders understood working iron; they 
had intercourse with civilized peoples; the mounds 
were built since the arrival of the whites, or these 
iron objects belong to intrusive burials. Now, Mr. 
Putnam demolishes all these deductions at a single 
blow, by showing that none of the objects are iron. 
In other words, Mr. Atwater’s ‘‘ handle of eithera 
small sword or a large knife’’ was an antler, in one 
end of which a hole had been bored, and around this 
part was a band of silver. The blade was evidently 
of native, cold-hammered copper. Dr, Hildreth’s 
silver-plated ear-ornament is duplicated in some of 
our museums by a kind of plating, first described 
by Mr. Putnam. In this discussion, some light is 
thrown upon the spool-shaped copper objects that 
haye. been so longa puzzle to archeologists, by the 
finding of pieces of ‘leather’ between the plates, 
very closely resembling the skin from the ear of a 
Peruvian mummy. Important discoveries made dur- 
ing the last year, in mounds in Ohio, by Dr. C. L. 
Metz and Mr, Putnam, have brought to light a num- 
ber of copper ornaments, some of which are covered, 
or plated, with thin layers of silver. The investiga- 
tion shows us quite conclusively that we are no 
longer safe in our archeological deductions, except 
in the hands of a skilful guide. — (Proc. Amer. antiq. 
80c., ii. 349.) 0. T. M. [304 

Aztec music.— Mr. H. T. Cresson has been study- 
ing the musical instruments of the ancient Mexicans, 
The huehuetl, or large drum of the great temple, at 
the ancient pueblo of Tenochtitlan, was covered with 
the skins of serpents, and when beaten could be 
heard at a distance of several miles. Clay balls were 
placed inside of their grotesque clay images, also 
within the handles attached to their earthenware 
vessels, which are generally hollow. Some of these 
rattles in the Poinsett collection resemble the head 
of Crotalus horridus, and give forth a rattling sound. 
In this connection Mr. Cresson makes a very sugges- 
tive observation which we do not remember to have 
seen before: ‘‘It may therefore be supposed that 
these children of nature noticed and strove to repro- 
duce sounds, which, however harsh and unmusical to 
us, to them were pleasing, because they recalled fa- 
miliar objects.’? The author thinks he can recognize 
the Mexican Hyladae, macaws, parrots, and other 
bird-calls. A musical vase is spoken of. Mr. Bar- 
ber’s assertion that the fourth and seventh are want- 
ting from the diatonic scale is denied, since, in the 
Poinsett collection, there exist Aztec flageolets capa- 
ble of producing not only the fourth and seventh of 
the diatonic scale, but also the entire chromatic scale. 
This subject is elaborated at great length. Mr. 
Cresson thinks that the musicians of our day have 
arrived at a somewhat hasty decision in regard to the 
music of these ancient people, and its confinement 
within the narrow limits of a pentatonic scale. — 
(Proc. acad. nat. sc. Philad., 86.) J. w. P. [805 


= - 
ae ee . e - 


SCIENCE. 


549 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


THE resolution of the American association, offer- 
ing all the privileges of membership for next year’s 
meeting to the members of the British associa- 
tion, was received by the latter with much enthu- 
siasm; and the council of the British association, 
with which such matters lie, will, it is said, extend 
a similar invitation to the American association. 
The Canadian authorities have arranged for such 
members of the British association as may desire, to 
take the longer excursions planned for them before 
their meeting on Aug. 27, and thus allow tliem to 
attend the meeting of the American association in 
Philadelphia, Sept. 3, without losing their excur- 
sions. Itis hoped that at least five hundred mem- 
bers of the British association, including many leading 
scientific men, will attend the Montreal meeting; 
while there seems to be a very general wish, more 
especially on the part of the younger scientific men, 
to attend the Philadelphia meeting as well. 

— The following is the list of grants of money, 
which, according to Nature, the British association 
has granted for scientific purposes for the coming 
year; amounting, in all, to seven thousand dollars. 
When may we hope for even the beginning of such 
a list from the American association, with its two 
thousand members ? 


A, — Mathematics and physics. 
Brown, Prof. Crum, Meteorological observations 


on Ben Nevis " . £30 
Foster, Prof. G. Carey, Electrical standards + eee 
Schuster, Prof., Meteoric dust . P pee) 
Abney, Capt., Standard of white light - - 20 
Scott, Mr. R. H., Synoptic charts of the Indian 
Ocean . . 50 
Stewart, Prof. Balfour, Meteorological observa- 
tory near Chepstow. 25 
Shoolbred, Mr, J. N., Reduction of tidal ob- 
servations ° . « 9120 
Darwin, Prof. G. H., Harmonic analysis of 
tidal observations . < : ‘ » 45 
B. — Chemistry. 
Odling, Prof., aN apa poe the ultra-violet 
spark spectra e : - 3 ~ tank 
C. — Geology. 
Etheridge, Mr. R., Earthquake Serepr ir of 
Japan . vb) 
Williamson, Prof. W. C., Fossil ‘plants of Hali- 
fax A . re 
Sorby, Dr. H. C., British fossil polyzoa . ~ 10 
Prestwich, Prof., Erratic blocks . 4 10 
Etheridge, Mr. ah Fossil Phyllopoda of the 
paleozoic rocks ° . 15 
Hull, Prof. E., Circulation of underground 
waters . . ° ‘ vin 16 
Evans, Dr. J., Geological record s eb 
Green, Prof. ih: H., Raygill fissure. s 15 


Prestwich, Prof., International geological map 
of Europe. E 5 - . ° 7920 


590 


D. — Biology. 
Newton, Prof., Zodlogical bibliography. . wo 
Selater, P. L., Natural history of Timor Laut . 5 
Lankester, Prof. Ray, Table at the zodlogical 


station’at Naples . 5 é 5 3 Bye itetd) 
Harrison, J. Park, Facial characteristics of i 
races in the British Isles 5 * F 10 


Tooker, Sir J., Exploring Kilimandjaro and the 
adjoining mountains of equatorial Africa . 500 
Cordeaux, Mr. J., Migration of birds. ‘ dhs AO) 


Foster, Dr. M., Coagulation of the blood . Dt) 
Stainton, Mr. H. T., Record of zodlogical litera- 
ture ‘ a a c 5 3 - 100 


FE. — Geography. 
Godwin-Austen, Lieut.-Col., Exploration of 
New Guinea . 5 : “ é ° . 100 


F. — Economic Science and Statistics. 
Brabrook, Mr. E. W., Preparation of the final 
report of the anthropometric committee . 10 


G. — Mechanics. 
Bramwell, Sir F., Patent legislation . 0 : 5 


—Lieut. Ray returned to San Francisco, Oct. 7, 
by the schooner Leo. He left that port on July 18, 
1881, under instructions from the signal-service bu- 
reau to establish a permanent signal-station at Point 
Barrow, and to remain there until the summer of 
1884, unless otherwise ordered. The order for the 
party to return created great surprise, as the work 
was successfully carried on. Lieut. Ray stated, 
that, apart from the scientific importance of the sta- 
tion, it was a necessity, as a refuge for the crews of 
whaling-vessels. Every year, in the Arctic Ocean, 
there are, on an average, forty vessels, worth, with 
their cargoes, four million dollars, and employing 
sixteen hundred men. Out of eighty-seven vessels, 
fifty have been lost within a hundred miles of Point 
Barrow, in one year alone. In1877 twelve were lost, 
with all on board. The crews would not abandon 
their vessels, knowing there was nothing on the shore. 
Had the station then existed, it is probable that all 
their lives would have been saved. Since the station 
was established, two years ago, over fifty lives have 
been saved. Lieut. Ray states, that all the party 
lived comfortably, and enjoyed good health, thie cli- 
mate being particularly beneficial to those suffering 
from malaria. Besides their regular provisions, the 
party had seal, walrus, and white whale meat; the last 
being the best, as it was sweeter and more nutritious. 
Lieut. Ray expressed regret at his recall. 

—Lieut. Schwatka, who, with his party, was 
picked up by Lieut. Ray at St. Michael's, speaking 
of his trip up the Yukon River, Alaska, says they 
started from Fort Vancouver, W.T., on May 21, 
and travelled twenty-eight hundred miles overland, 
reaching the head waters of the river, where they 
constructed a raft of logs to navigate the stream to 
its mouth. They procured a crew of six Indians, 
and proceeded down the gradually increasing stream 
within two hundred and fifty miles of Fort Chilcat, 
where rapids were encountered. Down these the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 37. 


Indians refused to go, and attempted to force the raft 
ashore. Schwatka succeeded in suppressing the 
mutiny, and the rapids were run. The voyage on 
the raft was eighteen hundred and twenty-nine 
miles. From the mouth of the Yukon they pro- 
ceeded to St. Michael’s, where they boarded the Leo 
for this port. Signal-service officer Leavitt, who 
has been stationed at St. Michael’s, and who also 
came down on the Leo, says he has ascended the 
Yukon to Fort Selkirk two thousand miles from its 
mouth. He describes the river as being one of the 
largest in the world, discharging fifty per cent more 
water than the Mississippi, and as being in places 
seven miles in breadth. 

— Professor Oswald Teer, of the university and 
federal polytechnic school of Zurich, the celebrated 
Swiss paleontologist, died at Lausanne, Canton de 
Vaud, the 27th of September. Heer has done more 
for fossil botany and fossil insects than any one else 
during the last forty years, and his death will leave 
a place in science which it will be difficult to fill. 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 


Bernheim, G. Incombustibilisation des théatres et bati- 
ments. Nice, impr. Gauthier, 1883. 16p. 4°. 

Berthelot, M. P. E. Explosive materials: series of lec- 
tures delivered before the College de France, Paris; to which is 
added a short historical sketch of gunpowder. Translated from 
the German of Kar] Braun by J. P. Wisser, and a bibliography 
of works on explosives. New York, Van Nostrand, 1883. (Van 
Nostrand’s sc. ser., no. 70.) 24°. 

Bourassé, J.J. Histoire naturelle des oiseaux, des reptiles 
et des poissons. Tours, Jame, 1883. (Bibl. jeun. chrét.) 
288 p., illustr. 12°. 

Briggs, R. Steam-heating: an exposition of the American 
practice of warming buildings by steam. New York, Van Nos- 
trand, 1883. (Van Nostrand’s sc, ser., no. 68.) 108 p., illustr. 
24°. 

Brooks, W.K. The law of heredity: a study of the cause 
of variation and the origin of living organisms. Baltimore, Mur- 
phy, 1883. 2+336p.,2pl.,illustr. 16°. 

Browne, W.R. The student’s mechanics: an introduction 
to the study of force and motion. London, Griffin, 1883. 16+ 
210 p., illustr. 16°. 

Campagne, E. Les mines, or, argent, fer, cuivre, plomb, 
étain, zinc, mercure, et platine. Rouen, Megard, 1883. (Bibl. 
mor. jeun.) 190p.,illustr. 8°. . 

Carriére, E. A. Etude générale du genre pommier, et par- 
ticuligrement des pommiers microcarpes oun pommiers d’orne- 
ment, pommiers & flenrs doubles, etc. Mesnie, impr. Firmin- 
Didot, 18838. 179p. 18°. 

Foye, J. C. Chemical problems, with brief statements of 
the principles involved. New York, Van Nostrand, 1883. 
(Van Nostrand’s sc. ser., no. 69.) 24°. 

Freeman, E. A. English towns and districts: a series of 
addresses und sketches. London, Macmillan, 1883. 13+455 p., 
Jl pl.,map. 8°. 

Gladstone, J: H., and Tribe, A. 
secondary batteries of Planté and Faure. 
1883. (Nature series.) 11459 p. 8°. 

Gomme, G.L. Folk-lore relics of early village life. 
don, Stock, 18838. 8+246p. f°. 

Grant, B. <A few notes on St. Helena, and descriptive guide, 
To which are added some remarks on the island as a health resort, 
Capt. J. R. Oliver’s geology of the island, and numerous appen- 
dices. St. Helena, Grant, 1883. 127 p.,8 phot. pl. 8°. 

Haeckel, E. The pedigree of man and other essays. Trans- 
lated by EB. B. Aveling. London, Freethought publi. co., 1883. 
15+352 p., illustr. 16°. 

Kiddle, H. A text-book on physics, being a short and com- 
plete course, based upon the larger work of Ganot; for acade- 
mies, high schools, ete. New York, Wood, 1883. 272 p., illustr. 
§° 


The chemistry of the 
London, Macmillan, 


Lon- 


MacLeod, J. Leiddraad bij het onderwijzen en aanleeren 
der dierkunde. Algemeene dierkunde. Gent, VuylsteXe, 1883. 
(Willems-fond, uitgave 104.) 4+151p.,1pl, illustr. 16°. 


a 


Sole NCE. 


FRIDAY, OCTOBER 26, 1883. 


THE VIVISECTION QUESTION. 


Tue book we take as the basis of our re- 
marks, originally published in England, is one 
of several recent signs that British physiolo- 
gists are at last coming to their senses; and, 
instead of attempting to conceal the fact that 
they experiment on animals, have decided to 
explain to the general public what a vivisec- 
tion is, and why vivisections are necessary. 
Philanthropos, who is evidently well informed, 
discusses without passion or prejudice such 
topics as, ‘What is pain?’ ‘What is cru- 
elty ?? © Our rights over animals,’ ‘ What is 
vivisection?’ ‘The relation of experiment to 
physiology,’ ‘ The relation of medicine to exper- 
iment,’ and so forth. If our colleagues across 
the water had, some seven or eight years ago, 
shown sufficient courage to trust to the com- 
mon sense of the majority of their countrymen, 
and had endeavored to inform the laity by se- 
curing the publication and distribution of some 
such book as this, the anti-vivisection legisla- 
tion could hardly have been enacted. Its pas- 
sage, and the still-continued agitation for an 
act of Parliament totally forbidding all experi- 
ment on living animals, prove that the public 
did not and does not know enough about the 
. matter to save itself from being misled by the 
reckless misstatements of irresponsible fanat- 
ics, and of certain seekers after notoriety or 
salary. 

People in general do not read official blue- 
books: so, in spite of the fact that the royal 
commission appointed to investigate the mat- 
ter reported, that, after prolonged and careful 
inquiry, it could find no evidence that Eng- 
lish physiologists were guilty of cruelty, it has 
been possible for certain anti-vivisectors, by a 


1 Physiological cruelty; or, fact v. fancy: an inquiry into the 
vivisection question. By Philanthropos. New York, John 
Wiley & Sons, 1883. 156 p. 8°. . 


No. 38.— 1883. 


. 


persistent course of malignant vituperation and 
brazen mendacity, to produce a wide-spread 
belief that vivisection essentially consists in 
torturing an animal for the object of seeing 
how much it can suffer without dying. That 
such is the actual conviction of many worthy 
men and women in England, we know to be the 
case. - The physiologists kept silent, and left 
the field to their enemies, with disastrous result ; 
no one, not a brute, who believed half the 
stories circulated, could fail to hate physiology 
and physiologists. When the railroad-stations 
of England were placarded with large figures 
of dissections of dead animals, accompanied 
by printed words designed to entrap the gener- 
al public into the belief that they represented 
vivisections of living creatures; when a text- 
book of practical physiology, designed only 
for special students of physiology, was repre- 


_ sented far and wide as intended for use by 


every crude medical student; when the fact 
that the words ‘first give an anaesthetic ’ 
were omitted (as they are in text-books of 
surgery, the administration of an anaesthetic 
being, of course, assumed in cases where 
very special reasons for its omission do not 
exist) in the directions for the performance of 
certain operations, was used as proof that physi- 
ologists never thought of employing means to 
prevent or minimize pain; when a law was 
passed which allows any one to torture a frog 
in the most brutal manner if he says he does 
it just because he likes it, but subjects a uni- 
versity professor to fine and imprisonment if 
he draws a drop of blood from the animal’s toe 
for a scientific purpose, — then it had certainly 
become time for the physicians and physiolo- 
gists of the British Isles to endeavor to inform 
the public on the vivisection question. | 

The anti-vivisection craze has now spread to 
Germany, and there are premonitory symptoms 
in the United States. Our people in general 
are too well informed, and have too great con- 
fidence in scientific men, to be so easily led 


552 


astray as the English haye been. We shall, 
moreover, be free from the pressure of a royal 
court which dislikes biological science, and 
from the influence of the personal prejudices 
of the sovereign, still powerful enough in Eng- 
land to have much weight in legislation on 
questions outside of Whig and Tory polities. 
Still, American physiology is by no means 
secure, unless its leaders take warning by the 
English disaster. They have, in consequence 
of British legislation, an opportunity to make 
the United States the chief seat of physiologi- 
cal research among the English-speaking peo- 
ples; and it will be a lasting disgrace to them 
if they let it slip. If, while freely admitting 
that they believe it their duty to experiment on 
living animals, they will be on the alert to cor- 
rect at once the falsehoods and exaggerations 
of the fanatics ; to take pains to teach the pub- 
lic how much the scientific treatment of disease 
depends on physiological, therapeutical, and 
pathological research ; and to make it widely 
known how very small a percentage of yivi- 
sections involve more pain than that felt by a 
man on receiving a hypodermic of morphia, — 
then there is little doubt they will be allowed 
to carry on without hindrance their benefi- 
cent work. The only danger lies in the 
ignorance of the great majority of ordinarily 
well-informed people regarding such subjects. 
Secrecy, not publicity, is what American phys- 
iology has to fear. 


A HEARING OF BIRDS’ EARS.1—II. 


Ler us next confine attention to the ossicles 
of the ear. Those familiar with these little 
bones, only as they occur in man or any other 
mammal, need to be cautioned that their ana- 
tomical arrangement, and to a great extent 
their physiological characters, are very different 
in birds and other reptile-like vertebrates.. Pre- 
suming, of course, upon the reader’s thorough 
knowlege of the human case, we will demon- 
strate these bones in their proper relations and 
offices in birds, as elements of the lower jaw 
and hyoid bones (mandibular and hyoidean 
arches). 

The malleus is the proximal element of the 
meckelian cartilage (figs. 1, 2, mk), a gristly 

1 Continued from No. 34. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 38. 


rod about which the lower jaw-bone is deyel- 
oped in membrane. Becoming segmented off 
from the rest of the meckelian rod, it is in 
mammals withdrawn into the tympanic cayity, 
disconnected from the jaw-bone, and connected 
with the incus, its processus gracilis lying in 
the glaserian fissure. The jaw-bone then ar- 
ticulates directly with the glenoid cavity of 
the squamosal, forming the temporo-maxillary 
articulation. In any bird the malleus remains 
outside the ear, and acquires comparatively 
enormous dimensions, with the peculiar shape 
shown in fig. 1, g (see also fig. 2, g). This 


Fic. 2.— The post-oral arches of the house-martin, at middle of 
period of incubation, lateral view, < 20 diameters. Jzk, stump 
of meckelian or mandibular rod, its articular part, ar, already 
shapen; g, quadrate bone, or suspensorium of lower jaw, with 
a free anterior orbital process and long posterior otic process 
articulating with the ear-capsule, of which feo, tympanic wing 
of occipital, is a part; mst, est, sst, ist, sth, parts of the sus- 
pensorium of the third post-oral arch, not completed to chy; 
mst, medio-stapedial; to come away from eo, bringing a piece 
with it, the true stapes, or columella auris, the oval base of 
the stapes fitting into the future fenestra ovalis, or oval win- 
dow, looking into the cochlea, or inner ear; ss/, supra-stape- 
dial; est, extra-stapedial ; is¢, infra-stapedial, which will unite 
with sth, the stylo-hyal; chy and bhy, cerato-hyal and basi- 
hyal, distal parts of the same arch; bdr, bri, br2, basi-bran- 
chial, epi-branchial, and cerato-branchial pieces of the third 
arch, composing the rest of the hyoid bone. (After Parker.) 


quadrate bone, as it is called in birds, looks 
something like an anvil, and has often been 
mistaken for the incus: on the other hand, 
from its function in supporting the membrana 
tympani in part, it has been malidentified with 
the tympanic bone (external auditory process). 
It is very freely articulated at both ends, rock- 
ing back and forth with the movements of the 
jaws. It normally has articulation with five 
separate bones: 1. By its lower end, which 
is bitubercular, with the articular piece of the 
mandible (lower jaw), forming the true tem- 
poro-maxillary articulation; 2. By the outer 
extremity of its lower end with the quadrato- 
jugal bone (fig. 1, gj), which is the posterior 
element of the zygomatic arch, continued for- 
ward by the jugal or malar bone (fig. 1, 7) to 
the superior maxillary (fig. 1, ma) ; 3. By the 
inner extremity of its lower end with the ptery- 


OcTOBER 26, 1883.] 


goid bone (fig. 1, pg), and so with the palate- 
bone (fig. 1, pw) and superior maxillary (mx), 
4,5. The head of the bone normally articulates 
both with the squamosal (fig. 1, sg) and with 
the pro-otic (fig. 4, po, here seen inside the 
cranial cavity). A long spur of the quad- 
rate, its orbital process, projects freely into 
the orbital cavity, as shown in fig. 1, where 
the still cartilaginous tip of the orbital process 
reaches to the round white hole marked 2 
(optic foramen). Now, the osseous articula- 
tions and muscular tractions are such, that, 
when the mouth is opened, the malleus rocks 
forward upon its squamosa-petrosal articula- 
tion (4, 5, of above enumeration), and pushes 
upon the zygomatic and pterygo-palatal bars, 
causing the upper mandi- 
ble to rise as the lower jaw 
is depressed ; the upper jaw 
hinging upon elasticity of, 
or a joint at, the bones of 
the forehead. Thus the 
malleus - quadrate is here 
seen in its proper relation 
to the jaw-parts as nothing 
at all of an ossiculum audi- 
tus, except in so far as it 
hinges upon parts of the 
temporal bone, and helps 
to support the ear-drum. 
Tt has no direct connection 
whatever with the rest of 
the ossicles. 

It will be best to take the 
stapes next. Fig. 3 shows 
the mature stapes of the 
domestic fowl, enlarged 
about four times, and indi- 
cates its several elements 
which have received spe- 
cial names. It is practically the same bone 
so named in man, but includes incudial as well 
as some other elements. In form it is not at 
all stirrup-like, being trumpet-shaped, with a 
slender cylindrical shaft, expanded oval foot, 
and a crossbar and other pieces at the distal 
end. It is therefore oftener called the colu- 
mella auris, or sounding-post of the ear. In 
skulls prepared with sufficient care, the stapes 
may be seen in situ, as in fig. 1, st, —an ex- 
tremely delicate rod, stepped into the fenestra 
ovalis by its foot, the other end protruding into 
the tympanum, and bearing the additional ham- 
mer-like or claw-like elements. A stapes I 
have just picked out of an eagle’s ear is a 
fourth of an inch long, with a stem as fine as 
a thread of sewing-silk, but a stout foot, and, 
at the tympanic extremity, a still finer hair-like 


a 


Fic. 3. — Mature stapes 
of fowl, about x 4 
(After Parker.) st, 
its foot, fitting /enes- 
tra ovalis; mst, main 
shaft, or medio-stape- 
dial element; sst, 
supra-stapedial; est, 
extra-stapedial; is¢, 
infra-stapedial, its 
end representing a 
rudimentary s/ylo- 
hyal; f,a fenestra in 
the extra - stapedial. 
(See st, in situ, fig. 1, 
andits embryonic for- 
mation, fig. 2.) 


SCIENCE. 


553 


process half as long as the main stem, from 
which it stands out at right angles ; while there 
appears to have been another similar claw, 
which has broken off from such a cross-like 
object as st in fig. 1. 

Embryological study is required to demon- 
strate the stapes as the proximal element of 
the hyoidean apparatus, quite as the malleus is 
of the mandibular arch. Reference to fig. 2 
should make this clear. Here the malleus, q, 
extends from feo, the tympanic wing of the 
exoccipital, to ar, the articular element of mk, 
the meckelian rod whence g has been seg- 
mented off, leaving the ‘ temporo-maxillary 
articulation’ between g and ar. This chain of 
bones, including others to be developed about 
and beyond the stump of mk, is the lower jaw, 
or mandibular arch. Now, quite a similar ar- 
rangement is shown in the chain of bones in 
the tongue orhyoidean arch. From ¢eo stands 
off a rod of bone, mst, the medio-stapedial 
element, or main shaft of the stapes, to be seg- 
mented away from feo, the place of this segmen- 
tation to become the fenestra ovalis. The 
medio-stapedial rod expands at its end; the 
upper part of the expansion, never separating 
from the rest, is the supra-stapedial element= 
mammalian incus, s st in figs. 2, 3. An infra- 
stapedial element, just forming in fig. 2, ist, 
completed in fig. 3, 7st, connects with the piece 
marked st hin fig. 2. This st h is the stylo- 
hyal=human ‘ styloid process of the temporal,’ 
which connects in man by the ‘ stylo-hyoid liga- 
ment,’ with the ‘lesser cornu of the hyoid bone,’ 
which is the cerato-hyal, c hy. In birds, the 
distal parts of the hyoid arch (composed of the 
numerous pieces lettered in fig. 2, but which 
need not longer detain us) become entirely sep- 
arated from the proximal, the tongue-bones 
being quite otherwise affixed to the skull; while 
the proximal parts of the same arch are shut 
up in the tympanic cavity, where they extend 
from the membrana tympani to the fenestra 
ovalis, constitute all there is of ossicula audi- 
tus, and consist of the stapes itself (including 
the several elements specified). 

So, therefore, avian malleus or quadrate- 
bone = human malleus as proximal element of 
mandibular arch, retaining articular connection 
with its own arch, but not acquiring character 
or connections of a human ossiculum auditus. 

So, therefore, avian stapes or columella = 
human stapes + incus, as proximal elements of 
hyoidean arch, not retaining connection with its 
own arch, but acquiring characters and con- 
nections of ossicula auditus. 

These are the reasons why a bird’s lower jaw 
does not articulate directly with the squamosal, 


554 


why the hyoid bones do not articulate at all 
with the skull, why the malleus is outside the 
ear, and why there is apparently but one os- 
sicle in the tympanum, of the particular shape 
shown in fig. 3. 

(To be continued.) 


THE PSYCHOLOGICAL MECHANISM OF 
DIRECTION. 


Were it admissible that one person should 
add to the work of a living author, I might 
call this paper a supplement to Mr. Francis 
Galton’s Human faculty. My object is to 
explain the subjective mechanism by which I 
preserve the consciousness of direction. How 
far others adopt the same mechanism, I am 
not fully aware, but am inclined to think that 
what is fundamentally the same system is 
employed by nearly every one; but I doubt 
whether the details are always the same, and 
the matter appears of sufficient interest to be 
discussed. 

To be conscious which way he is going, one 
must keep in mind some system of directions. 
It is true, that, so far as finding one’s way about 
in a place with which he is fully acquainted is 
concerned, no attention to direction is neces- 
sary. One knows that he must turn here to 
the right, and there to the left, and must follow 
certain familiar paths, all of which he can do 
without attending to direction. It is probable 
that most animals, and possible that some men, 
have no system except this. Regarding such 
a limitation as exceptional, we must suppose 
that in general, men, in going about, have 
constantly in mind an idea that they are going 
in a certain definable direction. A direction 
can, however, be defined only by reference to 
the direction of some line taken as a standard 
of reference; and it is this standard of refer- 
ence, as I have always employed it, which I 
shall now describe. 

I. Icontinually carry around with me a con- 
ception of four horizontal lines, which I shall 
call co-ordinates, going out in four cardinal 
directions. I shall call these directions east, 
west, north, and south; but it must be under- 
stood that they have no necessary relation to 
the actual points of the compass, being purely 
subjective. This system of co-ordinates is 
employed, I think, by most or all men. 

IJ. These four cardinal directions are con- 
ceived of as absolute directions, and not as 
defined relatively to any particular line on the 
earth’ssurface. They have remained unchanged 
since the earliest memories of childhood. To 
be more explicit, the ideal or subjective west 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 38. 


is the direction in which I was facing, when, as 
a child, my father explained to me which was 
the right hand, and which the left; the ideal 
north is the direction towards which my right 
side was then turned; the ideal south, that 
towards which the left side was turned; while 
east was behind my back. 

I have always since imagined myself as con- 
scious of these four absolute directions, and 
therefore at any moment can face as I imagine 
myself to have been facing on the occasion 
referred to. I do not know whether the ¢o- 
ordinates have the same absolute character with 
other men, but think it highly probable that 
they do, since absolute directions must be more 
easily thought of than relative ones. 

III. With some limitations, to be soon re- 
ferred to, the system of directions is quite inde- 
pendent of the will. Once fixed in a place, a 
street, or a house, they are an inseparable com- 
ponent of the situation, and forever unalterable 
so long as the identity of the place is recognized. 
Once in a room of which I conceive a certain 
side to be the absolute west, by no act of the 
will, and by no consciousness that some other 
side is the west, can I change the subjective 
impression. Of course, however, one is liable 
on going into a strange place, or on walking 
about without sufficient attention, to be mis- 
taken as to his direction ; and thus I am subject 
to a kind of trouble or confusion which I never 
heard any one else describe, and which, there- 
fore, I can hardly suppose to be universal. 
Some instances will illustrate the matter better 
than general statements. 

I recently went to a hotel in Paris, where I 
had stopped eight years before. While driy- 
ing into the court, and just as the carriage was 
stopping, my attention was momentarily occu- 
pied in speaking to one of the attendants. 
Getting out of the carriage, I remarked, as I 
supposed, that the offices of the hotel had all 
been moved from the north to the west side of 
the court. I may anticipate by saying that 
this was an illusion arising from the very mi- 
nute circumstance that the carriage, during 
the moment that I was speaking to the attend- 
ant, had turned at a right angle from facing 
north to facing east; but being unconscious of 
this change, and not looking around the court, 
I supposed that the carriage was still directed 
towards the ideal north. I entered the eleya- 
tor, was carried to an upper story, shown 
through several long passages, and into a 
room, preserving the changed system of co- 
ordinates of which I was entirely unconscious. 
Had it been my first visit to the hotel, no con- 
fusion would have resulted, since every thing 


OcToBER 26, 1883.] 


around it would have been referred to this 
same system; but I entertained a distinct idea 
of the orientation of the rooms around the 
court as they existed in my mind during my 
former visit. The result was, that when I went 
down to dinner I found my co-ordinates 90° 
wrong. But I was absolutely powerless to refer 
the two parts of the hotel to the same system. 
During the week that I remained, whenever I 
went from my room down-stairs, to the court, 
the reading-room, or the dining-room, there 
was a momentary confusion on reaching the 
point where I saw that the system was wrong. 
Momentary glances around, and the co-ordi- 
nates changed 90°. On returning to my room, 
the co-ordinates below were carried up-stairs 
with me, because there was nothing on the 
stairway with which I had become sufficiently 
familiar to fix either set of co-ordinates ; and 
thus one system obliterated the other, as. it 
were. In consequence, I could carry one set 
all the way down, and another set all the way 
up; the change occurring at the bottom of 
the stairway in one case, and at the top in the 
other. The result was, that during my stay 
I got no clear idea where my room was situ- 
ated, or what buildings I saw through the win- 
dow. 

To mention another instance: I lived for 
a number of years in a house in which I must 
haye made a similar mistake the first time I 
entered it; since, during my whole stay, the 
orientation inside the building was 90° differ- 
ent from that outside. In the case of such 
an inconsistency as this, I find that the ori- 
entation corresponds to that of the place to 
which the attention is directed. So long as 
I was inside a room, or so long as my atten- 
tion was directed to things inside the house, 
there was one orientation. On raising the 
window, and taking a good view of the street, 
I would perceive that this orientation was 90° 
in error; and after a momentary confusion the 
street would assume its right direction. The 
reverse change would recur on turning back 
to the room. 

I find this occasional inconsistency of orien- 
tation, to which I am very liable when I pay 
no attention to directions on first entering a 
house, to be really troublesome. It has twice 
happened quite recently, that, on going up- 
stairs in a hotel on my first arrival, I got the 
co-ordinates reversed 180°. The result was, 
that unless I staid long enough to go right by 
mere habit, without thinking about the direc- 
tion, I was continually in doubt about which 
way I should go to find the room I wanted. 

1V. I find that this fixity of co-ordinates 


SCIENCE. 


555 


holds in any kind of a building, and in a ship, 
but not at all in a carriage, and not absolutely 
in arailway-car. If I am conscious, by look- 
ing at surrounding objects, that a railway-car 
turns 90°, I can change its relation to the sys- 
tem of co-ordinates accordingly. It appears, 
therefore, that it is only in fixed structures 
that the co-ordinates inure in my conceptions 
of enclosed space; yet I feel perfectly sure, 
that, if a house in which I lived be turned 
through 90° or 180°, the system would turn 
with it, in spite of any thing I could think 
to the contrary. 

V. I now come to the modifications of fixity 
to which I have already referred. The imagi- 
nary sense of direction is not absolutely always 
present. In travelling over a new road to a 
new place, the sense of direction is, for the 
time being, apt to be lost. In this case, and 
in this alone, it is to a certain extent under 
control of the will; but, if the will fails to 
act promptly on arriving at a place, the co- 
ordinates fix themselves, as it were, and that 
quite arbitrarily, so far as I have been able to 
perceive. Once fixed, they stay. But, while 
under control of the will, [ am in the habit of 
so directing them that the ideal directions shall 
correspond to the points of the compass, in 
case I know them. 

VI. I have recently noticed that it is not 
necessary that I should actually have seen a 
place, in order that the co-ordinates should 
be fixed in it. If I study on a map a place 
which I am to visit, I unconsciously fix the 
co-ordinates to correspond to the points of 
the compass. Thus, on arrival, I readily find 
my way about. But it may happen, that, when 
I arrive, I am mistaken as to the direction in 
which the railway-station stands. Then, take 
what pains I will, the same confusion arises 
when I arrive at a street or hotel which I have 
studied on the map, and find the co-ordinates 
to be wrong. The directions change to those 
in which I haye thought of the house or street. 

Of this fixing of the co-ordinates in advance, 
I recently had a curious example. I got on 
board a steamship at Liverpool, resolving that 
the ideal and real west on board ship should 
correspond. I went down to seek out my 
state-room, and, on returning to the deck, I 
was chagrined to find that the co-ordinates had 
got changed 180°. In consequence, I had to 
think before knowing which side of the ship I 
looked at. For some time I was puzzled to 
imagine how the mistake could have occurred. 
I finally traced it to the fact, that, on study- 
ing the position of my state-room on the plan 
of the ship a month before, I had held up the 


506 


plan with the stern in the direction in which 
west is on the map. I constructed the orien- 
tation of the passageway and of the state- 
room accordingly. It happened, that, when I 
joined the ship, her stern was towards the 
east; but, on descending into the cabin for the 
first time, I fixed the orientation to correspond 
to the one previously formed from the plan, 
forgetting at the moment that I was thus mak- 
ing a change of 180°. 

VII. A universal law of the four cardinal di- 
rections is, that they always arrange themselves 
along visible lines, such as roads, boundaries 
of aroom, etc. : in other words, the directions 
never subdivide themselves. In going along 
a new road which I know ought to bisect the 
angle between two directions, I can, by an 
effort of the will, imagine it to do so; but, the 
moment attention is relaxed, one cardinal di- 
rection is sure to take possession of the road, 
and of course, once in possession, keeps it: so, 
no matter how well I may know that the walls 
of a room are at an angle of 90° with the other 
walls of a building, the directions are sure 
to arrange themselves parallel to the walls. 

It may be asked, How does this system work, 
in case of a number of rooms radiating like a 
fan from a central space? I answer, that in 
such a case my ideas of direction simply get 
unutterably confused, and only by long habit 
can I get the relations of the different rooms 
to each other. Snron Newcoms. 


THE ARAGO LABORATORY AT BAN- 
YULS. 


Amone the zoological stations or laborato- 
ries along the coast of France, none is more 
widely known or more firmly established than 
the laboratory at Roscoff,' in Finisterre, orga- 
nized in 1872 by Professor Lacaze - Duthiers 
‘as an adjunct of his zodlogical laboratory of 
the Sorbonne at Paris. Encouraged by the 
success of his laboratory at Roscoff, which 
during August, 1881, had twenty-five workers, 
but which, owing to its exposed position at 
the north-west extremity of France, was only 
available for work from March until October, 
at the most, Professor Lacaze-Duthiers sought 
to establish a winter laboratory on the Medi- 
terranean, to furnish seaside work the re- 
maining months of the year. After careful 
examination of the French coast of the Medi- 
terranean, a location was chosen for the labo- 
ratory at the base of the rocky promontory of 
Fontaulé, at the entrance of the little harbor 


1 For a detailed account of the laboratory at Roscoff, with maps 
and plans, see Jevwe scientifique, Noy. 26, 1881, xxviii. 673-680. 


‘SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 38. 


of Banyuls-sur-mer, within a few miles of the 
Spanish frontier in the department of Pyré- 
nées-Orientales. 

The municipal council of Banyuls, through 
the mayor, M. Pascal, who took much interest 
in the establishment of the laboratory, offered 
a site for building, twelve hundred francs for 
immediate use, and an income of five hundred 
franes annually for twenty years; M. Thomas, 
a wealthy gentleman of Banyuls, offered two 
hundred and fifty frances annually for ten years, 
and a boat; the council of the department of 
Pyrénées - Orientales voted twenty thousand 
franes toward the construction of the labora- 
tory; and subscriptions were received from 
the citizens of this rich wine-producing neigh- 
borhood. These were some of the means em- 
ployed to induce Professor Lacaze-Duthiers to 
locate at Banyuls. Port Vendrés, a neighbor- 
ing village, offered inducements to locate there ; 
but the great number of fishermen in Banyuls, 
its nearness to the open Mediterranean, and 
its freedom from the distractions due to com- 
mercial and other activities, together with the 
earnest interest taken by its inhabitants in 
the laboratory, won the choice of that village. 
What a novel sight it would be, here in America, 
to see villages contesting for the honor of pos- 
sessing a scientific laboratory! The Academy 
of sciences at Paris took the laboratory under 
its protection ; and the establishment was called 
‘Laboratoire Arago,’ to honor the name of 
the most distinguished savant of the Pyrénées- 
Orientales, a former member of the academy. 

It is, of course, impossible to speak of much 
work already accomplished at the Arago labo- 
ratory, as one might describe studies complet- 
ed at Roscoff; for the laboratory at Banyuls 
was scarcely finished in the winter of 1881-82, 
when, with another American and a French 
student, I had the pleasure of being one of the 
first to work within its walls: so I will write 
only of the region and of the laboratory. 

The eastern end of the Pyrenees descends 
suddenly upon a north and south coast by a 
series of radiating ridges, between which are 
small indentations of the sea, forming harbors, 
with rocky promontories at each side of their 
entrances, and a sandy beach within. This 
kind of coast offers numerous advantages to 
those searching for marine animals. On each 
of the larger of the beaches are villages, 
most of which date back to Roman times. 
These villages were recently connected by a 
railroad which follows the coast, passing 
through tunnels between them. 

Banyuls is situated upon one of these beaches, 
at the head of a small harbor, which is partly 


OcroBER 26, 1883. | 


protected from the open sea by a breakwater 
(seen in the middle of the first picture at the 
left of the laboratory), which extends from the 
promontory, at the base of which the labora- 
tory is built, to a rocky island in the middle 
the entrance to the harbor. The village of 
Banyuls itself (seen in the other illustration, 
looking from the laboratory into the harbor) 
has about four thousand inhabitants. Behind 
the village the hills are clothed with vineyards, 
olive-groyes, and cork-oak trees, nearly to their 
tops. ‘To crown the view is the middle-age 
tower of Madeloth, or Tour du Diable, on a 
mountain six hundred and sixty-eight metres 
high. The village has two hotels, which are 
crowded with bathers during midsummer. In 
winter there are few amusements, and the 
hotels are then nearly empty. For a good 
concise description and history of this region, 
in which the Catalan dialect still prevails to a 
considerable extent, and the history of which 
is extremely interesting, I refer to Pierre 
Vidal’s Guide historique et pittoresque dans 
le département des Pyrénées- Orientales, Per- 
pignan, 1879. M. Vidal is the assistant libra- 
rian of the town of Perpignan, capital of the 
department. 

The climate of Banyuls is sufficiently mod- 
erate to make a winter’s stay very agreeable. 
Oranges, figs, cactuses, almonds, and ¢ even the 
date-palm with poorly developed fruit, are cul- 
tivated in the valleys. In the latter part of 
February, 1882, I waded along the beaches in 
search of mollusks, without finding the cold 
inconvenient. Snow rarely falls. The climate 
can be shown best by quoting a table for 1882, 
from Martinet,? as follows (degrees in Centi- 
ge — 


TEMPERATURE. a 
| NUMBER 
] oF 
Monrtu. | EXTREMES. | MEANS. DAYS OF 
| Mini-| Maxi-| Mini- | Maxi-|,, Palas 
mum.|mum. mum. mum. otal.) Rain./ Wind. 
January . 2.0} 15.0 5.0 7| 8.4 3 1 
February 15 | 19.5 | 6.4) 13.1) 9.7 3 7 
March . 4.0 | 23.0) 9.3 9 | 18.1 5 9 
April. . + «| 7.5 | 26.0 | 10.6 6 | 14.6 8 7 
re | 10.0 | 27.5 | 14.7 7 | 18.7 3 3 
altteesteet t's. | 1836)]. 84.6 4 5 | 22.1 4 9 
WUlyes 6 -  »\| 16.0 | 98.5 Hp 3 | 23.8 3 11 
August. . . .| 13.0} 35.0/ 19.9 | -1 | 24.0 7 6 
September . 10.5 | 28.0} 12.9 4) 17.1] 13 2 
October . 9.5 | 27.0 | 13.3 8 | 16.5 6 8 
November . 5.0} 19.0] 8.7 | 15.5 / 121} 4 8 
December . . 1.0} 16.0| 6.7 6) 9.2 8 3 
| | 
Means of the year, - - | 12.1 | 19.4 | 15.8 | 67 74 


1 L. Martinet, Ban ri 
1883, 6 ann 7. yuls sur mer (Lev. géogr. internat., April, 


SCIENCE. 


dd7 


The lowest temperature of which I find data 
was — 6°C., in January, 1871. The cold winds 
which sometimes descend from the mountains, 
blowing with considerable severity for one or 
two days at a time, are the only unpleasant 
climatological feature of the region. 

I have been unable to find sufficient data in 
regard to the temperature of the sea-water at 
Banyuls. Martinet writes (/.c., May, 1883, 
p. 85), ‘* From the month of May the temper- 
ature of the sea is 18°; that of the air, in the 
shade, from 30° to 35°. In July and August 
the temperature of the water reaches 24° to 
26°; then in September and October it de- 
scends from 22° to 18°.” 

The marine fauna at Banyuls is very rich. 
Several species of corals and of actinias, and 
numerous species of interesting mollusca, such 
as Chiton and Haliotus, can be taken on the 
rocks within a few metres of the laboratory. 
Besides these, the janitor in charge regularly 
transplants new species to the vicinity of the 
laboratory. Siphonophores, ctenophores, and 
tunicates swarm in the waters. It would be 
useless to mention here the numerous forms 
which are found on every side without the aid 
of the dredge; and, when the dredge is used, 
the result is almost incredible. Add to this 
the habit already acquired by the fishermen of 
bringing to the laboratory all curious animals 
which they find in their nets, and we have 
a place where unsurpassed opportunities are 
offered for obtaining material in quantity for 
study, an opportunity of which I availed my- 
self, in order to study the parasites of fishes 
and crustaceans. ‘The fishing at Banyuls, ex- 
cepting that for sardines and anchovies, is car- 
ried on by the use of a large funnel-shaped net, 
held open, and drawn through the water by 
two boats, which stand a distance apart. Nu- 
merous sharks and cephalopods, — both eaten 
by the people at Banyuls, — and sometimes 
sunfishes (Orthagoriscus) and other large fishes, 
are taken in these nets, besides smaller fishes 
by thousands. 

About fifty fishing-boats, like those seen in 
the second illustration, leave Banyuls early 
every pleasant morning, returning about five 
o’clock in the afternoon, when the fish are 
spread out for sale along the beach. ‘This 
mode of sale is a convenience for the natural- 
ists as well as for the townspeople: on the 
contrary, in fishing-places near large cities, 
the fish are hurried aboard the trains, leaving 
no opportunity for their examination. The 
fresh entrails of fishes can be examined by 
thousands on the beach at Banyuls, for para- 
sites or for anatomical purposes. 


508 


The terrestrial and aerial fauna offers abun- 
dance of water-birds, lizards, geckoes and 
insects, scolopendra and scorpions. 

The Arago laboratory is a brick and stone 
building, about forty metres long and ten metres 
wide, facing nearly northward. The illustra- 
tion is a view of the laboratory looking nearly 
southward from the village. The ground-floor 
of the laboratory is devoted to a small room 
for the janitor, another for apparatus, and to a 
large room for aquaria. In the centre of the 
last room is a large oval aquarium, and about 
the room are smaller aquaria to be deyoted to 
special purposes. The water from these aqua- 
ria passes out of the front of the building, and 
supplies other aquaria in the open air. It is, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 38, 


his room, the worker has upon his right a 
table for drawing ; in front, toward the large 
window, —which, with the climate of Banyuls, 
can be open much of the time, —is a table for 
his microscope and apparatus; at his left, a 
table for specimens. ‘Turning to his right, the 
investigator can write his notes and draw, free 
from the danger of water from his larger speci- 
mens. ‘This arrangement of tables in three 
sides of a square, with a revolving-chair at the 
centre, is an idea original, as far as zodlogi- 
cal laboratories are concerned, with Professor 
Lacaze-Duthiers ; and, after having used for a 
time tables thus arranged, one neyer is exactly 
at ease when they are placed otherwise. As 
if these were too meagre furnishings for each 


ARAGO LABORATORY, SEEN FROM BANYULS. 


however, upon the first floor that the arrange- 
ments made by Professor Lacaze-Duthiers 
attain the maximum of convenience. <A hall 
runs lengthwise through the middle of the lab- 
oratory ; and from this hall open out at each 
side the separate rooms, consisting of a store- 
room for glassware, a lecture-room, a library, 
a room for the director, and nine rooms for 
work. Instead of having a table, as is the 
usual mode in laboratories, each worker has a 
room (four metres square) to himself, wherein 
he can earry on researches undisturbed by his 
neighbors. As the laboratory is intended for 
advanced students pursuing original investiga- 
tions, this provision is of special importance. 
Sitting on a revolying-chair in the middle of 


room, another table, a bookcase with drawers, 
and shelves, are added. <A flowing supply of 
salt water will be, or probably is already, 
available for small aquaria in each of these 
work-rooms. Three of the rooms have chim- 
neys, and are more especially desirable for 
physiological researches. The second floor is 
not yet used, but probably will be ultimately 
partitioned into sleeping-rooms for those who 
work in the laboratory.t 

The laboratory possesses already, besides 
two rowboats for collecting along the inden- 
tations of the coast, a new boat of the same 
general construction as are the fishing-boats of 


1 For a detailed description and plans of the Arago labora- 
tory, see the Revue scientifique, Dec. 3, 1881, xxviii. 705-716. 


a 


- 


OcroBer 26, 1883.] 


the region, with a lateen-sail, but considerably 
larger for long voyages. ‘This boat is command- 
ed by an experienced fisherman of Banyuls, 
who is conversant with the whole neighboring 
coast. 

The almost entire absence of rise and fall of 
the water at Banyuls at first puzzles a collect- 
or of marine animals accustomed to searching 
the rocks bared by the receding tide: but one 
soon finds other and equally productive modes 
of shore-collecting ; while the very absence of 
great variation in the level of the water enables 
one to moor boxes of embryos along the inside 
of the breakwater, and watch their develop- 
ment at leisure. 

The expenses of living in Banyuls are about 
what they would be in a village of the same 


SCIENCE. 559 


AUGUST REPORTS OF STATE 
WEATHER-SERVICES. 


THE states in which organized weather-services 
exist have issued reports for August which give in 
some detail the results of the observations. The 
special feature of the month in the majority of states 
seems to have been the lack of rain, and the con- 
sequent drought. 

Georgia. — The temperatures ranged from 47° to 
98°: the mean was 79°.3. The rainfall ranged from 
1.01 inches in the south-west to 9.15 inches in the 
south-east. The general drought of the summer was 
unbroken, The cotton and corn crops do not average 
75 % of the usual yield. 

Indiana. — Thunder and lightning were unusually 
prevalent, but the rainfall was at least one inch less 
than the average. ‘The temperatures were lower 
than usual, and light frosts were reported on the 


BANYULS AS SEEN FROM THE LABORATORY. 


size on the New-England coast ; but the labo- 
ratory, like that at Roscoff, is free, requiring 
for its use only the permission of Profess- 
or Lacaze-Duthiers. Reagents, microscopes, 
mounted dissecting-lenses, glassware, and all 
other necessary apparatus, are furnished free, 
the only cost being a small fee paid to the jani- 
tor for the care of rooms. While, in all proba- 
bility, preference would be rightly given to 
Frenchmen, in case there were more applicants 
for places than there were rooms, yet foreign 
investigators will undoubtedly play an impor- 
tant part in the laboratory at Banyuls, as they 
have already done in that at Roscoff, and will 
return to their native countries vividly im- 
pressed with the liberality and devotion to sci- 
ence shown by Professor Lacaze-Duthiers. 


Gro. Diimock. 


Be. Se eee a oe _—— Sar 


24th and 25th. The pressure was nearly normal, 
with a small range. ' 

Iowa. —‘‘The month was cold, clear, dry, with 
north-westerly and south-easterly winds equally fre- 
quent, and calms numerous,.’”’ The low mean tem- 
perature, 2°.5 below the normal, is mainly due to the 
first decade; but in this period the sunshine was 
especially intense. The number of fine days, and the 
dry, sunny weather, have been favorable to the crops. 
Frosts were recorded on the 22d, 23d, and 24th. 
There was a very severe hail-storm on the 7th, extend- 
ing from Sac to Cass counties. , 

Missouri. —The mean temperature was below the 
normal, at St. Louis 2°.3 lower. The rainfall was 
less than the average, the amount at the central 
station in St. Louis being not much more than half 
the usual quantity. The heaviest rainfall was on 
the southern border of the state. In consequence 
of the continued drought, the crops have suffered 
much, <A few wind and hail storms were reported, 


560 


Nebraska. — There are thirty-one observers, from 

whose reports it is found that the temperature and 
rainfall were about normal. The average mean tem- 
perature was 75°.4; average rainfall, 3.45 inches. 
The highest of the maximum temperatures was 95°; 
the lowest of the minimum, 47°. <A violent hail- 
storm occurred on the Sth, at Lincoln; and a wind of 
forty four miles per hour, from the east, was noted 
at North Platte. 
. Ohio. —The barometric pressure was unusually 
steady, the small range of 0.542 inches being noted. 
The mean temperature, 68°.2, is more than four 
degrees below the ayerage. A minimum of 39° was 
noted. Rain fell on seven days only. ‘The average 
rainfall was only 1.88 inches, the usual amount being 
3.47 inches. At Lebanon 4.60 inches fell, and at 
Granville 0.70 inch. A violent storm of wind and 
hail visited Wooster and vicinity on the 28th. 

Tennessee. — The reports are from thirty-five sta- 
tions. The highest of the maximum temperatures 
noted was 94°, and the lowest of the minimum 45°. 
The ranges of temperature were generally unifdrm 
throughout the state; but the precipitation, which 
ranged from 1.03 to 6.38 inches, was quite unevenly 
distributed. The weather presented no remarkable 
features. There was a marked absence of high winds 
or severe electrical disturbances. The crop reports 
are excellent, but the average condition is a little 

_ below that of last year, 


THE GEOGRAPHIC CONTROL OF 
MARINE SEDIMENTS. 


M. A. RuTot, conservator in the Royal museum of 
natural history of Belgium, who, in connection with 
M. E. Vanden Broeck, has been studying the tertiary 
strata of his country, has lately taken up (Bull. mus. 
roy. hist. nat. Belg., ii. 1883, 41) the fruitful subject 
of the immediate dependence of fragmenta] marine 
deposits on geographic conditions, such as distance 
and form of shore-line, depth of water, currents, etc., 
and the consequent changes in these deposits follow- 
ing changes in the controlling geographic surround- 
ings. The matter is properly treated deductively, 
and so far as concerns vertical oscillations of the 
earth’s crust, which determine advance and retreat of 
the shore-line, it isexamined with much detail. The 
conclusion is reached, that the frequent changes 
from gravels, through sands to clays, and back again 
to gravels, that characterize the Belgian tertiaries, 
can be fully explained by simple, assignable, and slow 
_ geographic causes. We have only to regret, that, in 
the forty pages devoted to the subject, more room 
was not found for mention of what others have done 
in the same direction. The method of investigation 
may be outlined as follows: — 

There is first given the familiar illustration of the 
varied deposits forming off shore at any single time, 
showing that the texture, and, in part, the composi- 
tion of the deposits, are functions of the distance 
from the shore-line, as in fig. 1. Now, let a general 
depressiou slowly take place, by which the sea will 
adyance oyer the land: the whole set of deposits 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 38. 


shifts with the shore, until sands, and at last clays, 
are Jaid down over the first gravels, as in fig. 2. 
Then, if elevation replace the depression, the set of 
strata shifts seaward, and the sands, and at last the 
shore-gravels, Jie above the clays, as in fig. 3. It is 
generally noted that the upper grayels are finer than 
the lower, as the later deposits are made, in part, by 
woiking over the older during the time of emergence. 


Yy 
Vy 


Miia 


Fie. 1. 


The complete set of deposits formed during such a 
double oscillation of sea-level is to be considered in 
two ways, — first, with regard to the vertical sequence 
of the strata; second, with regard to their horizontal 
equivalence. The vertical sequence is seen in fig. 4: 
it is made up of the gravels and sands of immersion, 
the central layer of clay, and the sands and gravels 


of emersion, each stratum having its appropriate 
fossils. Such ‘circles of deposition,’ enlarged by the 
addition of a limestone at the time of greatest dis- 
tance of the old shore-line, occur several times in 
our Appalachian sections; and the recognition of their 
meaning, especially in Professor Newberry’s luminous 
writings, has thrown much light on the evolution of 
our country. M. Rutot gives the accompanying figure 
(5) to illustrate the succession of unequal or incom- 
plete oscillations: it shows, I., a large and complete 


“Lip 
Uy WMI 


Fig. 3. 


oscillation, partly eroded before II., a second depres- 
sion, from which the elevation was incomplete; IIL, a 
great depression and complete elevation; IV., a mod- 
erate depression and elevation. This complicated 
succession represents perfectly the type of the Bel- 
gian tertiaries; and the deductions from its physical 
features are fully confirmed by the evidence from its 
fossils. 

The second consideration, involving the horizontal 
equivalence of the different strata, is perhaps the 
most suggestive part of the paper. It is of much 
importance, and is seldom sufficiently treated. It 


OcroBEr 26, 1883.] 


involves the further examination of the dependence 
of a set of phenomena on their distance from some 
controlling condition, which can be called the direc- 
trix, and which may change its position. This is 
worthy of illustration, We find a simple case, in 
which the directrix is motionless, in the escape of 


ame _ | Debris de coquilles soulées. 


Sable { Niveau des tibulations d’Annélides, 
Sal 


wees; débris de végétaux 
Bancs de Turritelles, de Nummulites, etc, 
Sable fin. 
Lamellibranches « valves biillantes ix 2ifsa 


Niveau des tabulations d’Annélides, 
di Boe = a ae i Débris de coquilles roulées, gres perforés, eto 


Fra. 4. 


gases during a voleanic eruption. The eruptive vent 
is the directrix, and the various gases are successively 
given off from the lava when its temperature falls to 
that below which they cannot be occluded, the tem- 
perature depending largely on the distance of flow 
from the crater. An example in which the directrix 
moves continually in one direction is seen in the 
dependence of terrestrial day and night, with all 
their attendant changes, from warmth to cold, ac- 
tivity to rest, on the position of the sun. One in 
which the directrix moved fora time in one direction 
is seen in the relation of our drift-deposits to the 


Fie. 5. 


‘retreating’ margin of the continentalice. Far to 
the northward of the margin, where the ice was 


. thickest and moved fastest, erosion was most active; 


at a less distance, the ground-moraine was accumu- 
lated at favorable points; at the margin, the Kame 
gravels were deposited; and farther south, the brick- 
clays settled where they found quiet water: hence all 


@emersion. | Coquilles littorales plus ou moins bien couser= 
Fares. 


Argile, } Zone souvent privee d’organismes, 
Lamellibranches a valves bilillantes i site. 
‘Sable fia, 
a» Bancs de Turritclles, de Nummulites, etc, 
Coquilles littorales bien conservees ou non. Crus¢ 
Sable tacés, Gastéropodes; debris de végetaux amends 
d’immersion, ) PAF Sransport. 


SCIENCE. 561 


these may be chronologically equivalent in passing 
from south to north, although at a given point we 
should find a vertical sequence from scratched rock, 
through ground-moraine and Kame gravels to brick- 
clay. An effect of irregular motion of the directrix 
will be seen in the shifting of all those physical and 
chemical actions going on within the earth, and 
dependent for their proper temperatures and press- 
ures on their depth below the surface; for this 
depth, or the distance from their directrix, is con- 
tinually, though very slowly and irregularly, chan- 
ging, —decreasing, while the superincumbent 
mass culminates in a land-surface that is losing 
ground by erosion; increasing, while it is receiv- 
ing new material below the sea. A regular oscil- 
lation of the directrix is presented in the swinging 
of the sun north and south of the equator, carry- 
ing the seasons, the wind-systems, and the length 
of the day, inits train, Finally, the case in point 
shows us an irregular shifting of the shore-line 
directrix as the land slowly rises and falls. Asa 
first result of the dependence of deposits on their 
distance from the shore-line, we shall find that 
those formations which are at any given moment 
contemporaneous, or horizontally equivalent, are 
the very ones already seen at any given point in 
vertical sequence. Secondly, when we view a broad 
set of deposits accumulated during a shifting of the 
shore-line, it will be seen, that while the band of con- 
glomerate or sandstone is continuous for considerable 
distances, and apparently of contemporaneous forma- 
tion throughout, it is not so in reality ; for the lines of 
composition are not lines of deposition, and one part 
of the conglomerate is distinetly of later date than 
another, and really contemporaneous with the clay 
overlying the latter. This is illustrated in fig. 2, 
and shows the complete abandonment of the old 
ideas concerning universal formations. Instead of 
supposing that contemporaneous deposits are of uni- 
form composition throughout, we must now admit 
that they necessarily vary. 

M. Rutot’s paper was prepared especially for the 
explanation of Belgian geology. Before it could 
serve as a guide to the meaning of our broad paleo- 
zoic strata, there should be added a consideration of 
the geographic conditions of limestone-making, and 
of the former greater strength of transporting agen- 
cies required by our old conglomerates. It would 
have been well to consider Phillips’s suggestion con- 
cerning continuous subsidence at irregular rates, in 
which the shallowing is produced by deposition 
instead of by elevation; for, although this is quite 
inadequate to explain the changes in the heavy Ap- 
palachian sediments, where shallow-water sandstones 
sometimes quickly follow deep-water limestones or 
shales, it may serve in certain cases of smaller meas- 
ure, which M. Rutot has interpreted as the effects of 
oscillations. On the other hand, the occurrence of 
elevation after and in spite of deposition might be 
emphasized to show the rather one-sided aspect of the 
conclusions lately discussed by the English geologists, 
who too often consider erosion and deposition as 
almost the chief causes of change of level. 


562 


TUE DEVONSHIRE CAVERNS, AND 
THEIR CONTENTS. 


ANTHROPOLOGY, on one of its numerous sides, 
marches with geology; and hence it is, no doubt, 
that I, for many years a laborer very near this some- 
what ill-defined border, have been invited 10 assist 
my friends and neighbors in the work which lies 
before them during the association week. I have 
the more cheerfully accepted the invitation, from a 
vivid recollection, that, when on a few occasions I 
haye come uninvited into this department, my recep- 
tion has been so very cordial as to lead me to ask 
myself whether the reports which for many years 
(1864 to 1880) I laid annually before my geological 
brethren did not derive their chief interest from their 
anthropological bearings and teachings. 

In 1858, a quarter of a century ago, I had the pleas- 
ure of reading to the geological section of the 
association the first public communication on the 
exploration, then in progress, of Brixham Cavern 
(more correctly, Brixham Windmill-hill Cavern) ; and 
as apy interest connected with that paper lay en- 
tirely in the evidence it contained of the inoscula- 
tion and contemporaneity of human industrial relics 
of a rude character, with remains of certain extinct 
mammals, I purpose on this occasion to lay before 
the department a few thoughts, retrospective and pro- 
spective, which may be said to radiate from that ex- 
ploration, confining myself mainly to South Devon. 

Probably nothing will better show the apparent 
apathy and scepticism with which; up to 1858, all 
geological evidence of the antiquity of man was 
received by British geologists generally, than the 
following statement of facts: — 

. About the beginning of the seeond quarter of the 
present century, the late Rev. J. MacEnery made 
Kent’s Cavern, or Kent’s Hole, near Torquay, famous 
by his researches and discoveries there. He not only 
found flint implements beneath a thick continuous 
sheet of stalagmite, but, after af most careful and 
painstaking investigation in the presence of witnesses, 
arrived at the conclusion that the flints ‘‘ were depos- 
ited in their deep position before the creation of the 
stalagmite”’ (Trans. Devon. assoc., iii. 330); and when 
it was suggested by the Rev. Dr. Buckland, to whom he 
at once and without reservation communicated all his 
discoveries, that ‘“‘the ancient Britons had scooped 
out ovens in the stalagmite, and that through them 
the knives got admission to the ‘ diluvium,’ ”’ he re- 
plied, ‘‘ Iam bold to say that in no instance have I dis- 
covered evidence of breaches or ovens in the floor, but 
one continuous plate of stalagmite diffused uniformly 
over the loam” (Lbid., p. 334). He added, ‘It is 
painful to dissent from so high an authority, and 
more particularly so from my concurrence generally 

n his views of the phenomena of these caves, which 
three years’ personal observation has in almost every 
instance enabled me to verify’ (Ibid., p. 338). 

It is perhaps not surprising that Dr. Buckland, 


1 Address by WILLIAM PENGELLY, F.R.S., F.G.8., vice-presi- 
dent of the section of anthropology of the British association 
for the acyancement of science. From Nature. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 38. 


one of the leading geologists of his day, should be 
too tenacious of his opinion, and feel too secure in- 
his position to yield to the statements and arguments 
of his comparatively young friend, MacEnery, then 
seareely known to the scientific world. 

‘That the position taken by Buckland retarded the 
progress of truth, and was calculated to check the 
ardor of research, is apparently certain, and much 
to be regretted. But it should be remembered, that, 
at least as early as 1819, he taught that “‘the two 
great points .. . of the low antiquity of the human 
race, and the universality of a recent deluge, are most 
satisfactorily confirmed by every thing that has yet 
been brought to light by geological investigations ”’ 
(Vindiciae geologicae, p. 24); that early in 1822 he 
reiterated and emphasized these opinions in his fa- 
mous Kirkdale paper (Phil. trans. for 1822, pp. 171- 
236), which the Royal society ‘crowned wih the 
Copley medal’ (Quart. journ. geol. soc., vol. xiii. 
p- Xxxili.); that in 1823, having amplified and revised 
this paper, he published it as an independent quarto 
volume under the attractive title of ‘ Reliquiae 
diluvianae,’ of which he issued a second edition in 
1824; and that though his acquaintance with Kent’s 
Cavern was much less intimate than that of Mac- 
Enery, he nevertheless was, of the two, the earlier 
worker there, and, in fact, had discovered a flint im- 
plement in it before MacEnery had ever seen that or 
any other cavern, — the first tool of the kind found 
in any cavern, it is believed, and which in all prob- 
ability was met with under circumstances not in con- 
flict with his published opinion on the low antiquity 
of man. I confess that under such circumstances, 
human nature being what it is, the line followed by 
Dr. Buckland seems to me to haye been that which 
most men would haye pursued. 

It was, at any rate, the line to which he adhered 
as late, at least, as 1837; for in his well-known 
‘Bridgewater treatise,’ published that year, after de- 
scribing his visit to the caverns near Liége, famous 
through the discoveries of Dr. Schmerling, he said, 
“¢The human bones found in these caverns are in a 
state of less decay than those of the extinct species 
of beasts: they are accompanied by rude flint knives, 
and other instruments of flint and bone, and are 
probably derived from uncivilized tribes that in- 
habited the caves. Some of the human bones may 
also be the remains of individuals, who, in more re- 
cent times, have been buried in such convenient 
repositories. M.Schmerling . . . expresses his opin- 
ion that these human bones are coeval with those of 
the quadrupeds of extinct species, found with them, 
—an opinion from which the author, after a careful 
examination of M. Schmerling’s collection, entirely 
dissents ”’ (Op. cit., i. 602). 

It may be doubted, however, whether his faith in 
these his early convictions remained unshaken to 
the end. Ihave frequently been told by one of his 
contemporary professors at Oxford, who knew him 
intimately, that Buckland shrank from the task of 
preparing for the press new editions of his ‘ Reliquiae 
diluvianae® and his ‘ Bridgewater treatise.’ * The 
work,’ he said, ‘ would be, not editing, but re-writing.’ 


_* 


OcTOBER 26, 1883.] 


Mr. MacEnery intended to publish his ‘Cavern 
researches’ in one volume quarto, illustrated with 
thirty plates. In what appears to have been his 
second prospectus, unfortunately not dated, he said, 
“The limited circulation of works of this nature 
being by no means equal to the expenses attendant 
on the execution of so large a series [of plates], the 
author is obliged to depart from his original plan, 
and to solicit the support of those who may feel an 
interest in the result of his researches.”’ 

There is reason to believe that at least twenty-one 
of the plates were ready, and that the rough copy of 
much of his manuscript was written, but that, the 
support he solicited not being forthcoming, the idea 
of publishing had to be abandoned (see Trans, 
Devon. assor., iii. 198-201). 

In 1840 Mr. R. A. C. Austen, F.G.S. (now Godwin- 
Austen), read to the Geological society of London 
a paper on the bone-caves of Devonshire, which, 
with some amplifications, was incorporated in his 
memoir on the geology of the south-east of Devon- 
shire, printed in the transactions of the society in 
1842 (2d ser. vi. 433-489). Speaking of his own re- 
searches in Kent’s Cavern, he said, ‘‘ Human re- 
mains, and works of art, such as arrow-heads and 
knives of flint, occur in all parts of the cave, and 
throughout the entire thickness of the clay; and no 
distinction founded on condition, distribution, or rela- 
tive position, can be observed whereby the human can 
be separated from the other reliquiae”’ (Zbid., p. 444). 

He added, ‘‘ My own researches were constantly 
conducted in parts of the cave which had never been 
disturbed, and in every instance the bones were pro- 
eured from beneath a thick covering of stalagmite. 
So far, then, the bones and works of man must have 
been introduced into the cave before the flooring of 
stalagmite had been formed ”’ (Ihid., p. 446). 

Though these important and emphatic statements 
were so fortunate as to be committed to the safe 
keeping of print with but little delay, and under the 
most favorable circumstances, they appear neither 
to have excited any interest, nor, indeed, to have re- 
ceived much, if any, attention. 

In 1846 the Torquay natural history society ap- 
pointed a committee, consisting of Dr. Battersby, 
Mr. Vivian, and myself, —all tolerably familiar with 
the statements of Mr. MacEnery and Mr. Austen, — 
to make a few diggings in Kent’s Cavern for the 
purpose of obtaining specimens for their museum. 
The work, though more or less desultory and unsys- 
tematic, was by no means carelessly done; and the 
committee were unanimously and perfectly satisfied 
that the objects they met with had been deposited 
at the same time as the matrix in which they were 
inhumed. At the close of their investigation they 
drew up a report, which was printed in the Torquay 
directory for Noy. 6, 1846 (see Trans. Devon. assoc., 
x 162). Its substance, embodied in a paper by Mr, 
Vivian, was read to the Geological society of London 
on May 12, 1847, as well as to the British associa- 
tion in the succeeding June; and the following ab- 
stract was printed in the Report of the association 
for that year (p. 73):— 


SCIENCE. 


563 


“The important point that we have established is, 
that relics of human art are found beneath the un- 
broken floor of stalagmite. After taking every pre- 
caution by sweeping the surface, and examining 
most minutely whether there were any traces of the 
floor having been previously disturbed, we broke 
through the solid stalagmite in three different parts 
of the cavern, and in each instance found flint knives. 
. .. In the spot where the most highly finished 
specimen was fornd, the passage was so low that it 
was extremely difficult, with quarrymen’s tools and 
good workmen, to break through the crust; and the 
supposition that it had been previously disturbed is 
impossible.’”’ 

It will be borne in mind that the same paper was 
read the month before to the Geological society. The 
council of that body, being apparently unprepared 
to print in their Quarterly journal the statements it 
contained, contented themselves with the following 
notice, given here in its entirety (Op. cit., iii. 353) :— 

***On Kent’s Cavern, near Torquay,’ by Mr. Ed- 
ward Vivian, —In this paper an account was given 
of some recent researches in that cavern by a com- 
mittee of the Torquay natural history society, during 
which the bones of various extinct species of animals 
were found in several situations.’’ 

It will be observed that the ‘flint knives’ were 
utterly ignored,—a fact rendered the more signifi- 
eant by the following announcement on the wrap- 
per of the journal: ‘‘The editor of the Quarterly 
journal is directed to make it known to the public 
that the authors alone are responsible for the facts 
and opinions contained in their respective papers.’’ 

Such, briefly, were the principal researches in 
Kent’s Cavern, at intervals from 1825 to 1847. Their 
reception was by no means encouraging: Mr. Mac- 
Enery, after incurring very considerable expense, 
was under the necessity of abandoning the intention 
of publishing his ‘Cavern researches;’ Mr. Austen’s 
paper, though printed unabridged. was given to an 
apathetic, unbelieving world. and was apparently 
without effect; and Mr. Vivian’s paper, virtually 
the report by a committee of which he was a mem- 
ber, was cut down to four lines of a harmless, unex- 
citing character. 

For some years nothing occurred to break the 
quietude, which, but for an unexpected discovery on 
the southern shore of Torbay, would probably have 
remained to this day. 

Early in 1858 the workmen engaged ina limestone- 
quarry on Windmill Hill, overhanging the fishing 
town of Brixham in South Devon, broke unexpect- 
edly a hole through what proved to be the roof of an 
unknown and unsuspected cavern, I visited it very 
soon after the discovery, and secnred to, myself the 
refusal of a lease, to include the right of exploration. 
As the story of this cavern has been told at some 
length elsewhere (see Phil. trans., elxiii. 471-572; or 
Trans. Devon. assoc., vi. T75-856), it will here suffice 
to say, that at the instance of the late Dr. H. Fal- 
coner, the eminent paleontologist, the subject was 
taken up very cordially by the Royal and geological 
societies of London, a committee was appointed by 


564 


the latter body, the exploration was placed under the 
superintendence of Mr. (now Professor) Prestwich 
and myself, and, being the only resident member 
of the committee, the actual superintendence fell of 
necessity to me. 

The following facts connected with this cavern 
were, no doubt, influential in leading to the decision 
to have it explored: — 

1. It was a virgin cave which had been hermetically 
sealed during an incalculably long period, the last 
previous event in its history being the introduction 
of a reindeer antler, found attached to the upper sur- 
face of the stalagmitic floor. It was therefore free 
from the objection, urged sometimes against Kent’s 
Cavern, that having been known from time imme- 
morial, and up to 1825 always open to all comers, it 
had perhaps been ransacked again and again. 

2. It was believed, and it proved, to be a compar- 
atively very small cavern; so that its complete ex- 
ploration was not likely to require a large expenditure 
of time or of money. 

It will be seen that the exploration was placed 
under circumstances much more likely to command 
attention than any of those which had preceded it. 
It was to be carried on under the auspices of the 
Royal and Geological societies by a committee con- 
sisting of Mr S. H. Beckles, Mr. G. Busk, Rev. R. 
Everest, Dr. H. Falconer, Mr. Godwin-Austen, Sir 
C. Lyell, Professor Owen, Dr. J. Percy, Mr. J. Prest- 
wich, Professor (now Sir A. C.) Ramsay, and myself, 
—all fellows of the Geological society, and almost 
all of them of the Royal society also. 

It was impossible not to feel, however, that the 
mode of exploration must be such as would not 
merely satisfy those actually engaged in the work, 
but such as would command for the results which 
might be obtained the acceptance of the scientific 
world generally. Hence I resolved to have nothing 
whatever to do with ‘trial pits’ here and there, or 
with shafts to be sunk in selected places, but first to 
examine and remove the stalagmite floor, then the 
entire bed immediately below (if not of inconvenient 
depth), horizontally throughout the entire length 
of the cavern, or so far as practicable; this accom- 
plished, to proceed in like manner with the next lower 
bed; and so on until all the deposits had been removed. 

This method, uniformly followed, was preferable 
to any other, because it would reveal the general 
stratigraphical order of the deposits, with the amount 
and direction of such ‘dip’ as they might have, as 
well as any variations in the thickness of the beds; 
it would afford the only chance of securing all the 
fossils, and of thus ascertaining, not only the differ- 
ent kinds of animals represented in the cave, but 
also the ratios which the numbers of individuals 


of the various species bore to one another, as well | 


as all peculiar or noteworthy collocations; it would 
disclose the extent, character, and general features 
of the cavern itself; it was undoubtedly the least 
expensive mode of exploration; and it would render 
it almost impossible to refer bones, or indications 
of human existence, to wrong beds, depths, or asso- 
ciations. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 38. 


The work was begun in July, 1858, and closed at 
the end of twelve months, when the cavern had 
practically been completely emptied. An official re- 
port was printed in the Philosophical transactions 
for 1873. and all the specimens have been handed 
over to the British museum. 

The paper on the subject mentioned at the begin- 
ning of this address was read in September, 1858, 
during the meeting of the association at Leeds, when 
I had the pleasure of stating that eight flint tools 
had already been found in various parts of the cay- 
ern, all of them inosculating with bones of mam- 
malia, at depths varying from nine to forty-two 
inches in the cave-earth, on which lay a sheet of 
stalagmite from three to eight inches thick, and hay- 
ing within it and on it relics of lion, hyena, bear, 
mammoth, rhinoceros, and reindeer. 

It soon became obvious that the geological apathy 
previously spoken of had been rather apparent than 
real. In fact, geologists were found to have been 
not so much disinelined to entertain the question of 
human antiquity as to doubt the trustworthiness of 
the evidence which had previously been offered to 
them on the subject. It was felt, moreover, that the 
Brixham evidence made it worth while, and indeed 
a duty, to re-examine that from Kent’s Cavern, as 
well as that said to have been met with in river- 
deposits in the valley of the Somme and elsewhere. 

The first-fruits, I believe, of this awakening, was a 
paper by Mr. Prestwich, read to the Royal society, 
May 26, 1859, on the occurrence of flint implements, 
associated with the remains of animals of extinct 
species in beds of a late geological period, —in 
France at Amiens and Abbeville, and in England 
at Hoxne (Phil. trans. for 1860, pp. 277-317). This 
paper contains explicit evidence that Brixham Cay- 
ern had had no small share in disposing its author 
to undertake the investigation, which added to his 
own great reputation, and rescued M. Boucher de 
Perthes from undeserved neglect. ‘*It was not,’ 
says Mr. Prestwich, “‘ untill had myself witnessed 
the conditions under which these flint implements 
had been found at Brixham, that I beeame fully 
impressed with the validity of the doubts thrown 
upon the previously prevailing opinions with respect 
to such remaius in caves’ (Op. cit., 280). 

Sir C. Lyell, too, in his address to the geological 
section of the British association, at Aberdeen, in 
September, 1859, said, ‘‘ The facts recently brought 
to light during the systematic investigation, as re- 
ported on by Dr. Falconer, of the Brixham Cave, 
must, I think, have prepared you to admit that seep- 
ticism in regard to the cave evidence in favor of the 
antiquity of man had previously been pushed to an 
extreme”? (Report Brit. assoc., 1859, trans. sects., p. 
93). 

It is probably unnecessary to quote further to show 
how very large a share the exploration at Brixham 
had in impressing the scientific world generally with 
the value and importance of the geological evidence 
of man’s antiquity. That impression, begun, as we 
have seen, in 1858, has not only lasted to the present 
day, but has probably not yet culminated, It has 


a 


OcrToBER 26, 1883.] 


produced numerous volumes, crowds of papers, count- 
less articles in reviews and magazines, in various 
countries; and perhaps, in order to show how very 
popular the subject became almost immediately, it is 
only necessary to state that Sir C. Lyell’s great work 
on the ‘ Antiquity of man’ was published in Febru- 
ary, 1863: the second edition appeared in the follow- 
ing April; and the third followed in the succeeding 
November, — three editions of a bulky scientific work 
in less than ten months! A fourth edition was pub- 
lished in May, 1873. 

Few, it may be presumed, can now doubt that those 
who before 1858 believed that our fathers had under- 
estimated human antiquity, and fought for their be- 
lief, have at length obtained a victory. Nevertheless, 
every anthropologist has doubtless, from time to time, 


“ Heard the distant and random gun 
That the foe was sullenly firing.” 


The ‘foe,’ to speak metaphorically, seems to consist 
of very irregular forces, occasionally unfair but never 
dangerous, sometimes very amusing, and frequently 
but badly armed, or without any real armor. The 
Spartan law which fined a citizen heavily for going 
into battle unarmed was probably a very wise one. 
For example, and dropping a metaphor, a pamphlet 
published in 1877 contains the following passage: 
“With regard to all these supposed flint implements 
and spear-and arrow-heads found in various places, 
it may be well to mention here the frank confession 
of Dr. Carpenter. Te has told us from the presiden- 
tial chair of the Royal academy that ‘no logical proof 
can be adduced that the peculiar shapes of these flints 
were given them by human hands’”’ (see ‘Is the 
book wrong? a question for sceptics,’ by Hely H. 
A. Smith, p. 26). The words ascribed to Dr. Carpen- 
ter are put within inverted commas, and are the 
whole of the quotation from him. 1 was a good deal 
mystified on first reading them; for while it seemed 
likely that the president spoken of was the well- 
known member of this association, Dr. W. B. Car- 
penter, it was difficult to account for his being in the 
presidential chair of the Royal academy, and not easy 
to understand what the Royal academy had to do 
with flint implements. A little search, however, 
showed that the address which Dr. W. B. Carpenter 
delivered in 1872 from the presidential chair of, not 
the Royal academy, but the British association, con- 
tained the actual words quoted, followed immediately 
by others which the author of the pamphlet found it 
inconvenient to include in his quotation. Dr. Car- 
penter, speaking of ‘common sense,’ referred, by way 
of illustration, to the ‘flint implements’ of the Abbe- 
ville and Amiens gravel-beds, and remarked, ‘‘ No logi- 
eal proof can be adduced that the peculiar shapes of 
these flints were given to them by human hands; but 
does any unprejudiced person now doubt it?” (Te- 
port Brit. assoc., 1872, p. xxv.) Dr. Carpenter, after 
some further remarks on the ‘ flint implements,’ con- 
cluded his paragraph respecting them with the follow- 
ing words: ‘* Thus what was in the first instance a 
matter of djscussion, has now become one of those 
‘ self-evident? propositions which claim the unhesi- 


™ : { 
Ree ee Bd Soin id ty 


SCIENCE. 


565 


tating assent of all whose opinion on the subject is 
entitled to the least weight.” 

It cannot be doubted, that, taken in its entirety 
(that is to say, taken as every lover of truth and fair- 
ness should and would take it), Dr. Carpenter's para- 
graph would produce on tle mind of the reader a 
very different effect from that likely, and no doubt in- 
tended, to be produced by the mutilated version of it 
given in the pamphlet. 

A second edition of the pamphlet has been given 
to the world. Dr. Carpenter is still in the presiden- 
tial chair of the Royal academy, and the quotation 
from his address is as conveniently short as before. 

It would be easy to bring together a large number 
of similar modes of ‘defending the cause of truth,’ 
to use the words of the pamphlet just noticed; but 
space and time forbid. 

I cannot, however, forego the pleasure of introdu- 
cing the following recent and probably novel expla- 
nation of cavern phenomena. In 1882 my attention 
was directed to two articles by one and the same 
writer, on ‘Bone-cave phenomena.’ The writer's 
theme was professedly the Victoria Cave, near Settle, 
Yorkshire, which he says was an old Roman lead- 
mine; but his remarks are intended to apply to bone- 
caves in general. He takes a very early opportunity, 
in the second article, of stating that ‘‘ we shall have 
to take care to distinguish between what is truly in- 
dicated in the ‘science’ view from what are purely 
imaginary exaggerations of its natural and historical 
phenomena;”’ and he no doubt believes that he has 
taken this care. 

““We have now,’”’ he says, ‘‘to present our own 
view of the Victoria Cave and the phenomena con- 
nected with it, premising that a great many of the 
old mines in Europe were opened by Phoenician 
colonists and metal-workers a thousand years before 
the Romans had set foot in Britain, which accounts 
for the various floors of stalagmite found in most 
caves, and also for the variety of groups of bones 
embedded in them. The animals represented by 
them, when living, were not running wild about the 
hills, devouring each other, as science men suppose, 
but the useful auxiliaries and trained drudges of the 
miners in their work. Some of them, as the bear, 
had simply been hunted, and used for food; and 
others of a fierce character, as the hyena, to frighten 
and keep in awe the native Britons. The larger 
species of mammalia, as the elephant, the rhino- 
ceros, and hippopotamus, and beasts foreign to the 
country, the Romans, no less than the Phoenicians, 
had every facility in bringing with them in their 
ships of commerce from Carthage, or other of the 
African ports. These, with the native horse, ox, 
and stag, which are always found in larger numbers 
in the caves than the remains of foreign’ animals, all 
worked peacefully together in the various operations 
of the mines. ... The hippopotamus, although 
amphibious, is a grand beast for heavy work, such as 
mining, quarrying, or road-making; and his keeper 
would take care that he was comfortably lodged in 
a tank of water during the night. ... The phe- 
nomena of the Victoria Cave lead-mine differ in no 


566 


material respect from those of hundreds of others, 
whether of Jead, copper, silver, or iron, worked in 
Roman and pre-Roman times in all parts of Europe. 
Its tunnels have all been regularly quarried and 
mined, not by ancient seas, but by the hands of his- 
toric man. Double openings have been made in 
every case for convenient ingress and egress during 
the process of excavation. Its roadways had been 
levelled, and holes made up with breccia, gravel, sand, 
and bones of beasts that had succumbed to toil, on 
which sledges, trolleys, and wagons could glide or 
run... . Near the entrance inside Victoria Cave 
were found the usual beds of charcoal, and the 
hearths for refining the metal; while close by, on 
the hillside, may still be seen the old kilns in which 
the men ‘ roasted’ the metallic ores, and burned linie.”’ 

Should any one be disposed to ascribe these arti- 
cles to some master of the art of joking, it need only 
be replied that they appeared in a religious journal 
(The champion of the faith against current infidelity 
for April 20 and May 11, 1882, vol. i. pp. 5 and 26), 
with the writer’s name appended, and that I have 
reason to believe they were written seriously and in 
earnest. 

It has been already intimated that Brixham Cavern 
las secured a somewhat prominent place in liter- 
ature; and it can scarcely be needful to add that 
some of the printed statements respecting it are not 
quite correct. The following instances of inaccuracy 
may be taken as samples: — 

The late Professor Ansted, describing Brixham 
Cavern in 1861, said, ‘‘In the middle of the cavern, 
under stalagmite itself, and actually entangled with 
an antler of a reindeer and the bones of the great 
cavern-bear, were found rude sculptured flints, such 
as are known to have been used by savages in most 
parts of the world ”’ (‘ Geological gossip,’ p. 209). 

To be ‘entangled’ with one another, the antler, 
the bones of the cave-bear, and the flints, must have 
been all lying together, As a matter of fact, how- 
ever, the antler was on the upper surface of the sheet 
of stalagmite, while all the relics of the cave-bear, 
and all the flints, were in detrital beds below that 
sheet. Again: the flints nearest the bear’s bones in 
question were two in number: they were twelve feet 
south of the bones, and fifteen inches less deep in 
the bed. There was no approach to entanglement. 

Should it be suggested that it is scarcely necessary 

to correct errors on scientific questions in works like 

“Geological gossip,’ professedly popular and intend- 
ed for the million, I should venture to express the 
opinion that the strictest accuracy is: specially re- 
quired in such books, as the great majority of their 
readers are entirely at the mercy of the compilers. 
Those who read scientific books of a higher class are 
much more capable of taking care of themselves. 

Professor Ansted’s slip found its way into a scien- 


tific journal, where it was made the basis of a specu- . 


lation (see Geologist, 1861, p. 246). 

The most recent noteworthy inaccuracies connect- 
ed with this famous cavern are, so far as I am aware, 
two in the English edition of Prof. N. Joly’s ‘Man 
before metals’ (1883). 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 88. 


According to the first, “an entire left hind-leg of 
Ursus spelaeus was found lying above the inerusta- 
tion of stalagmite which covered the bones of other 
extinct species and the carved flints’’ (p. 52). 

It is only necessary, in reply to this, to repeat what 
has been already stated: all the bones of cave-bear 
found in the cavern were in beds below the stalag- 
mite. 

The following quotation from the same work con- 
tains the second inaccuracy, or, more correctly, group 
of inaccuracies, mentioned above: ‘‘ We may mention, 
among others, the cave at Brixham, where, associated 
with fragments of rude pottery, and bones of extinct 
species, heaps of oyster-shells and other salt-water 
mollusks occur, as well as fish-bones of the genus Sea- 
rus’’ (p. 104). i 

I ain afraid there is no way of dealing with this 
paragraph except that of meeting all its statements 
with unqualified denials. In short, Brixham Wind- 
mill-hill Cavern contained no pottery of any kind 
whatever, not a single oyster-shell, nor even a solitary 
bone of any species of fish. One common limpet- 
shell was the only relic of a marine organism met 
with in the cavern. 

As already intimated, the result of the researches 
at Brixham quickened a desire to re-examine the 
Kent’s Cavern evidence; and this received a consid- 
erable stimulus from the publication of Sir C. Lyell’s 
‘Antiquity of man’ in 1868. Having in the mean 
time made a careful survey of the cavern, and ascer- 
tained that there was a very large area in which the 
deposits were certainly intact, to say nothing of un- 
suspected branches which in all probability would be 
discovered during a thorough and systematic explora- 
tion, 1 had arrived at the conclusion, that, taking the 
cavern at its known dimensions merely, the cost of 
an investigation as complete as that at Brixham 
would not be less than £1,000. 

Early in 1864 I suggested to Sir C. Lyell that an ap- 
plication should be made to the British association, 
during the meeting to be held at Bath that year, for 
the appointment of a committee, with a grant of 
money, to make an exploration of Kent’s Cayern ; 
and it was decided that I should take the necessary 
steps in the matter. The propesal being cordially re- 
ceived by the committee of the Geological section, 
and well supported in the committee of recommenda- 
tions, a committee — consisting of Sir C. Lyell, Mr. 
J. Evans, Mr. (now Sir) J. Lubbock, Prof. J. Phil- 
lips, Mr. E. Vivian, and myself (honorable secretary 
and reporter) — was appointed, with £100 placed at 
its disposal.- Mr. G. Busk was added to the com- 
mittee in 1866, Mr. W. Boyd Dawkins in 1868, Mr. 
W. Ayshford Sanford in 1869, and Mr. J. E. Lee in 
1873. The late Sir L. Palk (afterwards Lord Hal- 
don), the proprietor, placed the cavern entirely under 
the control of the committee during the continuance 
of the work. The investigation was begun on March 
28, 1865, and continued without intermission to June 
19, 1880, the committee being annually re-appointed, 
with fresh grants of money, which in the aggregate 
amounted to £1,900, besides £63 received from yari- 
ous private sources. 


October 26, 1883.] 


The mode of exploration was essentially the same 
as that followed at Windmill Hill, Brixham; but as 
Kent’s Cavern, instead of being a series of narrow 
galleries, contained a considerable number of capa- 
cious chambers, and as the aim of the explorers was 
to ascertain not merely what objects the deposits 
contained, but their exact position, their distribution, 
their condition, their collocation, and their relative 
abundance, the details had to be considerably more 
elaborate, while they remained so perfectly simple 
that the workmen had not the least difficulty in car- 
rying them out, under my daily superintendence. 
The process being fully described in the First annual 
report by the committee (see Report Brit. assoc., 
1865, pp. 19, 20), it is unnecessary to repeat it here. 

Mr. Godwin-Austen, while agreeing with Mr. Mac- 
Enery that flint implements occurred under the sta- 
lagmite, contended that they were found throughout 
the entire thickness of the cave-earth. MacEnery, 
on the other hand, was of opinion that in most cases 
their situation was intermediate between the bottom 
of the stalagmite and the upper surface of the cave- 
earth; and while admitting that occasionally, though 
rarely, they had been met with somewhat lower, he 


stated that the greatest depth to which he had been * 


able to trace them was not more than a few inches 
below the surlace of the cave-earth (Trans. Devon. 
assoc., iii. 326, 327). The committee soon found 
themselves in a position to confirm Mr. Godwin- 
Austen’s statement, and to say with him that ‘‘no 
distinetion founded on condition, distribution, or rela- 
tive position, can be observed whereby the human 
can be separated from the other reliquiae”’ (Trans. 
geol. soc., 2d ser. vi. 444). 

Mr. MacEnery’s ‘Plate F’ contains seven figures of 
three remarkable canine teeth, and the following state- 
ment respecting them: ‘‘ Teeth of Ursus cultridens, 
found in the cave of Kent’s Hole, near Torquay, 
Devon, by Rev. Mr. MacEnery, January, 1826, in 
Diluvial Mud mix’d with Teeth and Gnaw’d Bones 
of Rhinoceros, Elephant, Horse, Ox, Elk, and Deer, 
with Teeth and Bones of Hyaenas, Bears, Wolves, 
Foxes, ete.”’ 

It is worthy of note, that no other plate in the en- 
tire series numes the date on which the specimens 
were found, or the mammals with whose remains 
they were commingled. This arose probably from 
the fact, well known to MacEnery, that no such speci- 
mens had been found elsewhere in Britain; and possi- 
bly also to emphasize the statements in his text, should 
any doubt be thrown on his discovery. 

It is, no doubt, unnecessary to say here that the 
teeth belonged to a large species of carnivore, to 
which, in 1846, Professor Owen gave the name of 
Machairodus latidens. MacEnery states that the 
total number of teeth he found were five upper ca- 
nines and one incisor, and the six museums in which 
they are now lodged are well known. 

A considerable amount of scepticism existed for 
many years in some minds, as to whether the relics 
just mentioned were really found in Kent’s Cavern, 
it being contended, that, from its zoélogical affinities, 
Machairodus latidens must have belonged to an earli- 


se Bh at 


SCIENCE. 


567 


er fauna than that represented by the ordinary cave- 
mammals; and various hypotheses were invented to 
explain away the difficulty, most of them, at least, 
being more ingenious than ingenuous. Be this as it 
may, it was naturally hoped that the re-exploration 
of the cavern would set the question at rest forever; 
and it was not without a feeling of disappointment 
that I had to write seven successive annual re- 
ports without being able to announce the discovery 
of a single relic of Machairodus. Indeed, the great- 
er part of the eighth report was written, with no 
better prospect, when, while engaged in washing a 
‘find’ met with on July 29, 1872, I found that it 
consisted of a well-marked incisor of Machairodus 
latidens, with a left ramus of lower jaw of a bear, in 
which was one molar tooth. They were lying togeth- 
er in the first or uppermost foot-level of cave-eurth, 
having over it a continuous sheet of granular stalag- 
mite 2.5 feet thick. There was no longer any doubt 
of MacEnery’s accuracy; no doubt that Machairo- 
dus latidens was a member of the cave-earth fauna, 
whatever the zodlogical affinities might say to the 
contrary; nor was there any doubt that man and 
Machairodus were contemporaries in Devonshire. 

1 cannot pass from this ease without directing at- 
tention to its bearing on negative evidence. Had the 
exploration ceased on July 28, 1872, —the day before 
the discovery, — those who had always declined to be- 
lieve that Machairodus had eyer been found in the 
cavern would have been able to urge, as an additional 
and apparently conclusive argument, that the con- 
secutive, systematic, and careful daily labor of seven 
years and four months had failed to show that their 
scepticism was unwarranted. Nay, more: had the 
incisor been overlooked, —and, being but a small 
object, this might very easily have occurred, —they 
might finally have said ‘15.25 years’ labor;’ for, so 
far as is known, no other relic of the species was 
met with during the entire investigation. In all 
probability, had either of these by no means im- 
probable hypotheses occurred, geologists and pale- 
ontologists generally would have joined the sceptics; 
MacEnery’s reputation would have been held in very 
light esteem, and, to say the least, his researches re- 
garded with suspicion. 

When its exploration began, and for some time 
after, the committee had iio reason to believe or to 
suspect that the cavern contained any thing older 
than the cave-earth: but, at the end of five months, 
facts pointing apparently to earlier deposits began 
to present themselves; and, at intervals more or less 
protracted, additional phenomena, requiring appar- 
ently the same interpretation, were observed and re- 
corded. But it was not until the end of three full 
years that a vertical section was cut, showing in un- 
disturbed and clear succession, not only the cave- 
earth with the granular stalagmite lying on it, but, 
under and supporting the cave-earth, another, thick- 
er and continuous, sheet of stalagmite (appropriate- 
ly termed crystalline), and below this, again, an older 
detrital accumulation, known as the breecia, made 
up of materials utterly unlike those of the cave- 
earth. 


568 


The breccia was just as rich as the cave-earth in 
osseous remains, but the lists of species represented 
by the two deposits were very different. It will be 
sufficient to state here, that while remains of the hy- 
ena prevailed mumerically very far above those of 
any other mammal in the cave-earth, and while his 
presence there was also attested by his teeth-marks 
on avast number of bones; by lower jaws (includ- 
ing those of his own kith and kin), of which he had 
eaten off the lower borders as well as the condyles; 
by long bones broken obliquely, just as hyenas of 
the present day break them; and by surprising quan- 
tities of his coprolites, — there was not a single indica- 
tion of any kind of his presence in the breccia, where 
the crowd of bones and teeth belonged almost entire- 
ly to bears. 

No trace of the existence of man was found in the 
breecia until March, 1869,—that is, about twelve 
months after the discovery of the deposit itself, — 
when a flint flake was met with in the third foot- 
level, and was believed not only to be a tool, but to 
bear evidence of having been used as such (see Re- 
port Brit. assoc., 1869, pp 201, 202). Two massive 
flint implements were discovered in the same deposit 
in May, 1872; and at various subsequent times other 
tools were found, until, at the close of the exploration, 
the breccia had yielded upwards of seventy imple- 
ments of flint and chert. 

While all the stone tools of both the eave-earth and 
the breccia were paleolithic, and were found inos- 
culating with remains of extinct mammals, a mere 
inspection shows that they belong to two distinet 
categories. Those found in the breccia—that, is, 
the more ancient series — were formed by chipping a 
flint nodule or pebble into a tool; while those from 
the eave-earth, the less ancient series, were fashioned 
by first detatching a suitable flake from the nodule or 
pebble, and then trimming ge flake, not the nodule, 
into a tool. 

It must be unnecessary to say that the making of 
nodule-tools necessitated the production of flakes 
and chips, some of which were no doubt utilized. 
Stich flakes, however, must be regarded as accidents, 
and not the final objects the workers had in view. 

It is worthy of remark, that in one part of the cay- 
ern, upwards of a hundred and thirty feet in length, 
the excavation was carried to a depth of nine fect, 
instead of the usual four feet, below the bottom of 
the stalagmite; and that, while no bone of any kind 
oceurred in the breccia below the seventh foot-level, 
three fine flint nodule-tools were found in the eighth, 
and several flint chips in the ninth or lowest foot- 
level. 

It may be added that the same fact presented it- 
self in the lowest or corresponding bed in Brixham 
Windmill-hill Cavern. In short, in each of the two 
famous Devonshire caverns the archeological zone 
reached a lower level than the paleontological. 

That the breccia is of higher antiquity than the 
cave-earth, is proved by the unquestionable evidence 
of clear, undisturbed superposition; that they repre- 
sent two distinct chapters and eras in the cavern his- 
tory, is shown by the decided dissimilarity of the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 38. 


materials composing them, the marked difference in 
the osseous remains they contained, and the strongly 
contrasted characters of the stone implements they 
yielded; and that they were separated by a wide in- 
terval of time, may be safely inferred from the thick- 
ness of the bed of stalagmite between them, 

It is probable, however, that the fact most signifi- 
cant of time and physical change is the presence of 
the hyena in the caye-earth or less ancient, but not 
in the breccia or more ancient, of the two deposits. 
I called attention to this fact in a paper read to this 
department ten years ago (see Report Brit. assoc., 
1873, pp. 209-214), and at greater length elsewhere 
in 1875 (see Trans. Plym. inst., v. 360-375). Bearing 
in mind the cave-haunting habits of the hyena, the 
great preponderance of his remains in the cave-earth, 
and their absence in the breccia, it seems impossible 
to avoid the conclusion that he was not an ncqunees 
of Britain during the earlier period. 

The acceptance of this conclusion, however, neces- 
sitates the belief, 1°, that man was resident in Britain 
long before the hyena was; 2°, that it was possible 
for the hyena to reach Britain between the deposition 
of the breccia and the deposition of the cave-earth: 
in other words, that Britain was a part of the con- 
tinent during this interval. 

Sir C. Lyell, it will be remembered, recognized the 
following geographical changes within the British 
area between the newer pliocene and historical times 
(see ‘Antiquity of man,’ edition 1873, pp. 331, 332) :— 

Firstly, A pre-glacial continental period, towards 
the close of which the Forest of Cromer flourished, 
and the climate was somewhat milder than at present. 

Secondly, A period of submergence, when the land 
north of the Thames and Bristol Channel, and that 
of Ireland, was reduced to an archipelago, This was 
a part of the glacial age, and icebergs floated in our 
waters. 

Thirdly, A second continental period, when there 
were glaciers in the higher mountains of Scotland 
and Wales. 

Fourthly, The breaking-up of the land through 
submergence, and a gradual change of temperature, 
resulting in the present geographical and climatal 
conditions. 

It is obvious, that if, as I venture to think, the 
Kent’s Cavern breccia was deposited during the first 
continental period, the list of mammalian remains 
found in it should not clash with the list of such re- 
mains from the Forest of Cromer, which, as we have 
just seen, flourished at that time. I called attention 
to these lists in 1874, pointing out, that, according to 
Professor Boyd Dawkins (‘ Cave-hunting,’ p. 418), the 


forest-bed had at that time yielded twenty-six species — 


of mammals, sixteen of them being extinct and ten 
recent; that both the breccia and the forest-bed had 


yielded remains of the cave-bear, but that in neither 


of them had any relic or trace of hyena been found. 
A monograph on the ‘ Vertebrata of the forest-bed 
series’ was published in 1882 by Mr. BE. 'T. Newton, 


‘>. 


F.G.S., who, including many additional species found I 


somewhat recently, but eliminating all those about 
which there was any uncertajnty, said, ‘‘ We still 


r 


OcroBeER 26, 1883.] 


have forty-nine species left, of which thirty are still 
living and nineteen are extinet”’ (p. 135). Though 
the number of the species has thus been almost 
doubled, and the presence of the eave-bear remains 
undoubted, it continues to be the fact that no trace 
of the hyena has been found in the forest-bed. and 10 
suspicion exists as to his probable presence amongst 
the eliminated uncertain species. 

It should be added, that no relic or indication of 
hyena was met with in the ‘fourth bed’ of Brixham 
Windmill-hill Cavern, believed to be the equivalent 
of the Kent’s Hole breccia. 

Iam not unmindfui of the fact that my evidence is 
negative only, and that raising a structure on it may 
be building on a sandy foundation. Nevertheless, 
it appears to me, as it did ten years ago, strong enough 
to bear the following inferences: — 

1. That the hyena did not reach Britain until its 
last continental period. — 

2. That the men who made the paleolithic nodule- 
tools found in the oldest known deposit in Kent’s 
Cavern arrived during the previous great submer- 
gence, or, What is more probable, — indeed, what alone 
seems possible, unless they were navigators, — during 
the first continental period. In short, I have little or 
no doubt that the earliest Devonians we have sighted 
were either of glacial, or, more probably, of pre-gla- 
cial age. 

It cannot be necessary to add, that while the dis- 
covery of remains of hyena in the forest-bed of 
Cromer, or any other contemporary deposit, would 
be utterly fatal to my argument, it would Jeave in- 
tact all other evidence in support of the doctrine of 
British glacial or pre-glacial man. 

Some of my friends accepted the foregoing infer- 
ences in 1873; while others, whose judgment I value, 
declined them. Since that date no adverse fact or 
thought has presented itself to me; but through the 
researches and discoveries of others in comparatively 
distant parts of our island, and especially in East 
Anglia, the belief in British pre-glacial man appears 
to have risen above the stage of ridicule, and to have 
a decided prospect of general scientific acceptance at 
no distant time. 

I must, before closing, devote a few words to a 
class of workers who are ‘ more plague than profit.’ 

The exuberant enthusiasm of some would-be pio- 
neers in the question of human antiquity results 
occasionally in supposed ‘ discoveries,’ having an 
amusing side; and not unfrequently some of the pio- 
neers, though utter strangers, are so good as to send 
me descriptions of their ‘ finds,’ and of theit views 
respecting them. The following case may be taken 
as a sample: in 1881 a gentleman of whom I had 
never heard wrote, stating that he was one of those 
who felt deeply interested in the antiquity of man, 
and that he had read all the books he could command 
on the subject. He was aware that it had been said 
by one paleontologist to be ‘‘ unreasonable to suppose 
that man had lived during the eocene and miocene 
periods,’? but he had an indistinct recollection that 
another eminent man had somewhere said that *f man 
had probably existed in England during a tropical 


SCIENCE. 


569 


carboniferous flora and fauna.” Te then went on to 
say, ‘I have got that which I cannot but look upon as 
a fossil human skull. I have endeavored to examine 
it from every conceivable stand-point, and it seems to 
stand the test. The angles seem perfect; the contour, 
the same, but smaller in size than the average human 
head: but that, in my opinion, is only what should 
be expected, if we assume that man lived during the 
carboniferous period, in spite of what Herodotus says 
about the body of Orestes.’? Finally he requested to 
be allowed to send me the specimen. | On its arrival, 
it proved, of course, to be merely a stone; and noth- 
ing but a strong ‘ uns:ientific use of the imagination ’ 
could lead any one to believe that it had ever been a 
skull, human or infraluiman. 

It may be added, that a few years ago a gentleman 
brought me what he called, and believed to be, ‘ three 
human skulls, and as many elephants’ teeth,’ found 
from time to time during his researches in a lime- 
stone-quarry. They proved to be nothing more than 
six oddly-shaped lumps of Devonian limestone. 

So far as Britain is concerned, cave-hunting is a 
science of Devonshire birth. The limestone-caverns 
of Oreston, near Plymouth, were examined with some 
care, in the interests of paleontology, as early as 1816, 
and subsequently as they were successively discoy- 
ered. The two most famous caverns of the same 
county — one on the northern, the other on the south- 
ern, shore of Torbay —have been anthropological as 
well as paleontological studies, and, as we have seen, 
have had the Jion’s share in enlarging our estimate of 
human antiquity. The researches have, no doubt, 
absorbed a great amount of time and labor, and 
demanded the exercise of much care and patience; 
but they have been replete with interest of a high 
order, which would be greatly enhanced if I could 
feel sure that your time has not been wasted, nor your 
patience exhausted, in listening to this address re- 
specting them. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


Tree-growth. 


Tue ‘influence of winds upon tree-growth,’ causing 
the asymmetry to which Mr. Kennedy calls attention 
in Science for Oct. 5, is noticeable to a remarkable 
degree among conifers in the mountains of the west- 
ern half of the United States. The stunted, ground- 
hugging evergreens, which advance a little way above 
the limit of ordinary timber-growth on lofty moun- 
tains, are pressed to the earth by the steady gules as 
much as by overbearing snows, if not more. Evi- 
dence of this is found in the fact, that, where a cleft 
or little hollow oceurs at or inadvance of timber-line, 
the trees will stand straight and shapely within it as 
high as its rim (although in such nooks the snows lie 
longest and most deeply), above which they will be 
deformed, or unable to grow at all. This bending 
of the trees, the whole skirt of a forest, away from 
the edge of a precipice, or on a hilltop over which 
the wind sucks through the funnel of a cafion, is so 
common as to be seen every day by one travelling 
through the Rockies or the Sierra Nevada. It is 
particularly true in the Sierra San Joan, where the 
radiation of the vast adjacent sage-plains produces an 


570 


extraordinary suction upward, toward the chilly crests 
of that lofty range. I remember noticing it nowhere 
more strongly than on the coast of Sonoma county, 
Cal., swept by a constant indraught from the Pacific. 

This was the locality of my article in Harper's 


magazine for January, 1883, styled ‘In a redwood 


logging-camp.’ In that article (p. 194), afteh speak- 
ing of the stiff, erect trunks of the Sequoia, as seen 
inland, I say, ‘‘In windy places, like the exposed 
sea-front, all the boughs are twisted into a single 
plane landward, and great picturesqueness results.” 
As you look at these trees from a distance, you can- 
not resist the impression (however quiet the sea and 
the air) that a furious gale is at that moment strain- 
ing every branch to leeward, as a March day does 
the garments of pedestrians, or the flags of the ship- 
ping in a harbor. The seashore parks of Victoria 
or Vancouver, and of San Francisco, give other ex- 
amples of this same appearance. A conspicuous in- 
stance of this same thing is to be seen in the Salinas 

valley, which extends for over a hundred miles south- 
ward from Monterey. There a high point of view 
shows that every tree and bush (save large clusters) 
in the whole valley leans toward the south-east (ap- 
proximately), urged by the terrific wind that never 
ceases to rush up the long valley from the sea to the 
hills. 

It is needless, however, to seek examples so far 
away. <A line of evergreens along the Greenwich 
River, in eastern Connecticut, shows the asymmetry 
produced by wind very plainly; and the shore-trees all 
along Montauk Point, and the low islands on that 
coast, are bent away from the sea. On any ocean 
coast (or equally along the Great Lakes), on wide 
plains, or in any lofty mountain-range, according to 
my pretty wide observation in the United States, one 
might tell the course of the prevailing winds as ac- 
curately as fifty years of signal-service observation, 
by a glance at exposed trees, which, nurtured in 
steady gales, bend in age as their sapling twigs were 
inclined. 

Snow is another factor to be considered in regarding 
the growth of trees in mountain regions. The flat- 
tened thickets of spruce just above timber-line, of the 
same species which, in sheltered spots no lower down, 
assumes an erect and lofty attitude, are matted close 
to the ground by long weight of snow, as well as 
bowel beneath fierce gales. Many and varied exam- 
ples of its effect might be adduced; but I will refer to 
one only. On the road to the anthracite mine above 
Crested Butte, in the Elk Mountains of Colorado, you 
pass through a large grove of aspens, some eighteen 
inches or more in diameter, standing thickly on the 
hillside, at an elevation of about nine thousand feet. 
That region is famous for its deep snows, which 
might be inferred from the fact that every tree in this 
broad aspen-grove is bent far out of the vertical, 
many of them thirty or forty degrees, and all uni- 
formly as to direction. The only explanation of this 
is the snow, which weights them down through so 
many months of the year. The sturdier trunks rise 


vertically in many cases, but their tops arch over. 


almost in a semicircle; while the saplings are bowed 
nearly to the ground. In many parts of the moun- 
tains, great swaths lie open in the woods, and can 
never (or at least do not) become forested on account 
of snow-slides; while the opposition of wind and snow 
together are the only conceivable reasons why many 
bare plateaus are not tree-srown; that, for example, 
between the Lake Fork of the Gunnison and Coche- 
topa Creek. 
ERNEST INGERSOLL. 
New Haven, Oct. 10, 1883. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IT., No. 38. 


Standard railroad time. 


Though the subject of standard and uniform rail- 
way time has for some years been under consideration 
by various scientific and practical bodies, it does not 
appear in any way to have been exhausted, even in its 
main features. Besides, a certain bias has shown it- 
self in favor of the adoption of a series of certain 
hourly meridians, and thus keeping Greenwich min- 
utes and seconds, when contrasted with the practica- 
bility of a more simple proposition. ‘There is also a 
feature in the discussion of the subject which bears 
to have more light thrown upon it; namely, what 
necessary connection there is between the railway 
companies’ uniform time and the mean local time of 
the people, or the time necessarily used in all transae- _ 
tions of common life. Directly or by implication, 
certain time-reformers evidently aim at a standard 
time, which shall be alike binding on railway traffic 
as well as on the business community ; and to this 
great error much of the complexity of the subject is 
to be attributed, and it has directly retarded the 
nucheneeded reform in the time-management of our 
roads. 

We say all ordinary business everywhere must for- 
ever be conducted on local mean solar time, the slight 
difference between apparent and mean time having 
produced no inconvenience; and we may rightly ask 
the railway companies to give in their time-tables for 
public use everywhere and always, the mean local 
time of the departure and of the arrival of trains. It 
is the departure from this almost self-evident state- 
ment, and the substitution and mixing-up in the time- 
tables of times referred to various local standards, 
which has in no small measure contributed to the 
confusion and perplexity of the present system. ‘The 
people at large do not care to know by what time- 
system any railroad manages its trains, any more than 
they care what the steam-pressure is, or what is the 
number of the locomotive All the traveller is in- 
terested in is regularity and safety of travel: hence it 
was to be desired, that, whatever the standard or 
standards of time adopted, the companies would re- 
frain from troubling him with a matter which only eon- 
cerns their internal organization, or which is entirely 
administrative. We lookupon the publication of the 
railway time-tables, by local time everywhere, as a 
sine qua non for the satisfactory settlement of the time 
question, so far as the public at large is concerned; and 
it would seem equally plain that the best system for 
the administration of railroads would be the adoption 
of a uniform time, this time to be known only to the 
managers and employees of the roads. 

We are informed in Scrence of Oct. 12, that the 
solution of the problem of standard railway time is 
near at hand, and probably has already been consum- 
mated by the adoption of four or more regions, each 
having uniform minutes and seconds of Greenwich 
time, but the local hour of the middle meridian. ‘To 
have come down from several dozen of distinct time- 
systems to a very few and uniform ones, except as to 
the hour, is certainly a step forward, and, so far, 
gratifying; but why not adopt Greenwich time, pure 
and simple, and have absolute uniformity ? Probably 
this will be felt before long. The counting of twenty- 
four hours to the day, in the place of twice twelve, 
and the obliteration from time-tables of the obnox- 
ious A.M. and P.M. numbers, would seem to be 
generally acknowledged as an improvement and sim- 
plification, and perhaps can best be dealt with by 
adopting it at once, accompanied by a simple explana- 
torv statement. . C. A. Scnorr. 

Washington, Oct. 18, 1883. 


— 


OcToBER 26, 1883.] 


PACKARD’S PHYLLOPOD CRUSTACEA. 


A monograph of the phyllopod Crustacea of North 
America, with remarks on the order Phyllocarida. 
By A. S. Packarp, Jun. Author's edition, 
extracted from the twelfth annual report of 
the U. S. geological and geographical survey. 
Washington, 1883. 298 p., 39pl., map. 8°. 
AutuouGcH Professor Packard began publish- 

ing upon the Phyllopoda long ago, and has for 
several years been well known to be engaged 
upon a monograph of the North-American spe- 
cies, the bulk of the work just published, and 
the profusion of its illustrations, are a great 
surprise. It is the most extensive, and in 
many ways the most important, monographic 
contribution to American carcinology; and, 
however we may criticise the execution of the 
work, every student of the American fauna 
must feel grateful to the author for undertak- 
ing and accomplishing it. 

The work is much more than a systematic 
monograph of North-American Phyllopoda, 
as the following table of contents will show: 
I. Classification of the living Phyllopoda, 
which includes the systematic description of 
the North-American species; II. Geological 
succession, including descriptions of the North- 
American fossil species; III. Geographical 
distribution; IV. Morphology and anatomy ; 
V. Development, metamorphoses, and gene- 
alogy; VI. Miscellaneous notes on the repro- 
ductive habits of Branchipodidae, by Carl F. 
Gissler; VII. The order Phyllocarida, and its 
systematic position; VIII. Bibliography ; Ap- 
pendix, consisting of translations or abstracts 
by Gissler, of papers by C. T. von Siebold, 
on Artemia fertilis from Great Salt Lake, and 
on parthenogenesis in Artemia salina; and by 
Schmankewitsch, on the relation of Artemia 
salina to Artemia Muehlhausenii and to the 
genus Branchipus, and on the influence of ex- 
ternal conditions of life upon the organization 
of animals. ‘There is some confusion between 
the titles of the principal divisions, which are 
given above, and the table of contents in the 
work itself. Scarcely any of the titles are the 
same; and, in place of * Miscellaneous notes 
on the reproductive habits of Branchipodidae,’ 
we haye, in the table of contents, ‘ Relation 
to their environment; habits,’ — subjects no- 
where treated under a separate heading ; and 
all reference to the long appendix is omitted. 

About a fourth of the entire work is devoted 
to the systematic account of the species and 
higher groups of Phyllopoda, regarded by Pro- 
fessor Packard as a sub-order of Branchiopoda, 
which is made to include Cladocera and Ostra- 
coda also. The Phyllopoda are divided as 


" ae y 
a a Se eee i ne 


SCIENCE. 


571 


follows into families and sub-families, which 
include the number of recognized North- 
American genera and species nearly as indi- 
cated : — 


LitNapupae : 
Limnetinae (1 genus, 4 species). 
Estheriinae (3 genera, 11 species). 
Apopipar (2 genera, 9 species). 
BRANCHIPODIDAE : 
Branchipodinae (5 genera, 12 species). 
Thamnocephalinae (1 genus, 1 species). 


All the groups are described; nearly all the 
species are figured, many of them very fully ; 
and important notes on variability and habits 
are given for some of the species. Artemia 
gracilis is treated more at length than any 
other species, and is made to include all the 
described North-American species ; but, in re- 
gard to its relation to the European A. salina, 
there is certainly confusion, as the following 
paragraphs show. 

‘* Upon comparing our species with the Eu- 
ropean, it is difficult to find good differential 
characters, as the portions of the body where 
specific differences would be expected to oceur 
are liable to considerable variation. Upon 
comparing a number of females from Great 
Salt Lake with a number of females of the 
maleless generation from Trieste, Austria, 
received from Professor Siebold, there are 
really no differences of importance. Our A. 
gracilis (Verrill’s fertilis) is slighter, with a 
smaller head ; and perhaps the second antennae 
ate a little slighter in build; I see no essen- 
tial difference in the form of the ovisac, while 
the shape of the legs, especially the sixth en- 
dite, is essentially the same’’ (p. 331). 

‘*On comparing a number of Salt Lake fe- 
males with individuals of the same sex of the 
European Artemia salina, our species was 
found to be undoubtedly specifically distinct ; 
the Utah specimens are slenderer, smaller, and 
the sixth endite of all the feet considerably 
slenderer and’ longer in proportion than in A. 
salina. The ovisacs were of the same propor- 
tion but slenderer, and the head is slighter and 
smaller in our American species ’’ (p. 333). 

Different conclusions on neighboring pages, 
in regard to the specific identity of closely allied 
forms, might be accounted for in’ a careless 
author ; but differences like these in statements 
of observation betray inexplicable careless- 
ness. 

In the chapter on geological suecession, a 
table of the geological and geographical distri- 
bution of the known fossil species is given, and 
also a diagram indicating the geological his- 


572 


tory of the orders of Crustacea, the sub-orders 
of Branchiopoda, and the families of Phyllo- 
poda. Itis said that this diagram ‘‘ may also 
serve as a genealogical tree, showing the prob- 
able origin of the main divisions of the Crus- 
tacea :’’ but the genealogical part of the diagram 
consists simply of dotted lines connecting the 
points of first appearance in geological history 
of the Branchipodidae, Apodidae, and Clado- 
cera, with the point of appearance of the Lim- 
nadiidae in the Silurian; the common stem 
from this point with the Ostracoda in the upper 
Laurentian; and the branchiopod stem thus 
formed, and continued to a hypothetical Pro- 
tonauplius in the lower Laurentian, with the 
points of appearance of the Malacostraca, 
Phyllocarida, and Cirripedia. On what con- 
ceivable theory of evolution this would repre- 
sent a possible, much less the probable, origin 
of the main divisions of the Crustacea, it is 
hard to imagine, and was probably not serious- 
ly considered by the author himself; for it is 
far less like a probable genealogical tree than 
the diagram on p. 448, illustrating the rela- 
tions of the Phyllocarida to other Crustacea. 
In the chapter on morphology and anatomy, 
Professor Packard discusses at length the mor- 
phology of the regions of the body and the 
appendages of Arthropoda in general, and of 
the crustacean limb in particular, and gives 
some account of the anatomy of the phyllo- 
pods, but. adds very little to our previous 
knowledge of the anatomy of the group. The 
morphological discussion is an interesting con- 
tribution to the subject, and, with the numerous 
figures with which it is illustrated, will prove 
very useful, although most of the new nomen- 
clature proposed for the regions of the body 
and appendages is very objectionable. Pro- 
fessor Packard says, ‘* For the primary regions 
of the head (sic), the only scientific terms as 
yet in use are those proposed by Prof. J. O. 
Westwood, in Bate and Westwood’s History 
of British sessile-eyed Crustacea (vol. i. p. 3). 
These are cephalon for the head, pereion for 
the thorax, and pleon for the abdomen; while 
the thoracic feet are termed pereiopoda, and the 
abdominal legs pleopoda; the three terminal 
pairs being called uwropoda. As the names 
applied to the thorax and abdomen have no 
especial morphological significance, the Greek 
mepaov, simply meaning ulterior, and zAcor, 
more, we would suggest that the head be 
termed the cephalosome, the cephalic segments, 
cephalomeres, and the cephalic appendages in 
general, protopoda, the term ‘ cephalopoda’ 
being otherwise in use. The thorax of insects 
and of most Crustacea might be designated the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vor. IL, No. 38, 


baenosome (Pawo, to walk, locomotion), and 
the thoracic appendages, baenopoda, the seg- 
ments being called baenomeres ; while urosome 
might be applied to the abdomen, the abdomi- 
nal segments being called wromeres. West- 
wood’s term wropoda might be extended so as 
to include all the abdominal appendages.”’ If 
mere names of parts are to be rejected, simply 
for want of ‘morphological significance,’ the 
language of the morphologist would soon be- 
come a meaningless jargon, to which it is near 
enough already ; but, even as to ‘ morphological 
significance,’ there appears to be little choice 
between the new and old terms. Bate, when 
first proposing the terms ‘ pereion’! and ‘ pleon,’ 
expressly states that he derives the terms from 
mepaiow (‘to walk about’) and wAew (navigo). 
The proposed term ‘ protopoda’ is quite as un- 
fortunate as ‘ cephalopoda,’ since * protopodite’ 
and ‘protopod’ are already in use for parts of 
crustacean appendages, the former even in the 
present work. The extension of the term 
‘ uropoda’ so as to make it synonymous with 
‘pleopoda’ would also be unfortunate, since, as 
now employed, it is a very useful term to des- 
ignate the modified caudal pleopoda, whether 
one, two, or three pairs. 

In the chapter on development, metamor- 
phoses, and genealogy, Professor Packard 
gives a short account of the nauplius form in 
Phyllopoda as an introduction to Dr. Gissler’s 
interesting notes in the following chapter, and 
then briefly discusses the phylogeny of the 
group, in which he appears to find but one dif- 
ficulty. He says, — 

‘¢ The difficulty is (and this is a point ap- 
parently overlooked by Fritz Muller, Dohrn, 
Claus, and Balfour) to account for the origina- 
tion of the phyllopods at all from any marine 
forms. The only explanation we can suggest, 
is that the phyllopods have arisen through 
Limnetis directly from some orginally marine 
cladocerous type like the marine forms now 
existing, such as Evadne. We imagine that 
when a permanent body of fresh water became 
established, as, for example, in perhaps early 
Silurian times, the marine forms carried into 
it in the egg-condition, possibly by birds or by 
high winds, hatched young, which, under favor- 
able conditions, changed into Sida, Moina, and 
Daphnia-like forms.”’ 

Professor Packard appears to have over- 
looked the difficulty of the eggs of any marine 
cladocerous type of animals surviving a sud- 
den transfer from salt to fresh water, and the 


1 According to vither Bate’s or Packard’s derivation, this 
would be more properly written peraeon, as has sometimes been 
done, or even percon. 


October 26, 1883.] 


absence of birds in the Silurian, which might 
well deter the boldest speculator from offering 
such an explanation ; but when we consider that 
permanent bodies of fresh water were undoubt- 
edly formed by the gradual freshening of bodies 
of salt water cut off from the ocean, and that 
such bodies of fresh water usually had outlets 
connecting them with the sea, it is not surpris- 
ing that Fritz Miiller, Dohrn, and others should 
overlook a difficulty which is no greater for 
Phyllopoda than for other groups of fresh- 
water animals. 

Tn the chapter on bis new order, Phyllocarida, 
and its systematic position, Professor Packard 
describes the anatomy and development of 
Nebalia, and discusses its fossil allies. The 
appendages of Nebalia bipes are described and 
fully figured, but on the internal anatomy very 
little that is new is given. The figures and 
text intended to elucidate the histology, like 
most of Professor Packard’s similar work, leave 
much to be desired. 

The bibliography consists of a hundred and 
thirty-eight titles, divided into four sections, 
—one for living and one for fossil Phyllopoda, 
and the same for Phyllocarida. The titles of 
many of the works referred to are omitted 
in the bibliography, which is evidently very 
incomplete ; but its incompleteness is not so 


annoying as the entire want of system in its: 


arrangement, and the frequency of typographi- 
eal errors. 

Typographical errors are very numerous in 
all parts of the work ; and many of them cannot 
properly be charged to the proof-reader, who, 
however, ought to have corrected blunders like 
‘Yahresbericht’ (several times) and ‘ zoogloi- 
eal,’ and the inexplicable punctuation of most 
of the bibliographical references in the system- 
atic parts of the work. Errors due to careless 
writing or careless compiling are more com- 
mon than purely typographical errors, and far 
more confusing. On p. 313 we have the fol- 
lowing: ‘‘ It is difficult to say whether this is 
a Limnadia or Estheria, as the description is 
too brief and inexact to enable us to determine 
the genus or species. It carinot be a Limnadia, 
and seems to approximate more closely to 
Estheria; though it cannot belong to that 
genus.’” On p. 335 it is said that ‘Schman- 
kevitch’ found ‘ Branchinecta ferox (Fischer 
sp.)’ transform by artificial means into Ar- 
temia; but in reality he found an Artemia 
change into a Branchinecta, or into what he 
considered a Branchipus. On p. 337, ‘ Lab- 
rador examples’ are said to have been taken 
‘onthe north side of Hamilton Inlet, Northern 
Greenland.’ On pp. 313 and 314 the species 


P. : : 
Se — ™ 


SCIENCE. 


73 


of Estheriinae not recognizable are inserted 
between two species of Eulimnadia instead of 
at the end of the sub-family. Two paragraphs 
at the bottom of p. 349, under Streptocephalus 
Sealii, should have been placed under Chiro- 
cephalus Holmani, on p. 352. On pp. 396 to 
358 the genus Leaia is inserted between two 
species of Estheria. 

The plates, perhaps the most valuable part 
of the work, are nearly all lithographs from the 
establishment of Thomas Sinclair & son, and 
are apparently accurate representations of the 
original drawings. The general figures, most- 
ly drawn by Emerton and Burgess, are excel- 
lent.- The figures of details, drawn by the 
author, are not always so satisfactory: the 
figures of the appendages of Apus and Lepi- 
durus, for example, are very rudely drawn, and 
badly arranged on the plates. Unfortunately, 
the amount of enlargement of scarcely any of 
the figures is given. S. I. Saira. 


SIR WILLIAM LOGAN. 


Life of Sir William E. Logan, Kt., LL.D., F.R.S., 
F.G.S., ete., first director of the Geological survey 
of Canada. By Bernarp J, Harrinaton, 
B.A‘, Ph D., professor of mining in McGill uni- 
versity. Montreal, Dawson Bros , 1883. With 
steel portrait and numerous woodcuts. 432 p. 
3°) 


A ure of Logan will be greeted by all 
geologists as a fit companion. for those which 
have recently appeared of his English col- 
leagues, Lyell and Murchison. What they 
did for Great Britain, he did for his native 
Canada, and even more. He solved the most 
complicated geological problems in vast areas 
where no white man had ever trod before him. 
He foreed his way through trackless forests, 
making his own surveys and maps as he pro- 
ceeded, and, in spite of such difficulties, not 
only discovered the structure of a greater part 
of his own country, but gave to the world a 
new series of formations. The work of Murch- 
ison and Sedgwick he completed by carrying 
order and succession beyond the Silurian and 
Cambrian, into that chaos of still older rocks, 
thus rendering the soil of his beloved Canada 
forever classic in geological annals. 

The author of the present memoir has given 
us Sir William’s history almost in his own 
words. By means of judicious extract’ from 
his voluminous correspondence and journals, 
chronologically arranged, we are presented with 
a charming picture of the man, as well as 
the savant, all the more faithful because it is 
unconsciously given. Here we see portrayed 


574 


an indomitable will, the keenest power of ob- 
servation, as well as the coolest judgment in 
drawing conclusions, rare tact in managing his 
fellow-men, a ready sense of humor, combined 
with those subtler qualities of heart which 
make a man beloved wherever he may be. ‘The 
author has rendered his work doubly attractive 
by making it sort of an unintentional auto- 
biography. 

- Sir William Edmond Logan was born in 
Montreal, April 20, 1798, and remained at 
home until he was sent to the Edinburgh high 
school, in 1814. He studied at the high school 
and university of this place until 1817, when 
he entered upon a mercantile life in London, 
which he continued during the following four- 
teen years. In 1831 he was placed in charge 
of a copper company, near Swansea, in Wales, 
where he exhibited for the first time his geo- 
logical proclivities. This company mined its 
own coal, and it was through this fact that he 
was led to his first really scientific investiga- 
tions. He prepared a map of the South Wales 
coal-district with a degree of accuracy which 
had hardly before been equalled by any geo- 
logical workers. This map attracted much 
attention from De la Beche, and other of Eng- 
land’s most prominent geologists, and secured 
him influential friends who ever remained true 
to him. ; 

In 1840 Logan returned to his native land, 
and spent over a year in studying the coal 
formation in New Brunswick and Pennsyl- 
vania. The results of his investigations relat- 
ing to the origin of coal in situ were published 
soon after he returned to England. ‘The sub- 
ject of a government geological survey had 
been for some time under discussion in Can- 
ada, when, in 1841, £1,500 was appropriated 
for this purpose; and in the following year 
Logan received, upon the recommendation of 
his friends De la Beche, Murchison, Buckland, 
and Sedgwick, the appointment of director. 
During the seasons of 1843-44 he devoted his 
attention to studying the peninsula of Gaspé, 
where coal had been reported, and, in an in- 
credibly short time, unravelled the geological 
complexities of a vast wilderness. The coal 
was not found, but its absence from the 
Silurian and Devonian rocks which compose 
that region was placed beyond a doubt. 

- But notwithstanding the energy with which 
Logan*s work was carried on, and the success 
which attended it, his efforts to awaken in his 
countrymen an interest in geological pursuits 
were for a long time not appreciated. Years 
of doubt and anxiety followed the opening of 
the survey ; and it was only through the indom- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 38. 


itable will and consummate tact of its director 
that the opposition of a short-sighted goyern- 
ment was finally overcome, and its permanent 
existence assured. 

Although nothing was more foreign to Sir 
William’s character than a taste for display, 
or a desire for fame, he fully appreciated the 
advantages to the survey and to Canada which 
must arise from having the results of his work 
widely known. Thus it was that he willingly 
undertook the charge of the Canadian exhibit 
at three world’s fairs, — London in 1851 and 
1862, and Paris in 1855, — and was more than 
repaid for his untiring exertions by the success 
which attended them. He saw, largely through 
his own efforts, an active interest in his native 
land awakened in Europe, the knowledge of 
her resources extended, and her industries and 
wealth thereby increased ; while these practical 
results of his own work secured to him the en- 
couragement of his countrymen, and honors 
poured fast upon him from all quarters. His 
appropriations were increased year by year; 
the best specialists were associated with him 
in different departments, such names as Hunt, 
Murray, and Billings, adding no little lustre 
to the survey’s name; the field of work was 
extended over all of Canada that was accessi- 
ble; and ample opportunity was given for the 
publication of scientific results. 

Into the details of Sir William’s special 
work we have here no time to enter: suffice 
it to say, that the sphere of his labors was very 
varied, as the list of his memoirs appended 


to the present work will show, his discoveries- 


numerous and important, and all that he ae- 
complished most thoroughly and accurately 
done. But the survey was always his especial 
care ; and he may well have considered his life’s 
work performed, when, at his resignation from 
the directorship in 1869, he could leave it 
upon a permanent footing, provided with every 
facility for future activity and usefulness. To 
the close of his life, his interest in its work 
never abated; and his last thoughts were de- 
voted to completing some of his investigations 
begun as its director. 

In August, 1874, Sir William once more went 
to England, and died the following June, at his 
sister’s house in Wales. As a geologist, he 
will always be honored in the scientific world ; 
while, as a man and as a friend, he will long be 
remembered by those who were neyer able to 
appreciate his work. 

A very valuable paper on the history of the 
rocks of the Quebee group, by Principal Daw- 
son of McGill college, forms a most welcome 
addition to this, of itself, so interesting book. 


OcTOBER 26, 1885.] 


SCIENCE. 575 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


ASTRONOMY. 


The divisions in Saturn's rings.— Professor 
Kirkwood, in 1868, accounted for the great division in 
Saturn’s rings by the commensurability of the period 
of a body revolving at that distance from Saturn 
with the periods of the six inner satellites. Dr. 
William Meyer of Geneva has investigated every 
possible combination of the commensurabilities of 
the revolution periods of the satellites, and finds six 
other places where a perturbing influence is exer- 
cised. The divisions most strongly marked seem to 
be at places where the commensurabilities are the 
closest, and all the satellites take part. A faint divis- 
ion should be found in the inner bright ring, accord- 
ing to Dr. Meyer. Prof. Holden has noted a distinct 
point at which the shading-off begins, in the position 
indicated by Meyer’s theory, —a fact which seemed 
to have escaped Meyer’s notice. —(Observ., Sept., 
trans. from Astr. nachr., 2,527, with additions.) 
M. McN. [S06 

Saturn.— Dr. William Meyer of Geneva gives a 
new determination of the orbits of six of Saturn’s 
satellites, — Enceladus, Tethys, Dione, Rhea, Titan, 
and Iapetus. From each of these he has determined 
the mass of Saturn, the reciprocal value of the com- 
bined result being M = 3,482.9+ 5.5. The original 
observations are to appear in the Mémoires de la 
société de physique de Geneve during the present year. 
— (Astr. nachr., 2,528.) M. MeN. [S807 


MATHEMATICS. 

Functions of a complex variable. — In the 
present paper, entitled ‘Applications of Fourier’s 
theorem to the theory of the functions of a complex 
variable,’ M. Harnack first shows in what manner the 
Fourier series are to be employed in the discovery of 
a rigid basis for the Cauchy-Riemann theorem con- 
cerning the development of functions of a complex 
variable. A generalization is also given of the funda- 
mental hypothesis involved in the C.-R, theorem, 
as follows: if wis a function of ++ iy, which over 
a simply connected plane region is everywhere con- 
tinuous, and which ‘in general’ satisfies the differen- 
tial equation, — 

dw , dw _ 

ae sy ay 0, 
then the function w is with its derivatives everywhere 
finite and continuous, and will possess no singular 
points. The term ‘in general’ (im allgemeinen) 
means that the points which do not satisfy the above 
differential equation, together with the points for 
which the partial derivatives ae and i are inde- 
terminate between finite or infinite limits, or are dis- 
continuous, shall make up simply a discrete system 
of curves. In the second part of the paper, the author 
has gone yery briefly into the subject of the repre- 
sentation of an analytical function, without singu- 
larities, in the interior of a circle by aid of Dirichlet’s 
principle. — (Math.ann., xxi.) T. C. [308 


| 


ENGINEERING. 


Heavy engines and American railroad-tracks. 
— Mr. O. Chanute states that heavy ‘ consolidation’ 
engines do not injure the track more than the lighter 
engines formerly did. Trains have been lengthened 
from 22 cars in 1874 to 38 in 1883; and the weights _ 
hauled, from 106 to 228 tons. By strengthening 
draw-heads, links, and pins, accidents from breaking 
apart of trains have been diminished, and the cost 
of haulage has been reduced from one cent to a 
half-cent per ton per mile. — (Mechanics, July 28.) 
EB. Ho {309 


The British institution of mechanical engi- 
neers.— This society held its summer meeting in 
Belgium. It was received by the Association of 
engineers of Liége university, and visited the prin- 
cipal engineering establishments of the country. 
President Westmacott, in his opening address, called 
attention to the progress recently made in the rapid 
produetion of good articles of manufacture, and to 
the fact that speed and excellence of work are not 
incompatible where machinery is used. The mate- 
rials must be of the best quality, however, the 
machines well proportioned, and all working parts 
well balanced and well fitted. He referred to Thor- 
neyeroft’s experience with torpedo-boats, and called 
attention to the fact, that, at high speeds, the dif- 
ficulties of lubrication and the jar observed at lower 
speeds disappear. In the speed of railway-trains, 
no advance has been lately made, and the maxi- 
mum speeds remain at the figures of earlier years. 
Some economy has been obtained by the use of the 
crude"products of the distillation of petroleum in 
the fireboxes of locomotives, this economy sometimes 
amounting to fifty per cent. Cotton-machinery has 
been speeded up, until the spindles which formerly 
made 5,000 revolutions are now making from 8,500 
to 10,000, on fine American cotton, The increase in 
speed of woollen-machinery has not been great. In 
gunnery, the weight of gun and projectile have 
increased, in twenty-five years, from 5 tons and 66 
pounds to 100 tons and 2,000 pounds. The shot has 
an initial energy of nearly 50,000 foot-tons. High 
speed is the direction of change in all departments 
of engineering. —(Nature.) R&. H. T. [310 


Hardening soft limestones with fluosilicates. 
— The application of alkaline silicates to the exterior 
of buildings, in order to prevent the deterioration of 
the stone, has not been attended with satisfactory 
results.. H. L. Kessler proposes to use a solution of 
fluosilicates of bases whose oxides and carbonates 
are insoluble in a free state. When soft limestone 
is saturated with a concentrated solution of a fluosili- 
cate of magnesium, aluminum, zine, or lead, a very 
considerable degree of induration is soon reached, 
and the resulting products, except the liberated car- 
bonie anhydride, are less soluble than the stone itself. 
No varnish is formed, and therefore no danger arises 
from expansion of frost beneath it. The process has 


576 


resisted the severe tests of winter. Colors may be 


introduced satisfactorily. —(Zes mondes; Amer. 
arch., Sept. 1.) c. 5. G. [S11 
CHEMISTRY. 


(General, physical, and inorganic.) 


The yellow and red plumbic oxides. — A study 
of the formation and properties of the two forms 
of plumbic oxide, by A. Geuther, shows that it is di- 
morphous, the yellow modification crystallizing in 
rhombic forms, and the red in the tetragonal system. 
The yellow oxide is changed by pressure and by fric- 
tion into the red form, which is again transformed 
into the yellow, when heated to its melting point. — 
(Ann. chem., cexix., 56.) ©. F. M. [312 

Artificial reproduction of barite, celestite, and 
anhydrite. — A. Gorgeu finds that the sulphates of 
barium, strontium, and calcium dissolve freely in the 
melted chlorides of various metals at a red heat. On 
cooling, they separate in well-defined erystals which 
resemble closely the natural sulphates. From the 
results of his experiments, M. Gorgeu concludes that 
the minerals barite, celestite, and anhydrite must 
have been deposited from a solution of their amor- 
phous sulphates in some metallic chloride. — (Comptes 
rendus, xvi. 1734.) Cc. F. M. [313 

A modification of V. Meyers apparatus for 
vapor density determinations. —In order to ob- 
tain a uniform temperature, H. Schwarz surrounds 
the tube containing the substance with a jacket which 
serves as an air-bath. The required temperature 
is obtained by placing the apparatus in an ordinary 
combustion-furnace. — (Berichte deutsch. chem. ge- 
sellsch., xvi. 1051.) c. Fr. M. [S14 


METEOROLOGY. 


Barometric laws. — The weather review issued 
by the Deutsche seewarte contains not only summa- 
ries of the weather conditions in each month, and of 
the work of the bureau in connection with them, but 
also occasional articles of scientific value, based upon 
the observations. The number for the year 1882 con- 
tains a valuable paper entitled Typische witterungs- 
erscheinungen, the object of which is to discuss the 
laws governing the velocity and direction of the 
movement of areas of low pressure, and their attend- 
ant phenomena, deduced from European observa- 
tions between 1876 and 1880. The low areas during 
this period are grouped into five classes, according to 
the directions of the paths which they pursued. The 
accompanying charts exhibit, for each of three posi- 
tions of the storm-centre (the entrance, middle posi- 
tion, and departure, as regards the territory of western 
Europe), six attendant phenomena, — the distribution 
of pressure and temperature, barometric changes in 
the preceding twenty-four hours, temperature depar- 
tures from the normal, amount of precipitation, and 
cloud-phenomena. ‘Tables are also given showing the 
distribution of the storm-tracks, with respect to the 
time of year, the average depth of the depressions, and 
their velocity. 

The discussion to which the charts and tables have 


SCIENCE, 


[Von. If., No. 38° 


been «subjected brings out various empirical laws, 

which are of special aid to the officers of the seewarle 

in their weather forecasts, as well as of scientifie in- 

terest. Several of these may be mentioned: 1°. The 

depressions usually advance in the direction of the 

strongest winds. 2°. The line of advance of the de- 

pression forms an angle with the line of greatest in- 

crease of temperature, which generally lies between 

45° and 90°, the highest temperature lying at the 

right of the path of the minimum. In summer the 

angle is greater than in winter, often reaching 90°. 

Both of these laws conform to the principles laid 

down in 1872 by Ley. They may be combined into 
one as follows: ‘‘The onward movement of the de- 
pressions follows approximately in the direction of 
the preponderating movement of the whole mass of 
air in the vicinity of the depression.’’ The impor- 

tance of cloud-studies, especially of the upper clouds, 

consists in the fact that their direction of movement - 
foreshadows, in a general way, the direction of move- 

ment of the depression. On the other hand, their 
distribution in advance of the depression is so irregu- 
lar that their indications cannot be relied upon alone, 

but must be combined with the distribution of press- 
ure and other meteorological conditions. 

The most interesting part of the discussion relates 
to the distribution of pressure at the height of 2,500 
metres. The barometric readings are reduced to this 
height (in addition to the usual reduction to sea- 
level) by means of K6ppen’s formula, published in 
1882; the first use of this method which has yet been 
published, asfaras known. At this height the mini- 
ma are not so closely enclosed by the isobars as is 
indicated by the charts; and it is shown, that “the 
rotary motion is limited to the lower atmospheric 
strata, in which the axis of the vortex is inclined 
towards the left and apparently somewhat forward.” 
It seems that an advance in our knowledge of baro- 
metric movements might be made by further atten- 
tion to this method of research, which enables us to 
investigate the extent of a depression in a vertical 
direction as well as in the horizontal direction, to 
which investigation has hitherto been limited. — 
(Monatl. tibersicht witterung, 1882.) Ww. vu. [sis 


GEOGRAPHY. 
(Arctic.) 

Polar stations.— The Austrian steamer Pola 
reached Jan Mayen, Aug. 3, and found the party 
in excellent health and spirits. We have already an- 
nounced their safe return to Vienna. Some account 
of the wintering is given in Nature, from which we 
learn, that, in 1882, the autumn storms began with a 
heavy snowfall about the end of August. Septem- 
ber was fine and warm; October again stormy. The 
polar night began Nov. 12, and ended Jan. 30. Au- 
rora was constant and of great brillianey during the 
winter. The greatest cold (—63° I.) was observed 
in January, but March had the lowest average tem- 
perature. Terrible snow-storms occurred at inter- 
vals; the ice, which first formed around the island in 
December, being frequently broken up, and the salt 
spray carried a long distance inland. ‘The ice dis- 


OcToBER 26, 1883.] 


appeared by the end of June. There had been no 
illness, and the international programme had been 
perfectly carried out. —— In addition to the interna- 
tional stations, the physical laboratory at Upsala has 
made simultaneous observations for the year end- 
ing Aug. 15. —— The Swedish expedition arrived at 
Tromso from Spitzbergen, Aug. 28. The year’s obser- 
vations were completed Aug. 23. No casualties had 
occurred among the members of the party, and the re; 
lieving vessel encountered no ice of consequence. 
The Dutch, party which wintered in the Varna, near 
Waigatz Strait, arrived at Hammerfest, Sept. 3. The 
Varna was nipped Dee. 24, 1882, but did not founder 
until July 24, 1883. One of the crew died during 
the winter. The observations, except those relating 
to magnetism, were carried on with success. After 
the vessel sank, the party was accommodated on the 
Dimfoa, from which it was taken by the steam- 
er Obi, and carried to Vardé. Hovgaard, in the 
Dimfna, was confident of getting into open water in 
August, but intended, if he did not succeed in doing 
so by Aug. 15, to despatch half the crew under Lieut. 
Olsen for Yalmal on the Siberian coast, while he 
remained on the vessel with the other half during 
the winter. The Dimfna has since arrived at Vard6. 
—  Noattempt is to be made to reach Greely’s party 
this year, as the season is considered too late. Sever- 
al Eskimo stories have reached civilization, and have 
been supposed to refer to that party. It is certain 
that they are entitled to no credence whatever, in the 
shape in which they are received, even if originally 
based on some actual fact, which is doubtful. —— 
The Point Barrow party under Ray has been suc- 
cessfully relieved, and reached San Francisco, Oct. 7. 
According to a telegram from Lieut. Ray, all work 
was accomplished except the pendulum observations. 
The relieying schooner Leo reached Point Barrow, 
Aug. 22, but was forced away by the ice the same 
night; returned on the 24th, but was again forced to 
retire, with some damage, the next day. On the 27th, 
however, the party aud stores were embarked, and 
the vessel reached Unalashka, where she was beached 
and repaired. Lieut. Schwatka and party, who had 
descended the Yukon from the Chilkat country to 
the sea, and reached St. Michael’s safely, were brought 
to San Francisco by the Leo. — w. H. p. [316 

The whaling-season.— Reports from Bering 
Strait to latest dates still continue to characterize 
the season as the worst and most icy for many years, 
No serious casualties had occurred since the loss of 
the John Howland. — w. u. pb. [S17 

Arctic notes. — The death of Admiral Sir Richard 
Collinson, at the age of seventy-two, is announced. 
He commanded the Franklin search expedition, 1850- 
54, on the Enterprise and Investigator, surveyed Minto 
Inlet and Prince Albert Sound in 1852. Part of his 
command under M‘Clure, by walking from their ves- 
sel in Merey Bay, over the ice to the Resolute at 
Dealy Island, and afterwards sailing for England on 
the North Star, made the north-east passage from 
the Pacific for the first and only time. Collinson 
received the gold medal of the Royal geographical 
society, the order of the Bath, and had been deputy- 


SCIENCE. 


D717 


master of Trinity House since 1875. —— The latest 
news from the polar station at the Lena mouth was to 
the effect that all were well April 3, though the win- 
ter had been very trying. The lowest temperature 
observed was —52°.3 F., Feb. 9. The deviation of 
the magnetic needles was very great, especially dur- 
ing ‘magnetic storms,’ reaching 25° in azimuth in 
the declinometer, and 90° for the suspended magnet in 
observations for horizontal intensity. —— The news- 
paper accounts of Lieut. Schwatka’s voyage are so 
confused, and contain so many absolute errors, that 
it is difficult to know exactly what they are intended 
to convey. The facts appear to be, that he crossed the 
portage from the Chilkat River to the Kussooa afflu- 
ents of the Lewis River, as several parties of pro- 
spectors have done beforehim. The descent was then 
made to the Yukon, at Fort Selkirk, on rafts. Some 
of the Indians of the party becoming mutinous, it is 
reported that three of them were killed by Schwatka; 
and the party then descended the river from the site 
of Fort Selkirk to Fort Adams, just below Nuklu- 
kahyet’, about longitude 152° 30° west, where one of 
the river-boats used in trading was chartered to take 
them to the seacoast. It is to be hoped that astro- 
nomical observations have been made by the party, 
which, so far as merely traversing the country is con- 
cerned, has done no more than has been done by dif- 
ferent parties of prospectors and explorers before ; 
none of whom, however, obtained any observations 
of precision on the river above Fort Yukon. 
Lieut. Stoney, U.S.N., after delivering the presents 
to the Chukchi of St. Lawrence Bay, which were 
sent in return for their benevolence to the officers 
and men of the Jeannette search expedition, on 
the U.S.S. Rodgers, landed near Hotham Inlet, and, 
according to newspaper reports, attempted to explore 
one of the three large rivers which fall into this estu- 
ary. The information given by the daily press is not 
exact; but it appears that the chief work accom- 
plished was the collection of some native reports in 
regard to one of these rivers, which, in the state they 
have been made public, are incompatible with the 
known geography of the region. Doubtless, in this 
as in the ease of Lieut. Schwatka’s party, when the 
official reports are received, they will be found to 
contain welcome additions to our knowledge of these 
regions, [318 


BOTANY. 


Color-changes of lungwort flowers. — Dr. Miil- 
ler finds, that while occasionally insects visit the 
blue (older) flowers of Pulmonaria officinalis, but 
without benefit to themselves or the plant, the 
red (younger) flowers are much more frequently 
visited for pollen and nectar, being at the same time 
fertilized. One female of Anthophora pilipes, for ex- 
ample, was seen to visit only red flowers, or those 
just beginning to change. Another visited, at first, 
both red and blue flowers, but later, apparently 
learning by experience that the blue flowers contain 
no nectar, confined her visits to the red flowers. A 
third visited in the following order: sixteen red 
flowers of Pulmonaria, one blue Nepeta glechoma, 
twenty-three red Pulmonaria, one Nepeta, twenty- 


a 


978 


one red Pulmonaria, and one Nepeta. Coming, now, 
to a place where the ground-ivy prevailed, she visited 
sixty-one Nepeta flowers, then five red Pulmonaria 
flowers, after which she returned to her nest. Earlier 
observation has also shown that this bee is not con- 
stant in its visits to a given species. The visits of 
the second individual and of one or two other in- 
sects, watched but a short time, to the blue flowers, 
is attributed to their lack of experience on this species; 
while the promiscuous visits of others are believed to 
be due to a noticeable confusion which was mani- 
fested after one or two unsuccessful visits had been 
made to flowers drained by earlier comers. From his 
observations, the writer concludes that the blue color 
of the older flowers, like the final color of those of 
Ribes aureum and Lantana, is of twofold advantage 
to the plant, —on the one hand inereasing the con- 
spicuousness of the flower-cluster, while, on the other 
hand, it indicates to the more acute of the visiting 
insects the flowers to which their attentions should 
be confined for their own good and that of the plant. 
— (Kosmos, 1883, 214.) w. 7. [319 

Insects versus fertilization. — In some notes on 
Thripidae, Mr. Osborn discusses the food-habits of 
these minute insects, believing, from the structure 
and position of their mouth-parts, and such observa- 
tions as he has been able to make, that the major 
part of the group are vegetable feeders, the few spe- 
cies considered by Walsh and Riley as insectivorous 
differing in this respect from most of their congeners. 
Even these are thought to possibly seek the honey- 
dew of aphides, etc., rather than to destroy them. 

Of young apple-blossoms frequented by them, 
““eighty per cent were injured by punctures upon the 
styles and other parts, but particularly the styles; 
and all the evidence pointed to the thrips as the 
cause of injury,’ though they were never seen to 
actually puncture the tissue. — (Canad. entom., Aug.) 
WwW. T. . [$20 

ZOOLOGY. 

Origin of individuality in the higher animals. 
—H. Fol has published a very interesting note, in 
which he studies, not the historical or phylogenetic, 
but the physiological, origin of the individual. The 
questions proposed are, At what moment in the onto- 
geny is the individuality created and limited? What 
factors determine the development of one, two, or 
several embryos from a single vitellus? The cases 
of double monsters by union of two distinct eggs, 
and polymerism, being phenomena of a different 
order, do not come into consideration here. 

Fol’s new researches were made principally on 
the sea-urchin, Strongylocentrotus lividus, which is 
strictly individualized at all stages of its existence. 
He had previously reached the conclusion that nor- 
mal fecundation demands only one spermatozoon for 
each egg. Selenka thinks that two or three do not 
involve the sequel of an irregular development. 
Fol has verified both points, and finds that normal 
fecundation may be effected by either one or two 
spermatozoa uniting with the egg-nucleus. Three 
seem to produce abnormalities. The spermatozoon, 
then, does not act as an individuality: it represents 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. Il., No. 38. 


only a certain dose of nuclear substance; and the 
dose may be either single or double. Immature or 
injured eggs admit several spermatozoa. Very in- 
geniously Fol has produced such a condition tempo- 
rarily by immersing the mature ova for a moment 
in water saturated with carbonic acid, then trans- 
ferring them to well-aerated water, and impregnat- 
ing. The half-asphixiated eggs admit each three 
or four spermatozoa, which unite with the female 
pronucleus, after which follows an abnormally long 
period of repose. When segmentation begins, there 
appears a complex caryolytic figure, with three or 
four poles instead of two, a triaster or tetraster, or 
two parallel amphiasters, separate or united. The 
number of segmentation-spheres formed is at least 
double the normal. The larvae have irregular forms, 
and often two or three gastrular cavities. 

If the eggs are more completely under the influ- 
ence of the carbonic acid, from five to ten sperma- 
tozoa may gain entrance. The earliest comers unite 
with the female pronucleus: the later ones remain in 
the periphery. The nucleus forms a tetraster or dou- 
ble amphiaster; and the peripheral male pronuclei 
form each an amphiaster, which usually join end to 
end, forming a rosary of asters and spindles. Each 
of these amphiasters seems to be a centre of develop- 
ment, for the surviving larvae are polygastric. 

These facts lead to the conclusion that neither the 
egg, nor the female pronucleus, nor the spermato- 
zoon, suffices, taken separately, to determine the indi- 
viduality. The dose of nuclear substance resulting 
in the formation of an embryo may vary within 
considerable limits; and the number of amphiasters 
at the first cleavage is the first criterion which 
decides the number of individuals. Fol then con- 
siders the first amphiaster of segmentation as the 
first fact of individuality. [Fol does not appear to 
have demonstrated a strict correspondence between 
the number of amphiasters and of individuals. His 
view raises the question whether there is a funda- 
mental difference between the bipolar (amphiasters) 
and multipolar asters in cell-division.] — (Comptes 
rendus acad. Paris, Aug. 13, 1883.) c.s.mM. . [321 


VERTEBRATES. 
Birds. 

The white of birds’ eggs.— Tarchanoff has dis- 
covered that the white of the eggs of those birds 
whose young are born unfeathered differs from or- 
dinary albumen, its most striking peculiarity being 
that it remains transparent after coagulation by heat. 
He designates it as ‘tata-eiweiss.’ It {differs from 
ordinary white of egg in many respects. When co- 
agulated it is fluorescent. It has less polarizing 
power, and contains more water, than the white of 
hens’ eggs. It gives no precipitate when abundantly 
diluted with water. It is at first strongly alkaline, 
but loses that reaction as the yolk develops. It is 
rapidly digested. It can be redissolved in water 
after drying at 40° C. It can be changed into what 
appears to be identical with ordinary albumen, a, by 
the addition of a few drops of concentrated solutions 
of neutral salts of alkaline bases, or, }, of concen- 


OcToBER 26, 18S3.] 


trated acetic or lactic acid; c, under the influence of 
earbonic acid at a temperature near boiling; d, by 
incubation (owing to the action of the CO, excret- 
ed by the yolk ?— Rep.). Experiments left it un- 
certain whether the ordinary albumen first passes 
through the ‘tata’ form. It seems probable that 
the ‘ tata-eiweiss’ is a sodic or potassic albuminate. 
— (Pfliiger’s arch. physiol., xxxi. 368.) ©. s. M. [322 

Yolkless artificial eggs. — Tarchanoff, in the 
course of his experiments, noticed in the preceding 
abstract, made fistulae of the oviduct in hens. They 
bear the operation well, but it causes atrophy of the 
glands of the oviduct, and apparently of the ovary 
also. The mature ova are discharged into the body- 
cavity. Under favorable circumstances, if a ball of 
amber is introduced into the upper end of the duct, 
the white with fully developed chalazae, and the 
membranous shell, are deposited, producing a nor- 
mally formed egg, in which the yolk is replaced by 
the amber ball. A ligature prevented the descent 
of the egg, during the experiment, into that region 
of the oviduct which secretes the caleareous shell. 
— (Pfliiger’s arch. physiol., xxi. 375.) c.s.M. [823 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 

Notes on New Guinea.—By degrees this un- 
known land is being brought before the scientific 
world. Mr. W. G. Lawes, writing from Port Mores- 
by, describes a visit to the Rouna Falls, accompanied 
by his wife, the first lady to tread the unbeaten tracks 
of New Guinea. In the district of Sogere the tray- 
ellers stopped at several native villages. 
where they camped consisted of seven houses and 
three tree-houses, which are really forts or castles. 
One was a hundred and twenty feet high. <A native 
went up with an armful of spears, and threw them 
down at an imaginary enemy. When they have rea- 
son to expect an enemy, they take up a supply of big 
stones. These houses command the whole village, 
and could not easily be taken. The travellers saw 
much of the natives, who are good specimens of 
the average Koiarian. They are somewhat darker, 
shorter, and more hairy, than the coast people. When 
aman dies, it is always known whose spirit has be- 
witched him; and his tribe must pay in order to give 
the dead man rest. Whenever a man of the least 
consequence dies, there is fighting. Their mode of 
getting fire is peculiar. They take a dry stick of 
pithy wood, and splitit alittle way. In the cleft they 
put a piece of wood or a stone to keep it open; then, 
putting a little rubbish as tinder under the split part 
of the stick, they stand on the other end, and pass a 
strip of rattan, cane, or bamboo, under the cleft, draw- 
ing it rapidly up and down, when it soon begins to 
smoke, and sparks appear between the forks of the 
stick, which, with a little care, sets fire to the tinder, 
and a flame is soon obtained. — J. w. P. [324 

The Toltecs. — Notwithstanding Dr. Brinton’s 
consignment of the Toltecs to the Morgenland, M. 
E. T. Hamy has the courage to say, ‘The Toltecs 


SCIENCE. 


The one 


579 


play the most important part in the past history 
of North America. Their history commences with 
the fifth century of our era, and their migration to the 
south-east coincides in a striking manner with the 
great movement of peoples in the old world. When 
the Goths and Huns were annihilating the civiliza- 
tion of Europe, at the other end of the world other 


barbarians, travelling in the same direction, were Sipe 


destroying older nations.’?> M. Hamy gives a brief 
review of the Toltec art, especially in clay, and then 
proceeds to enlarge upon the discoveries of M. Char- 
nay, illustrating his remarks by means of specimens 
in the Lorillard collection. The first period of Toltec 
ceramic art is termed pastillage ; the second, more 
advanced, may be called poussage. Tula, Teotihua- 
can, and Cholula contain the most imposing vestiges 
of Toltee grandeur. The remains of what was the 
first capital of the Taltecs are situated nineteen 
leagues north of Mexico, at the confluence of the Rio 
Grande de Tula and a small river from the mountains 
of Texas. M. Charnay visited the ruins of this place, 
and photographed the most important. The descrip- 
tions of the other two capitals are passed over briefly 
by M. Hamy; but of Cholula, fortunately, we have 
the very minute observations of Bandelier, to be pub- 
lished by the Archeological institute. — (Assoc. sc. 
France, Conférence 25 Mars, 1882.) J.w.p. [825 


The perforated humerus. — Professor Henry W. 
Haynes, in exhibiting a perforated Indian humerus 
found at Concord, Mass., brings together some im- 
portant references to the same phenomenon observed 
elsewhere. Mr. Henry Gilman found 50% in the 
Michigan mounds; at Grenelle, Paris, M. Martin 
found 28 % ; in the Furfooz race of the caves of Bel- 
giumy.M.-Dupont found 30%; in the Dolmen of 
Argenteuil, near Paris, M. Leguay found 25 % ; while 
Dr. Pruner Bey ascertained the average at Vaureal, 
near by, to be 26 %. He also reported that it is com- 
mon in skeletons of the Guanches. In the eave of 
Orrouy, belonging to the bronze age, the average was 
ascertained by Dr. Broca to be 25%. Among two 
thousand skeletons of the polished stone age, diseoy- 
ered by the Baron de Baye in Champagne, he reports 
it as very frequent. Prof. Ward also speaks of the 
broken state in which long bones are found, attribut- 
ingittodesign. With regard to percentages on small 
numbers, a very singular experience was that of the 
writer of this note last year. Wishing to know what 
races and nationalities supplied the criminals of his 
city, he consulted the census and the police records, 
The former reported one Persian in the community; 
the latter, five Persians, arrested and convicted. Star- 
tled by the fact that five hundred per cent of the Per- 
sians were criminals, he was about to warn the 
government against allowing any more to land. A 
few moments’ study, however, set the matter right. 
The poor Persian on the census-roll had been ‘sent 
down’ five times during one year, for sixty days each 
time, on account of vagraney. — (Proc. Amer. antiq. 
80c., ii. 80.) 0. T. M. [826 


580 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 38. 


INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 


GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. 
National museum. 


Publications. —The publications of the museum 
are issued under two titles, —‘ Bulletins’ and ‘ Pro- 
ceedings.’ The bulletins consist of monographs of 
groups of animals, plants, or minerals; papers upon 
the fauna, flora, and minerals of different regions 
of the globe; and similar works. The proceedings 
’ contain shorter communications descriptive of new 
species, etc., or relating to novel phenomena. All 
papers are based on material in the museum. Five 
volumes of the proceedings, and twenty-two bulle- 
tins, have already been published, aggregating 7,396 
octavo pages. The sixth volume of the proceedings, 
and several bulletins, are now in course of publica- 
tion. The bulletins which will appear within a short 
period are the following: — 

A bibliography of the writings of Professor Spencer 
Fullerton Baird, by G. Brown Goode, A.M.; Avi- 
fauna columbiana, by Elliott Coues and D. Webster 
Prentiss, M.D.; A contribution to the natural history 
of Bermuda, edited by G. Brown Goode, A.M.; A 
manual of herpetology, by Henry C. Yarrow, M.D.; 
Official catalogue of the collections exhibited by the 
U.S. national museum at the London fisheries exhi- 
bition, 1883. : 

The exhibition-halls. —Two very important objects 
are about to be placed on exhibition in the museum. 
The first of these is a group of orangs, mounted by 
Mr. William T. Hornaday. The group represents a 
fight in the treetop, in which are concerned two adult 
male orangs, and as spectators a female and baby, 
and a young male. The setting has beer worked 
out with great care, especially as regards the nests 
of the orangs, the foliage, vines, orchids, etc. All 
the specimens were shot by Mr. Hornaday in Borneo, 
and are mounted from his notes upon the living and 
fresh specimens. 

The second object of interest is an antique Roman 
mosaic derived from Carthage. It was exhibited at 
the Centennial exhibition in the Tunisian section, 
and was afterward presented to the museum by Sir 
Richard Wood, British consul-general at Tunis. The 
mosaic represents a lion of life-size, seizing an animal 
resembling a horse orass. It is believed to date from 
the first century B.C. 

Additions to the collections. —The museum has re- 
cently secured a very valuable collection of archeo- 
logical objects from Missouri, comprising twenty-five 
specimens. Included among them are a digging- 
implement of peculiar shape, and about a foot long, 
and two hourglass-shaped ceremonial objects of 
pink quartz about four inches long. Among the re- 
cent accessions to the department of birds is a nest 
of Opornis agilis, with eggs, —the first specimen of 
which there is authentic record. The department of 
reptiles is at present negotiating for a specimen of the 
yery rare North-American serpent, Ophthalmidium 
longissimum. The department of mammals has re- 
ceived a valuable accession in the form of partially 


complete skeletons of eleven sperm whales. They 
represent the. remains of a small school of these 
cetaceans, which stranded near Cape Canaveral, 
Florida, in the winter of 1882-83. 

Bureau of ethnology. 

Pueblo of Tallyhogan.—Mr. James Stevenson 
reports that careful investigations in the vicinity of 
the abandoned pueblo of Tallyhogan, in the ancient 
province of Tusayan, Arizona territory, disclose the 
fact that the sand-dunes on the north and east of 
the village were used by the former inhabitants as 
burial-places. A very little digging exposed the re- 
mains of the interred, which were usually placed in 
a hole in a doubled-up, mummy-like attitude. 

In many cases vases and bowls, which probably 
contained food, were inhumed with the dead, and in 
some instances trinkets were found. 

A number of old specimens were secured, among 
them being small images of human beings (previously 
unknown to collectors in this region), curious in 
workmanship, and ancient in ornamentation. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


Mr. G. K. GILBERT has recently given some rather 
disturbing suggestions to the people of Salt Lake 
City (Salt Lake weekly tribune, Sept. 20) concerning 
the probability of destructive earthquakes there. He 
describes the slow and still continuing growth of the 
ranges in the Great Basin by repeated dislocation 
along great fractures, the earth’s crust on one side 
being elevated and tilted into mountain attitude by 
an upthrust that produces compression and distor- 
tion in the rocky mass, until the strain can no longer 
be borne, and something must give way. Suddenly 
and violently there is a slipping of one wall of the 
fissure on the other, far enough to relieve the strain, 
and this is felt as an earthquake; then follows a long 
period of quiet, during which the strain is gradually 
reimposed. Such a shock occurred in Owen’s yal- 
ley, along the eastern base of the Sierra Nevada, in 
1872, when a fault-scarp five to twenty feet high and 
forty miles long was produced. A scarp thirty or 
forty feet high is known along the western foot of 
the Wahsatch range, south of Salt Lake, and other 
scarps of similar origin have been found at the bases 
of many of the Basin ranges. The cate of their for- 
mation is not known; but it must be comparatively 
recent, because they are still so little worn away, 
Wherever they are fresh, and consequently of modern 
uplift, there is probable safety from earthquakes for 
ages to come, because a long time is needed for the 
accumulation of another strain sufficient to cause a 
slipping of one wall of the fissure on the other. Con- 
versely, when they are old and worn down, the break- 
ing strain may even now be almost reached, and an 
earthquake may be expected at any time. This is 
the case at Salt Lake; for, continuous as are the fault- 
scarps along the base of the Wahsatch, they are ab- 
sent near this city. From the Warm Springs to 


OCTOBER 26, 1883.] 


Emigration Caiion they have not been found, and 
the rational explanation of their absence is that a 
very long time has elapsed since their last renewal. 
In this period the earth-strain has been slowly in- 
creasing. Some day it will overcome the friction, lift 
the mountains a few feet, and re-enact on a fearful 
seale the catastrophe of Owen’s valley. 

— The president of the International committee 
Dr. H. Wild, by request of the governments con- 
cerned, has announced that the observations of the 
parties at the cireumpolar observing stations were to 
cease, as was originally planned, in September, 1883, 
and the different expeditions will return as shortly 
thereafter as practicable. 

— Violent solfataric disturbances were experienced 
in Iceland between the 12th and 21st of last March. 

— The English government has decided to establish 
an astronomical and meteorological observatory at 
Hong Kong, and has appointed Dr. William Doberck 
director of the institution. Dr. Doberck has accepted 
the position, and removed to Hong Kong. He may 
be addressed through the Crown agents for the Colo- 
nies, Downing street, London. 

—In the Journal of chemical industry of June 29, 
Mr. G. W. Wigner, F.C.S., F.T.C., gives an ac- 
count of the damage done to delicate substances by 
the material in which they are packed, suitability 
being too often sacrificed to strength, lightness, or 
mere ornament. As president of the society of pub- 
lie analysts, Mr. Wigner has had many opportunities 
of studying the subject. 

Oysters, he writes, have been imported into Eng- 
land in barrels made of wood containing a very large 
proportion of tannin, with results which can be bet- 
ter understood than appreciated. The iron contained 
in the liquor has produced a very noticeable propor- 
tion of ink, and the oysters themselves have become 
converted into a poor but certainly novel kind of 
leather. Tinned fish and tinned acid fruits have 
been packed in vessels in which lead predominated 
over tin to a yery marked extent. He alluded to the 
loss in cargoes of essences and scents by the impos- 
sibility of making the stoppers of glass bottles abso- 
lutely air-tight, and the damage done to other parts 
of the cargo by those essences. Mr. Wigner then 
proceeds to describe the effects of evaporation in 
the hold of a ship: bilge-water can never be quite 
excluded, and change of temperature must produce 
evaporation; the dew thus produced settles on the 
top of the packing-cases, and in time corrodes the 
metal, or is absorbed, as the case may be, and, if 
the voyage be long enough, damages the goods. 
Canned goods, he writes, seldom remain good for a 
second season, even if apparently well packed: the 
tin, some of the iron, and the lead contained in the 
tin, are dissolved, and the contents of the can become 
contaminated with these metallic substances. : 

The greater part of Mr. Wigner’s article is devoted 
to the effects produced on tea by the wood in which 
it is packed. The Chinese formerly used ‘toon’ 
wood only; but the forests have been so much cut 
down that the supply is ranning short, and in Assam, 
wood for packing-cases is cut at random. In one 


SCIENCE. 


581 


instance, a consignment of Assam tea had a distinc- 
tive odor of its own, resembling a new and exces- 
sively rank kid glove; some hundreds of chests being 
thus damaged. The inner lead coating of tea-chests 
used by the Chinese is much purer, and less liable to 
damage by acid, than the lighter lining used by the 
dealers in upper India. 

— Professor Angelo Heilprin was elected one of tl 
curators of the Academy of natural sciences of Phila- 
delphia on Oct. 2, to supply the vacancy caused by 
the death of Mr. Charles F. Parker. At a meeting 
of the council, held Oct. 5, Professor Heilprin was 
appointed actuary to the curators or curator in charge. 
He has commenced the arrangement. of a department 
of the museum to be devoted exclusively to the nat- 
ural history of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The 
geology and mineralogy, together with the fauna and 
flora, of the two states, will be represented as com- 
pletely as possible, and will form a colleetiqn which 
cannot fail to be of special interest to local stu- 
dents. 

— The papers read at the meeting of the Biological 
society of Washington, Oct. 19, were by Dr. Theo- 
dore Gill, The ichthyological results of the explora- 
tions of the U.S. fish-commission steamer Albatross 
in 1883; Dr. C. A. White, Character and function of 
the epiglottis of the bull-snake (Pityophis); Professor 
Lester F. Ward, Note on an interesting botanical relic 
of the District of Columbia; Dr. C. V. Riley, Manna 
in the United States. ; 

— The Philosophical society of Washington, on 
Oct. 13, held its first session after the summer yaca- 
tion. Since June it has lost three members by death, 
—Surgeon-Gen. C. H. Crane, who was one of its 
vice-presidents; Admiral B. F. Sands, one of the 
origina tounders of the society; and Dr. Josiah Cur- 
tis. ‘The papers of the evening were by Mr. William 
b. Taylor, on the Rings of Saturn; by Dr. Swan M. 
Burnett, on the Character of the focal lines in astig- 
matism; and by Mr. H. A. Hazen, on Thermometer- 
exposure. 

—A scientific session of the National academy of 
sciences will be held in New Haven, at Yale college, 
commencing on Tuesday, Noy. 13. 

—Mr. F. W. Putnam, of the Peabody museum, 
Cambridge, announces his readiness to give lectures 
on American archeology, based upon the course de- 
livered last year before the Lowell institute. His sub- 
jects cover such matters as the sheli-heaps, caves, 
mounds and earthworks, stone graves, pueblos, and 
ancient arts and religious rites of our country, as 
well as general sketches of the archeology of North 
America, Mexico and Central America, South Amer- 
ica, and Peru. 

—At the meeting of the Engineers’’club of Phila- 
delphia, Oct. 6, Mr. Edward Thiange presented an 
illustrated description of a method of earthwork com- 
putation, by means of diagrams constructed from the 
proposition, ‘ The areas of similar figures are to each 
other as the squares of their homologous sides,’ An 
idea may be had of their nature and uses by the fol- 
lowing directions: to get the average volume in 
cubic yards of a station (in embankment), to the cen- 


a82 


tre-fill at each end add the constant height of the 
‘grade triangle’ (which is formed by the road-bed and 
the side-slopes produced); at the resultant heights 
on the diagram, measure, with the scale of cubic 
yards, the lengths of the ordinates terminated by the 
slope-lines at each station respectively; their sum, 
diminished by the ‘ grade prism,’ is the average quan- 
tity for the station of one hundred feet. 

—A paper upon Economy in highway bridges, by 
Prof. J. A. L. Waddell, was read. Its objects are to 
determine the most economical depth and number of 
panels for spans from forty to two hundred feet; the 
lengths at which it is better to change from pony 
truss to thorough bridge, and from single to double 
intersection; the exact dead loads, and the amounts 
of lumber and iron for each case. 

— Mr. Lester F. Ward has published in the U.S. 
fish-commission bulletin a list of the marsh and 
aquatic ‘plants of the northern United States, which 
will be useful to those interested in aquaria and 
fish-ponds. The list numbers a hundred and eichty- 
one species, sixty-one of which are strictly aquatic, 
the balance being found in marshy places. Three 
species are said by Dr. Hessel to be injurious to carp- 
ponds; viz., Nuphar advena, Nuphar sagittaefolium, 
and Bidens Beckii. The species recommended espe- 
cially for carp-ponds are of the strictly aquatic gen- 
era, Utricularia and Potamogeton. Of the Composi- 
tae, only three species, all Bidens, are given as being 
marsh-loving, or aquatic. 

— The director of the Imperial Japanese govern- 
ment laboratory at Yokohama, Dr. A. J. C. Geerts, 
died there Aug. 30, aged forty. / 

— We have just received intelligence of the death 
of the distinguished French paleontologist, Dr. Joa- 
chim Barrande. ; 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 


Bacharach, M. Abriss der geschichte der potentialtheorie. 
Gottingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1888. 3+78p. 8°. 

Bericht, oflizicller, iiber die.im k6niglichen glaspalaste zu 
Miinchen 1882 stattgehabte internationale elektricitiits-ausstel- 
lung, verbunden mit elektrotechnischen versuchen. Red. W. 
v. Beetz, O. y. Miller, E. Pfeiffer. Leipzig, 1883. 2444-154 p., 
illustr. +. 

Bernstein, H. A. Dagboek van de laatste reis van Ternate 
naar Nieuw-Guinea, Salawati en Batanta 1864-65, uitgavet door 
S. C. van Musschenbroek. Met aanteekeningen, bijlagen en 
kaart. ’s Gravenhage, 1883. 258 p.,map. 8°. 

Biehringer. Schematische darstellung elektrodynamischer 
maschinen. 2 chromolithogrische wandtafelm. Niirnberg, 1883. 
fe 
Blakesley, T. H. Electricity at the board of trade. Lon- 
don, Zow, 1888. 24p. 8°. 

Block, J. Origines de Velectricité, de la lumiére, de la cha- 
leur, et de la matiere. Nancy, 1888. illustr. 8°. 

Brown, J.C. Finland: its forests and forest management. 
London, Simpkin, 1883. 306p. 8°. 

Chastaingt, G. Catalogue des plantes vasculaires des en- 
virons de La Chatre (Indre). Chateauroux, 1883. 199 p. 8°. 

Cracau, J.R.B. Ob und wann? Hin versuch zur beant- 
wortung der frage nach der méglichkeit und dem zeitpunkte des 
weltunterganges. Braunschweig, Graf, 1888. 33 p. 8°. 

Dahl, F. Analytische bearbeitung der spinnen Norddeutsch- 
lands. Kiel, 1883. 100 p., illustr. 8°. 

D’Arzano, A. Les habitants de la mer et la flore marine. 
Limoges, 1883. 120p. 12°. 

Dietrich, R. Die darstellung der wurzeln der algebraischen 
gleichungen durch unendliche reihen, Tnaug. diss. Jena, Deis- 
tung, 1888. 44p. 8. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IIL., No. 38. 


Dubois, A. Croquis alpins, avec une notice sur Ja flore 
alpestre, par Ff, Crépin. Bruxelles, 1883, 519 p., illustr. 8°, 

Elektrotechnische rundschau. Illustrirte zeitschrift 
zur verbreitung niitzlicher kenntnisse aus dem gebiete der ange- 
wandten elektricitiitslehre. Red. Stein. heft i. Halle, 1883, 
illustr. 

Fabri, R. Impressioni della esposizione di clettricita a 
Parigi; con aggiunte che si riferiscono al primo Congresso inter- 
nazionale degli clettricisti. Santagata, Weltria, 1882. 140 p. 16°. 

Fleck, H. Ueber die chemie in ihrer bedeutung fiir die ge- 
sundheitspflege. Berlin, 1883, 8°. 

Gaffron, E. Beitriige zur anatomie und histologie yon Pe- 
ripatus. Inaug. diss. Breslau, K6/ler, 1883. 32p. 8°. 

Galle, A. Berechnung der proximiitiiten yon asteroiden- 
bahnen. Inaug. diss. Breslau, Kdh/er, 1888. 60 p. 8°. 

_ Glaischer, J. Factor table for the sixth million: contain- 
ing the least factor of every number not divisible by 2, 3, or 5, 
between 5,000,000 and 6,000,000. London, Taylor, 1883. 4°. 

Gustave, I’., et Héribaud-Joseph, F. Flore d’Au- 
vergne, contenant la description de toutes les plantes vasculaires 
qui croissent spontgnément dans les département du Puy de 
Dome et du Cantal "des clefs analytiques et un vocabulaire des 
termes employés. Clermond-Ferrand, 1888. 624 p, 16°. 

Hauck, W. Ph. Die grundlehren der elektricitiit mit beson- 
derer riicksicht auf ihre anwendungen in der praxis. Wien, 
1883. 293 p., illustr. $°. 

_ Hauftmann, C. Bedeutung der keimbliittertheorie fiir die 
individualitiitslehre und den generations-wechsel. Inaug. diss. 
Jena, Deistung, 1883. 41p. 8°. 

Henneguy, Ch. Les lichens utiles. 
illustr. 8°. 

Hess, E. LEinleitung in die lehre von der kugelteilung mit 
besonderer berucksicht ihrer anwendung auf die theorie der 
gleichflachigen und der gleicheckigen polyeder. Leipzig, Teub- 
ner, 1883. 10+475 p., 16 pl. 8°. 

Hjelt, H. Grunddragen af allmiinna organiska kemin. 
Helsingfors, 1883. 160 p. 8°. 

Kallenbach, E. Polynoé cirrata O. Fr. Milr. Bin beitrag 
zur kenntniss der fauna der Kieler Bucht. Inaug. diss. Jena, 
Deistung, 1883. 38 p.,1pl, 8°. 


Kauffmann, G. Ueber den g-naphtolaldehyl und seine 
derivate die g-naphtolearbonsiure und das g-naphtoleumarin. 
Inaug. diss. Breslau, KéAler, 1882. 37 p. 8°. 

Kramer, J. Die elektrische eisenbahn beziiglich ihres baues 
und betriebes. Wien, 1883. (Elektro-techn. bibl. xvii.) illustr. 
8°. 

Kremser, V. Die bahn der 2 cometen yon 1879. Inaug. 
diss. Breslau, Aéh/e7, 1883. 4838p. 8°. 

Kuntze, 0. Phytogeogenesis. Die vorweltliche entwicke- 
lung der erdkruste und der pflanzen in grundziigen dargestellt. 
Leipzig, 1883. 240 p. 8°. 

Lankester, E. The cholera: What is it? and How to pre- 
vent it. London, Routledge, 1883. 8°. 

Lista, R. Mis esploraciones y descubrimientos en la Pata- 
gonia 1877-80. Buenos Aires, 1883. 218 p., illustr. 8°. 

Love, G.H. Etude sur la constitution moléculaire des corps, 
sur les lois des volumes moléculaires, des chaleurs spécifiques et 
des dilatations. Précédée dune introduction sur la Rétiniuon de 
la loi et celle de laforce. Paris, 1883. 2pl. 8°. 

M., M. K. The birds we see, and the story of their lives. 
N.Y., Welson & sons, 1883. 3+93p., illustr. 16°. 

Mace, E. Les Lyeopodiacées utiles. Paris, 1888. 80p. 4° 

Macgregor, J.L.L. The organization and valuation of the 
forests on the continental system in theory and practice. Lon- 
don, 1883. 318 p. 8°. 

Manson, P. The Filaria sanguinis hominis, and certain new 
forms of parasitic disease in India, China, and warm countries. 
London, Lewis, 1883. illustr. 8°. 

Microscopical science, studies in. 
vol.i. London, Bailliere. 

Netto, Ladislau. Apercu sur la théorie de lévolution. Con- 
férence faite 4 Buenos-Ayres le 25 Oct. 1882. Rio de Janeiro, 
imp. Messager du Brésil, 1883. 6+22p. 8°. 

Neumann, C. Hydrodynamische untersuchungen, nebst 
einer anhang tiber die probleme der elektrostatik und der mag- 
netischen induction. Leipzig, Teubner, 18838. 40+820 p. 8° 

Oldbricht, C. Beitriige zur kenntniss der einwirkung yon 
trocknem ammoniakgas auf geschmolzenes chlorzink, chlor- 
cadmium und chlornickel. Inaug. diss. Breslau, Kéhler, 1883. 
33'p. 8% 

Paetel, F. Catalog der conchyliensammlung yon F. Paetel. 
Berlin, Paetel, 1883. 3+271p. 8°. 

Peters, C.F. W. Die fixsterne. 
lustr. 8°. 


Paris, 1883. 120 p., 


Ed. by A. C. Cole. 


Leipzig, 1883. 169 p., il- 


| ee re Nar. 


FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 1883. 


OSWALD HEER. 

Oswatp Herr, whose death in his seventy- 
fifth year we announced a fortnight since, was 
born in Gla- 
Switzer- 
land, Aug. 31, 
1809. In 1828 
he went to 
Halle to study 
theology and 
natural histo- 
ry. Te began 
his career as a 
pastor at Gla- 
rus; and cer- 
tain habits and 

manners of a 
clergyman 
clung to him 
throughout 
life, and traces 
of them may 
even be seen 
in his special 
paleontological 
writings. He 
soon gave up 
the ministry, 
and devoted 
himself exclu- 
sively to natu- 
ral history; 
and we next 
find him set- 
tled in Zurich, 
whiere, in1835, 
he founded the 
botanic gar- 
den, and be- 
came its director. In the following year he 
was attached to the university as professor 
of botany and entomology, — the two studies 
which divided his time throughout his life. 
Later, about 1855, he transferred his alle- 
No. 39. — 1883. 


rus, 


3 


giance to the Polytechnicum, an institution of 
world-wide fame, where he remained the rest 
of his life. In 1845 he founded and became 


president of the Zurich society of agriculture 
and horticulture. 


And for twenty years he 


was a Rath- 
sherr. or mem- 
ber of the 


Grand council 
of Zurich. 

It was not 
until 1840 that 
he turned his 
attention to 
paleontology, 
studying first 
of all the fossil 
insects of Oen- 
ingen. This 
task he under- 
took at the in- 
stance of his 
friend Escher 
von der Linth. 
Knowing him 
from his child- 
hood, Escher 
quickly per- 
ceived that a 
mind so deli- 
cately adjust- 
ed to observa- 
tion, which no 
detail escaped, 
was well pre- 
pared for the 
difficult work 
of determining 
and classifying 
the numerous 
plants and in- 
sects of Oeningen. It was a yirgin field. 
Yielding to the solicitations of his friend, 
Heer bravely undertook the suggested work ; 
and with scarcely an interruption, notwith- 
standing a constitution always delicate, he 


084 


brought out the remarkable and numerous 
memoirs which haye given him a place among 
the first paleontologists of our time. 

Soon after his return to Switzerland, Heer 
associated himself with Froebel (since re- 
nowned for his reforms in pedagogy) in the 
publication of a magazine under the title of 
‘ Mittheilungen aus dem gebiete der theoretischen 
erdkunde,’ of which only four numbers were 
ever issued. In the first of these, in 1834, 
Heer printed two memoirs on the geographi- 
eal distribution of insects and plants in the 
Swiss Alps, drawing his material mainly from 
his native canton, — memoirs which show, 
especially the longer one on insects, that he 
must have gathered his facts through patient, 
diligent observations of many years. These 
two memoirs appear to have been his earliest 
essays. He afterwards expanded the first 
into a long and better known memoir on the 
Swiss Coleoptera. These studies on geograph- 
ical distribution formed an excellent basis for 
the paleontological work to which he was 
shortly to devote himself, one great value of 
which lies in his careful studies of the relations 
which the extinct insects and plants investi- 
gated bear to living forms in the same or other 
parts of the world. From this time on, not a 
year has passed without some sign of activity 
from this indefatigable student; and his last 


volume was only last month reviewed in our 


columns. At first the memoirs concerned 
mainly the transformations or distribution of 
Swiss Coleoptera, and the distribution of 
alpine plants; but from 1847, when his first 
memoir on the tertiary beetles of Europe ap- 
peared, his attention was directed almost ex- 
clusively to fossil insects and plants, especially 
those of the tertiary epoch; and it is here he 
has won his renown. ‘The volume upon ter- 
tiary insects, issued between 1847 and 1853, 
opened a new world to science, and will for- 
ever remain the classic work on fossil insects. 
He brought to it a painstaking and faithful 
investigation, which in many cases will bear 
the closest scrutiny at the present time, not- 
withstanding the advance of entomology in 
the generation since elapsed. Finding that 


SCIENCE. 


Prag ais pee ls RN ne | 


[Vou. IL., No. 39. 


the determination of fossil insects must de- 
pend largely upon a study of their wings, he 
made a special investigation of the neuration 
in living types, and proposed for the first time 
a uniform nomenclature for all orders of in- 
sects. From its burial in a memoir on fossil 
beetles. this scheme received little attention ; 
but it remains to-day the most philosophical 
presentation of the subject. 

Although his earlier paleontological papers 
were mainly devoted to inseets, his attention 
was from the first attracted to the plants asso- 
ciated with them. And, the mass of inseets 
from Oeningen disposed of, his memoirs now 
became more and more largely paleobotanical. 
To these he gaye a living interest, from his 
discussions of the probable physical condition 
and climate of tertiary time, drawn from the 
data furnished by the plants. He was a strong 
believer in a miocene Atlantis. His first essay, 
dealing with ancient climates, was published in 
Giebel’s Zeitschrift in 1859, and was after- 
wards expanded into a volume, which passed 
immediately through a much enlarged second 
edition (in French) by the assistance of his. 
friend Gaudin. Then followed that remarka- 
ble series of illustrated quarto memoirs, pub- 
lished in various countries and languages in 
London, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Zurich, 
etc., in which the collections of various goy- 
ernment expeditions are described and figured, 
and which he afterwards collected into the yol- 
umes which compose his ‘ Flora fossilis arc- 
tica’ (7 vols.), companion volumes to his 
‘Flora tertiaria Helvetiae’ (8 vols.) and 
‘Flora fossilis Helvetiae.’ His studies upon 
past climates were also carried into wider geo- 
logic fields, and resulted in his ‘ Urwelt der 
Schweiz,’ a living picture of the past of his 
native country, clothed in popular language- 
His imagination was here brought into play, 
and occasionally expressed itself in verse. 
This volume, issued in 1865, was translated 
into French by Gaudin (1875), and into Eng-_ 
lish by Heywood (2 vols. 1876). To each of 
these editions he added supplementary matter, 


1 This last was also enriched by contributions from several 
naturalists, notably Matheron and Saporta. 


——— se Te eC 


NovemsBer 2, 1883.] 


and himself published a considerably enlarged 
German edition in 1878. 

Heer, who, as we have said, was instigated 
to his paleontological studies by Escher, was 
glad to acknowledge his debt to his friend, 
whose most illustrious pupil he was. Rarely 
have such cordial relations existed between 
two men. He always spoke of Escher in terms 
of warm friendship and admiration, and always 
seemed to be asking, Did you ever know his 
equal? And, indeed, Escher merited his 
praise. 

Without personal fortune, and very often 
obliged by illness not only to suspend his 
courses, but even to make expensive journeys 
to Madeira, Italy, etc., to regain his strength, 
Heer would have been greatly embarrassed 
but for his friend. Escher possessed a fair 
fortune, especially in the latter part of his life ; 
and, being childless, he constantly sought op- 
portunity to assist Heer, and, so far as possi- 
ble, without his knowledge. Escher urged his 
gratuities with such delicacy and kindness 
that he seemed to be the one under obligation 
when his dear friend would accept his offer- 
ings. Escher recognized the worth of his 
protégé, appreciated the value of the services 
he was rendering to science, and welcomed 
with a beaming face every fresh memoir from 
Tleer’s pen. 

Heer was a man of very retiring habits, 
being rarely seen in public, even on the street. 
His delicate health forbidding his travelling or 
making personal explorations, he liyed in his 
study, where he received fossils from all parts 
of the world. Here he accumulated specimens 
from the arctic regions, from every country of 
Europe, from Asia, and from America. Here 
in the midst of cabinets, and with books piled 
up on every side, he passed all~his time, yet 
always receiving his geological friends with 
manifest pleasure. Many a scientific man came 
here to visit the illustrious paleontologist, — 
Leopold yon Buch, Sir Charles Lyell, von 
Tlauer, Geinitz, Fraas, Oppel, Sismonda, Ram- 
say, Falconer, Pictet, Studer, Merian, Agassiz, 
de Zigno, Mojsisovics, Gumbel, Schimper, Zit- 
tel, Schmidt, Abich, etc. While he was asso- 


SCIENCE. 


works a wider circulation. 


585 


ciated with Heer in the Polytechnicum, Jules 
Marcou was a visitor almost daily, and relates 
how, with a pleased and contented smile, Heer 
always greeted him after his fashion, grasping 
his hand in both of his. Reclining on-a sofa 
(for Heer could only work a brief time without 
seeking rest), he would gladly converse for an 
hour or two upon geological topics and the ~ 
numerous problems still requiring solution. 

We have said he undertook no explorations ; 
yet, in the winter of 1854-55, he visited Ma- 
deira for his health, in company with Ziegler 
and Hartwig. Several memoirs resulted from 
that visit ; and in 1861, with his friends Escher 
and Merian, he visited Paris, London, the Isle 
of Wight, and Holland. An unusual excep- 
tion was his accompanying his friend Marcou 
on short journeys to Oeningen, Schambelen, 
Diirnsten and Utznach, and Hohe Rhonen, — 
fayorable localities for fossil plants and in- 
sects. 

Heer worked quite alone, unaided by others ; 
and he never worked in collaboration with 
other men, unless we may except the late C. T. 
Gaudin of Lausanne, who translated seyeral 
of his important works, and in one at least, 
that on the climate of the tertiary epoch, may 
be said to have been a collaborator. Heer so 
walled him. Indeed, it is possible, that had 
Gaudin not died in the flower of his age, eigh- 
teen years ago, he would have worked still 
further in concert with Heer, and given his 
Heer also found 
an assistant, as excellent as devoted, in his’ 
daughter, especially during the last twelve 
years of his life, many of which, after the dis- 
ease which attacked him in 1872, he passed 
upon his bed. She was ever ready to place 
before him specimens, books, plates, descrip- 
tions, manuscripts. Always by his side, all his 
wishes were cared for by her in the most as- 
siduous and intelligent manner. 

A man more lovable, more sympathetic, a 
life more laborious and pure, one could searce- 
ly imagine. As a man, he possessed the same 
irresistible attraction to all who came under 
his influence as that which characterized the 
late Lady Lyell. 


586 


The portrait given here has been photo- 
engraved from a photograph taken in 1864 by 
Heer’s brother, kindly lent for the purpose by 
Professor Jules Marcou. The signature is 
taken from a letter addressed to the writer, 
under date of Aug. 13, 1885. 


A HEARING OF BIRDS’ EARS.1—IIL. 


Srecrion of bone is required for further ex- 
amination of the ear parts. There being no 
mastoid affair to be considered as such, we 
may proceed directly to the ‘ petrous part of 
the temporal’ (the periotic or petrosal bone) ; 
the otocrane, or otic capsule, enclosing the 
essential organ of audition just as the eyeball 
does that of vision, or the ethmoid bone that 
of olfaction. None of this bone is ordinarily 
recognizable on the outside of the skull ; though 
in the embryo that part which is in especial 
relation with the posterior semicircular canal 
appears to a slight extent upon the occiput. 
The foundation of the bone is laid very early 
in cartilage; traces of the cochlea and canals 
being visible in the chick at the fifth, day of 
incubation,.if not sooner, in the primitive car- 
tilaginous basis cranii, — the parachordal plate 
of cartilage on each side of the notochord. 
On longitudinally bisecting the adult slxull, or 
otherwise gaining access to the brain-cavity, 
the whole cerebral surface of the petrosal bone 
is brought into view, as in fig. 4, po, op, ep. 
In a skull of any size,-as that of an eagle (from 
which my description will be mainly derived), 
there is no difficulty in making out the parts, 
although the periphery of the petrosal is com- 
pletely consolidated with surrounding bones. 
The petrosal or periotic bone consists of three 
distinct bones, which in some animals may 
remain long or permanently separate, or be 
consolidated with surrounding bones and not 
with one another. To see them it is usually 
necessary to examine a young skull, like that 
figured. These are the pro-otic, po; the opis- 
thotic, op ; the epiotic, ep. In the present case 
of the adult eagle, they are Absolutely fused 
with one another, as well as with contiguous 
bones. The consolidated petrosal appears as 
an irregular protuberance upon the inner yall 
of the brain-cavity, much as the human pe- 
trous bone protrudes between posterior and 
middle cerebral fossae. It appears to be 
much more extensive than it really is, because 
the superior semicircular canal, too large to 
be accommodated in the petrosal, invades the 
occipital bone, —the track of the canal being 


1 Concluded from No. 38. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou, IL, No. 39. 


sculptured in bas-relief, —as at asc, fig. 4. 
Behind this semicircular trace, the deep groove 
of a venous sinus (sc) is engraved upon the 
bone, throwing the track of the canal into 
still stronger relief. The top of the petrosal 
and contiguous occipital surface floors a fossa 
which lodges the enormous optic lobes (corpora 
bigemina) of the brain; in the eagle partly di- 
vided from the general cavity for the cerebral 
hemisphere by a bony tentorium, like that which 
in some mammals separates the cerebellar from 
the cerebral fossae. On the vertical face of the 
petrosal, or on the corresponding occipital sur- 
face, is a large smooth-lipped orifice leading to a 
tongue-like excavation which lodges the floccu- 
lus of the cerebellum, and would therefore seem 
to correspond to that slight chink of the human 
petrous bone, near the meatus internus, which 
lodges a process of the dura mater. In front, 
between the petrosal and the alisphenoid (or in 
the apposed border of one or the other of these 
bones), is a considerable foramen, —the exit 
of the second and third divisions of the trifacial 
(figs. 1 and 4, the hole marked 5). Below the 
petrosal, between opisthotic and exoccipital, 
near the foramen magnum, is aforamen (which 
may be subdivided into foramina) represent- 
ing the human foramen lacerum posterius, for 
transmission of the pneumogastrie, ete. (fig. 
4, the hole marked S). Thus, as always, the 
bony auditory capsule lies between the exits 
of the third division of the trifacial and the 
pneumogastric. The general space under de- 
scription is continued to the margin of the 
foramen magnum by the exoccipital bone (fig. 
4, eo). Now, on the vertical face of the 
petrosal itself, and in the pro-otie part, far 
behind the foramen marked 5 in fig. 4, con- 
siderably above that marked 8, will be seen 
the large smooth-lipped orifice of the meatus 
auditorius internus, marked 7 in the figure. 
Here enter, as usual, both portio dura and 
portio mollis of the old seventh pair of cranial 
nerves. At the bottom of the meatus are at 
least two openings, small, but separate from 
each other. A bristle passed through the 
upper (anterior) one of these traces the course 
of portio dura (the facial nerve) through the 
fallopian aqueduct (‘nerviduct,’ it would be 
better called), and emerges in the tympanic 
cavity near the eustachian orifice. This ori- 
fice of exit of the facial is virtually a ‘ stylo- 
mastoid ’ foramen, though within the tympanic ; 
for the nerve burrows through no more bone in 
reaching the surface of the skull. 
passed through the other one of the two forami- 
na at the bottom of the meatus practically traces 
the course of the portio mollis, or auditory nerve, 


A bristle _ 


NoveMBER 2, 1883.] _ 


4 
\ 


and can also be made to come out into the 
tympanum, either through the vestibular or 
cochlear opening (fenestra ovalis or fenestra 
rotunda). In the dry skull, either passage is 
easily made without breaking down, and ap- 
parently without meeting any bony obstacle. 
If, now, the whole periotic mass be cut away 
from the rest of the skull with a fine saw, and 
then divided in any 
direction, the bony 
labyrinth and essen- 
tial organ of hearing 
can be studied. It is 
best to make the 
section in some def- 
inite plane with re- 
gard to the axes of 
the skull,—the ver- 
tical longitudinal, or 
vertical transverse, or 
horizontal, — as the 
disposition and rela- 
tions of the contained 
structures are then 
more readily made 
out. Four or five par- 
allel cuts will make as 
many thin flat slices 
of bone, affording 
eight or ten surfaces 
forexamination. The 
whole course of the 
labyrinthine struc- 
tures can be seen in 
sections, which, put 
together in the mind’s 
eye, or held ih hand a 
little apart, and visibly 
threaded with bristles, 
afford the required 
picture very nicely. 
At first sight, the 
unpractised eye will 
recognize nothing but 
confusion, —a_ bewil- 
dering maze of bone. 
All this cancellated 
structure or net-work, 
however, is pneumat- 
ic; the open-work tis- 
sue of bone contain- 
ing air derived from 
the tympanum, and 
having nothing to do 
with the auditory cavities proper. Parts of 
the bony labyrinth will soon be recognized by 
their smooth, firm walls and definite courses, 
as distinguished from the irregular interstices 


* 3 diameters. 


{2 a> f f 
ND LM Rt ee 


SCIENCE. 


Fie. 4.— Ripe chick’s skull, longitudinal section, viewed inside, 
(After Parker.) In the mandible are seen, — 
mk, remains of meckelian rod; d, dentary bone; sp, splenial; 
a, angular ; su, surangular; a7, articular; iap, internal articular 
process; pap, posterior articular process: in the skull, —pn, 
the original prenasal cartilage, upon which is moulded the 
premaxillary, pr, with its nasal process, npx, and dentary 
process, dpx; sn, septo-nasal cartilage, in which is seen mn, 
nasal nerve; tb, nasal turbinal; eth, ethmoid; pe, perpendic- 
ular plate of ethmoid; io/, inter-orbital foramen: ps, pre- 
sphenoidal region; 2, optic foramen; as, alisphenoid, with 5, 
foramen for divisions of the fifth nerve; 7, frontal; p, parietal ; 
80, super-occipital ; asc, superior semicircular canal; sc, asinus 
(venous) canal; ep, epiotic; eo, exoccipital; op, opisthotic; 
po, pro-otic, with 7, meatus auditorius internus, for entrance 
of seventh nerve; 8, foramen for vagus nerve; bo, basi-occipital ; 
bt, basi-temporal; ic, canal by which carotid artery enters 
brain-cavity ; ap, basi-pterygoid process; ap to rbs, rostrum of 
the skull, being the parasphenoid bone underflooring the 
basi-sphenoid and future perpendicular plate of ethmoid. 


a87 


of bone-tissue. They are, as usual, a central 
vestibular cavity, with its utricular recess ; 
three semicircular canals; and the cochlear 
cavity, projecting downward like a beak (see 
figs. 5 and 6, the membranous labyrinth, to 
which the incasing bony cavities closely con- 
form). According as the sections have been 
made, numerous cross-cuts of the canals will 
be seen here and there 
as circular orifices ; 
the canals themselves 
lying curled like 
worms in the petro- 
sal and occipital sub- 
stance, their ends con- 
verging to the central 
vestibular cavity. As 
compared with those 
of man, the parts are 
of great size in a bird : 
in the eagle, for exam- 
ple, the whole affair is 
as large as the end 
of one’s thumb, the 
whole length of the 
superior canal is an 
inch or more, and 
its calibre, I should 
judge, is absolutely 
about as great as in 
man. The cochlea, 
though not compara- 
tively diminutive, 
is in an undeveloped 
state, as far as com- 
plexity of structure is 
concerned, — ligulate 
or strap-shaped, a lit- 
tle curved on itself, 
but making no whorl. 
This is substantially 
as in all Sauropsida 
(birds and reptiles), 
for the cochlea does 
not coil into a helix 
until we reach Mam- 
malia. The tongue- 
, like affair is simply as 
if a part of the first 
whorl of a mammal’s 
cochlea very incom- 
pletely divided into 
scala vestibuli and 
scala tympani by ecar- 
tilaginous structures representing a modiolus 
and its lamina, proceeding from the bony bar 
or bridge between fenestra ovalis and fenestra 
rotunda. These are the external (@) and in- 


588 


ternal (6) cartilaginous prisms shown in figs. 
8 and 9. The cochlea ends with.a saccular 
part, termed the ‘lagena.’ Details of the soft 
parts — membranous, vascular, and nervous 
—vwill readily’: be made out from Professor 
Ibsen’s beautiful figures, here reproduced (figs. 
5, 6, 8, 9), with ample explanatory text. 

The vestibule hardly requires special de- 
scription, after examination of figs. 5 and 6. 
In the eagle, if its irregularities of contour 
were smoothed out, it would about hold a pea. 
Its utricular recess (y) is well developed. 

In the language of human anatomy, the 
three semicircular canals are the anterior or 
superior vertical, the posterior or inferior ver- 
tical, and the external or horizontal; and the 
planes of their respective loops are approxi- 

‘ mately perpendicular to one another in the 


SCIENCE, ; 


[Vou. IL, No. 39. 


tal one, e, which tilts down backward. ‘The 
verticality of the planes of d and f is preserved. 
The canals in birds might be better known as 
the superior (d) and inferior (f) vertical, 
and horizontal (e) ; though it is not probable, 
viewing the great variation in the axes of this 
part of the skull, that any terms descriptive 
of direction will apply perfectly to all birds. 
Whatever its inclination backward, there ‘is no 
mistaking d, which is much the longest of the 
three, looping high over the rest, exec) ;. 
the petrosal, and partly bedded in the o ’ 
with the upper limb bas-relieved upon tue inner 
surface of the skull (fig. 4, asc). The one 
marked f loops lowest of all, though little, if 
any of it, reaches farther back than d; it is 
the second in size, and quite circular (rather 
more than a semicircle). Its upper limb joins 


Fies. 5, 6. —Membranous labyrinth of Haliactus albicilla, x 2. 


a, b, cochlea; 0, its saccular extremity (or lagena); c, vestibule; 


g, its utricle; @, anterior or superior vertical semicircular canal; e, external or horizontal semicircular canal; 7, posterior or 
inferior vertical semicircular canal; 2, membranous canal leading into aqueduct of the vestibule; %, vascular membrane covering 
the scala vestibuli. Opposite fhis, at 7,are seen the edges of the cartilaginous prisms in the fenestra rotunda: from the edges of 
these cartilages proceeds the delicate membrane closing the opening of the cochlea (not shown in the figure). 

Fre. 7.— Part of the superior vertical semicircular canal, showing its ampulla, nerve of ampulla, artery, and connective tissue of the 


perilymph, x 3. a, that part of the vestibule (alveus) next to the ampulla; }, the dilatation of the ampulla at its vestibular 
Opening; ¢, where it passes into the canal proper; d, the canal, furnished with connective tissue of the perilymph along its concaye 


border and sides, a8 appears clearly at the sections e and f; g, nerve of the ampulla; h, artery of the connective tissue, running 


beneath it, remote from the wall of the duct. 
Fie. 8.—Cochlea, x 3. 


a, external, 0, internal, cartilaginous prism; c, membranous zone; d, saccular extremity of the cochlea, 


or lagena; e, vascular membrane; 7, auditory nerve, its middle fascicle penetrating the internal cartilaginous prism, to reach the 
membranous zone by its terminal filaments; g, auditory nerve, its posterior fascicle running to the most posterior part of 
the lagena; jh, filament to ampulla of posterior or inferior vertical semicircular canal. 


Fie. 9.— Section of the cochlea. 


a, vestibular surface of external cartilaginous prism, extending into d@, the lagena; e, section of 


the membranous zone; e, Huschke’s process of the fenestra, which, with the margins of the cartilaginous prisms, affords attach- 
ment to the blind sac, 7, occluding the fenestra of the cochlea; g, spongy vascular membrane of the scala vestibuli; h, auditory 
lamellae of Treviranus; 2, canals in posterior wall of the lagena, by which the nervous filaments enter its cavity. 


(From Ibsen’s Anatomiske undersdgelser over Orets labyrinth. 


three planes of any cubical figure. In birds, 
these terms do not apply so ‘well to the situa- 
tion of the canals with reference to the axes 
of the body, nor to the direction of their loops ; 
neither is their mutual perpendicularity so 
nearly exhibited. The whole set is tilted 
over backward to some extent, so that the 
anterior (though still superior) canal, d, in 
figs. 5 and 6, loops back beyond either of the 
others ; its anterior limb is also straightened 
out. The posterior (though still inferior) 
eanal, f, loops behind and below the horizon- 


Kjobenhayn, 1881, p. 17, pl. 1, figs. 13-17.) 


the lower limb of d as in man, and the two 
open by one orifice in the vestibule; but, as 
far as the bony tubes are concerned, it is not 
simple union, for the two limbs, before form- 
ing a common tube, twine half around each 
other (like two fingers of one hand crossed). 
The loop of f reaches very near the back of 
the skull (outside). The horizontal canal, e, 
is the smallest, and, as it were, set within the 
loop of f; its plane, the opposite of that of f- 
The bony cavities of e and f intercommunicate 
where they cross, at or near the point of their 


’ 


j 


and c. 
the contained membranous canals intercom- 


NovEMBER 2, 1883.] 


greatest convexity, farthest away from the 
vestibule. This decussation of e and /f, like 
the twining inosculation of f and d, is well 
known. It may not be so generally under- 
stood that there is (in the eagle; I do not 
know whether or not in birds generally) a 
third extra-yestibular communication of the 
bony canals. My sections show this perfectly. 
‘The great loop of d, sweeping past the decus- 
sation of e and f, is thrown into a cavity com- 
mon to all three. Bristles threaded through 
« * the three canals can all be seen 
in’ c_, fit~erossing one another through this 
curious extra-vestibular chamber. I call it 
the trivia, or ‘three-way place.’ It is just 
where, in fig. 6, the three membranous canals 
_eussate, — midway between the letters e, f, 
It does not, of course, follow, that 


municate here, and it appears from Ibsen’s 
figures that they do not. The ampullar dilata- 
tions of the ends of the canals are well marked. 
The anatomy of associate soft parts is explained 
to some extent under fig. 7. 

The endolymph may contain ofoliths simi- 
lar to those great concretions called ‘ ear- 
stones’ in fishes. The equilibrating function 
of the labyrinth and its fluid appears to have 
been determined mainly from experiments: 
upon birds. The apparatus may be likened to 
the glass tubes filled with water and a bubble 
of air, by a combination of which a surveyor, 
for example, is enabled to adjust his theodolite 
true ; for a bird somehow knows how the liquid 
stands in these self-registering levelling tubes, 
and adjusts itself accordingly. Observations 
made upon pigeons show, that, ‘‘ when the 
membranous canals are divided, very remark- 
able disturbances of equilibrium ensue, which 
vary in character according to the seat of the 
lesion. When the horizontal canals are di- 
vided, rapid movements of the head from side 
to side in a horizontal plane take place, along 
with oscillation of the eyeballs, and the animal 
‘tends to spin round on a vertical axis. When 
the posterior or inferior vertical canals are di- 
vided, the head is moved rapidly backwards 
and forwards, and the animal tends to exe- 
cute a backward somersault, head over heels. 
When the superior vertical canals are divided, 
the head is moved rapidly forwards and back- 
wards, and the animal tends to execute a for- 
ward somersault, heels over head. Combined 
section of the various canals causes the most 
bizarre contortions of the head and body.’? — 


- (Ferrier, Funct. of the brain, 1876, p. 57.) 


: 


Injury of the canals does not cause loss of 
hearing, nor does loss of equilibrium follow de- 


SCIENCE. 


ure from their own music. 


589 


struction of the cochlea. Two diverse though 
intimately connected functions are thus pre- 
sided over by the acoustic nerve, — audition 
and equilibration. ‘ 

The wonderful and endlessly varied songs 
of birds may acquire for us a new significance, 
now that we understand the mechanism by 
which these engaging creatures derive pleas- 
Though no two 
things can well be conceived more different 
than an anatomical disquisition and a bird- 
song, either may be made to subserve the pur- 
pose of a truer appreciation of the other; and 
there may be physiological aspects of even a 
‘ Christmas carol.’ Exniorr Cours. 

Washington, Christmas, 1882. 


WHIRLWINDS, CYCLONES, AND TORNA- 
DOES3A—I, 

Tue general circulation wf the winds is at 
times interrupted by local and temporary dis- 
turbances of very varied size and strength, to 
which the general name of ‘ storms’ is given. 
Their most constant features are, a more or less 
pronounced inward spiral whirling of the air 
near the ground, feeding an up-draught at the 
centre, and an outflow above ; and a progressive 
motion from place to place, along a tolerably 
well-defined track. Clouds, and generally rain 
as well, accompany the larger storms. 

It is our object to explain how these disturb- 
ances arise, to examine the causes and methods 
of their peculiar action, and to study their dis- 
tribution in time and place. With this end in 
view, the small dust-whirlwinds that commonly 
arise in the hot dry air of deserts will be first 
considered. Next will come the great hurri- 
canes and typhoons of the tropical seas, and 
the less violent rotary storms of our own lati- 
tudes, all of which may be grouped together as 
cyclones. The tornadoes and water-spouts, 
showing a peculiar concentration of power over 
a very limited area, will be discussed last. 

The dry whirlwinds in fiat desert regions 
suddenly interrupt the calmness of the air, 
and begin turning, catching up dust and sand, 
and carrying them upwards through the spiral 
vortex to a height of many hundred feet. They 
are therefore not at all like those whirls formed 
about our street-corners at the meeting of 
opposing currents of blustering wind, or the 
eddies of greater strength seen in windy moun- 
tain regions ; for they arise in a time of quiet, 
and begin their motion without apparent cause. 
Hence’ we must, at the outset, inquire into the 


1 Based on a series of lectures delivered at the Lowell insti- 
tute, Boston, in January, 1883. 


590 


condition of the atmosphere when it lies at rest, 
examining it especially with regard to the kind 
of equilibrium that then exists, and the changes 
necessary to produce a tendency to motion. 
When the air is at rest, it is normally densest 
and warmest next to the earth’s surface, and 
becomes thinner and cooler at successive alti- 
tudes above it. It is denser below because 
the earth’s attraction pulls it down, and com- 
presses the lower layers by the weight of the 
upper ones. It is warmer below, mainly be- 
cause the air gets nearly all of its heat by 
contact with, or radiation from, the warm earth, 
and not directly from the sun’s rays, which pass 
through it with but little obstruction. The 
average rate of upward cooling, determined by 
many observations on mountains and in bal- 
loons, is about one degree F. for every three 
hundred feet of ascent. In this restful con- 
dition let us take a block of the dry air (the 
effect of the presence of water-vapor will be 
considered with the storms at sea) from the 
earth’s surface, where the temperature is, say, 
60° (fig. 1), and lift it up three hundred feet, 
: to where the temperature is 
g -] one degree less, or 59°. The 
584 block of lower air expands as 
i it rises, because it is pressed 
M on by less .atmospheric 


300 FEET weight, —less, at least, by 
' the weight of three hundred 

i feet of air; and, in thus ex- 
ieee panding, it is cooled mechan- 
60 ically. It has been shown 
inna that this mechanical cooling 


of an ascending mass of dry 
air amounts to one degree F. in a hundred 
and eighty-three feet of ascent, whatever its 
initial temperature; so that in this special 
ease the block is cooled by 1.6°, and its tem- 
perature is reduced to 58.4°. Now, let us 
compare it, when thus expanded and cooled, 
with an equal-sized block of air beside it, 
whose temperature is 59°. Evidently, of these 
two blocks of the same volume, and at the same 
pressure, the cooler will be the heavier. The 
block brought up from the surface, and now at 
a temperature of 58.4°, will weigh more than 
the air at 59° beside it, and hence it will tend 
to sink; and it must sink all the way down 
to its original level before it finds any air as 
heavy as itself. In this imaginary experiment 
we have disturbed the arrangement of the nor- 
mal, quiet atmosphere ; and the disturbed mass 
returns to its original position as soon as freed 
from the constraining force. Such an atmos- 
phere is therefore in a condition of stable equi- 
librium, like a rod hung by its upper end, which 


SCIENCE. 


TO te eR i 
ne 


[Vou. IL, No. 39, 


is opposed to any change in its position, and, 
when displaced, tends to return to its original 
attitude. 

Evidently, when a whirlwind springs up in, 
the calm air of a desert, as is so often the case, 
the atmosphere cannot possess this normal sta- 
bility : for then there would be no temptation to 
any such disturbance; the air would prefer to 
stand as itis. Before the whirlwind can arise, 
there must have been a change to a condition 
of unstable equilibrium, in which the air, like 
a rod balanced on its lower end, is ready to 
move on small provocation; and we have now 
to look for the cause of this change. To be 
guided properly in the search, the conditions 
necessary and antecedent to the formation of 
the whirls must be examined. They are, that 
the whirls occur generally in level, barren, 
warm regions, in quiet air, and only in the day- 
time after the sun has risen high enough to 
warm the sandy ground, and the air next to it, 
to a rather high temperature. As the first and 
second of these conditions may be present at 
night as well as by day, it must, without doubt, 
be the heat from the sun that disturbs the 
quiet equilibrium into which the air tends to 
settle, and, by warming the lower layers, 
causes a departure from the ordinary stable 
condition of rest. 

Let a case be supposed: the sun has warmed 
the lower air of the first example to a tempera- 
ture of 90° (fig. 2), while the air three hundred 

feet above the desert sands 

4 has, in virtue of its diather- 
i mance, risen only to 70°; so 
that there is now a difference 
; of twenty degrees between 

‘ these two layers. If we here 


500 FEET repeat the experiment of car- 
i rying a block of surface-air 

‘ to a height of three hundred 

: feet, it is again mechanically 
[20] cooled 1.6°, so that its tem- 
Tee perature is reduced to 88.4°; 


and now, comparing it with 
an equal volume of adjoining air at 70°, the 
latter is evidently the heavier, and therefore 
the block of air brought up from the surface, 
instead of tending to sink, as in the first case, 
tends strongly to rise farther, and continue 
the motion given to it. In other words, the 
air is now in a condition of unstable equi- 
librium: it is ready to upset and re-arrange 
itself. The lower layer may be compared to a 
film of oil balanced beneath a quiet sheet of 
water: a little disturbance would cause the two 
liquids to change places, and the oil would rise 
through the water, draining itself upwards. 


NOVEMBER 2, 1883.] 


In such a condition as this, the desert-whirls 
may begin. It is clearly not necessary, in 
order to produce this result, that the vertical 
decrease of temperature should be as much as 
twenty degrees in three hundred feet, as in the 
case just assumed. In order to pass from 
the stable equilibrium, through the indifferent 
to the unstable equilibrium, it is sufficient, in dry 
air, that the vertical decrease should be greater 
than 1.6° in three hundred feet, or greater than 
one degree in one,hundred and eighty-three feet. 
Moreover, it is important to notice, that, ac- 
cording to this theoretical explanation, the 
condition of indifferent equilibrium is passed 
before the surface-air is, as Franklin (1753) 
and Belt (1859) have said, specifically lighter 
than that above it. This would require a tem- 
perature difference of at least 5.6° F. in three 
hundred feet. It is sufficient that the surface- 
air shall be potentially lighter, though ab- 
solutely (before any motion takes place) 
heavier, than the higher layers, as Reye first 
showed (1864); or, in other words, stable 
equilibrium is lost, and indifferent equilibrium 
reached, when the surface-air is just enough 
warmer than any layer above it to make up for 
the ehange of temperatures produced in equal- 
izing their densities. Any further excess of 
surface-warmth brings about theoretic unstable 
equilibrium. On the other hand, whirlwinds 
of decided activity will not be formed until the 
difference of temperature is much in excess of 
the narrow limits just given, the strength of the 
up-current increasing with its excess of warmth. 
Motion of the atmosphere caused by small dif- 
ferences of temperature would be very gentle, 
and would be perceived only in the ‘ boiling’ 
of the air, often seen in summer-time over the 
brow of a hill. 

It must be, then, the sun’s heat, as was sup- 
posed, that destroys the normal stable equilibri- 
um of our atmosphere ; and to a disturbance of 
this kind we can refer more or less directly all 
storms, and, indeed, all winds that blow about 
the earth. Without the heat that is constantly 
showered down on us, we should soon gravi- 
tate into a lifeless condition of stable equilib- 
rium, chemical, organic, and physical, and there 
remain in endless death. But the sun allows 
no such inactivity on its attendant planets: it 
keeps them alive and at work. 

(To be continued.) 


THE FRENCH ECLIPSE EXPEDITION. 


P. J. JANSSEN, the leader of the French expedition 
which visited Caroline Island to observe the solar 
eclipse of May 6, has made a report to the French 


SCIENCE. 


591 


academy of sciences, which is published in full in the 
Bulletin hebdomaduaire de U Association scientifique, 
no. 181. It contains, first, an interesting account 
of the voyage to Caroline Island, and a brief deserip- 
tion of the island, with the difficulties encountered in 
landing the instruments; then follows a statement of 
the instrumental outfit and the plan of observations, 
The search for intra-mercurial planets was assigned 
to Messrs. Palisa and Trouvelot. The former used an 
equatorial of 0.16 m. aperture, having a short focus 
and large field: the latter was provided with an equa- 
torial of the same size, which had a finder of 0.08 m. 
aperture, thus giving the observer two telescopes, 
The finder had a field of 4°.5, and was used in exam- 
ining the region in the vicinity of the sun, while the 
larger instrument was intended to give the position 
of any strange object that might be noted by means 
of its position-circles. In order to avoid the neces- 
sity of reading the circles, an attachment was made 
to both right ascension and declination circles, by 
which fine marks could be made upon the circles and 
verniers by the observer’s assistants, and the corre- 
sponding readings determined at leisure. The finder 
was also furnished with a reticule containing cross- 
threads, and a position-circle for use in noting the 
appearance of the corona, to the drawing of which 
Mr. Trouvelot gave a portion of the time of the total 
phase. 

The search for intra-mercurial planets was also con- 
ducted by the aid of photographic apparatus, which 
Mr. Janssen thus describes: — 

“ At my order, Mr. Gautier had prepared an equa- 
torial mounting with an hour-axis two metres long, 
carrying a strong and large platform, upon which were 
fastened the following photographic apparatus: a 
large camera having a lens of eight inches (0.21 m.), 
made by Darlot, giving a field of 20° to 25° (plate of 
0.40m. by 0.50 m.), and designed for photographing 
the corona and the region about the sun with refer- 
ence to the stars there found; a second camera, with 
a Darlot lens of six inches (0.16 m.), giving a field of 
26° to 35° (plate of 0.30in. by 0.40m.), for the same 
purpose; and a very fine apparatus by Steinheil, for 
studying the corona. A second mounting carried 
several cameras with lenses of four inches (0.10 m.), 
giving a great amount of light, and designed to deter- 
mine by very sensitive plates what are the limits of 
the corona, — an apparatus of great light-power, the 
exposure lasting during the whole of totality.” 

For spectrum analysis the following apparatus was 
employed: ‘‘a [reflecting] telescope of 0.50 m. aper- 
ture, having a very short focus (1.60 m.), and supplied 
with a direct-vision spectroscope of ten prisms; the 
slit of the spectroscope could be placed at different 
position-angles, and rapidly opened or closed, at the 
pleasure of the observer. An excellent finder, sup- 
plied with a reticule, was placed near the spectroscope, 
and distant from it by such an amount, that, when 
one eye had fixed upon some point of the corona in 
the finder, the other could obtain the spectroscopic 
analysis of this point.” There was also attached to 
this telescope a biquartz polariscope by Prazmowski, 
and a spectroscope for showing Respighi’s rings. A 


592 


spare mirror of 0.40 m. diameter was carried as a 
reserve, but was not brought into use, as, by great 
care, the first was kept uninjured, in spite of the fre- 
quent rains and the moisture of the climate. 

Mr. Janssen gives the following condensed report 
of his own observations, drawn up immediately after 
the observations, in accordance with the plan by 
which all the observers of the party were governed : — 

““My observations were of two classes, — optical 
and photographic. The optical observations were 
principally designed to determine whether the coronal 
Spectrum consists of a continuous spectrum as a 
background with bright lines, or if the Fraunhofer 
lines exist there generally (an investigation made 
especially with regard to the question of extra-solar 
cosmie substances). In 1871 J had announced, that, 
besides the hydrogen lines, I had established in the 
spectrum of the corona the presence of the D line 
and of several others. 

‘‘Tn the present eclipse I proposed especially to 
solve this question. By means of the optical arrange- 
ments above described, I have been able to determine 
that the basis of the coronal spectrum is composed 
of the complete Fraunhofer spectrum. The prin- 
cipal lines of the solar spectrum, especially D, 0, Z, 
ete., were detected so surely that there can be no 
possible doubt of this fact. JI recognized, perhaps, a 
hundred lines. 

““T recognized this composition of the spectrum, 
particularly in the lower or most brilliant portions of 
the corona, but not to an equal degree at the same 
distance from the moon’s limb. ‘The details of this 
will be given and discussed at a future time. 

“T studied also the rings of Respighi. The rings 
did not appear uniform about the moon’s limb, but 
presented peculiarities of structure which will be 
especially discussed in their relation to the question 
of the Fraunhofer lines. - 

‘T studied also polarization, but devoted to it only 
afew moments, using the excellent biquartz polari- 
scope of Prazmowski. The polarization was very 
well defined, and possessed characteristics already 
recognized. 

“Before the observations, I made a preliminary 
examination of the corona with the naked eye, and 
with an excellent telescope by Prazmowski. This 
examination was for the purpose of guiding mein the 
subsequent observations. 

“ All these studies — study of the shape, spectrum 
analysis, Respighi’s rings, polarization — were com- 
bined with the view of solving the question of extra- 
solar cosmic substances. We think that the discovery 
of the complete Fraunhofer spectrum in that of the 
corona considerably advances this question. 

“* Photography. — Two great instruments, contain- 
ing eight cameras, had been prepared for studying the 
question of intra-mercurial planets, and that of the 
shape and extension of the corona. With regard to 
heavenly bodies in the vicinity of the sun, these pho- 
tographs will require a minute examination; but, 
with respect to the corona, it can be said that the great 
power of several of the lenses used [that of eight 
inches (0.21 m.) and that of six inches (0.16m.)], and 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 39. 


also the length of exposure, permitted us to prove that 
the corona has an extension very much greater than 
that shown by optical examination, either with the 
naked eye or in my telescope. ‘ 

“‘Several of our large photographs of the corona 
have great distinctness, They show important details 
of structure which ought to be discussed. The shape 
of the corona was absolutely fixed during the whole 
duration of totality.” 

The reports of Messrs. Tacchini, Palisa, and Trou- 
velot are not given, but are alluded to in the diseus- 
sion of the results of the observations, which next 
follows. Mr. Janssen regards it quite improbable that 
any intra-mercurial planets exist, on account of the 
negative testimony given by Mr. Palisa, combined 
with that of Professor Holden of the American party. 
Mr. Trouvelot’s conclusion is less decisive, but the 
observer wished to re-examine the region of the sky 
before coming to a final conclusion.! The author 
adds, ‘‘ When we consider that the bodies discovered 
by Professor Watson in 1878 can be identified, within 
the limits of error to which the method employed by 
that astronomer is liable, with two stars in Cancer,” 
we arrive at the conclusion that it is to-day extremely 
improbable that there exists one or more planetary 
bodies of any importance between Mercury and the 
sun. Our photographs, although not yet completely 
examined, seem to lead to the same conclusion.” 

The duration of totality was found by Mr. Trouve- 
lot to be 5m 24s,1, by Mr. Tacchini to be 5m 238. 

On the subject of the corona, Mr. Janssen thus 
writes : — 

“ The corona. — Mr. Tacchini’s report shows that 
this skilful astronomer made remarkable obserya- 
tions at Caroline Island, especially with regard to the 
analogy between the composition of the spectrum 
of certain parts of the corona and the spectrum of 
comets. It was part of my plan to examine this 
correspondence, as is shown by a note drawn up by 
me long before the eclipse, and which I read to my 
colleagues when we compared our respective reports. 
It is a matter which ought to be verified with the 
greatest care in future eclipses. However, I leave to 
Mr. Tacchini the task of developing his observations. 

“Tt will be seen from my report, that the principal 
object of my observations was to decide one point of 
the composition of the spectrum of the corona which 


1 Mr. Trouvelot observed, near the close of totality, a star 
which he describes as ‘ bright, and of a pronounced red color;’ 


but, by some misunderstanding, its position was not recorded by f 


the special attachments to the circles aboye described. Its posi- 


tion, therefore, cannot be determined, nor the question of its iden- ~ 


tification be positively settled. The observer announces (Comptes 
vendus, Sept. 17) that he has re-examined the region, and finds 
no star of the corresponding magnitude and color in the vicinity 
of the approximate position which he was able to assign to it. 
« Although,” he adds, “ the absence of a red star as bright as 
that which I observed in the eclipse seems quite naturally to lead 
to the conclusion that the body in question is no other than an 
intra-mercurial planet, yet as the most necessary elements, such 
as the position and a disk or a sensible phase, are wanting in 
my observation, I think I ought to suspend, for the present, my 
conclusions upon the probable nature of the body.” 

2 First pointed ont by Dr. C. H. F. Peters (Astron. nachr., 
nos. 2253 and 2254). 


NovEMBER 2, 1883.] 


has always seemed to me very important; viz., wheth- 
er the light of the corona contains an important 
proportion of solar light. The result surpassed my 
expectation in this matter. The Fraunhofer spec- 
trum, so complete as I witnessed it at Caroline Island, 
proves, that, without denying that a certain part is 
due to diffraction, there exists in the corona, and 
especially in certain parts of the corona, an enormous 
quantity of reflected light; and as we know, besides, 
that the coronal atmosphere is very thin, it must be 
that in these regions cosmic matter exists in the con- 
dition of solid corpuscles, in order to explain this 
abundance of reflected solar light. 

“The more we advance, the more we perceive the 
complex nature of the regions in the immediate vicin- 
ity of the sun; and it is only by persistent and very 
yaried observations, and an exhaustive discussion of 
these observations, that we can arrive at an exact 
knowledge of these regions. The great eclipse of 
1883 has allowed us to take a step forward. 

** Photography of the corona. —The result of the 
studies of the photographs will be given later; for 
they require a thorough examination, since they 
record many most interesting phen®émena. I will 
simply say at present, that these photographs show a 
corona more extended than that given by telescopic 
examination, and that the phenomenon appeared well 
defined and steady during the duration of totality. 

“ Luminous intensity of the corona.—I1 had pre- 
pared a photometric measure, by photography, of the 
luminous intensity of the corona. This experiment 
showed that at Caroline Island the illumination given 
by the corona was greater than that of the full moon. 
The exact numbers will be given later. It should be 
noted, that this ts the first time that an exact measure 
of the luminous intensity of this phenomenon has 
been made.” 

The remainder of the report gives an account of the 
return journey of the members of the expedition. 
They visited the voleano of Kilauea on the island of 
Hawaii, and passed a night in the crater on the edge of 
the lava lake. Mr. Janssen made some experiments, 
which, he states, ‘show some curious coincidences 
between these voleanic phenomena and those of the 
solar surface. I was able, also, to obtain the spectrum 
of the flames which issue from the lava, and to estab- 
lish in them the presence of sodium, hydrogen, and 
the carburetted compounds.” Wisc’: 


. THE HIMALAYAS. 


_My predecessor, Sir Richard Temple, selected for 
the subject of his address to this section last year, 
*The central plateau of Asia.’ Following him ina 
measure over some of the same .ground, I have 
selected the mountain region south of the Central 
Asian highlands, viz., the Himalayas, and more par- 
ticularly the western portion of that range, as the 
subject of this paper. I propose considering this 

1 Abstract of an address by Lieut.-Col. H. H. Gopwrn-Aus- 


TEN, F.R.S., F.G.8., F.R.G.S8., ete., president of the section of 
geography of the British association. 


SCIENCE. 


593 


mountain chain with reference to its physical fea- 
tures, past and present, and consequently with refer- 
ence to its geological history, so far as that relates 


‘to later tertiary times; i.e., the period immediately 


preceding the present distribution of seas, land, rivers, 
and lakes. It is not, however, my intention to enter 
very deeply into the purely geological branch of the 
subject. 

The Himalayas, the highest mountains in the 
world, comprise, strictly speaking, only the snowy 
range seen from the plains of India, bordering upon 
the course of the Ganges; but we might, I think, use 
the térm in an extended sense, so as to include that 
which we may call the north-western Himalaya, 
north of the Punjab, and also the eastern Himalaya, 
bordering on Assam. The orography of this moun- 
tain mass has been recently ably handled by Messrs. 
Medlicott and Blanford ;+ and I follow them in all 
their main divisions and nomenclature, which are, 
based upon a thorough understanding of the rocks of 
the country. Some line must be selected where the 
term ‘ Himalaya’ must cease to be used, and this ean- 
not be better defined than by the valley of the Indus 
from Attock to Bunji. On this line we find the great 
bending-round of all the ranges. To the mountains 
north of the Indus, on its east and west course, the 
name ‘ Himalaya’ should certainly never be applied. 
For this north-west, trans-Indus part of the Asian 
chain we have the well-known name ‘ Mustagh,’ so 
far as the head of the Gilgit valley; the * Hindu 
Kush’ being an excellent term now in common use 
for its extension to the Afghan country. 

The observations made by many of the assistants 
of the Indian geological survey, more especially by 
Stoliezka, and more recently by Lydekker, in the 
Himalayas, combined with those made by myself in 
the same region, have, when considered in conjunc- 
tion with the ascertained strike of the granitoid or 
gneissic rocks, led me to separate the. great Central 
Asian chain into the following five principal divisions, 
with some minor subdivisions : — 


1. The main or Central )4. Outer or lower Him- 
Asian axis, Kuenlun. | alaya. 

2. Trans-Himalaya. | 5. Sub-Himalaya. 

3. Himalaya. ! 


In our present ignorance as to the composition of 
the chain eastward from the Sutlej, we cannot at- 
tempt to lay down there any axis-lines of original 
elevation; but the separation of the line of highest 
peaks into one range, and the water-parting into 
another, is an acceptable solution of the physical fea- 
tures, as at present known, of this part of the chain. 
I think, however, that when this ground is examined, 
it will resolve itself into a series of parallel ridges, 
more or less close, and oblique to the line of greatest 
altitude as defined by the line of high peaks, crossing 
diagonally even the main drainage-line of the Sanspu; 
just as we see the Ladak axis crossing the Indus near 
Hanlé, or the Pir Panjal that of the Jhelum. Sir 
Henry Strachey’s conception of the general structure 
was the soundest and most scientific first propounded. 

1 A manual of the geology of India, 1879, p. 9. 


594 


He considered it to be made up of a series of parallel 
ranges running in an oblique line to the general direc- 
tion of the whole mass, the great peaks being on ter- 
minal butt-ends of the successive parallel ranges; the 
watershed following the lowest parts of the ridges, 
and the drainage crossing the highest, in deep gorges 
directly transverse to the main lines of elevation. 

We can, in a measure, exemplify the structure of 
the Himalaya by that of the bones of the right hand, 
with fingers much elongated and stretched wide apart, 
of which the wrist and back may represent the broader 
belt of granitic rocks of the eastern area; the thumb 
and fingers, the more or less continuous ridges of 
the north-west, some less prolonged than others to the 
north-west, such as the Chor axis, which may be rep- 
resented by the thumb, terminating on the southern 
margin near the Sutlej. The left hand placed oppo- 
site will represent the same features to the west of 
the Indus. We will even carry this simile farther, 
and, as a rough illustration, suppose the intervals or 
long basins between the fingers to be filled with sedi- 
mentary deposits, and the fingers then to be brought 
closer together, producing a crushing and crumpling 
of the strata. At the same time, an elevation or 
depression, first of one or more of the fingers, then of 
another or of the whole hand, has taken place, and 
you are presented with very much what has gone on, 
upon a grand scale, over this vast area. As these 
changes of level haye not taken place along the 
whole range from east to west in an equal extent, 
but upon certain transyerse or diagonal lines, undu- 
lations more or less great have been the result; and 
some formations have attained a higher position in 
some places than in others, producing, very early in 
the history of these mountains, a transverse system 
of drainage-lines, leading through the long axial 
ridges. 

The last efforts of these rising, sinking, and lateral 
crushing, and, as I believe, very slowly acting forces, 
are to be seen at the southern face of these moun- 
tains, in the tertiary strata that make up the sub- 
Himalayan axis (Sivalik), —a topographical feature 
which is most striking by reason of its persistence 
and uniformity for some 1,600 miles. From Assam 
on the east, to the Punjab on the west, bending round 
and extending to Scinde, this fringing line of parallel 
ridges isfound at the base of the Himalayas; some- 
times higher, sometimes wider, often forming ellipti- 
cal valleys. Only in one part of the belt, east of the 
Teesta, are they absent altogether for a distance of 
fifty miles. These formations are of vast thickness, 
and, in the Punjab, cover an area of 13,000 square 
miles. The whole of this material has been derived 
from the adjacent Himalayas, and has travelled down 
valleys that haye been excavated in pre-tertiary times. 
This points to a slow subsidence of the whole south- 


ern side of the mountain mass, deposition generally. 


keeping pace with it, broken off by recurring long 
intervals of re-elevation. 

The next most interesting feature connected with 
the former distribution of land and sea is that these 
sub-Himalayan formations are fresh-water, or tor- 
rential, showing that since nummulitic or eocene 


SCIENCE. 


a 3 ee lee BA Se (Mm | 
he 


[Vou. IL, No, 39. 


times the sea has never washed the base of the Him- 
alayas. In fact, there is no evidence of this from the 
gorge where the Ganges leaves the mountains up to 
the base of the Garo Hills. I believe that from As- 
sam to Scinde there once existed a great river, receiv- 
ing its tributaries from the Himalayas, partly a land 
of lakes and marshes, the home of that wonderful 
mammalian and reptilian fauna which Cautley and 
Falconer were the first to bring to light. The south- 
ern boundary of this long alluvial plain was formed 
by the present peninsula of India, and probably of 
the extension of the Garo and Khasi Hills westward 
to the Rajmahal Hills. Depression has been consid- 
erable in the neighborhood of Calcutta, nearly five 
hundred feet. At three hundred and eighty feet, beds 
of peat were passed through in boring; and the lowest 
beds contained fresh-water*shells. The beds, also, 
were of such a grayelly nature as to indicate the 
neighborhood of hills, now buried beneath the Gan- 
gesalluvium. This is precisely the appearance of the 
country above Calcutta, on approaching the present 
yalley of the Brahmaputra. The western termination 
of the Garo Hills sinks into these later alluvial depos- 
its; and along’the southern face of the range, up to 
Sylhet, the waters of the marshes during the rainy 
season wash the nummulitic rocks like an inland sea, 
and point to the very recent depression of all this area. 
The isolated granite hilltops jutting up out of the 
marshy country from Dhoobri to Gwalpara, and on to 
Tezpur, all testify to the same continuous depression 
here. It is exactly north of this that we find the Si- 
valik formations, absent at the base of the Himalayas. 

This gradual depression of the delta of the Gan- 
ges, the relative higher level of the water parting and 
shifting of the Punjab rivers westward, appear to be 
only the Jast phase of that post-pliocene disturbance 
which broke up the Assam sub-Himalayan lacustrine 
system draining into the Arabian Sea. Zodlogical 
evidence, which I cannot here find space to quote, is 
also in favor of this former connection of the now 
separated waters of the Ganges and Indus basins, and 
the hill-tracts of the Garo and Khasi Hills with penin- 
sular India. ; 

Within the mountains in the old rock basins — 
and these are analogous to the valleys of the Alps 
— are pliocene and post-pliocene beds of great thick- 
ness, but of fresh-water origin; the remnants of 
which are to be seen in Kashmir and Scardo at in- 
tervals, along the valley of the Indus, and that large, 
now elevated, accumulation at the head of the Sutlej 
River in Hundes, —all in the more sheltered por- 
tions of the valley basins, untouched by the denuding 
action during the glacial period. The extent and 
displacement of the upper pliocene beds in north 
Italy and here are very similar. Often abutting hori- 
zontally against the mountains, they are in other 
places found tilted at considerable angles on the 
margin of their original extension, When we ex- 
amine their contents, we find that the fauna of that 
time, in Asia as well as Europe, was more African 
in character, and included the hippopotamus, croc- 
odiles, and tortoises; of which, the common croco- 
dile, the gavial or long-snouted species, and an Emys, 


NovEMBER 2, 1883.] 


have survived the many geological changes, and 
still inhabit the rivers and low grounds of India 
to-day. The fresh-water shells are the same now 
as then. Many species of antelope lived in the 
neighboring plains and uplands. The elephant was 
there in the zenith of its existence, for no less than 
thirteen species have been found fossil in northern 
India. 

If we now turn to Europe to compare formations 
of similar age, Lombardy and the valley of the Po, 
with the southern side of the Alps, present to us 
somewhat similar physical features. A large area 
of about'the size of the north-west Punjab, once a 
part of the miocene sea, is occupied by a remnant of 
rocks of that age, considerably elevated and tilted, 
but not to such an extent as those of the Himalayas. 
Near Turin these dip towards the mountains; and a 
very short examination shows the undoubted glacial 
character of some of the beds; and, as the whole 
formation is marine, their large sharply angular 
material, much of which is jurassic limestone, was 
probably transported from the adjacent mountains 
by the agency of ice in a narrow sea.! After the 
great crushing and alteration of the previous out- 
lines of the. whole country, another sea filled the 
basin of the Po, and pliocene deposits were laid down 
in a sinking area extending to the base of the moun- 
tains all round the new bay or gulf. Re-elevation 
again set in, and with it, or soon after it, the advent 
of another and the last glacial period. 

Before the last great elevation of the alpine chain, 
the whole line of seacoast, therefore, ran even high 
up the long deep valleys of Maggiore, Como, Garda, 
ete. Then came the gradual but uneven elevation 
of the whole area, including the miocene hills south 
of the Po; and lacustrine and estuary conditions 
prevailed over much of the plain country. The 
lapse of time was probably enormous; and, as the land 
rose and the sea retired, the climate gradually became 
cooler, and ushered in the glacial period. With the 
change and the increased volume of the mountain 
torrents, the destruction of the upraised marine plio- 
cene beds commenced, and finally culminated in the 
extreme extension of the glaciers, even into the plains. 
The denudation of this formation has been enormous 
along the base of the Alps, and only mere remnants 
are to be found. Their preservation is due to their 
being in position where the great denuding force, 
the ice, has been unable to touch them: in other in- 
stances the early deposition of moraine matter upon 
them has acted liked a shield, and prevented their 
entire destruction, 

The scattered remnants of the pliocene formation 
south of the Alps show well how soon a great for- 
mation may be completely destroyed by denuding 
forces. 

1 No trace has been observed of this glacial period in the 
miocene of India. The most lofty portions of the chain had not 
then attained a greater elevation, probably, than 14,000 to 18,000 
feet, and the outer axis-lines far less. However, in the tertiary 
beds (middle eocene?) of the Indus walley, below Leh, such 
conditions are indicated by Lydekker (Memoirs of geological 


survey of India, vol, xxii. p. 104, which I have received since this 
address was sent to press). 


SCIENCE. 595 


It is an established fact, that the great valleys of 
the Alps and Himalaya existed much in their present 
form during miocene times; and they may owe 
their excavation partly to the glacial action of that 
period, when these mountain slopes rose from the 
plain or margin of the ancient sea, far in front of the 
present line of slope, and were far higher than now. 

It is not improbable, that, during the earlier exten- 
sion of the glaciers into the Maggiore basin, the sea 
still had access to it. This would have greatly aided 
in the removal of the marine deposits, and then the 
deeper erosion of its bed near the Borromean Islands, 
so well put forward by Sir Andrew Ramsay. When 
we see the gigantic scouring which glaciers have 
effected in the hardest rocks on the sides and bottoms 
of valleys, when we know for certain the enormous 
thickness they reached in the Alps, I do not doubt 
for a moment their capability of deepening a rock 
basin very considerably, or their power to move for- 
ward over and against slopes so low as 2° to 39.1 

Passing from the glacial action displayed in the 
outer Alps to that in the Himalaya, we find ample 
evidence of a period of great extension of such 
conditions, first in the erratics of the Attock plain 
and the Potwar, lying fifty to sixty miles from the 
gorge of the Indus at Torbela. We have again the 
fact that in Baltistan, in the Indus valley, glaciers 
have twice descended far beyond their present limits, 
first down to Scardo itself, and then to some thirty 
miles below their present limits; while the glaciers 
of Nanga Purbet, towering above the Indus some 
22,000 feet, must have descended into the bed of that 
river. 

In fact, examples of the former extension of glaciers 
are wide-spread along the chain of the Himalayas 
from west to east. True moraines and moraine- 
mounds, at 16,000 feet on the north side of the 
Baralasa Pass, attest the presence of glaciers on the 
elevated plain of Rukshu, where now the snow-line 
is over 20,000 feet. Drew gives much valuable in- 
formation regarding their former size. On the east, 
in Sikkim, Sir Joseph Hooker has described moraines 
of great height (700 feet) and extent. Still farther 
south and east, in the Naga Hills, a short period of 
greater cold is indicated by the moraine detritus 
under the loftiest portion of the Burrail range, in 
latitude 25° 30’. 

Whatever may have been the length of the glacial 
period in the Alps, — and it was very considerable, — 
in the Himalayas it cannot have been so long and 
so general, although to a certain extent contem- 
poraneous. 

In the Alps, glaciation meets the eye on every side; 
and the mountains, up to a distinct level, owe their 
form and outline to its great and universal extension. 
In the Himalayas it is difficult to trace polished sur- 
faces or striae markings, even in the neighborhood 
of the largest glaciers that are now advancing in 


1 There appears to be too great an advocacy, on the one hand, 
of ice-action having done all the work of denudation; while, on 
the other, some writers consider this to have been extremely 
limited. It is the combination of the two forces, I think, that 
effects 80 much, and in so different a manner and degree. 


596 


full activity. Although of such great length, these 
Himalayan glaciers could neyer have reached the 
enormous thickness which the earlier alpine glaciers 
attained. 

Two periods of glacial extension are clearly de- 
fined, separated by a milder interval of climate. 
During the earlier glacial period the Indus valley was 
filled with those extensive lacustrine and fluviatile 
deposits, mixed with large angular débris, such as we 
see at Scardo, which may be coeval with the extreme 
extension of the alpine erratics, so far as the miocene 
hills south of Turin. 

The second period followed after a long interval of 
denudation of the same beds, and would correspond 
with the last extension of the great moraines of 
Ivrea, Maggiore, Como, etc., followed by a final re- 
treat to nearly present smaller dimensions. Nowhere 
on the south of the Himalaya do we find valleys 
presenting any features similar to those of the 
southern Alps, particularly on the Italian lakes, 
which are, I believe, the result, in the first place, of 
marine denudation, succeeded by that of depression, 
and finally powerful ice-action. 

This attempt to bring before you some of the great 
changes in the geography of Europe and Asia must 
now be brought to anend. Jam only sorry it is not 
in more able hands than mine to treat it in the 
manner it deserves, and in better and more eloquent 
language; but it is a talent given to but few men 
(sometimes to a Lyell ora Darwin) to explain clearly 
and in an interesting form the great and gradual 
changes the surface of the earth has passed through. 
The study of those changes must create in our minds 
humble admiration of the great Creator’s sublime 
work, and it is in such a spirit that I now submit for 
your consideration the subject of this address. 


FRENCH GEOGRAPHICAL EXPLORA- 
TIONS.1 

Since the last re-union of our societies, we have 
seen the complete success of the French expedition 
to observe the transit of Venus. This phenomenon, 
important for astronomy, which requires a unity of 
measurement of the celestial spaces, should also be 
of interest to geography, for the unity sought is the 
correct distance of the sun from the earth. We 
already know the distance of the moon from the 
earth, about ninety-six thousand leagues, of which I 
can easily form an idea, as it is the distance I have 
traversed by land and sea since 1854, the time that [I 
commenced my isthmus travels. ‘“‘ The French expe- 
dition sent to foreign parts to observe the transit of 
Venus has obtained a great and well-earned success, 
of which they are justly entitled to be proud.” So 
says one of the most eminent French savants, Mr. 
Dumas, who has largely contributed to that success. 

It now remains, and it is not the least difficult part 
of the task, to compare the results obtained, in order 
to submit to a delicate analysis the infinitesimal 
differences, which correspond to errors of hundreds 


1 Address by FERDINAND DE LxEsseEps before the geographi- 
cal congress at Douai. Translated from Cosmos-les-mondes, vi. 
91, 121. 


SCIENCE. 


‘fertile plains. 


[Vou. IL, No. 89. 


of kilometres, in the distance sought. Savants have, 
it is true, more than a century to make use of the 
observations of 1882; for the phenomenon will not 
take place again till the year 2004. 

At the extreme east of Europe we find in process. 
of execution a work whereby modern science shall 
again assert her superiority by a success which the 
ancients gave up. Through the initiative of Gen. 
Tir, the Isthmus of Corinth is at this moment being 
cut, which will shorten by about two hundred and 
fifty kilometres, on an average, the voyage between 
the eastern and western parts of the north of the 
Mediterranean. In the course of the present year, 
the two plains at the side of the Gulf of Aegina and 
the Bay of Corinth will be cut away, and workmen 
will attack the solid.mass of forty-seven metres, 
which it is desired to cut away to eight metres below 
the level of the sea. It is, in minimo, the cut of the 
Isthmus of Panama, the length of which is seyenty- 
three kilometres instead of six kilometres; that is, 
double the distance between the garden of the Tuille- 
ries and the Are de Triomphe in the Etoile at Paris. 

Some distance north of Corinth, there is unfolding 
another episode of the struggle between these two 
rival powers, the earth and man, There the work 
has begun which will transform a marshy lake into 
In a few years, broad Lake Copais will 
suffer the fate of Lake Fucino, Lake Fessara, Lake 
de Harlem, and the marsh of Pinsk. 

There is still a fourth isthmus to cut. The king of 
Siam has authorized a survey for a maritime canal on 
his territory, between the Indian Ocean and the seas 
of China and Cochin China, The object is to escape 
the dangerous Strait of Malacca, and gain six hundred. 
leagues from Europe to the extreme east. 

In Arabia, Mr. Charles Huber, who two years ago: 
successfully accomplished a mission for the minister 
of public instruction, has resumed the journey he 
made so fortunately; but he wishes to proceed farther 
than at that time he was able. At present he is at 
Palmyra, copying rare inscriptions; and, this com- 
pleted, he will set out for Hall, for the Nedjed, and 
perhaps farther if circumstances favor his energy and 
firm will. The Arabian peninsula is one of the fields. 
of study where French science has a long standing: 
and very honorable record. Wecan but hope that Mr. 
Huber may show himself worthy of his predecessors. 

In the extreme east, Cochin China and Tonquim 
have been most recently explored by the French, and 
I should like to recount the discoveries of Dr. Néis- 
and Lieut. Saptans at the sources of the Donnai. The 
former is at present en route for the region which he 
has already visited. Ethnography and anthropology, 
which are his special objects of study, will no doubt. 
acquire new information, full and exact, from Dr. 
Néis’s present journey. The study of the ancient. 
civilizations and of epigraphy engages the attention 
of Capt. Aymonier, who has just finished a fruitful 
exploration at Cambodia. The parcels recently sent 
to the museum of the Trocadero testify to the im- 
portance of the results gathered by Mr. Aymonier, 
who is one of the most distinguished, perhaps the 
most distinguished, representatives. of Indo-Chinese 


n 
4 
, 
4 


NovEMBER 2, 1§83.] 


students. Tonquin is known to us only by its delta, 
which has been an object for fine work by French 
hydrographic engineers. Beyond, to the right and 
left of the Red River, surveyed first by Mr. Dupuis, 
and afterward by Mr. de Kergaradee, we know noth- 
ing, or almost nothing, with certainty. Last year, 
in the face of dangers to which his companion Mr. 
Courtin succumbed, Mr. Villeroy-d’Augis made an 
examination which has given us the first rough 
sketch of the course of the Black River. The mineral 
resources of Tonquin, on the coast at least, have 
been ascertained by Mr. Fuchs in a recent voyage; 
and this distinguished engineer seized the opportu- 
nity to gather the first materials of the geological 
constitution of that part of Anam, as well as the 
rest of Indo-China. The events which are taking 
place at Tonquin we cannot examine; but they will 
lead, doubtless, to a state of things which will render 
journeys practicable. Mr. Harmand, who was con- 
spicuous at the beginning of his career for his impor- 
tant explorations, will doubtless lend his co-operation 
to the French explorers who are about to set out for 
these parts of Asia. 

If we turn our eyes toward Africa, we see several 
Frenchmen engaged in the contest which will defi- 
nitely free this continent to science in opening it to 
civilization. For all Algeria the time of exploration, 
properly so called, is past. The country surveyed by 
geodesians is open to military topographers, who will 
give us a representation of it as beautiful and as cor- 
rect as the map of France. At the instigation of 
our colleague, Col. Perrier, chief of the geographical 
service of the army, the surveys are being followed 
up, and the publication of the work will soon begin, 
to be continued without interruption. ; 

For the extreme south of Orange, geography had 
only a series of isolated guide-books, with a few de- 
scriptions carefully made, but limited. Wars have 
drawn to this territory a troop of surveyors, whose 
campaigns have resulted in a survey, based on a tri- 
angulation, of all the country between Mecheria, the 
terminus of the Orange railroad, and the great oasis 
of Figuig. Icertainly do not err in asserting, that the 
officers who have accomplished this difficult and dan- 
gerous work, Capt. de Castries and Lieuts. Brosselad 
and Delcroix, deserve well of geography. 

In France the events in Tunis haye been watched 
with much interest. Geography will gather the first 
fruits from these events. Here, again, we were re- 
duced to information confined to the surroundings of 
Tunis, and certain points of the regency, and very 
estimable itineraries, but whose loose threads cireum- 
seribe vast regions left blank on the charts or timo- 
rously sketched. Following our exploring column, 
skilful surveyors have continued to fill up these gaps. 
Their records have been completed, and arranged 
methodically by officers attached to the geographical 
service of the army. If I am correctly informed, this 
service now possesses the materials for a large map, on 
which Tunis will appear in a decidedly new light, 
with the arrangement of its valleys, the character and 
projection of its prominence, and the precise position 
of its centres of population. , 


SCIENCE. 


97 


The minister of public instruction, on his part, has 
organized an expedition for the scientific exploration 
of Tunis. Already, from an archeological stand- 
point, important discoveries have been made on this 
ground, where exist the relics of several great civiliza- 
tions. The learned work of Mr. Charles Tissot, the 
correspondent of the institute, formerly ambassador 
to London, will be, as far as concerns the Roman 
epoch, a fine and substantial introduction to the in= 
vestigations undertaken. Our protectorate will re- 
vive the Tunis of the past, while it creates a Tunis 
of the future. Here is the opportunity to mention 
the scheme in regard to the interior African sea, ren- 
dered practicable by the perseverance, disinterest- 
edness, and knowledge of Commander Roudaire. 
Other surveys, executed during this campaign by the 
engineers whom Capt. Henry leads, fill up the gaps in 
the previous works, complete the information regard- 
ing the banks of the Senegal or its tributaries, and 
prepare the route towards Bammakoo for the next 
expedition. This time a larger party must be sent 
out than on preceding expeditions, and they ought 
to advance farther. After haying, while the road 
was making, remoyed, without striking a blow, the 
chief of Moorgoola, who was hostile to us, and after 
taking by assault the village of Daba, where advance 
was opposed, the column finally arrived at Bamma- 
koo, Feb. 1; and, on the 7th, Col. Borgnis-Desbordes 
laid the first stone of the fort. From this first jour- 
ney, under the direction of Capt. Bonnier, the sur- 
yeyors, who included some experienced officers (Capt. 
Vallitre, for instance), haye brought back very com~ 
plete results, extending over the ground between Kita 
and Bammakoo, and in the surrounding countries, 
Fooladoogo, Gangara, and Bélédoogoo, They have 
also contributed largely to the geography of a coun- 
try lately only touched by a few explorers. 

I do not know that you wil] agree with me; but I 
see, in these three expeditions of Col. Borgnis-Des- 
bordes, a very interesting moral side.. Let’ us imagine 
a handful of men setting out from Calais, to reach, 
in a certain time, the neighborhood of Vienna or 
Budapest: let that be the distance. You know 
the difficulties that were encountered. After a long 
journey in barges on the Senegal, it was necessary, 
under a burning sky, to make weary marches across 
districts covered with high grass or with thorny plants, 
and across calcined plains. They must scalé steep 
acclivities, pass through innumerable swamps, slimy 
and malarious. They must venture through narrow 
paths on the sides of cliffs into defiles, — veritable 
Thermopylae, where a few might stop anarmy. After 
the departure, fever attacked the column, and each 
day claimed its victim. Nevertheless their courage 
did not fail. At times they were compélled to fight, 
and to the ravages of fever was added the fire of an 
enemy who could not be disregarded. Sometimes 
they stopped; but then they were obliged to work 
without relaxation in building a fort, for the season 
was adyancing. Three times in succession our sol- 
diers, under such circumstances, have penetrated to 
the heart of the western Soodan, led by a man har- 
dened by bravery. He was commissioned to push to 


598 


the Niger the line of stations which should establish 
our claims. He advanced straight to his object: the 
difficulties of detail discouraged him no more than 
the unforeseen disconcerted him, or than danger 
frightened him. Thus supported by officers worthy 
of their leader, and by soldiers full of devotion, he 
has accomplished his whole task. ‘The little phalanx 
re-embarked on the Senegal, ragged, worn out, ema- 
ciated, and reduced more than a third; but they had 
nobly and simply performed a grand deed. 

Before leaving the Senegal, I would not forget to 
mention the efforts of Dr. Bayol to contribute to the 
geographical knowledge of these countries. You may 
already see, on the map of Africa, very carefully 
prepared by Capt. Lannoix for the geographical ser- 
vice of the army, the line of travel which, in his pre- 
ceding journey, Dr. Bayol followed between Timbo 
and Medina, in a country still unknown. At present 
he has just traversed more than three hundred and 
sixty kilometres in a country, also left blank, or nearly 
so, onthe maps. Lieut. Quiquandon, his companion, 
gives us a suryey of the line of march, which, retreat- 
ing from the Niger, will join the line of march of 
the Austrian traveller, Lenz, on his return from Tim- 
buctoo. This is an important paper for geography. 
Mr. Bayol has arranged so that, up to Ségala, the 
states through which he has passed have accepted 
the protectorate of France. Besides the treaties to 
this effect, he brings back collections which will con- 
tribute largely to the geological and zodlogical de- 
scription of this zone of the African continent. 

If, now, we turn farther south, as it were symmet- 
rically with the Senegal and the Niger, we shall come 
to the Ogowé and the Kongo. Here, too, we find a 
man firmly resolved to secure for France a country 
worthy of her on the banks of the Kongo. Here 
Mr. de Brazza (for you all have recognized to whom 
I refer) is at work. As I speak to you now, he must 
be en route for the great river, the inhabitants of 
whose banks will, without doubt, gladly welcome 
back an explorer who was always full of justice and 
humanity toward them. It is said that’ difficulties 
exist between Mr. de Brazza and Mr. Stanley. The 
situation has, I think, been much exaggerated. Let 
us not forget that the origin of the enterprise to 
which Mr. Stanley devotes his energy is due to his 
Majesty the king of Belgium, and was formed for the 
purpose of sparing the travellers of all nations a part 
of the dangers of their enterprises. The generous 
founder of the International African association will 
certainly do all in his power to establish kindly rela- 
tions between two of the most illustrious pioneers of 
civilization and of science. Besides, Mr. de Brazza 
would not falsify by his acts the words which he 
uttered at the last banquet of the Société de géo- 
graphie, when he received from the hands of his 
fellow-explorers the French colors: ‘‘ There, where 
I shall be commissioned,” he said, ‘‘to carry the 
colors you present to me, they will be a sign of peace, 
of liberty, of science, and of commerce; they will be 
kind and compassionate with the weak and courteous, 
but firm with the strong.’’ Let us, then, be patient. 
Let us not expect, that, under the present circum- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 39. 


stances in equatorial Africa, evolution and progress 
can be very rapid. Let us also not forget that we 
owe all respect to the claims of our friends the Portu- 
guese to certain regions bordering the Kongo. 

I would not neglect to invoke your sympathies for 
the calm courage with which, in western Africa, on the 
route of the great lakes, Mr. Bloyet accomplished 
the mission placed upon him by the French commit- 
tee of the International association. The travellers 
of several nations could tell us what protection they 
have received, what support, what counsels, they have 
obtained, from Mr. Bloyet. It is his courage which 
assists in the noble task of making the French name 
loved and respected by the natives of these hostilely 
inclined countries. Still nearer the lakes are our 
Catholic missionaries, some of whom have already 
given to geography useful data of the countries in 
which they are engaged. The same is being done, 
also, by French evangelical missionaries farther south, 
in the region of the Lessooto. One of them, Mr. 
Kurger, is busily at work, perfecting a map of the 
country. We hear little from Mr. Victor Giraud, 
who is proceeding in the direction of the great Lake 
Banguelo, south of which Livingstone died. Our 
best. wishes accompany the young explorer, whose 
character, knowledge, and equipment warrant us in 
expecting much of him. ; 

Before leaving Africa, I wish to mention one who 
has already proved himself a distinguished traveller. 
I refer to Mr. Georges Rexoil. He is engaged at the 
south in the large peninsula of the Comalis, which 
he has explored at the north with so great success. 
If he succeeds in penetrating into this unknown and 
formidable region, he will certainly garner a new 
scientific harvest not less rich than the preceding. 

Allow me to approach America, and briefly speak 
to you of the cutting of the American isthmus be- 
tween Colon and Panama. Two years haye been 
spent in preparing the field of battle. The entire line 
is occupied by our workmen and machines. The 
director, Mr. Dingler, engineer-in-chief, who has just 
set to work our corps, has returned to Paris to report 
both his plans and his preparations to inaugurate the 
canal in 1888. In the course of this year, till July 
of the year following, he will each month remove 
from the cut a million cubic metres of débris, and 
from that date two million cubic metres a month, 
making twenty-four million a year. The enterprise 
will be finished during the following four years. I 
intend to visit this magnificent work early in 1884, 
and I hope that delegates from our geographical so- 
cieties will accompany me. I must not leaye Central 
America without respectfully referring to the suc- 
cessful perseverance with which one of the most de- 
voted missionaries sent out by the minister of public 
instruction, Mr. Désiré Charnay, has explored the ruins 
of Yucatan. His researches and discoveries, together 
with his inferences, certainly throw unexpected light 
on the former obscurity of the American civilizations. 

The feeling of sadness which we all experienced, 
on learning the terrible ending of the expedition of 
Dr. Crevaux, is still with us. Since then, only 
vague rumors have reached Hurope in regard to this 


Pe" is ‘ s ‘ 5 7 
Xo - 

c . 

3 


NoveMBER 2, 1883.] 


tragedy in the heart of South America. Mr. Thouar, 
a young French traveller, is now facing dangers of 
every description, in his attempt to discover the re- 
mains of our unfortunate countrymen. Gathering 
information, and supported by good will on all sides, 
he is making slow but regular advance. We can 


_ only hope that he will attain his object; while we do 


not ignore the dangers to which he so generously 
exposes himself in trying to penetrate, accompanied 
only by an interpreter, a country inhabited by In- 
dians who overthrew the mission of Dr. Crevaux. 
Our warmest hopes for success go with him in his 
noble undertaking. 

At the extreme south of America, at Tierra del 
Fuego, a French mission, established a year ago, has 
been commissioned, in accordance with the interna- 
tional programme, to make meteorological and mag- 
netic observations. We look forward to the next 
return of the guard-ships, whose work, accomplished 
under the direction of Mr. Martial, commander of 
the Romanche, will form a valuable contribution to 
the physical geography of these parts. 

Finally, after a successful expedition to the north- 
ern latitudes, in the polar seas, which, since the voy- 
age of the Recherche, have scarcely seen the French 
flag, one of our countrymen, Mr. Charles Rabot, is 
at present continuing in Russian Lapland the inves- 
tigations which he began in Sweden. The region 


which he includes still offers a vast field for geo- - 


graphical and geological study. 

Such, my dear colleagues, are the chief means by 
which the advance of French geography, in its most 
active and most persistent form is disclosed. I might 
still speak to you at length, but we must not deserve 
the reproach of weaving for ourselves crowns; and, 
in the noble titles I have just recalled to you, we 
should see rather the obligations they place upon us 
than the satisfaction which they bring to our proper 
national pride. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


Marriage laws of the Omahas and cognate 
tribes. 


Tse Dakotas or Sioux still have mother-right 
in some of their tribes, and I cannot say how far 
the following statements apply to them; but the 
Omahbas, Ponkas, Kansas, Osages, and others have 
father-right, and are governed by the principles here 
given, with one exception, —the Kansas have re- 
cently disregarded their laws, and have begun to 
marry in the gens. 

The Omaha tribe is divided into ten gentes or clans, 
each gens having its special place in the tribal circle. 
In the figure the numerals denote the gentes, and 
the letters the sub-gentes. 

Suppose that I belong to 1, the Elk gens, which is 
also my father’s gens: I cannot marry any female 
of that gens. If my mother belongs to 2, a buffalo 
gens, I cannot marry any woman of that gens, 

Suppose that my father’s mother belonged to 3 a, 
my mother’s mother to 4 a, my father’s father’s 
mother to 5a, my mother’s father’s mother to 6 a, 
my father’s mother’s mother to 7, and my mother’s 
mother’s mother to 8 a: I cannot marry any women 
of 3a,4a,5a,6a, 7, or 8a, if I know of their re- 


SCIENCE. 


599 


lationship to me; but I can marry any women of 
the other sub-gentes, 3 b, 3 ec, 3d, 4b, 4c, 4d, 5b, 
5e,5d,6b, 6c, 6d, 8b, 8c, or 8d, as they are not 
my full kindred. 


THE FIVE 
8 ISHTA-SANDA 


GENTES. 


I can also marry any women of 9 or 10, if they are 
not forbidden to me for other reasons; that is, if they 
are not my affinities, such as the wives (real or possible) 
of those whom I call my fathers, mother’s brothers, 
grandfathers, sons, sister’s sons, or grandsons. 

Principles considered. —1. Marriage in the father’s 
gens forbidden. 2. Marriage in the mother’s gens 
forbidden. 3. The regulation of the sub-gens. 4. 
Potential or possible marriages must always be kept 
in mind, and kinship terms are based upon them. 

J. OweN Dorsey. 
Washington, D.C. 


Francis Galton’s proposed ‘Family registers.’ 
Mr. Francis Galton is now planning to push his 
inquiries into the laws of heredity upon a more ex- 
tensive and systematic scale than ever before. The 
success of his early work, ‘ Hereditary genius,’ led 
him to observations in a wider field, which extended 
over several years, and were collected in his very 
valuable book, ‘Inquiries into the human faculty,’ 
which appeared last spring. His new proposal in- 
volyes the collection of a large number of family 
biological histories, to extend over three or four 
generations, and to be obtained by circulating an ex- 
haustive schedule of printed questions. The writer 
has just received a copy of the latter, together with 
a prospectus of the general plan, which Mr. Galton 
will call ‘Family registers.’ The revised schedules 
will shortly be ready for distribution. In the mean 
time an abstract of the prospectus and schedule may 
be given. : 
Mr. Galton foresees the difficulties which he will 
encounter; and, appreciating that the obtaining of ac- 
curate family histories of health and disease among 
laymen is almost out of the question, his prospec- 
tus appeals principally to the medical profession. 
Among doctors, all inherited disease is a disease, 
and not necessarily an hereditary disgrace, as most 
of the laity are apt to regard it. In this class, also, 
the scientific interest attached to inherited imperfec- 
tions of physique or mind often overbears every other 
feeling. At all events, although the anonymous will 
be strictly maintained, Mr. Galton seems to expect 
that few non-professional persons will be ready even 


600 


to put upon paper the rather searching register of re- 
lies. 
‘ The narrowest scope of inquiry, to be of any value, 
must embrace three generations; but the results will 
be far more reliable when they cover four. The latter 
would relate to at least thirty-six persons, which Mr. 
Galton reckons as follows; ‘‘ On the side of the con- 
tributor there are his two parents, four grand-parents, 
an average of three uncles and aunts on each of the 
two sides, three brothers or sisters, and himself: this 
makes sixteen persons. There is another set of six- 
’ teen for the relatives of his wife in the same degrees. 
Lastly, I allow an average of four children.’”’ A sin- 
gle family register of this size, therefore, at least 
involves the filling-out of nearly thirty-six of the 
schedules, which will be no light task, even with the 
most favorable opportunities of obtaining informa- 
tion. The persons whom Mr. Galton anticipates will 
assist him the most are young physicians, married 
and with children. In case the grand-parents are liv- 
ing, their field of information-will naturally be very 
wide. Partly as an inducement to men of this class 
to undertake such a task, partly as a pecuniary re- 
turn for the time which it must necessarily occupy, a 
series of prizes will be offered, amounting, altogether, 
to £500, including, probably, ten prizes of £25 each, 
and others not to exceed £50 nor fall short of £5. 
The returns are ‘to be sent with mottoes, but no sig- 
nature; the name and address to be enclosed in a sep- 
arate envelope bearing the motto. The merit of the 
returns will be estimated by the clearness and ex- 
haustiveness of statement, the number of generations 
treated of, and the appendix (see beyond). 


The returns asked for are in abstract as follows: 


1. A separate and full biological history of each 
member of the family in the direct line of ascent; 
2. A very brief statement of the main biological facts 
in the lives of members of the collateral lines of 
ascent, that is, of the uncles and aunts, great-uncles 
and great-aunts, etc.; 3, A full description of the 
main sources of information for 1 and 2; 4. An ap- 
pendix which will include an analysis of the medical 
history of the family, showing the peculiarities which 
haye, aud have not, been transmitted, and their iden- 
tical or changed form. All communications to be 
addressed to Francis Galton, 42 Rutland Gate, Lon- 
don (S. W.), England. 

Mr. Galton has reduced the collection of statistics 
to a fine art, having arranged this schedule with the 
greatest ingenuity. The near and remote relation- 
ships are indicated by simple symbols; and, by means 
of horizontal and transverse columns, the required 
facts can be condensed into an astonishingly small 
space.. Each schedule is intended to cover six peri- 
ods in the life of the person described, from childhood 
to late in life, and at each of these periods to give a 
statement of, A, conditions of life; B, personal de- 
scription; C, medical life-history. Under A are such 
topics as town or country residence, and sanitary 
influences generally. Under B are descriptions of 
feature and physique, of habits of work and mus- 
cular force and quickness, keenness of sight and 
dexterity, artistic and allied capacities, peculiarities 
of character and temperament. Under C are dis- 
eases, accidents, malformations, age at death, etc. 
Other facts solicited are, order of birth, age at mar- 
riage, number and sex of children. All this is upon 
one side of a double sheet, and relates to one person 
in the direct line of ascent. Upon the reverse of the 
sheet, similar inquiries are made in the collateral 
lines, or among the brothers and sisters of the person 
described. 

Mr. Galton believes that the interest in each family 


~ 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. I1., No. 39 


register will increase rapidly as the investigation goes 
on, and family histories will result of far more ac- 
curacy than could be collected in any less methodical 
system. The scheme is so much more comprehensive 
than any thing which has preceded it, that it certainly 
promises us a much deeper insight into the laws of 
heredity than we have at present. The moral value 
of this, and, in fact, of much of the life-work of this 
author, lies in the dissemination of the stern truth, 
which is as old as the Mosaic law, that the character 
of the next generation depends, perhaps, less than 
we are apt to think upon the education and training 
we prepare for them, and more upon the life-conduet 
of the present and the preceding generations. 
Henry F, OSBORN. 


MAUDSLEY’S BODY AND WILL. 


Body and will: being an essay concerning will in its 
metaphysical, physiological, and pathological as- 
pects. By Henry Maupstey, M.D. London, 
Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co., 1883. 8+333 p. 8°. 


ConsmDERED with respect to its announced 
purpose, this book is one of the most unfortu- 
nate and disappointing that we have ever seen 
bearing the name of an able man on the title- 
page. The purpose, as set forth on the titlepage 
and in the preface, seems indeed a noble one- 
Of will, in its pathological aspect at least, 
Dr. Maudsley has, one would suppose, the best 
possible right to speak. And we all haye so 
much to learn about all its aspects, that we 
come to the book, even after previous experi- 
ence of the author’s eccentricities, with hope 
of getting some real instruction. That the 
freedom of the will is to be discussed, we learn 
without fear: for, old as the topic is, an in- 
genious man may have something new to say 
about it; and a straightforward statement of 
the doctrine of determinism, made from the 
physiological point of view, may well be useful 
and instructive, even if it should fail to be new. 
But, with much more interest than he feels in 
the promised wrangle over the freedom of the 
will, the student of psychology looks forward 
to what is promised in the preface, where Dr. 
Maudsley tells us that he has long been en-~ 
gaged in dealing with ‘‘ concrete minds, that 
must be observed, studied, and managed ;’” 
that he has been trying to find out ‘* why indi- 
viduals feel, think, and do as they do, how 
they may be actuated to feel, think, and do 
differently, and in what way best to deal with 
them so as to do one’s duty to one’s self and 
them.’’ In consequence, he says, ‘‘ I have no 
choice but to leave the barren heights of spec- 
ulation for the plains on which men live and 
move and have their being.’’ He desires, then, 
‘¢to bring home to mental philosophers the 
necessity of taking serious account of a class 
of facts and thoughts which, though they are 


vs al 


NoveMBeER 2, 1883.] 


not philosophy, may claim not to be ignored 
by philosophy.’’ All this means, if it means 
any thing, that we may expect from Dr. Mauds- 
ley some results of his experience with the 
laws of human will, some concrete psychology, 
—such, for instance, as, in case of certain phe- 
nomena of sensation and memory, Mr. Galton 
has given us, in the book that we lately re- 
viewed on ‘Human faculty.’ Mr. Galton’s 
work has been confined mainly to the lower 
phenomena of mind. How great the gain, if 
we can get scientific research to give us cor- 
respondingly fruitful results about the higher 
phenomena of mind! We hope, of course, for 
nothing final, or as yet very exact, in this field : 
but Dr. Maudsley will surely offer us some- 
thing; and his announcement is just such as a 
sober observer of a special class of facts might 
be expected to make, in case he had found 
out something well worth telling. As for the 
author’s denunciation of speculation, we need 
not be haters of philosophy to overlook or 
pardon that. The most enthusiastic student 
of general philosophy ought to admit freely 
the vast importance to him, also, of just such 
conerete study of mind as Dr. Maudsley an- 
nounces; and if Dr. Maudsley has found the 
heights of speculation barren, then surely 
he will keep off them, and will tell us what he 
has to tell so much the better. We reserve, 
then, our own right to study general philosophy 
if we find it fruitful; and we just now follow 
him eagerly to the green paStures of concrete 
psychology, where he is to give us the result 
of special study. 

We are doomed to bitter disappointment. 
The book consists of three parts. ‘The first, on 
‘Will in its metaphysical aspects,’ fills nine- 


ty-eight pages, and contains a restatement of - 


the bare commonplaces of modern thought on 
the relation of mind and organism, a like re- 
statement of the oldest and most common- 
place of the deterministic arguments, a barren 
criticism of the oldest and most commonplace 
arguments for free will, and finally, scattered 
throughout this discussion in all sorts of weari- 
some digressions, a string of purely speculative 
reflections, so confused, so full of contradic- 
tion, so ill expressed, that they would be 
unworthy to pass as the thesis of a fairly in- 
structed student of philosophy in his second 
year’s work. 

The second part of the book (pp. 99-232, 
with four pages of notes) opens far more prom- 
isingly, with a good chapter on the ‘ Physio- 
logical basis of will.’ But thereafter, at once 


the discussion sinks back into its native con- 
fusion. 


We are to learn about the * physio- 


SCIENCE. 


601 


logical, sociological, and evolutional relations’ 
of the will; and we have a series of the com- 
monplaces of recent discussion, together with 
another mass of confused speculations, as full 
as before of digressions. Mr. Spencer, who is 
not named, is yet several times referred to very 
severely as a dangerous speculator ; but the most 
obscure expressions of Mr. Spencer’s worst mo- 
ments are bright sunlight to the gloom of these 
long and tedious sentences, and his speculations 
are surely as likely to be good as his rival’s. 

The third part, at last, on ‘ Will in its patho- 
logical relations,’ leads us into the light once 
more. Here, at least, we have a few concrete 
instances brought together, and generaliza- 
tions made from facts, and plainly stated. But 
how little we learn! The space left is short; 
and the author’s lucid interval ends with the 
beginning of the last chapter, which he enti- 
tles* What will be the end thereof ?’ and which 
he devotes to speculations on the way in which 
human life will degenerate before its final cessa- 
tion on this planet. 

And so, of the whole, only about one hundred 
pages, or less than one-third of the book, may 
be considered as having any real relation to 
the implied promise of the preface. The rest 
is simply the ‘ barren speculation’ which we 
were to avoid, or else it is repetition in obscure 
language of what has many times been said in 
clear language. 

But we must illustrate, for we are aware 
that a man of Dr. Manudsley’s reputation 
might be expected to do better than we have 
here represented him as doing. First, then, 
as to the ‘barren speculation.’ Surely, if a 
man desires to lef questions alone, he can very 
easily do so. Yet Dr. Maudsley goes out 
of his way, in the first part, to write a chapter 
on the ‘ Authority of consciousness.’ He goes 
out of his way, we say; for, in so far as con- 
cerns his problem of the freedom of the will, 
the authority of consciousness might have been 
very briefly and specially treated. But, once 
having determined to take up the question 
generally, Dr. Maudsley runs on in this wise. 
Self-consciousness, he first tells us, is no more 
immediate knowledge than is the knowledge of 
external objects through the senses; since the 
latter knowledge consists of states of con- 
sciousness, as well as does the former. This, of 
course, is Kant’s famous ‘ Refutation of ideal- 
ism’ in a nutshell. But now, both of these 
kinds of knowledge being knowledge of facts 
that are in consciousness, we ask what the 
truth of this consciousness is, or how we shall 
test its truth. We learn something about this 
matter farther on, on p. 41, where we find that 


602 


‘* there is no rule to distinguish between true 
and false but the common judgment of man- 
kind,”’ that (p. 42) ‘*the truth of one age is 
the fable of the next,’’ and that ‘* the common 
mind of the race in me’’? —‘‘* common sense, 
which is more sensible than any individual in 
all cases (save in the exceptional case of a 
pre-eminently gifted person of genius)’ —is 
the warrant to which we appeal for the truth 
of all our beliefs. This would look yery much 
as if, in case one is not a pre-eminently gifted 
person of genius, one must be unable to know 
whether either he himself or the external world 
exists, unless he first discover that ‘ the com- 
mon judgment of mankind’ agrees with him 
that both do exist. This is a curious reversal 
of the familiar fashion of reasoning ; since the 
‘mankind’ to whom one is to appeal, surely 
belongs to the external world, to whose ex- 
istence its ‘common judgment’ is to testify. 
Yet we must be doing Dr. Maudsley wrong. 
One must not take every statement so exactly. 
His real theory is expressed on p. 45. Here 
it is: ‘‘ Every thing which we know is ‘a syn- 
thesis of object and subject. . . . Neither mat- 
ter in itself nor mind in itself are words that 
have any meaning. . . . The hypothesis of an 
external world is a good working hypothesis 
within all human experience: but to ask 
whether the external world exists apart from 
all human experience is about as sensible a 
question as to ask whether the shadow belongs 
to the sun or to the man’s body; for what an 
extraordinarily perverse and futile ingenuity 
it is to attempt to think any thing outside 
human consciousness. . . . To say there is an 


absolute [the italics are ours], and to call it. 


the unknowable, is it a whit more philosophical 
than it would be for a bluebottle-fly to call its 
extra-relational the unbuzzable?’’ P. 46 goes 
on to say, ‘‘ A separation of subject and ob- 
ject cannot ever be the starting-point of a phi- 
losophy that is not a self-foolery.’’ P. 47 adds, 
that what Berkeley called an idea ‘‘ is a synthe- 
sis, the ego and non-ego necessary correlate.”’ 
All this is perfectly clear by itself, much clearer 
than the text in which it is embedded; and 
the sense of it is, of course, pure phenomenism, 
such as Schopenhauer expressed in his ‘ kein 
objekt ohne subjekt.’ Matter is for conscious- 
ness, and consciousness is of objects. Spen- 
cer’s unknowable is nonsense, —a product of 
perverse ingenuity, worthy of bluebottle-flies. 
One must not attempt to think of any thing 
outside of human cousciousness; and so we 
have a doctrine. 

No, not at all. Dr. Maudsley does not mean 
this. P. 51 is not far from p. 47; and yet, on 


SCIENCE. 


with in this intolerable way ? 


[Vou. IL, No. 89. 


p. 51, the author assures us that ‘‘ the external 
world as it is in itself may not be in the least 
like what we conceive it through our modes of 
perception and forms of thought.’’ On pp. 
52 and 53, Dr. Maudsley outdoes this contra- 
diction by bringing the two contradictories 
face to face on the same open page, and aflirm- 
ing them both at once with childlike simplicity. 
‘* 7 don’t want to think the thing in itself. . . . 
If it is out of me, it does not exist for me, can- 
not possibly be more than a nonsensical word 
in any expression of me; and for me to think 
it out of me, as it is in itself, would be annihi- 
lation of myself.’? But all this, says Dr. 
Maudsley, teaches him that there is a great 
deal outside of his perception, ‘a real world 
external to me,’ of which, however, he can 
say nothing. So Spencer’s rejected unknow- 
able returns : the mind is necessarily obliged to 
think what it cannot possibly think, to believe 
in what it perceives to be nonsense, and to 
assert in one sentence that ‘ self and the world 
cannot be thought apart,’ and, in the next sen- 
tence, that the real external world is so far be- 
yond self that self is wholly unable to make 
any assertion, save that it exists. 

Now, this is not a collection of statements 
found in various authors, and brought together 
by Dr. Maudsley for the sake of illustrating 
the ‘ barrenness’ of the subject. On the con- 
trary, these are his own views. He himself 
chooses to write a chapter on this topic. He 
is bringing home to the philosophers something 
that they need to know. He is dealing with 
‘¢ doctrines arrived at by the positive methods 
of observation and induction.’’ If not, what 
does the preface mean? and what has the in- 
nocent reader done, that he should be trifled 
But if in reality 
Dr. Maudsley is expounding doctrines arrived 
at by the methods of observation and indue- 
tion, these doctrines ought not to change nature 
with every new paragraph. ‘These statements 
are deliberate and repeated, they are made with 
much show of earnestness ; and yet they are a 
series of contradictions, and leave the reader 
feeling as if some one had been trying to make 
a fool of him. As for this doctrine, that it is 
‘* nerverse and futile to think of any thing out- 
side of human consciousness ’’ (p. 45), how 
does Dr. Maudsley venture thus solemnly to 
propound it and enlarge upon it, when else- 
where, and not far off, he repeatedly insists 
upon the view that human consciousness is in- 
explicable, save on the basis of an wnconscious 
mental life, which can never be exhaustively 
known at all? Is the relation of author and 
reader one that involves no responsibilities ? 


Z. « 
4%, 
ae ren 


ny a 
+ *: t 


NOVEMBER 2, 1883.] 


Were not this confusion of statement typi- 
eal, we should not insist upon it. But through- 
out the book one finds, if not always such 
flat contradictions, still a certain slipperiness 
and uncertainty about nearly every general 
doctrine that the author chooses to express, 
on all but the most conerete matters of fact. 
If he says a thing, you know not when or 
how soon he will withdraw it, wholly, or bit by 
bit. He thinks, for instance, that the belief 
in the vanity of all things, or pessimism, is : 
* malady of self-consciousness,’ a sign of men- 
tal decay ; but he adds, that the ‘ central truth 
of all religions ’ is a conviction of the utter van- 
ity of all things, and himself seems in great 
measure a pessimist. Pure Christianity teaches 
the noblest virtues, — those, for instance, of 
self-sacrifice ; but the only test of virtue is 
the experience and common sense of mankind ; 
and these teach us that pure Christianity, put 
in practice without stint, would render society 
impossible, since society depends upon con- 
flicts and selfishness even now. The noblest 
virtues are therefore those that are rejected 
when the only test of virtue is applied. And 
so we are led on. 

The same tendency appears in the very style 
of the book. -When the author has a definite 
opinion, he likes to conceal it from you under 
manifold cloaks of language. He dislikes 
Spencer’s doctrine, that organic evolution is 
‘ progressive adaptation to the environment.’ 
This, he says, is too vague and one-sided a 
statement. His own statement avoids all 
vagueness by saying that (p. 137) ‘‘an organ- 
ism and its medium, when they have reached 
a certain fitness of one to the other and hit 
upon the happy concurrence of conditions, 
combine, so to speak, to make a new start, 
the initial step of a more complex organism ; ’’ 
that is, the organism evolves by evolution, and 
the evolution is caused by just those condi- 
tions that bring it to pass. Our author ex- 
pands this thought, which he intends as an 
important complement to the doctrine of natu- 
ral selection, over quite a number of pages. 
But that, in the famous words of the Duchess 
in Alice’s Adventures, is not half so bad as 
our author can do if he tries. Religion he de- 
fines (on p. 208) as ‘ the deep fusing feeling 
of human solidarity.” Certain beliefs com- 
mon among men are described (p. 198) as 
‘* the imaginative interpretations of an instinct 
springing into consciousness from the upward 
striving impulse which, immanent in man as 
part and crown of organic nature, ever throbs 
in his heart as the inspiration of hope.’? Thus 
our author knows of an instinct that springs 


SCIENCE. 


603 


from an impulse, which impulse is immanent 
in a crown, and at the same time strives up- 
wards, and throbs in a heart as an inspiration. 
All this means, not mere carelessness of style, 
but a more serious error, else we should not 
have mentioned it here. It means haziness 
of thought; it means that our author can 
write many words in succession without know- 
ing, in any adequate way, what they mean. 
Our author’s fashion of discussing things of 
which he is ignorant receives a crowning illus- 
tration in his last chapter; and, remote as 
the topic is from the main subject, we must 
mention this illustration here, because such 
matters are important to any student who is 
seeking a trustworthy guide. In this last 
chapter Dr. Maudsley has much to say of 
certain modern tendencies that he considers 
unhealthy. Of these, one is the excessive 
display of grief for the dead, which he thinks 
is growing among us. ‘‘ Nobody of the least 
note dies but we are told with clamor of grief 
. . . that the most amiable . . . the best of 
men has been taken from us.’’ But nobody, 
says Dr. Maudsley, is worth all this. ‘+ Con- 
trast this modern incontinence of emotion 
with the calm, chaste, and manly simplicity 
of Homer ; as we observe it, for example, 
in his description of the death of Achillés.’’ 
Then follows a page of blank verse, which, of 
course, is offered to us as somebody’s trans- 
lation of the cited passage from Homer. Now, 
Dr. Maudsley was not obliged to say any thing 
about Homer, much less to quote him. He 
has gone out of his way to tell us, with an air 
of easily carried learning, what ‘ we see’ in 
Homer. When a man thus pretends to quote 
the father of song, whose poems are at hand 
in all sorts of translations in any library, and 
to quote him especially for the sake of illus- 
trating a certain important point, a reader 
supposes, of course, that the quotation will at 
least be a fairly accurate expression of some- 
thing that Homer said. But, in fact, nothing 
resembling the passage quoted is to be found 
anywhere in Homer. These verses are not 
even so much as a remote imitation of any 
thing Homeric that bears upon Achilles. We 
ourselves are unable to identify them, but their 
tone is distinctly very modern; and we have 
little doubt that their author is now alive, or 
has very recently died.’ But this is not all. 
To complete the blunder, Dr. Maudsley, in 
11A classical friend, to whom we submitted Dr. Maudsley’s 
quotation after we had written the above, assures us that the pas- 
sage nearest to this one in ancient poetry is the death of Achilles 
as described in Quintus Smyrnaeus III., and that Quintus’s de- 
scxiption itself differs in 80 many important points from that of 


Dr. Maudsley’s Homer as to make the latter not even a fair imita- 
tion of any ancient model. 


604 


this reference to Homer, has unwittingly chosen 
the worst possible illustration for his purpose, 
quite apart from his supposed quotation: for 
Homer does indeed tell us, in one passage (in 
‘the last book of the Odyssey), about the death 
of Achilles; but that passage informs us of 
a seventeen-days mourning of gods and men 
oyer the hero, with funeral ceremonies of ex- 
traordinary splendor, that would have done 
the dead man’s heart good if he could only 
have been there to see. Nobody doubts Ho- 


mer’s simplicity, but Dr. Maudsley wholly, 


misapprehends what it means. How he could 
have been so deceived in his quotation, we can- 
not guess; but such gratuitous blunders show 
us what to expect of a man that can make 
them. 

If we have little space left to refer to our 
author’s discussion of matters that he is emi- 
nently competent to diseuss, that is not our 
fault. On the pathology of the will we receive 
instruction in the brief space before spoken of. 
Of heredity of mental disease we here find some 
illustrations, but we learn nothing new about 
the obscure subject of the actual laws that 
govern heredity. As to mental disease and its 
phenomena, Dr. Maudsley insists with consid- 
erable emphasis upon his view that the will, 
and in particular the most developed activity 
of the will, as seen in the moral consciousness of 
the civilized man, is the least stable, because the 
highest and latest element of man’s mind, 
and must therefore show the signs of decay 
and disease soonest. This, he assures us, is 
actually the case. He illustrates his position 
by means of a good many instances of certain 
forms of mental disease. The view is not ab- 
solutely novel, and Dr. Maudsley has described 
most of the facts before. But all this is well 
worth telling, and would have made a useful 
essay if the rest of the book had reached the 
fire instead of the printer. As itis, this part 
of the book is the only one from which a stu- 
dent of such psychology as Dr. Mandsley so 
well describes in his preface can learn any thing 
of importance that is in any sense novel. 

Our task in reading and reviewing has been 
no pleasant one. With Dr. Maudsley we hope 
for a psychology of ‘ concrete minds,’ that may 
teach us ‘‘ why individuals feel, think, and do 
as they do, how they may be actuated to think, 
feel, and do differently, and in what way best 
to deal, with them so as to do one’s duty to 
one’s self and them *? We see in the humblest 
experimental researches conscientiously con- 
ducted, in every observation of the mental 
pathologist, in every advance in nervous physi- 
ology, in every new discovery in animal psy- 


SCIENCE. 


\ 
[Vou. IL, No. 39. 


chology, and, let us freely add, in every fruitful 
philosophic research into the deeper problems 
of thought, in all these things, not only aids, 
but necessary conditions of the approach to the 
great end thus defined. But we also see in 
vague rambling disquisitions de omnibus rebus, 
such as neatly fill this book ; in efforts at phi- 
losophy by a man who is confessedly and very 
manifestly unable to understand philosophic 
terms, who ignores the history of thought, and 
who insists upon writing pages of contradictory 
statements, —in all this we see, not advance, 
but serious injury. And when not only the book 
is such as it is, but also the author is a man 
whose position and previous services command 
respect, and who is therefore able to call the 
attention of busy students to whatever he may 
choose to publish upon the subject, — then we 
say that such conduct is a serious breach of the 
privileges of authorship, and we wish to raise 
a decided protest against it. For the rest we 
haye no quarrel with the author’s determin- 
ism, nor with his materialistic basis for mental 
science, so long as he confines both the doc- 
trines to their only proper sphere ; that is, em- 
ploys them as regulative principles in discussing 
and explaining the facts of experience. We 
quarrel only with his confused and purposeless 
fashion of discussion. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


— THE report of the committee of the Geodetic 
association was presented at a general meeting of 
the conference, Oct. 28, at Rome, and was adopted 
after an animated debate. The report favors the 
universal adoption of the Greenwich meridian, and 
also recommends, as the point of departure of the 
‘universal hour and cosmopolitan dates, the mean 
noon of Greenwich. The conference hopes, that, if 
the whole world agrees to the unification of longi- 
tudes and hours by accepting the Greenwich meridian, 
England will advance the unification of weights and 
measures by joining the metrical convention of 1875. 
The government of Italy will be requested to officially 
communicate the foregoing action of the conference 
to all nations. 

—In the October number of the Harvard univer- 
sity bulletin, further instalments are given of the 
geographical index to the maps in Pelermann’s mit- 
theilungen, by Mr. Bliss, and of Mr. Winsor’s ‘ Bib- 
liography of Ptolemy’s geography,’ containing im- 
portant notes on early American cartography. Mr. 
Winsor also commences an account, of which six 
pages are printed in the present number, of the Kohl 
collection of early maps in the Department of state 
at Washington, prefacing it with a brief account of 
Dr. Kohl’s labors. 

In the official portion of the bulletin, we find the 
following appointments gazetted: Arthur Searle as 


_ NovEMBER 2, 1883.] 


assistant professor of astronomy ; Robert H. Harri- 
son, Harold Whiting, Charles E. Faxon, and Edward 


Burgess, instructors in anatomy, physics, botany, and 


entomology, severally; O. W. Huntington, assistant in 
chemistry, G. T. Hartshorn in organic chemistry, 
and G. W. Perkins in biology; and Dr. C, S. Minot, 
lecturer in embryology. The establishment of ten 
fellowships in the Lawrence scientific school, with 
an annual income of five hundred dollars each, is 
recommended by the corporation. 

— The subjects to be presented at the Society of 
arts of the Massachusetts institute of technology the 
coming season will embrace a wide range of scientific 
and practical topics, arrangements haying already 
been made as follows: — 

Oct. 11, Professor Edward S. Morse of Salem spoke 
on Japanese pottery; Oct. 25, Professor William 
H. Brewer of New Haven read a paper.on the evo- 
lution and breeds of domestic animals, as illustrated 
in swine; Noy. 8, Mr. Thomas Gaffield of Boston 
will read a paper on glass and glass-making. 

At the subsequent meetings, the arrangements for 
which have not yet been definitely made, Dr. 
Charles S. Minot of the Harvard medical school 
will probably speak on some biological sub- 
ject; Capt. D. A. Lyle, U.S.A., on the rise, 
progress, and methods of the U.S. life-saving 
service; Mr. Chauncey Smith of Boston, on 
the influence of inventions; Mr. R. B. Forbes, 
on the rigging of ships; and Major C. W. Ray- 
mond of the U.S. engineers will speak on Bos- 
ton harbor, Various mechanical contrivances 
of interest will also be exhibited. ; 

—A very valuable work on German meteor- 
ological bibliography has been prepared by Dr. 
Hellman. It contains a bibliography proper, 
limited to German authors, and also historical 
notices upon meteorological observations, and 


_ the progress of the science in that country. 


—A free course of popular lectures upon zodlogy, 
specially intended for teachers and students, will be 
given by the Cincinnati society of natural history on 
Friday evenings, commencing to-day. The follow- 
ing is the programme: Oct. 19, Introduction, The 
study of zodlogy, by Prof. J. Mickleborough; Oct. 26, 
The human skeleton as compared with that of other 
animals, by Prof. J. Mickleborough; Nov. 2, The 
trochilidae, or humming-birds, by Charles Dury; 
Noy. 9, Fish fauna of Cincinnati, by Dr. D.S. Young; 
Noy. 16, Comparative anatomy of the molluseca, by 
Prof. A. G. Wetherby; Noy. 23, The mollusea from 
an evolutionary stand-point, by Prof. A. G. Weth- 
erby; Nov. 30, Some curious insects, by Charles 
Dury; Dee. 7, Practical manipulation of the micro- 
scope, by Dr. J. H. Hunt. 

When this is completed, a second course of equal 
length will be given on geology and mineralogy, the 
special topics of which will be announced later. 

— Active movements are making to supply, as far 
as possible, the losses sustained by the Indiana state 
university in its recent fire. When the first meeting 
of the board of trustees was held, about a week after 
the fire, Monroe county was prepared to guarantee 


SCIENCE. 


605 


fifty thousand dollars; and this, with over twenty- 
seven thousand dollars’ insurance, gave the officials 
great confidence. No definite action, however, was 
taken, until a recent meeting of the trustees at In- 
dianapolis, when it was decided to purchase a larger 
tract of land, just east of the city of Bloomington, 
much more favorably located than before, and to 
erect at once two fire-proof buildings, one of which 
can be used for the present for the literary depart- 
ment, and the other for the scientific department, 
museum, and library. Later, another building will be 
added, to which the literary department will be trans- 
ferred, when the scientific department will occupy 
one of those now to be built, and the other will be 
given wholly to the museum and library. 

For the present the university will occupy the old 
building, which was saved. It is reported that the 
trustees have in view the purchase of some valuable 
collections and a good library. : 

—A correspondent of La Nature gives a sketch, 
which we reproduce, of a group of French soldiers, 
as they appeared when resting on their marches in 


Algeria, when they were obliged to stop on marshy 


land, and had nothing upon which to rest. The 
soldiers seated themselves each on the knees of the 
one behind, and were arranged in a circle, so that 
there was no end man. The correspondent vouches 
for having often seen the operation. La Nature 
recommends the collegians to try the experiment in 
equilibrium when they return from their vacations, 
—advice which it would hardly do to transmit to 
Americans. 

—Trouvelot has made an examination of the sky 
near the place of the sun at the May eclipse, for the 
purpose of rediscovering, if possible, the red star 
which he saw at that time, and suspected to be an 
intra-mercurial planet. 

In the re-examination, he used a telescope of the 
same aperture and power as at the eclipse. He found 
again, without trouble, his two ‘white stars,’ and 
identified them as forty-one Arietis ande Arietis. As 
to ‘the brilliant star of a pronounced red,’ he says he 
could not find it, and that it is certain that no star of 
that magnitude and color now exists near the position 
assigned, nor even within a distance much greater than 
it is permissible to attribute to the probable error. 


/ 


606 


At the same time, seeing he failed to obtain a determi- 
nation of its position, or to notice any disk or phase, 
he considers it only right to reserve any conclusion 
as to the probable nature of the object (Comptes 
rendus, Sept. 17). Astronomers generally will be dis- 
posed to believe, with those who observed the eclipse 
at the same station with M. Trouvelot, that his limits 
of probable error were, under the peculiar cireum- 
stances, some of which are mentioned in his original 
report, much larger than he seems disposed to admit, 
and quite extensive enough to include the star a 
Arietis, which was not far from the place he assigns, 
and in magnitude and color corresponds well with 
his description. 

— The department of entomology, of the New-York 
state museum of natural history, issues a circular 
(no. 1) giving directions for ‘arresting the chinch-bug 
invasion’ of northern New York, with good figures 
of the insect enlarged and of natural size. 

— Wood sections and vegetable tissue was the 
subject discussed by Mr. J. F. Whiteaves at the 
meeting of the Ottawa microscopical society, Oct. 16. 
Mr. Whiteaves was elected president, and Dr. R. J. 
Wicksteed secretary, for the ensuing year. 

— Among the prizes given to American exhibiters 
at the International fisheries exhibition just closed, at 
London, gold medals were awarded to G. Brown 
Goode, for work on ichthyology; D. S. Jordan, for 
work on ichthyology; Alexander Agassiz, for work 
on ichthyology; J. E. Hilgard, for optical densimeter; 
Capt. C. Sigsbee, U.S.N., for deep-sea sounding ap- 
paratus; W. L. Bailee, U.S.N., for deep-sea ther- 
mometer ¢ silver medals to -G. Brown Goode, 
for publications relating to the fisheries; Marshall 
McDonald, for universal hatching-jar; Lieut. Z. L. 
Tanner, US.N., for deep-sea sounding apparatus; 
W. G. Farlow, for collection of marine algae; J. H. 
Emerton, for model of squid and octopus; T. H. 
Bean, for works on ichthyology; Marshall McDonald, 
for map showing shad fisheries: and diplomas to J. 


E. Hilgard, for salinometer; Capt. C. Sigsbee, U.S.N.,. 


for parallel ruler. ; 

The United States receives 48 gold medals, 18 of 
which go to the fish-ecommission, mostly on collective 
exhibits, 47 silver medals, 29 bronze medals, 24 diplo- 
mas, and 7 special prizes. Other gold medals are to 
the national museum, for collective exhibit of fishes; 
signal-service, for most complete collection of appa- 
ratus for weather prediction; and lighthouse board. 

— The French government has just issued a geo- 
logical map of Algeria in five sheets, scale of 1:800,- 
000, with two explanatory memoirs. This work is 
only preliminary; and appropriations haye been made 
to organize a geological survey, which will make a 
careful and detailed geological map, first on the scale 
of 1:400,000, and then on a larger one, say 1:80,000, 
or even 1:40,000. The directors are A. Pomel, J. 
Pouyanne, and J. Tissot. 

—Col. A. Parnell, R.A., states (Journ. sc., Sep- 
tember), that, as recorded by official returns, the 
number of persons killed by thunderbolts in Russia 
(not including Poland and Finland), in the five years 
from 1870 to 1874, was 2,270, of whom no less than 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. Il., No. 39, 


2,161 were dwellers in the country; and that during 
this period, in the same area, 4,192 fires were occa- 
sioned by thunderbolts, 4,099 of them being in the 
country. 

— The speeches of Sir Lyon Playfair and Sir Charles 
Dilke, during the recent debate in the House of com- 
mons on the vaccination question, haye been pub- 
lished by Messrs. Jarrold & Sons in pamphlet form, 
under the title of ‘Facts about vaccination.’ It is 
hoped that this little publication may prove a useful 
antidote to the present mischievous and ignorant 
agitation against Jenner’s great discovery. The Cloth- 
workers’ company, one of the old London guilds, has 
devoted a fund at its disposal for the encouragement 
of research to offering a prize of a thousand pounds 
for the discovery of a method of procuring lymph 
that would obviate the present objections. 

— At a recent meeting of the Société d’encourage- 
ment pour l’industrie nationale, M. G. Meyer of 
Paris submitted specimens of paper specially manu- 
factured to resist fire. It was stated by him that the 
papers and documents shown had been for four hours 
in a retort in a pottery furnace; and it is further af- 
firmed, that those present were unable to distinguish, 
either by appearance or texture, the papers so treated 
from others which had not undergone the ordeal of 
fire. ‘‘From experiments made with a specimen of 
wall-paper sent us,’’ says a writer in Jron, ‘‘ we are 
enabled to say, that, although the appearance of 
the paper does change, the fire-resisting properties 
claimed for it are undoubted: the paper certainly 
does not ignite,’’ The paper can be made of a quality 
suitable for deeds and other important documents, or 
of a quality suitable for wall-paper, theatrical deco- 
rations, or, in fact, for any purpose for which paper 
is used. Mr. Meyer has also invented an incombus- 
tible ink and incombustible colors, Artists using 
those colors may preserve their works to a certain 
extent. The invention would appear to be of the 
greatest value to theatrical managers. By using 
thick cardboard of Mr. Meyer’s material, together 
with his paints, they are able to render their scenery 
uninflammable. At the same time, for documents of 
importance, — deeds, wills, and agreements, — the in- 
vention should come into universal use. 

— The catalogue of the Miller manual labor school 
was issued recently, bearing date of June, 1883. It 
is a neat pamphlet of some thirty pages, printed by 
the boys of the school. The school is situated in 
Albemarle county, Va., and was founded by fhe late 
Samuel Miller of Campbell county, who left prop- 
erty to the value of more than one million of dollars, 
to be expended in the erection of buildings, and the 
endowment of a school in which the students are to 
be instructed in the branches of a ‘ good, plain, sound, 
English education,’ in ancient and modern languages, 
and in the useful arts. The school is now in opera- 
tion, and a considerable number of students are in 
attendance, who are not only taught, but are fed and 
clothed, at the expense of the fund, which yields an 
income of sixty or seventy thousand dollars a year. 
Every student works in the shop, in the printing- — 
office, on the farm, or in the garden. The workshop 


a 


PS ee 


NoveMBER 2, 1883. ] 


is built from the plans of Mr. M. P. Higgins of 


Worcester, and a class of twenty-five boys is making 
good progress. The farm comprises eight hundred 
and fifty acres, of which a hundred and twenty are 
fine, rich bottom-lands in the valley of Mechum’s 
River. The farm last year yielded an income of four 
thousand dollars. Boys are received at from nine to 
fourteen years of age, and are kept until eighteen. 

— The White Mountain club of Portland held their 
autumn meeting, Oct. 17. The president (Rev. Dr. 
Thomas Hill) narrated his labors in identifying a 
mountain seen from Portland, and hitherto taken for 
the Imp. He finds it is a part of Carter range: the 
true Imp is scarcely visible. Still another ‘Imp’ is 
seen from Copp’s house, near the Glen and Gorham 
road, where it is pointed out by stage-drivers, etc., as 
the south-west side of the true Imp. Cline’s map 
correctly locates this as another peak. 

— The collections of plants made by the late Presi- 
dent Chadbourne, comprising thirty-four distinct lots, 


and containing among them some of interest and 


value, are offered for sale by his executor, A. Schenck, 
30 Union Square, New York. 

— Herr Hugo Zoller, who visited the Isthmus of 
Panama and the South-American states as corre- 
spondent of the Cologne gazette, has published his 
experiences in two books, the first called ‘Der Pana- 
makanal,’ in which he contradicts the too favorable 
reports spread in the European papers as to Mr. Les- 
seps’ work on the canal, and says his company has 
too little capital to accomplish the undertaking. He 
gives a map of the district, and fully expects to see 
the water-way a fact, and not an idea, within ten 
years, but not through Mr. Lesseps’ means. The sec- 
ond book concerns Brazil, and is called ‘ Die deutsch- 
en im brazilianischen urwald.’ 

—T. W. Blakiston contributes to the Japan 
gazette of Sept. 8 an account of a voyage across the 
North Pacific, in the ship Undaunted, from Yedo to 
Victoria, V.I., between May 20 and June 21, 1883. 
Temperatures, winds, etc., were carefully noted, and 
the author came to the conclusion that the Kuro siwo 
at that season disappears between latitudes 37° and 
39°, and west from east longitude 154°. Eastward from 
this point nothing was seen of warm water referable 
to that current. 

— Ina paper recently read before the Geographical 
society of the Pacific, some remarkable statements 
were made in regard to the Mahlemuts of Norton 
Sound, Alaska. Among other things, if correctly re- 
ported, the author stated that ‘their customs and 
part of their language resemble the Chinese greatly.’ 
The Mahlemuts are an ordinary small tribe of west- 
ern Eskimo, who have been studied by a number of 
ethnologists, and in no respect differ’from the other 
Eskimo tribes of the region. Such wild statements, 


_ especially when made before a scientific society, are 


almost invariably reproduced in European journals, 
and for that reason should be noticed and corrected. 

—J. G. Swan, who has been investigating the 
Queen Charlotte Islands, returned to Victoria, Sept. 
27. He discovered a fine deep-water fish, which is 
new to the food-supply of the coast, and is said to 


SCIENCE. 


607 


occur in large numbers. He also reports finding a 
good harbor hitherto unknown. 

— The volume of Washington astronomical and 
meteorological observations for 1879 has just been 
received at the naval observatory from the govern- 
ment printing-office, and will be distributed to cor- 
respondents immediately. 

— A third edition, enlarged and improved, of Pae- 
tel’s useful catalogue of mollusks, is announced. 
Though by no means available for text-book pur- 
poses, and with the usual allowance of errors, this 
publication cannot fail to be useful to all who have a 
large collection of shells to arrange, if it were only 
to furnish a workable foundation. 

— The Iowa academy of sciences met at Ames on 
Sept. 27. Prof. C. E. Bessey of Ames read papers on 
the hybridization of Spirogyra majuscula and S. pro- 
tecta; the effect of frost on leaf-cells, and on certain 
insect-catching glands on a grass. The glands re- 
ferred to in the last paper are located on the blossom 
stems of Sporobolis, and secrete a viscous fluid, in 
which insects are entrapped. Their utility in these 
plants seems difficult to understand. In reply to a 
question by Professor Stalker, whether they could 
protect the blossoms from injurious insects, Professor 
Osborn said he thought they might possibly give pro- 
tection from Cecidomyiae. Professor Herrick of 
Grinnell described a water-still for obtaining a con- 
stant supply of distilled water in laboratories, and 
offered some observations on the Grinnell tornado, 
tending to show that at that point the tornado 
formed a loop in its course. Prof. H. Osborn of 
Ames offered some additions to the list of Iowa in- 
sects, in Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, and 
Neuroptera; notes on Mallophaga, taken in Iowa; and 
a paper on an epidemic disease attacking Caloptenus 
differentialis. This last is a disease similar in nature 
to that caused by Entomophthora muscae in the com- 
mon house-fly, and very fatal to these locusts. It is 
caused by a species apparently new, and shortly to be 
described by Professor Bessey in the American natu- 
ralist. 

— The third and fourth parts of volume xiy. of the 
Archiv fiir anthropologie contain three original papers, 
as follows: on Hypertrichosis, by Dr. Ranke; on the 
eyes of the Fuegians, by Dr. Seggel; and on copper in 
ancient times, by Dr. Reyer. Reviews of the anthro- 
pological literature in Russia are prepared by Dr. 
Stieda; in Scandinavian literature, by Miss Julia Mes- 
torf; in American literature, by Dr. Emil Schmidt. 
The last named covers twenty-three closely printed 
quarto pages, and embraces about every paper of im- 
portance published in our country during the last 
year, relating to anthropology. The bibliography 
occupies 161 pages, and many of the titles are accom- 
panied by a brief note stating the purpose of the pub- 
lication. It is a thorough piece of work, and is 
distributed as follows: archeology and priscan history 
(urgeschichte), by J. H. Miiller, 41 pages; anatomy, 
by Dr. Pausch, 6 pages; ethnology and travels, by 
Dr. Albrecht Penck, 90 pages; zodlogy in relation to 
anthropology, by Dr. George Boehm, 23 pages. 

Students in all branches of science know how diffi- 


608 


cult it is to find the thing they are seeking. Between 
those piled up and stowed in great collections and 
those hid away in private museums, much time is 
wasted. Now, the anthropologists of Germany long 
ago felt the necessity of publishing the catalogues of 
the specimens in their great museums; and already 
have appeared five of these in former numbers of 
the Archiv. The current number devotes 36 pages to 
the Senckenberg museums in Frankfort-a.-M., with 
tables of measurements and descriptions; and 25 pages 
to the anthropological collection in the Grossherzogli- 
chen naturalien-cabinets im alten schlosse, in Darm- 
stadt, also with measurements and descriptions. 
Comparisons, of course, are always odious; but it 
cannot fail to strike our American anthropologists 
that the especial merit of the German system, that 
is, co-operation, is wanting with us. It may also be 
mentioned that none of the foreign anthropological 
societies seem to know any thing about the work in 
progress at the surgeon-general’s office at Washington. 

— There have been issued by the government, under 
the direction of Gen. W. B. Hazen, chief signal-officer, 
the meteorological and physical observations on the 
east coast of British America, by Orray Taft Sherman, 
as no. 11 of the ‘ professional papers.’ Nos. 8 and 12 
consist of papers on the ‘ Motions of fluids and solids’ 
and ‘ Popular essays on the movements of the atmos- 
phere,’ by Prof. W. Ferrel; the first edited, with notes, 
by Mr. Frank Waldo. No. 9 contains clfarts and 
tables showing the geographical distribution of rain- 
fall in the United States. 

— The new British patent law will go into effect 
Jan. 1, 1884. The patent fee is reduced to about a 
hundred dollars for all fees, including agents’ ordi- 
nary charges. Provisional protection is extended to 
nine months. Annual taxes are substituted for the 
stamp-duties now charged, although no change has 
been made in the total amount. The new provisions 
apply to applications now in the office. No change 
has been made in regard to examinations. The pat- 
ent is issued to any applicant who chooses to pay the 
fees, and without formal examination, A system of 
comparison of the patent claim with the claim for 
which provisional protection has been granted, is, 
however, established, — a commendable innovation, 
and one which might well be supplemented by the 
system of complete examination practised in the 
United States. The duration of the patent is to be 
fourteen years in all cases, irrespective of the expira- 
tion of earlier foreign patents on the same device. 
The publication in Great Britain of the foreign speci- 
fication of the invention does not, under the new 
law, invalidate the British patent. The new law 
will evidently greatly favor the inventor, and the 


change will be likely to prove to be very greatly to: 


the advantage of that country as well. 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 


Bodlander, G. Das optische drehungsvermégen isomorpher 
mischungen aus den dithionaten des bleis und des strontiums. 
Inaug: diss. Breslau, Kéfler, 18838. 34p. 8°. 

Edwards, Emory. Modern American locomotive engines; 
their design, construction, and management: a practical work 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 39. 


for practical men. 
12°, 

Houston, EdwinJ. ‘The elements of chemistry; for the 
use of schools, academies, and colleges. Philadelphia, Eldredge, 
1883. 444p. 12°, 

Johonnot, J. A natural history reader, for school and 
home. New York, Appleton, 18+414 p., illustr. 12°. 

; peter ee Handwérterbuch der chemie, band i. il- 
ustr. 8°. 

Planteau, H. Développement de la colonne yertébrale. 
Paris, 1883. 116 p., illustr. 4°. 

Pouy, F. Les anciennes vues d’optique. Amiens, impr. 
Jeunet, 1883. 39p. 8°. Dee Coad 

Rochebrune, A. T.de. De l'emploi des mollusques chez 
les peuples anciens et modernes. i. Amerique. livr.i. Paris, 
Leroux, 18838. 23p. 8°. ‘ 

Rohde, E. Beitriige zur kenntniss der anatomie der nema- 
toden. Inaug. diss. Breslau, Kéhler, 1888. 26p. 8°. 

Routledge, R. Discoveries and inventions of the 19th cen- 
tury. London, 1883, 8°. 

Ruhnke, C. Die einwirkung von alkyljodiiren auf triazo- 
benzoesiiure, Inaug. diss. Gottingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 
1882. 86 p.. 8°. 

Schuver, J. M. 
95p.,map. 4°. 

Siebenmann, F. Die fadenpilze Aspergillus flavus, niger 
und fumigatus; Eurotium repens (und Aspergillus glaucus) und 
ihre beziehungen zur Otomycosis Aspergillina. edicinisch- 
botanische studien auf grund experimenteller untersuchungen. 
Mit vorwort von Dr. Alb. Burckhardt-Merian. 8°. 

Smith, Adolphe. Pneumatic drainage: a description of the 
Berlin method. New York, Spon, 1883. 50p.,6pl. 8°. 

Societa crittogamologica italiana. Memorie. vol. i. Varese, 
tip. Malnati, 1888. 10+516p. 8°. 

Staude, O. Geometrische deutung der additionstheoreme 
der hyperelliptischen integrale und functionen erster ordnung im 
system der confocalen flachen zweiten grades. Habilitations- 
schrift. Breslau, Kéhler, 1883. 71p. 8°. 

Stewart, A. Nether Lochaber. Natural history, legends, 
and folk-lore of the West Highlands. Edinburgh, 1883. 424 p. 
8°. ; 

Streintz, H. Die physikalischen grundlagen der mechanik. 
Leipzig, Teubner, 1883. 12+142p. 8°. : 

Studer, Th. Die fauna der pfahlbauten des Bieler Sees. 
Bern, 1888. 100p.,5pl. 8°. 

Swinburne, J. Practical electrical units popularly ex- 
plained. London, Spon, 1883. 62p., illustr. 12°. 

Tresca, Cours de mécanique appliquée. division i. 
1883. 3827p. 4°. 

Van Tricht, V. Les enregistreurs en météorologie. De- 
scription d’un nouveau météorographe électrique. Bruxelles, 
1883. 75p. 8°. 

Waechter, F. Die anwendung der elektricitiit fiir militar- 
ische zwecke. Wien, 1883. 256p., illustr. 8°. 

Wahnschaffe, M. Verzeichness der im gebiete des Aller- 
vereins zwischen Helmstedt und Magdeburg aufgefundenen 
kafer. Neuhaldensleben, Zyraud, 1883. 5+455 p. . 

Wainwright, 8. Scientific sophisms: a review of current 
theories concerning atoms, apes, and men. New York, Funk & 
Wagnalls, 1883. (Standard lib., no. 97). 302p. 12°. 

Waitz, K. Ueber den einfluss der galvanischen polarisa- 
tion auf die aenderung der weibung. MHabilitationsschrift. 
Tiibingen, Fues, 1883. 39p. 8°. 

. Walter, H., und Dunikowski, E. yon. Das petroleum- 
gebiet der galizischen Westkatpathen. Wien, fanz, 1883, 4+ 
100 p.,2pl.,1 map. 8°. : 

Ward, G. Mason. A compend of chemistry. Philadelphia, 
Blakiston, 1888. ll1p. 8°. 

Wenghoffer, L. Lehrbuch der anorganischen, reinen, und 
technischen chemie, auf grundlage der neuesten forschungen und 
der fortschritte der technik, wesentlich fiir studirende auf uni- 
versitiiten und technische lehranstalten, etc. abth.i. Stuttgart, 
Wittwer, 1888. 302 p., illustr. 8°. 

Willgrod, H. Fliicken, welche sich durch ihre kriimmungs- 
linien in unendliche kleine quadrate theilen lassen. Inaug. 
diss. Gttingen, Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1882. 50p. 8°. 

Wilke; A. Die volkswirthschaftliche bedeutung der elek- 
tricitat und das elektromonopol. (Elektrische zeitfragen, no, 1.) 


Philadelphia, Baird, 1883. 388 p., illustr. 


Reisen im oberen Nilgebiet. Gotha, 1883. 


Paris, 


Zeitschrift, internationale fiir die elektrische ausstellung 
in Wien 1883. Red.: J. Kramer und Dr. Ernst Lecher. Wochen- 
schrift fiir die gesammt-interessen der internationalen elektro- 
technischen ausstellung 1883. Erscheint in 24nummern. 16. p., 
illustr. 4°. 

Ziegler, J. M. Ein geographischer text zur geologischen 
karte der erde. atlas. 8°. 


oe le NCE. 


FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1883. 


THE LICK TRUST. 


Tr will be remembered that a certain portion 
of the large estate of Mr. Lick was to be de- 
Rota to the uses of science. A specific sum 
of seven hundred thousand dollars was to be 
expended in the purchase of the most powerful 
: telescope attainable, and in the construction of 
an observatory on Mount Hamilton; and the 
unexpended balance of this sum was to consti- 
tute a permanent fund for the maintenance of 
the observatory. Many specific bequests were 
made for other purposes not scientific; and 
after all these specific sums had been paid, it 
was provided that the sum remaining over 
should be divided between the Society of pio- 
neers of California and the California academy 
{ of sciences. Science is interested, also, in this 
last bequest. It will be remembered that many 
changes of trustees, and also of the form of 
the gift, were made in the early years of the 
trust; and that vexatious suits were entered 
by supposed heirs of Mr. Lick, which were 
successively decided by the courts. At pres- 
ent a definite construction of the deed of trust 
has been made by the supreme court of Cali- 
fornia, from which there is naturally no appeal ; 
and the trustees are acting under this construe- 
tion. 
. During the period of years over which the 
_ preliminary litigation extended, a great shrink- 
age in the values of real estate took place in 
. California, as well as elsewhere in the United 
States. At the end of these litigations, the 
trustees found themselves in control of much 
valuable property, which could be sold only at 
a great loss. If it had been sold at that time, 
; there would have been no money left to divide 
“between the pioneers and the academy; and 
not only this, but some of the specific bequests 
_ would have remained unfulfilled: it was there- 
fore the policy of the trustees to manage the 
No. 40. —1883. 


estate carefully, and to sell only to advantage. 
In this way only, would the residuary legatees 
receive any considerable sum. ‘The estate has 
certainly been well managed : for from Dee. 1, 
1876, to Oct. 1, 1883, the aggregate net profits 
have been $455,458, or over $66,000 per year. 
There was no surplus to divide in 1876 ; while, 
at. the present time, some $192,000 remains 
over, free of all specific bequests. It therefore 
would appear that the trustees have deserved 
well of science for their careful administration 
of the trust. 

Their policy has clearly been wise, when 
looked at without prejudice: but it has not 
been acceptable to the residuary legatees, 
since they have not yet received any immedi- 
ate benefit; nor can they, under the decision | 
of the court, until the whole estate is settled, 
and all specific bequests are fulfilled. 

This is no doubt annoying to the academy 
of sciences, which has so many useful purposes 
which could be served by an increased income. 
It is specially annoying to the pioneers, who 
all came to California in 1849-50, and who, 
therefore, are all men in middle life. When 
the French countess heard of the Montgolfiers’ 
balloon ascension, she exclaimed that these 
men would certainly invent the art of never 
dying; but she added pensively, ‘ It will be 
when I am dead.’ This is the very natural 
attitude of the pioneers; and it is this that 
has led to a recent savage attack on the 
trustees, reports of which haye appeared in 
the San Francisco and other papers. These 
attacks have been directed against the whole 
action of the trustees, without discrimination. 
It is, however, clear, that the actions of the 
trustees must be considered in two ways. 
Most of their official acts have been done un- 
der specifie directions of the courts of law. 
These acts are much complained of by the 
residuary legatees: but it is obvious that such 
complaints are idle ; for, if the trustees had not 
obeyed the orders of the courts, they would 


610 


have been long since expelled from their re- 
sponsible positions. The remaining acts com- 
plained of have been done in pursuance of the 
general policy just outlined. It seems equally 
clear that these complaints, though natural, 
are unjust. The residuary legatees have now 
$192,000 to divide. It is not long since they 
had nothing. Science is certainly grateful to 
the trustees, since their economical policy has 
already sayed a large sum which will event- 
ually go to making the California academy 
of sciences more powerful and useful than it 
now is. 

With regard to the other bequest in which 
science is interested, — namely, the Lick ob- 
servatory, — there is every reason to be ex- 
tremely grateful to the trustees for their wise 
administration of the trust. 

Their economy has certainly been remarka- 
ple. They have expended on the observatory 
to Oct. 1, 1883, $154,527.98; and they have 
remaining $545,472.02. This $155,000 has 
done the following things:. the top of a bleak 
mountain four thousand feet above the sea, 
and twenty-seven miles from a town, has been 
levelled off so as to give a sufficient area for 
the buildings (forty thousand tons of rock 
have been remoyed for this purpose alone) ; 
brick enough to complete the whole of the 
buildings has been made on the side of the 
mountain, and delivered at the top, at a total 
cost less than the price of hauling the same 
amount from the nearest town; a handsome 
and well-built main building is now nearly fin- 
ished (the large dome alone remains ; a small 

_ dome, containing a yery perfect twelve-inch 
equatorial by Clark, has been in use since 
November, 1881) ; a four-inch transit instru- 
ment, in a conyenient house, is in complete 
working-order ; a photoheliograph in a perma- 
nent house has been in use since December, 
1882; the house for the meridian circle is 
begun; the meridian circle is half paid for, 
and a payment has been made on the large 
telescope. This is the work which is to be seen 
on the mountain-top proper. Just below this 
are the houses for the workmen, shops, stables, 
ete., all in good condition, and a very com- 


SCIENCE. 


: 


[Vou. IL, No. 40. 


plete system of water-supply in full working- 
order. 

It will appear to any competent person that 
this work has been done thoroughly, and that— 
it has been done economically. At the same 
rate of expenditure, at least $300,000 will 
remain as a permanent fund for the support 
of the observatory. 

It therefore appears that the trustees haye 
deserved well of science in their administra-_ 
tion of their trust, not only in regard to the 
California academy of sciences, but also in 
relation to the Lick observatory ; and it should — 
be the desire of all interested in the adminis- — 
tration of this trust to strengthen the hands — 
of the trustees in the continuance of their wise 
policy. 


6 


WHIRLWINDS, CYCLONES, AND TOR- 
NADOES. —Il. 


Tue further growth of the desert-whirl may 
be briefly described. The air standing quietly — 
on a flat, dry surface allows the lower strata to— 
be quickly warmed to a high temperature. If 
the air were in motion, no part of it would re- 
main long enough close to the ground to be 
greatly warmed ; if the surface were not flat, 
the lower air would flow up the slopes as soon — 
as it was a little heated, and not wait to ac- 
quire a high temperature ; if the surface were — 
wet, much of the sun’s heat would be occupied 
in evaporating the water (as will be explained — 
below), and would so be lost to the lower air: 
it is therefore only in calm weather, on a 
desert plain, that the sun can succeed in warm-_ 
ing the lower air to excess, and so produce a 
very unstable equilibrium, and a strong up-— 
draught when the upsetting begins. The longer 
the delay before the overturning, the more 
heat-energy is accumulated, and the more yio- 
lent the motion when it begins. The lower 
air rises at some point against the oppression 
of the upper layers. The surrounding warm 
air flows in from all sides toward this central 
point, and follows the leader. Soon the mo- 
tion becomes general and lively, dust and 
sand are blown along toward the centre, lifted 
and carried aloft with the ascending air 
in its rapidly rising current, and then the 
whirling column becomes visible. When thus 
established, the increased velocity and the rota- 
ry motion of the air near the centre are con- 
stant characteristics of the upsetting. ‘Thirty 

1 Continued from No. 39, 


a ea | 


Oe dn Tiak Be 


ee S.-C e 


NoveMBER 9, 1883.] 


or forty feet to one side, the wind may not be 
strong enough to brush along the sand, and a 
few hundred feet away it may not be percepti- 
ble; but at the centre it makes a distinct rush- 
ing or roaring sound, and carries light objects 
upwards, sometimes to a height of several thou- 
sand feet. This increase of velocity of the sur- 
face indraught toward the point of its upward 
escape is a general feature of the motion of a 
mass of free particles along a path of varying 
width: the narrower the path, the faster the 
motion. The same increase is seen in the 
growing velocity of a stream running out of 
a lake, so beautifully shown where the Rhone 


Fie. 3 


flows from Lake Geneva, or, more simply and 
prosaically, in the running of water from a tub 
by the escape-pipe. In the case of a desert- 
whirl, the central wind is held by friction with 
the surface sands much below the velocity it 
might attain; for it must be remembered that 
these whirls are supplied by a comparatively 
thin layer of superheated air next to tie 
ground, often not more than four or five feet 
thick. The restraint of friction on such a 
layer will be very considerable, and its motion 
ean seldom reach a disastrous strength. It 
is probable that in the desert sand-storms, 
which are described as overwhelming caravans, 
there is a much thicker mass of air in ac- 
tivity, and the conditions of motion approach 


SCIENCE. 


611 


those of the tornado, as will be shown far- 
ther on. 

The second characteristic feature of the 
wind’s motion gives name to the storm. A 
whirl must neces ssarily be formed when the air 
moves inwards from all sides towards a centre, 
for the indraughts will surely fail to follow pre- 
cisely radial lines. Their aim will be a little 
inexact; and, as they pass to one side or the 
other of the centre, a turning must begin in a 
direction determined by the strongest current. 
This, once begun, is maintained by the centrifu- 
gal force that arises from it; and the size of 
the central whirl will then depend on the bal- 


(Taken from Amer. journ. sc., 1851.) 


ance between the centripetal and centrifugal 
forees. In ascending at the centre, the wind 
follows an upward spiral course, like the thread 
of a screw of steep pitch, with a diameter of 
five to twenty feet. The direction of turning 
is indifferently one way or the other, accord- 
ing to the side on w hich the indraught happens 
to ] pass the centre. ‘The height to which the 
whirling column rises will be determined by its 
mixture with the adjoining air, and consequent 
cooling until its temperature is that of indiffer- 
ent equilibrium ; and at this elevation the cur- 
rent will turn and spread laterally to make 
room for that which follows. Such a whirl will 
continue as long as its cause lasts; that is, as 
long as it is supplied with warm air at the base. 


612 


Manifestly it must stop in the afternoon, as the 
sun’s heat decreases; and it can never occur 
at night, for then the surface-air is, as a rule, 
cooler than that above, and the atmospheric 
equilibrium is correspondingly stable. Further, 
the whirl will remain at one place, unless, as is 
often the case, it is carried along by a general 
motion of the upper air. 

There is a very strong point of evidence, if 
any is needed, in favor of the view that heat 
applied to the lower layers of the air will pro- 
duce a whirlwind. This is the fact of their pro- 


Fie. 4. 


(Taken from Abhandl. geselisch. wiss. Gott.) 


duction over fires. Much interest was excited 
in this question in connection with the arti- 
ficial causing of rain, some forty years ago, in 
this country ; and observations were carefully 
made of the whirls formed over burning woods 
and eanebrakes, showing them to be very sim- 
ilar in form and action to those naturally aris- 
ing on dry plains (fig. 3). Similar whirls have 
been seen over volcanoes (fig. 4) ; and on a 
calm day the smoke ascending from a factory 
chimney may be seen to have a slow rotary 
motion. Heat is therefore an amply suflicient 
cause of such disturbances. No other excite- 
ment is needed, and electricity has no essential 
part to play. In recognizing this, we see the 
chief difference between the older and newer 
theories of storms. 


SCIENCE. 


nor rain. 


[Vou. IL, No. 40. 


Sand-whirls are common in all desert or 
dry regions, where they often have the name 
of spirits or deyils, from the fantastic and 
apparently evil way in which they flit across 
the burning sands. They have neither clouds 
When well and frequently devel- 
oped, they. may grow to dangerous strength, 
and lift much dust and sand into the upper air, 
where it is blown long distances before falling. 
In this way they serve as important geologic 
agents. Vessels west of the Sahara, or east of - 
China, are thus often powdered over with fine 
dust slowly settling down after a‘long flight 
from its desert source. 

The smaller water-spouts, doubtless, belong 
near here in our scheme of classification ; but 
as they are usually aided by vapor-force, and 
approach the character of tornadoes, their con- 
sideration is best deferred till later. 

Finally, before going on to the larger storms, - 
one point of much importance must be empha- 
sized. The change from the stable equilibrium 
of night and early morning to the unstable of 
noon is effected entirely by the sun’s heat, 
which warms the lower air, and causes it to ex- 
pand. In expanding, it lifts all the upper air 
that rests on it; and this is no small piece of 
work, for the air that is lifted weighs about a 
ton over every square foot. When a point of 
escape is found, the heavy upper air sinks 
again, as the expanded air is drained off (up- 
wards) at the centre. It is this gravitative 
force of the sinking air-mass thal causes the 
dust-whirlwind, in re-arranging the disturbed 
equilibrium of the atmosphere; but gravity 
would have no chance to show its strength, if 
the air had not been lifted by foree from the 
sun. The winds of a dust-storm, therefore, 
depend on grayitative force brought into play 
by the sun’s heat. All storms and all winds 
haye more or less closely this relation to solar 
energy and terrestrial gravity. 

(To be continued.) 


THE INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EX- 
HIBITION.— FOURTH PAPER. 


On the Ist of October, at noon, the number 
of visitors to the exhibition passed the much 
desired limit of two millions; and, although 
the rainy season had set in, the daily ayerage 
of attendance was still increasing. The finan- 
cial success of the enterprise was more than 
certain two months ago; and the receipts of 
each day since have been swelling the surplus 
fund, the disposal of which is now a fruitful 
subject of discussion in England. Although 
the organization is a private one, the character 


. ‘ie = 
? / 


_ NOVEMBER 9, 1883.] 


| 


] 


of the men in control of it, and the recognition 
granted by the Queen and the Prince of Wales, 
render it certain that the profits will be devoted 
to some public enterprise. In the midst of 
multifarious minor propositions, two plans are 
receiving serious support. One of these is 
that first brought forward by Professor Ray 
Lankester, in his address upon ‘ The (possible) 
scientific results of the exhibition,’ and relates 
to the establishment of a laboratory of marine 
zoélogy in Great Britain, for the joint ad- 
vantage of fisheries and science. Professor 
Lankester’s original memorial was signed by 
sixteen leading men of science, and has since 
had the indorsement of the British association. 
The rival scheme relates to the establishment 
of an orphanage for fishermen’s children ; and 
this, as may be imagined, is much more popu- 
lar among the people and their newspaper 
exponents. One influential trade-journal ex- 
presses itself in energetic fashion in a para- 
graph which I cannot refrain from quoting, 
since it shows how little the opinion of a large 
class of Englishmen has been acted upon by 
the leaven of scientific thought. Speaking 
of the meeting of the British association, the 
editorial proceeds : — 


“The conductors of the daily prints, always very 
amiable to the promoters of these useless gatherings, 
fool the savants to the top of their bent by reporting 
the ‘papers’ and discussions at an absurd length, 
thus making the credulous ‘scientists’ believe that 
the public takes a lively interest in their proceedings, 
. .. It is [the president’s] grim task to write an 
‘address’ usually so wildly mystifying as to drive 
his hearers and readers to the verge of idiocy. By 
common consent, this year’s presidential address was 
not only more bewildering than any previously deliv- 
ered, but absolutely incomprehensible ; and it is 
charitably hoped that the Southport meeting is the 
beginning of the end. But these dreamy gentlemen 
are sufficiently wide awake to their own interests. 
. . . This they are, of course, entitled to do; and, if 
they can squeeze any money out of the public or 
out of the government, to aid them in the pursuit 
of their ‘fads,’ we shall have nothing to say. When, 
however, they go to the length of proposing to get a 
portion of the fisheries exhibition surplus into their 
hands for the purpose of establishing ‘a marine zo6- 
logical station on the English coast,’ we take leave 
to denounce such a proceeding as both audacious and 
preposterous,”’ etc. 


In the mean time the executive committee 
makes no promises, except in the proposition 
to expend the sum necessary to bring over a 
Cape-Ann schooner, with a selected crew of 
fishermen, to demonstrate the American meth- 
ods of fishing with purse seine, deep-sea trawl- 
lines, and dories, on those parts of the British 
coasts in which their use may be practicable. 
If any precedent is required for devoting a 
part of the proceeds to scientific ends, they 


SCIENCE. 


613 


haye only to look to the Edinburgh exhibition 
of 1882, the surplus of which to the amount 
of nearly eight thousand dollars has been given 
to establish a marine laboratory near Edin- 
burgh, under the direction of Mr. John Mur- 
ray of the Challenger, and others. It is to 
be hoped that the demands of science will 
be remembered. Charities of all descriptions 
flourish luxuriantly in England, but the work- 
ers in science seem to feel that their needs are 
often seriously neglected. 

The amount of the surplus is variously esti- 
mated at from forty thousand to a hundred 
and fifty thousand dollars. The management 
is not satisfied with the present success, how- 
ever, and has leased the grounds for three 
years more from the commissioners of the 
exhibition of 1851, who, it will be remem- 
bered, bought with the surplus of that great 
enterprise those tracts of land now so valuable, 
on which all the museums and schools of 
science and art in South Kensington are now 
placed. Three great international exhibitions, 
similar in plan to the fisheries exhibition, are 
to follow, year by year; and by the end of 
1886 the buildings will have more than paid 
for themselves, and a substantial sum will have 
accumulated, to be used, perhaps, in continu- 
ing the exhibition and museum movement 
which England has found to be so valuable to 
its intellectual and industrial welfare. The 
character of these exhibitions has not yet 
been determined upon. That of 1884 would 
doubtless have been devoted to horticulture, 
floriculture, and forestry, had not Scotland 
pre-occupied the field with a similar undertak- 
ing, and already secured the patronage of 
royalty. Edinburgh will therefore have its 
‘international exhibition of objects relating 
to practical and scientific forestry and forest 
products’ next year; and London will follow 
in 1885 with a forestry exhibition, which can- 
not fail to be of world-wide importance. The 
London fisheries exhibition of 1883 gained 
much through the experiences of similar exhi- 
bitions in Norwich in 1881, and Edinburgh in 
1882. The subject of the London exhibition 
of 1884 is not announced, but it is very possi- 
ble that it will have to do with food-products. 
Another programme, hinted at by the Prince 
of Wales in his speech at the close of the ex- 
hibition, provides for a hygienic exhibition in 
1884, one of the progress of invention in 1885, 
and in 1886 an exhibition of colonial products. 

The literature of the exhibition is one of 
its most important features. Almost every sub- 
ject connected with marine zodlogy and the 
technology of fishing has been discussed in at 


\\ 


i 


\ \ 


\\ 


AMERICAN SECTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES EXHIBITION IN LONDON, 


= 


ou adage Sabet be? ell = 
“i 


NOVEMBER 9, 1883.] 


least one special essay. ‘The papers published 
by several foreign governments have been of 
great importance, particularly the treatises by 
Grimm, upon the fishes and fisheries of Russia, 
and by Apostolides, upon those of Greece. 
Those issued officially by the exhibition have 
been numerous, ‘and, if the truth must be told, 
by no means of equal merit. None, however, 
are without value ; and several, especially those 
by Huxley, Levi, Hubrecht, Lankester, and 
Day, are important contributions to science. 

The official catalogue, edited by Mr. A. J. 
R. Trendell of the South Kensington museum, 
well known in America as the secretary of 
the British commission to our exhibition in 
1876 at Philadelphia, is in itself a contribu- 
tion to knowledge, and a model for the 
guidance of future exhibition administrations. 
Each section is introduced by an essay by 
some recognized authority, and signed. Much 
serious work bas been done by the English 
periodicals in recording the teachings of the ex- 
hibition. Nature, under the head of * Zodlogy 
at the fisheries exhibition,’ has had a review 
of the vertebrates by Professor Giglioli, and of 
the invertebrates by Professor Ray Lankes- 
ter; also a paper on the present state of fish- 
cultnre as illustrated at the exhibition, by Mr. 
Earll. 
Mr. Howard Saunders in the Ibis, and by Mr. 
J. E. Harting in the Zoédlogist. Mr. Gwynn 
Jeffreys described the molluscan collections in 
the Annals and magazine of natural history. 
Mr. Dunell, Mr. W. B. Tegetmeier, Mr. Senior, 
and others have reviewed the technological 
features in the Field, and Mr. Fell Woods, the 
oyster-collections in Land and water; while 
Engineering has had an elaborate series of 
illustrated papers upon the vessels and scien- 
tifie instruments, devoting several numbers to 
describing the U. S. steamer Albatross and its 
equipment, and to American devices for the 
exploration of the depths of the sea. 

An official review, elaborately illustrated, of 
the exhibition and its teachings, is being pre- 
pared for the British government by Hon. 
Spencer Walpole, governor of the Isle of Man, 
well known as the colleague of Huxley and 
Buckland in the various fishery commissions 
from time to time instituted by Parliament. 

Nearly every European government has sent 
hither specialists to report upon special sub- 
jects. Among the most eminent of these men 
of science have been Dr. Steindachner of 
Vienna, Dr. Sauvage of Paris, Dr. Mébius 
of Kiel, Professor Benecke of Kénigsberg, 
Professor Hubrecht and Dr. Van Bemmelen 
of Utrecht, Professor Giglioli of Florence, Dr. 


Bs »< 1 J ‘ 
Te ” . - 


SCIENCE. 


The birds have been considered by 


615 


yon Grimm of St. Petersburg, Dr. Malmgren 
of Finland, Professor Torell of Stockholm, Dr. 
Buch of Christiania, Mr. E. P. Ramsay of 
Sydney, Capt. Comerma of the Spanish navy, 
and Col. Sola of Madrid. ‘The reports yet to 
be published will perhaps swell the literature 
of the exhibition to double its present bulk, 
and will be of interest to investigators in every 
department. 

The exhibition was formally closed on the 
dist of October by the Prince of Wales, who 
in his speech upon this occasion made certain 
very fitting allusions to the work of his father, 
Prince Albert, in the promotion of interna- 
tional exhibitions. G. Brown Goopre. 


CRUISE OF THE ALBA- 
TROSS.} 

We left Wood’s Holl at 4.10 p.m., Sept. 
29, for an offshore dredging-trip. The weath- 
er was clear and pleasant, with light southerly 
winds and smooth sea. 

At 9.02 a.m. the following day, we sounded 
in 1,542 fathoms, — bottom, globigerina ooze ; 
latitude 39° 29’ north, longitude 70° 58’ 40” 
west, —and at 9.58 put over the beam-trawl, 
veering to 1,900 fathoms of rope. It was up 
again at 1.03 p.m., the net containing a large 
number of specimens. [Station 2,095. ] 

The trawl was cast again at 2.44 p.m, in 
1,451 fathoms, latitude 39° 22’ 20” north, lon- 
gitude 70° 52’ 20” west. The bottom specimen 
brought up in the Sigsbee cup was the same 
as that of the former cast: but the trawl con- 
tained a granite stone weighing a hundred and 
seventy pounds, several small stones, small 
pieces of cinder, and lumps of hard clay ; 
there were also several small specimens of 
what appeared to be oxidized iron. The haul 
was very successful, being particularly rich in 
foraminifera. [Station 2,096. ] 

As soon as the trawl was up, a set of serial 
temperatures and specific gravities was taken 
tol ,000 fathoms, A temperature of 66° was 
found at 25 fathoms, 654° at 60 fathoms, and 
574° at 40 fathoms. These strata of cold and 
warm water are the rule rather thgn the ex- 
ception, in this locality; but, thinking that 
possibly the observation at 40 fathoms had 
been read incorrectly, it was verified, using 
another instrument, which registered 554°. 

At 8.22 p.m. we started ahead south £ west 


> 


A FOUR-DAYS’ 


1 Report to Prof. 8. F. Barrp, U.8. commissioner of fish and 
fisheries, by Lient.-Commander Z. L. TANNER, U.8.N., com- 
manding U.S. fish-commission steamer, Albatross, kindly placed 
at our service by Professor Baird. Some of the appendices are 
abbreviated to save repetition. 


616 


(magnetic), running on that course till 5.50 
A.m., Oct. 1, when we sounded in 1,917 fath- 
oms, — latitude 37° 56’ 20” north, longitude 
70° 57’ 30” west; bottom, globigerina ooze, — 
and at 6.18 put the beam-trawl over, veering 
to 2,600 fathoms. It was on the bottom at 
8.04; and at 9.04 we began heaying in, land- 
ing it on the deck at 10.42 a.m., having made 
a successful haul. [Station 2,097. ] 

At 2.08 p.m. the beam-trawl was lowered 


again in 2,221 fathoms, latitude 37° 40’ 307 
north, longitude 70° 37’ 30” west. It was 


down, with 3,000 fathoms of rope out, at 4.05 


Boston ¢ 


p.M., dragged till 5.14 p.m., and was landed, 
after a successful haul, at 7.24 p.m. [Station 
2,098. ] 

At 7.54 p.m. started ahead south-south-east 
(magnetic), ran till 3.26 a.m., and lay to 
until daylight (about 5.30 a.m.), when we 
sounded in 2,949 fathoms, — bottom, globige- 
rina ooze; latitude 37° 12’ 20” north, longi- 
tude 69° 39’ west,—near the centre of the 
Gulf Stream. The sinker, sixty-four pounds 
weight, was thirty-four minutes in reaching 
the bottom; and the specimen-cup came up in 
thirty-six minutes. The thermometer regis- 
tered at some intermediate depth not far from 
the surface, having capsized in some way in 
its descent. [Station 2,099.] The net of 


SCIENCE. 


till 3.08, and was landed at 4.25 p.m. 


(Vou. IL, No. 40. 


the beam-trawl was examined with great care, 
and every foreign substance removed, so that 
there should be no doubt as to whether speci- 
mens found were taken during the haul, or 
were in the net when it went down. 

At 7.14 a.m. the trawl was put over, reach- 
ing the bottom at 10.134, having veered 
4,100 fathoms of rope. At 0.54 p.m. began 
heaving up, and at 5.18 p.m. it was landed 
on deck. It was a successful haul in every 
respect. 

The moderate breeze of the morning in- 
creased to a strong wind with heayy swell 
before the trawl was up, making 
it doubtful whether we should 
succeed in landing it. A set of 
serial temperatures and specific 
eravities was attempted after fin- 
ishing the haul; but the strong 
current, high wind, rugged sea, 
and threatening weather forced 
us to give it up after having 
veered 300 fathoms of rope. The 
method adopted to regulate the 
drift was at least original. The 
current of the stream was so 
strong that the trawl would not 
take the bottom; and, to effect 
this object, an officer was sta- 
tioned on the forecastle with a 
dredging quadrant, constantly ob- 
serving the angle of the dredge- 
rope, the engines being moyed 
with sufficient speed to maintain 
it within certain prescribed limits. 

At 4.30 p.m., moderate gale 
from south-west; hove to under 
fore storm-staysail, head to the 
southward, drifting rapidly with 
the stream about north-east by 
east. At midnight it was blow- 
ing a moderate gale with heavy 
sea, barometer 29.76, the air exceedingly sul- 
try, and incessant flashes of lightning in every 
direction. At 1.40 a.m., 3d inst., started 
ahead, course north, and ran under moderate ~ 
speed till 11.05 a.m., when, wind and sea hay- 
ing moderated, we sounded in 1,628 fathoms, 
globigerina ooze, — latitude 39° 22’ north, lon- 
gitude 68° 34’ 30” west, —and at 12.13 p.m. 
put the beam-trawl over, veering to 2,500 
fathoms. There was still a fresh breeze from 
north-west, with heavy swell and very strong 
stream. The trawl was down at 1.59, dragged 
There 
were some interesting specimens, but most of 
the things were washed out of the net on the 
way up. [Station 2,100. ] 


_ 


NoveEMBER 9, 1883.] 


At 4.31 p.m. we sounded in 1,686 fathoms, 
globigerina ooze, — latitude 39° 18’ 30” north, 
longitude 68° 24° west, —and at 5.15 p.m. 
put the trawl over, veering to 2,650 fathoms. 
It was on the bottom at 7.10, began heaving 
up at 8.15, and landed it on deck at 9.39 p.m. 
The heavy swell and strong stream combined 
washed a large proportion of the specimens 
from the net, but several new or rare species 
were secured. [Station 2,101. ] 

A course was laid to the northward as soon 
as the haul was finished, and the speed regis- 
tered so as to strike the 100-fathom line in 
longitude 67° 50’ west, at daylight, when we 
proposed setting a trawl-line for tile-fish. We 
were on the ground at the proper time; but 
the weather was so boisterous that it was not 
considered prudent to lower a boat. It was 
too rough even for dredging ; and, as our coal- 
supply was nearly exhausted, we started for 
port. 

We encountered strong head-winds during 
the day, finally anchoring in Tarpaulin Cove 
at 10.40 p.m., where we remained till 6 a.m. 
on the 5th, when we got underway, and arrived 
at Wood’s Holl at 6.40, making fast to our 
moorings. 


SCIENCE. 


Dredging and trawling record. 


617 


List of fishes obtained. 
BY ENSIGN R. H. MINER, U.S.N. 


Station 2,095. — Bathysaurus Agassizii, Stomias fe- 
rox, Macrurus asper, Coryphaenoides carapinus, Ha- 
losaurus macrochir, Haloporphyrus viola, Cyclothone 
lusea, and one new species. 

Station 2,096, — Eurypharynx, Haloporphyrus viola, 
Macrurus asper, Synaphobranchus pinnatus, Halo- 
saurus macrochir, Coryphaenoides carapinus. 

Station 2,097. — Berycid (new species), Macrurus 
asper, Cyclothone lusea, Scopelus. 

Station 2,098. — Macrurus asper. 

Station 2,099. — Cyclothone lusca, Scopelus, Bery- 
cid (new species), two new species. 

Station 2,100. —Cyclothone lusea, Scopelus, Forci- 
pichthys. 

Station 2,101.— Berycid (new species), Euryphar- 
ynx, Cyclothone lusca, Argyropelecus Olfersii, Ster- 
noptyx diaphana, Scopelus, two new species. 


Register of invertebrates captured. 
BY J. 


The results obtained were good, notwithstanding 
the sea was quite rough much of the time. The sur- 
face-nets were in use when practicable, anda number 
of fine specimens were taken in them. As hereto- 
fore, schools of squid were seen in the water, illumi- 
nated by the arc-light. One of the crew captured 


E. BENEDICT. 


Tempera-| 2 : 
Loca.ity. sae E E WIND Drirt. 
Pe ae 3 Tae , 4 z 
o Ret = 5 | < io 
Alien A a= Bie. élailezel. 3 a a fee a ae 
z 25 ol ee -Je|s| 3 3 S  iliSh|t skeet aes 
5 ga EE 5 #15 ta A] = 5 = = = 
| @ =| H fi ain|ia a i (=) Ss a a a 
Ks a = = sal Se Se 
1883. 
Sept.30. .|2,095| 39° 29’ 00” | 70° 58” 40” 9.02 a.m. | 714) 694) .. | 1,342! Glob. oz. | 8.S.W. tf l= Se 27.0 | Beam. 
“ 30. .|2,096/ 39 22 20 70 52 20 2.07 p.m. | 70 | 69 | 874) 1,451] “  “ a BS. Saas “ 
Oct. 1. .|2,097] 37 56 20 70 57 30 5:30 a.m. | 73} 724) 11,917) “ | S.W.. 8 | SEW..| 1.5 Mi 
“ 1. ./ 2,098} 37 40 30 70 37 30 Mosc. |78 | 72h cerpaezny fT NW... 4 | W.x8.,] 2.0 “ 
is ,%. .|2,009| 37 12 20 69 39 00 SaAcae! | 71 | 'S2°| ea ecaao, es ons 6 | S.S.W.| 2.0 “ 
“3. .| 2,100] 39 22 00 68 34 30 11.05 a.m. | 63 | 69 | 874, 1,628| “ “ | W.N.W.,| 3] E. . .|] 2.0 “ 
“ $3. .|2,101| 39 18 30 68 24 00 4,31 p.m. | 61 | 67 | 37| 1,686] “ “ | W.S. 3 | 8. 2.0 “ 
= —---——'"-- +. _ a —— ay 
Meteorological record. 
= a ————— a -—- — 
= 
= Wet SurF’cE 4 | ! 
BAROMETER. AIR. aie | WATER. Winp | 4 
3 Besse Pi srignces x 
3 | s = ah es z 3 z 
Dare. eI E 5 g 5 g g g STATE OF WEATHER. S 5 5 
& | 8 |f2)8|/S) 8/87/38 3 3 gf 
4 a */|Bil e/a] els 2 eR = 
= ioe Ca We | ei; 8 |oa = = = 
| | ae E g|s|2/5 | A a ee 
; 
30.32 30.18 | 71 | 56 | 69 | 56 | 64 | 57 | Passing clouds . @ .| E., N.W., 8.. 1-3 | Smooth. 
30.18 29.92 | 72 | 64 | 72 | 64) 70 | 60 Y ~~ es a = Bey 8.8. We. > 2-4 se 
30.06 29.86 | 80 | 66 | 78 | 65 | 75 | 71 <s iY he, TO .|8.8.W., N.W., N.E 2-4 | Moderate. 
30.10 29.76 | 82 | 67 | 81 | 65 | 83 | 76 a i squally . . | N.E., 8.E., 8.W 2-8 | Rough. 
30.12 | 29.76 | 78 | 61 | 77 | 57 | 82) 67 as s¢ as . .| N.N.W., W.N.W 3-7 es 
30.36 -| 30.12 | 64 | 45 | 62 | 43 | 66 | 55 | Clear and pleasant . . | NINLW., W.N.W 17 | eo 


618 


three of them with the squid-jig. Several land-birds 
were seen far out at sea. A pair of kingfishers (Ce- 
ryle alcyon) flew about near station 2,096. A pair of 
fish-hawks (Pandion haliaetus) acted asif they were 
at home near station 2,099, 250 miles from land. A 
golden-winged woodpecker (Colaptes auratus) and a 
song-sparrow (Melospiza melodia) came on board to 
rest, at station 2,100, 

The principal invertebrates taken were as follows :— 

Station 2,095. — The sounding-cup brought up ooze 
containing foraminifera from a depth of 1,342 fathoms. 
The beam-trawl was put over with wings attached. 
Among its invertebrates were twenty-five holothuri- 
ans (Benthodites), many large zoroasters, several 
cup-corals (Flabellum), a shrimp nine inches long 
with very large eggs, tlree specimens of a crab (? Ga- 
lacantha). Some of the holothurians were placed in 
picric acid before putting them into weak alcohol. 
A portion of the eggs were taken from the large 
shrimp, and preserved in Miiller’s fluid for the study 
of the embryos, which were plainly visible within. 

Slation 2,096.— Again the sounding-cup brought up 
ooze with foraminifera, this time from a depth of 
1,451 fathoms. Strange to say, a large stone, weigh- 
ing upward of a hundred and seventy pounds, was 
brought up with sponges and*worm-tubes attached. 
This would, I think, preclude the possibility of its 
being below the surface of the foraminiferous ooze, 
which came up in quantity suflicieut to yield two 
quarts of clean foraminifera. The principal ingre- 
dients found in the stone were quartz, hornblende, and 
iron. Highteen holothurians (Benthodites), many 
specimens of a small ophiuran, a few large shrimp, 
and some small shells, made up the bulk of the ma- 
terial. 

Station 2,097. — Bottom, ooze, with foraminifera 
from a depth of 1,917 fathoms. One amphipod three 
inches and a half long, shrimp, Epizoanthus on 
hermit-crabs (species unknown), Urticina concors 
Verr. on Sympagurus pictus Smith, Ophioglypha con- 
vexa Lym. and Ophiomusium armigerum Lym. in 
small numbers, a starfish remarkable for its large 
madreporie plate and ambulacral feet, small ascidi- 
ans coated with foraminifera. 

Station 2,098.— Depth, 2,221fathoms. Epizoanthus, 
Urticina concors Verr on Sympagurus pictus Smith, 
Ophioglypha convexa Lym. and Ophiomusium armi- 
gerum Lym., also a few shells. 

Station 2,099. — This haul was remarkable from the 
fact that the sounding was in water 2,949 fathoms. 
This is perhaps the deepest water ever successfully 
invaded by a large trawl: certainly it is the deepest 
we have record of with any trawl. Tbe trawl went 
down more than three miles at the end of upwards 
of four miles and a half of wire rope without cap- 
sizing, and that in the middle of the Gulf Stream, 
while the water was quite rough. That there might 
be no question as to the specimens brought up, the 
captain had the net thoroughly cleaned before it was 
put over the side. The amount of material brought 
up was not large. The only specimens from the bot- 

tom were a species of Boltenia, and many fragments 
of a Bryozoon we had not seen before. A fine large 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. l1., No. 40. 


schizopod, with several species of shrimp and small 
crustacea, were taken in good condition, These, with 
a cephalopod and the fish, made it one of the best 
hauls. 

Station 2,100, with a depth of 1,628 fathoms, and 
2,101 with a depth of 1,686 fathoms, brought us only 
shrimp and fish. 


Specific gravities of sea-water. 


BY P. A. SURGEON, C. G. HERNDON, U.S.N. 
c= 5 
| 2 $ S 
5 = B=) 
AN = =) 
DATE. 2 | z 2 3 
S Peete = = 
= ay 5 Es 3 
L 5 = «| ifs 
| | } 
Surface. | 71° | 1.0251 | 1.026706 
5 71 1.0251 | 1.026706 
Sept. 30 2,096 | Surface. | 70 1 026864 
“ 2,096 5 | 70 | 1.026864 
ee 96 10 70 1.026864 
2 15 70 1.026964 
Be 20 70 1.026906 
4 25 70 1,026687 
KG 40 70 4 8 
“ 60 70 
Pale (ma 100 70 
tO 2,096 200 70 
7 P.M. 
Sept. 30 . | 2,096 800 70 | 40.5] 85 
Seen z09G 400 70 | 40 85 
a . | 2,096 500 70 | 40 $85 
ce . | 2,096 600 70 | 39.5 86 
a » | 2,096 700 70 | 39.5 85 
A . | 2,096 800 70 | 38.5 85 1 
a . | 2,096 900 70 | 39 86 1.0235 
8 P.M. 
Sept. 30 .| 2,096} 1,000 70 | 38.5| 86 1.0235 | 1.027816 
6 PM. 
Oct. 1 .| 2,097] Surface. | 66 | 69 75 1.0253 | 1 027565 
Cait al PAA 5 66 | 68 7a 1.0253 | 1.027565 
2PM. 
Oct. 2 .'| 2,098] Surface. | 79 | 74 76 1.0248 | 1.027232 
sc | 2,098 5 719 | 72 76 1.0248 | 1.027232 
7 P.M. 
Oct. 3 .| 2,101) Surface. | 63 | 68 7A 1.0246 | 1.026865 
Ce aerate 5 63 | 69 73 1.0248 | 1.026724 


THE ZOULOGICAL STATION OF 
HOLLAND. 


For some years past, zodlogical science has been 
pursuing a course abounding in brilliant discoveries. 
The examination, however minute, of animals pre- 
served in collections, no longer satisfies the naturalist: 
he must study the living animal. Zodlogy has become 
experimental]. On all sides, maritime stations are 
being established. Numerous works on anatomy and 
embryology have cleared up the philosophical theory 
of the transformation of animals by showing that 
the metamorphoses, which, less than half a century 
ago, were almost unknown, are yery common among 
marine animals. 

Holland, which has produced so many great anat- 
omists and such patient naturalists, seemed to be 
tardy in following the example of neighboring nations, 
when, on the 4th of December, 1875, at the instiga- 

1 Translated from La Nature of Sept. 8. 


te 


NovEMBER 9, 1883.] 


tion of Professor Hoffman, its president, the Zod- 
logical society of the Netherlands voted to erect a 
zoological station on the shore of the North Sea. A 
cdmmittee, composed of Messrs. Hoffman, Hubrecht, 
and Hoek, decided on the erection of a station which 
could be easily transferred from one point to another 
on the Netherland coast. With its sandy shores 
and gradual slope, Holland has, it is true, a com- 
paratively poor zodlogical fauna. The committee 
thought, therefore, and rightly, that a movable station 
would be more serviceable, as it would permit suc- 
cessive exploration of various parts of the shore. 
The appeal made by the Netherland society to the 


SCIENCE. 


.smothers them. 


619 


forms which constitute the wealth of rocky bottoms. 
Few species can resist the sand which covers and 
But while the downs extend west of 
the city of Helder, at the north there rises a spur 
of granite and basalt, in the irregularities of which 
numerous animals find shelter: it is the only point 
on the coasts of Holland where seaweeds are found. 
The minister of the marine having consented to place 
twice a week a steam-launch at the disposal of the 
commission, the little dredges invented by Wyville 
Thompson and the apparatus of Lacaze-Duthiers 
were employed, and a hundred and thirty species 
obtained. 


THE DUTCH ZOOLOGICAL STATION. 


generosity of the state, to scientific societies and 
private individuals, met with aresponse; and the sum 
of ten thousand franes was soon obtained. Work was 
immediately begun. The choice for the first season 
fell upon the city of Helder, situated at the northern 
extremity of the province of North Holland, at a 
point where an arm of the sea, called Helsdeur, sep- 
arates the mainland and the island of Texel. The 
material, loaded in a wagon drawn by cattle, reached 
its destination, July 8, 1876. Three days after, the 
station was in readiness, and studies were begun. 

As throughout the coasts of the Netherlands, the 
bottom of the sea is, at Helder, chiefly composed of 
shifting sand; and one can scarcely, under such cir- 
cumstances, expect to meet with those fixed animal 


The second year the station was established at Fles- 
singue; and the coast of Zealand proved not less rich 
in animal forms than the slope of Nieuvediep and the 
bank of Helder. In the years following, the station 
was at Bergen-op-Zoom. : 

During these latter seasons, the commission has 
not wholly devoted itself to the examination of ani- 
mals which live on the coasts of Holland. Researches 
at the station have since aimed to furnish oyster-cul- 
tivators with information as complete as possible, 
on the anatomy, the embryology, the enemies, and 
diseases, in a word, on the biology, of the oyster. 
The eastern Scheldt has to-day become an important 
centre for oyster-culture; so much so, that the two 
stations, Kruiningen in Zealand, and Bergen-op- 


620 


Zoom in North Brabant, exported in 1881 about two 
million oysters, valued at some three million franes. 

In order that the building may be easily taken to 
pieces and put in position, it is made entirely of wood; 
and the parts are arranged with such care that its 
removal from one place to another requires only three 
days besides the transit. 

The station was at Bergen-op-Zoom when we visited 
it, and we were received by Professor Hubrecht with 
the cordiality and kindness characteristic of the sa- 
vants of Holland. It is composed of a principal build- 
ing about eight metres long and five broad. One 
facade has four windows; the other, three. The 
walls are three metres high; the ridge of the roof, four 
and a half. The framing of the roof is of wood, cov- 
ered with a double layer of rush-matting. Opposite 
each window there is astationary table: tables are also 
arranged in the centre of the room. Inthe laboratory 
are a closet for the instruments, another for the re- 
agents and bottles, and also a small library, containing 
periodicals and the principal works on marine faunas. 
Each investigator can, in addition, send for books 
which he needs, either from the library of the zo6- 
logical society, or from one of the universities of 
Holland. A desk, foot-rests, and some folding iron 
chairs complete the furnishings. The work-room, 
properly so called, is entered through a room in which 
are the aquaria, the collecting-apparatus, and the 
smaller dredges. The cumbersome instruments are 
placed in a room connected with one of the side- 
facades. Another room, opposite the entrance, leads 
into the private office of the director of the station. 
A fence of galvanized zine wire runs around the build- 
ing, and, while it wards off the thoughtless, encloses 
a Space which may be used either for experiments in 
the open air, or for the dissection of animals of large 
size. 

The construction of the house, as it stands to-day, 
has cost fifty-five hundred franes. An additional 
sum of six thousand francs was expended in the pur- 
chase of furnishings, aquaria, collecting-apparatus, 
reagents, thermometers, lenses, etc. 

The management of the station is regulated in a 
very simple manner. The members of the zodlogical 
society nominate each year a committee, which pub- 
lishes at the end of the year a report of the work, and 
gives an account of the funds expended. 

Although the resources of the zoélogical commis- 
sion are very limited, nevertheless the members have 
undertaken important work. During the season at 
Helder, Mr. Hubrecht was engaged upon fishes; Mr. 
Hoek studied the crustaceans; Mr. Horst, annelids; 
while Messrs. Van Harem, Noman, and Sluiter stud- 
ied the other invertebrates. Mr. Hoek undertook, 
at Bergen-op-Zoom, his interesting researches on the 
embryology of the edible oyster. H. E. SAUVAGE. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


The formation of tornadoes. 
In the discussion of Mr. Hoy’s paper before the 
American association for the advancement of science, 
at the recent meeting at Minneapolis, I notice a 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 40. 


number of statements which seem to me erroneous, 
Professor Rowland, for instance, asserts that *‘ the 
rotation of the tornado is a necessary consequence of 
the earth’s rotation.’? Now, if this be true, why are 
not tornadoes more frequent? Why is it necessary 
to have brisk, southerly winds, with high tempera- 
ture and low barometric pressure? Why do they not 
happen on clear days as well as on cloudy ones? 
Again: if the earth’s rotation determines the dinec- 
tion of the gyratory motion of tornadoes, why does it 
not govern the motion of the little whirlwinds 
occurring in dry weather? Every observer knows 
that these revolve, sometimes in one direction, and 
sometimes in the other, but perhaps, in a majority of 
cases, in the same direction as tornadoes. 

It is well known that tornadoes in our latitude 
occur on days when there is a strong breeze from @ 
southerly direction. Now, the air on such days, in 
spring and early summer, is heavily charged with 
moisture; to which fact is due the oppressiveness of 
the heat. As the heat of the day increases, local 
showers are formed, which move, not with the surface- 
wind, but in a higher current from a westerly direc- 
tion. There is usually a divergence of about ninety 
degrees in the angle formed by a line indicating the 
direction of the track of the tornado, and another 
marking the direction of the preceding surface-wind. 

Now, the mingling of these currents, or even the 
passage of one beneath the other, must, on account 
of their unequal temperatures, condense more or less 
of the moisture of the warmer current. This con- 
densation is nearly always noticed. A cloud, often 
of intense blackness, accumulates just under the 
southern edge of the storm-cloud, and is usually pro- 
longed horizontally to the northward along its base. 
If the cloud is near enough, so you can see beneath it, 
the parts farther in the rear will be seen to move 
rapidly in an. easterly direction, just as the air-cur- 
rent moves which bears them. How can it be other- 
wise than that a gyratory motion shall result from 
such conditions? People frequently say, in deserib- 
ing a tornado, that ‘‘two dark clouds rushed together 
from opposite directions, and produced the tornado.”” 
This statement, if’ we are expected to construe it 
literally, seems somewhat absurd, since a cloud is 
always a passive element, moving only as the air 
moves in which it floats. That fragments of clouds 
and often quite large masses moye toward each other 
is true; but tornadoes are not produced because of 
this, but on account of the mutual resistance of two 
currents of air. If two liquids or gases are brought 
together from different directions, a whirling motion 
is prpduced, as may be seen where two small streams 
of water flow together, or where a rock or fallen tree 
interrupts the direct movement of the water. This 
is but a necessary result of the combination of prop- 
erties inherent in such a medium. 

A volume of air, under pressure, escapes in the 
direction of least resistance: and, as there is a con- 
siderable pressure of the air where the two currents 
meet, an escape-current must form somewhere; and 
it forms, in accordance with the above law, in the 
direction of minimum resistance, obliquely upward 
to the east or north-east. As soon as this escape- 
current is developed, its position is at once located by 
a slender stem of vapor rapidly ascending obliquely; 
though, if the observer is at some distance, it seems 
to be suspended from the cloud above it, and even at 
times to descend toward the earth. Some of the 
downward movements of this ‘funnel’ are apparent 
only, the constantly ascending vapors sometimes con- 
densing near to the ground, and at other times high 
in air. The tunnel-cloud is often absorbed into the 


1 ee alae ytd 


NoveMBER 9, 1883.] 


cloud above, almost as soon as formed, the condi- 
tions necessary to its full development not existing. 

In his excellent article on tornadoes, in the current 
number of the Kansas City review of science, Mr. 
Jobn D. Parker speaks of the four characteristic 
motions of these meteors. These motions might be 
classified as horizontal and vertical. The horizontal 
motions are the linear, caused by the forward motion 
of the air-current governing the direction of the 
storm-cloud; second, the gyratory motion, caused, 
as above stated, by the mutual resistance of air- 
currents moving in different directions; third, the 
swaying motion, due partly to the varying pressure 
on different sides of the tunnel, and partly to the 
vertical or bounding motion of the tunnel. This 
latter motion would not have a very marked effect in 
producing the ‘ dentated edges’ of the storm’s path, 
if the tunnel-cloud were vertical instead of slanting. 
What causes the bounding motion it is difficult to 
say, but it certainly resembles electrical attraction 
and repulsion. This bounding movement was very 
marked in the tornado of April 18, 1869, which passed 
near this locality ; but occurring, as it did, in the day- 
time, I could not distinguish the illumination of the 
lower part of the tunnel, which may sometimes be 
seen when these storms occur after dark, and which 
some think is due to electricity. 

It is interesting to produce in miniature the hori- 
zontal motions of the tornado by the following 
simple experiment. When there is a good fire, let a 


small quantity of light, flaky ashes, or other light - 


material, be sprinkled over the whole top of the cook- 
ing-stove. The heat forms quite a strong current, 
ascending mainly from the central parts toward the 
pipe. Cool currents flow in from all sides. Now, 
with the hand or a fan, produce local or opposing 
currents over the heated surface, and at once little 
tornadoes are developed, whirling the ashes several 
inches in the air. I have often produced them on 
both sides of the stove at the same time; those on 
the left moving as tornadoes in our latitude, and 
those on the right in the opposite direction. Now, 
are not the causes of the gyratory motion of the little 
whirlwinds on the stove, tiny as they are, the same 
in kind as those which produced the storms which 
devastated Marshfield, Grinnell, or Camanche? If 
this be answered in the affirmative, the rotation of 
the earth plays no direct part in causing the gyratory 
movement of this class of storms. Of course, the 
rotation of the earth causes the higher currents of 
air to move toward the north-east, instead of due 
north, as they pass from the equatorial to the arctic 
zone, and these currents determine the general linear 
movement of storms in our latitude; but this makes 
it proper to consider the gyratory motion an indirect 
result rather than a direct consequence. 

S. A. MAxweELt. 
Morrison, Ill., Oct. 9, 1883. 


The chinch-bug in New York. 


Why should Mr. Lintner conelude that the chinch- 
bug was brought to St. Lawrence county, N.Y., in a 
freight-car from the west? Harris corrects the erro- 
neous idea that it is confined to the states south of 
40° of latitude by demonstrating its occurrence in 
Illinois and Wisconsin, while Fitch’s record of find- 
ing it in northern New York would justify us in 
assuming that it has always existed there, especially 
when we know that its range is much farther north, 
Packard found it on the top of the White Mountains; 
and it is to-day the most serious enemy that threatens 
the vast wheat-fields of Dakota. It seems to me 
more rational to consider this injurious manifestation 


SCIENCE. 


621 


in New York a result of undue increase of a species 
always there than to call it an invasion. Though we 
rarely hear of its injury in the Atlantic states, yet it 
is commonly met with where collecting is done near 
or in the ground, and in dry years is by far the most . 
common Heteropter in grain and grass fields and 
dunes. This I know from personal experience, and 
have found it as far north as Boscawen, N.H. 

Should it prove less susceptible to heavy and con- 
tinued rains in New York than elsewhere, the fact 
will be remarkable. Such rains affect it most, how- 
ever, in spring and early summer. My own inter- 
pretation of the interesting facts recorded by Mr. 
Lintner would be, that the species multiplied exceed- 
ingly during the very dry seasons of 1880 and 1881, 
and that the wet season, which it has so far braved 
(as it often does for a while in the west), will never- 
theless tell on the hibernating bugs. In this view 
there is cause for encouragement rather than alarm. 
A careful survey would undoubtedly show, as Mr. 
Lintner suggests, that it exists in many places in the 
state where it has not yet been detected. 

3 C. V. RILEY. 
Washington, D.C., Oct, 24, 1883. 


Unusual reversal of lines in the summit of a 
solar prominence. 


On Oct. 17, between 3.45 and 4.30, local time 
(about 8.45 and 9.30 Greenwich time), a rather unu- 
sual phenomenon was observed at Princeton, in a 
prominence connected with the large and active 
group of spots which at that time was just passing off 
from the sun’s disk. 

The prominence had the very common form of a 
number of overlapping arches, with a sort of cap 
above them, or of a cloud connected by several curved 
stems to the chromosphere below. Its elevation was 
about 2’, and its extent along the sun’s circumference 
a little less. 

The peculiar features were the extreme brilliance of 
the cloud-cap at the summit of the prominence, and 
the perfect delineation of the form of this cloud in 
certain spectrum-lines, which ordinarily are reversed 
only at the base of the chromosphere; while, at the 
same time, certain other lines, which not unfrequently 
are reversed at considerable elevations, showed its 
form only very faintly, or not at all. 

When I first came upon the prominence, in run- 
ning around the sun’s limb with the spectroscope, 
the brightness of the cloud-cap, as seen through the 
C line, was simply dazzling. I do not remember ever 
to have seen a prominence, or any part of one, quite 
so brilliant. At the same time, the line ” 6676.9 
(which is in the same field of view with C, and is 
No. 2 of my catalogue of chromosphere-lines, — a line 
attributed to iron) also showed the top of the cloud 
quite as well and as brightly as is usual in C under 
ordinary circumstances. The chromosphere, also, was 
faintly visible in the same line; but the stems and 
lower portion of the cloud could not be seen at all in 
it. On turning to line 27055 (No. 1 of the catalogue), 
I was surprised and gratified to find the same appear- 
ances conspicuous in this line also. A careful search 
failed to show any other lines reversed below C. 

Running up the spectrum from C to D, I could not 
find any lines showing the top of the prominence, 
though a considerable number were reversed in the 
chromosphere at its base. Ds;, of course, showed 
the cloud-cap magnificently, but D, and Dy, only 
very faintly, though distinctly enough. 

Between D and b the same remarks apply as be- 
tween Cand D. The corona-line, 253815.9, was reversed 
at the base of the prominence a little more brightly 


622 


than in adjacent parts of the chromosphere, but not 
at all in thecloud-cap. The magnesium members of 
the b group showed the cloud faintly in the same 
way as the sodium-lines; but in b, the form was a 
little more conspicuous. 

Between b and F, two lines (A 5017.6 and 4923.1, 
both attributed to iron) showed the cloud-cap as 
beautifully as either of the two below C. Numerous 
other lines were reversed in the chromosphere, but 
none of them showed the upper parts of the promi- 
nence. J appeared much the same as D;. 

Between F and G, five lines were noted as showing 
the cap. The most refrangible of them was Loren- 
zoni’s f (A 4471.2): the other four I did not identify 
at the moment, being in haste to reach the violet por- 
tion of the spectrum, and intending to examine them 
later, — an intention I was not able to carry out, on 
account of the intervention of clouds. 

The lines Hy (4 4340) and h were, of course, con- 
spicuous, each showing the whole of the prominence. 
J expected that H and K would do the same, but was 
disappointed. They both exhibited the cloud-cap 
finely, but I could not make out-in them either the 
stems of the prominence, or the spikes and knots of 
the chromosphere; and yet both the lines were well 
reversed, not only in the chromosphere, but also on 
the face of the sun itself, over all the faculous region 
surrounding thespots. The ultra-violet line above Ki, 
first observed here a few weeks ago, was not visible. 

There was no considerable motion-displacement 
exhibited by any of the lines, —something rather 
singular in so brilliant a prominence, —nor did its 
shape change much during the forty-five minutes of 
observation. 

It is perhaps possible that this cloud was indentical 
with a remarkably brilliant facular bridye, which was 
observed two days before, spanning the largest of the 
spots which composed the group: still this is by no 
means certain. The instrument employed was the 
nine and one-half inch equatorial, with the Clark 
spectroscope carrying a Rutherfurd grating, of about 
17,000 lines to the inch; first-order spectrum. 


Cc. A. YounG. 
Princeton, N.J., Oct. 22, 1883. 


Sternal processes in Gallinae. 


Having several times been asked the function of the 
long processes of the sternum as found in the Gallinae, 
I would make the following suggestions : — 

If the sternum be examined in situ, the outer pro- 
cesses will be seen to extend far back, and well up the 
sides of the body, while the inner pair extend over 
the abdomen. The notches between the processes 
are closed by very tense, fibrous membranes. By this 
means a large area is afforded for the insertion of 
muscles with a minimum of bone. This must con- 
tribute slightly to diminish the weight of the posterior 
end of the body. Passing now to the muscles, we 
find that the great pectoral arises from the entire 
posterior border of the sternum, while the subclavius 
fills up the angle between the keel and body of the 
bone. 

So much for the anatomy. What are the physio- 
lozieal results, and why could they not be attained in 
other ways? The results are an increased amount of 
pectoral muscle, and an inerease in the length of the 
fibres, as compared with many other birds. Both 
of these are very desirable results for heavy birds of 
short, rapid flight, — the first, because with the in- 
crease in muscle comes a corresponding increase of 
force in the stroke of the wing; the second, because, 
by virtue of the long fibres, rapidity of contraction 
and a long stroke of the wing are secured. The rapid- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 40. 


ity is gained by all parts of the fibres contracting at 
once, whence the longer the fibre, the more quickly 
will a given amount of motion result. Both the 
first and the second are also aided by the fact that the 
first part of a muscular contraction is more powerful 
than the last part. 

There is but one other way in which the same re- 
sults, so far as the insertion of the muscles goes, 
could be attained; that is, by their origin from the 
ribs which lie under the sternum, as in the mammals, 
instead of from the overlapping sternum. ‘To this, 
however, there is an all-powerful objection. If a 
man be watched while violently using his arms, it 
will be noticed that the upper part of the chest is held 
stationary. The pectoral muscles must have a firm 
point to pull from, in order to move the arms. As 
a result, respiration in the upper part of the chest is 
impeded, or, better, respiration is impeded by the di- 
minished amount of tidal air. This principle is illus- 
trated in the long, slow stroke, about twenty to the 
minute, of men trained to row great distances. The 
breathing is done, while the pectoral muscles are re- 
laxed, at the normal rates. The same, only ina much 
greater degree, would hold good for birds. Were the 
muscles inserted into the ribs, respiration would be 
interrupted several times each second during flight: 
hence it is evident that the muscles could not be in- 
serted into the ribs. 

But again: why should the Gallinae require rapid 
powerful motions of the wings? Why should they 
not have long wings, and a comparatively slow 
stroke? This is forbidden by their habits. Long 
wings would be very cumbersome when the bird was 
on the ground, and absolutely worthless in much of 
the brush through which a grouse will fly with 
wonderful rapidity. 

Therefore we may say that the processes are devel- 
oped to give, with the greatest economy of material, 
a large area for the insertion of the pectoral muscles 
in such way as not to interfere with respiration, 
and that such area is required for the flight of the 
bird. J. AMORY JEFFRIES. 


A bifurcate tentacle in Ilyanassa obsoleta. 


Some years ago, when collecting for my marine 
aquarium, in Raritan Bay, at Keyport, N.J., I ob- 
tained an Ilyanassa obsoleta of such a strange form, 
that I made a pencil-sketch and notes of it at the 
time. The left tentacle was bifurcated at the shoul- 
der, or place where the normal tentacle abruptly nar- 
rows. The two sub-tentacles thus caused, seemed 
to be equally sensitive, as each was capable of sepa- 
rate and independent movement. Several instances 
have been long known to me of bifurcation of the 
caudal spine of Limulus; but the additional prong 
in every instance was functionless, and, in fact, an in- 
convenience. I have also seen malformed antennae 
in microscopic insects. As I have not heard of a 
similar instance in the mollusca, it seemed to me that 
the case should go on record. 


SAMUEL LocKWwoop. 
Freehold, N.J. 


The mechanism of direction. 


Shortly afler reading Professor Neweomb’s paper in 
ScrenceE for Oct. 26, 1883, I had the pleasure of meet- 
ing him, and of discussing some matters of mutual 
interest in regard to subjective states of conscious- 
ness. It seeins to me that the professor does not give 
sufficient weight to habit, and to unconscious cerebral 
action, In the strict sense of the word, one is not 
always conscious of the way he is going; for although 
he may avoid obstacles of any kind, yet he may pass 


NOVEMBER 9, 1883.] 


some distance beyond his abiding-place by reason of 
mental pre-occupation. There are two lines of cere- 
bral action going on at once, — one, the active mental 
study which engrosses him; the other, the uncon- 
scious action that keeps him out of danger from pass- 
ing vehicles, or from other causes incident to city 
life. ‘The limitation of direction which Professor 
Newcomb regards as exceptional, I consider as gen- 
eral: i.e., I believe that there are vastly more men 
who have no definite idea of lines as a standard of 
reference, than there are those who refer every thing 
in direction to such co-ordinates; just as there are 
many who never have any definite idea of the cardi- 
nal points of the compass, either as real or ideal points, 
and who never arrive at any clear conception of the 
bearings of familiar buildings, or the direction of 
streets, though they may live in the same city for 
years. The domination or tyranny of a fixed idea 
is explanatory of the difficulty which Professor New- 
comb experiences. His ideal or subjective west was 
the domination of a fixed idea indelibly imprinted 
upon the super-sensitive cerebral cortex of youth, not 
necessarily associated with ideal or absolute direction, 
or with any system of horizontal lines, but an iso- 
lated conception, formed out of the perception of 
different positions, which in early youth could hardly 
be correlated with any abstruse reasoning. This idea 
of west, once ingrafted upon a developing brain, be- 
came a fixed factor, so dominant as to tyrannize over 
the understanding, and so persistent as to require 
some moments of study to dispel the illusion. This 
becomes evident from an analysis of his third divis- 
ion. The tyranny of the early idea has usurped 
eontrol over the will, and, indeed, over the whole 
cerebral outcome. Even though the internal evi- 
dence corresponds with the external bearings to show 
that his preconceived west is really not west, but 
some other point, yet so strong is the power of this 
subjective idea, that by no process of argument can 
he rid himself of it. This is not uncommon, but by 
no means of frequentoccurrence. But itis not a nor- 
mal harmony of relation between the various recipro- 
cal functions of the brain. It is likened to a hahit 
formed in youth, so strong as to be ineradicable in 
manhood, and has been studied with much care by 
psychologists. Again: one may be mistaken as to 
direction, or become confused in tracing his route 
through the intricacies of his hotel, without associat- 
ing such perversions with any states of subjective 
consciousness, so far as these states may involve 
the consideration or differentiation of the ‘ co-ordi- 
nates.’ A man who is ignorant of the cardinal points 
of the compass, and who never can tell in which di- 
rection he is facing, loses his way because he has lost 
his bearings: the road was known by reason of the 
association of other facts, —a certain house just here, 
or a lamp just there, — and not because his horizontal 
lines have led him astray. In view of: what we have 
learned of unconscious cerebral action, of habit, of 
the association of ideas, of the tyranny of a fixed idea, 
and of subjective states of consciousness leading on 
toabnormal objective conditions, it seems to me that 
Professor Newcomb’s case is not an isolated one, and 
that what he has written of himself has already been 
written of and discussed. 

Horatio R. Biaetow, M.D. 
Washington, D.C. 


Colorado climate. 


For the benefit of other sufferers, please allow me 
to correct what is likely to lead to an erroneous im- 
pression, on reading Dr. Fisk’s article on ‘ Climate in 
the cure of consumption,’ as published in Science of 


SCIENCE. 


623 


Oct. 5. Dr. Fisk, in his very able article, like most 
of those who have written of the fitness of the cli- 
mate of Colorado for consumptives, speaks as though 
Denver City were Colorado, and vice versa. 

Now, this unintentionally misleading impression 
is calculated to do serious harm. During the late 
spring, and in summer and autumn, Denver and 
neighboring localities may be quite as pleasant and 
beneficial to the consumptive as localities south of 
the ‘divide’ that separates the waters of the Platte 
from those of the Arkansas. 

But, during the cool and cold months, the Arkan- 
sas valley furnishes a very much better climate than 
can be found anywhere north of this divide in. Colo- 
rado. Itis scarcely necessary to state that the Ar- 
kansas valley furnishes all the necessary comforts of 
civilization, including convenient railroad transporta- 
tion. As arule, with rare exceptions, the consump- 
tive should not sojourn in towns or cities, but rather 
in rural districts. But, should the consumptive pre- 
fer town or city life, Pueblo, Cafion City, and other 
places in the Arkansas valley, afford ample accom- 
modation. 

Having long been a sufferer myself, and having 
sought health in many portions of North America, 
I speak of the before referred to localities from obser- 
vation and experience, and without prejudice or pe- 
cuniary interest. Q. C. Smiru, M.D. 

Austin, Tex., Oct. 18, 1883. 


(Dr. Fisk’s article was written with especial refer- 
ence to Denver, as the necessary data exist for that 
place, furnished by the records of the signal-service 
station: these do not exist for localities in the Ar- 
kansas valley. — Ep1ror. ] 


A BIOGRAPHICAL HISTORY OF AS- 
TRONOMY. 


Heroes of science —astronomers. By E. T. C. 
Morton, B.A., scholar of St. John’s college, 
Cambridge. London, Society for promoting 
Christian knowledge, [1882.] 341 p. 16°. 


From the title; ‘Heroes of science — as- 
tronomers,’ one might expect to find in this 
little book an account of the lives and a 
eulogium of the characters of the greatest 
astronomers, with some general indication of 
the nature of their discoveries. This expec- 
tation would be partially corrected by the 
opening paragraphs of the preface : — 


“The primary object of this little book is, as its 
name implies, to give some account of the lives of 
the chief astronomers. But it is impossible to leave 
in the mind of the general reader any clear notion 
of their characters, without giving some account of 
their work. A good deal of space is therefore taken 
up with explanations of their discoveries; but, as 
this is only of secondary importance, the explana- 
tions are given in a popular manner, and no mathe- 
matics is introduced, except in ten pages (172-182), 
where a knowledge of the first book of Euclid and 
of the elements of algebra is assumed. 

“The book may possibly be useful as an introduc- 
tion to the study of astronomy, and, in this aspect of 
it, it is hoped that it may be helpful in two respects: 
First, by putting before the student the personal 
difficulties which the first investigators of the law 


624 


of the stars met with, and the struggles they passed 
through to overcome them, whereby a human inter- 
est is given to the study of their work; and secondly, 
by clearly indicating the nature of the problems to 
be solved by the science.’’ 


In point of fact, however, the book does 
much more than this: it presents a clear, con- 
nected, readable account of the chief steps in 
the progress of astronomy from the earliest 
times to the present day; and while the lives 
of the astronomers, judiciously inserted and 
as a rule well told, greatly heighten the in- 
terest of the story of the science, the reader 
always feels that they are only the accidents 
of the book, while the unfolding of the suc- 
cessive triumphs of astronomy, and the expo- 
sition of its laws, objects, and methods, is its 
constant purpose. 

Interesting and readable as the book is 
almost throughout, we nevertheless think the 
author mistaken in regarding it as well adapted 
to serve as an introduction to astronomy for 
non-mathematical readers. It is true that 
only very elementary mathematics is explicitly 
introduced; but few readers who are not 
either equipped with the habits of thought 
bred by mathematical study, or possessed of 
some familiarity with the outlines of astron- 
omy, can follow intelligently and with inter- 
est the discussion of complicated motions. 
To young people who have gone through an 
elementary course in astronomy, on the other 
hand, the book before us will be most instruc- 
tive and stimulating. The subject is vivified, 
not only by the presentation of the lives, so 
.full of inspiration, of the great founders of the 
science, but also by a far clearer view of its 
progressive development than an ordinary text- 
book can afford. And the impression is not 
weakened by the introduction of insignificant 
details, or of merely statistical information. 
Not that details are avoided when they are 
necessary to the exposition or illustration of 
a great law, or of an important phenomenon: 
on the contrary, one is surprised at the num- 
ber and diversity of the points which are 
explained, and in general clearly and satisfac- 
torily explained. The author has not refrained 
from giving simple expositions of mechanical 
and physical laws when they are essential to 
the clear understanding of astronomical doc- 
trines. By explaining the laws of motion, for 
example, and insisting on their fundamental 
importance, he puts the reader in a position 
to understand the great problem of physical 
astronomy, and to appreciate its solution. In 
connection with spectrum analysis, a little 
space deyoted to the analogy between sound 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. IL, No. 40. 


and light makes the subject clear to the aver- 
age reader. And many other instances might 
be mentioned. 

As the character of the book does not make 
it incumbent upon the author to present any 
thing like a complete survey of even the most 
prominent astronomical facts, he is able to give 
a much fuller exposition of the central points 
in: the theory of astronomy than one would 
expect to find in so limited a space, and to 
give intelligible accounts of many things hay- 
ing a direct connection with these central prin- 
ciples, which are usually passed over with a 
bare mention in small works on astronomy. 
Thus, more than eighty pages are devoted to 
Newton; only a small portion of which is bio- 
graphical, a whole chapter of fifty pages being 
specifically devoted to the Principia. And 
pretty full accounts are given, for example, 
of Herschel’s theory of stellar distribution, of 
the nebular hypothesis, of Laplace’s proof 
of the stability of the solar system and La- 
grange’s previous attempts in that direction, 
and of the recent researches of Mr. G. H. 
Darwin. 

It would be quite possible to point out minor 
defects in the book. There is occasionally 
(but very seldom) an attempt to explain what 
cannot be satisfactorily explained in a popular 
manner; once in a while the demonstrations, 
which are usually in excellent and attractive 
form, are made pedantically stiff; there are a 
few inaccuracies, chiefly of expression; and 
there are possibly a few cases of Sunday- 
school moralizing from insufficient premises. 
The only instance we have noticed of unfair- 
ness in the historical portion is in the pas- 
sage relating to the Mohammedan astronomers. 
Scant justice is done them; and the author 
permits himself to combine silliness with 
injustice in saying that ‘it illustrates the 
slavish stupidity of the race,’ that a discovery 
made by an Arab astronomer in the tenth 
century was afterwards forgotten by them! 
A grave defect, but one which can easily be 
remedied in a new edition, lies in the lack 
of an index, —an omission which seriously 
impairs the value of this very interesting .and 
useful work. In conclusion, lest we should 
leave the impression that the book can be read 
with advantage only by students, we would 
say that the chapters which combine in the 
highest degree biographical with scientific 
interest, — those on Copernicus, Tycho Brahe, 
Kepler, and Galileo, — and many other parts 
of the book, may be read with great pleas- 
ure and profit by a very wide circle of read- 
ers. : 


: 


NOVEMBER 9, 1883.] 


PROCTOR’S GREAT PYRAMID. 


The Great Pyramid: observatory, tomb, and temple. 
By R. A. Proctor. London, Chatto § Windus, 
1883. 323 p., illustr. 8°. 

Tus last work of Mr. Proctor’s fertile and 
ingenious mind is of uncommon and enduring 
interest. To begin with, it concerns the most 
uncommon and the most enduring work of 
man, — the Pyramid of Cheops, whose mighty 
form has for nigh five thousand years remained 
the least changed and the least comprehensible 
of all man’s great deeds. Then it comes hap- 
pily into a discussion which is by far the most 
curious that has recently vexed the minds of 
learned men. There are plenty of paradoxi- 
eal folk on the lower confines of science, — 
circle-squarers, Symms’-hole hunters, and the 
like; but men of learning, especially astron- 
omers and mathematicians, are a hard-headed 
lot. The crack-brained do not often find their 
way up to their upper heights, for evident 
reasons. But it is a set of these really learned 
people that has given us the sect of the pyr- 
amid worshippers, —the most extraordinary 
cult of a century, that, of all the Great Pyr- 
amid has ever seen, has been the most fertile 
in religious whims. : 

Active proselyting not yet having begun, 
perhaps for want of needed martyrs, the gen- 
eral public has as yet heard little of the pyram- 
idalists or their faith. This is surprising; for 
their faith has more miracles ‘to the acre’ 
than Mormonism, and these miracles are as 
solid and ponderable as the pyramid itself. 
They are before our eyes: hundreds of pages 
of mathematics are needed to express them, 
and they have all the cheap look of certainty 
which the public associates with algebraic for- 
mulae. The following is in brief the history of 
pyramidalism, the only mathematical ism of the 
nineteenth century. Many years ago a Mr. 
John Taylor, pondering on the matter of the 
Great Pyramid, — which, by the way, he had 
not seen, and never saw,— came to the ex- 
traordinary conclusion that the architects of the 
structure recorded in its proportions, and in 
the arrangement of its chambers and passages, 
certain religious and astronomical truths, 
which they intended should, after thousands 
of years of secrecy, be divulged in our day. 
Mr. Taylor, being otherwise unknown to fame, 
though clearly entitled by this tour of imagina- 
tion to rank high among speculators, found 
no able advocates of his notion, until his book 
came in the way of Professor Piazzi Smyth, 
astronomer royal of Scotland, one of the most 
distinguished astronomers of our time. Cap- 


* 
ai, 
° ar 


SCIENCE. 


625 


tivated with this daring hypothesis, Professor 
Smyth visited the Great Pyramid, spent many 
months in a careful and costly survey of the 
structure, and, in his successive writings on 
the subject, has not only re-aflirmed the con- 
clusions of Taylor, but immensely extended 
the range of his conclusions. Briefly stated, 
his position is this: some three thousand years 
or more before our era, a Semitic prince, 
probably Melchizedek, that vast shadow of the 
time, inspired by God, went to Egypt, gained 
an intellectual mastery over King Cheops, and 
forced him to build this pyramid, which was 
designed to ‘* keep a certain message secret and 
inviolable for four thousand years, . . . and 
in the next thousand years it was to enunciate 
this message to all men; . . . and that part 
of the pyramid’s usefulness is now beginning.’” 

This ‘message’ is thus summed up by Mr. 
Proctor : — ‘ 


“The Great Pyramid was erected, it would seem, 
under the instructions of a certain Semitic king, 
probably no other than Melchizedek. By supernat- 
ural means, the architects were instructed to place 
the pyramid in latitude 30° north; to select for its 
figure that of a square pyramid, carefully oriented; 
to employ for their unit of length the sacred cubit, 
corresponding to the twenty-millionth part of the 
earth’s axis; and to make the side of the square base 
equal to just so many of these sacred cubits as 
there are days and parts of a dayin a year. They 
were further, by supernatural help, enabled to square 
the circle, and symbolized their victory over this 
problem by making the pyramid’s height bear to the 
perimeter of the base the ratio which the radius of a 
circle bears to the circumference. Moreover, the 
great processional period, in which the earth’s axis 
gyrates like that of some mighty top around the per- 
pendicular to the ecliptic, was communicated to the 
builders with a degree of accuracy far exceeding 
that of the best modern determinations; and they 
were instructed to symbolize that relation in the di- 
mensions of the pyramid’s base. A value of the sun’s 
distance more accurate by far than modern astron- 
omers haye obtained (even since the last transit of 
Venus) was imparted to them, and they embodied 
that dimension in the height of the pyramid. Other 
results which modern science has achieved, but which 
by merely human means the architects of the pyramid 
could not have obtained, were also supernaturally 
communicated to them; so that the true mean density 
of the earth, her true shape, the configuration of land 
and water, the mean temperature of the earth’s 
surface, and so forth, were either symbolized in the 
Great Pyramid’s position, or in the shape and dimen- 
sions of its exterior and interior. In the pyramid, 
also, were preserved the true, because supernaturally 
communicated, standards of length, area, capacity, 
weight, density, heat, time, and money. The pyra- 
mid also indicated, by certain features of its interior 
structure, that when it was built the holy influences 
of the Pleiades were exerted from a most effective 
position,— the meridian through the points where 
the ecliptic and equator intersect. And as the pyra- 
mid thus significantly refers to the past, so also it 
indicates the future history of the earth, especially 
in showing when and where the millennium is to 


626 


begin. Lastly, the apex or crowning stone of the 
pyramid was no other than the antitype of that stone 
of stumbling and rock of offence, rejected by builders 
who knew not its true use, until it was finally placed 
as the chief stone of the corner. Whence, naturally, 
‘Whosoever shall fall upon it’ —that is, upon the 
pyramid religion — ‘shall be broken; but on whom- 
soever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.’ ”’ 


It would require all the space of this number 
of Science to print in full array the evidence on 
which these conclusions are rested. At every 
step the able astronomer royal of Scotland has 
fortified his conclusions by careful measurements 
of the Great Pyramid. His method of working 
is as follows: having found that the unit of 
measurement is a certain length, about an inch, 
which he terms the ‘ pyramid inch,’ he seeks, in 
the various measurements of the structure, for 
correspondences in number of these units with 
natural and historie units, the distance of the 
sun, the radius of the earth,*ete. Finding a cor- 
respondence, or a close approximation to a cor- 
respondence, he assumes that this ratio was 
intended by the builders to be a statement of 
this truth. At first sight, the number and 
accuracy of these correspondences is simply 
astounding: they look like insuperable facts. 
Moreover, the measurement of the sun’s dis- 
tance, and perhaps some other ratios from the 
Great Pyramid, may turn out in the end to be 
closer to the truth from the pyramid revelation 
than they are to our present measurements. 

After a sagacious review of the principal 
coincidences, and an effort to show their gen- 
erally unintended nature, Mr. Proctor proceeds 
to develop his own view, which is, in effect, that 
the pyramids were built for astrological obser- 
vAtories, designed for the casting of the horo- 
scopes of the successive kings. He shows 
clearly, and we believe was the first to show, 
that early astronomy was astrological in its 
aims, and that the pyramid, when it had been 
carried up to half of its height, would afford the 
best possible structure for astronomical work 
of that time. His ingenious, and we must say 
convincing, argument requires us to assume a 
much more advanced state of astronomical and 
geodetic science in those days than many would 
be willing toadmit. Still, the old Semitic civili- 
zation is a yast unexplored realm: it is a@ vain 
fancy that we yet know what it contained. It 
is easier to give to it any thing in the way of 
learning than to accept the monstrous scheme 
of bungling prophecy that the pyramidalists offer 
in its stead. 

The student of science may have something 
~ beyond the entertainment that all readers will 
find in this book, and the literature of which 
it will form an important part. He may find 


SCIENCE. 


-the title. 


(Vou. II, No. 40. 


in the controversy a suggestion of certain dan- 
gers that await all work of a theoretic kind. 
All the work of extending our conceptions of 
natural phenomena, all the work of true science, 
must be carried on by the method of coinci- 
dences. A fact, or series of facts, is compared 
with other facts or series, and, from their ob- 
served identities, relations are inferred. The 
use of this method, under rigorous scrutiny, has 
given us our modern science, and must give us 
all that is truly scientific in the time to come. 
The incident of the Great Pyramid inquiry 
may well lead us to notice certain dangers in 
this method. A large part of the facts with 
which the naturalist has to deal has for him 
the danger that the Pyramid of Cheops has for 
the mathematician. Between the thing in hand 
and other things, there is a practically infinite 
number of relations. If he sets out on his in- 
quiry with a mind to find resemblances of a 
certain kind, this liberal nature is sure to gratify 
him. Nothing but the most rigorous correc- 
tion of the reasons for an opinion by the rea- 
sons against it will keep him safely on his way. 

The more fixed the opinion that guides the 
student in his work, the surer he is to find in 
the infinite that any object offers the facts to 
support his views. ‘his is the great danger 
that lies in the way of many who are seeking 
to advance the development hypothesis in biol- 
ogy. Having become possessed with the con- 
viction that certain things are to be found, they 
will see them as Smyth sees revelation in the 
stones at Ghizeh. 

There are some faults to be found with the 
making of this book. More than one-third of it 
consists of separate essays on the origin of the 
week, — Saturn, and the sabbath of the Jews ; 
astronomy and Jewish festivals ; the history of 
Sunday ; and astrology, —all very interesting 
in their way, but they are not represented in 
There is no proper table of contents, 
and no index. The British seem determined 
to leave this work of opening their modern liter- 
ature to students, altogether in the hands of the 
Index society. 

The book is written in the admirable didactic 
English of which the author is a master. 


MINOR BOOK NOTICES. 

Man before metals. By N. Jory: New York, 1883. 
(International science series, no. 45.) 8+36d p., 
illustr. 8°. 

Tue author of this attractive volume, unlike 
many European writers on archeology, gives ~ 
but little space to the subject of North-Ameri- 
can antiquities; and, of the one hundred and 


~ 


NOVEMBER 9, 1883.] 


forty-eight illustrations, not one represents a 
characteristic stone implement of this coun- 
try. The little that our author finds to say 
under the comprehensive title of ‘ Prehistoric 
man in America’ is included in twelve pages, 
constituting chapter vii., and is mainly a review 
of Squier and Davis’s Ancient monuments of 
the Mississippi valley, with brief reference to 
certain discoveries recorded so long ago’as 
the publication of Gliddon and Nott’s Types 
of mankind. Mr. Joly might readily have 
done far better. No mention is made of the 
vast amount of material gathered within the 
last decade, that bears so strongly upon 
the vexed question of man’s antiquity on this 
continent. The scores of publications of the 
Smithsonian institution, the invaluable reports 
of the Peabody museum, and the transactions 
of our learned societies generally, have been 
quite overlooked; and a vain attempt has 
been made, in lieu thereof, to bolster up the 
claim of antiquity of America’s earliest people 
by reference to the mounds of the Ohio valley, 
many of which have recently lost their claim 
fo a pre-Indian origin, and others, doubtless, 
will yet be shown to have been erected by the 
ancestors of our modern redskin. Asa résumé 
of European archeology, it is valuable, but 
not otherwise. To the American students of 
the science it will prove disappointing. 
Hydraulic tabies for the calculation of the discharge 
through sewers, pipes, and conduits; based on 

Kutter’s formula. By P. J. Fiynn. New York, 

D. Van Nostrand, 1883. (Van Nostrand’s science 

series, no. 67.) 135 p. 24°. 

Kurrer’s formula for determining the veloci- 
ty of flow of water is one of the class which 
has the general form v = ¢ Yrs, where r is the 
ratio of the cross-section a to the wetted pe- 


SCIENCE. 


627 


rimeter, and s is the sine of the slope; but the 
coefficient ¢ is of such a complex form, that 
the application of the formula to definite prob- 
lems in water-supply and sewerage is some- 
what tedious. This collection of tables is 
designed to facilitate the work, and gives 
values of 7, c¥r, and acyr, for circular and 
egg-shaped sections, and of s and ys for dif- 
ferent slopes. The coefficient of roughness or 
friction used is .015, and a number of exam- 
ples make clear the use of the tables. Engi- 
neers who have such work in their practice will 
find these tables convenient. 


Chemical problems, with brief statements of the princi- 
ples involved. By James C. Foye. New York, 
Van Nostrand, 1883. (Van Nostrand science 
series, no. 69.) 6+4+141p. 24°. 

Tue value of chemical problems as a prac- 
tical illustration of the rules of stochiometry 
is recognized by every teacher of chemistry. 
A thorough knowledge of chemical arithmetic 
is constantly required in the laboratory, and 
it can only be gained by actual practice in 
the solution of problems. The convenience of 
having a collection of examples at hand will 
therefore be appreciated by teachers; and this 
book will doubtless supply a deffciency to 
those who prefer the problems arranged inde- 
pendently of the text-book. A great variety 
of examples are presented, with very full illus- 
trations of the relations which exist between 
the factors and products of chemical reactions, 
beside calculations of atomic and molecular 
weights, specific and latent heat, specific gray- 
ity and yapor density. Examples are also 
introduced on the metric system of weights 
and measures, thermometric scales, and the 
laws of Mariotte and Charles. 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


ASTRONOMY. 


Origin of the lines A and B in the spec- 
trum. — M. Egoroff, by experiments at the physical 
laboratory of the University of St. Petersburg, has 
shown that the lines of the solar spectrum known 
as A and B are due to the oxygen of our atmos- 
phere. He employed a tube twenty metres in 
length, closed with glass plates, in which tube the 
gas under investigation could be condensed under 
pressures of fifteen atmospheres or less, proper care 
being taken to dry it thoroughly. The tellurie char- 
acter of these lines has been generally admitted, but 
has of late been called in question by Mr. Abney, who 


,.? © 


suggested that they might be due to cosmical hydro- 
carbon gas of some kind, diffused through space in 
accordance with Siemens’s theory. M. Egoroff sets 
this question at rest, having determined by direct 
experiment that none of several different hydrocar- 
bons tried gives any such bands, while oxygen un- 
mistakably does give them. — (Comptes rendus, Aug. 
27) -G: A. [827 

On the assumption of a solar electric poten- 
tial.— Werner Siemens discusses the hypothesis 
proposed by his brother (Sir W. Siemens), that the 
sun has a high electric potential, due to the friction 
of the dissociated matter which, according to his 


628 


theory, is continually flowing in at the sun’s polar 
regions to replace that which, after combustion, is 
thrown off at the sun’s equator. The paper is an 
important one, but too long to be fairly summarized 
within our limits. A considerable portion of it is 
deyoted to an endeavor to obviate one of the most 
serious objections to Siemens’s theory of the solar 
heat; namely, the objection based on the resistance 
to planetary motions which would result from a 
cosmical interstellar medium of the necessary den- 
sity. Werner Siemens argues that the particles of 
matter passing off from the sun’s equator would 
continue to revolye around the sun as they receded 
from it, and at any distance would have the same 
velocity as a planet.at that distance, and so would 
offer no resistance. The paper is, however, mainly 
occupied with the planetary consequences of solar 
electrification. — (Phil. mag., Sept.) ©. A. ¥. [828 


MATHEMATICS. 


Development of real functions. — The exact 
title of this paper, by M. J. P. Gram, is ‘The devel- 
opment of real functions in series, by the method of 
least squares.’ M. Gram’s paper is an exceedingly 
interesting one, but unfortunately one which can- 
not be more than briefly referred to in this place, as 
a suitable notice of it would require the reproduction 
of a great deal of algebraical wo1'k. The principal 
problem which M. Gram proposes to solve is stated 
as follows: let there be given a series of arguments, 
x, and two corresponding series of quantities, o, and 
v,. These last quantities are all real, and, further, the 
vx are all positive. Then in a series which contains 
known functions of %,—viZ., Ye =a, X, + de Xe 

. + dn Xn, —the coefficients are to be so deter- 
mined that Sz vz (02 — Yx)?Sshallbeaminimum. In 
the first part of the paper, the author gives applica- 
tions of his process to Fourier’s series, spherical 
harmonies, and cylindrical functions. The second 
part refers almost entirely to the convergence of cer- 
tain series; but without quoting much that is obtained 
in the first section, and defining many symbols, it 
would be impossible to give here a suitable or intelli- 
gible notice of this second section. — (Journ. reine 
ang. math., xciv. 94.) 7. Cc. [329 


ENGINEERING. 


Economical pumping-engines.— Mr. C. T. Por- 
ter reports the duty of the Gaskill engines at Saratoga 
as 106,000,000 pounds, raised one foot high, per 100 
pounds of hand-picked coal. The Corliss engines at 
Pettaconsett, Providence, R.I., gave a duty of 113,- 
271,000; and the Pawtucket engines have an average, 
for the year 1882, of 113,500,000. The slip of valves 
is reduced to one-half of one per cent. — (Mech., July 
VAN) aia at ats [830 

Consolidation of bulky materials.— A steam- 
hammer has recently been applied to the consolida- 
tion of bulky materials in steel moulds. The mate- 
rials are usually organic, often fibrous, and one blow 
generally does the work. Four blocks per minute 
are made; 3,000 pounds of sawdust are compacted 
into blocks each hour. Bran is thus made denser 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 40. 


than flour, and can be preserved indefinitely. Stone 
is made from earth or sand, and weighing 160 pounds 
per cubie foot. The following are results so ob- 


tained : — 
° Cubic feet per ton. | Weight per cubic foot. 
Unpressed.| Pressed. | Unpressed.| Pressed. 
STAT be te Ujeees ttn 172 34 13 65 
MGA V/s) ist ley ie. is 64 37 35 65 
Sawdust ... 448 84 5 65 
Tanbark . . . 140 35 16 64 
Cotton (baled) : 93 40 - 56 
Hay 160 34 14 65 
Bitum. coal- dust. 44 28 50 80 
_ (Industr. Torte. ine Ve Re as We. [S331 


Economy of steam-boilers.— William Kent re- 
ports, to the American society of mechanical engi- 
neers, the results of a series of tests of fuels in various 
ways, and under various forms of boilers. He gives 
the following as relative values of fuels determined 
by burning under the Babeock & Wilcox boilers : — 


Welsh bitums 12 Shi". 9s ears 
Scotch bitum. .. . BF Ate 109.5. 
Cambria, Penn., cemiebitten 91.2. 
Pittsburgh, Penn., bitum. 99.5. 
Ohio bitumen $4.9. 
Vancouver's Island 85.7. 


The paper is long and unusually conealeney — (Ibid.) 
Ts5/ 18 1; [832 
METALLURGY. 


Bessemerizing copper mattes.— Pierre Manhés 
claims to have overcome all the difficulties in Bes- 
semerizing copper matte, and to haye charge of an 
establishment which is, at the present time, success- 
fully making copper on a commercial scale. He 
melts the ore in a suitable cupola furnace, casting 
the matte produced into a Manhés converter, when, 
under the action of a high-pressure blast, it is rap- 
idly transformed into 98% to 99% black copper. The 
Manhés works consist of three cupolas of twenty- 
five to thirty tons’ capacity per day; two small cupo- 
las for remelting the matte in case of need; three 
Manhés converters, treating a ton and a half of 
matte at each operation, and each converter makes 
twenty-two to twenty-four operations per day; and the 
necessary blowing-engines. Manhés claims that cost 
of labor is reduced to a minimum, because operations 
last only a few minutes, and large quantities of metal 
are handled. The cost of fuel is low; because no 
fuel is needed to bring the matte forward to ‘black 
copper, except that used for the blowing-engine. 
The saving in cost over the Welsh or Swansea pro- 
cess, according to local conditions, is from 50% to 
75%. — (Eng. min. journ., June 30.) BR. u.R. [833 ~ 


AGRICULTURE. 


Seed-testing.— Comparisons between the ger- 
minating and vegetating powers of seeds, made at 
the New-York agricultural experiment-station, show 
that the two are by no means identical. Many seeds 
which were capable of putting forth a radicle failed 


NOVEMBER 9, 1883.] 


to vegetate sufficiently to form cotyledons, under the 
favorable conditions of a testing-apparatus. In eley- 
en tests, with four species of seeds, from ten to forty- 
six per cent of the seeds germinated, but failed to 
vegetate. — (N.Y. agric. exp. stat. bull., Ixii.) HW. P. A. 
[334 

Sulphuric acid as a fertilizer.—The use of 
sulphuric acid has been proposed as a means of ren- 
dering the constituents of the soil soluble. Experi- 
ments by Farsky on summer rye, grown in boxes, 
showed no advantage from the use of sulphuric acid 
or of acid sodium sulphate. When the soil was kept 
dry, a slight decrease in the production of grain was 
noticed as the result of the manuring. The soil was 
a clay soil, and the sulphuric acid was sprinkled upon 
it in the concentrated form until it was distinctly 
moist. A hundred grams of acid were used to thirty- 
five hundred grams of soil. —(Biedermann’s centr.- 
blatt., xii. 447.) HW. P. A, (335 


GEOLOGY. 


Lithology. 

Determination of the felspars in rocks. — Pro- 
fessor J. Szabo’s method of determining the felspars 
in rocks was published at Budapesth in 1876; but he 
has recently placed it before the English reading 
public in a paper read at Montreal last year. His 
method consists chiefly in determining the coloration 
of the flame by the felspars, and their fusibility. 
This method, with the addition of Boricky’s micro- 
chemical process, is further used by Szab6 for the 
determination of other silicates. For the details of 
the process, reference is to be had*to the original 
papers. — (Proc. Amer. assoc. adv. sc., 1882.) M. E. w. 

: [336 

Laterite from Huranbee, Pegu, India. — This is 
described by Dr. R. Romanis as an aqueous rock of 
a bright red color, friable, and full of cavities. It is 
stated to be composed of 31.44% of quartz sand, 
13.27 % of soluble silica, 36.28% of ferric oxide, 9.72 % 
of alumina, and 8.83% of water. When the sand is 
examined under the microscope, it is seen to be water- 
worn. Laterite is much used in building and road- 
making on account of its hardening when exposed to 
the air. — (Trans. Edinb. geol. soc., iv. 164.) M. BE. Ww. 

bs [337 
MINERALOGY. 


Minerals from Amelia county, Va.—In a vein 
of granite which for the past few years has been 
worked for mica, a few rare and interesting minerals 
have been found, and are described by William F. 
Fontaine. Columbite occurs in crystals of large size, 
and rather rarely a manganese variety of a chestnut- 
brown color is found. This latter has a tendency to 
assume a fibrous structure. Orthite is found abun- 
dantly in long, bladed crystals. The most interesting 
mineral found at the locality is microlite, occurring 
both in crystalline thasses of large size, and in dis- 
tinct crystals: the latter are octahedrons, modified by 
small cubic, dodecahedron, and tetragonal-trisocta- 
hedron faces. Analysis has shown that the mineral 
is essentially a calcium tantalate. Monazete, another 


Bisa. a ip 


SCIENCE. 


629 


rare and interesting mineral, is found abundantly at 
the locality, sometimes in masses weighing several 
pounds. Analyses have shown that this has the com- 
position of a normal phosphate of the cerium metals, 
while the thorium, which is most always present, and 
abundantly in the monazete from Amelia, is due to 
an admixture of a silicate of thorium. Helvite, a rare 
silicate of manganese, beryllium, and iron, contain- 
ing Sulphur, is found sparingly associated with spes- 
sarlite (manganese garnet). — (Amer. journ. sc., May, 
1883.) Ss. L. P. (338 
METEOROLOGY. 

Thunder-storms.—A special investigation of thun- 
der-storms has been made in Bavaria and Wiirtemburg 
since 1879. In 1882, in Bavaria there were 252 sta- 
tions, which number, distributed uniformly, would 
give a mean distance between stations of about ten 
miles. To each of these stations, cards were sent, 
having questions calling for the time of beginning 
and ending of thunder, hail, or rain ; also, the direc- 
tion from which the storm came, and the direction 
and force of the wind. 

These investigations show: 1°, That the thunder- 
storm, while not an accompaniment of a cyclone, still 
appears with smaller secondary depressions, or spurs 
of great depressions, which are so flat that they do not 
produce any strong wind. Of special force is the 
thunder-storm in the ridge of high pressure dividing 
two great depression-regions from each other. 2°, 
That the line upon which simultaneous electric dis- 
charges take place encloses a space which has, in 
most cases, great length but little width, and which 
stands at right angles to the line of progress of the 
storm. Such simultaneous discharges have been ob- 
served over a region 300 km. (186 miles) broad and 
about 40 km. (25 miles) deep. 3°. That special re- 
gions for thunder-storms are marshy low grounds 
between the Mediterranean or other smaller bodies 
of water, and the Alps; also the western declivity of 
the Bohemian forest. 4°. That in cases where the 
origin of the storm can be well determined, within 
the region of observation, it is found that electric dis- 
charges take their beginning along a long line simul- 
taneously ; and it is conjectured, that the disturbance 
of the electric equilibrium, by the first discharge, 
propagates its influence from cloud to cloud, and 
causes simultaneous outbursts in different places. 5°. 
Heat-lightning is due to the presence of a storm at 
a great distance. In one instance it was traced to a 
storm 270 km. (167 miles) distant. 6°. Arranging 
the storms according to their frequency at each hour 
of the day, we find the hours from midnight to eight 
A. M, of little activity,'a very rapid rise from eight 
A. M. to four P. M., and nearly as rapid a fall to mid- 
night. 

The above results show the importance of a detailed 
observance of these meteors. It is hardly probable 
that we can learn particulars of these so-called local 
storms, by observing them at stations a hundred or 
more miles apart. The various state wéather-services 
have an excellent opportunity for undertaking such 
observations. It may be possible to learn the move- 
ments of these storms over large areas, and thus to 


give warning of their approach three or even four 
hours in advance. — (Zeilschy. met., June.) HW. A. H. 
[839 


GEOGRAPHY. 


Bureau of commercial science.— The Ministry 
of commerce in France has just instituted a new bu- 
reau, which is to be directed by M. Renard, formerly 
librarian of the Ministry of marine. This bureau is 
intended to bring together the publications, letters, 
travels, and information bearing on commerce, indus- 
try in foreign countries, navigation, etc., which come 
to the authorities in various ways, and selections and 
translations of documents from foreign sources and 
collections. Those considered of importance will be 
printed for the public use.—(Soc. de géogr. Paris, 
June.) wW. H. D. [840 

Wotes on population.— The late census of Mo- 
naco shows the principality to contain 9,108 inhab- 
itants, of which more than one-third are French,— 
Born Parisians are always in a minority in that 
city, numbering, according tothe latest figures, about 
thirty-two per cent of the population. The city con- 
tains 164,038 foreigners, of which, in round numbers, 
45,000 are Belgians, 31,200 Germans, 21,600 Ital- 
ians, 21,000 Swiss, 10,800 English, 9,250 Dutch, and 
about 5,000 each, Americans, Russians, and Austrians. 
Twenty per cent of the total increase of the popula- 
tion of Paris during the years 1876-81 is due to the 
increase of resident foreigners. —— The stagnation 
of the population of France is exciting much atten- 
tion, and even apprehension. Itis sufficiently evinced 
by its proportional ratio to the Anglo-Germanic popu- 
lation of Europe. ‘This in-1700 was three to three, or 
fifty per cent; that is to say, France equalled in pop- 
ulation the whole of the group referred to. In 
1881, however, her ratio was as three to seventeen; 
or, if the Anglo-Germans of the United States be 
counted in, it was only three to thirty, or about ten 
per cent. The population native to the Marque- 
sas Islands in 1855 was about 12,000: at present it 
has diminished to 5,700. —— The population of Tunis, 
it seems, has been greatly exaggerated. Instead of 
five or even two and a half million, as has been 
accepted for some years, the late investigations of 
M. Perpetue show that the total figure, probably, 
should not exceed 1,400,000, of which about 36,000 
are foreigners. — (Bull. soc. géogr. Mars., June.) 
W. H. D. [S41 


(North America.) 


Fisheries of British Columbia. — Foreign vessels 
have been officially warned from taking or curing 
fish within three miles of the coast of the province. 
The value of the catch for 1882 was $1,842,675, and 
of vessels, nets, etc., $229,600. Twenty canneries and 
other land-stations are assessed at $402,000. They 
employed, in 1882, 5,215 hands and 79 vessels; and the 
inerease in yalue, oyer 1881, of the product, was over 
thirty per cent. More than twelve million cans of 
salmon and nearly six hundred thousand pounds of 
herring were put up during the season. —w. i. D. 

[842 

Salmon-fisheries in the north-west. — The out- 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. II., No. 40. 


put of canned salmon on the Columbia River, at the 
close of the season, was 629,438 cases, and the disburse- 
ments to the fishermen employed were $1,550,000. 
Tn 1882, 541,300 cases were put up on the Coiumbia. 
About 17,500 eases had been put up on the Fraser 
River to Aug. 1; but, for the complete returns, details 
for this and the Alaskan region are not yet received. 
The total pack on all rivers on the north-west coast 
of America, in 1882, was 941,187 cases, each contain- 
ing the equivalent of forty-eight pounds of canned 
fish, or at least double that amount of fresh fish, 
equal to about five million individual salmon of ten 
pounds each. — W. H. D. [343 


(South America.) 


Notes. —C. de Amezaga, in the Bulletin of the 
Italian geographical society, gives a general deserip- 
tion of the Galapagos, with a map, from investiga- 
tions by Wolf and Icaza, and an historical account of 
them, and the endeavors to colonize them. It ap- 
pears that there is actually a small settlement on 
Chatham Island of recent date. Older ones on Flo- 
riana all came to an unfortunate termination, —— 
The Instituto Argentino meditates an expedition to 
southern Patagonia, to be directed by Capt. Carlo 
Moyano, who lately crossed the Patagonian desert 
from Santa Cruz to Port Deseado. The death of 
Bartolomeo Lucioli is reported on the 9th of June, 
while on his way from Lisbon to Para. The deceased, 
who was about fifty years of age, had been a civil 
and military officer in the Peruvian service, but was 
afterward more distinguished as an explorer of the 
Ucayali and upper Amazons, and as the collector of 
a precious ethnological exhibit now in the Ethno- 
logical museum at Rome, relating to the inhabitants 
of this region. —— The commission for determining 
the boundary between Venezuela and Brazil, in the 
vicinity of the Orinoco, has returned to Rio Janeiro. 
They bring valuable geographical material, but haye 
suffered severely from fever and other evils attendant 
on such explorations in South America. —— Loyi- 
sato, one of Bove’s companions, has read a paper 
before the Italian geographical society on his geo- 
logical researches in Patagonia and Tierra del Fuego, 
describing the glaciers of the latter region, and sug- 
gesting reasons for the supposition that the antare- 
tic region is occupied by land rather than sea, —— 
Some notes on New Grenada, made in 1617-80 by 
Hubert Verdonck, a Belgian Jesuit, appear in the 
Anvers Bulletin. They contain a few ethnological 
and historical details of interest; but even at that 
time the aborigines had totally disappeared from the 
vicinity of Carthagena and Panama. —— A letter 
from the French meteorological station at Orange 
Harbor, in the Revue géographique for July, while 
containing no information of importance, is accom- 
panied by two characteristic illustrations of Fuegian 
people, and one of their dogs. — Ww. H. D. [844 

’ 
BOTANY. 

Sylloge fungorum. — The second yolume by 
Prof. P. A. Saccardo, of more than eight hundred 
pages, includes all the remaining species of Pyre- 


ie 


NOVEMBER 9, 1883.] 


nomycetes not treated in the first volume, together 
with an index of all the genera and species of the 
order. ‘There are also several pages of addenda to 
both volumes, including the species published up to a 
very recent date. In fulness and general arrange- 
ment, the present volume has the same merits as its 
predecessor. Vol. iii. is announced to appear in 1884, 
and will include the Sphaeropsoideae, Melanconieae, 
and Hyphomycetes. — w. G. F. [345 

Illustrations of British fungi.— This compre- 
hensive and finely executed work by M. C. Cooke has 
now reached the end of the second yolume, including 
eighteen parts and an index. The two volumes al- 
ready issued include figures of all the leucosporic 
species of Agaricus known to occur in Britain, except 
twenty-six little-known species, three hundred and 
seventy-eight species with varieties being represented 
—a considerably larger number than is included in 
the works of Sowerby, Bulliard, or Krombholz. The 
work will be continued, and contain plates of the re- 
maining sections of Agaricus. — Ww. G. F. [346 

Ascospores in the genus Saccharomyces. — 
In the reports of the Carlsberg laboratory, Hansen 
gives a résumé of his researches on the formation of 
ascospores in the different forms of Saccharomyces. 
While in general he agrees with Rees’s views, he 
denies the possibility of distinguishing species of Sac- 
charomyces by the ascospores; and, in fact, he is 
hardly inclined to admit the specific value of the 
different forms described by Rees. Hansen’s ex- 
periments were made with cultures of single spores 
obtained by a process of dilution, which he describes 
in detail; and the purity of fhe cultures was recog- 
nized by the formation, on the walls of the culture- 
flasks, of a single spot formed from the growth of one 
spore. He also adopted, with good results, Koch’s 
method of gelatine culture. While the ascospores of 
the different so-called species of Saccharomyces can- 
not be distinguished by their shape, Hansen found 
that there was a difference in the time of their ger- 
mination when exposed to different temperatures; 
and he gives a series of curves to represent the results 
of his experiments with regard to the temperature in 
six different forms. The curves all have a similar 
form; but the maxima and minima vary with the 
different species, the minimum being between 3° C. 
and 3° C,, and the maximum about 373°C. There 
follows a discussion of what Pasteur calls Torulae, 
which resemble; species of Saccharomyces, but are 
separated from that genus by Hansen, because he 
found that they did not produce ascospores. ‘The 
paper concludes with an account of diseases of beer 
caused by certain alcoholic ferments. — w. G. F. [347 


ZOOLOGY. 
Worms. 

Homology of the nemertean proboscis and 
the chorda [dorsalis.—In an article on the an- 
cestral form of the chordata, Hubrecht defends the 
following speculative thesis: ‘‘ According to my opin- 
ion, the proboscis of the nemerteans, which arises 
as an invaginable structure (entirely derived, both 
phylo- and onto-genetically, from the epiblast), and 


SCIENCE. 


631 


which passes through a part of the cerebral ganglion, 
is homologous with the rudimentary organ, which is 
found in the whole series of vertebrates without ex- 
ception, —the hypophysis cerebri. The proboscidean 
sheath is comparable in situation (and development ?) 
with the chorda dorsalis of vertebrates.’? Without 
adding new facts, but merely basing his arguments 
on what is already known, the author defends his 
hypothesis with great ingenuity. His chief argu- 
ment is, that the proboscis and the hypopbysis are 
both anterior ectodermal invaginations, and are ho- 
mologous. His use of terms is misleading. By ‘ pro- 
boscis’ he designates apparently both the free portion 
of the proboscis and its sheath; by ‘ proboscidean 
sheath,’ on the contrary, the posterior portion of the 
proboscis, which has no sheath, and is not free. 
At least, his descriptions became intelligible to the 
reporter only on that assumption. The posterior 
unfree part of the proboscis he considers the homo- 
logue of the notochord. The vertebrates are not 
connected with the annelids; but, on the contrary, 
the two lateral nerves of lower worms have united 
dorsally to make the central nervous system of ver- 
tebrates, ventrally to form the ganglionic chain of 
annelids and their derivatives. In the second half 
of his paper, the author endeavors to strengthen 
his position by comparisons between other organs 
in nemerteans and vertebrates. [It is possible that 
Hubrecht’s hypothesis will be verified; but the ob- 
jections to it come to mind so immediately, and in 
such throngs, that it is difficult to believe the hypoth- 
esis well founded. Some of the most serious objec- 
tions are ably presented by Whitman in an article 
accidentally published in the same number (p. 376), 
and arguing in favor of the annelidan affinities of 
vertebrates.] — (Quart. journ. micr. sc., xxiii. 349.) 
c. 8. M. [348 

Embryology of Planaria polychroa.— Metsch- 
nikoff has* studied the development of fresh-water 
planarians, and reached conclusions that are, in part, 
very startling. Pl. polychroa lays its egg-capsules 
in late spring and early summer. Each capsule con- 
tains from four to six eggs, and thousands of the so- 
called ‘ yolk-cells.’ The egg has no membrane. The 
yolk-eclls immediately around each ovum break down, 
their membranes disappear; but their nuclei remain 
for a long time distinguishable, although they finally 
disappear in the embryo, into the composition of 
which these disintegrated cells enter. The ovum seg- 
ments, but the cleavage-cells do not cohere, there be- 
ing no vitelline membrane: on the contrary, each 
embeds itself in the mass derived from the yolk-cells. 
In some manner, which is left in complete obscurity 
by the author’s descriptions, the cells from the ovum 
gradually spread themselves, and form first the 
pharynx, and then an epidermal Jayer of thin cells, 
which encloses the whole of the disintegrated yolk- 
mass, together with cells from the ovum, embedded 
in it. In the centre of this mixed parenchym ap- 
pears a cavity which communicates with the lumen 
of the pharynx. This last seizes and swallows the 
surrounding yolk-cells, each intact. The cells seat- 
tered through the body form the mesoderm (mes- 


632 


enchym), which arranges itself so as to form the 
partitions of the body, dividing the disintegrated 
yolk-mass into separate accumulations, which, com- 
bining with the yollk-cells swallowed, gradually 
assume the form of the intestine with its coeca. 
No entoderm exists, unless two cells at the base of 
the proboscis are a remnant of it. During these 
changes the nervous system appears, and the sheath 
around the proboscis is developed. Metschnikoft 
advances the opinion, that the yolk-cells swallowed, 
though not derived from the ovum, and being foreign 
bodies, nevertheless become the cells of the apparent 
entoderm of the adult. He further believes that the 
nervous system is derived from the mesoderm. If 
Metschnikoff is correct in maintaining, that, first, 
there are no epithelial germ-layers; second, the cleay- 
age-cells are mixed with and embedded in a foreign 
substance; third, foreign cells form the entoderm, 
there being no embryonic entoderm; fourth, the 
nervous system is derived from the mesoderm, — then 
it is obvious that the general conclusions which we 
are wont to consider to haye been well established by 
embryological research are erroneous, although they 
rest upon a yast body of evidence. One would sup- 
pose that no attempt to set this evidence aside would 
be made, except after the most unquestionable 
determination of new facts. Now, Metschnikoft’s 
researches leave every one of the processes involved 
in his novel views in absolute darkness; for he has 
not, for the most part, observed them at all. His 
surprising deductions are based upon a failure to 
ascertain what are the actual processes, and seem to 
the reporter invalid. The value of the real obser- 
vations is, of course, unaffected by the speculative 
portions of the essay. — (Zeitsch. wiss. zool., xxxviii. 
331.) Cc. Ss. M, [849 
Thsects. 


Epidermal glands of caterpillars and Mala- 
chius.— The following are the principal results ob- 
tained by Stan. Klemensiewicz. 1°. The eighth and 
ninth segments of the laryae of Liparis, Leucoma, 
Orgyia, and Porthesia auriflua, have each a little pro- 
tuberance on the median dorsal line, with the open- 
ing of a gland at the summit. The secretion is clear 
and odorless. The skin is invaginated at the top 
of the papilla to form a pendent sack, at the base of 
which are inserted two muscles running obliquely 
backwards; and there also open two glands by a com- 
mon duct. The external surface of the glands is 
smooth, but in their interior each gland-cell forms 
a separate bulging mass: the appearance thus pre- 
sented is singular. The lumen of the duct is very 
small; its thick walls are formed by two large cells, 
much like those of the gland proper. In Leucoma 
salicis there are quite similar glands on the fourth 
and fifth segments. 2°. The exsertile horns of Pa- 
pilio Machaon, larva, are described. They are really 
developments of the tegument: the epidermal cells 
of their walls are large, and contain numerous rod- 

haped bodies; but the cells at the base of the 
horns are much smaller, and glandular (their secre- 
tion being probably discharged through pores of the 
adjacent cuticula). It may be assumed, that the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 40, 


odorous secretion accumulates in the inyaginated 
horns, and is freed by their exsertion. 8°. The eat- 
erpillar of Harpyia vinula has a gland in the first seg- 
ment, opening ventrally. The gland is flask-shaped, 
the neck acting as duct, and opening into a large 
transverse fissure; the body of the flask is the gland 
proper, and is lined by polygonal epithelial cells, with 
irregularly shaped nuclei; the epithelium rests upon a 
thin tunica propria. 4°. A similar organ to the last 
mentioned was described in Vanessa larvae, by Ro- 
genhofer (Verh. zool.-bot. ges. Wien, xii. 1227): itis an 
invagination of the skin on the ventral side of the 
first segment; its cuticula is thin, and forms numerous 
little cups, under each of which is a thin epithelial 
cell. 5°. The orange-colored fleshy warts on the 
sides of the thorax and abdomen of Malachius are 
also glandular. The epidermis presents no special 
features in the warts, except that it bears scattered 
unicellular glands of the form typical for insects; 
they are flask-shaped, with a coiled cuticular duet 
in their interior, the duct being continuous with a 
pore-canal through the general cuticula of the wart. 
In the lower and larger end of each cell, lies the round 
nucleus. —(Verh. zool.-bot. ges. Wien, xxxii. 459.) 
c. S. M. [S50 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


Prehistoric copper. — Professor J. D. Butler con- 
fidently asserts that the Wisconsin state historical 
society’s collection contains more American aborigi- 
nal copper implements than he has been able to hear 
of in all other cabinets whatever. One axe weighs 
four pounds twelve ounces and a quarter, and is the 
heaviest article of wrought copper as yet brought to 
light. Fourteen new implements have lately been 
added, some of them unique in form, or size, or in 
the location from which they were derived. More 
than fifty coppers have come to the cabinet from 
Washington county alone. This fact is doubtless 
due to Mr. Perkins’s persistent search in that locality. 
— (Wisc. hist. coll., ix. 97.) J. W. P. [S51 

Aztalan.— The largest and most elaborate aborigi- 
nal monument in Wisconsin is Aztalan, fifty miles 
east of Madison. It was first discovered by Timothy 
Johnson in 1836, and described by Nathaniel F. Hyer 
in the Milwaukee advertiser, January, 1837. Mr. 
Stephen Taylor gave an illustrated account of it in 
Silliman’s journal in 1843; and the place was first 
accurately surveyed and plotted by Dr. Lapham, in 
1850, whose description and drawings were published 
in 1855, in the’ Smithsonian contributions to knowl- 
edge. ‘This strange monument,’ says Prof. But- 
ler, “was styled Aztalan by Mr. Hyer, inasmuch 
as it seemed to him astructure worthy of the Aztecs.” 
Upon this point Mr. Peet says, ‘‘ The name Aztalan 
was derived from a tradition, which was said to be 
common among the Indians, that a people partially 
civilized built here a city, and a hundred years after- 
ward, becoming dissatisfied, proceeded south to Mex- 
ico.”? There is no reason to‘suppose that the Aztecs, 
or any other Mexican people, were in any way con- 
nected with it. Mauch curiosity has been excited with 
reference to the Aztalan bricks, which are shapeless 


NoveEMBER 9, 1883.] + 


clods of clay, burnt red and pretty hard. The process 
of burning is supposed to have been similar to that 
discovered by Schliemann at Troy. The soil, a sort 
of loam, had been thrown up into a rampart, the 
whole coated with clay matted together with bushes 
and sedge. Over all were heaped prairie-grass and 
trees, and the pile set on fire. Dr. Yarrow describes 
a like process pursued in North Carolina grave- 
mounds. — (Wisc. hist. coll., ix. 99.) J.w. P. [852 


EARLY INSTITUTIONS. 


History of agricultural prices in England.— 
M. Jusserand reviews Mr. Thorold Rogers’s work 
upon this subject. He pronounces it one of the 
great books of our century, and indispensable to 
the student of economic history. It is full of facts 
hitherto unknown, or, if known, unclassified, and in- 
accessible to most students. Mr. Rogers’s opinion 
that the fifteenth century, and the beginning of the 
sixteenth, was a golden age for the laboring-people of 
England, is cited as especially notable, inasmuch as 
a contrary opinion has generally obtained up to this 
time. — (Rev. critique, 18 juin, 1883.) D. w. R. [353 

Indirect taxation among the Romans.— M. 
Dareste sums up all, or nearly all, that is known upon 
this subject. Very little is known; and very little is 


SCIENCE. 


633 


likely to be known, unless some more inscriptions, 
like that discovered not long ago in the ruins of 
Palmyra, should be found. It was an important find, 
—a custom-house tariff with regulations regarding 
the collection of duties. (See Bull. corresp. hellén., 
mai-juin, 1882.) The inscription has not yet been 
published. The principal indirect taxes of the Ro- 
mans were, the custom-house duty (portorium), a 
fax on successions, upon the manumission of slaves, 
and the sale of movable goods. They were not very 
heavy taxes at any time. M. Dareste gives us a very 
good account of the portorium. The Roman custom- 
houses were scattered about here and there, wher- 
ever merchants were wont to pass or to congregate. 
A list of localities where there were custom-houses is 
given. The portorium was a percentage levied upon 
the value of merchandise. Only merchandise was 
subject to it. Personal effects of travellers, in- 
strumenta itineris, ete., were free of duty. A list of 
writings upon the subject is given. The principal 
work cited is that of M. R. Cagnat: Etude historique 
sur les impots indirects chez les Romains. It was 
written before the discovery of the Palmyra inscrip- 
tion. —(Séances trav. acad. inscr., Feb.—March, 
1883.) D. W. R. [354 


INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 


GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. 
Geological survey, 


Fiéld-work of the division of the Great Basin. —In 
consequence of the extension of the work of the 
survey to the Atlantic states, the director has found 
it necessary to divert some of its force from investi- 
gations already initiated. One of the most important 
researches thus stopped is that of the quaternary 
lakes of the Great Basin. The corps was reduced 
at the beginning of the fiscal year, and instructed to 
devote the field season to supplementing the material 
already acquired, so as to prepare it for publication 
without future visits to the district. 

The office at Salt-Lake City was closed on the 30th 
of June, and field operations were immediately begun. 
Mr. I. C. Russell, assistant geologist, proceeded to 
Mono valley, California, and carried to completion his 
examination of the existing lake and its ‘ancient ex- 
pansion. He included in his study, also, the six 
extinct glaciers which anciently debouched in the 
Mono valley, tracing them to their common source 
in the great névé of the Sierra Nevada. Incidentally 
he examined the ice-masses associated with some of 
the summits of the Sierra, and brought the camera 
to bear on them. These have been called glaciers by 
Muir and others, but are said by King to be unworthy 
of the name; and it may be hoped that these later 
observations and illustrations will suffice to place the 
_ matter beyond controversy. 

From the Mono basin he proceeded to the Walker, 


' 
3 2 . 7 


Carson, Pyramid, Winnemucca, and Black Rock ba- 
sins, for the purpose of re-investigating certain points 
connected with the history of the ancient Lake 
Lahontan, upon which he is preparing a report. 

Mr. W. D. Johnson, topographer of the division, 
spent the summer, under Mr. Russell’s direction, in 
surveys for a general map of the Mono basin, and is 
now engaged on a series of special maps of ancient 
glacial moraines. 

Ensign J. B. Bernadou, detailed from the navy for 
the purpose, has acted during the summer as Mr. 
Russell’s assistant. 

Mr. G. K. Gilbert, who has general charge of the 
work, spent a few weeks in the field, visiting locali- 
ties of special interest in th® Lahontan, Bonneville, 
and Mono basins. He was accompanied in the Lahon- 
tan basin by Mr. R. Ellsworth Call, the conchologist, 
who is engaged in a study of the molluscan faunas of 
the quaternary lakes of the Great Basin, and took the 
field for the purpose of familiarizing himself with 
their geological relations. ‘ 

The Champlain valley. —Mr. Charles D. Walcott, 
with Mr. C. Curtice as assistant, has been studying 
the formations between the archean and Trenton in 
Saratoga county, N.Y., and along up the Champlain 
valley on both sides of the lake. 

Saratoga village, west of the fault-line along which 
the springs occur, was found to be built over a massive, 
gray, magnesian limestone, that carries a strongly 
marked fauna closely allied to that of the Potsdam 
sandstone of Wisconsin. The geologic section from 


634 


the archean to the base of the bird’s-eye limestone 
was found to be of great interest. At Glen Falls, 
Essex, Ausable Chasm, and Chazy, N.Y., sections 
were taken, and collections formed. 

The sections taken at Highgate Springs, Swanton, 
St. Alban’s, and Georgia, Vt., by Professor Jules 
Marcou, were critically examined, and large collec- 
tions of fossils secured. The data obtained show 
the dip of the Winooski marble series and the slates 
above, carrying the Olenellus fauna, to be the same. 
The five hundred feet of magnesian limestone, with 
its interbedded arenaceous layers, conformably under- 
lie the Olenellus beds. The fauna at the Georgia 
locality was increased by the addition of eight species 
not before reported as occurring there. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 

Mr. H. M. STANLEY contributes to the New-Eng- 
lander an interesting, and, on the whole, clearly writ- 
ten study, entitled ‘Evolution as bearing on method 
in teleology.’ The essay follows a train of thought 
somewhat similar to the one stated in a book that 
appears almost at the same time, and that we reviewed 
recently; viz., Mr. Hicks’s Critique of design argu- 
ments. Mr. Stanley is thankful to the doctrine of ey- 
olution for having rid teleology of a useless and some- 
what dangerous argument, —the argument from mere 
ignorance; i.e., from our incapacity to explain cer- 
tain singular or wonderful things save by supposing a 
powerful being directly working to produce them. 
This argument, which covers, on the whole, much 
the same ground as is covered by what Mr. Hicks 
calls teleology in the narrower sense, is regarded by 
Mr. Stanley as superseded by the doctrine of evolu- 
tion. We now see that nature ought to be regarded 
as a ‘ practically infinite series of second causes;’ so 
that, if we are now ignorant of the cause of any phe- 
nomenon, we still have a right to expect to find for 
it hereafter a purely natural cause. Every thing has 
grown; and we have to view nature as a vast and 
perfect machine, self-supplying, self-regulating, and 
not needing any workman to stand by to watch the 
steam-gauge, to put in the material, or to oil the 
bearings. Yet this view is not atheistic, according 
to Mr. Stanley; for the supposition of a designing 
intelligence remains, only this intelligence is ‘imma- 
nently behind phenomena.’ By this being, all things 
consist. In fact, the more nearly automatic the ma- 
chine, the more perfect the contriving intelligence. 
“‘Tf an automatic locomotive-machine is a sign of 
very great intelligence, how much greater intelli- 
gence would an automatic universe-machine exhibit ? 
. .. Teleology has been called a ‘carpenter theory,’ 
but a teleology which views the universe as a practi- 
cally infinite automatic machine would forever destroy 
the force of any such epithet.”” In other words, as 
we understand Mr. Stanley, a ‘ practically infinite’ 
carpenter would be something much better than a 
carpenter; and teleology gains rather than loses when 
the doctrine of evolution shows that the carpenter’s 
tinkering of his work, if there is any tinkering, is 
practically infinitesimal. All this seems to us not at 


SCIENCE. 


7 > is 
(Vou. IIL., No. 40. 


all novel; but, for the most part, it is very well put, 
and worth saying. 

But when we inquire of any of these evolutionary 
design arguments, not how they defend themselves 
against the charge of atheism, but how they demon- 
strate theism, we are disappointed. Mr. Hicks, as 
we saw in reviewing him, is very definite on this point 
as to what he attempts, and as to what he does not 
attempt; but his definiteness only serves to show his 
weakness. He declares that order, as such, is proof 
of intelligence, but adds that the proof is solely 
inductive. Men are orderly because they are intelli- 
gent: hence nature, if orderly, must be somehow 
associated with intelligence. We answered this in- 
duction by asking whether all brilliantly colored 
odjects must needs be visited by insects merely be- 
cause the colors of flowers depend upon their relations 
to the habits of insects. But with Mr. Stanley we 
hardly have room for so definite a criticism; for, 
though his argument in favor of theism, in so far 
as he suggests one at all, seems to be inductive, it 
seems also most carefully to shun any such definite 
statement as should make it definitely answerable. 
The vast machine needs, it would seeni, a controlling 
intelligence, which does not interfere with it, and yet 
does somehow direct it. The ‘practically infinite 
series of second causes’ is not enough by itself, and 
we must somehow get outside of it to find a designer; 
and, when we ask how the designer is related to the 
series of second causes, we get the charmingly inno- 
cent answer, that he is ‘immanently behind phenom- 
ena,’ —an expression that seems to us either mere 
words, or else an excellent Irish bull. Perhaps Mr. 
Stanley can explain this phrase for us; but mean- 
while, as one casts about for an interpretation, one 
is reminded strongly of Brer Fox, in the wonderful 
tar-baby story, as he ‘lay low’ in the bushes, wateh- 
ing his creation the tar-baby while it slowly intrapped 
Brer Rabbit. Possibly Brer Fox was ‘immanently 
behind’ that tar-baby. But our criticism is only of 
bad arguments and of obscure expressions, not of the 
view itself that the order of the universe implies an 
intelligence. The latter we hold as positively as Mr. 
Hicks or Mr. Stanley, only we insist that the question 
is not in the least one of inductive science. The 
‘design’ argument in all its accustomed forms is bad, 
because it is an inductive argument, applied as true 
empirical science never applies any inductive argu- 
ments; viz., to matters wholly beyond the limits of 
phenomenal existence. The whole question is one 
of philosophy. Notas a result of induction, but as an 
implied premise of the inductive, or of some other 
rational thinking process, must this doctrine of intelli- 
gence in nature be established, if at all; and therefore 
only a critical philosophy, that examines the assump- 
tions lying at the basis of the thinking processes, has 
any business with the question. Empirical science, 
as such, has simply once for all ‘no need of that 
hypothesis.’ ; 

—A fire broke out last week in the cellar of the 
building containing the geological collections at Am- 
herst college. Fortunately it was discovered early, and 
put out by the students before any serious damage 


NovemBer 9, 1883.] 


was done. It will be recollected that the college lost 
the fine mineralogical cabinet of Prof. C. M. Shepard 
last year by fire; and the fear of a repetition of that 
disaster caused a too hasty removal of many objects 
from the lower floor, labels and specimens becoming 
sadly mixed. The wind was very high; and, had the 
fire gained greater headway, nothing could have 
saved the museum, or the observatory attached. 

— Charles Leslie McKay of the U.S. signal-service, 
stationed at Nushegak, Alaska, was drowned in Bris- 
tol Bay last April, while engaged in collecting fishes 
for the U.S. nationalmuseum. Mr. McKay had done 
considerable work in ichthyology, his most impor- 
tant publication being a ‘ Review of the Centrarchi- 
dae,’ in the Proceedings of the U. S. national museum 
for 1881. 

— At its meeting, Oct. 27, the Philosophical society 
of Washington listened to a communication by Dr. 
T. N. Gill on the ichthyological results of the voyage 
of the Albatross, and to one by Prof. A. Graham 
Bell on fallacies concerning the deaf. Dr. Gill de- 
scribed two anomalous fishes, one of which required 
the institution of a new order. Professor Bell’s 
paper was the subject of a lively debate. 

— Those who have followed the discussions in Sct- 
ENCE on the St. David’s rocks will be interested-in a 
new phase of the controversy, introduced by a paper 
before the British association by Prof. J. F. Blake. 
The rocks below the Cambrian conglomerate have 
been described by Dr. Hicks as bedded rocks belong- 
ing to three distinct periods. The same rocks have 
been recently asserted by Dr. Geikie to be partly Cam- 
brian, and partly intrusive. Professor Blake contends 
that they are pre-Cambrian in age, but form a very 
complete volcanic series, which may well be desig- 
nated the Dimetian. The basis of the series is the 
Dimetian granite, serving as the core. This is sur- 
rounded by the more acid rocks, as the quartz felsites 
and the felspar porphyries (the so-called Arvoni- 
an); and the more outlying portions consist of very 
varying materials, chiefly rough ashes or agglom- 
erate breccias, — on the east side finely-bedded ‘ halle- 
flintas,’ and on the north side many basic laya-flows. 
These are the so-called ‘Pebidian.’ The arrange- 
ment of these rocks shows the characteristic irregu- 
larity of voleanic rocks; and, though many portions 
are bedded, they have no dominant strike over the 
whole district. The Cambrian series, commencing 
with the conglomerates, is quite independent, and 
hangs together’asa whole. Inno case canacontinu- 
ous passage be proved from the one series to the other: 
the junction is in most cases a faulted one; and, 
at the places where this is not so, the conglomerate 
lies on different beds of the volcanic series. 

—At the meeting of the Boston society of natural 
history, Noy. 7, Prof. H. W. Haynes spoke of the 
agricultural implements of the New-England Indians, 
Prof. W. O. Crosby read a paper on the origin and 
relations of continents and ocean-basins, and Dr. M. 
E. Wadsworth gave brief notes on the lithology of 
the island of Jura, Scotland. 

— Mr. George Shoemaker, a very industrious and 
promising young naturalist connected with the Nation- 


SCIENCE. 


635 


al museum, died in Washington on the 12th of Octo- 
ber. 

— Herr Jacobson, who has spent four years on the 
north-west coast of America in making ethnological 
collections for the Berlin museum, has recently re- 
turned, and will sail for Europe. 

—Dr. Leonhard Stejneger has arrived in San Fran- 
cisco, en route for Washington. He has spent a year 
in Bering Island in the study of its fauna, and in 
collecting remains of the extinct arctic sea-cow. 

— The Hydrographic office has published a mono- 
graph (no. 4.), by Lieut. Southerland, upon the two 
August hurricanes. It contains abstracts from the 
logs of forty vessels which were near the path of one 
or both of these storms, a chart of the course of each 
storm, a diagram of the tracks of two barques which 
were near the path of the second hurricane, and sail- 
ing-directions for managing vessels when near similar 
dangerous cyclones. The projected paths resemble 
those previously published by the signal-office in the 
Weather review for August (SCIENCE, no. 37), but 
differ somewhat in detail. The latter were based 
upon the reports of more vessels than those enumer- 
ated by Lieut. Southerland. Some of the ships men- 
tioned are common to the two reports; but doubtless 
a more accurate representation of the paths of the 
hurricanes could have been obtained, had all the data 
been combined in one report. 

—Mr. J. B. Fell, C.E., gave a paper on the con- 
struction and working of alpine railways, at the 
recent meeting of the British association, which is 
thus reported in Nature. There are three alpine rail- 
ways in existence at the present time, —the Mont 
Cenis and St. Gothard railways, which have been 
made with long summit tunnels, and with ordinary 
gradients; and the Brenner railway, that has been 
made with similar gradients, but without a long tun- 
nel. The important question has now arisen, and has 
been taken into serious consideration by the Sovern- 
ments and local authorities interested, as to how far it 
may be possible to make other trans-alpine railways, 
some of which are urgently needed, at a cost that 
would render them financially practicable; and, to 
accomplish this object, it has been proposed to effect a 
reduction of one-half or more of the cost, by carrying 
these railways over the mountain-passes by means of 
steep gradients and the use of the centre rail system, 
as it was adopted on the Mont Cenis railway. Upon 
these improved summit railways the same weight and 
number of trains could be run that are now running 
on the Mont Cenis tunnel railway; and, with the pro- 
tection of avalanche galleries and covered ways, the 
regularity of the service would be maintained at all 
seasons of the year. The extra cost of working- 
expenses caused by working over a higher level than 
that of a tunnel line would, if capitalized and added 
to the cost of construction, still leave a clear net say- 
ing of more than one-half in the cost of construction, 
as compared with the cost of a tunnel railway. The 
result of the experiences of the last twenty-five years 
seems to point to the conclusion that a method of 
constructing alpine railways with long, non-paying 
tunnels, is a thing of the past. The future belongs 


636 


to the best system that can be devised for overcoming 
the difficulties of trans-alpine railways rather by add- 
ing to the powers of the locomotive-engine, and by 
other mechanical appliances for reducing the cost of 
traction on steep inclines, which methods are capable 
of indefinite improvement, than by burying in gigan- 
tic tunnels enormous sums of unproductive capital, 
that, when once expended, are irrecoverably lost. 

— We learn from Nature that the electric railway 
from Portrush to the Giant’s Causeway was opened 
Sept. 28 by Earl Spencer; and among others pres- 
ent, were Sir William Thomson, Sir William Siemens, 
and Sir Krederick Bramwell. It is over six miles 
long, and has cost £45,000. The line, after passing 


through the principal street of Portrush, follows-the 


seaside road, a portion of a footpath six feet broad 
being reserved for the railway. The gauge is only 
three feet; and the gradients are very steep, —in 
places as much as one in thirty-five; and in parts of 
its course the curves are sharper than might have 


been desirable had the route which it takes been 


ehosen by the engineers. The force to work it is 
generated by a waterfall in the river Bush, with an 
available head of twenty-four feet, the electric current 
being conveyed by an underground eable to thé end 
of the tramway. The water-power passing through 
turbine water-wheels, which utilize the whole force 
of the fall, is said to amount to ninety horse.. 

—At the meeting of the Engineers’ club of Phila- 
delphia, Oct. 20, Mr. John Haug exhibited and de- 
scribed very complete sets of drawings for two vessels 
designed by him, —the one a tug-boat for the Phila- 
_delphia board of health, and the other a barge for 
the transportation of freight and passenger cars. Mr. 
J. H. Harden read a paper, prepared for publication 
as part of the Report of the second geological survey 
of Pennsylvania, relating to the ‘‘ Early mining opera- 
tions in Berks and Cliester counties, includin® the 
present condition of the Jones mine.’? Prof. L.M. 
Haupt presented notes on conventional colors for 
drawing. : 

BT eFore the Biological society of Washington, at 
its meeting, Nov. 2, the communications were: Dr. 
George M. Sternberg, U.S.A., Micrococci; Dr. E. 
M. Schaeffer, Further remarks on manna, with ex- 
hibition of specimens; Dr. T. H. Bean, Arrested 
asymmetry in a flounder, with exhibition of spéci- 
mens; Professor Lester F. Ward, Mesozoic dicoty- 
ledons. at A 

— The autumn meeting of the Society of. mechan- 
ical engineers, which has just closed in New York, 
has been unusually well attended, and some important 
lines of discussion have been drawn out. Consider- 
able interest was shown in the proposed re-appoint- 
ment of a board to supervise the work with the 
Watertown testing-machine: 

—The Massachusetts agricultural experiment-sta- 
tion at the Agricultural college in Amherst, Mass., was 
established by an act of the legislature approved on 
the 12th of May, 1882. Its management is vested in 
a board of control, consisting of the governor of the 
State, two members of the state board of agriculture, 
two members of the board of trustees of the Massa- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No, 40. 


chusetts agricultural college, one member of the 
Massachusetts society for promoting agriculture, and 
the president of the Massachusetts agricultural col- 
lege. The present officers of the station are all 
members of the college faculty, and are Prof. OC. A. 
Goessmann, director and chemist; Prof. M. Miles, 
superintendent of field and stock experiments; and 
Prof. S. T. Maynard, superintendent of horticultural 
experiments, microscopist, and draughtsman. The 
station proposes to publish monthly bulletins, of 
which two have already appeared. ‘The first contains 
an account of the organization of the station, and a 
general statement of its purposes, and also analyses 
of ten samples of fodders. The second and third 
bulletins contain analyses of four samples of fodders 
and of fifty-six of fertilizers and fertilizing materials. 

— An extended review of the results of the German 
census of 1881 is given by Ch. Grad in the Revue 
scientifique, 1883, 109. 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 


Bachmann, 0. Unsere modernen mikroskope und deren 
siimmtliche hilfs. und neben- -apparate fiir wissenschaftliche 
forschungen. Miinchen, Oldenburg, 1883. 15+344p., illustr. 8°. 

Burr, W.H. The elasticity and resistance of the materials 
of engineering. New York, Wiley, 1883. 15+753p. 8°. 

Campagne, E. Les météores. Rouen, Mégard, 1883. 189 
p-, illustr. 8°. : 

Denza, F. Lameteorologia e le sue pitt recenti applicazioni. 
Torino, Speir ani, 1883. 364p. 8°. 

Fallet, C Les mers polaires. 
illustr. 8°. 

Gérardin, L. Les bétes, éléments de zoologie théorique 
etappliquée. Paris, J/asson, 1883. 2+418 p., illustr. 18°. 

Landolt, H., and Bornstein, R. Physikalisch-chemische 
tabellen. Berlin, Springer, 1883. 12+249p. 8°. 

MacCord, C. W. Kinematics: a treatise on the modifica- 
tion of motion, as affected by the forms and modes of connection 
of the moving parts of machines; illustrated by diagrams of 
mechanical. movements, as practically constructed; for the use 
of draughtsmen, machinists, and students of mechanical engi- 
neering. New York, Wiley, 1883. 9+335 p. 8°. 

Malte-Brun, Lectures géographiques: ’Hurope, descrip- 
tion générale. Limoges, Barbou, 1883, 141 p. 12°. 

Ollivier-Beauregard. En Asie, Kachmir et Tibet, étude 
@ethnographie ancienne et moderne. Paris, Maisonneuve, 1883. 
144 p. 8°. 

Petit, H. Notes sur l’habitat des coléopttres de France. 
Chalons-sur-Marne, J/a7tin, 1883. 66p. 8°. 

Physik, die, im dienste der wissenschaft, der kunst und des 
praktischen lebens. Red. G. Krebs, unter mitwirkung von J. 
yan Bebber, C. Grahwinkel, E. Hartwig. lief. i. Stuttgart, Znke, 
1888, 112 p.,illustr. 8°. 

Reusch, H. H. Die fossilien fiihrenden krystallinischen 
schiefer von Bergen in Norwegen. <Autorisirte deutsche ausgabe 
von R. Baldauf. Leipzig, Mngelmann, 1883. 4+134 p., 92 illustr., 

map. 8°. 

Trautvetter, EH. R. Incrementa florae phaenogamae ros- 
sicae. fasc.i. Berlin, Fried/dnder, 1882. 44240 p. 8. 

Tschermak, G. Die mikroskopische beschaffenheit der 
meéteoriten, erliiutert durch photographische abbildungen. lief. 
de Stuttgart, Schweizerbart, 1883. 12p.,8pl. 4°, 

Van Overbeck de Meijer. Lessystémes d’évacuation des 
eaux et immondices d’une ville. Paris, Bailliére, 1888. 143 p. 8°. 

Weismann, A. Ucben die ewigkeit des lebens. Freiburg- 
i.-Br., J/ohr, 1883. T9p. 4°. 

Weselsky, P., and Benedikt, R. 
gaben als erste anleitung zur uantitativen analyse. 
Jlitz & Deuticke, 1883. 41 p., illustr. 8°. 

Wey r, E. Die elemente der projectivischen geometric. heft 

Gant) Feit der projectivischen grundgebilde erster stufe und der 
atincraticehes involutionen. Wien, Braumiiller, 1883. 9+231 
p. 8. 

Witthaus, R.A. The medical student’s manual of chem- 
istry. New York, Wood, 1883. 370 p., illustr, 8°. 

* Wright, E. P. Animal life: being the natural history of 
animals. New York, Cassell, [1883.] 8+618 p., illustr. 8°. 


Rouen, Jfégard, 1883. 160 p+ 


Dreizig uebungs-auf- 
Wien, 7re- 


¢ 


meee NCE: 


FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 16, 1883. 


FROM SUPERSTITION TO HUMBUG. 


Tris related that especially fortunate English 
‘commanders in India have encountered a ten- 
‘dency among the ignorant natives to exalt 
them as more than human beings. It is not 
strange that a benighted and superstitious 
populace, astonished by exhibitions of power 
‘to it incomprehensible, should, for a time, turn 
from its own hazy gods to new and visible 
wonder-workers. 

A somewhat similar revolution appears to 
accompany the progress of physical science. 
What its friends have to contend with at pres- 
ent is not so much indifference or hostility, 
though these are not altogether lacking, as a 
too implicit and childlike confidence in the 
efficiency of scientific knowledge on the part 
of those to whom its ways are in the main 
unknown. 

The real conquests of science have been so 
vast and unexpected, so much like the work- 
‘ings of magic, that people eagerly pay their 
homage to a power, which, though mysterious 
enough to engage their credulity, accomplishes 
every day feats that witches, ghosts, and magi- 
cians performed only upon rare occasions. A 
genuine scientific man will disdain to abuse 
this confidence; but there are always camp- 
followers of the scientific army, who will find 
in it their opportunity. It is curious to see 
how those, who, a generation or two ago, would 
hhaye been the believers in witcheraft and all 
things ‘supernatural,’ are now turning to be 
caught in the toils of scientific charlatanry. The 
wizard of the present day is an electrician. Elec- 
tricity and magnetism have become literally 
words to conjure with. 

There is a certain progress in this, though 
not in itself a valuable progress. It is the 
advance from sheer ignorance to that little 
knowledge which is proverbially a dangerous 

No. 41. — 1883. 


ej 


thing. It is the advance from pure supersti- 
tion, in which men did not reason at all, to 
humbug, in which they reason from false or 
insufficient premises to wrong conclusions. 

It should be said in justice to the scientifie 
charlatan, that he is frequently not dangerous, 
and is nearly always amusing. Ile possesses 
an audacity, a volubility, that, combined with 
his habit of blundering, make him a far more 
cheerful person to contemplate than his gloomy 
predecessor, the sorcerer. Take, for instance, 
the modern master of that ancient black art 
of divination by rods. A newspaper report 
makes a ‘ professor’ of the science of ‘ magnetic 
geology,’ as he calls it, speak as follows : — 


““You take the ends of the forks, and grasp them 
tightly in either hand, allowingythat portion where 
the forks join to point upward. ... When one 
walks over a mineral substance in the ground, the 
electricity ascends through the body into the hands 
and rod, and draws the central or connecting por- 
tion of the rod downward. When this occurs, min- 
erals exist beneath the spot where you stand. If the 
rod begins to move as the person walks along, take 
particular notice of the spot where you stand when 
the movement begins. When the rod turns com- 
pletely over, measure the distance from where it first 
began to move to the spot where it indicates miner- 
als. This distance will give you the depth at which 
the mineral can be found.,’’ 


‘Rabdomancy, or divination by rods, is as 
old as history,’ some one recently remarked. 
The feature of this science peculiar to our age 
is the pretence of explaining it. That the 
method is still resorted to quite widely, there 
can be no doubt. We read in a Vermont 
paper, that a few months ago the public au- 
thorities of Middlebury resorted to the rod 
when about to sink an artesian well. They 
then sank a shaft eighty feet at the spot desig- 
nated, and there struck, not water,«but flint. 
We have lately heard of a man who ascertains 
by the divining-rod the proper spot for ground- 
ing lightning-rods. We have never seen a state- 
ment of his theory in his own words; but it 


638 


appears that he holds the doctrine that atmos- 
pheric electricity follows, or is controlled by, 
the course of underground electric currents. 
He claims, moreover, to be endowed with a 
peculiar sensitiveness that enables him, by 
walking over the ground with the forked stick 
in his hands, to detect the location of these 
currents. The last touch is given to this 
theory by the statement that it is necessary 
for the gifted manipulator of the rod to wear 
rubber boots during the operation of divining, 
in order that he may be insulated from the 
ground. 

In regard to the human body and the reme- 
dies for its ills, people have always been super- 
stitious ; and so, naturally enough, the number 
of ‘ electric ’ and ‘ magnetic’ nostrums offered 
to afilicted humanity is very great. Their 
descriptions, however, are nearly always worth 
reading. Custom cannot stale the infinite 
variety of their absurdities. Here is a speci- 
men which came to hand a few days since in 
the advertising columns of a college paper : — 


“Tabor, study, and research in America, Europe, 
and Eastern lands, have resulted in the Magnetic 
Lung Protector, . . . which, . . . with the continu- 
ous stream of magnetism permeating through the 
afflicted organs, must restore them to a healthy 
action.”’ - 


There is a class of people who call them- 
selyes magnetic physicians, — people who cure, 
in a modern way, by the laying-on of hands. 
They are apparently closely allied to the spirit- 
ualistic mediums, and evidently intend to use 
something more than a figure of speech in 
calliag themselves magnetic. There is, for 
instance, in or near San Francisco, a certain 
Dr. H——, who gives people what he calls 
magnetic baths. He claims to magnetize the 
water for the baths by dipping his hand in it. 
He is said to have an extensive practice. We 
have heard that the notorious Slade, whose 
feats made such an impression upon Professor 
Zéllner, cla’jmed to possess a literal magnetic 
power, enabling him to rotate the plane of 
polarization of light. 

Whatever may be the case with these pecul- 
jar people, it appears that others, not especially 


SCIENCE. 


1 


superstitious, do believe themselves particularly 
endowed or charged with electricity, because, 
for instance, they succeed in drawing sparks. 
from their hair or clothing during cold-weather. 
Of course, some people do have drier hair, 
or drier skins, than others, and do, therefore, 


_as frictional electrical machines, surpass the 


majority of their fellow-mortals. Moreover, 
physiologists believe that in living bodies there 
exist slight electric currents capable of being 
detected by very sensitive apparatus. But 
apparently it is not with any intelligent refer- 
ence to these exceedingly minute currents, or 
to an electric charge acquired by friction, that 
a man speaks, when he offers to rub a weak or 
disabled arm because he is ‘strong, and full 
of electricity, you know.’ The fact is, we 
do not know, and we wish the man would 
explain. ' : 

Tt would appear that such terms as ‘ animal 
magnetism,’ and ‘personal magnetism,’ origi- 
nating, no doubt, in metaphor, are sometimes 
taken almost literally. We have met one or 
two very intelligent people who seemed to 
have a vague idea that psychological problems 
might be attacked by means of the laws of 
electricity and magnetism. ' 

This list of frauds and delusions might be 
greatly extended. Enough has been said, how- 
ever, to illustrate some of the kinds of error 
into which people are led by their ignorance 
of the results and methods of scientific re- 
search. The need of a wider and more inti- 
mate knowledge of physics in the education of 
all classes would, no doubt, be generally ac- 
knowledged. It should be observed, however, 
that the kind of half-knowledge of this subject 
which is frequently obtained from newspapers, 
and even from public lectures: and popular 
scientific books, is the very pabulum of such 
errors and humbugs as we have deseribed. A 
woman hears a lecture on sympathetic vibra- 
tions, fundamental tones, etc., notes the trem- 
bling of a church under the music of the organ, 
and writes to her religious paper an enthusias~ 
tie letter explaining the fall of Jericho in a 
scientific manner, — and all in the interests of 
revealed religion. : 


[Vou. IL, No. 41. 


-— ¢2 ys: 


NoveMBER 16, 1883. ] 


A man reads, or sees in a public hall, that 
two electrified pith-balls attract or repel each 
other. He learns that the human body may 
be charged with electricity. Straightway he 
begins, upon this basis, to explain the table- 
tipping feats of spiritualistic mediums, —a 
gross error, hardly more respectable than the 
pure superstitition of the veriest believer in 
ghosts. ' 

To make such errors impossible would re- 
quire that definite, familiar knowledge of things, 
in their quantitative relations, which is hardly 
to be obtained without actual contact. It 
would require a laboratory training ; and it is 
perhaps impossible to make provision for a 
very extended training of this sort in any 

. scheme of general education. 

The tendency of the times, however, is 
toward the objective and experimental in teach- 
ing; and it is probable that the next few years 
will see considerable changes in the methods 
of general instruction in physics. 


WHIRLWINDS, CYCLONES, AND TOR- 
NADOES.' — Ill. 


We may now pass on from the small day- 
time whirls of dry air to the larger, long-endur- 
ing storms that are accompanied by rain; and 
here will be met two new elements, — the effect 
of condensing vapor, and the effect of the 
earth’s rotation, — both of great importance. 
As a sample under this second heading, we 
may take one of the eyclones of the Bay of 
Bengal; for the storms there are very charac- 
teristic of their class, and have of late years 
received much careful attention. There is 
good reason for thinking that these cyclones 
generally spring up in calms, much as the des- 
ert-whirls begin. The seasons and regions of 
their oecurrenee both point to that conclusion ; 
for tropical cyclones seem never to begin in 
well-established wind-currents, but rather in a 
place of quiet, weak, or variable winds. By 
India, for example, the cyclones aro almost 
unknown during the prevalence of the steady 
blowing monsoons, but are not uncommon at 
those seasons when the monsoons change ; that 
is, at times when the air has no well-established 
motion, but stands about idly, waiting for a 
decisive command to move on. During these 
idle times of stagnation, the lower air may 

1 Continued from No, 40. 


SCIENCE. 


639 


become very warm and moist, and so prepare 
for a stormy overturning. The calm that pre- 
cedes a cyclone often makes part of the de- 
scription of a storm at sea: the air is close 
and oppressively warm ; the water settles down 
to a glassy surface; and now we may see, 
what is not always clearly expressed, that this 
calmness of the water, and oppressive heat of 
the air, are not antecedent effects of the com- 
ing storm, but are actually the conditions that 
allow and determine the beginning of a storm. 
The warmer the air and the quieter the water, 
the longer must have been the preparatory 
stage; the greater the quantity of solar force 
collected in the lower atmosphere, the more 
violent will be the storm when it begins. This 
warm calm is really the embryo of the cyclone ; 
and, if it lie long enough in a proper latitude, it 
will grow to well-developed maturity. 

It is often stated that tropical oceanic ey- 
clones begin at the meeting of two opposite 
currents of air rather than at a time of calm. 
This may be true for some cases, and undoubt- 
edly has a very general application in temper- 
ate latitudes ; but it seems more probable that 
in the Bengal cyclones, and most other tropical 
hurricanes, this stage is a little later than the 
earliest beginning, and is really the first de- 
velopment of the inblowing winds. A general 
calm would doubtless be found to precede such 
opposed currents if observation could trace 
the antecedent conditions a little farther back 
than is usually possible. The principal con- 
trasts between the desert-whirls and the Bengal 
cyclones, at the time of their beginning, may 
be thus summarized : — 

First, The area and uniformity of the sur- 
face on which the disturbance is developed is 
much greater on the ocean than on the desert. 

Second, There is a lower temperature, but a 
much greater amount of heat, surface for sur- 
face, in the cyclone’s embryo, than in the whirl- 
wind’s. ‘The temperature of the air over the 
ocean seldom exceeds 95°: over the desert 
sands it may often rise to 140° or 150° close 
to the ground. But on the desert the stratum 
of air that is so excessively warmed is very 
thin; it oftem fails to reach the height of a 
man’s eye, and so gives the appearance of 
a mirage: while over the sea, although the 
lower stratum is not so warm, its thickness is 
greater, and there is more of it warmed. What 
it lacks in temperature it more than makes up 
in quantity. 

Third, The presence of water-vapor over the 
ocean makes a most important contrast between 
the two cases; audit is on this account that 
the warm sea-air is cooler than the hot desert- 


640 


air. Water-vapor is not nearly so diathermous 
as dry air. Much of the heat that would pass 
down to the sand on the desert is held back 
by the vapor over the ocean, and some is 
eaught again from the heat radiated upwards 
by the water, so that a considerable thickness 
of air is warmed. Of still more importance is 
the vapor’s action as a great storehouse of 
solar force, required in the process of its evap- 
oration, generally known as ‘ latent heat.’ For 
all these reasons, the accumulation of energy 
in the preparation for an oceanic cyclone is 
vastly greater than in the making ready for a 


desert-whirl. 
(To be continued.) 


REMARKS UPON THE OSTEOLOGY OF 
PHALACROCORAX BICRISTATUS 


Ir is a fortunate thing for science, that time 
allowed many of our Alaskan explorers to 
bring back in their collections, and to the mu- 
seums, skeletons of so many of the rarer forms 
of the vertebrates, particularly the birds of 
those unfrequented regions. To Dr. T. H. 
Bean and Mr. H. W. Elliott, both of the 
Smithsonian institution, we are under lasting 
obligations for such material, and for making 
so good use of their advantages. The writer 
has enjoyed the unusual privilege of examin- 
ing and studying long series of skeletons of 
Lobipes hyperboreus, Haematopus niger, rare 
forms of Rissa, Larus, and Sterna, many of 


St,0. 


SCIENCE. 


ea 
‘ 


[Vou. IL, No. 41. 


in the second volume of his ‘ Comparative 
anatomy and physiology of vertebrates,’ on 
p. 64, speaks of a bony style that is attached 
to the occiput in the cormorant as one of the 
cranial peculiarities of the class. This author 
does not mention its use; and as the writer 
has not a cormorant before him intact, with 
all the soft parts, it would be hardly safe to 
give its exact function in this bird’s econ- 
omy: but as I do not believe we have a figure 
showing the site of this bonelet, an illustration 
of the skull of Phalacrocorax is here given, 
showing, life-size, the right lateral view. 
This prominent style is seen protruding from 
the summit of the occiput in my drawing, not 
as a spinous outgrowth from that point, but 
rather as a free bone, concave below, separated 
into two concayities on its superior aspect by 
a sharp median crest that is developed on its 
entire length, —a transverse elliptical facet an- 
teriorly, that articulates freely with a corre- 
sponding one on the occiput. J 

At the base of the cranium, we find that the 
pterygoids are completely overshadowed by 
the sub-compressed but rather large brain-case 
above. There are no basi-sphenoidal processes 
thrown out to meet these bones. The. poste- 
rior halves of the palatines form a close union 
all along their median and inner margins, 
which portions are much spread out horizon- 
tally. Beyond, they become narrower; and in 
the space that we find existing between them 
we observe a long attenuated vomer, terminat- 
ing anteriorly in a free, pointed extremity. 
The cormorants belong to the Dysporomor- 
phae of Professor Huxley’s classification ; and 
he and other eminent anatomists have given 
other ezsnial characteristics in their: deserip- 


, FrG. 1.— Skull of Phalacrocorax bieristatus, life size; right lateral view, showing occipital style, st. 0. 


the auks, puffins, and the like, —nearly all 
from the source that I have mentioned. 

It was during the course of my examination 
of these sub-arctic rarities that my attention 
was called to several points of interest in a set 
of skeletons, representing three young and an 
old one, of a species of cormorant, Phalacro- 
corax bicristatus, forming part of the collection 
of the last-named naturalist. Professor Owen, 


tions of this well-defined group. The rami 
of the lower mandible are deeply grooved on 
the inner aspects of the dentary portion; and ® 
these elements, originally free,.retain their 
sutures, distinctly marked, through life, where 
they join the other interested segments at the 
posterior moiety. Seventeen vertebrae are 
found in the cervical region, before we arrive 
at one that bears a free pair of ribs. Of this 


NovemBER 16, 1883.] 


series, we find the atlas and axis articulating 
in the usual manner, the former with its cup- 
like depression with the occipital condyle, the 
vertebra being perforated at its base. The 
parial parapophyses beneath the centra of these 
vertebrae are more or less prominent through- 
out; but in the eighth, ninth, and tenth, they 
are developed to an unusual extent, being long, 
needle-like processes, reaching nearly the entire 
length of the vertebra. A small pair of rudi- 
mentary free ribs are found beneath the trans- 
verse processes of the eighteenth 
vertebra. The next two ensuing 
ones have their ribs well devel- 
oped, and bear large uncinate 
processes ; but their lower ends 
still fail to be connected with 
the sternum by the intervention 
of costal ribs. Three more dor- 
sal vertebrae are found before 
we come to the anchylosed series 
of the sacrum. ‘These all have 
true ribs connected with the ster- 
num by costal ribs, and their 
uncinate processes are strongly 
produced. A pair of ribs, as 
well developed in every partic- 
ular as the series just men- 
tioned, springs from beneath 


SCIENCE. 


641 


There are six free caudal vertebrae, not in- 
cluding the terminal segment or pygostyle, 
here quite large, pointed above, and possess- 
ing a moderately dilated posterior margin, 
thrown out to support the rectrices of the tail. 
The two anterior free caudal vertebrae are quite 
firmly grasped on either side by characteristie 
spine-like processes thrown backward, and de- 
veloped on the part of the ilia. A lateral view 


of the pelvis, which is very long and much 
compressed from side to side, shows the is- 


SON Hy 


gps, 
Sa CME Wi mM) 
—- Zyby aN 
FEE ZZ ASLEEP 
ae Zi, 14 


UE 
A NI), y 
ae WeGe 


Fig. 2.— Right lateral view of sternum and shoulder-girdle of Phalacrocorax bicristatus, life size. 


the ilium on cither side, joining costal ones 
below; but the last pair of all, or the sec- 
ond that is produced from the anchylosed 
vertebrae of the sacrum, is without the unci- 
nate processes, and in the specimen before us 
the costal rib on the left side is the only one 
_ of this pair that meets the sternum in a true 
facet. On the opposite side it articulates along 
the posterior border of the haemapophysis be- 
yondit. The neural spines completely coalesce, 
in the ultimate sacral vertebrae, into a well- 
pronounced crest, which is surmounted along 
its entire length with a spreading cap of bone. 


chiadi¢ foramen to be an unusually large aper- 
ture, while the slender pubic bone fails to close 
in the other two foramina below, that are found 
in many other birds. This last-mentioned ele- 
ment of the pelvis slightly expands behind, 
where it meets the lower margin of the ischium 
for about a centimetre of its length. It then 
contracts again in size a little, to be directed 
downwards, and curved inwards. The body 
of the sternum is quadrilateral in outline, with 
two rather shallow excavations on either side 
of the median line, occupying the entire xiph- 
oidal margin or border. 


642 


The keel is very much produced forwards, 
where, at its lower apex, it has a rough surface 
of some extent, against which the united clavi- 
eles abut. Sufficient material is not at hand 
for me to say whether anchylosis ever takes 
place at this point or not: it may do so, because 
we find in Aluco these bones usually unite at 
this point; but yet we come across specimens 
of this owl where the union is no more perfect 
than itis here. The hypocleidium of the clavi- 
eles, and the manubrium of the sternum, are 
both about equally feebly developed. The 
upper extremity of each clavicle has a very 
broad abutment for the head of the correspond- 
ine coracoid, to the inside of which expansion 
these clavicular bones throw backwards a scap- 
ular process ; but they fail to reach these ele- 
ments of the shoulder-girdle, as we find them 


Fig. 3.— Knee-joint of Phalacrocorax bicristatus; right limb, 


life size. /, femur; #d, fibula; 7, tibia; P, patella. 


in others of the class. All of the bones of the 
pectoral extremity, or the arm, are completely 
non-pneumatic, but otherwise well developed. 
Faint papillae for the quill-knobs of the seconda- 
ries are found along the entire length of the outer 
aspect of the ulna. The manus is composed of 
the usual number of bones,— one phalanx for in- 
: dex digit, two for the next, and one for the last. 
In the lower extremity we find a femur of 
63 centimetres in length; a tibia of 114; a 
_metatarsus of 6; and the outer toe with five 
joints, measuring in all 10.7 centimetres. This 
limb is likewise non-pneumatie, in so far as its 
osseous structure is concerned. The fibula is 
_ carried unusually far down the side of its com- 
panion bone, to within 1.5 centimetres of the 
lower periphery of the outer tibial condyle. 
The greatest interest, so far as the bones of 


SCIENCE. 


[Vox. II., No. 41: 


the leg of this cormorant are concerned, centres 
about the knee-joint. Here we find a condi- 
tion of affairs which is presented in my draw- 
ing. The femur, which is much roughened 
above for the attachment of muscles, articu- 
lates about equally with the leg-bones. In 
front of this joint is placed a very large and 
massive patella, of a pyramidal form, articu- 
lating with more than half its lower surface 
with the anterior and lower fifth of the femur, 
its inferior and anterior margin articulating 


at the same time with the upper border of | 


the cnemial crest of the tibia. In front, we 
find that the groove that exists between the 
pro- and ecto-cnemial ridges of the tibia is pro- 
duced on the entire anterior face of this 
patella, and, no doubt, the muscles of the leg 
are therein inserted, as in many divers. Such 
examples as this throw some light on such 
birds as Colymbus and Podiceps, where this 
bone becomes anchylosed with the tibia in the 
adult. I have not the skeleton of a loon at 
hand, to examine the process spoken of by 
Professor Owen (‘ Comp. anat. phys. vert.,’ ii. 
83), and followed by Dr. Coues in his oste- 
ology of the same bird (‘ Mem. Bost. soc. nat. 
hist.,’ i. pt. ii.), as the analogue of the pa- 
tella. The skeleton I have of Podiceps to ex- 
amine does not show it; but it is one that has 
been in my collection for several years, and 
may have béen lost. Penguins have a very 
large patella, that articulates with the tibia 
much in the same manner as it does here in 
Phalacrocorax. Professor Marsh describes a 
very large, free patella for Hesperornis regalis, 
and remarks that it bears a general resem- 
blance to that bone in Podiceps (‘ Odontor- 
nithes,’ p. 93). In examining this bone in the 
young of our cormorant, it seems to ossify 
from one centre. The ossification at the sum- 
mit of the tarso-metatarsus includes the promi- 
nent process at the upper and posterior aspect 
of that bone. 

Many other points of interest are to be found 
in the skeleton of the adult, as well as of the 
young of Phalacrocora xbicristatus, which space 
will not allow me to enter upon here: the lead- 
ing points, however, I have endeavored to give, 
and these are always valuable when we wish 
to have them to compare with kindred forms. 

R. W. Suurerpr. 
THE ELECTRIC LIGHT ON THE U.S. 

FISH-COMMISSION STEAMER ALBA- 

TROSS. —I. 

In pursuit of the hidden treasures of the 
deep, the work of the Albatross keeps her at 
sea many days ata time; and the operation 


_ November 16, 1883.] 


of dredging in great depths often carries the 
day’s labor past midnight. To provide for 
these emergencies, which are frequent, and 
to afford ample illumination for the natural- 
ists, not only in assorting the contents of the 
dredge as it is delivered on deck, but to illu- 
minate their microscopes, delicate balances, 
etc., in the laboratory, the commissioner of fish 
and fisheries determined to employ the best 
artificial illumination the country afforded. 
As the vessel is essentially a steamer, using 
steam for every labor where it is practicable, 
the idea of electrical lighting from a dynamo- 
electric machine, driven by a steam-engine, 
was readily conceived, and an examination of 
the different systems was at once entered in- 
to. ‘The Edison company for isolated light- 
ing, we found, was prepared to enter into 
a contract for a complete plant, including 
the engine and the wiring; and being able to 
divide the light into eight-candle power 
lamps, besides giving guaranties, their bid 
was accepted. 

The are-lamp, though admirable for our deck, 
where a great quantity of light in a limited 
space is necessary, can never, from its great 
brilliancy, be utilized for twelve or fifteen nat- 
uralists, each at a special work, in the labora- 
tory. It also occurred to the commissioner, 
that x lamp which could be lowered into the 
sea, to attract fishes, would be useful, thus 
affording another reason for preferring the in- 
eandescent light. 

Fig. 1 shows the way in which the are- 
lights are placed in circuit. And as each are 
offers a considerable opposing electromotive 
force, it is necessary, in order to get light in a 
number of such lamps placed in series, to use 
currents of high tension. 

Fig. 2 shows the incandescent lamps in 
multiple are. The main wires, a and b, are 
tapped at pleasure, and the lamps are hung in 
the short circuits. The carbon threads in the 
lamps (described beyond) offer so much resist- 
ance that the current heats them to incan- 
descence. The electromotive force in the 
circuit is low, which renders shocks impos- 
sible. 

The plant on board the Albatross consists 
of an eight and a half by ten Armington and 
Sims engine, an Edison Z dynamo having its 
field-magnets vertical, a resistance-box in the 
circuit of the magnetic field, the main and 
branch wires, lamp-fixtures, safety-catches, and 
lamps. 

The steadiness and uniformity of brightness 
of the lamps depend largely on the engine 
driving the dynamo; and the success of the 


Beisi > Sere 


SCIENCE. 


643 


system lies more in the attention paid to the 
engine, when the plant is correctly installed, 
than in any thing else. Uniformity of speed 
is the great object sought; and, to secure this, 
Mr. Edison has wisely adopted a high-speed 
engine with a sensitive governor, which is 
found in the Armington and Sims engine, 
represented in fig. 3. 

The superiority of this engine lies in its well- 


Fie. 1. 


balanced working-parts, its relatively large 
bearing-surfaces, its sensitive automatic gov- 
ernor, and in its simple and well-balanced 
valve. 

To secure high speed without the noise of 
‘thumping,’ great lap has been applied to the 
exhaust side of the valve, whereby ‘ cush- 
ioning’ is effected. This cushioning, or early 
exhaust closure, also effects a saving by re- 
taining, in the clearance spaces, steam which 
would otherwise have been exhausted and 
wasted. To prevent an unequal expansion 
between the piston-valve and its chest, the 
castings are so made as to allow live steam to 
surround that part of the chest which surrounds 


644 


the working-faces of the valve, as shown in 
fig. 4, in which S shows the steam space, and 
By this arrangement 


# the exhaust space. 


the valve-stem is packed against the exhaust 
instead of the steam pressure. The valve is 
ground to a sliding-fit, and, so far as I can 
ascertain, there has not been a particle of wear 
or leak during the ten months the engine has 
begn in operation. 

The governor of the engine, that part 
which makes it especially valuable for the 
purpose of electric lighting, is represented in 
fig. 5. ; 

This automatic device is fixed in the fly- 
wheel, which is keyed to the shaft. There are 
two eccentrics, H and F, the one within the 
other, and both free to move on the axis. There 
are two weights, with their centres of motion 
opposite, and fixed in arms of the wheel. These 


Gace 4 


Fie, 4. 


weights, W,W, are connected, each to an 
eccentric, and are connected together by an 
arm orrod. Springs are provided, to resist the 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. IL, No. 41. 


. 


centrifugal force of the weights. The system 
is so constructed that any centrifugal motion 
of the weights will throw one eccentric ahead 
and the other back, thus dimin- 
ishing the throw of the eccen- 
tries, and effecting a shorter 
cut-off without altering (with- 
in working limits) the lead of 
the valve. The engine used 
on board the Albatross has 
eight inches and a half di- 
ameter of cylinder, and ten 
inches stroke of piston: it runs. 
without noise, three hundred 
revolutions per minute, requir- 
ing no more attention than the 
oiler can give it in addition ‘to 
his other duties. When the 
main engines of the Albatross. 
are in motion, a boiler-press- 
ure of sixty-five pounds is often 
used, and twenty-six inches of 
vacuum is scarcely above the 
average. Lying in port, the 
boiler-pressure is kept at about 
{ twenty-five pounds; and, not- 
withstanding this great range of pressure, 
the governor regulates the dynamo to three 
hundred revolutions per minute, as closely as 
I can measure it. 

In selecting a good engine, Edison has, 
to my mind, displayed as much genius as in 
using the Siemens form of armature for his 
dynamo. 

The engines are placed on the starboard side 


Fre. 5. 


of the main engine-room, the engine taking 
steam from the main boilers, and exhausting 
into the main condenser. 

The dynamo used on board the Albatross is 


| (ap elie 


NovEMBER 16, 1883.] . 


known as the Z dynamo, and is installed for 
It has its field- 


what is called a B circuit. 


Fig. 6. 


magnets vertical (fig. 6), and its armature re- 
volves on a horizontal axis in the magnetic 
field. The field-magnets are arranged on what 
is called a ‘derivation’ from the commutator, 
placing it in the circuit, as in the Siemens 
system. In adopting and utilizing known 
principles and devices, 
Edison has worked out 
the details to a state of 
perfection simply admir- 
able. Wherever the eye 
rests, itis pleased by cor- 
rect proportions, sound 


SCIENCE. 


645 


and also between c and d, there are annular 
disks of copper, insulated from each other. 
Between the plates b and ¢ are similar but 
very thin annular disks of iron, separated 
from each other by tissue-paper. This 
built-up cylinder is then bolted together 
longitudinally ; the bolts passing through 
the thin iron and copper disks without 
touching them, but clamping them be- 
tween the thick plates. Wire bundles or 
bars are placed equidistant from each_ 
other longitudinally, around the cylinder, 
connecting each a pair of the copper disks, 
i.e., one at each end; and these bars or ° 
bundles generate the current. 
Bars of brass or copper, separated 
by thin sheets of mica, e,e, are dove- 
tailed into the projecting end of the 
cylinder, which forms the commutator. 
The resistance of the generator is thus 
small, and allows great subdivision of 
the current in multiple are. 
To preserve the uniformity of the cur- 
rent, an adjustable resistance-box is 
placed in the circuit of the field-mag- 
nets; and, when a number of lamps are 
extinguished, additional resistance may 
be added to the field by a switch on this 
resistance-box, whereby the internal and 
external resistances are balanced, pre- 
serving not only the uniform brightness 
of the lamps, but also the economy of 
the machine. <A test-lamp is suspended 
_ on the dynamo; and the fireman, who 
'- oils the engine, regulates the resistance 

according to the brightness of this lamp. 
Automatic regulators have been devised; but 
as it is necessary to employ a man to run the 
engine and dynamo, and as the incandescence 
is more frequently altered by slipping of belts 
than by the sudden turning-out of a large num- 
ber of lamps, the same man can attend both: 


mechanical ideas, and 
agreeable outlines. 

The armature, on 
Siemens’s principle, is 
mounted on a wrought- 
iron shaft. About the 
shaft, and concentric with it, are circular cyl- 
inders of wood, separating copper plates, as 
shown in fig. 7. Between the plates a and 6, 


consequently the simple resistance-box answers 
every purpose on board ship. 
(To be continued.) 


646 


THE AMERICAN EXPLORATIONS AT 
ASSOS. 


THE excayations in the ruined Greek city of Assos, 
in the southern part of the Troad in Asia Minor, 
have been completed; and the members of the expe- 
dition have returned to this country. This gave 
occasion recently to call in Boston a special meeting of 
the Archaeological institute of America, under whose 
auspices the work had been carried on, at which 
Mr. J. T. Clarke, the leader of the expedition, was 
to give an account of his investigations. Unfortu- 
nately, Mr. Clarke was prevented by illness from at- 
tending; but this was less to be regretted, because it 
gave the president of the institute, Prof. C. E. Nor- 
ton, an opportunity to express, more fully than he 
could otherwise have done, his sense of the extremely 
satisfactory manner in which Messrs, Clarke and 
Bacon had conducted the investigations at Assos. 

Too strong terms could not be used to describe the 
devotion and self-sacrifice, as well as energy, which 
they had brought to the work, almost to the point of 
denying themselves the necessaries of life, that the 
resources of the institute might be diverted as little 
as possible from the work in hand. They had also 
Jabored in a spirit of enthusiasm and intélligence, 
bringing to bear the methods of modern scientific 
research, which gave to the results obtained an accu- 
racy and value far beyond that of most of the archeo- 
logical work of the past. No better archeological 
work had been done anywhere. He felt sure, that, 
when the final report upon the explorations at Assos 
should be published, it would be not merely up to 
the level of such publications, but would mark an 
advance in the science, and would take high rank 
among standard archeological works. This final re- 
port would require deliberate preparation: it was 
desirable that it should be exhaustive, and be pub- 
lished in a fitting style, as a monumental work. 

The investigations had. been carried out in the 
most thorough manner; nothing had been left undone 
which it was desirable to do; and, even had unlimited 
funds been at the disposal of the expedition, the 
excavations would not haye been carried farther than 
they had been, The results were mainly architectu- 
ral. A far more thorough knowledge of the civic 
buildings of a Greek city than was before possessed 
had now been obtained. Few marbles had been found 
(most of them having been previously destroyed), 
but a large number of terra-cottas were secured. 
The accession to the body of Greek inscriptions was 
real, though its importance was not to be exaggerated. 
In numismatics the expedition had been very success- 
ful; a very large number of coins haying been found, 
and the number of types of Assian coins known, 
largely increased. In all, forty or fifty cases of anti- 
quities would be brought home as the share of the 
institute. These included the best of the temple 
sculptures; the Hercules block and the best sphinx; 
all of the inscriptions, with the exception of the bronze 
tablet; a large number of terra-cottas; most of the 
coins, and a considerable number of minor objects, 
found in the tombs. Among the many architectural 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. II., No. 41. - 


fragments, there would be enough to erect a complete 
order-of the temple at the Museum of fine arts. The 
two thousand dollars which that institution had voted 
to appropriate for the purchase of a portion of the 
antiquities belonging to the Turks would fortunately 
not be called for, as the latter absolutely refused to- 
sell any thing. Hope is, however, entertained, that a 
gift of these articles may be made by the sultan. It 
was pleasant to be able to announce that the whole 
work had been carried on with absolute honesty, and 
that the Turks had been dealt with in every way as. 
strictly as if they had been’Americans. 

The final report would embody the results of all 
this work, published in an authoritative and reliable 
form. In the mean time a preparatory report would 
be issued, giving an account of the work done sub- 
sequently to the publication of the first volume on 
Assos. To prepare this report, it would be neces- 
sary for Mr. Clarke to go to London in order that he 
might have access to the British museum, the only 
place where the necessary materials could be obtained. 
It was desirable that the institute should retain both 
Mr. Clarke and Mr. Bacon in its employ until the 
Assos material had been entirely worked up. 

The treasury of the institute was very nearly empty 3. 
and it was proposed to hold a general public meeting, 
at which Mr. Clarke, and other gentlemen interested 
in the subject, should speak, with a view to awaken- 
ing such an interest in the community as should en- 
able the institute to raise the sum of money required. 

At this meeting, held Oct. 31, Prof. W. W. Good- 
win read a report of the first year’s work of the 
American school for classical studies at Athens, 
founded a year since by the Archaeological institute 
in connection with several of our colleges, and of 
which Professor Goodwin was last year the director. 
As this report affects rather the philological than the 
archeological student, and will be printed elsewhere, 
we proceed at once to the main feature of the even- 
ing, the address of Mr. J. T, CLARKE, who spoke- 
substantially as follows: — 5 

Assos was a small town, — small even for anti- 
quity, when cities were very far from the enormous. 
dimensions of modern capitals. The number of its 
inhabitants can never have greatly exceeded twelve 
or fifteen thousand; but its interest and importance 
can by no means be judged by that of modern 
towns of equal size. Athens itself, at the time of 
its greatest extent and power, is known to haye had 
only ten thousand houses, and twenty-one thousand 
free citizens; and this figure included the entirely 
separate harbor-cities of Munychia and the Piraeus. 
To take a more recent example: the imperial city 
of Augsburg, at the epoch of its chief historical’ 
fame, under Maximilian, had only sixteen thousand 
inhabitants, — was only about the same size as Assos. 

Our work gives as perfect a picture of the life of a. 
quiet provincial Greek capital as the recent brilliant. 
excavations at Olympia display the character of a great. 
place of public festal assemblage. The investigations 
differ in scope; but I trust that ours has been not in- 
ferior as regards thoroughness, and, in some important 
respects, not as regards the nature of its results. 


NOVEMBER 16, 1883.] 


The first report, which is in your hands, represents 
three months’ excavation. We have now the results 
of two years of hard work to add to it; and these 
results have been fully proportionate. The first 
report was restricted, in the description of buildings 
examined, to the temple and the Greek bridge. To 
our knowledge of these structures so many additions 
have now been made, that our restorations may be 
said to be as nearly perfect as it will ever be possible 
toattain. The temple, already better known than any 
building discovered in a similarly ruinous condition, 
appears as perfect an example for the history of Doric 
architecture as many which are standing to the top 


SCIENCE. 


647 


documental history. The so-called Sallier papyrus, 
now in the British museum, records, that among the 
confederates who came to the aid of the Hittites, — 
those famous men whose empire is the pride of Pro- 
fessor Sayce,— were the ‘people of Pedasa.’ The 
inhabitants, then, of our city (Pedasos, Assos), were, 
in the fourteenth or thirteenth century B.C., of suffi- 
cient importance to be enumerated, with the Dardeni 
of Iluna (i,e., the Dardanians of [lion or Troy), 
among those forces which appeared at Cadesh, on 
the banks of the Orontes, to fight against Ramses 
Il. —the Rhampsinitos of Greek story —in the fifth 
year of his reign. The importance of this curious 


Fie. 1.— City walls of Assos, dating from the fourth century B.C. 


of the entablature, Other fragments of the reliefs 
carved upon its epistyle, the importance of which to 
the history of Greek sculpture is now recognized by 
all scholars, have been found since the publication 
of the report, and the entire stone ceiling of the 
building has been recovered. To this have been 
added many details, including most interesting and 
curiously suggestive observations concerning antique 
stone cutting and laying. 

Our knowledge of the geography of the land has 
been further enriched by maps, geological as well 
as topographical. To the story of its archeological 
recovery many details have been added, while its po- 
litical history has received most important additions. 
One of these latter points I may be permitted to 
mention, because of its striking character. Assos 
is the first city of Greek civilization mentioned in 


notice, in an historical point of view, is hardly to be 
overrated, 

The digging of the second and the third years has 
been almost restricted to the lower town. Much work 
was done upon the fortifications of Assos, the finest 
known works of Greek engineering. The oldest 
inhabitants settled close around the acropolis, build- 
ing rough walls of enormous blocks, not cut by any 
metallic tools, upon the levels just at the foot of the 
volcanic crater, and there did a great deal of terra- 
cing, which was cleverly used by the later Greeks. 
The first outer circuit-wall remaining (I. in fig. 2) was 
certainly old at the time of the Lydian invasion. 
Under the favoring influences of the Aeolie coloniza- 
tion, the city greatly increased, and a new wall was ne- 
cessary. ‘This second masonry (II., fig. 2) may have 
somewhat antedated the Persian wars. By reason 


648 


of the troubles brought by the Persian occupation of 
the land, the city declined; and when, under Lysi- 
machos, its walls were rebuilt, the entire enclosure 
north of the acropolis was relinquished. The walls 
‘partially overthrown by sieges were not considered of 
sufficient value to be worth repairing, and a connect- 
ing-wall was built to the acropolis. This noble mass 
of masonry of the fourth century B.C. (fig. 1), rising 
in many places to some sixty feet in height, was 
joined so accurately that the blade of a pen-knife 
cannot be introduced between the stones. It was 
this portion of the wall that gaye Col. Leake his 
well-known opinion that Assos was the finest repre- 
sentative of a Greek city in existence. Under the 
favorable dominion of the Romans, the commercial 
city greatly increased, and finally re-occupied the space 
north of the acropolis; new escarps (IIL, fig. 2) being 
built in front of the old walls, and enclosing them 
entirely. But to enter in any degree into details 
would lead us too far afield, ranging, as the fortifica- 
tions do, through a thousand years, down to the time 
of Constantine; for the masonry in some parts, es- 


SCIENCE. 


[{Vou. IL, No. 41. 


of note, that most of the inscriptions were found in 
the slides of earth beneath this part of the agora, 
evidently having been thrown down during the 
troubles of the city. The building is exactly parallel 
in character to the only other bouleuterion known, 
—that in the Altis at Olympia; or, rather, it is like 
the inner portion of that structure, there being at 
Olympia halls on either side of a central structure like 
the bouleuterion of Assos. 

The building which borders the agora on the south 
is absolutely unique. It is the only instance of a 
Greek bath known, and the only four-story ancient 
building ever recovered. Fortunately, we have been 
able perfectly to restore it. Its arrangement is ex- 
tremely curious and interesting. It consisted of an 
enormous hall going through two stories, with twenty- 
six chambers upon its side, Above this entire strue- 
ture was a colonnade, the floor of which was upon the 
level of the agora. In front of the stoa was an enor- 
mous basin for the reception of water, covered by 
Stone lintels, and payed, so that it was not visible to 
the persons on the market-place. From it ran a sub- 


; d 7 i i c ion in irreg' as edati 2 sii vars -)3 Doth 
Fic. 2. — Corner of oldest polygonal city wall (I.), with extension in irre ular masonry antedating the Persian wars (II.); 
Eeeeted after the age of Lysimachos, with an escarp of squared blocks (III.). 


pecially towards the eastern side of the city, closely 
resembles the ramparts of Constantinople. 

The buildings of the agora, or market-place, of 
Assos, are so interesting and well connected that 
they are superior to those of all other Greek cities; 
and, notwithstanding the elaborate works of the many 
writers who have investigated and described the 
market-place of Pompeii, we may unhesitatingly as- 
sert the agora of Assos to be not only more interesting, 
but more completely known, than the forum of that 
city. The enormous stoa, or colonnade, a hundred 
and ten metres in length, was built, it may be with 
reason assumed, by the architect of that surrounding 
the temple of Athena Polias at Pergamon, which has 
so recently been excavated. It is constructed of the 
stone of the acropolis, an andesite much resem- 
bling granite; and a comparison between the forms 
given to this material and to the marble mouldings 
of Pergamon is most instructive. Being ceiled with 
wood, it needed only one support behind every second 
column of the front. Next to it, and apparently of 
the same date, is the bouleuterion, or building in 
which the archives of the city were kept. It is worthy 


terranean conduit to the lower story of the bath-room, 
and there were arrangements for the water to flow 
into the thirteen lower cells. The refuse-water was 
then led into a larger basin beneath the bath-building, 
There was another reservoir to receive the water from 
its roof. This connected with the street,:and so 
formed an enormous fountain, giving pure water 
for the consumption of the people; while the water 
of the refuse-basin adjoining it was used for the cool- 
ing of the theatre. 

Next to the bath was built, in later times, a small 
herooén, in which the bodies of the benefactors of the 
city were deposited, their names being inscribed on 
the entablature. We opened three sarcophagi, which 
contained only strigils, small vases, and the bones of 
the dead. : 

The changes of plan observable in the agora are 
peculiarly interesting. In early times there was an 
inclined plane ascending from a lower street to its 
level; but, when the hero6n was intruded, the passage 
became so narrow that it had to be turned, and trans- 
formed into a stairway. Two fine mosaics of com- 
paratively early date were found just below the 


NOVEMBER 16, 1883.] 


retaining-wall. The larger represented Victories car- 
rying votive offerings towards tripods, with a seller 
of love-gods as centre-piece; the other was bordered 
with geometrical figures, enclosing couching griffins, 
—the coat of arms of Assos, At the east of the agora 
was the bema, the stand-point of the orator in ad- 
dressing a crowd; the level of the place being there 
raised above the market, and flagged, while the re- 
mainder, like all Greek streets before the Christian 
era, was unpaved. 

Of the other buildings of the lower town, I may 
say that the theatre is now as well recovered as any 
theatre in Asia Minor. Because of certain peculiar- 


ities of the stage, its recovery is peculiarly valuable 


to the history of the Greek theatre. The gymnasium, 
at the west of the town, is equal in preservation and 
interest to the building of that character at Olympia, 
—the only one hitherto known. Noticeable, also, isa 
great atrium, of late date, but showing the preserva- 
tion of Greek forms far into the Roman period, the 
arch appearing with purely Hellenic details. In the 
lower town of Assos there were no less than seven 
Christian churches, The street of tombs is perhaps 
the most interesting burial-ground of the ancients 
as yet thoroughly investigated. It presents monu- 
ments of every period. One, notably, cannot be later 
than the seventh century B.C., and many are as recent 
as the eleventh or twelfth Christian centuries. In 
this necropolis is a mausoleum which presents a per- 
fect parallel to the tombs of the kings at Jerusalem. 
We opened a hundred and twenty-four sarcophagi 
for the first time, and found many burial-urns. There 
seems to have been a mixed system of inhumation 
and cremation, according to the temporary fashion. 
We also found great numbers of figurini, small vases 
and glasses, among them some beautiful specimens of 
thin transparent glass, and several thousand coins, 
Many other smaller articles of more or less value 
were found in the tombs; but the inhabitants of 
Assos, though they must have been wealthy, did not 
commonly place their best ornaments with the bodies 
of their dead. 

It is my duty, as well as pleasure, to speak of the 
most creditable part taken by the members of the expe- 
dition not present here this evening. Of Mr. Bacon’s 


-really extraordinary ability as a draughtsman I have 


no need to speak, His unremitting labors secured 
the success of the expedition. The highest praise is 
due also to Mr. Koldewey, an architect from Ham- 
burg, who worked with us for a year and a half from 
pure love of science, and was of the greatest possible 
assistance. My learned friend, Dr. Sterrett, has edited 
seventy-five or eighty inscriptions found by us, study- 
ing them upon the spot. Thanks, too, are due to our 
photographer, Mr. Haynes, and to Mr. Diller the 
geologist, who has already made known his work in 
valuable publications. Other members of the expe- 
dition, who were with us on comparatively short 
visits, worked as well and conscientiously, with results 
commensurate to the time they spent at Behram. 
Archeology, up to within a recent date, hardly 
deserved the name of science, having been a merely 
empirical recital of facts, without connection or true 


SCIENCE. 


649 


historic method. To-day it has conquered a foremost 
place among the exact sciences of determination; 
and we trust that the study of the best methods of 
all previous investigations has enabled the expedition 
to Assos to be in every respect creditable to the 
American name. An instance of this special pereep- 
tion and direct search for materials bearing upon our 
knowledge of the development of various phases of 
ancient art may perhaps be seen in the fact, that two 
of the most interesting links that could be desired for 
Greek architectural history have been found, —a 
proto-Ioniec capital, which stands between the orna- 
mental spirals of Mesopotamia and the perfected 
Tonie capitals of the erechtheion; and a proto-Doric 
shaft with a base, which proves with equal certainty 
the derivation of that column from the tombs of Beni- 
hassan, 

The work of the institute at Assos labors under 
one signal disadvantage: its results must be long 
awaited by those high-minded furtherers of science 
to whose munificence its execution is due. This dis- 
advantage is indeed inseparable from all such under- 
takings of great extent; but on the other side of the 
Atlantic, where archeological investigations are car- 
ried on in greater part by the various governments, 
it is much less felt than here, where a large body of 
private individuals has maintained the work. There, 
the verdict of a commission of experts is entirely 
sufficient to the minister of public instruction, who 
has supplied the funds, and placed the diplomatic 
influehce of the nation at the disposal of the work; 
and after this is given, a delay of ten or fifteen years 
in the publication of the results is not looked upon as 
a drawback. Here, however, the circumstances are 
different in every respect; and as it has naturally been 
impossible to give in half an hour any adequate ac- 
count of the hard work of two long years, it only 
remains for me to beg for a further extension of 
eredit. The debt shall be paid as soon as it is pos- 
sible to write the proposed reports; and it will not 
have escaped your observation, that one object of the 
present meeting is to so interest you in the work of 
the institute, and convince you of its value, that the 
trifling sum required for these publications may be 
forthcoming. 


At the conclusion of Mr. Clarke’s address, Prof. 
W. R. Ware of New York was called upon, as one 
who had visited Assos for the express purpose of 
seeing what had been accomplished by the expedi- 
tion. Professor Ware spoke as follows: — 

It was, as you may believe, with special pleasure, 
that I found myself, in [May of this year, passing 
through the Pillars of Hercules, my face towards the 
east, with the Troad as my objective point. But it was 
not until the third week in July, that, like St. Paul 
leaving Alexandria Troas, we came to Assos, though 
we were not, like St. Paul, ‘minded to go afoot.’ 
Perhaps it would have been better if we had been; for 
the modern Trojan horse is a small, ill-tempered, not 
always sure-footed, beast, who requires, indeed, often 
as much urging and pushing as did his Homeric 
namesake. 


650 


St. Paul probably passed through the valley of the 
Satnioeis, which flows into the Aegean on the west 
side of the Troad, a few miles south of Alexandria. 
But if he had known what was good for himself, in 
this world, he would have done as we did, and, leay- 
ing the plain, have ascended the steep sides of the 
little mountainous hill which separates the valley 
from the southern shore. There we found, upon the 
top, a tolerably level tableland commanding views of 
most surpassing beauty; to the north and west, Samo- 
thrace and Imbros and Lemnos, with Mount Athos 
just discerned in the western horizon on the other 
side of the sea; then, to the south, Lesbos, across 
the strait; and finally, in the gleaming morning sea, 
the little black hill which marked the voleanie moun- 
tain which was the goal of our endeavor. 

The mountain of Assos is so steep as it rises out 
of the sea, that within a distance of half a mile it 
reaches a height of nearly one thousand feet. The 
steepest parts of the bridle-paths upon Mount Kear- 
sarge and Mount Washington are not steeper than 
the road from the sea to the temple on the summit; 
and the agora, the market-place, which has been de- 
scribed to you, the centre of the city, is five hundred 
feet above the water. 

One finds himself there, as you may now imagine, 
as on the stage of some classical theatre with all its 
scenes still standing, — here, the bouleuterion; there, 
the gymnasium, Mr. Koldewey’s stoa, Mr. Clarke’s 
temple and city walls, and, lastly, Mr. Bacon’s street 
of tombs, leading half a mile away, towards his bridge 
at the river. 

But interesting and exciting as is the presence of 
these monuments of antiquity, one can hardly keep 
his mind upon these things, for the attractions of the 
scene before him. To the east, where the long slopes 
of Mount Ida descend to the sea, the line is taken 
up by the blue and rose-colored mountains of Asia 
Minor, stretching along toward Smyrna; toward the 
south, filling the southerh horizon, the island of 
Mitylene, —the mountain-tops brown in the sun- 
light, with purple shadows lying in all the valleys, 
and everywhere encompassing and infolding it all, 
the wonderful blues and greens of the Mediter- 
ranean Sea. Splendid as is the view from the 
acropolis of Athens, — the most famous in the world, 
—it seems to me that the view from the heights 
of Assos surpasses it in loveliness and splendor; 
and these buildings seem to haye been so set, that 
this unparalleled prospect could be enjoyed to the 
utmost. 

The buildings themselves are constructed of a 
stone which in its general aspect resembles a fine- 
grained granite, but in color and hue is more like the 
darkest and most purple of the Connecticut free- 
stones. Yet the grain is so smooth that the most 
delicate mouldings can be cut upon it; and one is 
surprised to find, in passing the hand over the sur- 
face, how sharp, clean, and refined are the profiles of 
the mouldings. 

The architectural interest attaching to these re- 
mains is unique. And here I cannot do better than 
to read an extract from a half-finished letter which I 


SCIENCE. 


[Von. IL, No. 41. 


found in Mr. Bacon’s portfolio, and snatched from 
oblivion, —a letter dated in December last, and neyer 
finished : — 


“As the end approaches, my work has assumed a more defi- 
nite form; and I know pretty well what the results will be. 
Hitherto I have been working rather blindly, and with but hazy 
ideas of final results. ‘The street of tombs is such a collection of 
small, isolated ruins, that any thing like a complete idea of the 
original disposition was impossible at first. Sobered by the ex- 
perience of last year, I this year attacked the monuments sepa- 
rately, with a resolute disregard of their relation to each other; 
excayated the most worthy, and drew them out in plan, eleya- 
tion, and detail; then located each in a general survey, strung 
these plans along on a large map; and, lo, order is come out 
of chaos! Where before seemed nothing but confusion, now 
appears the hand of man; and the tombs are placed with such 
a picturesque regard for their purpose and for each other that 
the appreciative soul is filled with delight. The existing plan 
is more complete than the Appian Way at Rome, nearly as 
well preserved as that at Pompeii, and, to my mind, far more 
interesting than either, for it is pure Greek in every line and de- 
tail. Indeed, that may be said of all the work at Assos. There 
does not seem to be the slightest Roman influence. Of course, it 
is not always faultless. Work there is of all kinds, good, bad, 
indifferent, but, good, bad, or indifferent, Greek, not Roman. 
This absence of Roman feeling in the later work is a yery peculiar 
thing. In Pergamon, Smyrna, and all the cities of Asia Minor, 
there exists a great deal of Roman work, and most of it pretty 
bad too. But here the bulk of the people probably never under- 
stood a word of Latin. The number of Latin letters upon the 
inscriptions we have found could almost be counted on your fin- 
gers. Whenever the Roman governors had any thing to say, they 
had to say itin Greek, to be understood. Even on the tomb of 
the Publius Varius family the dedicatory inscription over the 
doorway was in Greek. 

“This absence of Roman work shows pretty well what a pro- 
vincial town this must always haye remained. Their stone- 
masons, builders, and architects were born and bred here; and 
they were a conservative set, with old-time notions about clamps 
and dowels, and about running down to the ledge for foundations. 
All this can be read like a book in the buildings we haye laid 
bare. When any thing extra was to be ‘run up,’ they didn’t im- 
port a foreigner from Miletus or Ephesus with his new-fangled 
ideas; not at all: they built it themselves. And this was not 
owing to lack of money, for the remains show that Assos must 
have been a wealthy city.” 


Another point of great interest is this, — almost all 
the principal publications of Greek work that have 
been ‘made relate to monumental buildings. We 
have the temples, volume after volume, exhibiting 
a complete system of Greek architectural construe- 
tion and design; but they have left unanswered the 
questions, how far Greek architecture was confined 
to sacred buildings, and to what extent the princi- 
ples and methods which are exemplified in so mag- 
nificent a manner in the temples and sacred 
monuments were carried out in other structures. 
The long series of secular buildings which have been 
discovered at Assos offer the best answer that has 
yet been given to these questions; and the publi- 
cation of the work, when it comes to be made, will 
mark an era in the study of the municipal and mili- 
tary architecture of the Greeks. It is a question, 
moreover, not without practical interest to the work- 
ing architects of to-day, who are striving to solve for 
themselves the problem of fitly applying to secular 
and domestic buildings the same architectural forms, 
and the same principles of design, which they apply 
to sacred and monumental structures. This is an~ 


Ja 


NOVEMBER 16, 1883.] 


ever-recurring problem; and it cannot but be of ser- 
vice to learn how the Greeks, masters of the art, 
solved it in their own case. 

Besides the walls, the buildings, and the tombs, 
there have been found, as Mr. Clarke has explained, 
a considerable amount of smaller objects, — vases, 
glass, pottery, urns, ete.; and of these a considerable 
portion has been secured as property of the institute. 
‘The jirman by which the excavations were authorized 
gives us one-third of the objects found,—the most 
interesting third, perhaps; but it is difficult to speak 
justly in regard to it. If anybody should maintain 
that the objects which are to come here are of sur- 
passing interest, and that they will immediately lift 
our museum to the front rank of such institutions, 
a decided negative would have to be given to such 
aspirations. If anybody should assert that the 
things were not worth the cost of transportation; that 
they have no general or popular interest; that they 
belong to a poor period; that they are hardly fit to 
be seen beside the more beautiful works, which, in 
the original and in copies, are in our possession, — 
that, again, could not be for a moment admitted; 
for the fact remains that the small portion which 


is secured to us is of surpassing interest to those’ 


who take an intelligent interest in such things at 
all. 

The lower drum of a column, the capital, a com- 
plete section of the entablature, including the unique 
sculptured architrave, the frieze, and the cornice, 
all have been secured, and may soon be placed in 
position. In addition to that, the best of the sculp- 
tures which were discovered are to be brought over; 
almost all the coins; among the glasses and vases 
those which, on the whole, were best worth presery- 
ing; and most of the inscriptions. But even if the 
objects secured to us from the discovery were less 
than they are, it would make little difference in our 
estimate of the success of the expedition. The real 
result was intellectual. And the new points which 
have been proved, the new discoveries which have 
been made, are such, that, if not a single object were 
brought here from Asia Minor, we should still have 
abundant reason to be satisfied with the results 
achieved. It is impossible that we should obtain 
any adequate idea of these from the few drawings 
that have been publicly shown. ‘They are but a frag- 
ment of the whole. 

How it was possible for these two or three young 
men, while occupied with the practical direction of 
from twenty to forty men, to make the surveys and 
supervise the excavations, and also to prepare the 
immense mass of drawings which have been exe- 
cuted, it is difficult to understand; and it furnishes 
abundant proof of the ability and devotion with 
which the work has been prosecuted. The nature of 
the results will be seen when the next annual report 
comes from the printer; but their whole value and 
importance cannot be estimated until the appearance 
of that final and monumental work which will, we 
may hope at no distant day, take rank among the 
authoritative publications of its kind. 

I may add, that the increasing interest in archeo- 


ee 
ie 


SCIENCE. 


651 
logical work, and the scientific and precise manner 
in which it-is now conducted, give new encourage- 
ment to the prosecution Of literary classical study. 
The competition between the literary and scientific 
method seems about to end in a reconciliation, in 
the prosecution of literature on scientific principles, 
and in allying archeological science as closely as 
possible with the literature of classical antiquity. 
Archeology is a common ground on which science, 
literature, and art meet and join hands, each helping 
the other. Such a school as that now established at 
Athens, which you are asked to favor with your ap- 
proyal, is their common home. 

On motion of the Rey. Phillips Brooks, the meet- 
ing declared, by an enthusiastic vote, that the work 
of the institute should be generously supported. 


THE AMERICAN ORIENTAL SOCIETY. 


TuHE autumn meeting of this society was held in 
New Haven, Oct. 24 and 25. Letters were read 
from various members abroad, reporting progress in 
their work; among others, from Mr, Mills of Han- 
nover, respecting his edition of the Old Persian Gathas 
(ancient Zoroastrian songs or odes), of which the first 
volume is printed, though not published. 

A paper on the temple to Zeus Labranios in Cyprus 
was read by Mr. Isaac H. Hall of Philadelphia, one 
of the pioneers in Cypriote studies, and the chief 
authority on the Cypriote language in this country. 
A temple to this deity exists at Mylasa in Caria (de- 
scribed in Fellowes’s ‘ Lycia’). He was, under the 
name of Zeus Stratios, a local deity of the Mylasians, 
certainly from the time of Darius to that of Lactan- 
tius. The only other temple to him is this one in 
Cyprus, at Fasuli (or Fasula), near Amathus. The 
notoriously Lycian-looking architectural and other 
art remains found in the neighborhood show that this 
part of Cyprus was settled by Carians from Mylasa or 
its vicinity.. Mr. Hall derived the epithet ‘ labranios’ 
from a Lydian, Carian, or Lycian word, ‘labru’ (pre- 
served by Plutarch in the form ‘labrus’), meaning 
‘axe,’ the axe being the peculiar symbol of Zeus 
Stratios of the Mylasians. From this word came the 
Mylasian name ‘ Labranda’ (‘ place of the axe’); but 
the Carian settlers in Cyprus dropped the d (which is 
a sort of locative termination), and called their deity 
Zeus Labranios; that is, the Zeus Stratios of the My- 
lasians, and not Zeus Labrandios, which would be the 
Zeus of the village Labranda. Lycian influence in 
Cyprus seems confined to this little part of the island. 

Mr. Hall also read (supplementing it from his own 
knowledge of the facts) a short history, from Dr. Van 
Dyck of Beirut, of his Arabic translation of the Bible, 
—a version admirable in literary style and in typo- 
graphical execution (printed at the American press in 
Beirut). The difficulties in the way of the production 
of this translation were very great, and the result is 
highly creditable to American scholarship and energy. 

Professor Avery of Bowdoin college gave an analy- 
sis of the Khasi language, spoken by a people dwelling 
in the Nepaul Hills, a representative of the _non- 


652 


Aryan dialects which preceded the Sanskrit in India, 
It has no inflections proper, but uses prepositions 
for the expression of case-relations, and forms tenses 
very much in the same way asthe English. It is note- 
worthy that this language, though a slightly devel- 
oped one, has a clear distinction of gender; but the 
value of gender-distinelion as a linguistic differentia 
is not yet well made out. In common with most of 
the languages of eastern Asia, the Khasi has asystem 
of tones. The same tling is true of the Siamese, on 
which Mr. George presented a paper, illustrating the 
. tonic distinctions by a short Siamese reading. 

The paper of the most general interest was one on 
the origin of the Phoenician alphabet, read by Mr.J.P. 
Peters of New York. For some years past, most stu- 
dents of the subject, accepting for the present the con- 
clusions of the late Vicomte HN, de Rougé, have been 
inclined to derive the Phoenician from the Egyptian. 
This conclusion is based on the close relations existing 
between Egypt and Phoenicia in historical times, and 
on the similarity between certain letters in the two 
alphabets. But recently the Babylonian-Assyrian 
alphabet has begun to press its claims to be considered 
the parent of the Phoenician. It is almost certain 
that Phoenicia was closely connected with the Tigris- 
Euphrates valley at a time earlier than the oldest 
known historical monument. As long ago as 1877, 
a German scholar, Deecke, came forward as the 
champion of the Babylonian alphabet; but he com- 
mitted the anachronism of deriving the old Semitic 
or Phoenician from the more modern ‘ cursive’ cunei- 
form. Mr. Peters took the most ancient cuneiform 
signs, and compared them with the oldest Phoenician, 
finding in several instances striking resemblances. 
He urged besides, against the Weyptian origin, the 
fact that the Phoenician alphabet contains no vowels, 
while the hieroglyphies thaye distinct vowel-signs 
[though this is true of the Babylonian also]; and, 
further, the fact that the Egyptian had a large num- 
ber of different signs for the same sound, and would 
present greater difficulties in the way of deriving an 
alphabet than the Babylonian, which had fewer homo- 
phones. The question is yet far from being settled, 
one serious obstacle in the way of the Assyriologists 
being the difficulty of determining the oldest forms 
of the cuneiform writing; but all such sober inves- 
tigations as that of Mr. Peters must advance the de- 
sired solution. Meantime the Egyptologists, on their 
part, are bringing forward new material. 

The edition of Manu, which was undertaken by the 
eminent English Sanskritist, Mr. Burnell, has been 
committed by the publishers, since his death, to Mr. 
E. W. Hopkins of New-York City, who sent on two 
papers, — one on the Nandini commentary on Manu, 
the other on the quotations from Manu in the Maha- 
bharata. The former was a defence of the commen- 
tary in question: the latter was a contribution to the 
criticism of the Manu text. Mr. Hopkins took those 
passages in the Mahabharata which are introduced by 
the phrase, ‘ Thus said Manu,’ and, finding that they 
do not always agree with the existing text of the laws, 
concluded that both texts rest on an older tradition ; 
that Manu was an ancient sage, with whom tradition 


SCIENCE. 


|Vou. IL, No. 41. 


connected a number of laws, whence grew the col- 
lection called by his name. 

Professor Whitney read on the variants of the Sama- 
Veda, coming to the conclusion (against the position 
of Benfey and Weber, hitherto generally accepted), 
that, in most cases in which the Sama text differs from 
that of the Rig, the latter is entitled to the prefer- 
ence. Professor Bloomfield of Johns Hopkins uni- 
versity, who is engaged in editing the Kaucika-Sutra 
to the Atharva-Veda, sent an account of the manu- 
scripts of the Sutra in his hands, most of which he 
had obtained through the kindness of English officials. 
Mr. Brown made a short report of the recent Oriental 
congress in Leiden, at which he was present. 

The next meeting of the society will be held in 
Boston, May 7, 1884. 


LETTERS TO,THE EDITOR. 


Geology of Philadelphia. 
Dr. PERSIFOR FRAZER’S explanations of his use of 
the term ‘hydromica slate,’ in his Lancaster-county 
report, as either ‘not an equivalent for hydromica 


schist’ or as a ‘misprint,’ renders it evident that 


he has changed his opinions since the writing of his 
report on York and Adams counties. In that volume 
the term ‘hydromica slate’ is employed ten times or 
more to designate ‘hydromica schists,’ and in seyeral 
instances the terms are used synonymously. In two 
instances, localities marked in his printed section as 
hydromica schist are referred to in the accompanying 
descriptive text as hydromica slate (vy. sections 2 b, 
4, and p. 94, 101). As is evident from the context 
in a number of places, his ‘hydromica slate’ does not 
mean ‘chlorite slate,’ but ‘hydromica schist’ as it is 
elsewhere called (vy. p. 83, 142, etc.). 

There is, however, equal objection to his use of 
the term ‘chlorite slate,’ frequently employed in 
his different reports to distinguish greenish portions 
in the hydromica series. These are no more slates 
than are portions of the adjacent hydromicas, which 
are of identical structure. Nor, indeed, are they 
true chlorites, having but a low percentage of magne- 
sia. (A recent analysis of some of the greenest of 
this so-called ‘chlorite slate,’ made for the writer 
by Prof. S. P. Sharples, gave only 4.28% of magnesia. ) 

Hydromica slate, as meaning hydromica schist, is 
also used several times in the report on Chester 
county, and the synonymous terms ‘tale slate,’ ‘mica 
slate,’ ‘tale-mica slate,’ ‘tale-mica schist,’ ‘micaceous 
taleose slate,’ and ‘South Valley Hill slates,’ are em- 
ployed more than fifty times in the same report with- 
out distinction between slate and schist. Professor 
Rogers, as is well known, used most frequently the 
expression ‘tale-mica slate.’ 

That the term ‘slate’ has been used synonymously 
with ‘schist’ in the region of the South Valley Hill, is 
not only shown by the indiscriminate use of those 
terms by Rogers, Lesley, and Hall, but is apparent 
in a remark by Dr. Frazer himself in the Chester- 
county report, p. 279, where he says: — 

‘South of the Valley limestone, which only touches the 
extreme angle of the township, are hydromicas and mica-sehists, 
dipping about south 55°, east —62°. The southern contact of 
limestone and s/ate occurs in this corner. . ... The hydromica 


schists and mica-schists to the south, which enclose this, are 
principally vertical,” ete. 


Now, as the only slates which occur at this local- 
ity are hydromica slates belonging to the hydromica 


* tte ll 9? 2B fee 
re. . yb a" ? 
7 


NoOvEMBER 16, 1883.] 


series of rocks of the South Valley Hill, these must 
be the slates referred to, even if ‘hydromica slates is 
a contradiction in terms.’ 

While the undersigned certainly does not intend to 
be a champion for the term ‘slate’ instead of ‘schist’ 
for these rocks, good reason for the use of that term 
lies in the slaty character of many of these hydromi- 
cas as distinguished from the contorted and schistose 
character of the micaceous rocks of other regions. 

The writer's use of the expression ‘hydromica slate’ 
in describing the Edge Hill and Barren Hill rocks 
(the ‘altered primal slates’ of Rogers), is thought 
preferable to the term ‘hydromica schist,’ since large 
portions of that formation are slaty rather than 
schistose. The greater part of the formation is a 
slaty sandstone or quartz slate, and, where outcrop- 
ping in Chester county, is so designated by Dr. Frazer. 
It might naturally be taken for granted that the 
writer believes, with Dr. Frazer, that the hydromica 
schists and slates of the South Valley Hill of Chester 
county are about contemporaneous with this quartz 
slate or Edge Hill rock. 

In order to prevent future misapprehension, it may 
here be stated, that the writer has been led to the 
conclusion that the two formations are distinct, and 
that both Professors Rogers and Frazer have con- 
founded two rock series belonging to different geo- 
logical horizons, — the one, Cambrian; the other, 
Silurian. The analogue of the Edge Hill rock is 
believed to occur in Chester county, on the south 
side of the hydromicas of the South Valley Hill. 
The facts leading to this conclusion have been 
gathered during some extended field-work in Chester 
county, and will shortly be published. Meanwhile, 
the remarks upon the primal slates made in the 
Franklin institute lecture should be understood as 
referring solely to the Edge Hill rocks proper, and 
not to the South Valley Hill schists or slates, which 
are but poorly defined in the vicinity of Philadelphia. 

H. Carviti LEwIis. 


The specific distinctness of the American and 
European brine shrimps. 


In Professor Smith’s notice of our ‘Monograph of 
phyllopod Crustacea,’ he states, that, in the portion 
relating to the above subject, ‘there is certainly con- 
fusion,’ and quotes two paragraphs relating to the 
females alone, and finally remarks, “‘ but differences 
like these in statements of observation betray inex- 
plicable carelessness.’’ 

After quoting the two paragraphs relating to the 
Females alone, it seems to us a careful critic would 
have also taken pains to have quoted the longer para- 
graph relating to the males, which directly follows 
the first paragraph quoted by our critic. To allow 
the two paragraphs relating to the females to be so 
widely separated was an oversight on the part of the 
author, who, however, thought that he had taken a 
good deal of pains to show the specific distinctness 
of the American and European species. Two sets of 
females from different localities, named by different 
persons, weré examined at different times ; and this ex- 
plains how the two paragraphs became placed too far 
apart in the author’s copy. It would have been bet- 
ter, of course, if the author had added a few words, 
and dogmatically stated that the two species were 
undoubtedly distinct. He preferred not to do, or 
omitted to do, this, but gave in considerable detail, 
and in as judicial a way as possible, the facts of the 
case, At first it was ‘difficult to find good differential 
characters’ between the females, and those found are 
but slight ones. The females of any of the species of 
Artemia, Branchinecta, or Branchipus, do not exhibit 


SCIENCE. 


653 


good specific characters; but the males do, as the 
author attempted to show. If the author failed in 
directness of statement on this subject, or led to any 
confusion in any one’s mind, he sincerely regrets it: 
on the other hand, he doubts whether there were, 
in the case, reasons for the charge of ‘inexplicable 
carelessness.’ 

The paragraph which Professor Smith would have 
done well to have quoted is the following one: — 


“Upon comparing a good many males from Great Salt Lake 
with several, both stained with carmine and unstained, received 
from Cagliari, Sardinia, through Prof. J. McLeod of Ghent, the 
European A. salina is seen to be considerably stouter, the head 
wider, the eye-stulks longer and larger, and the eyes larger. 
The frontal button-like processes of the first joint of the claspers 
are nearly twice as large as in the American specics, and a little 
more pointed, while the claspers themselves are larger and 
stouter. ‘Che legs and sixth endites are of about the same form, 
The most apparent difference is in the caudal appendages, or cer- 
copods, which in A. 1 are several times larger than in As 
gracilis, being in the rdinian specimens nearly three times as 
Jong and much larger than in our species. In this respect, the 
genus shows a close affinity to Branchinecta. However, in a lot 
of A. salina 9 from Trieste, the cercopods are very much shorter 
than in the Sardinian females, and only a little longer than in 
our American specimens. ‘These appendages do not differ in the 


two sexes.” 
A, S. PACKARD, Jun. 


Bone fish-hooks: 


Recently, while digging in a shell-heap near Narra- 
gansett Pier, Rhode Island, I found among broken 
arrow-points, and fragments of bone, pottery, and 
shells, a nicely worked bone-hook, and also the shanks 
of three other apparently similar hooks; while in a 
neighboring shell-heap two more fragments were _ 
found, 


The perfect hook measures a little more than one 
inch in length, and a little less than one inch across 
from the shank to the point, the latter being nearly 
as long as the former. The shank is flattened and 
notched at the end, forming a sort of head, somewhat 
similar to the fish-hooks of the present day. This 
hook, although much shorter, resembles a hook from 
Long Island described and figured by Mr. Charles Cc. 
Abbott on p. 208 of his work on Primitive industry. 
Of this he says, ‘‘ Objects of this character are ex- 
ceedingly rare, either as found on the surface, or in 
shell-heaps. While of so simple a form, bone fish- 
hooks of this pattern do not appear to be common in 
any locality in eastern North America.” 

Figures are here given of the perfect hook, and the 


654 


fragments of three others which appear to be pre- 
cisely similar. MARGARETTE W. Brooks, 
Nov. 1, 1888. 


Supposed glacial phenomena in Boyd 
county, Ky. 


A part of the work deyolving upon us who have re- 
cently been tracing the southern boundary of the glaci- 
ated areain America, has been to follow up the reports 
of glacial phenomena south of our line. 

Boyd county, Ky., having been referred to by a 
number of authorities as such a locality, I was natu- 
rally led to visit it a short time since; and J found, 
to my satisfaction, that that region was never directly 
glaciated. 

Boyd county is in north-eastern Kentucky, border- 
ing upon West Virginia, and upon the remarkable 
bend of the Ohio River where it receives the waters 
of the Big Sandy. ‘Through the attention of Mr. 
John Campbell of Ironton, O., and Mr. J. H. Means 
of Ashland, Ky., I was assisted in making a pretty 
thorough examination of the region. Upon going 
back about two miles into Kentucky from the Ohio 
River, opposite Ironton, we find ourselves in a valley 
two miles wide, running parallel with the Ohio River, 
and two hundred and twenty feet above it. This 
valley extends for many miles, reaching the river 
towards the west at Greenup, and continuing some 
miles, at least, above Ashland. It is known as Flat 
Woods. The level is remarkably uniform; and the 
hills upon either side of it rise about two hundred feet, 
with numerous lateral openings towards the Ohio. 
When upon the farther side, and looking northward, 
one sees the rocky bluffs of the old channel rising so 
like those facing the river itself, that he can scarcely 
resist the illusion that he is in the present valley of 
the stream. The supposed glacial phenomena consist 
of numerous water-worn pebbles of quartz and quartz- 
ite scattered along the whole range of this old valley. 
Most of the pebbles are small, and perfectly rounded, 
though some were a foot or more in diameter; and 
one observed was about two feet and a half ‘through, 
and only slightly worn., These pebbles are not found 
upon the hills back from this channel, on the Kentucky 
side, nor, according to Mr. Campbell, who is a most 
competent witness, anywhere in Lawrence county, 
O., back from the river. Plainly enough, they are 
the result of water-transportation. Whether they 
were deposited at the very early period when the 
Ohio flowed at the level of two hundred and twenty 
feet higher than now, and regularly occupied this old 
channel, or whether they were brought into place 
during the existence of the glacial dam which I have 
supposed at Cincinnati, I ‘will not venture to say 5 
though the latter theory would seem more in accord- 
ance with the facts published by Professor White 
concerning the old channel followed by the Chesa- 
peake and Ohio railroad, extending from the Ka- 
nawha River to the mouth of the Guyandotte in West 
Virginia. The elevation of the Kanawha-Guyandotte 
channel is nearly the same as that of the one I am 
describing, and this seems to be a prolongation of 
that. At any rate, the pebbles can only be indirectly 
referred to glacial action. 

Now that attention is directed to this class of 
investigations, it would seem to be important for 
Professor Lewis to give through your columns, or 
somewhere else, publicity to his investigations of the 
facts supposed to indicate glacial action in Pennsyl- 
vania farther south than the boundary-line indicated 
by our investigations two years ago. 


G. F. Wrienr. 
Oberlin, Noy. 5, 1883. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 41. 


Elliptic elements of comet Pons-Brooks. 


While the orbit by Professor Boss, published in 
SciENCE, No. 84, represents observation so well that 
there can be no doubt of the identity of the two 
comets, still it is of interest to know how closely 
elements derived from observations of the present 
comet alone agree with those of the Pons comet. 

The are of anomaly already passed over is only 
about twelve degrees, —a condition very unfavorable 
to the precise determination of elements, and inade- 
quate to determine a reliable periodic time. 

On account of this, in the solution of the equa- 
tions, Ae was considered as a known quantity, and 
finally an assumed value substituted for it. 

I find the following corrections to Professor Boss’s 
epic elements from the normal places given 
elow : — 


Ax = —194.0/ — 78,768. Ae 

AQ = + 19.5! + 289,238. Ae 

Aa == tha +. 55,256. Ae 

AE = = 700602300 tie 108.39 Ae 

Ag = + 0.000716 — 0.04 Ae 
Assuming the eccentricity to be 0.954996, which 


closely approximates to the true value on the hypothe- 
sis of identity, we have for Ae, —0.000274. 

The resulting corrections to the preliminary ele- 
ments are, — 


An = —IT2.4/ 
(AM ass Sa I 
Aa et (ey 6 
AT = — 00855381 
Ag = + itetees 
Ae = — 0.000274 


and the corrected elements are, — 


T = 1884, Jan., 25.66046 
Q@ = 2540707! 4g/ 
7 = 93 18 50 
o = 199 11 0g [1953.0 
i = 74 02 05 
lug = 9.989708 

= 0.954996 


After obtaining the preceding results, the equations 
were solved for the value of Ae, with the result 
Ae = —0.000032; but no use was made of this. 


Nor mal places, 1583.0. 0. 


Mean date, No. of 
Greenwich mean a 8 observa- 
time. tions. 
hem. 8. 
Sept. 8.5 16 30 38.75 63° 497 12.5” 28 
(22.5 16 25 17.65 60 45 62.3 16 
Oct. 6:5 16 30 28.52 57 42 35.9 8 
PAO 16 45 00.31 5450 37.4 6 


These motel Minced are duke escn edt ie the cor- 
rected elements, as follows: — 


Gag: 
Aacos $ Aé. 
I. —0.5!/ +138" 
IL. —1.2 =i) 
Iil. +44 +0.9 
IV. as ae by] 


The last two places depend entirely upon Albany 
filar-micrometer observations. 

In order to form some idea of the accuracy attained 
in modern observations of faint comets, the follow- 
ing table of comparisons, with the cor rected elements, 
may be of interest. The comparisons are not very 


7 aera we ai {. t= 
i a RS ane E as 
7 


SCIENCE. 655 


NOVEMBER 16, 1883,] 


vigorous, and are liable to accidental errors of Ove or 
two seconds. 


C0. 
Date, 
Greenwich mean Observatory. Aa cos 6. Aé. 
time. | | 
| 

Sept. 3.6 .. .| Harvard ...| [ +21” Maal 
mt . Harvard ="). | sai | = 6 
oY ear i Cs a +23 3 
Stee 4 . «| Harvard. . . . [ + 22 pres | 
“ 54...) Kiel... .. —10 | +14 
ay 6.5 2 Y) VAlbanyy dice = Se] -— 3 a) 4 a0 
“55 eget] RUBVALE Wc e sap bye bythe + 4] 
ree DA «se WICK ciao a! 6s - 4 Syl! 
a ol He te ‘Altany <' =~ 22% —i'S | +11 
“ 66.6 - | Cincinnati . 0 +12 
5 50,G A | Leiden... .« =- 2 + 10 
Se REE a.) IM Konigsberg . . [+12 =26) ] 
COG ceca i UN ONE ia <ul 2 3 
Seeouee y) st} baryard | oo. eh a 5 J 
$© 36.6 so. |. Albany . tose/%, = 5 2 
ee TO oy tn. = Albany . - | - 5 +10 
RET Oris ps be Harvard .. «| 1 —10 
« 66 . . .| Cincinnati. . . + 3 + 3 
SET a's Alt SEAT WAIC. ste = [ #22 0) 
AR Te aS Wien oe Pee + 5 + 4 
piel He te ' take Kiel . citer esr — 4 saree! 
ty Aarts] al CaN: By mere et Ra Ua oe | +10 | 
SS Ares) || DUCRO RI wire — 48 — 3 
“ 84 » «| Danwebt.. < . es — 9 
SOS wel sare Pulkowa ... br 3 0 
SOE oie.” cet Rely oy as yeu e 2 t+ 2 
rn ee Strasburg. . . a 3 
eo.G) , os) Are albany he be = il = hen 
Sf 2.6) a oe oy s Marvard «2 = + 2 -15 
i Pulkowa + 4 + 2 
SERMLURD es) f) WKiiGhRet oe) ve pee ai | + 6 
SE LOA) ie. fe Dun Echt... + 1 + 1 
<" 10.5 . . . |) Strasburg. .. +22 0 
«10.8 -  Cineinnati . =e iff 5 
eet FU a aha OE ac os eek 2.9 re 
ed.8 soe? «bs DOR Eebt ., << —= 15 + 5 
ae 17.3 -| Polkowa .. . 75 6 =e 
46. 18.5 Albany. ... Ta re 
OL «. ve 16 |) eS 0 Fe! 
“+ 19.4 7 Strasburg. . . meh = 7 if 
se 214 "5 Strasburg . . . od 4 
BECO cule ce | *SeDANY «720%? = +3 | 
sO 21:6 -} Albany. 4.0. . 0 Be 
22.8 . | K@nigsberg . . | 1 + 6 
TROD, ses cf WIEDY tc! wo fe 5 ray 
MSs eres) ICEL cl coms. oper t 6 — 2 
wr Eeiientrs *3255 7s] — 3 + 6 
POAb6.. «i. | Albany. 5) aya | +11 =.8 
MAGeO | Albany ssc: ef oT deerct 8 
TO A eee Albany... .| ee On = j! 
§ 26.6 % «| /€incinnati..« . | a eee | + 9 
De a ed +38 | + 3 

Oct. 316 5. . .| Albany. . ... | + 5 “ee 
er a Albany. . + «| +3 | t 3 
ce 26°. oe ee |, Albany «3. 1. + 6 0 
“ 46 | |e dibany si oe at ee ns —2 
Mar t6 6 iru fo Albay ey eye Faire EL) + 
AO ers] si jcartin AIDADY’ ore oh a + 6. +2 
Seese ee + «| |} AIDANY 6. 6” obs { + 3 Ke, 
“ 95 ibn Albanyssmst js #118 +5 
* 16.5 Albany. » . «| 0 9 
se 17.5 Albany . «. «} + 2 0 
“18.5 .| Albany. 2... |] + 6 + 1 
BE 21 G ~2y Albany... .]| — 5 0 
“ 946. ./2| “Albany. << | a'4 +5 
SE 26.5) 5) 2 ee | Albany. ... =o Pog 


The observations enclosed in brackets were not 
used as exhibiting large systematic or accidental 
errors. 

A few observations were made with ring-microme- 
ters, but it is not possible to determine how many. 


a 


At Albany the ring was used until Sept. 21, after- 
wards the filar micrometer. 

The following table shows the constant difference 
for each observer when there are three or more 
observations given, and includes nothing later than 
Sept. 26:— 


No. of 
observa- 
lions. 


Albany, B. 

Albany, E. 5 abies 
Cincinnati. . . . . 
Harvard, Wn. . 

Ol re Sea 
Leiden. . » 
Pulkowa . Pee UE 
Strasburg’. 2. 2) 
Wien) «1... 


Observatory. Aacos é. aé. 


CROCUS RO 
I 
+ 
HOOP AGS 
3 


“f4 


These constant errors, though founded on rather 
slender material, probably represent fairly what is to 
be expected from modern observations of comets. 

Following are the heliocentric co-ordinates : — 


x = r (9.580346) sin (153° 14/ 15.1” + v) 
y = r (9.996200) sin ( 82 04 40.0 + v) 
Zz = r (9.970401) sin (174 59 17.4 + v) 


H. V. EGBERT. 


Dudley observatory, Albany, N.Y., 
Novy. 6, 1883. 


Rapid geological changes in Alaska. 


Mr. Dall kindly calls my attention to an error in 
the note of my remarks, given in ScrENCE of Oct. 19. 
Hood’s Bay is nearly a degree south of the locality 
of the submerged forest described. Looking at my 
diary, I find the entry ‘ Hoona,’ which is, L believe, 
synonymous with ‘Bartlett Bay’ of some charts. 
While making my verbal remarks at the academy, L 
mistook my pencilling of ‘Hoona’ for ‘Hood.’ ‘The 
exact location of the forest is latitude 58° 27’, longi- 
tude 135° 40’. I am very much pleased to find from» 
Mr. Dall’s letter that my view of the modern changes, 
drawn from botanical facts chiefly, derives support 
from some geographical evidence within his reach. 

THomMAS MEEHAN. 


.The mechanism of direction. 


I read with interest Professor Newcomb’s article 
on the sense of direction (SCIENCE, Oct. 26). Profes- 
sor Newcomb says nothing about the behavior of the 
subjective co-ordinates under a slight change of angle. 
My experience in this respect I give below, and I 
have reason to believe the experience to be quite 
general. 

The street A B turns into B C. Walking from A 
to B, my co-ordinates begin to change when about a 
hundred yards from B. By the timeI get to B, or 
rather just after B, they have changed by the angle 
A BO, no matter how large or how small A B C is. 
The same takes place in going from € to 
B to A. While close to B on either © 
side, I can by an effort imagine myself B 
under the old co-ordinates; but the new 
ones are much more natural. In the 
dark, I think the turn is not seen so far 
ahead, and the change takes less time. 

If I go from A to B, with my eyes turned 
towards A, I have a different experience. 
I have never tried it by walking backwards; 
but I have observed my sensations while riding on 
the back platform of a street-car. As the car turns 
at B towards C, and I am looking towards A, my co- 


656 


ordinates begin to change rather suddenly; but there 
is no sign of a change before B. Shortly after B, I 
still can conceive myself under the co-ordinates 
formed on A B, by.a mental effort. After about a 
hundred yards the new co-ordinates have entirely 
displaced the old. 

At the corner of 13th and Spring-Garden streets in 
Philadelphia I had an experience like that of Profes- 
sor Newcomb. Fora long time I could not approach 
the place, riding or walking, without my co-ordinates 
changing by 90°. Icannotaccountforit. Gradually 
it wore off, and now no change takes place. 


« JOSEPH JASTROW. 
Johns Hopkins university, Nov. 6. 


INTERNATIONAL GEODETIC ASSOCIA- 
TION OF EUROPE. 


Verhandlungen der vom 11 bis zum 15 September 
1882, im Haag vereinigten permanenten commission 
der europidischen gradmessung. Redigirt yon A. 
Hirscu und T. yon Opproizer zugleich mit 
dem general bericht fiir die jahre 1881 und 1882. 
Berlin, Reimer, 1883. 64155 p.,2 maps. 4°. 
Tue proceedings of the annual meeting of 

the committee at The Hague, Sept. 11 to 15, 

1882, have just been published. The perma- 

nent committee consists of the following mem- 

bers: Lieut.-Gen. Ibatiez of Madrid, president ; 

Dr. von Bauernfeind, vice-president-; Dr. 

Hirsch of Neuchatel, and Dr. von Oppolzer of 

Vienna, secretaries; Mr. Faye of Paris; and 

Major-Gen. Baulina of Florence. The dele- 

gates, eleven in number, represent most of the 

countries of Kurope. Some inyited guests also 
attended the meeting. The session was opened 
by the minister of state, Rochusson of Hol- 
land, who extended-to the members a cordial 
welcome, which was responded to by President 

Ibaiiez. 

The last meeting was held at Munich in 
1880; but the commission resolved to omit 
the contemplated meeting for 1881, in order 
to give its members an opportunity to attend 
the Geographical congress at Venice: the 
reports therefore submitted by the several rep- 
resentatives cover the work done, or in active 
progress, during the two years 1581 and 1882. 
Secretary Hirsch alludes to the loss sustained 
by the association since its last conference, in 
the death of Dr. Carl Bruhns, a member of 
the commission since 1864; in the death of 
Gen. de Ricci, one of the veterans of Italian 
geodesy ; of Col. Adan of Belgium, and Pro- 
’ fessor Stamkart of Holland. The latter had 
shown that the mean level of the North Sea 
had not changed during the past hundred and 
fifty years with respect to the zero of the tide- 
gauge at Amsterdam. And, last, the asso- 
ciation had to mourn the loss of Professor 
Plantamour of Geneva, whose labors in as- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 41. 


tronomy and physical geography are so well 
known, and to whose zeal the recent develop- 
ments in levels of precision and the progress 
made in pendulum observations are so largely 
due. 

‘The Italian commission was increased by 
Professor Fergola of Naples, by Professor 
Celoria of Milan, and by Lieut.-Col. de Ste- 
fanis of Florence. Austria nominated Capt. 
von Kalmar and Professor Herr as commis- 
sioners ; Holland completed its representation 
by Professor Schols of Delft; and Roumania 
sent Major Capitancanu. The honorary presi- 
dent and founder of the association, Major- 
Gen. Dr. Baeyer, who, on account of ill health, 
was unable to attend, presented a report of 
the labors of the Geodetic institute of Prussia 
during 1881-82. THe makes mention of the 
success of the experiments’ to determine the 
difference of temperature between the bars of 
platinum and brass of the Brunner base-appa- 
ratus by means of thermo-electricity. The re- 
searches for local deflection of the vertical 
were extended from the Harz to the shores of 
the Baltic and the North Sea with the result 
of proving it a region of predominating nega- 
tive (A.—G.) deflection, varying between 4” 
and 7”. A listis presented of seventeen works 
published by the institute during the interval. 
Several of these relate to levels of precision ; 
and the pamphlet by Dr. Sadebeck, entitled 
‘Literature of the practical and theoretical 
measurement of ares,’ deserves special men- 
tion. In a discussion closing the first session, 
relative to the probable error in the assigned 
length of the pendulum, it was stated, that, 
to judge from the accord of the seyeral swings, 
it might be estimated at about one micron, 
but that the oscillations of the pendulum sup- 
port introduced a constant error, seriously in- 
fluencing the accuracy of the result; the direct 
measure of the motion of the support enter- 
ing the result being only a fortieth of the 
correction to pe applied. By this method the 
accuracy is estimated at .01 mm. ‘The propo- 
sition by Cellerier to swing successively on the 
same stand two pendulums of the same form 
and construction, but of very unequal weight, 
promises complete success towards correcting 
the defect in question ; and the experiment is. 
now being carried out. The second session 
was chiefly occupied with the reading of re- 
ports, and with a discussion respecting the- 
value of the prismatic transit instrument.’ Six 
of these instruments employed in the Italian 
survey gave entire satisfaction, especially with 
regard to perfection of their images. The dis- 

1 Published in Astronomische nachrichten, no. 2451. 


td 


NoveMBER 16, 1883.] 


cussion was continued in the next session with 

remarks about the greater variability of the 

errot of collimation in the prismatic transit ; 

‘but its superiority in its low Y’s over the 

‘common form of the instrument was recog- 

mized. In connection with the pendulum of 

reversion, Hirsch refers to the observations 
of Mr. C. 8S. Peirce of the U. S. coast and geo- 
detic survey, at Geneva, Berlin, and Hoboken 
in America, which prove experimentally the 

‘theoretical conclusion of the complete elimina- 

‘tion of the resistance of the air by the use of 

Bessel’s pendulum of reversion, —a conclu- 

sion indorsed by Ferrero from experiments 

made in Italy. In the fourth session, Villar- 

-ceau explains the construction of his new appa- 

ratus for the relative measure of the intensity 

-of gravity, and the commission recommends a 

‘direct comparison of the new apparatus and of 

the apparatus of Cellerier at a number of sta- 

‘tions. A discussion followed on self-registering 

tide-ganges and river-gauges ; Mr. Diesen stat- 

ing, that in Holland as many as sixty-four in- 
struments were in operation, or being put to 
immediate use. Professor Nagel was elected 

-a member of the permanent commission. In 

the following session the business programme 

for the seventh general conference of the 

European association for the measurement of 

-ares was formulated and adopted: viz., — 

1. Reading of the annual report of the per- 
‘manent commission. 

2. Reports of the progress of geodesy by 
‘the representatives of the several countries. 

3. Reviews of the present state of geodetic 
operations, subdivided as follows : — 

Astronomical longitudes, latitudes, and azi- 
muths (reporter, Backhuyzen) ; Triangulations 
(reporter, Ferrero) ; Base-lines and base-ap- 
paratus (reporter, Perrier) ; Levels of precision 
(reporter, Hirsch) ; Tide-gauges (reporter, 
Ibanez); Gravity apparatus (reporter, von 
Oppolzer) ; Refraction (reporter, yon Bauern- 
feind) ; Geodetic publications (reporter, Bae- 
yer) ; Are of the parallel in Europe (reporter, 
Faye). 

The proposition to meet at Rome in October 
next is adopted, pending the fayorable accep- 
tation by the Italian government. 

The remaining part of the pamphlet is oceu- 
pied with reports in detail of the progress made 
‘during the years 1881-82 in the countries rep- 
resented. Their contents may be briefly sum- 
marized as follows : — 

Baden, Germany. — Levels of precision, and 
publication of the results of the Rhenish tri- 
angulation. 

Bavaria, Germany. — Observations of terres- 


Can 


SCIENCE. 


657 


trial refraction, lateral and vertical; spirit- 
levelling, total development to date 2,578 
km. ; oscillations of the ground, and pendu- 
lum observations at the Bogenhausen obser- 
vatory. 

Denmark. — The fourth volume of the geodetic 
survey is promised towards the close of 1883. 

France. — Connection by new triangulation of 
the base-lines of Melun and of Perpignan; 
extension of the Algerian are of the parallel 
into Tunis; measures of latitudes and of 
differences of longitude by telegraph. Vol- 
ume xii. of the ‘Mémorial du dépét de la 
guerre’ is in press, and a table of logarithms 
of eight places of decimals is in preparation. 

Hesse, Germany. — Levels of precision, mean 
error per km. equals 2.27 mm., from 32 dif- 
ferences in levels, connected by 14 condi- 
tional equations. 

Holland. — Connection of lines of spirit-level- 
lings with lines of adjacent countries ; total 
length levelled, 283 km. 

Italy. —The reconnaissance for the primary 
and secondary triangulation completed ; geo- 
detic levelling and tidal observations ; deter- 
mination of a latitude, an azimuth, and of 
several differences of longitude, by telegraph ; 
comparative pendulum observations at Rome. 

Austria. — Measure of astronomical latitudes ; 
telegraphic determinations of differences of 
longitude ; pendulum experiments ; triangu- 
lations and astronomical work in general; 
occupation of points, and attempts of meas- 
ures of angles, in the high Alps (among 
these Ankogl at an elevation of 3,263 m.; 
station Grossvenediger, of 3,659 m.; and 
of Grossglockner, of 3,798 m.); extension of 
triangulations in Bosnia, Herzegovina, and 
Dalmatia; continuation of levelling opera- 
tions in Austria proper, and in Hungary ; 
observations of the intensity of gravity in 
the deep mine of Pribram. The work exe- 
cuted in this country is too extended and 
diversified to be given here in detail: it is 
graphically represented in a finely executed 
map in color-print. 

Portugal. — Continuation of the triangulation 
and of tidal observations. 

Prussia. — Revision and completion of princi- 
pal lines of levels. The following important 
results are recapitulated: Atlantic higher 
than the Mediterranean from levels between 
Swinemunde on the Baltic, and Marseilles, 
vid Switzerland, 0.664 m.; Swinemunde to 
the Mediterranean, vid Amsterdam and Os- 
tend, 0.658 m.; and Santander to Alicante, 
in Spain, 0.662m. The discussion of the 
tidal observations at Swinemunde showed no 


658 


change in the relation of land and water 
during fifty-four years, and the mean level 
of the Baltic results with a probable error of 
+6.1mm. The levellings to Constance and 
to Amsterdam are published, and the mean 
level of the North Sea is found 9.3cm. above 
that of the Baltic. Computation of polar co- 
ordinates between geodetic and astronomical 
points. Determination of latitudes and azi- 
muths. Maximum local deflection of the 
vertical reaches 6”.1 in the meridian, and 
12’.7 in azimuth. 

Roumania. — Astronomical determinations of 
positions. 

Russia. — Connection of the triangulation of 
Bulgaria with that of Russia; astronomical 
determination of differences of longitude, 
connecting Bulgaria with Pulkowa, and Tiflis 
with the triangulation of the Caucasus ; pen- 
dulum observations continued in the Cauca- 
sus; extension of the levels of precision 
(double measures) up to date, 4,123 km., 
and of single lines 618 km. 

Saxony, Germany. — Publication of part i. of 
the third section of the astronomical and 
geodetic observations, comprising ten sta- 
tions ; recomputation of the base at Gross- 
enhain. ; 

Switzerland. — Additions to the triangulations 
to connect astronomically determined posi- 
tions, and two new base-lines at Weinfelden 
(length 2.5km.) and at Bellinzona (length 
3.2km.), both measured with the Spanish 
apparatus of Ibafiez ; mean error of measure, 
sootoos for the Aarberg base of 1880, 
sootooy 20d yopboun for the other two bases 
respectively. ‘The coefficient of expansion of 
the iron bar of this apparatus had increased 
during twenty years 71; part. After sixteen 
years of labor, the operations of levels of 
precision have been brought to a close. 

Spain. — Determination of the length of the tri- 
angle side, Mulhacen-Tetica (82827.546 m. 
+0.115m.), of the great quadrilateral con- 
necting Spain with Algeria; adjustment of 
the triangulation connected with the base 
of Olite; junction of the Balearic Islands 
with the mainland, and observation of one 
side, of 240 km. in length (Desierto to Tor- 
rellas), during the night, by means of electric 
light ; tidal and levelling operations ; deter- 
mination of the longitude between Madrid 
and Badajos; gravity measures at Madrid. 

Wurtembere, Germany. — Connection of lines 
of spirit-levellings with levels of the Black 
Forest. 

Belgium. — Comparison of results of the ad- 
justed triangulation. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. Il., No. 41- 


Norway. — Results of the difference of longi- 
tude of Christiania and Bergen, and of two. 
base-lines with probable errors of qsshou0 
and +=pto00 Of their length; adjustment of 
a base-connection with a primary line inyoly- 
ing fifty-three conditional equations. 

In conclusion, Yvon Villarceau presents a 
paper on observations made at Paris with an 
isochronic regulator in connection with his new 
method for relative measures of gravity; the 
apparatus, however, had not yet been brought 
to the desired perfection. C-cARiSs 


TRYON’S CONCHOLOGY. 
Structural and systematic conchology (elc.). By 

GrorGE W. Tryon, Jun. Vol. ii. Philadel- 

phia, the author, 1883. 430 p., 69 pl. 8°. 

Tue second volume of Mr. Tryon’s work 
has appeared with commendable promptness- 
It contains a discussion of the Cephalopoda, 
Pteropoda, and the Gastropoda, beginning with ° 
the pectinibranchs, as far as and including the 
nudibranchs. The classification is, of course, 
the same as that criticised by us in the first 
volume, and cannot be said to improve on 
closer acquaintance. Some of the allocations 
seem particularly inadvisable. For instance: 
Scissurella, usually regarded as of family rank, 
is combined without reserve with Pleurotoma- 
ria in one family. The Bellerophontidae are 
retained in full family rank; and yet they are 
with great probability, as suggested by Meek, 
only large, symmetrically rolled Emarginulas, 
which latter are put in a different suborder, 
with the true Limpets, to which they have no 
close relation, and divorced from the Halioti- 
dae, which they more nearly resemble. 

The order Polyplacophora is defined (p. 
103) as haying the ‘‘ shell multivalve, consist- 
ing of eight pieces inserted upon the back of 
the animal, and surrounded by a mantle bor- 
der ;’’ yet with the Chitonidae are placed, to 
form this order, a family Neomeniidae, which, 
to say nothing of other differences, have no 
shell at all. 

The order Pectinibranchiata is defined as 
having pectiniform branchiae in a cavity above 
the neck, ‘ haying an external opening upon the 
side of the neck,’ dioecious, and with spiral 
shells. 

The order Scutibranchiata is described as. 
having pectiniform branchiae in a cavity above 
the neck, or at the lower edge of the mantle 
around the foot, dioecious ; shell spiral or con- 
ical, holostomate. 

The portions in italics are intended to cover © 
the Docoglossa, which do not belong with the 


- NoveMBER 16, 1883.] 


a 


Scutibranchs at all, in our opinion. Excluding 
these, which refer only to the Docoglossa, it will 
be observed that the only difference (according 
to the definitions) between the two orders is, 
that the latter has a holostomate shell. Every- 
body knows that a large proportion of the 
pectinibranchs of Tryon are holostomate, that 
is, have an entire aperture without a canal: for 
instance, Scalaria, Cyclostoma, Litorina, ete. 
What, then, becomes of the two orders? Asa 
rule, the definitions are deficient in not giving 
essential characters, even when the groups de- 
fined are perfectly valid, and redundant in 
giving characters belonging to groups of dif- 
ferent rank from the one defined, or of no par- 
ticular value. 

Of small errors we haye noted not a few; 
but it is probable that a book of this kind 
must be expected to have a certain number, 
and completeness can hardly be looked for. 
However. the author has brought together an 
immense number of genera; and the work, 
when the index appears, will be very useful to 
conchologists on this account, though it would 
have been more so, had each genus been given 
a date, since, in general, there are no refer- 
ences. The coloration of the plates, also, is 
better than in the previous volume, and the 
figures for their kind are fairly good. The 
work is well bound and on good paper, but 
suffers from inferior printer’s ink, which ‘ over- 
lays’ on nearly every page. 

In conclusion we may say, that, for use 
as a text-book for fresh students, this work 
would be decidedly inadvisable; but those 
who have already gained some knowledge of 
modern classification, and of the anatomy and 
physiology of mollusks, will find it to a certain 
extent useful, though by no means to a degree 
commensurate with the labor which has evident- 
ly been spent upon it. 


ADAMS’S LECTURE ON EVOLUTION. 
Evolution: a summary of evidence. A lecture de- 
livered in Montreal, March, 1883, by Ronert 
C. Apams. New York, G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 
1888. 44p. 12°. 
Mr. Apams has attempted to summarize in 
a single lecture the various kinds of evidence 
that have been adduced in favor of the evolu- 
tion of plants and animals, and the earth it- 
self. The author claims to be nothing further 
than a compiler, and aims to present ‘an ab- 
stract of many books’ in ‘ plain language:’ As 
he has not limited himself to any particular 
class of evidence, nor confined his attention to 


SCIENCE. 


659 


any single object, or group of objects, it is 
obvious that any attempt to treat in a single 
lecture the wide range of subjects embraced 
under evolution must prove a failure. It is 
simply a jumble of facts, collected, for the most 
part, from popular books and essays, with a 
considerable admixture of error and miscon- 
ception. A little familiarity with the more 
recent discussions on the subject of the origin 
of the vertebrates (for example, those of Dohrn 
and Lankester) would have led our author to 
very different views concerning ‘the connecting 
links’ between vertebrates and invertebrates, 
and saved him the trouble of rehearsing ex- 
ploded ideas respecting Amphioxus and the 
ascidians. Any respectable text-book in sys- 
tematic zodlogy would have told Mr. Adams 
that an ascidian is not a mollusk, that Bala- 
noglossus is not regarded as an ‘ intermediate 
form’ between mollusks and such ‘ jointed ani- 
mals’ as crustaceans and insects, and that 
corals are not protozoa. 

The author’s reference to intermediate forms 
and ‘ connecting links’ shows that he has not 
grasped the ideas now generally received con- 
cerning the genealogical relationship of ani- 
mals. One or two passages will illustrate this 
point. ‘‘If in twenty-one days the chick 
passes through the forms common to sponges, 
shell-fish, fish, and reptiles, does it not sug- 
gest that its race may have developed through 
these lower races during vast ages? If in 
forty weeks a single man now develops through 
forms common to all the lower races of ani- 
mals, may not the race of man have slowly 
arisen through all the ranks of life below him, 
each great division leaving its record in the 
unfolding germ of, the latest individual? .. . 
Through the sponges we find the radiates con- 
nected with the protozoans, or first forms of 
life, such as corals and sea-animalcules.’’ 

Under the head of ‘ Unity of substance ’ we 
are told that ‘‘ the germs which produce men, 
dogs, sheep, or any of the highest class of 
animals, cannot be discovered to differ by any 
test of microscope or chemistry. . Each 
individual begins life in the lowest form of 
matter, and develops through forms common 
to all the species below it. A man has by 
turns the forms of the germs of plant, proto- 
zoan, mollusk, articulate, and vertebrate — 
fish, reptile, and mammal.’’ 

The lecture abounds in such loose and inac- 
curate statements as the above, and must 
therefore be pronounced an unsafe guide to. 
‘the uninitiated,’ to whom the lecture is espe- 
cially addressed. 


660 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 41. 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


ASTRONOMY. 


" Rings of/Saturn. — Mr. William B. Taylor recalls 
attention to the announcement made by Otto Struve 
in 1851, that theZobservations of two hundred years 
showed the rings of Saturn to be widening, and the 
inner edge of the inner bright ring to be approaching 
the body of the planet. Later observations tend in 
the same direction; and, though there may have been 
unintentional exaggeration in Struve’s numerical re- 
sults, there seems little reason to question the gen- 
eral fact. 

Accepting the only tenable theory of the rings, — 
that they are composed of discrete particles, each 
revolving in its own orbit, —we may, by Kepler’s 
law, compute the period of rotation of any part of 
the ring. Assuming the period of the inner satellite 
(Mimas) to be 22h. 374 m., the computed period of the 


outer edge of the ring is 14h, 80 m.; of the dividing~ 


stripe, 11 h. 20 m.; of the inner edge of the bright 
ring, 7 h. 12 m.; of the inner edge of the dusky ring, 
5 h. 45 m.; and of the ring as a whole (supposed 
solid), about 10h. 50m. The period of the planet 
is 10h. 14m. 

With the complex perturbations induced by the 
exterior satellites, it is evident that no particle of the 
ring can revolve in a circular orbit; and it follows, 
that, in a space so crowded with particles as to give 
a continuous light, there must be much interference. 
Whether the collisions at intercepting orbits result in 
heat or in disintegration, they necessarily tend to a 
degradation of motion, and hence to a shortening 
mean radius-vector and a diminishing period. 

It thus appears that Struve’s conclusions, based 
on observation, have a rational theoretic basis. The 
rings are falling toward the planet, and will event- 
ually be absorbed. Indeed, on the generally received 
meteoric theory of their constitution, it is impossible 
to regard their present condition otherwise than as an 
evanescent phase of a progressive evolution. 

Mr. Taylor points out that the relation between 
the rotation periods of the planet and the ring, and 
the relation between the rotation periods of Mars 
and its satellites, not only fail to impeach the nebular 
hypothesis, as some have supposed, but even fail to 
be anomalous. 

If the planet had a velocity of rotation equal to 
that of a satellite revolving at its surface, it could 
not approach the spherical shape. And, the concrete 
form having once been assumed, the rate of rotation 
must necessarily and continuously diminish through 
the influence of solar tides, until eventually the plane- 
tary day and year are identical. —(Phil. soc. Wash- 
ington ; meeting Oct. 13, 1883.) [355 


ENGINEERING. 


Emery’s U. S. testing-machine, Watertown 
arsenal, Mass. — This machine is described from 
general and detailed drawings furnished by the de- 
signer. ‘The machine excels in strength, capacity, 
durability, accuracy, and sensitiveness, The demand 


is said to have been: 1°. A machine to test to 800,000 
pounds, and so delicate that it would test a single 
horse-hair. 2°, Attachments enabling it to seize and 
hold uninjured, while applying such loads, all usual 
sizes and shapes of specimens. 3°. Safety against 
injury by shocks of recoil. 4°. Accessibility of 
samples and straining parts, while in operation, for 
_purposes of measurement and inspection. 5°. Small 
cost of operation. 

The machine was tested, when finished, to 1,000,000 
pounds, and under smaller loads, ranging down to a 
single horse-hair, with success; and was accepted by 
the U.S. board appointed to test iron, steel, and other 
metals. The loads are applied by a hydraulic press; 
and the weighing is done through reducing-pressure 
cushions and water-columns terminating at a point 
of connection with weigh-beams without knife-edges 
and having extraordinary sensitiveness. Mr. Emery 
is constructing smaller machines, and scales and 
pressure gauges involving the nicer and more re- 
markable devices introduced in the large machine, 
at the works of the Yale & Towne company, at Stam- 
ford, Conn. Mr. Emery’s inventions are expected to 
aid effectively in securing a more exact knowledge of 
the properties of the materials of construction, and 
of their value in structures. —(Amer. mach., July 
21.) R. H. T. [356 

Engineering of the great. statue of Liberty. 
—Mr. Ch. Talausier describes the details of en- 
gineering involved in the design of Bartholdi’s 
statue of ‘Liberty enlightening the world.’ The 
plan was conceived by M. Bartholdi in 1871, while 
en voyage for the United States. On the hundredth 
anniversary of the declaration of independence, 
France offered the great statue to the United States. 
It was accepted, is now nearly completed, and prepa- 
rations for its erection on Bedloe’s Island, in New 
York harbor, arebeing made. The statue is of copper. 
earried and strengthened by an inner skeleton of iron, 
One arm, carrying the torch, was sent to the Cen- 
tennial exhibition at Philadelphia in 1876, and has 
since been on exhibition in New York. The sculptor 
first made a model 2.11 m. high, which was then 
copied on a fourfold scale; and the statue was con- 
structed from this model in sections by similarly 
enlarging each section. For each piece, a ‘ centre,’ 
or mould, was made of wood, on which the copper 
could be worked and fitted. The sheet-copper epi- 
dermis of the statue is composed of 300 pieces, and 
weighs 80,000 kilograms (178,000 Ibs.). The iron 
frame weighs 120,000 kilograms (264,000 Ibs.). When 
finally erected, the sheets of copper will be riveted 
together with copper rivets 5 mm. in diameter 
(0.2 in.), and spaces 25 mm. (lin.) apart. The iron 
skeleton is to be secured to the foundation at four 
points by 12 foundation-bolts 0.15 m. (6 in.) in diam- 
eter, and extending 15 m. (49.7 ft.) into the masonry, 
The variation of form and dimensions, with varying 
temperature, is provided against by the elasticity of 
every part ; and corrosive action’ is to be checked by 


Y 


ee 


NovEMBER 16, 1883.] 


painting with red lead all points of contact of iron 
and copper. The height of the statue is 46 m. 


_ (150.9 ft.) from base to top of its torch, and 34 m. 


(111.5 ft.) to the top of the head. The index-finger 
is 2.45 m. (8.04 ft.) long, the eye is 0.65 m. (2.2 ft.) 
in diameter, and the nose is 1.12 m. (3.67 ft.) long. 
A dinner of 26 covers has been given in the trunk 
of the statue. The total weight will be 200,000 
kilograms (440,000 Ibs.). The granite pedestal will 
be 25 m. ($2 ft.) high, and the cost of the whole not 
far from 1,200,000 franes ($240,000 nearly). The 
maximum pressure of the wind on the surface of the 
statue is reckoned at 87,000 kilograms (191,400 lbs.). 
—(Le génie civil, Aug. 1.) RB. HT. (857. 


METALLURGY. 


The basic process at Peine works, Germany 
— All difficulties at these works are said to have been 
overcome, and phosphorie pig is being made into 
Bessemer steel. 

Analyses of the steel vary as follows: — 


1 2 
Manganese . 0.47 0.30 
Phosphorus . . .. . . 0,06 0.02 
Rarer peas tS eT TN ay a 81006 0.03 
Garbon™.)!) J 2Mao Ss (tok) OME 0.09 
The cinder yields the following analysis: — 
SL (oT EME al gery Te eae 4 2.45 
RESETS OMIOG cs oe sr onia eon tele | ein he Out 
Ferrous oxide . . . 15.10 
Manpzanonus oxide. «se ey, dO 
PUNE? sis as cpin fos uth tan het een 
LTO iS) ge eae Sob mra eA . 46.82 
BE NESIA ee ss on Lee 
Phosphoric acid . 22.23 
SUNN CTS Ga pee teas Ie 0.38 
RAMEE eee tye ve usd sot Tet net hee Uae 


The Llsede pig used in the above works contains 
2.5% to 3.1% phosphorus. The walls of the converter 
stand S0 to 95 blows; the bottoms, 16 to 24 blows. — 
(Eng. min. journ., July 14.) RB. H.R. [358 

Copper production of the world. — Messrs. 
Henry Merton & Co, of London have compiled 
statistics of production of copper in tons, from which 
the following fenrena are selected : — 


1879. 1380. 1881. | | 1882. 

Chili. . cates | 49,318 42,916 | 37,989 42,909 
United States se | 0,000 25,010 | 30,882 39,300 
epein and yPortapel 3 | 12,751 14,559 | 15,693 15,893 
erman. 2 -| 9976 | 11,776 | 13,718 14,235 
Austral in, | 9,500 9,700 10,000 $,950 
England. . - | 8,462 3,662 3,875 3,875 
All other countries - | 89,299 41,278 45,981 46,451 
Totals i 4 147,656 148,901 158,138 | 171,613 


The nviites are eiiajetl6a to have been eBinpllea with 
great care. —(Ibid., July 14.) R. wR. [359 
AGRICULTURE. 


Manuring with potash salts. —In a large num- 
ber of experiments in which potash salts (sulphate 


SCIENCE. 


661 


and chloride) were applied in the spring, and within 
three days of the time of sowing, Farsky found the 
effect to be a decrease of the crop. It is evident, from 
the author’s statements, that the salts were applied im 
too large quantity in the immediate neighborhood of 
the seed. Experiments with the crude Stassfurt salts 
gave more favorable results in many cases. Potas- 
sium chloride gave, in most of the trials, better re- 
sults than the sulphate, and fall manuring better than 
spring. The effect in the second year was often 
better than that in the first. —(Biedermann’s centr.- 
blatt., xii. 459.) we RP. A. [860 

Manuring oats.— An extensive series of experi- 
ments by Beseler and Mircker gave the following 
interesting results: — 

Manuring with phosphorie acid alone produced no 
notable increase of the total crop or of the grain. 
Manuring with nitrogen alone, in the form of nitrate 
of soda, gave an increase of crop roughly propor- 
tional to the amount of nitrogen applied. With a 
light manuring of nitrogen, addition of phosphoric 
acid produced a further increase of crop: with a 
heavy manuring of nitrogen this was not the case. 

Manuring with phosphoric acid alone did not in- 
crease the percentage of proteine in the grain. Ma- 
nuring with nitrogen alone increased the proteine, 
but diminished the fat. Addition of phosphoric acid 
to the nitrogenous manure restored the fat to its origi- 
nal amount, or even raised it above that point. The 
quality of the grain was best when the total amount 
of the crop was greatest. In these experiments the 
total nitrogen of the crops equalled about fifty-five 
per cent of the amount applied as manure. — (Jbid., 
xii. 472.) mW. P. A. (361 


GEOLOGY. 


Synchronism of geological formations. — Pro- 
fessor A. Heilprin called attention to Prof. Huxley’s 
conclusions, that, 1°, formations exhibiting the same 
faunal facies may belong to two or more very distinct 
periods of tite geological seale as now recognized, 
and, conversely, formations whose faunal elements 
are quite distinct may be absolutely contemporaneous ; 
and that, 2°, granting this disparity of age between 
closely related 1 faunas, all evidence as to the uniform- 
ity of physical conditions over the surface of the 
earth during the same geological period falls to 
the ground. Prof. Heilprin maintained that it can 
be readily shown by a logical deduction that the first 
conclusion is almost certainly erroneous, and that 
the second derives no confirmation from the supposed 
facts. If, as is contended, several distinct faunas, 
or faunas characteristic of distinct geological epochs, 
may have existed contemporaneously, then evidences 
of inversion in the order of deposit ought to be com- 
mon, or, at any rate, they ought to be indicated 
somewhere; since it can scarcely be conceived that 
animals everywhere would have observed the same 
order or direction in their migrations. Why has it 
so happened that a fauna characteristic of a given 
period has invariably sueceeded one which, when 
the two are in superposition all over the world (as 
far as we are aware), indicates precedence in creation 


662 


or origination, and never one that can be shown to 
be of later birth? Surely these peculiarities cannot 
be accounted for on the doctrine of a fortuitous migra- 
tion. Nor can it be claimed, that, through the inter- 
action of the evolutionary forces, a migrating fauna 
with an early-life facies will in each case, at the point 
of its arrest, have assumed the character of the later- 
day fauna which belongs to that position, Therefore 
it appears inexplicable that a very great period of 
time could have intervened between the deposition of 
the fauna of one great geological epoch at one locality, 
and that of the same or similar fauna at another lo- 
¢ality distantly removed from the first. In other 
words, the migrations —for such must undoubtedly 
have been the means of the distant propagation of 
identical or very closely related life-forms (unless we 
admit the seemingly untenable hypothesis that equiy- 
alent life-forms may have been very largely developed 
from independent and very dissimilar lines of ances- 
try) —must have been much more rapidly performed 
than has generally been admitted. What applies to 
the broader divisions of the geological scale also ap- 
plies to the minor. Thus the subordinate groups of 
a formation are almost as definitely marked off in the 
Same order, the world over, as are the formations 
themselves. After breaks in formations, the appear- 
ance of characteristic fossils is largely the same; 
whereas, on the theory of synchronism of distinct 
faunas, such a succession would certainly not be con- 
stant. The opinion held by the older geologists was 
therefore probably correct; namely, that formations 
characterized by the same or very nearly related 
faunas in widely separated regions belong, in very 
moderate limits, to approximately the same actual 
age, and are to all intents and purposes synchro- 
nous or contemporaneous. —(Acad. nat. sc. Philad.; 
meeting Oct. 2, 1883.) [862 


METEOROLOGY. 


Tornado studies.— A study of the tornado of 
June 7, 1882, in the valley of Siiby, has been made 
by Fineman. It embraces investigations upon the 
‘course of this tornado, and the accompanying atmos- 
pheric conditions, which are not different from those 
pointed out by Finley in the case of tornadoes in the 
United States, and includes a general investigation 
of the theory of tornadoes, with references to the 
work of other authors in this field of inquiry. The 
author refers to the combination of great, humidity, 
high temperature, and absence of wind, as the special 
condition of tornado formation, and investigates the 
characteristic phenomena shown in its progress. He 
further discusses the relation of tornadoes and thun- 
-der-storms, and urges increased study in solar radia- 
tion and the gyratory motion of fluids, in order to 
throw light upon this and other meteorological inves- 
tigations. — (Sur la Trombe, June 7.) w. Uv. [S63 

Wotes.— The annual re-union of the council of 
the meteorological bureau of France was held in 
March, The leading discussions related to observa- 
tions in agricultural meteorology, the securing of re- 
ports of thunder-storms and rainfall statistics, and 
the transmission of telegraphic messages in the in+ 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 41. 


terest of the science (Ann. soc. met., March, 1883). 
— <A valuable contribution to our knowledge of the 
surface-temperatures of the Atlantic along the coasts 
of Portugal, Senegambia, and Brazil, has been made 
by M. Hautreux from the observations taken on the 
steamers which traverse this region (Ann. hydr., viii. 
1883). —— The Zeitschrift for August contains a num- 
ber of climatological articles, discussing observations 
made at Stuttgart, Frankfort, Lyons, Puebla, Quada- 
lajara, and in southern Brazil. —— The Annuaire for 
May contains a contribution to the stuly of the cli- 
mate of central Africa, by M. Angot, from observa- 
tions, which are rather fragmentary, made at three 
missionary stations, mostly in 1881. —— Rey. Clement 
Ley is preparing a work upon the observation of 
clouds. The international committee, at its meeting 
in 1882, appointed a committee, consisting of Messrs. 
de Brito Capello, Clement Ley, and Hildebrandsson, 
to draw up a scheme of instructions for the obser- 
vation of cirrus-clouds. Dr. Selah Merrill, U.S. 
consul at Jerusalem, has submitted to the State de- 
partment a report upon the climate of Palestine, 
based upon observations covering a period of twenty- 


two years. An extract is published in the August 
Weather review of the signal-office.—w. w. [864 
GEOGRAPHY. 
(Arctic.) 


Arctic notes. — The Austrian Jan Mayen expedi- 
tion arrived at Vienna, Aug. 22, and were received 
with public festivities. No illness had occurred dur- 
ing their stay on the island. ‘The observations taken 
are satisfactory. Rich collections have been made, 
and numerous photographs taken.—— The latest 
news from the English party under Capt. Dawson, at 
Fort Rae in the North-west Territory, is favorable, 
and observations were going on with regularity. 
Spectroscopic observations of the aurora borealis 
have been very satisfactory, though the phenomena 
have not been particularly brilliant. —— Satisfactory 
accounts have also been received of the work done 
by the Swedish expedition to Spitzbergen, which has 
returned without Joss or accident. Reliable in- 
formation has at last been received from the Schieffe- 
lin party, on the Yukon, near its junction with the 
Tananah River. They have returned to San Fran- 
cisco all well. Gold had been discovered twelve 
miles up from its mouth, on a small river falling into 
the Yukon. The bed-rock was slate, and the gold 
found was in smooth washed particles in loose gravel. 
Winter setting in prevented further search, and the 
season was found to be too short for satisfactory 
results in placer mining. Mr. Schieffelin warns 
prospectors against coming rashly into the country, 
unprovided with supplies and tools, as nothing 
suitable for prospecting work can be had there, 
— Later reports from the Arctic Ocean north from 
Bering Strait give little improvement in the condi- 
tions or catch of the whaling-fleet over previous 
advices. The whalers were anticipating better luck 
toward the end of the season. —— A button and coin 
obtained at Cape Prince of Wales, from the natives, 
about a year ago, have been forwarded to the Navy 
department in the idea that they might be relics of 


* 


Novemnper 16, 1883.] 


Putnam, who was lost on the ice during the Jean- 
nette search. They were said to have come from the 
body of a drowned white man. The natives of this 
region are fond of inventing such stories, especially 
since the search expeditions, as they suppose they 
will be paid for them. Navy brass buttons have been 
an article of trade on this coast for many years. The 
fact that Putnam had no such buttons on his cloth- 
ing when lost, settles the case in regard to these 
particular objects. —— Bove discusses in the bulletin 
of the Italian geographical society the meteorologi- 
cal observations made on board the Vega during her 
voyage in Siberian seas. His article is a résumé of 
the work of Hildebrandsson, elsewhere published. 
In the Bulletin of the Paris société de géo- 
graphie, A. Bellot summarizes the history of the 
Jeannette expedition, and the distribution of the in- 
ternational polar stations. His paper is accompanied 
‘by a map. —W. HI. D. [365 


( Asia.) 


Population of Japan. — The last census (January, 
1883) gives a total population of 36,700,118 souls, 
nearly equally divided between the sexes, the males 
being about one per cent in excess. Kioto, the im- 
perial city, contains 709,000, and Tokio, the capital, 
1,064,000 inhabitants in round numbers. — (Bull. soc. 
géogr. Mars., June.) W. H. D. [S66 

Petroleum in the Caucasus. — According to the 
British vice-consul at Batum, Mr. Peacock, the oil- 
region of the Caucasus covers some 1,200 square 
miles. The most productive locality is the Apcheron 
peninsula, where the wells far exceed those of Penn- 
sylvania. The total production has risen from 500,000 
barrels in 1873, to about 4,000,000 barrels in 1881. 
‘The export from Baku has increased at the rate of 
1,250,000 barrels in two years. According to the 
daily papers, a pipe-line is projected from the oil- 
region to Baku; and the American producer must 
rely on the quality of his product, rather than on its 
cheapness, for the future of our export trade. — 
(Brit. cons. rep., 1882.) Ww. H. D. [867 


BOTANY. 


Observations on yeast fungi.— The fifth part 
of Brefeld’s ‘ Botanische untersuchungen’ forms a vol- 
ume of over two hundred pages, with thirteen quarto 
plates, and treats of the development of the Ustila- 
gineae. The author considers principally the germi- 
nation of different species of Ustilago, Thecaphora, 
Geminella, and Tilletia; and, besides sowing the 
spores in water, he sowed them in nutritive fluids, 
and by this means was able to get more luxuriant 
growths than other students of this order of fungi. 
The germination of the different species may be 
classed under two different types. In the one, a 
short promycelium is given off by the spore, and the 
sporidia are borne laterally; while, in the second type, 
a whorl of cells is borne at the tip of the promy- 
celium. By using nutritive fluids instead of water, 
Brefeld was able not only to obtain luxuriant growths 
of sporidia, but also to keep them alive for several 
months, or evena year. He believes that the sporidia 


i 


SCIENCE. 


663 


are merely conidia, and in his cultures they produced 
fresh crops of conidia for an indefinite period. He 
further considers that the so-called conjugation of 
the secondary cells of species belonging to the second 
type, as Tilletia, is not a sexual process at all, but 
merely a fusion such as exists in other orders of 
fungi. When cultivated in nutritive fluids, the whorls 
of secondary cells do not conjugate or fuse, but pro- 
duce conidia directly; while in water, which is not 
favorable to further growth, a fusion takes place. He 
calls the conidia ‘ hefe,’ from their resemblance to the 
forms of Saccharomycetes; the difference being, that 
in one case, although the yeast-like form can be made 
to propagate itself in fluids indefinitely, we know 
that it came originally from some species of Ustila- 
gineae, whereas, in the other case, illustrated by the 
beer ferment, we cannot tell of what form it was 
originally the conidia. He refers to other hefe-forms 
in the Hymenomycetes and Ascomycetes. In Ex- 
oascus aureus he states that the polysporic condition 
of the so-called asci is nothing more than a hefe-like 
growth of a few round spores within the ascus. In 
short, he believes that all yeast-like forms are merely 
conidia, and denies the autonomy of the Saccharomy- 
cetes; nor does he believe that they are closely related 
to the Ascomycetes. — W. G. F. [368 

Insect fungi.— Hoffmann figures an interesting 
branched variety of the rare Torrubia cinerea Tul., on 
an adult Carabus from Germany, under the name of 
var. brachiata. The typical form occurs on Carabid 
larvae. — (Flora, Aug. 21.) W. T. [369 


ZOOLOGY. 
Mollusks. 


Landshells of Gibraltar.— Kobelt reports, that 
the fauna of the Rock of Gibraltar is very peculiar, 
many characteristic species of the Mediterranean 
being wanting. The genus Leucochroa, for instance, 
is represented neither in Gibraltar nor on the oppo- 
site coast of Morocco. Certain species of Cyclostoma 
and Pomatias are equally absent from both shores. 
Twenty species of landshells, including three unde- 
scribed species and two new varieties, were obtained 
on the Rock in May, 1881; but it is supposed that 
this is a more or less incomplete exhibit, the season 
of the year being not the most favorable. The 
locality is peculiarly interesting on account of its 
intermediate position between Spain and Morocco. 
The sea-fauna of the Bay of Gibraltar is also very 
rich, and contains many rare or peculiar forms. — 
(Journ. conch., iv. no. 1.) Ww. I. D. [870 

Absorption of the shell in Auriculidae. — 
Crosse and Fischer illustrate and describe the pecul- 
iar absorption of the inner parts of the upper whorls 
of the shell in this family, and also in the genus © 
Olivella. These animals appear to have the power 
of dissolving entirely the internal partitions of the 
shell, from a point some distance inside the aperture 
to the very apex. The only exception in the family 
Auriculidae is the genus Pedipes, in which the par- 
titions were found intact. The absorption is not 
always complete, nor are the same parts invariably 


664 


missing. Complete absorption was observed in 
Melampus, Auricula, Blauneria, Marinula, Tralia, 
Alexia, Monica, Plecotrema; only partial absorption 
in Cassidula and Scarabus. The case of Olivella 
is more remarkable; since the allied groups Oliva, 
Ancillaria, etc., do not, according to the authors, 
present this peculiarity at all. —(Jowrn. de conchyl., 
xxii. 3.) Tryon, however, observes that in Oliva 
reticularis he has found the walls absorbed away, so 
that very little of the substance remained, and con- 
siders it probable that all shells with close volutions 
are in the habit of absorbing them internally. It is 
certainly the case with many of them. — (Man. conch. 
Olivella, p. 64.) Ww. H. D. [S71 


Crustaceans, 

Anatomy of the spider-crab, Libinia.—E, A. 
Andrews gives a very careful description, illustrated 
with three excellent photolithographic plates, of the 
anatomy of Libinia emarginata, the common spider- 
crab of the eastern coast of the United States. The 
paper, which was originally presented as a graduation 
thesis for the bachelor’s degree in the Sheffield scien- 
tific school, describes fully the structure of the body- 
walls, appendages, and the alimentary, circulatory, 
nervous, and reproductive systems. The structure 
throughout agrees very closely with that of Maia 
squinado of Europe. Mr. Andrews’s work will be 
found a very useful guide for American students, as 
it is the only description thus far published of the 
whole anatomy of any American brachyuran. — 
(Trans. Conn. acad., vi., Aug., 1883.) s.1.s. [872 

A new host for Cirolana concharum Harger. 
— Rey. Samuel Lockwood announced the discovery 
of this isopod in the interior of the edible crab, 
Callinectes hastatus Ordway. The crab was an adult 
female, and the parasites were crowded in the left 
side of the carapace. Incredible to say, there were 
twenty-three full-grown specimens, measuring three- 
fourths of an inch by about a quarter of an inch each. 
The ovaries and the tissues on the left side were com- 
pletely honeycombed. How long the animal could 
have lived, and what its real sufferance of pain was, 
are questions. But with these predaceous wolves, 
literally consuming its inwards, it surely would soon 
succumb. It seemed to Mr. Lockwood that they 
must, when in the swimming larval state, have en- 
tered near the eye-stalks of the crab, which, with a 
large catch of others, was taken at the close of Feb- 
ruary in Raritan Bay, New Jersey. From the size of 
the parasites, it would seem they had been in posses- 
sion some three months. The: determination of the 
isopods was due to the kindness of Mr. Oscar Harger. 
The query how so large a number could have entered 
the same place, and at the same time, he thought was 
met by the supposition that the crab had found a 
nest of the larvae, and was feeding on them, when 
a part of the batch entered the host, as conjectured 
above. — (New Jersey st. micr. soc. ; meeting March 
19.) [373 

Arachnids, 

Restoration of limbs in Tarantula. — Rey. Hen- 

ry C. McCook remarked that a tarantula exhibited 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 41. 


to the meeting had been kept in confinement nearly 
a year, fed during winter on raw beef, and in summer 
on grasshoppers. In the spring it cast its skin by a 
laborious process, in the course of which it lost one 
foot and two entire legs. This summer again, dur- 
ing the latter part of August, the animal moulted. 
The moult as exhibited is a perfect cast of the large 
spider, — skin, spines, claws, the most delicate hairs 
all showing, and their corresponding originals appear- 
ing bright and clean. The moulting occurred during 
Dr. McCook’s absence, but was just finished when he 
returned. When the cast-off skin was removed, it 
showed, as might be supposed, the dissevered mem- 
bers to be lacking. On looking at the spider itself, 
however, it was seen that new limbs had appeared, 
perfect in shape, but somewhat smaller than the cor- 
responding ones on the opposite side of the body. 
The dissevered foot was also restored. The loss of 
the opportunity to see the manner in which the legs. 
were restored during moult was greatly regretted, 
but we have some clew from the careful and interest- 
ing studies of Mr. Blackwall. Several spiders whose 
members had been previously amputated were killed 
and dissected immediately before moulting. In one 
of these the leg, which was reproduced, was found to 
have its tarsal and metatarsal joints folded in the un- 
detached half of the integument of the old tibia. 
Another like experiment was made with an example 
of Tegenaria civilis. The reproduced leg was found 
complete in its organization, although an inch in 
length, and was curiously folded in the integument. 
of the old coxa, which measured only one-twenty- 
fourth of an inch in length. Dr. McCook’s tarantula 
had lost both legs close to the coxae; and in the moult 
the hard skin formed upon the amputated trunks was. 
wholly unbroken, showing that the skin had been 
cast before the new leg appeared. We risk nothing 
in inferring, that, as in the case of Blackwall’s Tege- 
naria, the rudimentary legs were folded up within the 
coxae, and appeared at once after the moulting, rap- 
idly filling out in a manner somewhat analogous to 
the expansion of the wings in insects after emerging. 
— (Acad. nat. sc. Philad. ; meeting Sept. 25.) © [374 


. 


VERTEBRATES. 
Birds, 

Anatomy of the Passeres.— Mr. Forbes finds 
the syrinx, as well as all other points examined, of 
Orthonyx spinicauda and O. ochreocephala, to be 
strictly oscinine. The carotid of the first is peculiar 
in that it accompanies the vagus nerve instead of 
running in the hypophysial canal. On anatomical 
grounds, O. ochreocephala is separated from the Aus- 
tralian form as Cletonyx of Reichenbach. Contrary 
to Prof. Parker, Mr. Forbes finds a perfectly oscinine 
syrinx in Petrocca. —(Proc. zodl. soc. Lond., 1882, 
544.) J. A.J. [875 

Respiratory organs of Apteryx.— Under this 
title, Prof. Huxley gives a succinct account of the 
lungs and air-sacs as typically found in birds, and 
notes that the respiratory organs are separated by an 
oblique septum from the cardio-abdominal eayity, as- 
in the crocodiles. The lungs of Apteryx are strictly 


vl 


November 16, 188%.] 


‘avian, in no wise mammalian, though poorly devel- 
oped. Prof. Huxley considers them to show a fun- 
damental resemblance to those of crocodiles. The 
‘introduction of so many new terms is to be regret- 
ted. — (Proc. zoél. soc. Lond., 1882, 560.) J. A. J. 
; (376 
ANTHROPOLOGY. 

Indian courtship.— Mrs. H. S. Baird recites a 
vit of her own observation respecting Indian court- 
ship half a century ago in Wisconsin. When a youth 
falls in love, he places himself a little way from the 
maiden’s wigwam, wearing one blue and one red leg- 
ging. He then plays in a minor strain an air upon 
the flute, pib-pi-gwan. If he is permitted to proceed, 
‘he knows that there are no objections to his address- 
ing the loved one. If the parents have objections 
to him, he is informed that he is too noisy, ete. 
In the latter case he discontinues his serenades: in 
the former the flute-playing gives place to visits, the 
father saluting, and saying, ‘Come in, friend: there 
is room for you;’ upon which all the family give 
a sort of hitch up, to make room for one more around 
the fire. The young man seats himself by the door, 
and next to the daughter; as the eldest son and 
daughter always sit nearest the door, on each side of 
it. The lover then produces a few small pine sticks, 
one of which he lights at the fire, and hands to the 
maiden. -If she takes it, he is accepted: if she does 
not, but lets him hold it until it goes out, he is re- 
jected. When the time arrives for them to be united, 
the parents of the young man bring valuable presents, 
such as furs, while the parents of the bride bring 
ornamental work. These are distributed among the 
friends. The bride is dressed by her sister-in-law, 
and conducted to her place in the wigwam to await 
alone the coming of her husband. In other cases, 
when father-right prevails, she goes to his home. A 
man can have as many wives as may be required to 
-dress his game and carry it home, — (Wisc. hist. soc., 
ix. 311.) J. W. P. [377 

The mounds of Wisconsin, —If one wishes to 
keep himself informed upon archeology, he must not 
neglect the volumes of the state historical societies. 
The Rey. Stephen D. Peet has done a good service, 
with reference to the emblematical mounds in Wis- 
consin, by presenting in a condensed form not only 
the description of the structures, but also the names 
of the most important works in which references to 
them may be found. Mr. Peet is well acquainted with 
the effigy mounds, and therefore adds many original 
observations, which are in the main extremely cau- 
tious. Attention is directed to the difficulty of de- 
termining the shape of the mounds, by reason of 
deformations due to the plough, the tramping of cat- 
tle, the wear of the elements, the avarice of relic- 
hunters, and the encroachments of the modern 
architect. Again: many of the animals once com- 
mon have departed from this region, such as the 
buffalo, moose, elk, antelope, bear, lynx, and wild 
turkey. If the mounds represented in shape the 
badges, weapons, and symbols of the natives, they, 
also, are unfamiliar. 


The author ascribes to all these mounds a religious 
’ 


SCIENCE. 


665 


significance, in which opinion he is not warranted by 
what isknown. His reflections upon the cross-sym- 
bol, however, are very just. As to the shapes of 
these structures, we have the mace, double bow, 
groups of cones, triangular enclosures, besides every 
variety of animal supposed to have lived in this re- 
gion. Mr. Peet dismisses the ‘elephant mound’ with 
a modest introduction to its sponsor. —(Wisc. hist. 
coll., ix. 40.) J.-w. P. (378 

Chinese not homogeneous.— Mr. E. Colborne 
Baber, secretary to H. M. legation, Peking, makes the 
following interesting statement: ‘‘ The population of 
China is far from being so homogeneous as is generally 
supposed. I have often heard English people assert 
their inability to distinguish one Chinaman from an- 
other; but it may surprise you to hear that a China- 
man, on first coming into contact with Europeans, 
makes precisely the same remark of ourselves. At 
first they have some difficulty in even distinguishing a 
woman from a man. In spite of a general persist- 
ence of type, there is at least as much variation among 
the natives of the eighteen provinces as there is 
among the inhabitants of Europe. A thousand years 
before Christ the Chinese nation occupied a mere 
fraction of the territory which they now possess. 
Even then they were not homogeneous in manners or 
speech, and they were enyironed by many non-Chi- 
nese indigenous peoples. Since then the Chinese 
have spread, not by ousting or exterminating their 


. neighbors, but by a process of absorption : in 


other words, they migrated among them, and _ in- 
termarried with them; and their superior energy 
and comparative civilization gradually effaced the 
national characteristics of the surrounding tribes. 
The same process is going on in Tibet, in Burma, in 
the Shan country, in Tonquin, and in the Straits 
Settlements. The Chinese blood has been mingled 
with such diverse stocks as the Tatar, Turki, Tibetan, 
Burmese, Mon-annan, Tai, and Polynesian.’”?’ The 
discussion of this paper by Sir Rutherford Alcock, 
Sir Thomas Wade, Col. Yule, and Mr. Colquhoun; 
is a valuable contribution to Chinese sociology.— 
(Proc. geogr. soc. Lond., Aug.) J. W. P. {379 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


Tue Maryland oyster commission, which has in 
view the invention of some plan which should check 
the depreciation of beds belonging to the state with- 
out unduly interfering with trade, met in Baltimore 
recently. It was suggested that dredging be restricted 
in various ways, and the available grounds increased 
by sowing the bottom with dead oyster-shells where 
none now exist. In 1879 Lieut. Winslow found the 
average in Tangier Sound to be one oyster to 2.4 
square yards. In their recent examination of the 
oyster area of the state, the commission found that 
the average of sixty-one beds examined was one liv- 
ing oyster to each 3.7 square yards, showing a rapid 
and important decrease since 1879. ‘The commission 
finds, as the result of the examination of forty-six 
oyster-beds, that there are only 1.35 living oysters to 
every bushel of dredged shells. While the oysters are 


666 


growing scarcer, more labor is required to get them, 
and the amount of dead material which has to be 
handled is largely increased. 

— The Pons comet, now approaching the sun, may 


be expected to be visible to the naked eye about the © 


first of December; but it is not likely to attain a 
brightness comparable with that of the conspicuous 
comets of the last decade, unless it shall have under- 
gone material change since its last reappearance, in 
1812. The intensity of its light will be three times 
greater on Noy. 21 than it was on Oct. 16; and it will 
increase until about the middle of January, when it 
may be anticipated that its light will be about equal 
to that of a star of the third magnitude. 

— The announcement of the publication of the 
Berlin catalogue of zonal stars will have, according 
to Nature, the effect of postponing the publication 
of the French catalogue, for which a credit of four 
hundred thousand franes had been asked from the 
budget commission. 

— Dr. B. A. Gould passed through London early in 
October, en route for South America. The printing 
of the second volume of the Cordoba zones is nearly 
completed (in London); and Dr. Gould’s attention 
will soon be turned to the publication of another great 
work undertaken by him at the Argentine national 
observatory, viz., the Cordoba general catalogue of 
stars. 

—Ensigns H. G. Dresel and A. A. Ackerman, who 
were detached from the National museum for duty in 
connection with the recent Greely relief expedition, 
in spite of unfavorable circumstances, succeeded in 
collecting some interesting zodlogical and minera- 
logical specimens. Among them are some of the so- 
called meteorites of Ovifax. 

— Regarding Flamsteed and Morin, Mr. W. T. Lynn 
writes to the editor of the Observatory (August, 
1883): ‘‘ Probably few anecdotes in the history of 
astronomy are better known to general readers 
than that related by Flamsteed, respecting the foun- 
dation of the Royal observatory being hastened, if 
not occasioned, by the application of the Sieur de St. 
Pierre to Charles II. (through the Duchess of Ports- 
mouth) for a reward for discovering a method of 
finding the longitude at sea, and Flamsteed’s own 
decision on its impracticability until the motions of 
the moon and the places of the fixed stars had been 
determined with much greater accuracy than was 
then possible. But it is not easy to understand 
the exact meaning of one of Flamsteed’s expressions 
to St. Pierre. He says that he told him, after first 
proving to him how incompetent a calculator he 
was, and pointing out, that, independently of this, 
his method was inapplicable in practice, to go to 
his own countryman Morin, who would instruct 
him in a better method than his own, and not to 
return to the king of England until he had done so. 
Of course, the general force of this recommendation 
was, in vulgar English, to bid him go to Jericho. 
But surely Flamsteed could hardly have been igno- 
rant (though he does not refer to it) that Morin 
had, in 1634 (forty-one years before the applica- 
tion of St. Pierre to Charles II.), submitted a plan 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 41- 


similar in principle to Cardinal Richelieu, and that a 
committee appointed by the latter came to the same 
decision as Flamsteed concerning St. Pierre’s propo- 
sal; that such a method was of no practical use in the 
existing state of astronomical knowledge. ‘To me, it 
seems exceedingly likely that St. Pierre was aware of 
what had taken place with regard to Morin; that, in 
fact, he had stolen the principle from the latter (who, 
although he deserves all the contempt that Midler 
pours upon him for prostituting astronomy to the 
purposes of that mass of imposture and delusion 
which has robbed our science of its more appropriate 
name of astrology, was a good mathematician for 
those times), and interpreted Flamsteed’s last remark 
into the imputation that he was in point of fact 
found out. Flamsteed says that he heard no more of 
him afterwards; but he certainly did not go to Morin, 
for the best of all reasons, — Morin having died more 
than eighteen years before, on the 6th of Noyember, 
1636.” 

—In a paper on the germ-theory of disease from 
a natural history point of view, before the British 
association, Dr. Carpenter stated that many of the 
existing genera and species of animals and plants 
were altogether uncertain; that as fresh knowledge 
was gained, so it was found necessary to modify our 
accepted views — this especially holds good with gen- 
era which have great power of adapting themselves 
to various circumstances, and which consequently 
produce numerous variations. This power of modi- 
fication, the author stated, was much more marked 
in the lower than in the higher forms of either king- 
dom, and was especially found in bacteria. The 
author then cited the case of the germ producing 
small-pox, in which he stated the germ had undergone 
such a modification, that whereas two centuries ago 
the disease was very severe, and known as ‘ black- 
pox,’ it now existed only as a mild disease. During 
the last siege of Paris, however, the conditious were 
such that the germ reverted to its original form, and 
produced the same severe disease as two centuries 
ago. Many facts were brought forward to confirm 
this view. 

—JIn a paper by Professor Hull before the British 
association, upon the geological age of the North 
Atlantic Ocean, phe author made use of three lead- 
ing formations as factors in his inquiry; viz., the ar- 
chean (or Laurentian), the Silurian (chiefly the lower 
Silurian), and the carboniferous, He considers that 
throughout the archean (or Laurentian), the lower 
Silurian, and the carboniferous epochs, the regions 
of North America, on the one hand, and of the Brit- 
ish Isles and western Europe, were sabmerged, while 
a large part of the North Atlantic area existed as 
dry land, from the waste of which these great forma- 
tions had been built up; and he urged, that, if sueh 
were the case, the doctrine of the permanency of 
oceans and continents, as tested by the case of the 
North Atlantic, falls to the ground. 

— The meteorological observatory established upon 
the top of Ben Nevis by the Scottish meteorological 
society was formally opened on Oct. 17 with interest- 
ing ceremonies. A party of ninety, including many 


NovEMBER 16, 1883.] 


ladies, climbed the mountain, in spite of unfavora- 
ble weather; and after their return to the base, where 
a second meteorological station is established, a din- 
ner, with congratulatory speeches, was given. The 
funds for the establishment of these observatories, 
£5,000, have been raised by popular subscriptions, 
the subscribers numbering about two thousand. 

— At the meeting of the German society of natural 
science at Halle, on Oct. 3, a paper was read by Dr, 
Assman of Magdeburg, on the advisability of estab- 
lishing a meteorological station on the Brocken Moun- 
tain. ‘What will become of the spectre?’ 

—Drs. Schuchardt and Krause, of the Volkmann 
clinical hospital at Halle, consider that they have 
placed the connection between scrofula and tuber- 
culosis beyond a doubt. Following up Koch’s line of 
research, they have discovered the peculiar bacilli 
of tuberculosis to be present in several distinct forms 
of scrofula. 

— Joseph Antoine Ferdinand Plateau, professor of 
physics at the University of Ghent, died at that place, 
Sept. 15, at the age of eighty-two years. 

— The U.S. hydrographic office has published a 
‘List of geographical positions for the use of naviga- 
tors and others,” compiled by Lieut.-Commander F. 
M. Green. The list is divided into seventeen sec- 
tions, according to the geographical position of the 
places, and is confined to points on the shore or on 
navigable rivers. 

—Dr. J. Lawrence Smith died at Louisville, Ky., 
on Oct. 12, in his sixty-fifth year. He was born 
near Charleston, S.C., and was educated at the Uni- 
versity of Virginia and the Charleston medical col- 
lege. He afterwards spent some time abroad. His 
first paper was published while he was in Paris. A 
large part of his work was in meteorology, his collec- 
tion of meteorites being especially famous, 

— Among the exhibits at the New-Mexico territo- 
rial fair, held at Albuquerque, Oct. 1 to 5, was a 
collection of antiquities from tle old pueblo ruins 
of Arizona, by Mr. Thomas V. Keam. ‘This gentle- 
man has long been engaged in trade in that region, 
is well known to the Indians and to our national 
surveying-parties, and has rendered very efficient 
service, both as an adviser and mediator, in our nego- 
tiations with the Navajos. His exhibit was highly 
spoken of by the Albuquerque press. 

— Dr. D. G. Brinton of Philadelphia, who was one 
of the vice-presidents of the congress of Americanists 
held in Copenhagen, and the only delegate from the 
United States, makes a brief report of the proceed- 
ings. In 1875 the first meeting was held at Nancy; 
that of 1877, at Brussels; of 1879, at Luxembourg; of 
1881, at Madrid. The meeting of this year was opened 
in the magnificent hall of the university, in the pres- 
ence of the king, the royal family, the Princess of 
Wales, and other dignitaries. Professor Worsall pre- 
sided, and delivered the address of welcome. ‘The 
discussions and papers related to paleolithic man in 
America, Scandinavian discoveries, the history of 
Columbus, native American literature, ceramics, tre- 
phiny, etc. Dr. Brinton reports that the communi- 
cations were very generally of a high order, though 


SCIENCE. 


667 


there was enough of Prince Madoe and the pilgrimage 
of St. Thomas to remind the members of the humble 
origin of archeology. 

— Messrs. Kegan Paul, Trench, & Co.. of London, 
announce Mr. Everard im Thurm’s ‘Among the 
Indians of British Guiana,’ sketches, chiefly anthro- 
pologic, from the interior. 

—M. Berthelot has published the results of his 
researches into the nature of explosives, under the 
title of ‘Sur la force des matitres explosives d’aprés 
lathermochimie.’ One portion of the book appeared 
as an article in the Nouvelle revue. 

In presenting his work to the Paris académie des 
sciences, M. Berthelot explained that he was led to 
those researches by the events of 1870. The first 
book is on his theory of the phenomena of explosion, 
and especially the explosive wave, which he considers 
throws a new light on the subject. The second book 
is on the composition of explosives, and the third on 
their comparative power. The last is very compre- 
hensive, and he gives numerous tables. 

—Mr. William J. Fisher, U.S. signal-observer at 
Kadiak, has found time, in the prosecution of his 
duties, to collect for the National museum ethnologi- 
cal speciens from the following Alaskan tribes: 
Ugashagmint, of Ugashag River, Bristol Bay; Ta- 
nichnagmiute, of Lesnoi Island, near Kodiak Island; 
Nanuachpachmiute, of Aliaska peninsula, near Lli- 
amna Bay; Keiichwichmiut, at Katmai settlement, 
Aliaska peninsula; Kiatichmynt, near Maltshatna 
River, Aliaska peninsula; Tshu-attshigmjnt, around 
Nuchek, Hinchinbrook Island, Prince William Sound. 

The editor of the Smithsonian proceedings holds 
up this invoice of Mr. Fisher as an example to be fol- 
lowed by all collectors. The excellent features are 
the native names of the articles, the explanation of 
their functions, and the location of the tribe from 
which each comes. There is a very grave objection, 
however, to the spelling of the names and the iden- 
tification of the tribes. Mr. Dall and others have 
located many little bands of Eskimo all along the 
Alaskan coast. Are these the same, or different ones? 
If the same, why another mode of spelling; and, what 
is worse, why is ‘mut’ spelled ‘ mint,’ ‘miute;’ ‘ miut,’ 
“mynt;? ‘mjnt,’ ‘mjut,’ ‘mjule,’ ‘mijitl,’ ‘mjvat,’ 
mjunt, and ‘mut’? Strenuous efforts are making 
to bring order out of chaos in the matter of tribes, 
but nothing will be accomplished if confusion is con- 
stantly introduced by observers, 

—Prof. T. G. Bonney read a paper before the 
Geological society of London on Noy. 7, on the geol- 
ogy of the South Devon coast from ‘Tor Cross to 
Hope Cove. 

— The relation of the state to the medical profes- 
sion was the prevailing topic in the recent inaugural 
addresses before the schouls of the several hospitals 
of London. Until 1858 the English people had virtu- 
ally no protection against unqualified practitioners, 
In that year the act was passed establishing the pres- 
ent system of medical licensing. 

A royal commission was appointed in May, 1881, to 
inquire into the existing provision, and to recommend 
such additional action as might seem advisable. The 


668 


proposals of the commission were embodied in a bill 
which passed the House of Lords during the last ses- 
sion, but was lost in the House of Commons through 
the ‘obstructive tactics of interested parties.’ It is 
believed that the bill which will be presented during 
the next session will meet with better success. As 
pointed out by Professor Huxley in his address at the 
London hospital, ‘three grave defects remain to be 
remedied:’ viz., the low standard of examination 
allowed by some of the licensing bodies; the grant- 
ing of licenses which do not involve proof of the 
holder’s acquaintance with all three of the great 
branches of medical practice (namely, medicine, sur- 
gery, and midwifery); and the present state of the law, 
which does not permit the medical council to enforce 
equality of minimum examination, and the threefold 
qualification, before admitting a medical practitioner, 
to the register. All of these points are included in 
the proposed bill. 

It is further urged by those interested in the im- 
provement of the profession, that liberal education 
should be a more general characteristic of its mem- 
bers, and that the student should bring to his medi- 
cal course a more thorough preparation in physics, 
chemistry, and biology. Both of these ends will be 
furthered by the provision recently made in the two 
great universities for the sciences specified. 

Socially the medical profession does not compare 
favorably with the other professions in England. The 
fact is curiously illustrated by an extract from a recent 
book quoted by Mr. W. H. Bennet in his address at 
St. George’s hospital. ‘‘ This choice of a profession,” 
says the author, ‘“‘is not an easy matter, when, as a 
rule, the church, the army, the bar, and the diplo- 
matic service are almost the only professions open to 
a young fellow.’’? Evidently, as Mr. Bennet observes, 
“the thought of medicine had never for an instant 
entered the writer’s mind.” 

— Mr. Henry Brooks has prepared a useful series 
- of specimens of the wood of several of the important 
timber-trees of the eastern states, for the use of teach- 
ers and students of natural history. 

Each species is represented by three thin transpar- 
ent sections of wood framed together, and cut in the 
direction of the layers of annual growth, at right 
angles with the grain, so as to show a cross-section 
of the trunk. The specimens mounted between thin 
sheets of mica permit a satisfactory examination of 
the position and size of the different ducts, cells, 
medullary rays, ete., besides showing admirably the 
color and general character of different woods. Ar- 
chitects and builders, therefore, as well as teachers, 
will find Mr. Brooks’s contribution to a knowledge of 
our trees of considerable practical value. Complete 
sets, representing seventeen species, or single sheets, 
ean be obtained by addressing Mr. Henry Brooks, 35 
Bedford Street, Boston. 


RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 


Aramburu, F. Examen microseédpico del trigo y de la 
harina, con algunas indagaciones de procedimientos analiticos 
para determinar su composicién quimica y la del pan. Madrid, 
1883. 156 p.,illustr. 4°. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL; No. 41° 


Bacas, D., and Escadon, R. Teoria elemental de las de- 
terminantes, y sus aplicationes al algebra y a la trigonometria. 
Madrid, 1883. 196 p. 4°. 

Berthelot, M. P. E. Explosive materials. ‘Translated by 
M. Benjamin. With a short historical sketch of gunpowder, 
translated from the German of Karl Braun by Lieut. J. P. Wis- 
ser, U.S.A., and a bibliography of works on explosives. New 
York, Van Nostrand, 1883. (Van Nostrand’s sc. ser., no. 70.) 


180 p. 24°. 
Bottéro, E., and Magistrelli, ©. Il telefono; con pre- 
fazione del Pietro Blaserna. Torino, Loescher, 1883. 82p. 8°. 


Bourguignat, J. R. Apergu sur les Unionidae de la pénin- 
sule Italique. Paris, 1883. 117 p. 8%. 

Brelow, G.,and Hoyer, E. Lexikon der mechanischen tech- 
nologie. Leipzig, 1883. 824 p.,illustr. 8°. 

Carrara Zanotti, L. Influenza del clima sulla salute. 
Treviglio, Stabilimento sociale, 1883, 112 p. 16°. 

Coote, W. The Western Pacific; being a description of the 
groups of islands to the north-east of the Australian continent. 
London, 1888. 200 p., map, illustr. 8°. 

Dammer, 0. Lexikon der chemischen technologie. 
zig, 1883. 875 p., illustr. 8°. 

Dragendorff, G. Plant-analysis, qualitative and quanti- 
pepe: Translated by G. Greenish. London, PBailliére, 1883. 

Ermacora, G.B. Sopra un modo d’interpretare i fenomeni 
elettrostatici: saggio sulla teoria del potenziale. Padova, Dra- 
ghi, 1883. 40+468 p. 8°. 

Exposition @’électricité, Paris. Expériences faites par Al- 
lard, Le Blane, Potier, et Tresca. Méthodes d’obseryation; ma- 
chines et lampes a4 courant continu, & courants alternatifs; lampe 
& incandescence; accumulateur; transport électrique du travail; 
machines diverses. Paris, 1883. illustr. 12°. 

Franck, L. Kleine vergleichende anatomie der hausthiere. 
Stuttgart, 1883. 400 p., illustr. 8°. 

Girard, M. Histoire naturelle; deuxiéme année. t.1. No- 
tions générales; anatomie et physiologic; mammifeéres; oiseaux. 
Paris, Delagrave, 1883. 11+708 p., illustr. 16°, 

Gressent. Eintriiglicher obstbau. Neue anlcitung, auf klei- 
nem raum mit massigen kosten regelmiissig viele und schéne 
friichte in guten sorten zu erziclen. Berlin, 1883. illustr. 8°. 

Hartmann, R. Die menscheniihnlichen affen und ihre or- 
ganisation im vergleich zur menschlichen. Leipzig, 1883. 313 
p-, illustr. 8°. ; 

Huet, lL. Nouvelles recherches sur les crustacées isopodes. 
Paris, 1883.° 186 p., illustr. 8°. 


Leip- 


Issel, A. Le oscillazioni lente del suolo o bradisismi. Sag- 
gio di geologia storica. Genova, 1883. 422 p.,map, illustr, 8°. 


Kroman, K. Unsere naturerkenntniss. Beitraige zu einer 
theorie der mathematik und physik. Ins deutsche tibersetzt yon 
R. vy. Fischer-Benzon. Kopenhagen, 1883. 478 p. 8°. 


Lewandowski, R. Die electro-technik in der praktischen 
heilkunde. Wien, 1883. (Elektro-techn. bibl., xviii.) 400 p., 
illustr. 8°. 

Leydig, F. Ueber die einheimischen schlangen. Zoolo- 
gische und anatomische bemerkungen. Frankfurt, 1883, 4°. 


McCay, L. W. Beitrag zur kenntniss der kobalt-, nickel-, 
und eisenkiese. Inaug. diss. Freiberg, Craz & Gerlach, 1883. 
46p. 8°. 

Morwood, V.8. Wonderful animals: working, domestic, 
and wild. ‘heir structure, habits, homes, and uses; descriptive, 
anecdotal, nnd amusing. London, 1883. 288 p., illustr. 8°. 

Nadaillac, Marquis de. L’Amérique préhistorique. Paris, 
1883. 596 p.,illustr. 8°. 


Pancic, J. Orthoptera in Serbia hucdum detecta. (Serb. 
conser.) Belgrad, 1888. 172p. 8°. 

Paolis, N. de. Questioni archeologiche, storiche, giuridiche, 
araldiche, a rifermare la sua ‘ Dissertazione sullo stemma di Mar- 
cianise’ (Caserta, 1878) e ribattere le opinioni opposte. 2 vols. 
Catania, tip. Wobile, 1882. 8°. 

Phipson, E. The animal lore of Shakspeare’s time, includ- 
ing quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, fish, and insects. London, Paul, 
1883. 492p. 8°. 

Richter, M. M. Tabellen der kohlenstoff-yerbindungen 
nach deren empirischer zusammensetzung geordnet. Berlin, 
1884. 8+517p. 8°. 

Robustelli, @. Dalle statistiche dell’ emigrazione. Roma 
tip. Forzani, 1883. 106p. 8°. 


Schneidemiihl, G. Lage der cingeweide bei der Haus- 
siiugethieren nebst anleitung zu exenteration fiir anatomische 
und patholog.-anatomische zwecke. Hannover, 1853. 173 p. 8°. 

Wood, J.G. New illustrated natural history: with designs 
by Wolf, Zwecker, Weir, and others. London, 1883. 796 p. 
royal 8°. . 


os Cyl eae 


tae) 


FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 23, 1883. 


THE NOVEMBER MEETING OF THE NA- 
TIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
For the first time in nineteen years, and the 
second time in its history, the National acad- 
emy held its mid-year meeting in New Haven, 
Noy. 13-16. Thirty-three of the ninety-three 
members were in attendance, and during its 
four days’ session twenty papers were pre- 
sented. 
' The meeting was conspicuous for the discus- 
sion which most of the papers called forth, and 
for the general participation of the members 
in these discussions. It was interesting, also, 
for the report of the committee on the solar 
eclipse of last May, which included the de- 
tailed reports of the expedition to Caroline 
Island by the principal participants, Profes- 
sors Holden and Hastings. It will further be 


remembered by the members from other cities ° 


for the marked hospitalities they received at 
the hands of their confreres of New Haven, 
and for its many social pleasures, culminating 
in the brilliant public reception given them by 
the president, Professor Marsh, at his residence. 
The new buildings recently finished, or in pro- 
cess of erection, for the furtherance of scientific 
research and instruction in Yale college, were 
also examined with interest, together with the 
treasures of the Peabody museum, where the 
finely mounted collections of Professors Verrill 
and E. S. Dana, and the fossil vertebrates of 
Professor Marsh, called forth much admira- 
tion. 


The generous discussion to which the papers - 


gave rise was provoked at the very start by the 
paper of Dr. Graham Bell upon the formation 
of a deaf variety of the human race, which had 
a broad, practical interest, and which consumed 
the entire morning session of the first day. 
Mr. Bell claimed, that, from purely philan- 
thropic motives, we were pursuing a method in 
the education of ‘ deaf-mutes’ distinctly tend- 
No. 42.— 1883, ; 


ing to such a result, supporting his assertions 
by statistics drawn from the published reports 
of the different institutions in this country de 

voted to the care of these unfortunates. They 
are separated in childhood from association 
with hearing-children, and taught what is prac- 
tically a foreign language, —a practice which 
isolates them from the rest of the community 
throughout their lives, and encourages their 
intermarriage. Such marriages were increas~ 
ing at an alarming ratio, and with calamitous 
results. As a remedy for this danger, Dr. 
Bell would have the children educated in the 
public schools, thus bringing them into contact 
with hearing-children in their play, and in in- 
struction whereyer they would not be placed at 
a disadvantage, as in drawing and blackboard 
exercises. He would also entirely discard 
the sign-language, and cultivate the use of the 
vocal organs, and the reading of the lips. 

The report on the solar eclipse covered a 
variety of topics, and will fill some hundred 
and fifty printed pages. In presenting it, Prof. 
E. S. Holden merely touched upon the princi- 
pal points, and gave the leading results, in 
much the same form as they have already been 
given in this journal. The objects of the expe- 
dition were successfully carried out; and Pro- 
fessor Holden regarded his special work — the 
search for a possible planet interior to Mercury 
—as proving the non-existence of the small 
planets reported by Professors Watson and 
Swift. 

Dr. C. S. Hastings read in full the greater 
portion of his report upon the spectroscopic 
work, which concluded with a critical review 
of the generally received theories of the solar 
atmosphere, and suggested, instead, that the 
corona was a subjective phenomenon, largely 
due to the diffraction of light. 

The presentation of these reports occupied 
the entire morning session of Wednesday, and 
their discussion the greater part of the after 
noon session. 


670 


In criticising the current use of the word 
‘light’ in physics, Professor Newcomb opened 
a long and interesting discussion. He urged 
that photometric measurements were compara- 
tively valueless, because they estimate a part 
only of the radiant energy of the sun; whereas 
the quantity which should be determined was 
the number of ergs received per square centi- 
metre.. Professor Langley, however, asserted 
that it would be impossible to estimate ‘the 
radiant energy received from the stars with our 
present appliances: not all the stars combined 
would produce deflection, even in so sensitive 
an apparatus as the bolometer. 

Another feature of marked interest was Pro- 
fessor Rowland’s exhibition of photographs of 
the solar spectrum, obtained by his new concave 
gratings, by which he had prepared a map of 
the spectrum much more detailed than hereto- 
fore secured, and free from the defects of scale 
found in previous photographs. 

Professor Asaph Hall communicated the re- 
sults of his researches upon the mass of Saturn, 
based upon new measurements of the distances 
of the outer satellites. He determines the 
relative mass of the sun to that of Saturn to 
be as 1 to =45- Y 

Professor Brewer took the occasion of the 
academy’s meeting in the city of his residence 
to exhibit samples of his experiments of many 
years’ duration upon the subsidence of par- 
ticles in liquids. They showed the action 
of saline and organic matter, of acids and of 
freezing, upon the precipitation of sediments. 
Most of the samples had been undisturbed for 
five or six years, and showed varying degrees 
of opalescence, resulting from the suspension 
of matter in the fluid. 

We have mentioned only the more important 
papers, or those which provoked a fuller dis- 
cussion than usual. The following complete 
list will show how largely the physical side of 
science predominated at the meeting. In as- 
tronomy, besides the reports on the eclipse of 
May 6, papers were read by A. Hall, on the 
mass of Saturn; by 8S. P. Langley, on atmos- 
pheric absorption; and by O. T. Sherman 
(present by invitation), on personality in the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 42. 


measures of the diameter of Venus: in mathe- 
matics, by S. Newcomb, on the theory of 
errors of observation, and probable results: 
in physics, by S. Newcomb, on the use of the 
word ‘light;’ by W. H. Brewer, on the sub- 
sidence of particles in liquids; and by H. A. 
Rowland, on a new photograph of the solar 
spectrum: in meteorology, by E. Loomis, on 
the reduction of barometric observations to | 
sea-level: in geology, by T. S. Hunt, on the 
Animikie rocks of Lake Superior; by J. D. 
Dana, on the stratified drift of the New-Haven 
region; by B. Silliman, on the mineralogy 
and lithology of the Bodie mining-district ; 
and by J. S. Newberry, on the ancient glacia- 
tion of North America: in chemistry, by W. 
Gibbs, on phospho-vanadates, arsenio-yana- 
dates, and antimonio-vanadates, and on the 
existence of new acids of phosphorus: in 
physiological chemistry, by R. H. Chittenden 
(present by invitation), on new primary cleay- 
age forms of albuminous matter: in paleon- 
tology, by J. Hall, on the Pectenidae and 
Aviculidae of the Devonian system; and by 


‘O. C. Marsh, on the affinities of the dinosaurian 


reptiles: in anthropology, by A. G. Bell, on 
the formation of a deaf variety of the human 
race; and by J. W. Powell, on marriage insti- 
tutions in tribal society. 

The report of the committee on glucose, ap- 
pointed by the president in conformity with a 
request from the government, was accepted by 
the academy, and will be transmitted to Con- 
gress with the president’s report. This will 
also embody the proceedings of recent meetings 
of the academy, the report of the committee on 
alcohol, and that on the eclipse of the sun, 
together -with the thanks of the academy to 
the secretary of the navy and the officers of the 
Hartford for their co-operation in the expedi- 
tion to Caroline Island. It will also include 
an expression of the approval of the academy 
of the efforts now making to secure a system 
of uniform time. 

The next stated session of the academy will 
be held in Washington in April next, and it is 
probable that the following mid-year session 
will be held in Cambridge. 


NOVEMBER 23, 1883.] 


THE WEATHER IN SEPTEMBER. 


Tue weather-review of the U.S. signal- 
service shows that in September there were 
two peculiar features, — the low mean temper- 
ature, and the deficiency in rainfall. The for- 
mer was characteristic of all districts east of 
the Rocky Mountains, though the temperature 
was above the normal on the Pacific coast. 
The greatest deficiency in rainfall was in the 
east Gulf states, but the drought has been 
severe in various sections. Forest-fires burned 
over large tracts of land, causing the destruc- 
tion of much property, especially in New Eng- 
land. 

The accompanying chart exhibits the mean 
pressure, temperature, and wind-directions for 
the month, and needs no special comment. 
Nine barometric depressions were observed 
within the limits of the country, the average 
course being farther north than is usual. Of 
these, one was especially severe on the Lakes 
and in Canada, and one was a well-devel- 
oped tropical hurricane. The latter was first 
observed near Martinique, on the 4th: it was 
very violent in the Caribbean Sea, and caused 
great destruction in the Bahamas, the loss of 
life being over fifty. It reached the North 
Carolina coast on the 11th, and was a destruc- 
tive gale between Cape Hatteras and Wil- 
mington, but lost its energy on reaching the 

_ land, and was wholly dissipated. While the 
damage from the hurricane was great, good 
service to commerce was rendered by the fre- 
quent warnings issued by the signal-service. 
The depression which existed on the 21st is 
worthy of note on account of its unusual track. 
It moved from Milwaukee, north-west to St. 
Paul, thence southward over Iowa and Mis- 
souri, and was the means of considerably 
modifying the effect of a cold wave which 
threatened extensive damage by frost. Five 
storm-centres are traced on the Atlantic, one 
of which is a continuation of the second of 
the August hurricanes described in Scrence, 
No. 37, and which passed over Great Brit- 
ain. Four vessels only report passing ice- 
bergs. 

With the approach of fall, frequent frosts are 
reported, and a frost-chart is a special feature 
of the review: it gives the limits of the regions 
in which frosts were experienced in connection 
with the three leading cold waves of the month. 
In contrast with this, maximum temperatures 
of 100° or higher were noted in Arizona, 
California, Idaho, Kansas, Louisiana, Nevada, 
Texas, and Utah; the highest being 122°. 

The extent of the deficiency in the rainfall 


i 


SCIENCE. 


671 


is indicated by 
table : — 


the following precipitation 


anerage precipitation Sor September, TOGGs 


Pa. for sébtener, 
Signal-se: ace Wee's Comparison of 
Districts. tion September, 1883, 
eed) Forecveral years. 
‘or seve: 
Sas | For 1883. ¥ 
Inches. Inches. Inches. 
New England | 38.74 2.50 | 1.24 deficiency. 
Middle ‘Atlantic states. 414 | 447 | 0.83 excess. 
South Atlantic states . 5.94 6.63 0.69 excess. 
Florida peninsula . . .| 6.76 5.07 1.69 deficiency. 
Eastern gulf . 4.98 1.05 | 3.93 deficiency. 
Western gulf. . 4.38 3.17 1.16 deficiency. 
Rio Grande valley . 4.54 6.31 1.77 excess. 
Tennessee . . 3.48 2.29 1.19 deficiency. 
Ohio valley 2.49 1.53 0.96 deficiency. 
Lower lakes . 3.03 | 2.82 0.21 defi 
Upper lakes 3.98 2.78 | 1.20 defic’ 
Extreme north-west . . 2.24 1.01 ‘ 23 deficiency. 
Upper Mississippi yaTey, | 3.45 1.67 1.78 deticiency. 
Missouri valley . . «| 2.60 2.60 Normal. 
Northern slope . i] 126 0.89 | 0.87 deficiency. 
Middle slope . apes ta pi ee ae 1.43 excess. 
Northern plateau . . ./ 0.78 | 0.06 | 0.72 deficiency. 
Southern plateau 1.22 0.57 0.65 deficiency. 
North Pacific coast. 2.13 1.18 0.95 deficiency. 
Middle Pacific coast 0.21 0.48 0.27 excess. 
South Pacific coast . 0.03 0.04 0.01 excess. 


The drought in the southern states is a con- 
tinuation of that of former months, as is 
shown by the following table of deficiencies in 
the districts named : — 


Districts. July. August. | September. | Total 
Inches. Inches. Inches. | Inches. 

Tennessee 0.99 0.41 1.19 / — 2.59 
South Atlantic . | —0.73 —0.72 + 0.69 — 0.76 
Eastern gulf . | 2.54 1.94 3.93 — 8.41 
Western gulf ‘| —1.72 2.65 1.16 5.53 


Several instances of great wind-velocity were 
recorded, the maximum being a hundred and 
eight miles per hour at Mount Washington on 
the 9th. At Cape Mendocino, on the Pacifie 
coast, 4 maximum velocity of ninety-six miles 
was noted. The singular fact, not unusual, 
however, in the winter season, is deserving of 
mention, that the total movement of the air at 
Delawate Breakwater and Kittyhawk, on the 
Atlantic coast, is greater than that at the sum- 
mit of Pike’s Peak, the loftiest station in the 
world. 


THE ELECTRIC LIGHT ON THE U. S. 
FISH-COMMISSION STEAMER ALBA- 
TROSS.1 —Il. 


As superintendent of the building of the ship, 
my expectation was, that numerous and intri- 
cate problems would present- themselves in 
running the wires about the iron hull, through 

1 Continued from No. 41. 


[Vou. IL, No. 42. 


SCIENCE. 


MONTHLY MEAN ISOBARS, ISOTHERMS, AND WIND-DIRECTIONS, SEPTEMBER, 1883. REPRINTED IN REDUCED FORM 


BY PERMISSION OF THE CHIEF SIGNAL-OFFICER, 


NovEMBER 23, 1883.] 


iron bulkheads and beams, close to the boilers 
or hot steam-pipes, and through damp places. 


Fie. 10. 


To bend the heavy main 
wires at short radii with- 
out breaking the insula- 
tion, was also a question 
that presented itself. But 
all these had been apprehended. Where the 
wires passed damp places, they were incased 
in rubber tubes. besides their insulation of cot- 
ton-cloth and white lead ; in all hot places they 
were incased in 
lead pipe; where 
they passed through 
iron bulk-heads or 
beams, ferrules of 
hard rubber or 
gutta-percha were 
used; and the 
mains, instead of 
being single wires 
of large size, were 
composed of a = 
number of smaller 
wires, which, of 
course, made them 
more flexible. 
Where the wires 
passed an iron sur- 
face, such as a 
lodger-plate or stringer, they were fitted to 
a groove in a wooden batten; and, where they 


SCIENCE. 


673 


passed a wooden surface, they were embedded 
into a groove cut in the wood; and, when 
carefully painted over, it is difficult to detect 
their presence. The main wires, as far as 
possible, were led behind the wooden lining 
of the ship. Where the wires were spliced or 
‘tapped,’ their insulation was removed, and the 
naked metallic surfaces brightened with sand- 
paper, to insure metallic contact. They were 
then twisted together tightly, and soldered. 
The naked place was then covered with insula- 
tion-tape, which is common cotton tape satu- 
rated: with a bituminous insulation compound 
manufactured by the Edison company, the 
components of which are kept a profound 
secret, and which an irreverent young man 
has named ‘ gulloot.’ 

The lamp-fixtures are designed to suspend 
the shade above, and to cast the unobstructed 
rays of the light downward. Handsome brass 
fixtures of three kinds, with porcelain shades, 
are used on board. Fig. 8 is called a bracket, 
and figs. 9 and 10 are single and double swing- 
brackets respectively. 

The wires are run through the tubes of these 
brackets ; but in the joints of the swing-brack- 
ets the current is transmitted through insulated 
hinges, to which the wires are fixed by bind- 
ing-screws, as shown at a in fig. 11, by which 
arrangement the wires are not twisted in swing- 
ing the bracket. 

The wires are brought to the binding-posts 
in the lamp-socket, fig. 12, between their 
binding-posts and brass conductors. One of 
these brass conductors 
is soldered to the thin 
spun brass socket into 


which thé lamp is 
screwed, while the other is con- 
nected, through the key, to a 
brass disk, placed centrally in the 
bottom of the socket, against 
which one pole of the lamp presses 
when screwed in place. The key 
is mounted on a screw-thread of 
such pitch that one-fourth of a convolution will 
give it sufficient axial motion to open and close 


674 


the circuit. The small number of parts used 
in these fixtures, their correct proportions, the 
adaptation of their forms to machine-tool manu- 
facture, and their beauty of design, excite the 
admiration of the mechanic and the artist. 


Fig. 13. 


The lamps are of thin glass, pear-shaped, 
containing a thread of bamboo carbon about 
the thickness of a horse-hair. The small end 
of the lamp contains glass of sufficient thick- 
ness (fig. 13) to make a tight joint on the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 42. 


platinum-wire conductors which carry the cur- 
rent to the carbon. The atmosphere is ex- 
hausted from the lamp by Edison’s modifica- 
tion of the Sprengel pump, through a tube at 
the upper end, ‘and the tube is then fused and 
broken off. Platinum wire is used because 
its index of expansion is the same as glass, 
thus preventing any leakage or breakage from 
unequal expansion from the heat. The bam- 
boo carbon and platinum wire are soldered 
together by electrically deposited copper. One 
wire, passing through the glass, is soldered to 
a small brass disk, which is centred on the 
bottom of the lamp, while the other wire is 
soldered to the spun brass screw-thread which 
surrounds the cylindrical part of the bottom of 
the lamp; and, when the lamp is screwed into 
the socket (figs. 14 and 12), the circuit may 
be completed or broken by the switch or key 
already described. When the circuit is closed, 
the carbon thread becomes heated, from its 
high resistance, to incandescence, and contin- 
ues to glow, in yacuum, without burning, so 
long as the current continues to flow. The 
wires having a larger sectional area and higher 
conductivity carry the current without percep- 
tibly warming. By varying the length or sec- 
tional area of the carbon thread, keeping the 
electromotive force constant, Edison has varied 
the candle-power of his lamps. 

For example : let the electrical resistance be 
represented by &, the sectional area of the 
wire or carbon by S, the length by Z, and the 
constant, dependent on the material of which 
the conductor is made, by a; then SR=aL, 
from which simple equation the relative sizes 
of carbons and wires may be determined, and 
proportioned to-the tension in the circuit. 
Mr. Edison employs a number of different- 
sized dynamos, which he designates by letters ; 
but he winds them for but two tensions, i.e., 
the A and B circuits. The A lamp belongs. 
to the A circuit, as its carbon thread is of such 
resistance that the B circuit would heat it to 
only a cherryred. A Blamp, however, in the 
A circuit, would acquire an intense brightness, 
but its duration would be very limited. Two 
B \amps in series, in the A circuit, would, by 
their augmented resistance, glow at about their 
normal incandescence. 

The average life of a lamp is said to be 
about 1,000 hours, when kept up to its normal 
incandescence ; but they will last much longer 
if their brightness is a little suppressed. This 
may be effected either by throwing in resist- 
ance, or by slowing the engine. On board 
ship, however, about as many lamps are broken 
by accident as from natural deterioration. 


NovEMBER 23, 1883.] 


The cost of the lamps is one dollar each ; and, 
at the present rate of consumption from all 
causes, the annual expenditure will be 56 lamps. 
The dynamo is run about 2,190 hours per year 
(about six hours per day), with an average of 
about 474 lamps in circuit, so that the annual 
lamp-hours would be about 104,025 (2190 x 
47.5). Thus it appears that our lamps will, 
at present consumption, last us in the neigh- 
borhood of 1,857 (42422%) hours each. 


Deser iption of lamps. 


T 
Rewieoation) Canale: Beniaence Current —_Electromotive 
power, in | _ force 
ine. l_ obi: amperes. in volts. 

rr 

A 32 | 86 1.180 | 102 

A 16 ' ma 0.745 | 102 

A 10 0.400 } 102 

B 8 | 0.745 | 51 

B 16 


1.200 | 51 


In event of a short circuit through a good 
conductor, between the wires there would be 
instantly generated heat of such intensity that 
the wires would melt, and perhaps the arma- 
ture also. This heat would in all probability 
set. fire to the wood-work along the line of the 
wire. To prevent this, Edison has devised his 
cut-out block, or safety-catch, —a neat device 
for placing a short piece of alloy in the circuit, 
which, at 400° F., will melt, and open the cir- 


cuit. When this happens, all the lamps on 
the branch circuit fed through that cut-out 
will be immediately extinguished ; and, though 
one is left in darkness at that point, he is re- 


SCIENCE. 


675 


warded by a consciousness of greater mischief 
having been prevented. Fig. 15 represents a 
double pole cut-out block, a front and back 
view of the cut-out plug, and a binding-screw. 
Fig. 16 shows a back view of the same cut-out 
block, and a section through a cut-out plug. 

The fusible alloy is contained in the plug, and 


Fie. 16. 


is utilized as a solder to unite the two poles of 
the plug. The plug is made similar to the 
bottom of a lamp, and the block-socket is 
similar to a lamp-socket. ‘The wires are held 
by the binding-screws, and the current passés 
through the “metal of the block and plug. 
These cut-outs are placed on each of the main 
circuits, near the dynamo, and on each branch 
circuit, and always in convenient positions. 
The alloy in the plug is the only part destroyed 
by 2 short cireuit, and it is only a minute’s 
work to substitute a new plug. 

(To be continued.) 


REPORT OF THE GERMAN CHOLERA 


COMMISSION. 


WHEN the commission arrived in Egypt, the chol- 
era epidemic had already begun to decline, so that 
we could not expect to obtain all the material neces- 
sary for carrying out our examinations. Besides, 
since the termination of an epidemic is the least 
suitable time for etiological researches, our origi- 
nal plan was to make such preliminary studies as we 
could in Egypt, and then check our results, as soon as 
the epidemic had reached Syria, by further investiga- 


1 Report to Minister yon Bétticher, secretary of state for the 
interior. By Dr. Koon, From the Kélnische eeitung of Oct. 1f. 


676 


tions in suitable localities in that country. Wewere 
able to carry out the first part of our plan in accord- 
ance with our wishes; for the commission found 
abundant opportunity, during its stay in Alexandria, 
to collect the material necessary for its preliminary 
researches. ‘This was mainly due to the active co- 
operation of the physicians of the Greek hospital, who 
furnished us working-rooms, permitted us to study 
the cholera cases in the hospital, and placed the bod- 
ies of those who died of the disease at our disposal. 

At first the commission had two rooms of the hos- 
pital, adjoining each other on the ground-floor, and 
well lighted. In one room the microscope work was 
carried on, and in the other the culture experiments. 
The animals experimented on were at first brought 
into both rooms. But when their number had been 
increased, it was thought too dangerous to manipu- 
late the material for infection in the same rooms in 
which we had to spend nearly the entire day, and 
they were accordingly remoyed to another room in 
the old hospital; and there the experiments on infec- 
tion were made. 

The material for experiment was obtained from 
twelve cholera patients, and ten bodies of individuals 
who had died of the disease. The cases of nine of 
the patients were studied in the Greek hospital, two 
in the German, and one in the Arabian. The symp- 
toms corresponded in all cases with those of true 
Asiatic cholera. Specimens of the blood, of the vom- 
jited matter, and of the dejections of these patients, 
were taken, and submitted to examination. It was 
oon apparent that the blood was free from micro- 
organisms, that the vomited matters were compara- 
‘tively poor in them, but that the dejections contained 
a considerable quantity; and the latter material was 
therefore mainly used in the infection experiments 
with animals. 

Although the number of bodies used for dissection 
was small, the material they afforded was of the great- 
est service in localizing the disease. They represented 
the most varied nationalities (three Nubians, two Ger- 
inan-Austrians, four Greeks, and one Turk), were 
of different ages (two were children, two over sixty 
years of age, and the others between twenty and 
thirty-five years), and the duration of the disease va- 
ried in the different cases. The most important fact, 
however, is that dissection could be begun imme- 
diately or in a few hours after death. The changes 
produced in the-organs, and especially in the intes- 
tines, by putrefactive decomposition shortly after 
death, which render microscopical examination diffi- 
cult, and its results generally entirely deceptive, were 
thus effectively guarded against. I wish to lay par- 
ticular stress on this circumstance, because it is 
hardly probable that such excellent material for 
microscopic examination as we obtained could be 
found in other places. 

The appearances of the bodies, as well as the symp- 
_ toms of the sick, left no room for doubt that we had 
to deal with true cholera, and not, as at first supposed, 
with diseases resembling cholera, — the so-called 
“choleriform’ and ‘choleroid’ diseases. 

We were unable to detect any organized infectious 


SCIENCE, 


[Vou, II., No. 42. 


matter in the blood, or in the organs which are 
usually the seat of micro-parasites in other infectious 
diseases; viz., the lungs, spleen, kidneys, and liver. 
Occasionally bacteria were found in the lungs; but it 
was clear from their forms and position that they had 
nothing to do with the processes of the disease, but 
had entered the lungs from the yomited matter by 
aspiration. In the contents of the intestines, just as 
in the choleraic dejections, there was an extraordi- 
narily large number of micro-organisms of different 
kinds, no one of which was present in excessive pro- 
portion. There were also no special indications 
which could enable us to draw any conclusions as to 
their connection with the disease. On the other 
hand, the examination of the intestine itself gave a 
very important result. In all cases but one, a specific 
form of bacteria was found in the walls of the intes- 
tine. The exception was in the case of a patient who 
had died of a sequela several weeks after the cholera 
had subsided. These bacteria were rod-shaped, and 
therefore belong to the bacilli. In size afd shape 
they most nearly resemble the bacilli of glanders, 
In cases where the intestine showed the slightest evi- 
dence of change, the bacilli had penetrated into the 
tubular glands of the mucous coat, and had set up a 
considerable irritation there, as was shown by the 
distension of the glands, and the accumulation of 
many-nucleated round cells in their interior. Inmany 
cases, too, the bacilli had worked their way beneath 
the epithelium, and had penetrated between it and 
the gland membrane. Moreover, they had planted 
themselves in large quantities over the surface of the 
villous coat of the intestine, and had penetrated its 
tissue. In severe cases of the disease, where there 
was a bloody infiltration of the mucous coat of the 
intestine, the bacilli were present in great numbers, 
and had not confined themselves to the invasion of 
the tubular glands, but had entered the surrounding 
tissue in the deeper layers of the mucous coat, and 
sometimes had penetrated to the muscular éoat. 
The villous coat was also thickly covered with them 
in such cases. The principal seat of all these changes 
was found to be the lower part of the small intestine. 
In investigations like the present, the examination 
ought to be made on perfectly fresh bodies, because 
putrefactive decomposition can induce similar growths 
of bacteria in the intestine. From this consideration 
I was unable last year to attach any value to the dis- 
covery of the same bacilli in the same position in the 
intestines of cholera patients which I had obtained 
directly from India, because I was afraid of compli- 
cations with post-mortem changes. ‘This former dis- 
covery, which was made in the intestines from four 
bodies of persons who had died of cholera in India, is 
now confirmed, because there can be no error in the 
present case due to decomposition in the Egyptian 
bodies. The inference, too, that the correspondence 
in the conditions of the intestine in the Indian and 
Egyptian cholera may be taken as a further indica- 
tion of the identity of the diseases, is not without 
weight. 

The number of bodies of cholera patients used by 
the commission for examination, it is true, was small. 


.. iy  & = 1 
NOVEMBER 23, 1883.] 


Bacilli were found in all the fresh cholera cases, but 
were wanting in the case where death had occurred 
after the symptoms of cholera had disappeared, and 
in others where death had not occurred from cholera, 
in which examinations were made for the sake of 
comparison; so that there can be no doubt that these 
organisms haye some connection with that disease. 
But it is too much to conclude yet that bacilli are the 
cause of cholera because they are found in the mu- 
cous coat of the intestine of cholera patients. ‘The 
inference might be reversed; and we might say that 
the disease produces such changes in the mucous 
coat, that some of the many bacteria present there as 
parasites are able to penetrate the tissue. A decision 
of the question, which of the two views is correct, — 
whether the infection or the bacteria invasion comes 
first, —can only be settled experimentally by collect- 
ing the bacteria from the diseased tissue, breeding 
them by ‘pure culture,’ and then reproducing the 
disease by infection experiments on animals. For 

_ this purpose it is necessary, first of all, to have such 
animals at our disposal as are susceptible to the in- 
fectious matter; but in spite of every effort to infect 
animals with cholera, it has not yet been demon- 
strated that they can be made to take that disease. 
Experiments have been tried with rabbits, guinea- 
pigs, dogs, cats, monkeys, pigs, rats, etc., but always 
without success. The only statements to the con- 
trary, worthy of notice in this connection, are the 
accounts of Thiersch’s experiment with mice which 
he fed with the contents of the intestine of a cholera 
patient, and which were then attacked with diarrhoea, 
and died. This experiment has been confirmed by 
reliable experimenters, like Burdon-Sanderson, and 
has been criticised, and the conclusions drawn from 
it disputed by others. We considered it necessary to 
repeat this experiment because it was of the utmost 
importance for our purpose to discover some species 
of animal capable of infection with cholera. 

Fearing that the requisite number of mice could not 
be obtained at once in Alexandria, we carried fifty of 
those animals with us from Berlin, and began the 
infection experiments with them. We also experi- 
mented with monkeys, — because they are the only 
animals susceptible to certain human diseases, such as 
small-pox and relapsing fever, — and, besides these, 
with a few dogs and chickens. But, in spite of all 
our care, the experiments were failures. The most 
varied samples of vomited matter, choleraic dejec- 
tions, and contents of the intestines from bodies of 
persons dead of cholera, — sometimes fresh, some- 
times after standing some time in a cool or warm 
place, and sometimes in a dried condition, — were 
fed to these animals; but no symptoms of cholera 
appeared, and they remained perfectly healthy. 

Besides this, ‘pure culture’ experiments were 
made with bacilli taken from the contents of the 
intestine and its walls. The material obtained in 
this way was fed to the animals, and inoculation 
wasalsotried. This latter method, with the products 
of the ‘ pure culture,’ sometimes produced septic dis- 
eases; but no symptoms of cholera appeared. 

That the material of the disease is very often con- 


SCIENCE. 


677 


tained in the dejections of cholera patients in an ac- 
tive form, is shown in several ways, and particularly 
by the frequency of the disease among washerwomen 
who wash clothes soiled with such dejections. A 
case in point occurred during the present epidemic 
in the Greek hospital, where a washerwoman who 
washed for the cholera hospital exclusively was taken. 
with the disease. It is therefore certain, that, of the 
numerous samples used in our experiments, some 
at least must have contained the infectious matter. 
But since our experiments were failures, it must be 
assumed, either that the animals we used are not 
susceptible to cholera, or that we had not discovered 
the right method of producing infection. At any 
rate, the experiments ought to be repeated and modi- 
fied; but, with the material now at our command, 
there is little prospect that they would prove suc- 
cessful. 

Our want of success may possibly be explained in 
still another way, which is this. In a place visited 
by the cholera it is usual for the disease to cease 
before all the inhabitants have been attacked; and, 
although the infectious material is scattered about 
in great quantity, fewer and fewer persons are affected 
by it, and the epidemic at last dies out in the midst 
of individuals capable of taking it. This cireum- 
stance can only be explained on the theory that the 
infectious matter loses its activity, or at least be- 
comes uncertain in its action, towards the end of the 
epidemic, If, therefore, human beings become less 
susceptible to the infection of cholera towards the 
end of the epidemic than at its outbreak, it can 
hardly be assumed that the animals used for experi- 
ment, of whose susceptibility to infection we know 
nothing, should differ from them in this respect. 
And for our experiments we could only obtain mate- 
rial which had been collected towards the end of the 
epidemic, and which must be presumed to have been 
more or less inactive. It is of course possible, that 
under suitable conditions, such as the outbreak of 
a cholera epidemic, the infection of animals with the 
disease might be successfully accomplished ; and such 
would be the proper time to determine by experi- 
ment whether the bacilli I observed in the mucous 
coat of the intestine constitute the true cause of 
cholera. 

However far the commission may still be from a 
complete solution of the problems proposed to it, 
and although its labors have contributed little which 
may prove of practical value in combating the chol- 
era, yet, considering the unsatisfactory conditions 
under which the experiments were made, and the 
short time the commission was able to devote to 
them, the results thus far obtained should be re- 
garded as encouraging. The experiments fully an- 
swer the original purpose of localizing the disease, 
and, by ascertaining the constant presence of char- 
acteristic micro-organisms, have supplied the first 
condition for the investigation of infectious diseases, 
and afforded a determinate object for further re- 
search. 

From the foregoing statements, it is clear that ‘the 
commission can accomplish no more in Alexandria 


678 


than has already been done. It might be thought 
that it could pursue its investigations in some other 
place in Egypt where the cholera prevails, but there 
are insuperable objections to such a plan. The chol- 
era has disappeared from all the large cities of the 
country, and only holds its own in the villages of 
upper Egypt; and an attempt to carry on our experi- 


ments in that part of the country would meet with _ 


the strong disapproval of the Egyptian government 
on account of the disagreeable complications in 
which the condition of affairs there might involve us. 
Moreover, I have been assured by responsible persons 
well acquainted with the Egyptians, that it would be 
impossible to obtain material for dissection in Egyp- 
tian villages; and for these reasons I must renounce 
all hope of following the course of the cholera up the 
Nile. The disease also, contrary to all expectation, 
appears to have gained no foothold in Syria. Since the 
investigations now in progress will occupy only about 
two weeks, the work will soon have to be temporarily 
suspended. ‘The commission, however, entertains a 
strong desire to prosecute its researches further, and 
satisfy the object for which it was created. It would 
be a great disappointment if the results it has already 
reached should prove fruitless from want of further 
experiments. The only opportunity which is af- 
forded us at present for continuing our researches is 


in India, where the clfolera is still prevalent in sey-- 


eral large cities, particularly in Bombay, and is not 
expected to subside immediately. It is also proba- 
ble that we could gain access to some hospital there, 
and repeat the work which proved so valuable in 
Alexandria. In case, in your excellency’s opinion, 
it should be deemed advisable to continue the re- 
searches of the commission, and extend the field of 
its labors to India, I am ready to continue in charge 
of its management. i 
I must also say a few words about the additional 
labors which the commission has found time to pros- 
ecute in connection with its researches on cholera. 
Eeypt is full of parasitic and contagious diseases, and 
it was not difficult to obtain suitable material for 
the examinations we wished to make in order to 
control the results obtained in studying the cholera, 
and also to settle some general questions bearing on 
infectious diseases. For example: I dissected? the 
bodies of two persons who had died of dysentery. 
In one ease, where the patient had died of an acute 
attack, there were parasites in the mucous coat of the 
intestine which did not belong to the bacteria group, 
and were unknown. I also dissected the body of an 
Arab who had died in the Arabian hospital of malig- 
nant disease. The disease in this case was probably 
taken from sheep, which are imported into Egypt from 
Syria in great numbers, and die of anthrax en masse. 
I was also afforded an opportunity to observe six cases 
of bilious typhus in the Greek hospital. This dis- 
ease closely resembles yellow-fever, with which it is 
often confounded, and presents much interest to the 
student. Three of these patients died, and were dis- 
sected. 
Besides this work, repeated examinations were 
made of the micro-organisms in the air, and the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 42. 


drinking-water of Alexandria. If time allows, I in- 
tend to study the Egyptian ophthalmia.. 

The labors of the commission, which from their 
nature were very trying and fatiguing, and for the 
most part of a disagreeable character, were rendered 
doubly irksome by the high temperature prevailing 
in the city. It has been impossible to interrupt 
the work a single day until now. Nevertheless, the 
members of the commission are in good health, and 
have only suffered from some slight complaints, due 
to a change of climate, which soon disappeared. 
Howeyer, as soon as the condition of the work will 
allow, I consider it advisable for the commission to 
rest a few days. I intend, therefore, to go with it 
to Cairo for a short time, partly for the sake of 
recreation, and partly in order to visit the principal 
seat of the cholera in Egypt, and make further obser- 
vations there. 


THE PHYSIOLOGICAL STATION OF 
PARISA—I. 


We have seen in the last few years all kinds of 
establishments erected to provide for the new needs 
of science. Laboratories, although great discoveries 
have been made in them, have become in certain re- 
spects insufficient. In the study of organized bodies, 
as in that of the physical forces of the earth, one is 
soon brought to a standstill if he cannot study nature 
in her own domain. 

Special establishments for certain sciences, astron- 
omy for instance, are a necessity; and lately nat- 
uralists have perceived the insufficiency of the means 
placed at their disposal. Maritime stations, gardens 
for acclimation, experiment stations, agricultural 
stations, stations for vegetable chemistry or experi- 
mental medicine, — all these have responded to the 
development of certain branches of science. 

Physiology, almost the only exception, has been, up 
to the present time, dependent upon laboratories. 
These are, in France at least, wretched places, poor 
and unhealthy, where the investigators are obliged 
to live in the hope of discovering the properties of 
the tissues, and the functions of the living organs. 
There is discovered the action of medicines upon the 
living organism, of poisons, and the various chemical 
and physical agents; there, by means of yivisection, 
or by the use of the proper and delicate instru- 
ments, the inner mechanism of the vital functions 
is analyzed. 

This condition of destitution could not continue. It 
is evident, that with the means at its disposal, within 
narrow limits, and compelled to operate upon a few 
lower animals, physiology could not but remain be- 
hind the other sciences. In any case, it could not 
hope to attain its full development: if must abandon, 
without practical application, the knowledge that it 
had obtained at the cost of so great efforts. 

In the last half-century physiologists have written 
a large number of works on the nervous and muscular 
systems. We have learned to distinguish the nerves 

1 By EH, J. Maney of the French institute. 
La Nature. 


Translated from 


SIRE Meter et ve ee 


SCIENCE. 


NOVEMBER 23, 1883.] 


of sensibility and those of movement; to determine 
the courses of the two kinds of nerves in the various 
parts of the body. We know how excitations, accord- 
ing to their intensity or nature, act on these organs. 
We have measured the rapidity with which that still 
mysterious agent, which bears to the muscles the order 
for motion, travels in the nerves and in the spinal 
marrow. We have separated the action of the mus- 
cles in their elements, —undulatory vibrations which 
traverse the length of the muscular fibre. Finally, 
we have studied the nature of contractions, and know 
how fatigue, heat, cold, and poisons affect these 
movements. 

On the other hand, while considering the mechani- 
cal conditions of animal locomotion, we have deter- 
mined, from a kinematic stand-point, the characters of 
the various movements of manandanimals. We have 
classified according to their kind the different bony 
Jevers of the skeleton, have determined the centres 
and radii of curvature of the joints, and have esti- 
mated the momentum of the opposing forces which 
represent the power and the resistance in the animal 
machinery. 

It appears now that every thing is ready, and that 
physiologists have only to apply these studies to the 
various problems of practical life. They will teach 
us, doubtless, how best to utilize the muscular work of 
man and of the domestic animals; they will lay down 
rules which shall control the physical exercises of 
the young, the work of the artisan, the drill of the 
soldier. 

Unfortunately it is not so. Limited as they are, 
physiologists are scarcely able to study the vital func- 
tions in man and the more important animals; 
besides, the usual method, vivisection, which has dis- 
closed so much in regard to the properties of the tis- 
sues and the functions of separate organs, cannot 
discover the regular action of normal life. 

The writer of this article has spent long years in 
his search for methods and an apparatus capable of 
faithfully interpreting the external signs of the func- 
tions of life. The pulsations of the heart or the arte- 
ries, the respiratory movements, the contractions of 
the muscles, record themselves with this apparatus, 
and obtain, for analysis, curves in which the least de- 
tails of the movements are represented. The object 
of other instruments is to trace the course traversed 
by a man or by an animal, or to express the efforts 
developed as functions of the time. Recently, instan- 
taneous photography has completed .the knowledge 
of physiological movements, so that to-day we can 
easily solve most of the problems of the animal mech- 
anism. 

But if the methods were perfected, if new appara- 
tus were invented, all the difficulties would not be re- 
moved; for it is not in the ordinary physiological 
laboratories that one can study the motions of a bird 
on the wing, of a galloping horse, or of a man walk- 
ing, running, or performing some other muscular ex- 
ercise. It was to promote these researches on the 
physiology of man and animals, that the physiologi- 
cal station, of which we will give a description, was 
erected. 


679 


Only the municipal council of Paris could grant 
land adequate for this kind of experiments. There 
was a very convenient place on the Avenue des 
Princes, near the Porte d’ Auteuil. With the gener- 
osity always shown when science is concerned, the 
council granted these lands, and even voted a subsidy 
to cover a part of the expense of experiments. On 
the other side, Mr. Jules Ferry, the minister of pub- 
lic instruction, pleaded warmly before the chambers 
in favor of the contemplated establishment. A law, 
passed in August, 1882, granted the sums for the con- 
struction of the necessary buildings. The work was 
pushed actively forward during the last autumn and 
winter, and in March experiments were begun at the 
physiological station. 

The practical applications of physiology are infinite; 
but in this vast number there are certain questions 
whose solution is near at hand, certain others for 
which nothing is prepared. The management of the 
physiological station, although the subsequent needs 
are foreseen, is, for the present, arranged for the 
study of the animal mechanism; and the experiments 
under progress relate to human locomotion. 

The problems which present themselves first of all 
are the following: 1°. To determine the series of 
motions which are produced in human locomotion of 
various kinds, — walking, running, leaping; 2°. To 
search for the external conditions which influence 
these motions; those, for instance, which increase the 
rapidity of pace or the length of step, and which thus 
exercise a favorable or an unfayorable influence up- 
on the locomotion of man; 3°. To measure the en- 
ergy expended each instant, in the various acts of 
locomotion, in order to discover the most favorable 
conditions for the utilization of this energy. Instan- 
taneous photography, and various other appliances of 
the graphic method, help to solve these problems, 
which are impossible to direct observation. 

Before entering into the details of the experiments, 
we will describe the general arrangement of the physi- 
ological station. Fig 1. shows the land and the build- 
ing asa whole. A circular and perfectly level course 
is laid out in a piece of ground used by the city of 
Paris asa nursery. This course has two concentric 
tracks: the inner one, four metres wide, is for horses; 
the outer one, formen. Around these tracks runs a 
telegraph-line, whose poles are fifty metres apart. 
Every time a walker passes a post, he causes a tele- 
graphic signal; and this is recorded in one of the 
rooms of the principal building. We shall refer later 
to this kind of automatic record, by means of which, 
for every minute, the rapidity of the walk, the accel- 
erations and diminutions, and even the number of 
steps, may be known. In the centre of the course is 
an elevated platform, on which a mechanical drum 
beats the time for the step. This drum is worked by 
a special telegraph-line, coming from a room in the 
large building where the rhythm is maintained by a 
mechanical interrupter. 

From the centre of the course runs an iron track, 
on which rolls a little carriage forming a photographic 
studio. From within this apartment a set of instan- 
taneous pictures of the men and horses whose gaits 


wv 


680 


are to be studied, may be taken. These photographs 
are taken as the walker passes before a black screen. 
Finally, the dynamographic studies, to measure the 
energy exerted in the various muscular motions, are 
possible by means of apparatus which will be de- 
scribed later. 

Our readers are already familiar with the history, 
in detail, of the applications of instantaneous pho- 
tography to the analysis of the locomotion of man and 
animals. Many have seen the beautiful pictures ob- 
tained by Mr. Muybridge, who has succeeded in pho- 
tographing a horse running at full speed. For the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 42. 


pear in white the men and animals whose pictures. 
are being taken, as well as the instruments for meas- 
uring the distance run, and the time consumed be- 
tween two successive photographs. 

Fig. 2 represents the photographic chamber where 
the experimenter is. This room is on wheels, and 
is arranged on an iron track, so that it may ap- 
proach or move from the screen, according to the 
objectives which are employed, and the desired size 
of the photograph. Generally it is convenient to 
place the photographic apparatus about forty metres 
from thescreen. At this distance, the angle at which 


Fie. 1.— PHYSIOLOGICAL STATION AT PARIS. 


requirements of the physiological analysis of move- 
ments, we have substituted for the complex apparatus 
of Mr. Muybridge a simple contrivance, giving on the 
same plate the successive positions of a man or an ani- 
mal at various instants of his passage before the black 
screen. We shall refer to these experiments in order 
to describe certain improvements which make the fig- 
ures more clear, the time-measurements more exact, 
and which, by multiplying almost indefinitely the 
number of images, give a complete analysis of all 
kinds of movements. y 

The apparatus employed at the physiological sta- 
tion for the instantaneous photography of movements 
comprises two distinct parts, — first, the photographic 
apparatus, with the room on wheels, which holds 
it; amd, secondly, the black screen, on which ap- 


the subject to be photographed is presented, changes: 
little during his passage before the black screen, 
From the outside of this building may be seen the 
red glass through which the operator can follow the: 
various motions which he is studying. A speaking- 
trumpet enables him to direct the different move-- 
ments which ought to be made. The front wall of 
the building is raised in the figure, in order to show 
a revolving-disk, provided with a little window, across. 
which the light passes intermittently into the ob- 
jective. This disk is of large size (1.30m. in diame~ 
ter), and its window represents only a hundredth of 
its circumference: hence, if the disk revolve ten 
times a second, the duration of the lighting is only 
one-millionth of a second. The movemement is re- 
corded on the disk by wheel-work, which is wound. 


NoveEMBER 23, 1883.] 


by a crank, and set in motion by a weight of a hun- 
dred and fifty kilograms placed behind the building. 
A brake checks thedisk. A clock-bell, regulated from 
within, notifies an assistant either to set in motion or 
to stop the disk. 

Fig. 3 shows the interior arrangement of the cham- 
ber. The removal of one of the side-walls discloses 
the photographic apparatus, A, placed on a bracket, 
and directed toward the screen. This instrument 
receives the long and narrow sensitive plates, which 
just admit the image of the whole screen. The 
plates which give the best results for the shortest ex- 
posures are those of Van Monckhowen of Ghent, 
and that of Melazzo of Naples. At B is the revolv- 


TNE | item 
. rt 1 hig 


Fie. 2. —ROLLING PHOTOGRAPHIC CHAMBER. 


ing-disk, which produces the intermittent light; at 
D, a shutter, which is raised vertically at the begin- 
ning of the experiment, and falls at the end in order 
that the light may enter the apparatus only during 
the time absolutely necessary. JZ is a long slit which 
unmasks before the objective the field in which the 
movements to be studied are taking place. The dark- 
ness of the chamber permits one to handle at his 
ease the sensitive plates, and to change them for each 


experiment. 
(To be continued.) 


SEPTEMBER REPORTS OF STATE 
WEATHER-SERVICES. 


THESE reports emphasize the general lack of rain, 
which, without exception, was characteristic of the 
weather prevailing in every state issuing reports. 


SCIENCE. 


681 


The low mean temperature is also made a subject of 
note. 

Georgia. —In this state there has been no general 
rain since April 23, and the crop reports are in con- 
sequence unfavorable. Cotton averages sixty-two per 
cent, and corn seventy-six per cent, of the usual 
yield. The temperatures ranged between 45°, the 
minimum in the northern portion, and 95°, the maxi- 
mum in the southern section. The average rainfall 
was 1,57 inches. 

Indiana. — The temperature averaged 3.5° below 
the normal for September; and frosts occurred on the 
6th, 10th, and 26th, damaging late corn and other 
vegetation. The prevailing wind was north-east. 


I hu Vl 


i} ay I sa 


i i te HK 


Fig. 3.— INTERIOR OF PHOTOGRAPHIC CHAMBER. 
The rainfall ranged from 0.15 inch to 5.98 inches, 
averaging 1.99 inches for the state. 

Kansas. — At Lawrence the rainfall was smaller 
and the temperature lower, with one exception, than 
any other September for sixteen years. Rain fell on 
seven days, and there was but one thunder-shower. 
The mean: cloudiness was 40.33 per cent, the month 
being 0.31 per cent clearer than usual. 

Missouri. — At St. Louis the rainfall was less than 
a hundredth of an inch, which has not happened 
before since Dr. Engelmann began his observations 
in 1839. The normal rainfall at St. Louis is three 
inches. Several other stations report no rainfall. 
Light frosts occurred, but without material damage 
to the corn-crop, except over limited areas on low 
ground. 

Ohio. —The barometric conditions were normal; 
but the temperature was about four degrees below the 


682 


average, and the rainfall showed a deficiency of near- 
ly aninch. The bureau is gradually increasing the 
number of stations, and makes special efforts to have 
its observers supplied with standard instruments. In 
addition to its regular stations, it invites the co-oper- 
ation of voluntary observers, and will furnish relia- 
ble instruments at reduced prices. The rainfall chart 
published by this service is deserving of being intro- 
duced into other similar reports. ’ 

Tennessee. — The continued drought has damaged 
the crops, especially in the eastern portion; but in 
the middle portion the crops are in fair condition. 
Frost visited some localities, the temperatures in the 
state ranging from 32° to 95°. The prevailing wind 
was north; the average rainfall, 2.06 inches; the aver- 
age number of clear days, 14. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


Teaching language to brutes. 


Ts it not quite conceivable that some of the lower 
animals might be taught to use human language 
rationally ? No deubt the reasons for a first hasty 
answer in the affirmative would be that the animals 
seem so intelligent as sometimes even to reason, and 
that they have, in fact, often had human words put 
into their mouths, and that they seem sometimes to 
have a language among themselves. Yet, after all, 
cannot their intelligence, and even wisdom, and oc- 
casional apparent reasoning, be satisfactorily ex- 
‘plained, without attributing to them true reasoning, 
as the result of hundreds or thousands of generations 
of experience and transmitted memory, by which cer- 
tain objects or actions become associated with a feeling 
of pleasure or pain that induces pursuit or avoidance? 
How few, indeed, are the cases that cannot readily 
be so explained, where an animal appears at first. 
sight to exercise a reasoning-power! and how ex- 
tremely simple the effort seems then to be! 

True reasoning can always be reduced to the syllo- 
gistic form, in effect a statement that what is true 
of a class is true of something in thatclass. In order, 
then, to reason, properly speaking, it is necessary to 
use a general term (a word or sign with the meaning 
‘of a common noun) to indicate the class; and, as wedo 
not know of any evidence that brutes have such words 
or signs, we have no proof that they can reason. In 
like manner, the lack of evidence that they can rea- 
son goes far towards showing that they have no lan- 
guage that includes such general terms, though it 
may be true that they sometimes understand words 
in a singular (not general) sense, and have similar 
expressions for their own feelings. 

The question, then, is whether brutes may not be 
taught the intelligent use of general words or common 
nouns, which would enable them to reason. As the 
step does not seem so very enormous from the unde- 
niable intelligence of some brutes to the lowest form 
of generalization, it is perhaps worth while to con- 
sider how they might possibly be taught to take the 
step, in hope, that, having once taken it, they might 
be led farther with still greater ease. Since the idea of 
plurality appears to lie at the very bottom of the idea 
of class, number would perhaps be the first and 
simplest step in generalizing, —number, that is, the 
regarding things merely as individuals or units. It 
is a step beyond, to regard things as alike in more 
complex respects. 
be made to teach how to count, and, of course, at the 


SCIENCE. 


If that is so, the first effort might’ 


[Vou. IL, No. 42: 


beginning only to count up to two. If that can be 
accomplished, still further counting can unquestion- 
ably be taught, and no doubt by degrees a much 
greater amount of generalization and reasoning itself. 
Does it seem impossible that a brute may learn to 
associate invariably the word ‘one’ witha single ob- 
ject, and ‘two’ with a pair of objects, no matter of 
what kind? At first the two objects should always 
be two like ones; but by degrees a difference in them 
might be allowed. The teaching of common names 
might next be taken up; or it might be begun along 
with the counting, but without the confusing addi- 
tion of any plural termination. Even if the mere 
counting up to two could not be taught successfully 
to any single individual brute, yet the end might 
nevertheless be attained, perhaps, in several genera- 
tions. 

The question then comes, With what animal would 
it be best to begin such experiments, — whether with 
monkeys, or elephants, or birds, or ants? Of course, 
articulation is not essential; for a language of signs 
might be devised suitable to the animal, —a language 
corresponding to the deaf-and-dumb one of signs, or 
to one using the Morse alphabet, or something like it. 
Elephants are very intelligent, but so very long lived 
that it would take ages to observe the effect of training 
through many successive generations. Perhaps the 
convenience of excellent articulation and rapid propa- 
gation, both combined with apparently good intelli- 
gence, might give the preference, on the whole, to a 
talking bird, such as the Indian mynah. L. B. 

Nov. 9, 1883. 


Climate in the cure of consumption. 


In your issues of Sept. 28 and Oct. 5, Dr. S. A. 
Fisk of Denver, Col., compares the climates of the 
principal health-resorts of the United States with one 
he happens to represent, i.e., Colorado. At the com- 
mencement of his paper the writer states that ‘he 
has given the data for Augusta, Ga., as the best sub- 
stitute for Aiken, 8.C., at which place there is no 
signal-station; and, in doing so, he thinks that he is 
presenting data which will fairly represent the cli- 
matic condition of Aiken.’? To those familiar with 
the two places, this is, Indeed, a most astounding 
revelation; and, with your kind permission, I hope to. 
prove, that, although socially very dear to each other, 


they have climatically but littlein common. Augusta 


is built upon a marshy flat on the Savannah River, 
which at times overflows its banks, and submerges a 
portion of the city; while Aiken is located in what is 
known as the sand-hill region, five hundred and 
sixty-five feet above sea-level, which is higher than 
any other town or village within a radius of seventy 
miles. The soil of the latter place is dry and porous; 
and to obtain water, wells have to be sunk to a depth 
of from a hundred to a hundred and twenty feet; 
and there is no water-course within two miles of the 
town, and even at that distance there are but brooks 
or small creeks. The result of this absence of soil- 
moisture, and of large bodies of water, would of itself 
tend to diminish the amount of humidity in the at- 
mosphere; but this is still further diminished by the 
absence of any hill or mountain to interrupt the free 
circulation of the wind. Augusta, on the contrary, 
is situated, as before stated, on a plain lying between 
arange of hills and the river, All this would lead 
one to expect that the climate of Aiken would be ex- 
tremely dry; and that this is really the case is proved 
by carefully conducted observations extending over 
Many years, which show that the average relative 
humidity, fifty-eight per cent, is lower than that of any 
other station east of the Rocky Mountains, and eleven. 


i La a 
i . 
“ 


NOVEMBER 23, 1883.] 


degrees less than the figure given by Dr. Fisk as the 
mean of four years’ observation at Augusta. As fur- 
ther proof of the dryness of the atmosphere of Aiken, 
I would direct attention to the absence of mould 
on boots and shoes, and to the fact that guns, and 
even delicate surgical instruments, may be exposed to 
air for months at a time without rusting. There are 
many other differences between the climates of Aiken 
and Augusta; but the above is sufficient to show that 
Dr. Fisk has indulged in an inference, when, with 
a little trouble, he could have obtained facts, the 
meteorological data for Aiken being on file at the of- 
fice of the chief signal-office, U.S. A., since the estab- 
lishment of that bureau, and prior to that time at 
the Smithsonian institution, not to speak of various 
publications on the climate of Aiken, which have 
appeared in the different medical journals of the 
country. 

W. H. Geppinés. 
Aiken, S.C., Nov. 5, 1883. 


On the possible connection of the Pons- 
Brooks comet with a meteor-stream. 


I desire to call attention to some slight evidence of 
the existence of a meteor-stream which may possi- 
bly stand in some sort of connection with the Pons- 
Brooks comet. From an examination of all the 
available material of published meteor-tracks in the 
interval Dec. 5-8, I find, that after excluding those 
manifestly emanating from the well-known and ac- 
tive radiants in Andromeda, Gemini, and Taurus, 
there remain twenty-three méteors observed by Heis 
on Dec. 8,— about two-thirds of them in 1847, and the 
rest in 1855, 1857, and 1867,— and ten meteors ob- 
served at Vienna, Dec. 7, 1868; all of which indicate 
a strongly marked radiant in Draco. From these data 
I have carefully determined the position of this radi- 
ant, as follows:— 


R. A. Decl. Long. Lat. 
10 meteors on Dec. 7, 198.0° +72.0° 135.0° +65.6° 
23 meteors on Dec. 8, | 190.0 +69.7 | 137.2 +62.4 


| { i - 


and from these I derive the following orbits, to which 
I add for comparison that of the Pons-Brooks comet. 


Meteors of | 
| Pons-Brooks 
} comet. 
Dec. 7. Dec. 8. ) 
= ' : 1884. 
T = Perihelion passage. |’ Dec. 28 Dec. 23. Jan. 25.82 
Long. of perihelion 44.5° 55.1° 98° 217 
Long. of node .. 256.1 256.3 24 «6 
Inclination. . .. . 68.5 72.7 Jai & 
Log. per. dist. . . 9.9600 9.9784 9.8894 , 
Eccentricity .... ~ - 0.9550 


The resemblance is thus not sufficient to give any 
considerable probability to the hypothesis of an inti- 
mate relation. On the other hand, the position of 
the radiant from present data is too uncertain to 
enable us to pronounce against that hypothesis. 

The differences in inclination and longitude of 
perihelion are not greater than are due to uncer- 
tainty in the observed radiant points: the T and the 


SCIENCE. 


683 


node are, of course, of no significance in the compari- 
son. The descending node of the comet’s orbit lies 
at the distance 0.200 inside the earth’s path, and the 
difference of the perihelion distance of the comet and 
the meteors is about 0.15. There is nothing in our 
present knowledge of the dimensions of meteor- 
streams, or of the nature of their relations to comets, 
definite enough to render such a breadth as is here 
implied evidence against a possible connection. On 
the whole, therefore, it appears desirable that meteor- 
observers should give close attention to the radiant 
in question about the date of the earth’s passage 
through the plane of the comet’s orbit, Dec. 5 to Dec. 
7. Observations this year are likely to prove espe- 
cially instructive on account of the proximity of the 
comet, which passes the node only a few weeks later. 


S. C. CHANDLER, Jun. 
Harvard college observatory, 
Noy. 12, 1883. 


Prize-essays on the experimental method in 
science. 


Dr. Maurizio Bufalini, an Italian savant who died 
nearly ten years ago, left provision in his will for the 
payment of a prize to the person presenting the best 
essay on the subject of ‘the experimental method in 
science’ to the section of medicine and surgery of the 
Royal institute of higher studies at Florence. The es- 
say must be written in Latin or Italian, and be pre- 
sented to the chancellor of the section of medicine 
and surgery on or before the 31st of October, 1884. 
The prize is five thousand franes. 

The institute has declared that all persons are at 
liberty to compete for this prize; and accordingly the 
representative of the Italian government, acting un- 
der instructions from that government, forwarded to 
our Department of state a programme giving in de- 
tail the subject proposed for the essay, and the condi- 
tions to be followed by the competitors, with a request 
that it be brought to the attention of Americans. 
The programme has been forwarded to the Bureau of 
education by the Department of state, and will be 
published as a bulletin as soon as practicable. In 
the mean time, such information, relative to the mat- 
ter, as the Bureau of education possesses, may be 
obtained by addressing Gen. Eaton, commissioner of 
education, Washington, D.C. 

CHARLES WARREN. 


Bureau of education, Washington, 
Nov. 9, 1883. 


The model of Architeuthis at the Fisheries 

exhibition. 

In the number of Scrence for Nov. 9, you have 
copied without correction a photograph of part of 
the London International fisheries exhibition, which 
shows ny model of Architeuthis wrongly put together. 
For convenience of packing, the tentacular arms were 
made to take apart in three pieces ; but, when the 
model was set up, the basal and terminal, pieces were 
put together, making the tentacles ten feet too short. 
The man who had charge of the work, not knowing 
what to do with the remaining pieces, stuck them in 
at the sides of the mouth, thinking that he might find 
in some other box a pair of terminal clubs to put on 
them. In this way the model was left at the open- 
ing of the exhibition, until some visitor happened to 
notice the mistake, when, I believe, the extra pair of 
arms was taken out, leaving the tentacles still too 
short. 

J. H. EMERTON. 
New Haven, Nov. 11, 1883. 


684 


A strange sassafras-leaf. 


The observations upon the sassafras-leayes — a re- 
port of which appeared in SCIENCE, no. 36—haye 
been continued through the year, with results which 
do not differ materially from those already given. 
Three other forms, however, have been found, which 
are given in the accompanying outline-engravings. 
Fig. 1 shows a peculiar modification of the three- 
lobed form, and differs from it in having the main 
central lobe reduced to a slightly raised emarginate 
end to the leaf. At first sight it seemed as if the leaf 
had lost its middle lobe by some foraging animal; but 
the absence of any roughness in the outline, and other 
characteristics of the edges, preclude this view. The 
form shown in fig. 2 helps to confirm the aboye view. 
In this we have a three-lobed form, with the lateral 
lobes unequal, and the central and upper portions of 


The mid- 
rib has stopped short, and divided into two equal 
parts, which run to the tips of the two diverging 


the leaf inverted heart-shaped (obcordate). 


lobes. If this failure of the mid-rib to extend had 
taken place earlier, a leaf might have been produced 
similar to the one shown in fig. 1. 

The most interesting of the three new forms is 
shown in fig. 3. Here we have a happy combination 
of the three-lobed and the ‘mitten’ form. The man- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 42. 


ner in which this has been accomplished is simple, 
and is fully shown by the outline given. The middle 
lobe has become lobed upon one side, —a ‘thumb’ 
has formed; and, were the lower portion of the leaf 
removed, it would leave a ‘mitten’ of good shape. 
The whole framework of the leaf has become some- 
what distorted: the mid-rib does not take a direct 


course; and the lower lobes are neither equal, nor at 
the same distance from the base of the leaf. 

It is due the reader to state that these three forms 
were all found upon the same shrub, —not a large 
one, —and that only a single specimen of each was 
discovered. These were all upon the same branch, 
though scattered among fifty or so of leaves of the 
three forms before described, and which, from their 
uniform presence, may be considered normal. How 


‘NOVEMBER 23, 1883.] 


‘shall these deviations be viewed? Is the foliage of the 
sassafras passing through a period in which different 
forms of leaves are being tried to see which is best 
adapted to the surroundings? It may be that there 
is a tendency from the simple towards the more com- 
plex; and fig. 3 shows the form which may be finally 
adopted. This is a subject about which even the 
philosophic botanists know but little; but, when one 
finds these deviations from the common form, he can- 
not help wondering after what end the plant bearing 
them is striving. Byron D. HALSTED. 


‘The thickness of the ice in New England in 
glacial times. 


In the issue of Screncr for Sept. 28, Professor 
Wright corrects a reported statement of what he said 
about the depth of ice over New England, changing 
600 feet to 6,000 feet, and giving as proof the well- 
known fact that Mounts Mansfield and Washington 
show ice-action to a height above sea-level of between 
five and six thousand feet. 

It seems to me that the depth 600 feet must be 
more nearly correct than 6,000 feet. The ice-sheet 
over New England must have had a thickness equal 
to the height of these mountain peaks above the level 
of the contiguous valleys. From the nature of the 
case we cannot well prove a greater thickness, though 
from theoretical considerations we may believe the 
ice to have been much thicker. 4,370 feet, the ap- 
proximate difference between the top of Mount 
Washington and the Crawford House, must cover the 
greatest differences in elevation between neighboring 
valleys and mountains. The average thickness of 
the ice-sheet must have been much less (from this 
proof), possibly not more than 1,000 feet. This thick- 
ness would accord with what is believed to be the 
thickness of the ice to the north-westward. 

The glacial striae and drift-bowlders upon Mount 
Washington at an elevation of 6,000 feet do not neces- 
sarily lead to the supposition that the upper ice-sur- 
face had that level in northern New England, and a 
greater elevation to the north-westward; for local 
accumulations of snow and consequent ice must have 
existed about the summits of the White, Green, and 
Adirondack Mountains, as in Switzerland and in 
Greenland at the present time, and have constituted 
the source of much of the ice which spread south- 
ward over southern New England and New York. 

L. C. WoosTtER. 
Eureka, Kan., Nov. 7. 


Museum of the Indiana university. 


In the account of the burning of the museum 
building of the Indiana university, given in SclENCE 
for July 27, are one or two errors which need correc- 
tion. 

The Owen collection of minerals and fossils was 
not entirely destroyed, Eight large cases, including 
the great majority of the typical specimens of David 
Dale Owen, were saved. The very perfect skeleton 
of Megalonyx Jeffersoni was also saved. 

No specimens belonging to Yale college or to Cor- 
nell university were in the museum at the time of 
the fire. About two thirds of the very large collec- 
tion made by Professor Gilbert on the Pacific coasts 
of Mexico and Central America were destroyed; the 
remaining third having been returned to the U.S. 
national museum, to which institution it belonged. 

+ ‘A new fire-proof museum building is to be erected 
at once, and the restoration of the collections lost 
is rapidly progressing. D. S. JoRDAN. 

Bloomington, Ind. 


SCIENCE. 


685 


THE FISH-COMMISSION BULLETIN. 
Bulletin of the U.S. Fish-Commission, vol. ii., for 


1882. [Edited by Cuartes W. Smivey, A.M.] 
Washington, Government, 1883. 467 p., illustr. 
8°. 


In looking over the pages of this book, we 
find several papers of marked scientific value, 
written by eminent specialists in biology and 
fish-culture, —articles which of themselves are 
suflicient to give this document a prominent 
place upon the book-shelves of naturalists, and 
to render it a valuable book of reference, espe- 
cially to embryologists and fish-culturists. 

The articles written by J. A. Ryder deserve 
prominent notice; for not only do they have 
an important bearing upon the subject of em- 
bryology, but they also show the importance 
of scientific treatment in hatching and matur- 
ing fish-eggs. The two most important papers 
by this author are, 1°, The absorption of the 
yelk in the embryo shad; 2°, Microscopic sex- 
ual characteristics of the American, Portuguese, 
and common edible oyster of Europe com- 
pared. Several smaller papers by the same 
author have especial bearing upon the success- 
ful hatching and rearing of the food-fishes of 
the Potomac. 

The papers upon the distribution and spe- 
cifie character of fishes, with descriptions of 
new species, will be of special interest to sys- 
tematic ichthyologists. A large part of the 
book is composed of letters of greater or less 
importance, written to the commissioner, main- 
ly relating to the movements of fish in certain 
districts. We are of the opinion that a great 
many of these letters might have been left out 
entirely, without any serious loss to science. 
They might at least have been judiciously cut 
down, and published together as a series of 
notes; thus giving the important points, and 
omitting the great preponderance of useless 
words and sentences which one so frequently 
finds in these letters. The last article in the 
book is entitled, ‘‘ A geographical catalogue of 
persons who have stated that they are inter- 
ested in fish-culture,’’? by C. W. Smiley. 

Sandwiched between these various papers, 
we find one, which, in our estimation, is gross- 
ly unfit for a scientific publication’ of such a 
high standard. The title of this article is 
‘Life in the sea,’ by J. B. Martens. It is 
a translation from the Dutch; and the author 
is teacher of natural sciences at the seminary 
of St. Nikolas, Belgium. From beginning to 
end, it is an absurd misrepresentation of facts, 
and deserves the severest condemnation. For 
instance: we find in the introductory para- 
graph the statement that ‘‘life in the sea 


686 


shows still greater abundance and variety ”’ 
than life on the land. We cannot understand 
why such an article should be translated 
from a foreign language -at considerable ex- 
pense to the commission. To say the least, it 
shows a lack of discretion on the part of the 
editor ; for, were articles of a popular nature 
desirable, it would not be necessary to incur 
the expense of translating, since hundreds of 
popular articles, with fewer misrepresentations, 
and of far more scientific import, could be 
found in our ordinary newspapers, and pub- 
lished with much more credit to the commission. 
When, moreover, it is an open secret that 
there are papers of real scientific value, written 
by eminent naturalists, kept waiting for an 
opportunity of appearing in one of the Fish- 
commission publications by the great mass of 
material to be issued before them, the folly of 
burdening the pages of the Bulletin with ma- 
terial of this kind becomes only too evident. 


BRIGGS’S STEAM-HEATING. 


Steam-heating: an exposition of the American prac- 
tice in warming buildings by steam. By RoBERT 
Briecs. N.Y., Van Nostrand, 1883. (Van 
Nostrand’s science series.) 108p. 24°. 

Turs little volume is one of the latest issues 
in the ‘ Science series,’ and is one of the most 
valuable of a collection of monographs which 
includes an unusual proportion of excellent 
contributions to science and to engineering 
literature. The author of the paper, Mr. 
Robert Briggs, who died just before the pub- 
lication of this last of his many papers on the 
science and the arts of engineering, was well 
known, both at home and abroad, as one of the 
ablest writers in the profession. This paper 
was written as his last annual contribution to 
the proceedings of the Institution of civil en- 
gineers of Great Britain, of which great asso- 
ciation he had long been a member. 

The subject of steam-heating is here treated 
from a purely practical stand-point, and the 
paper is full of useful information. An his- 
torical introduction is given, in which the in- 
troduction of this method of heating dwellings 
is ascribed to the late Mr. Joseph Nason of 
Boston, who was a pupil of the celebrated 
Jacob Perkins. Later, Messrs. Walworth of 
Boston, Gregg and Morse and Professor Mapes 
of New York, Greenwood of Cincinnati, and 
Tasker of Philadelphia, were influential in per- 
fecting the system in the United States. 

In heating by steam, welded wrought-iron 
tubes are employed, united by a system of 
‘screw-threads, which have been brought to cer- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 42. 


tain standard forms and dimensions peculiar 
to the trade. The size of the tubes, and their 
thickness, are also fixed in accordance with 
settled standards. Tables are given of these 
sizes. The forms of the various kinds of cou- 
plings and other uniting parts are prescribed by 
standard practice, and the author gives tables 
of their principal dimensions. 

The steam-boilers in use in steam-heating 
are usually, in the United States, either the 
common horizontal tubular boiler, or that form 
of the so-called sectional boiler known as the ~ 
‘ Babcock & Wilcox.’ Both of these boilers 
are stated to be practically safe from disastrous 
explosion. Probably one-half of all the boilers 
in use are of the first type. 

The two methods of heating most in yogue 

are that in which ‘ live’ steam is carried direct 
from the boiler to the heating-pipe, and that 
in which ‘ exhaust-steam ’ froma steam-engine 
is employed. Both systems are often in use 
together. Several methods of application of 
the former system are practised, all of which 
have advocates among old practitioners. Loss 
of heat by conduction and radiation from the 
heating-pipes, where such disposition of heat 
is likely to be objectionable, is prevented hy 
the non-conducting coverings, such as hair- 
felt, porous plaster, etc. 
\ The diffusion of heat in the apartments to 
be warmed is accomplished by the use of radi- 
ators. The communication of heat to the air to 
be warmed may be done either in the rooms 
to be warmed by it, or before the air enters 
the rooms. Direct radiation in the apartment 
is effected by the use either of series of pipes 
properly set, or of slabs of wrought or of cast 
iron, hollow, and strong enough to receive the 
pressure of steam safely. In many cases the 
heating-pipes are placed overhead, and this sys- 
tem has been found perfectly satisfactory. 

Systematic ventilation is usually combined 
with steam-heating, and in large buildings 
the air-currents are produced by the action of 
blowing-fans. This method of heating and 
ventilating is often carried out upon a very 
extensive scale. <A large office in New-York 
City contains 1,923,590 cubic feet of space, 
occupied by 1,300 people, and is heated by a 
system in which are used 8 boilers having 173 
square feet (16 sq. m.) of grate, and 8,000 
square feet (743 sq. m.) of heating-surface. 
The state lunatic-asylum of Indiana, at In- 
dianapolis, contains about fifty per cent more 
space. 

Steam-heating is now adopted in the United 
States for all lare® buildings. An appendix 
to Mr. Briggs’s paper contains tables of the 


‘i @ @ Wy Bakd ee Ff 
pelea - ’ = 


NovEMBER 23, 1883.] 


more important data in use in the computa- 
tion of efficiency, ete. The book is likely to 
prove very useful to engineers engaged in this 
department of construction. 


NEW-YORK AGRICULTURAL STATION. 


First annual report of the board of control of the New- 
York state experiment-station, for the year 1882. 
Transmitted to the legislature, March 6, 1888. 
Albany, Weed, Parsons, and company, pr., 1883. 
156 p. 8°. 

Tue rapid multiplication of agricultural ex- 
periment-stations in. this country during the 
last few years has been one of the most en- 
couraging signs of the times to those who have 
at heart the advancement of agricultural sci- 
ence, and the application of rational and scien- 
tific methods to the prosecution of a calling 
which has contributed, and will in the future 
contribute, so much to our national welfare. 
Since the establishment of the first state ex- 
periment-station, somewhat more than six years 
ago, their number has steadily increased, until 
now there are seven such stations, besides 
some half-dozen institutions which are experi- 
ment-stations in* fact, though not in name. 
Those who are familiar with the gain which 
has accrued to agriculture through the work 
of such stations in other countries cannot but 
be solicitous that the movement in our own 


land shall be wisely guided, and that every. 


new station shall have a high ideal as regards 
the kind and quality of its work. 

The first report of the New-York state experi- 
ment-station is worthy of more than a passing 
notice, for the reason, if no other, that it seems 
to enunciate a view of the duties of an experi- 
ment-station. 

If we correctly apprehend the introductory 
paragraphs of Dr. Sturtevant’s report, he holds 
that an experiment-station, or at least the 
station of which he is director, should select 
chiefly so-called ‘ practical ’ subjects for inves- 
tigation ; that is, as we understand it, subjects 
pertaining to the art rather than to the science 
of agriculture. This view has evidently been 
put in practice during 1882. Thus a large 
amount of work has been done in testing the 
comparative value of divers varieties of field 
and garden plants. Fifty-eight varieties of 
garden-beans have been grown; their times of 
yegetating, blooming, becoming edible, ripen- 
ing, the number and weight of seeds produced 
per plant, etc., noted; and a detailed descrip- 
tion of the botanical characters of each variety 
prepared. Many varieties of other garden- 
seeds have been compared in a similar man- 


SCIENCE. 


687 


ner; and the same is true of several varieties of 
maize, oats, and barley. Other subjects of a 
similar character are, the value, as seed, of 
butt and of tip kernels of maize, of whole po- 
tatoes and single eyes variously cut, of level 
and of ridge culture for potatoes, etc. We 
would not be understood as implying that all 
the work of the station is of this character, but 


- it is plain that the tendency has been in this 


direction. The institution has been in many 
respects more nearly what is generally under- 
stood by an experimental farm than an experi- 
ment-station. 

That the director of the New-York station 
should hold a view of the duties of an ex- 
periment-station differing from that generally 
entertained is, of course, no ground for adverse 
criticism, except in so far as it tends to ob- 
scure the signification of the name. Neither 
can it be claimed that the work done has not 
been well done, or is not useful; though we 
venture to think that much of such work must 
generally be published either too early to allow 
of its being properly verified, or too late to 
be of much service. What we object to is the 
deliberate and avowed adoption, by the largest 
and most liberally supported of the American 
stations, of what seems to us a low view of its 
duties to its constituents and to science, —a 
view which fosters the demand, on the part of 
the public, for a species of cheap experiments, 
easily and rapidly made, and of little perma- 
nent value. 

An agricultural experiment-station exists 
for the purpose of investigating the applica- 
tions of natural science to agriculture. It is 
primarily a scientific institution, concerning 
itself with the science and not with the art of 
agriculture, and, in our opinion, can only at- 
tain to the best and most enduring success 
when it keeps this fact steadily in view, and 
devotes its energies mainly to the discovery of 
new truths, and the verification of old hypoth- 
eses, in the science of agriculture. That a 
lower aim will prove more popular need hardly 
be said ; and, since public institutions exist by 
popular favor, that favor must be secured in 
some way. Moreover, it is impossible to draw 
an exact line between experiments which ad- 
vance the science and those which advance 
the art. At the same time, fully admitting 
that the work of an experiment-station ought 
to be guided by the desires of its constituents to 
a certain extent, we hold that it is equally 
its duty to guide and educate public opinion 
to the point of supporting it in undertaking 
work of scientific value. 

We urge this, not simply because of the 


688 


advantages to science, both agricultural and 
to a less extent general, which would result, 
but because we believe such a course to be the 
only one which will lead to enduring popularity, 
or yield gains to agriculture commensurate with 
the outlay. We are confident, that, if Dr. 
Sturtevant will make it his avowed aim to do 
as much real scientific work as possible, the 
state will receive a far larger return for its 
outlay, and that within no long time it will 
acknowledge such to be the case; while the 
beneficial effects of such a course, in promoting 
an appreciation of and respect for true science 
among the people, would not be its least recom- 
mendation. 

Agricultural experimentation is attracting 
increasing attention; and it seems important 
that a clear idea should be reached by those 
concerned in it of its proper aims and meth- 
ods ; and this can be attained in no better way 
than by a free criticism, on the part of all con- 
cerned, of methods and ideas which seem to 
them false or unwise. 


‘ 


HERRICK’S TYPES OF ANIMAL LIFE. 


Types of animal life, selected for laboratory use in 
inland districts. By C. L. Herrick. Part i., 
Arthropoda. Minneapolis, 1888. 33p.,7pl. 8°. 


Tue author says in the preface, that the notes 
which this work contains are only a small part 
of the material collected some years ago for a 
‘ Laboratory assistant for western students, 
arranged upon quite a different plan.’ Dur- 
ing the delay in completing the proposed work, 
the great need of it has been in a measure 
supplied by regent works; but as these treat 
chiefly of marine forms, or such as require dis- 
section, he has ‘ thought best to place at the 
disposal of students and teachers in summer 
science classes ’ his notes on such types as can 
be studied, while living, under the microscope. 
The types selected are the larva of Corethra, 
Canthocamptus, and Gammarus, which are de- 


o 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 42. 


scribed, without directions to the student, or 
explanations of methods of work. 

A text-book of this kind ought to be clearly 
written, and accurate, a model for the student ; 
but Mr. Herrick’s work is far from this, and 
no better than we might expect to find the 
rough notes of the student in a ‘summer sci- 
ence class.’ The description of the heart of 
Chironomus, on p. 7, is throughout almost or 
quite unintelligible, and ends with the state- 
ment that ‘ the last chamber is closed behind, 
and has the ostia quite a distance beyond.’ 
On p. 25 we have the opening of the green 
or antennal gland of Gammarus described as 
‘an auditory or other sensory organ; ’ and on 
plate 8, an antennula, or first antenna, figured, 
for comparison, as the ‘second antennae of 
prawn, with auditory sac and secondary flagel- 
lum.’ The Copepoda are Mr. Herrick’s spe- 
cialty, and so we naturally turn to the chapter 
on Canthocamptus for better work: but in the 
first paragraph we are told that the Copepoda 
are divided into three sections, —Gnathostoma, 
having ‘ the mouth-organs in the form of jaws ;’ 
while ‘the other sections, Poecilostoma and 
Siphonostoma, have the mouth-parts more or 
less modified for piercing or sucking.’ The 
student may search long and unsuccessfully to 
discover what the ‘ Poecilostoma’ may be. In _ 
this chapter, also, we naturally look for some 
account of the ‘ heterogenesis ’ of which Mr. 
Herrick has written elsewhere, and find the 
following : — 

“The young of Canthocamptus become fully de- 
veloped sexually before they assume their final form; 
and it is not unusual to find females bearing egg-sacs 
which are not only much smaller than the parent, 
but with considerable differences in the various 
organs. This sort of heterogenesis is not uncommon 
among lower crustacea, for the mother may differ 
much from the young till after they have themselves 
produced young.”’ 

Grammatical, verbal, and typographical 
errors so abound that it is needless to point 
them out. The illustrations, engraved by the 
author himself, are for the most part far from 
accurate, and very rude. 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


ASTRONOMY. ° 


Photographing the solar corona without an 
eclipse.— Dr. Huggins has continued his experi- 
ments on this subject during the past season. He 
has made use of a fine seven-and-a-quarter-inch spec- 
ulum by the late Mr. Lassell (loaned for the purpose 


. 


by Miss Lassell). Three inches and a quarter of the 
central portion only are employed, the light being re- 
ceived a little obliquely, soas to throw the image to 
one side, as in the Herschellian telescope, thus avoid- 
ing a second reflection.. The absorbent screens of 
potassic permanganate, or blue pot-glass, have been 
dispensed with, and an emulsion, prepared specially 


, ‘ 


NOVEMBER 28, 1883. ] 


for the purpose by Capt. Abney, and containing only 
chloride of silyer, has been generally used for the 
sensitive plate. This film is said to be sensitive only 
to rays between hf and H, orat least to be only slightly 
affected by rays of either higher or lower refrangi- 
bility. Between April 2 and Sept. 4, fifty plates have 
been exposed on fifteen different days; and all of 
them are said to show a more or less distinct coronal 
appearance around the sun. 

The plates have been put into the hands of Mr. 
Wesley, the celebrated engraver, who made the mag- 
nificent plates of Mr. Ranyard’s Eclipse volume; and 
he has prepared for each day a drawing of what he 
could make out on all the plates taken on that day. 
** This was desirable,’’ as Dr. Huggins says, “‘because, 
whenever sufficient duration of sunshine permitted, 
photographs were taken on silver-bromide films as 
well as on silver-chloride plates: some photographs 
were taken with the sun screened off by a brass disk 
(close to the plate), others without it: also photo- 
graphs were taken with the sun in different portions 
of the field. As a rule, Mr. Wesley has introduced 
into his drawings only those coronal features which 
were common to all the plates taken on that day.” 

Four drawings were presented, each of them show- 
ing incontestibly details belonging to the lower por- 
tion of the corona. The paper was presented to the 
British association. — (Brit. journ. phot., 1883, 575.) 
Oe A. ¥s [380 

Saturn.— Dr. William Meyer of Geneva gives the 
results of a large series of measures of Saturn and 
his rings. The measures agree very well with those 
taken in 1880. He also determined the position of 
the belt in the southern hemisphere of the planet. 
Encke’s division was observed several times, and its 
position seemed to be nearer the exterior edge on the 
left than it was on the right ansa. On one occasion 

_ the ball seemed of a grayish-blue tint, while the ring 
was glittering white in color. — (Astr. nachr., 2,517.) 
M. MCN. [381 

MATHEMATICS. 

Equations of equilibrium.— M. Appell remarks 
that the analogies between the equations of equilib- 
rium of a flexible and inextensible thread, and the 
equations of motion of a point, have long been noted, 
but that no one has put these equations of equilibri- 
um into their canonical form, which would permit 
the application of Jacobi’s principles. M. Appell con- 
siders first the case of a free thread acted on by forces 
possessing a potential, and transforms the equations 

of equilibrium into forms analogous to those giving 
the motion of a point. He next introduces the no- 
tion of generalized co-ordinates, q,, Y2, 73, replacing 
x, y,andz. The transformations made here are quite 
similar to those given by Jacobi, in his Vorlesungen 
tiber dynamik. The author finally studies the position 
of equilibrium of a thread acted upon by the same 
forces as before, but constrained to lie upon a given 
surface. —(Comptes rendus, March 12.) 7. c, [382 

Parallel surfaces.— Mr. Craig gives expressions 

_ for the ratio between the corresponding elements of 

area on a given surface and its parallel. The rela- 
tions between corresponding elements of Jength, and 


SCIENCE. 


689 


the relation connecting the measures of curvature 
on both surfaces, are also derived. The area of the 
parallel to the ellipsoid is obtained as the sum of 
the areas of the given ellipsoid, a certain derived 
ellipsoid, and a sphere whose radius is the modulus 
of the parallel surface. — (Journ. fiir math., 1883.) 
T. C. [383 
ENGINEERING. 

Simple and compound engines on short 
routes.— Mr. Boulvin has determined a series of 
formulas expressing the relations between size of 
vessel, weights carried, and distances traversed, and 
the weights of the simple and the compound engine, 
and finds, that, for short routes, the best form of en- 
gine is the single cylinder rather than the compound. 
He finds that for lines from twenty to sixty miles 
in length, as those from Dover to Calais and from 
Ostend to Dover, a gain of a knot an hour may be 
obtained by the use of the simple engine instead of 
the compound, in consequence of the saving in 
weight of machinery. On long routes the economy 
is on the side of the compound engine, in consequence 
of the saving in weight of fuel. The later practice 
of English constructors has been in accordance with 
this result, and with the principles involved in the 
work of Mr. Boulvin. He constructs curves showing 
the equations graphically, and illustrates their use by 
examples. — (Ann. trav. publ., xli.) R.u.T. [884 

Transportation by steamers on the Rhone. — 
Mr. F. Moreaux has investigated the conditions of 
transportation by steam on the Rhone and other fast- 
running and shallow rivers, and has incidentally 
developed a new formula for the resistance of vessels, 
which he applies in his study of the best methods 
of transporting merchandise. 

He takes an expression of the form 

R= KS + KX 5x 8, 
in which R is the resistance, K, and K, are numerical 
coefficients, S’ and 8” are the areas of the middle 
body and of the tapered ends of the vessel: / and p 
are the length and the breadth of these ends. The 
values of the coefficients vary, according to stated 
conditions, from 0.10 to 0.22 for K,, and from 0.48 to 
above 2for Ky. They can only be used, evidently, in 
cases in which these conditions are definitely known. 
Where used as by Mr. Moreaux, however, they give 
very satisfactory results. The formula is applied 
to a river-navigation, now conducted largely with 
steamers about 135 metres long, 7 wide, 1 metre in 
draught, with 8 square metres area of immersed mid- 
ship section, 1,100 square metres area of wetted sur- 
face, and 900 tons displacement. Their engines are 
of 1,150-horse power, and their speed is about 4} 
metres per second. The current is, in places, nearly 4 
metres. Mr. Moreaux concludes that the best system 
for such river-transportation is that in which is used 
what he calls the ‘ Bateau mixte a ancres,’ which is 
fitted as a towboat, but which is also supplied with 
anchors of peculiar form and of great holding-power, 
by which the tug may be held at the head of a rapid, 
and then, by hauling in a tow-line attached to the 
tow, bring the latter through into still water, Two 


690 


such boats sometimes act alternately, the one hauling, 
while the other is getting a new position ahead, The 
advantages thus secured are, that the propelling craft 
is not detained at either end of the line of trans- 
portation; that transshipment and the breaking of 
bulk are avoided; that the rapids are surmounted with 
comparative ease; that canal-boats are thus trans- 
portable from river to canal, and the reverse, making 
long trips through river and canal, and thus saving 
expense of repeated handling of merchandise. This 
system is proposed for use between Arles and Lyons, 
The author proposes the connection of Arles and 
Marseilles by a canal, and the continuation of this 
system through the waterway thus formed. — (Mém. 
soc. ing. civ., April.) R. H. T. [885 


AGRICULTURE. 


Hill-culture of potatoes. — Experiments by 
Wollny having led to the conclusion that hill-cul- 
ture was superfluous, or even injurious, on light 
soils, Schleh has made experiments with potatoes 
which in general have corroborated Wollny’s conclu- 
sion. — (Biedermann’s centr.-blatt., xii. 483.) H. P. A. 

[886 

Proteine of maize-ensilage. — Stutzer finds, that, 
in the preparation of ensilage from maize, the proteine 
is largely broken up into products which are not pre- 
cipitated by copper hydrate, and which are probably 
of inferior nutritive value. Jordan has made the 
same observation in experiments.at the Pennsylva- 
nia state college. — (Zbid., xii. 497.) H.P. A. [887 


Nitrification in the soil. — Nitrification is depend- 
ent on the presence of oxygen, and Schlésing has 
shown that a diminution of the amount of oxygen 
present decreases the rapidity of the change. Such 
a diminution of the amount of oxygen in the soil is 
effected by the presence of organic matter, which 
unites with it, forming carbonic acid, and thus acts, 
as Déhérain and Maguenne point out, to moderate 
the rapidity of nitrification, and so to prevent a loss 
of nitrates in the drainage-water. The same authors 
explain in this way the greater richness in nitrogen 
of untilled land, and claim that the presence of or- 
ganic matter is necessary in order that the soil shall 
gain nitrogen from natural sources. —(Ibid., xii. 
506.) H. P. A. [888 


MINERALOGY. 


Albite.—Des Cloizeaux gives the results. of the 
optical examination of a large number of specimens 
of albite. Although this mineral is the most con- 
stant of all the felspars in its chemical composition, 
its variations in optical properties are great, and 
dependent upon the homogeneity of the material, 
the number and arrangement. of the twin lamellae, 
and, without doubt, upon the circumstances of tem- 
perature and pressure at which the crystals were 
formed. The following are the properties of the 
purest and most transparent crystals, which may be 
regarded as normal: the plane of the optic axes is 
normal to a surface truncating the acute edge between 
oP and » P o, and making an angle of 1019°-102° 
with the base; the acute bisectrix is always positive, 


SCIENCE. 


_ accuracy. 


and nearly normal to the edge oP and » P»; the 
axial angle for red in oil is about 80°-85°, ordinary 
dispersion p <1; the obtuse bisectrix is always nega- 
tive; the axial angle for red in oil is about 1049-1069, 
ordinary dispersion p >; basal sections give for the 
angle of extinction 2°-4° on either side of the plane 
of twinning; on the brachypinnacoidal section the 
angle of extinction is nearly 20°. The results of the 
examination of thirty-four different varieties of albite 
are given, many of them accompanied by chemical 
analyses. — (Bull. soc. min., vi. 89.) 8.1. P. [889 


METEOROLOGY. 


Meteorology in China.—Dr. Doberck of the 
Hong Kong observatory proposes to study the clima- 
tology of the region, to determine the magnetic con- 
ditions, and to investigate the magnetic attraction of 
various mountains and hills in the vicinity. It is 
probable that he will endeavor to arrange for the 
receipt of regular reports from neighboring observa- 
tories with the object of making weather forecasts. — 
(Nature, Sept. 27.) w. vu. [390 


Hyegrometer studies. — A good hygrometer which 
can be used in place of the wet- and dry-bulb ther- 
mometers, and be equally convenient, but more aceu- 
rate in cold weather, is one of the needs of practical 
meteorology. Comparative observations of the psy- 
chrometer and the improved hair hygrometer, as 
manufactured by H6ttinger, have been made at 
Breslau by Dr. Galle since 1880. As a result, he 
states, that if the saturation-point is determined at 
intervals of from eight to fourteen days, and the in- 
strument carefully cleaned when necessary, the rela- 
tive humidity can be obtained with as great accuracy 
as with the psychrometer, andin winter with greater 
Unfortunately, there still remains in the 
instrument the liability to unexpected changes in 
the saturation-point, and in the working of the me- 
chanism; so that a psychrometer must be at hand 
for the purpose of comparison. — (Preuss. stat., 1xxi. ; 
Ergeb. met. beob. konigl. met. inst., 1882.) w.u. [891 


GEOGRAPHY. 


(Asia.) 

Investigations in Thibet.— At the suggestion of 
Gen. Walker, geodesist-in-chief to the survey of India, 
an interesting exploration is about to be undertaken 
by one of the pundits attached to the survey. This 
pundit was a companion of the famous Nain Singh, 
and succeeded, in the midst of a thousand obstacles 
in the eastern part of Thibet, in recording and pre- 
serving his itineraries, and obtaining many latitude 
observations. 


tent corrected, and mapped with tolerable accuracy. 
The great Thibetan problem as to the relations of 
the Dzang-bo River are probably settled by his work, 
from which it would appear that this belongs to the 
head waters of the Brahmaputra rather than (as for- 


merly supposed) to the Irawadi River. —(Bull. soc. — 


géogr. Mars., June.) Ww. H. D. [392 


Thanks to his researches, an area three — 
’ times as extensive as France can be to a certain ex- 


{Vou. II., No. 42, — 


4 
‘ 
j 
7 


NOVEMBER 23, 1883.] 


(Africa.) 

Sociology of the Kabyles.— M. Sabatier, who 
has long been a resident of Algeria, and served asa 
judicial officer among the Kabyles, gives the follow- 
ing details as to their civil and social organization. 
These people, sharply distinguished from the Arabs, 
are of the Berber race, and number about three hun- 
dred thousand, 

The villages are associated in governmental groups 
of not more than twenty settlements each. Such a 
group is termed a kabila. The supreme chief, or 
magistrate, of the kabila, is the amin. There is always 
another chief called ukil, charged with defending the 
rights of the minority of the electors. In each kabila 
the karuba, of forty or fifty male adults, forms an 
electoral body. The right to vote, or the attainment 
of individual majority, is decided in a singular man- 
ner. A thread is measured off, which, when doubled, 
shall exactly encircle the neck. This thread, made 
single, is then passed from the occipital base of the 
head over the cranium ; and, when the other end 
reaches only to the chin, the development of the head 
is supposed to be complete, and the individual politi- 
cally mature. This ordinarily happens about the age 
of fourteen. Each karuba has a distinct jemmiaha, 
a sort of municipal council, presided over by a tamen. 
The tamens, all together, form the general council of 
the kabila, which, with the ukil and amin, forms the 
administration. The rights of minorities in each 
karuba are carefully guarded. The minority is called 
the saf, and may elect a chief, who serves one day to 
redress grievances, after which he retires to his pri- 
vate station. They have no prisons. The grand 
council may banish a criminal, destroy his house, 
burn his clothing, or order him, as a last resort, to 
be stoned to death. The council directs all munici- 
pal matters. If hostilities break out between two 
villages, and blood is shed, neighboring villages gen- 
erally intervene by proclaiming anaya. This anaya 
is an invitation to cease hostilities, which the com- 
batants dare not disregard. Were it disregarded, it 
would be considered an extreme insult to the safs of 
the peace-making villages, which all other village safs 
would be bound in honor to avenge. 

The family organization of the Kabyles is unique. 
There is, in fact, no family, in our sense of the word. 
Such as there is, is terminable conditionally. A Ka- 
byle who desires a wife says to her father and brother, 
“You must sell me this girl.’ The price is debated, 
and an agreement made before witnesses. Fifteen to 
forty dollars is the usual range. The money paid, 
he gives a dress to the bride, and all is done. The 
wife may be sent back without explanation, and the 
price reclaimed from her family. 

If the wife quarrels with her husband, she may call 
upon a third person to proclaim anaya between them. 
The husband may then not only reclaim his payment 
to her family, but set on her head a price, often exor- 
bitant, which any other lover must pay into his hands 
before he can take her to wife. The woman is then 
said to be ‘retired from circulation.’ 

Children, if boys, are held in honor, representing 
one more yote and one more gun; girls must shift as 


SCIENCE. 


691 


best they may; at least half the Kabyle women live 
by gathering sweet acorns. 

Kabyle law regulates the disposition of property. 
If a peddler possesses a field which he cannot use on 
account of the demands of his business upon his 
time, the law obliges him to plant it with olives. The 
property in such matters is wonderfully divided up: 
one man may own the fifth part of a field; another, a 
fifth of the crop of olives, or a third of the crop of 
figs; still another, the third branch of the fifth olive- 
tree, or that branch which points to the east. 

In Kabylia the discoverer of a spring of water, 
even if situated in the field belonging to another per- 
son, owns the water from it. This tends to encour- 
age the search for water, the most important element 
in that arid region. The Kabyles are excellent agri- 
culturalists. If there is a spot of earth in a chasm, 
a Kabyle will descend by a rope and cultivate it, 
They are extremely industrious, and work in concert. 
In the Kabyle country, land suitable for cultivation 
is worth eighty dollars an acre, while in the Arab 
districts it does not average four dollars in value per 
acre, —a difference illustrating the respective charac- 
ters of the two races. The question of ousting the 
Kabyles from the land they cultivate, to make room 
for French colonists, is being discussed in France: so 
it would seem that the Americans are not the only 
people capable of robbing the aborigines. — (Rev. 
géogr., June, 1883.) w. H. D. [393 


BOTANY. 


Columbines.— Grant Allen (North-American re- 
view, September) traces several of the steps by which 
the typical ranunculaceous flower has been modified 
to form that of Aquilegia and the other more highly 
specialized genera. The more important are the elon- 
gation of the petal, which ‘‘is just the petal of the 
buttercup, with the tiny depression or hollow of the 
nectary prolonged backward into a tubular spur,’’ as 
a protection against small, thieving insects; and the 
reduction in the number of carpels, without a cor- 
responding lessening of the ovules, which insures a 
more certain fecundation of the latter. The fact that 
A. canadensis is even more perfectly adapted to pol- 
lination by humming-birds than by bees, seems, how- 
ever, to have escaped him, Though more greatly 
modified, the hooked spur of European columbines 
is in no wise more perfectly adapted to the end it is 
to serve than the straight spur of American species. 
In his zeal for demonstrating the correlation of high- 
ly specialized forms and colors in entomophilous 
flowers, the writer is also led to ignore such species 
as the common European Aconitum ‘lycoctonum, 
which, with the structure of its immediate relatives, 
has the much less specialized yellow color of those 
lying lower in the scale. 

Dr. Gray (Bot. gazette, September) calls atten- 
tion to the longest columbine (A. longissima), a spe- 
cies from northern Mexico, with spurs four inches or 
more in length, and clearly adapted to profit by the 
visits of some Jong-tongued hawk-moth like Ampho- 
nyx antaeus, which occurs in the south-west, and has 
been found by Mr. Henshaw to have a proboscis cer- 


692 


tainly five inches and three-quarters long. .It should 
be stated that all of our American columbines that 
have been studied, whether fertilized by bees, moths, 
or birds, are strongly protandrous, like the European 
species. — W. T. : [s94 

Symbiosis.— Dr. Sedgwick gives a well-written 
synopsis of the results of the more important recent 
studies concerning the occurrence of chlorophyll in 
animals, and its significance. These seem to show 
that the so-called ‘animal chlorophyll’ has no actual 
existence, being in every case (possibly excepting 
Hydra and Spongilla) connected with a vegetable 
structure living in the tissues of the animal. This 
association of plant and animal, in the mutual bene- 
fits derived, is held to be somewhat different from 
the so-called parasitism known in lichens ; but it is 
hard to see in what important respect the two cases 
differ. — (Pop. sc. monthly, Oct.) Ww. T. [895 


ZOOLOGY. 
Coelenterates, 

The anatomy and histology of Porpita.— A 
diffused nervous system, made up of a plexus of 
scattered ganglion-cells connected with each other 
by nerve-fibres, and similar to that described in the 
Medusae and Actiniae by the Hertwigs, and in the 
Hydroids by Jickeli, Lendenfeld, and others, has 
been described by Chun in Velella. Conn and Beyer 
have independently discovered the same structures in 
Porpita; although they express some doubt whether 
they are really nerye-cells, rather than some form of 
connective-tissue corpuscle without any nervous func- 
tion. They incline, however, to the belief that the 
close resemblance which they bear to cells which have 
been found in the Medusae and Actiniae justifies 
us in regarding them as a very primitive nervous 
system. k 

The cells in question are, in Porpita, ectoder- 
mal; and sections show that they lie actually in the 
ectoderm-cells, outside the supporting layer and the 
layer of muscles. They are always found in connec- 
tion with the muscles, and they are most abundant 
where the muscular system is most developed. They 
are bipolar, tripolar, or multipolar; and their pro- 
cesses could be traced to a considerable distance. 
Their distribution is as follows: they lie wholly in 
the ectoderm; and their fibres, after running for a 
considerable distance beneath the outer ectoderm- 
cells and immediately upon the muscle-layer, finally 
penetrate this layer, and are lost. The whole of the 
upper surface of the animal is supplied with them, 


somewhat sparsely toward the centre, but much - 


more abundantly towards the edge, and especially in 
the velum. The under surface of the velum has also 
a rich supply, and the tentacles also contain great 
numbers; but towards the centre of the lower surface 
of the disk they gradually disappear, and none could 
be found upon the nutritive zooids. They are every- 
where few in number, as compared with the ecto- 
derm-cells, and they are very irregularly distributed. 
There is nothing like a central nervous system, and 
no union of the cells into a nerve-ring could be made 
out. Conn and Beyer also describe a number of so- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 42. 


called ‘sensory organs,’ which are placed in pockets, 
or pouches, around the edge of the velum. Each of 
these is filled with large and highly modified ecto- 
derm-cells, which the authors regard as sense-cells. 
They have no connection with the ganglion-cells. — 
(Stud. biol. lab. Johns Hopk. univ., ii. 483.) W. K. B. 


[396. 


Mollusks. 


Visual organs of Solen.— Dr. Benjamin Sharp- 
had been led to believe that Solen ensis and S. vagina, 
the common razor-shells, are possessed of visual or- 
gans, by observing that a number of these animals 
which were exposed ina large basin for sale in Naples. 
retracted their siphons when his hand cast a shadow 
overthem. Repeating the experiment at the zodlogi- 
cal station, he became convinced that the retraction 
was due to the shadow, and not to a slight jar which 
might have been the cause. Upon examining the 
siphon, be found as many as fifty fine blackish-brown 
lines or grooves between and at the base of the short 
tentacular processes of the external edge. 
vertical section of these pigmented grooves is made, 
the cells of which they are composed are found to be 


very different from the ordinary epithelial cells of the 


surrounding tissue.. The pigment-cells are from one- 
third to one-half longer than the latter, and consist 
of three distinct parts. The upper ninth or tenth 
part of each cell is perfectly transparent, and is not 
at all affected by the coloring-matter used in making 
the preparation ; the second part is deeply pigmented 
and opaque, and forms about one-half the cell; while 
the remainder consists of a clear mass, which takes. 
a slight tinge when colored. This portion contains a 
well-defined nucleus filled with granular matter, and 
is probably the most active part of the cell. These 
retinal cells, if so they may be called, resemble those 
of the very primitive eye of Patella, The value 
to the Solen of an organ which would enable it to 
detect the shadow of approaching objects as it lies. 
embedded in the sand, with the end of the siphon 
protruding, must be evident; and the structure of the 
cells described bear sufficient relation to those of the 
eyes in Patella, Fissurella, and Haliotis, to make it. 
highly probable that they constitute true primitive 
visual organs. — (Acad. nat. sc. Philad. ; meeting 
Nov. 6.) [897 

Organization of chitons.— A second part of Dr. 
Béla Haller’s valuable investigations of the chitons 
of the Adriatic has appeared. It is illustrated with 
three double plates; and the species which have 
served his purposes are Chiton siculus and C. laevis. 
This part is devoted especially to the finer structure 
of the buccal muscles, of the parts surrounding the 
mouth and below the radula, and the minute strue- 
ture of the branchia. He confirms the conclusion of 
Dall in 1879, — that the separate branchial tufts cor- 
respond each to a distinct branchia, instead of to the 
old cyclobranchiate theory, —and adds very materi- 
ally to our knowledge in each of the above-mentioned 
directions. The author wisely refrains from much 
theorizing, as no group of equal rank exhibits more 
polymorphism than this, and no general rules can be 


When a. 


NoveMBER 23, 1883.] 


laid down with confidence from the examination of 
two species. — (Mittheil. zool. inst. Wien, v. heft 1.) 
W. H. D. [398 


Crustaceans. 


Trilobites from the Hamilton rocks of Penn- 
sylvania. — Professor Angelo Heilprin has found in a 
small collection of invertebrate fossils obtained from 
the Hamilton rocks of the vicinity of Dingman’s Ferry, 
Pike county, Penn., a complete specimen and several 
tail-pieces of Phacops bufo, and several well-preserved 
fragments of Homalonotus Dekayi. The determina- 
tion of these species is of peculiar interest, inasmuch 
as it had been asserted that no trace of trilobites 
could be discovered in the rocks of this series. — 
(Acad. nat. sc. Philad. ; meeting Oct. 30.) [399 


i a i oi a | 


VERTEBRATES. 


Origin of fat in cases of acute fat-formation. 
~— The chief part of this paper by Lebedeff is taken 
up with a discussion of the origin of the fat formed 

or deposited in the liver in phosphorus-poisoning. 
The author criticises at length the different theories 
of the origin of fat, under both physiological and 
pathological conditions. He does not admit the 
generally accepted theory of Voit, that the fats of 
the body form one of the products of the destruction 
of proteids, and gives some calculations showing the 
insufficiency of such an hypothesis to account for the 
amount of fat found in the liver and other organs 
after poisoning by phosphorus. His own view is, that, 
under normal conditions, the animal fat is derived 
_ directly from that taken into the body as food, while, 
in pathological cases, — fatty infiltration of the liver, 
for instance,—the fat originates from that already 
stored up in the body. The change in the chemical 
composition of the blood, produced by phosphorus, 
causes the fat in the subcutaneous connective tissue 
to pass into the blood, whence it cannot be removed 
on account of the diminished supply of oxygen, 
which is one of the results of phosphorus-poisoning, 
and therefore accumulates in the liver. Lebedeff has 
shown in a former paper, that when a dog is starved 
until all fat has disappeared from its tissues, and is 
then fed on foreign fats —linseed-oil, for example — 
and some proteids, there is a large accumulation of 
the strange fat in the body. Similar experiments 
were again made, with the addition that the animal 
was afterwards poisoned with phosphorus. Chemical 
analysis of the fat of the liver in such cases showed 
that it also, like the subcutaneous fat, contained a 
large proportion of the foreign fat. This fat could 
not have resulted from the destruction of proteids 
of the body, but must have been derived from fat 
already stored up in the body before poisoning, 
especially the subcutaneous fat. Lebedeff also made 
chemical analyses of the fats contained in the milk 
of the cow, woman, and rabbit, and compared them 
with the fats of other parts of the body. He finds 
that the ‘fat of milk has no analogue in the body,’ 
and consequently is not derived directly from these 
fats. He does not believe, however, that this fat re- 
sults from proteid metamorphosis. The increase in 


SCIENCE, 


693 


the fat of milk, that takes place after feeding with 
meats, is owing, he thinks, to the fact that the albumi- 
nous material taken serves to emulsify the fats, and 
thus insures an easier passage from the blood. He 
comes to the conclusion that the fat of milk is di- 
rectly influenced by the nature of the fat taken as 
food, and givés the results of some experiments de- 
monstrating this fact. With regard to the origin of 
the milk-fat, his statements are not very satisfactory. 
It is derived directly, in the first place, from the fat 
of the mammary glands, with which it agrees in 
composition. This, in turn, is formed, he thinks, 
from the fats taken as food, or, in the case of starva- 
tion, from the fats stored up in the body. —(Pyfliiger’s 
archiv, xxxi. 6.) W. H. H. [400 


Mammals, 


Vaso-dilators of the lower limb.— In previous 
papers, Dartre and Morat have shown that the view 
which was generally held of the distribution of the 
vaso-motor nerves—that the vaso-constrictors take 
their course through the sympathetic, the vaso-dila- 
tors through the cerebro-spinal nerves—is not true 
for the cervical sympathetic. They succeeded in 
demonstrating in it the presence of vaso-dilator 
nerves for the cheek, lips, ete. In the present paper 
they give the results of similar investigations upon ~ 
the lower segments of the sympathetic, and the vaso- 
motors of the lower limbs. In order to estimate the 
yaso-motor effects, two methods were used. A ma- 
nometer, or sphygmoscope, was connecied with the 
femoral artery below the origin of the profunda; 
and, at the same time, the color-changes in the skin 
of the toes were noticed. Young dogs with little or 
no pigment on the feet were used. They first inves- 
tigated the effect of stimulation of the peripheral end 
of the divided sciatic. In all cases the manometer 
showed a rise of arterial pressure, indicating that 
vaso-constriction had taken place; but, together with 
this general vaso-constriction of the blood-vessels, 
it was found, in some cases, that the balls of the toes 
were congested, showing local vaso-dilatation. If, 
instead of the sciatic, the abdominal sympathetic 
was divided at the level of the fourth lumbar gan- 
glion, and the peripheral end stimulated, the same 
result was reached, —a general constriction of the 
arteries, together with a local dilatation of the skin 
of the toes. The latter phenomenon, as in the first 
experiment, was not constant. When the sympa- 
thetic was stimulated still higher, just below the dia- 
phragm, the manometer gave a rise of pressure; but 
the dilatation of the vessels of the toes was more evi- 
dent, and occurred in all cases. The interpretation 
they give to their experiments is, that vaso-dilator 
as well as vaso-constrictor fibres run in the sympa- 
thetic to the lower limbs; the vaso-constrictors pre- 
dominate: hence the general rise of blood-pressure 
in the limb. The fact that the vaso-dilator effects 
are always obtained when the lower part of the tho- 
racic sympathetic is stimulated, while in stimulation 
of the lumbar sympathetic and the sciatic this phe- 
nomenon is very inconstant, means, they think, that 
the vaso-dilators terminate, in part at least, in the 


694 


ganglia of the lumbar sympathetic, and exercise 
their influence on the blood-vessels by means of 
these ganglia, and not through the hypothetical 
peripheral ganglia of Goltz. Facts of the same gen- 
eral import have been given before by the authors, 
with regard to the last cervical and first thoracic 
ganglia. — (Arch. de physiol., 549, 1885.) WwW. H. H. 
[401 
Sexual variation of Rhytina.— Drs. Stejneger 
and Dybowski haye given in two different journals 
a preliminary account of their joint discovery of a 
remarkable variation, supposed to be sexual, occur- 
ring in the skull of the arctic sea-cow. Their con- 
clusions are based upon an examination of five adult 
male and three adult female skulls. The male skulls 
have the zygomatic arches both absolutely and rela- 
tively wider than the female skulls. The whole cen- 
tral portion of the former, also, is wider than that of 
the latter. In the female the vertical ramus of the 
mandible is longer than in the male, and the posterior 
angles are much nearer together. It appears that 
these differences have long been recognized by the 
Eskimo. — (Proc. U. S. nat. mus., v. 79 ; Proc. Zool. 
soc. Lond., 1883, 72.) ¥. W. T. [402 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 

The death of King M’tesa.— Col. J. A. Grant, 
once the guest of this renowned king of Uganda, 
gives credit to the report of his death, published in 
the daily papers of the 13th of July. Some years ago 
the king was suffering with a malady which the mis- 
sionaries believed would terminate fatally unless an 
operation was performed. The king was dissuaded 
from this; though the Africans, as a rule, operate upon 
one another without fear. When Speke and Grant 
visited him in 1862, he was a minor, the lineal de- 
scendant of a line of thirty-five kings, which accounts 
for the ‘ blue blood’ and vanity which certainly ran 
in the veins of M’tesa. Col. Grant alludes to the 
princes of Uganda, whom Stanley saw in chains, as 
following a custom by no means irksome, to which 
M’tesa himself had submitted previously to his elec- 
tion. The vigor with which he administered his gov- 
ernment, and his courtesies to travellers, have given 
him a world-wide reputation. He raised his subjects 
above the ordinary scale of Africans by making them 
observe while travelling. He fearlessly adopted the 
Mahometan, and afterwards the Christian religion, 
by listening to the Mollahs and Christian travellers 
who entered his country; his previous belief having 
been in one supreme being and in charms. To 
M’tesa is greatly due the discovery of the sources of 
the Nile; for it was he who gave us the route from 
the Victoria Nyanza to Egypt, and the knowledge 
that we have of the people, and the flora and fauna, 
of equatorial Africa. The army and navy of this king 
is said to have numbered 125,000 soldiers. His goy- 
ernment was carried on by daily durbars, where sey- 
eral hundred chiefs of districts assembled with their 
followers to hear the eloquence of the prime-minister 
and members of the government. — (Proc. geogr. soc. 
Lond., Aug.) J. w. P.- [403 


The tribes of the Cunéné, S. W. Africa.— 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. ll., No. 42, 


The earl of Mayo, having spent the best part of a 


year in Mossamedes and its vicinity, gives us the — 


benefit of his experience. Not much new information 
is conveyed about Portuguese rule; but a very inter- 
esting account is givenof a colony of Boers, at Hum- 
pata, who, with their wives, children, and cattle, had 
trekked from Pretoria in the Transyaal, and reached 
his place after seven years’ wandering. The negro 
tribes encountered were: 1. The Mundombes, hold- 
ing the region from Mossamedes to Capangombe, at 
the foot of the Sierra de Chella. They have a lan- 
guage of their own, and belong to the Bantu family. 
They are large cattle-keepers, and are the native por- 
ters who carry travellers’ luggage as far as the top of 
the Sierra de Chella. 2. The Munhanecas and Qui- 
pongos, tribes who inhabit the country around Hum- 
pata, Huella, and three days eastward. They are of 
the Bantu stock, cultivate the soil, and are armed with 
poisoned arrows, assegais, and knobkerries. 3. The 
Chibiquas, who live on the west slope of the Sierra de 
Chella, north of the Cunéné River. They belong to 
the Damara race, intermixed with Ovampos, whose 
language they speak. They capture the elephant by 
prodding the hind-feet so as to sever the muscles. 
The animal, thus brought to a standstill, is despatched 
with assegais. 4. The North Ovampos, who speak a 
dialect of the Damara language, and cultivate each an 
hereditary farm, haying no communal farming, as the 
Hahé and Huilla natives. — (Proc. geogr. soc. Lond., 
Aug.) J. W. P. [404 

The Lolos of central China.— There is one 
indigenous tribe or people, now completely envel- 
oped by a Chinese population, which has success- 
fully resisted the wave of Chinese encroachment. 
They are termed ‘Lolo’ by the Chinese, ‘ Lo-see’ and 


“Ngo-see’ in their own dialect. They inhabit amoun- — 


tainous region on the Yangtsze, between 27° and 29° 


north. They make incursions into Chinese territory 
for blackmail and ransom, which they call ‘rent,’ and 
hold in slavery the Chinese then captured. We have 
the word of Marco Polo that “they are a tall and 
very handsome people, though in complexion brown 
rather than white, and are good soldiers,’”” They 
never intermarry with the Chinese, even the Chinese 
female captives being given to the male captives as 
wives. Mr. Baber, who has closely studied these 
people, seeks to identify them with the Colomon of 
Marco Polo, and in the course of. his argument makes 
some interesting statements respecting their burial- 
customs. They possess the art of writing; and 
Major-Gen. Mesny, of the Imperial Chinese army, 
some years ago obtained a thick folio manuscript 
from a tribe near Chenning, in Kuei-chou (25° 
north, 105° 40’ west). The work is bound in goat- 
skin with the hair on, and is written in the ordinary 


Lolo script, with illustrations of a crude and primi-_ 


tive nature, depicting human figures, animals, and 
plants. 
Richthofen and Col. Yule, in stating his conelu- 
sions respecting the Lolos. — (Proc. geogr. soc. Lond., 
Aug.) J. W. P. 

Ethnology of Timor.—In a letter addressed to 
Sir Joseph Hooker, in 1880, Mr. H. O. Forbes wrote 


Mr. Baber pays a just tribute to Baron y.— 


[405 


oe 


NOVEMBER 23, 1883.] 


from Sumatra, offering, if some assistance could be 
forwarded him, to attempt an expedition to Timor- 
laut. The British association granted the needed 
funds, and the trip was made. ‘This island must not 
be confounded with Timor, lying to the south-west. 
A large collection of crania and culture-objects was 
made, and a vocabulary of several hundred words 
compiled. Among their customs described are their 
methods of dressing the hair, the clothing and orna- 
mentation of the body, their agriculture, meals, fish- 
ing, armor, marriage, care of children, mourning, 
inheritance, oaths, government, slavery, physical 
characteristics, intellectual and moral qualities, pas- 
times, music, and calendars. Commenting on the 
paper, Prof. Flower stated, that, of the twelve crania, 
eight were brachycephalic, and of decidedly Malay 
type; one was dolichocephalic, prognathous, and with 
large teeth, indicating Papuan or Melanesian affini- 
ties; and the other three were more or less interme- 
diate. Nearly all showed signs of artificial flattening 
of the occipital region. 

Mr. Keane remarked that Mr. Forbes confirmed 
the prevalent opinion regarding the extremely com- 
plex nature of the ethnical relations throughout the 
whole of Malaysia and Polynesia. In Timor-laut, 
Papuan, Malayan, and even Polynesian tribes had 
here become intermingled in diverse proportions; the 
result being a distinctly mixed race, such as was 
everywhere in this region often designated by the in- 
convenient term of ‘ Alfuro.’ Timor-laut, however, 
seemed to present the peculiarity that the various 
elements had not here become so completely amal- 
gamated as in most of the neighboring islands. 
Hence the remarkable phenomenon of frizzly and 
lank hair, brown and black complexion, very tall and 
very short stature, dolichocephalous and _ brachy- 
cephalous heads, etc., all still found side by side in 
the same village community. The resemblance in so 
many of the crania to those of the brown Polynesian 
race of Samoa, Tahiti, Hawaii, etc., was very strik- 
ing; so that Timor-laut must have been one of the 
last islands occupied by this race in Malaysia during 
its eastward migration to the remote archipelagoes 
of the Pacific.— (Journ. anthrop. inst., xiii. 8.) 
J. W. P. [406 

The Mavia tribe of negroes.— Cape Delgado 
is on the east coast of Africa, about 11° south. Mr. 
H. O'Neill, H.M. consul, has made a journey inland 
from this point into the country of the Mavias, or 
Mahibas, whose existence was first pointed out by 
Livingstone, and who have baffled the efforts of suc- 
ceeding travellers to penetrate their country. Mr. 
Joseph Thomson and Mr, Chauncey Maples both tes- 
tify to their exclusiveness, A description of one vil- 
lage will serve for all. A circular belt sixty to eighty 
feet wide was thickly planted with trees and under- 
brush. At two or three points a narrow path was left 
for entrance, and guarded by double or triple gates. 
The gate is a framework of two strong uprights, deeply 
embedded in the ground, and strengthened by two 
horizontal bars about five feet apart. ‘Two other moy- 
able horizontal bars fit, one end in a hole, the other 
in a niche in the uprights. A number of smaller up- 


SCIENCE. 


695 


.rights have holes burnt through both their ends, by 


which they are threaded upon the two horizontal bars 
until the framework is completely closed, when the 
ends are thrust into the holes and niches, and the 
whole strengthened by beams placed against it on 
the inside. The gates are carefully closed at sunset. 
Forty or fifty huts are built in the space, and goats 
and poultry take the place of the Irishman’s pig in 
each shanty. This tribe wear immense lip rings or 
studs, which give to them a hideous profile. They 
show a great respect for the dead, and carefully tend 
the graves of any of their chiefs or head men. On 
some of these are raised mounds of clay, enclosed 
with a low ridge. This again had a raised framework 
upon it, roofed in with thatch, and the corner posts 
ornamented with small streamers of cloth. Mr. 
O’Neill appends a yocabulary of about a hundred 
words. — (Proc. geogr. soc. Lond., July.) J. W. P. 

[407 

EARLY INSTITUTIONS. 

French and English law.—Some time ago the 
Institute of France proposed as a subject for com- 
petitive writing a comparison of the French and 
English systems of law in their history and develop- 
ment. An extensive work (5 vols. 8°) was forth- 
with produced by M. Glasson. It was accepted and 
‘crowned’ by the academy. It is entitled Histoire du 
droit et des institutions politiques, civiles, et judici- 
aires de lv Angleterre, comparés au droit et aux institu- 
tions de la France, depuis leur origine jusqwa& nos 
jours. The book is being reviewed, and is much 
praised. ‘The student who finds Reeves’ History of 
the English law obsolete and tiresome will be glad 
to have a substitute for it. The writer takes up dif- 
ferent subjects,—‘ the king,’ ‘ parliament,’ ‘ property,’ 
etc., —and treats them separately. The sequence of 
events, and their relationship with one another, are 
by this method lost sight of to a certain extent. The 
method has its advantages, however; and a subject 
so comprehensive could hardly be treated, we should 
think, in any other way. It is quite impossible to 
bring history, with its innumerable beginnings and 
endings, or issues, into one continuous narrative. 
French history begins with the meeting of the Ger- 
mans and the Romans. French institutions are, to 
begin with, partly German, partly Roman. English 
institutions are, however, almost purely German 
down to the period of the Norman conquest. It is 
in England, therefore, that we trace the development 
of German institutions, rather than in France. The 
monarchy, for example, was in France framed upon 
the Roman model; while in England the Teutonic 
model was adhered to, While we have an absolute 
monarchy in France, we have a very limited mon- 
archy in England, —a democratic republic, with a 
monarchical head, soto speak. Feudalism is described 
as the result of German and Roman influences. It es- 
tablished itself in France, and was taken from France 
into England. The English were verging towards 
feudalism, to be sure. There was a good deal of feu- 
dalism in England before the conquest. The custom 
of commendation was not unknown, but it was not 
associated with the holding of benefices, The hold- 


696 


ing of boc-land under the trinoda necessitas resem-_ 
bled the holding of a benefice in later times; but the 
holders of boc-land were not vassals of a lord. Their 
services were due to the state rather than to the king. 
The king was not the universal landlord until after 
the conquest, when the Norman lawyers persisted in 
describing proprietorship as a tenancy. At the same 
time a great deal of proprietorship was converted into 
tenancy. The position of the isolated proprietor was 
unsafe; and proprietors very generally converted their 
inheritances into tenures, under the overlordship of 
the king or some other great lord. M. Glasson de- 
scribes the various forms of tenure which existed 
under the feudal system, and the condition of the ten- 
ants. A large part of the work is devoted to legal 
procedure and judicial organization. — (Hdinburgh 
rev., July, 1883.) D. Ww. BR. [408 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


THE death of Dr. John L. LeConte at his home in 
Philadelphia on Thursday of last week, at the age of 
fifty-eight, removes one who has long been the leader, 
facile princeps, of American entomologists. With his 
death, the younger men are completely separated 
from the former generation of workers in this field, 
and they will lose a friend and teacher to whom they 
constantly looked. Dr. LeConte was as highly hon- 
ored abroad as at home, and has been an active in- 
vestigator for nearly forty years. His death occurred 
during the session of the National academy, of which 
he was a member, but was not known in New Haven 
until its close. We shall give in a future number an 
account of his services to science. 

- —FPresident Arthur, in carrying out an act passed 
by Congress, has invited the various countries to 
send representatives to an International conference 
at Washington, the date of which is not yet fixed, to 
establish a common prime meridian. The govern- 
ments of Austria, Norway, and Sweden, have de- 
clined: but the Jatter two approve of the object. 
Spain is favorable, but has deferred its reply. Bel- 
gium is uncertain, but Denmark and Portugal have 
accepted the invitation conditionally. Switzerland, 
Venezuela, Mexico, Turkey, Greece, China, Japan, 
Hawaii, Hayti, Liberia, Holland, Canada, Guate- 
mala, Roumania, Nicaragua, and Honduras have 
accepted. Replies are expected from Italy, Great 
Britain, Russia, France, Chili, Brazil, and Germany. 

— Mr. Edward Atkinson has prepared a plan for a 
textile laboratory and museum in Boston. He thinks 
that a hundred thousand dollars would be ample for 
the construction of a proper building, and its equip- 
ment, which should be an adjunct of the Massachu- 
setts institute of technology. The purpose is to afford 
special training for young men intending to pursue 
textile manufacture. The first two years’ course of 
instruction in the institute is suited as a basis for the 
future special study of textile manufactures; and 
it is in the next two years of the curriculum that 
special training should be followed. The first two 
years would ground the student in modern languages 
and mathematics, in mechanical drawing, in general 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 42. 


geology and chemistry, as well as in the practical 
work of the physical and chemical laboratories, and 
will thus prepare him for entering upon the special 
course of textile industry. The professional studies 
would include geology, botany, mechanical engineer- 
ing, building and architecture, mechanics, textile de- 
sign in all branches, industrial chemistry, history, 
and political economy. ' 

— Professor Balfour Stewart and Mr. W. L. Car- 
penter discussed, before the British Association for 
the advancement of science, the supposed sun-spot 
inequalities of short period. Putting aside for the 
time the question of true or nearly apparent periodi- 
city, they exhibited certain results obtained by appli- 
cation of amethod of detecting unknown inequalities 
in amass of observations. Thirty-six years’ observa- 
tions of sun-spots were divided into three series of 
twelve years each. Two apparent sun-spot inequali- 
ties of about twenty-six days came out very promi- 
nently, appearing for each of the twelve years in the 
same phase, and to very nearly the same extent. 

—A design for a new high-level bridge at Newcas- 
tle-on-Tyne has been prepared by W. G. Laws, city 
engineer. It showsa clear span of six hundred feet, 
and a clear headway above high water of eighty-two 
feet. The bridge will be of steel, and the cost of 
superstructure, foundations, and approaches, is esti- 
mated at two hundred and fifty thousand pounds. 

—Sir J. Whitworth & Co. have lately completed 
and tested a 9-inch (23 centimetres) gun for the 
Brazilian government. The peculiar feature of this 
system is the hexagonal section of the bore of the 
gun. The material is compressed cast steel, which is 
superior to other steels in its combined ductility and 
tenacity, and in its perfect soundness. This gun, on 
trial, threw a shell of the weight of 800 pounds (136 
kilograms) 7,876 yards (over 7,000 metres), and drove 
a steel shell weighing 400 pounds (181 kilograms) 
through a wrought-iron plate 18 inches (48 centime- 
tres) in thickness; and its backing broke up a cast- 
iron plate supporting it, and finally buried itself in 
the earth. Such results are not attainable, so far 
as experience has yet indicated, by any other system 
of ordnance. 

— An electric tram-car was recently tried in Paris 
very successfully. It was driven a distance of thirty 
miles in about three hours without accident or deten- 
tion. The current was supplied by Faure accumu- 
lators placed under the seats, and driving a Siemens 
dynamo under the floor at the rate of twelve hun- 
dred revolutions per minute. The car-wheels turn 
sixty times to twelve thousand revolutions of the 
dynamo. The speed attained was five and a half to 
nine miles an hour, according to the gradient. 

—In a paper before the British association, Pro- 
fessor Boyd Dawkins remarked that the classification 
of the tertiary rocks, sketched out some fifty years ago, 
and since then altered in no important degree, is out 
of harmony with our present knowledge, and the 
definitions of the series of events which took place 
in it has been greatly modified by the process of dis- 
covery in various parts of the world. The terms ‘eo- 
cene,’ ‘miocene,’ and ‘ pliocene’ no longer express the 


NovVEMBER 28, 1883.] 


idea of percentages of living species of fossil mollusca 
upon which they were founded; and post-tertiary, 
quaternary, and recent are founded on the assumed 
existence of a great break comparable to that sepa- 
rating the secondary from the primary or tertiary 
periods, which is now known not to exist. The 
author proposed a classification of the tertiary period 
in Europe by an appeal to the land mammalia, and 
since that time his definition has been found to apply 
equally well to the tertiaries of Asia and the Ameri- 
cas and to the late tertiaries of Australia. .He stated 
that the forms of life in the rocks have changed at a 
very variable rate, and in direct proportion to their 
complexity of organization; the lower and simpler 
having an enormous range, while the higher and 
more complex have a much narrower range, and are 
more easily affected by the change in their environ- 
ment. 

—The proposed discussion on the possibility of 

_ establishing a universal time by selecting a meridian 
common to all nations has given rise to many sugges- 
tions more or less valuable. One of these, published 
in the Journal of the society of arts, is, that ‘the 
simplest way of expressing this universal time would 
be by using Roman figures; while the civil time would 
be expressed by Arabic numerals, followed by a large 
H for the morning hours, and a small one for those 
of the evening. In fact, the hour would be ex- 
pressed in a manner similar to that in use among 
the Russians for designating the old and new style 
in dates. In the same manner as they say 16/28 
June, the railway time-tables would say, Arrival at 
Paris, XXIIL./10h. 24m. ; departure from Paris, XVI. 
40 m./4 bh. 04m.; departure from St. Petersburg, 
VIII. 10m./9 H. 26m. 

—At the meeting of the French academy of 
sciences, held Oct. 3, M. Alphonse Milne-Edwards 
reported the foundation of a new laboratory of marine 
zoology at Marseilles. It is to be under the direction 
of Professor Marion, of the Marseilles faculty of sci- 
ences. 

—The periodicity of drought and floods in the 
Rhine district, and its connection with sun-spots, 
aurorae, and the magnetism of the earth, is dealt 
with in a work by Professor Paul Reis of Maintz, just 
published by Messrs. Quandt and Handel of Leipzig. 
The volume is entitled ‘ Die periodische wiederkehr 
von wassersnoth und wassermangel.’ 

—In Austria, as well as in Germany and England, 
systematic efforts are being made to settle the ques- 
tions as to the contagiousness and heredity of tuber- 
eulosis. A circular has been sent to eight thousand 
medical men in Austria, requesting them to give 
particulars of any cases which they consider to have 
proved the contagiousness of the disease, and also to 
give the particulars of cases of supposed heredity, and 
of any cases in which complete cure is believed to 
have been effected. The determined international 
effort which is being made to cope with this fell 
disease must be regarded as one of the results of 
Koch’s discovery of the Bacillus tuberculosis. 

—Atarecent meeting of the French entomologi- 
cal society, Dr. Laboulbéene instanced a case in which 


SER — “a 


SCIENCE. 


697 


dipterous larvae had been vomited by a woman thirty- 
nine years old, under the care of Dr. E. Pichat of La 
Rochelle. Specimens of the pupa, and of the fly 
hatehed from them (Curtoneura stabulans Fall.), 
were exhibited to the society. The woman had 
been troubled for some days with bronchitis and 
very fetid breath, and finally, after a severe attack 
of coughing, vomited twice. Dr. Pichat afterward 
found in the basin used a hundred to a hundred and 
fifty of these larvae; and the circumstances as related 
by him leave no serious doubt of their source, though 
he was not present during the vomiting, but only 
called immediately after it. 

This larva, according to Laboulbene, is well known, 
and is ordinarily found in decomposing animal and 
vegetable matter, in mushrooms, ete., and has also 
been reared from caterpillars and hymenopterous 
larvae. 

‘The possibility of the existence of such flies (Mus- 
cariae) in the human body was formerly generally 
accepted, but has lately been denied by Davaine. 
Experiments have proved, says Dr. Laboulbéne, that 
such larvae, introduced into the stomach of animals 
by a fistula, have been discharged alive in the excre- 
ment, one, two, or even three days later. 

— At the meeting of the Engineers’ club of Philadel- 
phia, Nov. 3, Mr. Charles H. Haswell presented ‘ Notes 
upon roads, streets, and pavements;’ Mr. E. A. Gei- 
seler read an illustrated paper upon ‘ Tides, and New- 
ton’s theory of them;’ Mr. Allen J. Fuller spoke of 
the ‘ Effect of frost upon fire-plug casings,’ —a paper 
which will be noticed next week under the ‘sum- 
mary.’ Professor Haupt also exhibited a ‘ History 
of the manual arts, or the inventions of human wit,’ 
published by Mr. Herringman, London, 1661. The 
secretary read the following account from the Mexi- 
can national of Laredo, Tex., of a bridge construction 
by Mr. C. A. Merriam: ‘‘On the sixth day of Sep- 
tember (the anniversary of loss of bridge last year) 
the Mexican national railroad-bridge was carried 
away by high water. On Monday the 16th the first 
pile was driven for the new structure, which was 
completed on the 23d; and trains are now running 
regularly. ‘This is pretty quick work, —the erection 
of a bridge six hundred feet long in seven days.” 

The secretary narrated his experience on behalf of 
the club, and read extracts from correspondence, ete., 
with the custom-house, through the stupendous in- 
scrutability of the management of which the Trans- 
actions of the society of engineers of London, and of 
the Institution of civil engineers of ‘Treland, are 
charged with duty; and all the other foreign societies 
upon the exchange list of the club are admitted free. 

— Scandinavia, published in Chicago, is the title 
of a journal devoted to the interests of Scandinavian 
life, past and present. It is printed in English, and 
is intended to keep the American public informed as 
to the movements, both in politics and literature, 
among the people of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway. 
The first number is dated November, 1883. 

— Lindstrom has published in the Bihang to the 
Swedish academy’s Handlingar an annotated index 
to the generic names applied to the corals of the 


698 


paleozoic formations. A list, by*Dalla Torre, of the 
generic names given to Hymenoptera during the 
decade 1869-79, appeared in Katter’s Hntomologische 
nachrichten of last December. 

— The Humoristické listy of Prag for Oct. 27 con- 
tains an excellent large portrait of the late Mr. Bar- 
rande. We shall publish one next week. 

—The mathematical magazine conducted under 
the name of the Analyst for the past ten years, 
by Mr. J. E. Hendricks, will be continued under 
the editorial charge of Ormond Stone, professor of 
astronomy, and William M. Thornton, professor of 
engineering, with the title, Annals of mathematics, 
pure and applied. The numbers will be issued at 
intervals of two months, beginning Feb. 1, 1884. In 
scope the journal will embrace the development of 
new and important theories of mathematics, pure 
and applied; the solution of useful and interesting 
problems; the history and bibliography of various 
branches of mathematics; and critical examinations 
and reviews of important treatises and text-books on 
mathematical subjects. The office of publication will 
be at the University of Virginia. 

—Dr. Maecgowan recently sent a communication 
to the North China herald on the art of making lumi- 
nous paint in the celestial empire. The Chinese, says 
Dr. Macgowan, used powdered mussel-shells instead 
of oyster-shells. The method seems to be ancient. 
The emperor, Tai Tsung, who flourished towards the 
end of the tenth century of the Christian era, received 
a picture which was luminous by night. The picture 
represented, by night, a cow lying within a fence; 
while, by day, the cow appeared as browsing outside 
of the enclosure. His Majesty asked for an explana- 
tion from his ministers, but they were no better in- 
formed than he. At length some one informed the 
emperor that the effect was produced by mixing 
Southern-Sea pearl-paste with a pigment which at 
night became luminous, and that the day-picture was 
made of a powdered reef-stone. In after-ages the 
picture was attributed to the genii, whilst some de- 
nied its existence altogether. Dr. Macgowan shows, 
by extracts from a Chinese writer of three centuries 
ago, that the tradition of the art had not died out. 

—The meeting of the Philosophical society of 
Washington, held Noy. 10, was devoted to the con- 
sideration of geologic subjects. Mr. Edwin Smith 
exhibited a seismographic record obtained in Japan, 
and described the system of observations conducted 
by Professor Paul. Capt. C. E. Dutton read a paper 
entitled ‘The yoleanic problem stated,’ and Mr. W. 
J. McGee made a communication on the ‘ Drainage 
system, and the distribution of loess, in eastern Lowa.’ 

— John T. Short, professor of history at the Ohio 
State university at Columbus, died Dec. 11, after a 
long illness. He was especially well known for his 
researches in the history of Central America. His 
‘North-Americans, and their early history,’ passed 
through many editions. 

— The papers read at the meeting of the Biological 
society of Washington, Noy. 16, were by Professor 
Lester F. Ward, Mesozoic dicotyledons; Mr. C. D. 
Walcott, Fresh-water shells from the lower carbonif- 


SCIENCE. 


(Vor. II., No. 42. 


erous, with exhibition of specimens; Mr. Frederick 
W. True, Exhibition of a unique specimen of a West- 
Indian seal, Monachus tropicalis Gray; Dr. C. A. 
White, Persistence of the domestic instinct in the 
eat. 

— An unpretending but useful little paper has been 
lately published as Bulletin no. 5 of the Illinois 
state laboratory of natural history, by N. 8. Davis, 
jun., and Frank L. Rice. This paper contains concise 
descriptions of seventy-four species and sub-species 
of North-American batrachians, and fifty-four of rep- 
tiles, found eastof the Mississippi. Analytical keys 
to the families and genera are given, but no synony- 
my. The classification and nomenclature are those 
of Professor Cope’s Check-list, and the descriptions 
are in great part compiled from writings of the same 
author. There is, however, evidence of considerable 
study of specimens; and the collector of reptiles in 
the region covered will find this catalogue very con- 


- venient. 


—A boy fourteen years of age was fishing at 
Tomioka, Nizen, Japan, recently, when his right arm 
was seized by a large octopus with two of its tenta- 
cles. His cries brought succor as he was being dragged 
into the water, and the tentacles were cut. The lad 
reached home; but his arm seemed paralyzed, and in 
five days death ensued, probably from shock. 

—H. Schallibaum recommends a mixture of one 
volume of collodion with three to four volumes of 
oil of cloves, to secure microscopic sections in place 
upon the slide. The oil is evaporated over a water- 
bath, after which the sections may be stained, ete. 
An adyantage is thus offered over Giesbrecht’s shel- 
lac method. The full directions are given in the 
Archiv fiir mikroskopische anatomie (xxii. 689). 

—Four mummies have been obtained from the 
Aleutian region for the Berlin museum. They are 
in a good state of preservation, and are believed to be 
of great age. 2 

—M. A. Dumont has submitted to the Paris acad- 
emy of sciences a suggestion for increasing the irri- 
gating waters derived from the Rhone by regulating 
the discharge from the Lake of Geneva. This project, 
recommended by the Geneva commission, inyolves 
the expenditure of about £180,000, and the creation 
of a hydraulic force of 7,000-horse power, by which 
the level of the lake at high water might be reduced 
by at least 0.60 m., and the minimum discharge of the 
Rhone at the outlet increased by 80 me. per second. 

— The science of forestry has hitherto been much 
neglected in England: but the Athenaeum states that 
the proposal to hold an International forestry exhibi- 
tion in Edinburgh during the summer and autumn 
of next year has been taken up with much earnest- 
ness; and the sum of £3,500 has already been ob- 
tained as a guaranty fund, without any direct appeal 
to the public at large. Besides specimens of forest 
produce, implements used in forestry, fungi, rustic 
work, etc., there will be a collection of illustrations 
of trees, scenery, forest labor, and the like, along 


‘with books, maps, and reports bearing on forest 


history, surveys, and the geographical distribution 
of trees. 


se 


— 


SCTE NC E. 


FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 


1883. 


JOACHIM BARRANDE. 
I., HIS LIFE.? 


Tue death of Joachim Barrande, who for 
more than half a century has attracted the 
respectful regards 
of the world of 
science, severs 
the last link be- 
tween the times 
of Cuvier and our 
own. The exam- 
ple of this noble 
life may be truly 
said to have borne 
threefold fruit. 
He was, after 
Cuvier, intellect- 
ually by far the 
most dangerous 
of the opponents 
of evolution. He 
was great in his 
works, and great 
in the example of 
a life devoted to 
research and to 
the service of his 
unfortunate 
ereign. He be- 
longed to that 
illustrious body of 
men who acknowl- 
edged Cuvier as 
their teacher of 
science; and, in 
order to under- 
stand him, one must recognize this, and also 
realize that to him loyalty was inseparable 
from faith and truth. The chivalrous side of 


SOvV- 


1 We are indebted to Professor Jules Marcou, an intimate 
friend of M. Barrande, for the personal facts in this notice. 
, 


No. 43. — 1883. 


his character is best illustrated by the reason 
which he gave for refusing peremptorily the 
high honor of an election to the French: acad- 
IIe said simply that he had no desire 
for membership in a society with such avowed 
aims, but which had refused admission to some 
of his masters in science, — Alcide D’Orbigny, 


emy. 


Deshayes, and 
Lartet, 
taught 

that he 
He dedi- 

himself to 


Edouard 
had 
him all 


who 


knew. 
cated 
science always 
without personal 


reservation; but 
his opinions were 
never free. He 


was bound by his 
loyalty to the mem- 
ory of his masters 
in science, and by 
faith in the 
doctrine of the 
divine right of 
and both 
in science and in 


his 


kings ; 


politics he re- 
through- 
out life a consist- 
ent opponent of 
the new theories 
of evolution and 
republicanism. 


mained 


the 
year 1799, in the 
town of Saugues, 
department of 
Haute Loire, 
first hear of him in 1819. when he entered the 


Born in 


we 


Ecole polytechnique of Paris, whence he grad- 
uated in 1821 among the first in his class, and, 
then passed into the Ecole des ponts et chaus- 
sées, graduating in 1824 with high honors. 


700 


During these five years he was assiduous in 
his attendance on the various courses of lec- 
tures given by Cuvier, Brongniart, De Jussieu, 
Constant Prévost, and Desfontaines, upon 
zoology, geology, and botany, and constantly 
visited the collections of the Jardin des plantes. 
After graduation he was appointed engineer 
at a small town in the basin of the Loire; and 
there, during one of the visits of Duc D’An- 
gouléme, then the dauphin of France, he was 
presented to the duke; and any one who has 
ever had the privilege of Barrande’s acquaint- 
ance will readily understand the favorable im- 
pression his character and attainments made 
upon his royal highness. Subsequently the 
young engineer became the most favored can- 
didate of the dauphin for the office of in- 
structor in science to his nephew, the Comte 
de Chambord, the grandson of Charles X. ; 
and he secured this post for him. The unso- 
licited appointment to what was considered 
and sought by learned men as one of the 
highest honors in the gift of the king, reads 
like the climax of a fairy-tale ; and like that, 
also, the daring of the young engineer in 
accepting the appointment had the happiest 
results for himself and for his royal charge. 
The revolution of 1830 put an end to the 
reion of Charles-X., and drove the elder 
branch of the Bourbon family and their faith- 
ful servitor into exile; and it was during the 
sojourn in England and in Scotland that Bar- 
rande perfected himself in the use of the 
English language. In 1832 they removed to 
Prague, and carried with them this man who 
was to make Bohemia classic ground for the 
geologists of all countries. Barrande found 
himself here in a new field, where all his pre- 
vious education and preparation were at fault ; 
but for a true investigator, such as he was, 
this merely excited the greater interest. He 
and his pupil began by collecting every thing 
in the vicinity ; and then, little by little, their 
attention was irresistibly drawn to the fasci- 
natingly rich deposits of Silurian fossils. 
Their collections in time became too exten- 
sive to be accommodated in the halls devoted 
to study at the Chateau de Hradschin, and 


SCIENCE. 


s ' 


[Vou. IL., No. 43. 


Barrande removed his collections to a house 
which he had purchased as a residence for 
himself. With immense labor, and without 
assistance from books, he built up the first 
steps of a classification by which he could 
arrange his collections in natural sequence 
and in their respective faunas. In 1840 he 
met with a copy of the ‘Silurian system’ of 
Murchison, and became assured of the fact 
that he was working among similar fossils 
and in the same geological period. This ser- 
vice was later gratefully and intentionally ree- 
ognized in the general title of his works, 
‘ Systéme silurien du centre de la Bohéme.’ 
The royal family changed their residence, 
going first to Goritz, and then to Frohsdorf; 
but Barrande, though continuing to serve the 
Comte de Chambord, haying exchanged the 
post of tutor for that of trusted friend and 
superintendent of finances, did not live in his 
household, being permitted to remain with his 
beloved collections at Prague. His duties, 
however, called him a part of the year to 
Paris ; and he there leased apartments, first in 
the rue Méziéres, and subsequently in the rue 
de ’Odéon. There are probably few geolo- 
gists of reputation who have not, in passing 
through Paris, made these apartments a visit, 
and experienced the delight of being received 
by this stately and warm-hearted gentleman. 
Besides the mastery of English, Barrande 
found it necessary to acquire German, which 
he spoke and wrote with facility, and also the 
Czech language, in order to direct and control 
the workmen employed by him as collectors 
of fossils. These men yaried in number at 
different times, from six to twenty, and some- 
times even to thirty. The practical difficulties 
which were overcome in this part of the work, 
and the anecdotes which might be related of 
the efforts made to deceiye him about the 
localities of fossils, for which he had offered 
special rewards, would be instructive as well 
as amusing. We have, however, space only 
to relate that he acquired among his workmen 
the reputation of being a generous gentleman, 
but one of great firmness; and, being obliged 
also to account for powers beyond their com- 


NoveMBER 30, 1883.] 


prehension, they attributed to him a mastery 
of the black art of divination, and a possible 
intimacy with the devil himself. 

In finishing his work, neither money nor la- 
bor was spared: the best illustrators were con- 
stantly employed; and one, M. Humbert, be- 
came noted, lived constantly with him, and died 
in his employ after twenty-five years of service. 
. Barrande found it necessary to be his own 
publisher. He accordingly organized a French 
press at Prague; and the typography of his 
books justify his own assertion, that they could 
not have been printed with greater technical 
elegance by any press in Paris. We know 
from personal inspection that errors are very 
rare.‘ The quotations, which generally show 
carelessness, if any part of a book does, excel 
in this respect; and the desire for correctness 
has been carried so far, that, instead of tables 
of ‘ corrigenda,’ he has carefully corrected 
errors with printed slips pasted upon the pages 
of the text. All this was done while engaged 
in administering a fortune of about fifty mil- 
lions of francs, and arranging many compli- 
cated questions of business connected with his 
position, and relations to the Comte de Cham- 
bord, which required much time, and many 
journeys to different parts of Europe. That 
this was accomplished successfully is shown 
by the terms of the will of this last heir of 
the elder Bourbons, who appointed him his 
executor. The expenses of the whole work 
were met by the personal sacrifice of his own 
income from all sources, but principally by the 
generous assistance of his royal friend. 
presents were always made with the greatest 
delicacy by the count as his subscriptions to 
the ‘Systéme silurien de la Bohéme;’ and 
Barrande has recognized their essential impor- 
tance in dedicating each of his volumes to 
this generous patron, and also by a direct 
statement that his own labors would have 
failed but for this assistance. The world of 
science owes to the Bourbon family its per- 
petual recognition of this example of friend- 
ship and generosity, which has brought out to 
full fruition the life of one of its representa- 
tive men. 


These 


SCIENCE. 


701 


No government can point to a finer single 
monument to science than this one, created by 
an exile in a foreign country; and the sums 
expended were large, since, as we are assured, 
the average cost of each of the twenty-two 
volumes, as estimated by Barrande himself, 
was not less than twenty thousand francs, mak- 
ing a grand total of nearly ninety thousand 
dollars for the parts published up to the pres- 
ent time. M. Barrande never married; and 
his only surviving relatives are a sister, Mme. 
Vuillet, and a brother somewhat younger, M. 
Joseph Barrande, a distinguished engineer. 

It is impossible adequately to present a life 
so varied and so full of activity in every direc- 
tion, at once scientific, and yet so picturesque 
from political and social stand-points. He 
had become, before his death, the only survivor 
of the ancient servitors of the royal house of 
France ; and the cause, and even the surround- 
ings, of his death, completed the beautiful 
picture of his life of voluntary exile and chiv- 
alrous service. He sacrificed himself to his 
duty as executor, and died from a cold con- 
tracted from exposure while engaged in carry- 
ing out the last wishes of the man who had 
been to him pupil, friend, patron, and right 
ful sovereign. Eis decease took place Oct. 
5, at the Chateau of Frohsdorf, near Vienna, 
under the same roof, and within a short time 
after the death of the Comte de Chambord. We 
who are republicans cannot estimate his mo- 
tives, nor feel with him as a royalist, but we 
can respect the rare moral qualities of his 
devotion: and we feel, also, that it is essen- 
tial to express our reverence and gratitude 
to the memory of a really great man for his 
consideration and kindness to all young stu- 
dents in science who have had occasion to 
come into personal or professional relations 
with him. ; 


WHIRLWINDS, CYCLONES, AND TOR- 
NADOES.1—IV. 


Tue beginning of the upsetting in a tropical 
cyclone is not fully accounted for by observa- 
tion. It is not so easily explained as the first 


1 Continued from No. 42. 


702 


uprising on the desert, inasmuch as the ocean’s 
calm surface is too smooth to offer any distinct 
starting-point for the up-draught. There are, 
however, several plausible ways out of the 
difficulty. It is possible that loealized warmth 
and expansion where the air is calmest’ may 
produce a gentle up-current, which, once begun, 
will be soon well established. Again: an ex 

cess of evaporation will cause a rapid upward 
diffusion of vapor. It will reach an altitude 
where it must condense, and form a cloud-layer, 
and thereby warm the surrounding air both by 
its latent heat and by catching the warmth of 
the sun’s rays; and, as this will go on at a 
considerable altitude, it willbe especially effec- 
tive. Finally, if after a time of calm a breeze 
should opportunely penetrate the district from 
an adjoining one of higher pressure, an ascend- 
ing current would surely be started. In some 
such way a gradual overturning of the unbal- 
anced air must begin, and its further action is 
now to be traced. 

The rising mass expands as it escapes from 
the pressure of the air that it leaves below, and 
in expanding it is mechanically cooled. As it 
cools, some of the vapor with which it is well 
charged condenses into cloud, and, on accumu- 
lating, soon begins to fall as rain. Here we 


have the entrance of a new and potent cause of 


disturbance, —the bringing-forth of a great 
amount of energy in the form of heat from the 
condensation of the vapor. It is probable that 
_ this aid to the up-draught seldom takes the ini- 
tiative: it waits till some other cause begins 
the upsetting, and then falls to with a will to 
help it along. 

This effect of condensation is so important 
that it may well be considered a little more 
closely. As water evaporates, its molecules are 
spread widely apart, and take on a very active 
motion; but in doing so they must be furnished 
with energy in some form, for they cannot de- 
velop out of nothing the energy needed for 
their increased activity. As a general rule, 
the desired supply is found in the sun’s radi- 
ant heat: so, when water evaporates from 
the sea-surface, it takes to itself nearly all the 
energy that comes down in the sun’s rays, 
and thereby its molecules are enlivened up to 
the point of vaporization. It will be readily 
understood, that, if heat-energy be taken by the 
water and transformed into vapor-energy, it 
can no longer make itself felt as heat; and, so 
far as our senses are concerned, it is lost or 
hidden, and for this reason is called ‘latent 
heat.’ The term is misleading and improper, 
for it implies that the sun’s energy still remains 
somewhere in the vapor as a kind of heat that 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No: 48. 


we cannot feel; but this is wrong, for as heat it 
no longer exists. It will be further seen, that, 
when the vapor is condensed back again into 
water, allits vapor energy must take some other 
form: it must abandon the vapor molecules, 
and allow them to quiet down and approach 
one another as they resume the liquid condi- 
tion; and the energy thus thrown out of em- 
ployment must make itself felt in some other 
way. We are therefore prepared to find that 
condensation is attended with the production 
of just as much heat-energy as was lost in the 
process of evaporation. ‘This is of capital im- 
portance in the understanding of storms. 

It has already been seen, that the cause of 
continued action in a desert-whirl is found in 
the excessive warmth of the lower strata; in 
virtue of which the airin the ascending column 
finds itself warmer, and hence lighter, than the 
surrounding air, and consequently is impelled 
to rise as oil rises through water. It was fur- 
ther noted, that the ascending whirl will con- 
tinue as long as it is supplied with excessively 
warm air at the base; but, as soon as the bot- 
tom air is not more than 1.6° warmer than the 
air three hundred feet above it, the whirl will 
die away. In the case of an ascending column 
of air saturated with vapor, it would also, as 
in the previous case, expand as it rose to higher 
levels of less pressure, and. in consequence of 
this expansion, it would cool. But when satu-. 
rated air is cooled, some of its vapor must 
condense ; and when yapor condenses, heat is 
evolved ; and the heat thus produced will partly 
make up for the loss of heat by expansion, and 
therefore the ascending column of moist air 
will not be allowed to cool so fast as if it had 
not been saturated with vapor. Several im- 
portant consequences now follow. In the first 
place, a less warming at the base is needed to 
produce unstable equilibrium in saturated than 
in dry air. In the latter, the turning-point is 

reached when there is a 

difference of 1.6° F. be- 

5 ee tween the temperatures of 

(94) | co the surface-air and that 
three hundred feet above. 

p In the former, if the sur- 
500 FEET face-temperature be 80°, as 
is common in the Bay of 
Bengal, a difference of only 
5 0.6° is required. In other 
80 words, if a mass of dry air 
at 80° rise three hundred 
feet, its temperature falls 
to 78.4°: if a mass of saturated air at the same 
temperature (fig. 5) rise through the same dis- 
tance, it is cooled only to 79. 4°; and conse- 


= 


NovemMBer 30, 1883.] 


quently, for every three hundred feet of ascent 
it has an advantage over dry air of one degree 
of warmth (and more at great altitudes), tend- 
ing to make it lighter than its surroundings, 
and so intensifying its upward motion. More- 
over, a storm which is thus nourished may 
continue its activity through the night, instead 
of dying away as the sun declines; for it is 
supplied with energy continually brought out 
of the vapor storehouse. Of course, in both 
cases the sun’s heat is the source of the dis- 
turbance ; but on the desert there is no way 
of storing up the heat, while at sea a great 
amount of energy may be stored up before the 
final upsetting. begins, and 


SCIENCE. 


703 


the heat evolved in the condensation of so much 
vapor. ‘The rapid reproduction of the heat 
stored up through many previous days of sun- 
shine retards the cooling of the ascending cur- 
rent, excites the winds to active motion, and 
the storm is thus set going. Espy (1835) was 
thé first to recognize the important part played 
by the condensing vapor in an ascending cur- 
rent of air, but he greatly exaggerated its 
effects. ‘The proper measure of its action, and 
convenient statement of the results in tabular 
form, are chiefly due to Reye (1864) and Hann 
(1874). 

The ascending current moves outward at a 


then the storm-winds arise, ——_g000° F inal) St eae 
and show all this accumulat- ALTITUDE BAROMETER 
ed strength in their blowing. 2 el es 

We have much this kind of 
action, im a small way,in the = ———_5000" 24 
formation ofa heavy cumulus- 26 
cloud on a quiet, hot summer 5 : oye 

3 : 28 
day. The air on the ground 

{2} SURFACE OF THE SEA 30° 


is warmed, and contains. a 
good share of moisture ; and, 
as it rises and cools. its vapor 
begins to be condensed. Some of the vapor- 
energy is given out as heat, and so the ascend- 
ing current is re-enforced. If the air be very 
warm or very moist, or both, the ordinary 
cumulus-cloud may grow intoa thunder-shower ; 
and, being then unable to carry up all its con- 
densed vapor, some of it falls as rain, It 
should be noted, that, when the lower air is not 
fully saturated, its temperature must be some- 
what reduced to bring it to the point of satura- 
tion before any cloud is formed. This decrease 
is mechanically effected at the rate of 1.6° every 
three hundred feet, by the expansion of the 
rising air, — essentially the same rate as that 
already given for the cooling of a rising column 
of dry air; and, when enough cooling has been 
thus effected to reduce the air to its tempera- 
ture of saturation, some of the yapor will be 
condensed into liquid cloud-particles, and so 
become visible. It is for this reason that 
eumulus-clouds have nearly level bases, and 
that a group of such clouds stands at about the 
same altitude. ‘The air-currents rising from the 
warm ground have to ascend a certain distance, 
and cool a certain number of degrees, before 
condensation takes place. ‘Their altitude in feet 
will be about a hundred and eighty-three times 
the number of degrees between the temperature 
of the lower air and its dew-point. 

All tropical eyclones are attended by clouds 
and by excessively heavy rain; and this points 
very clearly to the important part played by 


Fie. 6. 


height of one or two miles, spreading itself 
over the surrounding atmosphere. To show its 
relation to the storm circulation, we may refer 
to the foliowing figures. Fig. 6 shows the air 
in a quiescent state, before the storm begins. 
At such atime, there being no wind, the weight 
of the air. or the barometric pressure at sea- 
level. —say, 50 inches, —is uniform throughout 
the area preparing for cyclonic disturbance. 
The pressure is uniform, not only at the sea- 
surface, but also at any given altitude above it 
(the effect of the upper winds is here omitted 
as being non-essential to the explanation, as 
well as unknown) ; so that the lines in the fig- 
ure will represent level surfaces of equal press- 
ure of 28, 26, 24 inches, or isobaric planes 
at altitudes of about 1,600, 5,300, and 5,000 
feet. As long as the vertical grayitative press- 
ure is at right angles to these planes, the air 
is not tempted to move, but will remain at rest 
till disturbed by some new condition. This 
new condition will be some form of the disturb- 
ing actions already suggested, by which a cen- 
tral region of greatest warmth is determined, 
in consequence of which there will be an ex- 
pansion of the atmosphere at that place. The 
isobaric planes will become conyex there, as in 
fig. 7; for the altitudes at which barometric 
pressures of 28, 26, 24 inches are found must 
now be greater than before. As there has 
been, as yet, no lateral motion, this produces 
no change in the pressure at sea-level. But a 


104 


reason for lateral motion has now appeared: 
the gravitative pressure of the upper air is no 
longer at right angles to the convex isobaric 
surfaces, and consequently there will be a ten- 
dency for the air to slide down from the centre. 
In obedience to this impulse, some of the cen- 
tral expanded air moves laterally or radially 
outward to the marginal region ; and now there 


10.000" 


SCIENCE. 


cee 


Il., No. 43, 


' 


[Vou. 


margin. Now, in virtue of the greater dis- 
tance between the isobars at the centre, the 
altitude of some surface, say that of 24 inches, 
will be as great there as over the marginal 
region, in spite of the inequalities of pressure 
and inward slope of the isobars at sea-level ; 
and at greater altitudes the isobaric surfaces 
will become convex, and hence slope outwards, 
instead of inwards, as 
below. ‘The two direc- 
tions of slope will be 
separated by a level or 
neutral plane, on which 
there will be no ten- 
dency to motion. Ilere 
we have excellent illus- 
tration of the convec- 


Wie. 7. 


is no longer a uniform pressure of 30 inches 
at sea-level. At the centre, whence the upper 
air has rolled away, the pressure will be reduced, 
let us say, to 29 inches: on the surrounding 
district, over which the air has advanced, the 
pressure has increased to 30.25 inches. In this 
new arrangement of pressures there is cause 
for still further gravitative motion; namely, a 
rising of the air at the centre, a sinking at 
the marginal region, and a horizontal motion 
along the sea-surface, toward the centre of low 
pressure, in the attempt to restore an equilib- 
rium. But this will not fully overcome the in- 
equality of pressures, or correct the sloping of 
the isobars; for the existence of an ascending 
and expanding warm current at the centre re- 
quires that the isobaric surfaces there shall be 
separated by a greater vertical distance than in 
the normal cool- 
er air of fig. 6. 


tional motion of the wind 
in a storm. It ascends 
at the centre, where it 
is lightest; it then flows outward, down the 
barometric gradient; it sinks at the marginal 
region of higher pressure, and then flows in- 
ward, down the reversed gradient, back to the 
centre again. This may be called the vertical 
circulation of the storm; and it will be contin- 
ued as long as the central current is warmed to 
excess, So as to raise its isobaric surfaces. In 
the desert-whirlwind we have seen that the 
supply of warm air depends immediately upon 
contact with the surface-sands heated by direct 
sunshine. In the cyclone at sea, the greatest 
part of the warmth needed is given out by the 
vapor that condenses at the centre, and falls 
in the heavy rains, without which a cyclone 
cannot form. Such a storm may last many 
days. 

The explanations thus far given of the be- 


Further, the mar- 
ginal descending 


current of air, 
greatly cooled by 


radiation in the 


upper regions, is 
heavier, volume 
for volume, than 


the ascending cur- 
rent, and hence 
has its isobaric 
surfaces closer together than usual. A shorter 
vertical column of it is needed to balance an 
inch of mercury in the barometer. Fig. 8 shows 
this final condition, — the diminished pressure 
and greater separation of the isobaric lines 
at the warm centre ; the increased pressure’ and 
the approach of the isobaric lines in the cooler 


Fie. 8. 


ginning of a cyclone apply strictly only to the 
hurricanes of tropical latitudes ; for in the tem- 
perate zones our numerous storms are by no 
means always dependent on local warmth and 
calmness of the air. The most that can now be 
safely said of the origin of such storms is, that 
they depend on some immediately preceding 


’ 


; 


- NovemBer 80, 1883.] 


disturbance, somewhat as one water-wave de- 
pends on another ; for no one has yet been able 
to trace one of our storms so far back as to 
show it quite independent of previous storms, 
as seems to be the case with the tropical 
cyclones. In the irregular blowing of the 
winds of higher latitudes, for which no full 
explanation can be given, too much air is 
accumulated in certain districts, which then 
appear as regions of high pressure. In seek- 
ing a better balanced re-arrangement, surface- 
currents are established with a rotary deflection, 
as explained below, toward intermediate areas 
of lower pressure ; and an up-draught is formed 
at their meeting. This becomes a storm-centre. 
It might be said that friction would soon cause 
all these local disturbances to cease, and atmos- 
pheric pressure would then remain more uni- 
form. So it might, if the air were dry ; but the 
condensation of vapor, by which the cooling of 
the ascending current is retarded, brings out a 
new supply of energy every time an up-current 
is established ; and thus the disturbed condition 
of the atmosphere is maintained. It cannot 
settle down into a condition of equilibrium as 
long as the sun shines, and water evaporates. 
Some maintain that it is unlikely that the 
storms of the torrid and temperate zones 
should have different causes, and that as tem- 
perate storms certainly do not, as a rule, arise 
in awarm calm, tropical storms cannot have 
such an origin. But as already stated, and as 
will be further shown, the regions and seasons 
of tropical cyclones point very conclusively to 
this origin; and, moreover, it is not necessary 
that similar results should have identical 
causes. All the peculiarities of a rotary storm 
can be satisfactorily explained from either 
starting-point. And the essential contrast 
between the two cases is, that in one, differ- 
ences of temperature precede and bring about 
differences of pressure, and, in the other, dif- 
ferences of pressure precede and bring about 
differences of temperature; so that, in both 
cases, the established storm differs in tempera- 
ture and pressure from the surrounding atmos- 
phere: and, once established, the motions of 
rotation and translation, yet to be described, 
are closely alike in the two cases. 
(To be continued.) 


THE ELECTRIC LIGHT ON THE U.S. 
FISH-COMMISSION STEAMER ALBA- 
TROSS.1— III. 

To determine the efficiency of the system 
of incandescent lamps, I measured, by means of 


? Concluded from No. 42. 


SCIENCE. 


705 


a steam-engine indicator, the power required 
to run the engine and dynamo, the current 
being switched off. By the same instrument I 
measured the indicated power required to run 
45, 50, and 70 lamps, respectively. By de- 
ducting from these experiments, respectively, 
the power required to run the engine and dy- 
namo, we obtained the power applied to the 
shaft; and from this quantity we deducted 
the friction of the load, leaving, as a remain- 
der, the net powers required to revolve the 
armature in the magnetic field with 45, 50, 
and 70 lamps in cireuit. The lamps used 
were each of eight-candle power. 


Efficiency of the incandescent lamps. 
Horse-power required to run the engine and 


dynamo 5.36 
Indicated horse- “power required to run 45 in- 

candescent lamps 5.79 
Indicated horse-power required to run 50 in- 

candescent lamps 5.85 
Indicated horse-power required to run 70 in- 

eandescent lamps 6.92 
Net horse-power applied to the revolution of 

the armature in the magnetic field, using 

45 incandescent lamps 1.80 
Net horse-power applied to the revolution of 

the armature in the magnetic field, using 

50 incandescent lamps 1.85 
Net horse-power applied to the rev olution of 

the armature in the magnetic field, using 

70 incandescent lamps 2.84 
Mean number of incandescent lamps per ‘indi- 

cated H.P., using 45 lantps het, 
Mean number of incandescent lamps per indi- 

eated H.P., using 50 lamps 8.50 
Mean number of incandescent lamps per indi- 

cated H.P., using 70 lamps = 10.11 


Mean number of incandescent lamps per net 
H.P., using 45 lamps . 7 25, 
Mean number of incandescent lamps per net 


H.P., using 50 lamps . 27.02 
Mean number of incandescent lamps per net 
H.P., using 70 lamps . 24.63 


The wires being fixed, their resistance may 
be considered a constant quantity, and the 
only variation as existing in the engine and 
dynamo. ‘The distribution of the power, as 
above recorded, may, if necessary, be verified 
by electrical measurements on the wires. 

To illuminate the machinery on deck, the 
derrick-gaff, the lead of the cable, the trawl 
as it comes on deck, and to afford aniple light 
to the naturalists while culling the contents of 
the trawl as delivered on deck, an arec-light 
of great power became indispensable. In the 
then existing state of electric lighting, an ad- 
ditional dynamo appeared to be imperative, as 
no arc-light had been run from a tension of 
51 volts. 

The Edison company, however, was willing 
to experiment, and in a short time produced a 


706 


lamp of 750-candle power, which we are now 
using; and we find, in practice, that a no. 18 
copper wire will carry the current without 
heating. The power of this lamp, to be com- 
parable with other arc-lamps, should be mul- 
tiplied by four, as the commercial candle- 
power of the arc-lamp is the aggregate of four 
measurements, the photometers being placed 
equidistant from each other in the same cir- 
cumference. The power required to drive 
these are-lamps, though more than necessary 
for others of equal power, is yet quite small. 


Efficiency of the arc-lamps. 
Indicated horse-power developed by the engine 


with two are-lamps in circuit . . . & 6.69 
Horse-power required to drive the engine and 


dynamo. . 3.56 
Net horse-power ‘applied. to the shaft 3.13 
Horse-power absorbed in the friction of the 

load . . 0.23 


Net horse-power applied to the “revolution of 

the armature in the magnetic field . . . . 2.90 
Net horse-power applied “to the armature for 

one lamp (half of the last quantity). . 1.45 


The number of eight-candle power incan- 
descent lamps per indicated horse-power is 
taken as’ a mean between the quantities as 
determined above, i.e., — 

= 25.55 ; 


25 + 27.02 + 24.63 

Gomer 
and this quantity multiplied into the net horse- 
power required to drive one arc-lamp gives 
(25.55 x 1. 45 =) 37.04, which is the power 
in units, of ineandeseens lamps, to run one 
arc-lamp of 750-candle power. 

Fishermen in nearly all parts of the world 
use a light in their boats, when fishing at night, 
to attract fishes into their nets ; andit is a com- 
mon thing for flying-fish to come on board ship 
at‘night if a light be advantageously placed 
to-attract them. 

Until incandescent lamps were invented, there 
were no convenient means of sustaining a light 
beneath the surface of the waters ; and there is 
consequently opened up to us an unexplored 
field in fishing. 

Just what service our submarine lamps will 
be, we are as yet unable to say: but, with the 
small lamp which we use from one to ten feet 
below the surface, amphipods in great num- 
bers, silver-sides, young bluefish, young lobster, 
squid, and flying-fish, have been induced into 
the nets, and dolphins have approached it; 


but whether the dolphins were attracted by the. 


light, or were pursuing the squid, Professor 
Benedict, the naturalist of the ship, was un- 
able to say. Squid are especially susceptible 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. IL, No. 43. 


to the influence of light. I am informed by 
the very eminent authority of Professor Ver- 
rill, of Yale college, that a heavy sea, breaking 
upon a lee shore when the full moon is casting 
its rays across the land into the sea, will throw 
hundreds of squid upon the beach in a single 


’ night, — an evidence of their moving in the 


direction of the light until caught in the spray 
and hurled upon the shore. 

To succeed in producing the light at consid- 
erable depths has been by no means easy. 

The Edison company first prepared a lan- 
tern of two thicknesses of glass, hemispherical 
in form, with its flat side tightly joined to a 
bronze disk on which were placed three sixteen- 
candle-power B lamps in multiple are. At a 
moderate depth it burned beautifully; but at 
about a hundred and fifty feet the packing . 
leaked, and the sea-water, entering, short-cir- 
cuited, and the lamp was extinguished by the 
destruction of the cut-out plug. A similar 
lamp was then tried with improved packing ; 
but its glass walls were crushed by the press- 
ure of the water, and it was extinguished. 

The next essay was with a single Edison 
lamp, its glass vessel being cylindrical in form, 
with hemispherical end, to give it strength; 
its thin platinum wires extending through one 
end without any external attachment. To 
these delicate wires I succeeded in soldering 
the copper wires of the cable, but broke (or 
cut) off one of the platinum wires at the point 
where it enters the glass, while putting on the 
insulation. When it is remembered that a 
hundred fathoms depth of water brings a press- 
ure of over two hundred and fifty pounds per 
square inch on the lamp, it will be understood 
that great care was required in every proce- 
dure. 

Our next attempt was with a single Edi- 
son lamp exactly the same as the last. I suc- 
ceeded in soldering and insulating the joints 
perfectly ; but the pressure of the water upon 
the insulation cut the delicate platinum wire — 
on the glass before it had reached a hundred 
feet in depth. 

The Edison company then produced a lamp 
in which the platinum wires were soldered to 
copper wires in a glass cavity, and filled in 
with rosin, so that copper wires, about no. 30 
in size, projected from the lamp for our attach- 
ment. I coiled the copper wires spirally, and 
soldered their ends to the ends of the heavy 
wires of the cable, separating them by a small 
block of pine wood: this gave some freedom 
of motion, without danger of cutting or break- 
ing the wires. A paper mould was placed round 
the joint, and filled with warm ‘ gulloot.’ When 


i nee.*, 
. 


NOVEMBER 30, 1883.] 


FISH-COMMISSION STEAMER ALBATROSS. 
A SUBMERGED ELECTRIC LIGHT TO ATTRACT FISH, AND 
ILLUMINATE THE WATER. 


SCIENCE. 707 


this had cooled, it was wrapped with insulation- 
tape, and served tightly with twine. This was 
again covered with gulloot, then tape, and 
finally with melted gutta-percha ; and, when the 
gutta-percha had cooled, its entire surface was 
seared over with a hot iron to a8 ie sure of 
filling any cracks or holes it might contain. 
The lamp was then lowered into the sea, about 
seven hundred and fifty feet of cable being paid 
out, without any indication of failure. To as- 
certain if the lamp was lighted at all times, we 
substituted a lamp for the cut-out plug in the 
deep-sea circuit. This brought both lamps in 
the same circuit, which caused them to glow 
at about a cherry-red instead of a white light ; 
and had any accident happened to break the 
lamp in the water, or to cause a leak, our upper 
lamp would have immediately sprung into in- 
candescent whiteness. G. W. Barrp, 
Passed assistant engineer, U.S.N. 


CRYSTALS IN THE BARK OF TREES. 


In examining the interior of certain insects 
and myriapods living in and feeding on the 
wood and liber of decaying trees, the writer 
has often had his attention attracted by many 
beautiful and well-defined crystals mingled with 
the food-contents of the intestinal canal. The 
crystals appear to be insoluble in the intesti- 
nal juices, as they pass through the entire 
tract unchanged. Recently, in examining a 
large lamellicorn larva obtained from beneath 
the bark of a decaying white oak, I again ob- 
served an abundance of the same kind of erys- 
tals; and shortly after, numerous others were 
found in a Polydesmus taken from beneath the 
bark of a hickory log. Feeling sufficient in- 
terest in the matter to learn the source of the 
crystals, I examined a large white oak, dead 
and decaying, but still standing, with the bark 
loosely attached. On the inner side of the 
bark was a thick, yellowish-white, pulverulent 
layer, — the decayed liber. This readily crum- 
bled to powder; and a small portion, diffused 
in water and submitted to the microscope, ex- 
hibited a multitude of crystals, forming the 
greater proportion of the powder, and of the 
kind previously noticed in insects. The erys- 
tals appeared perfectly fresh, and not changed 
.by the surrounding decay, but were isolated, 
sharply defined, and highly lustrous. They 
measured from about the two-thousandth to the 
six-hundredth of an inch. Two forms were 
common, —simple, as represented: in fig. 1; 
and twinned, as in fig. 2. A portion of the 
powder was submitted to my friend, Prof. F. 
A. Genth, for analysis, without informing him 


708 


as to its source. The report was, ‘‘ It seems 
to be mostly calcium oxalate, with some carbo- 
nate and organic matter.’? The crystals per- 
tain to the monoclinic system, like the mineral 
whewellite. In another decayed white oak ex- 
amined, the pulverulent liber, of darker appear- 
ance than in the former, consisted of crystals, 
eellular débris, with no bast-fibres, but with 
numerous long, dark-brown, many-celled spo- 
ridia of a fungus, and a few dead rotifers. 
Under similar circumstances, the same kind of 
erystals, equally abundant, were observed in a 
dead chestnut-tree. 

The liber of the fresh or undecayed white 
oak and chestnut exhibits the calcium-oxalate 
erystals arranged in close longitudinal rows, as 
represented in fig. 3, situ- 
ated among the bast-fibres, 
and nearly as abundant. 
The crystals are smaller, 
approaching the ends of 
the series; and the spaces 
occupied by the latter taper 
at the extremities. Each 
erystal occupies a separate 
cuboidal cell, or at least 
a distinct compartment of a 
long fusiform space, bound- 
ed by the bast-cells. In 
the rows of crystals of the 
white oak, from twenty-five 
to thirty-five were counted, 
occupying a space of about 
the fiftieth of an inch in 
length. In the chestnut 
liber, from twenty-five to 
forty - five crystals were 
counted in different rows. 
In the liber of the butter- 
nut the crystals are com- 
pounded in spheroidal clusters, and form rows 
arranged in the same manner as in the pre- 
ceding trees. 

Without having had any intention of inves- 
tigating the occurrence of crystals in plants, I 
haye been led to make the present communica- 
tion on what, to botanists, may be a familiar 
fact, under the impression that many, like my- 
self, have heretofore been ignorant of it; and 
this for the reason that sufficient notice of the 
matter has not been given. Our ordinary manu- 
als, while referring to the occurrence of crys- 
tals in plants, and giving a few illustrations 
of those observed in herbaceous plants, take 
almost no notice of the beautiful forms in the 
inner bark of our forest-trees. The ‘ Micro- 
graphic dictionary ’ mentions the occurrence 
of raphides in the bark and pith of many 


Fie. 1. — Calcium-oxa- 
late crystal. 

Fie. 2.— Twin form of 
thesame. Both from 
decayed liber of the 
white oak, magnified 
250 diameters. 

Fic. 3.— Portion of a 
series of crystals from 
fresh liber, magnified 
300 diameters. 


SCIENCE. 


. white. 


[Vou. IL., No. 43. 


woody plants, as the lime and vine, but makes 
no reference to, nor gives illustrations of, such 
as occur in oaks, the chestnut, the hickory, ete. 
No-more beautiful example of plant-crystals 
can be so readily obtained than that exhibited 
in thin slips of the liber of the oak or chest- 
nut. 

Although the occurrence of crystals in vege- 
table tissues was observed and described by 
Payen in 1841 (Comptes rendus de Vacadé- 
mie des sciences), the first and fullest account 
of the crystals of the liber of forest and fruit 
trees was given by Prof. J. W. Bailey, in a 
communication to the American association of 
geologists and naturalists, in 1843, afterwards 
publishéd, with a plate, in the American jour- 
nal of science for 1845, p. 17. Sanio subse- 
quently described the same crystals in the 
Monatsberichte of the Prussian academy of 
sciences for 1857. Jospen Ley. 


THE PHYSIOLOGICAL STATION OF 
PARIS.1—Il. 


Tur black screen shown in fig. 4 is a kind of shed, 
three metres in depth, fifteen long, and four high. 
This height is necessary in photographing birds on 
the wing; for, on rising, they immediately leaye the 
dark field. When the walk of a man or an animal is 
being studied, the opening of the screen is limited by 
a frame covered with black cloth suspended from 
its upper part: this regulates the ingress of light 
under the shed, and makes its cavity darker. In ad- 
dition, a long strip of velvet two metres and a half 
broad fills all the lower part of this cavity. Thus the 
light coming through the bottom of the screen is al- 
most entirely cut off. 

In fig. 4 a man dressed entirely in white is walking 

_before the dark screen. The course on which he 
walks is slightly inclined, in such a way that a visual 
ray, proceeding from the objective, passes very near 
the surface of the ground without meeting it anywhere. 
This is necessary in order that in the picture the feet 
of the walker may be entirely visible, while the ground 
is not: otherwise the light reflected from the ground 
would make an impression on the sensitive plate at 
the very points where the images of the feet should be 
produced, and make them obscure. The course is 
raised about twenty centimetres above the surround- 
ing ground; and along the full length of this relief 
there runs a plank on which alternate divisions, each 
a metre and a half long, are painted black and 

The plank thus divided is seen in the photo- 

graphs, and is useful in measuring the distance run 
between two successive images, and in estimating 
the size of the subject, the amplitude of his reactions, 
and the extent of displacement of each part of his 
body. In order to know the rapidity of movement, 
the time consumed in traversing the various spaces 
must be measured. Now, if the machinery which 
1 Concluded from No. 42. 


NoVEMBER 30, 1883.] 


SCIENCE. 


Fie. 4, 


turns the disk always worked with the same speed, 
and if the number of openings were the same for all 
experiments, we should only have to determine once 
for all the interval of time which 
elapses between two images, and 
we should immediately have the 
expression of the rapidity: in 
short, if the successive illumi- 
nations were separated by one- 
tenth of a second, and if the in- 
terval in long measure between 
the images were five-tenths of a 
metre, it is evident that in one 
second five metres would be 
traversed. But the rapidity of 
the disk varies with the experi- 
ment: it must, then, be con- 
trolled. This control can be 
obtained by means of a chrono- 
graph which shall indicate the 
interval of time between the 
various turns of the disk during 
the experiment. But this meth- 
od would give two kinds of independent indications, 
—that of the spaces on the photographie plate, and 


709 


that ofthe times on arevolving cylinder. It seemed 
tous better to obtain, also on the plate, the indi- 
cations of the times elapsing between the succes- 
sive images. This result was obtained in the 
following manner. In order to know the frequency 
of rotation of the disk, we have only to photograph 
the successive positions of a body moving with a 
uniform and known velocity. Fig. 4 shows, above 
the head of the walker, an apparatus which answers 
this purpose, and which we will call a photographic 
chronograph. It is a black velvet dial, on which 
bright nails, arranged in a circle, divide the cireum- 
ference into a certain number of equal parts. A 
bright needle on the face of this dial is in continual 
motion, turning at the rate of a revolution a second. 
It is evident, that, if the disk of the photographic 
apparatus revolve only once a second, we shall have 
only one image of the needle on the dial; if the 
disk make six revolutions a second, we shall have 
six-images, ete. Since the velocity of the disk is 
uniform, the images on the dial are separated by 
equal distances. These divisions allow us to easily 
estimate the fraction of a second corresponding to 
the interval between the images. 

This method will be better comprehended if we 
consider its application. Fig. 5 represents a runner 
jumping a bar. The series of photographs com- 
mences at the moment when the leaper started on 
the preliminary spurt, and ends when the leap is 
finished, and the fall to the ground has partly de- 
stroyed the velocity. Let us analyze this figure. 
We see the subject represented nine times; that is, 
the disk revolved nine times during the experiment. 
Each rotation, bringing the opening of the disk in 
front of the objective, has permitted light to enter 
for a brief instant, which has sufficed each time to 
give animage. These successive images were pro- 
duced at different points on the plate, because the 

leaper himself occupied different positions before 
the sereen when each of the illuminations took 
place. The space traversed either on the ground 


or in the air, between successive images, is easily 
measured by means of the divisions in the planks 


710 


seen at the bottom of the picture. We see’ that 


the interyal is not always the same, and: that, if 
we suppose equal intervals of time to separate 
successive images, the greatest velocity occurs in 
the run which preceded the leap, and that there 
was a diminution of speed while the leaper was in 


Fie. 6. 


the air: in fact, this diminution is still increased 
after the fall, the velocity being partly lost the very 
moment the body touches the ground. In order to 
know whether the images have been produced at 
equal intervals of time, and the duration of these 
intervals, the dial of the chronograph must be con- 
sulted. Itis then seen that the luminous needle is 
represented as many times as there have been illu- 
minations, namely, nine times; that the interval be- 
tween the illuminations was uniform, for the images 
of the needle whose rotation was 
uniform form equal angles : in short, 
the absolute value of the time-inter- 
vals between the illuminations is 
expressed by the angle which the 
images of the needle on the dial 
make. This angle is about 36°, 
which shows that the time-interval 
between successive illuminations is 
one-tenth of asecond. From these 
measures of time and space we easily 
deduce the velocity of the leaper in 
the various phases of the experiment. 
This speed was seven metres a sec- 
ond during the preliminary run, five 
metres during the leap, and fell to 
three metres and a half after the fall. 

When one takes on the same plate 
a series of photographs representing 
the successive attitudes of an animal, 
he naturally tries to multiply these 
images in order to know the largest number possible 
of the phases of movement; but when the latter 
is not rapid, the frequency of the images is soon 
limited by their superposition, and by the confu- 
sion which results. Thus, a man running even at 
moderate speed can be photographed nine or ten 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. If., No. 43. 


times a second (fig. 6) without confusion of the images. 
If sometimes one limb is depicted where the other limb 
has already left an impression, this superposition. does 
not at all affect the images: the white only becomes 
more intense where the plate has received two im- 
pressions, so that the contours of the two members 
are still easily distinguishable. But 
when a man walks slowly, as in fig, 
7, the images present so many su- 
perpositions that confusion results. 
This inconvenience is remedied by 
partial photography ; that is, by sup- 
pressing certain parts of the image 
in order that the rest may be more 
easily distinguished. As by our 
method white and bright objects 
only make an impression on the sen- 
sitive plate, it is necessary merely to 
clothe in black the parts of the body 
which we wish to exclude from the 
image. If a man dressed half in 
white and half in black is walking 
on the track, and turns toward the 
photographie apparatus the part 
clothed in white, the right, for in- 
stance, there will appear in the pic- 
ture only the right half of his body. These images 
allow us to observe in their successive phases, first, 
the pivot-like turning of the lower limb around the 
foot during the time of support; and second, as 
the foot rises, the turning of the same limb around the 
hip-joint, while at the same time this joint is moving 
forward without cessation. 

Partial photographs are also serviceable in an anal- 
ysis of rapid movements, because by this means the 
number of attitudes represented may be many times 


increased. Nevertheless, when the image of a limb 
is moderately large, the partial photographs cannot 
be too much increased without confusion through 


superposition. We must therefore diminish the size 
of the image, if we desire to repeat them at very short. 
intervals. For this purpose the walker is clothed 


NOVEMBER 30, 1883.] 


wholly in black, and narrow bands of some bright 
metal are placed down his arm, thigh, and leg, follow- 
ing precisely the direction of the bones of these parts. 
This arrangement allows us to easily increase ten- 
fold the number of images received in a given time 
on the same plate: hence, instead of ten photographs 
a second, we can obtain one hundred. For this, the 
rapidity of rotation of the disk is not altered; but, in- 
stead of one opening, there are ten, equally distributed 
on the circumference. One of these openings must 
have a diameter twice that of the others. The result 
is a much larger size for one of the images; and this 
renders the estimation of the time easy, and also fur- 
nishes data to compare the movements of the lower 
and upper limbs. The images obtained under these 
circumstances are so close, that one is present, as it 
were, at all the successive changes of place of the 
limbs and body. Thus, in fig. 8, between two suc- 
cessive touches of the ground by the right foot, there 
are twenty-one different positions of the lower limb. 
As the foot meets the ground, the knee is bent per- 
ceptibly; then it straightens as the foot, resting on the 
toes, prepares to leave the ground. After the raising 
of the foot, the knee bends again, and the leg forms 
with the thigh a right angle; then it gradually be- 
comes straight, and the sole of the foot, which was at 


ee ee ae Bas 


Citi RUAN CCE 


lk S144 1 / 


SOhS— 


Fra. 8. 


first in a vertical plane, is apparently parallel to the 
ground which it touches for some time before it rises 
again. The scale at the bottom of the figure shows 
that the total length of the step was 2.6 metres. The 
chronograph was not used in this experiment, but we 
may estimate the number of images at about sixty 
asecond. The movements of bending and extending 
the fore-arm are obtained in the same manner as 
those of the leg. The turnings of the head are ex- 
pressed by the undulatory motion of a bright point 
placed on a level with the ear. In short,.the diminu- 
tions and the accelerations of each part are expressed 
by the crowding or separation of the images. To 
ascertain the corresponding positions of the arm and 
leg at a given instant, we take for data every fifth 
figure, which is larger than the others. These images 
are formed at the moment of passage before one of 
the larger openings; and they correspond, therefore, 
to the same instant of time. ‘This is not the place to 
aualyze in detail the various types of locomotion. 


SCIENCE. 


711 


The few examples just given sufficiently explain the 
method, and show its exactness. For a complete 
study of human locomotion, photographs under the 
most diverse circumstances must be obtained. The 
subject must be photographed not only from the side, 
but also from the front and rear, in order to show the 
lateral oscillations of the different parts of the body. 
Finally, after studying the mechanism of the various 
motions produced in walking or running, the final re- 
sult—the more or less rapid transportation of the 
man — must be studied, either as he walks freely, or 
as he bears or draws a burden. 

These researches have a practical interest, even as 
those having for their object the determination of the 
product of machines, and the most favorable con- 
ditions for this production. Experiments in regard 
to this are in process; and it is with this object in 
view that the circular course with telegraphic signals, 
to note the phases of the walking or running, has 
been established. 


THE FUNDAMENTAL CATALOGUE OF 
THE BERLINER JAHRBUCH. 


A veERY important comparison by Dr. Auwers, of 
the fundamental catalogue of the Berliner jahrbuch 
with those of the Nautical almanac, 
the Connaissance des temps, and the 
American ephemeris, appears as a 
supplement to the Jahrbuch for 1884; 
and the following abstract of it is 
given. The year 1883 is the first in 
which such a comparison is possible. 

The Berliner jahrbuch contains at 
present, and will contain for the fu- 
ture, 450 stars whose apparent places 
are given, and 172 stars for which 
only mean places are printed; i.e., 
622inall. The places of these stars, 
both in R. A. and Dec., depend strict- 
ly on the system of the Fundamen- 
tal catalogue of the Astronomische 
gesellschaft (publ. xiv.). They lie 
between the north pole and — 31°.3 declination. 

The American ephemeris contains the mean places 
of 383 stars, for 20S of which ephemerides are given: 
44 of these stars lie south of —31°. The Nautical 
almanac has 197 stars (15 south of —32°), and ephem- 
erides are given for all. The Connaissance des temps 
has 310 stars between the north pole and —70°, and 
gives an ephemeris for each. 

Dr. Auwers’s account of the sources from which the 
star-places of the various almanacs are taken we omit. 
It shows how various these are. 450 stars have 
ephemerides in the Jahrbuch ; 149 stars (mostly south- 
ern) which have ephemerides in the three other alma- 
nacs are not contained in the Jahrbuch. 

A table is given in Dr. Auwers’s paper, showing the 
comparison between each star of each almanac and 
the Jahrbuch. From this table the elements by which 
the catalogue of each almanac can be reduced to the 
system of the Jalrbuch are deduced. A subsequent 
table gives the two reductions which must be added 


712 


to each almanac R. A., and the two reductions which 
must be added to each almanac Dec., in order to re- 
duce to the system of the Jahrbuch. 

The catalogue of each almanac, after the application 
of the systematic reductions from this table, is then 
compared with the Fundamental catalogue. For the 
Nautical almanac, the mean difference in declination 
is 0’.395; in R. A. (from 134 stars), 08.0332. Of the 
168 stars common to both almanacs, there are 27 
whose R. A. differs more than 0%.067, and 8 whose 
declinations differ by more than 1”. These differ- 
ences are, in the main, errors of the Nautical alma- 
nac, and are largely due to the erroneous proper 
motions adopted in the Greenwich catalogues. 

For the Connaissance des temps, the table shows 
large systematic errors. After these have been elimi- 
nated, the comparison shows for 229 stars, common to 
the Connaissance des temps and the Berliner jahrbuch, 
a mean difference of 0”.373 in declination, and a 
mean difference of 0%.0282 (from 162 stars) in R. A. 
The errors here, again, are largely due to erroneous 
proper motions. 

The correspondence of the reduced positions of the 
American ephemeris with those of the Jahrbuch varies 
according as one or another basis of comparison is 
chosen. A complete comparison can only be made 
for those stars for which ephemerides are given, since 
the newer stars have their positions derived from sev- 
eral sources, not comparable among themselves. 

The declinations of the American ephemeris and 
those of the Jahrbuch agree excellently for those 
stars which have been investigated by Boss. The 
mean difference (162 stars) is 0”.177. The other 111 
stars do not agree so well, there being 12 differences 
between 0”.5 and 1”. The stars north of 64° depend 
upon Gould’s R. A.; and, of the 36 stars common to 
both almanaes, 15 differ by more than 0°15. Of the 
remaining 126 stars whose ephemerides are given, 
8 have differences as great as 05.067. The mean 
difference for 100 stars between +40° and —20° is 
08.0127. For the 111 stars without ephemerides, 
there are seven cases where the difference is more 
than 05.067. 

For the stars south of —32°, the Nautical almanac 
will give the best positions, on account of its data 
being derived from the most recent catalogues. 

A comparison of the system of the Jahrbuch, 1861- 
82, with the new system, and a general table for the 
reduction of the data of any almanac to the Berliner 
jahrbuch system, concludes this very important pa- 
per. 

It is to be hoped that in the immediate future all 
star positions may be reduced to the system of the 
Jahrbuch, and its admirable list of stars will be amply 
sufficient for observers in the northern hemisphere. 
For the determination of time and longitude, the 
stars of the other almanacs will serve a useful pur- 
pose, especially as they may easily be made homo- 
geneous with the Berlin list by tables given by Dr. 
Auwers in this paper. 

Epwarp 8. HoLpEn. 


Washburn observatory, University of Wisconsin, 
Madison, July 24, 1883. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 43. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


English ch, 


In Screnceg, ii. 452, you assert that the English 
‘ch (in chair) is not a simple consonant, but a com- 
pound,’ consisting of ‘¢ followed by sh, as is appar- 
ent in pronouncing with ‘due lingering emphasis’ 
the words, ‘even such a man, so woe-begone,’ ete. 
Now, the same length and emphasis may be produced 
by a prolongation or continuous repetition of the 
vowel-sound of the word ‘such,’ and, it seems to me, 
would be so in the case of anybody who was unac- 
quainted with the tsh theory. But even if not, the 
change from a simple ch to a compound tsh would not 
be the only instance in the language, where under 
special circumstances, such asa prolongation or drawl, 
a sound is liable to an essential change; and it must be 
peculiarly so where the sound can be properly made 
only by an instantaneous movement. Ch seems to 
be caused by such a movement, just as a smack of 
the lips is, which is certainly a decidedly different 
sound from the one made in the same way, except 
more gently and slowly,—a p made with inward- 
drawn breath. The relation between the smack and 
that p seems to be the same as the relation between 
the English ch and t, and the difference in each case 
to depend on the mode of contact and of its interrup- 
tion, not on any combination or succession of sounds, 

Again: it appears quite possible to pronounce the 
word ‘chair’ perfectly with the teeth kept slightly 
open by the finger or a pencil, and held, therefore, in 
such a position that it is impossible to pronounce the 
word ‘share’ correctly, showing that sh is not prop- 
erly a part of the ch. 

Moreover, if ch is the same as tsh, or the German 
tsch, the Germans would at the outset have no dif- 
ficulty in pronouncing the English ch in a way not 
noticeably different by its hissing sound from ours. 

It has been said, that after pronouncing the word 
‘check’ to a phonograph, on turning the machine 
backwards, the sounds re-appear as kesht ; but is that 
not wholly due to an incorrect, prejudiced pronun- 
ciation of the first word, as if written tshek? L. B. 

Noy. 9, 1883. 


[Argument is out of place in reference to what is a 
matter of mere observation. The suggested experi- 
ment by ‘lingering emphasis’ ought to satisfy any 
ear as to the reality of the stopped or shut commence- 
ment of the sound of chin chair, and of its hissing 
termination. L. B. evidently associates some mean 
ing different from the ordinary one with the terms 
‘simple’ and ‘compound.’ Ch is compound because 
its shut commencement and its hissing termination 
are elementary effects, each of which is susceptible 
of separate utterance. — Ep1ror. | 


Report of the Assos meeting. 

Henry W. Haynes, Esq., calls my attention to an 
error in the remarks on Assos made by me at the 
meeting of the Archaeological institute, Oct. 31, and 
printed by you in your recent report (ScrENCE, no, 41). 

For ‘to fight against Ramses III.—the Rhamp- 
sinitos of Greek story,’ read, ‘to fight against Ram- 
ses IJ. — the Sesostris of Greek story.’ 

May I beg you to make this correction public. 


JosEpH THACHER CLARKE. 
Boston, Noy. 19, 1883. 


Analysis of the wild potato. 
In the spring we received from Mr. J. G. Lemmon, 
Oakland, Cal., some tubers said to be of Solanum tu- 
berosum, var. boreale, and collected in Arizona. Of 


+ 


4 


NOVEMBER 30, 1883.] 


thirteen tubers planted May 4, nine furnished plants, 
which bloomed July 12, and in September ripened a 
crop of tubers no larger than the seed planted, or of 
the size of small hazel-nuts. The leaves were small, 
deep grayish-green above, not hairy; the stems, much 
branched, deep purple at the nodes; the flowers, white 
and numerous. The tubers were very diffusely spread 
in the soil. , 

An analysis of the tubers harvested by the station 
chemist, Dr. S. M. Babcock, is as below: — 


Water : z : R * é 64.44 
Ash . 3 : . - ; 1.17 
Albuminoid (N. x 6.25) . : . 4,86 
Crude fibre : , P 4 2 78 
Nitrogen (free extract) . 28.62 
Fat (ether extract) . - 13 

100.00 


E. Lewis STURTEVANT, Director. 


N. Y. agricultural experiment-station, 
Geneva, N.Y., Nov. 14, 1883. - 


Musical sand. 


In September (no. 31) you published a brief ab- 
stract of our preliminary paper on the singing-beach 
of Manchester, Mass. Since then we have contin- 
ued our investigations, and collected additional data 
and material. One of us has just returned from a 
visit to the singing-beach on the west shore of Lake 
Champlain, four miles and a half south of Platts- 
burg, Clinton county, N.Y. ‘This beach is about 
seven hundred feet long, crescent-shaped, and termi- 
nates at the south end in low cliffs of limestone, and 
at the north end in shelving rocks of the same mate- 
rial. About a hundred feet north of the beach the 
limestone is quarried for building-purposes. 

The acoustic phenomena previously described in 
connection with Manchester and Eigg are reproduced 
at Lake Champlain quite perfectly. On the occasion 
of our visit, however, the sand retained traces of 
moisture, and the noise, indicated by the syllable 
groosh, was less strong than it would otherwise have 
been. Two tests, however, showed that the sound 
made by rubbing the sand with the hand, and press- 
ing it on the strata below, could be heard distinctly 
at a distance of more than a hundred feet. The 
tingling sensation in the toes, produced by striking 
the sand with the feet, was also perceived. We failed, 
however, to obtain sounds by rubbing the sand be- 
tween the palms of the hands,—a method which 
yielded remarkable results at Manchester and at Eigg; 
but this failure is doubtless due to the imperfect dry- 
ness of thesand. Having learned, by experience with 
samples from the aforesaid localities, that they lose 
their acoustic properties after repeated friction, we 
tested this question directly on the beach. We found, 
that, by rubbing a definite quantity of sand continu- 
ously, its power of emitting sounds gradually dimin- 
ished, and finally ceased. 

The sand is unusually fine, and its grains of re- 
markably uniform size, averaging about 0.2 millimetre 
in diameter. Even to the naked eye their tendency 
to a spherical shape is apparent; and, when examined 
under the microscope, they are found to consist, to 
the amount of about thirty per cent, of round and 
polished grains of colorless quartz, usually of spheri- 
eal, ellipsoidal, and reniform shapes; about the same 
quantity of angular to subangular grains of the same 
mineral, colorless, reddish, and yellowish, sometimes 
enclosing scales of hematite, grains of magnetite, and 
fluid cavities; a considerable number of fragments 
of a triclinic felspar, angular to subangular, color- 


' less, and sometimes exhibiting cleavage-planes, and 


ae 


SCIENCE. 


~ 713 


lines of striation; many short fibres and fragments 
of hornblende, and apparently augite, of a deep green 
color, often irregularly colored reddish brown by de- 
composition, and possessing strong dichroism; and 
afew minute particles of menaccanite and magnetite. 
In conclusion, we will be greatly obliged to any 
reader of ScrenceE for information of additional lo- 
calities of sonorous sand, and especially for samples 
for microscopical study. 
H. C. Bouton and A, A. JULIEN, 
Noy. 19, 1883. 
November shower of meteors. 


Watch was kept here for the November shower of 
meteors by myself and a number of students on the 
mornings of the 13th and 14th, — on the 15th from 2 
to 4, on the 14th from 2 to 6. The observers were in 
a room having southern and eastern exposures, and 
meteoroids were looked for only in those directions. 
It was quite cloudy on the 13th, and only one mete- 
oroid was seen; nearly clear on the 14th; and con- 
sidering the fact that the moon was nearly full, and 
stars of the fourth magnitude could not be seen with- 
out attention, more meteoroids were seen than were 
expected, nearly all coming from the radiant in Leo. 
Owing to the fact that their appearance was not fre- 
quent enough to maintain constant attention, it is 
likely that most of those which were near the limits 
of visibility escaped observation. The maximum 
seemed to be at about 4.30. At 3.20 a very brilliant 
one, much exceeding Sirius in brilliancy, was seen. 
Michigan agricultural college. L. G. CARPENTER. 


SOME RECENT STUDIES ON IDEAS OF 
MOTION. 


Studien iiber die bewegungs vorstellungen. Von Dr. 
S. Srricker, professor in Wien. Wien, brau- 
miiller, 1882. 6+72p. 8°. 

TueseE studies are efforts in experimental 
psychology, with accompanying speculations, 
by a physiologist who has already written upon 
like subjects in his ‘Studien iiber das bewusst- 
sein.” The style is fragmentary, and not always 
very clear ; and there are some confusing efforts 
to frame a new terminology. Above all, the 
author’s training in general philosophy is very 
imperfect ; and therefore what he says in the 
latter half of this essay, ‘Ueber die quellen 
unserer vorstellungen von der causalitat,’ is 
almost wholly antiquated and insignificant, 
having been superseded ever since Hume, 
whom, in fact, our author seems in one respect 
to have wholly misapprehended. But in his 
direct observations of mental facts, Professor 
Stricker attracts one’s attention as having given 
some independent contribution to the discus- 
sions about the relation of the muscular sense 
to our ideas of motion. Even here, if must 
be remarked, he pays little attention to the 
fact that others have been at work before him, 
and seems to think his ideas quite new. Yet 
what he has done is to observe, and record his 
observations ; and in so far forth he has done 
what we want done in the psychological field. 


714 


Professor Stricker asserts that practice in 
the use of his muscles, and especially in the 
training of the muscular sense for mechanical 
purposes, has rendered: him uncommonly well 
qualified to note the presence of muscular sen- 
sations as elements in any complex state of 
mind. Some of his colleagues have like skill. 
He has thus been led to pay attention to facts 
such as, that, when he perceives the movements 
of another person, or remembers these move- 
ments clearly afterwards, or deliberately im- 
agines a movement of a man or even of an 
animal, he always is aware of a slight feeling 
of effort in those muscles of his own body that 
would be concerned in the same or in some 
analogous movement. The appreciation or 
conception of a bodily movement is thus 
accompanied by a more or less well-marked 
dramatic imitation of the movement. Again: 
if he perceives or conceives the visible motion 
of a body in space, he is conscious of a motion, 
or of a tendency to motion, in the muscles of 
the eye. These personal observations he finds 
confirmed by others in proportion to their 
training in introspection, and in the special 
observation of the muscular sensations. In 
watching the motions of many small objects at 
once in the field of vision, as in case of a 
snow-storm, the author is not quite so fortu- 
nate. ‘‘I find difficulty,’’ he says, ‘‘in dis- 
covering any trace of motions of the eyes ; yet, 
after long exercise, I have now no longer the 
least doubt that I follow the single flakes with 
small and quick motions or nascent motions of. 
the eyes”’ (p. 23). In case, however, of an 
effort to picture in memory just how a snow- 
storm looks, the author either finds himself 
picturing a stationary mass of flakes, or else 
following in mind the motions of single flakes. 
In the latter case he discovers that the muscles 
of the eyes are perceptibly innervated. The 
result, therefore, notwithstanding the difficulty, 
is in the end the same. 

In the case of the illusions of motion jn 
the ‘ wheel of life,’ the author asserts that the 
illusion is always accompanied by motions of 
the eyes, and that it is impossible without such 
motions. 

His conclusion from all this is, that ‘‘ motion 
is conceivable only in connection with, and by 
means of, the muscular sense,’’ —a result that, 
in this extreme form, probably very few investi- 
gators willaccept. Certainly Professor Strick- 
er has not proved it; since he has, on the one 
hand, left very numerous facts wholly un- 
noticed, and, on the other hand, has adduced 
facts that are of doubtful force for his purpose. 
As for the omitted facts, a reviewer of this book 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 43, 


in the Philosophische monatshefte has chal- 
lenged Professor Stricker to show what part 
the muscular sense plays in the perception of 
the motion of an object seen double in indirect 
vision, when the eyes are fixed on some chosen 
point. Thus, if one’s gaze is fixed directly in 
front on some bright point, or on one of the 
eyes of the observer’s own face as seen in a 
mirror, so that the eyes are surely at rest, then 
the finger, or a pencil, held up so as to appear 
double, will yet in both its shadowy images be 
seen to move when the real finger is moved, 
or when the pencil is moved by an assistant 
without the observer’s previous knowledge. 
Yet here, says the reviewer, the double images 
show that the eye does not follow the motion 
at all, else they would coalesce. And if the 
mirror is used, the observer, looking at his own 
eye in the mirror, can be doubly sure that his 
eyes are motionless. This objection, however, 
is not so near at hand as another, mentioned 
by the same reviewer, — the one that must at 
once occur to any reader of Professor Stricker’s 
book; viz., the case of the motion of some 
small object over the skin, say a crawling in- 
sect. Here the motion is felt as motion, and 
not as mere tickling, as soon as the requisite 
speed and amplitude are attained. What has — 
the muscular sense to do here? 

But, obvious as these objections are, they are 
not final. Professor Stricker might reply, that, 
according to Lotze’s own suggestion, the now 
well-recognized localzeichen themselves may 
be of the nature of muscular impulses. In the 
retinal field the tendency to bring any point of 
attention into the point of sight may exist 
universally ; and the motion of the indirectly 
seen finger over the resting retinal field may 
be known by reason of the change in the magni- 
tude and direction of the effort that during 
the experiment constantly exists, to bring the 
finger, as the object most attended to, into 
the point of sight. Something analogous may 
make possible the perception of the motion 
of a point on the skin. But these are hypo- 
theses. They are doubtful; and they require 
of Professor Stricker supplementary inyesti- 
gations, whereof he seems to have had no 
thought. 

There remain, however, the cases of what 
a late writer in the Wiener sitzungsberichte 
(Fleischl, Optisch-physiol. notizen, no. Vi., 
in bd. lxxxvi., i., for 1882) has called bewe- 
gungsnachbilder, which have long been ob- 
served and discussed. These are the subjective 
appearances of motion in the visual field, after 
the continued observation of swiftly-moving 
real objects; as when one has been looking at 


NovEeMBER 30, 1883.] 


a waterfall or at a rotating-disk. Helmholtz, 
indeed, explains.all these appearances together 
as visual vertigo; putting them with. the phe- 
nomena of apparent motion in dizziness, and 

regarding them as all alike caused by motions 
of the eyes, unconsciously continuing after the 
cessation of the observation of the objective 
motions. Yet Helmholtz has trouble to apply 
this explanation, whose validity in its own 
class of cases is undoubted, to the case where 
contrary motions appear in the field of vision 
at the same time; and Hering, in Hermann’s 
‘Handbuch der physiologie’ (iii., i., 562), in- 
sists for these cases on the rival explanation, 
** Die scheinbewegung beruht auf einer localen 
reaction des sehorganes gegen die vorangegan- 
gene erregung.’’ Thus we should have true 
spectra of motion. 

One may add, that the recent article by Drs. 
H. P. Bowditch and G. Stanley Hall in the 
Journal of physiology, vol. iii., p. 297 sqq., 
leaves no room to doubt that optical illusions 
of motion of this class do exist, that cannot be 
explained as resulting from visual vertigo, and 
that can properly be called bewegungsnachbil- 
der, at least until we know more about them. 

If, now, the explanation of Helmholtz is not 
sufficient for all cases, if there are any cases 
of true bewequngsnachbilder, then surely they 
cannot be brought in any wise under Professor 
Stricker’s extreme theory without a simply 
appalling mass of hypotheses. Such cases are 
insisted upon by Fleischl in the note above 
cited ; and he even notes the curiously contra- 
dictory character of the spectra of motion, — 
the presence in them of a motion, without any 
actual transferrence from place to place that the 
eye can follow. They excite him to the rather 
petulant outburst with which his note closes ; 
viz., that empfindungen are fundamentally il- 
logical, and that the principle of contradiction 
does not hold good for them, but only for their 
more developed relatives, the vorstellungen. 
Perhaps, however, our author will insist that 
it was of vorstellungen only that his studies 
treat, and that with such wicked and illogical 
empjindungen as Fleischl’s bewegqungsnachbil- 
der he has nothing to do. Yet, if his theory 
is to be complete, he must not be allowed to 
shrink from its applications. What can he do 
with the own cousins of these illogical phe- 
nomena, namely, the chaotic sensations of the 
darkened visual field? Here is for some eyes, 
such as the present reviewer’s, little more than 
motion or change, without any power of dis- 
tinguishing what it is that moves. So it is 
with Mr. Galton (‘Human faculty,’ p. 159). 

- Helmholtz himself describes, in his own case, 


g 


SCIENCE, 715 


motions of ‘ two systems of circular waves ad- 
vancing towards their centres;’ and so, of 
course, there must be for him, in the darkened 
field, motions at the same time in contrary 
directions, that cannot well be explained as the 
result of muscular efforts. A similar experi- 
ence is described by Professor LeConte (in his 
book on ‘Sight,’ p. 72) ; and Purkinje’s obser- 
vations, as Helmholtz gives them, are also to 
this effect. In all these cases, then, we have 
motions — whether manifold and confused, or , 
definite and regular — which, it would surely 
seem, cannot be explained as resulting from, 
or in any way implying, muscular sensations. 
These cases, then, lie wholly out of Professor 
Stricker’s range. 

Yet possibly it may not seem to most readers 
worth while to spend time in refuting the hasty 
generalization of our author. But the object 
here is to suggest both the necessary limitation 
and the possible scope of this theory of the 
ideas of motion. Its limited scope scems clear, 
but its very one-sidedness is instructive if we 
look a little closer. It is one-sided, for in- 
stance, in the inductive methods used. In case 
of the mental picture of the snow-storm, Pro- 
fessor Stricker found his theory in danger of 
failing: so he followed the single snow-flakes 
with the mind’s eye ; and lo! the theory is veri- 
fied, and so throughout. The influence of atten- 
tion upon the result is so plain, that the reader 
must haye noticed the fact in reading our pre- 
vious summary of the book; and yet this for- 
mal-error in the reasoning does not make the 
result wholly erroneous. If one takes note in 
himself of the facts upon which such stress is 
laid by our author, one will very readily find 
that there is at least this in them; viz., every 
clearly conceived or perceived objective motion 
tends, just in proportion to the clearness and 
definiteness of perception or of conception, to 
become associated with a certain kind, degree, 
and direction, of muscular effort. That muscu- 
lar efforts are involved in mapping out the vis- 
ual field ; that we follow every point in whose 
motion we take special interest, and are par- 
tially conscious of what we do in following it ; 
and that analogous facts exist for the sense of 
touch, —are truths now generally reeognized. 
Professor Stricker is interesting as having given 
us an independent, and, in so far forth, un- 
prejudiced, contribution to the theory. That it 
has charmed him over-much is itself a fact of 
interest for the theory: for it shows how much 
clearer and better Professor Stricker seemed 
to himself to have conceived motions, when 
he had brought their conception into immedi- 
ate connection with the facts of the muscular 


716 


sense ; that is, we see hereby how the muscular 
sense, used as the measure of the amount of our 
activity, is for that reason the especial means of 
helping us to build up definite ideas of complex 
facts. Motions we could know, it would seem, 
apart from the muscular sense; but we should 
have no such clear ideas as we have of the dif- 
ferences among motions. Even so it probably 
is with space. We should know of space if we 
were motionless; but we should not know of 
what Mr. Shadworth Hodgson calls figured 
space, — space mapped out as the mathemati- 
cian needs to map it out. In fact, the con- 
nection of the muscular sense with the simple 
perception of movement, to form the complex 
perception of the definite character of the mani- 
fold differences between one movement and 
another, gives us an excellent illustration of 
that general law of mind according to which as 
many originally separate mental facts as possi- 
ble are constantly being brought together, in 
order that, from their blending, a new and more 
definite unity may come. Increased complex- 
ity of data running side by side with increased 
simplicity of form, —this is the law of mental 
progress ; and so the motions perceived by the 
pure sense of touch become definitely compara- 
ble with one another, and with the motions of 
the pure sense of sight, by means of the union 
of both with the data of the muscular sense, 
the whole thus forming the basis for higher 
rational mental processes. 

Professor Stricker’s facts are also useful as 
independent illustrations of certain other allied 
laws that have been elsewhere recognized. For 
instance: the tendency to join the conception 
of a motion with an imitation or nascent imita- 
tion of this motion has been before illustrated 
by the phenomena of hypnotism, by the ges- 
tures of sensitive and vivacious people, by the 
facts of so-called ‘ mind-reading,’ and by many 
similar and very common experiences. Pro- 
fessor Stricker has attended more to these 
imitative tendencies than most people are 
accustomed to do, and has verified them sub- 
jectively for himself. Mr. Galton’s ‘ histrionic 
associations ’ (‘ Human faculty,’ p. 198) belong 
to the same group of facts. 

Another law, however, is indirectly verified 
by Professor Stricker, as far as his obserya- 
tions go; and it may be well to mention this 
law here, because, so far as the present writer 
knows, little attention has been devoted to it 
by psychologists. It is the law formulated as 
an aesthetic principle in Lessing’s ‘ Laoco6n,’ 
that moving objects, actions, events, can be 
properly described by the poet in language ; 
while things that have to be spoken of as rest- 


SCIENCE. 


" 
{Vou. IL, No. 43. 


ing, and, in general, things that are coex- 
istent, cannot successfully be represented by 
language. Still more generally stated as a 
practical principle of the rhetorician, the law is, 
that, to describe vividly, one must seize upon 
every element in the object that can be spoken 
of in terms of motion or action, and must 
either neglect or very briefly indicate what- 
ever elements cannot so be interpreted. This 
principle explains one use of personifications, 
whether total or partial. The mountains rise 
into the sky, or lift their heads; the lake 
stretches out before one’s sight; the tower 
looms up, or hangs over the spectator, — such 
are some of the more familiar devices of de- 
scription. An exception that illustrates the 
rule is found in the case of very bright colors, 
whose interest and comparative brilliancy in 
the mental. pictures of even very unimaginative 
persons may make it possible for the descrip- 
tive poet to name them as coexistent, without 
suggesting motion, particularly if he render 
them otherwise especially interesting. So in 
the well-known description, in Keats’s ‘ St. 
Agnes’ eve,’ of the light from the stained-glass 
casement, as it falls on the praying Madeline. 
Even here, however, the light falls. And 
color-images, however brilliant, are increased 
in vividness by the addition of the suggestion 
of motion; as in Shelley’s ‘ Ode to the west 
wind,’ where 
“The leaves dead 
Are driven like ghosts from an enchanter fleeing, 


Yellow, and black, and pale, and hectic red, 
Pestilence stricken multitudes.’’ 


Much less effective would be the mention of 
the most brilliant autumn hues apart from 
motion. 

Lessing gave as basis for this theory the 
somewhat abstract statement that language, 
being spoken or read successively, is best fitted 
to portray the successive. But this is hardly 
the whole story. The modern generalization 
that men and animals alike observe moving 
more easily than quiet objects, in case the 
motion is not too fast or too slow, seems to 
come nearer to offering an explanation. But 
this account is still incomplete ; for it will be 
found that we do not always picture mentally 
the motion of an object, even when we try to 
do so. To see a man walk in the mind’s eye 
is not always so easy as to picture a man in 
some attitude. Professor Stricker notes that 
his dreams seldom picture to him actual mo- 
tions. In many dreams we must all have 
noticed that the rapid transitions that take 
place are rather known as motions or altera- 
tions that have happened, than as changes in 


i 


1 to’ 


NOVEMBER 30, 1883.] 


process of taking place. The present writer’s 
own image with Shelley’s lines above quoted 
is not so much of dead leaves actually moving, 


‘as of the leaves rustling, with the sense or 


Seeling that they are driven by the wind. The 
words descriptive of motion give, rather, the 
feeling of action connected with the leaves, 
than a picture of movement itself. So, to say 
that the mountains rise is to direct the mental 
eye upwards, rather than to introduce any pic- 
ture of objective motion into the mental land- 
scape. So, then, it seems probable, that, while 
we notice moving rather than resting things, 
our mental pictures tend to be representations 
of resting attitudes, rather than pictures of 
motion. And the greater vividness which de- 
scriptions of motion nevertheless possess would 
seem to be due to the sense of activity that 
they introduce into our ideas of the objects ; 
and that this sense is connected with the mus- 
cular sensations that we are accustomed to 
associate with all clearly perceived motions 
seems both probable in itself, and in some wise 
confirmed by Professor Stricker’s observations. 
The whole leads us, in fact, to another probable 


SCIENCE. 


717 


law of mental life ; viz., that, since an animal’s 
consciousness is especially useful as a means 
of directing his actions, the ideas of actions, 
however they are formed, will naturally be 
among the most prominent elements of the 
developed and definite consciousness. We 
need not make any assertion about the direct 
source of these ideas. Whether the active 
muscular sense is a direct consciousness of 
the outgoing current, or a true sense through the 
mediation ‘of sensory nerves, the result will 
not affect either Professor Stricker’s argument 
or our own suggestions. 

Tn conclusion it may be well to say, that, if 
psychology were already a developed experi- 
mental science, such independent and hasty 
observations and generalizations as our au- 
thor’s would hardly be worth discussion. But 
as things are, even very imperfectly conducted 
observations, if they are direct and sincere, 
must be thankfully accepted. Something of 
the same sort may possibly hold good of the 
similarly hasty suggestions that have here been 
thrown together. 

Jostan Royce. 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


MATHEMATICS. 


Algebraical equations.— M. Walecki, in a note 
presented to the Académie des sciences by M. Her- 
mite, gives a proof of a fundamental theorem in the 
theory of algebraical equations; viz., that every alge- 
braical equation has a root. The theorem being evi- 
dent for real coefficients, M. Walecki assumes the 
coefficients as imaginary, and writes the first mem- 
ber of the equation in the form P+ iQ, and also 
makes F(x) = P? + Q*. He considers first the case 
of an equation of odd degree, say p; then it is only 
necessary to prove that the equation F(x) = 0, of de- 
gree 2p, has aroot. To do this, he writes c=y+ 2, 
and distinguishes the odd part in z from the even 
part in the development of F(y+ 2), writing thus: 
F(x) = ¢(z*) +2)(z?). The resultant of ¢ and yp is 
shown to be areal polynomial of odd degree in y, and 
vanishing for a real value of y. Two cases present 
themselves: viz., one of the functions 9 or ~ may 
vanish identically; and this can only be yw, for the 
coefficient of the term of highest degree in ¢ is not 
zero. Then, ¢ being of odd order, F(x) has a real 
divisor of the second degree. The second case is 
when y is not identically zero, and when ¢ and w 
have a common divisor, F(x) being then decomposed 
into the product of two factors. The author shows, 
then, that in either case a divisor of F(x) is obtained 
of either the first or second degree, and with real co- 
efficients; thus proving the proposition for an equa- 
tion of odd order. A similar investigation is given 


BEES Cy. ae U i 


for equations of even order. — (Comptes rendus, March 
19: Ge [409 
A differential equation.—M. l’abbé Aoust has 
here given a method for obtaining the formula giving 
the general integral of oe differential equation — 


dy pies. 
wt Ton + Aa foe -. + Any = F(z), 
by aid of a certain cattle’ definite integral. The 
quantities 4,, de... An are constants. He pro- 


poses first to solve the problem of finding a function, 
9, in terms of another function, w ; the two functions 
being connected by the relation — 


1 1 
1 1 1 — - 
(2) = ita fers... feats... 0:82) 


The process for the reduction of this is by substituting 
1 

successively 2, for a,%'2, zo for ao%z, ete.; and 
finally the expression of 4 in terms of » is obtained. 
The transition from the solution of this problem 
to the solution of the problem of finding’the general 
integral of the given differential equation is then in- 
dicated, and the cg given in the form — 


y = 2 Mie® +5 ~= [dan fadow 1... 


>free Er 


The quantities M,, M,... Mn are arbitrary con- 
stants; and a), ete., roots of a certain algebraical 
equation. — (Comptes rendus, March 19.) T, c. [410 


ay, x)da,. 


718 


ENGINEERING. 


Effect of frost upon fire-plug casings. — Mr. 
Allen J. Fuller referred to a general impression that 
the freezing of the earth around fire-hydrants has a 
tendency to gripe fast to the frost-jacket, and lift it 
with the expanding or heaving earth, which he de- 
nied for the following reasons. 1°. The frozen earth 
slides on the surface of the frost-jacket, because its 
expansion is greater than that of iron. 2°. As the 
expansion of the earth must be in proportion to the 
intensity of the cold, so will it be greater above than 
below a given point: therefore the first foot of frozen 
ground will have a greater upward movement than 
that which is below it, and the second foot greater 
than the third, ete. Thus it will be seen that the 
earth below a given point rises more slowly than 
that above, and its friction is opposed to the one 
above. 38°. If this is true of feet, it is true of inches 
and of portions of an inch: therefore there is a re- 
tardation movement throughout. 4°. The upward 
movement of the ground: the freezing being greatest 
towards the surface, and such movement involving a 
more complete fracture of the earth surrounding the 
frost-jacket, it follows that the friction is less at this 
point than that below it, and in consequence there is 
less power to move upward than downward. Of 
course, the above does not apply to any construction 
that the frost can get beneath. 

Mr. Frederic Graff noted and described the form of 
wooden casing which had been successfully used in 
the early practice of the Philadelphia water-depart- 
ment. 

In response to the theory advanced in regard to the 
action of frost in raising the casings of fire-plugs, and 
to the statement that if the base of a structure ex- 
tended below the frost-line it would not be lifted, 
Prof. Haupt remarked, that he thought the theory 
was in part sustained by the fact observed by some 
of the district surveyors, and verified by the accurate 
measurements they were obliged to make, that fences 
moved bodily to the south and east in consequence 
of the action of the sun and frost upon the ground on 
opposite sides of them. He thought, also, that the 
deductions concerning the immobility of structures 
resting below the frost-line were not fully sustained 
by the facts; as in the north-west, where ice forms 
rapidly, he had heard of numerous instances of piles 
driven for bridges, and extending some distance below 
the frost-line, having been raised as much as five to 
six inches in a single night; and he conceived the ac- 
tion in this case to be similar in kind to that of piles 
driven entirely through solid ground, the only dif- 
ference being in the amount of the resistance offered 
by friction and weight of pile. The water, in freezing 
around the pile, acts upon it as a griper or vice; and 
the expansion of the various strata or laminae of 
water, as they become converted into ice, acts as a 
lever to force up the pile. 

Mr. Howard Murphy did not consider the case cited 
by Prof. Haupt as parallel, as the so-called piles, being 
driven through water and soft mud, were probably 
columns resting upon their bases, and depending 
but little upon the frictional resistance of the mate- 


SCIENCE. 


" 


*. [Vou. IIL., No. 43. 


rial through which they passed. Therefore the “ex: 
pansive force upward of the freezing water would be 
opposed by little more than the weight of the pile; 
whereas in a fire-hydrant casing, or other deeply 
planted post, the presumably well-rammed material 
around the whole length under ground would offer 
such proportional frictional resistance as to cause 
the freezing earth to slide up the post rather than to 
lift it. If the ice could be supposed to act downwards 
upon the piles in question, it is hardly likely that it 
would have forced them farther home. — (Eng. club 
Philad.; meeting Nov. 3.) [411 

An enormous steam ferryboat.— The Solano, 
on the Central Pacific railroad ferry, between San 
Francisco and Oakland, Cal., was built by the Harlan 
& Hollingsworth company of Wilmington, Del. 
The boat is 494 feet long on deck, 406 on the water- 
line, 116 feet beam, 63 feet draught, loaded. The 
tonnage is given as 3,540. The engines are two in 
number, beam-engines working independently, hay- 
ing cylinders 62} inches in diameter, and of 11 feet 
stroke of piston. These engines are each rated at 
2,000-horse power. The boilers are 8 in number, of 
steel, have 19,630 square feet of heating-surface, or 
about 1,500-horse power according to a usual rating 
(12 square feet to the horse-power). ‘The wheels are 
30 feet in diameter, and are fitted with 24 buckets. 
There are four lines of rails on the deck; and 48 
freight or 24 passenger cars can be carried at once. 
— (Mechanics, July 28.) RB. u. T. [412 

Surface-condensers for marine engines.— 
Cadet engineer J. M. Whitham, U.S.N., compares the 
performance of surface-condensers of marine engines 
with the results of a formula for required area of 
surface constructed by him, and deduces a constant 
for usual application. He obtains the expression, — 


2. = Se 
Rs ck 
in which 


S = square feet of condensing-surface, 

W = pounds of steam condensed per hour, 

ZI = latent heat of steam of temperature, T, 

T, = temperature of exhaust-steam, 

T. = temperature of feed, 

¢ = mean temperature of circulating water, 

c = coefficient variable with efficiency of surface, 

k = conductivity of the metal (556.8 for brass, 642.5 
for copper). 


He finds the usual value of ¢ to be 0.148. He finds 
that this figure may be increased ten per cent where 
independent circulating pumps are used. The com- 
mon value of ¢ & is taken as 82.2252. An inspection 
of the table of areas in use indicates that the smallest 
areas are very nearly as efficient, as a rule, as the 
greatest. — (Proc. naval inst., ix. 303.) BR. H. T. [413 

Protection of iron from rust.— As it has been 
observed that iron embedded in lime-mortar is hin- 
dered from rusting, Riegelmann of Hanau uses a 
paint containing caustic alkaline earth (baryta, stron- 
tia, ete.), so that the iron may be protected as it is by 
lime. The Neueste erfindung states that 4 mixture 


L 
sS= {ao> + log.e 


, 


eS 


NOVEMBER 30, 1883.] 


of ten per cent of burnt magnesia, or even baryta or 
strontia, mixed cold with ordinary linseed-oil paint, 
and enough mineral oil to envelop the alkaline earth, 
will protect iron by its permanent alkaline action, the 
free acid of the paint being neutralized. —( Build. 
news, Sept. 14.) c. E. G. (414 
Asphalt mortar.— A composition of coal-tar, 
clay, asphalt, resin, litharge, and sand, an artificial 
asphalt, has been used for some years with perfect 
success on the Berlin-Stettin railway for wall-copings, 
water-tables, and similar places requiring a water- 
proof coating. It is applied cold, like ordinary cem- 
ent. The space to be covered is thoroughly dried 
and cleaned, and then primed with hot roofing-var- 
nish, the basis of which is also tar. The mortar is 
then spread cold with the trowel, to a thickness of 
three-eighths of aninch. If the areais large, another 
coat of varnish is given, and rough sand strewn on. 
The material is tenacious, impregnable to rain or 
frost: a piece exposed four years to the drainage of a 
slope thirty-three feet high is perfectly sound, and has 
required no repairs. — (Centr.-blatt. bauverw.) C. E. G. 
415 
AGRICULTURE. : 

Relative value of soluble and reverted phos- 
phoric acid. — Experiments by Voelcker gave no re- 
sult, the differences between the unmanured plots 
being greater than those between manured and un- 
manured plots. Wildt, in experiments in five differ- 
ent places, found in one case that the soluble form 
gave the greatest increase, in three cases no effect 
could be observed from the phosphoric acid in any 
form, and in one case the results were contradictory. 
— (Biedermann’s centr.-blatt., xii. 514.) H.P.A. [416 
Influence of quality of seed upon the crop. — 
One of the most important conditions of a successful 
vegetation experiment is uniformity in the seed used. 
With this in mind, Hellriegel has investigated the 
effect of variations in the absolute weight, and in 
the specific gravity of seeds upon the growth of the 
resulting plants. He finds, that, of seeds (of barley) 
having the same specific gravity, the heavier seeds 
produced at first more vigorous plants than the 
lighter. As the plants continued to grow in good 
soil, the differences gradually diminisbed, until, at 
the time of harvest, they had entirely disappeared. 
When the plants grew in poor soil, the effect of differ- 
ences in the seed was more lasting, and even affected 
the total weight of the crop. Differences of specific 
gravity in seeds of the same weight produced no rec- 
ognizable effect upon the crop. The stage of ripeness 
of the seeds affected the development of the plants 
in the same direction as it did the absolute weight 
of the seeds; the riper seeds being heavier, and pro- 
ducing the most vigorous plants, and the differences 
being most manifest on a poor soil. Essentially the 
same results were obtained in experiments with po- 
tatoes. The attempt was also made to raise potatoes 
of greater or of less specific gravity, by selection; the 
heaviest or lightest being continually selected for 
seed. The experiment was continued through three 
seasons, with a negative result. — (Ibid., xii. 530.) 
H. P. A [417 


SCIENCE. 


119 


MINERALOGY.§ ~~ 


Albite.— This mineral usually occurs somewhat 
impure, owing to the presence of small quantities of 
potassium and calcium. C, Baerwald claims to have 
found for the first time a perfectly pure albite from 
Kasbék, Caucasia, in which no trace of potassium 
or calcium could be detected, and which yielded, on 
analysis, SiO, (68.75). Al.O, (19.73). NasO (12.29) = 
100.77; gravity, 2.618. This albite is regarded as of 
special interest in relation to Tschermak’s theory, that 
the soda-lime felspars are all isomorphous mixtures. 
of a pure soda felspar (albite, Na. Al,Si;O,,) with 
a pure lime felspar (anorthite, CaAl,Si,O;), giving 
a continuous series between the two extremities which 
vary in physical properties. Pure albite not being 
known, an idea of its properties was arrived at by 
caleulation, and the author regards it of interest to 
compare the albite from Kasbék with the theoreti- 
cally pure albite of Tschermak. ; 


FOUND ON ALBITE 
FROM KAsBER. 
Gravinvar seas, 6 svahin 2.618 
Angle of base on brachypinnacoid, 86° 22’, 


CALCULATED BY 
‘TSCHERMAK. 
2.624 
greater than 86° 29° 


When examined with crossed nicols and sodium 
light, the extinction upon a basal section was found 
to be 2° 174’ on either side of the twinning-plane; and, 
with a section parallel to the brachypinnacoid, the 
extinction took place at an inclination of 18° 233’, 
These values vary considerably from those arrived 
at by Schuster, respectively 4° 30’ and 19°; but the 
author regards his values as especially correct, being 
obtained by experiment on pure material, and not by 
calculation. — (Zeitschr. kryst., viii. 48.) 8. L. P. 

[418 
GEOGRAPHY. 
(Arctic.) 

Population of the Chukchi peninsula. —Dr. 
Aurel Krause gives a résumé of the exploration of 
this district from the middle of the seventeenth cen- 
tury, and a discussion of the ethnic relations of its 
people, largely from the observations of himself and 
brother during their late travels. To this is added a 
small ethnological map, showing the distribution of 
the various stocks on either side of Bering Strait; and 
a valuable vocabulary, chiefly of Chukchi words, but 
containing also some words of the Asiatic Eskimo, 
and some recognized as jargon. — (Deutsche geogr. 
bldtier, vi. 3.) Ww. H. D. [419 

Hydrography of the Siberian Sea. — Otto Pet- 
tersson contributes to the second volume of the ‘ Sci- 
entific results of the Vega expedition ’ a study of this 
subject, illustrated by charts of the Kara Sea, and of 
that part of the Arctic Ocean between Novaia Zemlia 
and Bering Strait which has been named the Norden- 
skiéld Sea. An important part of the paper consists 
in the discussion of the movements of the ice in the 
Kara Sea, which, the author concludes, depend less 
on wind and weather than on the varying amount of 
warm surface-water which enters the Kara basin in 
different years. This warm water depends largely 
upon the discharge of the great Siberian rivers, and 
differs according to the time when the ice in them 


720 


breaks up in different years. As a complement to 
this investigation, may be mentioned a paper on Nor- 
denskidld’s explorations, printed by Fr. Schmidt of 
the St. Petersburg academy of sciences, in which the 
author endeavors to clear up some doubtful points in 
the observations made on the Vega voyage, by com- 
bining with them the results of explorations by Sau- 
nikoff, Hedenstrom Anjou, and others. — w. H. D. 
[420 

New charts of north-east Siberia.— The Hy- 
-drographic office of the navy department has issued a 
chart of Plover Bay, derived from Russian surveys 
by Maksitovich, and one of the Anadyr River estuary, 
founded on the surveys of the Telegraph expedition 
in 1865, with corrections by Russian officers on the 
ship Haidemak, in 1875. Following an error of the 
Russian hydrographic office, the title of ‘Port Provi- 
dence’ is given to the whole of Plover Bay, and the 
latter name to the smaller and included port, in direct 
reversal of the custom of American and other navi- 
gators for the last thirty years. — W. H. D. [421 

Graah’s investigations of 1829-30 in Green- 
land. — Apropos of Nordenskidld’s Greenland expe- 
dition, a very full account of Graah’s voyage, and a 
deserved tribute to his qualities as an explorer, ap- 
pears in the last number of the Deutsche geograph- 
ische blitter. This is doubly useful, as the account 
of the journey originally published has long been 
out of print, and difficult to obtain. The same num- 
ber contains a statement and criticism of the hy- 
pothesis offered by Nordenskiéld in regard to the 
interior of Greenland, from the pen of Prof. Bor- 
gen, whose views have been sufiiciently confirmed 
by the results of the voyage, so far as yet. made pub- 
lic. — W. H. D. [422 

(Africa.) 

The Portuguese in Africa.—In support of the 
tights claimed by Portugal on the Kongo, and else- 
where in the interior of Africa, a memorandum was 
issued, some time since, by the geographical society of 
Lisbon, in which it was claimed for Portuguese ex- 
plorers that they had revealed to science precise and 
exclusive information in regard to the orography and 
hydrology of the Dark Continent. The plea of this 
memorandum has been traversed by President Wau- 
ters, of the Royal Belgian geographical society, in a 
very lively and interesting article. Without express- 
ing an opinion as to the merits of parties now strug- 
gling for supremacy on the Kongo, attention may be 
called to the manner in which the author shows how 
the characteristics of the hydrology of the interior of 
Africa on ancient charts were derived. Two centu- 
ries before the Christian era, Eratosthenes, from in- 
formation obtained on the Ethiopian expedition of 
Ptolemy Philadelphus, described with tolerable accu- 
racy the chief features of the river-system of Abys- 
sinia, and placed the source of the principal branch 
of the Nile in a lake situated to the southward of 
that country. Ptolemy and the Arabian geographers 
added other lakes and branches, the details of which 
appear to have been based chiefly on rumor and im- 
agination. In 1444 certain Abyssinian monks visited 
Rome on an ecclesiastical errand; and, from infor- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. Il., No, 43. 


mation derived from them, Brother Mauro corrected 
the geography of that part of the Nile basin comprised 
in the Abyssinian watershed, the remainder finding 
its source on a vast marsh located in the centre of 
the continent. This appeared on his celebrated 
Mappe-monde in 1458. 

According to the author and Father Briicker, the 
curious network of lakes and rivers found on the 
globes of Martin Behaim and medieval geographers, 
which suggest so curiously the lakes and rivers now 
known to exist, were all derived from the sources 
above mentioned. In many cases the names of the 
lakes and towns can be recognized; and in suppressing 
synonymes, and replacing Abyssinian rivers (which 
appear spread over central Africa on such maps) 
where they belong, the central region of the conti- 
nent becomes almost a blank. It was reseryed for 
the celebrated De Lisle, in the early part of the last 
century, to sweep from the charts every thing not due 
to actual observation, leaving to Livingstone and his 
successors the occupation of the blank thus made by 
delineating the physical features recognized in these 
modern and only authenticated explorations. — (Bull. 
soc. Belg. géogr., ii. 1883.) W. H. D. [423 


BOTANY. 


Synonymy of higher cryptogams.— The ‘No- 
menclator der gefiisskryptogamen,’ by Carl Salomon, 
gives the genera and species of the higher erypto- 
gams, together with their synonymes, and the geo- 
graphical distribution of the species, —a work which 
is much needed by students in this department of 
botany. — Ww. G. F. [424 

Ohio fungi.— The third part of the ‘ Mycological 
flora of the Miami valley,’ by A. P. Morgan, has ap- 
peared, and includes the species of Agaricini from 
Coprinus to Leuzites. The paper is accompanied by 
colored plates of two new species, —Coprinus squamo- 
sus and Hygrophorus Laurae.—(Journ. Cine. soc. 
nat. hist.) Ww. G. F. [425 

Phycologia Mediterranea.—In this volume of 
about five hundred large octavo pages, Prof. F. Ar- 
dissone of Milan describes the Florideae of the Italian 
coast, followed by the Bangiaceae and Dictyotaceae, 
under the heading Incertae sedis. From the con- 
text, however, one understands that the writer con- 
siders the two last-named orders to be nearly related 
to the Florideae. The descriptions and synonymy are 
given in full in Latin, and there are many notes in 
Italian on the microscopic structure and deyelop- 
ment. The antheridia of Spyridia are said to be 
unknown. They have, however, been deseribed and 
figured in American specimens of S. filamentosa, 
which also occurs in Italy. — Ww. G. F. [426 

Pollination of Asclepias.— Dr. Taylor speaks of 
the temporary capture of flies by A. purpurascens, 
and of the removal of pollinia by them on their es- 
cape, and suggests that North-American botanists 
examine the insects caught on our asclepiads for the 
peculiar pollen-masses (Sc. gossip, Sept. ). 

Like Apocynum, the milkweeds have long been 
known to catch insects not adapted to fertilize their 
flowers; and irritable movements have several times 


A 


eet rs 


NOVEMBER 30, 1883.] 


been ascribed to their pollinia or stamens (e.g., Kirby 
and Spence, ‘ Entomology,’ 7th ed., 167; Willdenow, 
‘Principles of botany,’ 321; Potts, Proc. Philad. 
acad., 1878, 293). In reality the insects are captured 
by a purely mechanical action of the fine V-cleft in 
the saddle of the pollen-mass, which seems especially 
adapted to hold the tarsal hairs of insects, especially 
certain Hymenoptera. 

The pollinia have been frequently noticed on in- 
sects. Bee-keepers often complain that their bees 
become so weighted with them as to be unable to re- 
gain the hive. Potts (Proc. Philad. acad., 1879, 207) 
mentions one bee which bore the remains of thirty 
pollinia; and Bennett (Pop. sc. review, 1873, 343) 
speaks of a butterfly which had eight entire masses, 
and the bases of eleven others, on one of its feet. Cu- 
rious mistakes have also been made in descriptive 
entomology through a failure to recognize these bodies 
when they have been met with on insects. Savigny, 
in his great work on Egyptian insects (‘ Hymenoptera,’ 
pl. 11), figures one as an appendage of the maxillary 
palpus of a Larrid; and his figure is copied by West- 
wood (‘ Modern classif.,’ ii. 197), who says (p. 201) that 
‘it may possibly be the effect of disease.’ Reakirt 
(Proc. ent. soc. Philad., ii. 357) described them as 


natural appendages of the tarsi of a butterfly, giving: 


them the name of eupronychia. If I am not mis- 
taken, a species of Mantispa bas also been character- 
ized by the presence of these pollen-masses; but I am 
unable to refer to the description. 

Among the numerous modern accounts of the pol- 
lination of the genus, none is more thorough than 
that given by Delpino, in his *‘ Fecondazione nelle 
piante antocarpee,’ 1867. — w. T. (427 


ZOOLOGY. 

Rare forms of microscopic life.—Dr. A. C. 
Stokes recently described and exhibited specimens of 
a new species of Acineta, a stalked, loricate infuso- 
rium, At the sanre time he called attention to an 
example of the blue Stentor (Stentor ceruleus Ehren- 
berg) which he thought had not been mentioned 
heretofore as found in America. He also announced 
that he had recently collected the beautiful rotifer, 
Stepanoceros Eichhornii, which, though abundant 
in Europe, appears not to have been previously found 
in this country. Specimens of Salpingoeca urceolata 
were also shown, which in no way differed from 
marine specimens. All the above forms of minute 
life were found in Watson’s Creek, a small fresh-water 
stream in Mercer county, N.J.—(Trenton nat. hist. 
soc.; November meeting, 1883.) [428 


Mollusks. 

Pulmonata of central Asia.— FE. von Martens 
publishes a valuable contribution to our knowledge 
of central Asiatic Mollusca. The region treated of 
is between the frontiers of China and the Caspian, 
for which material has been gathered by Prjevalski, 
Potanin, and Regel. Besides descriptions of new 
forms, it contains a review of the fauna, with a 
tabular exhibit of the distribution of the different 
species. The central Asiatic Helices are broadly 
divisible into two groups: the one, characterized by 


SCIENCE. 


721 


reddish and yellowish tints of coloration, and related 
to the Fruticicola of Europe, is more northern in its 
distribution; the other, allied to Xerophila, inhabits 
the Thian-Shan region, and is distinguished in 
general by sharper sculpture and a whitish color. 
Several forms common to the pleistocene and to the 
boreal region are found here, while several sections 
of the Helices not found in the pleistocene are also 
absent from central Asia. The fauna is more nearly 
related to that of the post-tertiary, or northern 
American, than to the existing fauna of middle Eu- 
rope. The fresh-water snails are European, but Unio 
is conspicuous by its absence. A supplement by 
Schacko gives anatomical details of several species. 
—(Mém. acad. St. Péterbourg, (7), xxx. no. 11.) 
W.-H. D. [429 

Mediterranean oysters.— The Marquis de Gre- 
gorio has undertaken a special study of the Méditer- 
ranean oysters, recent and fossil. Two short papers 
printed at Palermo give some preliminary results; 
among other things determining the existence in a 
living state, on branches of red coral, of the true 
Ostrea cochlear of Poli, believed to have become ex- 
tinet: We recall, however, the identification of this 
species some time since, by Dr. Jeffreys and others, 
from specimens attached to a telegraph-cable which 
had been recovered from great depths for repairs. — 
W. H. D. {430 

Mollusks at the fisheries exhibition.— Dr. J. 
Gwyn Jeffreys prints some notes on the Mollusca 
exhibited. Leaving out oysters, which were well 
represented from Great Britain, the United States, 
and Franee, the collections are not remarkable. Brit- 
ish Columbia showed a fine example, in spirit, of 
Cryptochiton Stelleri. This species, by the way, 
though rare in European collections, is abundant in 
proper localities from Santa Barbara, Cal., north and 
west to the extreme limit of the Aleutian Islands. 
It is eaten raw by the natives of Alaska. Norway 
showed a small collection of fine specimens of her mol- 
lusks, as did the museum of Gothenberg, Sweden. 
The most important and interesting collection was 
that of the Vega, dredged in the Arctic seas from Nor- 
way to Bering Strait by Baron Nordenskiold. Among 
these was a Pleurotoma (from the description, closely 
resembling P. circinata Dall, of the Aleutian Islands), 
which Dr. Jeffreys believes to be larger than any other 
known species, and to which he has applied the name 
of P. insignis. —(Ann. mag. nat. hist., Aug., 1883.) 
W. H. D. {431 

Worms. 

Notes on worms.—C, Vignier has published a 
preliminary notice of his researches on-the annelid 
Exegone gemmifera in the Comptes rendus (xevi. 729), 
and promises a full memoir. —— W. H. Caldwell gives, 
in the proceedings of the Royal society of London 
(xxxiv. 371), a preliminary note on the structure and 
development of Phoronis. ——A third preliminary 
publication is that on the development of Borlasia 
vivipara, in the Bulletin scientifique du département du 
Nord (vy. 462), by W. Salensky. ——In the journal of 
the Linnaean society of London (xvii. 78), Dr. T. S. 
Cobbold describes Ligula Mansoni, n. sp. Twelve 


722 


specimens were found, in a Chinese, lying in the sub- 
peritoneal fascia about the iliac fossae, and behind 
the kidneys ; a single one being found lying free in 
the right pleural cavity. They were twelve to four- 
teen inches long, and an eighth of an inch broad, 
andcome near Ligula simplicissima. ——H. Gries- 
bach has given a preliminary report of his observa- 
tions on the connective tissue of cestods, as studied 
in Solenophorus. His article appeared in the Biol. 
centralbl. (iii. 268). ——J. Poirier found in the in- 
testines of Palonia frontalis, from Java, three new 
Amphistomidae, for which he establishes two new 
genera, — Homalogaster and Gastrothylax. Three 
species are described and figured (Bull. soc. philom. 
Paris, (7), vii. 74). ——J. Chatin reports a few ob- 
servations on the histological alterations occasioned 
in man by trichinosis (Zbid., 107). —— The larvae of 
Gordius occur both in fishes and in many insect- 
larvae. In opposition to Villot, von Linstow main- 
tains that the insects are the real hosts, and the 
parasites are present in fishes only accidentally, from 
their feeding on infested insects. —(Zool. anz., vi. 
373.) C. S. M. [432 
VERTEBRATES. 


Direct irritability of the anterior columns of 
the spinal cord.— Mendelssohn, in the present pa- 
per, states that he has repeated all of the experiments 
of Fick upon the irritability of the anterior columns, 
and obtained similar results. In his own experiments, 
special efforts were made to prevent any escape of 
current on stimulating. The spinal cord was laid 
bare in its whole extent, and isolated from the sur- 
rounding parts by caoutchoue. The anterior and 
posterior columns of the cord were stimulated just 
below the brachial plexus, which had been previously 
divided; and the movements of the gastrocnemius 
muscle which resulted were registered upon a myo- 
graph. In some cases the anterior portion of the 
cord was completely separated from the posterior by 
a section running from the origin of the sciatic to 
the cervical cord. It was found in all cases that the 
reaction of the anterior columns was,.shorter than 
that of the posterior columns; that is, the time be- 
tween stimulation of the cord and contraction of the 
gastrocnemius was less in the first case than in the 
second, the difference in time varying from 0.01 to 
0.025 of a second. Assuming that the contraction 
resulting from stimulation of the posterior columns 
is reflex, then that resulting from stimulation of 
the anterior columns must be direct.— (Arch. anat. 
physiol., 1888, 281.) Ww. H. [433 


Fishes, 

Sudden increase of a rare sunfish. — Professor 
A, C. Apgar recently referred to the results of a fish- 
ing-excursion in central New Jersey. He found that 
the hitherto rare species of sunfish (Mesogonistius 
chaetodon) was remarkably abundant, and in a short 
time gathered seventy-five specimens. Where here- 
tofore the common spotted sunfish (Enneacanthus 
simulans) and the still more abundant ‘ pumpkin- 
seeds’ (Lepomis gibbosus) have been the characteris- 
tic species, these now appear to be largely crowded 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 43. 


out by the small banded sunfish, which but a short 
time ago was only to be found in scanty numbers 
and in very limited localities. — (Trenton nat. hist. 
soc.; November meeting, 1885.) (434 


Birds. 

Anatomy of Biziura.—From the dissection of 
two males of B. lobata, Mr. Forbes finds that this 
duck forms an exception in that its trachea is simple, 
and devoid of a bulla, and that a subgular pouch, 
comparable to that of the bustards, exists. The 
ambiens tendon perforates the patella, as in Pha- 
lacrocorax and the Hesperornis of Marsh. —( Proc. 
zool. soc. Lond., 1882, 455.) go. A. J. [435 © 

Does the Carolina wren mimic ?—Dr. C. C. 
Abbott read a short paper on the habits of the Caro- 
lina, or mocking-wren (Thryothorus ludovicianus). 
He had carefully studied a pair of these birds fora 
year, seeing the male bird at least three times each 
week, from September to September. In all that 
time he had never heard the male bird utter a note © 
not distinctively its own. Prof. Austin C., Apgar 
remarked that he had been familiar with the song of 
this wren for years, but had not heard it mimic; yet 
in all works on ornithology that refer to this species 
it is called the mocking-wren; and the habit is more 
or less referred to by Wilson, Audubon, and by Baird, 
Brewer, and Ridgway, in their ‘History of North- 
American birds.’ — (Trenton nat. hist. soc. ; meeting 
Sept. 19.) ; [436 

The tongues of Tenuirostres.—In this paper, 
Gadow describes the modifications of the tongue 
which adapt it for sucking. The basal portion of the 
tube is formed by the rolling-up of the tongue, while 
the tip is formed by the rolling-up of the divided por- 
tion. In the Melaphagidae the end is broken up 
dichotomously into several tubes, and only the exter- 
nal borders of the tubes are lacinated. In the Hecta- 
riniinae the end is formed of only two tubes, and 
the internal edge is lacinated. In the hummers the 
tongue is double to near the base. Some peculiari- 
ties of the serpi- and mylo-hyoid muscles are men- 
tioned. We notice that the author gives the anterior 
cornua of the hyoid apparatus as obsolete, though he 
describes the os entoglossum as double. From this 
we infer that he has forgotten that the ossa entoglossa 
are the anterior cornua.—(Proc. zodl. soc., 1883, 
62:) og. AL J. [437 

Mammals. 

Innervation of the movements of the iris. — 
In the reflex narrowing of the pupil, which takes 
place when the eye is exposed to light, it has been 
generally accepted that the afferent fibres concerned 
in the act follow the same general course as that taken 
by the rest of the fibres of the optic nerye, passing 
along the optic tracts to a centre somewhere in the 
neighborhood of the corpora quadrigemina. Bech- 
terew has shown that this is not the case. Section of 
the optic tracts in various places, from the chiasma 
to the corpora geniculata, causes no dilatation of 
the pupil, and does not interfere with the reflex nar- 
rowing of the pupil when exposed to light. Injury 
of the corpora geniculata and of the corpora quadri- 


ae 


 Novemner 30, 1883.] SCIENCE. 723 


gemina, so long as the lesion in the latter case does ‘The pathological reflex paralysis of the iris, which 
not extend so deep as to involve the origin of the occurs in certain diseases, in which the iris does not 
oculo-motor nerves, gives the same result. Lesions respond to stimulation of the eye by light or to pain- 
of the gray matter of the lateral and posterior walls ful stimuli of the body, is owing, he thinks, to an 
of the third ventricle, on the other hand, cause a affection of the gray matter of the third ventricle. 
_ widening of the pupil, and a loss of the ‘direct’ light —(Pfliiger’s archiv, xxxi. 60.) W. H. H. {438 
reflex in the eye of the same side. If, however, the 
eye on the uninjured side is exposed to the light, a ANTHROPOLOGY. 

narrowing of the pupil of both eyes takes place, Languages and ethnology.—In a recent com- 
appearing to show that the lesion has involved only munication, Gustay Oppert proposes to divide lan- 
the afferent fibres, and not the reflex centre. The guages, according to the mental propensity towards 
author’s view of the path of the fibres is, that they concreteness or abstractness possessed by the various 
leave the optic nerve at the chiasma, pass directly races, and exhibited in their speech, into concrete and 
into the gray matter of the walls of the third ven- abstract languages. The concrete division is again 
tricle, and end finally each in the nucleus of the oc- separated into the heterologous (having special words 
ulo-motor nerve of its own side. The fibres do not when persons of different sex address each other), 
cross anywhere in their. course, since lesions of either and homologous (males and females use the same 
side affect only the corresponding eye; and a sagittal words as if addressing their own sex). The abstract 
section of the floor of the ventricle or of the chiasma division is separated into digeneous and trigeneous. 
is without effect. The nuclei of the oculo-motor In the former all things are either masculine or 
nerves he considers as the true centres for the reflex; feminine: in the latter there are three genders. 
and the commissural fibres connecting these nuclei Each division is again subdivided into three classes, 
explain the occurrence of the indirect reflex, that is, as follows: 1°. Elder and younger relatives have 
the narrowing of one pupil when the pupil of the special terms, sex denoted by the words ‘male’ and 
other eye is exposed to light. The dilatation of ‘female,’ or by modulation; 2°. Having special terms 
the pupils which follows painful stimulation of any for elder brother and elder sister, but one in common 
portion of the periphery of the body cannot be owing for younger brother and younger sister; 3°. Having 
to stimulation of fibres running in the sympathetic; four distinct terms for each variety of kinship. 
since, in the first place, the widening isnot maximal, Representing the concrete and abstract by C and A, 
as it is when the sympathetic is directly stimulated, their classes by a and (, and their groups by 1, 2, 
and, in the second place, this reflex is entirely de- - and 3, and the monosyllabic, incorporative, euphon- 
stroyed whena deep section is made behind, or in the _ ic, euphonie inflectional, alliteral, agglutinative, ag- 
posterior part of, the corpora quadrigemina. Heex-  glutinative inflectional, dissyllabic inflectional, inflee- 
plains the action of painful stimuli as an inhibition tional synthetical, and inflectional analytical, by L, 
of the normal light reflex contraction of the pupil. IL, IL, IV., V., VI., VII., VII, [X., and X., any 


HETEROLOGOUS a. HomoLogous 8. Di 


PHYSIOLOGIC. = c = "i Se ae GENEOUS | ese i 
i 2 3 1 2 3 a | 
eae se = 2 z tad 
|( Old 
I.| Monosyl. . . . - - : - = = ss - = =z es Chinese? Egyp- = = 
tian. 
} | (Corean | 
| ( Many } | J Transgan- 
Il. | Incorp. . | American Algonquin. Sid oe getic, - - - = - - - - 
Basque. HE Kiranti, 
‘Tibetan. 
; ; Mandingo ghee x are 
Ilf.| Euphonic. . . pik i, aati Torineae ee ae 
IV. | Eupb. inflect. . far hand hea = Ase Por = aera is byes Hauesss. 
V.| Alliteral . . .| - - | - - es = Kongo, ete.) - = = = = =~) - - 
: 7 tas | Narrinyeri. = hs -- = = = = 2 x = = = 
VI. | Agglut. ; | { Tungu- 
| dusgadten, oot = Malayan. { Monge: aes we = = 
| | | l lian. 
| | | Japanese, 
| (rape ( Hindustani, 
VIL. | Agglut. inflect. . | Rg Se | ire S| = ee - = 4urkish, eag- Bengali, 
| | Dravidian, Singhalese. 
] (ete. 
VIII. | Dissyl. inflect. . ap a = is Spates aa ates Semitic. | 
: [Sanskrit 
TX. | Inflect. synthet. = a a ie as = ie We = - o } Greck, 
| | Latin, ete. 
| : | (Italian, 
. X. | Inflect. analyt. . | - <= my) Pls ke | aa eo ot Lapis ; German, 
| a] English, ete. 
! 1 


C2?) ae és je Jy eles eee | 


724 


language may be indicated, as in chemistry, by a sym- 
bol; as, C8111. = Corean, Tibetan, ete. — (Journ. an- 
throp. inst., xiii. 832-52.) 0. T. M. [439 

Muskoki strategy.— The following method of 
Indian stratagem is told for the first time by Mr. 
H. S. Halbert. When a small party of Muskokis 
wished to attack a Choctaw village, they would ar- 
range themselves in ambush at convenient intervals 
to within three hundred yards of the village. The 
bravest man would now crawl up as near the vil- 
lage as practicable, dig a pit and place himself in 
it, where he would wait until daybreak. The first 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 48, 


Choctaw whom he then saw stirring about near his 
ambuscade he would shoot down, spring forward, and 
scalp him in the twinkling of an eye. He would then 
flee toward the second ambuseader. If he was pur- 
sued, which was generally the case, the pursuer re- 
ceived the fire of this ambuscader, The two warriors 
then fled to the third man in ambush. If the pursu- 
ers still followed, they received the fire of this man. 
The three now ran to the fourth ambushed warrior, 
where the same scene was enacted; and so on until 
the place of the last man was reached. — (Amer. an- 
tig., V. 277.) J. W. P. [440 


INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 


GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. 
Geological survey. 


Paleontology. — Mr. Lester F. Ward, paleobotanist 
of the survey, is at work preparing a catalogue of 
fossil plants, with their geological relations, which 
will probably be published during the coming spring. 
Fifty-one boxes of Fort Union fossil plants, collected 
by Mr. Ward near Glendive, Montana, last July, have 
been received at the office of the survey. 

A paleontological report on the paleozoic fossils of 
the Eureka district of Nevada, by Mr. Charles D. 
Walcott, is almost ready for the press. The number 
of paleozoic fossils from this district exceeds four 
hundred species. 

During the month of October a large number of 
Potsdam fossils from Saratoga, N.Y., and some Tren- 
ton fossils from Trenton Falls, N.Y., were added to 
the collections in the hands of Mr. Walcott, who has 
charge of the department of paleozoic paleontology. 

One of the papers in the fourth annual report 
of the survey is ‘A review of the North-American 
fossil Ostreidae,’ by Dr. C. A. White. It will be 
illustrated by forty-eight full-page plates of figures, 
giving figures of all the leading species of fossil 
forms of oysters, and of the leading varieties of 
Ostrea virginica, for comparison. For it, also, Pro- 
fessor Angelo Heilprin furnishes a revised catalogue 
of the tertiary oysters; and Mr. John A. Ryder adds 
a concise life-history of the common oyster, illustrat- 
ing its anatomy, and giving the results of his recent 
experiments in the artificial propagation of oysters, 

Chemistry. — A laboratory, to be in charge of Prof. 
F. W. Clarke, is being organized in connection with 
the survey. Heretofore the chemical work of the 
survey has been done at various laboratories scattered 
through the country, and at the field-laboratories at 
Denver, Salt Lake City, and San Francisco. A labo- 
ratory for physical experiments will probably be es- 
tablished in connection with the chemical division. 

West- Virginia forests. — During September and Oc- 
tober, Col. George W. Shutt examined the southern 
and eastern portions of West Virginia with especial 
reference to the distribution of timber, its economic 
value, and the facilities of transportation to market 


vid. the streams of the region. He travelled over a 
thousand miles by wagon, and two hundred on horse- 
back, and expresses the opinion that nearly one-half 
of the state is covered with a virgin forest, the value 
of which, if rendered marketable, would amount to 
billions of dollars. 

Geology. —In making an excavation a few weeks 
ago for a building on Connecticut Avenue, in the 
north-western section of Washington, D.C., the 
interesting discovery was made of the remains of a 
subterranean forest. The fact was mentioned at the 
meeting of the Biological society of Washington, Nov. 
2, by Professor Lester F. Ward; and, from the excel- 
lent preservation of the wood, the opinion was ex- 
pressed that it was simply a collection of drift-wood 
that had been washed into a ravine in comparatively 
recent time. Mr. W. J. McGee of the Geological 
suryey, who has been working up the geological 
structure of the District of Columbia for some time, 
had also examined the locality in question, and was 
of the opinion that the deposit was of quaternary or 
prequaternary age. A few days after the meeting of 
the Biological society, above mentioned, he, with 
Professor Ward, Mr. G. K. Gilbert, and Mr. J. B. Mar- 
cou, re-examined the buried forest; and Mr. McGee’s 
opinion was confirmed, —the stratum was found to 
underlie the quaternary gravels of the district. The 
oceurrence is of interest, since the slightly altered 
wood undoubtedly represents the end of the long 
interval extending from the cretaceous to the begin- 
ning of the quaternary, during which the lignite beds 
and iron-ore deposits, so common in the region, were 
formed. 

Publications. — The survey has just issued a mis- 
cellaneous work, one of a series of statistical papers, 
which is distinct from the Monographs and Bulle- 
tins, but, like them, is for sale at cost price (fifty cents 
in this case). The title of this work is, ‘ Mineral 
resources of the United States,’ by Albert Williams, 
jun., chief of division of mining statistics and tech- 
nology. In its 813 pages it gives the statistics of our 
mineral production for the year ending June, 1883, 
and also a mass of inforniation in relation to the 
production of coal, petroleum, iron, copper, lead, and 
zine. It also treats of building-stones, clays, fertili- 


NoveMBER 30, 1883.] 


zers, etc., and gives lists of the useful minerals of 
the United States, with localities, and concludes with 
extracts from the new tariff relating to import duties 
upon chemical products, metals, mineral products, 
ete. It will therefore be seen that the work is of 
practical value; and this fact is also indicated by the 
demand for it, which comes largely from miners and 
mine-owners, particularly from the west. 

Bulletin no. 2 of the survey is also by Albert 
Williams, jun. Its title is, ‘Gold and silver conver- 
sion-tables, giving the coining values of Troy ounces 
of fine metal, and the weights of fine metal repre- 
sented by given sums of United States money.’ It 
is a pamphlet of eight pages, and is of especial value 
to assayers and bullion-dealers. 

The third annual report is printed, and waiting 
for a few of the illustrations. The fourth annual 
report, with the exception of the index, is in type. 
Both these reports will probably be issued early dur- 
ing the forthcoming year. 

Dutton’s ‘Tertiary history of the Grand Cafion 
district, with atlas’ (volume ii. of the Monographs of 
the survey) has been distributed to European institu- 
tions, and will now be distributed to American insti- 
tutions. 

Volume iii. of the Monographs, ‘Geology of the 
Comstock lode and Washoe district,’ with atlas, by 
George F. Becker, is being delivered to the survey 
by the government printer, and will soon be ready 
for distribution. 

The Monographs of the survey are not for gra- 
tuitous distribution. They can only be distributed 
through a fair exchange for books needed in the 
library of the survey. Copies over and above the 
number needed for such exchange are for sale. The 
price of volume ii. is $10.12, and of volume iii., $11. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


THOSE who are interested in our leading article 
this week will be pleased to learn, that, in his will, 
Barrande bequeathed his collections, library, and un- 
distributed copies of his publications, to the museum 
at Prague. He further provided for the continuation 
of his work by a bequest of ten thousand florins to the 
museum, which, by its acceptance, pledges itself to 
fulfil his wishes. Drs. Krejéi, Fric, Kotiska, Prach- 
ensky, and Bellot were appointed by him a commis- 
sion to see that his designs are carried out; and Drs. 
Waagen and Novak, well-known paleontologists, des- 
ignated to execute the work, —the former to com- 
plete the ‘colonies,’ gasteropods, and echinoderms; 
the latter, the bryozoans and corals, 

The museum proposes to establish a Barrande fund 
for supporting further studies on the Silurian forma- 
tion of Bohemia; and any gifts that may come from 
America for that purpose would, we are assured, be 
deemed particularly valuable. The editor of Sctence 
will be pleased to forward to the museum at Prague 
any contributions that American naturalists may 
desire to make, and to acknowledge the same in these 
columns. 


’ 
a 


SCIENCE. 


725 


—Sir Charles William Siemens died in London, 
Noy. 20. He was born at Leuthe, in Hanover, in 
1823, From 1844 he resided in England. In 1858 he 
established, with his brother, the firm which has be- 
come famous through the telegraph-cables they have 
made. For ten years (1853-63) Dr. Siemens was 
engaged on the regenerative gas-furnace, and since 
that time his methods of manufacturing steel have 
met with the greatest success. 

— Information has been received from Sunda Straits, 
giving details of the hydrographical and topograph- 
ical changes due to the great Java earthquake. These 
seem to be less extensive than heretofore reported by 
the press. Commander P. F, Harrington, U.S.N., 
reports the hills and trees in the vicinity of St. Nich- 
olas Point covered with ashes, but otherwise un- 
changed. The soundings here remain the same. The 
sea has rushed through the valleys of Thwartway 
Island, tearing away the vegetation, and leaving the 
low land bare; and, from a distance, these breaks in 
the forest give it the appearance of five islands, but 
there is no change in the shore-line or soundings, 
The same is true of Anjer, where the base of the 
lighthouse at Fourth Point, and the buoys of the sub- 
marine cable, are the only monuments of that populous 
town. The plains have been swept by the sea, and 
show only uprooted palms, and ghastly relics of the 
inhabitants. Krakatoa volcano appeared active; but 
on a nearer approach it was found that the appear- 
ance resulted from ashes, ete., falling down the pre- 
cipitous cliffs, and carried off by the wind. 

The north-western part of Krakatoa Island has 
disappeared. ‘The immense mass which is missing 
seems to have formerly been the choked-up crater; 
and its material has probably modified the sea-bottom 
northward from its place. No bottom could be found 
in the vacant spot with twenty fathoms of line. Prior 
to the eruption, Verlaten and Lang islands were coy- 
ered with verdure. Their contour has been but 
slightly changed, but they are covered with scoria, 
A small island has formed eastward from Verlaten. 
The Polish Hat has disappeared, and where it stood 
is more than twenty fathoms water. A new rock, 
about twenty feet in height, has risen in eight fath- 
oms, near the southern point of Lang Island. The 
channel south from Bezee Island has been closed to 
navigation by reefs and islets not yet surveyed. From 
the northern end of the island a reef extends in a 
north-westerly direction, apparently connecting with 
other islands to the westward. 

The whole coast of Java between Second and Fourth 
points has been swept clean by the sea, but there is 
no essential change in the shore-line and soundings. 
Masses of floating pumice are wedged in Lampong 
Bay, and interrupt communication with Telok Be- 
tong. The lighthouse at Java Head remains undis- 
turbed, as does that at Flat Point. Other dangers 
may be developed on a careful survey, but the main 
gate of the Straits of Sunda seems unimpeded. 

—Mr. W. F. Denning of Bristol, Eng., noting the 
fact that accounts of large meteors form a frequent 
subject of correspondence in the columns of scientific 
journals, but that it is not often the case that the 


7126 


descriptions of these phenomena are sufficiently ex- 
act to be valuable for purposes of calculation, suggests, 
in a letter to the editor of Natwre, the proper methods 
of useful observation of these bodies. Rough esti- 
mates of the direction and position of flight are of 
little utility; and the vague statements often made 
occasion an endless source of difficulty in the satis- 
factory reduction of results. The observers of large 
meteors should attend scrupulously to that most es- 
sential detail, the direction of flight, and express it by 
some method of uniformity. In place of the custom- 
ary vague and variable methods of description of the 
apparent paths of these bodies, Mr. Denning suggests 
that observers uniformly give the right ascension and 
declination of the beginning and end points of the 
visible paths, — elements which admit of ready deter- 
mination by projecting the observed flights upon a 
star-chart or celestial globe, and reading them off. 
This system would render the after-comparison of 
observations a work of greater facility and precision. 
Though the direction of flight is the all-important 
element to be determined by meteor-observers, some 
minor points — as the time of appearance, brightness, 
and approximate duration — should be recorded when- 
ever feasible: also whether the body is accompanied 
by phosphoric streaks or spark-trains. If this were 
done more systematically, the observations of fire- 
balls would acquire additional value, and quite pos- 
sibly might develop some new facts either as to their 
appearance or origin. 

—Mr. Thomas Gaffield read 2 ines on glass\ and 
glass-making, illustrated by specimens, at a meeting 
of the Society of arts eb the Massachusetts institute 
of technology, Nov. 22. 

— At the meeting of the Portland, Me., society of 
natural history, Nov. 19, the president, Dr. Wood, 
gave account of the unearthing of bones of some 
unknown animal from a peat-bed on Ragged Island, 
Casco Bay, by Capt. Thomas Skolfield in 1835 
Highty-five feet in length of vertebral bones were 
taken out and thrown away. The head and tail were 
not uncovered, and the animal was estimated to be 
a hundred and ten feet long. No ribs were found, 
and no marks of rib attachment appeared on any of 
the vertebrae, which were hard and smooth. Only 
four bones were saved: two were given to the Port- 
land society, but were burned in 1854; the other two 
have been lost sight of, but were said to haye been 
taken to the Philadelphia academy in.1856 or 1857, 
by a Mr. Coolidge. Of the two given to the society, 
the large one was unquestionably a vertebra: its 
length was from fourteen to sixteen inches; its diam- 
eter, nine or ten inches on the articular faces, and 
eight midway. The other bone was limpet-shaped, 
four or five inches in diameter and height. The shape 
and size of these bones are well remembered by mem- 
bers of the society, and Capt. Skolfield; and the story 
of the last is well vouched by many others. 

Two unsuccessful attempts have been made by the 
society to unearth more bones. Another trial will be 
made next season. 

—On the retirement of Mr. R. Hering from the 
presidency of the Engineers’ club of Philadelphia, at 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. Il, No. 43. 


the close of its fifth year, he gave a summary of recent 
progress (Proc. eng. club Philad., iii.). The work of 
the late U. S. board appointed to test iron, steel, and 
other metals, was referred to: and it was stated that 
there was at least some possibility that its work may 
be in time resumed. The chief of ordnance recom- 
mends that an appropriation of ten thousand dollars 
be made by Congress for the purpose, as urged by the 
convention of the societies of civil, mechanical, and 
mining engineers. The differentiation of the profes- 
sion into the several branches, — civil, mechanical, 
mining, —and the subdivision of these into special- 
ties, were considered as marking the tendency of re- 
cent change. Inventions are coming forward with 
increasing number and rapidity, but it is becoming 
each day more evident that they are all the products 
of growth and of gradual development. No new 
thing comes into use at once fully perfected. Of 
accomplished work, the East-river bridge, with its 
span of 1,595 feet, suspended 135 feet above the water: 
our Kinzua viaduct at Bradford, 2,052 feet long, 
spanning a valley 302 feet below it; the Henderson 
bridge over the Ohio, of 525 feet span; and the great 
bridge to be built over the Firth of Forth, — are among 
the most marvellous. The great canals in progress, 
or proposed, —that in Florida, opening the Kiekpo- 
chee Lake; the interoceanic canal through the Isth- 
mus of Panama; the great Sirhund canal in India, 
500 miles long; the Corinth canal in Greece: and the 
Manchester ship-canal, — are evidences that the days 
of canals are but just commencing. The United 
States boast to-day 116,000 miles of railroad, and are 
building over 30 miles per day, and earning $550 per 
mile. Locomotives for the Pennsylvania railroad are 
built weighing over 60 tons, and make 90 miles in 80 
minutes. Electricity is a competitor, which, how- 
ever, is not likely at once to displace steam on the 
rail. Heatand steam supplied from a central station, 
as at New York, where the New-York steam com- 
pany are preparing to work 16,000-horse power of 
Babcock & Wilcox boilers, 2,000-horse power of which 
are constantly at work, is a promising illustration of 
advance. Electricity similarly distributed,—as by 
the Edison company and the Brush company, —and 
the telephone, are the latest of these achievements 
of the profession. Sanitary engineering, although the 
most essential of all, seems to be the last to come in, 
and is but now beginning to take its place. 

— Since the article in this number on erystals in 
the bark of forest-trees was in page, the writer has 
seen a recent work, Anatomie der Baumrinden, Ber- 
lin,#1882, Dr. Joseph Moeller, in which the subject is 
fully treated and richly illustrated. 

—Microscopists will regret to learn of the death 
of Mr. Robert B. Tolles at Boston, on the 17th, at 
the age of sixty-one. No one has done more than 
he to raise the standard of excellence of American 
objectives for the microscope; and his ingenuity in 
devising special methods to overcome particular diffi- 
culties is known to all who have tested his powers. 
He has been in feeble health for several years, but 
continued to work with astonishing vigor and perti- 
nacity. 


iti 


. 


oy Oe ae 
> * 


SCIENCE 


FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7, 1883. 


: 


JOACHIM BARRANDE. 
Il., HIS SCIENTIFIC WORK. 


Tue influence of Barrande upon science in 
this country and throughout Europe has been 
of the first importance ; and he has done much 
for the reputation of many of our investigators 
by his careful attention to their works, and his 
respectful quotations. He recognized the work 
especially of Dr. E. Emmons, and gave him 
the credit of being the discoverer of the pri- 
mordial fauna, which Emmons had previously 
published as being in the Taconic system. 
Barrande thus ranged himself, during the cele- 
brated Taconic controversy, on the side of Dr. 
Emmons, and his principal supporter in this 
country, Professor Jules Marcou. One of M. 
Barrande’s most remarkable discoveriés related 
to what he has called ‘ colonies.” According 
to him, certain characteristie fossils appeared 
sporadically in the faunas preceding those to 
which they properly belonged ; and he deduced 
from this the result that two faunas haying 
some identical species, but existing in different 
parts of the world, were not necessarily contem- 
poraneous because of this fact, but might, in- 
deed, be very distinct in age. These views are 
strongly supported by Professor Jules Marcou 
in this country, who states that he has dis- 
covered similar colonies in the rocks of the 
Taconic, underlying the Potsdam at Swanton 
and Phillipsburg; and is opposed principally 
by English atthors upon the grounds that the 
evidence was stratigraphically defective. Bar- 
rande’s reply to this, which he was preparing 
at thé time of his death, has not yet been pub- 
lished. The theory has the support of the 
geologists of Vienna, especially Haidinger, 
director of the Imperial museum, whom Bar- 
rande quotes upon the titlepage of each of his 
books upon the ‘ colonies.’ 

From 1846 to the present time, the smaller 

No. 44.—1883. 


publications of this voluminous and accurate 
writer must have reached nearly a hundred. Of 
these, between seventy and eighty were made 
to learned bodies, and from sixteen to twenty 
were pamphlets and books of octavo size : some 
of these were abridgments of his larger vol- 
umes. In the latter series, his études, extracts, 
etc,, he published over three thousand pages 
and twenty-nine plates. Of these, his ‘ Cephal- 
opodes, études générales,’ was the most impor- 
tant to the general student. His grand work, 
the publication of which was begun in 1852, 
and is not yet finished, has already reached, 
as we have said, the number of twenty-two 
quarto volumes. These treat of the Trilobites 
and Crustacea, 1,582 pages, 84 plates ; Cepha- 
lopoda, 3,600 pages, 544 plates; Brachio- 
poda, 226 pages, 153 plates; Acephala, 342 
pages, 361 plates ; and he announces as having 
already completed over 100 plates of the Gas- 
teropoda, which have not yet appeared. This 
makes the enormous number of 5,750 pages of 
text in quarto, and 1,148 plates already issued, 
which we estimate as containing about eighteen 
thousand figures of fossils of the finest exe- 
cution. 

Barrande published large editions of his 
smaller works, which he distributed with a free 
hand to many institutions and scientific men ; 
but of his larger works, the edition, probably 
on account of the expense, was limited to two 
hundred and fifty copies. The larger number 
of these he also gave away to scientific insti- 
tutions and to individual geologists, and it is 
estimated that he did not receive in return as 
much as the actual cost of three of the large 
volumes. 

The Gasteropoda, Echinodermata, Bryozoa, 
and miscellaneous fossils still remain unpub- 
lished; though over a hundred plates of the 
Gasteropoda were completed, and the text was 
being printed, at the time of his death. 

The number of species described amount to 
thirty-six hundred. When we reflect that each 


ee, eee. ey ey | 


728 


of these had to be studied, and handled oyer 
and over again many times, before reaching. the 
final stages of classification, description, and 
illustration, we are amazed at the industry and 
capacity required to do all this scientific work 
single-handed. Barrande, unlike other volumi- 
nous authors, had no collaborators. With the 
exception of an amanuensis, dranghtsmen, 
mechanical preparators, and mere collectors, 
he did all of this vast work. A careful and 
comprehensive system was followed in every 
volume, and in the descriptions of each species ; 
so that, when one has mastered the intricacies 
of this, he can at once find every thing relating 
to the history, literature, structure, relations 
in time, and geographical distribution, of any 
species or group. 
Finally, in the cephalopods, the parts and in- 
ternal structures for which this fossil type is 
remarkable, as well as the embryo shells and 
their characteristics, are-followed out in the 
same way. We will speak more at length of 
this type, partly because it was the favorite and 
most fruitful field of research of this eminent 
author, and was selected by him as the strong- 
hold from which to attack the theory of eyo- 
lution, and partly because we have no space 
to do justice to other departments, where he, 
however, made important discoveries ; as, for 
example, among the trilobites. With infinite 
labor he succeeded in getting series showing 
the stages of growth of some species among 
these ancient Crustacea, and taught us that it 
was possible to study their development even 
in the Silurian period. Barrande’s efforts have 
been frequently referred to as if he were one 
.of what we might call the numismatic school 
of geologists, who study animal fossils as if they 
were medals, useful principally to verify the 
date and place of formations. On the con- 
trary, his technical labors had a distinctly ideal 
purpose, — the investigation of the evidences 
for and against the theory of evolution. His 
education and consequent psychological con- 
dition placed him in opposition, and, in spite 
of his honest efforts to treat the subject fairly, 
controlled his classifications, and warped his 
judgment. The Cuyierian form of anthropo- 


SCIENCE. 


' v 
3 ? 


(Vou. IL, No. 44, 


morphology was his faith; and he failed, as 
have most great executive men, in realizing 
the dangers of his own mental training, and 
the need of correcting the personal equation. 
The facts, however, were strong enough 
even to meet his requirements in some of the 
groups he studied ; yet he ended by admitting 
that evolution must, in part at least, be true. 
He believed that the different types were mirac- 
ulously created, but that the smaller series 
which he had traced might have been eyolved 
within certain well-defined limits, fixed accord- 
ing to the plans of an infinite intelligence, 
which it was hopeless to try to understand. 
He was also deficient in that sort of zodlogical 
knowledge which is acquired only by research 
among existing animals, and a familiarity with 
their modes of development, anatomy, and 
habits. This explains the apparent inconsis- 
tencies which show themselves in his text :— 
the continual admission of transition forms be- 
tween different species and smaller groups, and 
yet the perpetual denial of the probable former 
existence of any such transitions between what 
he considered distinct types, whenever he could 
not actually find. them; his comparisons be- 
tween the Silurian and recent Nautili, which he 
supposed to be very similar, when in reality 
only their adults are similar, the young shells 
and their developmental stages being widely 
different ; his singular opinion that species like 
these Silurian Nautili and other forms, which 
seemed to him out of place and also inexplicable 
on account of their structure, had been set in the 
geological record as intentional exceptions, to 
teach man the divine origin of this apparently 


modified chaos of gradations. Barrande under- 


stood, and gave a fair statement of, the ordi- 
nary views of evolutionary embtyologists on 


p. 74 of his ‘ Etudes générales, Cephalopodes,’ 


and represented a naturalist of this stamp inyes- 
tigating the embryos of the fossil Nautiloidea. 
After finding all the forms of the group from 
the Silurian to the present time with the same 


type of apex or young, he would then neces-— 


sarily draw from this embryo a picture of the 


lost prototypical ancestor of all the Nautiloi-— 
In his next steps he would find the © 


dea. 


i 


ele ate al id ele aR SS a 


DECEMBER 7, 1883.] 


adults of transition forms from Nautiloidea to 
Ammonoidea, and set down his convictions 
that the Ammonoidea must have been derived 
from Nautilus through these transition forms, 
the gradations being Nautilini, Goniatites, 
Ammonites. Barrande then pictures this same 
naturalist as attempting to verify his appar- 
ently well-founded conclusions by opening a 
species of Goniatite with the anticipation of 
discovering within, at the apex, or young shell, 
an identical form and structure to that which 
he had been accustomed to find in the Nauti- 
loidea, and his consequent confusion, and the 
overthrow of his theory, upon the exposure of 
a different form. Barrande’s argument deals 
fairly with every point; and his facts are crush- 
ing refutations of the usual direct, simple 
modes pursued by embryologists in handling 
the question of the evolution of types. Bar- 
rande’s work had no orators or lecturers to 
translate it; and the hypothesis of the embry- 
ologists, and even eyolution itself, escaped an 
attack, which, if supported by powerful in- 
fluences, might have shaken the popular faith 
in the new school of thought. 

Hyatt has denied that there were such great 
and essential differences between the embryos 
of the Nautiloidea and those of the Ammonoi- 
dea; and they certainly seem to have been 
more alike than was supposed by M. Barrande. 
The fact, however, remains, that Barrande saw 
clearly that the embryos of these two nearly 
allied groups, which are united by most authors 
into one order, were, even in the Silurian, more 
easily separable from each other than some of 
the adult forms. When we can add to this, his 
discovery and thorough demonstration of the 
distinctness of the different types of fossils in 
the Silurian, and their sudden mode of appear- 
ance, we see clearly that he succeeded in doing 
the work which has thrown the greatest light 
upon the most obscure and interesting periods 
of the world’s history, and which has furnished 
a temperate and healthy opposition to the 
theory of evolution. His faults of logic were 
unavoidable, with his mathematical and Cuvie- 
rian education, and strong feelings-of loyalty 
to his masters in science ; but these are only 


SCIENCE. 


729 


slight scratches upon the face of the vast monu- 
ment erected by his labors, his discoveries, his 
eighty-three years of unblemished moral and 
faithful life, and his personal sacrifices for the 
advancement of science and the truth. 


WHIRLWINDS, CYCLONES, AND TOR- 
: NADOES.1— VY. 

Cycronic circulation has thus far been de- 
scribed as if it were effected in radial lines in 
to and out from the centre ; but here, as in the 
whirlwind, perfect radial motion is impossible. 
A horizontal rotary motion would soon be es- 
tablished near the centre by the inequality of 
the inblowing winds. It is found, however, 


that all storms yet studied turn from right to 
left in the northern hemisphere, and from left to 
Such constancy 


right in the southern (fig. 9). 
points to something 
more regular than the 
accidental strength of 
the winds,—to some 
cause that shallalways 
turn the indraughts to 
the right of the centre 
as they run in towards 
it in the northern hem- 
isphere, and to the left 
in the southern hemi- 
sphere ; and this cause 
is found in the rota- 
tion of the earth on 
its axis. 

There is a force aris- 
ing from the earth’s 
rotation that tends to 
deflect all motions in 
the northern hemi-~ 
sphere to the right, 
and in the southern to 
the left; and this deflecting force varies with 
the latitude, being nothing atthe equator, and 
greatest at the poles. It may be found that 
this statement differs from that generally 
made: namely, that moving bodies are de- 
flected only when moving north or south, and 
not at all when moving east or west: for it is 
thus that Hadley (1735) and Dove (1835) ex- 
plained the oblique motion of trade-winds, and 
that Herschel and, others explained the rotation 
of storms. But this is both incorrect and in- 
complete; for a body moving éastward is 
deflected as well as when moving northward, 
and the actual deflective force is greater than 
that accounted for in Hadley’s explanation. 

1 Continued from No. 43. 


730 


It is this deflective force, acting on winds 
from all sides, as was first shown by Tr racy * 
(1843), that combines with the centripetal 
tendency of the surface-winds to give rise to 
the inward spiral blowing of the storm (fig. 
10),—a constant feature of all cyclones. 


Fic. 10. 


In all hurricanes, the winds greatly increase 

in strength as they near the centre of the storm, 
-and at the same time their path becomes more 
nearly circular. A. cause of this was briefly 
stated for the whirlwinds: but it now must be 
more fully analyzed ; and it will bebest to begin 
the attempt by resolving the motion of the wind 
at any point of its spiral track into two rec- 
tangular components (fig. 11),—one, along a 
radius toward the centre, 
P &, the centripetal compo- 
nent; the other, 
. tangential, P 7. Only the 
first of these comes directly 
from the convectional circu- 
lation, already described as 
depending on the central 


never produce winds of dey- 
astating strength. The sec- 
ond, or tangential, arises 
first from the deflective force 
of the earth’s turning. The 
higher the latitude, the less 
the friction at the bottom of 
the atmosphere, and the 
greater the distance from which the wind is 
derived, then the greater its right-handed de- 
parture from a radial path. Hence in a large 
storm at sea, where the friction is small, and 
the indraught has its source several hundred 
or even a thousand miles away from the centre 
of low pressure, the deflective tangential com- 
ponent becomes very considerable, and may, 
near the centre, outrank the centripetal. 
1 See Science, i. 98. 


Fic. 11. 


SCIENCE. 


circular or * 


warmth ; and this one would - 


[Vo. , No. 44. 


But there is another and even more impor- 
tant cause of growth in the circular element 
of the wind’s motion ; namely, the increase of 
its rotary velocity as the radius of rotation 
decreases, in accordance with the law of the 
‘preservation of areas,’ already mentioned. 
Let us suppose, that, when at a distance of five 
hundred miles from the centre, the inblowing 
wind has been turned to the right of its radial 
path by the earth’s deflective force so as to 
have the moderate tangential or rotary velocity 
of one mile an, hour; and, disregarding the 
further effects of deflection, let us consider the 
consequences of gradually drawing this mass 
of air towards the centre. The product of its 
radius and its rotary velocity must remain con- 
stant; and hence, as the radius is diminished, 
the velocity must increase, one quantity vary- 
ing inversely as the other. The wind has no 
visible, material connection with the storm- 
centre; but it is slowly moving around that 
centre, under the control of central forces, de- 
rived from differences of temperature and press- 
ure, that drive it inwards, or, in other words, 
shorten its radius of rotation : and consequent- 
ly, when, in the case supposed, the radius has 
been diminished to five miles, the velocity must 
have been accelerated to one hundred miles an 
hour, — a violent hurricane-wind. The recog- 
nition of this important factor of the storm’s 
streneth is due to Ferrel (1856). The theo- 
retical increase of velocity thus provided is 
never fully realized, for much motion is over- 
come by friction; but enough is preserved, 
especially in tropical storms, to give them the 
ereatest share of their destructive strength. 
The total tangential component of the wind at 
any point must therefore be considered as the 
sum of the deflective and accelerative forces, 
minus the loss by friction. Near the storm- 
centre, where the velocity of the wind is very 
ereat, this tangential component is much greater 
than the centripetal, and the spiral path be- 
comes almost circular; while the reverse rela- 
tion holds for the outer part of the storm. 


It will be easily understood, that a consider- 


able centrifugal force will be developed by the 
rapid central rotations, as well as by the earth’s 
detlective foree; and, as a consequence, the 
centripetal force will be partly neutralized, and 
the winds will be held out from the centre. 
This must increase the depression already pro- 
duced there by expansion and overflow ; and, 
as a matter of fact, the low pressure of a storm- 
centre, especially in tropical latitudes, is chiefly 
the -effect of this dynamic, and not of the ear- 
lier named static cause. But so long as the 
wind maintains its rapid motion, the additional 


“ae? 


aoe oe hod oy ark eh ‘ 
DECEMBER 7, 1883.] 


depression is powerless to draw it towards the 
centre, Only when its velocity is decreased by 
friction does the barometric gradient, just be- 
fore produced by the centrifugal force, urge 
the wind inwards to the middle of the storm. 
‘The additional gradient, therefore, represents 
potential energy, derived from the actual 


energy of the rotating winds, and all ready- 


to be transformed into actual energy again, 
as soon as friction has destroyed some of the 
velocity of rotation. 

The general interaction of the storm-forces 
may now be thus summarized: in obedience 
to a centripetal tendency, produced by differ- 
ences of temperature or of pressure, or both, 
the air moves along the surface to the region of 
low pressure. On its way, the deflective force 
"arising from the earth’s rotation turns it con- 
tinually to one side, and so gives it a more 
and more nearly circular path ; and, in addition 
to this, its rotary velocity increases as much as 
its radius of rotation decreases: the tangen- 
tial component of its spiral motion must there- 
fore continually increase. With the increase of 
this component, and the decrease of the radius 
of rotation, the centrifugal force (v?+7) must 
increase rapidly, and soon come to equal and 
counterbalance the original centripetal force, 
and at the same time greatly increase the 
barometric gradients. At this point the wind 
would blow in a circular path, were it not that 
friction with the sea or ground is continually 
consuming some of its velocity, and thus de- 
creasing its centrifugal force, and allowing the 
potential energy of the steep barometric gradi- 
ent to produce centripetal motion. This de- 
creases its radius, and at once gives it new life, 
again to be partly destroyed and renewed as 
before. Absolutely circular motion can there- 
fore never be attained, although it is approached 
very closely near the centre. At sea, where 
friction is small, and in tropical latitudes, 
where the strength of the storm is great, the 
wind is unable to reach the storm-centre ; for, 
when the distance from the centre is reduced 
to only five or ten miles, the centrifugal force 
is so great, and the wind’s course is so nearly 
circular, that it is carried aloft by the up-draught 
before it can enter noticeably farther: the cen- 
tral area is therefore left unprovided with vio- 
lent winds, and is generally a comparative 
calm, known as the ‘eye of the storm,’ of 
which there will be more to say later. The 
general form of the storm-wind’s spiral can 
be deduced from the preceding considerations. 
The angle between the tangential component 
and the actual path of the wind, which is called 
the inclination (fig. 11.), will vary with the 


ok Wy ds 


SCIENCE. 


731 


relation of the circular and centripetal elements 
of the wind’s motion; the tangent of the incli- 
nation will equal the radial divided by the tan- 
gential component: hence in the outer part 
of the storm the inclination will be large, and 
the wind will blow almost directly toward the 
storm-centre ; but nearer the centre the incli- 
nation will become smaller and smaller, and 
the wind will blow in a more and more nearly 
cireular path. It will also be understood, that 
the upper winds, less influenced by friction, 
will near the centre have a greater velocity 
and a less inclination than the lower ones. 
Moreover, the inward gradient which they pro- 
duce will be effective and important in urging 
along the slower surface-winds, in a manner 
better illustrated in a tornado, where this.action 
will be more fully described. 
(To be continued.) 


ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF TEETH IN 
THE LAMPREY. 


Tue teeth in the myxinoid fishes are quite 
different from those of other vertebrates, and 
have hitherto been supposed to belong in an 
entirely different category. Nothing has been 
known with regard to their development, except 
a brief statement as to their mode of sueces- 
sion in Petromyzon by Professor Owen, in his 
‘ Odontography.’ : 

The teeth of the lamprey are horny, and of 
simple conical shape, disposed concentrically in 
the dome-shaped mouth. Besides these, there 
are horny lingual and palatal teeth. 

The kindness of my friend Professor Benecke 
of K6nigsberg, who sent me a number of lam- 
preys at the end of their metamorphosis from 
Ammocoetes, has enabled me to follow out the 
development of these horny teeth with unex- 
pected results; for, as far as the essential part 
of the process is concerned, it differs but slight- 
ly from the normal course of true dental devel- 
opment. There is first formed a low conical 
papilla of somewhat reticulate tissue, belonging 
to the mesoblast (m.p.), and continuous with 
the dermis, which in this, as in other verte- 
brates, is of mesoblastic origin. Over this 
papilla the epiblast which lines the cavity of 
the mouth becomes extremely thick, and con- 
sists of very numerous layers of cells. All of 
these layers can be continuously traced into 
the other epiblast of the mouth, as well as that 
of the external skin. In the stage here figured 
there may be seen, immediately overlying the 
mesoblastic papilla, a layer of epiblastie cells 
irregularly columnar and polygonal in shape 
(e.0.). These cells are the homologue of the 


732 


enamel-organ of the other. vertebrates, and 
originate in the same way. So far, at least, 
the lamprey does not show an essentially dif- 
ferent type of tooth-development from that 
known in other groups. 

The cells of the ‘ enamel-organ ’ are rapidly 
proliferating, and have thrown off from their 
outer surface a conical cap of cells (2d t.), 
which are flattened, and which show an incip- 
ient formation of pigment among them. ‘This 
hollow cone of cells is the rudiment of the 
youngest tooth, which in the stage here de- 
scribed is the second of the series. Outside 
of the rudimentary tooth is a cone of polygo- 
nal epiblastic cells, several layers deep (7.e.) ; 
and this is again followed by the first tooth, 
now almost completely cornified and pigmented, 
so that traces of cel- 
lular structure are 
but faintly discerni- 
ble (dst %.). The 
tip of this tooth has 
just penetrated the 
skin of the mouth, 
and is elsewhere coy- 
ered by the many- 
layered epiblast (e. 


Wesee, therefore, 
that the essential 


parts of the typical 
vertebrate tooth are 
here present ; name- 
ly, the mesoblastie 
papilla, and the 
over-lying epiblastic 
enamel-organ. But 
the ordinary type of 
dental development 
is here greatly modi- 
fied. The papilla is never ossified; and the 
enamel-organ secretes no enamel, but func- 
tions as a sort of tooth-gland, throwing o 
successive hollow cones of flattened and cor- 
nified epiblastic cells. The actual tooth of the 
lamprey is therefore not the homologue of 
the entire tooth of a selachian, but simply of the 
enamel-cap. It is not difficult, however, to 
understand how the process seen in Petromyzon 
could be derived from that in the selachian. 
In consequence of this change, another dif- 
ference arises: as the papilla never ossifies or 
becomes protruded, it is no longer necessary 
that for every new tooth a new enamel-organ 
should be formed by budding from the old one ; 
so each enamel-organ is converted into a per- 
manent tooth-gland, functional throughout the 
life of the animal. 


Section through inner side of lip 
of metamorphosing lamprey. 
é.m., epiblast of mouth; Zs¢ ¢., 
oldest tooth; 2d z., youngest 
tooth; ¢.0., enamelorgan; i.e., 
intermediate epiblast-cells be- 
tween successive teeth; m.p., 
mesoblastic papilla. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 44. 


This view of the peculiarities of dental deyel- 
opment in Petromyzon implies, of courge, that 
this group of fishes was derived from ancestors 
possessed of teeth of the ordinary or selachian 
type. Further, as it is now very generally 
admitted that teeth are only modified placoid® 
seales, it follows that the lampreys are de- 


_scended, ultimately at least, from forms pro- 


vided with placoid scales. 

Such a conclusion, however, does not by any 
means commit us to the view that the myxi- 
noids are degenerate descendants of some gna- _ 
thostomatous group, as this is no more implied 
in the possession of ordinary caleareous teeth 
than in the presence of the horny teeth which 
the group has long been known to possess. 

W. B. Scorsrs 


Morphological laboratory, Princeton, N.J., 
Noy. 3, 1883 


NORDENSKIOLD ON THE INLAND ICE 


OF GREENLAND. 


In a series of letters to Mr. Oscar Dickson, Baron 
Nordenskiold has given a detailed report of the lead- 
ing incidents and results of his recent expedition, 
though it will still be some time ere we can learn 
what are the full gains to science. The leading 
novelty of the expedition was, of course, the journey 
into the interior of Greenland. 

After landing Dr. Nathorst and his party at Waigatz 
Sound, Nordenskidld went back te Egedesminde, 
which he reached on June 29. The following day he 
left for Auleitsivik Fjord, from which the expedi- 
tion was to start. He then proceeds: — 

On July 1 the Sophia anchored in the bay. We 
found here a splendid harbor with clay bottom, some 
seven fathoms deep, surrounded by gneiss rocks from 
six hundred to a thousand feet in height, the sides 
of which are in some places covered with low but 
close shrubs, or clothed with some species of willow, 
mosses, and lichen, which, when we arrived, were 
ornamented with a quantity of magnificent blossoms. 
From one of the slopes a torrent descended, the 
temperature of which was 12.3° C. The weather was 
fine, the sky cloudless, and the air very dry. July 1 
to 3 were employed in making preparations for the 
ice-journey, while the naturalists made excursions 
to various places in order to collect objects relating to 
the conditions of the country. On the night of the 
3d every thing was ready for a start; and, after some 
difficulty in reaching the spot where the baggage was, 
we were fairly off. The spot from which we set out 
on the journey was only five kilometres from the 
actual shore, and situated below a little lake into 
which a number of glacier rivers fell. We proceeded 
up the river in a Berton boat, purchased in England. 
On the night of the 4th we camped for the first time 
on the ice. The expedition consisted of nine men 
besides myself. After a great deal of hard work in 
getting the sledges over the ice, which was here very 

1 From Nature, Noy. land 8. ‘ 


DECEMBER 7, 1883.] 


rough, we found, on the morning of the 5th, that it 
was impossible to proceed eastwards, but were com- 
pelled to return to the border of the ice, and then 
continue to the north or north-east until finding 
smoother ice. This first part of the ice was furrowed 
by deep crevasses and ravines, causing us much trou- 
ble. We covered, however, a good distance that day, 
and pitched our tent near a land-ridge in the ice, two 
hundred and forty metres above the sea.) On July 6 
I sent the Lapp Lars forward to reconnoitre; and he 
reported that it was still impossible to proceed east- 
wards, but, if we marched for a day or so to the north, 
we would find the country accessible to the east. As 
I feared, however, the impossibility of dragging the 
sledges with the weight on them over the rough ice, 
I selected provisions, etc., for forty-five days, and 
left the rest in a depot in the ice. We now resumed 
the march. It was very interesting to witness the 
great ease with which the Lapps proceeded among 
the ice-ravines, how easily they traced a road dis- 


SCIENCE. 


7133 


a cirele by Pistor and Martin, a small.sextant (in case 
of the former being damaged), a mercury horizon, 
three aneroid barometers, thermometers, magnets 
(for the study of the clay deposit in the snow), a 
topographical board, a photographie apparatus, blow- 
pipes, flasks, nautical tables, ete. The sledges, ‘ kal- 
kar,’ six in number, were of the same kind as those 
on which Swedish peasant women bring their wares 
to market. The harness was made so strong that 
it would hold a man, in case of his falling into a cre- 
vasse. In addition to these things, we had a Manila 
rope specially spun for the expedition at the Alpine 
purveyor’s in Paris. The food supplied per day may 
perhaps interest explorers. It was, — breakfast, cof- 
fee, bread, butter, and cheese (no meat or bacon); 
dinner, forty-two cubie centimetres Swedish corn 
brandy (brénvin), bread, ham or corned beef, with sar- 
dines; supper, preserved meat, Swedish or Australian. 
Sometimes preserved soup was served with dried 
vegetables. Five men were teetotalers, but there 


THE HEIGHTS ARE GIVEN PROVISIONALLY IN METRES. 


covered, and with what precision they selected the 
least difficult track. 

The Lapp Lars carried, instead of an alpenstock, a 
wooden club, with which he had slain more than 
twenty-five brown bears, full of marks from their 
teeth; and his eyes sparkled at the thought of encoun- 
tering a white one. On the night of the 6th we held 
our third camp on the ice; and now several officers 
and men from the Sophia, who had accompanied us 
thus far, left us. Besides the most advantageous 
requisites for such a journey, we had with us a cook- 
ing-apparatus for petroleum: and here I beg to say 
that I found this kind of oil far more suitable than 
train or vegetable oils, which I had used on my for- 
mer expeditions; and I recommend the same most 
warmly to arctic explorers. Of scientific instru- 
ments [ may mention compasses, two chronometers, 


1 The altitudes were ascertained by comparing three aneroid 
barometers, while observation was simultaneously made at Ege- 
desminde with a splendid sea-barometer I had left there for that 
purpose. As the figures have, however, not yet been verified, 
they may be slightly altered. ‘They seem, on the whole, too low. 


SWEDISH MILE = 6.64 ENGLISH MILES. 


was no need of supplying them with extra rations. 
For cooking, 0.7 litres of spirits were consumed per 
day. Our whole baggage weighed a ton,—a weight 
which might easily have been drawn across a smooth 
snow or ice field, but which was very difficult of 
transporting over the rough and cut-up surface we 
had to traverse. Our daily march between July 7 
and 9 was therefore not great, viz., five kilometres 
a day. In addition to the crevasses and ravines, 
we encountered innumerable rivers, swift, and with 
steep banks, which were difficult of crossing, which 
was generally accomplished by laying three alpen- 
stocks across them. If I had not selected these of 
the toughest wood obtainable, we should often have 
had to make délours of many kilometres. 

On these days we found, on several occasions, large 
bones of reindeer on the snow; and it was but a 
natural and pardonable conclusion to arrive at, that 
they were those of animals who had fallen in their 
wandering over the ‘Sahara of the arctic regions.’ 
But that good signs are not always true ones we soon 
discovered. 


734 


During the entire journey, we had great difficulty 
in finding suitable camping-places. Thus, either the 
ice was so rough that there was not a square large 
énough for our tent, or else the surface was so cov- 
ered with cavities, which I will fully describe later 
on, that it was necessary to pitch it over some hun- 
dred smaller and a dozen larger round hollows, one 
to three feet deep, filled with water, or else to raise it 
on a snow-drift so loose and impregnated with water 
that one’s feet became wet, even in the tent. An ex- 
ception to this was the place where we camped on 
July 9; viz., camping-place no. 6. We encountered 
here a small ice-plain, surrounded by little rivers, and 
almost free from cavities, some thirty metres square. 
All the rivers flowed into a small lake near us, the 
water from which rushed with a loud roar through a 
short but strong current into an enormous abyss in 
the ice-plateau. The river rushed close to our tent, 
through a deep hollow, the sides of which were formed 
of magnificent perpendicular banks of ice. I had 
the spot photographed; but neither picture nor de- 
scription can give the faintest idea of the impres- 
sive scene, viz., a perfectly hewn aqueduct, as if cut 
by human hand in the finest marble, without flaw or 
blemish. Even the Lapps and the sailors stood on the 
bank, lost in admiration. 

At first we had followed the plan of bringing the 
baggage forward in two relays; but, finding this very 
fatiguing, I decided to bring all with us at once. I 
found this to answer better. On July 10 we covered 
thus nine and a half, onthe 11th ten, and on the 
12th eleven, kilometres. The road was now much 
better than before, although stiff enough. An excep- 
tion to this was, however, formed by the part we 
traversed on the 11th, when we proceeded alongside 
a big river, the southern bank of which formed a 
comparatively smooth ice-plain, or rather ice-road, 
with valleys, hills, cavities, or crevasses, some five to 
ten kilometres in width, and five kilometres in length. 
This plain was in several places beautifully colored 
with ‘red’ snow, especially along the banks of the 
river. It was the only spot on the whole inland ice 
where we found ‘red’ snow or ice in any quantity. 
Even yellow-brown ice was seen in some places; but, 
on the other hand, ice colored grayish-brown or gray- 
ish-green, partly by kryokonite, and partly by organ- 


isms, was so common that they generally gave color’ 


to the ice-landscape. 

Even on July 12, between camps nos. 7 and 8, we 
found blades of grass, leaves of the dwarf-birch, wil- 
lows, crackberry, and pyrola, with those of other 
Greenland flora, on the snow. At first we believed 
they had been carried’ hither from the interior; but 
that this was not the case was demonstrated by the 
circumstance that none was found east of camp no. 
9. The only animals we discovered on the ice were, 
besides the few birds seen on our return-journey, a 
small worm which lives on the various ice algae, and 
thus really belongs to the fauna of the inland ice, 
and two storm-driven birds from the shore. I had 
particularly requested each man to be on the lookout 
for stones on the ice; but, after a journey of about 
half a kilometre from the ice-border, no stone was 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou LL, No, 44. 


found on the surface, not even one as large as a pin’s 
point. But the quantity of clay-dust (‘kryokonite’) 
deposited on the ice was very great, —I believe, sev- 
eral hundred tons per square kilometre. 

We now ascended very rapidly, as will be seen from 
the subjoined statement of our camps:— 
3d camp, 300 metres above the sea, 

“ec 


4th 355 “ ee 
5th “ee 374 oe ad 
6th “ 382 a “ 
ith 451 kt “ 
Sth “ 546 fe F. 
insula ria 2 s 


The 9th camp lay on the west side of an ice-ridge 
close by a small, shallow lake, the water from which 
gathered, as usual, into a big river, which disappeared 
in an abyss with azure-colored sides. From this spot 
we had a fine view of the country to thé west, and 
saw even the sea shining furth between the lofty 
peaks on the coast; but, when we reached east of this 
ice-ridge, the country was seen no more, and the hori- 
zon was formed of ice only. } 

* Through an optical illusion, dependent on the mi- 
rage of the ice-horizon, it appeared to us as if we were 
proceeding on the bottom of a shallow, saucer-shaped 
cavity. It was thus impossible to decide whether we 
walked up or down hill; and this formed a constant 
source of discussion between us, which could only be 
decided by the heaviness of the sledges in the har- 
ness. The Lapps, who seemed to consider it their sole 
business that we should not be lost on the ice, came 
to me in great anxiety, and stated that they had no 
more landmarks, and would not be responsible for 
our return. I satisfied them, however, with the as- 
surance that I would find the way back by means of 
a compass and solar measurements. In spite of this, 
the Lapps easily traced our route and our old camps 
with an accuracy quite marvellous. 

During our outward journey, I determined the site 
of each camp astronomically; and thus the distances 
which, when the determinations have been calculated, 
will be given on the map to be drawn of the journey, 
will be absolutely correct. But the distances covered 
by the Lapps have been made according to their own 
judgment. The kilometres we covered every day, 
including the numerous détours, were ascertained by 
two pedometers. . 

Up to the 9th camp we were favored by the finest 
weather, generally with a slight south-east wind, 
cloudless sky, and a temperature in the shade, three 
feet above the ice, of 2° to 8° C., and in the sun of 
even 20°C. The centre of the sun’s disk sank in this 
spot for the first time below the horizon on July 1a, 
and the upper rim, if allowance is made for refrac 
tion, on July 21. After the middle of July, when at 
an elevation of four thousand to seven thousand feet, 
the nights became very cold, the thermometer sinking 
to 15° and 18° below freezing-point of Celsius. 

The constant sunshine by day and night, reflected 
from every object around, soon began to affect our 
eyes, — more so, perhaps, because We had neglected to 
adopt snow-spectacles at the outset of our journey; 
and snow-blindness became manifest, with its at- 


‘ 


=. 


DECEMBER 7, 1883.] 


tendant cutting pains. Fortunately Dr. Berlin soon 
arrested this malady, which has brought so many 
journeys in the arctic regions to a close, by distribut- 
ing snow-spectacles, and by inoculating a solution 
of zine vitriol in the blood-stained eyes. Another 
malady —if not so dangerous, at all events quite as 
painful— was caused by the sunshine in the dry, 
transparent, and thin air on the skin of the face. It 
produced a vivid redness and a perspiration, with 
large burning blisters, which, shrivelling up, caused 
the skin of the nose, ears, and cheeks, to fall off in 
large patches. This was repeated several times, and 
the pain increased by the effect of the cold morning 


SCIENCE. © 135 


noon of July 13, with a heavy wind from south-east. 
It continued all the night, and the next morning 
turned into a snow-storm. Weall got very wet, but 
consoled ourselves with the thought that the storm 
coming from south-east argued well for an ice-free 
interior. When it cleared a Jittle, we strained our 
eyes to trace any mountains which would break the 
ice-horizon around us, which everywhere was as level 
as that of the sea, The desire soon ‘to be there’ 
was as fervent as that of the searchers of the Eldo- 
rado of yore; and the sailors and the Lapps had no 
shadow of doubt as to the existence of an ice-free 
interior; and at noon, before reaching camp no. 12, 


Fissure in Greenland’s inland ice, seen by Nordenskiéld on his visit in 1876. From asketch by Dr. Berggren, published in Za Nature. 


air on the newly-formed skin. Any similar effect the 
sun has not in the tropics. With the exception of 
these complaints, none of us suffered any illness. 

On July 18 we covered thirteen, on the 14th 
ten, and the 15th fourteen, kilometres (9th to 12th 
camps). At first the road gradually rose; and we 
then came to a plain, which I, in error, believed was 
the crest of the inland ice. The aneroids, however, 
showed that we were still ascending: thus the 9th 
camp lies 753, the 10th 877, the 11th S84, and the 
12th 965, metres above the sea. Our road was still 
erossed by swift and strong rivers; but the ice became 
more smooth, while the kryokonite cavities became 
more and more troublesome. This was made more 
unpleasant by rain, which began to fall on the after- 


everybody fancied he could distinguish mountains 
far away to the east. They appeared to remain 
perfectly stationary as the clouds drifted past them, 
—a sure sign, we thought, of its not being a mass of 
clouds. They were scanned with telesedpes, drawn, 
discussed, and at last saluted with a ringing cheer; 
but we soon came to the conclusion that they were 
unfortunately no mountains, but merely the dark 
reflection of some Jakes farther to the east in the ice- 
desert. 

In my report of the expedition of 1870, I drew at- 
tention to a clayey mud which is found in circular 
cavities, from one to three feet in depth, on the sur- 
face of the inland ice, not only near the shore, but 
even as far inland as we reached on that oceasion: 


736 


My companion on that occasion, Professor Berggren, 
discovered that this substance formed the substratum 
of a peculiar ice-flora, consisting of a quantity of dif- 
ferent microscopical plants (algae), of which some 
are even distributed beyond the clay on the ice itself, 
and which, in spite of their insignificance, play, be- 
yond doubt, a very important part in nature’s econo- 
my, from the fact that their dark color far more 
readily absorbs the sun’s heat than the bluish-white 
ice, and thereby they contribute to the destruction 
of the ice-sheet, and prevent its extension. Un- 
doubtedly we have in no small degree to thank these 
organisms for the melting-away of the layer of ice 
which once covered the Scandinavian peninsula. I 
examined the appearance of this substance in its re- 
lation to geology, and demonstrated, — 

1. That it cannot have been washed down from the 
mountain ridges at the sides of the glaciers; as it was 
found evenly distributed at a far higher elevation 
than that of the ridges on the border of the glaciers, 
as well as in equal quantity on the top of the ice- 
knolls as on their sides or in the hollows between 
them. 

2, That neither had it been distributed over the 
surface of the ice by running water, nor been pressed 
up from the hypothetical bottom ‘ground’ moraine. 

3. That the clay must therefore be a sediment from 
the air, the chief constituent of which is probably 
terrestrial dust spread by the wind over the surface 
of the ice. ; 

4. That cosmic elements exist in this substance, as 
it contained molecules of metallic iron which could 
be drawn out by the magnet, and which, under the 
blowpipe, gave a reaction of cobalt and nickel. 

Under these circumstances, the remarkable dust 
which I have named ‘kryokonite,’ i.e., ice-dust, ob- 
tained a great scientific interest; particularly as the 
cosmic element, viz., the matter, deposited from 
space, was yery considerable. Even later students 
who have visited the inland ice have observed this 
dust, but in places surrounded by mountains, from 
which it might with more probability have been 
washed down. They have, therefore, and without 
haying examined Professor Berggren’s and my cwn 
researches of 1870, paid little attention to the same; 
while the samples brought home by Dr. N. O. Holst 
from South Greenland in 1880 were not very exten- 
sive. 

But now Dr. Berlin brings home from a great vari- 
ety of places ice algae, which, I feel convinced, will 
contribute fresh materials to our knowledge of the 
flora of the ice and snow. For my own part, I have 
re-examined my first researches of the lkryokonite, 
and they are fully corroborated. Everywhere where 
the snow from last winter has melted away, a fine 
dust, gray in color, and, when wet, black or dark 
brown, is distributed over the inland ice ina layer 
which I should estimate at from 0.1 to 1 millimetre 
in thickness, if it was evenly distributed over the en- 
tire surface of the ice. It appears in the same quan- 
tity in the vicinity of the ice-border surrounded by 
mountains as a hundred kilometres inland; but in the 
former locality it is mixed with a very fine sand, gray 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 44. 


in color, which may be separated from the kryokv- 
nite. Farther inland this disappears, however, com- 
pletely. Gravel or real sand I have never, in spite 
of searching for them, discovered in the kryokonite. 
The kryokonite always contains very fine granular 
atoms, which are attracted by the magnet, and which, 
as may be demonstrated by grating in an agate mor- 
tar and by analysis under the blowpipe, consist of a 
gray metallic element; viz., nickel iron. In general, 
the dust is spread equally over the entire surface of 
the ice. Thus it was found everywhere where the 
snow from the previous year had melted away; while, 
to judge by appearances, there seemed to be little dif- 
ference between the quantity found near the coast, 
and in the interior. The dust does not, however, 
form a continuous layer of clay, but has, by the melt- 
ing of the ice, collected in cavities filled with water, 
which are found all over the surface. These are 
round, sometimes semicircular, one to three feet in 
depth, with a diameter of from a couple of millime- 
tres to one metre or more. At the bottom a layer of 
kryokonite one to four millimetres in thickness is 
deposited, which has often, by organisms and by the 
wind, been formed into little balls; and everywhere 
where the original surface of the ice has not been 
changed by water-currents, the cavities are found so 
close to each other that it would be very difficult to 
find a spot on the ice as large as the crown of a hat 
free from them. In the night, at a few degrees be- 
low freezing-point, new ice forms on these hollows; 
but they do not freeze to the bottom, even under the 
severest frost, and the sheet which covers them is 
neyer strong enough to support a man, more particu- 
larly if the hole is, as was the case during half our 
journey, covered with a few inches of newly-fallen 
snow. 

The kryokonite cavities were perhaps more danger- 
ous to our expedition than any thing else we were ex- 
posed to. We passed, of course, a number of crevasses 
without bottom as far as the eye could penetrate, and 
wide enough to swallow up a man; but they were 
‘open,’ i.e., free from a cover of snow, and could 
with proper caution be avoided; and the danger of 
these could further be minimized by the sending of 
the two-men sledges in front, and, if one of the men 
fell into the crevasse, he was supported by the run- 
ners and the alpenstock, which always enabled him to 
get up on the ice again. But this was far from being 
the case with the kryokonite hollows. These lie, with 
a diameter just large enough to hold the foot, as close 
to one another as the stumps of the trees in a felled 
forest; and it was therefore impossible not to stumble 
into them at every moment, which was the more an- 
noying as it happened just when the foot was stretched 
for a step forward, and the traveller was precipitated 
to the ground with his foot fastened in a hole three 
feet in depth. The worst part of our journey was 
four days outward and three days of the return; and 
it is not too much to say that each oue of us, during 
these seven days, fell a hundred times into these cavi- 
ties, viz., for all of us, seven thousand times. I am 
only surprised that no bones were broken, —an acci- 
dent which would not only have brought my explo- 


DECEMBER 7, 1883.] ' 


ration to an abrupt close, but "might have had the 
most di-astrous consequences, as it would have been 
utterly impossible to have carried a man in that state 
back to the coast. One advantage the kryokonite 
cavities had, however; viz., of offering us the purest 
drinking-water imaginable, of which we fully availed 
ourselves without the least bad consequences, in spite 
of our perspiring state. 

On July 16 we covered thirteen, on the 17th eigh- 
teen and a half, and on the 18th seventeen and a half, 
kilometres. The country, or more correctly the ice, 
now gradually rose from 965 to 1,213 metres. The 
distances enumerated show that the ice beeame more 
smooth; but the road was still impeded by the kry- 
okonite cavities, whereas the rivers, which even here 
were rich in water, became shallower but stronger, 
thus easier of crossing. Our road was, besides, often 
cut off by immense snow-covered crevasses, which, 
noweyer, did not cause much trouble. 

On the night of the 18th, when arrived at camp no. 
14, the Lapp Anders came to me and asked if he 
might be permitted to ‘have arun;’ viz., to make a 
reconnaissance on ‘skidor,’! to see if there was no 
land to the east. This granted, he started off with- 
out awaiting supper. He came back after six hours’ 
absence, and reported that he had reached twenty- 
seven kilometres farther east; that the ice became 
smoother, but was still rising; but there was no sign 
of land. If his statement was true, he had, after a 
laborious day’s journey, in six hours covered about 
sixty kilometres! At first I considered his estimate 
exaggerated, but it proved to be perfectly correct. 
It took us, thus, two whole days to reach as far as he 
had got, as shown by the track in the snow. I par- 
ticularly mention this occurrence in order to show 
that the Lapps really did cover the estimated dis- 
tance of their journey eastward, of which more 
below. 

During these days we. passed several lakes, some 
of which had the appearance of not flowing away in 
the winter, as we found here large ice-blocks several 
feet in diameter, screwed up on the shore; which cir- 
cumstance I could only explain by assuming that a 
large quantity of water still remained here when the 
pools about became covered with new ice. The lakes 
are mostly cireular, and their shores formed a snow 
‘bog’ which was almost impassable with the heavy 
sledges. 7 

On July 19 we covered seventeen and a half, on 
the 20th sixteen and a half, on the 2Ist seven, and 
on the 22d seven and a half, kilometres (15th to 18th 
camp). The ice rose between them from 1,213 to 1,492 
metres, The distances enumerated fully show the 
nature of the ice. It was at first excellent, particu- 
larly in the morning, when the new snow was covered 
with a layer of hard ice; but on the latter days we 
had great difficulty in proceeding, as a sleet fell with 
a south-east wind in the night, between the 20th 


1 The Swedish ‘skidor’ and Norweglan ‘ski’ are long 
strips of pine wood, slightly bent at the top, polished, and as 
elastic as if they were of the finest steel, with a strap for the 
feetin the centre, on which the Lapps and Scandinavians run on 
the snow with remarkable agility at a tremendous pace. 


SCIENCE. 


137 


and the 2Ist. The new snow, as well as that lying- 
from the previous year, became a perfect snow-bog, in 
which the sledges constantly stuck, so that it required 
at times four men to get them out. We all got 
wet, and had great difficulty in finding a spot on the 
ice dry enough to pitch the tent. On the 22d we 
had to pitch it in the wet snow, where the feet im- 
mediately became saturated on putting them outside 
the India-rubber mattresses. A little later on in the 
year, when the surface of the snow is again covered 
with ice, or earlier, before the thaw sets in, the sur- 
face would no doubt be excellent to journey on. 

When we, therefore, on July 21, were compelled to 
pitch the tent in wet snow, as no dry spot could be 
discovered, and it was impossible to drag the sledges 
farther, I sent the Lapp, Lars Tuorda, forward on 
‘skidor’ to find a dry road. He came back, and 
stated that the ice everywhere was covered with 
water and snow. For the first time in his life he 
was at a loss what to suggest. It being utterly im- 
possible to get the sledges farther, I had no choice. 
I decided to turn back. 

I wished, however, to let the Lapps go forward 
some distance to the east to see the country as far as 
possible. At first I considered it advisable to let 
their journey only last twenty-four hours; but as 
both Anders and Lars insisted that they were most 
eager to find the ‘Promised Land,’ and said they 
could do nothing towards discovering it in that short 
period, I granted them leave to run eastwards for 
four days and nights, and then return. 

On leaving, I gave them the following written 
orders : — 

“Instructions for Lars and Anders’s ‘skid’ run on 
the inland ice of Greenland; viz., — 

“Lars and Anders have orders to proceed on skidor 
eastwards, but are allowed to alter the course, if they 
may deem it advisable, to north or south. 

““At the end of every third mile the barometer 
shall be read, and the direction run noted. 

“<The absence is to be four days, but we will wait 
for six days. After that, viz., on the morning of 
July 28, we return. If not returned, we leave behind, 
in a sledge, provisions, brandy, mattresses, etc. 

“‘TLars is warned not to be too bold. Should land 
be reached, you are to collect as much as you may 
gather of blossoms and grass; if possible, several 
kinds (specimens) of each. 

“Given on the inland ice in Greenland, July 21, 
1883. A. E. NORDENSKIGLD,” 

They were allowed to select what provisions, etc., 
they desired, and were furnished with two compasses, 
aneroid barometers, and a watch. . 

At 2.30 A.M. on July 22 they started. The days we 
waited for them were generally spent in the tent, 
as water surrounded us everywhere. The sky was 
covered with a thin veil of clouds, through which the 
sun shone warmly, at times even scorchingly. From 
time to time this veil of clouds. or haze, descended 
to the surface of the ice, and hid the view over the 
expanse; but it was, remarkably enough, not wet, but 
dry, — yes, so dry that our wet clothes absolutely dried 
in it. We have therefore, I consider, witnessed a 


738 


phenomenon on the inland ice of Greenland which 
is related to the ‘sun-smoke’ phenomenon of Scan- 
dinavia; viz., what Arago has described under the 
name ‘ brouillard see.’ 

On the 24th, after an absence of fifty-seven hours, 
the Lapps returned. It was the want of drinking- 
water and fuel which compelled them to return. 
The surface had been excellent for their journey, and 
they had covered a distance out and back of two 
hundred and thirty kilometres, — an estimate which I 
consider perfectly reliable. During the march forward 
the barometer was read every third hour. It gave 
the point of return a height of two thousand metres.! 

As to the run, Lars rendered the following report. 
When they had reached thirty miles from the camp, 
no more water could be found, Farther on, the ice 
became perfectly smooth. The thermometer regis- 
tered —5° C. It was very easy to proceed on the 
“skidor.’ At the point of return the snow was level, 
and packed by the wind. There was no trace of 
land. They only saw before them a smooth ice, coy- 
ered by fine and hard snow. ‘The composition of the 
surface was this: first four feet of loose snow, then 
granular ice, and at last an open space large enough 
to hold an outstretched hand. It was surrounded by 
angular bits of ice (crystals). The inland ice was 
formed in terraces, thus: first a hill, then a level, 
again another hill; and soon. The Lapps had slept 
for four hours, from twelve midnight on July 23, in 
a hollow dug in the snow while a terrific storm blew. 
They had till then been awake for fifty-three hours. 
On the first day there was no wind; but next day it 
came from the south, and lasted thus until twenty- 
four miles on the return-journey, when it changed 
to west. On the return-journey, when forty miles 
from our camp, two ravens were seen. They came 
from the north, and returned in the same direction. 
The Lapps had for a moment lost the track of the 
“skidor’ in the snow. The ravens flew at first, they 
found, parallel with the track, and then turned to the 
north. 

, On July 25 we began the return-journey. It was 
high time, as the weather now became very bad; and 
it was with great difficulty we proceeded in the hazy 
air between the number of crevasses. The cold, after 
the sun sank below the horizon at night, also became 
very great; and on the morning of July 27 the glass 
fell to —11° C. 

As to the return-journey, I may be very brief. The 
rivers now impeded us but little, as they were to a 
great extent dried up. The ice-knolls had decreased 
considerably in size too, and lay more apart; but the 
glacial crevasses had greatly expanded, and were more 
dangerous, being covered with snow. Even the cayi- 
ties and the glacial wells, of which many undoubtedly 
leave a veritable testimony of their existence behind 
them in the shape of corresponding hollows in the 
rock beneath, had expanded, and increased in number. 
On a few occasions on the return-journey we saw 
flocks of birds, most probably water-fowl, which were 
returning from the north. 


1 T have as yet been unable to verify the barometer calcula- 
tions, and the figures stated here may suffer some modification. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. U., No. 44 


On July 31 we again sighted land, which was 
reached on the afternoon of Aug. 4, and proceeded 
to Sophia harbor, where Eskimos were, as arranged, 
waiting forus. For convenience’ sake I now divided 
our party into two, one of which sailed in the lifeboat 
of the Sophia to Egedesminde, where the steamer 
was to take us on board; and the other, in which 
was myself, marched to that place across the low 
but broad promontory which separates Tessiusarsoak 
and South-East Bay, and then in two Eskimo ‘ kone’ 
boats to Ikamiut and Egedesminde. 

On Aug. 16 the Sophia arrived from the north, 
embarked us, and made for Ivigtut, where we arrived 
on the 19th. 

Of the expedition carried out under Dr. Nathorst 
during my absence, he will himself make a report,! 
and I have no doubt that the results of the same will 
prove very important. Particularly will the very rich 
collections of fossil plants, which he has made with 
the greatest regard to the geological condition of the 
strata, be of great value to science, as they will furnish 
us with many new materials, and detailed illustrations 
of the flora of the far north during the epoch when 
forests of fig-trees, cycadi, gingko, magnolia, and 
tulip trees covered these regions. Dr, Forsstrand 
and Herr Kolthoff’s collections and studies of the 
fauna of Greenland will also contribute to extend our 
knowledge of the naturalistic conditions of the arctic 
regions; while the careful researches made by Herr 
Hamberg, of the saltness, composition, and tempera- 
ture of the sea, will, lam sure, greatly benefit hydrog- 
raphy. His researches have been effected in Davis 
Strait and Baffin’s Bay too, the hydrographical con- 
ditions of which are but little known. 

With regard to the results of my exploration of the 
inland ice, I may be permitted to say a few words. 
That we found no ice-free land in the interior, or 
that it does not exist between 68° and 69° latitude in 
Greenland, is due directly to the orographical condi- 
tions which exist in this part of the country, as re- 
ferred to in my programme of the expedition.2 The 
land has here the form of a round loaf of bread, with 
sides which gradually and symmetrically slope down to 
the sea; i.e., exactly the shape: which I then pointed 
out was a necessary condition if the entire country 
should be covered with a continuous sheet of ice. 

But, thanks to the Lapps, my expedition is the 
first which has penetrated into the very heart of the 
enormous Greenland continent, and which has thus 
solved a problem of the greatest geographical and 
scientific importance. It is the first exploration of 
the hitherto unknown interior of Greenland, the only 
continent in the world into which man had not pene- 
trated. 

A new means of locomotion, the ‘skidor,’ seems 
also to have been acquired for the arctic explorer of 
the future, which may greatly assist him in his work, 
and enable him to reach places hitherto deemed im- 
possible of approach, but of the use of which the 
Lapp seems to possess, so to speak, the monopoly. 

A. E. NORDENSKIOLD, 


1 Nature, vol. xxviii. p. 641. 
2 Ibid., p. 37. 


- DECEMBER 7, 1883.] 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


Osteology of the cormorant. 


I WoULD make a couple of corrections to the article 
on the osteology of the cormorant in Scrence for 
Novy. 16. 

First, the occipital style is figured as pointing up- 
wards and backwards, and is spoken of as figured in 
situ for the first time. Having made several dissec- 
tions of cormorants in past years, I would suggest that 
the bone is the ossified tendon of some of the exten- 
sor muscles of the neck, and that it points backwards, 
and, if any thing, downwards, as figuréd by Selenka 
{Bronn’s Thierreichs, Vogel, figs. 5, 6, pl. viii.). As 
drawn in ScieNcE, it would project through the skin 
of the nape. 

Secondly, the patella is spoken of as very large and 
as throwing “‘some light on such birds as Colymbus 
and Podiceps, where this bone becomes anchylosed 
with the tibia in the adult;’? and Professor Owen is 
referred to as authorizing this statement. Now, Pro- 
fessor Owen describes the patella as ‘ co-existing with 
the long rotular process in the loon’ (Comp. anat., 
ii. 83), and figures it as distinct from the process in 
fig. 34, 1. In fact, the rotular process was regarded 
as the anchylosed patella until the time of Nitzsch. 
This celebrated ornithologist pointed out the co-exist- 
ence of an enormous patella and rotular process in 
Podiceps, and showed the true nature of the process 
(- Osteogr. beitr. zur nat. der végel,’ Leipzig, 1811, 
pp. 98-101, pl. ii., figs. 13, 14). In fact, the rotular 
process of the divers is exactly the same in nature as 
in other birds, differs only in size, and in no wise rep- 
resents the co-evisting patella. In position and func- 
tion the rotular process resembles the olecranon. 

‘J. AMoRY JEFFRIES, 


Sense of direction. 


Professor Newcomb’s paper in ScrencEe of Oct. 
26 opens an exceedingly interesting, if not a very im- 
portant subject. It has exacted of me a good deal of 
thought, and this capricious sense has been a source 
of no little annoyance. I should like to give a little 
of my experience. With me the co-ordinates almost 
invariably revolve 180°. When a boy, I studied geog- 
raphy, and when at recitation sat with my face to the 
north. I thus had the whole world mapped out in my 
mind to correspond with my proper sense of the di- 
rections. Soon after this, my father moved to a new 
home; and there I found, to my great annoyance, 
that my co-ordinates had revolved 180°. My geog- 
raphy was in the greatest confusion. When I began 
to travel, I found that the co-ordinates would change 
in the most unexpected manner, first one way, and 
then the other. I could not trust my sense of direc- 
tion. 

When I came to Lebanon, I found myself with my 
original boyhood co-ordinates, I graduated, and went 
back to Arkansas. Upon my return to Lebanon a few 
months afterwards, the directions had revolved 180°, 
and I found myself practically in a new town. I had 
to learn it all over again; and to-day, if I desire to 
point to the north, my hand instinctively moves to- 
wards the south. In travelling I have found it use- 
ful to trust as little as possible to the sense, and be 
guided by the map. In an extended tour through 
Europe, I was in the habit of preparing myself, before 
entering each city, by a careful study of its map, — 
noting the position of the railway-station, direction 
of the streets, ete. In this manner I was enabled to 
control the sense of direction. In only one or two 
instances did I fail to keep the directions right. 

- I make two practical suggestions: — 


SCIENCE. 


739 


1. Students in geography should always sit with 
their faces to the north. 

2. Travellers should prepare themselves, before 
entering a new place, by a previous subjective ar- 
rangement of the directions they are to find there. 

J. I, D. Hryps. 


Cumberland university, Lebanon, Tenn. 


Synchronism of geological formations. 


In Scrence of Noy. 16, weekly summary, under 
above heading, Professor A. Heilprin is reported as 
having called attention to two conclusions of Huxley’s 
on this subject, and to have maintained, that while 
the first-mentioned conclusion could be logically dis- 
proved, and the seeond derived no confirmation from 
the supposed facts, the opinion of the older geologists, 
that geological contemporaneity is equivalent to chro- 
nological synchronism, was therefore probably cor- 
rect. 

Professor Huxley, in his presidential address to the 
Geological society for 1862, supported the conclusions 
called in question by reasoning, which, so far as I 
know, has yet to be shown to be illogical. Neither 
am I aware, that, during the twenty-one years which 
have since elapsed, geological or paleontological re- 
search has tended otherwise than to maintain the 
logical basis on which he then rested. 

If Professor Heilprin will but do what he is re- 
ported to claim can be done, he will earn the gratitude 
of all other geological students by helping to settle 
what has proved a vexatious question for the past 
half-century. E. NUGENT. 

Pottstown, Nov. 22, 1883. 


From superstition to humbug. 


Your editorial in the Nov. 16 issue of ScrencE 
might very appropriately have contained an account 
of the ‘ magnetic springs ’ which underlie this portion 
of the state of Ohio. From my residence three of 
these springs may be seen, at one of which a large 
bath-house has already been erected, where, during 
the present season, an average of forty patients daily 
tested the curative effects of the waters. These 
springs are found along the bank of a small creek and 
at the base of a valley, perhaps twenty-five feet in 
depth. The water, which contains less than a sixth 
of one per cent of iron, is brought to the surface of 
the ground through an iron gas-pipe, and ‘* becomes so 
highly charged with magnetism that it will impart its 
properties to a knife-blade.’? The village of Magnetic 
Springs, a few miles distant, has several large hotels, 
all 9f which are so crowded with guests, that rooms 
must be engaged weeks in advance. Change of resi- 
dence, rest, and good nursing have together effected 
a number of cures, all of which, of course, are ascribed 
to the magnetic properties of the water. Many of 
the guests return to their home as disappointed as 
the little girl, who, after drinking a glass of the water, 
said, ‘I do not feel one particle magnified, and I 
think these springs are a humbug.’ 

E. T. NELSON, 
Delaware, O., Nov. 22, 1883. 


Primitive visual organs. 

The notice of Dr. Sharp’s communication made 
before the Academy of natural sciences of Philadel- 
phia, in No. 42 of Scrence [397], on the habits and 
on the peculiar visual organs of Solen ensis and 8, 
vagina, between and at the base of the short tentacu- 
lar processes along the external ‘edge of the distal 
part of the siphon# of these animals, reminds me 
that I have observed similar habits in other marine 
animals, and that possibly we may infer that similar 


740 


visual cells exist in these cases. I now call to mind 
the cases of Ostrea and Serpula. When the former 
has its purplish tentacles extruded from between its 
valves, and the latter its crown of cirri extended 
from its tube, if the hand is made to move rapidly 
over the water in the aquarium in a strong light, so 
as to cast a shadow upon these organs, both these 
animals appear to be sensitive to the movement, and 
independent of any jars or vibrations. The oyster, 
under these circumstances, at once retracts its sensi- 
tive mantle-border; the worms, their cirri. 

Upon examining the end of the siphon of Mya 
arenaria, lines of pigment are found about the bases 
of both the inner and outer circlets of tentacles, and 
the upper end of the siphon is pigmented for about 
an inch, both inside and outside. On the outside, 
however, there are scattered low, minute, pigmented 
papillae just under the epidermis and in the pig- 
mented layer or true skin covering the siphon. ‘The 
questions now arise, What is the nature of these 
organs? and do not the habits of Ostrea, as above 
described, justify us in expecting to find rudimenta- 
ry end-organs on the mantles and siphons of mol- 
lusks, answering the purpose of eyes, as appears to 
be the case in the instance of Solen? Mya, like 
Solen, in life has normally the end only of the siphon 
exposed: and visual powers, developed to a certain 
degree, would therefore be useful to the animal; for, 
when the siphon is extended above the level of the 
sand, there are several fishes with mouths and teeth 
well suited to nip it off, and which would doubtless 
actually take advantage of the helpless clam, if it 
could not appreciate their approach. 

I find fishes much more sensitive to sudden vibra- 
tions established in the water in’ which they live 
than to shrill or grave sounds made in the surround- 
ing air near by. This may be due to special powers 
of perception which they may possess on account of 
the development of the singular end-organs of the 
lateral line. 

The study of dermal, terminal nerve-endings, modi- 
fied as more or less specialized sensory apparatuses 
throughout the different groups of the animal king- 
dom, is bound to yield many important results in the 
near future, in addition to what is already known; 
and the writer is glad that the matter has been taken 
up by such competent hands. Joun A. RYDER. 

Noy. 27, 1883. 


Probable occurrence of the Taconian system 
in Cuba. 


Last year, while making two excursions acrossathe 
mountains of eastern Cuba, between Baracoa and 
the southern coast, I had an opportunity to make 
some observations on the geological structure of these 
mountains. The rocks composing this end of Cuba 
fall naturally into three distinct groups, as follows: 
1. Ancient, and for the most part coarsely crystalline, 
basic eruptive rocks; 2. Older stratified rocks, slates, 
schists, and limestones; 3. The post-tertiary lime- 
stones or elevated coral-reefs. 

The eruptive rocks form the main mass of the moun- 
tains at most points. They appear on the shore in 
some places, and seem to be almost the only rocks 
found at greater distances than five or ten miles from 
the coast. The older stratified rocks occur principally 
in two irregular belts running parallel with the coasts, 
and lying one on either side of the great eruptive 
belt: hence they are found mainly on the flanks of the 
mountains. The stratified rocks, especially along 
their contact with the eruptives; are penetrated by 
numerous irregular masses and dikes of the latter. 
But that they are all older than all the eruptives is 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 44, 


improbable, since the eruptives are themselves eyi- 
dently of several distinct ages, 

So far as I have observed, the stratified rocks are 
all alike unfossiliferous; and in consequence the 
precise determination of their stratigraphic positions 
is a difficult problem. I am satisfied, however, that 
some of them are widely separated in time. The 
newer beds, consisting chiefly of fissile slates, soft 
sandstones, and impure earthy limestones, are prob- 
ably equivalent to the secondary and tertiary strata 
of San Domingo and Jamaica. These uncrystalline 
sediments occur chiefly on the northern slope of the 
mountains, and, although much disturbed and un- 
dulating, rarely exhibit high dips. 

But on the south side of the dividing-ridge, or sum- 
mit, I crossed a belt six to eight miles wide, reaching 
almost to the coast, of highly inclined erystalline 
schists. The stratification is usually distinct, the 
strike being parallel with the coast, or east-west. The 
schists are generally greenish, and are both hydro- 
micaceous and chloritic. Associated with the schists 
are several immense beds of white crystalline lime- 
stone. The limestone undoubtedly belongs to the 
same series as the schists, and is often micaceous. 

These rocks bear a strong resemblance to the Ta- 
conian system of western New England, and are essen- 
tially identical with the great series of semi-erystalline 
schists and limestones of Trinidad and the Spanish 
Main which I have elsewhere correlated with the Taco- 
nian. 

The published reports on the geology of San Do- 
mingo and Jamaica show that the geologic structure 
of those islands is essentially similar to that of east- 
ern Cuba. In each case there is a prominent axis of 
old eruptive rocks, flanked on either side by schists, 
slates, limestones, and other sedimentary formations, 
and by elevated coral-reefs. In San Domingo and 
Jamaica the eruptives are not wholly basic, but much 
granite occurs; and the metamorphic schists, which 
appear to be similar to those of Cuba, have been gen- 
erally confounded with the cretaceous beds. I pre- 
dict, however, that more careful study will show that 
they are distinct and vastly older, and that the Great- 
er Antilles are similar in composition and structure 
to the southern coast of the Caribbean Sea, includ- 
ing the Spanish Main and Trinidad, except that the 
coral-reefs and the eruptive rocks are wanting in 
the latter region. We owe the coral-reefs largely to 
the great vertical movements of the Greater Antilles 
in recent times; and the eruptive rocks are but a con- 
tinuation westward, and the older and more eroded 
portion, of the great Caribbee belt of volcanic rocks 
which begins a hundred miles north of Trinidad, and 
ends in Cuba, being about fifteen hundred miles long, 

W. O. CRosBY. 


THE RESTORATION OF ANCIENT 
TEMPLES. 


The Parthenon: an essay on the mode by which light 
was introduced into Greek and Roman temples. By 
James Fercusson, C.L.E., D.C.L., LL.D., ete. 
London, Murray, 1888. 8+135 p., 60 illustr., 
4pl. 4°. 


Onty a small portion of this book is devoted. 


to the wonderful edifice from which it is named. 
It is in the main a reiteration of peculiar views 
concerning the lighting of ancient temples, — 
an amplification of theories advocated thirty- 


DECEMBER 7, 1883.] 


‘four years ago by Mr. Fergusson, in his * True 
principles of beauty in art.’ In a preface to 
the present volume, the author states his con- 
viction that it is certain to prove offensive to 
specialists ‘from the novelty of the views ad- 
vanced ;’ but as these views are almost exactly 
those adopted in his earlier publication, and as 
this application of a clere-story to ancient tem- 
ples can hardly be called original, — it having 
been suggested by Boetticher in 1847, two years 
before its first mention by Mr. Fergusson, — 
it would seem more natural to seek for some 
other explanation for the discontent of the 
critics. 

It is certainly true, that more has been writ- 
ten, and more angry controversies have arisen, 
regarding the hypaethron, than with reference 
to any other feature, either constructive or ar- 
tistic, in the temples of the Greeks; and after 
eareful study the conviction forces itself upon 
the reluctant mind, that this last contribution, 
surpassing in extent and elaboration all others, 
does little toward the confirmation of that 
hypothesis in any of its varieties. 

Mr. Fergusson adopts for the Parthenon, the 
temple of Zeus and that of Hera at Olympia, 
the temples of Aegina, Paestum, Selinous, — 
in short, for all regular Greek peristyles, — a 
clere-story sunk by two long openings in the 
roof at either side of the ridge, which remains 
unbroken over the central aisle of the naos. 
The height between the entablature of the up- 
per order of interior columns and the inclined 
lines of the roof is that of his vertical windows. 
The drainage from this imperfect covering is 
effected by perforating the lateral walls of the 
cella with gutters, leading the rain-water into 
the pteroma, in which ceiled and protected col- 
onnade such dripping must have been particu- 
larly undesirable. Contrary to the fundamental 
separation of roof and ceiling universally car- 
ried out in Greek architecture, he leaves the 
central aisle open to the inclined’ roof-surface, 
like the Bavarian Walhalla, and defends this 
feature with the surprising statement that flat 
ceilings, in either wood or plaster, were un- 
known in classical times. The argument ad- 
duced to prove this inclination of the ceiling, 
visible from within, is found by Mr. Fergusson 
in the well-known complaint of Strabo (viii. 
3, 30, p. 353), —that the statue of Zeus at 
Olympia was so large, that, if the seated deity 
should arise, the roof of the building would be 
carried away. ‘This passage is certainly not 
** the only hint in any ancient author as to how 
the roofs of Greek temples were constructed,”’ 
and, what is worse, its application to the point 
in question is dependent upon a mistranslation. 


aR 


SCIENCE. ’ 741 


The words of Strabo, ‘ almost touching the 
ceiling with the top of its head,’ are wrongly 
rendered by Mr. Fergusson, ‘ nearly touched 
the summit of the roof.’ This misleading ver- 
sion is twice given in the present volume (pp. 
2 and 111), and from it the non-horizontal form 
of the ceiling is directly deduced. It seems 
high time that this blunder, repeated by so 
many writers since its first commission by 
Quatremére de Quincey, should at last be elimi- 
nated from discussions of the subject. 

As it would naturally have been impossible 
to surmount with a clere-story those smaller 
peripteral temples which were without columns 
in the naos, Mr. Fergusson is obliged to assume, 
against all evidence, that interior pillars or pi- 
lasters did originally exist, and that, while the 
Christian reconstruction of the Theseion ob- 
literated the traces of these in that building, a 
figured mosaic pavement in the remarkably 
similar temple of Assos should be taken to 
indicate the position of such supports. The 
last example is certainly not favorable to the 
theory; for the bedding of the pavement in 
question is distinctly shown, by plan and text 
of the first report on the investigations at 
Assos,! to have extended to the very edge of 
the lateral walls, thus precluding the possibility 
of any columns or piers within the narrow hall. 

The omission of galleries from interiors, 
which were provided with a double range of 
columns standing at some distance from the 
wall, is even less excusable. The assertion 
(pp. 8 and 73) that there were no galleries in 
the temple of Aegina is unwarranted. The 
only reason advanced for this, that the space 
between the shafts and the wall was only about 
one metre in width, is of no weight. - To sup- 
pose that one order of columns was balanced 
upon another, with an intermediate entablature 
not tied to the wall by a floor, is unworthy our 
conception of the constructive wisdom displayed 
in Greek architecture. These galleries, known 
from literary sources to have existed in many 
temples, were actually found and measured at 
Paestum ; and yet Mr. Fergusson omits them 
entirely from his section of that monument, 
without a word of justification (fig. 41). The 
notched architrave from the same site, in which 
he sees ‘ the most direct proof of the theory,’ 
‘ final in its correctness,’ has really no bearing 
upon the question, being simply an example of 
the commonest method of construction, when 
adjoining horizontal ceilings were employed on 
different levels. This appears constantly in 
every kind of Greek buildings. 

In one instance, however, the author must 


1 Rep. arch. inet. Amer, 


742 


be admitted to have proved his case. The plan 
and interior arrangement of the temple of Bas- 
sae — which is in so many ways exceptional 
among buildings of its class — certainly point 
to some system of lighting by vertical windows 
above the interior ranges of pilasters. The 
curious position of these buttresses, which are 
awkwardly spaced so as to stand in the axes of 
the intercolumniations of the side colonnade, 
and especially the discovery of perforated tiles 
on the site, make it more than probable that 
this remarkably archaistic temple displays an 
intentional reversion to the manner of lighting 
the primitive, non-peripteral cella through open 
metopes. It is to be observed that the statue 
of the deity was not placed in the space thus 
lighted, which seems to have been considered 
as a sort of inner vestibule before the Holy 
of holies, — a hall decorated, like the exterior of 
the Parthenon, with a carved zophoros, intend- 
ed to be seen by the general public. Mr. Fer- 
gusson is probably at fault in supposing the 
image at Bassae to haye been a mere simula- 
crum, which had become sacred among the rude 
inhabitants of the mountain from some acci- 
dental cause. He gives no reason for such a 
belief, and of no temple of antiquity is the 
story of the dedication so well known. ‘The 
deliverance of the Arcadians by Apollo Epi- 
kourios, from a prevalent pestilence toward 
the end of the fifth century, does not admit the 
assumption of a rude symbol, or even of a 
xoanon, within his fane. 

The explanation of the roof-opening of the 
little cella upon Mount Ocha is good, as is 
also the concise treatment of the corrupt text 
of Vitruvius. The importance of both these 
points has certainly been greatly overrated by 
previous writers upon the subject. Mr. Fer- 
gusson advocates the change of octastylos to 
decastylos, and et to est, in the confused de- 
scription of the Roman builder; and this ap- 
pears plausible in view of the acknowledged 
corruption of the manuscripts, and the fact 
that the temple of Olympian Zeus at Athens, 
thus alone referred to, was the only building 
in Europe possessing all the peculiarities de- 
scribed. Haying been without a roof at the 
time Vitruvius wrote, it certainly was sub divo 
and sine tecto, as he says. Mr. Fergusson’s 
restoration of this temple is ingenious; but as 
it is not known that the structure was ever 
completed at all, and as even its plan is not 
yet ascertained, the attempt to delineate its 
roof is hardly of greater value than that dis- 
sertation ‘on the use of the particle d¢ in the 
lost plays of Menander,’ which a German 
scholar is wickedly reported to have written. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. I., No. 44. 


And what are we to think of the disquisition 
on the Chaitya temple of Karlé, dragged in to 
lend weight to this restoration? ‘That excava- 
tion in the native rock is lighted by a great 
window at the front, as it of course only can 
be: and yet in this feature Mr. Fergusson sees 
the direct influence of Greek and Roman archi- 
tecture, felt after the incursion of Alexander 
into India, and the establishment of the Bac- 
trian kingdom ; making the system of illumina- 
tion employed for the cave an imitation of that 
in the temple of Zeus at Athens by the argu- 
ment that the appearance of light-openings on 
one side only must have been foreign to the 
wooden structures from which the Chaitya 
caves were in detail more or less imitated. 
Surely insistence upon precedent could be car- 
ried no farther. 

The author’s restorations of other temples 
are interesting, but hardly less improbable ; the 
complicated makeshifts to which he is driven, 
by his various systems of windows in light- 
shafts, being too remote from the simple and 
straightforward methods of ancient building to 
please our imagination, or satisfy our practical 
sense of constructive fitness. A detailed con- 
sideration of all the temples treated of would 
here lead to undue length. 

The account of the derivation and timbered 
prototype of the Doric style is inadequate ; 
and the attempt to rehabilitate Falkener’s 
proto-Doric capital unreasonable, after the 
well-known proof by Bergau and Erbkam of its 
wrong combination out of fragments of Egyp- 
tian bases. Incorrect, also, is the reiterated 
statement, that no Doric temples were built 
after the age of Alexander the Great. In cer- 
tain parts of the Hellenic world other styles 
were but exceptionally employed, even in the 
latest epoch; as we know, for instance, from 
the ruins of Pergamon, where there is a com- 
plete Doric peripteros (that of Athena Polias) , 
which certainly was constructed under the dy- 
nasty of the Attalidae. ‘The comparison of the 
development of temple-architecture among the 
Greeks with Catholic church-building during 
the middle ages and during the reign of Queen 
Anne is misleading. Style among the ancients 
depended rather on geographical, or, to speak 
more correctly, on ethnographical, distribution 
than on passing fashions. 

The description of the Parthenon is as thor- 
ough as any review antedating the recent in- 
vestigations of Doerpfeld, which may not have 
been available at the time of writing. A model 
of the building, constructed by Mr. Fergusson 
on a generous scale, one-fortieth of real size, 
must be extremely interesting. Too much can- 


DECEMBER 7, 1883.] 


not be said in recognition of this interest in a 
branch of science not over-popular in these 
days, which has led the author to an expense 
of time and money hardly likely to be appre- 
ciated. Still, it is to be regretted that the 
chief attention devoted to this reproduction 
was evidently directed to an exemplification of 
an improbable method of lighting. A second 
gallery is added to the temple, the trenches 
sunk deeply in the roof being made accessible 
by stairs; and these piombi Mr. Fergusson 
sets apart for the females of the Athenian con- 


SCIENCE. 


743 


satisfaction by students of archeology is the 
arraignment of Mr. Wood, the explorer of 
iphesos, whose inadequate publications, and 
selfish hiding-away of the results of his richly 
endowed work, deserve all the asperity with 
which Mr. Fergusson treats them (p. 32). 

The printing is careful. We notice few 
minor errors. Lagardette’s folio is dated Paris, 
1879, instead of ‘seventh year of the repub- 
lie (1799) ;’ while ‘ M.’ Boetticher’s essay, 
published at Potsdam in 1847, is said to be 
without date. 


SCALLOWAY FROM 'THE NORTH-EAST. 


gregation, who must have been as uncomforta- 
ble there as the most confirmed misogynist of 
antiquity could have desired. The staircases, 
by the way, present in the section (pl. 3) a 
curiously impossible arrangement, approaching 
from either side as they ascend, so as to in- 
tersect at the level of the gallery, and leave 
no landing-place, — not a good instance of 
that application of common sense to the study 
of Greek architecture which Mr. Fergusson so 
warmly advocates. It has, moreover, been 
ascertained that the stairs in the Parthenon 
were situated where they might naturally be 
expected, — next to the entrance-door, not at 
the farther end of the naos. 

_ A part of the book sure to be read with great 


THE ORKNEYS AND SHETLAND. 


The Orkneys and Shetland; their past and present 
state. By Joun R. Tuvor. London, Stanford, 
1883. 29+703 p., illustr. 8°. 

Mr. Tupor has collected and revised a series 
of letters published under the nom de plume of 
‘Old Wick,’ in The field, the English sport- 
ing-journal, from 1878 to 1880, on the Orkneys 
and Shetland, and, with contributions from 
several scientific friends, has prepared a very 
entertaining book on these out-of-the-way is- 
lands. The general reader will find in it an 
interesting historical essay, embracing the pe- 
riod from Norse occupation to modern times, 
followed by local descriptions and numerous 


744 


maps, that may well serve as a visitor’s guide. 
Primitive old-fashioned ways have endured on 
these remote islands till recent times, and fur- 
nish many anecdotes to enliven the descrip- 
tive pages. The more scientific student, with 
a liking for botany, geology, mineralogy, or 
archeology, will meet with much worthy of his 
attention. 

The two geological chapters, prepared by 
Messrs. Peach and Horne from their papers 
published in the Quarterly journal of the geo- 
logical society and elsewhere, are of chief sci- 
entific value, and are well illustrated by neatly 
colored maps. The southern group is shown 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. IL., No. 44 


siderable variety of old metamorphic rocks, and 
numerous intrusives and eruptives. ‘The rela- 
tions of the latter to the adjoining masses is 
often finely exposed in the sea cliffs, and ques- 
tions of age are not left to vague inference. 
Dikes, necks, intrusive sheets, and overflows 
are all wellexhibited. But the geological inter- 
est culminates in the glacial-question. These 
northern islands give the key to the movement 
of the combined Norwegian and Scotch ice- 
sheets, and show, as was first suggested by 
Croll, that they joined forces in the basin of ~ 
the North Sea, and together moved north-west- 
ward, out into the Atlantic. ‘The striae are of 


RORAY HEAD AND THE OLD MAN OF HOY DURING A WESTERLY GALE. 


to be almost entirely covered by the various di- 
visions of the old red sandstone; and, indeed, 
this formation once extended over a oreat area 
thereabouts, now broken up into ragged islands 
by dislocation, erosion, and submergence, so 
that only the smaller part of the original depos- 
it remains. The topographic effect of former 
erosion at a higher level, followed by depres- 
sion, is seen in the irregular shore-line and 
fringe of islands shown in the view of Scal- 
loway. In their present attitude, the islands 
suffer most along their western coast, where 
the heavy waves of the Atlantic cut them back 
into imposing cliffs, such as are found on the 
western side of Hoy. Shetland includes a con- 


two dates. The later ones depend on the local 


topography for their direction, and are referred 


to a ‘later glaciation,’ though it is not shown 
that a non-glacial interval separated this 
from the oreater or’primary glaciation, during 
which the ice moved independently of local 
topography, over-riding all the hills and ridges. 
Only these are shown on the accompanying 
outline, which is traced and reduced from 
two maps of much larger scale in the original. 
On the Orkneys the scratches run north-’ 
west with much regularity. Marine shells 
and rocks derived from eastern Scotland are 
found in the bowlder-clay. On Shetland the 
approach of the ice was from the north-east, 


= 


DECEMBER 7, 1883.] 


COURSE OF GLACIAL SCRATCHES. 


SCIENCE. 


745 
but the motion changed to north-west about 
the middle line of the group. The great variety 
of rocks in north and south strips gives abun- 
dant opportunity for determining this motion by 
the direction of dispersion of the bowlders from 
their parent ledges. No Scottish bowlders are 
found here, nor do marine remains occur in the 
drift. Raised beaches do not appear on any 
of theislands. It is concluded that Scandina- 
vian ice covered Shetland, while Scottish ice 
advanced over the Orkneys; the original mo- 
tion of both glacial sheets being changed where 
they coalesced, in the shallow North Sea, and 
turned to the line of least resistance, — north- 
west to the open ocean. There they must 
have ended in a great ice-cliff like that dis- 
covered by Ross in the Antarctic Ocean. It 
may be well to refer here to Helland’s study 
of the Faroes a few years ago, when he showed 
that they bear no marks of continental glacia- 
tion, the few scratches he found there depend- 
ing on local form for their guidance. 

Our space forbids mention of the many other 
interesting topics that Mr. Tudor’s book dis- 
cusses, although few volumes contain so many 
pages of entertainment to the general reader ; 
but attention should be called to the well- 
considered character of the work, only sel- 
dom marred by a remnant of newspaper style. 
In its table of contents, illustrations, glossary, 
bibliography, and index, the volume is all that 
can be desired. 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


MATHEMATICS. 


Partial differential equations.—M. Darboux 
considers an arbitrary partial differential equation, 
defining a function, z, of any number of variables. 
Replacing z by 2 + ez’, developing according to pow- 
ers of e, and equating to zero the coefficient of e, a 
new equation is formed, which the author calls the 
auxiliary equation. The auxiliary equation defines 
solutions differing infinitely little from a given solu- 
tion; and so it has a signification which does not 
depend on the choice of variables, and which will 
remain unchanged by any arbitrary change of the 
variables. The equation, being linear, is easy to deal 
with, and conducts to many important results which 
are intimately connected with the given equation. 
The author considers especially two geometrical prob- 
lems. First: having given a surface, 2, attempt to 
find all the infinitely near surfaces which will form 
with = one family of a triply orthogonal system. 
This problem, which has already been studied by 
Prof. Cayley, is equivalent to either of the following 
problems: 1°, To find all surfaces admitting of the 


same spherical representation as =; or, 2°, To find 
all the systems of circles normal to the family of sur- 
faces of which = is one. It follows at once, that, if 
the problem of the spherical representation of = is 
solved, the solution can be at once arrived at for the 
inverse surfaces to =, or the surfaces arrived at by 
the trausformation by reciprocal radii. 

The second problem considered by M. Darboux is 
one famed for its extreme difficulty; viz., to find the 
surfaces applicable to a given surface. Denote by dz, 
dy, 6z, the increments taken by 2, y, z, in passing from 
a point of the given surface, 2, to the corresponding 
point on an infinitely near surface: then, expressing 
the necessary condition to the solution of the prob- 
lem,—viz., that the small are shall not change its 
length, — we have — 

dzd.éx + dyd. dy + dzd.dz = 0. 
Replacing dz, etc., by proportional quantities, —say, 
@iy Yi, 21, — this is dv dx, + dy dy, + dzdz, =0;i.e., 
the corresponding elements on the surfaces = and 2, 
are orthogonal. M. Darboux’s problem is thus con- 
ducted back to a problem solved by M. Mcutard. The 


746 


surfaces for which the problem can be solved are di- 
vided into certain classes. M. Darboux gives the ex- 
pressions for the co-ordinates of a point in terms of 
two parameters for the surfaces of the first class. — 
- (Comptes rendus, March 19,) T. c. [441 


ENGINEERING. 


Theory of the screw-propeller.— Mr. J. N. 
Warrington, of the Stevens institute of technology, 
discusses the theory of the screw-propeller, and the 
methods of designing it. He first discusses the action 
of the screw in the water, investigates the conditions 
of maximum efficiency, and obtains expressions for 
the efficiency in terms of the angle of the blades, and 
the ratios of resistance of friction to pressures ex- 
erted. He finds, as does Froude, that the angle of 
maximum efficiency is forty-five degrees. It is found 
that a small amount of slip does not necessarily give 
good performance, —a conclusion already proven by 
experience. It is found that the action of the screw, 
in its most efficient operation, does not involve the 
sternward projection of a solid stream; and hence 
it follows that all investigations based, as is common, 
on that assumption, are inaccurate. Yet it is only 
the water that is thrown aft that gives propelling- 
power, and the nearer the stream is solid, the better. 
He obtains the equation of the curve of the devel- 
oped screw from Thurston, and expressions for the 
magnitudes of diameter and thrust from Seaton. 
The second part of the paper is devoted to the 
designing of the screw according to the principles 
deduced in the first part. The shape of a blade 
upon which the water shall glide without shock, and 
from which it shall be thrown aft with a given velocity, 
acquiring that velocity by a uniform acceleration, is 
given by its equation as deduced by Warrington. 
The relation between the pressure and the accelera- 
tion is ascertained; the slip is assumed, and the total 
resistance is given; and the required size of screw is 
calculated. The magnitude of the losses of energy, 
and the efficiency, are determined, and the process is 
applied to the guide-blade propeller as well as to the 
common screw. Two wheels are drawn, —the one 
a U.S. naval-department screw, the other a screw 
designed on Warrington’s plan. — (Journ. Frankl. 
inst., Aug.) R. H. T. [442 

Light prime motors. —President D. Napoli, of 
La société de navigation aérienne, in a communica- 
tion to the Aéronaute, compares the weight of steam- 
engines and electric motors for use in aeronautics. 
He finds that the weight of fuel and water demanded 
by a steam-engine of twenty-horse power for ten 
hours’ work would be not far from 1,600 kilos (3,527 
lbs.), while the weight of an electric motor and its 
supplies would be about 1,400 kilos (3,087 lbs.); giv- 
ing a decided adyantage to the latter aside from the 
weight of the engine, which may be anywhere from 
two hundred and fifty to four hundred per cent 
greater than the weight of its supplies, according to 
style, which M. Napoli does not prescribe. — (Chron. 
ind., June.) R. H. T. [443 

Resistance of railway-trains. — Professor Franck 
has written a memoir on the resistance of trains, 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 44. 


studying the earlier experiments of Vuillemin, Gueb- 
hard and Dieudonne, and of Rockl. He obtains the 
formula for resistance, 5 
w=m+ ae 
Q 
in which w is the resistance in kilos per ton, @ is 
the weight in tons, m, l, and F are the coefficients, 
as follows: — 
For passenger-engines . . 
“* freight-engines . , 
SS) OUNCLCANSH Wikia ree Tee ar te 
+f) AIIMCASES yar prmyte hep nee 


m = 0.0032 
m = 0.0038 to 0.0039 
m = 0.0025 


= 0.1225 
«« passenger-engines . F=7 
‘¢ freight-engines . F=8 
«passenger & box cars, F=0.5 
** unloaded flat cars . F=0.4 
“ loaded flatcars. . . F=1.0 


The author of the paper considers that this for- 


-mula, used with this assortment of constants, will 


allow of very exact calculation of the resistance of 
trains. —(Mém. soc. ing. civ., June.) R. H.T. [444 

Dowson’s gas for heating. — In 1882 the Messrs. 
Crossley put in a Dowson plant for making his gas. 
The trial of the system gave the following results: 
when the gas was made from Trimsaran anthracite, 
a gas-engine consumed 1.5 pounds (0.68 kilogram) 
per hour per horse-power; when using Garnant an- 
thracite, the consumption was 1.4 pounds (0.64 kilo- 
gram). These results were so satisfactory that the 
Messrs. Crossley have adopted the gas-engine through- 
out their works, and are using some 200-horse power. 
The engine above referred to was of about 30-horse 
power. It is found that a larger engine, 40-horse 
power, uses but 1.2 pounds (0.54 kilogram). The 
process consists in passing a current of steam and air 
through a mass of red-hot carbonaceous materials. 
Coal-gas has nearly four times the heating-power of 
this gas, but the cost of the Dowson gas is so much 
less that it compensates this great difference. It is, 
however, intended to compete with the gas produced 
from coal-oils. The author of the paper calculates 
that the costs of operating a steam-engine, and of 
working a gas-engine driven by his gas, are as three 
to two, the engines being of 100-horse power each. — 
(Proc. inst. civ. eng., 1883.) R. H. @. [445 


AGRICULTURE. 


Reversion of superphosphates in the soil.— 
Farsky shows, that, when a small quantity of water 
acts upon a superphosphate, the monocalcie phos- 
phate which it contains is decomposed into dicaleic 
phosphate and free phosphoric acid. ‘The same pro- 
cess seems to take place when a superphosphate is 
mixed with the soil. Subsequently the free acid ap- 
pears to act upon the calcium, iron, and aluminum 
salts of the soil, forming dicalcic phosphate and sol- 
uble acid phosphates of iron and aluminum. The 
latter are not stable, and soon pass into insoluble 
combinations (compare SCIENCE, i. 825). — ( Bieder- 
mann’s centr.-blatt., xii. 450.) mW. P. A. [446 

Fineness of superphosphates, — Farsky, both 
in pot-experiments with buckwheat, and in field-ex- 
periments with several other crops, found that coarse 


—- 


DECEMBER 7, 18¢3.] 


superphosphate gave a greater increase than fine. 
Exactly the opposite result was given by Wagner's 
experiments, reported in ScreNcE, i. 310. — ( Bieder- 
mann’s centr.-blatt., xii. 458.) m1. P. A. [447 

Experiments on the continuous growth of 
wheat and barley. — These experiments by Voelck- 
er, on the plan of the well-known Rothamsted ex- 
periments of Lawes and Gilbert, are in progress at 
Woburn, on a light soil, and are intended to supple- 
ment those at Rothainsted, which are on aheavy clay 
soil. The present report gives the results of the sixth 
year, viz., 1882. The most interesting of the results 
are those obtained on four plots, two of which had 
received mineral manures and nitrates or ammonia 
salts, and two stable-manure. Each plot was halved. 
One half received the same fertilizers as in preceding 
years; while the other remained unmanured (in case 
of the stable-manure plots), or received the mineral 
fertilizers of the preceding year, but no nitrogen. The 
mineral fertilizers alone gave no larger crop than was 
obtained from plots unmanured for six years, while 
the other half of the same plots, which received nitro- 
gen, gave about thrice as large a crop. The evident 
conclusion was, that the plots were deficient in nitro- 
gen, and that the large amounts of nitrates or ammo- 
nia salts, which they had received in previous years, 
had left no available residue of nitrogen in the soil. 
In the case of the plots which had received stable- 
manure, the unmanured halves showed that a por- 
tion of the manuring of previous years was still avail- 
able, though the gain thus caused was small. In all 
the experiments of this year, sulphate of ammonia 
produced better results than an equivalent quantity 
of nitrate of soda. — (Journ. roy. agric. soc., xix. 209.) 
H. P. A. [448 

MINERALOGY. 

Cuspidine. — This comparatively new mineral has 
been crystallographically examined by G. von Rath. 
It oceurs at Vesuvius im very characteristic spear- 
head-shaped crystals, which are not to be confounded 
with any other mineral. The crystals were found to 
be monoclinic, the apparent rhombic form being the 
result of twinning. ‘The axial relation is a:b:¢= 
0.7243:1:1.9842. 8=S9° 22’, The measurements were 
made on a single small crystal, which showed no evi- 
dence of twinning; the symbols for seventeen differ- 
ent forms being obtained, cleavage parallel to the 
base, plane of twinning the orthopinnacoid. Sections 
from the mineral gaye the optical properties of mono- 
clinic crystals. Material pure enough for analysis 
could not be obtained, as the mineral is peculiarly 
liable to alteration. An analysis by E. Fischer, of 
impure material, showed that in addition to calcium 
fluoride the mineral contains the silicate Ca,SiO,. 

A very few minute crystals of a mineral resembling 
cuspidine were found at Vesuvius, occurring in or- 


thorhombic prisms, very much striated, parallel to the ° 


vertical axis, and terminated by an obtuse pyramid. 
An approximate axial relation, a:b: c=0.560:1: 0.417, 
was obtained; but the material did not admit of 
further investigation. — (Zeitschr. kryst., viii. 38.) 
8. L. P, [449 

Empholite. — This new mineral has been described 


SCIENCE. 


747 


by L. J. Igelstrém as occurring at Horrsj6berg, Werm- 
land, Sweden, in small, well-formed crystals and 
fibrous aggregates. The prisms, sometimes attaining 
a length of six millimetres, are brilliant, and resemble 
diaspore in form, the prismatic angle being about 
123°-130°: with cleavage parallel to the brachypin- 
nacoid; hardness, greater than six; color, white, 
changing to yellow on exposure, owing to the oxida- 
tion of the iron; before the blow-pipe infusible, giving 
a beautiful blue color with cobalt solution, and, in the 
closed tube, neutral water; scarcely attacked by acids. 
Two analyses, after correcting for sixteen per cent of 
gangue, yielded — 


Si0, Al,O, MgO. CaO. FeO. HO 

? a 

52.3 30.5 3.4 13.8 = 100 
48.8 33.3 3.3 14.6 = 100 


The mineral is a hydrous silicate of alumina, and 
the formula Al,Si,O;. 3H,O is proposed; but the 
analyses are not correct enough to lead to any definite 
formula. — (Bull. soc. min., vi. 40.) S, L. P. [450 


METEOROLOGY. 


Barometric maxima and minima.—The me- 
teorological conditions which are characteristic of re- 
gions of high and low pressure have been studied by 
various investigators, notably by Mohn, Clement Ley, 
and Loomis. The latest contribution to this subject 
is made by Hildebrandsson, who bases his conclusions 
upon observations made at Upsala and other stations 
in northern Europe since 1873. He discusses the 
angle of the wind with the barometric gradient, the 
wind velocity, the direction of the upper and lower 
clouds, the air temperature, the amount of cloudiness 
and rainfall, the transparency of the air and fog, — 
all with regard to their relations to areas of maximum 
and minimum pressure. The conclusions are based 
wholly upon tabulations of the observations, and are 
primarily applicable to Upsala and vicinity, but are 
in general similar to those obtained for other coun- 
tries. —(La distr. élém. mét. autour min. et maz. 
bar.) Ww. U. [451 

ZOOLOGY. 

Animal coloring-matters. — The application of 
the spectroscope to the determination and diserimi- 
nation of coloring-matters from living organisms has 
opened an interesting field of research. Dr. C. A. 
MaeMunn gives an extensive résumé of previous 
work, and the results of his own studies in this field. 
His article is a valuable presentation of our knowl- 
edge of the subject; but it necessarily contains many 
details, and is therefore unadapted to a brief abstract. 
The following points deserve special nétice. Hae- 
matin may be prepared by a new method: “ Fresh 
defibrinated blood is treated with a mixture of two 
parts of strong sulphuric acid to thirty-five of aleohol, 
and thrown on a filter, more alcohol being added to 
help the filtration; the filtrate is diluted with water, 
put into a separating funnel, and shaken up with 
ehloroform. After standing some time, the chloro- 
form is separated off, and filtered and evaporated. . . . 
The residue corresponds to haematin as it is usually 
described.” By the action of strong mineral acids on 


748 


this haematin, Hoppe-Seyler’s haemato-porphyrin 
was obtained; it is practically identical with Thudi- 
cum’s cruentin. When neutral dried crientin is 
boiled with equal parts of rectified spirit and acetic 
acid, a five-banded spectrum was obtained, similar to 
if not identical with that of Preyer’s iron-free haema- 
tin. Bilirubin is identical with haematoidin. There 
are several lutein pigments; for example, that of the 
hen’s egg is different from that of the corpus luteum 
of the cow. Tetronerythrin is very widely spread, 
occurring in ‘the roses’ around the eyes of certain 
birds, in the skin of the red mullet, and in many in- 
vertebrates; it is apparently capable of performing 
respiratory functions, somewhat like haemaglobin. 
Its presence in the crust of lobsters and crabs is note- 
worthy. The various classes of invertebrates are 
taken up in succession, the following being the prin- 
cipal pigments described: chlorophyll, pentacrinin, 
eruentin (in starfishes), echinochrome, cochineal, 
aphidein, bonellein, haemocyanin (in blood of Octo- 
pus), aplysiopurpurin, dermolutein, etc. Numerous 
spectra are reproduced in the charts. In an appended 
note, it is stated that chlorophyll is found in the liver 
of mollusks: ef. Royal society’s proceedings, April 5, 
1883. — (Proc. Birmingham nat. hist. soc., iii. 351.) 
c. Ss. M. ; [452 
Mollusks, 


Abyssal mollusks.— Dr. Jeffreys continues his 
valuable papers on the deep-sea mollusks of the 
Lightning and Porcupine expeditions. The last in- 
stalment includes the Scissurellidae, Trochidae, Tur- 
binidae, and Littorinidae, with two fine plates on 
which are figured twenty-one new forms. Several 
new genera are described. Tharsis Jeffreys has a 
closed umbilicus and appressed peristome, which 
separate it from Cyclostrema: the type is Oystele 
romettensis Seguenza. Ganesa is like a very mi- 
nute, delicate Lunatia, with a perforate axis. Can- 
trainea is suggested for Turbo peloritanus Cantraine. 
Hela Jeffreys, beside being pre-occupied, proves to be 
identical with the Japanese Cithna A. Ad. Iphitus 
Jeffreys is a minute form, resembling Fossarus or a 
miniature Tectarius, with a peculiar apex and sub- 
spiral operculum. —(Proc. zoél. soc. Lond., March, 
1883.) Ww. H. D. [453 

Further researches on nudibranchs. — Bergh 
prints an important paper, illustrated by five beautiful 
anatomical plates, as a supplement to his monograph 
of the family of which Polycera Cuvier is the typical 
genus. After a number of general notes on species 
and genera, among which is the description of Ohola, 
a new genus collected by the Challenger at Arapura 
in the South Seas, the author considers the Doridi- 
dae in general, with their divisions and probable 
phylogeny. ‘The genus Heterodoris of Verrill and 
Emerton is considered as probably belonging to a dif- 
ferent family. The Dorididae are separated into two 
very well marked groups by the possession of a single 
large retractile crown of gills or of numerous non- 
retractile branchia, cryptobranchiata, and phanero- 
branchiata respectively. The latter, connected with 
the typical Dorididae through Staurodoris, diverge in 
two lines, of which the more ancient forms are Noto- 


SCIENCE. 


fvou. Il., No. 44. 


doris and Akiodoris, The former culminates in Ploca- 
mophorus, with Ohola as a lateral branchlet. ‘The 
latter passes through Acanthodoris, Goniodoris, ete., 
toward Ancula and Drepania. 

The phanerobranchiate, non-suctorial Dorididae 
form the Polyceradae (better Polyceratidae) of Bergh, 
and the suctorial forms his Goniodorididae. Of these 
groups a full discussion is made, and a synopsis of 
their genera and species is given. They inhabit all 
seas, but are largest and most beautiful in the warmer 
regions. —(Verh. zool. bot. ges. Wien, Miirz, 1883.) 
W. H. D. [454 

Worms, 

Development of Phoronis.— A. Foettinger has 
published an article on this subject in Van Beneden’s 
Archives de biologie (iii. 679). THe found in the mo- 
rula stage, that the cavity contained a few spherical 
or oval corpuscles, sometimes surrounded by a fine 
granular substance filling the whole segmentation 
cavity. The important question he deems to be, 
whether these elements, which are clearly the first 
rudiments of the mesoderm, are derived from the 
endo- or the ecto-derm. Kowalevsky is in favor of 
the latter view, while Metschnikoff holds to their 
endodermal origin. If the larvae are treated with 
acetic acid, and immediately examined, evidence will 
be afforded as to the presence of the first mesodermie 
elements at a time when the ovum is still segmenting; 
and, indeed, indications of them were seen in two 
cases, where the developing ova consisted of only 
eight blastomeres, for there is in them a central cor- 
puscle which appears to have a mesodermal signifi- 
cance. The author has no distinct opinion as to the 
origin of this cell, but inclines to doubt the explana- 
tion given by Metschnikoff. As to the still earlier 
stages, it is stated that the fecundated ova are de- 
veloped outside the body of the parent, but that they 
remain attached to the branchiae for a certain time. 
After the appearance of four blastomeres, two divide, 
and so give rise to a six-celled stage, with two large 
and four smaller cells. (As to the origin of the meso- 
derm, compare Hatschek’s researches on Sipuncu- 
lus, to be given shortly in Sctencr.) — (Journ. mier. 
soc. Lond., iii. 509.) Gc. Ss. M. [455 

Nervous system of Hirudinea.—Saint-Loup 
finds that the arrangements of the nervous system, 
which were thought to be peculiar to Clepsine, are 
very common among the Hirudinea. Commencing 
with Nephelis, he saw in the transparent tissues six 
capsules on the ventral surface of the ventral gan- 
glia. Similar capsules were observed in Aulastomum 
and Hirudo. ‘The author detected in all Hirudineae 
the intermediate or unpaired nerve first described by 
Brandt in the medicinal leech. Saint-Loup hopes to 
give a general account of the morphology of the ner- 
vous system of the group. —(Comptes rendus, xcyi. 
1321; Journ. micr. soc. Lond., iii. 509.) oc. Ss. M. 

[456 


Insects: 
Classification of the larger groups.— From a 
study of the relationships of the lower insects, 
Packard has been led to a new arrangement of all 


DECEMBER 7, 1883.] ° 


the larger groups, and proposes the following scheme, 
in which the names proposed for what he terms 
super-orders are al] new:— 


| 
Super-orders Orders. } Sub-orders. 
: Hymenoptera. 
Lepidoptera. | . 

Buglosaata, . . | ¥ Diptera (genuina). 

| | Diptera. Aphaniptera. 

| | ( Pupipara. 

y | ( Coleopte ina). 
Elytrophora . .| Coleoptera J | } Seen 
* ) Homoptera. 

Eurbynchota . | Hemiptera “i Peya ods 

Mallophaga. 

Pac p th aeee { Trichoptera. 

| { Neuroptera * + *| | Planipennia. 

| ( Odonata. 
Phyloptera Pseudoneuroptera . | | Bphemerina. 

| Platyptera. 

Orthoptera. | 
( Dermatoptera. | 
| ( Cinura. 

Synaptera . Thysanura . . .|)Sympbyla. 

| ( Collembola. 


A mere outline is presented in this paper, which is 
only an abstract of his researches, to be published 
in full in the forthcoming report of the U.S. ento- 
mological commission. — (Amer. nat., Aug.) [457 


VERTEBRATES. 


The function of body-equilibrium. — The cen- 
tral gray substance of the third ventricle, according to 
Bechterew’s. experiments, given in this paper, forms 
an organ of equilibrium in the same sense as the semi- 
circular canals and the olivary bodies. His investi- 
gations were made chiefly upon the dog; although 
confirmatory experiments upon other animals, birds, 
and frogs, are given. The method of operating was to 
trephine a hole through the sphenoid bone at the sella 
turecica; and then, thrusting a small knife through 
the hypophysis into the third ventricle, a section could 
be made of the gray matter in any desired direction. 
Injury- of any portion of the gray substance of the 
third ventricle was always followed by disturbances of 
equilibrium, similar, in a general way, to those caused 
by section of the semicircular canals. The author 
points out that the disturbances of equilibrium which 
have been noticed by other observers, after sections 
made in this region, but which were attributed either 
to the corpora striata or corpora thalami, were most 
probably caused by injury to the walls of the third 
ventricle. To explain how it is that the gray mat- 
ter of the ventricle is affected by changes in equilib- 
rium, he supposes that the cerebro-spinal liquid, 
which in this portion of the ventricle lies almost in 
a closed sac, assumes a réle similar to that played by 
the endolymph of the semicircular canals, Changes 
in position of the body cause changes in pressure of 
the liquid upon the walls of the ventricle, giving rise 
to stimuli which act reflexly on the co-ordinating 


SCIENCE. j 


749 


centres in the cerebellum, ‘The preservation of body- 
equilibrium is brought about, according to Bechterew, 
By the action of three peripheral equilibrium organs ; 
viz., the semicircular canals, the gray matter of the 
third ventricle, and the olivary bodies of the medulla. 
Disturbances of equilibrium cannot act as a stimulus 
to the olivary bodies by reason of any change in press- 
ure of the cerebro-spinal liquid. The normal stimuli 
for this centre are found in the skin sensations, and 
perhaps muscle sensations, which reach the medulla 
from the spinalcord. Each of these three equilibrium 
organs, it is interesting to notice, is not only con- 
nected with the cerebellum, through which it acts 
on the muscles, but each is closely related also to one 
of the higher sense-organs, — the olivary bodies, to the 
skin; the semicircular canals, to the ear; and the gray 
matter of the third ventricle, as is shown in detail in 
the paper, to the eye. The intimate connection ex- 
isting between the organs of sight and equilibrium is 
known to all; and this connection depends not so 
much on the visual sensations as on the position of 
the eyeballs. Injury to the centre in the third yen- 
tricle was always followed by marked changes in the 
direction of the axes of the eyeballs; and the author 
advances an ingenious theory to show that any change 
in the position of the eyeballs will act as a mechanical 
stimulus to this centre. Taken in conjunction with 
previous work by the same author, this paper makes 
an important addition to our knowledge of the much 
discussed question of body-equilibrium. — (Pfliiger’s 
archiv, xxxi. 479.) W. H. . [458 


Birds, - 


Sternum of Notornis.— In this paper Prof. 
Owen replies to a stricture on his plate of this bone, 
and makes many valuable remarks on the sternum 
in general. He distinetly adopts the Lamarckian 
theory for the loss of the keel, and again calls atten- 
tion to the heterogeneous nature of the Ratitae. — 
(Proc. zool. soc., 1882, 689.) J. A. J. {459 

Pacinian corpuscles of birds. — Mlle. Joséphine 
Cattani has studied the corpuscles of Herbst in the 
leg of the fowl. The axis of the corpuscle is consti- 
tuted by an extension of the nerve-fibre; the exten- 
sion comprising not only the axis-cylinder, but also 
the medullary and Schwann’s sheaths. At the point 
of entry the fibre is slightly constricted, and there is a 
Ranvier’s node where the fibre reaches the corpuscle. 
Within the corpuscle the axis-cylinder becomes rib- 
bon-like; the medullary sheath becomes thinner, and 
has anucleus. The mass investing this terminal or- 
gan is composed of a web of fibres, with scattered 
ramified cells having oval nuclei; there are also two 
rows of cells with round nuclei along the nerve-fibre. 
The external envelope is a layer of connective tissue 
with yery elongated nuclei. The nerve-fibre ends 
with a little flask-shaped dilatation, which has a gran- 
ular matrix in which each fibrilla of the axis-cylinder 
ends in a little button. The author has also investi- 
gated the degeneration of these organs, after cutting 
the sciatic nerve; but this portion of her work lies 
rather in the domain of pathology. — (Arch. ital. biol., 
iii. 826.) c. Ss. M. {460 


TOO ys 


Mammals, 

The lingual sense-organs of Ornithorhynchus. 
—E. B. Poulton has continued his researches on the 
tongue (SCIENCE, i. 523) by studying that of Ornitho- 
rhynchus. The tongue is about two inches long, and 
has only a small part free. The posterior third forms 
a large rounded conical protuberance, pointing ob- 
liquely forwards, and bearing at its apex two corne- 
ous teeth. The anterior division is covered by horny 
papillae, and has numerous mucous glands. The pos- 
terior division is more complicated, bearing various 
organs on its dorsal surface: viz., numerous filamen- 
tous papillae; an arching fold, limiting the tongue 
behind; a median raphe, which does not reach’ the 
tip of the cone; and four gustatory pits, —one pair 
near together, in front; and one pair behind, widely 
separated. 


The papillae upon the anterior division of the 


_ tongue are largest in front, and smaller (and more 
scale-like) towards the base of the tongue, and also 
extend over the inferior surface of the basal protu- 
berance. Except afew in front, they are all cornified, 
pointed, and inclined backwards. In each of the in- 
terior of these papillae are lodged from one to four 
sub-epithelial sensory bulbs; a medullated fibre runs 
directly to each bulb, and there loses its sheath; whi'e 
the axis-cylinder is continued into a spindle-shaped 
body within the bulb, which, for the rest, consists of a 
series of nucleated lamellar envelopes. Poulton com- 
pares these organs with the Pacinian corpuscles, and 
considers them tactile. The epithelium between the 
papillae is not cornified: in it are found the pore-like 
openings of the numerous mucous glands. 


The epithelium of the overhanging ventral surface _ 


-of the posterior protuberance is more specialized, in 
that four strata can be distinguished in it. Curious- 
ly, the outer stratum appears less corneous than that 
which it immediately overlies. The two teeth at the 
apex have a very thick corneous layer, which, how- 
ever, does not cover their tips, but forms a ring 
around an apical spot of softer epithelium. 

The dorsal surface of the protuberance is covered 
by a simple epithelium, with numerous hair-like 
papillae similar to those in Perameles (Screnc#, i. 
523). In all four of the gustatory pits is a ridge pro- 
jecting from the base, and bearing the taste-bulbs 
under its surface. In the specimen examined the left 
posterior pit was (abnormally?) rudimentary. Each 
bulb lies in a papilla, which penetrates far into the 
epithelium, which is also pierced by a pore over each 
bulb. The terminal organ is the axial body (cell?) of 
the bulb, appended to the end of the nerve-fibre. The 
surrounding cells are sub-epithelial, and form asheath 
around the axial body. This observation confirms the 
author’s theory that the taste-bulbs arose as papillary 
sub-epithelial structures. The value of this theory 
was asserted in the abstract of the author’s previous 
paper. Numerous serous glands open around the base 
of the gustatory ridges. Such glands appear to be 
very generally associated with the organs of taste. 
Avound the pits are smooth muscles, which (at least, 
around the mouths of the anterior pair) distinetly 
form sphincters. 


SCIENCE. 


wy “*<¥ ek bd r wees ae 


[Vou IL., No. 44, — 


The gustatory ridges of Ornithorhynehus, if they 
rose to the surface and were shortened, would become 
like cireumyallate papillae; if they remained long and 
became furrowed, they would resemble the foliate 
areas of rodents: hence Poulton considers that the 
ridges represent a primitive form from which both 
the principal types of elevated gustatory areas in 
mammals may have been derived. — (Quart. journ. 
micr. SC., XXiii. 453.) C. Ss. M. [461 

Lymphatic and blood vessels. — Dogiel describes 
the lymph-vessels of the renal capsule and gall-blad- 
der of the dog. In the renal capsule two layers can 
be distinguished, the outer of which alone is vascu- 
lar. Prof. Arnstein, in an appended note, states that 
the rudithentary homologue of the fatty envelope of 
other species is included in this outer layer. The 
lymphatics form a coarse network of large vessels, 
which are accompanied by blood-vyessels, and spun over 
by a loose network of very fine capillaries, while in 
the meshes of the lymphatic network is an abundant 
collection of anastomosing blood-capillaries. Each 
mesh thus forms a vascular island. By this distri- 
bution the lymph-vessels are brought as far as possi- 
ble from the blood-vessels, — an arrangement which is 
attained in various ways in other parts, and which 
is important for the perfect drainage of the tissues. 

In the gall-bladder there are three sets of lymphat- 
ics, —a net for the mucosa, one for the muscularis, 
and a third for the serosa externa. These are all de- 
scribed and figured. — (Arch. mikr. anat., xxii. 608.) 
OSs) D0, [462 

(Jan.) 

Branchial arches and clefts. — Cadiat publishes 
an article destined to serve as ‘‘an introduction to 
the history of the formation of the face and its dif- 
ferent cavities: of-the neck, thorax, pharynx, and 
lung;”’ also the peritoneum, pleurae, pericardium, 
respiratory cavities: and gills of fishes (!) The re- 
porter regrets to have found in the article nothing 
but redescriptions of the pharyngeal apparatus of the 
embryo chick. As the facts have been familiar to 
embryologists for very many years, the object of the 


publication is not obvious. — (Robin's journ. anat. 


physiol., xix. 38.) ©. Ss. M. [463 
Laws of dentition.— Magitot publishes a some- 


what lengthy essay on this subject; but the article 


hardly contains original matter, and is written from 
a point of view too exclusively that of the dentist. — 
(Robin's journ. anat. physiol., xix. 59.) c.s.M. [464 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


Ancient Orkney-Islanders.—Dr. J. G. Garson 
has made a very thorough study of the crania and 
other remains of the ancient inhabitants of the Ork- 
ney Islands. His paper takes up in detail their dwell- 
ings, stature, limb-bones, and skulls, the last named 
with great detail, and expresses his results in elabo- 
rate tables. The author comes to the following con- 
clusions : — 

It is evident that in this series of skulls we have 
not a single pure race to deal with, but two distinct 
races, which have existed at probably three different 
periods. The first and apparently the ruder race 


i 


DECEMBER 7, 1883.] 


seems to be the long-headed people, represented by 
the skulls from Skerrabrae and Saverough. We have 
next the round-headed race, which probably occupied 
the country for a considerable time. The time when 
these races inhabited the islands is quite uncertain. 
The abundance of deer-horn at Skerrabrae indicates 
the presence of these animals, which would probably 
be associated with forests. When the Romans visited 
the Orkneys, their historians tell us that there were 
noforests there. Also theabsence of metals, and the 
rude implements, point to a people in the unpolished 
stone period. Some evidence is also found in the 
washing-away of the coast. The round-headed race 
seems to have lived just before or at the beginning of 
the bronze period. — (Journ. anthrop. inst., xiii. 54.) 
J. W. P. [465 

The Jutish type of face.— The peculiarity of the 
Jutish features consists in the form of the nose and 
mouth. There is no nasal point or tip, properly so 
ealled, as in the Danish, Cymric, and Iberian face, and 
their inter-crosses; nor is there any approach to the 
slight bulb which distinguishes the Saxon. The end 
of the nose is rounded off somewhat sharply, and the 
septum descends considerably below the line of the 
nostrils. The lips are less moulded or formed, and 
resemble the Iberian rather than the Saxon type. 
The lower lip, more particularly, is thick and deep. 
Mr. J. Park Harrison has been searching for speci- 
mens of the Jutish countenance in Kent, Isle of 
Wight, and in South Hants. — (Journ. anthrop. inst., 
xiii. 86.) 3. w. Pp. [466 

Egyptian mechanical methods. — Petrie, who is 
the author of a treatise on ancient metrology, has 
lately turned his attention to ancient Egyptian pro- 
cesses. Though much labor has been bestowed on 
the literary remains of Egypt and the description of 
monuments, little attention has been given to finding 
out the tools and methods by which their results were 
reached. The first conclusion to which Mr. Petrie 
comes, is that the stone-cutting was performed by 
means of graving-points far harder than the material 
to be cut. These points were bedded in a basis of 
bronze; and in boring, the cutting action was not by 
grinding with a powder, as in a lapidary’s wheel, but 
by graving with a fixed point, as in a planing-machine. 
From discovering spiral grooves in diorite and granite, 
at least ;}y of an inch in depth, the author supposes 
that an instrument was used of sufficient hardness to 
penetrate the material that far at a single turn. In 
this, however, he was corrected by Mr. Evans. The 


‘simplest tool used was a straight bronze saw set 


with jewels; but there is proof of one circular saw 
which must have been 6} inches in diameter. For 
hollowing the insides of stone objects, the inventive 
genius of the fourth dynasty exactly anticipated mod- 
ern devices by adopting tubular. drills varying from 
Fey Of an inch in diameter and } 4 of an inch in thick- 
ness, to 1S inches in diameter. Other drills, not tubu- 
lar, were used for small holes, one measuring 1/4 
inches long and yy of aninch in diameter. But this 
is surpassed by the Uaupes of South America, who 
drill -holes in rock-erystal by the rotation of a pointed 
leaf-shoot of plantain, worked with sand and water. 


fg ee : ‘ 
CER SDY O oea Tord te 


SCIENCE. 


751 


The writer of this note has seen, in Porto Rico, stone 
beads of the hardest material, 2 inches long, bored lon- 
‘gitudinally with an orifice ;\; of an inch in diameter. 
The Egyptians understood rotating both the tool and 
the work. For the finishing of vases, a hook-tool must 
haye been used; but the early Egyptians were famil- 
iar, not only with lathes and jewel-turning tools, but 
with mechanical tool-rests, and sweeping regular ares 
in eutting. In addition to the tools mentioned, are 
to be noticed those for dressing out drilled cores, stone 
hammering and smoothing, saws with curved hlades, 
mallets, chisels, adzes, and bow-drills. For marking 
and indicating the plane of the stone, red-ochre paint 
was used in a variety of ways, well studied out by Mr. 
Petrie. Rock-excavation, bath for saving the stone 
and for the creation of vaults and chambers, was alto- 
gether an affair of drilling. Granite bowlders were 
utilized in the pyramids, but the best stones were 
taken from quarries. The method of handling these 
immense masses is not known. Mr. Petrie concludes 
with a sensible remark upon the oft-alleged inhuman- 
ity of the pyramid and temple builders. To require a 
man every six years to serve upon the public works, 
during the season when he could do nothing else, 
would certainly not be a great hardship. — (Journ. 
anthrop. inst., xiii. 88.) 0. T. M. [467 
Navajo mythology.—The Navafos, says Dr. 
Washington Matthews, speak of five worlds, in four 
of which our fathers lived ere reaching this. In the 
first world were the first man, the first woman, and 
the coyote. In,the second world were two other 
men, the sun and the moon people, and at the four 
corners were the people of the cardinal points, An 
amour of the sun with first woman led to the ascent 
of all to the third world, where they found another 
race of people living in the mountains, Here coyote 
stole the children of ‘Tieholtsodi (he who seizes you 
in the sea), who caused a deluge to cover the earth. 
The emigrants ascended to the fourth world through 
the growth of a hollow reed. Here a disturbance 
arose concerning the relative value of men and 
women, which resulted in favor of the men. After 
the lapse of some years they were pursued hither by 
the giant looking for his eubs, which coyote still 
concealed. The floods rose, and they were let up 
into world five by the badger and the locust. The 
cubs were thrown down to the giant, and the waters 
subsided. Then came the fitting-up of the world for 
their abode. At this point of the myth are several 
very pretty origin-stories about the dry land, the 
mountains, the sun and moon, the making of climate, 
etc. Here is one. ‘On the fifth day the sun arose, 
climbed to the zenith, and stopped. Coyote said, 
‘The sun stops because he has not been paid: he de- 
mands a human life for every day that he labors,’ 
At length a woman, the wife of a great chief, ceased 
to breathe, and grew cold. The sun travelled down 
the western sky, and passed behind the western 
mountain.”? There is a similar moon myth. Then 
follow the confusion of tongues, the making of the 
stars, the lengthening of the seasons, the forming of 
snow, the planting of corn. At this juncture, on 
account of the wickedness of mankind, first woman 


752 


made the five great destroyers, — Yeitso, Tsinahale, 
Delgeth, Tseta-holtsil-tahli, and Binaye. She also 
took to rear a foundling girl, Estsanatlehi. The lat- 
ter, impreghated by the sun, brought forth twins, 
who, by the aid of their father, slay the five great 
destroyers of mankind. ‘The stories of these Hercu- 
lean labors is charmingly told, and is full of theories 
about the causes of familiar things, such as the birds, 
the shunning of a mother-in-law. The mother of 
the giants repeopled the world, built pueblos, estab- 
lished.the gentes. The giants may still be seen in the 
waters of the San Juan, and the mother continues 
to send to the Navajos the snow, the spring thaw, the 
soft rain, the corn, and the green grass. —(Amer. an- 
tig., Vv. 207-224.) J. wer. [468 


EARLY INSTITUTIONS. 


A history of guilds. — A Mr, Waterford, barrister- 
at-law, is writing a history of English guilds. He has 
already described the aims and purposes of the guilds. 
He has also described their history, and the history 
of public opinion and legislation regarding them. 
He is now taking up their geographical distribution 
in the different counties and towns. Extracts are 
given from the records. The work promises to be 
one of interest and value. The history of trade 
unions is a subject which deserves especial attention 
in these days. It is a very difficult subject, however, 
and by no means mastered as yet. Contributions 
towards its elucidation are therefore very welcome. 
—(Antig. mag.) D. w. R. , [469 


* 


The Merovingian grants of immunity. — These ~ 


grants, a chief source of feudalism, are not considered 
by M. Fustel de Coulanges to have been confined to 
ecclesiastics, as is usually assumed. The grants to 
ecclesiastics were no doubt the most numerous, and 
the documents are at any rate better preserved; but 
_lay proprietors received precisely the same powers. 
The essentiakfeature of the grant he regards as the 
exclusion of the public officials from the territory of 
the immunity, whether for judicial, fiscal, or military 
purposes. Exemption from financial burdens was a 
natural but not necessary nor universal consequence. 
In this he agrees with Heusler, differing from him, 
however, in holding that the grantee was absolutely re- 
moved from all relation to the public official, the count, 
and stood only under the king; while Heusler consid- 
ers that he only became an intermediary between his 
tenants and the count. The result of these grants 
was to completely break up the administrative system 
of the Frank empire by removing great stretches of 
territory from the authority of the public official, and 
practically to make the proprietor an irresponsible 
master over his free tenants as well as his serfs. The 
same effects followed the grants of mundiburdium, or 
protection, by which the proprietor entered into a 
purely personal relation to the king, ceasing to be 
under the authority of the count. This substitution 
of a petsonal relation for the political one of subject 
and ruler is also of the essence of feudalism. It is 
not possible to decide whether the-grants of immu- 
nity or those of mundiburdium were the earlier. Im- 
munity, however, applying primarily to the land, 


SCIENCE. 


$ “ae® it 
a 


[Vou. II., No. 44, — 


necessarily*included the personal relation; while 
mundiburdium, by an equal necessity, led to immunity. 
The article is written in the interesting style and 
with the characteristic lucidity of the author, and 
forms a most important contribution to the study 
of the origin of feudalism. — (Rev. hist,, July —Octo- 
ber.) W. F. A. [470 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


A CABLE despatch was received Noy. 30, at Har- 
vard college observatory, announcing the discovery 
of a small planet by Palisa at Vienna. Its position © 
Noy. 28, 13h. 20m., Greenwich time, was, right ascen- 
sion, 3h. 19 m. 14 s.; declination, north, 15° 52’ 17” ; 
daily motion in right ascension, — 48” ; in declination, 
nothing. Itis of the twelfth magnitude. The planet 
was readily identified at Harvard college obserya- 
tory, and was observed by Mr. Wendell as follows: 
Nov. 30, 9 h. 80m., Cambridge time; right ascension, 
3h. 17 m. 27 s.; declination, north, 15° 51.1’, 

— While the reyenue steamer Corwin was cruising 
on the coast of Alaska and in the north-west Arctic 


’ Ocean in 1881, Dr. Irving C. Rosse, her medical offi- 


cer, found leisure to prepare a series of medical and 
anthropological notes, which have just been published 
by the Treasury department. The medical notes, 
although they exhibit the mind of a keen observer, 
are rather technical than racial: there is a short 
chapter on medical and surgical subjects, however, 
p. 25. The author holds ‘that the marks of dis- 
tinction. between the Eskimo and the Chukchi are 
not very plain. At Kotzebue Sound many of the 
natives are tall and of a commanding appearance. 
Uniformity of features, so commonly attributed to the 
Eskimo, has frequent exceptions; many of the-natives 
exhibiting countenances of Chinese, Jewish, Milesian, 
or even Mulatto cast. The experiments of strength 
and agility in rowing, racing, throwing stones, and 
lifting, given on p. 29, are valuable contributions to 
anthropometry. The popular notion regarding the 
great| appetite of the Eskimo is one of the current 
fallacies, according to Dr. Rosse. As to the commer- 
cial connection between the two continents, natives 
cross and recross Bering Strait to-day on the ice and in 
primitive skin canoes, which have not been improved 
since the days of prehistoric man. With a view to 
finding out whether any linguistic affinity existed be- 
tween the Japanese and the Eskimo, Dr. Rosse caused 
several Japanese boys employed on the Corwin to talk 
on numerous occasions to the natives, both on the 
American and Asiatié coast; but in every instance 
they were unable to understand the Eskimo, and as- 
sured him that they could not detect a single word 
that bore any resemblance to words in their own lan- 
guage. The language varies greatly from point to 
point. The interpreter taken at St. Michaels could 
with difficulty understand the natives of Point: Bar- 
row, while at St. Lawrence Island and on the Asiatie 
side he could understand nothing at all. The author 
happily likens spoken languages to those species of 
animals which are still in a plastie condition and are 
undergoing farther development. The Eskimo tongue 


DECEMBER 7, 1883.] 


is one of these, and yields with facility to almost any 
external influence. 

Dr. Rosse speaks slightingly and flippantly of phil- 
ological studies, and holds that the observation of 
habits in satisfying the demands of nature is a surer 
guide to racial affinities. The dietetic value of seal, 
bear, walrus, eider-duck, whale, and reindeer, is dis- 
cussed; and we are led to believe that the Eskimo are 
by no means to be pitied for their miserable food. 
Says Dr. Rosse, ‘‘ We dined occasionally on fresh 
trout, young wild duck, and reindeer. . . . There is 
scarcely any better eating in the way of fish than 
Coregonus, and certainly no more dainty game than 
young wild geese and ptarmigan.’’ The cranberries 
and a kind of kelp are the only vegetable food. Eggs 
in all states are eagerly devoured, though the women 
will not take gull’s eggs. Game is both plentiful and 
very tame. 

Courtship and marriage are exceedingly simple, 
parturition is easy, families are small, and mortality 
among the new-born excessive. The description of 
the carrying of infants and the plays of children ex- 
hibit in the author a genuine sympathy absolutely 
necessary in an observer of natural history. The per- 
sonal ornamentations are chiefly tattooing and wear- 
ing labrets. The native has no music in his soul, 
although rare instances of acquired facility in singing 
and playing are recorded. He is a born dancer or 
jumper, however, mingling this pastime with all his 
feasts. Dr. Rosse speaks in the highest terms of the 
Eskimo art talent and of the facility shown by some 
in learning the art of the higher race. Of the intel- 
ligence of the race the author hasa high opinion. In 
speaking of their crania, Dr. Rosse confirms the re- 
sults of Dr. Kohlmann, that there is no fixed Eskimo 
cranial type. As to character, uncontaminated, they 
are models of truthfulness and honesty; but as to 
chastity, Herder was far from truth when he wrote, 
‘The blood of man near the pole cireulates slowly, 
the heart beats but languidly: consequently the mar- 
ried live chastely, the women almost require compul- 
sion to take upon them the troubles of a married life.”’ 

Owing to his hard life, the conflict with his cireum- 
stances, and his want of foresight, the Eskimo soon 
becomes a physiological bankrupt: and, his stock of 
vitality being exhausted, his bodily remains are coy- 
ered with stones, around which are placed wooden 
masks, and articles that have been useful to him 

- during life; or they are covered with driftwood, and 
the weapons and personal effects placed near by, in 
response to the sentiment commemorated by Schiller 
in ‘ Bringet hier die letzten gaben.’ 

— The Ottawa microscopical society held a conver- 
sazione on Noy. 20, at whieh nearly three hundred 
invited guests were entertained by the president and 
members. The admirable arrangement of the rooms 
allowed of a varied programme. Microscopes of vari- 
ous makers and models, and of highest grade, were 
set out in the upper story of the building; while the 
lower hall was devoted to music, elocution, the oxy- 
hydrogen microscope, and the stereopticon. In the 
hands of the Rey. Dr. Ballaud, of the College of Ot- 
tawa, the gas-microscope and gas-lantern charmed 


SCIENCE. ' 158 


all by the novelty and brilliancy of the objects and 
views presented to them. The entertainment lasted 
nearly three hours, and a repetition is eagerly de- 
manded. 

The general meetings of the society will be held 
this winter on Dee, 18, Jan. 15, Feb. 19, and March 
18, at eight P.M., in the offices of the Geological sur- 
vey. 

— In accordance with the vote passed at the public 
meeting of the Archaeological institute of America, 
reported in ScreNcrE, No. 41, the Hon. Samuel C, 
Cobb and Messrs. Henry Lee, William Endicott, jun., 
Oliver W. Peabody, and John C. Phillips have been 
appointed a committee to solicit subscriptions for the 
publication of the report of the investigations at Assos 
and for the general work of the institute. Twenty - 
thousand dollars are needed; and subscriptions may 
be sent to either of the members of the committee, or 
to Henry L. Higginson, Esq., treasurer of the insti- 
tute, No. 44 State Street, Boston. 

— At the third annual meeting of the Natural science 
association of Staten Island, held in the village hall, 
New Brighton, Noy. 10, Dr. A. L. Carroll was chosen 
president; Samuel Henshaw, treasurer; Charles W. 
Lang, recording secretary; Arthur Hollick, corre- 
sponding secretary; and W. T. Davis, curator. The 
society numbers seventy, and has a balance in the 
treasury. Objects of interest were exhibited at this 
meeting by seven members, and consisted very large- 
ly of specimens collected in the immediate vicinity, 
— the highest sign of activity. 

— The editor of the American monthly microscopical 
journal announces that the office of publication will 
be removed to Washington with the beginning of 1884. 

— The Russian academy of science held its cen- 
tennary anniversary at St. Petersburg with much 
ceremony on the second of last month, under the 
presidency of Count Tolstoy, the Russian minister of 
the interior. 

— The Moniteur industrielle announces that the 
International exhibition at Marseilles opened on the 
15th of November, and remains open-until April 31, 
1884. The programme is extensive, and, on the 
whole, embraces much the same range of subjects 
as the London fisheries exhibition. : i 

— After the electrical exhibition in Paris, a number 
of French electricians formed themselves into a club, 
which has met once a month for a dinner. From 
this small beginning there has developed an ‘ Inter- 
national society of electricians.’ The society num- 
bers more than nine hundred members from twenty 
nationalities. Information may be had from Georges ~ 
Berger, 99 Rue de Grenelle, Paris. 

— Mr. Charles A. Ashburner of the State geological 
survey is completing his surveys and examinations 
in Cameron, Elk, and Forest counties, Penn. Mr, 
Ashburner’s report, to be accompanied by maps and 
sections, will be published late in the winter, and 
will contain much information of interest to the coal 
and oil operators in this section of the state. 

—The next issue of the Library of aboriginal 
American literature, published by Dr. D, G. Brinton, 
Philadelphia, will be ‘The comedy of Gueguence,’ 


754 


a play written and acted by the natives of Nicaragua. 
It dates from the seventeenth century, and is written 
jn-a curious dialect, half Aztec and half Spanish. It 
will be ready early in December. 

— An itinerary has been issued of the first part of 
the map of the route of the Alaska military recon- 
naissance of 1883 by Lieut. Schwatka. The total 
length of raft-journey on the Yukon River from Lake 
Lindeman to Nuklakayet was 1,303.2 miles, being the 
longest raft-journey in the interest of geosraphical 
science. He gives the length of the Yukon River as 
2,043.5 miles. 

— At the meeting of the Engineers’ club of Phila- 
delphia, Nov. 17, Mr. Edw. I. H. Howell presented a 
sketch of the practice and peculiarities of the English 
machinists with regard to machine-tools. He also 
exhibited specimens of polished shafting, from 13” to 
23” in diameter, cold drawn, like wire. The secre- 
tary, Howard Meena read an illustrated paper by 
Mr. G. T. Gwilliam, upon the methods of making 
and placing the mattresses and fascines at the exten- 
sion of the Delaware Breakwater harbor. The sec- 
retary presented notes, by Mr. John J. Hoopes, to 
illustrate methods of computing tables by successive 
_ additions instead of separate calculations. Mr. John 
Haug presented illustrated notes upon boiler con- 
struction, touching especially upon what should be 
shown in drawings and specifications for boilers. 
Mr. George S. Strong exhibited specimens of cylin- 
drical and corrugated flues; the former readily yield- 
ed to the pressure of the fingers, while the latter 
was trampled upon without injury. The secretary 
read, for Mr. C. J. Hexamer, a description of his 
- experiments upon, with a discussion of the causes 
of, dust-explosions in mills. Mr. William A. Ingham 
considered that some explosions in coal-mines are 
probably attributable to the immense quantity of fine 
dust in the air; and Mr. T. Mellon Rogers, in re- 


sponse to Mr. Hexamer’s comments upon the general | 


absence of adjustable rolls in Philadelphia mills 
being a common cause of ignition by the friction of 
foreign metallic particles in the stock, spoke of their 
general use in the west. 

— The mathematical section of the Washington 
‘philosophical society has resumed its sessions. At the 
meeting held Noy. 21, Mr. C. H. Kummell discussed 
the theory of errors as practically tested by target- 
shooting, in which he showed the effect of a difference 
of precision in the vertical and horizontal directions, 
and of taking account of the lost shots on the for- 
mulae employed. ' 

—C. G. Stewart of St. Thomas’s hospital, London, 
and Mr. G. Lathom Browne of the Midland cireuit, 
haye published the reports of various trials for mur- 
der by poisoning, from the trial of Tawell to that of 
Dr. Lamson. The book also gives directions for analy- 
sis, and points out difficulties that have occurred, or 
are likely to occur, in proving the presence of poison 
toa jury. The Chemical news considers the book “‘in- 
dispensable to all chemists who practise in toxicol- 
ogy, of great value to the medical profession generally, 
and doubtless no less so to solicitors and counsel who 
may be concerned in poisoning cases.” 


SCIENCE. 


Vou. IL, No. 44. 


— The Industrie-blitter of Aug. 4 reports an in- 
genious fraud in jewelry. ‘Thin plates of some pre- 
cious stone, as for instance of emerald, have melted 
glass of the same color as the stone poured on one 
side. The real stone is set outside, so that, when 
tried, the jewel presents every appearance of being 
genuine and of the right hardness. These stones are 
called in the trade pierres fines doubdlées. The only 
test is to hold the stone edgewise, when, of course, 
the two sides will show different refraction. Any 
connoisseur will thus be able to detect the fraud; 
but, if set, this could hardly be done. 

— The Moniteur des fils et tissus calls attention to 
a description of vegetable wool called kapoc. It 
comes from Java, and a specimen is on view at the 
Amsterdam exhibition. It arrives at Amsterdam in 
its leathery covering, being itself enveloped in the 
seeds. It is then freed from both, and is carded so 
as to make a very light mattress wool; worth about 
8?d per pound. One of the houses engaged in this 
operation had made trials in spinning and dyeing 
this material; but the filaments are said to be like 
strings, and their industrial application consequently 
a matter of uncertainty. 

— The Industrie zeitung gives a description of the 
source of the much advertised Hunyadi Janos wa- 
ter. Fourteen springs rise in a marsh near the town 
of Ofen in Hungary, which is the property of Herr 
A. Saxlehnes of Budapesth. Four of the strongest 
springs flow into a cement-lined cistern, whence the 
water is pumped into a second reservoir and cleared, 
then passed through other purifying-vessels, until it 
is bottled by an ingenious arrangement, ten bottles 
being filled at once. The yearly sale amounts to 
about three million bottles. 

— Caillaud communicates to the Geographical soci- 
ety of Paris some statements in regard to a plant of 
the strychnine family, native to Tonquin, to which 
remarkable virtues are ascribed. It is called by the 
Annamites, who make use of it, ‘hoangnan.’ It 
grows in the mountains which separate the valley of 
Mekong from southern Tonquin, and is a vine whose 
bark, in which the active principle exists, is a violent 
poison. Its use was communicated by a native con- 
vert to the missionaries. M. Lesserteur, formerly a 
missionary in Tonqtin, and now director of the semi- 
nary of foreign missions, has published a pamphlet, 
in which he recounts numerous cases in which a cure 
was effected. Dr. F. Barthélemy of Nantes has also 
made a special study of the drug, which appears to 
act as an alterative and antispasmodic. It is also 
under investigation by the medical school of Alfort. 
Cures of active hydrophobia are claimed for it, and 
several cases mentioned in detail. It is also said to 
be an antidote to the venom of serpents, and to re- 
lieve cutaneous diseases.: 
the drug, it is said that alcoholic liquor or heating 
food must be absolutely avoided as liable to induce 
active ‘poisoning. Altogether, while there may bea 
valuable medical agent in this new drug, the accounts 
given of it recallthose which heralded the introduc- 
tion of the notorious South-American ‘cundu- 
rango.’ 


While under the effect of ~ 


Ge we Se Ge oe 


FRIDAY, DECEMBER 14, 1883. 


THE SIGNAL-SERVICE AND STANDARD 
TIME. 

Iv has been announced that the chief signal- 
officer has ordered his corps of observers to 
continue to be governed by the local time of 
their respective stations. It is difficult to un- 
derstand this action on the part of Gen. Hazen. 
It would seem, that, next to the transportation 
companies, the weather bureau would be most 
benefited by the adoption of a system of time 
which would render all observations strictly 
and easily comparable with each other. The 
position taken by the service is all the more 
remarkable, when it is remembered that only 
two or three years ago its chief was himself a 
warm adyocate of the new scheme, and de- 
clared his anxiety to further its introduction in 
every way in his power. It will be everywhere 
admitted that the adoption of standard time 
by all observers would greatly aid in securing 
its acceptance by the people generally ; and it 
is to be hoped that it will be shortly done, un- 
less some graye reason, which is certainly not 
apparent, exists for its rejection. 


A SUGGESTION TO AUTHORS. 


_ Aurnors who republish in a separate form 
papers originally printed in society transac- 
tions or journals should be careful to preserve 
the original pagination of the serial from which 
they are extracted, or to indicate the same in 
some clear way for purposes of ready and cor- 
rect reference. It would really be worth call- 
ing a convention of our scientific societies for 
the purpose, if a reform could be effected in 
this matter. Time is too precious to be wasted 
in search, often fruitless, for an original source, 
' when it could have been indicated, without 
additional cost, upon the separated copies. 
It would also be far better if the original page 
itself could be left intact without overrunning : 


No. 45. — 1883. 


viz 4S eaeweey Ss vere 


otherwise errors of reference will be entailed 
on posterity, which will prove justly exasper- 
ating to the student obliged to consult the vast 
literature of that coming day. The reform 
cannot come too soon nor be too thorough. 


EXPERIMENTS IN BINARY ARITH- 
METIC. 


Tose who can perform in that most neces- 
sary of all mathematical operations, simple 
addition, any great number of successive ex- 
amples, or any single extensive example, with- 
out consciousness of a severe mental strain 
followed by corresponding mental fatigue, are 
exceptions to a general rule. These troubles 
are due to the quantity and complexity of the 
matter with which the mind has to be occupied 
at the same time that the figures are recog- 
nized. The sums of pairs of numbers from zero 
up to nine form fifty-five distinct propositions 
that must be borne in memory. and the ‘ carry- 
ing’ is a further complication. ‘The strain and ~ 
consequent weariness are: not only felt, but 
seen, in the mistakes in addition that they 
cause. They are, in great part, the tax ex- 
acted of us by our decimal system of arithme- 
tic. Were only quantities of the same value, 
in any one column, to be added, our memory 
would be burdened with nothing more than the 
succession of numbers in simple counting, or 
that of multiples of two, three, or four, if the 
counting is by groups. 

It is easy to prove that the most economical 
way of reducing addition to counting similar 
quantities is by the binary arithmetic of Leib- 
nitz, which appears in an altered dress, with 
most of the zero-signs suppressed, in the ex- 
ample below. Opposite each number in the 
usual figures is here set the same according to 
a scheme in which the signs of powers of two 
repeat themselves in periods of four: a very 
small circle, like a degree-mark, being used to 
express any fourth power in the series ; a long 
loop, like a narrow 0, any square not a fourth 
power ; a curve upward and to the right, like a 
phonographic 7, any double fourth power ; and a 
curve to the right and downward, like a phono- 
graphie 7, any half of a fourth power; with a 
vertical bar to denote the absence of three 
successive powers not fourth powers. Thus 
the equivalent for one million, shown in the 


756 


example slightly below the middle, is 27° (vepre- 
sented by a degree-mark in the fifth row of these 
marks, counting from the right) plus 27+ 2° 
(two l-curves in the fifth and third places of 
l-curyes) plus 2%+2"+42° (three loops) plus 
2 (the 7-curve at the extreme left) ; while 
the absence of 2°, 27, and 21, is shown by the 
vertical stroke at the right. This equivalent 
expression may be verified, if desired, either 


Example in addition by two notations. 


77,823,976 


14,348,907 = : i : a ‘a ; ' " 
8,654,912 

5,764,801 Gre OiziierOnrO alin 
4,635,857 UD Gsm Yee 
- 1,594,323 ri OEE Ge 
6,417,728 Onna lomaD ae ON 
4,782,969 (CRA EN 


$3,886,075 Ondine, Demon cnO pala 


34,012,224 (OLA 
2,903,111 od 6d 6 o 
48,828, 125 UR Vota SU) 
1,724,826 ome ; a ea 
7,529,536 
43,344,817 (SER Pras il DE So le 
10,000,000 Taal SON 
8,334,712 Ce DTS 
1,953,125 SO OMe a ge ee 
11,308,417 aay Sole wey 
159,375 Si ce oe wae Y 
21,180,840 
9,765,625 Bi Aun Meena 
18,643,788 Pl aae a Omenvaes Olane) 
1,000,000 mie) ie) 
44,739,243 (GC ENING AEN 
1,889,568 5 SOE OSG 
2,517,471 (GE OM Sat) Re 
40,353,607 - CC OX 6°O 
4,438,414 6. aoe" ef Rie 
1,679,616 : 
23,708,715 CTA i (ONES 
11,390,625 Yaw OmMOn NaS 
945,754 Om Open LO ois 
823,543 FRY DY SE PR 
15,308,805 Oe Caco el enO le 
60,466,176 (Gaven am Gubhelt {l 
30,685,377 CRA) | 109 
10,077,696 VAD &.1 I 
19,416,381 . Riga Oe (mrs 
43,046,721 (ane emo ONS. 
740,685,681. <7) © O°O2 OP G1”? 


by adding the designated powers of two, from 
524,288 down to 64, or by successive multipli- 
cations by two, adding one when necessary. 
The form of characters here exhibited was 
thought to be the best of nearly three hundred 
that were devised and considered, and in about 
sixty cases tested for economic yalue by actual 
additions. 

In order to add them, the object for which 
these forty numbers are here presented in two 
notations, it is not necessary to know just why 


SCIENCE. 


ry a 


(Vou. Il., No. 45. 


the figures on the right are equal to those on the 
left, or to know any thing more than the order 
in which the different forms are to be taken, 
and the fact that any one has twice the value 
of one in the column next succeeding it on 
the right. The addition may be made from the 
printed page, first covering over the answer with 
a paper held fast by a weight, to have a place 
for the figures of the new answer as successively 
obtained. The fingers will be found a great 
assistance, especially if one of each hand be 
used, to point off similar marks in twos, or 
threes, or fours, —as many together as can be 
certainly comprehended in a glance of the eye. 
Counting by fours, if it can be done safely, is 
preferable. because most rapid. The eye can 
catch the marks for even powers more easily in 
going up, and those for odd powers (the / and r 
curves) in going down, the columns. Beginning 
at the lower right-hand corner, we count the 
right-hand column of small circles, or degree- 
marks, upwards: they are twenty-three in num- 
ber. Half of twenty-three is eleven, and one 
over: one of these marks has therefore to be 
entered as part of the answer, and eleven carried 
to the next column, the first one of /-curves. 
But since the curves are most advantageously 
added downward, it is best, when the first col- 
umn is finished, simply to remember the re- 


mainder from it, and not to set down any thing 


until the bottom is reached in the addition of 
the second column, when the remainders, if any, 
from both columns, can be set down together. 
In this case, starting with the eleven carried, 
and counting the number of the /-curves, we 
find ourselves at the bottom with twenty-four, 
— twelve to carry, and nothing to set down ex- 
cept the degree-mark from the first column. 
With the twelve we go up the adjoining loop-col- 
umn, and the sum must be even, as this place 
is vacant in the answer; the 7-curve column 
next, downward, and then another row of de- 
gree-marks. The succession must be obyious 
by this time. When the last column, the one in 
loops to the extreme left, is added, the sum has 
to be reduced to unity by successive halvyings. 
Here we seem to have-eleven: hence we enter 
one loop, and carry five to the next place, 
which, it must be remembered, is of 7-curves. 
Halving five, we express the remainder by 
entering one of these curves, and carry the 
quotient, two, to the degree-mark place. Haly- 
ing again gives one in the next place, that of 
l-eurves ; and the work is complete. 

It is recommended that this work be gone 
over several times for practice, until the ap- 
pearance and order of the characters, and the 
details of the method, become familiar; that, 


r 


DECEMBER 14, 1883.] 


when the work can be done mechanically and 
without hesitation, the time occupied in a com- 
plete addition of the example, and the mistakes 
made in it, be carefully noted; that this be 
done several times, with an interval of some 
days between the trials, and the result of each 
trial kept separate ; that the time and mistakes 
by the ordinary figures in the same example, 
in several trials, be observed for comparison. 
Please pay particular attention to the differ- 
ence in the kind of work required by the two 
methods in its bearing on two questions, — 
which of them would be easier to work by for 
hours together, supposing both equally well 
learned? and in which of them could a reason- 
able degree of skill be more readily acquired 
by a beginner? The answer to these questions, 
if the comparison bea fair one, is as little to 
be doubted as is their high importance. 

Eight volunteer observers to whom this 
example has already been submitted showed 
wide difference in arithmetical skill. One of 

' them took but a few seconds over two minutes, 
in the best of six trials, to add by the usual 
figures, and set down the sum, but one figure 
in all the six additions being wrong; another 
added once in ten minutes fifty-seven seconds, 
and once in eleven minutes seven seconds, with 
half the figures wrong each time. The last- 
mentioned observer had had very little training 
in arithmetical work, but perhaps that gave 
a fairer comparison. 
made three additions in between seven and 
eight minutes, with but one place wrong in the 
three. With four of the observers the binary 
notation required nearly double the time. 
These observers were all well practised in com- 
putation. Their best record, five minutes 
eighteen seconds, was made by one whose 
best record was two minutes forty seconds 
in ordinary figures. The author’s own best re- 
sults were two minutes thirty-eight seconds 
binary, and three minutes twenty-three sec- 
onds usual. He thus proved himself inferior 
to the last observer, as an adder, by a system 
in which both were equally well trained; but a 
greater familiarity (extending over a few weeks 
instead of a few hours) with methods in binary 
addition enabled him to work twice as fast with 
them. Of the author’s nine additions by the 
usual figures, four were wrong in one figure 
each; of his thirty-two additions by different 
forms of binary notation, five were wrong, one 
of them in two places. One observer found 
that he required one minute thirty-three sec- 
onds to add a single column (average of 
five tried) .by the usual figures, and fifteen sec- 
onds to count the characters in one (average 


In the binary figures she, 


SCIENCE. 


~ 


757 


of six tried) by the binary. Though these ad- 
ditions were rather slow, the results are inter- 
esting. They show, making allowance for the 
greater number of columns (three and a third 
times as many) required by the binary plan, a 
saving of nearly half; but they also illustrate 
the necessity of practice. ‘This observer suc- 
ceeded with the binary arithmetic by avoiding 
the sources of delay that particularly embar- 
rass the beginner, by contenting himself with 
counting only, and not stopping to divide by 
two, to set down an unfamiliar character, or to 
recognize the mark by which he must distin- 
guish his next column. One well-known mem- 
ber of the Washington philosophical society 
and of the American association for the ad- 
vancement of science, who declined the actual 
trial as too severe a task, estimated his prob- 
able time with ordinary figures at twenty min- 
utes, with strong chances of a wrong result, 
after all. 

These statistics prove the existence of a 
class of persons who can do faster and more 
reliable work by the binary reckoning. But 
too much should not be made of them. Let — 
them serve as specimens of facts of which a 
great many more are to be desired, bearing on 
a question of grave importance. Is it not 
worth our while to know, if we can, by impar- 
tial tests, whether the tax imposed on our 
working brains by the system of arithmetic in 
daily use is the necessary price of a blessing 
enjoyed, or an oppression? If the strain pro-' 
duced by greater complexity and intensity of 
mental labor is compensated by a correspond- 
ingly greater rapidity in dealing with figures, 
the former may be the case. If, on the con- 
trary, a little practice suffices to turn the bal- 
ance of rapidity, for all but a small body of 
highly drilled experts, in favor of an easier 
system, the latter must be. ‘This is the ques- 
tion that the readers of Scrence are invited to 
help in deciding. ‘The difficulties attending a 
complete revolution in the prevalent system 
of reckoning are confessedly stupendous ; but 
they do not render undesirable the knowledge 
that experiment alone can give, whether or not 
the cost of that system is unreasonably high ; 
nor should they prevent those who accord thém 
the fullest recognition from assisting to furnish 
the necessary facts. 

Those who are willing to undertake the ad- 
dition on the plan proposed or on any better 
plan, or who will submit it to such acquaint- 
ances, skilled or unskilled, as may be persuaded 
to take the trouble to learn the mechanism of 
binary adding, will confer a great favor by in- 
forming the writer of the time occupied, and 


708 


number of mistakes made, in each addition. 

All observations and suggestions relating to’ 

the subject will be most gratefully received. 
Henry Farquaar. 


Office of U. S. coast-survey, 
Washington, D.C. 


WHIRLWINDS, CYCLONES, AND TOR- 
NADOES.1— VI. 

Havine seen how storms arise, and exam- 
ined the general motions of their spiral winds, 
we must next consider their progression from 
place to place. It is now a familiar fact, that 
storms do not remain stationary, but advance 


SCIENCE. 


e * CT Bash Dane ae 
$n ae 


[Vou. IL, No. 45, 


forth. The apparently lawless winds of a 
storm could be reduced to system if they were 
supposed to blow around a centre which itself 
has a progressive motion. In nearing the 
centre, the barometer falls, and the winds in- 
crease their strength. ‘The manner and cause 
of the progressive motion must now be ex- 
amined. 

The four regions where tropical storms moye 
into temperate latitudes — the seas south and 
east of India and China, and south-east of the 
United States, in the northern hemisphere ; 
and those-east of Madagascar and (probably) 
of Australia, in the southern hemisphere — are 


THE REGIONS OF TROPICAL CYCLONES. 


at a velocity of from five to fifty miles an hour 
along a line known as their track. Although 
perceived by Franklin about 1750, this, as 
well as their whirling motion, first found fall 
and satisfactory proof at the hands of Dove 
of Berlin (1828), and Redfield of New York 
(1831). The latter gave the more numerous 
examples, and was the first to explain the 
motions of storm-winds at sea. The method 
of his discovery was simple enough. Infor- 
mation concerning the storm was gathered 
from all attainable records, and the condition 
of the winds and weather was plotted for cer- 
tain hours. At once the result stood clearly 
1 Continued from No. 44. 


(TAKEN FROM STIELER’S ATLAS.) 


all crossed by storm-tracks, running first west- 
ward near the equator, then turning toward the 
pole, and passing around the apex of a para- 
bolic curve near latitude 30°, into an obliquely 
eastward course. The more numerous storms. 
of temperate latitudes have less regular tracks, 
but are nearly always characterized by a strong 
eastward element in their motion; their chief 
variations to the right or left being dependent 
on thermal changes with the seasons, and on 
the configuration of land and water which 
they traverse. There have been four causes 
suggested to determine the progression of the 
storm-centre: namely, the general winds of the 
region, and especially the stronger and less 


: DeEcEMBER 14, 1883.] 


variable upper currents ; the supply of warm, 
moist air, and consequent occurrence of heavy 
rain; the relative strength of the inblowing 
winds; and a certain effect of the earth’s 
rotation. All these causes of progression are 
variable in amount, and in relation to one an- 
other; and it is therefore natural to find their 
resultant inconstant. 

The first-named cause is the most evident, 
the most powerful, and was the first recog- 
nized. The general or planetary circulation 
of the winds will require that any disturbance 
in the moving atmosphere shall partake of its 
motion, and be carried along in the direction 
of the current within which it is generated. 
Thus a storm arising in the equatorial calms 
is carried westward as soon as it attains suf- 
ficient height to reach the upper current, which 
must there move from east to west. No equa- 
torial cyclone has ever been observed moving 
eastward. On approaching the western shores 
of the ocean, a part, at least, of the general 
winds, turns toward the poles, as may be seen 
on any wind-chart, and in 
latitude 25° or 30° passes 
from the region of the 
tropical winds into the 
system of the prevailing 
westerly winds of temper- 
ate latitudes. The storms 
have a strikingly similar 
course, and, on the western 
side of the oceans in these 
latitudes, never move to- 
wards the equator. Their 
further progress, and that of the many storms 
of the temperate zones, is easterly, with a lean- 
ing towards the pole while crossing the oceans, 
and a variable north-easterly or south-easterly 
advance on the continents. No storm has 
been found crossing the North Atlantic from 
east to west, or moving from our Atlantic 
coast to the plains beyond the Mississippi. 
Additional evidence of this style of bodily 
transference of storms will be given in con- 
sidering the relative strength and the direction 
of their spiral winds on different sides of the 
centre. 

The importance of the condensation of vapor 
and consequent rainfall in decreasing the cool- 
ing of the central up-draught, and so increasing 
its strength, has already been shown. In the 
explanation of this process, it was tacitly as- 
sumed that all the surface-indraught was equally 
warm and moist, so that condensation and 
rain would occur symmetrically about the cen- 
tre of low pressure. It will now be seen, that, 
when a storm-centre is supplied from areas 


SCIENCE. 


10000 FEET. ____.— 


759 


of unequal warmth and moisture, symmetrical 
cloud-forming and rain-falling on all sides will 
be impossible; there will be more rain, and 
henee less cooling, on one side than on the 
other; and just as the liberation of ‘ latent 
heat’ aided in the formation of the first cen- 
tral barometric depression, so it will now tend 
to displace this centre to the side where the 
greatest amount of rain falls. If no other 
cause but this acted, the storm would advance 
regularly toward the region of heaviest pre- 
cipitation: but this advance will not be like 
the bodily transference of the rotating winds 
effected by the general atmospheric currents ; 
it will be rather the abandoning of one cen- 
tre of attraction as a stronger one is cre- 
ated beside it,—the continual filling-up of 
one depression, and production of another. 
This may be illustrated by a modification of 
fig. 8, given here in fig. 12, in which the dotted 
lines show the gradients and winds established 
at a certain period of the storm. Let it be 
supposed that warmer, moister winds enter 


Se SSS BARON DO 


Fie. 12. 


on the right, and cooler, drier winds, on the 
left. Where cooler, the air will be contracted, 
and the isobarie surfaces depressed: where 
warmer, from its own warmth, as well as from 
that of the condensing vapor, the air will be 
expanded, and the isobars elevated, as shown 
in full lines in the figure. The gradients will 
then be unsymmetrical about the original cen- 
tre; and the previous motion of the winds will 
be accelerated at some points, retarded or re- 
versed at others. As a result, the pressures 
at the surface will be changed from their pre- 
vious arrangement to a new one, shown in fig. 
13, in which the region of least pressure has 
moved to the side of the warmer winds and 
heavier rains. Any further inflow of the sur- 
rounding air must now be to the new low- 
pressure centre: in other words, the storm has 
advanced to the right. The process will be 
continuous as long as the winds on opposite 
sides of the storm are unlike. Having thus 


1 Fig. 12 may serve further to explain the retarded arrival of 
the centre of low pressure at altitudes of a mile or more above 


760 


seen the general action of this cause of motion, 
it must now be applied more directly. There 
are two causes of rain in a cyclonic storm, — 
one from the expansion and cooling of the moist 
air as it enters the district of low pressure, and 
rises in the central up-draught ; the other from 
the advance of the wind from a warmer into 
a cooler region. The first of these will gen- 
erally be nearly symmetrical about the storm- 
centre, and hence not productive of any 
progressive motion: the second will as gen- 
erally be unsymmetrical. In fig. 14, for the 
northern hemisphere, the parallel lines repre- 
sent normal east and west isotherms, showing 
the usual decrease of temperature to the north. 
Of the several winds blowing inward to the 
storm-centre, A and B, which advance almost 
along the same isotherm, will not be seriously 


changed in temperature by their change of 


place; C, which comes from a cooler to a 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 45. 


who first, some fifteen years ago, called atten- 
tion to the control of rain over storm-tracks. 
It should be noted -that the change in the — 


winter and summer prevalent winds would 
have a similar effect on the courses of Eu- 
ropean storms. In the United States, Pro- 
fessor Loomis has shown that the velocity, as 
well as the direction of advance, is closely 

dependent on the position 


{0000 


20° and amount of the rain. 
In tropical storms the ac- 
tion of this cause of pro- 


gression is not so clearly 


marked ; for all the winds 
are moist, and almost 


Fie. 13. 


warmer district, will consequently increase its 
capacity for moisture, and be a clear, cold, 
drying wind; but D will be chilled, and must 
produce heavy clouds and strong rain some- 
where about the shaded part of the figure ; 
and the storm-centre will then be transferred 
toward the middle of this rainy district. 
Standing on the warm side of the storm, 
the centre will appear to move nearly along the 
isotherms to the right. Actual isotherms 
seldom follow lines of latitude, and always 
vary their position with the seasons, espe- 
cially along continental borders. Thus, over 
western Europe and the eastern margin of 
the Atlantic, the summer isotherms run to the 
north-east: so do the storms. In winter 
the isotherms run south-eastward, and the 
storms turn in the same direction. Figs. 15 
and 16, illustrating this change, are based on 
diagrams in the ‘ Laws of the winds,’ by Ley, 
thesurface. Observations on Mount Washington have shown the 
centre of low pressure there to be about two hundred miles be- 
hind that at sea-leyel (Loomis), and a similar retardation has 
been inferred in England from observations of cirrus-clouds 
(Ley). Fig. 12 shows this to be directly connected with rain- 
fall; for, in this unsymmetrical storm, the former horizontal 
neutral plane is distorted, so that the centre of low pressure in 


the upper air is clearly behind, instead of vertically above, the 
centre on the surface of the earth. 


equally warm. It is re- 
ported that the rainy area 
often extends farthest 
ahead of the storm: but 
it is not at once apparent 
why it should, for the front of the storm is oc- 
cupied by winds from the north, which come 
from a slightly cooler latitude. It may be sug- 
gested, that, as their source in a region of high 
pressure (the ‘ horse latitudes’) causes them to 
move faster, it also, probably, allows them a 
greater expansion and cooling, on entering the 
storm-area, than is permitted in the winds that 
come more slowly from the equatorial region of 
low pressure; but tropical storms probably de- 


Fria. 15. 


pend chiefly on the prevalent winds for their 
direction and rate of advance. In Austria none 
of the winds are very moist, and the rainy area 
has no definite relation to the advance of the 


oftig aay tad 
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| 


Country 


DECEMBER 14, 1883.] 


storm: hence here, also, other causes than rain 
determine the general easterly progression. 
Whatever effect rain would have is over- 
come by stronger causes. The separa- 
tion of a cyclone into two independent 
storms is probably aided by the irregu- 
lar distribution of rain. . 

Inequality in the strength of the inblow- 
ing winds is a result of irregular distri- 
bution of barometric pressure in the re- 
gions around the storm; and the stronger 
indraught will come from the higher press- 
ure, because the gradients will be steep- 
est on that side. ‘Tuus, in the case of 
the West India hurricanes, the higher 
pressure is to the north or north-east in 
the ‘horse latitudes’ above named, and the 
lower pressure to the south, near the equator ; 
and the northerly winds will therefore be 
stronger than the southerly. The stronger 
the wind, the greater its centrifugal force ; 


Fie. 16, 


and, if this is not equal on all sides, the centre 
of lowest pressure will be drawn toward the 
point where it is strongest. This will be where 
it has to bend sharply around from its original 
direction, and may average about 135° from 
the source of the wind: hence, if the stronger 
wind come from the north-east, the storm- 
centre will move west: if from the east, north- 
west, as in fig. 17; and soon. Consequently, 
this cause will aid the first named in requiring 
the storm to describe a curved track in passing 
from the torrid to the temperate zone. It will 
also aid the coalescing of two neighboring 
storms, which has not unfrequently been ob- 
served ; but, as a rule, it plays a subordinate 
part in determining the direction of advance. 
The slower advance of such of our storms as 
haye extra strong winds on their western side 
(Loomis) is probably also due to this cause. 
The fourth cause of a storm’s advance is a 
peculiar effect of the deflective force arising 
from the earth’s rotation. It has already 
been shown that this force increases toward the 


SCIENCE. 761 


poles: it will therefore be greatest on the 
polar side of a cyclone; and the greater the 


storm’s diameter, the more marked the differ- 
ence between the two sides. Its effect will be 
to make the centrifugal force on the two sides 
unequal, as in the previous cause; but the 
resultant motion will here be always from 
the equator. In the absence of other causes of 
motion, cyclones would therefore move along 
meridians: as it is, they nearly always have 
a more or less pronounced polar tendency ; 
and their failure to move directly from the 
equator is due to the other causes of progres- 
sion already mentioned. 
(To be continued.) 


A COMBINATION WALNUT. 


A PECULIAR nut has recently been sent to 
me from Mr. S$. L. Bingaman, Pughtown, Ches- 
ter county, Penn. It was found on his lawn 
under a black-walnut tree (Juglans nigra). 
Mr. Bingaman says, ‘* There is a pecan about 
sixty feet from it [the walnut-tree], and a 
shellbark some three hundred yards ofis’’ 
The nut is divided into two parts, as viewed 
upon the outside. 
There is a small por- 
tion at the base end, 
which has a covering 
similar to that of a 
black walnut. The 
upper .and larger part 
of the nut has a coy- 
ering closely resem- 
bling that of a shell- 
bark (Carya alba). 
This exocarp is four- 
valved, and a _ partial 
separation has taken 
place at the upper end. 
In its texture and adherence to the shell this 
covering is much like that of the ordinary black 
walnut. Upon cutting the nut in two, the shell’ 


762 


(endocarp) is found thick, horny, and in all 
respects like that of J. nigra. The lower por- 
tion of the shell projects into the lower sec- 
tion of the nut, and resembles the point of a 
butternut. The engraving is from a carefully 
executed drawing, representing the nut of uat- 
ural size. 

The matter as above presented is left in the 
hands of those more familiar with subjects in 
teratoloegy. There is no doubt that in the 
cross-fertilization of plants we may have a 
deviation from the parent form, even in the 
development of the seed thus fertilized, or 
in its surrounding parts. Some strawberry- 
erowers are very careful what ‘ perfect’ varie- 
ties are grown among their pistillate sorts to 
fertilize them. The fleshy receptacle, which 
is the edible portion of the strawberry, is more 
remote from the ovules which are fertilized on 
its surface than the covering of a shellbark or 
“walnut is from the embryo within. 

Hybridization between closely related gen- 
era is well established in several cases. Sachs 
mentions that it has been observed between 
species of Lychnis and Silene, Rhododendron 
and Azalea, Rhododendron and Rhodora, 
Azalea and Rhodora, Rhododendron and Kal- 
mia, Aegilops and Triticum, and _ between 
Kchinocactus, Cereus, and Phylocactus. The 
two genera Juglans and Carya compose a small 
order of closely related species. A study of 
the generic characters, as set down in the 
classification of these species, does not reveal 
any more striking difference than that shown 
in the exocarp. The male and female flowers 
are separated on the same tree (monoecious), 
and pollen must pass from flower to flower. 
This fertilizing-dust is produced in great abun- 
dance; and the distance between the black 
walnut and the pecan, or even the shellbark, 
is easily traversed by the pollen. There is 
probably no difficulty in the way of hybridiz- 
ing from a difference of time in the flowering 
of the species. Byron D. Hatsrep. 

New York, Oct. 26, 1883. 


MANAYUNKIA SPECIOSA. 


In a paper, illustrated with a plate, recently pre- 
sented to the Academy of natural sciences of Philadel- 
phia, Professor Joseph Leidy describes Manayunkia 
as a cephalobranchiate annelid living in fresh water, 
the only one of the order yet discovered not living in 
the ocean. It was found with the equally remarkable 
polyzoan Urnatella, with its tubes of mud attached 
to the same stones, in the Schuylkill River, at Phila- 
delphia. It was first noticed, and a brief descrip- 
tion given of it, in the Proceedings of the academy 
in 1858. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 45. 


Manayunkia is nearly related to the marine genus 
Fabricia, with a species of which, described by Pro- 
fessor Verrill, the writer compared it, through syjfeci- 
mens collected at Newport, R.I., and Gloucester, Mass. 
Manayunkia has not been observed elsewhere until 
recently, when it was found by Mr. Edward Potts, 
attached to a fragment of pine bark from Egg-Harbor 
River, New Jersey. . 

The tubes of Manayunkia are simple or compound, 
and in one instance fiye tubes branched and were 
pendent from a common stock in a candelabra-iike 
manner. The little worm is very active and sen- 
sitive, and on the slightest disturbance withdraws 
into its tube. When quiet it protrudes its head, and 
spreads its cephalic tentacles or branchiae. The ma- 
ture worm is three or four millimetres long, and is di- 
vided into twelve segments, including the head. The 
color is olive-greenish, due to the bright green blood 
circulating in the vessels of the animal. The head 
is furnished with a pair of conspicuous eyes, and 
supports a lateral pair of lophophores, each provided 
with sixteen cylindrical tentacles, invested with ac- 
tively moving cilia, and closely resembling those of the 
polyzoa. The segments succeeding the head are pro- 
vided with lateral fascicles of locomotive setae, and 
in addition, except the first one, are further proyided 
with fascicles of pedal hooks. 

The seventh segment is much larger than any of 
the others, and further differs from them in being 
greatly expanded in front; so that it gave rise to 
the idea that the worm undergoes division, though the 
process was at no time observed. The intestine is 
quite simple. The chief portions of the vascular 
system consist in a vast sinus enclosing the intesti- 
nal canal, giving off lateral pairs of branches to the 
segments, and a large vessel which extends from each 
side of the head into one of the tentacles, which is 
larger than the others. The blood is bright green, 
and is observed. to be incessantly pumped into and 
expelled from the larger pair of tentacles. Ovaries 
oecupy the segments from the fourth to the sixth in- 
elusive. Organs supposed to be the testes extend 
from within the head into the third segment. 

Manayunkia lays its eggs and rears its young within 
its own tube. The young, measuring about three- 
fourths of a millimetre, had the body divided into 
nine segments, and each lophophore provided with 
four tentacles. 

In the species of Fabricia of our coast the number 
of segments of the body is the same as in Manayun- 
kia; but the lophophores supporting the tentacles, 
instead of being simple, are trilobed or trifureate. 
Fabricia has eyes in the tail, or last segment, as well 
as in the head, which is not the ease with Mana- 
yunkia. ; 


DRAINAGE SYSTEM AND LOESS DIS- 
TRIBUTION OF EASTERN IOWA. 
TuEseE are described by Mr. W. J. MeGee in a 
recent communication to the Philosophical society of 
Washington. The Mississippi River, where it forms 
the eastern limit of Lowa, flows somewhat to the east 


SS ed er 4 aie . ed 
i i 


DeEcEMBER 14, 1883.] 


of south, and then as much to the west of south, giv- 
ing the boundary an eastward angle in its middle part. 
The general strike of the rocks in eastern Iowa is 
south-east; and the dip, which is gentle, is south-west. 
The broadest outcrops are those of the Niagara and 
Hamilton formations. The Niagara, having resisted 
the prequaternary planation, holds an escarpment, 
the crest of which runs from the extreme eastern 
point of the state toa point on the Minnesota line 
fifty miles west of the Mississippi. From this line 
there is a somewhat rapid descent to the Mississippi, 
and a gentle slope south-westward to the broad, shal- 
low depression marking the position of the Hamilton. 
From this valley the ascent is gentle to the water- 
parting between the Mississippi and Missouri. The 
general slope of the region west of the Niagara es- 
carpment, considered as a whole, is with the dip to 
the south-west. 

Beside the south-east trending depression marking 
the Hamilton outcrop, there is a gently sloped and 
indefinitely outlined but continuous and actual pre- 
quaternary valley, extending southward across the 
eastward projection of the state, and traversing diago- 
nally the upper Silurian, Devonian, and carboniferous 
rocks. 

The north-eastern angle of the state, from the crest 
of the Niagara escarpment to the Mississippi, belongs 
to the driftless region. The remainder of the state 
is covered with drift, and is affected by the undula- 
tions characteristic of drift topography. 

The general directions of the rivers are from north- 
west to south-east; but their upper courses swerve a 
little toward the meridian, and their lower are de- 
flected slightly toward the east, so as to give them a 
gentle curvature with concavity to-the north-east. 
There is, moreover, a convergence northward, as 
though they radiated from some point in Minnesota. 
The variations from this normal system are so few 
that the drainage is almost unique in its regularity. 
It is likewise independent of the general topography ; 
for not only do the principal streams flow at right 
angles to the prevailing slope, and cut through the ele- 
vated escarpment when it lies in their way, but, with 
a single exception, they preserve their courses across 
the ancient north and south valley. ; 

In their relations to minor topographic features, 
they conform to two antagonistic laws, —first, they 
follow in general the ill-defined shallow valleys which 
characterize the drift-plains; and, second, they flow 
for one-third of their total courses in narrow gorges, 
following the axes of a system of elongated ridges 
which constitute the leading features in the local 
topography. Moreover, they have in many instances 
gone out of their direct courses, and deserted valleys 
seemingly prepared for them, to attain the anoma- 
lous positions assumed under the second law of as- 
sociation; and in every such case the gorges have 
‘demonstrably been carved by the streams themselves. 
The avoided valleys are evidently pre-existent : they 
_ have not been appreciably eroded since the quater- 
nary, and there has been no recent localized oro- 
graphic movement. 


a 


SCIENCE. 


763 


So the drainage is essentially independent of the 
general topography, though affected by local topog- 
raphy; and its relations to local topography are largely 
anomalous. 

The loess of the region is continuous stratigraphi- 
cally, but follows different laws of distribution in dif- 
ferent districts. It constitutes the surface throughout 
the driftless region, and at the margin it overlaps the 
drift. In the northern part of the drift-covered area 
it forms narrow bands with a general north-west trend, 
each of which caps a ridge. Farther south it covers 
the entire plain, eminences and depressions alike. 
In the driftless area it rests on and merges into a 
thin stratum of water-worn erratic material. In the 
belts traversing the contiguous drift-plain it passes 
downward into sand, which may, or may not, merge 
into drift. Elsewhere it reposes on the drift, into 
which it graduates insensibly. The ridges in which 
the rivers have carved their anomalous cafions are 
always loess-topped; and, wherever streams avoid 
low-lying valleys for high-lying plateaus, the plateaus 
are of loess exteriorly. 

So in its distribution the loess of eastern Iowa is 
intimately connected with the driftless region, with 
the drainage, and with the topographic configura- 
tion. 

In the communication referred to, Mr. MeGee offers 
no explanation, but merely sets forth the facts. His 
working hypothesis has, however, been published in 
an earlier paper (Amer. journ. sc., Sept., 1882), and 
may properly be restated in this connection. 

It is now many years since Powell first proposed to 
class all inconsequent drainage as either antecedent or 
superimposed; and no later writer has added to the 
number of categories. In inconsequent drainage the 
courses of the streams are independent of the dip and 
other structure-elements of the rocks across which they 
run. If the drainage is older than the rock-structure, 
— if, for example, the dip has been given to the rock 
after the establishment of the stream-courses, — the 
drainage is said to be antecedent. If the drainage 
was established by the configuration of an overlying 
and unconformable formation, which has disappeared 
by denudation, the drainage is said to be superim- 
posed. In eastern Iowa, the superficial formation 
being northern drift, which lies with little modifica- 
tion as originally deposited, the hypothesis of ante- 
cedent drainage appears quite out of the question, 
while that of superimposed drainage in the ordinary 
sense is equally inapplicable. Mr. McGee’s working 
hypothesis is, that the drainage was superimposed in 
an extraordinary manner; namely, by the ice-sheet. 
This, he finds reason to believe, was so thin in that 
region as to have its superficial configuration material- 
ly modified by the small inequalities of its bed. Where 
the ice was retarded by ridges underneath, more time 
was allowed for superficial waste by melting: so that 
hollows were produced, and the rivers of the ice-sur- 
face came to be established over the ridges of the 
glacier bed. With the disappearance of the ice, they 
were stranded upon the hill-tops, 

G. K. GILBerrt, 


164 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


The reefs, keys, and peninsula of Florida. 


Tue recent appearance of the admirable memoir of 
A. Agassiz on the reefs of Florida, which I have read 
with intense pleasure, furnishes me a proper occasion 
for calling attention to my paper, published in'1857, 
‘On the agency of the Gulf Stream in the formation 
of the peninsula and keys of Florida,’ ! and especially 
to the fact that the most important results reached 
in that paper have been substantially confirmed by 
subsequent observations. These results are as fol- 
lows: — 

1. The reefs of Florida are unique, and therefore 
were formed under peculiar conditions, and therefore, 
also, require a peculiar explanation. 

2. The continuous growth of land by coral ageney, 
in the case of Florida, is also wholly unique, and ob- 
viously connected with the peculiar conditions under 
which the reefs were formed. 

3. The main peculiar condition in this case was the 
formation and southward extension of a submarine 
bank upon which the corals grew in successive reefs. 

4, This bank was due to the agency of the Gulf 
Stream. 

In addition, I supposed that the bank was built up 
by mechanical sediments brought by the Gulf Stream 
mainly from the Gulf rivers. In this Imay have been 
mistaken, although no other explanation was con- 
ceivable at that time. The recent examinations of 
the course of the Gulf Stream, which, it seems, does 
not sweep about the Gulf, as was formerly supposed, 
and examination of the nature of the material form- 
ing the Florida bank, render this view no longer 
probable. 

A. Agassiz in his memoir accepts the progressively 
formed bank, and also that it is due to the agency of 
the Gulf Stream, but thinks that it*is formed, not by 
mechanical sediments, but by organic sediments, partly 
brought by the Gulf Stream from other coral banks 
(e.g., the Yucatan bank), but mainly formed in situ 
by the growth of deep-sea animals; the Gulf Stream 
bringing, not the materials, but only the conditions of 
heat and abundant food necessary for rapid growth. 

This is certainly a very important modification of 

y original view; but the fundamental ideas ex- 
pressed in the above four propositions still remain. 

I ought to add, that, following L. Agassiz, I had 
exaggerated the probable amount of land added to 
Florida by the combined agency of Gulf Stream and 
corals. The recent investigations of Smith? on the 
geology of Florida show that the process cannot have 
commenced farther north than the north shores of 
the Everglades. JosupH LeEConteE, 

Berkeley, Cal., Nov. 24. 


Musical sand. 


In the early part of the summer of 1883, the writer, 
in company with several others, was sent from Wood’s 
Holl to Monomoy Point, Mass., by Professor Baird, 
to look after a whale reported to have been stranded 
there. Wandering around the island, we found an 
extensive tract of sand, which, when rubbed under 
the feet, produced that peculiar singing sound so 
often heard by the writer upon the beach at Man- 
chester, Mass. The singing portion seemed to be 
confined to a narrow strip several hundred yards 
long, between the very dry sand aboye high-water 
mark and the sand moistened by the tides. Know- 
ing that the phenomenon was a rare one, specimens 
of the sand were obtained; but Iam not able to tell 
where they are at present. Monomoy Point is a 

1 Amer. journ. sc., Jan., 1857. 2 Tbid., 1881. 


SCIENCE. 


' [Vou. IL., No. 452 


long, narrow, sandy piece of land projecting out from 
the south-eastern end of the base of Cape Cod to- 
wards Nantucket Island. It is composed entirely of 
sand; and the blowing of the particles, as also the 
force with which they are blown, were well illustrated 
by the fact that all the windows of the fishermen’s 
huts were ground so perfectly that nothing was visi- 
ble through them. We paid one fisherman to break 
a square of glass for us. It had been there sixteen 
years. Even in cases where new glass had been 
put in within two years, nothing was visible through 
the panes. At a distance of thirty feet from the 
house on all sides, sand was piled up nearly as high 
as the tops of the cabins. The lighthouse-keeper 
upon the island would undoubtedly obtain specimens 
of the sand; the strip being found near the place 
where the whale lay, —in fact, just a few feet inland 
from it. The writer will be glad to give any further 
information desired upon the subject. 


Smithsonian institution, Dec. 4, 1885. 


Rings of Saturn. 


Apropos of the abstract on the ‘Rings of Saturn,” 
published in Science for Noy. 16 (p. 660), it appears 
that Professor Alexander Winchell of the University 
of Michigan, in his work entitled ‘ World-life,’ assumed 


and explained the gradual descent of the inatter of © 


the rings toward the planet, and also denied that the 
period of the inner satellite of Mars furnishes any 
objection to the nebular theory. ‘The ultimate result 
of solar tides on the rotations of the planets is also 
referred to in the same work, though this has, I be- 
lieve, long been an accepted conclusion by leading 
physical astronomers. W. Ber 


ARCHEOLOGY IN PORTUGAL. 


Etudes préhistoriques en Portugal. Notice sur 
quelques stations et monuments prehistoriques. Me- 
moire presenté a Vacadémie royale des sciences de 
Lisbonne. Par Carros Rrperro, chef de la sec- 
tion des travaux géologiques, ete. Lisbonne, 
Imprimerie de Vacademie des sciences, 1880. 88p., 
7 pl., and numerous engravings in the text. 4°. 
[Also in Portuguese. ] eat 
Tus publication, which has only recently 

been received by us, is the second instalment 

of a work the first of which appeared in 1878 

(72 p., 21 pl.). We will accordingly give a 

brief account of the contents of both parts. 

Contrary to our expectations, we find in them 

no discussion of the important question of the 

alleged discovery of traces of the tertiary man 
in the valley of the Tagus; neither do they 
deal with quaternary times. They contain 
simply detailed accounts, with ample illustra- 
tions, of various discoveries, all belonging to 
the age of polished stone, made by the author 
in several localities in the immediate neighbor- 
hood of Lisbon, which are all laid down upon 
an accompanying map drawn to a large seale. 

The completed work will comprise six sections, 

three of which are contained in the two por- 

tions already published. Of these, the first 
describes the station of Licea, and the second, 


R. S. Tarr. | 


page Aes we i 


= 


DECEMBER 14, 1883.] 


the megalithic monuments near Bellas; both 
of which places lie a short distance west of 
Lisbon. The latter also contains an account 
of the prehistoric remains at the Serra de 
Cintra, several miles farther west. 

Licea is a little hamlet built upon the pro- 
jection of an elevated plateau, of which two of 
the sides are naturally defended by deep ravines. 
In this respect it resembles other sites of hu- 
man habitation in the age of polished stone, 
which were usually placed upon commanding 
positions, easily defensible, and having plenty 
of water. This’ naturally strong position was 
rendered more secure by having its sides 
sharply scarped in some parts; while in oth- 
ers, not so protected, there can still be seen 
remains of a wall built of huge unhewn stones. 
The whole area was thus converted into an 
intrenched camp of an oval shape, nearly half 
a mile long by half as broad. Within this 
space, excayations have brought to light vari- 
ous objects of the usual types belonging to the 
industry of the age of polished stone. There 
were numerous celts made of diorite or of 
basalt, some finely polished, well shaped, and 
with sharp cutting-edges, while others were of a 
tuder fabric ; and also several hammer-stones. 
Knives, flakes, scrapers, arrow-heads, and 
lance-points abounded, made of different varie- 
ties of flint, many of which must have been 
brought from long distances. Rude clay 
vases, hand-made, and some of a large size, 
all baked in an open fire, together with a few 
bone implements, complete the catalogue of 
objects found. Associated with these relics 
were the remains of shell-fish, and the bones 
of several species of animals common in neo- 


.lithie stations, such as the horse, ox, stag, goat, 


DIDS 
pig, wolf, and hare. There was also discovered 


a sepulchral grotto containing bones belonging 
to nine individuals of both sexes, half at least 
of which were those of very young children.’ 
We have good reason to believe that other 
similar caverns have been either destroyed, or 
filled up with the rubbish of the chalk-quarries 
that have been extensively worked in this lo- 
eality. In the absence of a perfect cranium, 
nothing more could be determined than that 
the type was brachycephalic. From the gen- 
eral result of all the discoveries, the conclusion 
seems warranted that Licea was the habitation 
of a large population during the neolithic pe- 
riod. Signor Ribeiro, however, brings forward 
certain arguments to prove the existence of a 
second prehistoric civilization upon this same 


spot, belonging to the period of transition be- 


tween the age of polished stone and that of 
bronze. But we must confess ourselves unable 


SCIENCE. 


765 


to perceive their pertinency; neither can we 
agree with him in thinking that any of the im- 
plements discovered here have ‘a striking paleo- 
lithic appearance.’ 

In the vicinity of Bellas there still exist 
megalithic monuments, consisting of a half- 
dozen ruined dolmens, in which but little of 
importance was discovered, owing to their hay- 
ing been visited by previous explorers : never- 
theless, two or three singular objects were 
found in them, which will be described later. 
Hard by, however, at Monte Abrahao, there 
is a covered alley in an excellent state of pres- 
ervation, which has yielded important results. 
It is composed of a polygonal chamber some 
ten feet in diameter, and a gallery twenty- 
four feet long by six wide, extending in an 
easterly direction. The walls of the chamber 
are constructed of eight large slabs of hard 
gray limestone, rough, and entirely unhewn, 
planted more or less upright, and projecting 
some nine feet above the surface of the soil. 
It is evident, however, from the inclination at 
which the largest stone is placed, that it was 
not intended to be roofed over by a similar 
slab after the usual method of constructing 
such monuments. There had first been made 
with infinite toil, by the help of fire, an excava- 
tion in the solid limestone strata of the whole 
size of the chamber ; and in this the large slabs 
were set. Of those with which the gallery was 
originally eonstructed, only three now remain 
in place; but the rows of smaller stones, by 
which they had been supported, were discov- 
ered when the surface-soil was removed, so 
that there can be no mistake as to the exist- 
ence and extent of the gallery. It is admitted 
that dolmens and covered alleys were erected 
to serve as burial-places of the men of the 
neolithic age: consequently we are not sur- 
prised that Signor Ribeiro found this monu- 
ment to contain human remains ; but the number 
of them was quite unusual, amounting to as 
many as eighty individuals. This can be 
accounted for by the fact that certain circum- 
stances seem to indicate that some of the re- 
mains had been interred elsewhere before they 
were removed to this resting-place. They were 
found in the gallery, as well as in the chamber ; 
and it seems reasonable to suppose that there 
had been successive burials at intervals of 
time, and consequent disturbances of the soil, 
which would account for the situation in which 
many of the bones were found. Their condi- 
tion was such as to allow but few inferences 
to be drawn as to their ethnic relations, no 
whole cranium having been found: sufficient, 
however, remained of one, to show it to be 


766 


dolichocephalic, and one of the jaw-bones was 
prognathic. In this interment, however, was 
one peculiarity which we have never seen 
noticed before. Over the whole interior, but 
particularly at the eastern extremity of the 
eallery, there was spread a layer of rounded 
pebbles, covering the human remains. They 
ranged in size from an almond to a large apple, 
and were mostly of quartzite, though many 
were of limestone, and several of basalt. Evi- 
dently they had been brought from the beds 
of neighboring brooks lying some three hun- 
dred feet or more below the level on which the 
monument stood. That they were not in- 
tended merely to protect the bodies from wild 
beasts was plain, from the fact that the adja- 
cent soil was filled with angular fragments of 
various rocks equally well adapted for that 
purpose. Here we have evidently a funereal 
custom analogous to the heaping-up of cairns 
over the dead by many primitive races. 

Numerous objects of great beauty and inter- 
est were found accompanying the skeletons. 
Among them were only four celts; but there 
were no less. than one hundred and twenty 
flint avrow-heads, very many of them of the 
choicest workmanship, and including all the 
well-known types which are figured in excellent 
woodcuts. There were found two very fine 
specimens: of flint lance-heads, or more prob- 
ably daggers, more than six inches in length, 
and of exquisite workmanship; and more than 
thirty knives, ranging in length from five 
inches down. There were also scrapers, nu- 
merous flakes, and fragments of worked flint 
of various sorts. Our author deyotes an en- 
tire plate to a delineation of some twenty little 
instruments, some of which he thinks were 
**designed for delicate work, such as the sur- 
gical operation of circumcision (7), and trepan- 
ning.’ Another of larger size, disk-shaped, 
and terminating in front in a little point, and 
capable of standing upright on its base, his 
imagination has magnified into ‘an idol, or 
some sort of symbol.’ To our more prosaic 
vision the ‘surgical instruments’ are only ordi- 
nary little stone implements, which in this case 
happen to be made of transparent quartz; 
while ‘ the idol’ is merely a piercer for making 
holes in skins, such as we have often found 
in our Indian shell-heaps. 

There were half a dozen objects of unusual 
character, which Signor Ribeiro designates as 
‘war-clubs,’ and two others, which he thinks 
were ‘badges of authority.’ They are quite 
similar in appearance, are of cylindrical shape, 
and made of limestone; and the largest is 
about a foot in length, and nearly two inches 


SCIENCE. 


‘ 


in diameter. A few bone implements were 
found, among them a button of a conical shape, 
and pierced at the base with two converging 
holes. The pottery consisted only of portions 
of some half a dozen small, rude vases. Two 
ornaments were found of considerable size, 
celt-shaped, and made of thin plates of gray 
argillaceous schist. One face was smoothed, 
and decorated with figures made by seratching 
lines upon it in the triangular pattern known 
by the name of the ‘ dog-tooth;’ and it was 
pierced with a hole for suspension. Besides 
these, two smaller heart-shaped pendants were 
found, and more than a hundred beads of 
various shapes and sizes, made of different 
green minerals, out of which the author has 
reconstructed several tasteful necklaces. 
ing every thing into consideration, this covered 
alley may be said to be one of the richest ever 
discovered ; and we feel grateful to the author 
for his careful study and faithful delineation’ 
of it. 

We have already stated that two or three 
peculiar objects were obtained from some of 
the ruined dolmens. They are made of thin 
plates of argillaceous schist, about a foot in 
length, and some two inches broad, and are 
shaped somewhat like the curved blade of a 
sword, having the end rounded, and pierced 
on the back side with a hole for suspension. 
Both surfaces are smooth, and are decorated 
with varying patterns of ‘dog-tooth’ orna- 
mentation. 
previously discovered in Portugal; but we are 
confident they have never been met with else- 
where, and their use is entirely unknown. 
The third object is a sort of stone hoe, accord- 
ing to our author’s opinion, shaped yery much 


like a human foot, and haying the lower por-— 


tion of the leg for the handle, the top of which 
is sharp enough to be used as a scraper. Ob- 
jects similar to this have been discovered in a, 
cave a short distance to the south. 

The Serra (or mountain) of Cintra lies due 
west of Bellas, and somewhat more distant 
than the latter place is from Lisbon. 


Tak-— 


Two similar objects have been ~ 


It is the 


[Vou. Il., No. 45. 


: 
: 


most picturesque of all the mountains in the ~ 


vicinity, and attains an elevation of over four- 
teen hundred feet. 
an artificial excavation in the porphyritic and 
granitic rock, divided into two portions. The 
inner chamber is circular, with a diameter of 


twelve feet, and height of nine; the other is 


a kind of open yestibule about eighteen feet 
square; and the two are connected by a short 


covered corridor, while the interior of the whole — 


monument is lined with a wall of rough stones. 


In it were found a flint knife, or saw (an ellip- 


At the very summit is — 


DECEMBER 14, 1883.] 


tical shaped implement, toothed around its 
whole exterior), and a few worked flakes. 
Fragments of clay vases of various shapes and 
sizes abounded, many of them having a ‘ her- 
ring-bone’ pattern of ornament incised upon 
them. All of these objects evidently belong 
to the neolithic period;' and the monument 
itself resembles a sort of combination of the 


~dolmen and the sepulchral grotto. 


But a novelty among neolithic interments 
seems to haye been discovered at Folha das 
Barradas, a short distance to the north-east. 
This is excavated in the natural soil, a white 
limestone and green marl, and has almost the 
shape of a covered alley, twelve yards long, 
extending east and west. The circular cham- 
ber at the west was divided by pieces of thin 
flagstone into partitions intended to contain 
human remains, of which as many as twelve 
were found, but in so bad a condition as to be 
useless for study. 

Accompanying the remains were a flint pon- 
iard, two very fine lance-points of unusual size, 
and seyen large knives ; also along cylindrical 
stone ‘war-club,’ similar to those previously 
described, but more handsomely ornamented, 
and two of the ‘ badges of authority.’ A flat 
pendant, like those already spoken of, and 
fragments of a few rude clay vases, completed 
the funeral furniture. But it should be noted, 
that both in this sepulchre, and the one last 
deseribed, there was found a large number of 
the same kind of rolled pebbles as those which 
occur so conspicuously in the covered alley of 
Monte Abrahao. 

In concluding this brief account of Signor 
Ribeiro’s interesting researches, we can only 
express the hope that his recent death, which 
all lovers of knowledge must deplore, may not 
deprive prehistoric students of the publication 
of the remainder of the work. : 


THEORETICAL METEOROLOGY. 


Theoretische meteorologie. Ein versuch die erschein- 
ungen des luftkreises auf grundgeselze zuriickzu- 


Jiihren. Von AvBert R. vy. MrtterR-HAUENFELS.” 


Wien, Spielhagen § Schurich, 1883. 1380p. 8°. 

Tue past twenty years haye witnessed a great 
advance in the science of meteorology, viewed 
from a theoretical stand-point. Previous to 
this period, the laws deduced were derived 
empirically from the observations made; and 
this is largely true at the present time. The 
attempts to place the science upon a firmer 
basis by building upon well-established physi- 
eal laws, and deducing conclusions by strict 
mathematical processes, have met with decided 


SCIENCE. 


167 


success. But this branch of meteorology is 
yet largely undeveloped: consequently there 
is no treatise that covers the ground satisfacto- 
rily, and there is a large gap between deductive 
meteorology and the inductive conclusions upon 
which meteorological text-books are based. 
The mathematical papers are scattered in the 
volumes of scientific journals, or published in 
separate form. Even if they were collected to- 
gether, and their contents condensed into one 
treatise, the result would be unsatisfactory. It 
would be found that a large majority of famil- 
iar phenomena are yet unaccounted for, and 
that many of the conclusions reached by theo- 
retical methods cannot be used for further in- 
vestigations, on account of assumptions made 
for the sake of simplifying the work, but which 
are unwarranted by observed facts. The hope 
of meteorology as an exact science, however, 
lies in the success which will attend these theo- 
retical investigations in the future ; and there- 
fore any treatise devoted to this branch of the 
science is welcomed, however fragmentary it 
may seem to the reader. 

The latest publication upon theoretical mete- 
orology is this octavo of a hundred and thirty 
pages, by Professor Miller-Hauenfels of Graz. 
It is confessedly incomplete, but seems to be 
worthy of the attention of the student. As 
its ‘title implies, it is an attempt to refer at- 
mospheric phenomena to fundamental laws. 
The author is not a practical meteorologist, but 
a mathematician, who treats the phenomena 
discussed as mechanical problems as far as 
possible, holding that the first thing necessary 
is to establish the fundamental laws of meteor- 
ology, and afterwards to build upon this secure 
foundation. In the first section the laws of 
Mariotte and Gay-Lussac are treated, the 
method giving essentially the same result as 
that deduced by Rithlmann in his well-known 
barometric formula. Passing then to the move- 
ments of the atmosphere, the author discusses 
first its general movement, and then the laws 
of the winds, the latter subject occupying a 
large part of the treatise. The laws of ascend- 
ing currents as developed by Hann are briefly 
referred to, and the laws of moist air-currents 
also discussed, the formulae for which are based 
upon Hildebrandsson’s exposition of Dalton’s 
law. The fundamental laws of thermodynamics 
are the basis of the discussion of the disturb- 
ances of density giving rise to winds. Numer- 
ous theorems are laid down in connection with 
the phenomena of the winds, and it is recog- 
nized that differences of temperature are the 
original cause of them. The diurnal change 
of the barometric pressure is explained in a 


768 


manner not unlike that usually followed, and 
the belief is expressed that the moon has an 
effect upon the atmosphere which would appear 
by a proper tabulation of barometric observa- 
tions. 

The above summary is sufficient to give an 
idea of the scope of the work. It is intro- 
duced to the public by Dr. Julius Hann, who 
remarks, with regard to deductive investiga- 
fions, ‘‘ yen where results derived deduc- 
tively find no immediate application in nature, 
since the actual conditions are never so simple 
as those which must furnish the basis of the 
conclusions reached, yet they are of great in- 
terest and value in advancing knowledge, since 
they increase our insight into the nature of 
phenomena, and open the path upon which, in 
the course of time, we shall attain to their com- 
plete understanding.” 

The execution of the author’s design, how- 
ever, is not wholly satisfactory. On account 
of the fragmentary nature of the work, it is 
often difficult to understand the bearing of the 
subjects discussed, or to see what use can be 
mace of the formulae derived. It is also not 
always easy to follow the author in his argu- 
ment, and consequently the general effect upon 
the reader is one of disappointment. The 
treatise does not merit the title which is given 
it, though it may furnish useful suggestions to 
those who are investigating the subjects which 
it discusses. 


HISTORY OF LAND-HOLDING. 


The early history of land-holding among the Germans. 
By Denman W. Ross. Boston, Soule § Bugbee, 
1883. 8+274p. 8°. 

Tuis work of Mr. Ross starts from the prin- 
ciple of individual ownership and_ isolated 
farmsteads, as the primitive usage of the Ger- 
manic nations. The evidence for this the au- 
thor finds in the sixteenth chapter of the 
Germania of Tacitus, in which he explains 
the vici to be villages, not of free tribesmen, as 
is generally assumed, but of serfs. Of commu- 
nity of ownership he finds no evidence, either 
in Caesar or Tacitus. In the period of the bar- 
barian laws, too, the facts which have usu- 
ally been understood to point to common or 
collective ownership he explains as meaning 
undivided property. He has no difficulty in 
proving the general prevalence of the principle 
of individual ownership at this latter period, so 
far as the laws and other documents of the 
period afford any evidence. That ownership is 
common wherever it appears in these docu- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou, IL., No. 45. 


ments, is as a rule temporary, and subject to 
individual claims, seems also fully established, 
The gap in the evidence is as to the two or 
three centuries which intervened between Taci- 
tus and the barbarian codes, —a gap which is of 
no importance, if his, interpretation of Tacitus 
is correct, but which leaves room, if that inter- 
pretation be not accepted, for the development 
of free village-communities in this interyal, 
which may then, in some cases, haye survived 
to a later period, by the side of the system of 
individual ownership which we must accept as 
the prevalent one for this period. 

After developing these general principles, 
Mr. Ross proceeds (p. 26) to show how the 
isolated household may, in the course of a few 
generations, have developed into a clan-yillage ; 
here, again, into a community of ownership 
which is not really corporate in character, but 
is on its way to divided and individual owner- 
ship (p. 38). The rules and usages of the in- 
heritance and transfer of land are described. 
with great fulness, after which the usages 
which appear to tell in favor of an original 
collective ownership —the rights of vicint to 
exclude strangers, to purchase in preference 
to strangers, and to inherit in case of lack of 
heirs — are discussed. Certainly these usages; 
which, it must be admitted, may accompany - 
a system of private ownership, are, neverthe- 
less, most easily explained on the assumption 
of a previous condition of collective ownership. 
We cannot think the explanation given on 
p- 52 to be wholly satisfactory. 

The breaking-up of the clan-system is next 
considered, this being effected especially by 
female inheritance, adoptions, and alienations. 
An important topic is the founding of free col- 
onies, off-shoots of the clan-communities, but 
modelled upon the serf-communities ; and their 
organization and management are described 
with great fulness and lucidity. The relation 
between these free villages and the serf-villages 
—clan-villages of proprietors and of tenants 
—is discussed; and there is much here that 
would ‘apply equally well to the village-com- 
munity theory. They are indeed essentially 
the same in character with those assumed by 
that theory, only that they are represented by 
Mr. Ross as a later outgrowth instead of a 
primitive organization. The essay (which 
occupies 109 pages) ends with some brief con- 
siderations upon immunity, primogeniture, ete. 
The conclusions of the essay are supported by 
a mass of ‘ Notes and references,’ occupying 
about 130 pages, and containing copious ex- 
tracts from documents. There is a full index. 
This book is eyery way a thorough piece of 


DecEMBER 14, 1883.] | SCIENCE. 769 


work, which certainly places the village-com- 
munity theory upon the defensive, and over- 
throws a considerable part of its assumptions ; 


and, apart from its controversial character, as 
a ‘history of land-holding’ it possesses the 
highest value. 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


MATHEMATICS. 


Hyperelliptic integrals.— The full title of this 
paper by M. Staude is ‘‘ Geometrische deutung der ad- 
ditionstheoreme der hyperelliptischen integrale und 
functionen erster ordnung im systeme der confocalen 
fliichen zweiten grades.’’ Only a brief notice of M. 
Staude’s paper is possible in this place, although its 
importance makes it worthy of a much more ex- 
tended one. The paper is divided into five chapters. 
In the first chapter the author considers the geometric 
significance of the symmetric algebraic functions of 
two independent variables, and the differentials 
of the integral functions of an hyperelliptic form 
(gebilde) of deficiency (geschlecht). Thesecond chap- 
ter treats of the representation of the gebilde in 
systems of confocal surfaces by aid of hyperelliptic 
‘functions, and opens by the introduction of certain 
transcendental parameters in place of the usual 
elliptic co-ordinates. An expression is also given 
of the homogeneous point co-ordinates in space in 
terms of products of the double theta-functions, and 
also of homogeneous plane co-ordinates in space 
by aid of products of two double theta-functions. 
The third chapter is of particular interest from a 
purely geometrical point of view. In this the author 
considers the relations of the addition theorem for 
hyperelliptic integrals to systems of confocal sur- 
faces, treating particularly the reduction of given 
sums of three integrals to sums of two integrals of the 
same kind. ‘The fourth and fifth chapters have not 
yet appeared, but the author mentions their con- 
tents. Chapter four is to treat of the ray-systems of 
common tangents to two confocal surfaces; and chap- 
ter five is to be devoted to a geometrical interpreta- 
tion of Abel’s addition theorem, by aid of which the 
reduction of the sum of any four of the integrals in 
question to the sum of. two integrals of the same 
kind is arrived at by a purely geometrical process. — 
(Math. ann., xxii.) 7. c. (471 

Discontinuous groups of linear substitutions. 
— The complete title of M. Picard’s paper is “Sur 
une classe de groupes discontinus de substitutions 
linéaires et sur les fonetions de deux variables indé- 
pendantes restant invariable par ces substitutions.”’ 
The theory of the elliptic functions has given the first 
_example of a uniform function of a variable which 
does not change for a group of an infinite number 
of linear non-permutable substitutions effected upon 
the variable. “The modular functions, i.e., the funec- 
tions arising from considering the modulus as given 
by the ratio of the two periods, was for the first con- 
sidered by M. Hermite. M. Poincaré has treated in 
his theory of the Fuchsian functions, in all its gen- 
erality, the subject of functions of one variable which 


are reproduced by a group of an infinite number of 
linear substitutions. M. Picard, in the present me- 
moir, proposes to consider functions of two independ- 
ent variables which may be considered as analogous 
to the elliptic modular functions. He shows, first, that 
the Abelian functions do not conduct to functions 
entirely analogous to the modular functions, and 
illustrates this by the Abelian functions of the first 
order. But by taking the case of the Abelian fune- 
tions of the second order, i.e., of three variables, he 
has found an indication of the desired extension, and 
hopes in a future paper to enter more fully into the 
subject of functions of two variables which are anal- 
ogous to the modular functions. The present paper 
is interesting as pointing out the difficulties, and indi- 
cating the manner of overcoming them, in an entirely 
new department of the theory of functions. — (Acta 
math., i.) T.¢. [472 
PHYSICS. 


Target-shooting. — From Liagre’s theory that 
errors in target-shooting are compounded of errors 
in sighting and in levelling, each of which follow in- 
dependently the law of error, it was shown by Mr. 
C. H. Kummell that shots of equal probability are 
arranged in ellipses, which can be reduced to circles 
of shots uniformly distributed, the integration being 
much simplified by using the reduced distances and 
directions, Sir J. Herschel’s ‘even-chance circle’ 
(ellipse, more generally), the one hit or missed with 
equal probability, can be deduced from the shots 
actually found in any given circle (ellipse), the most 
reliable result being given by the one containing the 
greatest number of shots, whose radius (mean semi- 
diameter) is the most probable shot. The number 
of shots falling within this ellipse should be about 
thirty-nine and one-half per cent. The equations be- 
tween the even-chance shot (p), the most probable 
shot («), and the average shot (79), are — 


p= eyB12, ry = ey 


In determining these from the sums of squares of 
the vertical and horizontal co-ordinates of the sepa- 
rate shots, the number that miss the target should be 
considered. The probable position of centre and 
axes should not be calculated from the observations, 
unless the true positions are unknown. A target of 
ninety shots at eight hundred yards’ range, by the 
Irish team at Creedmoor in 1874, gave discrepancies 
of less than five per cent between observation and 
theory, in the number of shots within successive 
rings. One of fifty pistol-shots, at fifty yards’ range, 
showed a similar agreement. —(Phil. soc. Wash., 
math. sect. ; meeting Nov. 21.) [473 


770 


ENGINEERING. 


Honigman’s fireless locomotive.— Mr. Honig- 
man constructs an engine in which the steam is sup- 
plied by evaporation from a charge of water which is 
furnished to the boiler at the station, and there 
brought up to the required temperature and pressure. 
The shell of the boiler is surrounded by, or may en- 
close, another vessel, between which and the boiler a 
narrow space is left, which is filled with caustic soda. 
The exhaust-steam is discharged into this mass of 
soda, which at once absorbs it; and the absorption 
gives rise to a large amount of heat, which is in turn 

given out, and returned to the water in the boiler, 
where it produces an additional quantity of steam; 
and the latter, being exhausted into the compartment 
containing soda, gives rise to additional quantities 
of heat; and thus the process is continuous, and 
the locomotive continues to exert its power, until the 
solution of soda becomes so far saturated that it can 
no longer take up the exhausted steam, and supply 
heat to the boiler, with sufficient rapidity to enable the 
engine to do its work. When this state of affairs is 
reached, the engine is recharged, and is again sent out 
on the line. The soda removed from the exhausted 
engine is placed in an evaporator and deprived of its 
moisture, and is then again ready for further service. 
This seems to be the first attempt to make practical 
application of the now well-known principle discoy- 
ered by Faraday sixty years ago, and probably even 
earlier known on the continent of Europe. It is re- 
ported to be tolerably successful, and likely to have 
practical use where the presence of a fired engine is 
not permissible. —(Zond. engineering, Aug.) BR. H. T. 

[474 

Compound locomotives in Europe.— Mr. Bor- 
ries has read a paper before the Union of German 
engineers, relating the progress of the compound en- 
gine on German railways. They were first intro- 
duced by A. Mallet of Paris. There are now forty 
of these engines at work. They are worked either 
simple or compound, as desired. They are economi- 
cal, and may be worked with a wide variation in the 
amount of power developed, but are somewhat com- 
plicated, do not distribute the steam in the manner 
sometimes found practically desirable in working, and 
the action of the steam during compression leaves 
something still to be desired. Mr. Borries has en- 
deavored to obtain a system which should permit the 
use of double expansion at all times, should be sim- 
ple, and should permit the proper adjustment of the 
ratio of expansion at any time, if possible. At start- 
ing, steam is admitted to both cylinders, reaching the 
large engine-cylinder through a ‘reducing-valve;’ 
but, after starting, the machine works as a compound 
engine. At all points of cut-off, he gets nearly equal 
work done in each cylinder. The engine works easily, 
and no spark-arrester isneeded. The excess of weight 
and cost is about four per cent above that of other 
engines: the gain in power is six per cent, and in 
economy of fuel nine and a half per cent. The en- 
gine is considered a success. The best results are 
reported from passenger-engines thus constructed. — 
(Lond. engineering, Aug.) RB. H. 7. [475 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. II., No. 45. 


Finishing rails.— M. Gazan writes to La métal- 
lurgie, saying that the chemical composition of the 
steel has very little to do with the strength of the rail: 
it depends more upon the temperature at which the 
rail is finished in the mill. Those finished at a high 
red heat, and which are recognizable by their blue 
tint, are more brittle and weaker than those which 
are finished at a lower heat. The latter are usually 
covered with a reddish colored layer of oxide. Inthe 
former case the fracture exhibits a granular, and in 
the latter case a good steely, surface. M. Gazan thinks. 
that, in the former case, time is allowed for the for- 
mation of crystals which cannot be produced in the 
latter, 
fallen below the red heat, it does not exhibit crystal- 
lization. — (Railway rev., Sept. 8.) BR. H. 7 {476 

Compound engines and boilers, — Mr. M. Cor- 
yell, a member of the U. S. naval advisory board, 
writes that good results have been obtained from 
recent compound engines. Pressures rarely exceed 
100 pounds per square inch (8 atmos. nearly, absolute 
pressures); but he thinks 150 (11 atmos., absolute) 
can be carried by adopting, instead of the ‘Scotch 
boiler,’ a boiler of but 6 feet diameter (1.8 metres), 
with cylindrical shell and set in brick-work, —a plan 


of which great distrust has hitherto been felt by en-- 


gineers. He suggests a still better scheme, however, 
—awater-tube ‘ sectional’ boiler, safe for 200 pounds. 
This would permit fire-surfaces of but a quarter-inch 
(0.6 centimetre) iron. The use of fire-brick furnace- 
walls is found to give some economy of fuel. He has 
found high pressures and great expansion to give 
good results, and states that at least one successful 
designer would exceed 20 expansions, —a proposal 
which is not looked upon with favor by leading en- 
gineers. Mr, Coryell would use the beam-engine for 
screw-ships on account of its perfect balance. He 
states that engines of 6 feet stroke are in use, making 
60 revolutions per minute with 60 pounds (5 atmos.) 
of steam and a cut-off at 5 inches (i.e., a ratio of ex- 
pansion of 14.4), and that these engines have been in 


successful use for nine years, making voyages of five _ 


days without detention and with economy. Engines 
of 8S inches (2.285 metres) stroke have averaged 58, 
and have sometimes made 71, revolutions per minute. 
He thinks 4 feet (1.22 metres) the shortest advisable 
stroke for marine engines, and believes that twice 
that length will ultimately become common. — (Mech. 
eng., Sept. 29.) R. HT. [477 


CHEMISTRY. 
(General, physical, and inorganic.) 

Active oxygen.— For the purpose of testing the 
accuracy of his conclusion relating to the action of 
moist phosphorus on carbonic oxide, which seemed to 
be disproved by the results of Remsen and Kaiser 
(SereNncE, i, 704), E. Baumann has repeated his ex- 
periments, using apparatus closed with glass stoppers, 
and taking every precaution to avoid contact of the 
gases with organic matter of any kind. In one experi- 
ment, seven hundred cubie centimetres of carbonic 
oxide, diluted with air, after passing through the ap- 
paratus, in fifteen hours gave 36.6 milligrams of 


If the red-hot metal be worked until it has — 


DECEMBER 14, 1883.] 


carbonic dioxide, or 2.6 % of the carbonic oxide was 
converted into carbonic dioxide. In a second experi- 
ment, thirty litres of air containing 2.45 litres of car- 
bonie oxide, when passed through the apparatus, in 
twelve hours gave 64.6 milligrams of carbonic dioxide, 
or 1.3%. The temperature varied between 20° and 
26°. Baumann found, further, that hydrogen per- 
oxide was not produced when air was passed over 
palladium hydrogen, although carbonic oxide was oxi- 
dized to a small extent. He concludes, with Hoppe- 
Seyler, that this oxidation is due to the presence of 
oxygen in its active condition. — (Berichte deutsch. 
chem. gesellsch., xvi. 2146.) Cc. F. M. ; 478 

Determination of the atomic weight of anti- 
mony.— J. Bongartz prepared metallic antimony 
from antimonious chloride, which had previously 
been purified by six or eight fractional distillations. 
The metal was separated by electrolysis according to 
Classen’s method, and it was converted into the sul- 
phide by heating with potassic sulphide. Determina- 
tions of sulphur in the purified sulphide were made 
by Classen’s method; viz., by oxidation with hydric 
peroxide, and weighing the sulphuric acid thus ob- 
tained as baric sulphate. The mean of twelve deter- 
minations gave 120.193. — (Berichte deutsch. chem. 
gesellsch., xvi. 359.) Cc. F. M. [479 


AGRICULTURE. 


Conductivity of soils. — Wagner has made a 
somewhat extended investigation of the thermal con- 
ductivity of various constituents of soils and of the 
effect upon it of alterations in the structure of the 
soil and in its moisture. The materials used were 
quartz sand, kaoline, precipitated calcium carbonate, 
ferric hydrate, peat extracted with acid and alcohol, 
and artificial humus prepared from sugar. The 
quartz was found to be the best conductor, and the 
humus the poorest, while the other,materials occu- 
pied intermediate positions. The differences were 
small, however, and of little significance, compared 
with those due to differences of texture, compactness, 
and moisture. Experiments with two natural (cal- 
careous) soils showed that heat was transmitted more 
slowly in a loose soil than in the same soil compacted, 
and that these differences were greater the greater 
the water-content of the soil. The latter factor, in- 
deed, seemed to have more influence than any other. 
Its effect is due, according to the author, to the fact 
that it is a somewhat better conductor than the air 
which it replaces in the interstices of the soil. The 
heat was transmitted horizontally,.so that there was 
little chance for the transmission of heat by conveec- 
tion. The effect of compacting the material was also 
studied on the six soil-ingredients mentioned above; 
and the compacted. material was found to transmit 
heat better than the loose, in every case except the 
humus, of which the reverse was true. The con- 
ductivity was found to increase with the size of the 
particles or aggregates of which the soil was com- 
posed. Observations were also made on the daily 
variations of temperature at different depths in sand, 
clay, and peat, The variations were greatest, and 
extended to the greatest depth, in the sand. The 


SCIENCE. 


771 


peat stood at the opposite extreme, and the clay be- 
tween the two; in these respects, their positions cor- 
responding to their relative conductivity as previously 


determined. — (Forschr. agr. physik., vi. 1.) WH. P. A. 
[480 
GEOLOGY. 
Lithology. 


The Maine building-stones.— It is well known, 
that, at the time Dr. Hawes was attacked by the ill- 
ness which terminated so fatally, he was engaged in 
the microscopic study of the United States building- 
stones. It has been hoped that some one would be 
able to take up his unfinished work, and, in justice to 
his memory, render him credit for all that he had 
done. Whether this desirable work will ever be ac- 
complished is a problem for the future. Meanwhile, 
the Maine building-stones collected for Dr. Hawes’s 
work have been the subject of a recent paper by Mr. 
G. P. Merrill. These rocks, together with much data 
relating to their use, ete., were collected by Mr. J. E. 
Wolff, now of the Northern transcontinental survey. 

Mr. Merrill classes these building-stones under 
biotite granite, biotite muscovite granite, hornblende 
granite, hornblende biotite granite, biotite gneiss, 
biotite muscovite gneiss, diabase, olivine diabase, and 
argillite or slate. Of the eighty-three quarries in 
Maine in 1880-82, seventy-four are of granite or 
gneiss. 

The granites vary in color from a light to dark 
gray, and from a light pink to red. In texture they 
vary from fine, even-grained rocks, to coarsely granu- 
lar ones, containing orthoclase crystals an inch or 
more in length. 

The constituents are quartz, orthoclase, plagio- 
clase, biotite, or hornblende, with or without musco- 
vite, apatite, magnetite, zircon, epidote, sphene, rutile 
microcline, and iron pyrites. 

The paper is accompanied by descriptions of the 
microscopic characters of the granites, which are of 
value to all interested either in lithology or building- 
stones, 

The gneisses are similar to the granite, and, so far 
as the present writer’s observations have gone, they 
are of the same origin. 

Diabase, under the name of black granite, is quar- 
ried at three localities in Maine, —Indian River in 
Addison, Addison Point, and Vinalhaven. The first 
locality produces a nearly black rock composed of 
plagioclase, augite, magnetite, apatite, and secondary 
hornblende and mica. The other localities produce 
a similar rock; with the addition of olivine and chlo- 
rite. F 

It is a remarkable freak of fashion which renders 
rocks of such undesirable composition so much sought 
for, and extensively used, for polished monumental 
and ornamental work used out of doors, for which 
they are entirely unfit. This well illustrates the 
wide-spread ignorance, even among architects, of 
the properties of building-stones, even if New York 
and Boston, coupled with Harvard university, did 
not furnish striking examples. 

Mr. Merrill’s remarks on the properties of building- 
stones need to be received with caution, especially 


172 


those regarding some of the red granites of Maine; 
for he has probably never seen them after their pol- 
ished surfaces haye been long exposed to the weather. 
—(Proc. U. S. nat. mus., vi. 165.) M. Er. Ww. [481 


MINERALOGY. 


Cassiterite.— W. P. Blake notes the occurrence 
of cassiterite as stream-deposit, as well as in place in 
the Black Hills, Dakota. It occurs in a coarse crystal- 
line granite, yielding sheets of mica of commercial 
value, and large cleavage blocks of felspar. In addi- 
tion, spodumene is found abundantly in gigantic erys- 
tals. — (Amer. jown. sc., Sept.) S. L. P. [482 

Lithiophilite.— Two analyses of this manganese 
variety of triphilite are given by S. L. Penfield, —one 
from a new locality in Norway, Me.; the other from 
Branchville, Conn. The analyses fully substantiate 
the formula of the species LiMnPO,, in which a part 
of the manganese has been replaced by iron. — (Amer. 
Jjowm. sc., Sept.) 8. L. P. [483 

Augite.— The calculation of several augite analy- 
ses is given by C. Doelter, in which he shows, that in 
addition to the usual meta-silicate, R’”sSi20,, the alu- 
mina and alkali, when present in various amounts, 
are united in molecules of the general formula, 
R’R”.Si0,, of which he recognizes the following 
distinct molecules, which are isomorphous with each 
other and with the meta-silicate R’’.Si.0,:— 


Mg Al.Si0, MgFe!!,.Si0, 


FeAl,SiO, Fel Rel!!,Si0, 
CaAlSiOg Cale!/,8i0, 
Na, Al,SiOg Na,Fe/,Si0y 

(Min. petr. mitth., v. 224.) 8. L. P. [484 


BOTANY, 


Hybridization of Zea.— Dr. Sturtevant writes, 
concerning the supposed direct manifestation of hy- 
bridization in the fruit of the first year, ‘‘ We have 
as yet no station data whereby this belief can be.veri- 
fied.” — (Rep. N.Y. exper. stat., i. 1883.) w.v. [485 

Fed and unfed sundews.—Biisgen briefly re- 
views the experimental efforts thus far made to de- 
termine the value of animal food for carnivorous 
plants, and gives the results of some feeding-experi- 
ments with Drosera rotundifolia carried on by him- 
self at Strassburg. . 

To ayoid the inequality certain to exist in plants 
gathered from their native habitat, containing unequal 
quantities of reserve material, and of different ages, 
Biisgen used seedlings, arguing that the slight weight 
(.02 mgm.) of the seed, and especially of its nutrient 
contents, renders the dry weight of all plants essen- 
tially equal at the beginning of the experiment. By 
averaging the results obtained from many plants, in- 
dividual peculiarities could be eliminated for the most 
part; and, by subjecting the seedlings to fluid-cul- 
tures with different fluids, the necessity of nitroge- 
nous compounds in the water absorbed by the roots 
was susceptible of determination. 

All of these possibilities were not realized in the 
experiments reported, which extended through two 


seasons, since comparatively few plants were experi- _ 


mented upon, and these were cultivated on cakes of 


SCIENCE. 


- [Vou. Il, No. 45. 


peat of unknown composition, saturated with the 
culture-fluid used. The results were measured by 
the size and vigor of the grown plants, their fruitful- 
ness, and, finally, the dry weight of all their parts. 
Without giving the details of the experiments, — 
which, though not perfect, appear to be the most 
satisfactory yet performed, — we may state that they 
seem to show quite conclusively that plants of this 
species, properly fed with animal matter (aphides) 
through their leaves, are individually stronger, more 
fruitful, and of greater weight, than those subjected 
to the same conditions but unfed; thus corroborating 
the conclusions of Francis Darwin, Rees and Keller- 
mann and y. Raumer. It seems, however, as if the 
organic nitrogen cannot wholly replace that derived 
normally through the roots, but appears as useful 
for the plant only when supported by a certain 
quantity of nitrogenous salts (ef. Liebig, ‘Die chem. 
in ibrer anwend. auf agric. u. physiol.,’ i. 486). — 
(Bot. zeitung, nos. 35, 36.) W. T. [486 


ZOOLOGY. 

Animal chlorophyll.— Th. W. Engelmann main- 
tains that the diffuse green observed by him in 
certain Vorticellas is genuine chlorophyll, and not 
due to the presence of any vegetable matter. The 
species was found near Utrecht, and is related to V. 
campanula, The green coloring is diffuse, but is 
restricted to the ectoplasm. To study it, Engelmann 
employed the bacteria method, and found that the 
bacteria accumulated about the animaleule; whence 
he concludes that the green produces oxygen. Ex- 


amined with the microspectroscope, the activity of ~ 


the green Vorticella, as measured by the gathering 
of bacteria about it, varies inthe same way, accord- 
ing to the wave-length of the light in which the ani- 


mal lies, as does the activity of vegetable chlorophyll 


under corresponding circumstances. From these and 
other observations, Engelmann deduces the existence 
of true living chlorophyll, not of vegetable origin 
in this protozoon. The article is a contribution to 
the controversy concerning the existence at all of ani- 
mal chlorophyll. [Engelmann relies upon the distri- 
bution of bacteria in the field of the microscope as a 
test for the distribution of oxygen. It is obviously 
hazardous to assign to living organisms whose pecul- 
iarities are most imperfectly known the value of a 
specific chemical test. We must look upon the ‘ bac- 
teria method’ with suspicion, because the idea, which 


is very ingenious, does not rest upon an established 


certainty. (Rep.)]— (Pfliiger’s arch. physiol., xxxii. 
80.) ¢. 8. M. ; [487 

Morphology of the primitive streak.— Repia- 
choff has confused the primitive mouth (urmund) 
with the blastopore. Owing to this, he attempts to 
disprove the connection of the primitive streak and 
groove with the primitive mouth by insisting upon 
the well-established point, that the blastopore is con- 
nected only with the posterior end of the primitive 
groove, overlooking the fact that the blastopore corre- 
sponds only to the posterior part of the primitive 
mouth, the edges of which unite all the way in front 
of the blastopore to. make the primitive streak and 


DECEMBER 14, 1883.] 


groove, if the latteris present. There appears to bea 

wide-spread difficulty in comprehending the concres- 

cence of the edges of the primitive mouth to form 

the axis of the vertebrate body. — (Zool. anz., vi. 365.) 

c.’S. M. [488 
Coelenterates, 

The life-history of ‘American medusae.— Al- 
though Turritopsis is one*of our most interesting 
hydromedusae, its metamorphosis has been entirely 
unknown. Brooks has added to MeCrady’s graphic 
description of the adult an account of the larva and 
of the changes through which the young medusa 
passes. The larva is very similar to Tubiclava All- 
man; and the medusa buds are carried upon short 
stems which grow out from the main stem, just be- 
low the hydranth. When set free, the medusa has 
eight tentacles and a short simple proboscis; but the 
endoderm-cells of the radial canals soon become 
thickened to form the great cellular peduncle, which 
is the most characteristic mark of the genus. Adult 
specimens of Turritopsis often contain the singular 
Cunina larvae which were discovered in this situa- 
tion by McCrady. 

Nemopsis Bachei is another very common medusa, 
the young stages of which have hitherto escaped ob- 
servation. Brooks has reared it from a Bouganvilleia, 
and has traced the metamorphosis of the medusa. 

Phortis gibbosa McCr. has been reared from a very 
singular campanularian hydroid which was washed 
ashore in great abundance at Fort Macon, on denuded 
Aglaophenia stems. Only one medusa escapes at a 
time, and this soon becomes larger than the entire 
gonotheca. The order in which the tentacles appear 
is shown in the following diagram. 


1 
5 8 


ster 
| 


4 


5 | 8 
7 <= eee 
4 


7 6 
1 

The larva of Amphinema apicatum Haeckel is a 
Perigonomus, which grows upon the sand-tubes of 
Sabellaria. When set free, the medusa has tio trace of 
the apical process, which is an adult feature, although 
it has usually been regarded as a larval characteristic. 
When five days old, the medusa begins to assume 
the adult form: the apical process is developed, the 
umbrella becomes like that of the adult, the oral folds 
appear, aud the upper end of the proboscis becomes 
enlarged. —(Stud. biol. lab. Johns Hopk. univ., ii. 
465.) WwW. kK. B. [489 

Mollusks. 

Extramarine mollusca of New Guinea. — Tap- 
parone Canefri has undertaken a general work on 
the mollusca of New Guinea, of which the first part 
has just appeared in the shape of a fine octavo vol- 


SCIENCE. 


173 


. 
ume of three hundred pages and eleven plates. In 
proof-reading, typography, and illustrations, it pre- 
sents amarked and favorable contrast to many Italian 
scientific publications. The second volume will con- 
tain the marine mollusks: the others find a place 
here. From such a region many novelties might be 
expected. The author, however, is conservative; and 
the divisions newly proposed are not numerous, 
though a considerable number of new species are de- 
scribed. and illustrated, Bellardiella (Martensiana) 
from Port Dorey is a Pupinella in which the peristo- 
mal sulcus is replaced by a tube posteriorly directed, 
behind the lip. Sulcobasis and Cristigibba are sec- 
tions of Helix, typified by H. suleosa Pfr, and H. 
tortilabia Less. respectively. Cyclotropis (papuana) 
differs from Assiminea by its perforated base. Phy- 
sastra resembles a thick-shelled reversed Limnaea 
witha dehiscent epidermis. We doubt if it should 
be referred to the Physidae. Lastly, the section 
Microdontia is proposed as a section of Unionidae 
for U. anodontaeformis, in which the anterior cardi- 
nal teeth are thin, compressed, and nearly parallel 
with the margin. 

Besides full descriptions or synonymy of species, the 
work contains useful tables showing the exact distri- 
bution of each species and group of species, as far as 
known, and also dissections of the generative organs, 
and illustrations of the dentition of a number of spe- 
cies. The work will also appear as volume xix. of 
the Annals of the Museo civico of Genoa, and is pro- 
vided with a good index. —w. H. D. [4980 

Structure of the oyster-shell. — Observations by 
Osborne show that the shell is formed by the erys-, 
tallization of lime in the conchioline (not, as stated, 
chitinous) layer, as is generally believed. The strue- 
ture of other species was found less easy of inves- 
tigation; and the complexity of structure in many 
molluscan shells would indicate that the process of 
formation is not universally the same. — (Stud. biol. 
lab. Johns Hopk. univ., ii. 4.) Ww. u. D. [491 

Slime-spinning by Arion hortensis.— Mr. Roe- 
back, having received a specimen an inch long, ob- 
served it crawling on a flat paper-knife, from which 
it projected in-a horizontal position into the air, with 
only the end of its tail touching the knife. Emit- 
ting a thread of slime, it hung by it to a distance of 
four inches; and when, on reaching a support, the 
thread was severed, it immediately shrank into a 
minute, scarcely visible point of slime. — (Journ. 
conch., July, 1883,) Ww. H. D. [492 


Insects. 

Distribution of the occident ant.— Rey. Dr. H. 
C. McCook made a communication on the geographi- 
eal distribution of the occident aut, Pogonomyrmex 
occidentalis. The specimens upon which the com- 
munication was based were collected by Prof. J. E. 
Todd in Dakota. He reports that the species is con- 
fined to the bottom-lands along the Missouri River, 
and has not pushed eastward through the territory. 
This corresponds remarkably with Dr. MeCook’s con- 
clusion, both from his own observations and those 
made under his direction by Dr. Horace Griffith of 


714 


Marengo, Io., that this ant does not dwell east of the 
Missouri River, in Missouri, Iowa, and Minnesota ; 
that if avoids eastern while abounding in western 
Nebraska; and that it is not found in Kansas farther 
east than Brookville, which is near the site reported 
by Prof. Todd. The structure of the ant-hills, and 
the harvesting habits of the species, were described. 
Mr. T. Meehan, to whom had been referred a small 
quantity of the débris collected from one of the nests 
by Prof. Todd, reported that there were no seeds 
among the pebbles, but that there were a number of 
ealices, or undeveloped capsules, of a leguminous 
plant, Dalea alopecuroides, which is common on the 
plains. Dr. McCook had been puzzled to explain why 
such intelligent creatures should be detected in har- 
vesting immature seeds, until, upon inquiry, he found 
that leguminous plants have a succession of flowers; 
so that there may be mature seeds and flowers on a 
plant at the same time. It is evident that the ants 
were not harvesting out of season, but were occasion- 
ally deceived, and cast out to the refuse-heap the 
ealices that contained no edible seed. — (Acad. nat. 
sc. Philad.; meeting Nov. 21, 1883.) [493 

Dipterous’maggots in man. — Dr. Samuel Lock- 
wood exhibited a full-grown dipterous larva taken 
from the inner ear of a man at Paterson, N.J., Aug. 
30. There was a perforation of the membrana tym- 
pani. The man had suffered seven days from its 
presence. The grub had entered the outer ear, but 
eluded an attempt to extract it by re-entering the 
drum. Appearing again in the external ear, it was 
extracted with forceps, and kept alive for several days. 
He referred to certain papers read to the society (one 
in 1880, and a sequel in 1881), in which he described 
specimens of dipterous larvae passed by a man in 
large numbers, and which he determined to be larvae 
of Sareophaga earnaria and Anthomyia canicularis, 
which had come of eating tainted cold meat and cold 
boiled cabbage. He had also shown a larva, which 
he could not determine, which had been vomited by 
a girl. The larva taken from the man’s ear he had 
determined to be the viviparous flesh-fly, Sarcophaga 
earnaria, and thought that the man had eaten meat 
on which were the freshly laid larvae, which, being 
very small, might easily be unperceived. If the man 
had coughed during the eating, he might have thus 
thrown one of the lJarvee against the entrance to the 
eustachian tube, and it could readily ascend the epi- 


thelial walls, feeding upon the mucus on its way. 


The larva had attained full growth, and, about to 
pupate, was restless to find a nidus: hence the good 
fortune of its twice entering the outer ear from the 
rent in the tympanum. Dr. A. V. N. Baldwin re- 
marked that he had recently found a cluster of grubs, 
hard-packed, in the external ear of a man in Bellevue 
hospital; to which Dr. Lockwood replied, ‘* Probably 
the parent fly had oviposited there when the man 
was asleep, attracted by the fetid odor of a diseased 
ear”? — (N. Jers. micr. soc. ; meeting Nov. 19.) [494 

Spinning-habit of Psocus. — Rey. H. C. McCook 
announced that the small neuropterous insect, Psocus 
sexpunctatus, had recently been found, for the first 
time in America as far as he was informed, on the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 45. 


Wissahickon Creek, Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, 
by Mr. S. F. Aaron. The family of the Psocidae is 
of peculiar interest in being the only true insects 
which spin webs in the imago state. The generally 
larval function of web-spinning might, perhaps, be 
correlated with the rank which zodélogists assign the 
Neuroptera as the lowest in the order Insecta. It is, 
however, a striking example of the diverging and in- 
dependent lines along which life-forms have sprung 
up in nature, that a function which belongs to the 
larval stage of insects, and which appears in the imago 
stage only in the lowest type of the same, should 
appear as the most permanent and characteristic fune- 
tion of the spider, —an animal, which, although it is 
now commonly given a lower place in the same sub- 
kingdom with the insect, is certainly very differently 
and but little less highly organized. It would be a 
difficult task to trace, or even imagine, any eyolu- 
tionary ‘connection between the web-spinning spi- 
der, the web-spinning lepidopterous larva, and the 
web-spinning neuropterous imago. There is, indeed, 
the common factor, the spinning-function; but the 
physiologist fails to perceive any use or combination 


of the same which can unite the organisms in which 


it inheres. —(Acad. nat. sc. Philad.; meeting Nov. 
27.) 4 ‘ [495 
VERTEBRATES. 

Action of the respiratory movements on 
circulation. — Taljanzeff states, that, in violent 
breathing, partial or complete inhibition of the con- 
tractions of the right side of the heart may take place, 
without, however, any fall of arterial pressure result- 
ing; the blood being forced from the right to the left 
side of the heart by the action of the breathing-move- 
ments on the heart, especially on the right ventricle. 
He has discovered, also, that if the branches of the 
vagus going to the lungs are cut, and their central 
ends stimulated, a decided reflex action on the heart 
and blood-vessels is obtained. In most cases the heart 
was slowed, giving the well-known ‘ vagus pulse,’ and 
the blood-pressure lowered; though in one experi- 
ment there was a fall of aortic pressure without any 
change in either the force or rate of the heart con- 
tractions. — (Centralbl. med. wiss., 1883, 401.) W. H. H. 
[496 

Vaso-motor nerves of the leg.— In a brief 
preliminary communication, Bowditch and Warren 
give some of the results of an investigation upon the 
vaso-motors of the extremities. Their method of de- 


termining the contraction or dilatation of the blood- 


vessels was to enclose the limb in a plethysmograph, 
—a method undoubtedly very delicate and accurate, 
but possessing the disadvantage that it gives only the 
general result of the stimulation of the nerve on the 
blood-vessels of the limb as a whole, and furnishes 
no indication of local dilatations or constrictions 
which may take place. They find that stimulation 
of the peripheral end of the divided sciatie may 
cause either constriction or dilatation. When the 
induction-shocks followed in rapid succession (16 to 
64 in a second), a constriction of the blood-vessels 
was the general result. When the stimuli followed 
more slowly (4—0.2 in a second), adilatation was 


| again 


DECEMBER 14, 1883.] 


produced. With a medium rapidity of stimulation, a 
contraction was observed in the beginning, followed 
by a dilatation. The latent period of vaso-constric- 
tion was estimated at 1.5”; that of vaso-dilatation, at 
3.5”, The vaso-dilator effects continued for some 
time after the cessation of the stimulus. — (Centr.- 
dlatt. med. wiss., 1883, 513.) Ww. H. H. [497 


Mammals. 


Birth of a mandrill in captivity. — A mandrill 
was born in the Hamburg zoélogical garden in July, 
1882. It lacked the brilliant coloring of the face 
characteristic of the adult, and had but weakly devel- 
oped face-wrinkles. The countenance and posterior 
eallosities were flesh-colored. Only the upper and 
posterior portion of the head and a space on the 
median line of the back were dark. —(Zool. garten, 
xxiv, 1883, 235.) ¥F. w. T. [498 

The circulation in the kidneys.— This paper by 
Cobhnheim and Roy furnishés an extr¢mely important 
and interesting addition to our knowledge of the 
physiology of the kidney, and will undoubtedly, with 
the future work that is promised on the subject, throw 
much light also on the etiology of some of the diseases 
of that organ. The method which they employed in 
their investigation cannot be thoroughly understood 
without reference to the plates which accompany the 
article. It is sufficient to say that the organ was en- 
closed in a sort of plethysmograph, to which Roy has 
given the name of oncometer, by means of which 
variations in volume of the kidney can be registered. 
With regard to the normal circulation in the kid- 


_ neys, it was found that both the respiratory and pulse 


waves were shown in the kidney tracing, as well as 
the Traube-Hering waves, when these occurred. 

Stimulation of the vaso-motor centre directly by 
means of dyspnoea, as well as stimulation of the 
central end of ‘sensory nerves, caused a strong and 
rapid diminution in volume of the kidney, owing to 
the contraction of its vessels. This diminution in 
volume occurs when both splanchniecs are cut; but 
in those cases in which they succeeded in severing 
the kidney from al] external nervous influences, the 
kidney, instead of contracting, showed an increase in 
yolume corresponding to the general rise of blood- 
pressure. : 

The influence of the splanchnics on the kidney 
circulation was especially studied. Section of the 
splanehnics caused no increase in the volume of the 
kidney, so that the tonic influence which these nerves 
have been supposed to exert on the kidney-vessels is 
rendered very doubtful, though the authors do not care 
to make any positive statement with regard to this 
point. Stimulation of either the central or peripheral 
end of the divided splanchnies gave a strong diminu- 
tion in volume of the kidney. The fact, that, after 
section of both splanchnics, stimulation of the cen- 
tral end of a sensory nerve still causes a contraction 
of the kidney, shows that vaso-motor nerves pass to 
this organ by some other path. In order to cut off 
the kidney from all external nervous connection, it 
was necessary to divide not only the nerve-trunks in 
the hilus, but also to destroy the external coat (tunica 


SCIENCE. 


175 


adventitia) of the blood-vessels. In cases in which 
this was successfully accomplished, they could ob- 
tain no distinct evidence of a vaso-motor tonus of 
the kidney-vessels, Stimulation of the nerves of the 
hilus showed the presence only of vaso-constrictor and 
sensory nerves: in no case did they obtain any evi- 
dence of vaso-dilator nerves. 

The circulations in the two organs are, to a great ex- 
tent, independent of each other. Clamping the renal 
artery on one side has no effect at all on the circula- 
tion in the other kidney, and the same may be said 
with regard to the closure of other large arteries of 
the body. Throwing ice-cold water, or water heated 
to 50° C., on the whole of the skin surface of the ani- 
mal, has little or no effect on the kidney circulation; 
a fact which seems to indicate that the direct connec- 
tion between the functions of the skin and the kidney 
is not so close as has been supposed. A future paper 
on the influence of the composition of the blood on 
the circulation in the kidney is promised. — ( Vir- 
chow’s archiv, xcii. 424.) Ww. H. HL ; [499 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


Ethnology of Yunnan and the Shan country. 
— Mr. Colquhoun has traversed the region lying be- 
tween Canton and Rangoon, including Yunnan, the 
south-western province of China. The details of his 
exploration have been published in the Proc. roy. 
geogr. soc., Dec., 1882, in a volume entitled ‘ Across 
Chrysee,’ or will appear in a work now preparing on 
the Shan country. From Canton westward the 
people were pure Chinese; west of that, to the Yun- 
nan frontier, the people were mixed o1f the rivers: 
and aboriginal races were found inland. Through- 
out Yunnan the chief population consisted of Shans 
disguised under a great variety of tribal names. Lolo 
and Miao-tzu, aborigines and Thibetans under the 
name of Kutsung, were seen. Mr. Keane, com- 
menting upon this paper, said that amongst the Yun- 
nan tribes were the widely dispersed Lolo people, 
who seem to extend in isolated groups from Szechuen, 
Kwei-chew, and Yunnan, down to the Tonquin high- 
lands, and who by some travellers had been described 
as physically more like Europeans than Indo-Chinese. 
— (Journ. anthrop. inst., xiii. 3.) J. Ww. P. [500 

North-eastern Papua.— During a period of six 
years, 1875-S1, Mr. Wilfred Powell made frequent 
visits to the eastern coast of New Guinea. Torres 
Straits has become famous as a pearl-fishing ground, 
worked by fleets of large boats built for the purpose, 
and manned by natives from all parts of Polynesia. 
The most fever-cursed portion of the island is the low 
alluvial plain skirting the Gulf of Papua, opposite 
Queensland. Here is found the only cannibalism 
known to the author to exist'on the island. The 
whole of the population here are of a lower type than 
those in the more elevated districts to the east. At 
Brumer Islands the two races meet and intermingle, 
—the darker and more barbarous type of the Gulf of 
Papua and the south-west coast, and the lighter col- 
ored and better featured type, more resembling the 
Polynesian, inhabiting the south-east and the eastern 
peninsula. The last-mentioned people are numerous 


7716 


and industrious. The women are respected, and irri- 
gation is carried on by means of bamboo pipes joined 
with gum. Obsidian is used for many purposes, such 
as shaving their heads and faces, carving wood, etc. — 
(Proc. roy. geogr. soc., Sept.) J. w. P. [SOL 

The Masai people in East Africa. — Zanzibar is 
now a commercial centre, dominated over by British 
interests and British trade. Itis therefore a matter of 
great importance to establish an expeditious caravan 
route over the range in which are Mounts Kilimanjaro 
and Kenia to Lake Victoria. Inthe way of this route 
are the Masai, a tribe reputed to be savage and ag- 
gressive. Last autumn Mr. J. T, Last, a physician 
missionary, made a journey to the Masai country, and 
reports much that is interesting to the ethnologist 
as well as to the geographer. ‘The Masai seem to be- 
long to the great Galla race, The extent of their 
country is very large. The majority are of average 
height, and the women are about as tall as the men. 
There is a marked difference in features between the 
pure and the mixed Masai, the former being of a much 
higher type. The author describes the scanty dress 
of th: men, one-article of which is the olding’ori, a 
heart haped piece of goat-skin, serving more for a 
seat (han covering. The women are completely 
clothe i and extravagantly ornamented. There is no 
iron it their country, nor do they know how to work 
it. Their domestic animals, weapons, mythology, 
burials, marriage, crimes, polygamy, and modes of 
building are all fully described, and a copious vocabu- 
lary closes the paper. — (Ibid.) J. w. P. [S02 


Serpent venom.— The destruction of human life 
by the bites®f poisonous serpents is so great in many 
countries, that it becomes really an anthropological 
problem to ascertain the amount of damage, and to 
seek the remedy. Dr. Robert Fletcher has brought 
together much information, and a great deal of the 
literature, in a paper read before the Washington 
philosophical society in May last. Sir Joseph Fayrer 
states the average mortality from serpent-bites in 
India to be fully 20,000 annually. In 1869 the re- 
turns were obtained through official sources, from a 
large part of India, with unusual care and accuracy. 
In a population of nearly 121,000,000, representing 
an area of less than half the peninsula of Hindostan, 
the deaths were 11,416, or nearly one in 10,000. Of 
these deaths, there were caused by 


Cobra . 5 . 4 . . 2,690" 
Krait (Bungarus ceruleus) . : é 309 
Other snakes ° ' c ; : 839 
Unknown snakes 4 4 6,922 
No details . d ‘ 5 é A 606 

11,416 


In 1880, 212,776 poisonous snakes were killed and 
paid for; and in 1881, 254,968. 

Even in Europe the number of accidents’ from 
snake-bite is very large. In one department of 
France, La Haute-Marne, the government paid, in 
six years, for the destruction of 17,415 vipers. — 
(Amer. journ. med. sc., July.) J. Ww. P. [S03 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. I1., No. 45. 


Mythologic parallels. — Gaidoz, commenting 
the tendency to trace the myths and folk-tales of Bu- 
rope to the Aryans on the high plateaus of India, 
remarks, ‘‘ that we cannot rest upon those eminences, 
but must prolong our inquiry over the whole earth: 
they are not Aryan, they are human.’ The diseus- 
sion of resemblances in culture seems to land us ever 
in a double corner between the supposition that hu- 
manity reproduces ever the same phenomena under 
the same conditions, and the theory that similarity 
proves contact of some kind. M. Gaidoz cites two 
very interesting but far remote similarities. Among 
the ancient Romans, driving a nail was a religious 
practice, oft resorted to as a remedy against certain 
maladies, or a preservative against enchantments. 
Numerous references to this practice will be found 
under the word ‘clavus,’ by M. Siglio, in his ‘ Die- 
tionnaire des antiquités grecques et latines,’ p. 1240— 
1242; and in the chapter upon the nail in the cella 
of the temple of Jupiter, in Preller’s ‘ Roemische 
mythologie,’ 2d*’ed., p. 231. The law demanded that 
the rite (clavi figendi causa) should be performed by 
one high in authority, and, in cases of great public 
calamity, by the dictator himself. Now pass beyond 
the Pillars of Hercules to the mouth of the Kongo 
River, and listen to the words of Charles de Rouvre 
(Bull. soc. géogr., Oct., 1880, p. 323): “* Finally there 
are the 1’ doké fetishes, under the care of priests called 
gangazambi, who are reputed to have the power to 
cause to speak. An offering is made to the n’doké 
of one or more pieces of cloth and tafia. A nail is 
then driven into the image, while the ganga or the 
suppliant formulates hisdemand.’’ ‘The barbarians 
are older than we,’ said Plato; and this form of nail- 
driving into the heart of the image, in order that our 
prayer may pierce the heart of the god, is much older 
than the Roman custom. M. Gaidoz further con- 
nects this custom with votives on oratorios, on trees, 
on church-walls, ete., for many purposes. In con- 
clusion, the author insists that the beliefs of classic 
antiquity are to be studied not only in ancient texts, 
but in a past far more remote. — (Rev. hist. relig., 
vii. 5.) J. Ww. P. [504 

Hypertrichosis.— The development of hair on 
abnormal parts of the body has received the names 
Hypertrichosis universalis when it occurs over the 
whole body, and H. partialis when only over limited 
portions or in patches. The abnormality may be 
the period of development, in which case it would be 
heterochronic. It may be sex. as the beard of cer- 
tain females, where it would be heterogenic. In the 
first case mentioned above it is heterotopic. Dr. 
J. G. Garson of London has collected photographs 
of distinguished cases of hypertrichosis, and states 
his conclusions as follows: ‘‘ As to the cause of ab- 
normal hair-growth, the atavistic theory seems to 
me to be the most probable explanation, as here we 
would not have to trace the atavus far back, and in 
the normal body we have the atayistic germ pres- 
ent, though in a rudimentary condition. It would, 
therefore, be what Gegenbauer terms a paleogenetic 
form of atavism. —(Journ. anthrop. inst., xiii. 6.) 
a7. W. P. [505 


‘ a isle! <P wae) sy ail Sa en 
i Maal SED pas akin nie 


- 


DecEMBER 14, 1883.] 


SCIENCE. 


117 


INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 


GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. ° 
Geological survey. 


Geology. — According to Prof. L. C. Johnson, who 
has been at work on the geology of Alabama (in the 
southern part of the state), the tertiary boundary 
will have to be moved from six to ten miles north of 
the limits usually assigned it on the maps. The 
lignitic, a sub-Claiborne division of the tertiary, will 
therefore appear much extended northward (ten miles 
at Allenton, six at Camden, and seventeen at Butler 
Springs). Professor Johnson has collections of fossils 
to prove his position. He has also recently investi- 
gated the boundary-line between the rotten-limestone 
group and the Eutaw group of the cretaceous, and 
between the latter and the older formations, and has 
made large and interesting collections of mammalian 
and saurian remains from the southern part of Ala- 
bama, principally from Autauga county. 

Prof. R. D. Irving, who is devoting his attention 
to the copper-bearing rocks of Lake Superior, reports, 
that, in connection with Professor Winchell, he has 
personally examined the quartzites of Nicollet and 
Cottonwood counties, Minn. One hundred and forty 
thin sections of rocks have been made; mostly of 
Huronian quartzites; and more than half of these 
have been examined, with the result of proving that 
the quartzites of the original or typical Huronian of 
Lake Huron, and of the Huronian regions of Mar- 
quette and the Menominee River in Michigan and 
Wisconsin, are fragmental rocks, and that they have 
never undergone any metamorphism other than that 
involved in the deposit of interstitial quartz among 
the clastic grains, of which they are in the main com- 
posed. Professor Irving has also begun a compara- 
tive study of the greenstones, cherts and flints, and 
jaspery iron ores of the various Huronian regions 
examined~by him. 

Prof. T. C. Chamberlin, who has charge of the 
morainic investigations in the eastern United States, 
has recently examined the border of the later drift, 
principally in Indiana, and subordinately in Ohio, and 
has completed the tracing of the line from the Scioto 
to the Wabash, and more fully demonstrated the 
peculiar association of the remarkable bowlder-belts 
of those states with morainic aggregations. Prof. J. 
E. Todd, one of Professor Chamberlin’s assistants, 
has determined more exactly the character of the 
morainic loop in the vicinity of Alexandria, in south- 
ern Dakota. He also found in that neighborhood an 
exposure of the Sioux quartzite with glacial striae, 
the direction of which is in harmony with the pre- 
vious observations. Professor Todd also examined 
the drift-bluffs in the vicinity of the Big Sioux River, 
where the loess comes in contact with the drift. In 
October, Mr. R. D. Salisbury, who is also assisting 
Professor Chamberlin, made a detailed and specific 
study of the border of the driftless area tn Wisconsin, 
Minnesota, and Iowa. This had heretofore been ex- 
amined only cursorily by various observers; and Mr. 
Salisbury made a critical and connected examination, 


which developed some interesting points, one of which 
is to give the outline a form more in harmony with 
the moraines of the later epoch that lie opposite it on 
either hand. 

Chemistry. — Mr. Hillebrand, the chemist in charge 
of the field-laboratory at Denver, has been investi- 
gating the so-called basie sulphates from Leadville. 
They are an important constituent of the ore deposits 
of that region, and occur as a rule under the ore 
bodies, seeming to be a product of secondary decom- 
position of the original sulphuretted ores. They 
appear to be a mixture of the mineral jarosite and 
basic sulphate of iron with hydrated arseniate of 
iron, anglesite, and pyromorphite. 

A short time ago Prof. F. W. Clarke, chief chemist 
of the survey, visited and examined the Gilmore mica- 
mine in Montgomery county, Md., about twelve miles 
north of Washington, and found it of remarkable 
mineralogical interest. 

Publications. — A few advance copies of the third 
annual report have been issued without the complete 
set of illustrations. Besides the report of the director 
and the various administrative reports, it contains the 
following papers: Birds with teeth, by Prof. O. C. 
Marsh; The copper-bearing rocks of Lake Superior, 
by Roland D. Irving; Sketch of the geological his- 
tory of Lake Lahontan, by Israel C. Russell; Ab- 
stract of report on geology of the Eureka district, 
Nevada, by Arnold Hague; Preliminary paper on 
the terminal moraine of the second glacial epoch, 
by Thomas C. Chamberlin; A review of the non- 
marine fossil Mollusca of North America, by Dr. C. 
A. White. E 

A monograph on the geology of the region adjacent 
to Golden, Col., by Mr. C. Whitman Cross, is almost 
ready for the printer. 

Geographical field-work. — The following notes of 
the geographic work of the survey during the season 
of 1883 are furnished by Mr. Henry Gannett, chief 
geographer. 

Appalachian division. —In the southern 
Appalachians, five topographic and two triangulation 
parties have been at work during the season, and 
are now about returning to the office in Washington. 
Prof. W. C. Kerr has been in charge of the triangu- 
lation. The area embraced in the survey was the 
mountain region of North Carolina, exclusive of that 
worked in previous years; the northern half of the 
valley of east Tennessee; the south-western portion 
of Virginia; and that part of West Virginia lying 
between the Kanawha and Big Sandy rivers. In 
addition to the territory thus enumerated, the west- 
ern part of Maryland, and adjacent portions of West 
Virginia and Virginia, were surveyed. 

The total area thus comprised will be not less than 
twenty thousand square miles for the season. Work 
in this region is necessarily difficult and somewhat 
slow, on account of the scarcity of salient topograph- 
ical points, the thick growth of timber, and the heavy 
rainfall. The latter is a fact that is ignored on most 
of the rain-charts published during the past ten years. 


178 


This work will be published on a scale of four miles 
to the inch, with contours two hundred feet apart 
vertically. 

Massachusetts division.—In July a sur- 
vey of Massachusetts was begun, under the direction 
of Prof. H. F. Walling. In this work the triangula- 
tion of the coast survey and the old Borden survey, 
and the topographical work of the past, are being 
utilized wherever practicable. The maps will be com- 
paratively detailed, as the published scale is to be two 
miles to the inch. It is hoped that the work may be 
completed in about two years. Thus far, during the 
present season, about two thousand miles haye been 
surveyed, work haying been begun in the western 
part of the state, and extended eastward from the 
high country as cold weather began to come on. 

Rocky-mountain division.—Mr. Anton 
Karl has surveyed part of the Elk Mountains in Colo- 
rado, extending the map made by Hayden in 1874, 
and has also been engaged in re-surveying the Max- 
well grant in northern New Mexico for the interior 
department. 

Wingate division. —This division, in charge 
of Prof. A. H. Thompson, has its headquarters at Fort 
Wingate, N.M., and has been working in the plateau 
country, principally in north-eastern Arizona. Field- 
work was begun early in May, and is now practically 
finished for the season. One triangulation party and 
three topographic parties have been at work, and have 
surveyed twenty-two thousand square miles. ‘The 
region they covered is one of the most dreary and 
desolate within the limits of the United States; and, 
when its arid condition and the difficulties of trans- 
portation through it are considered, it will be seen 
that this division has accomplished a remarkable 
amount of work. 

California division. —Mr. Gilbert Thomp- 
son, who is in charge of this division, began work 
last year in northern California, and completed the 
survey of about four thousand square miles. This 
year the work was extended in all directions from 
Mount Shasta, reaching to the Coast Range on the 
west, and into the lava-bed country on the east and 
south-east. This region lies between the parallels 38 
and 42, and meridians 121 and 123. Although the 
atmosphere was smoky a large part of the time, this 
division has had a successful season. 

Division of the Great basin.— The topo- 
graphic surveys in the Great-basin district haye been 
confined mainly to detailed work for special maps 
illustrating Mr. G. K. Gilbert’s.investigations of the 
lake-basins of this region. The principal work done 
has been the securing of notes fora map of the drain- 
age area of Mono Lake, and for a number of special 
maps of ancient moraines. 

Yellowstone-park division.—Mr. J. H. 
Renshawe has just come in from the field. He has 
been engaged in work for a detailed map of the Yel- 
Jowstone national park. He began work early in 
June, and has covered fifteen hundred square miles, 
making plane-table sketches on a scale of two inches 
tothe mile. He also remeasured, at Bozeman, a base- 
line laid out by Wheeler’s survey in 1877. Mr. Ren- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. If., No. 45. 


shawe expanded this base-line last season, but was 
prevented from remeasuring it then by the weather. 


In California Mr. John D. Hoffman has been 
carrying on the survey of the quicksilver-mines 
steadily for more than a year. 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


LAstT summer, at the Zurich meeting of the stand- 
ing committee of the International geological con- 
gress, Professor Neumayr of the Vienna university 
presented, by request, a plan for the preparation 
of a ‘Nomenclator palaeontologicus,’ to be issued 
under the auspices of the congress. His project was 
well received, and only awaits final indorsement at 
the meeting of the congress next year at Berlin. 
The scheme contemplates the appointment of an 
editor-in-chief (for which post no better person than 
Professor Neumayr himself could be selected); an 
editing committee, under whose general supervision 
the work will be carried on; national collaborators, 
who are to give special assistance in the literature of 
their own country; and special compilers, to each 
of whom a particular section of the work will be con- 
fided, and who will be placed in special relation with 
some one member of the editing committee. 

The work, when completed, will probably consist of 
fourteen or more large octavo yolumes. The mol- 
lusks are expected to require at least two volumes; 
one each will be given to eryptogams, phanerogams, 
protozoa, coelenterates, echinoderms, worms and 
molluscoida, arthropods, and vertebrates; two vol- 
umes will be given to a systematic enumerator, and 
one to an alphabetical register. 

The nomenclator proper will consist of citations of 
all species (the nominal species in special type) pub- 
lished in scientific works, in accordance with recog- 
nized rules, with their synonymes; and the citations 
will include, a, the first publication; b, later deserip- 
tions which have really advanced the paleontological 
knowledge of the species, particularly such as give 
for the first time a satisfactory illustration; c, the 
illustrations found in the best knewn and most widely 
circulated ‘fundamental work.’ 

Critical notes and newly proposed names will not 
be admitted, and conventional signs will be avoided. 
Abbreviations in the citations will be so given as to 
be readily understood by every one possessing some 
knowledge of the literature; and, for serial publica- 
tions, the use of those employed in the Royal society’s 
Catalogue of scientific papers is recommended, The 
geological horizon and geographical distribution will 
be indicated, the former according to the scale of the 
congress. The language employed will be Latin. 

The plan, as presented by Professor Neumayr, is 
excellently conceived, and, if carried out in the same 
spirit, will be an immense boon to paleontologists, 
But one minor criticism occurs to us: it seems a pity — 
to perpetuate the awkward abbreviations employed. 
in the Royal society’s Catalogue, in which are too fre- 
quently violated the two cardinal rules of proper ab-. 
breviations, — the preservation of the order of words 


DrceMBER 14, 1883.] 


in a title, and, in ordinary cases, the abbreviation of 
words before the vowel of the second syllable. If 
those in charge of the compilation of that magnificent 
but exasperatingly incomplete work had but taken 
counsel of some of their better trained brethren of 
the Index society, the world would have had more to 
thank them for. As it is, their shortcomings seem 
likely to breed perpetual sorrow. 

—On the 28th of July, about nine o’clock in the 
morning, a Mr. Ferry started from Dover to cross the 
English Channel on 
a water tricycle. 
The construction of 
the machine is well 
shown in the ac- 
companying _ illus- 
tration, which we 
take from La Na- 
ture. It is evident, 
however, that the 
displacement must 
have been much 
greater than that in- 
dicated. Instead of 
the light wheels 
of steel, with tires 
of rubber, of the 
land vehicle, there 
are bulky paddle- 
wheels. The small 
~ wheel behind serves 
as arudder. Ferry 
arrived at Calais in 
less than eight 
hours. The _ dis- 
tance as a bird flies 
is twenty miles, but 
on account of the 
currents the exer- 
tion required was 
considerably in- 
creased, 

— Mr. Boyd Daw- 
kins, who has long 
been familiar to 


SCIENCE. 


179 


movement of glaciers, has been formerly used as 
a natural chronometer, on the assumption that they 
have been going on at the same rate throughout the 
past, and have been warranted never to stop, or to 
want winding up, or to go faster or slower than atthe 
moment the observer was looking at them.’? The 
chronology adopted in the present paper is that of 
the author’s ‘Early man in Britain.’ In the light of 


Dawkins’s system, Professor Whitney’s pliocene man 
is found wanting. 


Skulls of Mexican mustangs and 
modern stone im- . 
plements are taken 
from the same lay- 
ers. The human 
bones in the aurif- 
erous gravels are in- 
distinguisha- 
ble from those of 
the red Indians. 
With reference to 
Dr. Abbott’s Dela- 
ware River finds, the 
author remarks, 
“The identity of 
the implements 
proves that theriver- 
drift hunter was in 
the same rude state 
of civilization in the 
old and the new 
world, while the 
hand of the geologi- 
cal clock pointed to 
the same hour.” 
This river-drift man 
was unmistakably 


aman, and not a 
‘missing link.’ 

— From advanced 
sheets of the Pro- 
ceedings of the An- 
thropological socie- 
ty of Washington, 
Col. F. A. Seely, of 
the U. S. patent of- 


American archeolv- fice, publishes a 
gists through his pamphlet entitled 
eave explorations, ‘An inquiry into 


and his volume on 
early man in Brit- 
ain, discusses in the North American review the ques- 
tion of the antiquity of man in our own country. 
The subject is treated as a portion of one great problem 
common to the old and the new world, when man lived 
in the same low stage of culture on both sides of the 
Atlantic, at a time when the hands of the geological 
clock pointed to the same hour over the greater part 
of the world. With reference to the absolute chronol- 
ogy of geological phenomena, the author makes a 
statement worth preserving: ‘‘The present rate of 
the retrocession of the Falls of Niagara, or of the 
deposit of Nile mud, or of stalagmite in caverns, or 
of the accumulation of rocks themselves, or of the 


TRICYCLE ON WHICH MR. FERRY CROSSED THE ENGLISH CHANNEL. 


the origin of inven- 
tion.’ The author 
is accustomed, day by day, as new claims for patents 
come before him, to eliminate the successive steps in 
the classes of machinery until he reaches’the funda- 
mental idea. This is the plan pursued in tracing 
backward the whole subject of invention to its 
sources in the mind of primitive man. The subject 
is illustrated, first, by the story of the steam-engine, 
and then by the examination of the bow and arrow 
and other implements of the lower races. The au- 
thor rejects Professor Gaudry’s Dryopithecus, and 
affirms, ‘Obviously, archeology can find no trace 
of aremoter age than-that of stone; but I mistrust 
that the thoughtful anthropologist will accept the 


780 


evidence of earlier ages, one of which, taking one of 
its perishable materials as the type of all, we may 
call the age of wood. Still farther back must lie an 
age, as indefinite in duration as any, when man ex- 
isted in his rudest condition, without arts of any kind, 
except such as he employed in common with lower 
animals; and this is the true primitive period.” 

—In the Bulletin of the Société géogr. de Marseille 
for June, Heckel gives new information, with arésumé 
of old, in regard to the African nut known as Kola, or 
Guru. This seed, which is hardly to be called a nut, 
has a kernel about two inches in length, somewhat 
like that of a peanut, with a groove instead of a pro- 
jecting point at the germinal end. It may be white 
or red, or both, to the number of four or five, in the 
same rough brown pod. It is the product of a tree 
of the family Sterculiacea. The genus has been called 
Sterculia, Kola, etc., and there are several species or 
varieties. This nut, or seed, is remarkable on account 
of containing (beside glucose, tannin, and a bitter 
principle) caffeine and theobromine in large propor- 
tion. Among the African tribes it takes the place of 
tea and coffee or cocoa, — products of plants belong- 
ing to very different groups, but valued for the same 
essential principle. It has been used from time im- 
memorial, and many singular stories have been cur- 
rent as to its effect upon the system, though little 
authentic information was at hand. 

Kola is gathered twice a year, carefully shelled, and 
the bare meats are immediately despatched into the 
interior, carefully wrapped in green leaves to insure 
them from drying. They have to be carefully picked 
over every twenty or thirty days, and all defective 
ones thrown out. It is considered very important that 
they should be kept fresh and somewhat moist. .How- 
ever, as soon as they begin to shrivel and dry up, the 
caravan merchants dry them thoroughly in the sun, 
and pound them to.a powder in a mortar. The seeds 
are worth twenty or thirty cents a pound at the place 
where gathered, near Sierra Leone; but they rapidly 
increase in value away from the original market. At 
Goree a single seed will be sold at six to ten cents, 
according to the state of the market. In the interior 
the tribes on the Niger pay as high as one dollar per 
seed, and in times of scarcity a slave has been given 
for one seed. In the far interior the Arab merchants 
frequently dispose of the powder for its weight in 
gold-dust. 

The Kola is the stimulant of the African tribes, 
and is in order on eyery occasion. Among those peo- 
ples where the nut is not indigenous, nor yet too ex- 
travagantly dear, no transaction of any moment can 
take place without an exchange of Kolas. This is 
either in token of good will or to ‘ bind the bargain,’ 

If two tribes ally themselves, they exchange white 
Kolas, this color being always the token of good will 
and peace. If war is declared, the announcement is 
made by sending red Kolas to the enemy. A request 
for a wife is accompanied by the present of a white 
Kola from the lover to the intended mother-in-law. 
The response favorable is by a seed of the same color; 
a refusal, by ared one. The wedding present of the 
husband to his bride is incomplete without a certain 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. IL, No. 45. 


proportion of Kolas. In the interior, where they 
are so valuable, the gift of one is considered a high 
attention, and, when given by a chief to a white tray- 
eller, takes the character of an assurance of protec- 
tion. One of the chiefs of the upper Niger sent 
Zweifel and Mousteir red Kolas wrapped in green 
leaves as a sign that they would not be permitted to 
ascend certain sacred water-courses included in their 
programme, 

In religious and judicial proceedings they are equal- 
ly important. All oaths are taken on these seeds: 
the witness holds his hand over them, swears, and 
then eats them. An accuser demanding justice 
brings to the judge a little basket of rice with four or 
five Kolas upon it. The sorcerers lay great stress on 
the attractive qualities of this seed in drawing away 
evil spirits, sickness, and misfortune. Friends place 
with the dead some Kolas, that he may safely endure 
his ‘long journey;’ and, to crown all, the Mahome- 
tans declare it to be a fruit of divine origin, brought 
to earth by the Prophet himself. 

The nut is chewed as if it were tobacco; the pow- 
der is eaten. The taste is sweet, astringent, and bit- 
ter in succession. Europeans as well as negroes are 
devoted to it. It not only sustains the system under 


the greatest fatigues, even without food and for long 


periods, but it is also a certain preventive of the 
dysenteries and deadly fluxes which render that re- 
gion so unhealthy. The powder makes foul water 
drinkable and harmless. The negroes, without suffi- 


cient cause, regard it as an aphrodisiac; and for this ~ 


reason, in Martinique, in the botanical garden, where 
there is a plant brought from Africa, the director has 
never been able to save a single seed for propagation. 

— Apropos to Professor Leidy’s interesting article 
in No. 43, a correspondent draws our attention to the 
fact that the botanists have not overlooked the crys- 
tals in the bark of forest-trees. See, for example, 


Gray’s Botanical text-book, from second to fifth edi- _ 


tions, in which those in the bark of the locust-tree 
are mentioned, and those of hickory figured. 

—Dr. A. Graham Bell has reprinted in pamphlet 
form, from the ‘American annals of the deaf and 
dumb,’ a very interesting account of the method fol- 
lowed by him in teaching a boy, deaf from his birth, 
to read the written language and to write English 
himself. The child was five years old when the 
course of instruction described began, and had re- 
ceived only three weeks’ private instruction from the 
principal of the Boston school for the deaf and dumb. 
About a year later he was able to write a letter to his 
mother, which, to be sure, contains many mistakes, 
and is not always readily intelligible in its sentences, 
but which yet shows that he could already communi- 
cate with others in writing. 
mens of such letters written without assistance. One 
cannot read these few pages without a strong feeling 
of admiration for the ingenuity and patience displayed 
in producing such a result, which shows how much 
can be done for the early education of the deaf and 
dumb. 

— Mr. Estaban Duque Estrada, a native Cuban, has 


made an extended investigation of the useful qualities — 


The author gives speci- 


a 


179 


DECEMBER 14, 1883.] 


of the best Cuban woods, with a view to exhibiting 
the resources of his country in this direction, and to 
the opening of our markets to his native timber. The 
research was made in the mechanical laboratory of 
the department of engineering of the Stevens insti- 
tute of technology, and included the determination 
of moduli of resistance in tension, torsion, and ‘com- 
pression, as wellas for transverse loading, The woods 


‘are specified by their Cuban and by their botanical 


names, and can thus be identified. The first part of 
the work is now published; and the moduli of elas- 
ticity found for forty woods of sixteen distinct species 
are given, together with a full description of the 
apparatus, and the methods of test. These moduli 
are all high, and run very uniformly, usually above 
two millions. But one (Caoba) falls under a mil- 
lion and a half. The stiffest woods are the Dagame 
(Colyeophyllum candidissimum) and the Jiqui Comun 
(Bumelia nigra), which have a modulus of two mil- 
lions and a half. 

‘The woods described are nearly all hard, strong, 

heavy, highly colored, taking a handsome finish, and 
excellent for constructive purposes. Some of them 
are not liable either to decay, or to injury by insects. 
They seem quite likely, should they become known 
through Mr. Estrada’s work, to prove exceedingly 
valuable additions to the stock of available woods for 
the American market ; and their introduction is likely 
to afford a valuable commerce, if it is properly encour- 
aged by our own consular department and the Cuban 
officials. A full account of this part of the investi- 
gation is given in Van Nostrand’s magazine for No- 
vember. 
* —The Johns Hopkins university circular for No- 
vember announces the resignation of Professor Syl- 
vester from the chair of mathematics, and his early 
return to Europe. His loss to this country will be 
keenly felt by our mathematicians, for his presence 
and activity have given mathematical studies a re- 
markable stimulus in this country. We notice, in the 
December number of the American journal of math- 
ematics, so long conducted by Professor Sylvester, 
the name of Dr. Craig given as assistant editor, which 
we trust indicates that it will be continued by the lat- 
ter after Professor Sylvester’s departure. The Johns 
Hopkins university has recognized the value of Pro- 
fessor Sylvester’s services by electing him professor 
emeritus, and by passing resolutions in which the 
board of trustees “cordially extend to him its hearty 
thanks for the invaluable services which he has ren- 
dered to the university, and also its profound sense 
of the great ability, the conscientious fidelity and 
untiring energy, with which he has discharged the 
arduous duties of his chair, thereby elevating the sci- 
ence of mathematics to its proper plane, not only in 
this institution, but in this country.” 

The circular also announces the acceptance by 
Dr. Paul Haupt, professor of Assyriology in the Uni- 
versity of Géttingen, of a call to the Johns Hopkins 
university as professor of the Shemitie languages. 
Dr. Haapt has already commenced his work, and 
has classes organized in Hebrew, Arabic, Assyrian, 
Ethiopic, and Sumero-Accadian. 


SCIENCE. 


781 


— Killingworth Hedges described to the British as 
sociation the fire risks of electric lighting, and is thus 
reported in Nature. There is a great difference be- 
tween the electric currents which have been in con- 
stant use for telegraphic purposes and those which 
are to be supplied by the undertakers under the 
Electric-lighting act. The latter can be said to be 
free from danger only when the heat generated by 
the current is utilized in its right place, and not devel- 
oped in the conductors or wires which lead the elec- 
tricity to the incandescent lamps. The Fire-risk 
committee have already issued rules for guidance of 
users of electric light. These can hardly be said to 
embrace all the salient points of the new subject, 
which can only be arrived at after years of practical 
work. The necessity of proper regulations has al- 
ready been recognized by the insurance-offices, both 
in the United States and Germany; and some of their 
special rules are given in this paper. ‘Che conductors 
must be properly proportioned for the current they 
have to carry. Whatever resistance there is in the 
conduetor will cause a corresponding development of 
heat, which will vary with the amount of electricity 
passing, and inversely as the sectional area, As the 
temperature in Dr. Matthiessen’s experiments upon 
the subject was not increased over 100° C., the author 
has made some further experiments, heating the wires 
by the electric current from a secondary battery to 
within a few degrees of their melting-point. Various 
materials were tried; the wires and foils having such 
sectional area, and being so arranged, that, on the 
eurrent being increased by twenty per cent, they were 
immediately fused. The total length of each experi- 
ment was twenty-four hours, during which time the 
current passing through varied slightly.”. The results 
of the experiments were given. 

—Mr. Joseph Thacher Clarke is giving a course 
of three lectures on classical archeology before the 
Johns Hopkins university, in one of which the re- 
cent work at Assos, under his direction, will receive 
special attention. 

— On Noy, 13 the Arlberg tunnel, the third Jargest 
not only in Europe but in the world, was opened. 
It was not exactly the formal opening which took 
place Nov. 13 (this was celebrated Noy. 20), but the 
sounding-rod (three metres long) of the powerful 
boring-machine penetrated from the west side to the 
east gallery. A mass of rock sixty centimetres thick 
still separated the two galleries. One gallery was 
driven from St. Anton, on the Tyrolese side, and the 
other gallery from Langen in Vorarlberg. Both gal- 
leries sloped upward into the mountain; the Tyro- 
lese rising two feet in a thousand, the steeper Vorarl- 
berg fifteen feet in a thousand. When the Tyrolese 
section had penetrated 4,102 metres, it was contin- 
ued downwards at the grade of the eastern end, the 
point of intersection lying nearer the west than the 
east mouth of the tunnel. As with the St, Gothard - 
tunnel, there was but one mistake in the measure- 
ment, the length of the tunnel being three metres 
less than was computed. 

The construction of the tunnel (10,265 metres long 
was begun June 22, 1880, by hand, and Novy. 13 of 


782 


the same year, machines were introduced ; so that an 
opening was made just three years to a day from the 
first time that the point of the drill, driven by com- 
pressed air, was forced into the gneiss of the Arlberg. 
The laying of the road is to be completed in six 
months, so that business: may be conducted about the 
middle of May. 

The St. Gothard tunnel is 14,900 metres long. The 
boring in Airolo and Géschenen began in 1873. After 
seven and a half years’ work, the last layer of rocks 
was broken through Feb. 29, 1880; and June 1, after 
nine years and a quarter consumed in its construction, 
the road was opened to commerce. The Mount Cenis 
tunnel (12,323 metres long) was built in fourteen 
years and a quarter. 

With the completion of the Arlberg tunnel by the 
union of the Adriatic Sea and Europe’s granary, 
Hungary, a further connection is established with the 
heart of the continent. The Arlberg road, therefore, 
has not only for Austria-Hungary, but more espe- 
cially for Switzerland, great commercial and political 
significance. 

— Dr. H. Newell Martin, of Johns Hopkins univer- 
sity, gave, in November, four lectures on the minds of 
animals, before the Peabody institute of Baltimore, 
covering the subjects of instinct and reason, the emo- 
tions and moral sense, in animals. 

—La Nature presents an illustration of the new 
form of equatorially mounted telescope, lately set up 
at the observatory of Paris, in which the tube of the 
instrument is bent at right angles; one portion of it 
constituting the polar axis of its mounting, and the 
other moving thus in the plane of the equator. The 
rays of light from any celestial object are brought to 
the eye of the observer after reflection from two mir- 
rors, the loss of light from which is said to be inap- 
preciable. This form of mounting does away with 
the customary dome covering the equatorial: and the 
observatory may be said to consist of two parts, — the 
moyable one, covering the object-glass end of the tele- 
scope; and the fixed part, that in which the observer 
sits and makes his observations, completely protected 
against the weather. The new instrument is the 
most powerful one at the Paris observatory, and was 
built by MM. Eichens and Gauthier, and the broth- 
ers Henry. The form of construction is due to M. 
Loewy, and it has been built through the liberality 
of M. Bischoffsheim. 

—In a late number of Natwren, Dr. Geelmuyden 
has a paper entitled ‘Om Islaendernes gamle kalen- 
dere,’ or the ancient calendars of the Icelanders, the 
chief peculiarity of which lay in the regarding of 
the week as the unit of measurement of time. There 
was also a year of fifty-two weeks, or three hundred 
and sixty-four days, as also twelve months of thirty 
days each; the last of these coming in the summer, 
and having the Swmar-auke, or summer addition of 
the four extra days. The half-years were called mis- 
seri, and were more frequently employed as a meas- 
urement of time than the full year itself. About the 
year 1000, when Christianity was introduced into 
Iceland, the calendar of that nation was modified into 
a near approximation to the Julian calendar; and 


SCIENCE. 


. Hante, Ind. ; 


[Vo.. 11, 


early in the year 1700 the new style of reckoning was 
adopted in Iceland, at the same time with Norway 
and Denmark. 

— The following persons, foutiealn connected with 
Johns Hopkins university, have received recent ap- 


pointments: Edward Barnes, professor of the higher " 


No. 45... 


mathematics in the Rose polytechnic institute, Terre 


William C. Day, professor of chemistry 


and physics in St. John’s college, Annapolis; George’ 


S. Ely, professor of mathematics in Buehtel college, 
Ohio; Kakichi Mitsukuri, professor of zoology in the 
University of Tokio, Japan; William A. Noyes, pro- 
fessor of chemistry in the University of Tennessee; 
and William T. Sedgwick, assistant professor of biol- 
ogy in the Massachusetts institute of technology, 
Boston. It is also stated by the Nation that Dr. 
C. S. Hastings has received the appointment to the 
chair of physics in the Sheffield scientific school of 
Yale college, New Haven. 

— Dr. John Rae writes in the Athenaeum, ‘* In the 
Athenaeum of the 28th of July there is an extract 
from a letter of Capt. H. P. Dawson, to the following 
effect: ‘On inquiry, I find that all the far-off Indians 
describe stone pyramids or altars on the tops of some 
of the hills far to the north and east of this, .. - 


composed of blocks of roughly hewn stone of a size_ 


such that the men of these days cannot lift... . 
The Indians look upon these remains with great dread, 
and will not go near them.’ I do sincerely hope that 
Capt. Dawson may discover something new on these 
reported monuments of ‘roughly hewn stone;’ but 
I fear they will be found to be the well-known work of 
the Eskimo, who, where the country is hilly and rocky, 
delight in putting up stones of very considerable size 
— although not larger than a few men can lift—in all 
sorts of picturesque forms, especially in the neigh- 
borhood of a fayorite camping-place. An excellent 
illustration of these Eskimo constructions may be 
seen in the narrative of Sir George Back (facing 
p. 378), describing his descent of the Great Fish River 
in 1834. The Indians, unless they are in great num- 
bers, have a very wholesome and wide-spread fear of 
the Eskimo, and therefore havea ‘ great dread of going 
near these remains,’ thinking they might meet the 
people who built them.’’ 

— Professor William Trelease, of the University of 
Wisconsin, will give four lectures in January, upon 
the fertilization of flowers, before the Johns Hopkins 
university. ‘ 

—It is stated in Nature that the meeting of the 
Linnean society of London for Dec. 6 was to be ex- 
clusively devoted to the reading of a posthumous 
essay on instinet, by the late Mr. Darwin. The 
essay was said to be full of important and hitherto 
unpublished matter with regard to the facts of ani- 
mal instinct considered in the light of the theory of 
natural selection; and, as the existence of the essay 
has only now been divulged, this meeting of the 
Linnean society must have been of an unusually in- 
teresting character. 

— Prof. 8. P. Langley, of Allegheny observatory, will 


give six illustrated lectures next February, on the sun — 


and stars, before the Peabody institute of Baltimore. 


a LENCE 


FRIDAY, DECEMBER 21, 1883. 


JOHN LAWRENCE LECONTE. 


AMERICAN science has suffered a sad loss in 
the death of one of its best-known exponents. 
An advanced 
leader in his own 
department, pro- 
found and accu- 
rate in his labors, 
a cultured schol- 
ar, a genial com- 
panion and a true 
friend, — such a 
man was Le- 
Conte. 

John L. Le- 
Conte, the son of { 
Major John Eat- 
ton LeConte and 
Mary A. H. Law- 
rence, was born 
May 13, 1825, in 
New-York City. 
When but a few 
weeks old, his 
mother died, and 
the father thence- 
forward devoted - 
himself to the care 
and development 
of his only child. 
The father died in 
1860, having seen 
his son rise to a 
foremost place 
among the natu- 
ralists of his day. 

On arriving at suitable age, he was placed in 
St. Mary’s college, Maryland, from which he 
was graduated in 1842. The discipline of the 
school was severe, the training accurate and 
thorough. Early in his pupilage he exhibited 

No. 46.—1883. 


SS bc pink 
ci 


decided tastes for natural-history studies out- 
side of the scholastic course, greatly to the 
alarm of his tutors. The father, on being ap- 
prised of this, was greatly pleased, and dérect- 
ed that the tendencies should not be repressed, 
inasmuch as the boy exhibited no deficiency in 
his regular stud- 
ies. His progress 
in the study of 
mathematics and 
languages was 
rapid and_ thor- 
ough, and doubt- 
less laid the foun- 
dation for the 
accuracy and re- 
tentiveness of 
his memory, so 
marked in his ma- 
turer years. Af- 
ter the completion 
of the college 
course, he re- 
turned to his na- 
tive city, and en- 
tered the College 
of physicians and 
surgeons of New 
York, receiving 
his medical degree 
in 1846. 

For many years 
Major LeConte 
had been in cor- 
respondence with 
European — ento- 
mologists, nota- 
bly Dejean, and 
laid the founda- 
tion of the cabinet, now greatly enlarged, which 
made the basis of the future labors of the son. 
In 1844 the first essays of the latter in original 
work made their appearance, with unmistaka- 
ble evidences of his youth and inexperience. 


784 


During 1849 he made several visits to the 
Lake-Superior region, once in company with 
Professor Agassiz, collecting largely, and pub- 
lishing the results in Agassiz’ work on that 
region. In the autumn of 1850 he visited 
California, remaining the greater portion of 
the following year, stopping for a while at 
Parama, collecting largely in many depart- 
ments of natural history in a region in which 
nearly eyery thing was new to science, extend- 
ing his explorations through the Colorado des- 
ert and as far east as the Pima villages. The 
material collected in these regions was care- 
fully studied on his return, and the results pub- 
lished in the annals of the New-York lyceum. 
, In 1852 the LeContes removed to Philadelphia, 
where the greater portion of the scientific labors 
of both have since been published. For a few 
months in 1857 LeConte accompanied the Hon- 
duras interoceanic survey, under the late J. C. 
Trautwine, publishing his observations in the 
report of that expedition. He visited at the 
same time the Fuente de Sangre, contributing 
an account of that phenomenon in Squier’s 
‘Nicaragua.’ 

After these voyages, LeConte’s scientific 
labor was uninterrupted until the breaking-out 
of the war. In 1862 he was appointed surgeon 
of volunteers, and shortly after made medical 
inspector with the rank of lieutenant-colonel ; 
in which position he remained until 1865, ex- 
hibiting a capacity for organization and direc- 
tion in a wider field than the cabinet to which 
he had hitherto confined himself. 

During the summer of 1867 he acted as 


geologist of the survey for the extension of’ 


the Union Pacifie railway southward to Fort 
Craig, under the command of Gen. W. W. 
Wright. His report, which in no way de- 
tracts from his reputation as an entomologist, 
was published as part of the report of the sur- 
vey. 

In the autumn of 1869 he started for Eu- 
rope with his family, remaining abroad until 
near the close of 1872, visiting, in the mean 
time, Algiers and Egypt. His residence abroad 
interrupted somewhat his authorship, but not 
his studies. He visited all the accessible pub- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. L., No. 46. 


lie and private museums; and his wonderful 

memory of the species of his own cabinet en- 

abled him to settlé many doubtful points of 
synonymy. ‘Those who met him abroad were 

deeply impressed by his thorough scholarship, 

and his quick and accurate perception of the 

affinities of Coleoptera which he had never ° 
before seen. On his return he resumed his 

labors, which continued, with slight interrup- 

tions by ill health, until within a week of his — 
death. 

LeConte’s career in science began in 1844 
with his first paper in the proceedings of the 
Philadelphia academy, followed by others in 
other journals: these gave but little evidence 
of the future powers of the man, until, in 1850, 
his ‘ Monograph of Pselaphidae’ appeared, in 
which an arrangement of these minute forms 
was proposed which remains at present the basis 
of the general classification of these insects. 
Shortly after appeared his ‘ Attempt to classify 
the longicorn Coleoptera of America, north of 
Mexico,’ —a work of far wider application than 
indicated by its title, in which numerous sug- 
gestions of new characters and wider applica- 
tions of old ones are found. 

To follow his papers from this period would 
be a history of scientific coleopterology in 
America. Their importance and utility at- 
tracted attention abroad, and many were re- 
printed in whole or in part. As to their 
scope, they cover nearly every family in the 
order: and in every case his work is an im- 
provement on what preceded it; he always left 
a subject better than he found it. 

Several of his works require a special notice. 
His edition of the entomological writings of 
Say, in which he was assisted in their depart- 
ments by Baron Osten-Sacken and Mr. P. R. 
Uhler, proved of inestimable value to students 
by placing within easy access the works of that 
pioneer of American science. The volumes 
appeared in 1859, have run through several 
editions, and are still in demand. Realizing 
that his favorite branch needed greater encour- 
agement, he undertook, in 1860, the ‘ Classifi- 
cation of the Coleoptera of North America,’ 
with the accompanying list of species, and de- 


“sr 


DECEMBER 21, 1883.] 


scriptions of new forms. This work was never 
completed, but extended to the end of the 
Cerambycidae. The interruption of the work 
by the war made an interval of time in which 
the edition of the earlier-issued parts became 
exhausted, and, to a certain extent, antiquated 
from more recent studies. The results of this 
book are abundantly shown in the vast increase 
in the number of intelligent students and col- 
lectors, accompanied by a further demand for 
the exhausted edition, rendering a new one 
necessary. 

Before the new edition could be prepared, it 
became imperative to study the Rhynchophora ; 
and at this point LeConte made one of the 
boldest strokes of his career in the isolation of 
that series from other Coleoptera, and by pro- 
posing a classification of them as remarkable 
in novelty as it was true to nature. This was 
followed by the ‘Species of Rhynchophora,’ 
published as a separate volume by the Ameri- 
can philosophical society. 

The preparatory studies having been thus 
completed, LeConte looked forward with pleas- 
ure to an entirely new work to replace the old 
* Classification,’ and my co-operation was in- 
vited in the preparation of monographic essays. 
Two years ago, his health then slightly failing, 
he expressed the desire that the authorship of 
the new work should be equally divided; and 
in January, 1882, the work was begun. It was 
completed in March, 1883, in time for him to 
realize that it had been at least well received. 
To speak further of this work would, for obvi- 
ous reasons, be inappropriate : suffice it to say, 
that his first edition made the ground-work of 
the second, and his spirit actuated the embel- 
lishment of the superstructure. 

Since the completion of this work, his health 
has not admitted of much study: but he con- 
tinued his work until within a few days of his 
death, and the incomplete manuscript will be 
published in the form he desired. 

While LeConte’s reputation will be based 
on his entomological writings, he by no means 
limited himself to this field. Mention has al- 
ready been made of several important geologi- 
cal contributions. There are others of less 


SCIENCE. 


785 


moment. He has contributed a number of 
articles on vertebrate paleontology, and several 
on existing mammals. His ‘ Zodlogical notes of 
a visit to Panama’ (Proce. Philad. acad., 1852) 
illustrate the extent of his study in another 
direction. At least one article on purely social 
science has emanated from his pen. 

In a general review of his writings, LeGente 
is found remarkably free from controversial 
tendencies. He gave to science the best re- 
sults of his labor, knowing that what was 
worthy would in time be adopted. I know 
that he was better pleased to have errors of 
his own corrected than to correct those of an- 
other. He was above the limit of those petty 
jealousies which too often prevail between active 
workers in the same field. ‘Those who sought 
his advice or assistance, either in person or by 
correspondence, were always made welcome ; 
and the numerous cabinets determined by him 
gave evidence alike of his industry and lib- 
erality. The result of LeConte’s labors has 
been the eleyation of coleopterology in Amer- 
ica from a traditional knowledge to a science 
with a permanent and distinctive literature. 

LeConte was president of the American as- 
sociation for the advancement of science in 
1874; and his address on retiring, regarding 
the relations of the geographical distribution 
of Coleoptera to paleontology, opened a new 
field for the thoughtful student. 

No prominent public position was ever held 
by LeConte. He was urged by his friends for 
the position of commissioner of agriculture ; 
and, while he received an indorsement of which 
any man might be proud, the choice of Presi- 
dent Hayes gave it to another. ‘That his emi- 
nence as a naturalist was recognized is shown 
in the numerous societies, at home and abroad, 
of which he was elected a member. Of the 
entomological societies of London, France, and 
Berlin, he was made an honorary member, —a 
distinction attainable by few, from the limited 
number allowed by the societies’ rules. At 
the time of his death he was president of the 
American entomological society, and a vice- 
president of the American philosophical so- 
ciety. 


786 


In 1861 Dr. LeConte was married to Helen, 
daughter of the late Judge Grier, who, with two 
sons, survives him. 

Dr. LeConte died Nov. 15, 1883, and was 
buried in West Laurel Hill cemetery, in the 
vicinity of Philadelphia. His death is an ir- 
reparable loss to American science, and a calam- 
ity in his special department. 

Gerorce H. Horn. 


THE WEATHER IN OCTOBER, 1883. 


Tue monthly review of the U. S. signal-ser- 
vice gives in copious detail the weather condi- 
tions which prevailed in October. The peculiar 
features of the month were the deficiency in 
temperature and excess in rainfall in the greater 
part of the country. The former was most 
strongly marked in the Missouri valley and 
New England, the mean temperature falling be- 
low the average 3°.7 and 3°.6 respectively in 
these districts. In Tennessee, Florida, the Rio 
Grande: valley, the South Atlantic and Gulf 
states, however, the mean temperature was 
from 2°.5 to 4°.3 above the average; so that 
the distribution of temperature was rather ir- 
regular. One instance of a maximum temper- 
ature of 100° was noted, while the frosts were 
frequent. 

The distribution of penne is indicated by 
the following table : — 


Average precipitation for October, 1883. 


Average for October. 
Signal-service observa- Comparison of 
Districts. REI October, 1883, 
oereveel JOG averse? 
years. For 1883. 
Inches. Inches. Inches. 

New England .. 82 6.23 2.41 excess. 
Middle Atlantic states. 3.07 5.13 2.06 excess. 
South Atlantic states . 4.77 3.14 1.68 deficiency. 
Florida peninsula . 6.27 9.09 2.82 excess, 
Eastern gulf... . 3.7 2.51 1.28 deficiency. 
Western gulf. . .. 3.75 5.23 1.48 excess, 
Rio Grande valley . . 3.86 0.94 2.92 deficiency. 
Tennessee. . . . ° 3.42 5.60 2.18 excess. 
QOhiovalley ... c 3.04 6.75 3.71 excess. 
Lowerlakes . ... - 3.12 2.86 0.26 deficiency. 
Upperlakes< 55 2. 3.80 3.62 0.18 deficiency. 
Extreme north-west 2.01 2.93 0.92 excess. 
Upper Mississippi valley, 3.19 4.82 1.63 excess. 
Missouri valley . . . 2.01 4.12 2.11 excess. 
Northern slope . . 0.81 1.94 1.13 excess. 
Middle slope. . 1.26 3.40 2.14 excess. 
Southern slope . 1.57 2.98 1.41 excess. 
Northern plateau . 2.50 1.64 0.86 deficiency. 
Southern plateau 0.67 0.84 0.17 excess. 
North Pacifie coast. 4.45 3.49 0.96 deficiency. 
Middle Pacific coast . 1.11 1.71 0.60 excess. 
South Pacific coast. . 0.33 1.16 0.83 excess. 


The drought in New England and in some 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. II., No. 46. 


portions of the Southern States was broken by 
the pious rains of the month, but still con- 
tinued in other sections. 

The storms of the month present some no- 
ticeable features. The weather over tne 
North Atlantic Ocean was generally stormy, 
being attended by a succession of strong west- 
erly “breezes. There were seven depressions 
charted on the ocean, all of which moyed in a 
north-easterly direction. Of these, four were 
continuations of storms in the United States, 
one of which moved to the British coast; and 
one was a tropical hurricane which gave evi- 
dence of its presence off the Atlantic coast by 
high winds at coast stations, and which moved 
north-eastward as far as the twentieth meridian. 
Nine depressions were charted in the United 
States; all, with one exception, moving north- 
easterly, and but one being a severe storm. 
This occurred on the 17th and 18th, causing 
violent gales on Lake Michigan, though few 
casualties were reported. One depression 
moved in quite an unusual path: it was re- 
ported at Yuma, Arizona, on the 2d, and 
moved in a northerly direction into British 
America. There is reason to believe that it 
was a tropical hurricane which crossed Mexico 
in the latter part of September from the Carib- 
bean Sea, and, recurving in the Pacific, entered 
the country in Arizona as a weak depression. 
All of the tropical hurricanes of this season 
have run their courses mainly in the ocean, 
Though they have been fully as numerous and 
as severe as usual, their ravages have been 
confined to the islands in their path and to the 
vessels exposed to their fury. 

Sunspots continue to be numerous. ‘There 
was only one brilliant aurora in October, and 
this was observed principally in New England 
and northern New York. Severe shocks of 
earthquake were experienced in San Francisco 
on the 9th and 10th, causing considerable 
alarm, but no material damage. A new volcano 
has made its appearance, bursting out in Be- 
ring Sea: it has been exceedingly active, haying 
already formed an island eight hundred to 
twelve hundred feet high. On the 20th a 
shower of mixed sand and water fell at Una- 
lashka, sixty miles east of the volcano, which 
may have come from it. 

The accompanying map represents the mean 
pressure, temperature, and wind-directions. 
The former is worthy of note because of the 
regular increase of pressure from west to east. 
Usually there are two high areas in October, — 
one near the eastern coast, and the other in the 
north-western territories. The latter was want- 
ing in October of this year. 


SCIENCE. 


DECEMBER 21, 1883.] 


PusLieHep BY OADER OF THE 
SECRETARY OF WAR. 


MONTHLY MEAN ISOBARS, ISOTHERMS, 


“AND WIND-DIRECTIONS, OCTOBER, 1883. REPRINTED IN REDUCED FORM 
CHIEF SIGNAL-OFFICER. 


BY PERMISSION OF THE 


788 


A NEW RULE FOR DIVISION IN 
ARITHMETIC. 


Tue ordinary process of long division is 
rather difficult, owing to the necessity of 
guessing at the successive figures which form 
the divisor. In case the repeating decimal 
expressing the exact quotient is required, the 
following method will be found convenient. 


Rule for division. 


First, Treat the divisor as follows : — 

If its last figure is a 0, strike this off, and 
treat what is left as the divisor. 

If its last figure is a 5, multiply the whole 
by 2, and treat F the product as the divisor. 

If its last figure is an even number, multiply 
the whole by 5, and treat the product as a di- 
visor. 

Repeat this treatment until these precepts 
cease to be applicable. Call the result the 
prepared divisor. 

Second, From the prepared divisor cut off 
the last figure ; and, if this be a 9, change it to 
al, or,if it be a 1, change it to a 9: otherwise 
keep it unchanged. Call this figure the eatra- 
neous multiplier. 

Multiply the extraneous multiplier into the 
divisor thus truncated, and increase the pro- 
duct by 1, unless the extraneous multiplier be 
7, when inerease the product by 5. Call the 
result the current multiplier. 

Third, Multiply together the extraneous 
multiplier and all the multipliers used in the 
process of obtaining the prepared divisor. 
Use the product to multiply the dividend, ecall- 
ing the result the prepared dividend. 

Fourth, From the prepared dividend cut 
off the last figure, multiply this by the current 
multiplier, and add the product to the trun- 
cated dividend. Call the sum the modified 
dividend, and treat this in the same way. 
Continue this process until a modified dividend 
is reached which equals the original prepared 
dividend or some previous modified dividend ; 
so that, were the process continued, the same 
figures would recur. 

Fifth, Consider the series of last figures 
which have been successively cut off from the 
prepared dividend and from the modified divi- 
dends as constituting a number, the figure first 
cut off being.in the units’ place, the next in 
the tens’ place, and so on. Call this the jirst 
infinite number, because its left-hand portion 
consists of a series of figures repeating itself 
indefinitely toward the left. Imagine another 
infinite number, identical with the first in the 
repeating part of the latter, but differing from 
this in that the same series is repeated unin- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou IL, No. 46. 


terruptedly and indefinitely toward the right, 
into the decimal places. 

Subtract the first infinite number from the 
second, and shift the decimal point as many 
places to the left as there were zeros dropped 
in the process of obtaining the prepared divisor. 

The result is the quotient sought. 


Examples. 


1. The following is taken at random. Divide 
1883 by 365. 


First, The divisor, since it endsin 5, must © 


be multiplied by 2, giving 730. 
0, we have 73 for the prepared divisor. 

Second, The last figure of the prepared 
divisor being 3, this is the extraneous multi- 
plier. Multiplying the truncated divisor, 7, 
by the extraneous multiplier, 3, and adding 1, 
we have 22 for the current multiplier. 

Third, The dividend, 1883, has now to be 
multiplied by the product of 3, the extraneous 
multiplier, and 2, the multiplier used in pre- 
paring the divisor. The product, 11298, is 
the prepared dividend. 

Fourth, From the prepared dividend, 11298, 
we cut off the last figure, 8, and multiply this 
by the current multiplier, 22. The product, 
176, is added to the truncated dividend, 1129, 
and gives 1305 for the first modified divisor. 
The whole Operation is shown ney —_— 


Dropping the 


We stop at this point because 24 was a 
previous modified dividend, written under the 
form 240 aboye. Our 
(which need not in practice be written down) 
are, with their difference, — 

10,958,904,058 ; x 
10,958,904, 109.589041 0958904 
51.5890410958904 


Hence the quotient sought is 5.158904109. 


two infinite numbers. 


DECEMBER 21, 1883.] » 


Example 2. Find the reciprocal of 335667. 
The whole work is here given : — 
333667 7 


233567 1 
l 


700000 
Answer, .000002997. 


Example 3. Find the reciprocal of 41. 


Solution. — 4 1 _{9 
37|9 33/3 
Lat 
144 
148 
16/2 
74 
90 


Answer, .02439. 
C. S. Pemce. 


URNATELLA GRACILIS, A FRESH- 
WATER POLYZOAN. 


A PAPER on this polyzoan, by Professor Joseph 
Leidy, has been recently published, with illustrations, 
in the Journal of the Academy of natural sciences of 
Philadelphia. Urnatella was originally dis- 
covered in 1851, and briefly noticed in the 
Proceedings of the academy the same year, 
and also subsequently in 1854, 1858, and 
1870. It was found in the Schuylkill River 
at Philadelphia, but has not been seen else- 
where, except a dried but characteristic 
specimen on the shell of a Unio from Scioto 
River, Ohio. 

Urnatella is an interesting and beautiful 
form, living in association with Plumatella 
and Paludicella, and having similar habits, 
but is very different from them or any other 
known fresh-water polyzoan, and is most 
nearly related with the marine genus Pedi- 
cellina. It is found attached to the under 
side of stones beneath which the water can 
flow. As commonly observed, it consists 
of a pair of stems divergent in straight lines, 
or rather gentle curves, from a common disk 
of attachment. The stems slightly taper, 
and are beaded in appearance, due to di- 
vision into segments alternately expanded 
and contracted. The segments commonly 
range from two to a dozen, proportioned 
to the length of the stem, which, when 
longest, is about the eighth of an inch or a little more, 
The stems terminate in a bell-shaped polyp, with an 
expanded oval or nearly circular mouth slanting to 
one side, and furnished with about sixteen ciliated 


SCIENCE. . 78 


Fie. 1.— Urnatella gracilis. 
that on the right in the condition assumed when the animal is disturbed. 


9 


tentacles. The stems also usually give off a pair of 
lateral branches from the second segment succeed- 
ing the polyp, and frequently likewise from the first 
segment. The branches consist of a single segment 
or pedicle supporting a polyp, and usually also give 
off similar secondary branches. ‘The first and second 
segments are cylindroid, highly flexible, and mostly 
striated and colorless, and appear mainly muscular in 
structure. The succeeding segments are urn-shaped; 
the body of the urn being commonly pale brown, 
ringed with lines, and marked with dots of darker 
brown. The neck and pedicle of the urns are black. 
The different colors give the stem a beaded and alter- 
nately brown and blaek appearance, Through the 
lighter colored body of the urns a central cord can 
be seen, extending through the length of the stem. 
The urn-shaped segments exhibit lateral pairs of cup- 
like processes, which correspond in position with the 
branches from the terminal pair of segments of 
the stem, and apparently indicate branches which 
have separated from the parent stem to establish 
themselves elsewhere as new polyp-stocks. 

A series of specimens of’ Urnatella — from such as 
consist only of a simple cylindrical, flexible pedicle, 
supporting a polyp, to those with long stems, consist- 
ing of a dozen segments — indicates the urn-shaped 
segments to be formed successively through segmen- 
tation of the originally single simple pedicle. The 
segments, therefore, do not correspond with what were 
polyps; but the terminal polyp is permanent, and the 
segments originate by division from its neck, very 
much as the segments of the tape-worm arise from its 
head. After the destruction of the head, the seg- 


The one on the left with the polyps expanded; 


mented stem remains persistent; but what becomes 
of it ultimately has not been determined. Probably 
the segments may serve the purpose of the statoblasts 
of other fresh-water polyzoa, but the question has not 


790 


been ascertained. A common mode of propagation 
of Urnatella appears to be by budding, the formation 
of branches with their terminal polyps, and the de- 
tachment of these branches to establish stocks else- 
where. The different specimens apparently indicate 
this process, though it was not actually observed. 
Though the stem of Urnatella is invested with a 
firm, chitinous integument, it still retains its flexibil- 
ity; so that, when the polyp is disturbed, it not only 
closes its bell, and bends its head, but the entire stem 
bends, or even becomes revolute. Sometimes the 
polyps suddenly twist the stems from side to side, as 


Fic. 2.— Urnatella gracilis, with the main stem of four segments, 
and a terminal expanded polyp. Branches are™given off by 
the third segment, and a bud from the fourth. 


if they had become wearied of remaining longer in 
the same position. 

The interior of the polyp is mainly occupied by the 
alimentary apparatus. From the mouth of the bell 
a funnel converges as the pharynx; and the tube of 
the former, as the oesophagus, occupies the shorter 
side of the bell. At the bottom of the latter the 
oesophagus opens into a capacious retort-like stomach, 
which occupies two-thirds of the capacity of the 
polyp. The stomach towards the mouth of the bell 
has an alembic-like pylorus, from which a short in- 
testine turns ventrally to expand in an oval colon. 
From this a short rectum opens about the centre of 
the mouth of the bell. The pharynx, oesophagus, 
and stomach are lined with ciliated epithelium. The 
ventral side of the stomach has the epithelium 
colored brown, indicating, as in other polyzoa, an he- 
patic function. The polyp feeds on vegetable par- 
ticles mainly, including diatoms, desmids, etc.; and 
the food may be observed in an incessant whorl in 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 46. 


the axis of the stomach, induced by the action of the 
cilia lining the latter. ‘The polyp is almost constantly 
infested with parasites, often in large numbers, which 
mingle with the food, and accompany this in its moye- 
ment. The parasite is a ciliated infusorian, distin- 
guished with the name of Anoplophrya socialis. 
From time to time, remains of the food are passed into 
the colon, and here accumulated into an oval pellet, 
which is then quickly discharged from the mouth of 
the bell. 

Generative organs, or provision of any kind for the 
production of ova, were not detected, nor were eggs 
observed. 

Urnatella differs from the marine genus Pedicellina 
mainly in not having an attached and creeping root- 
stalk, and in having free, pendent, and jointed stems, 
instead of simple pedicles. 


THE PHYLOGENY OF THE HIGHER 
CRUSTACEA. 


THE clas$ Crustacea is one of the dominant groups 
of the animal kingdom, and it includes a very con- 
siderable proportion of our living animals. Its repre- 
sentatives are extremely diversified in structure; and 
a single order, such as the Decapoda, includes a much 
greater variety and diversity of forms than the whole 
class of insects. It is very rich in primitive and transi- 
tional forms; and when we add to this, that there 
is no group in which our embryological knowledge is 
more rich and varied, or in which the embryological 
history of the individual throws so much light upon 
the evolution of the race, its importance as a means 
for tracing the actual history of the evolution of 
species is obvious. Infact, most of the problems in 
the logic of morphological reasoning, are, in great part 
at least, problems in the morphology of the Crus- 
tacea. 

Since the awakening in natural science which fol- 
lowed the publication of the Origin of species, many 
naturalists have attempted to disentangle the story of 
the phylogeny of the Crustacea. Some of these at- 
tempts, such as Miiller’s ‘Fir Darwin’ and Huxley’s 
* Crayfish,’ are familiar to all; while others, such as 
Claus’ ‘ Crustaceen system,’ are known to none except 
specialists. The latest attempt in this field (‘‘ Studien 
uber die verwandtschaftsbeziehungen der Malakostra- 
ken,” by Dr. J. E. V. Boas, Morph. jahrb., viii. 4, . 
1883) is, to say the least, a very valuable addition to 
crustacean morphology, as well as an interesting 
study in scientific logic. Its results seem to be a close 
approximation to the true natural classification of the 
higher Crustacea, and it should therefore receive the 
careful attention of all naturalists, and of all who wish 
to be informed regarding the methods of thought in 
morphology; but as it is from necessity filled with 
minute details, which would be formidable to all 
except specialists, the general reader must be con- 
tented with a summary of the results. 

The proof that the crabs are descended from long- 
tailed decapods is familiar to all naturalists; and no 
one can doubt, that, among these, the swimming dec- 


DECEMBER 21, 1883.] 


apods, such as Penaeus, are the most primitive. So 
far, the phylogeny of the decapods may be regarded 
as definitely settled, and Boas proposes no modifica- 
tion of the accepted view; but his opinion regarding 
the origin of the swimming decapods from the lower 
Crustacea is novel, and the evidence which he fur- 
nishes seems to be conclusive. The Decapoda are 
generally regarded as the modified descendants of the 
schizopods; but Boas points out that the order Schiz- 
opoda is not a natural group, since the animals which 
have been included in it belong to two widely sepa- 
rated orders. 

According to this author, the Euphausiacea and the 
Mysidacea are not at all intimately related. The latter 
are not in the line which leads to the Decapoda, and 
there is no natural group Schizopoda. He therefore 
divides the group into two orders, — the Euphausiacea 
and the Mysidacea: the former including the primitive 
unspecialized forms through which the Decapoda have 
been evolyed from the lower Crustacea; and the latter 
containing highly specialized forms, which have been 
evolved from the Euphausiacea along an independent 
line, and which haye no direct relationship to the 
Decapoda. He holds, that the Euphausiacea are a syn- 

' thetic group of Crustacea which has given rise to 
several divergent groups of descendants. Of these, 
the decapod stem has undergone the least modification. 
A second stem, the Mysidacea, has diverged in an 
entirely different direction, has departed yery widely 
from the primitive form, and has, in its turn, giver 
rise to the Cumacea, and through these to the amphi- 
pods and isopods, the latter being the most highly 
modified of the Malacostraca. A third line of descent 
from the Euphausiacea has given rise to the Squil- 
lacea, 

The recognition by Boas of the fact, that the group 
Schizopoda is not a natural one, and the discovery 
that the animals which have been thus associated 
may be divided into a very primitive group, the 
Euphausiacea, and a highly specialized group, the 
Mysidacea, seems to be a very great advance in crus- 
tacean morphology. 

He gives the following definition of the Euphau- 
siacea:— 

Malacostraca, with the mid-body and abdomen com- 
pressed, with a well-marked bend in the abdomen; 
carapace well developed; the last segment of the mid- 
body a complete ring; eyes stalked; antenna with a 
large scale; mandible simple; first maxilla with broad, 
one-jointed palp, and with well-developed exopodite; 
second maxilla with a similar palp, and with exopodite, 
and a cleft lacinia interna. The appendages of the 
mid-body or cormopods all have a well-developed ex- 
opodite, and an epipodite which is subdivided in all 
except the first pair, where it is simple. The endopo- 
dite is thin and weak, and it does not end in a sharp 
point: it is more or less rudimentary on the last two 
pairs. The first cormopods are not specialized as 
maxillipeds, but are like the others. The abdominal 
feet are powerful swimming-organs, with an appendix 
interna. In the male the first or most anterior ones 
are specialized as copulatory organs. The tail-fins 
are well developed. The liver is composed of a great 


SCIENCE. 


791 


number of small lobes. The heart is short and wide. 
The halves of the reproductive organ are united by 
a transverse unpaired portion. Spermatophores are 
present, and the spermatozoa are simple round cells. 
There is an antennary gland. The young leaves the 
egg as a free-swimming nauplius, and the carapace of 
the older larva is a great phyllopod-like mantle. 

It is easy to trace the relationship between this 
group and the decapods, on the one side, and, on the 
other side, through Nebalia, to the phyllopods and 
lower Crustacea. 

The Decapoda natantia resemble the Euphausiacea 
in many conspicuous and highly important particu- 
lars. In these two groups alone, among the Mala- 
costraca, we have a free-swimming nauplius; and in 
both the carapace of the larva is a great mantle. The 
abdomen is bent in both, and the integument is 
horny. The carapace, the abdominal appendages, 
the large tail-fin, and the pointed telson, are alike in 
both. The endopodite of the first.pleopod is a copu- 
latory organ in the decapods as well as in the Eu- 
phausiacea; and spermatophores are almost universal 
in these two groups, while they are found in no 
other Malacostraca. 

The close relationship between these two groups 
can hardly be questioned; nor is it difficult to show © 
that the Euphausiacea are the primitive, and the Dec-— 
apoda the derived, form. In the presence of simple 
epipodites, and of a four-jointed palp on the first max- 
illa, the Penaeadae are nearer to the phyllopods than 
Euphausia; but in all other respects Euphausia is the 
most primitive, and it shows its close relationship to 
the lower Crustacea by many characteristics, among 
which are the following. The terminal joint of the 
cormopods is.rounded and blunt, as it is in Nebalia, 
instead of being pointed, as it is in all the Malacostraca 
except Nebalia. There are no specialized maxilli- 
peds; but the first cormopod is like all the others, as 
it is in Nebalia, and all the cormopods are furnished 
with exopodite and epipodite: while in all other 
Malacostraca there are true maxillipeds; and either 
the exopodites or the endopodites, or both, are absent 
on some or on all the cormopods. The antenna has 
a well-developed exopodite; and in the young this is 
flabellum-like, and very similar to that of the adult 
Limnadia or Estheria. This feature of resemblance 
to the lower Crustacea is shared by the young of the 
Decapoda natantia, The first maxilla has a large 
exopodite; while this is rudimentary in the Decapoda 
and Mysidacea, the only other Malacostraca where it 
oecurs at all. The pleopods are much like those of 
Nebalia: they are efficient swimming-organs, and 
they are provided with an appendix interna. The 
spermatozoa, like those of the phyllopods, are simple 
round cells without tails; and this is true of no 
other Malacostraca except the squillas. 

While the Euphausiacea are thus seen to be very 
much like the phyllopods in so many important 
features, they are true Malacostraca; and they have 
deviated greatly from their phyllopod ancestor, and 
have acquired a small carapace, differentiated cor- 
mopods with long slender endopodite, small exopodite 
divided into shaft and flabellum, and an epipodite 


which is purely respiratory. They also differ from 
Nebalia in the possession’ of that distinetively mala- 
costracan organ, a tail-fin, made up of a telson and a 
pair of swimmerets. 

The relationship of Nebalia to the Malacostraca on 
the one hand, and to the phyllopods on the other, 
has long been recognized, and Claus has even gone 
so far as to hold that this form is a true malacostra- 
can; but Boas believes that it is neither a true 
malacostracan, nor the phyllopod from which the 
Malacostraca originated, but simply the nearest liy- 
ing ally of this ancestral form. 

He believes that the presence of a great mantle-like 
carapace, of eight unspecialized, broad cormopods 
with leaf-like exopodites, of a furecated abdomen with- 
out tail-fins, and of eight abdominal somites, show 
that it is not a malacostracan, but a phyllopod. As 
many phyllopods, such as Limnetis and the Clado- 
cera, have, like the Malacostraca, an exopodite on 
the second antenna, we must believe that the Mala- 
costraca have inherited this feature from their phyl- 
lopod ancestor; and, as it is absent in Nebalia, this 
form cannot be the direct ancestor of the Malacos- 
traca. So, too, the fifth and sixth pairs of abdominal 
feet are rudimentary in Nebalia, while they are well 
developed in nearly all Malacostraca. As most of the 
phyllopods, and some of the Malacostraca, leave the 
ege as a free-swimming nauplius, we must believe 
that this was true of the phyllopod ancestor of the 
Malacostraca; but as Nebalia does not pass through 
a free nauplius stage, but leaves the egg in a more 
advanced condition, it cannot be in the direct line of 
evolution. Boas therefore concludes that Nebalia is 
a true phyllopod, and that the Malacostraca have 
originated from a form somewhat different, although 
Nebalia is the closest living ally of this ancestral 
form. : 

Having thus traced-the decapods back through the 
Euphausiacea to a phyllopod ancestor very similar to 
the recent Nebalia, we have now to trace the ancestry 
of the other Malacostraca. Boas holds that the squil- 
loids are a branch from the Euphausiacea, and that 
the Mysidacea have been derived from the Euphau- 
siacea along still another line of descent, and have, in 
their turn, given rise to all the remaining groups of 
Malacostraca. 

The Mysidacea differ from the Euphausiacea and 
the decapods in many features which they show in 
common with the Cumacea and the amphipods and 
isopods; and it is not difficult to show, that, in these 
points of difference, the Euphausiacea are the primi- 
tive group, and the Mysidacea the modified group. 

In Euphausia, as in the swimming decapods, the 
body and abdomen are compressed; while they are 
flattened and rounded in the Mysidacea, and the tip 
of the abdomen is directed backwards, lacking the 
peculiar bend of Euphausia and Penaeus. 

The structure of the mandible is very instructive. 
In Mysis, as well as in the Cumacea and amphipods 
and isopods, the mandible is forked, the cutting part 
being widely separated from the crushing part; and 
between the two there is a row of setae, and a pecul- 
jar accessory appendix. In Euphausia and the deca- 


2 SCIENCE, 


[Vou. II., No. 46. 


pods the appendix and row of setae are absent, and 
the chewing part is hardly separated. from the crush- 
ing part. In Mysis, as in Cuma and the amphipods 
and isopods, the palp and exopodite of the first max- 
illa are absent, and the laciniae are turned forwards 
as well as inwards; and in all these forms the laciniae 
of the second maxilla are directed forwards. They 
overlap, and the lJacinia interna is undivided. In — 
Euphausia, the decapods, and squillas, there are no 
brood-pouches; but these structures are present in 
Mysis, as well as in the Edriophthalmata, and they 
are formed in essentially the same way in all, —by 
plates which are developed on the basal joints of cer- 
tain of the cormopods. In all these forms the young 
pass through a long metamorphosis within these 
pouches. The liver is comparatively simple. There 
are no spermatophores, and the spermatozoa have 
tails. The Cumacea are regarded by Boas as agreatly _ 
modified offshoot from the Mysidacea; and the am- 
phipods and isopods are derived from an ancestral 
form somewhat like, but more primitive than, the 
living Cumacea, 

As regards the position of the amphipods and iso- 
pods, Boas’s view is directly opposite to that which 
has been generally accepted; as he regards these as 
the most highly specialized and divergent of the 
Malacostraca, instead of low and primitive forms. 
The conspicuous segmentation of the nervous system, 
the absence of a carapace, the sessile position of the 
eyes, the great number of similar somites, the worm- 
like shape of the body, and the elongation of the heart, 
—all seem at first sight to show that these forms are 
ancient and low. Boas points out that the nervous 
system gives no proof of a primitive condition, as 
there are as many independent ganglia in Mysis as 
there are in the sessile-eyed Crustacea. It is true that 
the heart is longer than it is in Mysis; but there are 
only three pairs of ostia, and the length of the heart, 
as compared with that of the mid-body, is no greater 
than it isin Mysis. As the eyes are stalked in Neba- 
lia, the nearest ally of the Malacostraca, all of the 
latter must have inherited stalked eyes from their 
phyllopod ancestors, and the sessile eyes of the Edri- 
ophthalmata must be due to secondary modification. 
So, too, regarding the absence of a carapace. As the 
Malacostraca inherit this structure from the phyl- 
lopods, those forms in which it is absent must have 
lost it by secondary modification. The same thing is 
true of the absence of ascale on the antenna. There 
is, therefore, no proof that these animals are primitive; 
and the many points of resemblance to the Mysidacea 
which we have just noticed show the close relation- 
ship between these groups. But as the Mysidacea, 
like Euphausia and the decapods, have stalked eyes, 
a carapace, and a fused mid-body, exopodites in first 
maxillae, exopodites and palpi in second maxillae 
and on cormopods, and as a seventh abdominal seg- 
ment.is present, we must believe that the Mysidacea 
are the more primitive group, and the Edriophthal- 
mata their recently modified and highly specialized 
descendants. 

Boas believes that most of these differences are due 
to the fact that the Edriophthalmata have become 


DECEMBER 21, 1883.] 


adapted for running instead of swimming; and he 
thus explains the loss of the exopodites of the cormo- 
pods, the strengthening of the endopodites, the shor- 
tening of the abdomen, the loss of power in the 
pleopods, the flatness of the body and abdomen, the 
thickening of the integument, and the loss of eye- 
stalks and of the antennary scale. The respiratory 
function of the pleopods he attributes to the loss of 
the carapace, and the thickening of the integument. 

The general conclusions of this highly suggestive 
and interesting paper may be summarized as follows. 

The Malacostraca are descended from the phyllo- 
pods, among which Nebalia is their nearest relative. 

The Euphausiacea are the most primitive Malacos- 
traca. The decapods originated from the Euphau- 
siacea, although the most primitive decapods, the 
Natantia, are now widely separated from this ancestral 
form. ~The Squillacea stand by themselves, their 
nearest, although distant, allies being the Puphau- 
siacea. They show in certain points a more primi- 
tive condition than any other Malacostraca; although, 
as a whole, they are highly modified. 

The Mysidacea are also derived from the Euphau- 
siacea; although they are so different from them that 
they must be placed in a distinct order, and the 
group Schizopoda must be abandoned. The Mysi- 
dacea have no close relationship to the decapods. 

The Cumacea arise from the Mysidacea, and the 
amphipods and isopods from a form between the 
Mysidacea and the Cumacea, The amphipods and 
isopods are not a primitive group distantly related to 
the Podophthalmata, but they are the most highly 
specialized of the Malacostraca, 

Tle gives the following as his phylogenetic classifi- 
cation of the Crustacea: — 


Amphipoda. 
/ 
Isopoda, / Ms 


y 


Cumacea. 
Mysidacea. w ' 


Nea 


\ Lophogastrida. 
WA : 


Decapoda. 


quillacea, 


Eupbau|siacea. 
Nebalia. 


Phyllopoda. 


W. K. Brooks. 


SCIENCE. 


793 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


Radiant heat. 


Mr. FITZGERALD has fayored me with a paper! in 
which he takes exception to my views respecting 
radiant heat,* wherein he says, — 

** Suppose that two regions, A and B, be separated by three par- 
allel screens, /, m, and n, baying apertures in them, «, y, z, capa- 

l m n 


B 


ble of being opened and closed from the centre, so as to make every 
thing perfectly symmetrical round the line 42, perpendicular to 
the sereens. Now, if x be opened for a very short time, a certain 
quantity of radiant energy will escape out of A into the region 
between /and m; and if y be opened when this heat reaches m, 
it can certainly be let on into the region mn; and if ¢ be similarly 
opened when it reaches it, this radiant heat will getinto B. 
While 2 was open, however, some heat left 2; but, as Dr. Eddy 
observes, y may be closed so as not to let this even get through 
the screen. m, and it can be all returned into B by reflection 
through 2 or some other aperture. So far I entirely agree with 
Dr. Eddy, and so far it seems as if the result bad been to trans- 
fer heat from A to # without #’s losing any heat by having it 
transferred to 4. As I warned Dr. Eddy when I heard bis 
paper, there are, however, other bodies and regions to be con- 
sidered besides 4 and B. There are more than two bodies con- 
sidered : there is the region of the screens. Consider what hap- 
pens when the heat that escaped out of Binto the mn region tries 
to get back into B. Some door must be opened to let it pass; 
and, while it is passing in, an at least equal amount of heat will 
be passing out of B into the mn region, so that you can never 
really get the heat that has once left & back into B again. This 
is true, whether you adopt doors over fixed apertures, such as [ 
have supposed, or moving apertures, such as Dr. Eddy proposed. 
What really takes place is this: a certain quantity of heat es- 
capes out of A and reaches 2; and a not less quantity of heat 
leaves B, and is kept entangled in the region of the screens, and 
it is only possible to let the heat pass from A to B by means of 
this third region. Hence this only really comes to the same 
thing as letting A radiate some of its heat into the sereen region, 
while B is kept closely shut up. Now, be it observed that Dr. 
Eddy practically postulates that this screen region is at least 
colder than A— in fact, he assumes it to be perfectly cold, i.e. to 
contain no radiant heat except what is admitted from A and B, 
so that it is by no means contrary to the theory of exchanges that 
A might cool by radiating into this region.” 


Now, Mr. Fitzgerald has stated only two of the 
three things which occur while the door z is open. 
He omits to state, that in my process a certain amount 
of heat which has come from A also passes through 
the door z every time it is opened, into the region B; 
and this is all which is proposed to be accomplished 
by the process which is at all unusual or peculiar. 
Thus the fact remains, that although a definite amount ~ 
of heat from B remains entangled in the region mn, 
which is not increased with the lapse of time, there 
is a continued passage of heat through this region 
into B, that being the very object sought to be accom- 
plished by my process. It is not easily seen how 
the arrangement of screens and apertures proposed 
by Mr. Fitzgerald could be so manipulated as to 
bring the heat coming from A into a position such 


1 On Dr. Eddy’s hypothesis that radiant heat is an exception 
to the second law of thermodynamics. By George F. Fitzger- 
ald, M.A., F.T.C.D., Sc. proc. roy. Dubl. soc., iv. pt. i. 

2 Sc. proc. Ohio mech. inst., July, 1882. 


794 


that it would be in readiness to pass into B at the 
same time as the heat which originally came from B 
is returned to B, though my arrangement of moving 
screens readily accomplished this, as was admitted by 
Prof. J. Willard Gibbs in}his{criticism of my paper.? 

; ‘ vt H. T. Eppy, Ph.D. 


Area of a plane triangle. 


2In the Mathematical magazine (Krie, Penn.) tor 
April, Mr. James Main publishes, as a matter of curi- 
osity, a collection of ninety-four expressions for the 
area of a plane triangle. In Mathesis (Gand, Belgium) 
for June this list is republished; and in the August 
number of the same journal the subject is taken up 
again by M. Ed. Lucas, who extends the collection, 
and classifies into five groups. In the first group are 
eleven ‘unique’ expressions for the area, i.e., expres- 
sions that do not admit of other similar expressions 
by permuting the letters; in the second group are nine 
expressions, each admitting of two other similar ex- 
pressions by permuting the letters; in the third group 
are eleven expressions, each admitting of three other 
similar expressions; in the fourth group are seven ex- 
pressions, each admitting of five similar expressions ; 
and, last, the fifth group consists of a single formula, 
admitting of eleven similar expressions. Thus we 
have a hundred and thirty-six expressions for the area 
of a plane triangle in terms of the sides, angles, per- 
pendiculars, semiperimeter, and radii of the circum- 
seribed, inscribed, and escribed circles. M. Neuberg 
adds also three other unclassified formulae, with the 
statement that many other such may be found. The 
total number of expressions for the area of a plane 
triangle, in this collection, is therefore a hundred and 
thirty-nine, making it, perchance, the most complete 
collection that has been published. M. B. 


The Dora coal-field, Virginia. 


In the November number of The Virginias is con- 
tained a review of the report on the mineral resources 
of the United States, recently published by the U.S. 
geological survey, which contains the following: — 
“In Mr. Charles A. Ashburner’s report on anthracite 
coal, p. 32, is this statement concerning the Dora 
coal-field: ‘Of one of the reported anthracite locali- 
ties in Virginia, that in Augusta county, recent tests 
with the diamond-drill would seem to prove the pres- 
ence of anthracite,’’’ ete. In explanation of the 
above, I would like to state, that, by referring to 
the report reviewed, on p. 24 will be found a foot- 
note as follows: ‘‘ Mr. Ashburnev’s contribution and 
statistics end here.’’ I only stand responsible for a 
portion of the statistics relating to the anthracite 
region in Pennsylvania (pp. 7 to 24 inclusive). I 
desire to make this explanation public from the 
fact that I do not wish to be held accountable for 
questionable data relating to a coal-field of a very 
uncertain character, and which I have never ex- 
amined, 

Cuaries A. ASHBURNER, 
Geologist in charge Penn. anthracite survey. 
Philadelphia, Penn. 


Synchronism of geological formations. 

In Scrmnce of Dec. 7 your correspondent, Mr. 
Nugent, takes issue with me as to my conclusions 
bearing upon the relative ages of geological forma- 
tions, and contends that the geological and paleon- 
tological researches of the last twenty-one years (i.e., 
during the period that has elapsed since the publi- 
cation of Professor Huxley’s address referred to in 

1 Screncnr, i. 160. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 46. 


my communication before the Philadelphia academy 
of natural sciences) have only tended ‘to maintain” 
the logical basis’ on which the distinguished English 
naturalist rested. As the subject is a very important 
one, and one that has not, it appears to me, received 
its full measure of attention or discussion, I trust 
that you will permit me a little space for fuller ex- 
planation, even at the risk of repeating what has al- 
ready been said in your valuable columns. a 

Professor Huxley, in his anniversary address de- 
livered before the London geological society in 1862 
(Quarts journ., xviii. p. xlvi), maintains substan- 
tially, — 

I. That formations exhibiting the same faunal 
facies may belong to two or more very distinct periods 
of the geological scale as now recognized; and, con- 
versely, formations whose faunal elements are quite 
distinct may be absolutely contemporaneous: e.g., 
‘For any thing that geology or paleontology is able to 
show to the contrary, a Devonian fauna and flora in 
the British Islands may have been contemporaneous 
with Sijurian life in North America, and with a ear- 
boniferous fauna and flora in Africa”? (loc. cit.). 

Il. That, granting this disparity of age between 
closely related faunas, all evidence as to the uniform- 
ity of physical conditions over the surface of the earth 
during the same geological period (i.e., the periods 
of the geological scale), as would appear to be in- 
dicated by the similarity of the fossil remains belong- 
ing to that period, falls tothe ground. ‘‘ Geographical 
provinces and zones may have been as distinctly 
marked in the paleozoic epoch as at present; and 
those seemingly sudden appearances of new genera 
and species which we ascribe to new creations may 
be simple results of migration.” 

Now, without wishing to enter into the minutiae 
of the question, I believe a little reflection will clearly 
show, that if, as it is contended, several distinct 
faunas (i.e., faunas characteristic of distinct geo- 
logical epochs, and separated in. age from each other 
by possibly millions of years) may have existed con- 
temporaneously, ‘‘ evidences of inversion,’ to quote 
my own words, “‘in the order of deposit, ought to be 
common; or, at any rate, they ought to be indicated 
somewhere, since it can scarcely be conceived that ani- 
mals everywhere would have observed the same order 
of direction in their migrations.’? Given the possible 
equivalency in age, as hypothetically claimed, of the 
Silurian fauna of North America with the Devonian 
of the British Isles and the carboniferous of Africa, 
or any similar arrangement, why has it never hap- 
pened, it may be asked, that when migration, neces- 
sitated by alterations in the physical conditions of 
the environs, commenced, a fauna with an earlier life- 
facies has been imposed upon a later one, as the De- 
vonian of Great Britain upon the carboniferous of 
Africa, or the American Silurian upon the Devonian 
of Britain? Or, for that matter, the American Silu- 
rian may have just as well been made to succeed the 
African carboniferous. Reference to the annexed 
diagram, where D represents a Devonian area, say, in 
Europe, S a Silurian one in America, and C a car- 
boniferous one in Africa, —all contemporaneous, — 
will render this point more intelligible. 

Now, on the proposition here stated, reasoning 
from our present knowledge of the antiquity of faunas, 
and accepting the doctrine of migration, as main- 
tained by Professor Huxley and others, to account for 
the possible contemporaneity of distinct faunas, it may 
be assumed that S (or America) will receive its Devo- 
nian fauna from D; D (Europe), its carboniferous 
from C; and C (Africa), a later fauna from some 
locality not here indicated. In other words, a migra- 


o : 
DECEMBER 21, 1883.] 


iebcakeaa reer Ope ee ee eae ee 


tion, as indicated by the arrows, would set in from 
D to S, one from C to D, one from S to some possibly 
South American Cambrian locality, and one, bringing 
a Permian or some later-day fauna, from an unknown 
locality towards C. Were this order of migration to 
continue here, or at other portions of the earth’s sur- 
face, in this or in a similarly consecutive manner, the 
results obtained would be in perfect consonance with 
the facts presented by geology. But is there any 
reason whatever for the continuance of this order of 
migration? Surely no facts that have as yet been 
brought to light argue in favor of a continued migra- 
tion in one direction. Why, then, it might justly 
be asked, could not just as well a migration take place 
from S to D, and impose with it a Silurian fauna 
upon a Devonian? What would there be to hinder 


a 


a migration from S to C, placing the American 
Silurian fauna upon the carboniferous of Africa? 
Why, as I have asked, has it just so happened that a 
fauna characteristic of a given period has invariably 
succeeded one which, when the two are in superpo- 
sition all over the world (as far as we are aware), 
indicates precedence in creation or origination, and 
never one that can be shown to be of a later birth ? 
Surely these peculiar circumstances cannot be ac- 
counted for on the doctrine of a fortuitous migration. 
And it certainly cannot be claimed that through a 
process of transmutation or development, depend- 
ing upon the evolutionary forces, a fauna with a Silu- 
rian facies will, in the course of a possible migration 
toward a carboniferous locality, haye assumed a car- 
boniferous or Permian character. 

The facts of geology and paleontology are, it appears 
to me, decidedly antagonistic to any such broad con- 
temporaneity or non-contemporaneity as has been 


assumed by Professor Huxley; and their careful con- » 


sideration will probably cause geologists to demur to 
the statement that ‘all competent authorities will 
probably assent to the proposition that physical geol- 
ogy does not enable us in any way to reply to this 
question: Were the British cretaceous rocks deposited 
at the same time as those of India, or are they a mil- 
lion of years younger or a million of years older ? ” 
ANGELO HEILPRIN. 


Academy of natural sciences, 
Philadelphia, Dee. 8. 


THOMSON AND TAIT’S NATURAL 
PHILOSOPHY.'—II. 


Berore proceeding to an account of the rest 
of the work, we shall add a few more words of 
1 Concluded from No. 36. 


SCIENCE. 


795 


explanation upon the harmonic solutions of the 
differential equation (6), expressed in polar 
co-ordinates. On attempting to integrate this 
equation, it is found that there is an infinite 
number of particular solutions, as was before 
stated must necessarily be the fact; and each 
of these solutions is the product of three fac- 
tors. One factor is an arbitrary constant ; 
another factor is the radius vector raised to 
any integral power, positive or negative ; and 
the remaining factor is a function of the angular 
co-ordinates, dependent for its form upon the 
exponent of that power of the radius vector by 
which it is multiplied. It is this last factor, or 
coefficient, which gives the name of ‘spherical 
harmonics’ to the solution: indeed, these func- 
tions of the angular co-ordinates are them- 
selves surface-harmonics. 

If we restrict ourselves, as is usually done, 
to real integral powers of the radius vector 7, 
positive and negative, then, from the well-known 
principle that a general solution is obtained by 
taking the sum of particular solutions, we should 
have the most general possible solution by tak- 
ing the sum of a series of particular solutions, 
such as have just been described, in which the 
powers of 7 have all integral values between 
+oaand —x. But since it is found, upon 
computing the functions of the angular co-ordi- 
nates which constitute their coefficients, that 
the coefficients of r' and r—“*" are identical, 
it will be more convenient to write the gen- 
eral solution in the form — 


V = dofo (0,9) + (a, r + b, r-*)fi (8, 9) 
(aor? F b27—*) fo (0,0) 4 


+ (art + Dir — FD) (0,0) +... (8) 


In applying this to any given case, either all 
the arbitrary constants a vanish, or all the con- 
stants b; thus giving rise to the two general 
forms of solution before mentioned, in which 
there is a series of terms, either in ascending 
integral powers of r, or of descending integral 
powers of r. 

A value of V consisting of several terms is 
a compound spherical harmonic of the degree 
(positive or negative) of its numerically high- 
est power of r. A value of V consisting of 
a single term is a simple harmonic. * 

Returning, now, to the consideration of chap- 
ter vii. p. 98, entitled ‘ Statics of solids and flu- 
ids,’ the subject of rigid solids is disposed of in 
the course of thirty pages, nearly half of which 
is occupied with inextensible strings in the form 
of catenaries of various kinds. 

The authors hasten on to the more intricate 
matter of élistic solids. As is well known to 
students of this subject, the general problem 


796 


of finding the displacements in all parts of an 
elastic solid of any figure subjected to the action 
of known forces applied to its exterior surfaces, 
eyen when the solid is uniform in texture in all 
directions (i.e., isotropic) , transcends at present 
the powers of analysis, though considerable 
progress has been made toward a complete 
theory. An important contribution to this 
theory by Sir William Thomson is found on 
pp. 461 to 468 in Appendix C, entitled ‘ Equa- 
tions of equilibrium of an elastic solid deduced 
from the principle, energy.’ 

By reason of the incompleteness of the gen- 
eral theory, those simple cases are first treated 
which are most completely amenable to analy- 
sis. The forty pages succeeding p. 130 treat 
the special case of the elastic wire, whose 
fundamental equations were first thoroughly 
investigated by Kirchhoff in 1859. This treat- 
ment, which is of interest both to the mathe- 
matician and engineer, investigates not only the 
spirals which elastic wires of circular and of 
rectangular cross-section assume under the 
action of direct forces, and of couples produ- 
cing bending and twisting, but also goes into 
several important. side-issues, one of “which is 
the so-called kinetic analogy. A simple case 
of this, which is discussed at length, exists 
between the plane curves assumed by a thin 
flat spring, and the vibrations of a simple pen- 
dulum which it graphically represents. An- 
other important side-issue is found in the 
discussion of the common spiral spring, in 
which the force resisting elongation is mostly 
due to torsion of the wire. Very curiously, the 
theorem of three moments of a straight beam 
is omitted, although the principles to be em- 
ployed in establishing it are fully given. 

Another important elastic solid which is fully 
amenable to analysis is the thin elastic plate. 
The treatment of the thin plate, which occupies 
thirty pages, discusses the flexure of a plane 
plate under all combinations of forces tending 
to produce either a state of synclastic stress 
(i.e., a state in which the curvature at every 
point is convex) or a state of anti-clastic stress 
(i.e., one which tends to cause the surface to 
become saddle-shaped). Kirchhoff’s boundary 
conditions for a plate are also demonstrated at 
length. These are of importance in most prac- 
tical cases, —as, for example, that of the flat 
steam-boiler head; for evidently any plate 
must have some kind of support or fastening at 
its boundary. 

The general subject of elastic solids isreached 
at p. 204, and occupies a hundred pages, in 
which, after the general equations of equilib- 
rium between the applied stresses and the result- 


SCIENCE. 


[Wou. II., No. 46, 


ing strains are established, several special cases 
are treated at length. The first of these is the 
celebrated torsion problem published by St. 
Venant in 1855; in which the distribution of 
the stresses and strains throughout a right 
prism of any cross-section whatever, under the 
action of forces applied to its ends, is com- 
pletely determined. This is perhaps the most 
complicated problem which has been entirely 
worked out in the subject of elastic solids, and 
twenty-four pages are devoted to it. The fiex- 


ure of beams having rectangular cross-sections — 


is discussed, especially with reference to the 
distortions which are suffered by these cross- 
sections. The distortions can be easily exhib- 
ited by bending a thick rectangular piece of 
rubber, when the upper and lower surfaces will 
become saddle-shaped. 

The general problem is then farther’ treated 
by investigating the case of an infinite elastic 
solid under various suppositions as to the force 
applied through limited and through unlimited 
portions of it. The spherical and cylindrical 
shells are then treated by the help of harmonic 
analysis. 

The concluding hundred and sixty pages of 
the work, beginning at p. 300, are devoted 
ostensibly to hydrostatics ; but the first twenty- 
five pages finish those parts of the subject in- 
cluded under that title in ordinary treatises, 
and the remainder relates to the physics of the 
earth as dependent upon its fluid condition, 
past or present. The first great problem in this 
department of inquiry is to determine what fig- 
ure will be assumed by a rotating liquid mass 
under the influence of centrifugal force and of 
the mutual gravitation of its parts. That an 
oblate spheroid is a figure of equilibrinm for 
such a mass is commonly known, having been 
shown to be such by Newton ; but that an ellip- 
soid with three unequal axes is also such a fig- 
ure is not so commonly known, though this was 
discovered to be the fact by Jacobi in 1834, 
There are other possible figures, stable and 
unstable; but which of all these is the one 
which will actually be assumed in any given 
case ? In reply to this question, the authors 
state, that ‘‘ during the fifteen years which have 
passed since the publication of the first edition 
we have never abandoned the problem of the 
equilibrium of a finite mass of rotating incom- 
pressible fluid. Year after year, questions of 
the multiplicity of possible figures of equilib- 
rium have been almost incessantly before us ; 
and yet it is only now, under the compulsion 
of finishing this second edition of the second 
part of our first volume, with the hope fora 
second volume abandoned, that we have suc- 


DECEMBER 21, 1883.] 


ceeded in finding any thing approaching full 
light on the subject’ (p. 332). Then follows 
an enumeration of the possible forms of equi- 
librium, including the single and multiple rings 
into which an ellipsoid would be changed w hen 
rapidly rotated, and the detached portions, 
nearly spherical, into which an elongated ellip- 
soid must separate when rapidly rotated about 
its shorter diameter. 

Now, on the supposition that the figure of 
the earth is approximately an oblate spheroid, 
the next matter of importance is to show how 
to compute the alterations in figure due to 
local inequalities in its density, and irregulari- 
ties in the distribution of the material com- 
posing it. This at once raises the question 
as to what we are to consider as the surface of 
the earth at any point which forms part of its 
figure. The true figure of the earth may be 
taken to be the water-surface when undisturbed 
by tides. Whenever it is desired to find, such 
surface on land, a canal could be supposed to 
be cut from the ocean to the place under con- 
sideration. Of course, a plumb-line is every- 
where perpendicular to such a surface, whose 
outline is evidently affected by all existing in- 
equalities of density and distribution of the 
substance of the earth. For example: it is 
computed that a set of seyeral broad parallel 
mountain chains and valleys, which are twenty 
miles from crest to crest, and seventy-two hun- 
dred feet above the bottom of the valleys, would 
cause a corresponding undulation of the water- 
surface whose crests would be five feet above 
the bottoms of the hollows. This statement is 
equivalent to saying, that the plumb-line is de- 
viated from its mean direction by the attraction 
of the mountain chains. Deviations of nearly 
30” have been actually observed near the Alps 
and near the Caucasus Mountains. The com- 
“paratively small deflections observed near the 
vast mass of the Himalayas in India — which, 
according to Pratt’s calculations in his treatise 
on attractions, ete., should be vastly greater 
than any thing actually observed — indicate 
that extensive portions of the globe under those 
mountains are less than the average density. 
Localities have been found in flat’ countries 
also, notably in England and Russia, where 
the deflection of the plumb-line exceeds 15”, 
which is, of course, due to underlying material 
of great density. From this it appears, that 
the true figure of the earth is nearly as diver- 
sified as the contours of its hills and valleys, 
and does not correspond to any known geo- 
metrical figure; although, to be sure, these 
undulations are of small amount. Now, as 
a first rude approximation, the figure of the 


SCIENCE. 


197 


earth can be taken as a sphere, having the 
same volume as the actual earth. The earth 
at the equatorial regions will then project be- 
yond the figure, and at the poles lie within it. 

A second and better approximation can be 
made by taking the figure to be that’ of an 
oblate spheroid; and this is the basis upon 
which our present geodetic and astronomical 
measurements are based. Of course, it is pos- 
sible to find an ellipsoid having three unequal 
axes which will coincide still more nearly with 
the results of observations upon the true figure 
of the earth; and this will furnish a third still 
closer approximation. This is what has been 
done by Capt. Clarke in his various publica- 
tions. A summary of his results is given upon 
pp- 367 and 368. 

It is evident, when the astronomical latitude 
is determined at any point of the earth’s sur- 
face by measuring the elevation of the north 
pole above the horizon, as given by the spirit- 
level, that that determination will be in error by 
the entire amount of the local deviation of the 
plumb-line, which error may be as much as 
30”, or more than half a mile, although the 
observations are made with all possible precis- 


‘ion; and the outcome of geodetic triangula- 


tion may show that any such station whose 
position was supposed to haye been determined 
astronomically to single feet really occupies a 
position, when referred to the spheroid, which 
at present furnishes the basis of all our astro- 
nomical and geodetic work, which is a consid- 
erable fraction of a mile from its bait as 
so determined. 

The last grand subject treated in the work 
is that of the tides on the corrected equilibrium 
theory, and matters closely connected with it. 
To explain what is meant by this, we shall 
briefly sketch the rise and progress of the 
theory of the tides. 

Sir Isaac Newton, whose Principia appeared 
in 1687, showed that universal gravitation 
would not only account for the motions of the 
heavenly bodies in their orbits, but would also 
account for the tides, —phenomena whose cause 
had not, before his day, been traced to any 
simple law of nature. ~He showed that there 
would be a tide due to the attraction of the 
sun, and another to that of the moon, the latter 
being in general the larger; and that the 
actual tide would depend upon the relative 
position of those bodies, so that the highest or 
spring tides would be due to their combined 
effect, and the lowest or neap tides would occur 
when the tide due to the sun partially neutral- 
ized that of the moon. He showed how other 
known variations in the tide could be account- 


798 


ed for by the declinations of the sun and 
moon, and their greater or less distance from 
the earth. 

. The cause of the tide may be roughly stated, 
according to the equilibrium theory, thus: the 
sun or the moon attracts the water on the side 
of the earth nearer-to it more than it does the 
earth itself, and attracts the earth itself more 
than the water on the farther side; the con- 
sequence being that water is heaped up on the 
sides of earth away from and toward the at- 

_tracting body. Or, more exactly, we may im- 
agine 

= ‘The rise and fall of the water at any point of the 
earth’s surface to be produced by making two disturb- 
ing bodies (moon and anti-moon, as we may call them 
for brevity) revolve around the earth’s axis once in 
the lunar twenty-four hours, with the line joining 
them always inclined to the earth’s equator at an 
angle equal to the moon’s declination. If we assume 
that at each moment the condition of hydrostatic 
equilibrium is fulfilled, —that is, that the free liquid 
surface is perpendicular to the resultant force, — we 
have what is called ‘the equilibrium theory of the 
tides’ ”’ (art. 805). j 


Newton made a modification of this theory, 
which was intended to take into account the 
rotation of the earth, by supposing that the 
full effect of the attraction was not exerted 
immediately under the attracting body, but 
that the tide was of the nature of a wave, and 
by its inertia lagged behind the place where 
it should have been found in case the earth 
was not rotating. This retardation he thought 
might be more than a whole day in some cases. 
He was not able to submit the whole theory 
to rigorous computation for lack of sufficient 
data as to the mass of the moon and the height 
of the tides; but, from the tidal observations 
then available, he computed the mass of the 
moon necessary to produce them according to 
his theory, and obtained a result which we 
know to-day to be about twice too large. 

In 1758 the French academy proposed the 
problem of the tides as the subject of a prize- 
essay, and elicited important essays on the sub- 
ject from Bernouilli, Maclaurin, and Euler, to 
each of which was awarded a prize, and in each 
something of importance was added to New- 
ton’s theory ; but the foundations of an exact 
and complete theory were first made in the 
‘ Mécanique céleste’ by Laplace, in five vol- 
umes, 1799-1825. 

The science of mathematical analysis had 
not been greatly developed at the time New- 
ton wrought upon this subject. His work is 
expressed in geometrical forms in which his 
genius is unapproachable. But the new meth- 
ods of analysis founded upon the calculus, the 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 46. 


principles of which were discovered equally by 
Newton and by Leibnitz, received a rapid and 
wonderful development during the seventeenth 
century at the hands of Lagrange and the con- 
tinental mathematicians. It was to the then 
existing state of advancement in this partieu- 
lar that the great success of Laplace was due, 
which enabled him to unravel to so remarkable 
a degree the intricate interactions of the bodies 
of the solar system, and give for the first time 
the fundamental equations of the tides on cor- 
rect principles. But it must be admitted that 
Laplace, in integrating his differential equa- 
tions, seems to have become involved in intri- 
cate formulae whose full significance he has 
not correctly interpreted. 

At about the same time, Dr. Thomas Young 
made an important investigation of the action 
of the tides, which was published in the Ency- 
clopaedia Britannica, where it has been repub- 
lished in succeeding editions to the present 
day. The special point of importance in his 
investigation was the discussion of the effect 
of friction upon the tides, which he showed to 
be such as to explain many difficulties, and that 
its magnitude might be such as to completely 


‘ change the character of the tide at certain 


places so as to make low water take the place 
of high water, and vice versa, — a result hith- 
erto unsuspected, and of prime importance. 

The next great step in the theory of the 
tides was due to Airy, in his article on ‘ Tides 
and waves’ inthe Encyclopaedia metropolitana. 
He gave in new and concise form a most use- 
ful réswmé of Laplace’s theory, and made an 
original investigation of the effects of friction. 
He also made valuable additions to the theory 
as applied to shallow seas and rivers, a sub- 
ject hitherto untouched. 

The labors of Lubbock and of Dr. Whewell 
have added much to our knowledge of the re- 
lations of the theory to the observed tides ; but 
the two foremost cultivators of this branch of 
science now living are Thomson and Ferrel. 


‘The former, who is chairman of the committee 


appointed by the British association for the ad- 
vancement of science, for the purpose of the 
extension, improvement, and harmonic analysis 
of tidal observations, has done much, by his 
improved methods of observing tides and dis- 
cussing them, to separate their components from 
each other, and render the exact comparison of 
theory and observed facts possible. Laplace 
assumed that the fortnightly and semi-annual 
tides due to the movement of the moon and sun 
in declination move so slowly that the equilib- 
rium theory applies to them with exactness. 
But even if that be admitted, it can be shown 


DECEMBER 21, 1883.] 


that the theory needs correction to take account 
of the relative amount of land and water, as 
well as the contotr of the continents. These 
have a controlling influence upon the tides, and 
this discovery is Thomson’s great improvement 
and correction of the equilibrium theory. 

The diurnal tide has been usually explained, 
in accordance with the equilibrium theory, as a 
wave existing under nearly static conditions, 
and following the moon and sun around the 
earth, but interfered with by friction, and 
changed in direction by the contour of the 
land. Though this was the view of Newton, 
Young, and others, and is incorporated in our 
ordinary text-books, it is quite inadequate ; 
and the kinetic theory of Laplace must be put 
in its place, which treats the water as a moving 
fluid body, subject to the disturbing influence 
mes only of the sun and moon, but of itself 

0. 

The kinetic theory of the tides was to have 
been developed at length in vol. ii.; and that 
intended development is more than once re- 
ferred to by the authors, —as, for instance, on 
p- 382, where an incidental comparison is made 
of the results of the two theories. 

This part of the theory has been treated by 
Ferrel in his ‘ Tidal researches,’ published as 
one of the appendices to the U. S. coast-survey 
report for 1874, in which work he has put in 


SCIENCE. 


799 


practical shape all the theoretical work hereto- 
fore accomplished, and also deduced therefrom 
important consequences. Until the publication 
of this work, it was not possible to apply the 
correct theory to the discussion and prediction 
of tides by reason of the unmanageable formu- 
lae employed by Laplace ; and the discussions 
were, perforce, made by some modification of 
the equilibrium theory. Indeed, Laplace him- 
self resorted to that method in his famous dis- 
cussion of the tidal observations in the harbor 
of Brest. But, thanks to Ferrel’s labors, this 
most intricate branch of computation has been 
systematized, and applied to an extensive series 
of tidal observations in Boston harbor. 

The concluding pages, from 422 to 460, treat 
the question of the rigidity and solidity of the 
earth as a whole, especially as related to the 
tides. The final sentence (p. 460) is, ‘‘ On 
the whole, we may fairly conclude, that, whilst 
there is some evidence of a tidal yielding of 
the earth’s mass, that yielding is certainly 
small, and that the effective rigidity is at least 
as great as that of steel.’’ 

Four important papers on subjects related 
to those just mentioned are added to the work 
as appendices. ‘The titles of these papers are, 
‘Cooling of the earth,’ ‘Age of the sun’s 
heat,’ ‘ Size of atoms,’ ‘ Tidal friction.’ The 
last three of these were not in the first edition. 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


MATHEMATICS. 


Fuchsian functions.— A previous paper by M. 
Poincaré on this subject has already been noticed in 
these pages (i. 535). In the present most important 
memoir, M. Poincaré assumes the results arrived at 
in the former memoir, and proceeds to more fully 
develop them and the consequences flowing from 
them. In the previous paper the author showed that 
it was possible to form discontinuous groups by sub- 
stitutions of the form 


cirres 
¥ wi 
yNzt Gb, 


by choosing the coefficients a;, Bi, yi, 6i, in such a way 
that the different substitutions of the group should 
not alter throughout the interior of a certain circle 
called the fundamental cirele. In the present paper 
the author assumes that the fundamental circle has 
-its centre at the origin, and its radius unity; so that 
its equation can be written as mod. z = 1. 

He then considers one of these discontinuous 
groups, which he calls Fuchsian groups, and which 
he denotes by G. To this group corresponds a de- 
composition of the fundamental circle into an infinite 
number of normal polygons, R, all congruent among 


themselves. The author then demonstrates that there 
always exists a system of uniform functions of 2, 
which remain unaltered by the different substitutions 
of the group'G, and which he calls Fuchsian fune- 
tions. M. Poincaré’s memoir is too long to be re- 
viewed here as it deserves. It is certainly a most 
important addition to the modern theory of functions, 
and is rendered particularly valuable by the historical 
note at the end, in which the author gives a brief 
account of the labors of Hermite, Fuchs, Klein, 
Schwarz, and others in this field. The two memoirs, 
with very little amplification, would constitute a 
really valuable treatise on this subject, —a subject 
of great importance, and on which there exists abso- 
lutely no text-book or treatise of any kind. — (Acta 
math., i.) TT. Cc. (506 
ENGINEERING. 

Steam-whistles. —Lloyd and Symes give a state- 
ment of experiments with a locomotive whistle hay- 
ing a bell 444 inches diameter, 3? inches long inside, 
and over an annular steam opening 7; of an inch 
wide. The bell was of cast brass of medium charac- 
ter; and the lip was chamfered to a thin edge, and set 
exactly over the steam-opening. Sixty pounds press- 


800 


ure of steam gave E natural; 80 pounds, F sharp; 90 
pounds, G; 110 pounds, A; and 125 to 130 pounds gave 
C sharp in alt. The distance from steam-opening to 
edge of whistle was 1} inches. Whenit was increased 
to 2 inches, the power of the sound was sensibly les- 
sened, but the pitch was altered relatively but half a 
tone. If the distance were decreased to 1 inch, or to 
& of an inchy the whistle would sound only super- 
tones. The notes above were clear, even ‘reedy,’ 
and could be heard six miles. A bell of brass tubing, 
annealed, hammered, and then heated again, gave 
sounds of somewhat greater intensity and pitch. An 
iron bell was unsatisfactory. — (Railr. gaz., Aug. 31.) 
Cc. E. @. [507 

Economy of pumping-engines.—Mr. P. A. 
Korevaer compares the economy of the scoop-wheel, 
the Archimedean screw, the pump-wheel, the suction 
or bucket pump, the double-action pump, and the 
centrifugal pump, and reports the results to the Dutch 
institute of engineers. In the Netherlands the pump- 
wheel is used for lifts less than 2.5 metres (8.3 feet), 
and the screw for about 4.25 metres (12.5 feet); while 
the lift and volume delivered by the ordinary forms 
of pump are unlimited. The economical lift for a 
centrifugal pump is taken to be as a maximum at about 
30 or 40 feet. Its cost in Holland is rather greater 
than that of a scoop-wheel. The latter gives an 
efficiency of 64 to 69.5 % on lifts varying from 4 to 
6 feet (1.2 to 1.8 metres). The double-acting pump 
gives an efficiency of 67 to 73 % on lifts between 6.66 
and 10 feet (2 to 3 metres). The centrifugal pumps 
tested gave from 17 to 70 -% (averaging 45) in one 
place, and 40 to 49.3 (averaging 44) in another case, 
The coal used amounted to from 0.9 to 1.2 kilogr. with 
scoop-wheels for the drainage of one hectare and a 
lift of one metre, 1 to 1.17 with double-acting pumps, 
and 1.56 to 2.19 with centrifugal pumps. The author 
concludes that a decided gain is obtained by the use 
of other methods of pumping rather than by the 
use of the centrifugal pumps,— a conclusion which we 
may be allowed to agree in, with the qualification that 
the results would bear a somewhat different com- 
plexion if the comparison were with efficient cen- 
trifugal pumps, which should be capable of giving an 
efficiency of at least 66 %.—(Abs. papers inst. civ. 
eng., 1882-83, iii.) R. H. T. [508 
_ Hlectric head-light for locomotives.— The 
Sedlaczek head-light was exhibited at Munich at the 
late exhibition. It was made by Messrs. Sedlaczek 
& Wilkulill, as a modification of the lamp of Lacas- 
sagne & Thiers, of 1856. The current is supplied by 
a dynamo placed on the top of the boiler behind the 
smoke-stack, and driven by an independent engine. 
The lamp is arranged to turn automatically on curves 
so as to light the track at all times. The light was 
visible at a distance of 24 miles (4 kilometres). The 
report of the committee intrusted with the observa- 
tion of the* action of the lamp states that the in- 
tensity (4,000-candle power) was so great that the 
guards reported that it dazzled their eyes to such an 
extent that they were unable to make the observations 
prescribed by the regulations. The committee ex- 
press a fear that it may frighten horses. Their appre- 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 46. 


hensions remind us of the same difficulties as they 
presented themselves to the oppopents of the railway 
itself. A report made on this lamp in 1881, when 
used on the Northern railway of France, stated that 
the experiment proved that the lamp was not extin- 
guished by the jar of the train, and that it did notin 
any way affect the visibility or the appearance of 
colors in signals. Engineers of trains were not daz- 
zled by it unless by looking at it persistently, and were 
not prevented, even then, from seeing the signals. 
It is proposed to apply the same system of lighting to 
the cars. — (Railway rev., Oct. 6.) RB. H. T. [509 


CHEMISTRY. 
( Organic.) 

Constituents of petroleum from Galicia.— In 
the oil from this locality Br. Lachowicz has found a 
normal, and an iso-pentan, two hexans, one heptan, 
one nonan, and two decans. Other hydrocarbons of 
this series were present in smaller quantity. No 
members of the ethylen series were detected. Of the 
aromatic hydrocarbons, benzol, toluol, isoxylol, and 
mesitylen were identified. The quantity of * Wre- 
den’s hydrocarbons’ — hexahydrobenzol (C,; H,s), 
hexahydrotoluol (C; H,,), and hexahydro-isoxylol — 
in the Galicia petroleum lies between that of the Cau- 
casus and the American oils. — (Ann. chem., 220,168.) 
c. F. M, [510 

Compounds of the indigo group.—In the 
course of his investigations upon the constitution 
of indigo, A. Baeyer has tried several reactions to 
determine the position of the hydrogen atom which 
is not in the benzol ring. If the formula 

C,H, -- CO 
4 ~ don 
is assigned to isatin, the isomeric form called by 
Baeyer pseudo-isatin would have the form 
C,H, — co 
HN —CO- 


and the form of pseudo-indoxyl isomerie with in- 
doxyl, 


( Ml ae oe 
, 
HN — CH 
would be 
Colla —co 
HN — CH, 


Baeyer draws the following conclusions from his 
results concerning the structure of indigo: — 

1. It contains an imido group. 

2. The carbon atoms have the arrangement 

C,H, — C— C=C —0= G6, 

3. It is formed only from compounds in which the 
carbon atom next to the benzol ring has attached to 
it an oxygen atom. 

4. In its formation and properties it is closely re- 
lated to indirubin and the ‘indogenides’ of ethyl- 
pseudo-isatin. R 

5. The latter results from a union of the a-carbon 
atom of pseudo-indoxyl with the $-carbon atom of 
pseudo-isatin. 


DECEMBER 21, 1883.] 


The formation of indigo may therefore be shown 
by the equation— | 


G.H,—CO CO—C,H, C,H,—CO CO—(,H, 

| bo | | esa) | I | 1,0. 
HN —CH, CO-NH BN (C=C —NH 

Pseudo- Pseudo- “ 

indoxyl. isatin. Indigo. 
— (Berichte deutsch. chem. geselisch., xvi. 2188.) 
c. F. M. [S511 

AGRICULTURE. 


Maintenance of fattened animals. — Kellner 
having observed that simple maintenance-fodder was 
sufficient to prevent fatted sheep from losing weight, 
Vossler has tried the same proceeding with sheep 
and oxen, and confirmed Kellner’s observation. — 
( Biedermann’s centr.-blatt., xii. 612.) HH. P. A, [512 

Relation of manure to quantity of seed.—In 
experiments on the drill-culture of barley, Miircker 
finds, that, as the distance between the drills is in- 
creased, the yield decreases, unless more nitrogenous 
fertilizer is applied. —(JZbid., xii. 620.) H. P. A. [513 

Seed-potatoes. —In an experiment with potatoes 
at the New-York agricultural experiment-station, 
single eyes gave better yields in proportion as they 
were located near the terminal portion (seed-end) of 
the tuber. —(N. Y. agric. exp. stat., bull. lxiv.) 
BH. P. A. [514 

Potato-culture. — Previous experiments having 
led to the hypothesis that the most favorable condi- 
tions for the growth of potatoes are coolness and 
moisture for the roots, and warmth and dryness for 
the tubers, an attempt was made to test the hypothe- 
sis by planting potatoes on ridges, and mulching the 
intervals. The season, however, was very wet, so 
that the desired conditions for the tubers were not 
attained. As it was, the parallel plots under ordinary 
culture gave decidedly greater yields. — (Ibid., lxv.) 
HH. P. A. [515 

Fertilizers for tobacco. — Nessler has repeated 
part of his well-known experiments on the effect 
of various salts upon the quality of tobacco. The 
present experiments consisted of a comparison of 
the chloride, sulphate, and nitrate of potassium in this 
respect, as well as of a few other fertilizers. The 
results were essentially the same as those previously 
reached: the sulphate and nitrate improved the 
burning qualities, while the chloride, except in one 
case, caused them to deteriorate. The chloride also 
increased the percentage of chlorine in the ash. The 
author recommends applying phosphatic and potassic 
fertilizers to the preceding crop, and only nitrogenous 
fertilizers directly to the tobacco. — (Landw. vers. 
stat., xxix. 309.) H. P. A. ¢ (516 

Glutamin in beet-juice.—In an earlier investi- 
gation, Schulze and Urich obtained glutaminic acid 
and ammonia by boiling beet-juice with hydrochloric 
acid, and from this fact concluded that the juice 
contained glutamin, a substance which had then 
never been prepared. Schulze and Bosshard have 
now succeeded in preparing glutamin from beet-juice. 
The juice is first treated with lead acetate. The 
filtrate from this precipitate is treated with mercuric 


> 


SCIENCE. 


801 


nitrate, and the resulting precipitate decomposed by 
means of hydrogen sulphide. 

Glutamin crystallizes from aqueous solution in 
fine, white, anhydrous needles, soluble in hot water 
and dilute aleohol. It is readily decomposed by acids 
or alkalies into glutaminie acid and ammonia, the 
decomposition taking place gradually, even in the 
cold or on simple boiling with water. Consequently 
ammonia cannot be determined in vegetable extracts 
containing glutamin, either by Schlésing’s method or 
by boiling with magnesia. —(Ibid., xxix. 295.) m. P. A. 

{517 


GEOLOGY. 


Correlation of Cambrian rocks. — Mr. Charles 
D. Walcott, .of the U. S. geological survey, has 
recently reviewed the great Cambrian sections of 
North America. He defines the Cambrian as the 
formation characterized by the ‘first fauna’ of Bar- 
rande. 

In New York, on one side of Lake Champlain, 
near Chazy, the formation is constituted by the 
Potsdam and calciferous; and the biologic transi- 
tion to the Silurian, as represented by the Chazy, is 
abrupt. In Nevada there is a gradual passage from 
the Potsdam fauna to the Silurian; and beneath the 
Pot-dam are rocks containing the Olenellus fauna. In 
northern Arizona the section exhibited by the Grand 
Cafion of the Colorado shows at bottom the Grand 
Caiion and Chu-ar groups, which contain barely fos- 
sils enough to characterize them as early Cambrian. 
These were greatly eroded before the deposition of 
the Tonto with a profuse fauna equivalent to that 
of the Potsdam. The Silurian is absent. and the 
Devonian rests on the Tonto. In Wisconsin the 
Potsdam is underlain unconformably by the fauna- 
less Keweenawan, and overlain conformably by the 
Silurian. In Vermont the Potsdam rests on the 
Georgian group containing the Olenellus fauna, In 
Tennessee the upper Cambrian is represented by 
the Knox shale, and the lower by the Chilhowee 
sandstone and the Ocoee conglomerate. In New 
Brunswick the St. John’s group, and in Massachu- 
setts the Braintree argillites, exhibit the Paradoxides 
fauna. At the Straits of Belle Isle the section is not 
continuous, but appears comparable with that of Ne- 
vada. The anomalous relations reported at Point 
Levis, in Canada, are attributed to error in the inter- 
pretation of the stratigraphy. 

The Tonto group of Arizona and the Knox group 
of Tennessee are recognized by Mr. Walcott as the 
equivalents of the Potsdam of New York, Vermont, 
and Wisconsin. The Olenellus horizon of Nevada is 
correlated with the Georgian group of Vermont. The 
Grand Cafion and Chuar groups of Arizona are pro- 
visionally correlated with the Keweenawan of Wis- 
consin, and are regarded as older than the Georgian. 
The St. John’s group of New Brunswick is held to 
be older than the Georgian, and probably younger 
than the Keweenawan and Chuar. The Chilhowee 
and Ocoee groups of Tennessee are provisionally 
assigned to the horizons of the Georgian and St. 
John’s. 


802 


The paper marshals the stratigraphic evidence 
only, leaving the paleontologic to form the subject 
of a future communication. —(Phil. soc. Washing- 
ton; meeting Nov. 24, 1883.) {518 


PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. 


Influence of climate on vegetation in Alaska. 
— In his remarks on glaciers in Alaska, Mr. Thomas 
Meehan remarked, that, on the top of what are known 
as ‘totem-poles ’ in some of the Indian villages, trees 
of very large size would often be seen growing. 
These poles are thick logs of hemlock or spruce, set 
up before the doors of Indian lodges, carved all over 
with queer characters representing living creatures 
of every description. These inscriptions are sup- 
posed to be genealogies, or to tell of some famous 
event in the family history. The poles are not erected 
by Indians now, and it is difficult to get any connected 
accounts of what they really tell. Ata very old In- 
dian village, called Kaigan, there are a large number 
of these poles, with few, or, in some cases, no cary- 
ings on them, among many which are wholly coy- 
ered; and these all had one or more trees of Abies 
sitkensis growing on them. One tree must have been 
about twenty years old, and was half as tall as the 
pole on which it was growing. The pole may have 
been twenty feet high. The roots of the tree had 
descended the whole length of the poles, and had 
gone into the ground from which the larger trees 
now derived nourishment. In one case the root had 
grown so large as to split the thick pole on one side 
from the top to the bottom; and this root projected 
along the whole length, about two inches beyond the 
outer circumference of the pole. Only in an atmos- 
phere surcharged with moisture could a seed sprout 
on the top of a pole twenty feet from the ground, 
and continue for years to grow almost or quite as 
well as if it were surrounded by soil. He had seen 
a bush of Lanicera involucrata which was of im- 
mense size as compared with what he had seen in 
Colorado and elsewhere. The plant was at the 
back of an Indian lodge, and beside a pathway, cut 
against the hillside. The stems near the ground 
were as thick as his arm, and the whole plant was 
covered with very large blackberries. Stopping in 
admiration to look at and admire the specimen 
brought numbers of Indians to see what was the 
subject; and these smiled indulgently on being made 
to understand that only the sight of a huge bush had 
attracted the travellers’ attention. — (Acad. nat. sc. 
Philad. ; meeting Nov. 6.) [519 


BOTANY. 
(fossil.) 

Australian coal flora.— A memoir prepared with 
great care by Rev. J. E. Tenison-Woods is valuable 
to science, not only for the clear and detailed descrip- 
tion of the fossil plants, but for the discussion upon 
the geological distribution of the coal-bearing meas- 
ures of Australia. 

The first notice in regard to the Australian fossil 
flora was given by Prof. Morris in 1845. In 1847 
McCoy gave an elaborate paper on the flora and fauna 


SCIENCE. 


Vou. IL, No, 46, 


of the rocks associated with the coal of Australia, 
and came to the conclusion that a wide geological 
interval probably occurred between the consolidation 
of the fossiliferous beds underlying the coal, and the 
deposits of the coal-measures, as he found no real 
connection between them, and as they were referable 
to widely different geological systems. 

In 1848 Rey. Mr. Clarke dissented from the above 
conclusions, maintaining that there is no break what- 
ever between the various beds containing the remains 
of plants described. His assertion was based upon 
his own discoveries, and the researches of Jukes and 
Dana. 

After recording the long discussion between McCoy 
and Clarke, the progress made on the subject by 
Daintree, Feistmantel, etc., the author gives a clear 
exposition of the Australian coal-formations, as far 
as they are known at the present time, considering 
not only the remains of plants and animals found in 
connection with the strata, but the composition of 
the measures, and the localities where the strata have 
been examined. He gives the formations in the fol- 
lowing series: — 

1. Upper Devonian, with three species of plants. 

2. Lower carboniferous, six species, among them 
three of Lepidodendron. 

3. Permian®(?), five species, among them two 
of Glossopteris. 

4, Newer coal, trias (?) (Newcastle), fourteen spe- 
cies; of these, seven of Glossopteris, of which Gloss- 
opteris Browniana is most common, and also found 
in No. 8. 

5. Rhaetic. 

6. Upper lias (?), with two species. 

7. Jurassic, with twenty-two species. 

In recording the plants and their distribution, the 
author describes ninety-three species: twenty-seven 
are new. The plates are photographs of specimens. 
The remains of plants are very indistinctly and in- 
sufficiently represented. — (Proc. Linn. soc. N. S. 
Wales, viii. 37.) L. L. [520 


ZOOLOGY. 


Reconstruction of objects from microscopic 
sections. — Born gives an elaborate description of 
his method of modelling, which is really very simple 
as well as ingenious. The sections are made with 
great care, all of the same thickness: they are next 
drawn with the camera, and the outlines transferred to 
wax plates, the thickness of which is chosen so as to 
correspond in relation to the thickness of the sections, 
as do the outlines to the superficial dimensions of the 
sections; or, in other words, each wax plate is cut out 
so as to represent the actual section equally magni- 
fied in all three dimensions. — (Arch. mikrosk. anat., 
xxii. 584.) oc. s. M. [S21 

Preservation of soft tissues. —Dr. Benjamin 
Sharp called attention to Prof. Semper’s mode of pre- 
paring dried specimens of soft animals, and exhibited 
a couple of snails as illustrations of the admirable re- 
sults of the process, The tissues are first hardened 
by being steeped in chromic acid, which is after- 
wards thoroughly washed out in water. The speci- 


4 


eee 


. 


DECEMBER 21, 1883.] 


men is then allowed to remain in absolute alcohol 
until the water is perfectly extracted, when it is 
placed in turpentine for three or four days. It may 
then be dried and mounted. Specimens prepared in 
this way retain their characters in a very satisfactory 
degree, and are strong and flexible, the examples shown 
resembling kid. If the surface be treated, after dry- 
ing, witha solution of sugar and glycerine, the natural 
colors will be restored; but the specimens must then 
be kept in hermetically sealed glass cases to preserve 
them from the dust. The objection to this mode of 
treating large specimens is the expense of the abso- 
lute alcohol: otherwise there is no reason why the 
largest animals should not be preserved by this pro- 
cess. — (Acad. nat. sc. Philad.; meeting Nov. 21, 
1883. ) [522 

Preservation of protozoa and small larvae. 
— Hermann Fol recommends an alcoholic solution 
of ferric perchloride to kill small animals without 
injury to the tissues. It is diluted with water down 
to two per cent, and then poured into the vessel 
holding the animals. These then sink to the bottom. 
The water is poured off, and seventy per cent alcohol 
substituted. Change the alcohol, and add to the sec- 


“ond dose of it a few drops of sulphuric acid: other- 


wise the iron may remain in the tissues, and cause 
them to overstain with coloring-reagents. The alco- 
holic washing should be thorough. Even larger 
animals (medusae, Doliolum, ete.) may be perfectly 
preserved by this method. The tissues may be sub- 
sequently stained by adding a few drops of gallic acid 
(one-per-cent solution) to the alcohol containing the 
specimens. The nuclei are stained dark, the proto- 
plasm light brown, in twenty-four hours. 

Fol also describes some new injection masses, 
which offer the advantage that they may be read- 
ily kept without spoiling. — (Zeitschr. wiss. zool., 
xxxviii. 491.) c.s. M. [523 

Fossils of Pachino.— The Marquis de Gregorio 
has published a brochure of twenty-five pages on the 
fossils of this locality. They comprise cretaceous 
forms of the horizon of Hippurites cornucopiae, and 
tertiary species of the horizon of Carcharodon mega- 
lodon Ag. The work is in octavo, and illustrated by 
six excellent phototypic plates representing corals, 
echinoderms, and a few mollusks. Simpulorbites, a 
new genus of Foraminifera allied to Orbitolites; 
Escharopsia, a new genus of Polyzoa; and Proteo- 
bulla, a form represented by casts, recalling Buc- 
cinulus, but with three strong horizontal plaits on the 
column, — are described and figured. — w. H. p. [524 


Mollusks, 


Spicula amoris of British Helices. — Charles 
Ashford contributes an interesting and comprehen- 
sive paper on the ‘darts’ found in connection with 
the reproductive apparatus in certain Helices. The 
dart is contained in a short ventricose pouch opening 
into the lower part of the vaginal tube, a little above 
the common yestibule, on the right side of the neck. 
There is usually one: if two are present, the second 
sac is on the opposite side of the tube from the first. 
The sac may be simple, or bilobate. At the bottom 


SCIENCE. 


803 


of the cavity of the sac is a conical papilla, which 
serves as a basis for the dart, which is attached to it 
byits posteriorend. The apparatus is a development 
of adult life, and especially of pairing-time, but is 
indifferently present or wanting in species otherwise 
closely allied, The dart itself is a tubular shaft of 
carbonate of lime, tapering to a solid, transparent, 
sharp point, enlarging at or toward the base, where it 
assumes the form of a subconical cup. The sides of 
the shaft are sometimes furnished with blade-like 
longitudinal buttresses, which serve to strengthen it. 
They are rapidly formed, may be secreted in six days, 
and differ in form in different species. They are sup- 
posed to serve the purpose of inducing, by puncture, 
the excitement preparatory to pairing. They are too 
fragile to do more than prick the tough skin of these 
mollusks, but sometimes penetrate the apertures of 
the body, and are found within. A new weapon is 
formed after the loss of the old one. It is best ex- 
tracted for study by boiling the sac in caustic potash. 
— (Journ. conch., July, 1883.) w. HD. (525 

Shell-structure of Chonetes.— John Young, in 
the course of an examination of C. Laguessiana Kon., 
finds on the ribs a series of wide-set tubular openings, 
perhaps bases of spines, which do not extend to the 
interior of the shell; also a row of very minute 
close-set pores, placed along the central line of each 
rib, but which disappear after descending a very 
short distance into the shell-substance; a series of 
raised tubercles, which appear on the interior surface 
of the valves arranged between each pair of ribs in 
single rows, and which send rather distant tubules 
obliquely outward and backward as far as the middle 
layer of the shell; lastly, in the thickened cardinal 
edge of the ventral valve, corresponding to the spines 
with which it is ornamented, a series of tubes which 
open with round orifices on the interior, and which 
converge toward a point near the apex of the beak, 
but at the surface are continuous with the hollow of 
the tubular spines which point away from the beak 
in a direction nearly at right angles with their pre- 
vious course. In a note on this communication, 
Mr. Thomas Davidson mentions that in Chonetes 
plebeia, tenuicostata, sarcinulata, and the Devonian 
C. armata, Mr. Young finds no trace of the external 
perforations described above in C. Laguessiana, al- 
though small perforations or tubtiles extended nearly 
to the middle shell-layer from the interior of the 
valves, slanting toward the beaks. In Productus 
(with a doubtful exception in the case of P. mesolo- 
bus), also, Mr. Young finds the perforations extend- 
ing only part way from the interior, and never visiblé 
on the unabraded external surface of the shell. The 
same fact has been determined by him for the genera 
Strophomena and Streptorhynchus, — (Geol. mag., 
Aug., 1883.) Ww. H. D. [526 


VERTEBRATES. 
Mammals, 

Aortic insufficiency and arterial pressure.— 
Both Rosenbach and Cohnheim have stated that sud- 
den insufficiency of the aortic valves, produced arti- 
ficially, has no effect on arterial pressure. Goddard, 


S04 


on the other hand, from experiments made upon rab- 
bits, says, that after perforation of the aortic valves, 
there isan important fall of pressure. De Jager has re- 
peated these experiments, using both dogs and rabbits. 
Upon dogs he finds that perforation of the valves has 
little or no effect on arterial pressure; whereas, with 
rabbits, a considerable and permanent fall of pressure 
is the result. It appears from these experiments 
that the compensatory power of the heart-muscle is 
greater in the dog than in the rabbit, although de 
Jager thinks that the results may be partly explained 
by the fact that the injury to the valves in the case 
of the rabbits was generally more extensive than in 
the case of the dogs. — (Pfliiger’s archiv, xxxi. 215.) 
W. H. H. [527 

Structure of the placenta.—Ereolani has re- 
newed the advocacy of his views on the mammalian 
placenta, according to which, after conception, the 
mucosa of the uterus falls off, and a new cellular de- 
cidual layer is formed, and after delivery the mucosa 
is re-formed. ports some new observations, par- 
ticularly on the dormouse and on woman, by which 
he endeavors to strengthen his position. He writes 
in the form of letters addressed to Prof. Kolliker at 
Wirzburg. Dr. H. O. Marcy, in the New York medi- 
cal journal (July 28- Aug. 4), gives an account of 
these letters, but adds nothing original. The diffi- 
culty as to Ercolani’s views is threefold: he leaves 
in obscurity the exact histolytical and histogenetical 
changes in, 1°, the assumed shedding of the mucosa; 
2°, the appearance of the new-formed decidua; 3°, the 
regeneration of the mucosa. For the present, Kolli- 
ker’s view, that the maternal decidua is the meta- 
morphosed mucosa, has at least an equal claim for 
acceptance with Ercolani’s theory. — (Rendic. accad. 
sc. ist. Bologna, Jan. 28, 1883.) c.S. M. [528 

Touch-corpuscles and other nerve-endings in 
man and apes. — W. -Wolff has investigated the cor- 
puscles of touch in Cercopithecus, the chimpanzee, 
and man. The corpuscles are essentially the same in 
all. They have an oval form, and are distinguished 
by having the connective-tissue envelope thrown into 
folds parallel with their long axis, the folds being 
delicate and close together. The content of the cap- 
sule is a granular, coherent fluid. According to Wolff, 
the supposed nerve-filaments seen in gold prepara- 
tions are really precspitates formed in the folds of the 
capsule. 

The author questions whether the nerves have any 
terminations in epithelium. His principal objection 
is, that, if the cornea of small animals is macerated 
for several hours in weak gold solutions, the epithe- 
lium falls off as a distinct membrane. Now, as gold 
fixes the nerves, if any filaments ran to the membrane, 
they would hold it down, and the epithelium would 
not separate. The author confuses fixing the optical 
form of the nerves and fixing their coherency. There 
is no reason against, but, on the contrary, many rea- 
sons for, assuming a maceration of the nerve-filaments 
in weak solutions of gold. In view of the very nu- 
merous positive observations of nerve-endings in epi- 
thelia, Wolff’s argumentation is weak, and it appears 
unnecessary to follow his further deductions; viz., 


SCIENCE. 


a 


- 


that since glands are modified epithelia, and epithelia 
have no nerve-endings proper, therefore the gland- 
cells have no nerve-endings. Such attempts to set 
aside a vast body of evidence on account of a few im- 
perfect observations ought not to be countenanced. — 
(Arch. anat. physiol., anat. abth., 1883, 128.) c.s. M. 
[529 

The action of digitaline on the heart and 


_ blood-vessels. — The authors of this paper, Donald- 


son and Stevens, have made a careful and thorough 
study of the action of digitaline on the heart and 
blood-vessels, and have arrived at results differing 
from those usually accepted. 
by previous investigators is summarized by them as 
follows: ‘‘ Investigations on the frog’s heart show 
an increase of work; investigations on the arterioles 
have led to contradictory results, with the weight of 
evidence in favor of a constriction.’’ In their own 
work they made use of frogs and terrapins. The heart 
was completely isolated from the rest of the body, 
and kept alive by defibrinated blood supplied to it 
from the venous side; while the outflow of blood from 
the ventricles, in the method used, could easily be 
determined at any time, and the relative amount of 
work done by the heart, when pure blood or blood 
containing digitaline was fed to it, estimated. The 
conditions under which the heart worked were made, 
as far as possible, the same as those existing during 
life. The result of these experiments was that digi- 
taline causes a decrease in the work done by the heart. 
On the other hand, digitaline injected into the living 
animal in moderate doses increases the blood-press- 
ure. This increase of blood-pressure cannot be caused 
by the heart: it must result, therefore, from a*con- 
striction of the arterioles. Experiments were made 
in which the arterial system was supplied with normal 
salt solution at a constant pressure, and the outflow 
collected from the large veins emptying into the 
heart. The heart was thus excluded from the prob- 
lem. It was then found, that, when digitaline was 
added to the circulating liquid, there was a diminution 
in the outflow from the veins; and this diminution 
could only be caused by a constriction of the arterioles. 
The result of their work, then, is that digitaline causes 
a decrease in the work done by the heart, but increases 
mean blood-pressure by constricting the arterioles. — 
(Journ. of physiol., iv. 165.) Ww. H. H. [530 


(Man.) 

Cilia in the human kidney. — That a large por- 
tion of the renal tubules in cold-blooded vertebrates 
is ciliated has been known for some time. It has also 
been known, from the observations of Bowman and 
others, that the neck of the Malpighian capsule in 
mammals is ciliated. A. H. Tuttle found, from the 
examination of a large number of sections of human 
kidneys, that the convoluted tubule is very exten- 
sively, if not generally, ciliated. Where the flat lining- 
cells of the capsule approach the neck, they become 
cuboidal and ciliated also. The cilia in the kidney 
are from 3.5 to 5 mw long, very fine, numerous, and 
closely set. Confirmatory observations were made on 
the kidney of a kitten, The cilia are probably pres- 


[Vou. I, No. 46. 7 


The evidence obtained © 


aa 


DECEMBER 21, 1883.] 


ent in all mammalia, and serve to propel the urine 
outwards or towards the ureter. — (Stud. biol. lab. 
Johns Hopk. univ., ii. 453.) Cc. Ss. M. {531 


ANTHROPOLOGY. 


Man’s place in nature. — One hears now and then 
the assertion that man is not the highest animal. In 
proof of this assertion, it is urged that this animal is 
far more specialized in one direction, and that animal 
in another. Mr. Lockington takes the ground that 
specialization is not in itself any proof of advance. 
Now, the real progress is not to be sought in the 
specialized offshoots of any series, but in the growing 
stem from which itis parted, The highest specializa- 
tion is that based upon perfection of the greatest num- 
ber of parts, not upon the great development of one 
part at the expense of others. ‘‘ We need not ask mor- 
phologists or embryologists whether man is the high- 
est animal: we have the proof of it every hour before 
our eyes. His powers of mind are the resultant of 
his structure, and have enabled him to conquer all 
other beings in the struggle of life. That animal is 
highest which possesses the widest range of faculties. 
This man undoubtedly does. No other animal has the 
power, by voice or pen, to exaggerate or depreciate its 
own importance; no other animal can use the powers 
of nature as he; no other can produce works which 
are proportionately comparable to his: and if, there- 
fore, morphology or embryology contradict the facts 
of life, then are those sciences unsafe guides, as they 
certainly are only partial ones.’’ — (Amer. naturalist, 
Oct.) J. w. P. [532 

Notation of kinship.—In the study of kinship 
many schemes of graphic representation have been 
devised. A perfect system should exhibit three ideas: 


It should, 1. Identify each place in the series; 2.Clas- ~ 


sify kindred for each people; 3. Exhibit affinity or 
marriage, as well as kinship. Mr. Francis Galton 
presents us with a new scheme, identifying the mem- 
bers of the series and sex, in which arithmetical no- 
tation takes the place of letters or pictographs, — 
(Nature, Sept. 6.) 3. w. P [533 

Curare. — M. Couty has made extended observa- 
tions and experiments on the curare poison, and bas 
given the benefit of his studies in a course of lectures 
in the museum of Rio Janeiro. The investigation 
closes with a modest confession of ignorance. ‘‘ The 
curare,”’ says M. Couty, ‘* demands fresh physiologi- 
cal studies to comprehend the nature of its relation 
to the muscles and the nerves, and also the real sig- 
nificance of the various phenomena of excitement 
and paralysis which it occasions, before we should 
attempt to comprehend the intimate mechanism of 
its intoxicating influence.’’? — (Rev. scient., 1882, 587, 
ete.) J. w. P. [534 


Color-words in the Rig Veda. — Geiger wrote, 
“The men of that time [of the Rig Veda] did not and 
could not call any thing blue.’ Mr. Edward W. Hop- 
kins reviews the deductions of Geiger, and not only 
questions the facts adduced by him, but also doubts 
whether his application of the statements be admis- 
sible, even if proved to be facts. The use of color- 


SCIENCE. 


805 


words is not unlike that in other poetic literatures. 
Mr. Hopkins concludes: 1°. Non-mention of the col- 
ors green and blue is not proved for the Rig Veda 
literature; 2°. That the sky is not called blue, nor the 
fields green, rests on reasons which have nothing to 
do with the development of the retina; 3°. We can- 
not admit that either color-words or color-perception 
of those who composed the Rig Veda were inexact or 
imperfect; for the cause of the apparently inexact 
employment of words liesin the variable and uncer- 
tain color of the objects to which the color-terms are 
applied. 

If the Vedic literature fail to support the theory of 
the late development of the color-sense, one of the 
strongest of the negative proofs is withdrawn; and 
even the absence of certain colors in Homer may be 
deemed, perhaps, of less significance than has been 
claimed when we consider that the Niebelungenlied 
exhibits, twenty centuries later, the same absence 0 
corresponding colors, and a like ratio in the greater 
use of terms denoting red and yellow. — (Amer. journ. 
phil., iv. 166.) J. Ww. P. [535 

The Yuma linguistic stock.— In the year 1877 
Mr. A. S. Gatschet brought together in two papers 
all that was then known with reference to the Yuma 
stock of languages spoken around the mouth of the 
Colorado of the west. Recently he has come into 
possession, through the Bureau of ethnology and pri- 
vate correspondence, of new and important material, 
and has been compelled to publish an appendix to his 
former papers. This consists of information respect- 
ing the names and characteristics of the tribes be- 
longing to this stem; comparative vocabularies of the 
Yavapai, Ni Mai, and the Seri; the Yavapai vocabula- 
ry of Dr. W. H. Corbusier; and the Tonto vocabulary 
of Dr. John B. White, — (Zeitschr. ethnol., xv. 123.) 
J. W. P. [536 

The tempering of bronze. — No doubt, native 
copper attracted the attention of primitive man be- 
fore any of its alloys; but the difficulty of working it 
for a long time prevented its general use. How the 
metal came to be associated with tin in various forms 
is entirely unknown to us. Arms and implements of 
bronze in Egypt, Greece, and Gaul, present a con- 
stant proportion of tin, — twelve per cent. The 
bronze of cannons is eight to eleven per cent; of 
bells, twenty to thirty per cent. Recently, at Réalon 
(Hautes-Alpes), a peddler’s pack of bronze objects 
has been unearthed, showing eighteen per cent of 
tin. 

The founders of prehistoric times seem to have 
had three methods of procedure : — 

1°. The alloy was poured into a mould of stone or 
metal in two pieces, The ridge formed by the Lie 
tion was afterwards hammered down. 

2°, A model of wood was pressed upon a layer of 
sand in a box, to obtain a negative of one side: a 
corresponding operation gave a mould of the other 
side. The two boxes fitted together completed. the 
moulgj. There were still seams requiring to be ham- 
mered. 

3°. A model of wax was surrounded with soft clay. 
The clay was then heated to harden it and to melt 


806 


the wax. The metal was introduced at the opening 
left for the escape of the wax. 

Soldering was unknown to the men of the bronze 
age: mending was done by riveting. The art of sof- 
tening bronze was known to the ancients. Proclus 
says (Works and Days, line 1842) that ‘fin ancient 
times men used bronze in cultivating the ground just 
as they use iron now; but that copper being soft in 
its nature, they hardened it by immersion.” Eusta- 
thius also says (Iliad, book I., line 236) that they 
tempered the bronze when using it in place of iron, 
The chemist Darcet, at the end of the last century, 
showed: 1. That pure copper, heated to redness and 
plunged into cold water, is neither hardened nor 
softened; 2. Bronzes haying only tin alloy, and that 
less than thirty per cent, heated and cooled in air, 
become weak and brittle; 3. The same bronzes, 
heated and cooled in water, are softened, and become 
very tractable. 

It is nearly certain that the men of the bronze age 
tempered their implements in taking them from the 
mould. Those destined to stand a blow were left in 
this state. Arms and tools needing more temper 
were heated over, and cooled in the air. 

Another prehistoric art, rediscovered by the en- 
gineers of Alexandria, and recently again brought to 
light from the orient, is rendering bronze flexible. 
This property of flexibility is certainly possessed by 
some very ancient specimens. The engineer Philo, 
who lived in the century before our. era, describes, in 
his ‘Treatise on artillery,’ the fabrication of springs 
of bronze needed in some of his machinery. 

The author from whom the foregoing notes are 
taken, A. de Rochas, will soon publish, through 
Masson at Paris, a volume on the origin of industry, 
and the first application of the sciences. — (Rev. 
scient., Sept. 22.) J. Ww. P. [537 


Seamy side of the Vedas. — Max Miiller tells us 
in his recent work, ‘India, what it can teach us,’ 
that in the Vedas we have a nearer approach to a 
beginning, and an intelligible beginning, than in the 
wild invocations of Hottentots and Bushmen. Mr. 
Andrew Lang holds the mirror up to this assertion 
by showing that a highly civilized people are farther 
from the beginning in their religion than races which 
have not evolved nor accepted society. Again: there 
is nothing particularly wild in some of the invoca- 
tions of the Bushmen (Cape monthly, July, 1874), 
nor of the Papuans (Journ. anthrop. inst., Feb., 1881). 
Compare the prayer of Odysseus to the Phaeacian 
king. And, finally, the faith of Vedic worshippers 
was very near akin, in the wildness of its details and 
its mythology, to the faith of Bushmen and Hotten- 
tots. 
traces, the practice enduring in symbols and substi- 
tutes which point back to something ‘nearer the 
beginning.’ The ninetieth hymn of the tenth book 
of the Rig Veda tells how all things were made out 
of the limbs of a giant, Purusha. A similar legend is 
found among Scandinavians, Iroquois, Egyptians, 
Greeks, and Tinneh. It would be easy to show that 
Vishnu, in the shape of a boar bringing up the world 
from the waters, is equivalent to the North American 


SCIENCE. 


In the Rig Veda human sacrifice has left its” 


, tile 
i. an 


é 


[Vou. IL, No. 46. 


coyotes and muskrats performing the same feat. The 
origin of species from Purusha is matched only by 
the metamorphoses and amatory pursuits of Zeus, 
Kronos, Demeter, and Nemesis. Indeed, we seem to 
have a nearer approach to a beginning in the Vedie 
hymns, in those very portions in which they resemble 
the primitive philosophy of Bushmen and Navajos. 
The gods in the Vedic religion are deified nature; 
and we frequently see gods in animal form fighting 
with animals, afraid of enemies, behaving like the 
half anthropomorphic, half theriomorphie deities of 
the Australians, Hottentots, and Bushmen. The 
gods are begotten of heaven and earth, and are not 
necessarily immortal. The birth of Indra is very 
similar to that of Heitsi-Eibib, the supreme god of 
the Hottentots; and some of his feats have parallels 
in Scandinavian, Thlinkit, Murri, and Californian 
myths. Speaking of the other Vedie gods, Mr. Lang 
quotes the language of Racine respecting the deities 
of the Greeks: ‘‘ Burning was too good for most of 
them. . . . If any one wishes to see at a glance how 
much savage thought persisted till the:age of the 
Brahmanas, let him compare the myths of the con- 
stellations (Sacr. books of the east, xii. 282) with the 
similar myths in Brough Smyth’s ‘Aborigines of 
Victoria.’ Except upon the hypothesis that the 
Aryans came civilized into the world, they must 
have descended from savage ancestors. That they 
retained savage practices, such as human sacrifices, 
and much worse things, is universally admitted. 
Why should they not haye retained savage ideas in 
religion and mythology, especially as of savage ideas 
Aryan mythology and religion are full to the brim ?”” 
—J. W. P. [538 

Anthropology at Berlin.—The organ of the 
Berlin society of anthropology has just completed its 
fifteenth year, and contains matter of interest not 
only to the local but also to the general student. 


‘Part iv. opens with a paper by Ernst Botticher on 


the analogies of the Hissarlik finds. Dr. Schliemann’s 
‘owl-faced’ vases are characterized as canopus vases, 
and thus connected in type with the various art pro- 
ductions of Egypt, in which the bird-face predomi- 
nates. The ornamentation of funereal urns with a 
bird-face, — be it that of a falcon, owl, or sparrow, — 
and the occurrence of the same custom from the Bal- 
tic to the Nile banks, are worthy of remark. Until 
historic evidence clears up the subject, the learned 
must move their opinions back-and forward in the 
alternation of independent evolution and social con- 
tact. —— Prof. Arzruni reviews the jadeite and ne- 
phrite discussion, quoting and criticising the writings 
of Meyer, Damour, Janettaz and Michel, Fischer, 
Beck, and y. Muschketow. The author carefully 
excludes from the discussion minerals which have 
been confounded with those above named, and also 
mentions the fact that they have different character- 
istics in different localities. In Europe, up to this 
time, neither jadeite nor nephrite has been found in 
situ. Prof. Arzruni closes his paper with the cita- 
tion of those localities in each continent which have 
furnished the minerals or their products. ——M, 
Kulischer speaks of the handling of children and 


DECEMBER 21, 1883.] 


youth upon the lower culture steps. He broaches a 
very ingenious theory, which seeks to include infan- 
ticide and all sorts of torture and ordeals in a com- 
mon category of helping the survival of the fittest. 
In savagery, intimates the author, two children are 
as many as the parents can raise: they knock the 
surplus on the head. They subject their sons and 
daughters to frequent vigils, fastings, fatigues, and 
pains, mourning for them meanwhile as dead. In- 
deed, many die under the treatment, but the fittest 
survive. Very many scraps of information, gathered 
here and there, are brought within the range of the 
author's theory. In this connection, one should not 
fail to consult Ploss: ‘Das kind in brauch und sitte 
der volker.. ——Mr. Aurelius Krause read a paper 
upon the relationships existing among the peoples 
of the Chukehi peninsula, Are the coast Chukchi 
and the reindeer Chukchi the same people? —— In 
speaking of the ‘ footsteps of Buda,’ —a gigantic track 
found in the ruins of the most hallowed shrine of 
Buddhism at Gaya, in southern Bihar, —M. Griin- 
wedel calls to mind, that in every part of the world 
are to be found, in solid rock, impressions made by 
the feet of gods and heroes. ——Gen. von Erckert 
sends to the society from Petroosk measurements of 
the weight, length of body, and length of limbs, 
taken from Russian peoples, — Wotjaks, Great Rus- 
sians, Little Russians, Volga Tartars, Meshtsheraks, 
Poles, Bashkirs, Tscheremis, and Jews. — (Zeitschr. 
J. ethnol., xv. pt. 4.) J. Ww. P. [539 

The London anthropological institute.— The 
unlimited resources of British anthropologists lead 
one always to expect something good from the journal 
of the institute. The first paper in the current num- 
ber is by F. Bonney, on some customs of the aborigines 
of the River Darling, New South Wales. Mr. Bonney 
resided on a sheep-range from 1865 to 1880, and there- 
fore knew the Bungyarlee and Parkungi tribes ‘ before 
they were spoilt by civilization.’ The aboriginal 
population, owing to periodic droughts of great 
severity, could never have exceeded 100 on an area of 
2,000 Om, Epidemics also have told upon the peo- 
ple. There is a typical similarity among all Australian 
aborigines; but, to a close observer, each tribe has its 
own peculiarities. The oft-repeated statement that 
they are the lowest type of humanity is a libel. Mr. 
Bonney describes their parturition customs, system- 


SCIENCE. 


807 


atic infanticide, child-rearing, initiation of youth, 
class-marriage, courtesy, charms, sucking-cure, dis- 
eases, blood-cure, burials, and mourning. —— Mr. 
Tremlett writes of stone circles in Brittany, by which 


. is meant two concentric rings of rude stone masonry, 


covered by a mound. One, called Nignol, was un- 
doubtedly a cremation mound; since, exterior to the 
outer circle, cinerary urns were found, as well as be- 
tween the walls. The inner circle consisted almost 
entirely of ashes and charcoal. Two others were simi- 
larly constructed, — one at Coét-a-touse, the other at 
Kerbascat. —— The subject of group-marriage is re- 
viewed by Mr. C. S. Wake, and an attempt made to 
show its origin. The author assumes two fundamen- 
tal rights, — the individual, or sexual; and the tribal, 
or self-protective. The origin of the Australian four- 
ciass division is to be sought in the separation of the 
original marrying group into two grades, a parent and 
a child grade. Major H. W. Fielden exhibited a 
series of South African stone implements. The 
Rey. James Sibree, following up the investigations of 
Col. Garrick Mallery, U.S.A., reports a number of 
gestures from Madagascar as a contribution to the 
study of comparative sign-language. —— Mr. A. W. 
Howitt reports some Australian beliefs, commencing 
with a delightful paragraph or two on synonymy, 
which we should like to quote. The superstitions 
described relate to the physical universe, the human 
individual here and hereafter, and Ghost-land. —— On 
the 19th of June a special meeting was held at the 
Piceadilly hall, by invitation of Mr. C. Ribeiro, who 
exhibited five Botocudo Indians and a collection of 
implements. —— Mr. A. H. Keane read a paper on the 
Botocudos. Their home is the province of Espiritu 
Santu, in Brazil; their name, probably from the Por- 
tuguese botoque (a barrel-plug), alluding to. their 
labrets. The Tembeitera, or lip ornament, and the 
immense ear-plugs, give rise to an extended notice of 
the geographical distribution of these objects. The 
Botocudos are of Guarani stock physically, although 
of non-Guarani speech. Their physical characteris- 
ties are elaborately set forth by Mr. Keane, and 
extended references made to their culture, sexual 
relations, dwellings, industries, tribal organization, 
burials, religion, and language. — (Journ. anthrop. 
inst., Xiili. no. ii.) J. W. P. [540 


INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 


GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. 
Geological survey. 


Geology. — Mr. J. S. Diller, an assistant of Capt. 
C. E. Dutton, who has charge of the investigation of 
the voleanic rocks in the division of the Pacific, made 
a geological reconnaissance of the Cascade Range, 
during the early part of the season, in exploring the 
eastern side of the range; going as far north as the 
Dalles, and thence to Portland, finally coming down 


on the west side to Red Bluff, California. He and. 
his party travelled some twenty-five hundred miles. 
They were unable to do any topographical work on 
account of the smoke, which also interfered with the 
work of Mr. Gilbert Thompson (chief topographer 
of the California division) in the neighborhood of 
Mount Shasta. 

Paleontology. — During the past season Mr. 
Charles D. Walcott received at the office, for the use 
of the National museum collections, a series of 


808 


typical specimens, representing seventy-eight species 
described by Mr. U. P. James, from the Hudson 
River group in southern Ohio. These are the gift of 
Mr. James, and have been recorded. Mr. Walcott 
has also received, from Cornell university, for study 
and illustration, the type specimens used by Prof. C. 
F. Hartt, in Dawson’s ‘ Acadian geology,’ in his de- 
scriptions of the fossils of St. John, N.B. All the 
species described by Professor Hartt will therefore 
now be illustrated for the first time. 

Prof. O. C, Marsh, in charge of vertebrate pale- 


ontology for the survey, has had parties working in” 


Wyoming during the past season, and also in the 
Jurassic of Colorado, and reports to the director that 
they have made large additions to the collections, and 
very important discoveries, the results of which will 
be reported later. 

Chemistry. —The chemical division of the survey 
will hereafter occupy the laboratory of the U.S. 
national museum, where work will be begun at once 
on material that has been accumulating in the hands 
of the chief chemist, Prof. F. W. Clarke. 


Professor Clarke has been appointed honorary cura- ~ 


tor of mineralogy in the U.S. national museum. At 
the New Haven laboratory, Dr. Carl Barus and Dr. 
William Hallock are conducting thermo-electric in- 
vestigations. They find that thermo-electric couples 
containing nickel behave anomalously at tempera- 
tures above 400° C., but that couples of platinum, 
with palladium or iridium, are available for the meas- 
surement of high temperatures. With such couples, 
temperatures as high as 1200° may be measured as 
exactly as with the air-thermometer. 

Fresh-water shells from the paleozoic rocks of Ne- 
vada, —The bed of calcareo-argillaceous strata con- 
taining this unusual fauna is situated near the base 
of the great lower belt of carboniferous limestone 
of the Eureka mining district, Nevada. The argil- 
laceous layers pass into calcareous strata above, that 
contain a few plates of crinoidal columns, and frag- 
ments of brachiopods, and besides these a fauna of 
forty or more species that is purely marine, and closely 
related to that of the lower carboniferous fauna of 
the Mississippi valiey. 

Although there is now a large collection of material 
from the band containing the fresh-water shells that 
was collected subsequent to the geologic field-work, 
during which the specimens now to be mentioned 
were collected, it will not be studied until after the 
publication of the report on the Eureka district. 
This brief notice is to call attention to the occurrence 
of fresh-water shells in the paleozoic rocks, and also 
to state that more is to be presented when the paleon- 
tologic collections shall have been thoroughly worked 
over and studied. 

The first species discovered was a Physa, —a form 
of the genus so characteristic that there is no need 
of making any other generic reference; judging, of 
course, from the shell, and not presupposing that any 
variation existed in the animalinhabitingit. For this 
species I have proposed the name Physa prisea (fig. 
2). The second is a species so Ampullaria-like that a 
reference is made to that genus (fig. 3). The oper- 


SCIENCE. 


ai 


[Vor. IL, No. 46, 


culum is shelly, calcareous, concentric (fig. 3a). If 
not generically identical with Ampullaria, it certainly 


belongs to the group in a closely allied genus. The 
name Ampullaria? Powelli is proposed for it. The 


third species is a pulmonate shell that appears to be 
‘ closely related to 
Auricula, and for 
which the name 
Zaptychius carbo- 
naria (nov. gen. et 
sp.) is proposed. 

A small lamelli- 
branchiate shell 
that may be a Nu- 
cula, Corbicula, or 
Cyrena, probably 
one of the two lat- 
ter, is associated 
with the above, and 
also fragments of 
twigs and small 
cones that may be 


Fie. 1.—Zaptychius carbonaria x 
5. Fie. 2.— Physa prisca x 2. 


Fre. 8. — Ampullaria? Powelli x e-Co- 
2. Fie. 8a.—Operculum of A.? referred to the O 
Powelli. niferae. The land- 


. 


shells thus far de- 
seribed from the paleozoic series are all referable to 
the sub-order Geophila or terrestrial pulmonates, and 
comprise six species; viz., Pupa vetusta, P. Bigsbyi 
Dawson, P. vermilionensis, Dawsonella Meeki Brad- 
ley, Zonites (Conulus) priscus Carpenter, Anthraco- 
pupa ohioensis Whitfield (from the horizon of the 
coal-measures), and one species (Strophites grandaeva 
Dawson) from the erian plant-beds of St. John, N.B. 
To these we now add two species of the Limnophila 
(Physa prisca and Zaptychius carbonaria), and one 
species of an operculated fresh-water shell (Ampul- 
laria? Powelli). It may be said of these species, as 
Principal Dawson has said of Pupa vetusta, they are 
remarkable not only for their great antiquity, but 
also because they are separated by such a vast inter- 
val of time from other known species of their race. 
Cuaries D. WALcoT?T. 


PUBLIC AND PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS. 
Williams college, Williamstown, Mass, 

The natwral-history department. — Through the lib- 
erality of friends, the college has secured a permanent 
table, with the necessary facilities for its use, in the 
museum of the U.S. fish-commission at Wood’s Holl, 
The table will be occupied every summer by the de- 
partment. The college has also leased for a series of 
years a table at Professor Dohrn’s international zo0- 
logical station,at Naples, from the use of which it is 
hoped that permanent benefits will inure to this de- 
partment. The conditions of the gift of the late Dr. 
William J. Walker make provision for a scientific 
expedition every fourth year. < 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


Tne extensive collections of American Coleoptera 
made by the late Dr. J. L. LeConte, containing an 
immense number of original types, become the prop- 


DECEMBER 21, 1883.] 


erty of the Museum of comparative zodlogy at Cam- 
. bridge, Mass. 

— We reproduce by photo-engraving, from The pho- 
tographic news, a cut prepared from nature by the Lux- 
otype process of the English firm of Brown, Barnes, 
& Bell. It should be mentioned that considerable 
clearness has been lost in the reproduction on account 


of the fineness of the stipple in the original, and the 
acknowledged hasty printing of the News. The pho- 
tographic news has given during the last few months 
a number of separate imprints from plates made by 
processes similar to that of Mr. Ives of Philadelphia; 
that of Sara Bernhardt, in the issue for Nov. 23, being 
possibly the most satisfactory. Any one interested in 
the advances in the methods of making relief-plates 


SCIENCE. 


809 


for printing with type will find much in this series of 
articles of great interest. The portraitof Dr. LeConte, 
in this number of ScreNcE, was made by the Ives pro- 
cess, no hand-work having been used in the prepara- 
tion of the plate from a photograph. 

— While we are prosecuting our researches among 
the mounds, shell-heaps, and pueblos, of our own ter- 


ritory, we must not forget the thorough work going 
on in India under the patronage of the British goy- 
ernment. For about ten years, an archeological sur- 
yey of the ancient cave and rock-hewn temples of 
western India has been in operation, and, previously 
to the present year, three handsome quartos, profusely 
illustrated, have been published. The third volume 
treated more especially of the cave-temples of India. 


810 


During the present year, volumes iv. and v. have been 
issued, and complete the report of the survey, extend- 
ing from 1876 to 1880. These volumes are about the 
size of the Smithsonian contributions, and are printed 
on fine paper, and elegantly bound. In volume iy. 
are forty heliotype plates and twenty-five woodcuts, 
and in volume v., sixty-one plates and eighteen wood- 
euts. It is not necessary here to enter into a minute 
description of these temples, since that has been done 
by Mr. Fergusson and Mr. Burgess, in their ‘Cave-tem- 
ples of India,’ published in 1880. The method pur- 
sued is purely technical, ‘‘ enabling the architect and 
the student to form a tolerably correct idea of the 
style and character of the plans and ornamentation. 
The facsimiles and translations of the inscriptions 
will afford fresh materials of. a trustworthy charac- 
ter for the epigraphist and philologist.’? The princi- 
pal group of rock-temples of western India is the 
magnificent series at Elura, consisting of splendid 
representatives of the three classes, Baudha, Brah- 
manical, and Jaina cave-temples. The village of 
Elura is in the Nizam’s territory, about fourteen 
miles west of Aurangabid. Of this group, M. Bau- 
drillart says, ‘‘ All commentary grows pale before 
these magnificent ruins. Here the development of 
the plastic arts and of public religious luxury amongst 
the Hindus receives the most striking attestation 
‘in the magnificence of these temples, in the infinite 
diversity of their details, and the minute variety of 
their carvings.” : nit 

— The Ottawa field-naturalists’ club held the first 
soirée of their winter coutse on Thursday, Dec. 6, 
when the president, Dr. H. B. Small, delivered his 
inaugural address. After remarks on the past opera- 
tions of the club, and suggestions as to its future 
management, he gave an excellent summary of past 
and present systems of the classification of the ani- 
mal kingdom. The necessity of a knowledge of this 
character was strongly urged, in order that a just 
conception might be obtained of the relations of the 
different members of our fauna, and narrowness be 
avoided by those pursuing special studies. In his 
opinion, many persons who commenced the study of 
natural history abandoned it after a short time solely 
because, through ignorance of the relations of various 
objects, they failed to become imbued with that love 
of nature which the more carefully educated student 
possesses. An interesting dfscussion ensued on the 
address, in which several members shared. His excel- 
lenecy the Marquis of Lansdowne, governor-general 
of Canada, has consented to become patron of the 
club. 

— At the annual meeting of the Boston zoélogical 
society, held Dec. 4, 1883, the following officers were 
elected for 1884: president, F. C. Bowditch; vice- 
president, F. H. Brackett; secretary, R. Hayward; 
treasurer, A. OC. Anthony; librarian, H. Savage. 

—In the Iowa weather bulletin for November, at- 
tention is called to ‘‘ The most beautiful phenomena 
oftheentiremonth. . . the varying and brilliant tints 
of sunset during the last five days of the month.” 
These brilliant sunsets seem to have been noticed 
over the whole country. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 46. 


The prediction is made, that ‘‘the winter now 
beginning will probably be a moderate or mild win- 
ter for Iowa and the adjacent parts of the north- 
west. The observations of the past ten years make 
the aboye probability very high, and, taking into ac- 
count the entire series of forty years’ observations, 
the chances for this winter proving a severe one are 
less than one in twenty.” 

— One of the most excellent of the familiar British 
museum catalogues is that lately published of the 
Batrachia, Gradientia, and Apoda, in the British 
museum, by Mr. George A. Boulenger. This work 


' a “a 


is called a ‘ second edition’ of the catalogue of the 


same animals, published in 1850, by Mr. John Edward 
Gray; but it is a second edition only in name, as very 
little of Gray’s work remains in it. The material 
studied by Boulenger (comprising ninety-seven of the 
one hundred and thirty-three species recognized, in- 
stead of forty-three) is far greater than that at Gray’s 
disposal, and the character of the work done by the 
younger author is far higher. 

The classification adopted by Boulenger agrees in 
many respects with that of Professor Cope; but some 
of the families and genera adopted by the latter are 
here given lower rank. The commonly accepted rules 
of zodlogical nomenclature are carefully followed by 
Mr. Boulenger, who evidently does not consider his 
own whims or prejudices, or even the traditions of 
the British museum, as forming a law higher than the 
law of priority. 

Among the changes of current nomenclature con- 
sidered necessary by Mr. Boulenger, we may note the 
substitution of the generic name ‘Molge Merrem’ 
for the later ‘ Diemyctylus’ or ‘ Notophthalmus,’ for 
our common red or green newt or ‘ evet;’ of ‘ Cryp- 
tobranchus Leuckart’ for the ‘ hellbender,’ instead 
of the later ‘ Menopoma;’ and of the name ‘ Necturus 
maculatus Raf.’ for the ‘mud-puppy,’ instead of 
‘ Menobranchus ’ or ‘ Necturus lateralis.’ 

An instructive discussion is given of the geograph- 
ical distribution of the Batrachia, the geographical 
divisions with that group coinciding very closely 
with those recognized in the distribution of the fresh- 
water fishes. ; 

— The Society of naturalists of the eastern United 
States will hold its second meeting at Columbia col- 
lege, New-York City, Dec. 27, at ten A.M. 

—Gen. Richard D. Cutts, first assistant superin- 
tendent of the U.S. coast-survey, died at Washing- 
ton, Dec. 13, at the age of sixty-six. Gen. Cutts. 
was born in Washington, and was connected with 
the coast-survey the greater part of his life. During 
the war he served on the statf of Gen. Halleck. 

— On the 25th and 26th of October, there fell at 
Hilo, Hawaii, 17;\/) inches of rain in twenty-two 
hours, by rain-gauge. 

— The December number of Van Nostrand’s engi- 
neering magazine contains an announcement, that, 
as the publication of the magazine has continually 
entailed a loss, the magazine will not be continued 
after the coming year, unless an increased support. 
should justify it. That a magazine of such great. 
merit should succeed is most heartily to be wished. 


ieee cee ee 


Bee, Ta Fi: 


FRIDAY, DECEMBER 28, 1883, 


THE CHIEF SIGNAL-OFFICER’S 
REPORT. 

Tue report proper of the chief signal-officer 
of the army for the year ending June 30, 1883, 
has been published in advance of the complete 
volume, which will contain the usual appen- 
dices. When compared with those of previous 
years, it presents a marked and most gratifying 
contrast. The useless and tiresome repetition 
of much that has appeared regularly since the 
organization of the service is no longer in- 
dulged in; and, in fact, the present report is 
brief, fresh, and vigorous. It is pleasant to 
see, that, among the various topics discussed, 
the first place is given to ‘ Instruction in 
meteorology.’ Although somewhat crippled 
by lack of sufficient appropriation, this work 
has not been allowed to retrograde; and the 
encouraging fact is noted, that, out of a hundred 
and seventy-two enlistments made during the 
past two years, fifty-three were college gradu- 
- ates. 

Gen. Hazen argues ably and pointedly 
against the inadequate provision made by the 
last Congress. The separation of the signal- 

service from the army proper, as far as its 
support from the general appropriation goes, 
undoubtedly left the service in a worse condi- 
tion, even, than was intended by those who 
sought to reduce its expenditures. The-result 
has been, that a number of stations have neces- 
‘sarily been closed, and much important work 
of the weather bureau has been suspended. It 
is certainly to be hoped that it may receive 
more generous treatment at the hands of the 
present Congress. ' 

An interesting résumé of the scientific work 
of the weather bureau is given, which indicates 
a commendable activity in that direction. One 
of the most important announcements is, that a 
new standard of thermometry has been adopted 
‘* which no longer agrees with that of the Yale 

No. 47,— 1883. ‘ ° 


college observatory, but approaches more near- 
ly to that of the International bureau of weights 
and measures.’’ Another is, that steps have 
been taken to inaugurate in the immediate 
future a series of elaborate observations upon 
atmospheric electricity. The continuation of 
the publication of ‘ Professional papers’ by 
members of the scientific corps is noted, one 
of the» most important of which is that on 
‘ Movements of the atmosphere,’ by Professor 
Ferrel. It is gratifying to observe throughout 
the report, that scientific meteorology is receiv- 
ing a recognition to a degree much greater than 
formerly. 

A brief history of the unfortunate Greely 
expedition is presented, and the statement 
made that it is intended to apply for an appro- 
priation to enable another relief expedition to 
be sent out in 1884. 

The report covers twenty-two pages, instead 
of three or four times that number, as was the 
case in previous years; but, as a report of 
progress for the year, it is much more yaluable 
than its predecessors. A similarly judicious 
treatment of the appendices and meteorological 
summaries, which will follow this report, would 
bring the whole into a much more useful and 
manageable form, and would not be the least 
important of the many reforms introduced into 
the service by its present chief, 


ROMALEA MICROPTERA. 


Snoutp the return of spring be early, and 
the winter just passed an open one, a rambler 
in the meadows of southern Louisiana is very 
likely, during the middle of February, or per- 
haps even earlier, to have his attention drawn 
to curious little colonies of red and black 
grasshoppers. 

These are the young of Romalea microptera. 
Until this summer I never saw a living adult 
specimen of this handsome insect, and my ex- 
amination of it had been contined to a few 
individuals in alcohol. No sooner, however, 
had I thoroughly examined one of these little 


812 


red and black colonists. than it struck me that 
they must be the young of the great black 
grasshopper I had seen in spirit. This was 
subsequently confirmed for me through the 


kindness of Mr. L. O. Howard, of the Agricul-. 


tural departnent at Washington. One day last 
March, during the first part of the month, 
while on one of my collecting excursions in 
this country, my way lay through an extensive 
eypress-swamp. ‘The only good footing was 
along a low, straight embankment, that had 
been made by the earth thrown out to dig a 
canal, to which it now formed the bank on one 
side. It was composed of a dry, black soil, 
upon which the new spring grass and the ear- 
lier plants had just commenced to make their 
appearance. It was here that I first came across 
a family, or brood rather (for no old ones are 
to be found at this time of the year), of the 
young grasshoppers in question. They ex- 
tended obliquely across my path in nearly a 
straight line, about half a yard in length, and 
from three or four to a dozen or more indi- 
viduals in width. Where small dry twigs oc- 
curred, or blades of grass, in their course, they 
completely covered them, and were so. packed 
together that in some parts of the group they 
crowded each other a good deal, When first 
discovered, little or no activity among them 
was apparent; but no sooner did I commence 
to lay in a store of specimens than the sur- 
vivors of my attack immediately began to hop 
off in all directions, obliging me yery soon to 

make single eaptures.. At this stage of their 
growth, these insects are about of the same 
size, having an average length of a centimetre 
their general color being a deep, shiny black. 
This is set off by fine “lines of brilliant ver- 
milion, occurring at different. places on the 
body. One strip extends mesiad, the entire 
length of the dorsal aspect, from a point be- 
tween the antennae to the posterior extremity 
of the abdomen; another bounds, on either 
side for a short distance, the hinder margin 
of the prothorax; while the same is found 
behind the whole length of each of the hind- 
femora. The lower and posterior angle of 
the epicranium is also bordered by the same 
color as is its inferior margin in front, and a 
line that extends down from the eye on either 
side to join it. Finally we observe that each 
abdominal ring is emarginated in the same 
way, along the ridges of the pleurite portions, 
below the spiracles. At this age the antennae 
are half as long as the body. 

A tew weeks later, when they are abont 
double the size I have just described, we begin 
to observe in these collections, which are ap- 


SCIENCE. . 


{(Vou. IL., No. 47. 


parently all of the same crop, some specimens 
considerably larger than the general run. 
These may be females, but this I cannot posi- 
tively assert: though, as the insect grows, these 
larger ones maintain their size over the oth- 
ers; and later in the year we find them to be 
females, notwithstanding the sexes at these 
times seem to be pretty equally divided in 
numbers. 

In the middle of June, a field in the vicinity 
of New Orleans, where the grass.had grown to 
be about waist-high, was cov vered in one or two 
places of no gre at extent with these erass- 
hoppers. They now ranged from four to five 
centimetres in length, and could be seen at sev- 
eral hundred feet distance. Other varieties of 
plants were covered with them; but I found 
none on the ground, unless they were acci- 
dentally knocked down, or jumped down when 
one failed in his efforts to capture them. 

At these times they are yery sluggish, 
emitting no sound or note that I ever he: ard, 
and do not scem to be feeding on the vereta- 
tion upon which they congregate. T heir col- 
ors are now somewhat changed; and, though 
the black is as deep and shiny as ever, the red 
gradually fades to a brilliant orange, and a 
small pair of dull black wings commences to 
make its appearance. 

In the country about New Orleans, Roma- 
lea seems to attain its full growth some time 
in the early part of July. This is denoted 
by the general appearance and habits of the 
insect: certain parts of his exoskeleton have 
become firm and hard, and all his structures 
and organs bear evidence of maturity. They 
are no longer found in groups in the meadows 
and forests, but dispersed, and occurring in 
all sorts of localities. Hundreds of them are 
found invading the cow-paths and roadways: 
others climb on fences and trees. Many still 
are yet observed, though now usually singly, on 
high grass and piant-stalks ; and these we may 
easily discern at a long distance in the open 
fields. Even our houses are not altogether 
exempt, at this season, from this black-mailed 
vagrant. Many are killed by being trodden 
upon, or accidentally crushed in other ways ; 
for they are slow to get out of one’s road, and 
disinclined to jump much, —a feat in which 
the males, from their lighter weight, far exceed 
the larger and heavier females. 

It is about this time of the year that we 
first begin to notice any thing approaching an 
affaire @ amour on the part of this now truly 
handsome insect. We now see many couples 
apparently regardless of those who behold their 
awkward and highly fantastic addresses. ‘The 


DECEMBER 28, 1883.] 


only sound that I have ever heard this grass- 
hopper give vent to, is now indulged in by the 
male. It consists simply of a series of pecul- 
iar hisses (this word expresses it better than 
any thing else), and is only heard when we 
seize and handle one of them, or during their 
mating. The sound seems to be produced 
largely by the wings; for these members are 
elevated at this time, as I have shown them in 
-my plate, where the male exhibits his beautiful 
hind-wings, — a relief to his otherwise sombre 
tints that is only to be experienced on such 
occasions. 

Iam of the impression that Romalea does 
not confine itself to any particular diet, but is 
rather a general feeder, choosing such plants 
as happen to fall in its way. Some of them, 
that I kept alive for several days in a large box, 
fed upon almost any thing in the shape of vege- 
table growth that I offered them. 

This view seems to be sustained by the report 
of Mr. L. O. Howard, who saw them in August 
in immense numbers in the rice-fields about the 
city of Savannah ; ‘ yet they seemed to do little 
damage to the rice.’ } 

This observer tells us in the same report, 
that they are known in that locality among the 
people as the ‘ lubber grasshopper,’ whereas, 
throughout this section of the country, they are 
called by every one the ‘ devyil-horse.’ Per- 
haps, if at one of their grand councils they 
had a choice in the matter, it would be hard 
for them to decide which was the prettier name, 
and no doubt they would vote unanimously to 
select some other one. 

It has never been my fortune to find exam- 
ples of the black variety of the female in south- 
ern Louisiana, as observed by entomologists 
elsewhere.” 

On the 28th of last July, while engaged in 
looking for a specimen of the prothonotary war- 
bler, which I had just brought down with my 
cane-gun from a magnolia under which I stood, 
my attention was attracted by a large female 
Romalea, with part of her abdomen buried in 
the ground, and evidently in the act of deposit- 
ing her eggs. A chapter in the history of this 
insect at once flashed across my mind; and, in 
my undue eagerness, I removed her at once 
from the little excavation she was in on the 
ground ; but the most careful search afterwards 
was not rewarded by the discovery of a single 
egg. However, the satisfaction was afforded 
me, at the subsequent post mortem of the 
specimen in question, of finding her ovaries 
containing upwards of fifty bright-yellow, spin- 
dle-shaped eggs, each about a centimetre long. 

4 Report commiss. agric., 18S'-82, p. 138. 2 Ibid., p. 138. 


SCIENCE. 


813 


This circumstance convinced me that Roma- 
lea microptera deposits its eggs in the ground ; 
and from that time I did not allow an oppor- 
tunity to slip in searching for them. My 
interest in this matter was only increased by 
receiving a letter, a few days afterwards, from 
Mr. Howard, in which he informed me that it 
was not known where this grasshopper laid its 
eggs. I am sorry to say that I have not 
had the opportunity to examine the reports 
made by Glover upon this insect, in the report 
of the Department of agriculture for 1872, 
kindly called to my attention by my correspond- 
ent, nor the mention made of it in Ashmead's 
‘ Orange insects,’ also referred to by him.? 

My search was, however, afterward reward- 
ed; for on the 15th of August, while passing 
through a long, flat meadow a few miles from 
New Orleans, [ came, at one end of it, to a lit- 
tle low mound about ten yards in extent, com- 
posed of a dry black earth, that was cracked 
and fissured in many directions by a sun that 
streams cown here almost as mercilessly as in 
the tropics. Many tall weeds and grasses 
surrounded this miniature hillock; and others 
grew upon it. 

Romalea had made this elevation its head- 
quarters, and it was at the same time a rendez- 
vous for many couples who had apparently 
postponed their honeymoons. The importance 
of the occasion was evident; for there was not 
a male on the ground, to say nothing of the 
majority who were perched up in the weeds, 
but was strutting about in the most business- 
like manner, or trying to do so on their perches 
in the latter. Whatever part of the entertain- 
ment these sable gentlemen entered into, they 
constantly kept up a very audible buzzing 
racket with their wings, which they elevated 
and lowered at few seconds’ intervals, show- 
ing the inferior carmine pair each time they 
did so, with telling effect. At these times 
they assume the position in which I have drawn 
one in the plate, walking about in a stilted 
manner, but bearing, withal, a dignified mien, 
rattling their wings, and paying their court to 
the quieter and more sedate opposite sex. 

Some of the females kept apart, and bore 
the appearance of being dejected, tired of the 
gayeties of the season, and otherwise bored by 
the proceedings that were going on everywhere 
about them. It was the sight of these satiated 
dames that soon brought the thought to my 

11 have since ascertained that Mr. Charles R. Dodge, of the 
Agricoltural department of Washington, has raised the young of 
Romalea from cgys that were laid by specimens he kept in 
continement. He published his observations in the Rural Caro- 
hinian (April, 1874, p. 363, vol. v., no. vii.), Charleston, 8.C.; and 


subsequently in the “ield and forest (ii. 1877, p. 160), Wash- 
ington, D.C. 


814 


mind, that perhaps they laid their eggs here 
too; and acting immediately upon this, as 
well as the suggestive fissures in their camp- 
ing-ground caused by the sun, I proceeded to 
investigate those likely places in which they 
might deposit their ovicular treasures. These 
rents presented every stage of being filled in 
from one cause or another; and I had hardly 
commenced to scratch out the earth from one 
that was partially in this condition, than I 
came across masses of their eggs. They were 
not easily observed at first, as I turned them 
out with the stick I used in searching for 
them, from the fact that they resembled lumps 
of earth, as this substance adhered to their 
entire surface, either dusted over, or in little 
fragments, which latter rendered the resem- 
blance still more deceptive. My plate repre- 
sents one of these masses, that has been well 
cleaned off, in the lower right-hand corner 
(marked A). I have four before me that were 
collected at the time of my observations, and 
one of these is that figured in the plate. 

The first of these masses that I pick up con- 
tains about thirty-five eggs, of a like size and 
shape to those removed from the body of a 
female several weeks before. ‘They are in one 
rather irregular layer, being placed roughly 
parallel to each other, and entirely incased by 
the pellets of earth that have adhered to the 
mass. No true ege-pod was observed to en- 
close them ; but, judging from the way in which 
the eggs of other large grasshoppers are laid, 
no doubt further observations will prove its 
existence. The eggs of this lot are all sound, 
and in an apparently safe condition till the time 
of hatching, as they were several inches below 
the surface of the ground. In the next collec- 
tion the mass is of a circular form, with the 
ego's arranged pretty much as we found them in 
the first lot. Here, however, they are quite 
distinct, being simply dusted over with a little 
earth; and I find several of them have been 
opened at the sides, and their contents re- 
moved, apparently by ants or other insects. 
The two remaining masses are essentially of 
the same description as those we have just de- 
scribed. One is a little different in shape, being 
oblong instead of circular. This form may have 
been forced upon it from the narrowness of the 
fissure in which the eggs of this lot were laid. 
Of these four deposits, we may say that they 
contain an average of thirty eggs apiece ; and 
this statement, no doubt, will be very near the 
correct one for the usual number found in such 
masses. 

Examining one of these eggs under a two- 
inch objective, we find it composed of an outer 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 47, 


coat, brown in color, fibrous in texture, and 
about 0.1 of a millimetre in thickness. The 
little fibres are placed side by side, and vertical 
to the surface of the egg. This coat fractures 
off in small pieces quite easily, and, in so doing, 
exposes the thin membranous and transparent 
inner coat, which allows one to see through it 
the amber-colored contents of the ege proper, 
which are of a viscid character and of about the 
consistency of old olive-oil. 

This was the only occasion upon which I ~ 
ever succeeded in finding any of the eggs of. 
this grasshopper ; and I am unable at the pres- 
ent writing to say how many times they de- 
posit during a season, or how often Romalea 
moults during the same period. 

It was my intention, when I commenced this 
paper, to enter to some extent upon the anat- 
omy of this insect ; but the idea was eventually 
abandoned from the fact that the anatomy of 
locusts and grasshoppers has been very ably 
and extensively worked up by many entomolo- 
gists : so, to enter upon this subject at allin the 
present case would entail a minute study of 
details and comparisons that would result in 
carrying’ my paper much beyond its intended 
limits. Then, too, so far as the external ap- 
pearance of Romalea is concerned, I have made 
every effort to convey a correct idea in my 
plate, both of the male and the female; and 
this work has been most carefully and beauti- 
fully reproduced by my engravers, Messrs. T. 
Sinclair and Son of Philadelphia, — a firm to 
whom our scientific men are under so many 
obligations for faithful reproductions of their 
work. This sketch, in its present form, then, 
is offered to the readers of Scrmncr as a con- 
tribution to the life-history of Romalea microp- 
tera; and it is hoped that in it at least a few 
facts will be discovered that will prove of 
interest to entomologists. : 

R. W. SHurerpr, 
Captain Medical corps, U.S.A. 


RESOLUTIONS OF THE INTERNATIONAL 
GEODETIC COMMISSION IN RELATION 
TO THE UNIFICATION OF LONGI- 
TUDES AND OF TIME. 


Tue seventh general conference of the In- 
ternational geodetic association held at Rome, 
and at which representatives of Great Britain, 
together with the directors of the principal 
astronomical and nautical almanacs and a 
delegate from the Coast and geodetic survey 
of the United States, have taken part, after 
having deliberated upon the unification of 
longitude by the adoption of a single initial 


pth 1A8 


lair & Son, Lith. Phils 


Sin 


RW. Shofelat. del 


MICROPTERA 


ROMALBA 


he rie all Oe OAs 
Qe jee 


Ta Ae ARREARS EW le 


DECEMBER 28, 1883.] 


meridian, and upon the unification of time by 
the adoption of a universal time, has agreed 
upon the following resolutions : — 

1°. The unification of longitude and of time 
is desirable as much in the interest of the sci- 
ences as in that of navigation, of commerce, 
and of international communications. The 
scientific and practical utility of this reform 
far outweighs the sacrifice of labor and the 
difficulties of re-arrangement which it would 
entail. It should, then, be recommended to the 
governments of all the interested states to be 
organized and confirmed by an international 
convention, to the end that hereafter one and 
the same system of longitudes should be em- 
ployed in all institutes and geodetic bureaus, for 
general geographic and hydrographic charts, 
as well as in astronomical and nautical alma- 
nacs, with the exception of those made to pre- 
serve a local meridian; as, for instance, the 
almanacs for transits, or those which are needed 
to indicate the local time, such as the estab- 
lishment of the port, ete. 

2°. Notwithstanding the great advantages 
which the general introduction of the decimal 
division of a quarter of the circle in the ex- 


pressions of the geographical and geodetic. 


co-ordinates and in the corresponding time- 
expressions is destined to realize for the 
sciences and their applications, it is proper, 
through considerations eminently practical, to 
pass it by in considering the great measure of 
unification proposed in the first resolution. 

However, with a view to give satisfaction at 
the same time to very serious scientific con- 
siderations, the conference recommends, on this 
occasion, the extension, by the multiplication 
and perfection of the necessary tables, of the 
application of the decimal division of the 
quadrant; at least, for the great operations of 
numerical calculations for which it presents in- 
contestable advantages, even if it is wished to 
preserve the old sexagesimal division for the 
observations, for charts, navigation, ete. 

3°. The conference proposes to governments 
to select for the initial meridian that of Green- 
wich, defined by a point midway between the 
two pillars of the meridian instrument of the 
observatory of Greenwich ; for the reason that 
that meridian fulfils, as a point of departure 
for longitudes, all the conditions wished for 
by science, and because, being at present the 
best known of all, it offers the most chances of 
being generally accepted. 

4°. It is suitable to count the longitudes, 
starting from the meridian of Greenwich, in 
the sole direction from west to east. 

5°. The conference recognizes for certain 


SCIENCE. 


815 


scientific wants, and for the internal service in 
the great administrations of routes of com- 
munication, —such as the railways, steamship- 
lines, telegraphic and post routes, —the utility 
of adopting a universal time, along with local 
or national time, which will continue necessa- 
rily to be employed in civil life. 

6°. The conference recommends as the point 
of departure of universal time and of cosmo- 
politan dates the mean noon of Greenwich, 
which coincides with the instant of midnight 
or with the commencement of the civil day, 
under the meridian situated twelve hours, or 
a hundred and eighty degrees, from Green- 
wich. 

It is agreed to count the universal time from 
0 hour to 24 hours. 

7°. Itis desirable that the states which, with 
a view to adhere to the unification of longi- 
tudes and of time, find it necessary to change 
their meridians, should introduce the new sys- 
tem of longitudes and of hours as soon as 
possible. 

It is equally advisable that the new system 
should be introduced without delay in teach- 
ing. 

8°. The conference hopes, that, if the entire 
world agrees upon the unification of longitudes 
and of hours by accepting the meridian of 
Greenwich as the point of departure, Great 
Britain would find in this fact an additional 
motive to make, on its part, a new step in 
favor of the unification of weights and meas- 
ures by adhering to the Convention du métre 
of the 20th of May, 1875. 

9°. These resolutions will be brought to the 
knowledge of the governments, and recom- 
mended to their favorable consideration, with 
an expression of a hope that an international 
convention — such as the government of the 
United States has proposed — for confirming 
the unification of longitudes and of time should ~ 
be decided upon as soon as possible. 


ORIGIN OF THE MESODERM. 


Tue origin and composition of the mesoderm 
has been the subject of perhaps more discus- 
sion than any other single point in. the whole 
range of embryology. Observers have given 
the most conflicting statements, for the most 
part due to incomplete observations ; but now 
we are at last in a position to eliminate many 
of the false descriptions and to harmonize 
fairly well those we must regard as correct. 

The first important advance was accom- 
plished by His, who made the fundamental dis- 
covery that the mesoderm is not homogeneous, 


816 


but double, in its origin. The ectoderm, ento- 
derm, and part of the mesoderm, he distin- 
guished under the common name of‘ archiblast,’ 
from that portion of the mesoderm which is 
related to the connective-tissue group (connec- 
tive tissue proper and endothelia), and which 
he supposed to grow from the yolk (in the chick) 
into the archiblastic tissue or cells, which, 
from the first, are constituent elements of the 
embryo. His maintained that the parablast- 
cells were derived from the white elements of 
the yolk, but in that respect he is believed to 
be in error; nevertheless to His belongs the 
great honor of having first insisted upon the 
duplex development of the middle germ-layer. 
This knowledge is the key to the solution of 
one of the fundamental problems of animal 
morphology. 

The researches of Professor His have been 
confined to vertebrates. 
that his views would have been modified in 
many details, if he had included the lower types, 
also, in his investigations. The discoveries of 
others, however, have gradually made it clear 
that among invertebrates, also, the twofold 
composition of the mesoderm exists. The path 
to this generalization may be said to have 
opened out upon the announcement by Alex- 
ander Agassiz that in echinoderms the lining 
of the body-cavity and water-vascular system 
is derived from the entoderm. Selenka and 
others have since shown that the rest of the 
mesoderm is derived from scattered and isolated 
cells, which are thrown off from the other layers 
into the space between the ectoderm and ento- 
derm. It was thus clearly shown that in this 
class of animals the mesoderm primitively 
consists of two epithelial evaginations and of 
scattered and independent cells of amoeboid 
character. The fundamental importance and 
the far-reaching significance of this discovery 
were unfortunately not appreciated at the time. 

For several years past I have been accumu- 
lating materials for a work on ‘ Comparative 
histology,’ and have meanwhile directed my at- 
tention chiefly to the classification and genesis 
of tissues. These preliminary studies led me 
to various conclusions, among which was the 
conviction that amoeboid cells were the primi- 
tive representatives of the mesoderm, and that 
from them was derived a large part of the 
mesodermic tissues. This view I published in 
1879 ;* but the article has, so faras I am aware, 
been entirely overlooked by subsequent writers, 
and I therefore venture to call especial atten- 
tion to it now, as the opinion I then advocated 


_2 Minot: Preliminary notice of certain laws of histological 
differentiation. Proc. Boston soc. nat. hist. xx. 207. 


SCIENCE. 


One cannot but feel. 


(Vou. LI., No. 47. 


has since become a current embryological gen- 
eralization. To the cells I gaye the name of 
‘ mesamoeboids.’ 

The investigations of Hatschek, whose bril- 
liant discoveries have not yet received their 
deserved recognition, have revealed that in 
Bryozoa, Mollusea, Annelida, and Amphioxus, 
the mesoderm arises, 1, from cells, such as 
we have seen may be classed under the head 
of mesamoeboids ; 2, from two paired masses 
of cells, his ‘ mesodermstreifen,’ whose origin 


from the entoderm is rendered probable in all. 


cases, and certain in some, by known charac- 
teristics. These stripes either have from the 
first, or soon acquire, a distinctly epithelial 
structure. Hatschek appears to have recog- 
nized the bearing of his observations nearly as 
we conceive it now; and to him, I think, we 
should accord the honor of having first clearly 
and definitely recognized the dual histogenesis 
of the mesoderm. 

'F. M. Balfour, in his writings, particularly 
in his ‘ Treatise on comparative embryology,’ 
made the next important step by pointing out 
that the vertebrate mesoderm probably arose as 
a pair of diverticula from the gastrula cavity ; 
and he gave a new meaning to, and justification 
of, this theory, by insisting upon the homology 
between the blastopore of the Ichthyopsida and 
the primitive streak of the Amniota; for from 
the walls of the former, as well as from the sub- 
stance of the latter, the paired outgrowths of 
the middle layer arise. The deficiency in Bal- 
four’s presentation of the subject lies in his 
failure to recognize the importance of the mes- 
amoeboids. . ; 

The brothers Hertwig have published a series 
of contributions to the solution of the problem, 
and have embodied their general results in an 
article entitled the ‘Coelomtheorie.” As we 
haye shown, their predecessors had pretty well 
established the necessity of regarding the meso- 


derm as consisting of two parts, — jirst, the 


paired epithelial portion derived from the en- 
toderm, forming the lining of the body-cavity, 
and giving origin to the peritoneum, muscle- 
plates, genital glands, ete. ; secondly, scattered 
cells, giving origin to the connective tissue, 
the endothelia, vessels of the circulation, the 
blood, and lymph. ‘These conclusions, how- 
ever, had never been systematically collated 
and coherently presented. The brothers Hert- 
wig performed this task with characteristic 
ability and success. Guided by their own im- 
portant original researches on several animal 
types, and utilizing the results of others, they 
succeeded in demonstrating the prevalence of 
the same composition of the mesoderm in the 


’ three or four rows of small cells. 


Png 1 ~ a 


‘DECEMBER 28, 1883.] 


majority of animals. Their own most impor- 
tant addition to our knowledge appears: to me 
to be their analysis of the morphology of mus- 
cular tissue, by which they removed the most 
important difficulty against the final acceptance 
of the generalization. While we thus recognize 
the great services rendered by the brothers 
Hertwig, we are impelled also to express our 
regret that they have not been more generous 
in their acknowledgment of the achievements 
of previous investigators ; for their theory was 
mainly the result of a judicious combination of 
what had been before published. To them 
belongs the merit of ripening the fruit which 
was already formed. 

To the mesamoeboid portion of the meso- 
derm the Hertwigs gave the very appropriate 
name of ‘mesenchyma.’ For the epithelial por- 
tion no satisfactory name has yet come into use : 
therefore I venture to propose ‘ mesothelium.’ 

In applying this generalization which we 
have been considering 1o vertebrates, difficul- 
ties and objections were encountered. To set 
these aside, Professor Oscar Hertwig has pub- 
lished two special researches, the second of 
which appeared recently, and is reproduced in 
abstract below. 

In this review, only a few salient points of 
the history of this most important of recent 
embryological discoveries are given ; but I can- 
not close without a strong expression of my 
regret at being unable to notice many valuable 
contributions to the subject, — a pleasure which 


~ the limited space at my disposal compels me to 


unwillingly forego. 


In continuation of the extended researches on the 
origin of the mesoderm previously given to the world 
by his brother and himself, Oscar Hertwig now pub- 
lishes the results of his investigations on the de- 
velopment of the middle layer in the frog, adding a 
discussion of its origin in other vertebrates. The early 
stages in the frog are described with great minuteness, 
and with far less concision and directness than we 
should have anticipated in any of Professor Hertwig’s 
writings. 

The essential points brought forward are the fol- 
lowing. In the first stage, while the blastopore still 
appears as a round white spot, the primitive darm 
(urdarm) has the well-known form, Its inferior and 
lateral boundaries are the cells of the entoderm; but 
along the dorsal line the cells offer a different histo- 
logical character, being pigmented, and consisting of 
In Triton, however, 
there is asingle row of high cylinder cells. This dorsal 
band includes the anlaye of the notochord, and is 
named by Hertwig ‘ chorda-entoblast.’? Around the 
blastopore the mesoderm is already present, forming 
a paired extension running forward as a lateral mass 


SCIENCE. 


817 


on either side, and a median division lying below the 
blastopore. Around the edges of the blastopore all the 
layers are united: throughout the remainder of its 
extent the mesoderm is separated by a narrow space 
from both earch and entoderm. The mesoderm 
and the chorda-entoblast are both histologically simi- 
lar to the ectoderm; and Hertwig, on that account, 
believes they are both derived from the outer germ- 
layer. (This conclusion we think is founded upon 
an insufficient basis. ) 

In the next stage the blastopore remains merely as 
a white point, and the medullary folds and median 
dorsal furrow appear. The notochord is developed 
under the dorsal furrow as a thickening of the median 
portion of the chorda-entoblast, which butts against 
the ectoderm, so that the mesoderm is excluded from 
the axial line. Ultimately the lateral portion of the 
chorda-entoblast enters into the formation of the in- 
testinal wall; but in Triton the whole of this peculiar 
band is changed into the chorda, which, being formed 
by an invagination, exhibits a slit in transverse sec- 
tions of early stages. No such slit is seen in frogs. 
There is a fold formed at the lateral junction of the 
chorda-entoblast with the rest of the entoblast; and 
along that fold the entoderm is fused, without demar- 
eation, with the mesoderm. Around the blastopore 
the three layers still present essentially the same ar- 
rangement as before; the mesoderm has grown out 
around the whole ovum, except a small area on the 
ventral side, where the ectoderm and entoderm (yolk) 
are in immediate contact. 

In the next stage, when the whole length of the 
broad medullary groove is clearly marked out, and 
indeed in later stages also, the absolute independence 
of the notochord of the mesoderm, and its devel- 
opment out of and gradual separation from the 
chorda-entoblast, are to be clearly recognized (see the 
accompanying figure). In the region of the blasto- 
pore, where the mesoblast is continuous with the 
other layers, there are two projecting lips, on one side 
formed by the entoderm proper, on the other by the 
chorda-entoblast. These lips enclose a fissure be- 
tween them, which is a small evagination of the en- 
teric cavity into the mesoderm. 


ue Tass 
Lees 


Frontal section through a frog ovum in which the medullary 
ridges have begun to appear, nt, entoderm; enc, chorda-cn- 
toblast; ch, notochord; me, mesoderm; ec, ectoderm; NV, ner- 
yous system 


In a later stage the anus is developed behind the 
blastopore as a simple ectodermal invagination, the 
bottom wall of which breaks through. No such re- 
lations between the germ-layers have been found here, 
or elsewhere, as around the blastopore. 

The points, then, of special importance, brought out 
by Hertwig, are, 1°, the existence of the median dorsal 


818 


band of cells, the chorda-entoblast, entering into the 
formation of the entodermic wall, but resembling 
in character the ectodermal cells ; 2°, the develop- 
ment of the mesoderm as a paired outgrowth from 
the blastopore. In part second of his paper, Hertwig 
reviews the published investigations on the embryol- 
ogy of other classes of vertebrates. He accepts the 
homology of the primitive streak in Amniota with 
the blastopore. He is fairly successful in proving the 
same relations of the germ-layers to exist in all ver- 
tebrates. He also discusses the various objections 
advanced against the coelomtheorie, according to 
which the mesoderm is an epithelial Jayer, bounding 
the body-cavity. He draws from his observations 
and arguments the following conclusions: 1. The 
mesoblast grows as a continuous mass from acknowl- 
edged epithelial layers; 2. In all vertebrates there 
early appears a fissure in the mesoderm, limited pa- 
rietally and viscerally by epithelium, as can be espe- 
cially well seen in elasmobranch embryos; 3. From 
this epithelium are derived true epithelial membranes 
in the adult, from which are developed the perito- 
neum, kidneys, sexual glands, ete.; 4. The primitive 
mode of oriyin of the mesoderm is probably that de- 
scribed by Kowaleysky and Hatschek in Amphioxus, 
—an invagination of an epithelial membrane (en- 
toderm); 5. In the true vertebrates the mesoderm 
grows out as a solid mass, in which the fissure ap- 
pears later. This must be regarded as a secondary 
modification, for we frequently find hollow organs 
making their first appearance as solid anlagen; e.g., 
the central nervous system of teleosts, many sense- 
organs, and most glands. These considerations lead 
collectively to the final conclusion that the meso- 
dermic plates are morphologically epithelial evagina- 
tions homologous with those of the invertebrates. 
CHARLES SED@WICK Minot. 


ACOUSTIC ROTATION APPARATUS. 


In a recent number of the Zeitschrift fiir instru- 

mentenkunde, Dr. V. Dvorak gives an account of the 

various forms of apparatus which 

E have been devised to show attrac- 

tion or repulsion due to sound- 

waves, or to gain a continuous 
rotation. 

Such experiments require a 
good volume of sound for suc- 
cess. That this may be obtained, 
not only should the tuning-fork 
be in accord with the resonator- 
box on which it is placed (the 
most convenient form of sound- 
ing-body for the purpose), but al- 
so the elastic system, consisting 
of tuning-fork and box, should be 
capable of vibrating in unison 
with the fork and the air in the 
resonator. The three sounds are 
ealled the fork, the air, and the 
InTorder to get the last, the resonator 


wood tone. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 47. 


should be stuffed with cotton-wool, and a piece of 
cork put between the prongs of the fork ; then, by 
rapping on the top of the fork, the whole system 
is vibrated very much as it would be by the up-and- 
down motions of the lower part of the fork when 
free. By cutting away the walls of the resonator 
to make them thinner, the system may readily be 
brought to the right pitch. In most of the resona- 
tors in common use the wood tone is too low, owing 
to the wood being already too thin. 

The fork used by Dr. Dyorik was G, having 392 
vibrations per second. It weighed 265 grams. Asa 

resonator, an ordinary 

pine box was used, 
about 13.5 cm. long, 

11 em. broad, and 10.5 

em. high. In one side 

a round hole was cut, 
» Jarge enough to make 

the air tone of the 

right pitch. The wood 
was S§ mm. thick. 

From the top and bot- 

tom it was shaved off 

for the purpose ex- 
plained above. The 
dimensions of the box 
were entirely acciden- 
tal, but proved to be 
good. 
By using an electro- 
magnet to keep the 
fork in continuous vibration, the results are naturally 
more sure. The form of magnet which has proved 
satisfactory is shown in fig. 1.. His the magnet, with 
a core made of iron plates. This magnet is placed 
between the prongs of the fork, and is held by the 
wooden arm a ¢, to the lower end of which is fas- 
tened the resonator K. At 
b the arm is bound toa firm 
support, so that the system 
of fork and resonator is 
perfectly free. 

The resonator-wheel (fig. 
2) is the first form of ro- 
tating apparatus described. 
It consists, asshown in the 
illustration, of four glass 
resonators on the four arms 
of a wheel. For a fork of 
392 vibrations, the spheres 
should be about 44 mm. in 
diameter, with openings 4 
mm. across. Rotation was 
obtained with the fork 40 
em. away. 

As a modification of this 
wheel, a rotating resonator 
(fig. 3) may be made of a 
flat cylindrical pasteboard box, having a number of 
side-openings, each ending in a short piece of tubing 
of size to make the resonator respond to the fork, 
When suspended by a silk thread, h, such a resonator 


Fig. 2. 


Fie. 3. 


‘ 


es _ 
: ; 


DECEMBER 28, 1883.] 


can be easily put in rotation ; iis a needle to rest in 
a hole in a piece of lead, to prevent oscillation. The 
dimensions given are: a b, 70 mm.; bc, 36 mm.; d/, 
19mm. The tubing openings were 8 mm. long and 
*6 mm. in diameter. 

The sound-radiometer (fig. 4) is readily made. 
In cardboard about 8 mm. thick, holes are punched 
at intervals of 6 mm. with the punch of the form 
shown at A. When prepared in this way, the card- 
board will be repelled if presented to the resonator 
with the small ends of the holes toward it, and at- 
tracted when reversed. To make these effects more 
marked, the punch and die shown at B and C may be 


used on moistened cardboard to form 
conical holes with cylindrical ends. 
The conical holes alone show no 
effects. By arranging the pieces of 
pasteboard as in D, or better as in 
E, a rapid rotation may be obtained. 
The apparatus shown in fig. 5 is 
called a sound-wind-mill. A Helm- 
holtz resonator, a b, is placed before the opening 
of the box-resonator. Out of the smaller end, a, 
a stream of air will be blown when the fork is vi- 
brated, and its existence shown by the rotation of 
the windmill, h k. The dimensions of the Helm- 
holtz resonator for G are : diameter, 80 mm. ; the 
opening at b,16 mm. ; ata,2mm. This last is very 
important. It seems odd that the resonator with 
two openings may be replaced by such as shown at 
R with only one. The opening may face in any di- 
rection, provided the. windmiii is swably placed, and 
still the mill will turn. When the opening is turned 
toward the resonator-box, the distance between the 


resonators may be as great as halfa metre. The di- 
mensions and form of the ballareimportant. A suit- 
able one may be made by grinding off the top of a glass 
globe 50 mm, in diameter, and covering the opening 
with a very thin metal plate in which there is a hole 


SCIENCE. 


Fig. 4. 


819 


3.5 mm. across. The puffs of air coming from the 
opening ! are vortex-rings, which may easily be 
shown by filling the ball with smoke. 

By putting one of the wings of the sound-radiome- 
ter before the box-resonator with the larger ends of 
the holes facing it and at a distance of 2 em. from it, 
the mill may be made to rotate by the puffs of air com- 
ing through the holes, which should be numerous. 


AURORAL EXPERIMENTS IN LAPLAND. 


Mr.*J. RAND CAPRON gives a brief account (The 
observatory, Sept.) of Professor Lemstriém’s experi- 
ments, quite similar to that 

which has already appeared in 


E Science. He thinks that 
Professor Lemstrém’s conclu- 
sion, that the height of auro- 

\ ras ‘‘has been generally over- 
i" estimated may probably open 


a lively discussion, as un- 
doubtedly his dictum will 
that ‘measurements of an 
aurora on a long base must 
be erroneous, as the observers 
never see the same aurora,’’’ He thinks, 
too, that the relation Professor Lemstrém 
believes himself to have proved, between 
movements of atmospheric electricity and the 
‘variations of the magnetic elements,’ may 
be only apparent. 

Mr. Capron believes that the experiments 
described did “‘ collect and make apparent to the eyea 
true auroral glow, its spectroscopic character being at 
the same time tested and defined by experienced ob- 
servers.’’ He adds, ‘‘ Yet one cannot help feeling 
something of regret that, if only for further assur- 
ance, the wave-length of some one line seen was not 
(as far as we are aware) absolutely determined, on 
some occasions at least, and that the observations 
appear to rest only ona small instrument presumably 
without scale.” 

Mr. Capron’s article is important mainly for call- 
ing-renewed attention to the phosphorescence, or 
fluorescence, theory of the principal (yellow-green) 
line of the aurora spectrum. This theory, first 
proposed by Angstr6m, was advocated in the Phi- 
losophical magazine for April, 1875, by Mr. Capron, 
who is inclined to attribute the line to phospho- 
rescence, apparently on the following grounds; 19, 
The ‘phosphorescent appearance’ of the aurora; 
2°. The fact that phosphorescence is capable of giy- 
ing quite sharply defined spectral lines, as shown 
by his observations with a phosphorescent yac- 
uum tube; 3°. The fact that the auroral line 
belongs to ‘the principal region of phosphores- 
cent light;’ 4°. ‘The observed circumstance that 
the electric discharge has a phosphorescent after- 
glow.’ 

Mr. Capron observed, moreover, that the auroral 
line lies in the region of a certain bright band in the 
spectrum of a phosphoretted hydrogen flame, though 
somewhat nearer the red end of the spectrum than is 


820 


the brightest part of this band, as shown in the accom- 
panying figure. 

“Tn this diagram (of a normal spectrum), curve a 
[which Mr, Capron calls the phosphorescence curve] 
is deduced from the spectrum of phosphoretted hydro- 
gen, curve b from Professor Angstrém’s spectrum of 
the violet pole of air-vacuum tubes; a u is the princi- 
pal auroral line.’’ This figure is apparently intended 


to represent the facts under ordinary laboratory con- 
ditions; but Mr. Capron states, that according to Le- 
coq de Boisbaudran, when the flame of phosphoretted 
hydrogen is artificially cooled, the bands of the spec- 
trum become intensified, and in such a way that the 
brightest portion of each band is shifted toward the 
red end of the spectrum. Mr. Capron appears to 
think, that, under the intense cold of the auroral re- 
gions, one of these bands might become the line a u. 
E. H. HAut. 


LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 


Secular increase of the earth’s mass. 


Tue thoughtful and suggestive researches of Hbel- 
men and T. Sterry Hunt, on the chemical and geo- 
logical relations of the earth’s atmosphere," have led 
me to some further deductions, which seem to in- 
crease the interest in this field of inquiry. The gen- 
eral tendeney of these studies is to show that the 
chemical transformations in progress upon the earth 
involve the fixation of a larger volume of atmos- 
pheric constituents than could probably have ever 
existed in the atmosphere at one time, and that they 
must consequently have arrived from interplanetary 
space. U : 

1. The carbonates. —It is generally agreed, as first 
shown by Hunt, that the carbonates of Jime and 
magnesia have arisen chiefly through the interactions 
between carbon dioxide of the atmosphere, the decom- 
posing silicates of the earth’s crust, and the chloride 
of calcium of the ocean. The carbon dioxide has 
therefore been contributed by the atmosphere. To 

_ what does this contribution amount? We may as- 
sume, without material error, that the carbonates here 
in question are all calcium carbonate, with a specific 
gravity of 2.72. Then, the mean pressure of the at- 
mosphere being about 14.7 pounds avoirdupois on a 
square inch, a little calewlation shows that an amount 
of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere sufficient to 
double its pressure would yield only 8.627 metres of 
limestone. An amount sufficient to cause a pressure 
of 80 atmospheres would suffice for the formation of 
limestones equal to only a fortieth (.02265) of the 
hundred thousand feet which, for this purpose, may 
be assumed as the thickness of the stratified rocks, 
But a pressure of 80 atmospheres at a temperature 


I See a memoir by T. Sterry Hunt in Amer. journ. sc., May, 
1880, where references are given to numerous other publications. 


SCIENCE. 


(VoL. IL, No. 47. 


of 30° GC. produces liquefaction of carbon dioxide. 
The actual proportion of limestones and dolomites in 
the earth’s crust is about one-eighth, as I have shown 
by recent studies. This amount would yield, by the 
liberation of all its carbon dioxide, a pressure of 441.6 
atmospheres. If we consider the limestones and dol- 
omites formed since the period of the coal-measures, 
the proportion required to yield, on the liberation of 
its carbon dioxide, a pressure of 80 atmospheres, 
would be only a twenty - second 
(.04469) of all the post-carboniferous 
strata. The actual proportion is 
about one-eighth, as for the whole 
stratified crust; and this would yield 
sufficient carbon dioxide to cause a 
pressure of 223.8 atmospheres. 

It is not credible that such amounts 
of carbon dioxide have eyer existed 
in the atmosphere at one time. Dur- 
ing the larger part of the aeons of car- 
bonate formation, animal life has existed in great 
abundance upon the earth; and this would have been 
impossible with 200 to 400 atmospheres of carbon di- 
oxide present. As the proportion of this gas in the 
existing atmosphere is only 44 parts in 10,000 by 
weight, 200 atmospheres of the gas would be 444,000 
times the present proportion. It is scarcely more 
credible that the pressure of 200 to 400 atmospheres 
would have been compatible with either vegetable or 
animal organization, so similar as it was fundamen- 
tally to modern organization. As this large amount 
of carbon dioxide cannot be supposed derived from 
the earth’s crust, it must have been derived from in- 
terplanetary space. This would imply an addition to 
the earth’s mass of .0008806, which is about sy, part 
of the present mass. 

2. The kaolinization of felspars. — Hunt has shown 
that the kaolinization of a layer of 51.66 metres of 
orthoclase, or its equivalent of quartzo-felspathic 
rocks, would result in 23.7 metres of kaoline, and 
would use up 10,333 kilograms of carbon dioxide per 
square metre of surface. This is the weight of the 
atmosphere. Now, the whole amount of felspathic 
decomposition during the sedimentary ages must 
much exceed 500 metres in vertical thickness of kao- 
linie deposits. But 500 metres of kaoline represent 
21.1 atmospheres of carbon dioxide; and, assuming 
the mass of the atmosphere at ysp)a0n in relation to 
the earth, the carbon dioxide fixed in the processes of 
kaolinization would be .0000175826 of the total mass 
of the earth. 

3. Decay of hornblende, pyroxene, and olivine. — Ac- 
cording to Hunt, the decay of 104 metres of such | 
minerals, or their equivalents in hornblendie and py- 
roxenic rocks, would yield carbon dioxide equal to 1 
atmosphere: hence, if the earth’s erystalline rocks 
haye afforded 500 metres of hornblende and pyroxene, 
they must have fixed 48.387 atmospheres of carbon 
dioxide. This, in relation to the earth’s mass, is 
-0000403209. 

4. Conversion of ferrous into ferric oxide. As Ebel- 
men states, the conversion of 21,357 kilograms of fer- 
rous oxide into 23,750 kilograms of ferric oxide would 
consume the whole of the 2,876 kilograms of oxygen 
in the atmosphere (more exactly, 1.007 atmospheres) 
covering a square metre. If, then, we suppose the 
existence over the earth of 1,000 metres of sediments 
derived from the decay of crystalline rocks contain- 
ing only one per cent of ferrous oxide, weighing, 
according to Hunt, 25,000 kilograms, this is 1.052 
times the amount requisite to fix the oxygen in 
1.007 atmospheres; that is, 10 metres of ferric 
oxide represent the fixation of 1.059 atmospheres of 


DECEMBER 28, 1883.] 


oxygen. This, in relation to the earth’s mass, is 

5. Unoxidized carbon.— This occurs not only in 
coal-beds, but in pyroschists and petroleum. We find 
that the oxidation of a layer of carbon 0.7123 metre 
in thickness would use up all the oxygen in the at- 
mosphere. A layer 2.252 metres thick, and having a 
specific gravity of 1.25, if converted into carbon di- 
oxide, would exert a pressure of one atmosphere. 
This would amount to 2,267,000 tons of 2,240 pounds 
each on a square mile. Mr. J. L. Mott calculates 
that the amount of unoxidized carbon per square mile 
cannot be less, and is probably many times greater, 
than 3,000,000 tons. If we adopt this determination, 
it will imply a depth of 0.982 metre, and the propor- 
tion of the earth’s mass will be .00000036318. This 
is the amount of carbon dioxide which must be de- 
composed to yield a layer of carbon over the earth 
only a trifle over three feet in thickness, while it is 
probable that the carbonaceous deposits of the earth’s 
crust exceed this. Now, it will hardly be maintained 
that the uncombinea carbon of the earth’s crust was 
derived from any other source than the atmosphere, 
and mostly through the agency of vegetation. The 
earth’s atmosphere must therefore have contained all 
this amount of carbon dioxide. With the fixation of 
the carbon, the freed oxygen, it may be said, might 
have been employed, as far as it would go, in the 
formation of ferric oxide, whose demands upon the 
atmosphere have just been computed; but, as it would 
only satisfy z\5 of those demands, it is hardly neces- 
sary to consider the question. 

6. Meteoric contribulions. —If, as commonly as- 
sumed, 400,000,000 meteors enter our atmosphere 
daily, an average weight of ten grains each would 
amount to a yearly addition of 93,170 tons. This, 
in 100,000,000 years, would amount to .000000001542 
of the earth’s mass, and would form a film .292, or 
nearly #, of an inch thick, having a density of 2.5.1 

Gathering together these various contributions to 
the earth’s mass during 100,000,000 years, we have 
the following : — 


1. CO, represented by the carbonates . 0003896 
2. CO, fixed in kaolinization of felspars 0000175826 
8. CO, fixed in decay of hornblendie and au- 
giticrocks. . . . . +. + « + « 0000403209 
4. O fixed in conversion of ferrous oxide . -0000008825 
5. OO, represented by uncombined carbon -00000036318 
- 6, Meteoric contributions . -000000001542 
Aggregate -000439750722 


This is an addition of zy, to the earth’s mass; 
and, in the present state of knowledge, it does not 
appear on what grounds assent can be withheld from 
the result, or some result of similar purport. It 
must be left with the astronomer to determine what 
relation this increase may sustain to the moon’s ac- 
celeration in its orbit and to other phenomena. It 
may be noted, however, that the remote secular reces- 
sion and retardation of the moon, which G, H. Darwin 
‘has recently brought to view, would have been delayed 
by the cause here considered, and the time required 
for the attainment of the moon’s present relations 
would have been prolonged, but to what extent re- 
mains to be determined. 

The evidences disclosed by these recent researches, 
f the slow accession of gaseous and solid matters to 
the earth, possess a profound interest. It would al- 
most seem that the earth’s atmosphere is only so much 
of the intercosmical mixture of gases and vapors as 
the earth’s mass is capable of condensing around it, 


1 The value given for this film in a note, p. 14, in my ‘ World- 
life,’ should be multiplied by 365}. 


‘ SCIENCE. 


821 


and that the proportions of these gases are determined 
separately, each by its own weight and elasticity and 
by its relative abundance in space; so that, as any one 
becomes diminished by fixation in the planetary crust, 
new supplies arrive to keep the ratio constant. As 
under this view it is apparent that an atmosphere 
should be accumulated around the moon, even after 
the saturation of the pores of its rocks, it may be 
said that the moon’s mass and volume are such that 
her atmosphere would possess only y\;, or, according 
to Neison, xs, the density of the earth’s atmosphere; 
and this degree of tenuity might reduce the lunar 
atmospheric refraction to the small value actually 
observed. ALEXANDER WINCHELL. 


‘Regulation of electromotive force. 


In one of the articles — the first, I think — recently 
published in Scrence (ii. 642) upon the subject of the 
electric light on the U. S. fish-commission steamer 
Albatross, the writer tells us that the brillianey of 
the Edison incandescent lamps is kept constant, 
when other lamps upon the circuit are lighted or 
extinguished, by placing an adjustable resistance in 
the circuit of the field-magnets of the dynamo-electric 
machine, ‘ whereby the internal and external resist- 
ances are balanced.’ 

The importance of the subject scarcely seems to 
warrant any more space being devoted to it than 
already has been. But the point that I bring up is not 
an immaterial one, such as whether the engine is on 
the port or the starboard side of the vessel: it is a 
question which involves interesting and important 
physical principles. 

The reason an adjustable resistance is required 
in the field-circuit of an Edison dynamo, in order 
to maintain a steady incandescence of the lamps, 
results from the fact that the armature has some 
resistance, This resistance is quite small, to be sure, 
but it has a considerable effect, nevertheless. 

In order that a multiple are system should be per- 
fect, so that the dynamo or generator would require 
no adjustment or regulation when lamps were turned 
on or off the circuit, it would be necessary that this 
generator should have absolutely no resistance: for, 
if it were possible to reduce the internal resistance to 
zero, then there would be no fall of potential within 
the machine itself; that is, the fall of potential would 
all be in the external circuit, and the difference of 
potential between the poles of the generator would 
be equal to the total electromotive force of the cir- 
cuit. In that case, all that is necessary is to keep 
the electromotive force constant; and then it follows, 
that any number of the lamps in the system may be 
lighted or put out without producing any fluctuation 


‘whatever in the light of the other lamps, because the 


incandescence of a given lamp depends only upon 
the electromotive force with which it is supplied. 
Now, we know that the electromotive force gener- 
ated by a dynamo is constant, provided that the 
speed of rotation of its armature, and the intensity of 
the field-magnetism, are kept constant. The arma- 
ture is maintained at a constant speed because it is 
driven by a steam-engine furnished with a governor, 
the function of which is to secure a constant speed ;+ 
and the field-magnets have a constant strength be- 
eause the current which excites them is constant, 
since this current, like the current in the lamps, is 
produced by an electromotive force, which, by hy- 
pothesis, is constant. 

Let us now consider the case where the resistance 
of the armature is not zero (to which, of course, it 


1 The speed would remain constant, but the power required 
would increase with the number of lamps in circuit. 


822 


never could be reduced), but is some small fraction of 
an ohm (say, .2 ohm), and suppose that there is a 
single lamp of 140 ohms’ resistance in circuit, and 


that the electromotive force is 100 volts: then 
140 , ; 
140.2 * 100 = 994 volts will be the fall of potential 


in the lamps, and only + volt in the armature. But 
suppose that there are 70 lamps of the same re- 
sistance (140 ohms) in circuit, instead of a single 
one: then the external resistance will be reduced to 
140 


70 = 2 ohms, and the fall of potential in the lamps 


2 
will only be 9.9 * 100 = 90+} volts, and 9;4 volts in 


the armature. 

Thus we see, that, when the number of lamps in cir- 
cuit is increased from 1 to 70, the difference of poten- 
tial available in the lamps is decreased from 99% to 
90+? volts, a reduction of almost one-tenth; in conse- 
quence of which the candle-power of the lamps would 
be lowered at least one-third, and probably one-half. 
Of course, variations in the brightuess of the lamps 
of one-third, or one-tenth, or even one-twentieth, 
would not be permissible: therefore, in order to 
maintain the required steadiness of the light, it is 
necessary to raise the electromotive force of the 
dynamo as more lamps are put on, and to lower it 
as lamps are taken off. This is done by increasing 
or diminishing the strength of current in the circuit 
of the field-magnets by means of a resistance-box 
interposed in the circuit. This regulation of the 
electromotive force of dynamos by controlling the 
resistance of the field-circuit may be, and in fact has 
been, made automatic; but up to the present time it 
has more generally been done by hand. 

In what has gone before, I have said nothing 
about the resistance of the conductors which con- 
vey the current from the dynamo to the lamps. The 
effect of the resistance of any conductor which is 
common to two or more lamps — one of the main con- 
ductors, for example —is precisely the same as the 
effect of the resistance of the armature, which has 
been discussed above; but when a conductor supplies 
only a single lamp, then it does not have this effect. 
Of course there is a loss or fall of potential due to 
the resistance of the individual conducting-wires of 
each lamp; and of course the fall of potential in the 
lamp itself, and consequently its brightness, are there- 
by reduced. But this resistance does not introduce 
any irregularity: its effect in diminishing the light 
of the lamps is constant. 

Let us suppose that a conductor having a resist- 
ance of 140 ohms feeds a single lamp of 1.4 ohms’ 
resistance: then the loss in this conductor will be 
1% of the useful fall of potential. But suppose that 
we now put 10 more lamps in circuit: then the loss 
in the conductors will be increased to over 10%; and 
assuming the useful fall of potential to be 100 volts, 
with a single lamp in circuit, it will only be about 90 
volts with 11 lamps. The candle-power of the first 
lamp would drop at least 25% or 30% when the other 
10 lamps were added. Thus it is, that, in a multiple 
are system of electric lighting, any resistance which 
is common to a number of lamps, whether in the 
armature or the conductors, causes fluctuations in 
the light of the lamps when other lamps are put on 
or off; whereas the resistance of the individual con- 
ductors of each lamp produces a loss of potential 
which is a constant fraction of the total potential, 
but does not introduce any unsteadiness. 

F, B. CRockErR. 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 47. 


Osteology of the cormorant. 


With respect to Mr. Jeffries’ criticism (Screncr, 
ii. 739) of my paper on cormorants, I beg to say that 
the occipital style of the cormorant is not an ossifica- 
tion in the tendon of any muscle ; that he is entirely 
wrong in his view of the homologies of what I call a 


- patella; and that, furthermore, I find myselémisquot- 


ed more than once. R. W. SHUFELDT. 
A dog plans and executes with reference to 
the future. 


Six weeks ago Prof. J. B. Thayer of this place re- 
turned from Ree Heights, Dakota, bringing with . 
him one of a litter of eight pups raised by a slut of 
the setter breed. The story which he relates to me 
of this pup’s mother is, it appears to me, worthy of 
record. 

The good mother appears to have discharged her 
arduous duties as only a mother can, and arrived 
with her eight babes at the time when they should be 
weaned. At this juncture, judging from the events 
reported to have followed, she seems to have con- 
ceived the idea that too many dogs were occupying 
the same claim, and that a distribution was desirable. 
Accordingly, she started one morning with three of 
her pups, and was observed by Miss Rosa Cheney, 
now of this place, running in the road toward their 
claim at a rate which made it impossible for the pups 
to keep pace with her. The dwelling where she lived, 
and another shanty on the adjoining corner of an- 
other claim, are situated one mile and three-fourths 
from the dog’s home. The mother reached the claims 
in advance of her babes, but no sooner had they ar- 
rived than she hurried on at her best pace. Miss 
Cheney reports that ‘‘ the puppies came up all out of 
breath, and apparently too tired to continue; but the 
smallest of the three followed on.’? Another claim 
was reached three-fourths of a mile beyond; and 
here Miss Cheney observed the mother stop until her 
panting babe came up, when she immediately set off 
again. A quarter of a mile beyond the last claim, 
the mother was observed to make a third halt as 
before, and then to pass on beyond the range of vision, 
towards Ree Heights, with the puppy still following 
her. Two days later the persistent mother, with her 
more persistent babe, was observed coming back; and 
Miss Cheney tells me that the little puppy appeared 
almost dead from fatigue. 

Some days later the dog led off two more of her 
pups, and succeeded in leaving them both; but in the 
mean time the two puppies left the first day were re- 
turned. A pup was also left at Professor Thayer’s 
claim, but was returned, and exchanged for another. 
Both Professor Thayer and Miss Cheney assure me 
that other efforts of the same kind were made by this 
dog, but with what results they are unable to say. 

After the puppies had been distributed, they were 
not forgotten; for the old dog used often to go and 
play with them. Professor Thayer mentions one in- 
stance of her coming and playing with the puppy left 
at his claim until it was very tired, when she lay down 
by the side of it; but, after it had gone to sleep, she 
quietly walked to the opposite side of the house, and 
then hurried away in the opposite direction from 
home for a distance of about forty rods, when she 
turned and went directly there, thus showing quite 
clearly that the thought of distributing her puppies 
was still uppermost in her mind. 

What events may have awakened this desire on the 
part of the mother, or what reasons she had for her 
acts, we do not know; but in her own mind I have 
no doubt the case was urgent and the way clear, if 


DECEMBER 28, 1883.] 


not also just. It would appear, not only that this dog 
must have thought her plan through, but that she 
must also have held it definitely in mind for several 
days while she executed it, thus indicating quite un- 
equivocally, it seems to me, that one animal at least, 
ranked lower than man, possesses the power of look- 
ing into the future and of executing plans deliberately 
laid with reference thereto; ‘‘ man is the only animal 
which has the power of looking into the future,’’ to 
the contrary notwithstanding. F. H. Kine. 
River Falls, Pierce county, Wis. 


Method for making electrical signals. 


When I first became connected with the Alabama 
agricultural and mechanical college, the recitation 
signals were made by means of electric bells, one in 


Fie. 1. 


each professor’s room. These were rung separately 
by pressing in succession as many push-buttons as 
there were bells. In order to complete the system, 
it was necessary to have one wire for each bell, and 
a return-wire running through the whole length 
of the system; and therefore only one bell could be 
rung at once. In the circuit there were twelve bells, 
about one-half mile of wire, and twelve one-gallon cells 
of Watson’s battery. One of the cadets of the college 
was delegated to sound the signals at the end of each 
fifty minutes, which was the length of the recitation 
hours. Sometimes he would ring too soon, and at 
other times several minutes too late. This was fre- 
quently annoying, particularly when an interesting 


Fie, 2. 


and important lecture was in progress, In the at- 
tempt to obviate this difficulty, the plan that I am 
about to describe was suggested to my mind. 

We have an excellent compensated clock that can 


SCIENCE. 


823 


be made to strike twice any multiple of five minutes. 
After adjusting this clock so as to make it strike every 
fifty minutes, 1 insulated it on a square of plate glass. 
I then made an oblong opening in the side of the wood- 
work about one inch long. This slit was made on a 
line with the ball of the striker, Through this hole I 
passed a copper wire, and fastened it securely to the 
hammer of the gong. In the end of the wire outside 
of the clock I made a loop, as shown at A, Fig. 1. 

A second wire, A B C, was attached to the first, as 
shown in the figure. A loop at B fits in a slit in the 
upright D, and a pin is inserted at B to hold the wire 
in position and at the same time allow the ends A and 
C to work up and down when the hammer of the 
clock strikes. The bottle C £ is partly filled with 
mercury. From this mercury-cup a wire, 2 W’, runs 
to one pole of the battery. The other pole con- 
nects at A with the wire W, after passing through 
all the bells of the system. S is a weight to 
counterbalance the arm BC. It will be readily 
seen that the outward stroke of the hammer will 
throw the end of wire A B C into the mercury, 
thus completing the circuit, and causing all the 
bells to ring. The blow of the hammer against 
the gong of the clock will raise the end C, and 
break connection. All but one of the bells must 
be single stroke: otherwise it will be impossible 
to obtain satisfactory results. By using one bell, 
with attachment for breaking and closing the 
circuit, the ringing will continue as long as the 
wire at Cis in contact with the mercury. 

The above system has been in operation for 
one year, and has given satisfactory results. 

It has occurred to me that our large bell, weigh- 
ing nearly two thousand pounds, can be made to strike 
the hours for the benefit of the town by placing it in 
the system just deseribed, with the following adjust- 
ment. Procure a soft iron horseshoe magnet six or 
eight inches long, and secure it at M on the iron rod 
ADC, Fig.2. This becomes magnetized when the 
clock completes the circuit. The armature XY Y is 
attracted, and the ball X strikes the bell. The elas- 
ticity at # raises the ball immediately from contact, 
and allows a clear and distinct ring. The tension- 
spring T raises the armature from the magnet, and 
the current ceases to flow. If it is desirable at any 
time to ring the bell in the ordinary way by means 
of the rope R, the adjustment of the system may be 
sustained by making the supporting rod A DC’ secure 
to the bell-shaft at A, and thus permitting the mag- 
net and fixtures to swing with the bell. 

P. H. MELL, Jun. 


Auburn, Ala. 


GEIKIE’S GEOLOGY. 


Text-book of geology. By ARCHIBALD GEIKIE, 
LL.D., F.R.S., director-general of the Geological 
survey of Great Britain and Ireland, ete. With 
illustrations. London, Macmillan §, Co., 1882. 
Mriep: 32. 


Trext-BooKs in science once held a rather 
low place in the estimation of scientific men. 
Labor of this sort was long relegated to the 
book-makers, who, copying statements and il- 
lustrations one from another, gave the student 
more of the errors of by-gone days than of the 
knowledge of their own. But in our own time 
all this has been greatly bettered. Now a man 


824 


of science is likely to look forward to text- 
book making as a source of honor as well as 
of remuneration; as a task that may not only 
help others on their way, but aid himself to a 
broader and more careful view of his own field 
of labor. The text-books of Lyell, Jukes, 
and Dana in geology are among the admirable 
works of these great authorities, and were 
doubtless helpful to them in their careers, as 
they have been vastly advantageous to those 
who have been trained by them. From a 
purely literary point of view, text-book mak- 
ing has no mean yalue to their makers. To 
collect the stores of learning of a science, to 
take that which has general value from the 
mass of details, to secure a due proportion and 
perspective to the parts of the work, — this is 
a task indeed. 

Mr. Geikie has proven himself strong enough 
for this burden. His store of facts is far larger 
than has hitherto been gathered in any one 
book on geology. ‘They show a large general 
reading, not only in the vast geological litera- 
ture of his own island, in the making of which 
he has had a large share, but in the work done 
in other lands, —a praise that can be given 
to few of his countrymen. In his list of 
authorities he gives more names of scientific 
men of other countries than of British geolo- 
gists; and this although he professedly desires 
to take his illustrations as far as possible from 
his own ground. 

Besides the peculiarly large amount of well- 
gathered fact that marks this work, we may 
note among its peculiarities the considerably 
wider range in the method of treatment of the 
subject. In his first book he gives twenty-four 
pages to the cosmical relations of the earth, and 
under this heading presents the fullest and most 
satisfactory statement of the general condition 
and history of the earth as a member of the 
solar system that has yet been given in a popular 
treatise. With the same freedom of treatment, 
he does not hesitate to give a much fuller dis- 
cussion of mineral veins than has hitherto found 
its way into any text-book. So, too, with those 
portions of the text that treat of river-action, 
volcanic phenomena, and the other leading 
manifestations of the geological forces. The 
author evidently feels a sense of freedom in 
making his book that is to be commended eyen 
if it gives him in the end near a thousand 
pages of text. 

‘The paleontological part of the work is care- 
fully done, but it is in the nature of the subject 
that it should be less commendable than the 
other parts of the book. There is a radical 
difficulty in treating paleontology, especially 


SCIENCE. 


“a OO 


[Vou. IL; No. 47. 


in its department of historical geology, in any 
text-book fashion. Even within the ample 
limits given by a thousand pages of print it 
comes down to a list of specific names that can 
only conyey a meaning to the masters of the 
science; while the first principle of a text- 
book should be, that any statement should have 
a free comprehensibility within itself, without 
recourse to libraries or collections. Page after 
page of specific names hinders rather than helps 
the beginner. 

This is the only criticism that can be made- 
on the historic geology of the book, and it is 
one that lies against all the text-books that 
have thus undertaken to treat a subject that is 
so essentially unfit for this use. The essays on 
the divisions of the rock series are admirable. 
Especially to be commended is that on the old 
dispute concerning Cambrian and Silurian. It 
is pleasant to find a successor of Murchison in 
the directorship of the British survey who can 
do even-handed justice to the famous dead who 
fought this great battle over the division of the 
lower paleozoic section. 

At several other points in the series of rocks 
we find an excellent spirit of discrimination ap- 
plied to the problems of stratigraphic geology. 
We note the following. In discussing the rela- 
tions of Permian to carboniferous rocks, the 
author notes the important fact, that, while in 
Europe there are discordances and sharp con- 
trasts between the Permian and the carbonifer- 
ous series, there is no such trenchant line ‘in 
America. In the same spirit the indistincetness 
of the line between the triassic and the Jurassic 
series in North America is carefully pointed 
out. We find, also, that the doubt concerning 
the position of the Flysch series of the Alps is 
well presented; the ground being taken that 
the lower part of this series is upper cretaceous, 
the higher portions, eocene. ‘This is the best 
brief presentation of this important problem 
that is known to the present writer. The only 
important exception that we can take to this 
admirable presentation of the stratigraphic 
problems concerns the author’s general treat- 
ment of the triassic period. He notes that the 
European triassic series, with its reddish sand-* 
stones and shales, with connected gypseous 
and rock-salt beds, is essentially local in char- 
acter, and that this aspect of the series cannot 
be expected in foreign lands. ‘To this no ~ 
objection can be taken; but he fails to assert 
the equally important fact, that reddish sand- 
stones and shales have a singularly wide distri- 
bution in other lands. This general character 
of the trias constitutes it one of the most 
puzzling portions of the geological section, and 


DECEMBER 28, 1883.] 


: 
it should be given its due prominence in any 
general account of the series. 

The last eighteen pages of the book are given 
to the chapter on physiographic geology. 

_This matter belongs in close relation to the 
earlier chapters of the book, and seems some- 
what isolated in its position. It is not so com- 
pletely treated as the other parts of the book ; 
but it is, nevertheless, a fair condensation of 
the most material points of the subject. The 
illustrations of this subject are rather limited, 
but a Biegram of the Colorado Canyon by Mr. 
Holmes (p. 923) gives a peculiar value to the 
set of diagrams. 

It is hardly fair to quarrel with the title of 
so good a book, but it would have been better 
to have given it the name of a manual rather 
than a text-book. It is not fitted for the ordi- 
nary use of schools; being far too rich in 
matter, and calling for too much collateral 
knowledge for classroom work. It belongs in 
association with Dana’s classic manual of geol- 
ogy. For American students it cannot replace 
that admirable book ; but, taken along with the 
American work, it will give the student a very 
complete encyclopaedia of geologie science. 

The book is fairly well made. The type is 
bolder-faced than in Dana’s manual; so that 
the total amount of matter is about the same 
in the two books, despite the somewhat larger 
page of Geikie’s volume. An admirable fea- 
ture of the book is the free use of footnotes 
referring to authorities, which is a distinct ad- 
vantage the book has for the student. The 
figures are well chosen, and finely serve their 
purpose; though there are not quite half so 
many as in Dana’s work. 

The index is voluminous and well made. 


HAECKEL’S CEYLON. 


Indische reisebriefe. Vou Ernst Haecken. Berlin, 
Paetel, 1883. 134356 p. 16°. 

A visit to Ceylon. By Ernst HAeckev. Translated 
by Clara Bell. Boston, Cassino, 1883. 8+337 


pile: 


Iy his ‘ Voyage of the Beagle,’ Darwin has 
shown that an acquaintance with nature does 
not in the least detract from the interest of 
a traveiler’s adventures. Haeckel, in his new 
book on Ceylon, has still further given evi- 
dence that a love for nature’s treasures adds 
an indescribable charm to one’s wanderings in 
a strange land. In the ‘ Indische reisebriefe ’ 
we find a charming account of a_ scientific 
pleasure-excursion which the author made dur- 
ing the six months following October, 1881. 
The journey included a brief stay at Bombay, 


SCIENCE. 


825 


and a much longer series of travels through 
Ceylon, covering a space of four months. 

Upon reading the book, the first impression 
we get is, that Haeckel must be a most pleasant 
travelling-companion, so delighted is he with 
every thing. He starts, he tells us, on a trip 
he has been longing for all his life, and evi- 
dently with the expectation and intention of 
having a delightful excursion. Nor will he 
allow any thing to frustrate his intention. It 
makes no difference where he is, or who are his 
companions: his good nature is unbounded. 
Every one, he seems to think, treats him with 
more than kindness; the roads he travels are 
models of comfort ; and even the elements con- 
spire in his favor. The country he passes 
through calls forth the whole wealth of the 
German language to find adjectives sufficient 
to express his boundless admiration. Officials 
give him every assistance ; private homes open 
to him with the kindest hospitality ; and even 
the natives take great interest in him, and are 
ever ready to give him aid which is at least 
kindly intended. When he establishes his lab- 
oratory at Belligam, he is supplied with ser- 
vants, to whose excellency he can only do justice 
by naming one Socrates, and a second Gany- 
mede. Belligam, the name of the town where 
he established his laboratory, means ‘ sand- 
village.’ This name, however, does not suit 
Haeckel’s general delight ; and he calls it Bella 
gemma, considering it as ‘a choice jewel in na- 
ture’s casket.’ An ordinary trip in the tropics 
is thus, by good nature and enthusiasm, trans- 
formed into a glowing journey through fairy- 
land. “Indeed, one almost imagines, as he 
reads, that he has found an American advertise- 
ment of a pleasure-excursion. So full of pleas- 
ure and good fortune is the whole trip, that the 
reader soon grows weary, and wishes that some 
slight accident might happen, to break the 
monotony. It is certainly a relief to find the 
admission that the fauna of the island is dis- 
appointing ; and we are quite reconciled to the 
fact, that the scientific laboratory was not quite 
so successful as had been hoped. 

Haeckel’s style in this book, as indeed in 
all his writings, is a most happy one. He gives 
what may be called a confidential description of 
nature where it is most lovable. The reader 
gets the impression that it is being given him 
in person by the author, for the purpose of en- 
joying once more the pleasures of the journey, 
and haying a quiet laugh at the people. He can- 
not keep himself out of his descriptions, — in- 
deed he does not try to do so; and what we see 
on every page is not a picture of Ceylon, but a 
picture of a man. making a journey through 


826 


Ceylon. He begins by telling us that he is get- 
ting to be an old man, and it is now or never 
with him as regards a journey in the tropics ; 
but when, in the next breath, he informs us that 
his advanced years number eight and forty, we 
are quite amused at his premature old age. 
When he tells us, in the first chapter, how the 
Berlin academy refused to give him any aid 
on account’of the challenge he had thrown to 
it on evolutionary speculations, we laugh with 
him. Wesee his amusement as he writes upon 
seeing wild apes for the first time : ‘‘ Comparing 
them with the dirty and naked begging priests 
at our feet, they seemed to me a highly respect- 
able ancestry for them.’’ His German nation- 
ality, too, is ever apparent. Now we see it 
when he describes his German companions, or 
more frequently when he delights in his allu- 
sions to ‘ the indispensable black tail-coat and 
white necktie’ of old England, or to the English 
‘chimney-pot’ (eylinderhut), which he consid- 
ers, ‘of all head-coverings, the most hideous 
and insufficient.’ He enjoys telling of English 
gluttony as compared with German temper- 
ance, of the Englishman’s love for money with 
his exorbitant prices, and finally ends with the 
terse statement, ‘ Unsonst ist in Indien nur der 
tod.’ But even his admiration for Germany 
does not prevent him from giving tribute to 
the faculty which England has exhibited as a 
colonizing power. 

The scientific results of the Ceylon jour- 
ney are not apparent. He travelled quite 
extensively through the island, continually 
swelling his collections, and finally estab- 
lished a rough laboratory at Belligam, where 
he worked hard for six weeks, filling his 
large cases with specimens from land and sea. 
But beyond the statement that the fauna 
of Ceylon agrees closely with that of the 
Philippine and Fiji group, the zodlogist gets 
little scientific knowledge. His account of the 
botany of the island is more extensive; but 
even this is largely made up of artistic descrip- 
tions of the magnificent vegetation which so 
vividly impresses. a traveller in the tropics. 
That the journey was made by Haeckel is, how- 
ever, sufficient proof that it was more than a 
pleasure-excursion. He brought back large 
cases of specimens, of which he says little, but 
which will, in years to come, undoubtedly be a 
source of much yaluable information to the 
scientific world. 

The book is not intended to be a scientific 
production, but rather a pleasant account of a 
naturalist’s travels ; and as such if is a success. 
A book of travels is usually dry and uninterest- 
ing after the first few chapters; for, however 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. IL, No. 42. 


interesting new places may be to the traveller, 
to keep up a novelty in description soon be- 
comes an impossibility. Haeckel has not en- 
tirely overcome this difficulty, but he introduces 
variety in the shape of personal anecdotes and 
observations. He is successful, too, in select- 
ing most interesting points for description ; and 
this, together with his boundless love for nature, 
which is so evident in every line, makes the 
closing chapters of his book much less weari- 
some than is usual with books of like nature. 


He reserves his account of the people until — 


toward the end, and thus gives a series of bright 
chapters as the close of his stay at Belligam ; 
and, by the continual introduction of people and 
incidents, he succeeds in keeping the reader’s 
attention better than is customary. But, in 
spite of all, the last chapters of the book will 
invariably be glanced over in a hurried and 
cursory manner. 

The translation by Clara Bell is on the whole 
good, though she has evidently been hard 
pressed to find expressions which will translate 
Haeckel's superfluity of adjectives. In some 
cases she seems to have been unable to find 
English expressions which give any idea of the 
German. One hardly gets the idea from the 
phrase ‘ worthy and fair reader,’ which is con- 
veyed by the German, ‘ Du, geneigter leser, 
und noch mehr, vererhte leserin.’ Though she 
has not followed the German yery closely in 
her translation, yet she has succeeded in con- 
veying to the English reader a tolerably good 
idea of Haeckel’s flowing, free, and confidential 
style. The wonderful suecess of Haeckel’s 
writings has proved that his method of writing 
and dealing with scientific subjects is a most 
attractive one; and this edition of his visit to 
Ceylon, partly on account of the freedom of 
the translation, but more largely because of the 
nature of the subject treated, will give to the 
English reader a better idea of his style of 
writing than any other of his translated works. 


REMSEN’S THEORETICAL CHEMISTRY. 


Principles of theoretical chemistry with special refer- 
ence to the constitution of chemical compounds. By 
Ira Remsen. Revised edition. Philadelphia, 
Henry C. Lea’s Son § Co., 1883. 242 p. 12°. 
Iy preparing this new edition of his little 

book upon ‘ Theoretical chemistry,’ Professor 

Remsen has extended quite materially the 

second part, which treats of the constitution of 

chemical compounds, and which forms its most 
distinetive and attractive feature. Many of 
the alterations, however, will hardly be re- 
garded as improvements by those who believe 


2 


DECEMBER 28, 1883.] 


that a clear and definite presentation of chemi- 
eal theories is quite essential to their proper 
comprehension. While it is manifestly highly 
important that the student should not only be 
acquainted with the facts upon which chemical 
theories rest, but should also appreciate fully 
the nature of conclusions reached by inductive 
reasoning, still a constant reiteration of the 
doubts, uncertainties, or conflicting evidence, 
which surround the various hypotheses, seems 
to us ill advised in an elementary text-book. 

Although structural chemistry in a certain 
sense is independent of the valence hypothesis, 
still this hypothesis was one of the earliest 
and most natural inductions resulting from the 
study of the constitution of chemical com- 
pounds, and is so interwoven with the present 
theories, that any attempt to exclude it rigor- 
ously from a discussion of the subject merely 
adds an unnecessary complication. We con- 
fess that we do not think the ordinary student 
will read with much interest the pages devoted 
to structural formulae, or * proofs’ of their cor- 
rectness, if he chances to see beforehand the 
opening sentence of the retrospect which fol- 
lows (p. 232). 

““ A study of the preceding chapters on constitution 
will show that no absolute meaning is to be attached 
to the word. Constitutional formulas are those which 
suggest certain reactions, and recall analogies. The 
formula CH; —OH does not mean that hydroxyl 
(OH) is necessarily present in the compound, or that 
CH, is present, but that the different parts of the 
compound bear such relations to each other that 
when the compound is decomposed, it acts as if the 
parts were united as the formula indicates. The 
formula suggests possibilities ; it may not represent 
realities.” 

If the author be correct, and ‘‘ it cannot be 
denied that we are now in a period of chemis- 
try which may fairly be called one of formula 
worship’’ (p. 100), it is very certain that 
formula worship has been of vastly greater ser- 
vice to chemistry than agnosticism is ever 
likely to be. 

We fail to see that any advantage is gained 
by the introduction of new conventional signs 
in place of those already in common use, to 
represent the linkage of the carbon atoms in 
the olefinet and acetylen series (pp. 202, 206) ; 
nor can we understand why the double linkage 
of the nitrogen atoms, which the author ap- 


SCIENCE. 


827 


parently accepts, since he uses the old sign 
(=) in his formulae for the azo- and the diazo- 
compounds (p. 222), stands upon any more 
trustworthy experimental basis. Furthermore, 
we cannot help expressing our surprise that 
the author should have ventured the statement, 
“Of the substitution products of benzene, 
which contain three substituting groups, more 
than three varieties have been observed’’ (p. 
208), which seems a bit of rashness hardly con- 
sistent with the caution elsewhere displayed. 


THE CORNELL MATHEMATICAL 
LIBRARY. 

Cornell university library. Special lists, No.1. Math- 
ematics. Ithaca, N.Y., 1883. 92p. 8°. 
Turis classified list of works, with index, in- 

cludes some twenty-five hundred titles relating 

to mathematics, and such allied subjects as 
astronomy, engineering, and physics. ‘These 
books form what is known, from the name of the 
donor, as the ‘ Kelly mathematical collection. ’ 

An examination of the list shows that it con- 
sists of books actually purchased within the 
past few years, with good judgment, and a con- 
scientious endeavor to cover, so far as practica- 
ble, the immense field of mathematical research, 
past and present, as evenly as possible. 

It comprises, besides many rare and valuable 
works not readily accessible to American stu- 
dents, the collected works of the great masters 
of analysis, and the more important mathemati- 
cal journals. 

The mathematical capabilities of American 
youth are quite equal to those of Germany or 
England ; but the facilities offered them by our 
universities for the study of this grandest of 
sciences are in general far behind those found 
abroad. When the professors and teachers of 
mathematics in this country shall themselves 
become lifelong cultivators of mathematical 
pursuits, and shall have the same average 
proficiency as those abroad, there will be no 
difficulty in accomplishing results in the mathe- 
matical training of college students fully equal 
to any attained elsewhere. But such professors 
and such students cannot be without libraries 
such as this is the beginning of. We can but 
express our deep satisfaction with this good 
work in the interest of sound learning. 


WEEKLY SUMMARY OF THE PROGRESS OF SCIENCE. 


MATHEMATICS. 
Kummer's surface. — Professor Cayley, in a brief 
note ‘on the sixteen-nodal quartic surface,’ remarks, 


- 


that Riemann’s theory of the bitangents of a plane 
quartic leads at once to a very simple form of the 
equation of the sixteen-nodal quartic surface; viz., 


828 


if £, 7, ¢, denote linear functions of the co-ordinates 
(w, y, 2, w), such that identically 
Toe Var ar bar if ary iS y= 
aa by fez + fs 1997 i kho=0 
(where af = bg = ch =1), then the quartic surface, 
Vet + Vyn + yzo = 0, 

is a sixteen-nodal surface. Prof. Cayley has previously 
given the equation of this surface under the form 

Vc(X = w) + fy (Y —w) + yz(Z—w) = 0, 
where X = a (yyy — 8’ Bz), ete., anda + P+ y=0, 
etc.; the other relations being obtained by cyclical 
interchange of the letters, and by advancing the 
accents. The object of the present paper is the direct 
identification of these two forms of the equation of 
the surface. — (Journ. reine ang. math., xciv.) T. C. 

[541 

Elliptic functions. — M. Hermite has given a 
simple and direct demonstration of an interesting 
relation discovered by Prof. Cayley. The relation is 
as follows: if u, v, r, s, are four quantities connected 
by the relation u +» +r+s = 0, then we have — 

—k? snusnv snr sns + enu env enr ens — 


1 ke 
j2dnu dnv dnr dns = Sie 


This remarkable relation is shown by M. Hermite 
to be easily derived by means of certain formulas 
which he has long used in his course in the Sor- 
bonne. The formulas are those which give the 
decomposition into simple factors of the three quan- 
tities sna sn(@ + a),cnw%en(e+a),dnadn(x+ a). 
The decomposition of the first of these products is 
a known fundamental relation between Jacobi’s Z- 


functions: the decomposition of the other two prod-~ 


ucts is,given by M. Hermite; and by aid of them 

Prof. Cayley’s formula is proved. —(Acta math., i.) 

aE (Op [542 
ENGINEERING. 

The two-cylinder compound engine. — Pro- 
fessor 8. W. Robinson furnishes Van Nostrand’s 
magazine a paper on the working of steam in this 
engine in its various forms, and traces the method 
of distribution in the two cylinders and the effect of 
such methods on the theoretical efficiency: He gives 
the general method of representing the action of steam 
graphically, and shows how diagrams made from the 
two cylinders are combined. The effect of the re- 
ceiver is exhibited, and the result of the introduction 
of various conditions, as clearance, etc. — (Van Nos- 
trand’s mag., Oct.) RB. H. T. [543 

Spherical steam-engines.— Messrs. Heenan & 
Froude of Manchester, G.B., recently exhibited at 
the Engineering and metal trades exhibition, Lon- 
don, their ‘Tower’ spherical engine, driving an 
Edison dynamo. The steam-cylinder is a sphere hav- 
ing two cylindrical projections cast upon it. Each 
of these carries a shaft, only one of which transmits 
power from the engine, the other haying merely to 
guide the hinged piston nearestit. The pistons divide 
the interior of the sphere into four portions, which 
at times are four equal quadrants of the sphere, but 
which are capable of variation of volume with change 


SCIENCE. 


|Vou. IL, No. 47. 


of piston position; and, this being effected by the 
action of the steam which is let into the several spaces 
at proper times by the action of the rotating valves’ 
which are set in the cylindrical projections, the shafts 
are turned, and power is produced and transmitted to 
the mechanism of transmission. ; 
The engine worked silently and well, and indicated 
18-horse power at 600 revolutions per minute, with 
steam at S0 pounds (63 atmos.). Its diameter was 
but 7 inches (17.8 centimetres). — (London engineer, 
July.) R. H. T. [544 
Steel castings.— Mr. W. Parker has collected 
facts bearing upon the value of steel castings in marine- 
engine construction. He observes that forged iron 
shafts and other heavy parts are very unsafe, and that 
mild steel is taking the place of wrought iron for all 
such uses. About a hundred and twenty steel ships 
are in progress in Great Britain, constructed of low 
steel. The testimony of steel-makers and tests of 
the material show that steel castings can be made of 
homogeneous character and thoroughly reliable. 
Jessop & Co. use crucible steel for this purpose, and 
think that good castings can only be obtained with 
certainty by the crucible process. Spencer & Sons 
use both crucibles and the open-hearth process, and 
get equally good results from both. The Steel com- 
pany of Scotland use the Siemens furnace and process, 
and adopt the silicide of manganese as a flux to insure 
soundness. The internal stresses due to variation in 
rate of cooling are avoided either by very slow cooling 
or by annealing. Pourcel of Terre Noire, France, 
tempers in oil, with, as is claimed, very great adyan- 
tage. The tenacity is thus increased sometimes thirty ~ 
per cent, and the elongation at rupture remains un- 
reduced, while the grain of the steel is greatly im- 
proved. Sir Joseph Whitworth compresses his ingots 
of steel, while solidifying, by applying the pressure of 
a large hydraulic press. Messrs. Vickers & Co. make 
many large crank-shafts for steamships, adopting a 
mild steel of a tenacity of about fifty-five thousand 
pounds per squareinch. The castings are improved by 
hammering or rolling, thirty per cent. — (Scient. 
Amer., Oct. 20.) RB. H. T. [545 


CHEMISTRY. 
(General, physical, and inorganic.) 


Bleaching.— ‘Oxygenated water,’ a common name 
for peroxide of hydrogen, has within the last few years 
attracted a good deal of attention as a bleaching and 
purifying agent, and has been successfully employed 
as a substitute for chlorine. It is now stated that 
Mr. P. Ebell of Pfungstadt, near Darmstadt, has 
succeeded in preparing economically a product, pure, 
stable, and of constant strength, capable of being 
easily transported for long distances, and kept for 
years without losing its bleaching-properties. Among 
other applications of this product, that of the decolor- 
ation of animal fibres is the most important, as it 
does not contain some of the disadvantages of other 
bleaching-agents. For wool or silk, it is advisable, 
before bleaching, to cleanse the materials thoroughly, 
so as to eliminate all the greasy substances and im- 
purities. For this purpose, Mr. Ebell recommends a 


ey ee Pe 


DECEMBER 28, 1883.] 


bath in a solution of five parts carbonate of ammonia 
to one hundred of water, this bath being followed by 
a soaping, and thorough washing with water. The 
bleaching itself is performed either by immersing 
the materials in the solution of oxygenated water, 
and leaving them there at a temperature of from 20° 
to 30° C., until the decoloration is complete, or the 
materials are impregnated, when they are wrung out 
and exposed in a room heated to about 20° C.: they 
are then left to dry. — (Engineer, July 20.) [546 

Molecular volume of liquids.—In the determi- 
nation of the molecular volume of liquids, R. Schiff 
proposes to make the observations at the boiling-point 
of the liquid and in a special form of apparatus. 
The latter consists of a small flask capable of holding 
about one hundred grams of mercury: it is drawn 
out to a narrow neck which is graduated to ten di- 
visions, each of which corresponds to 0.01 of a cubic 


_ centimetre; and each of these divisions is divided 


into five parts, making each of the final divisions 
equal to 0.05 of a cubic centimetre. The volume is 
accurately determined by weighing the flask filled 
with mercury to the zero-mark. To determine the 
specific gravity of any liquid at its boiling-point, the 


flask is filled with the liquid, placed within a jacket- 


tube which contains a little of the same liquid, and 
the latter boiled until the liquid in the flask is heated 
to its boiling-point. By means of a capillary tube 
the liquid is withdrawn from the flask until it stands 
at the zero-mark, and the flask is corked, cleaned, 
allowed to cool, and weighed. The specific gravity 
of the liquid is referred to water at 4° C., and it may 
be calculated by means of the formula— 
ind 

55 Mei K(—4)y° 
in which P = the corrected weight of the liquid in 
the flask, V; = the apparent volume which the liquid 
occupies at 1°. 

By this method the molecular volume of many of 
the paraffine and aromatic hydrocarbons, their halo- 
gen substitution products, alcohols, etc., were deter- 
mined, and results were obtained which agreed closely 
with those of other experimenters. — (Ann. chem., 
220; 71.) ~o.\F: M. [547 


_ AGRICULTURE. 


Aves guano. — A new phosphatic material under 
this name has lately been imported into Germany 
from the Aves Islands, in the Caribbean Sea, near 
the coast of Venezuela. Analyses of it by Miircker 
and by Heiden show it to contain about seventy-two 
per cent of calcium phosphate, four to nine per cent 
of calcium carbonate, seven per cent of organic mat- 
ter, and twenty-five hundredths of one per cent of 
nitrogen. The material consists of a fine powder, 
with more or less fragments up to the size of a pea 
or larger. Among the coarser portions, shells and 
coral fragments are often found. The extent of the 
deposit is said to be great. — (Biedermann’s centr.- 
blatt., xii. 582.) oH. P. A. [548 

Comparison of nitrogenous fertilizers.— Miirck- 
er reports the results of pot-experiments by Albert 


SCIENCE. 


$29 
on the relative value of various nitrogenous fertiliz- 
ers for oats. Leather, either unprepared or ferment- 
ed, gave as good as no increase of crop. The others 
ranged in the following order, the best being placed 
first: horn-meal, nitrate of soda, fermented dried 
blood, sulphate of ammonia, fermented steamed bone, 
steamed bone, dried blood. The horn-meal is pre- 
pared by treating horn-refuse with superheated steam, 
In previous experiments it produced almost as good 
an effect as nitrate of soda. It is to be observed, that 
several of the materials used contained other ferti- 
lizing ingredients than nitrogen, of whose possible 
effect no account seems to have been taken. An 
experiment in the following year with the pots ma- 
nured with Jeather showed no noticeable effect from 
the latter. — (Biedermann’s centr.-blatt., xii. 584.) 
Bi AL [549 

Effect of fertilizers on composition of oats — 
In the experiments reported in the preceding abstract 
the composition of the oats produced by the aid of 
the various fertilizers was determined, Those ma- 
nured with leather and those without nitrogen con- 
tained 8.7% to 10.7 % of proteine; those manured 
with nitrate of soda and sulphate of ammonia, 11.2 % 
and 11.1%; those manured with the blood or bone 
manures, 11.6 % to 13.6%. The proportion of crude 
fibre and ash was greatest in those manured with 
leather and those without nitrogen: the others showed 
only slight differences. The nitrogenous manures 
delayed the ripening of the grain in some cases. 
Mircker divides them into three groups: 1°, those 
which allow the grain to ripen at the normal time, 
their nitrogen being assimilated during the early 
stages of growth (nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammo- 
nia); 2°, those which delayed the ripening somewhat 
(steamed bone, and the same fermented); 3°, those 
which delayed the ripening considerably, and ren- 
dered it irregular (horn-meal, dried blood). The 
last decompose slowly in the soil, and furnish a con- 
tinuous supply of nitrogen until late in the autumn. 
— (Biedermann’s centr.-blatt., xii. 587.) H. P. A. [550 

Nutritive value of amido-compounds.—Weiske 
has already shown that the asparagine which is found 
in various fodders, along with other amides and 
amido-compounds, can partially take the place of 
proteine in nutrition. Zuntz has repeated his ob- 
servations on asparagine and other amides, with the 
same result. —(Biedermann’s centr.-blatt., xii. 602.) 
H. P, A. [551 

Sunflower cake as fodder.— This material has 
been tested as fodder for mileh-cows by Schrodt and 
von Peter with very favorable results. Slightly more 
milk was produced by its aid than’ by that of an 
equivalent quantity of palm-nut meal; and the pro- 
portion of fat in the milk was slightly increased, as 
has sometimes been the case in feeding palm-nut 
meal. No injurious effects on the health of the ani- 
mals were noticed. — ( Biedermann’s centr.-blatt., xii. 


609.) H. P. A. [552 
GEOLOGY. 


Lithology. : 
Lithology of the District of Columbia.— Ac- 
cording to Mr. G. P. Merrill, the prevailing rock of 


830 


this district is an extremely variable hornblendic, 
chloritic, or micaceous schist, sometimes somewhat 
gneissoid. This rock is used for building-purposes in 
its finer varieties, which are composed of quartz and 
biotite, with a silvery white mica, magnetite, apatite, 
etc. Besides the quartz and biotite, the coarser 
varieties frequently contain plagioclase, hornblende, 
chlorite, apatite, epidote, pyrite, magnetite, garnet, 
and rutile. The biotite is frequently more or less 
altered to chlorite, and contains apatite, magnetite, 
and sometimes infiltrated calcite. — (Proc. U.S. nat. 
mus., vi. 159.) M. E.W. [553 

The bismuth deposits of Australia.— These 
deposits are found in irregular quartz veins or ‘reefs’ 
in gray granite, and near its junction with the sur- 
rounding porphyritic and schistose rocks. The veins 
are composed of irregular segregations of quartz, 
holding bismuth, both native and as a sulphide, gold, 
molybdenite, smoky quartz crystals, ete. These veins 
occur only in circumscribed patches in the granite, 
which has here been decomposed to a soft, friable 
rock, the mica and felspar being much altered. 
The native bismuth occurs in irregular bunches and 
nests throughout the quartz, or in fissures traversing 
the veins. These bunches vary in weight from a 
half-pound to fifty pounds; and the metal is particu- 
larly found associated with and incasing the crystals 
of smoky quartz. Sometimes it is in needles in the 
quartz. The walls of the segregations are charged 


with from thirty to fifty per cent of oxide of bismuth , 


for a distance from the vein of from eight inches to 
two feet. 

Mr. Robertson, from whose paper the above ac- 
count is condensed, states that the entire sale of bis- 
muth has for years been monopolized by a few 
London brokers, ‘‘ known as the ‘ Bismuth ring,’ —a 
close and conservative institution formed for the pur- 
pose of controlling the supply and price of bismuth.’’ 
The present consumption of the metal is about 
seventy tons yearly; and it-is stated that these de- 
posits could easily produce that at a small expense. 
In 1882 the market-price of bismuth was 6s. 8d. per 
pound in London. —(Trans. geol. soc. Glasgow, vii. 
127.) M. E. Ww. [554 


MINERALOGY. 


Halite.— B. Wittjen and H. Precht have endeav- 
ored to find the cause of the blue color in some vari- 
eties of halite, and have arrived at the conclusion that 
it is dependent upon some optical phenomena, possi- 
bly connected with the presence of minute gas inclu- 
sions. — (Berl. berichte, xvi. 1454.) 8. L. P. [555 

Rubellan.— This micaceous mineral has been in- 
vestigated by M. U. Hollrung, and shown to be very 
various in its properties. It occurs mostly as a de- 
composition product of magnesian micas. It is by no 
means homogeneous, and cannot be classed as.a dis- 
tinct mineral. By means of the microscope it could 
be seen that crystals of the ordinary biotite form were 
composed of lamellae of different degrees of decom- 
position, showing all stages from pure mica to wholly 
decomposed material. — (Min. petr. mitth., v. 304.) 
8. L. P. [556 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. IL, No. 47. 


Parallel growth of zinc blende and tetrahe- 
drite.— Specimens from Kapnik, Transylvania, have 
been studied by F. Becke. The minute crystals of 
tetrahedrite are deposited only upon the dull faces of 
the blende crystals, and are of a later growth. They 
have been deposited according to the following law: 
the principal axes of the two minerals are parallel, 
and the first or principal tetrahedron of tetrahedrite 
is parallel to the second tetrahedron of blende. The 
development of the tetrahedrite crystals is dependent 
upon their location on the blende, being most sym- 
metrical if deposited on a dodecahedron face, and flat- 
tened if on a cubic face. A parallel growth of these 
two minerals has been previously noted, but with the 
first tetrahedron of tetrahedrite parallel to the first 
tetrahedron of blende. — (Min. petr. mitth., vy. 331.) 
8. L. P. [557 

Iolite (cordierite).— A. von Lasaulx has described 
twin crystals occurring in a cordierite gneiss from 
Laacher See. Twins of this species are of unusual oc- 
currence, and have been observed with the prism # 
P for composition face. The author finds, in addition 
to twins according to the old law, compound twins, 
part of the individuals being united according to the 
old law, and part according to a new law with » P 3 
for composition face. Twins united wholly accord- 
ing to the new law were not observed. — (Zeitschr. 
kryst., viii. 76.) S. L. P. [558 

GEOGRAPHY. 
(Arctic.) 

Arctic land.—F. Schmidt discusses the claims of 
different persons, and especially Wrangell, to the dis- 
covery of land north of eastern Siberia. Discovery is 
hardly the proper word to apply to the record of re- 
ports by the aborigines of that region. In fact, as Pro- 
fessor Schmidt admits, Wrangell had his doubts as 
to the accuracy of the report; and his opinion was ex- 
pressed, sometimes with more, sometimes with less, 
confidence, at different times. The first civilized man 
to actually see what is now called Wrangell Island 
was Kellett, who called it Plover Island, and made a 
sketch of it from a long distance away, of which I 
have a copy, and which is stated to be characteristic 
by Capt. Hooper. The high land, with extensive 
peaks, described by Kellett, like the Pelly Mountains 
of the arctic coast, described by Dease and Simpson, 
was simply one of those peculiar atmospheric effects 
which occasionally deceive the most experienced are- 
tie travellers. The conclusion is, that no report of 
new arctic land is worth any thing until it has at 
least been very closely approached. — (Isvestia uinp. 
geogr. soc., May.) Ww. H. D. [559 

Settlements on the Siberian coast. — Karzin 
gives a most valuable list of the settlements, sum- 
mer fishing-stations, camps of ivory-hunters, and 
other places, where human beings are to be found at 
any season of the year on the coast of north-eastern 
Siberia. The chronicles of the Jeannette expedition 
might have been less gloomy, had the commander 
possessed himself of some such directory before pro- 
ceeding on that unlucky voyage. —(Isvestia timp. 
geogr. soc., May.) w. i. D. [560 


DECEMBER 28, 1883.] 


(Africa.) ® 

Sierra Leone. — According to recent consular re- 
ports, the population of this colony comprises sixty 
thousand five hundred souls, nearly all blacks, who 
speak among them more than sixty different dialects. 
Freetown, the capital, has a population of twenty- 
two thousand, chiefly of the Aku, Ebo, Timen, Susu, 
Maulang, Sherbru, and Krumen tribes. The Aku 
and Ebo people are extremely keen traders: the three 
following tribes furnish middlemen, who intervene 
between the caravan merchants and the purchasers. 
The last mentioned are freighters and boatmen, em- 
ployed largely in loading and discharging vessels. 
The trade amounts to about three million dollars 
annually, less than half of which are exports. The 
soil is poor and not arable; farming is hardly practi- 
cable; and the real importance of the colony lies in 
its geographical position, and easy communication 
with the rich interior region. Taxes and customs- 
duties are very high, and have injured trade by driv- 
ing it elsewhere. The exports are kola, palm and 
peanuts, palm-oil, gum-copal, rubber, ginger, and 
hides. — (Bull. soc. Belg. géogr., ii. 1883.) Ww. H. D. 
[561 

Portuguese Guinea.— Barros contributes a me- 
moir on Portuguese Guinea, with notes on the cus- 
toms and manners of the natives and on their 
language, especially of the Mandingo, Biafada, and 
Balanta tribes, containing little absolutely new ex- 
cept some songs. The article forms an interesting 
summary of facts. —(Bol. soc. geog. Lisboa, no. 12, 
1882.) Ww. H. D. [562 

BOTANY. 


Cryptogams, 

The oospores of the grape-mould.— Prillieux 
states that he has received from M. Fréchou of Nérac 
germinating oospores of Peronospora viticola. The 
germinating oospores produce at once a mycelial tube 
similar to that known in other species of Perono- 
spora, in which the germination of the oospores has 
been seen. This is an important step in our knowl- 
edge of the grape-mildew, since, inasmuch as the 
conidia produce zoospores, it had been supposed by 
some that the oospores would also produce zoospores, 
as is the case in the related genus Cystopus. — (Bull. 
soc. botan.) w. G. F. [563 

Swedish Algae.— Dr. C. Lagerheim describes a 
number of species new to Sweden, including several 
genera and species new to science. The species are 
from fresh water, as well as marine, and are illustrated 
by a plate. Of the genera treated most in detail may 
be mentioned Merismopedium. — (O/vers. svensk. 
akad.) w. G. F. [564 

Monograph of Ulvaceae.—The sixth part of 
Agardh’s Till algernes systematik is devoted to the 
Ulvaceae. The author includes here the genera 
Bangia and Porphyra, as well as the green species 
generally placed in this order. The subject is elabo- 
rately prepared, and is illustrated by four colored 
plates giving the microscopic structure. Ulva and 
Enteromorpha are kept distinct, and E. erecta is 
credited to New York on the authority of J. Hooper. 


SCIENCE. 


831 


Monostroma pulchrum the writer suspects to be a 
form of M. lactuca, a boreal species of both hemi- 
spheres. — (Acta univ. Lund., xix.) w.G.F. [565 


Phanerogams. 

Spines of Aurantiaceae.— Dr. Urban describes 
and figures specimens which show that the spines 
situated just above the leaf-axis of a number of mem- 
bers of this family, and hitherto considered as meta- 
morphosed axillary branches, are in reality formed by 
the transformation of one or two of the lowest leaves 
belonging to the primary axillary shoot. — (Ber. der 
deutschen bot. gesellsch., June 27.) w. T. [566 

Orchis mascula.— Mr. Malair believes that the 
visits of bees to this species are for propolis, which is 
yielded by the papillae of the nectary. Flies also visit 
the flowers, which are described at length, but not 
very clearly nor accurately. — (Science gossip, March, 
April.) w. T. [567 

Sterility of the Ficaria.— Mr. Neve notices that 
in England the plant seldom seeds, although its 
flowers appear well formed, and bees visit them. — 
(Science gossip, June.) Ww. T. [568 

Pollination of willow. — Mr. Hamson states, that 
while amentiferous plants, dependent entirely upon 
the wind for fertilization, have pendulous catkins, 
“in the willow the catkins are upright and elastic, 
The humble-bee is a heavy insect, and it almost in- 
variably mounts to the summit of the catkin, which 
is borne down by its weight. On the bee taking 
flight, the catkin springs suddenly to its original po- 
sition, and thus shakes out the pollen in the male, 
and further distributes that which may have lodged 
in the scales of the female catkin.’’ Bees were no- 
ticed to confine their visits almost exclusively to the 
staminate plants. — (Science gossip, July.) w.T. [569 


ZOOLOGY. 
Protozoa. 

Division of the nucleus in protozoa.—It is 
known that in many protozoa the number of nuclei 
increases with the growth of the animal; but whether 
the additional nuclei arise by free new formation, or 
by division of older nuclei, was uncertain, although 
Zeller had shown that the multiplication in Opalina 
was due to division. Gruber, in a valuable article, 
now shows that in Actinospaerium and Amoeba divis- 
ion of the nuclei occurs, having obtained examples 
after very long search. In the former the young nu- 
clei are small, and have a single large nucleolus with 
a clear space around it. As the nucleus enlarges, the 
clear margin disappears, and the nucleolus breaks up 
into smaller granules (nucleoli). In-one specimen 
various stages of division were found. Their natural 
succession is probably as follows: the nucleoli arrange 
themselves in two parallel rows across the nucleus; 
they then unite so as to form a homogeneous band 
out of each row; the rest of the nuclear substance 
accumulates between the two bands, which then 
move asunder, and meanwhile threads appear run- 
ning from band to band; a line of division (par- 
tition-wall ?) appears between the bands, In Amoeba 
proteus the nucleus contains a peripheral layer of 


832 


granules, and a large central mass to be regarded as 
the nucleolus. One specimen was found with nuclei 
in various stages of division. It appears that the 
nucleolus separates into two parts, between which, 
across the equator of the nucleus, appears a partition. 
Similar processes were observed in another Amoeba 
(sp.?). In these cases we have a form of nuclear di- 
vision somewhat different from any hitherto observed ; 
in that the nucleolus divides first, and the partition 
between is formed without the participation of the 
nuclear membrane. 

Biitschli has asserted that in Amoeba proteus (prin- 
ceps B.) the nuclei are either small and numerous, 
or large and few. Gruber has found them always of 
about the same size, and very variable in number 
and relative proportion to the bulk of the individual. 
— (Zeitschr. wiss. zool., xxxvili. 872.) ©. S. M. [570 


Coelenterates. 


The nervous system of the Siphonophores. — 
According to Korotneff, who has studied the minute 
anatomy and histology of the Siphonophores, the Di- 
phyidae are the least modified, and present the most 
primitive or ancestral structure. In them the ecto- 
derm is a simple muscle-epithelium with well-devel- 
oped muscle-fibrillae, which lie upon muscle-septa, 
or outgrowths from the supporting layer. 

A more highly differentiated organization is found 
in the Apolemiadae. ‘The epithelial cells are nearly 
separated from the muscle-fibrillae, to-which they are 
united only by fine protoplasmic threads. Between 
the muscle-septa the epithelial cells are folded over to 
form an open furrow, which is floored with cells a 
little larger than those over the general surface of the 
body. 

In the Agalmidae the cells in this furrow are en- 
tirely covered up by the ordinary surface-epithelium. 
They are very large, are united by processes to the 
muscles, and they constitute a true central nervous 
system formed by involution of the ectoderm. The 
muscle-fibres of the Agalmidae are entirely separated 
from the epithelial cells, and the latter are flattened. 
Korotneff has traced the origin of the nervous system 
inthe embryo. Ina Forskalia larva there is no trace 
of nerye-cells; and the epithelio-muscular layer, the 
muscle-septa, and the endoderm are like the corre- 
sponding structures of Diphyes. 

As the animal grows, these ectoderm-cells, which lie 
between the muscle-septa, grow larger, sink down, 
and become covered up by the ordinary surface ecto- 
derm-cells. They then throw off processes to the 
muscle-fibres, and thus become converted into the 
nervous system. The nerve-cells are therefore, so 
far as their origin is concerned, epithelio-muscular 
cells, and they so far lend support to Kleinenberg’s 
neuro-muscle theory. 

Korotneff describes sensory cells in the region of the 
neryous system of the Agalmidae, and also in the air- 
bladder. These sensory cells are muscle-cells which 
still retain their primitive position on the surface; 
and they are furnished with sensory hairs, and are 
joined by processes to the muscle-fibrillae. 

In the Physophora the ectoderm has been special- 


SCIENCE. 


(Vou. I1., No. 47. 
\ ; 


ized in two ways. On the stem the cells haye the 
morphological characteristics of nerye-cells and the 
position and arrangement which characterize muscle- 
cells: they are neuro-epithelio-muscular cells, There 
are also many sensory cells arranged in longitudinal 
rows among the ordinary cells; but there is no in- 
folded nervous system upon the stem, as there is in 
the Agalmidae. This is to be found, however, upon 
the air-bladder, which is thickly covered with nerve- 
cells. On the upper surface of the bladder these are 
directly united to the surface-epithelium, while upon 
the lower surface they are directly united to the 
muscles. Hesays that there are physiological reasons 
(which are not stated) for believing that the upper 
nerve-cells are sensory, and those on the lower sur- 
face motor. 

He speaks very briefly of the diffused nervous sys- 
tem of Porpita; and his observations apparently 
agree with those recently published more at length 
(see SCIENCE, ii. 396) by Conn and Beyer. — (Zool. 
anz., 148.) Ww. K. B. [571 

Worms. 

Systematic papers on worms.— Dr. ‘R. vy. 
Drasche has taken advantage of the preservation of 
all Diesing’s and many of Molin’s original specimens 
of nematods in the Vienna museum to draw up fresh 
and more accurate diagnoses of the species described 
by these authors, and also to give a good many new 
figures. This labor is calculated to avoid much con- 
fusion which might otherwise arise from the very 
imperfect character of the original descriptions, — 
(Verh. zool-bot. ges. Wien, xxxii. 117.) 

The same author also describes some new ascarids 
collected in Brazil by Natterer, and adds some notes 
on Ascaris ovis and A. rigida. — (Idem, 139.) 

G. M. R. Levinsen has published the first part of a 
valuable revision of northern Annulata, Gephyrea, 
Chaetognathi, and Balanoglossi. He attempts chiefly 
to describe the species, elucidate their history in sci- 
entific writings, and their geographical distribution. 
The essay contains full synoptic tables. The work 
was undertaken at the request of Prof. Steenstrup 
and Dr. Liitken. — ( Vidensk. meddel. naturh. foren. 
Ajobenhavn, 1882, 160.) Cc. s. M. [572 

Pentastomum from an Alligator lucius. — J. 
Chatin has found Pentastomum, probably P. oxy- 
cephalum, in the liver of a caiman. This is a new 
locality for the parasite. He gives an excessively 
prolix general account of the anatomy of the animal, 
but contributes little that is new. The hooklets 
around the mouth have a stalk, and three movable 
claws thereon, —two at the sides near the end, the 
third terminal. The author denies the cellular char- 
acter of the epidermis: it is ‘formed merely by a mass 
of protoplasm in which are scattered numerous nuclei.’ 
(It can hardly be questioned that this is a mistake 
due to superficial observation. The author gravely 
adds his doubts as to the cellular constitution of the 
epidermis in arthropods generally. In this he is singu- 
larly unfortunate; as there is hardly any fact in insect 
histology more easily verified, even by inexperienced ' 
students, than the existence of epidermal—so-called 
hypodermal— cells. The error of describing an epi- 


DEcEMBER 28, 1883.] 


thelium as a sheet of protoplasm with scattered nuclei 
has been committed over and over again by persons 
not trained in histology.) The description of the 
course of the nerves rectifies previous accounts. — 
(Ann. sc. nat. zoél., xiv. art. 2.) C. 8S. M. [573 


Crustaceans. 

Isopoda of the Blake dredgings. — In a report 
on the Isopoda dredged on the east coast of the United 
States in 1880, by the U. S. coast-survey steamer 
Blake, under the direction of Alexander Agassiz, 
Oscar Harger says that the collection, although small, 
is remarkable for the large proportion of interesting 
forms; since nearly all the species are either new, or 
not hitherto known upon our coast, or known only 
from single specimens. Nine species, all belonging 
to Cirolanidae and Aegidae, are enumerated, and 
most of them fully described and figured on four 
excellent photo-lithographic plates from the author’s 
drawings. — (Bull. mus. comp. zodl., xi., no. 4, Sept., 
1883.) s.1. 8. [574 

Development of Panopeus. —E. A. Birge de- 
scribes and figures the post-embryonal and some ‘of the 
later embryonal stages of Panopeus Sayi and the sec- 
ond zoea stage of P. depressus. He describes four 
distinct zoea stages after the casting of the embryonic 
cuticle (or ‘larval skin,’ as Prof. Birge calls it) and a 
‘first megalops stage,’ and discusses the metamor- 
phoses undergone by the body and appendages in the 
change from each stage to the next. After describ- 
ing the ‘first megalops stage,’ Prof. Birge says, 
‘Subsequent changes in the megalops affect the pro- 
portions of the carapax, which becomes broader pro- 
portionally, and that of the abdomen, which becomes 
smaller, and is permanently flexed under the sternum. 
The appendages undergo many changes, gradually 
approximating them to the adult form. ‘The last 
stage is reached after several — at least four—moult- 
ings.” Unfortunately none of these remarkable later 
megalops stages are described or figured, as they cer- 
tainly deserve to be if actually observed. During 
several seasons’ observations the writer has found no 
evidence of more than one megalops stage in this 
or allied species; and, with the exception of Bate’s 
doubtful observations on Carcinus, there are appar- 
ently no well authenticated cases of several megalops 
stages in any species of Brachyura. The numerous 
figures illustrating the paper are rude and inaccurate. 
— (Stud. biol. lab. Johns Hopk. univ., ii., no. 4, July, 
1883.) 5s. I. 8. [575 

Insects. 

Sucking-apparatus in butterflies. —P. Kirbach 
describes the structure of the maxillae and pharynx 
in the Lepidoptera precisely as described by Burgess 
in the American naturalist for May, 1880, and more 
at length in a memoir on the anatomy of the milk- 
weed butterfly in the Anniv. memoirs Bost. soc. nat. 
hist., 1881. Kirbach makes no reference to either of 
these papers, though both were recorded in the very 
journal containing his article, as well as in Carus’s 
Zool. Jjahresbericht by Bertkau, in the Arch. f. natur- 
gesch., and in the Zoélogical record. However, it is 
satisfactory to haye observations independently con- 


SCIENCE. 


833 


firmed; and Kirbach gives almost a verbal and pic- 
torial repetition of the above-quoted papers. Thus 
the suspensory muscles of the pharynx receive the 
identical names given them by Burgess. Kirbach 
believes the proboscis is extended by muscular con- 
traction, and rolled up by elasticity, but gives no proof 
of his view. This is the opposite of what the mus- 
cular arrangement seemed to Burgess to indicate; 
although he added that “it is more probable we fail 
to see, or to correctly interpret, some proper muscular 
mechanism for both movements of the proboscis.” 
Unfortunately, Kirbach does not help us here. 
Kirbach describes, for the first time, the syringe- 
like mechanism of the salivary duct, by which saliva 
is injected into the proboscis. This arrangement was 
overlooked by Burgess. — (Zool. anz., vi. 553.) FE. B. 
{576 
Wheat-stem maggot or bulb-worm. — The larva 
of Meromyza americana Fitch has been very de- 
structive this year to wheat and rye in Fulton county, 
Ill. Important additions to the published observa- 
tions of Fitch, Riley, and Lintner, have been made 
by S. A. Forbes, who gives descriptions and figures 
of all stages of this insect. The egg is now figured 
for the first time, and a winter brood has been ob- 
served. — (Prairie farmer, Aug. 4.) J. H.C. [577 


VERTEBRATES. 

Histology of the nervous centres.— (©. Golgi 
has investigated the morphology ef ganglion-cells. 
His conclusions are in some respects very different 
from those of previous investigators, and, if confirmed, 
will mark an important advance in our knowledge 
of the subject. On this account we give a longer 
abstract than usual for special papers. 

The origin of the nervous fibres depends on certain 
constant laws, uniform for the different centres, de- 
spite certain secondary differences in the morphology 
and distribution of the histological elements. The 
ganglion-cells may in general be distinguished from 
the other cells by their form, the appearance of their 
nuclei, and the mode of origin of their prolongations; 
but they are especially characterized by the presence 
of the single nervous (Deiter’s) process, which alone 
enters into connection with the nerve-fibres to make 
part of, or constitute them. The protoplasmatic 
processes have nothing to do with the origin of the 
nerve-fibres, directly or indirectly: they are in rela- 
tion with the connective-tissue corpuscles (exactly 
how is not shown, so this may be questioned). As 
each cell has only one Deiter’s process, it follows 
that they are all really unipolar. The sensory and 
motor cells cannot be distinguished definitely by their 
form or size from one another; but, as regards Dei- 
ter’s process, two forms are distinguished, — the first 
is supposed to go with the motor cells, the second with 
the sensory. The established view that the process 
is continued without branching into the axis-cylin- 
der is discarded; for Golgi maintains that it gives off 
a more or less considerable number of filaments on 
its way. In the first form, the process, although giv- 
ing off filaments, still maintains its individuality, 
and ean be followed to the points where it enters the 


834 


medullary sheath as the axis-cylinder. Correspond- 
ing nerve-fibres are found, which preserve their indi- 
yiduality, notwithstanding the filaments they give 
off from the axis-cylinder, which can be followed to 
the ganglion-cells. The structures are supposed to 
belong to the sensory system. In the motor system 
the individuality of the process or of the fibre is 
lost in the gray substance, completely breaking up 
into filaments which enter into the formation of a 
diffuse network. It would appear, then, that the 
motor process breaks up into filaments, forming a net- 
work, from which spring the other filaments, which 
unite to form the motor axis-cylinder. The network 
really receives filaments also from the sensory pro- 
cess and fibres; so that it may be regarded as a fun- 
damental neryous plexus, both sensory and motor, 
by means of which each fibre communicates, not 
with a single cell, but with large groups. The ten- 
dency is towards extended, not restricted, communi- 
cations; and there is no anatomical basis for the 
assumption of the isolated transmission of peripheral 
nervous impulses to hypothetical limited cellular in- 
dividualities. This investigation, therefore, lends 
no support to the theory of cerebral localization. 
Deiter’s process is characterized from its origin by 
its greater homogeneousness, its hyaline aspect and 
smooth surface, while the protoplasmatie processes 
are granular. 

Golgi has also studied the histology of the cortex 
cerebri, especially to compare the anterior with the 
occipital convolutions. Meynert’s plates, and divis- 
ion of the cortex into five layers, he thinks, do not 
agree with the reality. Golgi distinguishes three 
forms of ganglion-cells, — pyramidal, fusiform, and 
globular (or polygonal with rounded angles). He 
distinguishes three layers of about equal thickness. 
The superficial layer is formed almost exclusively by 
rather small pyramidal cells; the middle layer has, 
for the most part, larger pyramidal cells; while in the 
deep layer the fusiform cells prevail, and the globular 
cells, which occur throughout the cortex, are here 
most abundant. The largest pyramidal cells extend 
through the whole thickness of the cortex. Such is 

_the organization of the gyrus centralis anterior (fron- 
talis ascendens). The organization of the superior 
occipital convolution is similar, except that the deep 
layer contains the globular cells almost exclusively. 
There are no anatomical features to indicate that the 
anterior conyolutions are motor, the occipital sensory, 
as Hitzig and others have maintained. ‘“‘ The specific 
functions of the different cerebral zones do not 
depend on the organization of these zones them- 
selves, but on the specific character of the peripheral 
organs which are connected with the fibres entering 
or leaving the zones in question.” — (Arch. ital. biol. 
ili. 285.) ©. S. M. [578 

Birds, 

Development of the heart. — Assaky maintains, 
1°, that the heart arises in the chick as a double tube, 
as may be seen before the differentiation of the third 
protovertebra; 2°, the myocardium is constituted 
from the first by a network of anastomosing cells; 
the muscular fibres arise by endocellular generation ; 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL, No. 47. 


3°, the muscle-cells are derived from amoeboid cells 
[i.e., are mesenchymal]. — (Comptes rendus, xcvii. 
183.) c. Ss. M. [579 

Plumages of the stone-chat.— Messrs. Butler, 
Fielding, and Reid seem finally to have solved the 
variations in plumage of this interesting bird. Ac- 
cording to them, there are nine different stages easily 
recognizable. We note with satisfaction that the 
theory of hybridization seems to be done away with. 
— (Ibis, 1883, 331.) go. A. J. [580 


Mammals, 


The influence of quinine upon heat-dissipa- 
tion and heat-production.—In a late article by 
Wood and Reichert (Journ. of physiol., iii. 321), the 
authors make the statement that quinine increases 
both heat-production and heat-dissipation, though, 
on the average, the percentage of increase of heat- 
dissipation largely exceeds that of heat-production. 
A desire to test the accuracy of these results has led 
Arntz to make a similar series of experiments. To 
measure the relative amount of heat-dissipation from 
the skin, he made use of a porous wooden cap, lined 
with felt, which could be applied to any part of the 
body. The temperature within the space thus en- 
closed was registered by a delicate thermometer. 
Any increase in the loss of heat through the skin 
would be shown, therefore, by the thermometer. 
Experiments were made upon men and rabbits in a 
normal healthy condition, the general results of 
which show that no increase in heat-dissipation fol- 
lows the injection of quinine. To explain the con- 
tradiction existing between his own and Wood’s 
results, he supposes that the doses used by the latter 
were too large for the animal (dog) experimented 
upon; and the increase in heat-dissipation was prob- 
ably owing to the animal’s struggles and attempts to 
yomit. Two experiments that he made upon dogs, 
using the same dose as that given by Wood, tend to 
support this explanation. To determine the effect of 


quinine upon heat-production, spirometric observa- 


tions were made upon normal rabbits, and rabbits 
suffering from septic fever, the amount of oxygen 
absorbed being taken as an indication of the oxida- 
tions going on in the body. In normal rabbits, qui- 
nine was found to have no effect upon the amount of 
oxygen consumed; while, in febrile animals, it caused 
a diminution in the oxygen-consumption. The au- 
thor’s conclusion, with regard to the anti-pyretice 
action of quinine, is, that it acts in the first place in- 
directly by destroying the organisms which give rise 
to the fever, and, in the second place, directly dimin- 
ishes the oxidations in the tissues of the body. — 
( Pfliiger’s archiv, xxxi. 5381.) W. H. H. [581. 

Action of carbon dioxide and oxygen upon 
the mammalian heart. — The present paper by Klug 
forms an extension of some previous work of the 
same nature on the frog’s heart. His experiments 
were made upon dogs anaesthetized by means of mor- 
phia, and made to breathe in an atmosphere contain- 
ing different percentages of carbon dioxide or oxygen. 
With regard to the action of carbon dioxide he finds, 
in accordance with previous observers, that it acts as 


DECEMBER 28, 18S3.] 


a stimulus to the vaso-motor and cardio-inhibitory 
centres of the medulla; but, in opposition to the state- 
ments of Traube and Landois, he asserts that it dis- 
ables the intrinsic motor centres of the heart. He 
grounds this statement on the fact, that, after section 
of the vagi and the cervical cord, the heart soon ceases 
to beat, when the animal breathes in an atmosphere 
containing from twenty to forty per cent of carbon 
dioxide. Breathing in an atmosphere of oxygen 
stimulates both the inhibitory and accelerator centres 
of the medulla: and the author repeats for the mam- 
mal a statement made with reference to the frog; viz., 
that oxygen acts as a constant stimulus for the heart- 
contractions. Want of oxygen, like carbon dioxide, 
Stimulates the inhibitory and vaso-motor centres, and 
first stimulates, then depresses, the accelerator centres. 
—(Arch. anat. physiol., 1883, 134.) w.H.H. [582 

Maturation and impregnation of the mam- 
malian ovum.—G. Rein has investigated these phe- 
nomena in rabbits and guinea-pigs. He describes 
minutely his manner of obtaining the desired mate- 
rial. In rabbits the tuba can be cut open, and exam- 
ined with a lens: in guinea-pigs it is better to collect 
the eggs by pressing out the excised tuba with a blunt 
instrument. They may be examined fresh in the 
fluid from the oviduct, and even kept so for some 
time, if the cover-glass is surrounded by a rim of oil, 
_and the slide placed in a warm box. To preserve the 
eggs, fix with (.1%-1%) osmie acid, place them for 
two or three days in Miiller’s fluid, aud mount in 
glycerine. 

The so-called corona radiata consists of the cells 
(changed to the spindle form) of the discus prolige- 
rus, It is most marked in the rabbit immediately 
before the bursting of the Graafian follicle, i.e., nine 
to eleven hours after copulation; by which time one 
polar globule has generally been formed. The cells 
of the corona present features most unusual in epi- 
thelia:- they are elongated, spindle or star shaped, 
with processes which branch often and anastomose 
with one another; they are probably forced apart by 
the liquor folliculi, which accumulates, especially 
during the last hours before the bursting of the fol- 
licle; after that event they resume their original 
form. As the ovum matures, the nucleus is distended, 
and assumes an eccentric position and oval form. 
The nucleolus is replaced now by a cluster of gran- 
ules,which then scatter themselves through the yolk, 
become smaller and ultimately -indistinguishable. 
The nucleus comes to lie close against the zona pel- 
lucida, and there is flattened out. The next change 
is the expulsion of the first polar globule, which ap- 
pears to be formed out of the germ-vesicle. No kary- 
okinetic figures were observed in connection with 
the process, Rein suggests that possibly the mam- 
malian polar globules are not complete homologues 
of those of the lower animals. ‘The maturation is 
further marked by the contraction of the yolk, first, 
at the point where the polar globule is ejected; sec- 
oud, general, so that the yolk recedes, as in other 
mammalia, from the zona pellucida. In three cases 
active protuberances on the yolk were observed (cf. 
Kupffer, ante, i.1132). In the mature oyum also 


SCIENCE. 


835 


appear yolk-grains larger and much darker than the 
other granules. In four cases a second nucleus was 
observed more in the centre of the egg, probably the 
egg-nucleus (or female pronucleus). 

Impregnation. takes place in the middle third of 
the tuba thirteen to seventeen hours after copulation. 
Two pronuclei (male.and female) are seen in the 
ovum: they travel towards one another, meet eccen- 
trically, make amoeboid movements, and sometimes 
are quite near the surface. The radiating lines could 
not be seen in most cases around the pronuclei. At 
the time of impregnation the cells of the corona 
have partly fallen off. Numerous spermatozoa crowd 
around the egg, several pass the zona; but probably 
only one enters the yolk. The pronuclei pass to the 
centre of the ovum, the amoeboid movements con- 
tinue; one pronucleus becomes crescent-shaped, and 
embraces the other: the two then probably unite. — 
(Arch. mikros. anat., xxii. 233.) ©. 8. M. [583 

Duration of systole and diastole of heart- 
beat.— From a series of experiments made upon the 
dog, Howell and Ely have come to the conclusion 
that variations of arterial pressure from fifty milli- 
metres to a hundred and sixty millimetres of mercury 
have no direct effect whatever upon the duration of 
either systole or diastole. The experiments were 
carried out upon hearts completely isolated from 
every other organ of the body, except the lungs, after 
the method devised by Prof, Martin. The contrac- 
tions of the heart were registered by means of a Fick 
spring manometer connected with the cavity of the 
right ventricle, and the time relations of the beat 
were determined by comparing this curve with the 
simultaneous tracing of a tuning-fork vibrating fifty 
times a second. — (Stud. biol. lab. Johns Hopk. univ., 
li, 453.) Ww. H. H. [584 


i ANTHROPOLOGY. 

Tattooing among civilized people.— Last De- 
cember Dr. Robert Fletcher read a paper on tattooing 
among civilized people, which he is now publishing. 
The custom presents itself from two points of view, — 
the medico-legal and the anthropological. Compared 
with the elaborate tattooing of many savage tribes, the 
designs which sailors, soldiers, and, above all, crimi- 
nals, have imprinted on their persons, are trivial or 
offensive in subject. or clumsy in execution. In 1869 
Berchou made several reports to the French govern- 
ment on tattooing among sailors and criminals, and 
published a work entitled ‘ Histoire médicale du ta- 
touage.’ At the meeting in Algiers in 1881, of the 
French association for the advancement, of science, 
Magitat exhibited a chart showing the geographical 
distribution of tattooing, according to methods, as 
follows: 1. By pricking; 2. By simple incision; 3. By 
ulceration or burning; 4. Hypodermie tattooing; 5, 
Mixed tattooing. Among the distinguished observers 
of this practice are Cesar Lombroso of Turin, and 
Dr. A. Lacassagne of Lyons. Lombroso publishes a 
chapter on tattooing in his ‘ L’uomo deliquente,’ and 
Lacassagne is the author of a volume entitled ‘ Les 
tatouages, étude anthropologique et médico-légale.’ 
He gives a table showing the parts of the body oper- 


836 


ated upon in 878 subjects, and also one containing the 

details of 1,333 tracings obtained from the battalion 

d’ Afrique, as follows: — 
Patriotic and religious emblems . . . 91 
Professionalemblems . . . . . . . 98 
TNSerip tions) js. \Vaienct avery Ween eet ste et LE 
Militaryemblems .... . .. . 149 
Metaphorical emblems . eaters 72 
Amorous and erotic emblems . . - 280 
Fantastic, historical, and miscellaneous, 344 


1,333 

The reader will find this one of the most entertain- 
ing and instructive anthropological papers which 
have appeared in a long time. — (Trans. anthrop. soc. 
Washington, ii. 40.) 3. Ww. P. [585 

The Mexican pulque.— “‘ One of the first objects 
to claim the attention of the conquerors of Mexico,’’ 
says Carl Beni, ‘“‘ was the maguey-plant (Agave ameri- 
cana; Mexican, neuttli). Its manifold uses and prod- 
ucts, considered in relation to the inhabitants of that 
region and to their manner of living, render interest- 
ing the study of this vegetable, which is justly called 
pianta delle meraviglie.”” De Candolle thinks that 
the plant is of Mexican origin; but the place where 
it was discovered to furnish a beverage is uncertain, 
for traditions concerning it are intimately connected 
with the history of the ancient peoples who occupied 
the central plateaus of South America. According 
to the Mexican traditions, Ixquitecatl was the first 
to invent the method of drawing the sweet juice 
from the maguey, and Titlacahuan used pulque to 
intoxicate Quelzalcoatl and to induce him to go into 
exile. Another legend says, that in 1045 the juice 
of the plant was introduced as a drink among the 
royal family. Signor Beni has collected from various 
sources the references to the uses of this celebrated 


SCIENCE. 


[Vou. IL., No. 47. 


plant, and in 1876, while in Mexico, made some obser- 
vations on its cultivation and uses. The following is 
the analysis of the sap and of the fermented liquor: — 


Sap. Pulque. 


Albuminous substances . 25.40 12.57 
Sugar oto Chita actor a 95.53 8.23 
Salts . aie el ae vee abe 7.26 2.20 
Absolute aleohol wi VieKien! te ose Aart goat 0.00 36.80 
Water, gas, and waste . ‘ 871.81 940.20 

5 1000.00 | 2000.00 
— (Archiv. per Vantrop., xiii. 13.) J. w. P. [586 


The use of mollusks.— Dr. A. T. de Roche- 
brune has written a second memoir upon mollusks 
among ancient and modern peoples, this time treat- 
ing of shells in the sepulechres of Ecuador and New 
Granada. The mounds of the United States furnish 
some beautiful specimens of aboriginal art in shell, 
and our archeologists have not been slow in taking 
advantage of the interest clustering about these ob- 
jects. The relative rarity of mollusks utilized by the 
ancient inhabitants of the Peruvian coast is noticed 
by M. Rochebrune. The farther north we go, the 
more pronounced this poverty becomes. Indeed, the 
following five species are all that the author has 
found from that region: — 

1. Spondylus limbatus Sow, statuettes and neck- 

laces. 
. Venus multicostata Sow, spangles, necklaces. 
. Patella olla Brod., bangles, quippus(?) beads. 
. Oliva splendidula Sow, bangles, pendants. 
. Fasciolaria salmo Wood, pieces for clothing. 


Or co bo 


Two or three of the objects are carved with some 
elaborateness of design. —(Rev. d’ethnog., ii. 311.) 
J. W. P. [587 


INTELLIGENCE FROM AMERICAN SCIENTIFIC STATIONS. 


GOVERNMENT ORGANIZATIONS. 
Geological survey. 


Comparative paleontology of the Devonian forma- 
tion. — Prof. H. 8. Williams has recently been devot- 
ing his attention especially to this formation in west- 
ern New York, and, in a preliminary report to the 
director, makes known some interesting facts as a 
result of his study of the materials collected by him 
during the past summer. 

In the black shales, which in New York lie between 
beds containing Hamilton faunas below and those 
bearing Portage faunas above, he has found Lingulas 
indistinguishable from those of the Cleveland shales; 


also conodont teeth identical in form with those de-~ 


scribed from the same Cleveland beds, and Sporangites 
and Palaeoniscus scales. Species, therefore, regarded 
by Ohio geologists as characteristic of the Cleveland 
shales (Waverly), oceur together in a similar black 
shale in New York, which there is known to underlie 
the upper Devonian. Professor Williams says, how- 


ever, that, although the identity of the two faunas can 
scarcely be disputed, he is not so sure that it is an 
indication of synchronous deposition. The various 
black shales of Ohio are more nearly continuous there 
than in New York; and he says it is pretty clear that 
the intercalated sandy deposits are of a more eastern 
origin. At the horizon of upper Devonian the sands 
are purer and of lighter color as we go westward and 
south-westward ; and in some of the quarries of west- 
ern New York, sandstones very similar to the Ohio 
Waverly stone are met with. In these sands distinet 
quartz pebbles have been found, nearly as low as the 
point where the first member of the typical Chemung 
fauna is obtained, Jeading Professor Williams to sus- 
pect that true conglomerates may, in some geograph- 
ical area, have been contemporaneous with the early 
Chemung fauna. He says the evidences are accumu- 
lating in support of the hypothesis that the lower 


_ conglomerates are the geographical representatives of 


deposits of much finer character farther north, in 
which the Chemung faunas appear. He meets the 


DECEMBER 28, 1883.] 


argument for a high geological position of the con- 
glomerates (based on an assumed regular dip towards 
the south-west in this region) by the supposition that 
conglomerates must express nearness to shore, and 
that, running along a line from shore into deep water, 
it is safe to assume that for any given length of time 
the thickness of the deposit will diminish with the 
distance from the shore; and hence, if the general 
relation of shore to deep water continued through the 
upper Devonian, the dip of the strata will diminish 
as we ascend in the series, and the tendency of one 
who depended upon a general rate of dip would be to 
reckon the more southern deposits too high. Profes- 
sor Williams has good evidence that this has been 
done for the sands of Wyoming and Alleghany coun- 
ties. 

Professor Williams’s observations lead him to the 
opinion (which may be modified by further facts), that 
the sandstones lying at the top of the series at Por- 
tage Falls, barren of fossils so far as reported, are, 
when taken as a mass, stratigraphically identical with 
the lower Chemung sandstones farther south and 
west, and that geographical conditions had more to 
do with the presence or absence of the Chemung 
fauna than had the geological time of the deposit, 
after once the Chemung fauna appeared in the sea, 

The present staze of Professor Williams's investiga- 
tions leads him to the following opinion as to the 


- distribution of faunas at this mid-upper Devonian 


for the eastern area: — 

1. A Hamilton fauna coming in from the east and 
north, and exteuding around the southern border of 
the old paleozoic continent into the interior sea, 
through Canada West, Michigan, ete., to Iowa, ete. 

2. A black slate fauna, at first reaching quite to the 
eastern New York areas, but, with the advance of 
time, oscillating back and forth, each stage withdraw- 
ing farther and farther to the west and south. 

3. A sparse Portage fauna, mainly small lamelli- 
branelis and pteropods and cephalopods, rather pelagic 
in character, common over the New York area, but 
whose centre or origin he is unable to trace. 

4, A Chemung fauna from the south and east, push- 
ing northward with the withdrawal of the Hamilton 
fauna, mingling with it at first in eastern New York 
areas, but in western New York not appearing at 
all until the complete withdrawal of the Hamilton 
fauna. 

There are also traces of a fifth fauna over this re- 
gion; for, as the Chemung fauna is followed towards 
the western part of the state, species characteristic 
of the subcarboniferous of the interior begin to ap- 
pear, both in the nature of the varietal modifications 
of the species and in the rare new forms mixed with 
the Chemung species, leading to the suspicion that 
the subcarboniferous faunas of the western interior 
may have been contemporaneous with the Chemung 
faunas of New York and Pennsylvania. He says, 
however, that the solution of this problem must be 
left until a more thorough study of the western in- 
terior deposits and their faunas is made, and that the 
problems involved are too complex to make hasty 
generalizations safe. 


SCIENCE. 


837 


These investigations have been partly in the line 
of some remarks made by Professor James Hall in 
the ‘Paleontology of New York’ (vol. iv. part i., 
March, 1867, p. 257), where he speaks of the diminu- * 
tion of Devonian types and the augmentation of car- 
boniferous types in the same beds in western New 
York, and also expresses the opinion that the min- 
gling of Devonian and carboniferous aspects is due to 
geographical and physical conditions, and not to dif- 
fereuce in age or chronological sequence of the beds 
which contain the fossils. Professor Williams is 
elaborating this idea, and is dissecting the faunas 
and tracing them to their centres of distribution, 


NOTES AND NEWS. 


PROFESSOR SYLVESTER, who has resigned the chair 
of mathematics at the Johns Hopkins university, 
and has been appointed to the Savilian professorship 
of geometry at the University of Oxford, sailed for 
Europe on Saturday last, Dec. 22. The night before 
his departure from Baltimore, a farewell assembly 
was held at the university iu his honor. Mr. Matthew 
Arnold, who was present, made a brief speech. Res- 
olutions were read on behalf of the board of trustees 
and of the teachers in the university, expressing 
their profound regret at the departure of Professor 
Sylvester, and the highest appreciation of his work 
and of the great stimulus his presence has given to 
mathematical research in this country. Professor 
Sylvester responded in a speech of characteristic 
warmth and naivelé, in which, along with most 
enthusiastic admiration and approval of the univer- 
sity he has helped to inaugurate, he took the oppor- 
tunity of making some pointed suggestions. One of 
these was addressed to millionnaires, to whom he 
indicated several ways in which, while aiding the 
Johns Hopkins university, they might secure for 
themselves imperishable fame. Another pointed at 
the advisability of introducing a system of pensions 
or some equivalent provision for superannuated and 
disabled professors; and still another was a protest 
against the dismemberment of a university library by 
the establishment of specialized branches. Professor 
Sylvester's departure removes from the university 
not only the most distinguished scientific man, but 
the most interesting personality connected with it; 
and his absence will make a gap in the general life 
of the university no less than in his own department. 
It is hardly to our credit that no American college 
has conferred an honorary degree upon him during 
his residence in this country. 

— In his recent address to the Royal society, Presi- 
dent Huxley states that thirty-eight of the Chal- 
lenger reports have been published, forming eight 
quarto volumes, with 4,195 pages of letter-press, 
488 lithographic plates, and other illustrations, 
Thirty-four of these memoirs are on zodlogical, four 
on physical, subjects. Nine reportsare now nearly all 
in type, and some of them partly printed. These 
will be published within three months, and will form 
three zodlogical volumes with 230 plates and many 


‘ 


838 


woodcuts, and one physical volume with many dia- 
grams and maps: this latter volume will contain the 
report on the composition of ocean water; the specific 
gravity and temperature observations. A consider- 
able part of the general narrative of the cruise is now 
in type, and nearly all the illustrations are prepared. 
The narrative will extend to two volumes; and it is 
expected they will be ready for issue in May or June, 
1884. The work connected with the remaining forty- 
two special reports is in most instances progressing 
satisfactorily. Portions of the manuscript for three 
of the larger memoirs have been received and put in 
type, and the manuscript of many others is in a 
forward state. For these memoirs, 386 lithographic 
plates have been printed off and delivered to the 
binders, 404 others are now on stone, and the draw- 
ings for many more are being prepared. It is esti- 
mated that the whole work connected with the report 
will be completed in the summer of 1887. 

— Professor Huxley also expresses a regret that the 
admirable energy of the government in taking meas- 
ures to make the recent advances of medical science 
available during the late outbreak of cholera in 
Egypt was not extended beyond the purely prac- 
tical side of the matter, or perhaps not so far as the 
practical side in the proper sense; for, until we know 
something about the causes of that terrible disease, 
our measures for prevention and for cure will be alike 
leaps in the dark. 

Those, he says, who have looked into the literature 
of cholera may perhaps be disposed to think that a 
new search after its cause will add but another to the 
innumerable wild hypotheses which have been set 
afloat on that topic; and yet devastating epidemics, 
like the pebrine of the silkworm, so similar in their 
fatality and their apparently capricious spread that 
careful investigators have not hesitated to institute a 
detailed comparison of the phenomena of this disease 
with those of cholera, have been proved by Pasteur 
to be the work of microscopic organisms; and hardly 
less fatal epidemics, such as splenic fever, have been 
traced to similaragencies. In both these cases, knowl- 
edge of the causes, and of the conditions which limit 
the operation of the causes, has led to the invention 
of effectual methods of cure. And it is assuredly, 
in the present state of science, something more than 
a permissible hypothesis, that the cause of cholera 
may be an organic living materies morbi, and that 
the discovery of the proper curative and prophylactic 
measures will follow upon the determination of the 
nature and conditions of existence of these organisms. 

If this reasoning is just, it is certainly to be re- 
gretted that the opportunity of the outbreak of cholera 
in Egypt was not utilized for the purposes of scientific 
investigation into the cause of the epidemic. There 
are able, zealous, and courageous young pathologists 

_in England who would have been willing enough to 
undertake the labor and the risk; and it seems a pity 
that England should leave to Germany and to France 
an enterprise which requires no less daring than arctic 
or African exploration, but which, if successful, would 
be of a thousand times more value to mankind than 
the most complete knowledge of the barren ice-wastes 


SCIENCE. 


[Vot. II., No. 47. 


of the pole or of the sweltering barbarism of the 
equator. It may be said that inquiries into the causa- 
tion of cholera have been for some years conducted 
in India by the government without yielding any very 
definite result; but this is perhaps rather an argument 
in favor of, than against, settling fresh minds to work 
upon the problem. 

— Professor George Davidson read papers at the 
meeting of the California academy of sciences, Noy. 
5; on the solar eclipse of Oct. 30, 1883, and the ap- 
pearance of Saturn as seen at the Dearborn observa- 
tory under very favorable conditions. He said of the 
latter, ‘‘ The evening was clear and pleasant, and 
nearly calm. . . . The atmosphere was charged with 
aqueous vapor, and the dew ran down the obserya- 
tory almost like rain. . . . But one of the best re- 
vealed features... was the undoubted difference 
in brightness of the gauzy ring at the two ansae, 
The preceding part was decidedly brighter than the 
following ansa. . . . I should mention, that, in my 
limited experience in examining Saturn, I have 
never seen the atmospheric conditions so nearly 
perfect as they were that night... .I saw more 
than is given in the beautiful Cambridge drawing.” 

Professor Davidson also spoke of a brilliant meteor 
as follows: ‘‘On the evening of Oct. 29, at eleven 
o’clock, a remarkably brilliant meteor passed verti- 
cally downwards very near to Eridani (3 mag.). It 
illuminated the street, and its light cast a strong 
shadow. The train, about five degrees long, was 
persistent for three or four seconds, with an intense, 
vivid brightness, then faded away to a white, vapor- 
ous-looking streak, which assumed a wavy motion for 
three or four seconds, and then vanished. The color 
was an intense white, tinged with a purplish hue; 
and the brightest part of the train which was left 
was not at the point of disappearance, but about the 
middle of its length.” 

At a later meeting of the academy, Professor Da- 
vidson spoke of Trouvelot’s red star, seen during the 
solar eclipse of May 6, and took the ground that 
6 Arietes was the star seen by Trouvelot. 

Full accounts of all these papers were given in the 
Mining and scientific press, San Francisco. 

— We take the following account of the awards of 
medals recently made by the council of the Royal so- 
ciety from Professor Huxley’s presidential address :— 

‘The number, the variety, and the importance of Sir 
William Thomson’s contributions to mathematical 
and experimental physics are matters of common 
knowledge; and the fellows of the society will be 
more gratified than surprised to hear that the council 
have this year awarded him the Copley medal, — the 
highest honor which it is in their power to bestow. 
Sir William Thomson has taken a foremost place 
among those to whom the remarkable development 
of the theory of thermodynamies and of electricity in 
the last forty years is due. His share in the experi- 
mental treatment of these subjects has been no less 
considerable; while his constructive ability in apply- 
ing science to practice is manifested by the number 
of instruments bearing his name which are at pres- 
ent in use in the physical laboratory and in the tele- 


EL di He ip > whl? eee oe ee in i =) 


DECEMBER 28, 1883.] 


graph-office. Moreover, in propounding his views on 
the universal dissipation energy and on vortex mo- 
tion and molecular vortices, Sir William Thomson 
has propounded conceptions which belong to the pri- 
ma philosophia of physical science, and will assuredly 
lead the physicist of the future to attempt once more 
to grapple with those problems concerning the ulti- 
mate construction of the material world which Des- 
eartes and Leibnitz attempted to solve, but which 
have been sedulously ignored by most of their suc- 
cessors. t 

One Royal medal has been awarded to Dr. T. 
Archer Hirst, F.R.S., for his investigations in pure 
geometry, and more particularly for his researches 
into the correlation of two planes and into the com- 
plexes generated by them. 

The other Royal medal has been awarded to Dr. 
J. S. Burdon Sanderson, F.R.S., for the eminent 
services which he has rendered to physiology and 
pathology, and especially for his researches on the 
electrical phenomena exhibited by plants, and for his 
investigations into the relation of minute organisms 
to disease. In making this award, the council desire 
not merely to recognize the merit of Dr. Burdon 
Sanderson’s researches, especially those on the anal- 
ogy between the electrical changes which take place 
in the contractile tissues of plants and those which 
occur in the like tissues of animals, but to mark their 
sense of the important influence which Dr. Sander- 
son has exerted upon the study of physiology and 
pathology in this country. 

The Davy medal has this year been again awarded 
in duplicate; the recipients being M. Marcellin Ber- 
thelot, member of the Institute of France, and foreign 
member of the Royal society, and Professor Julius 
Thomsen of Copenhagen. The thermochemical re- 
searches of Berthelot and Thomsen have extended 
over many years, and have involved an immense 
amount of work, partly in the application of estab- 
lished methods to new cases, partly in devising new 
methods and applying them to cases in which the 
older methods were not applicable. Chemists had 
identified a vast variety of substances, and had deter- 
mined the exact composition of nearly all of them; 
but of the forees which held together the elements of 
each compound they knew but little. It was known 
that certain elements combine with one another with 
great evolution of heat-forming products in which 
they are firmly united; while other elements combine 
but feebly, and with little evolution of heat. But the 
materials for forming any general theory of the forces 
of chemical combination were but scanty and imper- 
fect. The labors of Messrs. Berthelot and Thomsen 
have done much towards supplying that want, and 
they will be of the utmost value for the advancement 


of chemical science. 


— Dr. Charles W. Dabney, director of the North 
Carolina agricultural experiment-station, has issued 
a cireular urging the necessity of a strictly scientific 
agricultural journal in this country, either a quar- 
terly or monthly. Those interested should address 
Dr. Dabney at Raleigh, N.C. The station at Raleigh 
is reported to be in a prosperous condition, 


SCIENCE. 


839 


— The next number of the Journal of the Cincinnati 
society of natural history will contain a biographical 
sketch and a steel-plate portrait of the late V. T. 
Chambers, the entomologist. Mr. Chambers was at 
one time president of the society, and at all times 
one of its most active members. 

— The Ohio mechanies’ institute of Cincinnati has 
inaugurated a series of popular scientific lectures on 
a plan pursued in former years. The lecturers and 
the topics for this series are as follows: Prof. T. CG, 
Mendenhall, ‘ The electric light ;’ Prof. C. L. Mees, 
‘Molecular motion and crystallization;’ Prof. F. W. 
Putnam, ‘ Ancient arts of North-American nations;’ 
Dr. A. Springer, ‘ The cell and its functions;’ Prof, 
E. 8. Morse, ‘ Japan;’ Prof. Thomas French, jun., 
‘Sound;’ Prof. W. L. Dudley, ‘ Water;’ Prof. T. H, 
Norton, ‘Recent advances in chemical technology;’ 
Prof. J. B. Porter, ‘Mining and metallurgy.’ The 
first two of these have already been given. The others 
will follow at intervals of about two weeks. 

—The course of free popular scientific’ lectures 
just concluded by the Cincinnati society of natural 
history was a great success. Eight lectures were 
delivered on topics connected with zodlogy by mem- 
bers of the society. They were given every Friday 
evening from Oct. 19 to Dec. 7, and were attended 
by as large audiences as the lecture-room would ac- 
commodate. The lecture committee is arranging 
for another course, to begin on Jan. 4; and these lec- 
tures will treat of topics connected with geology and 
mineralogy. ‘Gems,’ ‘Marbles and corals,’ * Phys- 
ical geography of the United States,’ and ‘Fossil 
botany,’ are some of the subjects. The officers of 
the society deserve credit for their efforts to make the 
institution of practical educational value. 

— It is proposed to hold during the year 1884. says 
Nature, an international exhibition, which shall also 
illustrate certain branches of health and education, 
and which will occupy tlre buildings at South Ken- 
sington erected for the fisheries exhibition. The 
object of the exhibition will be to illustrate, as viy- 
idly and in as practical a manner as possible, food, 
dress, the dwelling, the school, and the workshop, as 
affecting the conditions of healthful life, and also 
to bring into public notice many of the most recent 
appliances for elementary school-teaching and instrue- 
tion in applied science, art, and handicrafts. The in- 
fluence of modern sanitary knowledge and intellectual 
progress upon the welfare of the people of all classes 
and ali nations will thus be practically demonstrated, 
and an attempt will be made to display the most valu- 
able and recent advances which have been attained 
in these important subjects. The exhibition will be 
divided into two main sections, —I. Health; II. Edu- 
cation,—and will be further subdivided into six prinei- 
pal groups. In the first group it is intended specially 
to illustrate the food-resources of the world, and the 
best and most economical methods of utilizing them, 
For the sake of comparison, not only will specimens 
of food from all countries be exbibited, but the vari- 
ous methods of preparing, cooking, and serving food 
will be practically shown. The numerous processes 
of manufacture connected with the preparation of 


840 


articles of food and drink will thus be exemplified; 
and, so far as the perishable nature of the articles 
will admit, fuli illustrations will be given of the vari- 
ous descriptions of foods themselves. In “the second 
group, dress, chiefly in its relation to health, will be 
displayed. Illustrations of the clothing of the princi- 
pal peoples of the world may be expected; and a part 
of this exhibition, which, it is anticipated, will be 
held in the galleries of the Royal Albert Hall, will be 
devoted to the history of costume. In the third, 
fourth, and fifth groups will be comprised all that 
pertains to the healthful construction and fitting of 
the dwelling, the school, and the workshop, not only 
as respects the needful arrangements for sanitation, 
but also the fittings and furniture generally in their 
effect on the health of the inmates. The most im- 
proved methods of school construction will be shown; 
and the modes of combating and preventing the evils 
of unhealthy trades, occupations, and processes of 
manufacture, will form portions of the exhibition. 
The sixth group will comprise all that relates to pri- 
mary, technical, and art education, and will include 
designs and models for school-buildings, apparatus 
and appliances for teaching, diagrams, text-books, 
ete. Special attention will be directed to technical 
and art education, to the results of industrial teach- 
ing, and to the introduction of, manual and handi- 
craft work into schools. 

— The members of the polar ssiccraloee a station 
which Denmark maintained at Godthaab in Green- 
land have just returned to Copenhagen. According 
to Nature, the chief of the expedition, Lieut. A. 
Paulsen, reports, that, having left Copenhagen on 
May 18, 1882, in the sailing-ship Ceres, they arrived 
at Godthaab on June 14. On the voyage out, obser- 
yations of the temperature of the sea and air were 
made every hour. On the arrival out, the expedition 
had to select the most_suitable spot for the erection 
of the four wooden buildings brought with them, in 
which the magnetic and astronomical observations 
were to be made. A small mountain ridge near the 
church in the colony was chosen for this, as the pre- 
liminary researches in its neighborhood showed that 
the influence of iron strata on the magnetic current 
was here very small. The buildings were then 
erected, and the pillars raised on which the transit 
instrument, the great astronomical clock, and the 
eight different magnetical instruments, were mounted, 
and simultaneously the instruments for the meteoro- 
logical observations’ were also placed; so that the 
weathereock and the anemometers, as well as the 
thermometer hut, were situated as free as possible. 
On Aug. 1 the meteorological observations could be 
commenced, but the magnetic ones were through an 
accident delayed until the 7th. From that date com- 
plete observations were made in exact accordance 
with the international programme, without inter- 
ruption, every hour until Aug. 31 this year; and the 
expedition has thereby fully*accomplished its object, 
yiz., of obtaining a full year’s magnetical and me- 
teorological observations in this locality. A num- 
ber of other scientific researches have also. been 
pursued, of which those on the aurora borealis 


~ 


SCIENCE. 


te Mit ie 
Pi a 


[Vou. II., No. 47. 


should particularly be mentioned. ‘This phenome- 
non was frequently observed and studied during 
the winter, while some exceedingly valuable statis- 
tics were obtained as to the altitude of the aurora 
borealis above the earth’s surface by measurements 
effected simultaneously in various places by light- 
signals. The measurements of atmospheric electri- 
city have also led to valuable results. It is stated 


to have been the best equipped polar expedition 


ever despatched from Denmark. 

— M. Langier, at a meeting of the Académie des 
sciences held on Oct. 22, described a method of disin- 
fecting plants for exportation, practised by himself 
and Dr. Koenig at Nice. Some branches of vine in- 
fected with phylloxera were treated with a solution 
of sulphocarbonate of ethyl, the eggs and phylloxera 
being completely destroyed. The plants submitted 
to the trial do not seem in general to have suffered 
from it. For the first trials in disinfecting leaves and 
twigs, gaseous hydrocyanie acid was used, as pro- 
posed by Dr. Koenig; and for the roots and surround- 
ing earth, sulphocarbonate of potassium in weak 
solution. ‘Their experiments, they believe, will be of 
great service to the flower-cultivators of the Riviera. 

— The distinguished French geodesist, M. Antoine 
@ Abbadie, writes to the editor of Nature, regarding 
units of angular measure, as follows:— 


‘« We probably owe our degrees either to the earlier supposed. 
year of 360 days, or to the fact that this number has many di- 
visors, although such divisors afford no practical advantage. 
When trigonometrical functions were subsequently discovered, 
it was found that the natural unit is not the circle, but the quad- 
rant or right angle. Our system of numeration being decimal, 
it was then most convenient to diyide the quadrant decimally > 
and the circle is thus considered as composed of four, forty, four 
hundred, etc., parts, according to the degree of exactness re- 
quired, This was proposed by Briggs when preparing his loga- 
rithms, which are bused on decimals; but unfortunately it was- 
then set aside. Revived a long time after by Lagrange, it was 
acted upon by Laplace in his Mécanique celeste. Nowadays deci- 
mal divisions of the quadrant are the only ones used by French ge- 
odesis . In Italy two geodvsists were instructed to observe 
and calculate, in both the centesimal and the sexagesimal systems, 
the same large lot of angles. It was then found that the use 
of decimals gave a saying of two-sevenths of time, either in 
observation or in calculation. This result was unknown to Sir 
George Airy; but he judged rightly that the conversion of all 


sexagesimal angles into decimal ones would materially lighten 


his labors, and he actually did so when calculating all the lunar 
observations previously made at Greenwich.” 


— Prof. H. G. Van de Sande Bakhuyzen, the di- 
rector of the observatory at Leiden, announces the 
completion of a new catalogue of star-places (began 
by Hoek, and continued by Dr. Kam, and contained 
in the first sixty-six volumes of the Astronomische 
nachrichten). The catalogue will contain nearly five 
thousand stars, reduced to the epoeh 1853.0, with the 
data pertaining to the observations, and the usual 
elements for carrying forward the star positions. 

— The last expedition of Lessar toward the Oxus- 
was attended with severe hardships. He lost nearly 
all his animals; and to save his famished escort, almost 


destitute of water and provisions in the desert, he was. 


obliged to seek assistance from the Khivans. Worm 
with three years painful and centinual exploration,. 
the explorer thinks of returning to Europe, 


INDEX TO VOLUME II. : 


. 


*,* Figures in black-faced type refer to the numbered paragraphs in the ‘weekly summary;' those in ordinary type, to pages. 
Names of contributors are printed in small capitals. 


Asport, C.C. Evidences of glacial man, 
487; kalmias and rhododendrons, 201; 
occurrence of mound-builders’ pipes in 
New Jersey, ill. 258; occurrence of the 
swallow-tailed hawk in New Jersey, 
222; the intelligence of birds, 301. 

Abyssal mollusks, 27, 208, 453. 

Acid in juice of beet, 76. 

Aconitum lycoctonum, 691. 

Acoustic rotation apparatus, i//. $18. 

Adams’s Evolution, reviewed, 659. 

Aesculus glabra, flowers of, 89. 

Africa, French missionary work in, 225; 
Masai people in, 502; notes on, 298; 
Portuguese in, 423; South, land-hold- 
ing in, 73. 

African ex eee 92; psychology, 195. 

cus, 631. 
Agave americana, 836. 
cultural botany, 335; prices, history 
of, 353; station, New York, 687. 

Agriculture: its needs and opportunities, 
328; values in, 378. 

Ainos of Japan, 134. 

Alaska, ethnology of, 667; geological 
changes in, 655, 294; vegetation in, 


19. 

Albatross, U.S. fish-commission steamer, 
ill. 6, 66; four-days’ cruise of, ill. 615; 
electric light on, il/. 642, 671, 705. 

Albite, 389, 418. 

Alcohols, action of, on heart, 96. 

Alexander, Stephen, 27. 

Algae, and tastes and odors, 333; injurious, 
23; Swedish, 564. 

Algebraical equations, 409. 

Algeria, artesian wells in, 116 ; geological 
map of, 606. 

Allegheny oil-sands, 18. 

ALLEN, J. A. The right whale of the 
North Atlantic, 134, 267. 

Alligator lucius, 831. 

Almacantar, tests with, 239. 

Alnwick castle antiquities, reviewed, 136. 

Alphabet, 438; universal, 350. 

Alpine railways, 635, 

Alps, pre-Cambrian rocks of, 322. 

ALyorD, B. Importance of lime-juice in 
the pemmican for arctic expeditions, 471. 

Amelia county, Va., minerals from, 338. 

America, autochthones of, 37; north-west, 
253. 

American apiculturist, 147; archaeological 
institute, 753; archeology, lectures on, 
581; association for the advancement of 
science, 116, 146, 151, 179, 190, 211, 227, 
253, 273, 314, 340, 358, 384; at Meg 
olis, 181; explorations at Assos, id/. : 
forestry congress, 117; oriental society, 
651; ornithologists’ union, 516; scholar- 
ship, 167; society of civil engineers, 75, 
100; of mechanical engineers, 62, 267; 
of microscopists, 117, 465. 

Americanists, congress of, 667. 

Amido-compounds, nutritive value of, 551. 

Amiurus natalis, 144; nebulosus, 144; 
prosthistius, 144. 

Ammocoetes, 731. 

Amphinema apicatum, 773. 


Amphi 723. 
Ampullaria Powelli, 808. 
Anaesthesia, production of, 338. 


Ancient temples, restoration of, T40. 
Ane measure, units of, 840. 

drite, reproduction of, 313. 
Aniline dyes, 486. 


‘Animal chlorophyll, 487. 
Annals of eietvestics, 698. 


Annam, 341. 

Annelid and coral, 94. 

Anomura of New England, 257. 

Anoplopbrya socialis, 790. 

Ant, leaping, 386; occident, distribution 
of, 493. 

Antase, 52. 

Anthomyia canicularis, 774. 

Anthracite fields of Pennsylvania, 385. 

Anthropological institute, London, 540; 
studies, 358. 

Saopology at Berlin, 539; manuals of, 

49. 

Antimony, atomic weight of, 479. 

Antiquity of man in America, 779. 

Antrostomus vociferus, 167. 

Aortic insufficiency, 527. 

Apatites containing iodine, 242. 

Appalachian mountain-club, 518. 

Apteryx, respiratory organs of, 376. 

Aquilegia, 691; longissima, 691. 

Arago laboratory at Banyuls, il. 556. 

Archaeological institute of America, itl. 
646, 753. 

Archeology, American, lectures on, 581; 
in India, 809; in Portugal, 764. 

Architeuthis, model of, at Fisheries exhi- 
bition, 683. 

Archiv fiir anthropologie, 607. 

Arctic expeditions, pemmican for, 471; 
land, 559; notes, 318, 365. 

Arion hortensis, slime-spinning by, 492. 

Americ binary, 755; rule for division 
in, 788. 

Arkansas, forest-trees of, 342. 

Arlberg tunnel, 781. 

Arrow release, 369. 

Artemia salina, 571. 

Arterial pressure, 527. 

Artesian wells, 1h 


ArntTHuR, J. C. A wee osed poisonous 
seaweed in the lakes of Minnesota, 333. 
Asaphus, 341. 


Asclepias, pollination of, 427. 

Ascospores in Saccharomyces, 347. 

ASHBURNER, C. A. The Dora coal-field, 
Virginia, 794. 

Asia, Pulmonata of, 429. 

Asparagin, chemistry of, 202. 

Asphalt mortar, 415. 

Aspidonectes spinifer, 338. 

Assassins, skulls of, 212. 

Association for advancement of science and 
teaching, 210. 

Assos, explorations at, i//. 646; meeting, 
report of, 712. 

Astarte triquetra, 277. 

Astronomical instruments, 202. 

Astronomy, biographical history of, 623; 
illustrative apparatus for, il. 218. 

Atlantic Ocean, age of, 666. 

Atmospheric electricity, 291. 

Atomic motions, nature of, 76, 123. 

Audibility, limit of, 42. 

Augite, 484. 

Aurantiaceae, spines of, 566. 

Auriculidae, shell in, 371. 

Aurora, 472, ill. 75. 

Auroral experiments in Lapland, é/. 819. 

Australia, bismuth of, 554. 

oe class systems, 69; coal flora, 
520. 

Authors, suggestion to, 755. 

Automatism, conscious, 339. 

Auwers, on the Berliner jahrbuch, 711. 

Avery, on the Khasi language, 651. 

Aztalan, 352. 

Aztec music, 305. 


B., L. English ch, 712; teaching language 
to brutes, 682. 

B., M. Area of a plane triangle, 794. 

Baspirt, F. E. estiges of glacial man 
in central Minnesota, 369. 

Babylonian research, 40. 

Bacteria, 466. 

Batrp, G. W. The electric light on the 
U. S. fish-commission steamer Albatross, 
ill, 642, 671, 705. 

BAKER, M. Magnetic observations at Los 
Angeles, Cal., ill, 58. 

Baker, T. R. A comparison of terra- 
cotta lumber with other materials, 292. 
Ba.pacct, L. The earthquake of July 
28, 1883, in the island of Ischia, il/. 396. 
Balfour, Francis Maitland, portrait, 299; 

his researches on Peripatus, i//. 306. 

Balloon, fall of, ild. 189; of Paris obser- 
vatory, 451. + 

Banyuls, Arege laboratory at, ill. 556. 

Barite, reproduction of, 313. 

Barley, growth of, 448. 

Barometric laws, 315; maxima and min- 
ima, 451. 

Barrande, Joachim, portrait, 699, 727; be- 
quest of, 725. 

Basal substance, structureless, 161. 

Basalt, Ottendorf, 271. 

Basic process at Peine works, 358. 

Batstoe River, fishes of, 163. 

Bavarian forest, 185; meteorology, 251. 

BEAL, W.J. Agriculture: its needs and 
opportunities, 328. 

Beavers at London fisheries exhibition, 28. 

Beet-juice, glutamin in, 517. 

Belgium, geology of, 14. 

Beit, A. M. A universal language and its 
vehicle, —a universal alphabet, 350. 

Bell’s Primer of visible speech, reviewed, 
204. 

Ben Nevis, meteorological observatory on, 
666; observations at, 203. 

BeneEpict, J. E. Invertebrates captured 
by the Albatross, 617. 

Benzotrichloride, phenols, and phenylam- 
ines, 50. 

Bering Sea, news from, 205. 

Berlin, anthropology at, 539. 

Berliner jahrbuch, 711. 

Beryllium, spectrum of, 243. 

Bessemerizin, SOR Per mattes, 333. 

Bicetow, H.R. The mechanism of direc- 
tion, 622. 

Binary arithmetic, experiments in, 755. 

Birchbark poems, 414. 

Bird-life, New-England, 357. 

Birds’ ears, ill. 422, 552, 586. 

Birds, Illinois, 282; intelligence of, 301; 
notes of, 167; of Tonkak, 99; pacinian 
corpuscles of, 460. 

Bismuth of Australia, 554; 
electrolysis of, 141. 

Biziura, anatomy of, 435. 

Blackham, G. E., on namihg oculars, 465. 

Blake, J. F., on St. David's rocks, 635. 

Blake dredgings, 574. 

Bleaching, 546. 

Blissus leucopterus, 540. 

Blood corpuscles, colorless, 353; serum, 
chemistry and physiology of, 31; ves- 
sels, 462. 

Boas, J. E. V., on the phylogeny of the 
higher Crustacea, 790. 

Body and will, 600. 

Boilers, compound engines and, 477, 

Bolivian rivers, 274. 

Bolometer, cheap, 137. 


solutions, 


842 


Bouton, H. C., and Jurren, A. A. Musi- 
cal sand, 718. Scealso JULIEN, A. A., 
and Botton, H. C. 

Bolton’s Catalogue of scientific and tech- 
nical periodicals, 92. 

Bombay, deaths from snake-bite in, 147. 

Book notices, minor, 626. 

Borneo, north-eastern, 288. 

Boss, L. Comet }, 1883 (Brooks), 449. 

Boston society of natural history, 518, 635; 
paiEer prize of, 146; zodlogical society, 

10. 

Botanical club, 340. 

RB REe NLC MUS: Achenial hairs of Senecio, 
67. 

Botany, elementary, 13, 105. 

Bottoms, ocean, 41. 

Boulenger, G. A., catalogue of, 810. 

Boundary-line between Guatemala and 
Mexico, 484. 

Bove’s new expedition, 254. 

Bowers, 8. In an Indian grave, 105; 
many snakes killed, 135. 

ek county, Ky., glacial phenomena in, 

Boyle’s law, apparatus for, i//. 284. 

Brachionus Gleasonii, 468. 

Brachiopoda, shell-structure of, 325. 

Brachyura in New England, 257. 

Brain-weight, 193. 

Branchial arches and clefts, 463. 

Brass, dissociation of, 178. 

Bravuns, D. The Ainos of Japan, 184. 

Peeters Logarithmic tables, reviewed, 
174, 

Brewster, W. Singular lightning, 72. 
135. i 

Briggs’s Steam-heating, reviewed, 686. 

Brine shrimps, American and European, 
653. 

British association for the advancement of 
science, 477, 502, 504, 529, 549, 562, 593, 
659, 666. 

British Columbia, fisheries of, 342 ; fungi, 
illustrations of, 346; Helices, 525; in- 
stitution of mechanical engineers, 310; 
patent law, 608. 

Bromides, ammoniacal, of zinc, 12. 

Brontosaurus, restoration of, i//. 209. 

Bronze, invention and spread of, 527; 
tempering of, 537. 

Brooks, Margarette W. Bone fish-hooks, 
ill. 633. 

Brooks, W. K. The 
higher Crustacea, 790. 

Brooks comet, 450. 

Brown, R. Greenland geology, 539. 

Building-stones, 481. 

Burnham’s Limestones and marbles, 1e- 
viewed, 203. , 

Burrill, T. J., on preparing and mounting 
bacteria, 465. 

Butterflies, sucking apparatus in, 576; 
variations in, 353. 

Butters, American, 291; artificial, 200. 


Cable-cars, 377. 

Cahokia, mounds of, 365. 

Calculus of variations, 266. 

Calibration of galvanometer, 777. 282. 

Cambodia, explorations in, 187. 

Cambrian rocks, 518. 

Cambridge entomological club, 30. 

CAMPBELL, J. The mound-builders iden- 
tified, 365. 

Capron, J. R., on auroral experiments in 

apland, é//. 819. 

Carbon dioxide, action of, on heat, 582. 

Carbonic oxide, liquefaction of, 4. 

Carboniferous age, vegetation of, 529. 

Cardinalis virginianus, 167. 

Caruart, H. 8. The magnetophone, or 
the modification of the magnetic field by 
the rotation of a perforated metallic 
disk, 250., id. 392. 

Carolina wren, 436. 

gicoline Island, double stars discovered 
at, 66. 

Carp, German, 377. 

See BD ¥.D. Y. Minnesota weather, 

CARPENTER, L. G@. November shower of 
meteors, 713. 


phylogeny of the 


Carpenter, W. B., on the germ-theory of 
disease, 666. 

Cartography, Russian, $3. 

Cartridges, compressed, 197. 

Carya alba, 761. 

Caspian Sea, 86; region, railways in, 296. 

Cassiterite, 482. 

Catalogues of physical and mathematical 
works, 342; of stars, errata in, 221. 

Caterpillar, monstrous, i//. 61. 

Catlinite, 169. 

Catskill group of Pennsylvania, 327. 

Caucasus, Mollusca of, 230; petroleum 
in, 367. 

Caverns, Devonshire, 562. 

Caytey, A. Obligations of mathematics 
to philosophy, and to questions of com- 
mon life, 477, 502. 

Celestite, reproduction of, 313, 

Cell-division, 190, 

Census, tenth, table of ages of, 209. 

Centre of gravity of mass, determination 
of, il/. 283. 

Cereals, copper in, 143. 

Ceylon, 825, 

Ch, English, 712. 

Challenger reports, 837. 

CHAMBERLIN, T. C. The terminal mo- 
raine west of Ohio, 317. 

Chambers, V. T., 253, 839. 

Champlain valley, 633. 

CHANDLER, C,H. Kalmia, 309. 

CHANDLER, S. C., jun. On the possible 
connection of the Pons-Brooks comet 
with a meteor stream, 683; results of 
tests with the Almacantar in time and 
latitude, 289. 

Charnay collection, 170, 368. 

Chemical elements, indexing literature of, 
ae 3 problems, 627; reactions, speed of, 

Chemistry, instruction in, at Harvard uni- 
versity, 91; theoretical, 826. 

Chesapeake oyster-beds, 2//. 440. 

Cheshire salt districts, 210. 


-Chester, A. H., on a new method of dry 


mounting, 465. 

China, meteorology in, 390; telegraph- 
line in, 186. 

Chinch-bug in New York, 540, 621. 

Chinese laws and customs, 237; not ho- 
mogeneous, 379; tombs, 235. 

Chitons, organization of, 398. 

Chlorine, hydrates of, 11. 

Chlorophyll, animal, 487. 

Cholera commission, German, 675; epi- 
demic, cause of, 297; in Egypt, 888; pre- 
cautions against, 452. 

Chonetes, 526, 326. 

Christie, W. H. M.,on the Greenwich ob- 
servatory, 103. 

Chukchi, peninsula, population of, 419. 

Cincinnati glacial dam at, 319, 436; indus- 
trial exposition, 452; society of natural 
history, 384, 605, 839. 

Cinnoline derivatives, 77. 

Circulation, action of respiratory move- 
Mments on, 496; in kidneys, 499. 

Cirolana concharum, host for, 373. 

Gat engineers, American society of, 75, 

CuaRKE, J. T., address of, before archae- 
ological institute, 646; report of the 
Assos meeting, 712. 

Class systems, Australian, 69. 

Classification of natural sciences, 279; of 
sciences, 370. 

CuLayPoLe, E. W. A large crustacean 
from the Catskill group of Pennsylva- 
nia, 327; notes on the potato-beetle and 
the Hessian fly for 1883, 387; Rensselae- 
ria and a fossil fish from the Hamilton 
group of Pennsylvania, 327; Rensselaec- 
ria from the Hamilton group of Pennsyl- 
vania, 471; the present condition of the 
box huckleberry, Vaccinium brachyce- 
rum, in Perry county, Penn., 335. 

Cleopatra’s Needle, 113. 

Climate, Colorado, 623; in cure of con- 
sumption, 426, 497, 682; influence of, on 
vegetation, 519. 

Coal flora, Australian, 520; volatile con- 
stituents of, 220. 


SCIENCE. — INDEX TO VOLUME II. 


Co-education of the sexes, 117. 

Colombia, 54. 

Color-markings of mammals, 164; changes 
of lungwort flowers, 319; words, 535. 

Colorado climate, 623, 

Colored population of United States, 376. 

Coloring-matter, animal, 452. 

Columbines, 394. 

Comet b, 1888 (Brooks), 449, 450; of 1882, 
290; orbit of, 280; Pons-Brooks, 666, 
683; elliptic elements of, 654, 

Comets, spectra of, 263. 

Commercial science, bureau of, 340. 

Complex variable, functions of, 308. 

Conchology, 658. 

Conductivity, unipolar, 136. 

Congress of Americanists, 667. 

Connecticut River, 118; waters, oyster 
farming in, 376. 

Consolidation of bulky materials, 331. 

Constant, solar, 44, 496. 

Consumption, cure of, 426, 457, 682. 

Contagia, study of, 212. 

Continental type, 321. 

Cooxn, C.8. The use of the spectroscope 
in meteorology, é//. 488. 

Co-operation between government and 
state geological surveys, 314, 

Core, E. D, The evidence for evolution 
in the history of the extinct Mammalia, 
272; the structure of the skull in Diclo- 
nius mirabilis, a Laramie dinosaurian, 
338; the trituberculate type of superior 
molar, and the origin of the quadrituber- 
culate, 338; two primitive types of Un- 
gulatd, 338. 

Copepoda, fresh-water, 29. 

Copper extraction process, 248; in cere- 
als, 143; mattes, 333; prehistoric, 351; 
production of world, 359; sulphates of, 
10. , 

Cordierite, 558. 

Cormorant, osteology of, 789, 822. 

Corn, 335; butt and tip kernels of, 201; 
composition of, 290. 

Cornell university, electrical science at, 
147; mathematical library, special list, 
reviewed, 827. 

Corvidae, 265. 

Corwin, cruise of, 752. 

Cothurnia variabilis, 467. 

Cottin, on the fall of a balloon, il/. 189. 

Cours, E. A hearing of birds’ ears, id. 
422, 552, 586. 

CouLTEeR, J. M. Development of a dan- 
delion flower, 336; some glacial action 
in Indiana, 6. 

Cox, E. T. Cable-cars for city passenger 
traflic, 877. : 

Crevaux, death of, 151; search for, 30, 
222, 485; voyages of, in Guiana, 152. 

Crico-thyroid muscle, function of, 165. 

Crocker, F. B. Regulation of electro- 
motive force, 821. 

Crosgy, W. O. Probable occurrence of 
the Taconian system in Cuba, 740, 

Crows, prehensile feet of, 265. 

Crustacea, phyllopod, 571; phylogeny of, 
790. 


Cryptogams, synonymy of, 424. 

Crystals in bark of trees, i/l. 707, 780. 

Cuba, mines of, 81; Taconian system in, 
740; woods of, 780. 

Cubics, real roots of, 158. 

Cumacea, 793. 

Cunéné, tribes of, 404. 

Curare, 534. 

Current-meter, 292. 

Currents of Pacific Ocean, 117. 

Curtoneura stabulans, 697. 

Cuspidine, 449. 

Cutaneous nerves in mammals, 35. 

Cutts, R. D., 810. 

Cyclones, il. 589, 610, 639, 701, 729, 758. 

Cypella, pollination of, 189. 

Cypress, American swamp, 38. 

Cystoliths, formation of, 25. 


Dart, W.H. First use of wire in sound- 
ing, 12. 

Damage to delicate substances by packing, 

te 581. 

Dana, J. D. Eyidence from southern 


SCIENCE.— INDEX TO VOLUME II. 


New England against the iceberg theory 
of the drift, 390. 

Dandelion flower, 336. 

Danish expeditions in Greenland, 150. 

Darwin memorial fund, 341. 

Darwin on instinct, 782. 

Date-palms, cultivation of, 453. 

Davidson, G., on solar eclipse of Oct. 20, 
1883, 838. 

Dawson, J. W. Glacial deposits, 321; 
rbiozcarps in the paleozoic period, 326; 
some unsolved problems in geology, 190. 

and dumb, instruction of, 780. 

Deaths from snake-bite, 147. 

Decapoda, 793. 

Ptios of water by metalloids, 

44. 

Deep-sea explorations, French, 484; re- 
search, water-bottles and thermometers 
for, idl. 155. 

Deflective effect of earth’s rotation, 135. 

Deformation of earth’s surface, 183. 

Delaland-Guerineau prize, 385. 

Delaware, stratified drift in, 221. 

DeLong records, reviewed, il/. 540. 

Dendroeca aestiva, 302. 

Denmark polar meteorological station, 840. 

Dentine, 284. 

Dentition, laws of, 464. 

Design arguments, 309. 

Deutzia scabra, 385. 

Developer, concentrated, 6. 

Devonian formation, paleontology of, 836. 

Devonshire caverns, 562. 

Diaphragm, development of, 233. 

Dickson expedition, 28, 

Diclonius mirabilis, 338. 

Didymoplexis, pedicels in, 125. 

Differential equation, 410; partial, 441. 

Digestion of meats and milk, 303. 

Digitaline, action of, on heart, 530. 

Ditier, J. 8. Notes on the geology of 
the Troad, 255. 

Divmock, G. The Arago laboratory at 
Banyuls, ill. 556. 

Dipterous larvae in man, 697, 494. 

Direction, mechaniam of, 554, 622, #//. 655; 
of growth in plants, 5; sense of, 739. 

Disease, germ-theory of, 666; germs of, 


85. 
Dissociation of brass, 178; of salts, él. 


288, 

District of Columbia, lithology of, 553. 

Division, new rule for, 788. 

Doves, J. R. Enhancement of values in 
agriculture by reason of non-agricultural 
population, 378. 

Doetsch a extraction process, 248. 

Dog, intelligence of, 822. 

Do.sear, A. E. The conditions neces- 
sary for the sensation of light, 214; the 
static telephone, 285. 

Domes, rotation of, 280. 

Domestication of horses, 130. 

Dora coal-field, 794. 

Dorsey, J. O. Marriage laws of the 
Omahas and cognate tribes, ili. 599; 
Osage war customs, 368. 

Double stars, list of, 66. 

Dowson’s gas, 445. 

Drainage system of Iowa, 762. 

Drift, iceberg theory of, 390; in Delaware, 
221. 

Duptey, W. R. An abnormal orchid, 
Habenarla 7 Lene 335; origin of 
the flora of the central New York lake 
region, 336, 

Dudley observatory, Albany, N.Y., 449. 

Drofak, V., on acoustic rotation appara- 
tus, i//. $18. 

Dyer, C. B., 118. 


Earth, density of, 175; formations, 367; 
mass of, increase of, 820. 

Earthquake at New Madrid, Mo., in 1811, 
$24; at Ischia, i//. 396. 

Easter Island, 213. P 

EastMAN, J. R. Internal contacts in 
transits of the inferior planets, 239. 

Echinella articulata, 333. 

Eclipse expedition, French, 591; of 1882, 
11; solar, of May 6, 1883, 237, 241. 


Eclipses and terrestrial magnetiam, 451; of 
Jupiter’s satellites, 40, 173. 

in ype entomology, 406; in England, 

Eppy, H. T. Kinetic considerations as to 
the nature of the atomic motions which 
probably originate radiations, 76, 123; 
radiant heat, 793; the kinetic theory of 
the specific heat of solids, 284, 424. 

EGpBenrt, H. V. Elliptic elements of comet 
Pons-Brooks, 654. 

Eggs, birds’, white of, 322; yolkless arti- 
ficial, 323. 

Egypt, ancient, flora of, 39. 

Egyptian mechanical methods, 467. 

Electric head-light, 509; light on the Al- 
batross, il/. 642, 671, 705; railway, 636; 
ap for steam-engines, 46; tram-car, 

Electric-lighting, 240; engine for, 107; 
fire risks of, 781; machines, 106, 452. 

Electrical dinners, 254; signals, él/. 823. 

Electricity, atmospheric, 291. 

Electro-magnets, 16. 

Electrolysis of bismuth solutions, 141. 

Electromotive force, regulation of, 821; 
thermochemical properties of, 177. 

Extiot, 8. L. Variations in butterflies, 
353. 

Ellipse, perimeter of, 265. 

Elliptic functions, 542. 

Ellis’s North-American fungi, 255. 

Emblematic mounds, 365, 366. 

Emerton, J. H. The model of Archi- 
teuthis at the Fisheries exhibition, 683. 

Empholite, 450. 

Endowment of biological research, 504. 

Engineers, civil, American society of, 75, 
100; mechanical, American society of, 
62, 267. 

Engines, compound, 477; heavy, 309; 
of lake steamers, 139; simple and com- 
pound, 384; spherical steam, 544; two- 
cylinder compound, 543. 

English law, 408; sparrow, trick of, 201. 

Epbippiids, characters of, 65. 

Epidemic diseases in plants, 334. 

Epidermal glands of caterpillars and Ma- 

achius, 350; membranes, lignification 
of, 123. 

Epithelium, pulmonary, 97. 

Equations, algebraical, 409; differential, 
410, 441; elliptic differential, 238; 
linear differential, 134; of equilibrium, 
882; of third degree, 44. 

Equilibrium, function of, 458; equations 
of, 382. 

Eroding power of ice, 320. 

Eskimo stone pyramids, 782. 

Etbnology, 439; of Alaska, 667; of Yun- 
nan and Shan country, 500; Roumanian, 
133. 

Euphausiacea, 791, 793. 

Evans, G. W. Radiometers with curved 
vanes, 215. r 

Evolution, 659; evidence for, in history of 
extinct Mammalia, 272. 

Expgrimental method in seience, 683. 

Extlosive, new, 196. 

Explosives, nature of, 667. 

Eye, embryology of, 91. 

Eyelid, human, 36. 


Factory acts, 485. 

Fairy-rings, 16. 

False claims, 13. 

Family registers, 599. 

Fartow, W. G. Relations of certain 
forms of algae to disagreeable tastes and 
odors, 333; the spread of epidemic dis- 
eases in plants, 384. 

Farquuaar, H. Experiments in binary 
arithmetic, 755, 

Fat, absorption of, by lymph-cells, 192; 
origin of, 400. 

Fattened animals, maintenance of, 512. 

Feeding-rations, 145. 

Fell, J. B., on alpine railways, 635. 

Felspars in rocks, 336. 

Fergusson’s Parthenon, reviewed, 740. 

Ferryboat, enormous, 412, 

K riiization, insects vs., 320; of Lepto- 
spermum, 276. 


843 


Fertilizer, sulphuric acid as, 335. 

Fertilizers, effect of, on oats, 550; for 
tobacco, 516; nitrogenous, 549. 

Ficaria, sterility of, 568. 

Field-clubs and local societies, 1. 

Figures, symmetrical linear, produced by 
reflection, id. 36. 

Finley’s Tornado studies, reviewed, 403. 

Fire risks of electric lighting, 781. 

Fish-commission steamer Albatross, fll. 6, 
66. 

Fish-hooks, bone, i//. 653. 

Fisheries exhibition, international, 129, 
ill. 155, 612; beavers at, 28; mollusks at, 
128,431; water-bottles and thermome- 
ters for deep-sea research at, ill, 155; 
zoblogy at, 130. 

Fisheries of British Columbia, 342; sal- 
mon, 343. 

Fishes of Batstoe River, 163. 

Fisk, 8. A. Climate in the cure of con- 
sumption, 426, 457. 

Flamsteed, 666. 

FLETCHER, Alice C. Observations on the 
laws and privileges of the gens in Indian 
society, 367; symbolic earth formations, 
367. 

FLETCHER, R. Human proportion, 539. 

Fletcher’s Human proportion, reviewed, 
354. 

Flexure corrections of meridian circle, 
239; of broken transit, 1. 

Flora, fossil, of Greenland, 440; of New- 
York lake region, 336. 

Florida, reefs, keys, and peninsula of, 764. 

Floscularia, 88. 

Flow in rotary pumps, 292. 

Fluorite, crystals of, 148. 

Fluosilicates, hardening limestones with, 
311. 

Flynn's Hydraulic tables, reviewed, 627. 

Fodder, sunflower cake as, 552. 

Folk-lore in the Panjab, 259; society, 92. 

FoLtweELt, W. W., address of, before 
American association at Minneapolis, 
227. 

Forbes, S. A., on diseased caterpillars, 483. 

Forest-trees of Arkansas, 342. 

Forestry congress, American, 117; science 
of, 698. 

Fossil flora of Greenland, 440. 

Foye’s Chemical problems, reviewed, 627. 

Frazer, P. Lewis’s Geology of Phila- 
delphia, 269, 540. 

French association for the advancement of 
science, 389; eclipse expedition, 591; 
geographical explorations, 596; law, 
408. 

Frispiz, E. Orbit of the great comet of 
1882, 280, 

Fritts, C. E. New form of selenium 
cell, with some remarkable electrical 
discoveries made by its use, 283. 

Frog, bird-eating, 148; palate of, nerves of, 
68. 

Frost, effect of, on fire-plug casings, 411. 

Fruit-insects, 174. 

Fuchsian functions, 506. 

Fulminating compound, 198. 

Beret: elliptic, 542; real, 329; theory 
of, 41. 

Fundamental catalogue of the Berliner 
Jahrbuch, 411. ' 

Fungi, British, 346; Iowa, 22; North 
American, 255; Ohio, 24, 425. 

Fungorum, Sylloge, 345. 

Fuze, time, for artillery, 9. 


Gage, 8. H. leona grote meso in the 
soft-shelled turtle, Aspidonectes spinifer, 
ries See also WILDER, B.G., and Gage, 
8 


Gaee, 8. H., on cataloguing, labelling, and 
storing microscopical preparations, 465. 

Galibis, 194. 

Galicia, petroleum from, 510. 

Gallinae, sternal processes in, 622. 

Galton’s Human faculty, reviewed, 79; pro- 
posed family registers, 599. 

Galvanometer, calibration of, il/, 282. 

Games, Japanese, 366. 

Gamma-dichlordibrompropionic and gam. 
ma-dichlorbromacrylic acids, 288. 


844 


Gases evolved during conversion of grass 
into hay, 109. 

Geppines, W. H. Climate in the cure of 
consumption, 682. 

Geikie’s Geology, reviewed, 823. 

Gelatine film, 135. 

Genital armature of Lepidoptera, 30. 

Gens in Indian society, 367. 

Geodetic association, international, of 
Europe, 656; report of committee of, 
604. 

Geographic control of marine sediments, 
ili. 560; explorations, French, 596; 
names, 28. 

Geologic age of Atlantic Ocean, 666; 
changes in Alaska, 655, 294; commis- 
sion of Spain, 148; formations, syn- 
chronism of, 739, ill. 794, 362; map of 
Spain, 29; subjects, reports of commit- 
tees on, of American association, 314. 

Geologists, international congress of, 314. 

Geology, 828; of Belgium, 14; of Green- 
land, 539; of Pennsylvania, 49; of Phil- 
adelphia, 269, 402, 540, 652; of the 
Troad, 255; unsolved problems in, 190. 

Gephyreans, anatomy of, 93. 

Germ-layers of rodents, 191. 

Germ-theory of disease, 666. 

German survey of northern heavens, 229. 

Germicide yalue of therapeutic agents, 
483. 

Germs of disease, 385. 

Geyser comparisons, 101. 

Gibraltar land-shells, 370. 

GitBerT, G. K. Drainage system and 
loess distribution of eastern Iowa, 762; 
pre-Bonneville climate, 170. 

Glacial action in Indiana, 6; age, ice in, 
436; boundary between New Jersey and 
Illinois, 316; canons, 315; clays at Alton, 
Ill., 327; dam at Cincinnati, 319; de- 
posits, 321; epoch in Minnesota, 319; 

- man, evidences of, 437; man in Minne- 
sota, 369; period, Connecticut River in, 
118; phenomena in Boyd county, 654. 

Glaciation of North America, 316. 

Glands, epidermal, of caterpillars, 350. 

Glutamin in beet-juice, 517. 

Glycerine, reconyersion of nitro-glycerine 
into, 218. 

Gopwin-AustEN, H. H. The Himalayas, 
593. 

Gold in limestone, 270. 

GoopE, G. B. The international fisheries 
exhibition, 129, z//. 612. 

Gottsche’s Pebbles of Schleswig-Holstein, 
reviewed, 4438. - 

Gould, B. A., 451, 666. 

Government as a publishing-house, 31. 

Grain, damage to, by wetting, 181. 

Granites, Minnesota and New England, 
324, 

Granton quarry, 413. 

Grants for scientific purposes in England, 
549. 

Grape-mould, oospores of, 563. 

Grasses, protogyny of, 226. 

Grayitation, influence of, upon growth in 
plants, 5. 

Gravity and cell-division, 190. 

Gray, E. The static telephone, 286. 

Great Basin, field-work of division of, 633. 

Greely relief expedition, 72/. 412. 

Green’s Eureka, reviewed, 109. 

Greenland, colonization of, 29; Danish ex- 

editions in, 150; exploration of, 451; 
‘ossil flora of, 440; geology, 589; Graah’s 
investigations in, 422; inland ice of, ill. 
782. 

Greenwich observatory, 103. 

Growth in plants, 5; influence of atmos- 
pheric pressure on, 188. 

Guano, aves, 548. 

Guatemala, explorations in, 262. 

Guiana, yoyages in, 152. 

Guilds, history of, 469. 

Guinea, Portuguese, 562. 

Gulf Stream, explorations in region of, 
153. 

Gun with hexagonal section of bore, 696. 


H., A. P. Letters in a surface film, 309. 
H., H. A. Sun-spot observations, 72. 


Habenaria hyperborea, 335. 

Haeckel’s Ceylon, reviewed, 825. 

Haemoglobin in blood of Branchiopoda, 
238. 

Hafgy gia, 21. 

Harz, H. The Iroquois institutions and 
language, 496. 

Bae Iroquois book of rites, reviewed, 

Halite, 555. 

Hatt, E. H. Auroral experiments in 
Lapland, il/. 819. 

Hall, I. H., on the Arabic translation of 
the Bible, 651; on the temple to Zeus 
Labranios in Cyprus, 651. 

Hatz, J. Preliminary note on the micro- 
scopic shell-structure of the paleozoic 
Brachiopoda, 325. 

HatstepD, B. D. A combination walnut, 
ill. 761; notes on sassafras-leaves, Zl. 
491; a strange sassafras-leaf, i//. 684. 

Hamilton group of Pennsylvania, 327, 
399. 

Hamlin, F, M., on microscopical examina- 
tion of seminal] stains on cloth, 469. 

Hardness in water, estimation of, 142. 

Harrington’s Life of Sir W. E. Logan, 
reviewed, 573. 

Harrisse on early American cartography, 
116. 

Hart, C. P._ Conscious automatism, 339. 

Hart, 8. Natural snowballs or snow- 
rollers, 285. 

Harvard university, instruction in chemis- 
try, 91; Lawrence scientific school, 342. 

Hastines, C.8. See HotpEN, E. 8., and 
Hastings, C. §. 

Hausmannite, artificial, 13. 

Hawaii, rainfall at, 252. 

Hay, conversion of grass into, 109. 

Haynes, H. W. Alnwick castle antiqui- 
ties, 136. 

Heart, development of, 579; and alcohols, 
96; beat, influence of pressure on, 210; 
systole and diastole of, 584. 

Heat-dissipation, 581. 

Heating by exhaust-steam, 140. 

Heavens, northern, survey of, 229, 

Heer, Oswald, 550; portrait, 583. 

aoe Fossil flora of Greenland, reviewed, 

HEILPRIN, A. Synchronism of geological 
formations, é//. 794. 

Heilprin, Angelo, 581. 

Helices, British, 525. 

Heliostat, new, é/. 285. 

Hell’s observations of transit of Venus in 
1769, 219. 

Henderson gas-furnace, 80. 

HENDRICKS, J. E. Deflective effect of the 
earth’s rotation, 185, 

Hernpon, C. G. Specifie gravities of 
seawater determined on the Albatross, 

Herrick, F. H. A reckless flier, 222; 
prairie warbler in New Hampshire, 309; 
trick of the English sparrow, 201. 

Herricks Types of animal life, revffwed, 

Herschel on star-gauges, 117. 

Hertwig, O., on the origin of the meso- 
derm, 7//. 817. 

Hessian fly, 387. 

Hicks, Henry. St. Dayid’s 
universal law, z//. 167. 

Hicks’s Critique of design arguments, re- 
viewed, 309. 

HinearD, E. W. The practical value of 
soil-analysis, 435, 

Himalayas, 593. 

Hinps; J. I. D. Sence of direction, 739. 

Hinricus, G. Remarks on the tracings 
of selfregistering instruments, and the 
value of the signal-service indications 
for Iowa, in June and July, 1883, 285. 

Hirudinea, nervous system of, 456. 

Histology of insects, 480; systematic, $8. 

Hirencock, ©. H. The early history of 
the North-American continent, 293. 

Hitencock, R. Water-bottles and ther- 
mometers for deep-sea research at the 
anerneonel fisheries exhibition, #7//. 


rocks and 


SCIENCE.— INDEX TO VOLUME II. 


Hoangnan, 754, 

Hoe-shaped implement, 179. 

Hoek, P. P. C., on oyster-culture in Hol- 
land, 79. 

Hogs, species of, 302. 

Holbrook, M. L., on the termination of 
the nerves in the kidneys, 465. 

HoLpEeN, E.S. <A system of local warn- 
ings against tornadoes, 521; Bremiker’s 
Logarithmic tables, 174; errata in cata- 
logues of stars, 221; the fundamental 
catalogue of the Berliner Jahrbuch, 711; 
the search for Crevaux, 222; the total 
solar ecllni of May 6, 1883, 237. 

Hoipen, E. 8., and Hastines, C. 8. 
List of new double stars discovered at 
Caroline Island, 66. 

Houper, J. B. The right whale of the 
North Atlantic, 132, 266. 

Holland, oyster-culture in, 79; zodlogical 
station, i//. 618. 

Honigman’s locomotive, 474. 

Hop-vine borer, 159. 

Hopkins, E. W., on Manu, 651. ~ 

Horn, G. H. John Lawrence LeConte, 
portrait, 783. 

Horse, domestication of, 130; Indians 
and, 72. 

Houeu, F. B. The methods of statistics, 
371. 

Hover, G. W. Physical phenomena on 
the planet Jupiter, 240; The rotation of 
domes, 280, 

Hovey, H. C. Oyster farming in Con- 
necticut waters, 376. 

How.anD, E. P. The application of ni- 
trous oxide and air to produce anaesthe- 
sia; with clinics on animals in an experi- 
mental air-chamber, 338. 

Hoy, P. R. The tornado at Racine, May 
18, 1883, 281. 

Hull on the geological age of the North 
Atlantic Ocean, 666. 

Human faculty, 79; proportion, 354, 539. 

Humblebees vs. field-mice, 470. 

Humboldt fund of Berlin academy of sci- 
ences, 180. 

Humerus, perforated, 326. 

Humming-birds, flight of, 436. 

Hunt, T.S. A classification of the nat- 
ural sciences, 279; false claims, 13; the 
pre-Cambrian rocks of the Alps, 322; 
the pre-Cambrian rocks of Wales, 403; 
the serpentine of Staten Island, New 
York, 3238. 

Huntington’s logarithm tables, 29. 

Hunyadi Janos water, 754. 

Huranbee, laterite from, 337. 

Hurricanes, August, 635. 

Hybrid between gayal and zebu, 101, 

Hydrates of chlorine, 11. 

Hydraulic tables, 627. 

Hydrography of Siberian Sea, 420. 

Hydroid polyp, new, 26. 

Hydrokinone, 268. 

Hygrometer studies, 391. 

Hymenoptera, 157. : 

Hyperelliptic functions, 214; integrals, 
471. 

Hypertrichosis, 505. 


Ice age, Minnesota valley in, 318; dam at 
Cincinnati, 436; eroding powen of, 320; 
of Greenland, 7//. 782; thickness of, in 
glacial times, 685. 

Iceberg theory of the drift, evidence 
against, 390. 

Teelanders, calendars of, 782. 

Icterus Baltimore, 302. 

Idaho, fauna of, 66. 

Ideas of motion, 713. 

Igloo of Innuit, é2/. 182, 216, 259, 304, 347. 

Iguanodons, fossil, 451. 

Illinois birds, 282; state laboratory of 
natural history, 488, 698. 

TUnmetngtlon, dark-tield, of lines on glass, 
240. 

Tlyanassa obsoleta, bifurcate tentacle in, — 
622. 

Implements, natural history of, 43, 

Impregnation of ovum, 583. 

India, archeology in, 809. 


f SCIENCE.— INDEX TO VOLUME IL. 


Indian courtship, 377%; grave, 105; sur- 
veys, 120. 

Indiana, glacial action in, 6; state univer- 
sity, 116, 605, 685. 

Indians, North-American, 72. 

Indigo group, compounds of, 511. 

Individuality, origin of, 321. 

Indrapura, ascent of, 273. 

Inflection, points of, 105. 

Infusoria, 467. 

INGERSOLL, E. Tree-growth, 569. 

Innuit, igloo of, i/, 182, 216, 259, 304, 347. 

Insect fungi, 369. 

Insects, American paleozoic, 60; elassifi- 
cation of, 457; histology of, 430; pro- 
tection against, 378; vs. fertilization, 320. 

Inspired science, 109, 

Tnstinct, 782. 

Instruments, self-registering, 285. 

Integrals, hyperelliptic, 471. 

Intelligence of American turret spider, 43; 
of birds, 301. 

International congress of geologists, 314; 
exhibition to illustrate health and educa- 
tion, 839; fisheries exhibition, 129, id. 
155, 612; prizes at, 606; geodetic associa- 
tion of Europe, transactions of, reviewed, 
656; geodetic commission, $14. 

Intra-mercurial planet, 605. 

Invention, origin of, 779. 

Tolite, 558. 

Iowa academy of sciences, 607; drainage 
system and loess distribution of, 762; 
fungi, 22; water-lime group in, 323; 
weather bulletin, 254, 810; weather ser- 
vice, 27, 339. 

Tris, innervation of movements of, 438. 

Iron in mounds, 304; manufacture, gas- 
eous fuel in, 246, 

Troquois, 134; book of rites, 270; institu- 
tions and language, 496. 

Trritability of spinal cord, 433. 

Ischia, earthquake at, i//. 396, 485. 

Isopoda, 793; of Blake dredgings, 574. 


Jacoss, F. O. Change of birds’ notes, 
167. 

Jacobson, organ of, in Ophidia, 301. 

James, J. F. Achenial hairs of Senecio, 
201; dissemination of Phlox, 496. 

JANSSEN, J. French observations on the 
solar eclipse of May 6, 1883, 241. 

Janssen, P. J.,on the French eclipse ex- 
pedition, 591. 

Japan, meteorological observatory of, 253; 
population of, 366. 

Japanese games, 366. 

dastrow, J. The mechanism of direc- 
tion, i//, 655. 

Java earthquake, map, 469, 725. 

Jeannette, voyage of, ill. 540, 

JEFFERSON, T. E. A new system for the 
treatment of sewer-gas, 379. 

JerrrRiEs, J. A. Osteology of the cor- 
morant, 739; sternal processes in Gal- 
linae, 622. 

Jeremeieffite, 250. 

Jews in Africa, 154. 

Johns Hopkins university biological labo- 
ratory, 147, 209; chemical laboratory, 
149; circulars, 341; fellowships, 341; 

Ihysiecal laboratory, 146, 254; special 
ectures, 253. 

Joly’s Man before metals, reviewed, 626. 

JoRDAN, D. S. Museum of the Indiana 
university, 685, 

Juglans nigra, 761. 

JULIEN, A. A.,and Borton, H. C. The 
singing beach at Manchester, Mass., 325. 
See a Botron, H. C., and JuLren, 
A. A. 

Jupiter, astrophysical observations of, 172; 
physical phenomena on, 240; satellites 
of, 40, 173. 

Jutish type of face, 466. 


Kabyles, sociology of, 393. 

Kalmias, 201, 267, 309. 

Kame rivers of Maine, 319. 

Kansas, State university of, 90, 340. 

Kapoe, 754. 

Ketticorr, D. 8. Psephenus Lecontei: 
the external anatomy of the larva, 337. 


Kellicott, D. S., on stalked infusoria in 
crayfish, 465. 

KENNEpY, W.S. The influence of winds 
upon tree-growth, 470. 

Ketones, compounds of, with hydrazine, 
78. 

Kidney, cilia in, 531; circulation in, 469. 

Kinetic theory of melting and boiling, 284; 
of specific heat of solids, 284, 424. 

Kine, F. H. A dog plans and executes 
with reference to the future, 822; au- 
rora, 472; the influence of gravitation, 
moisture, and light, upon the direction 
of growth in the root and stem of plants, 
5. 

Kuynicett, L. P. ‘Rex magnus,’ 345. 

Kinship, notation of, 533. 

Kirkwoop, D. The relative ages of 

lanets, comets, and meteors, 12. 

Kitchens of the east, 369. 

KNEELAND, 8. Prehensile feet of the 
crows, 265; the wild tribes of Luzon, 
all. 522. 

Kocn. Report of the German cholera 
commission, 675. 

Kola, 780. 

Kongo, 55; basin, muatiamyo of, 56. 

Konkoly’s Astronomical instruments, re- 
viewed, 202, 

Kummer’s surface, 541. 


Lagenella nobilis, 22. 

Laminaria, 21, 21; Andersonii, 21; Clou- 
stoni, 21; platymeris, 21. 

Lamprey, development of teeth in, id. 
731. 

Land-holding, 73; history of, 768. 

Langle, Fleuriot de, 148. 

LANGLEY, J. W., and McGeg, C. K. 
The sub-aqueous dissociation of certain 
salts, i//. 288. 

LANGLEY, 8. P. An interesting sun-spot, 
ill, 266. 

Language, teaching, to brutes, 682. 

Languages, 439. 

LANKESTER, E. R. The endowment of 
biological research, 504. 

Laramie plants, 517 

Lasius flavus, 143. 

Laterite from Huranbee, 337. 

Lawrence scientific school embryological 
laboratory, 342. 

LeConte, John. Solar constant, 44. 

LeConte, John Lawrence, 696, portrait, 
783; collections of, 808. 

LeConre, Joseru. The reefs, keys, and 
peninsula of Florida, 764. 

Ledger’s Sun and its planets, reviewed, 17. 

berths” J. Crystals in the bark of trees, 
ill. 707. 

Leidy, J., on Manayunkia speciosa, 762; 
on Urnatella gracilis, i//. 789. 

Lepidium, 105; seeds of, 202. 

Lepidoptera, genital armature of, 30. 

Leptospermum, fertilization of, 276. 

Lestey, J. P. Wright’s ice-dam at Cin- 
cinnati, 436. 

Lessar’s expedition toward the Oxus, 840. 

Lesseps, F. de. French geographical 
explorations, 596. 

Levelling, spirit, errors in, 269. 

Lewis, H. C. Geology of Philadelphia, 
402, 652; the great terminal moraine 
across Pennsylvania, i//, 163. 

ee Geology of Philadelphia, reviewed, 

69. 

Libinia, anatomy of, 372. 

Library, public, of Cincinnati, 484. 

Lick observatory, 29; trust, 609. 

Licking valley, pebbles in, 436. 

Life insurance, 376. 

Light, influence of, upon growth in plants, 
5; sensation of, 214. 

Lightning, origin of, 204; singular, ill. 

6 

Ligula Mansoni, 721. 

Lime-juice in pemmiean, 471. 

Limestone, gold in, 270. 

Limestones and marbles, 203. 

Linear substitutions, 472. 

Linnaean society of New South Wales, 276. 

Lintner, J. A. The chinch-bug in New 
York, 540. 


845 


Liquids, molecular volume of, 547. 

Literature of chemical elements, 287; of 
pollination, 341. 

Lithiophilite, 483. 

Lithology, journalistic, 114; of District 
of Columbia, 553. 

Liver, development of, 100. 

Lockwoop, 8. A bifurcate tentacle in 
llyanassa obsoleta, 622. 

Locomotives, compound, 49; in Europe, 
475; electric head-light for, 509; fire- 
less, 474. 

Loess at Alton, Ill., 327; distribution of, 
in Iowa, 762. 

Logan, Sir William, 573. 

Logarithmic tables, 174. 

Lolos of central China, 405. 

London anthropological institute, 540. 

Lonicera involucrata, 802. 

Lophogastrida, 793. 

Lorillard City, 260. 

J.T. Tornado at Racine, 


Luminous paint, 698. 

Lungs, air-tight, 160; development of, 
100. 

Luxotype process, é//, 809. 

Luzon, wild tribes of, i/d. 522. 

Lymphatic vessels, 462. 

Lymphatics of periosteum, 63. 

Lyon, D.G. Recent Babylonian research, 
40. 

Lysimeter record, 290. 


Masnery, C. F., and Nicnotson, H. H. 
On y-dichlordibrompropionic and y-di- 
chlorbromacrylic acids, 288. 

Mabery, C. F., 452. 

McApams, W. A new vertebrate from 
the St. Louis limestone, 327; animal re- 
mains from the loess and glacial clays at 
Alton, Ill., 327; the great mounds of 
Cahokia, 365. 

McCalla, A., on verification of microscop- 
ical observation, 465. 

McCook, H. C., on the intelligence of the 
American turret spider, 43. 

MACFARLANE, J. ‘he ‘earthquake’ at 
New Madrid, Mo.,in 1811, probably not 
an earthquake, 324. 

McGee, C. K. See Laneey, J. W., and 
McGesg, C. K. 

McGee, W. J. Glacial cations, 315. 

McGee, W. J., on drainage system and 
loess distribution of Iowa, 762. 

McKay, Charles Leslie, 635. 

MAcLOsKIE, G. Macloskie’s Elementary 
botany, 105; seeds of Lepidium, 202. 

Macloskie’s Elementary botany, 105; re- 
viewed, 13. 

Macrobiotia, 103. 

Madagascar, 38. 

Magnetic observations, i//. 58; survey of 
Missouri, 251. 

Magnetism, terrestrial, 451. 

Magnetophone, 250, i//. 392. 

rm feck origin of, 102. 

Mablemuts, 607. 

Maine building-stones, 481; kame rivers 
in, 319. 

Maize ensilage, proteine of, 387; kernels, 
structure of, 334. 

Malagasy place-names, 236. 

Mammalia, extinct, evolution in history of, 
272. 

Mammals, color-markings of, 164. 

Man, antiquity of, 779; before metals, 626; 
dipterous maggots in, 494; glacial, 437; 
glacial, in Minnesota, 369; region of 
evolution of, 70; place of, in nature, 
532. 

Manatee, epiphyses on vertebrae of, 211. 

ou speciosa, 762. 

Manchester, singing beach at, 325. 

Mandrill, birth of, 498. 

Mann, W. Impregnation in the turkey, 
105. 

Manures, influence of, on soil, 111; rela- 
tion of, to seed, 513; phosphatic, in 
drought, 180. 

Manuring oats, 361; with potash salts, 
360. 


846 


Marcovu, J.B. The affinities of Richtho- 
fenia, 108. 

Maney, E. J. The physiological station 
of Paris, i//. 678, 709. 

Marine sediments, control of, 7//. 560. 

Marriage laws of Omahas, ill. 599. 

Martin, H. N., 209. 

Maryland oyster commission, 665. 

Masai people, 502. 

Mason, O. T. The Charnay collection at 
‘Washington, 368; the scope and yalue of 
anthropological studies, 358. 

Massachusetts agricultural experiment-sta- 
tion, 636; institute of technology, Bos- 
ton, 449, 605. 

Mastodon arvernensis, 386. 

Mathematics, obligations of, to philosophy, 
477, 502. 

Maturation of mammalian ovum, 583. 

Maudsley’s Body and will, reviewed, 600. 

Mavia tribes of negroes, 407. 

MAXWELL, 8. A. The formation of tor- 
nadoes, 620. 

Maynard’s Manual 
viewed, 312. 

Mechanical engineers, society of, 62, 267; 
methods, Egyptian, 467. 

Mechanism of direction, 554, 622, i//. 655. 

aeoal of Imperial geographical society, 
118. 

Medical profession in England, 667. 

Mediterranean Mollusca, 126; oysters, 
430. 

Medusae, American, life-history of, 489. 

MEEHAN, T. Rapid geological changes in 
Alaska, 655. 

Melanippe montanata, 55. 

Metz, P. H., jun. Method for making 
electrical signals, z//. 828. 

Melophorus Bagoti, 143. 

Melospiza melodia, 303. 

Melting, kinetic theory of, 284. 

MENDENHALL, T. C. A method of dis- 
tributing weather forecasts by means 
of railways, 252. 

Mentzelia laevicaulis, 124. 

Meridian circle, flexure corrections of, 239. 

Meromyza americana, 833. 

Merovingian grants of immunity, 470. 

MERRIMAN, G. B. Illustrative apparatus 
for astronomy, é/J. 218. : 

Mesoderm, composition of, 11; origin of, 
all. 815. 

Mesogonistius chaetodon, 722. 

Metalloids, decomposition of water by, 
244, " 

Meteoric iron, 222. 

Meteorite in Argentine Republic, 386. 

Meteorological notes, 364; observatory of 
Japan, 253; station at Orange Harbor, 
384. : 

Meteorology, Bavarian, 251; elementary, 
226; in China, 390; of St. Michaels, 61; 
spectroscope in, 2//. 488; theoretical, 767. 

Meteors, November, 713; observation of, 
725. 

Metre of archives, relation between, and 
imperial yard, 280. 

Metrical standard of mound-builders, 365. 

Micrococcus, 483. 

Microscope, treatise on, 313. 

Microscopic life, rare forms of, 428; sec- 
tions, reconstruction of objects from, 
521. 

Microscopical diagnosis, 83. 

Microscopists, American society of, 117, 
465. 

Milk, preserved, 144, 

Mill-engines, 7. 

Miller manual labor school, 606, 

Miller-Hauenfels’s Theoretical meteor- 
ology, reviewed, 767. 

Milne, John, 341. 

Mimicry, 228. 

Miner, R. H. 
Albatross, 617. 

Mineral resources of United States, 413. 

Minerals from Amelia county, Va., 338. 

Mines of Cuba, 81. 

Mining region, Prescott, 82. 

Minnesota, glacial epoch in, 319; granites, 
324; valley in ice age, 318; weather, 262. 

Minot, C. 8. Balfour’s last researches on 


of taxidermy, re- 


Fishes obtained by the 


Peripatus, id. 306; composition of the 
mesoderm, 11; histology of insects, 430; 
origin of the mesoderm, é//. 815; primi- 
tive streak of vertebrates, 105. 

Mirage, 5. 

Missionary work, French, 225. 

Missouri, magnetic survey of, 251; river, 
descent of, 518; weather service, 26. 

Mitla, notes on, 286. 

Mitra eryptodon, 207. 

Mixtrer, C. 8. The increase of the 
colored population of the United States, 
376. 

Mohawks, life among, 366. 

Moisture, influence of, upon growth in 
plants, 5. 

Molar, superior, 338. 

Molecular volume of liquids, 547. 

Mollusks, abyssal, 27, 208, 453; of 
Caucasus, 230; extramarine, of New 
Guinea, 490; at Fisheries exhibition, 
128, 431; Mediterranean, 126; notes 
on, 59; use of, 587. 

Moncel’s, du, Electro-magnets, reviewed, 
16. 

Mongols, hospitality of, 148. 

Montgoltiers’ monument, i//. 517. 

Moraine, terminal, across Pennsylvania, 
ill. 163; west of Ohio, 317. 

Moraines, 321. 

Morin, 666. 

Morse, E. 8. A new plan of museum 
case, 333; in-door games of the Japanese, 
366; methods of arrow release, 369; 
Mya arenaria: its changes in pliocene 
and prehistoric times, 336; papers of, at 
Minneapolis, 487; the kitchens of the 
east, 369; the utilization of the sun’s 
rays for warming and ventilating apart- 
ments, 283. 

Morse’s papers at Minneapolis, 437. 

Morton’s Heroes of science — astronomers, 
reviewed, 623. 

Motion, ideas of, 713. 

Motor-nerve endings, 162. 

Motors, prime, 443. 

Mouchez on the Paris observatory, 131. 

Mound-builders identified, 365; metrical 
standard of, 365; pipes of, é//. 258. 

Mounds, emblematic, 3865, 366; iron in, 
304; Missouri, 366; of Cahokia, 365; of 
Wisconsin, 378. 

Mountain sheep, 210. 

Mourlon’s Geology of Belgium, reviewed, 
14. 

Mouth of vertebrates, 33. 

M’tesa, death of, 403. 

Mucor racemosus, 112; tenuis, 112. 

Mucors, zygospores of, 122. 

Miiller, Hermann, 484; portrait, 487. 

Muraenopsis tridactylus in captivity, 7d. 
189. 

MuRTFELDT, M. E. Periodicity of Sab- 
bacia angularis, 335. 

Musea vomitoria, 430. 

Muscle-fibres, development of, 258. 

Muscovite, enclosures in, 182. 

Museum case, new, 333. 

Music, Aztec, 305. 

Musical sand, 713. 

Muskoki strategy, 440. 

Mya arenaria, 336, 740. 

Mycedium, 88. 

Mysidacea, 793. 

Mythologic parallels, 504, 

Mythology, Navajo, 468. 


Naples zoological station, 93. 

National academy of sciences, November 
meeting of, 669 ; observatory, 414; scholar- 
eet English, 385; traits in science, 

55. 

Natural sciences, classification of, 279. 

Navajo mythology, 468. 

Naval observatory. See U.§8. naval obser- 
vatory. 

NeEaLE, D. H. O’Neale. The national 
railway exposition, i//. 3, 32, 97, 125, 
417. 

Nebalia, 793. 

Nebraska, fresh-water shells from, i//. 808. 

Newson, E,T, From superstition to hum- 
bug, 739. 


SCIENCE.— INDEX TO VOLUME II. 


Nemertean proboscis, homology of, 348. 

Nemertines, spermatogenesis of, 95. 

Nerve-endings in caudal skin of tadpoles, 
79. 

Nerves of human eyelid, 36. 

Nervous centres, histology of, 578; system 
of Siphonophores, 571. 

Neumayr’s plan for a Nomenclator palae- 
ontologicus, 778. 

NeEwBERRY, J.8. The ancient glaciation 
of North America: its extent, character, 
and teachings, 316; the eroding power of 
ice, 320. 

Newcome, 8. The psychological mechan- 
ism of direction, 554; the units of mass 
and force, 493. 

Newcomb, 8., 451; on Hell’s observations 
of the transit of Venus in 1769, 219. 

New-England Brachyura and Anomura, 
pats granites, 824; ice in glacial times, 
685. 

New Guinea, 119, 324; mollusca of, 490, 

New Jersey state microscopical society, 
373,494; mound-builders’ pipes in, i//. 
258. 

New Madrid, earthquake at, in 1811, 324. 

New-York agricultural station, report of, 
reviewed, 687; lake region, flora of, 356. 

Niagara River, history of, 315. 

Nicuotson, H. H. See Masery, C. F., 
and NrcHoxson, H. H. 

Nickel extraction, 247. 

NipHer, F. E. Magnetic survey of Mis- 
souri, 251; plan for a state weather ser- 
vice, 252; tornado at Racine, 1883, 281. 

Nitrification in soil, 388. 

Nitro-glycerine, 218. 

Nitrogen, determination of, 15; liquefac- 
tion of, 4. 5 

Nitrogenous fertilizers, 549. 

Nitrous oxide, application of, to produce 
anaesthesia, 338. 

Nomenclator palaeontologicus, 778. 

Nordenskiéld, 451; claims of, 341; on the 
inland ice of Greenland, 7//. 732. 

North America, glaciation of, 316. 

North-American continent, history of, 293. 

Northern heavens, survey of, 229. 

Northern notes, 19, 20. 

Norton, C. E., address of, before Archae- 
ological institute of America, 646. 

Norway, maps of, 184. 

Notarchus, shell in, 207. 

Notes, African, 87; Arctic, $4; Asian, 
$5; on mollusea, 59; northern, 19, 20; 
South American, 153. 

Notornis, sternum of, 459. 

Nottingham records, 171. 

Nucleus, division of, in protozoa, 570. 

Nudibranchs, researches on, 454. 

Nucent, E. Humblebees vs. field-mice, 
470; synchronism of geological forma- 
tions, 739. 


Oats, effects of fertilizers on, 550. 

Observation, precision of, 519. 

Observatory at Vienna, 92; Greenwich, 
103; national, 415; Paris, 181; equa- 
torially mounted telescope at, 782. 

Odontoblasts, 284. 

Ohio fungi, 24, 425; mechanics’ institute, 
839, 178; Wesleyan university, 91. 

Ohm, measurement of, 138. 

Oil-sands, Allegheny, 18. 

Olfactory lobes, 90. 

Olmecas, 287. 

Omahas, marriage laws of, i//. 599. 

Ontario, rain-storm in, 272. 

Ophidia, organ of Jacobson in, 301. 

Ophryocystis Biitschlii, 148. 

Opuntia vulgaris, 381. 

Orinee Harbor, meteorological station at, 

Orchis mascula, 567. 

Oregon, fauna of, 66. 

Oriental society, American, 651. 

Origin of invention, 779. 

Orkney-islanders, 465. 

Orkneys and Shetland, é/. 748. 

Ormerod’s Economie entomology, 
viewed, 406, 

Ornamental forms in nature, 298. 


re- 


Ce) ee ee tee ee 


SCIENCE. — INDEX 


Ornithologists’, American, convention, 342; 
union, 516. 

Ornithorhynchus, lingual sense-organs of, 
461, 

Orographic framework of earth, 321. 

Orthis, 326. 

Os intermedium of foot, 283. 

Osage war customs, 368. 

OszorN, H. Note on Phytoptidae, 337. 

Osporn, H. F. Francis Galton’s proposed 
family registers, 599; Francis Maitland 
Balfour, portrait, 299. 

Ottawa field-naturalists’ club, $10; micro- 
scopical society, 753. 

Ottendorf basalt, 271. 

Ovum, mammalian, 583. 

Owen, R. The ‘continental type;’ or the 
normal orography and geology of con- 
tinents, 321; the earth’s orographic 
framework : its seismology and geology, 
321; the ‘stony girdle’ of the earth, 

Oxus, 86. 

Oxygen, action of, on heart, 582; active, 


478. 

Oyster beds, Chesapeake, i//. 440; com- 
mission, Maryland, 665; culture in Hol- 
land, 79; farming, 376; fertilization of, 
58; rearing, from eggs, 298; shell, struc- 
ture of, 491. 

Oysters, Mediterranean, 430; rearing, 
from artificially fertilized eggs, 463. 


Pachino, fossils of, 524. 

Pacific Ocean, currents of, 117. 

Pacinian corpuscles, 460, 

Packarp, A. 8., jun. The specific dis- 
tinctness of the American and European 
brine-shrimps, 653. 

Packard’s Phyllopod Crustacea, reviewed, 
biL. 

Paleontology of Devonian formation, 836. 

Paleozoic insects, GO; rocks of Nebraska, 
ill. 808. 

Panamakanal, 607. 

Panjab, folk-lore in, 259. 

Panopeus, kag eee of, 575. i 

Panton, J. H. Silurian strata near Win- 
nipeg, 169. 

Paper, fire-proof, 606. 

Papua, north-eastern, 501. 

Parallel surfaces, 383. 

Paramecium and tannin, 91. 

Paris observatory, 131; telescope at, 782. 

Parker, Charles F., 517. 

Parthenon, 740. 

Passeres, anatomy of, 375. 

Pasteur’s speech at Ddle, 414. 

Patagonia, exploration of, 254. 

Pathological anatomy, 405. 

Pawnees, 104. 

PEALE, A. C. 
101. 

Pebbles, clay, 324; in Licking valley, 436; 
of Schleswig-Holstein, 448. 

Peet, 8. D. Guame-drives among the em- 
blematic mounds, 866; the correspond- 
ence between the prehistoric map of 
North America and the system of social 
development, 368; typical shapes among 
the emblematic mounds, 365. 

Peirce, C.8. A new rule for division in 
arithmetic, 788. 

PENGELLY, W. The Devonshire caverns 
and their contents, 562. 

PENHALLOW, D. P. Relation of root and 
leaf areas; corn, 335. 

Pennsylvania, anthracite fields of, 385; 
geology of, 49. 

Pentastomum from Alligator lucius, 573. 

Pericardium, development of, 233. 

Periodic functions, 3. 

Periosteum, lymphatics of, 63. 

Peripatus, researches on, iid. 306. 

Peronospora, 334; viticola, 831, 

Perspective, modern, 354. 

Peters, J. P., on the Phoenician alphabet, 
651. 

Petitot, E. F. S. J., 385. 

Petroleum, constituents of, 510. 

Petromyzon, 781; pituitary body in, ill. 
184. 


Some geyser comparisons, 


Petromyzontids, classification of, 64. 

Phalacrocorax bicristatus, osteology of, 
ill. 640. 

Phalansterium digitatum Stein, 496. 

Phaseolus multiflorus, epicoty! of, 300. 

Phenols and phenylamines, 50. 

Philadelphia academy of natural sciences, 
17, 18, 26, 35, 66, 163, 294, 362, 
374, 397, 399, 493, 495, 519, 522; 
engineers’ club, 581, 636, 697, 726, 754, 
411; geology of, 269, 402, 540, 652. 

Phlox, dissemination of, 496. 

Phoronis, development of, 455. 

Phortis gibbosa, 773. 

Phosphates, 199. 

Phosphoric acid, determination of, 147; 
soluble and reverted, 416. 

Photographing Reichenbach’s flames, 267 ; 
solar corona, 380. 

Phryganidae, 147. 

Phycologia Mediterranea, 426. 

Phyllopoda, 793. ; 

Phylloxera, 336. 

Phylogeny of Crustacea, 790. 

Physa er 808. 

Ehyelo ogical station of Paris, ill. 678, 


Phytoptidae, 337. 

PIcKERING, W.H. Surface conditions on 
the other planets, 10. 

Picro-epidote, 249. 

Pinches, T. G., on recent Babylonian re- 
search, 40. 

Pipes, mound-builders’, i//. 258. 

Pituitary body in Petromyzon, ill. 184, 

Placenta, structure of, 428. 

Planaria polychroa, embryology of, 349. 

Plane triangle, area of, 794. 

Planet, discovery of, 209; new, 752. 

Planets, comets, and meteors, relative ages 
of, 12; surface conditions on, 10. 

Plant-life, 544. 

Plants, disinfection of, 840; fossil, from 
Fort Union group, 517; marsh and aquat- 
ic, 582. 

Plateau, J. A. F., 667. 

Pleurotomidae of Senegambia, 229. 

Plumbic oxides, 312. 

Pogonomyrmex occidentalis, 773. 

PouuMAN, J. The life-history of the Ni- 
agara River, 315. 

Point Barrow expedition, 517; signal sta- 
tion at, 550. 

Poisoning, reports of trials for, 754. 

Polar stations, 316. 

Pollination, literature of, 341; of Asclep- 
jas, 427; of Cypella, 189; of prickly- 
pear, 227; of Rutaceae, 57; of willow, 
569. 

Ponera, 386; contracta, 143. 

Pons-Brooks comet, 654, 666; connection 
of, with meteor-stream, 683. 

Population, colored, of United States, 376; 
notes on, 341. 

Porpita, anatomy and histology of, 396. 

Portland society of natural history, 726; 
White Mountain club, 607. 

Portugal, archeology in, 764. 

Portuguese in Africa, 423. 

Potash salts, manuring with, 360. 

Potato beetle, 337; culture, 515; wild, 
analysis of, 712. 

Potatoes, bill-culture of, 386; seed, 514. 

Potsdam sandstones, 51. 

PoweEL., J. W. A classification of the 
sciences, 370; terraces, 321. 

Prairie warbler in New Hampshire, 309. 

Pratt, J., on surface conditions on the other 
planets, 10. 

Pre-Bonneville climate, 170. 

Pre-Cambrian rocks, 322; of Wales, 403. 

Precision of observation, 519. 

Prehistoric map of North America, 368; 
trepanning, 168. 

Prescott mining region, 82. 

Pressure, effect of, on gelatine film, 135; 
on valves, 216. 

Et ge pollination of, 227. 

Priestiey’s apparatus, 339. 

Prime meridian, common, 451, 696. 

Primitive streak, morphology of, 488; of 
vertebrates, 105; visual organs, 739. 

Pritchard’s expedition to Cairo, 30, 


TO VOLUME II. 


847 


Prize-essays, 683; Riberi, 384; subjects of, 
of French academy of sciences, 91. 

Prize, Walker. See Walker prize. 

Prjevalski’s travels, 297. 

Proctor’s Great Pyramid, reviewed, 625, 

Projectiles, experiments with, 58, 

Proportion, human, 354. 

Proteine, determination of, 146. ‘ 

Protozoa, nucleus in, 570; preservation of, 
523. 

Psephenus Lecontel, 337. 

Pseudonematon neryosum, 382. 

Psocus, spinning habit of, 495; sexpunc- 
tatus, 774 

Psychology, African, 195. 

Psyllidae of United States, 337. 

Puccinia malvacearum, 334. 

Pueblo of Tallyhogan, 580; ruins, 667. 

Puerco beds in France, 17. 

Pulmonaria officinalis, 577. 

Pulmonata of Asia, 429. 

Pulque, Mexican, 586. 

Pulse rate and temperature, 62. 

Pumping-engines, 330; economy of, 508. 

Pumps, rotary, flow in, 292. 

Puncturella noachina, 22, 

Puno railroad, 53. 

Pyramid, Great, 625. 

Pyrenomycetes, 630. 

Pyronome, 245. 


pei influence of, on heat-dissipation, 
581. 


R., J. M. Ordnance experiments at An- 
napolis, 58. 

Racine, tornado of, 281. 

Radiant heat, 793. 

Radiations, atomic motions which origi- 
nate, 76, 123. 

Radiometers with curved vanes, 215. 

Railroad time, standard, 570. 

Rails, finishing, 476. 

Railway, electric, 636; exposition, na- 
tional, ill. 3, 32, 97, 125, 417; time, 
standard, 494; trains, resistance of, 444, 

Railways, alpine, 635; in Caspian region, 

96. 


Rainfall at Hawaii, 252; observations in 
Great Britain, 253. 

Rain-storm in Ontario, 272. 

RaTHBUN, R. Sponge-culture in Florida, 
213; the U. 8. fish-commission steamer 
Albatross, i//. 6, 66. 

READE, J. Sonnet, 255. 

Rappirs, C. Swallows in Boston, 135, 
222. 

Reflection, figures produced by, ill. 36. 

Reichenbach’s flames, 267. 

Reis, Philipp, id/. 472. 

or en Theoretical chemistry, reviewed, 

Rensselaeria, 327; from Hamilton group 
of Pennsylvania, 471. 

Research, biological, 504. 

Respiration, pharyngeal, in turtle, 338. 

Respiratory movements, action of, on cir- 
culation, 496, ; 

Retina, molecular layer of, 98. 

Revoil’s journey to Somali-land, 206. 

Rex magnus, 345. 

Rhizocarps in paleozoic period, 326. 

Rhizoh 2 flavitincta, 22 

Rhododendrons, 201, 267. 

Rbytina, sexual variation of, 402. 

Ribeiro’s Archeology in Portugal, 
viewed, 764. 

Riberi prize, 384, 

Ricwarpson, C. The composition of 
American wheat and corn, 290; the 
sotol, a Mexican forage-plant, 291. 

Richtbofenia, affinities of, 103. 

Rig Veda, color-words in, 535, 

Ruirey, C. V. Improved method of spray- 
ing trees for protection against insects, 
378; some recent discoveries in reference 
to Phylloxera, 336; the chinch-bug in 
New York, 621; the Psyllidae of the 
United States, 337. 

Ringicula, monograph of, 231, 

Riverdale, explosion of, 464. 

Rivularia, 21; fluitans, 333. 

Rock, Miles, 453, 484, 


re- 


848 


Rocks of Tryberg, 

Rodents, germ-l: 

Roestelia auranti 

Rocers, W. A. 
tigating the flexure corrections of a me- 
ridian circle, 239; an improved method 
of producing a dark-field illumination of 
lines ruled upon glass, 240; determina- 
tion of the relation between the imperial 
yard and the metre of the archives, 230; 
the German survey of the northern heay- 
ens, 

Rogers, W. A., on a standard centimetre, 
465; the action of a diamond in ruling 
lines on glass, 465. 

Romalea microptera, 7/7. 811. 

Ross’s History of land-holding, reviewed, 
768. 

Rosse, I. C., 752. 

Rotation of earth, 135. 

Rotifers, descriptions of, 92. 

Roumanian ethnology, 133. 

Row anp, H. A. <A plea for pure science, 
242; the static telephone, 283; tornado at 
Racine, 1883, 281. 

Rowland, H. A., on earth-currents, 251. 

i awards of medals, $38. 

tricker’s Studies on ideas of 


RoyeE, J. 
motion, 713. 

Rubellan, 556. 

Russian cartography, $3. 

Rust, protection of iron from, 414. 

Rutaceae, pollination of, 57. 

Rutot, A., on the geographic control of 
marine sediment, 7//. 560. 

Ryver, J. A. Oyster-culture in Holland, 
79; primitive visual organs, 739; rearing 
oysters from artificially fertilized eggs at 
Stockton, Md., 463. 


§., C. A. International geodetic associa- 
tion of Europe, 656. 

§., J. M. Function of the colorless blood- 
corpuscles, 353. 

Sabbacia angularis, 335. 

Sabine, Sir Edward, 27. 

Saccharomyces, ascospores in, 347. 

St. David’s rocks, é//. 167, 639, 

St. Louis limestone, 327. 

St. Michaels, meteorology of, 61. 

St. Peters sandstones, 51. 

Satmon, D. E. Reliability of the evi- 
dence obtained in the study of contagia, 
212. 

Salmon fisheries in the north-west, 343; 
parasite of, 256. 

Salt Lake City, earthquakes at, 580. 

Sand, musical, 713, 764. 

Sarcophaga carnaria, 774. 

Sassafras-leaves, i//. 491, 684. 

Saturn, 307, 381; appearance of, 838; 
rings of, 149, 764, 289, 355; divisions in, 
306. 

Saunders’s Insects injurious to fruits, re- 
viewed, 174. 

SavyacE, H. E. The zodlogical station 
of Holland, i//. 618. 

Sawin, A. M. Equations of third degree, 
44: real roots of cubics, 158. 

Sayornis fusens, 303. 

Schleswig-Holstein, pebbles of, 445. 

Schmeleck, L., on ocean waters and bot- 
toms, 41. 

Scholarships, English, 385. 

Scnotr, C. A. Standard railroad time, 
570. 

Schuster, on the eclipse of 1882, 11. 

ScuwatTKa, F. The igloo of the Innuit, 
Z/L. 182, 216, 259, 304, 347. 

Schwatka, itinerary of, 754; trip of, up the 
Yukon, 550. 

Science, national traits in, 455; plea for 
pure, 242. 

Sciences, classification of, 370. 

Scott, W. B. On the development of 
teeth in the lamprey, é//. 731; on the 
development of the pituitary body in 
Petromyzon, and the significance of that 
organ in other types, é//, 184. 

Scott’s Elementary meteorology, reviewed, 
226. 

Scovillite, 223. 

Screw-propeller, theory of, 442. 


Seaweed, poisonous, 333. 

Secular increase of earth’s mass, 820. 

Seebohm’s Village community, reviewed, 
356. 

Seed, influence of, on crop, 417; influ- 
ence of position on, 355; testing, 334. 

Selenium cell, new form of, 283. 

Senecio, achenial hairs of, 201, 267. 

Senegambia, Pleurotomidae of, 229. 

Sensation of light, conditions necessary 
for, 214. 

Sensory nerves, stimuli in, 166. 

Serers of Joal and Portudal, 132. 

Serpent venom, 34, 503. 

Serpentine of Staten Island, 323. 

Sewer-gas, 379. 

Sexual variation of Rhytina, 402. 

Shaking towers, 261. 

SHater, N. 8. The American swamp- 
cypress, 38. 

Shan country, ethnology of, 500. 

Shaping-machines, 292. 

Suarpies, 8. P. Kalmia or rhododen- 
dron, 267. 

Shell in brachiopods and chitons, 127. 

Shell-structure of Chonetes, 526. 

Shells, fresh-water, from Nebraska, idl. 
808. 

Short, J. T., 698. 

SHUFELDT, R. W. Osteology of the cor- 
morant, 822; remarks upon the osteol- 
ogy of Phalacrocorax bicristatus, ?7d/. 
640; Romalea microptera, i//. 811; the 
habits of Muraenopsis tridactylus in 
captivity, with observations on its anat- 
omy, zd. 159. 

Siberia, charts of, 421. 

Siberian coast, settlements on, 560; sea, 
hydrography of, 420. 

Siemens, C. W., 725. 

Siemens’s Solar energy, reviewed, 108. 

Sierra Leone, 561. 

Singing beach, 325. 

Siphonophores, nervous system in, 571. 

Sleep, depth of, 285. B 

Slime-spinning, 492. 

Smitey, C. W. The German carp, and 
its introduction into the United States, 
37. 

Ssirn, E. A. Life among the Mohawks 
in the Catholic missions of Quebec pro- 
vince, 366. 

Smiru, E. The Iroquois, 184. 

Smith, J. Lawrence, 667. 

Sm1TH, Q.C. Colorado climate, 623. 

Smit, S. I. Packard's Phyllopod Crus- 
tacea, 571. 4 

Smuts, American, 275. 

Smyth on prime meridian, 451. 

Snakes killed, 135. 

Snowballs, natural, 285. 

Social development, 368. 

Society of mechanical engineers, 
transactions of, reviewed, 267. 

Society of naturalists of eastern United 
States, $10. 

Society for promotion of agricultural sci- 
ence, 117. 

Sociology, dynamic, 45, 105, 171, 222; of 
Kabyles, 393. 

Soil, absorption of moisture by, 110; 
analysis, value of, 435; conductivity of, 
480; influence of manures on, 111; 
moisture of, 112. 

Solanum tuberosum, 712. 

Solar constant, 44, 496; eclipse of May 6, 
1883, 237, 241; electric potential, 328; 
energy, 105; prominence, reversal of 
lines in, 621. 

Soldiers, French, 2/7. 605. 

Solen, visual organs of, 397. 

Somali-land, journey to, 206. 

Sonnet, 255. 

Sorghum kernels, structure of, 334. 

Sotol, 291. 

Sound, transmission of, by gases, 44; ve- 
locity of, 45. 

South America, notes on, 344. 

Spain, geological commission of, 148; geo- 
logical map of, 29. 

Specific heat of solids, 284, 424. 

RRcOtrOHeOBEs use of, in meteorology, ill. 
488. 


636; 


SCIENCE.— INDEX TO VOLUME II. 


Spectrum, origin of lines A and B in, 
327. 

Speed of chemical reactions, 289. 

Spermatozoon of newt, 67. 

Spider, American turret, 48. 

Spinal cord, irritability of, 433. 

Spirit-levelling, 269. 

Spirogyra majuscula, 607. 

Spitzbergen, Swedish party at, 209. 

Spizella socialis, 301. 

Sponge-culture in Florida, 213. 

Sporangites Dilobatus, 326; braziliensis, 
326. 

Sporozoon, new, 156. 

Spottiswoode, William, 27, 116, 385. 

Spraying trees, 378. 

Squares, undeveloped properties of, 241. 

Squier, G. H. Erratic pebbles in the 
Licking valley, 436. 

Squillacea, 793. 

Staining blood-corpuscles, 32. 

Standard railroad time, 570. 

Stanley, H. M., on evolution as bearing on 
method in teleology, 634. 

Star-places, catalogue of, 840. 

Stars, catalogues of, 221. 

State weather services, 252; July reports of, 
399; August reports of, 559; September 
reports of, 681. 

Staten Island, natural science association, 
753; serpentine of, 323. 

Statistics, methods of, 371. 

Statue of Liberty, engineering of, 357. 

Steam boilers, economy of, 332; engine, 
efliciency of, 48; electric stop for, 46; 
spherical, 544; heating, 686; jackets 
for steam-engines, 108; whistles, 507. 

Steamer, Sound, 241. 

Steamers, forms of, 47; on the Rhone, 
3385. 

Stearns and Coues’ New-England bird- 
life, reviewed, 357. 

Steel castings, 545; compres ets 8. 

Step’s Plant-life, reviewed, 544. 

Sternberg, on the germicide yalue of cer- 
tain therapeutic agents, 433. 

Stevenson’s Geology of southern Pennsyl- 
vania, reviewed, 49. 

Stibnite from Japan, 295. 

Strokes, A. C. Phalansterium digitatum 
Stein, 496. 
Strong, G. H. 

319. 

Stone-chat, plumages of, 580. 

Stony girdle of earth, 436. 

Storer, F. H. Symmetrical linear fig- 
ures produced by reflection along a 
river-bank, i//. 36. 

Stowett, C. H. Trutat’s Elementary 
treatise on the microscope, 313. 

Stowell’s Microscopical diagnosis, 
viewed, 83. 

Strawberry, insects affecting the, 158. 

Stricker’s Ideas of motion, reviewed, 
713. 

Stromatopora, 170. 

Strophodonta, 326. 

Strophomena, 326. > 

Sturtevant, E. L. Agricultural botany, 
335; analysis of the wild potato, 712; in- 
fluence of position on seed, 335; paral- 
lelism of structure of maize and sorghum 
kernels, 334; twelve months of lysimeter 
record at the New-York agricultural ex- 
periment-station, 290. 

Subsidence of Jand, 210. 

Substitutions, linear, 472. 

Sulphates, basic, of copper, 10. 

Sulphides, formation of, by pressure, 14. 

Sulphuric acid as fertilizer, 335; from 
pyrites, 79. 

Sulu Islands, 28s. 

Sun and its planets, 17. 

Sundews, fed and unfed, 486. 

Sunfish, rare, increase of, 434. 

Sunflower-cake as fodder, 552. 

Sun-spot inequalities, 696; interesting, 
ill. 266, 309; observations, 72. 

Sun-spots, 115. 

Superphosphates, fineness of, 447 ; rever- 
sion of, 446. be 

Superstition, from, to humbug, 637, 739. 

Surface-condensers for marine engines, 


The kame rivers of Maine, 


re- 


tal 


we” Pa Be ~eky ee MP 


SCIENCE.— INDEX TO VOLUME II. 


413; conditions on planets, 10; film, 
letters in, 309. 

Surfaces, classification of, 74; curvature 
of, 215; of constant curvature, 174; of 
second degree, 280; parallel, 383. 

Sus, 548, 

Swallow-tailed hawk in New Jersey, 222. 

Swallows in Boston, 135, 222. 

Swamp cypress, 38. 

Swedish Algae, 564; party at Spitzber- 


gen, 209. 
Swift, reckless, 222. 
Swiss naturalists, meeting of, 400. 
Sylvester, J. J., 781, 837. 
Symbiosis, 395. “4 
Symbolic earth formations, 367. 


T., W. B. Rings of Saturn, 764. 

Taconian system in Cuba, 740. 

‘Tadpoles, nerve-endings in, 279. 

TANNER, Z. L. A four-days’ cruise of 
the Albatross, i/. 615. 

‘Tarantula, restoration of limbs in, 374. 

Tarentula arenicola, 43. 

‘Target-shooting, 473. 

Tarr, R. 8. Musical sand, 764. 

‘Tattooing among civilized people, 585. 

Taxation among Romans, 354. 

Taxidermy, manual of, 312. 

Taxodium distichum, 38. 

Taylor’s Alphabet, reviewed, 438. 

Teeth, mutilations of, 234; of lamprey, 
ill. 731. 

Teleology and evolution, 634. 

Telephone, efficiency of, 239; static, 285. 

‘Telescope, equatorially mounted, 782. 

‘Temporal bones, 129. 

‘Tenuirostres, tongues of, 437. 

‘Terra-cotta lumber, 292. 

Terraces, 321. 

Tertiary rocks, classification of, 696. 

Testicularia Cyperi, 112. 

Testing-machine, Emery’s, 356. 

Tetrahedrite and zine blende, 557. 

Textile laboratory, 696. 

Thalassema millita, 147. 

Therapeutic agents, 433. 

‘Thermochemical properties of electromo 
tive force, 177. 

Thermotropism, 299. 

Theta-functions, double, 2. 

Thibet, investigations in, 392. 

Tuomas, B. F. A method for the cali- 
bration of a galvanometer, ill. 282; a 
method of determining the centre of 
gravity of a mass, i//. 283; a new helio- 
stat, i//. 285; two forms of apparatus for 
Boyle’s law, ill. 284. 

Thompson’s Philipp Reis, reviewed, él. 
472. 

Thomson and Tait’s Natural philosophy, 
reviewed, 497, 795. 

Thripidae, 578. 

‘Thryothorus ludovicianus, 722. 

Thunderbolts, deaths by, 606. 

Thunder-storms, 339. 

Tuurston, R. H. The explosion of the 
Riverdale, 464. 

Tirrany, A. 8. The equivalent of the 
New-York water-lime group developed 
in Iowa, 323. 

Timber-trees, specimens from, 668. 

Time, standard, 755; unification of, and 
longitude, 814; universal, 697. 

Timor, ethnology of, 406. 

Tissues, preservation of, 522. 

Tobacco, fertilizers for, 516. 

Todies, anatomy of, 281. 

Tolles, R. B., 726. 

Toltecs, 325. 

‘Tombs, Chinese, 235. 

‘Tonkak, birds of, 99. 

‘Tornado at Racine, 1883, 281; studies, 403, 


363. 
Tornadoes, i//. 589, 610, 639, 701, 729, 758; 


formation of, 620; warnings nst, 521. 
TorREY, B. Do humming-birds fly back- 
wards? 436. 
Touch-corpuscles, 529. 
‘Transit of Venus in 1769, 219. 


Transits of inferior ape 239. 
Tree-growth, 569; influence of winds upon, 
470. 


‘Trees, spraying, 378. 

re a natural history society, 428, 434, 

Trepanning, prehistoric, 168. 

Tricycle, water, il/. 779. 

Trilobite with legs, 341. 

‘Trilobites from Pennsylvania, 399. 

‘Troad, geology of, 255. 

Troglodytes, 131. 

Trouvelot’s red star, 605. 

True, F. W. Ziphius on the New Jersey 
coast, 540. 

‘Trutat’s Elementary treatise on the micro- 
scope, reviewed, 313. 

Tryberg, eruptive rocks of, 149. 

‘Tryon’s Conchology, reviewed, 658. 

‘Tuberculosis, contagiousness of, 697. 

‘Tudor’s Orkneys and Shetland, reviewed, 
ill, 743. 

Tultecas, 287. 

Tunis, coast-line of, 155. 

Tunnel, Arlberg, 781. 

Turkey, impregnation in, 105. 

Turritopsis, 773. 

Tyrtor, E. B. The natural bistory of 
implements, 45. 

‘Tylor’s lectures at Oxford, 71. 

‘Types of animal life, 688. 


U., W. July reports of state weather ser- 
vices, 399, 

Ullmannite, 224. 

Ulvaceae, monograph of, 565. 

Ungulata, primitive types of, 338. 

United States bureau of ethnology, 580; 
department of agriculture, 29; fish-com- 
mission bulletin, reviewed, 685; geologi- 
cal survey, 633, 724, 777, 807, 836; mag- 
netic gbservatory at Los Angeles, Cal., 
ill. 58; mineral resources, 413; national 
museum, 63, 119, 339, 580; naval bureau 
of ordnance, 58; naval institute, 28; 
naval observatory, 415; Psyllidae of, 
337; signal-service, 343, 387, 755, 811. 

Units of mass and force, 493. 

Universal alphabet, 350. 

University of Michigan, 208. 

UPHAM, Changes in the currents of 
the ice of the last glacial epoch in east- 
ern Minnesota, 319; the nnesota val- 
ley in the ice age, 318; vestiges of glacial 
man in Minnesota, 369. 

Upton, W., 451. 

Uranus, 264, 

Urnatella gracilis, ill. 789. 

Urocyclus, anatomy of, 278. 

Uromyces acuminatus, 21. 

Ustilagineae, new, 121. 

Ustilago axicola, 112. 


Vaccination question, 606. 

Vaccinium brachycerum, 335. 

Valentin, G., 28. 

Values in agriculture, 378. 

Valves, pressure on, 216. 

Van Nostrand’s engineering magazine, 810. 

Vanessa Antiopa, 353; Lintneri, 353. 

Vapor density, 293; determinations, 314. 

Variation of horizontal intensity, 176. 

Variations in butterflies, 353. 

Vaseline, use of, 333. 

Vaso-dilators of lower limb, 401. 

Vaso-motor nerves of leg, 497. 

Vedas, seamy side of, 538. 

Vegetation of carboniferous age, 529. 

Velocity of sound, 45. 

Venom of serpents, 34. 

Venus, transit of, in 1769, 219. 

Vere, A. E. Recent explorations in 
the region of the Gulf Stream off the 
eastern coast of the United States by 
the U.S. fish-commission, 153. 

Very, F. W. An interesting sun-spot, 
ill, 266. 

Vesuvius, lava of, 254. 

Viallanes, on histology of insects, 430. 

Victoria, planet, observations of, 118. 

Village community, 356. 

Vircnow, R. The invention and spread 
of bronze, 527. 

Vireo noveboracensis, 302. 

Visible speech, 204; letters, 452. 


849 


bi organs of Solen, 397; primitive, 
739. 

Vivisection, 551. 

Volatile constituents of coal, 220. 
Vorticella, 772. 


W., W. C. The American association at 
Minneapolis, 181; the lessons of the 
meeting, 211. 

Waagen, W., 
thofenia, 103. 

Wabash college, 451. 

WapswortH, M. E. Ocean waters and 
bottoms, 41. 

Watcort, C.D. Fresh-water shells from 
the paleozoic rocks of Nebraska, di, 
808. 

Waldeyer, on composition of the meso- 
derm, 11. 

WaLpo, F. Solar constant, 496. 

Wales, pre-Cambrian rocks of, 403. 

Walker prize of Boston soc. nat. hist., 146. 

Walnut, combination, ill. 761. 

Wampum, 147. 

Ward’s Dynamic sociology, reviewed, 45, 
105, 171, 222. 

Warder, J. A., 264. 

WaRDER, R. B. Suggestions for comput- 
ing the speed of chemical reactions, 289. 

Ware, W. R., address of, before Archae- 
ological institute, 649. 

Ware’s Modern perspective, reviewed, 354. 

Warming and ventilating apartments, 283. 

WarreEN, C. Prize-essays on the experi- 
mental method in science, 683. 

Washington, biological society of, 581, 636, 
698; philosophical society of, 29, 518, 581, 
635, 698, 754, 355, 473, 518. 

Water, ocean, 41; gas as fuel, 219; lime 
group in Iowa, 323; tricycle, ill. 779. 

Weather bulletin, Iowa, for May, 27; fore- 
casts, distribution of, by railways, 252; 
in May, 1883, i//. 34; in June, 1883, i. 
186; in July, 1883, i//. 394; in August, 
1883, il. 524; in September, 1883, ill. 
671; in October, 1883, il/. 786; Minne- 
sota, 262; service in Japan, 253, 

Weather report, Kansas, for June, 90; Mis- 
souri, for May, 26. 

Weather services, state, July reports of, 
399; August reports of, 559; September 
reports of, 681. 

Wess, J. B. Descriptive geometrical 
treatment of surfaces of the second de- 
gree, 280; improvements in shaping- 
machines, 292; regularity of flow in 
double-cylinder rotary pumps, 292. 

West, E. P. Personal observations of 
the Missouri mounds from Omaha to St. 
Louis, 366. 

Westcott, O. 8. Some hitherto unde- 
veloped properties of squares, 241. 

Waremenes, © Swallows in Boston, 222. 

Whale, right, of North Atlantic, 132, 266. 

Whaling-season, 317. 

Wheat, composition of, 290; crop, influ- 
ence of temperature and rainfall on, 
179; growth of, 448. 

Wheat-stem maggot, 577. 

Whirlwinds, iJ. 589, 610, 639, 701, 729, 758; 
of sand, 340. 

Whispered vowels, 43. 

WuitE,I.C. Relation of the glacial dam 
at Cincinnati to the terrace in the upper 
Ohio and its tributaries, 319. 

Whiting, 8S. F., on college microscopical 
societies, 465. 

Wuitman,C.O. Theadvantages of study 
at the Naples zoGlogical station, portrait 
of Dohrn, 93. 

Wuittteszy, C. Metrical standard of 
the mound-builders, by the method of 
even divisors, 365. 

Wuper, B. G., and Gace, 8. H. On the 
use of vaseline to prevent the loss of 
alcohol from specimen jars, 333. 

Wier, H. W. American butters and 
their adulterations, 291. 

Williams, H. 8., 147. 

Williams college, 808. 

Wiiiiamson, W. C. The vegetation of 
the carboniferous age, 529, 

Willow, pollination of, 569. 


on the affinities of Rich- 


850 


WINCHELL, A. Secularincrease of earth’s 


mass, 820. 
WIncHELL, N. H. Clay pebbles from 
Princetown, Minn., 324; comparative 


strength of Minnesota and New-Eng- 
land granites, 324. 

Winnipeg, Silurian strata near, 169. 

Winslow’s Report on the oyster-beds of the 
Chesapeake, reviewed, i//. 440. 

Wire, use of, in sounding, 12. 

Wisconsin agricultural experiment-station, 
452, 


Wisconsin, mounds of, 378. 


Woods, Cuban, 780. 
Wooster, L. C. The thickness of the 
ice in New England in glacial times, 


685. 


Worm with remarkable neryous system, 
232. 

Worms, notes on, 432; papers on, 572. 

Worthington pumping-engine, 217. 

Waienut, E. Life-insurance and self-in- 
surance, 376. 

Wricut, G. F. Depth of ice during the 
glacial age, 486; result of explorations 
of the glacial boundary between New 
Jersey and Illinois, 316; supposed glacial 

henomena in Boyd county, Ky., 654, 

Wright’s ice-dam at Cincinnati, 436. 


Xenicidae, 280. 


Yard, imperial, relation between, and 


metre of archives, 250. 


ERRATA. 


SCIENCE.— INDEX TO VOLUME II. 


Yeast fungi, 368. 

Youne, ©. A., address of, before Ameri- 
can association at Minneapolis, 228; un- 
usual reversal of lines in the summit of 
a solar prominence, 621. 

Yuma linguistic stock, 536. 

Yunnan, ethnology of, 500. 


Zaptychius carbonaria, 808. 

Zea, hybridization of, 485.° 

Ziegler’s Pathological anatomy, reviewed, 
405. 

Zinc blende, parallel growth of, and tetra- 
hedrite, 557. 

Ziphius on New Jersey coast, 540. 

Zoological station in Firth of Forth, 413; 
of Holland, é//. 618. 


Page 61, col. 2, Sth line from bottom; for ‘ Alongshore, winds’ 


read ‘ Along-shore winds.’ 


“146, ‘ 2, 5th line from bottom, for ‘ Ayres’ read ‘ Ayers.” 

‘© 199, ‘* 2, line 13, for ‘twenty-five hundred’ read ‘ six hun- 
dred and ninety.’ 

© 950, * 2, last line of first article, for ‘3.37039 inches’ read 
* 3.37027 inches.’ 

‘« 395, in inscription of cut, for ‘ August’ read ‘ July.’ 

© 403, col. 1, line 28, for ‘ Tosell’ read ‘ Torell.’ 

« 403, “ 1, ‘“ 34, for ‘lithogical’ read ‘ lithological.’ 

© 403, “ 1, ‘ 48, for ‘Irving in’ read ‘Irving on.’ 

*© 426, “ 1, “ 11, for ‘similar’ read ‘ only.’ 

* 430, ‘* 1, “ 12, for ‘poorer oxidizing’ read ‘ oxidizing 
power.’ 

s© 480, “* 1, ‘ 32, for ‘Purzgau’ read ‘ Piurzgau.’ 

‘© 459, “ 2, ** 25, for‘ refine’ read ‘ define.’ 

© 465, ‘© 2, ** 10 of second article, for ‘Koblanck’ read 
‘ Koblank.’ : 

‘* 466, ‘© 2, ‘ 13, for ‘ practical’ read ‘ practised.’ 

‘© 467, ** 1, ‘* 88, for ‘of the surface’ read ‘on the sur- 


face.’ 


Page 467, col. 


“ 


2, 11th line from bottom, for ‘in the crayfish’ read 
‘on the crayfish.’ 

468, “ 1, line 19, for ‘0.145 inch’ read ‘4, inch.’ 

468, “ 2, ‘* 1, for ‘an angle’ read ‘air angle.’ 

468, ‘* 2, *‘* 82, for ‘ Clevinger ’ read ‘ Clevenger.’ 

469, « 2, & 5,) & « Pr “ 

471, ‘* 2, ** 8, for ‘Michan’ read ‘Mecham.’ 

488, ‘* 2, 4th line from bottom, for ‘5’ read *.5 .’ 

523, ‘ 2, last line, for ‘ Ifuagos’ read ‘ Ifugayos.’ 

540, ‘* 2,line 15 of second article, for ‘Z. cavisortris’ 
read ‘ Z. cavirostris.’ 

556, “* 1, * 23, for ©90°’ read * 45°.” 

569, ‘* 2, last line but one, for‘ San Joan’ read ‘ San Juan.” 

570, ‘* 1, line 18, for ‘ or Vancouver’ read‘ on Vancouver.’ 

607, ‘ 2, ‘* 9, for ‘catalogue of mollusks ’ read ‘ cata- 
logue of his collection of mollusks.’ 

701, ‘* 2, note, for ‘No. 42’ read ‘No. 41.’ 

722, “ 2, 38, for ‘Hectariniinae’ read ‘ Nectariniinae.’ 

735, in inscription of cut, for ‘1876’ read ‘1870.’ 

802, col. 1, line 38, for ‘ Lanicera’ read ‘ Lonicera.’ 

838, ‘* 2, * 11, for ‘Dearborn’ read ‘ Davidson.” 


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cities. 


when possible ; assuring them that he will make an 
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there will probably be no difficulty ; for the adver- 


tisers are, as a rule, well-known and thoroughly 


| trustworthy firms; and in the volume above re- 
| ferred to there will be a classified list of adver- 
| tisers in the earlier issues of SCIENCE, as heing 


worthy of acknowledgment for their support. 
The publisher also desires to call particular 
attention to the fact that when SCIENCE was pro-— 


But | 


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niary failure, —a company of scientific men and 
patrons of science was formed for its maintenance. - 
To them, therefore, — although the enterprise now 
promises to become a pecuniary success, —is due 
all the credit for their philanthropic intentions. 
The directors of this Company are D. C. Gil- 
man (president), the president of Johns Hopkins 
University ; Alexander Graham Bell (vice-presi- 


SCIENCE.— LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS. 


dent), inventor of the Bell Telephone; Gardiner 
G. Hubbard ; Othniel C. Marsh, professor at Yale 
College; Samuel H. Scudder (treasurer), presi- 
dent Boston Society of Natural History. 

And to those who are and who may become 
subscribers, it may again be said that SCIENCE, 
in its first two volumes, comprising one year, will 
Furnish about fifteen hundred pages of text wholly 
apart from any kind of advertising, and will be 
provided with suitable titlepages and carefully- 
made indexes. It is the aim of The Science Com- 
pany to publish such a periodical as will well 
be worth binding in permanent form, and one 


which will return for every subscription an ample 
quid pro quo. 

The annual subseription in the United States 
and Canadas is five dollars, and, in the countries 
of the International Postal Union, six dollars. 
Single copies, fifteen cents. No electrotype plates 
are made of the pages of teat; and subscribers 
who fail regularly to receive their copies will 
please notify the publisher at once; for before 
long it will be impossible to supply back numbers. 

For Tur Science CoMPANY, 
MOSES KING, Publisher, 
HARVARD SQUARE, CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 


LIST: OF CONTRIBUTORS: 


INCLUDING ONLY THOSE WHOSE CONTRIBUTIONS HAVE ACTUALLY APPEARED IN THE FIRST SEVEN ISSUES OF ‘* SCIENCE.’ 


} 


Dr. C. €. Asportr, Trenton, N.J. 
Professor H. P. Armspy, Worcester, Mass. 
Professor SPENCER F. Barry, 
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 
Professor GEORGE F. BARKER, 
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Penn. 
_ Mr. H. W. Brair, 
* Coast and Geodetic Survey Office, Washington, D.C. 
Dr. WAvYrER K. Brooks, : 
4 Jolns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. 
Mr; Epwarp BurRGEss, 
Natural History Society, Boston, Mass. 
Professor F. W. CLARKE, 2 
University Cincinnati, Cincinnati, O. 
Professor J. H. Comstock, Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y. 
Mr. C. S. Cook, Dartmouth College, Hanover, N.H. 
Dr. THomas CRAIG, 
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. 
_ Mr. W. O. Croszy, Natural History Society, Boston, Mass. 
Professor CHARLEs R. Cross, 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Mass. 
Capt. Wittiam H. Datu, 
United-States Coast Survey, Washington, D.C, 
Mr. WitittaAm Morris Davis, 
Museum of Comparative Zodlogy, Cambridge, Mass. 
Dr. J. W. Dawson, McGill University, Montreal, Can. 
Mr. CHARLES DEANE, 
Massachusetts Historical Society, Cambridge, Mass. 
Dr. H. T. Eppy, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, O. 
Mr S. F. Emmons, Geological Survey, Washington, D.C. 
Dr. W. G. Farlow, Haryard University, Cambridge, Mass. 
Professor WALTER Faxon, 
Museum Comparative Zodlogy, Cambridge, Mass. 
Professor 8. A. Forres, State Entomologist, Normal, Ill. 
Mrs. C. L. Franklin, Baltimore, Md. 
Dr. F, Frankcry, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. 
Professor Encar Frispy, 
United-States Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C. 


Mr. Henry GANNETT, 
United-States Geological Survey, Washington, D.C. 
Professor J. W. Gibbs, New Haven, Conn. 
Mr. G. K. GILBERT, 
United-States Geological Survey, Washington, D.C. 
Dr. THEODORE GILL, 
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. 
Mr. G. Brown GOopDE, 
Curator U. S. National Museum, Washington, D.C. 
Dr. Grorce L. Goopatr, Botanic Garden, Cambridge, Mass. 
Professor ASA Gray, Botanic Garden, Cambridge, Mass. 
Dr. Epwin H. Hatt, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 
Dr. G. StraNLEY HALL, 
Johus Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. 
Dr, C. S. Hastrnes, 
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md, 
Major Dayip P. Hear, 
United-States Engineers, Washington, D.C, 
Mr. F. H. Herrick, Burlington, Vt. 
Dr. JoserH E. HILGARpD, 
Supt. U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Washington, D.C 
Mr. Grorcre Anruony Hitt, Cambridge, Mass. 
Professor E. S. HoLpEN, 
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. 
Dr, THomas Sterry Hun, Montreal, Can. 
Mr. Samurt Huston, Richmond, O. 
Professor ALPHEUS Hyavrt, 
Natural History Society, Boston, Mass. 
Mr. J. AMoryY JEFFRIES, 
Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass. 
Mr. J. S. Krtxcstry, Boston, Mass. 
Dr. SAMUEL IXNEELAND, New-York City, N.Y. 
Professor 8. P. Laneiry, Alleghany, Penn. 
Dr. Josevru Lirpy, 
University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Penn. 
Professor LEo LesQquEREUX, Columbus, O. 
Dr. H, Carvitt Lewis, y 
Academy Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Penn. 


- SCIENCE.— LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. Ae 


_ Dr. D. G. Lyon, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 


» 


» 


. Nathaniel Thayer . 


Dr. CuHarves F. MABERY, 
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 
Professor JuLEs MArcov, Cambridge, Mass. 
Mr. J. B. Marcou, Cambridge, Mass. 
Dr. H. Newevt Martin, 
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. 
Dr. CHARLES SEDGWICK MiNoT, 
Harvard Medical School, Boston, Mass. 
Mr. N. Murray, Jolins Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. 
Dr. Jonn S. Neweerry, Columbia College, New York. 
Dr. E. J. Nouan, 
Academy Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, Penn. 
Mr. S. L. Penrievp, Yale College, New Haven, Conn. 
Mr. Cuantes B. Penrose, Philadelphia, 1 enn. 
Mr. W. H. PickerinG, 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Mass. 
Major J. W. Powe t, 
Director U. S. Geological Survey, Washington, D.C. 
Mr. D. J. Prarr, Albany Institute, Albany, N.Y. 
Mr. Freperick W. Putnam, 
Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Mass. 
Professor IRA REMSEN, 
Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. 
Professor Rorert H. RicHarps, 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Mass. 
Dr. CHAktEs V. RiLeEy, 
Entomologist to Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D.C. 
Professor Mites Rock, 
United-States Naval Observatory, Washington, D.C. 
Mr. Denman W. Ross, Cambridge, Mass. 
Dr. J. A. RypeEr, 
United-States Fish Commission, Washington, D.C. 


List. OF 


MASSACHUSETTS, 


Boston. 


Poet and Professor. 

. Orator, Author, and Statesman. 

- Historian. 

. Mathematician and Author. 

« Poet, Lecturer, and Author. 

. Ex-President Institute of Technology. 


Oliver Wendell Holmes . 
Robert Charles Winthrop . 
George Edward Ellis. . . 
Elizur Wright . . . 5 
Charles James Sprague . . 
John D. Runkle. . . 
Thomas G. Appleton . 


4 Author and Capitalist. 
Charles F. Choate... 


President Old Colony Railroad. 

Pres. Young Men’s Christian Union. 
Pres. New-England Mutual Life-Ins.Co. 
. President South. Boston Lron- Works. 

. President New-England Glass-Works. 
« President Merchants’ Nationul Bank. 

« President Shawmut National Bank. 

« President Fourth National Bank. 

. Pres. Manufacturers’ National Bank. 

« President New-England Trust Co. 


William H. Baldwin . 
Benjamin F. Stevens . 
William P. Hunt . . 
William L. Libbey. . 
Franklin Haven . 
John Cummings .... 
W. W. Kimball. . . . 
Chester Guild 2... . 
William Endicott, jun. . . 
Henry P. Kidder . . . Kidder, Peabody, & Co. 

. Capitalist. 
Richardson, Hill, & Co. 
Richardson, Hil, & Co. 
‘Treasurer Harvard University. 
Treasurer Glendon Lron Co. 
‘Treasurer Boston Rubber-Shoe Co. 
. Treasurer Boston Manufacturing Co. 
‘Treasurer Great-Falls Manuf. Co. 
Treasurer Corbin Banking Co. 
. Treasurer Tremont Foundry Co. 
Treasurer Woodlawn Cemetery. 
Man. Boston Safe Deposit and Trust Co. 
Aest. Cashier Nat'l Bank of Commerce. 
Sceretary Boston Gaslight Co. 
Librarian Boston Public Library. 
Librarian State Library. 
Librarian Boston Athenwum, 
Library and Metric Bureaus. 


Sa oak! W. Richardson. . 
illiam H. Hill,jun.. . . 
Edward W. Hooper . . 
Thomas T. Bouve . 
Elisha 8. Converse . 
Edmund Dwight -. 
Alfred P. Rockwell 
Francis A. Osborn . 
E. P. Cutler . . 
H. Weld Fuller . 
Edward VP. Bond 
Wallis S. Chase . 
Charles C. Smith |. 
Metlen Chamberlain 
Charles B. ‘Tillinghast 
Charles A, Cutter . . 
Melvil Dui. . . 


Mr. F. G. Scuaurr, 
Brooklyn Entomological Society, Brooklyn, N.Y. 
Dr. A. R. C. SEtwyn, 
Director Geological Survey of Canada, Ottawa, Can. 
Professor NATHANIEL 8. SHALER, 
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 
Professor Sipney I. Smiru, Yale College, New Haven, Conn. 
Professor Francis H. Storer, 
Bussey Institution, Boston, Mass. 
Professor Davin P. Topp, Amherst College, Amherst, Mass. | 
Mr. WILLIAM TRELEASE, CA 
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. 
Professor Joun TROWBRIDGE, 
Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass. 
Mr. FREDERICK W. Trur, 
United-States National Museum, Washington, D.C. 
Mr. J. B. TykRELL, Ottawa, Can. é 
Mr. Wiystow Upron, Army Signal Office, Washington, D.C. ; 
Professor GrorGe L. Vosr, , 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Boston, Mass. 
Dr. M. E. WapswoxrtH, $ 
Museum Comparative Zoology, Cambridge, Mass. ~~ 
Dr. LEONARD WALDO, NT 
Yale College Observatory, New Haven, Conn. 
Mr. Lester F. Warp, : 
United-States National Museum, Washington, D.C. 
Professor R. B. WARDER, 
Ohio Mechanics Institute, Cincinnati, O. ; 
Mr. SERENO Watson, Botanic Garden, Cambridge, Mass. 
Mr. ALBERT WILLIAMS, Jun., 2 
United-States Geological Survey, Washington, D.C 
Professor CHARLES A. YOUNG, 
College of New Jersey, Princeton, N.J.’ 


SUBSCRIBERS. cr 


Macullar, Parker, & Co. 
Mucullar, Varker, & Co. 
Macullar, Parker, & Co. 
Proprietor Hotel Vendome. 
Financicr Hotel Vendome. 
Proprictor Hotel Brunswick. 
Proprictor American House. 
Proprictor Boston Herald. 


Charles W. Parker. . ..- - 
Natban D. Robinson... .« 
James L. Wesson. . . « - 
John W. Wolcott. . . . - 
W. Tracy Eustis .... .- 
John W. Dunklee. . . . .- 
Henry B. Rice . . . . « « 
Royal M. Pulsifer . . 


Edward P. Call. . . . « « Publisher Boston Advertiser. 

Charles W. Ernst . . . . . Editor Boston Advertiser. 

Edwin M. Bacon . . . . . Editor Boston Advertiser. vf 

Edward H. Clement . . . . Editor Boston Transcript. 7 

Bradford K. Peirce . . . Editor Zion's Herald. a 
Samuel J. Barrows . . Editor Christian Register. rr, 
William J. Rolfe... . « Editor Journal of Chemistry. - 
Henry D. Dupee . . . « « Walpole Dye and Chemical Works. 


Safe Maufacturer. 

Gen. Agt. Chicago & North-west'n RR 

General Manager New-York and Bos 
ton Despatch Express Co. 

Paige’s Insuvance Agency. 

Paige's Insurance Ayeney. 

Gen. Agt. Mutual Benetit Life-Ins. Co 

Agent Equitable Life-Insurance Co. 

General Agent North-western Mutual | 
Life-Insurance Co. 

Insurance Agent. 

Real-Estate Dealer. 

Real-Estate Broker. 

Pastor Church of Disciples. 4, 


George L. Damon. . . - 
Charles Henry Wise. . . 
Edward. ‘Taft. se 


John Cotton Paige. . 
William R. Gray. wa 
Sidney M. Hedges. . . . 
Jumes B. Niver. . . . - 
Edward J.Smith .... 


Henry McL. Harding . 
Samuel W. Winslow . 
Alexander 8. Porter . . 
James Freeman Clarke . 


Joseph Cook . 3% Clergyman and Lecturer. “te 
Robert C. Waterston Unitarian Clergyman. $ F 
Samuel H. Winkley . . . . Clergyman. 
William Burnet SEES « . » Pastor Berkeley-street Church. t 
minot J. Sauvage. . . . « Pastor Church of the Unity. Ww 
A.A.Miner. . . . «© « + Pastor Ccolumbus-avenue "Univeraallait ov 
Church, “ 
Caleb Davis Bradlee . . . Pastor Harrison-sq. Unitarian Church, 7 
Samuel K. Lothrop . Pastor Brattle-equire Church, t 


Henry W. Foote . - the Pastor King’s Chapel. — 


SCIENCE. — LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 


D. P. Ilsley 2 
William A. French 
Samuel N. Brown . 
Samuel B. Rindge . 
Benjamin Phipps 
William H. Sherman . 
Henry D. Williams 
Joseph 'T. Brown 
Charles H. Bassett . 
William J. Knowlton 
C.J.Maynard . . 
William H. Bowker 
John W. Brackett . 
Alonzo P. Howard. 
C. Allen Browne 
John Hogg ... . 
Richard C. Greenleaf . 
Samuel Johnson 
Abraham Avery 
Samuel Johnson 
John ©. Rand. 
Ayery Lewis Rand. Ad 
Wright & Potter Printing Co. . 
Rockwell & Churchill 
Daniel Lothrop . 
CLF. Jewett ..'. 
A. Williams & Co. . 
§.E. Cassino. . .. . 
W.B. Clarke & Carruth. 
Thomas Groom. . . . 
Albert O. Russell. 
Rice, Kendall, & Co. . 
Alexander H. Rice. . 
€.F.Crehore .. . 
William T. Barker. . 
Duncan }). Dexter. . . 
William J. Wilson. . . 
Sylvester K. Abbott . . 
William Claflin . 
James A. Woolson 
Albert L. Coolidge 
C.F. Quincey . a 
George D. Atkins . 
Albert Metcalf 
William H. Forbes 
Louis Prang . 
John §., Clark 
Charles H. Ames 
Henry C. Nash lia a 
William H. Swift & Co. . 
Frost & Adams. . 3 
Noyes Brothers . 
IT. W. Moody . 
Francis H. Storer eis 
(Ohmi ob os oo 
I. T. Talbot ater taeio 
James H. Whittemore 
Frank W. Page . 
C. Wesselhoeft . 
Jobn H, Dix . 
James C. White. . 
Samuel G. Webber 
George Stedman . 
George M. Garland 
Francis H. Williams . 
Charles Sedgwick Minot 
Albert Day . 
J. Foster Bush . . . 
Frederick C. Shattuck 
Henry P. Quincey .. 
Henry (). Marcy 
F. H. Davenport 
Samuel L. Abbot 
James B. Ayer... . 
Edward P. Banning, jun. 
Henry H. A. Beach . . . 
Samuel J. Mixter ne 
George F. Bigelow . . 
Clarence J. Blake . . . . 
Joseph W. Warren . . . 
Charles E., Ware ave 
George Russell . 
W.P. Willson. . . 
William F. Whitney . 
Edward Wigglesworth 
Richard Manning Hodges . 
re Hamewall oo. sh 6. 
Alfred C. Garratt : 
A. M. Sumner 


SV ARINSIS Ullandiiiees hander 


Thomas M. Dillingham . . . 
Thomas Henderson Chandler . 
Luther Dimmock Shepard . 
George Frank Waters 

David M. Parker .... 
Bliot C. Clarke . . .. . 
John C. Hoadley 

Samuel L. Minot Site 
George Il. BE. Trouvelot. 
Hdward Reed . «4... 5 
William O. Grover are 


D. P. Isley & Co. 
Abram French & Co. 
Fairbanks, Brown, & Co. 
Parker, Wilder, & Co, 
Parker, Wilder, & Co. 
Parker, Wilder, & Co. 
Williams & Everett. 
Apothecary. 

Joseph ‘LT. Brown & Co. 


i -Natural-History Store. 


Naturalist. 

President Bowker Fertilizer Co. 
Piano-Forte Manufacturer. 
Benjamin Howard’s Sons. 
Merchant. 

Hogg, Brown, & Taylor. 

C. F. Hovey & Co. 

C. F. Hovey & Co. 

Rand, Avery, & Co. 

Rand, Avery, & Co. 

Rand, Avery, & Co. 

Rand, Avery, & Co. 

State Printers. 

City Printers. 

D. Lothrop & Co. 

James R. Osgood & Co. 

Old Corner Bookstore. 
Publisher, 

Booksellers. 

Stationer and Manufacturer. 
Wood Engraver. 

Paper Manufacturers. 

Rice, Kendall, & Co. 

Press Paper Manufacturer. 
Paper Manufacturer. 

William T. Barker & Co. 

Book and Pamphlet Binder. 
Pamphlet and Periodical Binder. 
William Claflin, Coburn, & Co. 
William Claflin, Coburn, & Co. 
Houghton, Coolidge, & Co. 
Lewando’s Dye House. 

General Agent Nonotuck Silk Co. 
Dennison Manufacturing Co. 
Forbes Lithograph Manufacturing Co. 
Prang Educational Co. 

Prang Educational Co. 

Prang Educational Co. 

General Agent D. Appleton & Co. 
Colors and Chemicals. 

Artists’ Materials. 

Men’s Outfitters. 

The Stationer. 

Dean of Bussey Institution. 
Dean of Harvard Medical School. 
Dean Boston Uniy. Medical School. 
Res. Physician Mass. Gen. Hospital. 
Supt. Adams Nervine Asylum. 
Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician, 

Pkysi > 
Physician. 
Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician, 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Dean of Harvard Dental School. 
Dentist. 

Dentist. 

Dentist. 

Civil Engineer, 

Mechanical Engineer. 

Civil Engineer. 

Bell Telephone Co. 

42 West Newton Street. 

17 Arlington Strect. 


Henry Brooks ... . 
George H. Barrus . . . 
W.E. C. Eustis. 


Charles Tennant Lee... 
Stephen P. Sharples . . . 


James F. Babeock. . . 
Frank A. Terry . . 
ERENT a Bo 
Amory Austin 

W. W. Jacques . Opes 
Thomas W. Gleeson. . . 
Emile Berliner 

C, Williams, jun. . . 
Frank W. Harrington 
David Dodge . 

William H. Brown 

Frank Warren Smith . 
Jacob Norton ci 

Gilman W. Brown . 


Charles Stodder. . . 1. 


Edward B. Pillsbury . 
Francis B. Hayes . . . . 
Lemuel Shaw Saylenmioy ate 
James A. L. Whittier 
Solomon Lincoln 

Godfrey Morse... . 
Joshua H. Millett . + . 
Francis Bartlett . 5 
James BE. Maynadier . 
Samuel Wells 

Augustus E. Scott . 
Thomas H. Russell. . 
Marcus P. Norton . 
Charles E. Pratt 

Charles A. Shaw 

Albert H. Spencer . 

Robert Henry Eddy 
Edward P. Lull . 

W. O. Crosby 

Edward Burgess 

Caleb B. Frye 

George Gannett . 

E.R. Humphreys . 
William H. Ladd . . 
Robert W. Greenleaf . 
James W. Babcock 
William C. Jennings . 
John Amory Jeffries . 
Edward H.Goff. ... . 
Charles Whittier . . . . 
Samuel M. Warren . 
Edward 8. Philbrick . 
Horatio 8. Burdett . 

B. Schlesinger aa 
Ferdinand A. Wyman . 
George William Bond 
Waldo O. Ross . 

Robert W. Wood 

L. Lincoln Thaxter 

Isaac J. Osbun 

W.S. Bryant . P 
George H. Crosby . . 
Andrew Robeson . . . 
Thomas W. Lane... . 
Miss Abby W.May . . . 
Mrs. Sarah B. Jacobs . 

Miss Lucretia Crocker 

Mrs. Charles Pickering . 
Miss E. D. Boardman . . 
Miss Catharine I. Ireland . 
Miss G. E. Atkins. . . . 
Mrs. Henry P. Nichols. 
Miss M, L. Bacon 5 
Miss Harriet E. Freeman 
Mrs. Mary Hemenway 

Mrs. R. C. Scudder 

Miss E.S.Owen .. 

Miss Mary R. Alling . 

Mrs. Warren Hapgood . 
Miss Mary F. Littlehale . 
F.C. Woodbury .. . 
Charles W. Raymond. 
Charles B. Cory. . . 

J. Ingersoll Bowditch 
James M. Barnard. . . . 
Henry W. Haynes... . 
Thomas Lee . . « . 
Thomas Gaflfield 

Joseph 8.Fay ... 
Philip Dexter Cena o 
John A. Higginson . . . 
George Warren Hammond . 
George H. Norman . . 
James W. Converse Svo 
WHA Oe SS SG AS 
Lewis W. Tappan, jun. 
Arthur A. West. es 
John B. Peirce . . . . 
Charles A. French. . . 
Henry P. Curtis. . . . 
James M. W. Hall. . . 


Forester, 

Consulting Steam Engineer. 
Metallurgical Engineer, 

Chemist and Assayer. 

Consulting Chemist and State Assayer. 
Chemist and State Assayer. 
Analytic Chemist. 

Chemist. 

Analytic Chemist. 

Electrician. 

Electrician. 

Electrician. ‘ 

Telegraph Instruments. 

‘Telegraph Instruments. 

Gold Plate. 

Electric Transfusing Batteries. 
‘Tester. 

Furrier. 

Expert. F 
Microscopes and Scientific Apparatus. 
Chief Am. Rapid Telegraph Ob. 
Attorney-at-Law. 
Attorney-at-Law. 
Attorney-at-Law. 
Attorney-at-Law. 

Attorney-at- Law. 
Attorney-at-Law. 
Attorney-at-Law. 

A ttorney-at-Law. 
Attorney-at-Law. 
Attorney-at-Law. 

Cc. T. & T. H. Russell, Lawyers. 
Judge. 

a\ttorney Pope Manufacturing Co. 
Solicitor of Patents. 

Expert and Solicitor of Patents. 
Civil Engineer and Patent Solicitor. 
Captain U.S. Navy Yard. 

Boston Society of Natural History. 
Boston Society of Natural History. 
Boston School of Languages. 
Boarding and Day School. 
Classical ‘Teacher. 

Chauncy Hall School. 

Student Medical School. 

Student Medical School. 

Student Harvard College. 

Student Medical School. 
Vice-President American Electric Co. 
President Whittier Machine Co. 
Warren Chemical and Manuf’g Co. 
Civil Engineer. 

Burdett, Young, & Ingalls, Clothing. 
Naylor & Co., Iron and Steel. 
Leather Merchant. : 
Wool Broker, 

Ross, Turner, & Co., Threads, Etc. © 
Librarian, 19 Boylston Place. 
Book-keeper, 13 Tremont Street. 
Bernstein Electric Light Co. 

61 Beacon Street. ~ 

97 Oliver Street. 

18 Post-Office Square, 

109 Court Street. 

Edueation Lecturer. 

24 Bulfinch Street. 

40 Rutland Square. 

28 Beacon Street. 

120 Beacon Street. 

9 Louisburg Square. 

37 Commonwealth Avenue. 


77 Pinckney Street. 

37 Union Park. 

40 Mount Vernon Street. 
Hotel Pelham. 

315 Beacon Street. 
Principal Whittemore School. 
120 West Chester Park. 

28 Chestnut Street. 

1 Mount Vernon Street. 

7 Somerset Street. 

8 Arlington Street. 

28 State Street. 

Hotel Vendome. 

Writer, 239 Beacon Street. 
44 State Street, 

Retired Merchant. 

88 Mount Vernon Street. 
24 Mount Vernon Street. 
260 Clarendon Street. 

10 Hotel Hamilton, Clarendon Street. 
343 Beacon Street. 

43 West Newton Street. 
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Hotel Brunswick. ; 
74 West Newton Street. 
334 Marlborough Street. 
45 Mount Vernon Street. 
Lumber Merchant. 


-SCIENCE.— LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 


Charles T. White . 
Jeffries Wyman. . 
H. B. Carrington . 
ieee os a ors 
Percival Lowell. . 


. 


213 Commonwealth Avenue. 

16 Ashburton Place. 

32 Bromfield Street. 

Hill, Clarke, & Co., Machinery. 
60 State Street. 


MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY. 


Francis A. Walker. . 
George A. Osborne. 

Robert H. Richards . 
William Ripley Nichols 
Charles H. Wing. . . 


Pres. of Mass. Inst. of Technology. 
Professor of Mathematics. 
Professor of Mining Engineering. 
Professor of General Chemistry. 
Professor of Analytical Chemistry. 


Benjamin Osgood Peirce . 


Francis Amasa Walker 


Frank William Taussig . 
Charles Sedgwick Minot . 
Samuel Gilbert Webber . 


Clarence John Blake 


Frederick Cheever She attuck 
Joseph Weatherhead Warren . 


Charles Edward Faxon 
Edward Burgess : 
Henry Parker Quincy . 


_ Charles 


William H. Niles . . 
ioe | Whitaker . 
Rt. Cross . 
Gaetano Lanza . eon 
George L. Vose. . . . . 
Eugene Letang .... . 
Silas W. Holman ... . . 
Henry K. Burrison . tats 
George F.Swain. . . . . 
Webster Wells ......- 
Herman Hollerith . . . . . 
Alfred E. Burton . .. . 
William iH. Pickering. . . 
Walter 8. Allen . us 


Professor of Geology and Geograpby. 
Professor of Mechanical Engineering. 
Professor of Physics. 

Professor of Mechanics. 

Professor of Civil Engineering. 
Assistant Professor of Architecture. 
Assistant Professor of Physics. 
Instructor in School of Mechanic Art. 
Instructor in Civil Engineering. 
Instructor in Mathematics. 

Instructor in Mechanical Engineering. 
Tnstr. in Topographical Engineering. 
Assistant in Physics. 

Assistant in Quantitative Analysis. 


BOSTON INSTITUTIONS. 


New-England Mutual Life-Insurance Company. 
Massachusetts’ Institute of Technology. 
Boston Public Library. 
Boston Athenzum. 
Massachusetts State Library. 
Edueational Society of Boston University. 
Globe Chemical Company. 
vecurane near oem Company. 

azeppa Sign Compan 
Union Club. ‘er 
St. Botolph Club. 
Boston Young Men’s Christian Union. 
American Bell Telephone Company. 
Telephone Despatch Company. 
Bernstein Electric Light Manufacturing Company. 


Cambridge. 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 

Charles William Eliot. . . President. 
Joseph Henry Thayer. Fellow. 
Alexander Agassiz. . . - Fellow. 
Edward William Hooper. . Treasurer. 
Stephen Salisbury ... . Overseer. 
James Elliot Cabot. . .~ Overseer. 
Francis Minot Weld . . Overseer. 
Solomon Lincoln Wine Overseer. 
Alexander McKenzie . Overseer. 
Richard Manning Hodges Overseer. 
James Freeman Clarke Overseer. 
Amos Adams Lawrence . Overseer. 


Edwin Pliny Seaver . . . . Overseer. 
John Osborne Sargent Overseer. 
Theodore Lyman . . Overseer. 
Henry Purkitt Kidder. Overseer. 


. Preacher to the University. 
Professor of Anatomy. 

Professor of Natural History. 
Professor of Natural Philosophy. 
Professor of Entomology. 

Dean of the Scientific School. 
Professor of Geology. 


Andrew Preston Peabody 
Oliver Wendell Holmes . 
Asa Gray . her : 
Joseph Lovering. Soins 
Hermann August Hagen . 

Henry Lawrence Eustis . 
Josiah Dwight Whitney . 
Ezra Abbot . ... .- 
Wolcott Gibbs . . . . . 
Calvin Bilis: -. 2. 8 
Sereno Watson . = 
Thomas Henderson Chandler - 
Josiah Parsons Cooke. 

Adams Sherman Hill . 

James Mills Peirce. . . 
James Clarke White . . 
Justin Winsor che Pr 
Francis Humphreys Storer . 
George Lincoln Goodale . 
Charles Herbert Moore . - 
Charles Sprague Sargent. . . 
Nathaniel Southgate Shaler . 
Edward Charles See 7 
John Trowbridge 


Professor of Science. 

Dean of Medical School. 

Curator of the Herbarium. 

Dean of the Dental School. 
Director of the Chemical Laboratory. 
Professor of Rhetoric and Oratory. 
Professor of Mathematics. 
Professor of Dermatology. 
Librarian. 

Dean of the Bussey Institution. 
Director of the Botanic Garden. 
Instructor in DEE: 

Director of the Arnold Arboretum. 
Professor of Paleontology. 
Director of the Observatory. 
Professor of Physics. 


Professor of New-Testament Criticism. 


George Minot Garland 
Leonard Parker Kinnicutt . 
Charles Frederic Mabery . « 
Samuel Jason Mixter . 
Harold Whiting . 

Robert C. Winthrop 
Henry Wheatland . 
Samuel H. Scudder 
Frederick Ward Putnam 
Lucien Carr olf"e 
Joel A. Allen. 

Samuel Garman. . 

M. Edward W adsworth . 
Jesse W. Fewkes 
William C. Lane 

Charles Moen Rice . 
William Trelease 
Charles B. Penrose Slee. 
Sumner Bass Pearmain . . - 
Morris Loeb . 

Wm. Wadsworth w entw forth « 
Robert Berry Ennis. 

William Henry Aspinwall . 
Alfred Jerome Weston 

Henry Barton Jacobs . 

Henry Francis Sears . - 
Howard Lilienthal . 

William Charles Jennings .« 
Oscar Edward Perry . . - 
William Orison Underwood 
Oscar Jonas Lowman. 

Gerrit Elias Hambleton Weav: er, 
Silas Haynes Elliot . . . - 
John Adams Squire - 
George Fauntleroy Dav idson . 
Everett Vergnies Abbot . 

Frank Warren Smith. . 
William Sanford Barnes . 
Edward Kellogg Dunham 

John Amory Jeffries . . 
James Woods Babcock . - 
Walter Greenough Chase 
Frank Herbert Cunningham 
Jared Slocum How . 
Charles Eliot. . . m 
Charles Elliott St. John . 
Antoine de Reilbe McNair 
George Anthony Hill. . 
Albert Henry Tuttle... . 
Robert Tracy Jackson .. .- 
William Barnes. . . .. + 


James A. Fox. . 2 
James M. W.Hall. . .. - 
Charles H. Saunders... - 
Lyman R. Williston . . - 
John Holmes. . . « « «© 
Charles E. Vaughan . . - 
Walter Wesselhoeft . . . 
Jobn L. Hildreth . . . * . 
Hiram L. Chase. . . - + « 
Edward.H. Hall. . ... - 
Alexander McKenzie. . . .- 
es E. O’Brien . . - «+ 
el Z. nay ae - 
David Greene Taskins 
John Orne, jun. ah ob Sate 
George Pukabiy Soo. kao 
George V. Leverett .. . . - 
Robert R. Andrews ... .- 
Henry Van Brunt . . - 
Thos. Wentworth Higginson ‘i 
Denman W. Ross . 
John M. Batchelder . . . 
Erasmus D. Leavitt . . . 


George 
William Gilson Farlow 


‘Alonzo Bartlett : 


Charles Loring Jackson : 


William Morris Davis . 


Francis Greenwood Peabod y 
William Elwood Byerly . 


Walter Faxon. . . 


Charles Rockwell Lanman - 


Edward Laurens Mark 


William Fiske Whitney . : 


David Gordon L os 4 
Edwin Herbert ~ 


Assistant Professor of German. 
Professor of Cryptogamic Botany. 
Professor of Chemistry. 
Instructor in Geology. 

Professor of Theology. 

Professor of Mathematics. 
Assistant Professor of Zoélogy. 
Professor of Sanskrit. 

Instructor in Zodlogy. 

Curator of the Anatomical Museum. 
Professor of Divinity. 

Instructor in Physics. 


George K. Snow . .« 
Henry Thayer & Co. . 
John Wilson & Son 
Adolph Vogl. . . 
E. Herbert Clement . 
Jobn C, Watson. . 
Alvan G. Clark . . . 
Samuel B. Rindge . 


Cambridge Public Library . 
Astronomical Observatory .« 


Harvard College Library 


Instructor in Mathematics. 

Lecturer on the Tenure of Land. 

Instructor in Political Economy. 

Lecturer on Embryology. 

Instructor in Diseases of the Nervons 
System. 

Instructor in Otology. 

Instructor in Auscultation. 

Instructor in Anatomy. 

Instructor in Botany. 

Instructor in Entomology. 

Assistant in Histology. 

‘Assistant in Clinical Medicine. 

Assistant in Chemistry. 

Assistant in Chemistry. 

Assistant in Anatomy. 

Assistant in Physics. : 

Chairman Trustees Peabody Museum, 

Secretary Trustees Peabody Museum. 

‘Trustee Peabody Museum. 

Curator Peabody Museum. 

Ass’t Curator Peabody Museum. 

Ornithologist Museum Comp. Zoil. 

Herpetologist Museum Comp. Zodl. 

Lithologist Museum Comp. Zool. 

In charge of Radiates. 

Chief Cataloguer of Library. 

Candidate for A.M. 

Candidate for 8.D. 

Candidate for Ph.D. 

Student Senior Class. 

Student Senior Class. 

Student Senior Class. 

Student Senior Class. 

Student Senior Class. 

Student Senior Class. 

Student Senior Class. 

Student Senior Class. 

Student Senior Class. 

Student Senior Class. 

Student Senior Class. 

Student Junior Class. 

Student Junior Class. 

Student Junior Class. 

Student Junior Class. 

Student Junior Class. 

Student Sophomore Class. 

Student Sophomore Class. 

Student Freshman Class. * 

Student Freshman Class. : 

Student in Medical School. 

Student in Medical School. 

Student in Medical School. 

Student in Law School. : 

Student in Law School. 

Student in Law School. 

Student in Bussey Institution. 

Student in Divinity School. 

Resident Graduate. ~ 

Resident Graduate. 

Student Scientific School. 

Student Scientific School. 

Student Scientific School. 


GENERAL. 


Mayor of Cambridge. 

Ex-mayor of Cambridge. 
Ex-mayor of Cambridge. 

15 Rarkeley Street. 

5 Appian Way. 

AES 

Physician. _ 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Pastor of First Parish Church. 
Pastor of First Church of Cambri 
Pastor of St. Peter’s Church, Ve Cc. 
Dean of Episcopal Theological School. 
Clergyman. 

High School, Teacher of Physics. 
Lawyer. 

Lawyer. 

Dentist. 

Architect. 

Author. 


Historian. . ae 


Civil Engineer. 

Mechanical Engineer. 

President Reversible Collar Company. 
Manufacturing Chemists. 
University Press. 

Book-keeper, University Press. 
Assistant Book-keeper. 

Stock Broker. 

Astronomical Instruments. 
President Charles-River National Bank 
Cambridgeport. 

Garden Street. 

Gore Hall. 


Peabody Museum of ‘Archwology and Ethnology. 


' 


* 


ee a, 4 


Berkeley Book Se 
N.S. Club . ; 
Jules Marcou 

J. Rayner Edmands . 
John Brooks. . . . 
Charles Deane 
Charles F. Choate . 
Albert E. Menke 
Epes 8. Dixwell. 

8. H. Thorndike 
William Brewster . . 
Ernest W. Longfellow 
J. Henry Blake. . 
Alexander L. Hayes 
Eben N. Horsford . 


Wiliam H. Niles . . . 


Francis B. Gilman . 
Alpheus Hyatt . . 
William O. Howiand . 
Francis Flint. . 
William L. Whitney . 
Mrs. Kate Jennings 

Mrs. Jared Sparks aoe) 
Mary A.C. Livermore . 
Mrs. Anna L. 
Miss Mary F. Peirce 


Miss M. FP. Neale. 


Ednah TD. Cheney . . .« 
Charles E. Faxon .. - 
Hrank W. Page... .- 


Hred H. Means ... - 


Publie Library. 
Mrs, TV. J. Allen. 
Nahum een 
gihed W. G. May 


Public Library. 
Benjamin E. Cotting . 
eorge G. Kennedy 
ugustus C, Thompson. 
John O. Means. 
Julins H. Ward. . . 
Nathaniel J. Bradlee C 
W.. Lawley, jun. . . 
8. E. D. Currier . 
David A.Lyle .. . 
W.Lord .. ata 
Edward ©. Harris . 
Alfred W.Elson . . 
Sidney M. Hedges . . 
John Backup. . ais 
Samuel M,. Warren. 
Nathan D. Robinson 
Charles Whittier 
Miss L. Anna Dudley. 
Miss Alice W. Palmer . 
Miss Alice L. Boardman 


C.M. Warren .... 
Charles 8. Sargent . 
Robert Amory... . 
Edward S. Philbrick . . 
J. Elliot Cabot. 

Amos A. Lawrence . 
Theodore A, Dodge. 
Edward C, Cabot. 
Theodore Lyman . . 
C. F. Jewett 


B. Schlesinger . st ‘ 


Horatio S. Burdett. . . 
William H. Hill,jun.. . 
Samuel Cabot, jun.. . . 
Mrs, C. A. Kennard. 
Miss J. M. Scudder. 


John Stowell. . . . 
George W. Evans . . 


E.C.Bolles . . 
Edmund B. Willson 
Fielder Israel. . 

N. D. C. Hodges 

Samuel P. Andrews . . 
Daniel B. Hagar. . . . 
George D. Phippen 4 
Henry Wheatland . 
George R. Emmerton . 
Arthur L. Goodrich 


Moring. . 


SCIENCE. — LIST 


Edwin C. Stevens, President. 
. » 42 Garden Street. 
. 54 Concord Avenue. 
64 Brattle Sweet. 
Historian. 
153 Brattle Street. 
13 Wadsworth House. 
58 Garden Street. 
22 Garden Street. 
Naturalist. 
Artist. 
Zoovlogical Artist. 
Solicitor of Patents. 
raigie Street. 
ard Street. 
7 Hs awthorn Street, 
7 Avon Street. 
229 Green Street. 
8 Chauncy Street. 
126 Mount Auburn Street. 
11 Everett Street. 
48 Quincy Street. 
24 North Avenue. 
12 Quincy Street. 
Teucher Cambridge High School. 


South Boston. 


Jamaica Plain. 


Forest-hill Street. 
Botanist, Bussey Institute. 


Superintend’t Adams Nervine Asylum. 


Dorchester. 
. Washington Street. 


Mount Ida. 
. Adams Street. 


Roxbury. 


. . Physician. 
. Physician. 


Clergyman and Writer. 
Architect. 
. . Norfolk House. 
- . Lawyer. 
Capt. of Ordnanee, U. 8. A. 
13 Greenville Street. 
. . 219 Warren Street. 
. . 81 Fort Avenue. 
21 Kenilworth Street. 
Books and Periodicals. 
Hillside. 
50 Vernon Street. 
50 Winthrop Street. 
Teacher Dearborn School. 
Bellevue Street. 
38 Kenilworth Street. 


Brookline. 


. . Chemist. 

Director Arnold Arboretum. 
. Physician. 

. . Civil Engineer. 


Longwood. 


. Member of Congress. 
_ Publisher. 
Naylor & Co. 
Burdett, Young, & Ingalls. 
Richardson, Hill, & Co. 
Manufacturing Chemist. 


Charlestown. 


. Druggist. 
4 Edgeworth Street. 


Salem. 


. Pastor First Universalist Church. 

- Pastor North Church. 

. Pastor First Church. 
Assistant Editor of ‘* Science.” 
Clerk First District Court of Essex, 
Principal State Normal School. 
Cashier National Bank. 
President Essex Institute. 
President Merchants’ National Bank. 
Sub-master High School. 


. 


OF SUBSCRIBERS. 


ie 
a 


Merchant. 
‘Teacher State Normal School, 


College Hill. 


TUFTS COLLEGE. 
Elmer H. Capen. ... . President Tufts College. 
«A. Emerson Dolbear . . . Professor of Physics. 
A. Michael. . . Professor of Chemistry. re 
John P. Marshall Professor Geology and Mineralogy. ~ 
Benjamin G. Brown Professor of Mathematics. 
Charles E. Fay . Professor of English Literature. 


Andover. 


George Peabody .... .» 
Mary N. Plumer 9. . 2. « 
Margarette W. Brooks. 


G. W. W. Dove. 

Phillips Andover Academy. 

J. Wesley Churchill . . . . 
Joseph Blake. ... .- 
Wisk SORADEI Vs) a) (te) be 


Prof. of Elocution, Phillips Academy. 
Clergyman. 
Publisher. 


Auburndale. 


Lasell Seminary. 
Proprietor Boston Herald. 


Als (On IRS NR a3 8S 

Royal M. Pulsifer . . 

Francis Blake. 

Edwin O. Jordan. 
Lowell. 


Prescott National Bank. 

James B. Francis Agent Locks and Canals. 

Benjamin F. Shaw. . . . Manager Shaw Stocking Company. 
George J. Carney . . . . . ‘Treasurer Lowell Institute for Savings, 
Josiah L.Seward .. . - Clergyman. 


Frederick Blanchard 


Lynn. 


Dennis J. Crowley . D. J. Crowley 
Mrs. Abby F. Harris. 


B. C. Mudge. 


& Co., Shoe Manuf’r’s, 


Medford. 


M. A. Crockett. 5 
Rand, Avery, & Co. 


ves (Ol mel a 5 4 


Worcester. 


President Worcester National Bank. 
Professor. 


Stephen Salisbury... . . 
Teh lee Anna Sb 6 Go 
Free Public Library. 


Charles M. Rice. . .. . . Student. 


Springfield. 


A live newspaper. 
Teacher High School. 
News Room, 421 Main Street. 


Springfield Republican . 
J. H. Pillsbury . dt fa 
A.F.Jennings .. . 


Amherst. 
Amherst College Library. 


(Davidve sod duel Asso. Prof. of Astron. Amherst Coll. 


Manly Miles . ... ! 1 2 Professor. 
Amesbury. 
A. M. Goodale. 
Arlington. 
E. C. Turner. 
Brighton. 
William Jackson. 
Chestnut Hill. 
George E. Lowell. 
Clinton. 
George French ... . Editor ‘* Clinton Times.” 
Dedham. 
Public Library. 
Everett. 


Mrs. Harlan P. Hyde . . 14 Buckman Street. 


Fall River.’ 


George W. Dean. United States Coast Survey. 


Framingham. 
Miss Janet W. Williams. . . Normal School. 


Gloucester. 


George Morse. 


AJ ei ais A NTO AG 
DEVAL AW EIU A) culo AS 


Postmaster. 
Great Barrington. 


Hvarts Scudder... . . Clergyman. 


Hingham. 
Charles A. Lane. 


' OscarE.Perry ... 


: E. P. Gibbs. 


_ George B. Hobart. 
_ J.S. Beal. 

) 
. 
Hiram F. Mills . . . 
. William R. Pedrick . 


Miss Fannie A. Buffum 


a 
Miss Rose Hollingsworth. 


E.8.Converse . . . 
J. A. Sullivan, 
Sylvester K. Abbott . 


_ John M. Edwards. 


‘rs oo. ok oe 


Holyoke. 
. » + Holyoke Machine Co. 
TTudson. 


Kingston. 


Lawrence. 


« +» Engineer Essex Company. 
- »« + Pedrick & Closson, Auctioneers. 


Linden. 


- « « Cor. Lynn and Salem Streets. 


Mattapan. 
Malden. 

+ + « Ex-Mayor. 

. « . §.K. Abbott & Co. 
Marlborough. 


_ Marlborough Public Library. 


_ Edward Sawyer. . . 
_ George A. Mower. 


god 


A.E. Lawrence. . . 
_ Avery L. Rand . . 


: Edward P. Call . . 


a 


Edwin P. Seaver . 


Joseph C. Delano . . 


| Mrs. E. P. Tileston. 


J.8. Kingsley ... 


Alexander Macdonald 


Ames Free Library. 


"Benjamin Smith Lyman 
Public Library. 


George R. Baldwin. 


4 
 'T. M. Osborne. 


Thomas Crane . 


1 

, 

hale 

Jonathan Brown . . 

_ Arthur M. Comey. 
Edward H. Foote . . 
Albert L. Russell . . 


Charles A. Hobbs . . 


: 
j 
: 


Mount Holyoke Seminary. 


‘ Henry W. Pratt. 


Charles V., Woerd . . 


Solon F. Whitney . . 
A. Hosmer —. 


Lee Oe 


‘atertown Free Public Library. 


Newton. 
. . . Civil Engineer. 
Newton Centre. 


Clergyman. 
Rand, Avery, & Co. 


Newtonville. 
. « Publisher ‘* Boston Advertiser.” 


Newton Highlands. 
Superintendent Boston Public Schools. 


New Bedford. 


. « + 20 Hawthorn Street. 
Milton. 


Melrose. 
Author and Editor. 


Mount Auburn. 
» + Marble and Granite Works. 


North Easton. 

Northampton. 
-/. »- Elm Street. 

North Woburn. 


Peabody. 


Quincy. 
. . Public Library 
Somerville. 
+ + » 890 Broadway. 


. + «+ Travelling Salesman. 
+ « + Yelegrapb-Instrument Maker. 


Southborough. 
Instructor St. Mark’s School. 


South Hadley. 
Sterling. 
Waltham. 


. . « Superintendent American Watch Co. 


Watertown. 


. « «+ Teacher Cambridge High School. 
. Physician. 


- 


=~ 


_ SCIENCE.— LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 


Wellesley. 
Wellesley College Reading-Room. 
West Newton. 


Westfield. 
Attorney-at-Law. 


Miss E. P. Thurston. 


Homer B. Stevens . . . . . 
Williamstown. 


Mark Hopkins . ead 


ark soe Ex-President Williams College, 
Williams College Library. 


Wood’s Holl. 


A. F. Crowell. 
MAINE, 
Portland, 


Physician. 
Treasurer Portland Company. 


William Wood ..... 
George F.Morsee ..... 


Augusta. 
Samuel L. Boardman. . . . Editor and Publisher. 
Bangor. 
Fred. A. Eddy. 
Bath. 
G. C. Moses. 
Bucksport. 


Charles G. Atkins. 
Brunswick. 


Leslie A. Lee. . . ... Prof. of Geology, Bowdoin College. 


Kennebunk. 
Charles C. Vinal. . . . . Clergyman. 
Lewiston. 
Erlon R.Chadbourn . . . . Printer. 
Orono. e 


Charles H. Fernald . . . . Prof. State Agricultural College. 


Waterville. 
M. Lyford. 
William T. Jordan. 


NEW HAMPSHIRE. 


Hanover. 
DARTMOUTH COLLEGE. 
Dartmouth College Library. 


Dartmouth Scientific Association. 


Charles F. Emerson . . . Prof. of Natural Philosophy. 


Manchester. 


Frank E. Heald. . ... . 
Samuel N. Bell. 


Book-keeper. 


Dover. 
Sawyer Woollen-Mills. 
Exeter. 


Albert C. Perkins . . . «+ Principal Phillips Exeter Academy. 


Gonic. 
. » Agent Rindge’s Mill. 


North Conway, 


8.O.Meader.... - 


Henry A. Parker. 
VERMONT. 


Rutland. 
George J. Wardwell. 
Henry L. Farr. 
C. W. Safford. 
South Strafford. 
William Foster. 


William Glenn. Pa 


St. Johnsbury. 


Henry Fairbanks . . . . « Clergyman. 


North Craftsbury. 


Francis Parker . . . . - Clergyman. 


SCIENCE. — 


RHODE ISLAND. 


Providence. 


Professor of Chemistry, Brown Univ. 


John Howard Appleton . 
We Librarian Brown University. 


Reuben A. Guild 
Providence Athen#um. 
Homeopathic Library Association. 
Providence Public Library. 
Augustine Jones 


: Principal Friends’ School. 
William F. Channing . 


Physician, 


George B. Peck . Physician. 
N. W. Littlefield . Lawyer. 
Charles Bradley . Lawyer. 
James Tillinghast Lawyer. 
Alfred Stone. . Architect. 
Jobn F. Hedge, jun. Electrician. 
Chemist. 


Edwin B.Calder 2. ss. 
James M. Southwick... . 
Samuel Gorham. . . 
Tibbitts, Shaw, & Co. 

Mm. C.-Durfee .-. Pc Te 
Theodore W. Phillips nfeee 
Frank E. Seagrave . er 
William Burney 

N. B. Whitaker . 

Frank L. Titeomb . 

©. W. Vaughn . 

Jobn R. Bartlett. 


Southwick & Jencks’ Nat. Hist. Store. 
Huntoon & Gorham, Cigars. 
Booksellers and Stationers. 

Grocer. 

Secretary Providence Steam-Engine Co, 
65 Westminster Street. 

72 Prospect Street, 

305 Westminster Street. 

22 Nichols Street. 

Consulting Chemist. 


Newport. 
Professor Engineer. 


Civil Engineer. 
Lieut..Commander U.S. N. 


Raphael Pumpelly « 
Joseph P. Cotton 
Theodore F. Jewell 


CONNECTICUT. 


New Haven. 
YALE COLLEGE. 


Professor Natural Philosophy. 
Professor Geology. 

Professor Sanskrit. 

Professor of Mining. 

Professor Mathematics. 

Professor Mineralogy. 

Professor of Agriculture. 
Professor Mathematical Physics. 
Professor Chemistry. 

Professor Paleontology. 
Professor Zoology. 

Professor Comparative Anatomy. 
Professor Chemistry. 
Astronomer. 

Professor Physiological Chemistry. 
Assistant in Zoology. 

Student Yale College. 


Elias Loomis . Rey mater 
James D. Dana. . 3 
William D. Whitney . 

William P. Trowbridge Cites 
Hubert A. Newton .... 
George J. Brush ay Nd 
William H. Brewer 

J. Willard Gibbs. 

Arthur W. Wright . 

Othniel C. Marsh . 

Addison E. Verrill . 

Sidney I. Smith. . 

William G. Mixter . 

Leonard Waldo. . . 
Russell H. Chittenden . . . 
James H. Emerton. . ... 
Charles LL. Scudder 

Yale College Observatory. 
Library of Sheffield Scientific School. 
Yale College Reading-Room. 


IN GENERAL. 


Conn. Agricultural Hizpeniment Station. 

Horace C. Hovey . . + Pastor Second Congregational Church. 
Thomas H. Pease & Son. . . Booksellers and Newsdealers. 
William P. Blake. 


Edward E. Salisbury. . . Professor. 


Hartford. 


Philologist and Author. 

Pres. Connecticut Mutual Life-Ins. Co. 

President Steam-Boiler Inspection and 
Insurance Co, 

President Travellers’ Insurance Co, 

Physician. 

Physician. 

Secretary, J. L. Howard & Co. 


J. Hammond Trumbull . 
Jacob L. Greene *. . 
J.M. Allen , 


James G. Batterson . . . 
G. Pierrepont Davis . . . 
H.P. Stearns. . tdci 
Charles P. Howard. 


Berlin. 
T. 8S. Brandegee. 
Bridgeport. 
James C, Lathrop. ae 
Brooklyn. 
8. A. Holman Physician. 
Buckland. 
Charles H. Owen. 
Litchfield. 
Miss Emma C. Jones. 
Middletown. 


John M. Van Vleck 
William North Rice 
W. Walter Webb. 


Prof. of Mathematics, Wesleyan Univ. 
- . Prof. of Geology, Wesleyan University. 


New Britain. 
The American Electric Company. 


John H, Sage. 


Jobn Mulville. 
William J. Selleck. 


LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS 


Portland. 


Riverside. 


Stamford. 4 


Yale Lock Manufacturing Co. 


M. W. Sewall. 


Homer IF’, Bassett . 


Frederick A. P. Barnard 


Charles F. Chandler 
Charles F, Clark. 
Francis M. Weld i 
Juhn Osborne Sargent 
Lawson Valentine . 
George T. Hope. . 
H. H. Lamport 

Louis Monrose 

John Mulville  . 
Henry P. DuBois 

J. W. Selleck 

Uriah Welch . 

Henry Edwards. . 
Eugene G. Blackford . 
John H. Caswell 
Thomas W. Ward. . 
Thorndike D. Hodges 
Clinton Roosevelt 
Samuel L. M. Barlow . 
Henry B. Hammond 
Thaddeus B. 
John H, Hinton . 
Cornelius R. Agnew . 
George T’. Stevens . 
George H. Taylor . . 
Sidney H. Carney . 
Louis Elsberg 

George M. Searle 
Ogden N. Rood. . 
John 8. Newberry. . 
Nathaniel Hathaway . 
John K. Rees. . . . 
Robert P. Whitfield 
Daniel Draper 

Perey Neymann. 

C. H. Leete 

Julius Sachs . . 
John 8. White 
Jonathan D. Hyatt. 
Charles Nettleton 
Thomas A. Edison . 
Austin G. Day . . 
Leonard E. Curtis . 
Cornelius Van Brunt . 
Frederick W. Devoe . 
Samuel W. Simpson . 
EH. B. Benjamin. . .« 
Henry B. Parsons . 
George F. Swain 
Charles 8S. Homer, jun. 
Lucius Pitkin . . . 
Nelson H. Darton. . 
D. D. Williamson . . 
Stillwell & Gladding . 
George N. Lawrence . 


Wakeman . 


Waterbury. 


Librarian Bronson Library. 


NEW YORK. > 
New-York City. 


. . President Columbia College. 
. President Board of Health. Y 
. . President The Bradstreet Company. 
. . President Harvard Club. 
Ex-President Harvard Club. 
. President Valentine Varnish Company. 
- Pres’t Continental Fire-Insurance 
Vice-Pres’t Continental Fire-Ins. Co. 
Monrose & Mulyille. 
Monrose & Mulville. 
Monrose & Mulville Insurance Agency. 
Monrose & Mulville Insurance Ageney. 
Proprietor St. Nicholas Hotel. 
Actor Wallack’s Theatre. 
Fish-Dealer. 
. Importer of Teas. 
- Banker. 
Lawyer. 
Lawyer. 
Lawyer. 
Lawyer. 
Lawyer. 
. Physician. 
. Physician. 
. Physician. 
Physician. 
Physician. 
Physician. 
. . Clergyman. 
. . Prof. Mech. and Phys. Columbia Coll. 
. . Professor Geoldégy, School of Mines. 
Chemist, School of Mines. 
Director of Observatory. 
Curator American Museum Nat. Hist. — 
Meteorological Observatory. 
. .~ Student Columbia School of Mines. 
. . Dr. Sachs’ Collegiate Institute. 
. . Collegiate Institute. _ 
Principal Berkeley School. 
a) eebeachers 
. . Commissioner and Notary. 
Electrician. 
Electric Wire and Supplies. 
- . Secretary U.S. Electric Lighting Co. 
. « Machinery. 
Paints and Artists’ Materials. 
Merchant. 
Chemicals and Apparatus. 
Chemist. 
. ‘Treasurer Valentine Varnish Company. 
. Superintendent Valentine Varnish Co. 
. Chemist. 
. Analytic and Consulting Chemist. 
. International Chemical Company. 
Chemists. 
Drugs and Chemicals. 


Ivison, Blakeman, Taylor, & Co. ; Publishers. 


John Wiley & Sons 
Henry Holt&Co. . . 
John W. Lovell. . . 
D. Van Nostrand . 
Romyn Hitchcock . 
B. Westermann & Co. 
J. W. Bouton. . . 
C.C. Hine. . . 
Samuel Kneeland . . 
Henry M. Parkhurst . 
Asa L. Shipman’s Sons 
Albert Bierstadt 

A. R. Hart. . 
R.D. Servoss . 
Carter, Sloan, & Co. 
Mercantile Library. 
Astor Library 


Library of Columbia C College ;. 
Anglo-Swiss Cond. Milk Co. 


University Club . 
Mrs. Henry Draper . 
Mrs. David C. Scudder 


+ . Publishers and Importers. 
- . Publishers. 
. . Publisher. 
. + Scientific Books. 
Editor and Microscopical Apparatus. 
Foreign Books. 

- - Rare and Costly Books. 
. + Insurance Editor and Publisher. 
. ». Author. 
. . Stenographer. 

. Stationers and Manufacturers. 

. Artist. 
Treasurer Photo-Engraving Company. 
Struthers, Servoss, & Co. 
Manufacturing Jewellers. 
Astor Place. ‘ 
. Lafayette Place. 
49th Street and Madison Avenue. 
Of Switzerland. 
No. 370 Fifth Avenue. 
. « Madison Avenue. 
+» « Grammercy Park. 


a ee 


SCIENCE.— LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. ~ 


“Henry C. Andrews. . . 
PQneney  s) we 
EB. B. Crocker. . . . . 
Charles F.Cox . . ‘ 
Walter C. Hubbard 
J.B. Taylor Hatfield . . 
James Lioyd White . . 
James T. Gardiner . é 
R.H. Lamborn... 
Albert 8. Bickmore - 
William A nINEY fore A. 3 
N. A. Calkins. . . = 


\ 
Alexander Hutchins 
Elias Lewis, jun. 
A. W. Humphreys. 
Henry P. DuBois 5 
-A.R. Hart .. . 
Frederick G. Schaupp d 
Henry H. Lamport. 
8. A. Goldschmidt . 
. Le Conte Stevens . 
The Brooklyn Library 
Marie O. Glover. 


State Museum of Natural 
New-York State Library. 
Albany Institute. 

Dudley epee 
James Hall. 
Weare C. Little |! 
J.A.Lintner 

Samuel B. Ward 

Moses G. Farmer. 
Matthew Hale 


. 5 Beekman Street. 

+ 14 Kast 25th Street. 

. 54 West 21st Street. 

- Banker. 

. Cotton-merchant. 

~ « M49 West 34th Street. 

. » 609 Fifth Avenue. 

. « 209 West 46th Street. 

. » Colorado Coal and Iron Company. 


- . Supt. American Museum Natural Hist. 


48 West 39th Street. 
124 East 80th Street. 


Brooklyn. 
Physician. 


. . Clerk, Monrose & Mulville. 
. Photo-Engraving. 
- Teacher. 
Physician. 
Packer Institute. 
Montague Street. 


Albany. 
History. 


. . Geologist, State Museum of Nat. 
Law Publisher and Bookseller. 
State Entomologist. 

+ . Physician. 


Lawyer. 


Ithaca. 


CORNELL UNIVERSI?PY. 


Burt G. Wilder. . . . 
William A. Anthony. . 
J.H.Comstock. .. . 
William R. Dudley . . 
Henry Shaler Williams . 
Simon H. Gage 


Cornell University i Library. 


H., P. Cushing. 


H.R. Gilbert. - . . 
Lewis Swift . ... 
Bausch & Lomb. . 
Corlis B. Gardner . 
Henry A. Ward. .. . 
Cyrus F. Paine . 
Edward H. Vredenburgh 


“ euverd.- SN sie 
: t. Dept. . 
Cyrus W Shaw. 

D. P. Penballow. 


John J.Brown. . . . 
George A.Edwards . . 
Walter A. Brownell . 


D. 8. Kello, se 
George H. Hudson. 


Miss Maria ns 
Le R. C. Cooley. 


WIS CRIONNY so. se 
Asaph 8. Bemis, 


C.H.F. Peters . . 
Albert H. Chester. 


_ John W. Doughty. 
Haslett McKim. . . . 


Professor of Physiology. 
Professor of Physics. 

. . Professor of Entomology. 

. + Assistant Professor of Botany. 
Assistant Professor of Paleontology, 
Professor of Physiology. 


Rochester. 


. . Book-keeper. 

. Professor Warner Observatory. 
- + Optical Company. 
. . Clergyman 
: 2 Natural Science Establishment. 
- . Druggist. 
. . Cashier Banking-House. 


Mountainville. 


. « Houghton Farm. 
Houghton Farm. 


Syracuse. 


. » Professor Syracuse University. 
Physician. 
. Professor High School, 


Plattsburg. 


Physician. 
Physician. 


Poughkeepsie. 
. Vassar College. 


Buffalo. 
. + Wholesale and Retail Crockery. 


Clinton. 
. . Observatory of Hamilton College. 


Newburgh. 
. Clergyman. 


Troy. 


‘ Bitenssclaar Polytechnic Institute. 


Charles E. Hanaman . . 


-. 
ay 


. . Flour and Produce. 


Hist. 


Alfred Centre. 


HS 'C.Coon! satan iw aa J Physician. 


Bangall. 


Lewis Carman, 


Cazenovia. 
L. W. Ledyard, 
Community. 


George E. Cragin . Physician. 


Dobb's Ferry. 


RiGatlin . . 6 2 8 8 Captain United-States Army. 


Dunkirk. 
H. Raymond Rogers . . .« Physician. 
Geneva. 
E. Lewis Sturtevant. 
Gloversville. 


O. K, Chamberlin . Physician. 


Jamaica. 
R. P, Stevens. 


Long-Island City. 


Anthony Pirz .. . . .-. Professor. 
Lowville. ’ 
W. Hudson Stephens. 
Middletown. 
Anglo Swiss Condensed Milk Company. 
Nyack. 
George W. Hill. 
Ogdensburg. 
W.J.W. Finlay ... Clergyman. 
Oneida. 
C. M. Ferry. 
Oswego. 


Henry H. Straight. . . Prof. Natural Science, Normal School. 


Schenectady. 
Morris Perkins... . Profebsor Union College. 
Shelby. 
J.D. Childs . . . . -» » Clergyman. 
Tarrytown, 
Charles H. Rockwell. 
Watertown. 


J. M. Adams. 
Willet’s Point. 


Henry L. Abbot . . . . . Brigadier-General. 


Yonkers. 
E. C. Moore. 


NEW JERSEY, 
Princeton. 


PRINCETON COLLEGE. 


Arnold Guyot . . . . . . Professor of Geology. 

J. Stillwell Schanck . . . . Professor of Chemistry. 

Cyrus F. Brackett * . . Professor of Physics. 

George Macloskie . Professor of Natural History. 

Charles A. Young . . Professor of Astronomy. 

Charles G. Rockwood, j jun. . Professor of Mathematics. 

William Libbey, jun... . Assistant Professor in Natural Science. 


Jersey City. 

' John W. Atwood . - « » Teacher. 
George W. C. Phillips” . « « Druggist. 
Beriah A. Watson. . . . . Physician. 


Erminnie A. Smith. 


L 

: 

+ 

. 
iu 


SCIENCE. — LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 


New Brunswick. 

Professor Rutgers College. 
Professor. 

Professor. 


George B. Merriman... . 
Peter T. Austen. 
F. C. Van Dyck . 
George H, Cook. 
Newark. 
Publisher. 
Weston Electric Light. 
Lawyer. 


€:.C. Hine. . 
Edward Weston 
James E. Howell 


Orange. 
Henry C. Pedder. 
Francis R. Upton. 


James D. Hague ... Mining Engineer. 


Vineland. 
J. W. Pike. 
Mary Treat. 
Caroline A, Paul. 
Trenton. 
Charles C. Abbott . . . . . Archeologist. 
Edward I. Green. 
Freehold. 
Samuel Lockwood . Clergyman. 
Hoboken. 
Robert H. Thurston Stevens Institute of Technology. 
Millville. 
R. M. Atwater. 
Somerville, 
Mrs. A. B. Blackwell. 
1 
PENNSYLVANIA. 
Philadelphia. 


UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 


Professor of Anatomy. 
Professor of Mathematics. 
Professor of Chemistry. 
Professor of Physics. 


Joseph Leidy. . 
E. Otis Kendall . 
Frederick A Genth .. . 
George FP. Barker . . . . 


IN GENERAL, 


Physician. 
Physician. 


8. Weir Mitchell . asthe 
John L. LeConte .... . 


Frances Emily White . Physician. 
F. Woodbury. . Physician. 
Charles A. Netipenes” Geologist. 
Persifor Frazer . . 6 Geologist. 


Academy of Natural Science of Philadelphia. 
Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania. 
Library Company. 
Mercantile Library . 
Martin Roche. 
William H. Walmsley 
D.R. Goodwin . . 
Henry C. McCook . 
William Sellers . 


Tenth Street. 

Nautical and Engineering College. 
Representative R. & J. Beck. 
Clergyman. 

Clergyman. 

5 Wm. Sellers & Co., Machinists’ Tools. 
William 8. Auchincloss . Bates & Auchincloss, Spool Cotton. 
Charles B. Penrose . - . - Physicist. 

Edwin J. Houston. . . . . Manager, 1426 Callowhill. 

William Ludlow. . - + + Major of Engineers. 

William L. Abbott . cies 1926 Chestnut Street. 

Fairman Rogers. . . . . 202 South 19th Street. 

H, Allen ako ae A 3706 Locust Street. 

Isaac Lea . . 1622 Locust Street. 

F. V. Hayden. 

A. E. Outerbridge, jun. 
John H. Redfield. 
J.P. Pyle. 

John Bigelow. 

Mrs. M. Mott Davis. 


Altoona. 
Charles B. Dudley. 
F. N. Pease. 
John W. Cloud. 
Wilkesbarre. 


Irving A. Stearns . . 
R. Bruce Ricketts. 
Harrison Wright. 


Civil and Mining Engineer. 


Alleqheney. 
Western University of Pennsylvania. 


William M. Herron Physician. 
Easton. 
ThomasM.Drown .. . . Professor and Chemist. 
TraillGreen . . Professor. 
Pittsburgh. 


Joseph D. Weeks . . 


Associate Editor ‘The Iron Age.” 
John H, Ricketson . 


Founder, Machinist, and Manufacturer. 


West Chester. 


D.M.Sensenig..... 
Halliday Jackson. 


Professor. 
Bethlehem. 


Edward H. Williams, jun. . . Professor Lehigh University. 


Chester. 
Walter N. Hill. 
Cookport. 


Dr. Stewart . . Physician. 


Delaware Water-Gap. 


8. W. Knipe . Clergyman. 
Drifton. 
Eckley B. Coxe. 
Germantown. 
Henry Carvill Lewis . . . American Acad. of Natural Sciences. 
ITulton. 
C. Alfred Smith. 
ITuntingdon. 


Joseph E. Saylor Professor Normal College. 


Lancaster City. 
Professor Franklin and Marshall Coll. 


Latitz. 


Jefferson E. Kershner .. . 


H. A. Brickenstein. 
Manayunk Post-Office. 
J. Addison Campbell. 
Mansfield Valley. 


Francis C. Blake . . . . . Pennsylvania Lead-Works. 


Meadville. 
City Library. 
Pittston. 
R. D. Lacoe. 
DELAW ARE. 
Newark. 
TDD SAW. Ol fy tell leh Wetluein le Physician. 
Wilmington. 


J.H. Kidder. . . .. . . U.S.A. Fish Com. §.8. ‘ Albatross.’ 


MARYLAND. 


Baltimore. 


JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY. 


Daniel C. Gilman . . . . . President Johns Hopkins University. 
H. Newell Martin . . . . . Professor Biology. 

Ira Remsen : - . . + Professor Chemistry. 

Henry A. Rowland. » + . . Professor Physics. 

Richard M. Venable . . . . Professor Constitutional Law. 

William K. Brooks . . . . Associate Professor Biology. 

William Hand Browne - . . Associate Librarian. 

Thomas Craig . . 2 Associate Prof. Applied Mathematics. )” 
Wilham T. Sedgwick . om Associate Professor Biology. 

William BE. Story .... Associate Professor Mathematics. 
Philip R. Uhler. . . . . . Associate Professor Natural History. 
Nicholas Murray . . . . - Johns Hopkins University. 

A. H. Tuttle . 5 5 S:udent. 

Arthur 8. Hathaway . .» + » + Graduate Student, Johns Hopkins Uniy. 
Andrew A. Veblen .... TEINS Student, Johns Hopkins Biss 


IN GENERAL. 
State Normal School. 
Peabody Institute. ‘ « 
W.Simon. . C Physician. 
W. Chew Van Bibber . + Physician. 
INEM shu ae Gea BMS Be Teley 
Gustav A. Liebig de Senge 
Charles I. M. Gwinn . . Attorney-General of Maryland. 
Thomas Turtle . , . . . . Uniled-States Engineer. 
William H. Numsen . . . . 18 Light Street. 
Edgar G. Miller. . . . . . 279 Baltimore Street. 


Annapolis. 


UNITED-STATES NAVAL ACADEMY. 


Naval Academy Club, 
J.M. Rice. . 2 
William Woolsey Johnson : 


Professor of Mechanics. 
Professor of Mechanics 


.M. Terry . . . . . - + Professor of Physics. 
pi. Murdock «+ . 2... « > Department of Physics and Chemistry. 
rge W. Jones. 


St. Denis. 
George W. Dobbin. 
icholas G. Penniman. 


Mount Washington. 


Woodstock. 


. ater eiis «><. « =, Cléregman, 


DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 


Washington. 


Secretary of War. 
Brigadivr-General U.S.A. 
Judge Court of Claims. 
dude. 
Comptroller of the Treasury. 
. . . Secretary Smithsonian Institution. 
. » » Curator Smithsonian Institution. 
. . « Smithsonian Institution. 
+ « Smithsonian Institution. 
. . Smithsonian Institution. 
Chemist, Smithsonian Institution. 
Paleontologist, Smithsonian Institution. 

. . . Assistant Librarian, Smithsonian Inst. 
.- » » Smithsonian Institution. 
. « Smithsonian Tostitution. 
. . . Smithsonian Institution. 
. « Smithsonian Institution. 
. « Commissioner, Dept. of Agriculture. 
. . Chief, Department of Agriculture. 
. . Entomologist, Dept. of Agriculture. 
Entomologist, Dept. of Agriculture. 
. . Taxidermist, National Museum. 
« » . President Deaf-Mute College. 

BAW Chickering, jun. . . Professor Deaf-Mute College. 
‘Ezekiel B. Elliot . . . . . Actuary, Treasury Department. 
O.H.Irish. . . . . . . . Chief Bureau of Engray. and Printing. 
Garrick Mallery. . . . Bureau of Ethnology. 

.W. Henshaw. . . . Bureau of Ethnology. 

enry Gannett . . . . Census Bureau. 


bert Todd Lincoln. . . 
Benjamin Alvord . . . 
‘William 3; Richardson . 
a A. Scudder . 
Jobn ‘Tay Knox . 
Spencer F. Baird 
G. Brown Goode 
Richard Rathbun 

heodore Gill. 
George P. Merrill 
‘Frederick Ww. Taylor . 
RIVA White soe. - 
‘Newton P. Scudder 
. E. Hayden . 


M-Fliot. . . 
Beso Tar. . / . 


ow as © 


see eee 


George B. Loring 
.A.Carman. . 
C.V. Riley. 

B. Pickman Mann - 
Wittiam ‘T. Hornaday 
M. Gallaudet . 


‘dward Weston. . 
Gardiner G. Hubbard 
Bema! Shellabarger . 
fs. Saville... . 
William ay > ee 
“Charles J. Bel 
Geo 


. Proprietor Portland Flats. 

. Lawyer and Capitalist. 

. Lawyer. 

. Lawyer. 

- wes er and President School Board. 
Banker. 


rge W. Brown . i - Real Estate. 
Alexander Melville Bell . Author of Visible Speech. 
Alexander Graham Bell . Inventor of Telephone. 
‘Sumner Tainter . . Electrician. 


Electrician. 
. Pres’t Whiskey-Distillers’ Association. 
. Booksellers and Periodical Dealers. 
. Chief, Signal Service. 
. Signal Service. 
. Signal Service. 
. Signal Service. 
. Signal Service. 
. Signal Service. 
. Signal Service. 
Life. Saving Service. 
Revenue Marine. 
Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
Coast and Geodetic Survey, 
Mathemat., Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
Mathematician, Coast Survey. 
Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
Photographer, Coast Survey. 
Coast Survey. 


“Chichester A. Bell 
rge T. Stagg . 

. Brentano & Co. 
W.B. Hazen. . 
Cleveland Abbé . 
George A. Warren 
#H.A. Hazen . . 
Winslow Upton . 
‘William Ferrel . 

. Russell. . . 

$8.1. Kimball . . 
. W. Clark . . 
Joseph E. Hilgard 
Richard D. Cutts 2 
Charles 8. Peirce ‘ 
Edward Goodfellow’ . 
. B. oe. Sy cna 
enry Farqu ah 
Bete’ Christie. 


Seen Ce Os ae 
Mie etenther® nae ces a oe Uae 6 ew te Oye © 


William H. Dall. . 
% F. Walling .. 
bert S. Avery. . 
“H.W. Blair . . 


Edward H. Courtenay 
Charles A. Schott . 
Werner Suiss. . . 


Cd Mm ee Se eee te 


Oa a iene 


"Asaph Hall Te aut . Astronomer, Observatory. 
Albert S.Flint ; : 2: 2 2 Naval Observatory. 
William C. Winlock . . . Observatory. 
Robert Fletcher. . . . . . Asst. Librarian Surgeon.Gen.’s Office. 
ca i Yarrow... . . Army Medical Museum. 
Mew .... . . . Army Medical Museum. 
Be jamin F. Pope... . - Surgeon-General’s Office. 
JW. Powell... <5. . .« Geological Survey. 
Clarence E. Dutton . . . . Geological Survey. 
James ©. Pilling . . . . . Geological Survey. 
G. K. Gilbert . . . . . . Geological Survey. 
Charles Darwin. . . . . . Geological Survey. 
Charles D. Walcott . . . . Geological Survey. 
F.Emmons ., .. . . . Geological Survey. 
.H.Holmes . .. . . ~ Geological Survey. 
wan Petroff . . . . . »« . Geological Survey. 


J « 


asi. i SCIENCE. — LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 


Geological Survey. 
Bureau of Education. 
Bureau of Education. 
Bureau of Education. 
Physician. 

Physician. 

Physician. 


A.H. Thompson ... - 
John Eaton . . «es > 
Charles Warren. . . - 
R.L. Packard ... - 
H.R. Bigelow .. . .- 
D. W. Prentiss . aca, 
W.W.Godding .... 
J. W. Osborne Sere < 212 Delaware Avenue, N. W. 

David P. Heap . « « + « United States Engineers. 

T.C. Chamberlin . . . . . Box 591. : 
805 G Street, N. W. 

1330 19th Street. 

1418 K Street. 

1607 H Street. j 
Georgetown, D.C. 

Georgetown, D.C. 


W.C. Kerr. o) tala ee 
James C. W elling eae 
M. Covarrubias . . . . « « 
Henry Adams Bre.) bs 
Benjamin Miller. . oa 
Mrs. Caroline H. Dall. 

Signal Service . ajiite War Department. 
Director of th Mint : : . Treasury Department. 
Lighthouse Bo: - « + « « Treasury Department. 
Life-Saving Service Treasury Department. 
Chief of Engineers War Department. 
Surgeon-General’s Office. 
Nautical Almanac Office. 

Patent Office . ° 
Division of Mining Statistics = 
Library : 
Rocky- Mountain Division . 
National Museum < 

Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. 
Department of Agriculture. 
Scientific Library . . ole 
Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
Bureau of Education . 

Naval Observatory Library 


Department of the Interior. 
Geological Survey. 


Geologic: al Survey. 
Smithsonian Institution. . 


United-States Patent-Office. 


Department of the Interior. 
Obser vatory. 


Cc. 0. Boutelle . . . U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. ns 
Alexander Ziwet . / . . . U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. 
Miles Rock. .« 4 : aval Observatory. 


William fH. Hawkes Sher tye 
Frederick W. True ... - 
Julius Baumgarten aie 
W.W.Upton ..*. .- 
Mo Gp meligs 2. Se 


Libis arian, -U. 8. National Museum. 
Engraver. 
Second Comptroller, Treasury. 


adier-General U.S.A. 


George W. Hill . . . « «+ Nautical Almanac Office. - oo 
Edson A. Burdick . . + « + 406 Spruce Street. iP: 
W.W. Corcoran. . . . . Founder Corcoran Art-Gallery. 7 
Thomas Taylor . . .°. . . Departmentof Agriculture. , 


J.C. McGuire 


William D. Baldwin . . . Baldwin, Hopkins, & Peyton, Patent 


Solicitors. we © 
Elliott Cones. . . . Author and Naturalist. s 
William E. Woodbridge. . 
Charles W. Smiley. 4 
Jobn H.C. Coffin . . . Professor of Mathematics. di 
E. 8. Hutchinson. \s 4 
M.8.Fallo .. . . . « ~ 1200 Eighteenth Street. “ 
/ 
WEST VIRGINIA. 
’ 
Morgantown. q 
I.C. White ... . - . . Professor University of West Virginia. a 
é 
VIRGINIA. od 
Universily of Virginia. & 
Williarh M. Fountaine. a 
Ormond Stone. Wi, 
Norfolk. o 


Newton Fitz... . . Prof. Norfolk College for Young Ladies. 


William J. Moore... . 


Physician. ty | 
C. 0. Boutelle . .. . . . U.S. Coast and Geodetic Survey. nr re 
7 Lexington. . 
S.T. Moreland . . . . . . Washington and Lee University. A uy; 
Portsmouth. ba, 
Henry C. Jordan . . . . - Clerk. aM 
¥ LY re 
Aa 
KENTUCKY. rN : 
ae 
Lexington. *. ie ee 
Ballard, Williamson, & Co. i ane 
Alfred M. Peter. ‘= 
Earlington. eS" 
John B. Atkinson. +e 
Danville. Loge 
J.C. Fales. . ... - - ~ Centre College. f Be 
Frankfort. Lon 
E. H. Taylor, jun.,Company . Distillers . 
Louisville. “* 


Miss A. V. Pollard . . Librarian of Polytechnic Society. 


SCIENCE. — LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 


Richmond. 


Edward L. Nichols Professor Central University. 


NORTH CAROLINA. 


Davidson College Post-Office. 
J.R.Blake .. . Professor. 


Raleigh. 


North Carolina Agricultural Experiment Station. 


TENNESSEE. 
Nashville. 


VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY. 
Library. 

Vanderbilt University. 
Vanderbilt University. 


Vanderbilt University . 
Nel gen ptOMnus anette: | s 
James M. Safford . . . 


Lebanon. 


ike D. Minds’ fs.) gous Professor. 


SOUTH CAROLINA. 


Sumter. 
Benjamin Hodges. 
GEORGIA. 
Augusta. 
C. B. F. Lowe Georgia Chemical Works. 
Nacooche. 
Josiah Curtis. . . .. . Physician. 
FLORIDA. 
Jacksonville. 
A.8. Baldwin . Physician. 
Thomas Bassnett. 
Pensacola. 
Silas Stearns. 
ALABAMA. 
Greensboro’. 
Charles Jones. 
Moulton. 
Thomas M. Peters. . . Judge. 
Tuscaloosa. 


Eugene A. Smith Professor University of Alabama. 


LOUISIANA. 


New Orleans. 


AlcéeHortiers 3.  .) . University of Louisiana, Academical 
Department. 
Secrétaire perpétuel, Athenée Loui- 


siane. 


Alfred Mercier 


OHIO. 
Cincinnati. 
Prof. of Chemistry, Univ. of Cincinnati. 
Prof. Mathematics, Univ. of Cincinnati. 


Demonstrator of Chemistry, Ohio Medi- 
cal College. 


Frank Wigglesworth Clarke 
Edward Wyllys Hyde ... 
Fred A. Roeder . Genel G 


Andrew J. Howe . . Surgeon. 
John M. Scudder . . Physician and Surgeon. 
Pharmacist. 


Theodore L. A. Greve 
W.H.Venable. .. 
dacobeDs Coxwl)) 5: 
H.8. Wayne... . 
Aaron F. Perry . 

HOY H. Vail . ay ens 
IGE MUSING auc oo 6 
Ohio Mechanics Institute. 
Y. M. Mercantile Library Association. 
Eliot A. Kebler. 
Robert Clarke & Co. . 


Principal Chickering Institute. 
Dean Cincinnati College. 
Analytical Chemist. 

Attorney. 

Publisher. 

President Union National Bank. 


Booksellers and Publishers. 


Cleveland. 
W.J.Gordon .... President Mercantile Insurance Co. 
8. H. Freeman. 
Arthur F. Taylor... . . 
Case School of Applied Science. 
H. 1. Dennis. 
J. H. A. Bone 


Professor of Chemistry, Case School. 


Secretary Herald Publishing Company. 


Columbus. 
OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY. 
Professor of Geology. 
Professor Ohio State University. ' 
Teacher State University. | 
Professor Ohio State University. 
IN GENERAL. 
Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station. 
Tienry Snyder, jun. . Teacher Institution for Blind. 
William kh. Lazenby. 


<=> 


L. Lesquereux A 
Edward Orton... . 
Newton M. Anderson. . . 
T. C. Mendenhall . 


Springfield. 
Manager for James Leffel & Co. 
Editor ‘* Farm and Fireside.” ~a| 
Physician. 


F. M. Bookwalter « 
T. J. Kirkpatrick 
Linus E. Russell 


Akron. 


Charles M. Knight. . 254 Carroll Street. 


Cuyahoga Falls. 
Elisha N. Sill. 
Gambier. 


Theodore Sterling . - Professor Kenyon College. 


Georgetown. 
Physician. 


Mount Lookout. 


TECOG MIBUEC HS) ey Orie bel Cincinnati Observatory. 


Thomas W. Gordon . 


Navarre. 
John F. Grossklaus. 
North Bend. 
Robert B. Warder. . 
Oberlin. 


Professor of New-Testament Literature, 


George F. Wright. . . - 
Oberlin College. 


Portsmouth. 


G.8.B. Hempstead . . . Physician. 


Urbana. 
Thomas French, jun. 


Round-Head Post-Office. 
South Bass Island. 
Toledo. 


Groceries and Commission. 
Waynesville. 


P. Manchester. 


Joseph de Rivera. 


Charles W. Bond . 


I. H. Harris. 
Wyoming. 
George M. Maxwell . . . . Clergyman. 


MICHIGAN. 
Ann Arbor. : 


UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, 


Professor of Mineralogy. 

Professor of Chemistry. 

Professor of Astronomy. hS 
Professor of Geology. 


William H. Pettee . Sac 
John W. Langley... .- .- 
Mark W. Harrington. . . 

Alexander Winchell . ... 


Charles K. Wead .. . . . Professor of Physics. 
Lansing. : 
MWyodlo EM Ag a 5 Professor of Botany, State Agricultural 
College. 
R.G. Kedzie .\. . . . .«.. Professor. ‘ 
Jackson. 
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Bloomington. 


Julia R. Hughes. 
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Professor University of Indiana. 
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Connersville. iy 
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eee at 


ria SCIENCE.— LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. 


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_* 

ILLINOIS. 
‘ Chicago. 
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ay Evanston. 


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Galesburg. 
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University of Minnesota. 
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Viles Block, Main Street. 
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G 


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4 
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Lincoln. 


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MISSOURI. 
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' 
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Professor. 


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4 Fayetteville. 
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~ 
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SCIENCE. — LIST OF SUBSCRIBERS. , ‘ 


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Kingston, Ont. : 
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London, Ont. 
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lll Me th — nk 


J.C.K.Laflamme. ... - 


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PERU. 

Igquique. 
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DENMARE, 
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Tewksbury. 


W.S. Symonds. . . + . . Clergyman. 


PUBLISHER'S DEPARTMENT. 


feet ee OT) Ore Ae MET rom: 


BY CHARLES S. BRAY, M.D. 


[From ‘‘ The Century Magazine’? for July.] 


I. INIQUITOUS ADULTERATION. 


‘““THere has been so much adulteration of 
food,’’ said a New-York divine recently, ‘‘ that 
it is an amazement to me that there is a 
healthy man in America. The great want of 
to-day is practical religion, —a religion that 
will correctly label goods, that will prevent a 
mar telling you a watch was made in Geneva 
when it was made in Massachusetts, that will 
keep the ground glass and the sand out of the 
sugar, that will go into the grocery and pull 
out the plug of ale-adulterated sirup, that 
will dump in the ash-barrel the cassia-buds 
that are sold for cinnamon, that will sift out 
the Prussian-blue from the tea-leaves, that 
will keep out of flour the plaster of Paris and 
soapstone, that will separate the one quart of 
Ridgewood water from the one honest drop 
of cow’s milk, that will throw out the live ani- 
malculae from the sugar. Heaven knows what 
they put in the spices, in the butter, or the 
drugs; but chemical analysis and the micro- 
scope haye made wonderful discoveries.’’ 

‘*The Youth’s Companion,’’ in a recent 
article on the adulteration of food, says, — 


** A system of inspection is necessary to protect the 
public from the adulteration of food which is so 
common in this country; especially in the poorer 
quarters of our large cities, where the prices are 
low and the purchasers not fastidious. . . . Large 
quantities of unwholesome meat are sold to the poor, 
such as poultry which has been thrown out of the 
better class of markets, ‘ bob’ veal, the meat of calves 
killed too soon after birth, and beef that comes from 
animals that have been unhealthy before slaughter- 
ng. . . - The health of a community can be serious- 


ly injured by the tricks of dishonest tradesmen, and 


people should be careful in buying food that is offered 
at unusually low prices.” 


These strictures may, perhaps, strike the 
average reader as foreshadowing a crusade 
against the compounders and venders of adul- 
terated food ; but this is not our prime object. 
The combined power of the pulpit and press is 


almost inealculable, and the batteries of the 
latter are being levelled against this ‘‘ common 
enemy ’’ along the whole line. That men, 
induced by the hope of gain, should adulterate 
the staples of life, and thus add crime, and, as 
often follows, murder, to their account on the 
‘Great ‘Ledger’’ of eternity, seems almost 
impossible of conception: and yet it is only 
too true. This criminal practice is as old as 
the hills; and its recent condemnation by the 
clergy and press is only another exemplifica- 
tion of the value of free speech and a free 
press, — two inestimable boons to Americans. 


Il. SPOILED FOOD. 


It is a fact, lamentable enough in itself, 
that food has a natural tendency to decay, 
which men have heretofore unsuccessfully at- 
tempted to check. Especially is this true of 
animal food and its after-products, such as 
butter, cream, milk, cheese, lard, etc. The 
problem of pure, fresh, healthful, cheap food, 
in all climates and seasons, is a field broad 
enough to command the attention of all phi- 
lanthropists. To the rich man all things seem 
possible ; but to the laboring classes this prob- 
lem of fresh and cheap food is, and ever has 
been, a veritable Gordian knot. . 

The laboring man looks forward to Sunday 
for a day of rest and a good dinner. The 
steak, oysters, chop, chicken, and such deli- 
cacies are procured on Saturday, and kept 
over for this sabbath meal. It goes without 
saying, that a lack of ice, a warm room, a 
muggy day, a poorly ventilated cellar, and 
a myriad of such every-day causes and cir- 
cumstances, conspire to spoil these viands. 
Even slightly salted, they lose their fresh 
flavor ; smoked, they are even less desirable ; 
immersed in pickle, or corned, they become 
impregnated with the deadly saltpetre ; placed 
in a refrigerator, they are practically frozen. 


lv SCIENCE. — PUBLISHER’S DEPARTMENT. 


** All such food is injurious to health,’’ says 
a learned Cincinnati judge; yet, left alone to 
the influences of climate, weather, and natural 
surroundings, they speedily spoil. What, 
then, shall rich or poor do to insure the coy- 
eted luxury of fresh, healthful food ? 

The problem has been a knotty one since 
the advent of man upon this terrestrial planet. 
The ‘criminal cupidity of many dealers, on the 
one hand, and the hosts of natural causes of 
decay, and man’s inability to find a reliable, 

safe, and cheap food-preservative, on the other, 
are obstacles which have always heretofore 
confounded the world. 


Ill. FOOD-PRESERVATION. 


One of the largest elements of risk in gen- 
eral farming and in dealing in food-products 
is the loss on perishable goods, both from 
decay and deterioration, as “well as from the 
frequent necessity of forcing such goods upon 
an overstocked market at ruinously “low prices. 
The world has long needed some substance, 
at once harmless and eflicient, to maintain in 
their production that freshness and sweetness 
in provisions so essential to remunerative 
returns. Salted meats are distasteful to many, 
and repugnant and unhealthful to all, where a 
regular diet of such material is maintained. 
Once salted, a piece of beef is immediately 
lowered in value. Millions of dollars’ worth 
of poultry, lamb, veal, and mutton are annu- 
ally lost to the world through the lack of prac- 
tical means of preservation. Milk and cream 
cannot be kept longer than a day or two, and 
tons of butter every year become rancid and 
are sold for grease. The want of a thing 
always directs scientific inquiry and inyentive 
genius toward its discovery. It has been 
known for many months past, in commercial 
and scientific circles, that this important dis- 
covery had been made in a food-preservative 
by Prof. R. F. Humiston of Boston. <A 
series of experiments was conducted to prove 
beyond a doubt the success of his invention, 
which resulted most satisfactorily to a number 
of leading capitalists and scientific men, who 
determined to bring it before the public ina 
large commercial way. 

Professor Humiston must hereafter go down 
to posterity as an inventor or discoverer as 
great as Franklin, Morse, Fulton, or Sir 
Humphry Davy, and for the sufficient reason 
that he has, after long and patient years of 


study and research, with thousands of experi- ° 


ments, discovered and perfected a combination 
of antiseptics, harmless in their nature, which 


is a perfect substitute for ice, 
smoke, heat, alcohol, sulphur, —all the agents, 
indeed, hitherto employed by man in attempt- 


salt, sugar, 


ine to save food. By the use of this preserva- 
tive — which has been happily named ‘* Rex 
Magnus’’ (for it is indeed the ‘‘ great king ”” 
of preservatives) — all organic matter can be 
preserved from decay without the use of any 
of the agents above enumerated. 

The process is cheap, simple, and perfeet ; 


and the results are certain, regardless of sea- 


sons or climates. 


Iv. THE NEW PROCESS. 


In brief, the new process is based upon 
truly scientific principles, perfectly adapted to 
the preservation of a great variety of animal 
and vegetable products. 
less, innocuous white powder, which is dis- 
solyed in water, forming a solution in which 
the beef, or turkey, or mutton is immersed 
and treated, or which may be injected into the 
carotid artery of large animals as soon as the 
blood ceases flowing. By this simple and in- 
expensive process, the 
may be hung up in ordinary temperature, re- 
maining sweet and wholesome for an indefi- 
nite term. Upon the closest scrutiny and the 
most practical and exhaustive experiments, 
certain well-known business gentlemen of 
Boston and vicinity have associated them- 
selves into a corporation, under the name 
of The Humiston Food-Preservying Company, 
choosing Mr. J. Willard Rice of Boston, of the 
well-known paper firm of Rice, Kendall, & Co., 
as their president, and Dr. R. C. Flower, secre- 
tary and treasurer. This company has estab- 
lished a large manufactory at Salem, Mass., 
with a daily capacity of five tons of Rex 
Magnus, and their headquarters at 72 Kilby 
Street, Mason Building, Boston, where may 
be seen and examined a most interesting 
exhibit of fish, fowl, game, beef, mutton, and 
like perishable articles of food, treated with 
Rex Magnus, and exposed to the atmosphere 
of a business office, and to the rays of the sun. 

The public will naturally wish to know the 
means or the action by which this Humiston 
food-preservative performs its important work. 
In fact, the question is already asked, ‘*‘ Why 
is it that this preserves, perfectly sweet and 


pure, for an indefinite period, eas fruits, aes 


vegetables, milk, butter, ete.?”’ 

It is the office of Rex Magnus to oppose 
and prevent putrefaction by the utter destruc- 
tion, or holding at bay, of those parasites that 
prey upon organic matter. 


The basis is a taste- — 


article thus treated | 


Meats, poultry, 


ae 


= 


Pe eee TE Pe 
» ~ . ial 


SCIENCE. — PUBLISHER'S. DEPARTMENT. v 


game, cream, milk, or oysters, preserved by 
this method may be carried across the conti- 
nent, or shipped to Europe, retaining their 
freshness and purity without the use of ice or 
any refrigerating appliance, or they may be 
kept at home for days and weeks, even in the 
hottest weather, improving in taste, besides 
saving much expense in the cost of ice, and 
time and trouble in going to market. There 


Rex Magnus is a valuable discovery, a 
boon to agriculturists, a legitimate business 
enterprise. It is not to be classed for a mo- 


_ ment with the numerous humbugs of the past, 


— ozone, and a host of such, the impossible pro- 


| jeets of scheming men or the visionary dreams 


| of laboratory scientists. 


is ample testimony that these are stubborn | 


facts. It is infallible in its power to preserve, 
of great strength, and concentrated in form, 


tasteless and unobjectionable to the palate, | 


harmless in its effect upon the human system, 
and, finally, capable of almost universal and 
simple application to such food-substances as 
are subject to speedy decay. The food treated 
with Rex Magnus carries no unusual or un- 
natural taste. 
may direct the operation of preserving food. 
The article to be preserved may be wrapped 
in cloths wet in the solution, and occasionally 
redampened, or it may be plunged into a 
tub or jar full of the solution, and allowed to 
remain for several hours. The powder may 
be worked into butter at the time of making, 


filled with the solution, and allowed to remain 
for weeks and months. Dairymen have pre- 
served butter with all the freshness and aroma 
of the June product for six months, and Pro- 
fessor Humiston has preserved eggs entirely 
fresh and sweet for fourteen months at a time. 


V. THOROUGHLY INDORSED. 


It has been subjected to the most severe 
and thorough tests, both by scientific, medical, 
and business men. Professor Samuel W. John- 
son of Yale College, after testing it to his 
entire satisfaction, made a report, in which he 
says, — 


** My tests of thirty-five days, in daily mean tem- 


_ perature of 70°, on meats, etc., bought in open 


market, have certainly been severe; and I am satis- 
fied that the different brands of Rex Magnus, The 
Humiston Food-Preservyative, with which I have ex- 
perimented, have accomplished all claimed for them. 
So far as I have yet learned, they are the only prepa- 
rations that are effective and at the same time practi- 
cable for domestic use. At the banquet on ‘treated’ 
meats at the New-Haven House, I could not distin- 
guish between those which had been sixteen days in 
my laboratory and those newly taken from the refriger- 
ator of the hotel. The oysters were perfectly palatable, 
and fresh to my taste, and better, as it happened, 
than those served at the same time, which were 
recently taken from the shell. The roast beef, 
steak, chicken, turkey, and quail were all as good as 
I have ever eaten. Ishould anticipate no ill results 
from its use, and consider it no more harmful tha 

common salt.” : 


Its use is so simple that a child | 


Professor Humiston 
has devoted many years to studying to assist 
the millions to get cheap food, and, as the 
great aid to this end, made intense application 
and active research in the matter of antiseptics 
alone. He perfected his process, he proved _ 
his theories, he demonstrated the feasibility of 
his methods, he enlisted his co-operators, he 
secured the necessary capital, the company 
was organized, who bought extensive works, 
and they commenced on a commercial basis 
before they took measures to inform the puble 
of this wonderful preservative. 


VI. A BUSINESS BASIS. 


This company is not seeking capital of the 
public: they simply propose to manufacture 


| this preservative on a large scale, to offer it 


for sale eventually in every grocery and pro- 


; | vision store in the land in large or small pack- 
or the balls of butter may be placed in vessels | 


ages. All classes now have an opportunity of 
purchasing the preservative in small and in- 
expensive packages, and of testing, each for 
himself, its value in his own home and busi- 
ness. ‘There is no opportunity or design for 
any misrepresentation or serious disappoint- 
ment in a fair, open transaction like this. 


There are no territorial rights or patent li- 


censes for sale, but every one may have equal — 


and ataple chance to use Rex Magnus. The © 
company offer, however, to supply any one — 
in case his grocer, druggist, or general store- 
keeper hasn’t it on hand — with any brand of — 


Rex Magnus which he may desire, upon re- 


ceipt of the price. They will prepay postage 
charges on sample packages, which cost but_ 
fifty cents per pound for meats, milk, and sea- 
food, while cream and other special brands — 


cost one dollar per pound. ‘ 


VII. PREVIOUS FAILURES. ’ 


The wretched failures by which the public 
has heretofore been deceived have pretended 
to preserve all kinds of food with the same 


compound, — an idea which is preposterous on 
Meat is different in character 


the face of it. 


* 


eb 


ey 


and substance from sea-food, and this from 


milk, cream, and butter, these from eggs, and an 


egos from vegetable juices or fluid extracts. 
Professor Humiston has treated the subject 
in a scientific way. Having thoroughly inves-— 


vi SCIENCE. — PUBLISHER’S 


DEPARTMENT. 


tigated the question of antiseptics, he found 
the properties and chemical analyses of the 
different kinds of food, and then, after thou- 
sands of experiments, having fully learned 
‘what antiseptics and what proportions were 
best adapted for each, he compounded his 
preparations intelligently, each to the purpose 
for which it is especially designed. Herein lies 
his success, and it is herein that all others 
have failed. 


Vill. HIGH TESTIMONY. 


The famous Miss Juliet Corson, in a recent 
article in ‘‘ Harper’s Bazar,’’ on ‘‘ Diet for 
Invalids,’’ and treating especially of game and 
poultry, says, — 


‘While the general rule holds good, that fresh food 
is the most wholesome, and that actual decay in ani- 
mal flesh used for food is apt to produce symptoms 
of irritant poisoning, game is often eaten in an ad- 
vanced stage of decomposition without any percep- 
tible injury to the epicure. Microscopic examination 
of meat which has been exposed to a medium sum- 
mer temperature from 85° to 90° Fahrenheit, for 
three or four days, proves the development, at that 
stage, of a minute organism, termed by physiologists 
the death vibrio. This parasite seems to be present 
in other meats than pork, and, like trichinz, is not 
destroyed by the process of salting and smoking 
meat, or of curing itin brine. Theres no reason to 
suppose that the flesh of game is exempt from the 
presence of this natural product of decomposition. 
When meats containing it are imperfectly cooked, 
their consumption produces gastric disturbance, 
sometimes fatal in its result. As game is generally 
broiled or roasted, the action of intense heat may 
destroy the septic influence of the organism. 


“‘T have considered this rather unpleasant: subject 
at length with the hope that when game is ordered 
for an invalid the caterer may be induced to supply 
it as fresh as possible. As arule, the flesh of game 
is less dense and tough than that of domestic animals, 
so that there is not the same reason for keeping it, in 
order to let it become tender by the first action of 
decomposition. Game is also more digestible than 

_ butcher’s meat, and for that reason may be eaten 
fresher. Its comparative freedom from fat makes it 
relatively more nutritious, while its intense flavor is 
tempting to the appetite. As the taste of the flesh 
and blood of game is nearly identical, the latter is 
generally carefully preserved in cooking.” 


It is in such cases as referred to by Miss 
Corson that Rex Magnus plays a most impor- 
tant part. It is of the utmost moment that the 
food of invalids, as well as of people in good 


health, should be tempting in quality and ap- 
pearance, appetizing in flavor, and tender and 
easy of mastication; but at the same time, 
and above all, it must be perfectly sweet and 
fresh. Special care must also be taken that 
the living creature from which it is derived was 
in a perfect state of health, as otherwise germs 
of disease may be taken into the weak and 
enfeebled system, which perhaps would have 
no detrimental effect upon a state of health. 
Rex Magnus will, as we have already shown, 
enable invalids and others to keep meats, wild 
game, and other like delicacies, in a condition 
perfectly sweet and fresh for any reasonable 
time : sweet-breads have been kept four months, 
and cream nearly as long, and both sweet, and 
known as difficult to keep. Game can be 
treated with it when first killed, and then 
shipped to market ; or, by taking care to pur- 
chase only that which is sound and good, it 
can be treated at home, and then kept until 
wanted, improving in quality, and growing 
more tender, digestible, and wholesome. It 
goes farther, and is of even greater value to the 
million as a preventive of disease and an aid 
to health. It not only arrests and prevents 
decay, and thereby obviates the danger of eat- 
ing partially decomposed food, but it counter- 
acts and destroys any hidden germs of disease, 
and renders all articles treated by it wholesome 
and harmless. In this respect it is a great 
boon to mankind. 

Professor Humiston is a little over fifty 
years of age, is a native of that grand old 
town, Great Barrington, Mass. He received 
his M.A. at the Western Reserve College. He 
has the honor of being a Fellow of the Chemi- 
cal Society of London, and also of the Geo- 
logieal Society, being elected after unusually 
severe examinations. President Huxley, of 
the latter society, said that ‘‘no American 
should boast, of an election without a hard 
struggle.’’ In evidence of this prejudice toward 
Americans, the fact that Professor Humiston 
was given two hundred and fifty questions — 
five times the usual number — may be cited. 
He is now superintendent of the company’s 
works, which will insure the most careful prod- 
uct for this ‘‘ mighty king ’’ of food-preserya- 
tives. This company is meeting with great 
success, and deservedly. 


. a. Mee rs te hs A. * VF > (sere Mo Ue 


q PUBLISHER’S DEPARTMENT. 


é THE ART OF BOOK-BINDING. 
: BY HENRI PENE DUBOIS.1 
A very curious essay might be written on The prejudice in favor of ancient binding 


the history of book-binding, the fascinating | was displayed as recently as in the report of 
department of the bibliomania which immor- | the international book-binding exhibition of 
talized Grollier. . 1857, wherein the judges, Merlin, Capé, and 
At the beginning, it was the art of goldsmiths | Bauzonnet, expressed the opinion advanced — 

; and enamellers ; and books were adorned with | by Roscoe. They went farther than this in oe 
__a silver cover, gilt, and precious stones. In | their extollation of the masters of the three 

Chaucer’s time the fashionable binding was | preceding centuries, especially of those whom, — 
various-colored velvet, as in the Prologue to | as Dibdin would say, St. Jerome or St. Austin 


. 


. the ‘* Canterbury Tales :’? — would have lashed for the gorgeous decorations — - 

; of their volumes. But there was a feature in 

: “& twenty bokes, clothed in black or red, that exhibition of special interest to Ameri- _ 

. bal can bibliophiles. " 

. And it was not until the close of the fifteenth Holland (once famous for its bindings of ; ha 


century that the usual ornaments of silver, and | vellum), Germany (whose gilders had been — 
massive clasps, and thick metalled corners, | constantly employed by the binders of France), — is 
were discarded. Spain, and Italy exhibited nothing but copies iz e 
They were destined to render a book imper- | of the declining French art. 
| vious to external injury; but in the wooden The rivalry existed between France and — 
. covers the worm was secretly engendered, and | England. France excelled in taste and finish, — 
___ its ravages attest the defectiveness of ancient | but at some sacrifice of flexibility; while in 
binding. Mr. Roscoe wrote eloquently in | England the soft and coaxing manner in which, 
commendation of it, however, in his ‘‘ Lorenzo | by the skill of Herring or Mackinlay, ‘leaf suc- 
de Medici: ”’ ‘* A taste for the exterior decora- | ceeds to leaf,’’ was spoiled by the tarnishing 
tion of books has lately arisen in this country, | of the once blazing gilt edges. Oa 
in the gratification of which no small share of It became evident to an impartial observer 
ingenuity has been displayed ; but, if we are to | that the decline of the art of book-binding was 
judge of the present predilection for learning | due to the apathy of the book-collectors. ee 
* by the degree of expense thus incurred, we It owed its existence to them, and to them ; 
‘ must consider it as greatly inferior to that of | only; and they, too, were responsible for its 
the Romans during the time of the first em- | decadence. Therefore I presumed little in 
perors, or of the Italians at the fifteenth cen- | my estimation of the value of that exhibition — 
tury. And yet it is difficult to discover why | to American bibliophiles: it inspired Brad-— 
“a favorite book should not be as proper an | streets of New York with the thought that the 
object of elegant ornament as the head of a | art of book-binding was not to be restricted to” : 
cane, the hilt of a sword, or the latchet of a | one nation, or to one family, as tradition would > i. 
shoe.”’ have it in France, but that it would flourish 


we 


'f 


~ 


_ 
1 This monograph on the art of book-binding is practically a partial reprint of a neat, small pamphlet issued by The Bradstreet Com- : 
pany. A copy of the pamphlet can be had free by addressing The Bradstreet Company at its main offices, No. 279 Btoadway, — 
7 New York, or any of its branch offices throughout the world. 


vi 


wherever it would find a Meecenas. Although 
the art of book-binding is not deteriorating in 


this seen in the fact that in the interval of the 
past twenty-five years the book-collectors there 
have rallied to its support, — nevertheless, the 
American bibliophiles are so increasing in 
number and in strength, that a good portion 
of the most valuable books of the European 
 auction-marts are finding their way to this 
country, many of which have been intrusted 
to Bradstreets to do the very ¢lass of work 
that bibliophiles were wont, in spite of the 
_ most vexatious delays, to send to English and 
_ French binders; and now, I should say, de- 
 servedly too, because there is a solidity, 
strength, and squareness of workmanship 
about the books of the Bradstreets’ bindery, 
__ which baffle the closest scrutiny. Their gild- 
ing, too, is perfect, both in choice of ornament 
and in splendor of gold. There is no reason 
for their being of less potent renown than any 
of their predecessors. 

The bibliophiles will appreciaté this de wisw. 

The uninitiated should be aware of the qual- 
ities that constitute a good binding. It ought 
to unite solidity with elegance: the volume 
- should open easily, and remain open at any 
page, the back flexible, and the leaves evenly 
cut. The gilding and other ornaments should 
be left to the artist; but the book-collector 
should supervise the inscription of the title as 
- a precaution against the unfortunate experience 
of an ardent book-lover whose uncut scarce 
edition of the works of Brantéme, confided to 
an artistic but dreadfully provincial book- 
binder, was returned to him with the leaves 
scrupulously cut, and the volumes inscribed as 
follows : — 


Bran Tome TI. 
Bran Tome I. 
Bran Tome ITI. 


SCIENCE. — PUBLISHERS DEPAR TMEN T 


and so on to the ninth volume. And Dibdin 


| relates, among anecdotes of barbarous titles 


England orin France at present, — especially is _ 


applied to precious works, the discovery by a 
well educated bibliomaniac of the first and 


5 es 4 
_ almost unknown edition of the ‘‘ Decameron’’ “a 


| of Boccaccio, in a volume entitled ‘* Concilium 
Tridenti.’’ ‘ 

Those are primary considerations ; but there 
are others which relate to the expression of 


the binding of a book. It should be sad or 
gay, sombre or brilliant, in accord with the 

tone of the work, its spirit, and its epoch. 

Didot even insisted upon a refinement in the 

matter of color, advising chromo-bibliotacts, 

as they are aptly styled by Uzanne, to clothe 

their works on theology in purple, astronomy 

in azure, and travels in marine blue, — pre-_ 
sumably in accordance with the good and yery 

appropriate metaphor of the inscription on a 

king of Egypt’s bookcase, ‘‘ Treasure of 

the Remedies of the Soul;’’ books being, like 

drugs, to be taken with discretion and in 

various doses, and their outward appearance 

to denote the nature of the remedy they con- 
tain in order that the poison be not mistaken 
for the antidote. 

Thouvenin, as every bibliophile knows, was 
puffed by Nodier; but he failed to appreciate 
in his workmanship that evidence of the ss 
eternal fitness of things, wherefore his glory 
is gradually waning. A good point might be 
made of this in favor of American artists ; for 
no man can put a varied-colored morocco coat 
upon the back of a book with greater care, 
taste, and success, than Bradstreets, who are, 
in fact, the American bibliopegists. oy, 

And I do not hesitate to commend their — 
work to that eclectism of the veritable con- — 
noisseur, which is not to be affected by cama- 
raderie, nor swayed by the dictates of the 5 
votaries of fashion. 


-) 


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