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SCIENCE
AI WOH Y OW iN Ads
DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.
EprIToRIAL CommirreE: S. NEwcoms, Mathematics; R. S. WoopwARD, Mechanics; E. C. PICKERING,
Astronomy; T. C. MENDENHALL, Physics; R. H. THuRston, Engineering; IRA REMSEN, Chemistry;
J. LE ContE, Geology; W. M. DAvis, Physiography; O. C. MARsH, Paleontology; W.K.
Brooks, C. HART MERRIAM, Zoology; S. H. ScuDDER, Entomology; N. L. BrITron,
Botany; HENRY F. OsBoRN, General Biology; H. P. Bowpircu, Physiology;
J. 8. BInLines, Hygiene ; J. MCKEEN CATTELL, Psychology ;
DANIEL G. BRINTON, J. W. POWELL, Anthropology ;
G. BROWN GOODE, Scientific Organization.
NEW SERIES. VOLUME IIL
JANUARY -JUNE, 1896.
Geos INS Fi Tur
SS
ae Wwe NEW YORK.
‘ WaTionaL. ©
Son THE MACMILLAN COMPANY.
1896
THE NEW ERA PRINTING HOUSE,
41 NORTH QUEEN STREET,
LANCASTER, Pa.
CONTENTS AND INDEX.
N.S. VOL. WI—JANUARY TO JUNE, 1896.
The Names of Contributors are Printed in Small Capitals.
Abel, J. J., Chemical Properties of the Pigment of
the Negro’s Skin, 110
Absolute and the Relative, J. W. POWELL, 743
Acetylene, and its Effect on the Animal System, 198,
Gas, 200 ; A Lecture upon, J. M. CRAFTS, 377
Achelis, Thomas, Moderne VOlkerkunde, deren Ent-
wicklung und Aufgaben, D. G. BRINTON, 482
ADAMS, FRANK D., The Embankments of the River
Po, 759
Adams, G. I., Extinct Felidze, 817
Adirondack, Mountains and Valleys, 659, Preserve,
702
Aerodrome, A Successful Trial of the, S. P. LANGLEY,
A. GRAHAM BELL, 753
sop in Aztec, 129
Agassiz, Louis, Life, Letters and Works of, Jules
Marcou, 745
Agricultural Appropriation Bill, 352
Agriculture, A permanent Scientific Head for the U.
S. Department of, 278, 350; and Horticulture,
Notes on, Byron D. HALSTED, 398, 588, 698,
767, 834; First Principles of, 589; in Great Brit-
ain, 897
Alabama Industrial and Scientific Society, KUGENE
A. SMITH, 852
Alaska as it was and is, 1865-1895, W. H. DALL, 37, 87
Alcohol, Study of, in Schools, 281
ALDRICH, T. B., Fluid Secreted by Anal Glands of
Mephitis Mephitica, 111
ALLEN, J. A., Vertebrata of the Land (Birds and
Mammals) in the Antarctic Regions, 317; Amer-
ican Shrews, C. Hart Merriam, Gerrit S. Miller,
411; ‘Progress in American Ornithology, 1886-—
95,’ 777, 841
Allen, J. A., Alleged Changes of Color in the Feathers
of Birds without Molting, 557; on Gitke’s Heli-
goland as an Ornithological Observatory, 638
Amber-producing Tree, an American, F. H. KNowL-
TON, 582
American, Association for the Advancement of Sci-
ence, 701, 838, 893; Journal of Science, 32, 174,
370, 527, 673, 816 ‘
Americanists, Society of, at Paris, 349
Anatomical, Material, Report of the Committee on
the Collection and Preservation of, J. EwIne
Mears, J. D. BRYANT, THOMAS DWIGHT, 77;
Law of the State of Pennsylvania, 84
Anatomists, Report of the Eighth Annual Meeting of
American, D. 8S. Lams, 73
Anatomy, Points in Practical, 587
Ancient Illyrians, 587
Angell, Prof., and Dr. Moore, Reaction-time Exper-
iments, 712
Anomalies, The Significance of, THomAs DWIGHT, 776
Antarctic, Exploration, 63, 132, 352; and Adjacent
Regions, The Origin and Relations of the Floras
and Faunas of the, ANGELO HEILPRIN, W. B.
Scott, N. L. Brirron, A. S. PACKARD, THEO.
GILL, J. A. ALLEN, 305
Anthropological, Society of Washington, 35; GEORGE
k. Stetson, 141; J. H. McCormick, 531, 642;
Officers of, 165; Woman’s, A. CARMEN, 376,
487; Club of New York, 402; Institute of Great
Britain, 733; Section of New York Academy of
Sciences, LIVINGSTON FARRAND, 750
Anthropologic Study of Personality, 663
Anthropologist, The American, 65
Anthropology, Current Notes on, DANIEL G. BRIN-
TON, 19, 62, 94, 128, 277, 349, 397, 509, 552, 586,
624, 663, 699, 733, 767, 833, 861, 895; of Woman,
19; Fourth Congress of Criminal, 772
Anthropometry of the American Indians, 278
Antiquarian Society, American, 701
Ants, Honey, L. O. H., 923
Ape-man from the Tertiary of Java, O. C. Marsa, 789
Arboretum of Puget Sound University, 436
Archeology, Researches in American, 624.
Arctic, Exploration, 593, 804, 897; Chart, 804
Argon, Prizes for Discovery of, 237
Arnold, Carl, Repetitorium der Chemie, S., 815
Asiatic Elements of the Tribes of Southern Mexico,
803
Astor Library, 774
Astronomical and Physical Section of the New York
Academy of Sciences, W. HaLLocKk, 142, 454,
787; J. F. Kemp, 643 “
Astronomers of the Twentieth Century, Some Prob-
lems about to Confront the, J. K. REEs, 717
Astronomy, H. J., 21, 63, 95, 129, 164, 197, 279, 320,
351, 401, 433, 475, 553, 896, 922; American
Judgments of American Astronomy, S. NEw-
CoMB, 284; at the Berlin Exposition, 629; at the
Cape of Good Hope, 840
Astrophysical Journal, 175, 450, 748
Atwater, W. O., Chemistry of Nutrition, 489
Auk, The, 638; Eggs of the Great, 701
B., F., Seventh Annual Meeting of the American
" Folk-lore Society, 86
B., W.8., Grundriss der Krystallographie, Gottlob
Linck, 902
Bacteria in the Dairy, 399
Bacteriosis of Carnations, '767
BAILey, L. H., Line Drawings of Blue Print, 67;
The Untechnical Terminology of the Sex-Rela-
tion of Plants, 825
BAILEY, VERNON, Occurrence of the Native Wood
Rat at Washington, 628
iv SCIENCE.
Bailey, Vernon, Tamarack Swamps as Boreal Islands, —
250
Baker, C. F., Neolarra, 108
BALDWIN, J. MARK, Heredity
559; Instinct, 669
Balloons and Kites, in Cloud Observations, 801
Baltic Sea, 660
Bancroft, W. D., The Chemical Potential of the
Metals, 176 d
Bangs, Outram, The Terrapin, 455; A Review of the
Weasels of Eastern North America, C. H. M., 525
BARNES, C. R., The Application of Sex Terms to
Plants, ‘928.
Barus, Carl, The Curl Aneroid, 175
Bascom, F., Pre-Tertiary Nepheline-Bearing Rock, 568
BastEepDO, W. A., The Torrey Botanical Club, 571,
716, 751, 852, 935
Batrachians and Crustaceans from the Subterranean
Waters of Texas, 734
Baur, G., Grundziige der Marinen Tiergeographie,
Arnold E. Ortmann, 359
Bay, J. CHRISTIAN, Hansen’s Studies in Fermenta-
tion, 600
BEAL, F. E. L., Food of the European Rook, 918
Beal, F. E. L., Food of the Cowhbird, 604; Food of
the Bluejay, 417
Beard, to Prevent the Growth of, L. O. HowARD, 813
Becker, Geo. F., Gold Deposits in Alaska, 31
Beecher, C. E., Morphology of Triarthrus, 528; An-
tenn of Tribolites, 749
Behrens, H., Anleitung zur Mikrochemischen An-
alyse der wichigsten organischen Verbindungen,
IRA REMSEN
BELL, A. GRAHAM, S. P. LANGLEY,
Trial of the Aerodrome, 753
Bell, Robert, Rising of Land around Hudson Bay, 53
Benjamin, Marcus, Smithsonian Institution’s Contri-
butions to Chemistry from 1846 to 1896, 178;
Josiah P. Cooke, 249
Benjamin, Park, The Intellectual Rise in Electricity,
104
Bergen, Fanny, Current Superstitions collected from
the Oral Tradition of the English Speaking Folk,
.D. G. BRINTON, 850,
Beyer, H. G., Influence of Exercise on Growth, 118
Bibliographicum, Concilium, 96
Bibliographical Classification, 133
Bibliographie, Institut International de, 166
BIGELOW, F. H., International Cloud Observations,
653
Bigelow’s, Papers on Meteorology and Solar Physics,
A Review of, W. 8. FRANKLIN, 807; Solar Mag-
netic Work, M., 860
BiGNEY, A. J., Indiana Academy of Science, 216
Billings, John §., Elected Librarian of Consolidated
N. Y. Libraries, 98
Biological, Society of Washington, Election of Offi-
cers, 23; F. A. Lucas, 34, 139, 231, 249, 417,
486, 603, 677, 713, 821, 878, 934; Section, N. Y.
Academy, BASHFORD DEAN, 33; C. L. BRISTOL,
213, 454, 529; Station, English Marine, 283; of
the Bahamas, 591; at Las Cruces, 773
Biology, Sham, The Disappearance of, from America,
Conway MACMILLAN, 634
Birchmore, Prof., Absorption Spectra, 679
Bird lice, 630
Birds, Extinct, 355; Preservation of, 925
BisHop, SERENO E., Temperature of the Earth’s
Crust, 409
and Instinct, 438,
A Successful
CONTENTS AND
INDEX.
Bison, Discovery of Extinct Species of, 321
Blackboard, Improved, BEN K. EMERSON, 168
Blarina Brevicauda, Three Subcutaneous Glandular
Areas of, ELLIOTT COUES, 779
Blindness in Scandinavia, 22
Blount, Bertram, and A. G. Bloxam, Chemistry for
Engineers and Manufacturers, FRANK H. THORP,
566
Boas, FRANZ, The Child and Childhood in Folk
Thought, 741; Antropometria Militare, Ridolfo
Livi, 929
Boas, Franz, Indianische Sagen von der Nordpaci-
fischen Ktiste Amerikas, A. 8. G., 413 ; Correla-
tions of Anthropometric. Measurements, 751
Bolton, F. E., Accuracy of Recollection, 713
Bolton, H. Carrington, Berthelot’s Cone tinenons to
the History of ( Chemistry, 821
Bonney, T. G., Charles Lyell and Modern Recons.
BAILEY WILLIS, 68
Boston Society of Natural History, SAMUEL HEN-
SHAW, 179, 212, 295, 373, 455, 536, 607
Bostw. IcK, ARTHUR E., The Theor ‘y of Probabilities,
66
Botanical, Explorations in Nicaragua and Africa, 165;
Club, Torrey, H. H. Ruspy, 179, 295, 372; W.
A. BASTEDO, 571, 716, 751, 852, 935; Department
of, at Cornell University, 438; Gazette, 554; So-
ciety of America, 735; Gardens of New York, 404,
772, 773, 924; Missouri, 896, 923
Bourne, G. C., The Cell Theory, 926
Bows and Arrows of Central Brazil, O. T. MAson, 868
Brain and Spinal Cord in Man, The Relation of, 94
Brewster, William, Natural History of Trinidad, 295
BRINTON, DANIEL G., Current Notes on Anthropol-
ogy, 19, 62, 94, 128, 277, 349, 397, 509, 552, 586,
624, 663, 699, 733, 767, 833, 861, 895; The Re-
ligions of India, Edward W. Hopkins, 173; The
Teaching of the Vedas; Maurice Phillips, 173;
Scientific Materialism, 324; Ethnology, A. H.
Keane, 449, 811; Moderne Volkerkunde deren
Entwicklung und Aufeaben, Thomas <Achelis,
482; The Child and Childhood in Folk Thought,
Alexander F. Chamberlain, 483; Die Bronzezeit
in Oberbayern, Julius Naue, 849; Current Super-
stitions Collected from the Oral Traditions of
the English-Speaking Folk, Fanny D. Bergen,
850
Brinton, D. G., Scientific Study of Man, 239; Use of
the Cranio-facial Line, 420
Brinton, Dr., on Keane’s Ethnology, A. H. KEANE,
D. G. BRINTON, 811
BRISTOL, C. L., Biological Section of N. Y. Academy
of Sciences, 213, 454, 529
Bristol, C. L., Nephelis, 33
British, Association, 402, 434, 802, 863; Columbia,
The Interior Plateau of, 732
Brirron, N. L., Botany in the Antarctic Regions, 310
Brogger, W. C,, The Eruptive Sequence, ANDREW
C. Law SON, 635
Brongniart’s Paleozoic Insects, SAMUEL H. SCUDDER,
410
Brooks, W. K., Logic and the Retinal Image, 443;
Is there More than One Kind of Knowledge?
631; The Retinal Image, Once More, 634; Zoology
and Biology, 708; What is Truth? 779
Brown, A. E., Pithecanthropus erectus, 715
Buda-Pesth Millennial, 737, 773, 803, 865
Buddha-like Figures in America and Elsewhere, 768
Buffalo, Extinction of the, 320
NEW i |
Vol. III.
Bull-Roarer or Buzz, 895
Bumpus, H. C., Report of the Fourteenth Annual
Meeting of the American Society of Naturalists,
Philadelphia, 297
C., G. C., The Herschels and Modern Astronomy,
Agnes M. Clerke, 327
C., J. McK., ‘Professors’ Garner and Gates, 134; The
Rontgen Rays, 325; Physiological Concomitants
of Sensation, 626
CAJORI, FLORIAN, WILLIAM STRIEBY, Coin Distor-
tions by the Réntgen Rays, 635; Darkening of
the Cathode in a Crookes Tube, 901
California Science Association, M. W. HASKELL,
126
Cambridge, Advanced Study and Research in the
University, 866
Campbell, Douglas Houghton, Structure and De-
velopment of Mosses and Ferns, L. M. UNDER-
woop, 70
Campbell, M. R., Drainage Modifications, 51;
Ridge, N. C., 714
Canadian Archeology, 733
Carey, E. P., Ice Phenomena in Green Bay, Lake
Michigan, 715
CARMEN, A., The Woman’s Anthropological Society,
376, 487
Carus, Paul, Nature of Pleasure and Pain, 603
Case, E. C., Experiments in Ice Motion, 31
CASEY, TuHos. L., A Meteor, 783
Catalogue of Science, the International, 664
Cathode, in a Crookes Tube, Darkening of, FLORTAN
CAJORI, WILLIAM STRIEBY, 901 ; The Rotating,
FRANCIS E. NIPHER, 783
Catskill and Helderberg Escarpments, 396
CATTELL, HENRY W., Application of the X-Rays to
Surgery, 344
Catrert, J. McKeen, The Material and the Efficient
Causes of Evolution, 668; Fear, Angelo Mosso,
747; ‘That Great Law of Logie,’ 814
Cattell, op McKeen, Presidential Address, 120; A
Method ot Determining Photometric Differences
by the Time of Perception, 750
Celestial Mechanics since the Middle of the Century,
Remarks on the Progress of, G. W. HILL, 333
Celts, The Question of, 522
Census, Universal, 199
Certitudes and Illusions, J. W. PowELL, 263, 426,
444, 595; JostAH Royce, 354; M., 513, 631
Challenger Report, 803
CHAMBERLAIN, ALEXANDER F., The Child and
Childhood in Folk Thought, 813
Chamberlain, Alexander, F., The Child and Childhood
in Folk Thought, D. G. Brinton, 483
CHANDLER, JOHN R., Ruins of Quirigud, 832
Chapman, H. (Ch, Methods of Teaching Physiology, 118
Chemical, Journal, American, J. ELLIorrT GILPIN,
72, 138, 371, 528, 674, 817; Society of Wash-
ington, A. C. PEALE, 178, 249, 419, 604, 821,
905; of London, 199; N. Y. Section, DURAND
WoopMAN, 215, 332, 489, 679, 935; Wa. Mc-
MURTRIE, 820; Progress, Recent, 771
Chemische Gesellschaft, Deutsche, Members of the,
628, 925
Chemistry, International Congress of Applied, 738
Cherries, 699.
Chestnut, V. K., Recent Investigations on Rhus
Poisoning, 677; Some Vegetable Skin Irritants
and their Chemical Composition, 905
Blue
SCIENCE. “
Child, and Childhood in Folk Thought, D. G. Brin-
TON, 483; FRANZ Boas, 741; ALEX. F. CHAM-
BERLATIN, 813; Mind and the Savage Mind, 586
Children, Studies in the Moral Development of, J. F.
Morse, 669
Chittenden, R. H., Mucin of White Fibrous Connec-
tive Tissue, 109
Chuar, Hegel and Spencer,
LERTON, 406.
Civilization and Science,
THOMAS DWIGHut, 75
CLARK, W. B., Mollusca and Crustacea of the Mio-
cene Formations of New Jersey, R. P. Whitfield,
291; Potomac River Section of the Middle At-
lantic Coast, Eocene, 674
Clarke, J. M.; Structure of Paleozoic Barnacles, 451;
Report on Field Work, in Chenango Co., N. Y.,
C. S. PROSSER, 525
Clay Occurrences in Missouri, G. T. Lapp, 691
CLAYTON H. HELM, Cyclones and Anti-Cyclones, 325
Clerke, Agnes M., The Herschels and Modern Astron-
omy, Cu. C, 327
Climate of the Falkland Islands, 861.
Climatology of Maryland, 922
Cloud, Burst and Water Gaps in Alabama, 276; Ob-
servations, International, F. H. BrcELow, 653;
Stations, International, 860; Types, Illustrations
of, 860
Coa] Fields, Notes on the Cerillos, JoHn J. STEVEN-
son, 392
Coastal Desert of Peru, 859
Coasts, Types of Lowland, F. P. G., 128
Coceidee, Italian, L. O. Howarp, 903
Color, Vision and Light, W. LECONTE STEVENS, 478;
of Water as affected by Convectional Currents,
696; blindness, 897
Colors named in J.iterature, 861
Columbia University, The Dedication of the New Site
of, 681
Commerce across Behring Straits, 349
Comstock, JOHN HENRY, Cambridge Natural His-
tory, Vol. V.. F. G Sinclair. David Sharp, 326
CONKLIN, E. G., Weismann on Germinal Selection,
- 853
Conklin, E. G., Cell Size and Body Size, 59
Conn, H. W., Naturwissenschaftliche Einfithrung
in die Bakteriologie, Ferdinand Hueppe, 747
Consciousness, The Subject of, JOHANNES REHMKE,
743 ; J. W. POWELL, 815
Consolidated Libraries, 802
Cook, O. F., Third Report of the Board of Managers of
the N. Y. State Colonization Society, W J
McGEE, 672
Cooke, M. C., Introduction to the Study of Fungi,
Byron D. HALSTED, 367
Corr, E. D., The Formulation of the Natural Sciences,
299
Cope, E. D., Fossil Reptiles of the Order Cotylo-
sauria, 373 ; Consciousness and Evolution, 121 ;
Remains of Extinct Animals found in Port
Kennedy Bone-Fissure, 908
Coral Atoll, Deep Borings in, 164
Cornman, Oliver, The Processes of Ideation, 120
CouES, ELLIOTT, Three Subcutaneous Glandular
4 Areas of Blarina Brevicauda, 779
CraArFts, J. M., A Lecture upon Acetylene, 377
Crater Lake, 837
Crocker, Francis B., Electric Lighting, A. S. Kim-
BALL, 931
GEORGE STUART FUuL-
Our Contributions to,
vi SCIENCE.
Crook, A. R., Northwestern University Science Club, ©
456, 644, 788, 824
Crosby, W. O., and A. W. Graham, Modified Drift of
the Boston Basin, 212 ; Englacial Drift, 602
Cross, Charles R., X-rays, 607
Cross, Whitman, Diorite of Ophir Loop, Colo., 605 ;
Formation of the Rocky Mountain Region, 642
Crysostom, Brother, Will Development, 121
Currants, 699
Currents, Equatorial Counter, 921; Planetary and
Terrestrial, 921
Curtis, H. Holbrook, Voice Building and Tone Plac-
ing, W. HALLOocK, 901
Curtis, W. E., Social Evil in Japan, 35
Curtis, J. G., Recording Muscle Curves, 115
Cushing, A. R., Distribution of Iron in Invertebrates,
110
Cushing, H. P., Areal Geology of Glacier Bay, Alaska,
33; Pre-Cambrian and Post-Ordovician Trap
Dykes, 677
CusHMAN, HoLBRooK, Simplex Spectroscope, 45
Cyclones and Anti-Cyclones, H. HELM CLAYTON, 325
Czyszkowski, S., Deposition of Gold, South Africa, 749
DALL, W. H., Alaska as it was and is, 1865-1895, 37, 87;
Gastropoden der Plankton Expedition, Dr. H.
Simroth, 69; New Data on Spirula, 243; Geologi-
cal Biology, Henry Shaler Williams, 445; A Text-
book of Comparative Anatomy, Arnold Lang, 847
Dall, Wm. H., St. Elias Bear, 713
Daly, R. A., Quartz Porphyry and associated Rocks
of Pequawket Mountain, 752
Dana, James Dwight, J. W. POWELL, 181
DANIEL, JOHN, The X-Rays, 562
Danish Antiquities, 552
Danube, 473
Darton, N. H., Stream Robbing in the Catskills, 52;
Coastal Plain Series in 8. Carolina, 56; Atlantic
Coastal Plain from N. Jersey to 8. Carolina,
57; Geology of Black Hills of 8S. Dakota, 418
Davis, W. M., Current Notes in Physiography, 61,
127, 195, 275 396, 472, 589, 659, 731, 799, 858, 920
Davis, W. M., Lava Beds of Meriden, Conn., 32;
Outline of Cape Cod, 49; Plains of Marine and
Subaérial Denudation, 50; An Elementary Pres-
entation of the Tides, 569; Excursion to the
Middle Susquehanna, Pa., 786
DEAN, BASHFORD, Biological Section, New York
Academy of Science, 33
Dean, Bashford, Paleospondylus, 214; Gastrulation
of Teleosts, 60
Deaths: Eyvind Astrup, 165; Alfonso Ademello, 98; A.
E. Beach, 66; J. G. Bourke, 899; Thos. Lincoln
Casey, 510; J. B. Cummings, 555; Abbé Delaney,
804; M. Daubrée, 899; Dr. Fauvel, 22; Francis
R. Fava, 510; Joseph Fiorelli, 199; Dr. Finkeln-
burg, 899; C. P. Frost, 839; Andrew 8. Fuller,
737; John Gundlach, 511; William Hanke, 899;
John Russell Hind, 65; Dr. Hossius, 899; George
Johnson, 899; Alfred L. Kennedy, 200; Adelbert
Kruger, 774; Laughton Macfarlane, 352; Ludwig
Mark, 899; Ernst Padova, 838; A. de Cer-
queira Paito, 98; M. Raulin, 899; Paul Reis,
98; Jules Reiset, 239; Russell Reynolds, 899;
Gerhard Rohlfs, 864; P. C. Sappey, 555; Prof.
Schickendantz, 899; Germain Sée, 804; William
Sharp, 629; Dr. Sickenberger, 98; Richard Sims,
899; D. D. Slade, 282; J. A. Stolz, 899; B. F.
Tweed, 555; A. S. Woiloff, 22
CONTENTS AND
INDEX.
Declination Systems of Boss and Auwers, H. J., 241.
Decomposition of Ferric Chloride and Oxalie Acid, 22
De Lapparent’s Lecons de Geographie Physique, 731
Descartes’ Works, 805 ~
Detrital Slopes and Arid Regions, 590
Dewey, H. L., The Tumbling Mustard, 822
DEWEY, JOHN, Psychology of Number, 286
DitieER, J. 8., Smeeth Separating Apparatus, 857
Diller, J. S., Structure and Age of the Cascade Range,
823
Diphtheria, 323
Discussion and Correspondence, 66, 99, 167, 201, 241,
284, 323, 354, 406, 438, 478, 513, 558, 595, 631,
668, 705, 739, 776, 807, 841, 866, 900, 928
Distance, Notes on the Perception of, Hrram M.
STANLEY, 781
Dodge, C. R., Undeveloped American Fibers, 639
Dodge, R. E., Geography and Geology for Training
and Elementary Schools, 491; Cretaceous and
Tertiary Peneplains of Eastern Tennessee, 531
DoLLEY CHARLES S., and SENECA EGBERT, ROntgen
Rays Present in Sunlight, 367
Dolley, Charles S., Food Supply of Oysters, 823
Dorsey, C. W., Experiments Imitative of Glacial
Esker and Sand Plain Formation, 492
Doveuas, A. W., St. Louis Academy of Science, 36
Droughts and Famines in India, 196
Dudley, P. H., Steel Rails, 643
Dwieut, THOMAS, Our Contribution to Civilization
and to Science, 75; The Significance of Anomalies,
776
DyAR, HARRISON G., Coleoptera, 97
Earll, Robert Edward, G. BRowN Goopk, 471
Earthquake in Japan, 924
Eastman, C. R., Function and Systematic Importance
of Aptychus in Ammonites, 751
Eccles, R. G., Calycanthus, 332
Eclipse, Total Solar, 352, 556, 593, 838, 863; The
Chance of Observing in Norway, A. LAWRENCE
RorcH, 356
Edinger, Ludwig, Cortical Optical Centers in Birds,
ELDRIDGE, GEORGE H., On the Occurrence of Uintaite
in Utah, 830
Electrical, Exposition in New York, 436; Energy ob-
tained from Coal, 775
Exuiorr, Henry W., Newly Hatched Chickens In-
stinctively Drink, 482
Embryo of Pteris, Development of, F. D. KELSEY, 67
Emerson, B. K., Improved Blackboard, 168
Emmons, 8. F., Geological Literature of S. African
Republic, 247
Engine, Quadruple Expansion at Cornell University,
404
Engineering, Experiment Stations for, 20
Entomological Society of Washington, L. O. HowARD,
36, 107, 294, 453, 678, 905
Entomology, 474; Bulletins of the Division of, 665
Equilibrium, the Sense of, C. L. F., 625
Erosion, Epochs, Two—Another Suggestion, W J Mc-
, GEB, 796
Etard, A., Les nouvelles théories chimiques, FERDI-
NAND G. WIECHMANN, 137
Ethnic Anatomy, Comparative, 834 -
Ethno-Botanic Garden, JOHN W. HARSHBERGER, 203
Ethnographic Surveys, 277
NEW SERIES.
Vot. III.
Ethnography of Burmah, 587 :
Ethnology, of Madagascar, 62; Geography and His-
tory, 397; of Tibet, 624
Eyermann, Barton W., Batrachians and Crustaceans
from Artesian Well, 693; The Story of Two Sal-
mon, 677; Fishes and Fisheries of Indian River,
Fla., 934
Evolution, The Material and the Efficient Causes of,
J. MCKEEN CATTELL, 668
Ewell, E. E., and H. W. Wiley, Effect of Acidity on
the Development of the Vitrifying Organs, 906;
Chemistry of Cactaceze, 906
Exploration in Lower California, 396
Eyerman, John, Genus Temnocyon and New Genus
Hypotemnodon, 749
¥#., C. L., The Sense of Equilibrium, 625; The In-
verted Image on the Retina, 517, 201
Feeroes, 396
FAIRBANKS, HAROLD W., Note on a Breathing Gas
Well, 693
Fairbanks, H. W., Geology of Eastern California, 210;
Mineral Deposits of Eastern California, 451
Fairchild, H. L., Kame Areas of Western New York,
55, 568
Farms, Experimental, B. E. FERNow, 136
FARRAND, LIVINGSTON, The Beginnings of Writing,
Walter James Hoffman, 29; Anthropological
Section of the New York Academy of Sciences, 750
Farrand, Livingston, Physical and Mental Tests, 119;
Primitive Education, 751
FERNOW, B. E., Experimental Farms, 136; Pseudo-
Science in Meteorology, 706 ¢
Fernow, B. E., Pinus Rigida, 713
Fessenden, Reginald A., Electrical Theory of Comets’
Tails, 176
Fewkes, J. Walter, Prehistoric Culture of Tusayan,
452
Fine, H. B., The Psychology of Number, James A.
McLellan and John Dewey, 134
Fish, Pierre A., Electricity and Nerve Cells, 250
Fish Culture, 770
FISHER, A. K., Food of the Barn Owl, 623,
Fisheries, Game and Forest Commision of New York,
230 ee
Fishes, Living and Fossil, THEO. GILL, 909
FISKE, THOMAS S., Annual Meeting of the American
Mathematical Society, 18
Fitz, G. W., Working Model of the Eye, 114
Furnt, A. §., Some Values of Stellar Parallax by the
Method of Meridian Transits, 617
Floral Galls, Some Characters of, 346
Flow of the Connecticut River, DwiGHT PORTER, 579
Folk-lore Society, Seventh Annual meeting of the
American, F. B., 86
Footgear, O. T. Mason, 598
Forbush, E. H., and C. H. Fernald, The Gypsy
Moth, L. O. Howarp, 932
Forest, Fires i in Pennsylyama, 166; Resources of the
United States, 734
Forestry Policy for the Government, 402
Formulation of the Natural Sciences, E. D. Corr, 299
‘Fossil, Animals in U. 8. National Museum, 704 :
Plants of the Wealden, LESTER F. WARD, 869
Fossils from Peace Creek Phosphate Deposit, 353
FRANKLIN, CHR. LADD, An Optical Illusion, 274
FRANKLIN, W.S., Rontgen Rays from, the Electric
Are, 358 ; A "Review of Bigelow’s Papers on
Meteorolozy and Solar Physics, 807
SCIENCE.
Vil
Freer on Tetrinic Acid, 72
French Association, 628
Frost, EDWIN B. , Experiments on the X-Rays, 235;
Further Experiments with X-Rays, 463
Frye, Alex. E., A Complete Geography, T. W. HAR-
RIs, 171.
FULLERTON, GEORGE STUART,
Spencer, 406
Fullerton, G. S., Psychology and Physiology, 119
FULTON, R. L., How Nature Regulates the Rains, 546
Fungicides Increase the Growth « of Plants, 835
Chuar, Hegel and
G., A. S., Indianische Sagen von der Nordpacifis-
chen Kuste Amerikas, Franz Boas, 413 ; Names
and their Histories, Isaac Taylor, 414
G., F. P., Types of Lowland Coasts, 128
Galloway, B. T., Action ‘of Copper in Poisoning Fungi
677 ; Recent Advances of our Knowledge of the
Plant Cell, 822
Gas Well, Note on a Breathing, HAROLD W. Farr-
BANKS, 693
Geographic Society, National, W. F. Morsetz, 140,
295, 606, 592 ; Field Meeting, 774 ; officers, "75
Geographical, Society, Royal, 737: : Description of the
British Islands, 799 ; Markings on Native Uten-
sils, 895
Geography, The Study of Home, 472
Geologic, Science to Education, The Relation of, N.
S. SHALER, 609 ; Atlas of the United States,
647
Geological, Society of America, J. F. Kemp, 46; So-
ciety of Washington, W. F. Morse xt, 140, 215,
294, 374, 418, 534, 605, 641, 714, 822, 879; Con-
ference of Harvard University, ae JAGGAR,
JR., 142, 179, 251, 375, 490, 569, 679, 715, 751,
786; Society of London, Medals of the, 199
Monographs, 238; Investigations at Wisconsin,
240 ; Survey of Maryland, ~ 282, 510 ; Society of
London, 436; Bulletins of University of State of
New York, 512: Map of England and Wales,
_ 666; Survey of India, 703; Commission of Cape
Colony, 734; Survey, Annual report of, 770; So-
ciety of London, 805
Geologist, American, 106, 210, 451, 602, 749; The
Prerogatives of a State, ERASMUS HAawortH,
519, 743 ; CHARLES ROLLIN KEYES, 635
Geology, Journal of, 31,247, 568, 785; and Mineralogy,
Section of N. Y. Academy, J. F. Kemp, 33, 214,
372, 530, 676, 818; Current Studies in Experi-
mental, T. A. JAGGAR, JR., 696, at Union
College, 898
Giddings, Franklin H., The Principles of Sociology,
Smmon N. PATTEN, 709
GILBERT, G. K., The Origin of Hypotheses, Illus-
trated by the Discussion of a Topographic Prob-
lem, 1
Gilbert, G. K., Temperature of the Earth’s Interior,
212; A. New Laccolite Locality in Colorado and
its Rocks, 714
GILL, THEO., Huxley and his Work, 253; Vertebrata
of the Land, Fishes, Batrachia, Reptiles, in the
Antarctic Regions, 314; Vertebrata of the Sea,
319; Principles of Marine Zodgeography, 514;
Fishes, Living and Fossil, 909
Gill, Theo., Salmonide and Thymallide, 934
GILPIN, J. ELLIoTT, American Chemical Journal, 72,
138, 371, 528, 674, 817
Glacial Striz, On the Detection of, in Reflected Light,
F. C. SCHRADER, 830
vill
Glaciers, Variations of, HARRY FIELDING REID, 867
GoopE, G. BRowN, On the Classification of Museums,
154; A Memorial Appreciation of Charles Valen-
tine Riley, 217; Admission of American Students
to the French Universities, 341; The Reception
of Foreign Students in French Universities and
Schools, 467; Robert Edward Earll,, 471
Goode, G. Brown, The Principles of Museum <Ad-
ministration, WM. NORTH RICE, 783
GOODSPEED, ARTHUR W., Experiments on the Ront-
gen X-Rays, 236; The Rontgen Phenomena, 394
Graduate Scholarships and Fellowships in the Univ-
ersity of Pennsylvania, 512
Graf, Arnold, Structure of the Nephridiap in Clepsine,
454; Transmission of Acquired Characters, 530
Grape Culture, 399
Gravels of Kentucky, High Level, 276
Greely’s Handbook of Arctic Discoveries, 662
GREEN. BERNARD R., Philosophical Society of Wash-
ington, 108, 178, 231, 452, 571, 639, 752
GREENE, Epw. L., Some Fundamentals of Nomencla-
ture, 13
Greene, E.L., Distribution of Rhamnus and Ceanothus
in America, 486; Flora of Islands off California,
878
GRESLEY, W. S8., Organic Markings in Lake Superior
Tron Ores, 622
Griffin, Branley B., Centrosome in Thalassema, 58
Growth of Plants, Effects of Colored Glass on, 132
Gulf Stream, Notes on the Density and Temperature
of the Waters of the Gulf of Mexico and the, A.
LINDENKOHL, 271
Gurley, R. R., North American Graptolites, 247,
786
' Gulliver, F. P., Cuspate Forelands, 511; Tidal Scour,
570 .
Gypsy Moth Commission, 201, 555, 737, 933
H., Quadrivalent Lead, 556
H., L. O. Honey Ants, 923
H., W., Physics, 95, 163
Habit, and Instinct, Questions regarding G. STAN-
LEY HALL, and R. R. GURLEY, 482; of Drink-
ing in Young Birds, C. LLoyp MorGAN,900
Hague Arnold, Age of the Igneous Rocks of the Yel-
lowstone National Park, 817
Hailmann, E. L., Use of Symbols in Early Education,
487
HALL, G. STANLEY and R. R. GURLEY, Questions
Regarding Habit and Instinct, 482
HAuL, L. B., Elements of Modern Chemistry, C. A.
Wurz, 415
HALLocK, W., Section of Astronomy and Physics of
the New York Academy of Sciences, 142, 454,
787; Voice Building and Tone Placing, H. Hol-
brook Curtis, 901
Hallucinations, Measuring, E. W. ScRIPrTURE, 762
HALstep, Byron D., Introduction to the Study of
Fungi, M. C. Cooke, 367; Notes on Agriculture
and Horticulture, 398, 588, 698, 767, 834
HALSTED, GEORGE BRUCE, Russian Science News,
130; The Essence of Number, 470
Hansen’s Studies in Fermentation, J. CHRISTIAN
Bay, 600
Harrington, N. R., The Earthworm, 454
Harris, R. A., Simple Oscillations of the Complex
Tidal Wave, 641
Harris, T. W., A Complete Geography, Alex E.
Frye, 171
SCIENCE.
CONTENTS AND
INDEX.
HARSHBERGER, JOHN W., Ethno-Botanic Garden,
203; Is the Pumpkin an American Plant? 887
Hart, Ernest, Hypnotism, Mesmerism and the New
Witchcraft, JosePpH JASTROW, 904
HARTZELL, JR., J. C., Instinct, 563
Harvard College Observatory, Circular, 280
HASKELL, M. W., California Science Association, 126
Hatcher, J. B., Recent and Fossil Tapirs, 370
Havard, V., Drink Plants of North American Indians,
295
HAworti, ERASMUS, Prerogatives of a State Geolo-
gist, 519, 743
Hayes, ELLEN, Temperature of the Earth’s Crust,
518
Head, Form of the, as Influenced by Growth, W. Z.
RIPLEY, 8838
Headley, F. W., The Structure and Life of Birds, F.
A. LUCAS, 28
HEILPRIN, ANGELO, The Geology of the Antarctic
Regions, 305; The Great Frozen Land, Frederick
George Jackson, 170
Helium and Sea Water, 22
Hellriegel, Hermann, Monument to, 665
Helmholtz, T. C. MENDENHALL, 189
Henning G. C., Iron and Steel Analysis, 215
Henry, F. P., Filaria Sanguinis Hominis Nocturna,
823
HENSHAW, SAMUEL, Boston Society of Natural His-
tory, 179, 212, 295, 373, 455, 536, 607; A Hand-
book of the British Macro-Lepidoptera, Bertram
Geo. Rye, 291
Heredity, and Instinct, J. MARK BALDWIN, 438, 559;
A Suggested Experiment on, HrrAm M. Sran-
LEY, 900
Herrick, C. L., Lecture Notes on Attention, 675
HERSHEY, O. H., Ozarkian Epoch—A Suggestion, 620
Hertwig, Oscar, Lehrbuch der Entwicklungsge-
schichte des Menschen und der Wirbelthiere, C.
S. Minor, 289
Hewitt, E. R., Glue Solutions, 489
Highways, Commission on, 555
HILL, G. W., Remarks on the Progress of Celestial
Mechanics Since the Middle of the Century, 333
HiI“Lu, MERIDEN §., The Puma or Mountain Lion, 443.
Hill, Robert T., Geological Researches, 131; Topo-
graphic Nomenclature of Spanish America, 880
Hiorns, Arthur H., Principles of Metallurgy, J.
STRUTHERS, 416
Hirencock, C. H., Greenland Icefields and Life in
the North Atlantic, G. Frederick White and
Warren Upham, 598
Hitcheock, C. H., Paleozoic Terranes in the Connec-
ticut Valley, 56; Geology of New Hampshire, 247
Hodge, C. F., Histological Characters of Lymph as
Distinguished from Protoplasm, 112; Area and
Fovea Centralis, 113
Hofiman, Walter James, The Beginnings of Writing,
LIVINGSTON FARRAND, 29
HoLpEN, EDWARD §., National Academy of Sciences
e and the Colleges of the United States, 537
Holm, Theo., Flora of the District of Columbia, 34
Holman, S. W., Galvanometer Design, 240; Compu-
tation Rulesand Logarithms, HERBERT A. Howe,
526 ;
Hopkins, Edward W., The Religions of India, D. G.
BRINTON, 173
Hopkins Seaside Laboratory, 802
Hornby, JoHN, A Text-book of Gas Manufacture for
Students, FRANK H. THoRP, 815
Nrw SERIE=S.
VOL. III.
Horseless Carriages, 353
Howarp, L. O., Entomological Society of Washing-
ington, 36, 107, 294, 453, 678, 905; To Prevent
the Growth of Beard, 813; Italian Coccide, 903;
The Gypsy Moth, E. H. Forbush and C. H. Fer-
nald, 933
Howard, L. O., Transformations of Pulex surraticeps
294; Shade Tree Question from an Insect Stand-
point, 604
Howe, HERBERT A., Computation Rules and Loga-
rithms, S. W. Holman, 526
Howell, W. H., Inhibitory and Accelerator Nerve to
the Crab’s Heart, 118
Hubbard on Species of Mytil Aspis, 36
Huber, G. C., Chorda Tympani in the Sublingual and
the Submaxillary Glands, 114
Hueppe, Ferdinand, Naturwissenschaftliche Hin-
fthrung in die Bakteriologie, H. W. Conn, 747
Humphrey, J. E., Impregnation in Flowering Plants,
exo
Humphreys, W. J., and J. F. Mohler, Coincidence of
Solar and Metallic Lines, 450
Huntington, G. S., The Visceral Anatomy of the
Edentates, 213
Hurricanes in Jamaica, 768
Hutchins, C. C., and F. C. Robinson, Making and
Use of Crookes Tubes, 816
Huxley, Memorial 95, 130, 475, 592, 837; Memorial
Tribute to Prof. Thomas H., HENRY E. OSBORN,
147; and His Work, THEO GILL, 2038
Hydrazine, Pure, 198
Hypotheses, The. Origin of, Illustrated by the Discus-
sion of a Topographic Problem, G. K. Git-
BERT, 1
Hyslop, J. H., Induced Hallucinations, 123
Tee, ae on the Gemmi Pass, 590; Crystals, Plasticity
of, 698
Iddings, J. P., Absarokite-Shoshonite-Banakite Series,
2 ail
Index Slip of the Royal Society, 701
Indian as a Farmer, 509
Indiana Academy of Science, A. J. BIGNEY, 216
Instinct, Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan on, WESLEY MILLS,
390; of Pecking, F. A. Lucas, 409; WESLEY
Mitts, 441, 597, 780; J. C. HARTZELL, JR.,
563; J. Mark Banpw IN, 669; The Discussion
of, €. Luoyp MORGAN, 742
Instinctively Drink, Newly Hatched ‘Chickens,
HENRY W. ELLIOTT, 482
Interglacial Valleys in France, 590
Inv erted Image on the Retina, C. L. F., 201
Iowa Academy of Sciences, HERBERT OsBorN, 124
Iron Ores, Organic Markings in Lake Superior, W.S.
GRESLRY, 622
Irving, John Dy, Stratigraphy of the Brown’s Park
Beds, Utah, 676
J., H., Astronomy, 21, 63, 95, 129, 164, 197, 279, 320,
351, 401, 433, 475, 553, 896, 922; The Declination
Systems of Boss and Auwers, 241
Jackson, C. Loring, and Geo. Oenslager, On the Con-
stitution of Pheno-quinone, 138
Jackson, Frederick George, The Great Frozen Land,
ANGELO HEILPRIN, “170
JACOBY, HARoLn, Note on the Permanence of the
Rutherford Photographie Measures, 505
Jacoby, Harold, Determination of the Division Errors
_ of a Straight Scale, 673
SCIENCE. 1X
JAGGAR, JR., T. A., Geological Conference of Har-
vard University, 142, 179, 251, 375, 490, 569,
679, 715, 751, 786; Current Studies in Experi-
mental Geology, 696
Jaggar, Jr., T. A., Geological Work of Vortices and
Eddies, 375 ; ’Penning’s Field Geology, 671
JAMES, WILLIAM, Address of the President before
the Society for Psychical Research, 881
James, William, Consciousness and Evolution, 121
JASTROW, JOSEPH, An Apparatus for the Study of
Sound Intensities, 544 ; Psychological Notes upon
Sleight-of-Hand Experts, 685; Hypnotism, Mes-
merism and the New Witchcraft, Joseph Hart, 904
Jenner, Relics, 630
Jewell, L. E., Coincidence of Solar and Metallic
Lines, 450; Spectrum of Mars, 748
Johns Hopkins Hospital Bulletin, 282
Johnson, Willard D., Glaciation in the Sierra Nevada,
823
Joint Commission of Scientific Societies of Washing-
ton. W. F. MORSELL, 177
Jones, Herbert Lyon, Adaptation of Desert Plants, 373
Jordan on the Fishes of Sinaloa, 926
Judd, Sylvester D., Peculiar Eye of an Amphipod
Crustacean, 417
K., G. W., Exhibition of the New York Microscopi-
cal Society, 664
Kansas University Science Club, 936
Kantstudien, 838
Kavanagh, T. Edge, Right-handedness, 535
KEANE, A. H., D. G. BRINTON, Dr. Brinton on
Keane’s Ethnology, .811
Keane. A. H., Ethnology, D. G. BRINTON, 449
KEISER, E. H., Chemical Experiments, General and
Analytical, R. P. Williams, 484 ; Practical Inor-
ganic Chemistry, G. 8. Turpin, 484
Keith, Arthur, Crystalline Groups of Southern Ap-
palachians, 215
KELSEY, F. D., The Development of the Embyro of —
Pteris, 67
Kelvin, Lord, Jubilee of, 593, 862
Kemp, J. F., Section of Geology and Mineralogy of
the N. Y. Academy, 33, 214, 372, 530, 676, 818 ;
Astronomy and Physies, 643 ; Geological Society
of America, 46
Kemp, J. F., Dynamic Metamorphism of Anortho-
sites, 48 ; Cripple Creek Gold Mining District,
372; Quartz Vein at Lantern Hill near Mystic,
Conn., 818; Pre-Cambrian Topography of the
Adirondacks, 818; and T. G. White, Adirondack
Exploration, 214
Kew, H. W., The Dispersal of Shells, A. S. PACK-
ARD, 207; EDWARD S. Mors, 324
KEYES, CHARLES R., A Gigantic Orthoceratite from
the American Carboniferous, 94; The Preroga-
tives of a State Geologist, 635
Keyes, C. R., Paleozoic Rocks in Mississippi Basin,
451
KIMBALL, A. §.,
Crocker, 931
Kinetoscope, 512
Electric Lighting, Francis B.
Kingsbury, B. F., On the Brain of Necturus macula-
tus, 329
Kingsley, J. S., Nervous Anatomy of Amphibians,
676
Kite Flying, 801
Knowledge, Is there More than One Kind of? W. K.
BROOKS, 631
x SCLENCE.
Know.ton, F. H., An American Amber Producing
Tree, 582
Koch Institute, 803
Kummel, Chas. H., A New Solution of the Geodetic
Problem, 453
L., W., De Saint Louis a Tripoli par le Lac Tchad.,
P. L. Monteil, 100
Ladd, G. T., Direct Control of Retinal Light, 121;
Consciousness and Evolution, 122
LApp, Gro. T., Note on Certain Undescribed Clay
Occurrences in Missouri, 691
Lakes, a short History of the Great, 800;
Sahara near Timbuktu, 859
LAM, D.S8., Report of the Eighth Annual Meeting
of American Anatomists, 73
Landauer, John, Spectrum Analysis, C. E. M., 785
Lane, Alfred CG, Possible Depth of Mining and Bor-
ing, 53
Lang, Arnold, A Text-book of Comparative Anatomy,
W. H. DALL, 847
Langenbeck, Karl, The Chemistry of Pottery, FRANK
H. THorP, 567
LANGLEY, 8. P., A. GRAHAM BELL, A Successful
Trial of the Aérodrome, 753
Langley, S: P., More Recent Observations in the
Infra-Red Spectrum, 640
Lasswitz Kurd, Nature and the Individual Mind,
603
LAWRENCE, RALPH R., The Rontgen Rays, 357,
409
LAwson, ANDREW C., The Eruptive Sequence, W.
C. Brogger, 635
Lea, M. Carey, The Presence of Réntgen Rays in
Sunlight, 674;'The Color Relations of Atoms,
Ions and Molecules, 816
Le Bon, G., On Dark Light, 323
Le Conte, Joseph, From Animal to Man, 603
Le Conte Prize of the Paris Academy, 64
LEE, FREDERIC §., The American Physiological
Society, 109
Leeds, A. R., Bacteria of Milk Sugar, 820
Lesley, J. P., ASummary Description of the Geology
of Pennsylvania, JOHN J. STEVENSON, 876
Leverett, Frank, Ice Lobes, 54; Loess of Western
Illinois and Southeastern Towa, 54
Levison, W. G., X-Ray Photographs, 787
Liebig’s Condenser, 321
Lillie, F. R., Regeneration of Stentor, 59
Linck, Gottlob, Grundriss der Krystallographie, W.
S. B., 902
LINDENKOHL, A., Notes on the Density and Tem-
perature of the Waters of the Gulf of Mexico and
the Gulf Stream, 271
Lindsay, B., Introduction to the Study of Zodlogy,
W. M. RANKIN.
Line Drawings of Blue Print, L. H. BAILEY, 67
Linguistics, South American, 699
Linnean Society, Annual Lectures of, 165
Lippmann, Edmund O. von, Die Chemie der Zucker-
arten, FERDINAND G. WIECHMANN, 369
Liquification of Air at Low Temperatures, 239
LITTLEHALES, G. W. Guide d’océanographie pratique,
J. Thoulet, 246
Livi, Ridolfo, Antropometria Militare, FRANZ Boas,
929
Locke, F. S., Action of Ether on Contracture and on
Positive Cathodic Polarization of Voluntary Mus-
cle, 117
in the
CONTENTS AND
INDEX.
Logic, and the Retinal Image, W. K. Brooks, 443 ;
‘That Great Law of,’ J. MCKEEN CATTELL, 814
Longevity, human, 556
Loomis, HH, Freezing Points of Dilute Aqueous
Solutions, 177
Loudon, W. J. and J. C. McLennan, A Laboratory
Course on Experimental Physics, 103
Lucas, F. A., The Structure and Life of Birds, F
W. Headley, 28; Biological Society of Washing-
ton, 34, 139, 231, 249, 417, 486, 603, 677, 713,
821, 878, 934; Does the Priv ate Collector make the
Best Museum Administrator ? 289; Instinct of
Pecking, 409; Museum Methods, The Exhibition ~
of Fossil Vertebrates, 573
Luquer, L. McI., Accession of Interesting Minerals,
72
Lusk, G., Phloridzin Diabetes, 111
Lycopods, The Development of Exogenous Structure
in the Paleozoic, A Summary of the Researches of
Williamson and Renault, DAVID WHITE, 754
Lydekker, R., A Handbook of the British Mammalia,
C. H. M., 325 ;
M., Certitudes and Illusions, 513, 631; Prof. Bigelow’s
Solar Magnetic Work, 866
M., C. E., Spectrum Analysis, John Landauer, 785
M., 'C. H., Hunting in many Lands, 246; A Handbook
of the British Mammalia, R. Lydekker, 325;
A Review of the Weasels of Eastern North
America, 525; The Polar Hares of Eastern
North America, Samuel N. Rhoads, 564; North
American Birds, H. Nehrling, 565; Book of Ante-
lopes, P. L. Sclater and Oldfield Thomas, 566;
American Polar Hares, A Reply to Mr. Rhoads,
. 845; Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty, H.
Nehrling, 932
M. M., Necessary and Sufficient Tests of Truth, 517
Mabery, C. F., Petroleums, 138; Ohio and Canadian
Sulphur Petroleums, 72
McCormick, J. H., Anthropological Society of Wash-
ington, 531, 642
MacDonald, Arthur, Psycho-Neural Measurements,
120, 642
MacDouGat, D. T., The Influence of Carbon Diox-
ide on the Protoplasm of Living Plant Cells, 689
MACFARLANE, ALEXANDER, Quaternions, 99
McGe&xE, W J, Expedition to Seriland, 493; Third Re-
port of the Board of Managers of the N. Y. State
Colonization Society, O. F. Cook, 672; Two
Erosion Epochs—Another Suggestion, 796
McGee, W J, Geologic Maps of State of N. Y., 418
Mach on the X- -Rays, 602
Mcllhiney, P. C., Cassel-Hinman Gold and Bromin
Process, 489
McLellan, James A., and John Dewey, The Psychol-
ogy of Number, H. B. FINE. 134
MaAcMILuan, Conway, Current Problems in Plant
Morphology, 346; The Disappearance of Sham
Biology from America, 634
McMurrrir, Wm., N. Y. Section of the American
Chemical Society, 820
Madagascar, French Expedition to, 132
Mammoth Bed at Morea, Pa., EDWARD H. WIL-
LIAMS, JR., 782
Man from Galley Hill, 94
Map, of the German Empire, 61; Recent Sheets of Our
National, 800
Marcou, Jules, Life, Letters and Works of Louis
Agassiz, 745
NEw SERIES.
Vou. IIT.
Marine, Organisms, 434; Zodgeography, the Principles
of, ARNOLD E. ORTMANN 739; Biological Laho-
ratory, 771, 400
Marsh Gas Under Ice, IRA REMSEN, 133; J. B. Woop-
WORTH, 203
Marsu, O. C., Ape-Man from the Tertiary of Java, 789
Marsupials and Mammals, 252
Mason, O. T., Foot-gear, 598; Bows and Arrows of
Central Brazil, 868
Mason, William P., Water Supply, 711
Massanutten Mountain, Va., 277
_Mathematical Society, Annual Meeting of the Ameri-
ean, THOMAS S. FISKE, 18
Mathews, Dr. Washington, A Vigil of the Gods, 141
MAYER, ‘ALFRED M., “Experiments Showing that the
Réntgen Rays cannot be Polarized by Doubly
Refracting Media, 478; On Rood’s Demonstra-
tion of the Regular or Specular Reflection of the
Rontgen Rays by a Platinum Mirror, 705
Mayer, A. M., Modulus of Elasticity of Bars of Va-
rious Metals, 174; The Heliostat, 454, 787; Ront-
gen Rays, 816
- Mearns, Edgar A., Land Mammals of Islands off Cali-
fornia, 878
Medical, Association, British, 282; Congress, Interna-
tional, 476
Medicine, Licenses to Practice, 806
Meltzer, S. J., Absorption from the Peritoneal Cavity
in Rabbits, 117; in Dogs, 117
MENDENHALL, T. C., Helmholtz, 189
Mental versus Physical in Woman, 398
Merriam, C. Hart, Revision of the Shrews of the
American Genera Blarina and Notiosorex; Sy-
nopsis of the American Shrews of the Genus
Sorex, J. A. ALLEN, 411
Merriam, Florence A., Birds of Southern California,
638
Merrill, Geo. P., Disintegration and Decomposition
of Diabase at Medford, Mass., 374
Metals, in Europe, Early use of, 277; On the Diffusion
of, 352, W. C. RoBERTS- AUSTEN, 827
Meteor, Tuos. L. CASEY, 783
Meteorological, Elements in Cyclones and Anticy-
clones, 196; Council of England, 558; Society of
London; Royal, 666; Society of N. E., Dissolution
of, 735; Reprints, R. DE C. WARD, 871; Observa-
tions in Schools, 922; Publications, 922
Meteorology, Current Notes in, R. DE C. WARD, 661,
768, 801, 860, 922; Pseudo- Science in, B. E. 'FER-
NOW, 706
Metric, Bill, Action of the House of Representatives
on the, 626; System, J. K. REES, 167; 199, 554,
592, 629, 666, 735, 773, 775, 803, 804, 836, 864;
Proposed Legislation in regard to, 457; Lord
Kelvin on the, 765; W. LECONTE STEVENS, 793
Mexican Feather Work, ZELIA NUTTALL, 243
- MICHELSON, A. A., and 8. W. STRATTON, Source of
X-Rays, 694
Michelson, A. A., Réntgen Rays, 527
Microscopical Society, Exhibition of the New York,
G. W. K., 664
MILLER, DAyTON C., Rontgen Ray Experiments, 516
MILLER, GERRIT §., Winge on Brazilian Carnivora,
447
Miller; Gerrit S., The Long-tailed Shrews of the
Eastern United States, a A. ALLEN, 411
Mitts, WESLEY, Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan’ on Instinct,
355: Instinct, 441, 597, 7 780
Mills, W., Cortical Cerebral Localization, 116
‘Museums, on the Classification of, G. BRowN
SCIENCE. x1
Mineral Industry, 703
Mines, School of, Quarterly, 32
Minot, €. S., Eimer’s Evolution of Butterflies, 26;
Lehrbuch der Entwicklungsgeschichte des Men-
schen und der Wirbelthiere, Oscar Hertwig, 289
Minot, C. S., Panplasm, 58; Consciousness and Eyolu-
tion, 122
Mittendorff’s Peru, 473
Model of the Earth, 738
Mohler, J. F., Wave-lengths, 212
Monist, 138, 602
Monroe, Chas. E., Calcium Phosphide, 179; Corrosion
of Electric Mains, 419; The Development of
Smokeless Powder, 604
Monteil, P. L., De Saint Louis a Tripoli par le Lac
Tchad, W. L., 100
Mooney on the Mescal Ceremony among the Indians,
906
Moore, Clarence B., Certain Sand Mounds of Florida,
F. W. PUTNAM, 205
Moore, V. A., Flagella of Motile Bacteria, 140
MooREHEAD, WARREN K., Primitive Habitations in
Ohio, 481
MorGAn, C. Ltoyp, The Discussion of Instinct, 742;
The Habit of Drinking in Young Birds, 900
Morgan, C ane, Inheritance of Acquired Charac-
ters, 2:
Morgan, Francis P., Physiological Action and Medi-
cinal Value of Anhalonium Lewinii, 907
MorGan, T. H., Impressions of the Naples Zoological
Station, 16;
Morgan, T. H., Artificial Archoplasmie¢ Centers, 59
Morrison, George R., The Missouri River, 32
Morley, Edward W., On the Densities of Oxygen and
Hydrogen and on the Ratio of their Atomic
Weights, W. A. Noyes, 25
Morphological Society, ‘American, 57
MorskE, EDWARDS., ‘Kew ’s Dispersal of Shells, 324
Morse, Vo Je Studies in the Moral Development of
Children, 669
MorseEx1, W. F., Geological Society of Washington,
140, 215, 294, 374, 418, 534, 605, 641, 714, 822,
879; Joint Commission of the Scientific Societies
of Washington, 177; National Geographic So-
ciety, 140, 295, 606
Mosso, Angelo, Fear, J. McKEEN CATTELL, 747
Mountain Waste in Relation to Life and Man, 397
MUNSTERBERG, HuGo, The X-Rays, 161
Museum, The British, 20; Administrator, Does the
Private Collector Make the Best? F. A. Lucas,
289; at Palm Beach, Fla., 353; Methods: The
Exhibition of Fossil Vertebrates, F. A. Lucas,
573; On the Arrangement of Great Paleonto-
logical Collections, CHARLES SCHUCHERT, 576;
Work i in Jamaica, 806; of Art and Science at the
University of Pennsylvania, 839
GOODE,
154
Natality, The Diminution of, 700
National, Geographic Magazine, 65; University, 66,
282, 437; ey 281, 629; Educational Asso-
ciation, 435, 772, 839; - Academy of Sciences, 510,
and the Colleges of the United States, EDWARD
S. HoLpEN, 537, Annual Meeting of, 645
Natural History, American Museum of, 592; Museum,
London, 703
Naturalists, American Society of, Report of the
Fourteenth Annual Meeting, H. C. Bumpus, 297
X1l
Naue, Julius, Die Bronzezeit in Oberbayern, D. G.
BRINTON, 849
Naval Erosion, G. W. TOWER, 563
Nebraska ‘Academy of Sciences, G. D. Sw EZEY, 252
Nehrling, H., North American Birds, C. H. M., 565;
Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty, C. H. M.,
932
Nernst, W., and A. Schonflies, Einfthrung in die
Mathematische Behandlung der Naturwissen-
schaften, FERDINAND G. WIECHMANN, 485
Neurology, The Journal of Comparative, 329, 675
Nerwcomp, 8., American Judgments of ‘American As-
tronomy, 284
Newbold, W. R., Dream Reasoning, 123
New Books, 72, 108, 144, 180, 216, 252, 296, 332, 376,
420, 492, 572, 608, 680, 788, 852, 880, 908, 936
New York Academy of Sciences, Exhibition, 97; New
Section, 403; Annual Exhibition, 403; Annual
Reception and Exhibit of the, T. H. WADE, 507
NIPHER, FRANCIS E., Electric Wiring, Russell Robb,
637; X-Ray Photography by Means of the Camera,
783; The Rotating Cathode, 783
Niuafou, A Volcanic Ring Island, 396
NOLAN, "EDW. Ves Philadelphia Academy of Natural
Sciences, 330, 373, 420, 456, 535, 607, 643, 715,
788, 823, 851, 880, 908, 934
Nomenclature, Some Fundamentals of,
GREENE, 13
Northwestern University Science Club, A. R. Crook,
456, 644, 788, 824
NORTON, CHARLES L., The X-Rays in Medicine and
Surgery, 7 730,
Norwegian Coast Plain, 920
Noyes, W. A., On the Densities of Oxygen and Hy-
drogen and on the Ratio of their Atomic Weights,
Edward W. Morley, 25
Number, The Essence of, GEORGE BRUCE HALSTED,
470
NUTITALL, ZELIA, Ancient Mexican Feather Work,
243
Epw. L.
Oats, the Prevention of Smut in, 767
Observatory, of Harvard College, 63; The New Edin-
burgh, 627; for the University of Illinois, 703;
Flower Astronomical, 773
Optical INusion, Cur. LADD FRANKLIN, 274
Ordonez, Ezequiel, Volcanic Rocks, J. B. Woop-
WORTH, 450,
Orndorff, W. R. and G. L. Terasse, Molecular Weight
of Sulphur, 528
Ornithological Collection of Mr. Seebohm, 322
Ornithologists’ Union, British, 736
‘Ornithology, Progress i in American, 1886-95,’ J. A.
ALLEN, 177; R. W. SHUFELDT, J. A. ALLEN,
841
Orthoceratite, A Gigantic, from the American Car-
boniferous, CHARLES R. KEyeEs, 94
ORTMANN, ARNOLD E., The Principles of Marine
Zoogeography, 739
Ortmann, Arnold E., Grundztige der Marinen Tier-
geographie, G. BAUR, 359
OsBoRN, Henry F., Memorial Tribute to Prof.
Thomas H. Huxley, 147
OsBORN, HERBERT, Tenth Annual Meeting of the
Iowa Academy of Sciences, 124
Osborn, H. F., Titanotheres, 33
Owl, Barn, Food of the, A. K. FISHER, 623
Ozarkian Epoch, A Suggestion, O. H. HERSHEY,
620
SCIENCE.
CONTENTS AND
INDEX.
P., A. §., Frail Children of the Air, S. H. Scudder,
671
P., C. L., The Sun, C. A. Young, 415
PACKARD, A. §., The Dispersal of Shells, H. W.
Kew, 207; Terrestrial Invertebrata of the Ant-
arctic Regions, 311
Paintings of Mitla, The Wall, 349
Paleoliths from Somaliland, 834
Palisades, Preservation of the, 281, 323, 629
Palmer, T. 8., Rabbit Drives in the West, 139
Palmer, William, Florida Ground Owl, 638
Paris Academy of Sciences, Prizes Offered by the, 97
Parker, G. H., Reaction of Metridium to Food, 60 ~
Pasteur, Statue to the Memory of, 130; Gro. M.
STERNBERG, 185; Memorial, 475, 592; Institute
at Athens, 927
Pathology in Ethnology, 663
Patrick, G. T. W., Effects of the Loss of Sleep, 122
PATTEN, Sruon N., The Principles of Sociology,
Franklin H. Giddings, 709
Peach Rot and Apple Scab, 398
PHALE, A. C., Chemical Society of Washington, 178,
241, 419, 604, 821, 905, 907
Peckham, S. F., Trinidad Pitch, 371
Peneplains, Economic Importance of, 589
Persimmon, the American, 834
Perturbations of 70 Ophiuchi, T. J. J. SEE, 286
Pfaff, Fr., On Toxicodendrol, 118
Philadelphia, Brick Clay, the Age of, G. FREDERICK
WRIGHT, 242; et al., Roti D. SALISBURY,
480; Academy of Natural Sciences, Epw. J.
NOLAN, 330, 373, 420, 456, 488, 535, 607, 643,
705, 788, 823, 851, 880, 908, 934
Phillips, Maurice, The Teaching of the Vedas, D. 6.
BRINTON, 173
Philosophical Society, American, Election of Mem-
bers, 97; of Washington, BERNARD R. GREEN,
108; 178, 231, 452, 571, 639, 752, W. ©. WIN-
LOCK, 292
Photographs of Flying Bullies 775
Photography, Colored, 352
Phrynosoma, Habits of, 763; R. W. SHUFELDT, 867
Physical Review, 176
Physics, W. H., "95, 163; and Mechanical Engineer-
ing at Brown University, 98
Physiography, Current Notes on, W. M. DaAvts, 61,
127, 195, 275, 396, 472, 589, 659, 731, 799, 858,
920; of Montenegro, 859
Physiological Society, The American, FREDERIC S.
LEE, 109
Pierce, Edgar, Aisthetics of Simple Forms, 712
Pieters, Adrian J., Influence of Fruit-bearing on the
Mechanical Tissue of the Twigs, 486
Pirsson, L. V., A Needed Term in “Petroaraphy, 49
Plant Morphology, Current, Problems in, CONWAY
MACMILLAN, 346
Plants, The Application of Sex Terms to, C. R.
BARNES, 928
Platino-cyanids, New Method of Preparing, 404
=9Q
Platinum, Fusibility of, 738
Plum-leaf Spot, 835
Po, Embankments of the River, FRANK D. ADAMS,
759
Polar Hares of Eastern North America: An Answer
to Dr. C. H. Merriam’s Criticism, SAMUEL N.
RHOADS, 843; A Reply to Mr. Rhoads, C. H. M.,
845
Pollard, Charles L., Flora of the District of Columbia,
231
New SERIES.
Vo.. III.
Poor, CHAs. LANE, Scientific Association of the
Johns Hopkins University, 211
PORTER, DwicHt, The Flow of the Connecticut
River, 579
Porter, W. T., The Coronary Arteries, 112; Inter-
cardiac Pressure Curve, 116
Potato Scab, 698
PoweELL, J..W., James Dwight Dana, 181; Certi-
tudes and Llusions, 263, 46, 444, 595; The Ab-
solute and the Relative, 743; The Subject of
Consciousness, 845
Preglacial Man in England, 62
Preston, E. D., Graphic Method of Reducing Stars
from Mean to Apparent Places, 178; French, Ger-
man and English Systems of Shorthand Writing,
641
Primitive, Habitations in Ohio, WARREN K. MoOoRE-
HEAD, 481; Ethnology of France, 833
Princeton’s 150th Anniversary, 167
Probabilities, The Theory of, ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK, 66
‘ Professors ’ Garner and Gates, J. McK. C., 134
ProsseEpR, C. S., Preliminary Report on the Geology of
South Dakota, J. E. Topp, 368; Report on Field
Work in Chenango Co., N. Y., J. M. Clarke, 525
Protoplasm of Living Plant Cells, The Influence of
Carbon Dioxide on the, D. T. MAcDouUGAL, 689
Psyche 107, 248, 372, 529, 712, 878
Psychical, Concepts, Elementary, 663; Research, Ad-
dress of the President before the Society for,
WILLIAM JAMES, 881
Psychological, Association, Philadelphia Meeting of
the American, E. C. SANFORD,119; Review, 248,
712; Publications, 353; Notes upon Sleight-of-
hand Experts, JOSEPH JASTROW, 685
Psychology, Laboratories of, 166; of Number, JOHN
DEWEY, 286; and Philosophy, Dictionary of, 702
Pulfrich, C., A New Form of Refractometer, 749
Puma, or Mountain Lion, MERIDEN S. HILL, 443
Pumpkin, Is it an American Plant? J. W. HARSH-
BERGER, 889
PurPin, M. I., Rontgen Rays, 231; Diffuse Reflection
of the Réntgen Rays, 538
Pupin, M. I., Magnetic Circuit, 142
455
Putnam, F. W., Certain Sand Mounds of Florida,
Clarence B. Moore, 205
Putnam, F. W., Symbolism in Ancient America, 536
; Rontgen Rays,
Quadrivalent Lead, H., 556
Quaternions, ALEXANDER MACFARLANE, 99
Quipus, The Reading of, 129
Quirigué, Ruins of, JoxN R. CHANDLER, 832
Rabbits in Australia, 132
Race and Disease, 767
Racial, Psychology, 509; Degeneracy in America, 625;
Elements in Assam, 861
Radiation, A New Form of, W. K.
from Uranium Salts, 700
Rains, How Nature Regulates the, R. L. FULTON, 546
RANKIN, W. M., Introduction to the Study of Zo-
ology, B. Lindsay, 105
Rat, Native Wood, Occurrence at Washington of the,
VERNON BAILEY, 628
Ravold, A. N. , Diphtheria and Anti-toxine, 824
Rays, Ona New Kind of, W. K. RONTGEN, 220;
kees, J. K., The Metric System, 167; Some Prob-
lems about to Confront Astronomers of the
Twentieth Century, 717
RONTGEN, 726;
SCIEN CE.
Xi
Rees, J. K., Photographs of Star Clusters, 644
REHMKE, JOHANNES, The Subject of Consciousness,
743
REID, HARRY FIELDING, Variations of Glaciers, 867
Reid, H. F., Notes on Glaciers, 53
REMSEN, IRA, Justus von Liebig, His Life and Work,
W. A. Shenstone, 24; Anleitung zur Mikrochem-
ischen Analyse der wichtigsten organische
Verbindungen, H. Behrens, 24; Marsh Gas under
Ice, 133; Scientific Materialism, 217
RENovrF, E., Laboratory Manual of Inorganic Prep-
arations, H. T. Vulté and George M. 8. Neustadt,
208
Researches in South American Languages, 19
Retina, The Inverted Image on, C. L. F., 517;
graph of the, 865
Retinal Image Once More, W. K. Brooks, 631
Revue génerale des science pures et appliquées, 238
RHOADS, SAMUEL N., Polar Hares of Eastern North
America: An Answer to Dr. C. H. Merriam’s
Criticism, 843
Rhoads, Samuel N., The Polar Hares of Eastern
North America, C. H. M., 564
Ricn, WrLL1AmM NortH, The Principles of Museum
Administration, G. Brown Goode, 783
Ries, H., Geology of Orange Co., N. Y., 34; Bauxite
Mines of Georgia and Alabama, 530; Marble
Quarries, 818
Riley, Charles Valentine, A Memorial Appreciation
of, G. BROWN GOoDE, 217
RipLey, W. Z., The Form of the Head as Influenced
by Growth, 888
Risteen, A. D., Molecules and the Molecular Theory
of Matter, 71
RITTER, WM. E., The Use of the Tow-Net for Collect-
ing Pelagic Organisms, 708
Robb, Russell, Electric Wiring, FRANCIS E. NIPHER,
637
Ross, WM. LISPENARD, A Method of Determining
the Relative Transparency of Substances to the
Roéntgen Rays, 544
ROBERTS-AUSTIN, W. C., The Diffusion of Metals, 827
Rontgen Rays, 131, 163, 199, 350, 352, 401, 436, 836;
M. I. PupIN, 231: ARTHUR W. GOODSPEED, 236,
394; J. McK. C., 325; Present in Sunlight,
CHARLES S. DOLLEY, SENECA EGBERT, 357;
RALPH R. LAWRENCE, 357; from the Electric Arc,
W.S. FRANKLIN, 358; on the Reflection of, from
Platinum, OGDEN N. Roop, 463; Experiments
showing that they cannot be Polarized by Doubly
Refracting Media, ALFRED M. MAyeEr, 478;
Experiments, DAyToN C. MILLER, 516; Diffuse
Reflection of, M. I. Puprn, 538; A Method of
Determining the Relative Transparency of Sub-
stances to the, WM. LISPENARD RoBB, 544; Coin
Distortions by the, FLORIAN CAJOoRI, WILLIAM
STRIEBY, 635; On Rood’s Demonstration of the
Regular or Specular Reflection of the, by a
Platinum Mirror, A. M. MAYER, 705; Behavior
of Sugar towards, FERDINAND G. WIECHMANN,
729; An Investigation with, on Germinating
Plants, H. J. WEBBER, 919
RONTGEN, W. K., On a New Kind of Rays, 227; A
New Form of Radiation, 726
Roop, OGDEN N., On the Reflection of the Rontgen
Rays from Platinum, 463
Rook, Food of the European, F. E. L. BEAL, 918
Roosev elt, Theodore, and George Bird Grinnell,
Hunting in Many Lands, C. ‘H. M. , 246
Photo-
XLV
Rorcu, A. LAWRENCE, The Chance of Observing the
Total Solar Eclipse in Norway, 356
Rowland, H. A., Source of the Réntgen Rays, 370
Rowland Scale of Wave-lengths, 97, 175
Royal, Institution, 166, 557, 773, 864; Society, 237,
773
Royce, JOSIAH, Certitudes and Illusions, 354
Ruedemann, R., Discovery of a Sessile Conularia, 451
Rumford Premium, Award and Presentation of, 891
RuMSEY, W. EARL, W. Va. Academy of Science, 572
Runge, C., and F. Paschen, Spectrum of Clevite Gas,
176
Ruspy, H. H., Torrey Botanical Club, 179, 295, 372
Russian Science News, GEORGE BRUCE HALSTED, 130
RussELL, ISRAEL C., Elementary Physical Geography,
Ralph S. Tarr, 168
Russell, I. C., Igneous Intrusions of the Black Hills
of Dakota, 247; Nature of Igneous Intrusions, 568
Rutherfurd Photographic Measures, Note on the
Permanence of, HAROLD JACOBY, 505
Rye, Bertram Geo., A. Handbook of the British
Macro-Lepidoptera, SAMUEL HENSHAW, 291
S., Repetitorium der Chemie, Carl Arnold, 815
Sadtler, Samuel P., A Handbook of Industrial In-
organic Chemistry, FRANK H. THorp, 209
St. Louis Academy of Science, A. W. DoUGLAS, 36;
WILLIAM, TRELEASE, 144, 180, 252, 375, 456,
536, 607, 680, 750, 824
SALISBURY, ROLLIN D., Philadelphia Brick Clays,
et al., 480
Salisbury, R. D., Greenland Expedition of 1895, 31
SANFORD, E. C., The Philadelphia Meeting of the
American Psychological Association, 119
SCHRADER, F. C., On the Detection of Glacial
Strize in Reflected Light, 830
Schrader, F. C., Geology of the Woonsocket Basin,
142
ScHUCHERT, CHARLES, Museum Methods: On the
Arrangement of Great Paleontological Collec-
tions, 576
Schwarz, E. A. Insect fauna of Texas, 107; Sleeping
Trees of Hymenoptera in S. W. Texas, 294; Ter-
mites, 453; Food Plants and Habits of Some
Texan Coleoptera, 905
Science, Requirements for Admission to College, 435
Scientific Notes and News, 20, 63, 94, 129, 163, 197,
237, 278, 320, 350, 400, 433, 474, 510, 553, 591,
626, 664, 700, 734, 770, 802, 836, 861, 896, 922;
Literature, 24, 68, 100, 134, 168, 205, 243, 289,
325, 359, 410, 445, 482, 525, 564, 598, 635, 671,
709, 745, 783, 815, 847, 869, 901, 929; Journals,
31, 72, 106, 138, 174, 210, 247, 329, 370, 450, 527,
568, 602, 638, 673, 712, 748, 785, 816, 878; Ex-
perts in Public Service, 64; Association of the
Johns Hopkins University, CuHas. LANE Poor,
211; Materialism, IRA REMSEN, 217; D. G.
BRINTON, 324
Selater, P. L., and Oldfield Thomas, Book of Ante-
lopes, C. H. M., 566
Scorr, W. B., Antarctica Paleontologica, 307
ScrIpTuRE, E. W., Measuring Hallucinations, 762
ScupDER, SAMUEL H., Brongniart’s Paleozoic In-
sects, 410
Scudder, S. H., Frail Children of the Air, A. 8. P.,
671
Seals in Alaska, 352; Extermination of, 774, 803, 864,
897
Sng, T. J. J., The Perturbations of 70 Ophiuchi, 286
SCIENCE.
CONTENTS AND
INDEX.
Sensation, Physiological Concomitants of, J. McK. C.,
626
Seriland, Expedition to, W J McG&E, 493
Seward, A. C., The Wealden Flora, LESTER F. WARD,
869
Sex-Relation of Plants, On the Untechnical Phrase-
ology of the, L. H. BAILEY
SHALER, N.S8., The Relation of Geologic Science to
Education, 609
Shaler, N. S., Voleanic Dust and Pumice in Marine
Deposits, 48
Sharp, David, and F. G. Sinclair, Cambridge Natural
History, Vol. V., JoHN HENRY COMSTOCK, 226
Shenstone, W. A., Justus von Liebig, His Life and
Work, IRA REMSEN, 24
SHUFELD?, J. A., ‘Progress in American Ornithology,
1886-95,’ 841; Life Habits of Phrynosoma, 867
‘Shut-in’ Valleys, 661
Simpson, Charles T., Extra Limital Mississippi Basin
Unios, 249
Simroth, H., Gastropoden der Plankton Expedition,
W. H. DALL, 69
Skin Painting in South America, 128
Smeeth Separating Apparatus, J. S. DILLER, 857
Smells, Method of Measuring, 774
Smith, Jr., C. H., Tale Deposits, 677
Smith, Donaldson A., Collection Made in Western
Somali Land, 850
Smith, Erwin F., Bactericidal Effeet of Sunlight, 822
SmrrH, EUGENE A., Alabama Industrial and Scien-
tifie Society, 852 ; Notes on Native Sulphur in
Texas, 667
Smithsonian Institution, 145
Smyth, H. L., Origin of the Copper Deposits of Ke-
weenaw Point, 251
Snyder, W. H., Preliminary Report on the Stamford
Gneiss, 143
Societies and Academies, 33, 107, 139, 177, 211, 249,
292, 330, 372, 417, 452, 486, 529, 569, 603, 639,
676, 713, 750, 786, 818, 850, 878, 905, 934
Soil Irrigation, 588
Sound Intensities, An Apparatus for the Study of,
JOSEPH J ASTROW, 544
Soundings, Ocean, 403
Spectroscope, A Simplex, HoLBRooK CUSHMAN, 45
Spermwhales and Cuttlefish, 199
Spirula, New Data on, W. H. DALL, 243
Sranney, Hiram M., Visualization and the Retinal
Image, 563; Notes on the Perception of Distance,
781; A Suggested Experiment on Heredity, 900
Stanton, T. W., Faunal Relations of the Eocene and
Upper Cretaceous on the Pacific Coast, 822
Stellar Parallax, Some Values of, by the Method of
Meridian Transits, A. S. FLINT, 617
STERNBERG, GEO. M., Pasteur, 185; Vivisection,
597 B
Sternberg, Geo. M., Vivisection, 531
SrETSON, GEORGE R., Anthropological Society of
Washington, 141
Stetson, George R., Animistic Vampire in New Eng-
land, 35
Stevens, W. Le Conte, Color Vision and Light,
478; The Metric System, 793
STEVENSON, JoHN J., Notes on the Cerillos Coal
. Fields, 392; A Summary Description of the Ge-
ology of Pennsylvania, J. P. Lesley, 876
Stevenson, J. J., Cerillos Coal Fields near Santa Fé,
214
Stewart, G. N., Circulation time of the Retina, 115
NEW SERIES.
Vou. IIT.
Stillman and Yoder, Anhydrous Ammonia and
Aluminium Chloride, 72
Stone, Witmer, Molting of Birds, 737
SrrAtton, S. W. and A. A. MICHELSON, Source of
X-Rays, 694
Strong, C. A., Consciousness and Time, 121
Strong, O. S., Use of Formalin in Injecting Media,
213
_ STRUTHERS, J., Principles of Metallurgy, Arthur H.
Hiorns, 416
Students, in the University of Berlin, 66; at Thirty
Largest Universities, 241; Admission of American,
to the French Universities, G. BROWN GOODE,
341; The Reception of Foreign, at French Uni-
versities and Schools, G. BROWN GOODE, 467
Sub-Ivrigation in the Greenhouse, 399
Sulphur, Notes on Native, in Texas, E. A. SMITH, 657
Summer School, Union College, 738; University Min-
nesota, 739; Jena, 739; Geology, 803; University
of Nebraska, 841
Sumner, F. B., Descent Tree of the Variations of a
Land Snail from the Philippines, 529
Sunshine, Number of Hours a Year, 22
Sun’s Rays, Chemical Action of, 666
Swezey, J. D., Nebraska Academy of Science, 252
Synaptomys eight miles from Washington, 404
Syphilis, Was it a Gift from the American Race? 397
Tafi, J. A.; Elk Garden Coal Fields, 374
Tarr, Ralph §., Elementary Physical Geography,
ISRAEL C. RUSSELL, 168
Taylor, Isaac, Names and Their Histories, A. 8. G.,
414
Taylor, F. B., Studies of the Great Lakes, 602
Teaching University for London, 201
Telegony, Experiments on, 594
Temperature, of the Earth's Crust, SERENO E. BISHOP,
409 ; ELLEN Hayes. 518; of the Ocean Surface,
Annual Range of, 127; of Lakes, 195
Tertiary, Peneplain of Missouri, 275; Man of Burmah,
The Alleged, 625
TuHorP, FRANK H., A Handbook of Industrial Or-
ganic Chemistry, Samuel Sadtler, 209; Chemistry
for Engineers and Manufacturers, Bertram
Blount and A. G. Bloxam, 566; The Chemistry
of Pottery, 567, A Text-book of Gas Manufac-
ture for Students, 815
Thoulet, J., Guide d’océanographie pratique, G. W.
LITTLEH ALES, 246
Thunder Storms at Sea are Nocturnal, 733
Todd, J. E., A Preliminary Report on the Geology
of South Dakota, C. S. PROSSER.
Topographical, Map of Italy, 61; of Denmark, 62;
Forms, produced by Faulting, 659; The Volcanic
Group of, 732
Tornado, Clouds, Artificial, 662; in New Jersey, 769
of May 27, St. Louis, Mo., 860
Tour du Monde, 733
Tow-Net, Use of the, for Collecting Pelagic Organisms,
Wm. E. Rirrer, 708
TowER, G. W., Naval Erosion, 563
Tree, Trunks, Peculiar Abrasion of, Percy M. VAN
Epps, 442; Plants in New York, 925.
TRELEASE, WM., St. Louis Academy of Science, 144,
180, 252, 375, 456, 536, 607, 680, 750, 824
Trelease, Wm., The Poplars of North America, 536
Trowbridge, J.. The Rontgen Rays, 370; The Pro-
bable Presence of Carbon and Oxygen in the Sun,
673.
SCIENCE.
XV
Truth, Necessary and Sufficient Tests of, M. M. 517;
What is Truth? W. K. Brooks, 779
Tupi Linguistic Stock, 861
Turner on Archean Gneiss in the Sierra Nevada, 606
Turner, C. H., Nervous System of Cypris, 676
Turpin, G. §., Practical Inorganic Chemistry, E. H.
KEISER, 484
Typhoid Fever Serum, 403
Uhler, P. R., Margarodes vitium, Giard, 678.
Uintaite in Utah, On the Occurrence of, GEORGE H.
ELDRIDGE, 830
UNDERWOOD, L. M., Structure and Development of
Mosses and Ferns, Douglas Houghton Campbell,
70
University and Educational News, 23, 66, 98, 133,
167, 201, 240, 283, 323, 405, 437, 477, 512, 558,
594, 631, 667, 704, 738, 776, 807, 840, 865, 899, 927
Vaccination, 240
Valley, Great, of California, 920
Valleys of the Ozark Plateau, 858
VAN Epps, PERCY M., Peculiar Abrasion of Tree
Trunks, 442
Van Hise, C. R., Movement of Rocks under Deforma-
tion, 521; Secondary Structures, 216; The Rela-
, tions of Primary and Secondary Structures in
Rocks, 294; Deformation of Rocks, 569, 786
Vaughan, T. Wayland, Geology of San Carlos Coal
Field, 375
Vegetable Culture, 835
Venezuela, Climate of, 769
Visualization and the Retinal Image, HIRAM M. STAn-
LEY, 563
Vivisection, in Switzerland, 131; 322, 557, 630, 838,
935; A Statement on Behalf of Science, 421; GEO.
M. STERNBERG, 597; in the District of Columbia,
700
Voyage Across the Pacific, A Quick, 769
Vulté, H. T., and George M.S. Neustadt, Laboratory
Manual of Inorganic Preparations, E. RENOUF,
208
WADE, T. W., Annual Reception and Exhibit of the
New York Academy of Sciences, 507
Waite, M. B., Pear Blight Microbe, 250
Walcott, Chas. D., Middle Cambrian Meduse, 713
WARD, LESTER F., Fossil Plants of the Wealden,
869
Ward, Lester F., The Filiation of the Sciences, 292
WaArRpD, R. De C., Current Notes in Meteorology,
661, 768, 801, 860, 922; Meteorological Reprints,
877
Ward, R. De C., Harvard Meteorological Stations in
Peru, 490
Washington, H. §S., Ischian trachytes, 674; The Mag-
matic Alteration of Hornblende and Biotite, 785.
Water, Supply for London, 594; Supply of Paris,
736; The Storage of, 837
Waves, Abnormal and Solitary, 127
WEBBER, H. J., An Investigation with Rontgen Rays
on Germinating Plants, 919
Weed, W. H., and L. V. Pirsson, Bearpaw Moun-
tains, 528
Weeds, Legislation against, 398
Weismann, A., Germinal Selection, 139; Versuche
zum Saison-Dimorphismus der Schmetterlinge,
557; on Germinal Selection, E. G. CONKLIN,
853
Xv1
Weller, 5. A., Circum-Insular Paleozoic Fauna, 31;
and A. D. Davidson, Patalocrinus mirabilis, 568;
West Va. Academy of Science, W. EARL RUMSEY, 572
White, Charles A., Bear River Formation, 22
WuHite, DAvip, The Development of Exogenous
Structure in the Paleozoic Lycopods: A Sum-
mary of the Researches of Williamson and
Renault, 754
White, David, Paleozoic Algze, 231; Structure of
Buthograptus, Plumulina and Ptilophyton, 417;
Basal Coal Measure Sections, 534
Whittield, R. P., Mollusca and Crustacea of the Mio-
cene Formations of New Jersey, W. B. CLARK, 291
Whitman, F. B., Flicker Photometer, 176
Whitney, Milton, Texture and Structure of Soils, 879
WIECHMANN, FERDINAND G., Les nouvelles théo-
ries chimiques, A. Etard, 137; Die Chemie der
Zuckerarten, Edmund O. von Lippmann, 369;
Einfiihrung in die Mathematische Behandlung
der Naturwissenschaften, W. Nernst and A.
Schonflies, 485; Behavior of Sugar towards
Rontgen Rays, 729
Wiley, H. W., Steam Jacketed Drying Oven, 419-
Acetylene, 249; Recent Advances in Milk Invesd
tigation; 820; and E. E. Ewell, The Determina-
tion of Lactose in Milks by Double Dilution an;
Polarization, 821
WILLIAMS, JR., EDWARD H., Mammoth Bed at
Morea, Pa., 782.
Williams, Henry Shaler, Geological Biology, W. H.
DALL, 445; The Origin of the Chouteau Fauna, 785
Williams, R. P., Chemical Experiments, General and
Analytical, E. H. KEISER, 484
Wiis, BatLey, Charles Lyell and Modern Geology,
T. G. Bonney, 68
Willis, Bailey, Evidences of Ancient Shores, 534
Wilsing, J., Sun’s Rotation, 748
Wilson, E. B., Centrosome in its Relation to Fixing
and Staining Agents, 58
Winchell, N. H., The Fisher Meteorite, 452
Winds, Injurious to Vegetation and Crops, 195; of
the Pacific Ocean, 127
Winge, on Brazilian Carnivora, GERRIT 8. MILLER,
447
WINLOCK, W. C., Philosophical Society of Washing-
ton, 292
SCIENCE.
CONTENTS AND
INDEX.
Wistar, Isaac J., Iron Oxide, 488
Wistar Institute, 838
Witmer, Lightner, Variations of the Patellar Reflex
as an Aid to Mental Analysis, 123; Modern
Psychology and Anthropology, 715
Wolff, J. E,, Eruptive Granite, 179
Woman under Monasticism, 805
WOODMAN, DURAND, N. Y. Section of Am. Chemical
Society, 215, 332, 489, 679, 935
Woodman, J. E., Preliminary Notes on the North
Jersey Coast, 144; Longshore Transportation on
the North Jersey Coast, 679
Woodsholl Marine Biological Laboratory, 400
Woopwortn, J. B., Marsh Gas Under Ice, 203;
Volcanic Rocks, Ezequiel Ordonez, 450
Woolman, Lewis, Imbedded Trees, 715
Wright, A. W., The Réntgen Rays, 370
WRIGHT, G. FREDERICK, The Age of Philadelphia
Brick Clay, 242
Wright, G. F., High Level Terraces of Middle Ohio,
55; Glacial Man in Ohio, 248; and Warren Up-
ham, Greenland Ice Fields and Life in the North
Atlantic, C. H. HircHcock, 598
Wurz, Charles Adolphe, Elements of Modern Chem-
istry, L. B. HALL, 415
X-Rays, HuGo MinsTERBERG, 161; The Application
of, to Surgery, Henry W. CATTELL, 344;
RALPH R. LAWRENCE, 409; Further Experiments
with, Epwin B. Frost, 235, 463; 511, 512, 594;
JOHN DANIEL, 562; Source of, A. A. MICHEL-
son and 8. W. STRATTON, 694; Photography by
Means of the Camera, FRANCIS E. NIPHER, 783;
in Medicine and Surgery, CHARLES L. Norton,
730; Deflected, 805; in Systematic Zodlogy, 899;
Anticipations of, 926
Young, C. A., The Sun, C. L.
Yucatan, The Monuments of,
P., 415
27
Zovgeography, Principles of Marine, THEO. GILL, 514
Zodlogical, Station, Impressions of the Naples, T. H.
MorGAN, 16; Society of N. Y., 97, 863; Nomen-
clature, 239, 474, 584; Station at Naples, 510,
802; Society of London, 771
Zodlogy and Biology, W. K. Brooks, 708
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Invertebrate Zodlogy ; C. HART MERRIAM, Vertebrate Zodlogy ; S. H. ScuppER, Entomology ;
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Physiology ; J. S. Brnnines, Hygiene ; J. MCKEEN CATTELL, Psychology ;
DANIEL G. BRINTON, J. W. POWELL, Anthropology.
Frinay, JANUARY 3, 1896.
CONTENTS :
The Origin of Hypotheses, Illustrated by the Discus-
sion of a Topographic Problem: G. K. GILBERT
@uith? Plates ie and! TL.) ecccossecsesescoesneeesee 1
Some Fundamentals of Nomenclature: Epw. L.
(CARTSTSINTS 65506090009000000000000000000000000600000006000000000 13
Impressions of the Naples Zoological Station: T. H.
IWI@IREUART. caqnsacssos0009 sob .npopnooDoGcecndacaHodgsosoaNCoNG 16
Annual Meeting of the American Mathematical Soci-
CY LELONUAS | SoS KAR pysea eine clelsisetseeeseelseletierteleeisio= 18
Current Notes on Anthropology :—
Researches in South American Languages; The
Anthropology of Women: D. G. BRINTON........ 19
Scientific Notes and News :—
Experiment Stations for TTR, The British
Museum ; Astronomical ; General . . 20
University and Educational News...........cecsesseseeee 23
Scientific Literature :—
Shenstone’s Life of Liebig ; Behren’s Organische
Verbindungen: IRA REMSEN. Morley on the
Densities of Oxygen and Hydrogen: W. A.
Noyes. Limer’s Evolution of Butterfiies: C. S.:
Minor. AHeadley’s Structure and Life of Birds:
F. A. Lucas; The Beginnings of Writing: Liv-
INGSTON PARRAND ..0....0..0s.ccsseeseceesrsceseoeceoes 24
Scientific Journals :—
Journal of Geology ; American Journal of Science ;
School of Mines Quarterly. ......c.cccceccssecvenseenenee 31
Societies and Academies :—
New York Academy of Sciences: BASHFORD
DEAN, J. F. Kemp. Biological Society of Wash-
ington: F. A. Lucas. Anthropological Society
of Washington. Entomological Society of Wash-
ington. St. Louis Academy of Science: A. W.
IDO EX EHIYNS cecsooboocadsndb9ccsoshooHosEqQDaSbOaC AN EROGeEOORRGG 33
MSS. intended for publication and books etc., intended
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
THE ORIGIN OF HYPOTHESES, ILLUSTRATED
BY THE DISCUSSION OF A TOPO-
GRAPHIC PROBLEM.*
Aw important part—in some respects the
most important part—of the‘work of science
is the explanation of the facts of Nature.
The process through which natural pheno-
mena are explained is called the ‘ method of
hypotheses,’ and though it is familiar to
most of my audience I shall nevertheless
describe it briefly for the purpose of direct-
ing special attention to one of its factors.
The hypothesis has been called a ‘ scien-
tific guess,’ and unless the title ‘guess’
carries with it something of disrespect
it is not inappropriate. When the in-
vestigator, having under consideration a
fact or group of facts whose origin or cause
is unknown, seeks to discover their origin,
his first step is to make a guess. In other
words, he frames a hypothesis or invents a
tentative theory. Then he proceeds to test
the hypothesis, and in planning a test he
reasons in this way: If the phenomenon
was really produced in the hypothetic man-
ner, then it should possess, in addition to the
features already observed, certain other spe-
cific features, and the discovery of these will
serve to verify the hypothesis. Resuming
* Annual Address of the President of the Geologi-
cal Society of Washington ; read December 11, 1895, to
the Scientific Societies of Washington. By special ar-
rangement, through the Joint Commission of those
societies, this number of SCIENCE is mailed to all
members.
2 SCIENCE.
its examination, he searches for these par-
ticular features. If they are found the the-
ory is supported; and in case the features
thus predicted and discovered are numerous
and varied, the theory is accepted as satis-
factory. But if the reéxamination reveals
features inconsistent with the tentative the-
ory, the theory is thereby discredited, and
the investigator proceeds to frame and test
anew one. Thus, by a series of trials, in-
adequate explanations are one by one set
aside, and eventually an explanation is dis-
covered which satisfies all requirements.
When the subject of study is one of wide
interest it usually happens that several in-
vestigators codperate in the invention and
testing of hypotheses. Often each investi-
gator will originate a hypothesis, and a
series of rigorous tests will be applied
through the endeavor of each one to estab-
lish his own by overthrowing all others.
The different theories are rivals competing
for ascendancy, and their authors are also
rivals, ambitious for the credit of discovery.
The personal factor thus introduced tends
to bias the judgment and is to that extent
unfavorable to the progress of science; but
the conflict of theories, leading, as it event-
ually must, to the survival of the fittest,
is advantageous. Fortunately there is a
mode of using hypotheses which regulates
the personal factor without restricting the
competition of theories, and this has found
favor with the greatest investigators. It
has recently been formulated and ably ad-
vocated by our fellow-member, Prof. T. C.
Chamberlin, who calls it the ‘method of
multiple hypotheses. ’*
In the application of this method the stu-
dent of a group of phenomena, instead of
inventing and testing hypotheses one at a
time, devises at an early stage as many as
possible, and then, treating them as rival
claimants, assigns to himself the role of
*The Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses,
SCIENCE (1st series), Vol. XV. (1890) pp. 92-96.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 53.
judge. Returning to the study of nature,
he seeks for special features which cannot
consist with all the hypotheses, and may
therefore serve to discriminate among them.
Thus by a series of crucial tests he elimi-
nates one after another of the tentative the-
ories until but.a single one remains, and he
then proceeds to apply such tests as he may
to the survivor.
In these methods of work, whether theo-
ries are examined successively or simulta-
neously, there are two steps involving the
initiative of the investigator; he invents
hypotheses and he invents tests for them.
It is to the intellectual character of these
inventions that your attention is invited.
The mental process by which hypotheses
are suggested is obscure. Ordinarily they
flash into consciousness without premoni-
tion, and it would be easy to ascribe them
to a mysterious intuition or creative fac-
ulty; but this would contravene one of the
broadest generalizations of modern psy-
chology. Just as in the domain of matter
nothing is created from nothing, just as in
the domain of life there is no spontaneous
generation, so in the domain of mind there
are no ideas which do not owe their exist-
ence to antecedent ideas which stand in the
relation of parent to child. It is only be-
cause our mental processes are largely con-
ducted outside the field of consciousness
that the lineage of ideas is difficult to trace.
To explain the origin of hypotheses I
have a hypothesis to present,—not, indeed,
as original, for it has been at least tacitly
assumed by various writers on scientific
method, but rather as worthy of more gen-
eral attention and recognition. It is that
hypotheses are always suggested through
analogy. The unexplained phenomenon on
which the student fixes his attention re-
sembles in some of its features another
phenomenon of which the explanation is
known. Analogic reasoning suggests that
the desired explanation is similar in char-
JANUARY 3, 1896.]
acter to the known, and this suggestion con-
stitutes the production of a hypothesis.
To test this hypothesis of hypotheses I
have for some years endeavored to analyze
the methods employed by myself and some
of my associates in geologic research, and
this study has proved so interesting in
connection with the investigation of a pe-
culiar crater in Arizona, that I shall devote
the remainder of my hour to an outline of
that investigation.
(608
z somes’ 8
ot 2
The
Dots
Fie. 1.—Map of part of northern Arizona.
shaded areas are covered by volcanic rocks.
mark ancient volcanic vents.
In northeastern Arizona there is an arid
plain beneath whose scanty soil are level
beds of limestone. At one point the plain
is interrupted by a bowl-shaped or saucer-
shaped hollow, a few thousand feet broad
and a few hundred feet deep; and about
this hollow is an approximately circular rim
rising one or two hundred feet above the
surface of the plain (Plate 1, Figs. 2 and
3). In other words, there is a crater;
but the crater differs from the ordinary vol-
eanic structure of that name in that it con-
tains no voleanic rock. The circling sides
of the bowl show limestone and sandstone,
and the rim is wholly composed of these
materials. On the slopes of this crater and
on the plain round about many pieces of
iron have been found, not iron ore, but the
metal itself, and this substance is foreign to
SCIENCE. 5)
the limestone of the plain and to all other
formations of the region.* The features of
the locality thus include three things of un-
usual character and requiring explanation :
First, the crater composed of non-volcanic
rock; second, the scattered iron masses ;
third, the association of crater and iron.
To account for these phenomena a number
of theories have been suggested.
In the year 1886 a company of shepherds
encamped on the slopes of the crater and
pastured their sheep on the surrounding
plain. Mathias Armijo, one of their num-
ber, found a piece of iron, and, deceived by
its lustrous surface, supposed it to be silver.
The mistake was quickly corrected by his
fellows, but his discovery excited their in-
terest, and other pieces of iron were soon
found. The curiosity of the shepherds
was aroused also by the crater, and they
invented a theory which is admirable for
its simplicity: The crater was produced
by an explosion, the material of the rim
being thrown out from the central cavity,
and the iron was thrown out from the same
cavity at the same time. You will observe
that this theory is comprehensive. It ac-
counts for the crater, the iron, and the as-
sociation of the two. As I have never met
these first students of the phenomena I
have had no opportunity to make inquiry
as to the origin of their theory ; but its
close relation to the theories of geologic dis-
turbance which are current in mining dis-
tricts suggests that it also sprung from the
familiar process of blasting. As the firing
of a blast opens a cavity and heaps dislo-
cated rock masses in an irregular way, the
unlearned miner finds in natural blasting
an easy explanation of hollows and uplifts.
Four years later aman by the name of
Craft saw in the iron a possibility of profit.
Setting up a heap of stone to mark the spot,
*The crater is locally known as Coon Mountain, or
Coon Butte. The iron is known to literature as the
Canyon Diablo fall of meteorites.
| SCIENCE.
he located a mining claim; and going to
the city of Albuquerque, he announced that
he had a vein of pure iron 40 yards wide
and two miles long, and offered to sell his
property to a railway company. The
samples he submitted were examined by an
assayer, and the officers of the company
gave consideration to his proposal, agreeing
to send a representative to examine the
property. The negotiation was not con-
eluded, because Mr. Craft, having bor-
rowed money on the strength of his great
expectations, mysteriously disappeared, but
the incident served to give information
of the locality to a scientific observer.
The assayer forwarded a piece of the iron
to the late Dr. A. E. Foote, the mineral-
ogist, who visited the place, collected a
quantity of the iron and examined the
crater. In the summer of 1891 he com-
municated his observations to the American
Association for the Advancement of Sci-
ence, * which that year was the guest of
the scientific societies of Washington, and
his paper aroused much interest. For the
erater of non-voleanic rock he offered no
explanation, but the iron he pronounced of
celestial origin—a shower of fallen meteors.
It has long been known that many of the
bodies which reach the earth from outer
space are composed of iron, and that such
iron is of peculiar character, having a cer-
tain crystalline structure, being alloyed
with nickel, and including nodules of
certain substances which are not found in
any other association. So Doctor Foote, in
characterizing the iron as meteoric, merely
referred it to a well-established class. His
explanation was not tentative, but final,
and has not been called in question by any
subsequent investigator.
In the discussion following the reading of
his paper a new hypothesis was proposed,
* A new locality for meteoric iron with a prelimi-
nary notice of the discovery of diamonds in the iron.
Proc. Am. Ass. Adv. Science, Vol. 40, pp. 279-283.
(N.S. Voz. III. No. 53-
and as this was offered by myself I can
trace its origin with comparative confi-
dence. The crust of the earth is not
equally dense at all points, but some parts
are heavier than others. Not only are
there variations from hill to hill and from
formation to formation, but the continents
are in general composed of lighter mate-
rials than the ocean beds, and one side of
the sphere is so much heavier than the
other that its attraction pulls most of the
water away from the other side. Among
the various theories that have been pro-
posed for the origin of the planet there is
one which ascribes it to the falling together
under mutual attraction of many smaller
celestial bodies, and it has been suggested
that the variations in the crust may repre-
sent original differences of the concurrent
masses. Speculating on such lines I had
asked myself what would result if another
small star should now be added to the
earth, and one of the consequences which
had occurred to me was the formation of a
crater, the suggestion springing from the
many familiar instances of craters formed
by collision. A raindrop falling on soft
ooze produces a miniature crater ; so does
a pebble thrown into a pool of pasty mud.
A larger crater is made when a steel projec-
tile is fired against steel armor plate; and
analogy easily bridged the interval from
the cannon ball to the asteroid. So when
Dr. Foote described a limestone crater in
association with iron masses from outer
space, it at once occurred to me that the
theme of my speculation might here find its
realization. The suggested explanation as-
sumes that the shower of falling iron masses
included one larger than the rest, and that
this greater mass, by the violence of its col-
lision, produced the crater. Here again you
will observe that a single theory explains
the crater, the iron and their association.
The thought of examining the scar pro-
duced on the earth by the collision of a star
JANUARY 3, 1896.]
was so attractive that I desired to visit the
erater, but as that was not immediately
practicable I arranged to have it visited by
one of my colleagues. A few months later
Mr. Willard D. Johnson spent several days
at the locality, making a sketch map and
describing the various features. When he
reached the rim of the crater he found it to
consist chiefly of limestone strata inclined
outward, and his first thought was that the
rim might be the remnant of the dome of
strata over a laccolite. The laccolite is a
peculiar voleanic product. The molten
lavas which make volcanoes rise from deep
sources through cracks or passages among
the rocks and flow out over the surface of
the land; but sometimes rising lavas fail to
reach the surface, and accumulate at lower
levels, opening for themselves bubble-shaped
chaimbers over which the strata are arched.
In the dome-like structures thus produced
the rocks dip outward in all directions from
a central region, and this outward dip was
the feature which, through analogy, sug-
gested to Mr. Johnson a laccolitic origin.
His first idea, however, was not long
retained, for examining the walls and bot-
tem of the crater he found no trace of
the igneous rocks of which laccolites are
composed, and the theory afforded no
aid in accounting for the hollow. He there-
fore dismissed it and sought another. He
may have considered several others, but
the only one placed on record is an explosion
theory. In some way, probably by vol-
ceanic heat, a body of steam was produced
at a depth of some hundreds or thous-
ands of feet, and the explosion of this
steam produced the crater. The fall of
iron was independent, and the associa-
tion of the two occurrences in the same
locality is accidental.*« As Mr. Johnson is
at once a civil engineer and a student of
geology and geography, he had at command
*Mr. Johnson’s discussion of the problem was
communicated to me in a personal letter. G.K. G.
SCIENCE. 5
as basis for analogic reasoning the explo-
sive phenomenaassociated with the arts and
also those which belong to the history of
volcanoes, and we may assume that these
suggested his theory.
Mr. Johnson’s account of the crater
was much fuller than Dr. Foote’s, but in-
stead of satisfying my curiosity tended
rather to whet it, and I availed myself of
the first opportunity to make a personal
visit. Four hypotheses had now been
made, but only two survived. The theory
of the shepherds, deriving the iron from the
cavity of the crater, was disproved by Dr.
Foote’s determination of the meteoric
character of the iron. The laccolitic theory
had been promptly set aside by Mr. John-
son. There remained the theory of a star’s
collision and the theory of a steam ex-
plosion. If my visit was to aid in the de-
termination of the problem of cause it
must gather the data which would discrimi-
nate between these two theories, and an
attempt was accordingly made to devise
crucial tests. If the crater was produced
by the collision and penetration of a stellar
body that body now lay beneath the bowl,
but not so if the crater resulted from ex-
plosion. Any observation which would
determine the presence or absence of a
buried star might therefore serve as a cru-
cial test. Direct exploration by means ofa
shaft or drill hole could not be undertaken
on account of the expense, but two indirect
methods seemed feasible.
If the crater were produced by explosion
the material contained in the rim, being
identical with that removed from the hol-
low, is of equal amount; but if a star
entered the hole the hole was partly filled
thereby, and the remaining hollow must be
less in volume than the rim. The presence
or absence of the star might therefore be
tested by measuring the cubic contents of
the hollow and of the rim and comparing
the two. Of the intellectual origin of this
6 SCIENCE.
test perhaps the most that can be said is
that it is a test by quantities, and that the
experienced investigator, having previously
found relations of quantity the most satis-
factory criteria, habitually employs them
whenever the circumstances permit.
Again it occurred to me that the stellar
body would presumptively be composed,
like the smaller masses round about, of
iron, and that its presence or absence
might, therefore, be determined by means
of the magnetic needle. If it were absent
the compass would point in the same direc-
tion, whatever its position with reference
to the crater, whether within or without,
on one side or the other, near by or miles
away ; but if a mass of iron large enough
to produce the crater lay beneath it its at-
traction would pull the needle one way or the
other, producing local variations. Doubt-
less the suggestion of this test came from
knowledge of the methods employed in
searching for magnetic iron ore in northern
Michigan, where the prospector carries the
dip needle to and fro through the forest, and
by means of its changes of direction deter-
mines the position and extent of bodies ofore.
As an equipment for these measurements
I provided myself with the instruments nec-
essary to make an accurate topographic map,
and obtained, through the courtesy of the
Coast and Geodetic Survey, a full set of in-
struments for the observation of terrestrial
magnetism. I was so fortunate, also, as to
secure the cooperation of an expert mag-
netic observer, Mr. Marcus Baker, of the
Geological Survey, and together we set out
for Arizona. :
At this time it seemed to me that the
presumption was in favor of the theory
ascribing the crater to a falling star, be-
cause that theory explained, while its
rival did not, the close association of the
erater with the shower of celestialiron. So
far as we know, a falling meteor is just as
likely to reach any one spot on the earth’s
[N. S. Von. ILL. No. 53.
surface as any other, and it is, therefore,
entirely possible that the coincidence of the
meteoric locality with the locality of the
crater has no special significance; but if
the two phenomena are not connected by a
causal relation, it is no more probable that
the crater should coincide in place with one
of the 165 meteoric falls recorded within the
bounds of the United States than that it
should occupy any other spot of our broad
domain. A rough estimate shows the prob-
ability of non-coincidence to be at least 500
times as great as the probability of coin-
cidence. This by no means warrants the
conclusion that an explanation ascribing a
causal relation is 800 times as probable as
one ascribing fortuitous coincidence, but
it legitimately inclines the mind toward
causality in the absence of more direct and
authoritative evidence.
This point is illustrated by the investiga-
tion of the peculiar sky colors observed
twelve years ago. Considering the phe-
nomenon of coloration in its entirety—char-
acter, distribution and duration—it was not
merely rare, it was unique. In the same
year a tremendous volcanic explosion oc-
curred in the Straits of Sunda, and that
also was unique in intensity. The coinci-
dence of the two, which in this case was a
matter of time rather than place, led to the
belief that the one was caused by the other,
and this belief was held by many men of
science before an adequate explanation of
the mode of causation had been suggested.
So when Mr. Baker and I started for the
crater if seemed rather probable than other-
wise that we should find a local deflection
of the magnetic needle, and that we should
find the material of the rim more than sul-
ficient to fill the hollow it surrounds.
Before our journey was ended another
explanation suggested itself. Mr. Johnson
had described the crater as not truly circu-
Jar but somewhat oval, the longer diameter
lying east and west. He noted also that
SCIENCE. . No Ss WO, JUDT, usin) Il,
IntustrRAtTIons To ARTICLE BY G. K. GrtpEeRT on HyporHeses.
Fie. 1.—Lonar Lake, India, occupying an explosion Fia. 2.—The limestone crater of Arizona, Coon
crater. From Newbold’s Swnmary of the Geology of Butte, as seen from the south. Photograph of a
Southern India, Jour. Roy. Asiatic Soe., vol. 9, p. model by Mr. Victor Mindeleff.
40. London, 1848.
Fie. 3.—Contour map of Coon Butte. The vertical Fre. 4.—Restoration of the site of Coon Butte before
distance from contour to contour is ten feet. Lines the formation of the crater. Contour interval, ten
of drainage are dotted. feet; lines of drainage dotted. Compare with
Fig. 3
ig. 3:
Fria. 5.—Volcanic cinder-cone, with crater, north of | Fra. 6.—Craters made by throwing clay ballsat a clay
San Francisco Mountain, Arizona. The position of target. A ball of the same size isshown. 1 shows
the crater, at top of the hill, is characteristic of the effect of high velocity, 2 of low.
most voleanoes. Compare Fig, 2, where the crater
lies chiefly below the level of the plain.
SCIENCE. N. S. Von. IIE, Pruare 2)
ILLusTRATIONS TO ARTICLE BY G. K. GILBERT ON HyporHEsEs.
Fic. 1.—Rim of Coon Butte, with part of inner face. | FIG. 2.—Block of limestone on outer slope of Coon
Butte, one-half mile from rim.
Fic. 3.—Largest block of limestone on rim of Coon FIG. 4.—Outer slope of Coon Butte.
Butte. Diameter, 60 feet.
Fra. 5.—Interior of Coon Butte, as seen from the Fre. 6.—Exterior of Coon Butte, as seen from the
talus on one side. The cliff below the rim is of surrounding plain.
limestone.
ee
JANUARY 3, 1896. ]
the rim was bulkier on the east side than
on the west, and that nearly all the iron
had been found east of the crater. The
new explanation was that a star, falling ob-
liquely from the western sky, struck the
earth and bounded off, finally coming to
rest at some point farther east. The idea
was of course derived from the ricochet of
projectiles; I had seen the mark left by a
rifle ball where it rebounded from a plowed
field. This explanation could be tested by
a simple examination of the topographic
form; and it may be as well to anticipate
here the order of the narrative, and say
that the form of the crater was found to be
quite inconsistent with the ricochet hypoth-
esis. The difference of the two diameters
is quite small ; the eastern rim is but little
more massive than the western; and the
dislocation of the rocks in the western rim
is of such character that it could not have
been produced by a body descending ob-
liquely toward the east.
Arriving at the crater we spent two
—
Fic. 2.—The upper diagram is profile across the
crater ; the lower, a cross-section of the rim. 1,
limestone. 2, sandstone. 3,redshale. 4, crushed
rock. 5, loose blocks of limestone and sandstone.
6, talus of debris fallen from 1 and 2 above.
SCIENCE. 7
weeks in topographic and magnetic surveys
and the study of local details. The di-
ameter of the bowl, measured from rim to
rim, is about three-fourths of a mile. Its
depth below the rim is from 550 to 600
feet ; below the plain, 400 feet, the rim be-
ing 150 to 200 feet high. The rim is in
part composed of limestone strata like
those which underlie the plain, but turned
up, so as to incline steeply away from the
hollow on all sides. On the inclined strata
rests a mantle of loose fragments which are
in part of limestone and in part of sand-
stone. The limestone masses are fragments
of the formation occurring just beneath,
and the sandstone masses are fragments of
a formation which underlies the limestone
formation. Most of the masses are of mod-
erate size, but others are large, the lime-
stone reaching a diameter of 60 feet, and
the sandstone about 100 feet. (Plate 2.
Figs. 1-4.). They are irregularly mingled,
one material predominating in one tract
and the other in another. The limestone
is the more conspicious because withstand-
ing better the attacks of the weather. In
fact the larger blocks of sandstone have
been so far washed away that they do not
project above the surface. From the crest
of the rim outward this loose material oc-
cupies the surface for an average distance
of half a mile, being characterized by roll-
ing or hummocky topography. At greater
distances it is thinly spread and the con-
stituent blocks are small. At one mile itis
represented only by scattered fragments, but
these continue with diminishing frequency
to a distance of three and a half miles.
Inside the rim the edges of limestone
strata occupy the slope for a space of 150
to 250 feet. They are succeeded in several
places by sandstone strata, but the sand-
stone does not hold its original relation to
the limestone; it is separated by a vertical
zone of crushed rock, and there is other
evidence that it has been faulted upward.
8 SCIENCE.
The lower slopes are occupied by fragments
of limestone and sandstone with an ar-
rangement showing that they have fallen
from the cliff above so as to constitute a
talus of the ordinary type, and the central
tract is composed of fine material of the
same kind. Whatever may have been the
original shape of the pit, its present form
has resulted from subsequent modification
under the action of rain and frost.
IS MILES.
Fie. 3.—Distribution Chart. The inner line is the
rim of crater. In the inner shaded area the loose
debris has a depth of more than one foot. In the
outer shaded area are scattered blocks ; where the
area is bounded by a line its limit was surveyed.
The chief district of small iron masses is shown by
dots. Large iron masses are indicated by crosses.
The distribution of the iron is chiefly on the
authority of Mr. F. W. Volz, of Canyon Diablo,
A. T.
No iron has been found within the cra-
ter, but a great number of fragments were
obtained from the outer slopes where they -
rested on the mantle of loose blocks. Many
others were obtained from the plain within
the region of scattered debris, and others,
though a smaller number, from the outer
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 53.
plain. One large piece was discovered eight
miles east of the crater, or almost twice as
distant as any fragments of the ejected
limestone. Another was long ago discov-
ered twenty miles to the southward, but
what became of it is not known, and it has
not been definitely identified as a member
of the same meteoric shower. Most of the
masses are small. There have been found
more than one thousand, possibly more than
two thousand, pieces weighing less than an
ounce ; others weigh a few ounces or a few
pounds ; forty or fifty exceed one hundred
pounds, and two exceed one thousand
pounds. The total weight of all finds is
probably ten tons. At the time of my visit
I was told that all had been discovered east
of a north and south line passing through
the middle of the crater, but this may have
been an accident of the method of search,
for more recently six large ones have been
reported from points west of that line.
HO" sot
wt
. Fie. 4.—Arrangement
of magnetic stations.
|s‘ss________} The longer line of sta-
tions is on the magnetic
meridian of November,
1891.
See
32°58)
The magnetic survey by Mr. Baker in-
eluded the selection and mapping of a
system of stations, and the observation at
each of the three magnetic elements : the
horizontal component of direction, or the
compass bearing; the vertical component
JANUARY 8, 1896.]
of direction, or the inclination of the dip
needle ; and the intensity of the magnetic
force. Two lines of stations, at right angles
to each other, were carried across the crater,
and one of these lines was extended to a
distance of three and a half miles on the
plain. When the results were tabulated and
compared, the magnetism was found to be
constant in direction and intensity at all the
stations, the deviations from uniformity be-
ing not greater than the unavoidable errors
of observation. So if the crater contains a
mass of iron its attraction is too feeble to
be detected by the instruments employed.
That we might learn the precise meaning of
this result, the delicacy of the instruments
was afterward tested at the Washington
Navy Yard, by observing. their behavior
when placed in certain definite relations to
a group of iron cannon whose weight was
known, and the following conclusions were
reached: Ifa mass of iron equivalent to a
sphere 1500 feet in diameter is buried be-
neath the crater it must lie at least 50
miles below the surface ; if a mass 500 feet
in diameter lies there its depth is not less
than 10 miles. So the theory of a great
iron meteor is negatived by the magnetic
results, unless we may suppose either that
the meteor was quite small as compared to
the diameter of the crater, or that it pene-
trated to a very great depth.
The topographic survey was executed
with such detail as to warrant the drawing
of contour lines for each ten feet of height.
(Plate 1, Fig. 3.) During its progress the
configuration of the surrounding country
was carefully studied, and its general plan
was found to be so simple and regular that
the original contours before the creation of
the crater could be restored without great
liability of error. (Plate 1, Fig. 4.) Such
restoration was made, and with its aid two
quantities were afterwards computed: first,
the cubic contents of the rim so far as it
projects above the ancient surface ; second,
SCIENCE. )
the cubic contents of the hollow so far as it
lies below the ancient surface. The two
volumes were compared with each other
and also with the volume of a spherical pro-
jectile estimated as competent to produce
the crater. From experiments with balls
of clay fired against a target of the same
material it seems probable that a crater
4,000 feet in diameter might be produced
by a swift-moving meteor with a diameter
of 1,500 feet. (Plate 1, Fig. 6.) It seems
possible, though not probable, that it could
be made by a mass 750 feet in diameter.
The volume of the greater assumed pro-
jectile is 60 million cubie yards; the vol-
ume of the lesser, 7$ million yards. The
magnitude of the hollow was found to be
82 million yards, and the magnitude of the
rim was also found to be 82 million yards.
It, therefore, appears that if the rim were
to be dug away down to the level of the an-
cient plain, and the material tightly packed
within the hollow of the crater, it would
suffice to precisely fill that hollow and re-
store the ancient plain. The excess of mat-
ter required by the theory of a buried star
was not found.
Thus each of the two experiments whose
testimony had been invoked declared against
the theory of a colliding meteor ; and the
expectation founded on the high improba-
bility of fortuitous coincidence nevertheless
failed of realization.
Attention being now directed to the only
surviving theory, that of steam explosion,
all the various features discovered in the
local study were considered with reference to
it. To describe and discuss them on this oc-
casion would lead too far from our subject,
and they may be passed by with the remark
that, while not all are as yet fully under-
stood, they seem not to oppose the theory.
For the sake of applying another quanti-
tative test, an attempt was made to ascer-
tain whether the energy which could be de-
veloped by heating the water contained in
10
the sandstone formation would be suffi-
cient, when the overlying strata gave way,
to hurl their fragments out upon the sur-
sounding plain. As the data were quite
indefinite the computation could result only
in a rough approximation, and there is no
need to weary you with its details, but it
served to show that the assumed cause was
of the same order of magnitude as the re-
sult accomplished. The idea of applying
such a test needs no specific explanation,
because quantitative tests of this particular
type are among the most familiar resources
of investigation. Whenever a tentative
theory involves the application of force or
the expenditure of energy the investigator
(or his eritic) habitually asks whether the
assumed cause affords a sufficient amount
of force or of energy.
Practically the same conclusion was
reached in a more satisfactory way by
studying the accounts of other natural ex-
plosions where steam was the agent. At
several epochs in its history the top of
Mount Vesuvius has been torn away by a
sudden convulsion. In Java the summit
of Mount Tomboro was blown away, with
the production of a great crater which now
contains a lake, and a similar catastrope
occurred on the slope of Mount Pepandajan.
The great explosion of Krakatoa, in 1883,
demolished several volcanic islands and
created others, reconstructing the topog-
raphy of a district in the Straits of Sunda.
On July 15, 1888, a great opening was torn
in the Japanese mountain Kobandai, the
summit and part of one side being removed.
The last mentioned instance is the most
available for comparison because the agency
of steam distinctly appeared, and because
the history of the event has been admirably
reported by two Japanese geologists, Profs.
Sekiya and Kikuchi, of Tokio. *
* The Eruption of Bandai-san. Trans. Seismologi-
cal Soc. of Japan, Vol. XIII., (1890), pp. 139-222.
9 plates.
SCIENCE.
{N. S. Vow. TL. No. 53.
There were in this case about twenty ex-
plosions, all occurring within the space of
one or two minutes. A cloud of rock frag-
ments ascended to a height of 4,000 feet.
The greater number, moving obliquely away
from the mountain side, fell upon its lower
slope, down which they rolled as an ava-
lanche for a distance of five miles, over-
whelming several villages and transforming
a fertile plain into a rocky desert. In other
directions fell showers of stones, and a cloud
of dust descending more slowly. The re-
sulting crater, less regular in form than the
subject of our study, was nineteen times as
capacious, and from its bottom fierce jets of
steam issued for weeks and even months.
Kobandai is a volcanic peak, and although
it had been quiescent for ten centuries
there can be little doubt that the steam it
evolved was generated by voleanic heat.
The competency of voleanic steam for the
production of a crater is thus shown by a
parallel instance, and the only conspicuous
difference between the Japanese case and
the Arizonian lies in the fact that in the
one the disrupted rock was voleanie and in
the other it was not. This difference seems
unessential, for in neither case was there
an eruption of quid rock; the ancient
lavas of Kobandai had been cold for ages,
and their relation to the catastrophe was
wholly passive. Moreover, the manifesta-
tion of voleanic energy is no more excep-
tional on the Arizona plateau than in the
Bandai district. The little limestone crater
is in the midst of a great volcanic district.
(hig. 1, Page 3, and Plate 1, Fig. 5.)
The nearest volcanic crater is but ten miles
distant, and within a radius of fifty miles
are hundreds of vents from which lava
has issued during the later geologic periods.
In following this line of thought I have
but reversed the logical route by which Mr.
Johnson probably reached his theory, veri-
fying the theory by recomparison with its
source.
JANUARY 3, 1896. ]
Yet other verification was afterwards
found through the published accounts of
certain small craters in Germany, France
and India. In the valley of the Rhineare a
number of circular basins, for the most part
containing lakes and hence called maars.
They are depressed below the level of the
surrounding plain, and some of them are
surrounded by raised rims. The descrip-
tions are somewhat conflicting, but it is
clear that some of the basins are hollowed
chiefly from non-volcanic rocks, limestone,
sandstone and slate, and that their rims are
composed in part of fragments of similar
rocks.* The Indian crater (Plate 1, Fig. 1),
which also contains a lake, is hollowed from
a volcanic rock, the Deccan trap, and shows
no other material ; but in other features it
parallels so closely the Arizona crater that
-I quote from Doctor Blanford’s description:
“The surrounding country for hundreds
of miles consists entirely of Deccan trap ;
in this rock, at Lonar, there is a nearly cir-
cular hollow about 300 to 400 feet deep, and
rather more than a mile in diameter, con-
taining at the bottom a shallow lake of
salt water without any outlet. * * * *
The sides of the hollow to the north and
northeast are absolutely level with the sur-
rounding country, whilst in all other di-
rections there is a raised rim, never ex-
ceeding 100 feet in height, and frequently
only 40 or 50, composed of blocks of basalt,
irregularly piled, and precisely similar to
the rock exposed on the sides of the hollow.
The dip of the surrounding traps is away
from the hollow, but very low.
“Tt isimpossible to ascribe this hollow to
any other cause than volcanic explosion.’’}
* Volcanos. By G. Poulett Scrope. London, 1872.
Pp. 369-384. Die Vulkane der Eifel, in ihrer Bild-
ungsweise erlautert. By Dr. Herman Vogelsang.
Naturkundige verhandelingen von der hollandische
Maalschappij der Wetenschappen te Haarlem. Vol.
21, Part 1. Pp. 41-76.
yA Manual of the Geology of India, by H. B,
Medlicott and W. T. Blanford. Part I., pp. 379-380
8vo. Calcutta, 1879.
SCIENCE.
11
For the sake of completeness, mention
should be made of two other hypotheses,
which resemble the laccolitic suggestion in
that each was based on a single feature
of the crater but failed to find verification
in any other feature. The fact that the pit
occurs in limestone suggested that it might
be what is called a limestone sink, a cavern
having been made by the solution of the rock
and the roof having afterwards fallen in.*
The fact that the loose debris of the rim lies
in hummocks with intervening hollows, and
thus resembles in its topographic character
the terminal moraine of a glacier, suggested
that ice was concerned in its distribution.
Yet another hypothesis, and the last that
need be mentioned, was made by welding
together two which had preceded. It is a
general fact that causes are complex, and
as the explanations which first suggest
themselves are apt to be simple, it often oc-
curs that the theory finally adopted com-
bines elements of two or more of the
theories tentatively proposed. The expert
constructor of theories is therefore prone to
suspect that rival explanations embody half
truths, and to seek for methods of combina-
tion. The combination proposed in this
case utilizes the theory of meteoric impact
and the theory of voleanic explosion, and
its author is Mr. Warren Upham. His sug-
gestion is that, by some volcanic process,
heat had been engendered among the rocks
of the locality, so that the conditions were
ripe for an explosion, and that the mine
was actually fired by a falling star, whose
collision ruptured a barrier between water
and hot rock, or in some other way
touched the volcanic button.; It will be
noted that this explanation demands a
coincidence of what may be called the sec-
ond order, for the colliding star is supposed
not only to have chanced upon the prepared
* This suggestion was made by a correspondent.
ft American Geologist, Vol. 13, (1894), p. 116; also
a personal letter. .
12
locality, but to have arrived opportunely at
the critical epoch.
Still another contribution to the subject,
while it does not increase the number of
hypotheses, is nevertheless important in
that it tends to diminish the weight of the
magnetic evidence and thus to reopen the
question which Mr. Baker and I supposed
we had settled. Our fellow-member, Mr.
Edwin E. Howell, through whose hands
much of the meteoric iron has passed,
Fic. 5.—Iron meteorite found near the crater. Weighs
1613 pounds. Property of Mr. Edwin E. Howell,
of Washington, D. C.
points out that each of the iron masses,
great and small, is in itself a complete in-
dividual. They have none of the charac-
ters that would be found if they had been
broken one from another, and yet, as they
are all of one type and all reached the earth
within a small district, it must be supposed
that they were originally connected in some
way. Reasoning by analogy from the char-
acters of other meteoric bodies, he infers
that the irons were all included in a large
mass of some different material, either
erystalline rock, such as constitutes the
class of meteorites called ‘stony,’ or else a
compound of iron and sulphur, similar to
certain nodules discovered inside the iron
masses when sawn in two. Neither of
these materials is so enduring as the iron,
and the fact that they are not now found
on the plain does not prove their original
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 53.
absence. Moreover, the plain is strewn
in the vicinity of the crater with bits
of limonite, a mineral frequently produced
by the action of air and water on iron
sulphide, and this material is much more
abundant than the iron. If it be true that
the iron masses were thus imbedded, like
plums, in an astral pudding, the hypothetic
buried star might have great size and yet
only small power to attract the magnetic
needle. Mr. Howell also proposes a quali-
fication of the test by volumes, suggesting
that some of the rocks beneath the buried
star might have been condensed by the
shock so as to occupy less space.** These
considerations are eminently pertinent to
the study of the crater and will find ap-
propriate place in any comprehensive dis-
cussion of its origin ; but the fact which is
peculiarly worthy of note at the present
time is their ability to unsettle a conclusion
that was beginning to feel itself secure.
This illustrates the tentative nature, not
only of the hypotheses of Science, but of
what Science calls its results. The method
of hypotheses, and that method is the
method of Science, founds its explanations
of Nature wholly on observed facts, and its
results are ever subject to the limitations
imposed by imperfect observation. How-
ever grand, however widely accepted, how-
ever useful its conclusion, none is so sure
that it can not be called in question by a
newly discovered fact. In the domain of
the world’s knowledge there is no infal-
libility.
And now let us return for a moment from
the illustrative investigation to the hypoth-
esis of hypotheses. If my idea is correct
—if it be true that tentative explanations
are always founded on accepted explana-
tions of similar phenomena—then fertility
of invention implies a wide and varied
knowledge of the causes of things, and the
* Mr. Howell’s suggestions were communicated
orally and are here published by permission.
JANUARY 3, 1896. ]
understanding of Nature in many of her
varied aspects is.an essential part of the in-
tellectual equipment of the investigator.
Moreover, mankind, collectively, through
the agency of its men of science and in-
ventors, is an investigator, slowly unravel-
ling the complex of Nature and weaving
from the disentangled thread the fabric of
civilization. Its material, social and intel-
lectual condition advances with the prog-
ress of its knowledge of natural laws and
is wholly dependent thereon. As an in-
vestigator it makes each new conquest by
the aid of possessions earlier acquired, and
the breadth of its domain each day is the
foundation and measure of its daily prog-
ress. Knowledge of Nature is an account
at bank, where each dividend is added to
the principal and the interest is ever com-
pounded ; and henee it is that human prog-
ress, founded on natural knowledge, ad-
vances with ever increasing speed.
G. K. GiLBert.
SOME FUNDAMENTALS OF NOMENCLATURE.
Tue following paragraphs are a brief ab-
stract of two consecutive papers read before
the Biological Society, of Washington, on
November 16 and 30,1895. And, though
averse to attempting the condensation of so
much matter into small space, the attempt is
made in deference to the expressed wishes
of several who are interested in the ques-
tions discussed in the original papers.
It is certainly time that inquiry should
be made into the remotest history of the
evolution of the binary nomenclature in
use by botanists and zodlogists; for it is
only by the way of the history of any
system that we may easily arrive at an
understanding of its fundamental prin-
ciples. Within the last thirty years there
has been much legislation attempted re-
specting nomenclature. There is talk of
further legislation in the future, and
certainly much need of it, if by it we may
SCIENCE.
13
hope to establish a rational and acceptable
system. Yet very few of those who enter the
arena of nomenclatorial discussion seem
disposed to acquire anything more than a
superficial knowledge of the origin and
development of the binary system; they
have never looked carefully to see whether
priority, or fitness in names, or the mere
convenience of the biological public at a
given period, or prevailing usage, is the
fundamental principle which has brought
the system to its present state; or
whether the combined force of all these
and some other possible principles have
given us such a system—or such a set of
systems—as we have, and are more or less
content, or discontented.
No subject is well understood, now-a-
days, it is everywhere conceded, until it has
been viewed from the evolutionary stand-
point. But research into the history and
evolution of our nomenclature is still neg-
lected; and some are, I think vainly, hop-
ing to resolve all difficulties even by bury-
ing still more deeply in oblivion the early
history of nomenclature. This is really
a curious point in the present status of
things. But the present need of historical
research is clearly evinced by the absurdi-
ties which legislative bodies have already
given expression to when endeavoring to
state fundamentals.
In attempting to set forth what it calls
‘Leading Principles’ even the celebrated
‘Paris Code’ is more remarkable for cheap
platitudes and skillful evasions than for
any distinct pronouncements regarding
principles. Botanists of that period were
beginning to awaken to a sense of the im-
portance of priority, but were not yet ready
to accord it a place among what were desig-
nated as the Leading Principles, yet pla-
cing it first among accessory, or secondary,
elements of nomenclature.
The body of American botanists who, in
1892, promulgated what is known as the
14
Rochester Code took a much more decided
stand in favor of priority, placing that very
word itself foremost in their code. ‘‘ Prior-
ity of publication is to be regarded as the
fundamental principle of botanical nomen-
clature.”” This language is, nevertheless,
not quite so positive as at first reading it
might seem. This legislative body appar-
ently wished to say that the principle of
priority 7s fundamental, yet did not feel
warranted in saying exactly that, but said
instead ‘is to be regarded as fundamental.’
Here at once arather serious question is
suggested. Unless priority be quite clearly
fundamental, why should a body of scien-
tific men agree to regard zt as fundamental ?
In code-making, of whatever sort, every-
thing stands or falls with the ground truth
or truths on which the several articles or
statutes rest. Error as to the ground prin-
ciple invalidates every rule and regulation
that may be builded on it. Unless some
one principle or set of principles may
be declared quite positively fundamental,
men waste their time in attempting to legis-
late; the rules are sure to be of little actual
force. The authors of the Rochester Code,
either consciously or unconsciously, were
ina dilemma. They were obliged either to
assert that priority is fundamental or else
take for the ground principle of their code
a mere hypothesis. They chose the hypoth-
esis; and now, until they are ready to erase
the hypothetic clause ‘is to be regarded as,’
each article which depends on the funda-
mentality of priority is equally hypothet-
ical; that is to say, is no article at all, is
utterly without force.
If priority were actually the fundamen-
tal principle of nomenclature it would be
the chief criterion for the settling of the
names of plants and animals; the oldest
names would, as a rule, and without respect
to other qualities, be maintained. This,
however, is far from being the case, even
under the working of the so-called Ro-
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 53.
chester Code. In the case of Quercus Prinos,
for example, we are employing what is ab-
solutely the latest of the several names that
have been given that tree; while the name
Q. castaneefolia, which not only enjoys ab-
solute priority, but is also the most ap-
propriate name of all ever given to the
tree, is not to be found even in the re-
cent synonymy of the species, and few are
aware of its existence ; and very numerous
instances of this kind could easily be ad-
duced. It may be added, by way of further
illustration, that for three centuries the
common watercress was known in botani-
cal works by one or the other of the two
following names, Nasturtium aquaticum or
Sisymbrium aquaticum. But Linnzeus, whom
so many people suppose to have been the
founder of the binary nomenclature, re-
jected both these good binary names, disre-
garded priority, and assigned the species a
new and a ternary name, Sisymbrium Nas-
turtium aquaticum. Then again, in 1810,
two British botanists sought to reinvest the
plant with a binary name; one of these,
Sir John Hill, restoring the title Nasturtiwm
aquaticum, which had so many centuries of
priority in its favor; the other, Robert
Brown, giving it still another new designa-
tion, 2. ¢., Nasturtium officinale, and yet this
last, the most recent of all specific names
for the cress, is the one which has been
sustained everywhere until very recently.
Priority certainly is not fundamental when
men do again and again in practice so
completely ignore it as to seem governed
by the very opposite principle, that of tak-
ing the newest names instead of the oldest.
The language of the second article of the
Rochester Botanical Code is, in several
ways, most unfortunate. Its phraseology
runsthus: ‘“ The botanical nomenclature of
both genera and species is to begin with the
publication of the first edition of Linnzeus’
Species Plantarum, in 1753.”” I do not wish
to discuss the absurdity of naming, as initial
JANUARY 3, 1896.]
for genera, a work in which no genus is de-
fined by description, and in which few or
none but the monotypical ones are defined
even implicitly by the mention of type
species ; a book in which the generic names
are, therefore, as a rule, nomina nuda. It
is the unphilosophic handling of certain
simple and universal principles, finding ex-
pression in logical absurdities, which most
impresses the careful reader of the article
above quoted. It is manifestly impossible
that anything should be made to begin in
time that is already past. Whatever affairs
are to begin must begin either at once or in
the future. Nothing ‘is to begin,’ or can
be made to begin, last year or yesterday
any more than in the year 1753. Doubt-
less the legislators at Rochester would have
been glad had they dared to say that botan-
ical nomenclature had its beginning in the
year 1753. But they could not have said
that. It would not have been true. They
might, however, have offered an article
which should have read somewhat after
this fashion: ‘It is expedient that, in
botanical nomenclature no priorities earlier
than the year 1853 be recognized by us
henceforward.” I have little doubt that
this is about what, from their point of view,
they must have wished to say. But the
situation, thus frankly expressed, would
have been too manifestly an embarrassed
one. Any number of persons might at once
have asked: Why name as an initial date
for genera and species a date which is
not initial? Or, what expediency can
there be in attempting to confine the ac-
tion of the principle of priority—a principle
whose sole force is retroactive—within such
narrow limits? It would have been placing
priority, previously agreed upon as at least
hypothetically fundamental, under great re-
strictions such as utterly contradict the no-
tion of its fundamentality. Priority is,
above all other qualities in a name, the
most absolute one, as absolute as the con-
SCIENCE. 15
dition of time itself. Its only criteria are
dates. If priority be fundamental in no-
menclature, then there can be no such thing .
as an initial date later than the very first
beginnings of botanical writing, or publica-
tion of names. But, of course, there must
be an initial date, a date back of which
priorities are to be disregarded ; but if this
be true, priority is not fundamental, at
least not more fundamental than some
other principles; very possibly less so.
But, having resolved, as our code-makers
did, to treat it as being the one ground-
principle of the scientific naming of things,
they are in a dilemma from the moment
of having passed a regulatioh limiting
its action to within what is really a very
recent date in the history of nomenclature.
The second article of our code, in its real
meaning, if it have any, is an almost em-
phatic contradiction of the first article. It
is practically little less than a nullifying of
that declaration about the fundamentality
of priority, for it excludes, according to
credits as given by most learned and emi-
nent botanists of all eras, more than two
thousand years of indubitable name priori-
ties, and admits no names as having a his-
tory of quite a hundred and fifty years.
The proposition, in itself so perfectly and
so evidently true, that priority is determined
simply by historic dates—a circumstance
which no legislation can alter—brings us
back to our initial suggestion, that we can
never be prepared to discuss thoroughly
the important question of nomenclature,
much less be ready to legislate upon this
matter rationally and effectually, until we
have studied, historically, the evolution of
our system of naming plants and animals.
Such historical inquiry would, I think,
bring us quickly to the point of acknowl-
edging the principle of convenience—of
mere utility—to be the one fundamental
thing, which, not only lies at the bottom,
but also has chiefly ruled the development
16 SCIENCE.
of such systems as we have. This, if
found to be the fact, will be very far from
yielding the least support to the people
who just now, under the name of conserva-
tism, are making the plea of convenience,
as against us who would insist upon the
exercise of the principle of priority ; for
they are only pleading as against present
changes, that is, against a present and tran-
sitory inconvenience, as affecting only the
present generation of biologists; whereas,
the only convenience which reasonable prin-
ciples can very seriously regard and try to
provide for must be the general conven-
ience of all, that of the future as well as of
the present ; nay, more than of the present;
because it would be absurd to question that
the future generations of those who will have
to do with the names—scientific names-—
of plants and animals, are prospectively a
thousand fold more numerous and impor-
tant a body than the whole little handful of
to-day, how large a handful we to ourselves
may seem.
Of convenience, one of the very prime
conditions, as far as relates to nomencla-
ture, is brevity. Such of the Linnean
names of plants and animals as are binary
have, by universal consent, been allowed to
supersede those older names which were of
from three to a dozen words’ length ; thus
has more brevity abundantly proved itself
a principle far more truly fundamental than
priority.
Again, what is perhaps still more thor-
oughly an underlying principle of botanico-
zoological nomenclature is that it be given
in the terms of, and according to the rules
of, an universal language. It were most easy
to demonstrate -that neither the binary
quality of aname, nor aright of priority, nor
both these qualities combined, ever gives a
plant name the right to recognition, unless it
have the quality of Latinity, unless it be
given in the Latin language, at least as to
its form. And this, too, is only a matter of
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 53.
general utility; convenience is looked to,
not indeed of the English, or of the Ger-
mans, or of the Russians, or of the Japa-
nese; for the botanists of each and all
these nations, separately considered, would
be better accommodated, the English by
the adoption of English instead of Latin,
the Germans by the adoption of German,
as the language of scientific nomenclature,
and so on through the whole list of modern
tongues.
Under a rational treatment of the whole
subject it can hardly fail to appear that, as
making for the convenience of the whole
botanical world, in time present and to
come, the first fundamental principle is that
of an Universal Language of Nomenclature;
the second, that of Brevity in Names; the
third—and this subservient to both the
aforenamed, and secondary to them—the
principal of Priority of Publication.
Epw. L. GREENE.
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY,’
WASHINGTON, D. C.
IMPRESSIONS OF THE NAPLES ZOOLOGICAL
STATION.
TuE Stazione Zoologica of Naples is so
well known that it is quite unnecessary to
say anything at present about the history
of this famous establishment. The editor
of ScrencE has asked me, however, to write
an account of the work of the station as
seen from within during my visit of ten
months to Naples. During that time it was
my good fortune to occupy the table of the
Smithsonian Institution, and I take this op-
portunity to express to the Secretary of the
Smithsonian and to the Associated Board
of Directors of the Naples Table my in-
debtedness for the appointment.
Prof. Dohrn has recently given in Nature
an account of the history of the Naples
station and of the work that has been ac-
complished. Prof. Dohrn’s life and inter-
ests have been so intimately connected with
JANUARY 3, 1896.]
the history of the Naples station, and his
influence for good is so widely felt through-
out the working of the institution. that to
speak of the success of the station is to
speak of the splendid results of the life-
work of one man. And all who have been
in Naples will, I think, agree with me, when
I add that to Professors Eisig and Meyer,
no small part of the success of the station
is also due.
The station is situated in the beautiful
Villa Nationale, within a stone’s throw of
the Bay of Naples. The building of stucco
and marble is in two parts joined by a
bridge. Within are several well conducted
‘departments. First is the aquarium proper
on the ground floor of the larger building.
This is open to the public. You enter a
large square room with huge aquaria on
the sides. In the center are still other and
smaller aquaria. Each aquarium is built
into the wall, and all the light comes from
above, so that the observer standing within
the darkened room sees the animals as
though himself submerged amongst them.
The effect is indesecribably beautiful.
The aquaria are supplied with aerated,
running water, and it is interesting to note
that in winter when the turbid water of
the. bay is unfit for use, the water in the
large reservoir in the station is used over
and over again, even for months at a time.
A corps of fishermen is supported by
the station and brings in every day fresh
material to supply the wants of the in-
vestigators and to restock the aquaria.
The other Neapolitan fishermen too have
learned the value of the rarer animals, and
a half-score of these interesting fellows are
generally present in the collecting depart-
ment bargaining, as only a Neapolitan can
bargain, for their fish.
All of the Mediterranean forms of life are
prepared by the station, and sold at very
reasonable rates. Considering the skill re-
quired to preserve many of the delicate pe-
SOIENCE.
17
lagic animals and -the success of Sig. Lo
Bianco in this direction, it is not surprising
-to learn that the Naples station supplies
material to many of the largest museums
and laboratories of the world.
The chief aim and work of the station is
original investigation, and the laboratories
are thoroughly equipped for this purpose.
There are large zoological and physiological
laboratories and a smaller botanical labora-
tory, and in addition a number of private
rooms for special research. Each worker
is fully equipped with the necessary re-
agents and apparatus. Peppino is always
willing to add any special preservatives,
etc., should such be needed. Each worker
has a private aquarium for his own use.
Every day there is brought in to him a
fresh supply of animals.
So rich is the fauna of the bay and so
well managed is the collecting department,
with its little steamer and other boats, that
you have only to make known your wants
and you are often embarassed by the quan-
tity of material that is brought to you.
Even within the last year the equipment
has been overhauled and greatly improved,
so that the station is now better prepared
than ever before to carry on its work. The
number of investigators who go every year
to the Naples station is the best guarantee
of the widespread appreciation of its advan-
tages. The library is excellent, and the
books are made very accessible to all the
workers in the station. In the arrange-
ment of the books it is a model of what a
library should be. Hach investigator is al-
lowed to go to the shelves and get his own
books, leaving a card on the shelf in place
of the book removed.
The laboratories are open day and night,
and the rooms are heated in winter. This
is by no means a small matter, for in winter
the station is often the only warm place in
Naples for weeks together.
The special advantages for work in Na-
18
ples are I think, these: Absolute freedom
to work on any subject desired, a plenti-
ful and never-failing supply of fresh material
and a well-filled library always at hand.
At the Naples station are found men of
all nationalities. Investigators, professors,
privatdocents, assistants and students come
from Russia, Germany, Austria, Italy, Hol-
land, England, Belgium, Switzerland and
“America ’—men of all shades of thought
and all sorts of training. The scene shifts
from nhonth to month like the turning of a
kaleidoskope. No one can fail to be im-
pressed and to learn much in the clash of
thought and criticism that must be present
where such divers elements come together.
And through all the changes of life and
thought Prof. Dohrn and his staff remain
always open-minded, courteous, helpful and
generous. Isolated, as we are in America,
from much of the newer, current feeling, we
are able at Naples, as in no other labora-
tory in the world, to get in touch with the
best modern work.
During the ten months in which I was in
Naples there were seven Americans there
for longer or shorter periods. At present
we have but one table under the direction
of the Smithsonian Institution. It is need-
less to add that one table is insufficient for
the demands of American students.
The following list gives the names of those
who have occupied the Smithsonian Table :
Mr. David Fairchild, of the United States
Department of Agriculture; Prof. H. C.
Bumpus, of Brown University; Prof. Wm.
M. Wheeler, University of Chicago; Dr.
Lewis Murbach, University of Michigan;
Prof. Herbert Osborn, University of Iowa;
Prof. T. H. Morgan, Bryn Mawr College;
Mr. Walter T. Swingle, United States De-
partment of Agriculture; Dr. J. M. McFar-
land, Leland Stanford University. The table
has been continuously filled since its estab-
lishment, and more applications have been
made than it was possible to grant.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. ILI. No. 53.
Williams College at one time subscribed
to a table for a year, and the University of
Pennsylvania had also a table for a year;
and more recently other Americans have
enjoyed the advantages of a table subscribed
for by Prof. Agassiz.
Major Davis has again and again in re-
cent years most generously paid for tables for
those who have been unable to find other
opportunity, and it is notorious that for
many years in the past the Americans in
Naples have had to ask for foreign tables.
Itis to be hoped that a better time is coming.
T. H. Morean.
BRYN MAWR COLLEGE.
ANNUAL MEETING OF THE AMERICAN
MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY.
THE annual meeting of the American
Mathematical Society was held in New
York, on Friday afternoon, December 27,
at three o’clock, the President, Dr. G. W.
Hill, in the chair. Among those present
were Prof. Ernest W. Brown, Prof. F. N.
Cole, Dr. J. B. Chittenden, Prof. Edwin S.
Crawley, Dr. J. W. Davis, Dr. W.S. Den-
nett, Mr. P. A. Lambert, Mr. G. Legras,
Prof. A. Macfarlane, Mr. James Maclay,
Mr. C. R. Mann, Dr. Emory McClintock,
Prof. James McMahon, Prof. Mansfield Mer-
riman, Prof. Hubert A. Newton, Mr. J. C.
Pfister, Miss A. Rayson, Prof. J. K. Rees,
Mr. R. A. Roberts, Prof. J. H. Van Am-
ringe, Prof. J. M. Van Vleck, Prof. E. B.
Van Vleck, Prof. R. S. Woodward. Jn the
Secretary’s report it was stated that the
total membership of the Society was 267.
The Council and Officers for the coming
year are as follows: President, Dr. G. W.
Hill; Vice-President, Prof. H. A. Newton ;
Secretary, Prof. FE. N. Cole; Treasurer,
Prof. R. 8. Woodward; Librarian, Prof.
Pomeroy Ladue; Committee of Publica-
tion, Prof. Thomas §S. Fiske, Prof. Alex-
ander Ziwet, Prof. Frank Morley; other
members of the Council, Prof. Henry
JANUARY 3, 1896. ]
B. Fine, Prof. E. Hastings Moore, Prof.
Ormond Stone, Prof. Simon Newcomb,
Prof. Charlotte Angas Scott, Prof. Henry
S. White, Prof. E. W. Hyde, Prof. W.
Woolsey Johnson. Prof. B. O. Peirce.
The presidential address, delivered by Dr.
Hill, was entitled: ‘Remarks on the Prog-
ress of Celestial Mechanics Since the Middle
of the Century.’ It will be published in
an early number of Screncre. Prof. James
McMahon read a paper, entitled: ‘ Note
on the separation of the velocity potential
(expressed by functions of Laplace and
Bessel) into two parts, representing an out-
ward and an inward moving wave.’
Tuomas 8. FIsKE.
COLUMBIA COLLEGE.
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOG 1
RESEARCHES IN SOUTH AMERICAN LANGUAGES.
From the rich field of South American
linguistics several valuable products have
lately been gleaned.
That deserving of the first mention is the
narrative of a journey across the Cordillera
from Chili eastward, recited in the Huil-
liche dialect of Araucanian. It was care-
fully taken down by Dr. Rodolfo Lenz and
is printed in the ‘Anales de la Universidad
de Chile,’ Tomo XC. The text, with a
literal translation into Spanish, covers 22
pages, and is the first specimen we have,
not only in this dialect but in Araucanian,
proceeding from the unconstrained lips of
a native. It is a model of the manner in
which such a piece of work should be
accomplished and presented.
The question of the Catamarcan language
is again attacked by S. A. Lafone Quevedo
in the Anales de la Sociedad Cientifica
Argentina, Tom. XX XIX. in an article of
3D pages. He aims to demonstrate from
proper names that it is not Kechuan in its
affinities. His arguments are drawn from
a full investigation of existing fragments of
SCIENCE.
19
the tongue, and though not conclusive,
make an able plea.
A eareful vocabulary of the Guana, from
two independent sources, is published by
the Reale Academia die Lincei (Rome),
this year, the memoir being from the pen
of the artist traveler, Guido Boggiani.
A short vocabulary of the Angagueda
dialect of the Choco obtained in June last
by Mr. H. G. Granger is edited with com-
parative words by me in the Proceedings of
the American Philosophical Society for
November.
To these must be added a valuable con-
tribution on the language of the Akua
(Chavantes, Cherentes), by Dr. Paul Ehren-
reich in the Zeitschrift fur Ethnologie, 1895,
Heft IV: and several vocabularies from the
Orinoco district, published by Dr. A. Ernst,
of Caracas, in the American Anthropologist
for October, 1895.
THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF WOMAN.
Ar the August meeting of the German
Society of Anthropology, at Cassel, the
opening address was by Dr. Waldeyer, of
Berlin, on ‘the somatic differences of the
two sexes.’ Its aim was particularly to
bring out the contrasts between woman
and man, with the purpose of applying
the results to the education and ‘sphere’
of woman. He argued that since a wide
collation of measurements and statistics
proves that she has a smaller brain, has
less physical strength, preserves more traits
of infancy and childhood in adult life, and
has practically in all times and places held
a position inferior to the man, that in our
schemes of social improvement these unde-
niable facts should be respected. The ef-
forts of social democrats and society leaders
to establish entire equality between the two
sexes and to throw open to woman all the
avenues of activity enjoyed by man, he in-
timates, are mistaken, and will prove fail-
ures ; and quotes with approval the opinion
20
of Bartels, who maintains that the educa-
tion, physical and mental, of woman, how-
ever high it may be, should be always
aimed to fit her for the duties of the family
circle only.
This conclusion will not be in the least
acceptable to the ‘advanced’ women of the
day, nor to those sociologists who see in
woman’s present condition, not the model
of the future, but a survival from a barbaric
past. D. G. Brinton.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
EXPERIMENT STATIONS FOR ENGINEERING.
A MOVEMENT is in progress looking to the de-
velopment at the ‘land-grant colleges’ of the
several States, of a system of mechanical engi-
neering ‘experiment stations,’ on much the
same basis as the existing agricultural experi-
ment stations organized under the Hatch bill
of 1887. It is anticipated that the outcome
will be the organization of such stations in all
the agricultural and mechanical colleges of the
country, in which the agricultural experiment
stations have been successfully organized and
operated. The purpose of the movement is to
secure the promotion of engineering research,
and of the development of the scientific facts
and principles which are of most value to the
mechanic arts and to the profession of engineer-
ing. The headquarters of the central office to
which all will report is thought likely to be the
Bureau of Steam Engineering of the Navy De-
partment; that being the largest, most impor-
tant and most generally suitable of the govern-
ment bureaux to take cognizance of such work
as is comtemplated. A Department of Me-
chanic Arts was proposed years ago, probably
earlier than the Department of Agriculture, but
the importance of the former has not been as
promptly or as fully recognized as that of the
latter, and nothing has yet been done in that
direction. Should such a department be
founded, it will naturally become the center of
the work of mechanical engineering experi-
ment stations. The present movement has its
origin among Southern colleges, and members
of the engineering profession who desire to see
SCIENCE.
‘the encouragement of Southern
(N.S. Vou. IfI. No. 53.
industries
through scientific method, and its earliest ex-
pressions is found in the papers of Prof. Aldrich
of the West Virginia University, on engineer-
ing research.
THE BRITISH MUSEUM.
Natural Science states that the changes at the
British Museum (Natural History) on the re-
tirement of the Keeper of Zodlogy, Dr. A.
Gunther, are as follows: Prof. Sir W. Flower
assumes the office of Keeper of Zodlogy in
addition to his post as Director, without ad-
dition of salary; Dr. Bowdler Sharpe becomes
Assistant Keeper of Vertebrata, his department
consisting of Messrs. Thomas Boulenger, and
Grant; Mr. Edgar A. Smith, Assistant Keeper
of Invertebrata, associated with Prof. Jef-
frey Bell, Mr. Pocock and Mr. Kirkpatrick ;
Dr. A. G. Butler, the head of the Entomologi-
eal Department, with his juniors, Messrs.
Waterhouse, Kirby, Gahan Heron, Austen,
Hampson, and a new Assistant appointed to fill
the vacancy. Mr. Pocock becomes a first-class
Assistant. Changes have also been begun in
the galleries. The larger fishes will be slung
up to the roof, so as not to cumber the valuable
floor space, and a more definite arrangement
will be made of fishes; similar alterations are
contemplated in the reptile gallery, where sev-
enteen crocodiles have for many years enjoyed
palatial quarters on the floor. The public gal-
lery of birds will gradually be improved on the
plan adopted already is one of the bays, and in
the mammalian gallery certain arrangements
are contemplated which will show the finer
specimens to great advantage. The Trustees
have recently purchased for the Department of
Geology important series of fossils selected
from the collections of the Rey. P. B. Brodie,
Rowington, Warwick, and of the late Mr.
James W. Davis, Chevinedge, Halifax. Mr.
Brodie’s collection includes a large number of
type specimens described by various authors ;
and all of these are included in the British
Museum selection except those in his unique
cabinet of fossil insects, which he still retains.
The collection of the late Mr. Davis contains
some very fine fishes from the Lower Lias of
Lyme Regis and a large number of fragmentary
JANUARY 3, 1896. ]
fish remains from the Yorkshire Coal-measures,
described and figured in his own writings.
ASTRONOMICAL.
In the Astronomical Journal, issued December
5th, Dr. Chandler publishes what we may call
an ephemeris of the motion of the earth’s pole,
calculated for the years 1893 to 1896, This
ephemeris is arranged in a form admirably
adapted for the use of practical astronomers.
The simple rectangular coordinates of the in-
stantaneous pole are given for each date, so that
it is possible to calculate the instantaneous lati-
tude by means of the very simple formula :
¢— $5 =a sin 2— y cos 4
where @ is the longitude.
‘The numbers in Dr. Chandler’s ephemeris are
based upon his observational theory of the polar
motion. Similar rectangular coordinates of the
instantaneous pole, as obtained from actual
modern observations, have been computed by
Dr. Albrecht, of Potsdam, for the period from
1890.0 to 1895.3. Dr. Albrecht’s results were
laid before the International Geodetic Commis-
sion, which met at Berlin in September. They
have not as yet been made generally accessible,
though a few copies of his paper were prepared
by a lithographic process for distribution among
the persons specially interested.
Pror. MAx WOLF recently published in the
Astronomische Nachrichten an interesting sum-
mary of his photographic minor planet work at
Heidelberg during the years 1892 to 1895. The
observations were made with a six-inch Voigt-
laender lens. The total number of plates is
179, with exposures in some cases exceeding
three hours. The number of planets found on
the plates was as follows :
1892, 388 known planets, 18 new planets.
1893, 27 known planets, 9 new planets.
1894, 15 known planets, 6 new planets.
1895, 19 known planets, 3 new planets.
So it would almost seem that we are ap-
proaching the limit of discovery, for planets
exceeding the 12th magnitude in brightness.
H. J.
GENERAL.
WE need in America a translation of the re-
cently published work of M. Ch. Letourneau
SCIENCE. 2t
on La Guerre dans les diverses races humaines.
War is said to have had its origin as a variety
of hunting when food, other than human flesh,
was unattainable, and when it was compara-
tively justifiable. M. Letourneau takes for his
motto, asa definition of war: Le vol pour but ;
le mentre pour moyen—and he might have added,
la folie pour cause.
Ir is not always that a man during his life-
time learns in how high esteem he is held by
those most competent to judge. Dr. Dawson may,
therefore, not altogether regret the following
editorial article in the Journal of Geology: ‘‘For
the second time in the brief history of the
Journal of Geology, we are called upon to record
the loss of a member of its editorial staff. And
now, as before, it is one in the prime of life, in
the midst of a brilliant career, and in the enjoy-
ment of rare prospects, Dr. George M. Dawson.
Less than a year ago he was elevated to the
directorship of the Geological Survey of Can-
ada, a position which he had amply earned by
a score or more years of markedly successful
work on the Geology of the Dominion. His
“Geology and Resources of the 49th Parallel,’
prepared when he was yet a very young man,
gave him a recognized place in the scientific
world. It has been followed by a long list of
papers of unusual merit. It is to Dr. Dawson
especially that we are indebted for the geology
of the northern Cordilleras and the great north-
western plains beyond the national boundary.
His studies lay along many lines, and the wide
range of his abilities peculiarly fitted him for
the multitude of questions that were presented
in the exploration of his vast and varied field.
We hope to present:a more adequate notice of
his work in a succeeding number.’’
Pror. LLoyp MorGan, the English biologist,
will lecture at Columbia on four Fridays in Jan-
uary, beginning January 10th. His subjects will
be: 1. ‘Illustrations of Instinct.’ 2. ‘Some
Habits and Instincts of Young Birds.’ 38. ‘The
Emotions in their Relation to Habit and In-
stinct.’ 4. ‘Some Instinctive Activities of the
Pairing Season.’ The lectures include a dis-
cussion of his own experiments and opinions
upon the Darwin-Spencer theory of ‘instincts
as inherited habit.’ His lectures before the
22
Lowell Institute in Boston will be delivered
upon Tuesdays and Saturdays in January, be-
ginning January 7th. He will also lecture at
Brown University and at the University of Illi-
nois. Letters addressed to the care of Columbia
College or of the Lowell Institute will reach
him.
THE one hundred and twenty-cighth Bulle-
tin of the United States Geological Survey is a
review of the Bear River formation and its
characteristic fauna by Charles A. White. The
author states that his object is the correction of
an essential error which has long prevailed
among geologists concerning the taxonomic po-
sition of one of the North American Cretaceous
formations; that is, its object is to present a
summary of the facts which show the entire
separateness from the Laramie formation of
that series of non-marine strata which has here-
tofore been known as the Bear River Laramie,
with which formation the Bear River series of
strata has long been confounded. To this end
the Bear River series is defined as a distinct
formation, stratigraphically, geographically and
paleontologically, and its taxonomic position is
stated in detail.
M. Grorces LEMOINE reported to the Paris
Academy on December 2 that he had measured
the amount of decomposition caused by light in
solutions of ferric chloride and oxalic acid, and
had found the rate of decomposition to be ap-
proximately proportional to the intensity of the
light. We are not informed how the intensity
of the light was measured, but if the chemical
action of light can be used to measure luminos-
ity it would be an important photometric
method. The photochemical and luminous in-
tensity of light do not, however, remain pro-
portional when the wave-length is altered.
IN a recent work on Meteorology in its rela-
tion to Hygiene, Dr. Van Bebbier states that
the average total number of hours of sunshine
per year is in England 1,400, in Germany 1,700,
In Italy 2,300 and in Spain 3,000. In a hun-
dred possible hours of sunshine there are in Lon-
don on the average 23 and in Madrid 66.
AT a recent meeting of the Paris Academy
MM. Troost and Ouvrard reported that they
could only discover faint or doubtful traces
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 53.
of the spectrum lines of helium in sea water or
in water from the Seine. It seems to follow
that the helium in the mineral springs of Can-
terets cannot be attributed to the air, but comes
from the rocks with which the water has been
in contact.
Dr. FAUVEL, born at Amiens in 1830, a
specialist on diseases of the throat and nose
and the author of important works on these
subjects, died in Paris on December 17. On the
same day the death occurred of Dr. Vandermey,
professor of gynecology in the University of
Amsterdam.
THE British Medical Journal states that Dr.
A. J. Woitoff, professor of bacteriology in the
University of Moscow, recently fell a victim to
his devotion to scientific research. He infected
himself with a virulent culture while experi-
menting in his laboratory, and died soon after-
wards of the effects of the accident.
Tue life of Darwin, written by Prof. Wilhelm
Preyer, has been published by Ernst Hofmann,
Berlin.
“THE Earth’s History,’ by R. D. Roberts, of
Cambridge University, and ‘The Realm of Na
ture,’ by Hugh B. Hill, are announced for pub-
lication by Charles Scribner’s Sons.
Ir is stated that the New York Pasteur In-
stitute has purchased a farm of about 200 acres
near Tuxedo Park to be used as an experiment
station.
Dr. D. Morris, Assistant Director of the
Kew Gardens, delivered a lecture on ‘The Rise
and Progress of the Royal Botanical Garden at
Kew, England,’ at the American Museum of
Natural History under the auspices of the New
York Botanical Garden, on December 17th.
Dr. Morris has now gone to the Bahama Islands,
in order to investigate the cultivation of hemp
and other products of the islands.
THE British Medical Journal summarizes in
the issue of December 14th statistics which have
been collected by Widmark regarding blindness
in Scandanavia. These show that Denmark
had in 1890 for every 10,000 inhabitants only
5.8 blind, Sweden 8.3, Norway 12.8, Finland
15.5. Compared to other European countries,
of which Portugal and Russia stand highest with
JANUARY 3, 1896. ]
20 blind for every 10,000, and Holland lowest
with only 4.5, the order is as follows: Portugal,
Russia, Finland, Spain, Norway, Hungary,
England, Germany (without Prussia), France,
Prussia, Sweden, Belgium, Austria, Switzer-
land, Italy, Denmark and Holland.
A Swiss National Exposition, promoted by the
Swiss Confederation and the different cantons
and cities, will be held at Geneva from May Ist
to October 15th of the present year.
AT the 252d regular meeting, held Saturday,
December 28th, the Biological Society of Wash-
ington elected the following officers for 1896:
President, Surgeon General Geo. M. Sternberg ;
Vice-Presidents, Richard Rathburn, C. D. Wal-
cott, L. O. Howard, B. E. Fernow; Recording
Secretary, M. B. Waite; Corresponding Secre-
tary, F. A. Lucas; Treasurer, F. H. Knowlton ;
Members of the Council, F. W. True, C. W.
Stiles, W. H. Ashmead, F. V. Coville, C. L.
Pollard.
THE New York Hvening Post states that
one of the greatest of the world’s bridges is
to be built at Detroit, to connect that city with
Windsor. Itis to be over two miles in length
and to be five feet higher than the Brooklyn
bridge. The plans for the structure have been
prepared, and legislation looking to its con-
struction has been asked in Washington and
Ottawa. A corporation has been or will be or-
ganized under Michigan law to cooperate with
a similar Canadian corporation in constructing
the bridge, and the Vanderbilts will guarantee
the bonds of both. The estimated cost is be-
tween four and six millions.
THE Journal of Geology announces that it will
publish, beginning with the first number of
Vol. IV., a series of four articles under the
head of ‘Studies for Students,’ by Prof. Van
Hise, on (1) Movements of Rocks under De-
formation; (2) Analysis of Folds; (8) Cleavage
and Fissility; (4) Joints and Faults.
THE American Machinist states that a bill has
been introduced in the United States Senate by
Senator Quay asking for an appropriation of
$25,000 for the Franklin Institute and Purdue
University, for the purpose of determining the
quantity and effect of hammer blow, ‘ centrifu-
- SCIENCE.
23
gal lift and tangental throw’ of locomotive
wheels in use on American railroads; also the
effects produced thereby.
THE Appalachian Mountain Club announces
that it will publish in the early spring a ‘ Guide
to Walks in the Country about Boston,’ cover-
ing practically the ground embraced in the
Club map of the country about Boston. The
book will have many maps and be illustrated,
and it is desired to have as many of these illus-
trations as possible taken by the amateur pho-
tographers of the Club.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
THE Evening Post states that at a meeting of
the committee on buildings of the American
University, architects have been chosen to pre-
pare plans for the hall of the history building. A
subcommittee was also chosen to take charge
of the construction of the structure, which will
cost about $150,000. Bishop Hurst announced
an additional gift to the University, that of a
business block in Findlay, Ohio, valued at $10,-
000, from John D. Flint, of Fall River, Mass.
Mrs. T. K. W, SHIMER, owner and principal
of the Mount Carroll Female Seminary of
Mount Carroll, Ill., has offered to the Univer-
sity of Chicago the seminary buildings and
twenty-five acres of ground, with an endow-
ment of from $150,000 to $200,000, to be a girls’
training school in connection with the Univer-
sity.
Mr. Sipney A. REEVE, for several years em-
ployed with the engineering firm of Westing-
house, Church, Kerr & Co., and recently edi-
torial writer on the Progressive Age, a journal
devoted to gas interests, has been elected ad-
junct professor of steam and hydraulic engineer-
ing in the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
Prof. Reeve will begin his services in the Insti-
tute about January Ist, 1896.
Mr. Lecxy, the historian, has been elected
member of Parliament for the University of
Dublin by a majority of 750 votes.
Dr. N. KusNETZOFF has been elected associ-
ate professor of botany and director of the
botanical gardens in the University of Dorpat.
24
A NEW educational review has appeared at
Leipzig, Deutsche Zeitschrift fiir Auslandisches
Unterrichtswesen, edited by Dr. J. Wychgram.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
Justus von Liebig, His Life and Work (1803—
1878). By W. A. SHENSTONE, F. I. C., Lec-
turer on Chemistry in Clifton College. New
York, Macmillan & Co. 1895. Pp. 220 + vi.
This is one of ‘The Century Science Series’
edited by Sir Henry Roscoe, and it is fitting
that one of the first chemists to receive atten-
tion should be Liebig. In his preface the author
says: ‘The name of Liebig is doubtless familiar
to most of us, but I fear very few have any
clear idea what he did, why chemists admire
and esteem him, or, indeed, are aware that
they do admire and esteem him. As the result
of many inquiries made among cultivated
people, I have found the prevailing impression
concerning Liebig to be that he was a man who
gained a large fortune by making ‘extract of
meat.’ Now and then one meets someone who
“seems to have heard’ of his name in connec-
tion with agriculture. Scarcely anyone now
seems to know that he was one of the greatest of
that class in whose work Mr. Balfour finds ‘the
causes which more than any others conduce to
the movements of great civilized societies.’ I
have therefore made it my object in writing this
little book not so much to dwell upon Liebig’s
private life as to tell what he was, what he
did, and why all chemists and all those who
are versed in the history of science admire and
esteem -him so greatly.’’
There can scarcely be a doubt that chemistry
owes more to Liebig for its advancement dur-
ing the present century than to any other one
man. He was born in 1803 at Darmstadt,
where his father dealt in colors, which he also
manufactured. The boy was a failure at
school. He had no ear memory and could not,
therefore, make progress in linguistic studies.
On the other hand, he had the powers of an ex-
perimenter, and was attracted by everything
connected with chemical phenomena. He spent
some time in an apothecary shop, but he took
little interest in the commercial side of his oc-
eupation, and, in the course of a few months,
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 53.
he was sent back to his father. It was then de-
eided that he should follow his bent and study
chemistry. He went to the Universities of
Bonn and Erlangen, but did not find what he
wanted. In 1822 he took the degree of Doctor
of Philosophy at Erlangen, and then he was
provided with the means for continuing his
studies abroad. He went to Paris and was
soon admitted to the laboratory of Gay-Lussac,
one of the leading chemists of that time. Two
years later he was appointed Extraordinary
Professor of Chemistry at Giessen. In 1826 he
became full professor. In 1852 he was called
to Munich, where he died April 18, 1875.
‘‘Liebig was essentially a pioneer in science.
In the course of his life he took the lead in no
less than four great departures. The first was
in organic chemistry, the second and third in
the applications of chemistry to agriculture and
to physiology, the fourth was the outcome of his
labors as a teacher.’’
How he labored in these four fields is well
told in Mr. Shenstone’s little book, and every
one interested in the intellectual development
of mankind, be he chemist or not, will find here
much that is stimulating and suggestive. The
book is divided into nine chapters with the fol-
lowing titles : Introduction; Liebig and Wohler;
Chemical Discoveries; Liebig and Dumas; Fer-
mentation; Chemistry and Agriculture; Phys-
iological Chemistry; Education and Other Work;
Character and Later Years.
Anleitung zur mikrochemischen Analyse der wich-
tigsten organischen Verbindungen. Von H.
BEHRENS. Prof. an der Polytechnischen
Schule in Delft. Erstes Heft (Anthracen-
gruppe, Phenole, Chinone, Ketone, Aldehyde)
Mit 49 Figuren im Text. Hamburg und
Leipzig. Verlag von Leopold Voss. 1895.
Pp. 64+ viii.
The author of this book is well known in con-
nection with work on microchemical analysis
in general.- He has now endeavored to show
the chemist who deals with organic compounds
how he may avail himself of the microscope for
the purpose of recognizing various substances.
The methods described have been thoroughly
tested in the author’s laboratory and the results
have been most satisfactory.
JANUARY 3, 1896.]
The refinement attainable is not equal to that
reached in the case of inorganic compounds. One
eannot think of working with millionths of mil-
ligrams, and will at times have to be content
if a satisfactory result is reached with tenths of
milligrams. The classes of compounds dealt
with, in this first number of the book, are: 1.
The anthracene group; 2. Phenols; 3. Nitro-
compounds ; 4. Quinones, Ketones, Aldehydes.
Tt is to be hoped that the appearance of the
book will lead chemists to try the new methods,
as it appears that their work will be much facili-
tated by them. It must, of course, be borne
in mind that the problem of detecting minute
quantities of organic compounds does not often
present itself, though there are cases in which
it becomes of importance. IRA REMSEN.
On the Densities of Oxygen and Hydrogen and on
the Ratio of their Atomic Weights. By KEp-
WARD W. Morey, Ph. D. Published by the
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C.
ISOS, 4, sag aL? joyor
For more than ten years Prof. Morley has
been almost constantly engaged on the work
which is described in this paper. With a pains-
taking fidelity to the highest ideals of accurate
work which has rarely been equalled and has
never been surpassed, he has determined four
constants which are partly interdependent, and
which are of very great importance in physical
science. These constants are: the density of
hydrogen, the density of oxygen, the ratio of
the combining volumes and the ratio of the
combining weights of the two elements.
The density of oxygen was determined by
three different methods.
~ In the first series nine determinations were
made. From nine to twenty-one and one-half
liters of oxygen were weighed in large globes
which were filled at the temperature of the
laboratory, :
In the second series sixteen determinations
were made. Instead of measuring the tempera-
ture and pressure directly in this series the
oxygen was brought to the same temperature
and pressure as that of hydrogen contained in
another large globe. The pressure of the
hydrogen was previously measured at the tem-
perature of melting ice, thus making the globe
SCIENCE.
fe
2
containing it, in effect, a very sensitive air
thermometer. The difference between the co-
efficients of expansion of hydrogen and of oxygen
was of course considered.
In the third series seventeen determinations
were made. The globes were filled at the tem-
perature of melting ice and, after weighing them
filled with oxygen, they were exhausted and
weighed again. The oxygen in this series was
prepared partly from potassium chlorate and
partly by the electrolysis of dilute sulphuric acid.
The results of three series were :
By use of thermometer and manometer D= 1.42879
By compensation D= 1.42887
By use of ice and barometer D== 1.42917
Giving double weight to the last series, the
weight of. a liter of oxygen under normal con-
ditions at sea level and in latitude 45° is
1.42900 grm., with a probable error of 0.000034
grm. :
Five series of determinations of the density
of hydrogen were made.
In the first and second series the same
methods were used as in the first and third
series for oxygen.
In the third, fourth and fifth series hydrogen
was absorbed in palladium, contained in a glass
tube, and, after weighing, was expelled into three
globes which were surrounded with melting ice,
and which had a combined capacity of forty-
two liters. By this means three and seven-
tenths grams of hydrogen were weighed in a
comparatively small apparatus, and the volume
occupied by the gas was accurately determined.
The method has the additional advantage that
any mercurial vapor contained in the globes was
without effect on the determination. In all,
sixty-four determinations were made. The re-
sults were as follows:
Series I. D-= 0.089938
fe Il. D= 0.089970
“TIT. D == 0.089886 - 0.0000049
“ TV. D == 0.089880 - 0.0000088
“ VD = 0.089866 -+ 0.0000034
It is believed that mercurial vapor entered
the globes in the first two series and that the
results of those series are too high. They are
accordingly rejected. The remaining series
give as the weight of a liter of hydrogen at sea
26
level in latitude 45° and under normal condi-
tions, 0.089873 + 0.0000027.
In 1891 Prof. Morley published * a series of
determinations of the volumetric composition
of water. The results of these determinations
were extremely concordant and there can be no
reasonable doubt that the same ratio would be
obtained again by the same method. When,
however, this ratio is combined with the ratio
of the densities given above, the resulting value
for the atomic weight of oxygen does not agree
with that which Prof. Morley has obtained by
the direct weighing of oxygen and hydrogen
and of the water formed by their union. Scott
has recently determined + the volumetric ratio
and finds the value 2.00285. This ratio, when
combined with the ratio of densities as found
either by Lord Rayleigh or by Prof. Morley,
gives the same value for the atomic weight as
that found by the gravimetric method. Prof.
Morley has, therefore, determined the volu-
metric ratio by another method. In a series
of ten experiments he determined the density
of electrolytic gas obtained from a solution of
caustic potash. He also determined the excess
of hydrogen present in the gas. From the re-
sults obtained, and, taking into account the
change in pressure occasioned when one volume
of oxygen is mixed with two volumes of hydro-
gen and the mixture is made to occupy three
volumes, the value 2.00269 for the volumetric
ratio was calculated.
It seems to be established, therefore, that the
values obtained by Prof. Morley with the eudi-
ometer were not correct as representing the
volumetric ratio and that the density of a gas
in a tube is different from that in a globe, the
effect on the density being different for a light
gas from that for a heavy one. ;
The gravimetric composition of water was
determined in a series of twelve experiments.
In these the oxygen was weighed in large
globes, the hydrogen (three and one-half
' grams), in palladium, and the two gases were
burned in an apparatus so devised that the
water formed was also weighed. In this way
each experiment gaye two independent deter-
minations of the atomic weight of oxygen.
* Amer. Journ. of Science, 47, 220.
} Phil. Trans. 184, A, 543 (1893).
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 53.
The results were:
15.8792
15.8785
From the ratio of hydrogen and oxygen,
From the ratio of hydrogen and water,
These values agree to the third decimal with
the value calculated from the volumetric com-
position and the ratio of densities as given
above.
The final results of Prof. Morley’s determina-
tions are :
‘ Grams.
Weight of one liter of oxygen, latitude 45°, 1.42900
Weight of one liter of hydrogen, latitude 45°, 0.089873
Atomic weight of oxygen, chemical method, 15.879
Atomic weight of oxygen, physical methods, 15.879
Molecular weight of water, chemical method, 17.879
In conclusion a summary of previous deter-
minations of the constants in question is given.
Omitting the earlier determinations, which were
manifestly inaccurate, ani the results of one
more recent experimenter, whose work appears
to have been affected by some source of constant
error, the mean of all the other determinations
of six different observers gives the value 15,879
for the atomic weight of oxygen.
It is impossible, in a brief sketch of this kind,
to convey any adequate idea of the pains which
was taken at every step to secure the greatest
possible accuracy in the work, nor of the genius
which has been displayed in devising compli-
cated apparatus adapted for the determinations
to be made. The work is classical and must,
hereafter, be consulted by every one who wishes
to do the best work in this field.
W. A. NoyEs.
EIMER’S EVOLUTION OF BUTTERFLIES.*
Pror. Ermer, of Tibingen, is an enthusiastic
opponent of Darwin’s theory of Natural Selec-
tion, and has a theory of his own to replace it,
The theory of Eimer has been defended by
him on various occasions, his main exposition
being given in his work on the origin of species
published in 1888. His investigations on butter-
flies (thus far of the genus Papilio auct. only)
are intended to afford proof of his theory in a
*Die Artbildung und Verwandtschaft bei den
Schmetterlingen. II. Theil. von Dr. G. H. Theodor
Eimer unter Mitwirkung von K. Fickert. Text 8vo,
Pp. viii, 153. Atlas Folio Tafeln y.—viii. Jena,
Gustav Fischer. 1895.
JANUARY 3, 1896.]
special case. His standpoint is indicated in his
preface, in which he says:
“My butterflies demonstrate, as said above, the
impotence of natural selection over a wide territory;
their formation of species occurs evidently without
any influence of Darwinian selection, and, therefore,
disproves Darwinism completely. * * * * There is
no origin of species by natural selection, but only a
preservation of species already existing. The assump-
tion that natural selection can bring forth new species
rests upon a gross defect of reasoning (Denkfehler).
Natural selection cannot cause new species to arise,
either by the formation of new characteristics or by
the division of existing chains of organisms into
species. My butterflies show, in complete contradic-
tion to the Darwinian doctrine, that new characters
arise by development in a few predetermined direc-
tions ( Orthogenesis) or by organic growth ( Organophy-
sis) from physiological causes. They show that it is
essentially a still stand (Genepistase) at determinate
stages of development, which separates a chain of
organisms into species, together with certain other
causes, such as the preventing of impregnation ( Kyes-
amechanie) and development by jumps (Halamato-
genesis) .”? *
He also claims that he presents only facts—
no suppositions or hypotheses:
_ If Prof. Himer’s claims are correct, his re-
searches mark one of the great epochs of
biological discovery. It is, therefore, desirable
to determine with precision the nature and
value of the evidence which he presents.
The study of his work on butterflies (includ-
ing both the present second part and also the
first, published in 1889) shows that the facts of
actual observation are solely the markings. and
geographical distribution of species of the genus
Papilio auctorum. From these observations our
author has deduced a systematic arrangement
of several groups of species, so as to present
them in what he believes to be their true phylo-
genetic relationships. From the standpoint of
the systematic entomologist Eimer’s work is
certainly both interesting and valuable, since
the figures and descriptions are very painstak-
ing, and his groups are natural ones, and we
may even go further and admit that his group-
ing of the species is in the main correct. Here-
with we come, not without some surprise after
the assurances of the preface, to the end of
* Slightly abbreviated. The italics are the author’s.
SCIENCE.
27
Eimer’s positive facts. The remainder of his
book is constructed of interpretations of the
facts, and these interpretations cannot be desig-
nated otherwise than as a series of unproven
assumptions and hypotheses. We may indicate
the reasons for this characterization by a few
illustrations of his reasoning. Thus he states
(pt. i, p. 2) that in all animals longitudinal
stripes are primary markings, longitudinal rows
of spots secondary, and transverse markings
tertiary. By this rule he is able to decide
easily which living species of Papilio are nearest
the ancestral forms. Surely such a universal
rule needs to be demonstrated, not proclaimed
ex-cathedra. His laws of the genesis of species
are deduced thus: In a series of species of
Papilio there may be ancestral forms with much
black and descendent forms with little (Anti-
phates group), or just the other way the de-
scendants blacker than the ancestors (Leos-
thenes-Ajax group) yet all the species concerned
are living and no proof is offered that this or
that form is ancestral, we are simply told that
it is so. Again he finds a series of species,
which differ from one another by the width of
certain dark bands, each species taking its
place according to the width of the bands.
Such a series is his proof of halmatogenesis, and
he entirely passes by the possibility that there
may have been intermediate forms with the
simple denial of their existence. Now it is cer-
tainly possible that the species of Papilio arise
by discontinuous variation, to use Bateson’s
felicitious term, but between what seems possi-
ble in the present state of our knowledge, and
absolute certainty there is a vast abyss, across
which Prof. Himer airily makes his way with
the bare affirmation ‘my butterflies prove hal-
matogenesis.’ Not a word throws any light on
the question how do they prove it?
Prof. Eimer lays stress upon the direction of
the assumed development of a series of forms,
and from the fact that a series of species may
exhibit progressive increase in a certain char-
acter, he infers that the progress is a prede-
termined development. He overlooks this
simple consideration that no matter how evolution
is caused it must be in some direction, and the
mere observation of that direction cannot prove that
there was a predetermining tendency to the ances-
28 SCIENCE.
tral form to develop in that direction. Again a
difficulty is encountered when we examine an-
other of our author’s fundamental principles,
the inheritance of acquired characteristics, be-
_ cause the assertion of this principle is made and
yet no demonstration of its truth is offered—it
is at best a bold hypothesis.
Another peculiarity of the author’s position
is his serious misapprehension of Darwin’s
theory, which he mistakes repeatedly. He re-
jects Darwinism because it does not explain the
origin of variations. Darwin, of course, did not
attempt to more than suggest certain explana-
tions, and his theory of natural selection does
not depend on the origin of variations, but on
the demonstrated fact that innumerable varia-
tions do occur and numerous yariations have
been transmitted. Prof. Eimer claims that his
book should be ‘read and studied,’ in return we
claim that before he again writes against Dar-
win, he should thoroughly master Darwin’s
chief work, the ‘ Variation of Animals and
Plants.’ Until he has done that his attacks
must remain unheeded, for they are only
against a straw substitute for Darwinism.
Professor Eimer’s book is a valuable contribu-
tion to descriptive entomology, and sets before
entomologists a high standard of description and
illustration of species. It is also an unsuccess-
ful attempt to substitute for Darwinism a new
theory of evolution, based wholly upon hypo-
thetical assumptions, for no one of which is sub-
stantial proof offered, and so far from agreeing
to the author’s claim that his theory is a series
of facts, we must, on the contrary, say that it is
a collection of arbitrary assertions. He con-
demns Weismann very emphatically for specu-
lating, and yet shows himself, perhaps, the
more speculative of the two.
C. 8. Minor.
The Structure and Life of Birds. By F. W.
HEADLEY, M. A., F. Z. S. London, Mac-
millan & Co. 1895. 8vo. Pp. xx. 412.
78 illustrations. $2.00.
This book ‘‘attempts to give good evidence
of the development of birds from reptilian an-
cestors, to show that modifications in their an-
atomy have accompanied their advance to a
more vigorous life, and, after explaining, as far
(N.S. Voz. IIT. No. 53.
as possible their physiology, to make clear the
main principles of their noble accomplishment,
flight, the visible proof and expression of their
high vitality. After this it deals, principally,
with the subjects of color and song, instinct and
reason, migration and the principles of classifi-
cation, and, lastly, gives some hints as to the
best methods of studying birds.”’
Mr. Headley’s aim is confessedly an ambitious
one, and since he has shot so well he must not
take it amiss if he is told that his pen has not
carried quite true throughout its entire flight.
It is difficult to compress so many subjects as
are contained in the ‘Structure and Life of
Birds’ into the compass of four hundred pages,
and we can not expect to have every point
touched on fully and clearly explained. Still,
making due allowance for this and for the pop-
ular audience to which the book is largely ad-
dressed, there is a certain amount of looseness,
or inexactness, of statement that might have
been avoided. For example, uncinate processes
are not ‘common to all birds,’ since they are
absent in the Screamers, a fact which might
have been explained in half a dozen words.
Neither is the supplementary toe of the Dorking
Fowl a dermal bone, but a case of duplication
of a digit, the perpetuation by careful breeding of
an abnormality now and then seen among ani-
mals, even in man. ‘This looseness of diction
is well shown by the constant reference to bones
filled with marrow as solid bones ; and the state-
ment that the coracoid and clavicles are firmly
fixed to the breast bone, when this is rarely the
case ; and those birds in which the clavicle is
most securely fastened to the sternum are by no
means among our best birds of flight. The
statement that all the bones of the Swallow are
filled with marrow is a little indefinite, and if
intended as generalization, misleading, since the
humerus may be pneumatic, even among Swal-
lows.
However, pneumaticity is a very inconstant
character and is not even of generic value.
The connection between the reduced phalanges
of the Swift and its alleged inability to rise from
the ground is not clear to the average mind,
and it is rather startling to be told that the
Rook may be told from the Crow by the absence
of feathers on the beak.
JANUARY 3, 1896.]
It would also have been well to have avoided
positive statements concerning facts or theories
still in debate, especially such an one as that the
skull is no doubt partially made up of vertebree,
or that the pisiform is an ossified tendon.
Neither do we know that an insect gets a
mosaic picture of an object, while, had Mr.
Headley heard the question of the sense of
smell in Cathartes discussed, he might not be so
certain that vultures do not scent carrion from
afar, although neither that nor the contrary is
yet proven. In discussing flight too much
stress is laid on the importance of the clavicle.
As the author states, the bone is rudimentary
in parrots which fly exceedingly well, while
any one who has dissected humming-birds will
be morally sure, from its shape and insignifi-
cant proportions, that these birds could dis-
pense with the bone. We are told that the
wing serves as a parachute to sustain the bird
between the strokes of the wing and, but for this,
the drop would be greater than it is. A more
obvious explanation would seem that there is
not sufficient time for gravity to overcome the
inertia of onward movement, for it is very evi-
dent that unless a bird is falling more rapidly
than the wing is being raised, the wing can
afford no support. Many other things might be
said—did space allow—concerning the chapter
on flight, but it will suffice to remark that there
is as yet no proof that the muscles of birds
exert any unusual power; on the contrary, birds
which like the larger petrels have mastered the
problem of sailing flight, not only have small
wing muscles, but have very little strength in
them, and it was pleasing to obtain from Prof.
Moseley’s notes corroborative evidence of the
inability of the Cape Pigeon (Daption) to rise
from the water after a hearty meal.
A word or two on another point. Why does
Mr. Headley confuse the reader by calling both
the leg of a man and the wing of a bird the
homologue of the arm, when a better and
clearer expression would be that the fore limb
is the homotype of the hind ?
But in spite of blemishes, some of which
have been cited to warn the reader to be on
his guard, and to use a pinch of salt now and
then, the ‘Structure and Life of Birds’ is a most
interesting book and a welcome addition to
SCIENCE.
29
ornithological literature. Many of the errors
may be ascribed to the fact that the author is
so brimful of his subject that, writing as he
does calamo currente, his ideas outstrip his pen
and are incorrectly recorded. The style is _
bright, clear and readable, the illustrations
illustrate and are not thrown in, while the
numerous bibliographical references are not
only a boon to the reader who would like to
know how he may best extend his knowledge,
but to him who would like to know on whose
authority some of the statements are made.
The book is evidently based on much observa-
tion and experiment, supplemented by a vast
amount of reading, and it will give the general
reader, and many a one who considers himself
an ornithologist, a good idea of many of the
facts and problems concerning birds. The
reader will learn why the perching bird does
not fall from the bough, even when asleep, will
find full details of the wonderful air sacs with
which the body is permeated, and much infor-
mation as to how a bird breathes and how his
blood circulates. He will gather that the colors
of feathers are due to a variety of causes, and
learn that they correspond to the scales of
snakes as well as much of their growth and
mode of shedding and renewal.
The chapter on flight is particularly full and
interesting and this difficult matter is well
treated, and it is to be hoped that the conclud-
ing chapter may stimulate some, at least, of its
readers to address themselves to some of the
many branches of ornithology which lie ready
to their hand. Lastly, but by no means least,
the book is well indexed.
F. A. Lucas.
The Beginnings of Writing. By WALTER JAMES
Horrman, M. D. With an introduction by
Pror. FREDERICK STrarr. New York, D.
Appleton & Co. 1895. Pp. xiv+209.
In this latest volume of the ‘ Anthropological
Series’ Dr. Hoffman has attempted to present
in brief and popular form the results up to date
of the researches into the origin of the art of
writing.
The development of the use of conventional
signs is traced from pictographs through sym-
bols, mnemonic signs, etc., to alphabets, and
30
the result is a work not only of interest to the
lay reader, but of considerable scientific merit
and usefulness. The difficulty of selection from
the mass of material, much of it of doubtful in-
terpretation, to say the least, which the author
had at his disposal must not be underestimated
and to say, as we may, that he has accomplished
his task with judgment is no mean praise.
The first four chapters of the book are taken
up with a discussion of pictography, both de-
scriptive and interpretative, and here, as was to
be expected from the previous work of the
author in the picture-writing of the North Am-
erican Indians, he shows himself thoroughly
at home. One of the main faults of the book
may be mentioned here, and that is the almost
overwhelming prominence given to American
remains and records in nearly every question
under discussion, a fault easy to understand
when the volume of research and even relative
importance of the pictographic remains of the
aborigines of this and other countries is consid-
ered, and yet the idea of proportion which the
general reader would obtain from the book must
inevitably be a wrong one.
Of pictographs on stone those of the ‘ Algon-
kian type’ are the most numerous and widely
distributed, corresponding to the great area oc-
cupied by tribes of the linguistic family of that
name. They appear to be mainly representa-
tions of animals or concrete objects and prob-
ably served as hunting or other records. The
author points out that in nearly every instance
these Algonkian petroglyphs have been placed
upon rocks low down along the shore of water
courses, whereas many of the pictographs of
other types are placed upon high and conspicuous
cliffs, in which case the drawings are apt to be
colored.
In Mexico and Central America, petroglyphs
are comparatively rare, while in South America
investigation is at present not far enough ad-
vanced to present examples of much impor-
tance.
In the chapter on pictographs on materials
other than stone, the art is traced through cary-
ings and drawings on ivory, bone and shell, in
which the Alaska Innuits especially excel,
through birch bark records to the use of mag-
uey paper by the Mexicans and papyrus by the
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 53.
Egyptians. The Mexican pictographs show a
very high degree of development in which the
artists had passed the stage of mere concrete
object drawing, and show signs of a beginning
system midway between the pictographic and
the phonetic. This system which has been
called the ‘ikonomatic’ is one in which ‘‘ the
object employed to represent a complex word
or character, each furnishes its first syllable, or
more, to suggest the sound required for the com-
plex character and may have no other relation
to the general result.’’ Colors were largely
used and may have had a phonetic value, though
often were nothing more than the natural color
of the object depicted.
Dr. Hoffman denies that any evident parallel
exists between the pictographs of the Western
hemisphere and those of the East. The Egyp-
tian had become entirely phonetic and partly
alphabetic, while the Chinese and other systems
were of a well developed syllabic order; the
American aborigines, on the other hand, had not
yet risen above the stage when a study of the
origin of their pictographs is possible, and there-
in lie their peculiar interest and value.
The chapters on symbolic signs and gesture
signs and attitudes are especially good and well
arranged, while those on the growth of conven-
tional signs and comparisons give interesting
examples of primitive designations from which
space prevents our quoting.
The book closes with a discussion of the
growth of the alphabet through the various
stages of graphic development; the transition
stages where the alphabetic character has served
as a pictorial representation of an object and as
a syllable being proved, as indicated above, by
reference to the systems in use among the early
Mexicans and the Mayas of Yucatan.
Ikonomatic or rebus writing was extensively
used by the Mexicans, while the Mayas went a
step further and employed purely phonetic
signs as well as ideographic characters.
In conclusion it may be said that Dr. Hoff-
man has raised very markedly the standard of
the hitherto somewhat disappointing series in
which his book appears, a standard which it is
to be hoped the succeeding issues will sustain.
LIVINGSTON FARRAND.
COLUMBIA COLLEGE.
JANUARY 3, 1896.]
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY, NOVEMBER—DECEMBER.
The Greenland Expedition of 1895: By R. D.
SALISBURY. This is not an itinerary of the ex-
pedition, but a discussion of the geologic and
geographic problems suggested in the course of
it. The following are considered: coastal to-
pography and its interpretation, evidence con-
cerning past glaciation from nature of rock sur-
faces, general distribution of snow and ice, ice-
bergs and evidences concerning recent changes
of level. The time allowed was not sufficient
for detailed observation on any of these lines,
but the facts gathered are of especial significance
as supplementing and checking as well the work
of last summer in this little known field. The
author finds strong evidence that the Pleistocene
ice sheet of America did not come from Green-
land, and that the conditions for glaciation on
the coast of Greenland to-day are better in lati-
tude 74°-76° than in 76°—79°. Another interest-
ing conclusion is that the ice cap of Greenland
did not reach its greatest extension at all points
at the same time. The observations on ice-
bergs are quite full and show clearly either that
there was little debris in the parent glaciers, or
that it was quickly lost by the bergs.
A Circum-Insular Paleozoic Fauna: By 8.
WELLER. So long as paleontology made the
identification of species an end in itself and as-
sumed that forms found widely separated in
space must belong to different species, even
though they seemed to be identical, it was neces-
sary doubtless, but it was not interesting to the
philosophic geologist, because it seemed to him
to ignore more than it considered. In later
years there has been a decided broadening in
the view of paleontologists. Under the lead of
Williams, Walcott and Smith in this country
there has been an attempt to solve the same
kind of problems for ancient faunas and floras
which Wallace, Datwin, Gray and others have
solved for modern ones. In this paper the
author applies the method in determining the
origin of the Chouteau fauna of the Ozark area
in southeastern Missouri. He finds evidence of
a land barrier extending from ‘Isle Wisconsin’
southwest through this area in early Devonian
time which separated two rather distinct faunas.
In the latter part of the Devonian this land
SCIENCE. 3
barrier became sea bottom, and the two faunas
mingled freely in the Ozark area. The result
was a new fauna decidedly Carboniferous in its
affinities, though Devonian in time. The most
hardy elements of the two competing faunas
survived, and this new vigorous stock gave
character to succeeding faunas for a long period.
Some pregnant suggestions are made regarding
correlation of formations.
Experiments in Ice Motion: By E. C. CaAsn.
The mechanics of glacier motion involve ques-
tions often asked but not easy to answer. The
experiments of the author were designed to
throw light on the existence and nature of
differential movement in the basal portions of
glaciers. Parafiine with a quantity of refined
petroleum to lower the melting point was the
material used. It was placed in a box with
yarious obstructions in the bottom and by
means of a close fitting plunger was forced
toward the middle of the box over the obstruc-
tions. In order to trace the currents, thin lines
of powdered coal or Galena, and layers of dark
wax, were used. The results, as shown by the
photographs, tally well with Prof. Chamberlin’s
descriptions of some Greenland glaciers. The
author finds proof of both vertical and hori-
zontal differential movements in the basal por-
tion of the wax. Similar currents in glaciers
he thinks may be the cause of certain features
of subglacial topography. For example, he
finds that drumlin areas lie in the lee of escarp-
ments or other irregularities of hard rock over
which the ice has just passed.
Absarokite-Shoshonite-Banakite Series: By J.
P. Ippines. This is a study of a peculiar series
of igneous rocks associated with the normal
andesites and basalts of the Yellowstone Na-
tional Park, but differing from them mineral-
ogically and chemically. These rocks are ar-
ranged under the three groups named in the
title, of which the first contains the least SiO, and
the third the greatest amount. The author
concludes that this is a series variable in two
principal directions chemically: in the ratio of
alkalies to silica, and also in the silica percent-
ages. The variations of other chemical con-
stituents are to some extent functions of these
variables.
Distribution of Gold Deposits in Alaska: By
o2
Gro. F. Becker. During the past summer the
author was sent by the U. 8. Geological Survey
to investigate the gold resources of Alaska.
This paper is a very brief resumé of the results.
He finds nothing phenomenally rich, but that
there are paying quantities of gold in several
localities seems clear from his account.
In this number there is a new department,
viz: Authors’ Abstracts. Under this will be
found abstracts of a variety of geological publi-
cations, including some of the new U. 8. Geo-
logical Atlases.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.
THE January number opens Volume I. of the
Fourth Series, or Volume CLI. sinee the estab-
lishment of the Journal in 1818. The leading
article is by W. M. Davis upon the quarries in
the Lava Beds of Meriden, Conn. This locality
exhibits with great distinctness at the present
time the two lava beds composing the ridge at
that point, and the fractures by which the beds
are faulted. These igneous outflows in common
with most of the others which characterize the
Triassic of Connecticut are viewed as extrusive
lava beds, once horizontal and continuous, but
now tilted, dislocated and denuded. The present
paper discusses in detail the present relations of
the outflows, with a number of idealized illustra-
tions showing their position with reference to
the accompanying sandstone and shales. It is
urged that the former may be used as well as
the latter in the study of the stratigraphy. A
second geological paper is by Stanton and Vau-
ghan, and describes minutely, with a diagram,
the Cretaceous section exposed in Mexico and
New Mexico, near the Initial Monument of the
Mexican boundary survey, three miles west of
El Paso. G. W. Littlehales discusses, from a
mathematical standpoint, the form of isolated
submarine peaks with reference to their rela-
tion to the intervals at which deep-sea sound-
ings should be taken in searching for probable
shoals in the open ocean. EH. H. Forbes gives
an analysis of the epidote from Huntington,
Mass., with a discussion of its optical properties
and, further, their relation in general to the
composition of the species. H. L. Wells and
H. W. Foote describe a series of double fluorides
of Cesium and Zirconium; analyses of the salts
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vo. III. No. 53.
2 Cs.ZrF,, also CsF.ZrF,.H,O and 2 CsF.3ZrF.,
2H,0 are given. Other chemical articles are by
F. A. Gooch and A. W. Peirce on the iodometric
determination of selenious and selenic acids, and
by P. E. Browning on the interaction of chromic
and arsenious acids. A. M. Mayer gives a note
on the Analysis of Contrast-Colors by viewing,
through a reflecting tube, a graded series of
gray discs, or rings, on colored surfaces. This
is based upon the fact, noted by Rood, that the
mixing of black with certain colors simply
darkens them, while with other colors the effect
is to change the hues. A new form of cathetom-
eter of simple construction is described by F.
L. O. Wadsworth, with a series of figures and a
half-tone plate showing the instrument in use.
The novel feature is the employment of a light
silvered mirror mounted on a vertical axis just
in front of the objective. By means of this the
comparison of the object to be measured with
standard scale is readily made. It is shown
that highly accurate results may be obtained
with this instrument, while the cost is relatively
very small. O.C. Marsh details some observa-
tions made of globular lightning from notes taken
at the time of its occurrence at Southampton in
July, 1878. The circumstances were such that -
this rare phenomenon could be more minutely
and accurately observed than is often possible.
The concluding thirty pages of the number are
devoted to abstracts of scientific papers, notices
of books, ete., on a wide range of subjects.
SCHOOL OF MINES QUARTERLY, NOVEMBER.
TuE November number of the School of Mines
Quarterly has recently appeared, J. F. Kemp
taking the place of A. J. Moses as managing
editor, as Dr. Moses is in Europe on a year’s
leave of absence. The table of contents con-
tains the following: ‘The Missouri River,’ by
George R. Morison; ‘Temperature of Gases
from Lead Furnaces’ and ‘ Temperature of Lead
Slags,’ both by Malvern W. Iles; ‘The Assay
of Platinum,’ by E. H. Miller; ‘Lecture Notes
on Rocks,’ by J. F. Kemp; ‘The Study of
Architectural History at Columbia College,’ by
Wm. R. Ware. The first paper describes the
peculiar features of the Missouri River and the
difficulties met and surmounted in constructing
and maintaining bridges across it. The author
JANUARY 3, 1896.]
is reputed to have built more bridges than any
other living engineer, and presents an interest-
ing account of his experiences. The next two
give the results of a series of experimental de-
terminations of the temperatures mentioned in
the title. In the fourth paper the results are
detailed of an extended series of experiments on
a difficult subject and the final attainment of a
feasible and a not too long method. The fifth
paper, which will be aserial, contains the open-
ing chapters of a manual on rocks for use with-
out the microscope. The last paper emphasizes
the importance of teaching architecture as an
art, comparable with artists’ as distinguished
from engineers’ or artisans’ work. As outlining
a future policy for our schools of architecture it
has important bearings.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, SECTION OF
BIOLOGY.
Tue following papers were presented on De-
cember 9th :
Prof. C. L. Bristol: ‘The Classification of
Nephelis in the United States.’ The study of
abundant material, collected from Maine to
South Dakota, has shown that the color char-
acters cannot be depended upon for specific de-
termination. An examination of the metameral
relations of this leech indicates that no more than
a single species occurs in this country.
Prof. H. F. Osborn: ‘Titanotheres of the
American Museum of Natural History.’ The
complete skeleton of Titanotherium robustum is
remarkable in possessing but twenty dorso-
lumbar vertebree, a number identical with that
typical of the Artiodactyla, but entirely unique
among Perissodactyla. It now appears proba-
ble that the development of horns in the Titan-
otheres became a purely sexual character, and
that the genera Titanops, Marsh, and Brontops,
Marsh, are founded respectively upon male and
female individuals of Titanotherium robustum.
Dr. J. L. Wortman: ‘The Expedition of
1895 of the American Museum of Natural His-
tory.’ The expedition passed into the Unita
beds of northeastern Utah, then between the
eastern escarpment of the Unita range and the
Green River into the Washakie Beds of south-
SCIENCE.
29
ovo
western Wyoming, the most important result
geologically being that the Brown Park deposit
is found to be of much later age than the Unita.
BASHFORD DEAN,
Rec. Sec’y, Biological Section.
SECTION OF GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY.
THE Section of Geology and Mineralogy of
the New York Academy of Sciences assembled
for its regular monthly meeting Monday,
December 16, 1895, Prof. J. J. Stevenson pre-
siding.
The first paper was by Prof. H. P. Cushing,
‘Notes on the Areal Geology of Glacier Bay,
Alaska.’ The paper will appear in full and
with a geological map in Vol. 15 of the Trans-
actions of the Academy, but the following is an
abstract:
After an introduction which outlined the pre-
vious work in the region by Dr. H. F. Reid and
the writer and the petrographical determination
of the rocks that had been collected by them,
and that had been studied by the late Dr.
George H. Williams and the writer, a descrip-
tion of the general geology was given, based
upon a geological map.
Mr. Cushing shows that the rocks present
are argillites, limestone, quartz-diorite, diorite,
crystalline schists and dikes of diabase. The
argillites have a wide distribution around the
eastern side of the Muir glacier basin, and also
form the mountains adjacent to Muir Inlet.
They present three main phases: First, very
hard, fine grained argillo-siliceous beds, gray to
brown in color, occasionally approaching quartz-
ite in character. Second, blue and black,
somewhat slaty rocks, nearly as hard as the
first, and equally fine grained, but less siliceous,
although containing only a slight amount of cal- -
careous manner. Third, thin bands of black
graphitic slates, with good slaty cleavage, and
interstratified with the other two varieties.
No fossils were found, although careful search
was made.
The limestone is called the ‘Glacier Bay
Limestone.’ It is dolomitic, and for the most
part extremely pure, containing only a trace of
insoluble matter. Fossils were rare and so
damaged by metamorphism as to be unrecogni-
zable. But in 1898 a fossil coral was brought
ot SCIENCE.
from the region by Prof. Stevenson, which had
certainly been derived from this limestone.
Tt was identified by Prof. H. 8. Williams as a
species of Lonsdaleia, and was regarded as
demonstrative of the carboniferous age of the
beds.
The quartz-diorite is a homogeneous rock,
consisting of white plagioclase, with frequent
thin prisms of hornblende, and occasional
biotites and some quartz. A contact was found
between it and the argillites which seemed
clearly an irruptive one. Other contacts ob-
served by Dr. Reid with the limestone also indi-
cated contact metamorphism.
The diorite is a more basic rock than the
quartz-diorite, and is found in the moraines.
It has probably come from the mountains,
which have yet proved inaccessible.
The crystalline schists embrace mica schists
and actinolite schists and were obtained from
erratic blocks.
The diabase dikes have all been intruded
since the metamorphism of their wall rocks and
are the latest rocks in the region. Mr. Cush-
ing gives a detailed comparison of these rocks
with other Alaskan sections, noting many paral-
lel features and some contrasts. The paper
concludes with a detailed petrographical de-
scription of the crystalline rocks.
The second paper of the evening was by Hein-
rich Ries, on ‘The Geology of Orange County,
New York.’ Mr. Ries gave a resumé of the
results obtained by him while in the field the
past summer under Prof. James Hall, State
Geologist, to whom the report will be made.
The paper was extemporaneous and was not in-
tended for publication. It was illustrated by
numerous lantern views and geological sec-
tions.
The third paper was by Theodore G. White,
on ‘The Faunas of the Upper Ordovician Strata
at Trenton Falls, New York.’ Mr. White de-
scribed the results of a visit to this, the typical
locality of the Trenton formation, and of a de-
tailed study of the faunas of each stratum of the
limestones at Trenton Falls, and Poland, Oneida
County, New York. The work was undertaken
in connection with a doctorate thesis on the
Trenton Faunas of the Lake Champlain Valley,
which will be submitted in the spring to the
[N. 8S. Vox. IIT. No. 53.
Faculty of Columbia College. The faunal lists
at Trenton Falls will be published in full in the
Transactions of the Academy of current date.
By making use of conspicuous and constant
layers as datum planes, the thickness of the
beds in the Trenton Falls gorge was found to
be 331 feet. On the same creek, three miles
below Poland, underlying strata were found
as follows :
Black River limestone, 11 feet 9 inches.
‘Dove’ limestone, 5 feet 1 inch.
Calciferous strata, 8 feet.
Various peculiar distortions of the beds in the ©
Trenton Falls gorge was also shown and dis-
cussed.
The paper was illustrated by numerous lan-
tern views from photographs.
The fourth paper of the evening by J. F.
Kemp and T. G. White, ‘Additional Notes on
the Distribution and Petrography of the Trap
Dikes in the Lake Champlain Region,’ was
postponed until the next meeting, on account of
the lateness of the hour.
J. F. Kemp,
Secretary.
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, 250TH
MEETING, NOVEMBER 30.
THE first paper, Some Fundamentals of Nomen-
clature, by Dr. Edward L. Green, is printed in
abstract in this journal.
Mr. Theo. Holm made some Contributions to
the Flora of the District of Columbia, illustrating
the same by specimens. Since the publication of
the third list of additions to the flora many rare
plants have been reported, some of which are
new to the District. It was shown that the
genus Panicum is exceedingly well represented
in the local flora, and seven species were enu-
merated as not having been before reported.
Sporobolus vagineflorus, which was formerly
known only from one locality, has now spread
to several distant places and may be considered
as rather Several rare Cyperacee
were reported, among which Kyllinga pumila
and Cyperus aristatus were new to the flora. The
genus Polygala appears, like Panicum, to be
widely distributed in the District, and P.
ambigua, P. incarnata and P. verticillata were re-
ported from several places. Plantago Patagonica,
common.
JANUARY 3, 1896. ]
var. aristata, had commenced to spread so as to
become a weed in the eastern part of the Dis-
trict. After enumerating a number of similar
plants rare in the District, the speaker made
some brief remarks upon the morphology of
some of these, e. g., Pogonia ophioglossoides,
Orchis spectabilis, Smilax herbacea, ete.
The evening was devoted to an address by
by the President, Surgeon General George M.
Sternberg, U. S. A., on the Practical Results of
Bacteriological Researches.
F. A. LUCAS,
Secretary.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
AT the 241st meeting of the Society held
December 17th, a paper on ‘The Animistic
Vampire in New England’ was read by
George R. Stetson. This superstition of an-
cient Babylonia, Chaldea and the far Hast by
some mysterious survival, occult transmission
or remarkable atavism, is prevalent in the scat-
tered hamlets and more pretentious Villages
of central Rhode Island. It is an extraordi-
nary instance of a barbaric superstition out crop-
ping in, and coexisting with a high general
culture, and which is not so uncommon, if rarely
so extremely aggravated, crude and painful.
The superstition is there unknown by its
proper name. The local belief, however, pre-
cisely corresponds to the statement of the vam-
pire superstition contained in Calmet’s ‘ Traité
sur les apparitions des esprits et sur les vam-
pires ou les revenans de Hongrie, de Moravie,
etc,’ Paris, 1751, and as it now survives in
eastern and western Europe.
Tt is, that a wasting disease is not a physical,
but a spiritual ailment, obsession or visitation ;
that as long as the body of a dead relative of
the person attacked has blood in its heart it is
proof that an occult influence steals from it for
death, and is at work draining the blood of the
living into the heart’ of the dead and causing
his rapid decline and death.
As in the middle age, the Rhode Island vam-
pire is located, if, on opening the grave, the body
is found to be of a rose color, the beard, hair
or nails renewed and the veins and heart filled
with blood.
The means taken for relief are also precisely
SCIENCE.
30
those followed in parts of the Levant and else-
where, viz: exhumation of the body and burn-
ing the heart and scattering its ashes to the
winds. The persons indulging in this supersti-
tion in Rhode Island are not foreigners, but
native born New Englanders. It is declared
upon excellent authority to be prevalent in all
the isolated districts of the southern parts of
the State and that many instances of it can be
found in the large centers of population.
As to its origin in Rhode Island there is no
record; it is in all probability an exotic like
ourselves, originating in the mythographie pe-
riod of the Arvan and Semitic peoples.
No known precise parallel in the western
Indian mythology has come to our knowledge.
The Ojibwas and Cherokees have, however,
something analagous.
Abundant evidence is at hand that the animis-
tie vampire superstition still retains its hold in
its original habitat ; an illustration of the re-
markable tenacity and continuity of a supersti-
tion through centuries of intellectual progress
from a lower toa higher culture, and of the impo-
teney of the latter to entirely eradicate from
itself the traditional beliefs, customs, habits,
observances and impressions of the former.
Mr. William Eleroy Curtis read a paper
on the Regulation of the Social Evil in Japan,
reviewing the legislation and imperial edicts
that have appeared on that subject and de-
scribing the present method of confining prosti-
tution to certain quarters of the cities and
towns and making those who practice that pro-
fession practically prisoners under the con-
stant surveillance of the police. The govern-
ment of Japan prohibits any woman from fol-
lowing the business of a courtesan without the
written consent of her parents, or her guardian,
if she be an orphan, and requires her to make
a contract for a term of years with the keeper
of some hashi-zashiki, as the houses of prosti-
tution are called. During this period she is not
permitted to leave the limit of the Yoshiwara,
as the quarter is designated, except on certain
occasions which are enumerated in the law, or
upon the expression of a desire to reform.
When her contract is cancelled her license is
surrendered, and she becomes a ticket-of-leave
woman, subject to police surveillance until she
36
has demonstrated the sincerity of her intention
to lead a different life. The patrons of the
Yoshiwara are required to register their names,
residences and occupations in books that are
always accessible to the public and the police,
and an account of their expenditures is accur-
ately kept.
Mr. Curtis asserts that this system has been
remarkably successful both from a sanitary and
a moral point of view.
ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
THE 112th regular meeting was held Decem-
ber 5, 1895. Mr. Hubbard read a paper on
‘Distribution of Certain Species of Mytilaspis.’
He spoke of the unreliability of tradition and
early records as a source of exact knowledge
concerning the introduction and spread from one
country to another of scale insects which are so
easily transported and difficult of specific identi-
fication. He refered particularly to the pub-
lished accounts of the introduction into Florida
of Mytilaspis gloveri and M. citricola. The former
is supposed to have been brought to Mandarin
in 1838 by Mr. Robinson, on two trees obtained
in New York from a ship which came from
China, and the latter was said to have been
brought to Florida some years later upon
lemons from Bermuda. According to the
speaker, both of these positive statements,
hitherto unchallenged, are probably erroneous.
The insect mentioned by Glover as having been
brought from Bermuda is not a Mytilaspis, and
M. citricola at that time had not yet reached
Europe from the East. It certainly did not
reach Florida much before 1880. MM. gloveri is
to-day the principal pest of the orange in the
interior of Mexico, and it is probable that it
was introduced with the orange into Florida
and Mexico by the Spaniards at the end of the
16th or beginniug of the 17th century. Its ap-
pearance in 1838 was only the continuation of
an epidemic of Coccid pests of the orange
which is known to have overwhelmed the citrus
plantations of Europe in the early part of the
century, and to have spread westward some-
time later to the Azores, Canaries, and finally
to Bermuda. The speaker suggested that the
obvious tendency to variation in form and
thickness among the scales of Mytilaspis had
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Von. III. No. 53.
produced in North America from an original
tropical species M. pomorum, M. citricola and M.
glovert.
Dr. Stiles exhibited a Dermestes larva taken
from a corpse 3 to 6 months after death. He
referred to the statement by Mégnin in his ‘La
Faune des Cadavres,’ that the period from
burial of a corpse to its final dissolution may be
divided into eight portions, each of these por-
tions being characterized by the presence of a
different series of insects. In regard to the
manner in which insects gain access to a corpse,
Mr. Hubbard said that with the Diptera the egg
must be deposited on the outside of the coffin
before burial, since he does not believe it possi-
ble for the young larva to make its way through
the soil after burial. Dr. Stiles said that he
did not agree with Mégnin in many of his con-
clusions, but considered the field a very inter-
esting one for investigation by entomologists.
L. O. Howarp,
Secretary.
[Abstract of report by D. W. Coquillett,
Acting Secretary. ]
ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, ST. LOUIS, DECEMBER
16, 1895.
THE Academy held its regular meeting at
the Academy rooms with President Green in
the chair and twenty-eight members and yisi-
tors present.
The committee to nominate officers for the
ensuing year made report of following nomina-
tions :
President, Melvin L. Gray.
1st Vice-President, Edmund A. Engler.
2d Vice-President, Robert Moore.
Corresponding Secretary, Allerton S. Cushman.
Recording Secretary, Wm. Trelease.
Treasurer, Enno Sander.
Librarian, Gustav Hambach.
Directors, John Green, Adolph Herthel.
Curators, Julius Hurter, Herbert A. Wheeler,
George R. Olshausen.
Prof. J. H. Kinealy presented his new in-
strument for testing the purity of air in build-
ings and gave an explanation of the method
employed.
A. W. DouGLas,
Recording Secretary.
SCIENCE
NEW SERIES.
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BASHFORD DEAN, Ph. D., Columbia, Instructor
in Biology, Columbia College. With Illustrations
from the Author’s original Pen Drawings. 8vo,
cloth, $2.50 net. (Columbia Uni. Biological Series.)
Seeley.—The Growth of British Policy. By the
Late Sir J. R. SEELEY, M. A., K.C. M. G., for-
merly Regius Professor of Modern History in the
University of Cambridge. With a Portrait and a
Memoir of the Author by G. W. Prothero, Litt.
D., Professor of History in the University of
Edinburgh. 2 vols., crown, 8vo, cloth, $3.50 net.
Seligman.—Essays in Taxation. By EpwIn R.
A. SELIGMAN, Professor of Political Economy and
Finance, Columbia College. 8vo, cloth, $3.00 net.
MACMILLAN & CO., 66 Fifth Avenue, New York.
CIENCE
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: S. NEwcoms, Mathematics ; R. S. WOODWARD, Mechanics ; E. C. PICKERING, As-
tronomy ; T. C. MENDENHALL, Physics; R. H. THURSTON, Engineering; IRA REMSEN, Chemistry ;
J. LE ContTE, Geology; W. M. DAvis, Physiography; O. C. MARSH, Paleontology; W. K. Brooks,
Invertebrate Zodlogy ; C. HART MERRIAM, Vertebrate Zoology ; S. H. ScuDDER, Entomology ;
N. L. Brirron, Botany ; HENRY F. OsBoRN, General Biology ; H. P. Bownpitcu,
Physiology ; J. S. BrnLinas, Hygiene ; J. MCKEEN CATTELL, Psychology ;
DANIEL G. BRINTON, J. W. POWELL, Anthropology.
Fripay, JANuARY 10, 1896.
CONTENTS :
Alaska as it was and is, 1865-1895: W.H. DAUL.. 37
HOLBROOK CUSHMAN ... 45
J. F. Kemp... 46
A Simplex Spectroscope :
The Geological Society of America:
American Morphological Socicty........+.ccscccrseneeeeeee 57
Current Notes on Physiography :-—
Topographical Map of Italy; Map of the German
Empire; Topographical Map of Denmark: W.
Nil IDVANYA hagadscoonboadooneasobecqobedtonqseHbosaEecnodeoeen 61
Current Notes on Anthropology :—
The Ethnology of Madagascar ; Pre-glacial Man in
England; D. G. BRINTON.........:...-00sc0sseeceens 62
Scientific Notes and News :—
Astronomical: H. J. Antarctic Exploration ;
CIGIDGIREL sqoccaans sec occoconedqeRCGO nea SCEEE Cae EernOce ETE 63
University and Educational News...........c0scc0eeesees 66
Correspondence :—
The Theory of Probabilities: ARTHUR E. Bost-
WICK. The Development of the Embryo of Pteris :
F. D. KetsEy. Line Drawings of Blue Print:
Ii Jal; ISVASESTOR¢ cococosocoeassq08000 ieecDODDOSHenOSOOUAOEOBE 66
Scientific Literature :-—
Bonney’s Charles Lyell and Modern Geology:
BAILEY WILLIS. Die Gastropoden der Plankton
Expedition: W.H. DALL. Campbell’s Structure
and Development of Mosses and Ferns: L. M.
UNDERWOOD. fisteen’s Molecules and the Molec-
CHR IU DUR Re soctlocece ee pOCCBSSCOTOCOLOL OU CACOSCOECORDCECERED 68
Scientific Journals :-—
American Chemical Journal:
PUN veeseetvecdccseerastancoreseccte ;
ENEWEBOOKS rare ccniaeccecseare esses corer eth cesses hoc esnarees cscs 72
J. ELLIOTT GIL-
MSS. intended for publication and books etc., intended
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
ALASKA AS IT WAS AND IS, 1865-1895. *
Iy 1864 the apparent hopelessness of the
attempts to establish a workable trans-At-
lantic telegraph cable led those interested
in telegraphic communication with Europe
to consider other means of attaining that
end. It was thought that a short cable
across Bering Strait might be made to work,
and no doubt was entertained of the pos-
sibility of maintaining the enormously ex-
tended land lines which should connect the
ends of this cable with the systems already
in operation in Europe and the United
States. A company was formed for this
purpose, and an expedition. to undertake
the explorations necessary to determine the
route was organized. The codperation of
the Russian and American governments
was secured and the necessary funds sub-
scribed. Searching for properly qualified
explorers, the promoters of the enterprise
consulted the Smithsonian Institution and
were brought into communication with
Robert Kennicott, of Chicago, a young and
enthusiastic naturalist, who had already
made some remarkable journeys in the
Hudson Bay Territories in the interest of
science. His explorations had taken him
to the most remote of the Hudson Bay
posts—Fort Yukon on the river of the same
name—regardless of every kind of hardship,
* The annual presidential address, delivered be-
fore the Philosophical Society of Washington, De-
cember 6, 1895, by W. H. Dall.
38
privation and isolation. His ardor was so
contagious that before returning to civili-
zation he had communicated it to almost
every one of the hard-headed fur traders in
that remote and inhospitable region, and
for years afterward bird skins, eggs, ethno-
logical specimens, and collections in every
branch of natural history, poured from the
frozen north into the Smithsonian Museum
by hundreds and thousands.
When Kennicott, after traveling for
months on snow-shoes, sledges, or bateaux,
stood at last on the steep bluff at Fort
Yukon, he saw the yellow flood of the great
river surging by the most remote outpost of
civilization and disappearing to the west-
ward in a vast and unknown region. An
uninhabited gap of hundreds of miles lay
between him and the nearest known native
settlement to the west. Far in the north
the midnight sun lighted up the snowy
peaks of the Romanzoff mountains, whose
further slope it was believed gave on the.
Polar sea. No one knew where the Yukon
met the ocean. On most maps of that day
a large river called the Colvile, found by
Simpson on the Arctic coast as he journeyed
toward Point Barrow, was indicated as the
outlet of the Yukon watershed. South of
the Romanzoff mountains for an unknown
distance vast tundras, scantily wooded
with larch and spruce, the breeding grounds
of multitudes of water fowl, intersected by
many streams, but level as a prairie, ex-
tended to the west.
The native population of this region, as
far as known, had always been scanty, and
an epidemic of scarlet fever, introduced
some years before through contact with
other tribes trading to the coast, had swept
them absolutely out of existence. Not an
individual was left, and the nomadic na-
tives who reached Fort Yukon from the
east and southeast hesitated to approach
the hunting grounds, where the mysterious
pestilence might linger still.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. IIT. No. 54.
Obliged to terminate his explorations
here, Kennicott returned, after months of
weary travel, to the United States, but
cherished the hope of some day penetrating
the terra incognita on whose borders he had
been obliged to pause and turn away. The
dream of his life was thereafter the explora-
tion of Russian America, the discovery of
its fauna, and the determination of its rela-
tions to the fauna of Siberia and Japan.
The group of young zodlogists which gath-
ered about him at the Chicago Academy of
Sciences, an institution of which Kennicott
was practically the creator, was frequently
roused to enthusiasm by impromptu lec-
tures on the problems to be solved, the
specimens to be collected, and the adven-
tures to be anticipated in that virgin terri-
tory.
The need of the telegraph company for one
familiar with life and conditions in the
North brought him the long sought oppor-
tunity, and he undertook to lead the ex-
ploration, provided he was permitted to
utilize it for science to the fullest extent
commensurate with the attainment of the
objects of the expedition. He stipulated
that he should be permitted to select a
party of six persons who should be qualified
to make scientific observations and collec-
tions in the intervals of other work, but who
should hold themselves ready to do any
work required by the promoters of the enter-
prise, even to digging post-holes for the
line if called upon.
His terms were accepted, and the scien-
tific corps of the exposition organized and
started for San Francisco. Here two of the
members were detailed to join the party
engaged in exploring the route through
British Columbia ; the others, of whom the
speaker was one, accompanied Kennicott to
the north.
In July, 1865, the exposition entered the
bay of Sitka and our acquaintanee with
Russian America began.
JANUARY 10, 1896. ]
Sitka was then a stockaded town of about
2,000 inhabitants, with a village of more
than 1,500 Indians outside the walls. The
settlement contained a Greek church, a
Lutheran chapel, shipyards, warehouses,
barracks, a clubhouse for the officers, a
sawmill, a foundry where brass, copper and
iron castings of moderate size were made,
beside numerous dwellings. All the build-
ings were log structures, their outer walls
washed with yellow ochre, the roofs chiefly
of metal painted red. High above the rest,
on an elevated rock, rose a large building,
in which the governor of the Russian col-
onies had his residence. This, known to
visitors as the ‘ castle,’ was built of squared
logs, with two stories and a cupola, and was
defended by a battery. The warm colors
of the buildings, above which rose the pale
green spire and bulbous domes of the Greek
church, seen against steep, snow-tipped
mountains densely clothed with sombre
forests of spruce, produced a picturesque
effect unique among American settlements.
Outside the walls, along the beach, was
a long row of large Indian houses, low and
wide, without windows, built of immense
planks painfully hewn out of single logs
with stone adzes, whose marks could still
be distinctly seen. They were entered by
small, low doors, rounded above, so that he
who came in must bend to an attitude ill
suited to defense. The front of each house
was painted with totemic emblems in red
ochre. Their dimensions were sometimes
as much as 40 by 60 feet, and the area
within formed one large room, with the raf-
ters visible overhead, the middle portion
floored only with bare earth, on which the
fire was built, the smoke escaping through
a large square hole in the roof. On either
side were raised platforms with small par-
titioned retreats like state rooms, each shel-
tering a single family. As many as one
hundred people sometimes dwelt in one of
these houses. The only ornaments were to-
SCIENCE. 39
temic carvings, generally against the wall
opposite the entrance; overhead hung nets,
lines and other personal property, drying in
the smoke, along with strips of meat or fish
and fir branches covered with the spawn of
herring.
On the bank, which rose behind the
houses, densly covered with herbage of a
vivid green, were seen curious box-like
tombs, often painted in gay colors or orna-
mented with totemic carvings or wooden
effigies. These tombs sheltered the ashes
of their cremated dead. On the beach in
front of the houses lay numerous canoes
whose graceful shape and admirable work-
manship extorted praises from the earliest
as well as the later explorers of the coast.
When not in use these were always shel-
tered from the sun by branches of spruce
and hemlock or tarpaulins of refuse skins.
Among the canoes innumerable wolfish dogs
snarled, fought, or played the scavenger.
The natives still retained to some extent
their original style of dress, modified now
and then by a Russian kerchief or a woolen
shirt. As a rule they were barefooted,
stolid, sturdy, uncompromising savages, who
looked upon the white man with a defiance
but slightly tempered with fear and a de-
sire to trade. The mission church of that
day was built into the stockade, with doors
entering it both from the Indian and Rus-
sian town. When services were held, the
outer door was opened, the town door closed
and stoutly barred. Once these fierce
clansmen had endeavored to rush into and
take the settlement when the door leading
inward had been left unfastened. From
the time when the first white men to touch
these shores, Chirikoff’s boat’s crew in
1741, were without provocation massacred,
these natives had not failed to maintain
their reputation for courage, greed, treachery
and intelligence.
These conditions outside the settlement
necessifated a military discipline within it.
40
Sentries regularly paced the walks by day
and night, the sullen Indians were system-
atically watched, and the little batteries
kept in readiness for use.
The needs of the business of the company
made Sitka a lively manufacturing town,
in spite of the multitudinous Russian holi-
days. Society there was like a bit of old
Russia, with the manners, vices and sturdy
qualities of sailor, peasant and courtier fully
exemplified within its narrow limits. A
fishery at Deep Lake, a few miles away,
furnished fresh salmon in abundance, which
was freely distributed to all comers, twice
or thrice a week during the season. The
company furnished each employee with
certain stated rations of flour, sugar, tea,
ete., at fixed prices; the harbor, within a
few yards of the stockade, contained abun-
dance of seafish, and the Indians’ price for
a deer, skinned and dressed, was a silver
dollar or a glass of vodka. The primeval
forest came close to the town; the demand
for firewood and timber had made little im-
pression upon it. White settlements in the
Alexander archipelago were confined to a
few small fortified trading posts. Fort
Wrangell and Fort Tongass alone could be
regarded as approximately permanent. The
parties sent out to trade or hunt worked
from a temporary camp or an armed vessel
as a base, and, owing to the ill feeling
which existed between the natives and Rus-
sians, smuggling and illicit trading were rife.
Missionary effort did not exist outside of
Sitka, and even there amounted to little
more than the bribery of some greedy
savage, to perform for a consideration
some rites which he did not understand.
The law of Russia which prevented a
permanent severance of a subject from his
native soil (except for crime) operated to
encourage temporary unions of the com-
pany’s servants with native women. Mar-
riages were not allowed between full-blooded
Russians and natives, as, at the expiration
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. IIL No. 54.
of his term of service, the Russian must re-
turn to his own parish in Russia, and the
native could not be carried away from the
place of her nativity. After the transfer of
Alaska to the United States many of these
Russians elected to remain in the country
and were married to the mothers of their
children ; but at the time of our first visit,
the most surprising social fact to us was
the perfect equality which appeared to sub-
sist between these irregular partners and
the married women who had come from
Russia. So far as we could perceive, both
classes behaved with equal propriety and
were treated with equal respect by the com-
munity, and the only restriction which the
authorities insisted upon was that no Rus-
sian should take to himself a partner who
had not been duly baptized. The issue of
these unions, being of Alaskan birth, were
free to marry in the country, and with
their descendants constituted the class to
which the Russians gave the name of
‘Creoles.’ Some of them rose to eminence
in the service, and one at least became
governor of the colonies.
At the time of our visit the business of the
colony was exclusively the development of
the fur trade. Agriculture was confined to
a trifling amount of gardening very im-
perfectly performed. The fisheries were
utilized only to supply food for the people
in the company’s employ, or to insure sub-
sistence for the natives whose time was de-
voted to hunting the sea otter or preparing
skins for the authorities. The fur trade of
southeastern Alaska was not very pro-
ductive. The natives were disposed to
trade with the Hudson Bay Company or il-
licit traders rather than with the Russians,
partly because they obtained better prices
for their skins and partly because the Rus-
sians refused to trade intoxicating liquors,
while the outsiders were not troubled with
any scruples in such matters. The furs
were divided by the Russians into two
JANUARY 10, 1896. ]
classes—the precious furs, such as the fox,
sea otter and sable, which were strictly re-
served for the company, a certain proportion
being imperial perquisites of the Russian
court, and the cheaper sorts, which might
be used by the company’s employees for
winter clothing, and were sold at a fixed
price to them for this purpose. This in-
cluded the muskrat, mink, Parry’s marmot
or ivrashka, the fur seal and some. others.
Dry skins of the fur seal were sold at the
company’s warehouse for 12} cents apiece,
the modern plucking and dyeing of the fur,
invented by an American, Raymond, of
Albany, not having reached a perfection
sufficient to attract the fashionable world.
The European trading goods and supplies
were mainly brought by ship from Ham-
burg, the same vessel taking the annual
load of skins to China, where an exchange
was made for tea and silk, which were car-
ried back to Europe. Flour was imported
latterly from California and some goods
were brought from Aian and other ports on
the Okhotsk sea in the earlier days of the
business, but in 1865 this trade had come
to a standstill or nearly so. In mineral re-
sources almost nothing was done; a little
coal was taken out at Cook’s inlet for local
uses, and the exportation of ice from Ka-
diak to California was carried on under a
lease by an American company. The pres-
ence of gold, iron and graphite was known
to the authorities, but prospecting was not
encouraged, as it was supposed the develop-
ment of mineral resources might react un-
favorably on the fur trade.
The first codfisherman visited the Shu-
magin Islands in 1865. The whale fishery
was wholly in the hands of Americans and
other foreigners, uncontrolled by the Rus-
sians, and the timber was used only for
local purposes.
The main business of the company was
done at its continental trading posts in the
northern part of the territory and in the
SCIENCE.
41
Aleutian chain; its authority in the terri-
tory was as absolute as the presence of the
uncivilized tribes would admit. Under the
guns of the trading posts the company was
master; out of their range every man was
a law unto himself.
After transacting its business at Sitka,
the expedition touched at the island of
Unga to examine a coal mine, at Una-
lashka, the Pribiloff Islands, and at Saint
Michael’s, Norton Sound, where Kennicott
and the explorers for the Yukon were
landed. The speaker was put in charge of
the scientific work of the expedition and
remained with the fleet, visiting Bering
Strait, where landing places for the cable
were searched for ; and Petropavlovsk, the
capital of Kamchatka, where the Siberian
parties were provided for; and then the
vessels returned to San Francisco.
The following year, on returning to Saint
Michael’s, we were met by the news of Ken-
nicott’s death from heart disease, brought ,
on by over-exertion and anxiety. The Yu-
kon exploration was still incomplete, though
information received made it certain ,that
the Kwikhpak of the Russians and the
Yukon and Pelly of the English were one
and the same river. It remained to em-
phasize this ‘information by a continuous
exploration which should cover the unmap-
ped portion of this mighty stream. The sci-
entific work in zoology projected by Kenni-
eott had been left by his premature death
unrealized. The speaker determined to
carry out these plans and was authorized
to remain in the country for that purpose.
As soon as sufficient snow had fallen to
render sledging practicable a portage from
Norton sound to the Yukon river was tray-
ersed,a small boat transported on a sledge
for use during the following summer, and
the Yukon ascended on the ice to the trad-
ing post at Nulato, a distance of some three
hundred miles. Here the party of five
wintered and in March divided into two
42
parts—one, under Frank Ketchum, taking
sledges with the intention of traversing the
unknown region on the ice and after reach-
ing Fort Yukon to ascend further in canoes ;
the other to await the break-up of the ice
in May and follow in the skin canoe, so as
to rescue the first party should they have
failed to carry out their plans. Both proj-
ects were successfully carried out and the
two parties reunited at Fort Yukon on the
29th of June, 1867. They returned by the
whole length of the river and reached Saint
Michael’s on the 25th of July. Here aston-
ishing news awaited us: The Atlantic
cable was a triumphant success, the United
States were in negotiation for the purchase
of Russian America, our costly enterprise
was abandoned, and all hands were to take
ship for California.
The collections and observations had been
but half completed. The natural history of
the Upper Yukon and the borders of Nor-
ton sound had been pretty well examined,
but the vast delta of the Yukon, with its
wonderful fauna of fishes and water birds,
its almost unknown native tribes and
geographic features, remained practically
untouched. I immediately determined to
remain and devote the following year to the
unfinished work. An arrangement with the
Russians was made and this plan carried
out. In the autumn of 1868 I left Norton
sound for California on a trading vessel
and returned to civilization.
At the time our explorations of the
Yukon began this immense region was
occupied by two or three thousand Indians,
many of whom had never seen a white man.
The Russian establishments on the Yukon
were only three in number, hundreds of
miles apart, and chiefly manned by Creole
servants of the company, not over a dozen
at each post. An inefficient priest, with a
few alleged converts, conducted as a mis-
sion of the Greek Church the only religious
establishment in the whole Yukon valley.
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 54.
The industries of the region comprised
trapping, hunting and fishing; the first for
revenue, the others for subsistence. The
means of navigation were birch-bark canoes
and small skin-boats. Once a year the
clumsy barkass of the Russians, loaded with
tea, flour and trading goods, was labori-
ously forced upstream to the Nulato post,
returning with a load of furs. The tribes
of Eskimo extraction occupied the lower
river banks from the sea to the Shageluk
slough, above which they were replaced by
Indians of the Tinneh stock. These were
to be found in scattered villages at various
points on the river or its tributaries, where
the abundance of fish offered means of sub-
sistence. The extreme limit of population
was to be found at the junction with the
Yukon-of the large river Tanané, where the
island of Nuklukayét was recognized as
neutral ground, where delegations from all
the tribes met in the spring for their annual
market of furs. Here our party had the
interesting experience of meeting the dele-
gation of Tanana Indians in full native cos-
tume of pointed shirts and trousers of
dressed deer skin adorned with black and
white beads, the nasal septum pierced to
carry an ornament of dentalium shell, their
long hair formed into a bundle of locks,
stiff with tallow, wound with beads, dusted
with powdered hematite and the chopped
down of swans. The ranks of frail birch
canoes were accurately aligned, and their
paddles rose and fell with military precision.
When they rounded the point of the island
and approached the beach, where stood the
first white men they had ever seen, they
were met by a complimentary salvo from
the guns of the Indians already on shore,
and responded by wild yells and graceful
waving of their paddles.
The waters of the Tanané had never
known an explorer and its geography was
wholly unknown. Never again will it be
possible for an ethnologist to see upon the
JANUARY 10, 1896.]
Yukon such a body of absolutely primitive
Indians untarnished by the least breath of
civilization.
Above Nuklukayet the Yukon enters a
cafion, known as the Lower Ramparts, above
which the depopulated area already alluded
to extends to the site of Fort Yukon, near
the British boundary on the Arctic circle.
The noble stream I have described ex-
tends, including windings, about 1,600 miles
from Fort Yukon to the sea. The valley is
sometimes wide and low, sometimes narrow,
and contracted by low, wooded mountains.
Everywhere until the delta is approached
the banks are wooded. There are many
tributaries, none of which were then ex-
plored, and on either side of the main ar-
tery the land stretched unexplored for hun-
dreds of miles. Not another person speak-
ing any Huropean tongue, except the Rus-
sian, was resident in all this territory dur-
ing the second year of my sojourn. Out-
side of the three trading posts, not a native
had ever bought a pound of flour or an
ounce of tea. The use of woolen clothing
had hardly begun, and soap was a rare and
costly luxury. I made the first candles
ever molded on the Yukon, and but for
the lack of hardwood ashes to furnish al-
kali would have tried my hand at soap.
People lived on game and fish. The caribou
was plentiful in the absence of rifles ; the
moose was not yet exterminated; the warm
days of spring brought incalculable multi-
tudes of ducks and geese, to say nothing of
other water fowl; the Arctic rabbit and the
ptarmigan were a constant resource, and
the rivers and lakes in many places teemed
with fish. Clothing was made of deerskin
and sewed with sinew; the ornaments were
fringes from the gray wolf or wolverine.
Undergarments were occasionally made of
cotton bought from the traders, but more
usually from the skins of fawns. At one
village during the season for taking them I
saw 4,300 fawn skins hanging up to dry.
SCIENCE.
43
Such reckless destruction has since borne
its natural fruit. It was only at certain
localities even then that deer were plenti-
ful. The main staple of subsistence was
fish. During the summer the river was
studded with traps for salmon; in winter
the traps were set in the ice, and under
favorable conditions furnished a steady sup-
ply of white-fish, burbot, pike, grayling and
the great red sucker. The salmon were
cleaned, split into three parts connected at
the tail, and dried in the open air by mil-
lions; they furnished food for man and dog,
and when well cured were not unpalatable.
Vegetable food was almost unknown, ex-
cept in the form of berries. The green
flower stalks of Rumex and Archangelica
were occasionally eaten, and the dwellers
by the sea sometimes gathered dulse, but
for practical purposes the diet was meat
and fish.
It was known that gold existed in the
sands of the river, but the inexperienced
fur traders looked for it in the bars of the
main river and not in the side cafions of
small streams, where it has since been found
in such abundance. ‘The real riches of the
Yukon valley then lay in its furs. In a
garret at Fort Yukon tne post trader
showed me with pardonable pride 300 silver
fox skins of the first quality. Beautiful in
themselves and for what they represented
—gold, praises, and promotion in the ser-
vice—one might almost forget that some of
the company’s servants at this post had not
tasted bread or butter, sugar or tea for seven
long years.
The region of the delta was, and is still,
remarkable as being the breeding place of
myriads of water fowl, some of which are
peculiar to the Alaskan region. Nearly
one hundred species gather there, and one
of them comes all the way from North Aus-
tralia, by the coasts of China and Japan, to
lay its eggs and rear its young in the Yukon
delta. It is also remarkable for the abun-
44
dance of the great king salmon, sometimes
reaching a weight of 130 pounds, a fish less
plentiful further up and which does not
ascend to the headwaters of the river.
All this immense Territory has since been
penetrated by traders and prospectors.
Stern-wheel steamers have defied the cur-
rent, and ply regularly on the river during
the season of open water. Mission schools
are numerous and reindeer scarce. The
fur trade wanes, while many thousands of
dollars in gold dust have been laboriously
extracted from the gravels. The natives
buy tea and flour and dress in woolen cloth-
ing. With the miners whisky has reached
the wilderness, and the sound of the Ameri-
can language is heard in the land. Tame
reindeer have been imported from Siberia
with a view to their domestication by the
Eskimo of the Arctic coast, who are on the
verge of starvation at frequent intervals,
owing to the destruction of their food supply
by the whalers and walrus hunters and the
introduction of Winchester rifles for killing
the wild deer. With the alternative of
starvation as a stimulus, the chances of
success ought to be good.
In carrying out the plans which Kenni-
cott had meditated, but which death had
stayed, I had succeeded in gathering rather
abundant material for my friends, the orni-
thologists, botanists, ethnologists, and so
on, but to do it I had to put aside the work
in the department in which I personally
was most interested. The shores of Norton
sound and the tundra of the Yukon valley
offered little in the way of mollusks or
other invertebrates. The desire to extend
our knowledge of the geographical distribu-
tion of the sea fauna led me to propose a
further exploration of the coasts of the Ter-
ritory, especially of the Aleutian chain,
under the auspices of the United States
Coast Survey. A geographical reconnais-
sance was undertaken and carried on dur-
ing five years, investigating magnetism and
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 54.
hydrology, making charts, tidal observa-
tions, meteorological and hypsometric notes.
In all this I was ably seconded by my com-
panions, Mark W. Harrington and Marcus
Baker, who need no introduction to this
audience. At the same time, and without
interfering with the regular work, the dredge
was kept constantly busy, and on my return
from field work the material for the studies
I had so long looked forward to was ac-
tually gathered.
The region which includes the Aleutian
chain and other islands west of Kadiak
presents a striking contrast to the densely
wooded mountains and shining glaciers of
the Sitkan region to the east and the rolling
tundra cut by myriad rivers in the North.
Approached by sea, the Aleutian islands
seem gloomy and inhospitable. Omnipresent
fog wreaths hang about steep cliffs of dark
voleanic rock. An angry surf vibrates to
and fro amid outstanding pinnacles, where
innumerable sea birds wheel and ery. The
angular hills and long slopes of talus are
not softened by any arborescent veil. The
infrequent villages nestle behind sheltering
bluffs, and are rarely visible from without
the harbors. In winter all the heights are
wrapped in snow, and storms of terrific
violence drive commerce from the sea about
them.
Once pass within the harbors during sum-
mer and the repellent features of the land-
scape seem to vanish. The mountain sides
are clothed with soft yet vivid green and
brilliant with many flowers. The perfume
of the spring blossoms is often heavy on the
air. The lowlands are shoulder high with
herbage, and the total absence of trees gives
to the landscape an individuality all its
own. No more fascinating prospect do I
know than a view of the harbor of Una-
lashka from a hilltop on a sunny day, with
the curiously irregular, verdant islands set
in a sea of celestial blue, the shorelines
marked by creamy surf, the ravines by
JANUARY 10, 1896. ]
brooks and waterfalls, the occasional de-
pressions by small lakes shining in the sun.
The sea abounds with fish; the offshore
rocks are the resort of sea lions and for-
merly of sea otters; the streams afford the
trout fisher abundant sport, and about their
mouths the red salmon leap and play. In
October the hillsides offer store of berries,
and in all this land there is not a poison-
ous reptile or dangerous wild animal of any
sort.
The inhabitants of these islands are an
interesting and peculiar race. Their char-
acteristics have been well described by Veni-
aminoff, who knew and loved them. By
the testimony of their language, physique
and culture they are shown to be a branch of
the Eskimo stock, driven from the continent,
as the shell heaps reveal, at a very ancient
date and isolated since from contact with
any other native race, specialized and de-
veloped by their peculiar environment to a
remarkable degree. Conquered by the Rus-
sian hunters of the eighteenth century, prac-
tically enslaved for a century, their ancient
religion frankly abandoned for the rites of
the Greek Church, an apathetic reticence
replaced the rollicking good nature char-
acteristic of the Eskimo people. In 1865
they were supported by the company; the
men shipped off in hunting parties in search
of the sea otter were separated from their
families sometimes for many months and
rewarded according to their success; but,
while the company provided food for all
who needed it, the time of the Aleut was
not his own. I have already mentioned
that the fur seal at that time had very little
commercial value. The fishery on the Pri-
biloff Islands was conducted by Aleuts un-
der supervision, and the skins were mostly
shipped to China or Europe. It has been
noted as surprising that the value of the
fur-seal fishery is so little referred to in the
arguments urging the acquisition of the
Territory in 1867. This was not an over-
SCIENCE.
45
sight; the seal fisheries at that time were
not especially lucrative, and the millions
which the industry has since produced
could not have been predicted in 1867.
(To be continued.)
A SIMPLEX SPECTROSCOPE.*
For the purpose of explaining the con-
struction and operation of the spectroscope
to beginners, the simplest form was desired
and after various modifications of the usual
form had been constructed, the following ar-
rangement was devised and has proved
eminently satisfactory, No lenses are re-
quired and only a small prism of fair qual-
ity.
The apparatus is shown in perspective in
Fig. 17. P is the small prism, about 1.5
em. on a side and 60° refracting angle. B
is an ordinary Bunsen burner with chim-
ney. AC isa metal screen, supported upon
a stand, and having a rectangular opening
in its center covered by a scale in millime-
ters upon translucent paper or celluloid,
covered upon the back with mica to pro-
tect it from the burner. Under the center
of the scale is a triangular opening about 8
mm. high and 5 mm. wide at its base. The
plan of the location of the parts is shown in
Fig 2. The scale AC is about 50 cm. from
the prism. ‘
The operation of the spectroscope is as
follows: The light from the burner B, pass-
ing through the opening D, falls upon the
prism P and is refracted into the eye placed
somewhere at EH, and the light appears to
come from a direction similar to D’ E.
The scale is illuminated with a strong
sodium light, obtained either by placing a
‘sodium chim, ev’ on the burner B, or by
putting a sodium bead in the top of the
flame. The scale being seen only by
sodium light appears clear and distinct in
* Unpublished paper by Holbrook Cushman ; edited
by W. Hallock. See Screncr, December 6, 1895,
p. 757.
{See ScteNcE, December 6, 1895, note on p. 761.
46
i TA
SCIENCE.
i
i
HT ml CT TTLETT
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 54.
i
If, for example,
strontium is introduced into the flame the
observer will see a red triangle appear
under the scale A’.C’ at some such place as
some position as at A’ C’.
D”’, Figs. 2 and 3. If thallium is used
a green triangle will appear as at D’’”. In
other words one can read the positions of
the points of the colored triangles at the
bottom of the scale, just as the positions of
the colored lines are read on the scale in an
ordinary spectroscope. A little practice
and care will enable one to read the posi-
tions of the triangles to 0.1 mm, and thus
to obtain about as good results as with the
customary more elaborate <.1d more expen-
sive form. This, little piece of apparatus
has proved’ a great help in making the
principles of the spectroscope thoroughly —
clear to students doing laboratory work.
Of course it is desirable to have a black
screen to prevent light from entering the
eye from the direction of A’ C’. In fact it
is very convenient to blacken the wall for
a considerable space behind this apparatus. —
COLUMBIA COLLEGE, December 10, 1895.
THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA.
TuE Geological Society of America held
its eighth annual meeting in the main
building of the University of Pennsylvania,
at Philadelphia, December 26, 27 and 28.
The first session of the Council took place
at the Hotel Lafayette at eleven o’clock on
the 26th. The ballot for officers was can-
vassed with the following result:
President, Joseph Le Conte, Berkeley,
Cal.; First Vice-President, Charles H.
Hitchcock, Hanover, N. H.; Second Vice-
President, Edward Orton, Columbus, O.;
Secretary, H. L. Fairchild, Rochester, N.
Y.; Treasurer, I. C. White, Morgantown,
W. Va.; Editor, J. Stanley-Brown, Wash-
JANUARY 10, 1896. ]
XN
~
X
~
ington, D. C.; Councillors, B. K. Emerson,
Amherst, Mass., and J. M. Safford, Nash-
ville, Tenn.
The newly elected Councillors replace EH.
A. Smith and C. D. Walcott who retire
under the rules. The other members are
F. D. Adams, I. C. Russell, R. W. Ells and
C. R. Van Hise. The following fellows
were also announced as elected :
Harry Foster Bain, B. S., M. S., Des
Moines, Iowa, assistant geologist, Iowa
Geological Survey.
William Keith Brooks, Ph. D., Baltimore,
Md., professor of zoology in Johns Hopkins
University.
SCIENCE.
47.
ww
| i
Y) J) yy YY) bil
oy mp By
\ ae
N
x
Charles Rochester Hastman, A. B., A. M.,
Ph. D., Cambridge, Mass., assistant in pale-
ontology in Museum of Comparative Zool-
ogy and in Harvard University.
Henry Barnard Kummel, A. B., A. M.,
Ph. D., Trenton, N. J., assistant on the
State Geological Survey of New Jersey.
William Harmon Norton, M. A., Mt.
Vernon, Iowa, professor of geology in Cor-
nell College, special assistant on the Geo-
logical Survey of Iowa.
Frank Bursey Taylor, Fort Wayne, Ind.
Accountant, engaged in pleistocene geology.
Jay Backus Woodworth, B.S. Cambridge,
Mass., instructor in Harvard University
48
and assistant geologist on U. 8. Geological
Survey, engaged in general and glacial ge-
ology.
The Council also distributed a printed re-
port containing the resumé of the year.
The last printed roll contains the names of
223 living and 13 deceased fellows of the
Society. Four have died during the year.
The financial affairs of the Society are in
good condition. After a few announce-
ments, memorials of deceased members
were presented as follows: of James D.
Dana, written by Joseph Le Conte and read
by H. 8. Williams; of Henry B. Nason,
written by T. C. Chamberlin and read by
Bailey Willis; of Albert E. Foote, written
by G. F. Kunz and read by J. F. Kemp;
of Antonio del Castillo, written by Ezequiel
Ordonez and read by the Secretary.
The reading of scientific papers was then
taken up with the usual rule that papers
whose authors were not present in person
were passed and transferred to the end.
The papers actually read came in the fol-
lowing order.
Tilustrations of the Dynamic Metamorphism of
Anorthosites and related Rocks in the Adiron-
dacks. J. F. Kemp, New York, N. Y.
The high, central peaks of the Adiron-
dacks and the larger outlying ridges con-
sist of anorthosite, a coarsely crystalline
rock that is nearly pure labradorite.
Though described as norite in earlier re-
ports, it is noticeably poor or entirely lack-
ing in ferro-magnesian silicates. In the
course of a fairly extensive reconnoissance
of the principle portion of the mountains,
the writer has met but limited exposures
of the anorthosites in an uncrushed condi-
tion. Specimens of such were shown, and
beginning with these as a starting point the
gradual development of crushed rims was
shown, which at first barely discernible, in-
ereased until the original crystals of labra-
dorite were but small nuclei. The extreme
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 54.
is a ‘pulp-anorthosite’ with no nuclei.
The passage into gneissoid forms, through
augen-gneisses, and with a rich develop-
ment of garnets, was also illustrated. The
final result is a thinly laminated gneiss.
Comments on the areal distribution of these
types were added. The speaker then took
up a series of basic gabbros and illustrated,
by specimens, their passage into gneissoid
types in the same exposure. Acknowledg-
ments are to be made to Prof. James Hall,
State Geologist of New York, under whose
direction a part of the material used for il-
lustration was gathered. The paper was
discussed by A. C. Lane and C. H. Hitch-
cock, bringing out the facts that in the
gabbros the change to gneiss was generally
marked by a passage of pyroxene to horn-
blende, and that the igneous series, though
called Upper Laurentian by the speaker in
following the Canadian usage, was doubt-
less later than the crystalline limestones of
the region, that would be called Algonkian
by many American geologists.
The Importance of Volcanic Dust and Pumice
in Marine Deposits. N.S. SHALER, Cam-
bridge, Mass.
Considerations based on volcanic action
in the Java district make it probable that
the extrusions of rock matter in the form
of dust and pumice may exceed that which
is carried to the sea by the rivers and pos-
sibly equals that which is conveyed to the
ocean by all other actions. Observations
on the shores of the United States afford
evidence that there is a noticeable contribu-
tion of pumice to the deposits forming along
that coast line. The facts warrant the sup-
position that the value of these volcanic
contributions to sedimentation has not been
properly appreciated.
The paper elicited an extended and inter-
esting discussion. C. H. Hitchcock, apro-
pos of the recorded discoveries of pumice
along the southern coast line of the United
JANUARY 10, 1896. ]
States, stated that in his travels in the
West Indies he had found no pumiceous
rocks among the volcanoes, and suggested
the possibility of remoter sources. C. W.
Hayes remarked upon a vast formation of
voleanic tuffs met by him in eastern Alaska,
extending over many hundreds of square
miles and up to 75 feet thick. Its bulk he
estimated at over 100 cubic miles. He also
referred to the top layer of the Devonian
rocks of the southern Appalachians, which.
8 inches to 18 inches thick, extends from
eastern Tennessee and Georgia to Arkansas
and Missouri, and which is regarded as a
voleanic tuff. L. V. Pirsson mentioned
the wide area over which the fine eject-
ments of Krakatoa had spread and gave a -
brief sketch of Backstrom’s observations on
the presence of volcanic dust in the sea
beaches of Norway. Much of this is de-
monstrably from Iceland, but other samples
agree with the products of no volcano in
the Atlantic basin. Caution is needed not
to be misled by artificial slags and cinders.
M. K. Wadsworth cited the tuffs collected
by S. Garman, G. P. Merrill and J. S.
Diller in Nebraska, and by Diller in Massa-
chusetts. Persifor Fraser called to mind
the dust that was gathered by Joseph
Wharton in Philadelphia on the first snow-
fall, December, 1883, Krakatoa having been
active in August of the same year. Its
microscopic characters agreed entirely with
samples from Krakatoa.
The discussion then took up the length of
time, during which such dust might remain
suspended in the atmosphere. W. M.
Davis stated that the peculiar red sunsets
following the Krakatoa outbreak lasted
through 1884, and that the so-called
Bishop’s ring was visible around the sun
for fully two years. N.S.Shaler mentioned
the observations of the Germans on shining
clouds that were at first 80 miles in the air
and that were later noted at.140 miles before
they disappeared. He also reminded the So-
SCIENCE.
49
ciety that the same red sunsets followed the
great eruption of Skaptar Jokul in 1783.
C. H.. Hitchcock raised the point that red
glows from aqueous vapor should not be
confused with colors from volcanic dust, as
the latter are chiefly greenish, but in reply
it was brought out that the colors were due
to diffraction and that the reds might also be
caused by fine particles of mineral matter.
A needed term in Petrography. WL. V. Pirs-
son, New Haven, Conn.
The speaker adopted the definition of a
crystal that is based upon its outer plane
faces, rejecting thus the tendency of some
authors to make it dependent on internal,
physical and optical properties. He then
spoke of the inaccuracy of using the word
crystal for the mineral components of a
rock, which, in most cases, have no plane
faces, illustrating his point by the augites
ofaugitic rocks. For such the terms crystal
fragment and crystalloid had been used, but
were both objectionable. Therefore, after
consultation with E.S. Dana, he proposed
the name anhedrine for them, the word:
meaning without planes. In a brief dis-
cussion that followed, the term was on the
whole well received, although the general
feeling was strong against the introduction
of further new terms into the over-burdened
nomenclature of petrography and other
branches.
Note on the Outline of Cape Cod. W. M.
Davis, Cambridge, Mass.
The speaker described the topography of
the Cape from a point some distance south
of Highland Lighthouse, to the north, and
made a distinction between the ‘mainland
outline’ or the original glacial drift hills of
the highlands, and the ‘ constructional out-
line’ by which was meant the later added
sandspit to the north. The argument was
then made that the ‘mainland’ had once
extended some miles to the southeast, that
it had been worn away at first to a some-
50
what northwesterly coast line, now indi-
cated by an inshore sandspit, in the con-
structional area, and later to a more north-
erly line as shown by the building of the
present spit from the ‘ point of attachment’
in sympathetic conformity to the cliff line
on the south. The migration of the sedi-
ment worn from the cliff around the end of
the point, the features of Race Point and
Long Point and the crescentic scouring of
the inner side of the cape, were all com-
mented on. G. K. Gilbert asked if there
is any evidence of the elevation or depres-
sion of the cape area en bloc, to which the
speaker replied that there is none. C. H.
Hitchcock recalled the idea of Louis Agassiz
that there had once been a continuous line
of drift from Cape Ann to the ‘mainland’
of Cape Cod, but the speaker said it had
been long disproved, and referred also to
historic records of islands off to the south-
east of Highland Lighthouse. In closing
the discussion President Shaler stated that
the ‘ mainland’ of the cape was formed by
a deposit of drift on an old preglacial divide
of Tertiary and Cretaceous strata, and that
the former river systems could be traced
with entire accuracy southward through
Vineyard sound. He dwelt also on the fear
of the Provincetown people lest the cape to
the east of them should be breached and
their harbor be filled with sand. The value
of jetties north of the ‘ point of attachment’
referred to above was emphasized.
The Society then adjourned until the fol-
lowing day at 10 A. M. Thursday evening
many of the Fellows attended the interest-
ing lecture of Prof. Wm. B. Scott on the
Tertiary Lake Basins of the West, at the
Philadelphia Academy of Sciences, and all
who are accustomed to arc-light stereopti-
cons were strengthened in their faith in
them, as the lime light provided did not do
Prof. Scott’s slides justice. Nearly all the
Fellows also attended and enjoyed the re-
ception which was most hospitably extended
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. IfI. No. 54.
to the visiting societies by Dr. Horace Jayne,
to whom an expression of thanks is due.
The Council of the Society met at 9 A. M.
Friday and transacted routine business. At
10 the Society assembled and devoted a few
minutes to executive business. The audit-
ing committee and the committee on photo-
graphs reported. The latter placed on ex-
hibition the collection which now amounts
to 1283 pictures, many of which are of more
than ordinary interest. 205 new ones were
added during the year. Great credit is due
the efficient chairman of the committee, Dr.
Geo. P. Merrill, of the United States Na-
tional Museum, for his efforts in its behalf.
The committee solicits donations which
may be sent to Dr. Merrill and which will
be duly acknowledged in the publications
of the Society. The Society also voted not
to have a session separate from Section E
of the American Association at the summer
meeting, but only one for executive busi-
ness and for the reading of papers by title.
Attention will also be given to arranging
excursions as heretofore. Fellows of the
Society are urged to read their papers in
Section E, while publishing as before in the
Bulletin. It was announced that a group
photograph would be taken at the noon
recess. This was afterward done, with a
quite successful result, by Herbert Hoffman,
of 914 Arch street, Philadelphia. The busi-
ness finished, the Society listened to the an-
nual presidential address. It was delivered
by retiring President Shaler, and will ap-
pear in full in an early number of Scrence.
The subject was ‘The Relations of Geologic
Science to Education,’ and it was followed
by some discussion by Messrs. Gilbert, H.S.
Williams and Wadsworth. The regular
papers were then taken up as follows:
Plains of Marine and Subaerial Denudation.
W. M. Davis, Cambridge, Mass.
Ramsey’s explanation of plains of ab-
rasion as the product of marine denudation
JANUARY 10, 1896.]
(1847) found general acceptance, and in
England to this day hardly any serious con-
sideration is given to any other explana-
tion. The production of plains of abrasion
at the completion of a cycle of subaerial
denudation, advocated by Powell in con-
nection with the idea of the baselevel of
erosion (1875), has found wide acceptance
in this country, but it is less approved
abroad. The paper considered the criteria
by which plains of abrasion of one origin or
the other may be distinguished. When
such plains are uplifted and maturely dis-
sected in a second cycle of denudation the
difficulty of determining their origin in-
creases. It is suggested that plains of
subaerial denudation may be recognized,
even when uplifted and dissected, by the
degree of adjustment of their streams to
their structures; thorough adjustment re-
quires a longer time of stream action than
has passed since uplift; much of the ad-
justment must be referred to a previous
cycle of denudation, whichis thus shown to
have been a subaérial cycle.
Considerable discussion followed by
Messrs. Willis, Reid, Hayes, Van Hise and
Gilbert, the speakers giving instances from
different parts of the continent, which il-
lustrated one or the other interpretation
cited, or which emphasized the large part
played by the character of the rocks con-
cerned or by isostatic adjustments.
Cuspate Fore-lands.
bridge, Mass.
F. P. GuLiiver, Cam-
1. Action of waves, tides and currents.
Waves attack the whole coast, but erode
more rapidly on headlands than at bay
heads. Tides are less effective agents of
transportation along shore on exposed coasts
than currents, but they are the important
agents in sounds, channels and _ inlets.
2. Current cusps. Type, Cape Hatteras.
The cusp is formed in the dead water be-
tween two eddy currents.
SCIENCE. , 51
3. Tidal cusps. Type, West Point, Puget
Sound, Washington. The cusp is formed be-
tween eddies of in- and out-flowing tides.
4, Delta cusps. Type, Tiber delta, Italy.
The mouth of the river forms the point of
the cusp, on either side of which the along
shore currents arrange the detritus.
The paper was illustrated by pilot charts,
which somewhat unfortunately were not all
used, as space for display was limited.
Bailey Willis remarked on the applications
of the views advanced to localities in the
Puget sound region.
Drainage Modifications and their Interpreta-
tion. M. R. Camppett, Washington,
1D); Oe
This paper opened with a discussion of
the subject of stream modification under
the influence of slow elevation or depres-
sion of the earth’s surface. From this was
derived the Law of the Migration of Divides
which control, to a greater or less extent,
the alignment of all drainage systems.
The Law of the Migration of Divides is in
brief that divides migrate toward a region
of uplift and away from a region of depres-
sion. The relations of divides may there-
fore be significant indicators of the lines
of upheaval or depression even when these
are comparatively slight. Criteria were
given by which these modifications may be
recognized and the character of the crustal
movement determined.
A brief description followed of some of
the drainage systems of the Appalachian
province, south of the glaciated region, to
show that similar modifications of the
drainage are of common occurrence, not
only in the regions of horizontal rocks, but
also occur in the highly complicated geo-
logic structure of the Appalachian valley. It
was shown that some of these changes are
of recent occurrence, whereas some proba-
bly date back to the time of the Jura-Trias
depression.
52
The principal object of this paper was to
show that the drainage of the Appalachians
constitutes a record of Mesozoic history,
and that this record is to the physiographer
of equal importance with that contained in
the forms sculptured from the surface of
the land.
In the discussion President Shaler took up
the relations of the drainage systems of
Kentucky and emphasized the value of the
paper in helping to clear away points
that were previously obscure. Remarks by
Messrs. Davis and Gilbert followed, and the
latter in reply to a question alluded to the
part played by the rotation of the earth in
determining lines of drainage. He de-
scribed it as slight, if at all present, and as
requiring almost unattainable delicacy of
tests for its detection.
Some Fine Examples of Stream Robbing in the
Catskill Mountains. N. H. Darron,
Washington, D. C.
By means of a large topographical chart
the speaker showed how the Kaaterskill
and Plaaterskill Creeks flowing eastward
into the Hudson, had pushed their divides
backward until they had robbed the head-
waters of Schoharie creek. Other smal!
ones along Esopus creek were also cited.
Movement of Rocks Under Deformation. C
R. Van Hisn, Madison, Wis.
The paper was a general discussion of the
behavior of rock when subjected to deform-
ing stresses, and is preliminary to the dis-
cussions which the author gave last summer
on the analysis of folds and upon the rela-
tions of primary and secondary structures
in rocks.
Three zones in the earth’s crust were
cited: 1, an outer one of fracture during
rock movement; 2, an inner one of mixed
fracture and flowage; 3, an inmost one of
flowage. In elaborating these, the effects
of pressure on rocks were analyzed. It was
shown that a quick application of pressure
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Von. IL. No. 54.
might fracture where a slow one would
cause flowage, and that the possible depth
at which cavities might exist was greater
than had been assumed by Heim (5000 m.).
Mathematical deductions by Prof. Hoskins,
of Stanford University, made for this paper,
have shown that where the walls of a cav-
ity are subjected to three equal stresses at
right angles with one another, the cavity
will be closed up in case the stresses equal
two-thirds the ultimate strength of the rock.
With a single stress the full crushing pres-
sure is needed. Assuming the strongest
rock for these conditions in order to get a
certain maximum depth below which cavi-
ties would be an impossibility, and taking
the specific gravity of the crust at 2.7, from
which in the calculation we must subtract
1, for the water that penetrates all fissures,
we obtain for the first relation of forces
6670 metres and for the second 10,000
metres as this depth. Under these con-
ditions the water is understood to be free to
escape. Instances of quartz pebbles were
cited, one being rolled out without fracture
in the Marquette region. The effects upon
heterogeneous rocks were discussed and
their relations to folding. The zone of
mixed crushing and folding was next taken
up, after which the paper concluded. In
the discussion A. C. Lane spoke of the
bearing of the paper on the conceptions ad-
vanced by him at a previous meeting re-
garding the escape of the earth’s internal
gases. J. F. Kemp referred to its impor-
tant bearing on the origin and possible
depth of formation of mineral veins. B.
K. Emerson cited the case of the Cambrian
gneisses of Massachusetts, in which quartz
crystals are rolled out as thin as paper, but
with their optical properties unimpaired,
and emphasized the possibility of chemical
recrystallization. J. P. Iddings brought
up the interesting experiments of O. Mugge
on ice crystals as recently set forth in the
Neues Jahrbuch, showing that ice sheared
JANUARY 10, 1896. ]
in small blocks along gliding planes across
the optic axis without altering its direction.
Prof. Van Hise in closing admitted the pos-
sibility of chemical recrystallization, citing
in illustration some marbles which exhib-
ited it, but mentioned others that are full of
strained and crushed crystals. The paper
was one of the most important of the meet-
ings and is indispensable to all students of
metamorphic districts.
Proofs of the Rising of the Land around Hud-
son Bay. Roserr Bex, Ottawa, Canada.
The speaker cited well preserved sea
margins and grand terraces, especially on
the eastern coast; lines of driftwood above
highest tides; debris along old shore lines
in the woods on the west side at a distance
from the highest tides; islands near shore
becoming peninsulas within the human
period; drying of salt water marshes; the
character of the lower parts of streams
showing recession of the sea; shoaling of
mouths of rivers and formation of new
islands and bars in historic times; other
historic evidence; successive growth of
marsh plants, bushes, poplars, spruces, etc.,
as the land rises; beach dwellings and
other shore works of the Eskimos now ele-
vated to considerable heights; fresh char-
acter of fossil shells, etc., in clays and
sands; deep water deposits elevated above
the sea level at comparatively recent
periods; similar phenomena on the eastern
coast of the Labrador peninsula; bones of
whales, etc., on elevated ground in Hudson
Strait; raised terraces and beaches in the
northwestern part of Hudson Bay; general
shoaling of the water, extension of shores
and enlargement of islands.
The paper was discussed by one or two
speakers without, however, bringing out
material points.
Possible Depth of Mining and Boring. ALFRED
C. Lane, Houghton, Mich.
This paper discussed some of the diffi-
SCIENCE.
53
culties in deep mining, especially the rise
in temperature, and considered what the
most favorable circumstances are and the
most effective way of overcoming the diffi-
culties, and how far we may expect that the
earth’s crust will be penetrated. The ex-
penses were plotted as the abscissas of a
curve of which the depths furnished the or-
dinates. Ten thousand feet appeared to be
approximately the limit. The depths of
some of the shafts in the copper country of
Lake Superior were cited, and the hope was
expressed that, when the ultimate practical
depth has been reached, a purely scientific
bore hole be started at the bottom, before
the shaft is abandoned, and sent down sev-
eral thousand feet further. In the discus-
sion that followed special attention was paid
to the rate of the increase of temperature as
we go down. One speaker cited the recent
results published by Alexander Agassiz in
the American Journal of Science, Decem-
ber, 1895, p. 508, as 1° F. for each 223.7
feet down to 4,580. For this result a mean
rock temperature at 105 feet of 59° F. is
used, whereas the mean annual tempera-
ture of Calumet is about 40°, and practi-
cally this temperature of 40° has been deter-
mined at slight depths in other neighboring
mines. A mean annual temperature of 59° F.
is not met north of Kentucky and this fact
makes corroboration desirable before impor-
tant inferences are based on the later and
excessively low gradients.
Notes on Glaciers. HARRY Fretprine REID,
Baltimore, Md.
Dr. Reid referred, in opening the paper,
to his recent efforts to get reliable data
on the variations of American glaciers.
Mr. Willis reports that the Pyallup gla-
cier on Mt. Rainier had retreated 200-
300 yards and the Carbon glacier 100—
200 feet. In British Columbia the Mllicili-
waet was observed to recede in 1890 and
1894. Dr. Reid then gave a most interest-
54
‘ing analysis of the accumulation and mo-
tion of glaciers. He distinguished the re-
gion of accumulation of snow in excess of
melting as the reservoir, and the region of
melting in excess of accumulation as the
dissipator ; the border line is the névé line.
By assuming cross-sections at various
points, the relative velocities of movement
were worked out on the basis of mechanics.
The same was done for a glacier which
spreads from a center in all directions. The
progress of the same layer of snow was then
traced from reservoir to dissipator and par-
allel lines of motion for the individual parts
were established, the névé line furnishing
a middle line. It was then shown that the
original stratification plane as indicated by
debris would at the end of the journey cut
these lines of motion and would emerge
with a high dip, a fact already observed on
some glaciers. The topic of the variation in
the advance and retreat of glaciers was dis-
cussed and the several explanations were
analyzed in detail. The paper was dis-
cussed by G. Frederick Wright and R. D.
Salisbury, the latter mentioning that the
thin fronts of Greenland glaciers showed
the upward tendency of stratification planes,
but that thick fronts lacked it. The Society
then adjourned until the following day.
In the evening about sixty Fellows dined
together, with President Shaler and Pro-
fessor Emerson acting jointly as toastmas-
ters, and listened to some amusing speeches
by several members.
On reassembling Saturday morning the
reading of papers was at once resumed.
The Relation between Ice Lobes South from the
Wisconsin Driftless Area. FRANK Lever-
ETT, Denmark, Iowa.
Instead of a coalescence of ice lobes from
the east and the west sides of the Driftless
Area in the drift-covered district to the
south there was an invasion and withdrawal
of one lobe (the western) before the other
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. III. No. 54.
reached its culmination. The eastern lobe
encroached upon territory previously glaci-
ated by the western, depositing a distinct
sheet of drift and forming at its western
limits a well-defined morainic ridge. There
appears to have been a period of considerable
length between the withdrawal of the west-
ern lobe and the culmination of the eastern.
Subsequently, however, there was a read-
vance of the lobe on the west into north-
eastern Iowa, and this readvance appears
to have been contemporaneous with the
nearly complete occupancy of northwestern
Illinois by the eastern ice lobe. It seems
not improbable that the ice lobes were then
for a brief period coalesced for a short dis-
tance about the south border of the Drift-
less Area. Evidence of complete coales-
cence, however, is not decisive so far as yet
discovered.
These developments serve to throw light
upon the cause for the scarcity of lacustrine
deposits in the Driftless Area. They show
that there was at most but a brief period in
which the southward drainage of the Drift-
less Area was completely obstructed by the
ice sheet.
By means of maps it was brought out
that there were probably two centers of ac-
cumulation—one, the earlier, toward the
northwest; and the other, the later, in the
Labradorian heights. In the discussion R.
D. Salisbury remarked the great complex-
ity of the glacial period, and G. Frederick
Wright, while admitting the minor complex-
ity, emphasized its essential grand unity.
President Shaler called attention to the
importance of demonstrating the progress of
glaciation from west to east, because if we
can establish the sequence of events, we
have advanced a long way toward discover-
ing their cause.
The Loess of Western Illinois and Southeastern
Towa. FRANK Leverett, Denmark, Iowa.
The north border of the loess both in
JANURY 10, 1896. ]
western Illinois and eastern Iowa appears
to have been determined by the ice sheet.
The loess is apparently an apron of silt
spread out to the south by water issuing
from the ice sheet. It is loose textured at
the north and becomes finer textured to-
ward the south, showing a decrease in the
strength of depositing currents. The wide
extent of loess over the uplands has led to
a consideration of the influence of wind as
well as water in its distribution. It is
thought that wind-deposited loess may be
distinguished from that which is water de-
posited. The wide extent, however, ap-
pears to be due to water distribution rather
than wind. Wind action apparently came
into force subsequent to the water distribu-
tion and is of minor importance.
G. K. Gilbert in discussion expressed
his gratification at hearing of ‘loess’ the
rock, instead of exclusively of ‘the loess,’
the peculiar geological formation. He
cited a case in eastern Colorado, along the
Missouri Pacific Railroad, where loess had
gathered on the leeward side of sand dunes.
B. K. Emerson spoke of the aqueous loess
of the Hadley meadows in Massachusetts
from the annual floods of the Connecticut
river, and the eolian loess on the neighbor-
ing hills.
High-level Terraces of the Middle Ohio and
its Tributaries. G. FREDERICK WRIGHT,
Oberlin, O.
This paper embodies the results of the
writer’s personal observations during the
summer and autumn of 1895 on the terraces
of the Ohio river, between Steubenville and
Marietta, and on the Kentucky river, be-
tween High Bridge and Boonetown. The
presence of beds of granitic gravel and of
isolated boulders of this rock, 7. e., of a rock
that must have reached its resting place by
the agency of ice from the north, in the
country adjacent to the Ohio was remarked.
An elevated and extensive bed of sand on
SCIENCE. 5D
the southwest end of a large island be-
tween St. Mary’s and Newport was in-
stanced as indicating peculiar and as yet
not well explained conditions of high water
and of a change in the river channel.
I. C. White in discussion explained the
large island as in large part caused by a
preglacial channel of Middle Island creek,
which enters the Ohio at St. Mary’s, di-
rectly athwart its course and through a
gorge that is continued in the abandoned
channel that now forms the island’s north-
west side. He also stated that pebbles often
reached exceptional heights on the hills be-
cause the farmers use sand with some con-
tained gravel for bedding in their stables
and consequently scatter it over their fields
at allaltitudes. President Shaler also cited
the custom among the Indians of cooking
with heated boulders, and as the local lime-
stones and sandstones were of no value for
this purpose they often brought granitic
boulders from a distance. Prof. Wright,
however, cited boulders of 4,000 pounds,
which manifestly could not be explained in
these ways. A. Heilprin then mentioned
the polished and grooved rocks of South
Africa which had been regarded as gla-
ciated. More careful investigation how-
ever has shown that the polishing is due to
the habit of elephants to formerly resort to
them and roll and scrape on them, and that
the grooves are due to the rubbing of their
tusks. F. Leverett corroborated the obser-
vations of Prof. Wright in the northern
part of the area.
Four Great Kame Areas of Western New York.
H. L. Farrcuitp, Rochester, N. Y.
This paper described three kame areas
south of Irondequoit bay and one south of
Sodus bay. These are remarkable for ex-
tent and quantity of material, as well as for
location and altitude; one of them having
gravel hills 400 feet high and furnishing the
highest altitude of ground in western New
56
York, north of the Devonian plateau. The
geographical location and extent of the
kames were shown by a large map and the
first three were named, the Irondequoit,
the Mendon and the Victor; the last was
called the Junius. Excellent photographs
were passed around in further illustration.
Paleozoic Terranes in the Connecticut Valley.
C. H. Hircucocr, Hanover, N. H.
The author has made occasional studies
of the rocks along the upper Connecticut
valley since his official connection with
state surveys, and thinks there are good
reasons for revising some of the conclusions
of the New Hampshire report. Some of
the points are: 1. The existence of two
bands of argillite ; one below and the other
above the calciferous mica schist. 2. The
hornblende schist of the neighborhood of
Hanover is a laccolite. 3. The protogene
gniesses of Hanover and of North Lisbon
are igneous. 4. With the views now enter-
tained of the igneous origin of the proto-
gene, hornblende schist, foliated diorites
and diabases, a new arrangement of the
stratified fossiliferous rocks of Littleton, N.
H., is suggested. The points were illus-
trated by geological maps. The older argil-
lite cited under 1, above, was referred to
the Upper Silurian, and the later one toa
subsequent but not definitely determined
period. The discovery of contact effects
along the junction of the hornblende schist
of 2, with the argillites and mica schists is
additional ground for the later conclusion.
In support of 3, it was shown that the
gneiss contains inclusions of the schists.
Under 4 the metamorphic rocks, in associ-
ation with fossiliferous Niagara limestone at
Littleton, are now regarded as post- Niagara,
not Cambrian. B. K. Emerson, in dis-
cussion, remarked that this revision placed
the geological structure in harmony with
the results now attained in Massachusetts
on the south.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. If. No. 54.
The next paper was by C. Willard Hayes
on ‘The Devonian Formations of the South-
ern Appalachians.’ Mr. Hayes gave a gen-
eralized section of the Devonian as follows :
An upper and very persistent layer, 8 inches
to 24 inches thick, of a green sandstone, with
phosphatic nodules and shreds of volcanic
glass, feldspars, etc., such as to indicate a
voleanic tuff. Below this comes black shale,
0-12 ft., and not always present. The bot-
tom stratum is a ferruginous conglomerate
or sandstone 0-6 ft., and contains the re-
cently discovered phosphate beds of Ten-
nessee. Attempts to explain the thin char-
acter or actual absence of the Devonian
over great areas have been made as follows.
1. The region was a deep sea bottom,
lacking sediments.
2. It was a region of shallow waters
whose entering streams were without sedi-
ments.
3. It was a land area.
4. It was a shallow sea without sedi-
ments and with swift but clear currents, like
the Gulf stream region of the West Indies.
The speaker believed, however, that such
sediment as was distributed came in large
part in currents from the northeast, and
that another current came from the south-
east and moved northwest, rounding the
Cincinnati arch. D. W. Langdon raised
the point of the relations of the Devonian
to the Helderberg limestones in southwest
Virginia, and the same point was discussed
by the author and by J. J. Stevenson.
Messrs. Keith, Van Hise and H. 8. Wil-
liams also took part in the discussion.
Notes on the Relations of the Lower Members of
the Coastal Plain Series in South Carolina.
N. H. Darron, Washington, D. C.
The formations below the Eocene buhr-
stone which were included in the Eocene
by Tuomey have been found to be Potomac.
Some of their features and their relations to
the marine Cretaceous were described.
JANUARY 10, 1896. ]
Resumé of General Stratigraphic Relations in
the Atlantic Coastal Plain from New Jersey to
South Carolina. N.H. Darton, Washing-
ton, D. C.
A series of sections were exhibited to
show the distribution and variations of the
principal coastal plain formations, and there
were pointed out some bearings of the fea-
tures on the geologic history. The data are
based largely on the author’s studies, but
they also combine a resumé of some obser-
vations of others.
Both these papers were read together and
were illustrated by figured geological sec-
tions based on the recently acquired re-
cords of artesian wells. There were five,
viz: Philadelphia to Wildwood, N. J.;
Washington to Crisfield, Md.; Richmond
to Norfolk ; Orangeburg to Charleston ;
Aikin to Beaufort, 8. C. They illustrated
the relations of the granitic Archean rocks
to the Jurassic Potomac formation, the
Cretaceous Magothy and Severn, the Eocene
Pamunkey and the Miocene Chesapeake.
Paleontologic details would have made
the first paper clearer. An _ interesting
and important point is the discovery of
Newark sandstone in a deep well at Flor-
ence, S. C.,.far south of our previously re-
corded locations. D. W. Langdon, in dis-
cussion, raised the paleontologic point re-
ferred to above.
The last paper read was by Arthur Keith,
“Some Stages of Appalachian Erosion.’ The
paper was a general review of the drain-
age systems of the area in question, and of
the factors which had contributed to develop
its present topography.
C. H. Hitchcock then presented a reso-
lution of thanks to the local committee and
to the authorities of the University of Penn-
sylvania for their hospitality and many cour-
tesies. It was unanimously passed and then
the eighth annual meeting of the Society ad-
journed.
The following papers, although an-
SCIENCE.
57
nounced in the program, were not read either
because their authors were absent from the
meeting, or because they were not present
when the papers were reached in regular
order:
The Natchez Formations. T.C. CHAMBERLIN.
Disintegration and Decomposition of Diabase
at Medford, Mass. Grorce P. MERRILL,
Washington D. C.
On the Geographic Relations of the Granites
and Porphyries in the Eastern Part of the
Ozarks. CHARLES R. Knyss, Jefferson
City, Mo.
The Cerrillos Coal Field of New Mexico.
J. Stevenson, New York, N. Y.
JoHN
Pre-glacial and Post-glacial Channels of the
Cuyahoga and Rocky Rivers. WARREN
Upuam, St. Paul, Minn.
J. F. Kemp.
COLUMBIA COLLEGE.
AMERICAN MORPHOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
Or the three sessions held by the Mor-
phological Society the first was mainly de-
voted to business questions, of which the
most important related to the plan of af-
filiation with the Society of Naturalists
brought forward at the meeting of 1894.
This plan was rejected on the ground that
most of the other societies had taken action
adverse to it. It was, however, recom-
mended that cooperative action by all the
societies should be urged in order to assure
a common place and time of meeting. A
resolution was adopted endorsing the action
ofthe Smithsonian Institution in maintain-
ing an American table at the Zodlogical
Station at Naples, and expressing the earn-
est hope of the Society that the table may
be continued in order that the unrivalled
facilities of the Station may be open to
American investigators in the future as in
the past.
58
The scientific program was as follows :
Friday, December 27, 1895.
C. 8. Minor: Panplasm.
B. B. Grirrin: The History of the Centrosome in
Thalassema.
E. B. Wiuson: The Centrosome in its Relation to
Fixing and Staining Agents.
T. H. Morean: The Production of Artificial Archo-
plasmic Centers.
F. R. Linuie: On the Smallest Parts of Stentor Capable
of Regeneration.
E. G. ConxKuIN: Cell-size and Body-size.
T. H. MorGan: The Development of Isolated Blasto-
meres of the Egg of Amphioxus.
G. W. FrEup: Spermatogenesis of Amphioxus.
title only. )
Saturday, December 28, 1895.
BASHFORD DEAN: Gastrulation of Teleosts.
W. A. Locy: Further Evidence of Primitive Meta-
merism in Birds and Amphibia. (By title only.)
G. H. Parker: Pigment Changes in the Eye of
Palemonetes.
G. H. Parker: Reaction of Metridium to Food and
Other Substances.
C. W. Srries: Some Points in the Anatomy of Anoplo-
cephaline Cestodes.
R. P. BrceLOw: Development of Cassiopea from Buds.
(By
A novel feature of the scientific sessions
was the grouping of allied papers, a plan
which proved very successful as a stimulus
to general discussion. The first session was
entirely taken up with papers on protoplasm,
the cell and the closely related subject of
experimental embryology. Professor Minot,
of Harvard, opened with a paper on ‘ Pan-
plasm,’ in which the nature of protoplasmic
organization was critically discussed. The
doctrine now advocated by so many cytol-
ogists, that protoplasm is compounded of
elementary organic units, such as the ‘ pan-
gens of de Vries, the ‘idioblasts’ of Hert-
wig, the ‘biophores’ of Weismann, etc., was
rejected in toto. Protoplasm, he maintained,
is a mixture of substances, not of self-pro-
pagating units; and the attempts to distin-
guish between living substance and the
‘lifeless’ substances associated with it are,
in the main, wide of the mark. The entire
substance of the cell, the ‘ panplasm,’ is the
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 54.
only real unit and must be regarded as a
whole.
Mr. Branley B. Griffin (Columbia) de-
scribed the fertilization of the egg and the
history of the centrosome in the gephyrean
worm, Thalassema. As in echinoderms and
many other forms there is no ‘ Quadrille of
Centers.’ The centrosome of fertilization is
derived from the supermatozoon and the
ege-centrosome degenerates after the for-
mation of the polar bodies. The sperm-
centrosome may be continuously traced, as
a distinct black granule, throughout all the
stages of fertilization into the cleavage-
stages, and atno time disappears. The cen-
trosome of the first spindle becomes double
at a very early period and passes to the
outer periphery of the centrosphere, where
a minute amphiaster is formed on each side
as early as the mid-anaphase of the first
cleavage. This amphiaster is the preco-
cious preparation for the second cleavage.
Prof. E. B. Wilson (Columbia) called at-
tention to the fact that the existing confu-
sion regarding the centrosome and attrac-
tion sphere is probably due in part to the
varying effects of reagents on these struc-
tures. In Thalassema, as shown by his own
observations and those of the preceding
speaker, the centrosome appears as a minute
black granule after hardening with sub-
limate or picro-acetic and staining -with
iron hematoxylin. After sublimate-acetic
neither centrosomes nor deutoplasm spheres
stain, though the general fixation is not infe-
rior to that yielded by the other methods.
This suggests the possibility that in Toxo-
pneustes, likewise, the sublimate-acetic mix-
ture may cause the centrosomes to disappear
from view. It was however recalled that ~
in certain stages of this same form they are
not shown after other reagents, such as sub-
limate and Hermann’s fluid ; that they are
perfectly shown in the maturation spindles
of the starfish after sublimate-acetic, but
afterwards disappear ; and that Hill’s ob-
JANUARY 10, 1896.]
servations (sublimate-acetic) and Boveri’s
(piecro-acetic) differ both from each other
and from the speaker’s. The whole sub-
ject, therefore, requires further study with
special reference to the technique.
The following paper by Prof. T. H. Mor-
gan (Bryn Mawr), on the production of
artificial archoplasmic centers, was of
special interest and led to much discussion.
Unfertilized, as well as fertilized, eggs of
sea urchins and ascidians, when treated with
salt solutions of a certain concentration,
become filled with numerous asters which
show in many respects a close resemblance
to the normal asters of dividing cells, and
may contain a body similar to a centrosome.
This cannot be due to polyspermy, because
the eggs contain but a single nucleus, and
for other reasons. Prof. Morgan is inclined
to regard the asters as new formations pro-
duced by a rearrangement of the protoplasm
under abnormal conditions. In a second
paper Prof. Morgan described the develop-
ment of dwarf larve from isolated blasto-
meres of Amphioxus, with reference to the
numerical relations of the cells. Half-
larvee and quarter-larve always possess a
number of cells not precisely one-half or
one-quarter the normal number of the full
sized animal at the same stage but some-
what greater, and these partial larve show
a marked tendency, not however fully
carried out, to use the same number of cells
in the formation of their organs as that
used by the full sized larva. Thus the
notochord is always formed of three cells
(in cross-section) in larvee of all sizes.
These results show that there is an inher-
ited tendency to produce a definite num-
' ber of cells for the formation of particular
organs, irrespective of the total size of the
embryo.
The paper of Prof. Conklin (University
of Pennsylvania), on ‘Cell-size and Body-
size,’ discussed a nearly related question
from a different point of view. Observa-
SCIENCE.
59
tions on the marine gasteropod, Crepidula,
show that adult animals vary enormously in
size, the dwarfs having in some cases not
more than 5); the volume of the giants. The
eggs are, however, always of the same size
and are proportional in number to the size
of the adult. Microscopical study of the
tissues shows that the same is true of the
tissue cells. Measurements of cells from
various tissues, representing derivatives of
all the germ layers (ectodermal epithelia,
kidney cells, liver cells, alimentary epithelia,
ete.), show that they are not perceptibly
smaller in the dwarfs than in the giants.
Prof. Conklin, therefore, concludes that
body size is not dependent on cell size, but
on the total number of cells, a result which
agrees with that reached by botanists, but
differs somewhat from that obtained through
a study of the nervous system in higher
animals. His conclusion agrees only in a
measure with Morgan’s results on Amphi-
oxus ; for the latter indicate that the number
of cells in dwarfs, while considerably less
than in those of normal individuals, is not
strictly proportional to the body size.
Dr. Lillie (University of Michigan) pre-
sented the results of a research on the limit
of size in the regeneration of Stentor. These
animals, like eggs, may be shaken into frag-
ments of various sizes, among which may be
found both nucleated and non-nucleated
pieces and also naked nuclear fragments.
Only such fragments as contain both cyto-
plasm and nuclear substance are capable of
regeneration. Complete regeneration may
take place in a fragment containing only
1-27 the bulk ofan entireanimal. Smaller
fragments cannot regenerate. This result
is remarkably near to that of Boveri, who
has found that the limit of size in egg frag-
ments capable of producing a complete
larva (in sea urchins) is approximately
1-20 the volume of the entire egg.
The second session was devoted in the
main to papers on anatomy and develop-
60
ment, varied by physiological contributions
from Dr. Parker.
Dr. Dean (Columbia) discussed the gas-
trulation of teleosts from a comparative
point of view, urging that a key to its in-
terpretation must be sought in the develop-
ment of ganoids. Lepidosteus, Acipenser
and Amia form a progressive series culmi-
nating in the teleost, the length of the
neural plate gradually increasing from 90°
to more than 200°, the ventral lip of the
blastopore becoming less clearly marked,
and the neural plate becoming more and
more concentrated towards the median
plane. The following interpretation of the
of the parts of the teleostean gastrula was
adopted: dorsal and ventral lip of the
blastopore as identified by Haeckel, Ryder,
H. V. Wilson and others; ‘ ventral meso-
blast’ of H. V. Wilson as entoblast;
Kupffer’s vesicle as the notch under the
dorsal lip of the blastopore, caused mechan-
ically in the growth of the Randwulst ;
periblast as the highly differentiated outer
layer of the yolk mass, which enables the
enclosing growth of the blastoderm, yet
preserves in a most perfect way its incre-
mental relations with the adjacent tissues
of the embryo. In view of the presence of
medullary foldsin Lepidosteus and Acipen-
ser, rudimentary in the former, perfect in
the latter, the solid neural plate of the em-
bryonic Teleost must be regarded as a
secondary condition, due to the mechanical
needs of the embryo in its precocious
growth.
Dr. Parker’s (Harvard) first paper con-
sidered the pigment changes in the eye of
the shrimp Palemonetes with especial refer-
ence to the nature of the reflex-action in-
volved.* The pigment-changes called forth
by the action of light take place in the
typical manner in animals after section of
the optic nerve, showing that they are not
* Unfortunately an adequate review of this paper
eannot be given.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vor. III. No. 54.
determined by a reflex center in the cerebral
ganglia, but by a local action which may be
due to the direct action of light on the pig-
ment cells.
In his second paper Dr. Parker gave an
account of experiments on sea anemones
which led to interesting results. These
animals respond in a definite manner either
to solid or dissolved food matters, and the
sense by which they are perceived resides
in the tentacles, the oral dise and the lips
of the mouth. Food is taken in through
the action of cilia covering the tentacles
and the entire oral region. Those of the
lips and cesophagus work inwards; those of
the tentacles work outwards towards the
lips. If nutritious substances are placed on
the tentacles the latter bend inwards to-
wards the mouth, into which the food is
therefore swept by the cilia; innutritious
bodies, on the other hand, cause the tenta-
cles to be extended so that such bodies are
carried out to the tips and thrown off.
The most interesting results relate to the
reversal of the ciliary action that occurs un-
der certain conditions. Inert substances,
such as carmine, may be at first swept into
the mouth, but are afterwards thrown out
by a reversed action of the cesophageal cilia.
The action of the cilia is therefore under the
control of the animal, which is moreover
capable of certain degree of education. If
animals be fed with fragments of meat
and pieces of paper soaked in meat juice,
both are at first taken into the stomach,
but the paper fragments are afterwards
thrown out. After a number of trials
(seventeen or more) the animal learns to
discriminate, the paper being rejected and
the meat swallowed. Their memory is
however short lived, for on the following
day the lesson must be learned anew.
Dr. Stiles, of Washington, discussed a
number of new points in the anatomy of
tape worms, and exhibited a large number of
plates of new and little-known species. He
JANUARY 10, 1896.]
distributed specimens of Demodex and Coc-
cidium parasites for class work, and made
a plea for-a more adequate study of para-
sites in college work as a preparation for
medical studies.
Dr. Bigelow (Institute of Technology)
_ described observations on the budding of
the scyphistoma of Cassiopea, which tend to
uphold the views of Claus and are opposed
to those of Gétte. The bud forms in the
plane of one of the principal radii as an
evagination of both layers. Itis set freeas
a ciliated free-swimming planula and the
mouth is afterwards developed, not at the
distal, but the proximal or basal end. No
stomodeeal invagination of ectoderm occurs,
and the proboscis is therefore lined by ento-
derm. The gastric pouches do not arise as
evaginations, but by the inward growth of
septa from the mesoglea. The first tentacles
to be formed are the four per-radial ; the
numbers in following stages are normally 8,
16 and 32.
CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPHY.
TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP OF ITALY.
Four sheets (Nos. 7, 18, 33, 46) of the to-
pographical map of Italy—1 : 100,000—pub-
lished recently by the Istituto geografico mil-
itare, cover a Stretch of country from the
crest of the Alps in the Bernina group, with
many glaciers, to the northern side of the
plain of the Po, where the river Adda
emerges from the foothills. The northern-
most sheet includes the divide between the
Maira and the Inn, separating the waters
of the Po and the Danube; here the north-
ward migration of the divide, as described
by Heim, has caused the formation of
the little lakes of the Engadine (Die Seen
des Oberengadin, Jahrb. Schw. Alpenklub,
XV, 429); certain back-handed branches
of the Maira, once tributaries of the Inn,
are clearly shown. The second sheet ex-
hibits the deep longitudinal valley of the
Adda about Sondrio, 2,000 meters beneath
SCIENCE.
61
the mountains on either side, the stream
being continually thrown to one br the
other side of its well-graded floor by the
large alluvial fans of lateral streams. The
two southern sheets show a number of tor-
rential streams with tangled channels flow-
ing southward in almost parallel courses
across the great alluvial plain, whose slope
is here about twenty feet to the mile; the
banks of the streams often being somewhat
higher than the ground between them, and
thus indicating that portions of the plain
consist of numerous alluvial fans, conflu-
ent laterally ; a form very well adapted to
the construction of the numerous canals
that are led from the streams to the fields.
The maps being printed in a single black
impression, it is often difficult to distin-
guish streams and canals from roads.
MAP OF THE GERMAN EMPIRE, 1: 1,000,000.
SEVERAL interesting features appear on
certain sheets of the German topographical
map, published last year and this. One of
the broad dry valleys cut in the Piedmont
slope of Bavaria by some extinct glacial
streams, is exhibited on the Mindelsheim
(636) and Burgau (622) sheets. The tan-
gled channel of the torrential Inn and a
glimpse of the shallow canyon of the Dan-
ube below Passau are found on the Neu-
haus-a-Inn, sheet (628). Further up
stream the Inn manifests a peculiarly strong
tendency to follow the right-hand side of
its broad valley floor, here at least two
miles from side to side (Landau sheet 612).
The great north-facing Jurassic escarpment
of the Swabian Alp in Wurtemburg, is in —
part shown on the Aalen sheet (592), east
of Stuttgart; the location of Aalen at the
northern base of the escarpment, and of the
road and railroad southward across the
Alp from it, depend on the occurrence there
of one of the several notches in the rim of
the upland, representing the trough of a
beheaded river, whose winding lower course
62
on the southern slope of the Alp gradually
gathers a little stream, the Brenz, as ap-
pears on the next sheet (607). Railroads
crossing the Alp at Geislingen and Ebingen.
further southwest, are similarly located ;
thus exemplifying the principle announced
by Oldham (Scrence, II., 688). There
are three sheets, 559, 574, and 590, of
somewhat earlier issue on which the deep-
incised meanders of the Neckar and its
abandoned loops are beautifully portrayed.
TOPOGRAPHICAL MAP OF DENMARK, 1:100,000,
TuE beautiful sheets of this series,
printed in six colors for different soils and
cultures, with most delicate expression, have
comparatively little of importance to show
of the flat inland topography, but exhibit
many interesting coastal outlines.
On the inland waters of Limijord (Log-
stor sheet), the shore frequently swings in
curves of small radius or projects in fine
sharp spits, appropriate to the easy turning
of litoral currents of small volume and
strength; but on the exposed coast of the
west and north, facing on North sea, the
shore is modulated in long sweeping curves,
adjusted to the slow swinging of the larger
bodies of water there in movement. - The
Thisted sheet and others of previous issue
as far north as, Skagen, contain many ex-
amples of this kind. This recalls the dif-
ferent scale of meanders adopted by small
brooks and large rivers. The offset, or
outstanding position of one stretch of shore-
line with respect to the next, may be taken
to indicate the up-stream portion of the
prevailing litoral current; this feature also
being neatly shown on the North sea coast
of the Thisted sheet, where the current
seems to come from the southwest. Along
the eastern coast, a north-to-south move-
ment is implied by the offset of the coast
north of the outlet of Limfjord compared to
that on the south (Aalborg sheet) ; and this
is clearly confirmed by the long sandbar of
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 54.
Stensnes near by, tangentially overlapping
southward (Frederikshavn sheet).
W. M. Davis.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.
THE ETHNOLOGY OF MADAGASCAR.
THE occupation of the island of Mada-
gascar by the French, in the year 1895, led
to the publication of a number of articles
on the history, languages and ethnology of
the island. The two which I have found
most instructive are one in the Revue Scien-
tifique, by Prof. E. T. Hamy, ‘Les Races
Humaines de Madagascar,’ and one in the
Journal of the Anthropological Institute,
by J. T. Last, ‘on the languages of Mada-
gascar.’
It is gratifying to find that both agree on
the main question involved—the relation-
ship of the oldest historic inhabitants of
the island. This is distinctly not African,
as many have supposed ; nor is it Arabic,
as some have argued; but it is ‘ Indone-
sian,’ or ‘ Malayo-Polynesian,’ that is, the
earliest known possessors of the soil came
from Malasia and Melanesia, and belonged
to the so-called ‘brown race.’ Their lan-
guage to this day is strongly affined to the
Malayan; and this is true not merely of
the dominant Hovas, but of the mass of
the people. For about a thousand years,
however, there has been a constant impor-
tation of negroes from Africa, and an ar-
rival of colonists from the northern Sem-
ites; and these two admixtures have deeply
tinged the blood of the stock.
PRE-GLACIAL MAN IN ENGLAND.
Prorressor Joseph Prestwich has lately
published a volume entitled ‘ Collected
Papers on some Controverted Questions in
Geology’ (London, 1895). Two of these
papers have a deep interest for the anthro-
pologist, one on the glacial period with refer-
ence to the antiquity of man in western
JANUARY 10, 1896. ]
Europe ; the other on the primitive flint im-
plements found in the gravels on the chalk
plateau of Kent. Although they both ap-
peared before, they have now been pub-
lished with additions.
Their conclusions may be briefly stated.
The author thinks man probably lived on
the Thames and the Somme in pre-glacial
times, a period he would put at 30,000 to
50,000 years ago. The worked flints of the
plateau—generally small, extremely rude
and never ‘compound’ (7. e., used with
handles )—he attributes to these early men.
Numerous illustrations of them are inserted,
from which their artificial character is evi-
dent. The author’s discussion of the ques-
tions involved is able and satifying.
j D. G. Brinton.
‘
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
ASTRONOMICAL.
Dr. SEE, of the University of Chicago, an-
nounced in the Astronomical Journal of Novem-
ber 13th that the well-known binary star 70
Ophiuchi exhibited anomalies in its motion
which could only be explained on the supposi-
tion that there is a non-luminous perturbing
body in the system. This matter acquires
especial interest from the fact that this star is
one of those binaries for which we possess a
really accurate orbit. The theory of this star’s
motion published recently by Prof. Schur in the
Astronomische Nachrichten is perhaps the most
elaborate investigation of a double star orbit yet
made. It was therefore very surprising to hear
that the mean of thirteen nights’ observations
by three American observers gave the error of
Schur’s ephemeris as nearly five degrees in
position angle, although only three years had
elapsed since the computation of his orbit. The
matter cannot yet be regarded as settled, for
Prof. Schur shows in the last number of the
Astronomische Nachrichten that the American ob-
servations are not in agreement with his own
most recent heliometer observations, which
agree very closely with his ephemeris. On the
other hand, they are supported by the most re-
cent observations at Paris by M. Callandreau,
SCIENCE.
63
though these are in disaccord with those of
Herr Ebell at Berlin. It is to be hoped that
numerous observations of this most interesting
star will be made in the near future. H. J.
Pror. E. C. PICKERING announces in Circu-
lar No. 4 from the Harvard College Observa-
tory that a new star in the constellation Cen-
taurus was found by Mrs. Fleming on Decem-
ber 12, 1895, from an examination of the Dra-
per Memorial photographs. Its approximate
position for 1900 is in R. A. 13"34™ .3, Dec.
—31° 8’, Attention was called to it from the pe-
culiarity of the spectrum on Plate B 14151,
taken at Arequipa on July 18, 1895; with the
Bache Telescope, exposure 52m. The spectrum
resembles that of the nebula surrounding 30 Do-
radus, and also that of the star A. G. C. 20937,
and is unlike that of an ordinary nebula or of
the new stars in Auriga, Norma and Carina.
This object is very near the nebula N. G. C.
5253, which follows 1°.28, and is north 23/7,
No trace of it can be found on 55 plates taken
from May 21, 1889, to June 14, 1895, inclusive.
On July 8, 1895, it appeared on a chart plate,
B 13965, and its magnitude was 7.2. On Plate
B 10472 taken July 10, 1895, its magnitude
was also 7.2. On December 16, 1895, a faint
photographic image of it, magnitude 10.9, was
obtained with the 11-inch Draper Telescope, al-
though it was very low, faint and near the sun.
On this date, and on December 19, it was also
seen by Mr. O. C. Wendell with the 15-inch
Equatorial as a star of about the eleventh mag-
nitude. An examination with a prism showed
that the spectrum was monochromatic, and
closely resembled that of the adjacent nebula.
Although the spectrum is unlike those of the
new stars in Auriga, Norma and Carina, yet
this object is like them in other respects. All
were very faint or invisible for several years
preceding their first known appearance. They
suddenly attained their full brightness and soon
began to fade. Like the new stars in Cygnus,
Auriga and Norma, this star appears to have
changed into a gaseous nebula.
ANTARCTIC EXPLORATION.
The Century for January contains an article
by Mr. Borchgrevink describing ‘The First
Landing on the Antarctic Continent,’ which ig
64
the only account of his experiences which he
has contributed for publication. He writes
that he believes that Cape Adare is the very
place where a future scientific expedition might
stop safely even during the winter months.
From this spot several accessible spurs lead up
to the top of the cape, and from there a gentle
slope runs on to the great plateau of Victoria
Land. The presence of the penguin colony,
their undisturbed old nests, the appearance of
dead seals (which were preserved like Egyptian
mummies, and must have lain there for years),
the vegetation to the rocks, and lastly the flat
table of the cape above, all indicate that here
is a place where the powers of the Antarctic
Circle do not display the whole severity of their
forces. Neither ice nor volcanoes seemed to
have raged on the peninsula at Cape Adare,
and a future scientific expedition might well
choose that place as a center of operations. On
this particular spot there is ample space for
house, tents and provisions.
Mr. Borchgrevink offers to be the leader of a
party to be landed either on the pack or on the
mainland near Colman Island. From there he
would work toward the south magnetic pole,
calculated to be in latitude 75° 5’, longitude
150° E. Should the party succeed in pene-
trating so far into the continent, the course
should, if possible, be laid for Cape Adare,
there to join the main body of the expedition.
As to the zodélogical results of future researches,
great discoveries may be expected. It would
indeed be remarkable if on the unexplored
Victoria continent, which probably extends
over an area of 4,000,000 square miles, there
should not be found animal life hitherto un-
known in the southern hemisphere. It is of
course a possibility that the unknown land
around the axis of rotation might be found to
consist of islands joined only by perpetual ice
and snow ; but the appearance of the land, the
color of the water, with its soundings, in addi-
tion to the movements of the Antarctic ice,
point to the existence of a mass of land much
more extensive than a mere group of islands.
GENERAL.
Nature has in recent numbers urged the need
of employing scientific experts and scientific
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 54.
methods in the public service. Twenty years
ago a Royal Commission urgently advised the
appointment of a Ministry and Council of Sci-
ence. Its recommendations have never been
carried into effect, and Natwre deplores the lack
of men scientifically trained and of proved abil-
ity and originality in the government depart-
ments. The United States government and the
separate States undoubtedly do more for the ad-
vancement of education and science than does
any other country, yet the administration com-
pares unfavorably not only with France, where
M. Berthelot, the great chemist, is Minister of
Foreign Affairs, but also with Great Britain
where the Cabinet includes men such as Lord
Salisbury, Mr. Balfour and the Duke of Devon-
shire, who take sincere and intelligent interest
in the advancement of science.
THE Lecomte prize (50,000 fr.) of the Paris
Academy of Sciences has been awarded to Prof.
Ramsay and Lord Rayleigh for the discovery of
Argon. The Valz prize has been awarded to
Mr. W. F. Denning for astronomical work.
The Albert Lévy prize (50,000 fr.) of the Paris
Academy of Medicine has been awarded to Dr.
Behring and Dr. Roux for the discovery of the
serum treatment of diphtheria.
THE British Medical Journal learns that the
Calcutta municipality has decided that Dr.
Haffkine’s anti-cholera inoculation experiments
are to be continued there for another year, and
have assigned a grant of 7,500 rupees for this
purpose.
Mr. FRANK M. CHAPMAN, of the American
Museum of Natural History, will give the fol-
lowing lectures, ‘On Birds, their Habits and In-
stincts,’ under the auspices of Columbia College, -
in the Academy of Medicine, New York: Janu-
ary 7th, ‘ Distribution and Migration ;’? January
14, ‘Sexual Relationships and Nesting Habits ;’
January 28, ‘Color: its Nature and Uses;’
February 4, ‘Modification of Structure by
Habit.’
THE Chief of the Weather Bureau, Mr. Wil-
lis L. Moore, has answered an inquiry from the
Scientific American, to the effect that the de-
partment is considering the feasibility of using
weather forecasts as cancellation stamps in the
post-office.
JANUARY 10, 1896.]
THE memoir of G. J. Romanes, edited by
Mrs. Romanes, consists chiefly of letters, in-
cluding an important correspondence with Dar-
win. It is expected that it will be published
this month or in February.
WE learn from Nature that Prof. Bonney was
presented with his portrait on December 16 by:
former geological students of the University of
Cambridge and University College, London.
Remarks were made by Mr. J. E. Marr, Miss
Raisin and Prof. W. J. Sollas, and after the
portrait had been unveiled Prof. Bonney re- -
plied.
THE annual election of officers of the Acad-
emy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia, resulted
in the election of Dr. Samuel G. Dixon to the
presidency.
CABLEGRAMS state that a violent earthquake
shock was felt on December 30, at Wiener,
Neustadt, thirteen miles from Vienna.
THE Weather-crop Bulletin issued by the De-
partment of Agriculture states that December,
1895, was generally slightly warmer than usual
over the northern portions of the country, the
average daily temperature excess being greatest
in the Missouri Valley and northern New Eng-
land, where it generally ranged from 3° to 6°.
From the lower Ohio Valley northward to and
including the southern portion of the upper
Lake Region the average temperature for the
month was about normal. The month was gen-
erally drier than usual in the Atlantic Coast
and Gulf States, generally throughout the Rocky
Mountain and Plateau districts and in California.
BEGINNING with the current number The
American Anthropologist will be issued monthly
instead of quarterly, and the subscription price
will be reduced from $3 to $2 per annum. The
number of pages in the volume will not be di-
minished. Zhe American Anthropologist has
during the eight years since it has been estab-
lished printed a very large number of important
papers on archeology, ethnology, folk-lore, so-
ciology, philology and general anthropology,
contributed by the leading American students
of anthropology.
THE American Economic Association at its
recent session in Indianapolis elected Henry C.
Adams, of the University of Michigan, Presi-
SCIENCE.
65
dent, and Prof. Franklin H. Giddings, Colum-
bia College, E. R. L. Gould, Johns Hopkins
University and University of Chicago, and R.
P. Falkner, University of Pennsylvania, Vice-
Presidents.
THE Medical News has been removed from
Philadelphia to New York, and Dr. Geo. M.
Gould has retired from the editorship. The
Medical News is one of the few weekly medical
journals among the large number published in
America that maintains a satisfactory scientific
standard.
Nature announces that Prof. Sylvester has
been elected an associate of the Brussels Acad-
emy of Sciences, Prof. Ray Lankester a cor-
responding member of the St. Petersburg Acad-
emy of Sciences, and Sir William Flower a
foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy
of Sciences. The Naturwissenschaftliche Rund-
schaw announces that Prof. R. Leuckhart has
been elected an honorary member of the Paris
Academy of Sciences.
THE National Geographic Magazine will here-
after be published on the first of each month
under the editorship of Gen. A. W. Greely, Dr.
W J McGee, Miss E. R. Scidmore and Mr. John
Hyde. Subscriptions may be sent to the Secre-
tary of the National Geographic Society, 1515
H street, Washington, D. C.
A REPORT issued from the Hydrographic Of-
fice describes the floating ice seen during 1892
and 1893 in the South Atlantic east of Cape
Horn. It is said that the icebergs were of such
size that they could not have been formed on
small, low-lying islands, but only on a large
continent of such height that great glaciers could
be formed.
A CIRCULAR has been issued by several mem-
bers of the Connecticut Academy of Arts and
Sciences urging that more support be given to
the Academy. ;
Dr. JOHN RUSSELL HIND, the eminent British
astronomer, died at London on December 23, in
his seventy-third year. He was the author of
important researches, especially on comets, and
published works on this subject and on general
astronomy. He was for many years superin-
tendent of the Nautical Almanac. He had held
the offices of Foreign Secretary and President of
66
the Royal Astronomical Society, and was a
member of the most important scientific so-
cieties.
ALFRED E. BEAcH died in New York on
January 1st. He was one of the proprietors of
the Scientific American and had made several
important inventions, the best known of which
is that of pneumatic tubes adjusted for carrying
parcels and cars. The deaths are also an-
nounced of Robert F. Welsch, a writer of ich-
thyology; of Prof. A. P. Kostycher, of the
Russian Agricultural Department, known for
his investigations of soils and agricultural prod-
ucts; of Dr. A. V. Brunn, professor of anatomy
in Rostock, and of Dr. Ludwig Teichmann, form-
erly professor of anatomy in Cracow.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
A BILL to establish a National University at
Washington has been introduced in the Senate
and House of Representatives. It provides for
its government a board of sixteen regents, with
the President of the United States at its head,
and a University Council, embracing the board
and twelve educators, representing institutions
belonging to different States.
A TELEGRAM to the Evening Post states that
Elon College, in North Carolina, has received
an endowment fund of $100,000 from a citizen
of New York City, whose name is not at pres-
ent made public.
PRESIDENT Mark W. Harrington, of the Uni-
versity of Washington, writes that he proposes,
to establish a department of terrestrial physics
and geography in the University, and will be
indebted to authors and publishers: who will
send to the University publications relating to
these subjects.
THE N. Y. Medical Record states that the
Chicago College of Physicians and Surgeons is
making arrangements to amalgamate itself with
the University of Illinois
Iv is stated that Mrs. E. G. Kelly, of Chi-
cago, will erect a chapel at a cost of $100,000 for
the University of Chicago, as a memorial to her
brother.
Dr. Dock, of the University of Michigan, has
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Von. IIL No. 54.
been appointed professor of pathology and bac-
teriology at Jefferson Medical College in Phila-
delphia.
WE learn from the American Geologist that
Prof. W. I. Blake, of New Haven, Conn., has
accepted a professorship of geology and mining
in the University of Arizona.
Dr. HUrner, of Tubingen, has been called
to the chair of physiological chemistry at Strass-
burg, vacant by the death of Hoppe-Seyler.
Dr. Julius Bauschinger, of Munich, has been
made associate professor of astronomy and
head of the bureau of calculations in Berlin.
AccoRDING to the Academische Revue the
number of students matriculated at the Uni-
versity of Berlin is 5368: 486 in theology,
1812 in law, 1258 in medicine and 1812 in the .
philosophical faculty. There are 776 foreign-
ers, 219 from America, 198 from Russia, 32
from Great Britain, 22 from France, etc. 40
women are admitted as auditors.
CORRESPONDENCE.
THE THEORY OF PROBABILITIES.
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: It is easier to
make true and misleading statements in the
subject of probabilities than anywhere else.
In this class I should be inclined to place the
remark made by Professor Mendenhall, near the
close of his article in your issue for December
20, regarding a deal in whist in which each of
four players had all the cards of one suit. He
Says:
“The chances against any other particular
distribution of the cards were just as great as
against this and * * * the result of every deal
of the cards is just as remarkable as this.”’
To the first part of this statement it is of
course impossible to take exception ; the second
part seems to me misleading, if not untrue. To
take another case. The chances of my tossing
heads one hundred times running are precisely
those of my tossing the particular succession of
heads and tails that I do toss in any hundred
throws of a coin. But is the former case no
more remarkable than the latter? It is so much
more remarkable that it at once arouses the
JANUARY 10, 1896. ]
suspicion that I have committed fraud, while
in the other case no one thinks of such a thing,
unless—and here lies the gist of the whole mat-
ter—unless I or somebody else predicted ex-
actly the succession of heads and tails that oc-
eurred. The remarkableness lies in the coin-
cidence, not in the mere numerical probability
of the configuration. Now the distribution of
cards mentioned by Prof. Mendenhall and the
succession of throws of a coin in which all are
heads are both natural arrangements that
readily occur to the mind, and hence are as
striking subjects for coincidence as actually pre-
_ dicted arrangements, The fact is that an un-
predicted arrangement is not judged ‘remark-
able,’ because its probability is compared with
that of each and every (individual) other possible
arrangement, while with a predicted or other
coinciding arrangement the comparison is be-
tween its probability and that of any other pos-
sible arrangement (no matter what). We may
call the ratio of such comparison the ‘ratio of
surprise,’ if you will, When heads turn up
twice in succession the numerical probability
(4) is precisely that of every other possible
succession of heads and tails, but its ratio of
surprise is }--3—4, whereas that of an arrange-
ment not subject to comparison with some pre-
dicted or conspicuous arrangement is }+}=1.
The distribution of cards already mentioned
belongs to the former class of configurations,
and its ‘ratio of surprise’ is almost infinitesi-
mal. It is therefore very remarkable, while an
ordinary deal would not be so.
Professor Mendenhall of course does not need
to be told of any of these things, but it seems
worth while to call attention to what will seem,
to the non-mathematical reader, a lack of cor-
respondence between scientific and ordinary
language—a thing to be avoided when possible.
ARTHUR E. Bostwick.
‘Monro arr, N. J.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE EMBRYO OF PTERIS.
To THE EDITOR oF SCIENCE—Sir: For two
years I have been in correspondence with
various biologists concerning a very evident
error in Sedgwick and Wilson’s Biology, and
had I supposed it possible that the new edition
would repeat such an error, I would have at
SCIENCE.
67
least tried to prevent it. I refer to the odsphere
quadrant developments as mentioned in the
texts, old edition, bottom page 98 and top of
page 99; New edition, top of page 140. He
says in both places: ‘The lower anterior quad-
rant as it undergoes further division grows out
into the first root ; the upper anterior quadrant
in like manner gives rise to the rhizome and the
first leaf.’
In a note below Fig. 80, in both editions he
gives the truth in the matter but says: ‘In
Pieris serrulata the development is slightly (! )
different.’
Where and how does the author obtain his
authority for the statement as it stands in the
text, making the root spring from the anterior
quadrant ?
Please call attention of botanists to this state-
ment, and if any of them have obtained such a
result with Pteris aquilina, let us hear from them
and see their drawings.
F. D. KELSEY.
OBERLIN, OHIO, December 12, 1895.
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE—Sir ; Prof. Kel-
sey has our thanks for pointing out an obvious
error in our description of the develépment of
the embryo of Pteris from the odspore. Wecan
only regret that while corresponding ‘for two
years,’ concerning the matter, ‘with various
biologists,’ he did not include us among the
number, as he might then, possibly, have saved
himself some trouble and would have enabled
us more promptly to correct the error.
THE AUTHORS OF THE General Biology. —
LINE DRAWINGS OF BLUE PRINT.
THE method of making line drawings upon a
blue print, mentioned by Mr. Slosson on page
893 of the last volume, is capable of being made
very useful. I have used it for a number of
years, and some of the results have appeared in
the horticultural bulletins of the Cornell Ex-
periment Station. I have no artistic ability,
and yet one of these blue-print drawings was
highly commended by an artist, who, fortu-
nately, knew neither who the draughtsman was
nor what was the method of its making !
L. H. BAILEY.
CORNELL UNIVERSITY.
68
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
Charles Lyell and Modern Geology. By PRor.
T. G. Bonney, F.R.S. The Century Science
Series. Macmillan & Co., New York. 1895.
Pp. 221, with index. $1.25.
The life of Charles Lyell, its fruition in the
twelve editions of the Principles of Geology,
and Lyell’s influence on modern geology, form
a subject worthy of the admirable treatment
given it by Prof. Bonney. Brief as it is, this
biography adequately spans his seventy-eight
years, showing how he trained himself broadly
in liberal knowledge and in science; how he
developed a single purpose—‘to put geology
on a more sound and philosophical basis’—
and how he pursued it so earnestly that
Darwin could say: ‘The science of geology is
enormously indebted to Lyell—more so, as
I believe, than to any other man who ever
lived.’ i
Charles Lyell, born in 1797, the oldest son of
Charles Lyell, sprang from a cultured family.
His father was a student of literature and a
lover of natural history, with a particular in-
terest in entomology and botany. Thus the
son inherited tastes which, developed by early
associations as well as by Oxford training,
fitted him for his life task as author and scien-
tist. In spite of near sightedness, he was an
accurate observer; he thought clearly; and his
thought was no less clearly stated. The power
of analysis and the power of expression, highly
developed in combination, ever place their
possessor among the leaders of men.
Lyell’s studies in geology began in 1817 with
lectures by Prof. Buckland, who was only thir-
teen years his senior and had been but recently
appointed reader in geology at Oxford. Buck-
land roused enthusiasm for the science, but did
not establish in his student’s mind the verity
of the diluvial theory. Ten years of study,
rest for his eyes’s sake, and travel on the Conti-
nent as, well as in England, led Lyell from the
profession of law, which he had entered upon,
to the pursuit of geology. In 1828 he spent
four months with Murchison in the volcanic
district. of central France, which Scrope had
just made known to scientists. ‘‘The great
flows of basalt—some fresh and intact, some
SCIENCE.
[N. S.. Vou. III. No. 54.
only giant fragments of yet vaster masses—the
broken cones of scoria, and the rounded hills
of trachyte in Auvergne, supplied him with
links between existing volcanoes and the huge
masses of trap with which Scotland had made
him familiar ; while these basalt flows—modern
in a geological sense, but carved and furrowed
by the streams which still were flowing in their
gorges—showed that rain and rivers were most
potent, if not exclusive, agents in the excava-
tion of valleys.”’
‘“The whole tour,’’ wrote Lyell to his father,
‘(has been rich, as I had anticipated (and in a
manner which Murchison. had not), in those
analogies between existing nature and the
effects of causes in remote eras which it will be
the great object of my work to point out.. I
scarcely despair now, so much do these evi-
dences of modern action increase upon us as
we go south (towards the more recent volcanic
seat of action), of proving the positive identity
of the causes now operating with those of former
times.”’ :
Tn 1829 the discussions were hot in the Geo-
logical Society between those who maintained
the hypothesis of a universal deluge, and those
who interpreted Nature through uniformity of
modern and ancient causes. In April Lyell
wrote to Dr. Mantell: ;
“A splendid meeting (at the Geological So-
ciety) last night, Sedgwick in the chair. Cony-
beare’s paper on Valley of the Thames, directed
against Messrs. Lyell and Murchison’s former
paper, was read. in part. Buckland present
to defend the ‘Diluvialists.’ * * * Green-
ough assisted us by making an ultra speech on
the importance of modern causes. * * * «
Murchison and I fought stoutly, and Buckland
was very piano. Conybeare’s memoir is not
strong by any means.. He admits three deluges
before the Noachian; and Buckland adds God
knows how many catastrophes besides; so we
have driven them out of the Mosaic record
fairly.’’
How faintly, like blows of battle-axe on
medieval armor, rings the echo of that contro-
versy in this day! Yet it was the first and not
the least of Lyell’s services that he led the at-
tack which drove that hypothesis of the theolo-
gians from its intrenched position.
JANUARY 10, 1896. ]
Tried in debate and developed thereby,
Lyell’s ideas begot a purpose which absorbed
his means, his time and his thought. That
purpose is stated in the title of his book:
‘Principles of Geology ; being an Attempt to
Explain the Former Changes of the Harth’s
Surface by Reference to Causes now in Opera-
‘tion.’ To this end he devoted the energies of
a life singularly free from limitations and cares,
such as ordinarily divert men from a single ob-
ject.
ten in the autumn of 1829, and published
in the winter; the second appeared early in
1832, and the third in May, 1833. Five
editions of the work had been issued by the
spring of 1837. In 1838 the third volume was
published separately as the ‘Elements of Geol-
ogy,’ and the Principles, thus curtailed, passed
through editions from the sixth to the eleventh
during the author’s lifetime, the twelfth being
under way at the time of his death, in 1875.
Thus for forty-five years he pursued his pur-
pose. There is danger in lifelong devotion to
one hypothesis, but Lyell was armed against
narrowing bias by his methods of observation
and by the breadth of his mind. The hypoth-
esis, Which a small man would have spun to a
vanishing thread, in Lyell’s hands was forged
into a chain of causality, binding past and
present.
In accordance with one favorite saying of his :
‘Go and see,’ he travelled throughout western
Europe and eastern America, searching always
with painstaking care for facts. And obeying
another principle, ‘ Prefer reason to authority,’
(even when that authority was his own pub-
lished conclusion), he kept his work abreast of
the advance of geology, for which he had indi-
cated the way.’
Uniformitarianism did not originate with
Lyell, but he became the great exponent of
that principle. Not priority, but thoroughness,
makes for reputation. Weighing the broader
results of Lyell’s studies, Prof. Bonney con-
cludes: ‘‘ We may be sure, that if Lyell were
now living he would frankly recognize new facts,
as soon as they were established, and would not
shrink from any modification of his theory which
these mightdemand. Great as were his services
SCIENCE.
The first volume of the Principles was writ- .
69
to geology, this, perhaps, is even greater—for
the lesson applies to all sciences and to all
seekers after knowledge—that his career, from
first to last, was the manifestation of a judicial
mind, of a noble spirit, raised far above all
party passions and petty considerations, of an
’ intellect great in itself, but greater still in its
grand humility; that he was a man to whom
truth was as the ‘pearl of price,’ worthy of the
devotion and, if need be, the sacrifice of a life.”’
BAILEY WILLIS.
Die Gastropoden der Plankton-Expedition, von
Dr. H. SimrotH. Kiel & Leipzig, Lipsius &
Fischer. 1895. 4to., 206 pp., 22 pl.
The Plankton-Expedition, as many of our
readers are aware, had for its object the study
of pelagic life in the North Atlantic, and es-
pecially its distribution in depth; the drawing,
as it were, of the bathymetric contours of
oceanic life. The material thus gathered has
been distributed among many naturalists for
study, and a large number of essays have already
been printed under the supervision of the gen-
eral editor, Prof. Victor Hansen, of Kiel.
The latest contribution is by Prof. Heinrich
Simroth, of Leipzig, already well known by
numerous valuable studies of the mollusks, and
especially by his editorship of the new edition
of that part of Bronn’s ‘ Thier-reichs’ relating
to the Mollusca. It comprises observations on
larval and pelagic Gastropods, fully illustrated
and of great interest.
After the reaction against the methods of
descriptive biology based on superficial charac-
ters, which began about twenty-five or thirty
years ago, so rich were the results derived from
embryological and anatomical researches that
the more hasty of the younger workers con-
cluded in their enthusiasm that surface charac-
ters were of no value whatever ; and this view
was carried so far that we find one naturalist
gravely arguing that the only proper basis for a
classification of the Gastropods would be found
in the number and arrangement of the gang-
lionic cells, which he had studied in half a
dozen species of land snails. Even the better
informed and more cautious biologists were led
to doubt if the characters of the shell in mol-
lusks would lend any aid to the study of the
70
evolution of the group. Fortunately, these
views haye proved illfounded, and a more
minute and exhaustive study of shell characters
in some groups has shown that valuable assist-
ance in working out lines of development and
the relations of different forms may be obtained
by those who properly study the shell, its larval
forms and dynamic relations to the organism.
No one now doubts the importance of such
studies in such large groups as the Ammonoid
and Nautiloid cephalopods, the Volutidze among
gastropods, and the Naiades among pelecypods.
The study of the stages of evolution of the
larval characteristics is a field hardly entered
upon and promising rich returns to the student,
and, for the paleontologist, deprived of all
anatomical aid in tracing the lineage of peculiar
extinct genera, the necessity of study of the
nepionic stages of the fossils is fundamental.
For these reasons all contributions to our
knowledge of existing larval forms are welcome,
especially with such a wealth of illustration as
in the present volume. Among the more im-
portant matters in it we find a very full account
of Janthina, in both adult and larval states; of
larvee of the type of Echinospira, belonging to
the Lamellariide; of the Macgillivrayia type
like those of Tritonium and Dolium; of the
Sinusigera type, including many genera of
Rhachiglossa and Toxoglossa; a general dis-
cussion of the conditions of larval existence
and their bearing on the characters developed;
some account of pelagic nudibranchs, such as
Glaucus and Fiona; a table showing the quanti-
tative results of the dredging or towing nets;
and a bibliography of literature consulted.
The only criticism which suggests itself is
that it would be more convenient for those who
have to use the book if the magnification of the
figures was stated in units of the whole length,
rather than merely indicated by the name and
number of the objective used for the microscopic
work. We VEL Damn
The Structure and Development of Mosses and
Ferns. By DoucLas HouGHTON CAMPBELL,
Ph.D., Professor of Botany in the Leland
Stanford, Jr., University. 8vo. Pp. 544.
London, Macmillan & Co. 1895.
The results of the long continued and patient
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 54.
work that Dr. Campbell has been publishing
from time to time on the Pteridophytes have at
last been brought together, with the results of
a large amount of new work on the Hepatice
and other Bryophytes, and the whole results in
a large volume issued by the well-known pub-
lishers, Macmillan & Co., under the above at-
tractive title.
The first thing to be noted as praiseworthy in
the book is clearness and simplicity of expres-
sion, for while dealing with a recondite subject
and using strictly technical terms, the book
reads smoothly and is devoid of that stilted
language that too frequently characterizes
works of this nature. The logical arrange-
ment of the matter follows closely on the sim-
plicity of style and these two features are suffi-
cient to recommend the work to the learner,
. for too many are repelled from many a fascina-
ting subject by the nature of the language and
the lack of a systematic arrangement of the
matter.
But beyond these questions of form the sub-
ject-matter is fresh and direct from the hand of
the laboratory worker. The studies on which
the work is primarily based were made from
American plants, many of them plants from
the Pacific coast that have never before been
studied from the developmental and morpho-
logical standpoint. Riccia hirta, Fimbriaria
Californica, Porella Bolanderi, Anthoceros fusi-
formis, Ophioglossum pendulum (from Hawaii),
Botrychium Virginianum and Marsilea vestita
are only a few of the new plants that have
been called in to contribute their life history
for the verification and often modification of
the work of Hoffmeister, Kny, Gcebel, Stras-
burger and others made on similar plants of
central Europe. As one result of this new
study, Dr. Campbell has given us a fresh supply
of illustrations in place of the standard stock
that has become threadbare from long usage in
European and American text-books. If some
of the illustrations are not quite so clear cut as
some that have appeared in certain European
publications of recent date, they more than
make up for this in their freshness and accuracy
for they represent exactly the conditions met
with by the author and have not been filled in
by the imagination, as is sometimes the case.
JANUARY 10, 1896. ]
We are pleased to note that for the first time
in any somewhat general treatise of botany the
Hepatice have received something like their
proper treatment, and their representative posi-
tion as a highly important group from the stand-
point of phylogeny is clearly stated at the outset
and strikingly developed through the work. A
fair estimate of their differentiation and highly
probable antiquity is also well set forth.
Dr. Campbell regards the lowest Metzgeria-
ceze, like Spheerocarpus, as the simplest plants
of the entire group and considers that the other
groups of the Hepatice were differentiated from
the ancestors of some plant of this character
before the development of the sporophyte had
»advanced so far as in present forms of that
genus. He sets forth a most excellent answer
to the remarkable position of Goebel regarding
the status of Buxbaumia and contributes several
new points bearing on the interrelationships of
the various groups of the true mosses.
In classification Dr. Campbell does not depart
widely from arrangements that have heretofore
been set forth, in the Hepatice, for instance,
following the lead of Schiffner. The position
of Isoetes as the possible ancestor of the Angio-
sperms is perhaps the most divergent point
presented in the classification.
Comparison of the work of others is well
made, and wherever criticism occurs it is always
in the friendly, urbane spirit that ought always
to characterize workers in science; where con-
clusions are stated, they are couched in pointed
and forcible language but never dogmatically.
Altogether the work is a valuable contribution
and will stand comparison with the best work
of the kind that has been done anywhere.
L. M. UNDERWooD.
Molecules and the Molecular Theory of Matter, by
A. D. RIsTEEN, S.B. Ginn & Co. Octavo,
pp. 213.
This is an excellent resumé of the present
state of our knowledge of the molecular theory,
excluding most of the more difficult mathemati-
cal discussions, and including the principal con-
clusions of Clausius, Kelvin, Boltzmann, Max-
well and many others who have cultivated this
department of physical science.
After some general considerations involving
SCIENCE.
ol
a presentation of the hypothesis of molecules
and a definition of what is meant by a molecule,
together with a brief statement of the assumed
molecular constitution of solids, liquids and
gases, the kinetic theory of gases is seriously
taken up. The fundamental assumptions of
the theory are discussed, Maxwell’s Theorem
is proved and the statistical method of treat-
ment illustrated. The results of the kinetic
theory are compared with the results of observa-
tion, and the chapter includes an examination
_of high vacua phenomena, the radiometer and
other of Crookes’. experiments.
The chapter on the Molecular Theory of
Liquids includes, among other things, a fairly
complete elementary study of surface tension
and the phenomena of films. Chapter IV. is
given to the Molecular Theory of Solids, con-
cerning which there is really little known, but
interesting studies of the phenomena of solution,
diffusion, crystallization, etc., are here given.
The concluding chapters on the Molecular
Magnitude and the Constitution of Molecules
are important and well done. The principal
methods for determining molecular dimensions
are gone into pretty thoroughly and the more
recent hypothesis in regard to the constitution
of the ether and the nature of matter are pre-
sented with great clearness and some fullness.
Among a few unimportant criticisms of the
book that suggest themselves may be mentioned
the holding on to the ‘lecture’ form of presen-
tation. The foundation of the work was a lec-
ture given by the author before the Washburn
Engineering Society of the Worcester Polytech-
nic Institute, but it has been so expanded, and
so much additional material has been supplied
that it exceeds the limits of several lectures.
Asa large part of the new material is not in the
lecture form and as little is gained by retaining,
it anyhow, it is to be regretted that the author
did not reject it in the beginning.
As an echo of the discussion which occurred
at the recent meeting at Springfield of the So-
ciety for the Promotion of Engineering Educa-
tion, it may be well to note that on one or two
pages this book illustrates the fatal results which
are almost sure to follow the use of the formula
W=meg, in the good old orthodox way. The
author is lucky, however, in having apparently
72 SCIENCE.
followed Dr. Oliver Lodge who said that ‘‘ The
real rule on Engineers’ principles would be to
put ‘g’ somewhere into the expression for any
quantity with which gravity has nothing to do,
and to leave ‘g’ out whenever gravity is pri-
marily concerned.’’ By conscientiously adher-
ing to this rule one may come out fairly well in
the end, but in the present instance the confu-
sion is more likely to be due to an oversight.
On the whole the book will be a welcome ad-
dition to the library of any physicist who desires
to avoid the necessity for much laborious re-
search among original sources.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
AMERICAN CHEMICAL JOURNAL, DECEMBER.
THE principal article in this number of the
Journal is one by C. F. Mabery on the compo-
sition of the Ohio and Canadian sulphur petro-
leums. In this article, which is only a partial
report of the work, he reviews and discusses the
work of other chemists in this field, and de-
scribes methods and forms of apparatus used in
his investigations. As decomposition takes place
in the distillation of crude petroleum during re-
fining process, he could not use these products,
but started with the crude oil and subjected it
to fractional distillation in vacuo, in apparatus
specially devised for this purpose. He found in
the distillation of Ohio petroleum that no color
or odor could be detected in the distillates be-
low 285°; but above this point decomposition
took place with evolution of hydrogen sulphide.
The amount of ash left wassmall, and consisted
chiefly of lime and magnesia, showing that the
oil had dissolved some of the constituents of the
rocks forming the cavities in which it was con-
fined. A number of the lower-boiling hydro-
carbons belonging to the methane series were
isolated, and it was found that they were pres-
ent in smaller quantities in the Ohio petroleum
than in that from Pennsylvania.
Stillman and Yoder find that the compound
formed by the action of anhydrous ammonia on
aluminium chloride is AICl,.6NH;. In their
experiments dry air and ammonia were passed
over aluminium chloride, and a partial decom-
position of the product formed was always ob-
served. The ammonia was partly oxidized,
[N. S. Vou. IIT. No. 54.
and water, aluminium oxide, and ammonium
chloride formed.
Schlundt and Warder in an article, entitled,
‘The Chemical Kinetics of Oxidation,’ contrib-
ute some results on the speed of reactions un-
der different circumstances. They find that the
rate of liberation of iodine in a mixture of
potassium chlorate, potassium iodide and
hydrochloric acid is influenced by temperature,
concentration and amount of excess of inor-
ganic acid present.
L. W. McCay publishes a preliminary notice
on the existence of the sulphoxyantimoniates.
He finds that the salt prepared by Rammels-
berg, and supposed by him to be a double salt,
is potassium orthodisulphoxyantimoniate.
Freer gives the results of some experiments
with tetrinic acid which are not in accord with
the views of Nef and others on this subject. He
finds that by the action of bromine on methyl-
acetoacetic ester or its sodium salt, a uniform
product is not obtained, but a mixture of four
compounds. ‘Two of these products are 2- and
7- brommethylacetoacetie ester. From the lat-
ter tetrinic acid is easily formed; but, from the
former, only in the presence of hydrobromic
acid. There is a review in this number of
‘The Principles and Practice of Agricultural
Analysis’ by H. W. Wiley, and obituary notices
of Louis Pasteur and Felix Hoppe-Seyler.
J. ELLIOTT GILPIN.
NEW BOOKS.
Die Hausthiere. EpwARD HAHN. Leipzig,
Duncker & Humblot. 1896. Pp. x+4581.
Lecture Notes on Theoretical Chemistry. FERDI-
NAND G. WEICHMANN. 2d edition. New
York, John Wiley & Sons; London, Chap-
man & Hall, Lt’d. 1895. Pp. vili;-288.
Manual of Lithology. EDWARD H. WILLIAMS.
2d edition. New York, John Wiley & Sons;
London, Chapman & Hall, L’t’d. 1895. Pp.
418.
Report of the Columbian Historical Exposition.
Madrid, 1892; Washington, 1895. Pp. 411.
Lessons in Elementary Botany. Tuomas H.
MacsripE. Allyn & Bacon, 1896. Pp. xi
+ 238. Introductory price, 60 cts.
SCIENCE
NEW SERIES.
Vou. III. No. 55.
Fripay, JANUARY 17,
SINGLE COPIES, 15 cTs.
ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, $5.00
°
1896.
JUST
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tronomy ; T. C. MENDENHALL, Physics; R. H. THuRstTon, Engineering ; IRA REMSEN, Chemistry ;
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Fripay, JANUARY 17, 1896.
CONTENTS :
The Association of American Anatomists :—
Report of the Highth Annual Meeting: D.S. LAMB.
Our Contribution to Civilization and to Science ;
Presidential Address: THOMAS DWIGHT. Re-
port of the Committee on the Collection and Pres-
ervation of Anatomical Material: J. EWING
MEARS, J. D. BRYANT, THOMAS DwiGHT. Ana-
tomical Law of the State of Pennsylvania...........+++ 73
Seventh Annual Meeting of the American Folk-lore
SGIGINS 185/184, docnas coonoonooabaudecosane{sosoqn0aD3000000 86
Alaska as it was and is, 1865-1895 '( concluded) :
Vo LEG DANI cs5cnoscog5co00n0000 poG0050 vosooneeaK200s000 87
Current Notes on Anthropology :—
Relation of the Brain and Spinal Cord ; The Man
from Galley Hill: D. G. BRINTON.............+00.: 94
Scientific Notes and News :—
A Gigantic Orthoceratite from the American Car-
boniferous. CHARLES R. KEYES. Astronomical :
H. J. Physics. W.H. The Huxley Memorial ;
Concilium bibliographicum ; General...........+2.+.++: 94
University and Educational News
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Quaternions: ALEXANDER MACFARLANE...... 99
Scientific Literature :-—
Monteil’s De Saint Louis a Tripoli par le lac Tehad:
W.L. A Laboratory Course in Experimental Phys-
ics; Benjamin’s Intellectual Rise in Electricity.
Lindsay’s Introduction to the Study of Zodlogy :
SW sn VEPEVAUNIKGIN os srasaessenslaeiosceesioerenseassicesenerias 100
Scientific Journals :—
The American Geologist ; Psyché............01ss0-s200 106
Societies and Academies :—
Entomological Society of Washington: L. O.
Howarp. Philosophical Society of Washington :
BERNARD R. GREEN..........2.0.0seccceseceeeeeee eens 107 |
MSS. intended for publication and books etc., intended
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prot. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN ANATO-
MISTS.
REPORT OF THE EIGHTH ANNUAL MEETING.
Tuer Highth Annual Meeting of the Asso-
ciation of American Anatomists was held
in the College Hall of the University of
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pa., December
27 and 28, 1895. The President, Dr.
Thomas Dwight, presided. The following
members were present during the meeting:
Doctors Harrison Allen, Frank Baker, A.
D. Bevan, H. L. Birkett, F. J. Brockway,
W. A. Brooks, C. E. Cotton, Thos. Dwight,
P. A. Fish, W. S. Forbes, F. H. Gerrish,
M. J. Greenman, C. A. Hamann, Addinell
Hewson, E. R. Hodge, E. W. Holmes, G.
S. Huntington, D.S. Lamb, John Lindsay,
J. Ewing Mears, C. S. Minot, R. O. Moody,
J. P. Tunis and B. G. Wilder.
Prof. E. D. Cope, Horace Jayne, Theo-
dore Gill, F. A. Lucas, Washington Mat-
thews, H. F. Osborn and W. B. Scott, of
the Association, were mainly occupied with
the meetings of the affiliated societies.
The following new members were elected:
W. G. Christian, M. D., Professor of An-
atomy, University of Virginia. Clyde E.
Cotton, M. D., Assistant Demonstrator of
Anatomy, University of Pennsylvania.
Gilman D. Frost, M. D., Professor Anatomy
Medical Department, Dartmouth College.
Robert H. M. Dawbarn, M. D., Professor
Surgical Anatomy and Operative Surgery,
New York Polyclinic. Wm. E. Lewis, M.
74
D., Professor Descriptive and Surgical Anat-
omy, Cincinnati College of Medicine and
Surgery. John Lindsay, M. D., Assistant
Demonstrator of Anatomy, University of
Pennsylvania. Alfred L. T. Schaper, De-
monstrator of Histology and Embryology,
Harvard Medical School. Geo. D. Stewart,
M. D., Lecturer on Anatomy, Bellevue
Hospital Medical College. B. B. Stroud,
D.Sce., Instructor in Physiology, Vertebrate
Zodlogy and Neurology, Cornell University.
Joseph P. Tunis, A. B., M. D., Assistant
Demonstrator of Anatomy, University
Pennsylvania. George Woolsey, M. D.,
Professor Anatomy, University of City of
New York.
The following were elected to Honorary
Membership: Prof. Wm. Henry Flower,
London, England ; Sir Geo. Murray Hum-
phry, Cambridge, England.
The following members resigned: Tracy
E. Clark, B.§., Professor of Natural His-
tory, Clinton Liberal Institute, Ft. Plain,
N. Y., and Maurice Howe Richardson, M.
D., Assistant Professor Anatomy, Harvard
Medical School.
Dr. Frank Baker, of Washington, was
elected President for the next term; Dr.
Addinell Hewson, of Philadelphia, Delegate
to the Executive Committee of the Congress
of American Physicians and Surgeons ; and
Dr. A. D. Bevan, of Chicago, a member of
the Executive Committee. Dr. Geo. S.
Huntington, of New York City, was added
to the Committee on the Table at Naples.
The Committee on Anatomical Nomen-
clature made the following report :
The Committee report general progress
in the consideration of the complex subject
entrusted to them and express the opinion
that substantial improvement will result
from the work of the Committee of the
Anatomischer Gesellschaft.
Your committee recommend to anato-
mists that, other things being equal, terms
consisting of a single word each be em-
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. IIT. No. 55.
ployed rather than terms of two or more
words. Harrison Allen, Chairman; Thomas
Dwight, Frank Baker, Frederick H. Ger-
rish, Burt G. Wilder, Secretary.
The committee on the collection and
preservation of anatomical material, con-
sisting of J. Ewing Mears, J. D. Bryant
and Thomas Dwight, made the report which
is appended (see page 77).
The Secretary was instructed to have a
copy of the amended report and a copy of
the Presidential address sent to the Pro-
fessors and Demonstrators of Anatomy in
the United States and Canada.
The Secretary reported that there were
115 active members and five honorary.
The following papers were read:
1. ‘Myology of the extremities of Lemur
Bruneus.’ Illustrated by drawings and
casts of muscles. Dr. George S. Hunting-
ton, New York City.
2. ‘History of the Ciliary Muscle.’
Frank Baker; Washington, D. C.
3. ‘Absence of Fibrous Pericardium of
left side.’ Illustrated by specimen. Dr.
Addinell Hewson, Philadelphia, Pa.
4. ‘The Descriptive Anatomy of the Hu-
man Heart.’ Dr. Wm. Keiller, Galveston,
Texas.
5. ‘Nomenclature of Nerve Cells.’
Frank Baker, Washington, D. C.
6. ‘The Cerebral Fissures of Two Philos-
Dr.
Dr.
ophers.’ Illustrated by specimens and
photographs. Dr. B. G. Wilder, Ithaca,
N.Y.
7. ‘The Human Paroccipital Fissure;
Should it be Recognized and so Designated ?’
Illustrated by specimens and photographs.
Dr. Wilder.
8. ‘Practical Histology for Large Classes.’
Dr. Chas. 8. Minot, Boston, Mass,
9. ‘Some Novel Methods of Description
of the Human Skull.’ Dr. Harrison Allen,
Philadelphia, Pa.
10. ‘ Fossa Capitis Femoris, with Observa-
tions on the Trechanteric Fossa.’ Illus-
JANUARY 17, 1896. ]
trated by specimens.
New York City.
11. ‘ Note on the Appearance of a Unilat-
eral Tuberosity in Place of the Trochanteric
Dr. F. J. Brockway,
Fossa.’ Illustrated by specimen. Dr. D.
S. Lamb, Washington, D. C.
12. ‘A Case of Polyorchis.’ Illustrated
by specimen. Dr. D. 8. Lamb.
13. ‘The Cerebrum of Phoca Vitulina.’
Illustrated by specimen.
Washington, D. C.
The members of the Association were
entertained by Dr. Horace Jayne, of Phila-
delphia, who gave a reception on the night
of the 26th; were lunched on the 27th and
28th by the University authorities, and on
the 28th by Mr. W. B. Saunders at the Art
Club.
The courtesies of the American Philo-
sophical Society were also extended. On
the evening of the 26th they also listened
to a lecture by Prof. W. B. Scott, of Prince-
ton, N. J., on the ‘ History. of the Lacu-
strine Formations of North America and
their Mammalian Fossils.’
A banquet by members of the affiliated
societies was given on the evening of the
27th at the Hotel Lafayette and was well
attended. D.S. Lams,
Secretary.
OUR CONTRIBUTION TO CIVILIZATION AND TO
SCIENCE—PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS BY
DR. THOMAS DWIGHT, HARVARD
MEDICAL SCHOOL.
It had not been my intention to inflict
upon the Association a Presidential address;
but ata late moment, impressed with the
gravity of the matters that are to come be-
fore us, far transcending as one of them
does, the importance of purely scientific dis-
cussion, I felt it a duty I owe to the posi-
tion I have the honor to hold, to introduce
them to the Association with the best sug-
gestions concerning them I can offer. It is
not too much to call them our contribution
Dr. P. A. Fish,
SCIENCE. 70
to civilization and to science. Easily first
in importance is the report of the committee
on procuring and using anatomical material.
Though both branches of the question are
_ of interest to anatomists, the first rises be-
yond the sphere of the specialist. It isa
social question of the first importance. I
shall not anticipate the report of the com-
mittee, of which Iam a member. I wish
merely to lay down briefly certain principles
which, I conceive, should guide us. We
know only too well that dissection is an
abomination to the popular mind. The
aversion to it is well nigh universal, con-
fined to no class of society, nor to any creed.
This horror seems to be founded chiefly on
two points, one the deprivation of sepulchre,
the other the idea that the remains are sub-
mitted to wanton insult. The idea that re-
spect is due to the dead body is so deeply
rooted in the human mind as to be almost
instinctive. I am far from calling these
feelings superstitious. We know, indeed,
that no violence can harm the dead, but,
though reason is convinced, the heart is not
satisfied. We anatomists, no less than
others, shudder at the thought of the dese-
cration of the remains of those who have
been near and dear to us. The mad wrath
caused by the feeling that graves are not
safe is a well justified one. Itis a disgrace
to our civilization that in some parts of the
Union body-snatching is still practised, and
that in others there exists an illicit trade
in human bodies. Should any of my col-
leagues think me indiscreet in alluding to
these matters, I must remind them that I
am saying nothing which has not been made
notorious through the public press.
It is idle to hope, while human nature
remains what it is, that aversion to dissec-
tion will ever disappear.. Our wisest course
is to recognize it, and to soften it by re-
moving all just cause of complaint. It
should be made clear to the public that dis-
section can and should be followod by
76 SCIENCH.
decent burial. I, myself, would go so far
as to have the bodies of Protestants and
Catholics buried in their respective ceme-
teries, when the creed of the deceased is
known. It also should be understood that
no wanton insult is permitted in reputable
schools.
From careful observation I am convinced
that the policy which will lead to the most
satisfactory results is one of complete open-
ness, that above all, we should avoid a
timidity which shirks discussion of this
topic. When we shall show so clearly as
to carry conviction, that we have nothing
to conceal, a great step will have been
taken. I like to boast that the anatomical
department of the Harvard Medical School
is ready to give an account of every body it
receives. If there be aught in the manage-
ment of dissecting rooms that calls for criti-
cism, I would not have reform forced upon
us from without. Let us be the first to an-
ticipate every reasonable demand.
It seems to me that this is making every
possible concession to the sentimental side
of the question; but another complaint is
often made in all honesty, by well-meaning
persons, who object that the bodies of the
poor should be treated otherwise than those
of the rich. I reply that no one would
reprobate more strongly than I any law
that would allow the taking of the bodies
of the poor from their near relatives; but
we must distinguish between the respect
due to the feelings of the living and any
admission that dissection is in itself an
injury to the dead. The former is human-
ity; the latter is superstition, and to my
mind a very contemptible one.
I have alluded to the scandal of body-
snatching, but an equally great scandal is
its cause; the want, in many places, of an
anatomy act, or the existence of one which
the framers and all others know to be in-
adequate. This state of affairs is in more
respects than one an injury to the com-
(N.S. Von. III. No. 55.
munity. Like a prohibitory law meant to
be boasted of on the platform and in the
pulpit, but not meant to be inforced, it de-
stroys respect for law. It is the bounden
duty of authorities of States, without ade-
quate provision for dissection, to see that it
is not practiced. After all, such communi-
ties deserve to be treated by surgeons
ignorant of anatomy.
A radical defect in the laws of many
States, otherwise well drawn, is that the
delivery to medical schools of unclaimed
bodies is optional with superintendents,
Boards of Trustees and municipal au-
thorities. The result of this is that those
in authority very naturally hesitate to do
anything for the advancement of science,
which not only can be of no ‘possible ad-
vantage to themselves, but may involve
them in serious difficulties. The ery of
outrage on the poor is a sure card in the
hand of the political demagogue, especially
when it is raised against some honored in-
stitution. It may also be used as a means
of annoyance against political opponents.
It is far easier, therefore, for those in office
to remain quiet and leave science to suffer.
A mandatory law would free them from all
responsibility. ‘Thyself shalt see the act,’
would be a sufficient answer to all com-
plaints.
Details of law may and must differ with
the locality, but a good anatomy act should
have the following characteristics: First,
it should be just, safeguarding the rights of
the poor, and securing decency ; next, that
it should be mandatory ; finally, it should
be easy of execution. It is our duty in our
several States to do our utmost for the pas-
sage of a law that shall advance science,
protect the grave and do credit to the com-
munity. We have not the excuse of older
times that the question is a newone. In
view of our own shortcomings it behooves
us to judge them lightly. For my part, I
have far more respect for those who opposed
JANUARY 17, 1896.]
dissection on the ground, however mistaken,
that it might be displeasing to God, than
for those who make it illegal by pandering
to the prejudices of theignorant. Dr. John-
son’s advice, ‘free your mind from cant,’ is
here singularly @ propos. We cannot boast
of our civilization till this is remedied.
Another subject which comes before us
for discussion is the important question of
anatomical nomenclature. German anato-
mists have recently adopted a report pre--
pared by some of their number, working in
company with representatives of other
European countries. It is for us to con-
sider whether this one can be looked upon
as accepted and whether it is acceptable;
whether we can join hands with our foreign
colleagues, or whether we can devise an
American nomenclature which shall be so
much better that we can disregard the in-
convenience of a distinct standard. We
have had for years a committee on ana-
tomical nomenclature,with Professor Wilder
for secretary, who has given so large a part
of his busy life to this matter. We may
expect an important contribution to the
matter in the report of this committee.
_ Weare to hear also from the committee
appointed to consider the anatomical pe-
culiarities of the negro. Iam not informed
what success has been reached in the diffi-
cult task of collecting statistics. It is a
work of such anthropological importance
that it would be doubly to be regretted
should it come to naught. As has already
been said at our meetings, it is most proper
that this Society should collect all possible
information as to the anatomy not only of
the negro, but of such savage races as still
survive in North America, and of the ex-
tinct ones, whose bones can still be pro-
cured in large numbers.
Thus, gentlemen, you see that this meet-
ing, besides the attractive list of papers,
has before it matters of no ordinary interest °
and importance. I will no longer detain
SCIENCE.
OL
you from your work, firmly persuaded that
the action of this Association will be in the
interest of civilization and science.
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON THE COLLEC-
TION AND PRESERVATION OF ANA-
TOMICAL MATERIAL.
To the Association of American Anatomists :
The committee appointed at the meeting
of the Association to obtain information
with regard to the collection and preserva-
tion of anatomical material, and report
what in their opinion are the best means of
accomplishing these objects, begs respect-
fully to submit the following report:
In order to make the work of the com-
mittee as comprehensive as possible and to
obtain information which would be of
service in arriving at definite conclusions
as to the best methods of accomplishing the
purposes in the resolution, the committee
deemed it desirable to send to the teachers
of anatomy, not only in this country, but
abroad, a circular letter, with the following
questions appended, and respectfully re-
quested answers to be made thereto as fully
as possible:
1. Is anatomical material obtained in ac-
cordance with legal enactment, wholly or in
part ?
2. Is there an Anatomical Law in your
State or country? Ifso, please send a copy
to the chairman of the committee. Please
state whether the law is satisfactory in its
provisions, whether it is readily obeyed by
those upon whom duties are imposed by it,
and mention any improvements you would
suggest as to its réquirements.
3. Is the material received in good con-
dition ?
4. What disposal is ultimately made of
the remains?
5, Please state what means are employed
to preserve anatomical material for the pur-
poses of dissection or operative surgery. If
injections of preservative fluids are used,
78
state their composition and the methods
of use, at what point injections are made,
whether at the heart or in the large arter-
ies, and their effect in accomplishing the
preservation, with any changes in the color
or character of the tissues. What length of
time can material be used in dissection em-
ployed by you? If preservation by means
of cold storage is employed please state the
cost of the machinery which it was neces-
sary to construct for this purpose, and what
means are taken to prevent decomposition
after the subject is placed upon the table
for dissection.
6. Please state the cost by the method
employed by you, for the reception, the in-
jection and preservation of each subject.
7. Do you obtain an adequate supply of
material for the purposes of anatomical in-
struction? How many students are as-
signed to each subject, and what is the
method of allotment?
8. Please give any further information
which you may deem of importance.
This letter was sent to the professors of
anatomy in 148 colleges in the United
states; 25 in foreign countries, and 25
copies were sent to the medical journals in
this country and abroad. Forty-two re-
plies have been received by the committee
containing more or less specific answer to
the questions propounded in the circular.
An analysis of the replies received presents
the following results :
1. Anatomical material is received wholly
under the provisions of the law in thirty
States and countries, in part by law, in
seven ; and without law, in five.
2. In reply to the second question pro-
posed, fifteen copies of the laws which are
in force, have been sent to the chairman of
the committee, thirteen of them being the
laws of States of this country, and two of
foreign countries. With regard to the
execution of the law, information was given
to the effect that the provisions of the law
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 55.
were satisfactorily complied with in ten,
fairly so in ten, not satisfactory in twelve,
and no replies were given in ten. In eight
the provisions of the law were stated to be
obligatory, and in six the provisions were
optional. In considering the subject of the
report so far as it relates to the collection
of anatomical material by law, the com-
mittee has confined itself to the examina-
tion of and report on the anatomical laws
of the States of this country.
3. The report as to condition in which
anatomical material was received was that
in twenty instances it was good; in twenty-
one, fair; and in one, bad.
4, As to the disposition of the remains,
in twenty-seven institutions they were re-
ported buried; in ten, cremated; and in four,
thrown away.
5. The answers received to the question
with regard to the agents employed in ac-
complishing the preservation of subjects,
gave information as to quite a large number
employed and in various combinations. An
analysis shows that of the agents used car-
bolic acid stands first, and that it was used |
not alone but in combination with other
agents. Glycerine was reported as an in-
gredient in the next highest number. It
was also employed in combination with
other agents. The next in frequency was
reported to be arsenic, and this agent was
used also in combination. Chloral hydrate
and chloride of zine and bichloride of mer-
cury come next in the order of use. Alcohol,
either pure or in combination, carbonate of
potassium, bicarbonate of sodium, chloride
of sodium, methyl spirit, formalin, nitrate
of potassium, brown sugar, boric acid, were
reported as used in numbers varying from
four to one. The preservation of subjects
by cold storage was reported in five in-
stances. Some of the agents above noted
were used in combination to preserve the
- subject, which had been kept in cold storage
after it was placed upon the table for dis-
JANUARY 17, 1896. ]
section. In one instance the following plan
was reported: Injection with carbolic acid
one and a half pints, glycerine six pints,
with alcohol one and one-half pints. After
the injection, directions were given to paint
the subject daily for fourteen days with car-
bolic acid, one part to glycerine six parts,
and then place it in an air tight box over a
pan of methylated spirits. Perfectly satis-
factory results were reported to have been
obtained by this method, both as regards
the character of the tissues and the absence
of odor. Subject keeps indefinitely. Chlo-
ride of zinc, a fifty per cent. solution of
neutral reaction was reported as an agent
used successfully in preserving subjects, but
had the objection of unfavorable action on
the tissues, causing hardness and change in
color. If subject is not required for imme-
diate use it was placed in a saturated solu-
tion of salt, forming a strong brine. If im-
mersed for a long time in the brine the sub-
ject requires to be soaked in water for a
period of twenty-four or forty-eight hours,
in order to soften the tissues.
A number of formule were given, among
them Wickersheim’s Formula, consisting of
three thousand parts of boiling water, one
hundred and nine parts of alum, twenty-
five parts of chloride of sodium, twelve
parts of nitrate of potassium, sixty parts of
carbonate of potassium, ten parts of arseni-
ous acid, when cool filter, and to ten parts
of the liquid thus obtained add one part of
methylic alcohol and four parts of glycerine.
Van Vetter’s Formula: Seven parts of
glycerine, one part of brown sugar and one-
half part of nitrate of potassium.
Langer’s Formula: One hundred parts
of glycerine, fifteen parts carbolic acid,
eleven parts of alcohol.
Empersonne’s Formula: Chloral Hydrate
five hundred grains, glycerine two and a-half
litres and distilled water.
Among the formule reported, arsenic was
an ingredient in a large number, and in the
SCIENCE.
79
following combinations: 1. Arsenic (pure)
eleven and one-half pounds, carbonate of
potassium twenty-one pounds, crude car-
bolic acid and glycerine each two pints,
with distilled water sufficient to make one
gallon. 2. One pound of arsenic, one pound
of bicarbonate of soda, one pint of salt, six
quarts of water. 3. Injection of arseniate
of potash, mixed in large quantity with
liquid soap. 4. Arseniate of soda, in sat-
urated solution, one gallon; carbolic acid,
eight ounces; glycerine, one-half pint. The
above formule afford examples of the use
of arsenic, either in the form of arsenious
acid, arseniate of potassium, or arseniate of
sodium. As a rule, it was combined with
some salt of potash, carbolic acid and glycer-
ine. In a few instances it was reported as
being used alone in solution.
Carbolic acid appears in a large number
of the formule reported in use. In most
instances in combination with arsenic, some
salt of potash or soda or bichloride of mer-
cury. In few instances it is reported as
being used alone.
Bichloride of mercury is also reported as
largely used alone or in combination with
arsenic, salts of potash or soda, carbolic acid
and glycerine; one formula being one five-
hundredth solution of bichloride of mer-
cury in mixture of water, glycerine and al
cohol; another, a mixture of bichloride ot
mercury, glycerine, carbolic acid and spirit.
The bicarbonate of potash, bicarbonate of
soda, nitrate of potash, as well as the chlor-
ide of sodium, appeared in a number of the
combinations employed. They are not re-
ported as possessing sufficient preservative
power which would permit them to be used
alone.
Glycerine appears to be a favorite agent,
as it forms a part of a large number of
formule. The same may be said in a very
less degree however, with regard to the use
of alcohol.
Formalin. is reported in two instances,
80
in one of which it was used in connection
with the preservation of human subjects,
and another in the preservation of an ani-
mal. In the latter instance the agent was
used in the proportion of one part to two
hundred parts of water. The animal was
injected with the solution thus prepared
and the body was placed in a tank with a
large quantity of fluid which was changed
after a period of one week, then after a
period of three weeks and strengthened from
time to time by the addition of a little for-
malin. Experience obtained in this case
was that, to make the injection of this
agent effective, the body should be
thoroughly injected, washing out the blood
if possible, and if the body is not to be dis-
sected at once it should be placed in a re-
ceptacle capable of being sealed up to pre-
vent the escape of formalin, and to prevent
the formation of mould it should at all
times be covered by the solution. The
cost of the formalin was stated to be $1.65
per pound package for a forty per cent.
solution.
5. As to the point in which injections
were made there were reported two in the
heart, nineteen in the common carotid
artery, and six in the common femoral
artery. As to the condition of the tissues
after injection but few replies were received
and these were not satisfactory. With re-
gard to the time in which material can be
kept and used in dissection, the replies in-
clude periods from three weeks to one year.
Five reported having used or were using
the method of preservation by cold storage.
The cost of the plant being from $500 to
$3,000.
6. The cost of receiving and preserving
material is stated to be from $1 to $25 per
subject.
7. In fifteen cases the supply of material is
stated to be sufficient and in fifteen not
sufficient. In a number it was stated to be
adequate, but more could be used if obtain-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 55.
able. The number of students were re-
ported as assigned to each subject to vary
from four to sixteen.
While the committee feels that the infor-
mation gathered through the circular letter
was not in some respects sufficiently specific
to enable it to arrive at definite conclusions,
upon the subject under consideration, yet
it believes that certain statements may be
made and conclusions deduced which will
be of value to teachers of anatomy and
those interested in the collection and pre-
servation of anatomical material.
The committee regards it in every way
as a matter to be most favorably com-
mented on that out of the 42 replies from
institutions 30 contained information that
anatomical material was obtained for the
purposes of instruction under the provisions
of the law. An examination of the copies
of the law which were sent to the chairman
of the committee shows them to be defec-
tive in many respects, giving evidence in
the provisions incorporated in the laws of
a strong feeling on the part of legislators
against the enactment of laws controlling
the disposition of dead human bodies for
the purpose of dissection. This feeling has
no doubt its origin in a fear that by so doing
they will expose themselves to criticism, if
not to censure, by their constituents. This
sentiment it believes can be largely changed
by the influence exerted upon the public
mind by the members of the medical pro-
fession. In every community it should be
the effort of the medical profession to
educate public opinion upon this point.
To place before the public the great neces-
sity which exists for the use of dead human
bodies in providing the proper instruction
of students in medicine, and the great pro-
tection afforded the citizens in each State
by the enactment of laws which will regu-
late the supply of anatomical material and
thus afford protection to the dead and pre-
yent the desecration of their resting places.
JANUARY 17, 1896.]
With regard to the protection which a
properly framed law affords to the com-
munity, it may be stated that it is within
the information of the committee and also
it may be said of the public that the body of
a member of the family of one of the
highest officers of the land was found in
the dissecting room of a medical college.
In the State in which this family resided
there was at that time no Anatomical Law
in existence. Since then one has been en-
acted, and the repetition of such an occur-
rence as that referred to is not possible
under its provisions.
Since the preparation of this report was
begun it has been reported in the daily
papers that a physician residing in one of
the Western States has been convicted for
the desecration of a grave, by the removal
of the body which it contained, and which
was to be used for dissection, and has been
sentenced to imprisonment for a term of
three years. In the State in which this oc-
curred, there is, so far as the committee
knows, no Law governing the use of dead
human bodies for the promotion of medical
science. These instances afford, the com-
mittee thinks, in a very forcible manner, evi-
dence of the protection which would be fur-
nished to both the community and the profes-
sion by the provisions of a properly framed
Anatomical Law. Attention has been
called to the fact that in a number of exist-
ing laws their provisions on examination
were found to be defective. In some in-
stances they were so inadequate as to
render the execution of the law practically
impossible, and in other cases to make the
law inoperative. On this point the com-
mittee feels it proper to express an opinion
to the effect that the requirements of any
law which is to be enacted should be made
compulsory, and not optional, as to perform-
ance of duty on the part of public officers.
It thinks that sufficient experience has been
obtained in the effort to secure compliance
SCIENCE.
81
with the terms of Anatomical Laws to
make it evident that under such conditions
only can the proper supply of Anatomical
material be obtained. In any law enacted
it also believes that proper protection should
be afforded the public as well as the profes-
sion in strict specification as to the right of
claim for burial. This right should be
limited to relatives either by blood or mar-
riage.
In this way claims made by organizations’
and individuals moved by feelings of
sentiment would be disposed of. In almost
all States, if not indeed in all, legal pro-
visions are in foree which control the
burial of the bodies of certain individuals,
notably war veterans.
With regard to any other claims by or-
ganizations or individuals, it would be
proper to leave them to the discretion of
those having charge of the execution of the
requirements of the law. A spirit of con-
ciliation and a regard for public sentiment
should always actuate those concerned in
the execution of the law, in order, so far as
possible, that any feelings of antagonism or
hostility should be removed. As stated
above, it should be the duty of members of
the medical profession to educate public
sentiment and obtain in every State enact-
ment of a law which will control the use of
dead human bodies for the promotion of
medical science. At this time of writing
the daily papers contain an account of the
action by the Governor of a Western State,
who has been compelled to call upon the
military foree to protect a medical college,
which has been threatened by a mob. In
this case the trouble has been caused by
the discovering in the dissecting room of the
college of bodies removed from a cemetery
adjacent to the city in which the college is
situated. Here is plainly made manifest
the necessity of a law to protect both the
public and the profession. An examination
of the laws now in force in the States in this
82
country leads the committee to the belief
that the law of the State of Pennsylvania is
the best, in the fact that it includes in its
terms all the provisions necessary to compel
compliance on the part of public officers and
to protect the citizens of the Commonwealth
in all of their rights. Itis also observed in
the examination of the laws of other States
that many of them have been founded_upon
this law, but in no instance have all of the
provisions of the law been incorporated.
This is possibly to be expected, as the con-
ditions existing in each State control the
actions of the legislative bodies in the fram-
ing of laws. A copy of the law of the State
of Pennsylvania is appended to this report,
and may be examined by the members of
the Association.
With regard to the disposition of the re-
mains left after dissection, the committee
feels it proper to advise that so far as pos-
sible they should be decently interred.
Under any circumstance the committee
thinks that it is not in keeping with the
proper sentiment to dispose of them in the
manner in which it is feared it is sometimes
done. The retention of bones in some in-
stances for the purposes of study and in-
struction and for the preparation of articu-
lated skeletons is necessary and sanctioned.
With regard to the preservation of an-
atomical material by the injection of chem-
ical agents or by cold-storage method, the
committee feels that the information re-
ceived is not as specific and comprehensive
as desired. The agents reported to be in
use, either alone or in combination, are
such as are well known to the teachers of
anatomy. ‘There is apparently no conclu-
sive evidence that any one of. the agents
alone, or in combination, accomplishes all
that is desired in the way of the perfect
preservation of anatomical material. Per-
fect preservation includes not only freedom
from decomposition, but the maintenance of
the tissues in a normal condition as nearly
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. III. No. 55.
as possible, and the existence of these con-
ditions for such length of time as may be
necessary in the storage of subjects on one
hand and the time required for the work of
actual dissection on the other hand. In.
many institutions it is necessary to collect
during a period of the year, and that the
most unfavorable season, so far as temper-
ature is concerned, a number of subjects
which shall be kept in a state of preserva-
tion for a number of months, so that they
may be, in every respect, suitable for dis-
section. To accomplish this it is necessary
to employ an agent which will not only
prevent decomposition, but also to provide
some means to so keep the subject that it
may be maintained in this condition of
preservation without material change in
the color or character of the tissues. These
ends are to be obtained, it is also to be ob-
served, within what may be regarded as a
reasonable cost. To accomplish .the latter
object it is manifest that one agent should
be used rather than a combination of agents.
For instance, the use of arsenious acid or
bicloride of mercury, both of which are in-
expensive, will provide a means of preserva-
tion at no very great cost. When these
agents, however, are used in combination
with glycerine, rectified spirits, or methylic
alcohol, the cost will be materially in-
creased and the storage of the subjects,
thus injected, in alcohol or other agent of
similar character, will add to the expense.
The committee is not able to say from the
information received that any of these
agents will preserve anatomical material
for a number of months. Undoubtedly solu-
tions of bicloride of mercury, arsenic or
carbolic acid, will prevent the occurrence of
decomposition for a limited period of time,
sufficient under ordinary circumstances for
the complete dissection of the subject, but
no evidence was adduced that these agents,
when injected into a subject which was to
be stored in a saline solution for a number
+ JANUARY 17, 1896.]
of months, would be effective. The use of
salts of potassa is advised in a number of
instances, and, as is well known, they are
of value in combinations, the effect being
not only in a slight degree preservative, but
is also manifest on the color of the tissues.
The use of arsenic solutions is objected to
by students on account of the irritation of
the fingers which is produced. While there
may be a few instances in which this ob-
jection becomes a matter of serious impor-
tance, it may be regarded as of minor im-
portance in a great majority of cases. The
objection against the use of glycerine is the
production of mould, which occurs as the
result of the hygroscopic action. The ex-
pense attending the use of alcohol is such
as to forbid its employment in any large
quantity for injection or storage purposes.
Formalin is reported as effective as a pre-
servative and storage agent, but its cost is
a strong objection against its use. The
committee believes that the method of
preservation by means of cold storage is
the best which could be employed, but the
question of expense of the introduction of a
plant necessary for this purpose is a very
serious one. In cities where more than
one medical institution is situated, it seems
feasible to have a central plant in which
subjects required in all the institutions can
be stored, with the division of expense made
amongst those entering into the arrange-
ment. As to the time in which subjects
should be injected which are kept in cold
storage plants, it is desirable that this should
be done prior to their deposit. They will
be ready to place at once upon the table,
and it is believed the injections can be bet-
ter made before deposit rather than after
they have remained some time under the
influence of the cold.
Reference is made to the use of the so-
lution of chloride of zine as a preservative
agent of value, especially where it is neces-
sary to collect subjects during the summer
SCIENCE.
83
months, and to keep them in a solution of a
salt. Solutions of chloride of zine will, with-
out doubt, not only prevent but arrest
decomposition. The bleaching properties
which it possesses and which it exerts upon
the tissues is a very serious objection. This
agent is used largely, if not, altogether in
the medical institutions of Philadelphia, to
which are supplied each year over seven
hundred subjects. It is used as an injec-
tion in the proportion of one-half to one-
third of a fifty-per cent. of solution of neu-
tral reaction, a subject of average weight
requiring from four to six quarts.
In the replies given as to the cost of the
reception, preservation and injection of sub-
jects a wide difference is observed. It is evi-
dently impossible, unless subjects are trans-
ported without cost, to reduce the cost per
subject for reception, injection and preser-
vation to $1.00 each. Under the provisions
of a well framed law, it is believed that the
delivery of subjects should not exceed as an
average from $5.00 to $8.00, and the injec-
tion and preservation should be accom-
plished by an additional expenditure of
$5.00, making the cost of each when placed
npon the table about $12.00.
Less than one-half of the replies received
as to the supply of anatomical material con-
tained the statement that the supply was
adequate. In an equal number the supply
was stated to be not sufficient and the re-
maining number reported that more sub-
jects could be used if obtainable. The con-
clusion to be deduced from these statements
is manifestly to the effect that the supply
of anatomical material in our medical in-
stitutions is not as great as it should be.
The number of students assigned to each
subject were stated in the replies received
to vary from four to sixteen. Here again, it
is to be observed, a wide difference is ex-
pressed. The number on one hand to be
too small to obtain the proper economy in
the use of material, and on the other hand
84
too large to secure the full instruction nec-
cessary. It is to be observed that the man-
ner in which instruction is imparted will
modify the statements above made.
CONCLUSIONS.
1. Anatomical material for the promotion
of medical science should be obtained wholly
under legal enactment. The provisions of
the law should be compulsory upon all offi-
cers of State and county institutions and
municipal governments.
2. Of the anatomical laws which are in
force in this country, the committee is of the
opinion that the law of the State of Penn-
sylvania is the best. It is framed in such
manner as to provide under a strict execu-
tion of its requirements anatomical material
for the promotion of Medical Science and
prevents the desecration of the resting place
of the dead.
3. The committee believes it would con-
tribute to the best interests of anatomical
teaching in this country if action was taken
by this association to secure the enactment
in every State of a law controlling the col-
lection and distribution of anatomical ma-
terial and recommends such action.
4. The committee finds itself unable, from
the information which has been received, to
arrive at any definite conclusions with re-
gard to the best means for accomplishing
the preservation of anatomical material for
the purposes of dissection. Many of the
agents reported in the communications re-
ceived have been long in use, and to a
greater or less degree have been employed
successfully in securing preservation of an-
atomical material, but not with all the con-
ditions which are deemed as essential in
perfect preservation, and those which afford
the best results in dissection. Preservation
by means of cold storage it believes to be a
method which approaches nearest to per-
fection, and it should be arranged upon
such a plan as will admit of the retention
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 55.
of anatomical material, under the influence
the low temperature during dissection.
(Signed. ) J. Ewine Mrars,
J. D. Bryant,
Tuomas Dwicut.
NOVEMBER 19, 1895.
The following amendment to the report
was adopted: “‘ That Professors of Anatomy
be requested to inform their students con-
cerning the laws upon the subject of an-
atomical material, and request these stu-
dents to use their influence with the authori-
ties in their respective places of residence
to increase the quantity of anatomical ma-
terial by making available much that is
now withheld, either from neglect or indif-
ference.”
ANATOMICAL LAW OF THE STATE OF PENN-
SYLVANIA, ENACTED JUNE 13, 1883.
For the promotion of medical science by the dis-
tribution of and use of unclaimed human
bodies for scientific purposes through a board
created for that purpose, and to prevent un-
authorized uses and traffic in human bodies.
Section 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and
House of Representatives of the Commonwealth
of Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met, and
it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same:
That the professors of anatomy, the profes-
sors of surgery, the demonstrators of anat-
omy, and the demonstrators of surgery of
the medical and dental schools and colleges
of this Commonwealth, which are now or
may hereafter become incorporated, to-
gether with one representative from each
of the unincorporated schools of anatomy or
practical surgery within this Commonwealth
in which there are, or from time to time at
the time of the appointment of such repre-
sentative shall be, not less than twenty-five
scholars, shall be, and hereby are consti-
tuted a board, for the distribution and de-
livery of dead human bodies hereinafter de-
seribed, to and among such persons as un-
der the provisions of this Act are entitled
JANUARY 17, 1896. ]
thereto. The professor of anatomy in the
University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia
shall call a meeting of said board for organ-
ization at a time and place to be fixed by
him within thirty days after the passage of
this Act. The said board shall have full
power to establish rules and regulations for
its government, and to appoint and remove
proper officers, and shall keep full and com-
plete minutes of its transactions, and rec-
ords shall also be kept under its direction
of all bodies received and distributed by
said board, and of the persons to whom the
same may be distributed, which minutes
and records shall be open at all times to
the inspection of each member of said
board, and of any district attorney of any
county within this Commonwealth. |
Src. 2. All public officers, agents, and ser-
vants, and all officers, agents, and servants of
any and every county, city, township, bor-
ough, district, and other municipality, and
of any and every almshouse, prison, morgue,
hospital, or any other public institution
having charge or control over dead human
bodies required to be buried at the public
expense, are hereby required to notify the
said board of distribution, or such person or
persons as may from time to time be desig-
nated by said board, or its duly authorized
officer or agent, whenever any such body
or bodies come into his or their possession,
charge, or control, and shall, without fee or
reward, deliver such body or bodies, and
permit and suffer the said board and its
agents, and the physicians and surgeons
from time to time designated by them, who
may comply with the provisions of this Act,
to take and remove all such bodies to be
used within this State for the advancement
of medical science ; but no such notice need
be given, nor shall any such body be de-
livered if any person, claiming to be and
satisfying the authorities in charge of said
body that he or she is of kindred or is re-
lated by marriage to the deceased, shall
SCIENCE.
85
claim the said body for burial, but it shall
be surrendered for interment, nor shall the
notice be given or body be delivered if such
deceased person was a traveller who died
suddenly, in which case the said body shall
be buried.
Src. 3. The said board, or their duly au-
thorized agent, may take and receive such
bodies so delivered as aforesaid, and shall,
upon receiving them, distribute and de-
liver them to and among the schools, col-
leges, physicians and surgeons aforesaid in
manner following: Those bodies needed
for lectures and demonstrations by the said
schools and colleges, incorporated and un-
incorporated, shall first be supplied, the re-
maining bodies shall then be distributed
proportionately and equitably, preference
being given to said schools and colleges,
the number assigned to each to be based
upon the number of students in each dis-
secting or operative surgery class, which
number shall be reported to the board at
such times as it may direct. Instead of
receiving and delivering said bodies them-
selves, or through their agents or servants,
the board of distribution may from time to
time, either directly, or by their authorized
officer or agent, designate physicians and
surgeons who shall receive them, and the
number which each shall receive. Pro-
vided always, however, that schools and
colleges, incorporated and unincorporated,
and physicians or surgeons of the county
where the death of the person, or such per-
son described, takes place shall be preferred
to all others. And provided, also, that for
this purpose such dead body shall be held
subject to their order in the county where
the death oceurs for a period not less than
twenty-four hours.
Src. 4. The said board may employ a
carrier or carriers for the conveyance of
said bodies, which shall be well enclosed
within a suitable encasement, and carefully
deposited free from public observation.
86
Said carrier shall obtain receipts by name,
or, if the person be unknown, by a descerip-
tion, for each body delivered by him, and
shall deposit said receipt with the secretary
of the said board.
Src. 5. No school, college, physician, or
surgeon shall be allowed or permitted to
receive any such body or bodies until a
bond shall have been given to the Common-
wealth by such physician or surgeon, or by
or in behalf of such school or college, to be
approved by the Prothonotary of the Court
of Common Pleas in and for the county in
which such physician or surgeon shall re-
side, or in which such school or college may
be situate, and to be filed in the office of
said Prothonotary, which bond shall be in
the penal sum of one thousand dollars, con-
ditioned that all such bodies which the said
physician or surgeon, or the said school or
college, shall receive thereafter shall be
used only for the promotion of medical sci-
ence within the State; and whosoever shall
sell or buy such body or bodies, or in any
way traffic in the same, or shall transmit,
or convey, or cause to procure to be trans-
mitted or conveyed said body or bodies to
any place outside of this State shall be
deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall,
on conviction, be liable to a fine not exceed-
ing two hundred dollars, or be imprisoned
for a term not exceeding one year.
Src. 6. Neither the Commonwealth, nor
any county or municipality, nor any officer,
agent, or servant thereof, shall be at any
expense by reason of the delivery or distri-
bution of any such body, but all the ex-
penses thereof, and of said board of distri-
bution, shall be paid by those receiving the
bodies, in such manner as may be specified
by said board of distribution, or otherwise
agreed upon.
Src. 7. That any person having duties
enjoined upon him by the provisions of this
Act, who shall neglect, refuse, or omit to
perform the same as hereby required, shall,
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Von. IIL. No. 55.
on conviction thereof, be liable to fine of
not less than one hundred nor more than
five hundred dollars, for each offence.
Sec. 8. That all Acts or parts of Acts in-
consistent with this Act be and the same
are hereby repealed.
PHILADELPHIA, January 1, 1889.
In accordance with the requirements of
the above law the Anatomical Board of the
State of Pennsylvania was organized July,
1883, for the purpose of carrying it into
execution. The attention of all State,
county and municipal officers charged with
duties under the law is directed to its re-
quirements. Boxes containing bodies should
be addressed to George Willie, Philadel-
phia, and should be delivered to the agent
of the express company at the station
nearest to the place from which the body is
sent. The charges paid by the Board for
transportion to the railroad station vary
from $1.00 to $2.50 in accordance with the
distance. These charges will be paid by
the agent of the express company, and col-
lected from the Board by the agent in Phil-
adelphia.
SEVENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE
AMERICAN FOLK-LORE SOCIETY.
Tur American Folk-lore Society held its
seventh annual meeting in Philadelphia on
Friday and Saturday, December 27 and 28,
1895. Although the attendance was rather
slim, the number and the value of the papers
presented made the session an interesting
one. The President, Dr. Washington Mat-
thews, opened the meeting with an address
on the poetry and music of the Nayahoes.
He brought out very clearly the misconcep-
tion of superficial observers who have not
had the opportunity to enter into the spirit
of Indian life, and consequently described
the primitive tribes as void of poetic or
musical feeling. The examples given by
the speaker are ample proof that the Nava-
JANUARY 17, 1896. ]
hoes possess a well-developed poetry. In a
supplementary paper by Professor J.C. Fill-
more the characteristics of Navahoe music
were described, which showed that in this
case also harmony is the underlying prin-
ciple of primitive music.
Dr. Robert Bell, the indefatigable ex-
plorer, to whose zeal we owe much of our
knowledge of the topography and geology
of northern Canada, related five Algonquin
myths which he collected in the region be-
tween Ottawa River and Hudson Bay.
These have their close analoga among other
tribes of the same stock. , Magic and medi-
cine came in for a considerable share of at-
tention in the papers read on the first day
of the proceedings. Mr. Stanbury T. Hagar
treated the Micmac of Nova Scotia from
this point of view, while Dr. J. H. McCor-
mick described the medicine myths of the
Cherokee, and Mr. Heli Chatelain made an
interesting contribution on the customs of
the natives of West Africa.
On the second day a number of papers
were read referring to current superstitions
of the whites in America. Mr. Robert M.
Lawrence presented a vast amount of infor-
mation on the folk-lore of the horseshoe,
in which he dwelt upon the superstitions,
referring to its form and material, and those
referring to the place at which the horse-
shoe is used in order to secure good luck.
Mr. W. W. Newell contributed a review
of a collection on moon superstitions in
America made by Mrs. Fanny Bergen. Dr.
D. G. Brinton showed how the tendency
to displace sacred words by others has led
to a curious development of ‘cuss words’
in America.
A very comprehensive review of the cus-
toms of the Spanish in the Rio Grande Val-
ley was presented in a paper by Captain
John Bourke on ‘ Arabic Survivals in the
Rio Grande Valley.’ Dr. F. Boas discussed
the dissemination of tales in America, bas-
ing his argument on a comparative study
SCIENCE. 87
of the myths of the Indians of the North Pa-
cific Coast. A noteworthy myth of the Nay-
ahoes was told by Dr. Matthews, in which
the principle underlying the secret societies
of this tribe was brought forward most
clearly. This seems to be identical among
all the tribes of North America: An ances-
tor of the Indians is taken ‘away by certain
supernatural beings and is taught by them
the secrets and particularly the songs of
the society. Inconclusion, Dr. McCormick
read a paper on negro folk-lore in America.
The work of the Folk-lore Society has
shown a marked advance of late years.
Although the membership has not as much
increased as might be desired, the Society
has been able to publish, in addition to its
journal, a number of supplementary volumes
dealing with special subjects, and has thus
succeeded in making valuable contributions
to the study of American folk-lore. This
work is being carried on as energetically as
possible, and in the coming year the Society
expects to publish two new volumes, one on
current superstitions among the English
speaking people of North America, by Mrs.
Fanny Bergen, and a second one, a full
collection of Navahoe myths, by Dr. Wash-
ington Matthews. The Society derives much
of its support from local societies which are
being organized in a great number of the
larger cities of our continent, but most of
its success is due to the unflinching perse-
verance of its Secretary, Mr. W. W. Newell.
The officers elected for the coming year,
are: Captain John Bourke, President ;
Mr. Stewart Culin, First Vice-President ;
Dr. F. Boas, Second Vice-President. The
next annual meeting will be held in the
Christmas week of this year, in Baltimore,
Md. F. B.
ALASKA AS IT WAS AND IS, 1865-1595.
( Concluded. )
Avr the time of my first visit and until
very recently the sole productive industry
38 SCIENCE.
of the Aleut people consisted in the sea-
otter hunting and the fur-sealfishery. Much
of their subsistence was and is obtained
from the natural products of the region—
fish, wild fowl, and the flesh of marine
mammals. The custom of preparing cloth-
ing from the skins of birds and animals has
long been abandoned. The Aleut and his
family now dress in clothing of wool or cot-
ton, burn kerosene in an American lamp,
and cook their food on an iron stove. The
baradbora or native hut, built of sod and
stones, has been generally replaced by a
frame cottage, and the means for supplying
these artificial wants has been obtained
from the income derived from the seal and
sea otter. Now that these animals are ap-
proaching extinction, at least from a com-
mercial standpoint, the question how to
provide even the modest income needed for
these people is a serious one. While it is
not yet settled that the half-starved Eskimo
of the northern coast will adopt the new
mode of life necessitated by the care and
maintenance of large herds of tame rein-
deer, and the success of that experiment is
still questionable, there is no doubt in my
mind that the introduction of the deer into
the Aleutian chain is not only perfectly
practicable, but that it offers the only solu-
tion of the problem of providing for the
Aleuts which seems to possess the elements
necessary for success. There are no preda-
cious animals to molest the deer, like the
wolves of the mainland; there is an abund-
ant supply of forage, and the climate and
conditions are those that the animal is
known to thrive in. A herd introduced a
few years ago into Bering island, on the
Russian coast, and simply let alone and
protected from dogs, has increased very
much in number and will soon afford skins
and tallow for export. There is no obvious
reason why on most of the Aleutian Islands
equally good results should not be obtained.
Some few deer were introduced upon the
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 55.
island of Amaknak, in the bay of Una-
lashka, a few years since, but they were the
property of whites, not natives, were not
protected from the numerous dogs of an
adjacent settlement, and have not thriven.
When the time comes, and it seems not
far away, when the natives realize that they
must depend on the deer to replace the van-
ishing fur animals as a source of income,
and when they can acquire property in deer,
I believe the result will be all that could be
wished.
In closing this summary of early condi-
tions in the Territory and of the events
which enabled them to be observed, it may
not be out of place to summarize also the
results of the scientific work of those years.
Of course, only the more important points
can be alluded to. As the Western Union
Telegraph Expedition ended by a with-
drawal from the country, and was the occa-
sion of a large expenditure of money with
no return to its promoters, no general report
was ever officially prepared, and the work
of the scientific corps was made known
piecemeal in various technical journals.
The published results were associated in
the minds of students with the individual
authors rather than with the expedition as
a whole. The subsequent work under the
auspices of the Coast Survey, which in fact
grew out of the work done or attempted in
the earlier exploration, has been, so far as
it was geographical, regarded very natur-
ally as incidental to the usual work of that
bureau, and so far as it has been of other
sorts has not been connected in the public
mind with any organization in particular.
The fact that the Revenue Marine, the
Army and Navy, the Signal Service and
several unofficial organizations or individ-
uals have carried out praiseworthy explora-
tions with most excellent results has led to
the further obscuration of the earlier work
as a connected whole. I believe no one of
those engaged in it has yet attempted to
JANUARY 17, 1896. ]
enumerate the results, either general or
scientific, directly or indirectly consequent
upon the expedition. The present sum-
mary may therefore serve a useful purpose.
The most important result which indi-
rectly came about from the explorations by’
our parties was the acquisition of Alaska
by the United States. While the transfer
might have been proposed and the question
discussed if there never had been any tele-
graph expedition, yet I believe, in view of
the opposition which existed in Congress
and the cheap ridicule of part of the daily
press, that if it had not been for the inter-
est excited by the expedition and the infor-
mation which its members were able to
furnish to the friends of the purchase the
| proposition would have failed to win ap-
proval.
But, leaving such questions apart and con-
sidering merely the scientific results, the ex-
pedition made weighty additions to geo-
graphical knowledge. To it we owe the
first mapping of the Yukon from actual ex-
ploration, adding to the list of American
rivers one of the largest known. Old maps
of North America made the Rocky moun-
tains extend in nearly a straight line north-
ward to the Polar sea. Our explorations
‘showed that the mountains curved to the
westward, leaving a gap to the northward
through which the Canadian fauna reached
to the shores of the Pacific and Bering sea.
The general faunal distribution of life at
this end of the continent in its broader
sense was settled then and there. A gen-
eral knowledge of the country, till then
practically unknown except to a few fur
traders, was obtained and made public. To
the Coast Survey work of 187174 we owe
some forty charts, a large proportion of
which are of harbors or passages never pre-
viously surveyed. In preparing a Coast
Pilot of southeastern Alaska, while that
part of it useful to navigators was in the
nature of things rapidly superseded, yet the
SCIENCE.
89
work, being conscientious and thorough in
the matter of names, practically settled the
geographic nomenclature of that region for
all time. The myth of a branch of the
Kuro Siwo or Japanese warm current run-
ning north through Bering sea and strait
and producing open water in the Polar sea
still lingers in some dark corners of geo-
graphic literature; but our researches,
covering actual observation, the whole
literature, and scores of old manuscript log-
books, conclusively show that there is no
such current as that referred to, and that
the currents which do exist have no con-
nection whatever with the Japanese stream. °
Meteorological observations were kept up
in all those years, and afterward a complete
synopsis of all the recorded meteorological
data for that region was prepared and issued
by the Coast Survey with abundant illus-
trations. One of the results of the mag-
netic observations made by our party, in
the endeavor to correct the discrepancies —
between the variation of the compass needle
as shown on the charts of Bering sea and
strait and those observed by present navi-
gators, was the discovery that the needle
had reached its easternmost elongation and
had for some time been receding in the
amount of its variation. In gathering con-
firmatory data during 1874 and 1880 more
than forty.stations in all parts of the Terri-
tory were occupied. Asin the case of the
meteorology, the literature and all practi-
cable sources were ransacked for magnetic
records,* and these, with our own observa-
tions, were utilized in the excellent discus-
sions of Alaskan magnetism by Dr. C. A.
Schott.
In geology we were tutored before sailing
in 1865 by Prof. Agassiz and carried with
us a written schedule of observations to be
made on the glaciers. Our explorations
showed that north of the Alaskan moun-
*This work was almost entirely done by Mr. Mar-
cus Baker.
90
tains, as in some parts of Siberia, there are
no glaciers, and there has been no glacia-
tion in the ordinary sense, but that in its
stead we have the singular phenomenon of
the Ground ice formation, a state of affairs
in which ice plays the part of a more or
less regularly interstratified rock, above
which are the clays containing remains of
the mammoth and other animals, showing
that they became extinct not because of the
refrigeration of the region, but coincidently
with the coming of a warmer climate.
In anthropology, in addition to large col-
lections obtained from the living tribes, voca-
- bularies, etc., the names and boundaries of
all the tribes were obtained for the first
time, the Eskimo were shown to exist on
the Asiatic coast as immigrants driven by
war from America, and a very ancient con-
fusion of these people with the Asiatic
Chukchi was definitely cleared up. The
data obtained in regard to the various
branches of the Eskimo stock brought wel-
come confirmation to the theory of Rink
on the origin of this people—a theory which
would probably have been by this time more
widely known if it had been more sensa-
tional and less scientific.
The patient examination of many village
sites, shell heaps, and middens throughout
the Aleutian chain resulted in the discovery
that the successive strata, judged by the
implements found in them, showed a grad-
ual progress in culture from that of the low-
est, a crude Eskimo type, to that of the up-
permost stratum, which contained the evi-
dences of Aleut culture of the type immedi-
ately before their subjugation by the Rus-
sians. This was, I believe, at that time the
first instance in which the paleontologic
method, if I may eall it so, had been applied
to the study of American shell-heaps.
In biology the first object of the work
planned by Kennicott had been the determi-
nation of what constituted the fauna and
flora, and from that knowledge the determi-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 55.
nation of the relations between the Asiatic
and American assemblies. This was ac-
complished in essentials, though it need not
be said that the details will still supply an
opportunity for study for many a year to
come. The enumeration of the greater
part of the population of mammals, birds
and fishes has been accomplished and the
plants have been fairly well collected, so
that we know that the fauna and flora, de-
duction being made of cireumboreal species,
are essentially American and not tinctured
to any marked extent with Asiatic ingredi-
ents. Among the lower animals the brachi-
opods, hydroid zoophytes and corallines;
part of the sponges; the limpets, chitons
and nudibranchs among the mollusks,
have been monographically studied. The
crustacea, insects, and a large part of the
the mollusks yet remain to be worked up in
a similar manner.
To close the record of achievement, I may
mention the biblography of Alaskan litera-
ture, prepared by Mr. Baker and myself,
which, up to May, 1879, when it went to
press, comprised 3,832 titles in eleven lan-
guages. Since it was published by the
Coast Survey nearly as many more have
been accumulated, and the list probably
will continue to increase from year to year.
Since my field work closed, in 1880,
Alaskans have not been idle. The pros-
pector has invaded the recesses of the land,
and surveys, explorations and mountain-
eering have been almost constantly carried
on. The tourist has discovered the country
and written books which, although they
have the resemblance of one pea to another,
have nevertheless carried tidings of Alaska
to most corners of the Union. Alaska in
one sense is no longer unknown, and she is
even beginning to be understood and ap-
preciated. The missionary has been up
and down in the land, and has done much
good in many ways, not without occasional
mistakes.
JANUARY 17, 1896. ]
It was, therefore, with curiosity as well
interest that I returned to the Territory last
May, after an absence of fifteen years. In
looking back on the summer’s experiences,
a comparison between the Alaska of 1865
and that of 1895 naturally suggests itself:
I was rash enough twenty-five years ago to
indulge in prophecy as to the future of the
Territory. I did not count on the inertia of
Congress or the stupidity of officials, as I
might now. Nevertheless progress has been
made, and a summary of present conditions,
perhaps even a peep into the future, is not
inappropriate at this time.
Since 1865 the fur-seal fishery has risen,
produced its millions, and declined to a
point where its close in a commercial sense
may almost be predicted. The first fisher-
man sought the cod in that year, and a
modest fleet has kept the business going
ever since, with more or less fluctuation in
the catch. The salmon canner was then un-
known, but has since invaded nearly every
important fishing site. The placer miner
has developed and exhausted the gold of
the Stikine region, and pushed on to the
head waters of the Yukon and its afiluents.
The clink of the drill and the monotonous
beat of the stamp mill are familiar sounds
on the quartz ledges, which in 1865 lay
peacefully under their blankets of moss.
The whaling fleet has laid its bones on the
sandy bars of the Arctic coast, while the in-
novating steam whaler has pushed its way
past Point Barrow into the very fastness of
the ice at Herschel island, to find, in its
turn, its occupation gradually passing away.
The imperial sea otter is on the way to be-
coming a memory, and the Aleuts, his per-
secutors, are not unlikely to follow him.
Asregards the inhabitants ofthe Territory,
a complete change is conspicuous. Some
thousands of white fisherman, hunters,
miners and prospectors are now scattered
along the coast and rivers, on the whole a
hard-working, orderly set, with here and
SCIENCE.
91
there a rascally whisky smuggler or a
stranded gentleman. Apart from a few
mining camps, the parasites who live by the
vices of others are few. A country where
he who would live must work is not attrac-
tive tothem. Cut off from direct contact
with the rest of the United States, Alaska
is really a colony and nota frontier territory
in the sense usually understood. As such,
its needs should have been the subject of
study and appropriate legislation, the ne-
glect of which by Congress so far is bitterly
and justly resented by the entire population.
Into political matters I shall not enter, but
must observe that among the numerous ill-
paid officials few are well prepared to handle
all the difficult questions presented in such
a community, and the executive, such as it
is, is without the legal authority or the
proper facilities for governing or even visit-
ing the greater part of the region it is sup-
posed to control. The state of the law is
uncertain, the seat of authority obscure, di-
vided illegitimately between naval officers,
the.revenue-cutter service, and a powerless
Governor, who, whatever his wishes and in-
tentions, is not permitted by the law to con-
trol anything. If it were not for the orderly
character and good sense of the white popu-
lation, the Territory might easily become a
pandemonium. This condition of things is
disgraceful, and reform is urgently needed.
The change in the native population of
southeastern Alaska is very marked. Ina
general way a similar change has taken
place all over the Territory. The primitive
condition of the natives has almost wholly
disappeared. The turf-covered hut has
given way to frame shanties; log houses
are rarely built; the native dress has dis-
appeared, replaced by cheap ready-made
clothing; native manufactures, utensils,
weapons, curios, all are gone, or made only
in coarse facsimile for sale to tourists; the
native buys flour and tea, cooks his salmon
in a frying pan, and catches his cod or hali-
92
but with a Birmingham hook and a Glou-
cester line. In the whole of southern
Alaska, thanks to the schools, the children
and many young people speak fairly good
English. If the present influences con-
tinue, another generation will see the use
of English universal and the native lan-
guages chiefly obsolete. The day of the
ethnological collector is past. Southeastern
Alaska is swept clean of relics; hardly a
shaman’s grave remains inviolate.
In other parts of the Territory the same
is more or lesstrue. The native population
is focusing about the commercial centers.
The people gather where work and trade
afford opportunities, and I have seen more
than one pretentious church standing
empty among the abandoned houses of a
formerly prosperous village. There issome
admixture of blood in marriages between
the often attractive ‘Creole’ women and
the incoming settlers. These marriages are
often very fruitful, but the pure-blooded
natives seem to be diminishing. The
Aleuts, whose census is accurately made
annually by the Greek Church, are dis-
tinctly losing ground, and will doubtless
pass away in a few generations. Thesame
is probably true of the Tlinkit people. As
we approach the Arctic region, changes of
all sorts are less marked and civilization
has had less effect. Here the subsistence
of the natives presents serious and increas-
ing difficulties. Their natural food supply
has been practically destroyed by the whites
and by repeating firearms, of which the na-
tives have many. The whales are almost
extinct, and the whaling fleet itself is nearly
so. The walrus preceded the whale, and
the hair seal has never been sufficiently
abundant in this region for a sole resource.
The chief salmon streams are or soon will
be monopolized by the whites near the sea,
and the natives of the upper Yukon will go
hungry. The present law allows unre-
stricted fishing to the natives and a close
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 55.
time of one day a week for the whites.
The latter hire the natives to fish during
the prohibited day, and so the salmon have
no close time. Where a salmon stream is
monopolized by one firm, they do not
usually cut their own throats by. taking all
the salmon, but where there are several
competing firms there is little respite for
the fish.
The cod fishery was for some years car-
ried on by two competing firms, who have
now composed their differences. They had
salting stations on shore, and bought fish at
so much a thousand from ‘fishermen, who
used small sailing vessels or dories and
fished near shore. Nowit is found cheaper
and, for other reasons, preferable to return
to the older system of fishing in the open
sea from a sea-going vessel, as on the banks
atthe Kast. The preparation of the Alaska
fish has often been hasty, careless and in-
ferior to that done in the East; so Alaska
codfish, originally of equal quality, are less
esteemed commercially than the Hastern
cod. For some reason I do not understand
the Pacific Ocean at best offers but a small
market for fish under present conditions,
and so I look to see the codfishing industry
develop slowly and perhaps be the last, as it
is, in my opinion, the most substantial and
important of the resources of the Territory.
At present the salmon are commercially
more important, but unless more effectively
supervised and regulated they will meet
with the same fate as the fisheries of Cali-
fornia and the Columbia river. There
should be a resident inspector at every im-
portant fishery, and as the business is car-
ried on for at most two or three months in
the year, a vigilant inspection by a cutter
or fisheries vessel told off for this especial
work would counteract any tendency to
bribe the resident inspector. I have seen
3,500,000 pounds of canned salmon taken
in one season from one small stream, repre-
senting at least 5,000,000 pounds of eatable
JANUARY 17, 1896. ]
fish, and it seems that an annual supply of
the best fish food like that is worth pre-
serving; but if the work is to be put into
the hands of the lowest class of political
appointees, instead of intelligent experts,
making the offices will not save the fish. ~
In the matter of furs we may regard the
fur seal fishery as doomed. It is probable
that few of the pelagic sealers will pay ex-
penses after this season, and two or three
years are likely to see the end of the busi-
ness. It is costing us much more than the
catch is worth now, and the most sensible
way of ending the matter is generally felt
to be the destruction at one fell swoop of
all the seals remaining on the islands and
the abandonment of the business.
The continental furs, owing to competi-
tion between traders, are now selling for
nearly their full market value, and little
profit can be expected from them. They are
also growing more and more scarce, as the
high prices stimulate trapping. The nat-
ural and satisfactory offset to this would be
the establishment of preserves, such as the
‘fox farms,’ of which mention has been fre-
quently made in the daily press. Many of
these have been started, and the multitudi-
nous islands offer opportunities for many
more; but the business is hazardous, since
there is no protection against poachers, and
a very ill-judged attempt has been made by
the Treasury, I am informed, to impose, in
addition to the annual sum for which the
island is leased, a ‘ tax’ of $5 on each fox
killed over twenty from each ‘farm.’ It is
doubtful if the Treasury is entitled to tax
anybody without the explicit authority of
Congress, and a tax of 50 per cent. on the
gross value of the product not only is
oppressive and exorbitant, but will put
a stop to a business which should be en-
couraged.
The timber of Alaska, though by no
means insignificant, is not likely to be much
sought for, except for local purposes, for
SCIENCE.
93
many years. I may point out, however,
that there are millions of acres here densely
covered with the spruce best suited for
wood pulp, and plenty of water power for
pulpmills, so that this resource is not with-
out a future.
A forthcoming report of the United States
Geological Survey will treat of the existing
and prospective mining industries.
To sum up, it may be said that the whal- ~
ing and sealing industries of Alaska are
practically exhausted, the fur trade is in its
decadence, the salmon canning in the full
tide of prosperity, but conducted in a waste-
ful and destructive manner which cannot
long be continued with impunity. The cod
and herring fisheries are imperfectly de-
veloped, but have a substantial future with
proper treatment. Mineral resources and
timber have hardly been touched. No busi-
ness-like experiment with sheep or cattle
on the islands has been tried by competent
hands, while the introduction of reindeer,
though promising well, is still in the ex-
perimental stage. Socially, the Territory is
in a transition state, the industries of the
unexploited wilderness are passing away,
while the time of steady, business-like de-
velopment of the more latent resources
has not. yet arrived. The magnificent
scenery, glaciers and volcanoes make it cer-
tain that Alaska will in the future be to the
rest of the United States what Norway is
to western Europe—the goal of tourists,
hunters and fishermen. Agriculture will
be restricted to gardening and the culture
of quick growing and hardy vegetables for
localuse. The prosecution of most Alaskan
industries being in untrained hands, fail-
ures and disapointment will no doubt be
frequent, but when the pressure of popula-
tion enforces more sensible methods, the
Territory will support in reasonable comfort
a fair number of hardy and industrious in-
habitants.
Wma. H. Dati.
94 SCIENCE.
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.
RELATION OF THE BRAIN AND SPINAL CORD
IN MAN.
Somer interesting facts were developed by
Prof. Ranke at the last meeting of the Ger-
man Anthropological Society, in relation to
the relative weights of the brain and spinal
cord in man.
It is well known that man has not the
heaviest brain of any animal; the whale
and elephant have heavier. Nor has he the
heaviest in proportion to his weight ; some
singing birds, various small apes, and the
mole have proportionately heavier brains.
What Ranke brings out is that the weight
of the human brain is much greater in pro-
portion to the weight of the spinal cord
than in any other vertebrate; and this,
therefore, constitutes an anatomical dis-
tinction of man, strongly contrasting him
with all other animal forms.
The article of Prof. Ranke may be found
in the ‘Correspondenzblatt’ of the Society.
THE MAN FROM GALLEY HILL.
So long ago as 1888 Mr. Robert Elliott
exhumed some human remains from the
‘diluvial’ gravel at Galley Hill, North-
fleet, Kent, England, in immediate con-
tiguity to ‘paleolithic’ implements. The
remains were first described by Prof. New-
ton before the Geological Society of London,
last year. The skull is markedly doli-
chacephalic, its index being 64; the fore-
head is low and retreating, the supraorbital
ridges prominent; the chin is also retreat-
ing; the individual’s height, calculated
from the femur, was about 1.60 meter. In
some respects, the remains were noticeably
similar to those found at Spy, Belgium.
It must be said, however, that little
value can be attached to these relics. The
gravel deposit where they were found is
now destroyed; they may have been a later
burial in the gravel; years have elapsed
since their exhumation during which time
[N. S. Vo. III. No. 55.
the finder concealed the discovery. Mr.
Elliott has no one but himself to blame if
men of science decline to accept the ac-
curacy of his observations at this date.
Let it be a warning to others to be more
careful and more liberal.
D. G. Brinton.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
A GIGANTIC ORTHOCERATITE FROM THE AMERI-
CAN CARBONIFEROUS,.
It is a well known fact that the. straight-
shelled cephalapod was an abundant form of
life during Paleozoic times. This is attested
by the large number of species that have been
described, those of the Orthoceras group alone
numbering upwards of twelve hundred. The
culmination and greatest expansion of the group
was in the Silurian, and from that period it ap-
pears to have gradually dwindled in number of
species, size and abundance, until at the close
of the Paleozoic the form was all but extinct.
In the American Silurian some of the shells at-
tained huge proportions ; but with the general
decline of the group the later ones have hereto-
fore seemed to rapidly become dwarfed until only
small unimportant individuals were recorded
after the Devonian.
In the Carboniferous a few dimunitive species
have been described, none of them being more
than a few inches in length. In the Coal Meas-
ures of the Mississippi basin the remains found
were of rather rare occurrence, imperfectly pre-
served and of very small size. Seldom did the
shells exceed six inches in length, and half an
inch in diameter.
Of late years, however, some unusually fine
material has been obtained in the black shales
of the Lower Coal Measures in the vicinity of
Des Moines, Iowa. Several of these shells were
so large as to excite considerable wonderment.
They were over two feet long and one inch in
diameter at the largerend. These were thought
to be giants of their kind and day.
Recently there was found in one of the coal
mines at Fansler, in Guthrie County, Iowa,
about forty miles from Des Moines, an Ortho-
ceras shell of gigantic proportions, by the side
of which all the other Carboniferous species of
JANUARY 17, 1896.]
the genus are mere pigmies. This specimen is
three inches in diameter; and as it is of the
same very slender type as the associated forms
it could not have been less than six feet in
length, and probably was even longer. The
species is O. fanslerensis. !
ats / CHARLES R. KEYES.
ASTRONOMICAL.
THE last German mail has brought copies of
the report made by Prof. Albrecht, of Potsdam,
at the last meeting of the International Geo-
detic Committee on the subject of Variation of
Latitude. The report contains much interest-
ing matter. There is a summary of all the ob-
servational material gathered since 1890 and
arranged in the form of monthly means for each
observing station. The results are then dis-
cussed in such a way as to lead to a final table
in which the difference between the mean and
instantaneous latitudes is given for every tenth
of a year and for every thirty degrees of longi-
tude. The results are stated to be provisional
only, because several of the observatories have
not yet furnished definitive reductions of their
observations. This want will no doubt soon be
supplied. The results of the observations made at
Columbia College, New York, which are among
those not yet reduced, are particularly needed,
according to Prof. Albrecht, because they alone
can raise the determination of the y-codrdinate
of the instantaneous pole to sufficient precision.
The most important result reached by Prof.
Albrecht is summarized in the following words:
“The phenomenon of the polar motion proves
to be too complicated to admit of complete
representation by means of a formula contain-
ing several terms. This having been proved,
we may regard it as settled that we have at the
present time only reached the stage of a first
approximation to a knowledge of the phenomena
in question. We should regard the problem,
therefore, as very far from solved, and must de-
vote to it our full attention.”’
Ir will, perhaps, be of interest to astrono-
mers and others interested in complicated cal-
culations to learn that it is possible now to ob-
tain a computing machine of the very highest
capability at a very small price. The ‘Bruns-
viga’ machine, made by Ernst Schuster, Schéne-
SCIENCE.
95
berger Ufer, Berlin, costs only seventy-five dol-
lars, and gives a product of thirteen figures.
That is to say, two numbers, each containing
six figures, can be multiplied together. These
machines can be imported duty free by educa-
tional institutions. Three of them are in con-
tinual use at the observatory of Columbia Col-
lege, New York, where they give the greatest
satisfaction. Jel de
PHYSICS.
UNDER the title Ueber die Doppelbrechung der
Strahlen Electrischer Kraft (Wied. Ann. Vol.
56), p. 1, 1895, Mr. Lebedew describes the
apparatus and methods of obtaining very short
Hertz waves, 7=0.6 cem., together with con-
venient arrangements for showing polariza-
tion, interference, rectilinear propagation, re-
flection and refraction. He was able even to
obtain crystals large enough to show double
refraction, and constructed Nicols prisms of
sulphur crystals cut correctly and set together
with a film of ebonite. Using these Nicols he
was able to repeat the usual tests between
crossed Nicols in light, even producing a plate
of sulphur which showed phenomena similar
to those with the +” mica plate. These very
short waves make many experiments not only
possible but simple.
Mr. K. OLszEwskI has applied a method
(Wied. Ann. Vol. 56, p. 1388, 1895) which
he calls the expansion method, to the deter-
minations of low temperatures and has com-
pared the results with those obtained with a
hydrogen thermometer. The results are as
follows :
Tension of oxygen | Temperature de- Temperature of
termined by hy- the liquid oxygen
drogen thermom- determined with
eter the platinum ther-
mometer, using
the expansion
method,
50.8 atm. —118°.8 C. —118.° to—119°.2 C,
(critical pressure) (critical (critical
temperature) temperature)
32.6 atm. —130°.3 —130°.
19. atm. —140°.5
10.2 atm. —151°.6 —152°.
l.atm. 181°.4to —182°.7 | —181°.3 to —182°.5
(boiling point) (boiling point)
W. H.
THE HUXLEY MEMORIAL.
THE general committee report that since
the first meeting on the 27th
ult., which
96
was fully reported in this journal, two meet-
ings of the executive committee have been
held. At the first of these, at which Lord
Shand accepted the office of chairman, it was
reported that a number of foreigners of eminence
had expressed a wish to be associated with the
proposal to commemorate Mr. Huxley’s distin-
guished services to humanity. It wasresolved,
in the first instance, to invite subscriptions from
the members of the general committee. At the
second meeting, held on Wednesday, it was re-
ported that the subscription, which at the gen-
eral meeting had amounted to £557, had been
increased to about £1,400, and it was resolved
that a wider appeal for subscriptions should
now be made to the friends and admirers of
Mr. Huxley amongst the general public. The
honorary secretary stated that in America com-
mittees were in the course of being formed to
promote the realization of an adequate fund.
The committee resolved to communicate, by
means of asub-committee of their number, with
Mr. Onslow Ford, R. A., who had the advan-
tage of being well acquainted with Mr. Huxley,
in reference to the statue, which it is proposed
should be erected beside those of Darwin and
Owen in the Natural History Museum, South
Kensington. The extent to which the com-
mittee may be able to carry out the other in-
tended objects of founding exhibitions, scholar-
ships, and medals for biological research and
lectureships, and possibly in assisting the re-
publication of Mr. Huxley’s scientific works,
will of course depend on the subscriptions which
may now be received. These may be sent to
the treasurer, Sir John Lubbock, or the bankers,
Messrs. Robarts, Lubbock and Co., 15 Lombard
street, E. C.; or to the secretary, Professor G.
B. Howes, Royal College of Science, South
Kensington. The amount received to December
20 is £1,535.
CONCILIUM BIBLIOGRAPHICUM.
WE have now received the official prospectus
of the card catalogue of zodlogical literature,
the plans for which have on several occasions
been mentioned in this journal. The Bureau
is located at Universitits Str. 8, Zurich-Ober-
strass, Switzerland, under the direction of Dr.
H. H. Field and the control of an international
SCIENCE.
. present day.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 55.
committee nominated at the recent Congress
of Zoology. The Bureau will print a prompt
catalogue of all zoological papers, whether pub-
lished separately, or as articles in scientific
journals. For the first year a subscription rate
has been chosen which would barely cover the
cost of printing (not of compilation nor of sort-
ing) on an estimate of 100 subscribers to the
whole set of cards. If this number cannot be
reached, then the Bureau will be obliged, not
merely to pay for the work of sorting and send-
ing, but must also advance money to pay the
deficit on the printing. If, on the other hand,
200 subscribers for the whole series can be se-
cured, the card catalogue division of the
Bureau’s work would probably be self sup-
porting, and any further increase might be used
towards improving the material or towards re-
ducing the price. In no case, however, will any
profit be realized on the operations of the
Bureau,
The entire set of cards is offered for sale at
the rate of $2 per 1,000 cards (not including
transportation), and it is estimated that about
8,000 cards will be issued during the first year.
Special groups of cards, systematic or morpho-
logical, may be subscribed for at increased
rates.
The Card Catalogue constitutes a special
edition of the Bibliographia Zoologica, itself a
continuation of the bibliographical part of the
Zoologischer Anzeiger. This latter journal forms
the connecting link with the Bibliotheca Zoolog-
ica of Engelmann, Carus und Engelmann, and
Taschenberg, constituting an unbroken bibliog-
raphy from the earliest times down to the
By a most fortunate arrangement
with the eminent director of the Zoologischer
Anzeiger, Prof. Carus will remain editor-in-
chief of the Bibliographia Zoologica.
The Bureau will begin issuing an Anatomical
Catalogue, the Bibliographia Anatomica, early in
1896, and arrangements will also be made for
physiology, provided these two first experi- |
ments meet with success. The Botanical Sec-
tion of the A. A. A. S., impressed with the im-
portance of founding a similar bureau for botany,
appointed at its last session an influential com-
mittee to study the working of the Zodlogical
Bureau and to make arrangements for the estab-
JANUARY 17, 1896. ]
lishment of a federated Bureau for Botany. It
is, moreover, almost certain that a similar step
will be taken in Brussels for yet other sciences
by a powerful organization founded under the
patronage of the Belgian government. It is,
therefore, not excessive optimism to predict
that it may be possible to realize in 1900 the
great project of the Royal Society of London.
GENERAL,
In the December number of Entomological
News, Mrs. Annie T. Slosson gives a list of in-
sects and spiders captured on or near the sum-
mit of Mt. Washington, N. H. With two pre-
vious lists, already published, the number of
species foots up to 830, all taken at or above
5,500 altitude. This number does not represent
the total fauna of this interesting region, as a
number of Coleoptera, collected there by Mr.
F. C. Bowditch, are not included. At first
sight it appears surprising that so many insects
should be found at such an altitude. However,
it appears that the list includes, besides those
indigenous to the climate and found in Labrador
and northward, many living throughout the
New England States, and doubtless not breed-
ing on the summit of the mountain. The
peculiar position of the peak, isolated in the
midst of a temperate climate and of small ex-
tent, must facilitate the frequent occurrence of
almost any of the more active insects from the
surrounding valleys. To this fact, as well as to
Mrs. Slosson’s industry in collecting, her suc-
cess may be attributed.
HARRISON G. DYAR.
THE editorial board of the Astrophysical Jour-
nal has decided that the Roland scale of wave-
lengths, the ten millionth of a millimeter
as a unit in which wave-lengths shall be
expressed, the kilometer as the unit to be
used in measurements of motion in the line of
sight, and the nomenclature proposed by Vogel
and Huggins for the hydrogen series be adopted.
It also favors printing maps of spectra with the
red end on the right and tables of wave-lengths
with the shorter wave-length at the top. These
standards will be used in the Astrophysical Jour-
nal, and it is hoped that they will be generally
adopted.
SCIENCE.
97
THE annual meeting of the New York Zodlog-
ical Society was held on January 7th, and the
following officers were re-elected: President,
Andrew H. Green; First Vice-President, Charles
EH. Whitehead; Second Vice-President, J. Hamp-
den Robb; Treasurer, L. V. F. Randolph; Sec-
retary, Madison Grant. The committee on a
site for the new zoological garden reported that
D. G. Elliot, of the Field Columbian Museum; A.
E. Brown, of the Philadelphia Zoological Gar-
den, and Frank Baker, of the Washington
Zoloogical Garden, had examined the eligible
sites in the city parks and regarded most favor-
ably Van Cortlandt Park. It is the intention of
the society to establish a garden in which the
animals will not be closely confined but placed
as far as possible under natural conditions.
AT a meeting of the American Philosophical
Society on October 3d, Frederick Fraley was
re-elected President and E. Otis Kendall and
J. P. Lesley were re-elected Vice-Presidents.
William Pepper was elected one of the Vice-
Presidents in place of the late W. S. W. Rus-
chenberger. The Secretaries elected are: George
F. Barker, George H. Horn, Patterson DuBois
and Persifor Frazer.
ARRANGEMENTS are being made for the annual
reception and exhibition of the New York
Academy of Sciences, which will be held at the
American Museum of Natural History and
probably early in March. Professor H. F.
Osborn is chairman of the executive committee
and seventeen sciences are represented on the
committee of arrangements. It is hoped that
the codperation of institutions outside of the
city of New York may be secured toa greater
extent than hitherto in the exhibits.
WE have received a list of the prizes conferred
by the Paris Academy of Sciences on December
23d. These are too numerous to give in detail
in this journal, but it may be interesting to note
that the number of prizes offered is as great as
sixty-nine. Several of the prizes are of the
value of 10,000 fr., and one, for a method of
curing an epidemic disease, is 100,000 fr. This
prize was not, however, awarded this year.
Iv is stated in the daily papers that Dr. John
S. Billings, director of the Department of Hy-
giene in the University of Pennsylvania, has
98
been elected librarian of the Consolidated
Libraries of New York, representing the Lennox
Library, the Astor Library and the Tilden Be-
quest.
THE Botanical Library and the Herbarium
of Columbia College, will be placed in a build-
ing to be erected in the New York Botanic
Garden, and in return the privileges of the
garden will be accorded to students of the Col-
lege.
MAcMILLAN & Co. announce that they will
begin in September next a ‘Garden craft series,’
the first volume of which will be Plant Breeding
by Professor L. H. Bailey.
THE British Medical Journal states that the
question of founding a medical faculty in the
University of Odessa, which had been long
under discussion, has finally been decided in
the affirmative. The municipality of Odessa
has generously offered to double its grant for
the new faculty, raising it from 250,000 to
500,000 roubles, that is, to over $250,000.
THE opening article in Appleton’s Popular
Science Monthly for January is a description of
the origin of the Smithsonian Institution by Dr.
H. Carrington Bolton. The author describes
Smithson’s curious career, but scarcely attempts
to assign his reason for making the United
States his residuary legatee. The article re-
views the formation and growth of the institu-
tion, and a second article will consider its
present status and many activities.
THE election of officers of the Binghampton
(N. Y.) Academy of Science, held on the after-
noon of January 4th, resulted as follows:
President, PRor. E. R. WHITNEY (re-elected).
Vice-President, Pror. HERBERT J. JONES (ré-
elected).
Recording Secretary, WILLARD N. Cuute (re-
elected).
Corresponding Secretary, BURT E. NELSON.
Treasurer, JOSEPH K. NOYES.
A reception was tendered the members in
the evening by the Young Women’s Christian
Association at their rooms in the Strong Building.
A wrEw Russian journal, a Review of Psy-
chiatry, Neurology and Experimental Psychology,
edited by Dr. Bekhteret, will hereafter be pub-
lished monthly:
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 55.
Tue deaths are announced of Cavaliere Dr.
Alfonso Ademello, sanitary director of the hos-
pital of Grossetto, and known for his excaya-
tions at Grossetto and for his writings on the
Maremma, of Dr. Sickenberger, professor of
botany and chemistry in the medical high school
in Cairo; of Dr. A. de Cerqueira Paito, professor
of organical chemistry in Bahia, and of Dr.
Paul Reis, professor of physics at Mainz.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
THE new catalogue of Harvard University
shows the total number of instructors to be 366
and the total number of students 3,600. The
students are distributed as follows: 1,771, Col-
lege; 340, Scientific School; 285, Graduate
School; 41, Divinity School; 465, Law School;
531, Medical School; 102, Dental School; 55,
Veterinary ; 15, Bussey Institute. The number
of students is 310 greater than last year as com- |
pared with a gain of 134 for that year.
AFTER 1901 only college graduates will be
admitted to the Harvard medical school. Johns
Hopkins University is the only American Uni-
versity now making this requirement.
THE departments of Physics and Mechanical
Engineering at Brown University have been
materially improved by the removal of the work
shops that formerly occupied the basement of
the Wilson Physical Laboratory to a building
recently constructed for their reception. The
new building has thirty-six hundred square feet
of floor space, and is well equipped with all the
machinery necessary for thorough courses of
instruction in practical metal and wood working.
Of the rooms thus rendered available in the
physical laboratory two are to be fitted out for
high temperature and pressure investigations,
two for an electrical engineering laboratory, and
one for a drawing room for the department of
civil engineering.
THE late Franklin Baldwin, of North Grafton,
Mass., has made the following bequests to take
effect on the death of his wife: Wellesley Col-
lege, $50,000 to found a chair in mathematics
in memory of his daughter, Katie Emma Bald-
win; Smith College, Northampton, $12,000 for
scholarships ; The University of Vermont, $10,-
000 for scholarships ; Dartmouth College, $6,000
JANUARY 17, 1896.]
for scholarships. The residue of the estate
(some $20,000) is left to Clark University.
Dr. C. A. STRONG, associate professor of
psychology in the University of Chicago, has
been elected lecturer on psychology in Colum-
bia College.
Pror. L. 8. LurTuHer, of Trinity College,
Hartford, has been elected president of Kenyon
College, Gambier, Ohio. Professor Theodore
Stirling, the professor of natural science, has
been during the last four years acting president.
PRror. THEODORE VON DER GoLTz has been
appointed professor of agriculture in the Uni-
versity at Bonn in the place of Prof. Dunkel-
berg, who has retired.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
QUATERNIONS.
Epivror oF SCIENCE: The circular letter of
Dr. Molenbroek and Mr. Kimura published in
the issue of your journal for October 18th ap-
pears to me to be a distinct improvement upon
their preceding letter published in Nature for
October 3d. In the former letter they assume
_ that Hamilton’s Quaternions is a much more
perfect method than it really is, and they affirm
that the newer forms of vector theory invented
by physicists are founded on definitions which
are established by Quaternions, and are systems
of notation rather than logical developments of
a mathematical idea. They also advise the
“many who are prejudiced against the calculus
of quaternions and maintain the opinion that it
is hard to understand and that it contains a
great deal which is useless in addition to things
immediately applicable’’ to ‘‘ approach the cal-
culus with proper care and meekness in the as-
surance that they will ere long rejoice in hay-
ing at their disposal an instrument of research
mightier far than they had the slightest notion
of so long as they were in the domain of carte-
sian mathematics.”’
In recent years I have published a series of
papers on Space Analysis, the express object of
which is to unify and harmonize the several
vector methods with one another and with the
ordinary analysis. I exclude neither the idea
of a vector nor the idea of a quaternion, and I
do not attempt to make Nature simpler than
SCIENCE.
99
she really is by identifying ideas that are differ-
ent though complementary to one another. I
look upon vector-analysis not as an independent
and rival plant, but as a development of the old
tree of mathematical analysis.
The greatest impediments to the progress of
the method of Quaternions are not prejudice
and false opinion in those to whom it is pre-
sented, but rather imperfections, mistakes and
errors in the method itself. Hamilton ought to
be reverenced for what he did accomplish, but
that ought not to blind us to what he did not
accomplish. It is an error to identify, as Hamil-
ton does, vectors with quadrantal quaternions.
It is an error to confound, as Hamilton does,
successive with simultaneous addition; for
thereby he failed to discover the generalization
for space of the Exponential Theorem and of
Taylor’s Theorem. It isa mistake to introduce,
as Hamilton does, a new notation which has no
relation to the established notation of trigonom-
etry, or to adopt conventions which do not har-
monize with the established conventions of
analysis.
To the amended proposal for an ‘ Inter-
national Association for promoting the study of
Quaternions and allied systems of Mathe-
matics’ there is no room for objection; for it
does not assume the perfection and finality of
Hamilton’s work, but rather invites to the de-
velopment and study of vector-analysis in its
broadest sense. It will, I hope, receive a favor-
able response from all who are interested in the
development or the teaching of space analysis.
It is inevitable that there should be diversity of
notation and warm discussion of principles
among the pioneers in this region, but inasmuch
as all are zealous for the truth, the proposed
association would accelerate the progress to
definite decisions, and thereby smooth the way
for the spread of this, the highest development
of the art of algebra.
Messrs. Molenbroek and Kimura refer to the
remarkable advance in Electrical theory. That
advance has been due in large measure to the
practical manner in which electricians have dis-
cussed the principles and definitions of their
science, finally settling all definitions by an
authorized Congress. Doubtless the proposed
association would eventually accomplish an
100
equal good in itsline. Electricians are alive to
the importance of this work also, and the indi-
cations are that they will have much influence
in its settlement.
But since at the present time there are writers
on space analysis who see nothing but vectors,
and other writers who identify vectors with
quadrantal quaternions, and since the princi-
ples commonly accepted by Quaternionists are
not free from fundamental errors, it is evident
that much time is still required for the discus-
sion of principles before definite decisions about
notation can be arrived at. The notation which
is adopted must be built on an adequate analysis
if it is to be lasting. And here the z muddle in
the system of electric and magnetic units ought
to act as a warning to make haste slowly.
The logical harmony and unification of the
whole of mathematical analysis ought to be kept
in view. The algebra of space ought to include
the algebra of the plane as a special case, just
as the algebra of the plane includes the algebra
of the line. And as the algebra of space in-
cludes the spherical and higher forms of trigo-
nometry, it ought to be made to harmonize as
much as possible with the existing notations
and conventions of trigonometrical analysis.
When vector analysis is developed and pre-
sented so as not to contradict, but, on the con-
trary, to include the ordinary branches of anal-
ysis, we may expect to see many zealous culti-
vators, many fruitful applications, and, finally,
its universal diffusion. Then there will be no
need of arguments to prove its utility. May
the movement initiated by Messrs. Molenbroek
and Kimura hasten the realization of this happy
result. ALEXANDER MACFARLANE.
LEHIGH UNIVERSITY.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
De Saint Louis a Tripoli par le lac Tchad. Par
le LIEUTENANT-COLONEL P. L. MONTEIL.
Paris, Alean. 1895. Pp. x. and 463. Fifteen
itinerary charts and one general map. Pro-
fusely illustrated by Riou.
This book may be considered as the fruit of
the treaty between England and France which
was entered into on August 5, 1890. The
reason for the treaty was the necessity of fixing
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. III. No. 55.
a boundary between the regions subject to their
respective influences along an imaginary line
drawn from Say on the Niger to Lake Tchad.
Monteil proposed to the French government
to traverse this region, starting from St.
Louis, in the French possessions on the west
coast of Africa. His object was to obtain
treaties with as many of the native potentates
along the route as possible, and thereby fix the
boundary as far as France was concerned.
He left St. Louis on October 9, 1890, with one
white companion, Adjt. Badaire, and twelve
natives, four of the latter deserting him quite
promptly. For twenty-seven months from this
time his experiences are given with considerable
minuteness. He had the regulation ‘ups and
downs’ which are the lot of the explorer every-
where, particularly in Africa. As far as Wago-
dogho he followed the itineraries of Binger and
Crozat. Beyond this point everything was rel-
atively unknown, except where light had been
thrown upon various points along the line
when his path crossed the track of his prede-
cessors, Denham and Clapperton, Barth, Nachti-
gal and others.
His occupations were numerous, as he was at
various times soldier, engineer, physician, bot-
anist, astronomer, cartographer, pharmacist,
trader, diplomat and magician. Photography
did not prosper with him. His early attempts
were crushed in Paris; where his plates going
to one office and his letter of instructions to
another, they were both opened separately with
the consequent disastrous result to the negatives.
A final blow was struck at this portion of his
work when a native stole his camera, plates and
all. One can imagine the ‘joy and perplexity’
of the average native while examining this
piece of apparatus, as well as the feelings of the
rightful owner under the circumstances.
The loss, however, is made good by the
superb set of illustrations by Riou, which are
one of the charms of the volume. The artist
has so thoroughly caught the spirit of the
author that, much as we regret the absence of
the true copies of nature, we feel satisfied by
the insight which the skillful sketches give us
on the subject.
Another feature of the book which cannot be
too highly praised is the series of itinerary
JANUARY 17, 1896. ]
maps, which are inserted in the text of each
chapter which is devoted to the description of a
portion of the journey.
The book may be divided for practical pur-
poses into two parts—the descriptive and the
generalizing portions. His descriptions of men
and things, are pleasant reading, and show us a
man, wide awake to the meaning of the scenes
through which he passed. Space does not per-
mit of a detailed account of these, though many
are of great interest and value. Some of the
character sketches are very well done. The
chapters which are devoted to his generaliza-
tions are by all means the best part of his work.
They are scattered through the book and bear
upon many subjects; geology, botany, natural
history and anthropology all come in for a
share, and while we may not agree with his
conclusions, particularly upon some ethical
questions, we cannot but agree that his clear
statements of facts and conditions are well
worthy of close attention. Some of each of
these parts of the work will be referred to in
this review.
He was almost uniformly successful in his
diplomatic relations with the native chiefs with
whom he came in contact. Sometimes under
the most trying circumstances he carried his
point. His French temperament seems to have
been under splendid control, as it only comes to
the surface when the pressure of affairs is re-
moved and he feels free to express himself.
This is greatly to his credit, and much of what
might be called ‘good fortune’ by some is un-
doubtedly to be attributed to this fact.
His first treaty was made at San on January
14, 1891. Shortly after this he meets Capt.
Quiquanodon and Dr. Crozat at Kinian. They
reinforce his party most opportunely with both
men and animals. On March 1 he reached
Diasa. Here he received his last letters from
France, bearing date of December 18, 1890.
From this time until he reached Beni-Oulid, on
December 6, 1892, he was virtually lost as far
as hearing from the outside world was con-
cerned.
An interesting description is given of Bobo-
Dioulasso, where the houses are built upon high
platforms, where ‘s’habiller est avoir quelque
difformité 4 cacher,’ and where the children
SCIENCE.
101
are carried under a ‘carapace’ of rods. At
Souro he has his first real encounter with fetich-
ism, and a good idea is given of its wide ramifi-
cations and its effects upon the life and habits of
the natives, as well as the consequences which
‘hang over the innocent traveler’s head who ig-
norantly invades the ‘sacred limits’ which are
spread around him like so many snares.
His account of the ‘whistle system’ of tel-
egraphy, as employed in the Bobo country (p.
107), is curious reading. Imagine the swarthy
native taking a siesta at sunset, and carrying on
a conversation by this means—arranging for a
hunting party inthe morning ; conducting some
piece of business; lovers intoning their pure
love ditties; enemies challenging one another,
ete., etc., for of such is the 400 of Bobo.
The Mossi country is described on pp. 121
et seq. .This region on the bend of the Niger,
is occupied by a well organized people whose
traditions carry them back to the beginning of
the world, without exactly fixing the date of
this event. Naba, the first of the race, had 333
sons, and divided his kingdom among them at
his death. Wagodogho is the seat of the main
head of the whole kingdom, and the Naba of
this place is the Naba of the Nabas. He wears
as an emblem of his proud preeminence, a
special head dress which is a species of three
decked turban ; but this with his very numerous
harem, seems to be the limit of his preroga-
tives.
He reached Wagodogho on April 28, only to
be ordered out of town. Protests that he was
the envoy of the king of France were of no
avail. Eventually, a music box, a Persian
saddle and a sword, did the business for him,
and he was received as a man and brother. He
reached Dori on May 22d, and it was high time
that he did so, for this was one of the very low
points in his curvilinear career. Things were
at a very low ebb with him at this point.
While resting at Dori, on what might be
called the boarder line between the civilized
and the uncivilized nations of central Africa, he
gives us a sketch of the relations of Mohammed-
anism to progress in this part of the world. It
seems strange to find him favoring polygamy
and slavery, and expressing the opinion that
the religion of Islam is so adjusted to the con-
102
ditions of the country that if peaceful means
had been used for its propagation, instead of
force, it might not be too much to say that all
Africa would now be under the sway of the
Moslem faith. The bearings of the two systems
of fetichism and Mohammedanism upon the
peace of mind of the traveller are portrayed in
a most telling manner.
The trip to Say, on the Niger, was accom-
plished in eight months. Just before reaching
Ouro-Gueladjio he passed through one of his
darkest periods, some of the journey being made
on foot, his animals having been reduced by
desertions and death from twenty-five to two,
and his men from forty-seven to seventeen.
The question of the Saharan Sea is discussed,
on page 199 and the following pages, as viewed
from a structural standpoint, with reference to
the large basins known as the Dalhols. The
trend of these supposed branches of the extinct
sea, as well as the existence of the flabelliform
Egyptian palm in this exceptional locality, seem
to favor the arguments advanced in the text.
Just beyond this point in the book, where he
deals with the regions about Argoungou and
Sokoto, we pass through one of his brighter
periods. With great good fortune he happened
to pass through this part of the country during
a lull in the proceedings—generally in a dis-
turbed state among these races. A few months
later, he would have had a hard time indeed,
even if he had escaped with his life from the
political ‘cloud burst’ which took place over
the whole of this region. His state of mind is
well illustrated by the pretty sentence on page
238, upon the moral effect of sunshine. This
also probably accounts for the rather rose-col-
ered description of the Peuls which immedi-
ately follows.
In chapter X. (p. 269) there are some good
character studies in the course of the account of
his stay at Kano. The ‘clearing house system’
in use among these people is curious enough to
be amusing. Articles of fixed value are traded
for one another directly, but when small change
is involved the trader draws on his bank. This
consists in a mule load of cowrie shells, 50,000
of them composing a load and representing a
total value of $10.
Kano is further the center of the cola nut
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 55.
trade. This article, which of recent years has
been introduced into the medical pharmacopeia,
is treated of in numerous aspects. The nut is
found in a belt lying between 6° 30’ and 11° or
12° North Latitude ; and though it may be the
‘Coffee of the Soudan ’ and correspond in all its
virtues to the betel nut in India, opium in
China, the cigarette of a Spaniard, or the dog
of a blind man, it can hardly be accepted as a
sort of universal panacea.
At this point we come across the discussion
of another phase of the slavery question, viz.:
the captives of war. They are captives in name,
but slaves in reality, and our author speaks of
the amenities of their existence. Their mas-
ters are forced to be easy with them, for the rea-
son that some day, through changed fortunes
of war, they may in turn occupy the same posi-
tion. And again, the number of these captives
is so great, as contrasted with the number of
the freemen, that an insurrection might change
the order of things. Such occurrences are not
unknown in the political or domestic life of this
untamed Eden. The captive is usually held by
his captor for a few months, until some mart is
reached where he can be disposed of, if he sur-
vives the harsh treatment of the march thither.
Then, if he is intelligent, he is pushed forward
rapidly and can attain to high positions. He
is provided with a wife, and his lot becomes
settled if he has a family, as neither he nor they
can be sold. It is often a matter of good for-
tune into whose hands he falls. In some in-
stances we read of the ‘ Captives of the Crown,
as being placed in charged of great undertakings
and expeditions of all sorts in the Soudan.
Hence, at least, so we are told, ‘the captive is
a social and economic necessity in the Soudan.’
From Kano he sends a courier to Tripoli in
the month of January, 1892, and proceeds on-
ward to Kukawa on Lake Tchad, which point
was reached on April 10th. His description of
the stay at this place, which covered some three
and a-half months while he awaited the forma-
tion of a caravan to proceed northward, con-
tains many bits of information of value. Here
he was subjected to the infamous practice, in
the way of the extortion of gifts, which was
the means of almost ruining Barth and Nachti-
gal. Both of these travellers were stranded in
JANUARY 17, 1896.]
this region by similar delays, and their life
blood extracted by the polite but very costly
exchange of ‘gifts.’ Monteil had learned a
lesson from their experience, and, secreting suf-
ficient means to carry him through, ‘played
poor.’ The consequences were evident in the
great privations to which he was subjected for
some time after this. At length his opportunity
arrives, a caravan is ready to leave. He makes
the sheik a series of presents as farewell gifts,
which greatly embarrass that individual to
properly and adequately return, which was his
immediate duty. The tide was turned in his
favor, and he got everything he wanted, and
thus escaped this new species of danger with
safety.
He speaks very caustically of the rotten and
shaky condition of the affairs of Bornu, of which
state Kukawa is the chief city. It took only a
few months for his prediction of the fall of this
empire to be verified.
On August 15, a year after leaving the Niger,
‘he starts on the journey to Tripoli. The cara-
van of 78 camels, 7 horses, 30 men and 30 slaves
must have presented a fine appearance, and
their minds must have been much lighter as
they started upon the last stage of their trip.
Aside from the discussion of the usual tribula-
tions of the long journey over the Sahara, and a
rather pathetic description of the evil works of
the ‘demons of the desert who lead travelers
astray,’ nothing novel is given in this part of
the book.
On December 10, 1892, he reached Tripoli,
where his troubles were over. He was wel-
comed in France in the most cordial and well-
deserved manner. His promotion, his medals
and other honors have certainly been well
earned, and they grace a hard-working, earnest
and modest man. The volume contains much
more valuable material than is usually found in
a book of travels, particularly when written by
one who is rather more of a military man and
diplomat than ascientist. W. L.
‘A Laboratory Course in Experimental Physics:
‘By W. J. Loupon and J. C. McLENNAN.
Macmillan & Co. 8yvo., 300 pp. Price,
$1.90.
This book is written by the Demonstrater and
SCIENCE.
103
the Assistant Demonstrater in Physics in the
University of Toronto, and it is evidently de-
signed to meet the special requirements of stu-
dents in that institution. It is divided into two
parts, constituting an elementary course and
‘an advanced course. Part I includes a brief
treatment of length-measuring instruments,
vernier, cathetometer, spherometer, etc., which
is followed by some exercises in density deter-
minations, experiments with pressure and vol-
ume of gases and a little about capillarity. The
remainder of the elementary course is mostly
given to geometrical optics, although there is
something of a treatment of photometry and a
few exercises in specific and latent heat. The
second part treats of acoustics, heat, electricity
and magnetism, with a short appendix on
gravity and the pendulum. An elementary
knowledge of dynamics and the calculus is as-
sumed in the advanced course. In the various
experiments described it is generally assumed
that a perfectly adjusted piece of apparatus is
at hand ready to be set going. The instru-
ments figured and described in the ‘acoustics’
are from the atelier of Rudolph Koenig, and
nearly all of the illustrations in the book ap-
‘ pear to have been made from perfectly con-
structed and finished apparatus. It is generally
admitted that a large part of the value of the
training in a physical laboratory comes from
experience in designing, constructing and ad-
justing apparatus for definite purposes. In no
other way can a student so quickly and thor-
oughly learn the sources of error entering into
an experiment, or the methods of eliminating
them and in a general way become familiar
with the limits. of accuracy to which he is re-
stricted. Viewed from this standpoint, such a
system as seems to be implied in this book is
not to be commended. In fact, it is a little
difficult to know under what conditions this
book is intended to be used. The authors say
in the preface that it owes its origin to the ‘ diffi-
culty experienced in providing, during a lim-
ited time, ample instruction in the matter of
details and methods’ , , , ‘at the present
day, when students are required to gain knowl-
edge of natural phenomena by performing ex-
periments for themselves in laboratories.’
Although not quite definite, this seems to imply
104
that students are expected to acquire such
knowledge of physics as they get, by the use of
this book, and many pages of the text appear
to strengthen this view. A decade or more ago
it was quite a popular notion that the way to
treat physics was to begin, especially if the
learners were young children, with laboratory
exercises. The student was to find everything
out for himself, and all the great truths of
physical science were to be rediscovered every
day in the secondary schools. No greater
farce than this was ever enacted, for it was
seriously approved and attempted by many of
the great masters of pedagogy. It has now
joined the host of other abandoned theories, at
least as far as those who really teach physics
are concerned, and it cannot be assumed that it
still survives, or indeed, that it ever existed at
the well-known institution from which this
book came. It must be, therefore, that the
volume is intended to be used as a guide in
laboratory practice which supplements text-
book and lecture instruction. From this stand-
point the text contains much that might well be
omitted, for it must almost necessarily have
been included in the text-book or lecture work;
and, although the plan may, and doubtless
does, suit the scheme of instruction and avail-
able facilities in the institution in which it was
prepared, a wider constituency could be served
by assuming fewer perfectly made instruments
and throwing the student on his own resources
to a greater extent, in the matter of adjusting,
designing and assembling the apparatus he is to
use.
The Intellectual Rise in Electricity.
BENJAMIN.
Pp. 600.
In the preparation and publication of this
volume Mr. Benjamin has done a work for
which all interested in physical science, and es-
pecially in electricity, willthank him. In these
days few men capable of properly recording the
progress of scientific discovery possess, at the
same time, the instinct of the historian to a de-
gree necessary for the making of a book like
this. Few will deny that a knowledge of the
history of a discovery, the circumstances and
conditions under which it was made, and par-
By PARK
D. Appleton & Company. 8°.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. If. No. 55.
ticularly the personality of the discoverer, add
enormously to the interest of the fact itself and,
besides, has its practical value in serving to fix
the fact more definitely and more lastingly in
one’s memory. In the preparation of text-
books the historical and biographical inclina-
tions are usually either entirely suppressed or
held severely in check and the student who de-
pends on them alone, finds only the cold facts,
presented in their logical or scientific sequence
and stripped entirely of the charm of personal
and chronological relationship. The wise in-
structor makes up for this deficiency and to him
Mr. Benjamin’s work will be doubly welcome.
In making it an enormous amount of labor has
been expended in the consultation of original
sources of information, of many ages and many
tongues. It is practically a history of electric-
ity and magnetism from the earliest traditions
to the end of the last century. But the history
of one branch of science is like the history of one
nation or one race; it cannot be written alone,
and this book of necessity involves a study of
the development of all physical science. When
one recalls the names that appear, Thales, Aris-
totle, Archimedes, Roger Bacon, Peregrinus,
Porta, Cardan, Gilbert, Galileo, von Guericke,
Boyle, Hooke, Newton, Halley, Gray, Nollet,
Franklin, together with many others, it be-
comes clear that in telling their lives one must
tell the history of natural philosophy, and the
history of natural philosophy is largely a his-
tory of the intellectual development of the
world. This doubtless suggested to the author
the peculiar and rather unfortunate title which
he has fixed upon his work. The account be-
gins with a chapter on the earliest traditions
relating to the ‘amber phenomenon’ and to
the lodestone, which have always been consid=
ered asin some degree related to each other,
and a knowledge of which may have existed
among prehistoric people. What was known
among the Chinese, early Egyptians and Greeks
is discussed and the subject is followed in its
emergence from the periods of myth and legend
or tradition to that of real and fairly authentie
history. The discoveries of Columbus are dis-
cussed and two excellent chapters are devoted
to the work of Gilbert, the real father of the sci-
ence. The relations of Francis Bacon and Gil-
JANUARY 17, 1896.]
bert are. gone into with considerable detail and
a number of important facts brought out which
will probably be new to most physicists, who
are not likely to have made a critical study of
the origin and sources of Bacon’s philosophy.
Many of them will doubtless feel inclined to
rocommend to those admirers of the great chan-
cellor who are trying to prove that he wrote
the plays of Shakespeare the desirability of di-
verting their energies into an investigation of
the authorship of the Novum Organum.
There is a good account of the founding of
the Royal Society of London and of the elec-
trical and magnetic work of Boyle, Newton and
Halley.
The concluding chapter is devoted to a pres-
entation of the discoveries of Benjamin Frank-
lin, in which, of course, will be found references
to many other contemporaneous electricians.
The work is distinctly a history. No tech-
* nical preparation is required to read it and it is
free from all mathematical or other discussions
which might involve difficulty. The style is in
the main excellent, but marred occasionally by
excessive exuberance and diffuseness. An ex-
ample of this is found in the several pages de-
voted to the story of Franklin’s kite experi-
ment, a very small part of which reads as fol-
lows:
“ Quietly Franklin is arranging the silk rib-
bon and the key. This done he watches the
cord close to him. There is no sign yet to guide
him. Has he failed? Suddenly he sees the
little loose fibres of the twine erect themselves.
He has not failed, but the moment has come.
Without a tremor he advances his knuckles to
the key. And then a little crack, a little spark
—the same little crack and the same little
spark which he had taken a hundred times from
his glass tube—and the great discovery is com-
plete, his name immortal.”’
As a matter of fact, this kite experiment was
quite unnecessary to establish Franklin’s claim,
which had before been put to the test in France,
and Franklin’s fame would have been quite as
great without it, although unquestionably less
picturesque. The experiment was interesting
and not without dramatic quality, but, on the
whole, a description of it in Franklin’s own
words would have been more satisfactory.
SCIENCE.
105
An Introduction to the Study of Zoology. By B.
LinpsayY, C. S., of Girton Coll., Cambridge.
London, Swan, Sonnenschein & Co. New
York, Macmillan& Co. 1895. Pp. xix+356,
with 124 illustrations and diagrams. $1.60.
This little volume forms one of the series of
‘Introductory Science Text-books,’ and is de-
signed, as the author states in the preface, to
serve as ‘a kind of guide book for readers who
are about to begin the study of zodlogy.’
The plan of the book embraces a Glossary,
1
General Principles of Zoology (Part I.), Syste-
matic Zodlogy (Part II.), Advice to Students
(Part III.), and an index of subjects and of
names of genera.
Part I. treats of the distinction between ani-
mals and plants, the cell, origin of species, em-
bryology, etc., much in the style of Claus and
Sedgwick’s ‘ Text-book of Zodlogy,’ whose work
apparently forms a basis for this. To the gen-
eral reader this part will doubtless prove in-
teresting, as it discusses in an attractive manner
the biological principles involved in an intelli-
gent study of the animal kingdom, and explains
the meaning of many of the terms and phrases
so often used but as often not understood. The
criticism might, however, be made that the
space (114 pages) given to this division of the
subject is too large in proportion to that de-
voted to the systematic portion of the work (190
pages).
In Part II. we have a chapter discussing the
principles of classification and, as examples of
classification by type, brief descriptions of
Ameeba, Vorticella, Hydra and the earth-worm.
Then follow nine chapters each devoted to one
of the Phyla of the animal kingdom; a table of
classification with examples of its use closes this
part. The concluding part has chapters on
‘The Use of Books’ and ‘ Practical Work ;’ in
these the student is referred to some of the
standard zodlogical works, and useful hints are
given to those who would learn to see and think
for themselves.
The design of the book is certainly a good
one. Many readers of popular works on ani-
mals and their habits, would be glad to learn
something more of the relation that these ani-
mals bear to others, and of the zodlogical prin-
ciples as understood at the present day. To
106
consult a zodlogy full of technical terms and
anatomical figures is not usually attractive to
the beginner. Given a book that is clear, con-
cise and correct, but not too technical, such a
reader would be led further in the same direc-.
tion and, what is very important, would not
have to unlearn.
The question naturally arises, does this book
carry out the design? The author has in the
main succeeded in writing a very readable book
marked by a pleasant and interesting style;
yet there are a few places where, through a
faulty mode of expression, the meaning is ren-
dered obscure, e. g. ‘‘ Animals develop to a
higher point, in which the body layers develop
complicated organs, usually go through a larval
stage very different in appearance from the
adult’’ (p. 74). Other obscure sentences refer
to the germ layers (p. 30), and the openings of
the thoracic duct (p. 45).
In the compilation of a brief introductory
text-book we can hardly expect to find the
pages entirely free from errors; and, while in
the main, the author presents a correct state-
ment of our zodlogical knowledge, several
errors have found their way into the book.
For example, bone is said to be found in the
cuttlefish (p. 43), though we find on p. 228 car-
tilage correctly given. The paranucleus of the
Ciliata is confused with the nucleolus (p. 188).
On p. 180 the Dendrocela are stated on one
line to be mostly fresh-water forms and a few
lines further down to be mostly marine. A
similar contradiction appears on p. 186, where
we read ‘The Entomostraca * * * are mostly
fresh-water forms,’ while, of the examples given,
allare marine. On p. 198 there are two errors:
the Chilognatha have ‘two pairs of legs on
each segment,’ and of the thorax and abdomen
of insects, it is stated that ‘both have the seg-
ments completely fused.’
What seems a serious fault in the plan of the
systematic part is the defining a group or
Phylum by means of types, which are them-
selves not sufficiently described. Chapter IV.
will illustrate this: The Echinoderms are de-
fined as ‘animals more or less resembling in
structure the sea-urchin.’ One who had never
seen a sea-urchin would naturally expect to
find a figure with which to compare the other
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 55.
forms of the Phylum ; but there is none given,
and the brief description would hardly serve
his purpose. Had there been an anatomical
figure and a more detailed description of each of
the types selected, the book would be more
useful to the ordinary reader.
The chapter on the Celenterata is perhaps
the most unsatisfactory. The difficult group of
the Cnidaria is best understood by treating the
simpler Hydrozoa first and then the Scyphozoa;
instead we have the arrangement as given by
Claus and Sedgwick, and there is, as well, a
lack of clearness and definite system. We think
the book would have been improved by giving
more attention to the Vertebrates. The de-
scription of the mammals is mostly confined to
a discussion of the teeth, which subject, impor-
tant as these organs are, is not likely to attract
the reader or satisfy him in lieu of some other
details which would naturally occur to him in
comparing the various orders of mammals.
Notwithstanding the criticism of these, and
certain other errors which should be corrected,
we believe that the book will prove of value to
the reader and, in the hands of a teacher who
can amplify and explain, would serve as a good
text-book where principles, rather than a de-
tailed learning of systems and names, are de-
sired.
The book is attractively and clearly printed.
The text is quite free from typographical errors;
we notice only ‘infusoriz’ (p. 67), ‘ Arthro-
poids’ (p. 186), ‘fore’ for four (p. 267). The
numerous cross references are correctly given
except that ‘fig. 12’ should be fig. 121 (p. 299).
The ‘List of Illustrations’ shows, however,
careless proof reading, for no less than nine of
the figures are referred to the wrong page. In
the contents there are two more errors, and we
presume that of the original figures No. 183
should be No. 123. W. M. RANKIN.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
THE AMERICAN GEOLOGIST, JANUARY.
Dr. C. E. BrrcHER presents a sketch of
James Dwight Dana, in which attention is
called to the varied faculties and broad scientific
knowledge of the man, but no attempt is made
to give a complete account of his life. Special
JANUARY 17, 1896.]
note is made of his ability to carefully weigh
scientific evidence and of his unprejudiced posi-
tion and final decision concerning the doctrine
of evolution. A portrait and a bibliography
accompany the sketch.
Mr. Warren Upham, in an article on ‘ Physi-
cal Conditions of the Flow of Glaciers,’ de-
scribes the veined or ribboned structure and
the granular structure of glaciers and ice sheets,
with a review of the theories of Forbes and
Tyndall to account for glacial motion. Prefer-
ence is given to the recent granulation theory
of Deeley and Fletcher; and the lamination of
the Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets is at-
tributed, like that of Alpine glaciers, to the
differential shearing movement of the ice layers,
with varying decrease, growth and shear of
contiguous ice granules.
Some phenomena presented by floating sand
are discussed by Prof. F. W. Simonds. He
records an instance of the floating of a consid-
erable amount of sand on the Llano River of
Texas, and he also states the results obtained
by artifically floating sand of various materials
and degrees of fineness.
Mr. Oscar H. Hershey describes the ancient
river deposits of the Spring River valley in
Kansas and outlines the Quaternary history of
this stream.
Prof. E. W. Claypole, in an article entitled
‘The Timepiece of Geology,’ rapidly sketches
the rise of paleontology and the use of fossils
in determining the age of strata. The applica-
tion of this means.of fixing the age of various
rocks is rapid and easy, but the final test is
stratigraphy.
In an editorial comment Mr. Upham notices
the shell-bearing sand and clay beds between
deposits of till at Clava, Scotland. The inter-
glacial fossiliferous beds he thinks to be modi-
fied drift, like the similarly shell-bearing sand
and gravel of Cape Cod. In neither case would
he consider the enclosed marine fossils to be
evidence of submergence, instead of which the
shells and their fragments are referred to glacial
erosion from old sea beds and transportation in
the ice sheets to altitudes where they are now
found.
Under ‘Correspondence’ Prof. W. B. Scott
writes concerning the term ‘Goodnight Beds,’
SCIENCE. ~
107
proposed for a division of the Texas Tertiary
by Mr. W. F. Cummins.
PSYCHE, JANUARY.
A. P. Morse begins a review of the N. HE.
Tryxaline, giving tables for the determination
of the 8 genera and 15 species; three of the
genera are new. H. G. Dyar describes and
discusses an arctic Lymantriid larva found on
Mt. Washington, N. H., which he suspects is
Dasychira rossii. C. H. Tyler Townsend gives
_a table for the determination of the 12 species
of Exorista from temperate North America
known to him, describing one of them as new;
and F. H. Harvey gives some notes on Smerin-
thus cerysii with a description of some of the
early stages.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
A SPECIAL meeting was held December 26th
in the assembly hall of the Cosmos Club under
the auspices of the joint commission of the scien-
tific societies of Washington, on the occasion of
the annual address of the retiring President,
Mr. Wm. H. Ashmead. Major J. W. Powell,
of the joint commission, presided. Mr. Ash-
mead’s subject was ‘The Phylogeny of the
Hymenoptera,’ which he treated at length,
giving his ideas as to the position of the Hymen-
optera in the class Insecta, and as to the rela-
tive position of the several families of the order.
The 113th regular meeting was held January
2d. The following officers were elected for the
year 1896: President, C. L. Marlatt; Vice-
Presidents, Theodore Gill and H. G. Hubbard ;
Recording Secretary, L. O. Howard; Corre-
sponding Secretary, Frank Benton; Treasurer,
EK. A. Schwarz; Additional Members Executive
Committee, W. H. Ashmead, D. W. Coquillett
and C. W. Stiles.
Mr. Schwarz presented a paper on the semi-
tropical insect fauna of Texas. He referred to
the fact that he had made a short visit to the
region in question in 1895, and said that the
fauna west and south of the Guadaloupe River,
and which extends across the Rio Grande into
the Mexican States of Coahuila and Tamaulipas,
is by no means semi-tropical in its character.
It is simply a subdivision of the lower Sonoran
108
fauna. The real semi-tropical in Texas occu-
pies an extremely small area, namely, the delta
of the Rio Grande from the mouth of the river
to the head of the Arroyo Colorado. The latter
is an ancient bed of the Rio Grande, and forms
the northern boundary of the semi-tropical
fauna. Within this area the fauna in question
occurs in narrow isolated strips, within the bends
of the river, along the various resacas which in-
tersect and meander through this region. The
more elevated land separating these strips is
occupied by the general fauna of southwestern
Texas, but there is a maritime fauna of a more
tropical character extending along the coast,
probably as far north as Corpus Christi Bay.
Finally the fauna of the yucca-covered ridges
running parallel with the coast also belong to
the semi-tropical region.
Dr. Gill said that Mr. Schwarz’s observations
on the extremely limited character of this
fauna in Texas agree with his own deductions
from the study of fishes. The paper was
further discussed by Messrs. Ashmead and
Howard.
Mr. Ashmead presented a paper on the genera
of the Eupelmine, showing that ten years ago
only eight genera were tabulated by Cresson,
and only one of these was known to occur in
the United States. Asa result of recent studies
he has found in the United States representa-
tives of 25 genera, several of which are new.
He spoke briefly of some of the peculiar forms.
A paper by Mr. C. F. Baker on ‘The Affini-
ties of Neolarra,’ was read by the Secretary.
The writer concluded that this genus does not
belong to the Bembecidz, with which it had
been placed by Ashmead, but to the Apide.
The paper was discussed by Mr. Ashmead, who
said that he agreed with Mr. Baker in his con-
elusions. The speaker in his original descrip-
tion of Neolarra had been led to place it with
the Bembecide, largely from the fact that the
type was in such poor condition that some of
its important characters could not be well un-
derstood. He further said that he agreed with
Haliday in considering the Bembecide as rather
closely related to the bees on account of the
structure of the mouthparts.
L. O. Howarp,
Secretary.
SCLENCE.
[N. 8. Vox. III. No. 55.
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Avr the last meeting of the Philosophical
Society of Washington the following communi-
cations were presented :
1. By Lieutenant W. H. Beehler, United
States Navy, on ‘The compensation of vibra-
tions and other motions of a vessel at sea for
the constant level-base of the Solarometer.’
Illustrated by diagrams and a solarometer in-
strument itself.
2. By E. D. Preston, on ‘Some original
methods of reducing stars from mean to ap-
parent place.’ Illustrated by diagrams show-
jag how results are quickly obtained graphi-
cally. BERARD R. GREEN,
Secretary.
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FRIDAY, JANUARY 24, 1896.
CONTENTS :
The American Physiological Society: FF REDERIC S.
The Philadelphia Meeting of the American Psycholog-
ical Association: KDMUND C. SANFORD........... 119
Tenth Annual Meeting of the Iowa Academy of Sci-
ences: HERBERT OSBORN............00seeceeeereeeens 124
California Science Association: M. W. HASKELL..126
Current Notes on Physiography -—
Annual Range of Temperature of the Ocean Sur-
face; Winds of the Pacific Ocean; Abnormal and
Solitary Waves: W.M. Davis. Types of Low-
land Coasts: FB. P. G. ..scccsssceneescceececeneceaenees 127
Current Notes on Anthropology :—
Skin Painting in South America ; Afsop in Aztec ;
The Reading of Quipus: D. G. BRINTON......... 128
Scientific Notes and News :—
Astronomical: H. J. Russian Science News:
GEORGE BRUCE HALSTED. Greneral.............. 129
University and Educational News...........sseceeseeseee 133
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Marsh Gas under Ice: IRA REMSEN. ‘ Profes-
sors’ Garner and Gates: J. McK. C................ 133
Scientific Literature :—
The Psychology of Number: H. B. FINE. Ex-
perimental Farms: B. E. FERNOW. Etard’s Les
Nowvelles Théories Chimiques: FERDINAND G.
\NYTSTIOISOUARB SG, ose500n00000000000000000300005000050050005000 134
Scientific Journais :-—
American Chemical Journal: J. ELLIOTT GIL-
TRENT, LMI JU ocoooop oan esHnedo5co00N0oNb04000000000050 138
Societies and Academies :-—
Biological Society of Washington: F. A. Lucas.
National Geographic Society ; Geological Society of
Washington: W. F. MORSELL. Zhe Anthro-
pological Society of Washington: GEORGE R.
Stetson. New York Academy of Sciences: W.
HALLOcK. Geological Conference of Harvard
University: T. A. JAGGAR, JR. The Academy
of Science of St. Louis: WM. TRELEASE.........139
INGD) PEO) Ss secocdcaqooqdE9coGNtcoCHOOCOOIAOTGOCONETOGECAGOOOD50 144
MSS. intended for publication and books etc., intended
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y
THE AMERICAN PHYSIOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
Tue eighth annual meeting of the Amer-
ican Physiological Society was held in
Philadelphia on December 27th and 28th,
1895. The meeting was preceded by the
usual smoke talk upon the evening of De-
cember 26th. Three of the four formal ses-
sions of the Society were held at the Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania, the fourth in the
physiological laboratory of the Jefferson
Medical College.
The following communications were pre-
sented and discussed:
1. R. H. Currrenpen: The mucin of the
white fibrous connective tissue.
The mucin was prepared from ox-tendons
by various methods, more or less analogous
to those employed by Loebisch, but the
products were all characterized by a com-
paratively high content of sulphur (2.30
per cent.), whereas tendon-mucin has here-
tofore been considered as having a low con-
tent of this element (0.81 per cent). The
various results attained point to the proba-
bility that white fibrous tissue contains two
or more mucins, closely related in general
properties and reactions, but dissimilar in
composition, owing possibly to variations
in the proportion of proteid and carbohy-
drate radicles entering into the compound.
In the several products analyzed, however,
the percentage of sulphur was constant, the
variability being confined to the carbon
and nitrogen.
110
Especially important were the results ob-
tained on cleavage of the mucin with boil-
ing dilute acid (HCl). The presence of a
true carbohydrate group was plainly shown
by obtaining a well defined and crystalline
osazone by the phenylhydrazine test. The
osazone so obtained crystallizes in fine yel-
low needles usually arranged in rosettes.
When purified as much as possible the osa-
zone is readily soluble in warm water, alco-
hol, ether, chloroform and benzol. It melts
at 158°-160°C., and appears to resemble
very closely the pentaglucosazone obtained
by Hammarsten from the cleavage product
of the peculiar gluconucleoproteid described
by him as present in the pancreas.
2. A. R. Cusuny :
in the Invertebrates.
- While the accumulation of iron in the
Vertebrates is generally supposed to be a
provision for supplying iron to the blood,
such an explanation will not hold for the
large percentage of iron in the hepato-pan-
creas of the Invertebrates, since in the latter
the blood contains only traces of iron. The
hepato-pancreas of the Crustacea and the
Echinodermata shows about the same pro-
portion of iron as the Mammalian liver,
while the Mollusca have a much larger
accumulation than either. Muscle seems
to contain about the same percentage of
iron throughout the animal kingdom, and
in organisms without hepatic tissues, such
as the Actinia, the percentage seems to ap-
proximate that of muscle.
3. J. J. Aspen: A preliminary account of
the chemical properties of the pigment of the
negro’s skin. (With W.S. Davis.)
This pigment is of importance, not alone
because it is a distinguishing characteristic
of the great majority of the human race
and because it may be found to serve a
physiological purpose, but also because of
its very probable relationship to the pig-
ment more sparingly deposited in the skin
The distribution of tron
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 56.
of the so-called white races and to that
found in the hair.
It may also be found related to the pig-
ment of the skin in certain pathological
conditions, as in the bronzed skin of Addi-
son’s disease, or in the brown or black
patches known as naevi spilt.
The authors have succeeded in isolating
the coloring principle of the negro’s skin
and they hope to apply their method to
other instances of skin pigmentation. The
isolated pigment has not yet been obtained
entirely free of mineral constituents. After
incineration the resulting ash consists
mainly of silicon dioxide; a very little iron,
amounting to 0.1% or less of the original
weight of substance, is also present.
At present the authors are attempting to
determine the composition of the pigment
granules, the minute anatomical elements
found in the lower epidermal cells which
contain the pigment in union with other
substances. While as yet unprepared to
give quantitative results, they are con-
vinced that these black granules contain
very much inorganic matter, iron being
present in considerable amount.
The isolated pigment is found to be
very resistant toward destructive chemical
agents. Freshly precipitated it is soluble
in water, in alcohol (90% ) and in mixtures
of alcohol and éther. In its behavior to-
ward mineral acids, alkalis and the agents
employed to precipitate proteids and also
toward oxidizing agents, it agrees with the
dark pigments that have been obtained
from the hair, from the choroid coat of the
eye and from melanotic tumors; in short,
it must be grouped with that ill-defined
class of compounds known as melanins.
The pigment contained in the hair of the
negro was also isolated and was found to
respond in a like manner to the many
chemical tests to which it was subjected.
Ultimate analyses of the skin and the hair
pigments also showed a close agreement.
J ANUARY 24, 1896.] -
Since the recorded analyses of the pigment
of the dark hair of the white races show
many points in common with those of the
negro’s skin and hair, it would seem very
probable that the pigment of the negro’s
skin is closely related to that found in the
hair of the white races.
The percentages of carbon, hydrogen, ni-
trogen, sulphur and oxygen found in the
isolated pigment are far from supporting
the theory that it is derived from the color- .
ing principle of the blood.
Dry distillation of the pigment carried on
at a certain temperature yields much pyrrol,
a fact of special interest, since pyrrol has
also been obtained from derivatives of chlo-
rophyll and hemoglobin and from certain
melanins and proteids. While we are not
justified at present in classifying the various
pigments referred toas pyrrol derivatives,
the presence of this chemical among their
decomposition products would suggest a
closer chemical union between chlorophyll
and some of the animal pigments named
than has hitherto been thought to exist.
4. T. B. Aupricn: On the chemical and
physiological properties of the fluid secreted by
the anal glands of Mephitis mephitica.
The secretion, at least when examined a
_ few hours after removal from the saes, has
a neutral reaction, a specific gravity, at
ordinary temperatures, less than water, a
golden yellow color, and a very well-known
characteristic and penetrating odor. It
burns with a luminous flame, giving off
sulphur dioxide fumes, and gives all of the
merecaptan and some of the alkylsulphide
reactions.
By distillation the secretion is separated
into two sharply defined, nearly equal por-
tions: <A, boiling between 100° and 130° C.,
and having the odor of the secretion; B, boil-
ing over 130° C., and having a less offensive
odor than A. A gives all the mercaptan
and some of the alkylsulphide reactions;
SCIENCE.
ial
B does not react with either lead acetate or
mercuric oxide, but gives some of the alkyl:
sulphide reactions. In A we have one or
more of the higher mercaptans, in B we
have probably some alkylsulphides.
The fractional distillation of A gave three
portions: C, B. P. 100-110° C.; D, B. P.
110-120° C., and EH, B. P. over 120°C. C
constitutes about one-half of A; the
three fractions gave all the mercaptan re-
actions.
For the purpose of identifying the mer-
captans in fraction C, several sulphur de-
terminations were made; the lead and mer-
cury compounds were made and subjected
also to analysis. These analyses gave re-
sults which point to the presence of one of
the butylmercaptans.
It is found that one is able to recognize
with the nose ggsot0000 Mg of C; showing
that it is this part of the original secretion
which gives it its great penetrating and dif-
fusing property.
The secretion is a powerful anzesthetic.
There is an instance on record illustrating
this property. Some years ago a number
of boys caused one of their companions to
inhale an unknown quantity of the secre-
tion. The victim lost consciousness, but
recovered under the care of a physician and
showed no after-effects. The fluid also has:
the properties of a local irritant, e. g., a
drop in the eye setting up a conjunctivitis.
Those that have worked with the secretion
and have inhaled much of the vapor com-
plain of violent headaches and dysuria.
The present writer has not observed these
symptoms in himself, although he has
worked with comparatively large quantities
of the secretion for a long time.
Further chemical and physiological ex-
periments are now in progress.
5. G. Lusk: Phloridzin diabetes and the
maximum of sugar from proteid.
It was shown that after administration
112
to fasting rabbits of small doses (1-2 grms.)
of phloridzin at frequent intervals (8-12
hours) sugar appeared in large quantity in
the urine of the first twenty-four hours, :
representing a proportion of dextrose to
nitrogen in the urine as high as 5.4 is to 1,
or D: N:: 5.4:1. In the urine of the second
twenty-four hours the relation, however,
approximated that found by Minkowski in
fasting dogs after extirpation of the pancreas
1. €., D:N:: 2.8:1. Theaction of phloridzin
in fasting rabbits is to sweep the organiza-
tion free from sugar, and thereafter to re-
move such sugar as may be formed from
proteid. Calculation shows that the 45.08
grms. of dextrose produced from the oxida-
tion of 100 grms. of proteid in tissue meta-
bolism contain 44.4% of the available
energy in the proteid (using Ribner’s esti-
mate that 1 grm. of proteid yields 4000 Cal.
in the body.)
6. W. T. Porter:
the coronary arteries.
The frequency with which arrest follows
closure of one of the large coronary branches
depends on the size of the artery ligated
and on the irritability of the heart at the
time the ligation is made. The consequences
of closing a sufficiently large branch are a
fall of the intracardiac pressure during
systole, a rise during diastole, a fall in the
quantity of blood discharged from the left
ventricle, and finally arrest with fibrillary
contractions. These consequences are not
the result of the mechanical injury done
the heart in the operation of ligation.
Severe crushing of the cardiac tissue near
the coronary arteries rarely produces the
phenomena in question. Nor were they
once seen in nearly one hundred prepara-
tions of the arteries for ligation. Further,
the phenomena described can all be pro-
duced by closure of the coronary arteries
without mechanical injury. This may be
accomplished by plugging the mouth of the
Further researches on
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 56.
left coronary artery with a glass rod passed
into the aorta through the subclavian or
innominate arteries. It can also be done by
closing the arch of the aorta for a few
seconds, injecting into the aorta at the
same time a quantity of lycopodium mixed
with defibrinated blood. The lycopodium
enters the coronary arteries and closes their
smaller branches by embolism. The changes
in intracardiac pressure and the arrest with
fibrillary contractions are therefore not due
to mechanical injury of the heart. They
must then be a consequence of the sudden
anemia of the heart muscle caused by clos-
ing the arteries that supply it. There is
no fundamental difference between the un-
codrdinated contractions seen in the heart
after its arrest from hemmorrhage, as after
opening the large arteries, and the fibrillary
contractions brought on by closure of a
coronary artery.
7. G. N. Srewarr: Note on the quantity
of blood in the lesser circulation.
8. C. F. Hopar: Histological characters
of lymph as distinguished from protoplasm.
The ordinary histological analysis of an
organ includes the cells characteristic of it,
the connective tissue supporting structures,
its blood vessels and lymphatics, and its ner-
voussupply. Inaddition to the above, lymph
is continually streaming through the cells
and between them. We know that this
lymph contains large quantities of proteid
matter in solution which is precipitated by
the ordinary reagents used in hardening
tissues for microscopical purposes. If this
precipitate is wholly inert toward staining
reagents, we are not even then justified
in leaving it out of our histological analysis,
since many structures of the greatest im-
portance are ‘achromatic.’ If lymph pre-
cipitate or coagulum does stain, it is clearly
of importance to determine what form it
takes in the section, granular, reticular or
alveolar.
JANUARY 24, 1896. ]
e
The first method employed eonsisted in
smearing frog’s lymph on a slide, plunging
it into mercuric solution and passing it
through different stains. Such films gave
a granulo-reticular appearance strongly
stained and quite similar to many ordinary
cell protoplasms. The absence of any con-
trol as to thickness of film, however, makes
this method inapplicable to rigid compari-
son with appearances of protoplasm in sec-
tions of known thickness.
meet this difficulty, although possibly intro-
ducing others, the author inserted small
bits of dry pith into the lymph sac of a
frog, and after these had become saturated
with lymph they were removed and with
similar sized bits of other tissues were
passed through various histological pro-
cesses and sectioned in paraffin. Thus sec-
tions of tissue and of lymph coagulum, fil-
tered through the walls of pith cells, were
obtained, of equal thickness and compara-
ble in every way.
Compared thus with cells of nerve, mus-
ele and gland the chief result is that lymph
furnishes to empty pith cells a histological
content strikingly similar to certain struc-
tures usually ascribed to protoplasm. Re-
cently Fischer, by injecting pith with chem-
ically prepared solutions of proteids, pep-
tones, et al., proved that a number of re-
agents precipitated these proteids in the
form of granules not to be distinguished
from Altman’s ‘ Elementarorganismen.’ It
thus becomes manifest that the granular
factor in cell protoplasm may be readily ac-
counted for as a simple artefact formed
from solutions and not necessarily as pre-
formed in the cell. In the author’s experi-
ments on lymph in which osmie acid, Flem-
ming’s solution, mercuric chloride, gold
chloride and alcohol were used for harden-
ing, the character of the precipitate was
chiefly reticular or alveolar. In alcohol
and mercuric chloride this is fine and ap-
pears under ordinary powers as vacuolated
SCIENCE.
In order to -
113
granular protoplasm. In osmic solutions it
is coarsely alveolar with dense accretions of
stained matter at the angles of the alveoli.
Gold chloride gives a striking fibrillar retic-
ulum with frequent sharply defined gran-
ules, resembling the varicosities and end
balls often described in connection with
nerve fibrils.
A number of stains have been tried. The
carmines and hematoxylins are strongly
retained, as are most of the anilins, eosin,
fuchsin and nigrosin, and even methyl! blue
and safranin are retained quite strongly.
Comparison with cells of different tissues
prepared side by side with the lymph from
the sams frog would thus indicate that a
considerable proportion of the substance
stained in the cell protoplasm can not be
differentiated from lymph by the stains
thus far employed. It is true that identity
of staining cannot be taken to prove iden-
tity of substance; but until other methods
of analysis prove either identity or differ-
ence, we must admit the possibility that a
large factor in what is ordinarily described
as the granulation or reticulation of cell pro-
toplasm may be simply precipitate in the
cell of lymph common to the whole body.
Until such analysis is made, further work
upon the finer ‘structure’ or even on the
‘content’ of the so-called ‘ protoplasm ’ can
have little permanent value. A point of
special importance is that the nucleus stains
by almost all methods in a way to differ-
entiate it sharply from lymph precipitate.
These reactions would disprove all ideas
tending to make the nucleus a lymph space
in the cell. «
9. C. F. Hoper (for J. R. Slonaker) :
Demonstration of the comparative anatomy of
the area and fovea centralis.
Methods for preserving the eye and for
the demonstration of the retina in the eye
as a whole and in microscopical sections
were briefly discussed and a large number
114
of specimens were exhibited. The general
summary of the forms thus far studied may
be made as follows:
Mammals possess an area as a rule; in
some, however, notably the dog, no area
can be distinguished. The primates are the
only class in which a fovea is present.
All birds examined, except the chicken,
have one or two well-defined foveas with
areas of various forms. In the domestic
chicken no trace of fovea or area has been
observed. Both the quail and partridge
have well-developed foveas. Among the
birds studied, the following have a central
fovea with circular area: turkey, duck, par-
tridge, quail, pigeon, song and English
sparrow, kinglet, robin, bluebird, and crow.
The goose and ring-neck plover possess a
central fovea and a band-like area. In the
tern we find two foveas and a band-like area
extending horizontally across the retina.
One of the foveas, corresponding in posi-
tion to the human fovea (nasal) is situated
near the optical axis and within the area.
The other fovea (temoral) is located above
the band-like area and close to the ora ser-
rata. Its position would indicate that it
serves for binocular vision. Both the spar-
row hawk and the red-tailed buzzard hawk
possess two foveas, each one surrounded by
a well-defined circular area and connected
by a slightly developed band-like area. The
fovee in the hawks are much closer to-
gether than in the tern and are both com-
paratively near the optical axis, the tem-
poral fovea apparently moving towards the
center of the eye as the position of the eye
in the socket changes from the lateral to the
frontal type. The kingfisher resembles the
hawks in the above particulars.
As to the reptiles, amphibia and fishes,
the turtle and frog have band-like areas ex-
tending across the eye horizontally just
above the nerve. These are not marked by
any thickening of the retina, but by a closer
packing together of the cells, especially well
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 56.
seen in the ganglion cell layer. In none of
the fishes examined has either area or fovea
been found. The retina is, however, much
thickened over the superior half.
10. G. C. Huser: The ending of the chorda
tympani in the sublingual and the submaxillary
glands (with demonstrations).
The observations reported were made on
preparations obtained from young dogs and
puppies; the tissues were stained with the
double Golgi-Cajal method and the Ehrlich-
Bethe methylene blue method. The follow-
ing conclusions were reached :
1. The cells of the sublingual and the
submaxillary ganglia are multipolar in type;
they belong to the sympathetic system; this
is shown in preparations impregnated with ;
chrome silver.
2. The axis cylinders of the sympathetic
cells follow the larger and smaller gland
ducts and form a plexus about the intra-
lobular ducts. From this plexus fibres are
given off that form a second plexus about
the alveoli outside of the membrana propria.
From this second plexus ultimate fibrille
pass off, penetrate the membrana propria and
end on the gland cells.
3. The chorda tympani consists of fibres,
some of which end in the form of a pericel-
lular end-basket around the cells of the sub-
lingual ganglion, while others have no con-
nection with this ganglion, but end in a
similarmanner in thesubmaxillary ganglion.
No fibers of the chorda tympani end on the
gland cells.
4. The sympathetic fibres following the
branches of the submaxillary artery are
axis cylinder branches of the sympathetic
cells in the superior cervical ganglion. As
far as has been determined, they end on the
blood vessels.
11. G. W. Frrz: A working model of the
eye.
Dr. Fitz showed a working model of the
eye consisting of a skeleton eye set in gym-
JANUARY 24, 1896. ]
bals to allow for free motion in vertical and
horizontal planes. The front of the eye
carries an elastic lens, made by fastening
a sheet of gelatine over a water chamber
with a glass back. The gelatine is bulged
more or less, as the water pressure in the
chamber is increased or diminished by rais-
ing or lowering the reservoir connected
with it by rubber tubing. A portion of the
retina is represented, including the yellow
and blind spots and serves the purpose of
a screen for receiving the images of can-
dles used with the model for studying the
optics of vision.
The optical conditions involved in normal
vision, accommodation to near and far ob-
jects, the use of the iris, near and far sight
and correction by lenses, the blind spot,
corresponding points of retinee (two mod-
els), binocular vision and convergence,
estimation of distance, Scheiner’s experi-
ment, etc., may be experimentally studied
with the model.
12. J. G. Curtis: A method of recording
muscle curves.
Dr. Curtis briefly referred to a method of
recording muscle curves so that they shall
be visible to a large lecture class, such as
commonly calls for the use of the duBois
‘muscle telegraph.’
The shaft of a muscle lever of Tiger-
stedt’s form is replaced by a stout and very
long straw which shall magnify the con-
tractions as much as possible. In a cleft
in the free end of this straw is stuck a
piece of leather, which is to ‘ write’ upon a
drum turned simply by hand. The leather
should be about 24 centimetres long, and 8
to 10 millimetres wide, the length of the
leather lying in the length of the straw.
The leather should be flexible, but thick
enough to be moderately elastic; its rough
side should be turned toward the drum, and
longitudinal cuts, each about 6 to 8 millime-
tres deep, should be made with scissors in
SCIENCE.
115
its free end, so as to divide what is to an-
swer to a ‘writing point’ into five or six
fingers.
The straw lever should be placed normal
to the drum and pushed directly toward the
latter until the cloven end of the leather
not only touches the drum, but is deflected
rather sharply in the direction toward
which the latter is to revolve.
If now the drum be made to revolve by
band, there may be recorded very sufficient
muscle curves, each made up of several
neighboring parallel lines, which lines are
visible together at a distance as a white
band from 4 to 10 millimetres wide.
13. G. N. Srewart: Measurements of the
circulation time of the retina.
Dr. Stewart demonstrated for the par-
ticular case of the retina a method of meas-
uring the circulation time employed by him
for various vascular tracts. A solution of
methylene blue in normal saline was in-
jected into the central end of one jugular
vein of a rabbit. The retina on the other
side was observed with the ophthalmoscope,
and the interval between the appearance of
the blue in the central artery and in the
central vein measured with the stop-watch.
The following is a specimen experiment:
Rabbit, 1360 grms, in weight.
Circulation time from central artery to central vein
of retina, 1.75, 1.8, 1.7, 1.95 seconds. Last seen to be
rather too long.
Circulation time from jugular vein to retinal artery,
4.05 seconds.
Circulation time from jugular vein to carotid artery,
2.8 seconds.
Circulation time from jugular vein to retinal artery,
3.8 seconds.
Circulation time from retinal artery to retinal vein,
1.8 seconds.
Circulation time from retinal artery to retinal vein,
1.85 seconds.
Circulation time from jugular vein to retinal artery,
4.0 seconds.
Circulation time from jugular vein to carotid artery,
2.25 seconds.
Circulation time from jugular vein to carotid artery,
2.5 seconds.
116
14. T. W. Mitts: Cortical cerebral locali-
zation in certain animals.
The paper was a report on the above sub-
ject confined chiefly to birds and one rodent,
the rabbit. The work will be extended to
other rodents.
Birds: The author finds that stimulation
of the cortex will not produce movements
of the head in birds, as stated; that the effect
on the pupil is not constant but variable;
that it is not always confined to the oppo-
site side, though it is usually most pro-
nounced on that side; that there is one in-
variable effect of stimulating the cortex of
birds, viz: drawing of the nictitating mem-
brane over the eye ball to a greater or less
extent, dependent upon the strength of the
stimulus. This result is not mentioned by
other investigators, and the author cannot
confirm most of Ferrier’s statements regard-
ing the results of stimulating the cerebrum
of the pigeon. His own experiments were
made on fowls and pigeons, chiefly the
latter, and on both pure-bred and common
specimens.
Rabbit: As regards the rabbit, the author
had been unable to find a cortical centre for
the hind leg, though such a centre is clearly
mapped out by Ferrier. He had no difficulty
in all cases in getting cortical localization of
movements of the head, mouth parts, fore
limbs, etc., in the rabbits. He had used a
great variety of animals of different ages,
and both pure-bred and cross-bred animals.
In the dog, cat and all the animals the
writer had examined, he was convinced that
the definiteness of the limits of centres had
been exaggerated and that probably new ex-
planations of ‘ motor centres’ would require
to be constructed. Definiteness of localiza-
tion is unquestionably found to increase,
however, as one ascends the animal scale.
15. W. T. Porter: A new method for the
study of the intracardiac pressure curve.
Two methods are now used to record the
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. IIT. No. 56,
changes of pressure in the heart. In one
the manometer and the tube connecting it
with the heart are filled with liquid, to the
exclusion of air; in the other the distal
portion of the tube contains air. In the
former method the advantage gained by
employing an incompressible fluid is dimin-
ished by the inertia introduced by the weight
of the liquid column. In the latter the
lessening of inertia by substituting air for
water in a part of the tube is more than
offset by the loss of time unavoidable in the
registration of very rapid changes of pres-
sure by a compressible medium. The er-
rors inherent in these two methods explain
the many opposing opinions regarding the
form of the intracardiac pressure curve and
the filling and emptying of the heart. A
theoretically perfect method requires the
use of an incompressible fluid and an ab-
sence of inertia. In the new method of-
fered by Dr. Porter these conditions are
both fulfilled.
A stopcock worked by an electro-magnet
is placed in the tube connecting the ven-
tricle with the manometer that is to write
the pressure curve. The current which
opens the stopcock is made by a second
manometer, also connected with the ven-
tricle, driving a wire, fastened on its
lever, into two mercury cups, as the
pressure in the ventricle rises. By ad-
justing the wire the circuit can be made
at any point in systole. If made near the
summit of contraction the stopcock will be
opened only during the maximum of ven-
tricular contraction, and the manometer
will write only the top of the intraventric-
ular curve, for example, the last twentieth
of the rise in pressure. The inertia error
caused by the liquid in the manometer and
the connecting tube passing through one-
twentieth its usual rise is so slight as prac-
tically to disappear. The true summit of
the intraventricular curve is thus secured,
free of inertia error, This summit is seen
JANUARY 24, 1896. ]
to be a straight line, parallel or nearly par-
allel with the atmospheric abscissa.
16. 8. J. Mentzer: On the mode of ab-
sorption from the peritoneal cavity in rabbits.
(With I. Adler.)
In the recent literature on the physiol-
ogy of absorption a number of writers have
expressed the surprising opinion that the
lymphatics assist but little in the absorption
from the serous cavities. With regard to
this question Meltzer and Adler made two
sets of experiments on rabbits. In the
first set 100 cc. of a saline solution were in-
troduced into the peritoneal cavity (the
animals were always well narcotized), and
removed again after 40 minutes. In order
to exclude the lymphatics, in some rabbits
the innominate veins were ligated. While
in alarge number of normal rabbits the
quantity absorbed in 40 minutes was about
35 ec.; in those with ligated lymphatic
ducts it was about 18 to 12 cc. The au-
thors, however, avoid drawing the conclu-
sion from these experiments that the lym-
phatics are of great importance to the ab-
sorption, since some normal rabbits showed
poor absorption, and, in fact, in two cases
more fluid was taken out than was put in.
In the other set of experiments for each
rabbit with ligated innominate veins a con-
trol rabbit was taken, whose external jugu-
lar veins were ligated. Both animals were
alike in regard to the venous stasis of their
brains, but differed as to their lymphatics;
in one they were excluded, and in the other
they were not. The same dose of strych-
nine was injected into the abdominal cav-
ity of each; the one with the lymphatics
open had a tetanic attack, the other was
attacked either not at all or much later.
The same was seen when about 1.5 ce. of
5 % potassium ferrocyanide was injected,
and the urine was tested. The Prussian
blue reaction appeared in the rabbit with
ligated lymphatics, an hour or an hour and
SCIENCE.
117
a half later than in the rabbit with open
lymphatics. This shows distinctly what
importance the lymphatics have for the ab-
sorption from the peritoneal cavity.
'17. 8S. J. Metrzer: On the icorrectness
of the often quoted experiments of Starling and
Tubby with reference to the mode of absorption
from the peritoneal cavity in dogs.
As an important argument for the theory
that the fluid from the peritoneal cavity
enters the circulation directly through the
walls of the blood vessels and not by the
long way of the lymphatics, the experi-
ments of Starling and Tubby are often
quoted. Starling and Tubby have made
only three experiments, and have published
one protocol only, which is in the main as
follows: 40 cc. of indigo carmine were in-
troduced into the abdominal cavity; 2 min-
utes after the injection the urine was dark
blue, while a half hour later the lymph
showed a- bluish tinge. Meltzer has re-
peated these experiments and found quite a
different result. Potassium ferrocyanide or
indigo carmine appeared in the lymph from
the thoracic duct about 14 minutes after
their introduction into the peritoneal cavity,
but in the urine only after an hour or more.
Moreover, even after the injection of indigo
carmine directly into the circulation, 23
minutes elapsed before the urine became
blue.
18. F. S. Locke: On the action of ether
on contracture and on positive kathodie polari-
zation of voluntary muscle.
Mr. Locke described experiments, the
graphic records of which were shown, in
which the action of ether on striated muscle
under the influence of various contrac-
ture-conditioning agents was investigated.
Under etherization the normal twitch of
short duration reappears. The relation of
this result to Biedermann’s positive katho-
dic polarization of striated muscle was
118
pointed out, reasons for considering which
undemonstrated were given.
19. H. G. Bryer:
exercise on growth.
Dr. Beyer spoke of the necessity of apply-
ing more exact methods of investigation to
the study of this very important physiologi-
cal subject than had been done hitherto.
While acknowledging that some of the more
general good effects of all forms of exercise
were within the easy reach and the experi-
ence of all, the more remote and permanent
ones must be made the subject of more
serious study and investigation.
He described one of the methods by
means of which the influence of systematic
gymuastic or of other forms of exercise might
be ascertained, and presented the results of
some investigations in this direction. For
example, as to height, his figures presented
strong evidence that height is decidedly
increased by exercise taken within physio-
logical limits and during the period of
growth.
20. W. H. Howett (for Messrs. Conant
and Clark): The existence of a separate in-
hibitory and accelerator nerve to the crab’s
heart.
The work was done upon the common
edible crab, Callinectes hastatus. The authors
have been able to show that two separate
nerves pass from the thoracic ganglion to
end in a plexus in the wall of the peri-
cardium and that one of these nerves, when
stimulated, inhibits the heart beat, while
the other causes marked acceleration. The
inhibiting nerve was traced anatomically
to the ganglion, which it joins in company
with the large mandibular nerve. The
junction of the accelerator nerve with the
ganglion has not so far been demonstrated
anatomically, but the physiological evidence
indicates that it leaves the ganglion in
company with the nerve to the first pereio-
pod. Ifthis latter nerve is severed from the
On the influence of
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Von. III. No. 56.
ganglion, stimulation of the ganglion no
longer gives acceleration. If the peripheral
end of the severed nerve, however, is stimu-
lated, marked acceleration is obtained. If,
moreover, the severed nerve is again cut a
little farther to the periphery, stimulation
of the new peripheral end no longer affects
the heart, while stimulation of the small
isolated piece thus obtained gives accelera-
tion. This evidence indicates that the ac-
celerator nerve leaves the nerve of the first
pereiopod a short distance, about 1 centi-
metre, beyond the thoracic ganglion. As
stated above, in the neighborhood of the
pericardial plexus it is easily found as a
separate nerve lying close to the inhibitory
nerve. The authors were not able to obtain
any evidence of a tonic activity of either of
these nerves. Stimulation of the cerebral
ganglion with strong currents gave inhibi-
tion of the heart, which disappeared, how-
ever, when the commissures connecting
this ganglion with the thoracic ganglion
were cut.
21. Fr. Prarr: On toxicodendrol and on
the so-called toxicodendric acid.
‘Toxicodendric acid’ has been regarded
heretofore as the active principle of poison
ivy, Rhus toxicodendron. Dr. Pfaff isolated
this acid and analyzed its barium and
sodium salts. Quantitative and qualitative
tests show that it is really nothing but
acetic acid. The true active principle of
poison ivy is an oil named by Dr. Pfaff
Toxicodendrol. The purity of the oil ob-
tained was proved by quantitative analyses
of the lead compounds with different prepa-
rations of the oil.
22. H. C. CHapman:
physiology.
Professor Chapman gave a demonstrative
talk upon methods employed in his own
teaching, illustrating his remarks largely by
apparatus devised by himself. He urged
the value of the comparative method and
Methods of teaching
JANUARY 24, 1896. ]
showed a valuable series of Mammalian
brains, together with other comparative
anatomical preparations.
The following new members were elected:
J. G. Adami, M. A., M. D., M. R.C.S.,
Professor of Pathology, McGill University.
T. B. Aldrich, M. D., Instructor in Phys-
iological Chemistry, Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity.
J. McK. Cattell, Ph. D., Professor of Ex-
perimental Psychology, Columbia College.
G. P. Clark, M. D., Professor of Physi-
ology, Syracuse University.
R. H. Cunningham, M. D., Assistant
Demonstrator of Physiology, College of
Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia College.
G. W. Fitz, M. D., Assistant Professor of
Physiology and Hygiene, Harvard Univer-
Sity.
T. Hough, Ph. D., Assistant Professor of
Physiology, Massachusetts Institute of
Technology.
R. Hunt, A. B., Fellow in Physiology,
Johns Hopkins University.
F. 8. Locke, M. A., M. B., Instructor in
Physiology, Harvard Medical School.
Professors C. S. Minot and C. F. Hodge
were appointed to express to Prof. Langley
the opinion of the Society that it is highly
desirable that the table of the Smithsonian
Institution at the Naples Zodlogical Station
be continued. Mr. W. B. Saunders enter-
tained the members of the Society at
luncheon at the Art Club. The Society en-
joyed also the courtesies that were extended
to the affiliated societies by the University
of Pennsylvania and the Philadelphia Local
Committee.
Officers for the coming year were elected
as follows: Members of the Council, H. P.
Bowditch, R. H. Chittenden, W. H. Howell,
F. 8S. Lee, J. W. Warren; President, R. H.
Chittenden ; Secretary and Treasurer, F. S.
Lee.
- The President and the Secretary were ap-
pointed respectively Delegate and Alternate
SCIENCE.
1)
to the Congress of American Physicians and
Surgeons of 1897.
FreEperic 8. Les,
Secretary.
‘THE PHILADELPHIA MEETING OF THE AMER-
ICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION.
Ar the Princeton meeting of the Asso-:
ciation a year ago overtures of affiliation
were received from the American Society of
Naturalists, and in response to these the
meeting of 1895 was held at the same time
and place as those of the affiliated societies.
The opportunities thus afforded of seeing
and hearing distinguished representatives
of kindred lines of investigation added much
to the interest of the psychological program,
while the abundant hospitality of the local
committee provided for the social contact,
which is rightly an important feature of all
such gatherings.
On opening the first session of the Asso-
ciation, the President, Prof. Cattell, of Co-
lumbia, introduced Prof. Fullerton, Dean of
the University of Pennsylvania, who first
welcomed the Association to the University
and then read a paper on Psychology and
Physiology. In it he drew the boundary be-
tween the two sciences sharp, not with any
view to warning off mutual trespass, but to
having the writers of text-books keep clear
for their readers the essential limits of both
sciences. With Foster’s Physiology as a
text Prof. Fullerton showed what lavish
use is made in the chapters on the functions
of the sense organs and the nervous system
of material that is patently psychological,
di. e., secured by the distinctly psychological
method of introspection. This paper ap-
pears in full in the current number of the
Psychological Review.
Prof. Fullerton was followed by Dr. Far-
rand, of Columbia, who described a Series
of Physical and Mental Tests on the Students of
Columbia College. The tests described are
made on the undergraduates of the College
120
at entrance, and repeated upon the same
students at the end of their Sophomore and
Senior years. The object of the tests is to ob-
tain a record for comparative purposes of cer-
tain mental and physical characteristics of
the students at different times during a period
of rather active intellectual growth, and at
the same time to furnish material for a sta-
tistical study of the particular points ex-
amined. Stress is laid to a certain extent
upon the more purely mental inquiries, such
as memory, rate of perception, and motor re-
sponse, accuracy of perception, color vision,
etc., but enough physical tests are included
to afford a comparison between bodily and
mental development if any relation between
the two exists. Dr. Farrand’s paper led to
a discussion of the advantages of such pro-
longed statistical inquiries, at the conclu-
sion of which, on motion of Prof. Baldwin,
of Princeton, the Association voted to ap-
point a committee to consider the matter of
the cooperative collection of such data by
the various psychological laboratories. This
committee, as announced at the business
meeting, is composed of Professors Baldwin,
Jastrow, Sanford, Witmer and Cattell
(chairman).
Dr. Arthur MacDonald’s paper on Some
Psycho-Neural Data was a report upon experi-
ments similar to those reported on by the
same speaker at the Princeton meeting (see
Scrence, I., 43), but this time including, be-
sides experiments upon pain, others on dis-
criminative sensitivity of the skin (Weber’s
circles), and just observable differences in
warmth. The experiments were regarded
rather as tests of tests than as leading to
definitive results, but they nevertheless
appeared to indicate some interesting rela-
tions, of which the most general were the
greater general sensitiveness of the left side
as compared with the right, the greater sen-
sitiveness to pain of women as compared
with men, and the greater sensitiveness of
young men of the wealthy classes both to
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 56.
differences in locality (Weber’s circles),
and to pain as compared with men in the
Boston ‘Army of the Unemployed.’
Mr. Oliver Cornman, the next speaker,
reported upon An Exprimental Investigation
of the Processes of Ideation, a study upon
school children undertaken under the
direction of Prof. Witmer. The children
were asked to write as many words as pos-
sible in an interval of fifteen minutes, writ-
ing the words in columns. In general lists
of from 200 to 400 words result, which are
then classified and subjected to statistical
treatment. It has been found that the di-
rections given the children at starting are
extremely important in determining the flow
of associated words, and that the last third
of the fifteen-minute period gives results
most indicative of the individuality of the
child. This investigation is understood to
be still in progress.
The session of Friday afternoon was
opened by the Presidential Address of Prof.
Cattell, of Columbia College, who described
the history and recent progress of psychol-
ogy and the part played in its development
by experiment and measurement. Psychol-
ogy is by no means a new science, but its
growth during the last few years has been
rapid, and it now rivals the other leading
sciences in productiveness of research and
publication and in academic position.
Science is either genetic or quantitative, and
psychology is advancing in both directions.
The problems that can be treated in the
laboratory were reviewed, and it was claimed
that these have added directly and in-
directly new subject matter and methods,
have set a higher standard of accuracy and
objectivity, have made some part of the
subject an applied science with useful ap-
plications, and have enlarged the field and
improved the methods of teaching psychol-
ogy. In conclusion, the relations of psy-
chology to the other sciences and to philos-
ophy were reviewed and their interdepen-
JANUARY 24, 1896.]
dence was emphasized. The address will
be printed in the March number of The
Psychological Review.
The President’s address was followed
by an informal communication from Prof.
Ladd, of Yale, upon the Direct Control
of the Retinal Light. After a description
of the phenomenon (upon which the
speaker has contributed a brief paper to
the Psychological Review, I., 851) a syllabus
of simple experiments for observing it was
distributed and codperative aid in its study
solicited.
The next speaker was Prof. Strong, and
his topic Consciousness and Time. The paper
was a critique of the views presented in the
Presidential address of Prof. James at the
Princeton meeting. It was then argued that
the perception of passing time involved a
successive unity of consciousness in addi-
tion to the simultaneous unity required for
the perception of likeness and difference.
Prof. Strong, on the contrary, held that a
successive unity is an impossibility, and
that the consciousness of succession being
in its nature retrospective, all knowledge of
passing time must be representative, thus
making the ordinary simultaneous unity of
consciousness all sufficient. This paper will
appear in the Psychological Review.
The afternoon session concluded with the
paper of Brother Chrysostom on Some Con-
ditions of Will Development. These condi-
tions, the speaker considered, fall under
two heads: the instrinsic, or such as depend
on the voluntary agent, and the extrinsic,
or such as act on him from without. The
first of the intrinsic conditions is the nature
of the will itself, which is indeterminate, at
least as to the means that it shall employ.
Objection to this view based on ‘ Double
Consciousness’ does not hold. The will is,
however, determined to a certain extent by
habit and intellect, and heredity and envi-
ronment exercise a marked influence upon it.
Environment itself, however, is partly sub-
SCIENCE.
121
ject to will and herein lies the great oppor-
tunity of ethical improvement.
The paper of Prof. Lloyd, of the Univer-
sity of Michigan, on A Psychological Inter-
pretation of the Rules of Definition in Logie,
though in the hands of the Secretary, was
omitted because of the fulness of the
program.
The most generally interesting and the
most fully attended session of the Associa-
tion was that of Saturday morning, when a
discussion on Evolution and Consciousness
brought together as participants Professors
James, Cope, Baldwin, Minot and Ladd.
Prof. James in opening the discussion
sketched in brief the several aspects of the
general question upon which psychological
interest is more or less centered.
1. How ancient is consciousness in the
world at large? To this question Clifford,
Fechner and others have replied with a
doctrine of atomic souls, making conscious-
ness coeval with the universe, while Spen-
cer and others again have advanced theo-
ries which place its entrance relatively late
in cosmic development. The monadism of
Leibnitz and the current doctrines of the
soul are still other coodinate theories. 2.
Is consciousness a genuine dynamic agent
in the psycho-physical combination or
merely an epiphenomenon? Here, it was
said, the leaning of all the younger
workers and of some of the elder is toward
automatism, or psycho-physic parallelism,
though others of the elder men still contend
for a genuine effect of mind upon its bodily
partner. 3. In the field of individual con-
sciousness the question is that of nativism
and empiricism ; what in the consciousness
of the child, for example, is inherited and
what is acquired? Here the balance of
current opinion dips heavily toward nativ-
ism.
Prof. Cope, of the University of Pennsyl-
vania, who followed, spoke from the plat-
form of zoological evolution. In these mat-
ters the point of view is all important.
Darwin was an cecologist, Weismann and
the Neo-Darwinians are mostly embryolo-
gists and their views are influenced there-
by. The real history of evolution, how-
ever, the facts apart from any speculation
about them, lies in the field of the paleon-
tologist, and by him such questions must
be settled.
After rapidly outlining the position of the
Neo-Darwinians, the speaker indicated the
sort of evidence that had led him to the op-
posite view. With regard to consciousness
he remarked that the only systems in man
that were abreast of evolutionary advance
were the nervous system (the physical rep-
resentative of consciousness) and the repro-
ductive system; the rest is that of the
eocene mammals. The course of evolution
has, on the whole, been upward and purpose-
ful. For this, physical and chemical forces
cannot account, nor can theories of chance
variation which make consciousness useless ;
consciousness itself has been an active par-
ticipant. In the individual—at least in the
representative activities of mind—con-
sciousness may be conceived to affect the
qualitative relations of the physical energy
used, though not the quantitative relations.
In the presentative activities, on the con-
trary, both are physically determined. The
control in representative thinking is suffi-
cient to make consciousness a real dynamic
agent.
The next speaker was Prof. Baldwin, of
Princeton, who, while concurring in the
main with the previous speaker, deprecated
the conception of mind as an extraneous
something thrust in from without, and ad-
vocated the standpoint of monism.
Prof. Minot, of the Harvard Medical
School, spoke for the Neo-Darwinians and
embryologists. Admitting the facts that
had been advanced by Prof. Cope in favor
of the Neo-Lamarckian position, the speaker
found himself unable to accept the infer-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 56.
ences drawn from them, and totally unable
to conceive how the experiences of the
adult can in any way be communicated to
the embryo, the development of which he
was forced to look upon as regulated by
purely mechanical causes. With regard to
life itself, however, the tendency of present
biological thought is away from purely me-
chanical views; living and non-living
matter are not the same thing. Conscious-
ness is coextensive with life. While it
does not break into the stream of physical
energy, it selects among the possible trans-
formations of that energy and thus has its
effect without being itself any form of en-
ergy.
Prof. Ladd’s position was that of an un-
equivocal idealist. He denied that con-
sciousness in the world or in the individual
could in any way be derived from a com-
bination or modification of physical things.
The very concepts of physics, energy and
the like, can be derived from consciousness
alone and have no meaning apart from it.
Consciousness plays an active part in the
psycho-physical partnership, and the strug-
gle for existence is a psychical struggle.
He reminded psychologists further that
even the physicist’s cardinal principle of
the conservation of energy is yet far from
demonstrated for cerebral action, or even
for the action of the simple nerve-muscle
machine, and ventured the prediction that
that principle would undergo modification
at the hands of the physical scientists
themselves.
The question was then thrown open for
general discussion, in which Professors Ful-
lerton, Hyslop, Strong, Miller and Mills took
part; and the whole was finally concluded
by brief rejoinders from several of the orig-
inal speakers.
At the afternoon session on Saturday,
Prof. Patrick, of the University of Iowa,
reported on An Experiment on the Effects of
Loss of Sleep.. The subject of this experi-
JANUARY 24, 1896.]
ment, a healthy young man, was kept with-
out sleep for ninety successive hours. Every
six hours elaborate physical and mental
tests were made upon him, and at the end
of the ninety hours the depth of his sleep
was tested every hour through the ten and’
a half that he continued to sleep.
During the ninety hours of waking, the
subject gained slightly in weight, though
his only additional food was a light lunch
taken just after midnight, but lost even
more during the period of sleep that fol-
lowed. The results of the tests may be
briefly summarized as follows: The loss of
sleep appeared to cause little loss of general
mental activity; sharpness of vision, dis-
crimination of taste sensations and possibly
rapidity in reaction-times involving dis-
crimination increased. Simple reactions,
the pulse rate and the adding of figures
were somewhat slowed. Muscular power
was also somewhat lowered. In several of
these, however, the expectation of the end
of the test caused a return to near the nor-
mal during the last half day. Hallucina-
tions of vision, due probably to the unusu-
ally prolonged stimulation of the eyes, were
observed. The shortness of the period of
sleep required for entire recovery gives
ground for the belief that sleep is a relative
matter, and that, in spite of being kept as
fully awake as a man could be, the subject
nevertheless was more or less of the time in
a state of partial somnolence.
The second paper was a brief report by
Prof. Mills, of McGill University, on Further
Researches on the Psychic Development of Young
Animals and its Physical Correlation. His
researches upon pure-bred dogs reported
last year have now been extended to mon-
grel dogs, the cat, rabbit, guinea pig and
birds, and their results will soon be pub-
lished. The mass of details involved pre-
vented more than an annoucement of the
work accomplished.
Prof. Witmer’s paper on Variations in the
SCIENCE.
123
Patellar Reflex as an Aid to Mental Analysis
was next read. It contained an account of
a long and elaborate study of the knee-
jerk and its variations as a preliminary to
its use as an index of psychical activity in
studies of emotion. The varied details of
the paper forbid brief presentation ; certain
bilateral forms of experiment, however,
may be mentioned as of especial interest.
The fourth paper was that of Prof. Hyslop,
of Columbia, entitled Experiments on Induced
Hallucinations. In it were reported with
critical comment a considerable set of ob-
servations by a lady of Prof. Hyslop’s ac-
quaintance, on hallucinations secured by the
method of ‘crystal vision.’ Few or none
could be traced by the observer to actual
experiences, but some may have had that
origin. Two or three would lend themselves
to a telepathic explanation, but are by no
means definite enough to have any confirm-
atory force in favor of such a theory. Per-
haps the greatest interest in such hallucina-
tions is the possible light which their ex-
amination may throw upon normal mental
action.
The closing paper of the session was by
Prof. Newbold, of the University of Penn-
sylvania, on Dream Reasoning. Three cases
were described, one where the subject-mat-
ter was mathematical, one in which it was
linguistic, and one in which it was archeo-
logical, the last two coming from the exper-
ience of a single person. In all three the
dream reasoning lead to results that were
valuable in waking life.
At the regular business meeting held
after the discussion Saturday morning the
following officers were elected: President,
Prof. G. S. Fullerton, University of Pennsyl-
vania; Secretary and Treasurer, Dr. Liv-
ingston Farrand, Columbia College; Mem-
bers of Council, Profs. E. H. Griffin, Johns
Hopkins University, and E. C. Sanford,
Clark University.
The following gentlemen were elected
124
to membership: Prof. E. D. Cope, Univer-
sity of Pennsylvania; Prof. C. 5S. Minot,
Harvard Medical School ; Mr. J. EH. Lough,
Harvard ; Dr. E. A. Singer, Harvard; Dr.
N. Wilde, Columbia; Dr. C. H. Bliss, Uni-
versity of the City of New York ; Dr. Franz
Boas, New York; Mr. Warner Fite, Wil-
liams College; Prof. J. E. Creighton, Cor-
nell; Dr. H. Austin Aikins, Western Re-
serve; Dr. W. G. Smith, Smith College.
The report of the Secretary and Treas-
urer showed a membership of sixty-five and
a balance in the treasury of over $290. A
vote of thanks for the hospitality received
was unanimously passed. The fixing of
the time and place of the next meeting
was left in the hands of the incoming Presi-
dent in codperation with the Presidents of
the other Societies. It was voted that any
members attending the meeting of the Inter-
national Psychological Congress in Munich
next summer should, on notification to the
Secretary of the Association, be empowered
to act as delegates from the Association.
Between the morning and the afternoon
sessions on Saturday an informal meeting
of those interested in the formation of a
Philosophical Society, or the organization of
a Philosophical section within the Psycho-
logical Association, was held, and at the
afternoon meeting the matter was brought
before the Association and by vote referred
to the Council with full power to act.
Epmunp C. SANFoRD,
Secretary for 1895.
CLARK UNIVERSITY.
TENTH ANNUAL MEETING OF THE IOWA
ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.
Tuer Iowa Academy of Sciences met for its
tenth Annual session in Des Moines, Janu-
ary 1st, 2d and 3d, 1896, in the Horticul-
tural rooms at the Capitol Building. The
attendance and interest at this meeting sur-
passed all previous gatherings of the Ac-
cademy and were very encouraging.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 56.
Prof. H. W. Norris in his address as re-
tiring President took for his subject ‘Needed
Changes in Scientific Methods.’ The ad-
dress was full of excellent suggestions, both
for scientific workers and for the public,
who look to scientific investigation for as-
sistance in economic problems.
‘The Homologies of the Cyclostome
Ear,’ read by Prof. Norris, presented evi-
dence that the ear of Cyclostomes, though
differing so markedly from that of ordinary
vertebrates, is still capable of being homolo-
gized perfectly with the ear in other orders.
Prof. C. C. Nutting read a very interest-
ing paper on ‘Origin and Significance of
Sex,’ setting forth the theory of Geddes and
Thompson as presented in their work on
the evolution of sex and detailing some
very interesting studies of his own on the
development and determination of sex in
Hydroids.
Prof. T. Proctor Hall presented papers
on ‘ Unit Systems and Dimensions of Units,’
‘Gravitation,’ ‘A Mad Stone.’ In the last
paper he described a peculiar absorptive
power of the rock, being able to absorb
one-half more water by volume than the
rock itself.
Prof. L. W. Andrews presented the fol-
lowing papers: ‘The Influence of Moist-
ure on the Ignition Point of Sulphur,’ and
‘The Reduction of Sulphuric Acid as a
Function of the Temperature.’
Prof. W. 8. Franklin presented a paper
on ‘A New Electrical Generator for Oxy-
gen and Hydrogen.’ Prof. L. A. Youtz gave
an account of the Indianola clay and pot-
tery works.
Prof. L. H. Pammel gave an account of
the flora of Western Iowa, calling attention
to peculiar Western plants found on the
bluffs along the Missouri river. In a sec-
ond paper with Prof. F. Lamson-Scribner,
he enumerated the grasses found between
Jefferson, Lowa, and over the Rocky Mount-
ains—the gradual change from blue grass
JANUARY 24, 1896.]
in Iowa to blue stem and game grasses of
the plains.
Mr. F. C. Stewart and G. W. Carver pre-
sented a paper on ‘Inoculation Experiments
with Gymosporangium Macropus,’ in which
it was shown that different varieties behave
quite differently with respect to the fungus.
Prof. L. S. Ross, in a paper on ‘ Prelimi-
nary Notes on the Iowa Entomostraca,’
showed that this interesting and economic
group of animals is much neglected. His
collections were made at Lake Okoboji and
Spirit Lake.
Prof. T. H. McBride, in a paper on ‘ For-
est Distribution in Iowa and Its Signifi-
cance,’ laid special stress on the distri-
bution of trees in Iowa on the loess. The
various theories advanced to account for the
absence of trees in Iowa have some founda-
tion and only partially explain the absence
of trees.
Prof. McGee on the relation of the loess to
the distribution. In a second paper on
“County Parks’ he advocated the establish-
ment of county parks for the purpose of
retaining some of the many wild plants
once common in Iowa, and for the purpose
of giving the people needed recreation.
‘Recent development in the Dubuque lead
and zinc mines,’ by A. G. Leonard. The
production from this region in 1895 was
750,000 pounds of lead and 3,500 tons of
zinc. ‘The increase is due to better mining
and the recovery of ore from the ‘fourth
opening.’
‘Some facts brought to light by deep
wells in Des Moines county,’ Iowa, by F.
M. Fultz, detailed the discovery of certain
deeply buried river channels which leads
to the inference ofa later origin of the drain-
age than previously argued by the author.
‘Recent discovery of glacial scorings in
southeastern Iowa,’ by F. M. Fultz. Marks
of the presence of the Illinois ice, in a set
of strie bearing 8. 79% W., have been
noted by Mr. Leverett and the author.
SCIENCE.
There is much in the theory of :
125
‘The Buchanan gravels, an inter-glacial
deposit in Buchanan county,’ by Samuel
Calvin, describes a series of gravel beds
lying between the Kansan and Iowan drift-
sheets and located near Independence.
‘The Le Claire limestone,’ by Samuel
Calvin. The local variations in thickness
and dip are referred to the conditions of
deposition and are regarded as due to cross-
bedding.
“Variations in the position of the nodes
of the axial segments of the pygidium of a
species of Encrinurus,’ by W. H. Norton.
The small classificatory value of the char-
acteristic is shown.
‘A Theory of the Loess,’ by B. Shimek.
The eolian origin of the deposit is advo-
cated from a study of the loess-fossils, the
timber distribution and certain field rela-
tions.
Prof. J. L. Tilton presented two papers,
one on the ‘Slate area of near Nashua, N.
H.,’ and the other ‘ Notes on the Geology
of the Boston Basin.’
“Observations on the Cicadidee of Iowa,’
by Herbert Osborn, included a list of the
known Iowa species of this family and dis-
cussion of the distribution of Cicada septen-
decem in the State.
Other papers presented or in some cases
read by title were: ‘Perfect Flowers in
Salix,’ by Prof. B. Shimek; ‘Some Ana-
tomical studies of Sporobolus and Panicum,’ «
by Miss Emma Pammel and Miss Emma
Sirrine; Contributions to a Knowledge of
the Thripide,’ by Miss Alice M. Beach;
‘A Review of the Genus Clastoptera,’ by
Mr. E. D. Ball; ‘Notes on Chromogenic
Bacteria,’ by L. H. Pammel and Robert
Combs; ‘A Brief Study of a Curious Water
Organism,’ by F. M. Witter; ‘A Compara-
tive Study of the Spores of North American
Ferns,’ by C. B. Weaver; ‘ Two Remarkable
Cephalopods’ and ‘ Note on the Nature of
Cone in Cone,’ by C. R. Keyes. ‘ Biologic
Notes on Certain Iowa Insects,’ by H.
126
Osborn and C. W. Mally; ‘Anatomy of
Spherium suleatum,’ by Gilman Drew;
‘Fungus Diseases of Plants at Ames,’ by
L. H. Pammel and G. W. Carver; ‘ Notes
on the Remains of Elephas and Mastodon,’
by S. W. Beyer.
These papers will, with few exceptions,
appear in the Academy proceedings which
will be issued at as early a date as possible.
The Academy is in a very flourishing con-
dition, having now something over one
hundred members. Its proceedings are pub-
lished by the State and it is incorporated
under State law. Its library and exchanges
have grown rapidly in recent years, and
there is every season to believe it will have
a decided influence in advancing the cause
of scientific research in the State.
The following officers were elected for the
coming year: President, T. Proctor Hall;
1st Vice-President, W. 8. Franklin; 2d
Vice-President, T. H. Macbride; Secretary
and Treasurer, Herbert Osborn; Addi-
tional members of the Executive Commit-
tee, W. 8S. Hendrixson, M. F. Arey, W. H.
Norton. HERBERT OSBORN,
Secretary.
CALIFORNIA SCIENCE ASSOCIATION.
THE second annual meeting of the Cali-
fornia Science Association was held in Oak-
land, January 3 and 4, 1896. President
Jordan, of Stanford University, delivered
the annual address as President of the As-
sociation on ‘The Foundation of Belief.’
The following list of papers was read:
1. A Memoir of Dana: JOSEPH LE CONTR.
2. The Action of Anhydrous Ammonia and Anhydrous
Aluminium Chloride: J. M. STILLMAN.
3. A Quantitative Separation of Iodine from Chiorine :
M. ADAMS.
4. A Plea for an Aero-Physical Observatory on Mt. Tam=
alpais: A. McApir and W. H. HAmMoN.
5. Notes on the Accuracy of refractive Index Determina-
tions: D. W. MURPHY.
6. The Manufacture of Artificial Food Products :
YOUNG.
S. W.
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. ITI. No. 56.
7. The Maintenance of Constant Temperatures: S. W.
YOUNG.
8. A Modification of the Bunsen Ice Calorimeter: F.
SANFORD.
9. A Relief Map of California: N. F. DRAKE.
10. A Relief Map of Oregon: S. SHEDD.
11. Some Lecture Experiments in Chemistry: W. B.
RISING.
12. On Micro-chemical Analysis: W. B. RISING.
13. Use of Hydro-bromic Acid in the Estimation of Mer-
cury and Cinnabar: W. B. RISING and V. LENHER.
14. Chemical Behavior of Liquid Hydroiodic Acid: F.
G. COTTRELL and R. 8. NorRIs.
15. The Criterion of Continuity : IRVING STRINGHAM.
16. Logarithmic Orthomorphosis : IRVING STRINGHAM.
17. The Nine-Point Rectangular Hyperbola: A. VY.
SAPH.
18. Simplification and Extension of Gauss’s Third Proof
of the Fundamental Theorem of Algebra: M. W.
HASKELL.
19. Note on Fermat’s Theorem: M. W. HASKELL.
20. Notes on the Imaginaries in Plane Coordinate
Geometry: R. L. GREEN.
21. Note on Partial Differential Equations: R. E. AL-
LARDICE.
22. Notes toward the Life History of the ‘ Water
Dog’ or California Newt ( Diemyetylus torosus) : W.
E. RITTER.
23. A few Observations on the Hydroidea of San Fran-
cisco Bay, particularly concerning their Reproduction:
W. E. RITTER AND H. B. TORREY.
24. Respiration in Women: Miss C. D. MosHER.
25. Effect of Variation of Temperature on Muscle Irri-
tability: R. L. WILBUR.
26. Refractory Period in an Isolated Strip of Cardiac
Muscle of the Turtle: Miss E. Brees.
27. Note on the Structure of the Brain of Embryo of
Gerrhonatus: A. B. SPAULDING.
28. The Development of the so-called Phosphorescent
Organ of Poricthys notatus: C. W. GREENE.
29 Note on the Function of the Air Bladder of Poricthys
notatus: C. W. GREENE.
30. Latitude and Vertebree in Fishes: D. 8. JORDAN.
31. Distribution of Trout in California: D.S. JORDAN.
32. Some points in Plant Geography: E. W. HILGARD.
33. A New California Liverwort: D. H. CAMPBELL.
34. Some Facts concerning California Tunicata: F. W-
BANCROFT and W. KE. RITTER.
35. The Mallophaga: V. L. KELLOGG.
36. Explorations of the U. S. Fish Commission in 1895 +
O. P. JENKINS.
37. A new form of Microtome: O. P. JENKINS.
The officers elected for the ensuing year
are: Chas. H. Keyes, President; Irving
JANUARY 24, 1896. ]
Stringham and Fernando Sanford, Vice-
Presidents; M. W. Haskell, Secretary; R. L.
Green, Treasurer; John D. Parker, Custo-
dian. These, with the former Presidents,
Joseph Le Conte and David Starr Jordan,
constitute the Executive Committee.
The next meeting will be held at the
State University in Berkeley.
M. W. Haske t1,
Secretary.
CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPHY.
ANNUAL RANGE OF TEMPERATURE OF THE
OCEAN SURFACE.
THE annual range of temperature in the
lower atmosphere, first clearly charted
by Supan (Zeitschr. ftir wissensch. Geogr.,
1880) and more recently by Conolly (see
my Elementary Meteorology, fig. 18), is
recognized as an important climatic factor,
and the distribution of its larger and
smaller values brings forward several in-
teresting physiographical generalizations.
Dr. G. Schott now presents a similar chart for
theannualrange of temperature of the ocean
surface (Pet. Mitt., July, 1895,) from which
it appears that the maximum range, 15° to
20° C., occurs on latitude 40° N., next east
of the continents. Belts of large range, 5°
to 7° in the southern hemisphere, 8° to 12°
in the northern hemisphere, run around the
oceanic world about 38° north and south,
that is, under the belt of high atmosphere
pressure and prevailingly clear skies ; and
small ranges are generally found around the
equator, 1° to 3°, and in high latitudes, 2°
in the far southern ocean, 4° to 6° in the
far north. Dr. Schott ascribes the maxi-
mum ranges to the oscillation of cold and
warm currents; and to this the contrast be-
tween the off-shore winds of summer and
winter, by Nova Scotia and Corea, may
fairly be added. Locally increased ranges
on the equator, up to 5° or 6°, west of
Africa and South America, are explained
by the weaker and stronger flow of the
SCIENCE.
WAL
South Atlantic and South Pacific eddies in
the southern summer and winter.
WINDS OF THE PACIFIC OCEAN.
THE mean strength of the winds over the
' Pacific Ocean is discussed by Képpen in the
Annalen der Hydrographie (July and Au-
gust, 1895), in preparation for the publica-
tion of a Segelhandbuch. The velocities,
without regard to directions, are presented
in tabular form and in charts for the oppo-
site seasons of January—February and July—
August. Apart from the practical value of
these results to navigation, they present
interesting features characteristic of the
planetary and terrestrial schemes of atmos-
pherice circulation. Where the material is
most plentiful, one may easily recognize the
weak winds and calms of the planetary sys-
tem around the equator, between the steady
trades on either side; the frequency of
calms again, but also of stronger winds in
the horse latitudes, about 30° north and
south; and the rapid increase of strong
winds in the higher latitudes of the pre-
vailing westerlies. Terrestrial features ap-
pear in the annual migration of these wind
belts, not however symmetrically about the
equator, but about a medial line in perhaps
5° north latitude ; and also in the seasonal
variation of the strength of the westerlies,
from over 4 (Beaufort scale) in summer to
over 5 in winter in the northern temperate
zone, from over 5 to over 6 in the far
southern zone. The irregularities of the
planetary belts and of the terrestrial migra-
tions may, in great part, be plausibly refer-
red to cyclonic disturbances, but need much
further investigation. The light equatorial
winds shift south of the equator only near
Australia, where monsoon winds and a sea-
sonal counter current may be searched for.
ABNORMAL AND SOLITARY WAVES.
Reports are not infrequently made of
waves or ‘seas’ of exceptional size, erro-
128
neously called ‘tidal waves,’ by which
vessels are overwhelmed on the open ocean.
‘C. E. Stromeyer gives brief account of some
examples in Nature (li., 1895, 437), describ-
ing them as strong enough to carry masts
and funnels by the board, and to smash
bulwarks, lifeboats and deck houses. He
suggests that the waves may be due to vol-
eanic action in the submarine bank known
as the Faraday reef, northeast of New-
foundland, for in a number of cases the
course of the waves is away from the reef.
The same subject is continued by W. Al-
lingham in the (London) Nautical Magazine
(Ixiv., 1895, 539-545), many examples be-
ing given. The Vancowver, of the Dominion
line, was badly mauled by a solitary sea
while crossing the North Atlantic in 1890.
The Holyrood, in June, 1892, 20°N, 35°W,
encountered a solitary sea which looked
like a wall of water as it approached ; it
flooded the decks, but before and after this
sea broke, the water was comparatively
smooth under a light northeast trade wind.
The St. Denis, New York to Yokohama, in
September, 1893, 28° S, 8° E, was boarded
by a solitary sea which swept her decks
and carried away three seamen. The Nor-
mannia, 750 miles out from New York, Jan-
uary, 1894, suddenly encountered a sea
‘running masthead high,’ submerging the
vessel up to her bridge, and doing great
damage.
Similar phenomena of smaller dimensions
are reported on our great lakes. So little
is known of them that no satisfactory ex-
planation of their occurrence can be at
present adopted. W. M. Davis.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
TYPES OF LOWLAND COASTS.
As the opening paper to the Richthofen
Jubilee volume (Festschrift Ferdinand
Freiherrn von Richthofen, von seinen
Schilern. Berlin, 1893), Dr. Alfred Philipp-
son, of Bonn, contributed a discussion of
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 56.
type forms of coasts, particularly of alluvial
coasts (Uber die Typen der Kustenformen,
insbesondere der Schwemmlandkisten).
Under ‘ die custe’ he includes a zone on
either side of the shoreline. He describes
as ‘Isohypsenkusten’ those coastal forms
which have been produced by the various
constructional processes, such as deform-
ation, depression of land, uplift of sea bot-
tom, voleanic and glacial aggradation.
These forms vary so greatly that one can
make of them as many types as one pleases.
The present writer prefers to call this
class of shore forms ‘ Constructional,’ for in
cases of tilted or warped crustal movement
the new shoreline does not coincide with a
former contour (Isophypse). Philippson
recognizes that development must follow
the constructional stage, and coastal irreg-
ularity from differential marine erosion is
therefore explained, and the minute forms
of beach profile are illustrated with five
diagrams. He amplifies with illustrations
his terms, potamogenous or river-made and
thalassogenous or sea-made coasts, first in-
troduced in connection with his work on
Greece.* Though he introduces the idea
of systematic change in the geographic form
of coasts, as in ‘incompletely potamogen-
ous’ and ‘completely potamogenous’ al-
luvial coasts, he does not fully carry out
this idea and make a systematic account of
all successive stages of development. It
would make the comprehension of the vari-
ous forms of coasts much easier to intro-
duce the terms already applied to land
forms and speak of a coast as young,
adolescent or mature. 1M 125) (Cig
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.
SKIN PAINTING IN SOUTH AMERICA.
Art the last session of the Italian Geo-
graphical Congress, an interesting paper
was read by Guido Boggiani, on the sup-
posed tattoo marks on Peruvian mummies.
* Peloponnes, Berlin, 1892, p. 509.
JANUARY 24, 1896. ]
Various authors (Virchow, Danielli, Joest)
have spoken of these colored decorative
marks as true tattooing. Boggiani, how-
ever, by a closer examination of them,
reaches the opinion that they are paintings.
The materials used are various, as ferrous
oxide, cinnabar and the juice of the Bixa
orellana; but that which produces the pe-
culiar tattoo-like appearance is the juice of
the Genipa oblongifolia, a sort of indigo fluid,
blue at first and turning black on exposure.
It has a slight corrosive action on the skin,
attacking the tissues of the epidermis, and
thus gives to the marks which it leaves sin-
gular permanency, and the appearance of
tattoo cicatrices.
The article of Boggiani is well illustrated,
and is conclusive in establishing the pre-
valence throughout large areas in South
America of the use of this plant.
ZESOP IN AZTEC.
Nattve Mexican, thatis, Nahuatl or Aztec
literature, is increasing to a respectable ex-
tent. Scarcely a year passes that some pro-
duct of the printing press appears in this
ancient and rich language. One of the
latest is the Fables of Ausop, published by
Dr. Antonio Pefiafiel, from a sixteenth cen-
tury translation. It is a pamphlet of 37
pages on good paper and in clear type.
No certainty has been reached as to the
translator. It may have been Father
Sahagun, but I am inclined to Father Bau-
tista or some of his associates in the college
at Tlatelolco, where the native youth were
instructed in humanities and religion. It
was probably intended as a reading book
for them, and the forty-seven fables it con-
tains, rendered into the Nahuatl of that
early day, may still be followed as models
of grammatical purity.
THE READING OF QUIPUS.
It is well known that the ancient Peru-
vians had a method of preserving their
records by means of strings, varied in hue,
SCIENCE.
129
of different lengths and texture, and knotted
in sundry designs. The early historians
offer no clear explanation of them, and differ
widely in estimates of their value as records
of facts and ideas. They were called quipus
—cords.
It appears that they are still in use, and
Dr. Uhle, in the Ethnologisches Notizblatt,
of the Museum of Ethnography, Berlin
(Heft 2, 1895), explains several which he
found among the shepherds about Lake
Titicaca. They relate to the animals under
their care. The color indicates the sex, or
some other special series. The system is
decimal, the position indicating the tens
and hundreds. Those examined proved to
be merely mnemonic aids, based chiefly on
arithmetic ideas, and apart from these un-
intelligible by themselves. Doubtless the
ancient quipu readers extended their use to
all the needs of life in this direction, but
their principles of interpretation must have
been the same. D. G. Brinton.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
ASTRONOMICAL.
THERE are numerous cases in astronomical
literature where astronomers have rejected cer-
tain observations because they did not agree
with their own. But it is really not often that
we find an astronomer gravely rejecting an ob-
servation simply because it did agree with his
own. In one of his recent double star orbit dis-
cussions, Dr. See, of Chicago, omitted to use
certain observations of Prof. Knorre. Dr. Bren-
del objected to this omission on the part of Dr.
See, in a recent number of the Astronomical
Journal. Now Dr. See replies, in the same
journal, that he omitted Prof. Knorre’s results
because they were nearly identical with his
own! But Dr. See’s reputation as an astrono-
mer is so good that we fear he will really have
to find a better reason for rejecting obseryva-
tions than the mere fact of their agreement
with his own. The whole thing looks like a
comedy of errors to which the present note will
perhaps add a final amusing scene. H. J.
130
Tue London Times states that the President
of the Royal Astronomical Society has an-
nounced the plans of the permanent eclipse
committee in view of the eclipse of the sun
occurring on the 9th of August, this year,
and that two new instruments to be used in
observations have been shown to members
of the Society. One of these, the ccelostat,
suggested by M. Lippmann, in the Comptes
Rendus, has been made on the advice of Dr.
Common, who has contributed the plane mir-
ror of the instrument. Its purpose is to
deflect the rays of the object into a fixed
telescope, instead of having to put the tele-
scope itself in motion. The second instru-
ment is a modification of the Foucault helio-
stat, by Captain Hills; and this, in similar
manner, deflects the image rays. It is said
that Dr. Common will accompany the expedi-
tion to Vadso, and will take photographs, with
a long axis mirror or lens, of the lower portion
of the corona. The telescopes and the spectro-
scopes will be the same as formerly employed,
for the sake of continuity. Two steamships
will be sent from London to Vadso on the
Varanger Fiord, which will afford tourists as
well as men of science a convenient opportunity
to witness the eclipse.
RUSSIAN SCIENCE NEWS.
THE Imperial Academy of Sciences of St.
Petersburg has elected as honorary members,
Hermite, Weierstrass and Pope Leo XIII; as
corresponding members, Darboux, Klein, Fuchs,
Jordan, Picard, Poincaré.
THE academicians Sonine and Markov have
commenced an edition of the collected works of
Pafnooti Lyovich Chebishev, in Russian and
French. All papers written in Russian will be
translated into French, and vice versa. A
translation of the greatest work of Lobachéyski,
his ‘New Elements of Geometry with a Com-
plete Theory of Parallels,’ isso much desired by
men of science that at the Centenary Anniver-
sary of the Institute of France Sophus Lie
and Darboux addressed to the representative of
the Russian Academy of Sciences the request
that all the works of Lobachéyski be published
in French. Without waiting for the effect of
this request, negotiations have been set on foot
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 56.
looking to the publication in Paris by Gauthier-
Villars or A. Hermann, of a French translation
furnished from America but edited by Professor
A. Vasiliey, the great Russian authority on
Lobachévski.
VASILIEV’S address on Lobachévski has been
reproduced in German by Prof. Friedrich Engel,
of the University of Leipzig, who acknowledges
his indebtedness to Halsted’s English transla-
tion, reviewed in this journal March 29, 1895.
K. A. ANDREYEV, President of the Mathe-
matical Society of Charkoy, has issued an im-
portant monograph on Vasili Grigoreyich Im-
shenetzki, with a handsome portrait. It in-
cludes biography, critical estimate and_bibli-
ography. ’ GEORGE Bruce HALSTED.
GENERAL.
THE names of the members of the general
committee of the Huxley Memorial have now
been published. The total number is about 800,
of whom about 50 are Americans. We have
not learned of any steps having been taken to
organize an executive committee in America,
and it is not clear whether intending subscrib-
ers should wait for this or should send their
subscriptions to England. Donations may, how-
ever, be sent to the Treasurer, Sir J. Lubbock,
or the bankers, Messrs. Robarts, Lubbock &
Co. (15, Lombard Street, E. C.), or to the Hon-
orary Secretary, Prof. G. B. Howes (Royal Col-
lege of Science, South Kensington, 8. W.).
THE French government has voted £400
towards the fund for erecting a statue in Paris
to the memory of Pasteur; the fund exceeds
the expense, and the surplus is to be used for
a bust of Pasteur in the Pasteur Institute. As
already stated in this journal, there have also
been formed committees at Chartres and Dole
for the purpose of erecting statues to the mem-
ory of Pasteur in those towns. The French
Chamber of Commerce in London would be
glad to receive subscriptions for the monument
to be erected in Déle, the birthplace of Pasteur.
Subscriptions may be sent to the President, M.
Marius Duché, Monument House, E. C.
Mr. Ropert T. Hiv, of the United States
Geological Survey, sailed on the 18th of January
upon the third of a series of geological recon-
JANUARY 24, 1896.]
naissances of the tropical American region,
which he is undertaking under the auspices of
Prof. Alexander Agassiz. He will visit many
points of geologic interest concerning which
knowledge is much needed. The plan of these
researches is to acquire accurate detailed knowl-
edge of typical regions in order that the whole
of the complicated history may be ultimately
interpreted. Mr. Hill’s report upon the geology
of the Isthmus of Panama and adjacent regions
of Costa Rica, embodying the results of last
winter’s investigations, is nearly completed, and
will deal minutely and thoroughly with the
complicated and interesting geology of the re-
gion.
Dr. DAVID STARR JORDAN was elected Presi-
dent of the California Academy of Sciences at
its recent annual meeting.
THE next annual meeting of the British Med-
ical Association will be held in Carlisle.
. THE memorial to John Rae, the Arctic ex-
plorer, which has been executed in London by
Mr. Whitehead, has been placed in St. Magnus
Cathedral, Kirkwall. The monument stands
opposite that of Baike, the African explorer.
Ar the annual meeting of the American
Society of Naval Engineers, Chief Engineer
E. D. Robie was elected President, and passed
Assistant Engineer F. C. Bieg, Secretary and
Treasurer.
Natural Science states that the Geological Sur-
vey of India has begun a folio publication en-
titled Quarterly Notes, and the Geological Sur-
vey of Mexico has begun a Boletin dela Comision
Geologica de Mexico.
AT the annual meeting of the American Geo-
graphical Society held at Chickering Hall, New
York, on January 13th, Judge Charles P. Daly
was elected President. The Society has re-
ceived the legacy of $100,000 bequeathed by the
late General George W. Cullom, to provide for
the construction of a fire-proof building.
THE latest advices from Honolulu state that
after a pause of thirteen months Kilauea is in
active eruption.
AccOoRDING to the New York Evening Post
preparations are in progress at Glasgow Univer-
sity for celebrating Lord Kelvin’s fifty years’
connection with that body.
SCIENCE.
131
THE gold medal of the Royal Astronomical
Society of London has been awarded to Dr.
Seth C. Chandler for his work on the variation
of terrestrial latitude and variable stars.
Pror. H. RAy LANKESTER has been appointed
‘a Vice-President of the Royal Society.
We learn from Nature that the inhabitants of
Zurich have rejected, by 39,476 votes to 17,297,
a proposal submitted to them for the absolute
prohibition of vivisection. On the other hand,
a counter proposal of the Grand Council in favor
of the protection of animals with due satisfaction
to the demands of science was adopted by 35,-
191 votes to 19,551.
A CABLEGRAM to the daily papers states that
Eyvind Astrup, the Norwegian explorer who
was with Lieutenant Peary in Greenland, is
missing. He started to make an expedition in
the mountains during the Christmas holidays,
and has not since been heard from. <A. party
has been formed to go in search of him.
Messrs. MACMILLAN & Co. have in prepara-
tion a Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology,
edited by Prof. J. Mark Baldwin of Princeton.
THERE will be held at Innsbriick, from May
to October of the present year, an International
Exhibition of Hygiene.
THE late Baron Larrey has left a bequest to
the Academy of Sciences for an annual prize of
$5,000 for the best treatise by an army doctor
on any question of medicine, surgery or sanita-
tion.
Ir is stated {that $22,500 have been subscribed
towards defraying the expenses of the meeting
of the British Association in Toronto in 1897:
$10,000 by the Dominion government; $7,500
by the Provincial government, and $5,000 by
the corporation of the city.
THE Vienna Presse, the London Standard and
other daily papers report what purports to be
an extraordinary discovery by Prof. Rontgen.
It is claimed that he has found that the ultra
violet rays from a Crookes’ vacuum tube pene-
trate wood and other organic substances,
whereas metals, bones, etc., are opaque to
them. It issaid that he has thus photographed
the bones in the living body, which would be
one of the most important advances that has
ever been made in surgery. The photographs
132
have been sent to Vienna and are in the hands
of Prof. Bolzmann, who has, it is said, accepted
the discovery, though he has not succeeded in
his attempt to repeat the experiment. In spite
of apparently absurd statements concerning the
action of the ultra violet rays, it is not impossi-
ble that substances such as metals, which are
good conductors of heat, should absorb the ultra
violet rays, while substances such as wood, which
are bad conductors of heat, should transmit
them. Prof. Rontgen is professor of physics at
Wirzburg, and any experiments published by
him would be accepted without hesitation.
WE learn from the International Medical Mag-
azine that the Royal Academy of Medicine of
Belgium offers prizes of 5000, 8,000 and 25,000
franes for the best researches on the diseases of
the central nervous system with special refer-
ence to epilepsy. The competition closes on
the 15th of September, 1899. Smaller prizes
are offered in 1896 on subjects pertaining to
pharmacology and the blood.
Pror. CAMILLE FLAMMARION reported to the
Paris Academy on December 30th further ex-
periments on the effects of colored glass on the
growth of plants ; he found the order in the de-
velopment of height in sensitive plants for
different glasses to be: red, green, transparent,
blue. The plants grown under the transparent
glass, however, surpassed in vigor those grown
under the green glass. He secured similar re-
sults, but less marked, with geraniums, straw-
berry plants, pansies, etc. In the discussion
that followed, M. Armand Gautier stated that
he had found that vegetables grew well under
red light, less well under yellow light, still worse
under violet light and that they died under
green light. He had placed pots of flowers in
a current equal to that from three Bunsen
cells for two and a-half months, and had found
that the plants growing in the soil through
which the currents passed had grown twice as
as much as those placed under the same condi-
tion, but without the current.
Ir is stated that it is proposed to build a rail-
way or elevator to the summit of Mount Blanc
in a manner similar to that planned for the
Jungfrau. A tunnel would be built beginning
at a height of 2,200 meters above the sea level
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 56.
and the length of the shaft would be 2,539
meters. A hotel would be built at the summit
and the entire ascent would occupy only thirty
minutes.
THE capital necessary for the purpose of send-
ing an expedition to the Antarctic regions with
a view to carrying on whale and sea fishing has
been subscribed in London. It is proposed
to send out two whaling steam vessels of 300
or 400 tons, and, we understand, also one
or more of the smaller steamboats which are
used by the Norwegians for the capture of the
blue whale. If £5,000 can be collected to de-
fray the expenses Mr. Borchgrevink with eight
or ten companions will accompany the expedi-
tion with a view to scientific research.
Ir appears that in the French expedition to
Madagascar the mortality from fever amounted
to 5,000 or one-fourth of all who took part in the
expedition; fifty per cent. of the whole num-
ber were seriously ill, and of twenty-five per
cent. remaining, scarcely any entirely escaped.
Only seven men were killed in battle. In the
Japanese-Chinese War 3,148 of the 200,000
Japanese soldiers engaged in the contest died
as the result of disease, and 969 as the result of
injury in battle.
A CORRESPONDENT of the London Times states
that the war against rabbits in Australia seems
to have had but little result. Since 1883 New
South Wales, alone, has spent over $5,000,000
in the attempt to subdue or exterminate them,
but apparently without effect. A reward of
$125,000 has been offered by the New South
Wales government for an efficient method of
getting rid of the pest. The final outcome of
Royal Commissions, of intercolonial confer-
ences, and of the testing of every practical
method of extermination, is that the most
effectual method of dealing with the evil is
found to be the construction of rabbit-proof
netting, by means of which the animals can be
kept from areas not yet infested; can be shut
off from food supplies; and can be more effec-
tually dealt with locally. In New South Wales
alone 15,000 miles of rabbit-proof netting has
been erected, but in this colony 7,000,000 acres
have been abandoned largely owing to the
gravity of the pest.
JANUARY 24, 1896.]
Natural Science has adopted with its January
number the plan recently reported in this journal
of underlining the most important word or
words in the title of each article, and of giving
at the head of the article the index number
under which the article is placed in the Dewey
system of classification. The index number,
supposing a satisfactory system of classification
can be agreed upon, would seem to satisfy the
requirements of bibliographical classification.
The significant word in the title is usually easy
to discover, and when the title is well chosen
all the words are apt to be significant. Thus
the articles in the current number of Natural
Science on ‘The Endeavor After Well Being ;’
‘The Constantinople Earthquake of July 10,
1894,’ and ‘The Perth Museum of Natural His-
tory,’ have all the words excepting the articles
and prepositions partly or entirely underlined.
It might, however, lead authors to be more
careful in the choice of titles if they considered
the necessity of underlining the words significant
of the contents of the article.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
ConTRACTS have been awarded for the con-
struction of the Schemmerhorn Hall of Nat-
ural Sciences and the Hall of Physics for
Columbia College. The buildings will be
ready for occupancy in the summer of 1897.
The Trustees of Barnard College, at a meeting
held on the 17th ult., accepted the plans and
specifications for the proposed new building to
be erected at the Boulevard and 119th street.
The building is to be 200 by 160 feet, and will
cost about $500,000.
THE Council of the University of the City of
New York has decided to continue the summer
courses inaugurated last year. The session
will be held at University Heights from July
18th to August 21st. Courses will be offered
in ten departments.
Pror. J. H. VAn’r Horr, the brilliant chem-
ist, now at Amsterdam, has resigned, probably
to take a place created for him in the University
of Berlin. The city of Amsterdam and the
Dutch government made every effort to prevent
him from leaving Holland. The authorities of
the University offered to appoint an assistant
professor whose duty it should be to give all the
SCIENCE.
133:
lectures and attend to all examinations. All
that they required of Van’t Hoff was the givin
of two lectures a week. It is doubtful whether
any professor has ever received a more flatter-
ing offer.
' THE Boston Transcript states that some years
ago J. H. Armstrong, of Plattsburg, deeded
a considerable property to Union College, but
retained a life interest in it. On January 2d of
this year he died, and by his will added to the
gift, which now amounts to $100,000. Mr.
Armstrong was a lawyer, and it was his inten-
tion that the department of sociology should be
benefited by his will.
Tue Legislature of Massachusetts has passed
the bill appropriating $25,000 to the Massachu--
setts Institute of Technology.
Mrs. JostAH N. Fiske has given Barnard
College $5,000 for the foundation of a scholar--
ship which will be open to competition.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
MARSH GAS UNDER ICE.
AN interesting chemical experiment, quite
new tome, was performed by a party of skaters
in the neighborhood of Baltimore a few days.
ago. Itis possible that it has been performed
before, but I have not yet found any one who:
has seen or heard of it, and I therefore think it.
may interest the readers of ScrENCE. The
skaters were on a large artificial lake upon which
remarkably clear ice had formed. In various
places white spots were noticed in the ice, sug-
gesting, as one of the skaters said to me, ‘air
bubbles.’ Some one bored a hole through one
of these white places, and applied a flame to the
gas, which took fire. This led to further ex-
periments, and it was found that, by boring a.
small hole, a long thin jet of flame could be ob-
tained, and this continued for some time. The
gas was, of course, marsh gas, formed by the
decomposition of the vegetable matter at the
bottom of the lake. The above method of
demonstrating the formation of this gas in
nature is, from the esthetic point of view, a
great improvement on the usual method de-
scribed in the text-books, which consists in stir-
ring a pool of stagnant water with astick, and.
collecting the gas that rises to the surface..
134
Skating ponds illuminated by natural gas are™
among the possibilities of the future.
IrnA REMSEN.
BALTIMORE, January 14, 1896.
‘PROFESSORS’ GARNER AND GATES.
THE daily papers state that Mr. Richard L.
Garner, whose alleged investigation of the
speech of monkeys has been so prominently
advertised, is again expected in America. Ac-
counts of the alleged investigations of Mr.
Elmer Gates on the development of the brain
are also being extensively reported. It is per-
haps the duty of a scientific journal to state
that neither of these gentlemen has as yet pub-
lished scientific work deserving serious consid-
eration. J. McK. C.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
The Psychology of Number and Its Applications to
Methods of Teaching Arithmetic: By JAMES A.
McLetuan, A.M., LL.D., and Joun Dewey,
Ph.D. International Educational Series. D.
Appleton & Co., New York.
This book makes a false analysis of the num-
ber concept, but advocates methods in teach-
ing arithmetic which are in the main good.
The conviction of its authors that the difficul-
ties which children have with arithmetic are
due to the neglect of teachers to lay sufficient
stress on the metrical function of number has
carried them to the extreme of maintaining that
number is essentially metrical in its nature and
origin. The conviction is well founded, inas-
much as the first serious difficulties of children
are with fractions whose primitive function was
unquestionably metrical and to which men in
general attach no other than a metrical mean-
ing; but there is no reason for drawing the con-
clusion that because the fraction, which is but
a secondary concept of arithmetic, is metrical,
its primary concept, the integer, is metrical also,
or even that because a child can hardly be made
to understand fractions without associating them
with measurement, he requires the same help
with integers. Nevertheless, the authors of
this book maintain, in the most unqualified
manner, that the integer is essentially metrical
and should be taught accordingly. Thus they
account as follows for the origin of number:
Man found himself in a world in which the
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Von. III. No. 56.
supply of almost everything that he needed was
limited. To obtain what he required, there-
fore, an economy of effort, a careful adjustment
of means to an end, was necessary. But the
process of adjusting means to an end is valuable
in the degree in which it establishes an exact
balance between them. ‘‘In the effort to attain
such a balance, the vague quantitative ideas of
smaller and greater , , , were transformed
into the definite quantitative ideas of just so
distant, so long, . ,. This demands the in-
troduction of the idea of number. Number is
the definite measurement, the definite valuation
of a quantity falling within a given limit.’’
They define counting, the fundamental num-
erical operation as but measuring with an unde-
fined unit. ‘‘ We are accustomed to distinguish
counting from measuring. Nevertheless, all
counting is measuring and all measuring count-
ing. The difference is that in what is ordinarily
termed counting, as distinct from measuring,
we work with an undefined unit; it is vague
measurement because our unit is unmeasured.
x x» If I count off four books, ‘book,’
the unit which serves as unit of measurement, is
only a qualitative, not a quantitative unit.”’
And they formally define number as ‘the
repetition of a certain magnitude used as the
unit of measurement to equal or express the
comparative value of a magnitude of the same
kind,’ a definition which, so far as it goes,
agrees, it is true, with that given by Newton in
his Arithmetica Universalis, viz, ‘the abstract
ratio of any quantity to another quantity of the
same kind taken as unit,’ though Newton’s pur-
pose having been to formulate a working defini-
tion comprehensive enough to include the irra-
tional number, it is anything but evident that
this statement represents his analysis of the
notion of number in the primary sense.
The immediate objection to all this is that it
is much too artificial to be sound. And in fact it
requires but a little reflection to be convinced
that pure number is not metrical and that count-
ing is not measuring, but something so much
simpler that men must have counted long before
they knew how to measure in any proper sense.
It is not enough to say that counting is the
simplest mathematical operation; it is one of the
simplest of intellectual acts. For to count a
JANUARY 24, 1896. ]
group of things on the fingers is merely by as-
signing one of the fingers to each one of the
things to form a group of fingers which stand in
a relation of ‘one-to-one correspondence’ to the
group of things. And counting with numeral
words is not a whit more complex. The differ-
ence is only that words instead of fingers are
attached to the things counted. But, the order
of the words being invariable, the last one used
in any act of counting is made to represent the
result, for which it serves as well as the group
of all that have been used would do. The
group of fingers or this final numeral word an-
swers as a register of the things by referring to
which one may keep account of them as a child
does of his marbles or pennies without remem-
bering them individually, and this is the sim-
plest and most immediate practical purpose that
counting serves.
The number of things in any group of dis-
tinct things is simply that property of the
group which the group of fingers—or, it may
be, of marks or pebbles or numeral words—used
in counting it represents, the one property
which depends neither on the character of the
things, their order nor their grouping, but solely
on their distinctness. Gauss said with reason
that arithmetic is the pure science par excel-
lence. Even geometry and mechanics are
mixed sciences in so far as their reality is con-
ditioned by the correctness of the postulates
they make regarding the external world. But
the one postulate of arithmetic is that distinct
things exist. It is an immediate consequence
of this postulate that the result of counting a
group of such things is the same whatever the
arrangement or the character of the things, and
this is the essence of the number-concept.
Counting, therefore, is not measuring and
number is not ratio. Pure number does not be-
long among the metrical, but among the non-
metrical mathematical concepts. The number
of things in a group is not its measure, but, as
Kronecker once said very happily, its ‘inva-
riant,’ being for the group in relation to all
transformations and substitutions what the dis-
criminant of a quantic, say, is for the quantic
in relation to linear transformations, unchange-
able. . Nor are the notions of numerical equality
and greater and lesser inequality metrical.
SCIENCE.
135
When we say of two groups of things that they
are equal numerically, we simply mean that for
each thing in the second there is one in the first
and for each thing in the first there is one in the
second, in other words that the groups may be
brought into a relation of one-to-one corre-
spondence, so that either one of them might be
taken instead of a group of fingers to represent
the other numerically. And when we say that
a first group is greater numerically than a second,
or that the second is less than the first, we mean
that for each thing in the second there is one in
the first, but not reciprocally one thing in the
second for each in the first. Instead of comparing
the groups directly we may count them sepa-
rately on the fingers, and by a comparison of the
results obtain the finger representation of the
numerical excess of the one group over the
other in case they are unequal. . And this is all
that is meant when we say that by counting we
determine which of two groups is the larger
and by how much.
It is therefore obvious, as for that matter our
authors themselves urge, that the rational
method of teaching a child the smaller numbers
is by presenting to him their most complete
symbols, corresponding groups of some one
kind of thing as blocks, marbles or dots. By
such aids he may be taught, with as great sound-
ness as concreteness, not only the numbers them-
selves and their simple relations, but the mean-
ing of addition, subtraction, multiplication and
division of integers and the ‘laws’ which char-
acterize these operations. This accomplished,
he is ready to be taught notation and the addition
and multiplication tables and to be practised on
them until he has attained the art of quick and
accurate reckoning. ‘Measuring with unde-
fined units’ is a fiction with which there is no
need to trouble him. For in however loose a
sense the word may be used, ‘measuring’ at
least involves the conscious use of a unit of
reference. But no one ever did or ever will
count a group of horses, for instance, by first
conceiving of an artificial unit horse and then
matching it with each actual horse in turn—
which ‘measuring’ the group of horses must
mean if it means anything. A conception of
‘three’ which makes ‘three horses’ mean in
the last analysis ‘three times a fictitious unit
136
horse’ does not differ so essentially as our
authors think from the ‘fixed unit’ conception
of this number against which they protest so
strenuously. And this fictitious operation is no
more the essence of multiplication and division
than itis of counting. Multiplication of integers
is abbreviated addition. The product ‘ three
times two’ is the sum of three two’s not,
happily, the measure in terms of a primary un-
defined unit of something whose measure in
terms of a secondary undefined unit is three,
when the measure of the secondary unit itself
in terms of this primary unit is two.
On the other hand, measuring in the ordinary
sense-——_the process which leads to the represen-
tation of continuous magnitudes as lines or sur-
faces, in terms ofsome unit of measure—deserves
all the prominence which our authors would give
it in arithmetic. _We do not mean measuring in
the exact mathematical sense, of course, but the
rough measuring of common life, in which the
magnitude measured and the unit are always
assumed to be commensurable.
Compared with counting, or even addition and
multiplication, an operation which involves the
use of an arbitrary unit, and the comparison of
magnitudes by its aid, is artificial. But this
metrical use of number is of immense practical
importance and of great interest to any child
mature enough to understand it. No doubt a
child may use a twelve-inch rule to advantage
when practicing multiplication and division of
integers. Certainly such an aid is almost indis-
pensable in learning fractions. Without it the
fraction is more than likely to be amere symbol
to him, without exact meaning of any kind.
‘Two-thirds’ has a reality for the child who
can interpret it as the measure of a line two
inches long in terms of a unit three inches long,
which it quite lacks for him who can only repeat
that it is ‘two times the third part of unity.’
Mathematicians now define the fraction as the
symbolic result of a division which cannot be
actually effected, but that definition will not
serve the purposes of elementary instruction. It
is as certain that the fraction had a metrical or-
igin as itis that the integer had not, and in learn-
ing fractions, as in learning integers, the child
cannot do better than follow the experience of
the race.
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vox. III. No. 56.
Our authors must, therefore, be credited with
doing the cause of rational instruction in arith-
metic a real service by laying the stress they do
on this proper metrical use of number. Their
chapters on the practical teaching of arithmetic,
moreover, though unduly prolix, contain many
excellent suggestions. It isa pity that a book
in the main so sound in respect to practice
should be wrong on fundamental points of
theory. One can but regret that its authors
did not take pains before writing it to read
what mathematicians of the present century
have had to say on the questions with which
they meant to deal. Their conception of num-
ber might have been modified by the considera-
tions which have led mathematicians to ‘arith-
metise’ the higher analysis itself by replacing
the original metrical definition of the irrational '
number by a purely arithmetical one. At all
events their notions of certain mathematical
concepts would not have been so crude; they
would not have made such a use of mathematical
terms as this: ‘‘ Quantity, the unity measured,
whether a ‘collection of objects’ or a physical
whole, is continuous, an undefined how much;
number as measuring value is discrete, how
many.’?
H. B. FINE.
PRINCETON, December 31, 1895.
Experimental Farms. Reports for 1894. Printed
by order of Parliament. Ottawa, 1895. 422
1995)
The direct application of scientific methods of
investigation to practical questions has, perhaps,
in no field found greater extension during the
last decade on this continent than in agriculture.
The establishment of the experiment stations
in connection with agricultural colleges in all
our States by the Hatch Act of 1887 has revo-
lutionized the possibilities of agricultural pur-
suits, and what this act did for the United
States, Canada did the same year in perhaps a
more efficient if not as extensive manner for its
people. This greater efficiency we would at-
tribute to the fact that the direction of the five
experimental farms located in different parts of
the country is concentrated in one director and
one staff, thereby producing that unity of Sioa
pose which insures success,
JANUARY 24, 1896.]
There is considerable scientific interest in the
present (8th) annual report, issued under the
editorship of the able director, Prof. Wm. Saun-
ders, who is acknowledged as ideally fitted for
his position.
We can only refer to a few of the most inter- '
esting results reported :
Prof. Jas. W. Robertson, the agriculturist,
gives an outline of comparative tests of pure
cultures of bacteria in the ripening of cream,
from which he deduces results of a most inter-
esting nature, showing the practical application
of science in butter making. It was found that
the flavor of butter is largely determined by the
bacteria which develop in milk and cream, and
that the conditions favoring the most satisfac-
tory development of such bacteria prevail in a
perfectly clean, well ventilated dairy; the bac-
teria present in the atmosphere under such con-
ditions being superior to any artificial cultures
tested.
The Chemist, Prof. Frank T. Shutt, contri-
butes a notable article on the chemistry of the
apple, completing the record of an investigation
begun in previous years. It appears from the
tables accompanying this discussion that 1,000
pounds of the leaves of the apple contain, as an
average of the results of analyses of four varie-
ties, 7.42 pounds nitrogen, 2.45 pounds phos-
phoric acid and 2.52 pounds of potash, most of
which is of course returned to the soil. Esti-
mating the average crop of the four varieties
analyzed at 160 barrels per acre, there is re-
moved from each acre in every crop of fruit
the following quantities of important fertilizing
constituents: 8.952 pounds nitrogen, 5.228
pounds phosphoric acid, 32.808 pounds potash.
The chemist then advises the turning under
of a leguminous crop, wood ashes and barn-
yard manure as a means of restoring to the soil
the elements removed in the fruit crop.
There is no unnecessary use of technical
terms in this admirable paper, and the deduc-
tions are drawn so directly from laboratory re-
sults that the veriest tyro cannot fail to be im-
pressed with the close relation of this science
to agriculture. The chemistry of the straw-
berry plant and of copper-salt fungicides is also
discussed.
The reports of the horticulturist, the ento-
SCIENCE.
137
mologist and the poultry manager are of the
same high order of practically applied science.
B. E. FERNow.
Les Nouvelles Théories Chimiques. Par A. EYARD,
Paris, G. Masson, et Gauthiers- Villars et fils.
12 mo., pp. 196.
This volume is one of a series, Encyclopédie
Scientifique des Aide-Memoire, published under
direction of M. Léauté, Membre de |’ Institut.
The author aims to present, in brief outline,
the principal chemical theories of the day.
His book is divided into two parts. Part I.
consists of three sections, containing in all six
chapters. These are devoted to: Definitions
and general principles; a discussion of the
atomic and kinetic hypotheses; a consider-
ation of the chemical properties of molecules
dependent upon the three states of aggregation
of matter—the solid, the liquid, the gaseous.
Part II. contains four chapters. The first of
these refers to the relation between mechanics
and chemistry ; the others treat respectively of
thermo-, photo- and electro-chemistry.
Concerning the nature of matter the author
refers to the views held by some ‘ Dynamistes
purs,’ that matter has no actual existence, but
that that which we term matter is rather a sort
of illusion of our senses impressed by a group
of factors depending on energy, space and time.
Matter, he says, can not be precisely defined ;
it is everything which has weight, which can be
seen or felt. Chemistry is described as the
science of the transformations experienced by
matter.
It will be of interest to many to learn (p. 46)
that A. E. Béguyer de Chancourtois in his Vis
tellurique, classement des_corps simples ou
radicaux obtenu au moyen d’un systéme de
classification hélicoidal et numerique, Paris,
1863, is credited with being the first to have
published a continuous classification of the ele-
ments arranged according to their atomic
weights. It will be recalled that Newlands’
first communication ‘On Relations Among the
Equivalents,’ appeared in the Chemical News,
February 7th, of the year mentioned.
Attention is also called to the various short-
comings of the Periodic Law, and the surmise
is hazarded that perhaps some day this system
138
of classifying the elements may be abandoned
and recourse again had to Dumas’ system of
grouping the elements in natural families—of
course, with modifications suggested by recent
advances in chemistry.
In discussing the ion theory of Arrhenius,
the author declares the idea of ion movements in
fluids to be but a form of the kinetic hypothesis,
advanced by Bernouilli about the middle of the
last century; the ion playing the part of the
gaseous molecule.
The attempt to cover so wide a range in so
narrow a compass as Etard has chosen has, of
course, necessitated an exceedingly terse mode
of treatment. Although exception may be
taken to some minor points, the author is evi-
dently thoroughly abreast of the times, and has
certainly succeeded in presenting the essential
features of the numerous and varied themes he
considers clearly and concisely.
FERDINAND G. WEICHMANN.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
AMERICAN CHEMICAL JOURNAL, JANUARY.
On the constitution of Phenoquinone: By C.
Lorine JACKSON and GEO. OENSLAGER. As
a result of their work on the hemiacetals, com-
pounds of the phenoquinone group, the authors
suggest structural formule for phenoquinone
and quinhydrone. They have determined the
structure of the hemiacetals and base the pres-
ent hypothesis on the great similarity between
these substances and phenoquinone, the former
being formed (theoretically) by the addition of
two molecules of alcohol to quinone, and the
latter by the addition of two molecules of
phenol to quinone. They find the properties
and reactions of the phenoquinone can be
readily explained by this structure, and that in
most cases the properties are those of the hem-
iacetals.
The Chemical Kinetics of Oxidation: By H.
ScHLUNDT and R. B. WaARpDER. Warder re-
views the work of a number of investigators on
oxidation processes and discusses the results
obtained by Schlundt, treating his curves mathe-
matically, and drawing some general conclusions
as to the theory of oxidation processes.
Composition of Ohio and Canadian Petroleums :
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Von. IIE. No. 56.
By C. F. MAsrery. The author continues the
report begun in the last number of this journal.
He finds that both Ohio and Canadian petroleum
contain small quantities of benzol, toluol and
xylols. Both these oils resemble the Russian
oil more closely than they do the Pennsylvania,
and the Canadian oil has a smaller quantity of
substances belonging to the methane series than
the Ohio oil. The author refers to the various
views as to the origin of petroleum and the
difficulty of obtaining evidence on this point.
This number also contains reviews of the fol-
lowing books: Chemical Analysis of Oils, Fats
and Waxes, R. Benedikt and S. Lewkowitsch ;
Analytical Chemistry, N. Menschutkin; Solu-
tion and Electrolysis, W. C. D. Whetham ;
Grundriss der Elektrochemie, H. Jahn; Grund-
zuge der wissenschaftlichen Elektrochemie auf
experimenteller Basis, R. Lipke; Practical
Proofs of Chemical Laws, V. Cornish.
J. ELLIOTT GILPIN.
THE MONIST, JANUARY.
PRoF. MAcu, in the opening article (his inau-
gural lecture delivered on assuming the profes-
sorship of the History and Theory of Inductive
Science in Vienna) discusses the part which
chance, or rather accident, has played in inven-
tion and discovery. He considers the general
relations of science to philosophy, gives practi-
cal examples of the devious ways by which
knowledge has been accumulated, and formu-
lates the conscious and unconscious methods
employed by scientific discoverers in their search
for truth.
In Pathological Pleasures and Pains Prof. Th.
Ribot applies the pathological method of ampli-
fication, as furnished by disease, to the study
of abnormal pleasures, with interesting results.
Dr. Carus gives an exhaustive study of Chinese
Philosophy, accompanied by numerous tables,
diagrams and ideographic characters. He has
interspersed his discussions with sufficient his-
tory to make the science and philosophy of the
Chinese intelligible, and to exhibit the causes
on which their intellectual stagnancy rests. He
has considered thoroughly the Chinese theory
of permutations (a theory of philosophy which
is mathematical in its character), their supposed
employment of the binary system of numera-
JANUARY 24, 1896. ]
tion, their cosmology, ontology, their ethics and
religion.
In a long article Prof. August Weismann ex-
pounds and defends his new theory of Germinal
Selection, a modification of Wilhelm Roux’s idea
of the principle of selection as applied to the
parts of organisms—the struggle of the parts.
Weismann reviews the whole status of the prob-
lem of the efficacy of natural selection, attacks
the doctrines of internal formative laws and of
internal motive forces in evolution, ascribing all
impulse and guidance in the choice of variations
to utility. Establishing the efficacy of selection
by what he deems indisputable evidence, he
contends, nevertheless, that natural selection
does not explain a very important crua of evo-
lution, viz, why the useful variations are always
present. Something is wanting to the selection
of persons, and that missing agency is supplied
by germinal selection, which the author claims
is the last consequence of the application of the
principle of Malthus to living nature, and has
its roots ‘in the necessity of putting something
else in the place of the Lamarckian principle,’
which is declared to be inadequate. His treat-
ment of the views of American inquirers on this
point shows a higher appreciation of the strength
of their position than we are accustomed to ex-
pect from European critics. In opposition
thereto, however, he maintains—and here the
whole burden of his objection rests—that since
degeneration takes place in superfluous parts
having only passive and not active functions, as
in the chitinous parts of the skeleton of Arthro-
poda, therefore, it is certain that the cessation
of functional action is not the efficient cause of
degeneration. It is a curious and instructive
circumstance that he grounds his arguments
upon the same facts as his opponents, viz., on
the facts of artificial selection. He repudiates
the charge that his germ elements are modern-
ized reproductions of Bonnet’s preformations,
and also argues for the simplicity of his theory
of the constitution of the germinal substance as
compared with that of Spencer. The mechanism
of the selection and survival of the plus and
minus determinants in Weismann’s theory of the
germinal battle for life is that of oscillations of the
nutrient supply and of the active as well as passive
assimilative powers of the struggling particles.
SCIENCE. 13
In the last article, On the Nature of Mathe-
matical Knowledge, Prof. H. Schubert, of Ham-
burg, shows the varying degrees of certainty
attainable in the different branches of mathe-
matics as compared with each other and with
the remaining sciences, and points out the lead-
ing features by which mathematical thought is
distinguished from other rational processes.
Prof. Henry F. Osborn reviews the late Mr.
Romanes’s Post-Darwinian Questions. Other im-
portant works in science and philosophy also
receive critical discussion.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
MEETING, SATURDAY, JANUARY 11.
253D
GERRIT S. MILLER read by title a paper on the
Sub-genera of voles (Microtine).
T. S. Palmer spoke on Rabbit Drives in the
West, illustrating his remarks with lantern
slides. He alluded to the great destruction
caused by the introduction of rabbits into New
Zealand and Australia, and the efforts to check
their increase, and described the damage to
fruit and other crops in California. The drives
were undertaken with the object of reducing
the numbers of the rabbits and the principal
locality where they were held was in the San
Joaquin valley. The method was practiced on
a limited scale by the Indians as far back as
1839, but the first of the modern drives by
whites took place at Pixley, Cal., in November,
1887. The principle of a drive was as follows:
A corral or pen of some kind was built with
wing fences leading from it for a long distance,
like a funnel, and a multitude of people, who
assemble in response to notices and advertise-
ments form a line and drive the rabbits toward
this trap. The line may be several miles in
length and it is formed some distance from the
pen. The rabbits which try to double on the
line are killed with clubs, and when the others
have been driven into the trap, gates are shut
and all clubbed to death. The number de-
stroyed in 208 drives, including under this
head the ‘shotgun hunts’ of Colorado and
Utah, was 459,000, the average per drive being
about 2,200; the greatest number killed at any
one time was in March, 1892, at Fresno, Cal.,
140
when 8,000 people participated and 20,000 rab-
bits were taken.
Rabbit driving has declined in the San Joa-
quin Valley during the last three years, but is
now being actively prosecuted in northeastern
California and in certain parts of Oregon and
Idaho, while thousands of rabbits are killed an-
nually in the Colorado and Utah hunts. Drives
can only be used in the case of Jack- rabbits,
which do not burrow, but under favorable cir-
cumstances afford a most efficient means of
keeping the animals in check.
Dr. V. A. Moore read a paper on The Nature
of the Flagella of Motile Bacteria with special
reference to their value in differentiating species.
The paper was a summary of the present
knowledge of the nature and significance of the
flagella, or organs of locomotion, of motile bac-
teria. A method seems not to have yet been
formulated whereby uniform results can be
obtained by different investigators. This fact
renders the assertions of a few writers that the
flagella are of specific diagnostic value some-
what questionable. The test of the differential
importance of these filaments was applied to
Baccillus coli communis, B. typhosis and B. chol-
ere. suis, three species of bacteria closely related
morphologically, but readily differentiated by
means of physiological properties and their
pathogenesis. The differences in the flagella
of each of these species as found by different
observers are as great as those found between
the different species. The same is true of the
Spirilla. The proposed classification of bacteria
by Messea was shown by illustration to be of
secondary importance, and the statements here-
tofore made concerning the specific value of the
flagella were shown to be unreliable. The
author favored the disposition of the flagella,
as polar or diffuse, made by A. Fisher, who in-
cludes them in the characters of his subfamilies.
F. A. Lucas,
Secretary.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.
Ar the regular Friday evening meeting of the
National Geographic Society held in Washing-
ton, D. C., January 10, Mr. Wm. Ellery
Curtiss, of Washington, delivered a lecture,
illustrated by lantern slides, on Venezuela ;
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Von. III. No. 56.
her government, people and boundary. The
lecturer, who was formerly Chief of the
Bureau of American Republics, discussed the
form of government and institutions of the
country and the character, manners and cus-
toms of the people. He dwelt particularly,
however, on the boundary question, in certain
of its phases, and set forth both the British and
American contentions in the pending dispute.
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
AT the fortieth meeting of the Society, on
January 9th, the first paper read was by Mr. R.
T. Hill, of the U. 8. Geological Survey, On the
Agassiz Expedition to Panama and Costa Rica.
Mr. Hill gave results and methods of studies of
the geological structure, paleontology and geo-
morphology of the Isthmus of Panama, based
upon observations made by him last year, when,
under a furlough from the Survey, he spent sey-
eral months in the work, under the auspices of
Prof. Alexander Agassiz. Mr. Hill supple-
mented his remarks by calling attention to the
great work Prof. Agassiz is doing for science in
working out the geology of Tropical America, a
region haying the greatest bearing upon the in-
terpretation of our whole continental history.
The speaker made acknowledgment to the
following specialists who had determined for
him the many different types of material enter-
ing into this complicated section: To Dr.
Wm. H. Dall, of the Geological Survey, for a
report upon the Tertiary mollusca; to Prof. R.
M. Bagg, of Johns Hopkins University, for in-
teresting determinations of the Tertiary For-
aminifera ; to Prof. J. E. Wolff, of Cambridge,
to whom the petrographic specimens were as-
signed ; to Mr. H. W. Turner, of the Geological
Survey, for minute examination of certain im-
portant and apparently indeterminate earths ;
to Mr. Ahe Sjogren, of Stockholm, Sweden, late
of Costa Rica, for carefully prepared sections
and collections; and to Mr. T. Wayland
Vaughan, of the U. 8. Geological Survey, for
determination of the fossil corals. The reports
of these specialists, together with Mr. Hill’s
discussion of the structure, history, and physical
geography, have been prepared and are nearly
ready for publication.
Three geologic sections of the Central Ameri-
JANUARY 24, 1896. ]
can region were presented by the speaker. The
first of these was across the continent along the
line of the Panama Canal and Railway. This
consists of a complicated plexus of marine sedi-
mentaries (Eocene and Miocene Tertiaries) igne-
ous rocks (basalts, augite porphyrites, augite
andesite, trachitic tufa, rhyolitic tufa and other
species) and ancient. detritial formations, so con-
cealed by dense vegetation and soil (the sub-
aereal decay, which reaches to 100 feet or more
in depth,) and confused by structural disturb-
ance that its history is most difficult to inter--
pret. Another section was given across the Re-
public of Costa Rica from Punta Arenas to Port
Limon, showing the contrasts between the high
plateau, of recent volcanic activity and the older
phenomena of Panama. The third section was
from the Caribbean coast to the high mountain
summits in southern Costa Rica. It is impos-
sible to give here the great amount of detail
which these sections throw upon the petrog-
raphy, paleontology, orogeny and geomorphol-
ogy of this exceedingly interesting region, and
present for the first time any comprehensive
detail by which its history may be discussed.
The discussion of the time of the union of
the continents was intentionally deferred to the
final report, owing to the fact that it is so in-
volved in hypothetical discussion by naturalists
that the subject requires separate treatment.
“The Isthmus,’’ said the speaker, ‘‘entirely aside
from this question of the union of the oceans,
is of the greatest geologic interest.’’
For the information of the Department of the
Interior, and under special instructions from
the Secretary, Mr. George H. Eldridge has just
made an investigation of the principal mineral
resources of the Uncompahgre Indian Reserya-
tion in northeastern Utah, and has submitted
his report through the director of the Geological
Survey. Mr. Eldridge contributed an interest-
ing account of Uintaite, or Gilsonite, the prin-
cipal resource found and investigated. His
paper will be printed in this journal.
Prof. Chas. D. Walcott entertained the So-
ciety briefly with the presentation and informal
discussion of two series of lantern-slide views.
The larger series represented some recent and
ancient markings on the sea shore, and showed
the results of experiments and observations
SCIENCE.
141
made by him quite recently on the beach at
Noyes Point, Rhode Island, and on the Florida
coast. The observations, while of interest in
other respects, were presented more particu-
larly as illustrating some supposed errors in the
interpretation that observers have placed upon
certain sea-shore markings. He illustrated
among other things an excellent cast of a me-
dusa, or.jelly fish, one of several of which casts
he had succeeded in making in plaster of paris
while on the Florida coast. The other slides
represented the mode of formation of sand
dunes, as observed on the Rhode Island coast.
W. F. MoRsELL.
THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF
WASHINGTON.
THE 242 meeting of the Society was held on
January 7. A paper on ‘A Vigil of the Gods,’
was read by Dr. Washington Matthews, U.S. A.,
of which the following is an abstract:
The rites occur on the fourth night of a great
nine-days’ ceremony of the Nayahoes called
the night-chant, which is based on a myth, and
many of the acts are illustrative of the mythic
events.
The night from about 9 P. M. until daylight
is devoted to a vigil analogous to that of the
medizval knight over his armor. Men and
gods, or the properties which represent the
gods, alike participate in the vigil and there is
a feast in common, or love-feast, closely resemb-
ling certain ceremonial acts observed among our
own people to-day.
Although there are interesting rites, the night
is spent mostly in song, and many long prayers
are repeated. The songs and prayers are care-
fully formulated ritualistic compositions.
The masks of twenty-one gods and goddesses
of the Navaho pantheon, along with other sa-
cred properties, are spread on a buffalo robe in
an established order and frequent sacrifices of
pollen are made to them.
Early in the night dishes of wild herbs and
seeds, such as formed the food of the Navahoes
in the old days, before they became farmers
and herders, are brought in, sung over and
eaten by those who choose to partake.
The love-feast comes later. This consists of
cold cornmeal gruel, or thin mush, prepared in
142
a water-tight wicker bowl with many cere-
monial observances. The bowl is passed around
sunwise and everybody helps himself with his
fingers to four morsels. But before the men
partake, the gods are fed—a morsel of gruel is
laid on the mouth of each mask. After the
gruel is finished all partake of pollen.
About midnight the ceremony of waking the
gods begins. Although the Navahoes do not use
time-pieces, this act occurs always almost ex-
actly at midnight. The shaman sings a long
song, the burden of which is Hyidezna (he stirs,
he moves); a different god is mentioned in each
stanza. When the singer mentions the name
of a god he lifts the appropriate mask and
shakes it in tune to the song. The last prayer
occurs after dawn, the vigil ends, and the lodge
is prepared for the work of the fifth day.
The paper closed by giving the reasons for
certain Navaho symbolisms, especially that
which assigns the north to the male and the
south to the female.
The closing paper on Racial Anatomical Pecu-
liarities was read by Dr. D. K. SHUTE.
GEORGE R. STETSON,
Recording Secretary.
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.
In the absence of the President the meeting
was called to order by Prof. R. 8. Wood-
ward. The minutes were read and approved
and Dr. Franz Boas, of the American Museum
of Natural History was elected resident mem-
ber. Twenty-six members and guests were
present. Prof. M. I. Pupin then read before
the Section of Astronomy and Physics a paper '
on the Magnetic circuit. In transformers,
especially of closed iron core, it has long been
known that the upper ‘harmonics’ of the fun-
damental rate of alternations present in the pri-
mary are choked out by the transformer leay-
ing the potential difference of the secondary
coil represented by a simple sine curve. The
choking out is less if the magnetic circuit is
incomplete, and least when the coils have no
magnetic core. Various explanations have
been offered to account for this phenomenon;
it is doubtless true that it is due to Foucault
currents and to hysteresis. Dr. Pupin pointed
out from certain mathematical considerations
SCIEN Ci.
[N.S. Vou. ILI. No. 56.
that by appropriate measurements, especially
of the angle of lag, it would be possible to sep-
arate the energy consumed in Foucault cur-
rents from that consumed by hysteresis, and
thus be able to study this latter puzzling phe-
nomenon. Investigations are in progress to
test the method experimentally. Prof. Crocker
remarked upon the interest and importance of
the questions involved.
The second paper was by Dr. A. A. Julien
upon ‘ The condensed gas film on the surface of
solid bodies with relation to (1) Newton’s rings
of the first order; (2) sand flotation ; (3) sand
in harmonic vibration.
Owing to the lateness of the hour Dr. Julien
passed over the first two heads, giving an out-
line of the literature of the question of liquid
films on solids. He then outlined his experi-
ments in sonorizing sands artificially, and dem-
onstrating the necessity of an antecedent water
film before the sand becomes sonorous. It must
also be of approximately uniform size of grain.
The paper was discussed by Profs. Mayer, Van
Nardroff, Pupin and Hallock. At 10:30 the
meeting adjourned. W. HALLOCK,
Secretary of Section.
GEOLOGICAL CONFERENCE OF HARVARD UNI-
VERSITY, DECEMBER 17, 1895.
The Geology of the Woonsocket Basin.
nary Report.) By F. C. SCHRADER.
The basin consists of a local widening in the
normally trenchant valley of the Blackstone
River where the river traverses a narrow belt
of soft rocks. The outline of the basin is
roughly that of the cross-section of a plano-
convex lens, whose straight edge, representing
the southeast side of the basin, extends from
Primrose, south of Woonsocket Hill, in Rhode
Island, ten miles northeastward to South Bel-
lingham, in Massachusetts. The convex edge
includes near its middle point Blackstone village
on the northwest, whence the Blackstone river,
like a vertical let fall to the opposite side just
below the city of Woonsocket, bisects the basin,
whose width is here about three miles.
The rocks in the basin are eroded to a depth
of two hundred or more feet below the upland or
old baselevel of the surrounding country. Some
bed-rock hills are, however, still prominent
(Prelimi-
JANUARY 24, 1896. ]
within the basin, and the deposits of glacial
drift, chiefly water-laid, frequently approach a
hundred feet in thickness.
The rocks enclosing the basin are mainly
gneisses, hornblende granites, and, on the west,
some quartzites. Excepting:a few of the gran-
ites, they are all Pre-Carboniferous and extend
over wide areas of country. They have a south-
east-northwest trend, and the gneisses and
quartzites dip to the northeast, as seen in the
Manville section and at Woonsocket Hill. Com-
pared to the rocks within the basin, they are hard .
and form good resisters to weathering. To this
difference of resistance to weathering between
the extra- and the intra-basin rocks, the basin
doubtless mainly owes its present topography.
The rocks within the basin are soft, have a
southwest-northeast trend, and dip northwest.
They are much younger than the enclosing rocks,
with which they exhibit marked unconformities,
as with the quartzites on the west and the gneis-
ses on the north. The lowest and apparently
oldest of these rocks, but of unknown age, is a
uniformly very fine grained, grey, talcose,
silicious mica-schist, which in the past has been
worked with profit in the whetstone industry.
It occurs chiefly in the southeast side of the
basin. Above this grey rock, but unconform-
able with it, in the west part of the basin, is
found a shiny black hornblende mica-schist,
also of questionable age; while unconformably
over both the grey and the black lie the
youngest rocks in the basin. These latter,
though as yet they have yielded no fossils, are
probably Carboniferous, judging from their
geological relations and lithologic resemblance
to the well-known Carboniferous on the east,
in the Narragansett Basin. They consist of
grey conglomerates with interbedded mica-
schists, sandstones and slates. They are de-
rived chiefly from the surrounding older rocks
of the upland, as is manifest by the granite
and quartzite pebbles contained in the conglom-
erates, occurring east of Forestdale and at
Woonsocket Hill.
Cutting the rocks in the basin at intervals is
a series of diabase dikes. They range from less
than one to more than a hundred feet in width,
dip about vertical, and run nearly parallel,
bearing north-northeast. r.
SCIENCE.
143
Preliminary Report on the Stamford Gneiss :
W. H. SNYDER.
In the southwestern part of Vermont and ex-
tending into the northwestern part of Massa-
chusetts there occurs a coarse banded gneiss
covering about 50 square miles and called by
the U.S. Geological Survey the Stamford Gneiss.
It was known in Pres. Hitchcock’s survey of
Vermont as the Stamford Granite.
This gneiss is surrounded on the east and
south by a metamorphosed conglomerate, the
pebbles of which correspond to the blue quartz
of the gneiss. At a short distance from the
contact the conglomerate changes into a mica-
ceous quartzite. In this quartzite there has
been found by Walcott trilobites which prove it
to be Cambrian. On the west the gneiss ap-
pears to be bounded by a very massive white
quartzite, the dip and strike of which mostly
correspond to that of the micaceous quartzite
on the east. The northern boundary is as yet
undetermined.
At the contact of the conglomerate and gneiss
there is developed between the two a layer of
about a foot in thickness in which the gneissic
structure is particularly pronounced, the mica
making lenticular folds around the quartz grains
and giving the mass the appearance of augen-
gneiss. Prof. Pumpelly has suggested that this
layer is the disintegrated border of the gneiss
upon which the conglomerate was laid down
and which has since been metamorphosed.
The gneiss itself is composed of coarse feld-
spar crystals, irregular masses of blue quartz
and thin layers of a greenish mica. In some
parts there are large Carlsbad twins of microcline
and in others rounded masses of feldspar 3 and 4
inches in diameter. At one point the weather-
ing has developed nodular feldspar aggregates
as large as a hen’s egg, which give the face of
the ledge a conglomeratic appearance. The
rocks yield easily to weathering throughout
the area. There are no glacial strie apparent
upon any exposed surface.
Near the western border of the gneiss there
is an outcrop of a fine grained greenish gneiss
very distinct from that of the main mass and
surrounded on three sides by this mass. The
fourth side is hidden by a bog. The Stam-
ford gneiss apparently overlies this gneiss and
By
144
sends apophyses into it. The contact between
the two is distinctly marked, and although a
careful microscopical examination has not as
yet been made, it does not appear to be a meta-
morphic contact due to stretching, but an
igneous contact, the Stamford gneiss having
covered, when in a melted condition, the green
gneiss. The Stamford gneiss is apparently a
granite which has had the gneissic character
impressed upon it.
The general occurrence, composition and
structure of the Stamford gneiss corresponds
very closely with the Rapakiwi granite of Finn-
land, described by J. J. Sederholm in Tscher-
mak’s Mineralogische und Petrographische
Mittheilungen, Band XII., pages 1-31, 1891.
Ueber die Finnlandischen Rapakiwigesteine.
DECEMBER 10, 1895.
Preliminary Notes on the North Jersey Coast. J.
EDMUND WOODMAN.
Three important causes of change are now in
operation here—submergence, recession and ad-
vance. The first is widespread, but immeasur-
able. The evidence relevant to this is varied,
but chiefly the presence of stumps in salt and
brackish water. Deepening of inlets affords no
criterion.
Recession is effected by (1) waves, and (2) cur-
rents. On Sandy Hook and south of Manas-
quan inlet this is replaced by advance or grade ;
hence these are nodal points. This recession is
measurable, and may be prophesied approxi-
mately for any specified time within certain
limits. It can be temporarily prevented at iso-
lated points, although not by present methods,
but its ultimate conquest is sure.
The waves act (1) by eroding the shore; (2)
by damming inlets, and (8) by transporting ma-
terial off shore to form bars. Erosion is irreg-
ular, and in places erosion and advance alter-
nate and partially compensate. Cutting is
greatest with a northeast wind—i. e., when
wind and current are in opposition ; it is least
with asoutheast wind. This is contrary to gen-
eral theory, but is readily explainable. The
damming of inlets is caused partly by coastwise
bars raised by the waves and partly by sediment
from the streams falling in the dead water where
current and waves meet. Probably the former
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 56.
cause does not operate until some sedimentation
has taken place. Most of the sand eroded from
the shore is carried a few hundred feet out to
form bars, little migrating along the margin of
the land.
The currents act (1) by carrying a small
amount of sand along shore as mentioned ; (2)
by the migration of bars northward—the most
important method of transportation, and, as a
result, (3) by deposition of most or all the sand
on Sandy Hook. T. A. JAGGAR, JR.,
Recording Secretary.
THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS.
AT the meeting of January 6, 1896, President
Green in the chair and eighteen other members
present, the officers placed in nomination at the
last meeting were declared as elected for the
year 1896.
The reports for 1895 of the Treasurer and Li-
brarian were read and accepted.
Prof. Engler pointed out a simple graph-
ical method of drawing a normal to a parabola
from a point outside the curve.
On motion of Prof. Pritchett, the Council
was requested to arrange for a meeting of
the Academy, in the near future, commemora-
tive of the service of four distinguished men
who had died in the past year: Dana, Helm-
holtz, Huxley and Pasteur.
Mr. Espenschied exhibited several samples of
sisal and palm-fibre utensils obtained from the
Bermudas and West Indies, explaining the
mode of preparation.
Two new resident members were elected.
Wo. TRELEASE,
Recording Secretary.
NEW BOOKS.
Movement. KE. J. Margy. New York, D. Ap-
pleton & Co. 1895. Pp. xv+318. $1.75.
Computation Rules and Logarithms. StLAs W.
Hotman. New York and London, Mac-
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Plant Breeding. lL. H. BAttEy. New York
and London, Macmillan & Co. 1895. Pp.
vii + 293. $1.00.
The Chemistry of Pottery. KARL LANGENBECK.
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SCIENCE
EDITORIAL CoMMITTEE: 8S. NEwWcomB, Mathematics ; ,R. S. WooDWARD, Mechanics ; E. C. PICKERING, As-
tronomy ; T. C. MENDENHALL, Physics; R. H. THURSTON, Engineering; IRA REMSEN, Chemistry ;
J. LE ContE, Geology; W. M. Davis, Physiography; O. C. MARsH, Paleontology; W. K. BRookKs,
Invertebrate Zodlogy ; C. HART MERRIAM, Vertebrate Zodlogy ; S. H. ScuDDER, Entomology ;
N. L. Britton, Botany ; HENRY F. OSBORN, General Biology ; H. P. BownpiTcH,
Physiology ; J. S. Bintines, Hygiene ; J. MCKEEN CATTELL, Psychology ;
DANIEL G. BRINTON, J. W. POWELL, Anthropology ;
G. Brown GOODE, Scientific Organization.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 31, 1896.
CONTENTS :
The Smithsonian Institution : ......cececeescecessccesnses 145
Memorial Tribute to Professor Thomas H. Husley :
SEMNIR VaR] ) OSBORN, cote ences ceccereasSacresseseeepnncties 147
On the Classification of Museums: G. BROWN
(E@DD cc cescaods soscodscagsansronossannApIbDSdSSonbonoSseooa
The X-Rays: Huco MUNSTERBERG.
Scientific Notes and News :—
Professor Rontgen’s Discovery. Physics: W. H.
Astronomy: HH. J. Glemerdll ......01.cceeceeeeeseeneees 163
University and Educational News............cssesceeeeeees 167
Discussion and Correspondence :—
The Metric System: J. K. ReExES. Improved
Blackboard: BEN. K. EMERSON................. 167
Scientific Literature :—
Tarr’s Elementary Physical Geography: I. C.
RUSSELL. Jackson’s The Great Frozen Land:
ANGELO HEILPRIN. Frye’s Complete Geography :
T. W. Harris. Hopkins’ Religions of India;
Phillips’ Teaching of the Vedas: D. G. BRINTON.168
Scientific Journals :—
The American Journal of Science ; Astrophysical
Journal; The Physical Review ............sscecsesee 174
Societies and Academies :—
Joint Commission of the Scientifie Societies of
Washington: W. F. MoRrseun. Zhe Philo-
sophical Society of Washington: BERNARD R.
GREEN. Chemical Society of Washington: A.
C. PEALE. Boston Society of Natural History:
SAMUEL HENSHAW. Geological Conference of
Harvard University: T. A. JAGGAR, JR. Tor-
rey Botanical Club: H. H. Russpy. The Acad-
emy of Science of St. Lowis: WM. TRELEASE...177
MSS. intended for publication and books etc., intended
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION.
THE annual meeting of the Board of Re-
gents of the Smithsonian Institution was
held Wednesday, January 22d, at 10
o’clock.
The Vice-President, Hon. Melville W.
Fuller, Chief Justice of the United States,
Postmaster General Wilson, Senator Jus-
tin §. Morrill, Senator Shelby M. Cullom,
Senator George Gray, Representative Joseph
Wheeler, Representative R. R. Hitt, Repre-
sentative Robert Adams, Jr., Dr. A. D.
White, General J. B. Henderson and Hon.
Gardiner G. Hubbard.
The death of Doctor Henry Coppee, Presi-
dent of Lehigh University, long a member
of the Board, was announced and appro-
priate resolutions adopted.
An Executive Committee was appointed
as follows: Hon. John B. Henderson, Chair-
man; Hon. William L. Wilson and Hon.
Gardiner G. Hubbard.
Secretary Langley presented his annual
report, in which the chief events of impor-
tance during the past year were discussed.
Allusion was made to the conferring of the
Hodgkins Fund prize of $10,000, and to the
transmission of the amount of the award
through the American embassy in London
to Lord Rayleigh and Professor Ramsay ;
also to the fact that a similar prize for the
‘same discovery has recently been given to
the same persons by the Institute of France.
The prize of $1,000 was given to M. de Va-
146
rigny, of Paris, for the best popular treatise
in accordance with the terms of the an-
nouncement, and three silver and six bronze
medals awarded to the laureates out of
nearly 200 contestants. The medals which
have been designed by Mons. T. C. Chap-
lain, a member of the French Institute and
the most famous medalist in the world,
are being struck at the government mint in
Paris and will soon be ready for distribution.
The Secretary expressed the opinion that
the giving of a large prize having served its
purpose in attracting the attention of the
world to the Hodgkins Fund and the pur-
poses of its founder, it would probably not be
wise to offer at present additional large
prizes of this kind, since these have rarely
been found efficacious in stimulating dis-
covery ; and that hereafter the income
should be spent directly in aid of investiga-
tions in regard to the atmosphere and its
properties.
Speaking of the Hodgkins bequest, Secre-
tary Langley dwelt upon the idea that the
foresight of Mr. Hodgkins has been in one
particular remarkably justified, since the
experience of the last three years has shown
that there is no department in the field of
human thought, apart from such abstract
ones as esthetics, higher mathematics, logic
and the like, which does not come under
the purview of this donation; so that the
restriction of the income from this $100,000
of the bequest to the special purpose of in-
vestigations regarding atmospheric air is in
reality no embarrasment or limitation of
the free activities of the Institution.
Attention was also directed to the recent
bequest of Mr. Robert Stanton Avery, of
Washington, the value of which has been
estimated at $50,000, but which it seems
probable will not prove to be nearly so
large.
The present year, 1896, being the fiftieth
since the foundation of the Institution, the
occasion will be celebrated by the erection
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 57.
of bronze tablets to the memory of the
founder, James Smithson, upon his tomb
in the English cemetery in Genoa, and also
in the English church in the same city. A
preliminary design of this tablet by Mr.
William Ordway Partridge was submitted
for inspection.
There will also be published a semi-cen-
tennial volume, giving an account of the
origin of the Institution and summing up
the results of its fifty years’ activities in
every department of science. This volume
will be handsomely printed, in an edition
sufficiently large to supply all the principal
libraries of the world; and will contain
portraits of the founder; the Chancellors—
George M. Dallas, Millard Fillmore, Roger
B. Taney, Salmon P. Chase, Morrison R.
Waite and Melville W. Fuller; and those
of the regents who have contributed most
materially to the development and influence
of the Institution, such as James A. Pierce,
Alexander Dallas Bache, Louis Agassiz and
George Bancroft. Chapters will be con-
tributed by a considerable number of the
most prominent scientific men and educa-
tors of the United States.
Allusion was made by the Secretary to
the table at the Zoological Station at
Naples, rented by the Institution for the
benefit of investigators and students of
American natural history, and to the fact
that the popularity of this undertaking is
so great that petitions from eight of the
principal natural history societies of the
country, four of them national, including
together some 3,000 members, and a peti-
tion signed by 200 of the principal natural-
ists of the country, have been received, urg-
ing their continuance of the table for an-
other period of three years.
The Secretary also called attention to the
crowded condition of the National Museum
and the necessity of new buildings, not only
for the exhibition of collections, but for the
storage of material now placed in temporary
JANUARY 31, 1896. ]
sheds near the building-of the Institution,
which, being inflammable, are a constant
menace to its safety.
The Bureau of Ethnology is continuing
its important work in the study of linguis-
tics, habits and customs of the American
aborigines, and important explorations have
been made during the year under the di-
rection of Mr. McGee among the Seri and
Papago Indians, of the far Southwest, and
by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes in the ruins of a
town near Moqui, which was destroyed by
hostile Indians before the first visit of the
Spaniards. The latter exploration was the
first ever made of a thoroughly pre-Colum-
bian town site, and resulted in the gather-
ing of a collection of pottery and other ob-
jects of unequalled beauty and value.
Referring to the Zoological Park, Secre-
tary Langley directed attention to the
alarming reports which are coming from
the Yellowstone National Park, which
seem to make it certain that the herd of
several hundred buffalo reported last year
has been reduced to fifty or less, and indi-
cating that it will soon be destroyed unless
steps are taken for its preservation. Since
the means at the disposal of the custodians
of the Yellowstone National Park seem
quite inadequate to protect them, the de-
sirability is suggested of transferring most
of the remnant of the herd to Washington,
to be placed in the Zoological Park, which
has amply sufficient space for all that are
left.
The work of the Astro-Physical Obser-
vatory was referred to, and the researches
there being carried on, which are giving us
a knowledge of nearly thrice the amount of
details of solar energy that were known to
Sir Isaac Newton, and in a region which
was left almost untouched until our own
day when these researches took it up. The
number of known lines in this portion of
the spectrum has increased from less than
twenty to over a thousand owing to the
SCIENCE.
147
work which has been carried on in this lit-
tle observatory during the last four years.
The location is a very unfortunate one,
however, since the traffic of the street in-
terferes with the proper use of the instru-
ments, and reference was made by the Sec-
retary to a plan for constructing a modest
building for this work in some portion of
the suburbs where the necessary quiet can
be obtained.
The Secretary’s report was accepted, as
was also that of the Executive Committee.
Letters of acknowledgment were read
from the Royal Institute of Great Britain
for a portrait of Mr. Hodgkins sent by the
Institution, and from the master of Pem-
broke College in Oxford, where Smithson
received his degree in 1786, acknowledging
the gift of a complete series of the publica-
tions of the Institution.
MEMORIAL TRIBUTE TO PROFESSOR THOMAS
H. HUXLEY.*
Aut the members of this Academy, in fact
all men of sciencein America, are in different
ways indebted to the late Professor Huxley.
We should be ungrateful, indeed, especially
in this section of the Academy, if we failed
to join in the tributes which are being paid
to him in different parts of the world.
In his memory I do not offer a formal ad-
dress this evening, but, as one of his students,
would present some personal reminiscences
of his characteristics as a teacher, and some
of the striking features of his life and work.
Huxley was born in 1825. Like Goethe,
he inherited from his mother his brilliantly
alert powers of thought, and from his father
his courage and tenacity of purpose, a com-
bination of qualities which especially fitted
him for the period in which he was to live.
There is nothing striking recorded about his
boyhood as a naturalist. He preferred en-
gineering, but was led into medicine.
* Read before the Biological Section of the New
York Academy of Sciences, November 11, 1895.
148
At the close of his medical course he se-
cured a navy medical post upon the ‘Rat-
tlesnake.’ This brought withit, as to Dar-
win, the training of a four-years’ voyage to
the South Seas off eastern Australia and
west Guinea—a more liberal education to a
naturalist than any university affords, even
at the present day. This voyage began at
twenty-one, and he saysofit: ‘‘ But, apart
from experience of this kind and the oppor-
tunity offorded for scientific work to me,
personally, the cruise was extremely val-
uable. It was good for me to live under
sharp discipline, to be down on the realities
of existence by living on bare necessities, to
find out how extremely worth living life
seemed to be, when one woke from a night’s
rest on a soft plank, with the sky for a can-
opy and cocoa and weevily biscuit the sole
prospect for breakfast, and more especially
to learn to work for what I got for myself
out of it. My brother officers were as good
as sailors ought to be and generally are, but
naturally they neither knew nor cared any-
thing about my pursuits, nor understood
why I should be so zealous in the pursuit
of the objects which my friends, the mid-
dies, christened ‘ Buffons,’ after the title
conspicious on a volume of the ‘Suites a Buf-
fon,’ which stood in a prominent place on
my shelf in the chart room.”
As the result of this voyage of four years
numerous papers were sent home to the
Linnzean Society of London, but few were
published; upon his return his first great
work, Upon the Anatomy and Affinities of the
Meduse, was declined for publication by the
Admiralty—a fortunate circumstance, for it
led to his quitting the navy for good and
trusting to his own resources. Upon pub-
lication, this memoir at once established
his scientific reputation at the early age of
twenty-four, just as Richard Owen had won
his spurs by his ‘Memoir on the Pearly
Nautilus.’ In 1852 Huxley’s preference as
a biologist was to turn back to physiology,
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 57.
which had become the favorite study of his
medical course. But his fate was to enter
and become distinguished in a widely dif-
ferent branch, which had as little attraction
for him as for most students of marine life,
namely, paleontology. He says of his sud-
den change of base:
“At last, in 1854, on the translation of
my warm friend, Edward Forbes, to Edin-
burgh, Sir Henry de la Beche, the Director-
General of the Geological Survey, offered
me the post Forbes had vacated of Paleon-
tologist and Lecturer on Natural History.
I refused the former point-blank, and ac-
cepted the latter only provisionally, telling
Sir Henry that I did not care for fossils and
that I should give up natural history as
soon as I could get a physiological post.
But I held the office for thirty-one years
and a large part of my work has been
paleontological.”
From this time until 1885 his labors ex-
tended over the widest field of biology and
of philosophy ever covered by any natural-
ist, with the single exception of Aristotle.
In philosophy Huxley showed rare critical
and historical power; he made the most ex-
haustive study of Hume, but his own philo-
sophical spirit and temper was more di-
rectly the offspring of Descartes. Some
subjects he mastered, others he merely
touched, but every subject which he wrote
about he illuminated. Huxley did not dis-
cover or first define protoplasm, but he
made it known to the English-speaking
world as the physical basis of life; recog-
nizing the unity of animal and plant proto-
plasm. He cleared up certain problems
among the Protozoa. In 1849 appeared his
great work upon the oceanic Hydrozoa, and
familiarity with these forms doubtless sug-
gested the brilliant comparison of the two-
layered gastrula to the adult hydrozoa. He
threw light upon the Tunicata, describing
the endostyle as a universal feature, but
not venturing to raise the Tunicata to a
JANUARY 31, 1896.]
separate order. He set in order the cepha-
lopod mollusca, deriving the spiral from
the straight shelled fossil forms. He con-
tributed to the Arthropoda; his last word
upon this group being his charming little
volume upon the ‘ Crayfish,’ a model of its
kind. But think of the virgin field which
opened up before him among the vertebrata,
when in 1859 he was the first to perceive
the truth of Darwin’s theory of descent.
Here were Cuvier’s and Owen’s vast re-
searches upon living and extinct forms, a
disorderly chaos of facts waiting for gen-
eralization. Huxley was the man for the
time. He had already secured a thoroughly
philosophical basis for his comparative os-
teology by studying the new embryology of
Von Baer, which Richard Owen had wholly
ignored. In 1858 his famous Croonian
lecture on the ‘Theory of the Vertebrate
Skull gave the death blow to Owen’s life
work upon the skull and vertebral arche-
type, aud to the whole system of mystical
and transcendental anatomy; and now
Huxley set to work vigorously to build out
of Owen’s scattered tribes the great limbs
and branches of the vertebrate tree. He
set the fishes and batrachia apart as the
Icthyopsidan branch, the reptiles and birds
as the Sauropsidan in contrast with the
Mammalian, which he derived from a pro-
sauropsidan or amphibian. stem, a theory
which with some modification has received
strong recent verification.
Prof. Owen, who had held undisputed
sway in England up to 1858, fought nobly
for opinions which had been idolized in the
first half century, but was routed at every
point. Huxley captured his last fortress,
when, in his famous essay of 1865, ‘Man’s
Place in Nature,’ he undermined Owen’s
teaching of the separate and distinct ana-
tomical position of Man. We can only ap-
preciate Huxley’s fighting qualities when
we see how strongly Owen was intrenched
at the beginning of this long battle royal;
SCIENCE.
149
he was director of the British Museum and
occupied other high posts; he had the
strong moral support of the government
and of the royal family, although these were
weak allies in a scientific encounter.
Huxley’s powers of rapid generalization
of course betrayed him frequently ; his
Bathybius was a groundless and short-lived
hypothesis; he went far astray in the phy-
logeny of the horses. But these and other
errors were far less attributable to defects
in his reasoning powers than to the extra-
ordinarily high pressure under which he
worked for the twenty years between 1860
and 1880, when duties upon the Educational
Board, upon the Government Fisheries
Commission and upon Parliamentary com-
mittees crowded upon him. He had at his
command none of the resources of modern
technique. He cut his own sections. I re-
member once seeing some of his microscopic
sections. To one of our college junior stu-
dents working with a Minot microtome
Huxley’s sections would have appeared like
translucent beefsteaks—another illustra-
tion that it is not always the section which
reveals the natural law, but the man who
looks at the section.
Huxley was not only a master in the
search for truth, but in the way in which
he presented it, both in writing and in
speaking. And we are assured, largely as
he was gifted by nature, his beautifully
lucid and interesting style was partly the
result of deliberate hard work. He was not
born to it ; some of his early essays are rath-
er labored; he acquired it. He was familiar
with the best Greek literature and restudied
the language; he pored over Milton and
Carlyle and Mill; he studied the fine old
English of the Bible; he took as especial
models Hume and Hobbes, until finally he
wrote his mother tongue as no other Eng-
lishman wrote it. Take up any one of his
essays, biological, literary, philosophical,
you at once see his central idea and his
150
main purpose, although he never uses italics
or spaced letters, as many of our German
masters do to relieve the obscurity of their
sentences. We are carried along upon the
broad current of his reasoning without being
confused by his abundant side illustrations.
He gleaned from the literature of all time
until his mind was stocked with apt similes.
Who but Huxley would have selected the
title ‘ Lay Sermons’ for his first volume of
addresses ; or, in 1880, twenty-one years
after Darwin’s work appeared, would have
entitled his essay upon the influence of this
work : ‘The Coming of Age of the Origin of
Species?’ Or to whom else would it have
occurred to repeat over the grave of Balfour
the exquisitely appropriate lines: ‘For
Lycidas is dead, dead ere his prime.’ Who
else could have inveighed thus against
modern specialization: ‘“‘ We are in the case
of Tarpeia, who opened the gates of the
Roman citadel to the Sabines and was
crushed by the weight of the reward be-
stowed upon her. It has become impossible
for any man to keep pace with the progress
of the whole of any important branch of sci-
ence. It looks asif the scientific, like other
revolutions, meant to devour its own chil-
dren; as if the growth of science tended to
overwhelm its votaries; as if the man of
science of the future were condemned to di-
minish into a narrow specialist as time goes
on. It appears to me that the only defense
against this tendency to the degeneration of
scientific workers lies in the organization
and extension of scientific education in such
a@ manner as to secure breadth of culture
without superficiality; and, on the other
hand, depth and precision of knowledge
without narrowness.”’
Huxley’s public addresses always gave
the impression of being largely impromptu,
but he once told me: ‘TI always think out
carefully every word I am going to say.
There is no greater danger than the so-
called inspiration of the moment, which leads
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. II. No. 57.
you to say something which is not exactly
true, or which you would regret afterward.
I sometimes envy your countrymen their
readiness and believe that a native Ameri-
can, if summoned out, of bed at midnight,
could step to his window and speak well
upon any subject.” I told him I feared he
had been slightly misinformed; I feared
that many American impromptu speeches
were more distinguished by a flow of lan-
guage than of ideas. But Huxley was
sometimes very impressive when he did not
speak. In 1879 he was strongly advocating
the removal of the Royal School of Mines.
from crowded Jermyn street to South Ken-
sington, a matter which is still being agi-
tated. At a public dinner given by the
alumni of the School, who were naturally
attached to the old buildings, the chairman
was indiscreet enough to make an attack
upon the policy of removal. He was vigor-
ously applauded, when, to every one’s con-
sternation, Huxley, who was sitting at the
chairman’s right, slowly rose, paused a mo-
ment, and then silently skirted the tables and
walked out ofthe hall. A solemn pall fell over
the remainder of the dinner and we were all
glad to find an excuse to leave early.
In personal conversation Huxley was full
‘of humor and greatly enjoyed stories at his.
own expense. Such was the following: ‘‘ In
my early period as a lecturer I had very
little confidence in my general powers, but
one thing I prided myself upon was clear-
ness. I was once talking of the brain be-
fore a large mixed audience and soon began
to feel that no one in the room understood
me. Finally I saw the thoroughly inter-
ested face of a woman auditor and took
consolation in delivering the remainder of
the lecture directly to her. At the close,
my feeling as to her interest was confirmed
when she came up and asked if she might
put one question upon a single point which
she had not quite understood. ‘ Certainly,’
I replied. ‘Now, Professor,’ she said, ‘is.
JANUARY 31, 1896.]
the cerebellum: inside or outside of the
skull?’ A story of his about babies is
also characteristic: ‘‘ When a fond mother
calls upon me to admire her baby I never
fail to respond, and, while cooing appropri:
ately, I take advantage of an opportunity
to gently ascertain whether the soles of its
feet turn in and tend to support my theory
of arboreal descent.”
Huxley as a teacher can never be forgot-
ten by any of his students. He entered his
lecture room promptly as the clock was
striking nine, rather quickly and with his
head bent forward ‘as if oppressive with its
mind.’ He usually glanced attention to his
class of about ninety and began speaking
before he reached his chair. He spoke be-
tween his lips, but with perfectly clear
analysis, with thorough interest and with
philosophic insight, which was far above the
average of his students. He used very few
charts, but handled the chalk with great
skill, sketching out the anatomy of an ani-
malas if it were a transparent object. As
in Darwin’s face, and as in Erasmus Dar-
win’s or Buffon’s, and many other anatom-
ists with a strong sense of form, his eyes
were heavily overhung by a projecting fore-
head and eyebrows and seemed at times to
look inward. His lips were firm and closely
set, with the expression of positiveness, and
the other feature which most marked him
was the very heavy mass of hair falling
over his forehead, which he would fre-
quently stroke or toss back. Occasionally
he would lighten up the monotony of ana-
tomical description by a bit of humor. I
remember one instance which was probably
reminiscent of his famons tilt with Bishop
Wilberforce at the meeting of the British
Association in 1860. Huxley was describ-
ing the mammalian heart and had just dis-
tinguished between the tricuspid valve on
the right side of the heart and the bicuspid
valve on the left, which you know resembles
a bishop’s mitre, and hence is known as the
SCIENCE.
‘151
mitral valve. He said, ‘It is not easy to
recall on which side these respective valves
are found, but I recommend this rule; you
can easily remember that the mitral is on
the left, because a bishop is never known
to be on the right.”
Huxley was the father of modern labora-
tory instruction, but in 1879 he was so in-
tensely engrossed with his own researches
that he very seldom came through the lab-
oratory, which was ably directed by T. Jef-
frey Parker, assisted by G. B. Howes and W.
Newton Parker, all of whom are now pro-
fessors, Howes having succeeded to Hux-
ley’s chair. Each visit therefore inspired a
certain amount of terror, which was really
unwarranted, for Huxley always spoke in
the kindest tones to his students, although
sometimes he could not resist making fun
at their expense. There was an Irish stu-
dent who sat in front of me, whose ana-
tomical drawings in water color were cer-
tainly most remarkable productions. Hux-
ley, in turning over his drawing-book, paused
at a large blur under which was carefully
inscribed ‘sheep’s liver’ and smilingly said,
‘“‘Tam glad to know that is a liver; it re-
minds me as much of Cologne cathedral in
a fog as of anything I have ever seen before.”
Fortunately the nationality of the student
enabled him to fully appreciate the humor.
The greatest event in the winter of 1879
was Darwin’s first and only visit to the
laboratory. They came in together, Hux-
ley leading slowly down the long, narrow
room, pointing out the especial methods of
teaching, which he had originated and
which are now universally adopted in Eng-
land and in this country. Darwin was in-
stantly recognized by the class as he en-
tered and sent a thrill of curiosity down the
room, for no one present had ever seen him
before. There was the widest possible con-
trast in the two faces. Darwin’s grayish-
white hair and bushy eyebrows overshad-
owed the pair of deeply-set blue eyes, which
152
seemed to image his wonderfully calm and
deep vision of nature and at the same time
to emit benevolence. Huxley’s piercing
black eyes and determined and resolute
face were full of admiration, and, at the
same time, protection of his older friend.
He said afterwards, ‘‘ you know I have to
take care of him, in fact, I have always
been Darwin’s bulldog,” and this exactly
expressed one of the many relations which
existed so long between the two men.
Huxley was not always fortunate in the
intellectual calibre of the men to whom he
lectured in the Royal School of Mines.
Many of the younger generation were study-
ing in the universities, under Balfour at
Cambridge, and under Rolleston, at Oxford.
However, Saville Kent, C. Lloyd Morgan,
George B. Howes, T. Jeffrey Parker and
W. Newton Parker are representative biolo-
gists who were directly trained by Huxley.
Many others, not his students, have ex-
pressed the deepest indebtedness to him.
Among these especially are Prof. E. Ray
Lankester, of Oxford, and Prof. Michael
Foster, of Cambridge. Huxley once said
that he had ‘discovered Foster.’ He not
only singled men out, but knew how to di-
rect and inspire them to investigate the
most pressing problems of the day. As it
was, his thirty-one years of lectures would
have produced a far greater effect if they
had been delivered from an Oxford, Cam-
bridge or Edinburgh chair. In fact, Hux-
ley’s whole life would have been different,
in some ways more effective, in others less
so, if the universities had welcomed the
young genius who was looking fora post and
even cast his eyes toward America in 1850,
but in those early days of classical prestige
both seats of learning were dead to the sci-
ence which it was Huxley’s great service in
support of Darwin to place beside physics, in
the lead of all others in England. More-
over, Oxford, if not Cambridge, could not
long have sheltered such a wolf in the fold.
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. IIT. No. 57.
What Haeckel did for evolution in Ger-
many, Huxley did in England. “As the
earliest and most ardent supporter of Dar-
win and the theory of descent, it is remark-
able that he never gave an unreserved sup-
port to the theory of natural selection as
all-sufficient. Twenty-five years ago, with
his usual penetration and prophetic insight,
he showed that the problem of variation
might, after all, be the greater problem;
and only three years ago, in his ‘ Romanes
Lecture,’ he disappointed many of the dis-
ciples of Darwin by declaring that natural
selection failed to explain the origin of our
moral and ethical nature. Whether he was
right or wrong, we will not stop to discuss,
but consider the still more remarkable con-
ditions of Huxley’s relations to the theory of
evolution. As expositor, teacher, defender,
he was the high priest of evolution. From
the first he saw the strong and weak points
of the special Darwinian theory; he wrote,
upon the subject for thirty years, and yet
he never contributed a single original or
novel idea to it; in other words, Huxley
added vastly to the demonstration, but
never added to the sum of either theory or
working hypothesis, and the contemporary
history of the theory proper could be writ-
ten without mentioning hisname. This lack
of speculation upon the factors of evolution
was true throughout his whole life; in the
voyage of the ‘ Rattlesnake’ he says he did
not even think of the species problem. His
last utterance regarding the causes of evolu-
tion appeared in one of the Reviews as a pass-
ing criticism of Weismann’s finished philoso-
phy, in which he implies that his own phi-
losophy of the causes of evolution was as far
off as ever; in other words, Huxley never
fully made up his mind or committed him-
self to any causal theory of development.
Taking the nineteenth century at large,
outside of our own circles of biology, Hux-
ley’s greatest and most permanent achieve-
ment was his victory for free thought. Per-
JANUARY 31, 1896.]
sonally we may not be agnostic ; we may dis-
agree with much that he has said and writ-
ten, but we must admire Huxley’s valiant
services none the less. A reformer must
be an extremist, and Huxley was often ex-
treme, but he never said what he did not
believe to betrue. Ifitis easy for you and
for me to say what we think, in print and
out of print now, it is because of the battles
fought by such men as Huxley and Haeckel.
When Huxley began his great crusade
the air was full of religious intolerants, and,
what is quite as bad, scientific shams. If
Huxley had entered the contest carefully
and guardedly, he would have been lost in
the enemies’ ranks, but he struck right and
left with sledge hammer blows, whether
it was a high dignity of the Church or of
the State. Just before the occasion of one
of his greatest contests, that with Gladstone
in the pages of the Contemporary Review,
Huxley was in Switzerland, completely
broken down in health and suffering from
torpidity of the liver. Gladstone had writ-
ten one of his characteristically brilliant
articles upon the close correspondence be-
tween the Order of Creation as revealed in
the first chapter of Genesis and the Order
of Evolution as shown by modern biology.
‘““When this article reached me,’”’? Huxley
told me, ‘‘I read it through and it made me
so angry that I believe it must have acted
upon my liver. At all events, when I fin-
ished my reply to Gladstone I felt better
than I had for months past.”
Huxley’s last public appearance was at
the meeting of the British Association at
Oxford. He had been very urgently invited
to attend, for, exactly a quarter of a century
before, the Association had met at Oxford
and Huxley had had his famous encounter
with Bishop Wilberforce. It was felt that
the anniversary would be an historic one
and incomplete without his presence, and
so it proved to be. Huxley’s especial duty
was to second the vote of thanks for the
SCIENCE.
153
Marquis of Salisbury’s address—one of the
invariable formalities of the opening meet-
ing of the Association. The meeting proved
to be the greatest one in the history of the
Association. The Sheldonian theatre was
packed with one of the most distinguished
scientific audiences ever brought together,
and the address of the Marquis was worthy
of the occasion. The whole tenor of it was
the unknown in Science. Passing from the
unsolved problems of Astronomy, Chemis-
try and Physics, he came to Biology. With
delicate irony he spoke of the ‘ comforting
word, evolution,’ and passing to the Weis-
mannian controversy implied that the dia-
metrically opposed views so frequently ex-
pressed nowadays threw the whole process
of evolution into doubt. It was only too
evident that the Marquis himself found no
comfort in Evolution, and even entertained
a suspicion as to its probability. It was
well worth the whole journey to Oxford to
watch Huxley during this portion of the
address. In his red doctor-of-laws gown,
placed upon his shoulders by the very body
of men who had once referred to him as ‘a
Mr. Huxley,’ he sank deeper into his chair
upon the very front of the platform and
restlessly tapped his foot. His situation
was an unenviable one. He had to thank
an ex-Prime Minister of England and pres-
ent Lord Chancellor of Oxford University
for an address, thesentiments of which were
- directly against those he himself had been
maintaining for twenty-five years. He said
afterwards that when the proofs of the Mar-
quis’ address were put in his hands the day
before, he realized that he had before him a
most delicate and difficult task.
Lord Kelvin, one of the most distin-
guished living physicists, first moved the
vote of thanks, but his reception was
nothing to the tremendous applause which
greeted Huxley in the heart of that Uni-
versity whose traditional principles he had
so long been opposing.. Considerable anx-
154
iety had been felt by his friends lest his
voice would fail to fill the theatre, for it had
signally failed during the Romanes Lecture
delivered in Oxford the year before, but when
Huxley arose he reminded you of a venera-
ble gladiator returning to the arena after
years of absence. He raised his figure and
his voice to its full height, and, with one foot
turned over the edge of the step, veiled an un-
mistakable and vigorous protest in the most
gracious and dignified speech of thanks.
Throughout the subsequent special ses-
sions of this meeting Huxley could not ap-
pear. He gave the impression of being
aged, but not infirm, and no one realized
that he had spoken his last word as cham-
pion of the law of Evolution. He soon re-
turned to Eastbourne. LHarly in the winter
he contracted the grippe, which passed into
pneumonia. He rallied once or twice, and
his last effort to complete a reply to Bal-
four’s ‘Foundations of Belief’ hastened his
death, which came upon June 29th, at the
age of seventy.
I have endeavored to show in how many
ways Huxley was a model for us of the
younger generation. In the central hall of
the British Museum of Natural History sits
in marble the life-size figure of Charles
Darwin ; upon his right will soon be placed
a beautiful statue of Richard Owen, and I
know that there are many who will enjoy
taking some share in the movement to com-
plete this group with the noble figure of
Thomas Henry Huxley.
Henry F. Ossorn.
CoLUMBIA COLLEGE.
ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF MUSEUMS.*
Musrums may best be classified in two
ways; by the character of their contents,
* From a paper on ‘The Principles of Museum
Administration,’ read at the meeting of the Museums
Association at Neweastle-on-Tyne, England, July 23,
1895. This portion of the paper, in modified form,
was read before the Philosophical Society of Wash-
ington, January 18, 1896,
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. ILI. No. 57.
and by the purposes for which they are
founded.*
Under the first category they may be
grouped as follows:
Museums of Art.
Historical Museums.
Anthropological Museums.
Natural History Museums.
Technological Museums.
Commercial Museums.
SEavowP,
Under the second category they may be
classed as
National Museums.
Local, Provincial or City Museums.
College and School Museums.
Professional or Class Museums.
Museums or Cabinets for special research
owned by societies or individuals.
A. Art Museums.
1. The Museum of Art is a depository for
the esthetic products of man’s creative
genius, such as paintings, sculptures, archi-
tecture (so far as it can be shown by
models, drawings and structural fragments )
and specimens of the illustrative arts (such
as engravings) and illustrations of the ap-
plication of art to decorative uses.
2. The greater art collections illustrate,
in a manner peculiarly their own, not only
the successive phases in the intellectual
progress of the civilized races of man, their
sentiments, passions and morals, but also
their habits and customs, their dress, im-
plements and the minor accessories of their
culture often not otherwise recorded.
3. Museums of art, wherever they may
be situated, have a certain general similar-
ity to each other in purpose, contents and
method of management. Those which most
fully represent the art of the communities
AuH Be
*Tn the references to special museums nothing
has been further from my idea than to cata-
logue existing museums. Many of the most im-
portant are not even referred to by name. I have
spoken only of those which are especially familiar to
myself and which seem best to illustrate the idea in
connection with which they are named.
JANUARY 31, 1896.]
to which they belong, other things being
equal, are the most useful and are usually
the most famous.
[Since the founding in Florence by Cosmo
de’Medici, at the beginning of the sixteenth
century, of the Museum of the Uffizi, per-
haps the oldest museum of art now in exist-
ence, every great city in the civilized world
has become the seat of a museum or gal-
lery of art. Besides the great general col-
lections of art, there are special museums de-
voted to the work of single masters, such as the
Thorwaldsen Museum in Copenhagen, and the
one at Brussels containing only the works of the
eccentric painter, Wiertz; the Donatello Mu-
seum in the Bargello at Florence, and the
Michael Angelo collections in the Florence
Academy of Fine Arts and in the Casa Buonar-
rotti. ]
B. Historical Museums.
1. The Museum of History preserves
those material objects which are associated
with events in the history of individuals,
nations or races, or which illustrate their
condition at different periods in their na-
tional life.
2. Every museum of art and every arch-
ological museum is also a museum of his-
tory, since it contains portraits of his-
torical personages, pictures of historical
events, and delineations of customs, cos-
tumes, architecture and race characteristics.
[Historical museums are manifold in charac-
ter, and of necessity local in interest. Some
relate to the histories of provinces and cities.
One of the oldest and best of these is the Pro-
vincial Museum of the Mark of Brandenburg in
Berlin. Of the same class are the Museum of
the City of Paris in the Hotel Canavelet, and
the museums of the City of Brussels and the
City of Antwerp. :
Others illustrate the early history of a race or
country, such as the Musée Gallo-Romain at St.
Germain, the Romano-German Museum at
Mainz, the Etruscan Museums at Florence and
Cologna, the Ghizeh Museum near Cairo, the
Acropolis Museum at Athens, and the Mu-
seums in Constantinople.
SCIENCE.
155
Such institutions as the Bavarian National
Museum at Nuremberg and the German Na-
tional Museum in Munich have to do with later
periods of history, and there are throughout
Europe numerous collections of armor, furni-
ture, costumes and architectural and other ob-
jects, illustrating the life and arts of the mid-
dle ages and the later periods, which are even
more significant from the standpoint of the his-
torian than from that of the artist. Important
among these are the Royal Irish Academy in
Dublin, and the Musée des Thermes — the
‘Cluny Museum ’—in Paris.
Many of the cathedrals of Europe are essen-
tially either civic or national museums, and
such edifices as Saint Paul’s and Westminster
Abbey belong preéminently to the latter class.
There are biographical museums, either de-
voted to single men—like the Galileo, Dante,
and Buonarrotti Museums in Florence, or the
Goethe Museum in Weimar, and the Beethoven
Museum in Bonn; to the great men of a nation,
as the National Portrait Gallery of Great Brit-
ain, the German Valhalla at Ratisbon, ete.; or
to great men of a special profession, such as the
Gallery of Artists in the Pitti Museum of Flor-
ence.
Tn this connection would come also collections
of autographs and manuscripts (like the Dyce-
Forster Collection at South Kensington), and
collections of personal relics.
Midway between the Museum of History and
that of Biography stands the Dynastic or Family
Museum, such as the Museum of the Hohen-
zollerns in Berlin, and that section of the Kunst-
historisches Museum in Vienna, which illustrates
the history of the Hapsburgs. The Musée His-
torique de Versailles is similar in its aims. |
C. Anthropological Museums.
1. The Museum of Anthropology includes
such objects as illustrate the natural his-
tory of Man, his classification in races and
tribes, his geographical distribution, past
and present, and the origin, history and
methods of his arts, industries, customs and
opinions, particularly among primitive and
semi-civilized peoples.
2. Museums of Anthropology and History
meet on common ground in the field of
156
Archeology. In practice, Historical Arch-
zeology is usually assigned to the latter,
and Prehistoric Archeology to the former.
This is partly because Historic Museums,
which are usually national in scope and
supported on documentary evidence, treat
the prehistoric races as extralimital ; partly
because prehistoric material is studied to
best advantage through the natural history
methods in use among anthropologists but
not among historical students.
[Ethnographic Museums were proposed more
than half a century ago by the French geogra-
pher Jomard, and the idea was first carried into
effect about 1840 in the establishment of the
Danish Ethnographical Museum. In Germany
there are Anthropological Museums, in Berlin,
Dresden and Munich, and the Museum fiir Vol-
kerkunde in Leipsic; in Austria, the Court and
the Oriental Museums in Vienna; in Holland,
the National Ethnographical Museum in Ley-
den, and smaller ones in Amsterdam, Rotterdam
and at The Hague; in France, the Trocadero ;
in Italy, the important Prehistoric and Ethno-
graphic Museums in Rome and Florence; in
Spain, the Phillippine Collections in the Museo
de Ultramar in Madrid; and in Hawaii, the
Bernice Pauahi Bishop Museum, at Honolulu.
In England less attention has been given to
the subject than elsewhere in Europe, the
Christy Collection in the British Museum, the
Pitt-Rivers Collection at Oxford and the Black-
more Museum at Salisbury being the most im-
portant ones specially devoted to ethnography.
In the United States, the Peabody Museum of
Archeology in Cambridge, the collections in the
Peabody Academy of Sciences at Salem, and
the American Museum of Natural History in
New York are arranged ethnographically, while
the ethnological collections in the National
Museum in Washington are classified on a
double system, one with regard to race, the
other, like the Pitt-Rivers Collection, intended
to show the evolution or development of culture
and civilization without regard to race. This
broader plan admits much material excluded by
the advocates of ethnographic museums, who
devote their attention almost exclusively to the
primitive or non-European peoples.
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Von. III. No. 57.
Closely related to the ethnographic museum
are others devoted to some special field, such as:
the Musée Guimet in Paris, which is intended
to illustrate the history of religious ceremonials.
among all races of men, a field also occupied by
one department of the National Museum in-
Washington. Other good examples of this class.
are some of those in Paris, such as the Musée
de Marine, which shows not only the develop-
ment of the merchant and naval marines of the
country, but also, by trophies and other histori-
cal souvenirs, the history of the nayal battles of
the Nation; and the Musée d’Artillerie, which
has a rival in Madrid.
Of musical Museums, perhaps the most im-
portant are Clepisson’s Musée Instrumental in
Paris; that in Brussels and that in the National
Museum at Washington. The collection of
musical instruments at South Kensington has
had its contents selected chiefly with reference
to their suggestiveness in decorative art.
The Theatrical Museum at the Academie
Frangais in Paris, the Museum of Journalism at
Antwerp, the Museums of Pedagogy in Paris.
and St. Petersburg, are professional rather than
scientific or educational, as are also the Museum
of Practical Fish Culture at South Kensington,
the Monetary Museum at the Paris Mint, the
Museums of Hygiene in London and Wash-
ington and the United States Army Medical
Museum.
The value of archzological collections, both
historic and prehistoric has long been under-
stood. The Museums of London, Paris, Berlin,
Copenhagen and Rome need no comment. In
the Peabody Museum in Cambridge, the Ameri-
can Museum in New York, the Museum of the
University of Pennsylvania and the National
Museum in Washington are immense collections.
of the remains of prehistoric man in America. ]
D. Natural History Museums.
1. The Museum of Natural History is the
depository for objects which illustrate the
forces and phenomena of nature—the
named units included within the three
kingdoms, animal, vegetable and mineral,
—and whatever illustrates their origin in
time (or phylogeny ), theirindividual origin,
development, growth, function, structure,
JANUARY 31, 1896. ]
and geographical distribution, past and pre-
sent ; also their relation to each other, and
their influence upon the structure of the
earth and the phenomena observed upon it!
2. Museums of Natural History and An-
thropology meet on common ground in Man.
In practice the former usually treats of
man in his relations to other animals, the
latter of man in his relations to other men.
[In most national capitals, there are general
museums of natural history, in which collections
representing the three kingdoms of nature are
included in one group. Among the oldest and
most prominent types of this class are the British
Museum of Natural History in South Kensing-
ton and the Musée d’Histoire Naturelle in
Paris, and there are numerous others in the
great cities of both hemispheres.
Among specialized natural history collections,
a good type is the Museum of Comparative
Zoology in Cambridge, Mass., founded by Agas-
siz to illustrate the history of Creation, as far as
the present state of knowledge reveals the his-
tory, which was in 1887 pronounced by Alfred
Russell Wallace to be far in advance of similar
institutions in Europe, whether as regards the
general public, the private student or the
specialist. :
Next in order after the Zodlogical Sections
of the Museums in London and Paris, stand
those of the Imperial Cabinet in Vienna; those
in Berlin, Leyden, Copenhagen, Christiania,
Brussels and Florence, and the La Plata Museum
in Argentina, so rich in paleontological material.
The best type of the Botanical Museum is
perhaps the Royal Garden at Kew, with its
colossal herbarium and its special museum of
economic botany, both standing in the midst of
a great botanic garden. The Royal Botanical
Museum in Berlin and the herbaria of the Im-
perial Botanical Garden in St. Petersburg are
other examples.
Of specialized Geological Museums, the Im-
perial Cabinet in Vienna is a good type. The
Museum of Practical Geology in London, found-
ed to exhibit the collections of the Survey of
the United Kingdom, and also in order to show
the applications of geology to the useful pro-
cesses of life, is another type of the same class.
SCIENCE.
157
The Department of Economic Geology in the
Field Columbian Museum of Chicago, an out-
growth of the Exposition of 1893, represents
this idea in the new world.
Besides the great special museums, there are
the museums of local natural history, intended
to show the natural history of a special region,
or, it may be, to illustrate its resources in some
restricted branch.
The Royal Museum of Vertebrates in Flor-
ence, devoted to the vertebrate fauna of Italy,
is a type of this class, and many local museums
are so prominent in some special field (such as
ornithology or entomology) that their other
activities attract little attention. ]
E. Technological or Industrial Museums.
1. The Museum of Technology or Indus-
trial Museum is devoted to the industrial
arts and manufactures, including:
1. Materials and their sources.
2. Tools and machinery.
3. Methods and processes.
4. Products and results.
5. Waste products and undeveloped resources.
The interests here treated are thus classi- |
fied :
1. Primary or exploitative industries (as Ag-
riculture, Mining or the Fisheries.)
2. Secondary or elaborative industries (as the
Textile industries, the Ceramic Industries).
3. Auxiliary industries (as Transportation)...
4. Technical professions (as Engineering,
War, Medicine, Engraving).
The final product of one industry (pri-
mary or secondary ) may become a material
or tool in another art industry or handi-:
craft.
2. Technological Museums come into con-
tact with others, as follows :
With the natural history museum in respect
to primary materials.
With the anthropological museum in the
matter of tools and processes, especially
if historical and retrospective collections
are undertaken.
With the art museum in regard to certain
products in which a high degree of
esthetic merit has been attained.
158 SCIENCE.
With the commercial museum in respect to
all products and materials used in com-
merce and manufactures.
3. There is no such thing in existence to-
day as a general Technological Museum,
conducted upon a liberal plan and doing
useful educational work. The possibility
of establishing such a museum remains to
be demonstrated. Attempts have been made
at the close of various international exposi-
tions, but without success.
4. Itis possible that experience may show
that museum work in this field can best be
done in connection with Museums of Nat-
ural History and Anthropology, organizing
sections of economic zodlogy in connection
with zodlogical museums, economic geology
and botany, respectively, with the botanical
and geological collections. In this way, at
least, the natural products and the crude
materials could be disposed of to advantage,
and the manufactured products, tools and
processes, on the other hand, could be
shown by the Museums of Anthropology
and Art, and in connection with the Me-
chanical or Patent Museums; though after
all a factory in actual operation is the best
place to study most modern industries.
[The constantly changing interests of com-
merce, dependent upon changing fashions and
the caprice of markets, might safely be left to
the Exposition and Fair, or, if need be, cared
for by commercial organizations. In the City
of Philadelphia, for instance, there is a most
useful permanent exhibition of objects and ma-
terials used in the construction and ornamenta-
tion of houses, kept up by the ‘ Building Trades
Association.’ |
F. Commercial Museums.
1. The Commercial Museum has to do
with salable crude material and manufac-
tured articles; with markets, means of com-
mercial distribution, prices and the demand
and supply of trade.
2. It may properly be connected with the
Technological Museum, but for the fact
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 57.
that its purposes are likely to be more akin
to those of the exposition or fair, involving
a frequent renewal of exhibits in connection
with commercial changes, and often certain
features of competitive advertising or dis-
play on the part of private exhibitors,
3. The function of this class of museums
is two-fold:
a. To exhibit to home producers the char-
acter and location of foreign markets.
b. To exhibit to foreign buyers the location
and products of the home producer,
4. Although the usefulness of the com-
mercial museum has not yet been fully
demonstrated, it is conceivable that it might
be of great service, could it be made the
medium of wide international communica-
tion, and the means of a comprehensive
system of exchange, through which the col-
lections should be kept up to date and in-
dicate the condition of the various markets
of the world.
Essential to the success of such a museum
would probably be a bureau of information,
through which practical knowledge con-
cerning prices, shipment and the quality of
products might be obtained by manufac-
turers and other interested persons, and
samples distributed for use in experiment
and comparison.
[Examples of Commercial Museums may be
found in the Musée de Melle at Ghent ; that of
the Chamber of Commerce at Liége, founded in
1888, and the Ottoman Commercial Museum,
established in 1890 at Constantinople. These
are too recent, however, to afford many lessons. |
G. National Museums.
1. National Museumscontain thetreasures
belonging to national governments and are
the legitimate successors of those treasure-
houses of monarchs, princes, and ecclesias-
tical establishments which, until within the
last two centuries, were the sole representa-
tives of the museum idea. Every great
nation now has a museum, or a group of
museums more or less liberally supported,
JANUARY 31, 1896.]
and intimately connected with the educa-
tional undertakings of the government ;
often, when there are several great cities
under one government, each has its own
system of museums, and these together form
the national system.
2. In most countries of Continental
Europe the collections of the national uni-
versities form a part of the national museum
system and are exceedingly efficient when
thus administered.
3. National museums have opportunities
which are not often shared by those under
state control and their responsibilities are
correspondingly great. Theyshould occupy
especially those fields which are not provid-
ed for in the other museums of the country
in which they exist, and should not only re-
frain from competition with these museums,
but afford to them unreserved cooperation.
[The principal purpose of a National Mu-
seum must be, as Prof. Jevons has well said, ‘‘the
advancement of knowledge, and the preserva-
tion of specimens of works of art which hand
down the history of the nation and the world.”’
In other words, to serve as museums of record
and research. It is by no means impossible,
however, for them to render excellent service
as educational museums, and quite independent
of other considerations, they can rarely afford
to sacrifice the material advantages gained from
the display of popular exhibition series.
A serious obstacle to success in this direction
is the vast amount of material which they all
possess, and the lack of space in which to admit
it. This difficulty may be partly overcome by
a liberal assignment of objects to that portion of
the study series which is not on exhibition.
A National Museum may not, itis true, advan-
tageously attempt to install its separate depart-
ments in such manner as to produce the unity
of effect possible in small specialized museums.
This, however, is due to the fact that they are
obliged to classify their material more strictly,
for the attractiveness of a specialized museum
grows largely from the fact that many illustra-
tive objects are introduced into the exhibition
series which are not strictly in place. The ex-
SCIENCE.
159
treme attractivenes of fishery exhibitions, for
instance, grows from the fact that so many in-
teresting objects only incidentally connected
with the fisheries may be introduced as a setting
for the objects directly related to the fisheries.
A result of the same kind is obtained in the
Museum of Practical Geology in London, where
a selected series of products of all the arts de-
riving their material from the mineral kingdom
—glass, pottery, gems, metal work and many
similar groups—are brought in, legitimately in-
creasing the attractiveness of the museum to
the visitor and its instructiveness to the student.
Though the great general museum cannot
vie in this respect with the local museum, it
has a certain advantage of another kind in its
very wealth of material, for the display of vast
collections, assembled from all parts of the
earth and covering, it may be, many acres of
floor space, strictly classified and arranged so
as to show mutual relationships, affords in itself
the most impressive lesson. While in smaller
museums the study of individual objects may
be easier, in those of the other kind there isa
better opportunity for the study of great general
relationships. |
H. Local, Provincial or City Museums.
1. To museums of this class belongs the
duty of preserving all that which is char-
acteristic of the region or city in which they
are located. Every State or Province should
have an institution of this kind to care for
material illustrating its own geology, zo-
ology, botany and archeology. Every city
should have a historical collection for me-
morials of events in its history and that of
its representative men.
2. It is legitimate and desirable that
Local and Municipal Museums should also
enter upon general museum work of a sci-
entific and educational character. They
may form collections of a general character,
in order that their visitors may see and
study the unfamiliar products of foreign
lands, as well as those of local interest. In
museums of this class, models, casts, copies
and pictures of objects not actually obtain-
able may properly be used.
160
3. It is often advantageous, in small com-
munities, for the museum and public library
to be combined under one roof and one man-
agement.
I. College and School Museums.
1. Museums of this class are intended for
the use of teachers in connection with their
class-room and laboratory instruction, and
to reinforce the library in the no-less-im-
portant work which it performs for the stu-
dent.
2. It need scarcely be said that it is im-
practicable for the smaller teaching muse-
ums connected with schools and colleges to
carry out the thorough specialization which
is attainable in large institutions. A small
collection, however scanty and imperfect it
may be, is of great value not only for study
purposes in connection with some school or
college and for exhibition to the local public
of a small town, but also as a nucleus for
future development.
3. The college or school museum often
becomes the local or city museum for the
locality in which it is situated, and what
has been said about museums of the latter
class then becomes applicable to the college
museum.
J. Professional or Class Museums.
1. Professional museums are those formed
specially for the use of groups. of specialists
and for the education of specialists. Here
belong medical, surgical and pathological
museums; military and naval museums;
mechanical museums (such as those con-
nected with patent offices and the Consery-
atory of Arts and Manufactures in Paris);
museums for special arts (like the Textile
Museum connected with the Gobelin estab-
lishment, the Museum of Porcelains, in
Sevres, the Museum of Mosaics in Flor-
ence), and certain scientific museums like
that of the Geological Survey of Great
Britain—the Museum of Practical Geol-
ogy—the Museo Psicologico in Florence,
founded by Mantegazza, and many others.
SCIENCE
{N. S. Vou. III. No. 57.
2. Such institutions, usually under the
control of a society, school or specialized
bureau, although they may allow inspec- _
tion by the public, do not necessarily un-
dertake general educational work, but may
with propriety consult first, in all matters
relating to administration and display, the
interests of the class for which they are
formed.
K. Private Museums or Cabinets.
1. Such collections undertake work in
only one portion of the museum field, that
of fostering scientific and historical studies,
and so long as they are fruitful in this di-
rection, the manner in which they are ad-
ministered concerns only the persons by
whom they are controlled. It is well that
there should be many museums of this kind,
and that those who work in them should
not be encouraged to dissipate their ener-
gies in attempting to do too much of the
work which belongs to institutions of other .
classes, and for which these should be held
responsible. These are, to all intents and
purposes, scientific laboratories.
2. The private collector is of the greatest
service to the public museum. He can, by
the use of private wealth or individual free-
dom, do many things which the officers of
a public museum cannot.
3. Private collectors should be encour-
aged for educational reasons also, for it has
been frequently remarked that the men who
have had in youth the training afforded by
forming a collection have derived therefrom
great advantage over others, even though
they subsequently pursued commerce or the
learned professions.
4. The private cabinet is the school in
which the museum administrator forms the
tastes and receives the preliminary training
which fits him for his profession. _There is
much truth in the remark of Jevons that
the best museum is that which a person
forms for himself. If everyone could do
this there would be less need for public
JANUARY 31, 1896.]
museums, but since they cannot, the person
who has formed a private collection can
most successfully manage one for the use of
the public, since he better than anyone else
is able, in considering the needs of the
museum visitor, to keep in mind that say-
ing which is so useful a guide in museum
practice— Put yourself in his place.’
G. Brown GooDE.
THE X-RAYS.
Hetmuo.tz, Hertz and Kundt, the three
greatest physicists of modern Germany,
have died within two years, and the friends
of German science feared that this loss
would be followed by a standstill in physics,
or at least by a lack of really important
discoveries. But now we have Professor
W. Rontgen’s investigations in the physical
laboratory of the University in Wurzburg,
the importance of which does not stand be-
hind the famous electrical discoveries of
Hertz in Bonn. Rontgen has found a new
kind of rays—he calls them the X-rays—
which, though invisible to the eye, affect
the photographic plate; which produce
fluorescent phenomena; which pass through
wood, metal and the human body ; which
are neither broken by prism and lenses nor
reflected.
The chief facts about the X-rays are the
following: It is well known that the dis-
charges of a large Ruhmkorff induction coil
produce in a vacuum tube, such as Crookes’
or Hittorf’s, colored rays which go in
straight lines from the cathode to the glass
of the tube. These cathode rays, which
have been much studied, are visible to the
eye and are well characterized by the
fact that the magnet changes their direc-
tion ; they do not pass thick cardboard,
wood, etc. The place where these cathode
rays reach the glass of the tube is the
centre of Rontgen’s X-rays. They are
not visible and are not turned aside
by a magnet; in short, they are not
SCIENCE.
161
cathode rays, but are produced by them.
If in a dark room we cover the tube
by thin, black cardboard, nothing can be
seen at all, even if we bring the eye in
the direct neighborhood of the tube during
the electric discharges. But if we now bring
a card covered with barium platinocyanide
near it the paper flashes up with every dis-
charge, and this fluorescent effect is visible
even if the paper is distant 2 meters from
the tube, and it does not matter whether
the varnished or the other side of the paper
is directed towards the tube. The X-rays
thus go through the black cardboard which
is opaque to sunlight, and the same effect
follows when a bound volume ofa thousand
printed pages is put between the tube and
the fluorescent paper. We can measure
the perviousness of the different substances
to the new rays by the intensity of the light
on the paper, comparing the effect with and
without objects between the tube and the
fluorescent surface. But there is also an
objective way possible to study the pervious-
ness, as the rays produce an effect upon
photographic dry plates, which, of course,
remains and allows us to control the sub-
jective comparisons. Both methods show
that wood is not much less pervious than
paper; boards 3 cm. thick absorb very little.
Hard rubber disks several centimeters thick
do not stop the rays, and even aluminium
plates 15 mm. thick do not make the fluor-
escence entirely disappear. Glass plates
vary with the lead in them, those contain-
ing lead being less pervious. Platinum is
slightly pervious, if the plate is not thicker
than 0.2 mm., silver and copper can be
a little thicker; lead plates 1.5 mm. thick
are no longer pervious. All substances
become less pervious with increasing thick-
ness, a fact which is nicely demonstrated
by photographs taken through tinfoils of
gradually increasing number. The pervious-
ness of substances of equal thickness seems
chiefly dependent on the density, but
162
special experiments showed that different
metals are not equally pervious if the pro-
duct of thickness and density is equal; the
perviousness of platinum 0.018 mm. thick
and a density of 2.15 equals that of lead
0.05 mm. thick, density 11.3 and that of
tin 0.1 mm. thick, density 7.1, and that of
aluminium 3.5 mm. thick and a density of
2.6. Aluminium may thus be 200 times
thicker than platinum, while its density is
one-tenth.
The fluorescent effect of the new rays is
not confined to barium platinocyanide, but
it occurs also on glass, cale-spar, rock-salt,
ete. Prisms and lenses do not diffract the
rays, nor do prisms of hard rubber or alu-
minium. With regard to reflection and
diffraction the following experiment is in-
teresting. It is well known that pulverized
substances do not let pass much light owing
to refraction and reflection. Rontgen found
with pulverized salt, cale-spar, zinc and
other substance that the ray pass through
the powder with exactly the same intensity
as through the solid substance. Objects
with rough surface let it pass exactly like
polished ones. The shadow of a round
stick is in the middle darker than at the
edges; the shadow of a metal tube is in the
middle lighter than at the edges.
With regard to the effect on photographic
plates, it must not be forgotten that lenses
do not refract the rays and therefore ordi-
nary photography is not possible ; the pic-
tures of the objects are only shadows. But
these shadow-pictures can be taken in the
closed wooden box of the camera in a
light room, as the sunlight of course does
not pass through the wood while the X-rays
do. In this way Rontgen took photographs
of a set of metal weights in a wooden box
and of a thick wire wound as a spiral
around a wooden stick; the wood was
pervious, the metal of that thickness not,
and so the shadows of the weights and of
the wire are seen in the photograph, those
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. ILL. No. 57.
of the wood scarcely at all. In the same
manner he took the picture of a compass.
needle in the closed box. The door between
two rooms did not hinder the chemical
effect.
With regard to the nature of the X-rays.
it seems too early to say anything definite.
Rontgen emphazises the fact that they show
no refraction and probably therefore move
in all substances with equal velocity and
are transmitted by a medium which exists
everywhere and in which are the molecules
of the substances. That is they are ether
rays, but not transverse ether waves like
the visible or the ultra red or ultra violet
invisible light ; Rontgen supposes that they
are longitudinal ether waves, the existence
of which has for a long time been suspected
by physicists. Researches regarding many
other qualities of the new rays are in pro-
gress, and their results may clear up the
theoretical interpretation.
It may be that the practical importance
of the discovery is equal to the theoretical.
It is well known throughout the world that:
the physical laboratories of Germany have
no windows looking towards the patent
office. The hunting for practical inventions
is not usually important for theoretical
science, but the progress of theory usually
has practical applications. One practical
result in this case is already clear, as the
new rays pass boards but not thick metak
plates, so they pass the organic substances
of the human body, such as skin, muscles,
ete., but not the bones. As the metal
weights in the wooden box can be photo-
graphed, so can photographs of the human
bones be taken. Rontgen has put his hand
between the tube and the dry plate in the
closed camera; the photograph shows clearly
all the bones of the hand without the flesh
and skin, and the gold rings seem to hang
in the air. The value of such a method
for medical diagnosis is clear. Fractures.
and diseases of bones can be examined by
JANUARY 31, 1896.]
photographic plates and metal pieces in the
‘body, for example, needles, bullets, etc.,
can be found by this method. It will bea
matter of the future to learn whether the
rays have psycho-physiological effects.
The newspapers report that the whole
thing was discovered by mere chance.
Rontgen saw the effects on photographic
papers which by chance were near to a
covered tube during the discharge. This
chance origin is not probable, as Lenard,
the assistant of Hertz, has been working in
the same direction for a long time, and
many preparatory experiments by Rontgen
himself cleared slowly the way. But sup-
pose chance helped. There were many
galvanic effects in the world before Galvani
saw by chance the contraction of a frog’s
leg on an iron gate. The world is always
full of such chances, and only the Galvanis
and Rontgens are few.
Hueco MtnsrERBERG,
Harvard University.
FREIBURG, BADEN, January 15, 1896.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
PROFESSOR RONTGEN’S DISCOVERY.
THE transmission through wood and other
substances of the rays from a Crookes’ vacuum
tube, discovered by Prof. Réntgen, is reported
to have been confirmed by Prof. Klupathy of
Pesth, Prof. Domalip of Prague, Prof. Czermak
of Gratz, and Mr. A. A. C. Swinton of London.
The photographs have been exhibited before
several scientific societies and by Prof. Roéntgen
to the Emperor of Germany, from whom he has
received a decoration.
Mr. Swinton writes to the Standard that
with Mr. J. C. M. Stanton he has obtained
distinct proof that the radiations in ques-
tion do pass easily through various substances
that are quite opaque to ordinary light, and do
produce strong impressions upon ordinary pho-
tographic plates entirely incased in light-proof
material. Indeed, all substances that he has so
far experimented on in his laboratory appear
to be transparent to these radiations, even
sheets of ebonite, carbon, vulcanized fibre, cop-
SCIENCE.
163
per, aluminium and iron, though there is con-
siderable variation in degree. It is thought
that the new method of photography may have
important applications, not only in surgery, but
also in metallurgy, by revealing flaws, inequali-
ties and fractures in metals.
Hertz discovered that cathode rays pass
through metal films not translucent to ordinary
light, and that Dr. Lenard and others have
published careful experiments on the subject.
Attention has been called to Prof. Zeugen’s
haying photographed Mt. Blanc, in 1885, by
the cathode rays. Prof. Rontgen, however,
states that the rays discovered by him,which he
calls X-rays, are not cathode rays, as they are
not refrangible nor affected by magnetic in-
fluences, but that they are more probably longi-
tudinal waves in the ether.
While Hertz and Lenard hold that the cathode
rays are vibrations in the ether or even light of
short wave-length, Crookes and J. J. Thomson
‘have urged that the raysare negatively charged
matter traveling with great velocity. M. Per-
rin reported to the Paris Academy, on December
30th, experiments which tend to show that the
latter view is correct, and some relation will
probably be found between cathode rays and
the X-rays.
PHYSICS.
By constructing what might be termed a
reversed level, A. Toepler obtains an instru-
ment which he calls a ‘pressure level.’ It
consists of a tube bent to a slight angle at its
middle point ; the two ends are equally inclined
to the horizontal. A short column of a light
liquid fills the central portion of the tube. It
will be readily seen that if the two open ends
are connected with two receivers of any sort,
the liquid will, by its position, give the differ-
ence of pressure in them. This method of dif-
ferentially measuring pressures, Mr. Toepler ap-
plies (Wied. Ann., Vol. 56, 1895) to measure the
difference in weight of two columns of air at
different temperatures but both under the same
pressure. A longseries of determinations of ab-
solute temperatures bears witness to the efficacy
of this method, and theoretical considerations
remove some apparent objections and give to it
certain advantages over the ordinary form of
air thermometer.
164
THE old question as to the existence of
Volta’s ‘contact electricity’ is again taken up
by C. Christiansen (Wied. Ann., 56, 1895.) who,
with an apparatus employing the drop electrode,
has investigated the behavior of magnesium,
aluminum, cadmium, zinc, tin, lead, iron,
platinum, nickel, copper, mercury and carbon
in atmospheric air, hydrogen, carbonic acid gas
and oxygen, and arrives at the conclusion that
oxygen may be, if it is not always, the cause of
potential differences between metals in contact,
and he is of the opinion that it is a polarization
by the gas, just as oxygen or hydrogen polarizes
platinum.
G. Meyer investigated an allied subject with
‘the Lipmann capillary electrometer testing the
combinations of mercury, and lead, copper, tin
and zinc amalgams in sulphuric and hydro-
chloric acids, potassium chloride, iodide and
sulphocyanide, and sodium sulphide. A fur-
ther contribution to our knowledge of the
dielectric constant is made by S. Silberstein,
who has determined this constant for various
mixtures of benzol and phenylethylacetate, and
finds that the results agree well with the conclu-
sions derived from theoretical considerations.
(Wied. Ann. Vol. 56, 1895.)
W. H.
ASTRONOMY.
THE Astronomical Society of the Pacific has
just published an account by Prof. Tucker, of
the methods he is using for the investigation of
the division errors of the Repsold circle of the
Lick Observatory. We are glad to see the
principle of using the auxiliary circle for the
purpose of investigating the principal circle.
This plan has many advantages, but its weak
point of course is that the two circles are at some
distance from each other and are read by different
microscopes. It may not be generally known
that a transit circle was constructed by Messrs.
Cooke & Sons for Mr. Newall, under the super-
intendence of Mr. Marth, in which the divisions
of the two circles could be brought into the
field of view of one microscope simultaneously.
The errors of that circle, however, were never
investigated.
But it may be questioned whether the re-
sults ever justify the expenditure of the great
amount of time and labor involved in such in-
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 57.
vestigations as that of Prof. Tucker. Probably
the same amount of energy given to observa-
tion of the stars, taking care of course to shift
the circle from time to time, would be of greater
benefit to astronomical science. Even if the
division error of any given line could be deter-
mined with complete precision with the tele-
scope pointed at the zenith, this division error
would not hold true when the telescope is
directed elsewhere. Nor is this brought about
by flexure alone. It is found that if we deter-
mine the division errors of a straight scale,
these errors are completely changed when the
scale is reversed end for end. No doubt una-
voidable differences in the illumination and the
eye of the observer are responsible for these
unfortunate facts. But facts they are, and the
cause of much wasted labor.
THE 1890 volume of the Annuaire published
by the Bureau des Longitudes has been issued.
It contains the usual mass of material devoted
to astronomical and other science. Among the
appendices are articles by MM. Cornu and Jans-
sen, which are of general interest. The list of
members of the Bureau contains the names of
two Americans: Dr. B. A. Gould and Mr. G.
Davidson. The latter gentleman is described as
‘directeur de l’observatoire de Californie et du
Service geodesique.’ H. J.
GENERAL.
THE herbarium of the late Prof. Daniel Cady
Eaton has been presented by his family to
Yale University. The herbarium contains over
65,000 sheets, and is especially rich in North
American ferns and mosses.
THE library of the University of Pennsyl-
vania has acquired the scientific library of
the late Prof. John A. Ryder. It has also
secured the Bechstein Library of German Phil-
ology and Literature, containing about 20,000
bound volumes and pamphlets.
Nature states that Prof. Sollas, F. R. S., will
leave in March for Sydney, to take charge of an
expedition that is being dispatched to make deep
borings in a coral atoll. The scheme, which is
supported by a strong scientific committee, has
been financed by the Royal Society to the ex-
tent of £800; and the government are placing
a gunboat at the disposal of the party, to convey
JANUARY 31, 1896.]
them from Sydney to Funifuti, in the Central
Pacific, which has been selected as the scene of
operations. Mr. W. W. Watts writes to the
same journal that it would have been impossible
to undertake the work without the assistance of
the Departments of Mines of the New South:
Wales government, which has granted to the
committee a complete set of boring tubes and
appliances.
THE Field Columbian Museum, of Chicago,
will send a commission, including Professor D.
G. Elliot, one of the curators, and Mr. C. A.
Aikley, the taxidermist of the Museum, to
Central Africa to collect zodlogical specimens.
It is proposed to leave Chicago about March 1st,
and to spend six months in Africa.
THE New York section of the American
branch of the Society for Psychical’ Research
will have its next meeting at Columbia College,
on February Ist, at eight P.M. Prof. William
James will preside and will make an address.
Papers will be read by Prof. J. H. Hyslop on
“Experiments in Crystal Vision,’ and by Prof.
W. R. Newbold on ‘Three Cases of Subcon-
scious Reasoning.’ A meeting will be held in
Boston, at Allston Hall, on the preceding even-
ing.
ArT the annual meeting of the Anthropological
Society of Washington, held January 21st,
Prof. Lester F. Ward was elected President for
the ensuing year; Surgeon General George M.
Sternberg, Dr. Frank Baker, Mr. W J McGee,
and Mr. George R. Stetson, Vice-Presidents ;
Dr. J. H. McCormick, General Secretary ; Mr.
Weston Flint, Secretary to the Board of Man-
agers; Mr. Perry B. Pierce, Treasurer; and
Mr. F. W. Hodge, Curator. Dr. Cyrus Adler,
Mr. Joseph D. McGuire, Mr. James A. Blod-
gett, Dr. Washington Matthews, Dr. Thomas
Wilson, and Prof. J. Ormond Wilson were
elected Councilors. Dr. Robert Fletcher, Prof.
Otis T. Mason, and Major J. W. Powell, former
presidents of the Society, are ex-officio mem-
bers of the Council.
Ar the annual meeting of the Royal Meteoro-
logical Society, on January 15th, Mr. E. Mawley
was elected President, and the retiring Presi-
dent, M. R. Inwards, delivered an address on
Meteorological Observatories.
SCIENCE.
165
THE third course of annual lectures of the
Linnean Society, in connection with the Amer-
ican Museum of Natural History, is as follows:
January 14, 1896. The Indians of Vancouver
Island. By Dr. Franz Boas, American Mus-
eum of Natural History.
January 18th. The Origin and Distribution of
North American Mammals. By Prof. W. B.
Scott, Princeton College.
March 38d. Two Months in Greenland. By
Prof. William Libbey, Princeton College.
Mr. C. E. BoRCHGREVINK has sent his miner-
alogical collection from South Victoria Conti-
nent to Dr. John Murray, F. R. S. Mr.
Borchgrevink holds that his specimens are es-
pecially valuable as proving the existence of an
Antarctic continent.
THE cost of sending an expedition from the
Lick Observatory to Japan to observe the ap-
proaching eclipse of the sun will be defrayed by
Mr. C. F. Crocker, of San Francisco.
A CABLEGRAM to.the daily papers states that
Dr. Behring has discovered an anti-cholera
serum, and announces that a public demonstra-
tion of its properties will be made at an early
date.
WE learn from La Nature that the Venetian
Society for the encouragement of pisiculture
has secured, from the Aquarium of the Trocadero
at Paris, spawn of the California salmon, to be
placed in the streams of the province.
Nature states that Mr. John Donnell Smith is
still in Nicaragua, in pursuance of his botanical
explorations, which have already been so fertile
in additions to the Central American flora, and
that M. R. Schlecter is intending shortly to
start on a two years’ botanical exploration of
the south and east of Africa. His program
includes a prolonged stay in Namaland, the
Transvaal, Coud-Bockeveld, Limpopo and Mata-
beleland as far as the Zambesi. Subscriptions
for his collection will be received by Prof. Schu-
mann, Botanical Museum, Grinewald str., Ber-
lin. They will be at the rate of 35 marks the
hundred.
Lizut. E. Astrup, the Arctic explorer who
was with Lieut. Peary on his first expedition to
Greenland, was found dead on Jan. 19th in a
valley in the Dovrefjeld Mountains, near Jer-
166
kin, Norway. He started from Christiania be-
fore Christmas to make an exploring trip on
skis in the mountains. He had apparently
been overcome by fatigue and cold. Lieut.
Astrup was only 31 years of age.
AT a general meeting of the London Institu-
tion of Electrical Engineers, on January 16th,
Mr. Crompton, the retiring President, gave up
the chair to Dr. John Hopkinson, who delivered
his inaugural address, reviewing at length the
progress which had been made in the direction
of practical applications of electrical knowledge
during the past sixty years.
WE have received the first bulletin of the In-
stitut International de Bibliographie, which will
hereafter be published from the office of the In-
stitute, 11 Rue Ravenstein, Brussels. It contains
the address of Chey. Descamps given at the
close of the recent International Congress of
Bibliography,the rules of the Institute, the plans
proposed for a general bibliography by MM.
H. La Fontaine and P. Otlet, and notes on the
decimal system of classification.
THE Engineer has offered a prize of a thous-
and guineas for a contest of horseless carriages
to take place in England in October, and ar-
rangements are being made by American manu-
facturers for a similar contest between Jersey
City and Philadelphia with a prize of $5,000, to
take place as soon as the roads are in good
condition in the spring.
ARRANGEMENTS have been made for the fol-
lowing lectures to be given before the Royal
Institution before Easter: Dr. J. G. McKen-
drick, professor of physiology in the University
of Glasgow, six lectures on ‘Sound, Hearing
and Speech;’ Prof. Charles Stewart, Fullerain
professor of physiology, R.I., eleven lectures
on the ‘External Covering of Plants and Ani-
mals: its Structure and Functions’; Mr. H.
Marshall Ward, Professor of Botany in the
University of Cambridge, three lectures on
“Some Aspects of Modern Botany’; Lord Ray-
leigh, professor of natural philosophy in the
Royal Institution, six lectures on ‘Light.’ The
Friday evening meetings will begip on January
17th, when a discourse will be given by Lord
Rayleigh on ‘More about Argon.’ Sueceeding
discourses will probably be given by Prof. Bur-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. III. No. 57.
don Sanderson, Dr. John Murray, Dr. Edward
Frankland, Prof. T. R. Fraser, Prof. Dewar
and other gentlemen.
ACCORDING to the Lancet the trustees of the
Bellahouston fund have made the following
additional bequests to Glasgow Infirmaries: 1.
To the Royal Infirmary (1) a grant of £2,500 in
supplement of an equal sum already paid by the
trustees for the better equipment of the medical
school; and (2) a grant of £7,500 towards the
erection of a pathological museum and labora-
tory and another operating theatre, to be called
the ‘ Bellahouston theatre.’ 2. To the Western
Infirmary (1) a grant of £3,500 for the erection
of another operating theatre, to be called the
‘Bellahouston theatre’; and (2) a grant of
£5,000 towards the erection of pathological
buildings. 3. To the Victoria Infirmary a grant
of £6,000 for the erection and equipment of a
dispensary for out-patients, to, be called the
‘Bellahouston dispensary.’
THE annual loss to Pennsylvania by forest
fires is estimated by the State Forestry Commis-
sioner to be at least $1,000,000. He holds that
the fires are always due to ignorance, careless-
ness or crime, and that these may be controlled.
THE multiplication of laboratories for the
study of experimental psychology has nearly
ceased, only because almost every school of any
importance now possesses such a laboratory. It
is already evident that a second era in this
movement is beginning. A few weeks ago it
was announced that the department of psy-
chology at Cornell University had just taken
possession of splendid new quarters on the
fourth floor of Morrill Hall, comprising a series
of nine rooms and some 4000 feet of floor space.
Word now comes from Nebraska that psychol-
ogy has just moved into the first floor of the
new library building and occupies a series of
five rooms with a floor space of about 3000
square feet. The rooms comprise a lecture
room that will accommodate one hundred stu-
dents ; a study that may be used also as a pri-
vate laboratory; a shop equipped with lathe
and tools, to the value of about $300 (this room
is also used as laboratory at certain hours); and
two large rooms for general laboratory practice,
one of which has a small dark room cut off.
JANUARY 31, 1896.]
The building is by far the best constructed, not
only of the University buildings, but of all the
State buildings. The first floor is finished in
hard pine, with two-inch hard maple floor laid
in cement. One of the laboratory rooms is
provided with three stone piers, extending
directly into the ground with tops 20x24 inches.
This same room has six windows, each 74x43
feet. Double shades, white and black, regulate
the light. One hundred and fifteen students are
now taking work in psychology in the Univer-
sity of Nebraska.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
GROUND has been broken for the first of the
four buildings of the new biological school of the
University of Chicago, which is to be erected
with part of the $1,000,000 recently given by
Miss Culver. It is proposed to erect special
buildings for zoélogy, botany, anatomy and
physiology, instead of one biological building, as
planned before the receipt of Miss Culver’s gift.
THE College of New Jersey, Princeton, will
celebrate the 150th anniversary of its foundation
in October next. It is proposed to hold an ac-
ademic festival on October 20, 21 and 22, at
which time it is said the name of the institution
will be altered to Princeton University. An
effort will be made to largely increase the en-
dowment of the College, the money to be used
chiefly in developing the University work.
Exiza M. Mosuer, M. D., of Brookly, N. Y.,
has been appointed a professor of hygiene in the
University of Michigan.
THE Fellows of the Royal College of Sur-
geons, London, on January 2, declared them-
selves, by a vote of 72 to 10, in favor of admit-
ting women to the examinations and diplomas
of the College.
VASSAR College has received $8,000 from Miss
Helen Gould for the foundation of a scholar-
ship.
THE Senate of Toronto University has made a
claim against the Province of Ontario, or the
Dominion of Canada, for more than $100,000.
THE University of Pennsylvania has received
a gift of $5,000 from Mr. Charles M. Swain
and $5,000 anonymously, the money to be
used without restrictions.
SCIENCE.
167
THE will of the late Martin Brimmer, of
Boston, to take effect on the death of his wife,
bequeaths $50,000 to Harvard University.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
THE METRIC SYSTEM.
EDITOR OF SCIENCE: I enclose a copy of
House Bill No. 2758 in regard to the Metric
System. This bill has been introduced by Hon.
D. Harley, of Brooklyn, N. Y., after consulta-
tion with the Secretary of the American Metro-
logical Society and officers of the U. 8. Govern-
ment (Gen. Duffield, Superintendent of U.S.
Coast and Geodetic Survey; Professor New-
comb, of the Nautical Almanac Office, and Mr.
Tittmann, of the Coast and Geodetic Survey),
and others. The Committee on Coinage,
Weights and Measures, of the House of Repre-
sentatives, has the bill in charge. Hon. C. W.
Stone is Chairman of the Committee.
It is hoped that those interested in the matter
will urge on the Committee the great desirable-
ness of a favorable report to the House.
J. K. REEs.
AMERICAN METROLOGICAL SOCIETY,
OFFICE OF SECRETARY,
NEw YORK, January 24, 1896.
The bill to fix the standard of weights and
measures by the adoption of the metric system
of weights and measures is as follows :
“* Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Rep-
resentatives of the United States of America in Con-
gress assembled, That from and after the first day
of July, eighteen hundred and ninety-seven, all
the Departments of the Government of the
United States, in transaction of all business re-
quiring the use of weight and measurement,
shall employ and use only the weights and
measures of the metric system, as legalized by
Act of Congress approved July twenty-eighth,
eighteen hundred and sixty-six.
“Src. 2. That from and after the first day of
July, eighteen hundred and ninety-nine, the
metric system of weights and measures shall be
the only legal system of weights and measures
recognized in the United States.
“Src. 3. That the tables in the schedules an-
nexed to the bill authorizing the use of the
metric system of weights and measures, passed
168
July twenty-eighth, eighteen hundred and sixty-
six, shall be the tables of equivalents which may
be lawfully used for computing, determining,
and expressing in customary weights and meas-
ures the weights and measures of the metric
system.”’
IMPROVED BLACKBOARD.
EDITOR OF SCIENCE: Several persons have
enquired about the blackboard mentioned in
your columns recently. May I describe it
briefly: A sheet of ground glass a meter square
is framed and the frame is hinged into a very
shallow cupboard fastened to the wall. A false
bottom covered with padded serge fits this cup-
board loosely, and when the door is closed and
fastened presses firmly against the glass on the
inside. It then forms a fine blackboard as the
ground glass surface is perfect for use with
crayons.
If the door be opened and a sheet’ of white
paper fastened to the false bottom by thumb
tacks, it becomes an equally useful drawing
slate for colored crayons. If in the place of
the white paper a sheet of drawings as of crys-
tal forms or geometrical figures, or outline maps
be put behind the glass they show through so
that all modifications of the primary form be-
neath can be drawn on the glass and in proper
relation to this primary. It is only needful that
the false bottom shall press firmly against the
glass, and this is easily effected by having it
held in place by four screws placed near the
corners whose heads are countersunk in the
false bottom. The latter moves freely on these
screws and four spiral springs which are slid on
the screws behind it press the serge firmly against
the glass. Ben. K. EMERson.
AMHERST, MaAss., January 14, 1896.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
Elementary Physical Geography. By RAupu 8.
Tarr. 12 mo., pp. 1-xxxl., 1488, 29 plates
and charts, 267 diagrams and photographs.
Macmillan & Co. 1895. Price $1.40.
Physical geography is no longer a mere de-
scription of the earth’s surface, but includes
also an enquiry as to how its features came to
be what they are. The recent ideas that have
vivified this study and placed it on a scientific
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vox. III. No. 57.
basis may be seen by contrasting the writings of
Ritter, Humboldt, Guyot and others of what
may in all courtesy be termed the old school,
with the book before us. In the older books,
which are by many persons still considered
fountains of geographical knowledge, the lead-
ing theme is the description of the earth; in
Tarr’s physical geography the dominant idea is
how the features of the earth came to have
their present characteristics.
In descriptive physical geography the conti-
nents are sometimes treated as fragments of
broken china, which, by the exercise of much
ingenuity and an active imagination, are made
to fit together with more or less accuracy,
thus leading the student to fancy that at one
time they were united. In rational physical
geography each continent is shown to have a
life history, and to have been modified by ele-
vation and subsidence, and varied in relief by
erosion and sedimentation. Inthe modern view
of nature even the largest of land masses are
found to be unstable forms; the processes to
which they owe their elevation above the sea,
as well as their outlines and relief, are still
active, and additional changes are to come.
Mountains are no longer to be studied as fin-
ished forms, but as representing all stages of
growth, adolescence, maturity and old age.
River valleys are not merely drainage canals,
the lengths and breadths of which are to be
memorized, but each one has a history written
in its terraces and flood plains, in which evi-
dences of elevation and depression of the land,
climatic changes, the influence of rock structure,
etc., can be read.
The modern ideas referred to, which, so to
speak, have blown away the mist from the
landscape and revealed its varied beauties, are
truthfully reflected in the book before us. One
who is familiar with the progress of geological
study in America sees, as he turns its pages, an
epitome of the results brought by many consci-
entious workers from the mountains and val-
leys, with much labor and thought. Most of
all, it is flavored with the studies of Prof. Davis,
of Harvard, in whose classroom and from
whose writings Prof. Tarr has gained much of
his inspiration. The great sources both of facts
and ideas, as must of necessity be the case in
JANUARY 31, 1896. ]
all attempts to write the physical history of
North America, with which the book is mainly
concerned, are the reports of the geological sur-
veys of Canada, the United States, and of many
individual States. The results of these great
surveys reach the people and the schoolroom
directly, to only a comparatively limited extent;
probably their greatest popular usefulness lies
in the fact that they are mines of wealth to
those who attempt to popularize and disseminate
scientific knowledge.
Physical geography is treated by Prof. Tarr
under three leading topics: The Air, The Ocean,
The Land.
The Air: The part treating of the air begins
with an account of the relations of the earth to
other members of the solar system and is in fact
an introduction to the entire subject of physical
geography. This chapter probably differs less
than any other portion of the book from older
treatises on the same subject. Necessarily the
subject-matter to a great extent is borrowed
from astronomy.
The discussion of atmospheric temperatures,
moisture, condensation, clouds, ete., the nature
and origin of storms, distribution and character-
istics of climate and other similar phenomena,
brings out the results of the most recent studies
in this important branch of the subject. Toa
great extent these chapters are a compend of
Davis’ Meteorology, a book that should be at
hand when instruction in this portion of the
subject is given.
The Ocean: In dealing with the geography of
the sea, the rich store of knowledge resulting
from the Challenger, and other similar expedi-
tions, furnishes the data for presenting a com-
prehensive outline of the results of recent sur-
veys. Some of the subdivisions of the subject
as treated are: methods of deep-sea explora-
tions; topography of the sea bottom and of
coast lines; deposits now forming on the sea
floor; temperatures; chemical composition,
circulation, etc., of sea waters; general distri-
bution of life in the sea; the causes of currents
and tides; and the effect of the movements of
sea water are discussed and illustrated by dia-
grams, maps and photographs.
The Land: It isin this portion of the book
that the greatest advances, both in geography
SCIENCE.
169
as a science and in methods of study, are shown.
The processes by which the rocks forming the
land are disintegrated and carried away are
discussed and the resulting changes in topog-
raphy clearly described. The fact that all
rocks which rise above sea level are constantly
yielding to chemical and mechanical agencies
and being removed by streams in solution and
suspension leads to the recognition of a funda-
mental principle, first definitely stated by Major
Powell, which is of wide application in both
geography and geology. This tendency to re-
duce all land areas to the level of the sea, or to
baselevel, as it is termed, if not counteracted by
movements of elevation, will result in the pro-
duction of plains. Such plains of subzerial de-
nudation, or peneplains, are a characteristic
feature of many regions.
A knowledge of the way in which streams
deepen and broaden their valleys, and slowly
adjust themselves to rock structure, gives
meaning to a multitude of geographic forms,
that would otherwise appeal to the eye alone
without awakening a mental picture of the long
series of changes of which they are the result.
The deposition of the waste of the land in
flood plains and deltas, and its distribution over
the bottoms of lakes and on the ocean’s floor,
illustrates other phases of the never-ending
changes that attract the eye of the geographer.
These wide reaching processes and the character
of the results they produce are tersely outlined.
The characteristics of glaciers and the changes.
they bring about in the topography of the land,
both by erosion and deposition, form a chapter
that cannot fail to awaken interest especially in
the minds of students whose homes are in the
northeastern States or Canada, since not only
the general expression but almost every detail
in the landscape with which they are familiar
is an inheritance from an ice invasion.
The study of coast lines shows that the agen-
cies by which the relief of the surface of the
land is modified are supplemented by analogous
agencies which are constantly altering the di-
rection and varying the details of the margins
of continents and islands.
Many of the results of erosion and deposition
are illustrated by home example and supple-
mented by photographs of American scenery.
170
The book is emphatically an American book,
and especially well adapted for American stu-
dents.
A chapter is devoted to volcanoes, earth-
quakes, geysers; another to the general topog-
raphy of the land. The relations of man to
his environment, and the products of the rocks
that are of leading economic importance, are al-
so considered as fully as the space available
will allow. ‘
An important feature of the book, and one that
places it in,advance of all other similar trea-
tises, is the free and one might say almost lavish
use of photographs. While some of them are
so much reduced and so poorly printed that
they have lost their beauty, and are even ob-
secure and of little value, yet the preference, in
many instances, of photographs over sketches
and wood engravings for text-book use is
thoroughly demonstrated.
At the close of each chapter there is a short
list of books which will aid the teacher in ex-
tending the subjects outlined in the text, and
enable him to add fresh description and dis-
cussions from authoritative sources.
Now that a text-book of rational physical
geography, designed for school-room use, is
available, which presents the modern aspects of
the subject as well, perhaps, as could be done
in an elementary treatise, there is no longer an
excuse for practically excluding this attractive
and stimulating branch of nature study from
our schools. It has frequently been stated that
it is useless to attempt to teach physical
geography in its modern dress, for the reason
that properly trained teachers were not avyail-
able. With Tarr’s book in hand and works of
reference available, there is no reason why
many graduates of normal schools and colleges
should not prepare themselves for this work.
Without, however, a certain indescribable
sympathy with nature, a deep appreciation of
the beauties of form and color in a landscape,
and a quenchless thirst to know how the num-
berless features of the land, sea and sky came
to be what we find them, one need not expect
great success as a teacher of physical geography.
Given a love of nature and such a guide-book
as Prof. Tarr has compiled, and the path lead-
ing to the commanding height from which the
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 57.
history of the earth’s surface can be read as
from a printed page may be readily reached.
Necessary adjuncts to a text-book of physical
geography, are maps, especially of the region
where the teacher is located, large-sized photo-
graphs or lantern views, globes, models, ete.
These appliances, however, are of compara-
tively little use, unless, as expressed by Davis,
‘the outsight is aided by the insight.’
In closing I wish to say, as has been stated in
the report on a recent conference in geography,
that the study of physical geography demands
an advanced position in both school and college
training, for the reason that it develops the
power of observation, the powers of scientific im-
agination, and the power of reasoning.
IsRAEL C. RUSSELL.
The Great Frozen Land: Narrative of a winter
journey across the Tundras and a sojourn
among the Samoyads. By FREDERICK GEORGE
JACKSON. Macmillan & Co., New York. 1895.
In this pleasantly written and by no means
over-scientific volume, the leader of the Jackson-
Harmsworth Polar Expedition (now passing its
second winter in the region of Franz Josef
Land) gives the narrative of a long sledge-
journey across the frozen lands of northern
Russia, from the Yugor Strait to the Varanger
Fjord—a journey undertaken primarily with a
view of testing certain requirements of travel
which might be found necessary in the more
arduous Polarctic work for which the author
had been preparing. The land-traverse com-
passed some twenty-five hundred miles across
the Great ‘and Little Tundras, and over a soli-
tude, as stated in the prefatory remarks of
Mr. Montefiore, ‘ through which no’Englishman
had ever passed; of which no sufficient map
existed ; whose table of river-labyrinths, ancient
beaches and lost bays had never been told; of
whose winter climate no account was to be dis-
covered in the English tongue.’ Just why these
deficiencies in English knowledge and energy
are so strongly emphasized does not appear
clear, and it can, perhaps, hardly be said
that Mr. Jackson’s travels acquire importance
through them alone.
There is much in this book to interest the
general reader, and particularly acceptable are
JANUARY 31, 1896. ]
the glimpses of cold nature which we obtain
here and there scattered through the pages,
and the inner vista into the natural life of those
peculiar children of the north, the Samoyads.
Mr. Jackson lived with them in cleanliness and
dirt, in health and distemper, and behind pony
and reindeer, and is, therefore, in a position to
give a picture that is neither under-colored nor
over-colored. Apart, however, from a general
broad discription of both people and country
there is little in the book to tax the mind of
the inquiring scholar, and least that of the
scientist. Zodlogical, botanical and geological
data are exceedingly meagre, and, owing largely
to the loss of the thermometer record-book for
the months of December and January, there is
little to add to meteorology. The lowest read-
ing of the thermometer was found on December
5th,—36.°5 F. Mr. Arthur Montefiore, the
editor of Mr. Jackson’s journals, contributes a
chapter on the Samoyad language, a series of
translations on Samoyad folk-tales from Cas-
trén’s Hthnologische Vorlesungen, and an appen-
dix on the ‘object, method and equipments’
of the Jackson-Harmsworth Polar Expedition.
The tone of the book, both as it is found in
the main text and in the contributions of the
editor, leads to a lingering suspicion that it is
conceived too much in a spirit of enthusiasm to
permit it everywhere to be followed as a safe
guide. Thus, in the prefatory remarks the
reader is led to believe that the journey was
undertaken in the region of ‘the Pole of Ex-
treme Cold,’ but between the minimum thermo-
metric registry that has been above noted
(-86°.5 F.) and the cold of Yakutsk and Verksho-
jansk, minus 75°-82° F. (or, according to report
two years ago, —92°), there is a vast difference—
the difference, in fact, between Minnesota and
what is experienced by almost every Arctic ex-
pedition wintering in the far north. We are
informed on page 160 that a journey of 700
versts (about 470 miles) was accomplished in
seven and a-half days, on two sledges, ‘one
horse to each sledge,’ and that at the end of the
journey the horses ‘trotted into Pinega appar-
ently as fresh as paint.’ To travel sixty miles
a day for seven days in succession is certainly
no ordinary feat for horses even of the Russian
type, and many a carrier would be welcomed
SCIENCE.
171:
for this undertaking into the camps of the Rus-
sian or German military posts; but what dig-
nity or honor would be conferred upon a Zirian
who drove three reindeer, within a period of
twenty-four hours, over a distance of 1200
versts (800 miles)! It is hardly to be wondered
at that the team died on the following day (p.
74).
Almost the only fact of physiographic im-
portance which is noted is the occurrence of
raised beaches near the mouth of the Piatso-
woryaha River, where the amphitheatre of an
old bay extends backward a distance of some
nine miles from the present seashore. ‘‘Step
above step there ranged the old seabeaches,
following the lines of the higher land immedi-
ately behind them, and girding with a terraced
rampart the level basin of salt marsh into which
the waves once rolled. * * * * * These old
seabeaches, I may add, continued for many
miles westward—notably that which is now six
miles from the sea, and lies just to the east of
the Pechora River—and most certainly would
repay the attention of a geologist if he could
visit them in summer’’ (p. 129).
Mr. Jackson is now working in an important
field of exploration, and scientists, no less than
geographers, cannot but wish him success in an
undertaking which requires for its accomplish-
ment a more than ordinary amount of courage
and determination, and a knowledge of the kind
which must be foreed upon every traveler who
attempts the long passage of the Great Frozen
Land. ANGELO HEILPRIN.
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES,
PHILADELPHIA, January 11, 1896.
A Complete Geography. By ALEX. H. FRYE.
Ginn & Co., Boston, Mass. 1895.
Since the publication, last year, of Frye’s
Primary Geography, the appearance of a larger
book for grammar school use, promised by the
same author, has been awaited with much in-
terest. This book is now at hand. Its plan,
like that of the Primary Geography, departs
widely from the beaten track followed by most
writers of school geographies. This has gener-
ally consisted of an introductory chapter on the
earth’s mathematical features, followed by a
condensed review of physical geography, after
172
which the several continents are successively
described in their various aspects, the United
States naturally receiving the chief attention,
and the physical features of each region being
considered in close connection with its political
and industrial features. But in the new book
the most striking feature is the division of the
entire subject into two well-marked fields: the
first, which occupies some two-thirds of the
book, being devoted to the physical features of
the earth, and the rest dealing with political
geography.
This plan will commend itself tomany. The
physical features of the earth are the founda-
tion upon which the history of the nations has
been wrought out to its consummation in the
political geography of our own day; are, in fact,
the mould which has determined the present
aspect of political geography. It seems appro-
priate, therefore, that these relatively perma-
nent physical features should receive primary,
and the relatively transient political facts sec-
ondary attention, and that a full and clear un-
derstanding of these fundamental elements of
the earth’s surface should give the pupil a sound
and thorough basis for all future knowledge
which he may acquire, either during or after
his school days, about the earth and all that
happens thereon.
Tn accordance with sound pedagogical prin-
ciples, the broader physical facts are first
treated, so that an outline of the subject is
built up in the pupil’s mind, to be filled in later
by more specific details when each region is
taken up in its turn. Here it is gratifying to
see that the author has kept closely in touch
with the most recent scientific studies upon the
form and development of the land surface. It
is exceptional to find a geography that recog-
nizes so fully the changes in the land surface
by wear (Lesson 11), or the rise of the sea floor
to become new land (Lesson 18), or the growth
and relative age of mountain ranges (Lessons
19, 77, 89), or the work of the North Ameri-
can ice sheet during the glacial epoch (Lesson
45). The appearance also of such current
scientific phrases as ‘drowned valley,’ ‘ distrib-
utary,’ ‘drumlin,’ ‘fiord,’ ‘alluvial fan,’ etc.,
is another mark of the recognition of the labors
of modern scientific geographers.
SCIENCE,
[N.S. Von. III. No. 57.
The illustrations and maps, which in any geo-
graphy are quite as important an educational
element as the text itself, are numerous, closely
connected with the text, and for the most part
carefully executed and well arranged. Most of
the pictures are engraved directly from photo-
graphs, a sure means of securing truthfulness.
The numerous little globe maps will commend
themselves for the views that they give of the
relations of the continents and oceans. The
usefulness of such a map as that on page 102,
however, where the earth’s crust is as it were
peeled off from the hidden side, and bent
around so as to bring all the lands into view at
once, may be questioned. The curved distortion
necessarily resulting is such as to make the earth
here appear neither flat nor round. Such features
as this map illustrates, are better shown upon
Mercator maps, which, of course, are distorted,
but in a manner simple and easily understood.
The clearness and simplicity of the study maps
throughout the book is worthy of mention, as
is also the presence of an entirely separate,
large collection of reference maps, abounding
in detail, at the end of the book.
The book, of course, is not without its defects.
The useful system of cross-references contains
some misprints, which escaped notice in the
final revision; and in the reference-maps we
observe the omission of so noted a volcano as
Krakatoa, the insertion of the long-since ruined
and abandoned Chenango canal (N. Y.), and
the failure to distinguish the political boundaries
of Russia from the conventional limits of
Europe, where the two happen not to coin-
cide. A good index would be a valuable addi-
tion.
The meagre and almost purely categorical
treatment of many countries in the latter part
of the book is also disappointing. Their physi-
cal features are well set forth in the first part,
and many facts of interest are mentioned in
connection therewith; but in the second part,
which deals expressly with political and indus-
trial geography, we regret to see Italy dismissed
with but ninety-two words, Greece with but
nineteen, and the governments, cities, people,
customs and industries of many other foreign
countries treated with similar inadequacy. But
the book already exceeds the size of the average
JANUARY 31, 1896.]
grammar school geography by more than fifty
pages, and the necessary limits to the size of
such a book are evident. Such matter might,
of course, be supplied by the use of supplemen-
tary geographical reading, or by the teacher ;
but, unfortunately, few schools have the access
to good libraries which will make the former
possible; and few teachers have a sufficient
fund of general information to enable them to
supply this need.
To use this book, with all its excellent fea-
tures, as it should be used to reap the full bene-
fit of its contents, calls for a degree of skill and
ability on the part of our teachers beyond that
of the average instructor; and school superin-
tendents in places which have adopted it will
find it no easy task to educate their teachers to
this end. But as the book sets before us a
higher standard and ideal of geographical teach-
ing than our schools have ever known before,
and as it tends to bring them into closer rela-
tions with the best scientific work of the day,
it deserves a hearty welcome.
T. W. HARRIS,
Supt. of Schools.
KEENE, N. H.
The Religions of India.
KINS. Boston, Ginn & Co.
8vo., pp. 612.
The Teaching of the Vedas; what light does it
throw on the Origin and Development of Religion?
By Maurice Painuips. London, 1895. 1
vol. 8vo.
Of these two books, apearing almost simul-
taneously, the first mentioned is much the more
important in scope and scholarship. It is vol-
ume I. of the ‘Handbooks on the History of
Religions,’ edited by Dr. Morris Jastrow, Jr., of
the University of Pennsylvania, and its author
is Professor of Sanscrit in Yale College.
The plan of his work may be briefly stated.
He begins with an examination of the date of
the oldest Vedas, reaching the conclusion that
the bulk of the Rig Veda was composed about
athousand years before the Christian Era. This
is a late date to assign it, and we are inclined
to believe that the author has been too much
influenced by a certain French school who have
set themselves to modernize everything ancient
by one-sided arguments. A chapter follows
By Epwarp W. Hop-
1895. 1 vol.,
SCIENCE.
173
devoted to the ethnography of India, illustrated
by amap. The leading questions are touched
lightly, dates of monuments are not attempted,
and the main points ayerred are the close re-
lationship of the Vedic Aryans to the Iranians,
the entrance of the early hordes through the
open pass of Herat, and the existence of castes
among them before their settlement in India.
Four chapters are assigned to an exposition
of the pantheon of the Rig Veda, and one to
the religion of the Atharva Veda, which are
followed by a careful and clear comparison
(Chap. VIII.) of the early Hindu divinities with
those of other Aryan and some non-Aryan peo-
ples. From the Vedic epoch the Indian relig-
ions rapidly assumed varied forms. Earliest of
these was Brahmanism, which is described in
three chapters, followed by Jainism, Buddhism,
and the numerous early and late sects of Hin-
duism, with the worship of Vishnu, Siva and
the wild polytheism of later centuries. These
are depicted in their chief traits and their his-
toric connections pointed out with learning and
clearness. The chapter on the religious traits
of the present wild tribes is less satisfactory.
Their faiths do not seem to be so familiar to
the author, or he has less sympathy and less
patience with them. The volume closes with a
discussion of the probable influence which In-
dian religion and philosophy exerted on the
analogous mental products of the early Semites
and Aryans. It is natural that the author,
steeped in the lore of Indian thought, should
discover traces of it in the teachings of Jew and
Greek; but it is likely that many will think he
goes too far in deriving so much of the latter
from the former.
It is a question of great moment to the his-
torian of religions whether this long period of
continued growth—at least three thousand years
—developed in India higher conceptions of di-
vinity and duty, a finer spirituality in the votary,
a nobler sentiment toward his fellow man.
On this Prof. Hopkins speaks with clear con-
viction. He believes that tracing back the
numerous branches of Hindu sectarianism to
the Vedic period, one finds that throughout the
long intervening time the direction has been
true, and the higher aim ‘steadily kept in view.’
“Nor can one judge otherwise even when he
174
stands before so humiliating an exhibition of
groundling bigotry as is presented by some of
the religious sects of the present day’? (p. 472).
In striking contrast to this is the conclusion
reached by Mr. Phillipsin his volume. In fact,
the whole of it seems to be written for the pur-
pose of proving the opposite opinion. He as-
serts that the farther back we go in the Vedic age,
the purer and higher do we find the conceptions
of divinity, man, duty, worship, a future state,
sacrifice, ete. Hence he avers: ‘‘ The develop-
ment of religious thought in India has been uni-
formly downward—not upward—deterioration
and not evolution.’’ He explains this by the
theory of a ‘ primitive divine revelation’ granted
to the Aryan forefathers, darkened and lost in
their descendants. He shows a good reading
knowledge of the Vedas in his discussions, but a
total ignorance of the methods which now obtain
among real scholars in treating the historical
growth of religious phenomena. The need of
such a work as that of Prof. Hopkins and of the
series which it commences, is amply indicated
by the appearance of such an essay as that of
Mr. Phillips. D. G. BRINTON.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.
THE February number of the American Jour-
nal of Science opens with an article by A. M.
Mayer, giving the results of an extended series
of experiments upon the modulus of elasticity
of bars of various metals and its variation with
change of temperature. This modulus was ob-
tained by transverse vibrations of bars of known
dimensions and density. Rods of steel, alumi-
num, brass, glass and American white pine were
employed. These were vibrated longitudinally,
held between the thumb and forefinger, and the
vibration-frequencies determined by the help
of the standard forks of Dr. Koenig’s tonome-
ter in Paris. The application of Poisson’s
formula (shown to hold closely true by special
experiments) gave the velocity of sound, and
the modulus of elasticity was then calculated
from the usual mathematical relation connect-
ing these quantities. Special experiments were
employed to give the coefficients of expansion,
the densities, etc. The results are contained in
an extended table and further represented
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. IIL No. 57.
graphically in a series of plates. These show
that the decrease of the modulus of elasticity
of glass, aluminum and brass is proportional to
the increase of temperature ; straight lines re-
ferred to codrdinates giving the results of ex-
periments on these substances. The five steels,
silver and zinc give curves, convex upwards,
showing that the modulus decreases more
rapidly than the increment of temperature;
while bell metal alone gives a curve which is
concave upwards; its modulus decreasing less
than the increment of temperature. Bell
metal was found to be an alloy peculiarly well
suited for bells, as the intensity and duration
of its vibration were the same at 50° as at
0°; all other substances showing a marked
diminution of intensity and duration of sound
at 50°.
In a special discussion as to the acoustical
properties of aluminum, it is shown that this
metal is not peculiarly sonorous as ordinarily
believed. On the contrary, if a bar of aluminum
and a bar of brass having the same length and
breadth and giving the same note are struck
transversely so that the bars have the same
amplitude of vibration, the bars give equal
intensity of sounds; but the bar of aluminum
from its low density and because of its in-
ternal friction will vibrate less than one-third
as long as the bar of brass. The peculiarity of —
aluminum consists in this fact, that its un-
usually low density (2°7), combined with a mod-
ulus of elasticity of only 712 10°, renders
this metal easy to set in vibration ; a transverse
blow given to a bar of this metal causes it to
vibrate with an amplitude of vibration greater
than that which the same energy of blow
would have given to a similar bar of steel or
of brass.
It is true, however, that since aluminum
gives, from a comparatively slight blow, a great
initial vibration, and since its vibrations last
for a short time, this metal is peculiarly well
suited for the construction of those musical in-
struments formed of bars which are sounded by
percussion and the duration of whose sounds is
not desirable.
On the other hand, there is one serious objec-
tion to the use of aluminum in the construction
of musical and acoustical instruments, and that
JANUARY 31, 1896.]
is the great effect that the change of tempera-
ture has upon its elasticity. Ifa bar of alum-
inum and a bar of cast steel be tuned at a certain
temperature to exact unison, a change from
that temperature will affect the frequency of
vibration of the aluminum bar 23 times as much
as the same change of temperature will affect
the bar of cast steel.
A second physical article by Carl Barus gives
the results of experiments carried on, with the
aid of a fund from the Smithsonian Institution,
on the curl aneroid. The special object of the
investigation was to find what degree of con-
staney and precision could be obtained from a
suitably modified Bourdon tube, or flattened
tube coiled in the form of a helix. A similar
tube had been used before successfully for high
pressures with, however, certain limitations
which do not exist in the case of low pressures,
for which it is now designed, e. g., when ex-
hausted for, use as an aneroid in registering
small changes of atmospheric pressure. Exper-
iments with simple curls are detailed, made
very thin by dissolving away the walls in acid.
Also other experiments with a counter-twisted
system; that is, one supplied with a coiled
spring placed above and opposed to the flat-
tened and exhausted curl. The results of the
experiments with this form show that by it the
hurtful effects of viscosity and changes of tem-
perature can be reduced to a minimum, while
the sensitiveness of the instrument is increased
to a remarkable degree. G. W. Littlehales dis-
cusses from a mathematical standpoint the
problem of finding an isolated shoal in the open
sea which had been located by previous obser-
vation. He concludes that, under certain con-
ditions named, there would be one chance in
6,173 of finding it. This explains why navi-
gators often fail to find shoals shown on their
charts. H. B. Kimmel gives a note on the
glaciation of Pocono Knob (Monroe county) and
Mounts Ararat and Sugar Loaf (Wayne county),
in Pennsylvania, which have hitherto been re-
garded as having risen above the ice during
glacial times. The author’s observations, how-
ever, lead him to conclude that the ice probably
covered the highest points of all these summits.
T. L. Walker gives the result of a study of
crystals of the platinum arsenide, sperrylite,
SCIENCE.
175
from Algoma, Ontario. He also adds some notes
as to its occurrence, and notes the presence of
iridium and osmium in the matte from the
Murray mines, leading to the conclusion that
these metals are sometimes constituents of the
sperrylite. S. L. Penfield and E. H. Forbes de-
scribe the results of an investigation of the op-
tical properties of the members of the chrysolite
group of minérals as connected with their chem-
ical composition. It is shown that the mean
index of refraction, and also the strength of the
double refraction, diminish with decrease in
percentage of iron protoxide, FeO ; on the other
hand, the value of the optic axial angle (2V) in-
creases. With the FeO about 12 per cent., 2V for
yellow equals nearly 90°. Chrysolites containing
less than 12 per cent. FeO have the crystallo-
graphic axis @ for the acute bisectrix and are
optically positive with dispersion p< v, and
those richer in iron are optically negative with
dispersion p> v.
The concluding twenty-five pages of the
number are occupied with abstracts of papers
in other journals, notices of books, scientific
news, etc.
ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, JANUARY.
Action of the Editorial Board of the Astrophysical
Journal with Regard to Standards in Astro-
physics and Spectroscopy.
The board of editors, who have had the ques-
tion under consideration for the past year, have
adopted for the magazine the following stand-
ards:
The Rowland scale of wave-lengths, the unit of
wave-length to be Angstrém’s, the ten millionth
of a millimeter, known also as the ‘tenth-
meter.’
The kilometer as the unit of measurements of
motion in the line of sight.
The hydrogen lines to be designated Ha, Hf,
etc., beginning at the red end and continuing
through the entire series. Maps of spectra will
be printed with the red end on the right, and
tables of wave-lengths with the shorter wave-
lengths at the top.
The hope is expressed that the action of the
editors will be coneurred in by other astrono-
mers and physicists, and adopted in their publi-
cations.
176
On the Spectrum of Cléeveite Gas: C. RUNGE and
F. PASCHEN.
The complete results of the writers’ investi-
gations are now published for the first time.
Tables of wave-lengths and of double lines are
given in full. When separated into six series,
the lines show a striking regularity. Appar-
ently there are two pairs of these series, each
pair approaching a limit common to its com-
ponents. From this and other reasons it is
concluded that the gas consists of two elements,
for the lighter of which the name Parhelium
has been adopted. The hypothesis of two con-
stituents is strengthened by the fact that vacuum
tubes can be made which show the helium series
much less brightly without a corresponding de-
erease of intensity in the parhelium series.
Moreover, in the spectrum of the sun’s limb the
stronger of the helium lines are, according to
Young, always seen, those of parhelium only
about once in four times. i
On the Gases obtained from Uraninite: J. NORMAN
LOcKYER.
A paper read before the Royal Society con-
taining some notes on the new gases recently
obtained. These notes consist largely of com-
parisons of the spectra of these gases with those
of the Sun and stars.
Outline of an Electrical Theory of Comets’ Tails :
REGINALD A. FESSENDEN.
The writer advances the theory that a comet’s
tail consists of negatively charged carbon parti-
cles driven from the nucleus by the action of
the ultra-violet light of the Sun, its shape being
the resultant of four forces: Gravitation acting
towards the Sun, electric repulsion of the nega-
tive charge on the Sun, attraction due to the
positive charge on the comet’s nucleus, electro-
static repulsion existing between each nega-
tively charged particle. The varied cometary
phenomena are then examined in the light of
this theory.
Photographic and Visual Observations of Holmes’
Comet: HK. E. BARNARD.
This is a résumé of observations made in
1892-93. The frontispiece is an enlargement of
a photograph of the comet made soon after its
discovery.
SCIENCE.
[N.§. Vou. III. No. 57.
The Modern Spectroscope, XV.: F. l. O. WADS-
WORTH.
In this number of the series is suggested a
form of mounting for the concave grating that
will overcome its astigmatism so disadvanta-
geous to certain forms of astrophysical work.
Minor Contributions and Notes.
Recent Researches Bearing on the Determination
of Wave-lengths in the Infra-red Spectrum:
JAMES HK. KEELER.
Harvard College Observatory, Circular No. 3:
EpWARrD C. PICKERING.
THE PHYSICAL REVIEW, VOL. III., No. 4., JAN-
UARY—FEBRUARY, 1896.
On the Photometry of Differently Colored Lights,
and the ‘Flicker Photometer:’ By F. B. Wurt-
MAN. Based upon the peculiar effect of a
flickering light upon the eye (discovered by Prof.
Rood), Prof. Whitman has devised a new form
of photometer for comparing the luminosities
of colored lights and pigments. The construc-
tion of the instrumentis briefly as follows: The
colored surface to be studied is mounted ob-
liquely upon a photometer carriage, and is
illuminated from a source of light at one end of
the bar. On the same carriage is mounted a
white disk receiving light from the other end of
the bar, and so arranged that it can be rapidly
rotated. This disk is given such a shape that
- it hides the colored surface during half of each
revolution. The eye of the observer thus re-
ceives light alternately from the colored sur-
face and the rotating disk, and at low speeds
there is a disagreeable flickering sensation. At
high speeds the flickering is no longer noticed;
strangely enough the sensation of color practi-
cally disappears at the same time, so that it is
sometimes found impossible to tell what color
is being experimented with. When the speed
is sufficiently great the instrument can thus be
used asan ordinary photometer, and makes pos-
sible a comparison of luminosities without an-
noyance from color differences.
Prof. Whitman describes a number of ex-
periments which were made in order to test
the instrument, and finds it much more reliable
than the ordinary types of photometers.
The Chemical Potential of the Metals: By W.
D. BAncrorr. This paper is devoted especially
JANUARY 31, 1896.]
to a discussion of the experimental data which
have a bearing upon Nernst’s theory of the E.
M. F. of a voltaic cell. Dr. Bancroft is: in-
clined to look upon certain aspects of this the-
ory with considerable distrust. His conclusions
may be summed up as follows:
1. The potential difference between a metal
and an electrolyte is not a function of the con-
centration of the salt solution, nor of the nature
of the positive ion, except in certain special
cases.
2. It is a function of the electrode, of the ~
negative ion, and of the solvent.
3. In aqueous solutions the potential differ-
ence is the sum of the term due to the electrode
and the term due to the negative ion in the
normal cases.
4. For most metals in most electrolytes the
term due to the negative ion has the same
numerical value and the same sign.
The tables accompanying this article, in
which are collected the results of some ten dif-
ferent observers, will be found of especial value.
On the Freezing Points of Dilute Aqueous So-
lutions: By E. H. Loomis. The phenomenon
of the lowering of the freezing point of a liquid
by the presence of a dissolved salt has so im-
portant a bearing upon the theory of solutions
that innumerable experimenters have made ita
subject of study. That such determinations are
extremely liable to serious error is shown by
the disagreement between the results of dif-
ferent observers. In some previous work on
this subject Dr. Loomis was led to make several
improvements in methods and apparatus. The
present paper gives the results of his new
methods in the case of certain electrolytes, the
salts studied being principally chlorides, car-
bonates and nitrates. In general the results
may be said to be in fair agreement with the
theory of electrolytic dissociation. With KCl
and K,S0O, the agreement is complete. With
half a dozen other salts it is not so good, but
fairly satisfactory. K,CO, and Na,CO,; show
considerable discrepancies, which, however,
may be due to uncertainty in the determination
of the conductivities of these salts.
Dr. Loomis devotes considerable time to a
discussion of the probable accuracy of his re-
sults, and in a minor article in the same num-
SCIENCE.
177
ber of the Review answers certain objections
which have been raised against his earlier de-
terminations.
A Comparison of two Concave Rowland Gratings :
By Auice H. Brupre. Miss Bruére subjects
the well-known irregularities in the intensity
of the different spectra from a concave grating
to a careful photometric study. The results
show the same general character as those reached
by Paschen by bolometric methods. The curves
which accompany Miss Bruére’s article show in
a most striking manner the irregularities in in-
tensity in different parts of the same spectrum,
as well as in the spectra of different orders.
A New Apparatus for the Study of Color Phe-
nomena: By EB. R. von NArprorr. Mr. von
Nardroff describes an ingenious apparatus to be
used with a lantern for conveniently showing
the various experiments dealing with color
mixing, contrast, complementary colors, ete.
The apparatus has been used by Mr. von Nar-
droff for several years and found satisfactory
and convenient.
On a New Form of Water Battery: By L. W.
AvsTIN and C. B. THwine. The writers have
devised a cell which is constructed out of a
homeopathic vial and strips of sheet copper and
zine, and which appears to possess considerable
advantages. The chief novelty consists in the
form of the two electrodes. Hase of construc-
tion, convenience in filling, and permanence of
action are the advantages urged.
Books Reviewed: Daniell, Principles of Phys-
ics; Whetham, Solution and Electrolysis; S.
P. Thompson, Polyphaze Currents; Palaz, In-
dustrial Photometry; Walter, Oberflaichenfar-
ben; Clerke, The Herschels and Modern As-
tronomy.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
JOINT COMMISSION OF THE SCIENTIFIC SOCIETIES
OF WASHINGTON.
THE memorial meeting held by the Scientific
Societies of Washington, on Wednesday even-
ing, January 14th, at which addresses were
made in honor of Dana, Pasteur, von Helmholtz
and Huxley, was followed on the following even-
ing, the 15th, by a meeting of the Joint Com-
mission, in honor of the late Charles V. Riley,
the entomologist. The memorial address by
178
Dr. G. Brown Goode will be published in this
journal.
At this meeting the Joint Committee elected
officers for the. ensuing year, with the following
result :
President—Gardiner G. Hubbard.
Vice-President—G. Brown Goode.
Secretary—Joseph Stanley-Brown.
Treasurer—Perry B. Pierce.
The Executive Committee elected will con-
sist of the above and one member from each of
the component societies, as follows: Anthropo-
logical, L. F. Ward; Biological, Dr. George M.
Sternberg, U. 8. A.; Chemical, Dr. E. A. De
Schweinitz; Entomological, Wm. H. Ashmead;
Geological, 8. F. Emmons; National Geo-
graphic, G. K. Gilbert, and Philosophical, Prof.
F. W. Clarke. W. F. Morse.
THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON,
JANUARY 4.
E. D. PRESTON read a paper on a new graphic
method of reducing stars from mean to apparent
places, which gave detailed exposition of a new
graphical method of finding the apparent places
of stars. The reduction was carried out by
having the day numbers plotted on a scale suffi-
ciently large to read two decimal places, and
then multiplying these graphically by the star
numbers which are calculated by construction
on the same sheet. The calculation of these
last quantities is facilitated in several ways.
Two quadrants are drawn, and the right ascen-
sion and declination of the star to be reduced
being selected, the simple trigonometrical func-
tions are immediately read off from the figure.
For those terms where a product of functions
appears, the method enables the operator Sto
construct the quantity by different processes.
That one is chosen which arrives at a resulting
line lying at right angles to the day numbers
already plotted. This makes their multiplica-
tion a very easy matter. In actual practice
the construction lines shown on the diagram are
of course not drawn. The whole sheet being
divided into small squares, the computer is able
to project the point visually, and to determine
the intersections of the necessary constructions
without actually drawing them.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 57.
The method has been principally used for
checking the regular computation, and this can
be done in less than one-half the time required
to make the first reduction. But with a scale
sufficiently enlarged there seems to be no reason
why the system should not be used with entire
success for a complete and separate solution.
January 18th the following papers were read :
Dr. G. Brown Goode, on ‘The Principles of
Museum Administration ;’ Mr. Isaac Winston,
on the ‘Present form of precise levelling ap-
paratus in use by the U. 8. Coast and Geodetic
Survey ;’ Mr. G. R. Putnam, on the ‘ Results
of Recent Pendulum Observations.’
BERNARD R. GREEN,
Secretary.
CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, 83D REG-
ULAR MEETING, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER
14, 1895.
THE President, Chas. E. Munroe, in the chair,
with thirty-five members present. The follow-
ing were elected to membership: H. B. Hodges,
Allan Wade Dow, W. W. Skinner and F. B.
Bomberger. Dr. Marcus Benjamin read a paper
on ‘The Smithsonian Institution’s Contribu-
tions to Chemistry from 1846 to 1896.’ He re-
ferred to the fact that-Smithson in his time was
considered as among the most expert of chem-
ists in elegant analysis. This he thought had
much to do with the provision made for a
chemical laboratory in the original ‘ programme
of organization of the Smithsonian Institution.’
He traced the history of the laboratory, men-
tioning the chemists who have occupied it,
among whom was J. Laurence Smith. The
chemical publications of the Institution were
reviewed, beginning with that of Dr. Robert
Hare ‘On the Explosiveness of Nitre,’ in 1850,
down to that ‘On the Density of Oxygen and
Hydrogen, and on the Reduction of their
Atomic Weights,’ by Edward N. Morley, in
1895. . The lectures by Cooke, Johnson, Hunt
and others were mentioned and the grants of
funds to Genth, Gibbs and Morley for chemical
research were described.
The work of Booth as shown in his ‘ Report
of Recent Instruments in the Chemical Arts;’
of Clarke in his ‘Constants of Nature,’ and of
Bolton in his ‘Bibliography of Chemistry,’ as
JANUARY 31, 1896.]
well as the many indexes to chemical literature
by Magee, Bolton, Traphagen, Tuckerman and
others were mentioned and discussed. The
paper was concluded with a full bibliography
of the chemical papers published by the Smith-
sonian Institution.
Mr. Cabell Whitehead read some ‘ Notes on
a recent visit to European Mints.’ In the dis-
cussion of this paper mention was made of the
explosions that occur commonly in lighting a
‘Buffalo Dental Company’s’ muffler furnace,
and Mr. Dewey said they could be avoided by
raising the whole body of the furnace by a
simple arrangement of movable levers and then
slipping a lighted paper over the burners.
Under the title ‘Calcium Phosphide,’ Prof.
Chas. E. Munroe described the process of manu-
facture which he invented and carried into
operation at the United States Naval Torpedo
Station in 1891. The novelty consisted in the
use of the iron crucibles, in which quicklime
was heated to redness, after which sticks of
white phosphorus were added through an iron
tube which penetrated the cover. The process
was so simple that eventually it was carried on
by unskilled laborers, and the phosphide which
was then selling in the market for $2.25 per lb.
was produced ata cost of 20 cents per lb. It
was manufactured for use in Automobile tor-
pedoes while at practice, and was found so
efficient that when a pound in its container was
submerged in 18 feet of water it gave a flame
2 feet in height on the surface, which continued
to burn for three hours.
A. C. PEALE,
Secretary.
BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY.
THE Society met December 18; one hundred
and six persons present.
Mr. F. W. Crosby described a remarkable
locality in Cephalonia where the water runs
from the sea into the land at a rate varying
from 4,000 to 10,000 cubic feet per minute.
This immense quantity of water is utilized as
power for mills, but what becomes of it is not
known.
Prof. G. Frederick Wright discussed the
present status of Glacial man in America. He
showed an ancient chipped knife found by Mr.
SCIENCE.
179
Huston at Brilliant, Ohio, and gave addi-
tional evidence, the result of a renewed study
upon the ground, to prove that the implement
was not intrusive but was found in the undis-
turbed strata of the original terrace. Prof.
Wright’s paper was illustrated by a series of
lantern slides.
Prof. H. W. Haynes reviewed the evidence
of early man in America as presented by Mr.
Upham and Miss Babbitt, and showed some of
the rudely flaked quartzes found by Miss Bab-
bitt, at Little Falls, Minn.
SAMUEL HENSHAW,
Secretary.
GEOLOGICAL CONFERENCE OF HARVARD UNI-
VERSITY, JANUARY 7, 1896.
Some occurrences of Eruptive Granite in the
Archean Highlands of New Jersey: By J. E.
WOLFF.
Occurrences of eruptive granite have been de-
scribed in the white limestone area from Frank-
lin northeastward, to which the present crystal-
line condition of the limestone is ascribed as
due to contact metamorphism. These occur-
rences lie in the valley at the west base of the
Highlands. The object of this communication
was to describe the occurrence of a large area
of granite within the area of the gneisses them-
selves, lying near the west edge of the plateau
formed by the Archean gneisses and nearly due
east of Franklin. The area so faras determined
is about six miles from north to south and two
miles wide; the field evidence seems to prove
its eruptive character through the bounding
gneisses.
JANUARY 14, 1896.
1. National Concentration of Ore Deposits: By A.
C. LANE. (To be published in the Engineer-
ing and Mining Journal.)
2. Plains of Marine and Subaérial Denudation :
By W. M. Davis. (To be published in Bulle-
tin of the Geological Society of America.)
T. A. JAGGAR, JR.,
Recording Secretary.
TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB.
THE annual meeting of the Torrey Botanical
Club was held on Tuesday evening, January
180
14th. The reports of the officers and commit-
tees exhibited the most flourishing condition in
the history of the Club. The following officers
were elected for the ensuing year: President,
Hon. Addison Brown; Vice-Presidents, T. F.
Allen, M. D., and L. H. Lighthipe ; Recording
Secretary, Henry H. Rusby, M. D., College
of Pharmacy, New York City ; Corresponding
Secretary, John K. Small, Columbia College,
New York City; Treasurer, Henry Ogden, 11
Pine Street, New York City; Editor, N. L.
Britton, Ph. D., Columbia College, New York
City ; Associate Editors, Emily L. Gregory, Ph.
D., Anna Murray Vail, Arthur Hollick, Ph. B.,
Byron D. Halsted, Se. D., A. A. Heller;
Curator, Helen M. Ingersoll; Librarian, Wm.
E. Wheelock, M. D.
The scientific paper of the evening, by Miss
Alice M. Isaacs and Miss Marian Satterlee, and
read by Miss Isaacs, was on the ‘ Anatomy of
the Leaf of Solidago Pauciflosculosa.’ The
study had been suggested by Prof. Britton in
order to throw light upon the generic position
of the plant, a subject involved in some doubt.
The leaf was compared with that of the typical
dicotyledonous plant and with other members
of the genus Solidago. The points of difference
noted are as follows: 1st, an unusual surface
whose punctate appearance is caused by an ir-
regular development of the parenchymatous
tissue ; 2d, the absence of palisade tissue charac-
teristic of a dicotyledonous leaf. The depres-
sions in the surface are found to be caused by
the fact that the leaf is contracted just above
and below the bundles, scarcely any mesophyll
being found between the bundles and the epi-
dermis. The blade expands between the bun-
dles, and in these expanded parts the mesophyll
is found. The epidermis following the outline
of the leaf may be cut off in small patches in-
stead of in a continuous piece as is usually the
case.
Of the many species examined, Solidago sem-
pervirens was the only one that at all resembled
S. pauciflosculosa. The fact that S. pauciflos-
culosa is a shrubby plant, together with these
leaf peculiarities, seem almost sufficient to justify
Nuttall in classing this plant as a separate genus
Chrysoma. H. H. Ruspy,
Recording Secretary.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. ,Von. III. No. 57.
THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS.
ArT the meeting of January 20, 1896, 23 per-
sons present, Mr. C. H. Thompson exhibited
specimens of a number of Lemnacez, and gave
in detail the results of some recent studies which
he had made on Wolffia gladiata, var. Floridana,
from the sluggish streams of southeastern Mis-
souri, and Wolffia lingulata, which he had col-
lected in Kern county, California, last autumn.
Both species belong to the subgenus Wolffiella, of
which flowers and fruit are quite unknown. The
species found in southern Missouri occurs asso-
ciated with Leitneria and other distinctively
Floridan forms, of which it is one, while the
species collected in California seems to haye
been known heretofore only from central
Mexico.
Prof. E. A. Engler, in continuation of his re-
marks at the last meeting, spoke of certain
properties of the parabola, from which it re-
sulted that from any point on the convex side
of the evolute of a parabola three normals can
be drawn to the latter; from any point on the
evolute, two; and from any point on the con-
cave side of the evolute, one. Suggestion was
made of the probable bearing of this demonstra-
tion on other curves.
Dr. A. C. Bernays exhibited a slide of the
epidermis of Fritillaria, exhibiting karyokinetic
patterns. WILLIAM TRELEASE,
Recording Secretary.
NEW BOOKS.
Die Chemie in Taglichen Leben. DR. LASSAR
Coun. Hamburg & Leipzig, Leopold Voss.
1896. Pp. vii.+258. M. 4.
Chemistry for Engineers and Manufacturers. BE-
TRAM BLounT and A. T. BLoxAm. London,
Charles Griffin & Co.; Philadelphia, J. B.
Lippincott Co. 1896. $3.50.
Chemical Experiments. R. P. WILLIAMS. Bos-
ton and London, Ginn & Co. 1895. Pp. x.
+102.
Die Spectralanalyse. JOHN LANDAUER. Braun-
schweig. Friedrich Vieweg & Sohn. 1896.
Pp. 174.
The Child and Childhood in Folk Thought. ALEX-
ANDER FRANCIS CHAMBERLAIN. New York
and London, Macmillan & Co. 1896. Pp.
x.+464. $3.00.
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SCIENCE
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE : S. NEwcomB, Mathematics ; R. S. WooDWARD, Mechanics ; E. C. PICKERING, As-
tronomy ; T. C. MENDENHALL, Physics; R. H. THuRSTON, Engineering; IRA REMSEN, Chemistry ;
J. LE ConTE, Geology; W. M. Davis, Physiography; O. C. MARsH, Paleontology; W. K. BRooxs,
Invertebrate Zodlogy ; C. HART MERRIAM, Vertebrate Zodlogy ; S. H. ScupDER, Entomology ;
N. L. Brirron, Botany ; HENRY F. OsBoRN, General Biology ; H. P. Bowpitcu,
Physiology ; J. S. BILLINGs, Hygiene ; J. MCKEEN CATTELL, Psychology ;
DANIEL G. BRINTON, J. W. POWELL, Anthropology ;
G. BRown GOODE, Scientific Organization.
FRIDAY, Fesruary 7, 1896.
CONTENTS :
Memorial Addresses before the Scientific Societies of
Washington :-—
James Dwight Dana: J. W. POWELL.............. 181
Pasteur: GEO. M. STERNBERG............
Helmholtz T. C. MENDENHALL
Current Notes on Physiography :—
_ The Temperature of Lakes; Winds Injurious to
Vegetation and Crops; Droughts and Famines in
India; Meteorological Elements in Cyclones and
Anticyclones: W. M. DAVIS.........ceeeeeseeseeoees 195
Scientific Notes and News :—
Astronomy ; Chemistry ; General........0...sseecseceee 197
University and Educational News. .....0..0.00cssceeseeees 201
Discussion and Correspondence :—
The Inverted Image on the Retina: C. L. F.
Marsh Gas under Ice: J.B. WooDWoRTH. On
Ethno-Botanic Gardens: JOHN W. HARSHBER-
GEHTITR concocnoonodcosonponq0.apasdseec600sboCCdeC05O300090000001 201
Scientific Literature :—
Moore on Certain Sand Mounds of Florida: F.
W. PuTNAM. Kew’s Dispersal of Shells: A.
S. PACKARD. Laboratory Manual of Inorganic
Preparations: E. RENOUF. Sadler’s Handbook
of Industrial Organic Chemistry: FRANK H.
ARTS} 312 ey s¢no0ad660030000 godqddabonognaxodeoqDosbonsonen090000 205
Scientific Journals :—
The Auk; The American Geologist ............0s+0+00+ 210
Societies and Academies :—
The Scientific Association of the Johns Hopkins
University: CHAS. LANE Poor. Boston Society
of Natural History: SAMUEL HENSHAW.
_ New York Academy of Sciences, Biological Sec-
tion: C. L. Briston. Section of Geology and
Mineralogy: J.F.KeEMp. New York Section of
the American Chemical Society: DURAND WooD-
MAN. Geological Society of Washington: W.F.
MoRsELL. Indiana Academy of Sciences: A.
J. BIGNEY...
NCW BOOKS ieee antscchmastenteccessssereee er acerecccessckercosiess 216
MSS. intended for publication and books etc., intended
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
+
MEMORIAL ADDRESSES BEFORE THE SCIEN-
TIFIC SOCIETIES OF WASHINGTON.*
JAMES DWIGHT DANA.
I HAVE a profound reverence and love
for the memory of Dana. Nearly a quar-
ter of a century ago, when I had returned
from an exploring expedition in the pla-
teau province, I prepared an article for
the Journal of Science setting forth some
of the characteristics of that land, espe-
cially the great blocks into which it is
broken by faults and the tilting and wear-
ing of these blocks into plateaus. In that
article I characterized the faults, as such
were then unknown. On sending the arti-
cle Dana wrote me a long letter which led
to a correspondence and an interview. The
geology of arid lands is more easily read
than that of humid lands, and Dana re-
monstrated with me about my conclusions,
not deeming it possible to discover such
faulting on an exploring expedition, es-
pecially as it is on a gigantic seale.
Finally I visited him in New Haven, tak-
ing with mea series of sections, a body of
notes and many’ photographs, all of which
we discussed somewhat in detail. From
that time Dana became my adviser and
* Given on January 14th, at a joint meeting of the
Societies under the auspices of the joint commission.
The address ‘On Huxley and his Work’ by Dr. Theo.
Gill, and the address given the following evening by
Dr. G. Brown Goode. ‘A Memorial Appreciation of
Charles Valentine Riley’ will be printed in thir
journal.
182
friend, and I owe much to his wisdom and
sympathetic assistance. It is thus that a
feeling of gratitude impels me to render
tribute to his genius.
Dana’s time fell in America’s first epoch
of scientific research. There had been in-
vestigation in America before this time, but
in the earlier part of the century there
sprung up a group of scientific men born on
the continent who took a prominent part in
the creation of the world’s stock of knowl-
edge and who practically organized the
scientific cult of America. In this brief ac-
count I cannot name all of these men, and
yet I will mention ten as the leaders who,
with a host of associates, inaugurated a
movement which has vigorously grown to
the present time and which will continue
while civilization lasts. These great leaders
were Henry, Logan, W. B. Rogers, Bache,
H. D. Rogers, Gray, Hall, Dana, Leidy and
Baird.
It must be remembered that the develop-
ment of science is the work of many men,
and that which one accomplishes is but a
small integral part ofthe whole. But these
men as leaders of the host established A mer-
ican science upon an enduring basis. The
first phases of science are always ephemeral.
Before scientific principles are wrought into
a permanent form they must be rendered
into philosophy. While many men gather
the materials, the far-seeing few whose
horizon is world-wide must ultimately be
the master builders of philosophy.
Among the illustrious men whom I have
mentioned, Dana was preéminently the phil-
osopher. He was the man who formulated
definitions, axioms and laws which are the
fundamental elements of scientific philoso-
phy. The facts must be gathered, and all
honor to him who labors in the harvest
field of science and adds to the inventory
of significant facts; but the masters of sci-
ence do more, for they organize the facts of
science into a living philosophy. Science
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 58.
is not an architectural structure with founda-
tion walls and dome; it is an organic living
structure that develops by processes of
metabolism. The facts are the constituents
of the universal environment and the ele-
ments of which philosophy is constructed,
and they pour into its living form to be as-
similated, to play their part, and that which
is perennial is the system of principles
which includes all facts.
The life of James Dwight Dana exhibits
a well-rounded half century of scientific
investigation. For more than fifty years
he was actively engaged in research, and
for more than fifty years a stream of contri-
butions to science issued from the: well-
spring of his genius.
For fifty years Dana was one of the edi-
tors of the Journal of Science, and during
that time he was a constant contributor of
articles on a wide range of topics, all in-
volving original research. He was probably
the best informed man in America in rela-
tion to the progress of science, and presented
a resumé and criticism of research in many
fields which was generous and appreciative
on the one hand, far-seeing and profound
on the other. Then for more than fifty
years he was a professor in Yale College,
conducting lectures, guiding classes and
training men for scientific research, inform-
ing them with the spirit of investigation.
But his editorial and his professorial labors
were the fruitage produced by the cultiva-
tion of many scientific fields. Instruction
and review were always vitalized with re-
search, and nothing came from his brain
but living thought. The being of knowl-
edge was transformed into the becoming of
knowledge for himself and for the world.
Dana was not only a professor and an edi-
tor, teaching and recording with wise guid-
ance and profound appreciation, but he was
also a zodlogist, a mineralogist and a geolo-
gist, and in each of these three realms of
science a master. We learn that in his
FEBRUARY 7, 1896. ]
youth, especially while pursuing his college
course at Yale, he made a study of the
plants of the region as a diligent botanist.
This early study was a valuable preparation
for his life’s work, and its results were ex-
hibited in the use which he made of plants
in characterizing geologic periods.
In 1838 he sailed with the Wilkes expe-
dition to explore the Pacific. This great
voyage was over the mighty ocean to un-
known lands of many climes, and for four
years he was allured by strange sights, at-
tracted by diverse objects of nature and
thrust into the midst of a vast field of ob-
servation.
Here as a naturalist he engaged in the
study of marine life, giving especial atten-
tion to the zoophytes and crustacea, and
laying the foundations of the knowledge of
zoology which was afterward woven into
the philosophy of the planet. The coral
animals are animate builders of continental
rocks, but he went beyond the structures
which they built to study the builders
themselves, their habits and the conditions
under which they live. Out in those lonely
seas, with savages for assistants, he studied
the builders and their constructions, the
animals and the atolls, the coral groves and
the arboreal denizens, and returned with a
vast accumulation of materials. Years were
required for their elaboration. With pa-
tience this labor was performed, until at
last he gave us an account of zodphytes and
also an account of the crustacea, which is
in itself a monument worthy of a great man.
From his schoolboy days he pursued
mineralogy as a field observer and by
mathematical investigation. Early he com-
menced to publish on this subject, weaving
the knowledge of his time into a systematic
body, reénforcing his own observations by
the observations of all others. Thus he
was the first to give us a system of mineral-
ogy; but his work in this field did not end
at that stage. He still pursued his investi-
SCIENCE.
183
gations, collecting from many fields and
drafting from the collections of others in
many lands, until at last he developed a
new system of mineralogy, placing the
science upon an enduring basis. This ac-
complishment alone was also worthy of a
great man, and by it a new science was or-
ganized on a mathematical, chemical and
physical basis.
Here we see exhibited the integrity of
Dana’s scientific character. In his first
work on chemistry he adopted a system of
nomenclature that involved a classification
which then seemed to be in harmony with
the practices of science, for he adopted a
system analogous to that used in zoology
which he advocated with acuteness, but
further investigation revealed to him that
his reasoning was wrong, that there was
a more natural and scientific method,
and he rent the whole fabric of his first
work into shreds and rebuilt a new and
better system. All honor to the man who
ean thus sacrifice his consistency to the
truth.
While Dana was in the midst of his scien-
tific work, Darwin announced the results of
his investigations into the origin of living
forms ; it wasa great stroke of genius. The
doctrine which had been suggested and ably
advocated by Lamarck was established by
an inductive research in wide realms of
botany and zodlogy, and new laws of evolu-
tion were discovered. But Dana had al-
ready propounded a doctrine of serial
cephalization for animals, although not
fully seizing the principles of evolution ;
still it was along step in that direction, and
he adjusted his philosophy to the new doc-
trine, and no great revolution was required.
This was generously and thoroughly done.
We have seen Dana as a botanist, a
zoologist and a mineralogist. We are
next to see him in the great work of his
life, as a geologist. In 1833 he left Yale
College, before graduation, to become an
184
instructor to midshipmen on a cruise in the
Mediterranean. His first contribution to
science was the result of observations made
on this cruise; it is entitled ‘On the Condi-
tion of Vesuvius in July, 1834.’ At this
early age, therefore, he began the study of
voleanoes. While on the exploring expedi-
tion in the Pacific he visited the great volea-
noes of the Hawaiian Islands. There is on
the earth no other such region of fire as that
first studied by Dana, and we may say last
studied by him, for he revisited the region
in his old age. Thus, on the exploring ex-
pedition he was introduced to two of the
great geological agencies—vulcanism, the
most conspicuous, and animal life, no less
potent but less obtrusive.
On his return to the United States Dana
resumed work in Yale College and contin-
ued field explorations in mineralogy and
geology. The part of New England which
he was led to explore is a region mainly of
metamorphic rocks, and as a mineralogist
he was especially equipped for such a field.
It is also a region of glaciation, and he
threw his energies into these two fields,
which at that time were obscure. On the
one hand he found glaciation interpreted
simply as iceberg transportation, and on
the other as a universal or almost universal
ice period. These theories never led him
astray, but with careful and persistent labor
he unraveled the problem, and, perhaps
more than any other man of his age, suc-
ceeded in putting glacial geology upon a
sound basis. Equipped as a botanist, deeply
versed in zoology and a great contributor
to knowledge in that department, the lead-
ing mineralogist of the world, and no in-
ferior chemist, the geology of the country
became his theme, and with it the geology
of the planet. At last he formulated a
general system of geology, which has be-
come the standard in America. His re-
searches in the field were extensive, but
they were reenforced by all the geological
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 58.
workers on the continent and the whole
geological literature of Europe. So Dana’s
geology is not only a text-book of geology,
but it is the hand-book for all National,
State and local geologists, and all students
in the field. It is the universal book of
reference in that department of science.
Other text-books have been developed, but
no other hand-book for America. It is a
vast repository of facts, but all arranged
in such a manner as to constitute a system
of geologic philosophy. It is on every
worker’s table and is carried in the kit of
every field observer. It has thus become
the standard to which all scientific research
is referred, and on which geologic reports
are modeled. Of the ten great men who
organized science, five were geologists—
Logan, the Rogers brothers, Dana and Hall,
who yet remains with us. May he be long
in the land!
Dana as a zodlogist was great, Dana as a
mineralogist was greater, but Dana as a
geologist was greatest, and Dana in all
three was a philosopher, hence Dana’s great
work is enduring.
It thus came about that Dana wrought
his work into a systematic body of science,
The ruins of ancient towns and cities are
widely scattered over all the earth, and the
arts there entombed are disinterred as eyi-
dences ot former culture, but we do not
study ancient arts for the sake of imitating
them; ancient art never becomes the model
for modern art. The tribes and nations of
antiquity are themes of investigation, but
ancient institutions never become the
models for modern institutions. Ancient
languages are the themes of study, but
never more will ancient languages become
the models for modern languages. So an-
cient opinions are of profound interest, but
ancient opinions will never again become
the models for modern opinions. Westudy
the past for the history of the past, not as
a model to be imitated, but as exhibiting
FEBRUARY 7, 1896.]
the laws of culture, and by these laws
learn to construct a better future. Thus
we study the philosophy of the past, not
that we may adopt that philosophy, but
that we learn the laws of progress and
avoid the errors of the past and construct
a wiser future.
In the history of philosophy two lessons
are plainly taught. The first is that no
man can evolve an enduring philosophy
from his own thought, but that philosophy
must be evolved from facts, for the wrecks
of such philosophies are scattered over the
pages of thought from the time of Plato to
the time of Hegel. The second great lesson
is this, that the construction of an endur-
ing philosophy is not the work of one mind,
but of a multitude of men who gather their
materials by scientific research. Since the
days of Aristotle the wrecks of such at-
tempts have strewn the highway of history.
Eyen Descartes failed to do more than to
make a contribution, while Newton and
Darwin gave us but materials for philosophy,
not philosophy itself. A host of men have
engaged in this work collecting and organiz-
ing materials, and another host yet to live
must carry on the work ere a scientific
philosophy is developed, while the struc-
tures which have hitherto been developed
mark but the stages of growth and those
philosophies which have been wrought of
pure thought ; thought not informed by
fact, are great lighthouses of warning to
guide us from the rocks. It is thus as a
philosopher of the scientific school that
Dana’s name will be remembered and
Dana’s contributions forever remain.
In a quiet street of the good old town of
New Haven, Dana labored far from the tur-
bulent crowd, absorbed in facts of observa-
tion and acquisition, loving and loved as
only the quiet student can love and be
loved. No pageantry marked his life, no
glittering honors shed their luster over his
career; he built only as the philosopher
SCIENCE.
185
builds and he lived only as the philosopher
lives.
The thoughts of early man are now unknown ;
In all the tomes of world no page is his.
The grand phenomena of arching heaven,
The wondrous scenes of widespread earth and sea,
The pleasure,sweet and bitter pain of life,
As these are known to-day so were they then,
But all in psychic terms of simple men.
And yet his thoughts live on to later time.
As mind has grown the thoughts have been enlarged,
Revolving oft in human soul through life,
In grand endeavor yet to reach the truth,
Repeated o’er by streams of countless men,
And changing e’er with mind’s expanding view,
Till errors old have grown to science new.
With knowledge gained man never is content :
Nor wold, nor mount, nor gorge, nor icy field,
Nor depths of sea, nor heights of starry sky,
Can daunt his courage in this high emprise,
Or sate the vision of his longing eyes.
J. W. PowkE.Lu.
PASTEUR.
LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: I am to speak
to you of the life and achievements of one
who has won imperishable renown by his
valuable contributions to human knowledge,
and who has recently been buried in the
city in which his scientific labors have been
prosecuted, with all the honors which it was
possible for a grateful people to confer. It
is certainly a happy augury for the future
when the man of science, whose achieve-
ments have been the result of painstaking
and laborious work in the laboratory, re-
ceives the grateful plaudits of his fellow-
men during his life time and the honors
which were formerly only paid to civil po-
tentates or military heroes when his body
is committed to the tomb. It has been the
fortune of few men to contribute so largely:
to the sum of useful knowledge, and fewer
still have lived to receive such ample recog-
nition of the value of their scientific work.
Pasteur’s success has been due to a com-
bination of personal qualities which especi-
ally fitted him for the pioneer work which
186
he has done in his chosen field of scientific
investigation. With that penetrating intel-
lect and versatility of resource which con-
stitutes genius was combined an energy and
persistence of purpose, a disregard of ac-
cepted theories not supported by evidence,
and an appreciation of the value of the ex-
perimental method as the only reliable
means of arriving at exact truth. No
amount of conservative opposition intimi-
dated him when he announced results ob-
tained by his carefully conducted laboratory
experiments, and no false pride seduced
him into maintaining a position which he
had once taken, if the experimental evi-
dence was against him. This rarely hap-
hened. But where is the man of science
who is infallible? Working in a new field
by methods largely of his own devising,
which were necessarily more or less imper-
fect at the outset, it is surpising how few
mistakes he made.
With his genius for scientific research,
his indomitable perseverance and the force-
ful character which enabled him to defend
his discoveries so successfully, there must
have been associated a kindly disposition ;
for those who were closely associated with
him in his laboratory work were devotedly
attached to him. He evidently had the
faculty of inspiring others with his enthu-
siasm for science, and their loyalty to him
and to their common mistress was rewarded
by the frank acknowledgement on his part
of their share in the work accomplished.
So far as J am aware, he never showed any
disposition to appropriate for himself credit
due to another, whether that other was an
associate or pupil in his own laboratory or
one who was prosecuting his investigations
elsewhere. The speaker’s personal acquaint-
ance with Pasteur is limited to a memor-
able half day spent in his laboratory about
ten years ago. Although still disabled to
some extent by paralysis, resulting from his
first apoplectic attack, he conducted m
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 58..
through his laboratory, and with the great-
est kindness explained to me the methods
in use and the results recently accomplished
in the lines of experimental work which at
that time occupied the attention of himself
and his colleagues.
The time at my disposal will permit only
a brief review of the life and work of this
illustrious savant; but this review will
show that his scientific achievements are of
the highest order, and that the practical
benefits resulting from his labors have ex-
tended to all parts of the civilized world.
He belongs not alone to France, but to
science, and it is eminently fitting that we
should pay a tribute to his memory in this
capital city of a country in which his name
is so well known and in which the results
of his scientific investigations are so highly
appreciated.
Louis Pasteur was born at Ddéle, a small
town in the Department of Jura, France,
on the 27th of December, 1822; he died at
his home in Garches, a suburb of Paris, on
the 28th of September of the past year.
Pasteur’s father had been a soldier in the
army of Napoleon, but at the time of his
famous son’s birth was working at his trade
asatanner. In 1825 the family moved to
Arbois, a small town in the same depart-~
ment, and here Louis Pasteur attended
school at the collége communal. Later he
was sent to the college at Besancon, where
he took his degree of the Bachelier des Lettres.
He subsequently entered the Ecole Nor-
male of Paris, and while there devoted him-
to his favorite study—chemistry. Three
years after joining the Ecole Normale he
was appointed Assistant Professor of Physi-
cal Science. In 1848 he was appointed
Professor of Physics at Dijon, and after a
few months resigned this position for the
chair of chemistry in the University of
Strassburg. In 1854 Pasteur was induced
to accept the position of Dean of the newly
created Faculty of Sciences at Lille; andin
FEBRUARY 7, 1896. ]
1857 he returned to Paris as scientific direc-
tor of the Ecole Normale, where he had
gained his first scientific laurels. In 1862
Pasteur became a member of the Institute
and in the same year he was appointed
Professor of Geology, Physics and Chemistry
in the Ecole des Beaux Arts. He was elected
to the Academy of Sciences, taking the
fautewil of Littré in 1881. The same year
he received the Grand Cross of the Legion
of Honor. In 1874 the National Assembly
of France voted him a life pension of 20,-
000 franes annually. Upon the anniversary
of his 70th birthday, December 27, 1892,
he received from his compatriots a superb
ovation at the Sorbonne, which was at-
tended by President Carnot, the members
of the French Institute, all foreign minis-
ters and ambassadors then at the French
capital, and delegates from scientific socie-
ties in all parts of the world. The Pas-
teur Institute, established in his honor, was
inaugurated with proper ceremonies on the
14th of November, 1888. It is situated in
the rue Dutot, Paris, and is an imposing
stone building in the style of Louis XIII.
It was built and equipped from a fund
raised by public subscription amounting to
2,586,000 franes. Of this sum 200,000
franes was voted by the French Chambres
Legislatif. After the completion and equip-
ment of the building more than 1,000,000
francs remained as a permanent endowment.
The time at my disposal will permitofbuta
brief review of Pasteur’s scientific achive-
ments. After having made some notable dis-
coveries in chemistry his attention was at-
tracted to the minute organisms found in fer-
menting liquids, and by a brilliant series of
experiments he demonstrated the fact that
the chemical changesattending fermentation
are due to the microscopic plants known as
bacteria; also that different species give
rise to different kinds of fermentation, as
shown by the different products evolved
during the process. In prosecuting these
SCIENCE.
187
studies he discovered the species which pro-
duce lactic acid, acetic acid and butyric
acid, and he added largely to our knowledge
relating to alcoholic fermentation and the
class of microorganisms to which it is due.
He showed that in the absence of living
organisms no putrefaction or fermentation
can occur in organic liquids, and that these
low organisms do not develop by spon-
taneous generation, as was at that time
generally believed, but have their origin
from preéxisting cells of the same species,
which are widely distributed in the atmos-
phere, especially near the surface of the
earth. Various experimenters had shown
that a development of bacteria sometimes
occurs in boiled organic liquids excluded
from the air. Pasteur showed that this
was not due to spontaneous generation, but
to the survival of the spores of certain
species of bacteria ; these are able to resist
a boiling temperature without loss of vitality
and reproductive power.
In 1865 the distinguished French chemist,
Dumas, invited his former pupil, Pasteur, to
make investigations with reference to the
cause and prevention of a fatal malady
among silkworms, which threatened to de-
stroy the silk industry of France. In the
course of an investigation which occupied
several years, Pasteur succeeded in demon-
strating the nature ofthe infectious malady
known as pébrine, the mode of its transmis-
sion, and the measures necessary to eradi-
cate it. Following his advice the growers
of silkworms succeeded in banishing the
scourge, and within a few years the industry
was reestablished upon its former profitable
footing. ;
This pioneer work led to further investi-
gations with reference to the cause and pre-
vention of certain infectious diseases of the
lower animals, and especially to the fatal
disease of cattle and sheep known as an-
thrax. Having satisfied himself that this
disease is due to a bacillus, which is found
188
in great numbers in the blood of infected
animals, he demonstrated by experiment
that this bacillus rapidly loses its virulence
when cultivated in artificial media at a tem-
perature of 42° to 48° C.; also that animals
inoculated with this ‘attenuated’ virus
suffer a mild attack of the disease, and that
after their recovery they are immune
against future attacks, even when inocu-
lated with the most virulent material. This
discovery has been applied practically, on
an extensive scale, in France, Austria,
Switzerland and other European countries.
The result of anthrax inoculations made by
Pasteur’s method in France during the past
twelve years was summarized by Chamber-
land in 1894. He reports the total number
of animals inoculated during this period as
1,788,677 sheep and 200,962 cattle ; and
estimates the total saving as the result of
the inoculations as 5,000,000 franes for
sheep and 2,000,000 francs for cattle.
Another infectious disease in which Pas-
teur’s method has been employed with suc-
cess is rouget, or hog erysipelas. Chamber-
land states that, as a result of the protective
inoculations practiced with Pasteur’s ‘ vac-
cines,’ the mortality from this disease in
France has been reduced from about 20%
to 1.45%. Hutyra reports that during a
single year (1889) 48,637 pigs were inocu-
lated with Pasteur’s vaccines in Hungary
with a loss of 0.29%, while the losses upon
the same farms in previous years averaged
from 10 to 30%.
But we must pass to that portion of Pas-
teur’s scientific work which has most en-
gaged the attention of the public. Pasteur
first announced his success in reproducing
hydrophobia in susceptible animals by in-
oculations of material obtained from the
central nervous system, in a communica-
tion made to the Academy of Sciences on
May 30, 1880. Continuing his investiga-
tions, he reported, in 1884, his success in
conferring immunity against hydrophobia
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 58.
in 19 dogs inoculated, in the presence of a
commission appointed for the purpose, as a
test experiment. These animals had been
rendered refractory by his method. The 19
protected animals and 19 control animals,
obtained from the public pound without
any selection, were tested at the same time.
The test was made upon some of the ani-
mals of both series by inoculation with
virulent material upon the surface of the
brain, and upon others by allowing them to
be bitten by rabid dogs, and upon still
others by intravenous inoculations. Not
one of the protected animals developed
hydrophobia; on the other hand, three of
the control animals out of six bitten by a
mad dog developed the disease, five out of
seven which received intravenous inocula-
tions died of rabies, and five which were
trephined and inoculated on the surface of
the brain died of the same disease.
With reference to his first inoculations in
man, Pasteur says:
“Making use of this method, I had
already made fifty dogs of various races
and ages immune to rabies, and had not
met with a single failure, when, on the 6th
of July, quite unexpectedly, three persons,
residents of Alsace, presented themselves at
my laboratory.’
These persons were Theodore Vone, who
had been bitten on the arm on July 4th;
Joseph Meister, aged nine, bitten on the
same day by the same rabid dog; and the
mother of Meister, who had not been bit-
ten. The child had been thrown down by
the dog and bitten upon the hand, the legs
and the thighs, in all in fourteen different
places. Pasteur commenced the treatment
at once, and had the satisfaction of report-
ing to the Academy of Sciences in March
of the following year (1886) that the boy
remained in perfect health. Since this time
Pasteur Institutes for the treatment of
hydrophobia have been -established in all
parts of the civilized world, and the statis-
FEBRUARY 7, 1896. ]
tical reports published justify the belief that
when the treatment is instituted at an early
date after the bite, and is properly carried
out, its protective value is almost absolute.
At the Pasteur Institute in Paris 9,433 per-
sons were treated during the years 1886 to
1890, inclusive. The total mortality from
hydrophobia among those treated was con-
siderably less than one per cent. (0.61). In
1890 416 persons were treated who had
been bitten by animals proved to be rabid,
and among these there was not a single
death. In 1891 the number of inoculations
was 1,539, with a mortality of 0.25%; in
1892, 1,790 with a mortality of 0.22%; in
1893, 1,648 with a mortality of 0.36%; in
1894, 1,387 with a mortality of 0.50%.
There has been and is still a considerable
amount of scepticism among members of
the medical profession, and others, as to
the practical value of Pasteur’s inoculations
for the prevention of hydrophobia; and some
physicians have even contended that the
disease known by this name is not the re-
sult of infection from the bite of a rabid
animal, but is a nervous affection due to
fear. The time at my disposal will not
permit me to present for your consideration
the experimental and clinical evidence upon
which I base the assertion that nothing in
the domain of science is more thoroughly
demonstrated than the fact that there is a
specific infectious disease known to us as
rabies, or hydrophobia, which may be com-
municated to man, or from one animal to
another, by the bite of a rabid animal; and
that Pasteur’s inoculations prevent the de-
velopment of the disease in animals which
have been infected by the bite of a rabid
animal or by inoculations with infectious
material from the central nervous system.
This being the case, it is evident that there
is a scientific basis for Pasteur’s method of
prophylaxis as applied to man, and his
published statistics give ample evidence of
the success of the method as carried out at
SCIENCE.
189
the Pasteur Institute in Paris and else-
where. Great as have been the practical
results which have already followed Pas-
teur’s brilliant discoveries, there is reason
to believe that in the future still more will
be accomplished, especially in combatting
the infectious diseases of man. Having
pointed out the way, a multitude of earnest
investigators in various parts of the world
are now engaged in laboratory researches
relating to the cause, prevention and cure
of infectious diseases. Already, in the treat-
ment of diphtheria and of tetanus with blood
serum obtained from immune animals, re-
sults have been obtained of the highest im-
portance, and it seems probable that in the
near future other infectious diseases will
be cured by a specific treatment based upon
scientific information obtained by those who
have been following in the pathway marked
out by Pasteur, the illustrious pioneer in
this line of research.
Gro. M. STERNBERG.
HELMHOLTZ.
Hermann Lupwic FERDINAND, BARON
von HELMHOLTZ, was born at Potsdam on
August 31, 1821.
In 1842 he received his decree in medi-
cine at Berlin, and entered the government
service as an army surgeon.
In 1847 he published his essay on the
Conservation of Energy.
In 1849 he was appointed professor of
physiology at Bonn.
In 1851 he:invented the Ophthalmoscope.
In 1855 he was made professor of ana-
tomy and physiology at Bonn.
In 1859 he was appointed to the same
chair at Heidelberg.
In 1860 he was made one of the foreign
members of the Royal Society of London.
In 1863 he published his great work on
the ‘Sensations of Tone.’
In 1866 the first edition of his ‘ Physiolo-
gical Optics ’ was completed.
190
In 1871 he was made professor of nat-
ural philosophy at the University of Ber-
lin.
In 1873 he received from the Royal So-
ciety the highest distinction which it can
bestow, the Copley Medal ; and in the same
year the King of Prussia conferred upon
him the Order of Merit in Science and Art.
In 1883 hereditary nobility was conferred
upon him by Emperor William I.
In 1887 he assumed the directorship of the
great Physico-technical Institute, founded
by the German government at Charlotten-
berg.
In 1891 the seventieth anniversary of his
birth was celebrated with great ceremony
and he was placed at the head of the civil
list by the German Emperor.
In 1893 he visited America, serving as
President of the International Electrical
Congress held in Chicago.
In 1894, on September 8th, he died at the
age of seventy-three years.
Such is the brief outline of the life of one
of the most extraordinary men of the pres-
ent century. To perfect such a sketch in
anything like just proportions, or to attempt
in the few minutes allotted to me to-night
to set forth anything like a fair estimate of
the labors of one of whom it may be justly
said that he was the most accomplished
scholar of modern times, is a task no one
would seek. Nor can one easily decline
the honor which is carried by an invitation
from a commission representing the scienti-
fic societies of Washington to take part in
so memorable a commemoration as this.
Under the circumstances, I must confine
myself to an exposition, all too brief, of a
few only of the principal contributions to
human knowledge among the great number
for which the world is indebted to Prof.
Helmholtz. It was his distinctive charac-
teristic that among the exponents of modern
science he stood quite alone in being really
great along several lines. He was in the be-
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 58.
ginning and always a pure mathematician
of high type. Anatomists and physiologists
claimed him for their own. During a few
days’ stay in New York in 1893, after hav-
ing presided over the International Con-
gress of Electricians, he was entertained by
a distinguished surgeon, the leading eye
specialist of the country, and ophthalmol-
ogists flocked to do him honor as one of
the founders of their profession. When, in
1881, he gave the Faraday lecture before
the Chemical Society of London, the Pre-
sident of Society in presenting to him the
Faraday Metal, declared that eminent as
was Helmholtz as an anatomist, a physiolo-
gist, a physicist and a mathematician, he
was distinctly claimed by the chemists.
Nor were these only idle compliments.
Only a few days ago I happened on a most
curious and interesting illustration of the
unequalled extent of his scientific constitu-
ency in finding, in a widely known journal
published in London, his obituary notice
indexed under the heading, ‘ The Stage and
Music,’ where his name appeared accom-
panied by only that of Anton Rubenstein.
His great work on the ‘Sensations of Tone’
and his analysis of the vowel sounds of the
human voice gave him a lasting fame
among musicians.
Psychology as well as Msthetics was bene-
fitted by his touch, but I think it will be
generally admitted that he was first of all,
and more than all else, a physicist. Indeed
it may be said that the best fruits of his
study of other branches of science grew out
of the skill with which he engrafted upon
them the methods of investigation for which
we are primarily indebted to the physicist.
When a boy he had acquired a fondness
for the study of Nature. His father was a
professor of literature in the gymnasium at
Potsdam; his mother a woman of English
descent. Although he was encouraged in
the development of his youthful tastes as
much as possible, the necessity for earning
FEBRUARY 7, 1896.]
a living directed his professional studies
towards medicine and he became a military
surgeon. As a physiologist he was led to
the study of ‘vital force’; his taste for math-
ematics and physics forced him to the dy-
namical point of view, and his first great
paper, prepared before he was twenty-six
years of age, was on the Conservation of
Energy. It is now nearly fifty years since
this essay was presented to the Physical So-
ciety of Berlin, and doubtless quite fifty
years since it was actually worked out.
Its excellence is shown by the fact that if
rewritten to-day it would be changed only
a little in its nomenclature. Fifty years
ago the great law of the Conservation of
Energy, which will ever be regarded as the
most pregnant and far-reaching generaliza-
tion of this century, was so far from being
known or recognized that many of the
ablest men of the time either regarded it as
a ‘fanciful speculation’—or did not regard
it at all.
As a matter of ordinary mechanics, it had
long been admitted that no machine could
create power and, as a part of that applied
was always lost or frittered away in friction,
the work coming out of a machine must al-
ways be less than that put into it. The
first great advance had been made by an
American, Benjamin Thompson, afterwards
Count Rumford, when he asked what be-
came of that part lost in friction and found
his answer in the heat generated thereby,
thus proving that ‘heat was a mode of mo-
‘tion,’ ‘rather than an imponderable agent,’
_as it was rather ambiguously designated up
to nearly the middle of this century, but
that all of the forces of nature were so re-
lated to each other as to be interconyertible
and that the sum total of all the energies
of the universe was always the same, en-
ergy being no more capable of creation or
destruction than matter ; these were great
facts, mere glimpses of which had been per-
mitted to the physicists of the early part of
SCIENCE.
‘read his paper in Berlin.
191
the century. Helmholtz was certainly one
of the first to completely grasp this splendid
generalization, and not more than two or
three others stand with him in the credit
which is due for its complete proof and gen-
eral acceptance. His first contribution had
the merit of being quite original in concep-
tion and execution, for he then knew almost
nothing of what others had done; he was
entirely ignorant of the important paper of
his fellow countryman, Mayer, and knew
only a little of Joule’s earlier work. The
principle of the conservation of energy,
which for a quarter of a century has been
the open-sesame to every important advance
in physical science, was not then, to say
the least, a popular topic. But for five or
six years a young Englishman named Joule,
not yet thirty years old, had been engaged
with it and, from the point of view of the
engineer, had made it his own. On the
28th of April, 1847, he gave a popular lec-
ture in Manchester, where he lived and
died, which was the first full exposition’ of
the theory. A few weeks later Helmholtz
In England even
the local press refused, to publish Joule’s
address, but finally the Manchester Courier,
moved by the family influence (the elder
Joule being a wealthy brewer), promised to
insert the whole, as a special favor. In
Germany the subject met with only a little
more favorable reception, and the leading
scientific journal, Poggendorff’s Annalen, de-
clined to publish Helmholtz’s paper. Even
at the meeting of the British Association at
Oxford a few months after the Manchester
address, when Joule again undertook the
exposition of his theory and his experi-
mental proofs of it, before what ought to
have been a more friendly audience, he was
advised by the Chairman to be brief, and
no discussion of his paper was invited. As
Joule himself relates, his presentation of
the subject would have again proved a
failure, ‘if a young man had not risen in
192
the section and by his intelligent observa-
tions created a lively interest in the new
theory.’ This young man was William
Thomson, then twenty-three years: old;-
now, Lord Kelvin, the foremost of living
physicists.
The tremendous blows struck by Helm-
holtz in support of the new doctrine, from
that time until it was no longer in the
balance give evidence alike of his extraor-
‘dinary talents and his fine courage. The
publication of this important essay in 1847
had also the effect of bringing about an im-
mediate appreciation of his abilities. Du
Bois-Reymond gave a copy of it to Tyndall,
then a student of Magnus in Berlin, saying
that it was the product of the first head in
Europe. He was shortly removed to the
more favorable environment of a University
professorship at K6nigsburg. During the
next twenty years he advanced from Konigs-
burg to Bonn, from Bonn to Heidelberg and
from Heidelberg to Berlin. While it was
only on reaching the University of Berlin
that he assumed his true function of Pro-
fessor of Physics, yet the previous two de-
cades had been rich in the application of
physical methods to physiological subjects.
In 1863 He published the remarkable
monograph on the ‘Sensations of Tone.’
This work is a most masterly analysis of
the whole subject implied in its title and
must always remain a classic. Only one or
two of the most important results of the
profound researches of the author can be
referred to here. As every one knows, the
character of a musical tone is threefold.
There is first its pitch, which has long been
known to depend upon the frequency of
vibration of the string or reed, or whatever
gives rise to the sound; there is next the
loudness, which depends upon the amplitude
of this variation, or, in a general way, on
the energy expended by the vibrating body.
But two tones may agree in pitch and in
loudness and still produce very different
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 58.
impressions on the ear. It is this which
makes it possible to know when a musical
tone is heard that it comes from an organ,
or a flute, or the human voice: It enables
an expert to know on hearing a single note
from a violin that the instrument was made
in a given year by a certain artist; by vir-
‘tue of this characteristic one instantly
recognizes a voice which one has not heard
for many years as belonging to a particular
individual. . So little was. known of the
physical cause of this inherent peculiarity
‘of a sound that for many years it went un-
named. Helmholtz called it the ‘Klang-
farbe’ literally, ‘tone-color;’ but in Eng-
‘lish the term “quality ’ is now universally
applied to it. What is the physical cause
of the quality of a tone? is the question,
the answer:to which he sought. All that
there is in a tone, he said, pitch, intensity
and quality, must be borne upon the air-
waves by which the'sound is communicated
to the ear, and all that these waves bear
must be impressed upon them by the
vibrating body in which the sound origi-
nates.. He did not fail to recognize, how-
ever, and this was extremely important,
that there might exist peculiarities in the
receiving instrument, the ear (through the
operation of whose mechanism the motion
of matter is interpreted as a sensation), the
existence of which would materially modify
the final outcome, to the end that two phy-
sically identical tones might: give rise, un-
der certain circumstances, to different sen-
sations. Guided by: these principles he
discovered that the quality: of a tone, that
characteristic which gives charm to it, was
really due to its impurity; that if two per-
fectly pure tones, generated by simple,
pendular vibrations, agreed in pitch and
loudness it would be quite impossible
to distinguish them. But, practically, such
tones are never produced ; all ordinary tones
are composite, made up of the fundamental,
which generally fixes the nominal pitch
FEBRUARY 7, 1896.]
of the whole, and a series, more or less
complete and extended, of overtures or
harmonics, the vibration frequencies of
which are two, three, four or some other
multiple of that of the fundamental. _With-
out these, the fundamental, though pure,
was plain, dull and insipid ; with them it,
formed a composite with quality, soft. it
may be, or brilliant or rich or harsh, or any
of the thousand things which may be said
ofa tone. Which it was and what it was,
was determined by the relative proportions
of the several overtones, indefinite in num-
ber, in the composite whole. This beauti-
ful hypothesis was illustrated and estab-
lished by innumerable experiments, and it
was proved that the form of the air wave was
the quality of the tone, and that this form
originated in the mode of vibration of the
sounding body, which was almost uni-
versally not simple, but complex. But.the
most important work of Helmholtz along
this line was the extension of this theory
to the solution of a problem more than two
thousand years old, proposed, in fact, by
the Greek, Pythagoras. It meant nothing
less than the physical explanation of har-
mony. Why are certain combinations of
musical tones agreeable and others un-
pleasant ?—and, indeed, the answer to this
tells as well, why a certain succession of
tones, as in a musical scale, is likely to be
generally acceptable to the human ear.
Lack of time will only permit me to say
that in the interference and consequent
beating of certain of the overtones or upper
partials, of two fundamentals, Helmholtz
found the explanation of their dissonance,
and that while in certain particulars his
theory as originally published has been
criticised, it is in general universally ac-
cepted and admitted to be one of the most
splendid contributions to modern science.
Iam warned, also, that I must not speak
of that other great work, the Physiological
Optics, as I would so gladly do if time per-
SCIENCE.
193
mitted. Helmholtz was actually engaged
in the preparation of this and the ‘ Sensa-
tions of Tone’ during the same years. No
other man in the world could have written
these, for no other was at once an accom-
plished physiologist, mathematician and
physicist. While I cannot speak of his
contributions to the science of optics and
ophthalmology, I must not omit brief refer-
ence to his invention of the ophthalmoscope
and the ophthalmometer. Anxious to ac-
tually see what goes on in the eye, and es-
pecially on the retina, that wonderful
screen on which the image of the visible
world is focussed, he invented the ophthal-
moscope. The qualitative victory was fol-
lowed _by the quantitative, in the invention
of the ophthalmometer, by means of which
accurate measurements of the various
curved surfaces in the eye could be made.
These two instruments have been to oph-
thalmic surgery what the telescope and
graduated circle have been to astronomy.
So exact has the science of the eye become
through their use that it is not great exag-
geration to say that one may now have a
disordered eye repaired, corrected and set
going with little more uncertainty than
attends the performance of the same duty
for an ill-conditioned chronometer. Had
Helmholtz accomplished nothing except the
invention of these instruments he would
have been entitled to the thanks of all
mankind, on account of the comfort they
have added to life and the pain and suffer-
ing they have prevented.
If I had devoted all of the time allotted
to me to a simple enumeration of the con-
tributions to human knowledge made by von
Helmholtz during fifty years of marvellous
intellectual activity I must have left my
task incomplete, but I must not close with-
out reference to one or two of these, more
purely physical in their character and
equally stamped with the genius of their
author.
194
Perhaps Nature has shown herself most
reticent and unyielding when scientific men
have questioned her as to the ultimate
structure of matter, the full knowledge of
which includes a satisfactory explanation
of the force of. gravity which is one of its
essential properties. Hypotheses which
have been very useful in their time have
been finally rejected because they involved
some impossible conception, such as action
at a distance, which was for a long time
believed possible. The tendency is now
and has long been to regard space, or at
least that part of it in which we have any
particular interest, as a plenum and to as-
sume a continuous, incompressible, friction-
less elastic fluid in which and of which all
things are. In the development of his ex-
quisite theory of vortex motion, Helmholtz
demonstrated the possibility of a portion of
such a fluid being differentiated from the
rest in virtue of a peculiar motion impressed
upon it, and that when so differentiated it
must forever remain so, a fact which was
quickly seized upon by Lord Kelvin as the
foundation of a vortex theory of matter,
thus sharing with Helmholtz the honor of
having approached nearer than all others
to the solution of the great mystery.
From the genesis of an atom to the origin
of the universe seems a long step, but it is
not too great for the intellect of man. The
well-known Nebular Hypothesis was ad-
vanced long before Helmholtz’s time, but a
better knowledge of Thermodynamics had
quite upset one of its generally accepted
principles, namely, that the original nebu-
lous matter was fiery hot. As long ago as
1854 Helmholtz showed that this was not
a necessary assumption and proved that
mutual gravitation between the parts of the
sun might have generated the heat to which
its present high temperature is due. The
greatest philosophers of the past hundred
years have attempted to account for this
high temperature and for its maintenance,
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. IIL. No. 58.
on which all life on this globe depends.
The simple dynamical theory of Helmholtz
has survived all others and is to-day uni-
versally accepted.
But I must cut short this absolutely inade-
quate account of what the scholar did, that
I may say a word or two of what the man
was. Although one of the most modest and
quiet of men, no one could meet him with-
out feeling the charm of his personality.
Although he bore a dignity which became
the great master of science which he was
everywhere admitted to be, he was approach-
able in an extraordinary degree. He was
eloquent in popular address and believed in
the obligations of men of science to the gen-
eral public. In scientific discussion, whether
on his feet or with pen in hand, there
was a certain massiveness about his style
and manner which was generally irresist-
ible. In his attacks upon the region of the
unknown he showed possibly less brilliant
strategy than one or two of his contem-
poraries, but he rarely, if ever, found him-
self obliged to conduct a retreat. In 1893
he was selected by the Emperor as the head
of the German delegation, five in number,
to the International Electrical Congress
held in Chicago in August of that year.
His more than three score and ten years
weighed upon him, and he begged to be re-
lieved of the duty. The young Kaiser, who
was fond of him and who loved to honor
him in every way, sent for him. On hear-
ing his modest plea he said, ‘‘ Helmholtz,
you must go; I want the Americans to see
the best I have of every kind, and you are
our greatest and best man.’”? As becomes a
dutiful subject he yielded. While in this
country every honor was shown him. Here
he found many of the hundreds or thousands
of his pupils who everywhere in the world
are adding lustre to his name by perpetu-
ating his spirit and his methods, and all
were ready to serve him. Electrician,
mathematician, physiologist and physicist,
FEBRUARY 7, 1896. ]
he found everywhere a large and apprecia-
tive constituency, while his own almost
boyish pleasure in whatever he saw that was
novel was charming to see. On his home-
ward voyage he met with an accident which
was thought by many to be the beginning of
the end. Upto the time of his death, which
occurred about a year later, he continued,
but not very actively, to direct the great in-
stitution for original research, in which, by
the wisdom of an appreciative government,
he had found full scope for his powers. His
interest in the important work done at the
Chicago Congress continued through this
year, and one of the few long letters he
wrote had reference to its proceedings. On
the 8th of September, 1894, he died, and on
the 13th he was buried at Charlottenberg,
princes and peasants alike mourning his
loss.
Von Helmholtz occupied so large a part
of the scientific horizon and for so long a
time that we have not yet become accus-
tomed to his absence. But it is not too
soon to agree that the following admirable
lines which appeared in the London Punch a
little more than a year ago express in some
measure our judgment of the man and his
work:
“What matter titles? Helmholtz is a name
That challenges alone the award of fame!
When Emperors, Kings, Pretenders, shadows all,
Leave not a dust-trace on our whirling ball,
Thy work, oh grave-eyed searcher, shall endure,
Unmarred by faction, from low passion pure.’?
T. C. MenDENHALL.
CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPHY.
THE TEMPERATURE OF LAKES.
A CAREFUL study of the temperature of
lakes, leading to important economic results
in connection with water supply, has lately
been completed by Desmond Fitzgerald, of
the Boston Water Works (Trans. Amer.
Soc. Civil Engineers, xxxiv, 1895, 67-109).
Many of the observations have been taken
SCIENCE.
195
with the thermophone (see Amer. Meteorol.
Journ., xii, 1895, 35-50), thus gaining much
accuracy and saving much time. It appears
from the numerous diagrams and tables in
the essay, aS well as from the text, that
small water bodies, such as Lake Cochit-
uate, one of the chief supplies for Boston,
are generally in stable equilibrium. During
the winter, when small lakes are frozen,
the surface water to a depth of about ten
feet is colder and lighter than the great
body of deeper water whose temperature is
that of maximum density. All through
the summer, stability and stagnation again
prevail, the surface water to a depth of
thirty or forty feet being then warmer and
lighter than the bottom water, which re-
mains between 40° and 45°. During this
summer period of stagnation, and after the
oxygen dissolved in the water has been used
in the decomposition of sinking organic
substances, they accumulate for the re-
mainder of the season; the water then be-
comes darker and darker, until by October
it is very yellow and generally of a disa-
greeable smell. But in April, and again in
November, the temperature of the lake is
essentially constant from top to bottom;
the water body is then in indifferent equili-
brium, and is easily overturned by the
wind. In November particularly this over-
turning brings all the impure bottom water
to the surface; infusoria and diatoms begin
to grow in enormous numbers, because of
the supply of food thus provided. While
the degree of impurity of the stagnant bot-
tom water varies in different lakes, it may
in some become a serious annoyance; and °
it is suggested that, where possible, the
bottom water should there be drawn off
from reservoirs and ‘wasted’ before the
November overturning arrives.
WINDS INJURIOUS TO VEGETATION AND CROPS.
Unper the above title, the late Prof. Geo.
E. Curtis contributed to the International
196
Meteorological Congress at Chicago in 1893
an essay lately published, with much other
material in the second part of the report of
the Congress, and issued as Bulletin II. of
the United States Weather Bureau. In-
jurious winds are classified as violent, cold
and desiccating. The first class includes
the hurricane, the tornado and the thunder-
squall (derecho of Hinrichs). The second
class includes nocturnal winds, descending
mountain valleys; these being quoted as
injurious to the vine and limiting its area
of cultivation in certain parts of Europe,
but not yet known to be harmful in this
‘country. Cold waves, blizzards and northers
also belong in the second class. The de-
forestation of Michigan is said to have given
more ready access to cold waves, hence ‘the
peach crop has nearly disappeared’ from
that State. The desiccating winds are more
fully described, especially the hot south-
west winds of the Plains, to which Curtis
had previously given special attention (7th
Bienn. Rept. Kansas State Board of Agri-
culture, 1891, 162-183; see also essay by
Cline, Amer. Meteorol. Journ., xi, 1894,
175-186). The statistics of ten counties in
Kansas in 1888 showed a loss of 21,000,000
bushels of corn alone, due principally to
hot winds. These winds are chiefly of day-
time occurrence, their temperature reaching
over 100°, even to 109°, while their relative
humidity is probably not over 20 or 25%.
When the ground has been thoroughly
dried, then one or two days of hot winds
wither and shrivel up the crops beyond
possibility of more than partial recovery.
Destructive hot north winds occur in the
valley of California. Timber belts are re-
commended as the best protection against
both cold waves and hot winds.
DROUGHTS AND FAMINES IN INDIA.
Joun Extor, of the Indian meteorological
office, contributed a paper of much value to
the Chicago Congress under the title given
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 58.
above. After a general account of the cli-
mate of India, in particular of the winds
and rainfall, the author shows that the
famine districts are all in areas of moderate
or light rainfall, between 20 and 35 inches.
One such area enters the southeastern
coast of the peninsula and extends north-
westward over the Deccan; another forms a
V-shaped belt, pointing eastward and en-
closing the arid desert area of the lower
Indus. A late beginning of the rainy sea-
son, a prolonged break in its continuance,
scanty rainfall during the period, or an
early cessation of the rains, result in famine.
In northern India famine is usually due
either to the failure of two half-year crops
in succession, to the complete failure of one
crop after a succession of poor or bad sea-
sons. In the Deccan famine follows a fail-
ure of the summer rains, after one or more
bad seasons. A list of twenty-four famine
years is given, beginning with 1769. Of
these eight were ‘intense famines,’ while
six were only ‘severe scarcities.’ The
Orissa famine of 1865-66 caused a loss of
life estimated at one million, out of three
million population, and a loss to the State
of £1,500,000. The Behar famine of 1873-4
caused an expenditure of £6,000,000, in pro-
viding relief to the distressed people; con-
sequently the loss of life was small.
METEOROLOGICAL ELEMENTS IN CYCLONES
AND ANTICYCLONES.
A VALUABLE study of the distribution of
meteorological elements around areas of
low and high pressure at Vienna and at
Thorshavn, Sweden, has been made by
Akerblom (Svenska Vet.-Akad. Handl.,
xx., 1895, Bihang, No. 3). The diagrams
for surface winds and for cirrus clouds are
here reproduced.’ It is noticeable that
while the cirrus clouds over a cyclonic area
show but a moderate deflection to either
side of their mean course from W. 6°S.,
those over an anticyclonic area are deflected
. FEBRUARY 7,.1896.] .
fy
(ES
oss
Min. °
' Direction and’ Velocity of the Wind at Vienna.
( Winter. )
)
eZ
so
>
Min. } Max.
Direction and Velocity of the Wind at Vienna.-
(Summer. )
fig
Z
Egy
S
Min. Max.
» Direction and Velocity of the Wind at Thorshavn.
(Winter. )
* Direction and Velocity of the Wind at Thorshavn.
(Summer. ) ;
SCIENCE.
Max.
Min.
Motions of Cirrus Clouds in Central Germany.
into a rather well marked right-handed
whirl. It may be added that as far as the
movement of the cirrus is concerned, it
would suggest that inward baric gradients
prevail aloft over cyclones and that outward
gradients prevail over anticyclones, and
that this is on the whole more favorable to
the driven than to the convectional theory,
of atmospheric whirls in temperate latitudes.
2 . W. M. Davis.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. -
ASTRONOMY.
‘ In our issue of January 10th we called at-
tention to Dr. See’s announcement of a possible
perturbation of the motion of the visible com-:
ponents of the binary star. 70 Ophiuchi by
an unseen companion. The © Astronomical
Journal of January 9th’ contains another article’
by Dr. See, in which he presents his views more
at length and with much painstaking care..
Yet after reading his elaborate paper, we can-*
not see that he has established anything more’
than a probability in favor of the existence of
the supposed body. His strongest argument is, ’
of course, the error of five degrees found by the-
American observers in Prof. Schur’s ephemeris.’
But at the time of making his calculations Dr.
See was unaware that nearly contemporaneous
European observations were at variance with
the American ones. If we take the mean of all
the observations that have come to our knowl--
edge we get a result in very fair accord with’
the ephemeris: Dr. See also bases a strong ar-
gument on the measures of distance, which
were not used’ by Prof. Schur for the well-:
198
known reason that all such distance measures
are often affected with systematic errors. It is
always a matter of personal opinion whether
measures of distance should be used in compu-
ting the orbit of a binary like 70 Ophiuchi.
In any case, the curve which Dr. See draws to
illustrate the ‘Perturbations in Distance’ can-
not be regarded as quite free from bias. Thus,
if we divide the observations into three equal
periods, we find :
Period. Number of Points.
Above See’s Curve. Below See’s Curve.
1830 to 1850, 15 5
1850 to 1870, 13 if
1870 to 1890, 2 18
It is evident that the. curve needs raising at
one end and lowering at the other; and if this
is done, it will come near admitting of a satis-
factory representation by means of a straight
line. However this may be, we wish _to repeat
our former statement that this star is certainly
worthy of close attention from double-star ob-
servers. Dr. See’s research serves to empha-
size this fact very strongly.
In the Astronomical Journal of January 23
Dr. S.-C. Chandler publishes a paper on
‘Standard systems of declination and proper
motion,’ in which he comes to the conclusion
that ‘‘the system of the Mundamental-Catalog,
admirable as it was for its original purpose, has
now broken down, and the extension of its em-
ployment up to the present time, and certainly
for the future, should cease.’’ Dr. Chandler
thinks that the proper system to use is that of
Boss. ‘To prove this he compares the declina-
tions deduced by himself in a former paper from
mural circle observations at Greenwich between
the years 1825 and 1848 with the corresponding
declinations from Boss’ catalogue and from
Auwers’ Fundamental-Catalog. The agreement
with Boss is much better than that with Auwers,
especially after Boss has been corrected with a
small term for latitude variation. We are un-
able to see in these facts a sufficient justification
for Dr. Chandler’s strong condemnation of
Auwers’ system. The essential requisite of a
system of star places and proper motions is not
that it shall differ from the truth at all epochs
by the minimum amount. It is of no great con-
sequence if the difference from the truth be
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 58.
somewhat large for some epochs, but it is essen-
tial that such difference shall always admit of
being expressed as a function of the declination
without discontinuity. We believe that the
quantity of such discontinuity involved in the
use of Auwers’ system is less on the average
than in the use of Boss’. Whether this be so or
not is at present a matter of individual opinion,
depending more or less upon the weight at-
tached to Bradley’s observations. But there is.
another practical essential of a star system which
is not at allsatisfied by Boss’ system. We refer
to the need of keeping the system up to date.
This has been done very carefully by Auwers,
but for Boss’ system few of the later catalogues
have been treated. Thus it is practically im-
possible for an astronomer who wants to deduce
the best possible place of a star to employ the
recent accurate catalogues, if he wishes the
place referred to Boss’ system. H. J.
CHEMISTRY.
LOBRY DE BRUYN has succeeded in preparing
hydrazine or diamide, N,H,, in pure condition
by treating the hydrochloric acid salt with
sodium ethylate and distilling. The compound
erystallizes at low temperatures, and can be
boiled under the atmospheric pressure without
decomposition. Attempts were made to pre-
pare diimide, N.H,, by treating hydrazine
with iodine, but these were without success.
RECENT experiments by Gréhaut show that.
the effect of acetyline upon the animal system
is very slight. If it unites with the hemoglobin
of the blood at all, the compound is very un-
stable, and not to be compared with the com-
pound of hemoglobin with carbonic oxide.
This fact is of special interest in view of the
probable extensive introduction of acetyline for
illuminating purposes.
GENERAL.
Ar the meeting of the Paris Academy of Sci-
ences on January 6th M. Marey was succeeded
in the presidency by M. A. Cornu, and M.
Chatin, the botanist, was elected Vice-President
in the place of M. Cornu. At the meeting on
January 13th M. Marcel Bertran was elected a
member of the section of mineralogy, succeeding
Pasteur.
FEBRUARY 7, 1896.]
THE Geological Society of London will this
year award the following medals and funds:
The Wollaston Medal to Professor HE. Suess, the
the Murchison Medal to Mr. T. Mellard Reade,
the Lyell Medal to Mr. A. Smith Woodward,
the proceeds of the Wollaston Fund and part
of the. Barlow-Jameson Fund to Mr. Alfred
Harker, the proceeds of the Murchison Fund to
Mr. Philip Lake, the proceeds of the Lyell
Fund to Dr. W. F. Hume and Mr. W. C. An-
drews, and the proceeds of the Barlow-Jameson
Fund to Mr. Joseph Wright and Mr. John
Storrie.
IT is reported in the daily papers that Prof.
A. W. Wright and Prof. John Trowbridge
have repeated Prof. Rontgen’s experiments
with the X-rays. A cablegram states that
Prof. Mosetig, of the University of Vienna,
has actually used the photography for diag-
nosis. The photographic pictures taken showed,
with the greatest clearness and precision, the
injuries caused by a revolver shot inthe left
hand of a man and the position of the small
projectile. In the other case, that of a girl,
the position and nature of a malformation in
the left foot were ascertained.
THE Bill for Adoption of the Metric System,
introduced in the House of Representatives by
Mr. Hurley (not Harley), to which reference was
made in the last number of SCIENCE (January
31), has been considered by the Committee of
Coinage Weights and Measures, and certain
amendments have been suggested, to define
more distinctly what is meant by the metric sys-
tem, and to extend the time for the beginning
of its general use to the first day of the next
century.
Mrs. EstHER HERMANN has contributed
$10,000 to the endowment of the New York
Botanical Garden, making the total amount
$260,000 in addition to plants of the value of
$5,000 given by Mr. J. A. Pitcher.
THE Russian government is expected to in-
troduce the Gregorian calendar in 1900. This
may be done suddenly or by omitting the 29th
of February in the first twelve leap years.
JOSEPH FIORELLI, an Italian antequarian
and archeologist, died at Naples, on January
29th, at the age of 73.
SCIENCE.
199
THE catalogue of members of the American
Institute of Electrical Engineers shows that on
January 1st there were just 1,000 members, in-
cluding two honorary members, Lord Kelvin
and Mr. W. H. Preece.
THE Journal of the Royal Statistical Society has
published the report of the committee of the
Berne International Statistical Institute recom-
mending that a universal census be taken at
the beginning of 1900. The dates of the census.
in different countries do not now coincide, but
it would be a great advantage to secure uni-
formity of date and also of methods, and the
committee hopes to accomplish this.
Mr. J. Y. BUCHANAN contributes to Nature
for January 9th an interesting account of the
capture of a sperm whale off the Azores wit-
nessed by the Prince of Monaco. The animal,
when dying, ejected the bodies of huge cuttle-
fish which were secured, together with others.
subsequently found in the stomach. Owing to
the absence of the heads it was impossible to pos-
itively identify them, but they probably repre--
sent a new species of Histioteuthis and of Cucio-
teuthis, and an entirely new ‘genus and species
to which the name of Lepidoteuthis Grimaldii is
given by Prof Joubain. The largest cuttle-fish
body was about two meters in length. Circular
marks, believed to be the impression of suckers,
were found on the head and body of the whale.
This account corroborates the stories long told
by whalemen who have always insisted that the
sperm whale in his death agonies vomited up.
fragments of squids ‘as big around as a barrel.’
AT a special meeting of the Chemical Society
of London held recently, amemorial lecture
on the ‘Life and Work of the late Prof. von
Helmholtz’ was delivered by Prof. G. F.
Fitzgerald, Trinity College, Dublin. It is per-
haps not known to every one that Helmholtz
was a great chemist as well as a great physicist,
mathematician, physiologist and psychologist.
He was a foreign member of the London Chem-
ical Society, and in 1881 filled the office of Fara-
day Lecturer, when he communicated to the
Society his famous memoir on the ‘Connection
between Electricity and Chemical Action.’’
THE Zoologischen Adressbuch, already noted in
this journal, gives 2,458 addresses of zodlogists.
200
in the United States, 1,703 in Germany, 1;523 in
France, and 1,469 in Great Britain and Ireland.
This is a satisfactory indication of the interest
taken in zodlogy in America, even though it
may have happened that a larger. percentage
of collectors and amateurs are included in the
case of the United States than in the cases of
the other countries.
Mr. C. E. BORCHGREVINK arrived in New
York on February 2d,.and will lecture in
America.
ALFRED L. KENNEDY, metallurgist and geol-
ogist, was burned to death through a fire in his
room on January 30th. He was about 80 years
of age.
THE Montreal Branch of the British Medical
Association have invited the Association to meet
in Montreal this year. This invitation cannot
be accepted as arrangements have already been
made to meet in Carlisle, but it is probable that
the Medical Association will before long follow
the example of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science and hold a meeting in
Canada.
ACETYLENE gas seems hitherto to have been
promoted chiefly with a view to selling stocks
and franchises, though we understand the pro-
cess is not covered by patents. It seems, how-
ever, probable that the gas will have important
practical applications, which shows once more
the practical importance often following chemi-
cal research. Acetylene gas is a hydrocarbon
compound resulting when water is added to
ealcic carbon, which is made by fusing lime and
carbon in an electric furnace. The only com-
mercial acetylene is now made at Spray, N.
C., but it is reported that a furnace is being
erected at Niagara Falls, and that large quanti-
ties of the gas will soon be manufactured. The
advantages of the gas are its brilliant white light,
ten to twenty times as great as coal gas, its por-
tability and (it is claimed) its cheapness. It
should be remembered, however, that it is
poisonous, and, especially in certain compounds,
explosive.
AN editorial article in the February number
of Appleton’s Popular Science Monthly on ‘The
Hundredth Anniversary of the French Insti-
tute’ states that ‘‘As yet, the name of no
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vox. Hil. No. 58.
citizen of the United States has been inscribed
on the roll of the foreign associates of the In-
stitute, although it is understood that in a re-
cent election to fill. the vacancy occasioned by
the death of a member the name of Prof, Simon
Newcomb, of Washington, lacked but a few
votes of receiving this honor.’’ Prof.: New-
comb was elected an associate member on the
17th of June of last year, succeeding von
Helmholtz,.as announced at the time in this
journal. The name of Prof. H. A. Rowland
should. be added to the list of American correé-
spondents given in Appleton’s Popular .Science
Monthly. The six American correspondents
are: Asaph Hall, B. A. Gould, S. P. Lang-
ley, H. A. Rowland, James Hall and A. Agas-
S1Z.
JOHN WILEY & Sons announce for July next
a volume on Higher Mathematics for Engineering
Colleges, edited by Prof. Mansfield Merriman
and ‘Prof. R..S. Woodward. The work is in-
tended primarily for the use of Junior and
Senior Classes in schools of engineering, and
contains ‘a concise treatment of subjects not
commonly found in text-books, but upon which
lectures are now given in the best classical and
technical institutions. In addition to chapters
by the editors on the Solution of Equations, and
Probabilities and Theory of Errors, the work
will contain the following chapters: Prof. W.
BE. Byerly, of Harvard University, Harmonic
Functions; Prof. T. 8. Fiske, of Columbia Col-
lege, General Theory of Functions; Prof. G:
B. Halsted, of University of Texas, Projective
Geometry ; Prof. E. W. Hyde, of University of
Cincinnati, Point Analysis and Ausdehnungs-
lehre; Prof. W. W. Johnson, of U. 8. Naval
Academy, Differential) Equations; Prof. A.
Macfarlane, of Lehigh University, Vector
Analysis and Quaternions; Prof. J. McMahon,
of Cornell University, Hyperbolic Trigonome-
try; Prof. F. Morley, of Haverford College,
Elliptic Integrals and Functions ;- Prof. D. E.
Smith, of Michigan Normal School, History of
Modern Mathematics; Prof. L. G. Weld, of.
University of Iowa, Determinants. “6
MAcMILLAN & Co. announce a work on ‘So-
cial Interpretations of the Principles of Mental:
Development,’ by Prof. J.:Mark Baldwin, of
FEBRUARY 7, 1896. ]
Princeton, and ‘An Outline of Psychology,’ by
Prof. E. B. Titchener, of Cornell University. ©
Dr. DONALDSON SMITH gave before the Royal
Institution, London, on January 20th, an ac-
count of his expedition to Lake Rudolf, in
northeastern Africa. It was found that the
Nianann is the only river emptying into the
lake, and that there is no river Bass, as‘sup-
posed by Count Teleki. Seven hundred birds
were collected, and of these 24 have been de-
scribed by Dr. Bowdler Sharpe as being new to
science. The different species of insects num-
bered 3,000, and besides these there were many
plants, butterflies and mammals collected.
A HEARING was given on January 30th by
the Commissioners of the District of Columbia
upon a Senate bill which would prevent vivi-
section in the District. Dr. Busey and Surgeon
General Sternberg spoke against the bill.
Members of the Gypsy Moth Commission of
the Massachusetts State Board of Agriculture
appeared before the Committee of Agriculture
and argued in favor of the passage of an ap-
propriation of $200,000 for the work of exterm-
inating the gypsy moth. It was stated by
director E. H. Forbush that 425 men would be
needed during the spring and summer; it is pro-
posed to burn over infested waste lands which
is done by means of a machine which throws
out a spray of oil which burns so rapidly that
the eggs and caterpillars are destroyed without
injury to the trees, then the trees are burlapped
and examined, and eggs laid during the season
are so far as possible destroyed. Roads would
be examined with special care to prevent cater-
pillars from dropping on passing teams and be-
ing thus carried to uninfested localities.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
AT a meeting of the convocation of the Uni-
versity of London on January 21st a resolution
was passed, 460 votes being in its favor and 240
against it, favoring what is known as _ the
Cowper Commission Scheme for the consolida-
tion and reconstruction, of the examining and
teaching institutions of London. It should be
remembered that the University of London
does not give instruction, but only grants degrees
on examination, whereas there are also in
SCIENCE.
201
London two or more colleges which give in-
struction but do not: grant degrees. It is uni-
versally admitted that some reform is needed,
either that the teaching institutions should be
consolidated and permitted to confer degrees
on their students, while the University of London
remains purely an examining body, or that all
‘the institutions should be united. As appears
from the above vote, the members of the convo-
cation of the University of London attending
the meeting favored the latter plan, but it is
claimed that it would not have the approval of
a majority of all the graduates.
A PUBLIC meeting has been held in Albany
urging the removal of Union University from
Schenectady to that city, and it is understood
that the matter will be seriously considered by
the trustees.
Mr. JosEPH BANNIGAN has given $4,000 to
the Catholic University of America, and has
made known his intention to donate for twelve
years $4,000 a year for library purposes.
By the will of the late Mrs. Doyon, the Uni-
versity of Wisconsin has received $5,000, the
income of which is to be devoted to scholarships
for young women.
Two scholarships of $2,000 each have been
presented to Tufts College, one by Mrs. A. B.
Perkins and the other by J. S. and H. N. White.
Dr. L. TRENCHARD Morg, of St. Louis, Mo.,
has become an assistant in physics at the Wor-
cester Polytechnic Institute.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
THE INVERTED IMAGE ON THE RETINA.
EpDITor oF ScIENCcE: Prof. Brooks can hardly
hope that there should be any consensus among
scientific men in regard to the difficult question
whether we know or do not know whether the
lower animals have or have not consciousness,
if there are still distinguished scientists who
think that there is anything which needs ex-
planation in the fact that the image on the
retina is inverted, or that the question will
continue to be a subject for discussion for cen-
turies yet tocome. As long as we do not feel
that the image on the retina is inverted, as
long as we are not aware in consciousness that
202
there is an image or a retina, however much
we may have formed the one and dissected the
other, it makes no difference whether the
image is inverted or not. With a proper dis-
tribution of nerve ends we could get on per-
fectly well with a three-dimensional image
formed in the vitreous humor in the interior of
the globe of the eye—what was once supposed -
to be the scheme of vision, a scheme which
would have had the immense advantage of
saving us a lot of thinking in the effort to
understand how we see out- and in-ness. We
could also get on perfectly well if the flat image
which is actually produced were broken up into
a thousand parts, and the parts distributed upon
the retina in any confused order whatever,
provided the order were a perfectly fixed one,
and provided also (possibly) that the eyes were
immovable in the socket.
While we are not conscious of the image nor
the retina, we are conscious of the movement
of the eye in the Socket. With the present
arrangement, when we reach the hand upward
to touch an object, we also move the eye up-
ward to fixate it, that is, the front half of the
ball of the eye, which is the part we are familiar
with on account of seeing its motion in other
individuals and in our own mirror. If the im-
age were not inverted and we had to move the
eye to the left at the same moment that we
move the hand to the right, there would then
be something to be explained, though this in-
congruity would doubtless be perfectly over-
come by experience.*
I touched my little girl of eleven with a pen-
cil point on one corner of her eye and asked her
what she saw. ‘‘I see a round whitish spot
over there,’’ she said. ‘‘Is it not strange,”
said I, ‘that when I touch you on the right,
you see something on the left?’’ ‘‘ No,’’ she
said, ‘‘I do not think it is strange at all.”
What, said I to myself, Prof. Le Conte is then
right, and all the psychologists are wrong—
*If the eyeball be moved up and down by the
finger, objects looked at seem to move also. Prof.
James has suggested that some one try the experiment
of moying the eye in this way for many hours at a
time, and he predicts that here also experience would
have her perfect work, and that in time this apparent
motion of objects would no longer take place.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 58.
this child is aware that rays of light cross
within her crystalline lens, and that when she
sees an object on the left it is because her re-
tina has suffered an affection on the right, in
spite of the fact that she has never heard of
retina or of crystalline lens? But on question-
ing her farther I found that this was not the
case. She had formed a rapid hypothesis to
account for the otherwise unintelligible fact,
namely, that the pressure of the pencil was.
communicated straight across the eyeball and
affected it on the opposite side. It had not
entered into her mind to conceive that a sen-
sation on the right was not due to something
going on in the right hand half of her eye, and
she had no intuitive idea of projection through
a point.
The psychologist’s view is thus summed up
by Professor James (Principles of Psychology,
II., 42): ‘I conclude then that there is no.
truth in the ‘eccentric projection’ theory. It
is due to the confused assumption that the
bodily processes which cause a sensation must
also be its seat. It is from this confused as-
sumption that the time-honored riddle comes of
how, with an upside-down picture on the re-
tina, we can see things right side up. Our con-
sciousness is naively supposed to inhabit the
picture and to feel the picture’s position as re-
lated to other objects of space. But the truth
is that the picture is non-existent, either as a
habitat or as anything else, for immediate con-
sciousness. Our notion of it is an enormously
late conception. * * * Berkeley long ago:
made this matter perfectly clear (see his Essay
towards a New Theory of Vision, 22 93-98,
113-118).”’
Kiilpe, in his Outlines of Psychology, has at-
tached himself to the position of James and
Stumpf (and James mentions Professor Le Conte
as one of the two or three writers who have
given him most aid and comfort in supporting
his position) to the effect that retinal impres-
sions are from the first endowed with a spatial
quality, in opposition to Helmholtz and others,
who regard visual space sensation as purely a
system of signs for effecting a one-to-one cor-
respondence with tactual space sensation. To
Professor James’ argument, which is already
inexpugnable, Kilpe adds the testimony of a.
' FEBRUARY 7, 1896.]
fact of pathology, “which by itself would be
enough to settle the question—the rare cases,
namely, of metamorphopsia. It sometimes
happens that a piece of the retina is detached
by means of a wound, and that it afterwards
grows on again in a wrong position, and vision
is regained, but things are out of place. A case
has ‘just been reported before the Italian
Ophthalmological Society, in which distorted
vision occurred over the portion of the retina
affected, the inversion being from right to left,
but not also up and down (showing, therefore,
in addition, that the retina can still perform its
function when it is wrong side out). Such
cases as this are also plainly incompatible with
a projection theory. Cc. L. F.
BALTIMORE, Mp.
MARSH GAS UNDER ICE.
Pror. REMSEN’s note under the above title in
Scrence for January 24th, p. 133, is of more than
local interest. So far as I am aware, the phe-
nomenon of gas spurts through ice has not be-
fore been described. As early as the winter of
1878—’79 the writer observed, at West Summit,
N. J., the ice on a bog covered with miniature
craters and mounds of new ice. These ice ac-
cumulations took place about vents up through
which came water and gas bubbles, the former
charged with the brick-red ferruginous deposit
at the bottom of the bog. Frequently the vent
was along the side of a blade of bog grass.
During the winter, the surface of the ice on the
bog become very rough by the additions made
in this way. The flocculated bog ore thus
brought to the surface was, during times of rain
and thaw, washed into the neighboring stream,
so that the process tends to retard the growth
of bog ore deposit. Similar outbursts may be
observed during the winter where a coating of
ice forms over a lawn which has been treated
with ordinary manure in the autumn. Gas
spurts break out after a period of continued
cold, and the surface of the ice becomes dis-
colored with the products urged up by the
escaping gas. An instance of this action was
to be seen on the grounds of the Museum of
Comparative Zodlogy at Cambridge last winter.
It would be of some importance in glaciology
to ascertain what part this escape of gas plays
SCIENCE.
203
in the breaking-up of the ice on shallow ponds
and lakes. J. B. Woopwortu.
CAMBRIDGE, M.Ass., January 27, 1896.
\ ETHNO-BOTANIC GARDENS.
THE purposes of amuseum are twofold: First,
it is to be a place of instruction where the gen-
eral public can resort for information as to ob-
jects from distant or foreign lands; second, it
is to be a place for scientific research. A mu-
seum fulfills its purpose best when both of these
objects are kept in view. The collections should
be so arranged as to teach the public by object
lessons, and at the same time be adapted for
scientific work. Most of our colleges have kept
these objects prominent in the fore front, and
many of them have arranged synoptical collec-
tions for the instruction and edification of visit-
ors. Several of the larger institutions of learn-
ing, notably Harvard and the University of Penn-
sylvania, have buildings set aside for museum
purposes, and it is, therefore, to them that we
must turn when we desire to study the operation
of museums with educational views and aims.
The University of Pennsylvania proposes to
erect, in the near future, a series of museum
buildings, which will bring the institution into
closer touch with the general public, and at the
same time give the students in the several de-
partments a chance for original research work.
It is intended by the University authorities to
place the buildings in a public park to afford
better light for exhibition purposes, and so as
to display to better advantage the architecture
of the structures. A separate building it is
planned will be devoted to archeology and eth-
nology. Such a building is badly needed at
present, for the anthropological collections in
general have accumulated to such an extent as
to crowd the space in the library now allotted
to them.
The opportunity is presented when these
buildings are erected to construct an ethno-
botanic garden in connection with the public
park. It is to the outlining of the purposes of
such ethno-botanic gardens, in general, that
this article is directed.
1. Only aboriginal American plants should
find a place in such a garden. No plant can be
found more graceful than maize, a grass asso-
204
ciated with the myths of the aboriginal races of
America, and worthy to be our National em-
blem. This plant has been little thought of for
decorative purposes in our gardens; yet, it is
decidedly ornamental and worthy of esteem.
The sunflower, too, ought to be grown. The
Indian recognized its value, for the Moquis and
Ava-Supais planted it for food, and used the
ground seed mixed with corn meal as a dainty.
Several travelers have described the plant as
grown by the inhabitants of the far Southwest.
Tobacco should not be forgotten. The European
owes much to this weed, nor is he the only one
who enjoys it, for the Redman from the earliest
time smoked the pipe of peace and, as the wind
wafted the smoke upward, offered significantly
a prayer to the Great Spirit. The tomato with
its crimson fruit, the pumpkin vine, the bean
and the potato should find their place as vege-
tables of aboriginal use in some corner of the
garden. The oak, yielding acorns; the willow,
dye stuffs, can be placed to good advantage near
the pond in which grow Wabh-es-i-ping, Sagit-
taria variabilis Engelm; yellow lotus, Nelumbium
luteum LL.—both furnishing aboriginal root escu-
lents; water cress, Nasturtium, a salad plant,
and wild rice, Zizania aquatica, L.
A partial list will show the large number of
‘Indian’ plants which a gardener could use:
Physalis grandiflora.
Diospyros virginiana, L.
Plantago major, L.
Betula papyrifera,
Marsh,
Thuja occidentalis, L.
Pinus monophylla, Torr.
& Frem.
Nymphxa odorata, L.
Nuphar advena, Ait.
Prunus virginiana.
Fragaria sp.
Amelanchier Canadensis,
Torr. & Gr.
Ribes hirtellum, Mx.
Larrea Mexicana,
Moric. Juglans nigra, L.
Apios tuberosa, Ph. Acorus calamus, L.
Celastrus scandens, L. Typha latifolia, L.
Cornus Canadensis, L. Scirpus lacustris, L.
Chiogenes hispidula, Lilium superbum, L.
Torr. & Gr. Oryzopsis membranacea.
Vaccinium. Phragmites communis,
Ledum palustre, Ait. Trin.
Aralia nudicaulis, L. Zea mays, L.
2. The plants should be arranged with refer-
ence to the Indian tribes which used them.
The plants of the Algonquins should stand
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 58.
apart from those of the Iroquois; those of the
Aztecs from those of the Pueblos. Such a
geographical arrangement is most desirable for
educational purposes.
3. An arrangement according to the uses of
the plants ought also be made. The strictly
agricultural plants, such as corn, beans, potatoes
and pumpkins, ought to be sown in one bed, the
fibre plants, like basswood, Tilia Americana, L.;
spruce, Picea; sumach, Rhus aromatica ; willow,
Salix lasiandra, Benth; unicorn plant, Martynia
proboscidea, Glox; tree yucca, Yucca brevifolia,
Engelm; ash, Fraxinus, in another; the dye
plants, as alder, Alnus incana, Willd; celan-
dine, Chelidonium majus, L. ; smart weed, Poly-
gonum Hydropiper ; poke, Phytolacca decandra,
L., Coptis trifolia, Salisb., in another.
The myth plants and medicine plants also are
important as showing the culture of the aborig-
ines. They by no means should be excluded
from the garden.
The educational purposes of such an ethno-
botanic garden have so far been discussed. The
question may arise: Whatis the scientific value
of such a garden? It is this: Frequently in
studying the articles manufactured from plants
by the Indians, it is difficult to determine what.
plant was used in each particular case. A his-
tologic study of the vegetal tissues will give
sometimes a clue, and if the microscopic struc-
ture of the manufactured article be compared
with the fresh plant an identification isin many
cases possible. To cite a case, the writer was
asked not long since to identify the plant forms
found on certain Central American tablets.* He
was almost certain that the leaf found at the base
of the cross, in the celebrated Tablet of the Cross,
was that of the tobacco. The Herbarium speci-
mens of the genus Nicotiana were examined, but
showed very imperfectly the auricles at the
base of the leaf which were so plainly marked
in the conventionalized sculptured form. Had
he had the plant growing somewhere, the iden-
tification could easily have been made, certain
garden forms of tobacco, which he afterwards
saw, showing the auriculate base clearly.
*See a paper of mine on the subject, Plant Forms
on Mexican and Central American Tablets. Ameri-
can Antiquarian, XVI., 299, September, 1894, in con-
nection with the {/ on the Tablet of the Cross.
FEBRUARY 7, 1896. ]
- There can be no doubt, therefore, that such
an ethno-botanic garden would stimulate greatly
the interest in aboriginal plants, and at the
same time it would be of the greatest scientific
value.
tempted along the lines suggested above, and
such a garden would soon become a Mecca for
those who desire to write monographs upon our
American plants and their uses among the ab-
origines.
J. W. HARSHBERGER.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
Certain Sand Mounds of Hlorida: By CLARENCE
B. Moore.
I have elsewhere* called attention to the im-
portant work which Mr. Moore is doing toward
the elucidation of the archeology of Florida, a
research to which he has given his personal
attention for several years. The third memoir}
on this subject contains the results of his field
work from January 16th to June 16th, 1895.
Mr. Moore has now examined with great care
nearly all the earthworks of the St. Johns and
Ocklawaha valleys. Of this large number only
two were erected after white contact. That is,
in only two were found objects obtained from
the whites and placed with the original inter-
ments in the mounds. Im several instances
glass beads and other manufactures of the
whites were found on or near the surface of a
mound, or with intrusive burials of recent
times; and Mr. Moore shows how easily such
recent things might be taken as evidence of
recent origin of the mound in which they are
found. It is only by such thorough work as
Mr. Moore is doing that our American archeol-
ogy is advanced, and it is therefore with a feel-
ing of satisfaction that we read the account of
his careful field work and follow the true
*The Harvard Graduate Magazine of June, 1895.
} Certain Sand Mounds of Duval County, Florida;
two mounds on Murphy Island, Florida; and certain
Sand Mounds of the Ocklawaha River, Florida. By
Clarence B. Moore. Journal of the Academy of Nat-
ural Sciences of Philadelphia, Vol. X., 1895, 4to, 108
pages. 91 illustrations in the text; two maps; 16
plates of pottery and a frontispiece illustrating a large
conical mound.
SCIENCE.
Nothing of the kind has ever been at-.
205
archeologist from page to page as he patiently
describes each mound and its contents, and
notes the position of every skeleton and object
described.
| The author of these memoirs takes the field
fully equipped for the thorough prosecution of
this work, and employs from twenty to forty
laborers under experienced guidance. He also
prints and illustrates his papers in a handsome
manner. The objects are well illustrated, nearly
always of natural size, and, what is greatly to
be commended, the artistic desire of the
draughtsman to make them look a little better
than the originals is not apparent here. The
explorer in several. instances states that he
did not take to his collection in Philadel-
phia such and such potsherds or other frag-
mentary objects because he had many perfect
specimens of the same type. This is to be re-
gretted since every archeologist is not so for-
tunate as he, and the very potsherds which he
discards would be treasured in many a museum,
particularly as Mr. Moore’s work in the field is
so thorough that nothing is left for another in
the same region. Even this regret is tempered
when we know how liberal Mr. Moore has been
in supplying several museums with representa-
tive collections from these Florida mounds.
- It is yet too soon to draw conclusions as to
the peopling of Florida or as to the time when
these burial mounds were first formed. Wyman
showed by his research that many of the shell
mounds of the St. Johns were of great antiquity,
and that there were certainly two and probably
three phases in the life of the people who formed
them. From Mr. Moore’s explorations, it seems
likely that the sand mounds—as old as many of
them unquestionably are—belong to the later
period of the shell mounds, and in a few in-
stances come down to the time of European
contact.
One of the questions not yet fully answered
is that of the relation of the early people of
Florida with other ,tribes. We know that
among the most recent were the mixed people
known as the Seminoles. We also know
that Florida was inhabited in very early times,
as shown by the discoveries of Pourtalés
and later by Heilprin. We can now trace
by the artifacts brought to light in the burial
206
mounds that there must have been a widely
extended trade with tribes of the interior,
and possibly a migration from the central por-
tion of the continent to Florida. The large
number of copper objects found by Mr. Moore,
many of the same character and in some cases
identical with those found in the Ohio mounds,
is evidence of contact. The copper itself,
which probably came from the Lake Superior
region, is an important factor in this connec-
tion. The skulls found in the Florida mounds
are of the brachycephalic type, closely resem-
bling those from other southern mounds. The
pottery, however, is different to a marked de-
gree. The stone ‘celts’ or hatchets are dis-
tinctly of the extreme southern type, border-
ing on the West Indian. Is there Carib in-
fusion from the islands or from the northern
coast of South America? There are indications
in this direction.
The oldest perfect skull known from Florida
is extremely dolichocephalic and entirely dif-
ferent from the mound type. This was found
by Wyman at the bottom of the great shell
heap near Hawkingsville on the St. Johns.
This heap was so old that its lower layers
of the shells had become decomposed and
transformed into a limestone in which this skull
and other bones of the skeleton are firmly im-
bedded. We naturally question if this skeleton
is not that of a survivor of the earlier people
who were on the peninsula before the_short-
heads came.
Thus there is a complicated problem which
can be solved only by such careful field work
as was begun by the late Jeffries Wyman and
is now being continued by Mr. Moore. In this
connection it is interesting to know that Mr.
Frank H. Cushing is now engaged in explora-
tions on the west coast of Florida, under the
auspices of the archeological department of the
University of Pennsylvania.
Mr. Moore in this last memoir has described
and figured a number of vessels and singular ob-
jects of pottery, which he designates as ‘mor-
tuary’ and ‘freak’ pottery. This pottery, to
which I called attention in my notice of his first
and second memoirs, is, thus far, peculiar to
these Florida mounds. The forms he designates
as freaks’ are very odd and are apparently,
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 58.
useless for any practical purpose. Perhaps cer-
emonial would be a better designation, since
we know that among other peoples pottery of a
certain character was made for ceremonial pur-
poses, and that such vessels were often placed
with the dead. That mortuary vessels were
sometimes made for this special purpose is indi-
cated by the fact that holes were purposely
made in many of the vessels before they were
subjected to burning or baking; while vessels
of utility were sometimes perforated or even
broken into several pieces before being placed
in the mound. Among some tribes the break-
ing of a vessel or an implement is to ‘kill’
it, that its spirit may accompany the spirit
of the dead person; and some such idea may
have prevailed here. This would be another
indication of the culture of the people com-
ing from the west, which would agree with
other facts pointing to such a migration of the
southern brachycephali. It is also interesting
to note here the resemblance in this respect to
the mortuary customs of some of the peoples in
Europe in ancient times who made special ves-
sels of pottery for burial with the dead, and even
manufactured them with holes in the bottom the
same as was done in Florida. Is this simply a
psychical coincidence in the development of cul-
ture in places so widely separated, or is it an in-
dication of man’s migration in early times ?
On page 74 Mr. Moore gives an illustration
of a little piece of pointed and oxidized iron,
less than an inch long, which in itself seems in-
significant. This fragment would have been
overlooked by a less careful observer or would
perhaps have been taken for the end of a nail
and so put down as proof that the mound was
made after European contact. Mr. Moore him-
self thinks that it must be carefully considered
from this point of view, while at the same time
he suggests that it may be of meteoric origin.
To me this bit of iron is most significant, for it
closely resembles several small awls or piercers
I have found in the Ohio mounds, some of
which were so well preserved as to furnish the
proof that they are made of meteoric iron. In
1882 I was puzzled by a mass of iron rust and
fragments of iron found during the exploration
of the great group of mounds known as the
Turner group in Anderson county, Ohio, where
FEBRUARY 7, 1896. ]
Dr. Metz and I carried on a ten years’ explora-
tion for the Peabody Museum. The finding
of this iron at first seemed to prove that the
builders of the mound must have been in con-
tact with Europeans, and yet I knew that
every indication of great antiquity was present.
Tree growth, formation of soil over the mounds,
and the formation of limonite by infiltration,
were among these evidences. Still here was
iron in considerable quantities, and it became
an important question as to its origin. A
piece was cleaned for analysis and nickel was
shown to be present. Then a mass weighing
87 ounces was cut, and the section showed
erystals of olivine as well as the nickel. Soon
we found we had ornaments and implements
made of the same material. .These were all
made by hammering the metal in the same
way as similar ornaments and implements were
made of copper. Thus we proved that this an-
cient people had found masses of meteoric or
native iron, and had used it the same as they
did native copper. Since then I have identified
ornaments and fragments from certainly three
distinct meteorites in our explorations of Ohio
mounds in widely separated parts of the State.
Among the implements are small axes, chisels
and awls or piercers. Some of the latter so
closely resemble this piece found by Mr. Moore,
particularly in its flaky oxidation, as to strongly
suggest that the object is purely of native make
from a piece of meteoric iron. I may mention
here that native copper, native silver, native
gold and native or meteoric iron were found
together on one altar in the Turner group in
Ohio, and also implements and ornaments made
_ from these metals. In this connection I will
again call the attention of archeologists to the
important contribution on the sources of native
copper given in the second of this series of
memoirs by Mr. Moore. In this he has shown
that the copper objects from the mounds were
made of native copper. He has thus confirmed
the views of those archeologists who have
denied the European origin of the copper.
For many other interesting points relating to
the art and culture of the people who buried
their dead in these Florida mounds, I. must
refer the reader to these instructive memoirs.
I am pleased to state that Mr. Moore is at the
SCIENCE.
207
present time continuing his researches in Flor-
ida, and we shall undoubtedly soon welcome
another paper from him giving the results of
this winter’s work. F. W. Putnam.
, PEABODY MUSEUM, HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
The Dispersal of Shells. An inquiry into the
means of dispersal possessed by fresh-water
and land Mollusca. By HARRY WALLIS Krew,
F. Z.S., with a preface by ALFRED RUSSEL
WaAttace, LL.D., F. R.S., ete. With illus-
trations. London, Kegan Paul, Trench,
Tribner & Co., Ltd. 1898.
Although this little book has been published
for some time, the subject is one of perennial
interest, as naturalists will continue to gather
facts bearing upon it. Though at first sight a
rather limited field of inquiry, the author treats
of it in a fairly comprehensive way, the chap-
ters discussing the anomalies in local distribu-
tion, means of dispersal of fresh-water and of
land shells, transplantation of bivalves and of
univalves, the tenacity of life of land shells,
the dispersal of slugs, the dispersal of fresh-
water and land mollusca by man, the ninth and
last chapter dealing with the fresh-water and
land mollusca introduced into the British Isles
by human agency.
The book will be of value to American con-
chologists and field naturalists, as it is by no
means of local interest.
Of a curious nature are the facts collected by
the author relating to the transportation of fresh
water bivalves by insects, batrachians and birds,
with the figures in illustration.
We see nothing special to criticise, nor are we
aware of any omissions, except two which it
would have been well for the author to have
mentioned. The first is the introduction, by
probably human agency, of Helix hortensis at
different points on our northern coast, although
it is not clearly proven that the species is not
indigenous, yet this does not seem to us proba-
ble. Binney concludes that it has been un-
doubtedly imported to this, continent.
In Gould’s illustrated report on the inverte-
brata of Massachusetts, edited by Binney, this
species is said to be ‘‘An European species in-
troduced by commerce (?) to the northeastern
portion of North America. It is found on
208
islands along the coast from Newfoundland to
Cape Cod, and on the mainland plentifully, in
Gaspé, C. E.; also along the St. Lawrence.’’
It also inhabits Greenland, but Vermont and
Connecticut are mentioned with doubt. It is
said to be common on the lower parts of Cape
Cod and Cape Ann, and is very abundant on
Salt Island, near Gloucester.
It thus having been adventive on our north-
eastern coast for at least somewhat over sixty
or more, probably seventy-five, years (since it is
mentioned by Mrs. Sheppard in the Transac-
tions of the Literary and Historical Society of
Quebec, I., p. 193, 1829), it is interesting to
note the fact that a new variety has apparently
evolved in this country, so different from any
known to exist in the old world that Dr. Bin-
ney described it in 1837 as a new species under
the name Helix subglobosa. ‘‘The specimens
first discovered by Dr. Binney were all of the
plain greenish-yellow variety; and, though he
could not fail to perceive their affinity to the
H. hortensis, he thought he discovered differ-
ences enough to entitle them to a specific dis-
tinction, and therefore described them under
the name of H. subglobosa. But numerous
specimens have since been brought from the
same vicinity, bearing all the various zones of
the European specimens.”’ ‘
Perhaps a new locality, or one not generally
known, is a small, quite inaccessible islet in
Casco Bay called ‘the Brown Cow,’ between
Portland and Harpswell. We found them in
abundance over ten or fifteen years ago, and
again in the summer of 1895. As stated by
Binney, we also found their habits entirely dif-
ferent from those of H. albolabris and alternata,
in crawling up the stems and over the leaves of
tall plants, so that they have retained unaltered
this habit of their European ancestors. The
greenish-yellow variety subglobosa greatly out-
number the banded variety. Like other intro-
duced species, they are much more prolific and
numerous in individuals than the native species.
The other omission is the farther history of
the case of the introduction, briefly referred to
by Mr. Kew, ‘a few years ago,’ of Helix nemor-
alis from Europe into Lexington, Va., which is
given by Prof. T. D. A. Cockerell in Nature for
February 27, 1890, when he remarks: ‘‘ Under
SCIENCE,
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 58.
the new conditions it varied more than I have
ever known it to do elsewhere, and up to the
present date 125 varieties have been discovered.
there. Of these, no less than sixty-seven are new,
and unknown in Europe, the native country of the
species! The variation is in the direction of di-
vision of the bands.
The facts collected in this little volume by
Mr. Kew would seem, then, to be a necessary
preliminary to a study of the varieties set up
in immigrant species, and this will throw much
light on the general question of the origin of
species, the primary factors in the evolution of
such forms being migration, exposure to new
climatic conditions, and geographical isolation.
These would seem to be sufficiently efficient and
apparent causes of variation, without calling in,
in such cases, the aid of natural selection.
A. S, PACKARD.
Laboratory Manual of Inorganic Preparations, by
H. T. Vutrs, Ph. D., F. C. 8., Professor of
Chemistry in Barnard College and assistant
in Chemistry at the School of Mines, Colum-
bia College, N. Y., and GEORGE M. S. NEv-
stapt. New York, G. G. Peck. 1895.
There can be no doubt that a carefully pre-
prepared manual of Inorganic Preparation is
desirable. This book is not carefully prepared.
The authors in their preface state that this book
is compiled from the works of Erdmann and
Fresenius and from various chemical journals.
The articles translated from Erdmann are good,
for Erdmann tested the methods before recom-
mending them. Through a careless blunder in
the translations of Erdmann’s instructions for
making iodine pentoxide from iodine and nitric
acid, the studentis told to use ‘158 ¢. e. of water ;
and nitric acid.’ Erdmann says ‘anhydrous
nitric acid.’ Every chemist knows that unless
the nitric acid is anhydrous, it does not yield io-
dine pentoxide.
On page 123 the author states that in distill-
ing nitric acid at 121° an acid of the composi-
tion 2HNO,+H,0 distills over. Of course, the
acid HNO,+-2H,0 is meant. The abstracts of
some of the articles from chemical journals are
very carelessly written. On page 129 is an ab-
stract entitled ‘Pure Phosphoric Acid from
Sodium Phosphite.’ (‘ Phosphate,’ of course,
FEBRUARY 7, 1896.]
is meant, as two pages further on an abstract on
Calcium Phosphide is printed ‘ Phosphite,’ but
these are mere printer’s errors; the book is
full of such.) In the directions no reference is
made to a filtration or other mode of separation
of phosphoric acid formed from the by-pro-
duct. The same criticism applies to the next
method, ‘Phosphoric acid from calcium phos-
phate,’ though both the original articles mention
the modes of separation, and careful attention
to details is necessary in a laboratory manual.
On page 174 is an abstract of an article by E.
J. Maumené, entitled ‘Chydrazaine or Protoxide
of Ammonia.’ The attention of the present
writer was attracted by the statement at the
end of the abstract, that ‘on evaporating
Chydrazaine nitrate, nitric acid, nitrogen per-
oxide, nitrogen and a compound having the
composition NH, are evolved.’
Suprised at finding the long-sought-for dii-
mide as a by-product in a preparation for college
students, the original article was consulted.
Maumené is responsible for diimide and chydra-
zaine, and this is not the place to offer any
further criticism of his work than to call the
attention of the authors to the fact that the
existence of chydrazaine has not been confirmed.
Maumené uses a solution of potassium perman-
ganate and sulphuric acid. He says, ‘je les
versais doucement dans une dissolution faite 4
PENEIIGS de ht grammes ammonium oueltis
8 so
Ben sec; le mélange était fait avec soin ae mon
mc iecey ; nécessaire en pareil cas.’ The au-
thors abstract this in these words. ‘‘A solu-
tion of potassium per maganate (158 grams) and
sulphuric acid (40 grams SO,) is added to dried
crystallized ammonium oxalate (141.2 grams),
the whole well mixed.’”? Comment is unneces-
sary.
If this review be deemed harsh, the writer
pleads that no one should publish a laboratory
manual of preparations without knowing that
the preparation of all substances described is
not too difficult for students, and that the di-
rections given are good and clear. By careful
revision and excision, the authors can make
their manual very valuable, as it contains an
abundance of excellent matter.
EK. RENOUF.
SCIENCE.
209
A Handbook of Industrial Organic Chemistry.
By SAMUEL P. SApTLER, PH. D., F. C. &.
2d Edition, revised and enlarged. Philadel-
phia, J. B. Lippincott Co. 1895. 8vo.,
pp. 537.
That a second edition of this work should be
called for within four years after the first ap-
peared is evidence that the book has met gen-
eral approval and satisfies the requirements it
was intended to fill. The dearth of works of
this class in the English language has been felt
by instructors of technical chemistry for a long
time, and consequently this volume, enlarged
and improved and brought up to date, will be
received with pleasure by every teacher of the
subject. The chemical manufacturer and gen-
eral reader will also find this an excellent work,
neither too brief in its treatment of the several
subjects, nor too abstruse in dealing with the
minor details of processes or apparatus, and hap-
pily within the reach of modest pocket books.
There is no change in the manner or order of
treatment of the various industries from that
adopted in the first edition, but numerous addi-
tions and corrections have been made in the
text. The bibliographical lists at the close o!
the several chapters have been entirely revised,
added to and brought up to the present time.
This feature of the book is one of its most valu-
able points, since it places at the disposal of the
reader a very complete list of works on any of
these industries, should he desire more detailed
accounts of processes or apparatus, thus saving
him hours of laborious search through library or
publishers’ catalogues.
The numerous tables of statistics have been
corrected and increased with the latest data
obtainable and add much to the value of the
book. In the appendix new tables showing the
chemical and physical constants of oils, fats
and waxes have been added.
The schematic tables of the various processes,
scattered through the book are a great assist-
ance to the reader, by showing at a glance the
connections between different parts of the pro-
cesses and also aiding to refresh the memory in
reviewing the work.
The subjects treated are briefly: Petroleum
and Mineral Oils, Fats and Fatty Oils, Essential
Oils, Resins, Cane Sugar Industry, Starch and
210
its alteration Products, Fermentation Indus-
tries, Milk, Textile Fibres of Vegetable and
Animal Origin, Animal Tissues and their Prod-
ucts, Destructive Distillation, Artificial Color-
ing Matters, Natural Dyes, Bleaching, Dyeing
and Textile Printing. A very complete index
adds to the convenience and worth of the book.
‘The print is excellent, and numerous illustra-
tions are distributed through the text. It is,
as its name indicates, a ‘handbook,’ in which
the various subjects are concisely and clearly
explained, important topics being quite fully
considered, while details of less importance,
which often become so confusing and wearying
ito the student or general reader, are but slightly
touched upon or entirely omitted. It is pre-
‘sumed that the reader who wishes minute and
extended descriptions will look for them in the
larger works or special literature bearing on the
particular point in question.
This book presents, to a greater extent than
any other work on the subject, processes and
apparatus employed in America and hence will
find favor with American readers. A transla-
tion which has appeared in German demon-
strates, however, that it is also appreciated on
the other side of the Atlantic.
It is to be hoped that a companion volume
dealing with the inorganic side of technical
chemistry may soon appear.
FRANK H. THORP.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
THE AUK, JANUARY.
WITH the present number ‘ The Auk’ enters
upon its thirteenth year of publication as a
quarterly journal of Ornithology, and the official
organ of the American Ornithologists’ Union.
The first article isa memorial sketch of the late
George N. Lawrence, of New York City, by D.
G. Elliot. Mr. Lawrence died in January,
1895, in the ninetieth year of his age, being the
last of the links connecting the present genera-
tion of ornithologists with the Audubonian
period. He was the last also of the great trio
of ornithologists—Cassin, Baird and Lawrence
—who from the middle of the century onward
laid anew the foundations of American orni-
thology. For a period of over fifty years Law-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 58.
rence published almost continously on American
birds, more especially on those of the West In-
dies, Central and South America, on which he
was everywhere recognized as a leading author-
ity. Mr. Elliot, from long personal acquaint-
ance with Mr. Lawrence, was well fitted to un-
fold the tale of his simple life, which he has
here done with rare felicity. An excellent
portrait of Mr. Lawrence forms a fitting frontis-
piece to the number.
Mr. Frank M. Chapman, in an article on
“The Standing of Ardetta neoxena,’ illustrated
with a colored plate, gives the technical history
of a rare and peculiarly interesting Heron, de-
scribed about ten years since from a specimen
taken in the Florida Everglades, but now
known from about fifteen specimens, of which
seven have been taken at Toronto, Canada, one
each in Michigan and Wisconsin, and the rest
in Southern Florida. D. G. Elliot describes
two new Ptarmigans from the Aleutian Islands,
A. W. Anthony, a new woodpecker from Califor-
nia, Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., a new jay from
Mexico, and William Brewster, a new warbler
and sparrow from North America. George H.
Mackay writes of the Colony of Terns that still,
thanks to careful protection, have their home
on Muskeget Island, Massachusetts; L. Beld-
ing gives a rendering in musical notation of
twelve songs of the meadow lark ; and Miss
Florence A Merriam writes at length on the
habits of the Phainopepla in California. Other
leading articles treat of the Pine Grosbeak, of
an important factor in the study of Western bird
life, and of the Thirteenth Congress of the
American Ornithologists’ Union, held in Wash-
ington, November 11-14, 1895. Some fifteen
pages are devoted to ‘General Notes,’ under
which are grouped some thirty short articles
relating to the occurrence or habits of as many
little known birds, while nearly twenty pages
are devoted to reviews of current ornithological
literature. There are also several pages de-
voted to obituaries and to various items of orni-
thological news.
THE AMERICAN GEOLOGIST, FEBRUARY.
Notes on the Geology of Eastern California: By
H. W. FAIRBANKS. This part of the Great
Basin, on account of its desert character and re-
FEBRUARY 7, 1896. ]
moteness, has been little explored geologically;
the present paper contains in part data obtained
by the author during five months in 1895. The
formations represented are divided into sedi-
mentary and igneous, the former of which in-
cludes two distinct classes: (1) a metamorphic
series, ranging in age from Cambrian through
the Triassic, and (2) the unaltered Tertiary and
Quaternary beds. The igneous rocks are gran-
itic and voleanic; the former occur frequently
as intrusions in the metamorphic series, and
the latter consist of tuffs, liparites, andesites
and basalts.
The Association of the Gasteropod Genus Cyclora
with Phosphate of Lime Deposits: By A. M.
MILLER. Several specimens of phosphate rock
examined showed numerous shells of Cyclora.
The analysis of the rocks as a whole gave vary-
ing percentages of P.O; and Ca; (PO,)2, while
analyses of the Cyclora casts showed them to
contain a much larger amount of these com-
pounds. In one case 89 per cent. of the ma-
terial of the casts was found to consist of these
compounds.
The Buchanan Gravels: An Interglacial De-
posit in Buchanan County, Iowa: By SAMUEL
Catyin. These gravels in their typical ex-
posures form beds ten to fifteen feet in thickness,
lying above the Kansan drift and below the
Iowan. The contrast between the hard unde-
cayed boulders of the Iowan drift and the
decayed boulders of the Buchanan gravels and
Kansan drift is striking. These gravels are
made up of materials derived from the older
drift and were probably laid down in water im-
mediately behind the retreating edge of the
Kansan.
Lacroix’ Axial Goniometer: By N. H. WIn-
CHELL. This paper describes and figures a
comparatively simple apparatus for easily meas-
uring the optical angle of a mineral; it can be
adjusted to any microscope, being inserted in
the top of the body tube, and gives the optical
angle measured in air.
Phenomena of Falling Meteorites: By O. C.
FARRINGTON. The author discusses the explo-
sions of meteorites and the sounds which ac-
company the fall of these bodies. Evidence is
given which shows that meteorites sometimes
do explode, producing marked detonations.
SCIENCE.
211
Philadelphia Meeting of the Geological Society
of America: By WARREN UPHAM. An account
of this meeting is given, together with abstracts
of all the papers presented and also abstracts.
of the discussions following the papers.
Under ‘ Editorial Comment’ notice is made
of Prof. James Hall’s gold medals, of the Trans-
vaal gold region, and of the geological map of
Europe prepared by the International Congress
of Geologists. Under ‘Personal and Scientific
News’ abstracts are given of geological papers.
presented at recent meetings of various scientific
societies.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
THE SCIENTIFIC ASSOCIATION OF THE JOHNS:
HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, DECEMBER 19.
ONE hundred and twenty-third regular meet-
ing, December 19, 1895. President Remsen in
the chair.
The following papers were presented and
read :
1. Theories of Color Sensation and of the Percep-
tion of Sound: By W. J. MATHER. ;
Mr. Mather gave a brief review of the older
theories of color perception, followed by a care-
ful discussion of the present state of our knowl-
edge of this suject. He dwelt especially upon
the theories of Mrs. Franklin.
2. Recent Work on Impregnation in Flowering
Plants: By J. E. HUMPHREY.
Mr. Humphrey showed that until about four
years ago impregnation in flowering plants was.
known to take place only by the growth of the
pollen tube across the cavity of the ovary and
through the micropyle left by the coats of the
ovule. In 1891 Treub described impregnation
in Casuarina, the Australian iron-wood, by the
downward growth of the pollen-tube through
the tissue of the ovary to the chalaza, or stalk
of the ovule, and its upward growth through
the body of the ovule to the egg-cell. In 1894
Miss Benson found the same thing to occur in
several English catkin-bearing plants, the horn-
beam, the alder, the hazel, etc.
Nawaschin has just published the results of
his studies of the white birch, which agrees
closely with the alder. In attempting to ex-
212
plain chalazal impregnation, he points out that
the entire course of the pollen-tube of the Gym-
nosperms is through tissue. He thinks that in the
primitive Angiosperms, the descendants of the
Gymnosperms, the tube has not yet acquired
the ability to grow across open spaces, and
therefore takes the indirect route which enables
it to make its whole course through tissue. He
also announces that the elm constitutes an in-
termediate form between those with chalazal
and those with the micropylar impregnation.
Much work on this line is yet to be done,
which may throw light on relationships among
flowering plants.
On motion the meeting adjourned.
JANUARY 23.
ONE hundred and twenty-fourth regular meet-
ing, January 23,1896. President Remsen in the
chair.
The following papers were presented and read:
1. The Temperature of the Earth’s Interior: By
G. K. GILBERT.
The speaker first pointed out the difficulty
attending any investigation of the earth’s in-
terior, and stated that in the present condition
of physical science all estimates of interior tem-
perature are necessarily founded on question-
able postulates. He then gave the results of a
series of computations of the average tempera-
ture, each starting with a group of postulates.
2. The Effect of Pressure on the Wave-Lengths of
Lines in the Arc-Spectra of Certain Elements :
By J. F. Mouuer.
Mr. Mohler first pointed out that these wave-
lengths had been considered as constants, and
that it had even been proposed to use them as
fundamental standards of length. This was
followed by a detailed account of a series of ex-
periments carried on in the Physical Laboratory
of the Johns Hopkins University, which clearly
establish the fact that these wave-lengths vary
with the pressure. Pressures as high as twelve
atmospheres were used. Diagrams were ex-
hibited showing the results of the investigations.
The following papers of research were then
presented and read by title :
1. On Infinite Products: By A. S. CHESSIN.
(University Circulars; J. H. U.)
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. ILI. No. 58.
2. Additional Note on Divergent Series: By A.
S. CHEssin. (Bull. Am. Math. Society.)
On motion the meeting adjourned.
CuHaAs. LANE Poor, Secretary.
BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY.
THE Society met January Ist, forty-three per-
sons present.
Prof. W. O. Crosby and Mr. A. W. Grabau
showed that the chief deposits of modified drift
in and about the Boston Basin could be referred
to a connected chain of glacial lakes along the
southern and western borders of the basin.
These lakes existed between the receding mar-
gin of the ice sheet and the watersheds of the
streams tributary to Boston Harbor, and, after
the manner of lakes of this class, they were,
through the continued recession of the ice mar-
gin, somewhat migratory in character and sub-
ject to great variations in outline, area, and
level. During the period of the maximum and
most interesting development of these lakes,
the general trend of the ice margin was east-
west along the southern border of the basin
and north and northwest across the western end
of the basin from the western end of the Blue
Hills to the highland of Weston and Waltham;
the ice, in accordance with the well established
principles governing the motion of an ice sheet,
having lingered on the depressed areas of the
Boston Basin and Boston Harbor after it had
disappeared from the relatively high land form-
ing the western border of this great trough.
Along the south side of the basin, in Hing-
ham, Weymouth, Braintree, Randolph, and
Quincy, was formed Lake Bouvé (mamed in
honor of Mr. T. T. Bouvé, a former President
- of the Boston Society of Natural History), some
twelve miles in length. Its different levels, as
determined by successive outlets, first south
into North River and later east into Cohasset
Harbor, were approximately 140 feet (Liberty
Plain), 70 feet (Glad Tidings Plain), and 50 feet
(Lower Plain). Other glacial lakes were formed
in the upper basins of the Neponset and Charles
Rivers. At their highest levels (240 to 300
feet) these were independent and tributary,
respectively, to the Taunton and Blackstone
Rivers. But at the level of 200 feet they were
confluent and had a common outlet into the
FEBRUARY 7, 1896.]
valley of Taunton River. Still later an outlet
was opened eastward along the south side of
the Blue Hills into Lake Bouvé at a height of
about 160 feet. The plains formed during this
stage of the Charles-Neponset Lake extend east-
ward across Wellesley and Needham into New-
ton and West Roxbury, and northward across
the broad water-parting (now occupied by Lake
Cochituate) between the Charles and Sudbury
Rivers, and thence, apparently, down the
valley of the Sudbury and Concord Rivers into
Billerica.
The western edge of the great angle or lobe
of the ice sheet naturally receded eastward
more rapidly than the southern edge receded
northward, and so it happened that the ice con-
tinued to form a solid barrier across Boston
Harbor after it had disappeared from all the
country between the Blue Hills and Arlington
Heights. The drainage of the Neponset and
Charles Basins thus eventually became tribu-
tary to Lake Bouvé along the north side of the
Blue Hills, at the height, first, of Glad Tidings
Plain, and, later, of Lower Plain. Plains of
these heights have an extensive development
in the lower valleys of the Charles and Ne-
ponset Rivers, across the site of Boston, and
also in the upper valley of the Mystic River,
outlining a body of standing water, which it is
proposed to call Lake Shawmut, from the In-
dian name for Boston.
When the front of the ice sheet receded from
the high land terminating in Fox Hill, north-
east of Billerica Center, the drainage of the
Coneord, Merrimac, and Shawsheen Valleys
probably found an outlet southeastward, along
the course of the Boston and Lowell Railroad
and the old Middlesex Canal, into the valley
of the Mystic, and thence through Lake Shaw-
mut and Lake Bouvé to Cohasset Harbor. In
the glacial lake thus conditioned north of the
Mystic water-parting were deposited the exten-
sive plains haying a normal height of about
100 feet, which stretch across Wilmington,
northern Billerica, Tewksbury, and Lowell. It
is yery probable, also, that later a part of this
northern drainage found its way southward
through the yalleys of the Malden and Saugus
Rivers. SAMUEL HENSHAW,
Secretary.
SCIENCE.
213
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, BIOLOG-
ICAL SECTION. JANUARY 13.
THE papers presented were:
G. 8S. Huntineton, ‘ On The Visceral Anatomy
of the Edentates.’ The characters of the brain,
alimentary, respiratory and genito-urinary
tracts were especially considered. The follow-
ing forms were discussed: Myrmecophaga jubata,
Tamandua bivittata, Arctopithecus didaclylus,
Dasypus sexcinctus, Tatusia novemcincta, Manis
longicandata. In the brain characters the fol-
lowing features were considered: the transverse
frontal suleus, the great longitudinal fissure,
and the absence of a distinct Sylvian fissure.
In the alimentary tract the Sloths are to be
sharply separated from the remaining groups,
the stomach structure with its pyloric gizzard
notably aberrant: the ileo-colic junction is
traced throughout the Edentates in a well
marked series of transitional forms.
O. S. StronG, ‘On the Use of Formalin in
Injecting Media.’ The paper made especial
note of the advantages posessed by this pre-
servative in injecting in brain in situ. Formalin
(40% formaldelyde) diluted with an equal vol-
ume of water is injected into the cephalic ves-
sels until it runs from the cut jugulars. After
a few minutes the same quantity is again in-
jected, and once or twice again after an elapse
of fifteen to twenty minutes. The brain is then
removed and will be found to be completely
fixed throughout. The swelling usually noticed
in formalin hardened brains does not appear to
take place when this method is employed. Be-
sides the many general advantages of fixing
brains by injection, formalin has the especial
merit of giving them the best consistency for
microscopic work, and further, such brains are
available subsequently for the Golgi and Weigert
methods, as well as possibly for cytological
methods. Formalin also has the advantage
that it can be used, as above, stronger than is
necessary for fixation and thus allowance made
for its dilution when permeating the tissue.
When only the Golgi method is to be used, an
equal volume of a 10% solution of potassium
bichromate may be added to the formalin instead
of water. Pieces may be subsequently removed,
hardened further in formalin-bichromate and
impregnated with silver.
214
BASHFORD Dean, ‘ On the Supposed Kinship of
the Paleospondylus.’ A favorably preserved
specimen of this interesting fossil, received by
the writer from Wm. T. Kinnear of Forss,
Scotland, appears to warrant the belief that
this lamprey-like form was possessed of paired
fins, a character decidedly adverse to the now
widely accepted view of Marsipobranchian af-
finities. The structure referred to consists of a
series of transversely directed rays, arising from
the region of the postoccipital plates of Tra-
quair. From this peculiar character, as well as
from many unlamprey-like features of the fossil,
it would appear accordingly that the kinship of
the Paleospondylus is as yet by no means defi-
nitely determined.
C. L. BrisTou,
JANUARY 13, 1896. Secretary of Section.
SECTION OF GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY.
AT the meeting of the section of Geology and
Mineralogy of the New York Academy of Sci-
ences held January 20th, Prof. J. J. Stevenson
in the chair, the following papers were pre-
sented :
The first, by E. O. Hovey, described the new
and remarkably fine specimens of rare minerals
recently discovered by Mr. Niven in the upper
part of New York City. A doubly terminated
tourmaline, 9} inches long by 43 inch diameter,
was shown, and also unusually large samples
of xenotime and monazite. The largest xeno-
time was { of an inch in diameter, the monazite
was about § of an inch on thelong edge. Fuller
details regarding the crystallography appear in
the Bulletin of the American Museum of Nat-
ural History of recent date. The specimens are
now in the museum.
The second paper was by J. F. Kemp and T.
G. White, and brought out the results of further
exploration in the Adirondacks, the Lake
Champlain Valley and the Green Mountains as
regards the distribution of the trap dikes, well
known from that region. One was cited on
Mount McIntyre about 4,000 feet above tide,
and others from various interior points in the
Adirondacks. Microscopie study shows that
they are in instances both camptonites and
fourchites. This modifies the previous experi-
ence of Kemp and Marsters, who had found
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 58.
only diabase dikes in the Archean rocks. A
great number of dikes were mentioned from the
shores of Willsboro’ Bay, on the New York side;
one dike of camptonite was described from the
granite quarries near Barre, Vt., and one from
the Eustis pyrites mine, near Sherbrooke, Que.
These outlying dikes materially extend the area.
in which they had been previously known.
Very curious exposures were also described as.
having been recently uncovered in the Willard’s.
Ledge quarries at Burlington, Vt. The paper
concluded with some reflections on the petrology
of the dikes. It will appear in full in the
Transactions of the Academy.
The paper was followed by one by W. D.
Matthew describing the metamorphism of Tri-
assic coals at Egypt, N. C., by the intrusion of
diabase dikes. Beginning with samples of coal
at a distance of seventy feet from the dike it was
shown that there is a progressive loss of vola-
tile hydro-carbons as the igneous rock is ap-
proached, and that the bituminous coal passes
into anthracite and this into prismatic coke next
the dike. Geological sections and tables of
analyses were shown. Attention was called to
the fact that similar phenomena have been pre-
viously described from Virginia, but not from
Egypt, N. C. The paper will appear in full in
the Transactions of the Academy.
The last paper was by J. J. Stevenson on
“The Cerrillos Coal Fields near Santa Fé, N.
M.’ Prof. Stevenson brought out, by means of
geological sections, that there were four coal
seams contained between two laccolites of tra-
chyte which had spread sidewise between the
beds for nearly a mile from the parent dike or
neck. In the topmost seam next the neck the
coal was a graphitic anthracite passing, as the
neck was left behind, into true anthracite, which
graduated into semi-bituminous, and this into
bituminous coking coal. The nearness of the
laccolites appeared to exercise but little influ-
ence on the seams that were immediately over
or under them, but the metamorphic change
was due to the dike. The middle seam, which
is at a maximum distance from the two lacco-
lites, is bituminous coal throughout, so far as:
known, but it has not been worked near the
dike. The speaker also referred to the change
in our former ideas regarding the geology of
FEBRUARY 7, 1896. ]
the region, in that the intruded rocks have
proved to be in two separate laccolites, where
they were formerly thought to be in innumer-
able dikes. The paper was discussed by J. F.
Kemp, who referred to the fact that the meta-
morphic changes were doubtless due to vapors
or heated waters set in circulation by the dike ;
to which the speaker assented. The paper will
appear in full in the Transactions.
J. F. Kemp,
Secretary.
MEETING OF THE NEW YORK SECTION OF THE
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY.
THE regular monthly meeting of the New
York Section of the American Chemical Society
was held at the College of the City of New
York, 23d street and Lexington avenue, on
Friday evening, January 10th.
Mr. G. C. Henning, M. E., delegate for the
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, re-
viewed the ‘Present Status of Iron and Steel
Analysis,’ calling attention to the discrepancies
in some recent work of different chemists in de-
termining the constituents of the same quality
of steel, with special reference to carbon and
phosphorus, and to the omission of the direct
determination of iron, which he thinks condu-
cive to overlooking such elements as titanium,
tungsten and others, which are more often
present than the usual iron analysis would in-
dicate, as they are but infrequently determined
directly.
He considers that the microscope has opened
a field which marks a great advance in methods
of determining the condition and quality of
iron and steel, and thinks that chemical meth-
ods need great improvement to distinguish the
conditions in which the carbon exists.
Mr. Rossi in discussing Mr. Henning’s paper
thought it would be very difficult, if not impos-
sible, to recognize the different combinations of
iron and carbon by chemical means, at least in
the present state of chemical science, since
there is so little outside of physical characteris-
tics to distinguish them. In replying to these
remarks, Mr. Henning said that several steel
and iron companies in this country have already
established very complete micrographic labora-
tories, where in three hours an accurate deter-
SCIENCE.
215
mination of the condition of any specimen of
the daily output may be secured.
Papers were were read by Mr. G. C. Stone
on ‘The Probable Formation of Permanganates
by Direct Combustion of Manganese’ and ‘ Re-
marks on the Volhard Method of Determining
Manganese ;?’ by Dr. E. R. Squibb, on the
‘Manufacture of Acetone and Acetone-Chloro-
form from Acetic Acid,’ in which he reviewed
the history of acetone from its first mention to
the present date, and by Mr. J. S. Stillwell on
Highly Compressed Gases.’
Dr. Squibbs showed that owing to the quota-
tion, in standard works of reference, of erroneous
results obtained by earlier experimenters, the
progress of the manufacture of acetone had, for
many years, been obstructed, and consequently
the successful manufacture of chloroform from
acetone had been correspondingly delayed.
Mr. Stillwell discussed the causes of explo-
sion of cylinders of compressed gases with es-
pecial reference to those explosions which were
supposed to result from the chemical combina-
tion of the compressed gas (oxygen) with oil or
grease used as lubricant, and carried into the
cylinders. He maintains that a temperature of
400° F. is required to produce such chemical
combination, and that this temperature is never
reached under normal working conditions.
DURAND WOODMAN,
Secretary.
GEOLOGIGAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Atv the 41st meeting of this Society, held in
Washington, D. C., January 22d, two communi-
cations were presented, one by Mr. Arthur
Keith, on the ‘Crystalline Groups of the South-
ern Appalachians,’ and the other by Prof. Chas.
R. Van Hise, of the University of Wisconsin and
the U. 8. Geological Survey, on ‘Primary and
Secondary Structure and the Forces that Pro-
duced them.’
Mr. Keith described seven classes of forma-
tions, in which no sedimentary origin appeared.
These comprised mica, gneiss and schist of three
types, granite of five types, diorite of two types,
gabbros of two types, peridotite and pyroxenite
of five types, basalt and diabase of five types,
andesite of two types, quartz porphyry and
rhyolite of four types.
216
These formations occupy long narrow belts,
comparable in extent with the sedimentary
rocks, and belts of plutonic rocks alternate with
voleanic rocks. Attention was called to the
prevalence and attitudes of the schistose plane,
due to deformation, and to the similar deforma-
tion of sediments and crystallines in the same
area. The whole series of stratigraphic and
structural results in sediments and crystallines
was classified as part of the Appalachian system.
Prof. Van Hise discussed the relations of
secondary structures to the forces that produced
them, and it was concluded that there have
been two entirely different structures described
under the term ‘cleavage.’ Following the
English geologists, it was held that one of these
structures develops normal to the pressure in a ©
deep-seated zone of rock flow, and that this
ought properly to be called ‘cleavage.’ Fol-
lowing Becker it was held that there have often
developed two intersecting structures on shear-
ing planes in the zone of fracture. For this
structure the term ‘ fissility’’ was proposed.
Mr. Becker, in discussing Prof. Van. Hise’s
paper, expressed himself as certain that true
cleavages as well as ruptures are produced at
large angles (not necessarily 45°) to the line of
force. He regards the existence of such cleay-
ages as well established, both by experiment
and by theory. In his opinion, no adequate
theoretical or experimental basis exists for as-
serting that cleavage is normal to force, and
field observations on slates leave the exact
direction of force to inference.
The communication, which was listened to
with much interest, was illustrated by a num-
ber of diagrams.
On account of the importance of the subject
it was proposed to invite Prof. Van Hise to give
the Society a more extended presentation of it
at the meeting to be held January 29th.
W. F. MorseExL.
INDIANA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE.
THE eleventh annual meeting of the Indiana
Academy of Science was held at Indianapolis,
December 27-28, 1895.
The meeting was quite largely attended and
much interest was manifested. More than forty
new names were added to our list of members.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vot. III. No. 58.
The address of the retiring President, Mr.
Amos W. Butler, on ‘Indiana: A Century of
Changes in the Aspects of Nature,’ was in-
tensely interesting and very instructive.
The papers were numerous and most of them
of importance to the scientific work of the
State.
The report of the Biological Survey on Turkey
Lake deserves special mention. It indicated a
great amount of work and will be productive of
much good in creating a deeper interest in such -
work. Many papers ought to be mentioned,
but space will not permit.
The officers for the next year are as follows:
President, Stanley Coulter, Purdue Univer-
sity; Vice-President, Thomas C. Gray, Rose
Polytechnic; Secretary, John S. Wright, Indian-
apolis; Assistant Secretary, A. J. Bigney,
Mooles Hill College; Treasurer, W. P. Shan-
non, Greensburg.
The Spring meeting will probably be held in
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SCIENCE
EDITORIAL ComMMITTEE: S. NEwcoms, Mathematics ; R. S. WoopWARD, Mechanics ; E. C. PICKERING, As-
tronomy ; T. C. MENDENHALL, Physics; R. H. THuRston, Engineering ; IRA REMSEN, Chemistry ;
J. LE ContE, Geology; W. M. Davis, Physiography; O. C. MARsH, Paleontology; W. K. BRookKs,
Invertebrate Zodlogy ; C. HART MERRIAM, Vertebrate Zodlogy ; 8S. H. ScuDDER, Entomology ;
N. L. Brirron, Botany ; HENRY F. OsBORN, General Biology ; H. P. Bownpitcu,
Physiology ; J. S. BrnLines, Hygiene ; J. MCKEEN CATTELL, Psychology ;
DANIEL G. BRINTON, J. W. POWELL, Anthropology ;
G. BROWN GOODE, Scientific Organization.
Fripay, Frsruary 14, 1896.
CONTENTS :
A Memorial Appreciation of Charles Valentine Riley :
G. BROWN GOODE cooeaile/
Scientific Materialism: IRA REMSEN.............0000 225
On a New Kind of Rays: W. C. RONTGEN......... 227
Réntgen Rays: M. I. PUPIN............-00ecesneeeeeeees 231
Experiments on the X-Rays: EDWIN B. FROsT....235
Experiments on the Rontgen X-Rays: ARTHUR
WEE GOODSREED waster estcee sasooc screen cceassecncsenen: 236
Scientific Notes and News :—
University and Educational News
Discussion and Correspondence :-—
The Declination Systems of Boss and Awwers: H.
JACOBY. The Age of Philadelphia Brick Clay: G.
FREDERICK WRIGHT. Ancient Mexican Feather
Work: ZELIA NUTTALL.........0cceeccecseseceessees 241
Scientific Literature :—
New Data on Spirula: W.H. DALL. Hunting
in Many Lands: C. H. M_ Thoulet’s Guide
@ océanographie pratique: G. W. LITTLEHALES..243
Scientific Journals :-—
The Journal of Geology ; The Psychological Review ;
Societies and Academies :—
Chemical Society of Washington: A. C. PEALE.
Biological Society of Washington. F. A. LUCAS.
Geological Conference of Harvard University: 'T.
A. JAGGAR, JR. St. Louis Academy of Science :
Wintram TRELEASE. Nebraska Academy of
Sciences: G. D. SWEZEY.......0..sescseseseeecceeesees 249
Jae) JEXOOIES: dondodoosoonoseqncocLabc ace coHoOCOCOOCOO HUES COCBG0d0 252
MSS. intended for publication and books etc., intended
tor review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
A MEMORIAL APPRECIATION OF CHARLES
VALENTINE RILEY.*
THE name of Charles Valentine Riley is
known in every part of the world where
there are naturalists or intelligent agricul-
turists. His contributions to biological
science and to agricultural economy were
extensive and important, and were very
highly esteemed abroad as well as at home.
At the time of his death he was fifty-two
years old. Those who have known him
only in recent days cannot have a full ap-
preciation of many of his most character-
istic and attractive traits. During the last
ten years, worn out by intense devotion to
his work, his energies exhausted by inces-
sant application, his nervous vitality de-
pleted by the friction of a long and arduous
official career, though still remarkable for
his force and productiveness, he was by no
means the same as in the fourth decade of
his life.
When, in 1894, he resigned his position
as chief of the Bureau of Entomology, it
was the belief and hope of his friends that,
relieved from the official burden which had
become so irksome to him, he would be
able to devote the remainder of his life en-
tirely to scientific pursuits.. With his vast
learning, his experience as an investigator,
and the opportunities for leisurely study
* Presented at the annual meeting of the Joint Com-
mission of the Scientific Societies of Washington, Jan-
uary 18, 1896.
218
which he possessed, it seemed as if the
most useful period of his life was just about
to begin. Many who are here present will
remember the dinner given in his honor
shortly after his fiftieth birthday, and how
bright and promising his future then
seemed. His untimely death prevented the
realization of our anticipations; but yet, now
that we can survey his career and review
with care his achievements, it does not
seem credible that they are those of one
suddenly cut down in the prime of his life.
They are rather those of a man who, hav-
ing lived to a good old age, had accom-
plished the work of fully two men during
each year of his activities.
His energy was boundless and untiring ;
he did with ease and facility whatever he
attempted, and rarely failed to accomplish
that which he had undertaken to do; he had
rare ability in selecting and training men
to do the work for which he had himself no
time, and in directing their labors towards
the speedy attainment of results.
He acquired in early life those habits of
feverish and restless activity which arechar-
acteristic of many of our countrymen, and
which, though they contributed materially
to magnify the results which he accom-
plished within comparatively few years,
undoubtedly shortened the period of his
usefulness.
The vast amount of work which he ac-
complished is shown by the catalogue of
his published papers, of which there are
more than 1,600, many of them of very
considerable extent, and the whole equiva-
lent to at least 20,000 octavo pages.
Professor Riley was a man of singularly
striking appearance and agreeable presence.
No one who had once seen him could for-
get him. Active and graceful, his bearing
was such that, though perhaps not more
than five feet ten inches in height, he
seemed much taller. He never lost the
easy, independent carriage which he had
SCIENCE. 2
[N.S. Von. ILI. No. 59.
acquired during his early life in the West,
and there was always something uncon-
ventional and picturesque about his cos-
tume and appearance. The broad-brimmed,
sombrero-like hat, dark in winter, light in
summer, which he almost always wore,
seemed in keeping with his swarthy complex-
ion. He looked like an artist or a musician,
and indeed he possessed the artistic tempera-
ment in a high degree. As a youth he was
urged to make painting his profession. In
early years he drew thousands of illustrations
of insects, which were characterized as much
by beauty and delicacy of line as by minute
accuracy. In later and busier times his
taste for form and color were chiefly grati-
fied in his favorite recreation of gardening.
He was a most accomplished horticulturist,
and his garden on Washington Heights was
the best kept and most beautiful in the city,
and gave evidence of the control of a master
mind.
Riley was a thorough American in habits
of thought and in sympathy, yet he often
visited the little village of Walton, on the
banks of the Thames, where he had passed
the earlier years of his life. In these visits
he learned something of his forefathers.
His peculiar Southern features, his warm
complexion, his dark eyes and hair, which
made many people suppose him to be a
Spaniard or an Italian, were derived from
amore northern Celtic race, his ancestors,
whose history he succeeded in tracing for
many generations, having migrated from
Wales to England at quite a recent day.
His schoolboy days were passed in France
and Germany, and he was but seventeen
when his restless spirit led him America.
“‘He went West and settled with Mr. G. H. Ed-
wards, whom he had met in London and who had
made arrangements to open a stock farm in Kanka-
kee county, Illinois. Here, during three years, he
acquired that experience of Western agriculture that
can be gained only by actual farm work. Fond of all
life as manifested on the farm, young Riley devoted
himself enthusiastically to the calling he had chosen.
FEBRUARY 14, 1896. ]
Of an inquiring and experimental turn of mind, he
aimed to improve on the methods in vogue, and soon
won the esteem of all who knew him ; and, though so
young, was sought for in counsel and honored at pub-
lic gatherings, at which he became intimate with
Emory Cobb and other prominent farmers of Illinois.
Under these circumstances, and with a deep love of
nature in all her manifestations, it is no wonder that
Professor Riley, as we have heard him avow, looks
back to the farming days in Illinois as the happiest
of his life.
“The experience gained on the farm has enabled
him, more than anything else, to understand the po-
sition and needs of the farmer. In writing of Prof.
Riley's farm life and the reasons why he abandoned
it, a Kankakee friend who knew him well, remarks:
“Young Riley was simply too enthusiastic and too
bent on excelling in everything. He took no rest.
Often he would be up, actually get breakfast ready to
relieve the womenfolk, and milk half a dozen cows
before the others were about. When others were
resting at noon in the shade, he would be working at
his flowers under a July sun. There was not a sick
animal of the three hundred on the place that he did
not understand and help. He kepta lot of bees, got
hold of the best bred colts and some of the best heif-
ers in the county, secured a good quarter section, and
spent his Sundays reading, sketching, and studying
insects. Three years of this increasing effort under
the trying climatic extremes of central Illinois broke
the young fellow’s health, for it was a great contrast
to his previous life, and with every one telling him
that he was wasting his talent he finally concluded
to give up the idea of farming. But had his health
not failed him, my opinion is that he would be a
farmer to-day, and a successful one too, for he has
intense love of rural life.’
“He went to Chicago in his twentieth year, with no
definite trade or profession and with little experience
of city life. Money was scarce among farmers in
those days, and his little property was so invested
that it was not available. The trials of his first few
months in Chicago are familiar to only a few of his
intimate friends, but the manner in which he over-
came them while yet in but poor health was charac-
teristic. Pride prevented him from asking help from
his Kankakee friends, but did not prevent him from
donning blue overalls and doing manual labor in a
pork-packing establishment, or from adding to his
slender income by making portraits of fellow-board-
ers, or sketches which he himself disposed of at even-
ing in the abodes of wealth on Michigan avenue.
After a while he obtained an engagement as reporter
on the Evening Journal, ut finally became connected
with the Prairie Farmer, then the leading agricultural
SCIENCE.
219
paper of the West. *Besides a close application to the
duties of his position as reporter, delineator and editor
of the entomological department of this paper, he de-
voted his time and energies to the study of botany
and entomology. His industry and versatility soon
made him not only popular with his associates upon
the paper, but gave him a widespread reputation as
a writer upon natural history, especially on his
specialty of economic entomology, the importance of
which he soon made apparent.’’ *
His adventurous temperament led him to
enlist as a private in the 134th Illinois Vol-
unteers, in which he served for several
months during the Civil War in Kentucky
and Tennessee.
Before entering the army he had made
the acquaintance of the man whom he
joined in 1868 in establishing the American
Entomologist. This friend, who was senior
editor until his death, was Dr. Benjamin D.
Walsh, State Entomologist of Illinois, and
it was Walsh to whom Riley always alluded
as his master and the man to whom he was
most indebted for his early training and in-
spiration. Mr. Walsh was a graduate of the
University of Cambridge, in the class with
Darwin, a man of great and scholarly attain-
ments and a most careful and painstaking
investigator. During the few years of his
residence in Illinois he had done much to
develop the interest in economic ento-
mology, which resulted in the establish-
ment of the position of State Entomologist
of Missouri in 1868, which was the begin-
ning of Riley’s public labors.
An important outgrowth of Riley’s per-
sonal activity in connection with his official
work was the formation of the Riley Col-
lection of insects, upon which he began
immediately after he left the army in 1864,
and which at the end of twenty-five years
included over 20,000 species, and over 115,-
000 mounted specimens, besides much other
material. The collection is in many re-
spects unique, especially so because of the
complete manner in which the life-history
*Colman’s Rural World, St. Louis, May 12, 1892.
220
of numerous individual species is repre-
sented. It is the legitimate outgrowth and
complement of Riley’s investigations, and
is a voucher for the accuracy and fulness of
his personal work in entomology. This col-
lection he gave in 1882, without condition,
to the National Museum, at that time with-
out a collection of insects. His purpose in
doing this was to place in the Museum a
worthy nucleus, and to be instrumental in
the formation of a collection which would
be worthy of the Nation. He was ap-
pointed at once honorary curator of the de-
partment of insects in the Museum, and
gave much attention to the department,
which thereafter made rapid advances.
Professor Riley’s first interest in the study
of insects was from this standpoint of a
field naturalist. He did little in system-
atic entomology; the species which he de-
scribed were but few, and he was quite con-
tent to leave monographic and critical work
to others. His tastes led him to study the
life histories, to trace each form through all
its transformations, to know its habits, its
food and its manner of life; and to under-
stand its relations to, and its influence upon,
the plants among which it lives and upon
which it feeds. To the fact that he knew
thoroughly the life histories of so many in-
sects was due the importance of his con-
tributions to economic entomology; but he
was by no means content, as I have said,
with the results in this field, although his
deep interest in agriculture and horticul-
ture led inevitably to practical conclu-
sions with regard to every species which
he studied. His writings are full of im-
portant and original observations in pure
biology, and constitute a mine of reference
for zodlogists and botanists, especially those
studying the subject of transformism or
evolution. He was indeed one of the ear-
liest American transformists. He published
an early and appreciative notice of Dar-
win’s work, and I have seen many letters
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 59.
addressed to him by Darwin. He was also
the correspondent and friend of Alfred Rus-
sell Wallace, Herbert Spencer, Henry Bates
and of other eminent workers in kindred
fields.
His writings abound in decisions of the
greatest interest to students of evolution.
His papers on ‘The Caprification of the Fig,’
on ‘The Yucca Moth and Yucca Pollination’
and on ‘Some Interrelations of Plants and
Insects ’ were especially interesting.
The most important of his philosophic
papers was his address on ‘The Cause of
Variations in Organic Forms, ’ which he de-
livered when Vice-President of the Ameri-
can Association for the Advancement of
Science, in 1888.
Passing allusion may be made to his in-
terest in other branches of science. He
had great interest in mechanical devices of
all kinds, and in 1869 read before the
French Academy of Sciences a paper on
‘The Perfecting of the Graphophone,’ which
was regarded in France as suggestive and
original. His studies of the flight of in-
sects led him to take great interest in the
problem of artificial flight; and his own
skill as a prestidigitator, in which he took
great delight, induced him to give much
attention to spiritualism, in which he was
no believer, but which attracted him on ac-
count of his own success in exposing frauds.
During the last visit to Washington of
Alfred Russell Wallace, who was a believer
in spiritualism, he succeeded in proving
impositions on the part of certain mediums
whom the English philosopher was dis-
posed to trust.
His standing as a naturalist was so high
that three years ago, when the Hope pro-
fessorship of entomology in the University
of Oxford became vacant through the death
of Professor Westwood, he was one of the
two most prominent candidates for this
position and failed of election by only a
few votes. Indeed, it was known to have
FEBRUARY 14, 1896. ]
been Professor Westwood’s own wish that
Riley should be his successor.
He was greatly interested in the estab-
lishment of an insectary, in connection with
the Smithsonian Institution, where, in con-
nection with his museum work, he might
carry out still further his investigation
into the life history of members of his
favorite group.
It was as an economic entomologist that
Riley was most widely famed. In this field
he was eminent in two respects—in adminis-
tration, as well as in his direct contributions
to the science of practical entomology, and
to the art which is its outgrowth.
As an administrator, he was associated
with three prominent undertakings: the
entomological work of the State of Missouri,
the United States Entomological Commis-
sion, and the establishment of the division
of entomology of the Department of Agri-
culture.
He held the position of entomologist to
the State of Missouri for nearly ten years,
entering upon this work at the age of
twenty-three. Concerning what he accom-
plished and how he did it, I shall allow one
more competent than myself to speak :
“In the spring of 1868 his writings upon injurious
insects brought about his appointment to the newly
created office of entomologist to the State of Missouri,
and from that time until 1877 he was engaged in the
investigation which thoroughly established his fame.
During that period he published nine annual reports,
which have become classics in entomological litera-
ture. At the time when his work was begun, the
science of practical entomology was in its infancy.
The writings of Harris and Fitch had resulted in’ the
tracing of the life-history of many of the principal in-
jurious insects, but the recommendations as to the
remedies were more or less crude, many important
points were left uninvestigated, even with the com-
monest crop enemies, and a few entirely erroneous
conclusions had been reached. Beyond the work of
these two men, practically nothing had been done ex-
cept the first report of Benjamin D. Walsh, which had
just appeared.
“Looking back over Professor Riley’s work during
these years, one cannot help being amazed at its ex-
SCIENCE.
221
tent and character, especially when one considers
that he worked single-handed, had many obstacles to
overcome, and great demands upon his time in the
way of correspondence, lectures and addresses. Every
insect which he took up (and he published upon an
‘immense number, including all that were then of
great importance) was treated from a standpoint of
absolute originality. The statements were based
upon actual field observation, and the remedies pro-
posed were the results of experiment or deductions
from a perfect knowledge of the insects’ habits and
life history. In fact, it is no exaggeration to say that
the modern science of economic entomology is based
upon and dates from the publication of these reports.
“The original edition of these reports has long
since been exhausted, but they are still continually
sought for and command high prices. They are re-
plete with the results of original research, and their
illustrations created an epoch in the science no less
than their text. The reports of the State Board of
Agriculture containing them have long been sought
by book dealers, who detach the entomological por-
tions and sell the rest to junk dealers.
“« Of these Missouri reports the late Charles Darwin
wrote that they contained a vast number of facts and
generalizations valuable to him, and that he was
struck with admiration at the author’s powers of ob-
servation.’’*
The United States Entomological Com-
mission was in existence for five years,
Riley having having been its chief from the
beginning.
“We allremember,”’ said the Pacific Rural
Press in 1887, ‘‘the sad experiences which
our Western States and Territories passed
through from 1873 to 1877, from locust or
grasshopper ravages, which resulted in des-
titution and precipitated a financial crisis.
These ravages seriously affected the western
portion of his own State, and Prof. Riley
took hold of the problem with that origi-
nality and vigor which have characterized
all of his work. His last three reports to
the State contain the first positive and ac-
curate knowledge on the subject that has
been published. But he early saw that the
subject was one of National importance,
and could not be fully dealt with by work
*L. O. Howard, A Distinguished Entomologist, The
Farmers’ Magazine, London, I., 23, F.
222
in any one State. To feel a necessity was
sufficient for him to act, and consequently
we find him in public lectures, in leading
articles, through resolutions offered at so-
cieties’ meetings, memorials to Congress,
and in every other way urging the creation
of a National Entomological Commission.
After various bills had been introduced and
discussed, Congress finally created the En-
tomological Commission, with a special view
to investigate the Rocky Mountain locust,
or so-called grasshopper, and Prof. Riley
was tendered the position as Chief of the
Commission, a distinction which his investi-
gations into this insect had justly earned,
for he had already not only made most
important discoveries as to its habits and
the best means of subduing it, but had as-
certained sundry laws that govern it, so as
to be able to predict the time of its coming
and going and the limits of its spread.
Consulted by Secretary Schurz as to the
other appointments, it is no wonder that
the members chosen were Doctor A. S.
Packard, Jr., a naturalist of eminence, one
of the first entomologists of the world, and
a prominent author and editor, and Prof.
Cyrus Thomas, who had likewise labored
for the creation of the Commission and who
was the authority on the family of insects
to which the locusts belonged. Both of
these gentlemen, like Prof. Riley, had been
chosen by their respective States as official
entomologists, and had a large personal ex-
perience in the West. Accepting charge of
the Commission thus constituted in March,
1877, we find Riley travelling that year
over most of the Western country, from the
Gulf to the South Saskatchawan, in British
America, now in company with the Gover-
nor of the State, and again with other
special officials, but everywhere exhorting
the farmers to action, making careful obser-
vations and experiments, and inspiring con-
fidence.”’
The work of the Commission was carried
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 59.
on with all the originality and vigor which
characterized his work, and its annual re-
ports contain a mass of important results,
embodying the first real and definite knowl-
edge on the subject which had seen the
light of print. One of his associates writes:
“It was mainly owing to his executive ability,
business sagacity, experience in official life, together
with the scientific knowledge and practical inventive
turn of mind in devising remedies, or selecting those
invented by others, that the work of the Commission
was so popular and successful during the last five
years of its existence.’’*
The publications of the Commission con-
sisted of five illustrated reports and seven
bulletins. Of the former, Riley, himself,
wrote that ‘‘the five taken together repre-
sent an amount of original investigation
and experiment, the practical outcome of
which has certainly never been excelled in
the annals of economic entomology.” In
these reports were discussed not only the
Rocky Mountain locust and its allies, but
the cotton worm, the Boll worm, the army
worm, the cankerworms and insects injur-
ious to forest trees.
The position of of United States Ento-
mologist was held by him during fourteen
years, or from 1878, with a brief intermis-
sion, until nearly the time of his death ; and
during the period of his incumbency the
Division of Entomology was organized. His.
successor in this position’wrote in 1890:
“The present efficient organization of the Division
of Entomology was his own original conception, and
he is responsible for its plan down to the smallest de-
tail. It is unquestionably the foremost organization
of its kind at present in existence. It has a small
permanent corps of scientific workers, who have been
trained under him and who assist in the preparation
and editing of reports, in the care of insects, the life-
histories of which are being studied, in the making of
elaborate notes, in the mounting and arranging of
specimens for permanent economic and classificatory
collections, in making drawings for illustrations to the
reports and in the very large correspondence. ‘The:
training of these assistants and their present efficiency
and standing in the scientific world is only another
*A.S. Packard, ScrrNcr, N. S., IIL., 74, F.
FEBRUARY 14, 1896. ]
instance of the thoroughness of Prof. Riley’s methods.
Several of them have gone out from this office to ac-
cept important positions under the State govern-
ments, and thus the influence of his training has be-
come widespread.’’*
His achievements in the art of practical
entomology were many, but these were they
which have been recognized as of especial
and permanent value.
He was the first to demonstrate the prac-
ticability of checking the ravages of an im-
ported species of insect by enlisting the aid
of the insect enemies which had kept it in
check in its native habitat. This was ef-
fected by the introduction from Australia,
in 1888, at his instance and by two agents
sent out from his office, of the Australian
Vedalia—a species of lady-bird, which is
the natural enemy of the ‘ Fluted Scale’
an insect which had found its way from
Southern Australia to California, and was
fast destroying the orange and lemon groves.
His studies in connection with Phyl-
loxera, the French vine pest, although not
more important than many others more
purely American in interest, may well be
referred to on account of the attention
which they attracted in France and honors
conferred upon him as a result. To him
is generally attributed the idea of reviving
etiolated French vineyards by using cer-
tain American phylloxera-proof stocks to
graft upon. In a sketch recently published
by Monsieur Valery Mayet, in the Revue
de Viticulture, certain statements are made
which I quote:
“‘This notice being written especially for grape
culturists, especial mention should be made of Riley’s
work upon insects destructive to the grape vine.
“From 1866 to 1884, during which time Riley made
numerous visits to France, there appeared a constant
succession of notes and articles upon insects inimical
to the vine, and especially upon Phylloxera. Riley
was, most certainly, one of the very earliest investi-
gators on this subject, and long before he discussed
the insect in Europe, he published in the Prairie
Farmer, of August 3, 1866, a description of the insect,
* Howard, loc. cit.
SCIENCE.
223
the first good description, since as he remarks, ‘It
had before been described only very briefly by Dr.
Fitch, in New York, in 1856, under the name of
Pemphigus vitifolii.’
** As soon as the Phylloxera had been discovered in
France ; in 1868 Riley began a correspondence with
the three naturalists who were especially interested
in this insect, J. E. Planchon, Lichtenstein and
Signoret. He even visited France in this connection.
The first idea suggested to his mind was to compare
the American species with that of Europe. ‘ Lichten-
stein and I’ wrote Planchon in 1865, ‘had the idea
that the Pemphigus vitifolii of Fitch was nothing but
our Phylloxera vastatrix. This theory was confirmed
as soon as Riley, coming for that express purpose to
Europe, assured us of the identity of the insects of
the two countries.’ Riley, on the other hand, had
remarked, in 1871:
“«The observations made by me in America and
Kurope, of the winged and wingless forms, leaves no
doubt in my mind that the insects of the two contin-
ents are identical.’
‘The successive notices published by Riley, from
1868 to 1880, upon the insect, which fora long period
of time prevented the culture of the European vine
in the United States, a series of notes, not less than
fifty-five in number, demonstrated the important
connection of this naturalist with this very important
question. His name soon became as popular in
America as that of Planchon in France.’’*
As long ago as 1873 the vine-growers of
France presented him with a gold medal,
struck in recognition of his investigations
into the history of the Phylloxera. In 1889,
as a further proof of their appreciation of
his services, they presented to him a beau-
tiful statue in bronze, while the French
government conferred upon him the Cross
of the Legion of Honor.
Associated prominently with his name
are certain practical methods for the de-
struction of insects, the use of kerosene
emulsions to protect plants and trees from
the attacks of suctorial insects, and the in-
vention and perfection, aided by Mr. W. S.
Barnard, of a very ingenious series of me-
chanical devices for spraying. insecticides
and fungicides in a liquid form, often called
the Riley system.
* Reyue de Viticulture.
224
It may perhaps be unwise to ignore the
fact that the credit of certain of Riley’s |
achievements has been claimed by others,
in some instances by those who were first
to call attention to facts out of which these
achievements have grown, in other instances
by those who were employed by Professor
Riley to carry his ideas into effect.
It would be fruitless to enter into the
consideration of any of these claims. Some
of the claimants are perhaps entitled to a
larger share of credit than has been given
them in the official publications in which
the results of their work are discussed. It
is doubtful, however, whether in any in-
stance any other would have succeeded so
soon, or so completely as did Riley. His,
in every instance, was the directing mind.
It was he who chose the man through whose
agency the work was accomplished. It was
the mind of Riley which directed, and the
will of Riley which controlled, the activities
of his agents. It is my honest conviction
that in most instances the agents would
neither have begun the work under other
circumstances, or completed it, except under
such control, and that he was able to have
done the work unaided, the results of his
first years’ efforts, when he was laboring
single-handed, fully demonstrate.
There cannot well be better evidence of
the eminence of the man and the value of
his work than the testimony of the numer-
ous journals in their comments upon his
death, and especially the journals which are
devoted to ecomonic methods rather than
those of the professional men of science.
The Canadian Entomologist, London, On-
tario, said:
‘« As an economic entomologist, taking him for all
in all, he was the most eminent the world has ever
seen.’’*
Natwral Science, London,} called him ‘the
prince of economic entomologists,’ and says
* Canadian Entomologist, October, 1895, 275.
+ Natural Science, November, 1895, 360.
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 59.
of his reports that they are ‘“ characterized
by scientific accuracy coupled with clear
and popular exposition, and while of special
value to the farmer, fruit grower and
forester, they abound with observations of
interest to the pure naturalist.”
Psyche, Cambridge, said :
“Tn his death America loses not only its best
known entomologist, but one who by his ability, sa-
gacity, example and the line his studies have taken,
has done more for the advancement of our special
science than any one America has ever reared.’’ *
The editor of The Farmers’ Magazine, of
London, wrote :
“His studies of Hessian-fly and the Hop-fly, in
England, havea direct bearing upon our agricultural
prosperity, and his election as an honorary member
of the Royal Agricultural Society, and still more re-
cently as an Honorary Fellow of the Entomological
Society of London, testify to the esteem in which he
he is held, not only by our representatives of ad-
vaneed agriculture, but also by those engaged here in
investigations in the field of pure entomology.”’ f
R. McLachlan, F. R.S., in the Entomolo-
gists’ Monthly Magazine, London, said :
“The Missouri Reports proved the thoroughness of
his work, his originality in divising mechanical
means for distributing the remedial agents he
adopted and his great skill as an artist. These Re-
ports drew forth the highest encomiums all over the
world. * * * Riley was nothing if not original.
There was probably only one real fiasco in his career.
The rapid spread of the Colorado Beetle induced him
to predict its speedy appearance on this side of the
Atlantic. The Colorado Beetle disappointed him by
not acting up to his anticipations.’’{
W. Fream, writing in the Journal of the
Royal Agricultural Society of England,
spoke of him as “the greatest agricultural
entomologist of our age,’’ and said:
“Tn him a striking presence was associated with a
versatile genius. Naturalist, linguist, artist, soldier,
he was withal a delightful companion, a sincere
friend. In that branch of study which he made pe-
ceuliarly his own he has established an ideal which few
* Psyche, November, 1895, p. 308.
+ The Farmers’ Magazine, I., 221.
{Entomologists’ Monthly Magazine, No. 378, Nov-
ember, 1895, 269.
FEBRUARY 14, 1896.]
can hope to approach and none to excel. Taken from
our midst in the early prime of life, it can neverthe-
less, with all truth, be said that in the voluminous re-
cords of his incessant work he has indeed left behind
him monumentum aere perennius.”’
G. Brown GoopeE.
SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM.
Ar the meeting of the Naturforscher-
Versammilung, held last September, at Lu-
beck, Germany, Professor W. Ostwald, of
Leipzig, delivered an address which was
received with great interest, and gave rise
to much discussion. The address has since
been published in the Zeitschrift fiir Physi-
kalische Chemie (Volume XVIII., p. 305),
under the title ‘Die Ueberwindung des
wissenschaftlichen Materialismus,’ and it
seems desirable to call attention to it in
this place, as it is highly suggestive, and its
careful study is likely to be of benefit. The
following is in the main a free translation
of the more important parts of the address:
There is one point upon which scientific
men agree, and that is that all things con-
sist of moving atoms, and that these atoms
and the forces acting upon them are the
final realities. According to this, a natu-
ral phenomenon is explained when the ex-
act nature of the motion of the atoms of the
substance exhibiting the phenomenon is
known. There is nothing beyond this.
Matter and motion are ultimate concep-
tions. This is scientific materialism. Theau-
thor believes that this view is untenable.
It must be given up and a better view sub-
stituted for it. He states particularly that
what he has to say has, at present, nothing
to do with ethical and religious conceptions.
In investigating natural phenomena we
first register and classify. From registration
we reach the system; from this the law of
nature, the most comprehensive form of
which is the general conception. The most
important element in the law is the invari-
ant, a quantity that remains unchanged
whatever changes may take place. Such
SCIENCE.
225
an invariant is mass. This did not at first
appear broad enough, and thus the concep-
tion of matter came to light, and the physical
_ law of the conservation of mass was trans-
formed into the metaphysical axiom of the
conservation of matter. By this step a num-
ber of hypothetical elements are introduced
into the conception that was originally free
from hypothesis. Itis now held that when,
for example, iron and oxygen combine, the
two forms of matter are in the compound,
only they have new properties. This the
author considers nonsense, for all that we
know in regard to a certain stuff is that it
has certain properties.
Galileo introduced the conception of the
constant working force and thus explained
the phenomenon of falling bodies. Newton
assumed the same force as acting between
the heavenly bodies and governing their
motions. These great successes led to the
conviction that all physical phenomena
might be explained in the same way. Thus
arose the mechanical conception of nature.
It is not generally noticed to what an ex-
tent this conception is hypothetical, indeed
metaphysical. On the other hand, it must
be noted that this mechanical conception of
heat, electricity, magnetism, chemism, has
not been confirmed in a single case. It has
not been possible to express the relations
by a corresponding mechanical system, so
that nothing is left unaccounted for.
The history of optics furnishes an excel-
lent example. As long as optics included
only the phenomena of reflection and re-
fraction, the mechanical conception of
Newton was satisfactory, according to
which light consists of small particles sent
out in straight lines. When later the
phenomena of interference and polarization
came to be studied, it was found that New-
ton’s mechanical conception could not ex-
plain them, and the vibration theory of
Huygens and Euler was adopted. But it
was then necessary to imagine some medium
226
which could transmit the vibrations, and
thus the hypothetical ether took its place
in the scientific mind. The phenomena of
polarization require that the vibrations
shall be transverse, and therefore the
ether must be a solid. The calculations of
Lord Kelvin have shown that a medium
with properties, such as must be ascribed
to the ether to account for the facts known,
would not be stable, in other words, that it
could not exist. Probably in order to save
the electro-magnetic theory from a like
fate, the immortal Herz, to whom this
theory owes so much, expressly declines to
see anything in it but a system of six dif-
ferential equations.
The task of science is to find the relations
that exist between realities, measurable
quantities, so that when some are known
others can be deduced. This idea is not
new. Mayer, fifty-three years ago, discov-
ered the equivalence of the natural forces,
or, aS we say to-day, of the different forms
of energy. Then Clausius, Helmholtz and
W. Thompson thought it necessary to in-
terpret the law of the equivalence of the
different forms of energy by assuming that
all the different forms of energy are funda-
mentally the same, that is to say, mechanical
energy. This was distinctly a backward
step.
How is it then possible, by means of
such an abstract idea as energy, to form a
conception of the universe, which in clear-
ness can be compared with the mechanical ?
What do we then know of the physical
world? Plainly only that which comes to
us through our sensory organs. What
conditions must be satisfied in order that
one of these organs shall be affected? We
may turn the matter in any way we
please, we find no common feature but this:
The sensory organs are affected by energy
changes between them and their environ-
ment. In a world, the temperature of
which is everywhere the same as that of
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 59.
our bodies, we could not know anything of
heat, just as we do not feel the constant
atmospheric pressure under which we live.
Only when we produce spaces with other
pressures do we gain any knowledge of it.
It is often said energy is imaginary, while
matter is the reality! Theauthor answers :
On the contrary, matter is a product of the
imagination, that we have constructed very
imperfectly in order to represent the per-
manent in the everlasting changes.
According to the author, matter and en-
ergy are not to be thought of as distinct, as
for example, body and soul. If we attempt
to think of matter as separate from the
various forms of energy nothing is left.
Matter is, in fact, nothing but a group of
different energies arranged in space. He
then makes use of this crude illustration.
Imagine yourself struck with a cane.
What do you feel, the cane or its energy?
Of course, it is the energy. The cane at
rest is harmless.
Everything that has hitherto been repre-
sented by the aid of the conceptions of force
and matter, and much more, can be repre-
sented by means of the conception of en-
ergy. We make a great gain by indulging
in no hypotheses in regard to the connec-
tion between the different forms of energy
except that which is specified in the law of
conservation, and we gain the freedom of
studying the different phenomena object-
tively.
Finally, it may be asked, is energy the
last reality? However, necessary and use-
ful for the understanding of nature energy
may be, is there nothing beyond it? Or
are there phenomena which cannot be fully
expressed by the now known law of energy ?
The author expresses the belief that energy
is not sufficient to enable us to deal with all
nature. It will probably appear in the fu-
ture as a special case of still more general
relations of the form of which we have at
present no conception.
FEBRUARY 14, 1896. ] :
In a later number of the Zeitschrift fir
physikalische Chemie, Ostwald reviews the sec-
ond edition of J. B. Stallo’s ‘The Concepts
and Theories of Modern Physics’ that ap-
peared in 1885, and expresses the hope that
the book may find half as many readers as
it deserves. The book was first issued in
1882 as one of the International Scientific
Series, and scientific men as a whole re-
garded it unfavorably, though some of them
certainly recognized the force of many of
the author’s arguments against the mate-
rialistic conceptions which were then and
are now generally held.
Ira REMSEN.
ON A NEW KIND OF RAYS.*
1. A piscHARGE from a large induction
coil is passed through a Hittorf’s vacuum
tube, or through a well-exhausted Crookes’
or Lenard’s tube. The tube is surrounded
by a fairly close-fitting shield of black paper;
it is then possible to see, in a completely
darkened room, that paper covered on one
side with barium platinocyanide lights up
with brilliant fluorescence when brought
into the neighborhood of the tube, whether
the painted side or the other be turned
towards the tube. The fluorescence is still
visible at two metres distance. It is easy
to show that the origin of the fluorescence
lies within the vacuum tube.
2. It is seen, therefore, that some agent
is capable of penetrating black cardboard
which is quite opaque to ultra-violet light,
sunlight or are-light. Itis therefore of in-
terest to investigate how far other bodies
can be penetrated by the same agent. Itis
readily shown that all bodies possess this
same transparency, but in very varying de-
grees. For example, paper is very trans-
parent ; the fluorescent screen will light up
when placed behind a book of a thousand
* From the translation in Nature by Arthur Stanton
from the Sitzungsberichte der Wiirzburger Physik-medic.
Gesellschaft, 1895.
SCIENCE.
221
pages; printer’s ink offers no marked re-
sistence. Similarly the fluorescence shows
behind two packs of cards; a single card
does not visibly diminish the brilliancy of
the light. So, again, a single thickness of
tinfoil hardly casts a shadow on the screen ;
several have to be superposed to produce a
marked effect. Thick blocks of wood are
still transparent. Boards of pine two or
three centimetres thick absorb only very
little. A piece of sheet aluminium, 15 mm.
thick, still allowed the X-rays (as I will
call the rays, for the sake of brevity) to pass,
but greatly reduced the fluorescence. Glass
plates of similar thickness behave similarly;
lead glass is, however, much more opaque
than glass free from lead. Ebonite several
centimetres thick is transparent. If the
hand be held before the fluorescent screen,
the shadow shows the bones darkly, with
only faint outlines of the surrounding
tissues.
Water and several other fluids are
very transparent. Hydrogen is not mark-
edly more permeable than air. Plates of
copper, silver, lead, gold and platinum also
allow the rays to pass, but only when the
metal is thin. Platinum .2 mm. thick al-
lows some rays to pass; silver and copper
are moretransparent. Lead 1.5 mm. thick
is practically opaque. If a square rod of
wood 20 mm. in the side be painted on one
face with white lead it casts little shadow
when it is so turned that the painted face
is parallell to the X-rays, but a strong
shadow if the rays have to pass through the
painted side. The salts of the metal, either
solid or in solution, behave generally as the
metals themselves.
3. The preceding experiments lead to
the conclusion that the density of the bodies
is the property whose variation mainly
affects their permeability. At least no
other property seems so marked in this con-
nection. But that the density alone does
not determine the transparency is shown by
228
an experiment wherein plates of similar
thickness of Iceland spar, glass, aluminium
and quartz were employed as screens.
Then the Iceland spar showed itself much
less transparent than the other bodies,
though of approximately the same density.
I have not remarked any strong fluores-
cence of Iceland spar compared with glass
(see below, No. 4).
4. Increasing thickness increases the
hindrance offered to the rays by all bodies.
A picture has been impressed on a photo-
graphic plate of a number of superposed
layers of tinfoil, like steps, presenting thus
a regularly increasing thickness. This is
to be submitted to photometric processes
when a suitable instrument is available.
5. Pieces of platinum, lead, zinc, and
aluminium foil were so arranged as to pro-
duce the same weakening of the effect.
The annexed table shows the relative thick-
ness and density of the equivalent sheets of
metal.
Thickness. Relative thickness. Density.
Platinum...... -018mm. ... 1 21°5
WEN ccm Ada{0) 00 ise 3 11:3
VARIG cerrerectocten pI ON ar ee Ciece AT
Aluminium.... 3°500 ‘‘ 200 2°6
From these values it is clear that in no
case can we obtain the transparency of a
body from the product of its density and
thickness. The transparency increases
much more rapidly than the product de-
creases.
6. The fluorescence of barium platinocy-
anide is not the only noticeable action of
the X-rays. It is to be observed that
other bodies exhibit fluorescence, e. g. cal-
cium sulphide, uranium glass, Iceland spar,
rock salt, &e.
Of special interest in this connection is
the fact that photographie dry plates are
sensitive to the X-rays. It is thus possible
to exhibit the phenomena so as to exclude
the danger of error. I have thus confirmed
many observations originally made by eye
observation with the fluorescent screen.
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 59.
Here the power of the X-rays to pass
through wood or cardboard becomes useful.
The photographic plate can be exposed to
the action without removal of the shutter of
the dark slide or other protecting case, so
that the experiment need not be conducted
in darkness. Manifestly, unexposed plates
must not be left in their box near the
vacuum tube.
It seems now questionable whether the
impression on the plate is a direct effect of
the X-rays, or a secondary result induced
by the fluorescence of the material of the
plate. Films can receive the impression as
well as ordinarly dry plates.
I have not been able to show experimen-
tally that the X-rays give rise to any calo-
rific effects. These, however, may be as-
sumed, for the phenomena of fluorescence
show that the X-rays are capable of trans-
formation. It is also certain that all the
X-rays falling on a body do not leave it as
such.
The retina of the eye is quite insensitive
to these rays; the eye placed close to the
apparatus sees nothing. Itis clear from
the experiments that this is not due to want
of permeability on the part of the structures
of the eye.
7. After my experiments on the trans-
parency of increasing thicknesses of dif-
ferent media, I proceeded to investigate
whether the X-rays could be deflected by a
prism. Investigations with water and car-
bon bisulphide in mica prisms of 30° showed
no deviation either on the photographic
or the fluorescent plate. For comparison,
light rays were allowed to fall on the prism
as the apparatus was set up for the experi-
ment. They were deviated 10 mm. and 20
mm. respectively in the case of the two
prisms. 2
With prisms of ebonite and aluminium
Ihave obtained images on the photographic
plate which point to a possible deviation.
It is, however, uncertain, and at most would
FEBRUARY 14, 1896.]
point to a refractive index 1.05. No devia-
tion can be observed by means of the fluo-
rescent screen. Investigations with the
heavier metals have not as yet led to any:
result, because of their small transparency
and the consequent enfeebling of the trans-
mitted rays.
On account of the importance of the
question it is desirable to try in other ways
whether the X-rays are susceptible of re-
fraction. Finely-powdered bodies allow
in thick layers but little of the incident
light to pass through, in consequence of re-
fraction and reflection. In the case of the
X-rays, however, such layers of powder are
for equal masses of substance equally trans-
parent with the coherent solid itself. Hence
we cannot conclude any regular reflection
or refraction of the X-rays. The research
was conducted by the aid of finely-powdered
rock salt, fine electrolytic silver powder,
and zinc dust, already many times em-
ployed in chemical work. Im all these
cases the result, whether by the fluorescent
screen or the photographic method, indi-
cated no difference in transparency between
the powder and the coherent solid.
It is, hence, obvious that lenses cannot be
looked upon as capable of concentrating the
X-rays; in effect, both an ebonite and a
glass lens of large size prove to be without
action. Theshadow photograph of a round
rod is darker in the middle than at the
edge ; the image of a cylinder filled with a
body more transparent than its walls ex-
hibits the middle brighter than the edge.
8. The preceding experiments, and
others which I pass over, point to the rays
being incapable of regular reflection. It is,
however, well to detail an observation which
at first sight seemed to lead to an opposite
conclusion.
I exposed a plate, protected by a black
paper sheath, to the X-rays, so that the
glass side lay next to the vacuum tube.
The sensitive film was partly covered with
SCIENCE.
229
star-shaped pieces of platinum, lead, zinc
and aluminium. On the developed negative
the star-shaped impression showed dark
under platinum, lead, and, more markedly,
under zinc; the aluminium gave no image.
It seems, therefore, that these three metals
can reflect the X-rays ; as, however, another
explanation is possible, I repeated the ex-
periment with this only difference, that a
film of thin aluminium foil was interposed
between the sensitive film and the metal
stars. Such an aluminium plate is opaque
to ultra-violet rays, but transparent to X-
rays. In the result the images appeared as
before, this pointing still to the existence of
reflection at metal surfaces.
If one considers this observation in con-
nection with others, namely, on the trans-
parency of powders, and on the state of the
surface not being effective in altering the
passage of the X-rays through a body, it
leads to the probable conclusion that regu-
lar reflection does not exist, but that bodies
behave to the X-rays as turbid media to
light.
Since I have obtained no evidence of re-
fraction at the surface of different media, it
seems probable that the X-rays move\ with
the same velocity in all bodies, and in a
medium which penetrates everything, and
in which the molecules of bodies are em-
bedded. The molecules obstruct the
X-rays the more effectively as the density
of the body concerned is greater.
9. It seemed possible that the geometri-
cal arrangement of the molecules might
affect the action of a body upon the X-rays,
so that, for example, Iceland spar might ex-
hibit different phenomena according to the
relation of the surface of the plate to the
axis of the crystal. Experiments with
quartz and Iceland spar on this point lead
to a negative result.
10. Itis known that Lenard in his inves-
tigations on cathode rays has shown that
they belong to the ether and can pass
230
through all bodies. Concerning the X-rays
the same may be said.
In his latest work Lenard has investi-
gated the absorption coefficients of various
bodies for the cathode rays, including air
at atmospheric pressure, which gives 4.10,
3.40, 3.10 for 1 em., according to the degree
of exhaustion of the gas in discharge tube.
To judge from nature of the discharge, I
have worked at about the same pressure,
but occasionally at greater or smaller pres-
sures. I find using a Weber’s photometer
that the intensity of the fluorescent light
varies nearly as the inverse square of the
distance between screen and discharge tube.
This result is obtained from three very con-
sistent sets of observations at distances of
100 and 200 mm.; hence air absorbs the
X-rays much less than the cathode rays.
This result is in complete agreement with
the previously described result, that the
fluorescence of the screen can be still ob-
served at 2 metres from the vacuum tube.
In general other bodies behave like air; they
are more transparent for the X-rays than
for the cathode rays.
11. A further distinction, and a note-
worthy one, results from the action of a
magnet. I have not succeeded in observing
any deviation of the X-rays even in very
strong magnetic fields.
The deviation of cathode rays by the
magnet is one of their peculiar character-
istics; it has been observed by Hertz and
Lenard that several kinds of cathode rays
exist, which differ by their power of excit-
ing phosphorescence, their susceptibility of
absorption and their deviation by the mag-
net; but a notable deviation has been ob-
served in all cases which have yet been in-
vestigated, and I think that such deviation
affords a characteristic not to be set aside
lightly.
12. As the result of many researches, it
appears that the place of most brilliant
phosphorescence of the walls of the dis-
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. If. No. 59.
charge tube is the chief seat whence the
X-rays originate and spread in all direc-
tions ; that is, the X-rays proceed from the
front where cathode rays strike the glass.
If one deviates the cathode rays within the
tube by means of a magnet, it is seen that
the X-rays proceed from a new point, 7. ¢.,
again from the end of the cathode rays.
Also for this reason the X-rays which
are not deflected by a magnet cannot be
regarded as cathode rays which have passed
through the glass, for that passage cannot,
according to Lenard, be the cause of the
different deflection of the X-rays. Hence,
I concluded that the rays are not identical
with the cathode rays, but are produced
from the cathode rays at the glass surface
of the tube.
13. The rays are generated not only in
glass. I have obtained them in an apparatus
closed by an aluminium plate 2 mm. thick.
I propose later to investigate the behavior
of other substances.
14. The justification of the term ‘rays,’
applied to the phenomena, lies partly in the
regular shadow pictures produced by the
interposition of a more or less permeable
body between the source and a photographic
plate or fluorescent screen.
I have observed and photographed many
such shadow pictures. Thus, I have an
outline of part of a door covered with lead
paint; the image was produced by placing
the discharge tube on one side of the door,
and the sensitive plate on the other. I
have also a shadow of the bones of the hand
(Fig. 1); of a wire wound upon a bobbin; of
a set of weights in a box of a compass card
and needle completely enclosed in a metal
case ; of a piece of metal where the X-rays
show the want of homogeneity, and of other
things.
For the rectilinear propagation of the
rays I have a pin-hole photograph of the
discharge apparatus covered with black
paper. It is faint, but unmistakable.
FEBRUARY 14, 1896. ]
15. I have sought for interference
effects of the X-rays, but possibly, in con-
Fic. 1.—Photograph of the bones in the fingers of a
living human hand. The third finger has a ring
upon it. c
sequence of their small intensity, without
result.
16. Researches to investigate whether
electrostatic forces act on the X-rays are
begun, but not yet concluded.
17. If one asks, what then are these
X-rays; since they are not cathode rays,
onemight suppose, from their power of excit-
ing flourescence and chemical action, them
to be due to ultra-violet light. In opposi-
tion to this view a weighty set of considera-
tions presents itself. If X-rays be indeed
ultra-violet light, then that light must pos-
sess the folling properties.
(a) Itis not refracted in passing from
air into water, carbon bisulphide, alumin-
ium, rock salt, glass or zinc.
(6) It is incapable of regular reflection
at the surfaces of the above bodies.
(ec) It cannot be polarized by any ordi-
nary polarizing media.
(d) The absorption by various bodies
must depend chiefly on their density.
SCIENCE.
231
That is to say, these ultra-violet rays
must behave quite differently from the visi-
ble, infra-red, and hitherto known ultra-
violet rays.
These things appear so unlikely that I
have sought for another hypothesis.
A kind of relationship between the new
rays and light rays appears to exist; at least
the formation of shadows, fluorescence, and
the production of chemical action point in
this direction. Now it has been known for
a long time that, besides the transverse vi-
brations which account for the phenomena
of light, it is possible that longitudinal vi-
brations should exist in the ether, and ac-
cording to the view of some physicists must
exist. It is granted that their existence
has not yet been made clear, and their
properties are not experimentally demon-
strated. Should not the new rays be as-
eribed to longitudinal waves in the ether?
I must confess that I have in the course
of this research made myself more and
more familiar with this thought, and ven-
ture to put the opinion forward, while I am
quite conscious that the hypothesis ad-
vanced still requires a more solid founda-
tion. W. C. RonreEn.
RONTGEN RAYS.
PROFESSOR RONTGEN’S discovery brings to
a close a most interesting chapter in the
history of electricity; it is the chapter
dealing with electric discharges through
rarefied gases. Experiments on electric dis-
charges through vacua have for quite a long
period now attracted the attention of phy-
sicists. Elaborate accounts of these ex-
periments can be found in the transactions
of learned societies throughout the last
century. A systematic research into the
various phenomena accompanying vacuum
discharges dates from the time of Faraday.
Plucker, Hittorf and Goldstein in Ger-
many, and Spottiswoode and Crookes in
England, may be mentioned as the foremost
232
investigators who extended very much what
Faraday had only commenced. Among the
numerous, most interesting, and indeed re-
markable, results obtained by these inves-
tigators, the behavior of the discharge,
which under certain conditions, emanates
from the negative electrode, the so-called
cathode, was always considered as the most
remarkable.
Fig. I. represents a typical form of the
vacuum tube capable of showing a strongly
developed cathode discharge. At awe have
one electrode and at 6 the other. They
consist of platinum discs attached to plati-
num wires which are sealed in the glass.
Let the electrode a be connected to the
negative, 6 to the positive pole of the in-
duction coil A. As the air pressure in the
tube is reduced, the color and the general
appearance of the discharge continually
changes character. When the pressure
reaches a small fraction of a millimeter of
mercury the intensity of the discharge in
the gas itself becomes very much reduced,
but in its place appears a strong fluorescence
of the glass. This fluorescence is produced
by faint streamers which proceed in straight
lines from the negative electrode, as indi-
cated by the straight lines in Fig. I., from
the dise at a toward the terminal ¢ of the
tube. These streamers are called the ca-
thode rays. Professor Crookes, of London,
advanced the theory that the streamers rep-
resent a fourth state of matter, which he
called radiant matter. According to this
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. III. No. 59.
theory there is matter moving from the
negative electrode, where it is projected by
the action of electric force, and whenever
this moving matter strikes the glass it causes
it to fluoresce. A radiometer interposed
properly in the path of the streamers will
be set into rotation. The fact that the
fluorescing portions of the tube become
very hot when the action of the coil is
powerful seemed to support Crookes’ hy-
pothesis, namely, that there is along the
path of the cathode rays projected matter
moving with very high velocity.
Other theories concerning these rays were
proposed, but none of them are entirely
free from serious objections. Rontgen’s
discovery will probably enable us to decide
very soon which among the several ex-
isting theories is the correct one. The
theory which probably has the most fol-
lowers on the continent will be mentioned
presently.
Cathode rays are deflected by magnetic
force; the direction of the deflection is
roughly stated the same as if each ray were
a flexible conductor carrying a current with
one of its terminals attached to the cathode.
The late Professor H. Hertz discovered in
1891 that cathode rays are capable of passing
through thin sheets of metal like gold leaf,
aluminum, silver, etc., if these sheets are
placed within the vacuum in the path of
the rays. Dr. Lenard, an adjunct to Hertz,
extended this discovery two years ago by
showing that the cathode rays can be made
to pass out of the vacuum tube into the ex-
ternal space, if the tube is provided with a
small window of thin aluminum. But as
soon as they pass into the external atmos-
phere they are rapidly absorbed; this ab-
sorption results in a flourescence of the gas.
Various gases possess various degrees of
this absorptive power and the absorption
in a given layer of gas is proportional to its
density. Solid bodies absorb them very
much more strongly on account of the
FEBRUARY 14, 1896. ]
greater density. The resulting flourescence
in gases seems to indicate that the cathode
rays in passing through a gas undergo a
diffuse reflection resembling the reflection
in a turbid medium, justas if the molecules of
the gas were very large in comparison to
the wave-length of these rays. That the
radiance which produces the fluorescence is
really a continuation of the cathode rays
is demonstrated by the fact that it is de-
flected by magnetic force.
Roéntgen’s discovery adds a new ac-
companiment to the cathode rays. Itshows
that, in addition to the heat and flourescent
light which the cathode rays generate in
the glass of the vacuum tube wherever they
strike it, there is also another form of
radiant energy generated there. R6éntgen
ealls it the X-rays. The rays will and
should, of course, be called the Rontgen
rays. They are not cathode rays, accord-
ing to the reports which have reached us so
far ; for although they are capable of pro-
ducing strong flourescence, just like the
eathode rays, they are not acted upon by
magnetic force, and not only are they not
absorbed by gases at ordinary pressure, but
even the most opaque of all substances, that
is the metals, are more or less transparent
with respect to these new rays. Cardboard,
wood, ebonite, organic substances, etc.,
are about as transparent to them as glass is
to the visible part of the spectrum. They
are neither reflected nor refracted, that is
not to any appreciable degree. They act
upon a photographic plate, but it is evident
that photography by means of these rays
cannot employ lenses and that the pictures
obtained will be shadow pictures. The ob-
ject to be photographed is placed between
the plate and the vacuum tube. It is to
to be hoped that these shadow pictures of
the interior of living organisms will soon be
perfected so as to show us the various parts
in various shades according to the absorp-
tive power of each part.
SCIENCE.
233
The question arises, what is this new form
of radiant energy? The report says that
the discoverer has expressed, but with much
reserve, his belief that it is a longitudinal
vibration of the ether. If so, then its
velocity of propagation will in all proba-
bility be much larger than that of light, and
therefore for the same period of vibration
as that of visible light these new rays may
have a very much larger wave-length.
Should this belief of the discoverer prove
correct, then we shall finally have the longi-
tudinal wave in the ether for which we
have looked so long, in order to avoid the
necessity of considering the ether an incom-
pressible solid elastic. It is well to men-
tion here that quite a large number of very
distinguished German physicists have with-
in the last few years advocated quite
strongly the theory that cathode rays are
longitudinal vibrations of the ether. Prof.
Jaumann, of Vienna, has published quite
recently a very elaborate mathematical for-
mulation of this theory. It is an applica-
tion of Maxwell’s electro-magnetic theory to
a mediun whose specific inductive capacity
and permeability vary under the action of
electric force. Such a medium is in all
probability a gas in a state of high tenuity,
as for instance in a Crookes’ tube. This
theory will not account satisfactorily the
longitudinal character of the Rontgen rays.
The correct view of this new radiant en-
ergy will undoubtly soon be formed when
new experimental data appear. In the
meantime we can rest assured that a new
entrance to the region of the ether phe-
nomena has been opened, and the impor-
tance of this fact can hardly be overesti-
mated.
After the above note had been written
the author succeeded in repeating some of
Prof. Routgen’s experiments. The tubes
employed were of an inferior quality on ac-
count of the poor vacuum. The poorer the
234
vacuum the longer must be the time of ex-
posure under otherwise identical condi-
tions. The tubes were used as electrodeless
tubes, that is, a tinfoil strip was wrapped
around each end of the tube, and then the
tinfoils were connected to a high tension
coil with disruptive spark gap and Leyden
jar. The vacuum discharge is, of course,
in such cases due to the condenser effect.
The writer’s experiments lead to the conclu-
sion that quite as powerful effects can be
produced in this manner as with electrodes,
and it obviates the risk of spoiling the tube
by excessive heating of the platinum wires
carrying the electrode discs. It is well to
observe here that with electrodeless tubes
the glass under the tinfoil becomes very
hot indeed in quite a short time, when
powerful, rapid electric oscillations are em-
ployed. Buton account of the large tinfoil
surface which is in contact with the outside
air the temperature of the tube never be-
comes dangerously high. Some of the re-
sults of the writer’s experiments seem to be
of sufficient interest to deserve a brief men-
tion here.
An under-exposed plate fails completely
to bring out the relative absorption of the
materials placed in the path of the rays.
For instance, the photograph of a cigar box
made of aluminium sheet about =. of an
inch thick and containing several opaque
objects will show no detail if the exposure
is too short. All that we see is the contour
of the box, and the area bounded by this
contour is uniformly illuminated. With a
sufficiently long exposure the contour is
still strong, but the area enclosed by the
contour is scarcely visible and the objects
in the box appear in sharp outline. Various
objects were photographed and the results
were similar to those obtained by Professors
Trowbridge and Wright. The most inter-
esting photograph obtained was that of a
pair of spectacles in a leather case (see Plate
III., Fig. 1). It bears upon the subject men-
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 59.
tioned in the last paragraph. The exposure
lasted an hour; the tube had the highest
vacuum among the several tubes employed.
In all previous photographs the lenses of
these spectacles appeared as perfectly flat
dises of high opacity. In this photograph,
however, obtained with long exposure, the
varying thickness of the lens is beautifully
marked in the negative. The central part:
of the lens is darkest, and then the inerease
in luminosity toward the edge was gradual,
showing distinctly the curvature of the lens.
This photograph seems to support the
writer’s belief that the relative amounts of
absorption in the various parts of the ob-
ject photographed are brought out in a
photographic plate if it is exposed a sufli-
ciently long time, but not otherwise. In
the photography of the human hand, for in-
stance, there is no trace of the skeleton un-
less the exposure is sufficiently long. The
contour surrounding the uniformly illumin-
ated surface of the hand is very easily ob-
tained with a short exposure. But to ob-
tain an image of the skeleton of the hand
the exposure must be sufficiently long, and
it appears that the longer the exposure the
stronger is the impression of the contour of
the bones and the weaker is that of the sur-
rounding flesh.
Prof. Réntgen’s photograph of the human
hand is the only one in which the flesh is.
almost entirely invisible. In Mr. Swinton’s
photograph the fleshy part of the hand is
nearly as strongly marked out as the bony
part. The writer cannot agree with Mr.
Swinton’s opinion that this is due to over-
exposure, and prefers to consider the pres-
ence of the fleshy part of the hand as due
to underexposure. At any rate, the differ-
ence between the Rdntgen photograph of
the human hand and the photographs ob-
tained by other experimentalists, including
the writer, seems to deserve further investi-
gation. A fluorescent screen placed in front
of the sensitive plate for the purpose of
SCIENCE. N. S. Vou. III, Prate 3.
Fig. 1. Leather case containing eye-glas:
knife, ete. Exposure 1 hour (M. I. Pupin).
Cigar case of aluminium ;'; inch thick, containing scissors,
SCIENCE. ING So WO 100K, Jeno Zh,
Fig. 1. The varying transparencies of a number of substances for the X-rays. At the top is a book ; to
its right a ‘rubber’ cork about 2 cm. high; just below that a ‘cork’ cork of equal thickness, but of far
greater transparency ; in the right lower corner is a crystal of Iceland spar, 1 em. thick; in the left lower
corner a loop of aluminium wire enclosing little Canada balsam (shows faintly ); between the loop of wire and
the spar may be very faintly seen a very thin picce of mica; above this is a hard rubber tube containing water
with cork stopper; the superior transparency of cork to that of water is well shown where the cork is pressed
into the rubber tube. (E. B. Frost. )
Fig 2. Coins in leather purse (A. W. GooDsPEED). Fig. 3. Pins in cushion (A. W. GOODSPEED).
Fuse
Kia
Z
Pena
pe avy ery
FEBRUARY 14, 1896. ]
shortening the time of exposure gave en-
couraging results. A shortening of the time
of exposure and the simplification of the ap-
paratus employed is very desirable in the
practical application of this wonderful dis-
covery. The prospects are that both will
soon be reached. It should be mentioned
in this connection that a Whimshurst or a
Holtz machine can very well be employed in
place of the somewhat complicated appara-
tus employed so far. These machines should
be used to charge a small Leyden jar and
discharge it between small spheres which
are at a suitable distance from each other.
The tinfoil coatings of the vacuum tube
should then be connected suitably to the
coatings of the jar. This arrangement is
much simpler than the one usually em-
ployed and will in all probability give just
as good results—perhaps even better, be-
cause a disruptive character of the dis-
charges seems to improve the results. This
method, however, is offered as a suggestion
only, since the writer could not procure a
statical machine in time to convince him-
self of the actual value of the suggested ar-
rangement. The practical applicability of
this method of photography to surgery seems
certain. M. I. Purin.
COLUMBIA COLLEGE, February 8, 1896.
EXPERIMENTS ON THE X-RAYS.
EXPERIMENTS with Roéntgen’s newly de-
tected X-rays have been carried on during
the past few days in the Dartmouth physical
laboratory by Prof. C. F. Emerson and the
writer, and some of the preliminary results
already obtained may be worth recording.
Of four Crookes tubes first tried, but one
emitted rays which (with the exposure
given) made a visible impression upon a
photographic plate protected from the or-
dinary luminous rays. This tube is 4.7 cm.
in diameter and is cylindrical for a length
of 16 em., then tapering to a point. The
platinum electrodes are on opposite sides of
SCIENCE.
235
the cylindrical surface and are about 5 em.
apart. A phosphorescent plate is interposed
obliquely between the electrodes. In ac-
tion the phosphorescent surface is bom-
barded by the discharge from the negative
pole. We have thus far usually excited the
tube by a current from an efficient induction
coil, but a Holtz machine has served about
equally well.
The first successful experiment gave,
after 12 minutes of exposure, a picture of a
knife and scissors hung on the side (1 cm.
thick) of a whitewood box, within which
the photographic plate had been placed.
Subsequently, the Crookes tube was sup-
ported horizontally, and the plate-holder
could then be laid upon the table and any
object interposed that was desired. No
camera was employed, and the slide of the
plate holder was not drawn, so that no ex-
posure to the ordinary luminous rays could
occur.
A coin and key concealed between two
boards of total thickness, 24 mm., were
shown after an exposure of 11 minutes, the:
tube being 15 em. above the plate. The
power of transmitting the X-rays has been
tested for a number of substances. Silver
and gold seem to be the most opaque of the
metals yet tried, although aluminium trans-
mits poorly. Glass is more opaque than
brass, and less so than hard rubber. Cork
transmits better than any other substance
examined. (See Plate 4, Fig. 1.)
An attempt to refract the rays by a car-
bon disulphide prism was unsuccessful, and
they seemed to pass through a pair of
crossed tourmalines without difficulty. No
effect except that of the usual metallic ob-
struction was noted when the wire convey-
ing the primary current was passed over the:
plate, or when the alternate current of the
house circuit was sent through a loop of in-
sulated wire resting on the plate holder.
With the tube 9 cm. above the plate an
exposure of 15 minutes clearly brought out
236
the bones of a hand laid upon the plate
holder, and subsequent plates have revealed
the bones of the hand and arm with start-
ling distinctness. (See Plate 3, Fig. 2.)
It was possible yesterday to test the
method upon a broken arm. After an ex-
posure of 20 minutes the plate on develop-
ment showed the fracture in the ulna very
distinctly. Comment upon the numerous
applications of the new method in the sci-
ences and arts would be superfluous.
Epwin B. Frost.
HANOVER, N. H., February 4, 1896.
EXPERIMENTS ON THE RONTGEN X-RAYS.
Dunrine the past week experiments have
been in progress in the physical laboratory
of the University of Pennsylvania on the
Rontgen phenomena. The apparatus has
been gradually simplified till now only a
single induction coil about 12 inches long
and 43 inches in diameter is used. The re-
sistance of the primary is about 0.3 of an
ohm, and that of the secondary about 3,200
ohms. The current for the primary is sup-
plied by eight or ten storage cells connected
two in multiple arc. The Crookes tube is
a pear-shaped one about 10 inches long and
44 inches in diameter at the larger end.
The exposure has been inconveniently
long, an hour or more giving the best re-
sults.
Impressions of several surgical cases, in-
cluding deformed fingers, fractures, etc.,
have been successfully produced. The re-
sults seem to be best where the tube is
about 5 inches from the sensitive plate, with
its longer axis vertical and the cathode at
the top. A card with a broad line of white
lead paint upon it was used, showing the
card transparent and the paint opaque.
Special experiments made by Dr. H. C.
Richards indicate that amethyst, quartz,
cale spar, mica and tourmaline are quite
opaque. In one of the experiments a 2-
inch aperture in a copper screen was placed
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 59.
2% inches below the tube. The sensitive
was 3% inches below the aperture. The
result showed that the rays in passing
through the opening were considerably dif-
fused. Experiments have been arranged to
examine the possible deviation of the rays
in passing through a wooden prism. The re-
sults as yet are not conclusive. The pictures
accompanying this article (see Plate 4) are
some of a number taken on February 5th
and 6th. Oneshows a thick leather pocket
purse containing a couple of coins. Upon the
same plate were placed a slip of thin glass
and a bit of aluminium tube. As is seen, ©
the glass and aluminium seem equally
opaque. Another of the cuts shows the
outlines of a pocket pincase taken by Dr.
R. R. Tatnall. Every pin shows clearly in
its place. Some flowers painted upon one
of the surfaces are quite visible in the nega-
tive.
In our experiments the sensitive plates
have been enclosed light-tight in an ordi-
nary plate holder and placed horizontally
upon the table beneath the tube. Upon
the slide of the plate holder were placed
the articles to be tested.
The wide field for the development and
the application of the new science will be-
come apparent to everyone. As has al-
ready been suggested, it may prove to be an
efficient mode of examination for the sur-
geon. It may also be used to judge the
genuine from the false as in the detection
of a spurious diamond or other gem from
the real.
As the X-rays are not light rays, but
probably are some form of radiant energy,
the writer has suggested the,term radiography
instead of photography for the new process.
The comments of several scientists that
the form of wave motion transmitting the
energy concerned in the R6ntgen pheno-
mena is longitudinal and not transverse,
have especial interest. It is shown in a
recent article by G. Jaumann, in Wiede-
FEBRUARY 14, 1896.]
mann’s Annalen for January, that by a
small modification in Maxwell’s equations
to satisfy the conditions of high rarefaction,
which is met with in a Crookes tube, longi-
tudinal ether waves are possible, which
would possess many of the properties of the
so-called cathode rays.
ARTHUR W. GOODSPEED.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, Feb. 8.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
GENERAL.
AN admirable portrait of the astronomer
Schiaparelli forms the frontispiece to Minerva
for 1896.
Dr. 8. P. LANGLEY has been elected one of
the Foreign Members of the Royal Society of
London. There are now six from the United
States, Alexander Agassiz, B. A. Gould, S. P.
Langley, Simon Newcomb, H. A. Newton and
H. A. Rowland.
NEw honors are being bestowed upon the
discoverers of argon. First came the Barnard
gold medal of Columbia College, then the $10,-
000 Hodgkins prize, then the prize of 50,000
franes from the French Institute and now it
is announced that Lord Rayleigh and Professor
Ramsay have been made Knights of the Legion
of Honor, by order of the French Government.
Mr. W. L. SCLATER, son of the veteran sec-
retary of the Zoological Society of London, has
been appointed curator of the South African
Museum at Capetown. Mr. Sclater was for
ssome time deputy superintendent of the Indian
Museum at Calcutta, and has more recently
been assistant master at Eton. Mr. Sclater is
a well trained zodlogist. His predecessor at
Capetown, Mr. Rowland Friman, was a botanist.
Mr. Ropert Ripeway, of the National Mus-
eum, has gone to Southern Florida to study the
spring bird migrations, during February and
March. His son, Audubon Ridgway, a prom-
ising young ornithologist, is his companion.
Mr. FRANK HAMILTON CUSHING, of the
‘Smithsonian Institution, is still engaged in the
investigation of the ancient lake dwellings
‘of southern Florida, where he has been since
December.
SCIENCE.
237
THE aquarium, which was so attractive a fea-
ture in the display of the United States Fish
Commission at the Atlanta Exposition, has been
transferred to the custody of the Smithsonian
Institution, and will be installed in the National
Zoological Park in Washington.
Tue delay of President Cleveland in appoint-
ing a Commissioner of Fisheries to succeed the
late Colonel Marshall MacDonald is quite unac-
countable. The requirements of the law as to
the qualifications for this office are so explicit
that there ought to be no difficulty in making a
choice. There are few men in the country who
possess ‘proved scientific and practical knowl-
edge of the fishes of the coast.’ The position
was created for the late Prof. Baird, who cre-
ated the organization, and brought it to a high
state of efficiency. It would seem a matter of
necessity that his successor should be a natu-
ralist and one who has had experience in the
study of fishes and the fisheries.
THE government of Greece has granted to
the American School of Archeology, at Athens,
the privilege of making excavations on the site
of ancient Corinth.
THE appointment of Dr. John §. Billings to
be chief librarian of the consolidated libraries
of New York City is a most excellent one—
though it is to be regretted that his work in
sanitary science should be interfered with.
His admirable abilities as an administrator will
have full exercise in this new position, and there
can be little doubt that he will be able to or-
ganize some new advances in bibliography as
well. Dr. G. E. Wise, of the Newberry Library,
Chicago, in a recent article in the Library
Journal, gives an appreciative survey of his
Index Catalogue of the Library of the Surgeon
Generals Office—the extent and importance of
which is just beginning to be appreciated out-
side of the medical profession.
ONE of the most extensive zodlogical works
of modern times will be Das Tierreich projected
by the Zodlogical Society of Berlin, to be edited
by Professor F. E. Schulze. It is to contain
descriptions of all the known species of animals,
prepared upon a uniform plan.
THE pictures of living walruses, in The Cos-
mopolitan for February, are from photographs
238
taken by Prof. L. L. Dyche of the University of
Kansas, and are exceedingly interesting and in-
structive. They illustrate an article by Prof.
Dyche, who accompanied Lieut. Peary to the
arctic regions.
Le mouvement scientifique aux Etats-Unis is the
title of an elaborate paper by M. Jules Violle,
of the Ecole Normale Superieure in Paris,
which has recently appeared in the Revue gén-
érale des sciences pures et appliquées, and in the
Annales du Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers. M.
Violle, who came over in the Exposition sum-
mer, writes very appreciatively of our astrono-
mers, physicists and inventors, and their work ;
and endeavors to impress upon France that it
has much to learn from the United States.
“‘America,’’ he writes, ‘‘ has already too many
advantages over us. Our most important in-
terests demand that we should struggle to pre-
serve the advantages which we still possess over
America. High intellectual culture is not a
matter of luxury or of national pride. A mere
glance at the other nations of the world demon-
strates that not only the prosperity of a country
but its very future depends upon scientific prog-
ress, at once glorious and profitable to every
citizen.’’ M. Violle’s article is elaborately illus-
trated, but the pictures are somewhat incon-
gruous with the text, exhibiting chiefly public
buildings and scenes at the World’s Fair.
THE same number of the Annales du Conser-
vatoire, has other important articles on the
Chicago Exposition-—one upon its general fea-
tures by Emile Levasseur, member of the Insti-
tute, one on the mechanical display by M.
Gustave Richard, and one upon Agriculture in
America by M. Maximilien Ringelman, of the
National Agricultural School at Grignon, who
declares that notwithstanding certain remark-
able features, our agriculture is on the whole in
a very backward and primitive condition.
These articles together fill two hundred pages
and have numerous illustrations.
PROGRESS is being made in the endowment
of a fellowship of anatomy in the Wistar Insti-
tute of the University of Pennsylvania in honor
of Joseph Leidy. Of the $30,000 required, $7,-
000 has now been subscribed. The committee
of the alumni and former students of Leidy’s
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. IfI. No. 59.
consists of Wm. C. Posey, Chairman; J. Howe
Adams, Secretary and Treasurer; Joseph P.
Tunis, Joseph Leidy, Jr., and C. H. Frazier;
and there is an Advisory Committee consisting
of C. C. Harrison, 8. Weir Mitchell, J. M. Da
Costa, Geo. A. Piersol and Isaac J. Wistar.
The money so far subscribed has come chiefly
from Philadelphia, but the endowment should
be national and international. Subscriptions
may be sent to the Treasurer or to any member
of the committees.
THE following monographs of the U. S. Geo-
logical Survey are in press and will shortly be
issued:
XXYV. The Glacial Lake Agassiz, by Warren Up-
ham. 1895. 4°. xxiv, 658 pp. 38 pl.
XXVI. Flora of the Amboy Clays, by John Strong
Newberry; a posthumous work, edited by Arthur
Hollick. 1895. 4°. 260 pp. 58 pl.
The following monographs are in prepara-
tion:
The Geology of Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden
Counties, Massachusetts, by Benjamin Kendall Emer-
son.
The Glacial Gravels of Maine and their Associated
. Deposits, by George H. Stone.
Geology of the Denver Basin, Colorado, by S. F.
Emmons, Whitman Cross and Geo. H. Eldridge.
Sauropoda, by O. C. Marsh.
Stegosauria, by O. C. Marsh.
Brontotheridxz, by O. C. Marsh.
Report on Silver Cliff and Ten-Mile Mining Districts,
Colorado, by S. F. Emmons.
Flora of the Laramie and Allied Formations, by
Frank Hall Knowlton.
A SPECIAL meeting of the Biological Section
of the New York Academy of Sciences was.
held on January 31st to discuss the origin of in-
stinet with reference to the inheritance of ac-
quired character. The meeting was called in
honor of Principal C. Lloyd Morgan, of Bristol,
who opened the discussion. He described his.
own interesting experiments with chicks and
ducklings, and held that these and other evi-
dence tend to show that instincts are not per-
fected under the guidance of intelligence and
then inherited. A chick will peck instinctively
at food, but must be taught to drink. Chicks.
have learned to drink for countless generations,
but the acquired action has not become instinc—
FEBRUARY 14, 1896.]
tive. The discussion was continued by Profs.
Baldwin, Cattell, Osborn, Hyslop and others,
and was closed by Prof. Morgan.
THE Fisheries, Game and Forest Commission
of the State of New York, in its annual report,
recommends that power be conferred upon the
Commissioners to close streams or other bodies
of water in the State for a term of years, not to
exceed five, when in their judgment it is neces-
sary to resort to such procedure to enable fish
planted by the commission to obtain suitable
size, before fishing of any kind is permitted.
It is stated that salmon planted in the Hudson
River would do well if it were not for dams and
nets. The Commissioners recommend as a
public necessity that two bodies of water in the
Adirondack region, to be selected by the Com-
mission, be set aside by law and used as stock
waters to supply eggs of lake trout and other
fish for the public waters of the State. They
also recommend that forest lands in the Adiron-
dack and Catskill region be purchased, until
the entire area be included in the forest pre-
serve.
THE Proceedings of the Chemical Society
(London) issued on January 14th contain an
abstract of a paper by Prof. Dewar, on the
liquefication of air and research at low tempera-
tures. The author reviewed the forms of ap-
paratus that had been used in low temperature
research, pointing out that the best and most
economical plant for the production of liquid
air or oxygen was one based on the general
plan of the apparatus used by Pictet in his
celebrated experiments on the liquefaction of
oxygen in the year 1878. He described his
own experiments, and stated that Prof. Ol-
zewsky’s claim to priority was fantastic. In
the discussion that followed Lord Playfair and
Dr. Armstrong deprecated the attacks that had
been made on Prof. Dewar. Mr. Blount de-
scribed the Linde process for liquefying air.
Trials of the process had been made on a con-
siderable scale, and there appeared to be no
difficulty in liquefying air cheaply and in quan-
tity. At the close of the exercises Prof. Dewar
said that the late Prof. Wroblewski, as early as
the year 1884, predicted that liquid air would
be the refrigerating agent of the future; his
‘prophecy seems about to be realized.
SCIENCE.
239
WE learn from Nature that at their scientific
meeting on March 3d the Zoological Society of
London propose to discuss the much-vexed
question of zoological nomenclature. This sub-
ject will be introduced by Mr. Slater, the Secre-
tary of the Society, who will read a paper on
the ‘Rules for naming Animals,’ lately adopted
by the German Zoological Society, and point
out the divergences between them and what is
called the Stricklandian Code of Nomenclature,
recognized by the British Association, and
usually followed in Great Britain.
THE Agricultural Society of Austria has con-
cluded arrangements for holding an interna-
tional agricultural machinery fair in Vienna,
which is to be opened on March 9th, and will
last for six days.
Pror. D. G. Brinron began on February 7th
a course of eight lectures on the ‘Scientific
Study of Man,’ to be given on successive Fri-
days at the Academy of Natural Sciences. The
lectures are as follows :
1, ‘The Universe and Man from the Stand-
point of Science;’ 2, ‘Man’s Position in the
Chain of Animal Life;’ 3, ‘The Origin of Man;’
4, ‘The Races or Varieties of Man;’ 5, ‘The
Geographic Distribution of Man;’ 6, ‘Man as a
Wild and as a Domesticated Animal;’ 7, ‘The
Metaphysical in Man;’ 8, ‘The Man of the
Present and the Future. ’
AT the annual meeting of the American For-
estry Association in Washington the member-
ship was reported to be 632, and it was an-
nounced that the Association would be incor-
porated in the District of Columbia. The es-
tablishment of a monthly or bi-monthly publi-
cation, as the official organ of the Association,
was recommended, and a plan was submitted
for the affiliation of State Forestry Associations
with the National Association.
M. JuLEs REISET, the eminent chemist and
agriculturist, member of the Paris Academy of
Sciences, died at Paris on February 5th, aged
78 years.
RESOLUTIONS have been adopted by the New
Mexico Agricultural Experiment Station to the
effect that great injury has already been done
to the agricultural and horticultural interests
of the Southern States by the introduction of
240,
injurious insects, and that to prevent such in-
troduction horticultural quarantine officers
should be stationed at various Southern ports,
and that in addition an agent of the Depart-
ment of Agriculture should be sent to study the
injurious insects in Mexico, Central America
and the West Indies.
Pror. S. W. Holman, of the Massachusetts
Institute of Technology contributes to the De-
cember number of The Philosophical Magazine
an article on galvanometer design in which he
concludes that it is practically useless to wind
turns within a distance of about one-quarter of
the needle-length of the coil centre, and that to
increase sensitiveness the needle must be made
as short as is consistent with torsion of suspen-
sion. Those who describe sensitive galvanom-
eters, and especially instrument makers in cata-
loguing are urged to present the data.
d = deflexion in mm. with scale at 1 metre from
galvanometer.
¢ = current in amperes producing that deflection.
g =the galvanometer resistance as connected up
when d is observed.
t = the time of single swing of the needle when ¢
is measured.
TuHE Board of Health of New York City has
passed a resolution providing that all dealers in
milk must secure a license from the Board, and
licenses will only be granted to those whose
dairies have been properly inspected.
WE have received the first number of The
Technical Journal, a bi-monthly publication
adopted as the official organ of the Alumni As-
sociation of the Hebrew Technical Institute.
Mr. Max Loewenthal, 248 East 78th St., is the
editor and publisher.
The British Medical Journal states that inocu-
lation of the virus of small-pox was practiced
in Russia in very early times, the system hay-
ing probably been introduced into the Caucasus
from Greece or Turkey, the Tcherkesses adopt-
ing the habit of protecting their women from
the disfigurements of natural small-pox. The
method used was pricking in the virus else-
where than on thearm. In China, onthe other
hand, the practice was, and still is, to some de-
gree at least, to insert moist small-pox crusts in
the nostril, even to blowing the virus up the
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 59.
nostril. Queen Catherine of Russia was inocu-
lated in 1768, and very many followed her ex-
ample, especially those near the Court; and as
early as 1772 government facilities for securing
inoculation were given, free operations being
inaugurated in St. Petersburg, Kazan, and even
Irkutsk, in Siberia.
THE investigations carried on by the geologi-
cal department in the University of Wisconsin
during the autumn quarter were as follows:
By C. R. Van Hise: A final revision of Princi-
ples of pre-Cambrian North American Geology,
a manuscript of about 500 pages of typewritten
material, to appear in the 16th Annual Report
of the Director of the U. S. Geological Survey;
a final revision of a report upon the Marquette
iron-bearing district of Michigan, about 1,000
pages of typewritten manuscript and 40 maps,
to be published as a monograph with accom-
panying atlas by the U. 8. Geological Survey.
By Wm. H. Hobbs: A study of material col-
lected in connection with an investigation of
the structural geology of portions of Litchfield
county, Conn., and Berkshire county, Mass., to
be published in a report of the U. 8. Geological
Survey. With C. K. Leith, a study of ancient
voleanic rocks from areas in the Fox River
valley. By J. Morgan Clements: Continuation
of an investigation on the pre-Cambrian vol-
canics of the Michigamme district. By S.
Weidman and E. R. Buckley: A study of the
geology of the vicinity of Wausau, Wis.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
AccorDING to the fifth edition of Minerva
the attendance of students at the beginning of
last year at the thirty largest universities in the
world was as follows:
HL PeBELIUN! ces «cess 12. Leipzig ........... 2,957
2. Vienna .... 13. Edinburgh ...... 5,924
3. Madrid 14. Cambridge ...... 2,893
4. Naples TGS TERRE Cocaoooooncbc0d 2,859
5. Moscow 16. St. Petersburg..2,804
6. Budapest......... 3,892 17. Michigan ........2,772
7. Munich........... 3,561 18! Kajew <-..c...c... 2,417
8. Athens............ 3,331 19. Pennsylvania ...2,400
9. Harvard ......... 3.2902 O eMC besescmneneeae 2,355
10. Oxford ............ 3,206 21. Yale... .2,350
11. Manchester ...... 3,000 22. Minnesota........2,171
FEBRUARY 14, 1896.]
23. Glasgow ......... 2,080 2
24. Rome ............. 2
25. Barcelona ........ 2
26. Helsingfors
The number of students in the Paris faculties
was 11,010. Auditors are included in the
number of students, which detracts from the
value of the statistics. Thus there were 4,963
auditors at Naples, and only 77 matriculated
students. At Berlin there were 4,807 auditors,
but the number given above does not include
students (2,632) in the Technical. School, those
(780) in the Agricultural School, nor those (398)
in the Veterinary School. The order of the
American universities and colleges having more
than 1,000 students is: Harvard, Michigan,
Pennsylvania, Yale, Minnesota, Columbia,
California, Cornell, Chicago, Wisconsin, Ne-
braska, New York, Toronto, Boston, Wesleyan,
Princeton, Stanford, Montreal.
THE south division of Hope College, at Brown
University, was badly damaged by fire on the
4th inst. The total loss to the University, and
to the students who occupied the building as a
dormitory, was about six thousand dollars.
On February 3d the Trustees of Columbia
College adopted the following resolution: ‘‘ That
in all official publications hereafter issued by or
under authority of the Trustees, all the depart-
ments of instruction and research maintained
and managed by this corporation may, for con-
venience, be designated collectively as ‘Colum-
bia University,’ and the School of Arts, as the
same is now known and described, may here-
after be designated as ‘Columbia College,’ or
‘The College.’’’? They also resolved that the
new site of the University should be dedicated
on May 2d, at which time the corner stone of
three of the new buildings will be laid. Ex-
Mayor Hewitt, class of ’42, has been invited to
deliver the oration.
Nature states that the Council of the Royal
Geographical Society offer in the University of
Cambridge for the present academical year a.
Studentship of £100, to be used in the geographi-
cal investigation (physical or historical) of
some district approved by the Council. Candi-
dates must be members of the University of not
more than eight years’ standing from matricula-
SCIENCE.
241
tion, who have attended the courses of lectures
given in Cambridge by the University lecturer
in geography. Applications should be ad-
dressed to the Vice-Chancellor not later than
March 13, 1896.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
THE DECLINATION SYSTEMS OF BOss AND
AUWERS.
THE recent paper by Dr. Chandler on the
declination systems of Boss and Auwers has.
been followed by another paper on the same
subject by no less an authority than Prof. New-
comb. This paper appears in the Astronomical
Journal of February 3d. Prof. Newcomb comes
to the same conclusion as Dr. Chandler, namely,
that the system of Auwers has now become so
erroneous as to be quite unfitted for use asa
standard. It is of course well known that
Auwers’ system is in need of revision; indeed.
we believe that such a revision is now in prog=
ress under the direction of the author himself.
We cannot see, however, that Prof. Newcomb’s
paper throws any new light on the matter. As
we pointed out in our notice of Dr. Chandler’s
paper, it is at present a matter of individual
opinion how much weight should be attached to
Bradley’s observations. The vast majority of
astronomers think that they are entitled to
some weight in the formation ofa system. Yet
they receive no weight whatever in Boss’ system
which Dr. Chandler and Prof. Newcomb think
should now be employed in place of Auwers’..
Prof. Boss has not made public his opinion
as to the weight due to Bradley’s observations,
so far as we know. That he attached no weight
to Bessel’s reduction of Bradley appears of
course from his work on standard declinations,
but whether he would do the same with Auwers’
reduction of Bradley we do not know at present.
Coming now to the actual arguments ad-
vanced by Prof. Newcomb, we will first state
very briefly what they are. Passing over those
which appear to be of minor importance, we
would call special attention to the results pre-
sented in Section III. of Prof. Newcomb’s
paper. Here are tabulated the corrections to
Boss’ declinations of twenty stars, divided into
two groups of ten each, and each covering about,
two degrees of declination. The corrections
are given for the epoch 1755, when they depend
on Auwers-Bradley; 1875, when they depend
on Pulkowa; 1880, depending on Greenwich;
1885, on Pulkowa; and finally, 1890, depending
on Greenwich. The corresponding corrections
for 1847, which is the mean epoch of Boss’
system, are taken as zero. From the fact that
these corrections to Boss do not vary uniformly
with the time, Prof. Newcomb draws the con-
clusion that Bradley’s observations must be in-
consistent with the truth, which seems to imply
that they are to be accorded no weight in form-
ing a normal system. Yet we may well ask
whether the numbers given by Prof. Newcomb
are accurate enough to furnish any information
of reliability. In his zone A the correction to
Boss for 1755 is -2/7.23. But the ten numbers
-of which this is the mean have a range of no
less than 4/7.00. So we can hardly escape
the conviction that the whole conclusion may
be vitiated by a large error in a particular
star. That this has occurred is not altogether
impossible. For zone B the corresponding
mean is 0/7.27, with a range of 2/7.30 in
the ten numbers whose mean has been taken.
We cannot regard conclusions based upon evi-
dence so discordant as final. It is to be noted
also that only one of the twenty stars used by
Prof. Newcomb is to be found in Boss’ mean
system. The other nineteen stars are among
those taken by Prof. Boss from the catalogues
which were not used in forming the mean sys-
tem, but which were reduced to the mean sys-
tem by the aid of systematic corrections. In-
deed in all researches with Boss’ system we are
met at every step by the insuperable difficulty
that his original mean system does not contain
stars enough to get rid of casual errors in indi-
vidual stars. While therefore we agree with
Prof. Newcomb’s final conclusion that the system
of Auwers cannot be regarded as definitive, and
that it requires revision, we wish to point out
that the same is true of the Boss system. And
finally we wish to repeat our former statement
that it is not at present practically possible to
employ the Boss system, because the reductions
to that system for the recent accurate cata-
logues have not been published. This has been
done with care for the Auwers system, and un-
SCIENCH.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 59.
til it has been done for the Boss system astron-
omers wishing to deduce for any purpose the
most accurate declination of a star from all the
catalogues will have to use the Auwers sys-
tem. H. J.
THE AGE OF THE PHILADELPHIA BRICK CLAY.
In Prof. Salisbury’s last excellent report on
the Surface Geology of New Jersey some of
the most important points are likely to be over-
looked by reason of the different names applied
to the same formation by successive investi-
gators. Fully to appreciate the light which
Prof. Salisbury’s investigations shed upon some
of the points recently under discussion, it is
necessary, after the manner of the mathema-
ticians, to substitute in one equation its equiva-
lent in another.
What was formerly referred to as the ‘ Phila-
delphia Brick Clay’ was later correlated with
the ‘Columbia.’ This, however, is now prop-
erly described by Prof. Salisbury in the New
Jersey report (from its place of greatest develop-
ment in that State), under the name of ‘James-
burg,’ of which he says there can be no doubt
that it corresponds to the Columbia. This de-
posit as developed on the Pennsylvania side of
the Delaware River, from Philadelphia to Tren-
ton, was very carefully studied fifteen years
ago by the late Prof. Carvill Lewis, his views
regarding it being embodied in various papers
published about that time and finally in the
last chapter of Abbott’s ‘Primitive Industry’
(pp. 524-527), published in 1881. His conclu-
sions were ‘‘that this clay may be assigned to
a period when the land stood 150 feet or more
below its present level, and when the cold
waters from the melting glacier bore ice rafts
which dropped their boulders.”’
After going over much of this field with Prof.
Lewis, I adopted these views and incorporated
them into my various references to the subject.
(See especially Proc. of the Boston Soe. of Nat.
Hist., Jan. 19, 1881, p. 141; Ice Age in North
America, p. 523, and later in Am. Jour. Sci.,
March, 1894, pp. 180, 181.) It is gratifying to
see that Prof. Salisbury’s studies upon the New
Jersey side of the river lead him to substan-
tially the same conclusions. First, in opposi-
tion to Mr. Upham, he now holds that (p. 126)
FEBRUARY 14, 1896. ]
“it seems certain that the formation (James-
burg) was produced during the submergence of
the area which it covers;’’ secondly (p. 128),
that ‘‘the period of submergence must have
been short;’’? and thirdly (p. 129), that ‘‘the
amount of erosion accomplished since the de-
position of the Jamesburg is slight. This is
shown , x x by the undissected flats of this
material, even where in close association with
considerable streams. , , , Either the forma-
tion is very recent, or conditions since its de-
velopment have been most unfavorable for
erosion , x ». The small amount of erosion
which it has suffered seems hardly consistent
with its correlation with the earliest glacial
epoch.’’
In order to understand the distinct advance
here made, one has but to refer to Prof. Cham-
berlin’s article in the American Journal of
Science, for March, 1893, pp. 191, 192, where
he enumerates among the features which he
thinks ‘may be accepted as demonstrative,’
first, that ‘‘an older fluviatile deposit (the Phil-
adelphia Brick Clay) is to be associated in age
with the old glacial drift,’’ and ‘‘that after the
formation of this older river deposit, which took
place at a low altitude and a low gradient, there
was an epoch of elevation and erosion, during
which the Delaware cut its channel down to the
depth of 200 or 300 feet below the upper old ter-
race.’’ It would seem now that this interpreta-
tion must be abandoned for the Delaware, as a
similar interpretation had to be abandoned for
the gravel terraces near the junction of the Cone-
wango and the Allegheny Rivers two years ago.
Mr. Salisbury is undoubtedly correct in believ-
ing that these high level gravel and clay de-
posits in the Delaware Valley, in the vicinity
of Trenton, are of comparatively recent deposi-
tion. They are not older, but younger, than
the erosion of the rock channel of the Dela-
ware.
I may say in conclusion, also, that the investi-
gations of Prof. E. H. Williams, in the Lehigh
Valley, which have been too little noticed,
seem positively to show that the river channels
of that whole region had been worn to nearly
their present depth of rock bottom before the
earliest period of glaciation. I trust that re-
newed attention will be attracted to this diffi-
SCIENCE.
243
cult problem concerning which so many facts
have now been accumulated.
G. FREDERICK WRIGHT.
OBERLIN, O., January 29, 1896.
ANCIENT MEXICAN FEATHER WORK AT THE.
COLUMBIAN HISTORICAL EXPOSITION AT
MADRID, 1892. i
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: Under the
above title a contribution of mine has appeared
in the recently issued Report of the U. 8. Com-
mission on the Madrid Exposition, Government
Printing Office, Washington, 1895. Owing to
the fact that the proofs were not sent to me for
revision, my paper contains several typograph-
ical errors, three of which particularly demand
correction. It being too late to rectify these
errors by any other means, I have adopted the
present method of doing so, with the hope and
earnest request that possessors of copies of the
report will duly note them therein, in order to:
prevent future misunderstandings. On page
332 read that I identified the shield ‘ of Phillip
II.’ at the Royal Armory, Madrid, as being of
Hispano-Mexican workmanship, in ‘ October,
1892,’ instead of ‘1893,’ as printed.
On page 335 read the ‘tiny,’ instead of the
wing feathers * * * that grow on the heads and
breasts of tropical humming birds.
On page 337 read Mr. Phillip Becker instead
of ‘Bectier(?)’ I need scarcely state that, in
my original text, the name of my late, highly
esteemed friend, is correctly given and is not
followed by an interrogation point.
Thanking you, in advance, for kindly afford-
ing me the opportunity to do myself justice.
Yours truly,
ZELIA NUTTALL.
JANUARY 14, 1896.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
NEW DATA ON SPIRULA.
Zoology of the Voyage of H. M. S. Challenger : Part
I., XX XIII. Report on Spirula. By T. H.
HUXLEY and. P. PELSENEER. VIII., 32 and
12 pp. 4°, and six plates. 1895.
The eighty-third and last part of the zodlogi-
cal series of reports on the scientific results of
the Challenger expedition could not be issued
in one of the zodlogical volumes on account of
delays in its preparation. These delays were
244
intimately associated with the failing health of
Prof. Huxley, who after making a splendid
series of anatomical drawings, illustrating
nearly every detail of the gross anatomy, felt
himself unable to supply the text. He there-
fore placed his notes and drawings at the dis-
position of Dr. Pelseneer who has furnished a
description of them, together with some addi-
tional details drawn from his examination of
two other specimens submitted to him by Prof.
Giard.
It is probable that there were reasons why
the work was not made more complete which do
not appear in the preface, and in this way the
absence of histological details may be accounted
for. As regards the gross anatomy there is,
doubtless, little left for future anatomists now
that Huxley has cleared the path, and the pres-
ent monograph will remain for the future the
standard of reference for this genus. This be-
ing the case, the rarity of the animal being
considered, it is perhaps worth while to point
out wherein Dr. Pelseneer has come to too
hasty and even erroneous conclusions from the
data he possessed. The U.S. National Museum
possesses a nearly perfect specimen of Spirula
taken from the mouth of a deep-sea fish trawled
in the Gulf of Mexico, and also a fragment
found at Palm Beach, Florida. The possession
of the former enables me to correct certain de-
tails of the monograph.
Spirula is a remarkable animal for a cuttle-
fish. It is short and stout, with the posterior
(caudal) end blunt, truncate and furnished with
what looks like a sucking disk nearly as large
as the diameter of the animal’s body. In the
cavity of this organ is seen a central prominence
of cartilaginous consistency, the homologue of
the terminal cone of Belemnites or Onychoteuthis
robusta. On each side the ‘fins’ or lateral ex-
pansions of the mantle occupy a dorso-ventral
plane and lateral and terminal position instead
of being, as in the quickly swimming forms, in
the dorsal plane or parallel to it. In short, they
look as if they were adapted to serve as but-
tresses if the animal should fasten itself to some
hard object by its terminal disk, with its body
in a vertical attitude, like a sea anemone.
Spirula is extremely rare in collections, though
its siphunculated shell is abundant on the
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 59.
beaches or floating on the sea in certain regions.
Nearly all the specimens which have been taken
with soft parts more or less preserved are of two
sorts; one has the cylindrical muscular cortical
portion complete and uninjured, but the head
and viscera are missing, leaving the rest buoyed
up by the shell. The other sort has the viscera
and terminal portions in a perfect state, but the
outer layers of the cortex lacerated or removed.
The National Museum specimen is of the latter
kind; the epithelium, chromatophoric layer and
part of the strong muscular layer below it, are
scraped off and partly hang in strings scratched
longitudinally from the tail end forward to the
margin of the cylinder. The delicate outer
layer over the posterior end is perfectly intact,
as are the fins. There can be no reasonable
doubt that this scraping is due to the teeth of
the fish in whose mouth it was found. Both
the Challenger and the Blake specimens were
in this condition, and Prof. Giard’s were also
incomplete, though to what extent Pelseneer
does not state. The aboral disk is strongly at-
tached to the shell, and when the specimen is
fresh and elastic, if the end of the finger is
pressed upon the disk and withdrawn, a distinct
sensation of suction is felt, though the harden-
ing effect of the alcohol puts an end to this after
a time. ‘
Now, the only hypothesis which seems to
reconcile all the facts in the case is that the
aboral disk may serve as a means of attachment
to hard bodies, so that the Spirula, while not
unable to swim, is in general sedentary. This
explains why living specimens are not taken
free in the ocean. When alive, on this hypo-
thesis, it usually adheres to hard bodies. If it
relaxes its hold, through disease or weakness,
it slowly rises by the gas contained in the
chambers of the shell, and the viscera under
this condition decay first. If forcibly pulled off
from its perch by a fish, the epithelium is
likely to be lacerated, something difficult to
explain if the animal were taken free swim-
ming, as the swimming cephalopods taken
from fish stomachs are not lacerated in this
manner when small enough to be swallowed
whole. It is undoubtedly a deep-water animal.
The testimony of Rumphius is rightly re-
jected by Pelseneer, but we cannot agree with
FEBRUARY 14, 1896. ]
him that it is necessary to abandon the hypo-
thesis above mentioned, at least until some
other function is proved for the terminal disk.
Pelseneer.seems to think that the rostral papilla
may be covered with an external shell in the
living animal, but for this there is no evidence
as yet, and hardly any justification.
. In most specimens the peripheral cortex has
two lobes covering the lateral planes of the
shell and leaving a certain portion of the outside
of the whorl, dorsal and ventral, in front of the
terminal disk, more or less exposed. Owen
describes the epithelium as extending out over
these areas of shell but not entirely enclosing
them. Steenstrup describes a specimen in
which the shell ‘‘ was distinctly covered dor-
sally and ventrally, where the skin grew thin
above it.’”’ Upon this Pelseneer observes, ‘‘As
one might expect, this last assertion is abso-
lutely incorrect,’’? and ‘‘there is no portion of
the integument, however thin this may be,
which passes over the shell, contrary to the
opinion of Owen and Steenstrup.’’
How difficult is the réle of infallibility, may
be judged by the fact that, in the National
Museum specimen of Spirula, not only do the
epithelial and chromatophoric layers extend,
where untorn, completely over the dorsal ex-
posure of the shell, but the underlying outer
muscular coat, * as thick and tough as parchment,
does the same; while, on the ventral side, the
rags of this covering torn by the fish’s teeth
show that here also the shell was completely
covered. The solid basal coriaceous part of the
integument preserves its usual form. Huxley’s
figures of Spirula Peronti (Pl. I., figs. 1-8, 5-6)
indicate the same state of affairs with great
clearness, and the ragged edges of the torn in-
tegument are perfectly depicted. These are,
however, interpreted by Pelseneer thus: ‘‘ The
margins of the openings appear to be fixed, and
to have thus sent short irregularly cut pro-
longations over the shell.’’? It would be rash,
not having seen the specimen, to assert that
these ‘prolongations’ are simply the rags of
the former covering, but it is certain that in
one species of Spirula (that referred to as S.
australis by Pelseneer) in the adult animal the
* Corresponding to Pelseneer’s first and second
dJayers.
SCIENCE.
245
shell is completely covered by the integument,
as was the opinion of Steenstrup.
Adams and Reeve have figured a very young
Spirula, which Owen believed to be complete,
in which the terminal disk was absent and the
lateral lobes cover only a small part of the last
whorl of the shell. Pelseneer has figured hypo-
thetical stages of development for Spirula show-
ing a gradual enlargement of the lateral lobes
of integument. In most specimens so far ob-
served, portions of the shell are certainly un-
covered. It is not an extreme hypothesis to
suppose that in the fully adult animal the in-
tegument in most cases will wholly enclose the
shell.
The shell of Spirula is enrolled with the ven-
tral side concave, and Pelseneer observes that
the ‘‘other molluscs with rolled up univalve
shells present, when they have not under-
gone torsion, a dorsal or exogastric rolling up,
e.g., Nautilus, embryonic Patella and Fissurella.’’
The learned doctor forgets that Patella and
Fissurella are rolled up in opposite directions,
and that Hissurella, if prolonged into a tube and
coiled as it begins, would have an ‘ endogastric’
whorl like Spirula. Aliquando dormitat Homerus.
In 1878 I saw in the Godefroi Museum, since
acquired by the city of Hamburg, a large series
of Spirula from the South Seas. They were
partly fragmentary, but I believe comprised
several perfect specimens which might throw
light on doubtful points. The specimen in the
National Museum came from a fish trawled in
324 fathoms in the northern part of the Gulf of
Mexico, between the delta of the Mississippi
and Cedar Keys, Florida. The color is yellow-
ish white, with ferruginous and dark purple
dotting profusely distributed. The specimen is
a female. The temperature of the water at the
bottom was 46°.5 F. It had evidently just been
seized by the fish, for, except the lacerated epi-
dermis, it is in most perfect preservation.
In conclusion we may note that perhaps the
most important result of Dr. Pelseneer’s analysis
of the characters of Spirula is its final reference
to the Oigopsid group. Owen had stated facts
also confirmed by the data of paleontology
which should have resulted in this classification
more than fifteen years ago; but there has been
a singular delay in accepting it. After the full
246
details, now laid before the systematist, he
should not longer delay his acceptance of the
reform. Wm. H. DALL.
Hunting in Many Lands—The Book of the Boone
and Crocket Club. Edited by THEODORE
RoosEVELT and GEORGE BIRD GRINNELL.
New York, Forest and Stream Publishing
Co. 1895. 8°, pp. 447, illustrated.
The Boone and Crocket Club is an organiza-
tion whose principal objects are: the preserva-
tion of the large game of America, the promo-
tion of exploration in little known lands, the
record of observations on the natural history of
our wild animals, and the promotion of manly
sport with the rifle. It is interested also in
forest preservation. Membership is limited to
one hundred, and no one is eligible who has
not killed ‘in fair chase’ at least one kind of
American big game.
The Club has done much good in diffusing a
healthy sentiment against illegitimate hunting
nd unnecessary destruction of game, and in
aiding the enforcement of game laws in the
various states. It has been largely instrumental
also in accomplishing the passage by Congress
of an act for the protection of the Yellowstone
National Park; and still more recently has se-
cured the passage by the State Legislature of
an act incorporating the New York Zodlogical
Society, which Society will soon establish, in
the neighborhood of New York, a great Zodlogi-
cal park.
Several years ago the Boone and Crockett
‘Club published a volume entitled ‘ American
Big Game Hunting,’ which was made up of
articles by well known writers on the game of
our own country. This, and Mr. Roosevelt’s
personal writings, particularly his ‘Wilderness
Hunter,’ which is incomparably the best book
ever written on the large mammals of America,
made it desirable to select a wider field. The
present volume, ‘Hunting in Many Lands,’
contains chapters on Hunting in East Africa,
by W. A. Chanler; To the Gulf of Cortez, by
George H. Gould; A Canadian Moose Hunt,
by Madison Grant; A Hunting Trip in India,
by the late Elliott Roosevelt; Dog Sledging in
the North, by D. M. Barringer; Wolf-Hunting
in Russia, by Henry T. Allen; A Bear Hunt in
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 59.
the Sierras, by Alden Sampson; The Ascent of
Chief Mountain, by Henry L. Stimson; The
Cougar, by Casper W. Whitney; Big Game of
Mongolia and Tibet, by W. W. Rockhill; Hunt-
ing in the Cattle Country, by Theodore Roose-
velt; Wolf Coursing, by Roger D. Williams;
Game Laws, by Charles E. Whitehead; Protec-
tion of the Yellowstone Park, by George S.
Anderson. It contains also an interesting ac-
count of the Yellowstone National Park Protec-
tion Act, some Head Measurements of Trophies,
and the By-Laws and List of Members of the
Club.
The book is well gotten up, entertainingly
written, and abounds in facts of interest to the
naturalist. The editors are to be congratulated
in securing such a choice selection of articles,
and on bringing out the book in such attractive
form. Cc. H. M.
Guide d'océanographie pratique. J. THOULET.
Paris, G. Masson & Gauthier-Villars et fils.
1895. Pp. 224.
This is a simple, brief, and satisfactory ac-
count of the kinds of observations that are re-
quired in oceanographic investigations of the
lesser depths, of the methods of making the
observations, and of the instruments and imple-
mentsused. There are kept constantly in view,
especially with reference to the subject of mari-
time fisheries, the practical results that flow
from the development and study of the topo-
graphic forms of the bottom of the ocean, and
of the various deposits of soil that are found
there; of the study of currents and winds, of
transparency and coloration, of the tempera-
ture, salinity, and chemical composition of the
waters of the ocean; and of the relation be-
tween meteorology and oceanography.
The book is provided with reliable and use-
ful tables for the conversion of fathoms into
metres, for the comparison of the Fahrenheit,
Reaumur and centigrade thermometric scales,
for the determination of the humidity of the
air and the tension of vapor of water, and for
finding the density and salinity of sea water.
The scope of the work, which relates prin-
cipally to the continental plateau or region
which lies along the borders of the oceans be-
tween the coasts and the line marking the
FEBRUARY 14, 1896.]
depth of 100 fathoms, is mainly to inform the
general reader what oceanographic research
consists of, how it is carried on, and, in general,
what has been accomplished ; but it will also be
found useful in the hands of the observer of
oceanographic data and of the student of oceano-
graphic problems.
An important feature of the book is the biblo-
graphic list at the end.
As the operations referred to are in the main
those which are carried on in the waters of
lesser depth bordering the oceans, a less general
title would have been more appropriate.
No inadvertence in the revision of the proofs
has been detected except the manifest confusion
between t and t/ and f and f” in the explanation
of the hygrometric formule on page 110.
G. W. LITTLEHALES.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY, DECEMBER—JANUARY.
Review of the Geological Literature of the South
African Republic: By S. F. Emmons. The
great and rapid development of gold mining in
the Transvaal has attracted the attention of the
world to this region, not otherwise of immediate
interest. This article sums up the literature
concerning the gold fields. The most important
of these is the Witwatersrand, usually called
‘the Rand,’ in which Johannesburg is situated.
This is in the southern part of the Republic.
It is about 2,000 square miles in extent. The
rocks are auriferous conglomerates of which
there are several beds. On the whole the gold
is distributed rather uniformly in these beds.
They are crossed by basic dikes as well as quartz
veins, and at the intersection of the latter the
quartz is said to be peculiarly rich. As to the
origin, the author quotes Smeisser as saying
' that the evidence points to the fact of deposit
with the conglomerate ‘fossil placer deposits’
and also to deposit from solution subsequently.
Working has progressed to a depth of nine
hundred feet, but drill holes show that workable
beds extend much deeper. The average gold
content of this region is ten to fifteen dollars
per ton. The output for 1894 was £7,800,000;
that of 1895 is estimated at £8,750,000. Hatch
estimates the whole product of the Transvaal
SCIENCE.
247
at £700,000,000, a sum greater than the whole
product of the United States up to date.
Igneous Intrusions in the neighborhood of the
Black Hills of Dakota: By I. C. Russe...
This is a description of a series of hills on the
northern border of the Black Hills which ap-
pear to be of a type not clearly recognized
heretofore. All are due to the intrusion of
igneous rock into stratified beds, but they differ
from the laccolites of Gilbert in that the molten
material did not spread out into a broad dome.
They differ equally from the volcanic necks of
Dutton, since they did not reach the surface.
The name Plutonic Plug is proposed for the in-
truded mass. Perhaps the most impressive of
these plugs is that of Mato Teepee, which has
been completely uncovered and rises almost
perpendicularly from its platform to a height of
625 feet. Basaltic structure is beautifully de-
veloped, the columns reaching a diameter of
ten feet. How the sedimentary beds were
lifted or displaced to admit of the intrusion of
such a mass is not clear to the author.
The Geology of New Hampshire: By C. H.
Hircucock. Historical accounts of the surveys
of several States have already been given in the
Journal. The present article continues the series.
The first survey of new Hampshire was begun in
1839 by Dr. C. T. Jackson, of Boston. This
lasted three years. The second survey, under
the direction of the author, was begun in 1868.
and continued ten years. Great difficulties
were encountered in the wildness of the region,
and the fact that the study of crystalline rocks.
had not at that time progressed very far, and
the crystalline area in the State was consider-
able. Much attention was paid to surface geol-
ogy. Such questions as the direction of move-
ment of the ice sheet, the diversity of the ‘ice
age,’ terminal moraines, river terraces, etc., were
carefully studied and much light was thrown
upon them during the course of this survey.
North American Graptolites: By R. R. Gur-
LEY. No general revision of the American
graptolites has been attempted since Hall’s work
was completed, thirty yearsago. This paper is.
an attempt at such a zodlogic and geologic re-
vision, though its aim is mainly geologic. All
the species known in American strata are dis-
cussed with reference to generic disposal and
248
ascertained range. A complete list accom-
panies the paper.
T. C. Chamberlin reviews ‘The Hill Caves of
Yucatan,’ by Henry C. Mercer, and also a paper
by G. Frederick Wright, ‘New Evidence of
Glacial Man in Ohio.’
The evidence in question in the latter paper
is arude stone implement found in a gravel ter-
race near Brilliant, on the Ohio River, by Mr.
Sam. Huston, a surveyor and collector, three or
four years ago. The reviewer suggests that
some of the natural modes of intrusion are not
excluded by Mr. Huston’s observations, and
that it was not shown that the terrace is primary.
The fact that there are terraces along the river
at much higher levels gives ground to suspect
that the terrace may be more or less secondary
and reworked in post-glacial times. Respecting
intrusion, it is pointed out that the decay of
tree roots, which had deeply penetrated the
porous sand and gravel, might afford the means
of intrusion to the moderate depth at which the
implement was found (eight feet), without any
notable disturbance of the stratification.
T. Wayland Vaughan reviews at length an
important paper by J. A. Merrill, ‘Fossil
Sponges of the Flint Nodules of the Lower Cre-
taceous of Texas;’ and 8. Weller reviews the
“Thirteenth Annual Report of the State Geolo-
gist of New York.’
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW, JANUARY.
THE new volume opens with an article by
Prof. G. S. Fullerton on Psychology and Physi-
ology, in which it is argued that the discussion
of the nervous system in works on physiology
contains more anatomy and psychology than
physiology. Foster’s Text-Book of Physiology
is taken as an illustration to show how con-
sciousnessisused where physiological knowledge
fails, the sensory-motor arc being described as
partly physical and partly psychical. If the
parallel or automaton theory be adapted by
the physiologist he should aim to make his
science wholly independent of psychology; if
he admit a causal interaction between body and
mind he should leave to psychology the investi-
gation of the mental process. Each science has
its appropriate methods, and neither should
trespass on the field of the other.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 59.
Prof. Munsterberg communicates four re-
searches from the psychological laboratory of
Harvard University. Dr. W. G. Smith has in-
vestigated the place of repetition in memory.
When ten ‘nonsense’ syllables were read, there
were remembered with entire correctness after
one repetition 2.2; after three repetitions, 2.5;
after six, 2.8; after nine, 3.4; after twelve,
3.9. The increase with continued repetitions
is perhaps less than might have been expected,
but there was a considerable degree of indi-
vidual variation, one observer remembering
but one, and another 6.2 syllables after twelve
repetitions. Miss M. W. Calkins contributes
experiments on the relative significance of fre-
quency, recency, primacy and vividness in as-
sociation. A color and a numeral were shown
in conjunction, and after a series had been given
the colors were repeated in a changed order
and the suggested numerals recorded. Fre-
quency was the most constant condition and
vividness next in importance. Mr. L. M. Solo-
mons shows that if a white disk is placed in a
weak light, and a rotating black and white disk
in a stronger light, it is not possible to get the
two to look alike. Mr. J. P. Hylan reports
on fluctuations in the intensity of weak sensa-
tions.
There are shorter contributions by Prof.
Strong on physical pain and pain nerves; by
Prof. Jastrow on community of ideas of men
and women; by Mrs. Franklin on the functions
of the rods of the retina; by Mr. Urban on the
prospective reference of mind; by Prof. Hyslop
on localization in space, and by Mr. Lay on
synesthesia. Recent psychological literature is
reviewed at length by Professors James, Binet,
Cattell, Hibben, Angell and others.
PSYCHE, FEBRUARY.
A. DAvrpson describes the habits of a Cali-
fornia wasp of the genus Odynerus, which with
its parasite, bred by Dr. Davidson, are described
by W. H. Ashmead. W. S. Blatchley con-
tinues his notes on the winter insects of Vigo
county, Ind., the present instalment covering
the Carabide. H. G. Dyar gives a synopsis of
the larvee of the moths or the genus Notolo-
phus (Orgyia), with critical notes on most of the
species. A. P. Morse continues his discussion
FEBRUARY 14, 1896.]
of the Tryxaline of New England by an ac-
count of the new genus Pseudopomala, the
single species of which is described in detail.
J. W. Folsom describes three new species of
the Thysanuran genus Papirius found in Massa-
chusetts. Sharp’s treatment of the insects in
the new volume of the Cambridge Natural His-
tory is reviewed, and the proceedings of the
Cambridge Entomological Club for January are
added. In a supplement, containing contribu-
tions from the New Mexico Agricultural Experi-
ment Station, new insects are described by T.
D. A. Cockerell and L. O. Howard, including
diagnoses of a large number of new Coccide
by the former.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, 84TH REG-
ULAR MEETING, THURSDAY, DE-
CEMBER 12, 1895.
THE President, Chas. E. Munroe, in the chair,
with thirty-six members present. Messrs. H.
Carrington Bolton, W. W. Skinner and F. B.
Bomberger were elected to membership. Dr.
W. F. Hillebrand discussed and exhibited the
‘spectra of Argon and Helium.
Dr. H. W. Wiley read a paper on the ‘ Use of
Acetylene Illumination in Polariscope Work
with Illustrations.’ He said that Acetylene,
while not inferior to other forms of illumination
in point of accuracy, is so intense as to permit
of accurate polarization with solutions so dark
in color that they cannot be polarized with
lights ordinarily used for this purpose. The
Acetylene light and the ‘Schmidt-Haensch
‘Triple Field Polariscope’ were exhibited.
‘This polariscope was said to be of great assist-
-ance in rapid and accurate work.
Mr. F. P. Dewey presented a comprehensive
paper on ‘The Early History of Electric Heat-
ing for Metallurgical Purposes.’ He traced the
history of the application of the current to the
‘production of metals from heated compounds,
the necessary heat being developed by the cur-
rent itself. Beginning with the very early work
-of van Marum, published in 1795 at Haarlem,
the idea was followed through the work of Sir
Humphrey Davy, 1808-1808; Children, 1809-
%15; Depretz, 1848-9; Pichon, 1854; Fox, 1875;
SCIENCE. 249
Siemens, 1879; Bradley, 1883; Cowles, 1885;
Heroult, 1886, and Moissan, 1892-’5.
Dr. Marcus Benjamin contributed a ‘Sketch
of Professor Josiah P. Cooke,’ who, from 1849
until the time of his death in 1894, was Ewing
Professor of Chemistry in Harvard University.
The sketch was of special interest from the fact
that the statements given were taken from a
manuscript sent by Prof. Cooke to Dr. Benjamin
some years ago. Besides his six years’ interest
in the great chemical inventions of his time, 7. e.,
friction matches, daguerreotypes and gun cot-
ton, the development of the chemical depart-
ment under his guidance was fully described.
The first practical instruction in chemistry to
undergraduates in our American colleges was
given by Prof. Cooke. A laboratory was fitted
up in a cellar room of University Hall, of Cam-
bridge, and from this grew the present magnifi-
cent equipment. Dr. Benjamin discussed Prof.
Cooke’s chemical work, especially that on the
atomic weight ofantimony, and referred also to
his writings, of which ‘The New Chemistry’ is
probably best known. A. C. PEALE,
Secretary.
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, 254TH
MEETING, JANUARY 25.
CHARLES T. SIMPSON presented a paper on
The Extra-limital Mississippi Basin Unios.
Thespeaker stated that the Unione fauna of the
Mississippi basin was one in which the species
were finely developed, often large or solid,
richly sculptured or colored. The fauna of the
Atlantic region consisted of smaller, less finely
developed forms. The boundary between these
regions on the north and northeast is not at the
Height of Land, but far to the northward.
Some 40 or more species of Mississippi naiadesare
found extra-limital in the northern and Atlantic
drainage, while probably but a single Atlantic
drainage form inhabits the Mississippi Valley.
He believed this distribution was caused by the
fact that at the close of the Glacial Epoch the
northern lakes overflowed into the Mississippi
Valley, and the Mississippi basin species
ascended by way of these old streams into the
British possessions.
These extra-limital forms were generally
smaller and thinner, less highly colored, and
250
less strongly sculptured than when found in
southern waters, and on these geographical
variations a large number of species had been
founded. Most of these are merely varieties of
well-known Mississippi basin forms ; a few have,
perhaps, developed into good species: He be-
lieved these changes had all been wrought since
the close of the ice age.
Similar changes on a larger scale had ap-
parently taken place in the closely related
unione fauna of the Atlantic drainage system,
which, he believed, had been for the most part
derived from the fauna of the Mississippi Valley,
though at an earlier date.
M. B. Waite described the Life History of the
Pear-blight Microbe, Bacillus amylovrous. The
Bacilli first attack the blossoms and other new
growth in spring. They multiply in the nectar
of the blossoms and are able to enter the tender
tissues of the nectar disk without a puncture.
The germs are spread with great rapidity in the
orchards during blossom time by bees and other
insects. New infections take place on the tips
of growing twigs or on newly opened leaf buds
as well as on the blossoms, and may occur at
any time that new growth is pushing out.
The majority of cases of blight come to a
standstill after running their course, the twigs
dry up and the germs all die in a week or two
of exposure to summer weather, for this Bacillus
forms no spores and cannot withstand drying.
Some of the cases of blight do not, however,
come to a standstill but continue slowly through
the summer. Again, late growth in autumn
often results in new infections, so that the trees
go into their winter condition with active germs
in them. These cases keep the Bacilli alive, and
the speaker had been unable to find the germs
living over winter in any other way. These
cases of ‘hold-over’ blight are the key to the
pear-blight question, for by cutting them out
and destroying them when the tree is in a
dormant or semi-dormant condition we can ex-
terminate the microbes and prevent or control
the disease.
Pierre A. Fish spoke of the Action of Electricity
upon Nerve Cells, stating that Hodge’s experi-
ments have shown that certain well-defined
changes occur in the structure of the nerve cell
as a result of the stimulation of the nerves by
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 59:
weak electric currents. A strong current, on
the contrary, such as is used in electrocutions,
seems to cause no visible change, apparently
killing and fixing the protoplasm in a manner
analogous to that produced by histological re-
agents.
He gave the results of the examination of
nervous tissue from three electrocuted subjects:
In No. 1 a portion of the myel was examined,
particularly the motor cells, and the cytoplasm
in most cases showed numerous vacuoles. In
No. 2 normal cells were the rule, and vacuoles
the exception in the cervical myel. A small
portion of the cortex from the precentral gyre
(the region nearest the electrode) showed vacuo-
lation of the large and small pyramidal cells,
either in the cell body, or in the peripheral
process. In No. 3 a small portion of the cere-
bellum only was obtained, and after careful
search vacuoles were found in two Purkinje
cells.
As vacuolation of the nerve cell is often the
result of disease, an examination of plenty of
material and a knowledge of the previous his-
tory of the individual is essential for a solution
of the question of the action of electricity.
C. Hart Merriam read by title a Revision of
the Lemming-Voles (genus Synaptomys).
Mr. Vernon Bailey read a paper entitled
Tamarack Swamps as Boreal Islands. He stated
that the common Eastern tamarack (Larix
americana) is generally considered a boreal
tree. East of the Rocky Mountains it over-
reaches the Boreal Zone, and occurs in scattered
swamps throughout the transition and even in
the northern part of the Upper Austral Zone.
Such swamps are common in central Pennsyl-
vania, northern Ohio, southern Michigan and
northern Indiana, though the line marking the
southern limit of the Boreal Zone is drawn
much farther north. Within a radius of ten
miles from Ann Arbor, Mich., which is in the
Upper Austral Zone, are at least a dozen such
swamps, ranging in size from a few acres to a
mile square.
The vegetation of these swamps is composed
largely of boreal species of plants, including the
white birch, cassandra, andromeda, cranberries,
pitcher plants, many species of northern grass,
carex, herbaceous plants, mosses and a carpet
FEBRUARY 14, 1896.]
of sphagnum, 5 to 8 inches thick, as porous and
absorbent as a sponge. The stem and leaves of
sphagnum have a peculiar porous structure,
through which a constant flow of water is car-
ried up and poured out to evaporate on the
surface. Thus by constant evaporation the
plant and its surrounding atmosphere are kept
cold. Ice was found under the sphagnum in one
of these swamps as late as May 10, although the
preceding winter had been mild and the snow
had all disappeared by the middle of March.
A number of small shrews (Sorex personatus),
a boreal species of a boreal genus, were taken
in one of these swamps, some being caught in
traps resting on ice. The star-nosed mole,
another boreal mammal, also occurs in some of
these swamps, and the varying hare (Lepus
americanus) was formerly common.
Evidently these boreal species of plants and
animals are retained in the Southern swamps
by the low temperature produced by evapora-
tion from the sphagnum. F. A. Lucas,
Secretary.
GEOLOGICAL CONFERENCE OF HARVARD UNI-
VERSITY, JANUARY 21, 1896.
On the Origin of the Copper Deposits of Keweenaw
Point: By Pror. H. L. Smyru.
After a brief review of the character and struc-
ture of the rocks of the Keweenawan. Series,
and the geological and geographical distribu-
tion of copper in them, the author pointed out
the close genetic connection between the three
forms of occurrence of copper in this district.
The amygdaloid and conglomerate ‘floors’ in
the vein mines are essentially the same except
in scale, as the greater impregnated and re-
placed amygdaloids and conglomerates. From
this consideration all would date from the time
of formation of the fissures of the vein mines ;
this was probably the time of general tilting, and
long subsequent to the formation of the lower
flows and conglomerates.
Pumpelly worked out many years ago a para-
genetic series among the mineral associates of
the copper; this series cleaves along a chemical
line. The earlier minerals, which preceded the
copper, are chlorite mainly, with certain other
non-alkaline hydrous silicates; the latter are
alkaline, and are close contemporaries of the
SCIENCE.
201
copper. Among them are apophyllite (a fluorine
mineral), and datolite (a boron mineral). Calcite
is abundant through the whole series.
, The author pointed out that from the consid-
eration of the conditions of formation of the
separate flows, with their subordinate inter-
calated conglomerates, each after consolidation
was immediately subjected to the action of
meteoric waters. Afterwards, by slow subsi-
dence, each bed would eventually sink beneath
their reach. The minerals of the first division
of Pumpelly’s series, essentially weathering
products, belong to the successive periods of
exposure of individual beds. The observed
progress of alteration, from top to bottom in
each individual bed, accords with this view, as
do also the non-alkaline alteration products.
Afterwards came the northerly and north-
westerly tilting, and the formation and filling
of the fissures, and the impregnation and partial
replacement of the amygdaloids and conglom-
erates. The new minerals of this period are
sharply separated from the alteration products
of the first (which they often replace) by their
richness in alkalis, and the presence of fluorine
and boron. The two periods, therefore, are
far separated in time as well as by the character
of the chemical agents at work, and do not, as
Pumpelly supposed, represent a continuous
march of alteration.
The author then discussed the more immedi-
ate questions of origin, and concluded that
neither Pumpelly’s view, that the copper had
been brought down from the sandstones of the
upper division of the series, nor Wadsworth’s,
that it had come from the lava-flows themselves,
was probable. On the other hand, the mineral
associates of the copper, the time of formation,
and, in the case of the veins, the evident arrest
of the copper-bearing solutions below the rela-
tively impervious greenstone, all pointed to a
deep-seated source and to ascending solutions
as the transporting agent.
As to the precipitating agent, the author
could not accept the view that it was electro-
lytic in its nature, because the deposition was
manifestly accompanied in so many cases by the
chemical destruction of the cathode. It was
concluded that in spite of lack of confirmation
by laboratory experiment, no theory so well ex-
252
plained the invariable deposition of metallic
copper to great depths as Pumpelly’s, viz:
that it was effected by the reduction of copper
salts by the FeO in the universally present
chlorite. T. A. JAGGAR, JR.,
Recording Secretary.
ST. LOUIS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE.
At the meeting of February 3, of the Acad-
emy of Science of St. Louis, President Gray in
the chair and twenty-two other persons present,
Mr. Trelease exhibited several specimens, about
three feet square, of a curious silk tapestry,
taken from the ceiling of a corn storing loft in
San Luis Potosi, Mexico, by Dr. Francis Esch-
auzier, stating that he was informed that the
larger specimen had been cut from a continuous
sheet over twenty yards wide and about four
times as long. The specimens, of a nearly
white color, and of much the appearance and
feeling of a soft tanned piece of sheepskin,
were shown to be composed of myriads of fine
silken threads, crossing and recrossing at every
conceivable angle, and so producing a seem-
ingly homogeneous texture. Although speci-
mens of the creatures by which they are pro-
duced had not been secured, it was stated that
there was no doubt that these tapestries are the
work of lepidopterous larvee which feed upon
grain, the presumption being that they are
made by the larvee of what has been called the
Mediterranean Grain or Flour Moth (Ephestia
Kiihniella). The speaker briefly reviewed the
history of this insect and its injuriousness in
various parts of the world, and quoted from a
report of Dr. Bryce, showing that in Canada,
where it became established in 1889, ‘a large
warehouse, some 25 feet wide, 75 feet long,
and four stories high, became literally alive
with moths in the short course of six months. ’
One name was proposed for active member-
ship. WILLIAM TRELEASE,
Recording Secretary.
NEBRASKA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.
THE fifth annual meeting was held in Lin-
coln January 2 and 3, at which a considerable
number of papers were presented.
Dr. C. E. Besssy discussed the peculiar con-
ditions by which the Buffalo grass had deyel-
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 59.
oped here on the plains from the nearly related
Gramma grasses; and also the origin of the
present flora of Nebraska in general.
Prof. C. D. Swezey showed by a comparison
of early rainfall records in Nebraska with those
of recent years that there is no evidence of any
progressive change of our climate either to-
wards greater rainfall or towards droughty con-
ditions.
Mr. H. S. Clason presented facts dealing
with the primitive civilization in America as
indicated by the character of the ruins left.
Prof. F. W. Card showed how much less im-
portant were the economic fungi of the West
than in the East, owing to our drier climate.
Dr. H. B. Ward described some new and
little known animal parasites from Nebraska.
Mr. C. J. Elmore described some fossil di- .
atoms from the State, and Dr. E. H. Barbour
gave some facts as to the occurrence of consid-
erable deposits of these organisms, such as give
promise of commercial value.
Mr. G. A. Loveland presented an analysis of
wind velocity records in the State to show how
many hours a day the wind may be depended
on for windmill power.
Dr. E. H. Barbour made a report of progress
on the peculiar fossil Deemonelix, of which he
has now obtained a series of forms from succes-
sive horizons, indicating its probable genesis
and development.
LINCOLN, NEB., February 4, 1896.
G. D. SWEZEY,
Secretary.
NEW BOOKS.
A New View of the Origin of Dalton’s Atomic
Theory. Henry E. Roscor and ARTHUR
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The Number Concept, Its Origin and Development.
Levi LEoNARD Conant. New York and
London, Macmillan & Co. 1896. Pp. vi+
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The Spraying of Plants. E.G. LODEMAN. New
York and London, Macmillan & Co. 1896.
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SCIENCE
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: 8. NEWCOMB, Mathematics ;
R. §. WooDWARkD, Mechanics; E. C. PICKERING, As-
tronomy ; T. C. MENDENHALL, Physics; R. H. THuRsToN, Engineering ; IRA REMSEN, Chemistry ;
J. LE ConTE, Geology; W. M. DAvis, Physiography; O. C. MARSH, Paleontology; W. K. BROoKs,
Invertebrate Zodlogy ; C. HART MERRIAM, Vertebrate Zodlogy ; 8S. H. ScuDDER, Entomology ;
N. L. Britton, Botany ; HENRY F. OsBorN, General Biology ; H. P. Bowpitcu,
Physiology ; J. S. BIbLines, Hygiene ; J. MCKEEN CATTELL, Psychology ;
DANIEL G. BRINTON, J. W. POWELL, Anthropology ;
G. BRowN Goopk, Scientific Organization.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 21, 1896.
CONTENTS :
Hualey and his Work: THEO. GILL.............-.-++-
Certitudes and Illusions: J. W. POWELL
Notes on the Density and Temperature of the Waters
of the Gulf of Mexico and Gulf Stream: A. LIN-
TDF EIN RON 0 chocqoosooosodspooansoK;dosbsqabboqHOscOaduOuDODbOS 271
An Optical Illusion: CHR. LADD FRANKLIN...... 274
Current Notes on Physiography :—
The Tertiary Peneplain in Missouri; High Level
Gravels of Kentucky; Cloud-burst Tracks and
Water Gaps in Alabama ; Massanutten Mountain,
TARGRAGS) WWYe WIG ID ANA Ei gncbadcososcoonascssoasecdoee 2
Current Notes on Anthropology :—
Ethnographic Surveys ; The Early Use of Metals
‘in Europe; The Monuments of Yucatan: D. G.
SRUNLONjctceinoepecieerseeccseceseececmeecscsssscecenncecc tt
Scientific Notes and News :—
A Permanent Scientific Head for the U. S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture; Astronomy: H. J. Har-
.vard College Observatory; Generdl...........s.s0ss00e+ 278
University and Educational News........0.0.cessssesese0 283
Correspondence :—
American Judgments of American Astronomy: S.
NEwcomsB. The Perturbations of 70 Ophiuchi:
T. J. J. SEE. Psychology of Number: JOHN
DEWEY. Does the Private Collector make the best
Museum Administrator 2 F. A. LUCAS..........-+ 284
Scientific Literature :-—
Hertwig’s Lehrbuch der Entwicklungsgeschichte des
Menschen und der Wirbelthiere: C.S. MINOT.
Rye’s Handbook of the British Macro-Lepidoptera :
SAMUEL HENSHAW. Whitfield’s Mollusca and
Crustacea of the Miocene Formations of New
derseyiss, We Biy CLARKieccsscscsscesdoscedesncocseecees 289
Societies and Academies :—
The Philosophical Society of Washington: W. C.
WINLOCK. Entomological Society of Washing-
ton: L. O. Howarp. Geological Society of
Washington ; The National Geographic Society:
W.F.Morsety. Boston Society of Natural His-
tory: SAMUEL HENSHAW. The Torrey Botan-
neal) Club\s\) VE.) He RUSBNiccoescesscoocesecsso encase nee 292
New Books. od
MSS. intended for publication and books etc., intended
tor review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
HUXLEY AND HIS WORK.*
I.
Tue history of scientific progress has been
marked by a few periods of intellectual fer-
mentation when great bounds have been
taken forwards and a complete revolution
ensued. Very few have been such, but in
one the name of Huxley must be ever con-
spicuous. It was as a lieutenant of the
organizer of that revolution that he ap-
peared, but unquestionably without him it
would have been long delayed, and it was
through his brilliant powers of exposition
that the peoples of the English speaking
lineage soon learned to understand, to some
extent, what evolution was and, learning,
to accept it.
On the 4th of May, 1825, was born
the infant Huxley, in due course christened
Thomas Henry. ‘It was,’”’ Huxley himself
has remarked, “a curious chance that my
parents should have fixed for my usual
denomination upon the name of that par-
ticular apostle with whom I have al-
ways felt most sympathy.” In his physi-
cal and mental peculiarities, he was com-
pletely the ‘son of his mother,’ whose
most distinguishing characteristic was
‘rapidity of thought;’ that characteristic
Huxley claimed to have been passed on to
him ‘in full strength,’ and to have often
‘stood him in good stead,’ and to it he was
* A memorial address given on January 14th before
the Scientific Societies of Washington. Ls
204
undoubtedly indebted for success in the
many intellectual duels he was destined to
be engaged in. His ‘ regular school training
was of the briefest,’ and he has expressed a
very poor opinion of it. His early inclina-
tion was to be a mechanical engineer, but
he was put to a brother-in-law to study
medicine. The only part of his professional
course which really interested him was
physiology, which he has defined as ‘the
mechanical engineering of living machines.’
The only instruction from which he thought
he ever obtained the proper effect of educa-
tion was that received from Mr. Wharton
Jones, who was the lecturer on physiology
at the Charing Cross School of Medicine.
At Mr. Jones’ suggestion, in 1845, Huxley
communicated to the Medical Gazette (p.
1340) his first paper ‘On a hitherto unde-
scribed structure in the human hair sheath.’
Two years later he contributed to the
British Association for the Advancement
of Science the first paper generally attri-
buted to him—‘ Examination of the cor-
puscles of the blood of Amphioxus.’ (Ab-
stracts, p. 95.) In 1845 he passed the
first M. B. examination at the London
University. Soon afterwards he was ad-
mitted into the medical service of the Navy
and was, after some waiting, assigned to
the Rattlesnake, and for four years (1846—
50) served on her during her exploration
of the Australasian seas; he was, he sup-
posed, among the last voyagers ‘to whom
it could be possible to meet with people
who knew nothing of firearms—as [they]
did on the south coast of New Guinea.’
While on board Huxley zealously prose-
cuted zoological investigations and in 1849
and 1850 sent records of observations, es-
pecially on ccelenterates, in papers which
were published in the ‘ Philosophical Trans-
actions’ and ‘Annals of Natural History.’
Most important of all was a monograph on
the Oceanic Hydrozoa published by the
Ray Society. It is amusing to find that
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 60.
while in Sydney he was impressed by Mac-
Leay and led to believe that “‘there is a great
law hidden in the ‘ Circular system’ if we
could but get at it, perhaps in Quinarianism
too,’’** but sober sense doubtless soon came
to the rescue and he appears to have been
never otherwise touched by the strange
monomania that had been epidemic in Eng-
land during the previous quarter century. In
1851 hebecamea F.R.S. He continued in
the navy three years after his return, but
in 18538 resigned when ordered to sea again.
In 1853 Huxley and Tyndall became can-
didates for professorships in the University
of Toronto, but that University preferred
others for the vacant places and thus
missed the opportunity of anage. In 1854
Huxley was appointed to the post of
paleontologist and lecturer on natural
history in the School of Mines which he
held for the next thirty-one years. In the
same year he became Fullerian Professor to
the Royal Institution. ‘The first impor-
tant audience [he] ever addressed was at
the Royal Institution.”” In 1862 he served
as President of the Biological Section,
and in 1870 of the ‘British Association
for the Advancement of Science’ itself, in
1869 and 1870 of the Geological and Ethno-
logical Societies, and in 1883 to 1885 of the
Royal Society. He was Inspector of Sal-
mon Fisheries from 1881 to 1885.
In 1876 he visited the United States and
delivered an address at the opening of the
Johns Hopkins University.
In 1885 failing health and desire for
freedom led him to retire from most of his
offices and thenceforth he devoted himself
chiefly to literary work rather than to sci-
entific investigation. On the accession of
Lord Salisbury to the Premiership in 1892,
Huxley was made Privy Counsellor, and
with it came the title of Right Honorable,
by which he was later styled. In the last
years of life he resided at Hodeslea, East-
* Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist. (2), VI., p. 67.
FEBRUARY 21, 1896.]
bourne, and after a long illness (‘ complica-
tion following influenza’*) died there on
the 29th of June, 1895.
Such were the principal episodes in the
life of Huxley. Many more details may be
found in the numerous periodicals of the
day and in some of them are depicted
various phases of his character and labors.
The short time that is at our disposal to-
night may be most profitably and enter-
tainingly utilized in reviewing his feats as
a warrior of science and estimating the
measure of influence he exercised in divert-
ing human thought from the ruts in which it
had moved for centuries and directing it
into a highway where increasing light from
different sides could guide the wayfarer.
Although this period of warfare was at its
height not farther back than the early after-
noon of the present century, and some of
us here assembled joined in the fray, to the
younger naturalists it is an unknown past
except through history, and to some of us
who were of it, it is so strange as to recur
to us rather as a dream than as a realized
passage in actual life.
II.
Doubtless man, almost from the moment
of his acquisition of those characters which
distinguish him as representative of the
genus Homo, had wondered and speculated
as to how he came into being and how the
animals assembled round him had sprung
into existence. Those early concepts must
have been strange indeed, but were doubt--
less transmitted from mother to child, only
with some eccentricities lopped off with ad-
vancing intelligence. Gradually, among
peoples of the Aryan stock at least, they crys-
tallized into a doctrine that in the begin-
ning there was chaos, thatthe three elements
of air, water and earth were differentiated,
and that animals were successively created
to occupy the spaces. Such were the
*Lancet, July 6, p. 64, 65.
SCIENCE.
255,
views of the old oriental cosmologists and
such of the later Romans as epitomized in
Ovid’s verse. These ideas were long regnant
and naturalists embodied some in their
schemes, most accepting the idea that ani-
mals may have been created in pairs, but a
few (such as Agassiz) urging that they must
have been created in communities approxi-
mating to those still found. There were
very few to dissent from these views of
specific creation, and those few had little
influence on the popular beliefs. But as
the present century advanced, curious men
delved into all the mysteries of nature; the
sciences of morphology, physiology, his-
tology, embryology, geology and zodge-
ography came into being, and facts were
marshalled from every side that militated
against the old conceptions. Even when
these sciences were inchoate, or new born,
sagacious men had perceived the drift of
the facts and anticipated induction by the
formulation of hypotheses of evolution, but
the hypotheses were too crude to ensure ac-
ceptance. Meanwhile, however, the facts
accumulated, and in 1859 a factor determin-
ing the course of development of species was
appreciated by Darwin and Wallace, and
soon applied to a wide range of facts in the
former’s ‘Origin of Species by means of
Natural Selection.’
Darwin’s work at once aroused great pop-
ular interest, but it was too diffuse and the
intellectual pabulum it contained was too
strong and indigestible for ordinary readers,
and it is probable that the general acceptance
of the Darwinian form of evolution would
have been delayed much longer than it was
had it not been for the excursions from the
scientific fold into the popular arena by one
having the confidence of the former and the
ear of the latter, as did Huxley.
Scarcely had Darwin’s work come from
the press when Huxley commenced his mis-
sionary work. Almost exceptional among
numerous reviews, remarkable chiefly for
256
crudity, ignorance and arrogance, was one
that appeared in the great daily organ of
English opinion—Zhe Times—marked by
superior knowledge, acuteness of argumen-
tation, and terse and vigorous style. This
review, which attracted general attention,
was acknowledged later by Huxley. Lec-
tures and addresses before popular audiences
and even to those distinctively claiming to
be ‘workingmen’ followed, and these were
published or supplemented by publication
in various forms. Answers, critiques and
other articles in reply came out in rapid
succession, and loud clamor was made that
Huxley was an infidel and a very bad man,
and that he falsified and misrepresented in
a most villainous manner.
A memorable occasion was the meeting
of the British Association for the Advance-
ment of Science in the year 1860, following
the publication of the Origin of Species. A
discussion of the subject was precipitated by
the presentation of a communication by our
own Draper, ‘On the Intellectual Develop-
ment of Europe with reference to the views
of Mr. Darwin and others, that the progres-
sion of organisms is determined by law.’
The Rev. Mr. Creswell and the Rev. Dr.
Wilberforce, Bishop of Oxford, followed in
opposition, and they were answered by
Huxley. The scene has lately been rede-
scribed by a great physiologist and friend
of Huxley, who is one of the few witnesses
who now remain. “ The room was crowded,
though it was Saturday, and the meeting
was excited. The bishop had spoken;
cheered loudly from time to time during
his speech, he sat down amid rapturous ap-
plause, ladies waving their handkerchiefs
with great enthusiasm; and in almost dead
silence, broken merely by greetings which,
coming only from the few who knew,
seemed as nothing, Huxley, then well-nigh
unknown outside the narrow circle of scien-
tific workers, began his reply. A cheer,
chiefly from a knot of young men in the
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 60.
audience, hearty but seeming scant through
the fewness of those who gave it, and almost
angrily resented by some, welcomed the
first point made. Then as, slowly and
measuredly at first, more quickly and with
more vigor later, stroke followed stroke,
the circle of cheers grew wider and yet
wider, until the speaker’s last words were
crowned with an applause falling not far
short of, indeed equalling that which had
gone before, an applause hearty and genuine
in its recognition that a strong man had
arisen among the biologists of England.”
The versatile bishop indulged in the ar-
gumentum ad hominem so very trite and
familiar to us all (Who has not heard it?):
he would like ‘to hear from Mr. Huxley
whether it was by his grandfather’s or
grandmother’s side that he was related to
an ape.’
Huxley replied and answered: ‘“T as-
serted, and I repeat, that a man would have
no reason to be ashamed of having an ape
for a grandfather. If there were an ances-
tor whom I should feel shame in recalling,
it would be a man, a man of restless and
versatile intellect who, not content with an
equivocal success in his own sphere of ac-
tivity, plunges into scientific questions with
which he has no real acquaintance, only to
obscure them by an aimless rhetoric and
distract the attention of his hearers from
the real point at issue by eloquent digres-
sions and skilled appeals to religious pre-
judice.”’
The arguments adduced against evolution
during those days were sometimes very
comical, and the confident air of the up-
holder of the ancient views and the assur-
ance with which he claimed that his posi-
tion was fixed and that the burden of proof
rested entirely upon the advocate of the
opposite view, were very amusing. It was
urged that no one had ever seen one species
turn into another! Had any one ever seen
any animal made? Could any one really
FEBRUARY 21, 1896. ]
eonceive of any animal being actually
made? Did an omnipotent Creator actually
take the ‘dust of the ground’ and mould it
into animal shape and then breathe into its
nostrils ‘the breath of life.’ ‘Did infi-
nitesimal atoms flash into living tissues.’
Certainly no physiologist with a competent
knowledge of histology could believe in any
such mode of creation! On the other hand,
every one that could exercise the necessary
skill could follow the evolution of an animal
from an undifferentiated protoplasmic mass
into a perfect animal. A clutch of eggs
could be successively taken from a mother
hen or a hatching oven, and day after day
the actual evolution of the undifferentiated
matter into derivative functional parts could
be followed. That which is true of the hen
is true of man, only in the latter case it is
more difficult to obtain the requisite ma-
terial, and greater skill to use it is requisite.
Compare the embryos developing in the
hen and human eggs and at first no differ-
ence except size and environment can be
perceived. Compare them in successive
stages, and adult animals more or less
parallel to some early stages may be found
still living or entombed in earlier forma-
tions of the earth in fossilized form.
It was argued that no one had ever seen
one species turn into another! But is it not
a matter of historical evidence that many
breeds of domestic animals have actually
been developed by the agency of man and
propagate their kind? And how are such
breeds distinguished from species except by
the fact that we know their origin, and that
they have come into prominence through
selection by man rather than by Nature?
Interbreeding is no criterion.
But it is unnecessary to go into details,
and these hints are offered only beeause their
bearings on the subject were so generally
overlooked by those who opposed evolution.
One opponent, so eminent as to be styled
the ‘Pope’ of a great Protestant Church,
SCIENCE.
257
published a work against evolution, largely
based on the contention that the existence
of the eye, except through direct creation,
was inconceivable! Yet this very evolution
of the eye from simple protoplasm could
have been witnessed at any time with little
trouble in the hen’s egg! Is evolution
through great reaches of time more incon-
ceivable than actual evolution ean of
daily observation? —
Well and skillfully did Huxley meet the
arguments against evolution. Even most
of the old naturalists sooner or later recog-
nized the force of the arguments for, and the
weakness of those against, evolution. Those
who did not in time gave up the contest
with their lives. The young who later en-
tered into the field of investigation have
done so as evolutionists.
It is interesting to recall that the illus-
trious American (Prof. Dana) who recently
departed so full of years and honors, and of
whom you have heard from a former
speaker (Major Powell) to-night, at length,
in the full maturity of his intellect, accepted
unconditionally the doctrine of evolution
and dexterously applied it in his last great
work.
Til.
Darwin, in his Origin of Species, had re-
frained from direct allusion to man in con-
nection with evolution and many casual
readers were doubtless left in uncertainty
as to his ideas on the subject. Naturally,
the scientific man recognized that the origin
of his kind from a primate stock followed,
and believed that Darwin’s reticence was
probably due to a desire to disturb popular
beliefs as little as possible. When we recall
what strange views were held respecting
man’s origin and relations we can under-
stand how the unlearned could easily fail to
recognize that man must follow in the chain
‘of his fellow creatures. (We preserve crea-
ture still as a reminiscence of ancient belief,
258
but without the primitive conception at-
tached to the word.)
Man was claimed as a being isolated from
animals generally, and naturalists of ac-
knowledged reputation, and one or two of
great fame, more or less completely differen-
tiated him from the rest of the animal
kingdom and even from the animal king-
dom itself.
As long as the isolation of man from the
animal kingdom, or from the greater part,
was based on metaphysical or psychological
ideas, the naturalist perhaps had no cause
of quarrel, although he might wonder why
a morphologist should stray so far from the
field of observation. But when naturalists
confused morphological and psychological
- data, he had reason to protest. This con-
fusion was effected by one of great emin-
ence. There was no naturalist in Britain
about the middle of the century who
enjoyed a reputation equal to that of
Richard Owen. An anatomist of preemin-
ent skill and extraordinary industry, his
merits had been appreciated by the entire
world. An opinion of his had a weight
accorded to no others. Consequently a
new classification of the mammals, pub-
lished by him in 1857, soon became popular.
This classification was founded on al-
leged characters of the brain and on succes-
sive phases of increase in the cerebrum.
Man was isolated not only as the represent-
ative of a family, but of an order and sub-
elass.
According to Owen, ‘‘in Man. the brain
presents an ascensive step in development,
higher and more strongly marked than that
by which the preceding subclass was dis-
tinguished from the one belowit. Not only
do the cerebral hemispheres overlap the ol-
factory lobes and cerebellum, but they ex-
tend in advance of the one and further back
than the other. Their posterior develop-
ment is so marked that anatomists have as-
signed to that part the character of a third
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vot. III. No. 60.
lobe; it is peculiar to the genus Homo and
equally peculiar is the ‘posterior horn of
the lateral ventricle,’ and the ‘ hippocampus
minor,’ which characterize the hind lobe of
each hemisphere. The superficial grey mat-
ter of the cerebrum, through the number and
depth of the convolutions, attains its maxi-
mum of extent in Man. Peculiar mental
powers are associated with this highest form
of brain, and their consequences wonder-
fully illustrate the value of the cerebral
character.”’
The views thus expressed by Owen were
reiterated on various occasions, but many
anatomists dissented from them and the
rumbling of a future storm was betokened.
At last the stormcloud broke and Owen
was overwhelmed. Ata great popular as-
semblage at Oxford, on the occasion of the
meeting of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, Owen once more
urged his contention of the cerebral charac-
teristics of man and maintained this wide
difference from the apes.
Huxley immediately rose and, with that
cogency of reasoning which characterized
him, proceded to divest the subject of the
sophistries in which it had been enveloped.
“The question,” he said, ‘‘ appeared to him
in no way to represent the real nature of
the problem under discussion. He would
therefore put that problem in another way.
The question was partly one of facts and
partly one of reasoning. The question of
fact was, What are the structural differences
between man and the highest apes ?—the
question of reasoning, What is thesystematic
value of those differences? Several years
ago Prof. Owen had made three distinct as-
sertions respecting the differences which
obtained between the brain of man and
that of the highest apes. He asserted that
three structures were ‘ peculiar to and char-
acteristic ’ of man’s brain—these being the
‘posterior lobe,’ the ‘posterior cornu,’ and
the ‘hippocampus minor.’ In a controversy
FEBRUARY 21, 1896.]
which had lasted for some years, Prof.
Owen had not qualified these assertions,
but had repeatedly reiterated them. He
(Prof. Huxley), on the other hand, had con-
troverted these statements; and affirmed,
on the contrary, that the three structures
mentioned not only exist, but are often better
developed than in man, in all the higher
apes. He (Prof. Huxley) now appealed to
the anatomists present in thesection whether
the universal voice of Continental and Bri-
tish anatomists had not entirely borne out
his statements and refuted those of Prof.
Owen. Prof. Huxley discussed the rela-
tions of the foot of man with those of the
apes, and showed that the same argument
could be based upon them as on the brain;
that argument being that the structural dif-
ferences between man and the highest ape
are of the same order, and only slightly dif-
ferent in degree from those which separate
the apes one from another. In conclusion
he expressed his opinion of the futility of
discussions like the present. In his opin-
ion the differences between man and the
lower animals are not to be expressed by
his toes or his brain, but are moral and intel-
lectual.”
The appeal to anatomists was answered
on the spot. The foremost anatomists of
England there present (Rolleston and
Flower) successively rose and endorsed the
affirmations of Huxley. Notonesupported
Owen and, brilliant as his attainments were,
his want of candor entailed on him the loss
of his eminent place, and Huxley took the
vacated throne. But the contest that re-
sulted in Owen’s overthrow was of great
service, for in the chief centers of civiliza-
tion anatomists eagerly investigated the
question at issue, and the consequence was
that in a few years more material had been
collected and studied than under ordinary
conditions would have been done in five
times the period. Unlike other battles, one
in scientific warfare is almost always ad-
SCIENCE.
209
vantageous to the general cause, whatever
it may be to a party.
IV.
The first important memoir by Huxley
was written in his twenty-third year ‘On
the Anatomy and the Affinities of the Fam-
ily of the Medusz’ (Phil. Trans., 1849, pp.
413-434, pl. 37-39), and contained the germ
of a fundamental generalization. He therein
laid ‘particular stress upon the composition
of [‘ the stomach’] and other organs of the
Meduse out of two distinet membranes, as [he
says] I believe that is one of the essential
peculiarities of their structure, and that a
knowledge of the fact is of great importance
in investigating their homologies. I will
[he continues] call these two membranes as -
such and independently of any modification
into particular organs, ‘foundation mem-
branes’ (p. 414). In his summary (p. 425)
he also formulates ‘ that a Medusa consists
essentially of two membranes, inclosing a
a variously-shaped cavity, inasmuch as its
various organs are so composed.’
I have thus given Huxley’s own words in-
asmuch as Prof. Haeckel has’asserted that
Huxley therein “ directed attention to the
very important point that the body of these
animals is constructed of two cell-layers—
of the Ectoderm and the Endoderm—and
that these, physiologically and morphologi-
cally, may be compared to the two germinal
layers of the higher animals’ (Nature,
1874), and Prof. Kowalevsky has also
claimed that Huxley ‘‘ founded modern em-
bryology by demonstrating the homology
of the germinal layers of Vertebrates with
the ectoderm and endoderm of Ccelenter-
ates” (Nature, Oct. 31, 1895, p. 651).
In all candor I must confess that, impor-
tant as the generalization of Huxley for the
Medusae was, it was only applied by him to
the Medusae, and was not necessarily exten-
sible with the homologies indicated, but it
was pregnant with suggestiveness and to
260,
that extent may have led to the wider gen-
eralization that followed. Let all pos-
sible credit then be assigned to it.
The classification of animals generally
adopted, and in this country especially, up
to at least the early years of the present
-half century, was based on what was called
plan or type and was mainly due to Cuvier.
According to this school there were four
‘great fundamental divisions of the animal
kingdom,’ and these were ‘ founded upon
distinct plans of structure, cast, as it were,
into distinct moulds or forms.’ The term
generally used to designate this category
was branch or subkingdom and the sub-
kingdoms themselves were named Verte-
brates, Mollusks, Articulates and Radiates.
Various modifications of this system and
more subkingdoms were recognized by many
zodlogists, but the one specially mentioned
was in very general use in the United
States because favored by Agassiz, who
then enjoyed a great reputation. Almost
all naturalists of other countries, and many
of this, recognized the distinctness, as sub-
kingdoms or branches, of the Protozoans
and Celenterates. But Huxley, in 1876,
went still further and segregated all ani-
mals primarily under two great divisions
based on their intimate structure, accepting
for one the old name, Protozoa, and for the
other Haeckel’s name, Metazoa.
‘“ Among those animals which are lowest
‘in the scale of organization there is a large
assemblage, which either present no differ-
entiation of the protoplasm of the body
into structural elements; or, if they possess
one or more nuclei, or even exhibit distinct
cells, these cells do not become metamor-
phosed into tissues—are not histogenetic.
In all other animals, the first stage of de-
velopment is the differentiation of the vi-
tellus into division-masses, or blastomeres,
which become converted into cells, and are
eventually metamorphosed into the ele-
ments of the tissues. For the former the
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 60.
name Protozoa may be retained; the latter
are coextensive with the Metazoa of
Haeckel.”
While not exactly original with Huxley,
the recognition of these two great categories
of the animal kingdom was hastened among
naturalists, and found place in most of the
works by men of authority that followed.
That such recognition greatly facilitates
morphological concepts is certain. But
most of the further new features of this
classification have not received the appro-
bation of naturalists generally. And here
it may be admitted that Huxley was rather
a morphologist in a narrow sense, or ana-
tomist rather than a systematist of greatly
superior excellence. Unquestionably he
did much excellent work in systematic zo-
dlogy, but the direct subject of investiga-
tion was perhaps treated from too special
a standpoint, and sometimes without an at-
tempt to coordinate it with the results in
other fields, or to measure by some given
standard. He was indeed a great artist, but
he used his powers chiefly to sketch the out-
lines of a picture of nature. This was done
with the bold and vigorous hand of a master,
but his productions were deficient in details
and finish and were sometimes imperfect on
account of inattention to perspective and
perhaps deliberate neglect of the niceties of
nomenclature. (And lest I may be misun-
derstood, let me here explain that by system-
atic zoology I mean the expression of all the
facts of structure in a form to best represent
the values of the differences as well as re-
semblances of all the constituents and
parts of the entire organization, from the
cells to the perfected organs and the body as
a whole.) For example, he separated Am-
phibians from Reptiles and combined them
with Fishes, and yet under the last name
comprised the Leptocardians and Marsipo-
branchs, and to his influence is doubtless due
to a large extent the persistence of English
(but not American) naturalists in a combi-
FEBRUARY 21, 1896.]
nation which is elsewhere regarded as con-
tradicted by all sound morphological doc-
trine.* The value of the characters distinc-
tive of the Rhynchocephalian reptiles and
their consequent significance for taxonomy
and paleontology were also denied by him.
Nevertheless, even his negative position
was of use in that it incited investigation.
The numerous memoirs on the anatomy and
characteristics of various groups of animals,
too, were always replete with new facts and
the hints were almost always sagacious,
even if not always in exactly the right
direction.
I am inclined to credit mainly to his sa-
gacity the early appreciation of the affinity
of the Neoceratodus of Australia to the me-
sozoic Ceratodontids with all the far-reach-
ing consequences that appreciation in-
volved. It was in 1870 that the living
Ceratodontid was introduced to the scien-
tific world as Ceratodus Forstert, and thus
generically associated’ with the mesozoic
fishes. How did Krefft (or Clarke) get
the idea of this association of a living fish
with some known only from fossil teeth re-
ferred by Agassiz to the same family as the
Cestraciont sharks? In 1861 Huxley pub-
lished a ‘ Preliminary Essay upon the Sys-
tematic Arrangement of the Fishes of the
Devonian Epoch,’ and therein suggested
that Ceratodus was a Ctenodipterine fish
and ranged it (with a mark of interroga-
tion) by the side of Dipterus. He also drew
‘attention to the many and singular rela-
tions which obtain between that wonderful
and apparently isolated fish, Lepidosiren,’
and the Ctenodipterine fishes. (The exact
truth was not discovered, but was approxi-
mated.) Is it not probable that this mem-
oir was known to Clarke, who claimed to
have suggested to Krefft the systematic re-
* The great English morphologists (such as Balfour
and Ray Lankester) and A. Smith Woodward among
systematic ichthyologists have recognized the hetero-
geneity of the old class of fishes.
SCIENCE.
261
lations of newly discovered Australian dip-
noan? It was creditable to both Clarke
and Krefft that they did recognize this re-
lationship and profited by their biblio-
graphical knowledge, but it is doubtful
whether they would have been able to
make the identification or appreciate the
importance of the discovery had not Huxley
prepared partly the way. By this dis-
covery, our acquaintance with the ichthyic
faunas of both the present and past was
almost revolutionized.
Among the most important results of
Huxley’s investigations were the discovery
and approximately correct recognition of
the nature of the ‘peculiar gelatinous
bodies’ found in all the seas, whether ex-
tra-tropical or tropical, through which the
‘Rattlesnake’ sailed, and which were
named Thalassicola, precursors of radiola-
rian hosts afterwards to be brought to light;
the appreciation of the closeness of the rela-
tions between birds and reptiles, the destruc-
tion of the old basis for the classification of
birds, the recognition that mammals may
have originated from a low type of Verte-
brates and even the Amphibians, and the
perception of the comparative affinities of
the southern forms of Astacoidean crusta-
ceans and their contrast as a group with the
forms of the northern hemisphere. I must
resist the temptation to further enumerate
the great naturalist’s discoveries and gener-
alizations, but finally let me add that not
the least of his services to science was de-
structiveness in the death-blow he gave to
the vertebral theory of the skull at one
time so generally accepted in England and
this country.
Wo
While the contest between the old and
new schools of biological philosophy was at
its height, the former was almost entirely
supported by the religious element and bit-
ter were the invectives against evolution.
The opposition was almost solely based on
262
the ground that the doctrine was in opposi-
tion to revealed religion. The naturally
combative’ disposition of Huxley was much
aroused by this opposition, and the antag-
onism early engendered was kept aglow dur-
ing his entire life. Meanwhile it had been
discovered by many of the more sagacious
and learned clergymen that there was no
real antagonism between the Scriptural ac-
count of Creation and evolution, but that
the two could be perfectly reconciled. The
reconciliation had been effected between
‘Genesis and astronomy and between Genesis
and geology, and was continued onthe same
lines for Genesis and evolution. But Huxley
would have none of it. He gave expression
to his convictions in the following words:
“For more than a thousand years, the
great majority of the most highly civilized
and instructed nations in the world have
confidently believed and passionately main-
tained that certain writings, which they
entitle sacred, occupy a unique position in
literature, in that they possess an authority,
different in kind, and immeasurably su-
perior in weight, to that of all other books.
Age after age, they have held it to be an
indisputable truth that, whoever may be
the ostensible writers of the Jewish, Chris-
tian, and Mahometan Scriptures, God Him-
self is their real author; and, since one of
the attributes of the Deity excludes the
possibility of error and—at least in relation
to this particular matter—of wilful decep-
tion, they have drawn the logical conclu-
sion that the denier of the accuracy of any
statement, the questioner of the binding
force of any command, to be found in these
documents is not merely a fool, but a blas-
phemer. From the point of view of mere
reason he grossly blunders; from that of re-
ligion he grievously sins.
“ But, if this dogma of Rabbinical inven-
tion is well founded ; if, for example, every
word in our Bible has been dictated by the
Deity; or even if it be held to be the Divine
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 60.
purpose that every proposition should be
understood by the hearer or reader in the
plain sense of the words employed (and it
seems impossible to reconcile the Divine
attribute of truthfulness with any other
intention), a serious strain upon faith must
arise. Moreover, experience has proved
that the severity of this strain tends to in-
crease, and in an even more rapid ratio,
with the growth in intelligence of mankind
and with the enlargement of the sphere of
assured knowledge among them.
“Tt is becoming, if it has not become,
impossible for men of clear intellect and
adequate instruction to believe, and it has
ceased, or is ceasing, to be possible for such
men honestly to say they believe that the
universe came into being in the fashion de-
scribed in the first chapter of Genesis; or
to accept, as a literal truth, the story of the
making of woman with the account of the
catastrophe which followed hard upon it, in
the second chapter; or to admit that the
earth was repeopled with terrestrial inhab-
itants by migration from Armenia to Kur-
distan, little more than 4,000 years ago,
which is implied in the eighth chapter; or
finally, to shape their conduct in accord-
ance with the conviction that the world is
haunted by innumerable demons, who take
possession of men and may be driven out
of them by exorcistic adjurations, which
pervades the Gospels.”
So far even Huxley was not in disagree-
ment with some of the most eminent and
learned of theologians. Those of you who
are interested will be able to recall utter-
ances of enlightened clergymen which would
differ from Huxley’s only in the absence of
the leaven of sarcasm that permeates his
lines. At a late Congress of the Church of
England, held at Norwich, the Rev. Canon
and Professor Bonney gave voice to words
that convey the same ideas as Huxley’s.
“T cannot deny,’ he said, ‘‘ that the in-
crease of scientific knowledge has deprived
FEBRUARY 21, 1896.]
parts of the earlier books of the Bible of the
historical value which was generally at-
tributed to them by our forefathers. The
story of the Creation in Genesis, unless we
play fast and loose either with words or
with science, cannot be brought into har-
mony with what we have learned from
geology. Its ethnological statements are
imperfect, if not sometimes inaccurate. The
stories of the Flood and of the Tower of Babel
are incredible in their present form. Some
historical element may underlie many of the
traditions in the first eleven chapters of that
book, but this we cannot hope to recover.”
But Huxley was not content to deny any
authority to the Scriptural basis of most of
the religions of Europe and America. He
denied that there was any means of know-
ing what the future had in store. He did
not deny that there was a heaven or a hell ;
he did not deny that in a future world man
might continue in a sublimated state, and
might be punished for his misdeeds or re-
warded for the good deeds he had performed
and for good thoughts on earth. He did
not venture to express any opinion on the
subject for the reason that he had no data
to base an opinion upon. He called him-
self an agnostic and the attitude he assumed
was agnosticism.
This term agnostic, we are told by Mr. R.
H. Hutton, was suggested by Prof. Huxley
at a party held previous to the formation
of the now defunct Metaphysical Society,
at Mr. James Knowles’ house on Clapham
Common, one evening in 1869, and was sug-
gested by St. Paul’s mention of the altar to
the unknown God—’dyvdortw ew.
But Huxley has explained that he as-
sumed this term in contradistinction to the
gnostic of old. The gnostic claimed to
know what in the nature of things is un-_
knowable, and as Huxley found himself with
an exactly opposite mental status, he coined
a word to express that antithetical state—
agnostic.
SCIENCE.
263
IT have done all I conceive to be necessary
in giving this statement of Huxley’s attitude.
Whether he was right or wrong, each one
must judge for himself or herself. Believ-
‘ing as he did, on abed of prolonged illness
he resignedly awaited the inevitable, and de-
sired that his sentiments reflected in verse
by his wife should be engraved on his tomb.
“‘ And if there be no meeting past the grave,
Tf all is darkness, silence, yet ’tis rest.
Be not afraid, ye waiting hearts that weep
For God ‘still giveth his beloved sleep,’
And if an endless sleep he wills—so best.’’
THEO. GILL.
CERTITUDES AND ILLUSIONS.
CHUAR’S. ILLUSION.
In the fall of 1880 I was encamped on the
Kaibab plateau at the edge of the forest
above the canyon gorge of a little stream.
White men and Indians composed the
party with me. Our task was to make a
trail down this side canyon into the depths
of the Grand Canyon of the Colorado.
Whilein camp after the day’s work was done,
both Indians and white men engaged in
throwing stones across the little canyon,
which was many hundreds of feet in depth.
The distance from the brink of the wall on
which we were camped to the brink of the
opposite wall seemed not very great, yet no
man could throw a stone across the chasm,
though Chuar, the Indian chief, could
strike the opposite wall very near its brink.
The stones thrown by others fell into the
depths of the canyon. I discussed these
feats with Chuar and led him on to an ex-
planation of gravity. Now Chuar believed
that he could throw a stone much farther
along the level of the plateau than over the
canyon. His first illusion was thus one
very common among mountain travelers —
an underestimate of the distance of tower-
ing and massive rocks when the eye has no
intervening objects to divide the space into
parts as measures of the whole.
264
I did not venture to correct Chuar’s judg-
ment, but simply sought to discover his
method of reasoning. As our conversation
proceeded he explained to me that the stone
could not go far over the canyon, for it was
so deep that if would make the stone fall
before reaching the opposite bank; and he
explained to me with great care that the
hollow or empty space pulled the stone
down. He discoursed on this point at
length, and illustrated it in many ways:
“Tf you stand on the edge of the cliff you
are likely to fall; the hollow pulls you down,
so that you are compelled to brace yourself
against the force and lean back. Any one
can make such an experiment and see that
the void pulls him down. If you climb a
tree the higher you reach the harder the
pull; if you are at the very top of a tall
pine you must cling with your might lest
the void below pull you off.”
Thus my dusky philosopher interpreted
a subjective fear of falling as an objective
force; but more, he reified void and imputed
to it the force of pull. I afterward found
these ideas common among other wise men
of the dusky race, and once held a similar
conversation with an Indian of the Wintun
on Mount Shasta, the sheen of whose snow-
clad summit seems almost to merge into the
firmament. On these dizzy heights my
Wintun friend expounded the same philos-
ophy of gravity.
Now in the language of Chuar’s people,
a wise man is said to be a traveler, for such
is the metaphor by which they express
great wisdom, as they suppose that a man
must learn by journeying much. So in
the moonlight of the last evening’s sojourn
in the camp on the brink of the canyon, I
told Chuar that he was a great traveler,
and that I knew of two other great
travelers among the white men of the East,
one by the name of Hegel and another by
the name of Spencer, and that I should
ever remember these three wise men, Chuar,
SCIENCE,
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 60.
Hegel and Spencer, who spoke like words
of wisdom, for it passed through my mind
that all three of these philosophers had
reified void and founded a philosophy there-
on.
In the history of philosophy an illusion
is discovered concerning matter and each of
the constituents or categories of matter,
which are number, extension, motion, dura-
tion and judgment; and as bodies are related
elements of matter, relation itself comes to
be the object of illusion. Matter is the
substrate of all bodies ; bodies thus have a
substrate, and the illusion of matter arises
from supposing that matter, which is the
substrate, has also its substrate, which is
sometimes called essence. Classes are
orders of number ; the illusion of number
relates to class or kind, and this is also
usually called essence. Extensions com-
bined have figure and structure, which pro-
duce form, and the illusion of extension is
an illusion in relation to forms which are
derived from extensions, and is called
space. Motions through collisions are;
forces, and the illusion relating to motion
is also called force. Duration is persist-
ence and change, which give rise to time,
and the illusion of duration is called time.
Judgment is consciousness and inference,
which give rise to comprehension of ideas,
and the illusion of idea is called ghost.
Bodies are related to one another, hence.
numbers, extensions, motions, durations
and judgments are related. Certain of the
relations of these things are called cause,
and the illusion of relation also is called
cause.
Now it must be clearly understood that
the terms substrate, essence, space, force,,
time, ghost and cause refer sometimes to
real things, as when properly used in sci-
ence, and sometimes to illusions, when they
are improperly used, as they often are in.
metaphysics ; but usually the word ghost is
now used only in reference to an illusion,,
FEBRUARY 21, 1896. ]
and this is the sole case where we have a
term for an illusion which is commonly
understood in that sense, but the term
spirit is used in both senses, for the certi-
tude and for the illusion.
The seven illusions here enumerated are
perhaps the most fundamental and far-
reaching of the vast multitude of illusions
which appear in the history of error. The
words substrate, essence, space, force, time,
ghost and cause are terms of universal use
and their synonyms appear in all civilized
languages, and perhaps in all lower lan-
guages. They have always stood for cer-
titudes and illusions ; here they require de-
finitions both as certitudes and as illu-
sions, in so far as we are able to define
them.
SUBSTRATE.
Substrate is matter, matter is the sub-
strate of all bodies. Essence is any collo-
ation of units into a unit of a higher order
which makes it a kind or one of a class.
Space is any extension or any collocation of
extensions; force is any collocation of mo-
tions that are related by collisions; time is
any duration or collocation of durations;
mind or spirit or ghost is any cognition or
collocation of cognitions; cause is any re-
lated antecedent or collocation of such
antecedents of a change. Such are the
fundamental meanings of the words when
used to designate realities. We shall here-
after see what they mean when they are
used to designate illusions. Matter is the
substrate of body and has no substrate for
itself. All matter has four factors or constit-
uents, number, extension, motion and
duration, and some matter at least has a
fifth factor, namely judgment. Matter is not
a substrate for these factors, but exists in
these constituents which are never dissoci-
ated, but constitute matter, or are the mo-
ments of matter; and this matter is the
substrate of all bodies.
SCIENCE.
265
ESSENCE.
The term essence as used in philosophy
is employed in a double manner and is thus
often ambiguous. It is sometimes used as
a synonym for substrate of matter, at other
times it is used to designate the occult sub-
strate ofclass. In this latter sense it is here
used. Essence, then, is the number essen-
tial to make an order or kindof aclass. As
the whole number is essential, every one is
essential; they are severally and conjointly
essential, so that it is possible correctly to
speak of them all as being essential and to
speak of every one severally as being essen-
tial. All of the particles which make up a
body are conjointly and severally essential
to that body, and the essence of a body is
the hierarchy of particles of which it is com-
posed. The term essence, therefore, is a
general term or pronoun for all collocations
of number, and its special meaning is de-
rived from the context. As an illusion,
essence is the name of an unknown some-
thing which produces a kind or class, and
is a property of an unknown or unknowable
substrate of matter.
If, as the chemist believes, with much
good reason, the ultimate chemical particles
are alike, they are alike only in number,
extension, motion and duration ; they are
unlike in association, position, direction or
motion and the duration of association, so
that likeness and unlikeness is inherent in
matter itself. In bodies innumerable com-
binations of number, extension, motion and
duration are found, and out of these are de-
veloped innumerable likenesses and unlike-
nesses, so that one body is like another in
many respects and unlike that other in many
other respects. The science of classifica-
tion takes these likenesses and unlikenesses
and discovers degrees among them which
are of profound importance in the study of
the world, and upon which a large share of
knowledge rests. All knowledge does not
rest upon likeness and unlikeness ; but like-
266
ness is founded upon number, and men
have discovered that what is true of a body
is true of any other body of like kind, under
the axiom that whatever is true of anything
is true of its identity in so far only as it is
a constant property or an absolute, and not
in so far as it is a variable or relative.
These are all simple, self-evident proposi-
tions, but in the compounding and recom-
pounding of matter it is not always possible
to disentangle the constants from the vari-
ables. Men lost in the meaning of words,
forever wandering in linguistic jungles, have
engaged in discussions about essences and
have at last reified the word as something
which is not number associated with exten-
sion, motion and duration, but as some oc-
cult existence unknown and unknowable,
which gives to bodies their likeness or un-
likeness. Having reached the conclusion
that matter is something more than its con-
stituents, with an occult, unknown and un-
knowable substrate, they take the next step
that the essence of class or likeness and un-
likeness exists not in the fundamental pro-
perties of body or the fundamental constit-
uents of matter, but in their substrate.
All known things are classified either
properly or improperly. The characters
upon which they are classed are thus in-
numerable. These characters which con-
stitute class are all the bodies embraced in
the class and all the properties embraced in
all the bodies of the class. The term es-
sence, then, used in this sense, means all of
these things. Therefore it is a general name
for everything in the universe, but obtain-
ing its particular meaning in any case by the
context. What is the meaning of the word
this? It may be applied to any constituent
of matter, to matter itself, to any body or to
any property, relation or quality in the ma-
terial world, and to any idea in the mental
world, and its meaning is derived from the
context; it has no definite meaning in itself.
Essence, as a word used by philosophers, is a
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 60.
pronoun of like character without specific
meaning, and attains its specific meaning
only by the context; it has one meaning at
one time, and another at another, and thus
it seems to be illusive. As the substrate of
matter, a reified nothing, is entertained in
the minds of some as an entity, so some
thinkers make essence a property of this
substrate—a nonenity of a nonenity. Chuar,
Hegel and Spencer reason in this manner.
Essence as connoting the essential charac-
ters of a class is a word the meaning of
which scientific men clearly understand; it
is never ambiguous, although naturalists
may sometimes disagree about the essen-
tiality of a particular character, but the es-
sence of which the philosopher thinks is
nonexistent, the opinions of the three wise
men to the contrary notwithstanding.
SPACE.
The word space is the pronoun of all ex-'
tensions, figures and structures of exten-
sions in the multitudinous bodies of the
world. There are many extensions, and
every known body is a constituent of some
other body, and this synthesis may be con-
tinued until the mind is lost in immensity.
The space occupied by a body is its exten-
sion in structure and figure. This desk be-
fore me has extension, or we say that it oc-
cupies space; the space which it occupies is
its extension, from which it excludes other
bodies. Remove the furniture from the
room, it is said to be empty, yet it is full of
air; remove the air from the room, yet it is
full of ether; remove the ether, may be, we
know not, all is removed; then the wall en-
closes void—nothing—but the walls of the
room yet have extension, and we can meas-
ure this by measuring the walls, but void
cannot be measured; there is nothing to be
measured. Thus itis that space is the pro-
noun of all dimensions of all bodies, sever-
ally and conjointly, and as they are vari-
able, space seems to be illusive, and it comes.
FEBRUARY 21, 1896. ]
at last in the minds of careless thinkers to
mean something more than extension, an
unknown and unknowable thing that, like
essence, belongs to the unknown and un-
knowable substrate of matter. The word is
useful when its use is understood as a pro-
noun or general word whose meaning is
given by the context.
FORCE.
Force is the pronoun for combinations of
motion. It thus may be applied to numer-
ous things now existing, or which have ex-
isted in the past or may exist in the future.
It is the general word for all collisions and
all combinations of collisions; collisions of
particles of ether in light and heat, col-
lisions of particles of air in sound, collisions
of particles of water in stress, collisions of
particles of matter in all solids exhibited in
the structure and strength of those materi-
als. It thus stands for the action of two or
more bodies as they come in collision, and
thus influence each other’s motions. It is
not an occult, unknown or unknowable
something which belongs to an occult, un-
known and unknowable substrate. The
term has no particular or determined mean-
ing in itself, but derives its meaning from the
context. It is a word of universal use,
whose meaning must be determined by its
application; it is the general term or pro-
noun to denote any or all actions and re-
-actions.
TIME.
Time is the pronoun of all durations. It
means any duration to which the term is
applied, all durations or any collocation
of durations the mind may entertain. When
reified it comes to be thought of as apply-
ing to an existence independent of the things
which have duration. Then time, like es-
‘sence, space and force, becomes a property
of the substrate of matter, an illusion about
an illusion.
SCIENCE.
267
,
GHOST.
Spirit is a general term or pronoun for all
judgments in the infinite variety of sensa-
tions, perceptions, understandings, accep-
tions and reflections. It is a name for all
ideation. It is known to us only in its as-
sociation or connection with the universal
constituents of matter, which are number,
extension, motion and duration. There is no
spirit which is not a unity of many and one.
There is no spirit which has not force.. There
is no spirit which has not duration ; in so far
all are agreed; and it is here affirmed that
there is no spirit which has not extension,
for without extension all the other constitu-
ents would vanish, become nothing, ab-
solutely unimaginable or unthinkable.
When spirit is considered to be some-
thing which is not number or many in one,
which has not extension with figure and
structure without force, or the power of ac-
tion and reaction and without duration as
persistence or persistence and change, that
is, without time, it becomes a nonentity, a
nothing, and it is then an illusion and is
usually called ghost.
CAUSE.
We use the word cause as we use the
words this and that, as a general term or pro-
noun for anything that stands in relation to
any other thing in the production of a
change. The multitudinous bodies and
particles of the universe cooperate with one
another in the production of changes. The
condition before a particular change is con-
sidered in respect to the condition after the
change, and the condition which cooperated
in the production of the change, is called a
cause, and the condition after the change is
called an effect. It is thus that the term
cause may be applied to any body, to any
property, or to any relation; it isa term for
any of these things, any collocation of these
things or any part of these things, and just
what its meaning may be can be discovered
268
only by the context in which the word is
used. In the multitude of bodies, proper-
ties and relations which codperate in the
production of the change whose result is
called an effect, we may stop to consider
any one and call that the cause. Failing
to appreciate the variable significance of
the word, men are led into the illusion that
there is some entity, some separate exist-
ence called cause. i
Metaphorically, essence is sometimes used
for space, sometimes for force, sometimes
for time, sometimes for spirit, and some-
times for cause, and interchangeably all of
these terms may be used as metaphors for
one another.
Thus it is that we have a family of
chimeras in substrate, essence, space, force,
time, ghost and cause that are not bodies
or the properties of bodies, but things non-
existent—mysteries that are at the founda-
tion of all philosophies of the unknowable
and all philosophies of the contradictory,
and the ground of all antinomies. They
constitute the substrate, the essence, the
space, the time, the cause of the philoso-
phies of the three wise men, Chuar, Hegel
and Spencer.
We shail hereafter see more clearly how
these illusions have been developed and
how other illusions have gathered about
them. Here we simply call attention to
the fundamental illusions to indicate some-
what the purposes of this argument.
It is within the experience of every
human being, and has been through all
generations, that man is forever discover-
ing number, extension, motion, duration
and judgment. He learns something of
number in infancy and adds to his knowl-
edge daily and extends his knowledge to an
indefinite multiplicity. He adds to his
knowledge the extension of one body and
another still embodied in a higher order ;
and thus his knowledge of extension in-
creases to an indefinite extent. He is for-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. If. No. 60.
ever discovering new motions and new
combinations of motions as forces and finds.
that he is able thus to add more and more
of like motions and forces to his knowledge.
Ever he is discovering durations - the dura-
tions of coexistent things and the durations.
of past things, extending to high antiquity,
and he prophesies durations to come, and
many do come, until his mind is led into.
the illimitable future. Mind is then trained
by constant experience to expect a further
enlargement of knowledge and to consider
the possibilities into which it may expand,
until it dwells upon endless number, end-
less extension, endless force, endless dura-
tion. Man contemplates multiples and
submultiples of the things of which he al-
ready has knowledge, and then invents im-
plements of research by which submul-
tiples are discovered, and other implements.
by which multiples in higher orders are
discovered. Finding that he has explored
but a small part of the universe, and that
within the universe wherever bodies are to:
be met they have been resolved into num-
bers, extensions, motions and durations, he
grasps the idea of infinity not as something
other than that of which he knows, but as
more of that which he best knows. The
experience of men through countless gener-
ations has organized the concepts of num-
ber, extension, motion and duration as the
universal factors of matter, and never has
any mind discovered any other things sav-
ing only those which are included in the
terms of mind. Of matter without mind,
man has absolutely no vestige of knowledge
which is not included under the terms num-
ber, extension, motion and duration. These
terms absorb them all. Therefore matter is
number, extension, motion and duration,
and at least some matter has judgment.
The mind discovers another factor or cate-
gory in the universe—judgment, which de-
velops into cognition of the constituents of
matter, of their relations, and also a cogni-
FEBRUARY 21, 1896.]
tion of cognitions and the relations of cogni-
tions. It is thus that the universe is re-
solved into material elements and judg-
ments, the five things best known, and
science in dealing with the universe ex-
plains them by resolving them into these best
known things. Science does not lead to
' mystery, but to knowledge, and the mind
rests satisfied with the knowledge thus
gained when the analysis is complete —
when any newly discovered body is resolved
into its constituents or any new idea into
its judgments.
Concepts of number, extension, motion,
duration and judgment are developed by
all minds; from that of the lowest animal
to that of the highest human genius.
Through the evolution of animal life, these
concepts have been growing as they have
been inherited down the stream of time
in the flood of generations. It is thus
that an experience has been developed,
combined with the experience of all
the generations of life for all the time
of life, so that it is impossible to ex-
punge from human mind these five con-
cepts. They can never be cancelled while
sanity remains. Things having something
more than number, extension, motion, dura-
tion and judgment cannot even be invented ;
it is not possible for the human mind to
conceive anything else, but semblances of
such ideas may be produced by mummifica-
tion of language.
Ideas are expressed in words which are
symbols, and the word may be divested of all
meaning in terms of number, extension,
motion, duration and judgment and still re-
main, and it may be claimed that it still
means something unknown and unknow-
able ; this is the origin of reification. There
are many things unknown at one stage of
experience which are known at another,
so man comes to believe in the unknown by
constant daily experience; but has by fur-
ther converse with the universe known
SCIENCE.
269
things previously unknown, and they invari
ably become known in terms of number, ex-
tension, motion, duration and judgment, and
are found to be only combinations of these
things. Itis thus that something unknown
may be imagined, but something unknow-
able cannot be imagined.
No man imagines reified substrate, reified
essence, reified space, reified force, reified
time, reified ghost, or reified cause. Words
are blank checks on the bank of thought, to
be filled with meaning by the past and future
earnings of the intellect. But these words
are coin signs of the unknowable and no one
can acquire the currency for which they call.
Things little known are named and man
speculates about these little known things
and erroneously imputes properties or attri-
butes to them until he comes to think of
their possessing such unknown and mis-
taken attributes. At last he discovers the
facts; then all that he discovers is ex-
pressed in the terms of number, extension
motion, duration and cognition. Still the
word for the little known thing may remain
to express something unknown and mysti-
cal, and by simple and easily understood
processes he reifies what is not, and reasons
in terms which have no meaning as used by
him. Terms thus used without meaning
are terms of reification.
Such terms and such methods of reason-
ing become very dear to those immersed in
thaumaturgy and who love the wonderful
and cling to the mysterious, and, in the rev-
elry developed by the hashish of mystery,
the pure water of truth is insipid. The
dream of intellectual intoxication seems
more real and more worthy of the human
mind than the simple truths discovered by
science. There is a fascination in mystery
and there has ever been a school of intel-
lects delighting to revel therein, and yet, in
the grand aggregate, there is a spirit of
sanity extant among mankind which loves
the true and simple.
270
Often the eloquence of the dreamer has
even subverted the sanity of science, and
clear-headed, simple-minded scientific men
have been willing to affirm that science deals
with trivialities, and that only metaphysics
deals with the profound and significant
things of the universe. In a late great
text-book on physics, which is a science of
simple certitudes, it is affirmed:
To us the question, What is matter ?—
What is, assuming it to have a real exist-
ence outside ourselves, the essential basis of
the phenomena with which we may as phy-
sicists make ourselves acquainted ?—ap-
pears absolutely insoluble. Even if we be-
come perfectly and certainly acquainted
with the intimate structure of what we call
Matter, we would but have made a further
step in the study of its properties; and as
physicists we are forced to say that while
somewhat has been learned as to the prop-
erties of Matter, its essential nature is quite
unknown to us.
As though its properties did not consti-
tute its essential nature.
So, under the spell of metaphysics, the
physicist turns from his spectroscope to ex-
claim that all his researches may be deal-
ing with phantasms.
Science deals with realities. These are
bodies with their properties. All the facts
embraced in this vast field of research are
expressed in terms of number, extension,
motion, duration and judgment; no other
terms are needed and no other terms are
coined, but by a process well known in
philology as a disease of language, some-
times these terms lapse into meanings which
connote illusions. The human intellect is
of such a nature that it has notions or ideas
which may be certitudes or illusions. All
the processes of reasoning, including sen-
sation and perception, proceed by infer-
ence; the inference may be correct or erro-
neous, and certitudes are reached by veri-
fying opinions. This is the sole and only
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 60.
process of gaining certitudes. The certi-
tudes are truths which properly represent
noumena, the illusions are errors which
misrepresent noumena. All knowledge is
the knowledge of noumena, and all illusion
is erroneous opinion about noumena. The
human mind knows nothing but realities
and deals with nothing but realities, but in
this dealing with the realities—the noumena
of the universe—it reaches some conclu-
sions that are correct and others that are
incorrect. The correct conclusions are cer-
titudes about realities; the incorrect conclu-
sions are illusions about realities. Science
is the name which mankind has agreed to
call this knowledge of realities, and error
is the name which mankind has agreed to
give to all illusions. Thus it is that certi-
tudes are directly founded upon realities;
and illusions as they are always about reali-
ties, are thus indirectly, though incorrectly,
founded upon realities, but certitudes and
illusions alike all refer to realities. In this
sense then it may be stated that all error as
well as knowledge testifies to reality, and
that all our knowledge is certitude based
upon reality, and that illusions would not
be possible were there not realities about
which inferences are made.
Known realities are those about which
mankind has knowledge; unknown things
are those things about which man has not yet
attained knowledge. Scientific research is
the endeavor to increase knowledge, and its
methods are observation, experience and
verification. Illusions are erroneous infer-
ences in relation to known things. All
certitudes are described in terms of num-
ber, extension, motion, duration and judg-
ment; nothing else has yet been discovered
and nothing else can be discovered with
the faculties with which man is possessed.
In the material world we have no knowl-
edge of something which is not a unity of
itself or a unity of a plurality; of something
which is not an extension of figure or an
FEBRUARY 21, 1896. ]
extension of figure and structure; of some-
thing which has not motion or a combina-
tion of motions as force; of something
which has not duration as persistence or
duration with persistence and change.
In the mental world we have no knowl-
edge of something which is not a judgment
of consciousness and inference; of a judg-
ment which is not a judgment of a body
with number, extension, motion and dura-
tion. Every notion of something in the
material world devoid of one or more of the
constituents of matter is an illusion; every
notion of something in the spiritual world
devoid of the factors of matter and judg-
ment is an illusion. These are the propo-
sitions to be explained and demonstrated.
In the following chapters an attempt will
be made to show that we know much about
matter, and although we do not know all,
all we know is about matter in its cate-
gories of number, extension, motion, dura-
tion and judgment, or that we know of
matter in its four categories and that we
know of mind in the categories of judgment,
but always this mind is associated with mat-
ter. In doing this we shall endeavor to dis-
criminate between the certitudes and illu-
sions current in human opinion.
In the intoxication of illusion facts seem
cold and colorless, and the wrapt dreamer
imagines that he dwells in a realm above
science—in a world which as he thinks ab-
sorbs truth as the ocean the shower, and
transforms it into a flood of philosophy.
Feverish dreams are supposed to be
glimpses of the unknown and unknowable,
and the highest and dearest aspiration is
to be absorbed in this sea of speculation.
Nothing is worthy of contemplation but the
mysterious. Yet the simple and the true
remain. The history of science is the history
of the discovery of the simple and the true;
in its progress illusions are dispelled and
certitudes remain. J. W. PowELt.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
SCIENCE.
271
NOTES ON THE DENSITY AND TEMPERATURE
OF THE WATERS OF THE GULF OF
MEXICO AND GULF STREAM.*
Ir is estimated that the evaporation in
the Gulf of Mexico amounts to about 60
inches a year, thus diminishing the amount
of water in the Guif 1.54 cubic miles per
day. The evaporation is greatest in the
central parts of the Gulf, following a line
from east to west and approximately coin-
ciding with the line of mean maximum of
atmospheric pressure.
Precipitation, on the other hand, is great-
est in the southwestern and northeastern
parts of the Gulf, and least in the area in-
tervening between the sandy plains of
Yucatan and the arid regions of southern
Texas and northern Mexico. By computa-
tion we find it to reach 32.7 inches annually,
which is about 55 per centum of the eva-
poration, and it increases the waters of the
Gulf by 0.84 cubic miles per day.
The water supply is further increased by
river discharges, which amount to about
0.68 cubic miles per day; nearly 70 per
centum of this volume being furnished by
the Mississippi River. It will be seen that
precipitation and river discharges feed the
gulf by nearly the same amounts, but the
effect produced by those feeders sinks into
insignificance when compared with that
produced by the inflowing current of the
Yucatan Channel, which, according to a
calculation from Lieut. Pillsbury’s current
observations, hurls the enormous quantity
of 652 cubic miles of water per day into the
Gulf, which quantity by itself would suffice
to raise the level of the entire Gulf 52? feet
within that space of time.
The Gulf stream carries off only about
two-thirds of the water that is added to
the volume of the Gulf in the manner indi-
cated above, and evaporation being power-
* Abstract of a paper read to the Philosophical So-
ciety of Washington, by permission of the Superin-
tendent of the U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey.
272
less to remove the other third we are led
to the conclusion that it flows back into the
Caribbean as an undercurrent.
A study of the proportions of these cur-
rents has led to the conclusion that the
Yucatan Channel current owes its existence
mainly to the mechanical effect of the
winds which produce an accumulation of
waters in the northwestern part of the
Caribbean Sea, but it is also, in part, due to
differences in temperature and density be-
tween the waters of the latter and those of
the Gulf. Hence, should the winds cease
to influence the level of the Caribbean Sea,
there would still be a surface current from
this sea into the Gulf and an undercurrent
in the opposite direction, similar to those
which actually exist in the Strait of Gi-
braltar from and to the Atlantic Ocean.
The fresh water, which finds its way into
the southwestern part of the Gulf, remains
on the surface of the Gulf waters, but on ac-
count of its high temperature it readily as-
similates with the sea water, and by con-
tinuous absorption of salt and heat from
the lower strata reduces the latter to ab-
normally low temperatures.
The river and rainwater entering the
northern parts of the Gulf also remains on
the surface, but it preserves its distinctive
character and low specific gravity for a
much longer time period, owing to its com-
paratively low temperature, for not until
it has reached the middle of the Gulf has
it gathered salt and heat to its full capacity.
Thus the course of the waters of the Missis-
sippi River can be traced by their lightness
for hundreds of miles into the Gulf of
Mexico. Instead of flowing directly south-
east towards the Strait of Florida, in ac-
cordance with the generally accepted sup-
position, these waters flow to the westward,
which deflection undoubtedly is influenced
by the existence of a lower water level in
the western part of the Gulf, due to the pil-
ing up of the water in the eastern part by
SCIENCE.
‘the flow from the Yucatan Channel.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 60.
Not-
withstanding the fact that the tendency of
the Mississippi River waters, after entering
the Gulf, is towards the west, and regard-
less of the strength of the inflowing Yucatan
current, the predominent surface drift of
the Gulf is towards the Strait of Florida,
which phenomenon may be explained by
assuming that the Yucatan current in its
west and northward progress dips below the
surface waters and continues as an under-
current.
The surface waters of the central and
eastern parts of the Gulf of Mexico, being
propelled against the direction of the pre-
vailing winds, are subjected to a powerful
influence of evaporation, by which their
specific gravity is increased to such an
extent that their weight can no longer
be borne on the surface, and sinking, they
carry larger amounts of salt and heat into
the deep strata than could reach such great
depths in any other way. Thus only can
we account for such temperatures as 60°
and more at a depth of 250 fathoms, oc-
curring off Cape San Antonio, half way be-
tween the Florida and Campeche Banks,
against 44° in the western part of the Gulf
and 47° in the Caribbean Sea at correspond-
ing depths.
In conformity with the direct effects,
known to result from decided differences of
temperature at considerable depths in com-
municating parts of the ocean, there will be
an undercurrent from the southeastern part
of the Gulf toward the western part and
another entering the Caribbean Sea, sup-
porting the views expressed when consider-
ing the volume of water.
It is a remarkable phenomenon that the
temperature in the substrata of those parts
of the ocean adjacent to the Strait of
Florida should be so nearly the same as
that of the eastern part of the Gulf, thus
precluding the existence of a subsurface
counter-current in that strait; and a singu-
FEBRUARY 21, 1896. ]
lar coincidence may be noted in the general
character of the bed of that strait, it being
only sufficiently deep to permit the passage
of the Gulf Stream. It must not be sup-
posed, however, that the under-current
flowing into the Caribbean Sea entails a
permanent saline and thermal loss upon
the waters of the Gulf, as those abducted
quantities of salt and heat, by a system of
transfers, find their way,into consecutively
higher levels, and finally reach the surface
current and return with it to the Gulf.
The current of the Yucatan Channel,
notwithstanding its being the strongest cur-
rent of the entire Gulf Stream system,
possesses no great depth, and owing to its
rapid spreading out it soon loses the best
part of its velocity. The only exception
in this respect is met with along the north-
ern edge of Campeche Bank, where its flow
shows considerable vitality, and it is here
that it has evidently taken the shortest
route to reach the western part of the Gulf.
It also appears to be very variable in its
strength; when flowing at its best some of
its waters are sent into the Strait of Florida,
but its main strength is directed against the
Gulf of Mexico with the effect of penning up
its waters above the level of the Atlantic.
Whenever the Yucatan current relaxes in
activity, the waters of the Gulf of Mexico,
in their reaction, frequently succeed in
cutting it off altogether from reaching the
Strait of Florida, and sometimes even in
partly forcing it back at its eastern and
weakest flank, into the Caribbean Sea.
The Gulf Stream, as has been shown by
Lieutenant Pillsbury, is not the direct con-
tinuation of the Yucatan Channel current,
but originates about in the middle of the
western entrance to the Strait of Florida.
As it first appears in the Strait it is com-
paratively an insignificant current, and we
are also disappointed in not finding it that
fiery furnace which, according to its reputa-
tion, transmits sufficient heat to the eastern
SCIENCE.
273
part of the Atlantic to modify the climate
of the whole of western Europe. The fact
appears to be that it does not start upon its
, journey at this point with more heat than
it requires for its own use until it reaches
Cape Florida, as it at once enters a contest
against the cold waters descending from
the Florida Bank, extending nearly half-
way across the Strait. During its progress
through the Strait these cold waters are
forced back into the vicinity of the reefs,
and by the time the Gulf Stream has
reached Cape Florida it is in full possession
of the Strait, from the surface to the bot-
tom, and from the Bahama Banks to the
Florida Reefs ; its axis being but 15 miles
distant from Cape Florida.
This victory, however, has been obtained
at a great sacrifice of its supply of salt and
heat, leaving it in an inadequate condition
to engage unaided in another contest which
it must immediately enter upon. Fortu-
nately reinforcements are at hand, warm
and highly saline waters, which have been
slowly advancing along the Bahama Bank,
join the Gulf stream at its point of weak-
ness. Other and far more important succor
gathered by the northeast trade winds, joins
the Gulf stream on entering the ocean at
the eastern end of the strait. Yet all these
additions cannot account for the observed
fact that the waters of the Gulf stream are
so much warmer and more saline than those
of the ocean, and in order to discover the
source of this great heat we must look in
a different direction than towards the Gulf
of Mexico, or towards the surface drift of
the Atlantic.
What has been described as taking place
on the surface of the southeastern part of
the Gulf is reénacted on a much larger
scale on the entire surface of that part of
the Atlantic Ocean lying between the Ber-
mudas and the ‘continental shelf,’ off the
Southern States. A powerful evaporation
caused by the trade winds produces a con-
274
densation of the warm surface water, which
sinks into greater depths and imparts a
higher degree of temperature and salinity
to the substrata than are met with in any
other ocean. The waters of these substrata
having a temperature from 60 to 64 degrees,
at a depth of 250 fathoms, meet the cold
waters, in a space about 40 miles wide, de-
scending along the edge of the continental
slope, which at the same depth (250
fathoms) have a temperature of only about
45 degrees.
Within this space of forty miles’ width a
transition of heat and salt is effected, result-
ing in an entire reconstruction of the super-
incumbent stratum of water, producing that
peculiar distribution of salt and heat at the
surface that is characteristic of the Gulf
stream. When warm seawater comes into
contact with colder seawater it becomes
heavier, for the reason that the increase of
density, due to loss of heat, surpasses the
decrease, due to the loss of salt. When this
occurs in the depths of the ocean the warm
water will sink to still greater depths, but
here (as also on the slopes of great sub-
marine banks like the Bahama, Florida and
Campeche Banks) this dense and warm
water touches bottom, and another shift
must be made to dispose of the excess of
salt, the maintenance of equilibrium being
a physical necessity.
The density of warm water is less affected
by the addition of a certain quantity of
salt than cold water would be, and for this
reason the excess of salt and heat at the
bottom, on the inner edge of the Gulf
Stream, shifts to higher levels where, in
consequence of higher temperatures, larger
quantities of salt can be stowed away with
less change of density than at greater depths.
Thus, by a withdrawal of salt and heat
from the greater depths and their accu-
mulation at the surface, that peculiar distri-
bution is attained which characterizes all
the serial temperature observations of the
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 60.
Gulf Stream sections, including those ob-
tained by the Challenger.
Observations show the highest specific
gravities ofthe Gulf Stream waters to be in
the latitudes of Capes Lookout and Hat-
teras, exceeding those of all other parts of
the open ocean, and surpassed only by those
of the Red Sea and of the western part of
the Mediterranean.
Although the ‘ upheaval’ of the waters of
the Gulf Stream develops first in upward
currents, in the substratum in which the
transition of heat and salt begins, it is not
improbable that these currents, like the
winds in aérial circulation, may assume a
more or less horizontal direction in their
progress to the surface. It may also be as-
assumed that the storage of heat in the sur-
face stratum is not without influence upon
‘the level of the Gulf Stream, and that this
difference of level between the Gulf Stream
and the adjacent areas of the ocean may call
other currents into life, but a farther consi-
deration of these subjects would lead us
into the sphere of the so-called dynamics
of the Gulf Stream, a field already ably
discussed and sufliciently studied.
A. LINDENKOHL.
AN OPTICAL ILLUSION.
Tue brilliant electric lights on the borders
of the lake in the Baltimore park have served
to call my attention to a phenomenon which
is so very familiar that one is wholly disin-
clined to regard itas a ‘phenomenon’atall. I
refer to the fact that the long stream of light
reflected by the surface of the water from a
lamp on the opposite side does not look like
an object lying upon the surface, but like a
bright post projecting down into the water,
in continuation of the lamp-post. This is
without doubt a particular case of the illu-
sion by which lines which have any position
whatever in planes passing through the axis
of the body (or, for small near objects, in
planes passing through the vertical meridian
FEBRUARY 21, 1896. ]
of the one eye with which they are looked
at)* are taken by us to be vertical lines.
This illusion is illustrated in Fig. 1. The
lines of the figure are all -drawn through
a common point about three inches beyond
the corner of the paper. If one eye be put
in the position of this point (the other be-
ing closed), and if the paper be held hori-
zontally about on the level of the eye, the
lines will all seem to stand upright. The
reason is that when one eye only is used,
we have very small ground for knowing how
such a line is situated in the plane deter-
mined by it and by the nodal point of the
eye, and hence we take it to be a vertical
line faute de mieux, because by far the great-
est number of lines which strike the retina
in this meridian are vertical lines. With
many lines, the illusion is stronger than with
one, because every group of vertical staves
that we have ever seen has looked like this,
and it has probably never happened to us
to see a group of lines lying on the ground
in just this position.
That this is the correct explanation of
the phenomenon of the lights is confirmed
by the fact that, upon looking at the reflec-
Ln
*Am. Jour. of Psychology, I., 101 and James’ Prin-
ciples of Psychology, I1., 95.
SCIENCE.
275:
tion with the head inclined through an angle
of ninty degrees, the illusion wholly dis-
appears. One can no longer believe that it
is possible to see the stream of light other-
wise than as lying flat upon the surface of
the lake. In this case the image of the line
of light falls along the eyes, from one to
the other, or just as a line would do which
went from right to left if the head were in
its normal position. Such a line we have
no tendency to see vertical, and hence we
now see the streak of light where it really
is on the surface of the water. With the
head wholly inverted, the line becomes.
vertical again, but less strongly so than
when the head is in the customary attitude.
Cur. Lapp FRANKLIN.
CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPHY.
THE TERTIARY PENEPLAIN IN MISSOURI.
THE prevalent opinion that the ‘moun-
tains’ of the dissected Ozark plateau in
Missouri are old geographical features.
meets welcome contradiction in an essay
by Keyes, State Geologist (Missouri Geol.
Survey, viil., 1894, 317-352). The rela-
tively even upland surface of the plateau is
explained as a peneplain of denudation ;
and the dome-like form of the plateau to-
day is regarded as the result of elevation
since the close of the Tertiary. The gen-
eral upland plain is dissected by steep-sided
or canyon-like trenches, in which the pro-
cess of deepening is still continued. ‘The
last elevation is not yet ended, and the
changes of level in the region are probably
going on now as rapidly as they ever have
in the past geological time’ (p. 352).
While the strata are nearly horizontal in
the Ozark plateau, they are tilted in the
Ouachita mountains, south of the broad val-
ley of the Arkansas river, in the State of
that name. Keyes regards the relatively
even crest lines of the Ouachita ridges as
representing the same peneplain as that of
the Ozarks; the broad valley of-the Ar-
276
kansas being a trough of erosion between
the two highland areas, ‘ due partly to struc-
tural peculiarities, but it is also due largely
to other conditions,’ the latter not being
specified. ‘As a unit, the Tertiary pene-
plain was bowed up from the Red river to
the Missouri.’’
It has for some time been desirable to fix
the date of the Ozark peneplain, but un-
fortunately the evidence by which a Ter-
tiary date is here assigned to the comple-
tion of the peneplain and a Post-Tertiary
date to its uplift and dissection is not
fully stated. The narrowness of the val-
leys may, however, certainly be taken to
‘emphasize the fact that the Ozark uplift of
to-day is essentially modern.’
HIGH LEVEL GRAVELS OF KENTUCKY.
THE rolling limestone uplands of the
blue-grass region of Kentucky, rimmed
around by sandstone escarpments on the
south, and dissected by deep narrow valleys
of streams that flow to the Ohio on the
north, are strewn over at various places
with gravels and sands. The distribution
of the gravels is discussed by A. M. Miller,
of Lexington, Ky. (Amer. Geol., XVL.,
1895, 281-287). These loose materials are
water-worn and bedded, and are derived
mostly from the harder rocks of the enclos-
ing escarpments; they are found chiefly
near existing valleys. Miller concludes
that within comparatively recent times the
rivers were flooded to a height of 300 to
350 feet above their present channels. In
explanation of such flooding, a glacial ob-
struction of the Ohio is considered as a
possibility, but satisfactory evidence is not
found in favor of it. ‘Submergence’ of un-
specified nature is also mentioned without
reaching any definite conclusion about it.
No consideration is given to the possibil-
ity that the gravels may have been spread
over the upland surface before the present
canyon-like valleys were eroded, while the
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 60.
whole region stood at a lower level than at
present, but not submerged. This is em-
inently possible, for the aspect of the blue-
grass region is strongly suggestive of base-
levelling during a former lower stand of the
land, and of dissection after elevation to
the present altitude, as has been suggested
by Westgate (Amer. Geol., XI., 1893,
258-259). The prepossession that the up-
land gravels could not endure for so long a
time as would be needed to carve the can-
yon-like valleys is not well supported. Old
river gravels lie on rock benches enclosing
the gorge of the upper Ohio; and in similar
position on the valley slopes of the Meuse
in its transverse path across the Ardennes;
even the fine loess of the upper bench of the
Rhine valley in the Schiefergebirge is older
than the narrow gorge of that energetic
river.
CLOUD-BURST TRACKS AND WATER GAPS IN
ALABAMA.
A REPORT on the Coosa coal field by A.
M. Gibson (Alabama Geol. Survey, 1895)
gives a description of two great scars on
Coosa mountain, produced by cloud-bursts
that accompanied the tornadoes of July,
1872. On the northwest side of the moun-
tain there is a washout sixty feet wide and
three or four feet deep, extending down the
mountain side. Trees, soil and rocks were
all swept down, making great moraine-like
heaps at the base of the slope. On the
southeast side of the mountain there are
several scars of even greater magnitude.
From one of these rocks of all sizes were
carried down to the low ground and there .
heaped over ‘acres of ground.’ One mass,
estimated to weigh a hundred tons was
carried half a mile (p. 28-30).
It is to be regretted that the sanction of
State publication should be given a few
pages later to an antiquated account of ‘Big
Narrows’ in Double mountain. ‘“‘Some con-
vulsion of nature must surely have made the
FEBRUARY 21, 1896. ]
break that let the waters enter here, it else
seems impossible that this stream could have
cut through such rocky masses by a gorge
so narrow, and leaving so little sign of
abrasion on the perpendicular cliffs” (p. 32).
If there were really reason to regard this
gap as the result of a convulsion of nature
it would deserve to be carefully described ;
and such a rarity would become a mecca
for geologists and geographers; but as there
appears to be no sufficient ground for think-
ing it different in origin from the hundred
other water gaps of the Appalachians, the
people of Alabama ought to have a reason-
able explanation of its method of production.
MASSANUTTEN MOUNTAIN, VIRGINIA.
A PRELIMINARY account of this peculiar
sandstone mountain, rising from the lime-
stone floor of Shenandoah Valley, is
given by A. C. Spencer (Johns Hopkins
Univ. Cire., No. 121, Oct., 1895, 13, 14).
The mountain is of complicated synclinal
structure, the resistent sandstone which
forms its rim being bent into the form of a
long, narrow, deep and wrinkled trough,
whose bottom dips 1,000 feet or more be-
neath the surrounding valley floor. The
greater part of the crest line of the mountain
represents the much dissected Cretaceous
peneplain of the Appalachian province; but
certain points rise to greater elevations by
as much as 500 or more feet. Passage
creek, draining the northern portion of the
valley enclosed by the mountain rim, is
peculiar in cutting its outlet gap at the apex
‘of the syncline, instead of to one side, as is
commonly the case in Pennsylvania.
W. M. Davis.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.
ETHNOGRAPHIC SURVEYS.
Ir has been already mentioned in these
notes (see Science, Feb. 10, 1893,) that an
SCIENCE.
277
ethnographic survey of Great Britain and
Ireland had been instituted under the aus-
pices of the British Association for the Ad-
\vancement of Science. Already two prelimi-
nary reports have been made, and quite
lately the Honorable Secretary of the Com-
mittee, Mr. EK. Sidney Hartland, has pub-
lished some explanatory notes aboutthe plan,
in the ‘Transactions of the British and Glou-
cestershire Archeological Society.’ These
are very useful and suggestive, and together
with the forms of schedule prepared by the
Committee should be secured by students
of ethnography as showing the well-ma-
tured methods of investigation decided
upon by the high authorities in charge of
the survey. They may be had by address-
ing ‘the Secretary of the Ethnographic
Survey, British Association, Burlington
House, London, W.’
THE EARLY USE OF METALS IN EUROPE.
Dr. Jutrus Navg, the well known editor
of the Prahistorische Blatter in Munich, con-
tributes to the ‘ Revue Archeeologique’ an in-
structive article on the Hallstatt Epoch in
Bavaria and the Palatinate, principally
from his own researches.
His epoch is that of ‘ the first age of iron’
and begins about 800 B.C. At its begin-
ning bronze was much more abundant than
iron, and the forms given it were graceful.
The bodies were generally incinerated and
placed in stone tombs. Long, leaf-shaped
swords of iron were laid with the warriors,
and ornamented vases of pottery beside
them. Knives, daggers, pins, lance points
and ornaments of both metals are common.
The ethnographic conclusion is that these
were Celtic tribes, probably the Licatii, of
Latin authors. In agriculture they were
skilled and in commerce had established
distant relations.
Their contemporaries in the Upper Pala-
tinate were less advanced, being addicted
to human sacrifices and more wariike.
278
ANTHROPOMETRY OF THE AMERICAN IN-
DIANS.
Avr asession of the Berlin Anthropological
Society, in May last, Dr. Franz Boas re-
ported the results of numerous measure-
ments of American Indians and_half-
breeds, which he had carried out. A few
of his conclusions may be mentioned.
On the whole, the Indian is rather tall,
and the half-breeds slightly taller than the
pure blood. The women are 92 to 94 per
cent. the height ofthe male. As usual, the
tallest tribes are dwellers in plains. The
head-form varies extremely, but is persis-
tent over wide regions, the Mississippi val-
ley being peopled with mesocephalic tribes,
the extreme north with dolichocephalic,
while others, as the Téné, both north and
south, are brachycephalic. There is no
general type of native American skull. The
facial diameter rarely sinks below 147 mm.,
and when such is the case foreign blood
may be suspected.
The article is furnished with abundant
tables and diagrams, and offers a fine ex-
ample of scientific work.
THE MONUMENTS OF YUCATAN.
Tue first number of the anthropological
series published by the Field Columbian
Museum, Chicago, is the ‘ Archeological
Studies among the Ancient Cities of Mexico,’
by the curator, William H. Holmes. The
first part, which alone has appeared, is de-
voted to the architectural remains of Yuca-
tan. These were explored by the author
in a visit there last winter, which included
an inspection of the relics at Mugeres Is-
land, Cozumel, Uxmal, Izamal, Chichen
Itza, and some places of less note.
The results fill a volume of 137 pages,
abundantly illustrated and rich with accu-
rate observations and careful deductions.
Several sketch maps and panoramas of the
sites are inserted which give a much clearer
notion than can be obtained from verbal
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 60.
descriptions. The analysis of the elements.
of Mayan architecture are especially origi-
nal and valuable and impart a peculiar
worth to this monograph. The same may
be said of the observations on the materials
employed, the orientation, the necessity for
instruments of precision, the function of
the buildings, the dressing of stone, the
evolution of the ground plans, stairways
and substructures, etc. In fact, the reader
will find on almost every page something to
catch his attention and to cast new light on
the many obscure problems connected with
the ancient Mayas.
D. G. Brinton,
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
A PERMANENT SCIENTIFIC HEAD FOR THE
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
AN amendment to the Agricultural appropria-
tion bill has just been sent to Congress provid-
ing fora ‘‘ Director-in-Chief of scientific bureaus
and investigations, to serve during good be-
havior, to have authority to act as Assistant
Secretary, and to perform such other duties.
as the Secretary may direct.’’
This amendment, which has received the en-
dorsement of the Secretary and Assistant Secre-
tary of Agriculture, is the outgrowth of an ef-
fort to secure a permanent non-political organi-
zation and administration of the various bureaus
and divisions engaged in the scientific work of
the Government, and at the same time bring
about a more intelligent and more effective co-
6peration than has been heretofore possible.
The chief promoters of this movement are
well-known public-spirited educators and men
of science entirely outside of the Government
service.
The Department of Agriculture as at present
organized comprises a large number of scientific
and administrative divisions having for their ob-
ject the discovery, exploration and develop-
ment of the agricultural and other natural re-
sources of the country. The scientific divisions
are engaged in researches requiring the highest-
technical skill, and some of them in the solu-
tions of problems requiring long years of prep-
aration and scientific training.
FEBRUARY 21, 1896.]
Excluding the Weather Bureau, no less than
eight divisions are doing work which in the
main is purely scientific, and each of these has
its independent laboratory or laboratories. In-
cluding the Weather Bureau and the meat in-
spection service of the Bureau of Animal In-
dustry, 993;of a total of 2,019 employees are en-
gaged chiefly upon scientific and technical sub-
jects, and $1,700,000 of the $2,400,000 appro-
priated for the Department of Agriculture is ex-
pended upon this work. But the greater part
of the work of the Weather Bureau and Bureau
of Animal Industry, while fundamentally scien-
tific in method and character, is not in the line
of original investigation, and therefore may be
omitted in the present statement. Still, each
of these Bureaus conduct at Washington cer-
tain investigations in pure science, the cost of
which, added to that of the eight scientific di-
visions already mentioned, amounts annually to
nearly half a million dollars. Nevertheless no
cooperative organization or classification of
these scientific divisions, except those of the
Weather Bureau, has been as yet undertaken.
It would seem a simple business proposition,
needing no argument, that this comprehensive
and vastly important work, promoting, as it
does, the development of almost every resource
of our land and every industry of our people,
and concerning the food and health of a large
part of our population, should have a perma-
nent, broadly educated and experienced scien-
tific head, free from the disquieting influence of
politics.
The first, and in some respects the most diffi-
cult, step toward the accomplishment of this end
was taken when Secretary Morton secured for
the Department of Agriculture the protection of
the Civil Service, thus putting an end to the
terrors of political pressure in filling vacancies
in the scientific divisions.
Should the amendment now before Congress
become a law—and it is believed the friends of
science and education throughout the land will
give it their unqualified support—it is by no
means improbable that other scientific bureaus
of the Government will seek the protection and
support provided thereby, and that in the near
future we may boast a National Department of
Agriculture and Science.
SCIENCE.
‘ena.
279
ASTRONOMY.
THE Lick Observatory has just published
‘Contributions,’ No. 5, a volume of 86 pages
octavo, devoted to meteor and sunset phenom-
One of the most interesting papers in the
volume is by Prof. Schaeberle, and contains a
discussion of a series of meteor observations
made simultaneously at Mount Hamilton and at
Mount Diablo, forty miles distant. The Mount
Hamilton observations were made by Messrs.
Colton and Perrine; those at Mount Diablo by
Mr. Schaeberle. . The formule needed for the
complete reduction of observations of this kind,
including the criterion for determining whether
the observations of both stations in any given
instance really refer to the same meteor, are
fully developed. Nine meteor paths were suc-
cessfully worked out in this way in August, 1894.
The heights of the meteors range from four to
fifty-seven miles. Prof. Schaeberle concludes
by pointing out that much more reliable methods
of observation must be devised, if orbits having
any approach to precision are to be secured for
meteors. We can only hope that the experi-
ments now in progress at the Yale College Ob-
servatory will lead to the possibility of observ-
ing these interesting bodies photographically.
We learn from the last number of the Publi-
cations of the Astronomical Society of the
Pacific that several important instruments have
recently been completed at the works of Mr.
Saegmuller in Washington. These include a
nine-inch photographic instrument with collim-
ators for the Observatory of Georgetown Col-
lege, and a four-and-one-half-inch meridian
circle for the Catholic University. Numerous
other important instruments are in course of
construction. We hope this new and very
powerful photographic transit instrument will
enable F. Hagen and F. Fargis to carry their
very promising experiments in the direction of
determining right ascensions photographically
to a successful conclusion. If it shall prove
possible to photograph the collimators with suc-
cess, there can be little doubt that most impor-
tant results will flow from the use of this new
method.
Messrs. MAcMILLAN & Co. announce that
Dr. G. W. Hill’s ‘Celestial Mechanics’ will be
280
published during the present year. The work
will embody the lectures delivered at Columbia
College by Dr. Hill, and will appear with the
imprint of the Columbia University Press.
H. J.
HARVARD COLLEGE OBSERVATORY, CIRCULAR
NO 5.
Wells’ Algol Variable.
A MINIMUM of the Algol star, B. D.+17°
4367, occurred, as predicted in Circular No. 4,
on the afternoon of January 5, 1896. Through
the courtesy of Professor Young, observations
were obtained at Princeton by Professor Taylor
Reed, with the 23-inch equatorial. It was also
observed by Mr. W. M. Reed at Andover.
Preparations had been made at this observatory
to obtain a series of photographic images of it
automatically, each having an exposure of five
minutes to observe it photometrically with the
15-inch equatorial, and also visually with the
12 and 6-inch equatorials. Unfortunately, ow-
ing to clouds, few observations were obtained,
but these serve to show that the star was faint
and diminishing in brightness as expected.
Similar preparations were made for the next
minimum, January 10, but again clouds pre-
vented observation.
The observations so far obtained show that
its time of minimum, uncorrected for the
velocity of light, can be closely represented by
the formula J. D. 2412002.500+-4.8064 E. The
uncertainty in the period does not exceed a few
seconds, and will probably be known within a
single second as soon as the form of light curve
is determined. For nearly two hours before
and after the minimum it is fainter than the
twelfth magnitude. It is impossible, at present,
to say how much fainter it becomes or whether
it disappears entirely. It increases at first very
rapidly and then more slowly, attaining its full
brightness, magnitude 9.5, about five hours after
the minimum. One hundred and thirty photo-
graphs indicate that during the four days be-
tween the successive minima it does not vary
more than a few hundredths of a magnitude.
The variation may be explained by assuming
that the star revolves around a comparatively
dark body and is totally eclipsed by it for two
or three hours, the light at minimum, if any,
being entirely that of the dark body. The
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Von. III. No. 60-
conditions resemble those of U Cephei, which
appears to be totally eclipsed by a relatively
dark body two and a-half magnitudes fainter
than itself, but having a diameter at least one
half greater. The variation in light of B. D.
+-17° 4367 is more rapid than that of any other
star hitherto discovered, and as its range is
greater than that of any known star of the
Algol type, its form of light curve can be de-
termined with corresponding accuracy. U
Cephei is second in both these respects.
The New Star in Centaurus.
In circular No. 4 insert ‘it’ before ‘ follows’
in the ninth line. This word was given cor-
rectly in the printer’s copy, but was omitted in
setting the type. The correction was tele-
graphed to those astronomers who, it was ex-
pected, would use it. The Nova follows the
nebula N. G. C. 5258, and is north of it. The
nebula is assumed to be C. DM. —31° 10536,
magn. 9.5, with which it was originally identi-
fied. Asseen with a low power the nebula can-
not readily be distinguished from a star. Its
magnitude on the Cordoba scale by comparison
with adjacent stars was estimated by Mr. Wen-
dell as 9.7, and it could hardly have been over-
looked in preparing the Cordoba Durchmuster-
ung, in which many adjacent fainter stars are
given. The new star could not have been ob-
served at Cordoba unless we assume, first, that
it was bright at that time, although invariably
too faint to be photographed on fifty nights dis-
tributed over six years, and secondly, that the
nebula was overlooked at Cordoba while ob-
serving fainter objects in the same region.
Even if we make these assumptions, the new
star still falls in the same class as T Coron,
which was observed in the northern Durch-
musterung several years preceding its appear-
ance as a new star.
The various positions of N. G. C. 5253 for
1875 are as follows:—
Dreyer’s New General Catalogue R. A. =13" 32™ 515
Dec; = —31° 0/.2
Cordoba Durchmusterung R. A. == 13> 32™ 49°.6
Dee: —=\—31° 0/3
Plate B 13965 R. A.=13" 327 50°2 Dec. =
— 31° 0/23”
Plate B 14072 R.A.=13" 32™ 50%.0 Dec. =
—31° 0! 21//
FEBRUARY 21, 1896. ]
_ The positions of the Nova derived from these
plates differ from each other by only 0*.1 in
right ascensions and 1/7 in declination. The
mean position for 1875 is R. A. = 13" 32™ 51°.8
Dec. = —30° 59’ 58’”._ It will be noticed that
according to these measures, the Nova follows
N. G. C. 5253 by 1.7, and is 24” north.
EDWARD C. PICKERING.
JANUARY 31, 1896.
GENERAL.
Mr. Morriw’s billin the Senate appropria-
ting $250,000 for the erection of an additional
building for the U. S. National Museum will
be reported favorably by the Committee on
Public Buildings and Grounds. The bill ‘pro-
vides for a fire-proof building 300 feet square,
having two stories and a basement.
THE daily papers contain much discussion
regarding a dispatch purporting to come from
Irkutsk, Siberia, and stating that Dr Nansen
has reached the North Pole, has found land
there and is now returning.
THE herbarium bequeathed by the late John
H. Redfield to the Philadelphia Academy of
Natural Sciences will be sold and the money
used for a Redfield fund for the Botanical De-
partment of the Academy.
M. Rovucuk has been elected on the second
ballot, by 33 votes as compared with 29 cast for
M. Lauth, Membre libre of the Paris Academy
of Sciences. M. Moissan has been elected
President of the Paris Chemical Society.
A BILL for the preservation of the Palisades,
ceding to the United States jurisdiction over
that part of the Palisades which lies in the State
of New York, has been passed by the Legisla-
ture and will be signed by Gov. Morton.
THE Imperial German Health Bureau has
reported that aluminum is especially suitable
for cooking utensils, as it does not communicate
any poisonous salts such as may arise from the
use of copper, tin and lead.
A CABLEGRAM states that Prof. Rontgen was
expected to conduct experiments on the X-rays
before the German Reichstag, and that the
Reichstag would be asked to make an appro-
priation for further researches. The daily
papers continue to publish long accounts of ex-
SCIENCE.
281
periments on the Rontgen rays, chiefly noticea-
ble for their repetitions and inaccuracies. It
is probable that no scientific advance has been
made beyond what is contained in Prof. R6nt-
gen’s own paper published in the last number
of this journal. It is, however, worth noting
that Prof. Rontgen in his paper makes no men-
tion of the possible applications of his discovery
to surgery or elsewhere, but lays special weight
on the speculation, having no apparent relation
to his experiments, that the rays may be longi-
tudinal vibrations in the ether.
Nature states that Mr. F. E. Willey, of the
Royal Gardens, Kew, has been appointed
Curator of the newly-founded Botanic Station
at Sierra Leone. Mr. J. M. Henry has retired
from the post of Superintendent of the Baroda
State Gardens. He was sent out from Kew in
1867, and after twelve years’ service in Madras
and Bengal was appointed to Baroda in Novem-
ber, 1879.
THE Prussian Budget recommends the ap-
propriation of $7,500 for the maintenance of a
control station for diphtheria serum in connec-
tion with the Institute for Infectious Diseases.
THE Bender hygienic laboratory, now being
constructed in Albany, will be completed during
the present year and will contain every requisite
of bacteriological investigations.
A CABLE dispatch states that a large aérolite
exploded above the city of Madrid at 9:30
A. M. to-day. There was a vivid glare of light
and a loud report. Buildings were shaken and
many windows were shattered. According to
the officials of the Madrid Observatory the ex-
plosion occurred twenty miles above the earth.
THERE is now a bill before the New York
Assembly repealing the law compelling the
schools to include the study of alcohol and
narcotics in conjunction with the studies of
physiology and hygiene. The Board of Educa-
tion of the city of New York has voted to sup-
port this bill, and it has the support of the
leading philanthropists and educators. The
law passed last year by the Legislature of the
State of New York and the similar laws in
other States are regarded by those best compe-
tent to judge as injudicious and injurious to the
cause of temperance.
282
EFFORTS are now being made to have the
Legislature arrange for the permanent continu-
ance of the geological study of the State of
Maryland by providing for a State Geological
Survey. Prof. William Bullock Clark will be
placed in charge.
Pror. H. MArsHALL WARD, professor of
botany in the University of Cambridge, is giving
a course of three lectures on ‘Some Aspects of
Modern Botany’ at the Royal Institution. The
course began on February 13th.
A copy of Audubon’s Birds of North America
is offered for sale in New York for $1,800. Itis
said to be unused and in the original binding,
while alarge part of the edition of 100 copies has
had the margins of the plates- reduced in size
by rebinding.
WE learn from the British Medical Journal
that fire broke out in one of the rooms of the
Laboratory of the Edinburgh Royal College of
Physicians on the night of January 31st, and re-
sulted in disastrous consequences. The ap-
paratus and specimens in one room were en-
tirely destroyed by fire, and as these specimens
had been brought together after the labor of
years; the loss is irreparable. Several other
rooms and their contents, including the chemi-
cal room, were seriously damaged by smoke and
water. Had the fire not broken out in a room
on the top flat and at an outside wall the results
might have been vastly more serious. As it is,
much has been destroyed that can never be re-
placed, even had insurances existed to the
full. The work of the laboratory has been
greatly disorganized, and some considerable
time must elapse before the new buildings be-
tween Forrest Road and Bristo street are
ready for occupation.
Dr. BARNES has been elected the next Presi-
dent of the British Medical Association, which
meets this year at Carlisle. Two addresses
are to be given, one in Medicine by Sir Dyce
Duckworth, and one in Surgery by Dr. Rod-
erick Maclaren, and there are to be nine
Sections, namely: Medicine, Surgery, Obstet-
rics, Public Health, Psychology, Pathology and
Bacteriology, Ophthalmology, Diseases of Chil-
‘dren, Medical Ethics.
PROF. BURDON SANDERSON has delivered a
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 60.
Friday evening lecture before the Royal Insti-
tution on Carl Ludwig and the mechanical phys-
iology with which Ludwig’s name is so closely
identified. Prof. Sanderson said that the neo-
vitalistic movement was already on the wane,
and certainly that if any advance in knowledge
is to be made the methods of research and rea-
soning adopted must be those of the Ludwig
school.
THE Transactions of the American Microscop-
ical Society, just published, contain a detailed
account of the 18th annual meeting held at
Cornell University last August, of which a
report was given at the time in this journal.
The next annual meeting of the Society will be
held at Pittsburg, Pa., August 18, 19 and 20,
1896, under the presidency of Dr. A. Clifford
Mercer, of Syracuse, New York.
Hon. A. D. WHITE, formerly President of
Cornell University, appeared on February 10th
before the Senate Committee on a National Uni-
versity. He argued in favor of the plan, say-
ing that in this respect the United Stated gov-
ernment is behind the European states. He
contended that instead of weakening other uni-
versities, as had been claimed, the establish-
ment of a National institution would strengthen
all other seats of learning. It is expected that
the committee will report favorably.
Dr. DANIEL DENISON SLADE, lecturer on
comparative osteology in Harvard University,
and known for his contributions to osteology,
zoology and botany, died at Chestnut Hill, Mass.,
on February 11th, aged 71 years.
Mr. G. B. Howes announces in Nature for
January 23d, the discovery by Mr. J. P. Hill that
the Bandicoot, Perameles obesula, possesses a
true allantoic and highly vascular placenta of
a discordal and most probably deciduous type.
This, taken in connection with what is known
to occur in Phascolaretus, weakens the line of
demarcation between the marsupials and other
mammals, or rather causes a slight overlapping
of the two groups.
THE contents of the last issue of the Bulletin
of the Johns Hopkins Hospital are very different
from what most people would expect to find in
a medical journal. There are three papers read
by Prof. William Osler and one read by Mr. W.
FEBRUARY 21, 1896.]
B; Platt before the historical club of the hos-
pital, and the address of Prof. W. H. Welch at
the opening of the William Pepper laboratory
of clinical medicine. The papers are all note-
worthy for historical research and literary form.
Prof. Osler reviews the life of Thomas Dover,
physician and buccaneer, whose career throws
curious light on the social conditions and medi-
cal practice in England at the beginning of the
eighteenth century. In a second paper there is
given from private sources an account of the
life of an Alabama student, John I. Basset,
“whose name was not written on the scroll of
fame, but who heard the call and forsook all
and followed his ideal.’’ Prof. Osler’s third
paper is entitled ‘John Keats, the Apothecary
Poet.’ Mr. Platt reviews the work of Johannes
Miller as a physiologist and a teacher. Prof.
Welch, in his address at Philadelphia, described
the evolution of modern scientific laboratories.
With the exception of anatomy, laboratories for
instruction and research are comparatively re-
cent. Purkinje’s physiological laboratory at
Breslau was established in 1824, one year
earlier than Liebig’s famous chemical laboratory
at Giessen. Lord Kelvin established a physical
laboratory in Glasgow about 1845. The first
pathological laboratory was founded by Vir-
schow, in Berlin, in 1856.
THE Division of Botany of the U. 8. Depart-
ment of Agriculture has issued a bulletin by
Mr. L. H. Dewey reviewing the legislation un-
dertaken by twenty-five of the States and Ter-
ritories for the suppression of weeds and giving
the essential provisions of a general State weed
law.
THE Canadian government proposes to send
an expedition to Hudson’s Bay next summer to
establish customs officers and to further investi-
gate the navigability of Hudson’s Straits.
THE position of scientific adviser to the Lon-
don Trinity House, which has been in abeyance
since the resignation of Tyndall, has been re-
vived and has been accepted by Lord Rayleigh.
THE Royal Academy of Sciences of Belgium
proposes, as the subject for a prize in 1897, a
discussion from a theoretical point of view of
the Variation of Latitude, its cause and mean-
ing, together with a criticism of the works of
SCIENCE.
283
geometers on the subject, from Laplace to the
present time. A gold medal valued at 800 fr.
will be awarded.
_ THE London Times states that investigations
have recently been undertaken by the Marine
Biological Association into the contents of cer-
tain bays on the south coast of Devon. The
bays selected for the investigations were Start
and Teignmouth Bays, both of which are closed
to trawlers in accordance with a by-law of the
Devon Sea Fisheries Committee. The object
in view of which the work was begun was to
discover the characteristic features of the local-
ities in question in respect to the food fish they
contained. Mr. F. B. Stead, the naturalist in
charge of these investigations, has conducted
trawling experiments in these localities during
the months of October to December, and the
most important facts ascertained by him are as
follows: Of the different species of fish cap-
tured in the bays, plaice and dabs are by far the
most numerous, and as of these two species the
plaice is, from the economic point of view, far
the most important, and the large number of
competing dabs must probably be regarded asa
positive hindrance to the well-being of the
plaice, any controversy that may be raised as
to the advisibility or otherwise of maintaining
the by-law now in force should be solely occu-
pied with the consideration of the question
whether the closure of the bays to trawlers is
necessary or desirable for the protection of the
plaice. It has been further shown that the
bays differ markedly from one another in re-
spect to the sizes of the fish they contain. Thus,
while half the plaice in Start Bay were found to
be over 123 in. in length, in Teignmouth Bay
half the plaice captured were under 10} in.
A similar difference held in the case of the dabs.
A preliminary account of these investigations
will appear in the ensuing number of the journal
of the Association.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
Mrs. D. G. OrmsBy, of Milwaukee, has
given $25,000 to Lawrence University at Apple-
ton, Wis., to endow the ‘D. G. Ormsby profes-
sorship of history and political economy,’ in
memory of the husband; and by the will of the
284
late Horatio Stone, Rockford College, Rock-
ford, Ill., receives $28,000. Donations to the
University of Pennsylvania during the past
month amount to $69,370.23.
AT the meeting of the Board of Trustees of
Princeton College, held on February 13th, Mr.
J. Bayard Henry, ’77, of Philadelphia, was
elected trustee in place of William Libbey, of
New York City, deceased, and Mr. Howard ~
Crosby Warren, ’89, was appointed assistant
professor in experimental psychology.
ON the birthday of Mr. Henry W. Sage, cele-
brated at Cornell University on January 30, the
following list of his gifts to the University was
noted:
Sage College for women, with endow-
ment fund) (S73) eee eeseeeecsserscnsseee
(Sixes Olney nell: (GIEIZB3)) cascsoocoveccoscedendcqo000000
Contribution towards extinguishment of a
$266,000
30,000
floating debt (1881) ...............seceeeeee 30,000
House of Sage professor of philosophy
CL S8G) ie anasosennscetesscasscecssseccneccsosses 11,000
(GBBE) ie esse ett SSA ON Meee 50,000
Susan Linn school of philosophy (1886)... 200,000
University library building (1891).......... 260,000
University library endowment (1891).. ... 300,000
Casts for archeological museum (1891)... 8,000
$1, 155,000
A MEMORIAL praying for the admission of
women to degrees at Cambridge University has
received the signatures of 2,200 university mem-
bers.
Dr. CESARE LoMBROSO has been transferred
from the chair of legal medicine in the Uni-
versity of Turin, to the post of professor of
psychiatry. He has also been made director of
the University Clinic for Mental Diseases.
WILLIAM WARDE Fow er, M.A., Fellow of
Lincoln College, Oxford, has been appointed a
Curator of the Botanic Garden, in place of
Edward Chapman, M.A., Fellow of Magdalen
College, resigned.
CORRESPONDENCE.
AMERICAN JUDGMENTS OF AMERICAN ASTRON-
OMY.
THE astronomical notes published in the last
two numbers of SCIENCE afford instructive illus-
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 60.
trations of a habit of judging American and for-
eign scientific work which is too prevalent
amongus. While in nearly every other country
scientific investigators and writers are apt to be
more or less biased in favor of their own
countrymen, giving frequent occasion for re-
marks on their ignorance of what is going on
outside and on their general insularity, the sys-
tem prevalent among us is directly the contrary,
at least in astronomy, and, to a certain ex-
tent, in the allied sciences. The way in which
this bias displays itself is so well illustrated by
the notes in question that we may be pardoned
for taking them as a text for some remarks.
Among the great wants of astronomy for half
a century past has been a standard system of
positions of the principal fixed stars, which
should serve as points of reference in defining
the positions of other stars and of the heavenly
bodies in general. The first step toward this
end was taken by Dr. Auwers about 1870, and
consisted of a determination of the corrections
necessary to reduce the principal modern cata-
logues of stars to a homogeneous mean system;
that is to say, to a system which should be as
nearly as possible self-consistent, and express
the mean result of all the determinations of
positions made in each region of the heavens.
But this work, though most ably performed and
marking an epoch in astronomy of precision,
was defective in not rigorously taking account
of the proper motions of the stars. Hence, Dr.
Auwer’s system was valid only near a central
epoch, say about 1840 or 1850. That he did
not make it permanently valid was doubtless
due to the fact that at that time the older ob-
servations, especially those of Bradley, had not
been reduced with sufficient rigor to determine
the proper motions. It was, therefore, a fitting
complement of his work that he set about the
thorough re-reduction of Bradley’s observations
at Greenwich with the mural quadrant, during
the years 1750-1757.
About 1878 was published Boss’s system of
declinations, which appeared in a quarto volume
of some 200 pages. <A careful examination of
this work showed that it stood unequalled in the
thoroughness with which all the material was
collected and worked up; in the completeness
with which the errors of the older adopted
FEBRUARY 21, 1896.] ~
values of the astronomical constants were cor-
rected, and in the rigor with which the entire
discussion was carried through and the results
presented.
A year or two after the appearance of Boss’s
work, the new system for the Astronomische
Gesellschaft, constructed by Dr. Auwers, was
published. A very slight examination of this
work would show that its superiority to that of
Boss was at least open to question. The weak-
est point was that the proper motions depended *
entirely on the observations of Bradley with
the old mural quadrant, which was known to
be subject to errors the amount of which did
not admit of determination. But this defect
did not prevent the general adoption of the
foreign system by American astronomers, even
in the case where the other would have been
most eminently appropriate, the official work of
boundary surveys.
There is one final and conclusive arbiter of
all questions concerning the accuracy of pre-
dicted motions in the heavens. This arbiter
is subsequent observation. Let us wait a suffi-
cient length of time and see on which system
the positions of the stars are most accurately pre-
‘dicted. In certain features of the system and
in certain regions of the heavens the two works
differed so widely that a very few years of ac-
curate observations would suffice to settle the
question.
About twenty years have elapsed since the
last observations on which either of the two
works was based. Within that time four cata-
logues of stars have appeared, founded on ob-
‘servations made at the respective observatories
of Pulkowa and Greenwich, prepared with all
the refinements of recent science, and therefore
superior to any before made. In these results,
combined with such conclusions as can be drawn
from the best previous observations, we have
the basis of a comparison which is found in the
number of the Astronomical Journal quoted in
the note found in the last number of SCIENCE.
Without going into technical details, it will suf-
fice to say that there are six separate and inde-
pendent features in which the respective sys-
tems differed most largely. These six features,
tested by the four modern authorities just
«quoted, showed the following average errors or
SCIENCE.
285
difference between Boss’s prediction and obser-
vations in different regions of the heavens, near
the epoch of 1880:
—0/’.02 -+-0.02
—0.03 -- 0.02
-+- 0.038 0.00
It was then shown that, carrying back these
six special points of difference between the two
catalogues to the epoch of Bradley’s observa-
tions, the actual differences between the two
were larger than any likely deviation of Boss
from the truth. In the most marked case the
difference consisted in ten discrepancies, all in
the same direction. Another very marked in-
stance occurs in a region of the heavens includ-
ing the northern part of the constellation An-
dromeda. In this region were found ten stars in
the A. G. catalogue. The Polkowa catalogue of
1895, the most carefully prepared that astron-
omy has yet had at its command, showed that
every one of these ten stars was in error in the
same direction, that direction being the same in
which they differed from the Boss system, and
by amounts which could not be reasonably at-
tributed to errors of the Pulkowa observations.
One would suppose the conclusion so obvious
as to need no statement and admit of no ques-
tion. Fifteen years of the most refined obser-
vations show a continuing agreement of the Boss
system with observations which is most extra-
ordinary, and which cannot possibly be shared
by the other. This evidence, however, fails to
convince the writer of the note. He claims
that the results ‘throw no new light on the sub-
ject.’ If astronomers differ as to the question
whether the approach to perfect agreement
with observation above shown is conclusive, the
question would seem to be forever incapable of
decision.
Again, in the case of ten separate stars in
which the deviations of the Bradley observa-
tions were all in the same direction, the writer
remarks: ‘‘So we can hardly escape the convic-
tion that our whole conclusion may be vitiated
by a large error in a particular star.’’
Here it would seem that the astronomers must
have recourse to legal advice to settle their dis-
pute. Only amember of the legal profession can
decide whether the concurrent evidence of ten
286
independent witnesses, all testifying to the same
fact, may be ‘vitiated’ by one of them being
very much mistaken. It is to be regretted that
the writer of the note does not tell us just how
far the one erroneous star must have been
wrong in order to vitiate the result. The cor-
responding testimony of the ten Pulkowa ob-
servations upon another group of ten stars
may be left out of consideration, because
this conclusion might be vitiated in the same
way. S. NEWCOMB.
THE PERTURBATIONS OF 70 OPHIUCHI.
Pror. JACOBY’s reviewin a recent number of
this journal (p. 197) is eminently fair in spirit; it
is incomplete, and therefore I fear it will be
misleading. It is a mistake to say that my
work on the perturbations of 70 Ophiuchi is
supported by the American observations, but
contradicted by those made at the same time in
Europe. On the contrary, the deviation from
Schur’s orbit and the work of the American ob-
servers is confirmed by the measures of all the
best observers abroad. Thus the deviation ap-
pears unmistakably in the observations of
Bigourdan, Callandreau, Schiaparelli, Glase-
napp and Knorre. Since publishing the paper:
in American Journal 363, measures have been
received from several of the above observers,
and there is absolutely no doubt of the substan-
tial accuracy of the American observations.
Among the European observers Schur and
Ebell (a student at Berlin) alone find no devia-
tion, but Schur’s measures are very discordant,
and he admits (A. N. 3324) that they are of
little value; while Ebell’s measures show dis-
crepancies on the several nights amounting to
over ten degrees in angle.
Hence it is evident that all the best observa-
tions, both American and European, confirm the
deviation from Schur’s orbit and point to the
existence of the dark body as the cause of this
unexpected phenomenon. My researches on
the orbits of 40 binary stars, which are now
practically complete, will probably remove all
doubt as to the propriety of using the distances
in such investigations. Indeed the discovery
of the perturbations in 70 Ophiuchi by using
both angles and distances, after ‘Schur had con-
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 60.
sciously rejected the distances which would have:
given him the discovery, is a striking illustra-
tion of the evil of orthodoxy in scientific pro-
cedure. T. J. J. SEE.
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, February 11, 1896.
PSYCHOLOGY OF NUMBER.
To THE EDITOR OF ScrENcE—Sir: As Prof.
Fine in his review of McLellan’s and Dewey’s
Psychology of Number (January 24, 1896) raised
“a question of considerable importance to-
educators and tc psychologists, permit me to
add a few words to the discussion, first thank-
ing the reviewer for the generally appreciative
tone of his article.
1. The question of principle raised is whether
or no counting is measuring, whether or no
integral number has a metric origin or purpose,
and involves the idea of ratio. Now measure-
ment is a word both of a more general and a
more technical sense. That, in the most tech-
nical mathematical sense, counting is not-
measurement, is clearly recognized in the book
referred to. But as it is held that in the larger
sense of the term it is a process of measuring,
and that the technical mode of measurement is:
an outgrowth, psychologically, of the broader
and looser sense, this disclaimer amounts, per-
haps, to little.
Starting from the larger sense, it is held
that number has its psychological genesis in the
felt need for valuation, and that its function
(psychologically once more) is to serve the pur-
poses of valuation. Now counting seems
to me indubitably one mode of defining the
value of a previously unvalued mental whole,
and in that sense to be a mode of measure-
ment. Any process of defining value is, I
should say, a form of measurement in the
broad sense of that term. Counting implies
first a mental whole; secondly, the breaking up
of that whole into distinct parts; third, the use
of one (any one, not some one) of these parts as-
aunit; fourth, the measurement of the amount
or value of the original whole, through equal-
izing it to a certain definite number of the
selected unit.
But Prof. Fine says: ‘‘In however loose a
sense the word may be used, ‘measuring’ at-
least involves the conscious use of a unit of ref-
FEBRUARY 21, 1896.]
erence. But no one ever did or ever will count
a group of horses, for instance, by first conceiv-
ing of an artificial * unit horse and then match-
ing it with each actual horse in turn—which
‘measuring’ the group of horses must mean ifit
means anything.”’
The whole point here is under what circum-
stances does one, not a mathematician or for
mathematical purposes, count a group of horses.
The answer is something of the following sort, it
seems to me: One counts when one wishes to
find out how many horses he has caught in a
day’s hunt, whether the same number has been
driven back at night that were taken out in the
morning; how much money is to be got in sell-
ing them, it having been settled that each horse
is to fetch the same sum, etc., etc.; how one ranks
as a chieftain, or a soldier, compared with others,
etc., etc. In other words, one not having arrived
at the abstract interest of the mathematician (and
certainly the child to be educated has not)
counts only when there is some value to be as-
certained, and counts by setting off something
which, for present purposes is a sample unit of
value, e. g., a horse, then equating the total
value to the number of such units.. Taking the
matter in its development then, (and not at the
stage of the mathematician when abstracts have
already become concretes) enumeration is al-
ways to define value, 7. e., to measure.
If the book referred to did not recognize the
distinction between this sort of measuring and
the technical sort it should certainly be con-
demned. But one of the points emphasized is
that the former is an imperfect sort of measure-
ment; that we don’t really know, e. g., what
the possession of 60 horses amounts to till we
know what one horse is worth, and so measur-
ing proper (measuring with measured units) is
substituted for mere counting, i. e., measuring
with undefined units of value.
2. It is said that number is not ratio. If one
* Whence and wherefore this artificial ? The point
to be proved involves nothing about an ‘artificial’
unit, but only a unit of reference, and that surely a
horse is. But even if the term were relevant in the
argument the question would arise whether the use
of an artificial unit or of a measured unit is the es-
sence of technical measurement ; whether, indeed, a
foot is, psychologically, more artificial than a horse.
SCIENCE.
287
is using ratio to denote a certain idea, and not
a technical abstraction of the mathematicians, I
do not see how this statement is to be reconciled
with Prof. Fine’s own account of enumeration.
“To count a group of things on the fingers is
merely by assigning one of the fingers to each
one of the things to form a group of fingers
which stand in a relation of ‘one-to-one corre-
spondence to the group of things.’’’* And again,
‘When we say of two groups of things that
they are equal numerically, we simply mean
that for each in the second there is one in the
first, and for each thing in the first there is one
in the second, in other words that the groups
may be brought into a relation of one-to-one cor-
respondence.’? What does the phrase italicized
mean, save the idea of ratio? If this way of
stating it had only been known to me when the
book reviewed was written, I should gladly
have utilized it to indicate precisely the point
we were trying to make—the implicit presence
of the ratio idea in every number.
Psychologically there is, of course, a differ-
ence in the mental attitude in recognizing a
thing as ‘one,’ as unity, as a whole, an indi-
vidual, and recognizing it as ‘a one,’ a unit.
The primary problem the educator has to face,
if he is to rationalize the teaching of arithmetic,
is the discovery of this difference. The answer
given is that ‘one’ (qualitative individuality or
unity) becomes ‘a one,’ a unit when it is
used to measure value; and that, in turn, the
need for this use arises when the thing is no
longer taken as an adequate end, but as a means
to be adjusted to some further end. F. g.,
once more, when a man is wholly occupied in
riding or hunting, or feeding a horse, when
that absorbs his whole interest, he never takes
the numerical view; when he wants to know
how much of a horse owner he is, and how far
this horse contributes to that end, he neces-
sarily takes it. The question then is whether
‘one’ ever becomes ‘a one,’ save as it is put
into a ‘relation of one-to-one correspondence?’
3. Prof. Fine remarks that ‘the one postulate
of arithmetic is that distinct things exist.’ The
mathematician may perhaps be reminded that
this postulate is precisely one of the chief prob-
lems of the psychologist. Given a certain num-
* Italics mine.
288
ber of things already recognized as distinct, and
it is a very simple matter to go ahead and enu-
merate them, though even that must havea psy-
chology motivation. But the whole tendency
of contemporary psychology is to take a psy-
chical continuum as its datum, and find dis-
tinctness (the property at the basis of number)
asthe outcome of a process of differentiation.
The identification of this process, the ascertain-
ing of the circumstances under which it arises,
the mode of its operation—this is the thing which
the psychologist wants to know about number,
and is the thing the educator must know to secure
the conditions under which the child shall form
the number concepts easily and efficiently. The
theory of the book, ‘Psychology of Number,’
viz., that the differentiation and enumeration
of units arises through the progressively ac-
curate adjustment of means to end, may be right
or wrong, but its error can hardly be established,
I take it, by a mathematical view which considers
number only as it is after it is fully developed,
and has become so familiar as to be itself a
complete object to the mind. Without pretend-
ing to a knowledge of numerical theory which
I do not possess, I may say that it seems to me
that the work done by Gauss is at precisely the
opposite pole from that which the educator
needs from the psychologist, 7. e., Gauss was
attempting to reduce to its ultimate simple nu-
merical generalizations the developed mathe-
matical structure. Dr. McLellan and myself
were engaged upon the much humbler task of
finding out what sort of a mental condition
creates a demand for number, and how it is
that number operates to satisfy that demand.
May I conclude by referring to the prac-
tical point involved? The trained mathema-
tician as such is, of necessity, interested in the
further use of certain finished psychical pro-
ducts. As a mathematician any reference to
the preliminary development of these products
can only disturb and divert him. But the
problem for the pupil is how to get the stand-
point of the mathematician; not how to use
certain tools, but how to make them; not how
to carry further the manipulation of certain
data, but how to get meaning into the data.
This is ultimately a psychological question,
not a mathematical one, although it has to
SCIENCE.
‘matician.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 60.
be translated over into mathematical terms and
processes; and none is so well fitted to do it as
the mathematician, provided only he will pro-
ject himself far enough backward in the scale of
development to realize the problem. The point
does not conclude with primary instruction.
Our text-books of algebra, geometry and high
analysis are almost entirely written from the
standpoint of an elegant and logical exposition
of the matter as it stands to the trained mathe-
They are very nice for one who
doesn’t need them any longer. The first books
written from the standpoint of one who is still
coming to consciousness of the meaning of
his concepts will, perhaps, seem foolishness to
the trained mathematician, but they will mark
the dawn of a new day to the average student.
I venture the statement that (putting aside the
few with the inborn mathematical instinct)
higher and secondary mathematics is to the
majority of students a practical riddle with no
definite intellectual content in itself. What
meaning it possesses it has got by way of at-
tained practical facility in solving problems ; or
through its applications to other sciences or to
engineering. It will hardly be denied that the
educational value of mathematics is not realized
until its concepts and methods have a definite
intellectual meaning and content of their own.
Can this be secured, save as the methods of in-
struction follow the evolution of the process out
ofits cruder psychical forms to the more finished?
I shall be more than satisfied to have made
many blunders on the mathematical side if only
I do not offer myself up in vain as a spec-
tacle; if only more competent psychologists
take up the matter, and if only mathematicians
may descend from their acquired mathemat-
ical plane and endeavor to rethink the psy-
chical conditions and steps through which
their present magnificent apparatus has grown
out of primitive, non-mathematical or crudely
mathematical forms up to its present high es-
tate. If the psychologist will risk some blun-
dering around among the mathematical con-
cepts, and the mathematician will recognize the
relevancy of the psychological demand, and
venture a little blundering upon that side, both
parties may not only come to an understanding,
but mathematical teaching may: get what it to-
FEBRUARY 21, 1896. ]
day so largely lacks, some relationship to the
psychical needs and attitudes of those under in-
struction. JOHN DEWEY.
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, February 6, 1896.
DOES THE PRIVATE COLLECTOR MAKE THE BEST
MUSEUM ADMINISTRATOR ?
THE concluding portion, section K, of Dr.
Goode’s recent paper on the Classification of
Museums, is devoted to a consideration of
private cabinets and collectors, and to the major
portion of the propositions therein laid down all
can heartily subscribe. There is, however, one
among them to which I can not fully assent, at
least so far as museums of natural history are
concerned, and that is, that ‘‘The person who
has formed a private collection can most suc-
cessfully manage one for the use of the public.’’
It must be confessed that this doubt largely
rests upon theory, but an acquaintance with
some collectors makes it seem probable that itis,
after all, well founded.
A considerable amount of collecting is done
with no purpose in view other than that of ac-
cumulating specimens, but, on the other hand, a
private collection may be formed with a definite
purpose and along certain lines. In the one
ease the collector certainly shows no unusual
fitness for a position in a museum, while in the
other he is interested in his collection for what
he can get out of it himself and not for the
benefit it may be to others, and this is exactly
the opposite view to that which should be held
by an officer in a public museum. This is not
saying that such is the point of view universally
assumed by museum curators, but it is certain
that the success of a public museum depends on
the extent to which it is adopted. Again a
private collector is, from the nature of the case,
apt to be one-sided, to lay too much stress on
one group to the exclusion of others, and thus
to lack the evenness of balance which should
be one of the characteristics of the ‘museum
man.’ This one-sidedness frequently takes the
form of undue preference for rare or costly
specimens, attaching an undue importance to
the specimens themselves rather than what is
to be got out of them.
Moreover the care and arrangement of a pri-
vate study series and of a public study series,
SCIENCE.
289
and, above all of an exhibition series, are en-
tirely different things and require a totally dif-
ferent treatment. A private series may be ill-
arranged and poorly labeled, but the owner
knows each specimen, its history and where-
abouts. A public study series should, on the
contrary, beso arranged and so labeled that any
student may consult it and make notes upon it,
while in an exhibition series the specimens
should be so chosen that, while each conveys
some information, all form a harmonious whole.
A private collector may know his own needs,
but he would not know or would not care for
the needs of the public, and he would carry to
a public museum the taste for accumulation, or
for research, which probably led to the forma-
tion of his own collection. Accumulation is a
good thing, but it needs to be properly directed
in order to be of public service, while there is
probably no greater drawback to the public
efficiency of a museum officer than too great
devotion to original research, as this leads not
only to lack of care for material which has
served its turn, but to a very decided lack of
interest in the public which must be reached
through the exhibition series.
This criticism is by no means to be construed.
into a criticism of the private collector; the
value of his work and the influence of his col-
lections are immense ; it is simply a denial of the
proposition that because a man has formed a
private cabinet he is therefore best fitted to ad-
minister a public museum.
F, A. Lucas.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
Lehrbuch der Entwicklungsgeschichte des Mensch-
en und der Wirbelthiere. OSCAR HERTWIG.
Jena, Gustav Fischer. 1895. Pp. xvi-+ 612.
This excellent work now appears in a fifth
edition, in which many improvements have
been made. Prof. Hertwig is especially dis-
tinguished both for his comprehension of the
problems of morphology and for the lucidity of
his explanations, so that his text-book has long
been accepted as a valuable treatise both for
students and for advanced workers, and has
been accorded the distinction of translation
into several languages. A very admirable
290
translation into English has been published by
Prof. Mark, based upon the third German edi-
tion. The book has already an assured and
high place, and is so well known that it is only
necessary to state that its typography and gen-
eral appearance have remained unchanged.
In the new edition many much needed im-
provements have been made, and several parts
have been entirely recast to concord with the
latest progress. The revision has touched es-
pecially the following parts: the problem of re-
duction-division; the réle of the centrosome
in impregnation, the development of the middle
germ layer in reptiles and mammals, the struc-
ture of the chorion, the origin of striated
muscles, of blood corpuscles and the develop-
ment of the vesicula; and there is one entirely
new section, which will be welcome to many
embryologists and bears the title, ‘ Experiments
and theories on the significance of the first-
formed cleavage cells and of single parts of the
ovum for the formation of the organs of the
embryo.’ There have been so many researches
in this field, and they bear so directly on Weis-
mann’s and other theories of heredity, that the
synopsis given by Hertwig will appeal both to
those actively at work in this comparatively
new region of embryo-mechanics, and to those
who wish to learn what conclusions have been
reached up to the present. We may also note
that since the first edition the number of illus-
trations has risen from 304 to 384, and the
number of pages from 507 to 612.
There are certain general criticisms to be
made upon Hertwigs’ text-book. It is certainly
a defect that the author leans far too much
upon both diagrammatic pictures and upon
diagrammatic explanations, and does not allow
free play to actual observation. This is disas-
trously the case in his sixth chapter in which he
deals with the origin of the middle germ-layer
(ccelom theory), and by artful shading misrep-
resents the actual facts in a manner which is
inexcusable even in a text-book. Facts ought
never to be mixed with error merely because
such dilution serves to hide their discordance
with the author’s theoretical views. The same
tendency to uphold his celom theory shows
itself in another way in that he still entirely
separates the mesenchymal tissues and the
SCIENCE.
important morphological fact.
1
[N. S. Vou. III. No..60.
mesothelial (to which latter he erroneously re-
stricts the term mesoblast, p. 115), although it
was proven several years ago so as to be past
doubt, that Hertwig’s view was unjustified and
that mesenchyma and mesothelium are parts of
thesame layer or mesoderm. This result is not
a matter of opinion, it is simply a matter of di-
rect observation. This conclusion Hertwig has
admitted, yet fails to make it the basis of his
exposition, and instead continues the unnatural
separation of the two portions of the middle
germ layer, much to the confusion of young
students.
Other unfavorable criticisms may be made in
regard to special parts of the subject treated
inadequately. Such partsare: 1. The nervous
system, in that he fails to bring out the funda-
mental division into dorsal and ventral zones,
or the existence of the three primary layers of
the medullary wall, or the significance of the
neck-bend, or the history of the neuromeres.
2. The fact that the nails are modifications of
the stratum lucidum of the epidermis, a very
3. The develop-
ment of smooth muscle. 4. The history of
the group of connective tissues. 5. The account
of the formation of the renal tubules is erroneous,
and is the most serious defect noticed by the
reviewer. 6. The origin and significance of
the yolk cavity and its fusion with that of the
notochordal canal in Anura and Amniota to
form the definite entodermal canal is not dis-
cussed, yet itis a very important point in the
morphology of the higher vertebrate embryos.
These and other examples which might be
given show that Hertwig is far from giving a
well-rounded presentation of our present knowl-
edge, and that very much needs to be added to
make it a thorough and comprehensive treatise.
In spite of these limitations, Hertwig’s Em-
bryology is a text-book of the first class, and
has done and will probably long continue to do
much for the promotion of the branch of science
with which it deals. The treatment of the
subject is fresh, original, strong and well pro-
portioned, so that the leading points receive due
emphasis. In many parts Hertwig speaks with
the highest authority, notably in regard to the
earlier stages of development, and the history
of the genital products. The illustrations are
FEBRUARY 21, 1896. ]
admirably selected and well executed, except
for their tendency toward schematization. The
original figures are not numerous and are chiefly
diagrams.
In conclusion, it may be said that any stu-
dent who, with the aid of practical laboratory
work, masters Hertwig’s book will have mas-
tered the general subject of human embryology
from the comparative morphological standpoint,
and will be qualified to pursue more advanced
study, but he must remain ready to modify
many of his general theories and to fill out a
number of important gaps in his knowledge.
His chief gain will be insight into the very
spirit of morphology, through the guidance of
one of the very ablest of morphologists.
C. S. Minor.
A Handbook of the British Macro-Lepidoptera.
By BrerTRAM GEO. RYE. With hand-col-
ored illustrations by Maup HorMAn-
FisHER. London, Ward & Foxlow. Parts
1-4, Jan.—Oct., 1895.
The four parts issued give a fair idea of the
scope and execution of this addition to the al-
ready large number of works relating to the
butterflies and moths of Great Britain. Hach
part contains eight pages and two plates.
In the introduction the changes that take
place during metamorphosis and the principal
characters used in classification are briefly de-
scribed. Eight families of Rhopalocera are
recognized, namely, Papilionide, Pieride, Nym-
phalide, Apaturide, Satyride, Lycenide,
Erycinidze and MHesperide. <A table separa-
ting these is given, and the genera and species
can be readily distinguished by means of simi-
lar tables. The species are fairly well de-
scribed, and the notes on the early stages,
haunts, times of appearance, and abundance
are clear and concise.
The plates are excellent, and the distinctive
value of Mr. Rye’s work consists in the de-
scription and illustration of the varieties and
local races, apart from the consideration of the
species, of the Macro-Lepidoptera of Great
Britain. Beginning with 1896 the parts will
be issued bi-monthly, instead of quarterly. The
price per part is 2s. 6d.
SAMUEL HENSHAW.
SCIENCE.
29t
Mollusca and Crustacea of the Miocene Formations:
of New Jersey. By R. P. WHITFIELD. Mon-
ograph U.S. Geol. Survey. Vol. XXIV. 1894.
This latest contribution of Professor Whit-
field to the paleontology of New Jersey is most
opportune, since the detailed mapping of the
coastal plain formations of the State has re-
cently shown an extensive development of
Miocene strata. The character of the deposits.
is such, however, that determinable fossils have
only been detected at a very few points, the
great majority coming from the marl beds in
the vicinity of Shiloh and Jericho and from the
deep well-borings at Atlantic City. These
forms Prof. Whitfield has evidently studied with
great care and has presented in a most accepta-
ble manner.
Prior to the publication of this report by Prof.
Whitfield, little systematic work had been done
upon the fossils of the Miocene of New Jersey.
Meek’s list, published in the ‘Smithsonian
Miscellaneous Collections’ in 1864, contains
reference to only seventeen species. Prof.
Heilprin in his ‘ Tertiary Geology of the eastern
and southern United States,’ published in 1884,
gives twenty-seven species, seventeen of which
he regards as peculiar to the State. Later,
from time to time, the same author added to
this list, until in 1887, in an article on ‘The
Miocene Mollusca of the State of New Jersey,’
he enumerates eighty-two species, describing
three new species and one variety.
In his monograph Prof. Whitfield recognizes
one hundred and four species, but states that
there is no doubt that many more species might
be obtained were the beds more thoroughly ex-
amined and other localities explored. Of the
species described thirty-six are regarded as pe-
culiar to New Jersey.
Besides the molluscan remains enumerated,
Mr. Anthony Woodward gives a list of twelve
species of foraminifera found in the marls at
Shiloh and two at Jericho.
Prof. Whitfield, from a study of the fossils,
would correlate the deposits with the Miocene
of the States to the south, which is fully sub-
stantiated upon physical grounds as well. The
writer of this review has traced the strata across
Delaware into Maryland so that there can be
no doubt but that the New Jersey Miocene is
292
the direct continuation northward of the Chesa-
peake formation of the Middle Atlantic slope.
W.. B. CLARK.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHING-
TON, FEBRUARY 1.
Mr. Lester F. WARD read a paper on ‘ The
Filiation of the Sciences.’ The purpose of the
paper was to trace the progress of the concep-
tion of a natural order of development for the
larger groups of phenomena, as distinguished,
on the one hand, from any attempt at a logical
classification of the sciences, and on the other,
from the consideration of the order in which the
sciences have been historically developed. With-
out going back of the present century to deal
with the more or less fanciful notions of the
Ancients or of such moderns as Oken, Hegel,
d’ Alembert, Hobbes, Locke, etc., he drew atten-
tion to the views of Auguste Comte and Herbert
Spencer,as the two philosophers who had clearly
conceived the problem of natural evolution.
He first traced the development of the idea
in the mind of the first of these writers from
1820 to 1842. Ina paper published by him in
1820, he had quite clearly expressed the funda-
mental truth, and arranged the great groups of
phenomena, or sciences, in the following order:
1, Mathematics; 2, Astronomy; 3, Physics; 4,
Chemistry; 5, Physiology; giving to each of
these terms a wide meaning, but admitting that
mathematics was not codrdinate with the others,
but was only the criterion by which each of the
others was to be judged and its position in the
series fixed. From 1826 to 1829 he elaborated
this scheme in a course of lectures, soon after
published as his well-known work on Positive
Philosophy, the first volume of which appeared
in 1830. In the prospectus of these lectures,
circulated in manuscript form in 1826, he added
to the above five sciences a sixth, viz., Social
Physics, and the scheme as then drawn up was
introduced in tabular form at the beginning of
the first volume of the Positive Philosophy. In
Vol. IIT. of that work, which appeared in 1838,
he substituted for his ‘Physiology’ Lamarck’s
term Biology, but the scope of this science was
the same as before and practically that of biology
as now understood. The last chapter of that
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. III. No. 60.
volume was devoted to what he called the intel-
lectual and moral, or cerebral, functions of life,
in which he fully recognized the present science
of psychology, but denied that it could be pro-
perly separated from biology. In the fourth
volume, published in 1839, he speaks of this as
“Transcendental Biology.’ It is in this volume,
too, that he first proposed the term ‘Sociology,’
as the exact equivalent of his ‘Social Physics,’
and continued to the end to use both these
terms interchangeably. It was not till 1842,
with the appearance of the first volume of his
Positive Polity (Politique Positive), that he added
anything to the scheme of sciences thus drawn
up. He then recognized, as the seventh and
last term of the series, the science of Ethics.
The entire series, then, as he finally left it, was
as follows: 1, Mathematics; 2, Astronomy; 38,
Physics ; 4, Chemistry; 5, Biology (including
cerebral or transcendental biology); 6, Soci-
ology; 7, Ethics.
Comte was at great pains to explain that this
series represented the true order of nature,
and that the phenomena corresponded to the
actual evolution that has taken place in the
universe. The degree of ‘positivity’ of any
science’is that to which it can be reduced to
mathematical laws. The first of the sciences
that represent phenomena, viz., astronomy
(from which sidereal astronomy was excluded)
is therefore the most positive, and the degree
of positivity diminishes with each term in the
series. The sciences thus arranged also dimin-
ish in their generality while they increase in
their complexity. .
Moreover, each higher science has its roots in
the one next below it and is, as it were, de-
rived from it. The relationship is genetic, and
hence his favorite term ‘filiation,’ a word
much better chosen than the term ‘hierarchy’
which he also applied to the system.
Mr. Ward next proceeded to consider the
scheme of Mr. Herbert Spencer as elaborated in
his Synthetic Philosophy. <A prospectus of that
work was circulated in 1860. It was to em-
brace one volume on First Principles, two vol-
umes on the Principles of Biology, two volumes
on the Principles of Psychology, three volumes
on the Principles of Sociology, and two volumes
on the Principles of Morality. In this pro-
FEBRUARY 21, 1896.]
spectus, between the First Principles and the
Principles of Biology, was inserted the follow-
ing explanatory note: ‘‘In logical order
should here come the-application of these First
Principles to Inorganic Nature. But this great
division it is proposed to pass over, partly be-
cause even without it the scheme is too exten-
sive, and partly because the interpretation of Or-
ganic Nature after the proposed method is of
more immediate importance.’’ This scheme of
course was regarded by all as representing Mr.
Spencer’s conception of the natural order of
evolution in the universe, and the arrangement
of his topics was supposed to reflect his views
of the actual succession of cosmic events. The
groups of phenomena, i. e., the several great
sciences, would, therefore, stand as follows :
1. Inorganic Nature (subdivisions not indi-
cated); 2. Biology; 3. Psychology; 4. Sociol-
ogy; 5. Morality. How closely he has adhered
to this scheme is known to all, the only devia-
tion being the merely verbal one of substituting
the word Ethics for ‘Morality’ in the title of
the last work.
How he would have subdivided the phenom-
ena of inorganic nature, and how he would have
designated and arranged the subdivisions, has
remained for the most part a matter of inference.
In illustrating the cosmical laws laid down in
his First Principles he frequently swept across
the whole field and generally began with the
nebular hypothesis and astronomical phenom-
ena, then dealt with planetary and terrestrial
events, involving the action of heat, light, elec-
tricity, etc., and passed to organic phenomena
through the chemical process by which the
higher compounds have been developed. From
this it was inferred by some that his arrange-
ment of the inorganic sciences, had he worked
it out, would have been the same as Comte’s,
viz: Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry.
In 1864 he published his Classification of the
Sciences, but even here this question was not
answered to the clear comprehension of all, for
a classification may be quite a different thing
from a genesis or filiation of the groups of phe-
nomena classified. Still, inasmuch as he classed
physics and chemistry as ‘abstract-concrete’
sciences, dealing with the ‘elements’ of phe-
nomena, while astronomy, geology, biology,
SCLENCE. 293
psychology and sociology were classed as ‘ con-
crete’ sciences, dealing with the ‘totalities’ of
phenomena, it was safe to assume that it was to
the latter group alone that he proposed to con-
fine his Synthetic Philosophy ; and in the larger
table of the concrete sciences, after making as-
tronomy céordinate with the combined phenom-
ena of ‘astrogeny’ and ‘ geogeny,’ he arranged
under the last of these groups, biology and the
other organic sciences in a scale of progressive
subordination.
In an article dated December 3, 1868, and
published as an appendix to the first volume of
his Principles of Biology (not, of course, to the
first edition, which appeared in 1867), he says;
“‘T am placed at a disadvantage in having had
to omit that part of the System of Philosophy
which deals with Inorganic Evolution * * *
which should * * * precede the Principles
of Biology. Two volumes are missing. The
closing chapter of the second, were it written,
would deal with the evolution of organic matter
—the step preceding the evolution of organic
forms ;’’ and he then proceeds to discuss this
aspect of the subject in connection with the
doctrine of spontaneous generation, respecting
which he had been misunderstood by his critics.
He deals with it mainly from the chemical
standpoint, as, indeed, he also does in the open-
ing chapters of that volume.
Once more, at the very beginning of his Prin-
ciples of Sociology, the first part of which ap-
peared in 1874, he remarks: ‘‘Of the three
broadly distinguished kinds of Evolution, we
come now to the third. The first kind, Inor-
ganic Evolution, which, had it been dealt with,
would have occupied two volumes, one dealing
with Astrogeny and the other with Geogeny,
was passed over, etc.’’ This would seem to
leave no further doubt upon the point in ques-
tion.
Mr. Ward added that he had recently re-
ceived a letter from Mr. Spencer in which the
series was given complete according to his pres-
ent view of the subject, and in which he ad-
mitted that he had aimed to confine the treat-
ment in the Synthetic Philosophy exclusively
to the concrete sciences as defined in his Classi-
fication of the Sciences. This latest version of
the matter is given in the right-hand column of
294
the following table, the final arrangement of
Comte being shown in the left-hand column for
porposes of comparison :
System of System of
Auguste Comte. Herbert Spencer.
1. Astronomy. 1. Astronomy.
2. Physics.
3. Chemistry. puGeolony:
4. Biology (including 3. Biology.
5. Cerebral Biology). 4. Psychology.
6. Sociology. 5. Sociology.
7. Ethics. 6. Ethics.
Mr. Ward said that he would himself agree
with Spencer in admitting psychology to equal
rank with the other members of the series, but
that he would differ from both Comte and Spen-
cer in assigning such rank to ethics, which he
regarded a subdivision of sociology.
When it is remembered that the question in-
volved is solely that of the natural order of
evolution, or genesis of the successive groups of
phenomena, and not that of the logical relation-
ships of the sciences that have to deal with
them, still less that of the historical order in
which these sciences have been cultivated, it
seems clear that it makes little difference
whether, with Comte, the attention is concen-
trated more upon the laws governing the phe-
nomena, or, with Spencer, upon the objects
manifesting the phenomena. The series is vir-
tually the same in either case, and it may be
fairly claimed that it embodies the largest truth
which the universe presents.
Mr. Ward’s paper was discussed by Mr. J. W.
Powell and Mr. Henry Farquhar.
W. C. WINLOCKE,
Secretary.
ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
THE 114th regular meeting was held Febru-
ary 6th. Mr. Schwarz read a communication on
the ‘Sleeping Trees of Hymenoptera in South-
western Texas.’ Sleeping specimens of two
species of Apidze, Melissodes pygmxus and Ooeli-
oxys texana could frequently be seen near San
Diego, Texas, in the early morning hours on
the thinnest twigs and thorns of dead bushes of
Celtis pallida. 'The sleeping bees hold the twig
or thorn firmly grasped with all six legs, and
further secure their position by inserting the
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 60.
tips of the widely separated mandibles firmly
into the wood. Certain bushes of rather small
size are selected by the bees as common sleep-
ing quarters, and on such bushes the two Apidz
are always associated with a Sphegid, Coloptera
wrightii. The similarity of these sleeping quar-
ters with the so-called ‘ Butterfly’ trees, which
are the common sleeping places of Danais ar-
chippus was discussed.
The paper was discussed by Messrs. Howard,
Ashmead, Benton, Gill, Stilesand Fernow. Mr.
Ashmead had little doubt of the entire novelty
of the observations. Mr. Benton described the
position of the honeybee when asleep. Drs.
Gill and Stiles and Mr. Fernow discussed the
question of sleep and rest with other animals.
Mr. Howard read a paper on the transforma-
tions of Pulex serraticeps, showing that the com-
mon household flea, to which so much attention
has been attracted during the past few summers.
in Northeastern cities, is this common cosmo-
politan pest of the cat and dog. He gave the
results of careful observations made upon dif-
ferent stages of the insect, and showed that the
entire life round from the egg to the adult
may occupy in the summer at Washington but
sixteen days, the transformations being as rapid
as at Calcutta, India. This paper was discussed
by Messrs. Patten, Fernow, Barnard, Schwarz,
Benton, Ashmead, Marlatt and Gill, who told
many stories of the habits and ferocity of fleas.
in different parts of the world.
L. O. HowarpD,
Recording Secretary.
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
AT the forty-second meeting of the Geologi-
cal Society of Washington, held on Wednes-
day, January 29, 1896, Prof. C. R. Van Hise,
of the University of Wisconsin, presented a
communication on the Relations of Primary and
Secondary Structures in Rocks, being a contin-
uation of the subject considered at the preced-
ing meeting.
The relations between cleavage and fissility
were discussed. It was concluded that fissility
in many cases is controlled in its direction by a-
previously developed cleavage. Further, most
rocks, at the surface having the property of
cleavage which developed under deep seated
FEBRUARY 21, 1896..]
conditions, show, to a greater or lesser degree,
a fissility developed when they were nearer the
surface.
The relations of the secondary structures,
cleavage and fissility, to bedding were consid-
ered. It was shown that there is a tendency
for the primary and secondary structures to be-
come parallel or nearly so on the limbs of the
folds and to intersect each other at the arches and
troughs. In case the folding is close the two
structures may be so nearly parallel, except at
the short turns of the anticlines and synclines,
that the fact that there is a discrepancy any-
where is likely to be overlooked and the con-
clusion reached that in a given district the two
structures are everywhere accordant. This
mistake in the past has frequently led to great
overestimates of the thickness of formations
having slatiness or schistosity.
Prof. Van Hise’s observations and conclu-
sions were corroborated and supported by
Messrs. Diller, Willis and Keith.
W. F. MorsEL.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.
Art the regular meeting of the National Geo-
graphic Society, held in Washington, D. C.,
February 7, 1896, Prof. W J McGee, of the
Bureau of American Ethnology, presented a
communication on ‘A Sojourn in Seriland,’
which was illustrated by lantern slides. The
paper was an account of his recent explo-
rations among a hostile, savage and little
known people near the Gulf of California. Mr.
McGee gave a brief sketch of the country
traversed, with special reference to the flora
and fauna and the characteristics of the Seri
Indians. A feature of the address was a de-
scription of thirst, real and extreme thirst,
based on the experience and observation of the
speaker.
At the lecture on February 14th, Capt. Z.
L. Tanner, United States Navy, commander of
the United States Fish Commission Steamer
Albatross, described the Commission’s method
of deep sea fishing, and the forms of submarine
life brought up by the dragnet. He also de-
scribed the voyage of the Albatross from the
Atlantic to the Pacific, where she visited the
Galapagos Islands and ran several lines of
SCIENCE.
295
soundings for a submarine cable from California
to the Hawaiian Islands. The lecture was
illustrated by lantern-slide views of scenes both
on shipboard and ashore.
W. F. MorsELt.
BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY.
A GENERAL meeting was held January 15th;
eighty-four persons were present. The pro-
posed By-Laws of the Society were first con-
sidered and, after discussion and acceptance of
a single amendment, they were adopted.
Mr. William Brewster spoke on the natural
history of Trinidad, illustrating his remarks
with a series of lantern slides, showing views
of the vegetation and of various animals. He
sketched the general characters of the island,
the temperature, climate, etc., and referred to
the value of the government resthouses to
travellers and naturalists. The fauna and flora
of Trinidad is the same as that of the valley of
the Orinoco; many of the birds and plants are
identical with those found on the Amazon. The
absence of annoying insects was especially note-
worthy and the protective coloration of the
birds universal. The forests with the scarcity
of brilliantly colored animals, and the trees
noticeable for the smallness of their leaves,
gave a first impression not very different from
that derived from a New England forest. Mr.
Brewster read from his journal various notes
on the characteristics and habits of some of the
conspicuous mammals, birds, reptiles, and in-
sects, noting especially the habits of the parasol
ants and the fungus-hunting ants, and closed
with a reference to the palatableness of the
Agouti, Lape, Peccary and Howling Monkey.
SAMUEL HENSHAW,
Secretary.
THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB.
THE regular meeting of the Torrey Botanical
Club was held on Wednesday evening, January
29th, with 38 persons in attendance. Ten new
members were elected.
Dr. Valery Havard, U.S. A., read a very in-
teresting paper entitled ‘Drink Plants of the
North American Indians.’
These plants were divided into three classes:
1st. Plants yielding alcoholic drinks.
Distillation was unknown to the North Ameri-
296
can aborigines, and their few alcoholic drinks
were such as could be readily obtained by the
fermentation of saccharine fluids.
In Mexico the two plants commonly used for
these drinks were Maize and Maguey (Agave
Americana), and, to a lesser extent, the fruit of
Opuntia Tuna, O. Ficus-Indica, Yueca baccata
and Y. macrocarpa.
In the United States the only Indians prepar-
ing alcoholic drinks were a few southwestern
tribes; Apaches, Pimos, Maricopas, Papagos
and Yumas, which probably obtained the knowl-
edge from Mexican natives early in this century.
The plants used were Maize (only by the
Apaches) Agave Parryi and A. Palmeri, the
pulpy fruit of the Pitahaya (Cereus giganteus
and C. Thurberi) and the bean of the Mezquite
(Prosopis juliflora and P. pubescens).
2d. Plants yielding stimulating, deliriant or
intoxicating principles other than alcohol.
The Peyote (Anhalonium Engelmanni Lem.)
and Mescal Buttons (Lophophora Williamsii Le-
winit Coulter) of the Rio Grande and North
Mexico, the Frijolillo (Sophora secundiflora) of
Texas, several species of Datura, specially D.
meteloides, and the Cassine or Yupon (Ilex vo-
mitoria) of the southern Indians from which they
prepared their favorite ‘Black Drink.’
3d. Plants yielding palatable and nutritive
sap or juice, or, by infusion, pleasant beverages
or teas.
The saps most used were those of Maples
(Acer saccharum, A. saccharinum and A. rubrum),
and to a lesser extent that of Box Elder (Acer
negundo), of the Butternut (Juglans cinerea) and
of the Birch (Betula lenta and lutea).
The juicy plants of desert regions: Leaves
and stems of several species of Agave, Opuntia
and Echinocactus, the Sotol (Dasylirion Texanum)
and the Sand Food (Ammobroma Sonoroz).
Plants whose seeds were infused in water for
their mucilage, sugar, oils, &c.: Maize, Mez-
quite and several species of Sage, chiefly Salvia
polystachya, the Chia of Mexico, and S. Colwm-
bariz, the Chia of California and Arizona.
Plants with tart fruit imparting a pleasant
acidulous taste to water: Several species of
Sumach on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the
Manzanitas (Arctostaphylos Manzanita and tomen-
tosa) of California, the Bulberry of the Missouri
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 60.
region (Shepherdia argentea), the Soapberry of
the Northern States (iS. Canadensis) and various
species of Barberries (Berberis).
Plants containg mostly volatile oils, making
agreeable, fragrant teas: Sassafras, Spice bush
(Benzoin Benzoin), Wintergreen (Gaultheria pro--
cumbens), New Jersey Tea (Ceanothus Ameri-
canus), Labrador Tea (Ledwm Greenlandicum),
Sweet Goldenrod (Solidago odora), Pennyroyal
(Hedeoma pulegioides and Drummondi), Croton
corymbulosus and suaveolens.
Dr. John K. Small presented his ‘ Preliminary
Notes on the North American Species of Saxi-
fraga,’ proposing to separate from that genus
the two new genera Japsonia and Saxifragopsis.
Dr. N. L. Britton read a paper entitled
“New or Noteworthy species of Cyperaceae.’
He proposed a number of new species, reduced.
two species and submitted a large number of
valuable notes, especially on geographical dis-
tribution. -
Dr. Britton also submitted observations and
specimens in support of Pursh’s Lilium umbella-
tum, a species which has been uniformly ac-
cepted in herbaria as L. Philadelphicum. This
view was endorsed by Mr. Rydberg.
H. H. Ruspy,
Secretary.
NEW BOOKS.
Physiological Papers. By M. NEWELL MARTIN.
Baltimore, Johns Hopkins Press. 1895. Pp.
vii. + 264.
Elements of the Theory of Functions of a Com-
plex Variable. By Dr. H. DurkGE. Authorized
translation from 4th German Edition. George
Egbert Fisher and Isaac J. Schwatt. Phila-
delphia, G. E. Fisher and I. J. Schwatt.
1896. Pp. xiii.+288.
A Text-Book of Gas Manufacture for Students.
JoHN Hornsey. London, George Bell & Sons.
New York, Macmillan & Co. 1896. Pp.
vii+261. $1.50.
Naturwissenschaftliche Ein fiihrung in die Bakterio-
logie. FERDINAND HuEpPE, Wiesbaden, C.
W. Kreidel. 1896. Pp. viii. + 268. M. 6.
Die Lehre von den spezifischen Sinnesenergien.
RUDOLF WEINMANN. Hamburg and Leipzig,
Leopold Voss. 1895. Pp. 96. 1895. M. 2.25.
SCIENCE.
NEW SERIES.
Vou. III. No. 61.
Fripay, Freruary 28, 1896.
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SCIENCE
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE : S. NEwcomsB, Mathematics; R. S. WooDWARD, Mechanics ; E. C. PICKERING, As-
tronomy ; T. C. MENDENHALL, Physics; R. H. THURSTON, Engineering ; IRA REMSEN, Chemistry ;
J. LE ContE, Geology; W. M. Davis, Physiography; O. C. MARSH, Paleontology; W. K. BROOKs,
Invertebrate Zodlogy ; C. HART MERRIAM, Vertebrate Zodlogy ; S. H. ScupDER, Entomology ;
N. L. Brirron, Botany ; HENRY F. OsBorN, General Biology ; H. P. BownpiTcu,
Physiology ; J. S. BiInLrnes, Hygiene ; J. MCKEEN CATTELL, Psychology ; °
DANIEL G. BRINTON, J. W. POWELL, Anthropology ;
G. BRowN GooDE, Scientific Organization.
Fripay, FEBRUARY 28, 1896.
CONTENTS :
American Society of Naturalists :—
Report of the Fourteenth Annual Meeting: H. C.
Bumeus. Presidential Address on ‘ The Formu-
lation of the Natural Sciences:’ EK. D. COPE.
Discussion on ‘The Origin and Relations of the
Floras and Faunas of the Antarctic and Adjacent
Regions :’ ANGELO HEILPRIN, W. B. Scort,
N. L. Brirron, A. 8S. PACKARD, THEO. GILL,
DIP IPAUIGEON fenrtesleclsinvieicteractec(sinrec semnciensnmsaisetreiselss'c 297
Scientific Notes and News :—
Astronomy ; Extinction of the Buffalo; General....320
University and Educational News.............seeeeeeeees 323
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Kew’s Dispersal of Shells: EDWARDS. MORSE.
Scientific. Materialism: D. G. BRINTON. The
Rontgen Rays: J. McK. C. Cyclones and Anti-
cyclones: TH. HELM CLAYTON...........000-2ceeee eee 323
Scientific Literature :—
Lydekker’s Handbook to the British Mammalia -
C. H. M. The Cambridge Natural History, Vol.
V.: JOHN HENRY Comstock. Clerke on ‘ The
Herschels and Modern Astronomy :’
Scientific Journals :—
The Journal of Newrology........cssecceceseecseseceenees 329
Societies and Academies :—
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia:
Epw. J. Notan. Biological Society of Washing-
ton: F. A. Lucas. Philosophical Society of
Washington: BERNARD R. GREEN. New York
Section of the American Chemical Society: Du-
RAND WOODMAN aracscesantisssccsecnccsscccsslceesesiase 330
New Books.
MSS. intended for publication and books etc., intended
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
REPORT OF THE FOURTEENTH ANNUAL
MEETING OF THE AMERICAN SOCIETY
OF NATURALISTS, PHILADELPHIA,
DECEMBER 26-27, 1895.
Art the first session, Thursday, December
26,2 P. M., President Cope called for the
reports of committees appointed at the
Baltimore meeting: It was reported that
two microtomes had been purchased by the
duly authorized committee and placed at
the Naples Station for the use of American
students under appointment of the Smith-
sonian Institution. The Committee on
Bibliography announced that their report
had, according to instructions, been pub-
lished in Screncr and the American Natural-
ist. The Treasurer’s report was read and,
after being duly audited, received.
Dr. Stiles reported that the present term
of control of a table at the Naples Station
would cease on June 8, 1896; that during
this term eight men had been appointed to
the table, and that the table had not re-
mained unoccupied for a single month. He
presented a memorial, addressed to the
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution,
asking that the control of the table be con-
tinued, and requested the Society to approve
the steps already taken by him and author-
ize him to continue. It was so voted, and
on motion of Dr. Morgan it was also voted
that the President appoint a committee of
two, which committee should communicate
to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institu-
298
tion the action of the Society. Profs. Morgan
and Conn were appointed on this committee.
Messrs. Lucas, Morgan, Gill, Stiles and
Macloskie were appointed a committee to
nominate officers for the ensuing year.
The Society then listened to the address
of the President, ‘The Formulation of the
Natural Sciences,’ and to the following
paper:
Note on the Laboratory Teaching of Large
Classes, by Burt G. WiLpER, M. D., Pro-
fessor of Physiology, Vertebrate Zodlogy,
and Neurology, Cornell University.
To my great regret a year ago the simul-
taneous meeting of the Association of Amer-
ican Anatomists prevented my participa-
tion in the discussion of this topic. Our
experience at Cornell has been both exten-
sive and successful. In 1880 for verte-
brate zodlogy, and in 1886 for physiology,
was introduced the actual examination and
dissection of representative forms and im-
portant organs by members of large classes
of general students numbering from 40 to
181. For the sake of distinguishing these
comparatively brief and superficial exercises
from the laboratory work to which they
serve as an introduction, the word Practi-
cum is employed ; but I first heard it from
the lips of Prof. Shaler many years ago, and
he perhaps got it from the Germans.
The following practical points are to be
noted :
1. The advantages of Japanese napkins
over towels.
2. The convenience of placing the text
and plates of directions upon a two-sided
rack running lengthwise of the middle of
a table and secured by a clamp at each end
so as to be easily removed.
3. The cheerfulness with which these
general students repay to the Treasurer of
the University the cost of the material and
supplies, amounting to about $3.00 for each
of the courses.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 61.
4. The almost uniform interest mani-
fested in the work even by those who may
shrink from it at first. Not more than one
in five hundred has sought to be excused.
5. The possibility of preparing and stor-
ing the material for such large classes. For
example, this fall each of the class of 186
has dissected the eye, brain and heart of
the sheep and the viscera and certain mus-
cles of a cat. For brains Dr. Fish’s forma-
lin mixture is satisfactory, but the hearts
“of cats are prepared with alcohol, as de-
scribed by me before this Society in 1885
and 1890.
6. The desirability of requiring as much
as is now done here at the practicums in
both physiology and vertebrate zoology for
admission to the University. Although
elementary physiology has been an en-
trance requirement here since 1877, the
extent of practical familiarity with organ-
isms is very slight. Nevertheless I believe
it can be increased by general and per-
sistent effort.
After the reading of the above paper, Dr.
Stiles requested that the Society elect a
representative to meet with similar repre-
sentatives appointed by the Smithsonian In-
stitution and the American Ornithological
Union, to consult with and advise the
American member of the International Com-
mission on Codes of Nomenclature. — Prof.
Cope was duly elected.
The President then announced to the So-
ciety the death, since the previous meeting,
of James D. Dana and John A. Ryder.
The Society then adjourned.
SECOND SESSION, FRIDAY, DECEMBER 27,
9.30 A. M.
President Cope called for the report of the
Nominating Committee, which was sub-
mitted, and the following officers were elect-
ed for the ensuing year: President, W. B.
FEBRUARY 28, 1896. ]
Scott, of Princeton College, N. J.; Vice-
Presidents, W. G. Farlow, of Harvard Uni-
versity; C.O. Whitman, of the University of
Chicago ; Theodore Gill, of the Smithsonian
Institution ; Secretary, H. C. Bumpus, of
Brown University; Treasurer, John B.
Smith, of Rutgers College; Executive Com-
mittee, Horace Jayne, of the University of
Pennsylvania; William KF. Ganong, of Smith
College.
The business being finished, the Society
listened to the annual discussion, which is
printed below.
At the close of the discussion, on motion
of Prof. Heilprin, it was voted that a com-
mittee of three be appointed by the Presi-
dent to inquire into the practicability and
feasibility of the exploration of the Antarc-
tic Continent and to report at the next meet-
ing of the Society. The President appointed
Professors Heilprin, Osborn and Goodale.
The Society then adjourned.
H. C. Bumpvs,
Secretary.
THE FORMULATION OF THE NATURAL
SCIENCES.*
, Formuxation is the method of presenta-
tion of the forms of our thoughts. Our ob-
servations of the facts of material nature
are embodied in such classifications as we
think best express their relations, and by
means of these classifications expressed in
language, we convey to others our conclu-
sions in the premises. As the vehicle of
presentation, formulation is one of the as-
pects of language, which as the medium of
communication between men, enables them
to accumulate knowledge. It is highly im-
portant then that the system of formulation
should be uniform, so as to convey definite
meaning and preserve the truth. The vast
number of facts to be marshaled in orderly
* Presidental address delivered before the Ameri-
can Society of Naturalists in Philadelphia, December
26, 1895.
SCIENCE. 299
array, which constitute the natural sciences,
require a correspondingly complex and
exact formulation. The advent of the doc-
trine of evolution into the organic sciences
involves the necessity of making such re-
adjustments of our method of formulation
as may be called for. It is with reference
to this condition and the present action of
naturalists regarding it, that I address you
to-day. The subject may be considered
under the three heads of Taxonomy, Phy-
logeny, and Nomenclature.
I. Taxonomy.
Taxonomy or classification is an orderly
record of the structural characters of or-
ganic beings. The order observed is an
order of values of these characters. Thus
we have what we call specific or species
value, generic value, family value, and so
on. These values are not imaginary or
artificial, as some would have us believe,
but they are found innature. Their recog-
nition by the naturalist is a matter of ex-
perience, and the expression of them is a
question of tact. Their recognition rests
on a knowledge of morphology, or the
knowledge of true identities and differences
of the parts of which organic beings are
composed. The formulation of these values
in classification foreshadows the evolution-
ary explanation of their origin, and is al-
ways the first step necessary to the dis-
covery of a phylogeny.
Taxonomy, then, is, and always has been,
an arranging of organic beings in the order
of their evolution. This accounts for the
independence of the values of taxonomic
characters, of any other test. Thus, no
character can be alleged to be of high value
because it has a physiological value, or be-
cause it has no physiological value. A
physiological character may or may: not
have ‘a taxonomic value. The practical
taxonomist finds a different test of values,
which is this. He first endeavors to dis-
300
cover the series of organic forms which he
studies. He learns the difference between
its beginning and its ending. His natural
divisions are the steps or stages which sep-
arate the one extremity from the other.
The series may be greater or they may be
lesser, i. e., more or less comprehensive,
and it is to the series of different grades
that we give the different names of the
genus, family, order, etc.
We know that the characters of specific
value in given cases are usually more
numerous than those of higher groups. We
know that they are matters of proportions,
dimensions, textures, patterns, colors, etc.,
which are many. The characters of the
higher groups, on the contrary, are what we
eall structural, 7. e., the presence, absence,
separation or fusion of elemental parts, as
estimated by a common morphologic stand-
ard ; and it is the business of the morph-
ologist to determine each case on this basis.
In these characters lies the key to the larger
evolution, that of the higher aggregations
of living things. On the contrary, the study
of the origin of species characters gives us
the evolution of species within the genus,
but nothing more, except by inference.
Classification, then, isa record of charac-
ters, arranged according to their values.
There still lingers, in some quarters, a dif-
ferent opinion. This holds that there is
such a thing as a ‘ natural system,’ as con-
trasted with ‘an anatomical system.’ Ex-
amination shows that the supporters of this
view suppose that there is some bond of
affinity between certain living beings which
is not expressed in anatomical characters.
A general resemblance apparent to the eye
is valued by them more highly than a struc-
tural character. If this ‘general appear-
ance’ is analyzed, however, it is found to
be simply an aggregate of characters usu-
ally of the species type, which by no means
precludes the presence of anatomical differ-
ences. And these anatomical differences
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 61.
may indicate little relationship, in spite of
the general resemblance of the species con-
cerned, or they may have only the smallest
value attached to such characters, 7. ¢., the
generic. It is with regard to the generic
characters that the chief difference of prac-
tice exists. But itis clear that the record
of this grade of characters cannot be modi-
fied by questions of specific characters. The
two questions are distinct. Both represent
nature, and must be formulated. In fact,
I have long since pointed out that the same
species, so far as species characters go, may
have different generic characters in different
regions. Also that allied species of different
genera may have more specific characters
in common than remote species of the same
genus.
The anticipation naturally intrudes itself
that the characters which distinguish the
steps in a single evolutionary or genealogi-
cal line must disappear with discovery, and
new ones appear, and that they must beall
variable at certain geological periods, and
hence must become valueless as taxonomic
criteria. And itis therefore concluded that
our systematic edifice must lose precision
and becomes a shadow rather than a reality.
I think that as a matter of fact this will not
be the result, and for the following reasons:
In the first place, when, say all the generic
forms of a genealogical line, shall have been
discovered, we will find that each one of
them will differ from its neighbor in one
character only. This naturally follows from
the fact that two characters rarely, if ever,
appear and disappear contemporaneously.
Hence, generic characters will not be drawn
up so as to include several points. For a
while, there will be found to be combina-
tions of two or three characters which will
serve as definitions, but discovery will rele-
gate them to a genus each. Each of these
characters will be found to have what I
have called the ‘expression point,’ or the
moment of completeness, before which it
FEBRUARY 28, 1896.]
cannot be said to exist. In illustration I
cite the case of the eruption of a tooth. Be-
fore it passes the line of the alveolus it is
not in use ; it is not in place as an adult or-
ganism. Whenit passes that line it has be-
come mature, has reached its expression
point, comes into functional use, and may be
counted asa character. Such will be found
to be the case with all separate parts; there
always will be a time when they are not
completed and then there will be a time
when they are. These lines, then, will al-
ways remain as our boundaries, as they are
now, for all natural divisions from the
generic upwards. This condition cannot ex-
ist in characters of proportionate dimen-
sions, which will necessarily exhibit com-
plete transitions in evolution. Hence, pro-
portions alone can only be used ultimately
as specific characters.
Some systematists desire to regard phy-
letic series as the only natural divisions.
This. may be the ultimate outcome of pa-
leontologic discovery, but at present such a
practice seems to me to be premature. In
the first place, as all natural divisions
rest on characters, we must continue to
depend on their indications, no matter
whether the result gives us phyletic series
or not. In thenext place, we must remem-
ber that we have in every country interrup-
tions in the sequence of the geological for-
mations,which will give us structural breaks
until they are filled. There are also periods
when organic remains were not preserved ;
these also will give us interruptions in our
series. So we shall have to adhere to our
customary method without regard to theory,
and if the phyletic idea is correct, as I be-
lieve it to be, it will appear in the final re-
sult, and at some future time.
Authors are frequently careless in their
definitions. Very often they include, in
the definition of the order, characters which
belong in that of the family, and in that of
the family those that belong in the genus.
SCIENCE.
301
Characters of different values are thus
mixed. The tendency, especially with nat-
uralists who have only studied limited
groups, is to overestimate the importance
of characters. Thus the tendency is to
propose too many genera and other divi-
sions of the higher grades. In some groups
structure has been lost sight of altogether,
and color patterns, dimensions, and even
geographical range, treated as characters of
genera. As the mass of knowledge in-
creases, however, the necessity for precision
will become so pressing that this kind of
formulation will be discarded, and defini-
tions which mean something will be em-
ployed. Search will be made especially
for that one character which the nature of
the series renders it probable will survive,
as discoveries of intermediate forms are
successively made, and here the tact and
precision of the taxonomist has the oppor-
tunity for exercise. In the selection of
these characters, one problem will occasion-
ally present itself. The sexes of the same
species sometimes display great disparity
of developmental status, sometimes the
male, but more frequently the female, re-
maining in a relatively immature stage, or
in others presenting an extraordinary de-
generacy. In these cases the sex that dis-
plays what one might call the genius, or in
other words, the tendency, of the entire
group, will furnish the definitions. This
will generally be that one which displays
the most numerous characters. In both
the cases mentioned the male will furnish
these rather than the female; but in a few
eases the female furnishes them. The fact
that both sexes do not present them does
not invalidate them, any more than the
possession of distinct reproductive systems
would refer the sexes to different natural
divisions.
I have seen characters objected to as of
little value because they were absent or
inconstant in the young. I only mention
302
the objection to show how superficially the
subject of taxonomy may be treated. So
that a character is constant in the adult,
the time of its appearance in development
is immaterial in a taxonomic sense, though
it may have important phylogenetic sig-
nificance.
II. Pay Loceny.
The formulation of a phylogeny or gene-
alogy involves, as a preliminary, a clear
taxonomy. I refer to hypothetical phylo-
genies, such as those which we can at present
construct are in large part. A perfect phy-
logeny would be aclear taxonomy in itself,
so far as it should go, did we possess one ;
and such we may hope to have ere long, as
a result of paleontological research. But
so long as we can only supply parts of our
phyletic trees from actual knowledge, we
must depend ona clear analysis of struc-
ture as set forth in a satisfactory taxonomy,
such as I have defined above.
Confusion in taxonomy necessarily intro-
duces confusion into phylogeny. Confusion
of ideas is even more apparent in the work
of phylogenists than in that of the taxono-
mists, because a new but allied element
enters into the formulation. It is in the
highest degree important for the phyloge-
nist, whether he be constructing a genealo-
gic tree himself or endeavoring to read that
constructed by some one else, to be clear as
to just what it is of which he is tracing the
descent. Is he tracing the descent of species
from each other, or of genera from each
other, or of orders from each other, or what ?
When I trace the phylogeny of the horse, un-
less I specify, it cannot be known whether I
am tracing that of the species Equus caballus,
or that ofthe genus Equus,or that of the fam-
ily Equide. When one is tracing the phylo-
geny of species, he is tracing the descent of
he numerous characters which define a
species. This is a complex problem, and
‘but little progress has been made in it from
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vow. III. No. 61.
the paleontologic point of view. Something
has been done with regard to the descent of
some living species from each other. But
when we are considering the descent of a
genus, we restrict ourselves to a much more
simple problem, 7. ¢., the descent of the few
simple characters that distinguish the genus
from other genera. Hence, we have made
much more progress in this kind of phylo-
geny than with that of species, especially
from the paleontologice point of view. The
problem is simplified as we rise to still
higher divisions, 7. e., to the investigation
of the origin of the characters which define
them. We can positively affirm many
things now as to the origin of particular
families and orders, especially among the
Mammalia, where the field has been better
explored than elsewhere.
It is in this field that the unaccustomed
hand is often seen. Supposing some phy-
letic tree alleges that such and such has
been the line of descent of such and such
orders or families, as the case may be ; soon
a critic appears who says that this or that
point is clearly incorrect, and gives his
reasons. These reasons are that there is
some want of correspondence of generic
characters between the genera of the, say,
two families alleged to be phyletically re-
lated. And this want of correspondence is
supposed to invalidate the allegation of
phyletic relation between the families. But
here is a case of irrelevancy ; a generic
character cannot be introduced in a com-
parison of family characters. In the case
selected, the condition is to be explained
by the fact that although the families are
phyletically related, one or both of the two
juxtaposed genera through which the tran-
sition was accomplished has or have not
been discovered. The same objection may
be made against an allegation of descent of
some genus from another, because the phy-
letic relation between the known species of
the two genera cannot be demonstrated. I
FEBRUARY 28, 1896. ]
cite as an example the two genera, Hippo-
therium and Equus, of which the latter has
been asserted with good reason to have de-
scended from the former. It has. been
shown, however, that the Equus caballus
could not have descended from the Euro-
pean Hippotheriwm mediterranewm, and hence
some writers have jumped to the conclusion
that the alleged phyletic relation of the two
genera does not exist. The reasons for de-
nying this descent are, however, presented
by specific characters only, and the generic
characters are in no way affected. Further,
we know several species of Hippotherium
which could have given origin to the Equus
caballus, probably through intermediate spe-
cies of Equus.
Some naturalists are very uncritical in
criticising phylogenies in the manner I have
just described. They often neglect to as-
certain the definitions given by an author
to a group alleged by him to be ancestral;
but fitting to it some definition of their
own, proceed to state that the ancestral
position assigned to it cannot be correct,
and to propose some new division to take
its place. Itis necessary to examine, in such
cases, whether the new group so proposed is
not really included in the definition of the
oid one which is discarded.
The fact that existing genera, families,
etc., are contemporary need not invalidate
their phyletic relation. Group No. 1 must
have been contemporary with group No. 2, at
the time that it gave origin to the latter, and
frequently, though always, a certain num-
ber of representatives of group No. 1 have
not changed, but have persisted to later
periods. Some genera, as ¢. g., Crocodilus,
have given origin to other genera (i. ¢.,
Diplocynodon) and have outlasted it, for
the latter genus is now extinct. The lung
fishes, Ceratodus, are probably ancestral to
the Lepidosirens, but both exist to-day.
Series of genera, clearly phyletic, or Ba-
trachia Salientia, are contemporaries. Of
SCIENCE.
303
course we expect that the paleontologic
record will show that their appearance in
time has been successive. But many an-
cestors are living at the same modern period
as their descendants, though not always in
the same geographic region.
III. Nomenciature.
Nomenclature is like pens, ink and paper ;
it is not science, but it is essential to the
pursuit of science. It is, of course, for con-
venience that we use it, but it does not fol-
low from that that every kind of use of it is
convenient. Itis a rather common form of
apology for misuse of it to state that as itis
a matter of convenience, it makes no differ-
ence how many or how few names we rec-
ognize or use. An illustration of this bad
method is the practice of subdividing a
genus of many species into many genera,
simply because it has many species. The
author who does this ignores the fact that a
genus has a definite value, no matter
whether it has one or five hundred species.
I do not mean to maintain that the genus
or any other value has an absolute fixity in
all cases. They undoubtedly grade into
each other at particular places in the sys-
tem, but these cases must be judged on their
own merits. In general there is no such
gradation.
Nomenclature is then orderly because the
things named have definite relations which
it is the business of taxonomy, and nomen-
clature its spokesman, to state. Here we
have a fixed basis of procedure. In order
to reach entire fixity, a rule which decides
between rival names for the same thing is
in force. This is the natural and rational
law of priority. With the exception of
some conservative botanists, all naturalists
are, so far as I am aware, in the habit of
observing this rule. The result of a failure
to do so is self-evident. There is, however,
some difference of opinion as to what con-
stitutes priority. Some of the aspects of
304
the problem are simple, others more diffi-
cult. Thus there is little or no difference
of opinion as to the rule that the name of a
species is the first binomial which it re-
ceived. This is not a single date for all
Species, since some early authors who used
trinomials and polynomials occasionally
used binomials. A second rule which is
found in all the codes, is that a name in
order to be a candidate for adoption, must
be accompanied by a descriptive diagnosis
ora plate. As divisions above species can-
not be defined by a plate, a description is
essential in every such case.
Tt is on the question of description that a
certain amount of difference of opinion ex-
ists. From the codes of the associations
for the advancement of science, and of
the zodlogical congresses, no difference of
opinion can be inferred, but the practice
of a number of naturalists both zoologists.
and paleontologists in America, and paleon-
tologists in Europe, is not in accord with
the rule requiring definition of all groups
above species. It has always appeared to
me remarkable that a rule of such self-evi-
dent necessity should not meet with uni-
versal adoption. However, the objections
to it, such as they are, I will briefly con-
sider. It is alleged that the definitions
when first given are more or less imper-
fect, and have to be subsequently amended,
hence it is argued they have no authority.
However, the first definitions, if drawn up
with reference to the principles enumerated
in the first part of this address, need not be
imperfect. Also an old-time diagnosis of a
division which we have subsequently found
it necessary to divide, is not imperfect on
that account alone, but it may be and often
is the definition of a higher group. But you
are familiar with all this class of objections
and the answers to them, so I will refer only
to the positive reasons which have induced
the majority of naturalists to adhere to the
rule.
SOIENCE
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 61.
It is self-evident that so soon as we
abandon definitions for words, we have left
science and have gone into a kind of liter-
ature. In pursuing such a course we load
ourselves with rubbish, and place ourselves
in a position to have more of it placed
upon us. The load of necessary names is
quite sufficient, and we must have a reason
for every one of them, in order to feel that
itis necessary to carry it. Next, it is es-
sential that every line of scientific writing
should be intelligible. A man should be
required to give a sufficient reason for
everything that he does in science. Thus
much on behalf of clearness and precision.
There is another aspect of the case which
is ethical. I am aware that some students
do not think that ethical considerations
should enter into scientific work. To this
I answer that I do not know of any field of
human labor into which ethical considera-
tions do not necessarily enter. The reasons
for sustaining the law of priority are partly
ethical, for we instinctively wish to see
every man credited with his own work, and
not some other man. The law of priority
in nomenclature goes no further in this di-
rection than the nature of each case re-
quires. Nomenclature may be an index of
much meritorious work, or it may represent
comparatively little work; but it is to the
interest of all of us that it be not used to
sustain a false pretence of work that has
not been done at all. By insisting on this
essential test of honest intentions we retain
the taxonomic and phylogenetic work within
the circle of a class of men who are compe-
tent to it, and cease to hold out rewards to
picture makers and cataloguers.
Another contention of some of the no-
menclators who use systematic names pro-
posed without description, is, that the spell-
ing in which they were first printed must
not be corrected if they contain ortho-
graphical and typographical errors. That
this view should be sustained by men
FEBRUARY 28, 1896.]
who have not had the advantage of a
classical education, might not be surpris-
ing, although one would think they would
prefer to avoid publicly displaying the
fact, and would be willing to travel some
distance in order to find some person who
could help them in the matter of spell-
ing. But when well educated men support
such a doctrine, one feels that they have cre-
ated out of the law of priority a fetish which
they worship with a devotion quite too nar-
row. The form of our nomenclature being
Latin, the rules of Latin orthography and
grammar are as incumbent on us to observe,
as are the corresponding rules of English
grammar in our ordinary speech. This cult,
so far as I know, exists only in the United
States and among certain members of the
American Ornithologists’ Union. The pre-
servation of names which their authors never
defined; of names which their proposers mis-
spelled; of names from the Greek in Greek
instead of Latin form ; of English hyphens
in Latin composition; and of hybrid com-
‘binations of Greek and Latin, are objects
hardly worth contending for. Some few
authors are quite independent of rules in the
use of gender terminations, but I notice the
A. O. U. requires these to be printed cor-
rectly. Apart from this I notice in the sec-
ond edition of their check list of North
American Birds, just issued, only eighteen
misspellings out of a total number of 768
specific and subspecific names, and the gen-
eric and other names accompanying. These
are of course not due to ignorance on the
part of the members of this body, some of
whom are distinguished for scholarship, but
because of an extreme view of the law of
priority.
In closing I wish to utter a plea for
euphony and brevity in the construction of
names. In some quarters the making of
such names is an unknown art. The sim-
ple and appropriate names of Linneus and
Cuvier can be still duplicated if students
SCIENCE.
305
would look into the matter. A great num-
ber of such names can be devised by the use
of significant Greek prefixes attached to sub-
stantives which may or may not have
been often used. Personal names in Greek
have much significance, and they are of-
ten short and euphonious. The unap-
propriated wealth is so great that there is
really no necessity for poverty in this direc-
tion. It should be rarely necessary, for in-
stance, to construct generic names by add-
ing prefixes and suffixes of no meaning to a
standard generic name already in use.
E. D. Corr.
THE ORIGIN AND RELATIONS OF THE
FLORAS AND FAUNAS OF THE ANT-
ARCTIC AND ADJACENT REGIONS.*
The Geology of the Antarctic Regions. ANGELO
Heimprin, Philadelphia Academy of Na-
tural Sciences.
Reviewing our present knowledge of the
Antarctic regions, Prof. Heilprin stated that
it rests almost where it was a half-century
ago, when Sir James Clark Ross (1841,
1842) made his memorable cruises in the
“Hrebus’ and ‘Terror,’ and attained the
high southing of 78° 10’. This was at a
position almost due south of New Zealand,
along a coast line, sharply defined by ele-
vated mountain masses, to which the dar-
ing British navigator gave the name of Vic-
toria Land. At that time other patches of
ice bound land, or what was presumed to be
land, had already been discovered and
named by Bellamy, Biscoe, Dumont d’
Urville, and Wilkes—such as Clarie Land,
Sabrina Land, etc., south of the Aus-
tralian continent; Enderby Land, Kemp
Land, Graham and Alexander Lands, south
of Patagonia—and from these had been con-
stituted the Antarctic continent of Wilkes
and of many modern geographers. Murray,
* Report of the discussion before the American
Society of Naturalists, Philadelphia, December
27, 1895.
306
especially, has been strenuous in upholding
the actuality of such a continent, but to the
present time it cannot be said that its ex-
istence has been demonstrated. A number
of considerations speak in favor of it, but
many more facts than we now possess will
be needed before anything like a satisfac-
tory determination of this question can be
assumed. It is significant in this connec-
tion that both Ross and Petermann, to
whom as explorer and student we owe the
better part of our knowledge of Antarctica,
inclined their views against the existence of
such a southern continent. In their opin-
ions the reported land masses are of an is-
land character, bound together perhaps not
even permanently, by a vast (frequently
shifting?) ice pack, the edge of which (only
in small part the terminal wall of giant
glaciers) is the ‘great Antarctic barrier’ of
geographers and navigators. How far the
vertical icebarrier is confluent with the
cemented pack remains yet to be de-
termined.
The only important addition to our
knowledge of true Antarctica that has been
made since Ross’s voyage belongs to the
close of the year 1893, when Larsen pene-
trated, in the region of the Graham Land
complex, to Lat. 68° 10’ 8., and brought
back with him a ‘ departure’ in the geolog-
ical concept of the region under considera-
tion. The finding of Tertiary fossils (Cy-
therea, Natica, etc.,) on Seymour Island
(Cape Seymour) is the opening vista in an
investigation which has heretofore been
considered closed, and at once affords, to
use a business term, a basis for considera-
tion. Not less significant is the finding at
the same locality of an abundance of tree-
remains (conifers—Arancaria ?). These
fragments at least show that some part of
Antarctica was of the same kind of con-
struction as the continents generally, and
their special facies immediately suggests a
South American relationship. Previous to
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Von. ILI. No. 61.
1898 the only rocks known from the ice-
bound region of the far South were gran-
ites, gneisses (and related schists), the
strictly eruptive and trappean rocks, and
certain red sandstones (Piner’s Island—
Triassic?) from a very limited area. Most
(and perhaps nearly all) of the higher
mountains are distinctly of a volcanic na-
ture, and many of them bear huge craters
on their summits. Ross found Erebus in
eruption at the time of his visit (1841),
and Larsen found the mountains of Christ-
ensen and Lindenberg Islands similarly
active in 1893-94. Borchgrevink, who
sailed over a portion of Ross’s course in
1894-95, attaining off Victoria Land, with
clear water ahead of him, Lat. 74° S., con-
firms in almost every detail the observa-
tions of his predecessor, adding some addi-
tional facts regarding the large glaciers
which descend from the heights of the Sa-
bine Mountains. He was the first to set
foot on the mainland (or main island) of
Antarctica, and to him science also owes
the first discovery within this realm of a
rock-covering vegetation (lichens ?—on Pos-
session Island and Cape Adare).
It can hardly be said that we know much
regarding either the source or the nature of
the vast ice mass which makes up nearly
the whole of visible Antarctica; it may or
may not be in principal part of glacial con-
struction; it may be largely or mainly an
ocean-surface accumulation, extending back
in its formation through hundreds or thou-
sands of years. Until we know what is be-
low or behind it, this question will remain
unanswered. Giant glaciers there are, and
an abundance of them; but over enormous
expanses, where the ice barrier presents an
impassable front, no visible distant ice cap,
like the one of Greenland, has been de-
tected.
In its relations to the other continents
there is reason to believe that Antarctica,
whether as a continent or in fragmented
FEBRUARY 28, 1896.]
parts, had a definite connection with one or
more of the land masses lying to the north,
and the suspicion can hardly be avoided that
such connection was, if with nothing else,
with at least New Zealand (and through it,
with Australia) and Patagonia. In the frag-
mented parts of Graham Land archipelago
and the outlying South Orkney and South
Georgian islands, we seem to have the bond
of connection with the South American
main; or, more specifically, a line of curva-
ture of the great Andean chain, which, in
its broken parts, can still be traced far be-
yond its present continental termination. If
this concept is a true one, it places before
us a parallel to the Andean curvature in the
northern part of the South American Con-
tinent, where the mountain system is de-
flected off into the broken mass of the Lesser
Antilles; to the Aleutian flexure of the Cor-
dilleran system of North America; and to
the ‘ Apennine-Atlas’ and ‘ Carpathian-Bal-
kan’ flexures of the Alpine mountains, the
nature of which has been so clearly stated
by Suess. In fact, it is hardly possible that
any very extensive meridianal or latitudi-
nal mountain chain could have been forced
up through contractional force without some
such deflection being represented in one or
more parts of its course; and where these
deflections are found they are almost cer-
tain to be areas of breakage. The dis-
ruption of the Andean system is still (or has
until recently been) taking place, as is evi-
denced in a portion of the Chilian archipel-
ago.
Antarctica Paleontology. Pror. W. B. Scort,
Princeton University.
Itis a truism that the most satisfactory
evidence concerning the former existence of
land connections which have long since dis-
appeared beneath the sea, is to be derived
from the distribution of land animals, re-
cent and fossil. In the northern hemis-
phere this evidence is very extensive for all
SCIENCE.
307
of the great land masses, and for those later
divisions of geological time in which terres-
trial life began to play an important part.
In the southern hemisphere the case is un-
fortunately different, only South America
having, as yet, yielded numerous and well
preserved remains of Tertiary mammals.
Pleistocene fossils, which have an impor-
tant though somewhat inconclusive bear-
ing upon the problem of the Antarctic con-
tinent, occur in other regions, such as Mada-
gascar, Australia and New Zealand, but the
evidence is still fragmentary and leaves
much to be desired.
In the Permian we first find indications
of a type of fossils, common to the southern
hemisphere and distinct from the contem-
porary life of the northern. This is the
much discussed Glossopteris Flora, char-
acterized by the fern of that name, and by
an assemblage of plants which is more like
the Triassic than the Permian of the north-
ern continent. The Glossopteris Flora has
been found in India, South Africa, Austra-
lia. and, quite lately, in the Argentine Re-
public, and obviously points to an Antarctic
center of distribution. Though the distribu-
tion of the Gilossopteris Flora does not demon-
strate that the lands in which it occurs were
all connected together, yet it renders such
connection probable. Judging from the an-
alogy of the existing land masses, it seems
likely that the connection was rather by
means of a circumpolar continent with
northward extensions than through east
and west land-bridges, or a great single con-
tinent occupying the site of the Indian,
South Atlantic and South Pacific Oceans.
The evidence of Mesozoic fossils is very
unsatisfactory. Lydekker has called atten-
tion to the likeness between the Jurassic
Dinosaurs of India, South Africa and Pata-
gonia, and, so far as it goes, this fact would
indicate a general persistence of the same
land connections as those which obtained
in Permian times.
308
When we reach the Tertiary, important
facts become available, but, as in the earlier
ages, too fragmentary to be conclusive. A
long succession of Tertiary land faunas is
known only from South America. Even
the most cursory examination of these
faunas shows in the most unmistakable
manner the extreme isolation of South
America. The oldest of the Tertiary for-
mations of Patagonia, the Pyrotherium beds
have yielded a fauna which promises to
prove of the highest interest, but as yet it is
so imperfectly known that it cannot be em-
ployed in the solution of the Antarctic
problem. The earlier Miocene (Santa Cruz)
mammals of that continent are totally dif-
ferent from those of the northern land-
masses, so much so that the correlation of
horizons becomes a matter of extreme diffi-
culty. The hoofed animals all belong to
orders unknown in the north, Toxodontia,
Typotheria, Litopterna, and the principal con-
stituents of the fauna are immense numbers
of Edentates, Marsupials and Rodents, with
several platyrrhine monkeys. No artiodac-
tyls, perissodactyls, proboscidians, Condy-
larthra or Amblypoda, neither Insectivora,
Cheiroptera, Carnivora or Creodonta are
known. The Edentates are all of the spe-
cifically South American type, sloths, arma-
dillos and the like. The Rodents also are
very much like those which still charac-
terize the region, though most of the genera
are distinct; they are all Hystricomorpha,
neither squirrels, marmots, beavers, rats or
mice, hares or rabbits occurring among
them. The Primates are typically neotropi-
eal and evidently belong to the platyrrhine
group. The Marsupials are partly opos-
sums, more or less like those which still
inhabit the Americas, and, what is at first
sight very surprising, partly of Australian
type. The latter contain both diprotodont
forms (Abderites, Acdestis Epanorthus) allied
to the existing Hypsiprymnus and polypro-
todont genera (Protoproviverra, Cladosictis,
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. IIf. No. 61.
ete.), the affinity of which to the Dasywride
is clear. Ameghino, it is true, places these
latter forms in a new order, the Sparasso-
dontia, but this seems unnecessary and mis-
leading.
The fauna of the succeeding ‘ Patagonian
formation’ is of exactly the same general
character and contains no new elements,
but merely somewhat more advanced gen-
era of the same orders, while the Marsupials
are much reduced in numbers and impor-
tance.
In the Pliocene (Monte Hermoso) ap-
pear the first traces of the union with North
America, in the presence of mastodons,
horses, tapirs, deer, llamas and true carni-
vores, and from that time till far into the
Pleistocene the intermigrations between the
two continents kept up, until a large num-
ber of common types had been established.
The curious composition of the South
American mammalian fauna in Tertiary
times presents us with some very well-de-
fined but extremely difficult problems. (1.)
How is the presence of groups to be ex-
plained, which have a clear relationship to
those belonging to the Northern hemi-
sphere, namely the Primates, Ungulates and
Rodents? An easy short cut out of the
difficulty would be to assume that the re-
lationship is only apparent and due to con-
vergent development. It is, of course, pos-
sible that such is the true explanation, but
itis most unlikely, and in the absence of any
evidence in its favor we need not stop to
discuss it. Much more probable is it that
these groups point to some connection, di-
rect or indirect, with the northern hemi-
sphere, either in late Mesozoic or early
Tertiary times. One would naturally ex-
pect to find that this connection was by
way of North America, but there are grave
difficulties in the way of sucha view. As
we have seen, the indigenous South Ameri-
can rodents were all hystricomorphs, and
while this group is represented in Europe,
FEBRUARY 28, 1896. ]
in later Oligocene beds, it does not ap-
pear in North America till the end of the
Miocene or beginning of the Pliocene, and is
very scantily represented here to-day. The
Ungulates are much more distantly related
to those of the north and can be connected
only by remote ancestors, for the divergence
is very striking in the oldest South Ameri-
can forms yetrecovered. If the connection
with the north was not by means of North
America it can only have been through
Africa. Admitting such connection, it is
much more likely to have been due to the
junction of both continents with the Ant-
arctic land mass than to a Transatlantic
bridge. Such a mode of connection would
explain the very wide divergences in the
character of the mammalian faunas which
still exist between Africa and South Amer-
ica, for a circumpolar land would very
likely oppose climatic barriers to migration,
and confine that migration to comparatively
few groups. (2) The presence of numerous
marsupials of distinctively Australian type
in the Tertiary rocks of South America is
very strong evidence indeed that both of
those continents were connected with the
Antarctic land. The Australian”marsupials
have been much misunderstood and many
observers appear to think that Australia is
a sort of museum which has preserved
‘Jurassic types to this day. As a matter of
fact, these marsupials are an extremely di-
versified and modernized assemblage of
forms, which have paralleled the placental
orders in a remarkable way. Their struc-
ture is, it is true, fundamentally primitive,
but their many and divergent adaptions are
modern. That these marsupials indicate a
land connection between South America and
Australia can hardly be denied, for none of
them have ever been found in any northern
continent. If it be asked why this sup-
posed migration was all in one direction,
and why South American mammals did not
reach Australia, several possible explana-
SCIENCE. 309
tions suggest themselves. (a) The mar-
supials may have originated in South
America and, covering the South Polar
lands, have reached Australia, which was
then severed from Antarctica, before the
Placentals had made their appearance in
South America. (b) Placentals may have
reached Australia but not kept a foothold
there, finding conditions unfavorable to
them. These possibilities seem very un-
likely and much more probable is a third
explanation. (c) The Australian connec-
tion with Antarctica first existed and al-
lowed the marsupials to spread over the
polar lands. Before South America became
connected with the circumpolar area, the
latter was severed from Australia. Until
Tertiary mammals are recovered in Austra-
lia, explanation of these curious cireum-
stances must remain conjectural. What is
known of Australian Pleistocene mammals
indicates that nothing had reached that
continent from South America.
Another line of evidence which trends in
the same general direction as that which
we have already considered is given by the
Pleistocene birds of the southern hemi-
sphere to which attention has been directed
by Forbes, and more recently by Milne Ed-
wards and others. The weight which
should be given to evidence of this kind is
very difficult to determine, because of the
uncertainty which still obtains concerning
the real relationship of the birds in ques-
tion. The extinct types of wingless rails
which are found in New Zealand, the Chat-
ham Islands, the Mascarene Islands are be-
lieved by many to indicate land bridges,
while Aipyornis, of Madagascar, the Moas
of New Zealand, the Emeus of Australia,
and the gigantic Tertiary birds of the
Argentine Republic (Brontornis, Phoro-
rhacus, Opisthodactylus), are supposed to
be branches of the same stock of Ratite.
Until, however, we learn a great deal more
than is known at present with regard to
310
the phylogeny and relationships of these
great birds, I personally do not feel at all
assured that we can safely reason from
their distribution to problems of former
land connections. On the other hand, it
should be noted that this distribution is in
harmony with the results reached by study
of the mammals.
In conclusion, it may be observed that
the facts of paleontology may best be ex-
plained on the assumption that the Ant-
arctic land mass has at one time or another
been connected with Africa, Australia and
South America, which formerly radiated
from the South Pole as North America and
Eurasia now do from the North Pole.
While this seems a highly probable assump-
tion, much remains to be done before the
history of the southern continents is as well
known as that of the northern ones, and in
particular many questions must remain
open until the Tertiary mammals of Africa
and Australia shall have been recovered.
It is interesting to observe that we are
again approximating to the views expressed
by Rutimeyer in 1867.
Botany. Pror. N. L. Brrrron, Columbia
College.
Prof. Britton took up the subject from the
standpoint of Antarctic botany. He re-
marked that as nothing worth consideration
was known of the flora of the Antarctic
Continent, the inquiry must be restricted to
a consideration of the vegetation of the ex-
treme southern parts of South America,
South Africa, New Zealand and the islands
of the South Pacific Ocean. Genera of wide
distribution cannot enter as factors in the
inquiry, except in cases where closely re-
lated or identical species occur in two or
more of these areas. Genera and species of
circumtropical distribution must be consid-
ered with caution, because this distribu-
tion may or may not have a bearing on
the problem. He noted that this cireum-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 61.
tropical distribution of plants is well
marked, large numbers of genera and spe-
cies being common to the warmer parts of
America, Australasia and Asia, and some
common to tropical America and Africa.
Types of cosmopolitan distribution must ob-
viously be ignored. Types of simple organ-
ization, typically of wide distribution, can-
not fairly be considered.
He submitted the following cases of dis-
tribution, selected from widely different
families from the Bryophytes upward :
Musct. Andrea pseudosubulata. Fuegia
and Australia. Campylopus xanthophyllus.
Chile and New Zealand. The genus Codon-
oblepharum contains about eleven species, six
in southern South America, three in New
Zealand, two Asiatic. The genus Hymeno-
don, of six species, has two in southern South
America, three in Australasia, one in trop-
ical America. Leptotheca Gaudichaudii oc-
ceurs in New Zealand, at the Falkland
Islands, and Cape Horn. The genus Lep-
tostemon consists of about eight species, two
of them in southern South America, five in
Australasia, one in Ceylon.
Fiuices. Grammitis australis and Lomaria
alpina occur in southern South America,
Tasmania, New Zealand, and the latter on
Kerguelan. The genus Gleichenia, mostly
confined to the tropics, contains related
species in South Africa, southern South
America and New Zealand.
Conirer®. The genus Araucaria contains
ten species, all South American and Aus-
tralasian. Fitzroya Patagonica occurs in
Chile and F. Archeri in Tasmania. The
genus Podocarpus has about forty species,
South American, South African, Austral-
asian and Asiatic.
APONOGETONACEE. Aponogeton contains
about fifteen species, African, Australian
and Asiatic.
ALISMACEE. Caldisia with three species in
Africa, New Holland and the East Indies.
CENTROLEPIDACER. Gaimardia australis in
FEBRUARY 28, 1896. ]
southern South America, G'. setacea in New
Zealand.
Juncacem. Marsippospermum grandiflorum
in the Magellan region, M. gracile in New
Zealand.
Luiacem. The genus Wurmbea has two
species in South Africa, one in Fernando Po,
four in Western Australia. Bulbinella has
ten speciesin South Africa, one in New Zea-
land, one in the Auckland Islands. Bulbine
has twenty-one species in South Africa, two
in Australia. Cesta has six Australian spe-
cies, three South African. Luzuriaga con-
tains three species, all of southern South
America, but one of them, L. marginata, oc-
curs also in New Zealand.
AMARYLLIDACEm. The tribe Conanthere
contains four genera, three of them Chilian,
the fourth at the Cape of Good Hope.
Irmacem. The genus Libertia has four
species in Chili and four in New Zealand
and South Australia.
Facacem. Nothofagus contains twelve
species, and is confined to southern South
America, New Zealand and Australia.
Urticaces. Australina, with five species,
natives of Australia and South Africa.
Protreaces. All the genera are austral.
According to Engler the species are dis-
tributed about as follows: Australia 591,
South Africa 262, tropical South America
36, New Caledonia 27, tropical East Africa
25, Chile 7, tropical Africa 5, New Zealand
2, Madagascar 2.
Potyeonacem. The genus Muehlenbeckia
is confined to Australia, New Zealand, the
Pacific Islands and southern South America
and the Andes.
Monimiracem. Laurelia sempervirens in
Chile, L. Nove-Zealandie in New Zealand.
UMBELLIFERSE. The genus Azorella with 30
species distributed in Australia, New Zea-
land,southern South America and the Andes.
Epacripacem. The whole family is Aus-
tralasian, save one species occurring at
Fuegia.
SCIENCE.
oll
Srytipex. The genus Phyllachne has one
species in the Magellan region, three in
New Zealand.
,In closing, Professor Britton remarked
that despite the occurrences cited, and that
he had not been able to treat the subject
exhaustively, the similarity of the floras
was in reality very slight, and that in his
opinion it was not necessary to invoke
former land connection across the Antarctic
region in explanation.
The Terrestrial Invertebrata. By Pror. A.S.
PAcKARD, Brown University.
In comparing the terrestrial Arctic and
Antarctic regions the conditions are most
unlike, and literally as wide apart as the
Poles. The Arctic regions form a large pro-
portion of the land hemisphere, with a com-
paratively abundant terrestrial flora and
fauna. During the Neocene Tertiary, the
arctic land masses were more extensive than
now, more continuous, and with little doubt
their subtropical life-forms, both plant and
animal, constituted an assemblage which
sent out waves of migration passing south-
ward and colonizing either side of the Amer-
ican and Eurasian, late Tertiary, continents.
The present Arctic and Alpine life, as also
the plants and animals of boreal and north
temperate Eurasia and America are with
little doubt the modified descendants of the
Tertiary Arctic regions.
When we pass to the South Pole the uoude
tions are, in the light of our present knowl-
edge, diametrically opposite. The conti-
nental Antarctic land masses may or may
not be connected. Until 1893 a human be-
ing had not landed on the mainland, and
even then the ice and snow-clad land re-
vealed only a few lichens, and the rocks a
few specimens of Tertiary strata. Not a
trace of terrestrial invertebrate life was dis-
covered.
Should, as it is to be earnestly hoped, an
Antarctic expedition at no distant day ex-
O12
plore the mainland, it may be predicted,
judging by what we know of the inverte-
brate land fauna of Kerguelen Island, that
one or two Lumbricoid worms, a terrestrial
mollusc, one or two species of spiders, sev-
eral species of acarina, and of Collembola,
a few species of Coleoptera, Lepidoptera
and Diptera (including perhaps a mosquito),
and possibly some species of parasitic Hy-
menoptera, will be found to constitute the
land invertebrate fauna.
Should any flowering plants ever be dis-
covered, there will probably be added to the
list a few of the higher moths, and possibly
a butterfly, a bumble bee or two, and a few
muscids, which in the high Arctic regions
visit flowers. As there are no land birds or
indigenous mammals, nor so far as we know
any summer migrant birds, such insects if
present should abound in individuals, there
being no larger animals to reduce their
numbers.
We may now proceed to enumerate the
terrestrial fauna of Kerguelen Island, the
nearest region of whose land invertebrates
we know anything.
Vermes. Family Lumbriculidae.
Acanthodrilus Kerguelensis Lankester. (In-
habiting fresh water streams or pools ?)
Mo.uusca.
Helix hookeri Pfr.
ARACHNIDA.
Myro Kerguelensis Cambridge. Tents nu-
merous under large stones.
Acarus, two species, a red mite on the leaf
stalks of the Kerguelen cabbage; and a
yellow species abounding on the sides of
rocks frequented by cormorants. (Also
bird-mites, mallophaga, on marine birds.)
Insecta. Collembola.
Tullbergia antarctica Lubbock, in moss.
Isotoma sp.
Smynthurus sp. under stones.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. IIIf. No. 61.
CoLEOPTERA.
Rhyncophora or weevils’ six species, also
a Staphylinid (Phytosus atriceps). These
occurred in moss or under stones. Kidder
states that ‘‘most of the species were in-
capable of flight, their wing-cases being
soldered together.’”’ Some of the largest
forms were good fliers, however, ‘“‘ the largest
and most brilliantly colored specimen taken
having flown into my hut one night, at-
tracted by thelight.” Besides these “ little
black beetles. were caught on rocks near the
sea and about the roots of wet tufts of
moss.’”’? They belong to the genus Octhe-
bius, of the aquatic family Helophoride.
LEPIDOPTERA.
Dr. Kidder captured ‘‘ two lepidopterous
insects of moderate size, with very imper-
fect and abbreviated wings, active in their
movements.’’ Mr. Eaton found quite a
number of larve and pupz of a small noc-
turnal moth, remarkable for the extreme
brevity of the second pair of wings. He
names it Embryonopsis halticella.
DIPTERA.
Besides Musca canicularis Linn., a cos-
mopolitan species, six species of flies be-
longing to new genera, four of which have
vestigial wings, are characteristic of this
island, and are of peculiar interest.
Dr. Kidder remarks of three of the
genera of wingless flies that they counter-
feited death whenin danger. The carrion
feeder (Anatalanta aptera Eaton) has no
vestige of either wings or balances (hal-
teres) .
The leaf feeders (Calycopteryx mosleyt
Eaton), found on the leaves of the Ker-
guelen cabbage, resembled large black ants,
as they were active in their movements,
dark brown, with long legs. The wings
are reduced to small scales.
“The third genus (Amalopteryx maritima
Eaton) was discovered on wet rocks at the
FEBRUARY 28, 1896. ]
edge of the sea. They are provided with
small triangular vestigial wings and _ bal-
ancers.’’? They cannot fly, but seem to use
the wings in jumping, which they do with
great activity, making it quite difficult to
catch them. They do not appear to jump
in any definite direction, but spring into the
air, buzzing the small winglets with great
activity, and seem to trust to chance for a
spot on which to alight, tumbling over and
over in the air. I never ‘observed them
jumping when undisturbed.
Dr. Kidder adds that ‘ the only flying in-
sect observed by me while on the island’
(he apparently momentarily overlooked the
larger flying weevil) was a small gnat. Mr.
Eaton also describes a tipulid (Halyritus
amphibius) with imperfect or abortive wings.
Of the exact relationship and origin of
this restricted island fauna, but little in the
present state of our knowledge can be said.
To which family the moth belongs I am at
present unable to state. As to the Diptera
they are mostly muscidie, and this family
is more largely represented in the Arctic re-
gions and on Alpine summits the world over
than any other group. But this is not the
case with the Coleoptera; of this order the
Carabidz are most numerously represented
in Arctic and Alpine regions, and they are
common in Chili, while the weevils are the
least in number of species in Arctic regions.
And yet out of the eight species of beetles in-
habiting Kerguelen Island, six are weevils,
a group most numerously represented in
subtropical and tropical regions. This would
seem to indicate that this island was colo-
nized by waifs from the land to the westward,
whether from Australia, Africa or South
America, I should not dare to say. On the
other hand, the land plants and the marine
fauna appear to have elements more in com-
mon with Patagonia and Fuegia, and this
may be explained by the cold polar current
which is said to flow from the Antarctic re-
gion towards Cape Horn.
SCIENCE.
313
Darwin has, in his Origin of Species,
called attention to a remarkable feature of
the Madeiran Coleoptera, 7. e., the unusual
prevalence of apterous or wingless species.
No less than twenty-two genera which are
usually or sometimes winged in Europe
having only wingless species in Madeira.
Mr. Wallaston discovered that 200 beetles
out of 550 species then known to inhabit
Madeira are so far deficient in wings that
they cannot fly. These facts led Darwin to
believe ‘‘that the wingless condition of so
many Madeira beetles is mainly due to the
action of natural selection, but combined
probably with disuse. For during many suc-
cessive generations each individual beetle
which flew least, either from its wings hav-
ing been ever so little less perfectly devel-
oped or from indolent habits, will have had
the best chance of surviving from not being
blown out to sea; and, on the other hand,
those beetles which most readily took to
flight could oftenest have been blown to
sea and thus have been destroyed.” On the
other hand, the wings of the flower-feeding
Coleoptera and Lepidoptera, which are hab-
itually on the wing, ‘have, as Mr. Wallaston
suspects, their wings not at all reduced,
but even enlarged.’ He adds that the pro-
portion of wingless beetles is larger on the
exposed island Desertas than in Madeira it-
self. Mr. Wallace, in his great work, ‘The
Geographical Distribution of Animals’ (ii.,
pp. 211), cites the wingless insects of Ker-
guelen Island as a remarkable confirmation
of this theory.
The poverty of the land fauna of Ker-
guelen Island, and the reduction in the
wings of the insects, are so intimately cor-
related with the extremely unfavorable cli-
matic condition under which these animals
exist that the loss or reduction in the size of
the wings may, we venture to suggest, be
explained as the result of the direct action
of some of the primary factors of organic
evolution.
314
As Dr. Kidder states: ‘“ The general as-
pect of the island is desolate in the ex-
treme. Snow covers all the higher hills.
Only along the seashore is a narrow belt of
herbage, of which the singular Kerguelen
cabbage is at once the largest and most con-
spicuous component. The weather is also
extremely inclement, there being scarcely a
day without snow or rain. Violent gales
of wind prevail to an extent unknown in
the same northern latitude. It was often
impossible to go on foot any considerable dis-
tance from the home station on account of
the severity of the wind. Sir J. Clarke Ross
tells of one of his men being actually blown
into the sea, and of saving himself from alike
accident only by lying flat on the ground.”’
There are no shrubs or trees on the island.
The winter season is remarkably mild.
This set of climatic conditions, the con-
tinued strong winds, the low temperature
throughout the year, and the absence of the
sun for the greater part of the year consti-
tute an environment sufficient, we should
think, to account for the disuse and result-
ing atrophy of the wings without invoking
the aid of natural selection, unless we allow
that the principle may work as a final and
subordinate factor. At all events, these
agencies and disuse should be the first to
suggest themselves, as they are so tangible
and easily understood.
Under these conditions the beetles, flies
and moths would be driven to seek shelter
under stones or by burrowing deep in the
damp wet moss. By simple disuse, the
wings would begin to atrophy, and after a
comparatively few generations become re-
duced, or in extreme cases almost entirely
lost. Certainly the initial cause is the cli-
matic conditions. To these persisting cen-
tury after century the organism would di-
rectly respond, and we do not see the need
of evoking the aid of natural selection, in-
genious and speculative as it is, any more
than in accounting for the loss of eyesight
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Von. IIL. No. 61.
or of eyes, with important parts of the brain,
in cave animals, or in deep sea or abyssal
forms, we should resort to natural selec-
tion. Moreover Darwin himself expressly
stated thatin the case of cave animals natural
selection was not operative. Certainly in the
present case disuse due to the direct action
of the environment appears to be an effi-
cient, adequate cause.
Vertebrata of the Land; Fishes, Batrachia and
Reptiles. By Dr. Toxo. Gitt, Washington.
Dr. Gill called attention to the discrep-
ancy between the evidence already de-
duced from the plants and invertebrates
and that which would result from the con-
sideration of the higher vertebrates. These
discrepancies are in accord with the differ-
ences in the geological history of the sev-
eral classes. For example, all the families
of mammals, so far as certainly known,
have originated since the commencement of
the tertiary ; most of the prominent families
and very many genera of mollusks still ex-
isting, flourished at least as early as the
Jurassic and Cretaceous. (The Jurassic
fresh-water faunas were especially consid-
ered.) Fishes are intermediate between
those two types. Naturally, the persistence
in duration of the several classes is reflected
in the distribution in space. Many fam-
ilies of mammals are confined to special
zoogeographical continents, but extremely
few families of articulates or mollusks are
so limited. In fact, we can avail ourselves
of the data furnished by the different divi-
sions for chronometrical purposes ; the mol-
lusk answers to an hour hand, the mammal
to aminute hand. The fishes yield data
for the determination of intermediate
points. Remembering these postulates, the
evidence given by the distribution of the
fresh-water fishes is significant; less so is
that of the amphibians and reptiles because
they have superior means of locomotion.
FEBRUARY 28, 1896. ]
There are two families of fresh-water
fishes confined to the cold and temperate
waters of the southern hemisphere and
generally distributed in such ; they are the
Galaxiids and Aplochitonids ; the former
were associated by the old ichthyologist with
the pikes, and the latter with the salmonids,
but they really have no such relationship,
but are closely related to each other and
segregated from all others. The Galaxiids
are represented by one genus, Galawias, of
which about five species occur in South
America, five species in Tasmania, ten
species in Australia and five species in New
Zealand. (A monotypic genus, Neochanna,
is confined to New Zealand.) The Aplo-
chitonids number only six species, referable
to two genera; of these two are found in South
America (Aplochiton,) two in Tasmania
(Aplochiton and Prototroctes), one in Aus-
tralia and one in New Zealand (Proto-
troctes).
It was long supposed that no species of
either family of Galaxioidean fishes oc-
cured in Africa, but last year Dr. Stein-
dachner described a representative of Ga-
laxias (G. capensis) and consequently we
now have South Africa to consider with
reference to a former community of popula-
tion and continuity of land of all the south-
ern hemisphere.
The conditions of existence and propaga-
tion of fresh-water fishes were then dis-
cussed and the chances against diffusion. of
any fresh-water fish across the ocean or by
other means than natural water courses
were weighed.
In finally taking into consideration the
limited distribution northwards and the
close relationship of the species of the sev-
eral regions referred to, it was urged that the
evidence in favor of a former Antarctic con-
tinental area was strong, and, in view of the
affinities of the species of the now distant
regions, the conclusion was logical that the
time of disruption was not remote in a ge-
SCIENCE.
315
ological sense. It was suggested that such
disruption might have been coeval with the
final uplift of the Andes.
_The amphibians and reptiles furnish no
data bearing directly on an Antarctic con-
tinent, but do yield some (though very
slight) bearing on an earlier and more
northern connection of the southern conti-
nents. Much more cogent and less ambig-
uous is the evidence resulting from the
study of the fishes.
The fishes of tropical Africa may be
ranked under two grand categories. One of
these comprises species of genera or groups
represented more largely in Asia, and the
other of forms related to types otherwise
confined to tropical America. These Afric-
American forms belong to the extensive fam-
ilies of Characinids and Cichlids or Chro-
mids. Fishes of these families are the
most conspicuous and numerous in both
continents. The representatives of the two
families of the different continents always
belong to different genera, and often to
different groups of genera or subfamilies.
We have, therefore, in the fishes, as in the
mammals, conflicting evidence. According
to one set of facts, the continents of Africa
and Asia are similar, and, in fact, they
have been united to form one zoological
realm; according to the other the primi-
tive fauna of Africa is more like that of
America. Just two decades ago (1875) the
speaker explained this apparent contradic-
tion by the assumption that the aborigi-
nal types had been early derived from a
common source, and, for that reason, com-
bined Africa with South America and Aus-
tralia in a zoological hemisphere which he
named Hocma, and contrasted with an-
other called CaHnocma, embracing Asia,
Europe and North America. The numerous
species congeneric with Asiatic and EKuro-
pean types, were considered to be recent em-
igrants, geologically considered. The pur-
port of all the evidence was that there may
316
have been some connection between Africa
and South America early in the tertiary
epoch. This connection in-the present con-
dition of our ignorance of paleontological
facts, appears to be more probable than the
derivation of the common peculiarities of
the faunas of the two continents from a
former cosmopolitan fauna or northern areas
which have lost them, leaving them to the
two southern continents only. The union
of Africa with Asia culminated too late
to allow of much differentiation of the
invading forces that spead over its wide
domain.
A former quasi-cosmopolitan fauna was
nevertheless manifest in the case of the
Ceratodontids, but in Europe and North
America they flourished early in Mesozoic
times, and none survived later than the
Jurassic, and approximately coéval with
. them were species which lived in India and
Africa, but all these died out and the only
survivors are the species of Neoceratodus of
tropical Australia. This family was men-
tioned as an extreme case of persistence for
an osseous fish type.
The amphibians furnish very ambiguous
evidence if the accepted taxomy-is correct.
For example, on the one hand the Cysti-
gnathids are well developed and limited to
America and Australia, but on the other the
Discoglossids are all European, except one
genus (liopelma), and that is confined to
New Zealand.
The reptiles contribute data looking in
different directions. One of the ablest
herpetologists of all time has expressed the
opinion that ‘if a division of the world had
to be framed according to the lizard fau-
nas,’ the Ethiopian and Palearctic regions
should be combined in one ( Occidental) and
the Australian and oriental in another (Ori-
ental) , to be themselves aggregated in arealm
(PaLmocEAN) differentiated from another
(NroGEAN), comprising the Neotropical and
Nearctic regions. Their mode of distribu-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 61,
tion in fact approximates that of birds, but
has been seriously affected by their intoler-
ance of cold and consequently the loss of
types, which might be interchanged between
the continents. The similarity between the
African and Palearctic regions is doubtless
due to the intrusion of forms from the
latter into the former. The African, how-
ever, has three small families restricted to
its area and two shared with America.
Quite different is the distribution of the
tortoises.
The superfamily of the Pleurodirous or
Chelyoidean tortoises is restricted to the
southern continents. One family (Ster-
notherids) is peculiar to Africa, one
(Chelyidsé to America and one (Chelo-
dinids) to the Australian realm, while one
(Podocnemidids) is common to Africa and
America, and another (Rhinemydids) to
America and Australia. Except in America
these completely replace the fresh water
cryptodirous tortoises, but it is noteworthy
that species of the terrestrial Testudinids,
generally considered as congeneric, occur
in all the warm continents except the Aus-
tralian. It must not be forgotten that
formerly (in early tertiary times) the Chely-
oideans were represented and, it has been
claimed, even by a still existing genus
(Podocnemis) in the northern hemisphere,
and therefore their present occurrence only
in the southern continents loses much of its
significance. The evidence of former con-
nections of the southern hemisphere fur-
nished by both amphibians and reptiles is
indeed of very little account per se and is
only significant as collateral to that pre-
sented by other classes. de
To sum up the results of studies of the
several classes, the present evidence points
to a comparatively recent union of or con-
nection between the southern continents.
The inference (independent of the ichthyo-
logical data) is based in part on the infor-
mation respecting the geological duration of
FEBRUARY 28, 1896.]
mammal families derived from studies of
northern strata and in part on the identifi-
cation of mammal remains of Patagonian
strata with Dasyurids, but this evidence
may prove illusive. Of some importance in
estimating the age is the rediscovery by
Mr. Thomas after 20 years of the Hyra-
codon of Tomes and its reference to the
supposed extinct family of Epanorthids.
This evidence, however, is by no means
conclusive. Rather violent assumptions be-
come necessary of remarkable dynamical
conditions and the peopling of the said con-
tinents by the same type may be hereafter
explained otherwise. But in the present
condition of our knowledge (or ignorance,
if you will), less violent assumptions ap-
pear to be called for by the hypothesis that
has now been presented than by any other.
It must be distinctly understood, however,
that it is a hypothesis and a tentative hypo-
thesis only. But until it is replaced by a
better one or by ascertained facts, the hypo-
thesis will assuredly be useful in directing
investigation.
Vertebrata of the Land; Birds and Mammals.
By Dr. J. A. Atten, American Museum
of Natural History, New York.
So far as existing mammals and birds are
concerned, there seems to be very slight
need for calling in the aid of a former Ant-
arctic continent to explain their present dis-
tribution. Among mammals the distribu-
tion of Marsupials alone gives a hint ofa pos-
sible former land connection between South
America and Australia. The recent dis-
covery (Thomas, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.
(6) XVI., Nov. 1895, p. 367) of a form of
Marsupial in Colombia belonging to the
hitherto supposed extinet family Epanor-
thidze, and the occurrence of several dis-
tinetly Australian types among the fossil
Marsupials of Patagonia, would seem to add
much emphasis to this hint. On the other
hand, the absence of all other South Amer-
SCIENCE.
317
ican types of either mammals or birds from
the Australian region, and the presence of
the remains of numerous opossum-like ani-
mals in the Eocene of both North America
and Europe, suggest a possible line of exten-
sion by way of the northern land masses
without the aid of any former land bridges
in the southern hemisphere. Possibly
worthy of consideration here is the wide
distribution of Mesozoic mammals and the
probable Marsupial affinities of at least
some of them.
In regard to birds, after excluding wide-
ranging types, which have no bearing on
the subject in question, there are no groups
common to South America and either
Africa or Australia. The distribution of
the so-called Ratitee and other flightless
birds so often cited as evidence of a former
Antarctic continent, has really very little
bearing on the question. The so-called
sub-class Ratite includes, according to the
best recent authorities, no less than six
orders, of which the South American rheas
(Rhee) form one, and the only one found
in the New World; the ostriches of Africa
form another (Struthiones), which in
Pliocene times ranged as far north and
east as southern HKurope and India; the
kiwis of New Zealand form a third (Ap-
teryges); the cassowaries and emus of the
Australian region a fourth (Megistanes);
the recently extinct genus Apyornis of
Madagascar a fifth (Aepyornithes), and the
recently extinct moas of New Zealand a
sixth (Immanes). The prevalent notion
that all these forms are closely related and
must have had a common origin doubtless
rests on such superficial resemblances as
large size and flightless condition.
Mainly for the same insufficient reason it
is the fashion to refer to the Ratitee such
little known extinct forms as Gastormis and
Dasornis of Europe, Diatryma of North Amer-
ica, and Brontornis, Phororhacos, Pelycornis,
Opisthodactylus, ete., of Patagonia. Although
318
some of them appear to have Ratite affini-
ties, others present quite as strong relation-
ship to Carinate types. Most of them are
known, however, from such fragmentary re-
mains that little can be said as to their real
affinities. Indeed, it is the belief of several
eminent authorities that the so-called Ra-
titze constitute a very heterogeneous group,
the prominent types of which originated in-
dependently from perfectly distinct Cari-
nate ancestors. The fact of the occurrence,
either still living or only recently extinct,
of degenerate flightless forms in such widely
distinct Carinate groups as parrots, birds
of prey, pigeons, ducks and geese, coots,
gallinules and rails, auks, grebes, etc., and
that they are in general among the largest
members of their respective groups, and
also generally inhabitants of islands, shows
that mere flightlessness, large size, insular
habitat, and an unkeeled sternum are factors
of slight importance.
Mr. H.O Forbes in his plea for an Ant-
arctic continent (Antipodea) originally laid
great stress upon his discovery at the Chat-
ham Islands of an extinct flightless rail al-
lied to an extinct flightless rail of the genus
Aphanapteryx found in Madagascar. Indeed,
this discovery seems to have been largely
the foundation of his original ‘ tremendous
hypothesis,’ as Mr. Wallace has called it,
of an Antarctic continent. In Madagascar
Aphanapteryx was contemporary with the
dodo, both existing down to about two
hundred years ago. The Chatham Island
remains were found in kitchen middens of
the Morioris, showing that here the sup-
posed Aphanapteryx existed to a compara-
tively recent date. Later examinations by
competent authority, however, of the Chat-
ham Island remains has shown that they
are not congeneric with Aphanapteryx.
It is of interest to note in this connection
that some ten genera of flightless Ralline
birds are known, three or four of which are
still living, while most of the others have
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 61.
become extinct only within historic times.
They are all island birds, and nearly all
happen to occur in the southern hemi-
sphere, the localities being the islands of
Mauritius, Rodriguez, Gough, Tristan d@’
Acunha, Samoa, Chatham, and New Zea-
land, but ranging north also to the Moluc-
cas. Furthermore, it happens that they
represent all of the leading types of the
family Rallide, as rails, coots, gallinules
and porphyrios, and hence have no very
intimate relationship. The fact of their
being insular forms thus has not necessarily
any bearing on the question of former south-
ern land areas, especially since they are as
much tropical and subtropical as austral,
and belong to an ancient type of bird life of
cosmopolitan distribution. The current be-
lief among ornithologists is that all these
forms originated at or near where they are
now found from ancestors that could fly.
In support of this belief is the fact that one
of the earliest marks which distinguish in-
sular forms from their nearest mainland
allies and probable ancestors is the reduc-
tion of the wings and the corresponding in-
creased development of the pelvic limbs, as
is illustrated in the birds of the Guadalupe
Islands off the coast of Lower California,
and the Galapagos Islands. This change
is obviously the result of the new conditions
of life—the very limited area to which they
are restricted, their sedentary and non-
migratory habits, and their comparative
freedom from harrassing rapacious enemies.
The Ratitee and supposed Ratite forms
which have so generally been cited in evi-
dence of former connected Antarctic land
areas, in reality afford no greater proof of
such land bridges than do Carinate birds,
when we consider how very distinct are the
ordinal groups into which this subclass is
divided, and how widely each one is sepa-
rated geographically from all the others. If
we had moas, or ostriches, or kiwis, or
cassowaries, or any one of the six orders
FEBRUARY 28, 1896.]
represented in all three of the present
southern continents, or in even two of them,
the case would be different. The single
order Passeres includes families peculiar
respectively to South America, Africa and
Australia, which are far more closely re-
lated to each other than are the several
orders of the Ratitze inter se; yet no one
thinks of urging these Passerine groups as
evidence of a former Antarctic continent.
They are supposed to have originated in-
dependently where they are now found and
to have never existed elsewhere.
There are, on the other hand, several
families of Carinate birds, belonging to dif-
ferent orders, which inhabit the tropi-
eal and subtropical regions of both the
Eastern and Western hemispheres, but
which now and for long ages past have had
no possible means of migration from Amer-
ica to Africa, or to India, or to Australia.
That the present New World and Old
World representatives of these several
groups must have had, respectively, a com-
mon origin is beyond question ; and it is be-
lieved to be equally beyond question that
they reached their present areas of distribu-
tion by the northern land route that formed
the means of intercommunication between
the northern land masses for so many of the
widely dispersed terrestrial forms of life.
Another factor bearing on the general
question is the early origin of many of the
existing genera of birds, most of the known
Pliocene genera still surviving, while many
of the Lower Miocene and Upper Eocene
genera of Kurope and North America are
im some cases identical, in others closely al-
lied, to genera still living. Some of them
are now restricted to the tropics, but their
ranges formerly extended far to the north-
ward of their present limits.
In short, birds afford no clear evidence
in favor of the existence of a former Ant-
arctic continent, and mammals only that af-
forded by the distribution of the Marsupials.
SCIENCE.
’ of the question.
319
Vertebrata of the Sea.
ington.
On account of the enforced absence of Dr.
Goode, detained in Washington by official
business, and at his request, Dr. Gill con-
sidered the subject assigned to him—the
fishes of the sea in relation to the Antarctic
continent.
There is really no direct evidence fur-
nished by sea fishes bearing on the question
at issue. There are, however, some facts
which may throw light on acertain phase
The fishes of the Antare-
tic seas are very imperfectly known, but
the few that are known are of much interest
and belong to two very distinct categories.
On one hand, we have a few species be-
longing to a couple of families only occur-
ring in the extremely cold waters—the
Cheenichthyids and Harpagiferids. The
genera of these families have been referred to
the family of Trachinids, but really mani-
fest no affinity to the typical forms of that
group. The only inference that appears to
be derivable from the two families is that
the supposititious Antarctic continent may
have been in all Tertiary geological times
at least deeply indented by extensions of
the ocean far towards the Pole.
On the other hand, in the Antarctic seas
recur representatives of genera which have
been only found in high northern waters,
such as Myxine, Squalus, and Merlucius, and
those representatives are so closely related
as to have been united in two cases as con-
specific. It appears to be most reasonable
to postulate for such types derivation from
a common source, and that their extension
may have been effected in the cold waters
of the ocean depths. It is more than pos-
sible that, under favorable conditions, spe-
cies of Myxine, Squalus and Merlucius may
yet be found in the cold deep waters below
even equatorial seas, for it is to be remem-
bered that all have an extensive bathymet-
rical range.
By Teo. Grit, Wash-
320
Another fact of interest and significance
is that there are very few types of Gadids
in the Antarctic or cold temperate seas.
Their place is taken by representatives of a
family of acanthopterygian fishes appa-
rently related to the Cheenichthyids and
Harpagiferids already mentioned ; the Not-
otheniids, as they are called, are of many
closely related species, and in their mode of
occurrence and habits appear to be anala-
gous to the codfishes of the north. Their
distribution, however, does not throw the
least light on the question of an Antarctic
continent.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
ASTRONOMY.
THE Astronomisches Jahrbuch for 1898 has just
been issued. It is volume No. 123 of the series,
and its preparation has been supervised by Dr.
P. Lehman, who was placed in temporary
charge of the Berlin computing bureau after the
death of Prof. Tietjen.
THE Astronomical Journal of February 17th
contains a determination of the elements of the
orbit of the binary star F. 99 Herculis, by Dr.
T. J. J. See. The orbit obtained is very re-
markable because of the fact that the inclina-
tion comes out exactly zero. It follows that we
see the orbit just as it is, instead of its being
projected on the sky with more or less fore-
shortening. Some uncertainty attaches to this
interesting orbit, however, because a former
orbit by Mr. Gore and one by Dr. See himself
agree in making the inclination more than
thirty degrees. Hea:
Nature states that at the last meeting of the
Royal Astronomical Society, the Astronomer
Royal gave some particulars relating to the
progress at Greenwich of the international pho-
tographic star catalogue. A special staff for
dealing with this work has been organized under
Mr. Hollis, and already 130 of the plates taken
for the catalogue have been measured. It is
estimated that 180 plates can be measured, and
160 of them reduced in the course of a year,
so that at this rate the section allotted to Green-
wich, comprising about 150,000 stars, will be
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. IfI. No. 61.
completed in five or six years. Assuming that
the other sixteen codperating observatories are
proceeding equally well, the world will soon be
in possession of a colossal catalogue, compris-
ing between two and three million stars.
EXTINCTION OF THE BUFFALO.
SECRETARY LANGLEY in his annual report,
just issued, makes the following appeal for the
preservation of the Buffalo in the National
Park:
When the Yellowstone Park was organized
it was believed that a permanent place of refuge
:for the buffalo had been secured, and that out
of the natural increase of the hundreds then re-
maining representative herds would be pre-
served for future generations. It seems now
evident that the condition in the Yellowstone
region are such that the extermination of the
Government herd of buffalo may be anticipated,
and that it may be accomplished within a very
short space of time. The superintendent of
the Park appears not to have adequate means
for their protection, and there are on the border
plenty of persons whose respect for law is insuf-
ficient to keep them from poaching when the
prize is a buffalo head or skin which will read-
ily sell for several hundreds of dollars. The
temptation to these men seems to be irresistible,
and as the herd diminishes, the value of the
animals increases and the difficulty of protec-
tion becomes constantly greater.
Since, then, the extermination of the Yellow-
stone herd seems rapidly approaching, some-
thing should at once be done, that this may not
mean the extinction of the Government control
of the species, with the death of the few speci-
mens now in captivity. Only one course sug-
gests itself as completely efficient—transference
of the great part of the now few remaining ani-
mals to a region where they can be effectively
protected and increase normally under natural
conditions, in which case the bison need not
vanish from the face of the earth. Two years
ago there were supposed to be 200 in the Yel-
lowstone Park. The present estimate is one-
quarter of that number. The superintendent
reports them as being ‘ constantly pursued,’ and
in another year there may be none left. If
these animals, or a majority of them, can dur-
FEBRUARY 28, 1896. ]
ing the next few months be transferred to the
National Zodlogical Park at Washington, which
affords room and security, they will be safe,
and their natural increase in the future can be
distributed by exchange with the zoological
gardens of the various parts of the United
States, so that no large city need be without its
representatives of the great herds so often re-
ferred to in our early history, and now a mem-
ory.
GENERAL,
THE Kansas University Quarterly announces
that a discovery of much interest has recently
been made in western Kansas of an extinct
species of Bison, the skull having an expanse
of nearly four feet. Embedded below the
humerus of the skeleton was a small but per-
fectly formed arrow head. The Bison has not
yet been identified with certainty, but seems
closely allied to B. antiquus, though evidently
larger. The formation is apparently the same
as that which yielded the skeletons of Platy-
gonus, recently obtained by the University of
Kansas. The Bison skeleton, that of a bull,
will be mounted shortly in the University
museum.
In the last Berichte, G. W. A. Kahlbaum
calls attention to the fact that the so-called
Liebig’s condenser was not devised by Liebig,
but by a student of medicine at Gottingen,
Christian Ehrenfried Weigel. In his disserta-
tion ‘Observationes chemical et mineralogical,’
which was defended March 25, 1771, he de-
scribes and figures a condenser similar to the
ordinary ‘ Liebig,’ except that the upper end of
the cooler is open and overflows into a funnel,
instead of having a tube to convey away the
water. Liebig never claimed to be the inventor
of his condenser, but describes it in his ‘ Hand-
buch’ (1843) as ‘der Gottling’sche Kiuhlap-
parat,’ while Gottling in his ‘Almanach’
(1794) rightly ascribes its invention to Weigel,
who was then professor of botany and chem-
istry at Greifswald.
THe February number of Science Progress
contains a translation of Prof. Ostwald’s ad-
dress on scientific materialism of which Prof.
Remsen gave a full account in a recent (Febru-
ary 14th) number of this JouRNAL.
SCIENCE.
321
GusTAV Focx, of Leipzig, offers for sale
several valuable libraries including the chemical
library of the late Prof. Lothar Meyer. This li-
brary contains about 10,000 volumes and disser-
tations and is offered for sale at the moderate
price of M. 7,200.
Rev. J. J. THOMPSON has announced a paper
to be read before the Royal Society of London
on February 13th, on the discharge of electricity
produced by the Roéntgen rays and the effects
produced by these rays by dielectrics through
which they pass.
THE Botanical Gazette states that the Pharma-
ceutische Rundschau has changed its name to the
Pharmaceutical Review, and is hereafter to be
published chiefly in English, though not to the
exclusion of German articles. The veteran
editor, Dr. Fr. Hoffmann, retains his connec-
tion with the Review, but has associated with
himself Dr. Edward Kremers, Director of the
School of Pharmacy of the University of Wis-
consin. The direct codperation of seven of the
leading pharmacists and chemists has been se-
cured, and their names appear upon the title
page. The place of publication also changes
from New York to Milwaukee, where the Phar-
maceutical Review Publishing Co. has charge
of all business matters.
Two yew trees on the new grounds of Co-
lumbia College, said to be about one hundred
years old and the finest in America, were in
the way of the approach to the library and are
being moved. The roots have been carefully
excavated while the earth is frozen to them.
It is curious that these trees were presented to
the Bloomingdale Asylum by the trustees of
Columbia College when they acquired the Ho-
sack Botanical Garden, which is now the estate
from which the College receives a large part of
its income.
Iris stated in the last issue of Nature (February
13) that ‘‘calcie carbide is already made at
Spray, North Carolina, at a cost of 20 dollars
per ton, by the alternating electric current
passed through a mixture of powdered coke and
lime. Works have been erected at Niagara which
will produce the calcie carbide at 10 dollars a
ton, beginning about the middle of this month.”’
This cost seems to be that given by those in-
322
terested in selling franchises. Some calcic car-
bide has been made at Spray, but that hitherto
used, we believe, has been imported from France
and Switzerland and the price quoted in Paris
is fr.'25 per kg.—in the neighborhood of $200
per ton. The cost can probably be reduced to
$50-100 per ton, and at this price it is said that
acetylene would still be cheaper than ordinary
illuminating gas or electric light.
THE joint commission of the scientific societies
of Washington has adopted a resolution oppos-
ing the legislation proposed by Senate bill 1552,
entitled ‘A bill for the further prevention of
cruelty to animals in the District of Columbia,’
and urging that in the opinion of the commis-
sion the proposed legislation is unnecessary,
and would seriously interfere with the advance-
ment of biological science in this District of
Columbia.
AT the first ordinary meeting of the London
Society of Engineers on February 3d, Mr. S.
Herbert Cox, the new President, delivered his
inaugural address, which was devoted to a re-
view of the gold mining industry from an engi-
neering point of view, and the developments
and improvements in systems of treatment
which have been brought about since the dis-
coveries of gold in California in 1848.
THE department of physical geology and
mineralogy of the University of Kansas expects
to publish about the Ist of April the Volume I.
of the University Geological Survey of Kansas,
which will be devoted almost exclusively to the
stratigraphy of the carboniferous area of Kansas.
TuHE London Times states that the late Mr.
Henry Seebohm, who, during his lifetime, was
a most liberal benefactor to the natural history
branch of the British Museum, has, by his will,
left the whole of the ornithological collections
in his possession at the time of his decease to
the same institution. These have now been
transferred from his house in Courtfield Gardens,
and are found to consist of more than 16,000
bird skins and 235 skeletons. It is, therefore,
one of the most important accessions that this
department of the Museum has ever received,
especially as it is particularly rich in European
and north Asiatic species, the representation of
which was hitherto not equal to that of other
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 61.
parts of the world. It comprises a series of
almost every known species of game bird, in-
cluding many rare and costly specimens. The
collection of thrushes, a group upon which Mr.
Seebohm was preparing a monograph at the
time of his death, is the finest ever brought
together. Of the wading birds, especially the
plovers and snipes, Mr. Seebohm had already
presented many hundreds of specimens, but the
1,140 skins which he retained in his possession
until his death comprised the best of his col-
lection and formed the material upon which he
founded his great work on the geographical
distribution of the group. Besides the many
types contained in the collection, and large
series from localities whence the Museum had
not hitherto had the opportunity of obtaining
specimens, there are also many historical collec-
tions, such as Swinhoe’s Chinese birds, Pryer’s
Japanese birds, Anderson’s Indian birds, a
nearly perfect set of the birds of Mount Kini
Balu in Borneo, and the invaluable series ob-
tained by Mr. Seebohm himself in the Pet-
chora and Yenisei Valleys.
THE Secretary of the Interior has approved
and forwarded to Congress the recommendation
of the Commissioner of Education that $45,000
be appropriated this year for the purchase of
reindeer, to be distributed among the missionary
stations and white settlements of Alaska.
ACCORDING to the Lancet 199 medical journals
are published in Paris, the number having been
increased by 22 journals during 1895.
Tur editorial staff of the Journal of Compar-
ative Neurology has recently been increased by
the addition of Dr. Oliver S. Strong, of Colum-
bia College. Prof. C. L. Herrick is editor-in-
chief as hitherto. Business communications
should be addressed during 1896 to the manag-
ing editor,C. Judson Herrick, at Denison Univer-
sity, Granville, Ohio. Editorial communications
may be sent to any one of the three editors.
Garden and Forest states that, on the 5th of
February, Mr. Frank H. Nutter read a paper
at Taylor’s Falls, Minnesota, in which, after
discussing in a general way public parks and
reservations, with their history and treatment,
he gave a preliminary report on the proposed
interstate park at the Dalles of the St. Croix,
FEBRUARY 28, 1896.]
where something like four hundred acres of
land, partly in Minnesota and partly in Wis-
consin, have been acquired as a public reserva-
tion. The Falls proper are not high, but the
Dalles, with their lofty and precipitous rocks
on cither side, stained with brilliant colors
from oxides of copper, or painted with Lichens
and Moss, make a most interesting passage of
natural scenery.
CHRISTOPHE NEGRI, the Italian economist
and geographer, died in Florence on February
18, aged 86 years.
Dr. ZELLE, of Brandenburg, has exhibited
before the Emperor of Germany specimens of
his work in photographing in colors.
THE House Committee on Military Affairs
has heard arguments in support of the bill of
Mr. Fairchild, of New York, appropriating
$500,000 for the establishment of a national
military and naval park embracing the Palisades
on the Hudson River.
Ginn & Co. will publish at once, in their
‘Classics for Children’ series, White's Natural
History of Selborne, edited, with an introduction
and notes, by Prof. Edward S. Morse.
THE New Jersey Library Association met at
Newark, January 30th. The main topic was
the relation of the State to libraries, with a
view to establishing a New Jersey Library Com-
mission. The two plans chiefly discussed were
those of Massachusetts and of New York with
its system of traveling libraries. The Massa-
chusetts plan was presented by 8. S. Green, of
the State Commission, and that of New York
by W. R. Eastman, Library Inspector.
ACCORDING to the British Medical Journal the
Orphanage School of St. Margaret’s, in the
town of East Grinstead, has been recently visi-
ted by diphthera ; two of eleven cases proved
fatal. Every method was adopted for ascer-
taining the predisposing cause of the outbreak,
but with no success so far as the buildings were
concerned. But at length the health officer
had the drains outside the institution exposed,
when he found that the house drain in its
length of communication with the sewer crossed
the playground; this length was in a most de-
plorable state. The communication pipe was
only a few inches below the surface, was an old
SCIENCE.
323
land drain, uncemented at the joints, and these
gaping an inch or two; the surrounding soil,
whereon the children played, was saturated
with sewage. The matter was, of course, put
right, but only after human life had been sacri-
ficed, and many children had been sufferers.
Moreover, the school inmates had for some time
prior to the outbreak been noticed as looking
pale and ill, the result, no doubt, of constantly
playing in so unhealthy a situation.
In notes presented before the Paris Academy
of Sciences, on January 27th and February 3d,
M. Gustave Le Bon claimed that he had demon-
strated by photographic effects that ordinary
sunlight and lamplight are transmitted through
opaque bodies, and states that the body might
be a sheet of copper.0.8 mm. in thickness. His
experiments have however been questioned by
M. Niewenglowski, who states that he has ob-
tained the same effect in complete darkness,
and attributes them to luminous energy stored.
up in the plates.
The Physical Review for March-April will have
among the principal articles ones on the Visco-
sity of Salt Solutions by B. E. Moore; on the
the Theory of Oscillating Currents by Stein-
metz; on Induction Phenomena in Alternating
Currents Circuits by F. E. Millis; on the Mag-
netic Properties of Cylindrical Rods by C. R.
Mann, and a Photographie Study of Arc Spee-
tra by Caroline W. Baldwin. There are several
interesting Minor Contributions and a number
of Book Notices.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
PRESIDENT JOHN M. CoULTER has resigned
the presidency of Lake Forest University to
become head professor of botany in the Univer-
sity of Chicago. It is understood that part of
the money recently given to the University by
Miss Culver has been used to endow this chair.
PRESIDENT Eiot has for some time advo-
eated the reduction of the collegiate course of
Harvard University from four to three years.
The Boston Transcript states that at a recent
meeting of the Harvard faculty an informal
vote on the proposition showed fifty in favor of
the plan and thirty-five against it. Several
years ago the faculty formally approved the
324
plan of reducing the number of courses neces-
sary to a degree from eighteen to sixteen, but
it was rejected by the overseers.
CONVERSE COLLEGE established about five
years ago at Spartanburg, 8S. C., has received a
gift of $70,000 from Mr. D. E. Converse, to-
gether with $30,000 given by the citizens of
Spartanburg, S. C.
AT a meeting of the Council of the University
of the City of New York, the University
medical faculty reported in favor of extending
the course for degrees of doctor from three to
four years. The Council approved a plan for a
College Close which includes an inner court
measuring about 250 feet in width by 300 feet
in length. Fronting upon this, five residence
halls and a dining hall will be built.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
KEW’S DISPERSAL OF SHELLS.
EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In the review of Kew’s
Dispersal of Shells by Dr. Packard, the reviewer
points out certain omissions which could not
have been overlooked by Mr. Kew if he had
taken the trouble of consulting either Gould or
Binney in the original. For a volume of the
International Series the book is amazingly pro-
vincial. I do not wish by this expression to
gainsay its value; it is an exceedingly valuable
collection of notes, memoranda and isolated
items referring more particularly to the dis-
persal of shells in England. Dr. Packard has
inadvertently overlooked a very important omis-
sion in there being no reference to the dispersal
of Litorina litorea from its centre at Halifax,
Nova Scotia (where it was first introduced from
the other side of the Atlantic) along the shores
of the Bay of Chaleur, and southward to New
York and beyond. In Science News for 1879
Mr. Arthur F. Gray called attention to the sue-
cessive occurrence of this species as it spread
southward along the coast. Professor Verrill in
the American Journal of Science, for Sept., 1880,
records his observations regarding the dispersion
of this species. In the Essex Institute Bulletin
for 1880, in a paper on the Gradual Dispersion
of Certain Mollusks in New England, I pre-
sented a map of the New England coast and
upon this was marked chronologically the dates
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 61.
of the appearance of this large and conspicuous
mollusk as it found its way south. In this pa-
per I showed what a barrier Cape Cod offered
for some years. My last find was at Glen Cove,
Long Island. In the same paper I called at-
tention to the dispersion of Pupa muscorum
(badia, of Adams) from its first place of observa-
tion in Vermont, into various parts of New
England. I think Binney was wrong in beliey-
ing that Helix hortensis was introduced into
New England since the advent of the European.
I have discovered Helix hortensis on islands in
Casco Bay, buried in the lowest deposits of
shell heaps containing bones of the Great Auk.
The occurrence of this species in such positions
could not be accounted for by supposing that
the creature had burrowed down to the lowest
level of the deposits, for the mass was too com-
pacted to admit of this explanation. I have
found them under stones resting on the primi-
tive surface of the ground associated with other
species found only in hard wood growths, and
now coniferous trees only abound in these
places. It is certainly extraordinary that this
species is only found living on the outer islands
of New England—its habits being entirely dif-
ferent in this respect from its English relative.
EDWARD S. MOoRsE.
SALEM, February 18, 1896.
“SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM.’
Epriror oF Science: <A few remarks on the
article ‘Scientific Materialism’ in SCIENCE,
February 14th, may not be out of place.
It seems a case of ‘reversion’ to speak of
‘energy’ as something distinct from force, or
rather from definite forces. Energy apart from
force is inconceivable. To quote Lewis’ ex-
ample, we might as well speak of ‘cellarity,’
as something apart from cellars !
The definite forces with which science deals
are, aS every one knows, simply modes of mo-
tion. Hence Helmholtz, Tait, Romanes and
most modern students have regarded matter, _
atoms, molecules, all as but expressions of mo-
tion, and to be analyzed by the three primary
laws of motion and the theorems derived from
them. Of course this leads inevitably to a
strictly mechanical conception of phenomenal
existence.
FEBRUARY 28, 1896. ]
That the mathematics of mechanics is at
present inadequate to solve all the problems
offered is simply because, as Whewell pointed
out, the procedures of mathematicians do not
yet furnish the necessary apparatus. But to
say (as on p. 225) that ‘ the mechanical concep-
tion of heat has not been confirmed ;’ in the
face of the latest treatises on thermo-dynamics,
based throughout on the laws of motion, is an
inexplicable assertion.
The ‘way out’ of scientific materialism is not
by the assumption of an entity apart from at-
tributes; but by the indisputable truth that the
laws of mechanics and motion themselves are in
final analysis nothing else but laws of thought,
of the reasoning mind, and derive their first and
only warrant from the higher reality of that
mind itself. D. G. BRINTON.
THE RONTGEN RAYS.
Pror. RONTGEN concludes his paper On a
New Kind of Rays by showing that they behave
quite differently from the visible, the infra-red
and the hitherto known ultra-violet rays, and
by suggesting that they should be ascribed to
longitudinal waves in the ether. He does not,
however, indicate how longitudinal waves would
account for the phenomena, and probably most
readers of his paper have not seen any evident
connection between longitudinal vibrations and
the behavior of the Rontgen rays. Prof. R. 8.
Woodward has, however, called the writer’s
attention to a fact which Prof. Rontgen does
not mention, but which may have been present
in his mind. If there be longitudinal waves in
the ether they must travel with much greater
velocity than the transverse waves. Would
not this greater velocity account for the absence
(partial or complete) of reflection and refrac-
tion, and for the penetration—even the fact
that this tends to be inversely proportional to
the density of the substance ? J. Meck: (C.
CYCLONES AND ANTI-CYCLONES.
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In connection
with the diagrams published by Prof. Davis in
a recent issue of ScreNCcE (N. 8. Vol. III., p.
197), showing the circulation of the wind and
cirrus clouds in cyclones and anti-cyclones, it
seems to me a few words should be added in
SCIENCE.
325
regard to the method by which the results were
obtained. Akerblom, following Hildebrands-
son, found the mean directions of the wind and
clouds for different directions and intensities of
the barometric gradient as observed at the
earth’s surface and then drawing concentric
circles plotted the results around a central
area. This method is not the same as finding
the relation of the wind and cloud movements
to the centers of cyclones and anti-cyclones.
A given gradient is sometimes very near the
center of a cyclone or anti-cyclone, at other
times far removed from it, and again there may
be no well-defined cyclone or anti-cyclone, but
merely what are called straight isobar gradi-
ents.
At Blue Hill I have found considerable dif-
ferences between the directions and velocities
of the upper currents near to and at a distance
from the centers of cyclonic and anti-cyclonic
action, and it leads me to the conclusion that
mixing together observations made. at the two
points can only lead to confusing results.
The results of Akerblom for central Germany
by no means agree with the results of Dr. Vet-
tin for Berlin as regards the movements of the
cirrus in anti-cyclones. Dr. Vettin found the
average movements of the cirrus in relation to
the direction of the center of the anti-cyclone,
and his results agree remarkably well with
those found at Blue Hill. (Amer. Meteor.
Jour., Vol. X, p. 172.)
H. Heim CLAytTon.
BLUE HILL MET. OBSERVATORY, Feb. 10, 1896.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
A Handbook to the British Mammalia. By R.
LYDEKKER. Allen’s Naturalists’ Library,
edited by R. Bowdler Sharpe. 8°, pp. 339,
col. pls. and text figs. London, 1895. 6
shillings.
From early times the British Mammalia have
received a large share of attention. Beginning
with Thomas Pennant’s British Quadrupeds,
in 1786, we have: Memoirs of British Quadru-
peds (including a Synopsis), by the Rev. W.
Bingley (1809); Natural History of British
Quadrupeds, by Edward Donovan (1810-1820);
Recreations in Natural History, or Popular
Sketches of British Quadrupeds, by W. Clarke
326
(1815-1819); a History of British Quadrupeds,
by Thomas Bell (1837); British Quadrupeds, by
W. Macgillivray (Jardine’s Naturalist’s Li-
brary, 1838); a new and revised edition of
Bell’s British Quadrupeds (1874); British Ani-
mals extinct within Historic Times, by James
E. Harting (1880); and now, A Handbook to the
British Mammalia, by R. Lydekker (1895).
The present work differs in scope from any of
its predecessors inasmuch as it treats of both
the living and the extinct species.
The author states in his preface that he
makes no claim to personal knowledge of the
habits of British mammals, but has drawn
largely on Macgillivray’s ‘Manual,’ of which
work the present ‘may be regarded almost as
a new edition.’ The principal differences are
that Mr. Lydekker has rewritten the whole of
the technical matter, has brought the geo-
graphic distribution and nomenclature down to
date, from his standpoint, and has added a
dozen pages’of introduction. In the matter of
nomenclature the earliest specific name is ad-
opted when it does not happen to be the same
as that of the genus in which it is included.
On this point American naturalists will be
pleased to read the following, from the prefa-
tory note by the able editor of Allen’s Natur-
alist?’s Library, Mr. R. Bowdler Sharpe. Mr.
Sharpe says ‘‘I feel convinced, however, that
the absolute justice of retaining every specific
name given by Linnzeus will some day be re-
cognized. Thus, in my opinion, the correct
title of the Badger should be Meles meles (L.);
of the otter, Lutra lutra (L.); of the Roe-deer,
Capreolus capreolus (li.); of the Common Por-
poise, Phocena phocena (l.); of the Killer,
Orca orca (l.).”’
The illustrations are the same as those in the
original edition of Macgillivray, which formed
the 22d volume of Jardine’s Naturalist’s Library
(1888). They are cheaply printed, without at-
tempt at fidelity of coloring, and differ from the
originals in having the foregrounds, as well as
the animals, colored. The original skull out-
lines also are retained, though for what purpose
one can hardly imagine, since in most cases it
would be difficult, if they were not so care-
fully labeled, to tell the family to which they
belong.
SCIENCE,
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 61.
The feature of the British Mammal fauna that
strikes the naturalist with greatest surprise is
its paucity in species. In his introduction Mr.
Lydekker says that, excluding introduced
species, only 41 terrestrial mammals ‘can be re-
garded as indigenous inhabitants of Britain dur-
ing the historic period,’ and five or six of these
are now extinct; hence the total number of in-
digenous mammals now living in England,
Scotland, and Ireland together is not more than
35 or 36, and the number inhabiting Ireland is
only 19. The contrast with any equal area on
the continent of Europe or America is striking.
For instance, the single State of New York con-
tains at least 53 indigenous land mammals. The
explanation of the small number of species in the
British Islands is that the early fauna was
largely exterminated during the glacial epoch,
and the species have not been able to reach the
Islands since. This explanation is rendered the
more probable by the fact that a dozen of the
present mammalian inhabitants are bats—
animals that could easily cross the channel—
thus reducing the number of truly terrestrial
species to a couple of dozen.
The most extraordinary statement I have ob-
served in the book is that the common shrew
spends the cold months ‘in a state of profound
torpor’ (p. 78). So far as known, none of the
shrews hibernate; on the contrary, they remain
active throughout the longest and coldest win-
ters, and even in the far north scamper about
on the snow when the temperature is many de-
grees below zero.
The book as a whole, while lacking the mul-
titude of detailed observations so valuable to the
local field worker, is nevertheless a welcome
addition to mammal literature and will prove a
useful work of reference for many years to come.
The closing chapter on ‘Tne Ancient Mammals
of Britain’ is the most important of all.
C. H. M.
The Cambridge Natural History, Vol. V., Peripatus,
By ApAM Srpewick, M. A., F. R. S., Fellow
and Lecturer of Trinity College, Cambridge.
Myriapods, by F. G. Srycuatr, M. A., Trinity
College, Cambridge. Insects, Part I., by
DAvip SHARP, M. A. (Cantab.), M. B,
FEBRUARY 28, 1896. ]
(Edinb.), F. R. 8, London and New York,
Macmillan & Co. 1895. 8°, pp. xi+584,
| and 371 wood cuts. $4.00.
This volume of the Cambridge Natural History
bears upon its cover the subtitle Peripatus, etc.,
Sedgwick; from which one gains no hint that
the book consists chiefly of the first part of an
extensive treatise on Insects by David Sharp.
But such is the case, more than five-sixths of
the volume being on this subject and by this
author.
The volume is begun by an essay on Peripatus
by Adam Sedgwick, the well-known authority
on this genus. This essay, which gives the
title to the volume, comprises only 24 pages;
but it contains a very clear account of the struc-
ture, habits and development of these, the most
generalized of all arthropods. To this account
are added a synopsis of the known species and
a map illustrating the geographical distribution
of the genus.
Following the essay on Peripatus is one treat-
ing of Myriapods by F. G. Sinclair. This occu-
pies about 50 pages of the volume. After a
somewhat rambling introduction, there is given
a brief synopsis of the orders and families of
this class, based chiefly on the classification of
Koch. This is followed by an excellent ac-
count of the structure of Myriapods, including a
discussion of the distinctive features of each of
the four orders, an outline of the embryology of
these animals, and a résumé of our knowledge
of fossil forms.
The chief interest in the volume, however,
centers in the portion written by Mr. Sharp.
During the last few years, in this country at
least, there has been a great increase in the
number of students of insects; and any work
on this subject from the hand of a master is
sure to be warmly welcomed. In this case the
welcome will not be soon worn out. Sharp’s
Entomology, as this and the succeeding volume
should be termed, will find and keep a place on
the desk of every working entomologist; for,
judging by the part before us, this is the best
general treatise on insects that has yet appeared
in any language.
The great merit of the work lies in the clear-
ness and simplicity of its style, in the excel-
lence of the illustrations, in the extent to
SCIENCE.
327
which recent contributions to the morphology
of insects are included, and in the numerous
bibliographical references.
In the division of the Insecta into orders, a
conservative plan is followed, only nine orders
being recognized; but most of the smaller
orders of recent writers are indicated by sub-
headings. The following is a list of the orders
recognized: <Aptera, Orthoptera, Neuroptera,
Hymenoptera, Coleoptera, Lepidoptera, Diptera,
Physanoptera and Hemiptera.
The resurrection of the old name Aptera and
its application to the order now almost univer-
sally known as the Thysanura seems to me to
be unfortunate. The advantage of retaining the
termination ‘ptera’ for each of the orders,
which seems to be the main reason for this course,
could have been attained by the adoption of
Brauer’s term, Synaptera, which is of the form
desired, is not in itself misleading, and has not
been used in a widely different sense, as is the
case with Aptera. ?
It seems strange too, in the light of recent
contributions on the subject, that our author, in
his linear arrangement of the orders, should
separate so widely the Trichoptera (included by
him in the Neuroptera) and the Lepidoptera ;
certainly these groups have been shown to be
more closely allied than any other two of the
nine orders.
But criticisms of details in a brief notice of so
important a work as this are hardly worth
while. It is enough to say that the plan of
treatment is excellent, and that it has been
carried out in an admirable manner. Entomol-
ogists will eagerly await the appearance of the
concluding volume.
JoHN HENRY CoMSTOCK.
The Herschels and Modern Astronomy. By AGNES
M. CLERKE. Published by Macmillan & Co.,
New York. Pp. vi+224, with three portraits.
Price, $1.25.
For this volume, considered as biography, we
have nought but praise. In smoothly flowing
lines its author gives, not the annals of the Her-
schel family, but rather a series of pictures from
the lives of Sir William, Sir John and Caroline
which suffice to present in vivid colors the indi-
viduality of brother, sister and son, We catch
328
a glimpse of the German lad bred to music as a
trade and penury as a condition of life, and are
hurried along to another glimpse of the fashion-
able organist of Bath who has risen to the dig-
nity of professional life, who cultivates the sci-
ences as an amateur and, what is more to the
purpose, who has become an Englishman by
adoption.
We encounter here the clue to William Her-
schel’s success in life, an ardent temperament
coupled with an insatiable greed for knowledge
and tireless activity in its pursuit. From one
point of view it is proper enough to describe as
a lucky accident the discovery of Uranus which
transformed the amateur into the professional
astronomer, supplied by royal favor with oppor-
tunity, which it would be mockery to call leisure,
for the building of telescopes and their use in
explorations of the heavens. But such a char-
acterization of the turning point in William
Herschel’s career is less than half tlie truth, and
it is the province of his biographer to insist that
zeal and diligence such as his make circum-
stances and constrain luck to follow them.
We shall not pursue the career which rising
from humble beginnings culminates in the pres-
idency of the Royal Society, and closes at the
end of a long lifetime with perhaps a sugges-
tion of waning enthusiasm coupled with broken
bodily powers. Nor can the career of Caroline,
all too briefly told, detain us for more than a
glance at its simple loyalty and devotion to her
brothers’ plans in life, a devotion whose dignity
is given a tinge of mingled pathos and humor
by her own words anent the reluctant change
of vocation from music to astronomy: ‘‘I have
been throughout annoyed and hindered in my
endeavors at perfecting myself in any branch of
knowledge by which I could hope to gain a
creditable livelihood.”’
The career of Sir John Herschel, marked
though it be with brilliant talents and high
achievements, conveys nevertheless a sense of
disappointment. The father’s steadfastness of
purpose was lacking in the son, and we confess
to a feeling of regret that the telescopes, great
and small, which furnished work for his early
manhood were laid away in middle life, never
again to be seriously used. Whether Sir John’s
successive inclinations to mathematics, to the
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 61.
bar, to astronomy, chemistry, physics and politi-
cal office shall be called versatility or vacilla-
tion perchance depends as much upon the
critie’s mood as on aught else, but we cannot
doubt that however they be named they were
a limitation upon the achievement possible to
any talent placed as was his at the beginning of
the era of specialization.
With that part of the author’s work which
sets forth the relation of the Herschels to mod-
ern astronomy we are less pleased, and we
opine that no injustice is done in characterizing
the spirit of her pages with the maxim of
political strife, ‘Claim everything! Claim it
with confidence!’ The contributions of the
Herschels to modern astronomy are unques-
tionably great, but they did not build the entire
edifice nor even lay all of the foundations.
‘“The powers of the telescope were so unexpec-
tedly increased that they may almost be said
to have been discovered by William Herschel.”’
“He made the first attempt to lay down a defi-
nite scale of star magnitudes.’’ ‘‘ Herschel was
in the highest and widest sense the founder of
sidereal astronomy.’’ ‘‘ All modern efforts to
widen telescopic capacity primarily derive their
impulse from Herschel’s passionate desire to
see further and to see better than his predeces-
sors.’’ Such are samples of what we must con-
sider exaggerated pretentions which may be
pardoned in an obituary discourse, but not in a
critical estimate of the lines of development of
modern science.
Nor is the author altogether free from slips
upon the technical side of her subject. Thus if
“a one-inch glass actually quintuples the diam-
eter of the visible universe, it gives access to’
one hundred and twenty-five times, and not to
‘seventy-five times the volume of space ranged
through by the unassisted eye.’ But it may
well be doubted if the relation itself is not
wholly fallacious. Nor is it true that ‘the
whole system of micrometrical measurements
came into existence through Herschel’s double-
star determinations.’ Gascoign, Auzout, Ree-
mer and probably others used the filar micro-
meter before Herschel’s time, if not in his
manner. So also we may be permitted to doubt
whether most of the double star orbits at pres-
ent known have been calculated by the method
FEBRUARY 28, 1896. ]
of Sir John Herschel since the method has dis-
tinetly fallen into disfavor.
Hostile criticism might easily select other
and similar matter for adverse judgment, but
much as the book is thus disfigured it remains
well worth the writing and the reading thereof.
One feature remains which should not be left
unnoticed, since in some measure it serves to
correct false impressions elsewhere produced.
The active and fecund imagination of William
Herschel called into existence a swarm of
fancies and hypotheses, some of which have be- -
come integral parts of the fabric of modern as-
tronomy, while others have been consigned to
the intellectual rubbish heap. Types of each
class, the failure as well as the success, are pre-
sented to the reader, who, without the light
which they cast upon the mental characteristics
of the man, might well cry out, here is no flesh
and blood, but a demi-god set to unravel the
universe. Cie Ch Ge
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
THE JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY.
DECEMBER, DOUBLE NUMBER.
On the Brain of Necturus maculatus. By B. F.
Kinespury. A monograph of 65 pages, accom-
panied by 3 plates, gives the results of the ap-
plication of the newer methods of staining to
the difficult subject of the amphibian brain.
The following points are selected from the sum-
mary:
1. As compared with certain smaller uro-
deles, the brain of Necturus is greatly elon-
gated. This appears to be due largely to a
greater inequality between the rates of growth
of the brain and skull. This is shown, it is
thought, especially by (a) the almost entire ab-
sence of a pons flexure, (b) the length of the
olfactory nerves, (c) the extent of the diatela.
2. A callosum is considered to be entirely ab-
sent in the amphibian brain; what has been
generally regarded as such is here thought to
be a hippocampal commissure, in part at least,
although the homology should be dependent on
comparative study.
3. An olfactory tract upon the extreme ven-
tral surface of the cerebrum may be traced to
the region just caudad of the infundibulum,
presumably the region of the albicantia.
SCIENCE. 329
4, The paraphysis is well developed and in
communication in the adult with the encephalice
cavities. The postparaphysis of some authors
is not regarded as a true eyagination.
5. The ental origins of the cranial nerves are
worked out more less completely. For general
results reference may be made to tables on
pages 179 and 191 of the text. In particular,
the motor portion of the facial nerve is shown
to have the same mode of origin as in the
majority, at least, of vertebrates. The first
two roots of the vago-glossopharyngeal group,
stated to be the representative of the lateral
nerve of ‘fishes,’ and the nerve termed ‘dor-
sal seventh,’ are composed of fibers of the
same appearance and terminate in the dorsal
region of the oblongata in the neighborhood of
the eighth nerve.
6. Mauthner fibers were demonstrated in the
adult Necturus, Amblystoma and Diemyctylus.
Amblystoma is a land form, hence there is no
direct correlation with an aquatic mode of life.
7. Myelinic nerve fibres from the mesence-
phal pass to the ectal surface of the brain im-
mediately ventrad of the epiphysis; these may
possibly represent a parietal nerve.
The Cortical Optical Centres in Birds.
LupDWwic EDINGER.
Dr. Edinger is continuing his interesting
studies on the phylogeny of the cerebral cortex.
He has previously maintained that the olfactory
nerve is the first to effect cortical connections
and that the cortex of the Ichthyopsida is ex-
clusively olfactory in function. He now finds
in the birds a tract which he names the tractus
occipito-tectalis, which puts the optic nerve into
similar relations with the cortex. This tract
becomes medullated some weeks after hatching,
exactly as in the mammals, where it has the
same termini. The appearance of this tract he
correlates with the remarkable visual powers of
birds.
In an editorial note Prof. Herrick criticises
Dr. Edinger’s position with reference to the
evolution of the cortex. In particular he differs
from Dr. Edinger’s opinion that the olfactory
function is the only special sense which enters
the psychic life of infra-avian vertebrates, but
believes that we have evidence that reptiles also
By Dr.
330
have their optic associations. In fishes even he
has already demonstrated an indirect connection
between the optic tectum and the axial lobe,
which latter must be regarded as functionally
and probably morphologically equivalent to the
cortex of the higher forms.
In a second editorial Prof. Herrick discusses
Neurology and Monism. He advocates a dynamic
monism which stands in strong contrast with the
analytical monism of Lloyd Morgan, as pre-
sented especially in his recent work on Compar-
ative Psychology. Interesting applications are
hinted at in the field of algedonies.
The concluding sixty pages of the number are
devoted to book reviews and the bibliography
of the half-year past.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADEL-
PHIA, JANUARY 7, 1896.
Dr. BENJAMIN SHARP made his second com-
munication on the ethnology of Alaska and
Siberia, based on collections made by him the
past summer during the cruise of the U. S.
Revenue Cutter ‘Bear.’ He described a large
collection of instruments, weapons and house-
hold utensils and exhibited a number of lantern
illustrations.
A minute of the Academy’s appreciation of
the clearness of judgment, knowledge of affairs
and courtesy of personal intercourse which had
been the characteristics of the administration
of the retiring President, General Isaac J. Wis-
tor, was adopted.
JANUARY 14.
A paper entitled ‘New Species of the Hal-
icoid Genus Polygyra,’ by Henry A. Pilsbry,
was presented for publication.
Mr. Henry A. Pruspry exhibited and de-
scribed a specimen of Pleurotomaria from Mul-
lica Hill, N. J. It resembles P. solariformis
and P. perlata, but is much more discoidal and
is probably the imperfectly described P. crota-
loides of Morton.
JANUARY 21.
Papers under the following titles were pre-
sented for publication: ‘Descriptions of New
Species of Mollusks,’ by Henry A. Pilsbry;
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Von. ITI. No. 61.
‘The Molting of Birds, with special reference
to the Plumages of the Smaller Birds of eastern
North America,’ by Witmer Stone.
Mr. Epw. Goutpsmiry described a peculiar
crystallization as the result of long-continued
evaporation of solutions of Iodide of Potassium.
The crystalline form is hexagonal and resembles
that which has been obtained from kelp liquids.
Pror. Epw. D. Corr exhibited and described
the remains of fossil Baleenidee, of which he had
determined sixteen species from the Neocene
of Maryland, Virginia and North Carolina.
The ear bones of an apparently undescribed
Balenoptera and of a Baleena, apparently iden-
tical with affinis, were also described.
A resolution was adopted urging on the at-
tention of the Smithsonian Institution the de-
sirability of continuing the rental of a table at
the Naples Zoological Station for the benefit of
American students of biology.
JANUARY 28.
A paper entitled ‘Contributions to the Zodl-
ogy of Tennessee, No. 3, Mammals,’ by Samuel
N. Rhoads, was presented for publication.
The newly elected President, Dr. Samuel G.
Dixon, resigned the professorship of histology
and microscopic technology in consequence of
increase of executive duties.
Dr. BENJAMIN SHARP continued his communi-
cation on the ethnology of Alaska, based on
collections made by him during last summer’s
cruise of the U. S. Revenue Cutter ‘ Bear.’
In continuation Dr. D. G. Brinton spoke of
the supposed influence of Asiatic emigration on
the primitive civilizations of America. Review-
ing the subject as illustrated by languages,
myths, industries, arts and physical character-
istics of the tribes, he expressed the belief that
there was no reason to suppose that any such
influence had been exerted. He was aware
that in holding this belief he stood almost alone
among American ethnologists, although his
views were in harmony with those of some of
the best European authorities.
A special committee of the Entomological
Section of the Academy reported a mode of ex-
terminating the tussock moth, Orgyia leucos-
tigma, with which the trees of the city streets
and squares are so badly infested.
FEBRUARY 28, 1896. ]
FEBRUARY 4.
Pror. CarTER, of the High School, described a
tree about eighteen feet long and ten inches in
diameter from ten feet below the surface of a
sandstone quarry in Montgomery county, Pa.,
which had been turned into iron. The Heema-
tite had been entirely leeched out of the sand
in the vicinity of the tree.
Mr. F. J. Keevery described the characters of
a microscopic preparation of jade. It was of
interest in connection with the ethnological dis-
cussion at the last meeting, as Dr. Brinton be-.
lieved that American jade could be distin-
guished from the Asiatic mineral by its micro-
scopic characters.
FEBRUARY 11.
A letter was read from Dr. Karl A. von Zit-
tel, expressing in complimentary terms his
gratification at the action of the Academy in
conferring upon him this year the Hayden
Memorial Geological Award.
Papers under the following titles were pre-
sented for publication: ‘The Earliest Record
of Arctic Plants,’ by Theodore Holm; ‘A
Note on a Uniform Plan of describing the Human
Skull,’ by Harrison Allen.
Pror. Core exhibited and described a portion
of a cetacean cranium from the Neocene beds of
the western shore of the Chesapeake Bay. For
a whalebone whale, which it probably was, the
frontal and parietal bones are of an unusual
character. The presence or absence of denti-
tion had not been determined. The specimen
indicated a new genus and species for which
the name Metopcetus durinasus was proposed.
Epw. J. NOLAN,
Recording Secretary.
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, 255TH
MEETING, SATURDAY, FEBRUARY sg.
F. V. CoviLtE exhibited specimens of a
poisonous cactus Anhalonium Lewinit from En-
sinal Co., Texas, stating that the tops were
sliced and dried and used by the Indians as an
intoxicant and stimulant during their religious
dances. The cactus was a spineless species and
its poisonous juice was apparently for protec-
tion.
SCIENCE. 931
CHARLES L. PoLLARD exhibited a specimen of
a desert milkweed, Asclepias albicans and
commented on its adaptation to desert condi-
tions.
DAVID WHITE exhibited specimens and spoke
at some length on ‘Some New Forms of Paleozoic
Algz from the Central Appalachian Region.’ For
one of these a delicate ribbon-like dichotomous
and spirally-twisted organism, which seemed
unique in some respects, the new generic name
Spirophycus was suggested. Another form,
which, like the preceding, was found near the
top of the Lower Carboniferous along New
River, W. Va., seemed to belong to the group
of Devonian Algz for which Pantallon in 1893
revived Brongniarts genus Dictyotites. But this
name having long ago become a synonym, was
rejected by the reader who proposed to substi-
tute for Dr. Penhallow’s group the name Dictyo-
topsis. ;
Charles L. Pollard read a paper entitled
‘ Observations on the Flora of the District of Co-
lumbia,’ and enumerated a list of 17 plants new
to the Washington flora, in addition to those re-
corded ina previous paper by Mr. Holm. About
one-third of these consisted of weeds introduced
in ballast or cultivated grounds; an equal pro-
portion contained stray escapes from cultivation
chiefly in the public parks, while the remainder
comprised species hitherto overlooked or pos-
sibly actual accessions to the flora. The author
also commented on the structure and relation-
ship of the anomalous Phacelia Covillei, giving
the views of various botanists upon the species,
and showing the proposition that it is a hybrid
between P. parviflora and Macrocalyx nyctelea to
be untenable. F. A. Lucas,
Secretary.
THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
THE Philosophical Society of Washington
held its regular meeting on February 15th, at
which the following papers were presented :
An Expedition to Seriland, by W J McGEn.
The Thermophone, by A. M. Rircute, of Boston.
This is a new instrument for measuring tem-
peratures. It is an electrical thermometer of
the resistance type, using two resistance coils
of different metals. The description was illus-
trated by an exhibition of the instrument itself.
332
W. J. DAwu described Some Characteristics of
the Genus Spirula.
J. HoOwARD GORE read a paper on The Gron-
ingen Land-lease System, being one of perpetual
lease to tenants and heirs. Groningen is one
of the most prosperous provinces of the Nether-
lands. BERNARD R. GREEN,
Secretary.
MEETING OF THE NEW YORK SECTION OF THE
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY.
THE New York Section of the American
Chemical Society held its regular meeting at
the College of the City of New York on Friday
evening, the 7th inst.
The programme announced a paper by Dr.
R. G. Eccles on ‘New Facts about Calycan-
thus,’ and ‘Items of Interest from the Cleve-
land Meeting,’ by Prof. A. A. Breneman.
Dr. Eccles stated that the calycanthus seeds,
on which his work had been done, were from
Tennessee, where they were considered as be-
ing poisonous.
He had separated from them an alkaloid dif-
ferent from and more peculiar than any alka-
loids known to chemists.
The seeds contain one-third their weight of a
bland, pale yellow fixed oil. This oil is wholly
removable by petroleum ether. When freed
from oil and placed in water the seeds ferment,
and the separated alkaloid gives the following
reactions: Green color, by strong nitric acid.
Pale canary, by hydrochloric acid. Red, by
sulphuric acid and bichromate of potash.
Heated with strong caustic potash, a new al-
kaloid was developed and a sweetish odor pro-
duced.
Dr. H. W. Wiley had also examined the seeds,
and had found that the alkaloid produced a fine
purple color with cane sugar and sulphuric
acid. The seeds themselves contain enough
sugar to give this reaction. A single seed
beaten up with a few drops of water yields the
fine purple color on addition of a drop of sul-
phuric acid.
Ether alone will only extract a trace of alka-
loid from the seeds, but a mixture of ether, al-
cohol and ammonia gives a complete extrac-
tion.
The author had isolated two alkaloids, the
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. IIE. No. 61.
second in smaller quantity, and a third alkaloid
has been found by Dr. Wiley.
The calycanthus-alkaloid gives different col-
ored reaction from the salts.
The means of a series of combustions by Dr.
W. A. Noyes gave the following result :
Wanbontrecnsnesescerscsasssseteeeenetceeaee 71.56
INT GrOP CN eee eenerecisesetscctiseememnecereren 15.26
Ja R lays aedecgoucabonboocadcoucoocodoGaS 8.34
Oxy PON ee ecace ses cenceaduorterncnenes tence 4.84
100.00
Dr. Noyes believes the formula to be C,,H,;
N,0.
Its specific rotary power is exceedingly high,
being ten times that of cane sugar.
The sulphate is a white prismatic salt giving
yellow oxidation products when heated in a
sealed tube with nitric acid.
The author described the various salts which
he had prepared, and exhibited the color reac-
tions with both the salts and the alkaloids.
Prof. Breneman’s review of the Cleveland
meeting had been postponed, owing to the
length of programme at the January meeting of
the section.
The work of Prof. Maberry on oils, his labor-
atory and apparatus for conducting the pro-
tracted distillations of oils under reduced pres-
sure were briefly described.
Dr. Durand Woodman exhibited a simple
lecture table apparatus for experimentally de-
monstrating the luminosity of the acetylene
flame. The meeting was then adjourned until
March 6th. DURAND WOODMAN,
Secretary.
NEW BOOKS.
Primary Factors of Organic Evolution. E. D.
Corr. Chicago and London, The Open
Court Publishing Co. 1896. Pp. xvi+547.
$2.00.
Greenland Icefields and Life in the North Atlantic.
G. FREDERICK WRIGHT and WARREN UP-
HAM. New York, D. Appleton & Co. 1896.
Pp. xv+407. $2.00.
Die Insel Tenerife. HANS MEYER. Leipzig,
G. Miezel. 1896. Pp. viii+3828.
Elements of Botany. J. Y. BERGEN. Boston
and London, Ginn & Co. Pp. viii+57.
SCIENC
NEw SERIES. SINGLE CoPIEs, 15 cts.
VoL. III. No. 62. F RIDAY, Marcu 6, 1896. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, $5.00.
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Atlas of Nerve=Cells. By M. Aruen Srarr, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Diseases of the Mind
and Nervous System, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Medical Department, Columbia College;
Consulting Neurologist to the Presbyterian and Orthopedic Hospitals and to the New York Eye and
Ear Infirmary. With the codperation of OLIVER 8. Strone, A.M., Ph.D., Tutor in Biology, Columbia
College, and EDWARD LEAMING. Illustrated with 55 Albert-type Plates and 13 Diagrams. Royal
4to, cloth, pp. x + 78, $10.00 net. (Columbia University Press. )
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Pror. T. G. BONNEY, F.R.S.
John Dalton and the Rise of Modern Chem-
istry. By Sir Henry E. Roscog, F.R.S.
Major Rennell, F.R.S., and the Rise of English
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class work.
J. S. KINGSLEY.
‘|| Tufts College, Mass., Feb. 25, 1896.
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eS CIERCE
EDITORIAL ComMITTEE: S. NEwcoms, Mathematics ; R. S. WooDWARD, Mechanics ; E. C. PICKERING, As-
tronomy ; T. C. MENDENHALL, Physics; R. H. THuRSTON, Engineering ; IRA REMSEN, Chemistry ;
J. Le Cont#, Geology; W. M. Davis, Physiography; O. C. MARSH, Paleontology; W. K. Brooks,
Invertebrate Zodlogy ; C. HART MERRIAM, Vertebrate Zodlogy ; 8. H. ScuDDER, Entomology ;
N. L. Brirron, Botany ; HENRY F. OsBoRN, General Biology ; H. P. BowpitcH,
Physiology ; J. S. Bintines, Hygiene ; J. MCKEEN CATTELL, Psychology ;
DANIEL G. BRINTON, J. W. POWELL, Anthropology ;
G. Brown GOODE, Scientific Organization.
Fripay, Marca 6, 1896.
CONTENTS :
Remarks on the Progress of Celestial Mechanics since
the Middle of the Century: G. W. HILt........... 333
Admission of American Students to the French Uni-
versities: G. BROWN GOODE,...........ccsseeee sees 341
Application of the X-Rays to Surgery: HENRY W.
(QUAIEIN SII Th 6 Soncecoadonocnoopbouocnghosnascabosponbeanoequ0K 344
Current Problems in Plant Morphology :—
On Some Characters of Floral Galls: CONWAY
IW DAG IM GETTER SonacHleobo socoso poondbocboooso9osspao0d0600900 346
Current Notes on Anthropology :—
The Wall Paintings of Mitla; Commerce across
Bering Straits; The Society of Americanists of
IEORS) yD) 5) Ge BRENTON cs-sc2 sh ssecsoaceonascersess=s 349
Scientific Notes and News :—
A Director in Chief of Scientific Bureaus in the
Department of Agriculture ; Rontgen Rays and the
Royal Society ; Astronomy: General..............-++- 350
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Certitudes and Illusions: JOSIAH RoycE. Prof.
C. Lloyd Morgan on Instinct: WESLEY MILs.
The Chance of Observing the Total Solar Eclipse in
Norway: A. LAWRENCE RotcH. The Rontgen
Rays: RALPH R. LAWRENCE. Roéntgen Rays
Present in Sunlight : CHARLES S. DOLLEY, SEN-
ECA EGBERT. LRéntgen Rays from the Electric
ZIFOS Wo (Sb JIRANTGITENG Sooscoo5oc3csnocodcca60650009 354
Scientific Literature :-—
Ortmann’s Grundziige der Marinen Tiergeographie :
G. Baur. Cooke’s Introduction to the Study of
Fungi: ByYRoN D. HALSTED. The Geology of South
Dakota: C.S. Prosser. Lippmann’s Chemie der
Zuckerarten : FERDINAND G. WEICHMANN...... 359
Scientific Journals :-—
The American Journal of Science ; American Chem-
teal Journal: J. ELLIOTT GILPIN. Psyche...... 370
Societies and Academies :—
Geological Section of the New York Academy of
Sciences: J. F. Kemp. The Torrey Botanical
Club: H.H. Russy. Boston Society of Natural
History: SAMUEL HENSHAW. Philadelphia
Academy of Natural Sciences: Epw. J. NOLAN.
Geological Society of Washington: W. F. Mor-
SELL. Geological Conference of Harvard Univer-
sity: T. A. JAGGAR, JR. The Academy of
Science of St. Louis: WM. TRELEASE. The
Woman’s Anthropological Society: A. CARMAN..372
ING JB0085 ocn6q00000800000600080d0000000000900000500000000000) 376
REMARKS ON THE PROGRESS OF CELESTIAL
MECHANICS SINCE THE MIDDLE OF
THE CENTURY.*
Tue application of mathematics to the
solution of the problems presented by the
motion of the heavenly bodies has had a
larger degree of success than the same ap-
plication in the case of the other depart-
ments of physics. This is probably due to
two causes. The principal objects to be
treated in the former case are visible every
clear night, consequently the questions con-
nected with them received earlier attention;
while, in the latter case, the phenomena to
be discussed must ofttimes be produced by
artificial means in the laboratory ; and the
discovery of certain classes of them, as, for
instance, the property of magnetism, may
justly be attributed to accident. A second
cause is undoubtedly to be found in the
fact that the application of quantitative
reasoning to what is usually denominated
as physics generally leads toa more difficult
department of mathematics than in the case
of the motion of the heavenly bodies. In
the latter we have but one independent
variable, the time; while in the former gen-
erally several are present, which makes the
difference of having to integrate ordinary
differential equations or those which are
partial. Thus it happens that, while the
*Presidential address delivered before the American
Mathematical Society, December 27, 1895, by Dr
G. W. Hill.
304
science of astro-mechanics is started by
Newton, that of thermal conductivity re-
ceives its first treatment, at the hands of
Fourier, more than a century later. In ad-
dition to these two causes, ever since the
discovery of the telescope the application of
optical means to the discovery of whatever
might be found in the heavens has always
had a fascination for mankind. And, as
the ability to coordinate and correlate the
facts observed much enhances the enjoy-
ment of scientific occupation, it has resulted
that many who began as observers ended
as mathematical astronomers. Thus our
science has had relatively a large number
of cultivators.
A thoroughly satisfactory history of our
subject is yet to be written. We have
only either slight sketches of the whole,
or elaborate treatments of special divisions
of the science, and none of them coming
down to recent times. Among the former
may be mentioned Gautier’s Essai historique
sur le probleme des trois corps, which appeared
in 1817. Also Laplace’s historical chapters
in the last volume of the Mécanique Céleste.
Todhunter’s History of the theories of at-
traction and the figure of the earth is an
example of the latter class. Such books as
Todhunter’s—of which Delambre has given
an earlier example in his Histoire de ’ Astron-
omie—can hardly be regarded as _ history;
they resemble rather extensive tables of
contents of the literature examined, accom-
panied by short comments. However, in
many cases, they are more useful to the
student than formal histories would be, as,
when judiciously compiled, they may, as
epitomes in our libraries, take the place of
a large mass of scientific literature. The
History of Physical Astronomy, by Robert
Grant, is a book that comes down to 1850,
and professedly covers the whole of our
subject. But only one-third of this book is
devoted to astro-mechanics, the rest dealing
with what is really observational and de-
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 62.
scriptive astronomy. Moreover, the author
indulges so much in diffuse veins of writing,
that but a small fraction of the 200 pages
is really given to purely historic statement.
As far as the lunar theory is concerned,
the third volume of M. Tisserand’s Traité
de Mécanique Céleste constitutes a fair history.
But it must be borne in mind that the
author’s plan is to notice only the disquisi-
tions having a first-class importance; hence
his history is incomplete in this respect.
In America we are not well situated for
investigations of this character, on account
of the meagerness of our libraries. Of no
inconsiderable number of memoirs and even
books, having at least some importance in
our subject, there exist no copies in the
United States. Hence, should an American
be inclined to undertake the task of writing
the history of our subject, he must at least
perform some of the work abroad.
In the present discourse it is proposed to
touch very lightly the more important steps
made since the middle of the century, the
time at our disposal not admitting fuller
treatment.
And first we will take up Delaunay’s
method, proposed for employment in the
lunar theory, but quite readily extended to
all classes of problems in dynamics. The
first sketch of this method, given of course
by the author himself, appeared in the
Comptes Rendus of the Paris Academy of
Sciences, in 1846. It professes to be merely
an extract from a memoir offered for publi-
cation in the collections of the Academy,
which must, however, have been afterwards
withdrawn to make place for the two vol-
umes of the Théorie du Mouvement de la Lune.
When this extract is compared with the
earlier chapters of the latter work, it is per-
ceived that Delaunay has, to some extent,
modified and improved his method in the
interim between 1846 and 1860. In this
long period nothing appeared from the
author on this subject. He must have been
MARCH 6, 1896. ]
profoundly engaged in applying his method
to the motion of the moon. Tisserand’s
exposition of this method is somewhat more
brief than the author’s own. But when the
necessary modifications are introduced into
Delaunay’s procedures, to make them ap-
plicable to the more general case of the
motion of a system of bodies, the establish-
ment of the formulas can be rendered still
more brief.
There is one point in reference to De-
launay’s method which, as far as I am
aware, has escaped notice. This method
consists in a series of operations or trans-
formations, in each of which the position of
the moon in space is defined by six vari-
ables, the number three being doubled in
order that the velocities, as well as the co-
ordinates, may be expressed without dif-
ferentials. The aim of the transformations
is to make one-half of these, which Poin-
earé has called the linear variables, contin-
ually approach constancy, while the other
half, named the angular variables, contin-
ually approach a linear function of the
time. But at any stage of the process the
position of the moon, as well as its velocity,
is definitely fixed by the six variables pro-
duced by the last transformation, provided
that the proper degree of variability is at-
tributed to them, just as, before any trans-
formation was made, the six elements of el-
liptic motion, usually denominated oscula-
ting, defined them; the point of difference
to be noticed being that the more the trans-
formations are multiplied, the more com-
plex becomes the character of the expression
of the former quantities in terms of the
latter. But, however great may be the
number of transformations, the series
evolved have always one consistent trait,
viz., that the angular variables are involved
in them only through cosines or sines of
linear functions of these variables, the
linear functions being formed with integral
coeflicients. Now, as in all this work we
SCIENCE. 330
are obliged to employ infinite series, the
question of their convergence is an ex-
tremely important one. The inquiry in
this respect may be divided into two parts,
mainly independent of each other. These
are, convergence as respects the angular
variables, and convergence as respects the
linear variables. The first part is much
the more simple. Regarding each of the
coefficients of the series we employ as a
whole, that is, representing it by a definite
integral, it is quite easily perceived that the
said series are both legitimate and conver-
gent when, giving the angular variables
the utmost range of values, still no two of
the bodies can occupy the same point of
space. In the contrary case the series are
evidently divergent. This condition affords
certain limiting conditions for the values of
the linear variables. Could we trace these
limiting conditions through all the trans-
formations, and obtain by comparison the
formulas to which these tend when the
number of transformations is made infinite,
we should be in possession of the conditions
of stability of motion of the system of
bodies. The second part of the inquiry
relates to the expression of the mentioned
coefficients by infinite series proceeding ac-
cording to powers and products of certain
parameters which are functions of the linear
variables. It is well known that, in the
ease of elliptic elements, Laplace and
Cauchy almost simultaneously showed that
the series are convergent when the eccen-
tricity does not exceed a fraction which is
about two-thirds. The determination of
the conditions of convergence, after certain
transformations have been made in the sig-
nification of the elements, is undoubtedly a
more complex problem; nevertheless, it
seems to be within the competency of anal-
ysis as it exists at present.
The discovery of the criterion for the con-
vergence of series proceeding according to
powers and products of parameters is due
336
to Cauchy, and is a most remarkable con-
tribution to the science of mathematics.
Supposing that the parameters begin from
zero values, this criterion amounts to say-
ing that the moment the function, which
the series is to represent ceases to be holo-
morphic, or becomes infinite, that moment
the series ceases to be convergent. Conse-
quently, ifa space, having as many dimen-
sions as there are parameters in the case; be
conceived, and a surface be constructed in
it formed by the consensus of all the points
where the considered function ceases to be
holomorphic, then, provided the values of
the parameters define a point within this
surface, that is, on the same side where
lies the origin, the series will be convergent.
Generally this surface will be closed, and,
within it, the function will not take infinity
as its value.
Without any mathematical reasoning the
propriety of the principle just enunciated
may be perceived. Since it is possible for
the series in powers and products to give
only one value for the function, the moment
the latter may have any one of several
values, the series fails to give them all; and,
as there is no reason why any particular
value should be selected, the conclusion
must be that it does not represent any of
them. Also, it is easy to see that, when
the function takes infinity as its value, the
series fails to represent it.
In applying this principle to the series in-
volved in the treatment of the problem of
many bodies by Delaunay’s method, it ap-
pears, at first sight, as if we must have some
finite representation of the coeflicients in
question in order to discover the particular
points at which they cease to be holomor-
phic, such, for instance, as is given by an
algebraic or transcendental equation. But
this is not imperative, as it is often possible
to make this discovery from certain recog-
nized properties of the function considered,
without being in possession of its form ex-
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 62.
plicitly or implicitly. It appears probable
that, in the class of cases considered, the
mentioned coefficients can be represented
by multiple definite integrals, all taken be-
tween the limits 0 and z, the independent
variables being those which have been
denominated angular. Such functions are
always holomorphic, provided that the ex-
pressions under the signs of integration are
themselves holomorphic between the men-
tioned limits. If the statement just made
be admitted, although it may be impossible
to write explicitly the mentioned expres-
sions, we may, nevertheless, be certain that
they remain holomorphic, provided that the
linear variables, which may be the same
as the parameters considered, are so re-
stricted in their range of values that no
matter what values the angular variables
receive, no distance between any two
bodies of the system can vanish. Or, in
other words, that the R of Delaunay must
never become infinite. Thus it seems
probable that the conditions of convergence
for Delaunay’s series are precisely identical
with those for the stability of motion of the
system.
The series arising in Delaunay’s method,
as applied to the moon, contain five para-
meters; the number would be six were the
moon’s mass not neglected. We should
also have six in the application of the method
to two planets moving about thesun ; how-
ever, should we employ the well-known
function b,° of Laplace, the number would
be reduced to five. It ought to be possible,
therefore, after the performance of a limited
number of operations, to assign limiting
values to these parameters, below which
the, series would certainly be convergent.
This also involves the possibility of finding
limits to the errors committed by truncating
the series at a certain order of terms.
Again, provided the time is limited to a
certain interval, the capacity of these trun-
cated series for representing the coordinates
MARkcH 6, 1896.]
of the planets could be shown by giving
~ -superior limits to the errors necessarily in-
volved.
One more remark may be made before we
leave Delaunay’s method. In every opera-
tion or transformation half the integrals are
obtained without the intervention of the
time, and from these solely are obtained the
ranges of values for all the linear variables.
As no integrating divisors appear in their
expressions, it follows that the question of
stability is not affected in any way by the
vanishing of these. Moreover, the presence
of a libration in the angle of operation does
not necessitate any change in the procedure.
The integrating divisors which appear in
the expressions for the angular variables,
obtained through quadratures, may cause
difficulty, but this can generally be removed
by a modification of the parameters em-
ployed in the development of the coeflicients
in series. Beyond this it does not seem ne-
cessary to attend particularly to the terms
which Professor Gyldén has designated as
eritical.
To give a succinct idea of the scope of
this method, it may be said that it is appli-
cable whenever, in the system, the planets
maintain their order of succession from the
sun. In systems where that undergoes
change, as is the case with the group of
minor planets, supposing their action on
each other is sensible, it is not applicable.
Delaunay’s method has not yet received
all the developments and applications it is
susceptible of.
The treatise of Hansen on the shortest
and most ready method of deriving the per-
turbations of the small planets was pub-
lished in the interval 1857-1861. But as
the principles on which it is founded had
been elaborated and communicated to the
public some years earlier, it is, perhaps,
more properly to be assigned to the first
half of the century. In consequence, I pass
it over with this slight mention.
SCIENCE.
307
Perhaps the most conspicuous labors in
our subject, during the period of time we
consider, are those of Professor Gyldén and
M. Poincaré. We will limit our attention,
for the remainder of this discourse, to the
consideration of these investigations.
Professor Gyldén began work with the
methods of Hansen and was gradually led
to modifications of them looking towards
their use for indefinite lengths of time. This
quality has latterly become imperative with
him, and he has recently published the first
volume of what is evidently intended to be
a lengthy work entitled Traité Analytique
des Orbites Absolues des Huit Plantes Princi-
pales. ‘To show the drift of Professor Gyl-
dén’s investigations, we cannot do better
than give an analysis of this volume. At
the outset the author introduces a class of
curves he names periphlegmatic, that is,
curves which surround a flame. The defi-
nition of this sort of curve is that it describes
continually the space between two concen-
tric spheres, and, at every point, turns its
concavity towards the intersection of the
radius vector with the inner sphere. In an
application to the solar system, the sun is
supposed to occupy the common center of
the spheres. The investigation is at first
limited to the case where this curve is plane.
A differential equation of the second order
is derived which the radius vector of this
curve satisfies, the independent variable be-
ing theangle described. The perpendicular
distance between the spheres is called the
diastem. The spheres are supposed to be
drawn so that they touch the curve at the
points where the radius becomes a maxi-
mum or minimum. Thus, in some cases,
the spheres are regarded as fixed, in others
as movable. In the latter case, however,
the sum of their radii is supposed to remain
constant. Thence we have two groups of
periphlegmatic curves ; those with constant
and those with variable diastems. The
author gives examples of both these groups,
338
in most cases of which the line of apsides is
variable, and considers the situation and
density of the points of intersection of these
curves with themselves.
The idea of an absolute orbit of a plane-
tary body is this: an oval symmetrical with
regard to an axis movable in space. While
the axis remains constant in length (the
half of it is called the protrometre), the ve-
locity of its motion may vary, and the di-
astem may also vary. Prof. Gyldén, how-
ever, admits into the expressions of these
variations only terms whose period would
become infinite did the planetary masses
vanish. These terms he calls elementary.
But elementary terms in the diastem and
the longitude of the perihelion can produce
terms in the coordinates having periods
which differ but little from the time of
revolution of the planet. These are also
called elementary terms. But the two
classes are distinguished, the first as being
of the type (A), and the second as of the
type (B). Im all the formulas relative to
this matter the author insists on keeping
the are described by the radius as the inde-
pendent variable.
The coordinates are only approximately
given by the preceding apparatus of expres-
sions. They must then have certain com-
plements added to them; these, however,
are all composed of terms which would van-
ish with the planetary masses.
In deriving the elementary terms in the
radius of a planet through the integration
of a linear differential equation of the sec-
ond order, Prof. Gyldén attaches much price
to his method of establishing the conver-
gence of the series formed by the successive
terms. As the latter are obtained through
division by divisors of the order of the
planetary masses, it might be feared that
some of them would turn out to be very
large. But the author prevents this by re-
taining in the coefficient of the dependent
variable in the differential equation a
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 62.
quantity equivalent to the sum of the
squares of all the coefficients in the inte-
gral. This is named the horistic or limiting
function. It is plain such an expression
could be introduced in the mentioned co-
efficient, provided that the linear equation is
the truncated form of an equation contain-
ing the cube of the variable. And in the
problem of planetary motion the approxi-
mations may always be so ordered that this
shall be the case.
With regard to the coordinate which
exhibits the departure of the planet from a
fixed plane, Prof. Gyldén does not greatly
deviate from the procedure of Hansen in
following the displacement of the instan-
taneous plane of the orbit. Only here, as
in the preceding treatment of the radius,
he would sharply distinguish the elemen-
tary and non-elementary terms.
At this point is introduced certain new
nomenclature. As before we had diastem,
now we have anastem to denote the product
of the radius and the sine of the inclination;
and what has generally been called the true
argument of the latitude is here called the
anastematic argument. Any angular mag-
nitudes which are constantly moving
through the circumference are astronomic
arguments; and when they have the same
mean velocity of rotation they are isoki-
netic; and isokinetic arguments are hom-
orhythmic when, in each revolution through
the circumference, they always retake to-
gether the same corresponding points. In
like manner, the true anomaly is the dias-
tematic argument, and we have diastematic
and anastematic coefficients and moduli.
It will be seen from this that Prof. Gyldén
does not shrink from imposing on us the
labor of learning new terms.
Thus far we have been engaged in de-
riving the equations of the path followed by
a heavenly body ; it remains to show how
we may find the point on that path occupied
by the body at a given moment. There is
MARCH 6, 1896. ]
then necessary an equation between the
time and the variable assumed as independ-
ent, that is, the orbit longitude, or, more
properly, the amount of angle described by
the radius vector. If we suppose the abso-
lute orbit to be described by the planet so
that equal areas are passed over by the
radius in equal times, it is plain that, on the
attainment of a given longitude, a definite
amount of time must have elapsed since the
epoch. This is what Prof. Gyldén calls the
reduced time; and he computes the difference
between it and the actual time required by
the theory of gravity for the planet to arrive
at the stated direction. This mode of pro-
ceeding does not differ from Hansen’s, except
in the point that the absolute orbit is sub-
stituted for a fixed ellipse.
But this gives us correctly only the orbit
longitude; for the radius and the latitude,
which correspond in the absolute orbit to
this reduced time, are not quite those which
the planet has at the actual time. Conse-
quently, Prof. Gyldén proposes to compute
two corrections, the one to be applied to the
product of the eccentricity into the cosine
of the true anomaly, the other to the sine
of the latitude. Also the reduction of the
orbit longitude to the plane of reference
must be manipulated so that it comes out
correctly.
The employment of the orbit longitude as
independent variable throughout all the
integrations necessitates a mass of very in-
tricate transformations of terms from one
shape into another. Also the integrations
which bear on elementary terms must be
kept distinct from those which bear on non-
elementary terms. A degree of complexity
is thus imparted to the subject which makes
it difficult to see when one has really
gathered up all the warp and woof of it.
Prof. Gyldén has nowhere removed the
scaffolding from the front of his building
and allowed us to see what architectural
beauty it may possess; it is necessary to
SCIENCE.
339
compare a large number of equations scat-
tered through the volume before one can
opine how the author means to proceed.
, The advantages claimed for the method
are that it prevents the time from appear-
ing outside the trigonometrical functions,
and that it escapes all criticism on the score
of convergence. The first is readily con-
ceded, but many simpler methods possessing
this advantage are already elaborated, and
it is not so clear that the second ought to
be granted.
No completely worked out example of the
application of this method has yet been
published. The great labor involved will
naturally deter investigators from employ-
ing it.
In 1890 was published the memoir of M.
H. Poincaré entitled Sur le probleme des trois
corps et les équations de la dynamique, and
which obtained the prize of the King of
Sweden. Most of the results of this memoir
were worked over and presented anew with
greater elaboration and clearness by their
author in Les Méthodes Nouvelles de la Méca-
nique Céleste. Here we find a large number
of new and very interesting theorems.
First is to be noted the class of particular
solutions in the problem of the motion of a
system of material points which are now
named periodic solutions. The initial rela-
tive positions and velocities of the several
points are so adjusted that, after the lapse
of a definite time, the latter retake them.
Hence is evident a method which may be
employed to elaborate this special case of
motion, viz., by the tentative process with
mechanical quadratures. M. Poincaré has
divided this sort of solutions into three
classes, of which, however, the second and
third are not essentially different. He has
shown that, in the latter classes, the values
of the arbitrary constants of the problem
must be so adjusted that no secular inequali-
ties, or,as Professor Gyldén calls them, ele-
mentary terms, may arise. The number
340
and variety of these particular solutions is
far greater than one would at first sight
imagine.
We come now to a second class of partic-
ular solutions named by the author asymp-
totic. It arises from the consideration of
solutions differing very little from periodic
solutions. Here we have to deal with
linear differential equations having periodic
coefficients. The integrals of these contain
in their terms exponential factors, and on
the nature of the exponents of these factors
depends the quality of the resulting solu-
tions. M. Poincaré has named these expo-
nents characteristic. They are roots of an
algebraic equation of a degree equal to the
number of dependent variables involved in
the question. If any of these roots are
imaginary with real portions or wholly real,
we are in presence of asymptotic solutions.
The algebraic equation mentioned contains
the unknown only in even powers; hence
the characteristic exponents are in pairs
having the same absolute value, but with
contrary signs. In all the cases presented
by astronomy, where, on account of the
near approach to circular motion, a periodic
solution can be taken as a first approxima-
tion, it appears that the squares of the
characteristic exponents are all real and
negative. Thus, there is no call here to
consider this sort of solution, and this fact
must much diminish the interest of the
astronomer in it. M. Poincaré has, how-
ever, elaborated it with great pains, show-
ing how the effect of higher powers of the
deviations from the periodic solution may
be taken into account. The series resulting
are, nevertheless, divergent, as in other
cases.
The second volume of the Méthodes Nou-
velles is devoted to the elaboration and con-
sideration of various processes for develop-
ing the integrals of planetary motion accord-
ing to the powers of a small parameter. The
chief of these are due to Professor Newcomb
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 62.
and MM. Lindstedt and Bohlin; but M.
Poincaré has augmented the number of them
by introducing modifications of his own.
Allinvolve the principle of recurrence ; that
is, the first step is the only one which is in-
dependent, the following depend on all that
precede. These methods, in their general as-
pect, do not differ from the old developments
in powers of the disturbing force, except
the operations are so adjusted that the time
never escapes from the trigonometric func-
tions. This is accomplished by greatly aug-
menting the number of the elementary
arguments, and by supposing that the rate
of motion of each of these is developable
according to integral powers of the before-
mentioned parameter, or, in some cases, of
its square root. ;
When there is more than one elementary
argument, the series obtained in all these
ways are pronounced to be generally diver-
gent in the rigorous sense of the word. M.
Poincaré brings forward several methods of
proof of this. The first depends on the
presence of small divisors in the expressions
of the coefficients. However, when we do
not insist on developments in powers of a
parameter, this method of proof has no ap-
plication. Another method is derived from
the principle that two characteristic expo-
nents vanish for every uniform integral that
exists. But the integrals which necessitate
this conclusion must not only be uniform,
they must be valid for every possible case
of the problem. Now the integrals known
as those of the conservation of living forces
and of areas are of thisnature; but the in-
tegrals derivable from the series of De-
launay, Newcomb and Lindstedt are valid
only for a limited range in the values of the
linear variables. For instance, in the prob-
lem of the three bodies, if the deformation
of the triangle formed by these bodies is
such that we cannot find any two sides, one
of which sustains to the other an invariable
relation of greater to less, we cannot apply
MaRkcu 6, 1896. ]
the mentioned series. And here itis well
to note that the defect of convergence does
not arise from the application of the pro-
cesses of integration, but already exists in
the development of the perturbative func-
tion before integration commences. Thus
Delaunay’s development of this function at
the beginning of his lunar theory is diver-
gent and illusory, unless we have the lunar
radius in apogee always less than the solar
radius in perigee, and that without regard
to the mode of expressing the coefficients.
Some of the particular integrals relied upon
by M. Poincaré to establish the vanishing
of all the characteristic exponents, in case
we accept M. Lindstedt’s series as valid, lie,
so to speak, on the boundary of the domain
in which these series are convergent.
In the third place an appeal is made to
the alleged non-existence of analytic and
uniform integrals beyond those already
known. Were this non-existence clearly
established it would decide the question on
the side where M. Poincaré has placed him-
self. But, at least as far as the non-exist-
ence of integrals of this nature in a limited
domain for the linear variables is concerned,
the proof given for it is quite defective.
This proof consists in ascertaining how
these integrals, supposing them to exist,
would behave should we attempt to derive
periodic solutions from them. It is difficult
to present this matter without the assist-
ance of algebraic formulas; nevertheless, it
may be attempted. Let there be a number
of equations whose left members are formed
by the product of two factors. When we
pass to a periodic solution, one of these fac-
tors becomes zero. What conclusion can we
‘draw from each of the thus modified equa-
tions? Evidently one of two things: either
the remaining factor of the left member is in-
finite and the right member indeterminate,
or it is finite and the right member a vanish-
ing quantity. Nowin case weare obliged to
accept the first conclusion, were it only but
SCIENCE.
341
once, M. Poincaré has demonstrated the
non-existence of integrals; but, granting
that it is proper in every case to accept the.
latter conclusion, the demonstration fails.
Now he declines to consider the latter
alternative, saying that he does not believe
that any problem of dynamics, presenting
itself naturally, occurs where the right
members of the mentioned equations would
all vanish. But it should be borne in mind
that, while they do not vanish in the
general equations, the adjustment of the
values of the linear parameters required by
the passage to a periodic solution may bring
about their vanishing. Thus, in the lunar
theory, a periodic solution is brought about
by making e=0, é=0, and 7=0, the result is
the vanishing of every coefficient having
any of these quantities as a factor.
M. Poincaré appeals in another place to
the fact that the Linstedt series, if conver-
gent, would establish the non-existence of
asymptotic solutions. But this observation
is irrelevant for the reason that the do-
mains of the two things are quite distinct.
In any case where Lindstedt’s series are
applicable there are no asymptotic solu-
tions, and where there are asymptotic solu-
tions Lindstedt’s series would be illusory.
We owe much to M. Poincaré for having
commenced the attack on this class of ques-
tions. But the mist which overhung them
is not altogether dispelled; there is room
for further investigation.
G. W. Hi.
ADMISSION OF AMERICAN STUDENTS TO THE
FRENCH UNIVERSITIES.
THE Conseil Supérieur de’) Instruction
Publique has issued a decree removing the
restrictions upon the admission of Ameri-
can and other foreign students to the French
universities and giving them a status sub-
stantially similar to that accorded by the
German universities. This important con-
cession by the French authorities is the
342
direct result of a vigorous movement in-
stituted by Prof. H. J. Furber, of the Uni-
versity of Chicago, who in the latter part of
' May, 1895, addressed to the Ministry of
Public Instruction a memorial, calling at-
tention to the appreciable increase in the
number of Americans engaged in post-grad-
uate work in Europe and the vastly greater
percentage of foreign students at the Ger-
man universities as compared with those of
France. The memorial recited that at the
Sorbonne there are but 380 Americans en-
rolled, while some 200 are at present in
attendance at the University of Berlin, and
in the smaller institutions of France and
Germany the disparity iseven greater.
Unless it be assumed, argues Mr. Furber,
that France is intellectually inferior to Ger-
many, the indisposition on the part of
American students to avail themselves of
the advantages offered by the French schools
would appear to indicate either a failure to
appreciate the unequalled excellence of the
latter in many directions, or else some ob-
stacle preventing the enjoyment of the op-
portunities which they afford. It is diffi-
cult to conceive, however, that our country-
men are without knowledge of the refine-
ment of culture for which the French schools
are so justly famous, and the inference seems
conclusive that the scarcity of American
' students in France is attributable to the
difficulties which beset the foreigner in gain-
ing admission to their courses.
Jn Germany an American is allowed to
matriculate and qualify for a degree upon
the presentation of a bachelor’s degree from
some reputable institution of learning in
the United States, and throughout his
course is at liberty to elect the studies he
may desire to pursue. He is free from ex-
amination, except when he chooses to apply
for a degree, preparatory to which it is in-
cumbent upon him to submit a satisfactory
thesis upon some subject of original research
in which he has been personally engaged.
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 62.
In fact, the only formalities required of the
candidate for academic honors are the fur-
nishing of credentials certifying to the pro-
ficiency of his early schooling, a certain
minimum time spent at the universities of
Germany, and a severe test of his abilities
at the termination of his course.
In France, on the contrary, the student
is subject to many rigorous restrictions
which practically exclude the greater num-
ber of Americans. The bachelor’s degree
is not accepted as sufficient for entrance to
many of the faculties, and the student is
limited to an arbitrarily prescribed course
of study and subjected to severe tests of
progress at frequent intervals, depriving
him in no small degree of his freedom of
research and original investigation. Stu-
dents from the United States are, with rare
exceptions, men who have passed beyond
the rudimentary grades of education and
attained the rank of specialists. They are
of intellectual maturity graduates of our
universities and colleges, and are in quest
not of discipline but of knowledge. They
do not desire that any essential requirement
in the French regulations be suspended, or
that the grade of scholarship necessary
either to matriculation or to graduation be
lowered in their favor. They do insist,
however, that the peculiarity of their pur-
pose and position be duly considered, and
that they be permitted to fulfill through
some equivalent the requirements which,
owing to the very nature of their case, are
otherwise virtually prohibitive. The Ameri-
can student is not averse to the requirement
of a somewhat lengthy term of residence in
France, but he does maintain that he shall
have the privilege of utilizing the period of
study as he shall deem most profitable and
most nearly in accordance with the plan
which he has mapped out for himself.
On the 7th of June, Mons. M. Bréal, the
eminent French educator and member of
the Institute of France, published in the
MARCH 6, 1896. ]
Journal des Debats a resumé of Mr. Furber’s
memorial, which at once enlisted the sym-
pathy of eminent French scholars, and re-
sulted in a conference at the Sorbonne on
the 26th of June, at which the Comité
Franco-Américain was organized for the
purpose of advocating before the proper
authorities the desired changes in the French
regulations. In July a committee styled
the ‘ Paris-American University Commit-
tee’ was also formed from among the
Americans resident in Paris to cooperate
with the Comité Franco-Amérieain, and at
the invitation of Dr. Thomas W. Evans,
Chairman of the Committee, a number of
American and French gentlemen interested
in education assembled at his residence in
Paris for the purpose of deliberating upon
the most practicable course to be pursued to
bring about the desired reforms. Addresses
were made by Mons.Bréal, Chairman of the
Comité Franco-Américain, Prof. Furber
and others, and the various difficulties rela-
tive to matriculation and graduation in the
French universities were thoroughly dis-
cussed.
Shortly after the formation of the Paris-
American Committee, Prof. Sithon New-
comb, at the solicitation of Prof. Furber,
organized in Washington an American com-
mittee to codperate with the Comité Franco-
Américain and to give authoritative expres-
sion of the sympathy of the people of the
United States in the movement. The Com-
mittee numbers among its members Prof.
Newcomb, Chairman; Dr. 8. P. Langley,
Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution ;
President Charles W. Eliot, of Harvard
University; Hon. Andrew D. White;
President Timothy Dwight, of Yale
University ; President D. C. Gilman, of
Johns Hopkins University; Hon. W. T.
Harris, U. S. Commissioner of Educa-
tion; President Seth Low, of Columbia
College ; Hon. Carroll D. Wright, U.S. Com-
missioner of Labor; President J. B. Angell,
SCIENCE.
343
of the University of Michigan; President
J. C. Schurman, of Cornell University ;
Prof. E. R. L. Gould, Secretary of the In-
ternational Statistical Association ; Presi-
dent B. L. Whitman, of Columbian Univer-
sity ; President G. Stanley Hall, of Clark
University; and G. Brown Goode, As-
sistant Secretary of the Smithsonian Insti-
tution, who acted as Secretary. A meet-
ing of the Committee was held at the
Columbian University on November 13th at
which resolutions were adopted expressing
the sense of the committee that America
would heartily welcome the proposed
changes in the French regulations, and sug-
gesting, as a means of inducing American
students to avail themselves of the precious
advantages offered by the well-organized
system of university instruction of France,
that the French authorities accept the
bachelor’s degree as the equivalent of that
of the Freneh Lycée, and that owing to the
lack of familiarity with the French lan-
guage, the frequent rigorous examinations
required by the French system be dispensed
with in the case of foreign students. The
committee strongly opposed the suggestion
of establishing a degree for Americans only,
which should have less significance than
that conferred upon native students. These
suggestions were elaborated by the French
committee, presented to the Ministry of
Public Instruction, and defended by the
committee before the Conseil Superieur.
After due deliberation, the latter body, on
the 17th of January, voted a decree intro-
ducing into the French faculties of science
all the best features of the German system.
In accordance with the decree, a student
will hereafter be admitted to these faculties
on an American bachelor’s degree, and will
be permitted to choose his studies. After
pursuing any scientific course for a year,
he can, if he wishes, apply for an examina-
tion in this branch and, if successful, obtain
a certificat d’ttude. Three such certificates
344
will entitle him to a licence-és-science, and
upon the presentation of a satisfactory
thesis he will be eligible to the French doc-
torate. If he has the ability, he can, at his
pleasure, discharge all three subjects in one
year; or he can do so in successive years,
migrating, if he wishes, from one university
to another, and studying at the same time
whatever other subject he may choose.
The French system as modified possesses
one distinct advantage over that of Ger-
many. In the latter country the student
must present his thesis before he is admit-
ted to examination for the doctor’s degree,
and if he fails to present a satisfactory
dissertation he is without a degree or di-
ploma. In France, however, the examina-
tion precedes the presentation of the thesis,
and the student receives independent credits
for every portion of hiswork. If he acquits
himself in one branch only, he has his
certificate, three of which, as has been ex-
plained, give him the licence-és-science. If
interrupted in his work before securing a
degree he may withdraw with honorable
credentials for at least that portion of his
work which has been accomplished.
The degree rendered by the Conseil has
reference only to the faculties of science. It
is hoped, however, that a similar arrange-
ment may be had in the Department
of Letters. Important concessions have
already been made in connection with the
admission of American students to the
faculties of medicine, and Mons. Bréal, in a
letter to Prof. Furber, writes that the
Faculty of Protestant Theology manifests a
most liberal disposition in this regard. The
changes which the French have made are
of very great value. It now rests with the
students of America to manifest their ap-
preciation and to avail themselves of the
facilities which are placed within their
reach, in the same warm spirit in which
they are offered. G. Brown Goopr,
Secretary of the American Committee.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 62.
APPLICATION OF THE X-RAYS TO SURGERY.
THE manifold uses to which Roéntgen’s
discovery may be applied in medicine are
so obvious that it is even now questionable
whether a surgeon would be morally justi-
fied in performing a certain class of opera-
tion without having first seen pictured by
these rays the field of his work, a map, as
it were, of the unknown country he is to
explore. It may be well to consider first
what has already been accomplished in this
direction, and then briefly to enumerate a
few achievements we may expect when the
time of exposure is lessened, the intensity
of this form of radiation increased and,
possibly, the rays brought to a focus.
Mosetig, of Vienna, was the first to make
a practical application of the new discovery
in surgery. The case was one of double
phalanges at the tip of the big toe. It was -
impossible, by the usual means of diagnosis,
to decide which of these bones communi-
eated directly with the middle phalanx,
thus forming the joint, and which was the
supernumerary bone. It was, therefore,
deemed advisable to amputate at the distal
articulation, but a picture secured by the
Rontgen process revealed very clearly that
one of the phalanges formed a portion of the
true joint, the other being merely connected
therewith by means of an osseous union.
It was then a very simple matter to remove
the extra phalanx, the surgeon having be-
fore him a complete picture of the osseous
parts involved. The satisfaction of the
patient may also be imagined, for he could
see for himself the advisability and sim-
plicity of the operation. The next case
of Mosetig was one in which a bullet had
lodged in the fifth carpal bone and there
become encysted. Various means had been
previously tried, but unsuccessfully, to locate
the bullet. In the picture in this case may
also be noticed a sessimoid bone; and here
attention should be called to the fact that
these extra bones should not be mistaken
Marcu 6, 1896. ]
for foreign bodies. Neusser’s experiments
were made upon objects outside of the body,
and of these the first telegraphic newspaper
reports were most confusing, many persons
being lead to believe that a calculus had
been photographed within a kidney in the
living subject. Prof. Neusser was able to
obtain a distinct picture of a phosphatic
vesical calculus through four centimeters of
cealf’s liver. Haschek and Lindenthal have
shown the fibrous bands uniting old injured
bones. Having injected the arteries in the
hand of a cadaver, they have shown a
method of making a plate which will be
useful for anatomical instruction. Lanne-
longue, of Paris, has diagnosed by this pro-
cess tuberculous arthritis. Cox, of Mon-
treal, early in his investigations, secured
the picture of a bullet in the calf of the leg;
the bullet, which was afterward removed,
being located between the tibia and fibula.
Buckshot has been found by Pupin; needles
and glass have been pictured by several ob-
servers and afterward removed. Robb, of
Trinity, diagnosed a luxation and fracture
in the hand of a patient who was under
treatment for another condition. Rontgen
has recently prepared a picture of a frac-
ture of the forearm with much displace-
ment. Lodge has a picture showing a bullet
in the wrist. Of the tissues of a cat, Reid
finds bone the most, and cartilage the least,
opaque. It is reported by the Lancet thata
thigh bone attacked with osteomyelitis has
been pictured. A skiagraph of a suppressed
and a rudimentary phalanx is shown in
the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal
of February 20, 1896. The writer has
been able to discover in a living subject
a doubling of one of the carpal bones and
those of the corresponding first row of pha-
langes, in a case of polydactylism, with
webbed fingers. The same picture also
showed osseous union at the tips. In
another case ankylosis of the terminal and
middle phalanges of a finger is seen. And
SCIENCE.
345
so the list might be increased by observa-
tions made throughout the civilized world, -
as wherever these experiments have been re-
peated physicians have naturally seized
upon the opportunity to benefit the patient.
Carbutt, of Philadelphia, suggests that
celloidin films may be moulded to the con-
tour of the body, thus facilitating the taking
of a picture of the thicker portions of the
arm, the leg, or the trunk. He is also pre-
paring plates which will be peculiarly suit-
able to the action of this form of energy.
Tn conclusion, let me cite a few of the
many instances in which this discovery
may be useful in medicine and surgery.
First. In the diagnosis of luxations and
fractures, at times a difficult or impossible
procedure, it will be possible, in certain
eases, to picture a fractured bone, reduce
and dress it, and afterward secure a skia-
graph through the bandages, thereby demon-
strating beyond doubt whether there has
been proper approximation of the ends of
the bones. Again, it may be practicable to
fix the time at which union has taken place,
and to determine accurately the amount of
osseous deposit that has occurred on the
bone, it being a well known fact in surgery
that this union takes place in a longer or
shorter time, depending upon age and in-
dividual peculiarities. The distortion of
bones when pictured upon different planes
might doubtless be overcome by the use of
mirrors, or other apparatus.
Second. Certain foreign bodies, as glass,
bullets and needles, may be diagnosed not
only in the extremities, but in other parts
of the body. A jackstone lodged in the
larynx, or a set of teeth, penknife, coin, in-
tubation tube, etc.,in the intestinal tract
might be revealed by a careful study of the
plate. Renal and urinary calculi may pos-
sibly be located under favorable conditions.
Third. It may be possible to distinguish
in certain cases an adulterated from unadul-
terated drug, e. g., some tinctures permit the
346
rays to pass much more readily than others.
Flaws in instruments, especially those made
of aluminum, might be detected by these
rays. Experiment alone will decide whether
bacteria will be influenced by the rays in
the same manner as certain colonies of or-
ganisms are injured by exposure to the direct
action of the sun. Park, of New York, has
exposed a culture of the diphtheria bacillus
for thirty minutes to the rays from a
Crookes tube without any result being
noted. He who is able to secure a picture
of the brain will accomplish more than can
be expected from the present state of our
knowledge of the X-rays.
The suggestion has been made that in
our large cities skiagraphic institutions
should be erected and equipped, to which
physicians or surgeons could send patients,
and where, under their direction, pictures
of the desired portion of the body could be
prepared, just as a physician now writes
a prescription which is sent to the druggist
to be: compounded. Our large hospitals
where numerous accident cases are brought
should have in the near future a plant suf-
ficient to prepare skiagraphic reproductions
at short notice.
Henry W. Carre...
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
CURRENT PROBLEMS IN PLANT
MORPHOLOGY.
ON SOME CHARACTERS OF FLORAL GALLS.
Tue growing interest in ecology which is
so marked a feature of botanical investiga-
tion during the last five years has occa-
sioned new and valuable work on galls, so
that now for the first time compendious
works have begun to appear, in which a
really scientific and adequate account of
these curious structures is attainable. An
excellent resumé in popular style is that
given in Kerner and Oliver’s Natural His-
tory of Plants, Vol. II., pp. 518-554. That up-
ward of 1,600 different kinds of galls have
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vox. III. No. 62.
been described is noted, and an attempt is
made to classify them. With character-
istic looseness Kerner divides galls into
fungus galls and insect galls, but this is
quite inadequate, for alge, among plants,
also produce galls, e. g., Phytophysa treubii
W.v. B.,* which attacks the leaves of Pilea
at Buitenzorg. And ‘‘insects,” under which
Kerner includes Arachnoidea, are not at
all the only gall-producing animals, for
nematodes (afterwards mentioned by Ker-
ner) and rotifera are well known as effi-
cient causes in cediciogenesis.
Kerner’s classification of galls from a
plant anatomical point of view is, however,
excellent and is reproduced with some
slight modifications in Ludwig’s Lehrbuch
der Biologie der Pflanzen.t Fundamentally
galls are either simple or compound, as one
or several organs take part in their produc-
tion. Hach class is divided into a number
of subclasses, but the details need not be
gone into here. The account given by
Ludwig is compact and clear.
The changes produced in flowers and in-
florescences when they are subjected to
stimulus from a cecidiogenic organism may
be classified as: 1. Chlorosis. 2. Multiplica-
tion of parts. 3. Metamorphosis of parts.
4. Suppression of parts. 5. Hypertrophy,
general or restricted. 6. Antholysis. 7.
Fusion of parts. 8. Fasciation. Examples
of these are as follows: 1. Green flowers of
Veronica. 2. Double flowers of Rhododen-
dron. 3. Flowers of Valerianella in which
petals are substituted for stamens. 4.
Flowers of Anemone nemorosa inhibited by
Puccinia fusca. 5. Flowers of Lychnis in
which a parasitic Ustilago stimulates the
growth of the vestigial stamens of pistillate
flowers until they rival in structure the
normal stamens of staminate flowers. 6.
Flowers of gentians in which the carpels
* Weber: Zoolog. Erg. Reis. Niederl. Ost-Ind.
Hft. I. 48-71. Leiden, 1890.
} Ludwig: 1. ¢., pp. 98-110. 1895.
Marcu 6, 1896. ]
are separated under the stimulus of the
wound. 7 and 8. Inflorescences showing
both fusion and fasciation as when the Ash
is attacked by Phytoptus.
The list of papers upon galls is a long
one, including such names as De Lacaze-
Duthiers, Prillieux, Courchet, Wakker,
Fenzling, Frank, Massalongo, Sorauer,
Frauenfeld, Loew, Kieffer, Rubsaamen,
Schlechtendahl, Delpino, Thomas, Nalepa,
Giard, Julin, Van Tubeuf, Magnus,
Schroeter, Peyritsch and many others. A
recent writer, Molliard,« has brought
together in a systematic way the important
facts concerning anthocecidia, and has in
several instances added materially to our
knowledge of the intimate changes effected
in flowers by gall producers. The following
is a brief resumé of his paper.
Molliard classifies anthocecidia as fol-
lows:
I. Phytocecidia: Galls produced by plants.
1. Peronospora galls: Produced by mildews.
2. Uredineous galls: Produced by rusts.
3. Ustilagineous galls: Produced by smuts.
II. Zodcecidia: Galls produced by animals.
1. Hemiptera galls: Produced by Aphides.
2. Diptera galls: Produced by flies.
3. Phytoptus galls: Produced by mites.
The galls produced in flowers of Dipsa-
cus pilosus by Peronospora violacea show
that (1) the pollen-saes have been atrophied
and the pollen mother-cells converted into
parenchyma; (2) the embryo sac has been
atrophied; (3) the sepals have been hyper-
trophied.
Knautia arvensis, attacked by the same
mildew, shows (1) atrophy of the stamens,
due to indirect influence, however, for the
mycelium does not penetrate them; (2)
atrophy of the ovules, also indirectly pro-
duced; (3) metamorphosis and hypertrophy
of the corolla; (4) incomplete metamorpho-
sis of the stamens into petals.
Matricaria inodora attacked by Perono-
spora radii shows (1) coalescences (fusions)
* Ann. Sci. Nat. Bot. VIII., 1: 67-245. 1895.
SCIENCE.
347
of pedicels and flower tubes; (2) torsion
of the flower pedicels resulting from a
secondary tissue which reacts against the
mycelium; (3) atrophy of the sexual or-
gans; (4) metamorphosis of ligulate into
tubular flowers and antholysis of the pistil.
Molliard defines three types of Perono-
spora cecidiogenic effects :
1. The flower is not modified. Example, P. calo-
theca De By on Sherardia.
2. The flower is suppressed. Example, P. arbo-
rescens on Papaver.
3. The flower is metamorphosed and its essential
functions inhibited. Example, P. radii on Ma-
tricaria.
The action of various species of Cysto-
pus is summarized to show the quite differ-
ent effects produced by this genus when
compared with the closely related Perono-
spora. It appears that:
1. There are notable changes in the form, dimen-
sions and contents of the individual cells of the floral
organs.
2. New types of cell arrangement are produced.
3. The myrosin (in mustards) is translocalized.
4. The pollen-spore mother cells are converted
into vegetative cells.
The action of Uromyces scutellatus on
the flowers of Euphorbia cyparissias re-
calls the well-known case of Lychnis at-
tacked by Ustilago antherarum,* which is
discussed anew by Molliard. In Euphorbia
cyparissias the effect of the rust is (1) to
transform the staminate flowers into pistil-
late or monoclinous and the monoclinous
flowers into pistillate ; (2) to cause atrophy
of the pollen and embryo sac spores; (3) to
cause hypertrophy of the parenchyma in all
organs.
The most notable result of smut attacks
upon flowers is the so-called parasitic cas-
*Giard and Mangin. Notes sur la castration para-
sitaire du Lychnis dioica, L.—Bull. Sc. Nat. de Fr. et
Belg. II. 150; also Vuillemin: Sur les effets du para-
sitism de l’ustilago antherarum, Comptes Rend.
Hebd. CXIII. 662, 1891, and review of this paper in
Botan. Gazette. 17: 17. 1891.
348
tration, of Giard. This is known in Lychnsi
dioica, Saponaria officinalis, Dianthus sin-
ensis, Knautia arvensis and Scabiosa suc-
cisa. Parasitic castration arises from the
substitution of sterile cells or fungal spores
for the ordinarily present pollen-mother
cells of the stamens. It is distinguished as
indirect parasitic castration, by Giard, from
the case of Claviceps growing as a substitu-
tionary form and quite destroying the ovary
of the rye, where the pseudomorph is said
to produce direct parasitic castration.
Flowers attacked by aphides show the
following characters:
1. Complete chlorosis in which all the or-
gans of the flower assume the external and
internal characters of foliage leaves (Phyl-
lody), example, Sinapis and Torilis.
2. Complete chlorosis with hypertrophy,
but the resultant structures differing from
foliage leaves (Aphyllody), example, Cer-
astium, Silene, Valerianella.
The most marked characteristic of flowers
converted into cecidia by gall flies is a neg-
ative one, viz: the generally slight structu-
ral change that they undergo. Hypertrophy
is the principal reaction—seen well in flow-
ers of Raphanus, Sisymbrium, Lotus and
Daucus. The flowers of Veronica and Cer-
astium are, however, not particularly en-
larged, but become concealed in a mass of
cecidial leaves. The fly-cecidia of Lychnis
and Scabiosa are distinguished by the for-
mations of numerous hairs, while those of
Tanacetum and Spireea are remarkable for
the general substitution of sclerenchyma
for parenchyma and might be classed as
sclerotocecidia.
Phytoptus galls are chiefly remarkable
for the cytic changes which take place in
them. Epidermal and hypodermal cells
partake in the modification. The cyto-
plasm becomes highly granular, the nucleus
acquires large dimensions and is highly
chromatophilic. The formation of epidermal
hairs is abundant and numerous modifica-
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 62.
tions of the cell contents (chlorophyll, cal-
cium oxylate, etc.) are noteworthy. Doub-
ling, chlorosis, antholysis, atrophy and hy-
pertrophy characterize special cases. On
the whole, the Phytoptus galls in floral re-
gions are comparable best with the Aphis
galls, though differing in the greater stimu-
lation of epidermal tracts, and the conspic-
uous formation of hairs which, in Stachys
betonica,, are even produced in the embryo-
sac.
Molliard’s general conclusions may be
readily condensed into a tabular form, as
follows :
I. Modifications undergone by accessory parts of
the flower.
A. Modifications of organs.
1. Accessory parts wither.
2. Accessory parts undergo metamorphosis
without hypertrophy.
a. Phyllodic metamorphosis.
b. Aphyllodic metamorphosis.
3. Accessory parts hypertrophy.
a. Total hypertrophy.
b. Partial hypertrophy.
B. Modifications of tissues.
1. Simple modifications, e. g., change in size of
parenchyma cells.
. Modification of cell arrangement.
. Disappearance of tissues.
. Appearance of new tissues.
. Translocalization of characteristic cell con-
tents.
II. Modifications undergone by essential organs of
the flower.
1. No modification, e. g. Sherardia.
2. Inhibition of flowers.
3. Development of essential organs, but flower
fails to open.
4, Modification of sporangial areas, so that
sterile cells are substituted for spores.
( Parasitic castration ).
a. Castration of pollen sacs.
. Direct castration. Pollen cells digested.
. Indirect castration. Pollen cells meta-
morphosed.
b. Castration of ovules.
1. Direct castration. Ovules digested.
2. Indirect castration, where either the em-
bryo sac fails to develop or the egg nucleus of the em-
bryo sac fails to appear (inhibition of germination).
Molliard did not, however, discover a conversion of em-
St Be ww
e
wre
Marcu 6, 1896. ]
bryo sac into parenchyma tissue codrdinate with the
phenomenon so common in stamens.
The synoptical resumé given above, upon
examination, indicates that in general the
influence of the cecidiogenic stimulus is es-
sentially atavistic in character and results.
Chlorosis, antholysis, hypertrophy, all may
be considered as reversion phenomena. A
peculiarly good example is the conversion
in cecidia of ligulate flowers into tubular.
The specialized organ becomes more gener-
alized. It is not improbable that cecidia
‘forms, when thoroughly understood, will be
found to present a series comparable with
the paleontologic or ontogenetic series of
organisms, and that they will afford similar
ground for speculations concerning descent,
if not of species, at least of certain tissues
and organs.
Conway MacMiuan.
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.
THE WALL PAINTINGS OF MITLA.
ARCHEOLOGISTS are well aware of the
mystery which has surrounded the ruins of
Mitla in Oaxaca, grandiose remains which
were found deserted and nigh forgotton
when the Spaniards first conquered the
country. A handsome large folio volume
has recently been published in Berlin (A.
Asher & Co.) in which Dr. Eduard Seler
presents a study of the singular wall-paint-
ings, portions of which still adorn the inner
surfaces on the walls of some of the rooms.
Dr. Seler copied these with fidelity and
now reproduces them with an admirable
study of their meaning and origin. He is
of opinion that the central figure in the re-
ligion of the Zapotecs, who are believed to
have been the builders of Mitla, was Quet-
zalcoatl, a familiar and prominent divinity
of the Nahuatl tribes. The transfer he ex-
plains by the influence which the coast
branches of the Nahua exerted upon the
Zapotecan priesthood. This thesis is de-
SCIENCE.
349 |
fended with a great deal of learning. Many
views of the ruins are given in the full-
page plates and numerous mythological
figures in the text. The monograph is
throughout marked by the thorough schol-
arship for which the author is so well
known among students of American anti-
quity.
It is a work which our large libraries
should not fail to procure.
COMMERCE ACROSS BERING STRAITS.
Dr. BengJAMIN SHARP at a recent meeting
of the Academy of Natural Sciences, Phila-
delphia, gave some suggestive information
about possible ancient commerce across
Bering straits. The distance is about forty
miles and in the middle are the Diomede
Islands, say twenty miles from each shore.
On the American side there is abundance
of wood from which canoes, ete., might be -
made, but there is none on the Siberian
side. The skin boats used by the Siberian
natives, made from walrus hide, could not
have been sewed sufficiently tight by bone
needles to have served to cross the strait.
The distance is bridged by ice about once in
five years, but the passage across is con-
sidered quite dangerous, and nothing but
the Jove of tobacco will induce a native to
venture. The inhabitants of the Asian side
appear to have been more influenced by the
Eskimo arts than the reverse.
These facts and the general bearing of
Dr. Sharp’s observations are unfavorable to
an extended early communication from the
Siberian coast to the American.
THE SOCIETY OF AMERICANISTS OF PARIS.
For many years French scholars have
taken a creditable interest in the study of
American subjects, and another evidence in
this direction is the formation of a society
in Paris devoted especially to this subject.
It is entitled the ‘Société des Américan-
istes,’ the president being Prof. Hamy, and
300
the honorary president the Duke de Lou-
bat.
It has begun the publication of a journal
in large quarto form, the first number of
which has forty-one pages and several illus-
trations. Its contents are two articles, one
by Dr. Hamy on the American collections
brought together at Genoa on the occasion
of the fourth centenary of the discovery of
America; the second on the present state
of the Fu Sang question. They are both in-
teresting, and it is especially gratifying to
see that M. Henri Cordier, the author of the
latter, follows the opinion of the eminent
Sinologue Professor Schlegel in wholly dis-
missing the discovery of Fu Sang from the
list of possible pre-Columbian voyages to
America. (I gave Prof. Schlegel’s argu-
ment in these notes September 9, 1892).
It is not stated what relation, if any, this
new society bears to the long-existent ‘So-
ciété Américaine de France,’ which has at
times published highly valuable material.
D. G. Brinton.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
A DIRECTOR IN CHIEF OF SCIENTIFIC BUREAUS
IN THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE,
A LARGE number of letters have been ad-
dressed to Senator Redfield Proctor, Chairman
of the Committee on Agriculture, urging the
appointment of a permanant Director in Chief
of the scientific bureaus and investigations
under the charge of the United States Depart-
ment of Agriculture. The writers of the letters
include the presidents and members of the
faculties of Johns Hopkins University and of
Yale University, the president of Columbia
University, Professors Brewers, Shaler and
‘others most competent to judge of the import-
ance of this measure.
The Joint Commission of the Scientific Socie-
ties of Washington has adopted the following
resolutions :
WHEREAS, The work of the Department of
Agriculture in the discovery, exploration, de-
velopment, conservation and proper utilization
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. ILI. No. 62.
of the resources of our country is of the utmost
importance; and whereas the Department’s
capacity for originating, procuring and dis-
seminating knowledge of vital importance to
farming and other interests, though already
large, is capable of much extension in the future;
and whereas the results accomplished through
the system now in existence have been exceed-
ingly great, and the one thing above all others
necessary to increase the efficiency of this or-
ganization is a permanent policy with regard
to its work and personnel:
Resolved, That the Joint Commission of the
Scientific Societies of Washington, composed of
the officers of the several scientific societies of
the city, comprising in all a membership of
nearly 2,000, heartily approves the proposition
to create the office of ‘ Director-in-Chief of
Scientific Divisions in the Department of Agri-
eulture,’’ to be filled by a broadly educated
and experienced scientific administrative officer,
holding office during good behavior.
Resolved, That the plan of having a perma-
nent officer in charge of the scientific and tech-
nical work under the executive head of a de-
partment represents a distinct advance in good
government, and is therefore not only of
national importance, but if carried out certain
to have a beneficial effect upon the scientific
standing of Government work in all its rela-
tions.
RONTGEN RAYS AND THE ROYAL SOCIETY.
- THE London papers give the following ac-
count of the meeting of the Royal Society
on February 18th: A paper by Lord Kelvin
on The Generation of Longitudinal Waves in
Ether described an arrangement for obtaining
pressural disturbance through a considerable
space of air, accompanied by a very small pro-
portion of ordinary transverse waves. His ap-
paratus would afford the means of exposing
sensitive plates to these longitudinal vibrations,
and thus might assist in elucidating the nature
of the Rontgen rays. A paper by Prof. J.
J. Thomson was also read relating to experi-
ments from which he concludes that all sub-
stances when transmitting the Roéntgen rays
are conductors of electricity. A discussion fol-
lowed the reading of these papers, in which de-
Marcu 6, 1896. ]
tails were given of many experiments on these
X-rays. Its general effect was, however, to
show that, while many interesting points have
been noted, the obscurity hanging over the
subject had not been appreciably lightened.
Considerable differences of opinion were mani-
fest even upon the conditions of the Rontgen
experiments. While some advocated the use
of very powerful currents, others had been suc-
cessful with relatively weak ones; and while
some were in favor of regarding the phosphores-
cence of the glass as the efficient source of
the rays, others ascribed them, to the glow of
the electrodes. A new turn was given to the
discussion by Captain Abney, who ventured,
amid some expressions of dissent, to doubt
whether the action of the Rontgen rays on a
sensitive plate could properly be described as
photographic. He cited several facts which, in
his opinion, excluded the theory of direct pho-
tographic action in any ordinary sense, and in-
dicated some preference for the view that the
Rontgen rays acted by first setting up phos-
phorescence or action of some unknown kind in
the glass at the back of the sensitive film. This
view was corroborated by an experiment de-
scribed by Prof. Dewar upon platino-cyanide of
ammonium at low temperatures. This salt,
ordinarily fluorescent, only became phosphores-
cent at the temperature of liquid air. On be-
ing exposed to Rontgen rays, instead of the or-
dinary light, while immersed in liquid air, it
showed when the liquid air was poured off
brilliant phosphorescence. This proved that
whatever might be the nature of the Rantgen
rays, they were convertible into the light rays
affecting the human eye. <A large number of
experiments were also described by Prof. Dewar
showing that resistance to the passage of
Rontgen rays increased with increase of atomic
weight. Organic substances were all relatively
transparent, following the carbon, oxygen, hy-
drogen and nitrogen of which they are com-
posed. Mere complexity of structure made no
difference, but substitution products showed
increasing opacity in the order of the atomic
weights of the combined chlorine, bromine and
iodine.
ASTRONOMY.
- THE January number of the monthly notices
SCIENCE.
30
of the Royal Astronomical Society contains a
very interesting article by Messrs. Christie and
Dyson upon the progress of work on the Astro-
photographie Catalogue at Greenwich Observa-
tory. It appears that up to the present time
no less than 160 plates for the Catalogue have
been measured. Moreover, at the present rate
of progress 180 plates are being measured an-
nually, and it is estimated that only five or six
years will be required to finish the Greenwich
zone. The precision of the Greenwich measures
is not quite as great as it might be, however,
because the authorities there prefer to sacrifice
some accuracy in order to expedite the pro-
gress of the work. We venture to doubt
whether this course is to be commended. It
is hardly in accord with the best traditions of
the Greenwich Observatory. Probably twelve
years devoted to this work, instead of six,
would have been sufficient to extract the very
highest accuracy possible from these photo-
graphic measures.
Pror. ALBRECHT, of Potsdam, has now pub-
lished in the Astronomische Nachrichten the re-
sults of his researches on the Variation of Lati-
tude, to which we made reference in a recent
number. The former publication took place in
the report of the proceedings of the Interna-
tional Geodetic Committee, which is not very
accessible to the general astronomical public.
1a de
GENERAL.
WE much regret to learn that the American
Meteorological Journal will be discontinued after
the forthcoming April number, which ends the
twelfth volume. The Journal has been carried
on at a financial loss on the part of the editors
ever since its foundation in 1884, and the pres-
ent step has been decided upon because there
seems no hope that it will become self-support-
ing, and because the editors do not wish any
longer to be financially responsible for a maga-
zine that has not secured the support which it
seems to them to have deserved.
THE series of the Catalogue of Scientific Papers
of the Royal Society, covering the years 1874—
83, has been completed by the publication of
Vol. XI.
AT a meeting of the Royal Photographic
302
Society on February 13th it was mentioned
that as bearing on the suggestion that the Ront-
gen rays might resemble ultra-violet rays in
possessing germicidal effects, that a cultivation
of diphtheria microbes had been subjected to
their influence for 12 hours without any steriliz-
ing results.
THE Senate committee on appropriations has
concluded its consideration of the agricultural
appropriation bill increasing it in the aggregate
to the extent of $47,260, and making a total
appropriation of $3,262,652. The principal in-
crease is $40,000 for the publication of the
special report on the diseases and the feeding of
cattle, and the principal reduction is $9,000 on
the appropriation of $15,000 made by the House
for an investigation of irrigation.
THE Odessa correspondent of the London
Times writes that the Russian government will
send a special scientific mission to observe the
total eclipse of the sun which occurs on August
9th. It is remarkable that this total eclipse
will be almost exclusively visible throughout
the northern part of the Russian Empire, as the
line of totality passes from the extreme north
of Norway, over Novaya Zemlya, Siberia and
Manchuria, to Jesso, in Japan. The mission
will be in charge of three astronomers from the
Nikolas Observatory at Pulkoff, and leaves
Odessa in May by one of the cruisers belonging
to the Russian Volunteer Fleet Committee for
Vladivostok, whence it will go near the mouth
of the river Amoor for observations. The
committee has agreed with the government to
convey the mission from Odessa to Vladivostok
and back again to Odessa free of charge.
Dr. LAvuGHTON MCFARLANE, professor of
surgery at the University of Toronto, died on
February 29th, from blood poisoning, contracted
while amputating the toes of a patient at the
General Hospital a week ago. He was 54 years
old.
THE London correspondent of the New York
Sun states that an Antarctic expedition has been
arranged for next winter. It will be partly a
trading and a scientific enterprise, and will be
under the command of Capt. Svend Foyn, of
Christiania. Mr. W. S. Bruce, of the Ben
Nevis Observatory, will have charge of the sci-
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 62.
entific party, composed of himself and four
other men. The scientific party will be landed
on the Antarctic continent in Victoria Land in
January next, and the vessel will then engage
in whale and seal fishing, returning to Austra-
lia. The following season, in January, 1898,
she will return and take off the scientific party,
who hope by then to have obtained knowledge
of the fauna, flora, geology and topography of
the Antarctic region. If found practicable, an
attempt will be made to reach the south mag-
netic pole.
THE Secretary of the Treasury has sent to the
Senate the report of Mr. Joseph Murray, a spe-
cial agent, who has spent seven seasons on the
seal islands of Alaska. He states that in 1894,
the first year the Paris regulations were in force,
142,000 seals were killed, of which number 60
per cent. were female, all of which left pups to
die on the island of starvation. He claims that
there were at the close of that season, by the
most liberal estimate, not more than 300,000
seals on the islands, whereas when he first went
there, in 1888, there were fully 3,000,000.
Dr. SELLE and Dr. Neuhauss have exhibited
in Berlin colored photographs which have at-
tracted much attention. They are said to be
taken by the method used by Mr. Joly of Dub-
lin, three specially prepared plates appropriate
for green, red and blue lights respectively being
used. The process has been simplified and the
time of exposure shortened. Mr. Frederick
Ives exhibited before the Royal Photographic
Society of London, on February 25th, his stere-
opticon showing colored pictures.
Pror. ROBERTS-AUSTEN was announced to
deliver the Bakerian Lecture before the Royal
Society, on February 20th, his subject being
the ‘Diffusion of Metals.’ Nature states that
Prof. Roberts-Austen has obtained some singu-
lar experimental results connected with the
mobility of solid metals. Many experimenters
in England, especially Prof. Graham and Lord
Kelvin, have studied the diffusion of gases
and saline solutions, and Prof. Roberts-Austen
measured the rate at which certain metals will
penetrate each other. He finds that solid gold,
for instance, will diffuse into and move about
slowly in lead, even at the ordinary tempera-
MARcH 6, 1896.]
ture of the air, and with considerable rapidity
if the lead be warmed, though far from melted.
Evidence as to the presence of wandering
atoms in a solid possesses much interest now
that views as to the nature of metals and other
solids have been extended by the discovery
that certain rays of light will penetrate them.
THE Postmaster-General has modified the
order forbidding the use of the mails for the
transmission of specimen germs of cholera or
other diseased tissues. By special permit and
in mailing packages constructed in accordance
with special specifications such germs may be
transmitted to United States or municipal lab-
oratories.
ACCORDING to the Boston Transcript Mr.
Charles B. Cary, curator of the ornithological
department of the Field Columbian Museum,
has established at Palm Beach, Florida, a
museum devoted to the natural history of the
State, which is soon to be opened to the public.
An excellent collection of birds, reptiles, mam-
mals, fishes, etc., is already in order, and
aquaria are to be fitted up for the study of salt
and fresh water fishes.
A DEPUTATION has appeared before Mr.
Chaplin at the House of Commons to urge that
the present English legislation, which practi-
cally prohibits the use of self-propelled wagons,
be repealed. Mr. Chaplin said that he was in
full sympathy with the movement represented
by the deputation. A bill was now being pre-
pared by the Local Government Board, and he
hoped, with the assistance of Mr. Russell, to
earry it without opposition through the House
this session.
THe March number of McClure’s Magazine
contains an article on scientific kite flying by
Mr. Cleveland Moffett, describing with illustra-
tions the experiments made by Mr. Eddy.
By the courtesy of those in charge of the ex-
hibit of the Plant System at Atlanta, the United
States National museum has obtained a number
of fossils from the Peace Creek phosphate de-
posit. The greater part of these, including
some well preserved teeth, are remains of the
mammoth Elephas primigenius colombi, and are
interesting as showing the large average size of
the Florida mammoth. Among the smaller
SCIENCE.
308
specimens is a fine metacarpus and molar of
Bison latifrons, the former indicating an animal
a trifle over six feet high at the shoulder,
about nine inches taller than Bison americanus.
Two molars of a species of Procamelus are prob-
ably referrable to Anchenia minimus of Leidy
and are the first of this species that have come
to light.
A RECENT paper by Dr. Gustav Hartlaub,
issued as a reprint from Abhandlungen des Na-
turwissenschaftlichen Vereins zu Bremen treats of
birds which have recently become extinct or
whose numbers have been so reduced that the
species seems threatened with extinction.
Twenty-three are placed in the first category
and twenty in the second, although some of
these, like Notornis mantelli, are practically ex-
tinct. Man and his familiars, cats, rats and
hogs, are directly responsible for most of the
destruction; and Dr. Hartlaub, in an introduc-
tory chapter, treats of the various ways in
which it is brought about. References to the
more important literature on the species dis-
cussed, and a statement of the institutions in
which the rarer species are preserved, make
the paper particularly valuable to the ornitholo-
gist.
Dr. Lrerpy’s delayed posthumous memoir on
fossil vertebrates from the Alachua clays of
Florida is now in press, and will appear as a
part of the transactions of the Wagner Free
Institute of Science.
A NEW monthly journal of entomology has
appeared in Tokyo, Japan, under the title
Koncht Gaku Zasshi, or Journal of Insect Sci-
ence. The first number was issued in October
last, and is wholly in Japanese, excepting an
English title and the statement that the plate
represents insects injurious to rice and mul-
berry.
WILHELM ENGELMANN, Leipzig, announces
the early publication of a Grundriss der Psychol-
ogie by Prof. W. Wundt. The book is awaited
with much interest, and should be translated
into English without delay. Prof. Wundt is by
common consent the preéminent representative
of modern psychology. His Menschen und
Thierseele, published more than thirty years ago,
defined the course that psychology has since
354
followed, and his Grundziige der physiologischen
Psychologie (Fourth Edition, 1893) is the standard
compendium. The volume of Prof. Wundt’s
writings is almost as remarkable as is their
value. He has published large works on phys-
iology, physics, logic, ethics and philosophy,
and has in preparation a treatise on anthropo-
logical and sociological psychology.
PrRoF. WUNDT established, in 1883, an Archiv
Philosophische Studien for the publication of re-
searches in philosophy and psychology, which
is now in its twelfth volume. Last year Prof.
E. Kraepelin, of Heidelberg, established a simi-
lar archiv and now a third archiv, Beitrage zur
Psychologie und Philosophie has been begun by
Prof. Gotz Martius, of Bonn. The first number
of the first volume contains a preface and an
introduction by the editor and four papers all
concerned with the brightness of colors. It
may also be mentioned that Prof. Munsterberg
has published his contributions to psychology
in the form of Beitridge, and that there is in
Germany an excellent Zeitschrift fiir Psychologie
u. Physiologie der Sinnesorgane, edited by Prof.
Ebbinghaus, of Breslau, and Prof. Konig, of
Berlin. Ten large volumes of this journal have
been issued since its establishment in 1890.
These contain full reviews of psychological lit-
erature and many important papers, those
on vision being probably of greater value than
all the papers combined that have been pub-
lished elsewhere on this subject.
THE number of the Zeitschrift fiir Psychologie
issued on January 14th contains an index of
psychological literature for the year1894. The
index appears somewhat late, but is very com-
plete, especially in regard to publications on
the senses. The Psychological Review issued, at
the beginning of February, a supplement con-
taining a bibliography of the literature of psy-
chology for 1895, compiled by Dr. Livingston
Farrand, of Columbia University, and Prof.
Howard C. Warren, of Princeton University.
The index contains 1394 titles, distributed as
follows: General, 136; genetic, comparative
and individual psychology, 238; anatomy and
physiology of the nervous system, 205; sensa-
tion, 125; consciousness, attention and intel-
lection, 180; feeling, 91; movements and yo-
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 62;
lition, 81; abnormal and pathological, 338.
This index is also about to be issued in France
as part of L’ Année Psychologique, edited by MM.
Beaunis and Binet.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
CERTITUDES AND ILLUSIONS.
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In your issue
of February 21, in an interesting paper on
‘Certitudes and TIllusions,’ Major J. W.
Powell has repeatedly referred to an illusion
which he describes as a certain tendency to
‘reify void’—an ancient, and, as Major Powell
has very well said, a disastrous tendency of the
human mind. This is the tendency to recog-
nize mere abstractions as realities, and, in con-
sequence, to explain phenomena by referring
their source to ‘essences’ or to some sort of
‘substrate,’ defined as ‘some occult existence
unknown and unknowable, which gives to
bodies their likeness or unlikeness.’ Major
Powell very justly condemns this tendency, ex-
emplifies it in a number of cases, suggests ex-
planations for its existence, and rightly declares
its inevitable outcome to be a bad metaphysic.
So far the present writer cordially agrees with
Major Powell.
But, as a humble student of the history of
philosophy, the present writer is very sorry to
find that Major Powell, influenced by some
singular historical ‘illusion,’ repeatedly refers
to one of the best known of modern thinkers,
Hegel, as a prominent example of precisely this
sort of bad metaphysic. ‘‘As the substrate of
matter, or reified nothing, is entertained in the
minds of some as an entity, so some thinkers
make essence a property of this substrate—a
nonentity of a nonentity. Chuar (Major Pow-
ell’s entertaining Indian friend), Hegel, and
Spencer reason in this manner.’
Major Powell is no doubt an absolute au-
thority as to the views of his Indian friend, and
he appears in this particular case to be in no
wise unfair to Spencer. But to put Hegel in
the same category, to define that lifelong op-
ponent of the ‘unknowable,’ that merciless
dialectical dissolver of all the ‘essences,’ ‘sub-
strata,’ and similar entities of traditional meta-
physic, as one who, at least in this sense,
Marcu 6, 1896. ]
‘reified the void,’ well, from the point of view
of the student of the history of philosophy such
a way of assailing Hegel is in its accuracy similar
to a way of assailing Luther’s theological views
which should hold the reformer up to scorn as
a defender of the wicked doctrine of ‘justifica-
tion by works,’ and as a blasphemous opponent
of ‘justification by faith.’ One might want to
condemn Luther’s views; but it would hardly
be accurate to talk of ‘Luther and the other
Papists.’ And even so, one is welcome to re-
gard Hegel as a mischievous thinker; but one
must not give as a reason that one classes him
with those other believers in ‘an occult, un-
known and unknowable substrate.’
As a fact, by no means all, but certainly a
number of Major Powell’s own assertions in
this valuable paper are theses which every stu-
dent of Hegel knows to be defended with great
energy by the latter thinker. Major Powell
well says: ‘‘ What is the meaning of the word
this? It may be applied to any constituent
of matter, to matter itself, to any body or to
any property, and to any idea in the mental
world, and its meaning is derived from the
context; it has no definite meaning in itself.’’
This is a part of the thesis of Hegel’s famous
opening chapter of the ‘Phainomenologie des
Geistes.’ And of this thesis in the sequel
Hegel makes a use closely analogous to Major
Powell’s. That to make essence an abstract
‘property’ of ‘the substrate of matter,’ is to
make essence a ‘nonentity of a nonentity’ is a
thesis so repeatedly maintained by Hegel, in
his ‘Phinomenologie’ (in the third chapter on
‘Kraft und Verstand’), in his larger Logic in
the second volume, where this ‘Bewegung von
Nichts durch Nichts zu Nichts’ is elaborately
discussed, and elsewhere, that Major Powell’s
failure to recognize the relation of Hegel to
this thesis can only be due to a failure to study
the habits of Hegel, as our anthropologist
would prefer to study those of Chuar, namely,
in the ‘native wilds’ of the thinker himself.
The Hegel of whom Major Powell speaks is a
product of somebody’s ‘inner consciousness ’
and, whoever may be responsible for the dream,
all the ‘eloquence of the dreamer’ cannot
make this Hegel an historical person.
Of course, one must beg pardon for laying so
SCIENCE.
305
much stress upon the mere accidental fact of
history in a case like this. Major Powell’s
general philosophical construction in this paper
seems to the present writer despite some minor
doubts, essentially sound, and admirably stated.
But, as Major Powell himself obviously holds,
the history of philosophy is, at least in one as-
pect, an anthropological study. It is undesira-
ble that even a minor error should, through a
chance misstatement, stand upon record as re-
ceiving the support of so eminent an anthropo-
logical authority as Major Powell.
JOSIAH ROYCE.
CAMBRIDGE, MAss., February 22, 1896.
PROF. C. LLOYD MORGAN ON INSTINCT.
EDITOR SCIENCE: In an account of a discus-
sion on instinet given in SCIENCE of February
14th, Prof. Morgan is reported thus: ‘‘ He de-
scribed his own interesting experiments with
chicks and ducklings, and held that these and
other evidence tend to show that instincts are
not perfected under the guidance of intelligence
and then inherited. A chick will peck instinc-
tively at food, but must be taught to drink.
[Italics mine.] Chicks have learned to drink
for countless generations, but the acquired action
has not become instinctive.”’
In one of a series of papers now in the press
on ‘The Psychic Development of Young Ani-
mals and its Physical Correlation,’ I have given
in detail an account of a study of the pigeon
and the chick. It so happens that this very
question of drinking by chicks has been especi-
ally noted, and I find a record of one observa-
tion to the effect that a newly hatched chick
pecking at the drops on rim of a vessel contain-
ing water accidentally gotits beak into the liquid,
whereupon it at once raised its head and drank
perfectly well in the usual fashion for fowls.
Was this by teaching or by instinct ?
Later the chicks seem to peck and drink,
sometimes on seeing the mother do so. The
act seems to be in such a case a sort of imita-
tion so far as its inception is concerned. But
will any one contend that that first act of
drinking referred to above was other than in-
stinctive? Again, when a chick first drinks
on its beak being put into water, can the act be
considered as the result of teaching? Is the
356
chick so intelligent as to carry out an act so
complex in such a perfect way as it does on
the very first occasion as the result of ‘teach-
ing?’ Surely no one will deny that sucking is
an instinctive act, yet a newly born mammal
sucks only when its lips come in contact with the
teat. Is not the case very similar with the
chick? The only difference is that the chick is
slower to recognize water than food, but as soon as
the beak touches water it drinks and there is no
teaching about it. Considering how seldom a
fowl drinks, yet pecks all day long at particles
of food, it is not surprising that the chick is
slower to recognize water (drink) than food.
But it is one thing to say that a chick learns to
‘recognize drink and another to affirm that it
learns to drink. The process of drinking is
quite as perfect as that of eating from the very
first, if not more so, for a chick at first often
misses what it pecks at and fails to convey the
object into its mouth in other cases, though it
may touch it.
The view that instincts are perfect from the
first and undergo no development from experi-
ence, I believe, after much observation, to be
as erroneous as it is ancient.
Instinct is never, perhaps, perfect at first, and
so far as I can see, could not be owing to gen-
eral imperfect development in the animal of
motor power, the senses, ete. A young puppy
will suck anything almost that can pass be-
tween his lips, as a chick will peck at any light
spot or object if small, be it food or not. My
own records abound in observations that amply
prove the position taken, and while my experi-
ments and observations on birds are in the main
in accord with those of Prof. Morgan so far as I
know them, I cannot but believe, if I have cor-
rectly understood his views as reported at the
New York meeting, that he has misconceived
or overstated the case under consideration.
The subject of heredity is too large to enter
upon now. I may say, however, that my re-
searches in comparative psychology and especi-
ally in that part bearing perhaps most closely
on the question, psychogenesis, do not incline
me to believe any the more in that biological
ignis fatwus—W eismannism.
WESLEY MILLs.
McGi~u UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. ILE. No. 62.
[Professor Morgan’s observations agree with
those of Professor Mills and others. A chick
swallows water instinctively, but must be
taught to drink by example or by accident.
The chick might die of thirst in the presence
of water, as the sight of the water does not call
up the movements of pecking at it, as do food
and other small objects. The mother hen re-
places natural selection, and the action, though
continually practiced by the individual, has not
become instinctive, because it has not a selec-
tive value. Professor Morgan’s argument seems
to be satisfactory. If actions which occur but
once in the lifetime of the individual (e. g., the
nuptial flight of the queen bee) are thoroughly
instinctive, and others which are practiced con-
tinually by the individual do not become in-
stinctive in the race, we can scarcely regard
instincts as hereditary habits, but must rather
attribute them to variations, fortuitous or due to
unknown causes, and preserved by natural,
selection.—THE WRITER OF THE NOTE. ]
THE CHANCE OF OBSERVING THE TOTAL SOLAR
ECLIPSE IN NORWAY.
EDITOR OF SCIENCE: As unusual facilities are
being offered to visit northern Norway to ob-
serve the total solar eclipse on the 9th of next
August, of which many American and English
astronomers and tourists will doubtless take
advantage, it seems desirable to make known
the following data relating to the cloudiness,
and the consequent probability of seeing the
eclipse there. They have been communicated
to me by Prof: H. Mohn, director of the Nor-
wegian Meteorological Institute, who prepared
them for the Swedish Astronomical Association.
Vads6, which has been recommended as the
most accessible station near the central line of
totality and will be the rendezvous of several ..
parties, is situated in Latitude 69° 52’ North ‘i
and Longitude 29° 45’ East of Greenwich.
According to the British Nautical Almanac,
the total phase, lasting 1m 47s, here occurs at
15h 58m Greenwich time, or 5h 55m local mean
time, which is 2 hours after sunrise. The sun’s
altitude is 15°.
Professor Mohn writes: For Sydvaranger,
the nearest place to. Vads6 at which meteorolog-
ical observations have been made, the amount
Makgcu 6, 1896.]
of cloud ona scale of 0 to 10, and the chance
in percentages of its occurrence are as follows :
August 8th, 8 P. M. August 9th, 8 A. M.
oman ot Chance. Arnouniot Chance.
10 45.5 10 45.5
8 13.7 9 9.1
ra) 4.6 8 4.6
5 4.5 7 9.1
3 9.1 6 4.5
2 4.5 4 4.6
0 18.2 3 4.5
2 ON
0 9.1
100.1 100.1
‘(In Vadso there is a telegraph station, and
time signals are to be had from the observatory
in Christiania. The latitude and longitude have
been determined with all possible accuracy.
Sydvaranger lies on the south side of the Var-
angerijord and Elvenesis the name of the posting
station. Vardo, lying on the north side, is not to
ber ecommended, haying too often fog or clouded
sky. In the interior of Finmarken the sun is
lower than at Varangerfjord.”’
Although the astronomical conditions of low
altitude of sun and short totality are not good,
yet the meteorological conditions just noted
compare favorably with those of stations in
Japan, where the eclipse occurs later in the day
and totality lasts longer. As a basis of com-
parison for the chance of clear weather, it may be
stated that here at Blue Hill, Mass., near the
coast, at 8 A. M. in August the average fre-
quency of cloudy weather (sky 8 to 10 tenths
covered) is 50.0 per cent. and the average fre-
quency of clear weather (sky 0 to 2 tenths cov-
ered) is 32.3 per cent.
A. LAWRENCE RoTcuH.
BLUE HILL METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY, Feb-
ruary 20, 1896.
THE RONTGEN RAYS.
The following fact regarding the X-rays of
Rontgen may be of interest:
IT have found that it is possible to obtain a
photographic image by these rays using a ‘ pin-
hole camera,’ having the aperture pierced in a
piece of sheet lead backed with aluminum.
The Crookes tube was illuminated by discharges
from a Thomson high-frequency coil. The
SCIENCE.
307
photographs taken in this way show very dis-
tinctly the two electrodes, while the glass bulb,
which appeared to be brightly illuminated to
the eye, is scarcely perceptible. It would ap-
‘pear from this that nearly, if not all, the so-
called X-rays proceed directly from the elec-
trodes of the tube and not from the glass where
this is acted on by the cathode-rays. It like-
wise affords further illustration of the recti-
linear motion of the X-rays. Experiments are
in progress with a broken current and also to
study the effect of a magnetic field.
Previous observation had shown that the
photographic effects were produced equally
whether the cathode rays impinged upon the
glass or upon other phosphorescent material (e.
g., arragonite) within the tube. It has also
been noticed in experiments in this laboratory
that the appearance of the tube to the eye af-
fords no criterion of its efficiency in producing
the X-rays; tubes showing but little fluores-
cence of the glass composing them often giving
admirable photographic effects, which in some
cases are obtainable even from a low-vacuum
Geissler tube. But the rays producing photo-
graphic effects always appear to produce strong
flourescent effects on platino-cyanide of ba-
rium, so that the fluorescence of this affords an
indication of the photographic efficiency of the
radiations emitted from the tube.
RALPH R. LAWRENCE.
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY,
Boston, February 26, 1896.
RONTGEN RAYS PRESENT IN SUNLIGHT.
In the course of a series of experiments on
the so-called Rontgen or X-rays, the undersigned
have secured evidence of the presence of these
rays in sunlight,and have been able to reproduce
many of the phenomena ascribed to the X-rays,
without the use of vacuum tubes or any other
source of light or energy than direct sunlight.
Dr. Egbert was led on February 22d to place
in a photographer’s printing frame, an ordinary
sensitive plate (Seed’s No. 26), upon which was
superimposed a positive lantern slide, and on
this a shield of aluminium; which was then ex-
posed to the direct rays of the sun for two hours,
.and the plate developed, when it was found
that the aluminium shield had been transparent
358
to some agent which had produced a photo-
graphic effect; although the sensitive plate was
completely in the dark within the printing
frame and thoroughly protected from light rays
as generally understood. Apparently, however,
the plate had been over-exposed, and it seemed
that better results might be obtained by shorter
exposures. Therefore other plates of the same
kind were exposed by us for gradually decreas-
ing periods, under negatives and positives, and
shields, respectively of aluminium, hard rubber,
black cardboard and double thicknesses of
opaque needle paper.
Positives were obtained in each case resem-
bling those obtained by the photographer with
ordinary methods, in some cases the exposures
being as brief as ten minutes.
Shadowgraphs (‘skotographs,’ or ‘skia-
graphs’) were also produced by the method em-
ployed by Prof. Rontgen, except that the source
of energy was the direct sunlight in place of
the rays from a vacuum tube, 7. e., coins placed
upon the aluminium shield produced shadow
prints on the sensitive plate.
It is obvious that these experiments prove
the presence in sunlight of the peculiar rays de-
scribed by Prof. Réntgen, or of others posses-
sing the same properties, namely, the power of
penetrating substances opaque to ordinary light
rays.
Prof. Réntgen states, in the second clause of
his article (as translated and printed in SCIENCE
of February 14th, p. 227,) ‘that some agent is
capable of penetrating black cardboard, which
is quite opaque to ultra-violet light, sunlight
or arc-light.’ If this statement refers to sun-
light in toto, including the visible and invisible
rays, it is evidently contravened by our experi-
ments, which demonstrate beyond a doubt the
existence of an ‘agent’ in sunlight, which ac-
complishes the work of the ‘ X-rays.’
Prof. Rontgen refers to the possibility that
the effect is due to a fluorescence produced in
the material of the sensitive plate. One of our
experiments seemed to point to the correctness
of this hypothesis. Fixed photographic prints
on albumin paper placed between the alumin-
ium shield and the sensitive plate gave cor-
responding negative effects; but the space
covered by these prints was evidently more in-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 62,
tensely acted upon by the rays than other parts
of the plate covered only by the aluminium.
Should fluorescence be produced by these rays
in silver emulsions, it would perhaps explain
the phenomena. Prof. Rontgen further states
that silver in ‘thin’ layers allows the rays to
pass ; but we have shown that some of the rays
are partially stopped by the exceedingly thin
film of silver in the ordinary photographic neg-
ative.
It is obvious that the discovery of these rays
in sunlight Opens up an entirely new field for
experiment and is of the highest practical im-
portance to all photographers.
We hope to supplement this preliminary state-
ment by a presentation of the results of our at-
tempts to solve a number of interesting problems
that have been suggested.
CHARLES S. DoLLEy,
SENECA EGBERT.
[Results somewhat similar to those given by
Drs. Doliey and Egbert have been announced
by M. Gustav Le Bon, Prof. S. P. Thompson
and others. The conditions, are, however, so
complex that it is difficult to eliminate sources
of energy other than the ROntgen rays. Care-
ful experiments at Columbia College have not
detected any penetration of thin (;j> inch)
sheets of aluminium by sunlight, though ebonite
and wood of considerable thickness are pene-
trated by ordinary light. Ed].
RONTGEN RAYS FROM THE ELECTRIC ARC.
Pror. 8. P. THOMPSON is reported * to have
discovered the Réntgen rays in the radiations
emitted by the electric arc, and to have suc-
ceeded in getting excellent shadow pictures
with them. The present writer had carried
out the following experiments before seeing the
report of S. P. Thompson’s work, and had
reached conclusions opposite to those reported
of Prof. Thompson.
Very rapid (Carbutt’s ‘ Eclipse 27’) and me-
dium (Carbutt’s ‘Orthochromatic 23’) plates,
placed in ordinary holders, were laid in deep
lead trays and masked with two to five thick-
nesses of black cardboard, including the card-
*London, Electrician, January 24, 1896. Digest in
the Electrical World February 15th.
MARCH 6, 1896.]
board slide of the plateholder. Bits of sheet
aluminum (} mm. thick) and of sheet lead (3
mm. thick) were laid upon the cardboard slide
of the plateholder. Two to five hours’ expos-
ure to a 900 Watt arc ata distance of 25 cm.
produced no perceptible effect.
The bits of sheet metal were then for conven-
ience placed next to the gelatine film and the
plates, masked with two thickness of black
cardboard, were exposed to the are for three
hours ata distance ofabout 12cm. The plates be-
come quite hot, about 80°C. after development
the action was found to be quite strong where
the plate was not screened by the bits of metal.
The bits of metal, each several square centi-
meters in area, screened the plates about
equally. The portions of the films under the
bits of metal showed very faintly the texture
of metal surface, as if by reflection.
The plates were then arranged so as to ob-
viate excessive heating by ventilation, and
masked with two thicknesses of black card-
board and two to four thicknesses of mask
paper, the bits of sheet metal being placed out-
side the cardboard slide of the plate holder as
at first. Three hours’ exposure at a distance of
15 cm. from the are produced no perceptible
effect.
The are was then arranged to play between
zine and carbon, taking about ten amperes at
thirty-five volts. The plates arranged as de-
scribed in the previous paragraph were exposed
to this zine are for two hours at a distance
of about ten centimeters. The zine rod was
cathode for about one hourand anode for about
one hour. No perceptible effect was produced.
It seems justifiable to conclude from these
experiments that Rontgen rays are not given
off in any abundance by the electric arc, and
that they are not of the same nature as the
ultra-violet of the spectrum, or at least that they
are not of the same nature as the ultra-violet,
which is present in any abundance in the light
emitted by the electric arc between carbon
electrodes or between zinc electrodes.
In demonstrating the presence of Rontgen
rays it is necessary in every case to exercise
the greatest care in the rigid exclusion of every
other agent capable of affecting the sensitive
plate, such as ordinary and ultra-violet light,
SCIENCE.
309
electric charge acting directly upon the film,
mechanical pressure, high temperature, ete.
These rays and the cathode rays are distin-
guished among all other actinic radiations by
the facility with which they pass through
metals and from each other by their different
behavior in the magnetic field, as appears from
Rontgen’s paper. W.S. FRANKLIN.
AMES, Iowa.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
Grundzige der Marinen Tiergeographie. Anleit-
ung zur Untersuchung der geographischen
Verbreitung Mariner Tiere mit besonderer
Berucksichtigung der Dekapodenkrebse. Von
Dr. ARNOLD EH. ORTMANN, in Princeton, N.
J., U.S.A. Mit 1 Karte. Jena, Verlag von
Gustay Fischer. 1896. Pp. 96. M. 2. 50.
This is an excellent contribution to zodgeogra-
phy, which ought to be in the hands of every-
body interested in the fascinating questions of
animal distribution. A great number of highly
interesting points are also discussed, important
for the biologist and geologist.
The principal aim of this work, the author
states in the introduction, is to call the atten-
tion of the scientific world to the highly inter-
esting study of the distribution of marine ani-
mals hitherto greatly neglected. Before all, the
principles had to be established, according to
which the distribution of marine animals has to
be examined; in doing so it was necessary to
discuss the general principles of animal distri-
bution. Since the question of the distribution
of species is most intimately connected with that
of their origin the latter had to be examined,
and the result is reached that the principle of
separation or isolation is one of the most im-
portant factors. As an example of distribution
Dr. Ortmann selected the group of decapod
crustaceans, of which he has made special
studies. He finishes his introductory remarks
with the very pertinent sentence that without
extensive and critical systematic preliminary
work fruitful geographical studies are absolutely
impossible.
The work is divided into seven chapters.
The first chapter gives an historical review of
the development of zodgeographical science.
He distinguishes three periods.
360
Ist period. The oldest attempts of A. Wag-
ner, L. Agassiz, Dana and Schmarda.
2d period. To A. Agassiz and Wallace. The
period of the discussion about the number of
zoogeographical regions, and the first attempt
to lay a scientific basis for zoogeography.
3d period. From Wallace to Heilprin, Troues-
sart and Déderlein. The period of the special
researches on single groups of animals, with
more or less considerable acceptance of the
principles of Wallace; full treatment of single
groups.
At the end of the chapter Ortmann refers to a
very important paper of Pfeffer: Versuch tiber
die erdgeschichtliche Entwicklung der jetzigen
Verbreitungsverhaltnisse unserer Thierwelt,
Hamburg, 1891, which he considers as possibly
the best ever published on zodgeography ; he
also refers to the new work of J. Walther.
Einleitung in die Geologie als historische Wis-
senschaft I. Theil. Bionomie des Meeres. Beo-
bachtungen wber die marinen Lebensbezirke
und Existenzbedingungen. Jena. 1893.
The second chapter treats of the most im-
portant physical life conditions, the life regions
and the facies (‘Bionomy’). Ortman distin-
guishes the following life regions.
1. The terrestrial region of Terrestrial (con-
tinental).
2. The fresh-water region or Fluvial.
3. The litoral region or Litoral.
4, The pelagic region or Pelagial.
5. The abyssal region or Abyssal.
After this the adaptations of the organisms to
the life regions are discussed. The organisms
are divided into two groups according to their
dependence on the bottom * (Substrat). Ani-
mals which are dependent on the bottom and
are unable to free themselves from it constitute
the Benthos (Haeckel); animals which are not
dependent on the bottom, those which during
their lifetime never need to come into connec-
tion with the coast or the bottom of the ocean
constitute the Plankton (Haeckel). Among the
benthonic animals three groups are distinguished
* Brooks, William K. Salpa in its Relation to the
Evolution of Life. Stud. Biol. Labor. Johns Hopkins
Uni., Vol. V., No. 3, May, 1893. (This paper was
unknown to the author. )
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 62.
according to their more or less intimate connec-
tion with the bottom; first, sessil benthos, at-
tached to the bottom, receiving food from out-
side; second, vagile benthos, creeping and run-
ning on the bottom to obtain food; and third,
nectonic benthos, able to swim, able to leave the
bottom at times, but always forced to return
to it. The nectonic condition forms the transi-
tion to the typical plankton, which is independent
of the bottom. The three groups of benthos are
characteristic for the litoral and abyssal. The
true plankton is characteristic for the pelagial.
The condition of the facies is of course of the
highest importance for the organism. Ortmann
distinguishes primary and secondary facies, the
first is formed only by anorganic, the second
also by organic material; but of course there
are many combinations of the two. Each life
region, however, with the exception of the open
sea, has its special facies. The basis of the
continental facies is the geological structure of
the continents. Of great importance are the
physiographic differentiations of the land.
In the fluviatile life regions the conditions
are similar, but here much depends on the dif-
ferent nature of the medium; that is, the nature
of the course of the water—lakes, rivers, ete.
The litoral, through its numerous relations to
the land, and its frequent dependence on the
nature of the latter, shows very numerous dif-
ferences in its facies.
The facies of the abyssal consists of the small-
est disintegrated products of minerals and
rocks, accompanied by remains of terrestrial
and marine organisms.
The pelagial has no facies. Peculiarities are
produced, however, in the sargassum-masses.
The third chapter is headed: Distribution of
Animals. Increase and prevention of distribution.
Means of Distribution. It begins with the defi-
nition of the principle of separation and migra-
tion, which is of the greatest importance for
the understanding of the processes connected
with the origin of species and which is insepa-
rable from zoogeography. This important prin-
ciple was especially studied by Moriz Wagner,
but, as Ortmann very properly states, has been
misunderstood by many authors, or not ac-
corded its full value. In order to estimate cor-
rectly the value of this principle, and in order
MARCH 6, 1896.]
to show that without this principle of isolation
differentiation of species is unimaginable, Ort-
mann gives his view on the origin of variations
and their modification in different species.
In regard to the origin of variations he follows
those authors which explain variation by direct
adaptation of the surroundings (I would prefer
to say by the direct influence of the surround-
ings). He is entirely opposed to Weismann’s
idea, according to which variation originates
by Amphimixis, 7. e., the union of two elements
(germplasmas of different kind). His principal
objection is that Weismann, in order to explain
the origin of variation, introduces the principle
of Amphimixis, but allows this to operate with
material already varied, the difference of the
germplasmas. Weismann, in order to explain
the origin of differences, takes for granted their
preéxistence. For this reason alone Amphi-
mixis as the source of variation is inadmissible.
On the other hand it is known by experience
that amphimixis, if operating with different
material, will not produce new, but will unite
together existing differences, especially if the
different material is already similar and closely
related. In this connection he refers especially
to a paper by Pfeffer: Die inneren Fehler der
Weismann’schen Keimplasma-theorie. Ver-
handl. Naturw. Ver. Hamburg (8) I., 1894,
which seeems to be very little known.*
The two factors which form the basis for the
process of the formation of species are according
to Ortmann: 1, the adaptability of the organ-
isms themselves to the external conditions, and
2, the possibility of the inheritance of the char-
acters thus acquired. To these a third factor is
added, natural selection. Natural selection oper-
ates in such a way that out of the number of
existing forms those are exterminated which are
unfavorably placed. It is not aselection of the fit,
but a destruction of the unfit. By this destruc-
tion of the bad individuals the average of the
totality is raised; that is, the average of the
* There are some other papers by G. Pfeffer, which
are of great importance in these questions: Die Um-
wandlung der Arten einVorgang functioneller Selbst-
gestaltung. Verhandl. Naturwiss. Verein. Ham-
burg (3) 1., 1894, 44 pp., and Die Entwicklung.
Eine naturwissenschaftliche Betrachtung. Berlin.
R. Friedlinder und Sohn. 1895, 42 pp.
SCIENCE.
361
characters of the forms is changed quite gradu-
ally in a definite direction, determined by the
external conditions existing at that moment.
This process is called transformation of species
(Pfeffer), or mutation (Waagen, Neumayr, also
Scott, W. B., On Variations and Mutations,
Am. Journ. Se., 48, 1894, pp. 355-374).
It has been entirely overlooked by Weis-
mann and many others that the process of
mutation of one species or one group of forms
is by no means identical with the formation of
new, contemporaneous different species. Natural
selection can only operate in such a way as to
improve or modify, in the course of time, a
series of forms or a species, as soon as the con-
ditions of existence are changed; out of one
form another can be produced by selection,
but never two. The divergency of the direc-
tions of mutation, the origin of separate forms
from one ancestral form, natural selection
can never explain. This is only conceivable if
the conditions of existence are also differenti-
ated; that is, if they appear different in differ-
ent regions of the earth at the same time, so
that the ancestors of one form living in these
different locations are subjected to special con-
ditions. A successful effect of the different life
conditions, however, can only be imagined, if
the organisms are forced to remain permanently
in these conditions, if they are prevented from
migrating from one region of definite condi-
tions of existence into others with other condi-
tions. Therefore we have, as the fourth and
most important factor in the formation of dif-
ferent species, the separation in space or isolation.
I think everybody who has ever undertaken
to study the geographical distribution of certain
genera will agree with these views. I have
emphasized it frequently,* as is fully admitted
by Ortmann. The isolation prevents the cross-
*Baur G. Das Variiren der Eidechsengattung
Tropidurus auf den Galapagos Inseln. Biol. Cen-
tralbl. X. 1890, pp. 475-483. Leuckart. Festschrift
1892. pp. 259 ff. On the origin of the Galapagos Is-
lands. Am. Nat. 1891., pp. 217-229, pp. 307-319.
Ein Besuch der Galapages Inseln. Biol. Centralbl.
XII. 1892. pp. 221-250. The Differentiation of.
Species on the Galapagos Islands and the origin of
the group. Biol. Lect. Mar. Biol. Lab. Woods Holl
1894. Boston, 1895, pp. 67-78.
362
ing of the forms, and is fully comparable to ar-
tifical selection.
Ortmann ends his discussion with the follow-
From these considerations it be-
comes evident that four factors contribute to
the formation of different species: 1. Adapta-
tion to external conditions produces variations. 2.
The inheritance of these adaptations fixes the varia-
tions and shapes groups of forms morphologically
related. 3. Natural selection modifies the groups
and produces mutation in a certain direction. 4.
The isolation of groups produces differentiation in
the direction of mutation and therefore formation of
new species. All these 4 factors must cooperate; none
can be absent, and none is possible without the others.
Amphimixis operates in a conservative man-
ner on the average characters, thus leveling the
variations, which are capable of preservation,
and which are not, therefore, injurious.
The principle of separation has an important
bearing on zodgeography, since it follows that
species must originate in isolated localities; they
are bound to centres of origin. We want to know
the place of origin of a given species which at
present lives in a certain locality. Did it origi-
nate or immigrate there. From this it follows,
that in the fauna of each single locality we have
to distinguish: First species which originated
there, autochtons, and second species which
immigrated from other localities, Immigrants.
A third group are the relicts, which formerly
had an extensive distribution, but are now re-
stricted toa few points. The decision of the
nature of a certain animal form in a certain
region, whether autochton, immigrant or relict,
can only be given by systematics, and here the
slightest detail must be considered. At this
point zodgeography is not only most intimately
connected with systematics, but entirely de-
pendent on it.
The following pages discuss the law of the
continuity of the areas of distribution, and the
increase and prevention of distribution.
According to the principle of migration, the
single animal forms can only extend to such
regions as are in connection with the original
center: This is the law of the continuity of the
areas of distribution. It is a well known fact
that the range of every species extends over
a number of localities, which are separated
ing résumé:
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 62.
from each other by smaller or larger gaps;
these gaps, however, must not be so large that
they could not be surpassed by the species in
question; thus a continuous communication of
the inhabitants of the single localities in which
the species is found is possible. Only when
this is the case can we speak of a continuity of
life conditions. As soon, however, as this con-
tinuity is interrupted in such a way that it pre-
vents the communication of the species, a barrier
is formed which prevents its further extension.
Continuity of life-conditions increases the dis-
tribution of animals; their interruption pre-
vents it.
There are especially two factors which are of
importance in this connection, for the first time
clearly defined by Pfeffer, the climatological and
the topographical; a third one has been added by
Ortmann—the biological.
The effect of climatic conditions on the distribu-
tion of animals.
A uniform distribution of animals in their life
districts presupposes uniformity of the climatic
conditions, since all animals are highly dependent
on temperature. The importance of the condi-
tions of temperature was first pointed out by
Dana; he considered the minimal absolute alti-
tude which the animals need as the most impor-
tant point, and constructed his Isocrymes, lines of
equal lowest temperature. That the principle
is not correct is generally admitted at present,
and it has been replaced by another one. It is
not so much the absolute altitude of the tem-
perature which influences animal life, but it is
the Amplitude, the amount of oscillation, since
the temperature in the same locality oscillates
according to the seasons. Mobius therefore has
distinguished stenothermous and eurythermous
animals. Stenothermous animals are unable to
stand considerable oscillations ; they are bound
to a more uniform temperature ; eurythermous
animals are not affected by considerable changes.
The fundamental difference between the marine
and continental conditions of temperature is
thereupon discussed. On the continents we
have high amplitudes, the surface temperatures
of the ocean being more uniform. Since the
terrestrial animals are adjusted to high ampli-
tudes—being eurythermous—their distribution
is not so much influenced by the climatic differ-
Marcu 6, 1896. ]
ences; it seems, therefore, that the topographical
factors in the distribution of terrestrial animals are
of more importance than climatic factors.
The matter is different in the case of marine
animals. The oscillations of temperature are
not so extensive as those of the continents, and
the amount of these oscillations is very different
in different latitudes. Ortmann arrives at the
following conclusion from the given data: In
the equatorial regions of the oceans a nearly uniform
temperature prevails with only limited oscillations;
these oscillations increase with the latitude, reach
their maximum in the temperate and decrease again
to a smaller amount in the highest latitudes, the po-
lar regions.
The conditions on the surface of the oceans
are of course different from those at some depth,
and the coasts have also an influence on the
litoral region. The oscillations of temperature
in the sea will appear especially in the upper
layers which are exposed to the direct influence
of the sun, that is principally in the litoral and
pelagial. With increasing depth they decrease
and are reduced to a minimum in the deep sea.
Asis well known, the abyssal has a very constant
low temperature, and therefore we cannot ex-
pect any climatic effect on the distribution of
its animals.
Effects of the topographical conditions on the dis-
tribution of animals. Combination of the climatic
and topographic principle.
The continental is composed of a number of
completely separated landmasses; which ap-
proach each other closely in the northern hemi-
sphere, but which are always separated by the
sea. This character is fundamental and con-
ditions a different development of animals in
the separate land areas. These topographical
conditions are more important than the climatic
differences. A similarly extensive topographi-
cal segregration is seen in the fluvial; it is even
still more highly differentiated, consisting of a
very great number of topographically isolated
portions, which very often may be connected
with one another. These two life zones are
distinguished from the marine zones, which
are characterized by a more or less complete
continuity. The least continuity is shown in
the litoral, but even this zone isin uninterupted
connection along the coasts of the continents.
SCIENCE.
363
In the abyssal and pelagial zones the continuity
is complete.
We can, however, distinguish regions topo-
graphically separated in the litoral and pe-
lagial, but this is only possible by the combi-
nation of the climatic and topographical con-
ditions. In high northern latitudes the conti-
nents approach each other very closely ; in the
southern hemisphere they are removed from
each other. In the northern hemisphere,
where the continents are close together, the
litoral is continuous; in the southern hemi-
sphere the pelagial has its broadest connections
around the southern end of the continents; in
both these regions totally different conditions of
temperature exist from those of the tropical
regions. They form therefore two completely
isolated regions, separated by the tropical por-
tions of the litoral. These are formed by four
large divisions, one on each side of the great
land areas, the old and new world. The pe-
lagial is only divided into two portions, the
Atlantic and Indo-Pacific, separated topo-
graphically by the two large landmasses. It is
a very important point that this topographical
separation of the tropical parts of these two
life regions is only made possible by the cli-
matic differentiation of their circumpolar parts.
The abyssal is not affected by such climatic
differences and cannot be separated topograph-
ically.
Effect of the biological (biocenotic) conditions on
the distribution of animals. Since migration
takes place in all directions the result will be
a conflict between the different immigrants.
Since in the resulting competition some forms
supplant others, we may use the expression
that the latter are checked by biological ob-
stacles. Especially in those cases the struggle
for existence is seen in its clearest form.
The chapter concludes with some remarks on
the means of distribution of animals. Active and
passive means are distinguished.
The means of distribution are different in the
different groups of animals; therefore, these
groups must show differences in their actual
distribution. Many animals have different
means of distribution in different stages of their
life history. Each single group must be treated
by itself for the determination of its distribu-
364
tion. Every attempt to treat uniformly ani-
mal groups, differing in this respect, or even
the attempt to compare them, is destined to be
a failure.
The fourth chapter treats about the marine
zoogeographical regions. Ortmann constructs
these regions according to the most important
physical conditions which are of value to the
geographical distribution of animals. It is ne-
cessary to examine the relations of each group
of animals and each species of the general laws
of distribution, and it is, therefore, the aim of
scientific zo6geography to solve the question how
the single animals behave towards the general
laws. From this it follows that for the deter-
mination of general regions of distribution we
have to consider separately each life region, since
the fundamental physical conditions are totally
different in every one of them.
The physical regions of the litoral life zone.
The principal characters of the litoral are: 1,
presence of light; 2, presence of the bottom; and
3, the presence of the medium, i. e., the sea-
water. The litoral follows generally the coasts
of the continents, and extends only over that
part of the sea which borders the coast. The
distance is of course determined by the inclina-
tion of the sea bottom. The limit is the depth
to which daylight is able to penetrate, that is
about 400 m. Besides there are litoral regions
around each island or group of islands. The
close relation of the litoral to the land produces,
of course, a great difference in the facies, and,
therefore, we have very different conditions of
existence. The most important conditions are
the climatic differences. The litoral is divided
by Ortmann into the following regions:
1. Arctic Region.
a. Arctic circumpolar subregion.
b. Atlantic boreal subregion (with two
local faunas).
ce. Pacific boreal subregion (possibly also
with local faunas).
2. Indo-Pacific Region (very uniform).
8. West American Region (very uniform).
4. East American Region (probably with local
faunas).
5. West African Region.
a. Mediterranean subregion.
b. Guinea subregion.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 62.
6. Antarctic region (numerous local faunas).
The abyssal life regions.
The principal characters of the abyssal con-
sist in the complete absence of sun light, uni-
form cold temperature, relative state of rest of
the medium and the slightly differentiated char-
acter of the facies. In its low temperature the
abyssal approaches the Arctic litoral. The
extension of the abyssal is enormous; it covers
the whole bottom of the oceans. Topographi-
cally the abyssal of the whole earth is continu-
ously connected. Therefore, it is impossible, so
far, to divide the abyssal into different regions.
The physical regions of the pelagic life zone.
The pelagial resembles the litoral in the pres-
ence of sun light, but differs from it in the
absence of the ‘bottom.’ In regard to tem-
perature it is also more like the litoral. There
is more variety than in the abyssal. The hori-
zontal extension of the pelagial agrees nearly
completely with the abyssal, and is therefore
topographically uninterrupted.
But here the climatic conditions act in a man-
ner similar to those of the litoral. In the
equatorial regions we find the surface of the
water of equally high temperature. Towards
the poles the temperature becomes lower, and
the amplitude of the oscillations increases; still
farther towards the poles, the temperature of
the water becomes again more uniform but
cold.
The Pelagial is divided by Ortmann into four
regions :
1. Arctic Region.
a. Arctic-circumpolar subregion.
b. Atlantic-boreal subregion.
c. Pacific-boreal subregion.
2. Indo-Pacific Region.
3. Atlantic Region.
4, Antarctic Region.
a. Notal *-circumpolar subregion.
*Ortmann was unable to trace the name notalian,
whose original appliance by Gill was introduced in
1884 in a very interesting paper. The Principles of
Zovgeography, a presidential address delivered at the
third anniversary meeting of the Biological Society
of Washington, January 19, 1883. Proc. Biol. Soc.
Washington, Vol. II., 1882-1884, pp. 39. Washing-
ton, 1884,
MARCH 6, 1896.]
b. Antarctic-circumpolar subregion.
The Pelagial of the Indo-pacific Region is
completely isolated from that of the Atlantic
Region by the notal-cireumpolar subregion.
The fifth chapter is a very important one; it
discusses the influence of the earth’s geological
changes on the distribution of animals, and the
geological change of the climatic, topographical
and biological conditions. The present condi-
tion of the animal kingdom is the final result
of a series of geological changes, and the present
distribution is caused by the conditions of
former times. We know through paleontology
that in former periods animals existed in re-
gions in which they are missing to-day; the geo-
graphical distribution has, therefore, changed
in the course of the earth history. There is no
longer any doubt that a change in the distribu-
tion of water and land, in the climate and in
the biological conditions, has taken place; the
question is: how ‘extensive was this change ?
Climatic changes: The view of Neumayer
that even during the Jurassic period three
climatic zones existed, an arctic, temperate and
equatorial, Ortmann rejects with Heilprin and
Pfeffer. His view is the following: As far as
our present knowledge reaches, we may assume,
with certainty, that only during the course of
the Tertiary did climatic differences develop.
The principal point of this differentiation con-
sists in the separation of a zone around the
poles, in which the seasons of the year under-
went a change in the height of temperature.
This change increased until there was a sharp
contrast between the new and the original uni-
form conditions of temperature which remained
towards the equator. Before this climatic sep-
aration appeared, certainly in pre-Tertiary
time, a uniform tropical climate existed on the
earth, and no climatic regions could be devel-
oped in relation to the distribution of animals.
Topographic changes :
Ortmann is opposed to the theory, especially
advocated by Wallace, of the consistency of con-
tinents and oceans since the oldest times. It
has often been attempted, he says, to recon-
struct the continents existing in former geologi-
cal periods. The means of doing this consist
first in the tectonic method of geology, and
SCIENCE.
365
second in the data from the distribution of ani-
mals and plants. I shall not go into detail con-
cerning these questions, which have been dis-
cussed lately very frequently (Blanford, Yukes-
Brown, Ihering, Baur). I fully agree with Ort-
mann that the distribution of land and water
has very considerably and frequently changed
during geological times, and that these changes
must have had an enormous effect on the dis-
tribution and differentiation of the fauna. The
same holds good of the fluvial, the life zones of
the fresh water.
But it is quite different with the marine life-
The litoral follows essentially the lines
of the continents. All changes affecting the
continent affected also the litoral. We are
bound to accept for the litoral a topographical
continuity existing from the earliest times.
Therefore it is best to assume that in Pre-Terti-
ary time, before climatic differences existed, the
litoral was in complete climatical and topo-
graphical continuity; and that there was no
possibility of separation into regions according
to climatic and topographic differences. With
the appearance of the climatic differentiation in
the Tertiary the conditions of the litoral changed,
and they gradually reached the form in which
they appear to-day. At first, however, there ex-
isted a considerable difference from the present
conditions, at any rate through one part of the
Tertiary times, which had its cause in the na-
ture of the circumtropical girdle. There was
still a connection between the Atlantic and
Pacific, South and North America being still
separated. But at the poles the Atlantic and
Pacific were already climatically differentiated.
There existed also probably a connection be-
tween the Mediterranean and Indian Ocean. If
this was really so, there were present perhaps
from the beginning to the middle of the Tertiary
two large groups of tropical litoral; an American
and a Mediterranean-Indo-Pacific region. Possi-
bly the West African region belonged to the
American litoral. ;
From this condition the present distribution
of the litoral and its regions developed. The
Mediterranean was separated from the Indian
Ocean and acquired connection with the At-
lantic; the Isthmus of Panama separated the
East American from the West American litoral.
zones.
366
Hspecially the latter process was a relatively
recent one, but it existed long enough to pro-
duce differences in the two faunas. The former
conditions on the other hand can be recognized
very frequently in the present distribution.
Probably the abyssal life-zone was formerly
not so extensive as to-day. It is probable also
that during periods before a decrease of tem-
perature at the poles the conditions of tem-
perature were quite different from our present
ones. The abyssal may therefore be of rela-
tively recent date.
The pelagial must be very old, certainly as
old as the litoral and continental. It was quite
continuous in former times. With the climatic
differentiation of the poles a corresponding dif-
ferentiation of the pelagial took place; the
circumtropical belt remained for some time con-
tinuous. The separation into the Atlantic and
Pacific region was produced by the Isthmus of
Panama. This differentiation is very recent,
and the pelagial of the two new regions are ex-
ceedingly similar. If
The chapter concludes with some remarks on
the biological (bioccenotic) changes of the earth
history.
The sixth chapter is devoted to the Bionomy
and geographical distribution of the Decapoda.
Dr. Ortmann is an authority on this group of
crustaceans. An exhaustive essay on the geo-
graphical distribution, he says, is at present not
possible, since some of the smaller groups have
not been sufficiently studied; but he thinks it
feasible to give a general view of the bearing
of the Decapoda on the points discussed in the
former chapters.
In many ways, he says, the Decapoda are a
typical group for zodgeographical studies. Here
all the possibilities of bionomice conditions are
found, and they therefore constitute an especi-
ally good example of distribution. The an-
cestors of the Decapoda were nectonic animals,
which were dependent on the bottom, could
therefore only cross in the litoral or abyssal ;
we may exclude the abyssal, and have to con-
sider the first Decapoda as nectonic litoral forms.
By far the greatest number of the Decapoda
is litoral; a great number, however, lives also
in the abyssal, and partially quite distinct syste-
matic groups have their main distribution in this
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Von. IIT. No. 62.
region. The most important families which
are exclusively abyssal are: the Acanthephy-
ride and Nematocarcinide, the Glyphocran-
gonide, Ergonidz and Thaumastochelidee. All
these ascompared with their nearest relatives are
more primitive groups, which must have immi-
grated into the abyssal, already in remote ages
undergoing thereby but slight modification.
On the other hand, the abyssal received more
forms in later times. These are groups, the
nearest relatives of which, often belonging to
the same genus, are still found in the litoral.
It is interesting to note that some of the latter,
for instance the Crangonide and Lithodide,
perhaps also the Pandalidze, point quite defi-
nitely to the polar litoral. The opinion that
the abyssal is especially characterized by primi-
tive forms is not correct; both the litoral and
fluvial possess primitive forms.
The only Decapods which have been adapted
to the Pelagial as true planctonic Crustaceans,
are the Sergestide, which represent a highly de-
veloped branch of the nectonic-litoral Penaids;
they seem therefore to be of comparatively
great age. The other forms of the high sea,
the inhabitants of the Sargassum are quite iso-
lated and belong to members of quite different
groups. Forms like Varunaand the Plagusiinze
can hardly be considered pelagic ; since they
often live on the coasts, and are perhaps driven
out on swimming objects more frequently to
the open sea, as a result of their mode of life.
The most important fluviatile Decapods are
the Atyide, the group Palemon and Bithynis
among the Palsmonidie, the Potamobiidz and
Parastacidze; the Aegleidee (represented by a sin-
gle form), the Thelphuside and Sesarmine. The
two last are partially adapted to subterranean
life. These groups are of very different age, and
their immigration into the fresh water has
taken place at very different times; hence the
geographical distribution of each of these groups
must be studied separately.
True continental forms, perhaps sometimes
still frequenting the sea, are the Ccenobitide
and Gecarcinide ; both are morphologically re-
cent and specialized groups.
The Decapods of the litoral and abyssal in-
habit all the different facies of these zones.
On the succeeding pages the characteristic
MakcH 6, 1896. ]
forms of the Decapods are given for the different
regions.
The last chapter gives a short review of our
present knowledge of the geographical distribu-
tion of the other groups of animals.
A map shows the distribution of the regions
and subregions of the marine life zones, the
litoral, abyssal and pelagial. G. BAUR.
Introduction to the Study of Fungi. By M. C.
Cooxr, LL. D., author of ‘Hand-book of
British Fungi,’ Fungi, Their Nature, Uses,
ete. 8yvo., pp. 360. London, Adam and
Charles Black. 1895.
This, the latest and, as stated in the preface,
‘probably last contribution to British Mycol-
ogy’ from Dr. Cooke, is a work ‘for the use
of collectors.’ It is divided into three parts;
namely, organography, with eight chapters;
classification, with fifteen chapters—by far the
largest portion of the book—and two chapters
upon distribution.
Under organography there is a chapter each
upon: The mycelium, carpophore, receptacle,
fructification, fertilization, dichocarpism sapro-
phytes and parasites and constituents. The
author, as a lifelong student of his subject,
recognizes many of the difficulties that lie in
the pathway of the collector and endeavors to
help him to overcome them. His method is to
begin with the more common and easily seen
forms and pass to the less conspicuous. Thus
with mycelium the start is made with the spawn,
or artificial ‘bricks’ of the cultivated mush-
room, and he afterward considers the filaments
of mildews and then the more complex forms as
illustrated by the ergot grains and other indur-
ated forms. The work is fairly well illustrated,
there being in the neighborhood of one hundred
small wood cuts taken in large part from the
author’s ‘Hand-book.’ From one who has
written so largely upon the topics considered in
the book before us there is perhaps no occasion
for new engravings, but there is, nevertheless,
a lack of freshness that the mycologist notes
upon first taking up this work.
The carpophore, defined in brief as ‘ the fruit-
bearer,’ logically and in reality follows from the
mycelium, and in the chapter upon it, it is shown
in various stages of complexity from the com-
SCIENCE.
367
paratively simple bearing of spores upon the
free tips of threads to the globose compact
structure, where the spores are produced in sacs
within the closely knit tissue. The author does
not hesitate to use the names of genera without
stint in citing instances, and these names, being
set in italics, give the pages a heavy cast of
countenance that might not please the beginner
upon the first acquaintance. In fact it is to be
inferred that Dr. Cooke expects more of his
latest work than a mere introduction. Some of
his earlier books may well serve as a prepara-
tion for this. A case, and not an extreme one,
is the following upon page 262: ‘‘In Cheto-
phoma the penthecia resemble those of Phoma ;
but are innate in a dermatioid subiculum re-
sembling Fumago or Asterina.’’? Here we have
the free use of genera, but it is innate, derma-
tioid and subiculum that the beginner might
stumble over. He will naturally turn to the
glossary to find none of these words mentioned
and be disappointed. Upon the other hand, he
may notice in the brief glossary the following:
‘Cryptogamia—applied to the lower orders of
plants in which there are no conspicuous flowers
as there are in Phanerogamia.’ To say the
least, the mind of the reviewer is left in the
dark concerning inconspicuous flowers.
The chapter upon fructification precedes that
on fertilization, which does not seem entirely
logical; but it is to be remembered that the
author holds that sexual reproduction is not
well established, or, in his own words, ‘‘the
instances in which sexual reproduction has been
determined are exceptionally few.’’ This sub-
ject of fertilization is treated somewhat at
length with several engravings, and it is a sur-
prise to have it finally dismissed with the re-
mark that ‘‘experience and investigation of
forty years have shown that lichens and fungi
still remain practical exceptions to the rule of
sexuality.’’
The above view naturally leads one to look
at the bibliography under each subject, and it
is found far from complete. For the rusts
(Uredinez) the only American authority cited
is Dr. Farlow. Under the circumstances it is a
pleasure to find that Ellis and Everhart receive
mention under the bibliography of the Pyrono-
mycites, Morgan under puff-ball fungi, and
368
there the matter ends, save under the head of
bibliography for geographical distribution,
where the list of nine, not all American, begins
with Schweinitz and includes Berkeley, Curtis,
Ellis and Peck. It is noted that Dr. Burrell is
credited with first discovering a plant disease
of bacterial origin; namely, ‘the shrivelling o
pears’ in 1880 due to Micrococcus amylovorus.
The total number of described species of
fungi is given as 40,000, an estimate founded
upon the Sylloge of Dr. Saccardo.
Under the chapter upon geographical distri-
bution it is stated that the fungi are not yet
well enough known to more than conjecture
as to their distribution on the earth. China is
still an unknown land and India but little
better, and Africa is a ‘dark continent’ so far
as fungi are concerned. The fleshy fungi are
mostly in the temperate regions. Nearly the
whole of the Amanitez groups of exceedingly
poisonous toadstools are rarely met with in the
tropics.
Under classification some of the salient points
are introduced, as naked and covered spores,
perfect and imperfect forms and the character
of the spore covering. While not accepting the
classification offered by Brefeld in full, Dr.
Cooke recognizes its influence and summarizes
it in tabulated form. In the same chapter a
page and a half is given to the drawing of lines
of contrast between lichens and fungi, and the
first page of the introductory chapter states,
“Tt is now known that aquatic fungi are not
an impossibility, that algee may grow in damp
atmosphere and that some portions of the sub-
stance of lichens may be derived from their
matrix.’? From these statements the student
would gain no encouragement to incline toward
the modern theory of the fungo-algal conception
of lichens.
The book is printed upon unusually heavy
paper with uncut edges and weighs about three
pounds. Half the size and bulk would make
it many times more companionable.
While the faults have been most largely
pointed out, the book cannot but be useful and
aid the collector to reach the conclusion ex-
pressed in the last sentence of the work: ‘‘ The
whole history of one species worked out with
perseverance and intelligence will present the
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 62.
key to a knowledge of many kindred species
and always prove to be a valuable contribution
to science when the names of species are
changed or forgotten.’’ When this fact is real-
ized in the collector he becomes a working
factor in the strict sense for the advancement
of his science. Byron D. HALSTED.
A Preliminary Report on the Geology of South
Dakota. By J. E. Topp. South Dakota
Geological Survey. Bulletin No. I. Sioux
Falls, South Dakota. 1895. Pp. viii, 172.
Plates V., figures 2, and preliminary geologic
map of South Dakota.
In the above report Prof. Todd, who is the
State Geologist, has summarized what is known
of the geology of South Dakota. The author’s
studies of the geology of this State began in
1881, since which time his connection with the
United States and State Surveys has enabled
him to examine in the field most of the geologi-
cal formations found in South Dakota. The
work is written in popular form in order that it
may serve as a geological guide to the citizens
of the State; but in its pages is also found matter
of value to the teacher and geologist.
The report contains a chapter devoted to each
of the following topics: Introduction, topogra-
phic features, sketch of the geology of the State,
eruptive rocks, geological history of South Da-
kota, and economic geology, while the descrip-
tion of the geological formations of the State
occupies four chapters, making ten inall. Prof.
Todd finds that the following systems are repre-
sented: Huronian, Cambrian, Lower Silurian,
Carboniferous, Triassic, Jurassic, Cretaceous,
Tertiary and Quaternary, while 25 feet of shales
in the vicinity of Deadwood is referred doubt-
fully to the Devonian. On consulting the geo-
logic map it will be seen that about two-thirds
of the State is covered by formations belonging
to the Cretaceous system, of which the Colorado
group is first in area and the Laramie second.
After the Cretaceous system the Miocene of the
Tertiary is second in areal extent, and the
Huronian third.
Among minerals of economic value, gold is
the most important, the Black Hills in 1893 pro-
ducing $4,000,000. The author says that the
oxide of tin (cassiterite) ‘oceurs very generally
Marcu 6, 1896. ]
in the granite rocks about Harney Peak,’ but
there is no statement in reference to the pro-
duction of the mines in this region, the develop-
ment of which has been a subject of general in-
terest. The best building stones of the State are
the red Sioux quartzite of the Archean, while in
the Black Hills is the gray or reddish Dakota
sandstone of the Cretaceous, which is said to
compare very favorably with the well known
Berea stone of northern Ohio.
The State Geologist expresses the hope that
this Bulletin ‘may be but the first of a long
series’ that will be published by the State, and
the geologists of the country heartily echo this
wish. It remains for the prosperous agricul-
tural States of the ‘Great Plains’ to remove
the stigma resting upon them in having neg-
lected for so many years the study of their
natural history and geology. It is not true, as
has been popularly supposed, that they are
comparatively barren in mineral resources, and,
furthermore, there are problems of the greatest
scientific interest awaiting investigation. The
failure by the Dakotas, Nebraska and Kansas
to provide for adequate geological surveys is in
marked contrast to the liberal support which
such surveys have received from the tier of
States to the east—Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri
and Arkansas—surveys which have accurately
described the geology of those States and made
known their natural resources, the development
of which has added greatly to their wealth.
C. S. PROSSER.
“Die Chemie der Zuckerarten. By Dr. EDMUND
O. von LIPPMANN. Braunschweig, Vieweg
und Sohn. 1895. Pp. xxvi+1176.
In 1879 von Lippmann published in the Zeit-
schrift des Vereins fiir die Riibenzucker-Industrie
des Deutchen Reichs, a memoir entitled ‘Mono-
graphie der Zuckerarten.’ This valuable com-
pilation was practically a summary of all that
was known at that time about the more im-
portant carbo-hydrates; it filled about seventy
quarto-pages of the journal in which it ap-
peared.
Three years later the author followed the
treatise named with a book, ‘Die Zuckerarten
und ihre Derivate.’ This was based on his former
publication and aimed to present all known
SCIENCE.
369
facts regarding the physical and chemical prop-
erties of the different sugars.
The unexpected and certainly unprecedented
growth which sugar chemistry experienced
within the decade following the issue of this
work, made a new, up-to-date, issue of the
same greatly needed and desired. Numerous
requests to undertake this task were addressed
to its author and these wishes were finally re-_
sponded to by the publication of the work
forming the subject of this notice.
Die Chemie der Zuckerarten has its subject-
matter divided into four parts, which, in turn,
are subdivided into sections.
The first three parts are given to, respectively,
the mono-, the di- and the tri-saccharides. The
fourth part contains discussions on: the consti-
tution, configuration and synthesis of the
sugars ; the relations of optical and calorimetric
constants; the origin of the sugars in plants;
the physiological importance of the sugars.
The saccharides are arranged and discussed
in sequence according to the number of carbon
atoms they contain. Thus, of the mono-saccha-
rides, the bioses, sugars having two atoms of
carbon, are first considered; next come the tri-
oses, the tetroses, the pentoses, etc.
The hexoses (the C;H,,0, group) are divided
into the aldo- and the keto-hexoses; the former
exhibiting the aldehyde-structure, the latter
containing the characteristic ketone-group.
Dextrose (d-glykose) is a representative of the
former, levulose (d-fruktose) of the last-named
class.
No less than 234 pages are given to dextrose.
This may indicate the thoroughness which
characterizes the whole work.
The most important of the di-saccharides, is
of course, sucrose (cane sugar). The author de-
votes 244 pages to its consideration. Lactose,
maltose and iso-maltose are also given exhaus-
tive treatment in this part of the book.
The leading representative of the tri-sac-
charides is raffinose. This substance, meleci-
tose and a few other carbo-hydrates of ana-
logous constitution receive the attention due
them, and are folllowed by the learned and
able disquisitions on the constitution, configura-
tion and synthesis of the sugars, etc., previously
mentioned.
370
Very full and complete indices of subjects
and authors conclude the volume.
The time and labor expended merely in the
collection of the material contained in this
publication must have been enormous. Some
faint conception of this may perhaps be gained
on learning that no less than two thousand two
hundred and twenty-two authors are referred
to or quoted in its pages, exact reference to
their writings being given in all cases.
The style throughout is scholarly and lucid.
The treatment of the subject-matter is fair and
impartial. No pains have been spared to make
this work a standard one; beyond question, von
Lippmann’s Chemie der Zuckerarten is a classic
of chemical literature.
FERDINAND G. WIECHMANN.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.
THE March number contains three articles
upon the subject of the Réntgen rays, which
has excited so much interest during the past
month. The first of these is by A. W. Wright.
After a brief history of the subject, the author
describes in some detail the experiments which
have been performed at the Sloane physical
laboratory in New Haven. These have yielded
results similar to those described elsewhere,
but with a remarkable degree of refinement.
Examples are given of a picture made from an
aluminum medal, in which the relief on both
sides is shown, also the lettering and milling
around the edge. It is stated that in the origi-
nal negative it is almost possible to decipher
the individual letters. The details are given
of the special methods which have been found
most successful in yielding good results. Some
of the typical pictures obtained are given on
an accompanying plate. A second plate shows
the impressions given upon a sensitive surface by
diverging stream lines through two parallel
slits in a copper plate. Three experiments
were performed: first, with both slits open
simultaneously ; second, with only one open at
atime, so that the streams were independent ;
and third, with the two streams passing by
a powerful magnet. The first two showed
very little, if any, distinct action between the
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 62.
streams themselves as regards their direction.
The effect of the magnet in the third case was
also negative. In another experiment, how-
ever, in which a very thin gold leaf was inter-
posed in the path of the rays, a deflection by
the magnet of about half a degree was observed,
due to the loading of the streams with metallic
particles ; the mutual repulsion of the streams
was also clearly shown. In all these cases the
rays were proved by measurement to leave the
surface of the glass of the vacuum tube nearly
normally. The article closes with a quotation
from an earlier paper (1870) by the same author,
upon electrical shadows from the Holtz machine,
to a certain extent anticipating the results that
have recently excited so much interest.
The paper by Trowbridge shows how pieces
of metal can be located, for example, in the
human body by cathode photography, based
upon a principle analogous to that employed in
the Rumford photometer. He used two Crookes’
tubes with two terminals at an angle with each
other, and excited by a Tesla coil. The author
states that by use of the Tesla coil he has suc-
ceeded in obtaining pictures in less than a
minute. The destruction of the tubes is pre-
vented by placing them in a yessel filled with
paraffine oil, while the oil is cooled by snow or
ice placed outside.
The third article, by H. A. Rowland, W. R.
Carmichael and L. J. Briggs, discusses briefly
the sources of the rays. By using a tube of a
very high degree of exhaustion it was demon-
strated conclusively that the main source of the
rays was a minute point on the anode nearest’
to the cathode. At times a minute point of
light appeared at this point but not always.
Added to this source the whole of the anode
gave out a few rays. From the cathode no
rays whatever came; neither were there any
from the glass of the tube where the cathode
rays struck it as described by Réntgen. ‘‘In the
other tubes there seemed to be diffuse sources,
probably due in part to the oscillatory dis-
charge, but in no case did the cathode rays
seem to have anything to do with the Rontgen
rays.’’
The first article of the number is by J. B.
Hatcher upon ‘Recent and Fossil Tapirs.’
In this he gives a detailed description of the
Marcu 6, 1896.]
new species Protapirus validus, and also of a
number of allied forms. Further he gives a
condensed summary of the classification and re-
lations of recent tapirs, with an account of their
phylogeny. The article is accompanied by four
plates. Another geological article is by Robert
Bell, summarizing the proofs of the rise in the
land about Hudson Bay. These proofs are of
varied character, and the cumulative evidence
is so strong that there can hardly be any ques-
tion as to the conclusion reached. The rise
in land has been comparatively rapid, and
the elevation is believed to be still going
on. ©. C. Marsh, in a short article upon the
‘Wealden Formation of England,’ shows that
it is unquestionably to be referred to the Juras-
sic instead of the Cretaceous, as formerly be-
lieved. S. F. Peckham and Laura A. Linton
have an article on ‘Trinidad Pitch,’ in which
analyses are given of some twenty-seven speci-
mens obtained at different points in the neigh-
borhood of Pitch Lake, Trinidad. The article
presents some important conclusions as to the
composition of this material in general. G. R.
Putnam describes the results of recent pendu-
lum observations at different stations in the
Southern United States, more particularly at
New Orleans, Galveston, Austin and Laredo.
These show a very slight excess of gravity near
the Gulf coast as compared with interior sta-
tions; this excess, however, is so small as to
indicate a close approach to the condition of
hydrostatic equilibrium called for by the
principle of isostasy. Otherwise the large accu-
mulation of the sediment in the Gulf, brought
down by the Mississippi from its drainage area,
would lead one to expect a greater increase in
gravity at the points named.
A brief account of a new meteorite from
Forsyth county, North Carolina, is given by
Dr. E. A. de Schweinitz. F. A. Gooch and A.
W. Peirce describe ‘amethod for the separation
of selenium from tellurium, based upon the
the difference of the bromides.’ F. P. Adams
and B. J. Harrington describe some interesting
minerals from the nepheline-syenite of Dungan-
non county, Ontario. One of these is a new
variety of hornblende, having a constitution
analogous to that of garnet, and peculiar opti-
cal properties. The name Hastingsite is sug-
SCIENCE. 37t1
gested for it. The other is a titaniferous an-
dradite. S. L. Penfield and J. H. Pratt de-
scribe the occurrence of the rare mineral thau-
masite. This species has been known hitherto
only from Sweden and is one of the most re-
markable of minerals in composition, being a
hydrous silicate-carbonate-sulphate of calcium.
It contains 48 % of water and has a specific
gravity of only 1.88. The analysis here given
confirms those made of the Swedish mineral;
the authors suggest a structural formula to ex-
plain the anomalous composition, including the
fact that the water goes off at four different
temperatures.
AMERICAN CHEMICAL JOURNAL, FEBRUARY.
On Halogen Addition Products of the Anilides :
By H. L. WHEELER and P. T. WALDEN. The
authors find that when certain salts of the
anilides are treated with bromine containing
hydrobromic acid, perhalides are formed which
are analogous to the cesium and ammonium
perhalides.
The Action of the Halogens on the Methylamines :
By IrA REMSEN and JAMES F. Norris. The
formation of a product containing two bromine
atoms, by the action of bromine on trimethyl-
amine hydrobromide, led to the study of the
action of the halogens on trimethylamine. In
the product formed the bromine appears to re-
place the hydrogen of the hydrobromide. A
similar compound containing iodine is formed,
and probably one containing both bromine and
iodine.
On Silicides: By G. DE CHALMOT. By the
use of the electric furnace the author has ob-
tained crystals of copper and silver silicides,
which, however, always contain some calcium
as an impurity.
Some of the Properties of Liquid Hydriodic
Acid: By R.S. Norris and F. G. COTTRELL.
The authors have prepared pure hydriodic acid
by condensing the dry gas in tubes cooled by
solid carbon dioxide, and have studied the
action of this acid on many metals, oxides,
gases and non-metallic elements. This acid_
does not act on carbonates and in general is
less active than the solution of the gas in
water.
On the Preparation of Hydrobromic and Hy-
372
driodic Acids: By J. H. KAstLE and J. H. Bun-
Lock. The use of naphthalene and bromine is
recommended for making hydrobromic acid,
and a mixture of resin, iodine and sand for
hydriodic acid.
Turmerol: By C. Loring JACKSON and W.
H. WARREN. Turmerol, prepared from the
crude product by distilling in vacuo, when
treated with nitric acids yields paratoluic acid.
It is considered to be an alcohol containing a
benzene ring with methyl and carbon side
chains in the para position.
Bromine deviratives of Resorcine: By C. Lor-
ING JACKSON and F. L. DuNLAP. It is not pos-
sible to replace two of the bromine atoms in
Cs-HBr,(OC,H;), by hydrogen, unless the hy-
drogen atom is first replaced by the nitro group.
The introduction of a hydroxyl group also
facilitates the replacement of the bromine. The
ethoxy groups do not weaken the affinity of the
bromine as the free tribromresorcine is easily
decomposed. i ;
Trinitrophenylmalonic ester: By C. Lorine
JACKSON and ©. A.SocH. The method of prep-
aration, reactions and derivatives of picrylma-
lonic ester, which Dittrich was unable to ob-
tain, are given in this paper.
The artificial production of Asphalt from Pe-
troleum: By C. F. MAbrry and J. H. DYERLEY.
After removing the oils used for illuminating
purposes, the residue is distilled slowly while
air is drawn through. Products of different
specific gravity are separated and used for
various purposes in which asphalt has been
used.
On the Action of Phosphorus Pentachloride on
Parasulphaminebenzoie Acid: By IRA REMSEN,
R. N. HARTMAN and A. M. Mucurenruss. The
product formed by the action of phosphorus
pentachloride on parasulphaminebenzoie acid,
when heated, decomposes in two stages, and
the final product contains the nitrogen group in
combination with the carbon atom instead of
with the sulphone group as at first. Some light
is thrown on the nature of this change by these
investigations.
This number also contains a review of the
work on Chemical Technology by GroyeEs and
TuHorp. Vol. Il.
J. ELLIorr GipPin.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 62.
PSYCHE, MARCH.
THE number is mostly occupied by the Presi-
dential address of Clarence M. Weed on the
‘Hibernation of Aphides,’ summarizing previous
knowledge. J. W. Folsom gives an account of
the oviposition of Thanaos juvenalis, and a sup-
plement is occupied by descriptions of insects,
mostly New Mexican, by T. D. A. Cockerell
and C. F. Baker.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.
AT the meeting of the Geological Section of
the New York Academy of Sciences, held on
February 17, 1896, the following papers were
presented: 5
The first paper was read by Mr. L. Mel.
Luqueer, entitled ‘Notes on Recent Accessions
of Interesting Minerals,’ with exhibition of
specimens. Mr. Luqueer described in detail the
minerals that he had recently discovered at the
feldspar quarries in the northeastern part of
Westchester county. They include uraninite,
autunite, uranophane, washingtonite and the
common minerals of pegmatite veims. He
showed that the veins occurred in close asso-
ciation with an area of augen-gneiss, regarded
as intrustive and now being studied by himself
and Mr. Heinrich Ries.
The second paper was by J. F. Kemp, en-
titled ‘The Cripple Creek Gold Mining District
of Colorado.’ The paper was illustrated by
about thirty lantern views, most of which were
taken by the speaker during the past summer,
and by an extensive series of rocks and ores.
After a brief historical review the region was
described in detail, without, however, intro-
ducing anything essential that is not already
contained in the Cripple Creek atlas folio of
the United States Geological Survey, which
was prepared by Messrs. Cross and Penrose.
J. F. Kemp,
Secretary.
THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB.
THE regular meeting of the Torrey Botanical
Club was held on Tuesday evening, February
11th. Two new members were elected. Mr.
A. A. Heller contributed an interesting paper
Maxkcu 6, 1896.]
entitled ‘ Botanizing in Hawaii.’ Lantern views
were presented illustrating the geography and
topography of the islands and a number of the
more interesting plants. About twenty-five
per cent. of the species collected are supposed
to be undescribed. The endemic character of
the flora of the islands, and of each island as
contrasted with the others, was dwelt upon.
Dr. Arthur Hollick, through Dr. Britton,
submitted a paper on ‘New Leguminous Pods
from the Yellow Gravel Sandstone at Bridgeton,
N. J.’ The paper was illustrated by specimens
belonging to the genera Lonchocarpus and
Mezoneurum. H. H. Ruspy,
Recording Secretary.
BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY.
A GENERAL meeting was held February 5th ;
forty-four persons present. Mr. Herbert Lyon
Jones spoke of the biological adaptations of
desert plants to their surroundings, mentioning
first the food of plants, their adaptations for
retaining moisture, and the adaptations that go
to preserve the moisture. The struggle of
plants in tropical regions was noted; also the
struggle of desert plants against inorganic
nature. The effects of the amount of rain, the
variations in leaf surface, and the protections
afforded to leaf and to stem were discussed.
Where the rainfall is limited to a few inches
the leaves are thickened and covered with a
coating of wax ; in some regions of considerable
rainfall the plants suddenly put out delicate
leaves. The Australian Acacias show the most
numerous adaptations of leaf surface; in some
Cacti the leaf surface is entirely wanting, the
function being performed by the stems.
The protection afforded to leaf and stem by
coatings of wax isalways thick in desert plants,
and the hairy coatings form a striking adapta-
tion in many plants, and are best shown in the
plants of the Mediterranean flora.
The fertilization of desert plants was described
in detail, also the distribution of their seeds
and fruits; and Mr. Jones closed with remarks
explanatory of the fine series of lantern slides
illustrating the biological adaptations of desert
plants to their surroundings.
SAMUEL HENSHAW,
Secretary.
SCIENCE. 373
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES, PHILADEL-
PHIA, FEBRUARY 18.
A PAPER entitled as follows was. presented
for publication: ‘Contributions to the Life His-
tory of Plants, No. XII.,’ by Thomas Meehan:
1. Fecundity of Heliophytum Indicum; 2.
Origin of the Forms of Flowers ; 3. Spines in
the Citrus Family; 4. Flowers and Flowering
of Lamium purpureum ; 5. Cleistogamy in Um-
bellifere; 6. Rhythmic Growth in Plants; 7.
. Pellucid dots in some species of Hypericum; 8.
Honey Glands of Flowers; 9. Varying Phyllo-
taxis in the Elm; 10. Special Features in a
Study of Cornus stolonifera ; 11. Folial Origin
of Cauline Structures; 12. Polarity in the
leaves of the Compass and other plants; 13.
Hybrids in Nature ; 14. Origin and Nature of
Plant Glands; 15. Nutrition as affecting the
Forms of Plants and their Floral Organs ; 16.
Some Neglected Studies.
Mr. D. S. Holman exhibited a new stage for
the microscope devised for the purpose of study-
ing large objects and widely spread prepara-
tions. It can be adapted to all instruments
provided with square stages and has a motion
of two inches each way.
Preparations of minerals containing diatoms
in transverse section and other microscopic ar-
rangements of diatoms prepared by Mr.
John A. Schulze were exhibited by Mr. F. J.
Keeley.
Prof. Edw. D. Cope described specimens of
fossil reptilia from the Premian and Trias.
They belonged to the order Cotylosauria which
had been described by him in 1879, and was
afterwards characterized by Seeley from African
types. The order embraces the families Elgi-
niide, Pariasauride, Diadectidee and Parioti-
chide, the distribution and characters of which
were dwelt on. New genera of Diadectidee
were described under the names Bolbodon and
Diatomodon, the teeth of which, as well as of
the other genera of the family, were illustrated.
The Platodontia may have been derived from
the Diadectide. The roof over the temporal
fossa and the foramen for the temporal eye were
illustrated by specimens. The molar teeth ofa
species of Empedias, the cranium of Bolbodon
tenuitectis and the lower jaw of Diatomodon
were exhibited. Another form described under
374
the name Conodectes favosus may belong to the
Diadectide, but its relationships are at present —
Epw. J. NOLAN,
Recording Secretary.
uncertain.
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Av the forty-third meeting of this Society,
held at Washington, D. C., February 12, 1896,
President S. F. Emmons in the chair, commu-
nications were presented as follows :
Structure of the Elk Garden Coal-Fields: By
Mr. J. A. Tarr. The Elk Garden coal-field
comprises about one-third of the area of the
Piedmont sheet (of Geol. Atlas of United States,
U.S. G. S.), and extends about S$. 30 W. across
its center. This coal-field is limited on the east
by the Allegheny front and on the west by the
Backbone Mountain. The south branch of the
Potomac drains the field from the Grant county
line northward, while the southern part is in
the basins of Red Creek and Blackwater
River.
In topography as well as in structure the
Allegheny front marks the dividing line be-
tween the middle or Great Valley and the west-
ern or plateau divisions of the Appalachian
province. The valley country presents almost
level crested mountain ridges, with smooth
valleys between and the Allegheny front faces
it with an escarpment 1100 to 2000 feet high.
The Elk Garden coal-field here represents a
part of the plateau region. It is not a smooth
plain, but in its nearly flat surface points may
be seen in the ridges which extend from the Al-
legheny front and Backbone Mountain into the
Potomac Gorge. The structure of the valley
region is illustrated by the topographic types, 7.
e., Sharp anticlinal folds in the mountain ridges
and obtuse, wide and undulating folds in the
valleys.
In the Elk Garden coal-field the topography
is more diversified. Both the anticlinal and
synclinal folds are occupied by valleys and the
mountains are upon their borders. From the
crests of Allegheny front and Backbone Moun-
tain the dips of the conglomerate are 18° to 25°,
but soon decrease and approach the Potomac
valley almost horizontally, forming thus an ob-
tuse synclinal basin. This basin rises toward
the southwest and divides near the center of
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 62.
the field, one division following Stony River
and Red Creek valleys, while the other extends
with the Potomac and passes southwest beyond
Fairfax Knob. This division of the main syn-
clinal basin is due to a high anticlinal fold
which pitches downward between Canaan and
and Brown Mountains and is lost in undulations
near the center of the field.
The structure of the Elk Garden coal-field
presents the rocks most advantageously for the
coal operator. The North Potomac river has
severed the five productive coal seams ranging
in thickness from four to fourteen feet, so that
they incline downwards toward its gorge and
and also allow easy access for rail transporta-
tion.
The paper was illustrated by topographic
and relief maps and by structure sections.
Disintegration and Decomposition of Diabase at
Medford, Mass. By Gro. P. MERRILL.
Mr. Merrill described in considerable detail
the chemical and physical changes which had
taken place in the breaking down of the dia-
base at Medford, giving analyses of the fresh
and decomposed rock as well as of the portions
removed by solvents. The most interesting
results brought out were: That the firm rock
yielded up nearly 36% of its constituents to
the solvent action of hydrochloric acid and
sodium carbonate solutions, as against 32.3%
by the residual sand; further, that in the pro-
cess of degeneration some 20% of material was
lost, the various constituents being removed in
the following order, that which suffered most
heavily being mentioned first: K,O; CaO; MgO;
Fe,0;; SiO.; Na,.O; P.O,;; the alumina, which
served as the basis for calculation, being for
the time assumed to have remained constant.
The degeneration was regarded as being
mainly postglacial, and as due wholly to at-
mospheric agencies. Remarks were made as
to the relative rapidity of degeneration in high
and low latitudes, Mr. Merrill taking the
ground that the apparent greater rapidity of
decay in warm latitudes and in forested areas,
was due to protection from erosion whereby the ;
disintegrated material was allowed to accumu-
late. He, however, believed that there was a
difference in kind in the degeneration in high
MARcH 6, 1896.]
and low latitudes, in the former mechanical
agencies prevailing, and in the latter chemical.
Notes on the Geology of the San Carlos Coal Hield,
' Trans-Pecos, Texas. By T. WAYLAND VAU-
GHAN. j
The author gave the results of a reconnois-
sance made jointly with Mr. T. W. Stanton, of
the U. S. Geological Survey, during the field
season of 1895. The coal field is situated in the
Veija Mountains. Some general observations
on the structure and topographic features of the
region were made.
the mountains were described. The general
features of the combined sections, beginning at
the top, are:
3. A massive lava-flow of quartz-pantellerite,
which forms the summit of the mountains and
from 400-600 feet thick.
2. A series of interbedded massive and frag-
mental rhyolites and conglomerates, ‘sandstones
and clays, into which a sheet of basalt has been
intruded. South of Chispa this series is about
fifteen hundred feet thick, but it is not so thick
at San Carlos, where there is not such a variety
of volcanic products.
1. Alternating beds of sands and clays—at
San Carlos about fifteen hundred feet thick—
and in which the coal occurs. Vertebrate fos-
sils of Cretaceous age were found in the sand-
stones and clays above the coal. Below the
coal a rich invertebrate fauna was collected,
whose age was determined by Mr. Stanton to be
Pierre (in the terminology of the Western
Interior Region) or Taylor (in the terminology
of the Texas Region). The age of the coal was
determined to be Pierre or Taylor, as Mr. E.
T. Dumble had previously shown. About seven
miles southwest of Chispa a fault was described
by which the Benton shales had been carried
down below limestone belonging to the Freder-
icksburg division (of the Lower Cretaceous).
The Benton shales are thinly laminated, bluish,
caleareous shales, and contain Inoceramus labi-
atus, a fossil characteristic of the Benton. These
shales are underlaid by a hard blue limestone,
containing Alectyonia carinata, which is char-
acteristic of the Washita division. The Dakota
sandstone is absent. Limestone belonging to a
lower horizon of the Washita division was found,
beneath which was a limestone containing a
SCIENCE.
Two detailed sections of -
375
fauna characteristic of the Fredericksburg divi-
sion.
Dr. E. ©. E. Lord followed Mr. Vaughan’s
paper on the general geologic features of the
region with a petrographic description of the
rocks collected. The rock types were :
1. Massive rhyolite.
la. Rhyolite breccias.
2. Quartz-pantellerite, which was described
from America for the first time.
3. Basalt. Wo. F. MoRSELL.
GEOLOGICAL CONFERENCE OF HARVARD
UNIVERSITY, FEBRUARY 11, 1896.
On the Geological Work of Vortices and Eddies,
by T. A. JAGGAR, JR.
A vortex occurs wherever a fluid current is
retarded or deflected. The properties of such
movements have been worked out mathemati-
cally by Helmholtz and others; the present
writer’s aim is to express in simple terms the
application of their results to geology, and to
demonstrate it experimentally. Mention was
made of the importance of vortical movement
in the study of meteorology, the flight of birds,
oceanic currents, dune formation, snow drift
and nevé sculpture ; and a series of experiments
was exhibited with specially devised projection
apparatus. A horizontal beam of light projected
to the screen through narrow glass tanks served
to show Bjerknaes’ beautiful experiment with
vortex rings, the actual development of ripple-
drift on a sandy surface in cross-section, the
growth of ripplemark and some imitative beach
marks. Apparatus for bending the beam up-
ward through glass-bottomed trays showed the
gradual separation of the linear sand ridges
under the influence of the ripple-forming vor-
tices in both rippledrift and ripplemark, and at-
tention was called to the possibility of experi-
mentally illustrating the action of coastal eddies
in building cusps.
To be published in the proceedings of the
Boston Society of Natural History.
T. A. JAGGAR, JR,
Recording Secretary.
THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS.
Av the meeting of February 17, 1896, Dr.
Adolf Alt spoke of the anatomy of the eye, and
by aid of the projecting microscope exhibited
aseries of axial sections representing the gen-
eral structure of the eye in thirty-one species
of animals, comprising two crustacea, the squid,
three fish, two batrachians, two reptiles, ten
birds and eleven animals.
Prof. F. E. Nipher gave an account of the
Geissler and Crookes tubes and the radiant phe-
nomena exhibited by each when used in con-
nection with a high tension electrical current of
rapid alternation, and detailed the recent dis-
coveries of Prof. Réntgen, showing that certain
of the rays so generated are capable of affecting
the sensitized photographie plate through ob-
jects opaque to luminous rays. Attention was
also called to the experiments of Herz and
Lodge with discharges of very high tension al-
ternating currents which showed that by the
latter certain invisible rays are produced, which
like the Roéntgen rays, are capable of passing
through opaque bodies, such as pitch, but dif
fering in their refrangibility by such media.
One person was elected to active member-
ship. WILLIAM TRELEASE,
Recording Secretary.
THE WOMAN’S ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
THE Woman’s Anthropological Society, which
under the presidency of Miss Alice C. Fletcher,
has greatly enlarged its scope and membership,
held its 188th meeting February Ist. After the
usual business, the session was given over to
Miss A. Tolman Smith, director of the section
of psychology.
The paper of the day was by Miss Theodate
L. Smith, of Clark University, subject ‘The
Motor Element in Memory.’ The paper de-
scribed in detail a series of laboratory experi-.
ments made by the writer with a view to de-
termine the quantitative value of the motor
element in the total act of memory.
Discussion of the subject was deferred to a
subsequent meeting, and the remaining time
was given to the problem of emotional expres-
sion which has occupied the attention of the
section for several months. Brief letters were
read from Profs. Melville Bell and David Bell,
also from the directors of dramatic expression
in leading universities of this country, setting
forth their views as to the relation between the
psychic and the physical agitations that make
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. III. No. 62.
up the emotional state. The subject was illus-
trated from the standpoint of dramatic art by
Mrs. J. M. D. Lander, who drew a most subtle
and vivid picture of ‘dual personality’ in the
consciousness of the actor.
Miss Wescott, principal of the Western High
School, closed the discussion with a summary
of tests of emotional disturbance applied by
means of the Kymographion under the direction
of Dr. Arthur MacDonald.
From a series of graphic records showing the
effects of various emotional and mental states
upon the breathing, two were selected as typi-
cal, one of the nervous, the other of the lym-
phatic temperament. It was interesting to note
that, while in the latter the registration of
emotional disturbance was relatively less than
in the former case, yet there was the indisputa-
ble record of such disturbance in spite of the
subject’s unconsciousness of the effects. Two
inferences seemed justified by the series of ex-
periments : first, that one breathes less during
any effort at concentration and under a depress-
ing emotion ; second, that one breathes more
under the exhilarating influences of pleasure or
amusement. Two questions were suggested as
the practical outcome of the experiments:
First, if the tendency of education is toward
repression and self-control, is it not important
to supplement courses of study by exercises
that foster spontaneity ; second, if the child
actually breathes less under close application
to study, to what degree is our physical culture
work correcting this deficiency ?
A. CARMAN,
Secretary.
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CONTENTS :
A Lecture upon Acetylene: J. M. CRAFTS............ 377
Notes on the Cerillos Coal Fields: JOHN J. STE-
AVEIN SO Nem ee etcetera ciicisiatistisetisiicarttetteiictisiasiemctesy« 392
The Rontgen Phenomena: ARTHUR W. GOODSPEED..394
Current Notes on Physiography :—
Catskill and Helderberg Escarpments ; Exploration
in Lower California; Niuafou, a Volcanic Ring
Island; The Feroes ; Mountain Waste in Relation
to Life and Man: W. M. DAVIS .........ccesseeeeee 396
Current Notes on Anthropology :—
Was Syphilis a Gift from the American Race ? Eth-
nology, Geography and History; Mental versus
Physical in Women: D. G. BRINTON.............+ 397
Notes on Agriculture and Horticulture :-—
Treatment of Peach Rot and Apple Scab; Legisla-
tion against Weeds; Bacteria in the Dairy; Sub-
irrigation in the Greenhouse; Grape Culture:
BYRON D. HALSTED..............0esescsecesceeceececees 398
Scientific Notes and News :—
The Woods Holl Marine Biological Laboratory ;
Astronomy: H. J. The Rontgen Rays ; General..400
University and Educational News..........0c0ececeeeeeee 405
Discussion and Correspondence :-—
Chuar, Hegel and Spencer: GEORGE STUART
FULLERTON. The Temperature of the Earth’s
Crust: SERENO E. BisHop. The X-Rays:
RALPH R. LAWRENCE. The Instinct of Pecking :
18%, Jy IGTUGING) coscoaneondconanososoncaeocobcBucBonaagepa5cCe0 406
Scientific Literature :—
Brongniart’s Paleozoic Insects: SAMUEL H. Scup-
DER. American Shrews: J.A. A. Boas’ Indi-
anische Sagen von der nordpacifischen Kiiste Ameri-
kas; Taylor’s Names and their Histories: A. 8S.
G. Young on The Sun: C.L. P. Wurtz’s Chem-
istrg: L. B. HA. Hiorns’ Metallurgy: J.
SHARE COTS joncoccocosnbaconosodosnocannbosonccocosanoddocg 410
Societies and Academies :—
Biological Society of Washington: F. A. LUCAS.
Geological Society of Washington: W. F. Mor-
SELL. Chemical Society of Washington: A. C.
PEALE. Academy of Natural Sciences: EDw.
J. NOLAN
JN(E0D JEXTO ES anoaaocn90d sao0ococosbonunBoSENboDIDGHROOONEBDE30050
MSS, intended for publication and books etc., intended
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
A LECTURE UPON ACETYLENE.*
A yEaR and a-half ago, if a chemist had
been told that a new illuminating gas could
be obtained from the evil-smelling product
with which he was only too well acquainted
in the laboratory, namely, the acetylene
which forms whenever a Bunsen burner
strikes down, he would have said that the
idea was absurd. If a physicist had been
told that the electric furnace was to be used
to produce illuminating gas on a commercial
scale he would have said it was quite im-
possible. But distinguished electricians
were explaining that the telephone was im-
possible, while Graham Bell was inventing
that instrument. So that scientific men
will be well advised not to utter general
opinions about the possibilities of the suc-
cess of any new enterprise, and I shall
endeavor to confine myself to the statement
of certain facts and to the description
of laboratory experiments, which consti-
tute some new data which can be used to
form an opinion regarding at least one side
of this subject.
The chemistry of the manufacture of
acetylene is very simple. Quicklime is re-
duced by carbon in an electric furnace to
carbide of calcium, and enough carbon is
taken not only to combine with the calcium
to form carbide of calcium, but also to
burn with the oxygen of the quicklime
* Delivered before the Society of Arts at Boston,
January 23, 1896.
378
’ and to remove it as carbonic oxide. The
process is represented by the equation :
CaO+3C=CaC,+CO. The carbide is ob-
tained as a melted mass with crystalline
structure, which when brought in contact
with water is transformed to slacked lime,
and to acetylene which is given off as a gas.
The formula for this transformation is:
CaC,+2H,O=Ca(OH),+C,H,. All the al-
kaline earths and alumina have been sub-
jected to the same treatment, and it has
been found that the carbides of barium,
strontium and calcium have similar formulze
and give off acetylene when treated with
water. The carbide of aluminum has the
formula: A1,C,,and evolves marsh gas when
treated with water. It may be added that
a mixture of silica and carbon yields the
carbide of silicon, SiC. The compound is
formed when the two boches meet as va-
pors in the intense heat of the electric fur-
nace and combine as a sublimate of beauti-
ful crystals, now sold under the name of
Carborudum. The powdered crystals have
sharp cutting edges, hard enough to scratch
rubies, and consequently make an excellent
polishing and grinding material.
It is to be noticed that this formation of
carbides affects the elements which make
up by far the larger part of the earth’s
crust, so that from a geological as well as
a chemical point of view these newly dis-
covered transformations are of the utmost
importance.
The reduction of these oxides to carbides
is only possible at the high temperature
of the electric furnace, and it is very in-
teresting to note that at three very different
stages of temperature we have such differ-
ent conditions presiding over the union of
the elements that each temperature corre-
sponds to a new chemistry.
The temperature of the electric furnace,
which has been estimated to be from 3,500°
to 4,000° Cent., may be considered as inter-
mediate between the sun’s temperature,
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 63
estimated by different physicists at 5,000°
to 8,000°, and the temperatures of our
smelting furnaces, which range from 1,200°
to 1,500°. Now, in the sun’s atmosphere,
spectroscopic observations tell us that the
elements exist uncombined, and we can even
observe great masses of free oxygen in the
presence of heated hydrogen and of metals
so transformed in the properties which we
are accustomed to recognize that they do
not combine, but rise as vapors from the
hottest part of the sun, condense and fall
back in metallic clouds, which we know as
sun spots. Here, then, is a temperature
which is too hot for chemistry, if we define
chemistry as the science of the combination
of bodies.
The next temperature on a descending
scale that we have access to is that of the
electric furnace ; here a partial combination
only is possible; much of the oxygen re-
mains free ; carbon only burns to the non-
oxide of carbon, and the carbides and not
the oxides of the alkaline earths are the
stable forms of combination.
Then, at a lower temperature the bright
red heat of our smelting furnaces, the same
carbides formed in the electric furnace, when
exposed to free oxygen or to air, burn to
oxides and to carbonic acid, and at a still
lower temperature these two unite to form
carbonates represented by the chalk and
magnesian limestone which make so large a
part of the earth’s crust. Nature has so
adjusted her processes that a small residue
of oxygen remains, which, mixed with nitro-
gen, constitutes the vital air of our atmos-
phere. The carbides of aluminum and
silicon burn in a similar way with oxygen,
and the stable condition at any temperature
lower than a bright-red heat is that of sili-
cates and carbonates which make the chief
strata of the earth.
The oxidation of carbides, which became
possible when our globe cooled down to a
red heat and solidified, has perhaps been a
Maxc# 13, 1896. ]
superficial one, and the denser material be-
low the crust may consist of carbides of the
alkaline earths and carbides of the heavy
metals like iron, and finally the metals
themselves.
It is only within the last two years that
experiments with the electric furnace have
enabled us to study these new transforma-
tions at a high temperature, and have given
us the means of estimating what must have
been the primitive condition of the earth
during long geological periods.
Berthelot, Moissan and others have
pointed out that the evolution of marsh gas
from voleanoes may be an indication of the
existence of Plutonic remnants of carbides,
dating from a period of higher temperature,
and which we now know may give off gas
when brought in contact with moisture.
The most important and orginal experi-
ments made with the electric furnace have
been published in the Comptes Rendus of the
French Academy of Sciences by a young
chemist, Henri Moissan, who had already
distinguished himself by the discovery of
fluorine. One of the first results which
this new instrument gave in his hands was
the artificial production of diamonds made
by dissolving carbon in iron, and he then
undertook a complete study of the forma-
tion of the carbides of the metals. Mois-
san’s paper which interests us most directly
was published on the 5th of March, 1894.
It contains a full account of the formation
of pure crystallized carbide of calcium and
of its reactions with oxygen, sulphur,
chlorine, etc., and a complete account of the
formation of acetylene by the action of
water upon the carbide, and nothing of
scientific interest has since been added to
the chemistry of acetylene, except some
few experiments in European laboratories,
notably upon its silver compounds.
French physicists have, however, made
some very important measures of the ther-
mic conditions which preside over the for-
SCIENCE.
379
mation and decomposition of acetylene.
They are a continuation of the admirable
study of this singular gas, which was begun
by Berthelot in 1859, and we shall find
them of great value for explaining the
properties which make acetylene useful or
dangerous as an illuminant. The lecture
will be confined strictly to the statement
of facts which bear upon the proposed new
gas industry, and no place can be given to
the long-known laboratory processes for
making acetylene, and to many experiments
which display its general properties.
The idea of using this laboratory product
upon a commercial scale originated in the
United States, and the merit of it is due to
Mr. T. L. Willson and Messrs. Dickerson
and Suckert, who have secured patents;
but it is important to insist upon the fact
that they are not the discoverers of the crys-
talline carbide of calcium, nor of its trans-
formation to acetylene and to hydrate of
calcium. Moissan’s publication of March
5, 1894, antedates their patents by many
months, and describes completely the whole
chemistry of the manufacture of acetylene.
No mention is made of Moissan’s work in
the reports published by the acetylene com-
pany in a lecture by Willson and Suckert
before the Franklin Institute, and in a lec-
ture before the London Society of Arts by
Prof. Lewes. In these reports Mr. Willson
is represented as having discovered the
mode of formation of calcium carbide in the
electric furnace by the reducing action of
carbon upon refractory oxides. It is stated
that the experiments were begun by Mr.
Willson in 1888.
In such matters dates of discovery can
only be established by publications, which
in this case are to be found in the Patent
Office reports. Mr. Willson took out four
patents in 1889-1892 for electric smelting
processes, and in several of them the use of
carbon with refractory oxides is specified.
The design seems to have been to make
380
aluminum and its alloys and perhaps other
metals. No mention is made in the reports
of carbide of calcium nor of acetylene.
Dickerson and Suckert, December 31, 1894,
nine months after Moissan’s publication,
patented a process for evolving and con-
densing acetylene made from the carbide of
ealcium. And June 18, 1895, is the date of
the first patent by T. L. Willson in which
the report specifies the production of car-
bide of calcium.
Many statements have been published
concerning commercial aspects of the new
enterprise, but it will suffice to say here
that it has not yet reached a stage at which
the vital question of the cost to the con-
sumer of the carbide of calcium can be fixed
by the quotation of a market price. Small
quantities can be purchased for experimen-
tal purposes in New York at a price of $5
per 100 lbs. But the manufacture in the
United States does not exceed one ton per
diem and is carried on at Spray, in North
Carolina, a somewhat inaccessible place,
and no complete account of the process has
yet appeared in the best-known scientific
periodicals. The commercial carbide, un-
like that made by Moissan, probably con-
tains compounds of calcium with the ash of
coke, but no complete analysis has been
published. Some of the statements made
‘about the number of cubic feet of acetylene
are obviously inaccurate because the figures
5.89 to 6.35 cu. ft. acetylene per Ib. car-
bide are as high or higher than could be
obtained if the carbide contained no ash
and were absolutely pure.
The accurate measure of the gas given off
by the carbide is not easy and requires the
construction of a special apparatus. The
writer has examined a number of samples
of commercial carbide, and found that 70 to
92 per cent. of the theoretical quantity of
acetylene could be obtained fromthem. It
appears that the product which can be made
to the best advantage is one which contains
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. ILI. No. 63.
84.6 per cent. of pure carbide, and which
gives 5 cu. ft. of gas per pound ; or, fora ton
of carbide, 10,000 cu. ft. acetylene, two-thirds
saturated with moisture, and’ measured at
60° Fahr. and 30 inches barometer. Sum-
mer and winter variations of temperature,
together with barometric variations, would
cause a difference of more than 15 per cent.
in the uncorrected measure of the gas, and
gas measured in a mountainous region, with-
out correction for the low barometer, would
differ far more from the standard amount.
If the acetylene industry shall succeed,
the cost of the.carbide will have to be ad-
justed to the price that the consumer may
be willing to pay for gas, and it is prefer-
able to treat the subject from this side and
to show, as far as laboratory experiments
with materials at hand will permit, what
will be the probable value to the consumer
of acetylene gas.
A very simple experiment illustrates in a
beautiful way the ease with which acetylene
can be made from the carbide. Direct a
small stream of water on a half-pound lump
of carbide, ignite the gas and show that the
more water is poured on, the more flame is
obtained. Various forms of generators can
be used for the gas. The simplest one is a
bell glass floating on water and containing a
few lumps of carbide in a sieve. Assoon as
‘the bell glass descends so that the sieve
touches the water, a shower of fine sediment
of slaked lime can be seen to separate from
the carbide and fall to the bottom of the jar,
while the gas generated soon causes the bell
to rise and removes the carbide from contact
with the water. Thus the apparatus can be
made to work automatically, generating
gas only as fast as it is used; but it is not
fitted for permanent use, because the moist-
ure from the water generates gas, even
when the contact has ceased, and the bell
gradually rises, so that after twenty-four
hours gas would escape if it were not used
during the interval.
Marcu 13, 1896. ]
It is in every way preferable to separate
the generator and the gas holder, and such
arrangements can easily be made automatic.
The acetylene company has patented a
tank for generating the gas under sufficient
pressure to liquify itself, and proposes to
distribute liquid acetylenein cylinders under
a@ pressure of 600 to 700 pounds to the inch;
of this project more is to be said later.
It is certain that a company purchasing
the carbide of calcium and using an exist-
ing gas plant could generate acetylene and
distribute it through mains ata very small
expense, and with little skilled labor, so
that when a price for the carbide had been
established by contract the cost of the gas
could be easily estimated ; let us see what
price such a company could expect to ob-
tain from a consumer.
VALUE OF ACETYLENE AS AN IJLLUMINANT.
Suppose we take the case of a competition
with the gas companies of a large town. At
first sight it would seem fair to say we pay
for the light gas gives, and if a new gas
gives ten times more light we are willing to
pay ten times more, particularly if it
possesses any other advantages; our gas
bill will remain the same.
Here we come upon ground where the
facts can be tested by experiments. I
have made a large number of measures of
illuminating power and find that with a
new burner particularly suited to it 5 cu. ft.
of acetylene per hour will give 200 candle
power ; 5 cu. ft. of Boston gas will give a
little more than 25 candle power. The
Brookline gas is a little brighter. From
this point of view alone then we can pay in
Boston about $8 per 1,000 cu. ft. for acety-
lene when we pay $1 per 1,000 cu. ft. com-
mon gas. But will the gas bills remain the
same at this ratio? More light will probably
be used and the householder will be led into
@ more extravagant consumption, and he
must decide what he is willing to pay for
SCIENCE.
381
the new luxury. We must count then with
the tastes of the consumer, and these can
only be translated into money values after
long trial of the new light in many houses.
‘Besides the question of meeting the desire
of the consumer for more or less light is
another, which must be taken into consider-
ation depending upon his expertness in
burning gas and the care he is willing to
take in getting economical results.
No. 1. A Sugg-table fishtail burner is
shown, burning just 5 cu. ft. per hour and
giving the light of 25 candles. If more or
less than 5 cu. ft. of gas is passed through
it per hour it gives a lower efficiency and
the light costs more. The law in Massachu-
setts, 1882, requires that the candle power
should be tested with the most efficient
burners, and I have used the best one
for water gas. Coal gas would have given
more candle power in an Argand burner.
Burning gas economically is an art which
is only understood by experts, and here
again the habits. of consumers disturb
calculations; they are not usually willing
to take the pains to get the best burners, as
the following experiment will show.
No. 2 is a gas burner taken off the pipes
in the Technology building and represents
the average condition of burners in dwell-
ings. About one-half the illuminating
power of the gas is lost in this burner,
and few people think of having the burners
changed when they become inefficient.
If I put a globe over the burner, about
half the light is absorbed, so that with a
bad burner and with a milk-glass globe we
pay about four times as much as need be
for light; but the use of a globe is often
necessary for comfort. The acetylene gas
gives a different colored light, and I thought
it might pass through the globe in larger
proportion, but on measuring the candle
power I found this was not the case. Per-
haps a globe can be found that will espe-
cially suit acetylene light.
382
An important question then is to be an-
swered before we can compare the lighting
power of gas and acetylene. Is an acety-
lene light more tolerant of lack of care in
the burners and of variations in the pres-
sure than is the case with common gas?
The most superficial observation shows that
the two gases must be burnt in a very dif-
ferent way.
Gas burnt in an acetylene jet gives less
than one-tenth of its true lighting power,
and acetylene burnt in a common gas burner
gives a yellow, smoky flame, and when
turned down to a small flame it deposits
soot on the jet, clogging the burner, if the
opening consists of a straight slit. Even
the very fine fishtail burners with a straight
slit intended for oil gas suffer from this de-
fect when the acetylene flame is turned down.
It appears then from the last experiments
that the choice of burner and the mode of
using it are very important factors in de-
termining the value of any kind of illumi-
nant, and hundreds of pages have been
published on this subject with reference to
oil and gas light, and it may be added that
the results are not yet concordant.
Acetylene can not well be burnt in an
Argand burner nor with the devices that
succeed with petroleum lamps. A fishtail
flame with a good exposure to the air must
be used, and the best form of burner is that
which throws the swiftest stream ofacetylene
into the air in the form of a very thin sheet.
A lava-tip burner has long been used for
gas in which the opening is not a slit, but
two small holes. The construction of these
burners can be well shown by passing gas
through two blowpipe jets, and when the
two long jets of flame are made to impinge
on each other at nearly a right angle they
spread out into a fishtail form. Acetylene
ean be burnt in very small lava tip jets of
this class, and gives about 30-candle power,
but the light can not be turned low without
losing its efficiency and smoking.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 63.
An experiment can easily be made which
shows how large a quantity of air is re-
quired to render acetylene flames smoke-
less. Mix acetylene gas with measured
quantities of air up to 1} volumes of air
and burn the mixtures in a slit fishtail
burner. It will be found that the acetylene
does not diminish notably in illuminating
power. Larger proportions of air begin to
destroy the brilliancy of the flame. The
same trials with common gas show that a
very small proportion of air renders the
flame less luminous. Suitable burners must
be chosen in each case.
Acetylene can even be burnt mixed with
one-third its volume of oxygen, giving a
very brilliant flame. These experiments are
only of practical value in indicating the
kind of burner which should be chosen for
acetylene. Another quality of the flame
is very instructive from the same point of
view. The acetylene flame clings to the
burner in an extraordinary way, so that it
is difficult to blow it out, and the luminous
part of the fishtail flame almost touches the
jet, while in a gas flame a large blue zone
separates the luminous part from the jet.
An instantaneous photograph shows well
the character of the two flames and also
their comparative actinic powers.*
By exploring the flame with a bit of
platinum wire, it is easy to see, by the in-
*In the reproduction the gas flame appears rela-
tively too bright.—Ep.
MARcH 13, 1896.]
tensity with which it glows, which is the hot-
test part, and also to recognize that the lumi-
nous part deposits soot on any cold object.
These experiments led to the idea of con-
structing a new form of burner for acetylene
gas, in which the jets should be very fine
and very perfect in form, and which should
give the best possible access of air, and
which should bring a very small section of
metal in contact with the flame in order to
avoid smoke and the deposit of soot.
[HE oad
The form eventually chosen is shown by
the sketch. The burner is made of brass
with nickel or steel tips. The extreme
points in contact with the flame may be
tipped with platinum or silver, but steel
answers the purpose quite well. The most
essential feature is that the tips should not
be larger than ;/, inch in diameter. These
burners abstract very little heat from the
flame and consequently give more light
than the usual form for the same candle
power. They donotsmoke with any height
of flame. They burn acetylene advanta-
geously with the 10- to 20-candle-power
light to which we are accustomed. Lava
tips are uot well suited to such small
flames, because the section in contact with
the flame is about 20 times larger and ab-
stracts so much heat that the metal setting
for several inches in length becomes very
hot. Loss of heat occasions loss of light.
It is particularly important in burning
acetylene that a large supply of air should
be drawn into the flame by the suction of
the gas jets which issue from the two orifices
of the burner. The steel jets described
above provide for this by their perfection of
SCIENCE. 383
form, as they are bored from their base and
have the same proportions, which have been
found to throw the swiftest stream under a
given pressure with a hose nozzle.
It seems probable, in view of the careless
use of burners in the ordinary consumption
of gas, that one quality of acetylene will tell
in its favor. With a suitable burner acety-
lene will tolerate greater variations of pres-
sure than common gas. This point was de-
_ termined by more than 100 measures of the
candle power taken with the two gases
burning under different pressures.
The smallness of the acetylene flame re-
quired to give off a brilliant light is a point
in its favor, allowing the use of a great
variety of globes and shades for tempering
or reflecting the light.
The same quality will be found of ad-
vantage whan a strong light is to be con-
centrated as nearly as possible at the focus
of a mirror or of a lens, as in locomotive
headlights or in lanterns for projections.
It was hoped that the quantity of light
given off by duplex or triplex acetylene
flames would show a particularly econom-
ical consumption, but the results of meas-
ures of the candle power of such flames with
or without chimneys were disappointing. It
appears that defect of air supply with such
flames more than counterbalances the effect
of the heat which one flame communicates
to the other.
It might be desirable to use the existing
gas plants and to deliver, as heretofore, a
gas of 20-candle power suitable for heating
or lighting. Such a project seemed very easy
of fulfilment, since it was at first supposed
that acetylene could be used to enrich com-
mon gas, and in that case no changes would
be required in the mode of distribution nor in
the form of burners. Experiments have
shown that it can be employed to en-
rich coal gas, but that water gas, which is
so largely used in this country, cannot be en-
riched by acetylene. Water gas has little
384
illuminating power and requires to be en-
riched by passing petroleum oil into the re-
torts during the manufacture, and it is only
when water gas has already been brought
up to a certain candle power that acetylene
gas can be mixed with it without losing its
effectiveness as an illuminant; so that it
cannot be used as a substitute for petroleum
to enrich crude water gas.
There is no apparent reason a priori why
an admixture of a combustible gas should
deprive acetylene of its illuminating power,
and it is interesting to examine separately
the effect of each one of the constituents of
water gas to see which one has this prop-
erty.
Brookline gas, besides 16% of illuminants
derived from oil, contains equal quantities
(about 26%) of hydrogen, marsh gas and
carbonic oxide. If each one of these is
burnt separately with acetylene it appears
immediately that it is the carbonic oxide
which renders the acetylene flame non-lu-
minous. Ammoniaalso has a singular effect
upon common gas and upon acetylene,
nearly destroying the lighting power and
giving a beautiful faint purple flame with
curious marked fringes, but ordinarily only
traces of ammonia are contained in gas.
Nitrogen has much less effect than am-
monia or carbonic oxide in destroying the
illuminating power of acetylene.
The preceding statements tend to show
that a summary of the qualities of acetylene
gas, as compared with common gas, must
comprise other data beside the measures of
candle power, and I have endeavored to
point out some of the peculiar properties of
the new light which are advantageous.
The price and the taste of the consumers
must decide the question of competition.
The gas of small towns is usually poorer
in quality and higher in price than in large
towns, and perhaps the opportunities for the
introduction of acetylene are greatest in
this direction. Consumers may be willing
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Von. III. No. 63.
to pay $15 per thousand for acetylene gas
where they pay $1.50 for 16-candle water
gas or coal gas.
I should expect to see it first introduced
to replace the very expensive oil gas used
in railroad carriages, and also for special
purposes where great brilliancy and concen-
tration are required, like the head lights of
locomotives. For such purposes the Wels-
bach light cannot be used, because it is de-
stroyed by jarring. The adherence of the
flame to the burner is an advantage for rail-
road use, making the flame hard to blow
out. For shop-window illumination the
Welsbach light, which is very much cheaper
than gas burnt in any other way, seems to
be beyond the reach of competition ; and
the Auer burner, which is similar, is now
used for street lighting in Paris, and these
incandescent lights work well wherever the
light is not shaken, and where the disagree-
able green tint is not an objection.
For country houses acetylene light seems
well fitted and might replace the very bad
illumination of gasolene light.
Much skill and special knowledge are re-
quired to run gas works, while the making
of acetylene from the carbide or its distribu-
tion as a liquid is so simple that acetylene
stations could be established in many vil-
lages too small to make gas works pay.
Moreover the winter consumption of gas is
two or three times that of the summer, when
the gas plant hes idlein part. With acety-
lene there isan advantage in this direction,
because the value of the plant would be
much less.
The whiteness of acetylene light renders
it useful for displaying or sorting colors, and
some experiments made with Mr. C. R.
Walker show that, for photographie pur-
poses, when equal quantities of acetylene
light and of water-gas light, measured by
candle power, are compared, the acetylene
light has two and one-half times the actinic
value of the other.
Makcu 13, 1896. ]
POISONOUS QUALITIES OF GAS AND ACETYLENE,
Continuing the comparison of common
gas and acetylene, let us see how the case
stands from a sanitary point of view. We
see reports in the newspapers of deaths and
attacks of illness from gas poisoning, the
dropping out during the night of the core
of a gas cock or a break in a pipe, would
often be an accident fatal for the inmate of
a small, close bed chamber. Recently per-
sons have been poisoned by a defect in the
gas main outside of their -houses. Work-
men are frequently made ill by a leak in the
gas mains while working in a trench, but
the officers of the gas companies state that
such accidents are very seldom fatal.
There is no question then about the
poisonous qualities of common gas and par-
ticularly of water gas. Is the new illumi-
nant likely to be less dangerous ?
The poisonous constituent of common
gas is carbonic oxide. London gas contains
3.2 to 7% ; Paris gas 7% ; Berlin gas 8% ;
Boston gas 26%.
Formerly there was a legal limit of 10%,
which is now removed, and the introduction
of water gas has raised the percentage to
this very high and dangerous amount.
Carbonic oxide is not irritating or corro-
sive, and it seems strange that a compound
so nearly allied to carbonic acid, which is
innocuous, should act as a rapid poison.
The mode of action is this: Carbonic
oxide is absorbed and retained by the blood
in a way quite different from other gases.
It combines with the red corpuscles, and
the compound shows under the spectroscope
special absorption bands, which make the
recognition of its presence easy.
Blood which has taken up a certain
quantity of carbonic oxide no longer is
capable of taking up oxygen in the lungs
and conveying it through the circulation,
and death by suffocation ensues, just as if
there were not enough oxygen to breathe.
The blood is so sensitive to carbonic
SCIENCE.
385
oxide that so little as 0.03 % in the air can
be shown (Bull. Soc. chem. (6) 663) when a
solution of blood is brought thoroughly in
contact with a mixture containing carbonic
oxide.
The best way to bring a liquid in contact
with a large body of air or gas would be
to have it circulate by means of minute
canals, using a pump to keep the current in
motion through the cell walls of a sponge,
while the air was continually changed by
squeezing and relaxing thesponge. Wecan
find such a little machine in a very perfect
form in the body of a small animal, the
veins and arteries constituting the canals,
the pump being represented by the heart,
and the sponge by the lungs.
If we sacrifice a mouse as a martyr to
science and enclose him in a tight box con-
taining air with a known percentage of
carbonic oxide, and kill him after 3 or 4
hours, we can detect the carbonic oxide ab-
sorbed by his blood.
A similar method is best suited to dis-
covering whether acetylene is absorbed by
the blood. We might suspect that this
would be the case since the two gases have
in common the peculiar property of being
absorbable by solutions of subchloride of
copper.
Grehant (Comptes Rendus 1895, II., 565
made a careful comparison of carbonic
oxide and acetylene in respect to their
poisonous qualities upon dogs. He took
care to have 20% oxygen always in his
mixtures, so as to give it the vital quality
of air and not to kill his animals by suffoca-
tion. He added 1% carbonic oxide (i. e.,
enough Paris gas (containing 7% CO) to
give 1% carbonic oxide). After 3 minutes
the animal suffered ; after 10 minutes the
dog was very sick and his blood contained
27 volumes per 100 of carbonic oxide. The
dog would have soon died if the experiment
had been prolonged.
In a mixture containing 20% oxygen and
386
20% acetylene a dog breathed without in-
convenience for 35 minutes. His blood
contained 10% acetylene, less than ;1, the
rate of absorption of carbonic oxide and not
a larger percentage of acetylene than would
have been absorbed by water. The mix-
ture contained much more acetylene than
could ever get into the air of a room, and
in fact in a dwelling house a much smaller
quantity would produce an explosion.
A dog was killed by breathing 40%
acetylene and 20% oxygen in 51 minutes ;
another in about 80 minutes by 80%
acetylene and 20% oxygen. A guinea pig
was not killed in 39 minutes by the same
mixture.
L. Brociner (Comptes Rendus 1895, IT.,
773) had made similar experiments in
1887, and concluded that acetylene was not
poisonous. It is not more absorbed by
blood than by water. It has no specific
action on blood. Sulphide of ammonium
reduces such blood normally. It has no
special absorption band.
Berthelot and Claude Bernard 30 years
ago found acetylene not poisonous.
Moissan (Comptes Rendus, 1895, II,
566) says pure acetylene only has an
ztheric agreeable odor.
Bistrow and Liebreich in 1868 (Ber.I.,220)
pronounced acetylene poisonous, but this
opinion is contrary to that of Berthelot and
of Claude Bernard, and Berthelot has re-
cently stated anew that pure acetylene is
not poisonous, and has pointed out that the
old method of preparation of acetylene by
means of the acetylide of copper may con-
taminate the gas with prussic acid (Comp-
tes Rendus, 1895, IT., 566). Itmay be con-
eluded then on the best authority that pure
acetylene is not poisonous.
The smell of freshly prepared acetylene
made with commercial carbide of calcium
would lead one to suspect that the gas con-
tained phosphoretted hydrogen and Well-
gerodt (Ber. 1895, 2107, 2115) detected its
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 63.
presence in acetylene by passing the gas
through nitrate of silver solution. I also
got by another method a good molybdate
test for phosphoric acid, before I knew of
the above publication.
The phosphorus is probably derived from
phosphates in the quicklime and in the ash
of the coke used for making the carbide of
calcium. Moissan used a pure carbon ob-
tained by charring sugar, and his carbide
gave pure acetylene free from disagreeable
odor. The previous statements that acety-
lene is innocuous may only apply to pure
acetylene, and it is important then to make
a special examination of commercial acety-
lene to see if it contains dangerous constitu-
ents. J have only found one statement on
this subject contained in the Electrical Engi-
neer, New York, November 13, 1895, p.
469.
Dr. W. H. Birchmore says that 1 cu. ft.
of acetylene in 10,000 cu. ft. of air produces
headache in twenty minutes, and that so
small a quantity of acetylene is not percep-
tible to smell.
T have frequently breathed air containing
enough acetylene to be very plainly notice-
able from its smell, and have not suffered
the slightest inconvenience. It seems prob-
able that individuals differ greatly in their
susceptibility to poisons of the class to
which phosphoretted hydrogen belongs. It
is also quite possible that other poisonous
gases in very small quantity may constitute
impurities of acetylene. Dr. Birchmore per-
formed a single experiment upon an animal
and states that one part of acetylene in
10,000 parts of air killed a guinea pig in
six hours ; sickness came on in ten miutes.
The blood lost its power of absorbing oxy-
gen, as in a case of poisoning by cyanhydric
acid. He did not examine the blood for
acetylene. Experiments of this kind should
be repeated by competent physiologists, and
the blood should be carefully tested. It is
quite certain that in this case the death was
Marcu 13, 1896. ]
caused by some other body present and not
by the pure acetylene.
Ifit is found that phosphoretted hydrogen
or some similar impurity is present in
dangerous quantity, they can probably be
removed by a proper treatment of the gas.
Arsenuretted hydrogen might also be
present, but I have failed to find any trace
of it in commercial acetylene.
It has been said that acetylene gas could
never act as a poison, because an escape
from a leaky pipe would attract the atten-
tion of a person, even while asleep, by its
irritating action upon the throat, producing
coughing. The statement is contrary to all
my observations.
Further experiments upon this subject are
required, but the evidence already accumu-
lated seems to be favorable to acetylene as
compared with water gas, and if the new il-
luminant can be made fora reasonable price
and can be quite freed from poisonous im-
purities it should become a formidable com-
petitor with water gas. On the other side,
however, we shall find that the danger from
explosion will call for special precautions in
the use of acetylene gas.
DANGER IN USE OF LIQUIFIED ACETYLENE.
There will be an evident advantage, if
acetylene gas lighting succeeds, to begin by
introducing it without putting down mains
and setting down generating houses; this
can be done by supplying customers with
liquified gas. A cylinder holding say 1,000
cu. ft. gas compressed in a space of less than
2 cu. ft. can be attached to the gas pipes of
a house in place of a meter.
This new gas service is, however, not so
simple as would at first appear. Two
cylinders must be used at once, or at
least a second one must be brought before
the first is exhausted to make the supply
continuous, otherwise we should have the
disagreeable surprise of finding the gas ex-
tinguished. A gauge on the cylinders must
SCIENCE. 387
be watched to see when No. 1 must be cut
off and No. 2 turned on. Neglect in care
of this will cause extinction of the gas and
discredit of the system. The gas companies
have accustomed us to a constant supply
through mains at an even pressure and have
set a high standard of convenience.
The cylinders contain gas at a pressure
of 6 to 700 tbs. A reducing valve, al-
ways kept in order, must reduce this pres-
sure to 1 0z.=2 inches water. The Pintch
valve employed on railroad lines is used,
but we must ask the question: Will it al-
ways keep in order with the care it would
get in a private house or tenement house ?
Then an escape valve is required in case a
fault of the Pintch valve throws the whole
pressure on the pipes. A mercury seal
would answer to empty the gas into the air,
and it could be counted on to work satis-
factorily, but the gas would be lost each
time that the valves got out of order.
All this apparatus makes the use of liqui-
fied acetylene somewhat complicated, and in
addition to this disadvantage it would pre-
sent a serious danger in case of fire. The
cylinders when strongly heated would be lia-
ble to explosion, and it is proposed to guard
against this danger by employing a mercury
seal toempty them when the pressure exceeds
safe limits. This arrangement, even suppos-
ing thatit always performed its office during
a fire, would be open to a serious objection,
for if the fire took place in a large building in
a town containing, say, 10 cylinders with
5,000 cu. ft. of gas in the 10, this quantity
of gas thrown in the air would make an ex-
plosive mixture with 20 times its volume of
air, or about 100,000 cu. ft. in all, and
whether disengaged on the roof or in the
street would expose the firemen to a new
danger.
If we add to the small annoyances aris-
ing from the care of a gas supply which is
not constant like that of gas delivered in
mains, the danger of explosion of a cylinder
388
weakened by rust or neglect, the danger in
case of fire and the very doubtful economy
of the systems, the summary seems un-
favorable to use of liquified acetylene, except
in places where sufficient space can be had
to isolate the cylinders as gasoline tanks
are now isolated.
It will be seen later that these cylinders
may be exposed to a special danger, al-
though a very improbable one, from the ex-
plosive decomposition of acetylene under
the impulse ofa certain kind of shock.
THE TEMPERATURE OF THE ACETYLENE
FLAME.
When we compare acetylene and common
gas illumination from the point of view of
the products of combustion which vitiate
the air of a room, or of the heat which is
given off, the conclusions are very favorable
to acetylene lighting, because ten times as
much common gas has to be burnt to obtain
the same amount of light as would be given
by a unit measure of acetylene. The heat-
ing effect, however, is not in the ratio of ten
to one. Ten cu. ft. of Boston gas give 2.42
times as much heat as 1 cu. ft. of acetylene.
Prof. Lewes* has calculated the amount
of carbonic acid given off by different il-
luminants, and finds, for an equal amount
of light, that coal gas gives off six times as
much as acetylene, and he estimates that the
heat from acetylene would not be much
greater than from the ordinary incandescent
lamp.
The true relations are for the same
amount of light: Heat from incandescent
light, 1; acetylene, 3; water gas, 9.
Prof. Lewes says, in the same connection :
“The flame of acetylene, in spite of its il-
luminating value, is a distinctly cool fame,
and in experiments which I have made by
means of the Lechatelier thermo-couple, the
highest temperature in any part of the flame
is a trace under 1,000° Cent. While coal
* A paper read before the Society of Arts, London.
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 63.
gas, burning in the same way in a flat-flame
burner, the temperature rises as high as
1,360 Cent.”
It is not an advantage, but a disad-
vantage, that the fishtail acetylene flame
should be cool. Its temperature is lowered
by the excessive contact with air required
for complete combustion, and, if the flame
could be made hotter, more light could be
obtained for the same quantity of heat. It
is scarcely necessary to add that the temper-
ature of a flame has nothing to do with the
heat of combustion. Phosphorus or so-
dium can be burnt at the ordinary temper-
ature, or at a red heat, and the heat of com-
bustion is the same at either temperature,
provided the products of combustion are the
same.
Lechatelier,* one of the best authorities
upon such a subject, does not appear to have
measured the temperature of the acetylene
flame with his pyrometer, and, in fact, such
measurements are very difficult ; but he has
calculated that acetylene, burned with air,
may reach a temperature of 2100° to 2400°
Centigrade, and, burned with oxygen, 4000°.
It is easy to melt platinum in a common
air blowpipe flame fed with acetylene, but
the platinum appears to first form a carbide.
Acetylene, notwithstanding its high cost,
may find a restricted use in the laboratory
in air or oxygen blast furnaces; it will un-
doubtedly give a higher temperature than
gas or hydrogen.
The preceding description has continually
held in view the utilitarian side of the ques-
tion, and it has been thought simpler to
enumerate the items in favor of the eco-
nomical use of acetylene as compared with
gas and not to extend the comparison to
other forms of illumination, but the follow-
ing table mostly taken from the most recent
book} on the subject gives the means of
* Comptes Rendus, December 30, 1895.
+ Julius Swoboda: Petroleum Industrie.
ingen, 1895.
Tiib-
Marcu 13, 1896.]
comparing other modes of lighting. It is
to be remarked that authorities differ widely
in their estimates, and the cost of gas and
electric lighting varies greatly with the lo-
eality. Electricity is particularly advantage-
ous when it can be put to other uses during
a part of the day.
100 CANDLE LIGHT DURING 1 HOUR.
| Boo
| ss) S | S B EX
| = a +
aire
= ge aos
= es RHE
wa neo
AT CHICHtneetee cece 0.09—0.25E| 1—2.5) 57—158e
Tnecandescent lamp.... 0.46—0.85E) 38—5, 290—536e
Boston gas, $1 per 1000 a 20 cu. ft.! 2.0) 380¢
Acetylene, $10 per 1000...... 2% to 3 cu. ft.| 2.5—3/1000-1200c
Petroleum lamp............. 0.62 1b.+1.01b. 2.0} 3360¢
Carcel oillamp .... 5000 0. 9 Ib. 8.0} 4200¢
Parafline candle... 1. 71b.| 28.0! 9200¢
Spermaceti candle . 1. 7 1b. 54 of 7960¢
Wax candle......... 1. 7 1b. 61.0 8940¢
Stearine candle.............. 2. 01b. 33.0 9700¢
Tallow candle................ 2. 2 1b. 32.0
THE CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF ACETYLENE.
A series of very simple experiments will
illustrate the most important properties of
acetylene.
To compare its density and its explosive
force with those of common gas take two
lamp chimneys closed at the top and bottom
with corks, and each fitted with an inlet
tube at the bottom and with a large brass
tube at the top. Fill one with gas and the
other with acetylene and light both gases at
the upper tube ; then remove the rubber
tubes from the inlet tubes. The flames
will continue to burn at the upper orifice,
because each gas rises, floating on a layer
of air, which rushes in from below, and the
relative densities of the gases may be esti-
mated from the rapidity with which each
flows out. The common gas flows out more
rapidly and burns with a higher flame than
the acetylene, because it is lighter: (density
of Boston gas=0.607 ; density of acetylene
=0.91). At the last the flame strikes
down into the small residue of each gas,
which has become mixed with air in, the
lamp chimneys, and a slight explosion takes
SCIENCE.
389
place, which is notably stronger with acety-
lene than with gas. The greater density of
acetylene explains partly why it should
have more illuminating power than com-
mon gas, since a cubic foot contains more
material. As our object is only to examine
the properties of acetylene which have a
bearing upon its illuminating power, one
test of its chemical activity will suffice. Set
free a small quantity of hypochlorous acid
gas in a tall glass jar and plunge into it a
tube from which a stream of acetylene is
issuing, this latter will immediately take
fire from the great heat evolved by its
chemical action upon the hypochlorous acid.
If common gas, or almost any other gas,
were subjected to the same test no flame
would result.
Acetylene forms peculiar salts with cop-
per, silver and mercury ; and these when
dry decompose explosively when subjected
to a shock or to the action of heat. The
silver compound can even be exploded
under water and is more dangerous than
fulminate of silver.
EXPLOSIVENESS OF ACETYLENE.
What we have learned concerning the
extreme chemical activity of acetylene leads
us to expect that it would form more readily
than other gases an explosive mixture with
air, and this proves to be the case.
Experiments using a piece of two-inch
gas pipe as a cannon show that 5-6% of
acetylene mixed with air forms an explosive
mixture; 10-12% of water gas is required
to explode with air.
The heat abstracted by the walls of the
iron tube prevents the mixture from obtain-
ing its limit of explosiveness, and a still
smaller percentage of either gas mixed with
the air of a room would explode. Lechat-
elier (Comptes Rendus, 1895, II., 1145)
gives 2.8% of acetylene mixed with air as
the explosive limit, and it is to be noticed
that in a dwelling house the danger from
390
explosion is enhanced by the inequality of
such mixtures. A flame spreading from a
spot rich in gas would propagate itself ex-
plosively through a mixture very poor in
gas.
The danger is enhanced in the case of
acetylene by the low temperature at which
it takes fire, 480° Cent. Most other gases
must be treated to about 600° to take fire
and marsh gas, the fire damp of mines,
fortunately requires a much higher tempera-
ture to ignite, so that a spark from flint and
steel does not suffice to cause an explosion.
Acetylene burns with greatest increase of
volume when the products are carbonic
oxide and hydrogen. The violence of com-
bination of acetylene with oxygen can be
well shown by igniting equal volumes of
the two gases. <A quantity equal to 3-4
grains makes a far louder report than the
same weight of powder or of nitro-glycerine.
The dangerous properties shown by acety-
lene need not condemn it, but particular
care must be taken to prevent leakage if
acetylene gas comes into use; fortunately
small pipes can be used and the gas con-
tains no ammonia, which, in common gas,
destroys the grease on the stopeocks and
promotes leakage.
If instead of igniting a mixture of air and
acetylene, the latter alone is passed through
a glass tube heated to dull redness, at first
a slight change takes place, and liquid ben-
zene and other products condense in the
colder parts of the tube; ata little higher
temperature the change goes further—car-
bon is deposited and hydrogen is set free.
If the interior of the tube is carefully
watched it will be seen that the decomposi-
tion takes place with a dull red flame, as if
the acetylene were burning with an insufii-
cient supply of air. No air, however, is in
the tube; there is no combustion in the or-
dinary use of the word, and yet we have in
the flame evidence of a sudden disengage-
ment of heat. Here we approach the solu-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 63.
tion of the problem, regarding the extraor-
dinary chemical activity of acetylene.
Acetylene has a supply of heat stored up,
which it gives off, whenever it is decom-
posed spontaneously, burnt in air, or ex-
cited by any radical chemical change. The
sudden evolution of heat manifests itself as
light, quickens combustion and promotes
all chemical action.
The exact quantity of heat absorbed and
stored up by acetylene, when it is formed
by the union of carbon and hydrogen, can
be best measured by two experiments.
Firstly, burn exactly one cubic foot of
acetylene in a calorimetric apparatus, which
is merely a device for heating a given
weight of water without loss of heat, and
find that nearly nine pounds of water can
be heated from its freezing to its boiling
point. Or, if we take the thermal unit in
more general use we find that 407 kilo-
grams of water gain one degree Centigrade
in temperature from the heat given off by
burning one cubic foot of acetylene gas,
measured at 0° Cent. and 76 cm. barome-
ter.
Secondly, take exactly the weights of car-
bon and hydrogen which correspond to the
weight of one cubic foot of acetylene and
burn them in the same way under a weighed
quantity of water. We shall find that ac-
cording as we take pure amorphous carbon
or diamonds we get a somewhat different
quantity of heat. With amorphous carbon
and hydrogen 336.5 kilograms of water are
raised 1 degree Cent. in temperature. The
difference of heating power then between
acetylene gas and the same weight of car-
bon and hydrogen is 71 heat units. The
surplus energy stored up in the acetylene
and set free when it is burnt becomes evi-
dent and is measured, when we find that
the acetylene arrangement or combination
of carbon and hydrogen atoms is capable of
making the elements do more work, that is
to heat 71 kilograms more water than when
MARcH 13, 1896. ]
the same elements are free in the state of
amorphous carbon and of hydrogen gas.
When the carbon from carbide of calcium
and hydrogen from water combine to make
acetylene heat is utilized in changing the
earbon from the solid and the hydrogen
from the liquid form to the form of a gas.
Heat is absorbed in this process which im-
parts a new energy of motion to the atoms,
in the same way that heating water sepa-
rates the particles to two thousand times
wider distances from each other and gives
them the energy of motion which is appar-
ent in steam. In this case we can measure
the amount of heat required for this work
and which is absorbed while it takes place.
Unfortunately we can not get similar meas-
ures with carbon vapor and solid carbon,
and we can only measure a total absorp-
tion of heat during the generation of acety-
lene, and we suppose that the total, 71 heat
units, may be made up by the absorption of
a larger amount of heat in order to change
amorphous carbon to the gaseous state, from
which must be deducted the heat which is
given out when two carbon and two hydro-
gen atoms combine to make C,H,. Ben-
zene which has exactly the same percentage
of carbon and hydrogen, but combined into
quite a different chemical group shows that
more energy has been expended in bringing
about its chemical arrangement. The signs
which attest this are greater stability,
smaller chemical activity, and above all the
fact that when benzene is burnt it gives off
much less heat than the same weight of
acetylene does, and in fact only 4 heat units
more than the same weight of carbon and
of hydrogen.
It has seemed necessary to explain fully
how quantities of energy, which can usually
be measured in terms of heat, preside over
the making of different chemical compounds,
and how the dormant heat can be made ac-
tive again when the compounds are excited
to chemical change, and how each one is
SCIENCE.
391
stamped as with a birth mark by its special
heat value.
This peculiar stamp set upon acetylene is
at the same time a token of valuable and
also of dangerous qualities. Heat is-added
to the heat of combustion and brings about
more sudden changes and places acetylene
with the class of bodies known as fulmi-
nates. These are distinguished from ex-
plosives like gunpowder by their capability
of suddenly evolving stored-up heat, which
causes a great expansion of gaseous prod-
ucts. Berthelot has calculated that ful-
minate of silver develops a pressure of 600,-
000 tbs to the square inch in the incredibly
short ‘time of one-thirty-millionth of a sec-
ond. The acetylide of silver has similar
properties, and the lightest shock suffices to
explode it. It occurred to Berthelot to see
whether acetylene gas might not decompose
spontaneously into carbon and hydrogen
with explosive suddenness. We have seen
that it decomposes into these products, but
without explosion, when strongly heated, and
only in one way could it be made to decom-
pose explosively. Berthelot succeeded in
detonating pure acetylene by subjecting it
to the shock of fulminate of silver.
The danger seems very slight that acety-
lide of copper or some other metal may
form in an acetylené gas-holder, and when
exploded by friction or heat cause the
whole mass of gas or liquid acetylene to ex-
plode. The subject, however, is worthy of
further study.
As was said in the beginning, the prob-
lems which are suggested by this new in-
dustry touch on all sides upon some of the
most important of the recent discoveries in
chemistry and physics, and the ease with
which acetylene can be obtained opens the
door to many new experiments. Such ques-
tions, for instance, as the use of acetylene in
gas engines, under special conditions, where
the high price would not be prohibitive,
would offer a very interesting study. It
392
does not seem impossible that a gas so
active and so easily stored might be ex-
ploded with air in a pneumatic gun to give
an additional impulse to the projectile.
The laboratory experiments which have
been described may perhaps serve as a guide
in some directions to manufacturers, but
they cannot settle the commercial details
upon which the success of the new enter-
prise depends. Much further study and
tests upon a larger scale, with the improve-
ments suggested by prolonged trial, can
alone decide whether the new illuminant is
destined to supplant older industries built
up slowly and surely by the persistent ef-
forts of hard-working and skillful men.
J. M. Crarts.
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY.
NOTES ON THE CERRILLOS COAL FIELD.*
DURING August, 1895, the writer revisited
the Placer, or Cerrillos, coal field of New
Mexico, which is about 25 miles south from
Santa Fé. The field is small, apparently a
detached portion of the Laramie area ex-
tending far southward within the Rio
Grande region.
The district of especial interest is a strip
lying south from Cerrillos and Waldo, sta-
tions on the Santa Fé railroad. It is less
than two miles wide and reaches southward
to a little more than five miles from the
railroad ; but evidently all of the workable
coal beds are shown, and the transition from
bituminous to anthracite is exhibited very
satisfactorily. The mines are on Coal cafion,
which extends from the Placer, or Ortiz
mountains, at the south, to Waldo, at the
north, somewhat more than six miles.
The Ortiz mountains are largely trachytic;
from them there extend northward two
plates, each one about 200 feet thick, which
lie between Laramie beds and follow their
dip very closely. The upper plate covers
*Abstract of paper read before N. Y. Academy of
Sciences, January 20, 1896.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vo. III. No. 63.
the area east from Coal cafion and is now
the surface rock, the overlying beds having
been removed. It extends northward to
somewhat less than two miles south of
Waldo, terminating abruptly at the lower
end of Madrid, where are the offices of the
Cerrillos Coal Company. The lower plate,
about 400 feet feet below the upper, does
not come to the surface on Coal cafion, but
it was pierced in a boring on the mesa im-
mediately west and it crops in an arroyo
within a few rods further west. Several
dikes extend upwards from this plate, one,
very large, seen west from Coal cafion,
which must have been connected with the
upper plate, as it rises very high above the
mesa; a second, seen in Coal cafion, not
more than 10 or 12 feet wide does not
reach the upper plate; a third, very
narrow, found in the same cafion at a mile
and a half above Madrid, passes distinctly
into the upper plate. Prof. Kemp examined
the specimens from several exposures and
recognized the close relation in composition
throughout.
The stratified rocks within this strip be-
long to the Laramic and the exposed section
is somewhat more than 1,000 feet thick.
They resemble those of the same age in the
Trinidad coal field, but shale is present in
greater proportion. Limestoneis apparently
wholly absent and the sandstones are unus-
ually non-fossiliferous. The coal beds are
numerous, but most of them are very thin
and several are not persistent in all of the
sections.
The only coal beds of interest here are
those in the interval between the trachyte
plates; they are
White Ash coal bed........cc0000ee0e0ee 2/6// to 7
MG ETValeenvens weansveetacs keener 70’
Golsi NG HCOGLNDEM neceecsccaeonnn-ceseciees 1’ to 2/6/7
Mi berVal ese cose se soscrcvocesseces 80/
Cook- White coal Ded..........0ceesecseee py
Interval about::...........c..c00: 150°
ALON COAL VEO nraececeresctioctencc ences 4!
Manco 13, 1896.]
The White Ash bed is not more than 15
feet below the upper plate and the Waldo
bed, as found in the bore hole, not more
than 10 feet above the lower plate of
trachyte.
The White Ash has been mined at many
pits along Coal cafion for a distance of
nearly three miles, beginning at about a
mile and a half from Waldo. It is the im-
portant bed of the region and the only one
now mined. Four pits, two of which are
now in operation, show the bed. At the old
Boyle mine, about a mile and a half above
Madrid, the coal is a hard, dry anthracite,
slipped and jointed throughout ; some por-
tions closely resemble the graphitoid an-
thracite of Rhode Island.
The Lucas mine at Madrid was idle when
visited, but work had been stopped for only
a short time. The southerly levels of this
mine yield an anthracite of excellent qual-
ity, equal in appearance and composition to
the average anthracite of Pennsylvania ;
but a rapid change is shown in the north-
erly levels. Jvinting becomes annoying at
a little distance from the slope, and the coal
is wasted in the breaker; within 350 feet
evidences of great pressure and disturbance
accumulate, and the coal is laminated like
that from some Vespertine mines of south-
west Virginia, with the polished surfaces,
often curved, frequently not more than one-
fourth of an inch apart. This, however, is
still anthracite, and work was stopped in
these northerly levels only because of great
waste in breaking.
The Cunningham mine, at the lower end
of Madrid, entered a tender coal at the crop ;
the slope was pushed 1,100 feet, but no an-
thracite was found. The coal burns with
flame.
The White Ash mine, about half a mile
north from the Lucas, is the important pit.
At one time trains might be seen coming
from its slope made up of cars carrying,
some of them anthracite, others the tender
SCIENCE.
393
semi-bituminous, and others still the rich
bituminous coal which has given this mine
its reputation. The bituminous coal, con-
taining 39 per cent. of volatile combustible,
is obtained from the northerly levels, but
the southerly levels yield for the most part
what is called tender coal. The latter is
dull, very tender, and much of it has an al-
most cone-in-cone structure. It is reached
in the southerly levels at varying distances
from the slope. The passage from bitumi-
nous into anthracite through this tender
coal is shown in the sixth level southerly
where tender coal was reached at 125 feet
from the slope and anthracite at 450 feet.
The passage is gradual. The anthracite
makes its appearance at the bottom and
thickens gradually, crushed coal being re-
placed by laminated and that by the harder
almost homogeneous coal, the change being
completed within 50 feet.
The Coking bed was worked some years
ago at about two miles above Madrid,
where its coal was coked in ricks.
The Cook- White is no longer mined, but
it has been opened at many places along
Coal cafion, and the changes in character of
the coal are clearly shown. Above Madrid
fragments on the old dumps show that the
coal is anthracitic; a pit at the lower end
of Madrid, almost midway between the —
Cunningham and White Ash mines, shows
a tender coal which bears some resemblance
to that from Pocahontas, in Virginia ; analy-
sis Shows that it contains about 30 per cent.
of volatile, which is about what should be
expected, if its changes are similar to those
of the White Ash.
The Waldo bed is not reached in the upper
part of Coal cafion, but it has been mined
extensively further down. The only inter-
est it has here is its existence in the bore
hole west from Coal cafion, where it is not
more than 10 feet above the lower plate of
trachyte and shows no evidence of any
metamorphism whatever.
394
Long ago Newberry, and afterwards
Stevenson, regarded the coal as metamor-
phosed by heat from a great dike of eruptive
rock following the northerly side of the
Placer (now Ortiz) mountain. This, which
then was but a suggestion, is sufficiently
clear as an explanation now. As the center
of eruption was in the Ortiz mountains the
metamorphism should be most notable near
those mountains. That is distinctly the
condition, for, at the most southerly point
showing the White Ash bed well, the anthra-
cite is very hard; but the change is less
toward the north until normal coal is
reached in the White Ash mine below
Madrid. The gradation is equally clear in
the Cook-White bed; but the small bed be-
tween the main seams appears to contradict
the hypothesis, as it is decidedly bituminous
at half a mile above the pit, where the
White Ash bed yields the hardest anthracite
observed. This condition is easily ex-
plained by the fact that the small bed is
not continuous, being broken by clay seams
several feet wide, which sometimes cut out
all of the coal; these seams would prevent
the passage of heat from one portion to
another.
The conditions at several localities show
that mere proximity to the mass of eruptive
rock was insufficient to produce change.
The lower plate of trachyte is but 10 feet
below the Waldo coal bed in the bore-hole
west from Coal cafion, but, though 200 feet
thick, it had no appreciable effect upon the
coal. The interval between the White Ash
bed and the upper plate of trachyte shows
insignificant variations along Coal cajfion,
and it must be approximately the same in
the newer parts of the White Ash mine;
yet in the Lucas mine and at all localities
south from it the coal is anthracitic ;
whereas at all points north from it to the
border of eruptive rock one finds only
transition coal. It seems clear that direct
contact is necessary to produce change.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Von. III. No. 63.
Prof. J. F. Kemp describes the eruptive
rock as a trachyte closely allied to andesyte.
Its outflow then was early, possibly at the
time of the Laramide elevation, when great
outpourings of andesyte occurred in Colo-
rado, Utah, Wyoming and Montana. The
coal was completely formed prior to this
elevation, prior to any disturbance, there
being not only no evidence of pulpiness, but
every evidence that the coal was thoroughly
hard. It was crushed into minute frag-
ments, slicken-sided, like the Utica shales of
Franklin county, Pa., or laminated and
rolled into leaves, like the Vespertine coals
of southwestern Virginia. The process of
conversation was complete before disturb-
ance not merely in the lowest beds, but also
in the White Ash bed, at nearly 900 feet above
the bottom of the Laramie.
Joun J. STEVENSON.
THE RONTQGEN PHENOMENA.
A FEW EARLY RESULTS OBTAINED AT THE UNI-
VERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
Tue first attempt here to repeat Rontgen’s
experiments was made on Wednesday, Jan-
uary 22d, but without success, owing to the
impression obtained from early accounts
of experiments abroad that two induction
coils were necessary. As a matter of fact,
one coil giving a four-inch spark through
air is quite powerful enough to produce
most of the results that have yet been ob-
tained. The average current through the
primary is about three amperes with an
E. M. F. of twelve volts. Our tube is a
beautiful large pear-shaped one, admirably
adapted for the purpose. It is about 27 cm.
long, and 11 cm. in diameter at the largest
end.
Fig. 1 shows the result of a test to dem-
onstrate the possible reflection or refraction
of the X-rays when incident upon two very
large and white diamonds set in a ring.
The gems were placed within a purse with
some coins. Certain features of the cutting
Marcu 13, 1896.]
seem to be very marked, and the interpre-
tation of the result obtained presents a very
interesting problem.
Fie. 1.
We have also demonstrated the possibility
of detecting by the Rontgen process flaws or
blow holes in metal plates. The writer had
prepared for him three pieces of aluminum
about 5 mm. thick, within which were made
several hidden flaws and holes, and in one
of them was placed a plug of some foreign
substance, lead. A picture of the pieces
reveals exactly the positions of all the holes,
and a darker streak shows the position of
the lead plug. Even the numbers which
were stamped with a die are plainly visible
in the radiogram.
It is now desired to call attention to a
very interesting incident in connection with
this wonderful discovery. The writer has
in his possession a plate showing the im-
pression of two coins taken on February
22,1890,in the physical department of the
University of Pennsylvania, undoubtedly by
the X-rays.
On the occasion referred to many experi-
ments were made, the object being to photo-
graph the brush discharge, from a powerful
induction machine, directly upon the sensi-
tive plate, without any camera. Incidentally
SCIENCE.
395
also the impressions of coins were obtained
by sparking them when in contact with the
sensitive film. After these experiments had
been completed, a number of Crookes tubes
‘were brought out and operated for the
pleasure and amusement of Mr. W. N: Jen-
nings, in connection with whom the work
had been done.
A few days later Mr. Jennings, who had
taken the plates home for development, re-
ported the appearance, on one of them, of
too very mysterious dises quite different in
character from those obtained by the spark-
ing process. No explanation was found at
the time to account for the phenomenon, and
the matter was forgotten till recently, when
the occasion was recalled and the old plate
was produced from:a lot of so-called failures.
On repeating the experiment by operating a
Crookes tube for ten minutes, in the vicinity
of an enclosed photographic plate having
two coins on the outside of the box, it is
found that the coin shadows are strikingly
similar to the mysterious discs upon the old
plate. The blurred appearance of one edge
is a distinctive feature of a Rontgen picture.
A print from the original plate is shown in
Fig. 2. The writer and his associate wish
to claim no credit for the interesting acci-
dent, but the fact remains that without
396
doubt the jist Rontgen picture was pro-
duced on February 22, 1890, in the physical
lecture room of the University of Pennsyl-
vania. Artuur W. GoopsPEED.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPHY.
CATSKILL AND HELDERBERG ESCARPMENTS.
Recent reports of the New York State
Geologist contain chapters by N. H. Darton,
from which a number of interesting physio-
graphic paragraphs may be selected; and
inasmuch as there is no good account of the
geography of the Empire State, all these
piecemeal contributions toward it are wel-
come. The Helderberg escarpment in Al-
bany county rises boldly over the broad
alluvial plain formed by the Mohawk dur-
ing the ‘Champlain’ submergence. Back
of the escarpment the land rises in succes-
sive rock terraces of moderate height. The
Catskill escarpment in Ulster county is the
strongest feature of the kind in the eastern
part of our country. Subordinate character-
istics of this dominant form are found in
the capture of the headwaters of certain
consequent upland streams by the obse-
quent Kaaterskill and Plaaterskill, which
are gnawing deep ‘ cloves’ in the steep face
of the escarpment and thus gaining drain-
age area for the subsequent Hudson valley.
Among the ridges in the foreground the
complicated monocline of Medina sandstone
forming Shawangunk mountain is the most
conspicuous. A number of geographical
illustrations accompany these reports, but
their reproduction is disappointing in sev-
eral cases.
EXPLORATION IN LOWER CALIFORNIA.
Aw account of a collecting expedition to
Lower California by G. Hisen (Proc. Cal.
Acad. Sci., V., 1895, 7383-775), gives some
notes of interest on the features of the ex-
tremity of the peninsula. Winter rains are
light and rare ; late summer rains are fre-
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 63.
quent and come in comparatively heavy
showers ; the withered shrubby growth on
the mountain slopes bursts into leaf and
flower when the rains begin. Very brief
mention is made of raised beaches and of
‘moraines,’ which are described as promi-
nent, large and steep, especially on the east
slope of the mountains, where they ‘all run
more or less parallel from west to east’
(754). The mountains, being only 7,000 or
8,000 feet high, and their eastern slope
being drier than the western, it seems ques-
tionable whether these so-called moraines
are authentic records of. glacial action.
Possibly they are dissected alluvial fans,
which have not infrequently been mistaken
for glacial deposits.
NIUAFOU, A VOLCANIC RING ISLAND.
Lirut. SomERVILLE, of the British navy,
contributes an account of this remarkably
perfect ring island to the London Geo-
graphical Journal for January. It lies mid-
way between the Fiji and Samoa groups,
remote from other islands. Its outer diame-
ter is about three miles, the whole coast
line consisting of forbidding black lava
rocks. The caldera is about two miles in
diameter, with interior cliffs of 200 or 3800
feet in height. On the eastern side of the
deep lake here contained is a peninsula
formed by the craters of the eruption of
1886. The view from the commanding
summits of the caldera ring is described as
of remarkable beauty, including a great ex-
panse of the surrounding ocean rolling un-
der the southeast trade, the calm lake with-
in the basin, the luxuriant vegetation on
the older slopes, and the barren cinder cones
of the recent outburst. A good sketch map
and two views are reproduced.
THE FASROES.
An account of the Feroes, or Sheep
Islands, is presented to the same journal by
Karl Grossmann, as the result of visits
Marcu 13, 1896.]
made in three recent summers. The islands
result from the deep dissection and submer-
gence of a great volcanic mass, whose nearly
level lava beds determine the tables and
cliffs which dominate the scenery. The ex-
posed coasts are cut back into great sea
cliffs, some of which rise 1,500 to 2,400
above the sea, exposing magnificent struc-
tural sections. Huge outstanding stacks
remain in front of many cliffs.
The outer islands are reached only in
fair weather and then with difficulty; their
small population often being storm bound
for weeks at a time. Sea birds, nestling on
the cliffs, constitute an important article of
food supply; the ‘bird rocks’ forming val-
uable property for the parishes to which
they belong. Here the hardy custom of bird
eatching, while dangling from a rope let
down from the cliff top, is still in practice.
‘Tidal whirlpools’ occur in the inner
fiords; some have a diameter of thirty yards;
their smooth surface, bordered by a rip-
pling cascade, standing half a foot above the
surrounding water.
MOUNTAIN WASTE IN RELATION TO LIFE AND
MAN.
Amone the Anthropogeographische Beitrage,
edited by Ratzel (Wiss. Veroffentlichungen,
Ver. f. Erdk., Leipzig, ii, 1895), is an essay
by Bargmann on the forms assumed by the
youngest waste building talusslopes and fans
on the flanks of the northern Kalkalpen,
in their relations to mountains, snow, water,
plants and mankind. Various forms as-
sumed by the waste are minutely classified.
The already large area covered by waste
slopes is shown to be increasing, while the
naked rock area is decreasing; thus the
opportunity for occupation of the mountain
district by various forms of life is on the
-wholeimproving. Yetin the present phase
of degradation, the modern invasion of
meadows by the advancing foot of waste
slopes has in a number of cases seriously
SCIENCE.
397
reduced the value of the valley floors as pas-
ture grounds. Some slopes of loose waste
descend at angles of 44 and 46 degrees.
The chapter on the manner in which waste
slopes are taken possession of by plants is
an excellent illustration of the relation of
physiography to botany. W. M. Davis.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.
WAS SYPHILIS A GIFT FROM THE AMERICAN
RACE?
No doubt there is a racial nosology as well
as physiology. Many writers have asserted
that syphilis originated in America and was
first introduced into Europe by the sailors
of Columbus. Dr. Joseph Jones claims to
have unearthed bones showing syphilitic
caries from the ancient graves of Tennessee.
In the Journal of Cutaneous Diseases, Octo-
ber, 1895, Dr. A. 8S. Ashmead argues
that syphilis was autochthonous among the
Aymaras of Bolivia, and quotes Forbes as to
the possible origin of it from the alpaca, an
animal which suffers from it in a malignant
form. Dr. EH. Seler, in the Verhandlungen
of the Berlin Anthropological Society for
1895, has a learned article to support the
view that it was prevalent in Mexico before
the conquest.
On the other hand, in the same volume,
(p. 454), Prof. Virchow declares he never
saw a syphilitic bone from an ancient
American grave; that the disease was
known in Europe certainly as early as
1472, and was prevalent in Japan in the
ninth century.
ETHNOLOGY, GEOGRAPHY AND HISTORY.
TuE relations of these three sciences are
discussed by T. H. Achelis in the Globus
1896, No. 4. He regards ethnology as a
strictly empirical study, ‘wholly without
metaphysical tendencies.’ Its ultimate aim
is to define the human soul by a thorough
collation of all that it has actually achieved,
398
as in religion, mythology, law, art, ete. In
primitive conditions man’s activities are
powerfully influenced by his geographic en-
vironment, but this diminishes as culture
increases. The proper aim of ethnography
is not to search out relations of blood, but
similarities of culture. Above these stand
the universal traits of human psychology,
which can be defined only by careful col-
lection and comparison of ethnic details.
Degenerations and deteriorations in culture
do not belong of right to ethnologic study,
because this has as its purpose the defini-
tion of evolution or the advancement of
the species. He refers to Post, Bastian,
Ratzel and Andree as the best representa-
tives of this new school of ethnology.
It is proper to add that their opinions
have not yet received universal, scarcely
general, acceptance from other nations.
MENTAL VERSUS PHYSICAL IN WOMAN.
THERE is a prevailing impression that
women in the higher classes of civilized
society are less desirous and less capable of
having numerous offspring than those of the
lower classes and ruder conditions. In other
words, that there is an antagonism between
the intellectual culture of woman and her
reproductive powers. One or the other must
suffer in her education.
The sociological importance of such a
fact, if it is one, can scarcely be over-esti-
mated. Were it proved, and no remedy be
found, it would mean the gradual extine-
tion of the most cultured classes in the com-
munity. The question was presented by me
before the anthropological section of the
Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia,
and an abstract published in the Medical
News, January 18, 1896, under the title
“The Relations of Race and Culture to De-
generations of the Reproductive Organs and
Functions in Woman.’ JI shall be glad to
send a copy to any reader of Screncr who
wishes one. D. G. Brinton.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 63.
NOTES ON AGRICULTURE AND HORTI-
CULTURE. (IV.)
TREATMENT OF PEACH ROT AND APPLE SCAB,
DrELAWARE is a small State, but large in
its peach industry. The leading enemy to
the peach crop, the fruit rot, naturally is a
subject that demands the attention of the
Station Mycologist, Prof. F. D. Chester.
For several years he has been testing vari-
ous fungicides for the rotting of the fruit,
and the last bulletin (No. 29), recently
issued, gives both the results of the experi-
ments and general directions for spraying.
It is recommended to remove and burn all
dried or mummified fruit from the peach
trees in winter and to spray the trees
in early spring with bluestone solution.
When the fruit buds begin to swell spray
with the Bordeaux mixture and again just
before the buds open. Spray again with
Bordeaux when the bloom is falling, and
add a little Paris green to keep off the cur-
culio. About two weeks later the same
treatment is repeated. As the Bordeaux
coats the fruit with the lime mixture, for the
last two sprayings copper acetate, a color-
less solution, is employed. A tenfold in-
crease of sound fruit was obtained by this
process at a cost of about twelve cents per
tree.
The treatment for apple scab was the Bor-
deaux mixture, to which London Purple had
been added and applied five times to the
trees. The good fruit was doubled by this
treatment, while the general health of the
apple trees was much improved.
LEGISLATION AGAINST WEEDS.
Tue division of Botany U.S. Department
of Agriculture has just issued a bulletin
(No. 17), prepared by Mr. L. H. Dewey,
“in response to a growing demand among
agriculturists and Legislators for data which
will enable them to prepare laws better
adopted for the control of weeds than those
now in use.”’ One per cent. of increase in
Marce 13, 1896.]
the crops, which might be obtained by
weed destruction without much cost, would
amount to $17,000,000. The passage of
proper laws against weeds is important and
should be effected with dispatch.
The weed laws are listed as found upon
the statute books of the following States:
Arizonia, California, Connecticut, Dela-
ware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Ken-
tucky, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Mis-
souri, Nebraska, New Jersey, New York,
North Dakota, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania,
South Dakota, Vermont, Washington,
West Virginia, Wisconsin. Thus twenty-five
States and Territories have laws against
weeds. In some States the law is to sup-
press but a single species, as against Canada
thistle in California, Delaware, Kentucky,
while other States proscribe fourteen, as in
Minnesota and Ohio. The largest proscrip-
tion is with the Canada thistle, twenty-one
out of twenty-five States. Six States legis-
late against the Russian thistle.
The fact that there is no federal law
against weeds is probably because no one
species is national in importance, but the
Russian thistle may become such if it
spreads as it is feared. :
The basis for a general weed law is given
and includes as a leading feature a commis-
sion of which the State botanist shall be the
head. It is very important that new weeds
shall be recognized and measures taken to
eradicate them atonce. Legislation for the
purity of seeds will do much to check the
introduction of weeds through commercial
seeds.
BACTERIA IN THE DAIRY.
Dr. Conn gives a ‘ year’s experience with
Bacillus No. 41 in general dairying’ in the
_ Annual Report of the Storr’s Experiment
Station of Connecticut. This germ can pro-
duce a pleasant flavor in butter, if favorably
situated in the cream, and is feasible in the
hands of ordinary dairymen. The flavor
SCIENCE. 399
thus produced is retained by the butter for
a long time. It is not proved that this
bacillus is the best possible one for this pur-
pose, but Dr. Conn thinks the method is at
léast correct in principle and will succeed
in practice.
SUB-IRRIGATION IN THE GREENHOUSE.
THE Ohio Experiment Station is taking
a lead in the study of irrigation under glass
by Prof. W. J. Green. Ina recent bulletin
the construction of the greenhouse with
iron frames and bench tiles is fully shown
by engravings, as also the great difference in
the size of lettuce grown with sub-irrigation
and surface watering, it being twice as large
with the former as the latter method. The
idea of irrigating below the surface grew
out of an attempt to prevent the rotting of
lettuce by not wetting the foliage. Sub-
irrigation is cheaper than the old method
of surface watering; the soil remains in a
better condition and the plants are less
liable to decay. These results come largely
from the soil permitting the air to pass
freely through it, besides supplying water
constantly to the roots.
GRAPE CULTURE.
Some of the Experiment Stations bulle-
tins are books and not small ones. Sixty-
four pages of close print interspersed with
engravings is issued by the Georgia Experi-
ment Station as its bulletin No. 28. The
Horticulturist H. N. Starnes does not con-
ceal the intent of the publication, but at the
outset states that ‘‘no attempt has been
made to treat the subject from a scientific
standpoint, and as far as possible all techni-
calities have been avoided, as the bulletin
is intended solely for the practical guidance
of the inexperienced beginner.’”’? The book-
let is divided into nine parts, namely, the
vineyard, propagation, planting, pruning
and training and so on.
Byron D. HALsTED.
RUTGERS COLLEGE.
400
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
THE WOODS HOLL MARINE BIOLOGICAL
LABORATORY.
Tue Eighth Annual Report of the Trustees
of the Marine Biological Laboratory at Woods
Holl has just been issued, and shows that the
summer of 1895 was the most successful in the
history of the Laboratory. At different times
during the summer there were 63 investigators
present, 42 of whom occupied special research
rooms. ‘There were 101 students taking intro-
ductory courses. The whole number of students
who have attended the Laboratory since 1888 is
483. The attendance of investigators has been
very greatly increased by the system of codpera-
tion with the colleges and societies, which began
in 1894. At present 25 colleges subscribe for in-
vestigator’s rooms, besides five societies, includ-
ing the American Association for the Advance-
ment 'of Science and the American Society of
Naturalists.
The year has been a successful one financially
owing to the large number of students present
who have paid for their instruction or through
the colleges for the investigators’ rooms or ta-
bles. A few years back it was necessary to make
up a large deficit at the end of the year, while
the past year’s income exceeded the total ex-
penses by nearly $1,000. There still remains,
however, a debt of $5,985. Since this report
was prepared, a meeting of the Trustees was
held in Boston to revise the constitution of the
Laboratory, and the following general plan was
submitted: To place the entire financial inter-
ests of the Laboratory in the hands of a special
finance committee. Second, to constitute from
the present Board of Trustees a number of
committees. Finally, to constitute from the
staff at Woods Holl and from representatives
of cooperating colleges a scientific board of
direction, who, with the Director, will control
the entire policy of the Laboratory and its gen-
eral administration.
Encouraged by this successful year the Di-
rector, Professor C. O. Whitman, naturally
closes with a strong appeal for an expansion of
the resources of the Laboratory in the form of
endowments. He proposes that tables shall be
endowed at $1,250; investigator’s rooms at
$2,500; scholarships at $200, and fellowships
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 63.
at $500. The library needs $1,000 per year
to keep it supplied with current publications.
The publication fund should amount to $2,-
000 annually. But the chief feature of the
proposed expansion is a main building for the
exclusive use of investigators, providing for
library, auditorium, aquarium, laboratories,
ete., which would cost about $100,000. These
steps would be necessary to found an inter-col-
legiate Biological Station, with an annual out-
‘lay of not less than $50,000.
In order to support this ambitious plan, the
Director presents an exceptionally full and
able report, tracing the whole past history of
the Laboratory. His main contention is that the
Laboratory was founded for instruction as well
as for investigation in Biology, and that at the
outset it was proposed to establish an ideal Bi-
ological Station, organized on a basis broad
enough to represent the important features of
the several types of laboratories hitherto known
in Europe and America. The report aims to
show that the elementary instruction depart-
ment (a feature which distinguishes the Amer-
ican station from all those in Europe ) is neces-
sary in order to train the investigators, or, to
use his own language :
“The instruction cannot be made too strong,
for its strength is continually being transferred
to investigation; and every proper expansion
of investigation must react to improve and en-
rich instruction.’’ He goes on to say that the
instruction has not interfered with investigation,
because the investigators have increased almost
as rapidly as the elementary students. There
were 9 investigators in 1888 and 63 in 1895.
There were 8 elementary students in 1888 and
101 in 1895. He concludes: ‘‘ Comparing the
last four years of growth with the first four, it
will be seen that we moved on with no very
great gains in the earlier period, while the later
period is marked by a sudden rise in standing,
50 per cent. of membership, and a gain of over
100 per cent. on the investigator’s side. In
1894 a new laboratory was constructed and the
Director recommends the construction of an-
other temporary laboratory in 1896, in order to
meet the pressing needs of the present growth.
Much progress has been made in the general
financial support of the Laboratory, which has
MaAxrcH 13, 1896. ]
hitherto fallen upon the generous Trustees from
Boston and their friends, not only by the aid of
the thirty codperating colleges, but by the
formation of the ‘Biological Association,’ the
chief object of which is to aid the Laboratory
in securing funds necessary to the foundation of
a biological station as a National center of re-
search in every department of biology. Local
committees have also been formed, such as
those in New York and Philadelphia.”’
During the year a large number of evening
lectures were given by well-known morpholo-
gists and physicists, and the daily morning lec-
turers include a very large number of well-
known names. Besides this, there has been
regular instruction in vertebrate and inverte-
brate morphology and a course in embryology.
THE RONTGEN RAYS.
SoME twenty papers on the Rontgen rays
have already been presented before the Paris
Academy of Sciences. On February 10th M.
C. Henry reported that coins coated with phos-
phorescent zine sulphide lose their opacity to
the rays. Nature thus summarizes the papers
presented on February 17th: ‘‘ In following up
the analogy of certain properties of these rays
with some properties of the ultra-violet rays,
M. R. Swyngedauw has found that the X-rays
cause a lowering of the explosive potential ac-
cording to the same general laws as the electri-
cally active ultra violet rays. Whilst the in-
fluence of the latter, however, is entirely sup-
pressed by interposing a screen of wood, glass
or blackened paper, these materials do not
effect this property of the Rontgen rays. It
was also noticed that these rays lowered the
dynamic explosive potentials to a greater extent
than the static potentials. As a result of the
study of the property of the Rontgen rays of
discharging an electrified body, M. A. Righi
concludes that the time necessary for a given
fall of potential is practically the same, whether
the original charge be positive or negative.
With an initial positive charge the discharge is
not complete ; but if negative initially, not only
is the discharge complete, but the disc becomes
positive. The results obtained by MM. J. J.
Borgman and A. L. Gerchun, however, are
precisely contrary to these, a positively charged
SCIENCE.
401
dise losing its charge nearly instantaneously,
and becoming negative on prolonged exposure
to a Crookes’ tube. MM. L. Benoist and D.
Hurmuzescu contribute further researches on
the same subject of a quantitative character.
By measuring the time required for a given re-
duction of angle between the leaves of an elec-
troscope and the distance of the leaves from
the Crookes’ tube, they prove that the ratio of
the times are as the ratio of the squares of the
distances. From the coefficient of transmission
(0.85) of an aluminium plate, 0.1 mm. thick,
it is shown that a plate of aluminium 15 mm.
thick, such as was used by Rontgen in his orig-
inal experiments, must be practically opaque to
the rays wnless the rays are heterogeneous. In an
extract from a letter by de Heen an ingenious
experiment is described which proves conclu-
sively that the X-rays proceed from the anode,
and not the cathode. A leaden plate perforated
with holes is placed between the Crookes’ tube
and the photographic plates, and the direction
of the bundles of rays obtained shows clearly
that these rays are anodic. ~
ASTRONOMY.
THE Munich Observatory has just issued a
very elaborate investigation of astronomical
refraction from meridian circle observations
made for this special purpose by Dr. Julius
Bauschinger. The instrument used was the
new six-inch, which was set up towards the
end of 1891. The present series of observa-
tions are therefore the first ones made with
this instrument. The method employed was
the usual one of comparing the declinations or
the same star obtained at the upper and lower
culmination. The paper as a whole impresses
one with the extraordinary care and thorough-
ness with which every part of the work has
been done. We can, of course, only touch very
briefly upon a few points that appear of special
interest.
No corrections for errors of the microscopes,
errors of division of the circle, or flexure of
the tube, were applied to the observations, as
very careful investigation of all these matters
showed that the existence of such errors was
not established with certainty. This speaks
very. highly for the skill of the instrument
402
makers, Messrs. Repsold, of Hamburg. Great
care was given to the reduction of the observa-
tions of the meteorological instruments, the pres-
sure of the aqueous vapor in the atmosphere
being taken into account. The corrections
for variation of latitude which have been
applied to the observations were deduced
from the series itself, because the author
did not want to let his results depend upon
the work of others. Perhaps it would have
been better to have employed some of the con-
temporaneous series of latitude variation ob-
servations for the correction of Dr. Bausch-
inger’s results. They are not completely inde-
pendent as they stand, because the constant of
aberration was not determined from them. The
usual Pulkowa value was used in the reduc-
tions.
Passing over a number of very interesting
special investigations of various points, we shall
call attention to the two most important results
obtained by Dr. Bauschinger. He finds for the
refraction constant at 760 mm. pressure, and 0°
Centigrade, the value 60//104, indicating a con-
siderable reduction of the Besselian constant.
That such a reduction of the Besselian constant
was needed, had already been shown to be prob-
able by other recent investigations. The other
important result is a very accurate declination
catalogue of 116 principal stars for the epoch
1892. Radau’s new refraction tables were em-
ployed throughout the work.
THE Jablonowski Society, of Leipzig, has
published in a book of 280 pages octavo, a trea-
tise on the Secular Variations of the Orbits of
the Major Planets by Dr. Paul Harzer, Director
of the Gotha Observatory. This work has re-
ceived the Society’s prize. Jal df
GENERAL.
THE Secretary of the Interior has requested
the National Academy of Sciences to report on
a forestry policy for the government with spe-
cial regard to the following questions: (1) Is
it desirable and practicable to preserve from fire,
and to maintain permanently as forested lands,
the wooded parts of the public domain, for the
supply of timber? (2) How far does the in-
fluence of forest upon climate, soil and water
conditions make a policy of forest conservation
SCIENCH.
[N. S. Vot. III. No. 63.
desirable in those regions where most of the
public domain is situated? (8) What specific
legislation is required to remedy the evils now
existing? A commission has been appointed
by the Academy consisting of the following :
Prof. Charles 8. Sargent, Chairman; Prof. Alex-
ander Agassiz, Gen. Henry L. Abbott, Prof.
William H. Brewer, Mr. Arnold Hague and
Mr. Gifford Pinchot.
AT a meeting of the Board of Managers of
the New York Botanical Garden on March 4th
_plans were considered for a museum building
and sketches for greenhouses were exhibited.
The Secretary was instructed to exhibit topo-
graphical maps of the garden site at the annual
reception of the New York Academy of Sciences,
on March 26th.
THE United States Senate has passed the agri-
cultural appropriation bill carrying appropria-
tions amounting to $3,262,652.
As previously announced Sir Joseph Lister
will preside over the Liverpool meeting of the
British Association. The presidents of the sec-
tions will be as follows: Mathematics and
Physics, Prof. J. J. Thomson; Chemistry, Dr.
Ludwig Mond; Geology, Mr. John Edward
Marr; Zodlogy, Prof. E. B. Poulton; Geography,
Major Leonard Darwin; Economics, Right Hon.
Leonard Courtney; Mechanical Science, Sir
Charles Douglas Fox; Anthropology, Mr. Ar-
thur Evans; Physiology and Pathology, Dr.
Walter Holbrook Gaskell; Botany, Dr. D. H.
Scott.
Aw Anthropological Club for informal discus-
sion was formed in New York on March 4th.
Some fifteen students of anthropology met at
the house of Dr. Franz Boas and discussed the
recent works on children and child psychology
by Sully, Baldwin and Chamberlain, the books
being reported on by Prof. Giddings, Dr. Far-
rand and Dr. Boas, respectively. Meetings will
be held monthly, butno formal organization is
proposed.
ARRANGEMENTS haye, however, been made
for the more formal recognition of the mental
and social sciences by the formation of a sec-
tion of the New York Academy of Sciences de-
voted to anthropology, psychology and phil-
ology. Several members of the Academy were
Marcu 13, 1896. ]
engaged in the study of these sciences, and a
number of new members have been elected and
nominated with a view to the organization of
this section. The Academy now meets in three
sections—Astronomy and Physics, Biology, and
Geology and Mineralogy—which take up the
evenings of the first three Mondays of the
month. The fourth Monday will be alloted to
the new section. At the first meeting, which
will be on April 27th, papers will be presented
- by Drs. Giddings, Cattell, Farrand and Boas.
For the May meetings a philological program _
will be arranged.
THE annual exhibition and reception of the
New York Academy of Sciences will be held on
the evening of March 26th at the American
Museum of Natural History. The two exhibi-
tions that have preceded have been very suc-
cessful both from a scientific and from a social
point of view, and the program and arrange-
ments of the present meeting promise an even
more notable success. Many of the exhibits,
representing the progress of science during the
past year, are sent from places outside New
York, and members of scientific societies in
other cities will be welcomed at the reception.
Invitations may be obtained from the chairman
of the executive committee, Prof. H. F. Osborn,
Columbia University.
PRESIDENT CLEVELAND has been invited to
formally open the International Commercial
Museum at Philadelphia in the autumn.
THE British Medical Journal states that in
the course of a communication to the Paris
Société de Biologie on Feb. 22d, M. Chante-
messe said that last June he had succeeded in
immunising several horses against the virus of
typhoid fever. He had obtained the serum of
such strength, that one-fifth of a drop inoccu-
lated into a guinea-pig twenty-fours before in-
fection protected it against a dose of typhoid
virus fatal to animals not previously injected
with the protective serum. It was ascertained,
also, that injections of the serum produced no
injurious effects upon a healthy man. M.
Chantemesse stated that he had since employed
injections of serum in three cases of typhoid
fever. The temperature showed a regular fall
from the time the first injection was made, and
SCIENCE.
403
seven days after the commencement of the in-
jections all three patients were quite free from
fever, and had commenced to convalesce. M.
Chantemesse added that the cases were not yet
sufficiently numerous to permit any trustworthy
conclusion to be drawn.
AT a meeting of the board of managers of
the National Geographic Society, on March
6th, Mr. Grip, the minister of Sweden and
Norway, asked the Society’s assistance in dis-
tributing among the inhabitants of arctic Amer-
ica sketches of the balloon to be used by Mr.
Andrée, and explanations in native languages
in order ‘‘to prepare the populations of those
northern tracts for the possible appearance at
their places of the balloon and its occupants,
partly in order that they may report the bal-
loon if they should see it at a distance, and
partly to prevent them from doing any harm
to its occupants when they descend unex-
pectedly.”’
Mr. W. J. L. WHARTON states in Nature that
Captain Balfour, of H. M. 8. Penguin, has ob-
tained three soundings of over 5,000 fathoms,
the deepest being 5,155 fathoms. The positions
of the soundings are :
Depth.
Lat. 8. Long. W. —----—. Nature of bottom.
Fms. Feet.
23° 39/ 175.04 5022 30,132 (Wire broke. )
28° 447 176.04 5147 30,882 Red clay.
30° 287 176.39 5155 30,930 Red clay.
The extreme soundings are 450 miles apart,
and are separated by areas of considerably less
water. The deepest trustworthy sounding here-
tofore known is 4655 fathoms near Japan, ob-
tained by U.S. 8. Tuscarora in 1874.
Mr. Roy W. Squires goes to Venezuela as a
representative of the department of botany of
the University of Minnesota and under the
auspices of the Orinoco Company. He will
make collections in the unexplored mountain
regions southeast of Barancas. The region
covered will lie considerably south of that vis-
ited by previous botanists and a valuable col-
lection may be looked for. Mr. Squires will be
absent from Minnesota about six months,
WE regret to learn that Dr. Herbert Haviland
Field is seriously ill at Zurich and is at present
prevented from attending to his work in the
404
Bibliographical Bureau. A temporary substi-
tute has been engaged but the progress of the
bibliography will be seriously impaired. It is
especially unfortunate that Dr. Field (having
after his prolonged efforts successfully estab-
lished the Bureau) should now be incapacitated.
The future of the Bureau seems to depend
mainly upon his efforts, and all who are inter-
ested in his work hope to hear of his rapid
recovery.
ARNULF SCHERTEL describes, in the last
Berichte, a new method of preparing Platino-
cyanids. Platinum chlorid is precipitated by
hydrogen sulfid at 60° to 70° and the well
washed platinum sulfid dissolved in a warm so-
lution of potassium cyanid. On evaporation
the potassium platino-cyanid, K,Pt(CN),, 3H,0,
crystallizes out, and equal parts of potassium
sulfid and potassium thiocyanate remain in the
mother liquor. Ifa solution of barium cyanid
is used, the barium platino-cyanid is obtained,
with commercial potassium cyanid containing
large quantities of sodium cyanid, Schertel ob-
tained the beautiful double salt KNaPt(CN),,
3H,0, described by Martius. In view of the
fluorescence of the barium and other salts of the
platino-cyanids under the Rontgen rays, this
simple method of preparation is of considerable
interest.
In 1888 crania of Sorex personatus and Synap-
tomys cooperi were taken about eight miles from
Washington, in pellets ejected by a long-eared
owl. This was of interest, since it was the first
occurrence of Synaptomys farther east than In-
diana, but it was of course an open question as
to just how near Washington the specimen might
have been captured, and, until recently, all at-
tempts to take either of these little mammals
near the capital have been fruitless. On Janu-
ary 25th Mr. Vernon Bailey read a paper be-
fore the Biological Society on Tamarack Swamps
as Boreal Islands in which he took the ground
that the abundant sphagnum of these swamps
played a very practical part in reducing the
temperature by evaporation, and’ thus render-
ing them habitable for boreal animals. In the
discussion which followed the paper Mr. Bailey
was apprised of the existence of such swamps
near Washington, and immediately proceeded to
test his theory by setting a number of traps in
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 63.
one of them, with the result that in less than a
week he obtained examples of both Sorex per-
sonatus and Synaptomys cooperi.
THE extensive mycological herbarium of Mr.
J. B. Ellis, of Newfield, New Jersey, has been
purchased by the Board of Managers of the
New York Botanical Garden, and will be de-
posited in the fire-proof museum building of
the Garden to be erected in Bronx Park. The
purchase includes a considerable portion of Mr.
Ellis’ library. The collection is now being
boxed for transportation and will be brought to
New York within a short time and placed in
one of the fire-proof storage warehouses, await-
ing its final resting place at the Garden. The
herbarium represents the work of nearly fifty
years devotedly given by Mr. and Mrs. Ellis to
the study and accumulation of Fungi from all
parts of the world. It is especially rich in
North American species, being, indeed, very
nearly complete in that regard, and containing
all or very nearly all the types described either
by Mr. Ellis alone, or in codperation with Dr.
H. C. Cooke, Mr. B. M. Everhart, Mr. E. W.
Martin, Prof. W. A. Kellerman, Rey. A. B.
Langlois, Mr. E. D. Holway, Mr. B. L. Gal-
loway and others. It is put up in volumes,
there being some 250 volumes of published ex-
siccati, including all but a very few of the earl-
iest distributed sets and more than 150 vol-
umes of a general collection, the whole com-
pletely indexed ona card catalogue. There
are also more than 100 tin cans and boxes filled
with fleshy fungi. The possession of this im-
portant collection will make the new botanical
institution a center of interest for all students
of these plants, and, with the other herbaria
already secured, will guarantee its scientific
prestige.
CORNELL University has formally acquired
the famous quadruple-expansion steam engine,
built for a steam pressure of five hundred
pounds, in the Sibley College shops, by Messrs.
Hall and Treat. This engine was designed in
accordance with the principles taught its build-
ers, in Sibley College, and for a very excep-
tionally high steam pressure; the purpose be-
ing to ascertain whether the promised advan-
tages of such intense pressures could be realized.
The University gave the use of shops and tools
MARCH 13, 1896. ]
and such material as could be supplied without
serious cost, and the makers furnished time and
labor, and, at their own cost, put in the boiler,
an extraordinary construction built for spec-
jally high pressures and actually tested to 1300
pounds per square inch. The engine and boiler
will hereafter constitute an important portion
of the Sibley College equipment, and is ex-
pected to do wonderful work.. It is already
known to be capable of excelling the world’s
record in economy, on saturated steam; although
that record is at present held by a triple-expan-
sion engine of thirty times the size of the Sibley
College quadruple expansion engine. A series
of trials has been conducted by the builders
and the results will be published later as a
thesis, by the builders, both of whom are grad-
uate students, candidates for advanced degrees.
Meantime, it is known that the engine has de-
veloped twenty horse-power, its rated work,
on a consumption of less than ten pounds of
steam, less than 11,000 B. T. U. per horse-power
per hour. The College will supplement this
work by still more elaborate trials, and in the
expectation of still further reducing the figure.
Mr. Hall, the senior of the designers and build-
ers, has been, for some years past, the stroke
oar of the Cornell ‘’ Varsity’ crew.
THE annual general meeting of the Institution
of Mechanical Engineers was held at London
on January 30. The report of the council stated
that at the end of last year the number of
names in all classes on the roll of the institution
was 2,270, as compared with 2,222 at the end
of the previous year. The council had bought
a site at Storey’s gate, Westminster, with the
view of providing a permanent home for the in-
stitution. Contracts are being prepared for a
building, and it was hoped that next year the
house would be completed. Amongst other
technical matters which had been dealt with by
the council during the year, the report men-
tioned a memorial to the President of the Local
Government Board for the repeal of existing
statutes so far as they prevented mechanical
locomotion on common roads, apart from trac-
tion engines. Should the appeal prove success-
ful the council were sanguine enough to antic-
ipate with confidence the speedy development
of a branch of mechanical engineering, which
SCIENCE.
405
might even call forth an amount of enterprise
exceeding anything that had yet arisen in con-
nection with the remarkably rapid growth of
the cycle manufacture.
ATTENTION may be called to the fact that
the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel-
phia holds in trust the sum of $2,500, given
by Mrs. Emma W. Hayden for a Hayden
Memorial Geological Fund, in commemoration
of her husband, the late Prof. Ferdinand VY.
Hayden, M. D., LL. D. According to the
terms of the trust, a bronze medal and the bal-
ance of the interest arising from the fund are to
be awarded annually for the best publication,
exploration, discovery or research in the sciences
of geology and paleontology, or in such partic-
ular branches thereof as may be designated.
The award and all matters connected therewith
are to be determined by a committee to be se-
lected in an appropriate manner by the Acad-
emy. The recognition is not confined to Amer-
ican naturalists.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
THE suit of the United States against the
executrix of the late Senator Stanford, for over
$15,000,000, has been decided by the Supreme
Court of the United States in favor of Mrs.
Stanford. The future endowment of Stanford
University depended on this decision.
THE will of the late Hart A. Massey, of To-
ronto, leaves about $650,000 to educational and
charitable institutions, including the following
bequests: Victoria College, Toronto, $200,000 ;
Wesley College, Winnipeg, Man., $100,000;
Mount Allison College, Slackville, N. B.,
$100,000; Wesleyan Theological College, Mon-
treal, $50,000; American University, Washing-
ton, D. C., $50,000.
THE finance committee of the Senate of the
State of Virginia has presented a bill appro-
priating $50,000 annually, instead of $40,000
as heretofore, to the University of Virginia.
THERE has been organized at Indianapolis
a University of Indianapolis consisting of But-
ler College, the Medical College of Indiana,
the Indiana Dental College and the Indiana
Law School. These institutions have at pres-
ent about 1000 students.
406
THE will of the late Charles L. Colby, of
New York, bequeaths $20,000 to Brown Uni-
versity.
Morris M. Wuitrr and Francis T. White
have given Earlham College, a Quaker institu-
tion in Richmond, Ind., $25,000, to be added
to the endowment fund and to be known as the
John T. White memorial fund, in honor of
their father.
Mrs. JostAn Fiske, of New York city, has
given $5,000 to Radcliffe College in memory of
her late husband. The College has also received
$6,568, the balance of a bequest by the late
Caroline B. Perkins.
Mr. T. KE. BoNDURANT, of De Land, Ill., has
offered to give $20,000 to the endowment fund
of Eureka College, Illinois, provided the Board
of Trustees will secure $100,000 additional by
the first of March, 1897. Mr. T. J. Under-
wood, of Sangamon County, Ill., has donated
$10,000 towards the fund.
Pror. G. F. ATKINSON has been made full
professor and head of the department of botany
at Cornell University, succeeding Prof. Pren-
tiss, who has held this position since the organ-
ization of the University.
Dr. E. B. DELABARRE, professor of psychol-
ogy at Brown University, has been appointed
director of the psychological laboratory at Har-
vard University during the absence of Prof.
Miunsterberg. Dr. Mark Wenley, recently Ex-
aminer in Philosophy to the University of Glas-
gow, and Lecturer at the Queen Margaret Col-
lege, has been appointed Professor of Philoso-
phy in the University of Michigan.
THE committee of fifty-one, in charge of the
project for the remoyal of Union College to
Albany, at a meeting in that city on February
26th, decided to present to the Legislature a
bill calling for the bonding of the city for
$1,000,000 for the purpose.
A PUBLIC meeting on behalf of the University
College of Wales was held in Cardiff, on Febru-
ary 5th, under the presidency of Lord Windsor,
with a view to raise £20,000 required to meet
conditional grants from the Treasury and the
Drapers’ Company in aid of the building fund
of the college. Subscriptions amounting to
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 63.
£13,400 were promised, one of
£2,500 from Lord Windsor.
AT a meeting of the Senate of the University
of London, on February 19th, Sir Henry Ros-
coe was elected Vice-Chancellor of the Univer-
sity, in the room on the late Sir Julian Gold-
smid.
including
AT a meeting of the Convocation of Oxford
University the proposal to allow women to
take degrees was rejected by a vote of 215 to
140. A similar proposal will soon be voted on
at Cambridge, where the movement to admit
women to degrees is probably stronger than at
Oxford.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
CHUAR, HEGEL AND SPENCER.
Iv is with much hesitation that one under-
takes to criticise or even comment upon a paper
written in the style of that by Major Powell
which appeared in ScrENCE on February 21st.
The author speaks with such authority regard-
ing the nature of matter and mind, and rebukes
so firmly the philosopher and the metaphysician,
that one shrinks from indicating even by a
question that one may be numbered with such,
or, at least, found in the class of their admirers.
No one likes to confess that he is the subject
of ‘feverish dreams;’ or write himself down as
a ‘wrapt dreamer’ who ‘imagines that he
dwells in a realm above science—in a world
which, as he thinks, absorbs truth as the ocean
the shower, and transforms it into a flood of
philosophy’ (p. 271). It must be to any con-
scientious man a matter of sincere regret that
he has cast over some unoffending physicist
‘the spell of metaphysics,’ and made him turn
from that useful tool the spectroscope with the
despairing exclamation that ‘all his researches
may be dealing with phantasms!’ I cannot, of
course, speak for Chuar, who, as a savage, has
a right to be shameless, but I cannot but think
that both the shade of Hegel and the living
Spencer would be loth to confess themselves
‘immersed in thaumaturgy,’ and lovers of the
wonderful, who, ‘in the revelry developed by
the hashish of mystery’ find ‘the pure water
of truth’ insipid (p. 269).
Nevertheless, as one who has spent several
Marcu 13, 1896. ]
years in studying the works of the philosophers,
and as one willing to pocket his pride for the
sake of extending his knowledge, I feel impelled
to confess that there are many things in Major
Powell’s paper which are not clear tome. The
fault is doubtless mine, since the paper is an
exposition of ‘the true and simple,’ loved by
the spirit of sanity extant among mankind ‘in
the grand aggregate’ (p. 269). I can touch
upon but one or two of the points which per-
plex me.
Those of us who busy ourselves with the
history of philosophy are accustomed to believe
‘that there are philosophers of many kinds,
some of whom believe in ‘substratum’ et id
omne genus, and some of whom hold such things
in derision. Had not the author set himself
over against philosophers in general as the
champion of sanity, I should have been inclined
to class him among them and describe him as
a Positivist of a somewhat naive sort. Did
not Comte confine human knowledge within
the limits of the phenomenal? Did he not
reduce cause and effect to antecedent and con-
sequent? Was he not the avowed enemy of
all ‘reification?’ Did not Berkeley and Hume
and Mill handle without gloves the notion of
‘substratum’ here attributed to philosophers
generally? One seems to be listening to an
old, old story; and yet there must be some
mistake, for all these men are everywhere al-
lowed to pass unchallenged as philosophers,
and so must have been addicted to something
stronger than ‘the pure water of truth.’ As
to the classification of Hegel with Chuar and
Spencer, those who think they understand
Hegel (and there are such) stoutly maintain
that he did not believe in ‘substratum,’ and
that it was in throwing away the remnant of it
left by Kant that he has earned the gratitude
of posterity. It is, of course, possible that
Major Powell has made a more careful study
of his works than they, and has discovered a
real similarity between his doctrine and that
of Spencer.
The passages which dwell upon the constitu-
tion of matter occasion me no less perplexity.
‘‘ All matter has four factors or constituents,
number, extension, motion and duration, and
some matter at least has a fifth factor, namely
SCIENCE. . :
407
judgment’’ (p. 265). To one not habituated to
‘the true and simple,’ this seems at first glance
‘reification ’ of the worst sort.
These ‘entities’ (I use the word for want of
a better) are made factors or constituents of
matter. The first four, of which alone I wish
to speak just now, are not commonly regarded
as of such a nature that when put together they
can make a thing. The Pythagoreans have
been criticised for ‘reifying’ number in making
it the principle of all things. Descartes has
been criticised for treating extension in much
the same way. Major Powell goes further and
‘reifies’ what other word can one use?—motion
and duration. Why he left out impenetrability
it is hard to say, but that may be explicable as
an oversight, for the article bears the marks of
haying been hastily written. Why he chose
motion and duration, I cannot conceive. Can
we think of these as constituents of matter ?—as
constituents of the ultimate chemical particle
to which he refers (pp. 265 and 270)? Some of
the philosophers who object to the reification of
things define motion as the change of spatial
relations between material objects. If such be
motion, it is difficult to think of motion as a
constituent of an atom. If motion be some-
thing else, it would be interesting to have it
defined. Is all its motion present to an atom
at a single instant as all its extension is? Or
can an atom at a single instant be said to have
motion at all? I almost slipped into saying
‘be im motion at all,’ but such an expression
must be abandoned; the atom’s motion must
be, so to speak, in it. Those who are not
ashamed to read the works of the philosophers
will remember that this difficulty about having
motion at a single instant came to the surface
something more than two thousand years ago.
And if the motion in question is merely a factor
of the atom, a constituent, is it not fair to sup-
pose that an atom may have motion without
changing its place at all? What have external
relations to do with the existence of the consti-
tuents of this particular atom ?
Astoduration. Here the difficulty is as great.
Can an atom have its duration all at once?
Must it not take it bit by bit as it comes to it?
Then the duration which helps to constitute the
atom must at each instant be different from that
408
which plays its part as factor at the next. A
further difficulty rises with the thought that,
perhaps, after all, duration cannot have its being
in a single instant, but needs at least two to be
duration. The atom at any instant is just what
it is, and is made what it is at that instant by
the presence of all its four constituents. If
duration needs more than one instant to be
duration, how can it be present at a single in-
stant? That duration really implies more
than a single instant seems clear from the fact
that ‘‘in the material world we have no knowl-
edge of something which has not duration
as persistence or duration with persistence and
change’? (pp. 270-271). Surely a thing cannot
persist all in an instant any more than a bird
can flock all by itself, or one man look alike.
There are philosophers ‘lost in the meaning of
words, forever wandering in linguistic jungles’
(p. 266), who have maintained that duration is
nothing but a name for a certain kind of order
in things, the order we call successive. Such
philosophers, ‘in the revelry developed by the
hashish of mystery,’ protest against the reifi-
cation of duration, and even so far forget them-
selves as to denounce the tendency to reify it
as a lapse into medizevalism. Making it a con-
stituent of matter they regard as reifying it,
and they are capable of interrupting a man at
a spectroscope with the diabolical suggestion
that they would as lief reify the relations
‘ereater’ or ‘smaller,’ as the philosopher did
when philosophy was in its infancy.
Regarding the fifth factor, which serves as a
constituent of some matter—‘judgment’—
Major Powell’s expositions do not appear to me
luminous. Many views have been held as to
the relations of mind and body, and even phil-
osophers have not been at one as to the par-
ticular sort of mystery in which they would de-
cide to revel in discussing this problem. Most
of them now speak with some hesitation upon
the subject, and confess that the problem is
difficult of solution. To Major Powell it is as
clear as noon-day. There is matter which con-
sists of number, extension, motion and dura-
tion, and there is other matter which consists
of these with the addition of judgment. But
bodies consist of ultimate particles. In describ-
ing in what these ultimate particles resemble
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. IIL. No. 63.
each other and in what they differ, the author
seems to have overlooked this fifth factor, which
is to differentiate some particles from others
(p. 265). This must be an oversight, for are
not the two classes clearly distinguished as
different in the number of their constituents?
And are we not informed that the constituents
‘are never dissociated, but constitute matter’
(p. 265). The chemist has then to reckon with
chemical particles which have judgment and
those which have not. Presumably more or
less of the former are found in the human brain,
and the chemist of our day should not overlook
them. We have here a new kind of atom, more
complex in its nature than other atoms, and
gifted with a constituent of a very remarkable
sort. Since the five constituents are never
dissociated, we may expect to find such atoms
also in other situations, where the common
man never thinks of looking for judgment.
And this fifth constituent has the peculiar
faculty of developing ‘into cognition of the
constituents of matter, of their relations, and
also a cognition of cognitions and the relations
of cognitions’ (p. 268). Notwithstanding this
surprising development, it presumably still re-
mains a constituent of the atom. Since brains
consist of nothing but atoms, and nonentities
must not be reified, this factor, to be real at
all, must be a constituent of individual atoms.
And since the atoms in brains keep coming and
going, the careful observer may reasonably
hope to find such atoms everywhere, with their
fifth factors developed into a ‘ cognition of con-
nitions and the relations of cognitions.’ It is
gratifying to one who finds all this obscure to
be told that ‘‘ science does not lead to mystery
but to knowledge, and the mind rests satisfied
with the knowledge thus. gained when the
analysis is complete.’’ We are quite willing to
take the author’s word for the fact that it is
here complete, but we must confess with humil-
ity that we walk by faith.
Having nerved ourselves to the effort of ac-
cepting the two kinds of matter as a refuge
from mystery, we feel a mild wonder at certain
sentences which seem to indicate that there are,
after all, two worlds and not one. ‘‘ Concepts
of number, extension, motion, duration and
judgment are,’’ we are informed, ‘‘ developed by
MarcH 13, 1896.]
all minds, from that of the lowest animal to
that of the highest human genius’’ (p. 269).
What is this mind, of which the author speaks ?
And what is meant later by the author’s division
of reality into ‘the material world’ and ‘the
mental world’ (p. 271), or ‘the material world’
and ‘thespiritual world’ (ibid). If we are deal-
ing with indissociable constituents of matter,
would it not be as wise to speak of ‘the material
world’ and ‘the world of duration,’ or ‘the
material world’ and ‘the world of motion ?’
But I waive these questions, as being possibly the
products of a ‘feverish dream.’ It must be
accepted as a general answer to all such, and a
sufficient consolation to the discontented, that
“the simple and the true remain’ (p. 271).
As a last word I may add that the more sober
of the philosophers of our time have, notwith-
standing ‘the intoxication of illusion,’ been ac-
customed to think that it is not prudent for a
_ philosopher who has no special knowledge of
the subject to venture into other fields, as, for
example, that of anthropology. Some even go
so far as to believe that it is not wise for an
anthropologist to venture into philosophical dis-
cussions unless he has acquainted himself with
the writings of those who have preceded him in
work of that kind. Perhaps it is because they
are ‘immersed in thaumaturgy’ that they find
in such contributions to philosophical literature
more heat than light.
GEORGE STUART FULLERTON.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA, February 27, 1896.
THE TEMPERATURE OF THE EARTH’S CRUST.
In the December number of the Journal of
Science Prof. Alexander Agassiz gives the
temperatures found at different depths in a
well-known mine in the Lake Superior region,
-as follows: |
At 105 ft.—59° F.
At 4580 ft.—79° F.
Or an increase of temperature of 1° F. for
each 223.7 ft.
With this he compares Lord Kelvin’s figures
of 1° in every 51 ft; also the figures obtained
in the St. Gothard tunnel, showing a rise of
1° for every 50 ft.
The Lake Superior figures would make the
solid crust of the earth nearly 90 miles in thick-
SCIENCE.
409
ness, instead of Lord Kelvin’s deduction of
twenty miles.
Now I wish to suggest,as a tenable hypothesis,
that the Lake Superior district having been far
inithe heart of the ice cap of the glacial period,
the refrigeration of the crust of the earth pene-
trated to so great a depth that its effects stil
linger.
Take, for example, the 100° C. line, which
normally is 9,000 feet below the surface. Dur-
ing the many thousand years of the ice cap
this may have been forced downwards to a
depth of, say, 40,000 ft. Since the removal of
the ice, during, say, 7,000 years, the internal
heat has been slowly rising towards the surface.
But it has not yet had time to regain its former
levels of temperature.
It would be interesting to ascertain what are
the rates of increase of temperature now under
regions where the subsoil is permanentiy frozen,
as in the tundras of Siberia and Alaska.
Tt does not seem clear to me that the earth’s
crust necessarily became greatly thickened in
the Superior region. The refrigeration need
not have penetrated deeply enough for such an
effect. SERENO EH. BISHOP.
Hononunwy, January 24, 1896.
THE X-RAYS.
SHORTLY after mailing my note of last week
I took a photograph by means of the X-rays,
using a Crookes’ tube connected with an induc-
tion coil actuated by a make and break current,
and therefore giving the electrodes a fixed po-
larity.
The photegraph shows only one electrode
which, from the manner in which the tube was
connected, was the cathode, thus confirming the
views expressed in my previous letter.
RALPH R. LAWRENCE.
Boston, March 5, 1896.
THE INSTINCT OF PECKING.
In discussing Prof. Morgan’s lecture on in-
stinct it has several times been stated that
chickens pecked instinctively, but had to be
taught to drink. There was a note in Nature
last year, concerning some species of Asiatic
pheasants—it may possibly have been the Jun-
gle Fowl—to the effect that the young did not
410
peck instinctively and did not offer to take food
spread before them. The natives seemed well
aware of this peculiarity, and in the particular
instance recorded a native induced the young
birds to peck by tapping on the ground with a
pencil near the food. They seemed attracted
by the sound and movement, and were thus in-
duced to peck at the food. F. A. LUCAS.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
BRONGNIART’S PALEOZOIC INSECTS.
Recherches pour servir a Uhistoire des Insectes
fossilesdes temps primaires, précédées dune
étude sur la nervation des ailes des Insectes.
Saint Etienne, 1893. 2 v. 4°. Text, 493 pp.;
Atlas, 44 pp., 37 folding plates.
These volumes, which are primarily devoted
to the carboniferous insects of Commentry,
France, form the most important work that has
ever been published on paleozoic insects. Our
knowledge of the older hexapods has hereto-
fore been obtained piecemeal, and generally by
exceedingly fragmentary researches; while here
we are introduced at once to a wealth of ma-
terial equalling, if it does not surpass, all pre-
vious knowledge of paleozoic insects. Mr.
Brongniart had indeed published a few of his
interesting finds in previous minor papers and
had given also a summary account of the Com-
mentry fauna in a brochure in 1885; but as the
latter contained almost no details, and was
merely a sketch of his classification (here modi-
fied in a few particulars), it had slight value ex-
cept as a forecast of what is now realized.
Cockroaches form in all Carboniferous de-
posits the major part of the insect remains, and
many hundreds of specimens have been ob-
tained at Commentry. Leaving these out of
account because reserved by the author for
future publication (a few figures only without
descriptions being given), the fauna of Commen-
try consists, according to Brongniart, of Neu-
roptera, Orthoptera and Homoptera; these he
divides into 12 families or larger groups, ten of
which are regarded as extinct, and they include
48 genera and 97 species, a number of species
just about double that of the previously known
European Carboniferous hexapods, exclusive of
course of cockroaches.
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 63.
The variety, novelty and striking character
of the forms revealed is as interesting as their
number. No one of them, indeed, can be re-
garded as extraordinary as Eugereon ; but we
are introduced to long-winged giants regarded
by Brongniart as the precursors of the Odonata,
but which in spread of wings make our largest
dragon-flies appear as pigmies ; one, Meganeura,
has a spread of considerably more than two
feet, and one specimen of this, which I have
had the good fortune to see, is so well pre-
served that four nearly perfect and fully ex-
panded wings are in place attached to the
thorax; others have saltatorial hind legs as
fully developed as in our existing Locusta-
rians, but with very different wing neuration.
Thyspanura (before known fossil only from the
Tertiary) are indicated—unfortunately not fig-
ured—which have but a single caudal seta;
more than fifty specimens of this have been
unearthed. Insects are found with a broad
lobate expansion on either side of the pro-
thorax, recalling some living Mantidee (Chcera-
dodis, etc.), but which, being filled with apparent
nervures, Brongniart regards with too great
confidence as prothoracic wings. Others, and
these include a variety of types, have lobate
appendages at the sides of all the abdominal
segments, like the branchial gills of the larvae
of some existing Neuroptera, persistent through
life in Pteronarcys. There are also gigantic
Mayflies, and Neuroptera of large size with
caudal setze more than six inches long. And,
finally, we may mention undoubted cockroaches
which show a straight, slender, Locustarian-
like ovipositor half as long as the abdomen, an
additional and striking difference to distinguish
them from modern cockroaches.
Brongniart begins his work with a somewhat
detailed historical review of discoveries in the
field of paleozoic insects, with an appended
bibliography, and follows it by an extended
study of the neuration of existing Neuroptera,
Orthoptera and Fulgoridze (180 pp.), as a basis
for his attempt to classify the Carboniferous
forms; 12 of the plates are also given to the
illustration of the wings of modern insects.
In this study he follows with some modifica-
tions the guidance of Redtenbacher, apparently
unaware of some later studies on the subject,
Marca 13, 1896.]
and the descriptions are almost entirely inde-
pendent of each other without definite com-
parisons.
The third part of the work (184 pp.) is given
to his subject proper; it is somewhat unequal
in character, being much more detailed and
careful in the earlier portion than in the later.
Here, too, one looks in vain for comparisons or
for any definite reasons for the inclusion of
some of the insects in the groups in which they
are placed, by references to the earlier portion
of hiswork. The classification is entirely novel
and bears little relation to that employed by
the present writer, which is an extension of
that of Dohrn and Goldenberg. This is not
the place for a discussion of the relative merits
of the two, which may be left to the impartial
student of the future ; but in giving up the term
Paleodictyoptera for the bulk of paleozoic in-
sects, as indicating the far greater affiliation of
insects in paleozoic time than subsequently,
Brongniart overlooks the fact that while his dis-
coveries show a wider diversity of forms among
paleozoic insects and more definite points of
relationship between them and and later types
than we have ever had before, they but empha-
size and further illustrate the reasons for which
the name was proposed. General statements
previously made regarding paleozoic insects as
a whole are in no way weakened by this great
extension of the field, and this renders the im-
portance of these generalizations even greater
and their validity surer than before.
The work is most luxuriously issued and the
plates all that could be desired, excepting that
many of those illustrated by heliogravure (in
the most artistic manner, indeed) need to be
supplemented by drawings showing the precise
origin of each of the veins; these are often ob-
scure in the best photographic picture, since
they very often cannot all be seen in any single
view, or their contrast to the stone is insuffi-
cient for clear results. Why the title page
should bear the date 1893 is difficult to under-
stand, for the second signature (p. 12) contains
a long extract first published in America in
February, 1894, and the earliest copies of the
work only reached this country in June, 1895.
Except in the separate ‘Explanation of the
Plates’ in the atlas, no reference to the figures
SCIENCE.
411
occurs in the text, which is a great inconven-
ience. SAMUEL H. ScuUDDER.
Revision of the Shrews of the American Genera
Blarina and Notiosorex. By C. Harr MeEr-
RIAM, N. Am. Fauna, No. 10, December 31,
1895, pp. 5-34, pll. 1-3. ;
The Long-tailed Shrews of the Eastern United
States. By GERRIT S. MILLER, JR. Ibid.,
pp. 35-56.
Synopsis of the American Shrews of the Genus Sorex.
By C. Harr Merriam. Ibid., pp. 57-98,
pli. 4-12.
The shrews are among the most difficult of
mammals to discriminate specifically, owing to
their general similarity in color, size and general
external appearance. Hence resort must be
had to the teeth, which, though minute, often
afford trenchant characters. No group of
American mammals has hitherto been in a more
thoroughly unsatisfactory state, as regards either
the number and distribution of the species or
the names they should properly bear. Hence
the three papers on the American Shrews that
constitute No. 10 of ‘ North American Fauna’
are a particularly welcome contribution to tle
literature of North American mammalogy. Two
of these papers are by Dr. C. Hart Merriam and
the other is by Gerrit 8. Miller, Jr., and jointly
they comprise a careful revision of the whole
group. The work is based primarily on the col-
lections brought together by Dr. Merriam under
the auspices of the United States Department of
Agriculture, the only outside material used be-
ing mainly the type specimens of previous
authors, which in most cases have been acces-
sible to the authors of the papers under notice.
Formerly shrews were rare in collections;
generally they were so difficult to obtain that
only chance specimens were secured. That
such is no longer the case is evident from the
large number of specimens now accessible for
study in most large collections of mammals,
very successful methods of trapping these ob-
secure and mainly nocturnal animals having
been discovered within comparatively recent
years. Thus the Department of Agriculture
collection alone numbers upwards of 2,000
specimens, brought together largely within the
last six or eight years.
412
The North American species of shrews fall
rather naturally into two principal groups,
which in popular language are known as the
short-tailed shrews and the long-tailed-shrews.
The former, comprising the genera Blarina and
Notiosorex, are strictly North American; the
latter, referable to Sorex proper (with, however,
several subgenera), belong to a genus widely
dispersed over the northern hemisphere. Of
the short-tailed shrews, the genus Notiosorex
comprises, as now known, only a single species,
with a range from near the southern border of
the United States southward over a large part
of Mexico; Blarina has a much wider distribu-
tion, ranging, in eastern North America, from
about the southern border of Canada southward
through Mexico to the mountains of Guatemala
and Costa Rica, but in the United States is
mainly restricted to the region east to the Great
Plains. It is divisible into two subgenera—
Blarina proper, and Cryptotis, chiefly in refer-
ence to the number of the teeth, which are 32 in
the former and 30 in the latter. In general the
species of Blarina are much the larger, and
are more northern in distribution, this group
being ‘absolutely restricted to the United
States,’ all of the Mexican and Central Ameri-
can species belonging to the subgenus Cryptotis,
which in turn is almost unrepresented north of
the Carolinian Fauna.
It isa singular fact in the history of the genus
Blarina that a representative of both of its
sections was made known by Say in 1823, from
the same locality, namely, from Engineer Can-
tonment, near the present site of Omaha, Ne-
braska, and that they were the first forms of the
group made known to science. Say named
them respectively Sorex brevicaudus and Sorea
parvus. The latter name especially has ever
since been a stumbling block in the way of sys-
tematists, but, thanks to Dr. Merriam, is so no
longer, his large series from the type locality
enabling him to define it and establish its rela-
tions to the various names given later to shrews
from other parts of the country. It thus proves
to antedate cinereus of Bachman, while several
species provisionally separated from it by Baird
are now referred to it as synonyms.
Blarina, according to Dr. Merriam, is repre-
sented by 20 species and subspecies, of which
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 63.
6 are from the United States and 14 from Mex-
ico and Central America; all of the latter and
two of the United States forms are referred to
to the subgenus Cryptotis, leaving only 4 for the
subgenus Blarina. Most of the Central Ameri-
can and some of the Mexican species are more
or less isolated mountain forms, modified from
a few formerly more widely dispersed types.
Of the 12 new forms here described, 9 are from
Mexico, 2 from Florida and 1 from Dismal
Swamp, Virginia.
Mr. Miller’s paper relates to the long-tailed
shrews of the eastern United States, and ad-
mirably clears the way for Dr. Merriam’s im-
mediately following general synopsis of Ameri-
can species of the genus Sorex. At the outset
Mr. Miller attacks sundry vexed questions of
synonymy resulting from the description of
three species of this group by Dr. Richardson,
nearly seventy years ago. Fortunately Rich-
ardson’s types are still extant in the British
Museum, and Mr. Miller has recently had,
through the kindness of Mr. Oldfield Thomas,
the Curator of the Department of Mammals in
the, British Museum, opportunity to carefully
study these invaluable types. As a result Rich-
ardson’s names may now be considered as prop-
erly allocated, and we can with some confidence
assign names to our shrews; for until Richard-
son’s names were settled many later names could
only be applied tentatively. Mr. Miller treats
at length of 7 species, 1 of which is described
as new.
Dr. Merriam, in his ‘Synopsis of the Ameri-
can Shrews of the genus Sorex,’ recognizes 42
species and subspecies, of which 21, or just one-
half, are described as new in the present paper.
Of this number 34 are referred to Sorex proper,
1 to the subgenus Microsorex, 4 to the subgenus
Neosorex, and 3 to the subgenus Atophyrax.
The shrews of the subgenus Sorea range from
the Arctic Circle southward over the continent-
at-large, or such parts of it as are congenial to
their peculiar needs, to the mountains of Guate-
mala; Atophyrax is restricted to the northwest
coast region, ranging from western British
Columbia to California; Microsorex and Neosorex
occupy a middle transcontinental belt near the
northern boundary of the United States, Neo-
sorex, however, extending farther southward
Marcu 13, 1896. ]
along the principal mountain ranges. The
long-tailed shrews in general prefer forested or
semi-wooded regions, and a rather northern or
alpine habitat; they are hence not generally
dispersed south of the northern parts of the
United States; farther southward and in the
drier portions of the. continent they are limited
to mountainous districts. f
This admirable series of papers is illustrated
by twelve plates and some additional cuts in
the text giving carefully-drawn figures of
the skulls and dental characters of most of
the species. Fauna No. 10 thus marks an
epoch in the history of this hitherto little-
known and difficult group of American mam-
mals. Vo dhs Jie
Indianische Sagen von der nordpacifischen Kiiste
Amerikas. FRANZ Boas. Berlin, A. Asher
& Co. 1895. 8vo., pp. 363.
This is, undoubtedly, the most comprehen-
sive collection of northwestern Indian myths
now in existence and, considering the length of
time, the hardships and privations experienced
in obtaining them, and the large number of
tribes that had to be visited, is a work unique
of its kind. Boas had published these myths
previously in the ‘Transactions of the Berlin
Society of Anthropology,’ and this explains the
fact that they are worded in German and not
in English. Most of the stories that were ob-
tained from full-blood Indians in their ver-
nacular had to be translated into Chinook
Jargon before they were rendered in German.
Dr. Boas begins with the myths, legends
and traditions of the numerous Selish tribes of
British Columbia, then presents what he ob-
tained on Vancouver Island and the mainland
opposite, and terminates the volume with the
tales from the Haida on Queen Charlotte
Islands and the Tlingit of southeastern Alaska.
The stories have the most varied contents:
Origin of the deities and powers ruling the
universe and the earth, creation of sun, moon
and stars, origin of the elements and seasons,
of the tribes of men, animals and plants, of the
rocks and islands. Men and women often
originate from animals, especially from fish, and
the number and variety of the ‘fishy’ progen-
itors is so great that no other but a fisher race
SCIENCE.
413
could have produced a similar folklore. The
making of the sun is mostly represented as a
liberation of it from a box or inclosure which
held it in captivity, and the liberator is the
raven, who in his bold flight cuts through the
dense cloudiness enveloping the ocean and the
seashore or permits it to ascend again to the
sky, after night had imprisoned it for a long
while. The raven also provides the organisms,
when lifeless still, with souls, and is regarded
as the animating principle in nature. In the
myths of the Eastern tribes the raven is of
great significance, being the presager of calami-
ties and death.
The most painstaking portion of Boas’ work
lies in the appendix from pages 829 to 368,
where in a statistical essay the attempt is made
to trace one and the same myth through various
parts of North America. There are, e. g.,
nineteen myths in the Northwest found simi-
lar to Micmac, eleven to Ponka, twenty-five
to Athapaskan—even among the Aino of
north Japan elements were discovered compar-
able to those of the northwest coast. To fol-
low up all these details in Boas’ volume, is of
the highest interest; the number of linguistic
families to which the legends belong are five in
number (see Table, p. 329), Selish, Wakash (or
Nutka), Tsimsian, Haida and Tlingit—the first
and the second of these showing a large num-
ber of dialectic sub-divisions.
As a fair instance of the mythic imagery
which forms the make-up of the northwestern
religions, we may present the world’s creation
as related by the Tsimsi4n Indians on Skeena.
river and the coast of the mainland. They as-
sume that the earth is level and disk-shaped,
resting upon a pillar which is held upright by an
old woman. Any movement of the old woman
causes an earthquake, but the hillocks and
sinuosities on the earth’s surface were produced
by a flood, which scattered all the human be-
ings over the most distant parts of the earth to
people them. Whoever wants to visit the sky
has to pass through the moon’s house, and its
headman is called ‘Disease.’ The west side
of the moon’s house is guarded by a number of
mischievous dwarfs, who are hermaphrodites
and likely to attack and kill visitors. When
GamdigyétIné-eq started to reach the sky, his
414
friends tried to dissuade him from making the at-
tempt. He told them, ‘‘ WhenI get up there you
will see that the sun is stopping in its course.”’
He shot an arrow into the blue sky, saw it fly
and it stuck fast in the firmament. Another
arrow he sent into the notch of the first, another
one into the notch of the second and thus was
formed a long chain of arrows solid enough for
him to climb up. His bow served him to fill a
gap in the aerial road. Reaching the moon’s
house, he was not molested by the dwarfs, but
well received by the chief of the moon’s dwell-
ing, who washed and cleaned him thoroughly
and gave him moral advice what to do after
his return to the earth. A board was then re-
moved and Gamdigyétlne-eq could see the whole
earth extended below him as a cyclorama, he
then descended again on the arrow-ladder, which
fell to pieces after the descent was accomplished
and the upholding bow removed from the base.
Boas’ book forms an interesting parallel to
his ‘Chinook Texts’ previously reviewed in
ScIENCE, but differs from it by the absence of
aboriginal Indian texts.
Names and their Histories, alphabetically ar-
ranged as a handbook of historical geography
and topographical nomenclature. By Isaac
Tayior, M. A., Canon of York. London,
Rovington, Percival & Co., 34 King St.
1896. pp. 392. 12mo.
To collect the geographic terms which serve
to compose a country’s local names, and then
follow these terms through their compounds as
we find them used in the toponymy of a given
country, is a method not often followed as yet.
Isaac Taylor, M. A., in his ‘Names and their
Histories,’ has given full swing to this synthetic
method in the appendices, and, we must say,
with laudable industry and good success. He
presents his interesting information not in the
form of dry sentences and axiomatic para-
graphs, but in the didactic shape of lectures,
which do not show any purpose of cramming
the listener’s brain with erudition and quota-
tions derived from documents one thousand
years old. Taylor’s easy, unobtrusive prose
conveys to the public only what is necessary to
know, by giving the earlier historic forms of
the local names and from them deducting their
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 63.
signification. The treatise on nomenclature is
subdivided in seven chapters, pages 303 to 390,
and contains the following items: Indian no-
menclature (of East India), Turkish nomencla-
ture, Magyar names, Slavonic nomenclature,
French village names, German nomenclature,
English village names.
When the student of geography has passed
through these propzedeutics and become ac-
quainted with the elements of topography in
every group of dialects, he finds it many times
easier than before to retain so many foreign ap-
pellations, often unwieldy and jaw-breaking,
because their meaning is now familiar to him.
Of the Turkish names the majority are of a
vocalic utterance and well sounding, a great
help to memory. Thus Buyuk-dere is the
“great valley ;’ Tash-bunar, the ‘stone-well ;
Bunar-bashi, the ‘head of the well’ (or
‘spring’); Kara Dagh, the ‘black mountain ;’
Mustagh, the ‘ice mountain ;’ Daghestan, the
‘mountainous land ;’ Kara-kum, ‘black sand ;’
Yildiz, the ‘northern’ (palace); Yeni-bazar, the
‘new market.’ The names of the seven terri-
tories have been studied for many years back
by linguists, and Taylor having made use of the
writings of his predecessors, can be relied on.
The first part of the volume gives in 302
pages a large number of geographic names from
all parts of the globe in alphabetic sequence,
each with its historic and linguistic illustrations.
Here also Taylor strives to be on a level with the
popular understanding and avoids long argu-
ments, wherever these would lead him into dry
erudition and scholarly distinctions. Many
names are referred to historically, but their de-
rivation is not given because it could not be
given with safety ; of others the derivation is
given as ‘probable’ only, as of Nazareth,
which is supposed to mean a ‘watch-tower,’
and of Cuba, said to mean ‘middle province.’ .
Of a large number the signification is certain, as
Damascus ‘the place of industry,’ Dundas,
‘southern fort,’ from Gaelic dun-deas; Zim-
babwe the ‘great kraal,’ Sligo called after
‘shells found there in heaps,’ Lampedusa, ‘oys-
ter bank,’ Liverpool, a pool where a waterfowl,
called ‘liver, lever’ was found. Seville is
Pheenician and means ‘plain, lowland,’ Mar-
sala the ‘port or harbor of Ali.’? Among those
_ to exist in the sun.
Marcu 13, 1896. ]
names which Taylor has explained erroneously
we notice Arkansas, Arawak and Tallahassee.
JG 1S) (Ce
The Sun. By C. A. Youne. New and revised
edition. New York, D. Appleton & Co.
The revised and slightly enlarged edition of
Prof. Young’s ‘Sun’ will be read by all with
great interest. The first edition of this justly
popular work appeared in 1881. Since that
time many advances have been made in our
knowledge of the sun; new methods of obser-
vation have been developed. Prof. Young
tried to keep pace with this progress by the ad-
dition of notes and appendices in the various
editions that have appeared during the interval.
He now finds, however, that such expedients
are inadequate, and he has, therefore, revised
the work and made it representative of the sci-
ence of to-day.
In general form and appearance the book re-
mains the same as in the first edition. There
are, however, a number of new cuts, and the
various subjects, treated of in a single chapter,
are more clearly separated. Many ‘ headlings’
are introduced into the text, thus greatly aiding
a clear understanding of the subject-matter.
Among the most prominent features of the
new edition we note the introduction of the
latest work on the solar parallax. Gill’s
methods and results are most carefully treated.
Again the great advance in solar spectroscopy
is represented by the work of Rowland; the
photography of the prominence by that of Hale ;
the identification of helium by Ramsey. The
progress made in the spectroscopic study of the
sun is most readily brought out by a compari-
son of our present knowledge with that of
1881. In the first, editions of his work, Prof.
Young mentions twenty-one elements as known
In all of these 860 lines
had been identified. Prof. Rowland has now
tried sixty elements; thirty-six of which he
finds in the sun ; sixteen he does not find there
and the remaining eight are doubtful. Of one
element alone, iron, he has identified more than
2000 lines; more than twice as many as were
known in all the elements fifteen years ago.
_ A careful comparison of the last chapters, the
summaries, of the two editions leaves us with
‘SCIENCE.
415
a feeling of disappointment, of expectation un-
fulfilled. Our advance in the knowledge of
solar physics has not been so rapid as we fondly
imagined. During the last decade and a-half
no new great principle, no law, has been dis-
covered. We have improved our methods of
observation ; we have collected more data ; but
we know little more of the actual condition of
the sun itself than we did in 1881. The first
edition of Professor Young’s book ends with a
statement of the four most important and fun-
damental problems of solar physics which were
at that time pressing for solution. Fifteen
years have since elapsed and these four prob-
lems are still unsolved, are still pressing for
solution.
CL. Pe
Elements of Modern Chemistry. By CHARLES
ADOLPHE Wurtz. Fifth American Edition.
Revised and enlarged by Wm. H. Greene,
M. D., and Harry F. Keller, Ph.D. 12 mo.
Pp. 788. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott &
Co. 1895.
The appearance of the fifth revised and en-
larged edition of the translation of this well-
known work may be taken as evidence that
many have found it useful. The writer be-
lieves, however, that a better elementary treatise
might have been made, if the translators had
followed less closely the plan of the original.
The introduction is clear and satisfactory. In
the next twenty-seven pages we find a dis-
cussion of the laws of definite and multiple
proportions, equivalents, the laws of Gay-
Lussac, Ampére and Avogadro, the atomic the-
ory, the laws of isomorphism and specific heats,
nomenclature * * * * * oxygen acids,
metallic hydroxides, oxygen salts, nomencla-
ture of non-oxygenized compounds, alloys and
amalgams. The study of hydrogen and the
other elements is then begun. It needs no
argument to prove that this order of subjects is
not elementary.
The succession of topics in the study of the
compounds of carbon is also unsatisfactory.
The order is the following: constitution of or-
ganic compounds, formation of hydrocarbons
* * * * * monatomic radicals and poly-
atomie radicals, including general remarks
416
about diatomic alcohols, acids and ammonias.
* * * * *
The substances first studied are cyanogen,
the ferrocyanides, the sulphocyanides, the cyan-
amides * * * * * urea and some of its
compounds. Having mastered these simple
subjects, the student is ready for methane and
its derivatives. About one-half of the volume
is given to the compounds of carbon. The facts
are clearly presented, a good selection of com-
pounds has been made, and recent work and
theories receive due attention.
The same good judgment has been shownin dis-
cussing the other elements and their compounds.
A more careful revision of the text would have
removed some inaccurate statements. The
synthesis of oxalic acid in 1868 can no longer
be called recent, nor is it true, as stated on
page 286, that nitrogen forms only one com-
pound with hydrogen.
The use of such trivial names as potassa, caus-
tic potassa, soda, gelatinous alumina and others
is often exasperating and sometimes leads to in-
correct statements. Soda is defined as sodium
carbonate, but on page 353 we are told that soda
produces, in salts of lead, a precipitate that is
soluble in an excess of the reagent. With the
general correctness and clearness of statement
no fault can be found, and, as an elementary
book of reference, this new edition should win
new friends. L. B. HAL.
Principles of Metallurgy. By ArtHur H.
Hiorns. Macmillian & Co., New York.
1895. 12mo., 388 pp., 144 illustrations,
cloth binding.
good quality.
It was the authors intention to prepare for
those who do not have ready access to the
journals of scientific and industrial societies
an abridged account of the modern methods of
extracting metals from their ores.
worthy of attainment but in this instance not
crowned with success.
The arrangement of the work is as follows:
The physical and chemical properties of the
metals and their alloys occupy the opening
chapters, after which several chapters are de-
voted to general metallurgy, discussing fur-
naces, fluxes and fuels. Iron and steel occupy
Typography and paper of
SCIENCE.
.
An object
[N.S. Vow. IfI. No. 63.
the greater part of the work, followed by
chapters on silver, gold, lead, copper, zinc, tin,
aluminum, mercury, antimony and bismuth.
While each division of the subject contains much
of value, the work is to be criticised from the
fact that much of the greater value is omitted.
By greater value is meant modern practice.
There is not a chapter that could not be im-
proved in this respect. ;
Metallurgy has been defined as the ‘art of
making money,’ and consequently is an emi-
nently practical subject. A treatise therefore
should be devoted mainly to modern methods,
subordinating historical descriptions and data,
a plan quite the reverse of that given by Mr.
Hiorns.
Metallurgical processes are of such rapid
development that characteristic factors of any
one time often become obsolete in a decade, and
a work bearing the date of 1895 should present
the methods brought up to at least within a few
years. The present work quite fails in this re-
spect also. Many errors have been perpetuated
from previous works, and a number of illustra-
tions are given of furnaces which have not
been used for twenty years and more. Ameri-
can practice is painfully weak, and since we are
the greatest individual producer of silver, gold,
lead, iron, copper, zine and mercury, this criti-
cism is of great weight. Some glaring errors in
this respect are as follows:
Under blast furnace practice for pig iron the
furnaces quoted as embodying modern ideas
are not water-cooled and they have exterior
fore hearths. In view of the magnificent prac-
tice at the Edgar Thompson works where, two
years ago a single furnace produced over six
hundred tons of cast iron in twenty-four hours,
the type of furnace as given by Mr. Hiorns is
decidedly ancient.
Under the metallurgy of lead the shaft fur-
naces given are all of the old type; not one of
them is water-cooled. Under zine the English
method is quoted as in use, aljhough Dr. Percy
remarked in a lecture that years ago he sought
‘for evidence of this process, but failed to find
even the ruins of the furnace foundations.
Under steel the American modifications of
rapid blowing and low silicon irons are entirely
ignored, ete.
Makgcu 13, 1896. ]
Asan elementary treatise suitable for students
of tender years this work presents the English
practice in a general way with sufficient thor-
oughness to afford a popular understanding of
the subject.
American practice is so lamentably weak that
the work is of little practical value to our stu-
dents. With extensive cutting and the addition
of much new material it might be transformed
into a work of value, but, as Kipling would say,
“(that is another story.’’
J. STRUTHERS.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON,
MEETING, FEBRUARY 22.
256TH
C. Harr Merriam spoke of The American
Weasels, describing at some length the various
species, their habitats and relationships.
F. E. L. Beal read a paper on the Food of the
Bluejay, being the results of the examination of
about 300 stomachs of this species collected in
every month of the year and fairly representing
all parts of the bird’s range. The food is found
to consist of animal and vegetable matter in the
proportion of about one of the former to three
of the latter. The animal matter is composed
largely of injurious insects. The alleged habits
of the jay of eating the eggs and young of other
birds is only partially confirmed. Of the whole
number of stomachs only two, taken in the
breeding season, contained shells of eggs and
one the remains of a young bird. One stomach
taken in February contained the remains of a
bird, and several taken at various times con-
tained shells of eggs, apparently those of do-
mestic fowls. The vegetable food consists
principally of grain, mast and fruit. Of the
first two mast is the favorite, being the most
important element of the yearly diet. Corn is
the favorite grain. The fruit consists for the
most part of wild species.
David White discussed the Structure and Re-
lations of Buthograptus, Plumulina and Ptilophy-
ton from the North American Palezozic. After
describing the structure of these genera in detail,
the speaker stated that it would seem that all
the forms considered may belong to one type of
nonvascular, feather-like, or plumose organisms,
SCIENCE.
417
which consist of a hollow or cellular thin-
walled rachis, or axis, destitute of any central
strand, forking but seldom in some species,
perhaps in all, and possibly divided by trans-
verse septa into cells, though this is not clearly
shown inany individual case. To this axis are
articulated by round or oval joints, two or more
series of more or less elongate, very thin-walled,
bladder-like sacs, which, for convenience, are
called pinnules. With rare exceptions, these
sacs are quite regularly arranged with re-
spect to one another, their parallelism in the
impressions giving the feathery appearance to
the pinne. Similar relations obtain in all the
species considered. The pinnules appear to
have been eventually deciduous, falling away
from the lower portion of therachis. Although
several of the species appear at first glance to
very strongly resemble hydroids, the speaker
followed Dawson and Lesquereaux in consider-
ing these organisms to be vegetable in their
nature.
Sylvester D. Judd described a Peculiar Hye
of an Amphipod Crustacean, Byblis serrata.
He said that this crustacean, which belongs to
the family Gammaride, has totally different
eyes from Gammarus. This peculiar eye of
Byblis reminds one of the vertebrate eye, for
both agree in having a biconvex lens and a
fluid filled space with the retina below. A sec-
tion through the chief axes of the eye of Byblis
would first show a large lens, which has been
secreted in concentric shells by a thickened
layer of lentigen, which is on either side con-
tinuous with the thinner hypodermis, which is
gorged with scarlet pigment that envelopes the
eye like a cornucopia, thus shutting out all rays
that might reach the retina without first passing
through the lens. Under the lentigen is a cres-
cent-shaped humor space. Below and proximal
to this space is a layer of columnar cells, which
is continuous on either side with the hypoder-
mis. This layer of cells has secreted on its
outer boundary, which borders on the space, a
strong cuticula. Just proximal to this layer of
cells, which has secreted the cuticula, are the
omatidia (which of course lack the corneal cuti-
cula). The most distal element of an oma-
tidium is a granular columnar body (cell pro-
duct). Below and proximal to this columnar
418
body, the remainder of the omatidium with its
refractive cone and retinula is practically iden-
tical with the omatidium of Gammarus, minus,
of course, the corneal cuticula. For in the re-
tinula of both crustaceans there are five retinal
cells with pigment, and four rhabdomeres.
There are two of these peculiar crater-like
eyes that project from either side of the cepha-
lon of Byblis serrata.
Vernon Bailey exhibited Two Mammals New
to the Vicinity of Washington, being Sorex per-
sonatus and Synaptomys Coopert. In 1888 skulls
of these mammals were found in pellets ejected
by the Long-eared Owl, but until the capture
of the specimens shown, which were taken at
Hyattsville it had not been definitely proved
that these species were found in the immediate
vicinity. F. A. Lucas,
Secretary.
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Av the meeting of the Geological Society of
Washington (D. C.), held on February 26, 1896,
the following communications were presented:
Mr. W J McGee exhibited the geologic map
of the State of New York recently printed by
the United States Geological Survey in codpera-
tion with Prof. Hall, State Geologist. He
stated that the map had been in preparation
for the last ten years and its preliminary draft
was a compilation by Prof. Hall and himself in
greater part from old data. Finding that these
were very incomplete and unsatisfactory in
many areas, new field work was begun and
continued for several years. In the meanwhile
a new base was compiled from county maps and
other sources. The larger part of the field
work was done by Mr. N. H. Darton, of the
United States Geological Survey, who mapped
the geology of nearly the entire area of the
Helderberg and associated formations, the
faulted area extending along the Mohawk valley
and around the southern side of the Adiron-
dacks to Lake George, the Niagara escarpment,
the northern and eastern portions of the Cats-
kill Mountains, the Oneonta region, the greater
portions of Albany, Ulster, Orange and Rock-
land counties, and the Juratrias area of New
Jersey. Dr. F. J. H. Merrill contributed data
for Westchester, Putnam and New York coun-
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 63.
ties, and Prof. J. F. Kemp mapped much of
the region lying along the eastern side of the
Adirondacks. Data for smaller areas were ob-
tained from published or manuscript maps by
Messrs. C. D. Walcott, T. N. Dale, J. H.
Clarke, W. M. Davis, W. B. Dwight, Mr. Ran- »
dall, Prof. Smythe and others. The map was
edited by Mr. Willis Bailey.
Notes on the Geology of the Black Hills of
Dakota were presented by Mr. N. H. Darton.
The region was visited last autumn for a study
of the outcrops of the Dakota sandstones and
the associated formations, in connection with an
investigation for the United States Geological
Survey of the artesian waters of the Dakotas.
There was first described a detailed section
which had been carefully measured from the
base of the Potsdam to the White River Miocene
formation, along a line passing through Rapid
City to the Bad Lands. The thickness of the
upper Cretaceous members in this section have
since been most satisfactorily verified by the
deep well-boring on the Rosebud Indian Reser-
vation. The salient features of the general
stratigraphy were pointed out and the alleged
unconformities in the Juratrias formations were
discussed. Attention was called to a well-
defined peneplain now represented by the east-
ern ‘hog back’ foothills of which the very even
crest lines are at an altitude very nearly 4,000
feet above sea level for over 100 miles. Dia-
grams were exhibited of a very interesting
laccolite west of Tilford, and the structure of
the Bear Butte and Warren Peaks eruptive
areas were described. Some incidental obser-
vations in the nucleal region of the hills brought
to light some important details of stratigraphy
of the Algonkian beds, and some examples
illustrating the development of schistosity in
the vicinity both of granite and younger erup-
tives.
Several miscellaneous specimens were shown,
including cone-in-cone structure developed in
Pierre clays by the pressure caused by the for-
mation of sideritic concretions; material from
sandstone disks in the Bad Lands, having verti-
cal cleavage into thin plates with horizontally
corrugated surfaces, and masses of phosphated
grains from the Pierre clays, which appear to
be of coprolitic character.
MARcH 13, 1896.]
In the discussion which followed this paper,
Mr. M. R. Campbell alluded to the close simi-
larity between the relations of the even crest
lines of the ‘hog back’ ranges described by Mr.
Darton, and the Appalachian ridges, and en-
dorsed the view that they are similarly the
remnants of peneplains preserved by the harder
rocks.
Mr. F. W. Crosby presented a paper entitled
‘The Sea Mills of Cephalonia.’ These mills are
run by sea water which flows into fissures with
considerable velocity. The origin of these fis- _
sures and the conditions which enables the sea
water to sink into them below the level of the
sea have been the subjects of popular specula-
tion for many years, but they appear to have at-
tracted but little attention among geologists.
Mr. Crosby then quoted a paper by his son,
Prof. W. O. Crosby, in which the mechanism of
the phenomena was discussed and a hypothesis
offered to account for it.
A paper on the ‘Stratigraphy at Slate Springs,
California,’ by Mr. H. W. Fairbanks, was read
by Mr. Lindgren.
W. F. Morse Lt.
CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
THE 85th regular meeting, which was also
the 12th annual meeting of the Society, was held
January 9, 1896. The following were elected
to membership: Messrs. E. C. Wilson, E. W.
Magruder and C. C. Moore. The publication
of Bulletin No. 9, was announced and the fol-
lowing officers were elected : President, E. A.
de Schweinitz ; Vice-Presidents, W. D. Bigelow,
W.G. Brown ; Treasurer, W. P. Cutter; Secre-
tary, A. C. Peale; additional members of the
Executive Committee, Chas. E. Munroe, F. P.
Dewey, V. K. Chesnut, H. N. Stokes.
The first paper read was by Dr. H. W. Wiley,
ona ‘Steam Jacketed Drying Oven,’ and the
oven was shown in actual operation. In order to
surround the drying space of the oven entirely
with steam, the door of the ordinary steam
jacketed oven is made with double walls, and
the steam from the oven conducted into it from
the oven by two metal flexible tubes at the top
and bottom of the door, so arranged as not to
interfere with its opening. The temperature is
regulated by a pressure gauge in which, when
SCIENCE.
419
a given pressure is reached, the steam cuts off,
the gas by acting on a column of mercury.
When steam is used the temperature can be
regulated by setting the gauge to read at any
position, to read from the boiling point of water
up to 105°. For other higher temperatures
other liquids can be used, as alcohol or amyl.
alcohol, but ether cannot be safely employed
on account of the danger of explosion if there
is any leakage.
Dr. Wiley also read a paper on the ‘ Heat
of Bromination in Oils.’ The especial diffi-
culty on the process of proposed by Hehner
and Mitchell is in handling the liquid bromine
in quantities of one cc. at atime. Dr. Wiley
found that the process is made practicable by
dissolving both the oil or fat and the bromine in
chloroform when the solution is easily handled
by means of a special pipette. He described
the process in detail and said the determinations
should be conducted in a room when the tem-
perature is as constant as possible, and the
pieces of apparatus should be exposed to the
open air for at least half an hour after complet-
ing one determination and before beginning
another, in order that it may be restored to the
standard room temperature. Duplicates usu-
ally agree within one or two-tenths of a degree.
The ratio of the heat of bromination to the or-
dinary number must be established for each
system of apparatus employed. The process
seems to be one of considerable analytical value.
For exact scientific purposes calorimetric meas-
urement of the degree of heat produced must
be made.
Prof. Chas. E. Munroe made some remarks
upon ‘The Corrosion of Electric Mains,’ and
exhibited sections of electric light cables, in
which the lead coating had become so corroded
that in some places the interior conductor was
exposed, while at others the cable was coated
with nodular earthy looking masses. The
cables were parts of a three-wire system,
which carried a direct current of 110 volts on
each wire, and which had been laid under-
ground in the upper compartment of the terra
cotta conduit. The corroded main was a
branch in an alley, while the principal. main
was in the street and was not attacked. <An-
alysis showed the incrustation to be nitrate,
“”
420
chloride, carbonate and oxide of lead with
water and a trace of organic matter. Sur-
rounding the alley were stables, and in the
salts found in the soil produced by the excreta
were all the necessary materials and condi-
tions for effecting chemical corrosion per se
without resorting to any electolytic theory. In
the discussion of the paper Dr. Wiley said he
thought there might have been a denitrifying
process. Prof. Munroe said there had been no
submergence of the cable, but that there must
have been water passing through the conduit.
A. C, PEALE,
Secretary.
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADEL—
PHIA, FEBRUARY 25.
PAPERS under the following titles were pre-
sented for publication: ‘The Coloring Matter
of the Aril of Celastrus scandens,’ by Ida A.
Keller; ‘The Crystallization of Molybdenite,’
by Amos P. Brown. The Anthropological Sec-
tion having precedence, Dr. D. G. Brinton
made a communication on the use of the cranio-
facial line in determining racial and individual
characters on the living subject. The relation of
the diameters of the cranium, formerly relied on,
had been found unsatisfactory. He specially
recommended a line closely resembling that
suggested by the sculptor, Charles Rochet. It
connects the two auditory foramina, forming a
slight curve, the superior border of which con-
nects the internal commissures of the eyes.
This line, it is claimed, divides the ideal, nor-
mal head into two perfectly equal parts, al-
though in nature, of course, this proportion is
not maintained, but varies as a racial charac-
ter and in individuals. The relations of the
lines may also indicate the cranial capacity,
as the plane of the curve continued posteriorly
is approximately the base of the skull. He
farther pointed out that the distance between
the distal extremities of the curve gives the
width of the head and the face, and that a
series of curves, described from the fixed points
indicated, offers probably the simplest and
most accurate method of obtaining significant
head-measures on the living subject.
Dr. Harrison Allen commented on the diffi-
culty of obtaining satisfactory cranial measure-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. III. No. 63.
ments and referred to Oldfield Thomas’s lines
taken from the outer margin of the orbits to de-
termine the projection of the nose. He did not
think the true horizontal plane of the skull
could be fixed. The so-called Frankfurt plane
is the one most commonly accepted.
Dr. Seneca Egbert stated that he had demon-
strated the action of the X-rays through plates
of platinum from ordinary sun light. Tllustra-
tive pictures were exhibited, and the published
results of other experiments were discussed.
Prof. Maxwell Sommerville exhibited beauti-
ful specimens of chipped arrow-heads made
from common green bottle glass by the natives
of northwestern Australia. He also called at-
tention to a stone carved to resemble a miniature
grotesque head from the valley of the Dela-
ware opposite Milford, and an object used in
phallic worship by the natives of Poonah, India.
Dr. D. G. Brinton called attention to the im-
portance of obtaining systematic data for the
study of American anthropology and suggested
the wide distribution, under the auspices of the
Anthropological Section of the Academy, of cir-
culars of inquiry similar to those in use by
the committee appointed by the British Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science for the
study of the ethnography of Great Britain.
Epw. J. NOLAN,
Recording Secretary.
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CIE RR E
EDITORIAL CoMMITTEE : S. Nrwcoms, Mathematics ; R. S. WooDWARD, Mechanics ; E. C. PICKERING, As-
tronomy ; T. C. MENDENHALL, Physics; R. H. THurston, Engineering ; IRA REMSEN, Chemistry ;
J. LE ContE, Geology; W. M. Davis, Physiography; O. C. MARsH, Paleontology; W. K. BRooKs,
Invertebrate Zodlogy ; C. HART MERRIAM, Vertebrate Zoology ; S. H. ScuDDER, Entomology ;
N. L. Brirron, Botany ; HENRY F. OsBorN, General Biology ; H. P. BownpircuH,
Physiology ; J. S. BiInLines, Hygiene ; J. MCKEEN CATTELL, Psychology ;
DANIEL G. BRINTON, J. W. POWELL, Anthropology ;
G. BRowN GOODE, Scientific Organization.
Fripay, Marca 20, 1896.
CONTENTS :
Vivisection ; A Statement in behalf of Science......... 421
Certiludes and Illusions; An Illusion concerning
Rests) J. Wi. POWELL. ...-..0..0sceceneerscecerseerers 426
Scientific Notes and News :—
Astronomy: H.J. Marine Organisms ; General..433
University and Educational News. ......1.0.0e:0ereseseeees 437
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Heredity and Instinct: J. MARK BALDWIN. In-
stinct: WESLEY MiLus. Peculiar Abraision of
Tree Trunks: PERCY M. VAN Epps. The Puma,
or Mountain Lion: MERIDEN 8. HILL. Logic
and the Retinal Image: W. K. Brooks. Cer-
titudes and Illusions: J. W. POWELL ............ 438
Scientific Literature :—
William’s Geological Biology. W.H. D. Winge
on Brazilian Carnivora: GERRITS. MILLER, JR.
Keane’s Ethnology: D. G. BRINTON. Volcanic
Rocks: J. B. WOODWORTH.............s00s0eceeeeees 445
Scientific Journals :— 3
The Astro-physical Journal; The American Geolo-
Societies and Academies :—
Philosophical Society of Washington: BERNARD
R. GREEN. Entomological Society of Washington ;
New York Academy of Sciences, Biological Section :
C. L. BristoL. Section of Astronomy and Physics :
W. HALLOCK. Boston Society of Natural History :
SAMUEL HENSHAW. Academy of Natural Sci-
ences of Philadelphia: EpDw. J. NoLAN. North-
western University Science Club: A. R. CROOK.
Academy of Science of St. Lowis: WILLIAM
AMETITIVASTO, cossosscasconcasaocacscoansad0aoboCecdan608008 452
MSS. intended for publication and books etc., intended
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
VIVISECTION.*
A STATEMENT IN BEHALF OF SCIENCE.
So long ago as the autumn of 1866 there
were published in New York denunciations
of the practice of making upon living ani-
mals those scientific observations and ex-
* The sciences which have to do with animal ex-
perimentation are physiology, physiological chemistry,
pharmacology, medical chemistry, toxicology, mor-
phology (including anatomy and embryology), bac-
teriology, pathology, medicine and surgery. These
sciences are largely represented in this country by
the American Physiological Society, the American
Society of Morphologists, the American Anatomical
Society, the American Society of Naturalists, the
American Society of Physicians, and the American
Society of Surgeons.
In December last the presidents of the above so-
cieties were invited to appoint members of a joint
committee to sit in Philadelphia on the occasion of
the annual meeting in that city of several of these
associations.
The accompanying ‘statement in behalf of science’
was adopted by this joint committee of thirty-four
members, and is now published over their signatures,
with the addition of several names of persons specially
qualified to speak on the subject, but not members of
the committee. It sets forth the importance of animal
experimentation for the advancement of medicine,
and may be accepted as an authoritative expression of
expert opinion on this question.
(Signed ) CHARLES W. ELIoT,
President of Harvard University.
FRANCIS A. WALKER,
President of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
FRANK K. PADDOCK,
President of the Massachusetis Medical Society.
Boston, February 24, 1896.
422
periments which are commonly called vivi-
sections. During the following twenty-nine
years there have appeared, from time to time,
at one or another place, similar denuncia-
tions, more or less sweeping and violent. Of
these some condemn vivisection altogether,
and others in various of its phases. Some
eall for its total abolition, and others for its
material restriction. Some are labored
essays, and others are brief ‘ tracts’ or ‘ leaf-
lets’ intended more easily to arrest the atten-
tion. Most of these publications, however,
have this in common, that they seek to fortify
argument with strenuous appeals to emo-
tion; and in some the tone of invective rises
to a shrillness little short of frantic. In
these publications, too, there often figure
extracts from scientific writings; and, in
many cases, these extracts are so garbled
that only ignorant or reckless animosity
could be accepted in excuse for their seem-
ing bad faith.
During the past twenty-nine years these
attacks have but little disturbed the calm
of biology and medicine in this country;
but, from time to time, it has seemed wise
to take some notice of them, inasmuch as
the common sense of some members of a
changing community is liable to be led
astray as to a subject which is largely
technical initsnature. The following state-
ment, therefore, is added to its predecessors.
Its signers, however, are well aware that
they can hardly hope to make any state-
ment or to draw any conclusion which some
anti-vivisectionistagitator will not promptly
denounce as false or immoral.
Science is simply common knowledge
made precise, extended and transmitted
from generation to generation of trained
observers and reasoners. The biological
sciences study in the most varied ways the
bodies and the lives of men, of animals and
of plants. The applied sciences utilize
knowledge thus obtained for the every-day
good of mankind ; and one of these applied
SCIENCYH.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 64.
sciences, medicine, brings biological dis-
coveries to bear upon the prevention and
cure of disease and injury. As experience
grows incessantly, the fact which has la-
boriously been established with no other
thought than the noble one of advancing
knowledge may be applied, the next day or
the next century, in the most practical way
by some inventor or physician; and, in the
application, new facts may come to light,
which will markedly extend the boundaries
of knowledge.
Therefore, in the slowly woven fabric of
achievement, pure science and applied sci-
ence, biology and medicine, have always
been warp and woof. Let either be de-
stroyed, man’s life shall go threadbare.
To show this, a few out of many striking
examples may suffice.
Not very long ago the red clover was
imported into a British colony to which it
was not native. The plant throve, when
planted; but its flowers set no seeds, so that
fresh seed had to be brought from the
mother country. The disappointed farmers
consulted people who had given up their
time to the study of plants and insects—
botanists, and ‘bug-hunters,’ in fact. Pure
science told the practical farmers that the
long-billed humble-bees which sucked honey
in every English clover field also carried
pollen from flower to flower, and thus fertil-
ized the plants, and that it was useless to
try for crops of imported red clover, unless
humble-bees were imported also.
No less enlightening is the history of one
of the latest and most modern of the devel-
opments of science. Near the end of the
last century Dr. Galvani, an Italian pro-
fessor of anatomy, set himself to investi-
gate the cause of a newly discovered fact:
namely, that the muscles of the legs of
freshly killed frogs jerked forcibly when
their nerves were worked upon by the tak-
ing of a spark from an electrical machine.
This investigation, which does not sound
MARCH 20, 1896.]
momentous, he undertook, ‘in order to
discover the hidden properties’ of the
merves and muscles, ‘and to treat their
diseases more certainly.’ To the jerks of
Galvani’s frogs’ legs we owe the discovery
of the galvanic battery and current, which
are named after him; the telegraph and
ocean cable, with their immense influence
upon civilized life in peace and war; the
transfer to miles of distance of the vast
working power of Niagara Falls. Itisa
fitting, if slight, dramatic touch that the
traveller in Italy who passes the night at
Bologna, where Galvani worked and taught,
will perhaps put up ata hotel directly op-
posite the professor’s modest house, and
will see that the tablet which records the
experiments made within is lighted up at
evening by the electric light, which also
owes its existence to a search for the hidden
‘properties’ of frogs’ legs.
Two hundred years ago there lived at
Delft, in Holland, a well-to-do Dutchman,
named Antony van Leeuwenhoek. He had
been a ‘dry goods clerk’ in his youth, and
had had no learned or professional train-
ing. Van Leeuwenhoek took to making and
polishing, for his own use, very small and
very strong magnifying glasses, because he
was full of what some anti-vivisectionists
sneer at as ‘scientific curiosity.’ The
Dutchman’s glasses were very superior ;
and with them he looked at the most mis-
cellaneous things—among these, at ditch
water and at particles from the surface of
his own teeth. He found that such matters
were swarming with living things of all
kinds, and described them and other things
so well that he became famous, and princes,
who were not ashamed to be interested in
“mere science,’ sent for him and his glasses
to instruct them. Among Van Leeuwen-
hoek’s discoveries were the minute things
now called bacteria, or microbes, and known
to be living plants. The physicians were
prompted to guess that diseases might be
SCIENCE.
423
due to the ravages of the new forms of mi-
eroscopic life first seen with decisive clear-
ness by Van Leeuwenhoek ; but no proof
of this was forthcoming, and the idea was
abandoned by most, amid the laughter of
many at this fad of the doctors. More than
a century went by. The bacteria, as ob-
jects of pure science, were more and more
studied. The microscope was bettered
more and more from the simple magnify-
ing glass of Van Leeuwenhoek. With the
advance of chemistry and of other sciences,
all known means of studying minute living
things became greatly improved; and now
the idea that many diseases were caused by
minute living things was taken up afresh,
and carried to triumphant demonstration
by a number of medical men and biologists
—among the latter by Pasteur, whose re-
cent loss is mourned by-the world, and
whom an eminent American humanitarian
sneered at, not many years ago, as an ‘ ob-
secure druggist.’ The proof that many dis-
eases are caused each by a particular kind of
microbe was obtained by vivisection ; for
the proof consisted in inoculating animals
with the special microbe in question, to the
practical exclusion of others, and noting
that the animals took the disease, perhaps
died of it. As some only of the results of
the knowledge thus gained by experiment
upon animals, it may be noted that the
prevention of cholera has been made more
certain, and that great numbers of patients,
largely children, have been saved from
death by the anti-toxine treatment of diph-
theria. But every child thus saved to-day
owes his life, not only to medicine, but
to biology; not only to the observations
and the vivisections of Klebs and Loeffler
and Koch and Pasteur and others, but to
the ‘mere scientific curiosity’ of that old
lens-polisher of Delft, who spent time in
prying into ditch water and particles from
the surface of teeth.
Early in the last century, at a country
424
parsonage in England, there worked a
pious and gifted man, the Rev. Stephen
Hales, D. D., . Rector of Farringdon, in
Hampshire. Dr. Hales achieved the un-
common distinction of becoming both an
excellent clergyman and a famous biologist.
Nor was it to any easy branch of observa-
tion that he gave such time as he could
spare, but to difficult themes of experi-
mental physiology, both vegetable and ani-
mal. He studied, among other things,
the pressure of the sap in plants and the
pressure of the blood in the vessels of ani-
mals. In order to investigate the blood
pressure, he did a number of indispensable
vivisections upon horses, sheep and dogs.
Each animal was tied down, an artery was
opened and connected with a pressure
gauge, and the true pressures and their
variations were for the first time properly
observed and recorded. No doubt, had it
been possible, the excellent Hales would
have drugged his animals to quiet their
pain; but modern methods for this purpose
were not discovered till long afterward, so
that in those days both man and beast faced
the surgeon’s knife without such relief as
they afford. By the work of Hales our
knowledge of the circulation of the blood,
which his famous compatriot Harvey had
discovered, received an essential addition;
nor is there reason to suppose that Hales
ever doubted the morality of the proceed-
ings by which he satisfied his ‘scientific
curiosity.’ Were he to return to life and
to repeat his experiments, even with all
modern improvements, he certainly would
be surprised at the reception he would meet
with in some quarters.
Since the time of Hales those changes in
the blood pressure have carefully been
studied which are produced in various
states of the system and by various drugs.
More than a century after Hales some vivi-
sections were performed by Mr. Arthur
Gamgee, to test the effect upon the blood
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 64.
pressure of a certain volatile chemical—the
nitrite of amyl. It was found that the
pressure appeared to be greatly lessened by
this drug. Some of these experiments
were witnessed by Dr. T. Lauder Brunton,
at that time resident physician to the Royal
Infirmary at Edinburgh, and now an emi-
nent medical practitioner and professor in
London. During the winter of 1866-67
there were in the wards of the infirmary
several patients who suffered from the dis-
order called breastpang, or angina pectoris,
which is characterized by paroxysms of
hard breathing and of terrible pain over
the heart. In observing these cases, Dr.
Brunton saw reason to think that the attack
was accompanied by a high blood pressure
in the arteries. He remembered the vivi-
sections in which he had seen the effects
upon the arterial pressure of the nitrite of
amyl. He caused his patients to inhale a
few drops of the volatile drug. The pain
generally disappeared; and the nitrite of
amyl became very soon a recognized agent
for the relief of one of the most acute forms
of human suffering.
Every victim of angina who carries this
drug about with him for use at any moment
owes his exemption, first, to the scientific
physician; second, to the pharmacologist—
that is, the scientific student of the action
of drugs, who, for the good of man, sacri-
ficed animals in studying the effect of drugs
upon the blood pressure; and third, to the
clergyman and physiologist, Hales, who a
century before had given some pain to ani-
mals in studying the science of the circula-
tion, apart from any direct application to
the cure of human ailments. Nor is this
all; for the experiments of Hales were
based upon the knowledge acquired through
vivisection by the physician Harvey, who
by this means settled much relating to the
motions of the heart and blood in animals;
which settlement, in turn, depended upon
the work of the famous Greek physician,
MARCH 20, 1896.]
Galen, who seventeen centuries ago proved
by vivisections, against his professional op-
ponents, that blood is naturally contained
in the arteries.
Of the numerous improvements in prac-
tical medicine and surgery which are the
outcome of experiments upon living animals
we could not speak at length without ex-
panding a brief statement intoa book. We
will instance further only the vivisections
by which, at the time of the Napoleonic
wars, Dr. J. F. D. Jones ascertained the
proper way to tie up a wounded artery, and
thereby afforded the means to military and
civil practice of saving very numerous pa-
tients from bleeding to death; the experi-
ments of the still living surgeon, Sir Joseph
Lister, as the result of which surgery has
been revolutionized in our own day; the
quite recent vivisections, as the result of
which the cure of the disease called myxce-
dema has been discovered, which cure con-
sists in the administration or transplanta-
tion of the thyroid gland; and the vivisec-
tions in the seventeenth century relating to
the transfusion of blood, as the result of
which women in child-bed have repeatedly
been rescued from impending death from
‘flooding after delivery.’
Experience shows, therefore, that it is
impossible to disentangle pure science from
applied science; that vital human interests
are benefited by ‘scientific curiosity,’ as
well as by work more directly practical;
and that this general law holds good for
those sciences, pure and applied, which
deal with man as such, and with the other
living things upon the earth. Without
physiology, pathology and their allies,
which investigate the laws of life by experi-
ments upon living creatures, practical medi-
cine would be in worse than medieval
plight; for before the Middle Ages the
genius of the Greeks had inaugurated the
practice of experimental physiology, with
results of value for all time.
SCIENCE.
425
Therefore, the use of animals by man-
kind for scientific purposes take its place
beside those other uses of them for the good
of man which involve imprisonment, en-
forced labor, death, and, in some cases, suf-
fering. That society asserts with practical
unanimity the right to kill and inflict pain
upon animals for its own purposes is shown
by the legal view of cruelty as the unjus-
tifiable infliction of suffering. Were every
infliction of pain as such punishable as
cruel, the painful operations, for instance,
required to make animals docile, or to fit
them to be food, would be abolished. In
every great civilized country these opera-
tions of the farmyard aggregate millions
in each year.
Happily, of the very various procedures
known collectively as vivisections, many
are painless; in others the suffering is triv-
ial, whether the animal be killed or remain
alive; and in the great majority of the rest
some drug may be given to quiet pain, or
insensibility may be produced by sudden
operation. There remains, however, a
limited portion of cases, which may be of
great importance, where the results of ex-
periment would be endangered by any
means that could be taken against suffering.
In these cases the animal must suffer,
though often far less than would be sup-
posed, for the benefit of man as does the
gelded horse or the wounded game.
Common sense requires, therefore, that
investigations in biology and medicine shall
proceed, at the expense, when necessary, of
the death and suffering of animals. If
these sciences are not to be extinguished
they must be transmitted from generation
to generation; they must be taught, and
like all the other natural or physical sci-
ences; they must, at institutions of the
higher learning be taught by demonstration.
No one would think favorably of a student
of chemistry who had never handled a test-
tube, or of a student of electricity who had
426
never set up a battery. The young astrono-
mer sees the stars and planets themselves
through the telescope. So do serious stu-
dents of biology or medicine see for them-
selves the structure of the body, see for
themselves the workings of that structure
through the experiments of the physiologi-
eal or pathological laboratory or lecture
room, just as medical students, they see
disease in the wards of hospitals, and look
on or assist at the surgical operations per-
formed upon men, women and children.
No models and pictures can replace such
teaching. From this last fact there is no
escape. Itis rooted in the constitution of
the human mind. No mother would know-
ingly allow her childern to ride behind a
locomotive engineer who had never seen the
workings of an actual engine. Surely the
physician who does his best to guide the
living mechanism along the path of safety
should be taught its natural workings as
exactly and as fully as possible; otherwise
he may understand its working in disease.
Happily the cases where the animals seen
at demonstrations must undergo more than
brief or trival pain are even rarer than in
eases of pure research. In the very great
majority of demonstrations the creatures
can be kept free of pain until they are
killed. As to whether or no, under given
circumstances of research or teaching, an
experiment involving pain should be per-
formed, is a matter which should rest with
the responsible expert, by whom or under
whose direction the thing would be done.
Otherwise, in a matter involving the inter-
est of the community, those who know
would be directed by those who do not
know. For any experiment improperly
conducted the person responsible is liable
under the general laws against the mal-
treatment of animals. In fact, American
biologists and physicians are no more in-
elined than other members of the com-
munity to culpable negligence toward their
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vox. ILI. No. 64.
fellow-creatures. The work of science goes
on; but those who are responsible desire,
and see to it, that the work be painless, so
far as admissible. No intelligent man or
woman should give heed to the denunci-
ations of those few ill-informed or head-
strong persons who have been drawn into
one of the less wise of the agitations which
beset modern society.
Signed: S. Weir Mitchell, J.G. Curtis, W.
H. Howell, H. P. Bowditch, W. T. Porter,
J. W. Warren, R. H. Chittenden, V. C.
Vaughan, John Marshall, 8. B. Ward,
William Pepper, 8. C. Busey, Henry M.
Lyman, E. G. Janeway, Ch. Wardell Stiles,
William Patten, William T. Sedgwick, H.
C. Ernst, Theobald Smith, A. C. Abbott, J.
J. Abel, A. R. Cushny, H. C. Wood, Frank
Baker, Harrison Allen, G. A. Piersol,
C. S. Minot, Henry F. Osborn, C. O. Whit-
man, William H. Welch, T. M. Prudden,
Rk. H. Fitz, George M. Sternberg, J. Rufus
Tryon, Walter J. Wyman, Daniel E. Sal- ©
mon, G. Brown Goode, W. W. Keen, Wil-
liam Osler, J. Collins Warren, W. T.
Councilman.
CERTITUDES AND ILLUSIONS: AN ILLUSION
CONCERNING REST.
Twenty centuries of investigation have
dispelled many illusions. In examining
the folklore of the world it is found that
the lower the stage of culture the greater
the number of these illusions. Since sys-
tematic researches were inaugurated by the
Greeks many have been explained, yet some
remain, even in the scientific world of to-
day. On the threshold of our work it be-
comes necessary to dispel an illusion deve-
loped by primordial men and handed down
through sequent generations to the present
time, so that even now there are few minds
unclouded by its mystic presence. When
the ball is in the hand it seems to be at rest ;
when it flies from the hand motion seems
to be created; and when it stops upon the
-Mazcu 20, 1896.]
ground motion seems to be destroyed.
When the horse stands he seems to be at
rest; when he moves motion seems to be
created ; and when he stops motion seems
to be destroyed. The ship is idle in the
harbor, and it seems to rest or to be with-
out motion ; the winds fill its sail, and it
seems that motion is created ; it is becalmed
at sea and the motion seems to be destroyed.
Without the consideration of other unseen
facts, rest seems to be a state without mo-
tion, and it appears that motion can be
created and destroyed. Thisis the illusion
to be dispelled. It is proposed to demon-
strate that acceleration in molar motion is
deflection of molecular motion, and in gen-
eral that acceleration in any body is deflec-
tion in the particles of the body.
For this purpose it becomes necessary to
define what is here meant by the terms
body and particle. The universe is discov-
ered to bea hierarchy of bodies. The solar
system is a group of stars. When the solar
system is considered as a unity the parti-
eles of which it is composed are the stars,
but when one of these is studied as a unity
it is found to be composed of particles.
When any one of these particles is consid-
ered by itself it is a body. A molecule is a
body considered as a molecule, but it is
composed of many atoms, which are its par-
ticles. If, on the other hand, the atoms are
compound, then they are bodies. Thus it
is that a body is composed of particles, and
that which is a body or system in relation
to its component particles may be a particle
in relation to a body or system of a higher
' order. It is in this sense that the term
must be understood when we affirm that
acceleration in a body or system is deflec-
tion of its particles. The ball in the hand
is not at rest, or without motion in its par-
ticles ; the horse has not more motion in its
particles when running than when stand-
ing; the ship at anchor has motion still in
its particles. These propositions are all
SCIENCE.
427
simple and can be easily demonstrated, and
yet the illusion remains. These seeming
paradoxes are to be explained if we affirm
that motion cannot be created or destroyed.
It has been demonstrated by science that
motion is persistent—cannot be created or
‘annihilated, and the demonstration has
been accepted by a great body of scientific
men. Antecedent to this demonstration
Newton had propounded three laws of mo-
tion, one of which is that action and reaction
are equal and in opposite directions. In
- this axiom the persistence of motion or the
indestructibility of energy was implied, but
at first its full significance was not under-
stood, perhaps not even by Newton himself.
In ‘The Principia’ his first chapter is a
series of definitions, the third of which is
as follows:
“The vis insita, or innate force of matter,
is a power or resisting by which every body,
as much as in it lies, endeavors to persevere
in its present state, whether it be of rest or
of moving uniformly forward in a right line.
“This force is ever proportional to the
body whose force it is, and differs nothing
from the inactivity of the mass, but in our
manner of conceiving it. A body, from the
inactivity of matter, is not without diffi-
culty put out of its state of rest or motion.
Upon which account this vis insita may, by
a most significant name, be called wis in-
ertie, or force of inactivity. But a body
exerts this force only when another force
impressed upon it endeavors to change its
condition, and the exercise of this force
may be considered both as resistance and
impulse; it is resistance, in so far as the
body for maintaining its present state with-
stands the force impressed; it is impulse,
in so far as the body, by not easily giving
way to the impressed force of another, en-
deavors to change the state of that other.
Resistance is usually ascribed to bodies at
rest, and impulse to those in motion; but
motion and rest as commonly conceived
428
are only relatively distinguished, nor are
those bodies always truly at rest which commonly
are taken to be so.”
In the last sentence quoted it is apparent
that Newton himself was conscious of an
illusion in the common conception of the
term rest, and it is plain from his entire
discussion that his term inertia stood for
real force, although many scholars since
his time have denied this proposition.
Had Newton discovered the real nature
of what he called vis inertie ‘The Prin-
cipia’ would have been simplified, as it has
been since his time, by definitions given to
momentum, energy, force and power., But
even these newer definitions can be revised
and the subject presented in a simpler man-
ner. The purpose in view in this chapter
is to re-define vis inertiv, and to explain the
phenomenon of rest in molar bodies by
showing that it is not annihilation of mo-
tion, but change in the direction of motion,
and that the ordinary concept of rest in
molar bodies is an illusion, and that this
illusion has been carried into the realms of
molecular and stellar motions.
Vis inertie or inertia is a component of
real force, inherent in every particle of
matter as speed of motion, which can be
changed in direction only through theagency
of collision. The explanation of Newton’s
third law of motion in this manner changes
the ideas of motion as they have heretofore
existed in philosophy. Motion as speed is
inherent, and not something imposed from
without. If indeed, this be true, then
much reasoning in scientific circles must
be revised, for it has far-reaching results.
The correlation of forces through the per-
sistence of motion or the persistence of en-
ergy is not universally accepted, but is
widely accepted, and it seems to be grow-
ing in favor by reason of its great simplic-
ity, and because it furnishes an explanation
of many facts and a conceivable explanation
for many more, but chiefly from the all-im-
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 64.
portant consideration, attested again and
again by observation, that motion is a real
cause or antecedent of force and that no
other cause is known. A second explana-
tion of force is never even propounded ex-
cept as a reification of abstractions inherited
from the age of metaphysics, and still found
as an atavism in science.
In the consideration of motion it is ne-
cessary to consider the two elements,
namely, speed and direction, or path, for
each term posits the other. The persistence
of motion inheres in the element of speed.
While the body in motion must have a path
its direction is variable, 7. ¢., not persistent
as a right line. It must therefore be un-
derstood that in speaking of the persistence
of motion it is the element of speed to
which reference is made. To affirm that
motion is persistent is equivalent to the af-
firmation that speed is persistent, though
the path of motion may change. It is not
proposed here to discuss the conservation
of energy nor the kinetic hypothesis that
force is the collision of matter in motion,
but to assume these theories for the pur-
pose of exhibiting their logical conse-
quences.
In every collision of one particle or body
with another there is a double correlative
involved. When A and B collide, A acts
on B and B on A, so that there is both ac-
tion and passion in A and B which are co-
existent. Then we have to consider A be-
fore the collision and A after the collision,
and B before the collision and B after the
collision. There is thus a double cause and
a double effect which are sequent. The mat-
ter may be expressed in another way. A
and B codperate in producing effects on
each other. In this cooperation action and
reaction are involved. The action is the
cause and the reaction is the effect. How is
the cause quantitatively related to the effect
and how is the effect divided between them ?
It is proposed to prove that collision does
MARCH 20, 1896. ]
not produce any change in the speed of A
or B, but the result of the collision is the
deflection of the paths of both and this de-
flection is proportional to their masses. All
this is simple in the collision of two free
bodies of a certain class, both of which are
in motion and which collide when their
paths impinge upon each other. But two
bodies, A and B impinge. A is with-
out molar motion; B has molor motion.
Will B yield a part of its motion to A,
or will B retain its motion as in the
ease of two free moving bodies and cre-
ate motionin A? Or if A is unmoved and
B is stopped in its molar motion will motion
be annihilated? If two molar bodies are
free and both in motion and their paths
impinge, neither particle has its speed in-
creased or diminished, but if one is at rest
it will be put in molar motion and it will
thus appear to have motion given to it
either by the creation of motion or by tak-
ing it from the other. The illusion involved
arises from this, that the molar body said to
be at rest is really not at rest. If they are
both free and in motion it is plain that one
does not yield motion to the other. But if
one of the bodies is in the state called rest it
appears that it is set in motion or that the
other body is brought to rest. In the first
case it seems that motion is not created nor
annihilated, in the second that motion is
created and in the third that motion is an-
nihilated. Is this true? This is the ques-
tion we are to answer. Can motion in any
body be created or destroyed by collision?
It appears so, but we are to show that this
appearance is an illusion.
Every particle of matter known to man is
in motion at a high velocity. This wooden
ball is in motion about the axis of the earth,
about: the sun, and also with the sun about
some other point in the heavens. The sum
of all these motions considered as speed is
unknown, but it may be affirmed with safety
that it is very great. Let us call this the
SCIENCE.
429
telluric motion of the ball, its motion with
the earth. Its path is composed of at least
three contemporaneous revolutions. How-
ever great the speed of the telluric motion,
it is'yet small as compared with other. mo-
tions within the body itself. As now un-
derstood the woody tissue is composed of
cells, the cells of molecules, and the mole-
cules of atoms, all grouped in such a man-
ner by composed motion as to constitute a
tissue whose structure is preserved by mo-
lecular motion. That rigidity is sometimes
due to motion is well known. Stand by
the nozzle of a monitor with four hundred
feet of pressure behind the water and watch
the stream drive the great boulder away.
Strike this stream with a crowbar ; though
the iron may bend, the stream is unbroken.
So we may conceive that rigidity and
strength of structure are properties of mo-
tion. Let us call this rigidity and struc-
tural strength of the woody tissue consti-
tutional motion, whose force is equal to the
sum necessary to rend the ball into its con-
stituent atoms. The structural strength isa
measure of its constitutional motion, which
is great as compared with any molar motion
observed in the ball. Again the body exhib-
its amode of motion known as heat,which is
undulatory or vibratory. Of the speed of
radiant heat something is known, and it is
well-known that it is very great as compared
with any molar motion observed in the
bodies which exhibit the heat. Let us call
this constitutional and thermic motion
molecular motion.
Troll the ball over the floor, and molar
motion is exhibited to the vision.
Thus we know of three kinds of motion
possessed by the body, but that which is
apparent to the unaided vision as molar
motion is but a minute part of the whole.
It is evident that it is a very small part of
the telluric motion. Let us now see what
proportion it bears to the molecular or the
constitutional and thermic motions com-
430
bined. The constitutional motion is meas-
ured by the force with which the atoms,
molecules and cells are held together as an
organic body. If we attempt to realize this
we find it very great, yet we cannot attain
to its measure, from the fact that it is com-
plicated with the heat motion of the body,
but we can obtain some realization of the
sum of the two kinds of motion, though we
cannot with certainty divide the molecular
motion between them.
Let us first consider the velocity of rea-
sonably well-known molecular motion:
VELOCITY OF GAS MOLECULES.
Meters per sccond.
AtmospheTic iL............cceeceeeeeeeeeeee seers 485
Oda G2 cocadocansodsoocosdedddsano00000n000 425 to 458
INIT Nh caopqngosnaboB60G0ndeq005de0000003 453 to 491
Fy drogen..........cceceesseceeeeeeeeee 1838 to 1841
PAIN ODA le eioneltelesciececissiesleseeterleeiicesis 628 to 737
AQUEOUS VAPOL..........cececeeceseeeeeeceseeeeees 614
VELOCITY OF THE TRANSMISSION OF SOUND.
Meters per second.
1B Byt? ppopodosquacHNOdOcHASGaDSDDDSOROCUCEEdCODOq00 333,
BOS @i:9 EXIM 4.5000000000000000500006000000000000000 317
OO [ny ACOXIYFEIN ScocosqnevaonodobudacadsasopocEboca6 1270
SoA ALLIN ODA ie secioceoscoecsaeccccsasssaccasssennse 415
OF TEIICEI® obpboddcubsonsodoadooogpSadqdagcsBocebo50 1435
But all of these same molecules have the
motion of the earth, first about its axis,
which at the equator is 465 meters per sec-
ond, and in orbit 29,606 meters per second.
Neglecting the motion of the earth with the
sun about some other point in the heavens
we still see that the known molecular mo-
tion, plus the known telluric motion, which
we have considered, far exceeds any molar
motion observed in nature or produced in
art. The molecular motion of a cannon
ball at its mouth is from 518 to 671 me-
ters per second. In telluric motion we
have the motion of bodies, and again in
molecular motion we have the motion of
bodies. The molecules themselves are com-
pound, and in order that the molecular
bodies themselves should retain their con-
stitution it is necessary that the motion of
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 64.
their particles should be made immensely
composite as correlative motions. What
idea can we obtain of the velocity of this
particle motion? Take the wooden ball
which we have considered and burn it and
we have motion as light, and light is trans-
mitted at the rate of 299,878,000 meters
per second. Here we have particle motion
at a velocity so great that any observed
molecular motion sinks into insignificance;
all of the ethereal motions seem to be at
least of rudely commensurate magnitude.
If the atoms are compound, as seems to be
indicated by a large body of evidence ob-
tained through chemical research, possibly
it may be that the particles of atoms are
commensurate with the particles of ether
and that they have the same speed; but
this hypothesis is not necessary to the pres-
entargument. It is only necessary to show
that the molecular and constitutional mo-
tions, together with the telluric motions of
every particle, are of such a magnitude as
to fall far within the speed of molar motion.
None of these motions are persistently
right-line motions. It is manifest that the
stellar motions are great revolutions. The
constitutional motions are also enormously
composite. The heat motions, though they
may be right-line motions in minute parts,
must be composite motions, their paths
forever changing, else the body would be
dissipated. The particle motion of each
particle in the molecule has its path con-
fined to the sphere of the molecule itself.
Considering this motion, both structural |
and thermic, not in relation to telluric mo-
tion nor in relation to molar motion, but
wholly in relation to the particles of the
molecule, it must be highly composite. The
molar motion of the rolling ball is revolu-
tion and translation, but it is so small as
compared with the others that it hardly
seems worthy of consideration. Still it
must not be neglected, for this is the motion
the characteristics of which we have set out
MAECH 20, 1896. ]
to explain. Let us once more consider
what has been said. The atoms of the ball,
when all their motions are analyzed and
summed, prove to have enormous velocities
in enormously composite paths compared
with which the molar motion of the ball on
the floor sinks into insignificance.
Every particle in the wooden ball rolling
on the floor has telluric motion, molecular
motion and molar motion. Consider one of
these particles moving with the three kinds of
motion, and we realize that its speed is very
great and that the path which it traverses
is greatly composite. If such a particle
had its composite path straightened into a
right-line path it would at once pass out of
the sphere of the solar system into a region
beyond, from whatever point within the
system it might start, and in whatever
direction the right-line path extended.
But the molecule remains within the solar
system because its stellar motion is com-
posite; and it remains within the ball be-
cause its molar motion is composite ; and it
remains within the molecule because its
molecular motion is complete.
When the ball was started molar motion
began and when it stopped that molar mo-
tion ended. But we do not suppose that it
came out for nothing and vanished into
nothing; we resort to preexisting molec-
ular motion to explain it; we say that the
molar motion was derived from the molec-
ular motion of the hand that set the ball
rolling and that it was transformed into
molecular motion in the wall which de-
stroyed the molar motion. In making this
explanation we assume that motion as speed
went out of the hand into the ball and then
‘out of the ball into the wall. Is this true?
Was the velocity of the molecular motion
in the hand diminished and the velocity of
the molecular motion in the wall increased ?
If so, action and reaction are not equal ex-
cept in the sense that what is lost by one
is gained by the other.
SCIENCE.
431
Did motion go out of the hand into the
ball, or was the direction of motion existing
in the ball changed? Did motion go out of
the ball into the wall, or was the direction
of motion existing in the wall changed? If
the law of action and reaction is. valid,
when the change was made upon the ball
by the hand, an equal change was made
upon the hand by the ball. Neither of
them lost velocity by the changed form, or
one lost what the other gained. All of
Newton’s reasoning on this subject proceeds
upon the assumption that the speed of each
is unchanged, but that the direction of each
is changed and that this deflection is equal
in the case now considered. When the
ball struck the wall neither ball nor wall
lost motion, but the molecular paths were
changed by collision. The form or mode of
direction of motion was affected, the quan-
tity of motion as speed was unaffected, if
we follow Newton’s reasoning. But there
was a change in the hand, in the ball, and
in the wall. In what did that change con-
sist? We know that in part at least it
consisted in a change of paths. The mo-
lecular motions in the hand must have had
their directions changed; the molecular
motions in the ball must have had their
directions changed; in like manner the
molecular motions of the wall were changed
in direction. This we know; in every col-
lision there is a change of direction in the
motion of the particles constituting the
bodies colliding. Is this change of direc-
tion all? Or is there a transference of
speed so that one loses while another gains ?
The whole problem is narrowed to this is-
sue—that which we call acceleration is
wholly deflection or in part deflection and
in part loss and gain—loss of speed by one
and gain by another, and if there is any
loss and gain then action and reaction are
not equal, as Newton’s law affirms.
There is still another set of relations
which must be considered. A body is con-
432
stituted of particles; that the motion of the
particles within the body should remain
within the sphere of the body, their paths
must be composite. In order that their
paths may be composite there must be a suf-
ficient number of collisions to deflect these
several particles and retain them within that
sphere.
If the body itself is moved the paths of
the several particles in the average must
thus be rendered less composite, that is, the
number of collisions must be diminished.
The motion of the body as such, therefore,
is accomplished by diminishing the deflec-
tions within the body and straightening
their paths. The translatory motion of a
body is a straightening of the paths of the
particles of which the body is composed.
Imagine a man walking in a circle of ten
feet radius. The sphere of his motion is
within the circumference. He may soon
walk a mile and never be more than twenty
feet away from any given point in the cir-
cumference ; change his direction so that his
path is straightened, and he may soon be'a
mile away. <A body of men walking in a
circle remain together as a body within the
circumference of the circle as it moves with
the earth ; change their paths to a cycloid
and the body of men will move away or
change their paths to parallel right lines,
and as a body they may soon be a mile
away and still ina circle. In the same man-
ner the molecules of the wooden ball are in
motion within the theater of the ball, so that
they do not pass beyond its boundaries, yet
impose upon each molecule a change of di-
rection in such manner that they all move
a little more in one course and a translation
of the ball is affected by a change of direc-
tion in the motion of its constituent mole-
cules, and the ball still remains as an incor-
porated body. It is thus possible to explain
molar motion of the ball as a change in di-
rection of the motion of its molecular parts,
without assuming an increase of speed in
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 64.
the parts. By such an assumption the molar
motion perceived by vision would be legiti-
mately derived from the molecular motion
known by reason, and appear as a change
of direction in the telluric motion of the ball.
No motion would be created or destroyed,
and action and reaction would remain
equal, while the apparent molar motion
would be explained by a change of direction
in molecular motions, very minute as com-
pared with the composite paths of the sev-
eral molecules and the composite path of
the body in its telluric motion. When we
consider the total motions of the atoms of
the ball, even when it is shot from a can-
non’s mouth, an inconceivably small change
of direction in the motion of every atom as
compared with the complexity of its path
would fully account for the flight of the ball
as projected by dynamite.
Now we know of deflection and that it
arises from collision, and we know of no
other change in motion. Acceleration as
increase of speed cannot in the nature of
the case be demonstrated, for it may always
be explained as deflection, and can never be
explained without deflection; and to as-
sume acceleration as increase of velocity is.
to contradict the law that action and reac-
tion are equal and to affirm that motion can.
be created and destroyed.
If acceleration is explained as deflection,
it is explained by referring it to a known
cause and adequately explained.
Let this argument be stated in brief :
First, the tendency of modern investiga-
tion is to explain all forces as derived from
modes of motion. Great progress has been
made in this direction, and the theory is.
widely accepted.
Second, all understood forces are collis-
ions.
Third, if all forces are collisions the mo-
tions from which they result obey the third
law of motion, that action and reaction are.
equal. By this law it is seen that no mo-
MARcH 20, 1896.]
tion as speed can be lost or gained by any
particle of matter.
Fourth, by collision paths can be changed,
- but motion as speed cannot be transmitted.
Fifth, in molar motion there is an ap-
- parent creation and annihilation of motion,
but this appearance is known to be an illu-
sion. It has been explained as due in part
to collision and in part to the transmission
of motion. Acceleration, therefore, must
be something else than an increase of speed.
_ It is known to be in part deflection and can
all be thus explained; and if the first law
of motion is valid it is thus explained.
Therefore :
1. Molar acceleration
molecules.
2. Speed of motion in matter is constant.
8. The direction of motion is variable.
4. Speed is inherent in matter and is not
imposed upon it from without.
5. The path of motion is controlled by
environment.
The laws of motion propounded by New-
ton can be more simply stated as follows :
Law I. The velocity of motion is per-
sistent.
Law II. By the collision of two bodies
the direction of their motions is changed in
equal components.
Vis inertia is the power which particles
have of deflecting each other by collision,
due to their persistent motion.
Every particle has perpetual motion as
speed which can not be increased or dimin-
ished, and the absurdity of perpetual mo-
tion should be called the absurdity of per-
petual collision. The particles collide be-
cause of impinging paths; they are de-
flected and their paths are turned apart and
they cannot be made to collide again until
other external collisions bring their paths
together. Ifthe particle A after one collis-
ion is once more deflected, another collis-
ion is necessary. It is thus that the ab-
surdity of perpetual collision can be simply
is deflection of
SCIENCE.
433
demonstrated. After such an analysis the
explanation of gravity as the mutual pro-
tection from impinging particles becomes
simple, the doctrine of virtual velocities
self evident ; and there are many other con-
sequences of this law which, properly un-
derstood, would make many propositions of
physics self-evident.
It must be clearly understood that the
above argument does not deny that the
motion of a body cannot be accelerated in
speed ; such a denial would be an absurdity.
Every particle of which we have knowledge
is a constituent of many bodies in a hie-
rarchy of bodies and what is here affirmed
is that the acceleration of a body in speed
is deflection of its particles, and that em-
bodiment itself is always a result of deflec-
tion in the particles embodied. A molar
body may have its molar motion increased
or diminished in speed by deflecting its
molecular motions. If the speed ofa molar
body be changed, the direction of its molec-
ular particles must necessarily be changed.
This proposition is self-evident. The third
law of motion is equally simple. The law
here demonstrated affirms that acceleration
in one embodiment is deflection in another
and it makes valid Newton’s law, which
would be an absurdity were the law here
demonstrated untrue; and if untrue the
persistence of motion is an absurdity, and
with it the persistence of energy falls to the
ground. J. W. PowELt.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
ASTRONOMY.
THE Astronomische Nachrichten of February
22d contains an article by Dr. H. F. Zwiers, giv-
ing a new method of computing double-star or-
bits, and an application of it to the orbit of
Sirius. The author does not claim great precis-
ion for his orbit of his star, and it is given sim-
ply as an illustration of his method of compu-
tation. We do not think, however, that the
method will commend itself very greatly to as-
tronomers. Glasenapp has pointed out (Orbites
434
des étoiles doubles, p. q.), that the application of
graphical methods to the problem in question
ought to cease with the drawing of the appar-
ent ellipse. After this has once been drawn,
the computation by Kowalski’s elegant formule
does not require more than half an hour.
THE same journal contains an account of some
very interesting experiments which have been
made at the Munich Observatory, by Dr.
Schwartzschild. A new form of micrometer has
been constructed, using the principle first em-
ployed in 1891 by Michelson for the measure-
ment of the satellites of Jupiter. This new
micrometer has been applied with the help
of a ten-inch telescope to the measurement
of a number of close double stars. Briefly
stated, the new instrument consists of a mov-
able plate, pierced with several slits, and
mounted outside the object glass of the tele-
scope. This produces a series of spectra of
both the principal star and the companion in
the field of view of the telescope. By revoly-
ing the slit plate until the spectra of both stars
are all in a straight line in the field of view, it
is possible to measure the position angle. Simi-
larly, by a sliding motion of the slit plate, the
spectrum of the companion can be made to ap-
pear exactly midway between two neighboring
spectra of the principal star. From a reading
of the scale attached to the slit plate it is then
possible to compute the angular distance of the
component from the principal star. The whole
apparatus is very simple and inexpensive, and
could be applied easily to any equatorial pro-
vided with a position micrometer. Thirteen
stars have been measured with this instrument
by two observers. The distance for the closest
double is 0/’.86, while the greatest distance
measured was 4’’.25. Distancesover five seconds
could not be measured accurately, because at
this distance the spectra begin to show too much
color for accurate observation. The probable
errors of these observations compare very fa-
vorably, indeed, with those obtained for other
forms of micrometric apparatus, especially in
the case of very small distances.
known, the very close doubles are the ones
most important to measure.
THE last number of the Astrophysical Journal
SCIENCE,
But as is well.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 64.
contains an account of the progress made with
the new observatory of the University of Chi-
cago. An interesting feature of the new insti-
tution is to be a complete optical and mechan-
ical instrument maker’s outfit. And an optician
as well as an instrument maker are to be per-
manently attached to the observatory staff.
H. J.
MARINE ORGANISMS.
THE Friday evening discourse at the Royal
Institution on February 29th was delivered
by Dr. John Murray, of the Challenger ex-
pedition, who spoke on ‘Marine Organisms
and their Conditions of Environment.’ Ac-
cording to the report in the London Times
Dr. Murray pointed out that in the distribu-
tion of marine organisms temperature was
a more important factor than in the case of
air-breathing and warm-blooded animals on
the land surfaces, although in the ocean the
extreme range of temperature never exceeded
52 deg. Fahr. In the surface waters of the
ocean there were five well-marked temperature
areas—an Arctic and an Antarctic cireumpolar
belt with a small range and a low temperature,
a circumtropical belt with a small range but a
high temperature, and two intermediate areas
with large annual ranges of temperature. The
waters of the ocean might be divided into two
great regions—the superficial region down to
about 100 fathoms, and the deep-sea region. In
the former, and especially in the marginal zone
surrounding the land, there was great variety
of conditions and an abundant fauna and flora,
whereas under the uniform conditions found in
the deep-sea plant life was absent, though there
was animal life in abundance. In the warm
surface waters of the tropics there were many
species, but relatively few individuals, while
the reverse condition was found in polar areas.
Again, in tropical pelagic regions organisms
secreting carbonate of lime were abundant, but
gradually disappeared towards the poles. In
the warm waters the pelagic larvee of bottom-
living species were always found, but in the
cold appeared to be absent. The lecturer was
of opinion that the various facts in the distribu-
tion of marine organisms might be accounted
for by supposing that in early ‘geological times
MARCH 20, 1896. ]
there was a uniform climate over the whole sur-
face of the globe and an almost universal fauna
and flora. The coral reefs that flourished with-
in the Arctic Circle in the Palzeozoic period were
formed when the water in the polar regions had
probably a temperature approaching 70 deg.
Fahr., and when cooling set in those animals
with pelagic larve and those which secreted
carbonate of lime would either succumb or be
forced to retire to warmer waters, those having a
direct development surviving. Cold water de-
scending from the poles into the deep sea would
carry oxygen with it and render the deep re-
gions habitable, thus initiating migrations from
the mud line. The elimination of the same ele-
ments, in the manner indicated, from the two
polar faunas would account for their resem-
blance and even identity, as well as for the
similarity of the polar and deep-sea faunas and
the absence of truly ancient types in the deep
sea.
GENERAL.
It is expected that there will be present an
unusual number of foreign guests at the Liver-
pool meeting of the British Association (Sept.
16-23). A special scientific excursion to the
Isle of Man has been provided. The geology of
this island is varied and interesting, especially
as regards igneous and glacial formations, and
fossil-bearing carboniferous limestones; the
Prehistoric, Scandinavian and other early re-
mains are celebrated, the marine fauna and
flora are abundant, and the presence of the
Liverpool Marine Biological Station at Port
Erin will be a special attraction to all natural-
ists. Prof. W. A. Herdman, of University
College, Liverpool, is chairman of the local
committee.
THE Polarizing Photochronograph devised
by Lieut. G. O. Squier, U. S. A., and Mr.
Albert C. Crehore, has been recognized by the
Franklin Institute of Philadelphia, which has
given them the John Scott endowment medal
for 1895.
THE life of Prof. A. W. von Hoffman, founder
and long president of the German Chemical
Society, will be written by a committee of the
Society, composed of his successor, Prof. E.
Fischer, Dr. Martius and Prof. F. Tremann.
SCIENCE.
435
THE scholarships for some time maintained
at the Naples Zodlogical Station by the Univer-
sities of Oxford and Cambridge are to be con-
tinued.
PrRor. Simon NEwcomp has been elected a
member of the Royal Academy of the Lincei at
Rome, and also made an officer of the French
Legion of Honor.
Pror. H. A. ROowLAND, of Johns Hopkins
University, has been made an officer of the
French Legion of Honor, foreign correspondent
of the French Academy of Sciences, and for-
eign member of the Italian Society of Spectro-
scropists.
ALL teachers of natural science are invited
to join in a movement to raise the requirements
in science for admission to college, by attend-
ing the next meeting of the National Educa-
tional Association at Buffalo, July 3-11, 1896.
At the Denver meeting, 1895, a Department
of Natural Science Teaching was organized, as
a regular part of the National Educational As-
sociation, with the following officers: Prof. C.
E. Bessey (Lincoln, Neb.), President; Prof.
Wilbur 8. Jackman (Cook County Normal
School), Vice-President ; Prof. Chas. S. Palmer
(Boulder, Colo.), Secretary. The Western States
have taken the lead, but it is hoped that all
college and high-school teachers of science will
unite in the movement. A good program, in-
cluding special papers on the various topics in
physics, chemistry and biology, is now being
arranged and. will soon be published.
Pror. M. I. Pupin, of Columbia University,
will lecture in the New York Academy of Sci-
ences on March 23d, on ‘ Rontgen’s Discovery.’
The lecture will be illustrated by experiments
and lantern views.
MACMILLAN & Co. have issued cards of the
standard library size giving the publications of
the Columbia University press. In addition to
the ordinary bibliographical details each card
contains a synopsis of the contents of the
volume. The cards need to have only the
library reference number added and can then
be placed without further copying in the card
catalogue.
A BRONZE memorial tablet in memory of the
late Prof. George Huntingdon Williams, who
456
occupied the chair of inorganic geology at the
Johns Hopkins University, will be placed in
the Williams memorial room of the geological
laboratory, which contains the collections made
by Prof. Williams.
Garden and Forest states that the Puget Sound
University owns what is called a residence park
of some twelve hundred acres southwest of the
city of Tacoma, and it is proposed to devote
some two hundred acres of this, where the soil
is most suitable, to an arboretum of such trees
as will grow in the remarkable climate of that
region. The amount of land available is so
ample that room can be given for a large collec-
tion. Some ten thousand young plants of two
hundred and fifty species, native and foreign,
already form the nucleus of the proposed tree
museum.
THE first two papers of Vol. VIII., of the
Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural
History are by Mr. Frank M. Chapman, and
discuss the changes of plumage in the Dunlin
and Sanderling and in the Snowflake. Herr
Gatke says that the change of color in the Dun-
lin and Sanderling takes place without molt
and is due to changes in the feathers themselves,
but Mr. Chapman shows that in passing from
winter to summer plumage the Dunlin under-
goes a complete molt of the body feathers and
scapulars, but retains the rectrices and remiges;
the change in the Sanderling is also due to
molting. In regard to the Snowflake, Mr.
Chapman states that they molt once a year,
after the breeding season, and that the difference
between the dress of September and that of the
following spring is due to a wearing away of
the edges of the feathers by which both their
shape and color are changed.
M. DEPERRET, professor at Lyons, has de-
scribed before the Paris Academy remains of
dinosaurs found in Madagascar twenty-five
miles south of Majunga. These seem to show
close affinities with the fossils of British India.
As we have already had occasion to state,
the work of a large proportion of the physicists
of the world seems to have contributed but lit-
tle to the results published by Prof. Réntgen,
though an exception should be made in the case
of the paper presented to the Royal Society by
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 64
Prof. J. J. Thomson. It is perhaps not sur-
prising that the daily newspapers should pub-
lish all sorts of reports, even seriously explain-
ing how at the College of Physicians and Sur-
geons, New York, the Rontgen rays are used
to reflect anatomical diagrams directly into the
brains of students, making, we are informed,
much more enduring impressions than the ordi-
nary methods of learning anatomical details.
It seems, however, unfortunate that Nature
should publish from its ‘American correspond-
ent’ unconfirmed newspaper reports and that
the Paris Academy should admit five consecu-
tive papers on ‘dark light,’ apparently with-
out scientific validity.
Ir is stated in Electricity that, in connection
with the Electrical Exposition to be held in
New York during May, arrangements have
been made for an interesting historical and loan
exhibit, to which it is intended to devote con-
siderable space on the main floor. A committee
composed of T. Comerford Martin, Dr. Park
Benjamin and KE. L. Morse has charge of the
exhibit. Dr. Benjamin has one of the finest
libraries in the world of early books on elec-
tricity, and these will be shown in eases ar-
ranged chronologically, with explanatory notes,
portraits, autographs, ete. Mr. Morse, the son
of Prof. S. F. B. Morse, is the possessor of an
invaluable collection of telegraphic relics, curios,
documents, etc., including his father’s note
books and sketches, all of which will be shown.
Mr. Martin, besides owning many objects of in-
terest connected with the early days of elec-
tricity, has secured from Mr. Tesla, Prof. Elihu
Thomson, Mr. Edison, Mr. Edward Weston,
Mr. Stieringer and others the loan of early and
interesting apparatus.
AT the anniversary meeting of the Geological
Society of London, on February 22d, the officers
for the ensuing year were elected as follows:
President, Henry Hicks; Vice-Presidents, Prof.
T. G. Bonney, Prof. A. H. Green, R. Lydekker
and Lieutenant-General C. A. M’Mahon; Secre-
taries, J. E. Marr and J. J. H. Teall; Foreign
Secretary, Sir John Evans; Treasurer, W. T.
Blanford. The Council were also appointed. The
retiring President, Dr. Henry Woodward, de-
livered his anniversary address, which dealt
MARCH 20, 1896. ]
with the life history of the crustacea in later
palzeozoic and in neozoic times. The Wollaston
medal was awarded to Prof. E. Suess, the
Murchison medal and part of the proceeds of
the Murchison fund to T. Mellard Reade, and
the Lyell medal and part of the proceeds of the
Lyell fund to A. Smith Woodward.
THE Academy of Science of the University
of Oregon was organized at Eugene, Ore., on
January 10th. A constitution was adopted and
Prof. Condon was elected President; Dr. T. W.
Harris, Vice-President, and Prof. F. L. Wash-
burn, Secretary and Treasurer. At the first
regular meeting, which was held on January
25th, Prof. Condon reada paper on ‘Two re-
cently discovered fossils,’ and several informal
communications were presented.
Pror. AGAssiz and his party, which includes
Dr. W. McM. Woodworth and Dr. A. G.
Mayer, are now in San Francisco, and will sail
shortly for Australia in the steamship Monowai.
A steamer has been chartered in Australia for
the expedition to the Great Barrier Reef.
Mr. J. B. Harcuer, of Princeton College,
special agent and collector for the Bureau of
Ethnology at Washington, and Mr. O. A. Peter-
son, collector for the American Museum of
National History, New York, have embarked
for Patagonia on the steamship Galileo.
A PARISIAN company has placed pneumatic
tires on twenty of its cabs. It is claimed that
these not only add greatly to the comfort of
those using them, but also effect an actual
economy. The average cost for repairs on a
Paris cab is about 50 cents a day, and it is said
that the pneumatic tires reduce this to one-half.
The weight saved in the tires is about 100 lbs.
and the whole vehicle may be built more lightly.
It is also probable that even apart from the
decrease in weight it is easier for a horse to
draw a carriage with pneumatic tires.
WE take from Natural Science the following
items: An expedition of sixteen men, headed
by Dr. Cook, has started in two small vessels of
100 tons each for the bay of Erebus and Terror.
Six of the men are students of science. The
naturalists, Messrs. Austen and Cambridge, on
the Siemens telegraph expedition to the Ama-
zon, have already begun successful operations,
SCIENCE.
437
the fact that the ‘Faraday’ was stuck for a
whole week on a mud-bank at the west end of
Parana de Buyassu in no wise interfering with
the aims of the collectors. The chief find at
present has been two specimens of Peripatus,
belonging apparently to different species. The
naturalists decided to stay at Santarem, while
the ‘Faraday’ proceeded to Manaos, which
place it reached on February 8th, all well.
Prof. H. de Lacaze Duthiers will, as in for-
mer years, conduct an excursion at Banyuls
during the Easter vacation, that is, from March
28th to April 11th. Those joining the party
can obtain return tickets from Paris to Banyuls
for 46 frances. Among those who will attend
are Professors Von Graff, of Graz; Pruvot, of
Grenoble, and Yung, of Geneva, and probably
some naturalists from Barcelona. The Pro-
fessor desires to extend through us a cordial
invitation to any English naturalists. The
hydrographical exploration of the Skagerack
has just been begun under the auspices of the
Swedish government and the direction of Prof.
O. Pettersson.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
THE bill establishing a National University
of the United States has been reported favor-
ably by the Senate committee. It grants a
charter to the University, provides for its gov-
ernment, grants it the ground in the city of
Washington designated by President Washing-
ton as a site for a national university, and ap-
propriates $15,000 for the fiscal year ending on
June 30, 1897, and $25,000 for the year follow-
ing.
AT the recent meeting of the Board of Trus-
tees of the College of New Jersey at Princeton
it was voted to change the charter name of the
institution to Princeton University. The fund
which is being raised in commemoration of the
Sesquicentennial next October is already over
$900,000, a large proportion of which, it is said,
will be devoted to the development of the grad-
uate department.
AT a special meeting of the Yale corporation
it has been decided to construct a new dormi-
tory on York street to cost $100,000.
Pror. JAMES SETH, now of Brown Univer-
438
sity, has been elected professor of ethics in Cor-
nell University.
THE promotion of Associate Prof. George F.
Atkinson to the professorship of botany at Cor-
nell University will be followed by a reorgan-
ization of the courses of instruction in the de-
partment which will go into effect at the
opening of the coming year. Assistant Prof.
W. W. Rowlee has been promoted to the
highest grade of assistant professor; E. J.
Durand, Se. D., has been appointed instructor
in botany, and K. M. Wiegand, assistant. The
following advanced and graduate courses in
botany are offered for the coming year: By
Prof. Atkinson and Instructor Durand, com-
parative morphology and embryology, mycology
and algology. By Assistant Prof. Rowlee and
Assistant Wiegand, comparative histology, sys-
tematic botany and dendrology.
ApJuNCT Pror. W. H. EcHois has been
elected by the Board of the University of Vir-
ginia to the full chair of mathematics to succeed
Prof. C. 8. Venable, who retires on account of
ill-health. J. Morris Page, of Johns Hop-
kins University, has been elected adjunct pro-
fessor.
THE senate of Cambridge University has re-
jected the proposition to appoint a committee
to consider the question of conferring degrees
upon women by a vote of 186 to 171, i
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
HEREDITY AND INSTINCT.*
In his able posthumous work on Post-Dar-
winian Questions, Heredity and Utility, the la-
mented G. J. Romanes sums up the evidence
for the inheritance of acquired characters in
the final statement that only two valid argu-
ments remain on the affirmative side; and to
each of these arguments he has devoted consid-
erable space. One of these arguments is from
what he calls ‘selective value,’ and the other
from the ‘co-adaptations’ found in the in-
stincts of animals. He says (p. 141): ‘‘ Hence
there remain only the arguments from selective
value and co-adaptation.’’ If we take the in-.
* Discussion (revised), following Prof. C. Lloyd
Morgan before the New York Academy of Sciences,
January 31, 1896.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 64.
stincts as illustrating also the application of the
principle of ‘selective value,’ we may gather
the evidence which Mr. Romanes was disposed
to cling to for the inheritance of acquired char-
acters into a single net, and enquire as to the
need of resorting to the Lamarckian factor in
accounting for the origin of instinct. I wish to
suggest some considerations from the psycho-
logical side, which seems to me entirely compe-
tent to remove the force of these two argu-
ments, and to show to that extent that the in-
stincts can be accounted for without appeal to
the hypothesis of ‘lapsed intelligence,’ as the
use-hypothesis, as applied to this problem of
instinct, is called; in other words, to show that
Darwin and Romanes were not correct in con-
sidering instinct as ‘inherited habit.’
The argument from co-adaptation requires
the presence of some sort of intelligence in an
animal species; the point being that since the
coordination of muscular movements found in
the instincts are so co-adapted they could
not have arisen by gradual variations. Partial
adaptations tending in the direction of an in-
stinct would not have been useful; and intelli-
gence alone would suffice to bring about the co-
6rdinations which are too complex to be ac-
counted for as spontaneous variations. These
intelligent codrdinations then become habits by
repetition in the individual and show them-
selves in later generations as inherited habits
due to ‘lapsed intelligence.’ Assuming, then,
with Romanes—whom we may take as the
most recent upholder of the view—the ex-
istence of some intelligence in a species antece-
dently to the appearance of the instinct in
question, we may be allowed that supposition
and resource.
I. But now let us ask how the intelligence
brings about codrdinations of muscular move-
ment. The psychologist is obliged to reply:
Only by a process of selection (through pleasure,
pain, experience, association, &c) from certain
alternative complex movements which are
already possible for the limb or member used.
These possible combinations are already there,
born with: him, or resulting from his pre-
vious habits. The intelligence can never, by
any possibility, create a new movement, or ef-
fect a new combination of movements, if the
March 20, 1896.]
apparatus of brain, nerve and muscle has not
been made ready for the combination which is
effected. As far as there are modifications in
the grouping, even these are very slight func-
tional variations from the uses already made of
the muscles involved. This point is no longer
subject to dispute; for pathological cases show
that unless some adequate idea of a former
movement made by the same muscles, or by as-
sociation some other idea which stands for it,
can be brought up in mind the intelligence is
helpless. Not only can it not make new move-
ments; it can not even repeat old habitual
movements. So we may say that intelligent
adaptation does not create coodrdinations; it
only makes functional use of codrdinations
which were alternatively present already in the
creature’s equipment.*
Interpreting this in terms of congenital vari-
ations, we may say that the variations which
the intelligence uses are alternative possibilities
of muscular movement. But these are exactly
the variations which instinct uses, except that
in instinct they are not alternative. That this
is so, indeed, lies at the basis of the claim that
instinct is inherited habit. The real difference
in the variation involved in the two cases is in
the connection in the brain whereby in instinct
the muscular codrdination is brought into play
directly by a sense stimulation; while in intelli-
gence it is brought into play indirectly, 7. e.,
through association of brain processes, but by
the same sense stimulation or a similar one.
Now this difference in the central brain connec-
tions is, I submit, not at alla great one rela-
tively speaking, and it might well be due to
spontaneous variations. The point of view
which holds that great co-adaptations of muscu-
latur are to be acquired all at once by the crea-
ture is quite mistaken.
The same class of considerations refutes the
argument from ‘selective value.’ This argu-
ment holds that the instinct could not have
arisen by variations alone, with natural selec-
* When we strain our muscles to accomplish a new
act of skill we are aiming to use the apparatus in
new ways by a selection from possible combinations;
and even when we learn to use disused muscles, as
those of the ear, we are only stirring up old connec-
tions.
SCIENCE.
439
tion, since partial coordination tending in the
direction of the instinct would not have been
useful ; so the creatures with such partial coor-
dinations merely would have been killed off,
and the instinct could never have reached ma-
turity ; only variations which are of sufficient
value or utility to be ‘selective’ would be kept
alive and perfected.
But we see that the intelligence which is ap-
pealed to, to take the place of instinct and to
give rise to it, uses just these partial variations
which tend in the direction of the instinct ;
so the intelligence supplements such partial coor-
dinations, makes them functional, and so keeps
the creature alive. In the phrase of Prof. Lloyd
Morgan, this prevents the ‘ incidence of natural
selection.’ So the supposition that intelligence
is operative turns out to be just the supposition
which makes the use-hypothesis unnecessary. ~
Thus kept alive, the species has all the time
necessary to perfect the variations required by
a complete instinct. And when we bear in
mind that the variation required is, as was
shown above, not on the muscular side to any
great extent, but in the central brain connec-
tions, and is a slight variation for functional
purposes at the best, the hypothesis of use-in-
heritance becomes not only unnecessary, but to
my mind quite superfluous.
II. There is also another great source open
to the Neo-Darwinian in this matter of instinct;
also a psychological resource. Weismann
and others have shown that the influence of
animal intercourse, seen in maternal instruc-
tion, imitation, gregarious cooperation, etc., is
very important. Wallace dwells upon the
actual facts which illustrate the ‘imitative
factor,’ as we may call it, in the personal devel-
opment of young animals. I have recently
argued that Spencer and others are in error in
holding that social progress demands the use-
hypothesis ;* since the socially-acquired actions’
of a species, notably man, are socially handed
down; giving a sort of ‘social heredity’ which
supplements natural heredity. And when we
come to enquire into the actual mechanism of
imitation on the part of a young animal we
find much the same sort of function involved
*ScIENCE, August 23, 1895, summarized in Na-
ture, Vol. LII., 1895. p. 627. :
440
as in intelligent adaptation. The instinct to
imitate requires a general tendency to act out
for himself the actions which the animal sees,
to make the sounds which he hears, etc. Now
this involves connections of the centers of sight,
hearing, etc., with certain muscular coodrdina-
tions. If he have not the codrdinations he can
not imitate; just as we saw above is the case
with intelligence, if the creature have not the
apparatus ready, he can not use it intelligently.
Imitation differs from intelligence in being a
general form of codrdinated adaptation, while
intelligence involves a series of special forms.*
But both have to have the apparatus of codrdi-
nated movement. So we find, as an actual
fact which all agree upon, that by imitation the
little animal picks up directly the example, in-
struction, mode of life, etc., of his private
family circle and of his species. This then
enables him to use effectively, for the purposes
of his life, the codrdinations which become in-
stincts later on in the life of the species; and
again we have here two points which directly
tend to neutralize the arguments of Romanes
from ‘selective value’ and ‘co-adaptation.’
The co-adaptations may be held to be gradually
acquired; since the codrdinations of a partial
kind are utilized by the imitative function be-
fore they become instinctive. And the law of
‘selective value’ does not get application, since
the imitative function, by using these muscular
codrdinations, supplements them, secures adap-
tations, keeps the creature alive, prevents the
‘incidence of natural selection,’ and so gives
the species all the time necessary to get the
variations required for the full instinctive per-
formance of the function.
III. These positions are illustrated in a very
fortunate way by the interesting cases reported
by Prof. Morgan in his discussion this evening.
He cites the beautiful observation that his
young chicks had the instinct to drink by throw-
ing their heads up in the air, etc., but that it
came into action only after they had the taste of
water by accident or by imitating the old fowl.
As Mr. Morgan says, the ‘incidence of natural
* That they are really the same in type and origin
Ihave argued in detail in my work Mental Develop-
ment in the Child and the Race (2d ed., Macmillans,
1895).
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 64.
selection’ is prevented by the imitation or in-
struction or intelligent adaptation (in cases
where experience is required). So, in this in-
stance, the instinct of drinking, which has only
got so far asa connection of certain muscular
codrdinations with the sense of taste, is made ef-
fective for the life interests of the chick. Thus
kept alive the species has plenty of time—in
case it should be necessary—to get a connection
established also between the sight center and
the same codrdination of movements; so that
future chicks may be born with a capacity for
drinking when water is seen only without wait-
ing for instruction, a fortunate accident, or
an example to imitate. So we may imagine
creatures, whose hands were used for holding
only with the thumb and fingers on the same
side of the object held, to have first discovered,
under stress of circumstances and with varia-
tions which permitted the further adaptation,
how to make intelligent use of the thumb for
grasping opposite to the fingers, as we now do.
Then, let us suppose that this proved of such
utility that all the young that did not do it were
killed off; the next generation following would
be intelligent or imitative enough to do it also.
They would use the same coordinations intelli-
gently or imitatively to prevent natural selec-
tion getting its operation; and so instinctive
‘thumb-grasping’ might be waited for indefi-
nitely by the species and then be got altogether
apart from use-inheritance.
We may say, therefore, that there are two
great kinds of influence, each in a sense heredi-
tary ; there is natural heredity by which varia-
tions are congenitally transmitted with original
endowment, and there is ‘social heredity’ by
which functions socially acquired (7. e., imita-
tively, covering all the conscious acquisitions
made through intercourse with other animals)
are also socially transmitted. The one is phylo-
genetic; the other ontogenetic. But these two
lines of hereditary influence are not separate
nor uninfluential on each other. Congenital
variations, on the one hand, are kept alive and
made effective by their conscious use for intel-
ligent and imitative adaptations in the life of
the individual; and, on the other hand, intel-
ligent and imitative adaptation become con-
genital by further progress and refinement of
MARCH 20, 1896.]
variation in the same lines of function as those
which their acquisition by the individual called
into play. But there is no need in either case
to assume the Lamarckian factor.
The intelligence holds a remarkable place in
each of these categories. It is itself, as we have
seen, a congenital variation: but it is also the
great agent of the individual’s personal adapta-
tion both to the physical and to the social en-
vironment.
The emphasis, however, of the first of these
two lines of hereditary influence gives promi-
nence to instinct in animal species, and that of
the other to the intelligent and social codpera-
tion which goes on to be human. The former
represents a tendency to brain variation in the
direction of fixed connections between certain
sense centers and certain groups of codrdinated
muscles. This tendency is embodied in the
white matter and the lower brain centers. The
other represents a tendency to variation in the
direction of alternative possibilities of connec-
tion of the brain centers with the same or simi-
lar codrdinated muscular groups. This tendency
is embodied in the cortex of the hemispheres.
I have cited ‘thumb-grasping’ because we can
see in the child the anticipation, by intelligence
and imitation, of the use of the thumb for the
adaptation which the simian probably gets en-
tirely by instinct, and which I think an isolated
and weak-minded child, say, would also come
to do by instinct.
IV. Finally there are two general bearings
of the position taken above regarding the de-
velopmental function of intelligence and imita-
tion which may be briefly noted :
1. We reach a point of view which gives to
organic evolution a sort of intelligent direction
after all; for of all the variations tending in the
direction of an instinct, but inadequate to its
complete performance, only those will be supple-
mented and kept alive which the intelligence ratifies
and uses for the animal's personal adaptations.
The principle of selective value applies to
the others or to some of them. So natural
selection kills off the others; and the future
development of instinct must at each stage of a
species’ development be in the directions thus rati-
jied by intelligence. So also with imitation.
Only those imitative actions of a creature
SCIENCE.
441
which are useful to him will survive in the
species; for in so far as he imitates actions
which are injurious he will aid natural selec-
tion in killing himself off. So intelligence, and
the imitation which copies it, will set. the di-
rection of the development of the complex in-
stincts even on the Neo-Darwinian theory ; and
in this sense we may say that consciousness is
a ‘factor’ without resorting to the vague postu-
lates of ‘ self-adaptation,’ ‘ growth-force,’ ‘ will-
effort,’ &c., which have become so common of
late.
2. The same consideration may give the
reason in part that instincts are so often coter-
minous with the limits of species. Similar
structures find the similar uses for their intelli-
gence, and they also find the same imitative
actions to be to their advantage. So the inter-
action of these conscious factors with natural
selection brings it about that the structural
definition which represents species, and the
functional definition which represents instinct,
largely keep to the same lines.*
J. MARK BALDWIN.
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, February 5, 1896.
INSTINCT.
EDITOR OF SCIENCE: Some remarks appended
to my letter published in ScrENCcE No 62, on the
subject of Prof. Morgan’s views on instinct by
“The Writer of the Note,’ in view of the im-
portance of the subject are worthy of further
consideration.
Before drawing conclusions from observations
on domestic animals, it is well to consider simi-
lar facts in connection with their wild con-
geners, especially if such conclusions are of a
far-reaching character, and it cannot be too well
borne in mind that our experiments are very
clumsy imitations of nature in a large propor-
tion of cases.
*TIn conversation with Prof. Lloyd Morgan I was
glad to find that he was inclined to interpret the
facts which I have quoted from him (and others) in
somewhat the same way—that is, as pointing to gen-
eral conclusions similar to those reached above.
While I have reached my conclusions quite inde-
pendently and from a psychological point of view,
any confirmation which they get from so expert and
eminent a biologist gives them much greater weight.
442
If food be set down in considerable quantity
before newly hatched chicks, and in a vessel
similar to that in which water is usually held,
they will be relatively slow to recognize and
eat such food. But in a wild state the con-
geners of the domestic fowl, as grouse, pheas-
ants, etc., do not find food or water before them
in such way. Their food is distributed, how-
ever, much more like the particles we scatter
before the chick than does their water supply
resemble that of our methods.
A young grouse would naturally get its water
from the dew on herbage, possibly from rain
water that had gathered in little hollows of the
ground, surface, etc. And when the birds ap-
proach a stream the surface near is moist or
wet, the particles it would naturally peck at
would be found up to and beyond the very
margin of the water, so that the contact of the
beak with water in all these cases would be
inevitable and drinking would come about as
naturally as eating.
When the ‘writer of the note’ says, ‘A chick
swallows water instinctively, but must be taught
to drink by example or accident,’ the latter
term evidently having reference to the observa-
tion specially described in my letter, he plainly
either misses the real point of my observation or
neatly evadesit. One might as well say a puppy
learns to smell by accident, for in the case in ques-
tion the chick did not swallow water merely,
but raised its head like an old fowl and drank
perfectly well on the very first occasion that
its beak had ever been immersed in water
(as a puppy sucks when its lips first come in
contact with a teat, etc.); and this I take it is
what happens in nature. The young grouse in
the forest, or even the chick on a grass plot or
in a garden, would come in contact with water
without any assistance from the mother bird.
The assumption that ‘the chick might die of
thirst in the presence of water, as the sight of
water does not call up the movements of pecking
atitas do food and other small objects,’ is purely
gratuitous. It is not primarily so much the
sight, but rather the touch of water, inevitable,
as I have tried to show, in a wild state that in
the very first instance leads to drinking, though
the bird would also peck at shining dew drops,
as my chick did at the drops on the rim of a
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 64.
vessel containing water. With a fair chance
and plenty of water about in a condition at all
resembling that in nature, there is no such
thing for a vigorous, hardy chick as death from
thirst.
That habits may be hereditary in dogs I have
many times observed in my own kennel during
the last eight years, and, without expressing
any opinion as to the origin of instincts now,
I can see no impossibility in their dating back
to habits.
A doctrine which asserts that eating is in-
stinctive, but that drinking is not, is to my
mind one to marvel at, and is a poor founda-
tion for theories of evolution or heredity.
Comparative psychology will, I fear, con-
tinue to suffer till those who assume to deal
with it authoritatively spend more time among
animals, and less in their studies. A few ob-
servations or experiments do not give them in-
sight into the psychic nature of animals, and it
were well, I venture to think, if the qualifica-
tions of the comparative psychologist, as set
forth by Dr. Groos, in the preface to his admir-
able work, ‘‘Die Spiele der Theire,’’ were thor-
oughly known and believed in by all psycholo-
gists. WESLEY MILLs.
McGinn UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL.
PECULIAR ABRASION OF TREE TRUNKS.
PASSING recently through a tract of rather
open forest land, I could not help but notice a
very peculiar appearance or color showing to a
nearly uniform height on the westward side
only of many trees of different species.
This shade of dull yellow extended from the
surface of the snow to a height of about three
to four feet, and at a little distance had much
the appearance of a fungoid growth which often
may be seen in nearly this color on dead or de-
caying trees.
At first I was completely deceived, thinking
it to be a growth of this nature, and wondering
why it should have attacked so many trees at
the same time, I proceeded to investigate. A
close examination at once revealed the truth of
the matter. It was a plain case of wind-carried
snow and sleet versus tree trunks, and the outer
moss-grown bark had succumbed as its cut and
abraded surface made plain. In places this
MARCH 20, 1896. ]
abrasion amounted to almost a polish, at once
bringing to mind the published descriptions of
the cutting, polishing and sometimes complete
destruction of tree trunks in portions of the
southwest by flying sand.
To clearly show the entire possibility of the
abrasion in this case being due to flying snow
or sleet, I would state that the woodland
wherein the phenomena was noticed is very
open, of scattering growth and constitutes the
northwestern border of a forest of small ex-
tent, having an open exposure to the westward
of upwards of a mile. Thus the prevailing
westerly winds, which rage with tremendous
severity at times through this open tract, are
able during the winter to hurl and sift through
this thin forest growth tons of snow and icy
sleet. This is evidenced by the enormous snow-
banks which yearly form in the forest, at a
little distance from its margins, in short, at the
point where the wind by meeting repeated re-
sistance loses its carrying power. ‘This line of
deposit varies, governed by the surface contour
and variable density of forest growth.
Possibly the phenomenon described has been
noticed and published before, but having access
to considerable literature on forestry, I have
never as yet met with any account, hence this
slight contribution which may be of interest to
some of the readers of SCIENCE.
Percy M. VAN Epps.
GLENVILLE, N. Y.
THE PUMA, OR MOUNTAIN LION.
DurRine last July and August I was encamped
with my family up on the Strait of San Juan de
Fuca, near Port Williams, Clallam county, about
thirty miles west of Port Townsend. One after-
noon, while my children, with their-nurse, were
playing upon the beach in front of our cabin, a
mountain lion (Felis concolor Linn.) came down
through a strip of woods to the low bank over-
looking the beach, and gave utterance toa most
frightful cry or scream. I hastened out, calling
loudly, and the commotion made by myself,
wife, children and nurse, frightened away the
brute. Although I had a Winchester repeating
rifle in the cabin, I was unable to attempt to get
a shot, by reason of a severe illness with which
I had been prostrated for several weeks. I
SCIENCE.
- reaching home.
443
heard this wild cry repeated several times after
wards, but each time farther away in the forest.
About two years before a Mr. Travis, a
rancher, living near our camp, was returning
home after dark, on horseback, and was chased
by alion. The horse fled in terror along the
trail through the forest, never stopping until
Mr. Travis thinks that the at-
tack was incited by a small dog that accom-
panied him, rather than upon himself or his
horse. He returned the next morning to the
locality with several hunting dogs and succeeded
in shooting the animal, which proved to be a
very large specimen, measuring eight feet from
tip to tip. The lions are comparatively plenti-
ful in all wild and thinly settled portions of the
State.
I have written this sketch at the suggestion
of Mr. Frederick W. True, of the Smithsonian
Institution, author of an interesting illustrated
paper on ‘The Puma or American Lion,’ pub-
lished under the auspices of the Institution in
1891. In this paper Mr. True refers to a con-
flict of authorities in regard to the cries or
sereams of the animal, and also in regard to its
belligerency, or rather, possibly, its timidity.
MERIDEN 8S. HILL,
Corresponding Secretary, Tacoma Academy of
Science.
TACOMA, WASHINGTON, February 13, 1896.
LOGIC AND THE RETINAL IMAGE.
WHILE admitting that all the physiological an-
tecedents to the sensation of vision are entirely
outside the bounds of our experience in the use
of eyes, your correspondent, C. L. F. (ScrENcE,
February 7, 1896, p. 201), and many others who
have written to this journal on the subject dur-
ing the last six months, object to my assertion
that I find one of these phenomena inconceivable;
and they treat my statement that I cannot
conceive that the image on my retina is upside
down, as if I had said that I could conceive of
the image if it were anything else than upside
down.
If for purposes of illustration I declare my
conviction that the moon is not made of green
cheese, what are we to think of the ‘logic’
which interprets this as an assertion that it is
made of cheese, although this is not green? I
444
can see no better logical warrant for attribut-
ing to me the opinion that I can conceive of the
retinal image, but not of itsinversion ; for, most
assuredly, I have said nothing of the sort, and
I find all the physiological antecedents to vision
equally inconceivable.
If something in the minds of certain writers
leads them to believe that I adhere to an obso-
lete and worthless hypothesis of vision I am
helpless, for while I have the right to demand
that my words shall pass at their face value I
have no way to defend this right except an ap-
peal to unprejudiced readers.
I cannot conceive of the antipodes, and if
C. L. F. infers that I accept the astronomy of
Homer I must bear up as well as I can.
Both the rotundity of the earth and the in-
version of the retinal image are proved by am-
ple evidence, but apprehension of the proof of
a truth is a very different thing from conception
of the truth itself, and no one who is not totally
destitute of imagination could confuse the one
with the other; although it may be well to re-
mind C. L. F. that I have nowhere said that
‘there is anything which needs explanation in
the fact that the image on the retina is inverted,’
and that it is because the evidence is conclusive
that I made use of the inversion to illustrate
that great law of logic that ‘the test of truth is
evidence and not conceivability.’ (SCIENCE, Oct. 4,
1895.)
If any reader cares to ask what has called
forth all this criticism, which has occupied the
pages of SCIENCE for more than six months, he
may be surprised to find that my statement about
the retinal image was nothing more than an in-
cidental illustration of less than a dozen words in
an article in SCIENCE, October 4, 1895, in which
I tried to show that ‘‘the mental vice to which
we are most prone is our tendency to believe
that lack of evidence for an opinion is a reason
for believing something else.”’
The correspondence which this illustration
has excited seems to show that I should have
done well to state this truth in a more general
form, and to point out that the mental vice to
which we are most prone is our tendency to in-
terpret a negation as an affirmation of some-
thing else.
W. K. Brooks.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 64.
CERTITUDES AND ILLUSIONS.
To THE EpiTorR OF SCIENCE: In my first
article on ‘Certitudes and Illusions,’ I cited
two illustrious examples of persons who had
lapsed into reification, namely, Spencer in his
‘First Principles,’ where he reifies force, and
Hegel in his Logic where he reifies idea or com-
prehension ; but I did not attempt to exhibit
Spencer’s reification of force or Hegel’s reifica-
tion of idea. In that article I tried to set forth
the nature of the subject-matter of a series of
articles which I had planned and promised the
editor.
Fichte has seized upon certain of Kant’s
reifications and those of others and reasoned
about non-existent abstractions or pure proper-
ties of mind, and in his presentation has naively
reduced the whole method of reasoning to an
absurdity ; but he died a disappointed and sad
man because he had not consciously discovered
that he had murdered his own methods. Hegel
seems to have discovered this and to have char-
acterized pure abstraction in no unmeasured
terms, notwithstanding which he finally fell in-
to the same vice and reified idea. In my first
article Hegel’s illusion was not set forth, but
only reference made to the matter for the pur-
pose of calling attention to the subject-matter
of which I wish to treat. I shall not ignore or
underestimate Spencer’s contribution to the
biology of the lower animals nor his contribu-
tion to psychology. In the same manner I
shall not underestimate Hegel’s acute reasoning
in his system of logic, but I shall attempt to
show that Hegel accepts Kant’s doctrine of
antinomies and develops this doctrine into a
logic of contradiction and by its use reifies idea
and ends as an absolute idealist. Now, Mr.
Editor, permit me to say this word in reply to
Prof. Royce, whose letter is in every way kind,
but whose error consists in supposing that I
attributed to Hegel all of the reifications men-
tioned in my article.
If he will take down the Phdnomenologie des
Geistes and read in the first chapter what Hegel
has said about the demonstratives, and then read
what I have said about them, he will discover
to what I had reference in the treatment and
use of these demonstratives, and maybe he will
further discover that I have a purpose in speak-
MARCH 20, 1896.]
ing of the demonstratives, as lintend ultimately
to develop certain doctrines of language most
» clearly brought out by them.
Since writing the above the managing editor
of this journal has kindly forwarded the proof
sheets of Prof. Fullerton’s article, about which
I beg to be indulged in a brief statement.
In my first paper it will be seen that I did not
attempt to demonstrate anything ; for I said:
‘Tn the following chapters an attempt will be
made to show that we know much about matter,
and although we do not know all, all.we know
is about matter in its categories of number, ex-
tension, motion, duration and judgment, or that
we know of matter in its four categories and
that we know of mind in the categories of judg-
ment, but always this mind is associated with
matter. In doing this we shall endeavor to dis-
criminate between the certitudes and illusions
current in human opinion.’’
I merely attempted to explain the nature of
the problems which I designed to discuss and
to show that these problems are fundamental to
metaphysic and to science alike. To indicate
that there are two views of these problems—the
metaphysical view and the scientific view—I
shall attempt to set forth a series of certitudes
and another series of illusions which relate to
these certitudes. If I prosper in my demon-
stration I shall show that the certitudes come
from science and that the illusions come from
metaphysic. Now it must be understood that
metaphysic does not deal wholly with illusions
but that fundamental illusions are developed by
metaphysical reasoning, and I shall further show
that science attempts to deal with certitudes,
but often fails by adopting the method of meta-
physic and still oftener adopts itsillusions. The
illusions which I shall attempt to explain will be
chiefly illusions of metaphysic, but they will also
be illusions of science, because science has not
wholly divested itself of metaphysical reason-
ing. The certitudes which I shall attempt to
demonstrate I shall hold myself ready to main-
tain until my errors are shown ; if such errors
are demonstrated I shall promptly confess and
eschew. I do not know that the man who has
published can fully assume this attitude, for in
a long life of scientific reading I have discovered
SCIENCE.
445
that publication is wax in the ears and thus a
source of profound deafness to the voice of rea-
son. If Prof. Fullerton will kindly attend to
the propositions I shallattempt to demonstrate,
he will be able to put me right where I am
wrong, and I hope that he will be able to rein-
force my certitudes by firmer rings of reasoning.
Professor Fullerton seems to be surprised and
agrieved that an anthropologist should express
opinions concerning metaphysic. The Profes-
sor may be interested to know that anthro-
pology includes metaphysic as one of its themes
of study for the purpose of discovering its cer-
titudes and illusions and it sometimes finds in
its ancient asphodel fields phantom flowers that
turn to ashes when plucked by the hand of
science.
J. W. POWELL.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
Geological Biology ; an introduction to the geologi-
cal history of organisms. By HENRY SHALER
WiiuiAmMs. New York, Henry Holt, 1895.
xx+395, pp. 8°. Illustrated.
Prof. Williams tells us that this book was
originally written in the form of lectures de-
livered at Cornell University, which have been
rewritten and elaborated so as to be available
for use as a text-book as well as an exposition
of principles. It has been prepared with a view
to its use not only by students, but also the gen-
eral reader ‘‘ who is supposed to know some-
thing of the present popular theories regarding
organic life, and has, perhaps, already become
aware of the increasing sense of disappointment
which those are meeting who have attempted
seriously to apply them to the solutions of the
problems of human life.’’ It is not assumed that
the reader has any special knowledge of biology
or geology, and therefore many details are
entered upon which would be superfluous for the
specialist. ‘‘In defining our topic as geological
biology we are not proposing to investigate the
anatomical organs and tissues of which particu-
lar animals are made, but to review the facts
and theories which have led to the belief that
each living animal and plant is but the last of a
long line of organisms whose remains can be rec-
ognized in more or less perfect fossils and whose
varying characters can be traced back into the
446
immense antiquity of geological time’’ (p. 3).
‘““The history of organisms which we particu-
larly trace in the study of fossils is not the his-
tory of imperfect organisms struggling toward
perfection, but it is the history for each age and
epoch of the perfected adjustment of the organ-
isms of the time to the particular conditions of
environment in which they lived. They did not
die before their time, overcome by the mythical
fittest who are said to survive in the struggle.
They were the fittest and died natural deaths,
having provided, before they gave up the strug-
gle for their progeny, to succeed them. The
hard parts record the history of adults which
had endured the struggle, and thus represent
the royal line of succession for the geological
ages’ (p. 81).
The book opens with a discussion of the his-
tory of organisms and its geological aspect.
The second chapter gives an excellent and in-
teresting summary of the history of geology,
which is followed by a discussion of the geolog-
ical time-scale, and of the nature, nomenclature
and fossil contents of stratified rocks, geograph-
ical distribution, the nature and origin of spe-
cies, the acquirement of characters, intrinsic
and extrinsic, their plasticity and permanency.
The rate of morphological differentiation and
progressive modification are considered at length
and illustrated by the history of selected types.
The final chapters treat of the laws of evolution
as illustrated by the geologic history of organ-
isms and the philosophical conclusions drawn
therefrom.
The author concludes that ‘‘the Animal King-
dom is divisible into a number of definite groups
marked by definite organization, all the grander
features of which were outlined in the Cambrian
age, and the large majority of all the differ-
entiations of even ordinal rank had been ac-
complished in the first quarter of the recorded
history of organisms,’’ hence the laws of evolu-
tional history must be read in terms of the
minor groups. As emphasized by fossils these
laws include an orderly succession of increasing
differentiations in organic structure which we
call evolution; certain parts of each organism
exhibit the progress of evolution more rapidly
than other parts, the characters of least struc-
tural importance showing the most constant
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 64.
and steady but slow differentiation, while the
characteristics of higher rank are relatively
more rapid in their initial development and sub-
sequently very constant in each successive gen-
eration. These two tendencies are expressive
of the two fundamental laws of heredity and
variability, and the process of evolution is the
combined result of their interaction. The mode
of evolution consists in the acquirement of new
characters by variation and in the acceleration
or retardation of development of characters
already required. The causes of evolution are
extrinsic or intrinsic, the former being of the
nature of an adjustment to the environment
direct or selective; the latter ‘‘acts previous to
the individual birth and seems to be at the
foundation of variability. The mode and man-
ner of expression of this kind of evolution are
more difficult to define than in the case of ex-
trinsic evolution, but the facts of paleontology
clearly indicate that such a cause exists prior
to the morphological appearance of each indi-
vidual and species’’ (pp. 369-70).
“The great facts attested by geology,’’ ac-
cording to Prof. Williams, ‘‘are that the grander
and more radical divergencies of structure were
earliest attained; that, as time has advanced,
in each line intrinsic evolution has been con-
fined to the acquirement of less and less im-
portant characters; such facts emphasize with
overwhelming force the conclusion that the
march of the evolution has been the expression
of a general law of organic nature in which
events have occurred in regular order, with a
beginning, a normal order of succession, a limit
to each stage, and in which the whole organic
kingdom has been mutually correlated. * * *
So were we to lengthen out the gyration of or-
ganic plastidules or biophores, a million million
years, continuously holding on to their original
powers and potencies for all that time, we are
not relieved in the least from the logical neces-
sity of endowing them at the outset with the
real directive energy which phenomenally ex-
presses itself for the first time when the finally
adjusted organism appears. And the increment
to organic structure expressed by their final
bursting into morphological reality after tray-
elling unobserved but potential through the
organic matter of countless generations is as
MARCH 20, 1896, ]
much a result of creative energy as if a new
species were to arise out of the dust of the
earth’’ (pp. 380-382).
Tt is of course almost impracticable by means
of isolated paragraphs to give any adequate
impression of a whole volume of observation
and discussion with a wealth of varied illustra-
tion. But we shall not go far astray, perhaps,
in summing up Prof. Williams’ attractive book
as in great part a restatement, in terms of evo-
lution, of the argument for design in nature.
W. H. D.
WINGE ON BRAZILIAN CARNIVORA.
In a recently published quarto of 103 pages *
Mr. Herluf Winge gives the results of his
studies of the extensive collections of Carnivora
made near Lagoa Santa, province of Minas
Geraes, southeastern Brazil, by Lund, Reinhardt
and Warming, and now in the Zoological
Museum at Copenhagen. The material thus
brought together owes its peculiar interest to
the fact that it consists partly of the remains of
living animals and partly of bones and teeth
from the earth deposits of the caves with
which the region abounds. It is thus possible
to compare the present fauna with the extinct
fauna of which it is the immediate successor.
As the author remarks (p. 79), the South Ameri-
can fauna is poorer in Carnivora than that of
any other region except Australia. The latter
was, however, probably isolated before the ap-
pearance of the order. While Lagoa Santa is,
for a Sauth American locality, remarkably well
provided with Carnivora,+ the group is repre-
sented by only four families, ten genera and
twenty-five species. These the author arranges
as follows :
* Jordfundne og nulevende Rovdyr (Carnivora) fra
Lagoa Santa, Minas Geraes, Brasilien. Med Udsigt
over Roydyrenes indbyrdes Slegtskab. Af Herluf
Winge. Aftryk af ‘E. Museo Lundii,’ en Samling
af Afhandlinger om de i Brasiliens Knoglehuler af
Professor Dr. P. W. Lund udgravede Dyre og Menne-
skeknogler. Paa Carlsbergfondets Bekostning ud-
givet ved Professor Dr. C. F. Liitken, Kjébenhavn,
1895.
} Bassaricyon, Cercoleptes, Lyncodon and Mustela are
the only genera, except perhaps a few now extinct,
known to occur in South America, that have not yet
been detected there.
SCIENCE.
447
FELIDa: Felis tigrina, F. macroura, F. eira,
F, concolor, F. onca, Machzxrodus neogeus.
UrRsIDz: Canis azar, C. vetulus, C. cancrivo-
rus, C, jubatus, C. troglodytes, Icticyon pacivorus,
I, yenaticus, Ursus brasiliensis, U. bonariensis.
PROCYONIDE: Nasua narica, Procyon ursinus,
P. cancrivorus.
MUSTELIDZ: Galictis barbara, G. intermedia
(= G. allamandi), G. vittata, Thiosmus suffocans
(= Conepatus mapurito), Lutra platensis (= L.
paranensis), L. brasiliensis.
Twenty-three of these are found in the cave
deposits (‘jordfundne’), while eighteen are found
living in the vicinity (‘nulevende’). Two species,
Procyon cancrivorus and Lutra brasiliensis, now
occurring near Lagoa Santa, have not yet been
detected among the cave remains. As the
author remarks, however, this can scarcely be
taken as evidence that the animals have recently
appeared in the region. Among the Carnivora
whose remains are found in the caves are six
extinct species, and one, Canis azarxe, which
though now widely distributed through South
America, has not yet been taken at Lagoa Santa.
The extinct species are Macherodus neogeus,
Canis troglodytes, Icticyon pacivorus, Ursus bra-
siliensis, U. bonariensis and ‘Procyon ursinus.
Machzrodus neogxus is one of the most highly
developed as well as one of the largest members
of its genus. It is also one of those which have
most recently become extinct. The Copenhagen
museum contains numerous remains of this
animal from La Plata. These, however, do
not differ from the Lagoa Santa bones in any
essential way. The two closely related bears,
Ursus brasiliensis and U. bonariensis, are in
some respects more primitive in structure than
other species of Ursus. They form, together
with Ursus simus, a section or subgenus which
is extinct, and as yet is known from South
America and California only.*
Icticyon pacivorus is closely related to the re-
cent I. venaticus. It is more primitive than the
latter, of which it appears to be the direct an-
cestor. Canis troglodytes, also one of the extinct
species, has much the same general form as the
Old World C. alpinus. A detailed study of its
*See Cope, American Naturalist, XIII., p. 791,
1879, and ibid., XXV., p. 997-999, pl. XXI., 1891.
448
characters show, however, that it is in no way
closely related to C. alpinus, but, on the con-
trary, is a special offshoot from some South
American dog of the ordinary type. Procyon
ursinus, While showing certain characters which
prove it to stand nearer the ancestral stock
than do the existing species, is considerably
larger than any of the latter.
Turning now to the living Carnivora, Mr.
Winge gives very extended and elaborate dis-
cussions of the specific characters and of the
individual variation in both size and color of
most of the forms represented in the collection.
While the author’s tendency to reduce the num-
ber of species to the minimum must detract
from the critical value of this part of the work,
the facts recorded will be of the utmost use to
all workers on South American mammals. The
discussions of the species of Felis and Canis are
especially important.
For the most part the bones found in the
caves agree perfectly with those of the living
representatives of the various species. There
are, however, a few exceptions to this rule.
Thus, only a few of the cave remains of Felis
onca are of the same size as those of the ordin-
ary existing Jaguar. Most of them represent
animals which were about the size of F. tigris.
There is scarcely any difference in the teeth,
but in the bones the discrepancy is very notice-
able. Although the cave Jaguars average
much larger than those now living, one of the
latter occasionally fully equals the largest of the
former. The single perfect skull of Icticyon
venaticus from Lapa dos Tatus differs remark-
ably from recent skulls of the same species.
The nasal bones are much more produced both
before and behind, while the whole skull is
larger ; the rostrum is considerably broader in
proportion to the brain case, and the zygomatic
arches are more flaring posteriorly. If the dif-
ferences between this skull and that of the re-
cent specimen as figured on plate V. are in no
way due to age and sex, few mammalogists
would hesitate to separate the animals specifi-
cally. Mr. Winge, however, does not consider
such a course advisable, though he admits that
the Lapa dos Tatus skull may represent a ‘ geo-
logical race’ (‘men maaske er det en geologisk
race’).
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. III. No. 64.
As the result of his studies of the interrela-
tionships of the Carnivora in general, Mr.
Winge gives the following table of super-generic
groups (p. 46, 47).
Carnivora primitiva.
Hyzenodontide.
Proviverrini.
Mesonychini.
Hyzenodontini.
Arctocyonide.
Carnivora vera.
Herpestoidei.
Amphictide.
Palzonictide.
Felide.
Felini.
Macheerodontini.
Viverride.
Viverrini.
Herpestini.
Hyzenide.
Arctoidei.
Urside.
Canini.
Ursini.
Procyonide.
Mustelide.
Mustelini.
Melini.
Lutrini.
Otariide.
Trichechini.
Otariini.
Phocidee.
This arrangement differs in many details
from that recently adopted by Flower and
Lydekker.* The latter authors divide the
order into fifteen families and one hundred and
six genera, while Winge recognizes the same
number of genera and only twelve families. Per-
haps the most noticeable peculiarity of the pres-
ent classification is the treatment of the bears,
dogs and raccoons. The two former, or the fam-
ilies Urside and Canidez of Flower and Lydekker
and of Zittel,;+ are here treated as subfamilies
of the family Ursidx, while the Procyonide are
kept distinct. Canis and Icticyon are thus
brought close to Ursus, while Procyon is placed
in a different group.
* Mammals Living and Extinct, 1891.
t Handb. der Palentologie, Mammalia, 1892-1893.
_MARcH 20, 1896.]
In matters of nomenclature, Mr. Winge, as
usual, disregards the chief laws through the
strict application of which stability of names is
alone to be reached. He either believes that
uniformity in the use of generic and specific
names will best be brought about by allowing
the individual preference of each writer full
play, or else he takes the less optimistic ground
that such uniformity is unattainable and there-
fore not worth striving for. Be this as it may,
a casual examination of the names used in the
present paper shows that the author prefers
Galictis intermedia Lund 1843 to G. allamandi
Bell 1841, Lutra platensis Waterhouse 1839 to
L. paranesis Rengger 1830, Thiosmus Lichten-
stein 1838 to Conepatus Gray 1837, Rhizena IIli-
ger 1811 to Suricata Desmarest 1804, Mydaon
Gloger 1841 to Mydaus Cuvier 1821. He also
uses the untenable names Bassaris, Atilurogale
"and Enhydris, although they have been replaced
by Bassariscus, Ailurictis and Latax, respec-
tively. It is difficult to understand why Trich-
echus Linnzeus 1758 based on the Florida Mana-
tee should be preferred to Odobenus Brisson
1762 as the generic name for the Walrus. Yet
Trichechus and its derivative Trichechini are
both adopted by Mr. Winge.
Like the earlier papers of this series* the
present work is divided into three main parts:
(1) nominal lists of the species; (2) detailed ac-
counts of the species with critical notes on their
relationship; (8) a review of the mutual inter-
relationships of the members of the group at
large. To the present paper is appended a
table showing semi-graphically the changes that
take place in the fifth, fourth, third and second
of the original seven cheek teeth throughout
the genera of Carnivora (p. 100-103).
The paper is illustrated by eight plates from
photographs of specimens. Although the re-
sults obtained by photographic processes are
not yet sufficiently uniform to meet all require-
ments the figures are in general satisfactory,
especially some of those on plates three, five
and eight. GeERRIT S. MILLER, JR.
*Mr. Winge has already published in ‘E. Museo
Lundii’ accounts of the rodents, bats, marsupials and
monkeys of Lagoa Santa. His paper on the monkeys
was noticed in SciEncE, N.S., II., No. 50, Decem-
ber 13, 1895.
SCIENCE.
449
Ethnology. By A. H. KEANE, F. R. G. S. 1
vol. 8vo. Illustrated. Pp. 442. Cambridge
University Press. 1896. Macmillan & Co.,
New York.
The above work is one of the ‘Cambridge
Geographical Series’ published under the gen-
eral editorship of Dr. F. H. H. Guillemard.
The author takes ‘ethnology’ in its ancient
and now generally obsolete sense, nearly syn-
onymous with ‘anthropology,’ as employed in
modern science. Following this definition, he
divides his volume into two parts, ‘ fundamen-
tal ethnical problems’ and ‘primary ethnical
groups.’ Under the former he discusses such
questions as man’s place in the animal kingdom,
tertiary and quaternary man, the growth of
mind and the study of the brain in relation to
thought, the antiquity of the human race, the
paleolithic and neolithic ages, the theories of
polygeny and monogeny, the physical and men-
tal differences of races, their languages and
social regulations.
Under the second heading the author’s theory
of races or groups is presented. It is a modern
recast of that of Blumenbach, retaining even
his inappropriate term ‘Caucasian’ for the
white race. The other are the Ethiopian, Mon-
golian and American races; the Malayan race
being explained away as partly Ethiopic, partly
Caucasic. Of these he undertakes to give the
divisions and subdivisions from such authorities
as he has consulted.
The manner in which this task has been ac-
complished will give satisfaction to the general
reader. Many questions which the student of
the science must consider as still pending, Mr.
Keane disposes of with a magisterial decision.
He rarely presents the opposing evidence in its
proper strength, and refers to those with whom
he disagrees as ‘eccentric,’ or ‘reckless,’ or
‘extravagant,’ or by other disparaging adjec-
tives. He does not hesitate to strain a point to
defend his opinion (e. g., p. 84, Virchow’s judg-
ment of the Neanderthal skull), and, it would
seem, cannot certainly have remembered some
of the authors whom he quotes, or he would
not claim as original with himself (p. xiv.)
such theories as the local evolution of American
cultures, the peopling of America from both
Europe and Asia, the relationship of Basques
450
and Berbers, etc. Whether true or not, these
are certainly not new views to one acquainted
with the current literature of the science.
The relationship of the members of the
various races is shown by ‘family trees,’ an
ancient and necessarily misleading device.
Thus, his tree of the ‘homo Caucasicus’ puts
the Greeks, Celts and Etruscans on one of its
primary branches, along with Circassians and
Drayidas, while the Teutons and Slavs are ona
different branch! 'That on this tree are placed
the Samoans, Hawaians, Battaks and Khmer
is to be explained by the author’s theory of the
Malayan race above referred to, which he
claims and which we may allow is at present,
and is likely to be, his own peculiar property.
The tree of the ‘homo Americanus’ becomes
amass of inconsistencies so soon as he leaves the
protection of Major Powell’s linguistic map.
Even within its area the Kolosch and Selish
are depicted as proceeding from the Eskimo!
The chapter on the American race is replete
with positive assertions, nearly always unsup-
ported, for instance, the imaginary distribution
of two types of skull (p. 362), the alleged im-
passiveness of the native character (p. 358), the
‘undoubted’ approximation of the American
to the Mongol type, etc. It is obvious that the
author has not consulted the best and most re-
cent studies in American aboriginal ethnog-
raphy; yet his chapter might haye been much
more uninstructive than it is.
The proof-reading is generally satisfactory,
though probably a highly respected American
writer will not think so when he sees himself
referred to as ‘Mr, Thomas Cyrus’ (p. 370).
Of ethnology proper, in the sense in which it
is now adopted by the leading German, French
and American writers, the volume scarcely
treats at all, and we may lookin the Index in
vain for the names of Bastian, Post, Steinmetz,
Achelis, or the other distinguished representa-
tives of that comparatively new and grand de-
partment of learning; and while Mr, Keane’s
book can be recommended as an industrious
compilation, useful to public libraries and well
put together, the warning should be distinctly
uttered that its title is an error and that it
bears scarcely at all on the science of ethnology.
D. G. BRINTON.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Von. ILI. No. 64.
Las rocas eruptivas del suroeste de la cuenca de
México. EZEQUIEL ORDONEZ. Boletin del
Instituto Geolégico de México. No. 2.
México, 1895. Pp. 46.
The contents of the first bulletin of this series
were briefly noted in SctENCE, Vol. II., pp. 739-
740. In this issue, Sefior Ordofiez presents a
very clear description of the important volcanic
district of the valley of Mexico, and particularly
of the volcanic group of Santa Catarina and of
the volcanic rocks of the Sierra de las Cruces.
Fourteen opening pages are devoted to giving
an ‘Idea general de la cuenca de Mexico.’
The remainder of the paper, largely petro-
graphic, gives a detailed account of the cones,
lava flows, breccias and ashbeds of the south-
western part of this region of andesites, trachytes
and intermediate petrographic types.
J. B. WooDWoORTH.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
THE ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, FEBRUARY.
THE leading article is by Prof. L. E. Jewell,
upon the coincidence of solar and metallic lines
and upon the appearance of lines in the spectra
of the electric arc and the sun. When com-
pared with corresponding solar lines, the me-
tallic lines of the are spectra have been found
to be almost invariably displaced toward the
violet. There is, moreover, a difference in the
amount of displacement of lines belonging to
the same element; the greatest shift being ob-
served in the strongest lines.
An explanation for this was sought in the
difference between the condition of matter in
the are and in the solar atmosphere. This dif-
ference is probably that of pressure or density
of material and temperature, or both.
The lines least displaced were those not easily
reversed and visible only at a high temperature
or when a large amount of material was used.
As the solar lines agree most nearly with the
lines producedin the center of the arc, where
the temperature and density are high, we have
the means of determining the pressure or the
temperature of the solar atmosphere, where the
Fraunhofer lines are produced, if we can sepa-
rate the effects of temperature and pressure.
Several lines of investigation lead to the con-
Maxcu 20, 1896. ]
clusion that the wave-length is affected little,
if any, by changes of temperature.
The effect of pressure and amount of ma-
terial used, is discussed in the next article by
W. J. Humphreys and J. F. Mohler. Their re-
sults corroborate those of former investigators,
that an increase of the quantity of material in
the are generally produces a slightly unsymmet-
rical broadening towards the red, and that in-
ereased pressure causes a similar effect; but
they find in addition that, upon the application
of pressure, a decided shift of the lines toward
the less refrangible portion of the spectrum
takes place, not due to broadening.
The change in the case of any one element is
approximately proportional to the wave-length
and to the excess of pressure above one atmos-
phere. Whether the same law holds for very
low pressures could not be determined. The
shift for different metals at a pressure of four-
teen atmospheres often amounted to from five
to ten hundredths of an Angstrém unit.
Theoretical considerations indicate that the
shift is inversely proportional to the absolute
temperature of the melting point. There is,
besides, a connection between the shifts and the
atomic weights.
A third paper, by the authors of the first two,
contains a discussion of the effect of pressure
upon the reversing layer of the solar atmos-
phere. Assuming the atmosphere to be quies-
cent and the shifts to be due to change of pres-
sure only, they find the pressure of the revers-
ing layer to vary from two to seven atmospheres,
according to the weight of the element ob-
served. This seems to indicate that the upper
limits of the reversing layers of the different
elements are arranged somewhat in the order
of their atomic weights.
THE AMERICAN GEOLOGIST, MARCH,
Biographical Sketch of Charles Wachsmuth: By
C. R. Kryes. Dr. Wachsmuth was known as
the foremost authority on fossil crinoids in
America, if not in the world. He spent most
of his life in Burlington, Iowa, where he first
acquired an interest in crinoids and where he
died on February 7, 1896, in his sixty-seventh
year. Thesketch is accompanied by a portrait.
The Structure of Certain Paleozoic Barnacles :
SCIENCE.
451
By J. M. CLARKE. The genus of fossil barnacles
called Lepidocoleus, which occurs in the lower
and upper Silurian and lower Devonian, is
shown to bea primitive and unmodified type
of cirripede structure, consisting of but two
vertical ranges of plates, both series termina-
ting in a single plate which is axial and caudal.
The dorsal margin of the body is closed by the
interlocking of the plates, but the ventral mar-
gin is closed only by their apposition and was
dehiscent for the protrusion of the appendages.
The Mineral Deposits of HKastern California :
By H. W. Farrpanks. The ore deposits dis-
cussed are chiefly those of gold and silver, the
occurrence of the former being treated in con-
siderable detail. The gold-bearing quartz veins
are considered as unquestionably of fissure
origin, and the contents of these veins bear no
particular relation to the mineral composition
of the country rock.
Note on the Discovery of a Sessile Conularia—
Article I: By R. RUEDEMANN. The author
has found in the lowest part of the Utica shale
some specimens of Conularia gracilis Hall, to
‘which are attached peculiar cuneiform fossils,
and he has also found similar forms on two
specimens of the shell of Trochonema. Evi-
dence is presented to show that these peculiar
forms are the young of C. gracilis, as is also the
so-called plant, Sphenothallus angustifolius Hall.
These young individuals of Conularia were not
free but attached, and it is probable that the
adult forms were also sessile, although attached
adult specimens have not yet been found.
A New Titanichthys: By E. W. CLAYPOLE.
The new form is much smaller than the other
species of the genus and is named Titanichthys
brevis. It was found by Dr. Clark, who has
discovered so many fossil fish in the Devonian
of Ohio.
Thickness of the Paleozoic Rocks in the Missis-
sippi Basin: By C. R. Keyes. The estimate
made by various geologists of the Paleozoic
rocks of the Mississippi basin are given, and at-
tention is called to the fact that the estimates
of later years are considerably lower than the
others. A recent deep boring at Kansas City,
which is in the region of greatest thickness of the
Paleozoic, has passed through the entire (with
the exception of a part of the upper Coal meas-
452
ures) Paleozoic column, and entered mica schist,
which is regardedas Archean inage. Estimates
from this boring give about 3,000 feet as the
total thickness of the Paleozoic.
Microscopic Characters of the Fisher Meteorite
(Minnesota No. 1): By N. H. WincHELL. This
meteorite fell in Polk County, in northwestern
Minnesota, April 9, 1894. It is a chondritic
stone made up largely of olivine and enstatite,
and contains a comparatively small amount of
iron. Two apparently isotropic substances oc-
cur in the meteorite, one of which may be
maskelynite ; but the conclusions concerning
these substances and the chemical composition
of the stone will be discussed in a later paper.
The number closes with the usual reviews
and notes. Of special interest, however, is the
review of Nordenskjéld’s important paper on
the Swedish halleflintas, largely pre-Cambrian
lavas. In this review are some interesting re-
marks concerning the devitrification of glass,
and reference is made to some phenomena of
devitrification recently observed at Bryn Mawr
College.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, FEB-
RUARY 29, 1896.
Dr. J. WALTER FEWKES read a communica-
tion on the Prehistoric Culture of Tusayan. He
regarded archeology as the only means of ob-
taining accurate knowledge in regard to the
subject, and considered documentary history,
study of surviving legends and modern prac-
tices as tributary and necessary sources of infor-
mation. Archeological evidences of the char-
acter of ancient life in Tusayan were drawn
from excavations at Sikyatki, a ruined pueblo
near Walpi, which was investigated by an ex-
pedition sent out last summer by the Smith-
sonian Institution under the lead of the speaker.
The material unearthed from this ruin was a
large collection of pottery of rare excellence
and many objects illustrative of prehistoric
Tusayan industries.
The evidences that Sikyatki was overthrown
previous to the coming of the Spaniards into
Tusayan in the middle of the sixteenth century
were discussed, and shown to amply prove that
the pueblo was destroyed in prehistoric times.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 64.
The great value of the objects from this ruin
was therefore held to be that they indicate prehis-
toric culture, without European influences. The
ceramics of Sikyatki are far superior to modern
Tusayan pottery, and excel in fineness of ware,
symmetry of form and artistic beauty of decora-
tion those of any aboriginal tribe of America
north of Mexico.
The reason of the fineness of this ware and
the possibility that coal was used in firing it
were discussed. The identity of prehistoric
and modern mortuary customs, as indicated
by the objects taken from Sikyatki graves, was
interpreted to mean a similarity of ancient con-
ceptions of death and a future life. Current
modern beliefs on this subject were discussed
and applied to an interpretation of ancient
customs.
It was held by the speaker that the symbolic
designs on this ancient pottery should be con-
sidered a body of prehistoric picture writing or
paleography, and that the aim of the student
should be to interpret it. He likened this sym-
bolism to ancient records, and claimed that
from them could be obtained a knowledge of
mythological conceptions and ancestral rituals.
The pictures of several animistic and other gods
still recognized in modern Tusayan mythology
were instanced and compared with modern
figures. This ancient pictography likewise
shows the antiquity of peculiar methods of
dressing the hair.
The resemblance of certain geometric designs
to those on the pottery from the great ruins of
the Gila valley and the cliff dwellings of the
Mesa Verde was pointed out and the impor-
tance of such likeness discussed.
Dr. Fewkes spoke of a large number of mor-
tuary prayer-sticks or pahos in Sikyatki graves,
which he compared with modern and found a
great conservatism in their form, size, color and
appendages. He believed these resemblances
meant a similarity in ancient and modern con-
ceptions of the priests whomade them. The ex-
istence of other ceremonial paraphernalia, iden-
tical with those still used in the modern Tusayan
ritual, was likewise pointed out. A knowledge
of modern mythology and ritual he regarded
as necessary for anyone who would do good
work on the archeology of the Southwest.
MARcH 20, 1896. ]
He showed that in prehistoric times the
Tusayan people had Oliva shells from the Pa-
cific Ocean and turquoises from New Mexico.
They were ignorant of any metal, but were
adepts in stone chipping and polishing. Fabrics
were made from the feathers of the bluebird
and eagle, and they had necklaces of cedar
berries, turkey bones, with ornaments of lignite,
selenite and mica.
He brought forward additional evidence to
show the identity of cliff dwellers and ancient
pueblos and considered that some of the cliff
houses were inhabited when Sikyatki was in
its prime. In closing Dr. Fewkes emphasized
the poverty of material in museums from which
we could draw evidences for speculations in
regard to the derivation of prehistoric pueblo
culture, and held that theorizing had far out-
stripped observation. While considering science
piteously weak in data, he thought that no
field offered more promising results to a serious
student than the ruins of the Southwest.
The second paper was on a new solution of the
geodetic problem, by Cuas. H. KuMMELL, of U.
S. Coast and Geodetic Survey: This solution
is based on the geodetic line. It requires
therefore a reduction of the astronomical
azimuth to the geodetic azimuth and, theo-
retically at least, a reduction of the astro-
nomical latitude to the reduced latitude. An
auxiliary spherical triangle is assumed, having
the equation of the geodetic line for its sine re-
lation, which is referred:to that point as origin
where it meets a meridian at right angles. The
distance in are of the first point from that
meridian is denoted 6, that of the second o,—o,
+Ac. The arc 9, is easily computed, and Ac is
found from a series of which only three terms
are required even for the greatest intervisible
distances. We have now in the auxiliary spher-
ical triangle the sides Ac, 90°—), (complement of
reduced latitude of first point), and included
angle a, (geodetic azimuth to second point).
We can find then by rigorous spherical trigo-
nometry the parts a, and 90°—1, and hence also
the astronomical back azimuth a, and latitude
¢,, To attain the customary precision this
would require ten-place logarithms. In order
to reach the same accuracy with seven place
logarithms formule are given for computing the
SCIENCE.
453
convergence of meridians Aa and difference of
latitudes Ag. For Ad, the difference of longi-
tudes, two methods are given, one based on the
geodetic line by computing A/,, the angle oppo-
site the side Ac and correcting this, by a term
of the fourth order in eccentricity and first order
in distance. The other method is by Dalby’s
theorem and is more convenient. A complete
example computing the position of Konigsberg
from Berlin was exhibited, which showed the
formule used as precise as the ten-place com-
putation of the same example in Helmert’s
Hoehere Geodesie. The method is claimed to
be principally advantageous for the greatest in-
tervisible distances for which e and Ac are nearly
of the same order (they are equal at about
500,000"). For secondary points Ac is much
smaller than e and in that case Tables and
Formule such as Woodward’s Smithsonian
Geographical Tables and those of the Coast
Survey which go an order higher are preferable.
BERNARD R. GREEN,
Secretary.
ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
THE 115th regular meeting was held March
5, 1896.
Mr. Marlatt, under the title ‘A Study of the
Anatomy of Hymenoptera,’ gave a comprehen-
sive view of certain structural features of Tenth-
redinide, dwelling at length upon the homol-
ogies of the sclerites of the thorax.
Mr. Schwarz, under the head ‘Notes From
Southwestern Texas, No. 2,’ spoke of a species
of Termite which is found in great numbers
throughout southwestern Texas, which bur-
rows deeply under the ground and which is of
great economic importance from the fact that
during a large part of the summer it destroys all
low-growing vegetation in large patches, rising
from the ground and enclosing all portions of
the plants with a tubular structure composed
of grains of subsoil. The insect is probably
the worst insect pest of southwestern Texas,
on account of the damage which it does to
pasturage.
Mr. Ashmead exhibited a specimen of a new
species of Roctronia of Provancher. The species
in question comes from California, and by its aid
Mr. Ashmead has decided that this genus be-
454
longs to the subfamily Helorine of the Procto-
trypide. L. O. HowArp,
Recording Secretary.
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES—BIOLOGICAL
SECTION, FEBRUARY 7, 1896.
Dr. J. G. Curtis in the Chair.
A communication from the Council was re-
ceived asking that the Section take action
on Representative Hurley’s bill ‘‘To fix the
standard of weights and measures by the adop-
tion of the metric system of weights and
measures.”’
On motion of Dr. Dean the Section approved
the bill, and the Secretary was directed to ex-
press the entire commendation of it to the
Council.
Dr. Arnold Graf read a paper on ‘ The Struc-
ture of the Nephridiap in Clepsine.’ He finds
in the cells of the intra-cellular duct fine cyto-
plasmic anastamosing threads which form a con-
tractile mechanism. These are stimulated by
granules which are most numerous near the
lumen of the cell, and thus a peristalsis is set up,
which moves the urine out of the duct. In the
upper part of the intra-cellular duct the two or
three cells next to the vesicle or funnel have no
distinct lumen, but are vacuolated ; the vacuoles
of the first cell being small, those of the second
larger, and so on, till the vacuoles become per-
manent asalumen. He explains the action of
the first cell as being similar to the ingestion of
particles by the infusorians. The matter taken
up thus from the funnel by the first cell is car-
ried by the rest, and so on till the cells having a
lumen are reached. The presence of the excre-
tum causes the granules to stimulate the mus-
cular fibres of the cells; peristalsis results and the
substance is carried outwards. The character
of this contractile reticulum offers an explana-
tion of the structure of a cilium as being the con-
tinuation of a contractile reticular thread.
N. R. Harrington, in ‘Observations on the
lime gland of the Earthworm,’ described the
minute structure of these glands in L. terres-
tris, and showed that the lime is taken up from
the blood by wandering connective tissue cells
which form club-shaped projections on the
lamellee of the gland, and which pass off when
filled with lime. The new cell comes up from
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 64.
the base of the older cell and repeats the pro-
cess. This explanation is in harmony with the
fact that in all other invertebrates lime is laid
down by connective tissue cells. Histological
structure and the developmental history con-
firm it.
Dr. Bashford Dean offered some observations
on ‘ Instinct in some of the lower Vertebrates.’
The young of Amia calva, the dogfish of the
Western States, attach themselves, when newly
hatched, to the water plants at the bottom of
the nest which the male Amia has built. They
remain thus attached until the yolk sac is ab-
sorbed. As soon as they are fitted to get food
they flock together in a dense cluster following
the male. When hatched in an aquarium they
go through the same processes. The young
fry take food particles only when the parti-
cles are in motion, never when they are still.
The larvee of Necturus also take food particles
that are in motion. C. L. BRisToL,
Secretary.
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.
AT the meeting of the Section of Astronomy
and Physics held on March 2, 1896, the election
of officers for the ensuing year was held, and R.
S. Woodward was elected Chairman and W.
Hallock Secretary. ;
The first paper of the evening was upon the
device designed by Prof. W. L. Robb for show-
ing the way in which a cord can vibrate, con-
sisting essentially of an electro-magnet running
avibrating arm to the end of which the string
is attached.
The second paper was upon a new form of
polariscope, designed by Prof. A. M. Mayer,
consisting of a special arrangement of crossed
lenses, resulting in unusually good illumination
and large field.
The next paper was upon a heliostat de-
signed by Prof. Mayer. In this connection Prof.
Mayer called attention to the shortcomings of
the various forms of heliostats, and especially
those using only one mirror, pointing out,
among other things, the useless width of mirrors.
on such heliostats, and illustrating what ought
to be the dimensions of such a mirror. He also
called attention to the great advantage of using
sunlight for all optical experiments over any
MARcH 20, 1896. ]
form of electric light; for example, with a
heliostat and condensing system he was able to
project the interference bands of the Fresnel
bi-prism upon a screen so that they were visible
across a large room. Prof. Mayer’s heliostat
consists in a clockwork driving a shaft parallel
to the earth’s axis; upon the southern end of
the shaft is the mirror that can either be twisted
on the shaft or set at any angle to the shaft.
The second mirror is mounted upon the base
with its central point in the prolongation of the
shaft. To orient the heliostat it is only neces-
sary to bring the side pieces in the north and
south line and then set the mirror on the clock
axis. This last isdone by covering the elliptical
mirror with a paper having a 3-inch hole in
the center, and adjusting the tilting mirror
until the small beam of light reflected from the
mirror through the hole falls upon the center
of the mirror attached to the base of the instru-
ment; then starting the clock, the instrument
will keep the beam in a constant direction.
Prof. Hallock in discussing the paper called at-
tention to the accuracy with which the heliostat
operated, and related his experience with a
very large one-mirror heliostat in the Smith-
sonian Institution at Washington, which, how-
ever, was thoroughly unsatisfactory. Prof.
Woodward and Prof. Jacobi also entered into
the discussion of the relative merits of the
various heliostats, especially the typical one-
mirror and two-mirror heliostats.
Prof. M. I. Pupin then brought before the
academy some recent observations he had made
while experimenting with X-rays. In the first
place, he pointed out that certain Crooke’s tubes
after a certain amount of use had their vacuum
improved, so that the induction spark passed
outside the tube rather than through the tube.
Prof. Pupin was at a loss to altogether explain
the cause, but believed that it might be due to
the condensation of some of the gas remaining
in the tube, and explained several experiments
which he had already made confirming the ob-
servation that the vacuum was improved with
use, and that in proportion as the vacuum im-
proved the tubes were better for X-ray pho-
tography. Another phenomenon observed by
him was that in developing the photographic
plates the development began at the glass side
SCIENCE.
455
of the film, leading to the inference that the
X-rays penetrated the film and rendered the
glass fluorescent, this fluorescent light then
acting upon the film. Following the sugges-
tion of this observation he painted the inside
of a box with the platinum-barium-cyanide and
laid a photographie plate against it, making a
photograph then through the side of the box.
The X-rays develop the fluorescence in the
cyanide which fluorescent light affects the plate.
In this way he obtained very good results with
much shorter exposures than by the original
method. W. HALLOCK,
Secretary of Section.
BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY.
A GENERAL meeting was held February 19th,
thirty persons present. Mr. A. W. Grabau
showed a specimen of the broad variety of Para-
doxides harlani Green from a third locality in
South Braintree.
Prof. A. Hyatt called attention to several
shadowgraphs taken in Germany by Mr. R. W.
Wood. One of them shows plainly the bones,
the position and outline of the lungs, heart and
cesophagus of a mouse, and indicates the possi-
bilities of the ray as an aid to natural history
studies.
Mr. Outram Bangs read a paper on the terra-
pin (Malaclemys terrapin Schceff) as an inhabi-
tant of Massachusetts. This species has been
known for fifteen years as occurring in the
creeks and salt marshes of Buzzard’s Bay. It
was formerly very abundant, but has lately be-
come quite scarce. A comparison of the Buz-
zard’s Bay material with a series from the At-
lantic coast from Washington to Florida and
from Mobile shows variations in color, marking,
roughness of the shell, and in the size and shape
of the skull. These variations, however, are
not considered sufficient to form a separate
race. The evidence that the terrapin is not
native to Buzzard’s Bay, but was introduced,
was considered insufficient.
Dr. Joseph Lincoln Goodale spoke on the
vocal sounds of animals and the mechanism of
their production. He described the simplest
type of larynx; also the four principal types,
mentioning the best examples of each type.
The three characteristics of sound were noted,
456
and the production and development of voice
in man and in mammals described. The vocal
cords and the glottis in birds were described,
and the control, regulation and volume of voice
mentioned.
Mr. C. J. Maynard, in commenting on Dr.
Goodale’s remarks, described the tympaniform
membrane of birds, and mentioned that in the
wild goose the whole bronchial tube formed one
SAMUEL HENSHAW,
Secretary.
vibrating membrane.
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILA—
DELPHIA, MARCH 3, 1896.
Messrs. Morris E. LEEps and J. S. Stokes
on behalf of Messrs. Queen & Co. made com-
munications on the historical development of
studies in connection with Réntgen photog-
raphy, presenting the most advanced views re-
garding the nature of the X-rays as published by
various investigators. They also exhibited a
series of fine pictures illustrating the applica-
tion of the process to the study of biology and
the results obtained by the use of quick and
slow plates and various developers.
Dr. Egbert having alluded to the results ob-
tained by him from the direct rays of the sun
through platinum plates, Mr. Leeds called at-
tention to the desirability of experimenting
with the sun’s rays reflected from a mirror. If
a positive result be obtained it would demon-
strate either that it is incorrect to say that the
rays cannot be reflected, or those producing
Dr. Egbert’s effects are not Réntgen rays.
Mr. Joseph Willcox presented a collection of
308 recent and fossil Fulgurs from various local-
ities and geological horizons, illustrating with
extraordinary completeness the evolution of the
form.
A preliminary announcement was made of
the presentation, by Dr. A. Donaldson Smith, of
fine collections of mammals, birds, reptiles and
insects made by him during his recent explora-
tion of western Somali Land, Africa.
Epw. J. Nouan,
Recording Secretary.
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY SCIENCE CLUB.
At the meeting of February 7th Dr. Marcy in
chair and thirty-three persons present, Dr. W.
SCLENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 64.
A. Phillips presented a study of flaking refuse,
based upon an extensive series of flakes and
flaked cobblestones from sites of working, near
Benton, Lake county, Illinois. The series offers
several hundred outer flakes of which over
two hundred are used flakes, assignable to
six distinct uses from the character of the wear
at edge or surface. Outer flakes are greatly in
excess of other flakes in the refuse.
A large number of flaked cobblestones and
of unused flakes, smaller, but still from the
outside of the stone were treated as waste,
nuclei and failures respectively. Specializa-
tions of the flake for hafting principally are
represented, while further shaping of the cob-
blestone is wanting in a finished product. It
is, however, represented in a limited series of
rejects, indicating sporadic use of the nuclei.
The rocks here used were diabase, found in the
beach gravels of Lake Michigan, near sites. The
nature and form of flake was due to the shape of
the cobblestone. The operation used in produc-
ign the flake and illustrated by experimental re-
sults was referred directly to the hammerstone ;
the stone in the hand yielding the flake, the stone
struck resting on the ground and serving only for
the necessary percussion. A large number of
lantern slides were used in illustration. Micro-
scopic sections of rock from which the flakes
came, prepared by Mr. Stebbins under Prof.
Crook’s direction, were exhibited.
A. R. CRooK,
EVANSTON, ILL. Secretary.
THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS.
ArT the meeting of March 2, 22 persons pres-
ent, Mr. F. W. Duenckel presented a compari-
son of the records of the United States Meteor-
ological Observatory, located on the Govern-
ment building in the city, with the record for
the Forest Park station, showing that the daily
minimum averaged decidedly lower at the
Forest Park station than in the city, while the
wind averaged decidedly higher for the city
station.
Prof. E. A. Engler spoke on the summation
of certain series of numbers.
WILLIAM TRELEASE,
Recording Secretary.
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Fripay, Marcu 27, 1896.
CONTENTS :
Proposed Legislation in Regard to the Metric System..457
On the Reflection of the Rontgen Rays from Platinum :
OGDEN N. ROOD...............cccsccoeccnseneessescenssees 463
Further Experiments with X-Rays: EDWIN B.
EER OS Deeeeasieseaeastiasieaececesdasencseececeetentectecss: 465
The Reception of Foreign Students in French Univer-
sities and Schools: G. BROWN GOODE.............. 467
The Essence of Number: GEORGE BRUCE HALSTED..470
Robert Edward Earll: G. BROWN GOODE............ 471
Current Notes on Physiography :-—
The Study of Home Geography in Italy ; The Dan-
ube; The Location of Settlements; Mittendorff’s
IRAE Vifo IS ADAN ES conogcndcononsconoscocoba0ce9b60d 472
Scientific Notes and News :—
Zoological Nomenclature ; The Toronto Meeting of
the British Association ; Entomology ; Astronomy :
Valo do. Clana hecnccooosacnecennqas00ced 9 ween AT
University and Educational News............10e00seeeeeees 477
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Experiments showing that the Rontgen Rays cannot
be Polarized by Doubly Refracting Media: ALFRED
M. MAYER. Color Vision and Light: W. LE
CONTE STEVENS. The Philadelphia Brick Clays,
et al.: ROLLIN D. SALISBURY. Primitive Habi-
tations in Ohio: WARREN K. MOOREHEAD.
Questions Regarding Habits and Instincts: G.
STANLEY Hatt, R. R. GuRuiry. Newly
Hatched Chickens Instinctively Drink: HENRY
Wc JBIAIERIOIET conosangb0ap006s0oabNbbeusdoagoobonasedbodnebed 478
Scientific Literature :—
Achelis’ Moderne V olkerkunde; Chamberlain on The
Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought: D. G.
BRINTON. Turpin’s Inorganic Chemistry; Wil-
liams’? Chemical Experiments: E. H. K8ISER.
Nernst and Schénflies’ Einfiihrung in die mathe-
matische Behandlung der Naturwissenschdften :
FERDINAND G. WIECHMANN..........000ccceeeseees 482
Societies and Academies :—
Biological Society of Washington: F. A. LUCAS.
The Woman’s Anthropological Society: A. CAR-
MAN. The Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila-
delphia: EDw. J. NouAN. New York Section of
the Chemical Society: DURAND WoopMAN.
Geological Conference of Harvard University: T.
AV AGG AR dl Resescecseccndsessccerectescess gsc00ad00000 486
ANGD JBOOES) codcocnoccodoeqqep=cacncodsooaan0sEqqDUAseaCoqRsUOCE 492
PROPOSED LEGISLATION IN REGARD TO
THE METRIC SYSTEM.
WE have received from Professor J. K.
Rees, Secretary of the American Metrolog-
ical Society: (1) The Report submitted to
the House of Representatives on March
16th, by Mr. Chas W. Stone, from the Com-
mittee on Coinage, Weights and Measures.
(2) A copy of the bill reported unani-
mously by the Committee on Coinage,
Weights and Measures of the House. (3)
A letter addressed by the American Metro-
logical Society to persons interested in the
Metric System. (4) A petition form to be
signed by any and all persons favoring the
bill. The Secretary will be glad to supply
copies of the petition to those who will ob-
tain signatures. In order to keep a record
of all signers, the Society requests that a
duplicate list be sent to the office of the
Society at Columbia University, New York.
INTRODUCTION AND CONCLUSION OF THE RE-
PORT SUBMITTED BY MR. STONE.
Almost the only power clearly and ex-
pressly vested in Congress by the Constitu-
tion which has remained practically un-
exercised to the present day is that of fix-
ing the standard of weights and measures.
This power is conferred in the fifth clause
of Section VIII. of Article 1, which enumer-
ates among the powers of Congress “‘ to coin
money, regulate the value thereof and of
foreign coins, and fix the standard of
458
weights and measures.’”? The same power
had also been expressly vested in Congress
by the earlier Articles of Confederation, and
that part relating to the coinage of money
was one of the first exercised, and one in
relation to which the power of Congress con-
tinues to be most fiercely and passionately
invoked to the present day.
In the passage of years the power, carry-
ing with it inferentially the duty, to fix the
standard of weights and measures seems to
have been largely lost sight of. For more
than a generation we lived with no legal
standard by which could be determined even
the amount of metal which went into the
coin that came from our mints. Gallatin
procured from France a platinum kilogram
and meter in 1821 and from England a troy
pound in 1827, and in 1828 the latter was
recognized as the standard for mint pur-
poses by the following act:
For the purpose of securing due conformity in
weight of the coins of the United States to the provis-
ions of this title, the brass troy pound weight pro-
cured by the Minister of the United States at London
in the year eighteen hundred and twenty-seven for the
use of the mint and now in custody of the mint at
Philadelphia, shall be the standard ‘troy pound of the
mint of the United States, conformably to which the
coinage thereof shall be regulated.
Meantime both the people and the Govy-
ernment were using such weights and
measures as were nearest at hand, derived
in the main from the English ancestry, but
made by themselves without any authori-
tative standard for comparison, and as a
consequence differing materially from each
other. In 1830 the Senate directed the
Secretary of the Treasury to have a com-
parison made of the standards of weight
and measure used at the principal custom
houses of the United States and report the
same to the Senate. This was done, and
large discrepancies and errors were found
to exist. These discrepancies were nulli-
fying and violating the provision of the
Constitution which prescribes that “all
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. ILI. No. 65.
duties, imposts and excises shall be uniform
throughout the United States.” Varying
scales and varying measures inevitably pro-
duced varying rates of duty. The Treasury
Department, therefore, in the exercise of its
executive power and as a necessary incident
and means to the execution of the law and
the observance of the Constitution, adopted
for the use of that Department the Trough-
ton scale, then in the possession and use of
the Coast Survey, as the unit of length, and
the troy pound of the mint as the unit of
weight. From the latter the avoirdupois
pound was to be derived, assuming that
there were 7,000 grains in the pound avoir-
dupois to 5,760 in the pound troy. For
measures of capacity the wine gallon of 231
cubic inches and the Winchester bushel of
2,150.42 cubic inches were adopted. This
gave to the Treasury Department the basis
of a system of weights and measures to be
used in its operations, and in order to pro-
mote the general adoption and use of the
same throughout the country, Congress, in
in June, 1836, adopted the following joint
resolution :
That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he here-
by is, directed to cause a complete set of all the
weights and measures adopted as standards, and now
either made or in the progress of manufacture for the
use of the several custom houses, and for other pur-
poses, to be delivered to the Governor of each State in
the Union, or such persons as he may appoint, for
the use of the States, respectively, to the end that a
uniform standard of weights and measures may be
established throughout the Union.
In accordance with this resolution sets of
the weights and measures adopted for use in
the custom houses were sent to the several
States, and only in this indirect and inferen-
tial way have the customary weights and
measures of the United States been legally
recognized. By the Act of March 3, 1881,
similar sets of standards were directed to
be supplied to the various agricultural col-
leges which had received land grants from
the United States at a cost not exceeding
MARCH 27, 1896. ]
$200 for each set. This law was complied
with as best it could be under the limitation
of cost prescribed.
Meantime the metric system had come
into extensive use among other nations,
and into almost universal use in the realm
of exact science the world over. We touched
it at every turn in our commercial relations
and scientific investigations. Uniformity
in weights and measures throughout the
the world was urged not only by scientists,
but by sagacious business men, seeking to
keep pace with the rapidly-growing tenden-
cies to closer commercial and business rela-
tions among the nations resulting from the
improved facilities of communication and
transportation which had largely removed
the barriers of space and distance. Hence
in 1866 Congress, with the approval of the
President, placed on the statute books the
following law:
AN ACT to authorize the use of the metric system
of weights and measures.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress as-
sembled, That from and after the passage of this Act it
shall be lawful throughout the United States of
America to employ the weights and measures of the
metric system, and no contract or dealing, or plead-
ing in any court, shall be deemed invalid or liable to
objection because the weights or measures expressed
or referred to therein are weights or measures of the
metric system.
Src. 2. And be it further enacted, That the tables in
the schedule hereto annexed shall be recognized in the
construction of contracts, and in all leading proceed-
ings, as establishing, in terms of the weights and
measures now in use in the United States, the equiv-
alents of the weights and measures expressed therein
in terms of the metric system; and said tables may
be lawfully used for computing, determining and ex-
pressing, in customary weights and measures, the
weights and measures of the metric system.
To make this law of practical use the fol-
lowing joint resolution was adopted :
JOINT RESOLUTION to enable the Secretary of
the Treasury to furnish each State with one set of
the standard weights and measures of the metric sys-
tem.
SCIENCE.
459
Be it resolved by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assem-
bled, That the Secretary of the Treasury be, and he is
hereby authorized and directed to furnish to each
State, to be delivered to the Governor thereof, one
set of standard weights and measures of the metric
system for the use of the States respectively.
By inadvertence and without important
legal significance the resolutions providing
for furnishing the standards became a law
before the act authorizing the use of the
system. Inthe same year Congress put it
in the power of the Post-Office Department
to make extensive use of metric weights in
its operations. The law of that year was
restated and reénacted in 1872 and now
stands in the Revised Statutes in the fol- |
lowing terms :
The Postmaster-General shall furnish to the post-
offices exchanging mails with foreign countries, and
to such other offices as he may deem expedient, postal
balances denominated in grams of the metric system,
fifteen grams of which shall be the equivalent for
postal purposes, of one-half ounce avoirdupois, and so
on in progression.
The International Postal Convention of
two years later, and which by subsequent
renewals is now in force between the United
States and fifty other nations, uses only
metric weights and terms, and to-day the
mail matter transported between this coun-
try and other nations, even between the
United States and England, is weighed
and paid for entirely in terms of metric
weights.
Here legislation on the subject of weights
and measures rests till 1893. In the mean-
time important action was taken by the
Executive Department of the Government.
The progress of science, carrying with it the
capability of more accurate observation and
measurement, had disclosed the fact that
the metric standards in use in different
countries differed among themselves, and
indicated that even the standards in the
archives of France could be constructed
with greater precision and accuracy and
460
preserved with greater safeguards against
possible variation from influence of the ele-
ments or other forces. Hence France in-
vited the other nations to join in an inter-
national commission for the purpose of con-
structing a new meter as an international
standard of length. This country accepted
the invitation and was represented in the
commission, which met in 1870 and con-
tinued its labors from time to time till they
were finally consummated in the conclusion
of a metric convention signed on May 20,
1875, by the representatives of the follow-
ing nations, viz.: The United States, Ger-
many, Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Brazil,
Argentine Confederation, Denmark, Spain,
France, Italy, Peru, Portugal, Russia,
Sweden and Norway, Switzerland, Turkey,
and Venezuela.
The first name signed to this convention
is that of E. B. Washburn, the United
States Minister and Representative. The
treaty provided for the establishment and
maintenance, atthe common expense of the
contracting nations, of ‘‘a scientific and per-
manent international bureau of weights and
measures, the location of which shall be
Paris,’”’ to be conducted by “a general con-
ference for weights and measures, to be
composed of the delegates of all the con-
tracting governments.”? Beyond the con-
struction and custody of the international
standards and the distribution to the sev-
eral countries of copies thereof, it was
expressly provided as to this conference
by the terms of the treaty or convention
that ‘‘it shall be its duty to discuss and
initiate measures necessary for the dissem-
ination and improvement of the metrical
system.”’ This convention was duly rati-
fied by the Senate, and since that time the
United States has been regularly repre-
sented in the International Conference and
has paid its proper proportion of the cost
of maintaining the International Bureau of
Weights and Measures. By the terms of
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. Il. No. 65.
the convention the privilege of acceding
thereto and thus becoming a party to it was
reserved to any nations desiring to avail
themselves thereof, and accordingly the
following nations have since become parties
to the convention, viz., Servia in 1879, Rou-
mania in 1882, Great Britain in 1884,
Japan in 1885 and Mexico in 1891.
New standards were prepared with ex-
treme care and accuracy, and duplicate cop-
ies thereof distributed to the several nations.
Those for the United States were received
with much ceremony at the White House,
January 2, 1890, by the President in the
presence of members of his Cabinet and
other distinguished gentlemen, and are
now carefully guarded in a fire-proof room
set apart for the safe-keeping of the stand-
ards of weights and measures in the Coast
Survey building.
By formal order of the Secretary of the
Treasury of April 5, 1893, the meter and
kilogram thus received and kept were
recognized as ‘ fundamental standards’ from
which the customary units of the yard and
pound should be thereafter derived in ac-
cordance with the law of July 28, 1866.
Meantime Congress by act of March 3,
1893, established a standard scale for meas-
urement of sheet and plate iron and steel,
expressed in terms of both the customary
and metric measures. ‘An act to define
and establish the units of electrical meas-
ure’ was passed by the Fifty-third Con-
gress and approved July 12, 1894. It is
based on the metrical system exclusively.
From this résumé of our legislation on
the subject of weights and measures it
appears that a legal standard of weight
has been established for use in the mint,
but that beyond that our weights and
measures in ordinary use rest on custom
only with indirect legislative recognition ;
that the metric weights and measures are
made legal by direct legislative permission,
and that standards of both systems have
MARCH 27, 1896. ]
been equally furnished by the Government
to the several States ; that the customary
system has been adopted by the Treasury
Department for use in the custom houses,
but that the same Departmnet by formal
order has adopted the metric standards as
the ‘fundamental standards’ from which
the measures of the customary system shall
be derived. This presents a condition of
legal complication and practical confusion
that ought not to continue. The constitu-
tional power vested in Congress should be
exercised. Before considering how this
should be done, it may be instructive to
consider the attempts that have heretofore
been unsuccessfully made in that direction.
Your committee are not blind to the fact
that considerable temporary inconvenience
will accompany the change, but they believe
that this is greatly overestimated and that
it will be of short duration. This belief is
founded on the experience of other nations
less agile and versatile of intellect than we
are, but whether the inconvenience be little
or great it must some time be encountered,
and it will not be decreased by the increase
of our population. It will be no easier for
a hundred millions of people ten years hence
+o make the change than for seventy mil-
lions to-day. It is simply a question
whether this generation shall accept the an-
noyance and inconvenience of the change
largely for the benefit of the next, or shall
we selfishly consult only our own ease and
impose on our children the double burden
of learning and then discarding the present
‘brain-wasting system.’ The present gen-
eration must meet this test of selfishness
or unselfishness, and answer to posterity for
duty performed or neglected. The neglect of
our fathers cannot justify us. They de-
layed for a greater light and clearer way.
Passing years have brought the light, and the
action of other nations has cleared the way.
A nation ordinarily progressive can not
SCIENCE.
461
longer afford to linger in the rear of this
great movement. A position of isolation is
not consistent with American capacity or
American destiny. Her sister American
republics have appealed to this country to
unite with them in this great reform. Her
great Secretary of State joined in this ap-
peal. Successive Secretaries of the Treas-
ury, including the present head of that De-
partment, have formally recommended it.
Other eminent citizens, many representa-
tives of a great commercial interest, the
prevailing sentiment among her educators,
the practically unanimous voice of her sci-
entific men, ask for this legislation. By
formal memorial the Governor and Legisla-
ture of a sovereign State join in this appeal.
The experience of other nations confirms
the belief in its wisdom. The commercial
interests of our people, the economy of
time, the saving of effort, even national
honor, demand action on this subject.
The signature of our duly accredited rep-
resentative leads the signatures to the com-
pact of 1875, creating an agency “to dis-
cuss and initiate measures necessary for the
dissemination and improvement of the met-
rical system,” and since then she has been
one of the largest contributors and most
prominent actors in the work of guarding
and testing the international metric stand-
ards and of constructing and distributing
prototype copies of the same to other na-
tions. On what theory are we thus zeal-
ously engaged in the ‘ dissemination’ of the
metric system except that its universal use
is desirable; and if desirable for the other
nations, why not for the United States?
“With what measure ye mete, it shall be
measured to you again.”
In 1888 (by resolution of May 24) this
country invited the republics of Central and
South America, Mexico, Haiti and San
Domingo, to a conference to be held in the
city of Washington to consider among other
things ‘the adoption of a uniform system
462
of weights and measures.’ The invitation
was accepted ; the conference was held. To
the extent of its power it adopted a uniform
system of weights and measures. The other
nations, parties to the conference, with
searcely an exception have honorably pro-
ceeded to put in force in their respective
limits the metric system thus adopted. On
what principle of international honor can
the United States, the originator of the con-
ference, stand alone in refusing or delay-
ing to abide by its action? What possible
motive can this country have in thus co-
quetting longer on this subject with the na-
tions of Europe and her sister republics ?
Having sought the verdict of a tribinal of
our own choosing shall we fail to stand by
its decision? A nice sense of honor, no less
than her own interests, would seem to de-
mand from the United States definite and
eomplete action which should put her in full
accord on this subject with the nations with
which she has so long ostensibly been co-
Operating.
Your committee in the investigation of
this subject have not only heard such gen-
tlemen as saw fit to come before them, but
they sought the views of officers of the
Government whose work would be most
directly affected by the proposed change.
They have examined the facts submitted to
former committees of this House, and have
availed themselves of the testimony lately
taken before the committee of the House of
Commons of England in their investigation
of this subject extending over several
months. They have sought to learn by let-
ters of inquiry to the Superintendent of Pub-
lic Instruction of each of the States, as well
as the Commissioner of Education of the
United States, the extent to which instruc-
tion is now afforded in the metric system
in the various States. The replies indicate
that this instruction varies much as the edu-
eational progress of the States varies. Utah
has placed in her constitution a provision
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 65.
requiring such instruction in all the public
schools. In all the States the instruction is
largely abstract and theoretical, and neces-
sarily so, but the moment the system goes
into practical operation, or it becomes cer-
tain that it is to go into operation at no very
distant date, the character of the instruction
will at once change and become practical.
The English school authorities are already
furnishing to schools asking for them actual
specimens of the liter, meter, etc., and a
similar course by the school authorities of
this country would be wise.
Your committee, after a careful consider-
ation of this subject, have unanimously
reached the conclusion that the metric
system of weights and measures should be
put into exclusive use in the various De-
partments of the Government at such future
date as shall allow adequate preparation
for the change, and at the end of a fixed
time thereafter that said system shall be
recognized as the only legal system for
general use. They, however, do not deem
it wise at present to require a change in the
methods of surveying the public lands, as
this would in that respect destroy rather
than promote uniformity.
Your committee also deem it prudent to
enlarge the time for the proposed system to
take effect to a date somewhat later than
the date proposed in the bill submitted,
adopting for this country about the average
time deemed necessary by other nations.
Your committee, therefore, recommend that
the time for adoption in the Departments ~
and operations of the Government, except
in the completion of the survey of the pub-
lie lands, be fixed for July 1, 1898, and that
the adoption of the metric system for use
in the Nation at large be fixed as coincident
with the dawn of the twentieth century,
and that date be accordingly changed to
January 1, 1901, the first day of the new
century.
Your committee also deem some changes
MAxRcH 27, 1896.]
in phraseology desirable in the proposed
law to avoid ambiguity and uncertainty.
To most clearly and intelligently express
those proposed changes and the scope of the
bill after they are made, your committee
have embodied them in a substitute bill
which they report herewith and respect-
fully recommend that it do pass.
A Brut to fix the standard of weights and meas-
ures by the adoption of the metric system of weights
and measures.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress as-
sembled, That from and after the first day of July,
eighteen hundred and ninety-eight, all the Depart-
ments of the Government of the United States, in
transaction of all business requiring the use of weight
and measurement, except in completing the survey of
the public lands, shall employ and use only the
weights and measures of the metric system.
Ssc. 2. That from and after the first day of Janu-
ary, nineteen hundred and one, the metric system of
weights and measures shall be the only legal system of
weights and measures recognized in the United States.
Src. 3. That the metric system of weights and
measures herein referred to is that in which the ulti-
mate standard of mass or weight is the international
kilogram of the International Bureau of Weights and
Measures, established in accordance with the conven-
tion of May twentieth, eighteen hundred and seventy-
five, and the ultimate standard of length is the inter-
national meter of the same bureau, the national
prototypes of which are kilogram numbered twenty
and meter numbered twenty-seven, preserved in the
archives of the office of standard weights and
measures.
Src. 4. That the tables in the schedules annexed
to the bill authorizing the use of the metric system
of weights and measures passed July twenty-eighth,
eighteen hundred and sixty-six, shall be the tables of
equivalents which may be lawfully used for comput-
ing, determining and expressing the customary
weights and measures in the weights and measures of
the metric system.
LETTER SENT ON MARCH 15, 1896, FROM THE
OFFICE OF SECRETARY, AMERICAN MET-
ROLOGICAL SOCIETY, COLUMBIA UNI-
VERSITY, NEW YORK.
DEAR Sir: You are aware, no doubt, that
SCIENCE.
463
the Committee on Coinage, Weights and
Measures, of the House of Representatives,
Hon. C. W. Stone, Chairman, has directed
that a favorable report be made, to the
House, of a bill making the use of the met-
ric system obligatory in the United States
after certain dates named in the bill. The
bill reported is a substitute for the Hon. D.
M. Hurley’s bill. A copy of the substitute
bill is enclosed.
It is very important that all interested in
this bill should act promptly and vigor-
ously.
If you are in favor of the bill sign the en-
closed petition and obtain on it the signa-
tures of friends in your neighborhood.
Mail the signed petition, with a personal
letter, as soon as practicable, to your Rep-
resentatives in Washington, D.C. Kindly
send the Society a postal card stating when
you sent the petition and the number of
names signed.
The Society would be glad to know the
condition of feeling toward the metric sys-
tem in your vicinity.
Yours respectfully,
B. A. GovuLp,
President.
J. K. REEs,
Secretary.
FORM OF PETITION.
The undersigned citizens residing in his
Congressional District respectfully urge the
Honorable Mr. to consider
favorably and vote for the bill reported to
the House of Representatives by the Com-
mittee on Coinage, Weights and Measures,
to fix the standard of weight and measures
by the adoption of the metric system of
weights and measures.
ON THE REFLECTION OF THE RONTGEN
RAYS FROM PLATINUM,
THE interest connected with this subject
led me on March the 9th to undertake a
464
set of experiments, and indications were
almost immediately obtained that a small
percentage of the so-called X-rays were re-
flected by a platinum surface placed at
an angle of forty-five degrees. The expos-
ure of the sensitive plate, however, was
not sufficiently prolonged; neither was it
properly shielded from the anode end of the
discharge tube. Matters were finally ar-
ranged so that the plate-holder was com-
pletely shielded from all parts the dis-
charge tube by screens of heavy sheet lead,
and on March 138th, after an exposure of
ten hours, a satisfactory negative was ob-
tained, capable of furnishing prints.
The apparatus employed was of the sim-
plest character; a coil of moderatesize, made
by Ruhmkorff more than thirty years ago,
was excited by a current suitable for class-
room experiments, no condenser whatever
being employed. The Crookes’ tube was of
German make, and had originally been in-
tended only: for class demonstrations. With
aid of a fluorescent screen it had been care-
fully studied, and the best portion of it was
employed. The reflecting surface consisted
of a new sheet of ordinary platinum foil,
which was held rather loosely against a
plate of glass, no attempt being made to re-
move its accidental deformations, which
were mainly paralleled to the axis of the
cylinder, which it had formed when rolled
on its stick. These elongated deformations,
convex and concave, were placed vertically.
The plate holder, in addition to its
draw slide, was completely covered by a
plate of aluminium with a thickness of
0.17 mm.; the central horizontal portion of
this was again covered by a broad strip of
the same aluminium plate, and over the
whole was fastened a netting of iron wire,
destined to furnish the image. I may re-
mark in passing that I have found wire
netting very useful in other experiments
with the X-rays, as it gives instant informa-
tion as to the condition of the field with
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 65.
regard to uniformity of illumination, single
or double sources of the rays, and also with
regard to the relative transparency of ob-
jects placed on the plate holder.
The plate holder being arranged as indi-
cated, care was taken that rectilinear
emanations from the discharge tube should
not even reach the external wooden por-
tions of its frame.
After an exposure of ten hours it was
found that a good image of the netting had
been produced on the vertical strip of the
plate exposed to the reflected rays. This
image had various deformations, the verti-
cal lines representing the netting being as a
general thing most distinct ; in some places,
however, the horizontal lines had the upper
hand, and there were a few spots where
both were equally distinct. The image un-
der those portions protected by two thick-
nesses of aluminium plate was perhaps a
trifle fainter than that on the rest of the
plate. These facts and the character of the
deformations point very strongly to the
conclusion that in the act of reflection from
a metallic surface the Rontgen rays behave
like ordinary light.
Photographic experiments were then
made to ascertain the percentage of the
rays reflected. A plate from the same box
was placed at a corresponding distance (6.5
inches) from the discharge tube, and the ex-
posure diminished, till a similar image was
obtained. It was, of course, protected in the
same way as in the experiment on reflection,
and developed for the same length of time.
This image was not in any way deformed.
After an examination of it by Mr. F. J.
Harrison, Professor Hallock and myself,
the conclusion was reached that the re-
flected image had the same intensity. This
would indicate that platinum foil reflects
the 54, part of the X-rays incident on it
at an angle of 45°. Of course this figure
is to be regarded as a first approximation.
In conclusion, I may add that the great-
Marcu 27, 1896. ]
est care was taken to obtain the most sen-
sitive plates and the most powerful devel-
oper known, and that this matter gave
much more trouble than the experiment
just described. Oeprn N. Roop.
CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, NEW YORK.
FURTHER EXPERIMENTS WITH X-RAYS.
PuorocRapHs have now been obtained
with several of the Crookes tubes in the
cabinet of the Dartmouth Laboratory, but
the one referred to in a previous communi-
cation is by far the most efficient, and it
has been used in nearly all the experiments
now to be described. This tube was made
by Stoehrer, of Leipzig, being No. 1147 of
his catalogue, where it is designated as
Puluj’s neue Phosphorescenz-Lampe. It
contains a mica diaphragm coated with
some phosphorescent substance, and gives
quite a brilliant green light when in action
(although this brilliancy is doubtless im-
material to the production of the X-rays).
As to the source of the X-rays developed
by this tube it may be stated that a vari-
ety of experiments have shown that they
originate in the diaphragm itself where ex-
posed to the cathode rays, and not to any
appreciable degree in the glass around the
diaphragm. Cathode rays which pass
through the diaphragm appear, however,
to develop X-rays at the surface of the glass
where they impinge.
The method first adopted for determin-
ing the position of the source was that of
calculating its distance from the plate from
the magnification of the shadows of inter-
vening opaque objects, but this procedure
brought out anomalies, as will presently be
mentioned. By bringing the plate near the
tube, the diaphragm could be made to cast
its own shadow, and the resulting appear-
ance leaves no doubt that the X-rays chiefly
originate in a limited portion of the dia-
phragm. The method of using a series of
parallel films leads to the same conclusion,
SCIENCE.
465
and indicates that in this tube the rays do
not proceed directly from the cathode itself.
Lenard has observed that the cathode
rays are diffracted around the edges of ob-
stacles. In case of the X-rays our experi-
ments indicate an effect apparently some-
what the reverse of this. While the shadow
of an obstacle is always magnified, and often
to a degree disproportionate to the distances
involved, we have obtained several plates
showing the impression from an aperture
in an opaque object to be slightly minified,
when the plate is sufficiently near the object.
This would point to an outward rather than
an inward bending of the rays. In this
connection attention is called to a curious
phenomenon presenting to the eye the ap-
pearance of irradiation, although it is diffi-
cult to believe that any real analogy to
irradiation is offered.
Fic. 1. DISTORTION OF CoINS PHOTOGRAPHED
WITH X-RAYS.
The coins shown in Fig. 1, are a silver
dollar, a dime, and two nickels, in con-
tact, all perfectly round ; a glass rod (end-
ing in a brass cap) touches the dollar,
and a small piece of hard rubber prevents
it from rolling. The line across the plate,
through the shadow of the dollar, is the
image of the mica diaphragm, the plane of
which was nearly perpendicular to the
466
plate. The tube was but 14 mm. above the
coins and 17 mm. above the film. The
magnification of the shadows is slight, but
the distortion is almost grotesque. Plates
showing this effect can be easily obtained.
It should be stated that the nearness of
any conductors, as these coins, to the tube
in action will produce in them a consider-
able static charge, as may be readily tested
by a proofplane and electroscope. This
may possibly have a bearing upon the cause
of the distortion.
The rectilinear path of the X-rays after
they have passed by an obstacle has been
proved by the use of a long strip of cellu-
loid film, as used in Kodak cameras. A
framework like two parallel ladders was
so made that the film could be tightly
drawn across the rounds with successive
portions parallel and at a distance of 10 mm.
from each other, the whole being enclosed
in a light-tight box. The X-rays so readily
penetrated the gelatine and celluloid that
their effect could be seen through more
than twenty of these equidistant layers.
A circular piece of silver was attached to
the celluloid side of the front film, and the
diameter of its shadow could after develop-
ment be quite accurately measured on eight
successive layers, although growing diffuse
as the distance increased. The ratio of the
successive diameters was constant, as would
be the case with a rectilinear path. Of
course the axis of the ‘shadow cone,’ given
by the position of the circles of the shadow,
passes through the source of the rays. On
some of the films exposed in this way very
curious markings are seen which we are as
yet unable to explain.
This use of films at once suggests the
need of anew kind of sensitive plate for pho-
tographing with X-rays which shall absorb
them far better than does the ordinary dry
plate. When a strip of film was folded up
on itself, so that there was no loss of in-
tensity by increase of distance from source,
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 65,
the impression was hardly less strong on
the twelfth than on the first layer; and an
impression could doubtless be transmitted
through a hundred layers. It follows that
the time of exposure necessary for X-ray
photographs could be diminished in propor-
tion as the plates are made to absorb the
energy falling upon them. On account of
the. opacity of platinum, it occurred to me
to try platinum photographic paper of the
kind used for portraits, but such paper (in-
tended for long exposures in printing in
sunlight) was far too lacking in sensitive-
ness to produce any effect. It ought to be
easily possible for our photographic chem-
ists to produce plates which should require
but one-twentieth or less of the exposure
now required for X-rays with ordinary
plates.
The writer has succeeded in repeating
Rontgen’s reflection experiment, except that
a celluloid film was used instead of the less
permeable glass plate. Nickel and copper
disks were attached to the under side of
the film, and after exposure (70 minutes)
their effect in reflection was shown by the
greater intensity of the dark (or negative)
circles above them.
Certain plates gave anomalous results of
reflection, the portion of film above the re-
flecting object being affected less intensely
than the rest of the film ; that is, the outline
of the object beneath the film is shown, but is
lighter on the negative than the surround-
ing area, instead of darker, as would be ex-
pected.
On four of our plates an appearance
strikingly like interference fringes can be
observed, and thus far we can only account
for it on the supposition of reflection from
the brass spring which presses against the
glass side of the plate in the holder, thus
keeping the plate in place. Numerous at-
tempts have been made to obtain interfer-
ence fringes after the analogy of Newton’s
rings, but thus far unsuccessfully.
MARCH 27, 1896. ]
The difficulty found by Professor Emer-
son and myself in precisely repeating most
of these experiments has doubtless been ex-
perienced by others working with the
X-rays. When the conditions of an ex-
posure seem identical with those of a pre-
vious one, the results often differ, from vary-
ing excitation of the tube, or possibly slight
shifting of the source of the rays, or from
numerous other causes difficult to control,
A confirmation of results by other observers,
is therefore valuable.*
Since the last paragraph was in type I
have succeeded in proving that the ‘ fringe’
is due to the spring by the somewhat sur-
reptitious method of placing a second
‘Crookes tube behind the plate, and thus
projecting a shadow of the spring itself
upon the plate on which at the same time
the spring was reflecting the fringe. Fig.
2, is from a plate obtained a fortnight
Fig. 2. SHOWING REFLECTION AND INTER-
FERENCE OF X—RAys.
*In a previous communication (p. 235), a slip of
the pen made me invert the order of permeability of
hard rubber, glass and brass ; the rubber is of course
the most permeable.
SCIENCE.
467
ago. A silver dollar lay on the slide
above the plate, directly over the spring
which was behind the plate; the tube was
14 mm. above the plate and the exposure
was one hour. The X-rays must have
passed through the silver dollar and then
have been reflected by the spring, giving
the ‘fringe.’ Since the central bright line
is much brighter than the other portions of
the plate partially screened by the dollar,
it would seem that this additional bright-
ness can only result from the superposition
of waves in the same phase, or, in other
words, from something closely akin to inter-
ference. Similar fringes have been obtained
through tinfoil instead of silver, and also
where no obstacle intervened between tube
and film. We hope by this method to ob-
tian the wave-length of the X-rays.
Epwin B. Frost.
HANOVER, N. H., March 10, 1896.
THE RECEPTION OF FOREIGN STUDENTS IN
FRENCH UNIVERSITIES AND SCHOOLS.
In order to carry out effectively the plan
for the reception of foreign students in the
schools of France, in which there is now
so much interest, the French government
has formed a Committee of Patronage for
the purpose of receiving new comers, giving
them encouragement, and furnishing them
with all necessary information in regards to
their studies and facilities for life in the
university towns. The object of these
Committees is to make the student’s stay
in France agreeable as well as profitable.
They also offer their friendly offices to the
families of students.
THE PARIS COMMITTEE,
The Paris Committee has its headquarters
at the Sorbonne, and is composed of the
following members :
MM. Emile Boutmy, Member of the Institute ;
Director of the Ecole libre des sciences politiques
Michel Bréal, Member of the Institute. Xavier
468
Charmes, Member of the Institute. Darboux, Dean
of the Faculty of Science. Gréard, Member of the
French Academy; Rector of the Academie de Paris.
Himly, Dean of the Faculty of Letters. Lamy, for-
merly Deputy. Lavisse, Member of the French
Academy. Liard, Director of Higher Education.
Paul Melon, General Secretary. Georges Picot, Mem-
ber of the Institute. Albert Sorel, Member of the In-
stitute. Vicomte Melchior de Végue, Member of
the French Academy.
A secretary is stationed in the office of
the Committee, who will be for two hours
each day at the service of persons desiring
to obtain detailed information concerning
life in Paris or the character of the instruc-
tion given in the different educational es-
tablishments.
There is an executive committee charged
with the duty of maintaining regular con-
nections with the different groups of foreign
students in Paris.
The Paris Committee expects to be able
to give scholarships of 200 to 350 franes to
students especially recommended ; these
scholarships to be exclusively employed in
payment of University fees.
THE COMMITTEE OF AIX.
This Committee, under the patronage of
the Rector of the Académie, the Mayor of
Aix, the Dean of the Faculty of Law andthe
Dean of the Faculty of Letters, is composed
of Prof. Bouvier-Bangillon, of the Faculty
of Law; M. Moreau, Adjunct Professor in the
same Faculty; Prof. Ducros, of the Faculty
of Letters, and M. Carbonel, Secretary of the
Faculty of Law.
The Committee has arranged with trans-
portation companies for reduction of fares
for the benefit of students, and will neglect
nothing which has to do with their moral
and material interests.
Special courses of instruction in the
French language, for the benefit of foreign-
ers, have for many years been organized in
connection with the Faculties of Aix.
THE BORDEAUX COMMITTEE.
This Committee is composed of Prof,
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 65.
Bouchard, of the Faculty of Medicine; Prof.
Gayen, of the Faculty of Sciences; Prof.
Denis, of the Faculty of Letters, and Prof.
Duguit, of the Faculty of Law, acting as
Secretary.
THE LYONS COMMITTEE.
This Committee is composed of professors
from the four Faculties: Prof. Lepine, of
the Faculty of Medicine; Prof. Offret, of the
Faculty of Sciences; Prof. Bourgeois, of the
Faculty of Letters, and Prof. Berthelemy,
of the Faculty of Law. There is, besides, a
special committee composed of friends of
the University, presided over by M. Camb-
fort, which will give special attention to
questions connected with the interests of
foreign students. The Secretary of this
Committee is M. Thallers, of the Faculty of
Law.
THE MONTPELLIER COMMITTEE.
This Committee has as its Secretary
Prof. Flahaut, of the Faculty of Sciences,
and, among other members, Prof. Bonnett,
of the Faculty of Letters; Prof. Gidde, of
the Faculty of Law ; Prof. Gachon, of the
Chair of History in the Faculty of Letters ;.
M. Tempie and others. It has established —
certain courses free to foreigners, an ele-
mentary course and an advanced one. It
will provide students with information
concerning living facilities suited to their
means, and will see that they are furnished
with medical attendance.
THE NANCY COMMITTEE.
This Committee is composed of the four
deans of the faculties of the University :
MM. Bichat, Heydedireigh, Krantz, Leder-
lenen, M. Schlagdenhauffen, director of the
School of Pharmacy ; M. Gavet, associate
professor of the Faculty of Law; Prof.
Molk, of the Faculty of Sciences ; Prof.
Bernheim, of the Faculty of Medicine ; Prof.
Grucker,of the Faculty of Letters, and Prof.
Bleicher, of the Ecole supérieure de pharmacie.
MARCH 27, 1896. ]
M. Bichat, Dean of the Faculty of Scien-
ces, and M. Gavet, will devote themselves
especially to the interests of foreign students
at Nancy.
The Committee has formed in connection
‘with the Students’ Association, a special sec-
tion for colonial and foreign students, the
_Vice-Presidents of which will be elected by
the foreign students.
THE TOULOUSE COMMITTEE.
The President of this Committee is Dr.
Maurel, and among its members are public
officials of Toulouse, the deans of faculties,
the directors of the schools of veterinary
science, fine arts and music, and a certain
number of persons who are considered by
the consular officers resident at Toulouse
especially likely to command the confidence
of the families of foreign students.
The Committee will correspond with or-
ganization abroad or with families who con-
template sending to Toulouse students for
a sojourn of some length. It will do all in
its power to secure for foreign students en-
gaged in regular courses of study the pecu-
niary opportunities which are enjoyed by
French students. It has arranged with the
_ Students’ Association to extend to foreigners
all the advantages which belong to its own
members, and their admission to such offi-
cial or private receptions as may occur.
The Committee offers to foreign students
the following advantages: The opportunity
to draw money in Toulouse without com-
mission or discount; gratuitous medical
service; hospital accommodations at half
price ; free admission to the meetings of
the Geographical Society ; free admission
to the reading room ; reduction of rates at
hotels selected during the first eight days
after arrival, and reception at the railway
station, if desired.
THE FRANCO-AMERICAN SYNDICATE.
In connection with this movement there
has also been organized by a number of
SCIENCE.
469
learned and representative men of France,
a body called the ‘ Franco-American Syndi-
cate,’ the object of which is ‘to promote
and develop intellectual, social and moral
relations between France and the United
States.’
The intention of this Syndicate is to bring
American students into direct relations with
representative men of France, especially
those who are representatives in their
several professions.
The gentlemen who have volunteered to
assist, not being directly engaged in official
duties, have time at their disposal to devote
to this work. The Honorary Chairman of
the Syndicate is the Comte Carré de Bus-
serolles, Brigadier General, retired, and
Commander of the Legion of Honor ; its
President is Comte Henri du Bourg, and its
Vice-President, Mons. P. de Rousiers, the
author of a well-known work upon Ameri-
can life; and among its members are the
Comte Perouse de Monclos and Mons. G.
Balleyguier, architects; Mons. S. Thore,
engineer ; Mons. O. Coignard, Forestry In-
spector; Dr. Chaillou, of the Pasteur In-
stitute, and Mr. J.C. Van Eyck, of New
York city, Member of the Royal Institute
of the Netherlands. A number of eminent
men, several of them members of the Insti-
tute of France, who on account of their of-
ficial positions are unable to take active
part in the work of the Syndicate, have
promised their support and codperation, as
have also several army and navy officers of
high rank.
It is the hope of this organization to have
a house in Paris where there may be fre-
quent gatherings of American students for
social intercourse with these gentlemen and
to listen to lectures, and that here also
may be arranged plans for the advantage-
ous utilization of the university holidays
for purposes of professional study under the
direction of competent Frenchmen.
The representative of the Syndicate in
470
Paris is Mons. G. Balleyguier, architect,
238, Boulevard St. Germain ; and the repre-
sentative of the organization in the United
States is Dr. J. C. Van Eyck, Century
Club, New York.
GENERAL INFORMATION FOR STUDENTS.
The following information is given con-
cerning the admission of foreign students
into the faculties and schools of France :
Instruction is absolutely gratuitous in
the universities and faculties of France.
They are open without reserve to strangers
as well as to native students, and the
grades established are the same for each.
It is required, however, that both foreign
and native students shculd give evidence
of certain preliminary study. In the case
of the French student this consists in the
presentation of a bachelor’s diploma certi-
fying that courses of secondary instruction
of a given nature have been completed.
Strangers who have obtained from institu-
tions in their own country certificates of
instruction are admitted after a ruling shall
have been made by the Minister based upon
the advice of the proper section of the Advi-
sory Committee on Public Instruction, whose
duty it is to ascertain the actual value of
the certificate offered. This is rendered
necessary by the fact that the certificates
of study in France and in foreign countries
are not always equivalent in value.*
The requirements in connection with ob-
taining degrees in the courses of higher in-
structions are the following: Matriculation,
access to the library, privileges of practical
work (only in the faculties of medicine and
the schools of pharmacy), examination, cer-
tificate of proficiency, and diploma. The
* Graduates of foreign universities who desire to
enter the courses of the faculties should address an
application to the Minister of Public Instruction, ac-
companied by (1) the original diplomas, with a re-
quest that their equivalence in France be deter-
mined, and that they be approved ; (2) a certificate
of birth (original and translation).
SOIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. Il. No. 65.
fees for matriculation are 30 frances quar-
terly, or 120 frances per year. Library privi-
leges cost 10 francs per year. The fees
for examination and diploma vary from 40
to 100 franes per year, according to the
faculties.
These provisions relate only to students
who are candidates for degrees. Those who
wish simply to receive the instruction given
by a faculty, without asking a certificate or
diploma, will be permitted the greatest
freedom of action.
Foreigners who give evidence of sufficient
previous instruction will be admitted into
most of the special schools either as pupils
or as free auditors.
In a_ subsequent article, information
will be given in regard to the facilities
offered by the principal universities and
special schools.
G. Brown GoovE,
Secretary of the American Branch of the
Comité Franco-Americain.
THE ESSENCE OF NUMBER.
NuMBER is primarily a quality of an arti-
ficial individual. By artificial is meant ‘ of
human make.’ The characteristic of these
artificial individuals is that each, though
made an individual, is conceived as con-
sisting of other individuals. In language
the designations for artificial individuals
so characterized usually contain other con-
notation. Examples are a flock, a herd, a
bevy, a covey, a throw, a flight, a swarm,
a school, a pack, a bunch, a cluster, a
drove, a company, a brood, a group, etc.
To any such artificial individual pertains an
important quality, its ‘ Anzahl,’ which may
agree or differ among such artificial indi-
viduals, as may their color. But something
like color is made and recognized by insects
and animals, so that color is not so highly
artificial as number, but will serve for an
illustration. Just as the color of a bunch
of grapes might be identified by use ‘of a
~ Mancu 27, 1896.]
eard of standard colors, and so a particular
descriptive color name attached to the
bunch, in the same way by a well-known
process of identification its ‘Anzahl’ may be
determined and the proper descriptive name
attached. This particular process of iden-
tification is called counting, and used ori-
ginally the standard set of artificial indi-
viduals makable from the fingers.
The creation of artificial individuals hav-
ing this numeric quality, ‘Anzahl’, the crea-
tion of number of necessity preceded count-
ing, which is only a subsequent process
for identification, for finding the ‘ Anzahl’
where it is already known to be.
Number is so peculiarly human a creation
that it might be used as an argument for
the unity of mankind. Man has found it
advantageous to perceive in nature distinct
things, the primitive individuals. Each
distinct thing is a whole by itself, a unit.
The primitive individual thing is the only
whole or distinct object in nature. But
the human mind takes primitive individuals
together and makes of them a single whole,
an artificial individual and names it. These
are artificial units, discrete magnitudes.
The unity is wholly in the concept, not in
nature. It is of human make.
From the contemplation of the primitive
individual in relation to the artificial in-
dividual spring the related ideas ‘ one’ and
‘many.’ A unit thought of in contrast to
‘many’ as not-many gives us the idea one
or ‘a one.’ A ‘many’ composed of ‘a one’
and another ‘ one’ is characterized as ‘two’.
A many composed of ‘a one’ and the
special many ‘a two’ is characterized as
‘three.’ And so on, at first absolutely with-
out counting, in fact before the invention
of that patent process of identification now
called counting. The‘Anzahl’ of a group
is wholly abstract, in that it represents all
at once the primitive individuals or ele-
ments of the group or artificial individual,
and'nothing more. There never was and
SCIENCE.
AT1
never will be a conezete number or any-
thing concrete about number.
The number in the sense of ‘Anzahl’ of a
group isa selective photograph of the group,
‘a numeric picture which takes or rep-
‘resents only one quality of the group,
but takes that all at once. This picture
process only applies primarily to those
particular artificial wholes which may be
called discrete aggregates. But these are
of inestimable importance for human life.
This overwhelming importance of the
number-picture after centuries led to a
human invention as clearly a device of man
for himself as is the telephone. This was a
device for making a primitive individual
thinkable as a recognizable and recoverable
artificial individual of the kind having the
numeric quality. This is the recondite de-
vice called measurement.
Measurement is an artifice for making a
primitive individual conceivable as an arti-
ficial individual of the group kind, and so
having an ‘ Anzahl,’ a number picture.
It maybe likened to dyeing cotton
with analine dyes. This will give the
cotton a color which may then be identified
by comparison with the set of standard
colors.
The height of a horse, by use of the arti-
ficial unit, a ‘hand,’ is thinkable as a dis-
crete aggregate and so has a number-picture
identifiable by comparison with the stand-
ard set of pictures, that is by counting, as
say 16. But toargue from this the implicit
presence of the measurement idea in every
number is the analogue of maintaining the
implicit presence of the process-of-dyeing
idea in every color.
GrorGE Bruce HALstep.
AUSTIN, TEXAS.
ROBERT EDWARD EARLL.
Mr. Rosert Epwarp EARL, who died on
March 18th, at ‘Chevy Chase,’ near Wash-
ington, was one of the oldest and most
472
trusted members of the staff of the Smith-
sonian Institution, with which he had been
connected in various capacities since 1877.
He was born at Waukegan, Illinois, August
24,1853, educated in the Waukegan public
schools, the University of Chicago, and at
the Northwestern University, where he
was graduated in 1877 with the degree of
B.S. He entered the service of the Fish
Commission, under Prof. Baird, as a fish
culturist; in 1878 was transferred to the
scientific staff, and from 1879 to 1882 was
engaged in the Fisheries Division of the
Tenth Census.
From 1885 to 1888 he was Chief of the
Division of Statistics in the Fish Commis-
sion. He was sent, in 1883, to the Inter-
national Fisheries Exhibition in London,
as a member of the staff of the United
States Commissioner, and rendered very ef-
ficient service as executive officer and dep-
uty representative. His aptitude for expo-
sition work was so fully demonstrated on
this occasion that he has been designated
chief executive officer, at all the expositions
which have since been held, for the exhibits
of the Smithsonian Institution and the Na-
tional Museum; at Louisville and New Or-
leans in 1884 and 1895, Cincinnati in 1888,
Chicago 1893 and Atlanta in 1895. At the
time of his death he had just completed
the unpacking of the exhibits returned from
the South.
Since 1888 he had been connected with the
National Museum, with the grade of Curator,
and for three years had been Editor of the
Proceedings and Bulletins of the Museum.
He was recognized by his associates as
man of fine administrative ability, which,
combined with great force of character, had
brought him into the position of one of the
most efficient exposition experts living.
His unselfish devotion to his work, and his
absolute trustworthiness were appreciated
by all who knew him, and he was exceed-
ingly popular among his associates.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 65.
Notwithstanding his constant occupation
inexecutive work, he produced and published
a considerable number of important papers
in regard to the methods of the Fisheries
and the habits of fishes. He was one of the
best authorities upon the natural history of
the Shad and Herring, and made exhaus-
tive studies of the fishery statistics of the
Atlantic and Gulf coasts and of the Great
Lakes. Several new fishes were discovered
by him, one of which, an important food
species of the Southern coast, obtained by
him at Charleston in 1881, is called in his
honor Earll’s Hake, Phycis EHarlii. He
was also a skilful fish culturist and had
much experience in the early experimental
work in the propagation of the Shad and in
the establishment of the Cod-hatching sta-
tion at Gloucester.
He was a man of the purest personal
character. His loss will be deeply felt by
many in Washington. By reason of his
peculiar abilities and his great experience,
his death creates a void which it will be
practically impossible to fill.
G. Brown GoopE.
CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPHY.
THE STUDY OF HOME GEOGRAPHY IN ITALY.
At the Second Italian Geographical Con-
gress, held in Rome last September, the
president, Marquis Doria, included in his
opening address an earnest recommendation
for the cultivation of home geography. Re-
cognizing the glory of foreign exploration,
he nevertheless said that the patient study
of the fatherland is a scientific duty, and
that the culture of a nation may be meas-
ured by its advance. The Congress adopted
votes urging the establishment of better
courses in geography in various stages of
education ; and advising the Italian Geo-
graphical Society to offer a prize for the best
plan of primary instruction in local geog-
raphy, and afterwards to secure the best
geographical writers of Italy to prepare text-
MARCH 27, 1896. ]
books according to the approved plan for
local use. The latter suggestion is one that
may be commended to the councils of our
American and National Geographical So-
cieties.
THE DANUBE.
A comPENDIOUS volume on the Danube,
by Schweiger-Lerchenfeld (Die Donau als
Volkerweg, Schiffahrtstrasse und Reise-
route, Vienna, Hartleben, 1896, 950 p, with
many and excellent illustrations and maps)
contains much material for the physiog-
rapher; truly not the result of original in-
vestigation now first published, but well
summarized from many sources and ac-
ceptable for those who have to study this
great international river at a distance.
Most serviceable is the description of the
various features of the great Hungarian
plain, the Alfold, as it is locally called,
through which the Danube and its chief
tributary, the Theiss, wind their courses.
Sand dunes make deserts of large areas ;
other parts are wet and marshy beyond re-
demption, and a third division includes the
Puszta, or fertile grassy plains. Many dis-
tricts have been subject to overflow ;. but
these are now reduced by the ‘regulation ’
of the larger rivers, as well as by the con-
struction of dikes. Below the ‘ Iron gate’
in the Carpathians, the course of the
Danube has been changed at several points
by sand blown into its channel by the south-
east storm wind, the ‘ Koschava,’ from an
extensive area of ridged dunes. The various
narrows of the great river and their improve-
ment for navigation are fully described.
THE LOCATION OF SETTLEMENTS.
Dr. A. Hettner, Privatdocent in geog-
raphy in the University of Leipzig and
editor of a new geographical journal, con-
tributes to it an essay on the geographical
controls of human settlements, reviewing
the previous literature of the subject and
laying down lines along which further re-
SCIENCE.
473
search should be conducted (Hettner’s
Geogr. Zeitschr., i., 1895, 361-375). Some-
what as plants and animals are affected in
their distribution by geographical environ-
ment, so man himself responds to his sur-
roundings ; his personal will having a much
less influence than would appear at first
sight, although complicating the reaction in
a manner not apparent in the case of lower
organisms. Just as the features of the land
are’ now best explained by an appropriate
historical method of study, based on their
geological evolution, so the location of set-
tlements should be studied in relation to
their developmentfrom their beginnings, and
not only in relation to their actual sur-
roundings. The article asa whole is an
abstract consideration of the subject, with-
out illustration by specific examples.
MIDDENDORFF’S PERU.
A RESIDENCE of twenty-five years in Peru
affords Middendorff an extended experience
for record in his work on that country, of
which the third volume, Das Hochland
von Peru (Berlin, 1895), now follows the
second, Das Kistenland (1894). The
coastal desert belt, with its irrigable val-
leys, rises into the highland through dull
slopes of rock waste, seldom varied with
ledge or cliff, but sometimes trenched by
great ravines. Ascending this western
slope, the traveler finds himself on lofty bar-
ren plateaus, of rather cool climate, holding
lakes in their depressions; a special account
being given of Titicaca and its surroundings.
Very different from the barren ravines of
the dry western slope are the deep warm
valleys of the rainy and forested eastern
slope, in which many streams that head
west of the eastern range cut their path on
the way to the Amazon.
Asin so many books of travel, this one,
although the work of an interested ob-
server, loses greatly in geographical value
from an insufficient understanding of physi-
474
ography on the part of the author. The
control of topographic form by climate, for
example, is sketched rather than described,
although the Peruvian Andes exemplify it
with an emphasis hardly paralleled else-
where. W. M. Davis.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE.
THE meeting of the Zodlogical Society of
London, March 3d, was devoted to a discussion
of Zoological nomenclature, under the the lead-
ership of the veteran ornithologist, P. L. Scla-
ter, who presented the claims of the Stricklan-
dian code in comparison with that of the Ger-
man Zoological Society. Strickland’s code,
that formulated for the British Association in
1842, differs from the later one chiefly in the
following points :
1. The German rules disclaim any relation
to botany, so that, according to them, the same
generic names may be used for a plant and for -
an animal. This is contrary to the Strickland-
ian code, which, however, is practically a dead
letter, in this particular, after fifty-four years of
trial.
2. Under the German rules the same term is
to be used for the generic and specific name of
a species if these names have priority.
This is contrary to the Stricklandian code,
and also to the usage of many American zo6lo-
gists, though practiced by those who accept
fully the rules of the American Ornithologists’
Union.
The German rules adopt the 10th edition of
Linnzeus’s Systema Nature as the starting point
of zodlogical nomenclature, whereas the other
adopts the 12th. The 10th is universally ac-
cepted on this side of the Atlantic.
These differences are but trifling, and it is
probable that they will all be reconciled through
the agency of the nomenclature committee ap-
pointed at the Leyden meeting of the Interna-
tional Zodlogical Congress.
THE TORONTO MEETING OF
ASSOCIATION.
Nature states that the Toronto Local Com-
mittee are assiduously engaged in preliminary
THE BRITISH
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. III. No. 65.
work for the meeting of the British Association
for the Advancement of Science in 1897. Meet-
ings of the executive committee are held every
fortnight. Besides the executive committee, a
number of sub-committees are at work, includ-
ing those on finance, conveyances, publication
and printing, rooms for offices, meetings of the
association and committees, hotels and lodgings,
press, hospitality, reception and for securing
cooperation of other institutes, associations and
corporations, postal, telegraph and telephone
facilities. The attention of the committee on
conveyance has already been called to the de-
sirability of securing from the Canadian Pacific
Railroad transportation for such members of the
Association as may desire to.extend their tray-
els to the Pacific coast, with special reference to:
the suggestion that a meeting of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science
may follow the Toronto meeting, if adequate
facilities for transportation are assured. This
suggestion is. based upon the fact that the
American Association have already once voted
in favor of such a meeting if satisfactory rates
could be obtained ; and the hope is still enter-
tained that delegates from both British and
Australasian Associations might find San Fran-
cisco a convenient point at which to meet the
American Association. Mr. Griffith, the gen-
eral secretary of the British Association, is ex-
expected to be in Toronto about May 22d, to
make arrangments for the meeting, and set out
the proper lines of work. The chairman of the
local committee is Dr. A. B. Macallum.
ENTOMOLOGY.
Ir has always been assumed that flowers at-
tracted insects, in large measure at least, by the
splendor of their inflorescence. Some recent
experiments by Plateau, recorded in the Bulle-
tin of the Belgian Academy, throw doubt upon
this assumption. Inaconsiderable bed of showy
dahlias Plateau concealed from sight the highly
colored rays of some of the flowers exposing
only the disk, and in a second series of experi-
ments the disk also but independently, either
by means of colored papers or by green leaves
secured in place by pins. Butterfles and bees
sought these flowers with the same avidity and
apparently the same frequency as the fully ex-
MARCH 27, 1896.]
posed flowers in the same patch, the bees par-
ticularly pushing their way beneath the obsta-
cles to reach them, though not always with
success. Plateau concludes that they are guided
far more by their perception of odors than by
their vision of bright and contrasted colors.
Inasecond communication to the same Acad-
emy Plateau gives the details of another set
of experiments to determine whether a wide-
meshed net presents any obstacle to the passage
of a flying insect which, as far asroom was con-
cerned, could easily pass in flight through the
interstices. He finds that, while such nets do
not absolutely prevent passage on the wing, in-
sects almost invariably act before one they wish
to pass as ifthey could not distinguish the aper-
ture, ending by alighting on the mesh and crawl-
ing through. He reasons that through the lack
of distinct and sharp vision the threads of the
net produce the illusion of a continuous surface,
as for us the hatchures of an engraving, seen at
a distance.
ASTRONOMY.
THE Royal Astronomical Society have intro-
duced an innovation in their method of issuing
the ‘Monthly Notices.’ These are now to ap-
pear in parts, whenever it seems desirable that
this should be done. Heretofore the Notices
have appeared once each month, so that it has
not always been possible to avoid delay in the
publication of important papers. It is not in-
tended that there shall be more than one num-
ber each month in the future, but this number
will be divided, and issued in parts, when nec-
essary.
THE Astronomical Journal of March 11, con-
tains an article by Dr. G. W. Hill, on the per-
turbations of the planet Ceres by Jupiter and
the derivation of the mean elements of Ceres.
THE last number of the Astronomische Nach-
richten, dated February 29th, contains the an-
nouncement from Dr. Belopolsky of Pulkowa
that he has obtained a series of good measures
of the motion in the line of sight of the brighter
component of 61 Cygni. The observations were
made with the 30-inch telescope. The motion
relatively to the sun is found to be —7.3 geo-
graphical miles. Assuming a parallax of 0/7.5
and a proper motion of 5.’/’2, allowing for that
SCIENCE.
475
of the sun, Dr. Belopolsky finds that the actual
motion of the star is at the rate of 7.6 geograph-
ical miles per second. The direction of the
motion in space has a position angle of 61°
and makes an angle of 140° with the line of
sight. H. J.
GENERAL.
WE have received from the Huxley Mem-
orial Committee a second donation list contain-
ing further subscriptions amounting to £761.
The total amount is now £2,300. A sufficient
sum being thus guaranteed for the fulfillment
of the two first objects of the Committee,
‘Statue’ and ‘Medal’ Sub-Committees have
been appointed to carry on the details, and de-
signs are now being prepared. For the third
object, the foundation of Exhibitions, Scholar-
ships or Lectureships has been proposed. For
this a considerable sum will be required, and
the efforts of the Committee to raise it are being
promoted by the organization of Local Com-
mittees in all parts of the world.
A BRANCH of the International Committee to:
erect the monument to Pasteur has been formed
in Washington, under the presidency of Dr. D.
KE. Salmon, of the United States Department of
Agriculture. Among’ the members are Secre-
tary Langley, Surgeons-General Tryon, Stern-
berg and Wyman, Dr. G. Brown Goode and a
representative to be appointed by each of the
scientific societies.
The series of Saturday lectures, complimen-
tary to the citizens of Washington, will be con-
tinued during the season of 1896, under the
auspices of the Joint Commission, and under
the direction of a committee consisting of W J
McGee, G. Brown Goode and J. Stanley Brown.
The addresses will be delivered in the lecture
hall of the National Museum, 4:20 to 5:30 p.
m., on the dates specified. The series of lec-
tures for 1896 has been arranged with the view
of illustrating the relations of life to environ-
ment, especially on this continent; and two
courses have been provided, the first pertain-
ing chiefly to vegetal and animal life, the sec-
ond chiefly to human life in its relations to
lower organisms as well as to the inorganic
world. The first course is as follows (the sec-
ond will be announced later):
476
March 21, The Battle of the Forest, B. E. Fernow;
March 28, The Adaptation of Plants to the Desert, F.
V. Coville; April 4, The Spread of the Rabbit, T. S.
Palmer; April 11, Insect Mimicry, L. O. Howard;
April 18, The Persistence of Functionless Structures, F.
A. Lucas.
Dr. G. F. BeckErR, of the U. S. Geological
Survey, sailed, March 14th, for Capetown, to
make an investigation of the South African gold
fields.
Mr. F. W. True, of the National Museum,
is engaged upon a study of the antlers of
American deer. His monograph of the family
of moles is just going to press.
KickINnG BEAR, one of the finest representa-
tives of the Sioux tribe, and one of the few
thoroughly typical examples of the uncontami-
nated Indian, was thoroughly modeled and
photographed at the National Museum on
March 13th, and a full figure to be clad in the
costume which he now wears on ceremonial oc-
casions will be constructed.
Dr. JoHN 8. Briirnes and Prof. Simon
Newcomb have been designated by the Secre-
tary of State to represent the United States at
the Bibliographical Conference to be held in
London at the call of the Royal Society.
ADMIRAL MAKAROFF, of the Russian Navy,
the author of a very important work upon the
currents and specific gravity of the waters of the
northwestern Pacific, during a recent visit to
Washington, at an informal meeting at the
Smithsonian Institution, on March 16th, ex-
plained his methods and results to a number of
gentlemen interested in hydrography and deep
sea explorations.
THE astronomical work of Dr. 8. C. Chandler,
of Boston, and especially his studies upon the
variations of latitude, have been recognized by
the Royal Astronomical Society of London,
which conferred upon him its gold medal at its
meeting on February 14th.
LIEUTENANT COMMANDER J. J. Brice, U. 8.
N. (retired), who has been nominated by Presi-
dent Cleveland for the position of U. S. Com-
missioner of Fisheries, is a citizen of California,
and has given much attention to the acclima-
tization of pheasants. He is interested in
angling, and was in 1891 employed under the
SCIENCE.
’
[N.S. Von. III. No. 65.
late Commissioner MacDonald to make a recon-
noissance preparatory to the establishment of
fish-cultural stations on the military reserya-
tions of the Pacific coast and the Rocky Moun-
tains. It is not understood that he makes any
claim to be possessed of proved scientific and
practical knowledge of the fishes of the coast.
A COMMEMORATIVE tablet has been placed on
a school in Passy to record the former residence
of Franklin at that place, then a suburb of
Paris. Addresses were made by M. M. Faie
and Guillois.
Pror. WILLIAM LIBBEY, of the department
of physical geography of Princeton University,
is organizing a second expedition to the
Hawaiian Islands. He will be accompanied by
a number of students and will be absent from
the close of the college year to the opening in
September.
Durine February, 13873 volumes were added
to the New York State Library, the total num-
ber of volumes in the library, including travel-
ing libraries and duplicates, being now 318,964.
THE officers for the New York Academy of
Sciences for the coming year are: President,
J. J. Stevenson ; First Vice-President, H. F.
Osborn ; Second Vice-President, R. 8. Wood-
ward ; Corresponding Secretary, D. S. Martin ;
Recording Secretary, J. F. Kemp; Treasurer,
C. F. Cox; Librarian, Arthur Hollick.
FRENCH is to be recognized as the official lan-
guage at the twelfth International Medical Con-
gress to be held at Moscow in August, 1897. At
the general assemblies speeches may be deliv-
ered in other European languages. The sec-
tional papers and discussions must be either in
French, German or Russian. The exclusion of
English will probably interfere with the at-
tendance of members from Great Britain and
America.
A SERIES of lectures has been arranged to in-
crease interest in the Inter-State park at the
Dalles of St. Croix, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
Among the lecturers are Mr. Warren Upham,
Prof. Henry L. Osborn and Prof. Conway Mac-
Millan.
TuE New York Board of Fire Underwriters,
on the basis of a report prepared by Professor
Henry Morton, of the Stevens Institute, has re-
MaRcH 27, 1896. ]
solved not to insure any building in which
acetylene gas is regularly used.
A TELEGRAM to the daily papers states that
a meteorite, said to be twenty feet in diameter,
has fallen on Pine Mountain, which is located on
the Kentucky River, about twenty-five miles
from Hindman, Ky. A house is said to have
been destroyed and the family buried beneath
the debris. While no great reliance can be
placed on such reports, the one in question per-
haps deserves investigation.
WE have received from the publishers J. U.
Kern’s Verlag, Breslau, and also from the im-
porters, Lemcke and Buechner, New York, the
first number of a new quarterly journal, Cen-
trallblatt fiir Anthropologie, Ethnologie und Urge-
schichte, edited by Dr. G. Buschan, with the co-
Operation of the leading students of anthropol-
ogy, including Dr. D. G. Brinton, Dr. Franz Boas
and Dr. W. Hoffman. The present number
contains, in additon to a preface by the editor
and a short article by Prof. Sergi, reviews of 112
books and articles.
THE Cambridge University Press has in pre-
paration, as the second volume of the Cambridge
Geographical Series, ‘The Geographical Distri-
bution of Mammals,’ by R. Lydekker.
TuE Association for Improving the Condition
of the Poor has arranged a series of lectures for
the promotion of the agricultural, horticultural
and dairy interests of Westchester county. At
Pleasantville, last week, Mr. George T. Powell
spoke on apple culture; Mr. M. V. Slingerland,
assistant entomologist at Cornell University, on
insects; Prof. J. W. Sanborn, Lower Gilmanton,
N. H., on ‘Intensive Methods of Eastern Farm-
ing,’ and Mrs. Ann B. Comstock, of Ithaca, on
flowers and their insect friends. In the neigh-
borhood of places such as Ithaca, where agricul-
tural instruction is given, improvement in
methods of farming and gardening has taken
place, and it is the object of the Association to
extend such instruction more widely.
Iv is reported that platinum in quantities
sufficient to repay mining has been discovered at
Swift Water, a small camp at the foot of Buffalo
Peek, Colo.
M. PAuL pE Humy, a French naval officer,
SCIENCE.
ATT
has invented a process for solidifying petroleum.
It is said that common oil has been converted
into a solid block as hard as anthracite coal,
and that it will burn slowly, giving off intense
heat. A ton of this fuel is said to represent
thirty times its weight of coal.
Tue Paris Society of Geography, which al-
ready possesses a large collection of photo-
graphs, requests travelers, missionaries and
others to send geographical and ethnographical
photographs, especially such as are taken in re-
mote and partly unexplored regions.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
THE annual report of President Eliot, of Har-
vard University, states that the following gifts
and bequests have been made to Harvard Uni-
versity during the past four years:
TIER eR) cosoodondbo0dsonag9500000005000000 $516,532.20
1892-93... 051,136.10
1893-94... .. 182,890.32
TIED), nonooagaqcoabocnop0o0ndoHoHos00ndC5 171,060.92
Miss MAry E. GARRETT, of Baltimore, has
endowed a second travelling fellowship of the
value of $500 at Bryn Mawr College. The
holder, who must have pursued graduate studies
for one year at Bryn Mawr College, is enabled
to study for one year at some foreign univer-
sity.
. THERE are this year 160 applicants for the
twenty-four fellowships annually awarded by
Columbia University—75 in the School of Po-
litical Science, 42 in the School of Philosophy,
and 48 in the School of Pure Science. The can-
didates in the natural and exact sciences are
distributed as follows: Mathematics, 5; me-
chanics, 1; astronomy, 2; physics, 7; electricity,
2; chemistry, 6; geology, 5; botany, 5; zoology,
9; physiology, 1; psychology, 4.
THE convocation of the University of the
State of New York will be held on the last Wed-
nesday, Thursday and Friday of June. On Wed-
nesday afternoon the subject for discussion will
be ‘Aim and Methods in Science Study in
Schools below the College,’ in which Prof. C.
B. Scott, Oswego Normal School; Prof. 5. H.
Gage, Cornell University, and Prof. C. W.
Dodge, University of Rochester, will take part.
478
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
EXPERIMENTS SHOWING THAT THE RONTGEN
RAYS CANNOT BE POLARIZED BY
DOUBLY REFRACTING MEDIA.
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: I have, to-day,
made experiments which conclusively show
that the Réntgen rays cannot be polarized by
doubly refracting substances.
On six discs of glass, 0.15 mm. thick and 25
mm. in diameter, were placed very thin plates
of Herapath’s iodo-sulphate of quinine. The
axes of these crystals crossed one another at vari-
ous angles. When the axes of two plates were
crossed at right angle no light was transmitted;
the overlapping surfaces of the plates appear-
ing black. If the Roéntgen rays be polarizable,
the Herapath crystals, crossed at right angles,
should act as lead and not allow any of the
Rontgen rays to be transmitted.
On the screen covering the photographic
plate were cemented the six glass discs carry-
ing the Herapath crystals; also, three discs of
glass overlapping so that the ROntgen rays had
to pass through 1, 2 and 38 thicknesses of the
glass. The screening of these glasses served as
standards with which to compare the action of
the rays which had passed through one thick-
ness of glass and the Herapathites. On the
screen was also placed a square of yellow blot-
ting paper, } mm. thick, on which were placed
Herapath crystals.
The screen of compressed brown paper was
impervious to two hours’ exposure to a power-
ful electric arc light.
On exposing the screen with the six discs
and paper‘square to the Réntgen rays, in three
experiments, for 4 hour, 1 hour and for 23
hours, and developing, no traces whatever could
be detected of the Herapath crystals on the
photographs of the glass dises or on that of the
paper square. The contour of the paper was
just visible, only by very careful scrutiny. The
photographs of the glass discs carrying the
Herapathites were circles of uniform illumina-
tion ; not the least mottling could be detected.
Through a magnifying glass these circles ap-
peared with a uniform grain exactly like, in
illumination and grain, the photograph of the
glass dise having nothing on its surface.
The thinness of these crystals, their powerful
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Von. III. No. 65.
polarizing property compared with their thick-
ness, and their low density of 1.8 are the reas-
ons why they do not at all screen (unlike cal-
cite and tourmaline), the Rontgen rays. These
well-known facts induced me to make these
experiments on Herapathites. They have con-
firmed in a very satisfactory manner what
Rontgen has shown by his experiments, viz.,
that the X-rays are not polarized by their pas-
sage through doubly refracting media.
ALFRED M. MAYER.
COLOR VISION AND LIGHT.
In the current number of The Psychological
Review Mrs. C. Ladd Franklin has written some
very appreciative words regarding my article
on ‘Vision’ in the new edition of Johnson’s
Cyclopedia, but takes exception in very consid-
erate terms to two points which may be worth
amoment’s attention. The first is to the state-
ment that the retinal cones are sensitive to vari-
ations of color chiefly. This was written in
connection with an enumeration of certain
optical defects common to all eyes; and, of
course, there was no intention to imply that the
cones are insensitive to that combination of
color variations which produces the sensation
of white light. Indeed, a previous sentence on
the same page may be found which does away
with all uncertainty. Nevertheless, the word
‘specially’ may very appropriately be substi-
tuted for ‘ chiefly.’
The second point is of more importance—a
protest against the implication that physicists
are satisfied with Helmholtz’s theory of vision.
My statement that ‘‘this theory, with slight
modification, is now quite generally accepted
by physicists,’? does not assert that they are
necessarily quite satisfied with it. Our opinions
are confessedly tentative in proportion to the
difficulty of settling the matter by crucial ex-
periments. Itis safe to say that no physicist
expresses his view upon this subject with any
approximation to the confidence with which he
asserts the truth of Ohm’s law in regard to
electric currents. He is compelled to base his
statement upon authority; for, as Mrs. Frank-
lin very rightly says, ‘‘the physicists have
nothing to do with a theory as to what goes on
in the retina and in the brain.’? The practical
MARCH 27, 1896. ]
question for him, therefore, is to choose between
authorities.
No scientific man who has lived during the
nineteenth century has been more successful
in widely different fields than Helmholtz. Dur-
ing the last dozen years the words physicist
and electrician have become differentiated ; but
both were applicable to him as a distinguished
representative. As a mathematician he had
few equals. All physicists regarded him as an
exceptionally strong physiologist. Whether
_ their view is shared by the. psychologists it
would perhaps not be proper for a physicist to
say. While the domain of the physicist is now
fairly well differentiated from that of the psy-
chologist, it is not yet possible to separate the
psychologist from the physiologist. If the physi-
cist has been too ready to accept Helmholtz’s
view on a purely psychological topic, he is to
some extent excusable in view of the high po-
sition attained by Helmholtz as an investigator
in subjects about which the physicist is by
special training capable of forming an opinion.
No one will maintain that Helmholtz was in-
fallible; but the aggregate of demonstrated
mistakes made by him was so small in propor-
tion to the number of important discoveries
accomplished that his record may be safely
compared with that of any living psychologist.
Upon what experiments, either crucial or
even moderately satisfactory, can the psycholo-
gist to-day base any definite conclusion as to
what goes on in the retina or in the brain dur-
ing the act of vision? Can it be confidently
said that we are yet much wiser than our grand-
fathers were in relation to this elusive problem ?
These skeptical questions are not meant to im-
ply any lack of esteem for the valuable work
which has been done in psychology, or of ad-
miration for the great ability that is at present
directed toward the solution of the difficulties
which the psychologist boldly attacks. In ac-
cepting the hypothesis of Young that three
different sets of nerves respond to the three
fundamental color sensations Helmholtz fully
recognized its uncertainty. He considered it
equally probable that each fibril might serve
for three activities completely distinct and in-
dependent of each other. (Handbuch der physio-
logischen Optik, p. 292.) This theory has been
SCIENCE.
479
found so satisfactory from the physicist’s stand-
point that it is hard to see what advantage
would be gained by rejecting it until something
else is presented that can be established on
better evidence. The case is quite analogous
to the physicist’s acceptance of the all-pervad-
ing, elastic, incompressible ether as the me-
dium through which physical energy is propa-
gated. The existence of some sort of medium
in space has to be postulated as a necessity of
thought ; its properties we infer from the phe-
nomena which are explained on the given as-
sumption. The acceptance is provisional only ;
we are ready to abandon it as soon as better
evidence is presented in behalf of some other
theory. Thus far there has not been even a
suggestion of better evidence.
If now the psychologists can all agree upon
some theory which is quite as consistent with
known facts, and which involves less violent
assumptions than does the theory of Young
and Helmholtz, the physicists will assuredly be
ready to welcome what seems to be new truth.
To criticise is much easier than to construct.
There is practical unanimity among the physi-
cists just at present, but for the psychologists
the same can by no means be said. For some
time the leading competitor of the Young and
Helmholtz theory was that of Hering—a theory
which is less simple, and based on assumptions
quite as difficult. But we are now informed
that ‘‘there is one important university in this
country in which the theories of Helmholtz
and Hering have both been definitely given up,
and particularly in the physical department.”’
Granting this, the physicists elsewhere are justi-
fied in asking what they should now accept, and
what are the positive grounds for acceptance.
Several new theories of vision have been pro-
pounded within the last few years. One is by
Ebbinghaus (Theorie des Farbensehens, 1898);
another, which is very attractive, is due to
Mrs. Franklin; and still another, by Nicati,
has been brought forward within the last few
months. This is somewhat bewildering for the
physicists, who must be modest enough to wait
until the psychologists come to an agreement
among themselves. It may be true that the
Helmholtz theory is preévolutionary and pre-
psychological ; but the physicists have their
480
hands too full to stop and examine all these
competing theories. To test them is the privi-
lege of the psychologists. Pending the estab-
lishment of some one of these new theories by an
exhibition of approximate unanimity among
the psychologists, the rest of us will be apt to
content ourselves as best we may with the the-
ory of vision that has thus far seemed no more
objectionable than its successors, and which is
fortified by the authority of the greatest Ger-
man physicist of the nineteenth century.
We are fully aware of certain facts in the
history of science that may quite naturally
be cited in this connection. The great au-
thority of Newton caused more than a century
of delay in the acceptance of the undulatory
theory of light. The modification of this the-
ory by Maxwell received but a small share of
the credit it deserved until Hertz published the
experimental evidence upon which light was
shown to be very probably an electro-magnetic
phenomenon. As soon as any new theory of
visual perception is established upon evidence
comparable with that brought out by Hertz, if
it conflicts with the Helmholtz theory of vision,
this will become of only historic interest, like
the emission theory of light. Its fate, how-
ever, has not yet been sealed.
In this connection it may be permissible to
express my hearty accordance with the views
set forth by Mrs. Franklin in a recent contribu-
tion to The Nation regarding the desirability of
greater precision in the use of the word ‘light.’
The meaning of a word is determined by cus-
tom rather than argument. But custom may
be gradually modified if those who have occa-
sion most frequently to use a special word or
form of expression will agree among themselves
to guard against ambiguity. No careful physi-
cist at present includes the ultra-violet or infra-
red ether vibrations among light vibrations.
The distinction between luminous and non-
luminous energy waves is generally accepted
and applied. But we need to habituate our-
selves to the use of the term ‘light-sensations,’
rather than ‘light,’ when reference is made to
what is carried to the brain by the optic nerve,
whether the origin of the sensation is found in
luminous, electric or mechanical energy. The
American sense of linguistic esthetics may be
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 65.
depended upon to prevent the adoption of such
cumbrous unhyphened compound words as are
tolerated by our German friends. But the
scientific demand is for clearness combined with
accuracy, for an application of the doctrine of
conservation of energy in the giving and taking
of ideas. Whatever differences may exist be-
tween the physicist and psychologist regarding
the explanation of light-sensation, they can
certainly clasp hands and agree not to deceive
each other by unnecessary vagueness in the use
of language. W. LE ConTE STEVENS.
THE PHILADELPHIA BRICK CLAYS, ET AL.
I HAD not thought there was occasion for re-
sponding to the article of Prof. G. Frederick
Wright (ScIENCE, No. 59, p. 242), until inquiry
concerning the truth of the matters touched
upon began to be made by correspondents. I
shall not now take space to state the case fully,
but only to say that the term ‘Columbia,’ as
used by Prof. Wright, and indeed as it has
been generally used in the past, is a somewhat
ambiguous one. It has been made to cover for-
mations, chiefly extra-glacial, widely separated
in time, ranging indeed from the beginning of
the glacial period nearly to the present. The
Jamesburg formation of New Jersey falls within
the limits of the Columbia, according to this
usage, but the term Jamesburg has never
been extended to the extra-morainic drift dis-
cussed somewhat fully in the New Jersey geo-
logical report of 1898. Most of the Jamesburg
deposits of New Jersey are, I take it, relatively
young, as indicated by Prof. Wright’s citation
from my report. But if I interpret rightly,
there are remnants of a much older division of
the ‘Columbia’ formation, not referred to ex-
plicitly in the report from which Prof. Wright
quotes. These remnants are in scattered
patches, and are quantitatively unimportant ;
but they are, as I believe, very significant. If
present interpretations be right, there was
very extensive erosion after the deposition of
the formation of which these patches are rem-
nants, this erosion antedating the deposition of
the great body of material which passes under
the name of ‘Columbia.’ Just where in the
complex ‘Columbia’ the ‘ Philadelphia brick
clays’ belong, is a question I have nowhere
MARCH 27, 1896. ]
discussed. While from their general position,
I haye an opinion as to their age, I have given
them too little attention to make it worth
while to express that opinion in print. I ven-
ture the suggestion, however, that the ‘brick
clays’ may be of various ages. Some of the
clays used for brick about Philadelphia
(whether ‘Philadelphia brick clays’ or not
is another question) are at low altitudes, and
are younger than the Trenton gravels, since they
overlie them. Others are at much greater alti-
tudes, and are presumptively of different, per-
haps very different age. When our work in
New Jersey is complete I shall attempt to make
as careful a correlation of the various forma-
tions, and of their various phases, as the facts
at hand shall warrant. Until that time, infer-
ences based on annual reports, which are con-
fessedly ‘reports of progress,’ are liable to be
misleading. Possibly it would be as well not
to make them.
Prof. Wright is good enough to refer to the
conclusions which I have reached, as a ‘‘ distinct
advance.’’ I, however, do not see any reason
to think that my final conclusions are likely to
be antagonistic in any important sense to the
opinions which I have heretofore held, opinions
which are in general harmony with those of
Prof. Chamberlin, whose name is brought into
the article in question. The most important
modification of my own views which has yet
taken place is the reference of a larger portion
(than formerly) of the Jamesburg to the ‘low-
level’ (younger) division.
Iam not personally qualified to speak con-
cerning the Conewango and Allegheny terraces,
to which allusion is made ; but, if I understand
the matter correctly, there has been no aban-
donment by Prof. Chamberlin and his co-
laborers of any essential position relative to the
phenomena along the Allegheny River. On the
contrary, I have been under the impression, all
along, that the detailed study of the region had
tended to confirm the essential correctness of
the position taken by Prof. Chamberlin long
ago. Ro.Liin D. SALISBURY.
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, March 9, 1896.
PRIMITIVE HABITATIONS IN OHIO.
In a recent discussion between two ethnolo-
SCIENCE.
My theory is based upon these facts:
481
gists it was advocated that all tribes living in
timbered sections constructed houses of logs,
bark or saplings, and that the tepee or skin
lodge proper was characteristic of the plains.
At Oregonia and Fort Ancient, two points in
the Little Miami Valley, in Ohio, are large vil-
lage sites upon which the sunken depressions
marking lodge sites are still discernable. One
of these areas has been under cultivation; the
other is in its natural state. Some of the de-
pressions are circular (the deeper ones), while
the others are irregular. Ashes, charcoal, pot-
tery, bones and implements are found in them
to a depth of two or three feet, indicating a con-
siderable excavation for the fireplace of each
home. Those which are circular may have as-
sumed such shape by natural agencies, as the
wash of the soil into the deepest part of the ex-
cavation.
A number of the irregular sites were exca-
vated. While the greatest quantity of refuse
was found in the center, yet the debris ex-
tended on all sides for a distance of 12 or 15
feet. The site itself would vary from 20 by 25
to 30 by 45 feet, and frequently the ashes, pot-
tery and bones were six or seven inches deep
near the outer edge.
No modern relics have been found on either
of these spots, although a careful examination
(covering many months) was made of each.
From the excavations it would appear that the
habitations were permanent. At one point,
considerably below the surface, remains of small
(ends) logs eight inches in diameter were found,
but it was hard to determine the character of
the habitation.
I am of the opinion that most of the houses
were of logs, coated with clay, thus forming
“clay domes’ after the fashion of the Mandans.
The de-
pressions, their extent and character; the fact
that the first plowing of the southern part of
Fort Ancient revealed circular embankments a
few inches high, also irregular and slightly
raised masses of reddish clay. When the lodge
decayed and fell the upper portion would natu-
rally fall into the entire space enclosed. As the
walls immediately above the base were thick,
when they fell the circular ring was formed.
The farmers also stated that the clay in these
482
eircles was in chunks and hard as if sun-dried
or slightly baked.
WARREN K. MOOREHEAD.
QUESTIONS REGARDING HABITS AND INSTINCT.
For purpose of extended comparison we wish
data as to habits, instincts or intelligence in ani-
mals, above all, minor and trifling ones not in
the books, useless or detrimental ones, and the
particular breed, species or genus showing each.
Examples; Purrings licking; washing face ;
kneading objects with forepaws, humping back,
and worrying captured prey (like the cat);
baying at moon (or otherwise); urination and
defecation habits (eating, covering up, etc.);
disposition of feeces and shells in nest; rolling
on carrion; cackling (or other disturbance) af-
ter laying; eating ‘afterbirth’ or young ; sex-
ual habits ; transporting eggs or young; nest-
sharing ; hunting—partnerships, or similar intel-
ligent associations ; hereditary transmission of
peculiar traits ; rearing young of other species
with resulting modification of instinct ; feigning
death ; suicide; ‘fascination’ and any others.
Circular of information will be sent and full
credit given for data used, or sender’s name
will be confidential, as preferred. Answer as
fully as possible, always stating age, sex, place,
date (or season), species, breed, and whether
personally observed.
G. STANLEY HALL.
R. R. GURLEY.
CLARK UNIVERSITY,
WORCESTER, MASS.
NEWLY HATCHED CHICKENS INSTINCTIVELY
DRINK.
EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In your issue of March
6, 1896, appears an excellent and accurate
note by Wesley Mills, calling attention to an
error of statement made by Prof. Morgan in
SCIENCE (issue of February 14, 1896).
With due deference to ‘The Writer of the
Note,’ who follows Mr. Mills, and who says that
Morgan’s argument is satisfactory—that ‘‘a
chick might die of thirst in the presence of
water,’’ I desire to say that this is not my
understanding of the case. I have been, dur-
ing the last thirty-five years, a breeder of fowls
as an amateur, and I have given the hatching
and rearing of chickens close and continued at-
tention.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 65.
I have repeatedly placed a shallow water
dish before the bars of a coop in which a newly
hatched brood had been placed the day previ-
ous, taken there directly from the hatching
nest, and in which they never had food or
water offered. Repeatedly, before these small
chickens, not twenty-four hours from the shell,
and before they had been offered food, I have
filled their shallow water tray, and observed
them toddle out to it, peck at it, or at once
thrust their bills into it, to drink at once by up-
lifting their heads, as all adult fowls do, the hen
never putting her head out from the bars, or
showing these young chicks how to do what
they instinctively did. I have made the same
experiments repeatedly with food, with the
same result, 7. e., that chicks instinctively drink
and eat without any example being set by
the mother hen. Henry W. ELLIOTT.
LAKEWOOD, OHI0, March 11, 1896.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
Moderne Volkerkunde, deren Entwicklung und
Aufgaben. By THomMAs ACHELIS. 1 vol., 8°,
pp. 487. Stuttgart, Ferdinand Encke. 1896.
The author of this work is a ‘doctor juris’
in Bremen, and the writer of several treatises
on the development of the modern science of
ethnology, properly so called. In the present
volume he proposes to define the true aims of
that branch of research by an investigation in
the first place of its historical development;
secondly, of its contents; and thirdly, of its
relations to other departments of knowledge.
He expressly states that the words ‘ Vélker-
kunde’ and ‘Ethnologie’ mean one and the
same science (p. 300), the aim of which is ‘to
set forth the development of mankind in its
different branches and their various stages of
culture, and thus obtain, as nearly as possible,
a correct picture of a complete and organic
whole.’ These stages of culture must be re-
garded as the constituent elements of a contin-
uous mental process or growth, and thus reveal
the unfolding of the universal human conscious-
ness.
In this manner, ethnology leads up to philos-
ophy, which thus enters into the category of the
inductive sciences, and wins for itself a sub-
MARcH 27, 1896. ]
stantial foundation in objective and experimen-
tal truth, through the lack of which, up to the
present time, it has failed to render any per-
manent and serious contributions to human
knowledge.
The author draws a sharp line between eth-
nology and physical anthropology. The for-
mer concerns itself with man exclusively as a
social being, in his relations to other men, in
his life in societies, peoples or nations; the
latter finds its proper field in studying the in-
dividual, and solely from his anatomical and
physical side, strictly excluding psychic phe-
nomena. This distinction, to which the author
rigidly adheres, is, we believe, erroneous, in-
consistent with natural relations, and a serious
blemish in this otherwise excellent construction
of ethnologic science. Modern psychology can-
not be divorced from physiology and anatomy,
neither in the individual nor in the folk; and
that Dr. Achelis so constantly underrates their
essential connections can be explained only by
the fact that his professional studies have been
legal and not medical.
In his psycho-physics, he depends chiefly
upon Wundt, unquestionably an authority of
the first rank, but whose analysis of self-con-
sciousness, and whose rejection of the capacity
of self-observation, have been amended by later
specialists in this branch. Another point of in-
completeness in his developmental theory is the
deficient appreciation he manifests of the rela-
tion of degeneration to progression. Indeed,
he would exclude retrogressive metamorphosis
from the primary factors of social evolution ;
whereas, it is an indispensable condition of such
evolution in most, if not all, instances, just as
it is in organic forms.
Having thus set forth the author’s theoretical
positions, the method of their presentment may
be considered.
The science, he argues, began with ethno-
graphic pictures, such as those offered by La-
fitau and Cook, which were worked up politic-
ally by Montesquieu, Rousseau and others,
philosophically by Herder and Schiller, geo-
graphically by Ritter and Reclus, etc. These
gave the foundation for ethnology as the sci=
ence of sociology, in which the names of Spen-
cer, Quatrefages, Bastian, F. Miller, Waitz,
SCIENCE.
483
Tyler, Post and others are familiar to most
readers. Three hundred pages of the volume
are devoted to careful epitomes of the labors of
these scholars, and then the author feels him-
self ready to present his own definition of eth-
nology and description of its aims. These have
already been briefly mentioned, and it is enough
to add that he supports them by an analysis of
the material and intellectual culture of human-
ity, such as arts, languages, religions, laws,
commerce, etc.
The third division of the treatise exhibits the
bearings of ethnology on other sciences, espe-
cially geography, archeology, history, religion, —
philosophy and sociology. It is brief, not forty
pages in all, and unsatisfactory. It showssigns
of haste and inadequate treatment, as anyone
can see by reading the three pages on anthropo-
geography.
In spite of the defects which we have freely
pointed out, the work as a whole is admirable,
breathing the spirit of advanced thought, rep-
resentative of the leading school in the study
of man, and rich in suggestions for further in-
vestigation. The style is clear, the language
forcible, and the presentation popular. It de-
serves a marked success.
The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought. (The
Child in Primitive Culture.) By ALEXANDER
F. CHAMBERLAIN, M. A., Ph. D., etc. Pp.
464. New York, Macmillan & Co. Price,
$3.00.
This work supplies a want in the literature
of folk-lore, and supplies it well. It must have
been a pleasant occupation to the author to
collect the mass of material he presents us,
from the family and folk-talk of all times and
all peoples, to illustrate how they regarded the
little creature, the child, for whom alone, in-
deed, the family has any reason of existence.
It is astonishing to note what an important
part he has played in the life and opinions of
his elders, and what diverse powers he has ex-
hibited or been credited with. Two hundred
pages of the book are filled with descriptions of
the child as a builder of society, as a linguist,
actor, poet, teacher, judge, oracle-interpreter,
weather-maker, healer, priest, hero, fetich,
divinity, God. Six chapters are filled with the
484
proverbs, sayings and saws about the child: in
its various relations to the family ; and the vol-
ume opens with three chapters replete with
attractive examples of the child’s tribute to its
mother,— delightful exemplifications of the
deep and holy impress which maternal love has
left on the soul of the race.
Childhood is spoken of as the golden age of
life, ‘a moment of God,’ ‘a time of June,’ its
days as ‘halcyon days,’ a ‘heaven on earth ;’
a belief, says the sanguine author, ‘shared alike
by primitive, savage and nineteenth century
philosopher.’ We wish, indeed, this were so;
but, alas! our own observation is that out of
a dozen persons asked, ten will tell you that
the period of their childhood was by no means
the happiest portion of their lives. In sad
truth, the golden age of childhood is as much a
popular delusion as the golden age of the
world. We think of it as such merely because
we forget the numberless little miseries which
we then endured, and which at the time were
grave and great to us.
But apart from this question of fact, about
which the author’s opinion in no wise injures the
excellence of his labors, the thorough sympathy
he has with children, their thoughts and do-
ings, beautifies his pages and renders them
charming reading as well as sovereignly in-
structive. He is no gleaner of dry stubble, but
delights in the literary and poetic sides of his
inquiry, and brings under contribution the
bards, the dramatists and the moralists of the
world. His reading has been wide, and not at
second-hand, or through translations, but in
the originals of a dozen tongues; as we might
expect from one who has already made his
mark as a comparative linguist.
A most useful bibliography of 549 titles and
two ample indexes close his volume, and add
vastly to its value to the serious student of
folk-lore. D. G. BRINTON.
Practical Inorganic Chemistry. By G. S. Tur-
pin. London and New York, Macmillan &
Co. 1895. Pp. 158+ viii.
This little book is evidently intended for the
use of pupils in secondary schools. The first
four chapters contain directions for weighing
and measuring solids and liquids, for determin-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 65,
ing specific gravity, for measuring gases and
observing their behavior under changes of
temperature and pressure. The study of
chemical action begins with an examination of
the effect of air upon different metals, In these
experiments the students find out that the bal-
ance is of very great service in interpreting the
nature of chemical changes. The results of
one experiment suggest the making of another
experiment and so the work goes on step by
step until the pupil finds it possible to separate
the active and inactive constituents of the air
and this leads him naturally to a determination
of its volumetric composition. Oxygen and
nitrogen are then studied more thoroughly and
a quantitative analysis is made of potassium
chlorate. Water and hydrogen are examined
in a similarly thorough manner, and in con-
nection with the latter the equivalent weights
of a number of the metals are determined.
Only a few of the more common nonmetallic
elements are dealt with. The chief merit of
the book lies in this, that due attention is every-
where given to the quantitative side of chemi-
cal phenomena. It is shown how with very
simple apparatus beginners can determine the
relative quantities of substances that interact,
and can acquire a knowledge of important laws
of the science. The only criticism that might be
made is that the apparatus and methods used in
some of the quantitative work, as, for instance,
in measuring gases by the volume of water dis-
placed, areso very simple that by means of them
only roughly approximate results can be ob-
tained. Animprovement in this direction would:
be made by collecting the gases in graduated
gas measuring tubes, and correcting the gas
volumes for the tension of aqueous vapor.
Taken altogether, the course of laboratory
work here given is a most excellent one. It is
refreshing to meet with a laboratory manual
that is not simply a collection of qualitative
tests for substances. This little book can be
heartily recommended to all who are engaged
in teaching elementary chemistry.
E. H. Keiser.
Chemical Experiments—General and Analytical.
By R. P, WriuxtAms. Boston, Ginn & Co.
1895.
MARCH 27, 1896.]
The author has arranged this course of chem-
ical experiments for students in high schools,
academies and colleges. In the first half of the
book the usual experiments upon the prepara-
tion and properties of the non-metallic ele-
ments are given, while the latter half consists of
a series of analytical tables giving the behavior
of solutions of metallic salts under the influence
of the various reagents. The laboratory direc-
tions in the first part are upon the whole clearly
stated, but they are marred by the excessive
use of abbreviations and formulas. For ex-
ample, in experiment 34 the student is directed
to ‘‘connect the flask with a large t. t. or with
a rec. which contains no water, and from this
t. t. or rec. have ad. t. leading to ap. t. so as
to collect the gas over water.’’ In the intro-
duction, page xi., the students are instructed to
keep notes in the following way: ‘‘I, »
put the mixture into a t. t., adjusted a d. t.,
hung it toar.s., and arranged so as to collect
the gas in recs. over water ina p. t.’’ Nearly
everywhere in the book symbols are used in-
stead of the names of substances. Surely to
encourage pupils to imitate this example is to
confirm them in slovenly habits.
Another feature of the book to which excep-
tion must be taken is that entirely too much
attention is given to ‘tests.’ The main idea
seems to be to give the ‘tests’ for each sub-
stance, and a pupil taking this course would
most likely get the idea that practical chemistry
consists in finding the ‘tests’ for various sub-
stances. There is not in the whole course a
-single experiment which serves to elucidate
any one of the fundamental laws of the science.
Such a method of teaching chemistry to be-
ginners cannot be recommended. Instead of
teaching them to distinguish ferrocyanides from
ferricyanides, tartrates from oxalates, it would
be much better for them to study the chemistry
of common things, of air, water and fire, and
this study should not be confined to the quali-
tative side of the phenomena observed. It is
not impossible to teach beginners how certain
chemical changes can be studied quantitatively
and to arrange a course of experiments for
them so that they shall acquire some knowledge
of the chief laws and principles of the science.
K. H. KEISER,
SCIENCE.
485
Einfiihrung in die mathematische Behandlung der
Naturwissenschaften. Kurzgefasstes Lehr-
buch der Differential- und Integralrechnung
mit besonderer Beriichsichtigung der Chemie.
By W. Nernst and A. ScHONFLIES. Munchen
und Leipzig, E. Wolff. 1895. Pp. xi+309.
One of the authors of this book, W. Nernst, is
professor of physical chemistry at the Univer-
sity of Gottingen; his collaborateur, Professor .
Schénflies, is attached to the department of
mathematics at thesame seat of learning. This
union of forces has been a fortunate one, for
the writers have certainly succeeded in carry-
ing out their intention of facilitating the study
of the higher mathematics for students of nat-
ural science.
The keynote of the authors’ purpose is
sounded in the following lines, which they in-
troduce in their preface as a quotation from H.
Jahn’s recent publication on electro-chemistry :
‘(Even chemists must gradually grow ‘accus-
tomed to the thought that theoretical chemistry
will remain for them a book with seven seals,
unless they shall have mastered the principles
of higher mathematical analysis. A symbol
of differentiation or integration must cease to
be an unintelligible hieroglyphic for the chem-
ist * * * if he would not expose himself to the
danger of losing all understanding of the de-
lopments of theoretical chemistry.
‘(For it isa fruitless endeavor to attempt, by
lengthy descriptions, to elucidate—even par-
tially—that, which an equation conveys to the
initiated in a single line.”’
The opening chapter discusses the principles
of analytic geometry. After a few introductory
remarks on graphic methods of presenting ex-
perimental results, and after having referred to
the axes of coérdinates, abscissa and ordinate,
quadrants, ete., loci and their equations are
considered, The circle, the parabola, the
straight line, the ellipse, receive due attention,
examples and problems being given to illustrate
the discussions.
The second chapter is devoted to the fun-
damental principles of differential calculus.
The introductory paragraph of this chapter
—on the principles of the higher mathe-
matics and the methods of consideration em-
ployed in the natural sciences—is well worthy
486
the perusal of any scientist, no matter in what
direction his interests may be enlisted.
Following this are chapters on the differenti-
ation of simple functions; integral calculus and
its applications; higher differential equations
and the functions of variables; infinite series
and Taylor’s series; the theory of maxima and
minima; solution of numerical equations; ex-
amples from mechanics and thermo-dynamics.
Collections of problems and formule precede
the index, which completes the volume.
The aim of this book is fully expressed by its
title ; its scope is indicated by,the above sum-
mary of its contents.
Although not a pioneer in this particular
field—A. Fuhrmann’s Naturwissenschaftliche
Anwendungen der Differential-rechnung was
published in 1888, the appearance of this
treatise must be pronounced most opportune.
It is certainly deserving of a cordial welcome,
and mastery of its contents can not fail to be of
great value to all who have not already appre-
ciated the important bearing. of the higher
mathematics on numerous problems of natural
science. FERDINAND G. WIECHMANN.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON—257TH
MEETING, SATURDAY, MARCH 7.
A PAPER on the Influence of Fruit-bearing
upon the Mechanical Tissue of the Twigs, by
Adrian J. Pieters, was, in the absence of the
author, read by George H. Hicks. ‘The au-
thor’s conclusions, based on a study of twigs of
the apple, pear, peach and plum were that
the one-year-old fruit-bearing shoot of the
apple and the pear has less wood in proportion
to its diameter than does the vegetative shoot
of the same age. This is due, in the apple
largely, and in the pear solely, to a great in-
crease in the cortex of the fruit-bearing shoot.
It does not, however, appear from the struc-
ture of the shoots that the fruit-bearing shoot is
weaker than the vegetative. The former is
well supplied with supplementary mechanical
tissue which is distributed at those points
where it is most needed. This gives an in-
crease of strength for the fruit-bearing year,
which fully makes up for the small difference
SCLENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 65.
in xylem. In the peach the fruit-bearing shoot
has more wood than the vegetative, and the
walls of the wood cells are as thick in the
former as in the latter.
In general it may be said that the effect of
fruit-bearing upon the tissues is local. In the
apple and pear it is felt throughout the one-
year-old shoot ; in the plum and peach it is con-
fined to a small area in the immediate neigh-
borhood of the fruit stalk.
The local effect on fruit-bearing is towards
an increase of cells and a decrease in the
thickness and lignification of the walls of the
wood cells. The cortex is especially enlarged,
giving rise in the apple and pear to the char-
acteristic swollen condition of the fruit-bearing
shoot.
Tn all cases the increase in growth is great-
est on the side near the fruit stalk, although
the wood in the apple and pear is best devel-
oped on the side of the lateral vegetative bud.
The effect which fruit-bearing exerts upon
the xylem disappears with time. The study of
apple shoots that had borne fruit in their first
year showed that in the two or four years fol-
lowing there had been a rapid increase of wood,
especially on the side of the fruit scar which
was weakest at the end of the first year. At
the end of three and five years these shoots had
a better xylem development than shoots of the
same age that had never borne fruit.
Fruit-bearing has a local effect upon the lig-
nification of the walls of wood cells. It pre-
vents their lignification wholly or in part ac-
cording to their distance from the fruit stalk.
The lignification of other cell walls is pro-
moted by fruit-bearing. In the fruit stalk the
greatest part of the tissue has become lignified,
and in the upper part of the apple and pear
shoots there is an abundance of sclerenchyma
and hard bast, which is either not found in the
vegetative shoots or only in small amounts.
Dr. E. L. Greene presented a paper on The
Distribution of Rhamnus and Ceanothus in Amer-
ica. Of the first named genus, the Kuropean
Rhamnus cathartica being its type-species, some
100 species are recognized, these being distrib-
uted all around the northern hemisphere, chiefly
within the temperate zone. In contrast with
Europe, which has 23, North America north of
MARCH 27, 1896.]
Mexico is poor in species, not more than 12 or
14 being. credited to our territory. Four of
these are of the Atlantic slope of the continent,
the rest belonging exclusively to the Pacific
slope. That narrow strip of territory interven-
ing between the crest of the Sierra Nevada and
the Pacific has more than twice the number of
Rhamnus species exhibited by all the vast area
of the United States besides. Each one of the
far-western species occupies an altitudinal belt
of its own, never trespassing upon the terri-
tory of another species; R. Californica, for ex-
ample, inhabiting the Coast Range hills, from
near the level of the sea up to an elevation of
several hundred feet. In the dry interior re-
gion lying between the two mountain chains,
R. tomentella holds the field as exclusively, this
at altitudes varying from 300 to 38000 feet.
Then, after passing the region of this shrub of
the dry interior, and reaching an altitude of
about 5,000 feet, where there is deep annual
snowfall, there occurs a narrow belt of an ex-
ceedingly distinct species, R. rubra; this shrub
being deciduous, while both its allies of the
lower altitudes are evergreen.
Ceanothus, the genus of shrubs, most nearly
allied to Rhamnus, instead of being like that,
almost cosmopolitan, is confined to North
America ; where only 4 out of the whole num-
ber of more than 60 sorts are of the Atlantic
slope ; some 6 belong to Mexico and Arizona;
all the remaining 50 occurring within the limits
of the State of California ; no fewer than 40 of
them being strictly limited to that State, where
the Coast Range seems to be the special home
of the genus.
The two eastern species, C. Americanus and
C. ovatus, which are the type of the genus, have
but one near ally, and that is the far-western
C. sanguineus. The two Floridan species, C.
microphyllus and C. serpyllifolius are in aftinity
far removed from the other Atlantic species,
and are separated from their only near relatives,
certain species of the Californian Coast Range,
by a distance of more than 2,000 miles. Again,
one species peculiar to islands near the Cali-
fornia coast is related to none of the species of
the closely adjacent mainland, but has its near
kindred more than 1,000 miles southward, in
central Mexico.
SCIENCE.
487
Frederick V. Coville spoke of Different Edi-
tions of Some Government Expedition Reports, stat-
ing that several editions of the reports of the
expeditions of Emory, Stansbury and Fremont
had been published, and that not only were
there differences in the pagination, but, in some
instances, changes in the text, these altera-
tions in some cases affecting the specific and
even generic names of plants. Anyone quoting
from these reports, the speaker said, should be
careful to ‘state exactly which edition was re-
ferred to.
F. A. Lucas,
Secretary.
THE WOMAN’S ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY.
THE 140th meeting of the Society was held
February 29th, the day being devoted to Arch-
ology. Miss Sarah A. Scull gave a talk on
the growth of Art in Egypt, Chaldea, Assyria
and Greece, and comparisons were drawn be-
tween Semitic and Aryan arts. All sections
of the Society, in their studies, are looking es-
pecially towards this point—differences in the
two families, Semitic and Aryan—and many
interesting comparisons have been drawn in the
section meetings as well as in those meetings
that have been open to the public. Miss Scull’s
remarks were illustrated by stereopticon views,
many of which were from photographs taken
by herself.
The meeting of March 14th was in charge of
the section for Child-Life study. Mrs. Eudora
Lucas Hailmann, who has devoted her life to
study of the child in the Kindergarten, pre-
sented her views on the use of symbols in early
education. In the treatment of the subject,
the address had reference entirely to children
of the age from three to seven inclusive. Nor-
mal, vigorous children of these ages do not
speculate, do not dream day dreams, do not
see sprites in the flowers, nor ogres in the
forest, unless they have been put there by older
heads. Their eager, active, healthy minds and
bodies are too much absorbed in the immediate
interesting beautiful wonders that surround
them. There is no need to stimulate their love
and admiration for life by artificial means, and
they have not reached the contemplative,
speculative age of abstract thinking. To force
©
488
this upon them at this period of development is
to make them precocious, and consequently, to
arrest development and to rush them into de-
generacy. The child, if left to himself, will
discover symbolism in nature. When it is
given to him ready made it has a tendency to
render him superstitious, eredulous and super-
ficial. During these specially sensitive years of
early childhood impressions should be pure,
clear, direct and complete. The brain, at this
period, is more susceptible and much more
active, consequently much more intensely con-
scious, that in later life, eagerly clinching every
new impression in order to make use of it in
giving expression to its own individuality,
which has become firmly rooted in the loves
and lives of its environment. The thought
centers for this period should be full of instruc-
tion and abound in beautiful sentiment.
There is current a doctrine that in each child
there are repeated the various phases of devel-
opment in the life of humanity. It should be
remembered, however, that the earlier stages
of development, through which the child must
pass, are meant, by the very laws of evolution,
to sink into rudimentary conditions. To em-
phasize them must result in arrested develop-
ment and retard the progress of the race.
Education should treat them in such a way as
to reduce to a minimum their influence in the
life of the child and to assist him to use all his
strength in living intelligently toward the ideals
of the race. The crudities and superstitions
transmitted to us in the myths and allegories of
past ages can stimulate only crudity and super-
stition in the minds of little children whose
mental development is not sufficient to enable
them to see and appreciate their latent truth and
beauty. To force such myths and allegories upon
children at too early an age will, on the one
hand, subject them in later years to painful
struggles to overcome morbid tendencies, and,
on the other hand, will blunt their sensibilities
to the truth, beauty and love in their environ-
ment. Moreover, when persons tell such myths
and allegories to little children they labor to
adapt them to the children’s understanding, in
what they call simpler language, and mar both
the story and the child. A. CARMAN,
Secretary.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 65.
THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF
PHILADELPHIA, PA., FEBRUARY 10, 1896.
A paper entitled ‘Summary of New Liberian
Polydesmoidea,’ by O. F. Cook, was presented
for publication.
General Isaac J. Wistar called attention to
the apparently capricious distribution of iron
oxide as coloring matter in the rocks of the
anthracite coal region. A section in Lykens
Valley, for example, shows a thick stratum of
red shalé below the carboniferous series. It is
overlaid by thin green sandstones, the color
of which is due to another oxide of the same
metal. Upon this rests the thick masses of the
Pottsville conglomerate, a white quartzite which
shows no coloration from iron, except perhaps
a slight external tinge on the enclosed quartz
pebbles. Above the conglomerate we find in-
tercalated among the sand stones of the coal
measures sixteen coal seams of varying thick-
ness, of which the lowest three show a red ash,
several below them a white ash, while the upper
three return to a red or pink ash. Above the
coal measures there are no signs of iron colora-
tion until, in other localities, the Trias is
reached, when we find the red coloring as pro-
nounced as in the carboniferous shales.
These several strata cover a long period in
geological history and exhibit the following
phenomena: During the red shale period the
presence of iron oxide was sufficient to give a
high color to the entire deposits. During the
still longer period of the conglomerate the
available iron, having been all distributed in the
red shale, did not appear at all and the con-
glomerate beds show none. In the deposit of
the three lowest seams a fresh supply of iron
appears, enough to color their mineral con-
stituents red. Then ensued a long series of
coal seams containing little or no iron, to
be followed by several red-ash seams near
the top of the series. There is then an en-
tire absence of iron in sufficient quantity to
color the rocks, until, when the Triassic period
occurs, evidences of the universal distribution
of iron oxide are more abundant than ever.
These facts appear to show several points
during which the accessible supply of iron was
exhausted by complete distribution in the strata
MARCH 27, 1896.]
under process of deposit, with intermediate and
subsequent periods during which new supplies
appear from some source not yet clearly ex-
plained.
Prof. Amos Peaslee Brown stated that it had
been suggested by Russell that the red color of
certain formations may have originated from
the subaérial decay of iron-bearing rocks and
the subsequent deposit of this material as sedi-
ment forming the red rock. Such rocks as con-
tain iron, especially limestone and the meta-
morphic schists, would weather in the atmos-
phere to reddish clays, and during periods
when denudation of the surface was not active,
or when the land remained at constant level,
such weathered accumulations could form to
considerable depths. A rise of land level would
cause denudation of this accumulated red soil
and result in deposit elsewhere. The periods
preceding the formation of the Mauch Chunk
red shale and the New Red or Trias were
such periods of quiescence and they were
followed, in the first case locally and in the sec-
ond generally, by elevation of land causing de-
nudation to be set up and accumulation of red
clays to be formed.
So far as the ash of coal is concerned, it is
probable that the color is due to the way in
which pyrite is contained either in the coal
itself or in the slates adjoining. Coal contain-
ing separable pyrite would give white ash,
while if the pyrite is intimately mixed in the
coal the ash will be red.
The subject was further discussed by Messrs.
Heilprin, Willcox, Goldsmith and Lyman.
Mr. Jos. Willcox and Prof. Angelo Heilprin
commented on the evolutionary value of the
large collection of Fulgurs presented at the last
meeting, the former claiming that about twenty-
five species had been reduced, by the presence of
complete series of intermediate forms, to three
or four. Epw. J. NoLan,
Secretary.
NEW YORK SECTION OF THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY,
MARCH 6, 1896.
THE papers presented were:
The Cassel-Hinman Gold and Bromin Process:
P. C. McILHIney.
SCIENCE.
489
The Specific Gravity of Glue Solutions: E. R.
Hewitt.
Investigations in the Chemistry of Nutrition: W.
O. ATWATER.
Mr. Mcllhiney enumerated the advantages of
bromin over chlorine in the gold extraction pro-
cess, as (a) greater solubility in water of bromin,
3.2 per cent. against 0.76 per cent. of chlorine;
(b) lesser oxidizing power, whereby the iron
pyrites is less acted upon; (c) greater solvent
power of bromin for gold.
The bromin is recovered by distillation with
live steam in stone tanks, after addition of sul-
phuric acid and an oxidizing agent, as perman-
ganate of potash.
The process is especially adapted to the
treatment of low grade telluride ores which
have not hitherto been profitably worked.
Mr. Hewitt in his work on specific gravity of
glue solutions had obtained his results from ex-
periments on twelve different grades of glue,
from the best photographic gelatine to the
darkest and poorest grades in the market. He
finds the expansion of glue solutions to be the
same as water alone; that the specific gravity
of glue containing moisture is less than of glue
in the dry state; that the hydrometer could
not be used in solutions containing over 65 per
cent. glue, and that the specific gravity is in-
dependent of the quality of the glue.
He concludes that there is a series of distinct
chemical combinations of glue with water.
Dr. Atwater described the recent work under
his direction at Middletown, Conn., in deter-
mining the heats of combustion or fuel values
of foods. He said that ‘we know the laws of
the conservation of energy hold good in the
living organism, but we do not yet know how
they held good. We must study these things
in the living organism, and for this purpose a
‘respiratory calorimeter’ has been constructed
of copper, large enough for a man to remain in
for some time, and by which the experimental
determination of heat of radiation, energy of
food consumed, ete., is to be carried out.’
Experiments lasting four days had recently
been made, and it was expected to arrange to
keep a man in the apparatus by the week.
Hight attendants were required to conduct
these experiments, four by day and four by
490
night, keeping temperature records, weighing
the food, making analyses, etc.
In reply to questions as to effect of food on
the quality of the fat, Dr. Atwater stated that
experiments made on dogs had conclusively
proved that the fat formation is a function of
both the organism and the food.
DURAND WOODMAN,
Secretary.
GEOLOGICAL CONFERENCE OF HARVARD UNIVER-
SITY, FEBRUARY 18, 1896.
1. An Occurrence of Theralite in Costa Rica. By
J. E. Wourr. To be published in Amer.
Jour. Sci., April, 1896.
2. The Harvard Meteorological Stations in Peru.
By R. DEC. WARD.
In 1887 a considerable sum of money was left
to Harvard College Observatory by the will of
Mr. Uriah A. Boyden, to aid in the establish-
ment of an observatory ‘‘at such an elevation
as to be free, so far as practicable, from the im-
pediments to accurate observations which occur
in the observatories now existing, owing to at-
mospheric influences.’? In order to select the
best possible location for the new observatory,
expeditions were undertaken, in 1888 and 1889,
to Colorado and California, where astronomical
work of various kinds was done at a number of
different places. None of the stations thus tem-
porarily occupied proved entirely satisfactory,
and it was finally decided to establish the new
station in Peru, where Messrs. S. I. and M. H.
Bailey had, in the mean time, obtained some
excellent results in connection with astronomical
work done by them for the Harvard College
Observatory on Mt. Harvard, in Peru. The
expedition which was sent out to build the new
observatory left the United States, under the
direction of Prof. Wm. H. Pickering, in De-
cember, 1890, arriving at its destination the
middle of the following January.
The meteorological advantages for astronom-
ical work in the region selected for occupation
are very great. The temperature seldom falls
below 40° and seldom rises above 75°. The
rainy season is very short, and but little rain
falls, generally less than four inches. Novem-
ber marks the beginning of the cloudy season;
December is fairly clear, and January to March
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. IL. No. 65.
are cloudy and rainy. During the rest of the
year the atmosphere is very dry, and the sky
prevailingly clear. In the rainy season it by no
means rains every day, there being often a week
or a fortnight during which no rain falls. The
excessive dryness of the climate, in which vege-
tation is maintained only by constant irrigation,
the short rainy season and the small amount of
cloudiness combine to make this a most favor-
able region for astronomical work.
There are at present eight meteorological
stations in Peru, maintained by the Harvard
College Observatory. The principal one is at
Arequipa, where the observatory is situated at
an altitude of 8,050 feet above the sea, and
about 80 miles from the coast. The city itself
is situated in a little oasis formed by. a river
valley at the foot of the Cordillera, a little -
above the lower-lying desert. At Mollendo,
on the seacoast, there is a meteorological sta-
tion 85 feet above sea level. Between Mol-
lendo and the main station at Arequipa, another
station has been established, at La Joya, about
in the center of a rainless, barren region, and
at an elevation of 4,140 feet. The most inter-
esting station of all is that on the summit of
the volcano El Misti, 19,200 feet above the sea,
lying northeast of Arequipa, about ten miles
distant. This station, established after much
hardship and maintained with considerable dif-
ficulty, is now the highest meteorological sta-
tion in the world. Mr. 8. P. Fergusson, of
Blue Hill Observatory, Massachusetts, has re-
cently constructed a meteorograph for the
Misti, which records automatically temperature,
pressure, humidity, and wind direction and
velocity, and will run three months without
rewinding. This instrument will obviate the
necessity of the frequent visits now made to
the summit by the observers at Arequipa.
The other stations are as follows: Flank of
El Misti, 15,700 feet, about the altitude of Mont
Blane; Alto de los Huesos, 13,400 feet, a high
desert plateau east of El Misti; Cuzco, between
the eastern and western Andes, 16,100 feet,
and Santa Ana, east of the Andes, in the
Urubamba Valley, 3,400 feet above the sea.
This continuous line of stations, reaching from
the coast inland over 350 miles, and including
such great altitudes as the summit and flank of
MARCH 27, 1896.]
El Misti, is equalled nowhere else in the world,
and the results which the data there collected
will furnish are certain to be of the greatest
importance to meteorology.
MARCH 3, 1896.
Geography and Geology for Training and Elemen-
tary Schools. By R. E. DopGE.
A teacher in a training school for teachers
has before him a double task, especially if his
subject be one that can also be taught to the
children. The teacher of geography and geol-
ogy has such a specialty, and hence the re-
quirements upon his abilities are somewhat
general and diversified. He must, on the one
hand, give to the students preparing under his
guidance to become teachers, such a scientific
understanding of the principles of the sciences
that they can go out into active teaching well
equipped for their work. On the other hand,
he must see that the children in the elementary
schools, which are now usually attached to
training schools for purposes of observation and
practice by the would-be teachers, are given the
principles of geography and geology in a way
that best illustrates the principles of matter
and method he is presenting to his students.
In both cases he should recognize that the mat-
ter presented should be scientifically treated
and scientifically accurate, the method of pres-
entation varying so as always to be adapted to
the minds of the pupils.
The would-be teachers must, from the usual
inadequacy of their previous training, be well
drilled in the principles of the sciences before
they are given conceptions of the methods of
adapting the matter of. the sciences to the
younger children. The scientific spirit of in-
terest and inquiry and of rational imagination
should be developed as strongly as possible, that
the teacher may impart such a spirit to the
pupils under her, no matter what their age.
Inasmuch as geography is the most important
of all the sciences to be taught in the schools,
the teacher should be given only so much geol-
ogy as would make her best understand the
principles of geography. The treatment of
geography should give the facts, related in a
rational and scientific way, so that she gains
not only matter, but the ability to adapt to her
SCIENCE.
491
own needs any matter that she may be called
upon to use.
A teacher thus equipped, scientifically, so
that she understand the underlying principles
of geography, physical, political, descriptive
and commercial, can adapt herself to the con-
ditions she meets, so as to become more than a
repeater of the matter contained in text-books.
Text-books then become, as they should be,
suggestive sources rather than complete reposi-
tories of matter.
If the principles of geography are presented
to the children in the same scientific way, so as
to arouse them to observation and investiga-
tion, their interest is at once increased, the
whole science becomes alive to them, and they
are eager to go on and to learn more.
A course in geography for schools should be
graded, scientific, and framed so as to impart
an understanding of and a love for nature. It
should begin with a conception of the processes
shown in the daily and seasonable changes
about the home. With that as a basis, the
child can be lead to an understanding of the
other parts of the world, both similar and dis-
similar, and becomes more appreciative of the
form and meaning of the earth’s features. By
building little by little upon such a beginning,
the pupil can, in the eight years previous to the
high school, gain a conception of the relation
of man to the geographic features, such as can
be rarely if ever given by the method of teach-
ing geography as something to be memorized.
In a course that includes geography, in its
many aspects, botany, zodlogy and meteorology,
it is possible to give the child a large amount
of locative and descriptive geography, and an
understanding of the reasons for the customs,
habits and development of the great nations ;
for the routes of commerce and explorations,
etc., etc. In this way the child gains an un-
derstanding of the world and an ability to in-
terpret the world for himself, that will be of
great service to him even after he has forgotten
many of the details that he may have memo-
rized. He gets an ability to make use of his
powers in adapting himself to new conditions,
such as he could never get were the science
only taught as a subject for memorizing and not
for reasoning.
492
In the whole course for teachers, if the mat-
ter, method and the scientific spirit be kept in
mind, the teachers go to their work with a
liking for it which is not gained otherwise. A
course in geography for teachers and children
along the lines suggested above has been planned
and is now in operation in the Teachers’ Col-
lege, New York City, and though it is in its
first year of operation the result is very pleas-
ing, and the promise for future good results is
most encouraging. The constantly increasing
interest, as well as understanding, of the chil-
dren shows that the conception that physical
geography can not be profitably given to young
children, is erroneous. If it is given in a way
to arouse them to thought it becomes a means
of drill that is of great service, and that de-
velops more of their powers than if they were
simply required to do a lot of memorizing of
description and location, without any scientific
underlying thread connecting the various topics
considered.
Experiments imitative of Glacial Esker and Sand-
Plain Formation. By C. W. DoRsEY.
A preliminary account was given of a series
of experiments performed under the direction
of Mr. T. A. Jaggar in the Laboratory of Ex-
perimental Geology. The object of the experi-
ments is to reproduce in miniature the condi-
tions of delta deposition at the mouth of a sub-
glacial cavern, with a view to systematic study
of the conditions that govern the form of deltas,
the arrangement of bedding in cross-section,
the development of lobate margins and the in-
fluence of variations in stream velocity, coarse-
ness of material and water level. The appa-
ratus used consists of a tin half-tube whose
cross-section has the form of an inverted U, and
this is longitudinally bent into somewhat ser-
pentine form, to imitate a subglacial stream
cavern; a funnel soldered at its upper end sup-
plies load, and a rubber tube from the hydrant
supplies the current. Thin sheet ‘lead is bent
over this apparatus to represent roughly the form
of a glacier front, and the whole is arranged in
a large square tank. On starting the current,
sand, fine gravel and mixtures of sand with
plaster are fed into the funnel and are deposited
in a fan delta at the cavern’s mouth. The
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 65.
structures obtained may be photographed at
any stage, and at the end of each experiment
the imitation cavern is removed to show the de-
posit that represents the feeding esker. On
slicing the deltas horizontally and vertically the
progressive stages of growth are beautifully
shown by the white plaster layers, and in this
way migration of the lobes and of the frontal
scarp of the delta, as well as the arrangement
of cross-bedding, back-set beds, etc., may be
traced. An attempt with ice is in preparation,
to test the effect of the melting away of the ice
on the resultant forms.
The results of these experiments will be of-
fered for publication in the near future, prob-
ably in the Journal of Geology.
T. A. JAGGAR, JR.,
Recording Secretary.
NEW BOOKS.
The Life and Letters of George John Romanes-.
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Curtis. New York, D. Appleton & Co.
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St. Louis. 1896. Pp. 49.
Laboratory Experiments in General Chemistry.
CHARLES R. SANGER. St. Louis. 1896.
Pp. 59.
Dr. GOTTLOB
1896. Pp.
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SCIENCE
1
EDITORIAL CoMMITTEE : S. NEwcomB, Mathematics; R. S. WooDWARD, Mechanics ; E. C. PICKERING, As-
tronomy ; T. C. MENDENHALL, Physics; R. H. THurston, Engineering ; IRA REMSEN, Chemistry ;
J. L ContE, Geology; W. M. DAvis, Physiography; O. C. MARSH, Paleontology; W. K. BROooKs,
Invertebrate Zodlogy ; C. HART MERRIAM, Vertebrate Zoology ; S. H. ScUDDER, Entomology ;
N. L. Brirron, Botany ; HENRY F. OsBorn, General Biology ; H. P. BowbiTcuH,
Physiology ; J. S. Bintines, Hygiene ; J. MCKEEN CATTELL, Psychology ;
DANIEL G. BRINTON, J. W. POWELL, Anthropology ;
G. BRowNn Goops, Scientific Organization.
Fripay, Apri 3, 1896.
CONTENTS :
Eapedition to Seriland: W J MCGEE..........0.00++ 493
Note on the Permanence of the Rutherfurd Photo-
graphic Measures: HAROLD JACOBY.............+. 505
Annual Reception and Exhibit of the New York
Academy of Sciences: T. H. WADE..........-0.06+ 507
Current Notes on Anthropology :—
The Indian as a Farmer; Racial Psychology -
DA EMBBUNTONe esssuscasisacsse se cncctconercuanasy ee 509
Scientific Notes and News .............ccssecoecoecceceecsecs 510
University and Educational News :—
Graduate Scholarships and Fellowships in the Uni-
versity of Pennsylvania ; Gleneral...........cceeseeee eee 512
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Certitudes and Illusions: M. Principles of Marine
Zobgeography: THEO. GILL. Réntgen Ray Experi-
ments: DAYTONC. MILLER. The Inverted Im-
age on the Retina: C.L. F. Necessary and Suffi-
cient Tests of Truth: M. M. The Temperature
of the Earth’s Crust: ELLEN HaAyEs. The
Prerogatives of a State Geologist: ERASMUS HA-
VANOLEIN fo. conacgaoodooce ansbocuadcasonon;ocenDGaCaBEdOFOBUORCd 513
Seientific Literature :—
Bangs on the Weasels of Eastern North America:
C. H. M. Clarke’s Report on the Field Work in
Chenango County, N. Y.: C.S. PRosseR. Hol-
mans Logarithms: HERBERT A. Howe.......... 525
Scientific Journals :-—
The American Journal of Science; The American
Chemical Journal ; PsyChe.....11.scecceccoeceeeccseseees 527
Societies and Academies :—
New York Academy of Sciences: Section of Biol-
ogy: C. L. BRistoL. Section of Geology: J. F.
Kemp. Anthropological Society of Washington :
J. H. McCormick. Geological Society of Wash-
ington: W.F. MORSELL. - Academy of Natural
Sciences of Philadelphia: Epw. J. NOLAN.
Boston Society of Natural History: SAMUEL
HENSHAW. Academy of Science of St. Louis:
IWILLEAM TR REL WASH esi ce eee cWaetcllcaseces ces 529
MSS. intended for publication and books ete., intended
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
EXPEDITION TO SERILAND.*
By the Spanish explorers and evangels,
most of the territory lying west of the Si-
erra Madre and south of Gila river, in what
is now western Sonora and southwestern
Arizona, was called Papagueria, or land of
the Papago Indians. The eastern and
northern boundaries of the area were fairly
defined, but the western boundary was
vague. Toward the mouth of Colorado
river the Papago country was separated
from the Gulf of California by an arid tract
of voleanic debris known as Malpais, a tract
too utterly barren for habitation, traversed
by the Indians only on annual pilgrimages
to the coast for salt. Toward the south,
Papagueria was separated from the Gulf,
midway of its length, by the land of the
Seri Indians, a tract peculiarly protected
from invasion by natural conditions and de-
fended against invaders by a warlike people.
As exploration and evangelization grew
into settlement, the Spaniards affiliated
with the natives, and a Mexican population
and culture pushed into Papagueria; and
to-day most of the valleys occupied of old
by the Papago Indians are given over to
Mexican villages, ranches, and stock ranges,
only scattered groups of the aboriginal land-
holders remaining in Sonora, though their
tenure is better maintained in Arizona.
With the conquest of Papagueria, explorers
*Read before the Philosophical Society of Washing-
ton, February 15, 1896.
494
pushed over the Malpais and a difficult trail
was laid to California, then essentially a
part of Mexico; and later, as American en-
terprise pushed toward the Pacific, another
trail was pushed out, in part along the older
one, and trod by pioneers until better routes
were found along the Gila and further
northward. The trails, Mexican and Amer-
ican, pass by the only known waters of the
Malpais ; and knowledge of the few widely
separated tinajas* and springs was bought
at the price of many lives. But while the
Malpais was thus explored, albeit at great
cost, Seriland was protected by a barrier
desert and its savage owners so completely
that the tide of exploration was practically
checked ; and Seriland remained unknown,
save as to its coast, and except in a vague
way as the home of a blood-thirsty tribe
from time immemorial.
During the autumn of 1894 an expedition
was conducted by the Bureau of American
Ethnology through Papagueria and into the
border of the Seri country for purposes of
ethnic and collateral research ; during the
past autumn an expedition of related aim
was conducted along other lines through
Papagueria and into Seriland, which was
thus for the first time explored and surveyed
with some degree of thoroughness. The pri-
mary purpose of the later expedition was
the making of collections representing the
habits and customs, and especially the mari-
time life of the Seri Indians; but so far as
practicable, advantage was taken of the op-
portunity for observation in other directions,
not only in the Seri country, but through-
out Papagueria. Some of the lines of ob-
servation may be indicated briefly.
*Tinaja, as used by Spanish Americans, is a natural
bowl or bowl-shape cavity, specifically the cavity be-
low a waterfall, especially when partly filled with
water ; in a more general way it is extended to tem-
porary pools, springs too feeble to form streams, etc.
In its specific application it has no equivalent in, and
would bea desirable addition to, the English lan-
guage.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vox. III. No. 66.
GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY.
The territory traversed by the two expe-
ditions may be conceived as a great plain
sloping southwestward from the foothills of
the Sierra Madre to the Gulf of California,
relieved by occasional rugged mountain
ranges generally trending parallel with the
high Sierra which divide the plain into a
succession of lesser plains or broad valleys ;
and the great plain must be conceived as
undulating somewhat, the chief irregularity
being the subcontinental divide coincid-
ing approximately with the international
boundary.
The region is extremely arid, the annual
rainfall averaging probably less than five
inches, and perhaps less than two inches
throughout the western half of the area.
Streams gather in the mountain gorges, and
those heading in the Sierra unite to form a
few rivers ; but as the waters push out over
the plain they are partly evaporated, partly
absorbed by the dry earth, so that even the
highest freshets never reach the sea; and
most of the streams flow only a few miles or
at most a few scores of miles, and this only
during the rainy seasons or after sporadic
storms.
The mountains, especially the minor
ranges of the Sierra, are notable for rugged-
ness and steepness of profile; they are re-
markable also in that they usually rise from
the plain abruptly or with relatively in-
conspicuous intermediate slopes—asa clever
writer expresses it (picturesquely, but mis-
takenly, except in appearance) they are ‘as
men buried to the neck.’ The mountain
ranges are either naked rocks or steep talus
slopes of coarse debris, supporting a scant
sub-desert vegetation which increases in
abundance toward the summits; the rocks
being either metamorphic sedimentaries
probably of Mesozoic age, or somewhat
younger volcanics, a few nucleal ridges be-
ing granitoid. The broad intermontane
plains are made up in part of alluvial or
APRIL 3, 1896. ]
torrential debris, fine at the lower levels,
coarser toward the bounding foot-hills and
ranges, though it is remarkable, and indeed
paradoxical, that they consist in large part
of the planed edges of hard rock strata such
as form the adjacent mountains; the sur-
face of the plain, whether built or carved,
being sparsely dotted with trees and shrubs
of sub-desert habit. Toward the coast the
plains lie but little above and in some cases
apparently below sea-level, and are com-
posed of marine sediments, sometimes
abundantly charged with recent shells ;
when the surface is usually a succession
of playas and sand dunes.
Seriland is an exceptionally mountainous
portion of the great westward-sloping plain,
lying near the line along which it dips be-
neath the waters of the gulf; indeed a part
of this staunch little dominion lies beyond
the general coast line and is separated from
the mainland by a narrow strait, itself the
precise homologue of the upland intermon-
tane valleys save that it is occupied by tide
water and faintly sculptured by waves and
tidal currents. The main insular portion
of the territory is Tiburon Island, about
500 square miles in area; the continental
portion is some 2500 square miles in area;
and a few small islands adjacent to Tiburon
and the Sonoran coast belong to the same
natural district, and are held by the Seri
Indians. Tiburon Island comprises half a
dozen ranges, major and minor, the higher
peaks rising from 3000 to 4000 feet above
tide; in its principal interior valley there is a
feeble stream, gathering among the higher
peaks and wasting within a few miles, be-
sides some half dozen tinajas and springlets.
Sonoran Seriland is also mountainous, the
culminating peak rising about 5000 feet
above tide, and contains a feeble permanent
spring and two or three water holes in
which the water is brackish. Of the entire
area south of Gila river and west of the
Sierra, about four-fifths may be classed as
SCIENCE.
495
plain, one-fifth as mountains; but in Seri
land more than two-fifths and probably
three-fifths must be classed as mountains,
leaving only a moderate fraction to be
classed as plain. This mountainous tract
is separated from Papagueria by a broad
waterless zone of playas and sand dunes,
abounding in partially fossilized shells.
It is to this desert barrier, 20 to 40 miles
across, that the isolation, and appar-
ently many of the characteristics, of the
Seri Indians are due; for it is a natural
boundary, one of the most trenchant and
effective on the Continent, practically im-
passable without special training, and so
conditioned as to be easily defended along
the inner margin in case of invasion.
When the mountains and intermontané
plains of Papagueria and Seriland are ex-
amined in detail, certain peculiarities ap-
pear: As already observed, the mountains
are notable for ruggedness and the plains
for flatness nearly or quite to the mountain
bases ; again, the parallel ranges are found
to be occasionally united by cross bars, so
that a common form of mountain plan may
be likened to the letter H ; still further, it is
found that the larger arroyas and rivers
seldom follow the axes of the valleys, but
usually flow athwart them and frequently
traverse the bounding ranges in narrow
gorges opening toward the gulf, while many
southward-flowing streams head on the
northern sides of the cross-bar ranges
through which they pass in youthful can-
yons. Onassembling these peculiarities, they
are found to point toward two successive
sets of geologic conditions: The distribu-
tion of the minor ranges with their trans-
verse connections, coupled with the fact
that a large part of the area of the inter-
montane plains is planed, indicates that the
region was formely a plateau which main-
tained its altitude and attitude until the
feeble sub-desert streams degraded the
greater part of the mass, leaving only the
496
harder ledges and broader divides as rem-
nantal ranges; while the incongruity of the
modern waterways indicates that, after as-
suming this general configuration, the tract
was tilted southwestward in such manner
as to stimulate the streams flowing in this
direction and paralyze those flowing north-
eastward, and thus to produce a general
migration of divides. These indications
may perhaps be misleading, or may have
been misinterpreted ; and the abrupt tran-
sition from rugged mountain slope to planed
base-level is an attendant feature which re-
quires explanation before the interpreta-
tion can be regarded as final. The re-
searches relating to this subject are not
complete, but both Mr. Willard D. John-
son, of the later expedition, and the writer
have collected data bearing on the subject.
Among other data may be mentioned an
admirable section exposed along the gulf
shore from Kino bay to San Miguel point
(some 20 miles), in which the relations be-
tween rugged range, planed base-level, and
torrential plain are clearly shown.
Mr. Johnson carried forward a planeta-
ble survey throughout Papagueria and Seri-
land, which will not only yield the first
trustworthy map of the region, but will
serve as a basis for the representation and
interpretation of the geology. *
METEOROLOGY.
Throughout the expeditions of 1894 and
1895, noninstrumental observations were
made on winds, clouds, precipitation, frosts,
etc., and noted with considerable care, with
the view of determining the influence of
these elements of the weather on geologic
process, on the flora and fauna, and on the
human population, native and introduced.
These notes, made incidentally at a con-
stantly shifting base and for short periods
* A preliminary impression of the Seriland portion
of the map will appear in The National Geographic
Magazine for April, 1896.
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. IIT. No. 66.
only, would be of little value in a region
adequately supplied with meteorologic sta-
tions, but acquire some value from the dearth
of observations in the district to which they
pertain, particularly since this district aids
in shaping the weather conditions prevail-,
ing over a considerable area in southwest-
ern United States. Prof. Cleveland Abbe
has signified a desire to publish the notes
in an early number of the Monthly Weather
Review of the United States Weather Bu-
reau, and the material will thus be made
accessible to meteorologists. The notes ac-
quire value also from the close relation be-
tween weather and life in this region.
It may be observed in brief that the chief
weather characteristic of the region is arid-
ity, the rainfall being limited in quantity
and irregular in distribution ; there are two
nominally rainy seasons, in July-August
and January-February, respectively, but
rains sometimes occur at other times, while
precipitation often fails during these sea-
sons; but whether rain falls or not, these
are seasons of greater or less humidity of
the air, so that the flora is vivified semi-an-
nually, whereby many species are undoubt-
edly enabled to survive the seasons of
drought. The second weather characteris-
tic is heat, especially at lower altitudes ; the
summers are oppressive for men and ani-
mals, the winters no more than pleasantly
cool—the weather in Seriland may be in-
ferred from the fact that, while these In-
dians have words for rain and _ hail, they
have none for ice, snow, or frost. Another
characteristic is the dearth of clouds, and
the consequent intensity of light and fervid-
ness of insolation by which the skins of men
and animals are undoubtedly, and the habits.
of certain plants apparently, affected. To-
ward the coast, fogs are not uncommon in.
the autumn, and are said to occur at other
seasons ; this weather condition appears to
affect the flora for 10 to 50 miles inland,
according to the local configuration. The
APRIL 3, 1896.]
relations between weather and the life of
the region, human and sub-human, are thus
manifold—indeed not only the superficial
but the fundamental characteristics of the
living things, the very laws of individual
and collective development, are largely
traceable to weather conditions ; but in a
summary statement it is impossible to do
more than suggest the bearing of the re-
searches relating to this subject.
ARCH HOLOGY.
During the earlier expedition it was as-
certained that prehistoric works abound
throughout much of Papagueria; during
the later journeys the observations on this
subject were extended. In almost every
valley containing sufficient water to sup-
port a population howsoever limited, ruins
of ancient villages, remains of irrigation
works, etc., are found ; the only exceptional
valleys being those in which modern civili-
zation is so extensive as to destroy the more
conspicuous traces of earlier culture. More-
over, the prehistoric ruins are in general
more extensive than the modern villages,
while the ancient irrigation works and
fields are carried further up the valley-sides
than the modern acequias and farms, indica-
ting that the ancient agriculture was the
more extended. The artifacts found in the
ancient villages prove that the prehistoric
people were potters and that their fictile
ware was somewhat finer in quality than
that manufactured by the modern Papago;
that they were a peaceful folk, using stone
axes, mortars and pestles, hammers, foot-
balls, ete.; that they had temples or other
dominant structures more elaborately fur-
nished than their ordinary dwellings ; and
there is fairly clear indication that they
corralled a small domestic animal, but
that they were without larger stock such as
was later introduced by the Spaniards. As-
sociated with these ancient relics of well-
known kinds there is a distinctive class of
SCIENCE.
497
ancient works known generally among the
Mexicans as ‘las trincheras’ (entranched
mountains ), usually found in the immediate
vicinity of fertile valleys and especially
characteristic of portions of these valleys
now, as in prehistoric times, especially
adapted to settlement. Commonly the site
is a steep-sided butte or isolated mountain
several hundred feet high, and the work it-
self is a rough and rather irregular wall of
loose stones circumscribing the butte near
its summit ; sometimes the walls are mul-
tiplied or built out into bastions, particu-
larly on the gentler slopes, and they may be
interrupted where the slopes are precipitous.
The walls support either narrow pathways
or broad terraces on which house-circles are
sometimes found ; and along and within the
walls the ground is frequently sprinkled with
potsherds and wasters of foreign rock. No
granaries or reservoirs have been found
within the enclosures, nor is there anything
to indicate permanent or long-continued
occupancy.
Specially noteworthy examples of this
class of works were carefully surveyed dur-
ing the recent expedition, near San Rafael
de Alamito, in Magdalena Valley, 35 miles
southeast of Altar; the two principal buttes
being known specifically as ‘Las Trin-
cheras,’ or as ‘Trinchera’ and ‘ Trin-
cherita.’ The larger butte, nearly amile long
and 650 feet high, is terraced from bottom to
top half way round, and on the other side is
walled and terraced in part; the smaller is
similarly terraced most of the way round.
The retaining-walls or revetments are mas-
sive and in some cases fully 20 feet in
height, and are usually carried from two to
five feet above the terrace in the form of
breastworks, while free walls of equal
height are distributed over the gentler
slopes; and fragments of pottery and stone
artifacts, as well as spalls and cores of
transported rock, besprinkle the ground
and might be collected in tons. These
498
works are conspicuous because of magni-
tude; the prehistoric works of Papagueria
in general are noteworthy in extent, and
in that they appear to indicate the exist-
ence of a more numerous population than
that of historic times who stored and con-
trolled storm waters and thus occupied a
higher culture-plane than the modern In-
dian, Mexican and American inhabitants
of the same region.
During the recent expedition it was
ascertained that, while the prehistoric
works of Papagueria stretch to the south-
western boundary of that territory they do
not extend into Seriland, where no ancient
works were found except shell heaps,
cairns, etc., such as the Seri now accumu-
late. Some of the shell heaps are, however,
of great volume and extent, and so situated
as to prove that they have survived con-
siderable geographic changes ; thus a mound
built almost wholly of clam shells (belonging
to a series covering several acres) is some
60 feet high and over 300 feet in diameter,
and is located on a part of the shore where
there are now no clam flats, which the
waves have invaded until a considerable
part of the mound has been swept away—
the section thus exposed revealing typical
Seri potsherds and stone hammers from
top to bottom. So Seriland appears to be
an archeologic as well as an ethnic unit,
and there is nothing to indicate that the
territory was ever held by other people than
the ancestors of the modern tribe.
BIOLOGY.
During the earlier expedition it was ob-
served that the flora and fauna of Papa-
guara display certain characteristics which
were ascribed to the influence of a pecu-
liar environment; and during the later
expedition further notes relating to this
subject were made, and a small collec-
tion of plants was gathered and placed in
the hands of Professor J. W. Toumey, of
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. IIT. No. 66.
the University of Arizona, for identification
and study. While the observations on
plants and animals were in a measure
casual and were not guided by expert
knowledge, they proved particularly sug-
gestive in their bearing on the relations be-
tween the human inhabitants of the same
region and their environment. These biotic
studies indicate that, in sub-desert regions,
the development of the individual and the
species is determined primarily by a rigor-
ous enviroment ; so that the course of de-
velopment tends at the same time toward
pronounced individuality and toward a
complex system of cooperation among di-
verse organisms, whereby each immediately
antagonizes, but ultimately serves, its con-
temporaries. Some of the inferences from
the observations of the earlier expedition
have already been stated** and need not be
repeated ; but many new examples, con-
gruous with those previously collected, were
noted.
Among the most interesting observations
are those pertaining to the cooperative in-
terrelation between animal and vegetal or-
ganisms, whereby each depends on the other
for existence ; this being the stage of vital
codperation called commensality. The best
known examples of commensality are those —
of the fig and fig insect and the yucca and
yucca moth, in which the relation was es-
tablished by Riley; though a still more strik-
ing example, in which, however, the relation
has not yet been demonstrated, is that of
the saguaro, or giant cactus (Cereus Gigan-
teus) and its insect mate. During the re-
cent trip two distinct plants were found
apparently to represent a still more complex
miscigenesis: The cina (Cereus schotti), one
of the most abundant cacti of southern
Papagueria and Seriland, seems not to
flower or fruit under what would commonly
be considered normal conditions, but only
(*‘The Beginning of Agriculture,’ American
Anthropologist, Volume VIII., 1895, pp. 350-375. )
APRIL 3, 1896. ]
after attack and injury by a certain insect
(mot yet identified). Normally the young
eactus sends up half a dozen or more mass-
ive stems, usually 5 to 10 feet high and 3
or 4 inches in diameter, beset with thorns
along each of the 5, 6, or 7 ribs; subse-
quently branches spring from these stems,
and the plant gradually expands into a
clump or colony a dozen feet or yards across.
Thus far the plant remains an individual,
the product of a single seed ; and the period
of individual development undoubtedly
covers a long term of years, since the
younger branches remain vigorous long
after the original stems have died and de-
eayed. Now, so far as the observations go,
they indicate that the plant does not nec-
essarily or normally fructify during this
term of individual development, but that if
its insect enemy and mate chances to de-
posit eggs in the pulp toward the extremity
of branch or trunk several changes super-
vene. In the first place the eggs develop
and in due time the larve emerge and feed
on the pulp ; then the branch shrivels, los-
ing a quarter or third of its diameter, and
a pilage of slender spines or stiff bristles
springs and soon covers the shrunken por-
tion, which may bea foot or more in length ;
next, under the protection of these spines,
a bright-colored flower is put forth, and this
in time is followed by the fruit. It is of
course to be borne in mind that this sequence
has not been studied as a succession of
stages in the same plant, but only as an un-
broken series of stages exhibited by many
plants, so that the sequence may not be re-
garded as established ; but, so far as the
observations go, they tend in that direction.
Hssentially parallel to the behavior of the
cina is that of the dicotyledonous bush
called by the Mexicans torotito (not yet
identified), the geographic distribution of
which is about the same as that of the cina.
For a long time this plant was a puzzle be-
cause no indication of the mode of repro-
SCIENCE.
499
duction was perceived. It grows in a clump
of two or three or a dozen stems springing
from a single root, and the colony or clump
retains vitality much longer than individual
branches, which apparently spring up, at-
tain full growth, die, and decay, while yet
the colony survives, so that, as in the case
of the cina, the term of individual existence
is manifestly long. At length it was noted
that the extremities of the separate stems
or branches occasionally present an abnor-
mal appearance—tumescent, gnarled and
twisted, with leaves or petioles attached ;
and on dissection it was found that such
diseased twigs contain eggs or larvee. Then,
as the season progressed, it was found that
the tumescent twigs—and these only—some-
times bear small flowers and, quite rarely,
a nutty fruit. So in this case as in that of
the cina, the flowering appears to depend
on the development of an abnormal condi-
tion resulting from ovaposition by an insect
(which was not seen in the imago form ;
but it seems not to be a necessary stage in
in the history of any individual, since in
many cases the tumescent twig withers and
falls off without flowering and of course
without fruiting, while only a small propor-
tion of the flowers appear to produce nuts.
In this case, too, the observations are sug-
gestive, though not demonstrative, of an
ontogenic sequence ; yet it is to be observed
that the sequence is in precise accord with
the biotic relations prevailing in this dis-
trict, under which the tendency is to per-
petuate species by prolonging the life of the
individual rather than by multiplying prog-
eny, under which all living things tend
to enter a solidarity of remarkable perfec-
tion, and under which phylogenic develop-
ment is either forced and intensified or cut
off by the pressure of an adverse inorganic
environment. Granting the sequence, or
even admitting only the indubitable inter-
relations found in the region, it follows that
the living things of the desert conserve
500
much of the energy commonly expended in
reproduction, and thereby approach the
plane occupied by the higher animals, with
man at their head, among which progeny
are reduced in number and improved in the
perfection of their adjustment to environ-
ment—the plane of solidarity founded on
conscious or unconscious altruism, whose
occupants, sometimes erroneously classed
as sexually degenerate, are the socially re-
generate of the earth in that they are fitted
to the fulness of life in all its forms.
During the earlier expedition it was
found that the plants of Papagueria, ‘‘ how-
soever divergent phylogenically, are not-
ably convergent in a certain group of char-
acters, including leaflessness, waxiness
hairiness, thorniness, and greenness”’;* dur-
ing the later trip these inferences were
verified and corroborated, and it was also
observed that still other features are com-
mon among genetically diverse plants.
Thus, there is a series of trees and woody
shrubs, including a half dozen desert forms
known as torote, torotito, etc. (not yet
identified), which are characterized by
swollen trunks and squat forms, in which
the woody tissue is pulpy in texture and
saturated with watery or slightly viscid sap.
When trunk or branch is wounded the sap
exudes and quickly heals the wound, either
by coating it with lacquer or encrusting it
with gum ; and when the plant dies the sap
escapes and the wood shrinks and gapes
widely, even before the bark decays, so
that decomposition is rapid and the dead
crop quickly makes way for the rising gen-
eration. This pulpiness of stem among
ligneous plants is like unto the pulpiness of
the cactus and agave, which appears to be
a device for the storage of water; and while
a few of the desert trees (ironwood, cat-
claw and paloblanca) are characterized by
firm woody tissue, most of the arboreal
forms consist largely of water-storing tis-
* Op. cit., page 362.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 66.
sue, which may be inferred to represent
phylogenic adjustment to an arid environ-
ment. Commonly these water-filled trees,
with certain lesser shrubs abounding in vis-
cid juices and gum, are acrid, astringent or
ill-flayored, and some are alleged to be pois-
onous; others are pungent or noisome in
odor (e.g. the yellow torote has a penetrating
cedar-like odor which is highly offensive to
many animals). Associated with these
sappy and juicy plants there is a variety of
spicy shrubs which in the settled districts are
used as condiments and even as substitutes
for salt in curing meat. Many of these
plants are used medicinally; after describing
in detail the virtues of thirty-six medicinal
plants, the anonymous author of the ‘ Rudo
Ensayo’ (Sonora’s classic, written in 1763),
adds, ‘‘ Among the great variety of plants
found at every step there is hardly one that
has not healing qualities; * and there
is reason to anticipate substantial additions
to the pharmacopcea as the flora is studied
systematically. Now it is noteworthy that
the high-flavored and strong-odored plants
are without thorns or other mechanical pro- ©
tective appurtenances ; and, in view of all
the relations, it seems almost necessary to
infer that the flavors and odors are protec-
tive and the product of phylogenic develop-
ment under the local conditions. If this be
so, it would appear that the mechanical and
chemical devices for individual protection
are related reciprocally ; and this corollary
finds direct support in the characteristics of
the cacti, for the juice of the scant-thorned
cina is offensive to herbivores, while the
well-thorned cholla and nopal are eaten by
stock when the thorns are burned off by the
vaqueros, and the bisnaga, thorniest of
known plants, yields a nearly pure water
which has saved the lives of scores of ex-
plorers (indeed the work of the last expedi-
tion was greatly facilitated by the supplies
* Am. Cath. Hist. Soc., of Philadelphia, Vol. V.,
1894, p. 164.
APRIL 3, 1896. ]
drawn from this natural well of the desert).
Other relations among the plants and be-
tween the flora and fauna were noted, but
in a summary statement it must suffice to
indicate only a few leading lines of obser-
vation.
DEMOLOGY.**
In the course of the earlier expedition it
was found that if the plants, animals and
men of the desert be compared with respect
to individual or physiologic (7. e., purely
biotic) characters ‘‘ the stationary plants
have suffered greatest modification, the en-
vironment-driven animals less, and the en-
vironment-molding humans least of all;”
but that ‘““when they are compared with
respect to collective or demotic modifica-
tion, it becomes manifest that the moveless
plants are least, the moving animals more,
and prevising men most profoundly modi-
fied.”+ It was found also that the collec-
tive modification tends through codperation
to the development of a solidarity in which
the several organisms unconsciously or
semi-consciously combine against the rigor-
ous environment. Finally it was found that
there are three stages in the cooperation
of plants, animals and men, viz.: commu-
nality, in which the organisms stand to-
gether for mutual protection yet retain un-
diminished individuality; commensality,
in which unlike organisms unite to the end
that one or both species may be perpetu-
ated; and agriculture, or the state in which
intelligent organisms (especially ants and
men) regulate the course of common devel-
opment by exclusion of the perverse. Thus
the earlier researches indicated not only
that there is a reciprocal relation between
biotic and demotic characters, but that, in
a rigorous environment, the latter charac-
*This term is used as a synonym of sociology in
its widest sense, but with still wider meaning. It
may be defined as the science of organizations,
whether spontaneous or purposive, among organisms.
{‘The Beginning of Agriculture,’ op. cit., p. 374.
SCIENCE.
501
ters are found among nongregarious ani-
mals and plants as well as among men and
gregarious animals. ‘The researches also
supplemented historical records proving
that agriculture began in desert regions by
showing the manner in which intelligent
organisms are unavoidably forced into this
highest grade of cooperation by desert
conditions.
During the later expedition the re-
searches concerning collective or demotic
relations were continued. The observations
among the Papago Indians were extended
not simply to the relations between the
human group and the sub-human assem-
blage, but also to the relations among the
individuals and sub-groups of the human as-
semblage. The details noted are many and
of a diverse character, and it must suffice at
present to indicate their sum. In general,
it was found that the continual struggle for
existence under adverse conditions has
tended to strengthen character among the
human units, and to render each individual
strong, self-reliant, resourceful, decisive,
just as the plants and sub-human animals
have been rendered long-lived and vigorous ;
but that this tendency toward the develop-
ment of individuality is accompanied by an
altruistic tendency under which the human
units are brought into sympathy and union
of exceptional closeness. In nomadic desert
life individuals and small groups are con-
stantly exposed to the risk of death by
thirst, and occasion frequently arises for
other individuals or sub-groups of the same
assemblage or tribe to relieve the sufferers,
and if this is done the assemblage is
strengthened, while if it is not done the as-
semblage is weakened. So also isolated
individuals are in danger of starvation, of
attack by predatory animals, of poisoning
by animals and plants, or of death in other
ways, in a larger ratio than when several
are in company ; yet the character of the
country is such that hunters, warriors and
other travelers must journey far and in lim-
ited groups, and hence there is an incentive
toward grouping by physical parity which
is more or less independent of kinship or
biotic affinity. Other tendencies also enter ;
but individually and conjointly they make
for altruism, and eventually for a humanity
and charity transcending family ties and
gentile bonds. Now the characteristics of
the Papago, as recorded by different ob-
servers during the last 350 years, comprise
dignity and courage, docility and virtue,
humanity and intelligence, hospitality and
integrity ; and these characteristics, which
are akin to those of civilization, are among
those toward which his hard environment
tends. Thus it would appear that these
people of the desert have been forced by
environment toward civilization; and it
would appear also that, just as the plants
and animals have been hurried into the
higher stages of phylogenic development by
physical pressure, the Papago have been
forced into civilized relations before acquir-
ing civilized culture. The course of human
development may be divided into two great
stages characterized by distinctive modes of
expression. The first is the prescriptorial
stage in which ideas are thrown into crude
and incongruous classes for mnemonic
purposes ; the second is the scriptorial stage
in which ideas are expressed by arbitrary
symbols, graphic and phonetic; and these
stages are none the less veritable because
the transition from one to the other has
taken place gradually among many peoples ;
this transition being perhaps the most
sweeping and important in the whole course
of development of mankind. During the
earlier stage, in which incongruous things
are connoted, there has been among many
peoples, notably the various American fami-
lies, a custom of connoting kinship with
tribal law ; indeed tribal Jaw is memorized
and perpetuated largely through terms of
relative position of individuals in the
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 66,
family, in the clan or gens, and in the
tribe ; so that among these peoples tribal
law tended toward the perpetuation of kin-
ship systems, and remembered kinship crys-
tallized and perpetuated tribal law. Thus
the basis of prescriptorial society ever
smacked of nepotism and made for egoism
rather than altruism. But in Papagueria,
where the conditions led to the develop-
ment of an altruism transcending filial,
paternal and fraternal feeling, the consan-
guineous system seems to have weakened
and the system of law bound up there-
with seems to have dropped into desue-
tude, and the people seem to have risen to
the moral plane of civilization without
making the usually parallel transition
from the prescriptorial to the scriptorial
stage in the art of expression. It is im-
practicable now to develop this line of re-
search in detail; it must suffice to note in
passing that the observations and inferences
indicate that civilization, no less than agri-
culture, must be reckoned among the pro-
ducts of the desert.
Although in many respects antithetic to
the Papago, the Seri Indians are interre-
lated with their environment in various
ways. Seriland proper comprises a large
island (Tiburon, about 500 square miles in
area) and several islets in the Gulf of Cali-
fornia, with a several times larger area on
the adjacent mainland ; the entire tract is
mountainous and exceedingly arid, only one
feeble streamlet and a few small springs or
tinajas existing within it; and it is clearly
set off from contiguous habitable territory
by a broad desert zone. From time to
time the Seri steal across their bounding
desert in predatory forays or for petty
trade, and during the early history of west-
ern Mexico they established nominally
permanent settlements so much as 75 miles
beyond their natural boundary ; but it has
been their custom, always in case of defeat
and commonly in the event of ordinarily
APRIL 3, 1896.]
manful opposition to their predation, to re-
treat to their stronghold, which they have
stoutly defended against invasion. There
they subsist on abundant and easily ob-
tained sea food, on the game of the sub-
desert mountain slopes, and in season on
the fruits of cacti and other plants of the
foot-hills; and since these sources of sub-
sistence unfailing and easily reached
through means shared with feral animals,
the Seri tribesmen have ever been notably
independent of other peoples and cultures,
and this territorial dominion has remained
an ethnic unit since the time of Coronado.
The Seri Indians display several more or
less distinctive characteristics, both biotic or
individual, and demotic or collective. Indi-
vidually they are of superb physique, able
to run down fleet game and capture half-
wild Mexican horses without ropes or pro-
jectiles ; able to run across the sand dunes
and playas of their bounding desert, water-
less and foodless, so rapidly as to escape
pursuing horsemen ; able to abstain from
food and water for days; able habitually to
pass barefoot through cactus thickets and
over jagged rock slopes without thought of
discomfort; able to gorge carrion and swill
the reeking filth of shrunken tinajas
without injury; typically they are trained
athletes, strengthened against exercise,
habituated against abstinence, hardened
against pain, and inured against poison, all
at the same time and all in remarkable de-
gree. Considered as a demotic unit, the
Seri are characterized by hereditary enmity
toward alien peoples ; for three and a half
centuries they have been at war or on the
verge of war with Spanish explorers and
missionaries, with neighboring tribes, with
Mexican pioneers, with American prospec-
tors; they profess a passion for alien blood,
always gratified save when they are de-
terred by fear; they are fiercely endogamous
and the blackest crime in their calendar
to-day is the infraction of this law; they
SCIENCE.
5083
speak a distinct language, apparently repre-
senting a distinct stock; so far as can be
aseertained, their mythology is distinct;
save for a few simple arts that seem to
have been acquired through imitation,
their culture is primitive, protolithic as to
stone, nascent only as to customary and
house-building, unborn as to agriculture,
and well advanced only in connection with
their reed balsas and the cords of vegetal
fibre or human hair used in making them ;
their grade of cooperation or order of soli-
darity is below that of the farmer ant, be-
low that of the yucca moth, not even ona par
with that of the seed-scattering bird that has
aided in giving character to a flora, for (ex-
cept that they have domesticated dogs)
they merely destroy and never propagate
or otherwise aid associated organisms ; col-
lectively they are bitterly inimical to men,
animals and plants, and are parasitic on a
peculiarly conditioned tract to which they
have adjusted physique and tribal custom.
Considered as a group composed of inter-
related individuals and subgroups, the
characteristics of the Seri Indians include
strong family ties, manifested especially in
maternal affection and in their little-under-
stood kinship system; firm conjugal bonds
(despite modern polygyny due to repeated
decimation of the warriors), displayed in
their endogamy and in a singular marriage
custom ; fixed tribal union (despite internal
dissension in the intervals of external con-
flict), revealed in community of property
and interests especially in relation to alien
peoples ; and rigid adherence to custom, as
exemplified in the crudeness of their arts,
in their habit of locating camps and habita-
tions far from fresh water, in their amor
patrie, and in many other ways, 7. e., their
intertribal characteristics, like their physi-
eal attributes, are strongly individualized
and tend toward tribal integrity, independ-
ence and isolation. History and archeology
indicate that the characteristics of the Seri
504
have persisted long; for three and a half
centuries they have been known as fierce
and powerful warriors, tumultuous in battle
and swift in retreat; reputed as users of
poisoned arrows and perpetrators of repul-
sive atrocities in their endless and relentless
warfare ; regarded as Ishmaelites harboring
in the fastnesses of a desert island (for the
insular and continental portions of Seriland
have never been clearly discriminated by
neighboring peoples), whose bestiality
placed them all but beyond the pale of hu-
man kind. ‘There are indeed records of
attempted conversion and _ subjugation
among the rancherias overflowed from Seri-
land proper, but the assemblage of records
is either contradictory or indicates that the
converted and subjugated tribesmen weak-
ened and died under the yoke of a higher cul-
ture; an apostate Seri resides in Hermosillo,
another in Altar, and a third is said to live
in California, but no other trace of Seri
flesh or blood was found outside of Seriland.
The testimony of ancient works is ac-
cordant with that of the writings; outside
of Seriland there are prehistoric ruins indi-
cating a succession of more or less distinct
populations extending over many centuries ;
in Seriland there are no works save such as
the Seri now produce, though some of these
are impressively ancient.
While several of the characteristics of the
Seri Indians are unusual and some (e. g.,
their fleetness and endurance, their unique
marriage custom, etc.) so singular as to chal-
lenge belief, the assemblage of characters is
remarkably consistent and harmonious.
The physical perfection of the warriors and
their vigorous wives and fleet-footed chil-
dren isin harmony with their mode of life
and militant habit, as with all other char-
acters ; indeed they would be unable to sur-
vive, to capture strong swift and alert
game, to traverse the long waterlessstretches
in their domain, to cross their bounding
desert, without exceptional physique, which
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 66.
may thus be ascribed to survival of the fit-
test during the generations of development
and adjustment to a peculiar environment.
Their hereditary blood-thirst is consistent
with their enmity toward animal and plant,
with their primitive art, with their endog-
amy, with their linguistic independence,
and with their physical characteristics ; in-
deed warfare against other peoples is but an
expression of disposition and habit mani-
fested in many other ways. Their rigid en-
dogamy and rigorous marriage custom are
consistent with each other, with the long
isolation of the tribe attested by history
and archeology, with their linguistic dis-
tinctness, with their continuous warfare,
with their abstemious habits, and with all
their other characteristics; indeed their
marriage custom would be inexplicable and
incredible except in conjunction with their
endogamy, while their conjugal relations
taken collectively would appear incongru-
ous among a more advanced people. Thus
the leading characteristics of the tribe are
mutually consistent and interrelated in such
“manner as to form a definite assemblage, of
which no one could be modified without
affecting the integrity of the whole. So,
too, when the characteristics are considered
in sequence or phylogenically, it would ap-
pear that each stimulates and combines
with all the others in such manner as to
render the development cumulative ; and
also that each feature and the assemblage
of features are such as might normally -re-
sult from the survival of the fittest in a pe-
culiar environment. Finally it would ap-
pear that all of the characteristics of the
Seri Indians, biotic and demotic alike, are
adjusted directly or indirectly to an arid,
mountainous land, bordered witha fruitful
coast,and protected by astrong natural boun-
dary, t. e., to the actual Seriland, and that
they could hardly have been developed un-
der a different environment.
On contrasting the Papago and. Seri In-
APRIL 3, 1896.]
dians, it is found that many of their char-
acteristics and their respective courses of
development are. widely diverse. The for-
mer are habitually at peace; the latter ha-
bitually at war. The former cooperate with
men, animals and plants; the latter antag-
onize men, slay animals and destroy or neg-
lect plants. The former developed the
highest attributes of humanity to the extent
that they met the Spaniards as peers; the
latter remained robbers and assassins. The
former produced arts, rose into agricul-
ture, and at one time made conquest of the
waters; the latter are perhaps the most
primitive of American peoples. The former
tribe is populous and probably increasing
in number, despite the invasion of their
territory by white men; the latter has been
reduced to a handful and is destined to dis-
appear, probably within a decade, almost
certainly within a generation, perhaps
within a year or two. In a few character-
istics the tribes are similar, in certain re-
spects their courses of development have
been parallel; but the differences are more
striking than the resemblances. Both
peoples have been subjected to hard condi-
tions with unlike, but not necessarily incon-
gruous results; as among fishes the dark-
ness of the deep sea may lead either to de-
velopment or elimination of the eyes, so
among men stress of circumstance may
lead either to the growth or to the decay
of humanity.
In considering the relations between
tribes and their environment it is desirable
to avoid a common and natural misconcep-
tion to which attention has been directed
by Powell. There is indeed a direct rela-
tion between the physical characteristics of
the individuals composing the tribe and
their environment, in virtue of which the
hard environment tends, through survival
of the fittest, to produce excellence of phy-
sique among men as among the lower ani-
mals; but among mankind this direct re-
SCIENCE.
505
lation is overshadowed by an indirect re-
lation passing through the institutions,
arts, etc., of the human animal. The im-
portance of this indirect relation is indi-
cated by the generalization that the move-
less plants are most, the moving animals
less, and demotic mankind least affected by
environment so far as purely physical or
biotic characteristics are concerned, while
the converse is true of the demotic charac-
teristics. The same law is well illustrated
by the Papago-and Seri tribes. The Pa-
pago Indians were enabled to survive de-
sert conditions by organization and by an
assemblage of arts growing into agriculture;
while the Seri, albeit of fine physique, have
been enabled to survive only by tribal
union, endogamy, a consistent system of
warfare, and an assemblage of arts all ad-
justed to their habitat even more closely
than the striking Seri physique is adjusted
to desert-bound Seriland.
W J McGeEr.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
NOTE ON THE PERVUANENCE OF THE RUTH-
ERFURD PHOTOGRAPHIC MEASURES.
One of the most interesting questions
confronting practical astronomers at the
present day is the question of how long the
photographs which are now being accumu-
lated in such great numbers will remain fit
for measurement. To throw some light
on this matter, I have caused some of Ruth-
erfurd’s Pleiades plates to be remeasured
with the new Repsold measuring machine
of the Columbia College Observatory. The
present note is published in advance of the
detailed account of the observations and
their reduction, as the matter seems to be
of immediate interest to astronomers. The
measures have been carried out with great
care by Mrs. Herman 8. Davis and Mrs.
Annie Maclear Jacoby. As measures of
these same plates were made under Mr.
Rutherfurd’s direction by Miss Ida C. Mar-
506
tin soon after the plates were taken, in 1872
and 1874, a simple comparison with the
new measures out to show whether the
plates still admit of accurate measurement,
and whether the positions of the star im-
ages have changed by an appreciable
amount. It is to be noted of course that
the Rutherfurd plates were made by means
of the wet-plate process, using albumenized
plates; so that the results of the present
paper are not strictly applicable to the
modern gelatine dry-plates. Yet it seems
fair to suppose that the gelatine plates will
be at least as permanent as those of Ruth-
erfurd. In any case, the present research
is of considerable importance because of
the large number of Rutherfurd plates not
yet measured, and the measurement of
which would be useless if their precision
has been seriously impaired.
It is therefore a source of congratulation
that the new measures here described have
not brought to light any such alterations of
the photographic film as would invalidate
measures made on the Rutherfurd plates
twenty years after the date of exposure. In
fact, we may say that in no instance does the
difference between the new and old meas-
ure exceed such an amount as might reason-
ably be expected from the combined uncer-
tainty of both. For the present purpose, I
have not thought it necessary to re-measure
all the plates treated in my paper on the
Pleiades (Annals N. Y. Acad. of Sciences,
Vol. 6, p. 239). Nor have all the stars
been re-measured, since a few stars well
distributed on the plate would undoubtedly
bring any existing change to light. On the
other hand, every care possible has been’
taken to make the measures as accurate as
possible, except that the insignificant ‘ pro-
jection error’ found by Donner to exist in
the Repsold apparatus has not been taken
into account. Of course this is of no im-
portance in the work under consideration,
because the elimination of the errors of pro-
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 66.
jection would be almost certain to improve
the average accord with the old measures.
The same is true of any errors which may
perhaps exist in the guiding cylinder of the
Repsold machine, and which have also been
neglected.
To avoid any possible bias in selecting
plates for remeasurement, I determined to
measure those plates to which even num-
bers had been attached by Rutherfurd at
the time the plates were made. But we
were unable to find plate number 20 among
the plates deposited at Columbia College,
so the remeasurement has been applied
only to plates 16, 18, 22 and 24. On each
of these plates eight stars were selected for
remeasurement, distributed on the plate in
a way well suited for bringing any disturb-
ance of the images to light. After this
work had been finished, it occurred to me
that the stars selected were all fairly bright,
and that it would be very desirable to
measure some faint stars too. Accordingly
six faint stars were selected, and were very
carefully measured on plate 16. The stars
Anon. 34 and 18 m. were used as standards
on all the plates.
Inasmuch as the Repsold machine fur-
nishes rectangular coordinates, whereas the
Rutherfurd measures were in distance and
position angle, it was necessary to compute
the distances and position angles from the
measured rectangular codrdinates, before a
direct comparison could be made. The fol-
lowing table contains the results of such
comparison. In every case the ratio
adopted for the quantity :
Rutherfurd scale value
New scale value
was such as would make the sum of the dis-
cordances in distance between the new and
the old measures zero. Similarly, a con-
stant was applied to the discordances in
position angle, so as to make the sum of
APRIL 3, 1896.]
these discordances zero. The discordances
in position angle have been turned into arc
of a great circle by multiplying them by the
sine of the distance. For this reason the
sum of the position angle discordances will
differ slightly from zero, as the constant was
applied before turning them into are of a
great circle. It should perhaps be remarked
that the comparisons were made with the
old Rutherfurd measures as printed in my
paper on the Pleiades, already referred to,
SCIENCE.
507
without the application of any corrections
whatever. In conclusion, I wish to express
my thanks to RuTHERFURD STUYVESANT,
Esq., who had placed at the disposal of
Pror. J. K. Rees, Director of the Columbia
College Observatory, funds for the reduction
of the RutHrrFurRD plates. This has en-
abled the Observatory to secure the services
of Mrs. Herman S. Davis, who has relieved
me of the very arduous labor of computation
involved in the reduction of these measures.
TABLE OF DISCORDANCES,
RUTHERFURD MEASURES minus NEW MEASURES.
Plate 16. Plate 18.
Plate 22.
Plate 24.
Angle. | Dist. |
0.20 | —0.02 || —.10 02 | 7.2
14 .02 04 | —09 | 6.3
LL Oy 4S Bill 2480 7 CO) Ws
= (04) | 6 (03 || 0s | Lal |) Go
+ .07 |-+ .30 || —.02 | +.22 | 7.0
14 43 .00 | —20! 7.0
— 217) |-- 200) || 212°) 7102 | ela
+ .20 |— .01 || +.28 | —.04 | 7.7
| Se as It G28)
| 2403 | Sir | Be
| —.26 | +.06 | 911
|| —.05 | -+.03 | 9.0
+.04 | +.06| 9.1
4256 | sta | O@
+.03 | +.03 | 8.5
=e OGH eetO2) nals
HaroLtp JACOBY.
CoLUMBIA COLLEGE OBSERVATORY, March 10, 1896.
ANNUAL RECEPTION AND EXHIBITION OF
THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.
THE New York Academy of Sciences
held its third annual reception on the even-
ing of March 16th, at the American Mu-
seum of Natural History. The reception
included an exhibition of apparatus and
specimens illustrating the progress of sci-
ence during the year, and more particularly
the work done by scientific men in and
about New York. The exhibition in the
afternoon was thrown open to students in
the various educational institutions of the
city, teachers and other persons interested
in science, while the reception in the even-
ing was attended by the members of the
Academy and a number of guests. Both
occasions were remarkably successful, the
exhibits being of the same high character
as have been shown at the previous recep-
tions. The exhibition took place on the
second floor of the Museum, which was
kindly placed at the disposal of the Acad-
emy and was under the direction of Prof.
508
Henry F. Osborn, who was Chairman of
the Committee of Arrangements. An in-
novation was introduced this year in hav-
ing an address on recent scientific discov-
ery and the large lecture room of the
Museum was thronged by people eager to
hear Prof. M. I. Pupin, of Columbia Univer-
sity, give an experimental demonstration of
Rontgen photography. Prof. J. J. Steven-
son, the President, also delivered an ad-
dress stating the object and aims of the
New York Academy of Sciences.
Among the many exhibits there were a
number of unusual interest, as an effort had
been made to include in the exhibition only
objects illustrating recent discoveries or re-
searches.
In the Astronomical section, which was
under the direction of Prof. Harold Jacoby,
there was exhibited a series of photographs
lately made at the Harvard College Observ-
atory. Prof. J.E. Keeler, of the Allegheny
Observatory, contributed a series of photo-
graphs of planetary spectra. Prof. J. K.
Rees exhibited some lantern slides and new
instruments from the Columbia University
Observatory. Prof. William Hallock, of
the section of Physics, had collected in his
exhibit a number of instruments and pho-
tographs connected with X-ray investiga-
tions. Several from Prof. Rood’s laboratory
showing the reflection of the rays and other
phenomena; a series from Prof. Robb, of
Trinity College, the most interesting of
which was a record of the test of genuine
' and imitation gems, the real stones in each
case appearing translucent; and a set from
from Prof. Stevens, of Troy Polytechnic In-
stitute, attracted considerable attention.
Prof. Hallock’s voice analysis apparatus
was also shown and was accompanied by a
number of photographs of vocal cords in
action and the manometric flames.’ Prof.
Pupin, the Chairman of the section of Elec-
tricity, exhibited a complete set of appa-
ratus for producing the Rontgen rays, and
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 66.
by means of an Edison fluoroscope the pen-
etration of the rays was shown. Prof.
Pupin exhibited also a number of photo-
graphs he had taken and the apparatus
he had devised for studying long electric
waves. Charles T. Rittenhouse showed ap-
paratus for studying the magnetic lay in
closed magnetic circuits.
In the department of Chemistry the prep-
eration of Argon and Helium was shown
and the spectra of these two elements could
be seen through spectroscopes. Under
Photography the development of process
work in colors and new apparatus occupied
considerable space, while here also were to
be found more Réntgen photographs, that
of a boot and foot by Nikola Tesla being
remarkably distinct. In the section of
Geology Prof. Stevenson exhibited some in-
teresting specimens, while Prof. J. F. Kemp
showed specimens connected with recent
researches by himself and his assistants at
Columbia University. In the division de-
voted to Mineralogy, under the direction of
E. O. Hovy, were exhibited some rare speci-
mens contributed by a number of collectors
and colleges. The phosphorescence of the
diamond was shown by George F. Kunz, by
means of a new apparatus. In the depart-
ment of Physiography the most recent maps
and models were exhibited in the charge of
Prof. R. E. Dodge. The feature of the
Botanical Exhibit was the topographical
map of the New York Botanical Garden,
which was exhibited for the first time. A
number of preparations and studies were
also shown, several of which were under-
taken in the interest of the Revision Com-
mittee of the United States Pharmacopeeia.
The Torrey Botanical Club exhibited a
series of valuable studies. This section
was in charge of Prof. H. H. Rusby and Dr.
J. K. Small. An interesting exhibit of
aquaria was made in the Zoological section
and preparations from the zodlogical de-
partment of Columbia University were
APRIL 3, 1896-]
shown. A shin and skull of the fish-eating
rodent Icthyomys-Stolzmanni from Peru
was shown by the department of Mamma-
logy and Ornithology of the American
Museum of Natural History and was said
to be the second known specimen. Dr. T.
M. Cheeseman, in the department of Bac-
teriology, showed some preparations from
the Bacterial Laboratory of College of Phy-
sicians and Surgeons of Columbia, and
there was exhibited by Prof. Henry W.
Conn, of Wesleyan University, some mor-
phological preparations of Bacillus No. 41,
interesting for its power of ripening cream
for butter. Prof. George 8. Huntington, of
the division of Anatomy, had an extensive
collection illustrating recent work in human
and comparative myology. In the section
of Paleontology, in charge of Dr. J. L.
Wortman, were exhibited a number of
specimens from Wyoming, Utah and
Dakota, collected by Messrs. Wortman and
Petersen during the past year. The de-
partment of Geology of Columbia Univer-
sity exhibited a number of specimens ob-
tained in their last summer’s expedition.
In the department of Ethnology and
Archeology the recent valuable additions
that have been made to the collections of
the American Museum of Natural History
were exhibited. Prof. J. McK. Cattell, in
charge of the Department of Experimental
Psychology, exhibited a new apparatus for
determining photometric differences by the
time of perception. Some new apparatus
from the Yale University Psychological
Laboratory was exhibited by Dr. E. W.
Scripture, while Prof. C. B. Bliss, of New
York, showed a pendulum chronoscope.
Herpert T. WADE.
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY.
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.
THE INDIAN AS A FARMER.
THE general statement that the Indian of
the Eastern United States was when first
SCIENCE.
509
discovered in the wild or hunting stage of
development, must be considerably modified
when we come to study his mode of life
with care. He was in many parts of the
land an agriculturist, a small farmer, and
was by no means dependent entirely on wild
game or natural products.
This has been forcibly brought out by Mr.
Lucien Carr, in an article ‘On the food of
certain American Indians and their method
of preparing it,’ published in the Proceed-
ings of the American Antiquarian Society
for 1895. The author has examined the
literature bearing on the subject thoroughly
and his references are abundant and judi-
cious. Within the compass of thirty-eight
pages he has collected an amount of infor-
mation which the student will scarcely find
in larger volumes and much of which the
archeologist, engaged in the examination of
shell heaps and village sites, will do well to
make himself acquainted with. His con-
clusion is that so far as the comforts and
conveniences of life are concerned, the
Indian was little behind the white pioneer
who dispossessed him.
RACIAL PSYCHOLOGY.
In his ‘Anthropologie du Calvados,’ re-
cently published at Caen, Dr. R. Collignon
calls attention to the statistics of the French
population compiled by Jacoby and others,
showing the relation of superior mental
ability to descent. The method pursued
was to make a catalogue for each depart-
ment of all the distinguished men born in
it for a century, without reference to the
grounds of their celebrity, and then to note
what proportion this bore to a million in-
habitants. The differences are remarkable,
varying from 690 in the department of the
Seine (including Paris) to 13 and 14 to the
million in Charente and Creuse. Normandy
showed 106 per million.
When the several lines of activity were
analyzed in which these became eminent,
510
marked contrasts were observed. The
Normans were generally prominent in
science, and little so in poetry or works of
imagination ; while this was reversed for the
south of France. Dr. Collignon, therefore,
comes to the conclusion: “‘ To the difference
of race, a purely anatomical fact shown by
the shape of the head and the color of the
hair, corresponds a difference in the brain,
which reveals itself by a special tendency
of the thoughts and particular aptitudes.”
D. G. Brinton.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
THE annual stated session of the National
Academy of Sciences will be held in Washing-
ton, D. C., beginning Tuesday, April 21, 1896,
at 11 A.M. The place of meeting will be at
the National Museum. In accordance with the
new rule adopted October 30, 1895, the business
meetings of the Academy will continue until
one o’clock P. M. The scientific meetings will
begin at half-past one P. M.
A BILL has been passed by the Legislature of
Maryland and signed by the Governor, entitled
‘““An Act to establish a State Geological and
Economic Survey and to make provision for
the preparation and publication of reports and
maps to illustrate the natural resources of the
State, together with the necessary investigations
preparatory thereto.’’ $10,000 annually is ap-
propriated for carrying out the provisions of
the act, and a commission has been established
composed of the Governor of the State, the
Comptroller, the President of the Johns Hop-
kins University and the President of the Mary-
land Agricultural College. Ata meeting of the
commission, On March 25th, Prof. William Bul-
lock Clark was appointed State Geologist. He
will at once begin work in the field.
BRIGADIER-GENERAL THos. LINCOLN CASEY
died suddenly at Washington on March 26th.
He was born.on May 10, 1831, and had super-
vised many important engineering works and
public buildings. At the time of his death he
had charge of the new Congressional Library,
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. ILI. No. 66.
one of the most notable buildings of the world.
General Casey was appointed Chief of Engineers
in 1888 and was retired in May, 1895. He was
a member of the National Academy of Sciences,
an officer of the Legion of Honor, of France, and
author of many important articles and reports.
THE privileges of the laboratories of the In-
ternational ZoOlogical Station at Naples have
been extended to seven American students for
the spring of 1896. At the present moment,
however, there are only two American Tables,
so that most of these men are accepted at the
station through the courtesy of the director,
Geheimrath Dohrn. The Smithsonian table has
not remained unoccupied a single day since it
was established, nearly three years ago, while
Prof. Agassiz’s table has also been in great de-
mand. This country should have at least three
tables at Naples. Who will assume the respon-
sibility of raising the money for the support of
a third table?
A MARBLE bust in memory of the philosopher
Luigi Ferri was placed, on March 16th, the
anniversary of his death, in the hall of the
University of Rome, where Ferri taught for
twenty-four years. For this memorial about
$200 had been collected by subscription.
FRANK WEIR & Co., New York, announce
the publication of an Index to the medical press,
to be published monthly, beginning the 15th of
the present month. It is proposed to give a
complete bibliography of papers published in
the medical magazines and transactions of the
United States and Canada.
Icones Plantarum, which has been edited by
Prof. Daniel Oliver since 1891, will hereafter
be edited by the director of Kew Gardens.
THE French government has decided to con-
tinue to Mme. Pasteur the pension of 25,000 fr.
which her husband had received for thirteen
years.
Pror. FrRANcis R. FAVA, who held the chair
of civil engineering at the Columbian Univer-
sity, Washington, died at that place on March
26th, aged about thirty-six years.
M. BeRTHELOT, the eminent French chem-
ist, has resigned from the Ministry of Foreign
affairs of France.
APRIL 3, 1896.]
A RESOLUTION has been adopted by the
Senate permitting Prof. Simon Newcomb to ac-
cept the decoration of the cross of an officer of
the Legion of Honor, and Prof. Asaph Hall that
of chevalier, respectively, conferred on them
by the French Republic, on the occasion of the
centenary establishment of the French Insti-
tute, for services to the French Academy of
Sciences as corresponding members.
THE Senate Committee on Public Buildings
and Grounds has reported favorably the bill pro-
viding for the erection of an additional fire-
proof building for the National Museum.
THE department of geology and geography
of Harvard University has placed on exhibition
in Cambridge the Gardner collection of photo-
graphs, which consists of more than 3,000
mounted photographs and about 1,500 stere-
opticon views of geological subjects and land-
scapes, mainly purchased from the income of a
fund established in 1892 by George A. Gardner,
of Boston.
Mr. M. A. LAWwson, government botanist in
India and formerly professor at Oxford, died at
Madras on February 14th.
MAcMILLAN & Co. announce an English trans-
lation, by D. E. Jones and G. A. Scholt, of the
Miscellaneous Papers of Heinrich Hertz, with
an introduction by Prof. Lenard.
Nature states that Mr. Edwin Wheeler has
presented to the Natural History Museum a
valuable series of water-color drawings of fungi,
2449 in number.
Ir is reported in the daily papers that locusts
are doing much damage in South Africa. In
Natal a ‘ chief locust officer’ has been appointed
and $35,000 has been spent in the attempts to
check the plague.
THE German naturalist John Gundlach has
died in Havana. According to the New York
Sun, Gundlach was born at Marburg, Hesse-
Cassel, in 1810, where his father was a professor
in the University. He published in his native
country some notable articles on natural history.
The wealthy Cuban, Mr. Booth, proposed to him
to come to Cuba and write a book on the natural
history of the island. Mr. Gundlach accepted,
and in 1839 he landed at Havana, and never
SCIENCE.
511
returned to Europe, except for short visits. In
1844 he began his collection of Cuba’s fauna,
now preserved at the institute in Havana, and
valued at over $200,000. He completed it in
1856. In1873 and 1875 he went to Puerto Rico,
to gather final materials for his book on the
fauna of both the Antilles. Mr. Gundlach was
also the author of a work on Cuban ornithology.
Dr. A. W. BEKETON, professor of botany in
the University of St. Petersburg, has retired,
owing to ill health.
Nature for March 12th and 19th contains ex-
tended and appreciative articles reviewing the
recent work of the U. 8. Geological Survey.
Ar the anniversary meeting of the London
Chemical Society,on March 26th, the President,
Mr. A. G. Vernon Harcourt, was expected to
give the annual Presidential address before the
Society. R
Mr. BERNARD RICHARDSON GREEN, who suc-
ceeds General Casey as Superintendent of the
construction of the Congressional Library build-
ing, has been his chief assistant in all his great
engineering enterprises, and was responsible
for many of the brilliant and novel devices em-
ployed in the critical task of completing the
Washington Monument, and replacing its old
foundation by anew one. He isa graduate of
Harvard University and is Recording Secretary
of the Philosophical Society of Washington.
THE nomination of John J. Brice, of California,
for Commissioner of Fish and Fisheries was con-
firmed by the Senate on March 25th.
A RECENT act of the British Parliament pro-
vides for the opening of the Government Mu-
seums fora portion ofeach Sunday. It provides
that no employee shall be required to be on
duty more than six days in the week and that
those who have scruples against Sunday service
shall be excused from attendance on that day.
Mr. Hiram S. Maxt™ has written a series of
articles on the evolution and manufacture of
Automatic Firing Guns, the first of which ap-
pears in the current issue of Industries and Iron.
Mr. THomas A. Epison has invented an im-
proved form of the fluoroscope proposed by Prof.
Salvioni, and at about the same time by Prof.
McGee, of Princeton University. In this instru-
512
ment paper is covered with the fluorescing sub-
‘stance, and the shadows produced by the X-rays
may be directly seen. The instrument has the
‘general form of a stereoscope. Mr. Edison uses
tungstate of caleium, with which it is said it is
possible to see the shadow through three feet of
cork.
M. BECQUEREL has reported to the Paris Acad-
emy that he has found that potassium uranyl
sulphide when excited to phosphorescence
gives rise to rays which last many hours (more
than 160) after the phosphorescence ceases, and
pass through paper aluminium and copper.
They also discharge electrified bodies in a man-
ner similar to the X-rays.
A SERIES of field lessons on ‘ Birds in the
Bush’ will be given by Mr. Ralph Hoffmann,
of Belmont, Mass., on Saturday mornings of
April, May and June, in the neighborhood of
Cambridge and Arlington, Mass. The object
of the course is to indicate the easiest means of
distinguishing the common birds native to this
region, and the more interesting of the migrants.
The songs of the different species, their favorite
haunts, their feeding habits, and the sites
chosen for their nests, will be studied. Before
each walk, skins of the birds likely to be found
will he examined. By beginning about the
middle of April students may learn many of
our common birds before the rush of migrants
in May, and by continuing into June may pur-
sue the study of our native birds after the mi-
grants have passed.
A COMMITTEE from the New York Chamber
of Commerce has been organized to promote
the efficiency of the medical library in the New
York Academy of Medicine. An attempt is
being made to collect $100,000 for the library.
The library of the New York Academy of
Medicine is one of the most complete in the
world and is open, without charge, to all wish-
ing to use it.
MM. A. AND L. LUMIERE have invented an
improvement on Edison’s kinetoscope, which
they call a cinematograph. With this instru-
ment changing scenes are exhibited in their
natural size on a screen, The groups, such as a
crowd of people passing along the street or a
railway train entering and stopping at a station,
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 66.
are said to be very effective. Some nine hun-
dred instantaneous photographs are taken in
the course of a minute, and when these photo-
graphs are thrown on a screen by means of the
electric light at the same rate and order as they
were taken an exact reproduction of the moy-
ing people is obtained.
THE University of the State of New York
has recently issued Museum bulletin 14 on the
Geology of Moriah and Westport Townships, Essex
County. Besides describing the general geology
of these townships, this contribution to our
knowledge of the magnetic iron-ore deposits of
the United States discusses in detail the iron-
ore bodies of that region, gives the latest in-
formation on its important iron-ore deposits
and reviews the probable hypotheses as to their
origin. It contains a geologic map of the two
townships, a map of Mineville iron region, and
half-tone views of the mining district and sec-
tions of the ore bodies. The bulletin is mailed
postpaid to any address by the State Library
on receipt of 10 cents. Bulletin 15 on the
Mineral Resources of New York, by Dr. F. J. H.
Merrill, director of the Museum, is nearly
ready and will be mailed postpaid for 40 cents.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
GRADUATE SCHOLARSHIPS AND FELLOWSHIPS IN
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
A LARGE number of Graduate Scholarships and
Fellowships are about to be established in the
University of Pennsylvania. Provost Harrison
gave to the University last June, as stated at
the time in this journal, the sum of $500,000,
to be held as a special fund, and to be known
as the ‘George L. Harrison Foundation for the
Encouragement of Liberal Studies and the Ad-
vancement of Knowledge.’ The purposes of
the fund were described in the deed of gift as
follows :
1. The establishment of Scholarships and
Fellowships intended solely for men of ex-
ceptional ability.
2. The increasing of the Library of the Uni-
versity, particularly by the acquisition of works
of permanent use and of lasting reference to
and by the scholar.
3. The temporary relief from routine work of’
professors of ability in order that they may de-
APRIL 3, 1896.}
vote themselves to some special and graduate
work.
4, The securing men of distinction to lecture,
and for a time to reside at the University.
These uses of the fund are not made abso-
lutely binding upon the trustees for all time,
but the donor expressed a desire to make the
gift as flexible as possible in its application,
recognizing the fact ‘‘that gifts to universities
hemmed in too closely by restrictions are liable
to lessen in value as time goes on.”’
In pursuance, however, of the end in view
in the foundation, definite action has been
taken in the establishment of a considerable
number of Graduate Scholarships and Fellow-
ships. The recommendations which were made
regarding these have been approved and will
now go into force. There are eight Graduate
Scholarships giving free tuition and $100 open
to those coming from the liberal courses in the
College of the University; and there are, with
the Hector Tyndale Fellowship in Physics, now
fifteen fellowships, fourteen of which, coming
from this Foundation, are open to students of
any university. The amount of the tuition
deducted from the full value of the Fellowship
($600) does not go into the general funds of the
University, but may be used for the purchase
of books or apparatus which will aid the stu-
dent in his work, or may be used in the publi-
cation of theses.
A somewhat unusual feature is the establish-
ment of Senior Fellowships, open only to those
who have taken the Doctor’s degree in the
University of Pennsylvania. This amounts to
the introduction, in a modified form, of the
‘Docent’ system of German universities, the
object being not at all to use the Senior
Fellow as a teacher for the sake of the value
he may be to the University, but to test him
and give him an opportunity to do a little
teaching in the direct line of his special work.
From the Senior Fellowships there is no reduc-
tion for tuition. This gives eight Graduate
Scholarships, fifteen Fellowships and five Senior
Fellowships, making twenty Fellowships in all.
Fourteen of the Fellowships are open to men
from other institutions, but the Senior Fellow-
ships are limited to those having taken the
Doctor’s degree from the University in order
SCIENCE.
513
that some of the best men may be kept in resi-
dence here as long as possible, and their influ-
ence felt among the students.
The whole plan aims at building up a cultured
group of men interested in the advancement of
knowledge and who shall be in residence at the
University. Probably most of them will live in
the dormitories, and their influence will un-
doubtedly be for good in the institution. The
whole time of every incumbent of a Fellowship
or Scholarship must be given to his scholarly
work at the University.
GENERAL,
Mr.. W. C. McDonatLp, a tobacco manufac-
turer of Montreal, has given $500,000 to McGill
‘University for the purpose of providing a build-
ing for the study of chemistry, mining and ar-
chitecture. This brings his gifts to this univer-
sity up to $2,000,000.
Mr. F. C. Macautey, of Philadelphia, has
bequeathed to the University of Pennsylvania
his library, $5,000 for the purchase of books re-
lating to Dante and Tasso, and $5,000 for arche-
ological researches in America. The bequest to
take effect on the death of his brother.
THE name of the University of the City of
New York has been changed to New York
University by the Board of Regents.
Dr. O. ConE has resigned the Presidency of
Buchtel College.
Pror. EARL BARNES and Prof. Ewald Fligel,
of Stanford University, and Prof. Bernard
Moses, of the University of California, are each to
deliver a series of fifty lectures at the University
of Chicago during the spring term.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
CERTITUDES AND ILLUSIONS.
Masor PowE tt, having escaped (but tempo-
rarily, I fear) from the metaphysicians, has
courageously entered the camp of the physicists
in his paper of March 20th. Now the latter,
as a class, are proverbially a simple-minded
people, given rather to ‘Certitudes’ than to
‘Tllusions’ and, as a rule, especially anxious to
know what they are talking about, when they
talk. They have a distinct fondness for the
use of words whose meaning is precise and not
ol4
open to dispute and, with their brethren the
mathematicians, generally prefer to begin a
discussion by defining the terms they are about
to use, unless such terms are already so re-
stricted and definite in their meaning as to cause
no doubt.
Failure to pursue this course is the basis of
much idle talk and meaningless controversy,
especially at the present time.
People are everywhere talking about an
“honest dollar,’ or ‘sound money,’ without
stopping to ask what a dollar ts, or what is
meant by ‘money,’ or a ‘standard of value,’
without inquiring what is ‘a standard and
what is meant by value,’ and all of this to the
confusion of many who would like to give
serious thought to important subjects. As
Major Powell’s philosophy is to furnish a basis
for the elementary concepts of physical science,
he will not, I am sure, take it amiss if he is
asked in the beginning to define with some care
the principal terms of which he makes use. No
physicist can fail to read his last paper with
much interest and, it may be added, with no
little astonishment. To one accustomed to the
rather simple perspective of the so-called exact
sciences, there is a sort of mistiness and ob-
scurity init which suggests an ‘ impressionist’s’
view of the subject.
It is true that in the beginning definitions of
“body,’ ‘particle,’ ‘molecule,’ ‘atom,’ etc., are
given, which are quite satisfactory as represent-
ing the meaning which the author proposes to
attach to these words. But the physicists are
put entirely out of the controversy by the
failure of the author to tell or even hint at
what he means by that which is the text of the
whole paper, namely, motion itself. Major
Powell undertakes to show that ‘‘motion is per-
sistent,’’ that it ‘‘cannot be created or annibila-
ted,’’ and he even goes so far as to declare that
this has been demonstrated to the satisfaction
of a great body of scientific men. He speaks,
often, of ‘motion as speed,’ thus creating an
anxiety to know what ‘motion’ is when it is not
“speed.’ By ‘speed’ he evidently means ‘ ve-
locity’ as independent of direction, and he de-
elares that ‘motion as speed’ is ‘inherent in
matter’ and is not imposed upon it from with-
out, from which it necessarily follows that it ean-
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 66,
not be transferred from one system to another.
Acceleration, he then says, must be considered
as ‘deflection’ or change in that element of
motion which is ‘direction,’ and not in any cor-
rect sense a change in velocity. No one will
deny a considerable ingenuity in reaching this.
conclusion, but there are a few obstacles in the
way which Major Powell will doubtless easily
sweep aside, some of them being suggested in
the following questions:
1. What is motion ?
2. What is rest ?
3. If by ‘motion as speed’ is meant ‘velocity,’
and if by its ‘persistence’ is meant invaria-
bility of velocity, what possesses this invaria-
bility ?—bodies, molecules, particles, atoms ?—
and in reference to whatis the velocity constant ?
4. Asa molecule is considered asa ‘body’
when reference is had to the atoms which com-
pose it, can it have an ‘invariable velocity’ as
a molecule and variable velocity as a ‘body’?
Many other doubts suggest themselves which
will probably be quieted by the answers to
these questions. I cannot refrain from express-
ing a hope, however, that in addition to these
answers, Major Powell will kindly furnish an
explanation of what he means when he says
that the transmission of light at the rate of
299,878,000 metres per second furnishes an ex-
ample of ‘particle motion at a velocity so
great that any observed molecular motion sinks
into insignificance.’ M.
MARCH 23, 1896. 5
PRINCIPLES OF MARINE ZOOGEOGRAPHY.
I HAVE been much interested in the admi-
rable review, by Dr. Baur,* of Dr. Ortmann’s
‘Grundzige der marinen Tiergeographie,’ which
I had only previously known from the ‘sum-
mary ’ given in ‘the Princeton College Bulletin’
(VIL., pp. 100-107); since then I have had the
pleasure of receiving the work itself from the
learned author. I find similarity in some
features and difference in others between the
views of Dr. Ortmann and my own. My con-
tributions to zodgeography appears to have
been unknown to Dr. Ortmann, except at sec-
ond-hand, although exact references were made
to publications by Dr. Faxon (p. 233), through
*ScIENCE, N.S., III., 359-367, March 6, 1896.
APRIL 3, 1896.]
whom he obtained information.* This is the
more regrettable because the similarity between
Dr. Ortmann’s conclusions and my own is more
manifest than that between his and any other
investigator’s.
The differences between Dr. Ortmann and
myself chiefly result from our different modes
of approaching the subject. Dr. Ortmann prefers
the deductive mode and teaches that ‘‘ we are to
disregard each definite group of animals, and
to investigate only the physical conditions in-
fluencing the distribution.’’+ I prefer the in-
ductive mode and have been influenced mainly
by the consideration of the assemblage of the
several groups of animals.
Dr. Ortmann, in accordance with his views,
recognizes five ‘life-districts,’ distinguished as
follows:
“1. Light. The medium is air. Substratum
present. Terrestrial district.
“9. Light. The medium is fresh water. Sub-
stratum present. Fluvial district.
(3. Light. The medium is salt water. Sub-
stratum present. Littoral district.
“4, Light. The medium is salt water. Sub-
stratum wanting. Pelagic district.
“5. Dark. The medium is salt water. Sub-
stratum present. Abyssal district.’’
While there is a symmetry in these definitions
that may be attractive, analysis will demon-
strate that the ‘districts’ themselves are of
very unequal value. In fact, they are framed
in contravention of another principle enunciated
by Dr. Ortmann: ‘‘The topographical contin-
uity of the range is a fundamental principle
influencing the dispersal of animals.’’
Now, there is no greater interrupter of topo-
graphical continuity for land or fresh water ani-
mals than wide intervening oceans, and inas-
much as such land areas, with varying limits,
have existed for long geological periods, they
have been more effective barriers to extension
of inland life than the differences connected
with the several districts whose ‘medium is salt
water.’ The land and fluvial faunas have con-
sequently been long differentiated and, although
* Grundziige, p. 59.
+Pr. Coll. Bull., VIL., 103.
} Pr. Col. Bull., VII., 101.
- § Pr, Col. Bull., VII., 102.
SCIENCE.
515
in every age there has been doubtless an invasion
from the sea into the rivers, the bulk of the
fresh water forms in most regions has been
long settled and specially developed as such.
The districts in question must therefore be
segregated under two primary categories, MA-
RINE and INLAND.
But the marine districts still left are likewise
of very unequal value. They are distributed
by Dr. Ortmann as follows:
“7. Littoral life-district. 1. Arcticregion. 2.
Indo-Pacific region. 3. West American region.
4, East American region. 5. West African re-
gion. 6. Antarctic region.”’
“TT. Pelagic life-district. 1. Arctic region.
2. Indo-Pacific region. 3. Atlanticregion. 4.
Antaretic region.’’
“TIT. Abyssal life-district.
tinguishable.”’
These ‘ districts’ and ‘regions’ would answer
well to divisions which I have established as
follows:
I. Arctalian realm (1875) =1, 1.
II. Tropicalian realm = Tropical zone (O.),
I, 2+84+4+5.
III. Notalian realm (1875) =I, 6.
IV. Pelagalian realm = II.
V. Bassalian realm = III.
These combinations appear to me to better rep-
resent the facts known respecting the distribu-
tion of marine vertebrates as well as inverte-
brates. The first three were distinguished as
early as 1875,* but not named till 1877.7 Later
I deemed it advisable to subdivide the Arcta-
lian into Arctalian (restricted) and Pararctalian
and the Notalian into Antarctalian and Notalian
(restricted). I also added the Bassalian and
still later the Pelagalian. The Pararctalian and
Notalian proper have less value than the others,
except the Pelagalian, which is the least special-
ized of all.
I have thus pointed out the chief differences
between Dr. Ortmann’s views and my own.
Naturally, from the difference in our starting
points, ensuing differences are great. Dr. Ort-
mann’s method leads to a consideration of ‘life
No regions dis-
*On the geographical distribution of fishes, 7 An.
Mag. Nat. Hist. (4), xv., 251-255, Apr., 1875.
{ Wallace’s Geographical Distribution of Animals
in Nation, xxiv., 27, 28, 42, 43, July 12, 19, 1877.
516
districts’ as affected by their animal inhabit-
ants; mine to the aggregations of animals accord-
ing to their habitats.
The differences are counterbalanced by the
resemblances in other respects. Let me close
then by endorsing the favorable criticism of
Dr. Ortmann’s work by Dr. Baur and commend-
ing it as well worthy of attention.
“f} TuHEo. GILL.
RONTGEN RAY EXPERIMENTS.
EXPERIMENTS with Rontgen Rays have been
carried on very persistently at Case School of
Applied Science for several weeks, and some
very interesting results have been obtained.
The main object has been to secure good photo-
graphs of the human skeleton in a living sub-
ject, and to increase the practical efficiency of
the apparatus. The accompanying photographs
of the bones of the hand and forearm, and of an
aluminium medal, will indicate the degree of
success obtained.
The arm was photographed with an exposure
of twenty minutes, while the medal (;, inch
thick) required but five minutes. The Crookes
tube used is of the well-known spherical form,
having four electrodes, designed to show that
the discharge in a high vacuum is independent of
the anode, and is one of a set which was ex-
hibited at the World’s Fair. It was excited by
an induction coil giving about a six-inch spark
in air, when using a current of three amperes
and twenty volts, obtained from eleven cells of
storage battery. The arm was held by band-
ages to the plateholder, which was supported
in an inclined position upon a special stand.
The usual plateholder slide of hard pasteboard
was between the hand and plate. The tube
was placed at a distance of twelve inches above
the wrist. Rapid plates were used and devel-
oped in the usual way with eikonogen and
hydrochinon developer. Slow lantern slide
plates give nearly as good results, indicating
that the sensitiveness of the plate to ordinary
light is no criterion in this work. A great deal
of detail appears plainly during development
which disappears in the ‘fixing’ process. Vari-
ous kinds of developers and fixing agents have
been tried to overcome this, without success.
A photograph showing the bones of the fingers
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 66.
has been made with ten seconds’ exposure, the
tube being two inches above the plate. The
bones of the entire arm, including the shoulder
joint and of the foot, have been satisfactorily
photographed. Attempts have been made to
photograph the chest and head with exposures
of one hour in each case, the tube being eigh-
teen inches from the plate. The resulting nega-
tives show a surprising amount of detail, which
is too faint for satisfactory reproduction. The
chest picture shows eight ribs on each side of
the spinal column, a dark streak in the latter
corresponding to the spinal cord. Under the
region of the heart the ribs do not show, indica-
ting that the heart is more opaque than the lung
tissue. The collar bone is prominent, while the
details of the shoulder joint can be seen. The
picture of the head shows the following details :
The spinal column in the neck, the jaw bones,
with teeth and spaces where several are missing,
the nasal cavities, the thickening of the bone
showing clearly the outline of the ear, the thin
places at the temples, the floor of the brain
cavity and the ragged edge where bone and
cartilage join in the nose. These pictures,
though of little surgical value, are very interest-
ing experimentally. Some of the negatives made
clearly show the ligaments connecting the bones
at the joints, while none have so far shown any
blood vessels or nerves.
Bullets have been located in the hands of four
men, and numerous cases of hands injured by
machinery and of deformities have been ex-
amined, the exposures varying from two to
twenty minutes. Some very interesting and
valuable pictures of diseased arm bones and of
fractures of the arm have been taken. In one
case four inches of the arm bone had been re
moved five years ago, and the extent of the dis-
ease is clearly shown. Views of the fractures
where the ends of the bones are not in apposi-
tion are of value to the surgeons. These pho-
tographs are taken through bandages, splints
and silicate of sodium casts without hindrance.
A most interesting study has been the position
of the various small bones of the wrist in differ-
ent positions of the hand.
Many interesting points are noted in the work,
which are suggestive in a theoretical way, de-
tails of which are not ready for publication.
APRIL 3, 1896. ]
As already announced by Prof. Rowland, it
appears that the anode is as important in the
matter as the cathode. Wehave a number of
tubes which give results, but none better than
the one mentioned, while a tube just received,
of American manufacture, promises to equal the
imported ones.
The success so far obtained with the arm and
chest encourages usto think that still thicker por-
tions of the human body may be studied advan-
tageously, and experiments will be immediately
undertaken in this direction.
Dayton C. MILLER.
CASE SCHOOL OF APPLIED SCIENCE,
March 25, 1896.
[The photographs referred to by Prof. Miller,
like all others of a similar character, are diffi-
cult of adequate reproduction by photogravure.
The bones of the wrist and the large bones of
the forearm are splendidly shown and the
aluminum medal shows detail nearly as well as
an ordinary direct photograph. T. C. M.]
THE INVERTED IMAGE ON THE RETINA.
I cANNor justly take to myself the severe re-
marks which Prof. Brooks makes, in the last
number of SCIENCE, concerning those who have
understood him to mean that there is something
peculiarly inconceivable in the inversion of the
image on the retina; I did not myself take this
view, because I happened to know, before
writing my letter, that he disavowed this inter-
pretation of his words. I even fail to under-
stand by what rule of logic he drew the conclu-
sion that he was the distinguished scientist to
whom I alluded when I used these words:
“Prof. Brooks can hardly hope that there
should be any consensus among scientific men
in regard to . » « » » consciousness, if there are
still distinguished scientists who think that there
is anything which needs explanation in the fact
that the image on the retina is inverted.”’ (I
add the italics now.) This view of the matter
is not uncommon, as the following instances,
in addition to the discussion which has been
going on for more than six months in SCIENCE,
and which Prof. Brooks has found so wearisome,
will indicate. A physician who had been tray-
elling among the Esquimaux recently reported
SCIENCE.
517
before a medical society in Philadelphia that
those people are in the habit of holding a pic-
ture upside down when it is given them to look
at; he accounted for this curious fact by sup-
posing that they were in such a low state of de-
velopment that they had not yet learned to re-
invert the image on the retina, and this hy-
pothesis was seriously discussed by this body of
physicians, without having its absurdity pointed
out by a single member. As another instance,
I mention that a prominent Baltimore physician,
in writing on the sensations of infants, lately
said that they see everything upside down at
first, and only learn afterwards to correct this
impression.
Since Prof. Brooks has included me among
those who have failed to take his meaning as
he intended it, he cannot complain if I come to
their defence in a single word. He had said:
“We all believe many things that are incon-
ceivable, such as the truth that the image in
the retina is upside down;’’ and again, ‘“T
illustrated, by the inversion of the retinal image,
the fact that evidence may furnish conclusive
proof of truths that are inconceivable.’’? Now,
while it is true that ‘‘if, for purposes of il-
lustration, I declare my conviction that the
moon is not made of green cheese,’’ no one has
aright to infer that I think the moon is made
of cheese of any kind, this supposititious asser-
tion offers no analogy to the case in hand. If
a person said that he could not believe that the
cheese of which the moon is made is green, and
also that he was not able to believe in the
greenness of the cheese of which the moon is made,
he would be using expressions precisely analo-
gous to those made use of by Prof. Brooks in
the case of the retinal image. Would anyone
be expected to use language like this, unless it
was the greenness only that troubled him ?
(Oh, 1b, LN
NECESSARY AND SUFFICIENT TESTS OF TRUTH.
EDITOR OF SCIENCE: When Prof. Brooks says
that it is a ‘great law of logic that the test of
truth is evidence and not conceivability,’ he
uses the phrase ‘test of truth’ in a loose way
which (while it is not uncommon), in the inter-
ests of logic, I must protest against.
To the mathematician it has long been a
518
thing which he has at his finger’s end to make
the distinction between the necessary and the
sufficient condition for the truth of a statement,
and there is no reason why other scientists
should not speak with the same precision. One
thing is the necessary condition for the truth of
another, if the latter cannot be true in its ab-
sence ; it is the sufficient condition, if it must
be true in its presence. It may be matter of
question whether ‘test of truth’ should be
used in the sense of necessary or of sufficient
condition of truth, but it certainly should not
be used in both senses in the same sentence.
‘Evidence’ is the sufficient condition for the
truth of a statement, but it is not in every in-
stance necessary. I need no evidence to con-
vince me that] am conscious. Now those who
regard conceivability in the way that Prof.
Brooks objects to, do not for a moment consider
it to be a sufficient condition of the truth of
any statement, but they do consider it to be the
necessary condition of the truth of every state-
ment. The inconceivability of astatement is for
them the sufficient test of its falsity, and its
conceivability is the necessary test of its truth.
Instead of saying, therefore, with Prof. Brooks,
that the test of truth is evidence and not conceiva-
bility (a statement which gives me a slight feel-
ing of dizziness), it would be better to say that the
test of truth is evidence, and inconceivability is no
criterion (or test) of falsity, provided the exact
terms, necessary and sufficient, should be con-
sidered too pedantic.
I have used the terms necessary and sufficient
because they have been consecrated to this
purpose by the mathematician, but I believe
that essential and sufficient, or perhaps requisite
and sufficient, would convey the meaning much
better for ordinary language. We should then
say, evidence is a sufficient test* and conceivability
is not a requisite test of truth. The sentence
‘“conceivability is not a necessary test of truth”
is somewhat ambiguous; it might mean ‘is not
a test such that the truth necessarily follows
from it,’ instead of ‘is not a test which it is
necessary to have fulfilled if the truth is to
hold.’ But ‘requisite test of truth’ is not open
to any ambiguity.
* That, for nearly all truths, evidence is also a re-
quisite test, is true, but is denied by no one.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 66.
IT am convinced that if the terms requisite and
sufficient (or something equivalent to them)
were to come into common use as defining the
kind of ground, reason, argument, condition or
test that the writer has in view, it would con-
duce very much to facility of comprehension on
the part of the reader. M. M.
THE TEMPERATURE OF THE EARTH’S CRUST.
Mr. SERENO E. BisHop, in his letter in Sct-
ENCE, March 13th, remarks that it would be
interesting to ascertain what are the rates of in-
crease of temperature now under regions where
the subsoil is permanently frozen, as in the
tundras of Siberia and Alaska.
Attention may here be called to the Report
made to the British Association in 1886, by the
committee appointed to organize a systematic
investigation of the depth of the permanently
frozen soil in the polar regions. Of some
twenty-two localities mentioned in that Report,
Jakutsk, Siberia, lat. 62°, is perhaps the most
noteworthy, the limit of the frozen soil being
620 feet and the temperature rate 1° for 28 feet.
The transcendental formula employed by
Lord Kelvin in his well-known chapter on the
‘Cooling of the Earth’ furnishes results in
marked harmony with the temperature rate as
determined by many observations. (Prestwich,
Proceedings of the Royal Society, 1886.) It
does not logically follow, of course, that Lord
Kelvin’s premises are necessarily correct. How-
ever, whether we accept the argument in the
‘Cooling of the Earth’ or rely on observations
alone, we must for the present regard 1° F. per
50 feet (approximately) as expressing the law
of the rate of increase of the temperature of the
earth’s crust near the surface ; some local factor
should be looked for as the cause of such an ex-
ceptionally low rate of increase as that found in
the Calumet mine, or such a high rate as that
in the Jakutsk mine. In any case it is scarcely
safe to assume, as Professor Agassiz seems to
do, that the rate observed to the bottom of the
Calumet mine holds to the depth of 19 miles
and beyond, and thence to conclude that the
earth’s crust has a thickness of 80 miles. The
crust of the Lake Superior region may have
counterbalancing abnormal features, so that the
low temperature rate for the first mile is amply
APRIL 3, 1896.]
atoned for before Lord Kelvin’s 100,000 feet
level is reached.
As regards Mr. Bishop’s ice-cap hypothesis,
would not an ice cap, on account of the low
conductivity of ice, have the effect of raising
the temperature rate instead of lowering it?
ELLEN HAYES.
WELLESLEY, Mass., March 18th.
THE PREROGATIVES OF A STATE GEOLOGIST.
EpITor OF SCIENCE: As is well known to
many of the readers of SCIENCE, the writer of
this note spent the greater part of five summers
in Missouri, studying the crystalline rocks and
associated formations over an area about seventy
miles square in the vicinity of Pilot Knob, and
has published a number of papers concerning
‘them. While Winslow was State Geologist I
published the first half of Bulletin 5, and sent
in manuscripts to accompany the Iron Moun-
tain sheet, the Mine la Motte sheet, and my
final report, which was to constitute a mono-
graph, the last manuscript leaving my hands in
August, 1893. The Iron Mountain sheet was
engraved and proof sent me for my final re-
vision of the geological boundaries, as was also
the proof of my part of the accompanying text,
before Winslow left the position of State Geo-
logist, while as early as March, 1892, the Mine
la Motte sheet was drawn and I marked the
geological boundaries on it, although it has not
yet been published.
Shortly after assuming control of the State
Survey Office Dr. Keyes wrote me that he
would soon take up the manuscript of my final
report. On September 23, 1894, he wrote me
as follows :
“Since looking over your MS. rather care-
fully I have come to the conclusion that it
would be best perhaps for me to write an intro-
ductory chapter on the general geology of the
region. We have now so much new material
on hand in this direction, and the topographical
sheets and reports on this have been completed
this summer and are now ready for the printer,
so that it would greatly enhance the value of
the report to incorporate this work. So much
more also is known in regard to the Cambrian
since 1 have made a trip into the region.
oe a a I will revise the I. and II.
SCIENCE.
519
chapters, if you are willing, so as the introduc-
tory will not cover the same ground; so you need
not give these chapters much attention.’
(Italics are mine.) .
Knowing the facts regarding the preparation
of the sheets as above stated, it is difficult to
understand how so much ‘new material’ could
have been gathered in so short a time.
I wrote him in substance in reply to his letter
of September 23, 1894, that of course he could
write any introductory matter he chose, but
that I very much hoped he would not borrow
too freely from my manuscript in so doing. On
January 29, 1895, he again wrote me:
“Regarding the other part of your letter I
can assure you that I do not wish to detract
one iota from the work or to deprive you of any
credit on account of changes which may be
made. Before it is printed I will talk or per-
haps ‘write’ the matter over with you.’’
The manuscript was finally sent me as Dr.
Keyes had revised it, but my first two chapters
had been so changed and so many positive
errors introduced that I wrote the State Geo-
logist it never would do to have it published in
that form. The result was he visited me in
April, 1895, and we talked the matters over
freely, as I thought. He consented to every
change I suggested excepting that he wished
my original manuscript abridged more than I
desired. During this conversation not a word
was said or even intimated that the chapter on
the general physiography was not mine. I
told him certain of the geological discussions
which he had introduced were so different from
what I had written that I did not care to be re-
sponsible for them. But I never thought of
this being his introductory chapter, as he said
nothing about it, and as his name was not at-
tached to it, although he called this the first
proof. No further word on the subject was sent
me, and I was given no chance to further read
the proof, although only twelve hours from him
by mail. On November 1, 1895, I received the
publication which appeared as a part of Volume
VIII. of the Missouri Geological Survey. Much
to my surprise I found that the whole of the
physiographic descriptions and much other
matter which I thought was entirely mine ap-
peared under his name without any intimation
520
that I was in any way responsible for it, even
though he had previously written, ‘‘I do not
wish to detract one iota from the work or to de-
prive you of any credit on account of changes
which may be made.’’ He wrote me October 30,
1895, stating that the publication was complete,
and saying: ‘‘ Owing to your objections regard-
ing the introductory section, I thought it best not
to impose its authorship on you and conse-
quently I have assumed the responsibility of
this section, as it in no way covers the ground of
your first two chapters, except in the case of one or
You can, of course, publish
(Italics are
two paragraphs.
these elsewhere if you so desire.”’
mine.) :
Very naturally I felt that this was a bold case
of plagiarism, and wrote him on the subject
November 14th, in reply to which he wrote me
on the 15th: ‘‘ Altogether there are two and a
half or three pages which are taken from you,
as I have already stated’’ (earlier in this
letter). How the ‘one or two paragraphs
Extracted from page 84.
GENERAL GEOLOGY OF THE MISSOURI CRYSTAL-
LINE AREA.
(By CHARLES R. KEYEs. )
Geographical Distribution.
The massive crystalline rocks of Missouri are con-
fined to the southeastern part of the State. They oc-
cur in irregular masses and isolated hills extending
over an area 70 miles square, which is widely known
as the Iron Mountain country.
(Then follow ten lines of dissimilar matter. )
Pilot Knob is approximately the center of the crys-
talline district. For a distance of perhapsa dozen
miles in all directions from this point, the massive
erystallines form the greater portion of the surface
rock; while in an easterly direction they are practi-
cally continuous for more than twice as far.
(Which reaches Knob Lick and Fredericktown. )
Beyond the large central field the exposures gradu-
ally become less and less frequent. To the north
they do not reach much beyond Bismarck. North-
eastward they are found in in Ste. Genevieve county,
30 miles from Pilot Knob. On the east, hills of simi-
lar rock are abundant as far as Castor Creek. To the
south they stretch away in large masses for many
miles, with occasional outcrops as far as the boundary
line of Butler county. To the southwest, they ex-
tend into Shannon county, and perhaps even beyond.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Voz. III. No. 66.
of October 30th could grow to ‘two and a half or
three pages’ by November 15th, and this after
‘the publication was complete, isno more mys-
terious than other incidents which are of no in-
terest to the public. In the same letter of
November 15th, he wrote: ‘‘ More than one-half
of that section over which I ‘hoisted’ my name
was written at the request of Mr. Winslow for
my chapter on Missouri stratigraphy to accom-
pany the Paleontology report, and this more
than three years ago. * * * . At least one-
fourth was written for Maryland granites at
Baltimore nearly five years ago. * * *. This
matter was taken bodily with no changes what-
ever except several locality names.’’ How this
corresponds with his statement of September
23, 1894, regarding ‘new material’ the reader
can judge.
In order to show those interested the relation
between my original manuscript and the part
with his name to it, the following quotations are
made, portions in brackets being my comments.
Extracted from Haworth’s Manuscript.
GEOGRAPHY OF THE CRYSTALLINE ROCKS.
a. Boundaries.
The crystalline rocks of Missouri are irregularly
distributed over an area nearly seventy miles square.
The central portion of the area is in the vicinity of
Pilot Knob. Here for a distance of from six to ten
miles in all directions the Archzean rocks cover the
greater portion of the surface, and to the east they
are almost continuous for more than twenty miles,
reaching as far as Knob Lick and Fredericktown.
Beyond this central area the crystalline exposures
continuously become smaller and farther apart. To
the north they reach beyond Bismarck, into township
36 N. On the northeast they are found in Ste. Gene-
vieve county nearly thirty miles from Pilot Knob.
On the east porphyry and granite hills are abundant
as far as range 8 east, or as far as to Castor creek.
To the south occasional exposures may be observed as
far as township 27 N.
(Which is near the boundary of Butler county. )
To the southwest they extend into Shannon county,
and even then itis quite probable the limit is not
reached. * * *, To the west the area reaches in al-
most unbroken outlines to the East Fork of Black
River, is quite prevalent to the Middle Fork, and
numerous scattered hills have been found beyond;
while to the northwest porphyry hills are found as
far as Little Pilot Knob, * * in Washington county.
APRIL 3, 1896. ]
They stretch out to the west almost unbrokenly to
the east fork of Black River; while numerous scat-
tered hills continue even beyond the middle fork of
the same stream. Toward the northwest similar
rocks occur at short intervals as far as Little Pilot
Knob, in Washington county.
(Five lines referring the reader to maps.)
The central and most extensive portion of the crys-
talline is, as just stated, in the vicinity of Pilot Knob
and Iron Mountain, and occupies the median parts of
townships 33 and 34, north, inranges III., IV. and V.,
east of the fifth principal meridian, with occasional
extensions much farther in several directions. The
crystalline area is almost unbroken for a distance
of 30 miles southeast and southwest of Bismarck,
which is situated near the northern margin of the
great central district. The other masses of similar
rock aremuch smaller and are widely scattered.
(If a knowledge of such boundaries was possessed
by anyone other than myself and those who read my
manuscript, what a mistake for the State to pay out
so many hundred dollars and for me to spend so many
months’ time in ascertaining them. )
Page 86.
PHYSIOGRAPHY.
Topography.
(A little less than two pages is of a general char-
acter which is relatively distinct from the manu-
script).
Page 87.
The various types of rocks-give such characteristic
phases of topography to the different parts of the dis-
trict, that the true lithological nature of the rock
composing a hill may be readily inferred at a distance
of several miles.
East of the great central mass of crystallines the
‘country is comparatively level, or rather not so rugged
as in the immediate vicinity of the porphyry hills.
In passing still farther toward the border of the area,
the topography continually changes ; the porphyry is
less frequently found in the valleys, and more and
more of the hills is composed of limestone. The
granites in various places form high, steep promi-
nences. To the west the difference in the surface re-
lief of the granite areas is even more marked. No
less than four of the most conspicuous elevations
here are made up of granite. One of these on the
East Fork of Black river, in the vicinity of the ‘falls’
(plate iii. ), connects with the long row of porphyry
SCIENCE. 521
(A little farther along five lines refer the reader to
maps. )
First: The central and most solid portions of the
Archean is in townships 33 and 34 N, and in ranges
III., IV. and Y. E, with occasional projections in dif-
ferent directions reaching much farther.
(About a page and a half of manuscript follows
here giving more details of boundaries. )
Page 4.
b. Topography.
(About one page of manuscript is passed here con-
taining many facts mentioned in the printed part. )
Page 4.
A little farther to the east, in the big granite area,
the country is comparatively level, or at least much
less rugged than in the immediate vicinity of the por-
phyry hills. This is so noticeable that one may well
speak of the characteristic topography of the granite
areas. The few high hills that occur almost invari-
ably grade into porphyry toward their summits. But
as we pass towards the border of our area, in any di-
rection, we find the topography changing. The por-
phyry is less frequently found in the valleys; an
ever increasing proportion of the hills are composed
of Cambrian rocks ; and, strangest of all, the granites
in different places become the constituents of high
and steep hills.
(* * * Six lines of manuscript. )
To the west the difference in the topography of the
granite is often more marked. No less than four
prominent hills here are composed of granite, while
the valleys are never covered with it. One of these
is on the east bank of East Fork of Black river, in the
vicinity of the beautiful and picturesque ‘falls’ * * *.~
(Here description is given in detail. )
The granite hill connects with a long row of promi-
nent porphyry hills, but it is higher than any of
them. The next most prominent one of the four lies
to the north about three miles in the angle between
the East Fork and the Imboden Fork. It is locally
called “ High Top,’ and well it deserves the name, for
it stands out prominent above all the hills near it.
According to the barometric measurements made by
Mr. Kirk it rises 635 feet above the valley at its base,
which shows that it compares favorably with Shep-
herd Mountain, the biggest and highest porphyry hill
522
hills, but is higher than any of them. Another is
three miles north of the one last mentioned, between
the East Fork and the Imboden. It is called ‘High
Top,’ for it towers above all the hills surrounding it,
rising 635 feet above the valleys at its base, and com-
pares in this respect favorably with Shepherd Moun-
tain, the largest and highest porphyry peak of the
central area. The third principal granite hill lies to
the south, and its height is about the same as the two
mentioned ; while the fourth is about a mile east of
High Top. Farther west are still other crystalline
hills, but they are composed of porphyry. Beyond
the Imboden fork is another tributary known as
Shut-in fork. The word ‘shut-in’ is a name usually
applied throughout the region to every place in which
two hills are close together with a stream flowing be-
tween. In this case the two hills forming the ‘shut-
in’ are very high, particularly the westernmost, which
rises 610 feet above the stream.
Throughout the Black river country there is un-
usual regularity in the courses of the streams ; from
which fact it may be inferred that there is a corre-
sponding symmetry in the arrangement of the ele-
vated portions of the region instead of promiscuous
scattered positions of the hills so common elsewhere.
There is a series of long rows of elevations between
the streams. Generally the southernmost point of
each is the highest, as in the case of Hightop and the
other granite hills mentioned above. From the sum7
mit of any prominent elevation in this region there is
visible every crystalline mass within a radius of
many miles. Here and there may be noticed a prom-
inence standing out more boldly than the others, and
they often, after closer inspection, resolve themselves
into rude ranges. The most prominent of these
groups is in the vicinity of Annapolis. The row
forms a broad curve extending to the southwest a dis-
tance of three miles. To the east and southeast
there are first a few small porphyry hills in the im-
mediate vicinity of the town, and beyond this a large
elevation with three prominent spurs. These hills in
turn stretch away to the southeast, almost connecting
with the row of mountains on the east bank of Crain
Pond creek, and from thence to Gray mountain im-
mediately east of Brunot.
Page 89.
Southward from the point of view just mentioned,
across a stretch of six or seven miles of lowland, is a
second row of hills extending east and west and
reaching from Black river to the St. Francois. On the
west is Mann and on the southeast Rubel mountain.
Both are large porphyry hills. Beyond the latter are
McFadden, Aley and Mud Lick mountains, the latter
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. IIL. No. 66.
in the central area. A third one of the four granite
hills lies on the south line of the same township and
will perhaps equal in height either of the two above
mentioned, although its altitude has not been meas-
ured. The fourth one lies about a mile west of High
Top, but is much less prominent.
(Here follows about one-half page giving geologic
reasons for peculiar topography. )
West of the Imboden Fork is another tributary
known as the Shut-in Fork. The two hills forming
the so-called ‘Shut-In ’—a common term applied to
almost every place where two hills are close together
with a stream flowing between, are very high, partic-
ularly the west one. It rises toa height, according to
Mr. Kirk, of 610 feet. ie ~ ue i
By consulting a map one will see that in the Black
river country the streams come from the northeast
and the northwest, converging to a point a little
south of Lesterville, in Reynolds county. There is an
unusually great regularity here in the direction of the
water courses, which means there is a corresponding
regularity in the topography of the country, a topog-
raphy which may ‘almost be named the Black river
type. Instead of the irregular, hatchy arrangement
of the hills, so common in other places, we find here
at least an approach to regularity in the numerous
rows of hills between the streams. Generally also,
the southernmost point in each row is the highest, as
is the case with High Top and the other granite hills
mentioned above.
Standing on a prominent hill almost anywhere
south of the north line of township 33, particularly
in the Black river or the Taum Sauk country, by
looking away to the south, one can readily distinguish
almost every Archzean hill, each of which is porphyry,
lying between the latitudes of Hogan and Piedmont.
(‘Many miles.’ )
The country is broken and hilly, but here and
there may be noticed a much greater prominence, a
hill which stands out so boldly that it at once attracts
attention. These large hills, or mountains, as they
are locally called, are so independent of each other
in location that there seems to be little, if any, rela-
tion between them. But when they are platted it
can be Seen they constitute three distinct groups of
hills.
(‘Rude ranges.’ )
The northern group is in the vicinity of Annapolis.
The row of hills form a curve convex northward, with
Annapolis just south of the curve. To the southwest
the curve extends about three miles, including as
many hills. To the east and southeast one passes a
few small porphyry hills, immediately at the town,
then Grassy mountain, a prominent porphyry hill *
* *
APRIL 3, 1896. ]
two rising 710 and 793 feet above the surrounding
valleys. The last one is the larger of the two and
consists of two separate peaks. ‘The eastern base is
washed by the St. Francois river.
Still farther to the southward from the point of
vantage named are other hills which appear as an
irregular row trending east and west. The western-
most is Finley mountain, a large peak covering
nearly six square miles and reaching from the Iron
Mountain Railroad on the east almost to Black river
on the west. It rises 725 feet above the valley, and
may be regarded as one of the largest prominences of
the region. To the east is Clark mountain, the
highest and the grandest hill in the whole area. Itis
conical in form and rises majestically to a height of
843 feet above its base. It may be seen from every
prominent peak south of Iron mountain, and appears
to rise so high above the surrounding hills that it
almost seems higher than any of those to the north.
Looking in that direction from Clark mountain, the
whole country for a distance of thirty miles is vis-
ible, from Black river to Knob Lick. The interval
between the two points rises as a wall upon the land-
scape. High Top and Shut-in mountains appear to
the northwest, Shepherd mountain to the north,
Black and Blue mountains to the northeast, with
numberless intervening hills of almost equal height
and nearly equal prominence.
One more district deserves special mention in this
connection. It is along the St. Francois river below
the Silver mines. The hills close in on each side, but
usually allowing a valley wide enough to contain ex-
tensive farms, first on one side of the stream and then
on the other, while at other places it narrows to a
width scarcely sufficient to admit the passage of the
river. The hills are very large. On the west bank
are Black, King, Gray and Mud Lick mountains,
with less prominent ones between. On the east bank
are peaks which rise fully as high.
Page 90.
e. Drainage.
(Here follows ten lines quite dissimilar from any-
thing in the manuscript. )
SCIENCE.
523
(Exact location given. )
Beyond this there is the large hill with its three
southern projections
(‘Prominent spurs.’ )
oF * *. This hill in turn stretches away to the
conchae almost connecting with a row of similar
hills on the east bank of Crain Pond creek, and from
thence to Gray’s mountain, immediately east of
Brunot.
Page 8.
If from the point of view before mentioned, or
better, from a prominent point in the row of hills
just located, one continues looking southward across
a piece of relMtively low land occupied by many
hatchy chert hills, six miles or more away, one will
see a second row of hills trending east and west and
reaching from near Black River to the St. Francois.
Beginning on the west we find Mann mountain ~*.
(Exact location given. )
To the southeast in Section 11 is Rubel Mountain,
another large porphyry hill. Passing eastward still
us w ee McFadden’s mountain is met with,
and beyond it to the southeast Aley mountain and
Mud_Lick mountain, two large and high porphyry
hills which measure respectively 710 and 793 feet
above the surrounding valleys. Mud Lick mountain
is the larger of the two and consists of two separate
peaks.
( Three lines omitted. )
It’s eastern base is washed by the St. Francois river.
Looking still farther southward other hills can he
seen which, with a little imagination, will appear in
an irregular row trending east and west. The west-
ernmost one is Finley mountain, a magnificent hill
covering nearly six square miles and reaching from
the Iron mountain Railway on the east almost to
Black River on the west. It rises 725 feet above the
valley, and when compared with the hills in the
Pilot Knob region, is one of the largest. Passing
eastward from Finley mountain and disregarding the
smaller hills, one reaches Clark mountain, the highest.
and grandest hill in the whole Archean area. It is
circular in form, and os ws *. (Exact loca-
tion given.) Itssummit rises in magnificent grandeur
to a height of 843 feet above the valley. It can be
seen from every prominent peak south of Iron Moun-
tain, and seems to rise so high above the surrounding
hills that one thinks surely it is higher than any of
those to the north. But, in turn, when standing
on the summit of Clark mountain and looking to the
north the whole country thirty miles away, from
Black river to Knob Lick, seems to rise like a wall,
or mountain chain, it is so much higher than the in-
Or
bo
ps
Many other instances might be given, par-
ticularly in the article on weathering of granite
rocks, the fissures in the rocks, ete. Every in-
stance mentioned on page 95, such as that of
the St. Francois river, was taken direct from
the manuscript without any intimation of its
source. The figures illustrating Keyes’ chapter
were principally taken from photographs which
‘constituted a part of my manuscript as it was
sent to Jefferson City in August, 1893. Plates
Ill., VI., VII. and XI. are reproduced photo-
graphs taken by myself and Winslow of places
I specially chose. Plate IV. was taken by Mr.
Ladd years ago at my request, while plate X.
was called for by my manuscript, although I
did not have a copy of the photograph to send
with the manuscript.
Tn his letter of November 15, in referring to
my intimation that he had plagiarized he said :
““To say that it is, is most emphatically false,
SCIENCE.
_ admit the passage of the river.
‘tween.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 66.
tervening hills. From here one can see High Top
and Shut-in mountain to the northwest, Shepherd
mountain to the north, and Black mountain, Blue
mountain and Knob Lick mountain to the northeast,
with so many intervening hills of almost equal height
that the prominent ones mentioned can scarcely be
distinguished.
(Here follow eleven manuscript lines descriptive of
topography south of Clark mountain. )
One more region should be especially mentioned in
this connection, that along the St. Francois river be-
low the Silver Mines. The granite area above des-
cribed reaches down the river a mile below the old
mining place bearing this attractive name. Here the
hills close in on each side forming a narrow valley
throuyh which the river flows. In places the valley
is wide enough to contain extensive farms, first on
one side of the stream and then on the other, while in
other places it decreases to width barely sufficient to
The hills are very
large. On the west bank there is Black mountain,
four miles Jong, King mountain, Gray’s mountain,
and Mud Lick mountain, with less noted ones be-
On the east bank we haye hills almost as ex-
tensive whose peaks rise fully as high, but which are
not so long, nor so prominent by virtue of their
names. The highest of these hills have not been
measured, but certainly some of them surpass 700
feet, for two or three will almost equal Mud Lick
mountain, which is 793 feet above the valley.
" (Here follows a page more on topography. )
to the very last letter.’”’ The reader who has
sufficient interest to compare the parallel col-
umns above may judge for himself. No one
doubts a State Geologist’s privilege of writing
as many ‘introductions’ as he may wish, but
others also have the prerogative of questioning
the utility of such ‘introductions’ when the
State Geologist is compelled to go to a sup-
pressed manuscript to find something to say.
Dr. Keyes seems to bean adept in borrow-
ing illustrations without proper acknowledg-
ment. In Volume I., Iowa Geological Survey, ~
plate IX. was made from a photograph taken by
Prof. C. H. Gordon. He subsequently pub-
lished it in Volume II. as plate TV., and in his
report on paleontology for Missouri in Volume
IV., plate IX., all without any acknowledg-
ments, although Prof. Gordon had called his
attention to the matter (A. J. Sci. (8), Vol.
XLVI., p. 398, 1893). In Vol. 2, Proceedings
APRIL 3, 1896.]
Towa Academy of Science, he published plates
III. and IYV., without acknowledgments, which
. were first published by Winslow in the text of
the Iron Mountain sheet as plates III. and II.
For his introduction to my report from the
same place he borrowed plates I. and III., using
them as plates II., VIII. and IX., respectively,
again without acknowledgments. And yet on
November 14 he wrote me: *‘TI have only the
simple statement to make that no one holds in
higher reverence the giving of all due credit to
whom it belongs and no one has tried harder
than I to give it on all and every occasion.”’? —
Erasmus HAwortuH.
ie
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
A Review of the Weasels of Eastern North Amer-
ica. By OUTRAM BANGS, Proc. Biol. Soe. of
Washington, X., pp. 1-24, pls. I.-III., Feb.
25, 1896.
In clearing up the status of the Weasels of
eastern North America, Mr. Bangs has done a
piece of work that will be welcomed by all
mammalogists. He has had access to practi-
cally all the material thus far accumulated by
American naturalists on the species treated; his
results leave little to be desired.
All three of the species named by Bonaparte
in 1888—richardsoni, cicognani and longicauda—
are found to be valid, and their geographic
ranges are for the first time defined. The weasel
which heretofore has been persistently con-
founded with the European Putorius erminea is
found to bea very distinct species for which
the name P. noveboracensis of Dekay and
Emmons becomes available. This animal is the
common large weasel of the Eastern States,
where it ranges from the mountains of North
Carolina northward to northern New Yorkand
central Maine. It is not known from any point
west of Illinois.
The small weasel of the Northern States,
which it has been customary to call P. vulgaris,
is the P. cicognani of Bonaparte, as recognized
by Baird and Mearns, but overlooked by most
‘mammalogists. P. cicognani is a northern
animal ranging from New York and New
England northward, and extending westward
all the way to Alaska. Mr. Bangs believes
SCIENCE.
525
that it intergrades, in the far North, with the
arctic P. richardsoni, the type of which came
from Great Bear Lake. PP. richardsoni ranges
from Hudson Bay to the coast of Alaska.
The weasel of the northern plains, P. longi-
cauda Bonaparte, becomes considerably darker
along the edge of the forest belt in Minnesota,
and the dark form is named as a subspecies,
spadix. *
But the most interesting novelty is a tiny
species from the plains of the Saskatchewan,
which Mr. Bangs names P. rixosus. It is not
only the smallest of the weasels, but it is be-
lieved to be the smallest known Carnivor-
ous mammal. It has a very short tail, which
lacks the black tip of all other species, and
in winter the little animal turns white all
over. It ranges from Hudson Bay to the coast
,of Alaska and is exceedingly rare in collections.
The rarest weasel of all is the Florida species,
P. peninsule, recently described by S. N.
Rhoads. Only half a dozen specimens, mostly
poor, have as yet found their way into collec-
tions.
Mr. Bangs’ paper is an excellent example of
the kind of work American mammalogists have
been doing for the past few years. It is based
on a sufficient number of specimens to admit of
final conclusions, and the specimens have been
studied so thoroughly that no other conclusions
are likely to be suggested in future.
The paper is illustrated by 3 excellent plates
of skulls, all drawn by Dr. James C. McCon-
nell. Og Jel, Wil.
Report on Field-work in Chenango County [New
York]. By J. M. Cuarxce. (In Thirteenth
An. Rept. State Geologist [N. Y.] for the
year 1893, Vol. I., Geology. Pp. 529-557,
1 plate, 10 figures.)
Volume I. of the last annual report of the
State Geologist of New York forms a book of
nearly 600 pages which is devoted to a descrip-
tion of the geology of certain portions of the
state and is profusely illustrated with maps,
sections, figures and plates. The greater num-
ber of separate papers composing the report are
not only filled with interesting facts, but also
increase our knowledge of the geology of the
State to a considerable extent.
526
On many accounts the report of Dr. Clarke
describing the geologic structure of a portion
of Chenango county is one of the most impor-
tant of these contributions, since it considers the
correlation of the rocks for a part of the State
concerning which great uncertainty and differ-
ence of opinion have prevailed. The plate at
the beginning of the article gives a clear idea
of the character of the sandstones and shales
at the base of Vanuxem’s Oneonta sandstone,
while the figures bring out nicely the lithologic
and stratigraphic features of the various sec-
tions, which are carefully described by the
author and are accompanied by accurate lists of
the species of fossils found in the various beds.
In the lower exposures, near Norwich, Dr.
Clarke found abundant Hamilton fossils; above
these Hamilton species also, but with them
specimens of Spirifer mesastrialis, Actinopteria
zeta and a few other species which occur in the
‘Ithaca group,’ while in the upper part of the
shalesand sandstones, below the Oneonta sand-
stone, fossils are very scarce.
The formations of the Middle and Upper
Hamilton of central and western New York are
usually given in ascending order as the Marcel-
lus shale, Hamilton sandstone with the Tully
limestone at the top, Genesee shale, Portage for-
mation (which in central and eastern New York
is partly replaced by the ‘Ithaca group’ and
Oneonta sandstone), and Chemung formation.
These formations form the Hamilton and Che-
mung series, the line of separation usually be-
ing drawn at the top of the Genesee, although
some authors prefer to place it at the base of
the Tully limestone.
The Genesee shales and Tully limestone form
a marked horizon across western New York,
but they disappear in going eastward and are
not clearly known east of the Chenango valley.
In this eastern area Hamilton fossils, with the
addition of a few species found in the ‘ Ithaca
group,’ occur in the bluish shales and sand-
stones underlying the Oneonta sandstones, and
whether these deposits belong in the Hamilton
formation, or are above the horizon of the Gen-
esee shale and Tully limestone, has been a
greatly disputed question.
Dr. Clarke found in the western part of Che-
nango county that the Hamilton fauna with
SCIENCE.
curacy.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 66.
Spirifer mesastrialis, ‘and of quite the same
character as that of the lower beds at Norwich,’
is clearly and unmistakably above the Genesee
shales. Consequently it will be readily seen
that this work is of great value in accurately
determining the line of separation between
the Hamilton and Chemung series in central
New York. In passing it may be stated that
this conclusion agrees with the writer’s inter-
pretation of the section near Smyrna, twelve
miles north of Norwich, which is at the most
eastern unquestioned exposure of Tully and
Genesee.
The final settlement of difficult questions of
this nature in correlation-—and there are many
in the United States—will be obtained by care-
ful field study of a typical region by a geolo-
gist familiar with its paleontology and also
versed in stratigraphical geology.
A preliminary copy of the Geologic Map of
New York is now passing through the press,
and the above and later work of Dr. Clarke, as
well as that of other assistants, will be of great
value in revising this map upon which the vet-
eran State Geologist, Prof. James Hall, has
been actively engaged for so many years.
C. 8. PROSSER.
Computation Rules and Logarithms. S. W. Hou-
MAN. Macmillan & Co., New York. $1.00.
Prof. Holman’s book is the outgrowth of sey-
eral years’ experience with large classes and
is sufficient for most of the computations oc-
curring in engineering, physics and chemistry.
The tabular matter consists of a variety of five
and four-place tables, together with modern
values of important constants. The introduc-
tion, which comprises one-third of the book, is
of great value, its chief object being to teach
students how to get results of any desired de-
gree of accuracy without wasting time and labor
in the manipulation of useless figures. For in-
stance, the H. P. which can be transmitted
safely by a certain wrought-iron shaft is 272+
1.364%- 10000 «300/6336000. How many places
of logarithms are to be employed, if the compu-
tation-error is not to exceed one per cent.? By
one of the author’s rules it is instantly decided
that four-place logarithms will give ample ac-
One of the devices on which stress is
APRIL 3, 1896.]
laid is moving the decimal point till it stands
directly after the first significant figure. Thus
850.72=8.5072¢10°; 0.000652—=6.52-10—4.
We cannot go into details, but may say that
Prof. Holman’s rules are few and simple, and
so abundantly illustrated that students will
find little difficulty in applying them. The
book is probably the best, in its particular field,
which is available for American students and
engineers. When five-place tables are not, suf-
ficiently accurate the author recommends the
well-known Vega or other seven-place tables.
It is a pity that engineers and others seem to
be unaware that Bremiker’s six-place tables,
revised by Albrecht, are sufficiently accurate
for almost any problem which occurs in practice,
and are easier to use than any seven-place tables.
A few peculiarities of Prof. Holman’s book
deserve notice. Negative characteristics are
used, even in the tables, and recommended.
Decimal points are introduced in the arguments
of the tables of logarithms of natural numbers ;
instead of 621, 6.21 is printed. Interpolation
tables are not given for all the tabular differ-
ences on a given page, when the differences are
large, even though there is ample room on the
margin of the page. The interpolation tables
given are not accurate. Thus 0.3 +22 is called 7
instead of 6.6; this suffices in multiplying by
one figure, but in division needless inaccuracy
may arise.
In the table of 5-place logarithmic trigonomet-
ric functions the argument is for each minute,
but no proportional parts are given. There isno
provision for finding accurately the logarithmic
sines and tangents of small angles involving
fractional parts of a minute.
A student will sometimes wish that the au-
thor had been a little more particular in his
statements. On page xii., for example, after
stating two fundamental propositions, ‘‘ which
one can easily verify by algebra or by numeri-
cal examples,’’ the author adds : :
“A more general form of statement from
which these follow is: If several numbers are
multiplied or divided, a given percentage error
in any one of them will produce the same per-
centage error in the result.’’ Take the example
17°=60. The student will think that the
author means that if the divisor 2 be in error
SCIENCE.
527
by 25% of itself, the quotient is in error by
25% of itself. This he will find to be false.
Had the author given a definition of ‘ percentage
error,’ the student would be able to determine
whether the above statement were exact, or
sithply approximately true for such examples
as are likely to occur in practice. The two
propositions mentioned above might be im-
proved by re-writing.
Two errata have been noticed: In the first
line of p. xxiii for ‘numerator’ read ‘denom-
inator ;’ in the last line of p. xii for ‘merely’
read ‘nearly.’
The book is elegantly printed on heavy paper;
one can only wish that it were so bound that it
would lie open with a flat page, a sine qua non
of logarithmetic tables.
HERBERT A. HoweE.
UNIVERSITY OF DENVER.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.
THE subject of the Rontgen rays is discussed
in the March number by A. A. Michelson, who
proposes a new hypothesis to account for
the phenomena observed. He mentions, first,
the two theories that have hitherto been sug-
gested, that of longitudinal waves and that of
projected particles, and remarks upon the special
difficulties which each of these theories meets.
His own hypothesis he calls the ‘ Ether-Vortex’
theory, which he states as follows :
‘‘Let it be supposed that the X-rays are vor-
tices of an intermolecular medium (provi-
sionally, the ether). These vortices are pro-
duced at the surface of the cathode by the
negative charge, which forces them out from
among the molecules of the cathode.’’ He shows
that certain of the phenomena which are most
typical and difficult to explain may be ac-
counted for on this supposition. The fact that
a high vacuum is essential within the tube
while, once outside, the rays can pass not only
through air, but also through many solids, is re-
garded as finding a solution if it be considered
that, in order that ether vortices may result from
the electrical impulse, this impulse must be com-
municated to them, and must not be dissipated
in the interchange of molecular charges which
528
accompanies, or rather produces, the discharge
at moderate or high pressures. At the high
exhaustion the energy of the discharge would be
largely confined to the ether vortices. The ab-
sence of the ordinary light phenomena of re-
flection, ete., would follow from the nature of
vortices.
The first article of the number is by C. EH.
Beecher, on the ‘Morphology of Triarthrus.’
This is a continuation and an extension of
earlier articles by the same author upon the
structure of Trilobites. The results given are
presented on a plate showing the dorsal and
ventral views of the species, Triarthrus Becki.
These have been made from drawings based, the
first upon three specimens, and the second upon
two, all in a very exceptional state of preserva-
tion. The perfection with which the appen-
dages of the trilobite are preserved and the
life-like position in which they are shown is
most remarkable. The author is enabled to
draw from them definite conclusions in regard to
the relations and functions of these organs of
which so little has been known hitherto.
A. E. Ortmann discusses the subject of the
existence of climatic zones in Jurassic times,
with special reference to the arguments for them
given by Neumayr. He contends strongly
against Neumayr’s views and states his
conclusion finally that the differences ob-
served in the faunas of the Jurassic deposits
are not caused by climatic differences. J. E.
Wolff describes an occurrence of the rare
rock, theralite, from Costa Rica, from speci-
mens collected by Prof. R. T. Hill. The rock
bears a close similarity to the original type from
Montana. The possible existence of a zone of
alkaline rocks continuing from the northwestern
United States on the east border of the Rocky
Mountains is suggested. C. H. Smyth, Jr., de-
scribes in detail an occurrence of gabbro and
associated gneiss near Russell, St. Lawrence
county, N. Y. The gneiss is regarded as de-
rived by the metamorphism of the gabbro re-
sulting finally in entire re-crystallization and
the removal of all cataclastic structure. Another
extended petrological paper is by W. H. Weed
and L. Y. Pirsson, forming the first part of a
memoir upon the Bearpaw Mountains, in Mon-
tana. This is a region which has been hitherto
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 66.
but little investigated geologically. After a brie¢
statement of the general geology, the relation
of the sedimentary rocks, largely Cretaceous,
to the massive, igneous rocks and tuffs, the au-
thors go on to describe more particularly the
igneous rocks, including both the effusive and
intrusive forms. The former are most abun-
dant, forming the highest peaks and many of
the lesser summits of the region ; they are the
usual rocks of the foot hills, embracing dark-
colored basaltic tuffs, breccias and lava flows,
which are parts of the former volcanic cones.
They consist largely of lencite basalts. The
intrusive rocks described include various forms
of trachyte and quartz-syenite porphyry; also
associated with the syenite, the rock shonkinite,
a type described by the same authors from Yogo
Peak, Montana. H. B. Bashore gives some
notes on glacial gravel in the lower Susque-
hanna. Robert Chalmers describes the Pleisto-
cene marine shorelines on the south side of the
St. Lawrence Valley, connecting them with the
terraces noted farther west along Lake Ontario. _
The occurrence of free gold scattered in scales
through the quartz and feldspar of a granite-
like rock from Sonora, Mexico, is described by
G. P. Merrill. He shows that the gold cannot
be regarded as of secondary origin, assuming
that the rock is a normal granite, the occur-
rence is novel and of decided importance. The
number concludes with a series of abstracts,
book notices, ete.
AMERICAN CHEMICAL JOURNAL, MARCH.
The Molecular Weight of Sulphur. By W. RB.
ORNDORFF and G. L. TERRASSE.
In the course of an investigation on the
molecular weight of monoclinic sulphur some
remarkable results were obtained. Although
both the boiling-point and freezing-point meth-
ods were used, the results from the latter were
not concordant and no conclusions can be drawn
from them. The results obtained by the other
method are as follows:
1. The molecular weight of sulphur in liquids
whose boiling-points are below the melting-
point of sulphur, as for example, benzene and
toluene, is represented by Sb.
2. In liquids boiling above the melting point
of sulphur, the molecular formula is Ss.
APRIL 3, 1896.]
8. In sulphur chloride the sulphur is appar-
ently dissociated to the same extent as in the
vapor at high temperatures, the molecular
complexity being represented by §).
On the Determination of Sulphur in Illuminating
Gas and in Coal. By CHARLES F. MABERY.
The author uses a modification of Sauer’s
method, burning the gas in a tube in a stream
of air, the products formed being absorbed in a
standard alkaline solution. The coal is burned
in the same way, being introduced into the
tube in a platinum boat. The amount of sul-
phur left in the ash is less than 0.05 per cent.
on an average.
Chemistry of the Berea Grit Petroleum. By
CHARLES F. MABERY and O. C. DuNN.
A brief account is given of the most impor-
tant wells and their output, and the character
and properties of the petroleum from the Berea
Grit.
A Method for the Standardization of Potassium
Permanganate and Sulphuric acid. By H. N.
Morse and A. D. CHAMBERS.
If a known quantity of standard sulphuric
acid is treated with hydrogen peroxide and
potassium permanganate added as long as the
color disappears, and more hydrogen peroxide
and permanganate added until most of the acid
has been used up, and the excess determined
by titration with the standard ammonia solu-
tion, the strength of the permanganate can be
easily calculated.
Some derivatives of unsymmetrical Tribrombenzol.
By C. Lorine JACKSON and F. B. GALLIVAN.
The authors find that two of the bromine
atoms in tribromdinitrobenzol are easily re-
placed by treating with aniline or sodic ethy-
late. A number of derivatives are described.
' Besides a review of recent work on Helium,
and notes on the composition of Barium Picrate,
and the proposed changes in the Berichte and
‘ Beilstein,’ this number contains reviews of the
following books :
‘Kurzes Handbuch der Kohlenhydrate,’ Dr.
B. Tollens; ‘Die Chemie der Zuckerarten,’ Dr.
E. O. von Lippmann; ‘ Ostwald’s Klassiker, Zur
Entdeckung des Elektromagnetismus,’ and
‘Die Anfange des natirlichen Systemes der
chemischen Elemente ;? ‘Die Lehre von der
SCIEN CE. 529
Elektrizitat,’ G. Wiedemann; ‘ Physikalisch-
chemische Propedeutik,’ H. Griesbach; ‘A
Laboratory Manual of Organic Chemistry,’ Dr.
Lassar-Cohn ; ‘Jahrbuch der Elektrochemie;’
‘ Anleitung zur Molekular-gewichtsbestimmung
nach der Beckmannschen Gefrier- und Siede-
punkts-Methode,’ Dr. G. Fuchs; ‘ Hinfihrung
in die mathematische Behandlung der Natur-
wissenschaften,’ W. Nernst; ‘Elements of
Modern Chemistry,’ C. A. Wurtz.
' J. ELLiIorr GILPIN.
PSYCHE, APRIL.
S. H. ScupDER gives a table to separate the
13 New England species of Melanopli, 10 of
them belonging to the genus Melanoplus; H. F.
Wickham continues former studies on myrme-
cophilous Coleoptera; and a notice is added
of Plateau’s recent experiments on insect vision.
A Supplement contains the conclusion of C. F.
Baker’s account of some new New Mexican
Homoptera and the beginning of descriptions of
new species of bees of the genus Prosopis (or
Prosapis, as the author prefers), by T. D. A.
Cockerell.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.
AT the meeting of the Biological Section, on
March 9th, 1896, Mr. F. B. Sumner read a
paper on ‘The Descent Tree of the Variations
of a Land Snail from the Philippines,’ illus-
trated by a lantern slide. Mr. Sumner described
the range in variation in size and markings in
the shell, and arranged the varieties in the form
of a tree of three branches diverging from the
most genealized type. It was shown that these
several varieties occupy the same geographical
region, and Mr. Sumner was of the opinion that
their occurrence could not be explained by
natural selection since if the colorations were
supposed to be protective it would be impossible
to explain the evolution of these three types.
Prof. Osborn, in discussion, was inclined to
take the same view. Dr. Dyar, however,
thought the explanation by natural selection
not necessarily excluded, since the variations
seemed analogous to the dimorphism in sphinx
larvee, which has been shown by Poulton to be
probably due to this factor.
530
The other paper was by Dr. Arnold Graf on
‘The Problem of the Transmission of Acquired
Characters.’
Dr. Graf discussed the views of the modern
schools of evolutionists and adopted the view
that the transmission of acquired characters
must be admitted to occur. He cited several
examples which seemed to support this view,
and especially discussed the sucker in leeches
as an adaptation to parasitism and the evolution
of the chambered shell in a series of fossil
Cephalopods.
Professor Osborn remarked in criticism of
Dr. Graaf’s paper that this statement does
not appear to recognize the distinction be-
tween ontogenic and phylogenic variation, or
that the adult form of any organism is an ex-
ponent of the stirp, or constitution. If the en-
* vironment is normal the adult would be normal,
but if the environment (which includes all the
atmospheric, chemical, nutritive, motor and
psychical circumstances under which the ani-
mal is reared) were to change, the adult would
change correspondingly ; and these changes
would be so profound that in many cases it
would appear as if the constitution or stirp had
also changed. (Illustrations might be given of
changes of the most profound character induced
by changes in either of the above factors of the
environment, and in the case of the motor factor
or animal motion the habits of the animal
might, in the course of a life time, profoundly
modify its structure. For example, if the
human infant were brought up in the branches
of a tree as an arboreal type instead of as a
terrestrial, bi-pedal type, there is little doubt
that some of the well-known early adaptations
to arboreal habit (such as the turning in of the
soles of feet and the grasping of the hands)
might be retained and cultivated, thus a pro-
foundly different type of man would be pro-
duced. Similar changes in the action of en-
vironment are constantly in progress in nature,
since there is no doubt that the changes of en-
vironment and the new habits which it so brings
about far outstrip all changes in constitution.
This fact, which has not been sufficiently empha-
sized before, offers an explanation of the evyi-
dence advanced by Cope and other writers that
change in the forms of the skeletons of the ver-
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 66.
tebrates first appears in ontogeny and subse-
quently in phylogeny. During the enormously
long period of time in which habits induced on-
togenic variations it is possible for natural
selection to work very slowly and gradually
upon predispositions to useful correlated varia-
tions, and thus what are primarily ontogenic
variations become slowly apparent as phylogenic
variations or congenital characters of the race.
Man, for instance, has been upon the earth per-
haps seventy thousand years ; natural selection
has been slowly operating upon certain of these
predispositions, but has not yet eliminated those
traces of the human arboreal habits, nor com-
pletely adapted the human frame to the upright
position. Thisis as much an expression of habit
and ontogenic variation as it is a constitutional
character. Very similar views were expressed
to the speaker in a conversation recently held
with Prof. Lloyd Morgan, and it appears as if
a similar conclusion had been arrived at inde-
pendently. Prof. Morgan believed that this
explanation could be applied to all cases of
adaptive modification, but it is evident that this
cannot be so, because the teeth here undergo the
same progressively adaptive evolution along
determinate lines as the skeleton, and yet it is
well known that they do not improve by use,
but rather deteriorate. Thus the explanation
is not one which satisfies all cases, but it does
seem to meet, and to a certain extent under-
mine, the special cases of evidence of the in-
heritance of acquired characters, collected by
Prof. Cope in his well-known papers upon this
subject. C. L. BRISTOL,
Secretary.
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.
AT the meeting of the Section of Geology
and Mineralogy of the New York Academy of
Sciences, held March 16th, Prof. J. J. Steven-
son in the chair, the first paper of the evening
was presented by Mr. Heinrich Ries on ‘A Visit
to the Bauxite Mines of Georgia and Alabama.’
The speaker first outlined the occurrence of
bauxite in Europe and in the United States,
illustrating his remarks by means of lantern
slides. He then described his trip through the
bauxite region of the States mentioned, using
the same method of illustration and exhibiting
APRIL 3, 1896. ]
a large series of specimens. Mr. Ries showed
the association of bauxite with occasional beds
of limonite and lignite and the frequent occur-
rence of white clays in connection with the ore.
In their geological relations nothing of moment
was, however, brought to light that has not
already been published by Dr. C. W. Hayes in
his recent paper in the 16th Annual Report of
the Director of the U. 8. Geological Survey.
In the discussion Mr. R. E. Dodge called atten-
tion to the close connection between the bauxite
and the tertiary peneplain of the region, so that
the ores are not found, except at a point where
the great fault lines of the region cut the Knox
dolomite between 900 and 950 feet above tide,
as shown by Dr. Hayes. Prof. Kemp in dis-
cussion called attention to the close association
of limonite and ‘lignite with the bauxite, and
remarked the close parallel that exists between
these deposits and the siluro-cambrian iron ores
of the North. In the South we have hydrated
oxide of aluminum, with subordinate limonite.
In the North the iron oxide is in excess, while
the hydrated oxide of aluminum is present only
in the somewhat uncommon mineral gibbsite.
He also remarked the existence of lignites at
Brandon, Vt., and Mont Alto, Pa. While the
limonites of the North have been in part derived
from the sulphate of iron produced by decom-
posing pyrites, but little hydrate of alumina
seems to have been formed by the sulphuric acid
which has also of necessity resulted. Prof.
Kemp further remarked that a recent article in
the Engineering and Mining Journal of March
14th stated that the gossan of the Royal gold
mine, near Tallapoosa, Ga., extended a consid-
erable distance below the present water, line
and he suggested that it perhaps indicated a
recent depression which has brought the oxi-
dized zone below the ground water.
The second paper of the evening was by Mr.
R. E. Dodge on ‘The Cretaceous and Tertiary
Peneplains of astern Tennessee,’ on the
basis of observations accumulated during two
summers’ field work in the region under Mr. C.
W. Hayes, of the United States Geological Sur-
vey. The speaker described the geographical
development since the cretaceous period of the
country lying west from Chattanooga and across
the Sequatchie Valley to the Mississippi River.
SCLENCE.
531
By means of maps and sections Mr. Dodge first
set forth the geology of the old cretaceous pene-
plain now forming the Cumberland Plateau
with a few monadnocks projecting above it;
next the tertiary peneplain that shows like a
great shelf on each side of the river valley ; and
then the present river valleys and the plains to
the west of the plateau region which are now
being still further notched by the active streams.
A map of the region that the speaker had pre-
pared and colored so as to show the extent of
each peneplain, or, in other words, the geo-
graphic development, was exhibited and com-
mented upon. In discussion Prof. Stevenson
remarked the high terraces that he had met
along the Monongahela, Allegheny, Cheat and
New Rivers in Pennsylvania and West Vir-
ginia. He referred to their uniform attitudes
over wide areas and to their occurrences above
the river terraces. He seemed to favor, how-
ever, the view that they were wave-cut terraces
remaining from a period of submergence, but
remarked that they were wonderfully well pre-
served for ones of ancient date, and that they
exhibit an extraordinary lack of superficial
pebbles such as should accompany a wave-cut
terrace.
The section then elected for the ensuing year
the same officers that had held office last year,
viz: J. J. Stevenson, Chairman, and J. F.
Kemp, Secretary.
J. F. Kemp,
Secretary.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
THE 246th regular meeting of the Anthropo-
logical Society was held Tuesday, March 3,
1896. Surgeon General George M. Sternberg
read a paper on ‘ Vivisection: Its Objects and
Results.’
In the course of his paper Dr. Sternberg said
that by dissection of dead plants and animals
only can we determine the nature of their func-
tions. The study of the results of disease pro-
cesses in the post-mortem room cannot settle
questions, he said, relating to the etiology of
disease, its mode of transmission, if infectious,
its clinical history or its treatment. These are
questions which concern patient and physician, |
and scientific medicine depends upon their so-
532
lution by scientific methods, that is, by experi-
ment. ;
Progress in the biological sciences calls for
experiments on living things. The term vivi-
section originally related only to cutting opera-
tions upon living animals. Its use has been ex-
tended by those who have been led to enter
upon a crusade against experiments on living
animals, so that now it includes all experiments
to which they are subjected.
Thus, said the speaker, the injection of
bacteria under the skin of a’guinea pig becomes
vivisection. It is by experiments of this kind
that our knowledge of disease germs has been
acquired, and without such experiments it
would be absolutely impossible to distinguish
the harmless bacteria and the deadly germs of
tuberculosis, cholera, typhoid fever, puerperal
fever, anthrax and the like, which are now well-
known in pathological laboratories.
Such experiments have resulted in an immense
saving of human life, yet the anti-vivisectionists
insist that they are unjustifiable, and would en-
act measures calculated to entirely arrest all
profitable research in this most important de-
partment of human knowledge.
Continuing, General Sternberg said that
when the dissection of dead plants and animals
was first practiced there was great opposition
to it on the part of those who did not realize
what could be accomplished thereby. One
great fault that has seriously retarded the prog-
ress of medicine is that there has been alto-
gether too much deduction from insufficient
data. This is proved in part in other depart-
ments of life by a curious feature of the times,
the revival of interest in palmistry, faith cure
and matters of that sort, and the absolute re-
liance which a great many people place in the
virtues of patent medicines as panaceas for all
ills. If one controverts the views of a believer
in any of these he will be met by the recital of
some particular incident, unsupported, which
answers the purpose of absolute proof to the
eredulous. This sort of credence is not alto-
gether lacking in the medical profession. Final
conclusions cannot always be reached by chem-
ical methods, but much must be done by hos-
pital experiments. These often furnish ex-
tremely valuable additions to our scientific
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Von. IIL. No. 66:
knowledge, but it is not always possible to.
carry these experiments sufficiently far. Fuller
and more valuable results may often be ob-
tained by experiments on the lower animals in
the hands of a master.
He quoted, in support of his position, the
story of one of Pasteur’s experiments by means
of which, sacrificing the lives of a few animals,
he discovered the bacillus of anthrax, and
thereby saved the lives of millions of animals.
The fact that anthrax inoculation is now so
generally practiced was due to Pasteur’s work,
which could never have been carried through
without vivisection. Formerly ten per cent. of
all the sheep and five per cent. of all the cattle
in France died from this disease, and his study
of the malady has resulted in a saving, in
France alone, of 5,000,000 franes a year for
sheep and 2,000,000 frances’ worth of cattle. He
also spoke of Pasteur’s experiments on the sub-
ject of hydrophobia, pointing out the tremen-
dous blessings which have accrued to the human
race from the work of the famous French scien-
tist, a work, however, which necessitated the
sacrifice of a few animals. As a result of his:
experiments and study, mortality from hydro-
phobia among human beings has been reduced
to less than one per cent. In a record of 416
cases of people who had been bitten by animals
known beyond question to have been mad,
treated by the Pasteur method, not one died.
Vivisection has resulted in a great increase
in the exactness of medicine and surgery, and
any further progress in biology calls for experi-
ments upon living things. In the consideration
of vivisection is placed on the one side the tre-
mendous advance in science, the increased im-
munity from disease and the great saving to the
material wealth of the world, while on the
other side of the balance is the thought of the
animals, comparatively few in number, which
have been sacrified. As human lives are too
sacred to risk in solving the questions of patho-
genic potency, we resort to lower animals,
and vivisection has resulted ina great saving
of human life. The painful dissections made.
by the early investigators, and necessary in the
beginning, are rarely, if ever, made nowadays.
The statements presented by the ultra. anti-
vivisectionists that unnecessary cruelty is used
APRIL 3, 1896.]
and that many experimenters seem to take an
actual delight in the sufferings of their victims,
Gen. Sternberg characterized as a gross and un-
founded calumny. Vivisection is practiced by
members of the humane profession of science in
the interest of humanity. Those who deny that
any valuable results have ever accrued from
vivisection simply show how ignorant they are,
and only prove themselves fit subjects for a
course of elementary lectures.
The discovery of anti-toxin is one of the bless-
ings that has resulted from experiments upon
the lower animals. Scientists would have to
stop just where they are to-day if they were
prevented now altogether from the practice of
vivisection. In securing the anti-toxin, very
little suffering is inflicted upon the horse, from
which it is obtained, but it must then be tested
upon guinea pigs to determine its character and
potency. If we object to using guinea pigs for
this purpose, then we are compelled to act
blindly and must take our chances with the
children.
In conclusion, Dr. Sternberg characterized as
well meaning, but ill advised, the efforts of
those people who seek, by organization, agita-
tion, and in every other way to hinder or ab-
solutely put a stop to a practice which is recog-
nized as necessary to any further advance in
‘scientific medicine. ;
Dr. Baker considered the question from the
physiological point of view. He reviewed the
history of the study of the human body from the
earliest days down, showing the crude ideas
which were entertained on the subject by Hip-
pocrates and other physicians of long ago. He
traced the development down to the present
time, recounting the experiments which were
necessary, and which were made from time to
time, without which we would know no more
of the functions of the human body than did
Galen. Harvey was an enthusiastic vivisec-
tionist, and if he had not been, he could never
have discovered the circulation of the blood.
That he did discover it resulted from the fact
that he cut into the thorax and saw the blood
coursing through the arteries and the heart
beating. To ask scientists to study anatomy
without seeing what is actually within the body
would be precisely the same as to ask a man to
SCIENCE.
533
study the mechanism of a mill by standing out-
side and listening to the noise of the spindles.
Dr, Salmon, Chief of Bureau of Animal In-
dustry spoke of the role vivisection had played
in the discoveries of, 1, Anthrax by Koch, 2,
Chicken Cholera bacillus of Pasteur, 3, Im-
munity as first advocated by the Bureau of
Animal Industry and 4, the discoveries and re-
searches in Antitoxin based upon this doctrine.
He also cited the million of lives and money
saved by the investigations in pleuro-pneu-
monia, hog cholera, Texas fever and tuber-
culosis, which had become of international in-
terest, due to the exclusion of our cattle from
France to Germany.
Mr. Kennedy, of the Anti-vivisection Society,
defined the term ‘vivisection’ soas not to include
inoculation, and claimed that their purpose was
to have governmental supervision over experi-
ments, and based his arguments solely on sen-
timental grounds, claiming that since many ex-
periments had failed therefore it was cruelty to
animals destroyed in these unsuccessful at-
tempts.
Dr. Ch. Wardell Stiles spoke of the utility
and results of animal experimentation in com-
parative invertebrate zoology as applied to hu-
man and comparative medicine. He made the
general statements. (1.) That all animals are in-
fested with animal parasites. (2.) That some
parasitic diseases may be treated successfully
while others cannot; in this later case we must
deal with prevention rather than cure. (8.) A
study of the embryological phases of the para-
sites is necessary before we can establish satis-
factory prophylactic measures. (4.) The data
regarding the embryology including life-his-
tory can be obtained only through animal
experimentation.
The speaker next cited some of the better
known parasitic diseases of man and the
domesticated animals and showed the various.
steps by which the zodlogist had placed the
medical profession in a position to meet these
maladies. Trichine spiralic (Trichina spiralis)
was first described in 1835 as a harmless para-
site ; its life-history was discovered in 1850 but
not until 1860 was it shown to be the cause of
a well defined disease which up to that time had
been confounded with typhoid fever. Its. life-
534
history as wellas the various prophylactic meas-
ures were discovered by experimentation and
could have been obtained in no other way.
The same is true regarding tape worms and
flukes. Through a study of the embryology of
these parasites by means of animal experimenta-
tion data have been obtained for the proper
methods of prevention.
The study of animal parasites bears a close
relation in differential diagnosis to the bacterial
diseases, for verminous nodular diseases are
found in cattle, sheep, chickens, etc., which re-
semble tuberculosis and are often mistaken for
it.
Regarding anesthetics Dr. Stiles said that
they could not be used in his line of work as it
was necessary to keep the animals under ex-
perimentation for several days, weeks or even
months at a time. He was firmly of the opinion,
however, that the inconvenience suffered
by the animals in experiment was, in the vast
majority of cases more of the nature of weak-
ness than of actual physical pain. He claimed
that the appetite of the animals was an excellent
index to the amount of pain they suffered since
an animal in severe pain refuses food. In ex-
periments with animal parasites the hosts
nearly always retained their appetites and the
speaker maintained that even in the severe ex-
periments the pain suffered by the animais was
almost insignificant when compared with the
pain a human being would suffer in the same
stages of the same diseases.
J. H. McCormick,
General Secretary.
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
AT the 45th meeting of this Society, held in
Washington, D. C., March 11th, President S. F.
Emmons in the chair, two papers were read,
one by Bailey Willis on ‘ Evidences of Ancient
Shores, and the other by David White on ‘The
Thickness and Equivalence of Some Basal Coal
Measure Sections along the Eastern Margin of
the Appalachian Basin.’
Mr. Willis discussed the evidences of ancient
shores with reference to their position, trend
and duration. Five classes of evidence were
enumerated: namely, (1) overlap or unconform-
ity ; (2) suncracks, trails or ripple marks ; (8)
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 66,
coarser deposits ; (4) thicker deposits, and (5)
synclines of deposition.
Any point of an unconformity marks with
precision a point on some shore line at some
instant of time, but as the outcrop of an uncon-
formity cannot be assumed to be parallel to the
former shore line, this evidence does not define
the trend of the ancient shore, and as the shore
was in transit its duration was transient.
In contrast with this conclusion was placed
that derived from thick deposits of shales such
as are formed by the delivery of a large volume
of sediment concentrated at the mouth of a
river draining an extensive watershed. These
conditions result in the accumulation of a len-
ticular formation which thickens rapidly from
the shore to a maximum and thins more gradu-
ally seaward. When the thickness of the shale
is pronounced, the duration of the conditions
was probably long continued. Such evidence,
therefore, indicates the approximate position,
general trend and long duration of the ancient
shore.
In folded regions such conditions of deposition
as have just been described have determined the
positions of synclines of the greatest magnitude,
the synclines of deposition. Such folds are
further characterized by a very steep dip on
the shoreward side and by the stratigraphy,
which should include a massive bed of shale.
When sufficiently characteristic to be recog-
nized, the syncline of deposition thus becomes.
an evidence of proximation to shore, with axis
parallel to its general trend; the infolded
strata may also indicate the prolonged duration
of the neighboring shoreline.
Thus the causal relation which exists between
sedimentation and folding is appealed to, to aid
in the determination of ancient shorelines.
Mr. David White communicated informally
some preliminary results of his recent work un-
der instructions from the Director of the Geo-
logical Survey in the stratigraphic paleontology
of the lower portion of the Carboniferous proper
(Mesocarboniferous) and of the Pottsville series
in particular. The speaker exhibited columnar
sections of the series near Coxton, Pottsville
and Tremont, Pa.; Piedmont, the New River
and the Tug River, W. Va.; Soddy, Tenn., and
in the Warrior Coalfield, Ala., on which were
APRIL 3, 1896. ]
indicated the stratigraphic position and vertical
extent of the paleontologic divisions of the
Pottsville series.
Although the plant collections are often
fragmentary or represent only one or more
levels in some of the sections, the individual
collections are generally clearly referable to
one of the floral divisions, suggested in the
author’s preliminary paper on the New River
section at the Baltimore meeting of the Geo-
logical Society of America, viz: Pocahontas,
Horsepen and Sewanee, in ascending order,
while the approximate level in that division is
also frequently indicated with considerable relia-
bility, as is shown by stratigraphic verification.
The limits of these floral divisions, now. fairly
well determined in the New River section, have
been traced through the Flat Top-Tug River
section, where the total thickness is seen to ex-
pand far beyond the 1,700 feet of the New River
section, while material from two localities in
the Big Stone Gap, Va., region shows the pres-
ence of a flora belonging to the Sewanee divi-
sion, at a probable height of 2,300 feet above
the base of the series, denoting, perhaps, the
maximum thickness of the series near this point
in the central Appalachian trough.
Special importance attaches to the author’s
conclusions that the inclusion of the lower part
of the ‘Walden sandstone’ of Hayes, repre-
sented by the ‘Second Series’ of Safford, in the
upper or Sewanee division of the Pottsville
series is fully demonstrated by the fossils of the
West Virginia and the type (Pottsville) sections,
while the underlying terranes, including the
‘Millstone Grit’ and upper part, at least, of
the ‘Sub-conglomerate’ of Safford or the
“Lookout Sandstone’ of Hayes are referable to
the Horsepen division. Such scanty fossil ma-
terial from Alabama ‘as is available indicates
that in the Warrior coalfield the Warrior and
Black Creek seams belong in the Horsepen
division, while the Newcastle and Pratt seams
appear to fall within, certainly not above, the
Sewanee division, though the Pratt seam is
‘said to be about 1800 feet above the base of the
series. Such a correlation necessitates placing
the boundary of the Lower Productive Coal
Measures many hundreds of feet higher in Ten-
nessee and Alabama than has yet been done by
SCIENCE.
535
the geologists in those States. It also follows
that the Lykens Valley coals in Pennsylvania,
the New River and Pocahontas coals of West
Virginia, as well as the valuable coking coals of
Tennessee and Alabama, all seem to fall within
the limits of the Pottsville series.
Attention was also called to the absence of
the Pocahontas and even the Horsepen division
floras in some of the thin sections of the series
in this basin, apparently disproving the gen-
erally accepted view that the difference between
the thick and the thin sections is wholly a
question of expansion.
Mr. M. R. Campbell described briefly the re-
sult of his recent stratigraphic work in the
coalfield of Virginia and West Virginia. From
New River to Big Stone Gap his correlations,
based entirely upon stratigraphic work, agree
essentially with Mr. White’s correlations, show-
ing that the two methods are harmonious and
lead to the same results.
W. F. Morse.
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILA—
DELPHIA, MARCH 13, 1896.
ANTHROPOLOGICAL Section; Charles Morris,
Recorder. Prof. T. Edge Kavanagh, of Ursinus
College, spoke upon the subject of ‘ Right-
Handedness.’ It had been claimed that early
man was ambidextrous, drawing of faces facing
both ways being adduced in evidence of the
fact; but on careful investigation this position
had not been sustained. In primitive languages
words associated or compounded with the word
meaning left hand are symbolic of degenera-
tion. Other data were given to sustain the
view that primitive man was right-handed.
Bilateral asymmetry of the human body was
not confined to the hand, but is the rule for the
entire organism. The right eye was a little
larger than the left, the right leg a little longer,
the right tibia more calcareous, the right teeth
stronger, hair and beard stronger on the right
side, while sick headache attacked the left side,
as did congenital and defective diseases. The
evidence to be adduced from the movements of
animals is too scant to be of much weight. The
researches of Gratiotet and Brown-Sequard on
the development of the human embryo were re-
ferred to. It had been suggested that the mat-
536
ter could be explained by the mechanical laws
of the body: when the center of gravity is above
the transverse median line, the person is right-
handed; when median, ambidextrous; when
below, left-handed.
Right-handedness he regarded as physiologi-
cal and not the result of the evolution of a dex-
tral habit. The left side of the brain controls
the right side of the body and vice versa. The
speech center is nearly always on the right side
of the brain, the left speech center remaining
undeveloped. He regarded right-handedness
as a natural physiological development, and he
therefore did not regard it as beneficial to culti-
vate ambidexterity.
Dr. Charles K. Mills thought it probable that
in recovery from aphasia the loss of power in
the speech center of the brain is not regained —
by a compensatory action of the other side, but
through healing of the lesion in the diseased
side. In children aphasia seems to occur equally
from paralysis of both sides of the body; in
adults from paralysis on one side alone. In
aphasia from right-handed paralysis it is very
difficult to teach writing with the left hand.
Dr. D. G. Brinton remarked that right- and
left-handedness are not found in the anthropoid
apes, and there is good reason to believe, from
the formation of stone implements and modes
of drawing of primitive man, that he was ambi-
dextrous.
Prof. Jastrow stated that the farther back we
go the less important the direction of writing
becomes. In many ancient methods the writ-
ing might be done to right or left, according to
the will of the writer. The same is the case
with Chinese and Japanese writing. The
earliest Greek inscriptions are written from
right to left, the direction being changed at a
Jater date.
Mr. H. C. Mercer did not think that the
asymmetry of stone implements had any special
significance. In stone chipping by modern
Indians the grain of the stone largely governed
the direction in which it is worked.
Prof. Heilprin called attention to the fact
that Darwin had commented on the right-sided-
ness of a large proportion of animals.
Epw. J. NOLAN,
Recording Secretary.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 66.
BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY.
A GENERAL meeting was held March 4th,
thirteen persons present. Prof. F. W. Putman,
in his remarks upon Symbolism in Ancient
America, insisted upon the importance of study-
ing Ceramic art from its earlist beginning. The
form, color, and style of ornamentation of an-
cient vessels and utensils was deseribed, and
the resemblances between the decorative and
symbolic carvings throughout the world noted.
Implements made of native copper with the
simplest tools were mentioned; also ear and
head ornaments made of copper. Carvings
upon the round surfaces of human bones clearly
indicate design. The designs, methods of cary-
ing, and the various meanings of the carvings
were explained.
A series of detailed drawings by Mr. Wil-
loughby were also explained. The symbolic
tablets’ of the Pueblo peoples and of the Mound
Builders show but slight differences.
The peculiar character of the pottery of the
Florida sand mounds was noted. The age of
the mounds is uncertain; they are probably
more than 800 or 1,000 years.
SAMUEL HENSHAW,
Secretary.
THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS.
At the meeting of March 16th Mr. Trelease
presented some of the results of a recent study
of the poplars of North America, made by him
for the Systematic Botany of North America,
and exhibited specimens of the several species
and recognized yarieties. Specimens were also
exhibited of an apparently undescribed poplar
from the mountains of northern Mexico, which
he proposed to characterize shortly, and, for
comparison, specimens of the two other species
of poplar known to occur in Mexico, and of the
European allies of the supposed new species,
were laid before the Academy. The paper was -
discussed by Drs. Green, Glatfelter and Kinner,
Mr. Winslow and Professor Kinealy.
The Academy adopted resolutions favoring the
appointment of a permanent chief for the scien-
tific work of the United States Department of
Agriculture. WILLIAM TRELEASE,
Recording Secretary.
Erratum: Yo Prof. Mills’ article, page 442, para-
graph 3, line 6, for ‘smell,’ read ‘suck.’
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as a general tonic and vitalizer, afford-
ing sustenance to both brain and body.
Dr. E. Cornell Esten, Philadelphia, Pa.,
says: ‘‘I have met with the greatest and most
satisfactory results in dyspepsia and general de-
rangement of the cerebral and nervous systems,
causing debility and exhaustion.
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fascinating study. To quickly introduce the work we offer it at 20 per cent. discount to
readers mentioning this journal, viz., $1.20, postage roc. extra. For COLLECTIONS OF
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[ “MINERALS AND HOW TO STUDY THEM.”
SCIENCE
EDITORIAL ComMITTEE : S. NEwcomsB, Mathematics ; R.,S. WooDWARD, Mechanics ; E. C. PICKERING, As-
tronomy ; T. C. MENDENHALL, Physics; R. H. THurRsTon, Engineering; IRA REMSEN, Chemistry ;
J. LE Conte, Geology; W. M. DAvis, Physiography; O. C. MaRsuH, Paleontology; W. K. BROoKs,
Invertebrate Zodlogy ; C. HART MERRIAM, Vertebrate Zodlogy ; S. H. ScupDER, Entomology ;
N. L. Britton, Botany ; HENRY F. OSBORN, General Biology ; H. P. BowpiTcH,
Physiology ; J. S. BILLINGs, Hygiene ; J. MCKEEN CATTELL, Psychology ;
DANIEL G. BRINTON, J. W. PowELL, Anthropology ;
G. BROWN GOODE, Scientific Organization.
—
Fripay, Apri 10, 1896.
CONTENTS :
The National Academy of Sciences and the Colleges
of the United States: EDWARDS. HOLDEN...... 537
Diffuse Reflection of the Rontgen Rays: M. I.
* JPADREIB ST og eecoouncooasedbacocosadaHadsenobadatidobnabaseooqcaced 538
A Method of Determining the Relative Transparency
of Substances to the Rontgen Rays: WM. LISPEN-
ATR) IMOTE Broo soosgocoassooabaopacodaqsansocnosnopscoboosoced 544
An Apparatus for the Study of Sound Intensities :
JOSEPH JASTROW........20cecocassecesssscesseaccoscoes 544
How Nature Regulates the Rains: RK. L. FULTON...546
Current Notes on Anthropology :—
The Question of the Celts; Danish Antiquities :
D. G. BRINTON................0605 nosononooceogoocosa0NaDd 552
Scientific Notes and News :—
PASHFONON Ee PEL oy ay G CHET Cl seccenseeseesacecteneesiece
University and Educational News
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Heredity and Instinct (I1.) :
WIN. The X-Rays:
J. C. HARTZELL, JR.
Image: HiraAM M. STANLEY. Naval Erosion:
Cio Wyo ANCINABIS coccosnpocessnosdadnecoanabHccoapoadbococEs 558
Scientific Literature :-—
Rhoads, Polar Hares of Eastern North America ;
Nehrling’s North American Birds; Sclater and
Thomas’ Book of Antelopes: C.H. M. Blount
and Bloxam’s Chemistry for Engineers and Manu-
J. MARK BALD-
JOHN DANIEL. Jnstinct:
Visualization and Retinal
facturers ; Langenbeck’s Chemistry of Pottery:
EEACN KEL MANO RiP ic oasesaaaeecsisctieeteceesctsesiccces 564
Scientifie Journals :-—
RENOWN O fil GEOLOGY Nasceuntaessenscesceseeceeee ss. 568
Societies and Academies :—
Geological Conference of Harvard University: T.
A. JAGGAR, JR. The Philosophical Society of
Washington: BERNARD R. GREEN. The Torrey
Botanical Club: W.A.Bastepo. The Virginia
Academy of Science: W. EARL RUMSEY......... 569
UNGW BOOKS Pca tevessecteec Wee Matias t nal ete p wslons 572
MSS. intended for publication and books etc., intended
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prot. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES AND
THE COLLEGES OF THE UNITED STATES.
TuHE National Academy of Sciences was
incorporated by an Act of Congress in the
year 1863. It consists of 88 members at
present, and adds to its numbers annu-
ally seldom more than five members, and
often none.
The following interesting table shows
how its members are distributed among
the faculties of the various Colleges in the
United States, according to the data avail-
able in the Lick Observatory. As our set
of college catalogues is not complete a few
errors may remain in this list. Professor
Hilgard has been kind enough to revise the
table before printing. Namesin square brack-
ets belong, officially, in another category also.
Albany: Museum of the State of New
York, (1): J. Hall.
Albany: Union College (The Dudley
Observatory), (1): L. Boss.
Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University,
(4): W. K. Brooks, I. Remsen, H. A. Row-
land, [S. Newcomb] W. H. Welch.
Berkeley: The University of California,
(4): G. Davidson, EH. W. Hilgard, E. §.
Holden, Joseph Le Conte.
Boston: The Society of Natural History,
(1): Alpheeus Hyatt.
Boston: The Mass. Inst. Technology, (2):
J. M. Crafts, F. A. Walker.
Cambridge: Harvard University, (11): A.
Agassiz, H. P. Bowditch, W. G. Farlow,
5388
W. Gibbs, G. L. Goodale, H. B. Hill, C. L.
Jackson, E. C. Pickering, F. W. Putnam,
C. S. Sargent, J. Trowbridge.
Chicago: The University of Chicago, (1):
A. A. Michelson, C. O. Whitman.
College Hill: Tufts College,(1) : A. Michael.
Hoboken : Stevens Technological Institute,
(2): A. M. Mayer ; H. Morton.
New Haven: Yale University, (138): W.
H. Brewer, G. J. Brush, R. H. Chit-
tenden, E.S. Dana, W. L. Elkin, J. W.
Gibbs, C. S. Hastings, S. W. Johnson, O.
C. Marsh, H. A. Newton, 8.1. Smith, A.
E. Verrill, A. W. Wright.
New York: American Museum, (1): J.
A. Allen.
New York: Columbia College, (3): C.
F. Chandler [G. W. Hill], R. Mayo-
Smith, O. N. Rood.
New York: The Public Library (—): [J.
S. Billings].
Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania,
(4): G. F. Barker [J. 8. Billings], E. D.
Cope, J. P. Lesley, H. C. Wood.
Princeton: College of New Jersey (1): C.
A. Young.
Providence: Brown University (2): C.
Barus, A. S. Packard.
Washington: U. 8. Army, (5): H. L. Ab-
bot, J. S. Billings, C. B. Comstock, E.
Coues, C. E. Dutton.
Washington: American Ephemeris, (—):
[G. W. Hill], [S. Newcomb].
Washington: U. S. Navy, (2): A. Hall,
S. Newcomb.
Washington: U. S$. Coast and Geodetic
Survey, (1): C. A. Schott [H. Mitchell].
Washington: U. 8. Geological Survey
(5): G. F. Emmons, G. K. Gilbert, A.
Hague, R. Pumpelly, C. A. White.
Washington: U.S. Weather Bureau, (1) :
C. Abbe.
Washington: Smithsonian Institution and
National Museum and Fish Commission,
(4) Ne Gall Ga Bs \Gooder Ji mk
Langley, J. W. Powell.
SCIENCE...
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 67.
Waterville :
A. Rogers.
Worcester : Polytechnic Institute, (1): T.
C. Mendenhall.
In Private Iife: (15): A. G. Bell, 8. C.
Chandler, B. A. Gould, G. W. Hill, C.
King, M. C. Lea, T. Lyman, H. Mitchell,
S. W. Mitchell, E. 8. Morse, C. 8. Pierce,
F. Rogers, 8. H. Scudder, W. Sellers, J. H.
Trumbull.
Colby University, (1) : W-
Epwarp 8. HoLpEn.
Lick OBSERVATORY,
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
DIFFUSIVE REFLECTION OF RONTGEN RAYS.*
Tue following communication contains a
brief description of a series of experiments
with Rontgen radiance which were con-
ducted during the last six weeks. The re-
sults of these experiments seem to possess
a sufficient scientific and practical impor-
tance to merit notice. The most important
refer to diffuse reflection or scattering of
Roéntgen radiance. It seems desirable to
state first, briefly, the disposition of the ap-
paratus and the method of experimenta-
tion by means of which the Rontgen effects
can be rendered sufficiently intense for the
purpose described below.
Induction Coil and Interrupter. A pow-
erful coil was found indispensable for strong
effects and satisfactory work. The vibra-
ting interrupter is too slow and otherwise
unsatisfactory, and it was replaced by a ro-
tary interrupter, consisting of a brass pul-
ley, 6 inches in diameter and 1} inches in
thickness. A slab of slate ? inch thick was
inserted and the circumference was kept
carefully polished. This pulley was mounted
on the shaft of a Crocker-Wheeler § HP
motor giving 30 revolutions, and, therefore,
60 breaks per second. Two adjustable
Marshall condensers of three microfarads
each were connected in shunt with the break,
* Presented before the New York Academy of Sci-
ences, April 6, 1896.
APRIL 10, 1896.]
and the capacity adjusted carefully until
the break-spark was a minimum and gave a
sharp cracking sound. Too much capacity
will not necessarily increase the sparking,
but it will diminish the inductive effect
which is noticed immediately in the dimin-
ished intensity of the discharge. A power-
ful coil with a smoothly working rotary in-
terrupter will be found a most satisfactory
apparatus in experiments with Rontgen ra-
diance.
Eidison’s Fluoroscope. A fluorescent
sereen, made by Aylsworth & Jackson, of
Hast Orange, N. J., according to Mr. Edi-
son’s directions, will be found an indis-
pensable aid in these experiments. The
salt employed is tungstate of calcium and
it is so powerful that with a satisfactorily
working tube it will show a noticeable
fluorescence at a distance of over thirty feet.
Those who have struggled with barium-
platino-cyanide screens will appreciate fully
Mr. Edison’s improvement. This fluores-
cent screen was employed successfully for
three distinct purposes. First, to study the
operation of the vacuum tube under vyari-
ous conditions; secondly, to shorten the
time of exposure in photography; and
thirdly, to study the phenomena of diffuse
reflection.
The most L ficient Working of the Tube—
The Critical Temperature. The tubes
employed were an old pear-shaped Crookes
tube with a cross and several pear-shaped
German tubes, imported sometime ago by
Eimer & Amend, of New York. They all
had dises at each electrode. Very satis-
factory tubes are also being made now at
the lamp works of the General Electric
Company at Harrison, New Jersey. These
were also employed in my experiments with
completely satisfactory results. No fresh
tube works quite satisfactorily with a power-
ful coil and a rapid rate of interruption ;
it heats too much, and the vacuum becomes
thus rapidly impaired and the intensity of
SCIENCE.
539
the Rontgen radiance is very much dimin-
ished. This is true even of larger tubes.
Each new tube must undergo first an elec-
trie treatment. I have described this mat-
ter at some length at the meeting of the
Academy on March 2d. Since that time I
have investigated it more fully and brought
it to a satisfactory termination. Mr. Tesla
has also in the meantime discussed this
matter, but in what appears to me to be a
somewhat fanciful way. He imagines that
the vacuum of a Crookes tube becomes more
and more attenuated by the passage of cur-
rent through it on account of the expulsion
of the gas through the walls of the bulb.
He maintains that he even succeeded in
piercing electrically a small hole in the tube
through which the gas from the vacuum
was expelled with so enormous a velocity as
to prevent the outside air from rushing in.
This marvelous experiment does certainly
support Mr. Tesla’s favorite molecular bom-
bardment theory, but it seems to leave us
with the gloomy propect of having to refill
our tubes from time to time with a fresh
vacuum. The following experiments, how-
ever, lead to the conclusion that this neces-
sity will probably never arise and that Mr.
Tesla’s interpretation of the cause of vari-
ation of the vacuum during the discharge is
probably wrong. The electrical treatment
of the tube is simply this: Pass a sufficiently
strong current until the tube becomes so
hot as to lose much of its Rontgen radiance.
Stop then and let it cool. Repeat the oper-
ation and observe that after each operation
the vacuum has gone up and that the Rént-
gen effect becomes stronger. It is not ad-
visable to drive the vacuum much beyond
the sparking distance between the electrodes
on the outside. But even if this point has
been reached then a judicious application
of the Bunsen flame to the tube will enable
the coil to force and maintain a strong
enough current through the tube so as to
heat it gradually, which inereases the facil-
540
ity with which the discharge passes through
the tube. The fluoroscope tells us that
there is then a perfectly definite tempera-
ture at which the tube will work most effi-
ciently and it is desirable to operate the
tube at this temperature. This can be eas-
ily done by directing currents of air against
those parts of the tube where # heats most,
that is, against the parts opposite to the
electrodes. By a suitable regulation of the
air currents and a careful watching with
the fluoroscope the tube can be kept steadily
at the temperature of its highest efficiency
for hours. A deviation above or below this
point will produce a very large diminution
in the Rontgen effect. This temperature of
highest efficiency is so sharply defined that
it looks very much like a critical point in
the discharge. Below this temperature the
discharge is in straight lines from the ca-
thode and the portion of the glass opposite
to the cathode fluoresces much more in-
tensely than the rest. Above this temper-
ature the discharge begins to spread in all
directions from the cathode and the whole
tube fluoresces strongly. There is then
considerable flickering until the tempera-
ture is sufficiently above the critical tem-
perature. The tube heats then rapidly and
a yellowish mist begins to rise from the
anode. As soon as the air blast begins to
cool the tube this mist begins to clear away
and the whole tube regains a clear trans-
parency. If the tube is made too cool the
discharge becomes too faint; there is very
little heating because the coil fails to force
a strong enough current. The Bunsen
burner will assist the coil then to force a
sufficiently powerful discharge again. The
blackening of the tube by the disintegration
of the electrodes seems to be the only thing
that will determine the length of its life.
_ The Combination of a Fluorescent Sereen
with a Photographic Plate. Photography at
a Long Distance from the Tube and through
the Heavier Parts of the Human Body.—
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Von. III. No. 67.
With an arrangement of apparatus as de-
scribed above it was found possible to
produce very much stronger photographic
effects, but not sufficiently strong for pene-
tration through the thigh and the trunk of
the human body at reasonably short expo-
sures and at long enough distances from the
tube to obtain the desirable clearness in the
pictures of these massive parts. A com-
pletely successful application of Rontgen’s
beautiful discovery to surgery depends for
the present on a successful solution of
the problem just mentioned. I have ob-
tained one satisfactory solution with the
method which I first described before the
Academy on March 2d. It consists in
placing in contact with the photographic
plate a fluorescent screen and thus trans-
forming most of the Rontgen radiance into
visible light before it reaches the sensitive
film. Photographs of the hand were thus
obtained at a distance of twenty-five feet
from the tube with an exposure of half an
hour. At the distance of four inches the
hand can be photographed by an exposure
of a few seconds. It was in this manner
only that I succeeded in photographing on
a single plate the whole chest, shoulders
and neck of my assistant, with an exposure
of seventy minutes and at a distance of
three feet between the plate and the tube.
The collar button and the buttons and
‘clasps of the trousers and the vest show
very strongly through the ribs and the
spinal column. This result seems to prove
beyond all reasonable doubt the applica-
bility of radiography to a much larger field
in surgery than was expected a few weeks
ago.
Diffuse Reflection of the Réntgen Radiance.
—The question of reflection and refraction
of the X-rays is a very important one. It
was discussed by Prof. Réntgen in sections
7 and 8 of his original essay. Neither by
photography nor by the fluorescent screen
could he detect an appreciable refraction
APRIL 10, 1896. ]
with certainty. <A reflection from metallic
surfaces in the immediate vicinity of a pho-
tographie film was detected, ‘“‘ but,”’ quoting
Roéntgen’s own words, “‘if we connect these
facts with the observation that powders are
quite as transparent as solid bodies and
that, moreover, bodies with rough surfaces
are in regard to the transmission of X-rays,
as well as in the experiment just described,
the same as polished bodies, one comes to
the conclusion that regular reflection, as
already stated, does not exist, but that the
bodies behave to the X-rays as muddy
media do to light.”
In face of these observations made by
Prof. Rontgen, Prof. Rood’s and Mr. Tesla’s
experiments must be interpreted as a confir-
mation of Prof. Rontgen’s results, and not
as a demonstration of the existence of a
regular reflection. If I understand Prof.
Rood’s words correctly, no claim is made
by him of a discovery of regular reflection;
for he says: ‘‘ These facts and the character
of the deformations point very strongly to
the conclusion that in the act of reflection
from metallic surface the Rontgen rays be-
have like ordinary light.’”’ Mr. Tesla, how-
ever, infers with much confidence regular
reflection from his theory of bombardment.
His experimental method is the same as that
of Prof. Rood; that is, he places a reflecting
plate at an angle of forty-five degrees to the
direct ray and then places the photographic
plate at right angles to the direction in
which the reflected ray should pass if reg-
ular reflection existed. On account of the
greater power of his apparatus, his time of
exposure was one hour, whereas that of
Prof. Rood was ten hours. It is evident,
however, that an effect upon the photo-
graphic plate does not prove the existence
of regular reflection, as Mr. Tesla maintains
with much assurance and with much re-
joicing over the realization of the prophesy
which he made, inspired by his molecular
bombardment theory.
SCIENCE.
5AL
In my experiments on reflection I aimed
at getting rid of the photographic plate and
substituting the fluorescent screen in its
place. Two conditions had to be fulfilled
to make this substitution possible. First,
a very powerful and perfectly steady dis-
charge had to be maintained. Secondly, a
very sensitive fluoroscope had, to be em-
ployed. The first was accomplished by the
apparatus and the operations described
above. The second was found in Mr.
Edison’s tungstate of calcium fluoroscope.
The tube was placed between two thick
planks of pine coated with sheet lead {, of
an inch thick. This screening was found
to be somewhat insufficient when the tube
operated at maximum efficiency and an-
other screen consisting of a thick copper
plate had to be employed. The planks
were placed so as to form a wedge around
the tube. The cathode streamer was hori-
zontal and passed through a vertical slit
formed by the edges of the two screening
lead-covered planks. In front of this slit
was a fixed pivot on which a mirror could
be rotated. The mirror consisted of a pol-
ished sheet of platinum pasted upon a rec-
tangular piece of pine board of nearly the
same area as the platinum sheet and about
one inch thick. The slit was made ~; in.
wide and its image examined was by means
of the fluoroscope. The tube was six inches
from the slit.
a. Quite near the slit the image was sharp
and intense. But as the fiuoroscope was
gradually moved away from the slit its
image broadened out somewhat, and there
was at each side of it a diffuse border. At
about two inches from the slit the image of
the slit looked like a wide spectral line upon
the less luminous background of a wide
band which shaded off gradually into the
dark space of the screen. With increase of
distance the relative intensities of the two
grew more and more equal, and at about six
inches from the slit the whole fluorescent
542
screen (about 6 inches by 4 inches) was
uniformly illuminated. There was evi-
dently a diffuse scattering of the X-rays in
their passage through the air. This infer-
ence was confirmed by other experiments
which will be discussed presently. Various
well-known devices were employed to con-
centrate the cathode rays along the axis of
the tube. So, for instance, wrapping tin-
foil around the tube. This, however, did
not diminish the gradual diffusion of the
image of the slit on the fluorescent screen
when the distance between the slit and the
fluoroscope was gradually increased. Up
to about three inches from the slit the real
image of the slit could still be distinguished
easily from the diffuse background as a
band of maximum intensity.
b. The platinum mirror was now placed
quite near the slit and ata convenient angle
to the direction of the ray, and the fluoro-
scope was placed quite near the mirror.
There was a faint illumination of the fluor-
escent sereen, but it was perfectly uniform.
Not the slightest indication of an image of
the slit could be detected, although the dis-
tance between the slit and the mirror plus
the distance between the mirror and the
fluorescent screen was less than the dis-
tance at which the image of the slit on the
fluorescent screen appeared as a band of
maximum intensity when observed directly.
A change in the angle of the mirror pro-
duced but a small change in the fluorescence
of the screen, and then the change seemed to
be such as to approach a maximum when
the mirror and the fluorescent screen were
parallel to each other. The same experi-
ment was repeated with other metals and
with the same result. This experiment,
therefore, does not speak in favor of regu-
lar reflection.
ce. Turning the mirror completely around,
so that the face of the wooden block on
which the metal plate was fastened served
as a mirror it was found that the fluorescent
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 67.
effect upon the screen was stronger than
with the platinum. <A pad of paper of
about the same size as the wooden block
acted more strongly than the platinum or
any other metal. Various substances were
tried, like glass, vuleanite, the hand, va-
rious metals, and they all produced a diffuse
reflection of varying intensity, and at all
angles of inclination. In all cases the
maximum effect seemed to take place when
the broadest side of the reflecting object
was about parallel to the fluorescent screen.
But the fluorescence was very weak as long
as the slit was narrow.
d. The slit was now made wider, and
the same series of experiments were re-
peated with various widths of the slit. The
fluorescence of the exploring screen in-
creases, of course, with the width of the
slit. The observations made with the nar-
row slit were confirmed. In every case the
maximum intensity on the exploring screen
was obtained when the broadest side of the
reflecting object was about parallel to the
sereen. Wood and transparent insulators
produced a stronger effect than metals. No
accurate quantitative comparisons have yet
been made. Among the insulators experi-
mented with, wood produced the strongest
effect, and among the metals aluminium
is the weakest for the same thickness of
the plate. The thickness of the reflecting
plate increases the effect; this increase will
go on until the reflecting plate is several
inches thick if this plate is an insulator.
In the case of metals, however, like sheets
of iron or copper, the change in the fluores-
cent effect due to the diffusely reflected ra-
diance ceases as soon as the reflecting plate
becomes thick enough to be practically
opaque to the direct ray.
e. The human body when in the path of
the X-rays will act as a reflector. It is
quite an easy matter to detect a person
walking across the room in the vicinity of
the slit, for as soon as a person crosses the
APRIL 10, 1896. ]
path of the X-rays the fluoroscope will
light up. While making this particular
observation I noticed that when the tube
was operating especially well a faint fluor-
escence was still present even if no re-
flecting body was in front of the slit. Pre-
cautions were observed to exclude any radi-
ance that might reach the fluoroscope di-
rectly by a sort of diffraction around the
edges of the slit, but still the fluorescence
in the fluoroscope persisted. There was
evidently a diffuse scattering of the Rontgen
radiance in the air itself. This, however,
is so small that it is distinctly noticeable
only when the tube operates so powerfully
that a strong image of the hand on the
fluorescent screen can be obtained by the
radiance reflected from a pine board two
inches thick and 16 inches square, placed
at a distance of six inches from slit. With
a good sized tube of proper vacuum and
working at the temperature of highest effi-
ciency this intensity is not at all difficult to
obtain, provided, of course, that one has
sufficient electric power to excite the tube.
These experiments prove beyond all
reasonable doubt that the Rontgen radi-
ance is diffusely scattered through bodies,
gases not excepted. We may call it diffuse
reflection, if we choose, provided that we
do not imply, thereby, that we must neces-
sarily assume an internal inter-molecular
regular reflection, in order to explain the
phenomenon. For if a puff of smoke be
forced through a pile of wood some of it
will come out pretty well scattered, al-
though we cannot speak here of a reflection
in the ordinary sense, but rather of deflec-
tion, reserving the term ‘reflection’ for
those particular cases in- which the angle
of incidence is equal to the angle of deflec-
tion. It might turn out, for instance, that
the X-rays are due to a circulating motion
of ether and that the stream lines are de-
flected and diffusely scattered within the
molecular interstices of ponderable sub-
SCIENCE.
543
stances. Appearances seem to speak more
in favor of this view than in favor of a wave
motion of ether.
The diffuse scattering of the Rontgen
radiance by bodies placed in its path may
be also described by saying that every sub-
stance when subjected to the action of the X-rays
becomes a radiator of these rays. This state-
ment will be more complete than the state-
ment that a diffuse reflection takes place, if
my observation should prove correct that
the maximum effect in the fluoroscope is
obtained when the largest surface of the
body, acted upon by the Rontgen radiance,
is placed-parallel to the fluorescent screen.
For in that case there is actually secondary
radiation due to the diffuse scattering which
proceeds normally to the surface of the in-
tercepting body.
The fact that opaque bodies like metals
are less effective in producing this secondary
radiation leads to the conclusion that there
is in these bodies an internal dissipation of
the Réntgen radiance much greater than in
the case of transparent dielectric substances.
A properly constructed bolometer should
give us much information on this point, and
it is my intention to take up this subject as
soon as time and facilities will permit.
These diffusion effects, which are present
even in air, bring the Rontgen radiance into
still closer resemblance to the principal
features of the cathode rays which were
studied by Professor Lenard. The differ-
ence in their behavior towards magnetic
force is still to be explained. Is it not pos-
sible that this magnetic effect in air is
masked by the diffuse scattering of the X-
rays ?
In conclusion I wish to observe that
among the several theories proposed to ac-
count for the properties of the X-rays we
may insert one which can be easily inferred
from the somewhat neglected essay which
the late Prof. v. Helmholtz wrote toward
the closing days of his life. It is the essay,
544
‘Inferences from Maxwell’s theory con-
cerning the motion of pure ether’ (Wis-
senschaftliche Abhandl. B. IIL, p. 526,
Wiedem. Am. Vol. LIII., p. 135-143).
M. I. Purin.
CoLuMBIA UNIveRsiTy, April 2, 1896.
A METHOD OF DETERMINING THE RELATIVE
TRANSPARENCY OF SUBSTANCES TO THE
RONTGEN RAYS.
THe fact that the Rontgen rays have
the power of dissipating the charge of a
perfectly insulated electrified body was es-
tablished by Professor J. J. Thompson,*
and furnishes us one of the simplest meth-
ods of detecting therays. This effect is the
basis of a very simple method of making
quantitative measurements of the intensity
of the radiation. If we take a condenser
and allow the Rontgen rays to fall upon it,
weshall find that there is a very considerable
diminution in its insulation resistance, and
that the charge of the condenser is gradu-
ally dissipated. This is illustrated by the
5
1.0
Charge of condenser in micro-coulombs.
60min.
Time between charging and discharging condenser.
3Omin.
curves A and B in the accompanying figure.
A was obtained under the ordinary condi-
tions. B was obtained when the Crookes
tube was in action, and placed about six
* London Electrician, February 7, 1896.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 67.
inches from the wooden side of condenser.
The curve A was determined before, and
again immediately after the determination
of B. The two determinations of A were
identical, showing that the effect of the
Rontgen ray on the insulation disappeared
with the cessation of the ray. In making
these measurements a Nalder micro-farad
condenser was used, the condenser being
charged with a standard Clark cell. It is
evident, therefore, that it is possible to com-
pare the transparency of different sub-
stances by allowing the rays to pass through
screens made of the substances and placed
between a Crookes tube and the condenser
and measuring the resulting leakage of the
condenser.
Iam now engaged in making a series of
measurements, using this method and a
condenser especially constructed for the
purpose, and hope to give the results in a
subsequent number.
It would seem that the method is capable
of giving results much more quantitative
in character than any that can be obtained
by- photographic methods.
Wx. LispenArD Ross.
‘TRINITY COLLEGE, March 25, 1896.
AN APPARATUS FOR THE STUDY OF SOUND
INTENSITIES.
TuHeE study of sound intensities presents
many difficulties to the physicist as well as
to the psychologist; the determination of
the equality of loudness of two sounds, as
well as of the law of relation between the
physical cause and the sensational result is
perhaps the most serious one. The facts
that sounds must be estimated succes-
sively and should be of a constant intensity
from beginning to end further complicate
the problem. The method of the falling
ball has been most frequently used; it con-
sists in dropping a ball successively from
two different heights and recording the
minimum difference in height necessary to
APRIL 10, 1896. ]
enable the observer to determine which fall
gives rise to the louder sound. The objec-
tions to this method are many and obvious;
it answers well enough for a demonstration,
but not for exact research. A second
method consists in moving an object pro-
ducing a constant sound, such as a ticking
watch, or a tuning fork, uniformly towards
or away from the ear, and recording the
minimum change in position, that enables
the observer to determine whether the sound
has grown louder or lower. This has ad-
vantages over the falling ball, but is far
from satisfactory; and both are alike limited
in the scope of their applicability. There
is also an electrical apparatus, an audi-
ometer, that is useful in determining the
sensitiveness to minimal sounds, but is not
so satisfactory for determining differential
sensibility; the sound moreover is very
artificial, difficult to listen to, and difficult
to reproduce. A common defect of all the
methods is the difficulty of determining by
an objective test whether the sound pro-
duced by the apparatus on one occasion is
really the same in intensity as in a succeed-
ing trial.
It was in the attempt to secure a means
of gradually increasing the intensity of a
sound, just as the siren gradually changes
the pitch, that I succeeded in devising a
moderately satisfactory apparatus for this
purpose. No apparatus can be regarded as
completely satisfactory unless its operation
depends upon a principle that clearly estab-
lishes the relation between the physical
stimulus and the sensational result. Un-
fortunately the physicist is not as yet ready
to define and measure the various factors
contributing to the tones produced by the
the apparatus about to be described. In
the absence of such knowledge the: appa-
ratus can be proposed only as an empirical
solution of certain phases of the study of
sound intensities. The apparatus makes
use of the principle of the singing
SCIENCE.
545
flame. A singing flame consists of a
very fine jet of gas, burning through
an aperture of about one millimetre, under
a long, narrow glass tube; the pitch of
the resulting tone varies in an inverse
sense with the size of the tube. (For de-
tails see Tyndall, Sownd, Lecture VI.)
The sound is due to the vertical vibra-
tions of the flame, the pitch being de-
termined by their frequency and the in-
tensity by their amplitude. The ampli-
tude, however, can be directly observed;
the flame is first turned down until the
sound just ceases to be heard, and this point
is noted on a millimetre scale placed in
back of the flame ; when the flame is turned
up to any given point the intensity of the
resulting sound is clearly marked by the
amplitude of the flame, as determined by
the height of the flame above the zero point
just described.
The other requisite of the problem is a
means of delicately regulating the flow of
gas and thus the intensity of the sound.
This was accomplished as follows: An or-
dinary steam valve was taken apart and
the coarse thread adjustment replaced by a
fine one (,1, inch), at the same time giving
the end of the pin a delicate taper; the
handle of the valve was then firmly fixed
to the center of a wheel ten inches in diame-
ter; this larger wheel was moved by the
friction of a smaller wheel one inch in di-
ameter, having at its center an index mov-
ing over a dial eight inches in diameter. In
this way a movement of the index along the
circumference of the dial magnified about
100 times the change in the height of the
flame. The height of the flame is first de-
termined for a few points by sighting it
through a lens, and the divisions of the dial
are then made accordingly.
One further difficulty remained, namely,
to secure a constant pressure of gas. This
was accomplished with sufficient accuracy
by forcing the air out of a bell jar (fitted
546
with a gas cock at its neck) by immersing
it in water, and then filling it with illumi-
nating gas from the city supply. The
movement of the bell jar as it descended
into the water, and thus forced the gas to
the flame, was carefully guided and the
weight of the glass jar itself exerted a suffi-
cient pressure. Theapparatus is extremely
sensitive and must be kept free from vibra-
tions and draughts of air.
The use of the apparatus in the experi-
ments for which it was designed is to de-
termine the minimum change in the ampli-
tude, the nature of which, 7. e., whether an
increase or decrease of intensity can be de-
tected. A sound of an agreeable intensity
(and determined by a constant height of
the flame) is taken as a starting point, and
the subject informed that this sound will
very gradually increase or decrease in loud-
ness; he listens carefully with his head ina
fixed position and answers as soon as he is
confident of the direction of the change.
The operator slowly moves the index in one
direction or the other, takes the position
when the answer is given and also the time
of the experiment.
How far this apparatus will be serviceable
for other methods of studying the sensibility
to sound intensities is in some measure still
to be determined. It may be noted, how-
ever, that it lends itself readily to determin-
ing absolute sensitiveness to sound ; for one
has only to note the minimum height of
flame giving rise to a just audible sound
with the head at a fixed distance from the
apparatus. For the method of just observa-
ble difference one may have the flame sound,
stop it, and sound it again with a slightly
modified intensity until the difference be-
tween the two sounds becomes perceptible.
For the method of right and wrong cases
the same mode of use is available, except
that the difference between the two sounds
in any one series of experiments remains
constant. By the method of the average
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. III. No. 67.
error one should have two singing flames
sounding alternately, the subject attempt-
ing to set one of them so that the sound it
emits equals in intensity the standard
sound. ‘To all these applications there are
as yet two objections: First, the sound does
not begin immediately after the flame is al-
lowed to play, but takes a considerable time
to rise to its full intensity. The sound
may be stopped instantly by suddenly
lowering the flame, or placing a card at the
top of the glass tube; but its inertia in
starting introduces a disturbing factor.
The second objection refers to the difficulty
of constructing two such pieces of apparatus
exactly alike, so that two flames vibrating
with the same amplitude may be regarded
as giving out sounds of equal intensity.
Neither of these difficulties is insurmounta-
ble, and it is to be hoped that they will be
solved as occasion demands.
In concluding, it may be well to indicate
again that the success of the apparatus is
due to the fact that the change in amplitude,
and hence in intensity, can be directly ob-
served; secondly, that the sound is fairly
pure, of a definite pitch, agreeable and
continuous; and thirdly, that it may. be most
delicately changed. All these advantages
result from the use of the singing flame as
a source of sound.
JOsEPH JASTROW.
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN.
HOW NATURE REGULATES THE RAINS.
Wuen American enterprise invaded with
its iron cavalry the mountain regions of the
West, many established theories were put
to new tests and not all sustained them-
selves. The relations of plant life to water
supply as found on the eastern half of the
Continent had led our fathers to believe
that the destruction of forests would in-
variably and inevitably result in the deple-
tion of adjacent streams and to all conse-
quent evils. So potent is the thick shade
APRIL 10, 1896. ]
which covers the ground in many parts of
the Eastern States that no oneimagined that
conditions existed elsewhere which would
produce entirely different results. The
building of long lines of railroads and the
opening up of mines have led to the cut-
ting off to the very ground, of extensive
tracts of timber, and the effect upon local
streams has forced observing people upon
the spot to the conclusion that nature has
surer and wiser methods than she has been
given credit for. That she has storage fa-
cilities among the mountain tops, capable
of resisting the attacks of any human van-
dals and that the fountains of her rivers
will be preserved to send down the precious
floods throughout all future time, regard-
less of what man may say or man may do.
Any discussion of such a question among
those who have looked at it from any cer-
tain standpoint will be met by the sugges-
tion that close measurements extending
over long periods of time and covering
widely separated points will be necessary
in order to prove anything, but the ques-
tion whether snow lasts longer before or
after the timber is removed can be con-
sidered without going into any of the diffi-
cult theories as to whether the fall of mois-
ture is or is not affected by trees. In all
such things a great many small considera-
tions go to make up the great answer.
Scientists point to a whole list of phe-
nomena each one of which, by itself, would
hardly have been felt, but each supporting
all the rest and all coming together, pro-
duced the glacial age, and they say that
when they all drop in together again at any
future time, the result will be the same and
miles of ice will pile up on the surface or
the earth. In a small way the same is true
in meteorology, and it is with an effort to
give to each its due weight that I endeavor
to point out some of the reasons why many |
close observers, after long years of study,
have been led to believe that if there is any
SCIENCE.
54T
difference in the flow of streams and the
size of springs before and after the trees
are cut from above them, the balance is in
favor of the open country.
That water which drops on shaded ground
‘which is thickly overspread with spongy
leaves and the air so near the dew point
that it cannot absorb much more moisture
should be held back, while that coming
down on open ground should run off
quickly, seems very natural, but in high
mountain regions there are peculiar combi-
nations which do much to modify the ac-
tion of the law. The pine and the fir are
the only trees found growing at high alti-
tudes in any abundance, and their thin
needles do not make the heavy shade when
on the tree, nor the thick mat when lying
on the ground, that the broad leaves of the
oak, beech and maple do. Instead of form-
ing a spongy layer five or six inches thick,
they are swept about by the wind and it is
not unusual to see the ground bare under
the trees and all the needles lodged some-
where in drifts. ven when they lie where
they fall the coating is comparatively worth-
less so far as retaining moisture is concerned.
On the other hand, the foliage on this
class of trees being as heavy in winter as in
summer, the branches catch an immense
amount of the falling snow and hold it up
in mid-air for both sun and air to work
upon, and only those who have had ex-
perience of the absorbing power of the dry
mountain air can form any idea of the loss
from that source. Such as is melted falls
upon that beneath, and breaking the sur-
face sets in operation the forces which are
always ready to attack such substances.
The theory that the shade protects the
moisture laden soil means but little in
such places. The law is doubtless in force
with more or less strength wherever moist-
ure falls and plants grow, but the class of
trees that thrive here require a loose,
sandy soil, and are often seen growing
548
where there is no earth in sight at all
clinging to the sides of cliffs, so bare that
the roots run along on the surface entirely
uncovered until they reach some crevice
which they fill, and send tendrils down to
draw sustenance from an unseen source.
In such places the melting snow disappears
quickly from the surface, and, except for
their influence in keeping the soil light
and porous so that the water can be ab-
sorbed readily instead of running off, it
matters but little whether trees are there
or not. No moisture remains on top of
the ground long for shade to protect. It
goes either into the air or else into the
ground, and it is a well known fact that a
very large portion of the water which finds
its way down the steep sides of the Sierras
disappears near its sources and is found
again far below, either in springs, by
means of artesian wells, or in the increased
flow of the parent stream. Indeed, a num-
ber of very respectable rivers, not only in
the mountains, but in some of the valleys,
seem to owe their existence to such distant
and hidden sources. If the trees have any
direct power here it seems to be to draw
from deep beneath the surface the moisture
which has sunk into the earth and exhale
gallons and gallons of it hourly. Any
good sized tree has been estimated to have
a capacity of forty or fifty gallon every
twenty-four hours, and a forest of such
trees would effect very considerable re-
sults. I should like to offer the opinion of
Captain J. B. Overton, of Virginia City,
Nevada, just here. He has had control of
the water supply of that city for many
years, and also conducted large operations
in the mountains in cutting timber, wood
and lumber, for the mines. His experience
covers a quarter of a century and extends
over several townships of land, from which
his men cut the timber. He says ‘‘My ex-
perience proves to me that the cutting of
the timber makes no difference in the
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 67.
amount of snow that falls, but that it drifts
more, and for that reason lasts about as
late in the summer as it would before the
removal of the shade. I do not think the
streams get low any sooner or afford any
less water. I am of the opinion that the
trees absorb from the soil quite as much
water as would be evaporated by the action
of the sun in the absence of shade. I
know two small springs that ran for the
whole year for ten years after the land was
cut over, but, that since the thrifty growth
of young pines have reached a height of
from 15 to 25 feet and shade the ground
as well, if not better, than the large trees
did, have dried up about the last of August
for five years past, and Ican see no cause
for it except that the trees are using the
water. The supply of water used by my
company in its operations has not decreased
with the disappearance ofthe timber, and
I do not find that the freshets are any more
frequent or more violent than before the
trees were cut off. The trees are coming
up in a second growth much more numer-
ously than they were before, and after
sixty or seventy years about nine-tenths of
them will die off and decay, leaving the
timber about as it was when we first came
to the country; then I think my springs
will flow again. My observation teaches
me that the amount of rainfall is not
affected by denuding the mountain-side,
but that the surface of the ground will be
heated more by the sun and will therefore
be drier, but that the springs and streams
will be more diminished by the water used
by the trees than by evaporation in their
absence.”’
In a timber belt the snowfall is compara-
tively evenly distributed and by the radia-
tion and reflection of heat from its own
body each particular tree immediately sets
itself to work to clear the ground around it,
and long before there is a vacant foot out
in the open a space will be bared for several
APRIL 10, 1896. ]
feet around each trunk. So long as there
is no color but pure white for the sun’s rays
to work upon its heat is largely latent, but
let a stick or straw break the surface and it
will melt the snow or ice for several times
its diameter on every side and stand alone
in a few hours. Precisely the same is true
upon a larger scale of every stump and tree
in a forest. Following the reappearance of
the sun after every storm the process begins,
slowly or rapidly according to the tempera-
ture, clearing up large patches before that
beyond shows signs of a break. This is not
theory or hearsay, but actual observation
covering a score of years spent in daily con-
tact with the subject in allits phases. But
it is supported by a theory also. It is a
well known fact the temperature in a forest
is always several degrees higher than it is
on open ground under the same conditions
otherwise. A series of observations were
made by Cornell University several years
ago, and although the belt of woodland was
only half a mile long and sixteen rods wide
the results were very marked. The trees
were oak, maple and chestnut, with some
hemlock and pines intermixed with an
abundant undergrowth. The thermome-
ters were changed and one put in another’s
place frequently in order to detect possible
errors. The reporter sums up as follows:
“A study of the records will show that
the temperature of the wooded belt is some-
what higher than that of the open field,
amounting to from 2 to 4 degrees on the
average ; that fluctuations are less extreme
and less rapid, and that gradual changes
in the temperature of the field do not
affect that of the belt until a. day or two
later.”
Five different stations were kept open for
several months; one thermometer being
placed against the trunk of a large oak tree,
near the center of the woods; one near the
same tree, but not touching it ; a third on a
pole four feet from the ground, ten rods
SCIENCE.
549
from the edge of the woods, and two others
in the trunks of trees. A considerably
warmer temperature was shown by the
instrument suspended from the oak tree,
but not touching it, although on several
‘days the one out in the field was exposed to
the sunshine, while the others were in the
shade all the time. Of course the higher
temperature would have a two-fold effect
upon a snow bank. The warmer the air,
the greater its capacity for holding moisture
and, consequently, the greater evaporation,
and at the same time its melting power
would be enhanced to that extent and the
snow set to running away as water. Too
little weight is generally given to the fact
that the rays of the sun must be broken up
in order to release heat. A good example
is given every spring by John Huntington,
who is the owner of the toll road extending
from Truckee, California, to Lake Tahoe.
The snow shuts this road up very early
every winter and a deposit of twenty to
thirty feet is nothing unusual. As soon as
possible, in the spring, Mr. Huntington
sprinkles black dirt on the surface of the
snow above where his road is known to be
and the effect is wonderful. The layer is
not heavy enough to shut out the light from
striking the surface of the snow, but it is
ample to release the heat rays, and there is
a long depression that looks like an artifi-
cial excavation in a few hours, and days be-
fore the ground is clear on either side the
stages are running on bare ground.
Trees tend to dissipate the snows in
springtime also, by breaking up the steady
cold winds which come down from the north
at that season, almost invariably. When
the current is permitted to flow on in unin-
terrupted sweep it retains the chill, but let
it strike a forest and wind in and out among
the trees for a mile or two and there will be
a decided change in its temperature. It
will be much better prepared to absorb
moisture and also to melt the snow banks
500
in its changed form, as it pursues its south-
ern journey.
But the strongest force at work to save
our rivers is the drifting winds which heap
up the snow in great banks, and in this the
trees are a constant obstacle. There will
be miniature drifts, it is true, but nothing
to what there are when there is no obstruc-
tion. Outside the timber belt, where there
is nothing to catch the snow as it falls and
nothing to break the force of the wind,
one of the most powerful and active agents
in preserving the water supply of a country
comes into play. By forming solid bodies
of snow the most effective means of saving
water for summer is reached. Across the
bleak summits and down the vast canyons
the wind has a well-nigh irresistible force
and it not only gathers up the snow after it
has ceased to come down, but it usually
keeps at work all the time it is falling and
carries it in whirling clouds until it strikes
a cliff or a canyon set at just the right an-
gle, and there it deposits the whole load.
As long as there is any material left outside
to work upon this is kept up, and there is
no knowing how deep some of the big drifts
get to be in the course of a long winter. As
the days get warmer, the surface thaws a
little and moistens the cake down a few
inches, but the cold nights found all the
year around at such altitudes soon trans-
form it into ice, making a crust upon which
the heat of the sun and the absorbing power
of the air find it difficult to make any im-
pression. On open ground the process is
aided by the packing power of the wind,
and it is not an unusual sight to see a man
on horseback traveling comfortably across
snow banks high enough to hide both the
horse and his rider many times over if they
should chance to break through. It is this
which has changed the opinion of four set-
tlers out of five along the eastern base of
the Sierra Nevadas, where the timber has
been cut for the Comstock mines. Over
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 67.
half a billion dollars in treasure have been
taken from that one lode, and it is said that
for every ton of ore taken out the equiva-
lent of a cord of wood has gone in either in
the shape of timber or of fuel. The whole
mountain side for a distance of thirty miles
has been cut over, covering the heads of
such streams as Hunter’s Creek, White’s
Canyon, Thomas Creek, Galena, Steamboat
and other small rivers, which have fur-
nished water for irrigation since 1860 to
the owners of probably twenty thousand
acres of land in valleys below. The con-
census of opinion among this class of citi-
zens, intelligent American farmers all of
them, is that there is virtually no diminu-
tion in the supply of water that reaches
them from the hills. James Mayberry had
charge of men who cut over 12,000 acres in
the early ’70s. He is of the opinion that
Hunter’s Creek, with which he is most
familiar, has a more certain flow and some-
what more water than before. John
Wright has lived for thirty years on Steam-
boat Creek. It was dry in 1864, when the
timber was standing, but never has been
since, and has furnished water for a con-
stantly increasing settlement. Robert Jones
lives on low land and says he has had more
crops killed by flooding in the ten years after
the timber was cut than in the ten before it
was touched. G. R. Holcomb says the supply
is equally certain if not more so and attri-
butes it entirely to the drifting of the snows.
Several made answer that the water melted
earlier and ran off sooner and said any one
would know that, but failed to convince
even themselves that they were lower than
in former years.
Hon Ross Lewers, of this county, read a
paper before the American Horticultural
Society a few years ago in which he said:
“There are certain peculiar conditions that
prevail in Nevada that I think are worthy
of notice. One of them is, that wherever
the forest timber has been cut off, a new
Apnrit 10, 1896.]
growth has sprung wp much thicker, and
none of the young trees will start until the
old ones are gone. Another is that the
water supply from the mountains is greater
and more permanent now than it was before
the timber was cut off. The reason for this
is that the wind has a more unimpeded
course, and as all the snow storms come
from nearly the same point in the south
the snow is blown over and lodges on the
north sides of the ridges where it is piled
deep in drifts, and not being exposed
directly to the sun’s rays it melts very
slowly and thus affords a more permanent
supply. Spring floods are less frequent and
for the same reason. I do not pretend to
decide how much, if any, the presence of
trees induce precipitation. They may
moisten the air, but the humidity is all
taken out of the ground by the roots, and I
observe that the undergrowth and grass is
more luxuriant since the timber was cut
off.”
It is hardly necessary to point out
the advantage of having the snow sup-
ply heaped up in large drifts or buried deep
in the canyons rather than to have it
spread out, exposing large surfaces to the
sun and the dry air, which in such places
is almost constantly in motion, thus multi-
plying its capacity. In drifts the melting is
almost all done at the bottom, and far into
the summer a little rill will be found running
away from the lower side. Good sized
caves are often formed in this manner, and
sometimes the top crust is so solid that the
last seen of a big drift will be an arched
shell of frozen snow reaching from one wall
of the canyon to the other. The beautiful
adaptation of the means to the end seen
everywhere in nature is illustrated here.
To attempt to hold back an adequate sup-
ply of water for a great region like that ly-
ing below the Sierra Nevada range in any
except a solid state would be utterly use-
less. Nothing in a liquid form would tarry
SCIENCE.
551
long on a heavy grade. No shade nor mat
of leaves would be strong enough to over-
come the law of gravitation to that extent.
Nothing could detain it but a short time at
the farthest, and if it were not for the vast
‘drifts which hold the snow in an icy grasp
until late in the summer, all the horrors
prophesied from spring floods and summer
droughts would be realized. Asitis, I notice
that heavy storms continue to visit the places
from which the timber has been taken, but
when an unfavorable season fails to bank
up the drifts there is no water in the
streams whether there are trees or stumps
on the ground. There are places in Ne-
vada which would give a strong support to
the theory that the cutting off of timber
brings frequent floods, if any had ever
been there, for since the settlement of the
country there have been several terrible
floods which have been given the name of
cloudbursts on account of the suddenness
of the rise and subsidence of the water.
The town of Austin, Nevada, is a sample.
It has been swept several times by sudden
floods, and as it lies in a narrow canyon
which opens out above and spreads into
quite a watershed, it is in constant danger.
There never was a forest there and in early
days there were no cloudbursts, but the dis-
covery of rich mines led to the whole basin
being tramped over and over constantly
until the ground was as hard as a pavement.
The result was that rains which formerly
were taken into the soil ran down the
waterways into the main canyon, which
soon collected a roaring torrent and swept
everything out. In so large a subject there
are many things to consider and many un-
known quantities to discover and weigh,
but it seems to me that itis worthy of more
attention than it has received. My ob-
servations, while they have extended over
a long series of years, have been those of a
layman and have not been such as to afford
mathematical proof, even that a given
52
OU
quantity of snow, say a foot, will last as
long on open ground as it will among trees.
As I have laid much stress upon this matter
of evaporation which some may think
hardly applies to snow, I will say that a
considerable body has been known to dis-
appear from our streets without making a
particle of mud, leaving the ground dusty,
showing that none of it melted, but that it
all went directly into the air. And this
will occur any time when the thermometer
does not go above 32 degrees within a short
time after astorm. The importance of pre-
senting as small a surface to the action of
such an air as that is very apparent, and it
is in storing up the snow in heaps and
packing it away in deep pockets that the
economy of nature is manifested. The
center of the body will not melt at any
time and it requires a very warm day to
get at the under side of a snow drift. The
grass will be growing all around it before
the ground underneath it gets warmed up
sufficiently to start a stream from it, but
let a tree stick its head up through the crust
and it will go quickly. I have yet to see
the first body of perpetual snow lying
among trees. It will hardly do to say
that the timber lies below the line of per-
petual snow, for there are many banks
which only disappear entirely once in ten
years or so, when there comes a long dry
summer, which have trees growing higher
up on the same mountain side.
In any case I do not wish to be under-
stood as favoring the destruction of the
forests of this or any other country. I
never cut down a tree in my life and never
saw one fall without feeling that I had lost
a friend. Whatever is proven there will
always be abundant reasons for preserving
extensive tracts of woodland everywhere
that trees will grow, and it is time the mat-
ter became one of public concern.
R. L. Futon.
RENO, NEVADA.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 67.
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.
THE QUESTION OF THE CELTS.
Tus question has broken out afresh in
Europe, as is the case every few years. The
immediate cause was the publication of an
essay, by A. Bertrand and Salomon Reinach,
entitled, ‘Les celtes dans les Vallees du
Po et du Danube,’ in which the authors
claim that the proto-historic culture, the
remains of which are found in the valley of
the Po, is akin to that of an approximate
age in the valley of the Danube, and that
both were the products of the ‘ Celts.’
Prof. Virchow, in a lecture published in
the ‘Correspondenz-Blatt’ of the German
Anthropological Society, December, 1895,
reviewed their arguments, substantially
agreed with them, and further extended the
area of this so-called Celtic culture.
By ‘Celts’ the archeologists understand
a series of independent tribes who about
500—1,000 B. C. inhabited central and por-
tions of western Europe. Their language
was of that Aryan family which we now
know as Celtic, represented to-day by Irish,
Highland Qcotch and Welsh. In stature
they were tall, their skulls narrow (doli-
chocephalic), their complexion ruddy, eyes
blue or gray, hair blonde or reddish. By
the Latins they were called Celti, Galli or
Galatze, all three words from the same root
kel, meaning violent or warlike.
The anthropologists, however, headed by
Broca, apply the term ‘Celts’ to a small
dark race in central France, and this leads
to wild confusion. A long discussion,
aimed to clear up the subject, by Dr. Le-
fevre, Dr. Collignon, Mortillet and others,
has appeared in the Bull. de la Société d’
Anthropologie of Paris, 1895. It is worth
attentive reading by any one who desires
the latest on this vexed question.
DANISH ANTIQUITIES.
ProressoR JAPETUS STEENSTRUP, of Co-
penhagen, has lately issued two memoirs of
APRIL 10, 1896. ]
much interest to students of Northern an-
tiquities, both published in the ‘Memoires
de VAcademie Royale des Sciences de
Danemark.’
One is a discussion of the remarkable so-
ealled ‘silver vase’ exhumed in 1891 at
Gundestrup. Upon its sides were numer-
ous singular figures in relief, and it has
generally passed as an example of old Norse
work. This view is disproved by Professor
Steenstrup, who shows that without doubt
it is part of a series of decorations from
some Buddhist temple in northern Asia.
His memoir is abundantly supplied with
plates and illustrations showing the iden-
tity of motives. It probably was a part of
the spoils of some ancient raid which by
exchange had reached the western shore of
the continent.
His second memoir is another study of
a similar character, bringing out the rela-
tions which in proto-historic times existed
between Scandinavia and northern Asia.
It is entitled ‘Yak-Lungta Bracteaterne,’
and contains numerous illustrations of gold
bracteates from the two regions, showing
the same character of design and work-
manship. D. G. Brinton.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
ASTRONOMY.
THE February number of the Monthly No-
tices of the Royal Astronomical Society, copies
of which have just been received, contains the
annual reports of the directors of the British
observatories for the year 1895. Many of these
reports are very interesting, and they show that
the customary astronomical activity has not de-
creased. The routine meridian observations
and those of comets, etc., have been carried on
with the usual success. Nearly all the plates
for the astrophotographic catalogue, and some
of those for the chart, have been taken at the
Greenwich, Cape, Oxford and Sydney observa-
tories. The work of measurement has also made
SCIENCE.
5d3
quite satisfactory progress. We quote the fol-
lowing from the Greenwich report :
‘¢Towards the determination of the right
ascensions and declinations of the stars the fol-
lowing steps have been taken: From the right
ascensions and declinations given in the cata-
logues of the Astronomische Gesellschaft, ‘stand-
ard codrdinates’ have been deduced for all
stars on 72 plates which are contained in these
catalogues. (By standard coordinates are meant
the rectangular coordinates of the stars on the
plates.) By a comparison of these with the
measured coordinates, plate constants have
been determined, from which the standard co-
ordinates of other stars on the plates may be
obtained by means of a linear correction, and
the right ascensions and declinations deduced
by a trigonometrical transformation, if desired.
A full account of this, as well as the comparison
of thirty overlapping plates, is given in the
Monthly Notices, January, 1896.”’
The above shows that the reduction of the
catalogue plates is well under way at Green-
wich. The same is true at Oxford, and, as we
mentioned in a previous issue, it is also pro-
ceeding satisfactorily at Paris and Potsdam. At
the Cape considerable measuring has also been
done. But the most important announcement
from the Cape is as follows:
“The printing in two volumes of ‘A Deter-
mination of the Solar Parallax and the Mass of
the Moon from Observations of Iris, Victoria
and Sappho,’ is approaching completion. The
part of the work referring to the meridian ob-
servations of the comparison stars is by Prof.
Auwers, that of the discussion of the heliometer
observations of Iris by Dr. Elkin.”’
We have not space to refer to the many de-
tails given in the reports of the various observa-
tories. But they are all interesting, and will
repay perusal by astronomers. The Society’s
medal was conferred upon Dr. 8. C. Chandler,
of Cambridge, Mass., as has already been an-
nounced in this journal.
THE Astronomical Journal of March 31st con-
tains an article by Prof. Simon Newcomb on the
‘Variation of Personal Equation with the Magni-
tude of the Star Observed.’ This is the first
attempt to make a general discussion of this
rather obscure point for a large number of star
554
eatalogues. It has been known for sometime
that the right ascensions of faint stars differ
systematically from those of the brighter stars,
on account of a peculiar form of personal error
in making the observations. Prof. Newcomb
now determines the amount of this personality
per magnitude for twelve of the principlal cata-
logues.
It was not possible to treat the observations
of each observer separately, but each catalogue
was dealt with as if it were the work of a single
observer. The catalogues were compared in
pairs. Sixteen such pairs were treated, and
for each pair the relative variation of right as-
cension per magnitude was computed. The
results so obtained were adjusted so as to get
the variation per magnitude for each catalogue
relatively to the great Paris catalogue. The
latter was adopted as a standard of reference
because it occurs in a majority of the pairs of
catalogues treated.
The relation of the Paris catalogue to the
truth could be determined by the aid of the
results previously obtained by Gill, Kistner,
Boss and Becker. The following remarkable
result was reached :
The variation per magnitude of the right as-
cension averaged yery nearly one-hundredth of
a second of time, no matter whether the obser-
vations were made by the eye and ear method
or by means of the chronograph.
lets dc
GENERAL,
WE learn from the Botanical Gazette that
plans for the Hull Botanical Laboratory of the
University of Chicago have been completed.
The building, of four stories and in addition a
large roof greenhouse, will include a library,
lecture rooms, laboratories and private research
rooms for morphology, physiology and taxon-
omy. As already stated in this JOURNAL, Prof.
John M. Coulter, senior editor of The Botanical
Gazette, has accepted the head professorship of
botany. As, however, the building will not be
completed before April, 1897, the botanical
staff will not be fully organized until the fol-
lowing autumn. With the present issue the
Gazette passes into the possession of the Univer-
sity of Chicago. The same editors will remain
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 67.
in charge and the general plan of the journal
will be the same. The editors ‘‘ wish it to be
clearly understood that the Gazette is not to be
the organ of the botanical department of any
university, but that it belongs to all botanists
everywhere. Its relation to the University of
Chicago is simply to bring it that permanence
and possibility of development which the pres-
ent condition of botanical science demands.’’
THE annual report of the Secretary of the
Geological Society of Washington states that
there were held during the year 1895 fourteen
meetings of the Society, with an average at-
tendance of 35, exclusive of the meeting at
which the annual address of the President,
Mr. G. K. Gilbert, was given. 388 communica-
tions have been presented during the year, 29
of them being announced upon the programs
of the meetings and 9 being offered in the in-
formal half hour. The various communications
were presented by 27 different members. There
are now 111 active members and 38 correspond-
ing members in the Society.
THE Fort Pitt Street Railway Company of
Pittsburg has given $100,000 for a zodlogical
garden at Highland Park.
Tue bill reported from the Committee on
Coinage, Weights and Measures of the House
of Representatives adopting the metric system
of weights and measures as the legal standard
in the United States has been defeated in a pre-
liminary vote, which stood 80 to 65.
Pror. RAMSAY has in preparation a book
which will shortly be published by Macmillan
& Co., treating the gases in atmospheric air
and especially the discovery and subsequent in-
vestigation of Argon.
THE Berlin Academy of Science has elected
as corresponding members, M. Poincaré, pro-
fessor of mathematical physics in Paris, and
Dr. G. Neumayer, director of the German
Seewarte.
THE Director of the Lick Observatory has re-
cently received from the Minister of Foreign
Affairs of the United States of Venezuela the
diploma and decoration of the order of Bolivar,
the Liberator. This order was founded in 1825.
by Peru and adopted in 1854 by Venezuela.
APRIL 10, 1896.]
It is conferred, in this case, for services to sci-
ence. Dr.-Holden had previously received the
decoration of Commander of the Ernestine Or-
der of Saxony (founded in 1690) on the same
grounds.
THE Presidency of the Royal College of Phy-
sicians of London, regarded as the highest
honor that can be conferred on a British phy-
sician, will probably be filled by the election of
Dr. Wilkes, who in the election of 1893 stood
next to the ballot of Sir J. Russell Reynolds,
the retiring President.
THE Committee on Agriculture of the House
of Representatives has reported favorably the
bill creating a special commission on highways,
to consist of the Chief of Engineers of the Army,
the Director of the Geological Survey, and the
Chief of Road Inquiry of the Department of Ag-
riculture. The Commission is to consider,
among other things, the best methods for the
scientific location of highways on the public do-
main; the employment of the Geological Sur-
vey in the discovery of road materials ; the free
testing of all road materials offered ; the con-
struction of model roads, and instruction in
road-making at agricultural colleges and ex-
perimental stations.
THE admirable article by Prof. William
James, of Harvard University, on ‘Is Life
Worth Living?’ in the October International
Journal of Ethics, has been republished in book
form by 8. Burns Weston, Philadelphia.
D. APPLETON & Co. announce for publication
a work by Prof. John Trowbridge, of Harvard
University, entitled ‘ What is Electricity ?’
THE third International Congress of Derma-
tology will be held in London from August 4th
to 8th inclusive, under the Presidency of Mr.
Jonathan Hutchinson.
A SERIES of lectures has been arrangéd to be
given at Berlin by professors of the University
during the holidays for schoolmasters and
teachers. The course will include lectures on
the X-rays by Prof. Goldstein, on the nervous
system by Prof. Waldeyer, on metabolism by
Prof. Zunz, etc.
WE learn from the British Medical Journal
that a committee has been formed in Berlin for
the celebration of the Jenner centenary on May
SCIENCE.
505
14th. Among the members are Prof. Virchow,
Prof. R. Koch, Prof. von Leyden, Prof. von
Bergmann, Prof. Gerhard, Prof. Konig and
others. The program includes an_ exhibi-
tion of portraits, medals, old and new instru-
ments, writings, etc., bearing upon Jenner’s
great discovery, and also a festive gathering on
the day itself, intended not only ‘to honor the
benefactor of the universe,’ but to protest against
the anti-vaccination agitation which is con-
stantly going on.
THE Committee on Agriculture of the Massa-
chusetts Legislature has not yet been able to
come to an agreement in regard to the appro-
priation for the Gypsy Moth Commission. It
is understood that four members of the com-
mittee favor an appropriation of $200,000, four
$100,000 and three $50,000.
THE steam yatch Blencathra will carry an ex-
cursion party to the arctic regions next sum-
mer, visiting Iceland, Greenland and Hudson’s
Bay.
Pror. JAmMEs F. Kemp, Columbia University,
has consented to become one of the editors of
the Zeitschrift fur Praktische Geologie.
Pror. J. B. CUMMINGS, since 1856. professor
of science in Westminster College, died on
March 31st.
Pror. B. F. TWEED, from 1855 to 1864 pro-
fessor of rhetoric and logic in Tuft’s College,
and later supervisor of schools in Boston, died
on April 2d, at the age of eighty-five.
THE anatomist, Dr. P. C. Sappey, died on
March 14th, at the age of 86. He was the
author of importaht researches on the respira-
tory apparatus of birds, on the lymphatics and
on other subjects, but is best known for his
great work on ‘ Descriptive Anatomy,’ which
was begun in 1847 and completed in 1863.
HAVING completed his report on the asphalts
and other mineral resources of the Uncompahgre
Indian Reservation and vicinity in Utah,
based on investigations made last fall at the in-
stance of the Secretary of the Interior, Mr.
Geo. H. Eldridge, of the U. S. Geological Sur-
vey, has resumed geologic work in Florida and
neighboring States, with reference more especi-
ally to the phosphate deposits of the region.
556
THE fourth fascicle of Messrs, Collins, Holden
and Setchell’s Phycotheca Boreali-Americana,
has recently been issued, containing Nos. 151
to 200 of this valuable distribution of North
American algze. It is rich in species of the
genus Batrachospermum.
Nature states that a number of admirers of
Prof. Mittag-Leffler, the founder of the Acta
Mathematica, will shortly present him with a
congratulatory address, written in four lan-
guages—German, French, Italian and English
—and expressing the appreciation of mathema-
ticians of the services he has rendered to their
science. It is proposed to present him at the
same time with his portrait in oils, and a sub-
scription list has beer opened to obtain funds
for that purpose. Prof. Appell, 6 rue Le Ver-
rier, Paris, will be glad to receive subscriptions.
Pror. PUTMAN states in the Harvard Gradu-
ates’ Magazine the Peabody Museum has received
from the American Antiquarian Society many
important archzeological and ethnological speci-
mens, among which may be mentioned the bow
of a Massachusetts Indian. This bow was
taken from an Indian in Sudbury in 1665, and
is, so far as can be ascertained, the only authen-
tic Massachusetts Indian bow now extant.
SoME interesting instances of human longey-
ity have been brought to notice of late. Alex-
ander Freeman, now at the Sailor’s Snug Har-
bor, on Staten Island, was born December 22,
1786, and is now 110 years of age. In the So-
ciety of the War of 1812 are enrolled 33 vet-
erans of that war, whose average age is ninety-
nine years. Fourteen are more than one hun-
dred. William Haines, who fought with the
Tennessee militia at the battle of New Orleans,
at the age of twenty-six, is still living at the
St. Louis Memorial Home, aged 107. Davis
Parks, aged 106 years, two months, is at Fow-
ler, Mich. Percy Dyer, 104 years, 3 months,
at Belvidere, Il. Andrew F. McKee, 104 years,
at Burlington, Kansas. Four years ago there
were 65 names on the veteran list.
In ‘Little Africa,’ a suburb of Mobile, Ala.,
still live a number of native Dahomians, brought
over in April, 1859, in the last cargo of slaves
imported from Africa. They retain many of
the traditions and customs of their native land.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 67.
In the Sunday edition of the New York Sun
for March 29th Mr. Jeremiah Curtin, formerly
of the Bureau of Ethnology, began a series of
articles on primitive folk lore collected from the
Indians in California, Mexico and Guatemala.
He writes first on the traditions of the Uintas, a
nation formerly resident on the right bank of
the Sacramento from San Francisco Bay to the
foot of Mt. Shasta.
THE Revue Scientifique, commenting on the
proposal for the appointment of a permanent
director of scientific work in the United States
Department of Agriculture, remarks: ‘‘ Nous
comprenons le désir des personnes éclairées et
bien intentionnées qui mettent en avant ce pro-
jet, et nous Vapprouyons sans réserves; mais
nous avons des doutes sur issue finale des
événements, et ne croyons guére 4 la prochaine
réalisation du pays d’Utopie révé par Morus.’’
ANOTHER chapter is added to our knowledge
of quadrivalent lead, by Hutchinson and Pol-
lard, in the March Journal of the Chemical
Society. They have re-examined the crystals
which form when red lead is dissolved in acetic
acid and find their composition to be Pb (C,H,0.),
lead tetracetate. The molecular weight ob-
tained by freezing point and boiling point
methods agreed with this formula as closely as
is usual with the acetates. Water at once de-
composes the salt quantitatively into lead dioxid
and acetic acid, with hydrochloric acid the un-
stable lead tetrachlorid is formed, which in the
presence of sal ammoniac is precipitated as am-
monium plumbi-chlorid, (NH,), PbCl,. Lead
tetrapropionate is also described. The authors
point out the close resemblance of the quadriva-
lent lead salts to the stannic compounds, and
urge the use of the name plumbic oxid in prefer-
ence to lead peroxid. (Itmay be questioned if,
after all, the widely used name lead dioxid is
not preferable to either.) H.
As already announced in this journal, two
expeditions will be sent from the United States
to Japan to observe the total solar eclipse. The
expedition from the Lick Observatory will be
under the charge of Prof. Schaeberle, who will
be accompanied by Dr. Charles Burekhalter,
director of the Shabot Observatory, in Oak-
land, and Messrs. G. E. Shuez and Louis C.
Aprit 10, 1896.)
Masten. The work will be wholly photo-
graphic in character. Prof. David P. Todd,
who has charge of the Amherst expedition, has
already left New York with a party consisting
of Mr.and Mrs. Arthur Curtis James, of New
York; Mrs. D. Todd, Chief Engineer John
Pemberton, U.S. N., who goes with the per-
mission of the Secretary of the Navy; Prof.
William P. Gerrish, of Harvard, meteorologist
and photographer ; E. A. Thompson, of Am-
herst, the head mechanician, and Dr. Vander-
poel Adriance and Arthur W. Frances, of New
York. The party will join the yacht ‘ Coro-
net’ at San Francisco and will sail to Japan by
way of Honolulu. The yatch carries a large
number of instruments.
AT a postponed hearing on Vivisection before
the House Committee of Judiciary of Massa-
chusetts, the proposed legislation against vivi-
section was opposed by Profs. Bowditch,
Theobald Smith and J. J. Putnam, of Har-
vard University; Prof. Hodge, of Clark Uni-
versity ; Prof. Wilcox, of Wellesley College ;
Pror. Sedgwick, of the Massachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology, and others. President Eliot
is reported by the Boston Transcript to have
said that in the last twenty-five years, dur-
ing which experiments in physiology had
been conducted in Harvard, not a single in-
stance of a student bringing any complaint of
eruelty against the work done in the physio-
logical laboratories had ever come to the knowl-
edge of the corporation. There was no abuse
of vivisection in Massachusetts. The men
whom this bill indirectly accused of cruelty to
animals were the most humane, merciful, clear-
seeing men in the community, devoted, year
after year, to the most humane occupation now
existing in the world. Their profession showed
in their faces, and he appealed to the members
of the committee to know whether they thought
that the men who had appeared before them
could be guilty of the charge implied by the
application for such legislation.
IN the first essay in his studies in the Theory
of Descent, first published in 1875, Weismann
discussed seasonal dimorphism in butterflies on
the basis of direct experimentation and con-
eluded that ‘‘ differences of specific value can
SCIENCE. 5oT
originate through the direct action of external
conditions of life only ;’’ and that ‘‘a periodi-
cally recurring change of climate is alone suffi-
cient, in the course of a long period of time, to
admit of new species arising from one another.’’
In a recent essay on the same subject (Neue
Versuche zum Saison-Dimorphismus der Schmeiter-
linge; Fischer, Jena, 1895), the details are
given of fresh experiments and the whole sub-
ject is discussed anew with special reference to
his constantly expanding views on the ‘con-
tinuity of the germ-plasm.’ The experiments
are interesting and carefully recorded, but no
theoretical conclusions varying much from
those formerly reached are given, except in
the distinction he makes between direct seasonal
dimorphism and that which is adaptive, when
the changes in temperature serve only to open
the way to the action of natural selection.
Tue third paper in Vol. VIII. of the Bulletin
of the American Museum of Natural History
is by Dr. J. A. Allen on Alleged Changes of
Color in the Feathers of Birds without Molting,
and is a careful review of the literature on the
subject. Dr. Allen makes it plain that much of
the so-called ‘evidence’ of change of color
without molt is due to careless examination of
specimens, much to a wrong interpretation of
facts, and that much is pure assertion without
any foundation whatever. Considerable alter-
ation in plumage is brought about by the wear-
ing away of the edges of feathers, slight changes
result from bleaching, but while there may be
a slight basisin fact for some of the speculations
regarding change of color without molt, the
cause, in nine cases out of ten, is demonstrably
due to molt. ‘Intermediate stages’ are caused
by the fact that a given molt does not affect all
individuals of a species alike, but, owing to
conditions of food, health, etc., some birds are
carried to a more advanced stage than others.
AMONG the lectures to be given at the Royal
Institution after Easter are the following: Prof.
James Sully, of University College, London,
three lectures on ‘Child-study and Education; ’
Mr. C. Vernon Boys, three lectures on ‘ Ripples
in Air and on Water;’ Prof. T. G. Bonney, two
lectures on ‘The Building and Sculpture of
Western Europe’ (the Tyndall lectures); Prof.
Dewar, three lectures on ‘Recent Chemical
558
Progress;’ Mr. W. Gowland, three lectures on
‘The Art of Working Metals in Japan;’ Dr.
Robert Munro, two lectures on ‘Lake Dwell-
ings;’ Mr. E. A. Wallis Budge, of the British
Museum, two lectures on ‘The Moral and Re-
ligious Literature of Ancient Egypt.’ The first
lecture of the Friday evening course will be by
M. G. Lippmann, on ‘Color Photography.’
WE learn from the London Times that the re-
port of the Meteorological Council for the year
ending March 31, 1895, submitted to the Presi-
dent and Council of the Royal Society, has just
been issued as a Parliamentary paper. Of the
forecasts issued at 8:30 p. m., in the year 1894—
1895, the percentage of complete success was
56, of partial success 27, of partial failure 12,
and of total failure 6. The average for the ten
years from 1885 to 1894 was 51-2 of complete
success and 80:7 of partial success. The storm
warnings show a percentage of 68°5 of success
and 23:5 of partial suecess. The warnings not
justified by subsequent weather were 6 per cent.
These figures show a marked improvement on
those for the years from 1885 to 1893 inclusive.
The hay harvest forecasts show a total percent-
age of 89 of complete or partial success. The
Council express their regret that the experiment
of exhibiting, at telegraphic stations in rural dis-
tricts every afternoon, the daily weather fore-
casts is not to be repeated. The net expendi-
ture of the Council in 1894-95 was £15,212 Os.
11d., as compared with £15,969, 7s. 6d. in 1893—
94. The sum of £1,528 Os. 10d., was paid to
the postoffice for services rendered. The in-
come of the Council was £15,300, granted by
Parliament, and £721 19s. 6d., received from
various other sources.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
Mrs. EvizABETH MAry LupLow, the mother .
of the late Robert Center, has given his estate,
valued at $150,000, to Columbia University for
the purpose of endowing the ‘Robert Center
Fund for Instruction of Music.’
THE Teachers’ College, New York, has re-
ceived from a donor whose name is at present
withheld, a gift of $250,000 to complete the pres-
ent group of buildings. This will make the value
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 67.
of the property on Morningside Heights, adja-
cent to the grounds of Columbia University,
about $1,000,000, and will add greatly to the
facilities of the College and of Columbia Uni-
versity, to which it is affiliated.
Mr. W. C. McDona tp, whose gift of $500,000
to McGill University was reported in this
journal last week has now given, in addition,
$150,000, to be used in maintaining the engi-
neering and physics building.
THE annual report of President Dwight, of
Yale University, for the year 1895, states that
gifts to the University during the year have
amounted to $305,301.
THE Senate of Deans of the Catholic Univer-
sity of Washington has decided to establish an
Institute of Technology. Itis proposed to con-
struct a special building for the purpose.
Tue following instructors have been ap-
pointed in Harvard University: Charles Mon-
tague Bakewell, A. M., in philosophy; James
Edwin Lough, A. M., in experimental psychol-
ogy; Charles Palache, Ph. D., in mineralogy;
Robert Jay Forsythe, A. B., in metallurgy and
metallurgical chemistry.
Baron Eorvos has been made full pro-
fessor of experimental physics in.the University
at Buda-Pesth.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
HEREDITY AND INSTINCT (II.)*
In the earlier paper I argued from certain
psychological truths for the position that two
general principles recently urged by Romanes
for the Lamarckian, or ‘ inherited habit,’ view of
the origin of instinct do not really support that
doctrine. These two principles are those cited
by Romanes under the phrases respectively ‘ co-
adaptation’ and ‘selective value.’ In the case
of complex instincts these two arguments really
amount to one, i. e., as long as we are talking
about the origin of instinct. And the one argu-
ment is this: that partial co-adaptations in the
direction of an instinct are not of selective value;
hence instinct could not have arisen by gradual
*Conclusion of paper of same title in SCIENCE
March 20th.
APRIL 10, 1896. ]
partial co-adaptive variations, but must have
been acquired by intelligence and then in-
herited. This general position is dealt with in
the earlier article.
It will be remembered, however, that the
force of the refutation of the Neo-Lamarckian
argument on this point depends on the assump-
tion, made in common with him, that some de-
gree of intelligence or imitative faculty is pres-
ent before the completion of the instinct in
question. To deny this is, of course, to deny
the contention that instinct is ‘lapsed intelli-
gence,’ or ‘inherited habit.’ To assume it, how-
ever, opens the way for certain farther ques-
tions, which I may now take up briefly, citing
Romanes by preference as before.
I. The argument from ‘selective value’ has
a further and very interesting application by
Romanes. He uses the very fact upon which
the argument in my earlier paper was based to
get more support for the inheritance of habits.
The fact is this, that intelligence may per-
form the same acts that instinct does. So grant-
ing, he argues, that the intelligent performance
of these acts comes first in the species’ history,
this intelligent performance of the actions serves
all the purposes of utility which are claimed for
the instinctive doing of the same actions. If
this be true, then variations which would secure
the instinctive performance of these actions do
not have selective value. and so the species
would not acquire them by the operation of
natural selection. By the Lamarckian theory,
however, he concludes, the habits of intelligent
action give rise to instincts for the performance
of the same actions which are already intelli-
gently performed, the two kinds of function ex-
isting side by side in the same creature.*
This is an ingenious turn, and raises new
questions of fact. Several things come to mind
in the way of comment.
First. It rests evidently on the state of things
required by my earlier argument against the
Neo-Lamarckian claim that co-adaptation could
not have been gradually acquired by variation;
the state of things which shows the intelligence
preventing the ‘incidence of natural selection’
by supplementing partial co-adaptation. Ro-
manes now assumes that intelligence prevents
*Op. cit., pp. 74-81.
SCIENCE.
5d9
the operation of natural selection on further
variations, and so rules out the origin of in-
stinct through that agency, or, put differently,
that actions which are of selective value when
performed intelligently are not of selective value
‘when performed also instinctively. But this
seems in a measure to contradict the argument
which is based on co-adaptations (examined in
the earlier paper), 7. e., that instincts could not
have arisen by way of partial co-adaptations at
all. In other words, the argument from ‘co-
adaptation’ asserts that the partial co-adapta-
tions are not preserved, being useless; that from
selective value asserts that they are preserved
and, with the intelligence thrown in, are so
useful as to be of selective value. We have
seen that the latter position is probably the
true one; but that the inheritance of acquired
characters is then made unnecessary.
Second. Assuming the existence side by side
in the same:creature of the ability to do intelli-
gently certain things that he also does instine-
tively, it is extraordinary that Romanes should
then say that the instinctive ~eflexes have
no utility additional to that of the intelligent
performance. On the contrary, the two sorts
of performance of the same action are of very
different and each of extreme utility. Reflex
actions are quicker,more direct, less variable, less
subject to inhibition, more deep-seated organic-
ally, and so less liable to derangement. Intel-
ligent actions—the same actions say—are, be-
sides the points of opposition indicated, and by
reason of them, more adaptable. Then there
is the remarkable difference that intelligent ac-
tions are centrally stimulated, while reflex ac-
tions are peripherally stimulated. I cannot go
into all these differences here; but the case may
be made strong enough by citing certain diver-
gencies between the two sorts of performance,
with illustrations which show their separate util-
ities.
1. Reflex and instinctive actions are less sub-
jectto derangement. Emotion, injury, tempo-
rary ailment, hesitation, aboulia, lack of infor-
mation, etc., may paralyze the intelligence; but
instinct and reflex action may keep the creature
alive in the mean time. What keeps dogs
alive after extended ablations of the brain cor-
tex?
560
2. Reflexes are quicker. Suppose instead
of winking reflexly when a foreign body ap-
proaches the eye, I waited to see whether it
was near enough to be dangerous, or even shut
my eye as quickly as I could, I should join the
ranks of the blind in short order,
3. Reflex actions are more deep-seated and
arose genetically first. What keeps the infant
alive and in touch with his environment before
the voluntary fibers are developed? This gen-
etic utility alone would seem critical enough to
justify most of the genuine reflexes of the organ-
ism—supplemented, of course, by the mother !
4. Intelligent actions are centrally stimulated.
This means that brain processes release the
energy which goes out in movement, and that
something earlier must stimulate the brain pro-
cesses. This something is association in some
shape between present stimulating agencies in
the environment and memories, or pleasures
and pains. In other words, certain central pro-
cesses intervene between the outside stimulus
and the release of the energies of movement.
In reflexes, however, no such central influence
intervenes. The stimulus in the environment
passes directly—is reflected—into the motor
apparatus. Hence the reflex is more direct,
undeviating, invariable, sure. For example, re-
search has recently proved that involuntary
movements may be produced in a variety of
normal circumstances, and in hysterical sub-
jects, when the stimulation is too weak, or in-
termittent, or unimportant, to be perceived at
all.
5. Experiments show that the energies of the
two are not quantitatively the same. Mosso
and Waller have shown that the muscles
may work under direct stimulation after being
quite exhausted for voluntary action, and vice
versa. They may be exchanges of energy be-
tween the two circuits involved, which give the
animal increased force in this reaction or that.
6. The intelligence could not attend to the
necessary functions of life without the aid of
reflexes, to say nothing of the luxuries of
acquisition. So not to get the reflexes would
prevent the growth of the intelligence. For
example, suppose we ‘had to walk, wink,
breathe, swallow, scare away flies and mosqui-
toes, etc., all by voluntary attention to the
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Von. IIT. No. 67.
details and all at the same time. While chas-
ing flies we should forget to breathe! And
when should we have a moment’s time to think ?
In this line it is in order to cite the experiments
made on ‘distraction,’ which show that most of
the common adaptations of life can go on by
reflex and sub-conscious processes while the in-
telligence is otherwise occupied.*
7. Attention and voluntary intermeddling
with reflex and instinctive functions tends to
destroy their efficiency, bringing confusion and
all kinds of disturbance.
These are all simple psychological facts, and
more might be added showing that instinct has
its own great utility even when the intelligence
may perform the same actions in its own fash-
ion. So it remains in each case to find out this
utility and measure it, before we say that it is
not of selective value. I should say that re-
flexes are generally of supreme importance and
value; and if so, then natural selection may be
appealed to to account for them. So, about all
that remains of this argument of Romanes is
the contribution which it makes to the refuta-
tion of his other one, from co-adaptations. The
assumption of intelligence disposes of both the
arguments, for the intelligence supplements
slight co-adaptations and so gives them selective
value; but it does not keep them from getting
farther selective value as instincts, reflexes,
etc., by farther variation.
II. But there is another very interesting
question also to be settled by fact. Romanes
and others cite simple reflexes as well as com-
plex instincts as giving illustrations of the ap-
plication of the principle of ‘inherited habit’ or
‘lapsed intelligence ;’ and the cases which Ro-
manes lays great stress on are the reflex actions
of man’s withdrawal of the leg from irritation
to the soles, and the brainless frog’s balancing
himself.+ The Neo-Lamarckian theory requires
the assumption of intelligence for all of these.
I have shown that granting the intelligence,
that is just the assumption which in many cases
enables us to discard the Lamarckian factor.
But we may ask, is the assumption itself neces-
sary for all reflexes?
*See Binet, Alterations of Personality, Part I1.,
ch. 5. (Eng. trans. announced by Appletons. )
} Passage cited. f
APRIL 10, 1896.]
The question is too involved for treatment
here; but the assumption that intelligence is
necessary in any sense which make the conscious
voluntary performance of the action always pre-
cede the reflex performance of it is very difficult
to defend. For all that we know of the brain
seat of voluntary intelligence, of the use of
means to ends, ete., makes such action depend-
ent in its origin upon the presence of the
great mass of organic reflex processes which go
on below the cortex. Complex associative pro-
cesses must be genetically (and phylogeneti-
cally) later than the simple reflex processes,
which, as has been intimated above, they pre-
suppose.
But the more liberal definition of intelligence,
which makes it include all kinds of conscious
processes—the assumption of intelligence being
the assumption of conscious process of some
kind—that is a different matter. This supposi-
tion seems to be necessary on either theory of
instinct, as I have argued;* for if we do not
assume it, then natural selection is inadequate,
as say Romanes and Cope; but if we do assume
it, then the inheritance of acquired characters
is unnecessary. On this simpler definition of
intelligence, however, we find certain’ simpler
states of consciousness, of which imitation is the
most prominent example, serving nature a
turn in the matter of development.
And on this wider view of intelligence the
difference between intelligent (7. e., imitative)
action and instinctive reflex action is much
greater than that pointed out in detail above
between voluntary and reflex action. _A word
to show this may be allowed me, since it makes
yet stronger the case against the special argu-
ment from selective fitness, which this paper
set out to examine.
The differences between imitative action and
reflex or instinctive action are not just those
which we have found between voluntary and re-
flexactions. Imitation seems to be in a sense in-
stinctive; and in the animals it seems to be,
like the instincts, peripherally initiated. But
“*See my article ‘Consciousness and Evolution,’
examining some parts of Prof. Cope’s position, in
ScIENCE, August 23, 795, reprinted kindly by him in
the American Naturalist, March, ’96, with reply in the
succeeding issue of the latter journal.
SCIENCE.
561
it has a farther point of differentiation from the
special instincts and reflexes, in that it is what
has been called a ‘circular’ reaction, 7. e., it
tends to reproduce the stimulus again — the
movement seen, the sound heard, etc. There is
always a certain comparability or similarity, in
a case of conscious imitation, between the thing
imitated and the imitator’s result; and the imi-
tation is unmistakably such in proportion as
this similarity is real. We may say, therefore,
that consciously imitative actions are confined
to those certain channels of discharge with pro-
duce results comparable with the ‘ copy’ which
is imitated.
But the special instincts and reflexes are not
so. They show the greatest variety of arrange-
ment between the stimulus and the movement
which results from it—arrangements which have
grown up under the law of utility. They repre-
sent therefore special utilities which direct con-
scious imitation in each case, by the individual
creature, could not secure; while conscious im-
itation represents a general utility more akin
to that which we have seen the voluntary intel-
ligence subserving.
If this be so, then we have to say that con-
scious imitation, while it prevents the incidence
of natural selection, as has been seen, and so
keeps alive the creatures which have no in-
stinets for the performance of the actions re-
quired, nevertheless does not subserve the utili-
ties which the special instincts do, nor prevent
them from having the selective value of which
Romanes speaks. Accordingly, on the more
general definition of intelligence, which includes
in it all conscious imitation, use of maternal in-
struction, and that sort of thing (the vehicle of
‘social heredity ’)—no less than on the more
special definition spoken of above—vwe still find
the principal of natural selection operative and
adequate, possibly, to the production of instincts
and reflexes. *
J. MARK BALDWIN.
PRINCETON, March 17, 1896.
*This and the two preceding papers in this jour-
nal are not intended as more than preliminary state-
ments of results thrown into the form of criticisms of
particular views (7. e., Romanes’ and Prof. Cope’s).
For this reason I have not brought in reference to the
general literature of the subject.
562
THE X-RAYS.
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: As opportunity
offered experiments have been made in our
laboratory with the X-rays since a few days
after the appearance of Prof. Rontgen’s paper.
Of course, we have repeated most of the
experiments that have been announced from
trustworthy sources; but I recall one or two
observations made here that I have not seen
notice of, and take the liberty of offering the ac-
count to your journal. I use a Ruhmkorff coil
with Foucault interrupter. About two ampéres
from accumulators, through the primary gives
about six-inch spark in the secondary. For a
tube I have used one of my old Crookes tubes.
The one I have found to work best is pear-
shaped, nine inches long, four inches in diameter
at the larger end, with a flat disc cathode in the
small end, set with the plane of the disc perpen-
dicular to the length of the tube, and for anode
it has a Maltese cross inserted about the middle.
The cross is hinged so that it may be shaken
down and thus not obstruct the cathode radia-
tion. The tube is the one designed, in Crookes
set, to show that the cathode radiation is in
straight lines and will ‘cast a shadow.’ The
first plate I exposed was with this tube, the
cross of the anode being up so as to cast a
shadow in the end of the tube. The plate being
close to the tube, a clear shadow of the anode
was cast upon it. On repeating the experiment
with the sensitive plate six inches distant,
there was no image of the cross on the plate,
which was, instead, densely ‘light struck’ all
over. This adds another to the quite numerous
proofs that the X-rays originate at the phos-
phorescent surface of the glass and not at the
cathode. The second observation I wish to
notice is a perfectly simple and commonplace
method of getting a sharp clear image by these
X-rays, which refuse to be reflected or refracted.
It is the use of a metal diaphragm interposed
between the tube and the sensitive plate. I have
found a metal plate with a circular hole one
inch in diameter, placed half an inch from the
tube, the tube being six inches from the sensi-
tive plate to give very satisfactory results. *
*T enclose two prints, one of a hand and one of a
part of the forearm, showing the effect of a gunshot
wound made thirty years ago. The print shows how
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 67.
The most interesting observation is a physio-
logical effect of the X-rays. A month ago we
were asked to undertake the location of a bul-
let in the head of a child that had been acci-
dentally shot. On the 29th of February Dr.
Wm. L. Dudley and I decided to make a pre-
liminary test of photographing through the
head with our rather weak apparatus before
undertaking the surgical case. Accordingly
Dr. Dudley, with his characteristic devotion to
the cause of science, lent himself to the experi-
ment. <A plateholder containing the sensitive
plate was tied to one side of his head, with a
coin between the plate and his head, and the
tube was set playing on the opposite side of his
head. The tube was about one-half inch dis-
tant from his hair, and the exposure was one
hour. The plate developed nothing; but
yesterday, 21 days after the experiment, all the
hair came out over the space under the X-ray
discharge. The spot is now perfectly bald,
being two inches in diameter. This is the size
of the X-ray field close to this tube. We, and
especially Dr. Dudley, shall watch with interest
the ultimate effect. The skin looks perfectly
healthy, and there has been no pain nor other
indication of disorder. I called attention to the
place before Dr. Dudley had himself noticed it,
and we were both for some time at a loss to
account for it, as we had no previous intimation
of any effect whatever.
But this little incident may bear a suggestion.
The X-rays are as yet unexplained; but the
suggestion, beginning with Prof. Réntgen him-
self, has more than once been made that they
are longitudinal rather than transverse vibra-
tions. It is difficult to distinguish a longitudinal
displacement of the ether from an electric cur-
rent, as far as it goes. It is a well-known
method of exterminating hair, that of sending
a current to its roots by a needle. If any such
quasi electric current has resulted from the
X-rays the effect upon the hair might be thus
accounted for. The intensity of the discharge
was not sufficient to heat the tube except very
the ulna, some inches of which was shot away, has
attached to the radius, and also shows some half a
dozen shot still in the arm. It would have been difli-
cult to getsuch clear shadowgraphs of objects so large
as these without a diaphragm.
APRIL 10, 1896. ]
slightly; and the occasional small electrostatic
spark from the surface of the tube to the hair,
but which was hardly noticeable, will also not
account for this effect. JOHN DANIEL.
PHYSICAL LABORATORY,
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY, March 23, 1896.
INSTINCT.
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: Having read
with considerable interest the discussions under
Instinct, and haying noticed the different opin-
ions expressed concerning the eating and drink-
ing of the chick, I thought that perhaps my
personal experiments in regard to the matter
might be of interest.
About eight yearsagoI was desirous of study-
ing the chick before and after hatching, and for
this purpose I placed about three hundred eges
in an incubator. I shall confine myself to those
that were allowed to hatch.
Those that hatched were divided into two
groups, an unhealthy and a healthy group.
Those in the first group were fed and given wa-
ter until they became strong enough to care for
themselves. Those in the second group had
food and water placed so that they could get
them, but they were not fed nor given water, nor
were they taught how to secure food and water.
No tapping on the dish or on the floor, and no
putting of the bill in the food or water was prac-
ticed. They were left entirely to themselves.
By watching these chicks, I noticed that they
would occasionally run over their food and wa-
ter, and frequently they stumbled in them. If
the beak became wet, up would go the head,
and the water was swallowed. If food adhered
to the beak, some would get on the tongue, and
it would be swallowed. In time they seemed
to recognize that the food and water were pal-
atable by repeatedly stumbling in them and get-
ting them on the beak, and finally they learned
how to secure them, 7. e., how to pick them up.
I noticed that at first they did not know how to
pick up, but, after repeatedly trying, they
learned how. The majority of these chicks
lived and developed.
Now if we consider the attempt to pick up,
from observation I conclude that it was by in-
stinct ; but if we consider the picking up, I con-
clude that it was an acquired characteristic.
SCIENCE.
563
In conclusion, I might say that at the end of
the third day all of the chicks—about fifty— in-
stinetively attempted to pick up, and that at
the end of the fifth day they were able to pick
up and place the food or water so that it could
be swallowed. J. C. HARTZELL, JR.
' ORANGEBURG, S.C., March 25, 1896.
VISUALIZATION AND RETINAL IMAGE.
A story which has been going the rounds of
the press about a successful attempt by Mr.
Engles Rogers at photographing his own retinal
image of a dead child, said image being pro-
duced by visualizing effort, induces me to sug-
gest through SCIENCE that the subject is worthy
of more thorough investigation than it has yet
received. What effect also hallucination has
upon the retina might be determined from study
of insane patients dead from hallucinatory
fright, ete. In some cases of sudden death by
accident there seems to be evidence of a per-
sistence of retinal image ; and it seems highly
desirable that hospital surgeons should have a
simple instrument for investigating such cases.
An image which should represent other scenes
than the surroundings at time of death might
be evidence for mere visualization effecting a
retinal image. Hiram M. STANLEY.
LAKE FoREST, ILL.
NAVAL EROSION.
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: An interesting
locality for obtaining some measure of the inter-
ference of navigation with the normal geological
cycle is the Kennebec River, in Maine. Several
summers ago, chancing upon this river, I was
struck with the completeness of the phenomena
of erosion produced by our steamer in disturb-
ing the water.
This stream is an estuary for nearly forty
miles from its mouth. It has numerous islands
and in many places steep banks. There is a
vast amount of glacial material strewn along its
shore which, with the matter brought down
stream, has silted the river bottom completely.
I noted all along the shore that the water in
advance of the steamer rose slightly on the
bank, but was immediately drawn back to fill
the space just occupied by the boat. At some
points this recession amounted to fifteen or
twenty feet, and at no place was it less than
564
two feet. I could hear a pronounced rattle as
the material was dragged down the shore, and
several boulders as big as hen’s eggs were
rolled three to four feet. Following the with-
drawal of the water was a series of waves pro-
duced by the prow and sides of the boat.
These waves, some of which were a foot high,
occurred in sets of three, three more noticeable
sets, followed by many smaller ones. They
sorted material up to the size of a walnut.
In streams, such as this one, which form the
paths of commerce for many cities, the erosion
produced by the combined passage of craft of
all kinds must be a not-inconsiderable factor.
G. W. TOWER.
U.S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, Washington, D. C.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
The Polar Hares of Eastern North America, with
Descriptions of New Forms. By SAMUEL N.
Ruyoaps. Am. Naturalist, March, 1896, pp.
234-239.
The Polar Hare of North America was
separated from that of Scandinavia by Leach
as long ago as 1819, since which date its specific
distinctness has been admitted by nearly all
mammalogists. Still, Mr. Rhoads finds it neces-
sary to reéstablish its claim to recognition, and
also to drop the time-honored name glacialis
conferred by the naturalist Leach, who de-
scribed it, and to substitute therefor the name
arcticus, wider which it was mentioned by
Capt. John Ross, commander of the expedition
which brought back the specimen. Capt. Ross
was not a naturalist and made no claim to
technical knowledge of zodlogy, but in his re-
port on the expedition he mentioned, under the
heading ‘ Zodlogical Memoranda,’ a number of
mammals and birds. Among these the Polar
Hare naturally found a place. His brief account
of this animal begins with the words: ‘Species
Lepus arcticus, Leach,’ from which it is to be
inferred that Leach, who gave him the name,
at that time intended to use it. Capt. Ross
stated further: ‘‘Dr. Leach thinks it [the
Polar Hare of Baffin Land] to be very distinct
from the common White Hare of Scotland
(Lepus albus, Brisson) and equally so from the
Lepus variabilis, Pallas. See Appendix, No.
V.’’—showing that all he knew of the animal
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. ILI. No. 67.
came from Leach. Leach contributed to Capt.
Ross’ report a chapter entitled, ‘Descriptions of
the New Species of Animals Discovered by His
Majesty’s Ship Isabella in a Voyage to the
Arctic Regions’ (Vol. II., pp. 169-179). Leach’s
name glacialis, followed by a Latin diagnosis
and English description, occurs on page 170,
while the name arcticus, as published by Ross, is
on page 151 of the same volume.
Briefly stated, the facts seem to be these:
Leach, the naturalist, discovered that the
American Polar Hare is different from the
European and described it under the name
arcticus, which name he changed before the re-
port was printed, perhaps while it was passing
through the press, to glacialis. Capt. Ross pub-
lished the name and facts communicated to him
by Leach, and the sequence of chapters gave
him twenty pages priority. The question is,
shall the name of a new species, given by a
naturalist of repute and accompanied by a
proper diagnosis, be set aside because an acci-
dent of sequence brings another name a few
pages earlier in the same publication. This
question Mr. Rhoads answers in the affirmative.
The verdict of other naturalists on the same
point is of interest. A hasty examination of the
literature shows that ten persons have used the
name arcticus, while thirty-six have used the
name glacialis, as follows :
AUTHORS WHO MENTION THE AMERICAN POLAR
HARE UNDER THE NAME ARCTICUS.
Ross, 1819 Trouessart, 1880
Gray, 1843, 1867 Coues, 1884
Gerrard, 1862 Murdoch, 1885
Fitzinger, 1867 True, 1887
Allen, 1875, 1877 Rhoads, 1896
AUTHORS WHO MENTION THE AMERICAN POLAR
HARE UNDER THE NAME GLACIALIS.
Leach, 1819 Gray & Ray, 1850
Sabine, 1823 Audubon & Bachman, 1854
Jameson & Scoresby, 1823 Baird, 1857
Parry, 1824 Osborn, 1859
Richardson, 1825, 1829 Bernard J. Ross, 1862
1836, 1839
Harlan, 1825
J. C. Ross, 1825, 1826
Godman, 1826
Lesson, 1827, 1842
Hamilton Smith, 1827
Murray, 1866
Chenu, 1867
Brown, 1868, 1875
Dall, 1870
Allen, 1871
APRIL 10, 1896. ]
Fischer, 1829
Bachman, 1837, 1839
Schinz, 1844
Wagner, 1844
Nilsson, 1847
Luben, 1848
Waterhouse, 1848
Lilljeborg, 1874
Gill, 1876
Rink, 1877
Feilden, 1878
Greely, 1888
Brauer, 1888
Merriam, 1892
If there were no other reason for choosing
glacialis instead of arcticus, and wholly irre-
spective of the merits of the two names, glacialis
would have to be taken if we accept the rule
that in cases of names of equal pertinency, the
first reviser of the group has the privilege of
fixing thename. Lepus glacialis was used with-
out exception by all the naturalists who pub-
lished on American rabbits between 1819 and
1843, including Richardson, Godman, Lesson,
Hamilton Smith, Fischer and Bachman. It is
obvious, therefore, that the name glacialis can-
not be displaced unless one of earlier date be
found.
Linneeus described the Arctic-Alpine Hare of
the mountains of northern Hurope, under the
name Lepus timidus, in the 10th edition of his
Systema Nature (1758, p. 57), and referred to his
previous description in Fawna Suecica (1746, No.
19, p. 8), thus fixing Scandinavia, and presum-
ably southern Sweden, asthe type locality of the
species. The common large hare of Europe,
although often confused with L. timidus, is a
distinct species and was named L. europxus by
Pallas as early as 1778. The distinctness of the
two was admitted by Nilsson, Lilljeborg and
others, and is recognized by Lydekker, one of
the most conservative mammalogists of the pres-
ent day. Notwithstanding these facts, Mr.
Rhoads takes the trouble to re-restrict the type
locality of timidus to ‘Southern Sweden,’ and
to re-affirm the distinctness of the American
animal—a point conceded by nearly all mammal-
ogists for three-quarters of a century.
Mr. Rhoads’ next effort is to divide the
American Polar Hare into additional species
and sub-species, as follows: L. arcticus [= L.
glacialis Leach] from Baffin Land, L. arcticus
bangsti from Newfoundland; and L. greenland-
icus from Greenland. Instead of contrasting
these with one another, or with the original
Lepus. glacialis of Leach as a standard, he
crosses the seas to make his comparison with
SCIENCE.
565
L. timidus. Hence, if one aspires to know how
the Newfoundland and Greenland Hares differ
from the typical American animal from Baffin
Land, he must first ascertain how each differs
from the Scandinavian timidus, and then, by
various processes of addition and subtraction,
seek to find how they differ from one another.
At this point he is likely to be overwhelmed
with discouragement, for Mr. Rhoads does not
always describe the same parts or structures in
the forms he names as new. Thus, we are told
that, in L. timidus ‘‘the radius of the are de-
scribed by the incisors is one-eighth (75) of the
basilar length of the skull,’’ and in L. greenland-
icus the same radius ‘is one-fifth (2°) the bas-
ilar length,’ but in arcticus and bangsti the arcs
of the incisors are not described at all, leaving
the student of the geometry of Leporine teeth
in abject despair.
After a somewhat exhausting study of Mr.
Rhoads’ paper, the only tangible difference I
am able to find between the Newfoundland and
Baffin Land Hares is that the latter turns gray
in summer, while the former turns only partly
gray. This sets one to wondering if Mr. Rhoads
will next separate weasels that turn white in
winter from specimens of the same species that
remain brown the year round.
At the close of his paper Mr. Rhoads states
that he ‘‘is now preparing a more comprehen-
sive revision, with illustrations, of the New
World representatives of the Lepus timidus
group.’’? Let us earnestly hope that he will
make it sufficiently comprehensive to tell how
the component parts of the American Polar
Hare differ from one another. C. H. M.
By H. NEHRING. 4°,
March, 1896.
North American Birds.
part XIII., pp. 47, pls. 2.
Geo. Brumder, Milwaukee.
The 18th part of Nehrling’s well-known
work has just come to hand. It treats of the
Cardinals, Rose-breasted and Blue Grosbeaks,
Indigo, Lazuli and Painted Buntings, Grass-
quits, the Dicksissel, Lark Bunting or White-
winged Blackbird, and Bobolink. The text
maintains the high standard of the earlier
numbers, but the two colored plates, both of
which are of the ‘mixed’ kind, are cheaply
printed and decidedly inferior.
566
An unusually large proportion of the birds
whose life histories make up the present part
are species with which Mr. Nehrling is person-
ally familiar; as a result most of the biographies
are original and more than ordinarily interest-
ing. My. Nehrling not only loves birds, but he
has a keen ear for the harmonies of nature.
‘‘The Bobolink,’’ he says, ‘‘never sings before
It begins its sweet music when the
more earnest and solemn melody of the Robin,
which was heard from earliest daybreak, is
almost at its close. Nature seems to have or-
dained that the serious part of her musical
entertainment in the morning hours should be
heard first, and that the lively and merry
strains should follow them. In the evening
this order is reversed, and after the comedy is
concluded nature lulls us to repose by the
mellow notes of the Vesper Sparrow and the
pensive and still more melodious strains of the
solitary Thrush.”’ C. H. M.
sunrise.
The Book of Antelopes. By P. L. ScLATER and
OLDFIELD THOMAS. With colored plates by
Wo tr and Smit. 4°. London, R. H. Porter,
1895-96.
Since the notice of parts J. and IT. of this ad-
mirable work (SCIENCE, April 5, 1895, p. 389)
the first volume has been completed and one
part of the second has appeared. Vol. I. con-
tains 220 pages and twenty-four handsomely
colored plates, besides numerous useful figures
in the text.
Parts III. and IV. treat of the duikers (genus
Cephalophus), and part TV., which completes the
first volume, closes with an account of the four-
horned antelope (Zetraceros quadricornis). The
duikers, unlike most of the antelopes, live in
brush and forests. They inhabit Africa south
of the Sahara, and most of the species are re-
stricted to West Africa. Twenty species are
recognized, ranging in size ‘from that of
a small donkey down to that of a hare.’ Asa
rule they are handsomely colored, though most
of them lack the striking and, in some cases,
startling recognition markings that characterize
some of the other groups. A few of the species,
however, as the banded duiker (C. dorix) and
the yellow-backed duiker (C. sylvicultrix), are
conspicuously marked.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. IfI. No. 67.
Part V., comprising ninety-two pages and six
colored plates, takes up the African subfamily
Neotragine and treats of the klipspringer
(Oreotragus), the oribis (Ouretria), the grysbok
and steinboks (Raphicerus), the Zanzibar and
Livingstone’s antelopes (Nesotragus), the royal
antelope (Neotragus) and the dik-diks (Madoqua).
The book of Antelopes is a timely work and
it is matter for congratulation that the colored
plates prepared under the supervision of the
late Sir Victor Brook more than twenty years
ago are finally given to the public accompanied
by such authoritative letter press. If the dis-
tinguished authors have erred in the treatment
of certain species it is on the side of conserva-
tism, and it must be admitted that they have en-
joyed unsurpassed opportunities for the study
of the living animals at the Zodlogical Society’s
Gardens, of which the senior author has had
charge for nearly forty years, and for the study
of skins and skulls in the rich mammal collec-
tion of the British Museum, of which the junior
author has long been curator.
Still, one is filled with regret at the large
number of species unrepresented, or at most im-
perfectly represented, in museums, and it is sad
to feel that many species are on the road to
rapid extinction. Before it is too late sports-
men as well as naturalists should spare no pains
to secure specimens of the rarer kinds and see
that they reach some of the larger museums,
where their permanent preservation will be
guaranteed. Cc. H. M.
Chemistry for Engineers and Manufacturers. By
BERTRAM Buiount, F. 1. C., F.C. S. and A.
G. Buoxam, F. I. C., F. C. 8. Vol. L—
Chemistry of Engineering, Building and Metal-
lurgy. Philadelphia, J. B. Lippincott Co.
London, Charles Griffin & Co., L’t’d. 1896.
8vo, 244 pp., Illust. $8.50.
This is the first volume of a small and concise
work on Chemical Technology, which is espe-
cially intended for engineers, architects, builders
and factory superintendents, as well as students
of chemical technology. It is intended prima-
rily for those whose knowledge of chemical
theories and processes is limited, but so skilfully
is the subject-matter presented that even trained
chemists and expert engineers may find the
APRIL 10, 1896.]
book helpful. All descriptions of processes and
apparatus are necessarily much condensed, mat-
ters of detail being relegated to the larger hand-
books and monographs on special subjects,
which, in the opinion of the reviewer, is their
proper place. But the addition of references to
the larger and special works, either as foot-
notes or otherwise, would have materially in-
creased the value of the book without altering
its character as an elementary work.
The present volume consists of two parts, the
first being devoted to a general introduction and
Part II. to Metallurgy. -
The four introductory chapters are each given
to aspecial topic. Chapter I., ‘The Chemistry of
Materials of Construction,’ treats of the proper-
ties of stone, brick and concrete, roofing mate-
rials, the structural metals, and the strength,
permanency and preservation of these sub-
stances. Chapter II. deals with ‘The Chemistry
of the Sources of Energy,’ viz.: solid, liquid and
gaseous fuels, electrical heating, measurement
of temperature, direct conversion of chemical
into electrical energy and the natural forms of
kineticenergy. ‘The Chemistry of Steam Rais-
ing’ is the title of the third chapter, which has
for its subjects, water and the methods of puri-
fying and softening it for use in boilers. ‘The
Chemistry of Lubricants and Lubrication’ is
briefly disposed of in some seven pages, forming
the fourth chapter.
Part II., comprising about one-half of the
book, is a fairly complete though condensed
presentation of the subject of Metallurgy in all
its branches. The commercially important
metals, some nineteen in number, are here in-
cluded, their chief ores described and the pro-
cesses of their extraction set forth in a brief and
readable manner. Many of the important ap-
pliances and parts of smelting and refining
plants are illustrated by cuts. Numerous tables
of analyses of ores and of finished products are
scattered through the text. In these days of
popular interest in mining and metallurgical
schemes, it would seem that this section should
lend the book an attraction to many persons in
commercial life, though they may have little or
no scientific education. The facts are so clearly
and tersely stated and illustrations are so fre-
quent that any one of average intellect, though
SCIENCE.
567
not a chemist or engineer, should have no diffi-
culty in understanding the work. Technical
terms and chemical symbols are frequently
used, it is true, but in the case of the latter the
common names of the substances are also stated,
hence no confusion need result.
But it is to the teacher of chemistry and met-
allurgy, having to deal with young students,
where an elementary treatise, short and com-
pact in its nature is desired, that this book will
be most welcome. Here are found the essential
facts without those mystifying details which
often become magnified to undue proportions
in the mind of the student.
A very complete index, free from mistakes
or misprints, closes the volume.
If the second volume, covering the field of
manufacturing chemistry, be as well done as
this, a valuable addition will have been made
to the mass of chemical literature.
FRANK H. THORP.
The Chemistry of Pottery. By KARL LANGEN-
BECK. Easton, Pa., Chemical Publishing
Co. 1896. 12 mo., pp. 197.
In this little book the author has collected
and systematically arranged some of the results
of an extended experience in the manufacture
of pottery and tiles. The chemical bearing of
each subject in its relation to the object desired
is made the chief element of the work. Analy-
ses of the materials are taken as the basis on
which to calculate rational formule for the pro-
duction of certain results.
The book is divided into fifteen chapters, each
treating of a separate subject, a few of which
may be mentioned. In Chapter I, Analysis of
Materials and Products, and in Chapter IT.,Phys-
ical and Empirical Tests, are explained. The
subject of Chapter III. is Pyrometry, a matter of
great interest to the pottery maker, since the
success of his work depends, in great measure,
on the proper heat in his furnace. Estimation
of the temperature becomes a matter of experi-
ence with the burner, who often acquires much
skill in producing some one kind of ware in a
given furnace. But if called upon to burn other
ware than that to which he is accustomed, or to
use different fuel, or a kiln of different construc-
tion, failure may be the result. The author
568
recommends the use of the ‘ Normal Pyrometric
Cones,’ invented by Dr. Seger, as affording a
safe and simple method of controlling the tem-
perature of the kiln. He considers it quite
possible to prepare cones from our domestic
materials, fully as reliable as those now made
in Germany.
In Chapter V. that subject often so troublesome
to pottery makers—Glazes, their requirements
and composition—is presented. The various
kinds of Ware, Bricks and Terra Cotta comprise
the succeeding chapters up to the fourteenth, on
Refractory Materials, in which the preparation
of fire clays for use in kiln building and for
‘‘sagoars,’’ is fully explained. Sixteen pages
on Burning the Ware, in which the requisites
of this important part of pottery making are in-
terestingly detailed, form the final chapter. <A
convenient index follows.
A few more illustrations or diagrams in the
body of the work would have given it added
interest for the majority of chemists who have
only a superficial knowledge of the processes of
pottery making. FRANK H. THORP.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY, FEBRUARY—MARCH.
Kame Areas in Western New York South of Ir-
ondequoit and Sodus Bays: By H. L. FAIRCHILD.
The purpose of the paper is to describe certain
massive deposits of sand and gravel apparently
formed by the glacial drainage. These bays
are the extreme points in the great landward
curve in the south shore of Lake Ontario, and
are thought to have greatly influenced the drain-
age of the region during the recession of the ice.
Four Kame areas are described—Irondequoit,
Victor, Mendon and Junius. The author finds
these areas alike in the following particulars:
(a) they are located in the basin of Lake War-
ren; (b) they have an overwash or silt plain to
the southward ; (c) they lie in the midst of
drumloid ridges which antedate the kame de-
posits ; (d) only one has any clear connection
with an extended frontal moraine. He thinks
the causation is complex, including rapid ice
retreat, action of lake waters to prevent great
local accumulations of morainic till and heavy
glacial drainage.
SCIENCH.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 67.
A Pre-Tertiary Nepheline-Bearing Rock: By ¥.
Bascom. The rock in question is a glacial boul-
der found in the vicinity of Columbus, Ohio.
There was a single specimen about a foot and
one-half in diameter, but itis of a type so rare
as to justify in the mind of the author a particular
mention. She inclines tothe opinion that it be-
longs to the nepheline syenite porphyry group.
The source is not known, but is presumed to be
the area north of Lake Huron, and if so the
boulder is from a Cambrian horizon or lower.
In any case it isa pre-Tertiary dike or surface
volcanic resembling the modern type.
Remarks on Petalodus Alleghaniensis (Leidy) :
By Cuas. R. EAstMAN. Ina previous issue of
the journal Dr. Hay described a specimen of
Selachian tooth from the Carboniferous of Ili-
nois. For the form he proposed the name Peta-
lodus Securiger. In the present paper the
author dissents from this view and gives reasons
why the new name should not be accepted.
His opinion is that the form belongs to P. Alle-
ghaniensis.
Patalocrinus Mirabilis (N. sp.) and a New
American Fauna: By S. WELLER and Mrs. A.
D.Dayrpson. The fossils here described were
collected by the junior author in Jones county,
Towa. Goniophyllum pyramidale and the species
of Crotalocrinus have long been known in the
Gothland limestone of Sweden. In this lowa
Silurian fauna, species of Goniophyllum are
found indistinguishable from those of Gothland,
with a crinoid whose nearest ally is Crotalo-
erinus. The crinoid, which is a new one, is
carefully described and figured by the senior
author, who finds an explanation of the simi-
larity between the Gothland and Iowa faunas
in a migration along a supposed shore line, join-
ing the east American and British regions during
Niagara time.
On the Nature of Igneous Intrusions: By Is-
RAEL C. RussELL. Ina previous paper the au-
thor described some hills in the Black Hills re-
gion, which illustrated a little known phase of
igneous intrusion. He now discusses igneous
intrusion in the light of his large experience in
many localities. Of these he finds several
classes—intruded sheets like those of the New-
ark which, when widely extended are of easily
fusible rock and relatively surperficial, lacco-
APRIL 10, 1896. ]
lites like the well-known Henry mountains,
plutonie plugs of which there are several ex-
amples in the vicinity of the Black Hills, and
deeply-seated intrusions of a viscous magma
which raised vast domes of sedimentary rock
with the floor of metamorphic rock on which
they rested as the whole Black Hills dome, Big
Horn and Park mountains. As to the cause of
these uplifts, nothing less than the force exerted
by a cooling globe is thought to be adequate.
That they took place very slowly is inferred
from the fact that fracture did not result from
the bending of thousands of feet of strata. That
these domes are in the interior of the continent
rather than near the coast is because here the
“crust is relatively light and strata are hori-
zontal, hence pressure on the plastic interior
due to contraction of crust or to transfer of ma-
terial on the surface would be most likely to
produce domes.
Deformation of Rocks: By C. R. VAN HIsn.
This is the first of a series of papers on the
same subject to be published in the Journal as
‘Studies for Students.’ The author divides the
outer part of the earth into three zones: (1) An
upper zone of fracture; (2) a middle zone of
fracture and plasticity; (8) a lower zone of
plasticity. Rocks under less weight than their
ultimate strength when rapidly deformed are
in the zone of fracture. The maximum depth
at which fracture can take place is thought to
be 10,000 meters. Rocks below this are in the
region of plasticity and flowage. Since flowage
is necessary to folding, closely folded strata
were generally buried beneath other strata.
The boundary between the zone of fracture and
that of fiowage is at different depths for two
rocks of different strength, also for the same
rock under different conditions of stress, hence
there is a zone of combined fracture and flowage.
This is thick and of prime importance. In
heterogeneous strata in this zone, irregular
fracturing, brecciation, jointing, faulting, fold-
ing, and development of secondary structures,
may occur together in a most complex manner.
Between the three zones there are many grada-
tions.
Chas. R. Keyes contributes a careful and
appreciative review of Wachsmuth and Spring-
er’s new book, North American Fossil Crinoidea
SCIENCE.
569
Camerata. Several reviews and. authors’ ab-
stracts of current geological literature follow.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
GEROLOGICAL CONFERENCE OF HARVARD UNI-
VERSITY, MARCH 10, 1896.
An elementary presentation of the tides: By W.
M. Davis.
The object of this communication is to show
how the tides may be treated in an essentially
scientific manner in an elementary collegiate
course on physiography. The facts are pre-
sented by means of tracings from selected auto-
matic records of tide gauges in the Coast Sur-
vey office, for stations in mid-ocean (Honolulu),
Pacific coast (Port Townsend, Wash.), Atlantic
coast (Boston), and in estuaries (Delaware at
Philadelphia, and lower Seine, the latter from
French records). Mean interval of tides, and
systematic variation of interval and of range
are numerically determined from these records
by the students in laboratory exercises. The
agreement of the mean interval with half a
lunar day suggests that the moon and the tides
may be related in some way as cause and effect.
Inquiry is then made as to the manner in which
the moon could cause periodic oscillations of
the ocean.
The dimensions, distance and movements of
the earth and moon being given, the deforming
forces due to lunar attraction, situated asit were
on a shell enclosing the earth, are worked out
quantitatively in terms of gravity, according to
the law of gravitation. A tide opposite to the
direct lunar tide, often regarded as an obscure
part of the problem, is seen to be as essential a
consequence of the theory as the direct tide it-
self. The first simple supposition of a moon
moving in acircular orbit in the plane of the
earth’s equator is afterwards changed to the
actual condition of the moon moving in an orbit
of considerable eccentricity and in a plane ob-
lique to the equator ; thus introducing expecta-
tions of various systematic inequalities in tidal
intervals and ranges. The essential features of
diurnal inequality are simply illustrated as a
necessary consequence of theory by means of a
‘tidal globe,’ rigged with appropriate circles
for high and low tides. Solar tidal forces and
70 SCIENCE.
their combinations with lunar forces are easily
calculated to a sufficient degree of detail.
Although the forces available for the defor-
mation of the ocean are so small that the student
may at first doubt their sufficiency as a cause of
the observed tides, his doubts vanish when the
consequences of the theory are systematically
confronted with the generalized results of obser-
vation, and the extraordinary ‘agreements of
the two are discovered. Although a fairly com-
plete record of facts may be made by the aver-
age college student in the early laboratory exer-
cises, it is nearly always the case that some
classes of facts will escape his first scrutiny of
the tidal curves and will be revealed only when
attention is called to them by the expectations
of theory. Due attention is thus paid to the
different kinds of verification of theory. The
final acceptance of the theory becomes a logical
necessity, independent of the will, even though
certain features of the tides, especially of the
Atlantic tides, remain beyond the reach of the
elementary discussion here attempted.
The treatment of the open-ocean tide and the
onshore tide, as comparable to offshore swell
and on-shore surf, suffices to explain various
facts as to age and range; and the treatment of
the on-shore tide as a wave accounts for the pecu-
liar relations often observed between flood and
ebb currents and high and low water. It is on
the basis of work of this kind that the claim is
made of the essentially scientific quality of
physiography. Although other divisions of the
subject may not be dealt with mathematically,
they all contain the logically successive phases
of observed and generalized facts, postulated
general principles, provisional hypotheses, con-
sequences or expectations deduced from the
hypotheses, comparison of the consequences
with the facts, and final evaluation of the knowl-
edge gained. Lunar gravity is the main force
causing the tidal changes of the sea; terrestrial
gravity is the main force causing the slower
physiographic changes of the land.
Tidal Scour: By F. P. GULLIVER.
The speaker considered the forms produced by
the tides upon flat coasts and pointed out that it
is wholly a question of ratios that determines
the form in any given locality. He did not agree
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 67.
with Mr. Shelford that deltas are produced only
in tideless seas,* for there are weak tides even
in the Gulf of Mexico, where the Mississippi
mouths, and in the Mediterranean, where the
Nile and Tiber deltas are found, while the
Ganges produces its delta in the face of seven-
teen-foot tides. Ifthe river is relatively stronger
than the tides and other sea forces it will build
forward a delta.
Tt is also largely a question of ratios between
the on- and offshore action and the alongshore
action which determines the production of
broken or continuous shore lines. Where there
is a broad area of marshes and flats, upon which
the water lies at high tide, and then during the
ebb scours runways beneath the level of the
flats, it is inferred that the tidal action is the
process which determines the shore forms. Off
steeper coasts less tidal action is indicated.
Where the shoreline is prevailingly longitudinal
a ratio in favor of alongshore action is inferred.
A graded series of shore forms was shown,
from that in which the pure tidal on- and off-
shore action is indicated to that in which the
alongshore action seems to be dominant. The
type of the tidal action was on the west coast
of Florida, where the tides are weak, but indi-
cations of alongshore action are absent, there-
fore the ratio is greatly in favor of the tides.
The runways are of the indefinite consequent
or autogentic type of drainage, and the shore-
line is minutely irregular without deep indenta-
tions. The salt marsh grades into the tidal
flat. .
The type of the dominant alongshore action
was taken from the Texas coast. An offshore
bar here forms a long gently swinging curve ex-
tending for 102 miles unbroken by a single tidal
inlet. This bar appears to have an outline
dominated by alongshore action.
Along the coasts of the world various com-
binations of. different absolute values of these
two actions may be seen in varying ratio.
Where the values are larger the forms have
greater vertical measure, as in South Carolina
and in the Schleswig-Holstein region. The fol-
lowing series of maps was shown, illustrating
the progressive change in ratios between the
*Min. Proc. Inst. Civ. Engin., LX XXII., 1885,
2-68.
APRIL 10, 1896. ]
tidal on- and offshore and the alongshore ac-
tions:
I. West coast of Florida (Coast Survey, 180,
181).
II. West coast of Schleswig-Holstein (Topo-
graphical map of the German Empire, 1:100,-
000, 5, 11, 20, 21, 35, 36, 37, 55, 56, 79, 80,
109, 110,111).
III. Georgia-South Carolina coast (Coast Sur-
vey, 152, 153, 154, 155, 156).
IV. North Carolina and New Jersey coasts
(Coast Survey, 148, 149; 123).
V. New Jersey, Virginia, North Carolina
coasts (Coast Survey, 122; 138; 145, 146, 147).
VI. Texas coast (Coast Survey, 210, 211,
212).
MARCH 17, 1896.
1. Exhibition of New Lantern Slides, by J. B.
WooDWoRTH.
2. Note on Penning’s Field Geology, 2d. edition,
reissue of 1894, by T. A. JAGGAR, JR.
This book (published by Bailliere, Tindall
and Cox, London) and A. Geikie’s ‘ Outlines of
Field Geology’ (Macmillan, 1891) are the only
books known to the writer which purport to
deal with practical field methods of geology.
Geikie’s book is more popular in style, more
elementary and more comprehensive; his chap-
ter on the schistose rocks is excellent, while
Penning does not even mention them. Penn-
ing’s book, on the other hand, contains many
useful tables, rules for finding true dip, tracing
boundary lines and faults, levelling ete. The
directions for note taking do not include men-
tion of the coordinate method of designating
points on the note-book map, nor is the use of
the plane-table mentioned; in these and other
respects the book is not up to date for the
American geologist, but on the whole the part
which deals with geological surveying, sections
and levelling contains much that is useful. The
part devoted to paleontology by Jukes-Browne
contains many useful hints for the collector, and
tables of fossils that are of course intended for
use in British fields. Part V. is suggestive,
dealing with some difficulties likely to be en-
countered by the student in the field, notes on
water supply, springs and wells; stress is laid
on the great importance of the study of physi-
cal features in connection with geological struc-
SCIENCE.
571
ture. The weakest chapter in the book is that
devoted to lithology, which gives elaborate and
antiquated tables of physical tests for minerals,
rocks and ores, but does not touch on the diffi-
culties likely to beset the student in the field.
Mr. Penning believes ‘‘it should be unnecessary
to insist upon what all geological text-books so
strongly recommends, that an acquaintance
with the appearance and characteristics of all
ordinary rocks and minerals should be formed
by careful study of cabinet specimens.’’ He
believes that ‘‘tests applied in their proper
order,’’ according to his tables, ‘‘will go far
enough to arrive at an accurate solution.”
Rutley’s ‘Study of Rocks’ (1879) is quoted as.
‘an important work, recently published,’ while
in the lithological bibliography no mention is
made of such books as Teall’s ‘ British Petro-
graphy’ or the English translation of Rosen-
buseh. T. A. JAGGAR, JR.,
Recording Secretary.
THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
THE 450th meeting was held on March 14,
1896. The paper of the evening was read by
Hon. Carroll D. Wright, Commissioner of Labor.
on ‘The Factory System as an Klement in Ciy-
ilization,’ showing that the factory elevates the
low class of persons which it employs by com-
pelling them to think more and be more orderly
and careful than they otherwise would.
BERNARD R. GREEN,
Secretary.
THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB, MARCH 25, 1896.
IN the absence of the President the chair was
occupied by Dr. T. H. Allen, first Vice-Presi-
dent, and there were present 39 persons.
Two new members were elected, and W. A.
Bastedo appointed to act as Secretary during
the absence of Dr. Rusby in South America.
As the summer season is now rapidly ap-
proaching, a ‘Field Committee,’ with Dr. N.
L. Britton as chairman, was appointed to ar-
range for the weekly outings of the club.
The announced paper on Azaleas was post-
poned owing to the unavoidable detention of
Mr. H. A. Siebrecht in the Island of Trinidad.
A new fascicle of the ‘ Distribution of North
American Algze,’ by Collins, Holder and Set-
572
chell was shown and commended by Dr. Britton.
Also a sedge Reimaria maritima, only lately
found in Florida at Lake Worth, but having a
wide distribution elsewhere.
The announced paper for the meeting was
read by Miss Alexandrina Taylor, entitled ‘A
comparative Study of the superficial Periderm
in a number of species of Salix,’ and was well
illustrated by diagrams. In most text-books
the work of Sanio is taken as authority on the
development of superficial periderm. From
the large number of species of the genus Salix,
he selected one as a type. The many varia-
tions from this type pointed to the possibility
that, by extending the study over a greater num-
ber of species than those studied by Sanio, one
might be found which might more justly be
called the type of the genus. This was the
object of the above study.
W. A. BASTEDO,
Recording Secretary pro tem.
WEST VIRGINIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE,
THE fifteenth regular meeting of the Academy,
which was also the first annual session of the
organization, was held at Morgantown, March
24, 1896.
The following officers were reélected :
President, Dr. A. D. Hopkins; Vice-Presi-
dent, Prof. Thos. C. Miller; Secretary and
Treasurer, Mr. W. Earl Rumsey ; Correspond-
ing Secretary, Prof. B. H. Hite.
The President, in referring to the history and
first year’s work of the Academy, stated that
the Academy was organized on February 25,
1895, with sixteen active members and twelve
associate members, representing chemistry,
physics, geology, biology, entomology, mechani-
eal and civil engineering, zodlogy, medicine,
agriculture, horticulture and general science.
Fourteen regular sessions of the Academy
have been held, twenty-eight communications
have been presented, and three important reso-
lutions have been passed. The communications
referred to the following subjects and branches
of science : 2
Chemistry, 1; psychology, 3; electricity, 2;
geology, 1; horticulture, 2; bibliography, 2;
agriculture, 2 ; entomology, 2 ; mechanical engi-
neering, 3; ornithology, 2; general science, 1;
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Von. III. No. 67.
anthropology, 1; botany, 1; civil engineering;
1; hydrography, 2; forestry, 2.
The resolutions were with reference to the
publication of topographic maps, waterways
and forest preservation.
The only communication presented at this
meeting besides the President’s remarks was by
Prof. L. C. Corbett, who announced the comple-
tion and successful test of an improved auxanom-
eter, which was exhibited at work. In ex-
planation Prof. Corbett stated that the chief
features of the machine are that all parts of the
instrument are mounted upon a rigid base ;
the usual system of proportionate pulleys has
been replaced by a simple lever of the first type,
i. e., Where the fulcrum is between the power
and the weight. The record is made in ink
upon a paper-bound cylinder. The rate of the
cylinder is retarded to a single revolution in 24
hours. The record of each day, therefore, ap-
pears as a platted curve rather than in the form
of a spiral, as is the case with recording drums
making a revolution each hour. The mode of
attaching the auxanometer to the plant has been
improved upon by substituting wooden forceps
with relatively broad faces for the usual bent
pin; this is again connected with the recording
arm of the instrument by a fine wire instead of
the usual cord. In this way the objectionable
features of the system of weighted cords and
pulleys are overcome.
W. EARL RUMSEY,
Secretary.
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SCIENCE
EDITORIAL ComMMITTEE: S. NEwcomB, Mathematics ; R. S. WooDWARD, Mechanics ; E. C. PICKERING, As-
tronomy ; T. C. MENDENHALL, Physics; R. H. THuRsToNn, Engineering ; IRA REMSEN, Chemistry ;
J. LE Conte, Geology; W. M. Davis, Physiography; O. C. MARsH, Paleontology; W. K. BRooKs,
Invertebrate Zodlogy ; C. HART MERRIAM, Vertebrate Zodlogy ; 8S. H. ScuDDER, Entomology ;
N. L. Britton, Botany ; HENRY F. OsBorn, General Biology; H. P. Bownpitcu,
Physiology ; J. S. Brnuines, Hygiene; J. MCKEEN CATTELL, Psychology ;
DANIEL G. BRINTON, J. W. POWELL, Anthropology ;
G. BRowN GOODE, Scientific Organization.
Fripay, Aprit 17, 1896.
CONTENTS :
Museum Methods: The Exhibition of Fossil Verte-
(HOHE S 1D Aa LLROGHNG), coccaccobocesoonaneoscq500cH0000000 573
Museum Methods: On the Arrangement of Great Pale-
ontological Collections: CHARLES SCHUCHERT...576
The Flow of the Connecticut River: DWIGHT
TROIRRIST ocoonopo9ageunscns0seeqnoaecnnoosoooboEoooSoseqocaGad 579
American Amber Producing Tree: F. H. KNOWL-
TORY cooscaos 000 .ccnpdcoooson9a0sHOD0R9000aNsG00800000H00000000d 582
Zovlogical Nomenclature—A Proposdl..........c00se0+ 584
Current Notes on Anthropology :-—
The Child Mind and the Savage Mind; Points in
Racial Anatomy; The Ancient Illyrians; The
Ethnography of Burma: D. G. BRINTON......... 586
Notes upon Agriculture and Horticulture :-—
Soil Irrigation ; The First Principles of Agricul-
ture: BYRON D. HALSTED.............cc0cecesereees 588
Current Notes on Physiography :—
The Economic Importance of Peneplains ; Detrital
Slopes in Arid Regions ; The Ice Fall on the Gemmi
Pass; Interglacial Valleys in France; Miscella-
MAGIBS Wo ITS IDA A BStascasososannecoacooanodoobUceaeGdd 589
Scientific Notes and News .......1.s.cssccecensescassecseees 591
University and Educational News............c0cceseseeees 594
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Certitudes and Illusions: J. W. POWELL. Vivi-
section: GEORGE M. STERNBERG. Instinct: WES-
LEY MILis. Footgear: O.T. MASON............ 595
Scientific Literature :—
Wright and Upham on Greenland Icefields: C.
H. HircHcock. Hansen’s Studies in Fermenta-
tion: J. CHRISTIAN BAY .........c.cseceeeeseneeeees 598
Scientific Journals :—
The American Geologist ; The Monist ...........++.+ 602
Societies and Academies :—
Biological Society of Washington: F. A. LUCAS.
Chemical Society of Washington: A. C. PEALE.
Geological Society of Washington; National Geo-
graphic Society: W.F.MORSELL. The Academy
of Science of St. Lowis: WILLIAM TRELEASE.
Boston Society of Natural History: SAMUEL
HENSHAW. Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia: TEDW. J. NOLAN. ........1..e0eceeee0: 603
New Book sunsets scccessistices ssceoneceece son eeeeeok eC Cos en 608
MSS. intended for publication and books etc., intended
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
MUSEUM METHODS.
THE EXHIBITION OF FOSSIL VERTEBRATES.
Tue exhibition of fossil vertebrates is a
subject that may be treated from various
points of view, but the purpose of the
present paper is to deal with it from the
standpoint of a vertebrate zoologist, and to
discuss the question what should be the re-
lationship between the sections of a museum
devoted to the exhibition of living and
extinct animals. That there is, or should
be, a very obvious connection between these
two sections ofa great museum is undeniable,
although the relationship is generally ig-
nored and, as Prof. Flower wrote in regard
to the collections of the Royal College of
Surgeons: ‘The specimens continued to
be divided primarily, not according to their
zoological or anatomical relations, but by a
most inconvenient and artificial system, ac-
cording as the animals from which they
were derived lived before or after a particu-
lar period of the world’s history.”
574
While the complete divorce of recent and
extinct animals is unfortunate, Prof. Flow-
er’s plan, on the other hand, goes to the
opposite extreme, and while it may be ap-
plicable to such a collection as that of the
Royal College of Surgeons, it does not seem
applicable to the exhibition series of a large
museum.
The question really at stake is, shall ex-
tinct animals be treated from a zoological
or a geological standpoint; is it more impor-
tant to exhibit the relationship of animals
to one another as if they lived at the same
time, or to show the forms of life which ex-
isted at a given geological epoch, and the
various steps by which the existing order
of things has been reached. No museum
is large enough and rich enough to do both
these things on an extensive scale, and the
decision is practically unanimous that it is
the province of paleontology to show the
faunas of the past as it is that of zoology to
show the fauna of the present. A purely
zoological arrangement of all animals in a
museum, recent and extinct, would proba-
bly fail of its own weight and extent. Prof.
Flower himself recognizes the fact that
there are difficulties in the way of a strictly
zoological arrangement, for in the ‘ Guide
to the British Museum of Natural History’
he says: “ Notwithstanding the objections
which may be urged against this primary
division of living things, it is one which
prevails largely in museums, and which,
owing to certain conveniences, as well as to
the difficulty and expense of rearranging
extensive collections and reorganizing the
staff in charge of them, will probably be re-
tained for some time to come.”’
Arranged geologically fossils tell the con-
dition of life at any given stage, and show
how fauna after fauna has arisen and passed
away before that of the present was reached.
It might be thought thata collection could
be arranged phylogenetically, but this is a
physical impossibility, for, even were space
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 68.
available, specimens could not be so ar-
rannged as to act as a genealogical tree and
show at once their common ancestry, lines
of descent and relations to one another. To
do this is the province of a diagram or dia-
grams, and there is usually some wall space
well fitted for this very purpose that is
otherwise unavailable or could not be used
to better advantage. Morever, the lines of
descent of the majority of vertebrates are
wholly or partly hypothetical, and thisis a
serious drawback to arranging a museum
on a phylogenetic plan. Series to illustrate
the line of descent of a group or species
whose phylogeny is known are, however,
invaluable and most instructive, and the
museum which is fortunate enough to pos-
sess the necessary material cannot do bet-
tet than to provide them. Just such a series
is that illustrating the phylogeny of the
horse, on exhibition at the American Mu-
seum of Natural History, in New York
city.
The relations of extinct to existing ani-
mals are to be shown in two ways, or in two
departments of a museum: firstly, in a syn-
optic, or index series ; and secondly, in a
general systematic system of skeletons. The
synoptic series may be compared to a gen-
eral introductory work on zoology, prepared
with special reference to the needs of the
public and those commencing the study of
zoology. A systematic series is a detailed,
descriptive catalogue, whose object is to
furnish information for the advanced stu-
dent. The idea of the synoptic series is yet
in the earlier stages of development, and it
seems not improbable that this will eventu-
ally come to occupy a large space in a bio-
logical museum. In the systematic osteo-
logical series the province of fossils is to
round out the collection, to bridge over gaps
between apparently unrelated forms and
supply the missing steps which time has re-
moved from the phylogenetic stairway. A
most striking example of the need of intro-
APRIL 17, 1896.)
ducing extinct forms in a collection is shown
by the great gap now existing between birds
and reptiles, a gap which the Dinosaurs
and Archeopteryx will bridge over and by
their presence make clear the affinities of
these two great classes. Now a mere placing
of fossils in their proper places will not do
this, for the average fossil, crushed, muti-
lated, distorted, means very little to the
average visitor. To do the thing properly
we should have a complete and, preferably,
a full-sized restoration of the extinct species,
but this, the ideal method, is for many
reasons far in the future; the complete struc-
ture of the majority of forms is unknown,
while the cost of the knowledge and skill
necessary for making such restorations
puts a prohibitory tariff on their manu-
facture. Meanwhile the best that can be
done is to supply their places with good
figures,* but when this is done the draw-
ings should be supplemented by speci-
mens of casts of fossils to show the ma-
terial on which the restorations are based
and, which is almost as important, to give
an idea of the size of the creature fig-
ured. Moreover, these specimens are needed
as a guarantee to a somewhat suspicious
public that the animals did actually exist.
With the aid of these models, figures and
specimens, supplemented by, or supple-
mentary to, good labels, the relations of ex-
isting forms may be made plain and the
exhibition series symmetrical.
A paleontological series then should be
complementary to that of recent animals ;
the bulk of it should be by itself and ar-
ranged geologically, but, as fast as opportu-
nity offers, the gaps between existing groups
should be filled, so that, aided by the labels,
the visitor may see that the relation be-
tween existing forms depends in many cases
on species long ago blotted out of existence.
* Just how to introduce these drawings in the exhi-
bition series is a problem which I have incubated for
two years or more without hatching a good solution.
SCIENCE.
575
Such a series should not be too large, for
its object is to show clearly the principal
modifications of vertebrate structure, and
the display of too many forms tends only to
confuse the visitor, or general student, for
whom such a series is intended. It may,
perhaps, be an open question as to just
what ‘too large’ means. In my own case
it means that I would not go beyond the
representation of families, although where
there is much diversity of form within a
family more than one species may be intro-
duced to advantage. And when all fami-
lies, living and extinct, have been properly
represented, the series will be of no mean
proportions.
FrREDERIC A. Lucas.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
This paper was written some time before
the appearance of Sir Henry Howorth’s
article on Paleontological Museums in the
February number of Natural Science, and his
ideas as to the value of certain material
lead me to add as a postscript some sentences
striken out of the rough draft of my own -
article.
The questions arise as to whether it is
worth while to exhibit many of the verte-
brate fossils seen in museums and if they
do not occupy space which might be used
to better advantage. Much of the material
shown, single teeth, fragments of bones,
odd vertebree and broken skulls, while,
valuable enough to the paleontologist, are
as caviare to the public. Even to the aver-
age student they are of little value unless
he can handle them, and, while a certain
amount of material is needed to impress
upon the public the number and variety of
the animals which have passed away, all
beyond that simply tends to confuse rather
than to instruct. And personally I am
of the opinion that many of the objects
ordinarily seen on exhibition might ad-
vantageously be relegated to the study
series. JI AL Ip
576
MUSEUM METHODS.
ON THE ARRANGEMENT OF GREAT PALEONTO-
LOGICAL COLLECTIONS.
A museum is defined by Dr. Goode as
‘‘an institution for the preservation of those
objects which best illustrate the phenomena
of nature and the works of man, and utiliz-
ation of these for the increase of knowledge
and for the culture and enlightenment of
the people.’”’ *
The fundamental principles or aims of a
museum having been defined, it is neces-
sary to consider next in what manner col-
lections of fossils may be arranged to fulfill
these objects. The primary purposes are
manifestly two: namely, to interest and in-
struct the general public, and to facilitate the
researches of the student of extinct life. The
latter class of museum visitors is composed
of two kinds: namely, faunal geologists, or
students of historical geology, and paleobi-
ologists, or students of general biological
phenomena.
“Tt is necessary to bear in mind,” writes
Sir Henry Howorth, “that it isa mistake
to deal with mineralogy and paleontology
as if they were sub-sections of geology,”
since ‘the great bulk of paleontological re-
mains do not appertain to geology at all,
but to the special provinces of zodlogy and
botany.”’+ This principle has long been ac-
cepted in the U. 8. National Museum, and
for many years the paleontological collec-
tions have been completely severed from the
geological collections. In the Department
of Geology there is, however, a small col-
lection of fossils with samples of the rocks
in which they are found, in order that the
student of geology may learn to know read-
ily the characteristic fossils of each system
*The Relationship and Responsibilities of Museums,
by G. Brown Goode. (SciENCE, Vol. II, new ser., p.
198, Aug., 1895. )
{Some Casual Thoughts on Museums, by Sir Henry
Howorth. (Natural Science, Vol. VIL., p. 322, Noy.,
1895. )
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 68.
and the time of introduction of all the lead-
ing types of animals and plants. This col-
lection is at present made up of American
fossils, but it is intended to obtain from
every province all specimens necessary to
illustrate the second object of this, the ‘ His-
torical Collection.’
THE GENERAL PUBLIC.
This is the largest class of museum
visitors, but the one least interested directly,
so it need be shown only a series of speci-
mens properly prepared for exhibition.
“A museum is rarely justified in exhibiting
all its materials. An exhibition series,
when properly installed, is more effective
when limited than when extensive.” * To
interest the public the exhibition series
should be mounted in an attractive manner
and made intelligible by descriptive labels.
Only good and well-cleaned fossils, yet not
too many species, should be shown, since
otherwise a rapid survey of the specimens
grouped around the descriptive labels is not
attainable. Drawings or prints should,
when possible, accompany small fossils,
and occasionally a crushed specimen may
be made comprehensible by introducing a
restoration or the shells of living, but closely
related forms.
STUDENTS.
On the other hand, students and original
investigators must have consideration of a
quite different kind. Since this small but
critical class of museum visitors has objects
distinct from those of the general public, it
will be necessary to arrange collections so
as to satisfy the needs of both. The general
public should be interested and instructed,
while the student requires an orderly ar-
rangement of material to facilitate ready
reference.
An exhibition series is primarily intended
* Recent advance in Museum Method, by G.
Brown Goode. (Smithsonian Report. U.S. National
Museum, p. 57, 1893. )
APRIL 17, 1896. ]
for the general public and the student, and
consequently should be divided into strati-
graphic and synoptic collections. ‘The investi-
gator may advantageously make use of
both of these series, but will have additional
aid in the study collections and the card
catalogues.
In recent years there has been a decided
tendency to group all fossils according to
their biological rank. This is proper if the
chief object of a museum is to teach paleo-
botany and paleozoodlogy. In large mu-
seums, however, it is necessary to teach
not only everything pertaining to mor-
phology, but the sequence of faunas, or his-
torical geology, as well. Plants and animals
do not occur in nature grouped according
to their biological rank, but are associated
because of their environment and geological
history. If the great bulk of fossils is ar-
ranged biologically then the grouping and
interactions of the individuals of a province
or zone are apt to be lost sight of. Pale-
ontologists seeking for the relationship
which the various provinces bear to another,
or the presence or absence of barriers
against the dispersal of floras and faunas,
willbe seriously embarrassed by any arrange-
ment other than stratigraphic. The dual
evolution of the horse, or of the Terebratel-
lide among the Brachiopoda, are problems
both of the faunal geologist and of the
systematic zodlogist as well.
A stratigraphic exhibition collection aims
to show only the essential animals and
plants of various well-marked geological
horizons, and these systematically arranged,
both geologically and biologically. It
should be sufficiently extensive to illustrate
clearly Historical Geology, or the order of
distribution of fossil remains throughout
geologic time.
It is seemingly neither proper nor ad-
visable to note all the minor geological
horizons in large stratigraphic collections
like those of the National Museum. For a
SCIENCE.
577
clear demonstration of the facts of faunal
geology, it is sufficient to group all the
organisms of the Cambrian system into
three divisions, representing the Lower,
Middle and Upper Cambrian, respectively.
The Ordovician system, in like manner,
should be separated into Calciferous-Chazy,
Trenton and Cincinnati groups. The labels
accompanying the species should indieate
the minor, or local, geological horizon.
Practice has also shown the advantage of
grouping together all the fossils of each
basin or geological province, since in this
way only is it possible to indicate clearly
the relations which the various provinces
bear to one another. Such an arrangement
will necessarily cause duplication of certain
species, but this is not objectionable, as the
forms recurring in two or more provinces
illustrate to what extent geographic dis-
persion has taken place. This method of
installation was introduced in the Cre-
taceous collection of the U. 8. National
Museum some years ago, by Dr. C. A.
White, and has proven practically useful to
working paleontologists. It is also in
harmony with Sir Henry Howorth’s idea
that ‘there should be no attempt made to
fill up gaps in one area by inserting evi-
dence from another.” *
A stratigraphic collection will also show
the introduction in time of the various types
of organic beings, and the gradual rise from
the ancient and less complex floras and
faunas to those of greater complexity char-
acteristic of the more recent geological
epochs.
In large museums it is advisable to have
distinct and separate paleobotanical, inver-
tebrate and vertebrate collections. Fossil
plants and vertebrates are often so large
and bulky as to require a method of instal-
lation quite different from invertebrate fos-
sils. In small or local museums the various
animals of a zone should be kept together,
* (Ibidem, p. 323.)
578
since it is their province to illustrate the
detail of their natural surroundings.
A Synoptic Collection should show the an-
atomy, embryology, terminology and evo-
lution of every class, together with all the
generic steps through which each family
has gone in past ages. The first two divis-
ions of the synoptic collection may be il-
lustrated by models and drawings, the ter-
minology by specimens and drawings, col-
ored after the plan so successfully initiated
by Bather for the crinoids and Lucas for
the vertebrate skull. The genera should
be illustrated by typical material of the
species on which the genus is based, either
by specimens or by figures, or by both,
while the labels should give fully the geo-
logic and geographic distribution.
To install the material illustrating the
anatomy, embryology and terminology of a
class is not difficult, but it is somewhat hard
to determine how the generic material shall
be shown so as to illustrate the devious
paths through which a given class has passed
—in order to set forth the course of its evo-
lution. This may be accomplished by
grouping the generic tablets of each family
in one or more vertical columns. At the
base of each is the label giving the name
and a short definition of the family charac-
ters. The families should be grouped into
superfamilies, orders, superorders, and the
characters upon which these divisions are
based should be clearly set forth on the ac-
companying descriptive labels. A definition
of the class and the known phylogeny should
also be displayed in each exhibition case.
Plants and vertebrates in the synoptic series,
because of their generally large size, must
for the most part be illustrated by mounted
pictures.
A recent species of all genera having fos-
sil representation should be introduced into
these collections, and on each tablet should
be given the present specific representation
and geographic distribution of the genus.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 68.
In the synoptic collections, more than
anywhere else, is the need of technical terms
necessary for a clear definition of the va-
rious divisions illustrated. It is for this
reason that each class of organisms in this
exhibition series should be accompanied by
specimens or drawings colored to attract at-
tention to the part to which the term is ap-
plied.
The synoptic collections need not be lim-
ited to the illustration of the generic evo-
lution of the classes, but may be advanta-
geously extended to illustrate the evolution
of certain specially interesting families,
genera, or even species. What series could
be more interesting than one illustrating
the evolution of the horse or one showing
the enormous time dispersal of Lingula
and Crania or Pleurotomaria or of Leptcena
rhomboidalis and Atrypa reticularis?
The Study Series is not, as a rule, on ex-
hibition, but is stored unmounted in drawers
arranged in paper trays. This is the great
reserve collection of a museum, and from it
the curator derives material for the exhi-
bition series, while the paleontologist or bi-
ologist depends upon it for purposes of study.
This collection contains no duplicate ma-
terial for distribution or exchange and must
be kept intact. The study collections, since
they have no uses other than those just
mentioned, should therefore be arranged
stratigraphically, this seemingly being the
only available method for the administra-
tion of so vast an assemblage of fossils. The
specimens of each class should, of course, be
kept together within each geological group,
and this is true also of the floras and faunas
of each province. The above treatment of
the study collection does not perhaps ac-
cord with a strictly biological view, but the
needs of the biologist can be provided for
by complete card catalogues of all the fossils
in the museum.
The Catalogue is the most important
agency in the possession of the curator,
APRIL 17, 1896.]}
and its management is the highest test of
his capabilities. Every species from a
single locality, in whatever permanent col-
lection it may be, should be registered upon
a separate card giving name, systematic
position, terrane, locality, number of speci-
mens, source whence obtained, place of dis-
position in museum, museum register num-
ber, and, if a type published or even a
Specimen especially referred to in a publi-
cation, an exact reference should be given
to page and plate. Such cards should be
arranged alphabetically, and without regard
to any other classification. By the aid of
this catalogue, the curator is in the position
to know just what material the museum
has in stock, and can respond promptly to
requests for the loan of material, since the
place of any specimen can be ascertained at
once. The bulk of the fossil collections
being arranged stratigraphically, faunal
geologists and paleontologists will be able
to secure promptly any desired information
without the necessity of referring to the
catalogues, while other students of extinct
life can refer to any or all the species of a
group in the museum by the aid of the
catalogues. The cards of this catalogue in
use in the U.S. Museum are 44x6 # inches.
Additional aid can be given thesystematic
biologist by providing a generic catalogue
grouped into classes. Only those genera of
which there is material in the museum will
have representation in this catalogue. On
these cards may also be given the type
species and its locality and the place of
original description.
The Duplicate collection exists for exchange
purposes only, is constantly changing, and
requires no attention except in the matter
of preservation of identifications.
In Recording the specimens in the U. S.
National Museum, each lot of fossils is
given a general accession number as soon
as received, and later, when the material
has been studied, each species from a single
SCIENCE.
579
locality is given a permanent ‘ museum
register number.’ The latter, when practic-
able, is written upon each specimen, and op-
posite this number in the record book is
entered the name, locality, date and any
remarks pertinent to its history. To
fossils brought together by the U.S. Geo-
logical Survey are attached small, round,
green or yellow tickets, upon which are
written numbers referring to the ‘locality
book.’ This method is preliminary to per-
manent record. Hither system permits the
assembling in one tray for study, all the
material of a species from many localities,
without danger of confusing their history.
“¢ Specimens can be named at any time, but
the locality once lost, the object becomes
comparatively valueless. The record of
donors should be accurate and complete so
that the specimens from any given source
can be traced at once to their location.” *
Types and illustrated specimens should
have in addition to the museum register
number, some conspicuous mark to call at-
tention to their great scientific value, and
to guard against loss. In the U. S.
National Museum a small, green, diamond-
shaped ticket is pasted on each specimen ;
this being a method long in use by Prof.
James Hall. CHARLES SCHUCHERT.
U. S. NatTionAL MusEUM,
WASHINGTON, D. C.
THE FLOW OF THE CONNECTICUL RIVER.{
THERE is a general and doubtless well-
founded belief that the cutting of the for-
ests is injurious to the flow of the streams
whose basins are thus denuded. This be-
lief is based upon the common experience of
men long familiar with the streams in ques-
tion, and is also supported by theory. Few
opportunities, however, exist for definitely
measuring the effect that is produced, for
the reason that upon very few streams have
* Goode. (loc. cit., p. 58.)
a Read before the American Forestry Association,
95.
580
reliable and long-continued observations of
discharge been made. Your Association
meets this year upon the banks of the Con-
necticut river, upon whose upper drainage
area the clearing away of the forests has
been for many years, and still is, progressing.
At two points upon this river, Hartford and
Holyoke, an unusual number of continuous
observations of flow have been made, and it
has seemed to me desirable to examine
them and see whether they reveal any
changes in the character of the flow which
could be ascribed to the cutting of the
forests.
At Hartford the tributary area is about
10,200 square miles, and for a period of
over fifty years records are available of the
maximum freshet height of each year. Fur-
ther, observations to determine the daily
rate of discharge were begun in 1871 by
General Theodore G. Ellis, and were con-
tinued without interruption until 1886, al-
though for 1882 and 1883 the figures are not
at hand. There was thus obtained a record
having few parallels in this country, and it
is deeply to be regretted that the United
States engineers should have permitted it to
be discontinued, as was done in 1886. At
Holyoke, where the drainage area is about
8,000 square miles, the Holyoke Water
Power Company has maintained since 1880
a daily record of the discharge of the river
past that point, which record is still contin-
ued and is on the whole the most valuable
that now exists regarding the discharge of
this stream.
The effect of forest cutting within the
past twenty-five years should, of course, be
most evident in the upper river, since it is
near the head waters that operations have
been mainly conducted in that period. It
will be of interest, however, to study the
only records that are available—those for
the lower river—and see if we can there
detect any marked change in the nature of
its flow.
SCIENCE.
[N.§. Vou. III. No. 68.
The theory as to the effect of forests is,
that by shading the ground they tend to
prolong the melting of snow in the spring,
and thus to prevent excessive freshets, as
well as to maintain the naturally decreas-
ing flow of late spring and early summer.
Further, by reducing the evaporation from
the ground, by obstructing the free flow of
surface water after rains, as well as by con-
serving the snows, they tend to maintain a
large volume of ground water, which, issu-
ing in visible springs or in invisible see-
page, must of course be the reliance of all
streams in dry weather. The effect of ex-
tensive forest-cutting might, therefore, be
expected to be an increase in the number,
suddenness, and height of oscillations, and
on the other hand a more speedy falling
away in summer and a lower range of dry
weather flow. To reveal clearly any per-
manent change that may have taken place
in the Connecticut river it seems to me that
we should have continuous records of flow
for a longer period than they are yet avail-
able, and that for successive groups of
years curves should be constructed, by
averaging for each group the lowest daily
discharge, the second lowest, and so on, ir-
respective of calendar order. The distribu-
tion of the flow would thus be shown in a
manner warranting the drawing of positive
conclusions. Because the labor involved in
such a treatment is large, and because the
records cover so short periods as hardly to
warrant it, I have limited myself to an ex-
amination of freshet heights and of low-
stage flow.
The heights above low water datum to
which the river has risen in freshets at
Hartford since 1840 are as follows :
1841...... 26.3 Apr. 1869...... 26.7
1843...... 27.2 BBP VASO sosuo0 25.3
Dec. 1844...... 19.5 May 1871...... 18.7
Apr. 1845...... 19.0 Apr. 1872.:.... 19.7
Mar. 1846...... 18.8 sy umlSl(SsecmsceleO
Apr. 1847......21.0 Jan. 1874......23.9
Jan. 1848......15.5 Apr. 1875...... 18.7
Nov. 1849...... 17.5 St 1876...... 21.8
APRIL 17, 1896. ]
May 1850...... 20.8 Mar. 1877...
Jan. 1891...... 14.5 Dec.
Apr. 1852...... 23.1 May 1879...... 21.4
Noy. 1853...... 20.5 Apr. 1880...... 14.9
May 1854...... 29.8 May 1881...... 16.3
Jan. 1855...... 15.0 OO TUS sccoe 14.8
Aug. 1856...... 23.3 Apr. 1883...... 20.5
TD, UE /Soose0 19.5 OO) valet ceeds 21.5
Mar. 1858...... 12.3 8B TES sc5000 18.2
ee SS Oe 20.4 May 1886...... 21.8
HS LTD can00 16.0 Apr. 1887......22.1
Ayre, WEBileccose 21.5 May 1888...... 23.1
UG UED2ocoood 28.7 Nov. 1889...... 15.7
May 1863...... 15.0 Oct. 1890...... 16.3
Apr. 1864...... 17.3 AN; WE leecoce 19.5
Mar. 1865...... 24.8 Jan. 1892...... 18.3
Hebi S6Gsosnc: 20.5 May 1893...... 24.0
Apr. 1867...... 20.0 Apr. 1894...... 13
Mar. 1868...... 21.5 LOO ests 25.7
30R-: T
sHtiiit seaseazeee Hitt Husceeet
H + se
t HH Ht 4
T t it
co HE ae AF EEEEEEEEEE
ieee see H
26 ‘a : FEE
Snr
22 a5 = TH
i HH
22
Ht t
20
d2
eas as
Freshet Heights tr Cormecticut Rivér by Harttord Gauge?
Averaged for successive periods these
give: ;
1841-49 Average height....... 20.6 (1842 missing. )
1850-59 a Pep vteatie 20.5
1860-69 os SO) ante 21.2
1870-79 i Pei neaeedeee 21.7
1880-89 be pe iincece 18.9
1890-95 “ Panes ae 19.6
SCIENCE.
581
An examination of these figures and of a
graphical representation of the yearly
freshet heights discloses, it seems to me, no
permanent change... The highest freshet
was in 1854, the lowest in 1858, and only
twice has the height of 27.7 feet attained
in 1801 been exceeded. Apparently there
was a gradual increase in the average height
down to 1880, while at the same time there
was a marked and steady decrease from
1854 to 1880 in the heights of the more ex-
treme freshets.
In considering the dry weather discharge
of the river I have taken as a basis for com-
parison the average flow for the lowest con-
secutive period of four weeks in each year,
for which I find the following figures, which
have also been plotted to scale:
8000
Cubic Feet
oe per Second,
EE i FH
cH 7000
} rt
rH
6000
Et
+4
§000
4000-
3000
2000
1000
Hartford ~. Holyoke.
Low Water Flow ir CORTCLLLCUL FIVE:
582
{ Hartford.
Avg. discharge in cu.
ft. per sec. for lowest
4 weeks period.
Connecticut Rive
Sept: 9—Oet. 6) WS oie eee 6200
1830; Thl——Withre, Gh leo voodadbdcondac 7330
Aug. 25--Sept. 21, 1873.............. 6090
Oct. 24—Nov. 20, 1874.............-. 6020
Jan. G—Heb. 2) S750). \ci.) = clecle\e «eee 6330
Aug. 11—Sept. 7, 1876............... 5900
Jan. 1—Jan. 28, 1877........0..0.000 6490
Sept. 25—Oct. 22) 1878............... 6280
OCH SNOB Orie slelelsieis)elefsieVelaleiel> 6350
Sept. 30—Oct. 27, 1880............... 6020
Sept. 22—Oct. 19, 1881............... 6270
Sept. 8—Oct. 5, 1884................. 5960
Sept. 17—Oct. 14, 1885............... 7320
Connecticut River at Holyoke.
Avg. discharge in cu.
ft. per sec. for lowest
4 weeks period.
Aug. 22—Sept. 8, 1880............... 1620
Sept. 19—Oct. 16, 1881............... 2510
Aug. 20—Sept. 16, 1882.............. 2470
Sept. 2—Sept. 29, 1883............... 1890
Sept. 7—Oct. 4, 1884................. 2550
Feb. 28—Mar. 27, 1885............... 4690
Aug. 27—Sept. 24, 1886.............. 2310
Sept. 23—Oct. 20, 1887............... 3930
July 16—Aug. 12, 1888............... 3290
Aug. 21—Sept. 17, 1889.............. 3640
July 26—Aug. 22, 1890............... 3500
Sept. 23—Oct. 20, 1891.............. 2740
Sept. 10—Oct. 7, 1892................ 4520
Jam) 12—Febs 851893) ccse doses 2970
Aug. 19—Sept. 15, 1894.............. 1800
In these figures no change for the worse
appears in the dry weather fluw; in fact,
‘the Holyoke diagram displays a general
improvement from 1880 to 1893. It is
true that this improvement may have been
due to increased reservoir facilities on the
tributaries of the main river, the artificial
control thus exercised over the stream
tending to modify and disguise all natural
changes so as to increase the difficulty of
drawing accurate conclusions.
Even though an unfavorable change were
apparent in the lower water volume, it
would be necessary, before assigning a
cause for it, to study the rainfall of the
basin for the period in question and to con-
sider what the probable influence of that
had been; but, as it is, such a study seems
unnecessary and my general conclusion is,
that so far as the flow of the lower river is
concerned, no permanent change for the
SCIENCE.
{N.S. Vou. III. No. 68.
worse in the past twenty-five years is ap-
parent. In closing I desire to express my
indebtedness to Mr. F. H. Newell, Sec-
retary of this Association, for placing at
my disposal valuable data regarding the
discharge of the Connecticut river; and to
call attention to the importance of the work
being done by the United States Geological
Survey in attempting to obtain continuous
records of the flow of many of the rivers of
this country. Dwicut Porter.
MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY,
Boston.
AMERICAN AMBER-PRODUCING TREE.
THE world’s supply of amber in all ages
appears to have been drawn from the shores
of the Baltic, where it is still mined or east
up by the waves in commercial quantities.
Amber occurs also in numerous inland
localities throughout Europe, as in the
vicinity of Basle, Switzerland, and in
France and England. It is also found on
the coasts of Sicily and the Adriatic.
Up to the present time amber has not
been found in North America in commercial
quantities, although it is known from a
number of widely scattered localities. It
appears to have been first reported by Dr.
G. Troost from Cape Sable, Magothey River,
Maryland, in 1821.* It has also been
found in small quantities near Cafion Diablo,
Arizona ; near the Black Hills, in South
Dakota; Gay Head, on Martha’s Vine-
yard ; ‘T'renton and Camden, New Jersey ;
Chesapeake and Delaware Canal, and a
number of more or less doubtful localities.
The Cape Sable locality has been visited
several times recently by Mr. Arthur Bib-
bins, instructor in geology in the Woman’s
College of Baltimore, and a careful search
made for the amber.
This place is somewhat difficult of access
from Baltimore, and the visits to it were
made possible by the courtesy of Dr. W. L.
* Am. Journ. Sci., Vol. III. 1821. pp. 8-15.
APRIL 17, 1896.]
Rasin, of Baltimore, who placed his com-
modious tug at Mr. Bibbins’ disposal for the
investigation.
A number of small pieces of amber were
found in situ in thin strata composed largely
of comminuted lignite. By careful exca-
vation Mr. Bibbins was able to expose a log
of lignite which showed in several cases
the amber in its interstices. Through the
kindness of Mr. Bibbins I have been enabled
to investigate the structure of this amber-
producing tree.
This log was found about 20 feet below
the surface in strata provisionally regarded
by Mr. Bibbins as of upper Potomac (upper
part of Lower Cretaceous) age. About 4
feet in length of the log was taken out. It
was very soft when excavated and hardly
to be distinguished from the surrounding
matrix. When dried by exposure to the
air it becomes thoroughly disintegrated into
minute fragments, and even when treated
by hardening substances still retains so
much iron pyrites that it appears impossible
to stop its reduction to powder. Before fossi-
lization the log had been completely honey-
combed, apparently by a Teredo-like mol-
lusk. This condition made its compression
easy, and when excavated it was found to
be much flattened. It was about 14 inches
in long, and 6 inches in short diameter.
When observed with the naked eye or
with a low-power lens the wood appears to
be admirably preserved. The grain shows
very clearly and, when it is split radially,
faint traces of the medullary rays can be
made out. It is very soft and may be
sliced with an ordinary razor without treat-
ment of any kind. But when studied un-
der a compound microscope it is found at
once that much disintegration and distor-
tion has taken place. The wood cells have
been flattened and crushed until it is quite
impossible to make out their character.
Figure 1, magnified 320 diameters, repre-
sents the lumen of the cells. It is impos-
SCIENCE.
583
i) ©
) 6)
a " © eS
ES ©)
y Ne, © ||| © 2
©
Fia. 1. Fie. 2.
sible to make out their outline or to deter-
mine whether or not there were rings of
growth.
The radial section appears the best pre-
served of all. An exceptionally well pre-
served portion is shown in figure 2. It
shows the cell walls to be thick, and also
that the radial walls are provided witha
single series of large pits. The outlines of
the outer and inner circles are so obscure
that it is not possible to make satisfactory
measurements. (In the drawing they of
course appear distinct, but they are only
approximate.) The medullary rays should
be observed in longitudinal section, but
they can not be made out with sufficient
distinctness to be drawn with the camera.
The usual number appears to be four, but
it may vary from two or three to as many
as seven.
The tangential section, of which a frag-
ment is given in figure 3, shows the extent
Fig. 3. Fia. 4.
to which the medullary rays have been
compressed. The opposite walls are pressed
584
closely together. As stated above, the usual
number appears to be four.
Scattered in numerous places among the
wood cells are little opaque spheres of an
intensely black substance (shown in figure
4) which is probably amber. Two con-
tiguous cells split apart and in the interval
the spheres or drops occur. This intimate
association of these, as well as that of the
undoubted pieces of amber, leave no doubt
that they are found in connection with the
tree which produced them.
This amber-producing tree was of course
coniferous, but the poor state of preserva-
tion renders its generic determination more
or less open to question. The Baltic amber-
producing trees, of which some six species
are known from studies of the internal
structure, were pines (Pinites), but no evi-
dence could be found to show that the one
under discussion belonged to this group.
Indeed, it is hardly to be expected that the
genus would have had the same peculiarities
from the lower cretaceous to the oligocene,
the age to which the Baltic amber belongs.
The large resin tubes and compound medul-
lary rays are characters of the pine group,
but are absent in this. On the other hand,
as nearly as can be made out, the structure
is that of Sequoia or Cupressinoxylon as the
wood is known in the fossil state. Itis very
much like certain lignites that have been
described from the Potomac formation, but
of which too little is still known. This view _
is further strengthened when it is remem-
bered that some fifteen species of Sequoia are
already known, from the researches of Fon-
taine, to have lived during Potomac times.
I venture to propose for this American
amber-producing tree the provisional name
of Cupressinoxylon ? Bibbinsi, in honor of
the collector, who has done so much to
elucidate the complex history of the Po-
tomac formation and its vegetation.
F. H. Kyowtrton.
U.S. NATIONAL MUSEUM, WASHINGTON, D. C.
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 68.
ZOOLOGICAL NOMENCLATURE--A PROPOSAL.*
Tuer discussion on zoological nomencla-
ture, which was held, as announced in our
last number, by the Zoological Society of
London on March 3d, was introduced to a
crowded meeting by Mr. P. L. Sclater, F,
R.S., in a concise and careful paper, and
the points to which he drew attention were
warmly debated beyond the usual hour.
The discussion dealt with certain differences
between the rules drawn up by the German
Zoological Society for the guidance of the
compilers of the Synopsis of the Animal
Kingdom (‘Das Tierreich’) which that
Society is preparing, and the rules known
as the Stricklandian Code, which for many
years governed, or were supposed to govern,
the usage of British naturalists. The dis-
cussion turned chiefly upon the following
questions: First, may the same generic
names ever be used for both animals and
plants? Secondly, may the same term be
used for the generic and trivial name of a
species, as in the well-known instance of
Scomber scomber? ‘Thirdly, are we to adopt
as our starting point the tenth edition of
Linné’s Systema Nature in preference to the
twelfth edition? These questions are an-
swered in the affirmative by the German
code, and in the negative by the original
Stricklandian. We do not propose to dis-
cuss them here: it is natural that there
should still be found, especially among the
older zoélogists of this country, many to
support the old-established British practices;
in this, as in all other matters of nomencla-
ture, convenience, not principle, is con-
cerned, and it cannot be gainsaid that the
general usage of zoologists, at all events in
other parts of the world, becomes daily
more and more in harmony with the rules
adopted by the German Society.
Were we again to open our pages to the
discussion of this thorny subject, we should
*From proof sheets of an editorial article in
Natural Science.
APRIL 17, 1€96.]
probably prefer, as did many of those who
spoke at the Zoological Society’s meeting,
to discuss points that appear of more vital
importance; but after listening to the vari-
ous ingenious arguments, and to the ani-
mated rhetoric, punctuated by shouts of
applause, that were poured forth the other
evening, we felt more inclined than ever to
doubt the value of these discussions. There
are, it appears to us, fundamental defects
that so far have pervaded all of them. A
casual glance at the list of modern codes of
nomenclature exhibited by Mr. Sclater was
enough to show how very limited has been
the authority of those bodies that have, from
time to time, ventured to suggest‘laws for
the zoological world. Either it is a com-
mittee of a section of the British Associa-
tion, or it is the Zoological Society of France,
or of Germany; or, again, at one moment
we find the ornithologists meeting in con-
clave, at another the paleontologists, at
yet another the neontologists ; even when
we see a code drawn up and passed by two
International Congresses of zodlogy, we
must not, as the President pointed out, flat-
ter ourselves that more than a very few of
the actual workers have assented, or have
even been consulted. Consequently, the
best of the codes that has yet been proposed
(and which that be, each reader must decide ~
for himself) has lacked the authority and
the sanction that alone can make it of value.
For we must insist upon this point, if upon
no other, that it is not the wording of any
particular law that is of consequence, but
the power of enforcing it. We venture to
say that to the very best code that could
possibly be drawn up each individual zool-
ogist would remain a recalcitrant, were it
only in so trivial a point as the insertion of
a comma or the use of a capital letter.
If it be true that we come to some such
impasse in whatever direction we proceed,
it is worth considering whether we cannot
follow some course more productive of
SCIENCE.
585
finality than is this perpetual codifying of
our whims and fancies. And here we
would take up and push to their logical
conclusion the suggestions that were thrown
out at the meeting by Mr. H. J. Elwes and
the President. It is not enough to imitate
Mr. Elwes, and to follow the last mono-
graph or the last catalogue of some great
museum; for other monographers will
arise, and rival museums will publish rival
catalogues, each with its own system of
nomenclature. Nor is it of much use to
follow those British ornithologists of whom
the President told us, who some years ago
made a vow to adopt such and such fixed
names for all the British birds; for the
science of zoology is not confined to these
islands, and those who withdraw from the
main stream of progress will either find
themselves left high and dry, or be forced
to rejoin it as laggards and out-of-date.
But the course that might be pursued is
suggested to us by this very enterprise of
the German Zodlogical Society. Let us
suppose that, instead of shrinking from the
magnitude of the undertaking, instead of
insinuating its impossibility, and instead of
drawing their purse-strings tighter, the
zoologists of the world were to give a man-
date to the German Zoological Society to
proceed with the work, and were to assist
them generously by every means in their
power, then we should have a complete set
of names for all living species of animals.
This, it is true, would not be enough. To
draw up such a correct list of names with-
out consulting the paleontologists is impos-
sible, and, even were such a list drawn up,
it would, for the purpose we now intend,
be valueless. But let us further suppose
that some body, such as the German or the
English Zodlogical Society, could be found
to draw up a list of all animal species, fos-
sil as well as recent, then it would at all
events be perfectly possible for the zodlo-
gists of the world to accept that list, and to
586
say: ‘‘ Whether these names be right or
wrong according to this or that code of
nomenclature, we do not know and we do
not care; but we bind ourselves to accept
them in their entirety, and we hereby de-
clare that the date when this list was
closed for the press shall henceforward be
the date adopted as the starting point for
our nomenclature.”
We have put this proposition in a broad
manner; there are, of course, numerous
minor points to be taken into consideration.
The preparation of a mere list would be an
enormous undertaking ; we learn from Dr.
' David Sharp and the workers on the
Zoblogical Record that there are 386,000 re-
cent species; no one has reckoned the num-
ber of extinct species. Some such work as
the ‘Index generum et specierum anima-
lium,’ now being compiled with a minimum
of support and under constant difficulties
by Mr. Charles Davies Sherborn, must form
the basis of any such synopsis as that here
proposed. The first duty of naturalists is
to help Mr. Sherborn, who works at the
British Museum under a Committee of the
British Association. We also have to con-
sider what is to be done when our list is
completed. First of all, it must constantly
be kept up to date. It seems to us that
some restriction will have to be laid upon
the place and manner of publication of new
specific names, and we would suggest that,
when the time comes, no specific name
should be recognized unless it be entered by
the author at some central office, together
with a properly published copy of the work
in which the description appears. The
name would then be checked, dated, and
placed at once in the index.
It is not contended that the acceptance
of our proposal wquld obviate the need for
a code of nomenclature. But it would bea
far simpler code, free from the doubt as to
whether its rules were to be retrospective ;
and its action would be uniform and strin-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 68,
gent. Norisit contended that the validity
of a name carries with it the validity of a
species. For the stability of nomenclature,
it would be advisable to include in the list
as many names as possible, and to leave to
specialists the duty of deciding on the
distinctness and systematic position of
species. But whether our aim be the com-
pletion of an Index, the compilation of a
Synopsis, or the construction of a Code, it
is necessary that there should be absolute
and loyal cooperation between zoologists of
every kind and every country, since by this
means alone can the required sanction be
obtained.
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.
THE CHILD MIND AND THE SAVAGE MIND.
Pror. JAMES SULLY, who fills the chair of
‘philosophy of mind,’ in University Col-
lege, London, makes it a point in his recent
work, ‘Studies of Childhood,’ to institute
frequent comparison between the mental
action of children and of savage adults. A
few of his conclusions may be mentioned :
On the important question of the origin
of languages he is not quite positive. He
believes children ‘show the germs of true
grammatical feeling,’ and believes ‘they
might develop the rudiments of a vocal lan-
guage ;”” but elsewhere quotes with seeming
approval Max Miuller’s assertion that they
could not do this, ‘if left to themselves ;’
which begs the whole question. Unfortu-
nately, Prof. Sully has not read Mr. Horatio
Hale’s admirable studies. He quotes them
only at second hand.
Death presents itself to the child just as
the savage. It is not annihilation, but a
continued existence, partly with the body,
partly separate from it. The lower animals
live after death just as do human beings.
The individuality to the child, as to the
savage, is multiple, not single, whether in
life or death.
The colors first recognized and most en-
&
APRIL 17, 1896.]
joyed by children are red and yellow, and
bright, glistening objects are equally at-
tractive to both.
POINTS IN PRACTICAL ANATOMY.
In the Bulletin of the Anthropological
Society of Paris, for December, 1895, Dr.
Chudzinski studies the radical differences
presented by the rectus abdominis muscle.
It is highest developed in the white race,
least-in the yellow race, while in the black
race it is intermediate. Its anomalies and
irregularities are more numerous in. the
colored races, and its intersections are
higher in both these reaching their maxi-
mum in black women.
In the same Bulletin Dr. Montard-Martin
reports observations on congenital and
hereditary malformations of the fingers and
toes. He reaches the general conclusion
that these deformities are transmitted most
directly and persist longer in the descend-
ants of the same sex as the person trans-
mitting them; 7. e¢., if derived from a
maternal ancestor they will first disappear
in the male decendants and vice versa.
THE ANCIENT ILLYRIANS.
Accorpine to Frederick Muller, the Illyr-
ians were the first to separate from the
primitive Aryan stock, and leff*their North-
ern home to settle in the Balkan peninsula
and on the coasts of the Adriatic Sea (Allge-
meine Ethnograplie, p. 70).
They have, therefore, a peculiar interest
to students of Aryan ethnography, and the
recent researches into their ancient sites
and tombs merit attention. They are re-
ported upon by Hedinger in the March num-
ber of the Correspondenz-Blatt. One of the
largest cemeteries is Glasinac, 45 kilome-
ters southeast of Sarajévo. It contains 20,-
000 graves, chiefly dating from the bronze
and early iron period. Glass, enamel and
amber abound, but the pottery is compara-
tively rude, none of it being made with the
potter’s wheel. The oldest graves take us
SCIENCE.
587
back at least 1000 B. C., or about the time
of the Homeric wars. Even then the Illy-
rians were a sedentary, agricultural people,
acquainted with metals and fairly advanced
in the arts. They flourished without seri-
ous interruption until about 400 B. C.,
when they were almost destroyed by the
Celts, who at that time overran southern
Europe. The modern Albanians, or Skip-
etars, are the descendants of those who es-
caped the disaster.
THE ETHNOGRAPHY OF BURMA.
Tue supposed discovery of relics of ter-
tiary man in Burma, by Dr. Nothing, gives
interest to the recent researches into the
ethnography of that land.
The present population represents two
strata of immigration. Much the oldest is
that to which belong the Khmer, the Mon
and similar tribes. An investigation of
their dialects (principally by F.S. Forbes
and E. Kuhn) revealed the unexpected re-
sult that they are members of the Kohl
family of central and northern India, be-
longing therefore to the ‘ Dravidian’ group.
The Burmese proper claim to be de-
scended from the Indian Kshatryas ; but
this is incorrect. They are remarkably
similar in physical type and temperament
to the Tibetans; and in the Journal of the
Royal Asiatic Society, January, 1896, Mr. B.
Houghton shows that their language is a
Tibetan dialect, and that they migrated from
the western end of the Tibetan plateau
many centuries B. C. Even then they
were agricultural, knew iron and other
metals, and had extended trade relations.
The peculiar ancient stone implements
found in Burma, of the form known as
‘shouldered celts,’ asymmetric antero-pos-
teriorily are shown by A. Griinwedel (in
‘Globus,’ Bd. 68, No. 1.) to be of the same
size and shape as others from the Kokl
territory of India.
D. G. Brinton.
588
NOTES UPON AGRICULTURE AND HORTI-
CULTURE.
SOIL IRRIGATION.
A Goon deal is being done in the experi-
ment stations in the application of water to
soils for purposes of crop growing.
From the last issue of the Experiment
Station Record (Vol. 7, No. 6), under the
head of agricultural engineering, particular
mention is made of experiments in irriga-
tion at the Utah Station. Under farm ir-
rigation it is gathered that two feet of water
is required for best results with grains upon
clay soil, while a sandy soil needs three and
a half feet. For wheat, clover and timothy
the intervals between irrigation should be
abouttwelve days. Withspring wheat there
wasa decrease of yield when there were more
than three waterings. Better results are
obtained by day than by night irrigation.
Fall watering favored timothy, but not
winter wheat. The flooding system is
superior to the method by furrows, and the
acre-foot unit is recommended by Professor
Mills for general adoption.
Under orchard and vineyard irrigation
Professor Richman holds to the opinion
that the best plan is to apply the water but
a few times, supplying enough to reach
the deeper roots of the trees. Young trees
require more frequent watering than old
ones, and the opinion is erroneous that
water injures the trunk of trees even when
confined around the base by heaped-up
earth.
Among other bulletins cited is one (No.
25) from the Nevada Station, largely a
compilation from publications of the Colo-
rado and Wyoming Stations,ete.,which deals
with water storage measurements, pump-
ing, etc. Another is No. 6 of the Montana
Station, upon measurements of water, giv-
ing value of water, water duties and tables
for discharge over weirs. Several other
items are given upon this general subject
from Kansas and Washington.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 68.
There is a manifest growing interest in
agricultural engineering, as it relates to the
distribution of water over the soil.
While irrigation has been and will con-
tinue to be a leading feature of agriculture
in the arid regions of the West, there is
little doubt that it will also increase in
importance in the East. Field irrigation
may not become a common practice along
the Atlantic coast, but it seems likely that
methods will be provided for supplying
water to truck and berry fields when there
is a shortage due to drouth.
In a small way experiments with garden |
crops have been carried on during the past
summer at the New Jersey Station, and the
results published in bulletin No.115. From
the summary the following facts are gath-
ered: ‘Irrigation is quite favorable to
bush beans, there being nearly three times
as many pounds of pods upon the belt re-
ceiving water as elsewhere in the field, be-
sides the quality was superior. * * * Irri-
gation prolonged the period of fruitfulness
of peppers and the yield was nearly doubled.
* > *& Trrigation greatly increased the leaf
development of turnips, and probably there
would have been a corresponding growth of
roots were it not for the clubroot which
practically ruined the crop. * * * Irri-
gation for celery gave satisfactory re-
sults. * In marketable product in
pounds the difference was three to one,
and in marketable value eight to one, in
favor of irrigation.”? Equally good results
may be hoped for with strawberries should
there be a dry spell just preceding fruiting
time.
Irrigation in the greenhouse is taking
shape by means of tiles or pipes with fre-
quent outlets within the soil, that is, the
various experiments at the Ohio, Cornell,
West Virginia and other Stations all point
toward the watering of greenhouse-grown
plants from below or by what is termed
sub-irrigation.
sek
mS ts
APRIL 17, 1896. ]
THE FIRST PRINCIPLES OF AGRICULTURE.
THE above is the title of a neat book of
over two hundred pages by Edward B. Vor-
hees, Professor of Agriculture in Rutgers
College and Director of the Experiment
Stations of New Jersey. In a clear and at-
tractive manner the important first princi-
ples of the crop growers’ craft are taken up
in logical order. There are fifteen chap-
ters, beginning with the plant constituents
and running through the formation of soils,
their composition and improvement, and
natural and artificial manures. To the lat-
ter fully a quarter of the book is devoted,
’ there being a chapter each upon nitrogen-
ous materials, phosphates, superphosphates
and potash, salts and methods of buying,
etc. Rotation of crops, selection of seed,
growth of animals, feeds and fodders, prin-
ciples of breeding and products of the dairy,
complete the list of general subjects treated.
To this is added composition and coefficient
tables as an appendix, closing with an in-
dex.
The author has felt the need of a work
like this in his college teaching, and in con-
nection with his work among the farmers
themselves. Prof. Voorhees believes that
agriculture can be taught in the country
schools and ‘it is here that such education
must begin if it is to reach and influence
the masses of farmers.”’ With this convic-
tion and the endorsement of the New Jersey
Board of Agriculture and State Grange the
work has been prepared. It is, however,
a book for any farmer, for the contents deal
with those general principles that know
no State or country. Great stress has been
laid upon fertilizers, for Prof. Voorhees,
from his especially large experience in this
branch of the work, sees that a clear under-
standing of manures, in the broad sense,
and their rational use, lie at the bottom of
all future successful agriculture in this
country.
Byron D. HatsTep.
SCIENCE.
589
CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPHY.
THE ECONOMIC IMPORTANCE OF PENEPLAINS.
TueE relation of geological deposits that
have economic value to physiographic con-
ditions, ancient and modern, has often been
illustrated. Coal beds record ancient low-
lands with extensive marshes of imperfect
drainage. In Pennsylvania the preserva-
tion of the coal now remaining is due to its
having lain all through Mesozoic time out
of reach of the weather, that is, beneath
baselevel ; for practically all the coal there
is below the level of the Cretaceous pene-
plain of that region. Again, the limonite
iron ores of the Appalachian valley are prod-
ucts of leaching on surfaces of low grade,
the floors of Tertiary valley lowlands, now
uplifted and more or less dissected. A re-
cent essay by Hayes (16th Ann. Rep., U.
8. G.S.) shows that the Georgia and Ala-
bama pocket deposits of bauxite, the oxide
of aluminum and an important source of
this metal, are limited to the Tertiary low-
land of the Coosa valley; thus again exem-
plifying the same general principle. The
source of the deposits is thought to be in
the underlying Cambrian shales; the faults
of the regions afford paths for upward trans-
portation ; and the low grade of the former
valley lowland promoted local accumulation
in pockets. Similar deposits may have
been formed on the more ancient Cretaceous
peneplain of the region; but these have
vanished with the uplift and great dissec-
tion of thatlowland. Similar deposits may
in future be formed when the narrow val-
ley trenches of to-day shall have widened
into broad floors. But at present the
bauxite pockets are practically limited to
the unconsumed portions of the Tertiary
valley lowland. Hence they stand at alti-
tudes of about 850 feet, although ranging
across the bevelled edges of several thou-
sand feet of strata. Asa guide in search-
ing for new localities, this generalization is
of manifest value.
590
DETRITAL SLOPES IN ARID REGIONS.
Aw excursion into eastern California, in-
land from the Sierra Nevada and north of
the Mohave desert, is described by H. W.
Fairbanks in the American Geologist for Feb-
ruary. The chief mountain ranges are held
to be uplifted blocks, little dissected ; the
form that they had before uplift does not
appear to have been considered. The long
slopes of coarse detritus reaching forward
from the mountain flanks into the desert
valleys, constitute characteristic features of
the region, as has been pointed out by
various observers. Alluvial fans occur with
aradius of from six to twelve or fifteen
miles. Laterally confluent fans form nearly
uniform slopes. A granite ridge south of
El Paso range is almost buried in its own
waste; the long marginal slopes of gravel
and boulders extend headwards into the
shallow cafions and reach almost to the
ridge summits. Viewed from a distance of
ten miles, but little of the granite appears
to project above the gravel slopes.
Following a use of terms that needs re-
form, Fairbanks mentions this ridge as an
excellent example of baselevelling. But
is it not manifest that, even when the heads
of the granite mountains are worn down
still lower, the general surface of the detrital
slopes will continue to suffer slow degrada-
tion for a long time; and furthermore, if
the climate of the district had been rainy,
is it not true that the existing slopes would
not have been assumed. The graded form
that the region has almost reached is a
function of time and climate as well as of
altitude with respect to baselevel. These
important topographic controls are neg-
lected if the region is said to be baselev-
elled.
THE ICE FALL ON THE GEMMI PASS.
THE ice fall from near the summit of the
Altels peak, southeast of the Gemmi pass, on
September 11th, last, is now fully mapped,
SCIEN Ci.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 68.
figured and described by Heim in a most
interesting report made to the Swiss glacier
commission (Die Gletscherlawine an der A1-
tels, Zurich Naturf. Gesellsch. Neujahrsbl.
1896.) About four and a half million cubic
meters of ice slid down an incline some
four kilometers long, descending from 3,200
to 1,900 meters above sea level. Gathering
about a million cubic meters of rock waste
on the way, the gliding mass ran across the
valley floor, dashing far up the opposite
slope and falling back again, like a wave
from a cliff. Finally settling, the debris
occupied a square kilometer of surface to
an average depth of five meters. A bench
on the path of the sliding ice two hundred
meters above the valley caused it to spring
forward, like a boy’s sled passing a ‘hump’
in his coast, for a time clear from the
ground ; then falling, the air beneath it was
violently driven out to either side, bearing
fragments of ice and stones and overturn-
ing trees for several hundred meters later-
ally and forwards, and thus nearly doub-
ling the area afflicted. As in all Heim’s
work, the pictures gain great value from
being drawn and lithographed by his own
hand. One of the photographs represents
the genial Zurich professor standing on
the ice conglomerate.
INTERGLACIAL VALLEYS IN FRANCE.
MARrcELLIN Bouter has recently made an
interesting communication to the French
Academy on the older and younger—plio-
cene and quaternary—glaciation of Au-
vergne (Comptes Rendus, December 2,
1895), from which it appears that the val-
leys of the elevated plateau of central
France were excavated during a nonglacial
interval. The upland bears extensive de-
posits of morainic material with scratched
stones of all sizes and numerous roches
moutonnées, implying an extensive glacia-
tion. Beneath this upland, valleys are
trenched toa depth, two, or even three hun-
APRIL 17, 1896.]
dred meters. In the valleys lie the mo-
raines of local glaciers, to which reference
has frequently been made by various ob-
servers.
MISCELLANEOUS.
Appalachia for January contains well
illustrated narratives of ascents in the Can-
adian and Montana Rockies, and the Cali-
fornia Sierra. The photographs by the
Topographical Survey of Canada exhibit
the great extent of lofty mountainous coun-
try in which deep valleys are dissected. ~
THE National Geographic Magazine (now is-
sued monthly) for January, February and
March contains descriptive articles on Rus-
sia by G. G. Hubbard, Venezuela by W. E.
Curtis, Arctic exploration by S. Jackson, A.
W. Greely and W. H. Dall, the Panama and
Nicaragua canals by R. T. Hill and A. W.
Greely, Tehuantepec ship railway by E. W.
Corthell, the submarine cables of the world
by G. Herrle, and the survey of Indian
Territory by H. Gannett. Geographic lit-
erature and notes are briefly treated in
each number.
Aw abstract of explorations by Obruchef
in central Asia is given in the Scottish Geog-
raphical Magazine for February. It empha-
sizes the mountainous character of much
of the desert of Gobi, which was treated as
a plain in older descriptions. “A marked
peculiarity of many chains in central Asia
is that they stand on high broad pedestals
insensibly sloping down to the low central
parts of the depressions.” This is probably
an incorrect interpretation of ranges nearly
buried in alluvial wash.
THE same journal for March gives asketch
of British Guiana, by Chalmers, briefly char-
acterizing the coastal plain, the inner high-
lands and their mountains, and the falls of
the rivers in their descent from the higher
to the lower district. Roraima and Kail-
teur are outlined.
VAUGHAN’S journeys in Persia are nar-
SCIENCE.
591
rated in the London Geographical Journal
for January and February. Special account
is given of the Dasht-i-Kavir, or Great Salt
desert, 360 miles east-west by 150 north—
south, with a central depression one or two
thousand feet below its margin, and includ-
ing a great salt bed 440 square miles in area.
THE same journal for February has a
paper on the Japanese Alps by W. Weston,
speaking highly of their picturesque scenery.
They consist of a backbone of granitic
rocks, through or over which vast quanti-
ties of volcanic rocks have been poured.
W. M. Davis.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
Mr. WILLIAM I. HoRNADAY, formerly of the
National Museum, has been appointed Director
of the proposed Zodlogical Park in New York.
He is eminently qualified for the position by his
extensive knowledge of zodlogy, his ability as
an untechnical writer upon travel and natural
history, and especially by his experience in con-
nection with the establishment of the National
Zoological Park at Washington. He enters
upon his duties immediately and will first con-
sider and report to the Executive Committee
upon the difficult question of location of the
Park. At the last meeting of the Society the
three first honorary members were elected as
follows: Sir William H. Flower, Director of
the British Museum of Natural History, Presi-
dent of the London Zodlogical Society ; Prof.
Alexander Agassiz, of the Museum of Compara-
tive Zodlogy, and Prof. J. A. Allen, of the
American Museum of Natural History.
THE first session of the Bahama Biological
Station under the direction of Prof. Charles L.
Edwards, University of Cincinnati, was held
during the summer of 1893, at Bimini Islands,
Bahamas. For the coming season it has been
decided to locate the laboratory at Biscayne
Bay, Florida, in the latitude of the Bimini Is-
lands, and just across the Gulf Stream. Here
is found the same equable climate, clear water
and sub-tropical fauna and flora, for which the
Bahamas are famous. An all-rail route of two
592
days, at excursion rates, gives the more accessi-
ble Florida location a decided advantage. The
Station is open to a limited number of investi-
gators, teachers and students in biology. The
session will begin Monday, June 22, 1896, and
continue six weeks. The course of instruc-
tion consists of lectures, dissection and micro-
scopic work in the laboratory, with observation
of the organisms in natural environment. In
order to supply students, or institutions at a
distance, with materials for practical work, a
collecting department has been established.
Orders for laboratory material, or applications
for admission to the Bahama Station, should be
made to the director before June 1st.
THE bill appropriating $500,000 for an addi-
tional wing for the American Museum of
Natural History has been signed by Governor
Morton. This, in addition to the wing now
in course of construction, and the wing recently
opened to the public, will make the Museum
one of the finest in the world. The new wing
will be in the form of an ‘L’ completing the
77th street front and extending a short dis-
tance along Central Park.
A PROVISIONAL Committee has been formed
in England to promote the International
Memorial to Pasteur. The Executive Commit-
tee consists of Sir Joseph Lister, Sir John Evans,
Sir Henry Roscoe, Dr. Thorne Thorne and
Prof. Percy Frankland (Honorary Secretary).
AT the annual meeting of the American
Philosophical Society, at Philadelphia, on May
1st, the meeting will be devoted to a discussion
of ‘Evolution,’ in which Professors Cope, Minot
and Bailey will take part.
THE following is the program of lectures be-
fore the National Geographical Society for April
and May: April 6 (sixth Monday aftérnoon),
‘From Sitka to the Sunset,’ Mr. Marcus Baker,
of the U. 8. Geological Survey; April 10 (special
Friday afternoon), ‘Cuba as Seen by a War
Correspondent,’ Capt. Wm. F. Mannix; April
13 (seventh Monday afternoon), ‘A Journey in
the Interior of Alaska, Prof. I. C. Russell, of
the University of Michigan; April 17, ‘The
Geography, Scenery and Resources of Idaho,’
Hon. Fred E. Dubois, U. 8. Senate; April 24,
‘Progress of Africa since 1888, with Special
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. IIL. No. 68.
Reference to South Africa and Abyssinia,’ Hon.
Gardiner G. Hubbard; May 8, ‘Geography as
Illustrated by Precious Stones,’ Mr. George F.
Kunz, of Tiffany & Co., New York. The total
membership of the Society is now 1,374, con-
sisting of eleven honorary, 1,070 active and 293
corresponding members.
THE death is announced of M. Julius Belle-
ville, an eminent French inventor.
TuHE bill before the House of Representatives
adopting the metric system of weights and
measures as legal standards in the United States
has been referred back to the committee. The
Bill was ordered to a third reading by a vote of
119 to 116, but this vote was afterwards recon-
sidered. .
Dr. WILKES has been elected President of
the Royal College of Physicians, London, the
final vote standing 114 for Dr. Wilkes and 32
for Sir William Broadbent.
Mr. Henprick R. HOLDEN has been ap-
pointed New York State Fish, Game and For-
estry commissioner.
Tur Huxley Memorial Committee will be
glad to receive designs for a medal to be
awarded by the Royal College of Science, Lon-
don. Further particulars will be furnished on
application, which must be sent in before May
1st to the honorary secretary of the Huxley
Memorial Committee, Prof. G. B. Howes,
Royal College of Science, South Kensington,
S. W.
We learn from Nature that Prof. Wyndham
R. Dunstan has been appointed Director of the
Scientific Department of the Imperial Institute,
which has hitherto been under the direction of
Sir Frederick Abel. Prof. N. A. Moor of
the Elphinstone College, Bombay, has been
selected for the post of Director of the Govern-
ment Observations at Colaba, in succession to
the late Mr. Charles Chambers.
ARRANGEMENTS are being made for a tour
abroad by a hundred American physicians, who
will visit during the coming summer the princi-
pal health resorts of Europe. It is expected
that various courtesies will be shown them at
the places visited.
THE fourth International Hydrological, Cli-
APRIL 17, 1896. ]
matological and Geological Congress will be
held at Clermont-Ferraud at the end of Sep-
tember, 1896.
A LETTER signed by Prof. John Caird, Prin-
cipal and Vice-Chancellor of the University of
Glasgow and Sir James Bell, Lord Provost of
Glasgow, has been sent to various universities
and learned and scientific societies, inviting
them to send representatives to the jubilee of
Lord Kelvin, which will be held at Glasgow on
the 15th and 16th of June next.
AT a meeting of the fellows of the Royal
Botanic Society, in London, on March 28th, it
was stated that since the gardens have been
open to the public on Mondays and Saturdays
there has been a good attendance, a total of
6,000 persons having attended on eleven of
the Mondays. Ithad been claimed that fellows
would resign if the grounds were open to the
public, but instead of that the roll of fellows had
been greatly increased. The plan of having
promenade concerts in the garden has not been
favored by the Council, but will be again
considered.
Ir is stated that Huxley’s library is now
offered for sale.
REUTER’s Agency states that the Windward,
of the Jackson-Harmsworth expedition will
leave again for the Arctic seas early in June.
The Windward will carry a budget of letters
for Dr. Nansen, on the chance of falling in with
him north of Franz Josef Land. More mem-
bers will be sent out to recruit the Jackson-
Harmsworth expedition. The Windward will
call at Archangel. The organizers of the ex-
pedition are in communication with Mr. An-
drée, the projector of the balloon voyage towards
the Pole, who, in view of the possibility of his
balloon drifting in a southeasterly direction, is
receiving full particulars of the depots which
have been established by Mr. Jackson.
AT arecent meeting of the British Astronom-
ical Society, a number of papers were read
under the title of ‘Eclipse Suggestions.’ Ac-
cording to the report in the London Times Mr.
J. Lunt suggested a method of determining the
general brightness of the corona. The principle
of the method was to photograph a small ‘ win-
dow’ through which the coronal light was
SCIENCE.
593
streaming, and the squares of which varied from
clear glass through various degrees of opacity,
such that the coronal light was able to pene-
trate with actinic effect through a square of
medium opacity in the time at the observer’s
‘disposal during totality. Mr. A. C. D. Crom-
melin read a note on ‘Some of the attendant
phenomena of total solar eclipses.’ The Presi-
dent also contributed some suggestions, his sub-
ject being ‘Camera work.’ He said that two
lessons were suggested by the Californian ex-
periences—namely, the need for mounting
the camera very solidly, and the unwisdom of
attempting too many photographs. Mr. A.
Fowler read a paper and showed twelve lantern
slides illustrative of the observations that might
be made with a pocket eclipse spectroscope.
D. APPLETON & Co.’s spring announcements
include The Warfare of Science With Theology in
Christendom, in two volumes, by Andrew D.
White; Genius and Degeneration, by Dr. Wil-
liam Hirsch; Our Juvenile Offenders, a new
volume in the Criminology Series, by W. Doug-
las Morrison; The Intellectual and Moral De-
velopment of the Child, by Gabriel Compayré, and
A B C of Sense-Perception, by William J. Eckoff,
new volumes in the International Educational
Series; Ice Work, Present and Past, by T. G.
Bonney, a new volume in the International
Scientific Series; and Familiar Trees, by F.
Schuyler Mathews.
Henry Hour & Co.’s announcements of
scientific works include Electricity, by Prof.
Charles A. Perkine, of the University of Tennes-
see, and A Problem Book in Elementary Chem-
istry, by E. Dana Pierce, of the Hotchkiss
School, Lakeville, Connecticut. The same
publishers will add at once to their German Texts
Kekstein’s Preisgekrént, edited by Prof. Charles
Bundy Wilson, of the University of Iowa.
THE experiment about to be made at London
of using sea water for watering the streets,
flushing the sewers and other purposes. will be
watched with much interest in America. The
Croton system supplying New York City is now
being enlarged at much expense, and the addi-
tional supply is needed only for a short time
during the year when sea water would be of
course available. In addition to the possible
594
economy it is urged that salt water will keep the
roads and sewers much cleaner and more whole-
some.
THE French Admiralty and a large number
of railways and other corporations have adopted
the metric system of screw threads recom-
mended by La Societé d’ Encouragement pour
V Industrie Nationale, of Paris. It is proposed
to consider the subject at an international con-
ference at Berne, where it is probable that the
new system will be adopted, and in this case
the Whitworth system would soon be super-
seded.
The British Medical Journal states that a water
famine is threatened in London. In 1895 the
total amount of rain measured at the Royal
Observatory, Greenwich, was only 19.73 inches,
against an average of 25.06 inches. This de-
ficiency is still in progress in the present year.
In February the total rainfall at Greenwich
was only 23 per cent. of the average for the
month, and at Paris only 16 per cent. During
January and February together the value was
as low as 65 per cent. short of the mean at
Paris, while in London the deficiency was 68
per cent. The rainfall of 1896 in London has
so far, in fact, amounted to less than one-third
of the average.
In a paper presented before the Paris Acad-
emy on March 23d, MM. le Prince Galitzine
and A. le Carnojitzky claim that they have been
able to polarize the X-rays by means of tourma-
lines. Lord Blythswood reported to the Royal
Society on March 19th that he had been able
to reflect the rays. The most perfect photo-
graphs hitherto taken by means of the Rontgen
rays are produced in recent issues of the Brit-
ish Medical Journal and the Lancet, one of a
monkey and one of an infant three months old;
not only is the skeleton of a child shown with
great distinctness, but some of the soft parts
are clearly outlined.
Pror. J. C. Ewart, of the University of
Edinburgh, has undertaken an extended series
of experiments upon telegony. He has a mare
in foal by a zebra and a zebra mare in foal by a
zebra stallion, and has arranged a number of
other crosses in which the paternal and maternal
characteristics are strong but less easily recog-
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 68.
nizable than in the above cases. Breeders
thoroughly believe in telegony, or the transmis-
sion of the influence of a previous sire. A num-
ber of apparently authentic cases have been
cited besides the famous one of Lord Morton’s
mare, but none that fully satisfy the most cri-
tical. The matter of transmission of character-
istics from a previous sire in such an impor-
tant one that it requires fresh verification, and
Prof. Ewart’s experiments will be watched with
interest.
In an editorial comment entitled ‘The Tam-
ing of the Shrews’ on the recent monographs
by Dr. Merriam and Mr. Miller, Natural Science
remarks: ‘‘In looking through these publica-
tions the conviction is foreed upon one that
“they know how to do things in America,’ and
one wonders what work will be left for the poor
fellows of the next generation. So far as North
America is concerned, at any rate, there will
be no new species to discover nor any work to
be done in unravelling synonymy, for this is all
done so thoroughly by the writers of these
monographs. They know, too, how to print
books in America; in this, as in their other
government publications, both the paper and
type are all that can be desired, and might well
be commended to the notice of the ‘ Printers to
the Queen’s most excellent Majesty.’ ”’
Appleton’s Popular Science Monthly for April
contains the Presidential address by Sur-
geon-General George M. Sternberg before
the Biological Society of Washington on the
‘Practical Results of Bacteriological Research-
es,’ an article on the X-rays by Prof. Trow-
bridge, a continuation of the articles by Mr.
Herbert Spencer, Prof. Ripley and Prof. New-
bold, and other articles of interest, including a
sketch of Benjamin Smith Barton, with a por-
trait. :
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
THE Calendar of the University of Michigan
for 1896-97 shows the following attendance :
Department of Literature, Science and the Arts 1204
ae of Engineering.................0scseeenee 331
ee of Medicine and Surgery............+. 452
rf Ole Wal Warcensane secesnsesnctiscasscestacteemes 75
Schooliof Pharmacy, .<.--..cccn-cocece-secceeserctescsee 83
APRIL 17, 1896.]
Homeopathic Medical College 27
College of Dental Surgery.........-...ssseceeeeeeeneee 189
2961
Deduct for students enrolled in more than one
CepantmMlenteeee eects stenseeccecectsesiscacesticisce sas 44
2917
Students in Summer School, 1895.................4+ 97
HOE encscooaqdqsnbedodabdcoveDdD0NGOH 3014
The number of instructors is 160. The
average annual fees (including laboratory fees)
- are about $50.00 per student.
Mr. JosrepH FIELD has given Mount Holyoke
College $6,000 to found a scholarship in memory
of his mother. The Catholic University of
Washington has received $5,000 by the will of
Mr. Bryant Lawrence.
Dr. H. F. RED, late professor in the Case
School of Applied Sciences, at Cleveland, O.,
has been made associate professor of geological
physics in Johns Hopkins University.
THE accounts of the Cambridge University
chest, as distinguished from the general Uni-
versity fund for the year 1895, shows that the
total receipts were £39,681, 18s. 11d., and the
total expenditures, £40,067, 6s. 8d. This sum
includes £670 for the Observatory, £1,024, 7s.
7d. for the Botanic Garden, £4,550 for museums
and lecture-room maintenance and £4,000 for
the library.
THE French Chamber of Deputies has passed
unanimously a bill giving the various French
faculties the titles and privileges of universities.
This would establish universities at the follow-
ing places: Paris, Dijon, Lyons, Bordeaux,
Montpellier, Lille, Toulouse, Nancy, Rennes,
Aix, Poitiers, Caen and Grenoble. It is stated
that there are now 24,000 students attending
these faculties and that they receive annual
subsidies from the government amounting to
about $2,800,000.
THE Electro-technical Institute of Darmstadt
has received about $100,000 from the govern-
ment for the purchase .of new ground and for
the enlargement of the buildings.
WE learn from the Naturwissenschaftliche
Rundschau that Dr. Julius Bauschinger, of the
observatory at Munich, has been appointed as
full professor of astronomy in the University
SCIENCE.
595
of Berlin. Dr. H. W. Bakhuis Rosebom has
been made professor of chemistry at the Univer-
sity of Amsterdam, and Dr. A. Bistrzycki has
been called to the professorship of analytical
and technical chemistry in the University of
Freiburg, in Switzerland.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
CERTITUDES AND ILLUSIONS.
EDITOR OF SCIENCE: Your correspondent in
the last number of SCIENCE (pages 513-514), in
making comments about my last article on
‘ Certitudes and Illusions’ (pages 426-433), asks
four pertinent questions, all of which were
definitely answered in the article, but which
are worthy of restatement in other terms.
These questions are as follows:
First.—What is motion ?
Motion is change of position. In the change
of position two elements are involved, the
speed of the change of position and the path of
the change of position. We may reason about
the speed or we may reason about the path, but
these two elements must not be confounded,
lest they lead to illusion. This is a concrete
world, and there is no speed without path and
no path without speed; we may reason ab-
stractly, but the abstraction must be complete.
Second.—What is rest ?
Rest is a mode of motion. I have defined
the use of the terms particle and body, and the
definitions need not here be repeated. In
nature the ultimate particle is combined in a
hierarchy of bodies, the atom is probably com-
bined of particles, the molecule is known to be
combined of particles, the molecules are com-
bined into molar bodies, the molar bodies are
combined in the earth, the earth is combined
in the solar system. The particle has the mo-
tion of all of these bodies. If any body has a
motion differentiated from the motion of any
other body in the same rank of the hierarchy
in such manner that the body as a unit has a
motion distinct from the bodily motion of the
next higher unit, that motion may be accelera-
ted positively or negatively, but this can be
done only by deflecting its motions in all other
bodies of the hierarchy. Let us take the case
of molar motion. The molar body partakes of
the motion of the earth and the solar system,
596
and also partakes of the motion of its mole-
cules, atoms and particles; a motion of the
molar body, as a differentiated motion of that
molar body, is a deflection of the motions in all
the other bodies of the hierarchy, but if these
other motions be not deflected, as a motion of
the molar body differentiated from the other
molar bodies, it is at rest. In this case, there-
fore, rest is the absence of motion in a molar
body which differentiates it from other molar
bodies in respect to motion. Rest, then, in
molar motion is stellar motion and molecular
motion. Rest is the motion of a body in its
superior and inferior incorporation, undifferen-
tiated from the motions of the bodies of its own
rank in the hierarchy of incorporations.
Third.—If by ‘motion as speed’ is meant
‘velocity,’ and if by its ‘persistence’ is meant
invariability of velocity, what possesses this in-
variability? bodies, molecules, particles, atoms?
and in reference to what is the velocity constant ?
So far as can be determined from research,
speed is constant in the ultimate particle, but
the speed of the atom, if it is a compound
body, is not constant. The speed of a mole-
cule is not constant, and in general the speed
of a body is not constant. The speed of a
particle is constant in reference to itself at dif-
ferent times.
Fourth.—As a molecule is considered as a
‘body’ when reference is had to the atoms which
compose it, can it have an ‘ invariable velocity’
asa molecule and variable velocity as a ‘body ??
The molecule has an invariable speed (or sum
of speeds) in its ultimate particles, but as a
molecule, or one composed of many, this one
may have a variable speed. It will be recog-
nized that I use the term speed rather than
velocity, for the term velocity as it is used in
physics does not mean speed. First, velocity
is positive and negative; second, velocity is
speed and trajectory. I have been trying to
dispel the illusion which inheres in the double
use of velocity when we fail to distinguish be-
tween speedand path. The abstraction must be
perfect when we reason abstractly ; when we
reason concretely then abstractions must be
combined. Two molar bodies in motion as such
may collide with each other, both may be de-
flected, both may come to rest, or one may be
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 68.
deflected and the other come to rest. All of
these cases are concretely explained as velocity
in physics. Velocity is a concrete term, not an
abstract term. The velocity of a body as speed
and path is constant. When a particle or body
moves in a straight line its speed and its velocity
are the same, but when a particle or body
moves in a deflected line the velocity is
measured by its speed and the force by which
it is deflected. The distinction between speed
and deflection is well marked by some English
physicists who speak of spirt and shunt. When
we consider the rate of motion we consider
speed, not velocity, and we may consider speed
in every incorporation in which an ultimate
particle is found, and its total speed is the sum
of all its speeds.
Let me ask your correspondent to once more
consider my definitions and demonstrations,
freeing himself from the illusion that velocity is
the same as speed, making a perfect abstraction
of those things whith we are considering ab-
stractly and a perfect comprehension of those
things which we are considering concretely.
Finally your correspondent says:
I cannot refrain from expressing a hope, how-
ever, that in addition to these answers, Major
Powell will kindly furnish an explanation of
what he means when he says that the trans-
mission of light at the rate of 299,878,000
metres per second, furnishes an example of
‘particle motion at a velocity so great that any
observed molecular motion sinks into insigni-
ficance.’
This assures me that your correspondent was
attentive to my language, and I wonder
whether he detected some other misprints in
my article. In the same paragraph I say:
‘‘The molecular motion of a cannon ball at its
mouth is from 518 to 671 metres per second.”’
Of course I should have said the molar motion
of a cannon ball. If in these cases he will sub-
stitute molar for molecular he will understand
what I intended. On reading the published
article I discovered this and one or two other
errors, which are probably due to my habit of
dictation, but thought them hardly worth
noticing, as I belived that every intelligent
reader would discover the errors and correct
them himself, J. W. POWELL.
APRIL 17, 1896. ]
VIVISECTION.
EDITOR OF SCIENCE: I note with regret
several errors in the report (SCIENCE, April 3d)
of my paper on ‘ Vivisection ; Its Objects and
Results,’ read before the Anthropological
Society of Washington at its meeting on March
3d.
I shall only correct the one which first meets
the eye and which makes me appear to have
made a very ridiculous statement. The report
commences as follows: ‘‘In the course of his
paper Dr. Sternberg said that by dissection of
dead plants and animals only can we determine
the nature of their functions.’’ The following
quotation from my manuscript shows what I
really said :
“By means of the experimental method the
chemist has succeeded in analyzing air, earth
and water, which were regarded by the ancients
as elements, and has learned to manufacture in
his laboratory, by synthetic processes, many
of the complex organic substances found in na-
ture. By experiment the physicist has demon-
strated the persistence of force and the corela-
tion of the various modes of motion known to
us as heat, electricity, ete. He has learned to
recognize the elements of the chemist in distant
suns by means of the spectroscope and has re-
cently shown us that certain ethereal vibrations
may pass through wood and metal as light rays
pass through glass.
‘In like manner biologists and physicians
have established the facts which constitute our
knowledge of biology in all its branches. Used
in its broadest sense, this term includes animal
and vegetable physiology, animal and vegetable
pathology, etiology, morphology, embryology,
psychology and sociology.’ Now, it is evident
that all questions relating to these various
branches of biological knowledge must be de-
termined by the observation of living organisms
and by experiments upon living plants and
animals. To some extent the study of mor-
‘phology and of pathology constitutes an excep-
tion to this general rule, inasmuch as these
branches of biological science also call for the
dissection of dead plants and animals. Our
knowledge of animal and vegetable histology,
of human anatomy and of the results of disease
processes has been obtained in this way, and
SCIENCE.
597
could not have been obtained in any other way.
But the dissection of dead plants and animals can-
not determine the functions of the various ana-
tomical elements and organs revealed by such
dissections, although aided by the microtome,
differential staining methods, the microscope,
ete.”’
GEO. M. STERNBERG.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
INSTINCT.
EDITOR OF SCIENCE: Prof. Lucas seems to
me to have advanced this discussion on in-
stinct by his reference to a letter in Nature,
which appeared in Vol. 52, page 30. Accord-
ing to the writer, it is customary for the Asamese
natives to ‘teach’ the young jungle fowls to
peck.
If this be true, what then becomes of Prof.
Morgan’s distinction ?
As a matter of fact, if one observes a good
many chicks, he will find that a large propor-
tion of the birds never peck without suggestion
(the term ‘teach’ seems objectionable) from
the hen or some substitute. The chief value
ofsuch facts grows out of their showing that in-
stincts are never perfect and never of that type
once believed in—the unalterable, inevitable
and unvarying—like the rising and setting
of the sun; and for such rigid notions the re-
ports of some scientists are in part responsible.
It sometimes happened that experimenters
in biology, etc., omit the exceptions and re-
port only ‘good experiments,’ so that a false
view of the case must necessarily arise. Prof.
Baldwin seems to adopt Prof. Morgan’s views,
for he refers to the observation that the chicks
drank ‘only after they had the taste of water
by accident or by imitating the old fowl.’
Granted—but they also peck only after seeing
small objects under certain conditions, and there
is no instinct that does not require some stimu-
lus in the environment to bring it into action.
The mechanism is ready, but it is useless with-
out this stimulus.
If one knew but of those domestic chicks or
those jungle chicks that peck only on seeing
this act, one might speak of a certain imperfec-
tion in the instinct of pecking, as, if you will, in
598
drinking; but what I must again object to is
drawing radically different conclusions as to the
nature of eating and drinking by chicks, and
even building theories of evolution on them.
AsTunderstand Prof. Cope is to reply to Prof.
Baldwin’s views on Consciousness and Evolution
through the medium of the American Naturalist,
I will only remark regarding his discussion in
SCIENCE, p. 438, on Heredity and Instinct, that,
while I find his views very interesting as illus-
trations of natural selection, the Lamarckian
principle, the influence of environment, etc.,
they seem, in the main, to fall within the range
of principles already recognized by the Darwin-
ians and Lamarckians, though perhaps not ade-
quately. But I failto see that a single safe step
can be taken in explaining evolution either in
biology or psychology, if the effects of the en-
vironment and of use be ignored ; indeed, Prof.
Baldwin’s very facts and illustrations are, to my
mind, only comprehensible by the introduction
of those factors ; and why there should be such
anxiety on the part of many to get rid of fac-
tors so obvious, and to substitute for them the
biological fatalism and reasoning in a circle of
Weismann, is a puzzle to me.
I trust Prof. Baldwin will not insist on coin-
ing many new terms, or favor their adoption
as far as evolution is concerned. ‘Social hered-
ity’ is about equivalent, is it not, to social en-
vironment, and the entire environment is one
into which, asa rule, the animal is born, so why
speak of ‘social heredity?’ Technicalities have
their advantages, but they often conduce to
mental myopia, and hamper the comprehension
and progress of truth by binding it up in pack-
ages, so to speak—packages which all cannot
readily undo. WESLEY MILLs.
McGILL UNIVERSITY.
FOOTGEAR.
EDITOR OF SCIENCE: Apropos of the heel quar-
ters or heel bands on the feet of men shown on
Mexican and Maya sculpture and pottery Dr.
Fewkes calls my attention to the fact that among
the Tusayan Indians an embroidered heel band is
worn over the moccasins in all dances. In the
statuary shown by Maudslay and other authors
the footgear looks as though a man were wear-
ing a gaiter from which the vamp or front had
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 68.
been cut away. In this view the supposed
sole is the pedestal; what appears to be a stock-
ing is the moccasin, and the heel quarter is the
decorated ceremonial heel band fastened across
the instep with lacings. O. T. Mason.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
Greenland Icefields and Life in the North Atlantic,
with a New Discussion of the Causes of the Ice
Age. By G. FREDERICK WRIGHT, D. D.,
LL. D., F. G. 8. A., author of the Ice Age in
North America, etc., and WARREN UPHAM,
A. M., F. G. 8. A., late of the Geological
Surveys of New Hampshire, Minnesota and
the United States. With numerous maps
and illustrations. New York, D. Appleton
& Co. 1896. 12mo. pp. xv+407.
The immediate impulse to the preparation of
this volume arose in connection with a trip to
Greenland taken on the unfortunate steamer
Miranda in 1894. It will be remembered that
this steamship of eleven hundred tons’ burden
started out with the -intention of reaching
Peary’s headquarters in Inglefield gulf, with a
complement of fifty-one passengers. Ten days
out she collided with an iceberg off Labrador
and returned to St. Johns for repairs. After
reaching Sukkertoppen, the largest Eskimo
settlement in Greenland, the steamer ran upon
a reef and received serious injuries, compelling
her to stop again for repairs and to start home-
ward as soon as possible. In less than two
days’ time she foundered, and the passengers
and crew were safely transferred to the schooner
Rigel. The senior author had an excellent
opportunity to study icebergs in their legitimate
work of producing geological changes, and had
nearly a fortnight’s time to explore the edge
of the ice sheet close to the Arctic circle.
The authors have improved their opportuni-
ties by giving in this book an interesting re-
sumé of what is known respecting the glaciers,
ice fields, explorations, icebergs in action, the
plants, animals, the Eskimo and the early
Norsemen of Greenland. Mr. Upham prepared
the chapters upon the plants, animals, explora-
tions, and the lessons taught by the Greenland
phenomena in the elucidation of the Ice Age.
Besides the text several excellent maps of
APRIL 17, 1896. ]
Greenland, Labrador and the whole northern
regions were drawn by him; and he has restated
his views respecting the causes of the cold.
Greenland has an area of 680,000 square
miles, of which 575,000 are occupied by the ice
sheet. On the east side the coast consists very
largely of ice cliffs, while on the west there is
a border of habitable land towards twenty
miles in width for more than half its length,
and numerous glaciers cross this belt, reaching
the sea and discharging icebergs therein. The
edge of the ice is usually from 1,500 to 2,000
feet above the sea, quite precipitous; and thence
the ice surface gradually rises to the altitude of
8,000 to 9,000 feet on the watershed, the whole
surface being inclined westerly, at first six and
later two degrees, till the summit is reached
and the slope becomes easterly. Hayes called
the interior ‘a vast frozen Sahara immeasur-
able to the human eye.’ Near the boundary,
because of the greater ablation, the surface is
crevassed and rivers flow freely, occasionally
plunging into the abysses. The great central
region is the analogue of the névé fields or
gathering ground of the ice.
Areas of considerable altitude uncovered by
ice or snow and hence bare rock or earth capable
of sustaining vegetation like the Alpine garden
of the Mer de Glace, in Switzerland, are called
nunatakr (singular nunatak) by the natives.
This word supplies a needed place in our vocabu-
lary, and is being extensively used by glacialists.
The most important inland expeditions were
those of Dr. Hayes, in Lat. 78°, 1860; Norden-
skiold, in 1881, Lat. 68° ; Nansen, 1888, in Lat.
64°, and of Peary, 1892, Lat. 78° to 82°. The
last two only went entirely across the island.
Nansen found that the kryokonite, described by
Nordenskiold, as cosmic dust was rather to be
regarded as material blown by the winds from
the coast. Peary’s trip was of the most conse-
quence, as it was the farthest north and practi-
cally two routes, as the return road lay a hun-
dred miles nearer the pole.
The notices of processions of icebergs and
flows help to the understanding of the effects
produced by floating ice, which are liable to be
depreciated in these days when the glacier is in-
voked as the great agent at work. The bergs
off the Labrador coast constitute a stream one
SCIENCE.
599
hundred miles wide and one thousand miles
long, derived chiefly from the north part of
Greenland. Numerous seals accompany them,
finding the conditions favorable for procuring
food and for rearing their young. Their num-
ber is given as hundreds of thousands. In their
train follow the Arctic bear, fox and innu-
merable flocks of birds, all dependent ultimately
upon the food which the seals secure from the
sea. Their worst enemy is man, and as the
number of hunters has increased, with weapons
terribly destructive, the products are diminish-
ing in amount, so that the late financial collapse
of Newfoundland is partially due to the poor
success of the sealers.
A more important stream of floating ice is
that which starts in the frozen seas north of Si-
beria, passes by the pole, skirts the east coast
of Greenland and partially turns to the north-
west at Cape Farewell. This procession com-
mences late in January, as seen in southern
Greenland, and continues into September. In-
termingled with the ice are pieces of floodwood,
which furnish the Greenlanders with lumber
and firewood. Sometimes logs sixty feet in
length are drifted upon the shore. Rink con-
jectures that the annual gleanings upon the
whole coast may amount to from eighty to one
hundred and twenty cords, a small part of which
passes 68° N. Lat. This wood seems to have
grown upon the banks of riversin Siberia, being
coniferous, and thus is unlike that drifted to the
shores of northern Europe by the Gulf Stream.
Freshets carry the logs far out into the Arctic
sea, where they are drawn into a slow but steady
current, which first sets to the northward from
the northern coast of Asia and from Spitzbergen,
and then passing on southwards conducts the
ice floes of that region along the eastern coast of
Greenland. Itistothis current that Nansen has
committed himself, confidently expecting to be
carried past the north pole. Mr. Upham’s
map shows very clearly this projected route from
Bennett’s island or from the gulf of the Ob
across to Greenland.
The story is well told of the Tertiary warm
temperate plants of Greenland, so allied to the
similar remains found upon both continents as
to necessitate the belief of an early land con-
nection between Europe and America. The
600
present flora, enumerated at 386 species by
Lange, contains a slightly larger number of
European than American species. Warming
finds two botanical regions, of which the south-
ern is characterized by the presence of the white
birch, extending two degrees north from Cape
Farewell, and contains many European types.
The larger, or northern, region ismore American
in its facies, but the majority of the plants are
cireumpolar. Most authors have regarded this
flora as of Scandinavian origin; but the sug-
gestion is here made of the possibility of its
being merely the wreck of the earlier Tertiary
development. The Greenland flora is essen-
tially that of the highest White Mountain sum-
mits.
All these and other details concerning the
physical features of Greenland help us to im-
agine the condition of things over our northern
regions in the ice age. Greenland must have
had a greater development of ice in former times,
since the present habitable strip of land is glaci-
ated; but the authors believe it was milder
there in the times of the early Norse settlements
several hundred years ago. The débris in
Greenland is principally transported in the
lower part of the glaciers, whence it is possible
to believe in a similar movement for the material
of the drumlins and many boulders. The
Greenland ice moves more rapidly than the
Alaskan and Alpine glaciers, averaging about
fifty feet daily. This may be due partly to the
steeper slopes, which are from 100 to 200 feet
per mile. Inclinations of fifty feet to the mile
are necessary for vigorous movement; but a
large part of the American ice did not possess
surface slopes of more than twenty-five or
thirty feet to the mile.
Attention is paid to the great elevatory
movements of our continent upon both the
Atlantic and Pacific coast, as well as on the
Gulf of Mexice, which took place in pre-glacial
times—from 2,000 to 3,000 feet in amount—and
it is thought this uplift has been sufficient to
develop the severe glacial climate. The astro-
nomical theories, including the latest views of
Croll, Wallace, Drayson, Becker, Sir Robert Ball
and Sir John Evans, are weighed in the bal-
ance and found wanting in the comparison.
The great uplift would have given rise to a high
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 68,
plateau climate with abundant snowfall and
accumulation of an ice sheet, whose weight
seems to have been a chief cause of the ensuing
depression in the Champlain age.
The distribution of the till, more or less coin-
cident with terminal moraines, allows of a classi-
fication into stages.
First came the culmination of the Lafayette up-
lift, which is regarded as Quaternary and there-
fore not to be esteemed as the equivalent of the
Scanian or Norfolkian of Geikie, as they belong
to the Pliocene. It includes the Albertan and
Saskatchewan stages of G. M. Dawson. Next
came the Kansan, Aftonian and Iowan stages,
all of the four named being classified as the
Glacial epoch proper. The second epoch is
named the Champlain, being the time of melting
and of subsidence, and is divided into the Cham-
plain marine beds, the Wisconsin drift sheet in-
dicating moderate reélevation, the Warren
glacial lake, the Toronto stage of temperate
climate, the Iroquois lake and the St. Lawrence
lake, overflowing through the Champlain basin
into the Hudson river. The number of stages
agrees exactly with those specified by Geikie for
Europe, provided the Lafayette consist of two.
The authors rank themselves as advocates of
the unity of the glacial epoch. It is probable
that the present diverse schools of glacialists
will tend hereafter to a greater convergence
than divergence. C. H. HircHcock.
Hansen’s Studies in Fermentation. — Practical
Studies in Fermentation, being contributions
to the Life History of Micro-organisms. By
EMIL CHRISTIAN HANSEN, PH. D., Professor
and Director of the Carlsberg Physiological
Laboratory, Copenhagen. Translated by
ALEX. K. MILLER, Pu. D., F.I.C., F.C. 5.,
and Revised by the Author. E. & F. N. Spon,
London and New York (12 Courtland St.),
1896. Pp. xiv+277. 8vo. Illustrations.
Cloth.
The general features of Dr. Hansen’s reform
in the fermentative industries have long been
known to every one who is interested in the
scientific and practical features of applied my-
cology. They are known as new and important
departures in regard to method and application,
and as important factors in the evolution of
APRIL 17, 1896. ]
great industries. Having been successfully
outlined in Jérgensen’s admirable text-book,
‘Micro-organisms and Fermentation’ (London,
1893), they are now presented to the public as
exhaustively as necessary to the practitioner
as well as to those who, without being zymo-
technics ex-professo, need to become acquainted
with the original work of Hansen.
The present volume ‘treats,’ as the author
expresses himself, ‘in the main, of the great
questions of the circulation in nature of the
alcoholic fungi, their relationship to the diseases
of beer, the pure cultivation of yeast, and the
employment of systematically selected species
and races.’
Until the beginning of the last decennium
the fermentation of beer, wine, etc., the sour-
ing of milk, and other procedures involving an
employment of the vitality of micro-organisms,
were carried out more or less at random.
Pasteur taught us that if the fermentation in
beerwort shall terminate in the formation of a
fair product, no bacteria must be present in the
yeast. Thus, Pasteur’s ‘pure yeast’ refers to
yeast free from bacteria. Hansen went further
than this. Having discovered the scientific
reasons why yeast is not constant with reference
to its morphological and physiological peculiar-
ities, he established the maxime, now generally
accepted, that yeasts, as commonly used in
breweries, are mixtures of cultivated and un-
cultivated species of Saccharomyces, and that
most of the latter so-called ‘wild’ forms are
‘disease ’-producing, that is, give rise to fer-
mentations unfavorable to both producers and
consumers. They were found to cause—aside
from certain bacteria which are known to im-
pair the results of fermentations in the brewery
—many of the symptoms which are familiar to
brewers, such as bitter taste and disagreeable
odor, lack of constancy in the product, and the
like.
Hansen’s studies resulted directly in a method
by which it is in the power of any brewery to
secure a uniform, good product. Systematic-
ally selected culture yeasts would, when intro-
duced into the brewing establishments, be cer-
tain to yield uniform, good grades of beer.
The proper selection of races was facilitated
‘by a new method of pure cultivation, allowing
SCIENCE.
601
the observer to trace the development of cultures
from individual well-defined cells.*
The successful introduction of Hansen’s sys-
tem into nearly all countries speaks eloquently
for its merits.
The major part of the volume refers to the
practical side of the question, but, as it is based
upon new methods in the study of microscopic
fungi, considerable space is devoted also to the
botanical study of these, especially of the yeasts.
Hence the appropriate sub-title noted above.
The indirect result of Hansen’s work is a new
departure in the dairy industry. Storch, of
Copenhagen, applied the principle of selected
species of organisms to the ripening of cream,
and was followed by a number of able investi-
gators, among whom is Professor Conn, of this
country, who demonstrated the necessity of
selecting such forms of the lactic acid bacteria
as were found to produce an ideal ripening for
rational dairying. In this manner improved
grades of butter may be produced and main-
tained.
The publications of Wortmann and others
show that the question of pure cultivation of
wine yeasts is rapidly gaining in favor and influ-
ence with the German and French manufacturers
of wines.
In distilleries the system has also been suc-
cessfully adopted.
Hansen’s late studies of the acetic bacteriat
seem to indicate a rapidly advancing reform in
the manufacture of vinegar, based upon the
same principle as has been followed year after
year by agriculturists throughout the world,
namely, that pure seed secure a pure crop.
Space does not permit a recapitulation of the
substantial volume before us. Yet it is evident
that every one whose work in any respect
touches upon fermentations will find it among
those publications which must inevitably be
consulted in all future work.
*This method was described exhaustively by the re-
viewer inthe American Monthly Microscopical Journal,
XYV., 35—40, 1894; with plate.
+Comp. rend. d. trav. du laboratoire de Carlsberg
III., 265-327, 1894. Ber. d. Deutschen Bot. Ges. XI.,
(69)-(73), 1893. See also Lafar ; Centralbl. f. Bakt.
u. Par XIII., 684-697, 1894 ; idem, zweite Abthei-
lung, I., 129-150 ; 1895.
602
The appearance of the book is in every way
faultless. J. CHRISTIAN BAY.
IowA STATE BOARD OF HEALTH,
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
THE AMERICAN GEOLOGIST, APRIL.
Apparent Anomalies of Stratification in the Post-
ville Well: By SAMUEL CALVIN. A recently
bored well in northeastern Iowa shows a re-
markable and unusual thickness of shaly ma-
terial in the St. Peter Sandstone. Caverns are
frequent in this unconsolidated and easily
eroded sandstone, and the author suggests that
in this case a cavern was formed in the St.
Peter sandstone and it was afterward filled by
descending waters with material from the shaly
members of the overlying Trenton.
Englacial Drift: By W.O. Crospy. In the
longest paper of this number, Prof. Crosby
presents a very thorough discussion of the
drift which was transported in the lower part
of the thick Pleistocene ice sheets, comparing
them with the Malaspina Glacier and with the
present ice sheet of the interior of Greenland.
To designate the drift so enclosed in glaciers
and ice sheets, Chamberlin proposed the term
_englacial, but he supposes that this part was of
small amount in comparison with the drift
dragged and pushed along beneath the ice as
its ground moraine. Crosby shows by the
almost universally glaciated surface of the bed-
rocks beneath the drift, excepting near the
borders of the drift-bearing areas, that the ice
sheet gathered into its lower part all the pre-
glacial residuary soil and alluvium, until the.
base of the ice, thickly charged with englacial
drift, wore into the hard underlying rocks.
With the return of a warm climate, during the
Champlain epoch, causing the final recession
and departure of the ice, Prof. Crosby thinks
that the rapid surface melting was accompanied
also by much melting of the base of the ice
sheet, whereby much of the previously engla-
cial drift was deposited as subglacial till. It
becomes, therefore, difficult to discriminate the
finally subglacial deposits from the portion of
the drift which continued to be englacial until
the surface melting or ablation at last exposed
it as superglacial till. The origin of the modi-
fied drift, or stratified gravel, sand and clay,
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 68.
brought by streams of water from the drift-
laden ice, Prof. Crosby ascribes in its larger
part to subglacial drainage, rather than to the
superglacial streams which Upham has re-
garded as the chief agency of derivation of
these beds during the mainly rapid final retreat
of the ice.
Further examination of the Fisher Meteorite :
By N. H. WincHetu. Further careful study
of this interesting meteorite shows that it con-
tains considerable glass, the mineral asmanite
(tridymite), and very probably the mineral
maskelynite.
Preliminary Notes on Studies of the Great Lakes
made in 1895: By F. B. TAytor. The author
states that his explorations and studies during
1895 lead him to doubt his former reference of
the high shore lines about the upper great lakes
of the St. Lawrence to marine submergence at-
tending or following the close of the Ice Age,
instead of which he now concludes that prob-
ably all these shores belonged to vast lakes held
by the barrier of the waning ice sheet. He as-
serts, however, that the glacial Lake Warren,
according to his exploration of its shores, was
limited to the basin of Lake Erie and the
southern part of the Huron basin, outflowing
by the Pewano channel, southwest of Saginaw
Bay, to the glacial Lake Michigan. The very
high shores around Lake Superior and the
northern part of Lake Huron and Georgian
Bay, he attributes to the later Lake Algonquin,
with outlet by a river flowing to the south and
east along the present bed of Lake Erie.
In an editorial comment by Mr. Warren
Upham, referring to Mr. Taylor’s paper, it is
suggested that only the highest beach which
had been attributed to Lake Warren in the
Erie basin may represent the Pewamo outlet,
and that later stages of Lake Warren, flowing
past Chicago to the Des Plaines and Illinois
rivers, probably formed the Arkona and Forest
or upper or lower Crittenden beaches, and the
high shores of the Georgian Bay region, and
also of Lake Superior, excepting those of its
western part belonging to an earlier glacial
lake.
THE MONIST, APRIL, 1896.
Pror. Macu describes a method of using
Rontgen’s X-rays for obtaining stereoscopic
APRIL 17, 1896. ]
views of invisible objects. Two photographic
shadow-pictures, say of a mouse, are obtained
from two different points of view and stereo-
scopically combined into a solid phantom-
picture, showing the skeleton, etc., in actual
relief. This is simply a modification, by the use
of the Rontgen rays, of Mach’s old and well-
known method of getting solid views of con-
cealed anatomical structures, etc. Prof. Mach
has also a few remarks to make on the physical
character of the X-rays. The same subject is
treated at length in a second article by Prof.
Hermann Schubert, who gives an account of the
methods successfully employed in the Hamburg
State Laboratory. Two actinograms, one of a
plaice with shells in its intestines, and one of a
lady’s hand, showing the position of a fragment
of a needle, accompany this article.
In the third article Edward Atkinson discus-
ses ‘The Philosophy of Money.’ A Polish
philosopher, W. Lutoslawski, of Kazan, gives
a brief sketch of the philosophy of Polish in-
dividualism.
The article ‘From Animal to Man,’ by Prof.
Joseph Le Conte, is a contribution to compar-
ative psychology. Considering successively
speech, art, thought, imagination, conscious-
ness and will, Prof. Le Conte tries to put his
finger as nearly as he can ‘on the dividing
line where humanity emerges out of animality.’
The abstraction of self from the facts of con-
sciousness, he thinks, may be regarded as the
consummation of humanity. ‘The Dualistic
Conception of Nature’ is a contribution by
Prof. J. Clark Murray, tracing the fortunes of
dualistic notions in the history of philosophy
and religion.
Prof. Kurd Lasswitz attacks a more difficult
problem in ‘ Nature and the Individual Mind,’
a metaphysical question of profound interest to
psychologists and philosophers. Prof. Lass-
witz seeks to show that there is no change of
mode of existence when things physical become
things mental ; the difference is merely a differ-
ence of combination of elements. ‘Objective
and subjective are distinguished solely by their
existential contents.’ The opposition of object
and subject is originally produced in and by
knowledge, and nature itself is fashioned on
lines parallel with the growth of knowledge.
SCIENCE.
608
The doctrine of ‘parallelism’ which views
physical and psychical phenomena as two
modes of representation of the same synthesis
is critically discussed, and we have also an in-
teresting application of the psychological law
of thresholds as marking the difference be-
tween nature and mind.
The last article is a discussion of the ‘ Nature
of Pleasure and Pain,’ by Dr. Paul Carus, with
particular reference to the theory of Ribot. He
thinks that the current views of pleasure and
pain exhibit a neglect of the element of form
or of the qualitative aspect of feeling. In his
view the nature of a commotion is determined
by its relation to the constitution and memory-
structures of an organism. Pleasure is the
satisfaction of a want originating in constitu-
tional habits; pain is the felt evidence of an
unsatisfied want or of any other disturbance.
The author claims that this view will do away
with all troublesome exceptions and inconsis-
tencies of the old theories.
The number concludes with the usual literary
correspondence and book reviews.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON—258TH
MEETING, SATURDAY, MARCH 21.
BARTON W. EVERMANN exhibited specimens
of Animals from an Artesian Well at San Marcos,
Texas. This well was sunk to obtain water for
the station of the U. S. Fish Commission, and
when the drill had reached a depth of 180 feet
it dropped four feet, indicating the presence of
a cavity. Although sunk much deeper, the
well was finally closed up to a depth of 184
feet, an abundant supply of water being ob-
tained at that level. The water flowing from
the well contained a considerable number of
crustaceans and a few batrachians, all blind
and all new. The crustaceans comprised one
species of shrimp, an isopod and a copepod.
The batrachian, according to Dr. Stejneger, be-
longed to the Proteida, but was remarkable for
the great length of its legs.
C. Hart Merriam spoke of the Big Bears of
North America, giving the distinctive characters
of the various species.
Leonhard Stejneger spoke on The Use of
604
Formalin in the Field, illustrating his remarks
with examples of plants, insects, fishes and
reptiles preserved in a mixture of formalin and
water. The advantages claimed were cheap-
ness, compactness, and the property of pre-
serving specimens which could not be kept in
alcohol, or could not be kept in such good con-
dition.
Henry H. Dixon and J. Joly, of Trinity
College, Dublin, summarized, by request, the
results of their Recent Researches on the Ascent
of Sap in Trees, making the deduction from an
elaborate series of experiments that the move-
ment was due to a state of tension in the sap
induced by osmotic action and transpiration in
the leaves.
maintaining a state of high tension (several
atmospheres) is that the column of water shall
not rupture, but to prevent rupture it is not
necessary, as has been supposed, that the fluid
shall contain no dissolved gas, but that the
walls of the containing vessel be completely
wet.
Under the title of the Shade-tree Question from
an Instinct Standpoint, L. O. Howard presented
a short communication upon the subject of the
relative immunity from insects of different
varieties of shade trees. He spoke of the ex-
traordinary abundance of shade-tree insects in
different Eastern cities during the summer of
1895, and exhibited specimens of the species
which were principally abundant. He further
said that in the selection of trees for shade suffi-
cient account is not taken of their relative sus-
ceptibility to insect attack. He displayed a list
drawn up a few years ago by Mr. Fernow for the
Brooklyn authorities, in which the trees to be
chosen were graded according to endurance, re-
cuperative power, cleanliness, beauty and form,
shade, duration of life period, rapidity of growth,
and persistence; and in comparison with this list
he rated the same trees according to their sus-
ceptibility to insect attack or their immunity
* from insect attack. The latter rating showed a
somewhat different relative arrangement from
the total rating derived from other qualities, and
the speaker, while admitting the value of the
total relative rating from so many important
characteristics, expressed himself as of the
opinion that in one or two cases, notably with
SCIENCE.
The chief necessary condition for .
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 68.
the box elder, extraordinary susceptibility to
insect attack renders them practically useless
for shade-tree purposes, in spite of their many
-good qualities from other standpoints.
F. E. L. Beal read a paper on the Food of the
Cowbird, Molothrus ater, giving the results of
an examination of the contents of 366 stomachs
of this species, collected in 20 States and the
District of Columbia, and representing every
mouth from March to December inclusive. The
food was found to consist of about 28 per cent.
of animal matter and 72 per cent. of vegetable.
The animal food was composed almost exclu-
sively of harmful insects and spiders. The
vegetable food consists of 20 per cent. of grain
(corn and oats), 51 per cent. of weed seeds and
traces of fruit and a few other miscellaneous
articles. As at least half of the grain eaten
must have been waste, the conclusion is reached
that in its food habits the cowbird does far
more good than harm. F, A. Lucas,
Secretary.
CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
THE eighty-sixth regular meeting was held
February 13, 1896, at the rooms of the ‘ Down-
town Club,’ and after the transaction of neces-
sary business, was devoted to a lunch and
social purposes, inaugurating the newly elected
president, Dr. HE. A. de Schweinitz. The fol-
lowing members also were elected: Messrs.
Clinton P. Townsend, S. 8. Voorhees and Dr.
F. K. Cameron.
A special meeting was held February 21st to
hear the Presidential address of the retiring
President, Prof. Chas. E. Munroe, the subject
being ‘The Development of Smokeless Powder.’
He first sought to show that the necessity for a
high power, smokeless propellant had been
created by the mechanical perfection to which
ordinance had attained, and the precision of the
weapons and instruments by which they were
directed; that the possible production of such
propellants was dependent upon the discovery
of gun cotton, nitro-glycerine and certain nitro-
substitution compounds and the improvements
in their manufacture; that the possibility of
producing uniform and reliable propellants was
dependent on the invention of pressure gauges
and velocimeters; and that the possibility of
APRIL 17, 1896.]
their economical production was dependent on
the invention of mechanical mixers applied
in other arts. In a historical resumé the
recency of most of the inventions and dis-
coveries was pointed out, and it was shown
how large a proportion was due to Ameri-
can scientific men. The many smokeless pow-
ders manufactured or proposed were enum-
erated and classified into mixtures of different
cellulose nitrates with oxidizing agents; mix-
tures of soluble or insoluble cellulose nitrates
with nitro-glycerine; mixtures of cellulose ni-
trates with nitro-substitution compounds; and.
pure cellulose nitrate powders, and the methods
of manufacture were briefly described.
The author’s own experience in inventing a
smokeless powder was then given. Recogniz-
ing at the outset the necessity for the closest
approximation to absolute chemical and physical
uniformity in a high-powered powder, and being
familiar with the difficulty of securing such
constancy in a physical mixture, he set about
producing a powder from a carefully purified
cellulose nitrate of the highest degree of nitra-
tion. This was the first and only attempt, so
far as the lecturer was aware, to produce a
powder which consisted’ of a single substance
in its pure state.
The powder was manufactured at the Torpedo
Station and proved at Indian Head by ordnance
officers of the Navy. Secretary Tracy in his re-
port (1892) says: ‘‘It became apparent to the
Department, early in this administration, that
unless it was content to fall behind the standard
of military and naval progress abroad in respect
to powder, it must take some steps to develop
and to provide for the manufacture, in this
country, of the new smokeless powder, from
which extraordinary results had been obtained
in Kurope. With this object negotiations were
at first attempted looking to the acquisition of
the secret of its composition and manufacture.
Finding itself unable to accomplish this, the
Department turned its attention to the develop-
ment of asimilar product from independent
investigation. The history of these investiga-
tions and of the successful work performed in
this direction at the Torpedo Station has been
recited in previous reports. It isa gratifying
fact to be able to show that what we could not
SCIENCE.
605
obtain through the assistance of others we suc-
ceeded in accomplishing ourselves, and that the
results are considerably in advance of those
hitherto obtained in foreign countries.”’
The conditions that smokeless powder should
fulfill, and the tests prescribed by the lecturer
were then set forth, and in closing he pointed
out that the powder was now developed to a
higher degree than the gun and that changes
in the latter to render it more efficient were
being considered by ordinance experts.
A. ©. PEALE,
Secretary.
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON,
MARCH 25, 1896.
Mr. WHITMAN Cross described the diorite of
Ophir Loop, Colorado, and'the remarkable in-
clusions contained in it. The diorite at this
locality is a lateral arm of a stock which cuts
up through Cretaceous sedimentary rocks and
a bedded volcanic series of Tertiary andesites.
The lateral offshoot from this stock is intruded
as an irregular sheet between the Dakota Cre-
taceous and the upper Jurassic, reaching a thick-
ness of 1,000 feet. In its lower portion it is
locally very full of included rock fragments.
These inclusions were described, and specimens
were exhibited. They are interpreted as gene-
tically connected with each other and with the
diorite magma, which brought them to their
present position.
The diorite is a variable rock, with augite
and hornblende. The inclusions vary from felds-
pathic rocks, poor in dark silicates, to black
amphibolites nearly free from feldspar. They
are developed in granular and banded forms,
and exhibit all manner of gradations in struc-
ture as well as in composition.
The study of these rocks led to the stated con-
clusions that quite local differentiation has gone
on in the depths from which both diorite magma
and inclusions came, and further, that a shear-
ing movement of the differentiated magma, fol-
lowed by consolidation, produced rocks greatly
resembling many gneisses, amphibolites and
schists, and especially those of the Archean
complex. It was suggested that some gneisses
and associated rocks of unexplained or assumed
metamorphic origin may be primarily banded
606
igneous rocks, which should be considered with
their massive equivalents rather than with sec-
ondary schists of similar constitution.
Mr. H. W. Turner described the Archean
Gneiss in the Sierra Nevada. The western part of
Nevada was thought by the geologists of the 40th
Parallel Survey to be an Archean area which,
during Paleozoic time was a land mass, since
there are no known Paleozoic sediments resting
on it. It was supposed that Archean rocks ex-
isted in the Sierra Nevada, although the Juras-
sic age of the hornblendic granites of that
range, as stated by Whitney, was accepted by
the 40th Parallel Survey geologists.
An area of such rocks is believed to exist in
the central part of the range, and is well ex-
posed in the canyon of the north fork of the
Mokelumne River and its branches. The rocks
are chiefly gneisses with which are associated a
granite which differs from the Jurassic granite
of the range in containing much potash felds-
par, and no hornblende, or very little. This
granite is indistinguishable from some of the
Archean granite of the Fortieth Parallel survey
collections. The gneisses vary much in com-
position, some of them being made up chiefly
of plagioclase, monoclinic pyroxene and biotite;
another type is composed of plagioclase, horn-
blende and biotite; others carry quartz, and
correspond nearly to a quartz-mica-diorite in
composition. Titanite, zircon, apatite and
pyrrhotite are among the accessory minerals.
Some of the titanites exhibit a pleodchrism,
like that found by Lacroix to be characteristic
of that mineral in pyroxene-gneisses. Certain
light colored bands containing garnet, quartz
and a mineral resembling wollastonite, may
represent original limestone lenses, or may be
regarded as vein deposits. One stratum, sup-
posed to be a quartzite in the field, contains
much pyroxene between interlocking quartz
grains, and also numerous zircons. By far the
greater part of the area is made up of the
plagioclase-hornblende-biotite gneiss. The con-
tact of the series with the large mass of horn-
blendic granite lying to the east is sharp.
Apophyses of the hornblendic (Jurassic?) gran-
ite extend into the gneiss and older granite as
dikes, and there are clear cut inclusions of the
gneiss in the late granite. All of the rocks
SCIENCE.
the east and southeast.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 68.
composing this Archean complex are thoroughly
crystalline, and there is at present no positive
evidence that any portion of the mass repre-
sents original sediments. The area has a max-
imum diameter of about nine miles. On the
west it is in contact with the great area of
Paleozoic sediments of the Gold Belt of the
Sierra Nevada. Its relation to this Paleozoic
series has not been made. out.
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY.
At the regular technical meeting of this So-
ciety held in Washington, D. C., March 20, Mr.
Gilbert Thompson explained and advocated the
use of geodetic control lines in geographic work
as supplementary to primary triangulation,
when such lines are measured with care and
latitude and longitude determinations made,
etc. Following him, Mr. N. H. Darton read a
paper on the ‘Physiographic Development of the
District of Columbia Region.’ He outlined the
geologic history of the river from early Creta-
ceous time, mainly inits bearing on the cycles
of development. The present configuration is
the product of sculpturing and deposition in
Pleistocene times, but buried beneath the various
deposits there is a succession of older land sur-
faces. The earliest recognizable surface is the
floor of crystalline rock on which the Potomac
formation was deposited. This is exposed in
many points in the vicinity of Washington and
it is seen to be a relatively smooth peneplain
surface, which originally sloped very gently to
Other similar plane
surfaces were eroded in the uplifts separating
the several later Cretaceous, Eocene, and Neo-
cene formations. These were widely extended
base levelings, which were part of the general
Tertiary planing of the Piedmont region. The
present topography began with the uplift of the
Lafayette, which amounted to about 120 feet.
As the land rose the Potomac river was born,
with its seaward course deflected by shoals on
the Lafayette surface. The minor drainage was
developed with approximately its present out-
lines, cut more or less deeply. Then with slight
submergence with deposition, in which the early
Columbia formation was spread over the floor
of the wide river trough, and up the lateral
valleys.
APRIL 17, 1896.]
Then followed emergence, in which the early
Columbia deposits were trenched and a wide
terraced inner valley cut by the river. The
widening did not progress as far as in the pre-
Columbia period and wide areas of earlier Co-
lumbia terrace remained, at altitudes averaging
200 feet. Next came submergence, in which
the later Columbia was laid down, and then fol-
lowed a widespread moderate uplift in which this
formation was trenched to a few yards before
the present tide level. The next epoch is the
present, in which the land is sinking; tide
water extends far inland and it is encroaching
gradually. The paper was illustrated by many
slides from photographs of maps, diagrams,
topographical feature and formation.
W. F. MorRsELL.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY, WASHINGTON, D. C.
THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS.
AT the meeting of the Academy of Science of
St. Louis, April 6th, forty persons present,
Prof. C. R. Sanger spoke on the commercial
synthesis of acetylene, illustrating the flame
procurable from this gas when burned with a
proper proportion of air.
Prof. Sanger also presented the results of a
preliminary biological and chemical examination
into the ice supply of St. Louis, and exhibited
a device for melting ice in such examinations
without danger of contamination from atmos-
pheric ammonia, etc.
The Secretary presented for publication, by
title, a paper by Mr. Charles Robertson, en-
titled ‘ Flowers and Insects.’
Mr. William H. Roever presented a paper on
the geometry of the lines of force from an
electrified body, in which it was shown that
(a) the curve representing a line of force pro-
ceeding from a system consisting of two parallel
electrified lines, is the locus of the intersection
of two straight lines, rotating in the same plane
about these two parallel lines as axes with uni-
form but different angular velocities ; (b) the
curve representing a line of force proceeding
from a system consisting of two electrified
points is the locus of the intersection of two
straight lines, rotating, in the same plane
about parallel axes passing through those
SCIENCE.
607
points in such a manner that the versines of their
angles of inclination to the plane of the axes
change at uniform but different rates.
WILLIAM TRELEASE,
Recording Secretary.
' BOSTON SOCIETY OF NATURAL HISTORY.
By the courtesy of the Massachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology the Society held its general
meeting of March 18th in the physical lecture
room of the Institute. Four hundred persons
present. Prof. Charles R. Cross spoke of the
X-rays, discussing the subject from an historical
standpoint. He illustrated the phenomena
connected with the disruptive discharges of
electricity across an air space, across a space
wherein there is little air, and in a tube in
which a nearly perfect vacuum is maintained.
The experiments and theories of Crookes,
Herz and Lenard were reviewed; the distinctive
characters of the X-rays, and the experiments
of Rontgen described. The fluorescence of
certain substances, such as platino-cyanide of
barium, a marked peculiarity of the X-rays,
was shown by illuminating a Crookes tube
placed in a light-tight box; the rays passing
through sheets of vulcanite and aluminum
caused a prepared slip of platino-cyanide of
barium to glow with a soft phosphorescent
light. The work of various experimenters upon
photographic plates and upon electrified sub-
stances was described in detail. Experiments
to show the effect of the X-rays upon Bacteria,
while not final, point to the conclusion that the
Bacteria are not killed.
SAMUEL HENSHAW,
Secretary.
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILA-
DELPHIA.
March 31.—A paper under the following title
was presented for publication: ‘Dr. Collet on
the morphology of the cranium and the auric-
ular openings in the North European species of
the family Strigide; to which is added some
recent opinions upon the systematic position of
the Owls,’ by R. W. Shufeldt.
Prof. Henry A. Pilsbry called attention to a
fine collection of barnacles obtained from the
bottom of a vessel recently returned from a
608
voyage to Hong Kong from San Francisco and
back by way of Java and India. Balanus tin-
tinabulum was the commonest of the species
represented; the varieties zebra and spinosus,
although growing under identical conditions,
retained their individuality perfectly.
‘The question of the constancy of varietal
characters was debated by Messrs. Sharp,
Pilsbry and Heilprin.
Mr. Pilsbry also described a specimen of
Pugnus parvus, a Ringiculate mollusk. The
species is involute, a unique character, none of
the fossil forms of the family possessing it. He
also described a Central American Melanian
under the name Pachycheilus Dalli. It is dis-
tinguished by a remarkable double sinuation of
the outer lip which has a deep and wide Pleuro-
tonoid sinus above and a rounded, projecting
lobe in the middle, below which it is again re-
tracted.
On the nomination of the Entomological Sec-
tion, Dr. Henry Skinner was elected Professor
in the Department of Insecta.
In response to an invitation from the Com-
mittee having charge of the celebration of the
fiftieth year of Lord Kelvin’s tenure of office as
Professor of Natural Philosophy in the Univer-
sity of Glasgow, General Isaac Jones Wistar
was appointed to represent the Academy on
the occasion.
Entomological Section, Dr. Henry Skinner, Re-
corder, March 25.—Dr. Geo. H. Horn made
a communication regarding the synomymy of
the Elateride. He specially described the
prosternum of Zudius. A Lower California form
had the prosternum of different shape from that
of other members of the genus, the mesosternum
being more protuberant. It will probably be
referred to Probothriwm.
Mr. Chas. 8. Welles exhibited specimens of
the larva of Harrisimemna trisignata. When
full grown they bore into wood preparatory to
changing into crysalids.
A paper was read entitled ‘The breeding
habits of Periplaneta orientalis,’ by C. Few Seiss.
Three females deposited twenty-five egg cases.
Each of these contained sixteen eggs, so that a
new generation of four hundred cockroaches
was represented by the deposit. The first of
these egg cases were dropped May 5 and 14,
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vor. III. No. 68,
1895, and were hatched November 9th. In
most cases the deposits were dropped with no
attempt at concealment, although in a few in-
stances they were placed in little trenches made
by the insect and then covered up. The de-
velopment of the capsules was described. The
young probably receive no maternal care or
protection.
Mr. Lancaster Thomas exhibited an improved
form of insect net frame made of a continuous
piece of rounded aluminum wire.
Mr. Westcott suggested linoleum as a substi-
tute for cork in the arrangement of insects.
Dr. Henry Skinner called attention to a fungus,
Polyporus betulinus, which might be used for the
same purpose with advantage.
Mr. Wm. J. Fox stated that about ninety
species of Hymenoptera, six of which were
perhaps new to science, were included in the
collection of insects brought by Dr. A. Donald-
son Smith from western Somali Land, Africa.
EDWARD J. NOLAN,
Recording Secretary.
: NEW BOOKS.
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man & Hall, Ltd. 1896. Pp. iv+604.
A Dictionary of the Names of Minerals. ALBERT
HUNTINGTON CHESTER. New York, John
Wiley & Sons. London, Chapman & Hall,
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Geschichte der Explosivstoffe. S. J. RoMmockt.
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sing, Robert Smith & Co. 1895. Pp. exxiv
+444,
SCIENCE
NEW SERIES.
Vou. III. No. 69.
Fripay, Aprit 24, 1896.
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MEMOIR OF THE GREAT NATURALIST.
Life, Letters and Works of Louis Agassiz.
By JULES MARCOU.
With Portraits and Illustrations.
2 vols., crown Svo, 84.00.
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Sor scientific readers it will be read with great interest by
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“After waiting for nearly a quarter of a century, the world
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“To scientists, especially naturalists, the biography of
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and reliable history of his life and a true estimate of his
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“ Mr. Marcou has gathered up the story of two parts of
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| properly supplement the public evidence of what he accom-
plished.” —Boston Herald.
“Mr. Marcou enjoyed the close friendship of Agassiz dur
ing almost thirty years, being one of the few men to whom
he freely unbosomed himself, and he is the last survivor of
the small band of European naturalists who came to Amer-
ica with him. His admiration of the man is not concealed ’
but he claims to have had constantly in view the truth. * * *
The task of writing his life has been to Mr. Marcou a work
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the savant, and he has given us a work of most fascinating
interest, which is of very great credit to himself, as well as a
splendid tribute to his illustrious subject.”—Boston Home
Journal.
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SCIENCE
EDITORIAL ComMiTrEeE : S. NEwcoms, Mathematics ; R. S. WooDWARD, Mechanics; E. C. PICKERING, As-
tronomy ; T. C. MENDENHALL, Physics; R. H. THuRston, Engineering ; IRA REMSEN, Chemistry ;
J. LE ConTE, Geology; W. M. DAvis, Physiography; O. C. MARsH, Paleontology; W. K. BRooKs,
Invertebrate Zodlogy ; C. HART MERRIAM, Vertebrate Zodlogy ; S. H. ScuDDER, Entomology ;
N. L. Britton, Botany ; Henry F. Osporn, General Biology ; H. P. BowpitTcu,
Physiology.; J. S. Brniines, Hygiene ; J. MCKEEN CATTELL, Psychology ;
DANIEL G. BRINTON, J. W. POWELL, Anthropology ;
G. BRowN GOODE, Scientific Organization.
Fripay, Apri 24, 1896.
CONTENTS :
The Relation of Geologic Science to Education: N.
SL SIEUATHIOTE, nocconsooseccdcooonocaoeanbadosepbaoqsHob9b000u0d 609
Some Values of Stellar Parallax by the Method of
Meridian Transits: A. S. FLINT ......0..0.:..0000 617
Ozarkian Epoch—A Suggestion: O. H. HERSHEY..620
Organic Markings on Lake Superior Iron Ores: W.
Sh (GHRIISICIDNY Gasooccsosoonqosonbeononco0bcbd0DdasDoodHN00000 622
Food of the Barn Owl: A. K. FISHER............... 623
Current Notes on Anthropology :-—
The Ethnology of Tibet ; Researches in American
Archeology; The Alleged Tertiary Man of Burmah;
Racial Degeneracy in America: D. G. BRINTON..624
Psychological Notes :—
The Sense of Equilibrium: C. L. F. The Physi-
ological Concomitants of Sensations and Emotions :
RPC KE) Coiceas succes ete esecseaieeceuevssresersasene ces 625
Scientific Notes and News :—
The Action of the House of Representatives on the
Metric Bill; The New Edinburgh Observatory. Oc-
currence of the Native Wood Rat at Washington,
D. C.: VERNON BAILEY. General................ 626
University and Educational News..........0.0.cceeeeeeeee 631
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Certitudes and Illusions: M. Is there more than
one kind of Knowledge? W. K. Brooks. The
Retinal Image Once More. W.K. Brooks. On
the Disappearance of Sham Biology from Amer-
ica: CONWAY MACMILLAN. The Prerogatives
of a State Geologist: CHARLES R. KEYES. Coin
Distortion by Rontgen Rays: FLORIAN CAJORI
AND WILLIAM STRIEBY...........00.0c0eceeeeee eee es 631
Scientific Literature :-—
The Eruptive Sequence: ANDREW C. LAWSON.
Robb’s Electric Wiring: FRANCIS E. NIPHER...635
Scientifie Journals :—
Societies and Academies :—
The Philosophical Society of Washington: BER-
NARD R. GREEN. Geological Society of Wash-
ington: W.F. MORSELL. The Anthropological
Society of Washington: J. H. McCormicr.
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia :
EDWARD J. Notan. New York Academy of
Science, Section of Astronomy and Physics: J. F.
Kemp. Northwestern University Science Club:
[io in, (OTACOE56scoc9cc0sccdaces caonodadoascqcesteasdacndced 639
' RELATIONS OF GEOLOGIC SCIENCE TO EDU-
CATION.*
INTRODUCTION.
THE custom has been established which re-
quires the retiring President of this Society,
as other societies which have for their pur-
pose the advancement of science, to set
forth his views concerning matters related
to the interests which the association seeks
to promote. This custom evidently rests
on the reasonable presumption that the
officer during his term of service has been
led by his duties to consider how the cause
which he represents may be promoted, how
its store of truth may be enlarged, and in
what manner it may best be made to serve
the interests of mankind. This task may
be essayed either by a survey of the work
which has recently been accomplished in
the science, with appropriate comment on
the trends and results of the endeavors, or
the essayist may restrict his undertaking to
some one portion of the field with which he
is conversant in the hope that he may be
able to present the fruits of his own labors
in a way which is likely to be profitable to
others. For various reasons I have chosen
the latter of these alternatives and have
taken for my subject the relations of geo-
logical science to education. Under this
title I shall not only include those questions
* Annual Address by the President, N. S. Shaler,
Read before the Geological Society of America, De-
cember 27, 1895.
610
which pertain to pedagogy, but certain
larger aspects of the matter which relate to
the needs of society, both from the moral
and the economic point of view.
TEACHING AND RESEARCH
DEFINED.
RELATIONSHIP OF
I have been in good part led to take up
this subject for the reasons that the title
itself is a protest against the modern notion
that the work of research should be sepa-
rated from that of teaching; that natural
inquiry should be released from the ancient
and profitable connection with education,
which in my opinion has advanced and en-
nobled-both these branches of learning.
‘Those who seek to have inquiry endowed
are led to the endeavor by a true sense of
the importance of the tasks with which the
path-seekers in the fields of nature have to
deal. They are, moreover, guided to their
object by the motive which leads to the di-
vision of labor in all work which men do,
whether in economics or in pure learning.
Undoubtedly a certain kind of success would
attend the complete separation of the stu-
dents of phenomena from those whose busi-
ness it is to impart knowledge ; but there
are gains which, though immediate, are not
desirable, for the reason that they entail in
the long run serious losses. It may well be
apprehended that the definite separation of
the inquirers in any science from those who
are to teach the learning would result, on
the one hand, in isolation of the men of the
laboratory from the life of their time, and
on the other, in a degradation of the instrue-
tion to a level where it would become mere
formal tutoring, destitute of the penetrating
spirit which gives value to scientific thought.
It seems to me that the explorer, if he be
animated by the true spirit of his class,
finds himself seeking for undiscovered
realms, not for personal gains, nor, indeed,
mcrely to add to the store of things known,
but always with reference to the enlarge-
SCIENCE.
LN. S. Vou. III. No. 69.
ment of mankind. His motive is in the
highest sense that of the teacher; he limits
his opportunities of personal culture if he
denies himself the chance of communica-
ting his gains to the youth of his time. It
may be held that the investigator has his
means of teaching through the press and
the learned societies, but I need not tell my
brethren of the craft that the opportunities
of sympathetic contact with his fellow men
which are thus to be had are very limited ;
that they are. quite insufficient to satisfy
the natural desire of an ardent student of
nature for relations with the life about him.
The only way in which a really wholesome
situation can be found for the naturalist in
any of the realms of nature is to link his
work with the tasks of education.
Viewed from the point of view of the
student of science, who has to catch the.
spirit of inquiry: from the word of the
master if he is to win it at all, we see that
the teaching function of the inquirer is of
the utmost importance to his science. We
all recognize and deplore the evils which
arise from the fact that young people have
to be introduced to most branches of learn-
ing by teachers who have little chance to
gain or to preserve the spirit of inquiry.
We can at most hope that the scientific mo-
tive may come to these instructors through
a study of the psychology which properly
underlies their work. It is unreasonable to
suppose that they will be able to bring to
their work the stimulating influence of
those who are a part of the learning they
convey. Therefore, if men are to be bred in
the ways of the naturalist, the task must be
done by investigators. It goes, or should
go, without saying that while these men
may give and receive profit from their posi-
tions as teachers, they should not be called
on to do the share of this work which is
“often inflicted on them, as it is on the teach-
ing body of our schools in general. A con-
dition of this combination of inquiry and in-
APRIL 24, 1896.]
struction is that the two should be associ-
ated so as to give the men of science leisure
for their studies as well as an opportunity
to influence. youths by their teachings.
INTERDEPENDENCE BETWEEN RESEARCH AND
INSTRUCTION IN GEOLOGY.
There are good reasons why the con-
nection between research and instruction
should be preserved in geology, even if it
be abandoned in the case of the other
sciences. In those other branches of natural
learning the subject-matter can be brought
into the laboratory, or, at least, as in the
case of astronomy, be in some measure
made immediately visible to the student,
but in geology only a very small part of the
facts can be demonstrated by laboratory
means. Even where the teacher finds him-
self in a field which is rich in illustrations,
he is sure to lack examples of the greater
part of the important facts which he has to
bring to the understanding of his pupils.
Under these conditions good teaching de-
‘pends upon the development of the inquiring
spirit without the stimulus of a satisfactory
direct contact with phenomena. This task
cannot be accomplished by any routine
methods or by instructors who are not true
men of science. It can only be done by
those who have the spirit of the investigator
in them, who know the range of fact in the
intimate and personal way which will en-
able them to arouse the constructive im-
aginations of the youth to the task of pictur-
ing the unseen—a task which is at the
foundation of the best culture which science
has to give.
A capital instance of what can be done
by a teacher who is also an inquirer is
afforded by the work of Louis Agassiz in
extending the interest in glacial geology in
this country. His lectures on the subject
were so vivid, they so effectively presented
the physiognomy of the Swiss glaciers, that
they quickened the imaginations of the
SCIENCE.
611
dullest persons. They aroused an interest
in the matter which was so intense and on
the whole so well informed that the study
of glacial geology in the larger sense of the
term developed more rapidly and on better
lines in this country, where existing ice
fields are lacking, than in European lands,
where examples abound. In such work we
see the part of the master in instruction. As
a contrast I may be allowed to relate a story
which gives us a notion of what science
teaching is lilwely to become when it is left
to the people of routine.
The professor of mineralogy in Harvard
University one day observed two young
women examining his mineral cabinet, one
of whom was evidently searching for some
particular species. Offering his help, he
found that the object of her quest was feld-
spar. When shown the mineral she seemed
-very much interested in the specimens, ex-
pressing herself as gratified at having the
chance to see and touch them. The pro-
fessor asked her why she so desired to see
the particular mineral. The answer was
that for some years she had been obliged to
teach in a neighboring high school, among
other things, mineralogy and geology, and
that the word feldspar occurred so often in
the text-book that her curiosity had become
aroused as to its appearance.
It will, of course, be possible to give the
routine teachers some practical knowl-
edge of feldspar and of the other matters of
fact with which they have to deal in their
text-book work, but the motive, or the lack
of it, which is indicated by the incident
will always have to be reckoned on as in-
separable from the millwork of ordinary
schools. So far as geology is concerned,
the instruction of this text-book kind which
may be essayed in the secondary schools is
quite in vain. Its only effect is to make
the youths on whom it is inflicted quite un-
approachable by the teacher who may after-
wards undertake to introduce them to
612
geology. All of us who have taught in col-
leges know the youth who has had some-
body’s ‘ six weeks of geology ’ rubbed in by
a drudge who, if required to do so, would ina
like way have applied Sanscrit. We know
that the youth who has been so misused
is in most cases, provided he is not blessed
with a good capacity for escaping the in-
fluences of education, utterly unfit for our
uses. The most economical thing to do, in
the large sense of the word, is to give him
the advice which the elder Agassiz was
wont to give to those of his students who
proved impregnable to his methods of in-
struction: ‘Sir, you better go into busi-
messy
VALUE OF GEOLOGICAL EDUCATION AND
METHODS OF TRANSMISSION.
Comprehensive Character of Geology.
Assuming, as we needs must, that as
geologists it is our duty not only to extend
the learning of the science, but also to take
charge of its diffusion among the people, let
us consider in general the value of good
which we have to deliver and the manner
in which the transmission may best be ef-
fected. ‘So far, doubtless for the reason that
geologists are uncommonly busy people,
there has been little note taken of the im-
portance of the store of the science to so-
ciety or the way in which the knowledge
should be handed down. We have been
content to harvest and have hardly con-
sidered the work of cultivation; therefore
the assessment which I am about to give
will doubtless need much revision.
In the first place, we should note well the
fact that geology differs from all other divi-
sions of natural learning in that it is not
limited to a particular group of facts or
modes of energy ; but is in a way concerned
with nearly all the work which is done in
and on this sphere. We should, perhaps,
except human affairs ; but if he is so minded
the geologist may make good his claim to a
SCIENCE.
phenomena also.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 69.
large share in interpreting that group of
In fact, the earth lore is
not a discrete science at all, but is that way
of looking at the operations of energy in the
physical, chemical and organic series which
introduces the elements of space and time
into the considerations and which further-
more endeavors to trace the combination of
the various trends of action in the stages of
development of the earth. It is in these
peculiarities of geology that we find the
basis of its value in education and in the
general culture of society, which it is the
aim of education to create. It should be in
its province, as it is clearly in its power, to
give to mankind perspectives which will
serve vastly to enlarge the evident field of
human action.
All observant teachers know that no true
success in education is possible until we
contrive an awakening of the youth from
the sleepy acceptance of the world about
him. To rid the student of this benumbing
relic of the bone-cave, the spirit of the com-
monplace, there is no treatment so effective
as that which is in the power of the master
in geology to give. The story of the ages
clearly told, with a constant reference of
the bearing of the matter on the appearance
and the fate of man, will quicken any mind
that is at all fitted to profit by the higher
education. Although geology can hardly
be said as yet to have made any such gen-
eral impression on laymen as is justified by
the body of truth which it has to deliver,
the close observer may notice certain im-
portant changes in the state of the public
mind which seem clearly to have been due
to the teachings of the science. While
many things go into the making of the
world’s judgments, there can be no question
that the plain truths concerning the anti-
quity of the earth and the series of events
which have led to the coming of mankind
have in this generation been most effective
in overturning sectarian bigotry and in
APRIL 24, 1896. ]
other ways enlarging the spirit of all edu-
cated people.
It is evident that the main contribution
which geology has to make to those concep-
tions which may enter into the spirit of our
society relates to the position of man; the
abstract learning, that which is in and for
itself, is for those who have the professional
interest. These public values of the science
are of two diverse kinds—on the one hand,
those which pertain to intellectual enlarge-
ment; on the other, to economic develop-
ment. Therefore in considering our duty
by the educational side of our work we
should see what the contributions can be to
these two modes of endeavor and how they
should be presented. First, I shall consider
the limitations of that work which may be
regarded as distinctly pedagogic.
Divisions of the Science.
It seems to me necessary distinctly to
separate the body of the instruction which
is to be given in geology into two parts—
that which is appropriate to the general
public ; and that which, though ‘ caviare to
the general,’ fits the appetite of the profes-
sional-minded. We are indebted to the
philosophical pedagogue Herbert for a state-
ment of the self-evident proposition that in-
terest in a matter must exist before infor-
mation concerning it can be profitably com-
municated ; therefore in our teaching we
must take no end of care to provide this
foundation for the attention. This care is
particularly necessary in the matters of
geology, for, as before remarked, the facts
cannot often be exhibited in the experi-
mental way, as in the laboratories of chem- -
istry and physics, where the touch of hand
or the sight of controlled actions establishes
a personal relation with the problems. The
teacher of our science has to avail himself
of certain antecedent motives which he can
presume to exist in any normal youth which
may provide the required foundation of in-
SCLENCE.
613
terest. What I have to say on this point
is the result of nearly a third of a century
of experience in teaching geology, and is
based on work which has been done with
more than 4,000 students. The basis for
the induction is sufficiently great to make
the conclusions of value. These are in brief
as follows: That instruction in geology
which is meant for those who have not ac-
quired the professional motive, must find
its basis of interest on either of two founda-
tions—on the element of sympathy with all
which relates to the fate of man which is na-
tive in all of us, or on the love of the open
fields, which every youth who is not utterly
supercivilized has as a birthright. Each of
those interests is in a way primal ; both may
be separately reckoned on as strong in
nearly all youths who are fitted for the
higher education.
Class-Room Instruction.
To make use of the motives which may
interest the beginner in geology my ex-
perience has shown that the first thing to
do is to give by means of familiar lectures
a general acquaintance with those series of
actions which show the long continuous
operations of energy in the orderly march
of events, taking pains at each convenient
opportunity-—there are many such— to note
how these processes have served to bring
about the conditions on which the develop-
ment of peoples or of states depends. Thus,
in treating of voleanoes, the very human-
ized story of Vesuvius or of Aitna, especi-
ally the dramatic episode of the death of
Pliny the Elder, is worth much to the teach-
ers for the reason that it serves to bring a
sense of human affairs into a subject which
for lack of illustration is apt to remain re-
mote and therefore uninteresting. The fact
that the story of these volcanoes, especially
that of Vesuvius, is inwoven with that of
men forms a bond between the mind of the
novice and an order of nature which would
614
otherwise be utterly unrelated to him.
Again in treating of seashore phenomena,
the history of harbors and their relation to
the development of states, affords a basis
on which to rest the account of coastline
work. Yet again, in the matters connected
with the formation of mineral deposits,
which from the nature of the subject are
apt to be somewhat elusive, it is easy to fix
the attention by reference to the relation of
those stores to the needs of man. So, in-
deed, in all parts of this preliminary work
of awakening and developing interest in his
subject, the teacher of geology, if he is to be
successful, must go about his task on the
supposition that he has to extend existing
interests to his field. When men have for
some hundred generations appreciated the
earth as we would have them do it, the pro-
cess of selection or the inheritance of ac-
quired characteristics may give a birthright
interest in the large problems of geology;
but while here and there a youth may be
found with a Hugh Miller’s taste for the
science, the teacher who reckons on having
his class thus inspired will fail to achieve
success.
Methods of Field Teaching.
As soon as the teacher through his work
in the lecture room has succeeded in’ ex-
tending the natural inborn interests of his
pupils to the problems of geology, instruc-
tion in the field should begin. In this part
of the work there is need of a great change
in the methods and aims of the teaching.
While in the lecture room the conditions re-
quire the didactic method and exclude that
of investigation, the reverse is the case in
the field. When I first essayed peripatetic
teaching I made the grave mistake in en-
deavoring to lecture with the phenomenon
asa text. In time I found that the fatigue
and other disturbing conditions of the open
made students unable to profit by any such
didactic method, and that all such direct
instruction should be done while they were
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 69.
in the more receptive conditions of the
house. The true use of the field is to awaken
in the pupils the habit of seeking for them-
selves. The teacher may trust in this task
to the existence of an observant motive in
men which is at its best when they are in
the open air. All of us, however dull we
may be in the housed state, have when
afield a discerning humor which prompts us
to learn the reasons for the unexplained oc-
currences of nature. This precious relic of
the savage life, of the original motive of
curiosity, which has been the source of
man’s advance on the most of his intellec-.
tual upgoings, is in average youths strong ;
it requires the deadening effects of a long
and misspent life to eradicate it in any
normal human being. Itis to this element
of curiosity, informed by the preliminary in-
struction of the lecture room, that the
teacher of field geology should mainly trust
for his success.
In practice it will be found impossible
completely to exclude didactic teaching in
the field—such arbitrary divisions.of meth-
ods are generally impracticable—but when
in face of an exhibition of any geological
phenomena, with the briefest possible pre-
liminary, designed to fix the attention of
the class upon the facts, the teacher should
at once become a mere questioner, a goad to
arouse the men to a like interrogation of
the things they see. It is important that
the first problems of interpretation which
are essayed should be of the simplest order,
for immediately successful work in the un-
accustomed harness is much to be desired.
Thus the determination of strikes and dips,
the identification of visible faults, and,
above all, the careful recording of such facts,
should come first and the work be carried
to distinct success before any effort is made
to use the results in the larger interpreta-
tions as to the attitudes of strata. In my
experience it is the most desirable in the
early part of the field training to give all
APRIL 24, 1896. ]
that can be obtained in the way of work
which relates to causes of action, and thus,
for the reason that men, however great their
training may otherwise be, are unlikely to
conceive the earth about them as a realm
of continuous processes, their geology is
thus not brought down to the present
period. The beds and banks of the streams,
the retreating escarpments, the shores of
lakes and of the ocean—above all the, when
rightly discerned, majestic phenomena of
the soil—all may serve to impress the pupil
with the activity of the earth, and thus clear
his mind of the natural but blinding con-
ception that after its creation time the
sphere entered on an enduring rest.
Difficulties Encountered in Field Teaching.
In my experience the difficulties which
have to be met in field teaching, apart from
the hard labor involved in the simultane-
ous exercise of mind and body, consists in
the struggle which the instructor has to
make with the incapacities which arise
from the supercivilization of his pupils.
These hindrances are protean in form, but
they are most commonly to be found in an
inability to think in three dimensions any
better than we can in four, and an inca-
pacity to continue any work when alone.
As to the first of these defects there seems
to be no resource except to revive the
natural dimensional sense which primitive
people have. Ifthe student has had sound
training in solid geometry he may the more
quickly recover the capacity to form the
special conceptions which are required of
the geologist; but the natural solid is quite
another thing from the ideal, and while the
theoretical view of them is the same the
practical experience is very different. Some
youths never learn to deal with the earth
problems from the solid point of view.
They are therefore cut off from the better
uses of the field; yet even with this signal
disadvantage they may do good work in cer-
SCIENCE.
615
tain parts of the science. One of the most
distingushed of our American geologists,
now dead, was, perhaps on account of the
fact that he saw from but one eye, quite
without the sense of the relations of the
solid ; yet, while in the field work his suc-
cess as measured by his talent was limited,
his contributions in other departments were
great and of enduring value. Neverthe-
less, though the people who abide in two
dimensional spaces may possess abilities of
a high order, they should be kept out of the
science which more than any other calls for
the ability to frame three dimensional con-
ceptions.
An inability to work alone in the field is
a rather common, and in my experience an
incurable, defect in certain students who
would otherwise be fitted for geology.
Those who are thus afflicted appear to lose
their motive of inquiry when they are parted
from their fellow men. ‘Their malady is to
be regarded as one of the many defects of
body and mind which are due to over-hous-
ing—to that absolute separation from the
peace of the wilderness which character-
izes our city life.
As soon as possible the field student
should be brought to the point where he is
required to make his own maps, at first as
sketches, and then in the more formal way
by pacing, with some methodical control,
such as by a simple triangulation. One
piece of such map work where the delinea-
tion of the surface in general ground plan
and contour, as well as the geological color-
ing, is from his own labor will often be
sufficient to affirm the working power of
the man. In the ideal of the system such
instruction should come to every student
who undertakes the study of geology, but
in practice it will probably be gained by
very few. In the department of Harvard
University which is devoted to the science
300 men each year enter on the elementary
work. Of these not more than the eighth
616
part continue the study to the point where
they may begin to do work which may be
regarded as independent; yet fewer essay
the training which looks forward to a pro-
fessional career. As this department has
been long established and is favorably con-
ditioned to give instruction, the lack of a
large attendance under a system of free
election by students may be taken as an in-
dication that while the elementary didactic
presentation of the science attracts the
greater number of the youths of our col-
leges, the higher branches are less attractive
than the other similarly difficult work of
the indoor learning, The conclusion is that
geology in the larger sense of the term is,
at least in the present condition of culture,
an interest for a few chosen spirits who are
so fortunate as to be born with a share of
the world sense, or at least with an apti-
tude for studies which demands a measure
of the primitive man which is not to be
found in the most of our supercivilized folk.
Undesirability of Teaching Geology to Immature Students.
In the demand which is now made for a
beginning of all our sciences in the second-
ary schools it is proposed to include geology
in the list and to set boys and girls of from
fourteen to seventeen years of age at work
upon the elementary work of the learning.
For my own part, while it seems to me that
some general notions concerning the history
of the earth may very well be given to
children, and this as information, it is futile
to essay any study in this science which is
intended to make avail of its larger educa-
tive influences with immature youths. The
educative value of geology depends upon an
ability to deal with the large conceptions of
space, time and the series of developments
of energy which can only be compassed by
mature minds. Immature youths, even if
they intend to win the utmost profit from
geology, would be better occupied in study-
ing the elementary tangible facts of those
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 69,
sciences such as chemistry, physics or bi-
ology, sciences which in their synthesis con-
stitute geology, rather than in a vain en-
deavor to deal in an immediate way with
a learning which in a good measure to be
profitable has to be approached with a well
developed mind. The very fact that any
considerable geological problem is likely to
involve in its discussion some knowledge of
physics, chemistry, zoology and botany is
sufficient reason for postponing the study
until the pupil is nearly adult.
EXPERT WORK AND ITS INFLUENCE AND RE—
QUIREMENTS.
Besides the relations to society which may
be established by his position as a teacher,
the geologist is from the character of his
studies much called on for another kind of
help, that which pertains to the develop-
ment of earth resources or to the litigation
which concerns earth values. In this field
the relations are more critical and more
perplexing than in that of instruction. The
results of blundering are more apparent and
their immediate effect on the reputation of
the science more unhappy. That this branch
of learning has managed to retain a fair
place in the esteem of the public in face of
the criminal blunders which its prophets
have made is indeedremarkable. It shows
how much our people are disposed to pardon
where they believe that men mean well,
however ill they may do. ‘There is, how-
ever, a lesson from this unhappy experience
which we should all read and inwardly di-
gest. This is in effect that what is called
expert work demands other qualities of
mind and another training than those which
go to make a successful investigator or
teacher. We, as well as the general public,
need to recognize that fact, that there is as
much reason to suppose that a noted teacher
of political economy should prove success-
ful in determining the merits of a proposed
business project as that his colleague in
APRIL 24, 1896.]
geology should be fit to advise in regard to
@ mining venture. The teacher may be an
expert in the economics of the profession,
but the proof of the fact is not to be found
in his scientific work or in his success as
an instructor. If he has not had the other
training it may be safely assumed that he
will be totally unfitted to wrestle with the
tricky fellows who try in amazingly varied
ways to deceive him, or even with the ten-
dencies of his own mind, which naturally
lead him to see riches where others fancy
they discern them. i
In the interests of our science it is most
desirable that all expert work should pass
into the hands of a body of men who should
bring to their task so much of geology as is
needed for the particular inquiry, commonly
not very much, and who can join with it
the more important practical acquaintance
with the miner’s art and the conditions of
trade which relate thereto, In certain cases
the men of theory may well serve these ex-
perts; all their inquiries are likely to be of
service in the determinations, but on them
should not be the responsibility for the
business side of the problems. There is
little the geologist does in the way of re-
search which may not have some practical
application to the affairs of men, but he
should not mistake this possibility of use-
fulness as an indication that itis for him
to give his inquiries an economic turn.
CONCLUSION.
We thus see that geological science, like
the most of the other branches of natural
learning, has two distinct points of contact
with society—that of instruction and that
of economic affairs. In each of these fields
of usefulness its services to man have been
great and are to be far greater in the time
to come. As for instruction, the task is to
give to men an adequate perspective for
their lives. It is to ennoble our existence
by showing how it rests upon the order of
SCIENCE.
617
the ages. In the economic field it is to
show the resources which these ages have
accumulated in the earth for the service of
the enlarged man, who is to attain his pos-
sibilities by a full understanding of his
place in nature. To do the fit work we
need to combine the functions of explorers
and guides zealous to open the way to the
unknown, and those of teachers who take
care that the youth of our time are led
into the land which we know to haveso
much promise for man.
SOME VALUES OF STELLAR PARALLAX BY
THE METHOD OF MERIDIAN TRANSITS.
In this article are presented values of the
parallax for thirteen of the list of nearly
ninety stars upon which I have been en-
gaged at this observatory the past two years.
The results here given include the values
presented at the Springfield meeting of the
American Association for the Advancement
of Science, with some additions. They are
the results of preliminary solutions based
upon all my observations of these stars
available at the time, and equal weight has
been given to each observation.
The method employed is that of the dif-
ferences of meridian transits, and it is be-
lieved this is its first application since it
was introduced inits present detail by Prof.
Dr. J. C. Kapteyn at the Leiden Observa-
tory in 1885-87. He determined the paral-
laxes of fifteen stars by this method with a
high degree of accuracy. The observing
consists in noting the successive times of
transit of three stars, of which the first and
third are comparison stars and the middle
star is the one whose parallax is sought.
The former should be so chosen as to make
the group of three stars as symmetrical as
possible in both position and magnitude.
Of course, a fine meridian instrument is re-
quired, and for.the present series the REp-
SOLD meridian circle of 12.2 c.m. was em-
ployed with a power of 180 diameters. To
618
give the instrument greater freedom the
clamp arm was detached from the pier, ex-
cepting for a few of the earlier observations.
Sereens of fine brass wire were used to re-
duce the apparent magnitude of the brighter
stars so as to make them more comparable
with the fainter stars. The screens were
mounted on a frame travelling north and
south and entirely separate from the instru-
ment. ‘They were used not for fear of the
errors arising from momentary uncertainty
_ on the part of the observer, but for fear of a
systematic change in his habit of noting the
bisections of the brighter stars. Such a
change might come about gradually during
the six months’ interval between two suc-
cessive epochs ‘of observation and would
enter directly into the concluded parallax.
To prepare each observation of a group of
three stars for combination with other ob-
servations of the same starsa simple reduc-
tion is made. The differences of the ob-
served times are corrected for deviation of
the instrument from the meridian and for
proper motion of the stars so far as they are
known, and then reduced to a common
equinox. The effect of the clock rate in well
selected groups of stars is rarely apprecia-
ble. The solution is then made so as to de-
termine three unknown quantities, namely,
the normal difference in time between the
middle star and the point exactly midway
between the first and third stars, the resi-_
dual correction for proper motion and the
parallax.
The method has certain distinctive ad-
vantages and disadvantages to be foreseen
which may here be noted. The former are
as follows: 1. The absence of any known
systematic effect of refraction, thus avoiding
any refraction term whatever in the reduc-
tions. 2. Thesimplicity of the observations
and reductions and the rapidity with which
the former may be secured. 3. The great
freedom allowed in the choice of comparison
stars as regards distance from the principal
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. III. No. 69.
star in zenith distance. 4. The stability of
the instrument and the fact that it is un-
touched at the moments of actual observa-
tion. 5. The ease with which the condition
may be secured that all observations on a
given star shall be made with the same
position of the instrument and of the ob-
server. As compared with one or another
of the modern, refined methods of measur-
ing stellar parallax, the following advan-
tages may also be given: 6. A large di-
mension of the parallactic orbit is always
measured. 7. All observations are made
at the same place in the field of the eye-
piece. 8. The attention of the observer is
directed to one point only at a time.
The disadvantages are as follows: 1.
Limitation to meridian passages, so that
observations at the time of maximum effect
of parallax are in general impracticable
through one-half of the year. 2. Limita-
tion in the choice of comparison stars, since
brighter stars must be selected on account
of the smaller apertures of meridian instru-
ments. This necessitates moreover greater
intervals between the stars allowing more
time for disturbances to occur affecting the
transits of the stars. 3. The necessity of
moving the entire telescope in passing from
one star to the next, sometimes requiring
a change of several degrees in the pointing
of the instrument and incurring the risk of
inducing strains among its parts. 4. The
fact that the instants of observation of any
two stars cannot be made simultaneous.
The present observations were made on
an illuminated field. In making up the
star groups I gave the preference to sym-
metry of position over that of magnitude.
The observing list has seemed too crowded
in some places, but the influence of this and
of any other adverse circumstances will be
better determined by the final discussion.
In order to secure, if possible, a fair num-
ber of observations at each epoch, I have
continued the observing in general on poor
APRIL 24, 1896.]
as well as on good nights.. Numerous ob-
servations have been made on miscella-
neous stars, with and without the screens,
to determine at any time the personal equa-
tion depending upon the apparent bright-
ness of a star; but these have not yet been
reduced.
The values of the parallaxes resulting
from the present solutions are given in
Table I. The average number of observa-
tions entering into each value is 35. All
the stars have been solved in the regular
manner except the last two, which pre-
sented a peculiar case to be explained in
the following. Of these 85 Pegasi was re-
duced with its second comparison star only
with an inappreciable parallax as the result.
In Table II. are presented all the pre-
vious determinations. of parallax that I
have found for the stars of Table I., exclud-
ing some older and much more uncertain
values. The several columns are suffi-
ciently explained by the headings except
the third, and here the letters given denote
different methods of observing, as follows:
H. By the heliometer.
M,. By the filar micrometer attached to
the equatorial telescope and from measures
of distance and position anglecombined; J,
from distance alone; ,, from position angle
alone; M,, from differences of declination.
Z. By measures of the zenith distances of
the parallax star alone, in the meridian.
Rk. By observations of right ascension in
the ordinary manner.
P. By measurement of photographs.
T. By differences of meridian transits em-
ploying special comparison stars.
In the case of « Lyre the letter c, in the
fifth. column, indicates that the measures
were made from the companion star. The
value given for this star from Peters is the
only absolute parallax in the table. For »
Cassiopeie and « Lyre I have included my
own results, assigned the several independ-
ent values different weights, somewhat ar-
SCIENCE.
619
bitrarily, and combined them all into one
mean value given in the table.
TABLE I
NAME OF STAR, A. [E: A.) Dec. FOP. | Parallax,
\ | | all a
“ Cassiopeia ...s-.-.0s<.s | 5.2 | 3.8 | +0.12
Lalande 15290 ........... | 8.2 | 2.0 + .10
Lalande 15565. ........... | 7.5 115%) |} 03
Lalande 18115, pr........ | 8.0 | 1.7 + 115
6 Urse Majoris........... | 3.2 | Wat |) Se Gils}
6.2 | Le ecto)
4.0 | 1.3] + .13
37 | 01 | + 20
7.0 | 1.6| + .02
4.2 | ileal |) Scales
0. 0.4) + .05
8. : + .24
5. 1.3 | +0.02
TABLE II.
; ee
|S | Fa) 2S, |e
NamporSrar.| Authority. | 3 | eS) Se |g
| \s SAE CIEL |) es
| |e | esi |
| | |
» Cassiopeiz...| O. Struve... ™,| 0.342] “1 | +£0:052') 6
Schweizer ..| M,| + . 1 .060| 5
Pritchard...| P 2 018 | 10
Plint........ um | | 2 |__.04a| 8
Weighted Mean. | +0.12 +0.020
6 Urse Majoris) Kapteyn....| 7 | £0.08 2 +0.026
» Herculis......| Belopolski..| R | +0. | 0.072
z - | (Wagner) | |
70 Ophiuchi....) Krueger....| 1 | +-0.1 2 | 0.006
| | |
a, luysreetersretcletelei= | W. Struve...} 2Z,| +0. ce | +0.025| 4
| C.A.F. Peters Z\+ 60 -050; 4
| O. Struve... e 010} 8
Johnson....| 2} .047,| 2
Briinnow....| Qj) dvbl} 6
Briinnow....| 1, i 033 | 2
eM SB § | 8/38
im. | U9 6 -ULs
IBLE cocacoas |7 | +0.049| 2 | 037) 6
Weighted Mean. | +0.138 | +0.008
85 Pegasi.:..... Briinnow.... M,| +40.054| 1 |+0.019
|
As regards the apparent uncertainty of
results, the present method cannot take
rank with the best work done with the
heliometer and the filar micrometer, or per-
haps with that done by the aid of pho-
tography. As shown by Dr. Kaprryn’s re-
fined determinations, however, this method
seems singularly free from systematic error,
and its trustworthiness may be higher than
that assigned by its accidental error alone.
In the present series a material reduction of
the apparent uncertainty of any single
night’s observation of a given star would re-
sult from diminishing the weights of the
620
poorer nights. The average probable error
of the parallaxes of Table I. is =£0.'046,
and, therefore, the true. values should be
within one-tenth of a second of the numbers
there given. When we consider average
values of parallax, however, we have a
more trustworthy determination of the dis-
tance of certain stars as a class. Thus ten
stars of the list have a proper motion of one
second or more. The mean value. of their
parallaxes is +0.’11, with a probable error
of +£0."015, so that the average distance of
these stars is indicated to be such as to re-
quire about thirty years to be traversed by
light. Table I. contains one star, Lalande
47019, which found entrance quite unex-
pectedly. It was the first comparison star
for 85 Pegasi, and the latter was first reduced
in the regular manner but showed a nega-
tive parallax. This was explained upon
making comparisons of the first star, Lalande
47019, with 85 Pegasi and the third star of
the group separately, for the two solutions
resulted in positive and nearly equal values
of the parallax for the first. The mean of
these two values, +0.’21 and +0.’’27, is
given in the table. An inspection of the
data indicates that this is a real parallax,
and not merely an apparent one such as
might be ascribed to personal change. The
magnitudes of the stars were 8.1, 6.1, 6.2
respectively, and no screens were employed
in this group. J included in the examina-
tion a number of observations made with
the screens expressly as a control on the
personal equation depending upon the bright-
ness of the stars. The case of Lalande
47019 is an interesting one, since the star
is faint and the comparison of four catalogue
positions extending from 1800 to 1890 gives
no plain indication of proper motion. Yet
the results indicate that it is the nearest
star of the thirteen in the table. With this
separate presentation of Lalande 47019 and
85 Pegasi, it will be noticed that while some
of the parallaxes are very small yet they
_ SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. ILI. No. 69.
are all positive. According to the law of
chances some of these values should be the
lowest possible ones derivable for the indi-
vidual stars and some should be the highest
possible values. The fact that they are all
positive and comprised within so limited a
range indicates that the observations are
not liable to such systematic errors as have
even led sometimes to large negative values
of parallax, and strengthens the hypothesis
that the stars of large proper motion are
on the whole comparatively near us.
In the case of two of the stars we
have several independent determinations as
shown in Table II. For 7 Cassiopeiw, one
of the stars having a remarkably large
proper motion, the results indicate a defi-
nite parallax of about 0.13. The number
of separate determinations, howeve7, is few,
and we can only say that the chances are
that the distance of this star is such that it
requires somewhere from 22 to 30 years for
its light to reach us. « Jyre has been a
favorite object for parallax observations,
owing to its brillianey and its favorable
position for northern observatories, and
consequently we have a good determina-
tion of its distance. The concluded value
of the parallax, +0.’138, corresponds to a
light journey of 23.6 years, and the uncer-
tainty of this result is so small that the
chances are that the time actually required is
somewhere between 22.3 and 25.1 years,
while we may feel confident it cannot be
more than 33 years nor less than 18 years,
that its light requires to reach our system.
A. S. Fuint.
WASHBURN OBSERVATORY, MADISON, WIS.
OZARKIAN EPOCH—A SUGGESTION.
Amone the voluminous writings on vari-
ous geological subjects published during the
past ten years, there has been frequent men-
tion made of an erosion interval occurring
between the Lafayette formation and the
lowermost glacial deposits. Those who
APRIL 24, 1896. ]
have studied the subject in the coastal
plain or southeastern portion of the United
States agree in asserting that this erosion
period, was the longest and in every way
the best marked of any that have prevailed
over any portion of the continent since the
close of the Tertiary Era. In that broad
belt of unglaciated highland which occupies
the interval between the inner edge of the
coastal plain and the outer border of the
Grift-covered district, this post-Lafayette
erosion period is as easily distinguished as
on the lower country near the coast. In-
deed, if the evidence of its length were
derived solely from the amount of rock ex-
cavation accomplished, this inner district
could be relied on chiefly to furnish this
evidence. In both districts the period of
erosion was begun by an elevation of the
continent above its normal altitude, thus
enabling the meteoric waters to institute a
vigorously erosive system of drainage. It
was terminated by a general subsidence of
the eastern portion of the United States,
and in consequence an extensive submer-
gence in the coastal plain region and the
Mississippi basin.
But in the drift-covered district, where
evidence of this post-Lafayette elevation
and erosion are not wanting, but frequently
obscured by other phenomena, the upper
limit of the erosion interval was the Kan-
san epoch of glaciation. This epoch was
followed by another of erosion on the pre-
viously ice-covered region, which was itself
many times longer than any which have suc-
ceeded it. These two important sub-div-
isions of the Glacial period are the chrono-
logic equivalents of the latter portion of the
post- Lafayette period of erosion as developed
outside the limits of the glaciated district.
Severing this latter portion there still re-
mains along period of sub-aérial erosion,
the equivalent of what in the North has
been denominated the pre-Glacial epoch of
erosion. Recent studies have indicated
SCIENCE.
621
that this early pre-Kansan erosion epoch
constituted at least one-half of the post-
Lafayette period of erosion. In fact, it occu-
pied a very large part of the time which has
elapsed since the close of the Tertiary era.
,There is, I believe, general agreement
among geological students that the post-La-
fayette period of erosion is early Quaternary
inage. I shall not argue this subject, but
assume that it has been demonstrated by
various writers that the period immediately
supervened upon the close of the Tertiary
era. Consequently, being Quaternary in age,
the portion of it which intervenes between
the institution of the era and the opening
of the Kansan epoch constitutes the first
and not least important epoch of the Pleisto-
cene period (which, as I understand the
consensus of opinion, is considered to date
from the beginning of the era).
Now, up to the present time, so far as I
am aware, there has been no specific term
applied to this first epoch as here defined,
except the rather indefinite one, pre-Glacial.
As it presented features both in conditions
of erosion, climate and flora, somewhat
similar to those which characterized subse-
quent inter-Glacial epochs, and in marked
contrast to those which characterized the
Glacial epochs, all of which have been al-
ready named, it is evident that it deserves
some specific application which will facili-
tate future studies into the natural sub-
divisions of the era. The name wanted
might be secured in the coastal plain, but
there it is difficult, if not impossible, to
separate this from the subsequent epochs to
which, as before stated, the latter portion of
the pre-Columbian erosion interval belongs.
Instead, we may more properly derive the
desired term from some geographical desig-
nation of some portion of the unglaciated
highland just without the glacial boundary.
I hereby suggest that it be hereafter known
as the Ozarkian epoch. True, while the
post-Lafayette period of erosion is as well
622 __ SOTENCE.
represented by phenomena occurring in the
Ozark Plateau region, the particular portion
of it included in this epoch is no better de-
marked than in the coastal plain. But the
Ozark region immediately adjoins a drift-
covered region on which the Kansan drift
sheet is widely exposed, and when the two
regions have been exhaustively studied the
relation of the drift to the valleys along the
border will furnish data for discriminating
the proposed Ozarkian epoch from that
which followed. The geographical element
of the term has been already used in geo-
logical nomenclature, as, for example, the
Ozark Series, the Ozark Upliftand the Ozark
Plateau, but the term as suggested differs so
widely from those in use that it can never
be confounded with them. Furthermore,
the term is euphonious and in harmony
with the nomenclature already adopted for
the other epochs of the Pleistocene period.
The Ozarkian epoch as here proposed
may be defined as a marked period of ele-
vation and sub-aérial erosion instituted by
the great post-Tertiary epeirogenic. uplift
of North America, and terminated by the
Kansan epoch of widely extended glacia-
tion. The following general table of the
sub-divisions of the Quaternary Era graph-
ically exemplifies its relative position :
% | PRESENT EPOCH...... DEPOSITION.
3 | TERRACE EPOCH...... EROSION.
pa
| a | a | Wisconsin Epoch...3d Glacial......... Drift.
| a | z | Toronto? Epoch.....2d inter-Glacial.. Erosion.
We a Iowan Epoch........ 2d Glacial.......... Drift.
Is 4 | Aftonian Epoch.....1st inter-Glacial..Erosion.
a 3 Kansan Epoch...... 1st Glacial........ Drift.
S a Ozarkian Epoch....pre-Glacial ........Erosion.
oA
Oscar H. HERSHEY.
FREEPORT, ILL.
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 69.
[Norr. The subdivisions of the Pleistocene period
in the above table, except the last, are from Chamber-
lin’s classification of the drift. The inter-glacial
epoch between the Iowan and Wisconsin stages of
glaciation has been provisionally named from the fos-
siliferous beds at Toronto, Canada, although it is con-
sidered far from certain that these strata belong to
this epoch.
It is notcustomary to affix names to periods of ero-
sion, although these are generally the longest and of-
ten the best marked divisions of geologic time. It
has been suggested that it would be well to simply
recognize the intervals of erosion, when encountered
in any region, and wait until deposits occupying them
have been discovered, before naming them. But in
the case of the particular one under discussion, the
conditions were such that no deposits contemporane-
ous with it are likely to be discovered. During the
period of elevation which immediately succeeded on
the Lafayette submergence the shore line was far be-
yond its present position, and the river alluvium
and marine deposits of that epoch are buried under
later formations and covered by the sea, where they
can never be examined. Norare there any correlative
glacial deposits which could furnish a name to the
epoch. The Ozarkian epoch as proposed is to termin-
ate previous to the earliest Pleistocene glaciation of
any portion of North America, except, perhaps, the far
North. At present the Kansan epoch, which is to in-
clude the advance and retreat of the ice sheet which
formed the so-called Kansan drift, is considered the
first of the great glaciations. But if any decisive evi-
dence of any previous distinct glaciation should be
discovered it would constitute a new epoch and simply
detract from the length of the Ozarkian epoch. The
writer is of the opinion that the portion of the Qua-
‘ternary era characterized by glacial conditions began
at some time subsequent to the opening of the era,
and it is to this distinctively pre-glacial portion that I
wish to attach the name, Ozarkian epoch O. H. H. ].
ORGANIC MARKINGS IN LAKE SUPERIOR
IRON ORES.
Art the instance of Dr. Charles D. Wal-
cott, Director U. 8. Geological Survey, and
with the kind permission of the editor of
this paper, I beg to submit the following
note, hoping that the subject may be brought
to the notice of the officers of the U. 8. Ge-
ological Survey, the Geological Surveys of
Michigan and Wisconsin, etc., as well as
that of all field workers among the rocks of
APRIL 24, 1896. ] '
the iron-ore regions whose structural and
paleontological geology in detail has yet to
be unraveled, or is at present being worked
up for publication, in this as well asin other
countries.
I merely desire here and now to announce
the discovery of traces of organic remains,
made by me in fragments of iron ore from
the Chapin mine, Iron Mountain, Menomi-
nee, Michigan, as well as possibly from
other mines on the same range or elsewhere
in the Lake Superior region. It is hoped
shortly to publish a much fuller account of
my work in this connection, in another
_ place.
During the period of 1890-93, I col-
lected a considerable number of speci-
mens of iron ore from the ore piles on the
docks at Erie, Pa., and was firmly of
opinion that some of the markings upon
them or in them were of organic origin,
produced by animals of some kind; but
being only an amateur geologist, I de-
cided to submit the material to Prof. H. S.
Williams, of New Haven, Conn., for exam-
ination. After seeing the specimens, Prof.
Williams kindly wrote: ‘‘ There are cer-
tainly some among them which resemble
very strongly the trailings left by worms or
crawling things on the sand.”
The material was then forwarded to the
U. S. National Museum, Washington, D.
C., where Prof. Charles Schuchert, assistant
curator of the Museum—Smithsonion Insti-
tution—examined them, and said: ‘The
specimens of the Algonquin ores contain
annelid trails.”
Finally they were placed in the hands of
Dr. Chas. D. Walcott for examination and
he kindly reported as, follows: ‘ Most of
the specimens from the Lake Superior re-
gion containing ‘traces of organisms in
Lake Superior iron ores’ show only mark-
ings of mechanical origin. A few, numbers
10,14, A, E and G, appear to be casts of
the trails of a small annelid and are, I
SCIENCE. 623
think, organic. It is not possible to iden-
tify them with any described species. For
convenience of reference they can be re-
ferred to the genus Planolites.”’
Prof. C. R. Van Hise, geologist in charge
U. 8S. Geological Survey, Lake Superior
Div., also saw the specimens and remarks
that in his opinion the markings might
possibly have been produced by some com-
plex movement or movements, but that.
they are very peculiar, and in any ordinary
case would be unhesitatingly accepted as
organic. My long-since-formed opinion as
to the organic origin of these markings
having thus been confirmed by the highest
authorities, this discovery will doubtless
add a new phase to the question or contro-
versy regarding the origin and age of these
ake-region iron ores, and iron-bearing
series of strata, and also should tend to ex-
cite renewed and closer investigation of
the Huronian rocks in search of better
‘fossils’ than mine, which surely exist
and will eventually be brought to light.
Those especially interested could, no
doubt, see these specimens on application to
Prof. Schuchert, at Washington, in whose
care I propose to let them remain for the
present. W.S. GRESLEY.
ERIE, PA.
FOOD OF THE BARN OWL (STRIX PRATIN-
COLA).
Ir is well known that birds of prey dis-
gorge the indigestible portions of food, such
as hair, bones and feathers. These are
formed into balls, known as ‘pellets’ or ‘re-
jects,’ by the muscular action of the stomach
and are regurgitated before a new supply of
food is taken. The ‘pellets’ contain the
skulls, teeth, and other parts of the victims,
and furnish a perfect index to the food
eaten. In a work or ‘The Hawks and
Owls of the United States,’ published in
1893, I recorded the results of the examin-
ation of 200 ‘pellets’ or ‘rejects’ of the Barn
624
Owl taken from one of the towers of the
Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.
C., June 28, 1890. Since that time 475
more have been collected—125, September
14, 1892; and 350, January 8, 1896, making
in all a total of 675 ‘pellets.’ This abund-
ant material has been carefully examined
and found to contain the remains of 1821
mammals, birds and batrachians as shown
in the following table :
1119 Meadow Voles (Microtus pennsylvanicus )
4 Pine Voles (Microtus pinetorum)
452 House Mice (Jus musculus )
134 Common Rats (Mus decumanus) .
1 White-footed Mouse (Peromyscus leucopus)
20 Jumping Mice (Zapus hudsonicus)
1 Rabbit (Lepus sylvaticus)
33 Short-tailed Shrews (Blarina brevicauda)
21 Small Short-tailed Shrews (Blarina parva)
1 Star-nosed Mole (Condylura cristata)
1 Brown Bat ( Vesperugo fuscus)
2 Sora Rails (Porzana carolina)
4 Bobolinks (Dolichonyx oryzivorus)
3 Red-winged Blackbirds ( Agelaius pheniceus)
1 Vesper Sparrow (Poocertes gramineus )
10 Song Sparrows (Melospiza fasciata)
4 Swamp Sparrows ( Melospiza georgiana )
1 Swallow ( Petrochelidon)?
1 Warbler (Dendroica)
6 Marsh Wrens ( Cistothorus palustris )
2 Spring Frogs (Rana pipiens)?
A glance at this lst will demonstrate to
any thoughtful person the immense value of
this useful bird in keeping noxious rodents
in check. Moreover, judging from the
species in the list, it may be seen that the
barn owl hunts almost exclusively in open
country, such as cultivated fields, meadows
and marsh lands, where such pests do most
damage. In Germany, according to Dr.
Bernard Altum (Journal f. Ornithologie,
1863, pp. 43 and 217) the barn owl feeds
extensively on shrews. In 703 ‘pellets,’ a
number only slightly greater than that
which I examined, he found remains of
1,579 shrews, an average of over two to each
‘ pellet,’ while our 675 ‘pellets’ contained
only 54 shrews, an average of one skull to
every 124 pellets. On the other hand our
S CIENCE
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 69.
material contained the remains of 24 mice
to each ‘pellet,’ or 93 per cent. of the
whole mass. The birds, which constitute
about 43 per cent. of the owl’s food, are in
the main species of little economic im-
portance. A. K. FIsHer.
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.
THE ETHNOLOGY OF TIBET.
A VALUABLE article on this subject is pub-
lished in the last report of the National
Museum (Washington, 1895), prepared by
the experienced traveler, Mr. W. W. Rock-
hill. It describes the social customs, dress,
habitations, agriculture, food, music, money,
religion, etc., of the Tibetans with much
minuteness.
Their civilization was demonstrably ob-
tained either from India or China, those
who may be styled the indigenous inhabit-
ants contributing very little to it. These
indigenes are now best represented by the
scanty and semi-nomadic population of the
northern plateaux, which rise to.an average
altitude of more than 15,000 feet above the
sea level. They are known as ‘ Drupa,’
and although they belong to the same lin-
guistic family as the Burmese they are
more remote than these from the physical
type of the Mongols. The hair, instead of
being straight, is wavy, the eyes brown or
hazel, the nose often narrow and not much
depressed at the root. The skin is fre-
quently nearly white and the cheeks rosy,
though on exposure the complexion may
become a dark brown.
These traits present a physical type quite
dissimilar from that which ethnographers
term the Mongolian.
RESEARCHES IN
AMERICAN ARCH AOLOGY.
Tue twenty-ninth report of the Peabody
Museum of Archeology and Ethnology, at
Cambridge, Mass., is brief, covering but
nine pages, but contains a number of inter-
APRIL 24, 1896. ] \
esting references to the researches in which
the institution is engaged.
The most noteworthy relates to the ex-
ploration of the ancient city of Copan, Hon-
duras. A wonderful stairway has been dis-
covered, twenty-four feet in width, and
leading to the summit of a pyramid over
one hundred feet in height. It is built of
massive blocks of stone, the front of each of
the steps being covered with deeply-cut
hieroglyphs and delineations of the human
form. When once restored and copied, we
may indeed find on it, as the report says,
‘the most important hieroglyphic inscrip-
tion in Central America.”
A curious addition to the Museum is the
only ancient New England bow in exist-
ence. It is five feet seven inches in length,
being much longer than has generally been
stated. The Hemenway collection from
the Salt River valley has been deposited in
the Museum by the executors and arranged
by Dr. J. Walter Fewkes. About twelve
students are studying in the department
under: the direction of Professor F. W.
Putnam and his assistant, Dr. Dorsey.
THE ALLEGED TERTIARY MAN OF BURMAH.
CONSIDERABLE attention was attracted
early last year by the assertion of Dr.
Noetling, repeated in various periodicals,
that he had discovered in a miocene layer,
* on the banks of the Irrawadi river, rude
flint implements of ‘ paleeolithic’ patterns.
Later in the year he announced that the
strata were not miocene, but certainly plio-
cene, and therefore tertiary man was still
saved.
Another geologist, Mr. Oldham, in Natu-
ral Science, September, 1895, questioned the
occurrence of the flints in the original de-
posit. It appears that the face of the out-
crop has a veneer of mud washed down
from the super-incumbent strata, adherent
to its ferruginous surface, and that the
chipped flints are found in this coating.
SCIENCE.
625
Just such ‘implements’ are scattered over
the plateau above, and would naturally be ,
washed down with the surface soil in heavy
rains.
This demonstration seems to relegate the
Burmese find to that region of extreme
doubtfulness in which at present every al-
leged discovery of tertiary man in Europe
or America rests.
RACIAL DEGENERACY IN AMERICA.
A WELL prepared article on this subject is
contributed tothe University Medical Magazine,
January, 1896, by Dr. Albert S. Ashmead.
He reviews the prevalence of goitre, cre-
tinism, leprosy and dwarf stature in Amer-
ica as factors in ethnic physical and psychi-
cal degeneration. In his survey he includes
the native as well as the immigrant Ameri-
can and African races, and collects a large
amount of references on the subject. On
the whole, it cannot be said that he has
shown any special tendency of humanity
in the New World to retrogressive trans-
formation or racial pathology. The causes
to which he alludes are frequent in the
other continents with like effects.
What would be especially desirable in
this direction would be a study of the white
race in the United States in isolated locali-
ties where its members have been subjected
to the environment for a hundred years or
more with little access of crossings from
without. Undoubtedly, important modifi-
cations have taken place, but they have not
yet been critically collected.
PSYCHOLOGICAL NOTES.
THE SENSE OF EQUILIBRIUM.
INTERESTING experiments are reported in
the Biologisches Centralblatt by Bethe on the
connection between the sense of equilibrium
and the semi-circular canals. He finds that
doves are not well adapted to exhibiting
this connection ; he allows dead doves with
their wings distended by wires, to fall
626
through the air, and finds that the struc-
ture of the body is such that equilibrium is
preserved, and is even recovered if the body
is started half way over. Hence these birds,
if active, can still often fly reasonably well
after the semi-circular canals have been ex-
tirpated. But the case is very different
with fishes, and they, consequently, exhibit
the usual effects of mutilation very perfectly;
after total extirpation of the labyrinth on
both ‘sides, they swim with complete ob-
livion of the attitude proper to the fish in
water. The author also believes that some
fishes at least learn to, guide themselves
by their labyrinth sense only after some
experience. The subject is one of great
interest, and this paper is a distinct con-
tribution to our knowledge regarding it.
Oh, by 18
THE PHYSIOLOGICAL CONCOMITANTS OF
SATIONS AND EMOTIONS.
SEN-
Tue first issue of the Journal of Experi-
mental Medicine contains -an experimental
research from the Physiological Laboratory
of John Hopkins University by Dr. T. E.
Shields on the effects of odors, irritant va-
pors and mental work upon the blood flow.
The author regards his chief results to be
improvements in Mosso’s plethysmograph.
With this instrument changes in the volume
of the arm are measured and it is assumed
that the blood withdrawn from the arm is
ealled to the brain as a result of mental
activity. The apparatus is complicated and
Dr. Shields has used great care in elimina-
ting various sources of error. He finds that
odors and mental work cause (presumably )
congestion of the brain. Even when the
volume of the arm is at first increased, this
is due to the acceleration of the heart rate,
which would also tend to increase the sup-
ply of blood to the brain. Dr. Shields’ ex-
periments contradict Lehman’s view that
pleasant sensations decrease the blood sup-
SCIENCE. ‘
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 69.
ply to the brain.
illustrated.
Dr. F. Kirsow, in a paper (Philos. Stu-
dien, XI., 1) not referred to by Dr. Shields,
has used Mosso’s new sphygmomanometer
for similar purposes. With this instrument
the pressure of the blood in two fingers is
measured. Strained attention, mental ope-
rations, such as multiplying, sudden noises,
sudden pains, etc., were used. The results
were varied and difficult to interpret. Some-
times there was no alteration in pressure,
sometimes there was a decrease, but more
commonly an increase. Dr. Kiesow con-
eludes that the alterations are not due to
the sensations nor to the attention as such,
but to the feelings that accompany them.
In an extended investigation (Philos.
Studien X1I.,1,3 and 4) Dr. Paul Mentz has
studied the effects of sounds on the pulse
and on breathing. <A single noise or tone
of moderate intensity caused a slower pulse
and usually a slower rate of breathing,
which the author attributes chiefly to the
pleasure accompanying the sensation. If
the sounds are intense or long continued
the pulse becomes quickened. When mu-
sic was listened to passively the rate of the
pulse was decreased, but it was quickened
when the attention was strained.
J. McK. C.
The article is admirably
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
THE ACTION OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTA—
TIVES ON THE METRIC BILL.*
THe Hon. C. W. Stone, Chairman of the
Committee on Coinage, Weights and Measures,
received notice on Tuesday afternoon, April
7th, that he would be given an opportunity to
call up at once the Committee’s Bill in regard
- to fixing the standard of weights and measures,
according to the Metric System of weights and
measures. The hour was late, but Mr. Stone
promptly made his argument in favor of the
Bill, Mr. Stone’s speech was a thorough and
* Based upon the report of the correspondent of the
New York Dry Goods Economist.
APRIL 24, 1896.]
comprehensive discussion of the proposed
change, preceded by a historical sketch of the
origin of the system, He quoted the predic-
tion made by the Hon. John A. Kasson in re-
porting the bill in 1866 to the House, that a
subsequent House would make, at a not-distant
date, exclusive and compulsory the measures
then simply legalized. He cited the strong in-
dorsements which the system has received from
the late Secretary Blaine, Postmaster-General
Wilson, Secretary Caslisle, The Director of the
Mint, the Superintendent of the Coast and Geo-
detic Survey, ete., and dwelt at some length on
the letter of the Hon. J. 8. Morton, Secretary of
Agriculture. He discussed also the magnitude
of our commercial relations with Metric-using
countries and showed the ease with which the
system had been adopted by different peoples.
He cited the British Consular reports, showing
Great Britain’s loss through retaining her old
and awkward systems, and explained the pres-
ent progress toward the Metric System by the
three remaining non-Metric countries, the
United States, Great Britain and Russia.
Mr. Stone’s speech was very well received,and
it was first thought that a vote would be taken
without debate. Mr. Bartlett, of New York,
however, secured the floor and made a short
speech in opposition to the bill. He was followed
by Representative Otey, of Virginia, who made a
humorous speech against the Metric System,
dwelling chiefly upon the Metric terms. Mr.
Hurley, of Brooklyn, replied in a dignified
manner to Mr. Otey’s effort and suggested that
in the hands of a humorist our present system
could be made very ridiculous. After more
discussion Mr. Stone called for a vote, and on
a division of the House there were 65 votes in
the affirmative and 80 in the negative. The
vote being less than a quornm, Mr. Stone suc-
ceeded in securing an adjournment, and the
fight went over until Wednesday morning,
when the yeas and nays’ were ordered. After
the experience of the day before, Mr. Stone
was anxious to gain time, believing that it was
only necessary to acquaint the members further
in regard to the system under more favorable
conditions than those of a noisy debate in the
House, to secure the passage of the bill; but a
vote could not be avoided, and when the an-
SCIENCE.
627
nouncement was made that the bill had passed
by a vote of 119 to 117 a shout of applause
went up from the floor and galleries. Those
who had opposed the bill, however, took cour-
age, because of the narrow majority in favor of
the bill, and promptly moved a reconsideration.
Upon this motion yeas and nays were ordered
and the opponents of the bill went vigorously
to work to change votes, with the bugaboo of
the angry farmer protesting against being
tangled up with a new system of weights and
measures on the eve of a Congressional election.
The result of this work was soon apparent.
Mr. Hurley’s motion to lay the motion to re-
consider on the table was lost by a vote of 136
to 111, and the motion to reconsider prevailed
by a vote of 141 to 99. Mr. Stone’s only re-
maining chance was to ask to have the bill re-
committed to his Committee. This motion was
carried viva voce.
After the battle in the House many members
who had voted against the bill expressed them-
selves as not being opposed to it for any reason
except that they did not understand it; while
others did not hesitate to say that it would be
a very easy thing to put through after election.
A Western member voiced the sentiment of
many of his colleagues in a paraphrase of one
of Mr. Otey’s witticisms, saying: ‘‘If I should
talk to my farmers about kilograms they
would kill me next November.”’
The campaign for the introduction of the only
enlightened system of weights and measures
known to the world will go on unchecked, and
sooner or later the United States will follow
the other nations of the earth in its adoption.
THE NEW EDINBURGH OBSERVATORY.
THE new Royal Observatory at Edinburgh was
opened on April 7th by an inaugural ceremony
in which Lord Balfour, Lord Crawford and Sir
Robert S. Ball took part. Edinburgh has long
had a fairly well equipped observatory, but
several years ago the Earl of Crawford pre-
sented his fine collection of instruments to the
observatory, and as there was not room to use
these properly a government grant amounting
to £36,000 was secured for a new. building.
The building and its equipment are said to be
much superior to any other in Great Britain,
628
though they do not compare favorably with the
great American observatories. According to
the description in the London Times, the build-
ings Consist of the observatory proper, the offi-
cial residence of the. Astronomer Royal, the
residence of the assistant astronomers and sub-
sidiary buildings. The Observatory is a T-
shaped building, the head of the T facing the
north with a frontage of 180 feet, and having
at each end a telescope tower, of which the
eastern is 75 feet high and 40 feet in diameter,
and the western is 44 feet by 27 feet. The
former contains the most important instrument
in the observatory—a new refracting telescope
of 15-inch aperture. The latter contains the
reflecting telescope, removed from the Calton
observatory, which has an aperture of 2 feet,
and which is to be used in astro-physical re-
searches. From the western tower a sloping
gangway leads upwards to the transit house, in
which is a telescope of 8} inch diameter resting
on a horizontal axis. Connected with the Ob-
servatory, there are a well-equipped photo-
graphic laboratory, and a library with accom-
modation for some 30,000 volumes, which is
already well furnished with the Dun Echt col-
lection.
The director of the Observatory is Mr. Ralph
Copeland, Astronomer Royal for Scotland and
Professor of Astronomy in the University of
Edinburgh.
OCCURRENCE OF THE NATIVE WOOD RAT AT
WASHINGTON, D.C.
Tue Alleghany Wood Rat, Neotoma pennsyl-
vanica, inhabits the Alleghany plateau from the
mountains of North Carolina to southern New
York. In Virginia it is known to occur at
several localities in the Blue Ridge Mountains.
Recently, in trapping among the rocky cliffs
along the west side of the Potomac River, four
miles above Washington and a quarter of a mile
from the old boundary line of the District of
Columbia, I secured five of these rats. They
are fairly common at this point, which they
doubtless reach by following the river cliffs
from Harper’s Ferry, where the Potomac cuts
through the Blue Ridge. No doubt they come
a little farther down, probably to the end of the
high ridge opposite Georgetown.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 69.
The rats were caught under masses of broken
rock and in clefts and caverns in the ledges,
where their nests, stick piles and runways may
be seen by any one who will take the trouble
to look for them. VERNON BAILEY
GENERAL.
THE French Association for the Advancement
of Science met at Tunis during the first week of
the present month. M. Paul Dislére, in his
Presidential address, reviewed navigation on
the Mediterranean, beginning with ancient Car-
thage. M.de Bort, the Secretary, according
to custom, described the previous meeting at
Marseilles, losses by death, and honors con-
ferred on members. M. Galante, the Treasurer,
reported receipts for the current year amount-
ing to 99,661 fr. and a reserve fund amounting
to 1,190,100 fr. The meeting next year will be
at St. Etienne.
Tur American Medical Association, in con-
junction with the American Academy of Medi-
cine and other associations, meets this year at
Atlanta, beginning on May 2d. Many papers
and discussions, interesting not only to mem-
bers of the medical profession, but also to other
men of science, are announced.
AN examination of the recently published
list of the Deutsche chemische Gesellschaft reveals
some interesting statistics. Out of 3,020 mem-
bers, 1,274 are from foreign countries. Of these
the United States stand first with 261, and the
United Kingdom a close second with 286. Then
follows Austria, 175; Switzerland, 145; Rus-
sia, 124; France, 76; Holland, 75; Italy, 67,
and Sweden, 28. Belgium, South America,
Denmark, Japan, Norway, Finland and the
East Indies follow with between five and ten ;
Canada, India, South Africa, Portugal, Rouma-
nia, Bulgaria, China, West Indies, Spain, Servia,
Greece, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, East
Roumelia, Persia and Palestine are represented,
the last four by a single member each. The
Society might with justice claim to be inter-
national. Turkey is the only country in
Europe with no member.
THE Société Nationale d’ Horticulture de France
will hold an international exposition from May
90-25, 1896. During that period an Inter-
APRIL 24, 1896. ]
national Horticultural Congress will also be
held to which the correspondents of the Society
are invited to send delegates. Correspondence
should be directed to M. Ernest Bergman, Sec-
retary of the Commission for the organization of
the Congress, 84 Rue de Frenelle, Paris.
Av the Berlin Industrial Exhibition to be
held from the 1st of May to the 15th of October
of the present year, there will be an inter-
national exhibition of astronomical photographs.
Astronomers are requested to send to Dr. F. 8S.
Archenhold, astronomer of the Grunewald
Observatory, photographs, drawings of astrono-
mical instruments and other objects suitable to
the exposition. “ Dr. Archenhold will exhibit
the new refracting telescope of the Grunewald
Observatory, which is said to be the largest in
Germany. This has two objectives, one of 170
and one of 110 em. Instead of the usual dome,
this telescope is provided with a cylindrical
cover.
Irv is announced that Prof. Schafer, of Uni-
versity College, London, is editing a text-book
of physiology which will contain contributions
by Professors Halliburton, Gamgee, Burdon
Sanderson, Gaskell, Langley, Sherrington, Mc-
Kendrick, Haycraft and others.
THE Swiss National Exhibition, which will be
held at Geneva from May 1st to October 15th,
will be especially noteworthy for the electrical
exhibit, which, it is said, will be the finest ever
made. Mr. Theodore Turretine, the Mayor of
Geneva and President of the Exposition, is him-
self an electrical engineer.
THe Natural History Museum of London
has acquired by purchase the collection of fossil
bird remains from the reputed ‘Hocene’ beds
of Santa Cruz, Patagonia, formed by Dr. F.
Ameghino, of La Plata.
THE Pennsylvania Forestry Association held
an unusually successful meeting at Philadelphia
on April 10th. Addresses were made by Govy-
ernor Hastings, Mayor Warwick, Provost Har-
rison, Mr. Fernow and Dr. Rothrock.
THE American Metrological Society is send-
ing out a great many metric charts, pamphlets,
petitions, etc., for the purpose of educating the
people in regard to the salient points of the
metric system, and those who understand the
SCIENCE.
629
system are requested to write to their Repre-
sentatives in Congress, urging them to vote for
the Committee’s Bill, a copy of which was pub-
lished in this JouRNAL on March 27th. ‘
Ina speech before the Senate in behalf of the
bill providing for an additional fire-proof build-
ing for the U. S. National Museum, Senator
Morrill stated that while the proposed building
would suffice for the present to exhibit the ac-
cumulated specimens another and more elabor-
ate building would be ultimately found neces-
sary.
Dr. WILLIAM SHARP, F. R. 8., died at
Llandudno, Wales, on April 10th, being 91
years of age. Dr. Sharp aided in the introduc-
tion of the teaching of science in schools and in
the establishment of local museums throughout
Great Britain. We regret also to record the
death of Prof. Justus M. Silliman, for twenty-
five years professor of mining engineering at
Lafayette College, and of Dr. Charles Human,
the German engineer and archeologist.
THE British Medical Journal states that the
late Dr. W. C. Williamson, professor of botany
at Owens College, Manchester, whose collection
of specimens has just been purchased by the
British Museum, left behind him an autobiog-
raphy, which Mr. George Redway is about to
publish under the title of ‘Reminiscences of a
Yorkshire Naturalist.’
Mr. SEWELL has introduced into the United
States Senate a bill providing for the establish-
ment of a military and national park on the
Palisades of the Hudson and making a prelimi-
nary appropriation of $500,000 for the purpose.
The States of New York and New Jersey have
agreed to cede jurisdiction over the Palisades
to the United States.
THE French Geographical Society has
awarded a gold medal to Dr. Louis Lapique
for his voyage along the coast of Beloochistan
and in the Persian Gulf, and more especially
for his ethnographical researches on the Ne-
gritos.
THE British Medical Journal states that M.
Renier has bequeathed to the Belgian treasury
the sum of two million franes, to be applied to
the foundation of a medical institute to be
called the ‘Institut Rommelaere.’
THE first serious treatment of American Mal-
lophaga, or bird lice, is found in a paper just
published conjointly by the Leland Stanford
University and the California Academy of Sci-
ences. In this paper Prof. V. L. Kellogg gives
a table and synopsis of the genera and describes
one new genus and 388 new American species,
besides identifying 22 species previously de-
scribed by European authors, but here, with
few exceptions, first determined as parasites of
American birds. For the first time in any work
close attention is paid to immature forms as a
contribution toward their almost unknown life
history, and about 80 complete figures of bird
lice are given, besides others of details of struc-
ture or portions of the body. It is sure to
stimulate further investigation in a much neg-
lected field.
A serious landslide is reported to have taken
place at Trub, twenty miles east of Berne. <A
landslide is also said to have taken place at
Bondesir, Saguenay county, Quebec.
Pror. W. WunptT has been elected foreign
associate and M. J. Lachelier member of the
Paris Institut (Academy of Medical and Politi-
cal Sciences). :
THE provisional program of the International
Congress of Psychology, to be held at Munich
from the 4th to the 7th of August, announces
102 papers, and others will be announced later.
Fretirx ALCAN announces as in press La psy-
chologie des sentiments by Prof. Ribot and Les
types intellectuels by Prof. Paulhan.
THE epidemic disease afflicting well meaning
but ignorant people and leading them to see
visions somewhat similar to those occurring in
delirium tremens is not confined to America. <A
memorial with some 12,000 signatures has been
presented to the Home Secretary of Great Britain
and Ireland, claiming that there is not sufficient
inspection under the act relating to vivisection.
They state that two licensees had exceded the
rights given them by their certificates.
On April 5th, the first Sunday that the Lon-
don National Museums were open to the public,
there were 7,138 visitors at South Kensington
Museum and 3,026 at Bethnal Green Museum.
Dr. Lewis Swirt, of Lowe Observatory, Cali-
fornia, has discovered a new comet. It is stated
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 69.
that its position was: Right ascension, 3 hours,
38 minutes and 26 seconds; declination, 18
degrees, 19 minutes, 32 seconds north on April
16th, 0.6896 Greenwich mean time. The comet
is moving north at the rate of 2} degrees per
day and very slowly westward. It is about as
bright as a seventh magnitude star, and has a
decided condensation in its head and a short
tail.
Dr. CH. WARDELL STILEs, of the U. 8. De-
partment of Agriculture, has been elected a
member of the French Academy of Medicine.
Pror. SEELEY, F. R. 8., will begin a summer
course of lecture excursions with the London
Geological Field Class at the end of April. The
subject of the series will be ‘The Physical
Geography and Geology of the Thames and
its Tributaries.’ This is the 11th annual course.
THE Boston Aéronautical Society, wishing to
circulate its notices and reports, requests all
those who are in any way interested in aérial
navigation, to place their names on file, ad-
dressing the Secretary of the Society, Box 1197,
Boston.
THE Progressive Age has published a report on
experiments carried out by Prof. E. J. Houston
and A. E. Kenelly to determine the actual
cost of producing carbide of calcium at the
works of the Wilson Company, at Spray, N. C.
We learn from The Lancet that the Dean and
Faculty of the Medical School of University
College, Bristol, having consented to receive
and permanently locate the valuable collection
of momentos of Edward Jenner, known as the
‘Jenner Relics,’ it is desired to raise by public
subscription the sum of £1,500 in order to de-
fray the cost of purchase from Mr. Frederick
Mockler, of Wotton-under-Edge. Each sub-
seriber of one guinea and upwards will receive
when the list is complete a silver medal, and to
subscribers of not less than half a guinea a
bronze medal will be presented, commemora-
tive of the Jenner Centenary, May 14, 1896.
In the summary report of the Canadian Geo-
logical Survey, Mr. Dawson calls attention to
the entirely insignificant accommodation af-
forded by the present building for the work of
the Survey. Not only are the offices inade-
APRIL 24, 1896.]
quate and inconvenient, but the space available
in the museum has become much too restricted,
while both offices and museum, with all their
valuable accumulations, are subject to danger
of loss by fire. The advantage to Canada of
having an adequate display of the mineral
wealth of the country can scarcely be exagger-
ated, and that the museum, even in its present
state, possesses much interest to the general
public, is evidenced by the fact that more than
26,000 visitors have been registered during the
year.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
YALE UNIVERSITY receives $200,000 through
the marriage of Mrs. T. C. Sloane. Mr. Sloane
had left part of his estate as a trust fund, the
above amount to go to Yale University in case
of Mrs. Sloane’s second marriage.
- THE will of the late Ephraim Howe leaves
$40,000 to Tufts college for a new building to
be known as the Howe memorial.
THE New York Evening Post states that the
library of Cornell University has secured, by
purchase, through the Sage endowment fund,
the extensive collection of works on South
America gathered, mainly during an eight
years’ residence in Brazil, by Herbert H. Smith,
of the Brazilian Geological Commission.
Ir is understood that Edinburgh University
will receive £20,000 from the estate of the Earl
of Moray as an endowment fund for the pro-
motion of original research in the University.
THE Senate of the Glasgow University. has
conferred the degree of D. D. on Prof. Thisel-
ton-Dyer and on Prof. Andrew Gray.
THE St. Petersburg Medical Academy has re-
ceived from the Russian government $2,500 for
experiments with the X-rays.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
CERTITUDES AND ILLUSIONS.
EDITOR OF SCIENCE: I am very much afraid
that physicists will find themselves utterly un-
able to follow, or, at least, to understand, Major
Powell in his philosophical dissertations on the
fundamental concepts of mechanics, and that
SCIENCE.
631
they will be compelled to conclude that his
philosophy is not ‘ Natural’ Philosophy, in the
generally accepted sense.
Believing this to be inevitable, it is hardly
worth while to continue at any length a discus-
sion or critical examination of the very inter-
e&Sting propositions which he has laid down. It
may be of use, however, to invite his attention
to the fact that in the answers to my questions
relating to ‘Rest and Motion,’ which he gave
in this JOURNAL for April 17th, he continues to
ignore entirely the only serious issue raised by
them. It can hardly be supposed that Major
Powell is undertaking to establish a concept of
motion independent of relativity, yet he seems
to overlook the necessity of giving it considera-
tion. When, in answer to my question, he de-
fines motion as ‘change of position’ it only
leaves the question where it was before, if not
in even greater obscurity. ‘Position’ implies
a relation; then motion implies a relation and
cannot be predicated of any one of Major
Powell’s several orders of units.
His statement that ‘‘the speed of a particle
is constant in reference to itself at different
times’’ is meaningless, if the commonly ac-
cepted idea of motion is correct. If it is not
correct, and that of Major Powell is, then—the
bottom has dropped out.
As to his suggested correction of a typograph-
ical error in his previous statement relating to
the velocity of light, if molar be substituted for
molecular in that statement, it remains quite as
astounding as before. I mention this only that
he may note that apparently he has not de-
tected the real absurdity involved. M.
APRIL 19, 1896.
IS THERE MORE THAN ONE KIND OF
EDGE ?
“* My praise shall be dedicated to the mind it-
self. The mind is the man, and the knowledge of
the mind. A manis but what he knoweth. The
mind itself is but an accident to knowledge, for
knowledge is a double of that which is. The truth
of being and the truth of knowing is all one.’’—
Praise of knowledge.
KNOWL-
I am pleased to find in the current number of
SCIENCE (April 3, 1896), that after seven months
632
of irrelevant discussion on side issues, one of
your readers (M. M.), has at last found the
thesis of my article on Science and Poetry
(ScIENCE Oct. 4, 1895,) worthy of consideration.
While I take issue with M. M., I thank him
for this opportunity to give, once more, my
reasons for the belief that is in me that there is
only one kind of knowledge and but one way
to acquire it.
T hope I may be permitted to say, in intro-
duction, that I have no sympathy with those
who hold that science is inductive or nothing.
I yield to no one in reverence for mathematics.
I wish it had been my good fortune to be more
familiar with the deductive or ‘abstract’
sciences, for I believe they are the best products
of the human mind. I am prepared to stake
everything on their axioms, for I believe they
are a£10l, or worthy of all confidence. I accept
the logical deductions from them as the best and
most trustworthy of all knowledge.
All this is quite a different matter from the
admission that these axioms rest on anything but
evidence ; that they are ‘necessary ;’ or that
we have any way to deduce new truth from
them except the employment of that empirical
logic of events, which is based on evidence and
knowledge of the order of nature. I am ac-
‘quainted with no evidence that the mind is any-
thing more than ‘an, accident to knowledge,’
or that knowledge is any thing but ‘the double
of that which is.’
In his comment on my assertion that the test
of truth is evidence and nothing but evidence,
M. M. admits that evidence is a requisite test
for nearly all truths. I infer from this qualifi-
cation that he believes there are some truths
for which evidence is not necessary.
If this means that some truths are already
supported by so much evidence that no more is
needed, I have nothing to say; but I take it
that he believes with Hume, that certain truths
‘are discoverable by the mere operation of
thought, without dependence on what is any-
where existent in the universe.’
His words are not very explicit; and if this
is not his meaning I beg his pardon, and I ask
leave to address this communication to those
readers of SCIENCE, if any there be, who do
believe in ‘necessary truths.’
SCIENCE.
[N. §. Vou. III. No. 69.
Like most students of the order of nature, I
feel my own unfitness to contend in argument
with one trained in dialectic, and I shall, there-
fore, attempt no more than a brief statement
of what I believe to be the opinion of most of
my scientific contemporaries concerning those
conceptions which are called axioms, innate
ideas, intuitive beliefs or necessary truths.
When we ask proof that these conceptions
are innate we get no direct evidence, but we
are told we must admit this, since we cannot
conceive their contrary. As M. M. acknowl-
edges that ‘inconceivability is no test of falsity,’
he, at least, cannot make this reply; for, if his
words mean anything they mean that incon-
ceivable things may be true. We have no way
to discriminate between unknown things, and
anything which may be true may some time
prove true.
If there were any reason to believe the
human mind is a finished instrument, perfect,
and a measure of the unknown, the argument,
that these beliefs are necessary because we can-
not conceive their contrary, might seem valid;
but no one who believes ‘the subtilty of nature
is far beyond that of sense or of the under-
standing’ can admit that this proves they are
necessary in any sense of the word except the
practical one. We are able to spin fancies out
of our minds as a spider spins silk out of its
stomach, but I hope most readers of SCIENCE
agree that ‘‘all this is but a web of the wit; it
can work nothing.’’ I hope they agree, also,
that the difference between truth and fancy is
evidence.
We say, glibly enough, of this quintessence of
dust : ‘‘ What a piece of work is man? How
noble in reason! how infinite in faculties! in
apprehension how like a god!’ But it is per-
haps fortunate for our self esteem that we
have no opinion on the subject by any compe-
tent judge; andit is the height of folly to at-
tempt to measure the unknown by our own
minds.
We are told, furthermore, that reasoning is
impossible unless these ‘necessary’ truths are
admitted, and that, if they should ever cease
to hold good, the result would be madness and
destruction. This may be true, for all I know,
but if the human race is ever overwhelmed in
APRIL 24, 1896.]
this way it will not be the first, for the rocks are
filled with the remains of races which have
been destroyed because their internal adjust-
ments failed, at last, to correspond to the order
of nature, after a long period of more or less
perfect agreement.
There is no direct evidence that the concep-
tions in question are innate. The indirect
evidence from the inconceivability of their
negation is worthless, because of the imperfec-
tion of our minds. The statement that thought
is impossible without them is no assurance that
our race may not, like many races which
have gone before, some time find itself where
the old order changes. Finally the modern stu-
dent finds still a fourth reason for questioning
the necessity of these ideas; the fact that evidence
is adequate to account for them, and that the
assumption that they are innate is unnecessary.
‘Tt isimpossible to prove that the cogency of
mathematical first principles is due to anything
more than these circumstances ; that the experi-
ences with which they are concerned are among
the first which arise in the mind ; that they are
so incessantly repeated as to justify us, accord-
ing to the ordinary laws of ideation, in expect-
ing that the associations which they form will
be of extreme tenacity ; while the fact that
the expectations based upon them are always
verified finishes the process of welding them to-
gether. Thus, if the axioms of mathematics
are innate, nature would seem to have taken
unnecessary trouble, since the ordinary process
of association appears to be amply sufficient to
confer upon them all the universality and ne-
cessity which they actually possess.’’
Your correspondent M. M. complains that my
assertion, that the only test of truth is evidence,
gives him ‘a slight feeling of dizziness,’ as if it
were something radical and revolutionary. He
may be interested to know that about 2500
years ago Heraclitus warned his fellowmen of
the danger of seeking truth in their own little
worlds instead of the great and common world,
while Bacon gives more energetic expression to
the same conviction in the following words:
‘This is a rotten and pernicious idea or esti-
mation that the majesty of man’s mind suffers
diminution, if it be long and deeply conversant
with experiences. * *, And this opinion or state
SCIENCE.
633
of mind received much strength from another
wild and unfounded opinion, which held that
truth is innate in the mind of man and not intro-
duced from without, and that the senses rather
excite than inform the understanding.’’
Most students of the principles of science ad-
mit that the mind of man has not yet attained
to knowledge of causes, but that it has, so far,
discovered nothing except a little of the order of
nature. The reason why events, either mental
or physical, occur in one order rather than an-
other is a mystery which is absolutely unsolved.
We can say no more of them than that ‘they
appear together, but we do not know why.’’
If this is true it is clear that we are in no
position to say of any event that it cannot be
true in the absence of any other event. ‘‘The
distinction between the necessary and the suffi-
cient condition for the truth of a statement,”’
which M. M. seeks to establish, has therefore no
warrant in our knowledge of nature; for while
we may seek to ‘govern nature in opinion we
are thrall unto her in necessity.’
Whether there be such a thing as formal logic,
distinct from the empirical logic of events, or
not, I believe my associates are pretty well
agreed that all attempts to make practical ap-
plication of formal logic have ended in failure.
“The two ways of contemplation are not unlike
the two ways of action commonly spoken of by
the ancients ; the one pleasant and smooth in
the beginning and in the end impassable, the
other rough and troublesome in the entrance
but after a while fair and even. So it is in
contemplation ; if a man will begin with cer-
tainties, he shall end in doubts, but if he will
be content to begin with doubts he shall end
in certainties.
“Once on a time there were two brothers.
One was called Prometheus, because he always
looked before him and boasted that he was wise
beforehand.
‘‘The other was called Epimetheus, because
he always looked behind him and did not boast
at all, but said humbly, like the Irishman, that
he would sooner prophesy after the event.
‘Well, Prometheus was a very clever fellow,
of course, and invented all sorts of wonderful
things, but, unfortunately, when they were set
to work, to work was just what they would not
634
do; wherefore very little has come of them, and
very little is left of them; and now nobody
knows what they were, save a few archzologi-
cal old gentlemen who scratch in queer corners.
‘¢But Epimetheus was a very slow fellow,
certainly, and went among men for a clod, and
a muff, and a milksop, and a slow coach and a
bloke, and a boodle, and so forth. And very
little he did for many years; but what he did
he never had to do over again. -Stupid old
Epimetheus went working and _ grubbing
on, always looking behind him to see what
had happened, till he really learned to know
now and then what would happen next, and
understood so well which side his bread was
buttered, and which way the cat jumped, that
he began to make things which would work, and
go on working too, till at last he grew as rich as
a Jew and as fat as a farmer, and people
thought twice before they meddled with him,
but only once before they asked him to help
them.”’ W. K. Brooks.
APRIL 8, 1896.
THE RETINAL IMAGE ONCE MORE,
I REJOICE to learn, in the current number of
Science (April 3, 1896, p. 517), that C. L. F.
does not include me with the ‘ Medical Society in
Philadelphia,’ and the ‘ Prominent Baltimore Phy-
sician,’ among those ‘ Distinguished Scientists
who think there is anything which needs explana-
tion in the fact that the image on the retina is in-
verted ;’ but as I know no reason why the
readers of SCIENCE should rejoice with me, I do
not care to dwell on the matter.
W. K. Brooks.
ON THE DISAPPEARANCE OF SHAM BIOLOGY
FROM AMERICA.
AuLMosr exactly three years ago I contributed
to SCIENCE* a paper entitled ‘On the Emergence
of aSham Biology in America.’ In this article I
found it necessary to criticise severely the con-
dition of things in some of the leading American
universities where courses in zodlogy were per-
mitted to masquerade under the larger title of
Biology. I protested vigorously against the
educational deception which, in at least one im-
portant institution—where the official announce-
* SCIENCE, Old Series, 21: 184. 7 Ap., 1893.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 69.
ment was made that only lack of funds pre-
vented a proper development of botanical sci-
ence—attempted to cover up this poverty by
naming the courses in zodlogy courses in ‘ biol-
ogy.’ It was pointed out that much harm was
done to true biological science by such ignoring
of one-half of the science and professing that
the moiety remaining was the whole.
Following this article of three years ago was
a great outcry against my position from gentle-
men professing to represent Johns Hopkins
University and Columbia University in the
columns of SCIENCE, but at the same time I re-
ceived some half hundred letters of congratula-
tion from both zodlogists and botanists, repre-
senting the leading institutions of the country
from Harvard to California. In ScrENCcE for
May 26, 1893, I closed the discussion and waited
for the outcome, for it was clear that attention
to the matter had been excited.
Within a year Chicago University announced
the withdrawal of its Department of Biology
and the title of Dr. Whitman was changed from
Head Professor of Biology to Head Professor of
Zoology. Following ‘this came the announce-
ment of the creation of a Department of Botany
at that institution, and one stronghold had
fallen.
This year I learn that on March 2d the
Trustees of Columbia University have changed
the name of the Department of Biology to De-
partment of Zodlogy, and have altered the titles
of the staff to correspond. I am exceedingly
gratified at this action which places Columbia
upon the reasonable and honest basis. It now
remains for the one important institution that
is at the same time the greatest offender of all
to awaken to its isolated and dishonest position
and to cease sending out Doctors of Philosophy
in Biology when the botanical. work is still in
the hands of a tutor and the preponderant stress
is laid upon zodlogy. A full professorship of
botany should be established at once, requiring
no change in staff, but giving a fair recognition
to both biological sciences and saving the insti-
tution from such spectacles as it had to witness
three years ago when its ‘biologists’ stood up
manfully for a sham biology that is now vanish-
ing like mists in the morning.
Conway MAcMILLAN.
APRIL 24, 1896. ]
THE PREROGATIVES OF A STATE GEOLOGIST.
Ir was with surprise that I noticed in a re-
cent number of SCIENCE a communication on
the ‘Prerogatives of a State Geologist,’ in
which I am made the target of considerable
unfair criticism. The temerity of its author,
Mr. Erasmus Haworth, in distorting facts is not
only a little astonishing, but smacks almost
of deliberate endeavor to misrepresentation.
Ordinarily it would not demand the slightest
notice, but from the character of the presenta-
tion there might appear some plausibility to
some of those who have no personal knowledge
of the circumstances, of the animus of assault,
or of the persons involved. I do not care to
impose, even upon an indulgent public, an
account of the various differences which have
recently arisen between Mr. Haworth and my-
self. I only wish to make the statement, and
that emphatically, that the charges made are
either wholly false or are calculated to deceive.
With the same data and by the same adroit
manipulation of phrases and partial quotation
it can be proved to the full satisfaction of the
sunflower savant that the moon is made of
green cheese. CHARLES R. KEYEs.
COIN DISTORTIONS BY RONTGEN RAYS.
WE have repeated Professor Frost’s interest-
ing experiments on the distortion of coins
(SciENcE, N.S, Vol. III., No. 65, p. 465) in
skiagraphs, but we have come to the conclusion
that the distortion is due, not to electrostatic
charges (as was suggested in the article referred
to), but simply to umbras and penumbras
formed by rays emanating from different points
and falling upon coins of different thicknesses.
In repeating Prof. Frost’s experiments, we had
the Crookes tube 14 mm. above the silver dol-
lar and the film 3 mm. below the coins. We
then placed the coins on a horizontal pane of
glass and in the same position relative to the
Crookes tube above them as when the skiagraph
was taken. On holding a piece of paper up
against the pane and examining by the eye, from
below, the shadow cast by the coins in the light
of the Crookes tube above, the very same dis-
tortion was seen that was shown in the skia-
graph.
SCIENCE.
635
With the view of preventing X-rays having a
large incident angle from striking the edges of
the coins forming the curvilinear triangle, we
placed upon the triangle a cylindrical section
cut from the neck of a yellow-glass bottle. The
section was ground down to a height of 11
mm., its internal diameter varied from 13 to
15 mm., its thickness was 5mm. The distor-
tion in the skiagraph was a trifle less than for-
merly, but more pronounced, we thought, than
in the ocular test.
Fearing that the glass was somewhat trans-
parent to X-rays, we replaced it by three iron
washers superposed upon each other. Their
internal and external diameters were 14 mm.
and 34 mm. respectively, and their combined
thickness was 9mm. The tube, film and coins
were in the same relative position as before.
The skiagraph revealed much less distortion
than in the first exposure. The ocular test
with the washers on and with them off pro-
duced, as nearly as we could tell, exactly the
same effects as were shown in the skiagraphs.
In another trial we discarded the washers
and separated the coins from the film by only
three thicknesses of black paper. The tube
was again 14mm. above the coins. As expected,
the edges of the coins in the skiagraph were
very sharp, and there was no trace of distor-
tion. In this case the electrostatic charges
must have been fully as pronounced as in the
first experiment, but a perceptible penumbra
could not have been formed. It would seem,
therefore, that the distortion was due simply to
umbras and penumbras cast by the coins.
FLORIAN CAsort,
WILLIAM STRIEBY.
COLORADO COLLEGE,
April 10, 1896.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
THE ERUPTIVE SEQUENCE.
Die Eruptivgesteine des Kristianiagebietes IT.
Die Eruptionsfolge der triadischen Eruptivges-
teine bei Predazzo in Siidtyrol. Von Dr. W.
C. Brogcrr. Videnskabsselskabets Skrifter,
I. Mathematisk-Natury. Klasse. 1895, No.
7. Kristiania.
After many years of exhaustive research
636
Brogger is now giving to science the results of
his labors on the rocks of southeastern Norway
in a series of memoirs of which the one before
us is the second, Various preliminary papers
and the classic monograph, Die Mineralien der
Syenitpegmatitgdnge, have stimulated petrologists
to a keen anticipation of the magnificent contri-
bution which should accrue to their science by
the publication of Brégger’s work. The first
two memoirs amply justify these anticipations;
and it is becoming apparent that the work will
be an epoch-making event in the history of the
science, and will result in the establishment, on
asure basis, of the principle of magma differentia-
tion as one of the most important factors, if not
the all-controlling factor in the genesis of rock
types. Toward this principle, or rather toward
a full comprehension of its scope, petrology has
been groping rather vaguely for the last ten
years, and we now seem to have arrived at a
point when knowledge is beginning to crystallize
from the all-pervading magma of ignorance.
Among those prominent in contributing to the
modern conception of differentiation Brogger is
facile princeps, and it is fortunate for the science
of petrology that a field so rich in possibilities
of demonstration of the differentiation hypothe-
sis should have fallen to the lot of so keen and
masterful an investigator.
The subject-matter of the paper may be stated
under the following heads:
1. The establishment of a new family of plu-
tonic rocks, designated the monzonites.
2. A discussion of the eruptive sequence near
Predazzo.
3. A discussion of the mechanism of plutonic
eruption, involving
4. The proof of the laccolitic character of the
plutonic rocks of the Christiania region.
5. A comparison of the eruptive sequence
near Predazzo and Monzoni with that in the
Christiania region.
6. The formulation and discussion of the law
of plutonic sequence, involving
7. The discrimination between the sequence
of plutonic and that of volcanic rocks.
A few words by way of summary and com-
ment may be of service as indicative of the
trend of thought in modern petrology.
The term monzonite has been used by differ-
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 69.
ent writers in various senses as a comprehensive
and as a special designation for certain rocks
occurring in the classic environs of Predazzo
and Monzoni. The confusion arising from the
various usages of the term is historically re-
viewed, and it is pointed out that, however
various the usage, the rocks designated as mon-
zonites have been, with one exception, by all
writers, referred to the family of the Diorites,
or plagioclase rocks, or to the Syenites, 7. e.,
orthoclase rocks. A review of the literature
and of the rocks themselves leads Brogger to
the view that the latter are properly to be
classed with neither of these two families, but
are characterized by approximately equal oc-
currence of both alkali feldspars and lime-soda
feldspars. This being so, he claims for them
recognition as a distinct family of plutonic
rocks intermediate between those characterized
by the prevalence of orthoclase (alkali feldspar)
and those characterized by the predominance of
plagioclase (lime-soda feldspar).
After an exhaustive review of the chemical
characters of the monzonites and a discussion
of their relations to other families of rocks, he
formally defines them as an order of transition
rocks between the orthoclase and the plagio-
clase rocks, of true plutonic character. They
are of intermediate bacisity (SiO,-49-62 per
cent.), with a moderate lime contents (6-7 per
cent.) and about the same contents of alkalies
in equal proportion; high in alumina (17-18 per
cent.) and relatively low in magnesia. Various
subdivisions of the monzonites are recognized,
such as pyroxene-monzonite, hornblende-monzonite,
ete.
The establishment of the monzonites as a sep-
arate family of plutonic rocks as above defined
is important in the emphasis which it places
upon the inadequacy of the present scheme
of classification to accommodate all rocks, and
as expressive of a strong tendency among
petrologists to expand the nomenclature.
The eruptive sequence near Predazzo and
Monzoni is formulated as follows:
1, Oldest—Dykes and flows of basic rocks.
2, Corresponding to the latest of these are
basic plutonic rocks,
3. More acid rocks—Monzonites, represented
by volcanic flows of plagioclase porphyrite.
APRIL 24, 1896. ]
4, Biotite granite with contact facies of tour-
maline granite.
5. Complementary dykes of camptonite and
nepheline-bostonite-porphyry.
The discussion of the mechanism of plutonic
eruption consists chiefly in a vigorous attack
upon the ‘assimilation hypothesis’ of Michel-
Lévy based upon its utter failure to explain the
facts of the Christiania region. The assimila-
“tion hypothesis has much in common with a
similar hypothesis put forward earlier by
Kjerulf and involves the assumption that plu-
tonic massifs have pierced the crust by a pro-
cess of fusion of the region invaded and conse-
quently of an absorption of a portion of the
crust, thus explaining the common abutment
upon these massifs of different stratigraphic
horizons of the region invaded. Brogger com-
bats this view, as it appears successfully, as
applied to the Christiania region, and shows
that the plutonic rocks have a laccolitic, and
not a batholitic, relation to the Silurian strata
which they invaded. This constitutes a very
important advance in our conceptions of lacco-
lites, the Christiania laccolite being by far the
most extensive now known. The assimilation
idea is disproved by the fact that although the
igneous magmas invaded Silurian limestone,
the analyses of the rocks show no enrichment
of lime near the contacts; and the fact that the
plutonic rocks transgress the ruptured edges of
the Silurian strata, with the local absence of
the lower members, is shown to be probably
due to the fact that the latter underlie the lac-
colite and have not been absorbed by it. While
the assimilation theory thus breaks down when
applied to the Christiania region, it is by no
means certain that it is not the true explanation
of the origin of many other more extensive
areas of plutonic rocks, as Brogger admits.
The essential features of the assimilation hy-
pothesis were formulated by the reviewer some
years ago, before the publication of Michael
Lévy’s views, and urged as a satisfactory expla-
nation of the remarkable relations which obtain
between the Laurentian granites and gneisses
and the upper Archean or Ontarian metamor-
phicrocks. These intrusive granites and gneisses
occupy vast tracts of the Canadian Archean
plateau and there seems to be no escape from
SCIENCE.
637
the view that they bear a batholitic relation to
the crust which they invaded from below. Por-
tions of the crust were absorbed, but there are
two possibilities as to the method of absorption
viz: 1. By fusion; 2. By sinking into the magma.
The numerous blocks of rocks scattered through
the granites lends much probability to the latter
having played a part in the process. Such
batholites were doubtless accompanied by lacco-
litic satellites.
In his comparison of the eruptive sequence
in the Tyrol and Christiania regions Brogger
finds an essential identity to the extent that the
eruptive activity yielded first basic rocks, then
those of intermediate acidity, then acid rocks
and finally a reappearance of basic rocks in
limited amount in the form of dykes.
The evidence bearing upon the sequence of
plutonic eruption, drawn from the records of
various well-known fields of geological research,
is next placed in review and leads our author to
the formulation of a general or normal law of se-
quence, which states, that plutonic rocks appear
in any field in the order ‘ basic, less basic, acid.’
The sudden return to basic intrusions succeed-
ing the acid is‘ not sufficiently constant to war-
rant it being made part of so general a proposi-
tion. This law of succession is at variance with
other attempts at the formulation of a general
law, but all such former attempts have either
been concerned with volcanic rocks salely, or
have failed to discriminate between the volcanic
and the plutonic. The necessity is urged of
investigating the succession of these two classes
of rocks separately. The discrimination will
undoubtedly lead to an elimination of much of
the confusion which exists in geological litera-
ture on these interesting questions.
In graceful compliment to American research,
the volume is dedicated by its author to Prof.
J. P. Iddings, of the University of Chicago.
ANDREW C. LAWSON.
BERKELEY, March 11, 1896.
Electric Wiring. By RussELL Ropes. Mac-
millan & Co., New York. 183 pp., 76 cuts.
Price, $2.50.
This book is intended for the use of archi-
tects, underwriters and the owners of buildings.
In the first and second chapters the author ex-
plains, ‘in a very clear manner and in a non-
technical language, the properties of wires
carrying currents of electricity. The particular
features treated are those which have a bearing
on danger from fire and the proper proportion-
ing of wires to avoid such danger. Chapter
III. deals with the series, the multiple and the
three-wire systems. There are excellent dia-
grams showing what these systems are, and the
text explains how they are operated. Chapter
IV. gives a brief account of methods of wiring,
particular attention being given to the reasons
which make the conduit system the most desir-
able for the better class of modern buildings.
The remaining chapter gives the National code
of rules for wiring as applied to Central Stations,
High- Potential Systems, Low-Potential Systems,
Alternating Systems, Electric Railways and
Batteries. These rules are all quoted in full,
and each rule is followed by a full explanation
of the reasons for its adoption and the dangers
which it is the object of the rule to avert. The
rules contain many technical words which are
explained. It is evident that this is the kind
of information which will conduce to the more
general carrying out of these rules in practice.
The house owner will see that they are de-
signed to protect this property, and not simply
to annoy him by useless restrictions. The book
is well-written and contains information that
no house owner can afford to ignore if he is
called upon to deal with electric wiring.
FRANcIS E. NIPHER.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
THE AUK.
Tue Auk for April is a number of rather
more than usual interest. The opening article,
by William Palmer, ‘On the Florida Ground
Owl (Speotyto floridana),’ treats in detail of the
peculiar distribution and breeding habits of this
hitherto little known species, and is illustrated
by a colored plate of the bird, a diagram of one
ofits breeding sites, and a cut showing: in sec-
tion one of its burrows. Mr. F. A. Lucas
writes of ‘The Taxonomic Value.of the Tongue
in Birds,’ illustrated with figures of the tongue
in 12. species, showing the relation of its struc-
SCIEN CK.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 69.
ture to the food habits in different groups of
birds.
Miss Florence A. Merriam has interesting
~*Notes on Some of the Birds of Southern
California,’ and the well-known artist, Abbott
H. Thayer, has a very suggestive paper on
‘The Law which Underlies Protective Colora-
tion,’ with cuts in the text and five full-page
photographic illustrations. In short, Mr.
Thayer’s newly discovered law is to the effect
that ‘animals are painted by nature, darkest
on those parts which tend to be most lighted
by the sky’s light, and vice versa.’ This is illus-
trated by a series of ingenious experiments
with the Ruffed Grouse and Woodcock, show-
ing that when the darker ‘protective’ tints of the
upper surface are artificially extended over the
lighter lower parts the bird becomes ‘com-
pletely unmasked.’ The artificial extension of
the top colors over the lower parts destroys the
counter-gradation of colors imposed by nature
and forces the bird’s solidity to manifest itself.
Dr. Louis B. Bishop describes a new Song
Sparrow and a new Horned Lark from North
Dakota, and George K. Cherrie a new Night-
hawk from Costa Rica. Witmer Stone pub-
lishes a revision of the North American Horned
Owls, describing also anew species. Some six-
teen pages are devoted to a critical examination,
by J. A. Allen, of Gatke’s ‘Heligoland as an
Ornithological Observatory, the Result of Fifty
Years’ Experience ’—a book that has attracted
wide attention and in general has received high
praise. Mr. Allen, however, shows that its
merits have been often greatly overrated, and
its faults either wholly overlooked or very
leniently mentioned. While ‘ Heligoland’ is
an important contribution to the literature of
ornithology, ‘‘it contains much that is set forth
as fact which proves on close examination to be
mere conjecture.’? This is especially true of
Chapter TV., on the ‘ Velocity of the Migration
Flight,’ where, on very slight evidence and in
opposition to an abundance of rebutting testi-
mony, it is claimed that most birds perform
under normal conditions their migratory jour-
neys in ‘one uninterrupted nocturnal flight, * *
accomplishing a distance of at least 1,600 geo-
graphical miles within the space of nine hours.’
He even considers that the: Red Spotted Blue-
APRIL 24, 1896. ]
throat (Cyanecula suecica) may make the jour-
ney from Northern Africa to the Scandinavian
Peninsula—a distance of 2,000 to 2,400 geo-
graphical miles—during a single May night,
giving a velocity of four miles a minnte, or 240
miles an hour! The American Golden Plover,
he affirms, migrates in autumn from Labrador
to Brazil—a distance of 3,000 miles—in a single
uninterrupted flight, going at an average rate
of ‘212 geographical miles per hour.’ As he
offers nothing but negative evidence and con-
jecture in proof of these statements, they are
scarcely entitled to serious notice, so contrary
are they to all of the known evidence bearing
on the case. In Chapter VI., on the ‘Order
of Migration According to Age and Sex,’
the evidence in support of his thoory that
“the autumn migration is initiated by the
young birds, from about six to eight weeks after
leaving the nest,’’ does not well bear close
analysis. But the worst portion of his book is
the fourteen pages relating to ‘Changes in
the Colour of the Plumage of Birds without
Moulting,’ in which he asserts that the breed-
ing dress in many birds is acquired by a change
in the color of the feathers themselves without
any alteration or change in their texture,
whereby pure white feathers change to dark
brown or black ; and not only this, but the worn
jagged edges of the old feathers at the same
time are restored to their former size and evenly
rounded outline, so as to look in reality like
new feathers. As a matter of fact, the very
species he cites and describes in detail as under-
going this wonderful process are well known to
acquire their breeding dress by a spring molt!
In view of these and other misstatements the
review closes with the following: ‘‘ With all
its imperfections ‘Heligoland’ is a book of
great interest and value, Part III. being a par-
ticularly useful contribution to the literature of
ornithology. It is also a work that is likely to
do much harm, for it is its sensational and in-
accurate parts especially that find their way
into the current literature of the day, and par-
ticularly into magazines and books devoted to
the popularization of natural history.’’
The department of ‘ Recent Literature’ con-
tains the usual complement of reviews of lead-
ing works and papers on ornithology, and the
SCIENCE.
63
department of ‘General Notes’ some thirty
brief notices of rare or little known species, re-
lating mainly to their occurrence at unusual or
entirely new localities. Under the heading
‘Correspondence’ some ten pages are devoted
to the discussion of various questions of nomen-
clature, by Witmer Stone, H. C. Oberholser and
the editor, the number concluding as usual with
several pages of ‘ Notes and News.’
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON,
MARCH 28.
Mr. CHARLES RICHARD DobDGE read a paper
on some undeveloped American fibers. He
stated that government experiments for the de-
velopment of fiber industries in different coun-
tries date back nearly one hundred years. A
necessity for such government aid is the im-
portance of securing disinterested experts to
prosecute the work, that the investigations and
experiments may be conducted in a scientific
manner. Such experiments relate to the test-
ing of the strength of fibrous substances, the
testing of new machines or new chemical pro-
cesses for their preparation, and the cultivation
of fiber plants when necessary to demonstrate
their precise economic value.
In the United States 15 commercial fibers are
recognized, only four of which are produced to
any extent within our borders: cotton, hemp,
palmetto and Spanish moss. The commercial
forms not grown, but which might be produced
in this country, are flax, jute, sisal hemp, New
Zealand flax, cocoanut and possibly sunn hemp.
There are many other forms of plants, some
of them classed as American weeds, which pro-
duce fibers known as jute or hemp substitutes,
that it will not pay to cultivate while the stand-
ard fibers hold the market. These are chiefly
bast fiber plants.
The flax industry is being reéstablished in
this country, on the lines of an ‘ American prac-
tice’ laid down by the Department of Agricul-
ture, and gratifying progress has already been
made in the new industry. Sisal hemp and
some alleged forms of structural fiber plants will
thrive in southern Florida. Ramie culture and
the spinning and manufacture of the fiber are
640
no longer problems, though the world waits for
a successful machine to clean the fiber for
market.
There are many hundreds of fiber plants in
the world, and the fiber expert is constantly
asked to give information concerning the more
promising species, not always with a view to
cultivation, but often that useless expense in
experimentation may be avoided through proper
knowledge of their value. The question to be
asked in considering a new form of fiber is not
“Can we grow the species?’’ but ‘‘What commer-
cial fiber will it compete with, or become a sub-
stitute for??? With a definite knowledge of the
subject, as it relates to the fibers of the world,
the expert need never be in doubt regarding the
economic value of any species that may be sub-
mitted to him for an opinion.
The commercial fibers represent, in a sense,
the survival of the fittest, and until these are
crowded out by new conditions there is little
chance for the other fibers, unless a particular
species is found adapted to some new and
special use for which the standard forms are
not available.
The second paper was on Geographic Names
by Henry Gannett. BERNARD R. GREEN,
Secretary.
APRIL 11, 1896.
Mr. 8. P. LANGLEY read a paper on ‘ More
recent observations in the infra-red spectrum.’
He referred to a communication to the So-
ciety more than two years ago, in which the
expectation was held out of an early publica-
tion of a map of the infra-red spectrum made
by the bolometer, and he desired to explain
some of the difficulties which had caused its
delay.
It was the misfortune of the astro-physical
observatory here that appropriations for its
maintenance were made in such a form that a
proper building could not be erected in some
site free from tremor, and under circumstances
providing against local disturbance. As had
already been stated in official reports, such local
causes had introduced numerous errors in the
record, in the form of tremors and oscillations
in the photographic trace of the movements of
the needle controlled by the bolometer, which
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 69.
it was almost impossible to exclude in the pre-
sent installation. The linear spectra which had
been shown here and before the British Asso-
ciation were all produced by a nearly automatic
process, the minutest line in the spectrum im-
plying a corresponding minuteness in the orig-
inal curve; and in this connection he desired
to call attention to the statement in a previous
report, to the effect that all the minuter details,
such as had been shown here and at Oxford,
had not been verified; and to the fact that
illustrations of the minuter detail in linear form
were given at that time, with the caution that
they were presented ‘only in illustration,’ and
were ‘not to be treated as a criterion of the
final results.’
The amount of local error is roughly propor-
tional to the minuteness of the detail sought.
Thus, in the spectrum shown here, and later at
Oxford, giving the leading lines discovered by
the new method, nearly everything has stood
the test of subsequent investigation ; while of
the minuter detail in the curves of which a
linear translation was then given, in illustration
of the process, a large proportion had been sub-
sequently found to lie under suspicion.
The extent to which the character of the
work had been influenced by these local condi-
tions having been more and more recognized,
the labor of the past two years had consisted
largely in weeding out errors arising from them,
and the process had involved the slow recon-
struction or modification of nearly every por-
tion of the apparatus, with special reference to
the difficulties imposed by the site and the in-
sufficient installation.
Details of the new apparatus were then given
with lantern illustrations, particular attention
being directed to the introduction of the system
of suspending the galvanometer so that ground
tremors were not conveyed to it, or were con-
veyed in diminished intensity, a change which
was stated had been a most essential improve-
ment, and which had done away, not entirely,
but more than might have been thought pos-
sible, with the inconveniences of a site sur-
rounded by city traffic.
Many bolographs had been taken during the
past year, but only within the past months had
the apparatus been brought to such a condition
APRIL 24, 1896. ]
that the local causes of error were diminished
to a degree consistent with the desired standard
of accuracy. In illustration of the difficulties
overcome, it was stated that while a current
passing through the bolometer is something
like jj ampere, and while a current of less than
qty millionth part of this will cause a deflection
of a millimeter on the scale, no such deflection
was visible in the automatic trace shown in
illustration. The bolometer was nearly as
sensitive at the time of the last communication
as it has been made since, and the work of the
past two years has lain in guarding this sensi-
tiveness against local causes of error, so that it
shall be engaged in legitimate service, and re-
spond only to a message from the sun. The
speaker trusted that the final results of this
labor would soon be made public, and con-
cluded by renewing a statement of his obliga-
tion to those gentlemen who had been pre-
viously connected with the work, and by an
expression of his indebtedness to Messrs.
Abbot, Child and Fowle, who are associated
‘ with its present development.
Mr. E. D. PRESTON read a paper on French,
German and English systems of shorthand
writing, in which he gave a brief review of short-
hand writing from the time of the ancient sys-
tems down to the present day. The principles
underlying the art were illustrated by examples
from the French “((Duployé) German (Gabels-
berger) and English (Pitman). A comparison
was made with reference to accuracy and
rapidity in the three cases. Special contrac-
tions depending on the particular language em-
ployed were also illustrated. As a further test
in order that no advantage should be given to
either, each of the systems was applied to a
strictly phonographic tongue (Polynesian) out-
side of the Indo-European family of languages:
The conclusion was that English shorthand is
the most philosophical, the French the simplest,
and the German the most vigorous.
Mr. R. A. Harris, of the U. S. Coast and
Geodetic Survey, read a paper the objects of
which were ‘‘To show in a non-mathematical
way what simple oscillations go to make up the
complex tidal wave; to give a short account of
the harmonic treatment of tides, and to describe
briefly certain mechanical aids which are, or
SCIENCE.
641
may be, used in connection with the analysis
and prediction of tides.’’
The principal tidal components were pointed
out by considering what their ‘speeds’ must
be in order to cause them to gain or lose one
oscillation on a component haying a ‘speed’
equal to the apparent diurnal motion of the
moon or sun, or twice this motion, after the
the lapse of certain times, as a tropical month
or year, an anomalistic month or year, a half
tropical month or year, a half synodical month,
ete.
A sample was shown of the perforated sheets
devised by Mr. L. P. Shidy, of the Survey, and
styled ‘stencils,’ which have been in constant
use for upwards of ten years. They indicate
how the hourly heights are to be combined in
the various kinds of summation, and so do away
with the necessity of copying and recopying the
tabular values.
A design of an adding apparatus to be gov-
erned by a stencil sheet embracing, side by side,
all components to be summed for was shown.
This, if constructed, would enable a person to
sum simultaneously for all components almost
as rapidly as for a single one upon an ordinary
adding machine. The stencil sheet does away
with the necessity of the great variety of gears
(representing ‘speeds’) found in the Thomson
harmonic analyzer, and insures positive work-
ings. In fact, there are but two kinds of gear
wheels in the adding apparatus, one containing,
say, 300 teeth each, and the other, serving as
counters, containing 299. The number of
wheels in each of these two sets is 24 times the
number of components to be summed for. Each
54 partial sums thus obtained are then to be
analyzed in the usual way.
Brief mention was made of the predicting
machines already constructed, and comparisons
were made with the one now being built by the
Survey. BERNARD R. GREEN,
Secretary.
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
THE meeting of this Society of April 8th was
devoted to a general discussion of the subject
of the application of stratigraphy and paleon-
tology in determining subdivisions of geologic
time.
642
The broad problems involved in the an-
nounced topic were primarily presented by
Mr. Whitman Cross in a concrete case. He
described the present state of knowledge re-
garding the formations of the Rocky Mountain
region belonging to the periods between the
Marine Cretaceous and the Wasatch Eocene,
including the Laramie, Arapahoe, Denver, Ft.
Union and Puerco. The statigraphic relations
_ as at present known were described, and then
the facts of the fossil floras, the invertebrate
and the vertebrate faunas, were summarized.
From the facts given it appears that the geolo-
gist investigating the formations of the group
named is confronted by much conflict of evi-
dence as to the relative importance of the time
intervals separating the epochs of sedimenta-
tion. This is especially true in respect to the
drawing of a line between the Mesozoic and
Cenozoic in this region. The conflict of evi-
dence in this instance was cited to show the
necessity for a careful examination as to the
nature of the connection between great faunal
changes and the contemporaneous events of
stratigraphic history. It appears that all forms
of life were able to survive the period of
great orographic disturbance at the close of the
Laramie proper without radical change and
that the dominant vertebrate life of the Post-
Laramie disappeared at the close of that epoch
from causes as yet unknown, which did not
affect in any corresponding degree the contem-
poraneous plant and invertebrate life.
Mr. F. H. Knowlton presented a review of
the fossil floras of the Laramie, Arapahoe,
Denver and Fort Union formations, showing
the strong distinctive characters of each and
also their intimate relationship. This evidence
fails to indicate any one break of supreme im-
importance in this series of epochs.
Mr. T. W. Stanton reviewed in a similar
manner the known invertebrate life of the
upper Cretaceous and lower Eocene deposits of
the Rocky Mountain region. The termination
of true marine conditions was deemed to be
the only safe criterion from this evidence to be
applied in drawing a boundary for Mesozoic
time.
A comparison of the vertebrate faunas of the
Post-Laramie, Puerco and Wasatch formations,
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 69.
by Prof. W. B. Scott, of Princeton, was read
by Mr. Cross. This brought out the remark-
able differences in the vertebrate life of the
three epochs, and also the impossibility of ex-
plaining the abrupt changes in these faunas
from our present knowledge of attendant con-
ditions.
Mr. F. Y. Coville gave a review of the con-
ditions affecting the distribution and changes
in living floras, starting with the great control-
ling factors, heat and moisture, and making
suggestions as to the applicability of these data.
to geological history.
Dr. C. Hart Merriam similarly described the
conditions most affecting the distribution or
causing modifications of terrestrial vertebrate
life of the present, and discussed the apparent
application of these facts to the past.
Mr. Bailey Willis referred to the variable re-
lations which might exist between angular un-
conformity and otherwise important strati-
graphic breaks.
Mr. R. T. Hill briefly referred to the develop-
ment of knowledge of the Lower Cretaceous
series of Texas, to which he had given twenty
years’ study, and brought out facts that bore in
a general way on the subject under discussion.
W. F. MorRsELL.
THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF
WASHINGTON.
THE 248th regular meeting of the Society was
held April 7, 1896.
Dr. Arthur MacDonald read a paper entitled
Psycho-Neural Measurements of Human Beings
with Illustrations and Experiments.
Introduction: Philosophy in the old sense is
almost impossible; no one man can have suffi-
cient insight into the different sciences to under-
stand their relations and make judgment of
their content. Specialism may narrow a man,
but it deepens his knowledge. Knowledge is
so dovetailed together that a specialty studied
thoroughly necessitates the investigation of the
nearest lying branches. Generalism is liable
to be superficial. The habit of studying one
thing thoroughly is the method of specialism
and is directly practical. The desire to include:
the universe may be called generalism.
Facts about the nervous system of man are
APRIL 24, 1896. ]
‘as important as facts about stones, plants and
animals; yet there is, perhaps, the least definite
knowledge about man. The scientific study of
man in an experimental way is in its beginning.
A man should investigate fifty times as much as
he writes, and not vice versa.
Breathing.—Experiments with
kymographion, the pneumograph and the Cam-
bridge tambour, as made by Dr. MacDonald on
four school children and three adults, seemed to
indicate that concentration of mind or emotion
lessens breathing. The effect between pathetic
and lively music is noticeable.
Circulation.—In a somewhat extended experi-
ment on a reporter with his newly constructed
plethysmograph Dr. MacDonald found that:
(1) By applying the algometer to the temporal
muscle there was a decrease of flow of blood in
the arm. (2) By passing a galvanic current
through the brain, causing a pain like the
prick of a pin, the effect was a decrease of flow
of blood in the arm.
Futigue.—By experiments on two women and
two men with Mosso’s Ergograph the results of
Lombard were confirmed, to wit, that the re-
covery of the power of the finger after fatigue
owes its periodicity to fatigue.
Dr. MacDonald illustrated with instruments
of his own and those of others quantitative
measurements of sensibilities of smell, heat,
locality, pain and muscular judgments.
The second paper was by Dr. Thos. Wilson
on ‘ Marriage in Nature and in Law.’
J. H. McCormick,
General Secretary.
Ludwig’s
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADEL-
PHIA, APRIL 7, 1896.
THE Mineralogical and Geological Section
‘having precedence, M. Jos. Willcox described
the process of obtaining quartz from the Oriskany
sandstone of Pennsylvania to be used in the
manufacture of glass. Mr. Keeley stated that
the bed used for the purpose extends southward
through Bedford county, where the material
can be used without crushing, as it crumbles
when exposed to the air.
Prof. Carter suggested the use of stone from
the Conshohocken quarries as a source of silica.
When dissolved in hydrocholic acid the stone
SCIENCE. :
643
yields flattened, transparent grains of silica,
not at all colored by iron. The percentage of
mica is small, the glistening appearance of the
rock being due to the presence of silica.
Mr. Geo. Vaux, Jr., called attention to re-
cent additions to the William S. Vaux collec-
tion, which included superb crystals of calcite
from the Joplin region, Missouri. They occur
in caves opened for the working of lead and
zine. The several mines are characterized by
distinct forms of the mineral. The sphalerite
which is largely present is being desited at the
present time, the handles of shovels and picks
left in the mines being covered with crystals.
Unfortunately these had all been thrown into
the reducing furnace and destroyed. i
Mr. Theodore D. Rand described a fine col-
lection of polished serpentines presented by him
to the Academy from numerous localities in
southeastern Pennsylvania. They belong to
two groups: one bordering the ancient gneiss,
the other, and the more recent, occurring in
the mica-schists and gneisses. The former are
altered igneous rocks, either chrysolitic or
pyroxenic, the chief material being enstatite.
The sources of the several forms were traced.
Dr. Florence Bascom reported the micro-
scopic examination of thin sections of serpen-
tine from the Black Rocks of Lower Merion.
The mineral from this localit » has been derived
from crysolite. That from the Conshohocken
dyke is composed of diabase having the feldspar
crystals in the lath-like form characteristic of
that rock.
It was announced that Mr. G. Frederic Rus-
sell, accompanied by Dr. Querch and a taxider-
mist, had started from Georgetown, British
Guiana, March 11th, on a collecting tour in the
interior for the benefit of the Academy.
EDWARD J. NOLAN,
Recording Secretary.
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, SECTION OF
ASTRONOMY AND PHYSICS.
AT the regular meeting, held on April 6, 1896,
the following program was presented before
the section, Prof. J. K. Rees presiding :
The first paper was by Mr. P. H. Dudley, on
the following title: ‘The Law of Deflection
Sets Under Drop Tests in Different Sections of
644 5
Steel Rails of Uniform Physical Properties Fol-
lows the Comparative Moments of Inertia of the
Respective Sections.’ Mr. Dudley described
the improvements in the manufacture of steel
rails which has been carried out under his di-
rection during the last five years. The object
was to produce a much stiffer rail than that
which had been previously employed, and at
the same time to make one out of a higher
grade of steel. The rails have now been in use
several years on the Boston & Albany and New
York Central railroads, and they show a
marked improvement over the old patterns in
that the deflections have been decidedly less-
ened. Careful records of them have been kept
by means of Mr. Dudley’s track inspection ma-
chine. A great deal of information has also
been accumulated by Mr. Dudley in connection
with the tests of samples from each heat of steel
in the process of manufacture. The full paper
will be subsequently published by the Academy.
In the absence of Prof. Jacoby the contents
of his paper on ‘The Permanence of the Ruth-
erfurd Photographs’ were briefly summarized
by Prof. Rees. Recent and very careful meas-
urements made upon Rutherfurd negatives,
which had been developed twenty or thirty
years ago and which had been measured five to
ten years ago, show absolutely no change in the
plates, so far as could be detected. The film
remains in the same part of the glass as when
first studied. The negatives were made upon
wet plates, and the speaker remarked that it
remains to be shown whether the newer dry
plates afford the same permanence.
The next paper was by Prof. J. K. Rees, on:
(1) ‘The Harvard College Observatory photo-
graphs of star clusters, planets, variable stars
and stellar spectra.’ (2) ‘Prof. J. E. Keeler’s
photographs of planetary spectra.’ Prof. Rees
exhibited a large series of photographs of va-
rious astronomical -subjects, which had been
loaned by Prof. Pickering, of the Harvard Ob-
servatory, for the recent exhibition of the New
York Academy of Sciences. He also threw
upon the screen, by means of the lantern, a
series of photographs of star clusters which in-
eluded variable stars, and which show these
variables at different periods. The originals
were taken at the Harvard Observatory.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. III. No. 69.
In the second part of his paper Prof. Rees
threw upon the screen enlargements from pho-
tographs of stellar spectra which had been taken
by Prof. Keeler, of the Observatory at Alle-
gheny, Pa. The photographs of the spectra of
Saturn were also shown, which prove that the
ring about the planet is due to astream of me-
teorites.
The last paper of the evening was the follow-
ing by Prof. M. I. Pupin: ‘Communication of
some new Results of Experiments with the
Rontgen rays.’ This paper was printed in full
in Science. April 10. Experimental demon-
stration of the points advanced was subse-
quently made for the members of the Academy
in Prof. Pupin’s laboratory.
J. F. Kemp,
Secretary.
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY SCIENCE CLUB.
Av the meeting of March 6th, Dr. Marcy in
the chair, papers were presented by the Depart-
ment of Mathematics.
Prof. Holgate gave the ‘ Problem of the Hight
Queens,’ which is so to place eight queens on a
chessboard that no one will be endangered by
any other, or, in general, to place n pieces on a
square board so that no two will be in the same
row, same column, or same diagonal. This
problem was first proposed by Nauck to Gauss,
was the subject of correspondence between
Gauss and Schumacher and was finally solved
by Gauss in 1850. In 1874 Gunther suggested a
solution of which Glaisher made use in a solu-
tion which he published that year in the Philo-
sophical Magazine. Dr. Holgate presented
Glaisher’s solution in full.
Prof. White presented Poncelet’s problem
concerning polygons that possess both an in-
scribed and circumscribed conic. The para-
metric representations of the points of a conic,
the doubly quadric relations of pairs of points,
and the statement of periodic relations of this
kind by the aid of elliptic functions, were
treated in the manner of Euler, Jacobi and
Hurwitz. A. R. Crook,
. Secretary.
EVANSTON, ILL.
Erratum :—On page 604, paragraph 2, line 2, for
Instinet read Insect.
SCIENCE
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AVLARRVVERVATVTTTLTDUVTTTTTTTTUTTTTETTTETE
7 “MINERALS AND HOW TO STUDY THEM.”
Prof. E. S$. DANA’S new book for beginners in Mineralogy simplifies the science and makes it a
fascinating study. To quickly introduce the work we offer it at 20 per cent. discount to
readers mentioning this journal, viz., $7.20, postage roc. extra.
MINERALS to illustrate the book send for our special circular.
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SCIENCE
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: 8. NEwcomB, Mathematics; R. S. WoopwARD, Mechanics; E. C. PICKERING,
Astronomy; T. C. MENDENHALL, Physics; R. H. Taurston, Engineering; IRA REMSEN, Chemistry;
J. LE ConTE, Geology; W. M. Davis, Physiography; O. C. MARSH, Paleontology; W. K.
Brooks, C. HART MERRIAM, Zodlogy; S. H. ScuDDER, Entomology; N. L. BRITTON,
Botany; HENRY F. OsBoRN, General Biology; H. P. BowpITcH, Physiology ;
J.S. BILLINGS, Hygiene ; J. MCKEEN CATTELL, Psychology ;
DANIEL G. BRINTON, J. W. POWELL, Anthropology ;
G. BROWN GOODE, Scientific Organization.
Fripay, May 1, 1896.
CONTENTS :
Annual Meeting of the National Academy of Sciences..645
Geologic Atlas of the United States..............sesece00s 647
F. H. BIGELOW..653
E. A. SMITH...657
Snternational Cloud Observations :
Notes on Native Sulphur in Texas :
Current Notes on Physiography :—
The Adirondack Mountains and Valleys; Topo-
graphic Forms Produced by Faulting ; The Baltic
Sea; ‘Shut-in’ Valleys: W.M. DAVIS............ 659
Current Notes on Meteorology : ROBERT DEC. WARD..661
Current Notes on Anthropology :—
Elementary Psychical Concepts ; Pathology in Eth-
nology: The Anthropologic Study of Personality :
D. G. BRINTON...... sosacognoovanDEcceséoaogoocacesccoaad 663
Scientific Notes and News :—
The International Catalogue of Science ; Exhibition
of the New York Microscopical Society ; Bulletins
of the Division of Entomology ; General............. 664
University and Educational News.......:1.s.csseeeececees 667
Discussion and Correspondence :—
The Material and the Efficient Causes of Evolution :
J. McKEEN CArTELL. Instinct: J. MARK
BALDWIN. Studies in the Moral Development of
Ghildmenys) VS) BS MORSE! ...c0cscccccsovss-sceseccee sen 668
Scientific Literature :—
Seudder’s Frail Children of the Air: A. S. P.
Report of the New York State Colonization Society :
ANY” df INGE TSI coopdcocodd docsogcoacaaboccnecaoeecoueacnaed 671
Scientific Journals :—
The American Journal of Science; The American
Chemical Journal; The Journal of Comparative
INCHUROING DY) eoccos008scb00990008G0G000000d Ce DOROLOG DE HOSEEOGCOR 673
Societies and Academies :—
The New York Academy of Sciences: J. F. KEMP.
Biological Society of Washington: F. A. Lucas.
The Entomological Society of Washington: 1. O.
Howarp. New York Section of the American
Chemical Society: DURAND WOODMAN. Har-
vard Geological Conference: T. A. JAGGAR, JR.
The Academy of Science of St. Lowis: WILLIAM
' _'TRELEASE
New Books
MSS. intended for publication and books etc., intended
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
ANNUAL WEETING OF THE NATIONAL ACAD-
EMY OF SCIENCES.
THE annual meeting of the Academy was
held in Washington on April 20, 21, 22, 23
and 25, Prof. Wolcott Gibbs, President, in
the chair. The*following members were pre-
sent: Cleveland Abbe, Washington ; Carl
Barus, Providence ; A. Graham Bell, Wash-
ington; John S. Billings, U. S. N.; Lewis
Boss, Albany ; Henry P. Bowditch, Boston ;
W. H. Brewer, New Haven ; W. K. Brooks,
Baltimore ; E. D. Cope, Philadelphia; S.
F. Emmons, Washington; Wolcott Gibbs,
Newport; G. K. Gilbert, Washington ;
Theodore N. Gill, Washington ; G. Brown
Goode, Washington; B. A. Gould, Cam-
bridge ; Arnold Hague, Washington ; Asaph
Hall, Washington; C. S. Hastings, New
Haven; G. W. Hill, West Nyack, N. Y.;
Alpheus Hyatt, Boston; O. C. Marsh,
New Haven; A. M. Mayer, Hoboken, N. J.;
R. Mayo-Smith, New York ; T. C. Menden-
hall, Worcester, Mass.; A. A. Michelson,
Chicago; E. S. Morse, Salem; J. W.
Powell, Washington; F, W. Putnam, Cam-
bridge ; Ira Remsen, Baltimore; W. A.
Rogers, Waterville, Me.; Ogden N. Rood,
New York; H. A. Rowland, Baltimore.
Charles 8. Sargent, Cambridge ; Charles A.
Schott, Washington ; Samuel H. Scudder,
Cambridge ; William Sellers, Philadelphia ;
A. E. Verrill, New Haven; Francis A.
Walker, Boston ; W. H. Welch, Baltimore ;
Charles A. White, Washington; A. W
646
Wright, New Haven. Forty-one members
were present in all, nine more than at the
preceding annual meeting.
In accordance with the recommendations
made at the preceding meeting, the morn-
ings were reserved for business, and the
scientific sessions were held in the after-
noon, the papers being arranged so that as
far as possible those upon kindred topics
should follow one another. The papers en-
tered to be read were as follows:
I. The Geological Efficacy of Alkali Carbon-
ate Solution, E. W. Hinearp.
II. On the Color Relations of Atoms, Ions
and Molecules, M. Carry Lna.
III. On the Characters of the Otocelide,
E. D. Corr.
IV. Evhibition of a Linkage whose motion
shows the Laws of Refraction of Inght, A. M.
MAYeEr.
V. Location in Paris of the Dwelling of Ma-
lus, in which he made the discovery of the
Polarization of Light by Reflection, A. M.
MAYER.
VI. (1) On Experiments showing that the
X-Rays cannot be Polarized by passing through
Herapathite.
(2) The Density of Herapathite.
(3) Formule of Transmission of the X-rays,
through Glass, Towrmaline and Herapathite,
A. M. Mayer.
VII. On the X-Rays from a Statical Cur-
rent produced by a Rapidly Revolving Leather
Belt, W. A. Rocers and FREDERICK BRown.
VIII. Biographical Memoir of James Ed-
ward Oliver, G. W. Hiu.
IX. Biographical Memoir of Charles Henry
Davis, C. H. Davis.
X. Biographical Memoir of George Engel-
mann, C. A. WHITE.
XI. Legislation Relating to Standards, T. C.
MENDENHALL.
XII. On the Determination of the Coefficient
of Expansion of Jessop’s Steel, between the limits
of O° and 64° C., by the Interferential Method,
E. W. Mortery and W. A. Rogers.
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 70.
XII. On the Separate Measurement, by the
Interferential Method of the Heating Effect of
Pure Radiations and of an Envelope of Heated
Air, W. A. Rogers.
XIV. On the Logie of Quantity, C. S.
PEIRCE.
XV. Judgment in Sensation and Perception,
J. W. PowELu.
XVI. The Variability in Fermenting Power
of the Colon Bacillus under different Conditions.
By A. W. Preckuam. (Presented by J.
S. Briures.)
XVII. Experiments on the Reflection of the
Rontgen Rays, O. N. Roop.
XVIII. Notes on Réntgen Rays, H. A.
Row .anp.
XIX. Some studies in Chemical Equilib-
rium, TRA REMSEN.
XX. The Decomposition of Diazo-compounds
by Alcohol, IRA REMSEN.
XXI. On Double Halides containing Or-
ganic Bases, IRA REMSEN.
XXII. Results of Researches of Forty Bi-
nary Stars, T. J. J. SEE.
XXIII. On a Remarkable New Family of
Deep-sea Cephalopoda and its bearing on Mol-
lusean Morphology, A. E. VERRILL.
XXIV. The Question of the Molluscan
Archetype, an Archi-mollusk, A. E. VERRILL.
XXYV. On some Points in the Morphology
and Phylogeny of the Gastropoda, A. EK. VER-
RILL.
XXVI. Source of X-Rays, A. A. MtcHEL-
son and 8. W. Srrarron.
XXVIII. The Relative Permeability of Mag-
nesium and Aluminum to the Rontgen Rays,
A. W. Wricur.
XXVIII. The State of Carbo-dioxide at the
Critical Temperature, C. BARus.
XXIX. The Motion of a Submerged Thread
of Mercury, C. Barus.
XXX. On a Method of obtaining Variable
Capillary Apertures of Specified Diameter, C.
Barts.
XXXI. Ona New Type of Telescope Free
from Secondary Color, C. S. HAstines.
May 1, 1896.]
XXXII. The Olindiade and other Me-
duse, W. K. Brooks.
XXXII. Budding in Perophora, W. K.
Brooxs and GrorGE LEFEVRE.
XXXIV. Anatomy of Yoldia, W. K.
Brooxs and Girman Drew.
XXXV. On the Pithecanthropus Erectus
from the Tertiary of Java, O. C. Marsu.
Prof. H. P. Bowditch was elected a
member of the council in the place of Prof.
G. L. Goodale, who asked to be relieved
from the duties of the office. Charles D.
Walcott, director of the United States Geo-
logical Survey, and R. 8S. Woodward, Pro-
fessor of Mechanics in Columbia University,
were elected members of the Academy.
The death was announced of Gen. Thomas
L. Casey, U.S. A. There are now eighty-
nine members of the Academy, eighty-three
members have died since its foundation in
1863.
During the meeting of the Academy the
committee appointed at the request of the
Secretary of the Interior to report on a for-
estry policy for the government held several
sessions. Members of the Academy ap-
peared before the Senate committee having
charge of the bill to fix the standard of
weights and measures by the adoption of
the metric system. Profs. Ira Remsen,
John Trowbridge and G. J. Brush were ap-
pointed delegates to attend the sesqui-cen-
tennial celebration of Princeton Univ. A re-
ception was given to members of the acad-
emy and invited guests by Mr. and Mrs. Ar-
nold Hague on the evening of April 22d.
The autumn meeting of the Academy for
the reading of scientific papers will be held
in New York, beginning November 17th.
GEOLOGIC ATLAS OF THE UNITED STATES.
FOL{0 2, RINGGOLD, GEORGIA—TENNESSEE, 1894,
This folio consists of 3 pages of text,
signed by C. Willard Hayes, geologist; a
topographic sheet (scale 1: 125,000), a
SCIENCE.
647
sheet of areal geology, one of economic ge-
ology, one of structure sections, and one
giving columnar sections.
Geography.—The district of country cov-
ered by this folio lies mainly in Georgia, a
narrow strip about a mile in width along
its northern border extending into Tennes-
see. It embraces portions of Dade, Catoosa,
Walker, Whitfield, Chattooga, Floyd and
Gordon counties in Georgia, and of Madi-
son, Hamilton and James counties in Ten-
nessee. The region forms a part of the
great Appalachian Valley. Its surface is
marked by three distinct types of topog-
raphy, viz.: plateaus, formed by hard rocks
whose beds are nearly horizontal; sharp
ridges, formed by hard rocks whose beds
are steeply inclined ; and level or undula-
ting valleys, formed on soft or easily eroded
rocks. The plateaus are confined to the
western third of the district and include
portions of Lookout and Sand Mountains.
Their surface is generally level or rolling,
with a slight inclination from the edges to-
ward the center, giving the plateau the
form of a shallow trough. They are
bounded by steep escarpments rising from
1,000 to 1,200 feet above the surrounding
valleys. The sharp ridges are confined to
the eastern third of the district, while a
broad undulating valley occupies its cen-
tral portion. The latter is drained in part
northward by tributaries of the Tennessee,
and in part southward by streams flowing
directly to the Gulf. The divide separating
the two drainage systems is broad and low,
and there is evidence that the Tennessee
River formerly flowed southward across the
divide.
xeology.—The rocks appearing at the sur-
face within the Ringgold district are en-
tirely of sedimentary origin and include
representatives of all the Paleozoic groups.
The oldest rocks exposed are shales, sand-
stones and thin-bedded limestones of lower
and middle Cambrian age. These are
648
called the Apison shale, Rome sandstone
and Conasauga shale. Above these forma-
tions is a great thickness of siliceous mag-
nesian limestone, the Knox dolomite, the
lower portion probably being Cambrian and
the upper portion Silurian. The remaining
Silurian formations are the Chickamauga
limestone and the Rockwood sandstone.
The Devonian is either wholly wanting or
is represented by a single thin bed of car-
bonaceous shale, not over 35 feet in thick-
ness. Above the Chattanooga black shale
are the Fort Payne chert, Floyd shale and
Bangor limestone forming the lower Car-
boniferous, and the Lookout and Walden
sandstones forming the Coal Measures.
Most of the formations thicken eastward,
and at the same time the proportion of
calcareous matter decreases, showing that
the land from which the materials com-
posing the rocks were derived lay to the
east.
The region has been subjected to com-
pression in a northwest-southeast direction,
and the originally horizontal strata have
been thrown into a series of long, narrow
folds, whose axes extend at right angles to
the direction of the compression, or north-
east and southwest. The effects of com-
pression were greatest in the eastern por-
tion of the district, where the strata are
now all steeply inclined and the basal beds
form sharp ridges, while in the western
portion considerable areas of strata remain
nearly horizontal and form plateaus.
Where the folding was greatest there was
also much fracturing of the rocks, and the
strata on the eastern side of a fracture are
in many places thrust upward and across
the broken edges of the corresponding
strata on the west. Most of the ridges in
the district have thrust faults of this char-
acter along their eastern bases.
Mineral resources.—These consist of coal,
iron ore, mineral paint, manganese ore,
limestone, building stone and brick and tile
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 70.
clay. The productive coal-bearing forma-
tions, the Lookout and Walden sandstones,
occupy the upper portions of Pigeon, Look-
out and Sand mountains, having an area in
in this district of 116 square miles. The
Lookout generally contains one, and in
some places two or three, workable coal
seams, but they are variable in position,
extent and thickness. The Walden sand-
stone forms a considerable area on Lookout
mountain, and contains at least one valu-
able seam of coal, which is extensively
worked at the Durham mines. Two yari-
eties of iron ore are found in workable quan-
tities. The first is the red fossil or ‘ Clin-
ton’ ore, which occurs as a regularly strati-
fied bed in the Rockwood formation, and is
worked at various places along the base of
Lookout mountain. The second variety is
limonite, which occurs as a pocket deposit
at the base of several of the ridges along
the eastern border of the district. Associ- —
ated with the latter, particularly along the
faults, are deposits of manganese, generally
as nodules scattered through the surface
soil.
FOLIO 4, KINGSTON, TENNESSEE, 1894.
Tuts folio consists of three and one-half
pages of text, signed by C. Willard Hayes,
geologist; a topographic sheet (scale 1:
125,000), a sheet of areal geology, one
of economic geology, one of structure sec-
tions and one giving columnar sections.
reography.—The map is bounded by the
parallells 35° 30’ and 36° and the meridi-
ans 34° 30’ and 35°. The district repre-
sented lies wholly within the State of Ten-
nessee, and includes portions of Cumber-
land, Morgan, Roane, Rhea, Loudon, Meigs
and McMinn counties. Its area is approxi-
mately 1,000 square miles, and it forms a
part of the Appalachian province, being
about equally divided between the valley
and plateau divisions of the province. The
northwestern half of the district is a portion
May 1, 1896.].
of the Cumberland Plateau. The surface
of this half, except in the Crab Orchard
mountains, is comparatively level and has
an altitude of between 1,800 and 1,900 feet.
Its streams flow in shallow channels until
near the edge of the plateau, when they
plunge into rocky gorges which form deep
notches in the escarpment. The Crab
Orchard mountains are formed by the un-
eroded portions of an anticline, the hard
beds rising in the form of a low arch.
Toward the southwest the hard beds were
lifted higher and have been removed, ex-
posing the easily erodible limestone beneath,
and in this the Sequatchie Valley has been
excavated. The southeastern half of the
district lies within the great Appalachian
Valley, here occupied by the Tennessee
river, which flows at an altitude of about
700 feet, and above which rounded hills and
ridges rise from 300 to 500 feet higher.
The valley ridges have a uniform northeast-
southwest trend parallel with the Cumber-
land escarpment, their location depending
on outerop of narrow belts of hard rocks.
Geology.—West of the Cumberland es-
carpment the geologic structure is very sim-
ple. The strata remain nearly horizontal,
as they were originally deposited, except in
the Crab Orchard mountains, where they
bend upward, forming a low arch. East of
the escarpment the strata have suffered in-
tense compression, which has forced them
into a great number of narrow folds whose
axes extend northeast and southwest. The
strata dip more steeply on one side of the
arch than on the other ; and, as a further
effect of compression, the beds on the
steeper (generally the northwestern) side
have been fractured and the rocks on one
side thrust upward and across the broken
edges of those on the other. In this man-
ner the folds first formed have in most
eases been obliterated, and there remain
narrow Strips of strata separated by faults,
and all dipping to the southeast.
SCIENCE.
649,
The rocks appearing at the surface are
entirely sedimentary—limestones, shales,
sandstones and conglomerates—and include
representatives of all the Paleozoic groups.
The Cambrian formations consist of the
Apison shale, Rome sandstone and Cona-
sauga shale, a series which is calcareous at
top and bottom and siliceous in the middle.
The Conasauga passes upward through blue
shaly limestone into the Knox dolomite, a
formation about 4,000 feet in thickness,
composed of siliceous or cherty magnesian
limestone. Probably the lower portion is
of Cambrian age, while the upper is un-
doubtedly Silurian. Above the dolomite is
the Chickamauga limestone, whose upper
portion toward the eastern side of the dis-
trict changes from blue flaggy limestone to
caleareous shale, and is called the Athens
shale. The next formation is the Rock-
wood, which also changes toward the east -
from calcareous shale to hard, brown sand-
stone. These changes in the character of
the rocks indicate that, while they were
forming, the land from which their mate-
rials were derived lay to the southeast.
The Devonian is represented in this region
by a single stratum of carbonaceous shale,
the Chattanooga black shale, which rests,
probably with a slight unconformity, on the
Rockwood. Above the Chattanooga are
the Fort Payne chert and Bangor limestone
of the lower Carboniferous, and the Look-
out and Walden sandstones of the Coal
Measures.
Mineral resources.—These consist of coal,
iron ore, limestone, building stone and clay.
The coal-bearing formations, the Walden
and Lookout, form the surface of the greater
part of the district northwest of the Cum-
berland escarpment, making a probably
productive area of 370 square miles. The
Lookout always contains one, and some-
times as many as four, beds, all of which
are locally though not generally workable.
The upper bed, immediately below the con-
650
glomerate, is the most constant. The greater
part of the workable coal is contained in
the Walden, the lower bed probably cor-
responding to the Sewanee seam farther
west. This occurs in a belt 6 or 8 miles in
width, along the eastern edge of the plateau.
The only iron ore sufficiently adundant to
be commercially important is the red fossil
ore, which occurs as a regularly stratified
bed in the Rockwood formation. The
numerous folds east of the escarpment
bring the Rockwood to the surface in long,
narrow bands, along which the ore has
been worked at many points. It varies in
thickness from 3 to 7 feet, and, although at
some places it passes into a sandy shale, it
is generally a high-grade ore.
FOLIO 6, CHATTANOOGA, TENN., 1894.
This folio consists of 8 pages of text,
signed by C. Willard Hayes, geologist; a
topographic sheet (scale 1 : 125,000), a sheet
of areal geology, one of economic geology,
one of structure sections, and one giving
columnar sections.
Geography.—The map is bounded by the
parallels 35° and 35° 30'and the meridians
85° and 85° 30'. The district is wholly
within the State of Tennessee, embracing
portions of Bledsoe, Rhea, Sequatchie, Mar-
ion, Hamilton and James counties. It
lies partly in the great Appalachian Valley
and partly in the plateau division of the
Appalachian province. Its surfaceis marked
by two distinct types of topography, the
plateau and the valley. The former pre-
vails in the western half of the district,
which is occupied by portions of the Cum-
berland Plateau and Walden Ridge, the
two plateaus being separated by Sequatchie
Valley. The Cumberland Plateau has an
altitude of about 2,100 feet, with a level or
rolling surface. Walden Ridge has an alti-
tude of 2,200 feet along its western edge,
and slopes gradually eastward down to 1,700
feet. Both plateaus are bounded by ab-
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 70.
rupt escarpments from 900 to 1,400 feet in
height, the upper portions being generally
formed by a series of cliffs. The two pla-
teaus are separated by Sequatchie Valley,
which is about 4 miles in width. Its west-
ern side, the escarpment of Cumberland
Plateau, is notched by numerous deep rocky
gorges, cut backward into the plateau by
streams flowing from its surface ; while the
eastern side, the Walden escarpment, forms
an unbroken wall. The eastern half of the
district is occupied by the Tennessee Val-
ley, the river itself having an altitude of
between 600 and 700 feet, while rounded
hills and irregular ridges rise several hun-
dred feet higher. Leaving the broad val-
ley, which continues southward into Ala-
bama, the Tennessee River turns abruptly
westward at Chattanooga and enters a nar-
row gorge through Walden Ridge. This
part of its channel is very young in
comparison with the valley toward the
north, and there is evidence that the river
has occupied its present course but a short
time, having formerly flowed southward
directly to the Gulf.
Geology.—The rocks appearing at the sur-
face within the limits of the map are en-
tirely of sedimentary origin, and include
representatives of all the Paleozoic groups.
The Cambrian formations include the Api-
son shale, Rome sandstone and Conasauga
shale, a series which is calcareous at top
and bottom and siliceous in the middle.
The Conasauga passes upward through blue
limestone into the Knox dolomite—a great
thickness of siliceous magnesian limestone,
the lower portion of which is probably Cam-
brian. Above the dolomite are Chicka-
mauga limestone and Rockwood shale, the
latter becoming brown sandstone in White
Ash Mountain. The whole of the deposi-
tion which took place in this region during
the Devonian is apparently represented by
astratum of shale from 10 to 25 feet in thick-
ness—the Chattanooga black shale, which
May 1, 1896.]
probably rests unconformably upon the
Rockwood. Above the Chattanooga are the
Fort Payne chert and Bangor limestone,
forming the lower Carboniferous, and the
Lookout and Walden sandstones, forming
the Coal Measures. Nearly all the forma-
tions exhibit an increase in thickness and
im proportion of sand and mud toward the
east, showing that the land from which
their materials were derived lay to the east
and southeast:
The geologic structure is simple in the
region occupied by the plateaus, and com-
plicated in the valleys. In the Cumberland
Plateau the strata are almost perfectly hori-
zontal, while in Walden Ridge they have a
slight dip from the edges toward the center.
Sequatchie Valley is located upon the
westernmost of the sharp anticlines which
characterize the central division of the
Appalachian province. In the eastern part
of the district the strata have suffered com-
pression, which had forced the originally
horizontal strata into a series of long, narrow
folds whose axes extend in a northeast-
southwest direction. In addition to the
folding, and as a further effect of the com-
pression which produced it, the strata have
been fractured along many lines parallel
with the folds, and the rocks upon one side
—generally the eastern—have been thrust
upward and across the broken edges of
those on the other side. A fault of this
character passes along the western side of
the Sequatchie Valley, and several forma-
tions which would normally occur there are
entirely concealed.
Mineral resources.—These consist of coal,
iron ore, limestone, building stone, and brick
and tile clay. The productive coal-bearing
formations, the Lookout and Walden sand-
stones, occupy the surface of the plateaus.
They have an area within the district of
about 400 square miles, and contain from one
to three beds of workable coal. The beds in
the Lookout are generally variable in posi-
SCIENCE.
651
tion, extent and thickness ; those in the Wal-
den are constant over large areas, and are
worked on a considerable scale at various
points along the eastern side of Walden
Ridge. About 200 square miles of area of
these upper coals occur within the district,
on the Cumberland Plateau and the eastern
half of Walden Ridge. The most important
iron ore in the district is the red fossil or
Clinton ore, which occurs as a regularly
stratified bed in the Rockwood shale. The
bed is from 3 to 5 feet thick in Sequat-
chie Valley, but considerably thinner in the
vicinity of Chattanooga and eastward.
FOLIO 8, SEWANEE, TENNESSEE, 1894.
This folio consists of nearly four pages of
text, signed by Charles Willard Hayes, geol-
ogist ; a topographic sheet (scale 1: 125,-
000), a sheet of areal geology, one of eco-
nomic geology, one of structure sections, and
one giving columnar sections.
Geography._-The map is bounded by the
parallels 35° and 35° 30’ and the meridians
85° 30’ and 86°, and the territory it repre-
sents is wholly within Tennessee, embracing
portions of Grundie, Sequatchie, Marion,
Franklin and Coffee counties. The district
lies almost wholly within the western or
plateau division of the Appalachian prov-
ince. Crossing its southeastern corner is
the Sequatchie Valley, located upon the
westernmost of the sharp folds which char-
acterize the central or valley division of the
province. The larger part of the district is
occupied by the Cumberland Plateau, which
has a gradual ascent toward the north,
rising from an altitude of between 1,700 and
1,800 feet on the south to 1,900 or 2,000 feet
on the north. The plateau is limited by a
steep escarpment from 1,100 to 1,500 feet in
height on the east and about 1,000 feet in
height on the west. Many streams have
cut their channels backward into the pla-
teau, forming’ deep, narrow coves, so that
the escarpment forms an extremely irregu-
652
lar line. Small portions of Walden Ridge
and Sand Mountain appear in the extreme
southeastern corner of the district, these
being plateaus similar to the Cumberland
Plateau farther west. A small portion of
the Sequatchie Valley occupies the south-
eastern part of the district, with an altitude
of about 600 or 700 feet, while its north-
western portion is within the ‘highland
rim,’ a broad terrace surrounding the low-
lands of middle Tennessee and separating it
on the east from the Cumberland Plateau.
Geology—The rocks appearing at the
surface are of sedimentary origin, and in-
clude representatives of all the geologic
periods from Silurian to Carboniferous.
The Silurian formations, consisting of the
Knox dolomite, Chickamauga limestone
and Rockwood shale, occur only as narrow
belts in the Sequatchie Valley. The same
is true of the Devonian, which is repre-
sented by a single thin formation, the
Chattanooga black shale. The Carbon-
iferous formations occupy by far the larger
part of the district, the Fort Payne chert
and Bangor limestone forming the lower
portions of the plateau escarpments and
the highland rim, while the Lookout and
Walden sandstones, belonging to the Coal
Measures, form the summits of the plateaus.
The geologic structure of the region is in
general extremely simple. The plateaus
and the highland rim to the westward are
underlain by nearly horizontal strata, while
Sequatchie Valley is upon a sharp, narrow
fold, the beds dipping downward on either
side beneath the adjoining plateaus. If the
rocks which have been eroded from the top
of this arch were restored, there would be
a ridge several thousand feet in height in
place of the present valley. In addition to
the folding which the strata have suffered
along this line, they have been fractured,
and the beds on the east have been thrust
upward and across the edges of correspond-
ing beds on the west of the fracture, so that
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 70.
along the western side of the valley the
formations do not appear at the surface in
their normal sequence.
Mineral resowrces.—These consist of coal,
iron ore, limestone, building and road stone
and clays. The Coal Measures occupy an
area within the district of about 500 square
miles. Not all of this area, however, con-
tains coal beds of workable thickness, while
some portions contain two or three work-
able beds. The lower beds, occurring in
the Lookout sandstone, are variable in
horizontal position, thickness and extent,
so that they can not profitably be worked
on a large scale; but they have been
opened at many points, and supply an ex-
cellent fuel for local use. The Sewanee
seam, which is found in the Walden sand-
stone, from 50 to 70 feet above its base, is
the most important seam in the district.
It has an average thickness of 4 to 5 feet
over at least 80 square miles in the higher
portions of the plateau, and is extensively
mined for coking at Tracy and Whitwell.
The iron ore of chief importance is the red
fossil or ‘Clinton’ ore, which occurs as a
regularly stratified bed in the Rockwood
shale. At Inman, in the Sequatchie Valley,
it attains a thickness of 5.5 feet and is ex-
tensively mined.
FOLIO 18, SMARTSVILLE, CALIFORNIA, 1895.
This folio consists of 4 pages of text,
signed by Waldemar Lindgren and H. W.
Turner, geologists, and G. F. Becker,
geologist in charge; a topographic sheet
(seale 1:125,000), a sheet of areal geology,
one of economic geology and one of struc-
ture sections.
Topography.—The district of country rep-
resented lies between the meridians 121°
and 121° 30' and the parallels 39° and
39° 30’, and embraces about 925 square
miles, comprising a part of the foothill re-
gion of the Sierra Nevada. The elevation
ranges from 50 feet above sea-level in the
May 1, 1&96.]
northwestern corner to over 4,000 feet in
the northeastern corner. The topography
is characterized by a number of parallel
ridges, running in a north-northwest direc-
tion. The northeastern part has more
the character of an irregular and undulating
table-land. Through the ridges and the
plateaus the watercourses have cut deep
and narrow canyons. The Yuba River
with its branches drains the larger part of
the district. Noncut Creek on the north
and Bear River on the south are the only
other streams of importance.
Geology.—Sedimentary formations occupy
comparatively few areas in the district, all
of which have been tentatively referred to
the Calaveras formation, no fossils having
been found in them. They consist of slates
and quartzitic sandstones, usually with
northerly strike and steep easterly dip.
Diabase and porphyrite occupy large areas
in the central and southern parts, as well
as intrusive masses of granodiorite and
gabbrodiorite. Amphibolites, resulting
from the dynamo-metamorphism of diabase,
gabbro and diorite, also occur in several
places. The rocks of the district are prin-
cipally massive, in contrast to those of the
districts adjoining on the south and east.
However, two lines traverse it along which
extensive metamorphism has taken place
and schistose rocks have been developed.
The superjacent rocks, resting unconforma-
bly on the older series, consist of Neocene
river gravels, together with beds of andesitic
and rhyolitic tuffs. Comparatively small
areas of these remain, the larger part hay-
ing been carried away by erosion. Pleisto-
cene shore gravels and alluvium occupy the
_ southwestern corner. The Ione formation
is not well exposed in this district, being in
part covered by Pleistocene deposits, in
part removed by erosion.
Economie Geology.—Important and rich
Neocene gravel deposits in this district have
been worked at Camptonville, Nevada City,
SCIENCE.
653
North San Juan, Badger Hill, French Cor-
ral and Smartsville. Gold-quartz veins
occur scattered throughout the area, but by
far most of them are found in the immedi-
ate vicinity of Nevada City and Grass Val-
ley. These districts are among the most
important of the gold-mining regions in
California. Many of the rocks of the dis-
trict are adapted for building purposes.
The only one in extensive use is the grano-
diorite, near Nevada City. The often deep-
red soils in the foothill region are of resid-
uary origin. Hxtensive areas of alluvial
and sedimentary soils are found only in the
southwestern corner.
INTERNATIONAL CLOUD OBSERVATIONS.
In a series of papers on the storm tracks
and allied phenomena, prepared under the
direction of the Chief of the Weather Bu-
reau, much has been written about the
cyclonic circulation at the surface of the
ground, but the subject would be very in-
complete without alluding to the efforts
that are being made to determine the circu-
lations of the upper atmosphere all over the
globe. Theoretical solutions, to some ex-
tent confirmed by observations, have been
given, and yet the true connection between
the general and the cyclonic circulation has
not been properly cleared up and tested by
experience. So far as the general move-
ments are concerned, the components are
somewhat as follows in the northern hemis-
phere, those south of the equator being
counterparts. Along the meridian from
Lat. 24° to the equator the component is
south, t6 the pole it is north; in middle
latitude, where the extra tropical cyclones
prevail, there is a northern component in the
middle cloud strata, and two southern com-
ponents, one near the ground and one in
the cirrus strata. Along the parallels of
latitude there are two systems of compo-
nents; from 0° to 35° latitude, a westerly
component at the surface, and an easterly
654.
in the higher layers; from 35° to 90° lati-
tude two easterly components, making a
maximum and rapid eastward drift in the
neighborhood of 54°. In the vertical, from
0° to 20° and from 70° to 90° latitude,
there is an upward component ; from 20° to
70° latitude, a downward component. The
eyelonic and the anti-cyclonic motions to
some extent spring out of these, but the
really active part of them is confined to the
strata within two miles of the ground, and
yet the precise course of the stream lines is
not comprehended throughout their extent.
Much light has been thrown upon the
obscure features of these problems by obser-
vation at high altitudes, and especially by
measurements of cloud heights and veloci-
ties, but still much remains to be done to
reach satisfactory conclusions. Itis thought
that some account of these observations to be
undertaken shortly, and a reference to the
important literature regarding them, may be
of interest to those who have these subjects
at heart, especially those who are cooperat-
ing in the work of the U.S. Weather Bureau.
. The attention of meteorologists, in the
early developments of the subject were,
naturally almost exclusively confined to
studies on the data furnished by the lowest
stratum of the atmosphere. The circula-
tion and physical conditions of the air in
the higher strata were investigated to some
extent by means of the theoretical consid-
erations and the general movements of
clouds. It has, however, become apparent
that a scientific knowledge of the action of
the currents in cyclones and anti-cyclones
can be obtained only by a determined at-
tack upon the physics of the upper levels
of the atmosphere. Progress in meteor-
ology, working along the original lines at
the surface of the ground, has for a number
of years been disappointing, and it is well
known that in the art of forecasting almost
exactly the same methods that were per-
fected twenty years ago are still employed.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 70;
There seems to be little hope of improving
this state of affairs, unless a radically new
way of dealing with the data can be de-
vised, which will efficiently supplement the
system now in use.
The Chief of the Weather Bureau has
expressed the opinion that there are two or
three lines of investigation promising the
wished-for results. One is the practical
development of the knowledge already
gained regarding the polar magnetic radi-
ation from the sun. The serious difficulty
in the way of doing this has been the ex-
pensive and complicated nature of first-
class magnetic observatories, which must
necessarily limit the number in the United
States. What was wanted was a simple, in-
expensive and yet reliable instrument, that
could be utilized as readily as a barometer,
thermometer or a watch. It seems now,
after a couple years of trial, that such an
apparatus is in hand,‘and a record of its
performance will be published, with a de-
scription of it, beginning in the January
number of the Weather Review for 1896.
Another process for getting at the action
of the upper air is the transportation of
barometers, thermometers and other appa-
ratus into the higher levels. This can evi-
dently be done by mountain stations, bal-
loons and kites, and experiments are being
conducted by the Weather Bureau to carry
out this purpose as far as practicable.
A third line of investigation is the study
of the clouds in all their aspects ; the con-
ditions under which the several forms are
developed ; the heights of the several levels,
the variations of the same in the diurnal
and annual periods, and particularly in
connection with the cyclonic circulation of
the lower strata ; the direction and velocity
of movement in the general circulation of
the currents of the atmosphere as well as
around the barometric maxima and minima.
The fact that clouds are present almost
every day in a series of forms which pass
May 1, 1896.]
from one to the other by delicate grada-
tions, each of which must indicate specific
physical properties, shows that this is a
very rich field of research, which has been
only imperfectly cultivated. Many inter-
esting conclusions have been developed by
observers of such phenomena in the past
fifteen years, but only during the past five
years has the conviction become general
that this is one of the most important stud-
ies for the practical meteorologist.
With the view of reducing the details to
uniformity of method, and to secure codper-
ation among the observers in different
countries, an organization has been com-
pleted which will go into effect this spring.
A brief history of the movement is as fol-
lows: The measurement of cloud heights
is an old problem and many devices have
been invented for the solution of the prac-
tical difficulties, of which a full account
may be found in the Report of the Chief
Signal Officer, Part 2, 1887, by Prof. Cleve-
land Abbe. More or less systematic obser-
vations, extending over considerable per-
iods of time, have been made at Berlin,
Upsala, Storlien, Kew and Blue Hill,
(Mass.), by methods depending upon trian-
gulation. Besides the simple trigonometric
formule, another system for computing the
shortest distance between the two sight
lines, devised by Ekholm and Hagstrém,
Upsala, also a process for reducing the
points on a photograph plate exposed in a
photogrammeter by Akerblom, Upsala,
have been successfully used and are re-
commended as the best known.
The following are the leading papers on
cloud observations :
1. Mesures des hauteurs et des mouve-
ments des nuages, par N. Ekolm et K. L.
Hagstrom, Upsala, 1884.
2. Des Principales méthodes employeés
pour observer et mesurer les nuages, par
Hildebrandsson et Hagstrom, Upsala, 1893.
3. De Vemploi des photogrammétres pour
SCIENCE.
4
655...
mesurer la hauteur des nuages, par Aker-
blom, Upsala, 1894.
4. Observations mace at the Blue Hill
Meteorological Observatory, Annals Har-
vard College, Vol. XXX., Part III., by H.
H.,Clayton and P. S? Fergusson, 1892.
At the International conference, Munich,
1891, a committee was appointed to con-
sider the question of concerted observa-
tions on the direction of motion and the
height of clouds. This committee recom-
mended that observations on the direction
of motion and the height of clouds should
be commenced at certain stations distri-
buted over the globe, and continued for one
year; that short instructions be prepared for
these observations; that the scheme of cloud
classification put forth by M. M. Hildebrands-
son and Abercromby be adopted, anda cloud
atlas illustrative thereof be published.
As the result of these propositions, the
cooperative international cloud observations
will begin May 1, 1896, and continue one
year. As far as known, the theodolite
method will be employed at Washington,
D.C., Blue Hill, Mass., and Christiania ; the
photogrammeter method at Upsala, Paris,
Potsdam, Petersburg, Nijni Novgorod,
Manila, Batavia, Melbourne and probably
Kew, Calcutta and Sydney. The difficulty
in cloud observations is to have two ob-
servers, separated by a base line nearly one
mile long, set their sight lines on exactly
the same point of a rapidly moving and dis-
solving cloud. The advantages of the the-
odolites is that the instruments are cheaper,
many more ‘observations can be taken with
the same labor and the calculations are the
briefest possible by any method. The ob-
servations that must be rejected at the out-
set can be determined by a small plotting
machine, being a model of the real base line
and instruments, such as invented by H. H.
Clayton, at Blue Hill. Photographs, on the
other hand, possess the advantages of giving
definitely the point on the cloud, but the
656
difficulty of securing photographs of all
kinds of clouds in all weather is very great,
and the cost of the work much more for the
same number of individual observations.
The international classification of cloud
forms has been issued, and it will be
adopted by the Weather Bureau and go
into operation July 1, 1896, throughout the
service. Suitable instructions and illustra-
tive forms have been prepared for the ob-
servers, with which they are to become
familiar before the date mentioned. The
atlas of cloud forms issued by the Commit-
tee is now ready for distribution, and may
be purchased of M. Teisserene de Bort, Bu-
reau Central Meteorologique, 176, rue de
VUniversite, Paris, France.
Besides the observations with theodolites
and photogrammeters for the actual heights
and velocity of motion of clouds at the pri-
mary stations, a number of secondary sta-
tions for the relative motions, and the other
available data, will be established in each
country. In the United States there will
probably be ten such stations under the im-
mediate control of the Weather Bureau,
equipped with nephoscopes for the obser-
vations. It is very desirable that the net-
work of the stations be made as complete
as possible in all parts of the country, and
it is hoped that this opportunity for co-
operation may be embraced by other persons
willing to do some valuable scientific work.
The colleges might profitably instruct their
students in such observations at a very
moderate expense. <A first-class népho-
scope can be made for twenty dollars, and
serviceable ones at lower rates. The obser-
vations would require half an hour’s work
three times a day, between 8-9 a. m., 1-2
p-m., 5-6 p.m. The Weather Bureau will
furnish suitable instructions to observers,
and will aid them as far as possible in ex-
plaining the very simple computations that
would be needed to prepare the obser-
vations for final discussion.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 70.
There are many forms of nephoscopes in
use, but the one devised by Prof. Marvin, of
the Weather Bureau, seems to be especially
well adapted to the requirements. <A de-
scription of it will be found in the January
number of the Weather Review. It may
be said in this place that its best feature is
the device for keeping the sighting knob ex-
actly twelve centimeters above the mirror
in every possible position, so that the unit
of height becomes 1000 meters, and the
velocity in meters per second at that height
*is just one third the number of millimeters
passed over by the image in 25 seconds.
This makes the computations very easy,
and when the height of the cloud level is
known from the theodolite work, the actual
velocity is obtained by simply identifying
the cloud observed from its form as belong-
ing to such a level. The mean of a large
numberof observations gives a true velocity.
The base line at Washington is about 1360
meters long, one end on the Weather Bureau
building, and the other on the War, State
and Navy building. The ratios of velocity
by the theodolites and nephoscopes at this
station, in the different cloud levels, gives.
the means of using other nephoscope ob-
servations, provided the naming of the
cloud forms is carefully done.
‘The ultimate problem is to obtain the
coordinate velocities of the several com-
ponents in the general circulation, and the
relation that these have to the cyclonic
circulations which depend upon them. The
importance of these solutions to the art of
forecasting, and the fact that voluntary ob-
servations made in widely separated parts
of the United States are needed as contri-
butions to the network, together with the
simplicity that pertains to nephoscope work,
induces the hope that some interested in
the physies of the air may take up the task
of cooperation.” é
FRANK H. BIGELow.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
May 1, 1896.]
NOTES ON NATIVE SULPHUR IN TEXAS.
Axgour 40 miles northwest of Pecos City,
and 20 west of Guadalupe station on the
Pecos Valley Railroad, are some deposits of
sulphur, a short account of which may be
of interest to the readers of ScrENCcE.
These deposits occur in the ‘Toyah Ba-
sin’ (or its extension), referred to by Prof.
R. T. Hill in his report on the Artesian wa-
ters of Texas. This basin is one of a series
of lacustrine formations occupying valleys
eroded in the plains or enclosed by moun-.
tain blocks, the underlying and enclosing
formations being the Red Beds and the
lower strata of the Comanche series of the
Texas geologists.
To the northwestward of Guadalupe sta-
tion, and distant some fifty or sixty miles,
the Guadalupe mountains (of Paleozoic
rocks) end with a perpendicular escarpment
of at least a thousand feet in height, form-
ing a conspicuous as well as a most beautiful
feature of the landscape. Twenty-five or
thirty miles west of the station a range of
hills two to five hundred feet in height, with
increasing altitude towards the west, and
composed of the yellowish caleareous sandy
rocks, probably of the Comanche horizon,
makes the first interruption to the monotony
of the plain in this direction. From the
station out to these mountains and hills,
and to the southwestward, beyond the limits
of vision, the country is in generalterms a
level plain ; in detail, a succession of low
ridges and shallow ravines or ‘ draws,’ the
result of the erosion of the original plain.
The region is practically destitute of trees,
but there is on the elevations a scanty
growth of yucca, dwarf mesquite, cactus
and similar desert plants, to which in the
lower and moister places there is added a
dense growth of grasses, and in places a few
stunted cedars.
The shallower ravines expose only the
materials of the basin formation, coarse
sand loosely cemented by lime ; silt, usually
SCIENCE.
657
pinkish or light chocolate brown in color,
water-worn siliceous pebbles; and ‘ tierra
blanea,’ a white chalky calcareous mate-
rial possessing some hydraulic properties
(Hill). In the deeper ravines erosion has
laid bare the underlying formations, which
are, according to locality, the red or dark
purple clayey materials of the Red Beds or
the sandy yellowish limestones of the Co-
manche. In these deeper ‘draws’ are a
few springs of gypseous water which flow
off in rather bold streams, to be speedily
absorbed by the porous soils. Two of these,
the Screw Bean and the Maverick springs,
are between the station and the sulphur
deposits. Besides these there are several
springs whose waters are strongly impreg-
nated with sulphur, and where the pools of
water stand for some time they become
briny, leaving, upon evaporation, a thick
crust of salt. The level country between
the limestone hills above mentioned pos-
sesses somewhat similar characters, and in
the plain enclosed by these hills there is a
fine spring of slightly gypseous water some
five miles to the westward of the farthest of
the sulphur localities. This is at the Tier-
nan ranch where the water has been used
to some extent in irrigation around the
ranch.
At the three places visited by me the sul-
phur was found below bare, apparently
wind-swept, spots, its presence being usually
indicated either by clusters of gypsum
crystals in the soil, or by an outcrop of the
sulphur itself, sometimes tolerably pure,
sometimes cementing the surface pebbles
into aconglomerate. When further exposed
by pits, the sulphur is seen to occur in
nests and irregular veins filling small fis-
sures or crevices in the soil, the sides of
these fissures being often lined with well-
developed sulphur erystals up to one-fourth
of an inch in size. The whole of the earth,
to the depth of ten feet or more at the
three localities visited, appeared to be im-
658
pregnated with sulphur, sometimes almost
imperceptible to the eye, but oftener in
minute erystals concentrated along irregu-—
lar lines. Where thus generally dissemi-
nated through the brown or chocolate-
colored earth, the sulphur makes some 10
or 15 per cent. of the whole weight, but
where concentrated along the lines above
mentioned the percentage of sulphur goes
up to 40 or 50 and even higher, for not
infrequent is the occurrence of sulphur in
the massive form, very light yellow in color,
opaque, and of earthy aspect, resembling a
yellowish meerschaum, but of exceptional
purity, several analyses: of average samples
showing 97 per cent. sulphur. The average
content of sulphur in the material penetrated
by the several pits which were examined by
me could not be far short of 50 per cent.
In the immediate vicinity of one of the
occurrences the surface soil is highly
charged with gypsum, which appears in
small crystals and in large groups of crys-
tals imbedded in the white calcareous
sandy material rendered strongly acid by
the decomposition products of the sulphur.
At one place the sulphur beds rest upon
an impure limestone which has been so
greatly corroded by these acids as to be
very difficult of identification.
Upon exposure to the air the sulphur
rapidly undergoes alteration, being in great
part finally converted into sulphuric acid,
but becoming first opaque and soapy. From
this cause the heaps of nearly pure sulphur
piled around the mouths of the prospecting
pits, rapidly disintegrate and disappear.
In many cases, however, this waste has
been partly due to the mechanical action of
floods which, by reason of the occasional
heavy rainfalls, sweep down the generally
dry ‘draws,’ carrying everything before
them. The sides of the pits and the ma-
terials thrown out of them exhale a peculiar
odor (sulphury), and are so strongly acid
as to destroy quickly the clothing and other
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 70.
organic matters brought in contact there-
with.
The sulphur beds do not appear to under-
lie uniformly the whole basin, for in the
region indicated, within a radius of twenty
miles, only three places are as yet known
where they occur. The actual outcrop by
natural or artificial exposure will here
cover some four or five acres, but the proba-
bility is that the sulphur in each of the
localities underlies a much larger area, for
wherever penetrated by borings or pits
the sulphur-impregnated earth has been
encountered to a depth of at least ten feet,
and a deposit of this thickness could hardly
be conceived to thin down so rapidly as to
limit the occurrence of the sulphur to the
small area in which it has actually been
exposed.
Nor, on the other hand, are the sulphur
deposits of Texas confined to the particular
region designated in these notes, for there are
wellauthenticated reports of their occurrence
both to the westward and to the northward,
the former from cowboys, through whose
representations attention was first directed
to the beds above described, the latter upon
the authority of Capt. John Pope, who had
charge of one of the divisions of the survey
of the railroad routes to the Pacific. Along
the banks of Delaware creek he collected a
sample of earth which contained 18.28% of
sulphur, and he comments also upon the
frequency of sulphur springs in the same
region. Delaware creek rises among: the
Guadalupe mountains and flows into the
Pecos river some fifty miles to the north-
ward of Guadalupe station.
The materials filling the basins of the
Trans-Pecos region have very generally
been considered as of lacustrine origin, and
of the truth of this supposition we have
very good proof in the great number of
fresh-water diatoms discovered in the sul-
phur-impregnated earth submitted by me
to Mr. K. M. Cunningham, of Mobile, for
May 1, 1896.]
microscopic examination. The basin forma-
tion is considered by Mr. Hill to be of
Pleistocene age, but somewhat more recent
than the Llano Estacado.
_In regard to the origin of the Texas sul-
phur beds, the most significant of the asso-
ciated materials are the beds of gypsum
which a few miles to the northeast are of
commercial importance because of their
great thickness and purity; thesprings of sul-
phur water which are abundant along all the
deeper drainage ways; and the ancient lake
deposits which practically make the coun-
try. These deposits contain much organic
matter along with calcareous and siliceous
sediments.
The sulphur deposits of Sicily have prob-
ably received more careful study than any
others, and they are generally thought to
be derived from springs charged with cal-
cium sulphide or sulphuretted hydrogen
and carbonate of lime, resulting from the
decomposition of gypsum in presence of or-
ganic matter. The decomposition products
of the sulphur, in turn, acting upon calca-
reous matters, yield gypsum, thus comple-
ting the cycle.
Without enquiring into the origin of the
great gypsum deposits of this section, I
think we must consider the sulphur as one
of its products, though due more immedi-
ately to the oxidation of sulphuretted hy-
drogen.
If these deposits were more accessible
there could be no question as to their com-
mercial importance. They are twenty miles
from railroad lines, and in a country desti-
tute of fuel and with seanty supply of sur-
face waters. On the other hand, there would
be no difficulty in the way of constructing a
railroad or tramroad, which could be built
out to the sulphur beds almost without
grading, and that a supply of water could
be had by artesian borings is as good as cer-
tain, for further down the basin near Pecos
City abundance of water is obtained from
SCIENCE.
659
borings of 200 to 300 feet. The nearest
source of fuel would probably be the Texas
coal fields. EvucGene A. Smrru.
UNIVERSITY OF ALABAMA.
| CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPHY.
THE ADIRONDACK MOUNTAINS AND VALLEYS.
A FEW pages in the account of Essex
county, N. Y., by Kemp (Rept. State
Geol., N. Y., 1893, 488-441) describe the
.Adirondack ridges thereabouts as trending
to the northeast, Lake Champlain round-
ing their ends in a series of bays. The
longitudinal valleys are said to be chiefly
due to faults, and the mountains are re-
garded as of the tilted-block type; the evi-
dence of the faults being found in breccias
and shear zones (as of Avalanche lake,
Amer. Journ. Sci., Aug., 1892), and in the .
narrow ‘ passes’ which are said to be evi-
dently produced by fault scarps. More-
over, the ridges are commonly abrupt on
one side and slope more gradually on the
other, as in Knob mountain. A later re-
port by the same author states that the re-
lief of the region is not caused entirely by
erosion, but that it is ‘in a large part due
to block faulting’ (Bull. N. Y. State Mu-
seum, III., 1895, 328). It is further con-
cluded that many of the valleys must have
been outlined in pre-Cambrian times ; for
small areas of Potsdam sandstone occur in
the depressions far within the mountains.
TOPOGRAPHIC FORMS PRODUCED BY
FAULTING.
THE context of the above extracts seems
to indicate that their author infers an an-
cient date for the faults mentioned, and a
considerable amount of erosion subse-
quently in the excavation of the valleys;
yet the hasty reader might gather the idea
that the forms now visible were directly
initiated by faulting of comparatively. re- _
cent date. It is not decidedly stated
whether the faults lately produced the ex-
660
isting relief, or whether the fault lines, as
lines of weakness, have been eroded down
into valleys, or whether the valleys have
been lately (7. e., in Tertiary time) eroded
out of weak masses of rock that were long
ago brought by faulting next to hard
masses, or whether the valleys have lately
been re-excavated in the Paleozoic rock-
filling of ancient fault-block valleys; nor
is the date of the faults explicity stated.
Here, as in many other cases, it is probably
difficult to choose among these alternatives.
Type examples of the various relations of
form to faulting are, however, well known.
Monoclinal ridges of strong relief, initiated
by faulting and as yet hardly affected by
erosion, are found in the tilted lava blocks
of southern Oregon, described by Russell.
The ranges of the Great basin are thought
to be older fault blocks, more or less al-
tered by erosion ; but it is difficult to deter-
mine from the published descriptions by
various observers all the elements of the
problem; namely, the form that the region
had before faulting, the form given by
faulting (distinction being made between
the uplifted back slope and the broken face
of the faulted and tilted blocks), and fin-
ally the forms produced by erosion after
faulting. Our Appalachian region offers
plentiful examples of the complete extinc-
tion of the unequal relief initiated by an-
cient faults, as well as many other examples
of notches and valleys whose erosion, in a
new cycle after peneplanation, has been
guided by fault lines or by the weaker parts
of ancient faulted structures.
The well proved geological occurrence of
a fault has been often taken as a sufficient
explanation of form, without the aid of
erosion. For example, Kjerulf regarded
faults as the cause of the valleys and fiords
of Norway; but it is probable that the
_ faults there are for the most part of ancient
date, while the valleys can hardly be older
than Tertiary times. The zigzag escarp-
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 70.
ments of the crystalline uplands east of
Lake Vettern, in Sweden, imitate to per-
fection the forms that might be produced
by recent faulting (see sheets 55, 56 of
the Swedish topographical survey). Faults
are numerous in the region, but it is prob-
able that the inequalities here due to
faulting were long ago worn out in the
general denudation that produced the up-
land (once a lowland peneplain) of Scandi-
navia; and that the escarpments now
visible were produced, after a general uplift
of the region not longer ago than some-
where in Tertiary time, by the erosion of
the weaker Paleozoic beds that had much
earlier been faulted down next to the
crystallines. How all this may be in the
Adirondack region will perhaps be more
fully determined by further observation.
THE BALTIC SEA.
Pror. RupotpH CreEpNeER, of the Uni-
versity of Greifswald, whose monograph on
Riigen (Forschungen z. deut. Landeskunde,
vii., 1893, 377-494) gives an interesting ac-
count of the interglacial deformation of
that island, now extends his studies to the
origin of the depression in which the Baltic
lies. Placed between the oldland of Scan-
dinavia and the younger deposits of the
North German plain, the minor depressions
contained within the general basin are as-
eribed to local faulting, more or less modi-
fied by later denudation, especially by
glacial action. The observed faults on
either side of the Baltic are taken to indi-
cate that other faults occur beneath the
waters of the sea. The outlines of the
present shore result from broad oscillations
of level, whereby the area of the sea has
been significantly altered in comparatively
recent times (Hettner’s Geogr. Zeitschr.,i.,
1895, 5387-556).
The analogy, pointed out by Suess and
others, between the Baltic and our Great
Lakes appears to deserve greater emphasis
May 1, 1896.]
than is given to it by Credner. The Baltic
and the lakes lie, as a whole, between an
oldland and a series of less ancient strata,
dipping away from it. The Gulf of Bo-
thnia and Lake Superior are both within
the limits of the oldland; the other basins
are along the margin. In our Great Lakes,
local faulting has not been noticed. As for
the Swedish faults, most of them are too
ancient to have any effect on existing to-
pography, except as guides for modern ero-
sive forces. Warping of a longitudinal
depression, originally produced by ordinary
denudation and modified by glacial erosion
and deposition, appears to deserve greater
importance than Credner allows it.
“SHUT-IN’ VALLEYS.
Tue St. Francois mountains of south-
eastern Missouri consist of very ancient
rock masses that have been more or less
completely buried in Paleozoic strata, and
that are now partly resurrected by the
stripping of their cover. An expected
feature of such mountains is the occasional
occurrence of narrow superposed valleys,
either still occupied or now deserted by
their streams. A typical example of the
latter kind is found in the notch that holds
Devil’s lake in the Baraboo ridge of Wis-
consin, explained by the Geological Survey
of that State as the former superposed
course of the Wisconsin river. A report
by Keyes on the Mine la Motte sheet of the
Missouri geological atlas now announces
the occurrence of several narrow valleys of
this class still occupied as water courses,
and so unlike the broader valleys up and
down stream that they are locally known
as ‘shut-ins.’ A good example is found
two miles west of Fredericktown, where
the Little Francois river passes through a
narrow gorge in the porphyry mass of
Buckner and Devon mountains between
open limestone valleys up and down stream.
Discordanee of drainage with their sur-
SCIENCE.
661
roundings, as well as of structure, form and
products, thus seems to characterize resur-
rected ancient mountains. Monadnocks,
on the other hand, may be said never to be
traversed by streams. W. M. Davis.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
CURRENT NOTES IN METEOROLOGY.
Unper the heading Current Notes in
Meteorology it is intended to publish, from
week to week, or as opportunity may offer,
short notes on recent publications of gen-
eral interest and of importance in meteor-
ology and climatology. Meteorology, al-
though one of the newest of the sciences, is
growing in importance every day, and its
literature is rapidly increasing. To-day
every scientific man needs some knowledge
of what this literature is. Unfortunately,
since the suspension of the American Meteor-
ological Journal, in April of this year, there ex-
ists no representative independent meteor-
ological publication in the United States.
There is, therefore, at present no American
journal to which one may turn for informa-
tion regarding recent meteorological litera-
ture. It is the main purpose of these notes
to supply this need, and to give the titles,
together with a few words as to the con-
tents, of such publications in meteorology
and climatology as seem to warrant notice
in a general scientific journal such as this
is. Mention will also be made of meteor-
ological phenomena of interest, accounts of
which appear from time to time in records
of travel, the Monthly Weather Review of our
Weather Bureau, the bulletins of the vari-
ous State Climate and Crop Services, etc. In
this way it is hoped to furnish, in this column,
a source of information on general meteoro-
logical and climatological matters that is
at present lacking in the United States.
May Ist was the date set for the begin-
ning of the International Cloud Year, in ac-
cordance with a resolution adopted by the
662
International Meteorological Committee at
its meeting in Upsala in August, 1894.
Nine countries have promised to cooperate
in the work, which includes determinations
of the altitudes, directions and relative ve-
locities of clouds. These countries are as fol-
lows: Batavia, France, Norway, Portugal,
Prussia, Roumania, Russia, Sweden and the
United States. One or two stations in each
country are to furnish observations of alti-
tudes, determined by means of theodolites
or photogrammeters, while at certain auxili-
ary stations records of direction and rela-
tive velocity will be kept. In the United
States, the chief office of the Weather Bu-
reau, in Washington, and the Blue Hill Ob-
servatory, in Readville, Mass., will deter-
mine altitudes, while the observations of
direction and velocity will be made at
Washington, New York, Buffalo and De-
troit. The records collected during the
year will certainly throw much light on
certain much-debated questions of cloud
movements and of cyclonic action.
ARTIFICIAL tornado clouds have recently
been produced by Dines in England (Quart.
Jorun. Roy. Met. Soc., Jan., 1896, 71-73).
The apparatus used was a simple one. Two
glass screens, 2 ft. high, each consisting of
three leaves, were set upon a table so as to
leave a hexagonal space in the middle.
top of the glass plates a wooden panel of
the requisite size was placed, with a round
hole 7 in. in diameter in the center. In
the hole there was a ventilating fan, driven
by hand, and in the center of the table, be-
tween the screens, a shallow vessel contain-
ing water was placed, heated by a spirit
lamp, in order that sufficient vapor might
be sobtained to form the funnel cloud.
When the fan is turned on in this appara-
tus an upward current of air is produced at
the center, and a cloud is formed. This
cloud has a distinct rotary motion around
the center, increasing in velocity as the
SCIENCE.
On ~
[N. 8. Von. III. No. 70.
center is approached. There is further a
strong updraft, a great decrease of pressure
in the center, and the cloud column is dis-
tinctly hollow, in all these respects closely
simulating the actual tornado funnel cloud.
The conditions of the experiment are, how-
ever, so unlike those existing in nature dur-
ing the occurrence of tornadoes that, al-
though interesting, the results cannot be
considered as very important.
ATTENTION has lately been again directed
to the matter of Arctic Exploration by
reasons of the rumors as to Nansen’s voy-
age, and the frequent allusions, in scientific
papers, to Andrée’s balloon expedition,
which is to start this summer. The recent
publication of Gen. Greely’s Handbook of
Arctic Discoveries (Boston, Roberts Bros.,
1896) is therefore very timely. Gen. Greely,
as is generally known, led the United States
expedition sent out in 1881 to take part in
the system of international meteorological
observations planned by the International
Meteorological Conference and the Inter-
national Polar Conference in 1879. Fifteen
expeditions were sent out as a result of this
plan, and they together made up the line of
International Circumpolar Stations, whose
work has been of such great importance in
meteorology. Gen. Greely gives a general
account of Arctic discoveries, and devotes
one chapter to the International Circum-
polar Stations.
A NOTE on a rather unusual meteorological
phenomenon appears in the February Bul-
letin of the New England Section of the
Climate and Crop Service. On February
19th, on the campus of Trinity College,
Hartford, Conn., a southerly wind, blowing
over a thin covering of damp snow, caught
up little pellets of this snow and, rolling
them over and over, made them into muffs
or ‘rollers.’ These ‘rollers’ increased in
diameter as they were driven on by the
wind, until some of them measured 8 inches
May 1, 1896.]
in diameter and 8 inches in length. The
eylinders had conical depressions at each
end, these depressions nearly meeting at the
center. Similar ‘rollers’ were observed in
Connecticut on February 20, 1883, on which
day some of them measured 12 x 18 inches,
and their paths could be traced for 20 or 30
feet in the snow. R. DEC. Warp.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.
ELEMENTARY PSYCHICAL CONCEPTS.
THE eminent anthropologist, whom his
disciples love to call the ‘Altmeister’ of the
science, Dr. Adolf Bastian, has added an-
other to his numerous works by one re-
cently published in Berlin (Weidmannsche
Buchhandlung), entitled ‘ Ethnische Ele-
mentargedanken in der Lehre vom Men-
schen.’ These elementary or rather elemen-
tal thoughts may be looked upon ‘as the
germinal matter out of which proceeded
the psychical growth of the ethnic organism
in its various methods of mental or spiritual
expression,’’ as the author states in his
preface.
The subjects treated are those opinions
which primitive peoples had and have on
the topics relating to the ultra- or super-
natural world, and its relations to man;
such as divinity, the under-world, guardian
spirits, mysteries, names, prayer, sacrifice,
prophecy, heaven, hell, fate, evil, good,
the creation, miracles, femininity, vows,
witchés, immortality, and a host of similar
notions, which the author treats with his
usual astonishing, overflowing and over-
whelming erudition, and with that com-
plexity of style which simply appals a
foreign reader. Anyone who wishes a ‘ hard
lesson’ in German should take up the
author’s introduction to his second part.
PATHOLOGY IN ETHNOLOGY.
OnE of the most enlightened German
writers on ethnology, Dr. Thomas Achelis,
makes the following remark in an article in
SCIENCE.
663
Globus, No. 4, 1896: ‘‘ Every form of de-
generation, since it is a pathological pro-
cess, does not belong primarily to subjects
of ethnologic study.” He would grant the
first place only to subjects which reveal
organic development, progressive evolution,
and lift to higher phases of culture.
This seems a serious error. It is the
duty of the ethnologist, as of every other
scientist, to study things as they are, award-
ing to each an equal amount of attention.
What appear to be degenerations are often
necessary steps in life process. Important
advances in physiology have frequently
been gained by the study of pathology.
Science is untrue to itself when it under-
takes to make the defense of evolution its
chief aim. It should seek exact truth, in-
different as to whether that makes for good-
ness or for badness, as we judge those
norms. ‘What seems most against nature,
is yet natural,” said Goethe; and whatever
is natural, whatever is real, in other words,
should claim our consideration, independ-
ently of its imagined tendencies ; and no-
where is this more essential than in eth-
nology.
THE ANTHROPOLOGIC STUDY OF PERSONALITY.
THE word persona originally meant the
mask which actors wore on the scenic stage ;
and a cynic would say that personality
often means the same to-day. Strictly, we
may use it as a Synonym of individual self-
consciousness, or the knowledge of self as a
subject. In previous ages it was studied
exclusively by introverted mental observa-
tion, and this led to vague speculations on
the “ Kgo,”’ of small positive worth.
In the ‘ Revue Scientifique,’ January 25th,
Prof. Pierre Janet, of the College de
France, lays down the principles for the an-
thropologie study of this phenomenon of
personality. In itself it is to be regarded
as the synthesis of the conscious and uncon-
scious mental experiences of the individ-
664
ual, and it is to be defined and investi-
gated by these methods: 1. The examina-
ation of self as heretofore carried on. 2.
The examination of allied phenomena in the
healthy condition of other minds, bringing
them into comparison with our own; and,
3. The examination of minds more or less
diseased in the direction of their personality.
He lays especial stress on the last mentioned,
referring to cases where the sense of per-
sonality has been partly or wholly lost.
The problems of unconscious cerebration,
sublimital consciousness, and the like, must
also receive due attention.
D. G. Brinton.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
THE INTERNATIONAL CATALOGUE OF SCIENCE.
THE International Conference to consider
the preparation of a catalogue of scientific litera-
ture by international codperation will be held
at the rooms of the Royal Society, London, be-
ginning on Tuesday, July 14th.
The committee of the Royal Society suggests
provisionally that the author and subject cata-
logue shall be restricted in the first instance to
branches of pure science, such as mathematics,
astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, zodl-
ogy, botany, physiology and anthropology, to
the exclusion of applied science, such as engi-
neering, medicine and the like, but that all
definite contributions to pure science shall be
thoroughly indexed, whether occurring in books,
memoirs, etc., treating of pure science or in
those devoted to applied or practical science.
The committee also recommends that there
shall be a first issue of authors’ titles, subject-
matter, etc., in the form of slips or cards,
which shall be distributed as speedily and as
frequently as possible to subscribers, and that a
further issue in book form shall take place at
such intervals as shall be determined on, parts
corresponding to the several sciences, being, if
found desirable, published separately.
It is recommended that a central bureau shall
be established under the control of an interna-
tional council having authority over any under-
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 70.
taking which may be allotted to particular
countries, institutions or persons. The cost of
the catalogue, in so far as it isnot met by sales,
should be provided for by means of a guarantee
fund subscribed by governments, learned so-
cieties, institutions and individuals throughout
the world, and it is estimated that the annual
sum thus to be secured should be approxi-
mately $50,000.
The conference will have to take into con-
sideration where the bureau shall be placed,
how the international council shall be ap-
pointed and organized, what language or lan-
guages shall be used and what system of class-
ification shall be adopted. It is suggested
that the decimal system of Dewey may be so
amended as to be worthy of adoption.
As already stated in this journal, the dele-
gates to the conference from the United States
are Dr. John S. Billings and Prof. Simon New-
comb,
EXHIBITION OF THE NEW YORK MICROSCOPICAL
SOCIETY.
THE Seventeenth Annual Exhibition of the
New York Microscopical Society took place at
the American Museum of Natural History on
Tuesday evening, April 14th. The attendance
steadily increasing from year to year has been
a true indication of the value of this exhibition
in what is usually spoken of as ‘ popularizing
science.’ The indiscriminate study of natural
science often works more harm than good, es-
pecially if it be acquired through desultory and
misdirected reading. Personal observation in-
sures the safest and most lasting knowledge of
Nature’s acts and works. If this principle has
been inculeated into the non-scientific portion
of the audience, one purpose of the exhibition
will have been accomplished. Persons more
directly concerned and interested in scientific
work also found enough to attract their at-
tention.
The catalogue of seventy exhibits included
many specimens of chemical crystals and min-
erals; various forms of pond life; the mouth
parts of several insects, with specimens of their
destructive borings in wood and other sub-
stances ; drug plants and preparations of these ;
microscopical tests for the detection of quinine,
May 1, 1896.]
morphine and various poisons ; the methods of
studying bacteria, with complete set of cultures,
apparatus, etc.; photomicrographs and prepara-
tions illustrating the structure of steel, and
many other objects of interest.
At nine o’clock Dr. Edward G. Love, the
President of the Society, gave a brief lecture on
the use of the microscope in the examination of
the fibers of various textile fabrics, fully illus-
trated by lantern slides. The committee of ar-
rangements consisted of Messrs. George W.
Kosmak, George H. Blakeand William B. Tut-
hill. It seems no more than right and proper
to acknowledge at this point the obligations
which this and other scientific societies of New
York should feel towards the Museum au-
thorities for the many courtesies and favors
shown.
Ge Wo 1K
BULLETINS OF THE DIVISION OF ENTOMOLOGY.
As previously announced in these columns,
with the interruption of Insect Life, the periodi-
cal bulletin of the Division of Entomology, U.
$S. Department of Agriculture, the publication
of two series of bulletins was begun, the first a
technical series, embodying the results of the
purely scientific work of the members of the
force of the Division, the second a general
series of economic bearing. Of the first series
two numbers have been published, the first, A
Revision of the Aphelininze of North America,
by L. O. Howard, and the second, The Grass
and Grain Joint-worm Flies and their Allies ; a
Consideration of Some North American Phy-
tophagic Eurytominz, by the same writer.
The last named publication has just appeared.
It embodies descriptions of nineteen species of
plant-feeding Eurytominz, fourteen of which
are new. All of the species make galls in the
stems of graminaceous plants, with the excep-
tion of two which feed in the seeds of Vitis.
Mr. Howard rehabilitates, on structural grounds,
the colorational species of Isosoma, established
by Fitch, and decides that the species which
Fitch considered to be Isosoma hordei is entirely
distinct from Harris’ species, and that the lat-
ter corresponds with Fitch’s Isosoma fulvipes.
The general series of bulletins so far issued
includes No, 1, The Honey Bee; a Manual of
SCIENCE.
665
Instruction in Apiculture, by Frank Benton ;
No. 2, Proceedings of the Seventh Annual
Meeting of the Association of Economic Ento-
mologists ; and No. 3, The San José Scale: its
Occurrences; in the United States, with a full
account of its Life History and the Remedies to
be used against it, by L. O. Howard and C. L.
Marlatt. The last-named is a pamphlet of 80
pages and includes a very full illustrated ac-
count of Aspidiotus perniciosus, particularly in
regard to its eastern occurences ; the life history
of the species as determined by careful indoor
experiments at Washington; and a complete
bibliography.
GENERAL.
THE sub-committee of the New York Legis-
lature has reported to the Assembly recom-
mending that the State Geological Survey be
placed entirely under the management and di-
rection of Dr. James Hall.
THE Council of the Royal College of Sur-
geons, England, has awarded the Jackson prize
to Dr. A. A. Kanthack for an essay on tetanus,
and the Walker prize, for the best work on
cancer, to Mr. H. J. Stiles.
THE United States civil service commission
will hold an examination in Washington and
other cities, commencing at 9 a. m. on May 15,
to fill two vacancies in the position of scientific
assistant in the fish commission, the salary of
one position being $720 per annum and of the
other $1,200 per annum.
WE learn from Nature that a memorial has
been projected in Germany to the late Prof.
Hermann Hellriegel, of Bernburg, who died in
September last. It is proposed to erect a mon-
ument in the churchyard at Bernburg, where
the remains of the distinguished investigator are
interred. An appeal for contributions has been
issued, and.a small committee, consisting of
the President and Secretary of the Bernburg
Agricultural Society and Dr. Wilfarth, Hell-
reigel’s colleague in his researches, has been
formed to carry out the details.
SENATOR CANNON, of Utah, has introduced
into the Senate a joint resolution proposing the
construction at Washington of a map of the
United States on a scale of one foot to the
mile.
666
Iris stated that Sir Wollaston Franks, who
has been an officer of the British Museum since
1851, willshortly retire from the head of the de-
partment of British and Medizeval Antiquities.
A CABLE despatch states that the Governor of
Yakutsk reports officially that the inhabitants
of Ust-Yansk have not heard anything about
Dr. Nansen, the Arctic explorer, who was
recently reported to be returning after having
discovered the North Pole.
A VITASCOPE devised by Edison, and similar
to the kinetoscope of MM. Lumiére (see SCIENCE
N.5., No. 66, p. 513), has been exhibited in a
New York theater and received with much ap-
plause. A scene showing surf beating against
a pier and breaking on the sand is said to have
been especially successful.
THE most interesting announcement in the
report of Sir A. Geikie on the Geological Sur-
vey of the United Kingdom for 1895 concerns
the new general map of England and Wales on
a scale of four miles toan inch. Of the total
thirteen sheets, seven have been issued, five
are in the hands of the engraver, and the re-
maining one will be shortly prepared. Experi-
ment has been made on one of these sheets as
to the comparative cost of hand coloring and
color-printing; the price by the first method
being 10s.6d.; by the second, 2s.6d. So far as can
be judged at present, the sale justifies the ex-
pectation that the color-printing system may
be continued and extended. Not only is there
the advantage of a much lower price, but far
greater accuracy of the maps can be insured
than when each copy has to be laboriously
copied by hand.
Avr a meeting of the Royal Meteorological
Society of London, on April 15th, Mr. E. D.
Fridlander, gave an account of some obser-
vations of the amount of dust in the atmos-
phere made at various places during a yoyage
round the world in 1894-5. The experiments,
which were made with a form of Aitken’s
pocket dust counter, showed that there are
often considerable variations in the number of
dust particles in a very short space of time.
Not only did the dust occur in the air of inhab-
ited countries, over the water surfaces immedi-
ately adjoining them, and up to an altitude of
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 70.
6,000 or 7,000 feet amongst the Alps, but it was
also found in the open ocean, and that so far
away from any land as to preclude the possibil-
ity of artificial pollution, and its existence has
been directly demonstrated at a height of more
than 13,000 feet.
In a letter received by the American Metric
Society, G. Q. Coray, the Secretary of the Utah
Metric Society, conveys the information that the
metric system has been under constant agita-
tion in Utah for nearly two years. Asa result,
practically every teacher, merchant and politi-
cal leader is committed to the policy of adopting
the system to the exclusion of all other weights.
and measures at as early a date as possible.
The metric system has been recognized by con-
stitutional provision, and unless Congress takes
some action that will operate against the system
in the near future the metric system will
take the place of the old systems in the arith-
metics used in the Utah public schools. The
State Teachers’ Association, the Legisla-
ture of Utah and the State University have
forwarded memorials to Congress asking for the
passage of the bill now before the House of
Representatives. It is expected that the, Salt
Lake Chamber of Commerce will take similar
action. The Utah Society proposes to send a
representative to Washington to bring the merits.
of the system to the attention of the Congress-
men. Mr. Coray states that the business men
of Utah are practically a unit in favor of the
movement. The Metric Society numbers over
1,000 members, and is composed largely of the
business classes. The success of the Utah Met-
ric Society naturally suggests the formation of
similar societies in each of the States.
THERE will be an exhibition of horseless car-
riages at the Imperial Institute, London, begin-
ning on May 9th, and at the Crystal Palace
during May an exhibition will be opened for
carriages of all sorts in which competitions.
will be arranged for horseless carriages.
THE British Medical Journal states that M.
Duclaux, the Director of the Pasteur Institute,
has made some interesting experiments on the
chemical action of the sun’s rays. The activity
of the rays was estimated by exposing solutious
of oxalic acid of known strength to their action.
May 1, 1896.]
The oxalic acid is converted with more or less
rapidity into carbonic acid, which escapes, and
at the end of the experiment the degree of
acidity of the solution indicates the amount of
the oxalic acid which has been decomposed, or
‘burnt,’ touse M. Duclaux’s term. The results
showed, as was to be expected, that with an
overcast sky the chemical action of the sun’s
rays was much less than on a fine day, but be-
yond this they were far from concordant. With
a dappled sky or with light cumulus clouds the
solar combustion might be more active than
with a blue sky or with a slight amount of
cirrus. In a word, the apparent fineness of the
body is notin any way related to its chemical
activity and its hygienic power. On the whole,
however, the action was greater in August than
in September. This is in accordance with the
experience of every photographer. Asaccount-
ing partly for the discrepancies found between
succeeding days both equally fine, M. Duclaux
states that all essential oils and the odors sent
forth into the air by vegetation diminish the
actinic power of the radiations which reach the
surface of the soil.
THE fourth International Congress of Crimi-
nal Anthropology will be held at Geneva,
August 25-29, 1896. Application for member-
ship should be sent to M. Maurice Bedot,
Musée d’histoire naturelle, Geneva, Switzer-
land.
THERE has been established in Amsterdam,
under the editorship of Dr. F. H. A. Peypers,
a journal devoted to the history and geography
of medicine.
THE Rebman Publishing Co., London, has in
press a serial entitled Archives of Clinical Ski-
agraphy, edited by Dr. Sidney Rowland. The
first plate will be the osseous system of a child,
and five further plates, showing obscure injuries
to the knee, etc., will be included in the first
part.
THE British Medical Journal states that Dr.
Edward Frankland has been asked to preside
over the Toronto meeting of the British Associ-
ation. It was at one time thought that the
office would be accepted by the Prince of Wales,
but he has decided that he would be unable to
go to Canada next year.
SCIENCE.
667
THE Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschaw states
that the Academy of Science at Munich has
awarded the Liebig gold medal to Prof. Friedr.
Stohmann, of Leipzig, and the silver medals to
Prof. B. Tollens, of Gottingen, and Dr. P. So-
rauer, of Berlin. Prof. Tollens has also received
an award of 1,000 Marks for his research on
carbohydrates.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
Mrs. LyprA BRADLEY, of Peoria, Ill., has
made known her intention of giving $1,000,000
for a polytechnic institute in Peoria.
A Boston citizen whose name is withheld
has given $100,000 to establish a chair of com-
parative pathology in the medical school of
Harvard University.
Mrs. J. 8S. T. STRANAHAN, of Brooklyn, has
given $5,000 to the building fund of Barnard
College.
THE Catholic University will build a dormi-
tory costing about $60,000 and accommodating
about 50 students. It will be ready for use next
October. There are at present no dormitories
belonging to the universities. The University
has received $5,000 by the will of the Rey.
Father Dougherty, of Honesdale, Pa.
It is expected that Mayor Strong will ap-
prove the bill authorizing the Board of Estimate
and Apportionment to give the College of the
City of New York $175,000 a year instead of
$150,000, the amount it has received for several
years.
Or the twenty-four fellowships annually
awarded by Columbia University, the following
appointments have been made in the sciences
coming immediately within the scope of this
journal: C. J. Keyser, mathematics; J. G. C.
Cottier, mechanics; F. Schlesinger, astronomy; F.
L. Tufts, physics; H. C. Sherman, chemistry; D.
H. Newland, geology; P. A. Rydberg, botany; H.
EK. Crampton, Jr., and J. H. MacGregor,
zoology; S. I. Franz and L. B. MeWhood, psy-
chology.
AT Bryn Mawr College Miss F. Cook has been
appointed fellow in mathematics; Miss F. Low-
water, in physics, and Miss C. Fairbanks, in
668
chemistry. <A fellow in biology will also be ap-
pointed.
THE University of Utrecht will celebrate this
year its 260th anniversary, the fétes beginning
on June 22d. The many American students
and professors going abroad during the summer
will find this a favorable opportunity to visit
Utrecht.
THE late Mrs. Nichol, of Edinburgh, has be-
queathed $10,000 to Edinburgh University, to
found a scholarship in physics.
Pror. J. PERRY has been appointed to the
vacant chair of mechanics and mathematics at
the Royal College of Science, London.
THE University of Edinburgh has conferred
the degree of LL. D., on President F. A.
Walker, of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech-
nology.
THE Senate of Glasgow University has con-
ferred the degree of LL. D., on Prof. Thisel-
ton-Dyer and on Prof. Andrew Gray.
Dr. ALBERT FLEISCHMANN has been pro-
moted to an assistant professorship in the Uni-
versity of Erlangen and has been appointed di-
rector of the Zodlogical Institute. Dr. George
Rorig, of the Agricultural High School at Berlin,
has been appointed assistant professor of zodlogy
in the University of Konigsberg.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
THE MATERIAL AND THE EFFICIENT CAUSES
OF EVOLUTION.
PROFESSOR BROOKS states in the last number
of this journal that he is glad to find that after
much irrelevant discussion one reader (M. M.,
Science, Apr. 3d) has found the thesis of his
article on Science and Poetry (SCIENCE, Oct. 4,
1895) worthy of serious consideration. Now
it seems to me on the contrary that M. M. does
not discuss Professor Brooks’ views, but simply
points out the ambiguity of his phrase ‘test of
truth.’
I should suppose that no one outside of a
madhouse would dispute Professor Brooks’ view
that conceivability is not a sufficient test of
truth. Whether or not conceivability is a ne-
cessary condition of truth depends somewhat
on what is meant by ‘conceivability,’ which
SCIENCE.
LN. S. Vou. III. No. 70.
is a comparatively new word, and is used by
Professor Brooks with some latitude. If it be
inconceivable to him that the image on the
retina is inverted, then of course conceivability
is not for him a necessary condition of truth.
Whether or not a proposition which would com-
monly be regarded as inconceivable—as that a-
straight line may enclose an area—could in a
special case be proved true by evidence, and if
so whether the proposition would continue to
be inconceivable, are questions which M. M.
does not discuss.
At the risk of again being accused of irrele-
vancy by Professor Brooks, neither shall I dis-
cuss these questions, but wish to make clear
a distinction analagous to that pointed out
by M. M. In discussions on the theory of evo-
lution we find Neo-Darwinians saying that
‘natural selection’ is the cause of the origin of
species, and Neo-Lamarckians saying that the
environment and the movements of the ani-
mal are the causes of adaptations. Now in
these cases the word ‘cause’ is used ambigu-
ously, ignorance of the facts of evolution be-
ing concealed by the exhibition of ignorance of
logic.
I wonder how many men of science have read
Aristotle, or understand his distinctions between
material, efficient, formal and final causes. We
are not here concerned with a formal cause, the
idea or plan of a thing, nor with a final cause,
the end for which it is made; but no student
of organic evolution can afford to ignore the dis-
tinction between material and efficient causes,
or between the occasion and the efficient cause
of an event. The material cause is that of
which a thing is made, one of the occasions or
necessary conditions of its existence; the effi-
cient cause is that which produces a thing and
makes it what it is. When no qualification is
used cause should mean efficient cause or vera
causa.
‘Natural selection’ is no cause of the origin
of species, but may be the cause of the anihila-
tion of unfit species. Whether or not the en-
vironment, or consciousness, or the movements
of animals are causes of hereditary modifica-
tions are open questions. What is called the
cause of an adaptation is, however, usually only
its occasion. Thus at a recent meeting of the
May 1, 1896.]
New York Academy of Sciences Prof. Osborn,
in arguing that the environment is one of the
causes of adaptations, stated that lime is the
cause of teeth, because teeth depend on the ex-
istence of lime and vary with its abundance.
It is true that there could be no teeth if there
were no lime, but teeth do not result from the
mere presence of lime in the environment. Lime
is one of the material causes and occasions of
teeth, but it has not been shown that it is their
efficient cause. It would seem that the environ-
ment is more often the cause of the destruction
of life than the cause of its development.
J. McKEEN CATTELL.
CoLuMBIA UNIVERSITY.
INSTINCT.
In Prof. Mills’ communications on ‘Instinct’
he seems to have missed the point in the case
of each of those criticised—the ‘writer of the
note,’ Prof. Morgan and myself. In the case of
the fowl’s drinking, it is not the mere fact that
drinking and eating may differ in the degree to
which the performance is congenital; the re-
ports seem to show that this varies in different
fowl; but that instincts (in this case drinking)
may be only half congenital, and may have to
be supplemented by imitation, accident, intelli-
gence, instruction, etc., in order to act, even
when the actions are so necessary to life that
the creature would certainly die if the function
were not performed. That. is the interesting
point.
Then, in criticising me, Prof. Mills accuses me
of ignoring the ‘effects of environment and of
use.’ On'the contrary, these are just the facts
which I appeal to. By adaptations to the en-
vironment and by use the creature manages to
keep alive ; other creatures die off; so certain
determinate directions of congenital variation
are singled out and inherited. Thus phylo-
genetic variations become determinate, just
through these ontogenetic adaptations. This
takes the place of the Lamarckian factor.
Lamarckism is an ‘obvious’ resort in all
cases, of course, but it seems to me so easy that
in many cases it is shallow in the extreme.
But my view is very far from being Weis-
mannism. I reach determinate variations by
means of new functions or adaptations which
SCIENCE.
669
keep certain animals alive to propagate. It is
really a new theory, as Prof. Osborn, who has
reached about the same point of view, declares.
This is also just the value which Prof. Morgan
attaches to his observations.
J. MARK BALDWIN.
, PRINCETON, April 17, 1896.
STUDIES IN THE MORAL DEVELOPMENT OF
CHILDREN.
The Relation of the Child to Authority.
Tr is desired to obtain data for a study of the
attitude of young children toward parental
authority, with a view to determining what sort
of discipline, instruction and appeal is best
calculated to develop in children a proper
recognition of the parent’s authority and a
readiness to submit to it.
Parents who are willing to aid in the investi-
gation are requested to carry out the following
experiments, and to report the results.
1. Try different punishments for the same
offence, as follows :
(a) For Naughtiness at Table: (1) Corporal
punishment, though not necessarily severe.
(2) Sending the child away from the table, with
permission to return as soon as he is ready to be
good. (38) Having the child eat by himself in the
kitchen.
(6) For Sauciness to Parents: (1) Corporal pun-
ishment. (2) Sending the child into the bed-
room to stay till he is ready to take back what
he said. (8) Refusing to caress the child or to
be caressed by him until he is ready to make up
and say he is sorry. Of course, it may some-
times be hours after the offence before occasion
is given for applying this last penality, the par-
ent meanwhile seeming to have ignored the of-
fence. Ifthe child has not made up before bed-
time, then put him to bed without his usual
kiss, explaining why you do so.
(ce) For Taking a Toy Belonging to a Playmate
(whether by force or stealth), with a resulting
outery on the part of the playmate : (1) Com-
pelling the child by corporal punishment, or
the threat of it, to return the toy to the play-
mate. (2) Taking the toy away by force and
returning it to the playmate, and sending the
child into the bedroom for five minutes.
(8) Giving one of the child’s favorite toys (not
670
at the time in his hands) to the playmate, and
allowing him to keep it until the child wants
an exchange badly enough to ask it of the play-
mate, apologizing as he does so for having
taken his toy.
Remarks: (1) Try the experiments as to pun-
ishment on children from three to six and one-
half years old. (2) In each case try the sug-
gested penalties in the order given, and make
- two trials of each before passing to the next.
(3) In no case carry the corporal punishment
to the extent of ‘breaking the child’s will.’ (4)
If you object on principle to corporal punish-
ment, state it in your record, and try the two
remaining penalties in the order given.
What to Record: (1) Which of the three
penalties is most effective in securing reform,
and which the least so? (2) Which penalty
arouses most feeling against the parent, and
which the least? (8) Such actions or comments
of the child during, or with reference to, the
punishment as seem to you worthy of note.
II. Give commands varying in arbitrariness,
as follows:
(a) Shut the door, so the room won’t get
cold.
(b) Carry this book into the bedroom and
put in on the bed.
(c) Move that chair to the other side of the
table. * * * Now move it back where it
was.
(d) A double experiment. (1) Pick up these
pieces of paper (a dozen pieces which you have
thrown on the floor in the child’s absence).
(2) On another occasion throw a dozen pieces
of paper on the floor while the child is looking,
and request him to pick them up.
Remarks on the Above Experiment: (1) Give
the commands only to children between two
and one-half and four and one-half years of age.
(2) Give the several commands at different
times, and to each child separately. (8) Give
the commands seriously—in sucha way that the
child will not think you are in fun. (4) Give
them when the child is in good humor and be-
having well, so he will have no reason to think
he is being punished. (5) If the child meets
any of the questions with a ‘why?’ say gently,
but firmly, ‘Because I told you to.’
What to Record: (1) In the case of what com-
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 70.
mands the child asks ‘why?’ (2) Whether he
shows surprise at any of the commands; and if
so, which excite most surprise. (38) Any ob-
jections or comments the child may make. (4)
How readily the several commands are obeyed,
especially which are most reluctantly obeyed.
(5) Whether any of the commands provoke in-
dignation or anger in the child.
Ill. Effect of the manner in which com-
mands are given.
Determine through observation and experi-
ment: (a) What mode of giving a command
secures the quickest obedience. (b) What mode
secures the most willing and cheerful obedience.
Note especially how the child is affected by
sharp and abrupt commands, as, compared with
the effect upon him of commands given in
gentle but firm tone. (Commands may also be:
direct or interrogative, 7. e., ‘do this,’ or, ‘ will
you do this?’ and with or without a ‘please.’)
IV. Compare the effect of Praise upon the
child with the effect of Censure, as follows :
(a) To produce in the child a love of cleanliness
—as to face, hands and dress: (1) Ignoring the
occasionally clean and neat appearance of the
child, make frequent disparaging remarks about
his dirty face and hands, and censure him when
he soils his clothesin any deliberate or careless
manner. (2) Ignoring the usually more or less
untidy appearance of the child, praise him
warmly whenever he has washed himself (or
cheerfully allowed himself to be washed) and
appears exceptionally neat and clean.
(b) To secure good behavior of the child during
the father’s absence: (1) Let the mother in reply
to the father’s inquiries as to the child’s con-
duct during his absence, relate wherein the
child has been naughty, and let the father cen-
sure him for his conduct. (2) When the child
has been unusually good, let the father, in the
hearing of the child, inquire about his conduct,
and when the mother has praised him warmly
for his good behavior, let the father add his
commendation.
Remarks: (1) Make the trial of Praise vs.
Censure on children from three to six and one-
half years old. (2) Give the first method of
procedure a fair trial before trying the second.
What to Record: (1) Which method you find
the more effective in securing the desired re-
May 1, 1896.]
sult. (2) The approximate number of trials
made of each method before reaching your
conclusion.
VY. How does Pretending to Cry, on the part
of the parent, affect the child: (a) As a deter-
rent from disobedience ?
(6) In making him sorry for obedience? (Try
this experiment but a few times, and only on
children from two to four years old.)
VI. Observe the child’s comments on hearing
the following stories, and endeavor to elicit his
moral judgment regarding each of the two in-
cidents :
(a) One day a lady gave a stick of nice, red
candy to a little girl, named Bessie (or to a little
boy, named Robbie, if the child to whom you
are telling the story is a boy). Bessie took the
candy home and showed it to her mamma. Her
mamma said, ‘‘ How nice it looks; you must
give it to me, to eat.’’ Bessie said, ‘‘I won’t!
the lady gave the candy to me, and I want it
myself.’’ Then mamma took the candy away
from Bessie and whipped her because she
wouldn’t give the candy to mamma. (Willthe
child see the arbitrariness of the command and
of the punishment ?)
(6) One day mamma gave Bessie (or Robbie)
a pitcher full of milk, and told her to carry it
into the pantry and put it on the shelf. Bessie
walked very carefully, so as not to spill the
milk ; but when she came to the pantry door
her little sister, Ella (or his little brother,
Jamie), ran against her and made her drop the
pitcher. The pitcher broke all to pieces, and
the milk ran all over the floor. Then mamma
scolded Bessie and sent her into the bedroom,
because she broke the pitcher and spilled the
milk. (Will the child see the injustice in the
mother’s treatment of Bessie? If so, what
treatment will the child propose ?)
_ Remarks: (1) Tell the stories to children from
three to six and one-half yearsold. (2) Tell
the two stories at different times and to each
child separately. (8) In trying to elicit the
-child’s judgment, be careful not to suggest
ideas. :
' General Information. By way of introduc-
tion to your record of the results of the above
experiments, state; (a) The child’s nationality.
(6) His age in months when the several experi-
SCIENCE.
671
ments are tried. (c) Whether he is a normally
strong and healthy child, physically and men-
tally, If not, in what way he is less well or
strong than the average child. (d) His peculiar-
ities of temperament, especially how far he is
naturally irritable, obstinate or domineering.
Parents who are willing to aid in the above
investigation are requested to send at once to
the undersigned : (a) their own names and ad-
dresses. (6) The names and respective ages (in
months) of the children that are to be observed,
The information sccured in response to this
paper will be used in a general and statistical
way, without publication of names.
It is hoped your observations may be com-
pleted, and the report of results sent in, within
two, or, at most, three months after your re-
ceipt of this paper ; but as much time should be
taken as is necessary for accurate and full re-
sults. Address, J. F. Morse.
WISCONSIN UNIVERSITY, MADISON, WIs.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
Frail Children of the Air. Excursions into the
world of butterflies. By SAMUEL HUBBARD
ScuDDER. Boston and New York, Hough-
ton, Mifflin Co. 1895. $1 50.
This will prove a delightful book for the com-
ing summer season. Although its title may not
be especially descriptive of the contents, the
book is devoted to an account of the more in-
teresting peculiarities in the structure, lives,
and habits of our commoner butterflies. The
subjects treated are the following: Butterflies
in disguise, the struggle for existence in the
genus Basilarchia, deceptive devices among
caterpillars, butterflies as botanists, the names
of butterflies, color-relations of chrysalids to
their surroundings, the White Mountains of
of New Hampshire as a home for butterflies,
butterfly sounds, nests and other structures
made by caterpillars, postures of butterflies at
rest and asleep, the eggs of butterflies, psycho-
logical peculiarities in our butterflies, social
caterpillars, the fixity of habit in butterflies,
how butterflies pass the winter, the oldest but-
terfly inhabitants of New England, protective
coloring in caterpillars, aromatic butterflies, the
ways of butterflies, and similar topics, Those
672
who are fortunate enough to possess or to have
seen Dr. Scudder’s great work: ‘The butter-
flies of the eastern United States and Canada,’ a
work so costly as to have but a limited circula-
tion, will recognize these chapters, which form
the delightful excursuses of the two volumes of
text. They are charmingly written, and are
mainly the result of the author’s own observa-
tions, and in their present form deserve the
widest reading. It would prove a beautiful
present for a boy or girl interested in insects,
and also afford pleasant summer reading for
older minds, since few technical terms are used,
There are a number of plates containing fig-
ures reproduced from the larger work. In the
matter of index, printing, paper and general
appearance we not only have no fault to find,
but everything to commend. Js {Sis 1Ee
Third Report of the Board of Managers of the New
York State Colonization Society, by O. F. Coox,
Fulton Professor of Natural Sciences in
Liberia College. 1896. 8°, 100 pp.
This report is a plain recital of careful obser-
vation on plants, animals, and men in the Re-
public of Liberia ; the observations are recorded
in simple, straightforward fashion, and are of
considerable interest and value, albeit in an un-
expected medium.
Over 30 pages are devoted to the flora and
fauna; 30 or 40 plants are identified in an an-
notated list, and the notes touch on a variety of
characteristics and uses of the plants and their
products; e. g., it is pointed out that the seeds
of the mangrove germinate on the trees, sending
out long sharp-pointed radicles, which hang
pendent until the weight breaks attachments,
when they drop into the mud and are thus
planted right side up and so firmly as to resist
tidal currents; Urena lobata ‘is protected by
ants for the sake of a secretion which is elabo-
rated and exuded by a small gland at the base
of the midvein;’ the banana and bread fruit
flourish, yet their products cannot be made ex-
clusive articles of diet, as is commonly supposed,
etc. There is a surprising dearth of mosses and
parasitic fungi and lichens in Liberian forests,
and it is noted that ‘in nearly all natural
groups the number of species is much larger
than in the same area in North America, even
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 70.
though the number of individuals may be less
for the group as a whole’ (page 5). There is a
comforting dearth, also, of snakes, mosquitoes,
flies and minor pestiferous insects, which seems
to be correlated with the wealth of ants, both in
species and individuals. The habits of the
‘driver’ ants, the natural scavengers of the dis-
trict, are described in detail, as are those of the
termites, which appear to cultivate a fungus to
supply food for the young and the queens. It
is noted that the chimpanzees (called by the
natives ‘old-time people’) dig land crabs out
of their burrows and crack them on stones,*
and are said also to crack nuts between stones,
“quite man fashion,’ and to grasp the python
by the neck and bruise its head with a stone
(page 22).
The social conditions of Liberia are described
in fair detail; and it is shown that, while
slavery is prohibited by the Liberian constitu-
tion, there is a modified slavery of hireling ser-
vice which has degraded the servitors and still
more seriously enfeebled the served, who
‘rarely gain habits of industry. or self-reliance,
and with no proper school advantages * * *
reach maturity too often as examples of physi-
cal and mental weakness’ (page 45), Even
more interesting is the naive description of the
‘missionary slave trade, ’ from which it appears
that evangelization begins with actual purchase
of the youth whom it is desired to Christianize
and civilize! ‘‘In the interior of Liberia
[slave] boys 12 and 14 years old were offered
me for goods of a cash value of about $3. Girls
come at about twice the price. * * * *
When it comes to buying free children of their
parents the price may exceed the figures men-
tioned ’’ (page 40). ‘‘ The only apparent reason
why this department of the slave trade has not
assumed proportions sufficient to attract gen-
eral attention, has been the lack of funds in the
hands of the would-be buyers’’ (page 38). In
*Major Battersby, in describing the ‘Pets and
Pests of the Barbadoes’ (Chambers Journal, March 14,
1896), mentions a Capuchin monkey which captures
crabs in related fashion : ‘‘ Hismethod * * * is to
knock it about with his paw by quick pats until it is
sufficiently dazed to give him a chance of smashing its
claw with a large stone’? (Literary Digest, Vol. XII.,
1896, p. 717).
May 1, 1896.]
one case a missionary intending to remove to
Angola was not permitted to carry her pur-
chased pupils with her; ‘thus has a negro gov-
ernment interfered to prevent a white mission-
ary from taking native children 2,000 miles
from their parents and kindred, in accordance
with the plans of a missionary bishop’ (page
43). The text contains comparatively little of
ethnic interest save in scattered morsels, for,
as is usual in evangelizing and civilizing en-
terprises, it is considered that no good thing
can come from the Nazareth of the primitive ;
but some of the mechanically reproduced photo-
graphs illustrate the features, costume and
customs of the natives, the appearance of their
barricaded towns, etc., while the numerous cuts
give faithful pictures of flora and landscape,
and admirably supplement the simple and
modest description in depicting Liberia as it is.
It is announced that the society, though re-
taining its original name, long since gave up
its adherence to any scheme of colonization, as
such, and now confines its activities to educa-
tion and practical questions. A note indicates
that additional copies of the report can be ob-
tained by applying to Charles T. Geyer, Secre-
tary, 19 William street, New York City.
W J McGEr.
_ WASHINGTON, D. C.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.
THE May number opens with an article by
John Trowbridge, discussing the probable pres-
ence of carbon and oxygen in the sun. This is
in the line of work earlier done (1887) by the
same author in combination with C. C. Hutch-
ins, in which they showed that the carbon bands
could probably be detected in the sun’s spec-
trum, although nearly obliterated by the over-
lying absorption lines of other metals, particu-
larly those of iron. Some quantitative experi-
ments have been now carried out by the author
to show what relative proportion of iron mixed
with carbon dust was required in order to pro-
duce this effect of obliterating the carbon bands.
Pencils, made of carbon dust and iron (reduced
by hydrogen) uniformly distributed through it,
were employed. The solar spectrum near the
carbon band at wave-length 3883.7 was then
SCIENCE.
673;
photographed, also below on the same plate
the pure carbon banded spectrum, and finally,
immediately below this, the spectrum of the
mixture of iron and carbon. It was found that
from twenty-eight to thirty per cent. of iron, in
combination with seventy-two or seventy per
cent. of carbon, almost completely obliterated
the peculiar banded spectrum of carbon. This
proportion, therefore, of iron in the atmosphere
of the sun, were there no other vapors of metals
present, would be sufficient to prevent our see-
ing the full spectrum of carbon. The author
then goes on to consider the case of oxygen and
remarks that the question whether oxygen ex-
ists in the sun is closely related to questions in
regard to the presence of carbon, when the
temperature and light of the sun are considered.
The regions in the solar spectrum where the
bright lines of oxygen should occur if they
manifest themselves have been carefully exam-
ined in order to see if any of the fine absorption
lines of iron in the spectrum of iron were ab-
sent, for it is reasonable to suppose that the
bright nebulous lines of oxygen would obliterate
the faintest lines of iron. The result is to prove
that the faintest iron lines are not obliterated
in the spaces where the oxygen lines should,
occur.
The author concludes by remarking that, al-
though he has not succeeded in detecting oxygen
in the sun, it seems to him that the character of
its light, the fact of the combustion of carbon in
its mass, the conditions for the incandescence
of the oxides of the rare earths which exist,
would prevent the detection of oxygen in its
uncombined state. Notwithstanding the nega-
tive evidence brought forward, he adds that he
cannot help feeling strongly that oxygen is pres-
ent in the sun and that the sun’s light is due to
carbon vapor in an atmosphere of oxygen.
An extended article by Harold Jacoby gives
a minute mathematical discussion of the deter-
mination of the division errors of a straight scale.
T. Holm gives the results of studies upon the
Cyperacex, with reference to the monopodial
ramification in certain North American species
of Carex. It is shown that the monopodial char-
acter is especially well represented on this side
of the Atlantic and may indeed be said to be
prevalent among our sylvan forms. The article
674
is accompanied by a plate. W.H. Weed and
L. Y. Pirsson give a continuation of their paper
on the Bearpaw Mountains of Montana, com-
menced in the April number. This is devoted
to the discussion of the Beaver Creek core with
reference to the massive rocks there present.
These are of various types, ranging from quartz
syenite and quartz syenite poryhyry to basic
syenite (or, as the rock has been called by
Brogger, monzonite), and finally to shonkinite.
It is remarked by the authors that their yogoite
already described from Yogo Peak, Montana,
is essentially identical with monzonite, and
hence the latter name has priority.
M. Carey Lea has two brief articles. The
first discusses the question of the presence of
Rontgen rays in the sunlight, and decides this
in the negative. A number of conclusive ex-
periments are described, upon which this de-
cision is based. The second article is on the
numerical relation existing between the atomic
weights of the elements, especially with refer-
ence to the colored and colorless character of
theions. This last subject was discussed by the
same author in the American Journal for May,
1895, anda second paper is promised for June
of this year. W. B. Clark describes minutely
the Potomac River section of the Middle At-
lantic Coast’ Eocene, showing the seventeen
divisions identified in the detailed stratig-
raphy of the deposits as exhibited par-
ticularly between Aquia Creek, Stafford county,
Virginia, and Pope’s Creek, Charles county
Maryland. It is concluded that the Eocene de-
posits of the Middle Atlantic slope constitute a
single geological unit which has been described
as the Pamunkey formation. The deposits are
remarkably homogeneous, consisting typically
of glauconitic sands and elays of a thickness of
nearly 300 feet. There are two well-defined
faunal zones, namely, the Aquia Creek stage
and the Woodstock stage. The former approxi-
mately corresponds to the middle, or middle
and upper, Lignitic, and the latter to the middle,
or middle and upper, Claiborne. The author
concludes by remarking that the middle At-
lantic slope Eocene undoubtedly represents in a
broad way all of the major part of the Lignitic,
Buhrstone and Claiborne of Smith and, when
the physical condition affecting range and mi-
SCIENCE:
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 70.
gration of species are considered, perhaps even
more. Both the geological and paleontological
criteria are wholly inadequate for establishing
the great number of local subdivisions recog-
nized in the Gulf area, and in fact the sequence:
of forms indicates that no such differentiation
of the fauna took place.
H. S. Washington describes some peculiar
Ischian trachytes with special reference to cer-
tain remarkable branching forms exhibited by
the feldspar phenocrysts ; these are analogous
to the feather-aggregates of augite which have
been described in some Hawaiian basalts. For
such divergent crystal forms, which are re-
garded as due to the ramification and growth
of a single individual, and which correspond to
the spherokrystalle of Lehmann and Rosenbusch,
the name keraunoid (Gr. xepavvic, a thunderbolt),
is proposed. The existence of such forms has
been explained by Lehmann as due to internal
tensions which cause the crystals to split here
and there at the surface, producing a discon-
tinuity which cannot be overcome by further
growth. The author adds the results of his
own observations as modifying and extending
the results of Lehmann, and concludes by con-
sidering the various types of spherulites in
general. The articles close with a paper by C.
Palache describing some highly modified erys-
tals of crocoite, from a hitherto undiscovered
locality in Tasmania.
AMERICAN CHEMICAL JOURNAL, APRIL.
The action of light on some Organic Acids in the
presence of Uranium salts. By HENRY Fay.
After reviewing previous work on this sub-
ject the author gives the results obtained with
oxalic, butyric, propionic and acetic acids.
From oxalic acid he obtained carbon dioxide,
carbon monoxide, formic acid and several ura-
nium compounds. When the acids of the acetic
acid series were used, equal parts of carbon
dioxide and the hydrocarbon corresponding to
the acid were formed. Succinic and malonic
acids could not be used on account of the in-
solubility of the uranium compounds.
A review of some recent work on Double Halides.
By CHARLES H. HErry.
In this paper attention is called to the char-
May 1, 1896.]
acter of recent work on these compounds and
the apparent ignorance of published results,
and a plea is made for greater care and accu-
racy in the preparation and analyses of these
salts.
On the Quantitative Determination of Hydrogen
by Means of Palladous Chloride. By E. D.
CAMPBELL and E. B. HART.
The hydrogen contained in a gas mixture can
be completely absorbed by a 1 per cent. solution
of palladous chloride, and determined more
easily that way than by explosion with oxygen.
On the Behavior of Certain Derivatives of Benzol
Containing Halogens. By C. LORING JACKSON
and §. CALVERT.
The presence of certain groups in a substi-
tuted benzine, containing also a halogen, makes
the halogen more easily replaceable. The effect
of the nitro group has been carefully studied,
and-in this paper the authors give the results of
the influence of halogens on halogens, accord-
ing to their number and position in the molecule.
The Cis and Trans Modifications of Benzine Hexa-
bromide. By W. R. ORNDORFF and Y. A.
HOWELLS.
The authors have made the cis modification
of benzine hexabromide, and give the results of
the chemical and crystallographic study of the
substance.
Silicide of Calcium. By G. DECHALMOT.
When lime, carbon and silica in excess are
heated in an electric furnace, a substance of
metallic appearance is formed.. This is mainly
silicide of calcium, with a little carbide of cal-
cium and iron.
The Conductivity of Yhtiwm Sulphate. By H. C.
JoNnES and C. R. ALLEN.
The conducting of different dilutions are
given in this paper.
The Practical Use in the Chemical Laboratory of
the Electric Arc Obtained from the low Potential
Alternating Current. By M.S. WALKER.
The author advises the use of the electric arc
in the laboratory as a partial substitute for the
blowpipe, to show the effects of high tempera-
tures on refractory substances, and for the syn-
thetical preparation of some compounds of car-
bon.
SCIENCE.
675
The Preparation of Allylene and .the Action of
Magnesium on Organic Compounds. By E. H.
KEISER.
When acetone is conducted over hot magne-
sium a black powder is formed, which decom-
poses when brought in contact with water. The
product consisting of hydrogen and allylene is
passed through an ammoniacal solution of silver
nitrate, when an insoluble silver allylide is
formed. The copper and mercury compounds
have also been made.
The Action of Urea and Sulphocarbanilide on Cer-
tain Acid Anhydrides. By F. L. DUNLAP.
The formation of a number of complex com-
pounds can be explained on the supposition that
the reaction takes place in two stages, and the
author has isolated some of the intermediate
products.
There is also a review of the work on Elektro-
chemie, by W. Ostwald, and a note on The Di-
lution Law of Ostwald. J. ELLIOTT GILPIN.
THE JOURNAL OF COMPARATIVE NEUROLOGY,
MARCH.
Illustrations of Central Atrophy After Eye In-
juries. By C. L. HERRICK.
This brief article is a commentary on a plate
of drawings made from two series sections of
the brains of rabbits whose eyes had been ex-
tirpated shortly after birth and which had been
killed respectively 67 and 91 days after the op-
eration.
Lecture Notes on Attention. An Illustration of the
Employment of Neurological Analogies for Psy-
chical Problems. By C. L. HERRICK.
Experiments are adduced which go to show
that external attention is of the nature of a re-
flex which may or may not retain a relation of
subordinated connection with conscious pro-
cesses. Which particular impression may be
selected out of a given sense complex for
especial attention will depend upon habit
mainly. All of the impressions of a given field
of sense may become the content of that sense
and so may exert their appropriate effects in
infra-conscious spheres of association, etc., even
though only part of them ever reach conscious-
ness. The discussion as to the possible number
of contemporaneous sensations is based on a
676
misconception. Though the content of sense
may be diversified, only one thing is ever in the
focus of consciousness at a given time. Atten-
tion becomes a set of rapidly repeated repro-
ductions. In thinking intently of one thing we
limit the field of oscillation and cut off dis-
tractions as much as possible, but the oscilla-
tions with the various resulting associations
continue and give pregnancy to the meditation.
Attention isa name for the play of conscious-
ness, and a study of its laws reduces, on the one
hand, to the investigation of neural equilibrium,
and, on the other, to a natural history of con-
sciousness. The conditions of inner attention
are those of association and inhibition.
A Note on the Cerebral Fissuration of the Seal
(Phoca vitulina). By PIERRE A. FIsH.
The description and illustrations of this brain
show that it clearly possesses the carnivorous
type of fissural pattern, in spite of several com-
plexities which tend to obscure the type.
Morphology of the Nervous System of Cypris.
C. H. TURNER.
This is the first instalment of a monograph
on the Ostracoda which Prof. Turner has had
in preparation for several years. It is accom-
panied by six plates. The ganglia and nerves
of the central nervous system and the sense
organs of Cypris are described with consider-
able minuteness. Labial, labral and thoracic
nerves are described for the first time among
the Ostracoda. Several new sense organs are
also described.
By
Preliminary Notes on the Cranial Nerves of Cryp-
tobranchus alleghaniensis. By J. H. Mc-
GREGOR.
In this paper the cranial nerves of the water
dog are described, so far as they can be deter-
mined by macroscopic methods.
On Three Points in the Nervous Anatomy of
Amphibians. By J. 8. KInGsLey.
This article corrects two errors in Von Ples-
sen and Rabinovicz’s ‘Die Kopfnerven von
Salamandra maculata,’ the one concerning the
anastomosis between the ophthalmicus super-
ficialis and the maxillary, and the other that
between the ophthalmicus profundus and the
palatine nerves of Salamandra. Dr. Kingsley
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 70.
also points out that the tentacular apparatus re-
cently described by Mr. Alvin Davison in Am-
phiuma does not exist, and therefore this point
cannot be used to show the close relationship
between the Ceeciliide and the Amphiumide.
The remaining 44 pages of the number are
devoted to abstracts and reviews.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.
THE Section of Geology and Mineralogy held
its regular meeting April 20th, President J. J.
Stevenson in the chair.
The first paper of the evening was by Mr.
John D. Irving, on ‘The Stratigraphy of the
Brown’s Park Beds, Utah.’ The observation
on which the paper was based, was made by
Mr. Irving the past summer, while spending a
week in Brown’s Park, together with Dr. J. L.
Wortman and his expedition from the American
Museum of Natural History, New York. Mr.
Irving first sketched the topography and ge-
ology of the Green River Basin and the Uinta
Mountains. He showed the location of the
Brown’s Park Beds and described their un-
conformable position upon the Uinta sandstone
and the Green River shales. He next outlined
the views that had already been published re-
garding their stratigraphical relations, especi-
ally those of Clarence King and 8. F. Emmons,
of the 40th Parallel Survey, who referred them
to the Pliocene, and those of C. A. White, of the
United States Geological Survey, who referred
them to the Eocene. Mr. Irving stated that
careful search failed to reveal any fossils, ex-
cept a few fragments of bone, which were in
such a state that Dr. Wortman considered them
to be not earlier than the Pliocene. Mr. Irving
then described the Lodore cafion and explained
the formation of the Lake in which the Brown
Park Beds were deposited as due to the Pliocene
elevation of the Uinta sandstone that forms the
wall of the Lodore cafion. When this was cut
down by the river the lake disappeared and de-
positions ceased. He, therefore, corroborated ~
the original determinations of King and Em-
mons. The paper will appear in full in the
Transactions.
The second paper of the evening was by
May 1, 1896,}
Prof. C. H. Smyth, Jr., on ‘The Origin of the
Tale Deposits near Gouverneur, N. Y.’ Dr.
Smyth first described the geological surround-
ings of the tale and showed that it occurs along
a series of belts in limestone walls and that the
previously published statement that it occurs
in gneiss is incorrect. By means of microscopic
sections he traced its development by the alter-
ation of tremolite in largest part and from en-
statite to a less degree, the changes in both
having been affected through the agency of
water and carbonic acid. The tale occurs in
two forms—a scaly variety, or tale proper, and
a fibrous variety or agalite. He was unable to
determine whether the original rock was a
basic intrusive or a siliceous magnesian lime-
stone. The full paper will appear in the
School of Mines Quarterly for July, 1896.
The third paper of the evening was by Prof.
H. P. Cushing, and was entitled ‘Are there
Pre-Cambrian and Post-Ordovician Trap Dykes
in the Adirondacks.’ Field work in Clinton
county, N. Y., had convinced the writer that
there were two periods of dyke intrusion in the
Adirondacks. The first yielded the porphyries
or bostonite, the Camptonites and non-feld-
spathic dykes, which cut the Paleozoic strata
up to and through the Utica slate. These
dykes, are chiefly limited to the shores of Lake
Champlain, both in New York and Vermont.
They practically lack diabase. The second set
are limited to archean rocks, are much more
numerous and are practically all diabase. One
hundred and sixteen dykes in all are known
in Clinton county; sixteen belong to the
first series, while the remaining one hundred
belong to the second. The latter have been
found in the gneisses in many cases very near
the contacts with the Potsdam sandstone, but
in no case have they been found penetrating the
sandstone. The same relations have been
noted by Smyth at the Thousand Islands.
Prof. Cushing therefore urged that these
dykes should be considered a separate series of
rocks that had been formed subsequently to the
metamorphism of the crystalline rock and be-
fore the deposition of the Potsdam sandstone.
The paper will appear in full in the Transac-
tions. J. F. Kemp,
Secretary.
SCIENCE.
677
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, 259TH
MEETING, SATURDAY, APRIL 4.
THE first paper of the evening was Pfaff’s
Recent Investigations on Rhus Poisoning, and
was presented by V. K. Chesnut. The writer
briefly analyzed the work of preceding inves-
tigators and showed how the different ideas
regarding the volatile nature of the poison
were influenced by successive stages in the de-
velopment of the science of Organic Chemistry
and it was shown that nothing but an oil, like
Toxicodendral, could produce the effects of
poison ivy. Experiments and authentic cases
of poisoning were described to corroborate
Pfaff’s statements that :
1. While water will not remove the oil from *
the skin an hour after contact, alcohol will do
so very readily, especially when added in suc-
cessive portions.
2. The poison is readily communicated to
different parts of the body and to other persons
by contact and friction.
3. The wood, as well as the leaves, is poison-
ous and the active principle is present in the
plant at all times of the year.
4. Herbarium specimens may produce the
poisonous effects.
The effect of alcohol as a palliative, and of an
alcoholic solution of lead acetate as an antidote
was shown by experiments made by the writer
upon himself.
B. T. Galloway spoke of the Action of Copper
in Poisoning Fungi, stating that although copper
in various forms had been used for years as a
fungicide, little was known in regard to the
exact nature of its toxic action on plants. Most
of the studies made within the past 8 or 10
years had for their object the determination of
the amount of copper necessary to kill the
spores of various fungi. In this connection the
investigations of Nageli, and the oligodynamic
phenomena described by him, were reviewed.
Finally the possible methods by means of which
spores of fungi may be killed or prevented from
infecting living plants, were discussed and at-
tention was called to a paper on the subject by
Mr. W. T. Swingle, of the Department of Agri-
culture, soon to be published.
Under the title of the Story of two Salmon
678
Barton W. Evermann described the spawning
habits of the Blueback and the Chinook Sal-
mon, species which had been especially investi-
gated by him during 1894 and 1895. These
species have important spawning grounds at the
headwaters of the Salmon and Payette rivers
in Idaho. This paper gave an account of the
manner in which the investigations were con-
ducted and a statement of the more important
results obtained.
These two species of salmon are, of course,
anadromous, living in the sea, and entering
fresh water only for spawning purposes. They
enter the Columbia from the sea in the early
spring and reach the headwaters of Salmon
River over 1,000 miles from the sea, about the
last week in July. The spawning began about
the middle of August and continued for fully a
month.
Tt has long been known that at spawning
time these salmon have their fins more or less
worn out and their bodies covered with mutila-
tions, and these injuries were believed to have
been received while on the long journey to the
spawning grounds. But this was proved not to
be true. More than 2,000 salmon were exam-
ined as they arrived upon the spawning beds
and not one showed any mutilations of any
kind.
As the spawning advanced the fish began to
show mutilations; the caudal, anal and ventral
fins became badly worn, and often the dorsal
fin and the sides of the back were injured. By
the time the spawning was at its height, scarcely
a fish was wholly free from mutilations. The
fish were observed daily during the entire
spawning period and it was discovered that all
the mutilations were received while on the
spawning beds, chiefly in moving the gravel of
the spawning beds about, but to some little ex-
tent in personal encounters between the males.
The second important fact determined was
that, after spawning, the salmon coming to that
region die, none of them ever returning to the
sea. They began dying soon after they had done
On September 7th 1,100 redfish or
blue-back salmon were counted in the inlet to
Alturas Lake. On September 16th only 213 were
left, and on September 22d there were scarcely
any left. None had been caught out of the
spawning.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 70.
stream, but all had died. The fish showed no
tendency to return down stream.
F. A. Lucas,
Secretaru.
ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON,
APRIL 11, 1896.
THE 116th regular meeting was held in Balti-
more on invitation of Mr. P. R. Uhler. Mr.
Howard exhibited specimens of Margarodes
vitium Giard, from South Africa. The locality
is a new one, as the species has previously been
found only in Chile and Argentina.. Referring
to a recent note by Valery Mayet, Mr. Howard
suggested that the insect is now likely to be
carried to many parts of the world in any
earth which may occur around exported plants.
Mr. Schwartz exhibited specimens of Coleocerus
marmoratus and an undescribed Tychius, to
illustrate two modes of variation brought about
by different position and development of the
seales. In the Coleocerus, some specimens are
uniformly covered with large white scales,
which in others are replaced in spots by brown
scales of smaller size. In the Tychius some
specimens have the elytra variegated with
spots and lines composed of large white scales ;
in other specimens the positions which should
be occupied by these scales are covered with a
spongy mass which a high magnifying power
shows to be composed of the white scales in a
collapsed or undeveloped condition. In these
specimens the development of the scales has
apparently been arrested. Mr. Schwarz also
exhibited a new Apion and two species of An-
thonomus, one new and the other A. leucostictus
Dietz, which he had reared from the seeds of
Xanthoxylum pterota, at San Diego, Texas.
Dr. Henry Skinner, of Philadelphia, read a
paper embodying his views on specific values,
and illustrated his remarks with many ex-
amples drawn from the Rhoyalocera, insisting
that morphological species are tentative and
must be tested by a study of the life history
and geographical distribution.
Mr. Ashmead read a paper on the genera
Stephanus, Megischus and Megalyra and their
position in the Hymenoptera, concluding that
the family Stephaide does not deserve family
rank and that the three genera should be
May 1, 1896.]
placed among the Braconidz in a subfamily
which he called Setphanine.
Mr. Uhler made some remarks on the ‘schluss-
feld’ of certain Cicadide, tracing the develop-
ment of this basal fold in the hind wings
throughout Cicadas from many parts of the
world and suggesting its connection with the
rapidity of flight of the species. Mr. Benton
spoke of the proposed introduction of Apis
dorsata into the United States, giving an ac-
count of previous attempts and particularly of
his own journey some years ago to Ceylon in
search of this giant bee of India. He described
the methods by which he secured colonies and
gave an account of the habits of the bee and
the character of its nests. He desired the
opinion of the Society as to the possibility of
the successful introduction of. this bee into the
United States and the desirability of such intro-
duction. The paper was briefly discussed by
Messrs. Mann, Skinner, Schwarz, Ashmead and
Stiles. L. O. HowArp,
Secretary.
NEW YORK SECTION OF THE AMERICAN
CHEMICAL SOCIETY.
Av the meeting of the Section held on the
10th inst, at the College of the City of New
York, Prof. Birchmore exhibited on the screen
the absorption spectra of a number of aniline
and other colors, including eosin, aniline red
ultramarines, potassium permanganate, cud-
bear, etc., and explained the effect of certain
reactions with ammonia and other reagents on
the size and position of the absorption bands.
Dr. Birchmore also explained an arrange-
ment of adjustable colored prisms projecting
through the opposite sides of a cylinder, to be
filled with a liquid having the same refractive
index as glass: oil of juniper was mentioned ;
whereby the colors of the Nessler reagent in
ammonia determinations could be recorded.
The description of this apparatus was brought
out in the discussion of Dr. Albert R. Leeds’
paper on ‘Standard Prisms in Water Analysis,
and the Valuation of Color in Potable Waters,’
in which Dr. Leeds described his first attempts
nearly twenty years ago to obtain suitable
standards of comparison, using solutions of vari-
ous kinds, colored glass plates and colored
SCIENCE.
679
glass prisms. He reviewed the progress which
has been made in the matter, and recommended
the appointment of a committee to unify the
methods and adopt a standard.
Prof. C. L. Speyers read a paper on ‘ Matter
and Energy,’ in which he discussed the more
recent views of Ostwald.
Dr. E. G. Love exhibited some remarkably
fine microphotographs of several varieties of
starch.
Dr. L. Saarbach exhibited an improved form
of laboratory temperature regulator, which has
not only the advantage of small cost, but can
be taken apart, cleaned and adjusted with the
greatest ease. It may be arranged for high or
low temperatures and for almost any degree of
sensitiveness. Itis practically an air thermom-
eter, but can be adjusted to different degrees
of sensitiveness by replacing more or less air,
by mercury.
Prof. Breneman, chairman of the committee
appointed to consider the organization of a
chemical club, reported that he had received
nearly a hundred replies to the circular sent out,
all but about twenty of which were unquali-
fiedly in favor of the project. He stated that
there had been a misunderstanding on the part
of some as to the intended membership, and he
desired to have it known that there is no in-
tention of limiting the membership to any
society or section of the chemical fraternity, but
to include chemists and chemical manufacturers
generally. DuRAND WOODMAN,
; Secretary.
GEOLOGICAL CONFERENCE OF HARVARD UNI-
VERSITY, MARCH 31, 1896.
? Longshore Transportation on the North Jersey
Coast. J. EDMUND WOODMAN.
Littoral transportation is caused by wind
waves, wind currents, tidal waves and tidal
currents. All these factors are in active opera-
tion on the Jersey coast, but the proof is very
strong that the controlling forces are tidal.
The most general statement of this proof is
that the winds, which must be uniform over a
considerable extent of shore, act in some places
in conjunction with the transportation, in
others in opposition to it.
From the region east of Toms river to Sandy
680
Hook there is a dominant northward current ;
from the former place to Delaware bay a south-
ward one. This current can be seen and traced
in many places. Its geographic effect is chiefly
the migration of material (and hence of inlets)
from the center towards the two extremities of
the State. This opposition of movement can-
not be due to the fact that the northern half isin
the lee of Long Island, and thus while north-
east winds dominate farther south they are
overpowered by southeast winds there, for at
Sandy Hook or Long Branch the northeast
storms are as severe as at Atlantic City.
The reason given by the U. 8S. C. 8S. (1856)
for this northward movement cannot be correct ;
for upon examining the region we see that ever
so strong a draught through False Hook channel
would not cause a steady and strong current as
far south as Manasquan inlet. The explana-
tion must be sought in the effect of submarine
topography upon the tides, which near shore
move as waves of translation. This effect seems
to be chiefly the formation of nodal points of
secondary importance in the three great tidal
bays of the Atlantic coast. The same phenom-
enon occurs on the south shore of Long Island,
and on the east shore of Cape Cod. These
secondary nodes are joints of divergence of
currents, and must be caused by inequalites of
the great continental delta which we do not
now recognize.
While the author considers tidal action to be
dominant here, he does not believe it to be the
exclusive agent of transformation. The direc-
tion and amount depend upon the resultant of
all the factors tending to produce movement,
and wind waves form a veryconsiderable element
in this. But that wind waves do not control it
is proved by the fact that the current continues
northward against adverse winds, and can only
be momentarily reversed by long continued and
violent storms.
Transportation is mainly off-shore, by bar mi-
gration; but a small amount can be observed
along the strand,demonstrably propelled by cur-
rents and not by waves. Most of the movement
here, however, is caused by wave impact and
the reflex flow of water.
The deposition is little affected by currents, for
much of it is made upon the outside of Sandy
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 70.
Hook, at a place where the current enters the
mouth of False Hook channel, and hence is, if
anything, stronger than farther south. But witha
constant current deposition often varies with
direction and intensity of wind.
It is worthy of note that the point of diverg-
ence of thenorthward and southward currents is
so located that the wing, Sandy Hook, is receiy-
ing all the waste from the wearing-back of the
soft headland of Cretaceous and Tertiary age
which extends from Bay Head to Low Moor;
while of the transportation along the barrier
beaches southward none comes from the head-
land. Thus these beaches are only carrying
their own detritus, piled up at an earlier stage,
and are wasting themselves away.
T. A. JAGGAR, JR.,
Recording Secretary.
THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS.
AT the meeting of April 20th Dr. C. M.
Woodward presented the results of a study of
certain statistics of school attendance, from
which it appeared that the average age of with-
drawal from the public schools in three cities
compared was as follows: Boston, 15.8; Chi-
eago, 14.6; St. Louis, 13.7.
Prof. J. H. Kinealy exhibited and gave a
mathematical discussion of the Stang planime-
ter, an interesting and simple instrument of
Danish invention, but improved in the United
States. WILLIAM TRELEASE,
Recording Secretary.
; NEW BOOKS.
A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology
in Cristendom. ANDREW D. WHITE. New
York, D. Appleton & Co. 1896. Vol. IL,
pp. xxiii+415; vol. IL., pp. xxiii+474. $5.00.
A Dictionary of Chemical Solubilities. ARTHUR
MEssINGER Comey. London and New York,
Macmillan & Co. 1896. Pp. xx+515. $5.00.
Current Superstitions. FANNY D. BERGEN.
Boston and New York, published for the
American Folk-Lore Society by Houghton,
Mifflin & Co. 1896. Pp. x+161.
Plane and Solid Geometry. C. A. VAN VELTZER
and GEORGE G. SHuTts. Madison, Wis.,
Tracy, Gibbs & Co. Pp. viii +395.
4
SCIENCE
NEW SERIES.
Vou. III. No. 71.
Fripay, May’ 8, 1896.
SINGLE COPIES, 15 cts.
ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, $5.00.
The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought.
(THE CHILD IN PRIMITIVE CULTURE.)
By ALEXANDER FRANCIS CHAMBERLAIN, M.A., Ph.D.,
Lecturer on Anthropology in Clark University ; sometime Fellow in Modern Languages in University College,
- Toronto ; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, etc., etc.
Svo, cloth, $3.00 net.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
“Mr. Chamberlain tells in a most graphic manner what
the child has done or said to have done in all the ages and
among all races of men. The book is one of the most re-
markable of the present season, and must attract not only
the attention of folk-lore students, but of the general public
as well.’—Boston Advertiser.
“Tt is a perfect treasure-house of knowledge ; one can
drop into it at any place and, for that matter any number
of times, and always bring up something quaint, instruc-
tive, interesting, or valuable, concerning the child of to-day
or of primitive life. In a word, Professor Chamberlain
has met with the most complete success in his endeavor, as
he says in his preface, to present ‘the child, what he has
done or is said to have done, in all ages and among all
races of men.’’’—The Clevelander.
“Professor Chamberlain offers a scholarly study of the
child in primitive culture. The author is a scientist of dis-
tinction, whose works haye long commanded the attention
of students of ethnology. * * * Not the least interesting
portion of the work is the elaborate treatment which the
author gives to the proverbs about parents, children, youth,
age and mankind.”—Philadelphia Evening Bulletin.
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ject is treated with scholarly ability, and the facts are ar-
ranged with skill. I have read a large part of it, and
found it so interesting that I shall keep it close at hand for
purposes of reference.’’—New York Herald.
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there, turn to pages indicated and find a wonderful amount
of information drawn from authentic sources by patient sci-_
entific investigation.” —Buffalo Commercial.
“We cannot recommend this book too strongly to the
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Srom beginning to close, and will broaden the horizon,
quicken to greater enthusiasm and furnish a fund of in-
jormation of the greatest value to all.”’—Kansas State
Normal Monthly.
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mation under contribution in preparing this deeply interest-
ing and really invaluable book.’’—Philadelphia Press.
“Sure to fascinate parents of young children as well as
to instruct all teachers and psychologists. It marks a dis-
tinet advance in child study.’’— American Journal of
Psychology.
‘Rich in its legends and anecdotes. * * % Valuable
bits of authentic history are interwoven with the chapters.
The teachers of the kirdergarten will find texts of value
upon every page of the book.’’—Chicago Inter-Ocean.
‘““ The author has been exceeding happy in his treatment
of the subject, and his work will appeal to the general
reader.’—The American.
“Mothers should read it that they may make themselves
more competent to bring up their children. * * * Fathers
should read it * * * to prepare themselves for the duties
of instruction, religious training and mild judicious sover-
eignty. Teachers should read it, for there is much even for
them to learn.”—Home Journal.
‘(A volume which we would specially recommend to the
kindergarten teacher, as it is full of information about
children of all countries and of all ages.’’—Minneapolis
Tribune.
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G. BROWN GOODE, Scientific Organization.
Fripay, May 8, 1896.
CONTENTS :
The Dedication of the New Site of Columbia Univer-
SUD) ccoscnecaoo9ocdoquocTbooba09 sesaTEODed ODDO SEE BSBOEEADOnOdods 681
Psychological Notes upon Sleight-of-hand Experts :
JOSEPH JASTROW.......2.ssccocccrecceosseessssccasseses 685
The Influence of Carbon Dioxide on the Protoplasm of
Living Plant Cells: D. T. MACDOUGAL........... 689
Notes on Certain Undescribed Clay Occurrences in
AD WOES (Envi), AL, ILYNIDED) so5c0q eoeqnoocesbancboonsdod 691
Notes on a Breathing Gas Well: HAROLD W. FAIR-
IBVAINIEGS) coon ccnocoocosbeosos 00000 cb 0s00cHocOcOHIGBSaKDOGDadeEd 693
Source of X-Ray ORs A. A. MicHEtson, S. W. °*
STRATTON... w+0. 694
Current Studies 1 in "Experimental Geology -— =
The Color of Water as Affected by Convectional
Currents ; The Plasticity of Ice Crystals: T. A.
VACGUNIR, UiBeecoscoosancxseqcacosonoabbocceocdecaqoeGq0NGd 696
Notes upon Agriculture and Horticulture :—
The Potato Scab; Cherries; Currants: BYRon
1D), LEUATESINTSE DY, conscoooseancsccuaaconbooHocoEDosanboocasOs0O0d 698
Current Notes on Anthropology :—
South American Linguistics ; The Diminution of
Natality SDs Gos BRENTON fe esbcedsececssecseces= se 699
Scientific Notes and News :—
Vivisection in the District of Columbia ; Radiation
from Uranium Salts ; Generdl...........000ccceeneeeee 700
University and Educational News............+.0+++ o8eCd 704
Discussion and Correspondence :—
On Rood’s Demonstration of the Regular or Specu-
lar Reflection of the Rontgen Rays by a Platinum
Mirror: ALFRED M. MAvER. Pseudo-science
in Meteorology: B. E. FERNoW. Zodlogy and
Biology: W.K. Brooks. The Use of the Tow-
net for eee Ce CE ald Wm. E.
FEVISTETEE reeerente oc0 705
Scientific Liter ature :—
Giddings’ Prineiples of Sociology: Simon N.
PATTEN. Mason’s Water Supply..........-.+.+-00++ 709
Scientific Journals :-—
Psyche ; The Psychological Review..........+++++0++0+ 712
Societies and Academies :—
Biological Society of Washington: F. A. Lucas.
Geological Society of Washington: W. F. Mor-
SELL. Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel-
phia: Epw. J. NOLAN. Geological Conference
of Harvard University: T. A. JAGGAR, JR.
Proceedings of the Torrey Botanical Club: W. A.
J BYNSII DID) sasnonocosocnonsonnbossncbschcnececacTuc66o0000% i....713
THE DEDICATION OF THE NEW SITE OF
COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY.
Cotumpra University has under Presi-
dent Low become a university in name, in
externals and in fact, and henceforth takes
rank with the great universities of the —
world.
The new site of the University was dedi-
cated on May the second with ceremonies
worthy of its stately buildings in course of
erection and of its commanding position
above the City of New York. The site of
the University, occupying somewhat more
than seventeen acres and purchased by the
trustees ata cost of $2,000,000, is on the
summit of Morningside Heights, between
Morningsige Park on the one hand and
Riverside Park on the other. On the same
Heights and adjacent to the University will
be the Cathedral of St. John the Divine,
St. Luke’s Hospital, Grant’s Mausoleum
and, affiliated with the University, Bar-
nard College and the Teachers’ College.
As is shown in the accompanying figures,
the Library Building, erected as a memorial
of Abiel Abbot Law, by his son, President
Low, occupies the central and most elevated
position. The basement of Milford granite
and the first story of Indiana limestone, al-
ready erected, indicate the plan and archi-
tectural character of the building. It is
classic in style, in the form of a Greek cross,
surmounted by adome. Its width is 192 feet
and the height of the dome will be 135 feet.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 71.
SCIENCE.
682
1207 STREET
SANaY WvauILsWwy
ayvA3TNOB
STREET
io=
PLAN OF THE NEW BUILDINGS AND GROUNDS.
May 8, 1896.]
wp
He
SCIENCE.
683
THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY.
The Library Building, as the other buildings
and their arrangement, has been designed
by Messrs. McKim, Meade & White, under
the immediate supervision of President Low.
In the rear of the Library Building, the
basement being on a lower level, will be
the University Building, for which the
foundations are being prepared. Thesouth-
erly portion of the building, facing the
library quadrangle, is designed as a Memo-
rial Hall. Connecting with the Hall and on
the same level will be the University Thea-
ter, with a seating capacity of 2,500. There
will bea Gymnasium under the Theater, and
the engine rooms will be under Memorial
Hall. On public occasions the entire build-
ing can be used.
Plans have been prepared for Havemeyer
Hall, erected as a memorial of Frederick C.
Havemeyer for the department of chemistry,
and the Engineering Building, and these
will soon be in course of erection.
The foundation stones of the Physics
Building and of Schermerhorn Hall were
laid on May 2. The Physics Building will
ultimately be devoted entirely to the depart-
ment of physics, but for the present will
also be used for related sciences. Scher- .
merhorn Hall, the gift of Mr. William C.
Schermerhorn, the chairman of the trustees,
will be devoted to the natural sciences and
will contain the departments of mineralogy,
geology, paleontology, botany, zodlogy and
psychology. These buildings are to be built
of the over-burned brick of a dull-red
color, generally known as Harvard brick,
and of Indiana limestone. In style they
are in keeping with the Library, and repre-
sent to some extent a reversion to the best
construction of the Colonial period.
684
To the east and west of the Library will
be the Chapel and the Assembly Hall for
the use of students, while the other build-
ings indicated on the plan will be built as
required for special purposes.
At noon on May 2d the corner stones of
the Physics Building and of Schermerhorn
Hall were laid in the presence of the officers
and alumni of the University. The corner
stone of the Physics Building was laid by
Professor Ogden N. Rood, and an address
was made by Prof. Howard Van Amringe,
who traced the growth of the College, with
special reference to its scientific departments,
from the time when the first corner stone of
the first building of the College was laid, 140
years ago. At that time the teaching force
of the institution consisted of the President
and one tutor. The speaker called atten-
tion to the fact that the first buildings to
be built for purposes of instruction and re-
search are for the sciences.
The corner stone of Schermerhorn Hall
was laid by Mr. W. C. Schermerhorn, the
donor of the building, and an address was
made by Prof. Henry F. Osborn, in the
course of which he said that the problem of
the last twenty years had been the establish-
ment of universities. The problem of the
next twenty years is the production of
thinkers of the highest type. The building
should be laid on the corner stones
of breadth, height, energy and repose.
Breadth, standing for thoroughness of pre-
paration and wideness of horizon ; height,
for specialization; energy, for determina-
tion in the prosecution of research ; and re-
pose, for undisturbed observation, reflection
and induction. It is the symmetrical and
balanced development of all these factors
which will make Schermerhorn Hall a
birthplace of discoveries, a permanent
monument to its generous founder, worthy
of Columbia University, and a new force in
American science.
At three o’clock in the afternoon the site
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. III. No. 71:
was dedicated with impressive ceremonies,
held in a large pavilion, in which 3,000
people were seated. In addition to the
officers, alumni and students of the Uni-
versity, there were present the Governor of
the State, the Mayor of the City, Presidents
and representatives of the leading Ameri-
can universities and colleges, and many
other distinguished guests.
President Low made the opening address,
calling attention to the fact that historic
ground would be dedicated to a new use.
Already it is twice consecrated. In the
Revolutionary War the soil drank the blood
of patriots, willingly shed for the independ-
ence of the land. Since then, for three genera-
tions, it has witnessed the union of science
and of brotherly kindness, devoted to the
care of those suffering from the most mys-
terious of all the ills that flesh is heir to.
To-day we dedicate it, in the same spirit of
loyalty to country and of devotion to the
services of mankind, to the inspiring uses
of a venerable and historic university. It
is no small part of the suitableness of
this site for the uses of the University
that it here will find itself in the inspir-
ing presence of so many other forces that
make for the uplifting of the city. If New
York is taunted in the years to come
with being a city wholly given up to the
love of money, she may well point to this
eminence, with its cathedral, its hospital,
its educational institutions, its monument
to Gen. Grant, and say: ‘These are my
jewels: religion, philanthropy, education,
patriotism ; these are the things my chil-
dren care for more than they care for
money; therefore I wear these things in’
my civic crown.”
A national flag was then presented to the
University by Rear Admiral Meade on be-
half of Lafayette Post, Grand Army of the
Republic, and a dedication ode in Latin,
written by Prof. Peck, was sung.
Hon. Abram 8. Hewitt, an alumnus of
May 8, 1896.]
the University, made an address reviewing
the work of the University in relation to
the social and political growth of the city.
The last speaker was President Eliot, who,
in the name of the universities of America,
congratulated Columbia University on its
setting commensurate with the worth of its
intellectual and spiritual influence.
PSYCHOLOGICAL NOTES UPON SLEIGHT-OF-
HAND EXPERTS.
THE determination of the influence of
special kinds of occupation and training
upon the delicacy, range and quickness of
sensory, motor and mental powers is an
important and interesting problem. Obser-
vations of this kind must first be directed
to the determination of the average capa-
bilities of average individuals and then be
extended by a study of the influences of
age, sex, heredity, training and a multitude
of other factors upon the growth and perfec-
tion of special powers. Last of all will
come the study of small, special groups of
persons and of the individual himself. At
all times, however, an individual with ex-
ceptional powers in any direction is quite
certain to attract attention and arouse in-
terest; psychological tests made upon such
virtuosi are desirable, even if in indi-
vidual cases they suggest no very decided
conclusions.
Having recently enjoyed visits at my
Psychological Laboratory from Messrs.
Hermann and Kellar, the widely-known
prestidigitators, I put together the results
of the series of tests to which they kindly
submitted. As the time at my disposal for
these tests was limited, I selected such as
might be supposed to be related to the
processes upon which their dexterity de-
pends, and such as seemed most likely to
yield definite results.
Beginning with tests of tactile sensibility,
I determined the distance at which two
points of an aesthesiometer placed upon the
SCIENCE.
685
forefinger of the right hand could be recog-
nized as two. This distance was for Mr.
Hermann 3.5mm. and for Kellar2.5mm. A
comparable average result, obtained from a
considerable number of miscellaneous in-
dividuals, was about 2 mm., indicating a
somewhat coarse sensibility for the two
special subjects. The attempt to arrange
in their correct order a series of 5 weights
increasing by ;; of their weight was unsuc-
cessful in the case of Mr. Hermann, but was
successfully carried out by Mr. Kellar. The
attempt to arrange weights differing by 5
was entirely unsuccessful for both of them.
In a general series of tests, 92% of those
tested arranged the former series correctly,
and 66% the latter. The weights were es-
timated by lifting them between thumb and
forefinger. A test of sensitiveness to tex-
tures was also made. The fingers were
passed across a surface composed of wires
wound closely side by side. Mr. Kellar was
tested with a series in which each surface
was 1 coarser than its neighbor, and with
one in which the differences were only ¢.
He arranged the first correctly, but was en-
tirely mistaken in the arrangement of the
second. Mr. Hermann tried only the finger
differences which he also failed to arrange
properly. I next tested the same sensi-
bility by having the subject feel between
the thumb and forefinger, as in feeling the
thickness of paper, a set of single wires of
various calibres, mounted upright on wooden
blocks. In one series the differences were
7,in another 4+. Both Mr. Hermann and
Mr. Kellar succeeded in arranging both
series correctly, but this was also done by 9
out of 10 persons who were tested in the
same way. Stillanother form of tactile and
motor capacity was tested by requiring the
subject to arrange in order a series of bars
of varying length by passing the forefinger
across them. Both Mr. Hermann and Mr.
Kellar passed this test successfully in the
series varying by 2; of their average length;
OSOm
but when the series varied by only ;1; Mr.
Kellar made one slight mistake, and Mr.
Hermann’s arrangement was correct. The
former task was successfully accomplished
by 60% and the latter by 50% of a large
group of persons similarly tested.
As both Mr. Hermann and Mr. Kellar
have made themselves by persistent training
quite ambidextrous, being able to perform
sleight-of-hand tricks with either hand (al-
though both are naturally right-handed),
it is interesting to record the results of the
attempt to move the two hands equally far
from a common starting point. For Mr.
Hermann, in single excursions, the right
hand moved 318, 330, 128, 302, 116, 260
mm.; while the left hand moved 316, 344,
140, 268, 160,225 mm. The average right-
hand movement was 241.5 mm; the average
left-hand movement 247 mm. In three
cases the left-hand movement was distinctly
longer, in one case the right hand was dis-
tinetly longer, and in two cases they were
nearly alike. The two hands did not move
very well together, but there seems to be
no constant error in one direction. The
average excess of the left hand is 5.5 mm.
while the general average for those who
have the same tendency is 138.75 mm. Itmay
be added that, in general, about. an equal
number of persons would have the ten-
dency of moving the left farther than the
right as would have the tendency of mov-
ing the right hand farther than the left.
A similar record for Mr. Kellar was: right
hand 281, 357, 404, 155, 108, 313, mm.;
left hand 268, 333, 411, 187, 183, 337 mm.
This makes an average excess for the left
hand of 8.5 mm., the average right hand
movement being 270 and left hand 278 mm.
Differences of the two hands are nowhere
large, the excess of the left hand appear-
ing in four of the six movements. The
next test consisted in marking off, by a
movement of the arm (the eyes being
closed) five equal distances, by raising a
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 71.
pencil from a strip of paper and bringing it
down again. The average deviation of
these movements from one another was for
Mr. Hermann 16.1 % of their average
length, for Mr. Kellar 5 % in his first trial
and 12.6 % in his second. The general
average deviation for this test was 11.8 %.
A few tests of the accuracy of visual per-
ception were made as follows: A line
100 mm. long was to be divided in half. For
Mr. Hermann the left half measured 49.75
mum.; for Mr. Kellar in his first attempt 50.75.
mm., in his second attempt 52.2mm. The
average error in this test is about 1.75 mm.
The same line when divided into three
equal parts resulted as follows: For Mr.
Hermann, left 33, middle 34, right 83 mm.
Fer Mr. Kellar, in the first attempt, left 35.5,
middle 34.5, right 30 mm.; in the second
attempt, left 33, middle 35.5, right 31.5 mm.
The general average record for this test was,
left 32.0, middle 34.5, right 32.7. The sub-
jects were next required to mark off on the
three arms of a cross, a distance equal to
that (50 mm.) marked off on the upper arm
of the cross. The lengths of the arms were
unequal and the crossasymmetrically placed
onthe paper. For Mr. Hermann the leftarm
was 70.5, right arm 44, lower arm 60.5 mm.
This large error can only be accounted for
by the confusion of the distance from the
center outwards with that from the margin
of the paper inwards, but the possibility of ,
such a confusion is not indicative of an ac-
curate observation. Mr. Kellar’s result
was, in the first attempt, left arm 54.5,
right 52.5, lower 50 mm.; second attempt,
left 55.5, right 54.5, lower 51 mm. The
average results of a large group of individ-
uals in this test were left 54, right 54,
lower 61 mm. Mr. Kellar’s error for the
lower arm is thus less than the average
one. Another test of visual perception is
called the ‘form alphabet.’ It consists of
25 characters composed of short and long
vertical and horizontal strokes in various
MAy 8, 1896. ]
combinations. 215 of these are printed
upon a sheet in miscellaneous order. A
certain one of these is singled out for iden-
tification and the subject is required to in-
dicate as many occurrences of this character
as he can detect within a limited time (90
seconds). In the first attempt Mr. Her-
mann did not fully comprehend what was
wanted, marking off 10 right and 19 wrong
ones. In the second test he marked off 8
correct ones. Mr. Kellar marked off 7 cor-
rect ones in the first attempt and 11 in the
second. The general average of persons
succeed in recognizing about 8 forms in this
time.
Quite a number of tests of the quickness
of movement and of mental processes were
made. For Mr. Hermann the maximum
number of movements of the forefinger
alone was 72 in 10 seconds, or 7.2 per sec-
ond, and of the forearm 75, or 7.5 per sec-
ond. For Mr. Kellar, forefinger 83 in 15
seconds, or 5.5 per second, and for the fore-.
arm 127, or 8.2 per second. The average of
a large number of individuals for the fore-
finger movement was 5.4 per second, and
ofa group of ten persons, tested more nearly
in the same way as were Messrs. Hermann
and Kellar, 4.8 per second. The average
forearm movement of the same ten persons
was 7.5 per second. It thus appears that
the movements for both Mr. Hermann and
Mr. Keller are rapid ; Mr. Hermann’s fore-
finger movement being exceptionally so,
while Mr. Kellar’s forearm movement is
the better.
Passing to the ordinary forms of reaction
experiments, Mr. Hermann’s reaction to a
touch upon the right hand was remarkably
short, especially for one who had never
been a subject for reaction experiments be-
fore. The average of 6 trials was 104¢
(¢ = 7z_yp Second), with an average varia-
tion of ll«. Mr. Kellar’s time was 129<,
with an average variation of 10 o. For sound
reaction the time was; Hermann 163 «, vari-
SCIENCE.
687
ation 82 ¢; Kellar 116¢, variation 250. For
visual reaction, Hermann 126 c, with varia-
tion of 26 ¢, or omitting one irregular result,
1116, with variation of 8c; Kellar 125c,
variation of only 6c. For a considerable
group of average individuals, reacting for
the first time, the following numbers have
been found : For touch, 1724; sound, 165;
sight, 1760. It thus appears that both of
the special subjects tested react far more
quickly than the average individual. An-
other form of reaction involving manual
quickness of movement was arranged as
follows : Two keys were placed three feet
apart, and the time measured that elapsed
between the touching of one and a move-
ment over to and touching the other. Mr.
Hermann’s time for this reaction was 610,
with a variation of 760; Mr. Kellar’s time
was 2996, with a variation of 230. The
average of ten individuals making the same
test was 364, with an average variation of
326; but these ten individuals show con-
siderable variation amongst one another.
Mr. Kellar’s time is thus somewhat below
the normal, although it is equalled by 6 of
the 10 persons tested, while Mr. Hermann’s
time is unaccountably long. As a type of
reaction involving a choice, the distinction
of red and blue, associated with movements
of the right and left hands, was selected.
In this Mr. Hermann’s time was 301 «, with
a variation of 640; Mr. Kellar’s time, 256,
with a variation of 56c. For a simpler
choice I have an average record of 2596,
and for the same reaction the average of 10
individuals is 297 «, with an average varia-
tion of 44.
A more complicated reaction involved a
movement with any one of the five fingers in
response to the appearance of the numbers
1, 2, 3, 4 or 5 behind the opening in a
sereen. Mr. Hermann’s time for such a re-
action was 901 c, with a variation of 200 c ;
Mr. Kellar’s time being 753 o, with a varia-
tion of 91c, The average time of 10 indi-
688
viduals for such a reaction is 588 «, with a
variation of 84c. It is thus quite clear
that, while the simple reaction time for the
two special subjects is much shorter than
the normal, their time is just about normal
in a reaction involving a simple distine-
tion and choice, and is considerably longer
than the normal in a reaction involving a
complex distinction and choice.
The incident related of Houdin, the
‘king of the conjurers,’ regarding his re-
markable powers of taking in at a glance
the miscellaneous contents of a shop win-
dow, suggests another power of great use
to the prestidigitator. Mr. Hermann claims
to possess a similar power, although he
does nothing in his stage performances
that demands such a comprehensiveness of
perception. I exposed for 4 a second 10
patches of color requiring him to name as
many he could see; in each of two trials
he named five correctly. When the color
patches were different in shape as well as
in color he was able to see three in $4 a
second and describe them correctly. He
was also able to read two words in the same
time. J also counted the number of con-
secutive exposures of 4 second each needed
for the reading of a sentence containing 17
words; it required 10 exposures or 1.7
words per exposure. In one-second expo-
sures Mr. Hermann could read 3 isolated
words, and required 8 exposures to read a
sentence of 29 words or 3.6 words for each
exposure.
Similiar averages for a group of about 40
persons indicate about the same quickness
of perception for color 4.5.as compared with
5; an inferior perception for combined
color and form 1.8 as compared with 3, only
12% of those tested recognizing as many as
three color forms; and likewise for words
seen separately 1.4 as compared with 2
(22% reading 2 words), but a distinctly
higher average of the number of words read
in one exposure. On the whole, these few
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 71.
experiments would indicate that, as regards
the quickness and scope of perception, Mr.
Hermann would rank well (except in read-
ing words in a sentence), but by no means
exceptionally well in the general average.
For Mr. Kellar the tests were somewhat
differently arranged. The patches of color
and the various forms were arranged con-
secutively and were read in order as one
would read words on a line. In exposures
of one second Mr. Kellar could read cor-
rectly four colors and three forms. In
reading words scattered over the page he
read 2 correctly in his first trial and 3
in second trial. In four suecessives expo-
sures of 1 second each he read a sen-
tence containing 27 words, or an average
of 6.75 words per second. Mr. Kellar would
thus rank below Hermann in all but the
reading of words in a sentence, in which he
far exceeds him, but would be equalled by
about 86% of a group of college students.
Another form of testing this capacity was
attempted, but with no success. Mr. Her-
mann was shown 10 pictures, and asked to
study them for about 45 seconds; he was
then shown a card containing 40 pictures
and requested to mark off which of the 40
were also seen on the former card. He
marked off 7, 4 of which were correct and
3 wrong. For Mr. Kellar this test was
more systematically made. He was shown
a card containing 40 pictures and at the
same time a slip containing 10 words, the
names of a certain 10 of the pictures; and
asked to find the pictures named by the
words as rapidly as possible. This took
him just 45 seconds, the average of a mis-
cellaneous group of individuals being 64
seconds. A few minutes later he was asked
to note on a card containing 60 pictures as
many as he could remember having seen
on the former card containing 40 pictures.
He succeeded in recognizing but 11, the
average in this test being 17.5 pictures. I
also tested Mr. Kellar’s visual memory by
May 8, 1896.]
having him look at a series of words for
about 5 seconds, and then repeat as many
as he could in correct order. He succeeded
in repeating correctly 5 out of a series of 6
words, and 6 out of 9 words. Fora similar
series of numbers his memory was much
better. He could repeat 7 numerals cor-
rectly, and in attempting to repeat a set of
10 made but 2 errors. This is better than
the average, but not remarkably so. It
should be added that several very striking
performances are given by Mr. Kellar -in
which memory forms a considerable part.
It is, however, a very special form of
memory, involving the formation of ac-
curate associations and classifications rather
than an extended series of impressions.
If we now select those tests in which the
records of Mr. Hermann and Mr. Kellar
differ markedly from the normal we find
as follows: In the quickness of response
to a touch and a visual stimulus both the
special subjects, and Mr. Kellar as well in
response to an auditory stimulus, excel to
a considerable extent the average individ-
ual. But this quickness of reaction does
not appear in the more complicated reac-
tions; and in the most complicated reaction
they both fall considerably below the nor-
mal. In the quickness of movement we
find decided indications of an unusual
quickness for both Mr. Hermann and Mr.
Kellar. In the scope and accuracy of visual
perception we find in. part a good record,
but on the whole no very decided excel-
lence appears. In tests involving mainly
tactual perception and muscular perception,
the indication is rather that they are below
than above the normal. I might also add
that I have repeated a few of these tests
upon a local sleight-of-hand performer, and
find for him a good record and particularly
a great quickness of movement. This is
perhaps to be explained by his facility in
musical execution as a pianist and organist
as well as in sleight-of-hand performance.
SCIENCE.
689
The positive results of the investigation
are thus small, but as far as they go they
are consistent with the forms of dexterity
that are utilized in sleight-of-hand perfor-
mances. They also indicate that it may
well be that special skill “in one very
specialized form of training may be only
slightly influential upon other forms of
capacity. So little is known of the correla-
tion of powers of this kind, and small series
of tests are so apt to be affected by accidental
errors, that any suggestions which the data
seem to warrant must be put forward with
great caution. The individual is interesting,
but the methods of research are, and must
be, particularly adapted to statistical
groups.*
JOsEPH JASTROW.
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN.
THE INFLUENCE OF CARBON DIOXIDE
ON THE PROTOPLASM OF LIVING
PLANT CELLS.
THE history of investigation of the rela-
tions of plants to the component gases of
atmospheric air and with special reference
to CO, may be said to begin with the re-
searches of Priestley and Ingenhousz
(1779). Among the results obtained by the
latter was the fact that plants die in ‘air’
fatal to animals, and that such air contained
large portions of CO,. De Saussure next
made his famous tests of the effects of the
atmospheres containing various proportions —
of CO, upon growth (1804), and John found
that peas would not germinate in an atmos-
phere of this gas, and since the seeds were
killed by the alcoholic fermentation accom-
*T feel thatitis necessary toadd that Mr. Hermann
perhaps did not do himself justice in some of the tests.
He was always quick, confident and decided in his
judgments, often performing a test in half the time
taken by the average person. He was much interested
in the tests, but seemed confident of his ability to do
what was required, with little effort. It may well be
that with a little more deliberation, and an oppor-
unity of even a brief familiarity with the tests, better
results could have been secured.
690
panying the experiments he concluded that
the gas was poisonous to plants (1810).
About this time Davy obtained some results
confirmatory of those previously attained
by De Saussure.
No further*important facts were brought
out until forty years later when, in the
period of activity following the discovery of
protoplasm, its relation to carbon dioxide
were taken up by Kabsch, in a study of its
influence on ‘sensitive’ plants (Bot. Ztg.,
1862). The field attracted many workers
of the first rank among whom are Kihne,
Boussingault, Pfeffer, Schtitzenberger, God-
lewski, de Vries and Boehm, who paid chief
attention to the influence of the gas in vary-
ing pressure and proportion upon the syn-
thetic activity of chlorophyll-bearing plants.
The discovery of Pasteur that certain
forms of Saccharomycetes and Schizomycetes
might live in a medium devoid of oxygen,
was followed by the experiments of Frankel,
in which he found that many forms of
these groups might live in an atmosphere
of pure CO,, and that the relations of each
form to the gas was entirely specific (1889).
D’Arsonyal, pursuing similar lines of experi-
ments, met no organism capable of con-
tinued existence in this gas at high
pressures, forty-five atmospheres (1891).
Frankland obtained results entirely in
harmony with those of Frankel and
further found not only great specific dif-
ferences in resistence to the gas, but
also wide differerences in: individuals
from the same colony (1889). Demoor in
some recent work upon the subject in con-
nection with the effects of many dif-
ferent gases reaches the conclusion that the
activity of the plasma is possible only in
the presence of oxygen, while the nucleus
may not be affected by conditions which in-
hibit the action of the plasma.** Perhaps
the most extensive and exact series of ex-
periments dealing with the relations of CO,
*Arch. d. Biol., 13: 163. 1894.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. III. No. 71.
to protoplasm devoid of chlorophyll is that
recently carried out by Lopriori at Berlin.*
This writer used gas obtained by heating
potassium bicarbonate, according to the
method of Schloesing and Laurent, which
was stored in gasometers of special design,
and the integrity of all mixtures was con-
firmed by numerous analyses. The micro-
scopal examination was made in chambers
similar in principle to that of Engelmann.
Among his more important results are those
which concern the accommodation of pro-
toplasm to the unusual proportions of
the gas and the germination of spores un-
der such conditions. The streaming move-
ment in the stamen hairs of Tradescantia
was inhibited by exposure to a mixture of
20 parts oxygen and 80 parts CO, for 3 or 4
minutes, and was resumed after a minute’s
exposure to the air. A second exposure to
the same mixture a half hour later had no
effect on the movement, and a much greater
proportion of CO, was now necessary to in-
fluence the rate of movement. By immer-
sion of the hair in successive mixtures of
the following composition :
1. O 25parts CO, 75 parts
o. cc x0) ce (73 80 “6
3. (73 10 ce (74 90 (73
4, a3 (79 100 ce
it was possible to maintain the movement
in the pure gas.
The germination of spores of Mucromu-
cedo was totally inhibited in pure CO, and
delayed a varying length of time in mixtures
containing high proportions. The my-
celize formed in mixtures containing above
10-30 parts of CO, did not develop spo-
rangia. In such instances the protoplasm
became highly vacuolar, while globular
swellings were formed on the myceliz sim-
* Ueber die Einwirkung der Kohlensiiure auf das
Protoplasma der lebenden Pflanzenzelle. Jahrb. f.
wiss. Bot. 28: Hft. 4. 531-625. 3 Figs. 2 Pls
1894.
May 8, 1896.]
ilar to those resulting from the use of con-
centrated nutritive solutions. Ifsuch struc-
tures were brought into atmospheric air
vegetative myceliz were formed. Spores
which had been immersed in pure CO, for
three months germinated in the usual man-
ner. In confirmation of Brefeld’s work,
Lopriore finds that Saccharomyces will not
grow in pure O©O,, although but one-six
thousandth part of oxygen is necessary as
has been found by Brefeld. After 12 hours’
immersion in the pure gas growth was re-
sumed upon access of atmospheric air.
Mixtures containing large proportions of
CO, exerted a much stronger adverse influ-
ence upon Mycoderma cerevisiz, which was
killed by twelve hours’ exposure to the pure
gas.
Pollen grains reacted to mixtures in the
most varied manner. Some formed protu-
berances in the pure gas, and then burst; in
others no change was visible, while in others
disintegration shortly ensued. Tubes formed
in air and exposed to pure CO, were gener-
ally quickly destroyed. Proportions of 1
to 10 parts of CO, promoted the growth of
the tubes, but did not increase the turgidity,
which, however, was markedly increased if
afterward brought into ordinary air. It
will be remembered that in pollen tubes
growth-extension of the walls is practically
independent of turgidity. In many in-
stances important changes in the plastic
and elastic extensibility of the cell wall
were induced, in a manner similar to the
effects of strong oxygen solutions.
The results of Lopriore’s work point to
the conclusion that CO, exercises a retard-
ing influence upon the activity of proto-
plasm, while directly exposed to it, but has
no permanently injurious effect. Different
plant cells exhibit widely divergent reac-
tions to the gas. It appears quite well es-
tablished that animal protoplasm is affected
much more strongly by increased propor-
tions of the gas. The influence of the gas
SCIENCE.
691
upon the protoplasm of plant cells is charac-
teristic, and its effects do not result from
the simple exclusion of oxygen; its action
is upon the nutritive processes, and since
the widest disproportion exists between the
volume and the effect produced, if it exer-
cises any stimulating influence the reaction
must be so limited as to be easily obscured.
The establishment of the fact that CO,
exercises a positive influence upon. proto-
plasm makes necessary a revision of some
of the conclusions reached concerning erobic
and anerobic organisms, and particularly
the researches of Correns (Flora, 1892) upon
the relations of plants to oxygen, in which
oxygen was partly or entirely displaced by
CO,. The anomalous reactions of tendrils
obtained by this author seem to be capable
of explanation in view of the recently dis-
covered relations of the gas to plant proto-
plasm. D. T. MacDoueat.
THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA.
NOTES ON CERTAIN UNDESCRIBED CLAY OC-
CURRENCES IN MISSOURI.
THE geologically well-known clays of the
State of Missouri (which are very abundant
and widely known, commercially), occur
in the Quaternary—chiefly confined to the
loess deposits along the larger rivers; in
the Tertiary—in the southeastern part of the
State; and in the Coal Measure formations
—in the extension of the Iowa Coal Basin
southwestwardly, and also in the small out-
lier of the Illinois Coal Basin, which is con-
fined, practically, to St. Louis city and
county.
Another interesting and commercially
valuable group of clays, which has, appar-
ently, never been described, includes a large
number of more or less isolated pockets of
fire clay and ‘kaolin,’ occurring uncon-
formably in cavities and former valleys
among the Silurian and, possibly, in some
Devonian and Lower Carboniferous rocks.
These pockets of clay are distributed over
692
a number of counties ranging, inclusively,
from St. Charles, Warren, Montgomery and
Callaway counties (which lie west of St.
Louis), on the north; through Jefferson,
Franklin, Gasconade, Osage and Maries,
to Crawford, Phelps and possibly other
counties on the south, the whole area oc-
cupying about the center of the eastern
half of the State, its northern boundary
being but a few miles north of the Missouri
river. :
These clays are of uncertain geological
age. The beds of clay as they now occur
are probably the last remnants of a once
very extensive formation in this region.
They are to be found mostly in the minor
lateral valleys along the borders of the
greater ones, and apparently always near
the tops of the valley sides. They some-
times occur in shallow pockets along the
tops of the divides, this being especially
noticeable in Gasconade county, where these
clays occur over a widearea. The greatest
thickness of this clay seen by the writer,
was at Regina, Jefferson county, where a
pocket had been opened to a depth of sixty
feet. Borings have been made in pockets
which seem to belong to this class, which
penetrated the clay to a depth of one hun-
dred and twenty-five feet. In all of the
many pits of this sort observed the con-
tact between the clay and the surrounding
sandstones or limestones was sharply uncon-
formable, and indicated the origin above
suggested.
The clay is usually cream-color, but is
often mottled with purple and reddish tints,
which are organic stains and readily dis-
appear on ignition. It is mostly hard and
brittle, breaks with a conchoidal fracture,
and weathers concentrically, breaking up
indefinitely into sharp, angular fragments.
It is mined (as a fire-clay) mostly in Mont-
gomery, Warren, Franklin, Crawford, Gas-
conade and Phelps counties, for shipment
only, going to fire-brick works in St. Louis,
SCIENCE.
LN. S. Vou. III. No. 71.
Chicago and Eastern cities, where it is used
in connection with more plastic clays to di-
minish their shrinkage.
In one locality near Union, in Franklin
county, the upper four or five feet of this
clay is plastic. Another variety occurring
in many places is white, brilliantly mot-
tled with reddish tints, and sometimes
stained very dark purple; is comparatively
soft and free from sand; has a smooth,
soapy feel and is cut with a knife in an ex-
tremely smooth, soft way.
These three phases, the hard fire-clay, the
plastic clay, and the last-mentioned variety
—called locally ‘kaolin’—may represent
different horizons in this group of clays, and
it is probable that the variety called ‘ kao-
lin’ is part of the same formation which is
found southeast of this region, where it has
been considered a true kaolin, occurring in
the place of its origin among the parent
crystalline rocks.
The only trace of organic remains found
in this group by the writer was taken
‘from the clay pit of Isidor Mandle, in Re-
gina, Jefferson county (where the clay is
worked and shipped east to porcelain fac-
tories). This specimen consisted of a piece
of beautifully carbonized wood, nearly two
feet in length, and five inches by three
inches, in cross section, at its larger end,
whence it tapered towards the other end to
about half that size. A piece of this wood
was sent to Prof. F. H. Knowlton at the
Smithsonian Institution, who prepared sec-
tions of it for microscopic examination and
kindly furnished the writer with the follow-
ing information in regard to it, which is
given in his own words:
“The structure is very finely preserved
and comes out beautifully. It belongs to
the genus Dadoxylon, and is very close to
Dadoxylon Beinertianum Endl., from the
Sub-carboniferous Falkenburg in Silesia.
The wood cells have one, or more often two,
alternating rows bordered with oblong cells
May 8 1896.]
or inner pores, those on the opposite sides
being placed at right angles, thus producing
a kind of maltese cross within each circle.
This is very characteristic of the Palzeozoic
genus Dadoxylon, and your material can-
not by any means have come from the Ter-
tiary unless it has been redeposited. The
specimen itself is Paleeozoic, and the ques-
tion of its possible removal from its original
position is, of course, one of stratigraphy.”
Gro. HE. Lavp.
ATLANTA, GA.
NOTE ON A BREATHING GAS WELL.
A very remarkable gas well recently
came under the writer’s observation while
engaged in studying the geology of the
Santa Lucia Range. It is situated on the
Eagle Ranch, on the eastern side of the
Range in San Luis Obispo county, Cali-
fornia.
The well is interesting on account of two
things: (1), the presence of gas in the
Golden Gate series, it being encountered
while boring for water ; and (2), the inter-
mittent flow of gas, the periods of flow al-
ternating with those of drawing in air.
The geology of this portion of the range
is quite complicated. In the vicinity of the
Eagle Ranch there are four different forma-
tions; the oldest, the Golden Gate series,
consisting of shale, sandstone and jasper,
with numerous ancient eruptives, the whole
being probably of Upper Jurassic age. The
rocks of this series are extensively devel-
oped through the Coast Ranges of Cali-
fornia, but have never before been found
to contain gas, nor have any indications of
coal or oil been met with.
The well was bored on the point of a hill
rising perhaps seventy-feet above a little
flat on which the ranch buildings are sit-
uated; this flatis underlaid by Lower Creta-
ceous shales which surround the hill on
three sides. The Chico sandstone occurs,
overlying the shales in various places;
SCIENCE.
693
while to the east, some distance away, the
Bituminous Slate series (Miocene) is met
with filling the Salinas Valley. The Mio-
cene is preeminently the oil and gas bear-
ing formation of California. The writer
does not know of any locality in the State
where gas is obtained in quantities suffi-
cient for use from beds of Cretaceous age,
although such may be the case.
The well under consideration has a bore
of six inches and was put down to a depth
of three hundred and fifty-six feet. The
strata passed through consists of shale and
sandstone having a very steep dip. They
are exposed on the south side of the hill at
a distance of a little more than a hundred
feet from the well, and exhibit the intense
distortion of and shearing so characteristic
of the Golden Gate series. When first
bored, the water rose to within about eighty-
five feet of the surface. A small amount of
gas was encountered at a depth of ninety
feet. Comparatively little gas came from
the well at first, but during a stormy spell
the well was pumped continuously for some
time, and as the water grew lower a notice-
able amount of gas began to issue. Thisin-
creased until it was estimated to amount
to twenty thousand feet per day. This
state of things lasted for about six weeks,
when the volume began to decrease, finally
becoming intermittent. The well has now
been opened for four years, the gas continu-
ing to average about 250 feet per day.
During settled weather the intermittent ac-
tion is fairly regular, the gas issuing for
about three hours, when an equilibrium be-
ing reached, the current changes and air is
sucked in for the same length of time. If
the air is not allowed to enter the gas will
not flow ; consequently an automatic valve
has been placed at the surface of the well,
permitting the ingress of the air. The suc-
tion is frequently so strong that, if only a
small opening is left a roaring sound is pro-
duced, which is audible at the ranch house.
694
The gas issues also with a strong pressure.
The amount of water in the well does not
affect the flow of gas in any manner.
Whatever the cause of the intermittent
action it is influenced by the varying pres-
sure of the air, for before a storm, when the
barometer is falling, the gas continues to
issue for a much longer period, sometimes
for 24 hours; and when the rise in the
barometer takes place there is the same
prolongation of the period of inhalation.
During high barometric conditions the equi-
librium may continue for some time. The
well at the present time produces four to
five thousand gallons of water per month,
being pumped on an average about every
two weeks.
miles from the sea in a direct line, and has
an elevation of 1,300 feet, so that it would
seem impossible that tidal action could
have anything to do with the phenomenon.
During a talk with Mr. Benton, the super-
intendent of the ranch, who has closely
watched the well, he stated that he had
noticed no connection between the respira-
tion and any physical conditions save the
one referred to. The gas is used in all the
ranch buildings, but is of such a char-
acter that with the ordinary burner it does
not give a good light, consequently an in-
candescent burner is used.
The question of the source of the gas is
rather a puzzling one. It hardly seems
possible that it can be derived from the
strata penetrated, and if not it must have
its source in the surrounding Cretaceous
shales, or possibly in the white Miocene
shales, which here, as nearly everywhere
else, are filled with animal remains. <A well
was sunk to a depth of 900 feet in the same
area of Cretaceous shales about two miles
miles to the west, but without encountering
water or gas. If derived from the Miocene
shales the gas must circulate through the
rock for nearly three-fourths of a mile at
least. The water is very pure, containing
SCIENCE.
The locality is about twelve
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 71.
no alkali or trace of oil such as might be
expected if it has passed through Miocene
strata.
As to the cause of the intermittent action
no reasonable explanation has occurred to
the writer, and it is left for physicists to
explain. It is certainly not due to any of
the connections on the surface, for the facts
stated were observed prior to such connec-
tions. Haroip W. FaArrRBANKS.
BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA.
SOURCE OF X-RAYS.
NorwitHsTanvDinG the considerable amount
of attention the subject of Rontgen’s dis-
covery has received, there isa very wide di-
versity of opinion concerning the part of the
vacuum tube at which they are produced.
In view of the high reputation of the au-
thorities who have expressed their decided
opinions on this subject as experimenters
and observers, it would be rash to advance
the statements here made as being opposed
to their own views. It is unquestionably
true, however, that the evidence here given
must be considered as demonstrating that
in this form of vacwum tube the X-rays radiate in
all directions from the surface first encountered by
the cathode rays, and that they do not start
from the anode.
Fig. 1 represents the vacuum tube. Itis
made of German glass tubing, 4 cm. in di-
ameter and 8 cm. long. One end is drawn
out, and an aluminum electrode termina-
ting in a disc is inserted at A. A second
is inserted in the side, at C, and is enclosed
in a thick piece of glass tubing, to prevent
any radiations from it reaching either A
or B.
The end B has a flange which is ground
to receive a ground plate of aluminum B.
This plate is 3 mm. thick, except at the
center, where itis ground away to a thick-
ness of about one-tenth of a millimeter. The -
joint was made by melting shellac (con-
taining a small quantity of rubber) around
May 8, 1896.]
SCIENCE.
695
the outside. This joint was found to hold
so well that the discharge frequently passed
through the air (about 5 cm.) outside the
tube. ;
A photographic plate in its plateholder
was placed at P, about two centimeters
from the aluminum plate B. The experi-
ments were as follows :
1. A was made the cathode and B the
anode. The resulting photograph is given
in Fig. 2. Itshows that the X-rays radiate
in all directions from the thin portion of
the B.
2. B was made the cathode and A the
anode. The resulting photograph is given
in Fig.3. Itshows that the X-rays radiate
Fig. 2.
Fig. 3.
696
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 71.
Fia. 4.
from A and cast a shadow, moderately well
defined, of the plate B.
3. Bwas made the cathode and C the
anode. An iron washer was placed in con-
tact with the thin aluminum window at B.
The resulting photograph is given in Fig. 4.
it shows that the X-rays radiate from A ex-
actly as in (2), casting a shadow of the
aluminum dise and the iron washer in front
of it.
Now, while it is possible to explain ex-
periments (1) and (2) by considering that
the X-rays radiate from the anode, no such
explanation will account for experiment 3,
in which the undoubted source (A) was un-
connected with either terminal of the sec-
ondary coil which furnished the discharge.
On the other hand, not only are all three
experiments consistent with the statement
given above, but the origin of the X-rays
at the place where fluorescence is excited
on the glass walls of the common form of
Crooks tube is also thereby accounted for,
While it may be true that the effects may
be enhanced by making the anode the first
object encountered by the cathode rays, the
result of these experiments is to show that
the anode does not play an important réle
in the phenomenon.
A. A. MicHetson,
S. W. Srrarron.
CURRENT STUDIES IN EXPERIMENTAL
GEOLOGY.
THE COLOR OF WATER, AS AFFECTED BY CON-
VECTIONAL CURRENTS.
Pror. W. Sprine, of Liége, has just
added a new and interesting contribution*
to our knowledge of the causes of illumin-
ation of deep waters. Pure water is ac-
tually blue when seen through sufficient
thickness. Spring showed in 1883 that per-
fectly colorless particles in suspension would
form a turbid medium, giving passage to
* Arch, des Sciences phys. et nat. Geneva, March,
1896.
May 8, 1896.]
the red and yellow rays, but reflecting
the rays of shorter wave-length, 7. e., the
blue and violet, Hence, light reaching the
observer by transmission appears greenish,
the original blue of the water being added
to the transmitted orange rays. The blue
of reflection is largely absorbed, or but
slightly augments the color of the water.
Blue water should contain: no turbid ele-
ments, but deep water absolutely free from
turbidity should absorb all rays and appear
black. Contrary to this, the Mediterranean
and the Lake of Geneva in their deeper por-
tions are intensely blue. Hence, even the
most limpid waters are not optically void.
Tyndall and Soret believed that even the
purest water might contain particles in
suspension which account for the idlwmina-
tion of the blue waters in nature. This is
contradicted by the evidence from experi-
ments with polarized light, and by the fact
of the absorption of the rays of minimum
wave-length by a turbid medium.
As a further test, however, Prof. Spring
has prepared an elaborate apparatus to
prove whether loss of illumination by ab-
sorption through a great thickness of water
be accompanied by a loss of transparency due
to the presence of particles in suspension,
as in the case of the atmosphere. A tube
of glass was constructed, 26 meters long and
of 15 mm. internal diameter, mounted at a
slight inclination on a scaffold and straight-
ened with hand vises until its axis co-
incided with the optical axis of a telescope
adjusted at one end. Heavy black paper
covered the tube throughout its length, and
the ends were sealed with glass plates, the
one nearer to the source of light bearing
“cross-hairs.’ Glass tubes were fitted at
each end for the introduction of the water,
which was distilled with the utmost care in
platinum retorts. Hither daylight or the
Auer incandescent burner could be used as
illuminants.
A column of water 26 m. long appeared
SCIENCE.
697
deep blue; with the illumination of the
Auer lamp, the telescope revealed the cross-
hairs as sharply defined as though the tube
were empty; hence the presence of foreign
particles is improbable. Small apertures
pierced in the paper wall of the tube gave
evidence of emission of light laterally only
at a distance of 2 meters from the lamp.
This suggested some influence of the heat
rays; to test this, water 12° C. warmer than
the tube was introduced and produced com-
plete opacity, which gradually passed off as
the water regained the normal temperature.
The minimum difference of mean tempera-
ture which would produce opacity was de-
termined to be only 0.57° C.
A shorter tube 6 m. long was constructed
of metal with a view to testing the local ap-
plication of heat. On applying a flame at
one point in the side of the tube, the
sharply defined opening at the farther end
appeared to enlarge, became blurred and
finally disappeared, leaving an evenly illu-
mined field. The effect suggested a cloud
passing before the sun. Continued applica-
tion of heat produced complete darkness.
These experiments show that bodies of
water are not optically homogeneous when
traversed ‘by convectional currents, even
though the latter are caused by very slight
differences in temperature: the warmer
portions have the properties of a turbid
medium. Hence less absorption and greater
emission of light, making apparent the blue
color of the water. Cooling increases trans-
parency, hence the differences of color pro-
duced by the cooling shadow on the water’s
surface, of a cloud or a mountain ; a dry
wind, cooling the water’s surface by in-
creased evaporation, will at the same time
increase its transparency. Conformable to
this explanation is the fact stated by Forel,
that fresh water lakes are more transparent
in winter than in summer. The facts de-
scribed are not held by the author to pre-
clude the operation of other agencies, for
698
doubtless the illumination and color of
water are frequently due to combined
causes.
- THE PLASTICITY OF ICE CRYSTALS.
Dr. O. Miace has recently published the
account* of a series of experiments on
he deformation of ice relative to its crystal-
line structure. McConnel’s experiments
have shown that permanent deformation
by bending may be induced in an ice slab
only when the pressure acts in the di-
rection of the optic axis; the optic axis re-
mains normal to the curved basal surface
after bending.
Mitgge shows that plastic translation
without bending is possible only in a plane
perpendicular to the optic axis. To the
middle of a small bar of ice placed across
two supports, the latter as near together as
possible, a heavy weight was attached by a
strap. The optic axis lay horizontal. A por-
tion of the ice, about as wide as the strap,
was gradually drawn down until completely
detached. (See figure.) The temperature
remained below freezing. The stretched
portions were optically oriented exactly
like the main bar, the axis lying every-
where horizontal as indicated by the arrows.
The plane of the base was determined to
be the only plane in which such transla-
tion could be induced; pressure oblique to
a basal slab was found to produce torsion
*Neues Jahrbuch fiir Min., Geol. und Pal., 1895,
Bd. I., Heft 3, p. 212.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 71.
that tended to bring the optic axis into
coincidence with the direction of pressure.
These experiments prove that plastic
deformation and flexibility are important
components of the movement of glaciers.
The parallel position of the optic axes of
associated ‘Korner,’ or glacial granules,
has been observed, at least locally; this is
undoubtedly due to the fact that by transla-
tion on planes parallel to the base and simul-
taneous bending, the optic axis is forced
into parallelism with the direction of pres-
sure. Observations on plates of ice cut
from the Aletsch Glacier show that where
its bed sharply slopes, the optic axis lies at
right angles to the lower surface of the ice.
It is probable also that the increased purity
of the ice at a glacier’s lower extremity is
due to the gradual liberation of ‘air bub-
bles’ in migration along definite planes.
T. A. Jacear, JR.
CAMBRIDGE, MAss.
NOTES UPON AGRICULTURE AND HORT
CULTURE.
THE POTATO SCAB.
SEVERAL Experiment Stations are mak-
ing tests of various remedies for the po-
tato scab. This trouble of the potato is
due to a fungus closely related to the bac-
teria.
Bulletin No. 33 of the Rhode Island Sta-
tion gives a somewhat lengthy report of ex-
periments that cover three years with va-
rious chemicals. Dr. Wheeler and Mr.
Tucker, the authors, state that air slaked
lime, wood ashes and calcium carbonate,
calcium acetate and oxalate all increase the
scab ; while calcium chloride prevents it,
but likewise injures the potato plant. Cal-
cium sulphate (land plaster) is the only
form of lime not harmful to the potato which
fails to increase the scab. Common salt
reduces the amount of scab, and this ex-
plains why sea weed is healthful to potato
land when used for manure. Barnyard
MAY 8, 1896.]
manure increases the scab, probably because
alkaline. On the other hand, oxalic acid
tends to reduce the scab. It is thought
that anything which reduces the acidity of
. the soil will increase the scab. The scab
fungus seems to multiply in the soil when
the potato crop is not present. Upon acid
soils practical immunity from scab has been
secured for three years. Upon acid land
potatoes free from scab may be grown if no
barnyard manure is used.
CHERRIES.
UnbeEr the above short title Prof. Bailey
and Mr. Powell have prepared a bulletin
(No. 98 Cornell University Experiment
Station), giving among other things the clas-
sification of cherries under the horticultural
groups ; namely sours, amarelles and morel-
los, sweets, mazzards, hearts, begarreausand
dukes, and then the botanical grouping.
There are two species, namely, Prunus cer-
asus li., the sour cherries, and P. aviwn L.,
the sweet cherries, with three well-marked
varieties under the latter species.
Cherry growing is a neglected industry.
The tree likes a rich loamy soil with fre-
quent cultivation. The worst enemy is the
eurculio, and jarring the trees will save
many cherries. For the rot spraying with
Bordeaux is recommended. The bulietin
is illustrated with several engravings of
fruits made from photographs of subjects
natural size.
CURRANTS.
New York State can boast of two Experi-
ment Stations, one, the older, at Geneva,
and the other at Ithaca. Both have their
number of issues in the nineties, while, for
example, No. 98 of the Cornell University
Station is upon cherries, briefly mentioned
in the previous paragraph, the No. 95 of
the New York Station deals with currants.
Prof. Beach, in this, informs the readers
that the testing of varieties of currants be-
gan at Geneva in 1882 with eleven sorts.
SCIENCE.
699
Now there are forty under study and this
exclusive of seedlings. It is shown that of
the red sorts the Prince Albert is the
largest bearer, it averaging nearly nine
pounds per plant. The White Dutch is the
most productive of the white sorts. But it
seems from the bulletin that quantity is not
everything, for healthfulness of bush, ship-
ping quality and flavor of the berry must
all be considered. One sort may be too
watery for profitable jelly making or have
a skin too thick for jam, ete. The reader
of these bulletins upon fruits is led to im-
agine that the stationists practice all the
phases of the culinary art in order to pass
judgment upon their subjects.
Byron D. HAtstep.
NEw BRUNSWICK, N. J.
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.
SOUTH AMERICAN LINGUISTICS.
Dr. Ropotro LeEnz continues his valuable
contributions to the study of the Arauca-
nian stock by the publication of a series of
dialogues ‘in the Picunche dialect. His
presentation and analysis are fully up to the
requirements of modern scientific linguis-
tics. His article appears in the 91st vol-
ume of the ‘ Anales de la Universidad de
Chile.’
The tireless student of the Argentinian
languages, Samuel A. Lafone Quevedo, pub-
lishes in the 16th volume of the ‘ Boletin
del Instituto Geographico Argentino’ an
essay of over forty pages on the Vilela or
Chulupi language of the Chaco. His ma-
terial is mainly from the works of Hervas,
Adelung and Pelleschi. The results he
reaches confirm the statement of affinities
between the Lule and Vilela tongues which
I advanced in my ‘ American Race,’ p. 313
(1891). That these related dialects should
be classed with the Pacific or Andean
tongues on account of their suffix forma-
tions and personal pronouns, is not yet suf-
ficiently demonstrated.
700
The journal ‘Languages’ (published in
London) stated in June last that the Brit-
ish consul in Bolivia had discovered some
hitherto unknown native idioms in that
country ; but no further information about
them has appeared.
THE DIMINUTION OF NATALITY.
Tus subject occupied a prominent place
in the discussion of the anthropological sec-
tion of the French Association for the Ad-
vancement of Science at its last meeting.
More than elsewhere, it deservés attention
from the scientists of that nation, for out of
the 86 departments into which France is
divided, in 51 the deaths exceed the births.
The annual natality for the whole country
is only 23.7 for each 1,000 inhabitants, and
this number includes the still-born !
To remedy this progressive depopulation,
its causes must be ascertained. Dr. E.
Maurel brought forward an interesting the-
ory. He pointed out that the birth rate is
lowest in those departments where food is
most abundant and cheapest. The relation
between these two facts he held to be the
prevalence of hereditary arthritic diathe-
sis (uric acid diathesis), leading to diminu-
tion of reproductive vigor in both sexes,
this diathesis arising from excessive ali-
mentation. Another speaker, Dr. Pommerol,
attributed the diminished natality to vol-
untary restriction, while others suggested
the increase of religious celibacy, the laws
relating to the division of property, the late-
ness of marriages, and the decreased repro-
ductiveness of women.
D. G. Brinton.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
VIVISECTION IN THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA.
DurRING the recent session of the National
Academy of Sciences a report was prepared
with reference to the proposed legislation inter-
fering with the practice of vivisection in the
District of Columbia. The report states that
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 71.
physiology must be studied by experimental
methods. The physiologist, no less than the
physicist and the chemist, can expect the ad-
vancement of his science only as the result of
carefully planned laboratory work. Ifthis work
is interfered with medical science will continue ~
to advance by means of experiment, for no
legislation can affect the position of physiology
as an experimental science. But there will be
this important difference: The experimenters
will be medical practitioners and the victims
human beings. That animals must suffer and
die for the benefit of mankind is a law of na-
ture, from which we cannot escape if we would.
But the suffering incidental to biological investi-
gations is trifling in amount and far less than
that which is associated with most other uses
which man makes of the lower animals for pur-
poses of business or pleasure. Themen engaged
in the study of physiology are actuated by
motives no less humane than those which guide
the persons who desire to restrict their action,
while of the value of any given experiment and
the amount of suffering which it involves they
are, owing to their special training, much better
able to judge. When the men to whom the
government has intrusted the care of its higher
institutions of research shall show themselves
incapable of administering them in the interest
of science and humanity, then, and not till
then, will it be necessary to invoke the authority
of the national legislature.
RADIATION FROM URANIUM SALTS.
‘IN an important artiticle in Nature (Apr. 238),
Prof. J. J. Thomson states that the investigations
of M. Henri Becquerel on the radiation emitted
by certain salts of uranium have shown the ex-
istence of a kind of radiation intermediate in
its properties between light and the Rontgen
rays. ‘These investigations are exceedingly in-
teresting on account of the differences as well as
the analogies they disclose between the uranium
radiation and the Réntgen rays. M. Becquerel
has shown that the radiation from the double
sulphate of uranyle and potassium is analogous
to Roéntgen. rays, inasmuch as it can affect a
photographic plate after penetrating substances
such as aluminium, copper, wood, etc., which
are opaque to ordinary light; it also resembles
May 8, 1896.]
these rays in being able to discharge an electri-
fied body, whether the charge be positive or
negative. On the other hand, it differs from
Rontgen rays and resembles ordinary light, in-
asmuch as it can be refracted and polarized.
It is also much more easily reflected than
Roéntgen rays. The radiation from the uranium
salts is thus intermediate in properties between
ordinary light and Rontgen rays; and as there
can be no question but that this radiation con-
sists of transverse vibrations, inasmuch as it
ean be polarized, it affords strong presumptive
evidence that the Rontgen rays are also due to
transverse vibrations.
The persistence of the radiation from the
potassium uranyle sulphate is very remarkable.
M. Becquerel found that crystals which had been
keptin the dark for 160 hours continued to radi-
ate vigorously. This radiation is absorbed al-
most equally by aluminium and copper, so that
it does not show the same dependence upon the
atomic weight of the absorbing medium as that
of the Réntgen rays; on the other hand, the
radiation resembles Rontgen rays in not being
homogeneous.
GENERAL.
THE Council of the American Association for
the Advancement of Science at the Springfield
meeting instructed the sectional committees
hereafter to prepare a programme for their
sectional meetings and transmit the same to the
Permanent Secretary at least one month before
the annual meeting. The Buffalo meeting
opens on Monday, August 24th, and titles and
abstracts of papers should be sent by members
to the Secretaries of the sections at as early a
date as is convenient.
THE German Society of Naturalists and Phy-
sicians will meet at Frankfort-on-Main from the
twenty-first to the twenty-sixth of September.
WirH the last issue of the Proceedings of the
Royal Society an index slip is issued giving the
details needed for an author and subject cata-
logue of the contents. In the case of one paper
there are as many as eleven entries for the sub-
ject catalogue. The index slip is printed on
one side of thin paper so that the entries can be
conveniently attached to cards.
SCIENCE.
701
The Physical Review for May—June will con-
tain articles on ‘Solids and Vapors,’ by Wilder
D. Bancroft; ‘On the Heat Effect of Mixing
Liquids,’ by C. E. Linebarger; ‘The Influence
of Heat, of the Electric Current, and of Mag-
netism upon Young’s Modulus,’ by Mary Chil-
ton Noyes,’ and ‘A Photographic Study of Are
Spectra,’ by Caroline W. Baldwin.
THE prize founded by M. and Mme. Victor
Saint Paul for the discovery of a remedy for
diphtheria will be divided by the French
Academy of Medicine and has been divided
between Dr. Roux and Prof. Behring.
Ir is unofficially announced that the local
committee in charge of the International Medi-
eal Congress to be held at Moscow this year
has reversed its decision to exclude English
from the languages to be used.
LONGMANS, GREEN & Co. have issued a re-
print of Tyndall’s Glaciers of the Alps.
THE Metric System is being actively discussed
by correspondents in the London Times. Those
opposing the Metric System seem to be in the
majority, but the arguments used seem to be
mostly trivial or absurd.
Gov. Morton has nominated Charles A. Weit-
ing, of Cobleskill, N. Y., to succeed Frederick
C. Schraub as New York State Commissioner of
Agriculture.
Pror. H. LANDES, of the State University of
Washington, has been appointed State Geologist.
THE semi-annual meeting of the American
Antiquarian Society was held in Boston on
April 29th. Among the papers presented was
one by Rey. Stephen D. Peet on the history of
archeological explorations in the Mississippi
Valley. Prof. J. W. White, of Harvard Univer-
sity, was elected President.
Ir is reported in the British Medical Journal
that those working with the X-rays are likely
to suffer from a variety of skin affections said to
be similar to the results of sunburn.
THE London Times states that a recent sale of
birds’ eggs included a specimen of the egg of the
great auk (alca impennis). This specimen,
except for a small fracture on one side, is in
good preservation. It was purchased in 1841
from Mr. Hugh Reid, of Doncaster, who bought
702
it in the same year from Frederich Schutz, of
Dresden, and has now been sold by order of the
executors of the late Mr. James Hack Tuke, of
Hitchin, and was sold for 160 guineas. It may
be interesting to point out that six or seven
years ago there were only 68 specimens of the
egg recorded. The highest price of £300 was
paid for a duplicate for the collection of Baron
d’Hamonville, of Meurthe, France, two years
ago. Shortly after this event two very good
specimens were detected among a collection of
eggs purchased at a sale in the country for 30s.,
and were subsequently sold by Mr. Stevens
last year for 275 guineas and 185 guineas res-
pectively. A third specimen, Sir. W. Milner’s,
came into the auction room during last season
and fetched 180 guineas. A few years ago a
number of exceedingly clever forgeries of the
egg were manufactured. Two other interesting
eges were sold immediately after the above
mentioned great auk’s egg—a very fine speci-
men, slightly cracked, but otherwise in first-
rate condition, of an egg of xpyornis maximus
realized 40 guineas; and the only example of
an egg of xpyornis grandidieri ever offered for
sale in this country sold for 35 guineas.
THE New York State Fish, Game and Forest
Commission recommends that an amendment
be made to the State Constitution giving the
commission power to lease at a nominal price
small tracts of the Adirondack preserve to citi-
zens of the State for the erection of cottages or
camps. The Commission states that New York
owns about 1,000,000 acres of land in the
counties constituting the forest preserve (the
greatest park in the world), all of which is prac-
tically within the Adirondack park. These
campers or cottagers would make the very best
guardians of the forest, as they would at all times
be oresters, game protectors and fire wardens.
THE death is announced of Prof. Anatoly
Petrovich Bogdanoff in Moscow. Nature states
that he was born in southern Russia in 18384,
and after studying at the Moscow University,
and writing, in 1858, his first dissertation on
the colors of birds, he became professor of the
same University in the year 1863. In connec-
tion with this work he wrote an excellent text
book of zodlogy, and a still better work, unique
in its kind, namely, a Chrestomathy of Zoology,
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 71.
in three volumes, in which the reader obtains a
thorough scientific acquaintance with the dif-
ferent classes of the animal kingdom by means
of admirably chosen abstracts from the best
authors, considerable attention being given to
purely biological questions, and especially to
the lowest animals, as well as to their manners
of life. In the sixties, Bogdanoff founded, at
Moscow, the well-known ‘Society of Lovers of
Natural Sciences, Anthropology and Ethnog-
raphy,’ whose numerous quarto volumes of
Memoirs rank among the best scientific publica-
tions in Russia, and whose expeditions included
the well-known Turkestan expedition of the
late Fedchenko and Madame Olga Fedchenko.
The chief anthropological work of A. P. Bog-
danoff was on the inhabitants of the grave-
mounds of the Moscow region. The full list of
his nearly forty anthropological, and nearly
thirty zodlogical works is given in ‘ Materials
for the History of Zodlogy, pure and applied,
in Russia, chiefly for the last Thirty Years,’ of
which he was the editor, and of which three
volumes have already been published. His
works for popularizing biology, especially on
Darwin’s ideas, and for extending the interest
in anthropology, are also numerous.
MAcMILLAN & Co. have made arrangements
for the issue in New York and London of a
Dictionary of Philosophy and Psychology under
the editorial supervision of Prof. Baldwin,
of Princeton University. The work will con-
tain concise definitions, such historical matter as
may be necessary to justify the definition given
and to show that the usage suggested is the out-
come of the progress of philosophy, and full
bibliographies. The following contributors
are already announced: General Philosophy
and Metaphysics, Prof. Andrew Seth, Edin-
burgh ; Prof. John Dewey, Chicago. History
of Philosophy, Prof. Josiah Royce, Harvard.
Logic, Prof. R. Adamson, Glasgow. Lthics,
Prof. W. R. Sorley, Aberdeen. Psychology,
Prof. J. McK. Cattell, Columbia; G. F. Stout,
W. E. Johnson, Cambridge ; Prof. E. B. Titch-
ener, Cornell; The Editor, Princeton. Mental
Pathology and Anthropology, Prof. Joseph Jas-
trow, Wisconsin. Biology, Prof. C. Lloyd Mor-
gan, Bristol. Bibliography, Dr. Benjamin Rand,
Harvard.
May 8, 1896.]
WE learn from the London Times that the
resolution of the Government of India on the
annual report of the Geological Survey for the
past official year mentions that, although survey
work was continued in Rewah, the Central
Provinces, and Beluchistan, the amount of work
of this kind done was much less than usual,
owing to officers being withdrawn for inquiries
on economic subjects. The Rewah survey has
led to some modification of the views hitherto
held in regard to the Vindhyan system, the
chief point established being the separation of
the lower from the upper Vindhyans. On the
northwestern frontier the survey extended to
the range between the Luni plain and the Zhob
country to the Tochi valley and to the country
lying between Dera Ghazi Khan and Zarat.
The publications of the Survey during the year
include a fresh volume of the ‘ Paleontologica
Indica,’ dealing with the fossils from the cera-
tite beds on the lower trias of the Salt Range,
and part of a volume on Himalayan fossils de-
scriptive of the Cephalopoda of the Muschelkalk.
This is said to be the first and a very important
instalment of the special monographs now being
prepared in Europe, for which a special grant
has been made by the Government of India.
Certain miocene fossils of upper Burma were
also treated in a publication of the Survey. As
to the economic side of the work of the depart-
ment, the oil-boring operations at Sukkur were
continued without success; in Burma Dr. Noet-
ing brought to a close his inquiries into the
occurrence and nature of earth oil; and in
various other districts mineralogical surveys
have been made, and existing gold and coal
mines in Mysore, the Central Provinces and
Hyderabad have been visited, while proposals
for the regulation of the working of mines in
India have been drawn up.
JAMES MERCUR, assistant professor of natural
and experimental philosophy at West Point
Military Academy, died on April 22d, at West
Point. He had been assistant engineer on the
survey of the northern lakes and assistant
engineer in the removal of Hallet’s Point and
Flood Rock, Hell Gate, and had charge of
various other engineering works.
WE have received from The Engineering and
SCIENCE.
703
Mining Journal advance sheets of Volume IV.
of The Mineral Industry, giving statistics for the
year 1895, from which it appears that the
United States last year took the first rank as a
producer, not only of the precious metals, but
also of the most important of the useful metals,
iron and copper, while in coal it is second only
to Great Britain. The production of iron in
1895, as compared with that of 1894, showed
the remarkable increase of 42 per cent. Steel
showed an increase of over 10 per cent. and
copper nearly an equal increase. Coal shows
an increase of ten per cent. Silver is the only
important product showing a decrease.
THE London Times states that important al-
terations are in progress in the Natural History
Museum. Many of the less important speci-
mens have been removed to store rooms, leay-
ing space free in the exhibition galleries. The
marsupials have been entirely rearranged and
maps have been prepared showing their geo-
graphical distribution. A gallery in the western
corridor has been set aside for the antelopes,
and the unrivalled series of British birds has
been removed to the ground floor. Space has
been found for the birds through the rearrange-
ment of the reptile gallery. Other changes are
also in contemplation, as, for instance, in the
first gallery, where the larger fishes are now
seen suspended from the roof, so as not to cum-
ber valuable floor space; while on the geologi-
cal side there are signs of the approaching
abolition of the hard-and-fast division which
has so long separated paleontology from zodlogy
and botany. Thus there may now be seen in
the gallery of fossil mammalia skeletons of the
Indian elephant, Indian rhinoceros and musk
ox, placed for comparison with the fossil forms.
1,225 separate gifts, many of them comprising
a large number of specimens, such as the See-
bohm bequest, were received by the Museum
last year. ;
In his address, as President, before the Lin-
coln Microscope Club, Prof. Bessey stated, ac-
cording to the Microscopical Journal, that micro-
scopes are extensively used in the public schools
of Nebraska, most of the high schools owning
at least six.
Popular Astronomy states that at the last ses-
704
sion of the Illinois Legislature an appropriation
was made for the erection and equipment of an
Observatory for the State University at Cham-
paign. The designs for the building were made,
under direction of Prof. Ira O. Baker, by the
Architectural Department of the University.
The instrumental equipment, consisting of a
12-inch equatorial, a 3-inch combined transit
and zenith telescope and a chronograph, will be
made by Warner & Swasey, the optical parts
being made by Brashear. This makes four
universities which have established observa-
tories within the past year, all of which have
ordered telescopes from Warner & Swasey, with
optical parts by Brashear. The list is as fol-
lows: University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia
(18-inch aperture); University of Ohio, Colum-
bus (12-inch aperture); University of Minnesota,
Minneapolis (10}-inch aperture); University of
Tllinois, Champaign (12-inch aperture).
A CATALOGUE of the types and figured speci-
mens of fossil animals in the United States
National Museum has been recently completed,
and comprises type material representing 3,644
species, distributed as follows: Invertebrates,
Paleozoic, 1,155; Mesozoic, 1,024; Cenozoic,
1,312; Vertebrates, 163. The fossil plants are
not yet fully catalogued, but it is known that
they represent more than 2,000 species, over 500
of them being contained in the ‘ Lacoe Collec-
tion’ alone. There are in round numbers 500
Paleozoic, and 1,500 Mesozoic and Cenozoic spe-
cies. Every type or figured specimen is made
conspicuous by attaching to it a small, green,
diamond-shaped ticket, or a white ticket bear-
ing the word type. Should any specimen be
separated from its label this ticket will draw
attention to the fact that the specimen is a type
and must be cared for.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
JoHNs Hopkins UNIVERSITY has published
on the occasion of its twentieth anniversary
statements concerning the university which
bear witness to the important part it has taken
in the advancement of higher education and
research in America. The University has con-
ferred 358 degrees of Doctor of Philosophy, and
of these graduates 175 hold college professor-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 71.
ships. Eight hundred students of the Univer-
sity have engaged in teaching, and nearly every
university and college in America numbers
among its faculty a student of Johns Hopkins
University. The following institutions have
had in their faculties ten or more of its stu-
dents: Chicago, 23; Wisconsin, 19; Bryn
Mawr, 18; Stanford, 17; Michigan, 17; Penn-
sylvania, 16; Cornell, 14; Columbia, 13; Mas-
sachusetts Institute of Technology, 11; Ne-
braska, 11; Northwestern, 11; Harvard, 10;
Woman’s College of Baltimore, 10. There are
now in the University 403 graduate students of
which 150 are candidates for the degree of
M. D. or physicians attending special courses.
THE catalogue of the University of Minnesota
for 1895-96 shows the following enrollment
for the year :
Graduate Students, all departments, ........... 137
Undergraduates :
College Science, Literature and Arts,....... 822
College Engineering, Metallurgy and the
MechamicvArts)) ooccscnesicne sees smerreters== 192
College of Agriculture :
Collegiate Course in Agriculture,............ 10
School of Agriculture, ..............:.cceceeee ee 223
School of Dairying, ...... eoeaoneadonsc0nu0 97
School for Women, ..............s00eeeeeee 46
College Of Wa W,|--pe-orcseeceercerm=seci-asacsresect 369
Department of Medicine :
College of Medicine and Surgery,............ 243
College Homceopathic Medicine and Sur-
EIEN; dodogvonapedsoobocoboaqaDopEHsosaseq99S000000 31
College of Dentistry, ...........0000.2..c0seeeees 90
College of Pharmacy,..../....0.......sccsescees 33
Summer School cccncsccecasesmenesccseecsatesedses 234
2527
Students enrolled in more than one de-
TODAS TMI) | cosnuddogcddgosqsonqaq0ansaoRD0¢305 38
BNO Bcaassoddacqeosqdcqdo09s00000000 2489
THE Massachusetts Institute of Technology
has issued a circular calling attention to the
opportunities it offers to college graduates.
There are this year 80 such students in the In-
stitute, 69 of whom are from other institu-
tions. The summer courses offered by the In-
stitute are especially planned for advanced
students.
AT the celebration of Founder’s Day of New
May 8, 1896.]
York University on April 22d the corner stone
of the first residence hall was laid. The build-
ing, which will be ready for use in September,
will contain, in addition to rooms for 112 stu-
dents, a music room, editorial rooms for the
college periodicals, ete.
PROF. GEORGE S. FULLERTON, Vice-Provost
of the University of Pennsylvania and Dean of
the College, will retire from the latter office
and will be succeeded by Prof. W. A. Lamber-
ton, who in turn will be succeeded in the dean-
ship of the School of Philosophy by Prof. W.
R. Newbold.
Dr. ERNEST B. SANGREE, of Philadelphia,
has been elected professor of pathology and bac-
teriology in the Vanderbilt University, Nash-
ville, Tenn.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
ON ROOD’S DEMONSTRATION OF THE REGULAR
OR SPECULAR REFLECTION OF THE RONTGEN .
RAYS BY A PLATINUM MIRROR.
On March 27th Prof. Rood published in
this JOURNAL a short account of certain experi-
ments which he claimed ‘pointed strongly to
the conclusion that in the act of reflection from
a metallic surface the Rontgen Rays behaved
like ordinary light.’ If this sentence means
anything, it means that the X-rays underwent
regular or specular reflection. On April 10th,
however, Dr. M. I. Pupin published in this Jour-
NAL an article in which he says, ‘‘ If lunderstand
Prof. Rood’s words correctly, no claim is made
by him of a discovery of regular or specular
reflection ;’’ and he then quotes from Rood the
sentence given above. The remainder of Dr.
Pupin’s article is largely devoted to showing
that with the methods employed by him no
regular or specular reflection could be observed.
This last conclusion we are ready to accept.
Prof. Rood’s experiments, however, were con-
ducted in an entirely different manner, as
follows :
Before reaching the sensitive plate the X-rays
were obliged to traverse two aluminium plates,
each having a thickness of .17mm., and behind
them was a drawslide that had proved to be
impervious to the sun’s light falling on it dur-
ing two hours. Over these shields was placed
SCIENCE.
705
a wire netting with openings of }inch. The re-
flecting surface was a large piece of bright
platinum foil, seven inches square. This last
was necessarily so arranged that a diffused re-
flection from it would have reached all parts of
the sensitive plate. In point of fact, however,
an image of the wire netting was obtained only
on a strip of the plate, viz., on that portion
that would be reached by the Rontgen rays in
case of their regular or specular reflection.
The proof that the image of the wire netting
on the sensitive plate was really produced by
the specular reflection of the X-rays from the
platinum was obtained in the following man-
ner. The plate which had received the image
of the netting made by the X-rays was re-
moved from the plateholder and replaced by a
fresh plate; this plate was not screened at all,
but its sensitive surface was freely exposed in
the dark at night.
Everything else in the arrangement of the
experiment, including the position of the netting
in front of the plate, remained as it was during
the experiment with the X-rays. . One flash
from the inductorium was sent into the Crookes
tube and the experiment was ended. On de-
veloping the plate it was found that the light
from the Crookes tube had exactly reproduced
in a fraction of a second what had required ten
hours of action of the X-rays. There was the
same portion of the plate acted on by the light
as had been acted on by the X-rays, and the
image of the netting given by the X-rays was
reproduced by the light, not generally repro-
produced but minutely so; all the deformations
of the image of the netting resulting from the
reflection from the uneven surface of the plati-
num foil were alike in the photograph obtained
by the X-rays and in the photograph obtained
by the light.
I paid repeated visits to Rood’s laboratory
during the progress of these experiments, and
after a careful examination of his negatives no
doubt remained in my mind of the fact that he
had demonstrated the regular or specular re-
flection of the Rontgen rays.
Prof. Rood carried these and other simi-
lar negatives to Washington, where he read a
paper on the reflection of the X-rays before the
National Academy of Science on April 23d.
706
The original negatives were carefully examined
by the physicists present, Prof. Rowland devo-
ting half an hour to their critical examina-
tion; and I do not think that the slightest
doubt was held, by any of the six physicists
present, of the completeness of the demonstra-
tion.
TI cannot conceive how Dr. Pupin, after an
examination of Rood’s photographs, could differ
from, deny, or even doubt, the conclusions
reached by several of the most critical and ex-
perienced physicists of the country after their
examination of these photographs.
ALFRED M. MAYER.
PSEUDO-SCIENCE IN METEOROLOGY.
In the issue of SCIENCE for April 10th nearly
a full dozen columns of valuable space have
been devoted (under a rather misleading title)
to recording observations and opinions which
are to prove the absence of a favorable influence
of forest cover on meteorological phenomena
and especially on waterflow in the Western
Mountains.
Since this subject has become not only one of
considerable scientific interest, but also of
great national importance, far-reaching eco-
nomic policies depending in part on the answer
which science or well sustained observation and
argument can give to the question, it may not
be out of place to devote further space to the
question in order to warn against the many
erroneous observations and fallacious conclu-
sions contained in the article referred to.
I do not wish to offend the writer when I say
that by neglecting to sift more carefully the un-
tutored and too-often-prejudiced opinions and
notions of so-called ‘ practical’ men at the hand
of the established facts of science, physical, phy-
siological and meteorological, he has done
harm; for he has not only increased the accum-
ulations of ‘practical’ or pseudo-science, to
which to be sure, many so-called ‘scientists’
contribute no small share, but he has also dis-
credited the sometimes valuable—when used
with discretion—observations of laymen with
those men of science who read with a knowl-
edge of the laws of physics and the facts of
meteorology before them.
Sure enough meteorology, especially on the
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 71.
side of accurate measurements, is but poorly de-
veloped ; nevertheless there is much more real
knowledge in existence regarding many of the
physical processes and conditions involved, not
only qualitatively, but even quantitatively (as,
for instance, regarding the behavior of snows, the
evaporation of water, the transpiring of trees,
and the conditions which influence these and
the run-off and waterflow of rivers) than the
writer of the article is aware of, so that it is
not necessary to rely on opinions of ‘practical’
observers for these details at least.
I wish, however, not to be understood as dis-
crediting in any way field observations and argu-
ment from them and as insisting upon accurate
measurements as the only basis for the explana-
tion of natural phenomena. On the contrary,
Iam one of those who believe that many com-
plicated natural phenomena withdraw them-
selves for the present, 7. e., with our present
knowledge and means, from accurate measure-
ment; being results of complex and variable
conditions which we are not prepared to meas-
ure, we may only by careful, long continued
field observation and upon sound argument
from well-known physical laws come to conclu-
sions and determine relations qualitatively,
leaving quantitative measure of these relations
to be worked out in the future with improved
method.
The present question, namely, that of forest
influences on meteorological phenomena, is one
of these, for in the first. place we have as yet
neither instruments nor methods to measure
with any determinable degree of accuracy the
rainfall over a given area, much less the evap-
oration; and even riverflow is not yet satisfac-
torily measured. And when it comes to the
many varying influences affecting these phe-
nomena quantitatively, we are entirely debarred
from speaking with assurance even as to
methods of determining them.
It would require too much space to discuss in
detail the many erroneous statements and con-
clugions contained in the article referred to and
which any meteorologist or physicist can readily
discover. I shall have to confine myself to point-
_ing out the fallacy of the main argument,
which appears the more important as it has
been advanced before by others with a flavor
May 8, 1896.]
of authority. This argument is, if I understand
it correctly, that in the Western mountains the
riverflow is dependent on the accumulation of
winter snows ; that on the open ground these
snows are drifted, accumulated and packed to-
gether, whereby the melting of the snow is re-
tarded and the supply of available water pro-
longed; that in forests the snow melts sooner,
because lying less thick; that’ various other
causes, like mechanical obstruction to the snow
in reaching the ground, transpiration, greater
evaporation under trees, etc., reduce the avail-
able water supplies and hence that forests as
far as waterflow is concerned are an evil. This
deleterious effect, by the way, is argued almost
in the same breath with which the statement is
made that the forest growth in these mountains is
so open, casts so little shade, accumulates so small
amount of litter and offers so little obstruction
to sun and wind that its effect in shading and
protecting the soil and reducing evaporation
may be set down as nil.
Now itis true that the rivers of the Sierra
rely for their supply mainly on the snow
waters, hence any conditions which preserve
and lengthen this supply, will influence the
quantity and continuity of the river flow. If,
therefore, the snow drifts melt more slowly and
at the same time give as much available water
in proportion to the amount of snow fallen, this
would be an advantage. The slow melting is
true, however, only for high altitudes above
timber line, which represent a comparatively
small area ; below timber line the snow drifts
are all gone long before midsummer, and it is
only with such as lie at similar altitudes, and
hence under similar temperature and wind con-
ditions, that the condition of the snow under
forest cover may be compared; here even this
seeming advantage of the snow drift, the slower
melting, will be found not as great.
But the very length of time during which
these snow masses are exposed to the other
dissipating influences, especially the ‘ dry air of
the mountains,’ on which the writer dwells
with particular emphasis, is detrimental to the
amount which becomes available to the soil. It
is, therefore, by no means certain whether the
quantity of water delivered to the soil is in any
relation to the time during which it is delivered.
SCIENCE.
107
Knowing from tolerably reliable measurements
the enormous evaporative power of air, espec-
ially when in motion, with high velocities of
wind such as are common in high altitudes, we
have good reason to doubt this, although un-
doubtedly the drifting, and hence reduction of
exposed surface, reduces this loss somewhat.
It would appear much more desirable to have
the snows melt quickly, provided their waters
have time and opportunity to sink into the soil
and away from the dissipating influences of dry
air and wind, which are bound to rob the exposed
drifts and leave less water for the soil. And here
we reach the most important lack in the writer’s
argument and the most important claim of those
who argue an influence of forest cover on water-
flow, namely, as to the manner in which the
rivers receive their water.
Even if we grant, for argument’s sake, the
unsubstantiated assertions of the writer, that
the forest cover on these mountains is too sparse
to exert any but deleterious influences with re-
gard to conservation of snows, a contradiction
in itself, he overlooks the most potent effect,
which even the stumps as well as all shrubs
and young growth have on the penetrability of
the soil for the water.
He overlooks, as most writers on the subject
do, the fact that it is not so much the surface
drainage which reaches the rivers that forms
the desirable supply, as the subterranedn or
ground waters. Surface drainage means rapid
flow, high water stages, alternating with low
water, uneven distribution through the year.
Subdrainage means less excessive water stages,
more even, steady and persistent flow, for the
ground water reaches the river sometimes only
several years after it first sank into the soil, and -
hence equalizes the effects of dry and wet sea-
sons while the surface waters are carried off at
once and are responsible for floods, followed by
low water. Anything, therefore, that tends to
change surface drainage into subdrainage is to
be encouraged.
If there were, therefore, no other means by
which a forest cover acted as a preserver of
water supplies, the mere existence of the root
system, penetrating the soil in all directions
and facilitating percolation of the water, would
be beneficial.
708
In this way, if the observation that after the
removal of the old timber in Nevada the water-
flow was more even be correct (which I hesitate
to accept), it would find explanation in this,
that the stumps and roots decayed and thereby
increased the channels for the percolation of
surface waters. 5
In conclusion I would say, that geological
structure and soil conditions may be such, that
percolation takes place readily even without
the additional aid of a forest growth, when the
effect of the latter may become irrelevant, al-
-though as a rule it may be accepted as a result
of forest removal and exposure of soils, when
new growth is at the same time prevented by
fires and by sheep herding, that all soils become
gradually more compact and less penetrable ;
that then more water goes over the surface and
less remains for subdrainage and that ultimately
the change is felt in the riverflow.
B. E. FERNow.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
ZOOLOGY AND BIOLOGY.
To THE EprTor or SCIENCE: It is astonishing
to find in your columns the assertion, p. 634,
that the Johns Hopkins University sends out
‘Doctors of Philosophy in Biology,’ for you
might have learned so easily that no such de-
gree is known among us.
The examining board recommends for the
degree of Doctor of Philosophy those students
who have satisfactorily completed a course of
study which this board has previously approved;
and among all those who have been recom-
mended for this degree during the last twenty
years not a single one has presented himself for
examination in biology, although many have
been examined in various branches of biological
science.
W. K. Brooks,
Professor of Zoblogy in the Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity.
BALTIMORE, April 28, 1896.
[The criticism of Professor Brooks is directed
against a letter signed by Professor Conway
MacMillan, of the University of Minnesota.
SCIENCE is not responsible for the opinions of
its correspondents. ED. |
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 71.
THE USE OF THE TOW-NET FOR COLLECTING
PELAGIC ORGANISMS.
EDITOR OF SCIENCE: I have so frequently
seen the first use of the tow-net as a means for
collecting pelagic organisms placed to the credit
of Johannes Miller that I suspect many zo-
dlogists are, as I was till recently, ignorant of
the fact that Eschscholtz employed the appa-
ratus some twenty years earlier than Miller did.
In Eschscholtz’s ‘Review of the Zodlogical
Collection,’ appended to the second volume of
‘A new Voyage round the World,’ by Otto
von Kotzebue, I find the following on page 327:
“The calms near the equator afford an abun-
dant harvest to the zoélogist, the tranquil water
presenting an immense variety of marine ani-
mals to his view, and allowing him to take them
with little trouble in a net. The open woolen
stuff used for flags offers the most convenient
material for making these nets, as it allows the
water to run through very quickly and does
not stick together. A short wide bag should be
made of this stuff, which may be stretched upon
the hoop of a cask, and the whole fastened to a
long, light pole. From the height on which we
stand above the water it is impossible to per-
ceive the smaller animals; the best way, there-
fore, to catch these is to hold the net half in the
water, asif to skim off the bubbles of foam from
the surface; then, after a few minutes, if the
net is drawn out, and the interior rinsed in a
glass of fresh seawater, one may frequently
have the pleasure of seeing little animals of
strange forms swimming in the glass. In the
course of ten days I obtained, in this way,
thirty-one different species of animals.’’
Eschscholtz does not tell us exactly when he
began this kind of collecting; but the voyage on
which he did it was during the years 1823, 724,
*25 and 26; and as the above quotation is taken
from the account of his observations in the
tropical Atlantic before reaching the coast of
Brazil, it certainly relates to the earlier part of
the voyage.
In the last one of his series of papers on the
development of Echinoderms, published in 1852,
Miller tells us that he had used the tow-net
‘vielen Jahren mit dem besten Erfolge.’ The
‘vielen Jahren,’ I suppose, refers to the years
during which he was prosecuting his beautiful
May 8, 1896.]
researches at Heligoland, Trieste and Mar-
seilles, and these he began in 1845.
Very likely other zodlogists as well as Esch-
scholtz used the tow-net before Miller. One
can hardly see how an ardent collector of marine
animals could have eseaped resorting to some-
thing of the kind, even though he had never
before seen such a thing.
Wm. E. RITTER,
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
The Principles of Sociology. By FRANKLIN H.
Gippines. Pp. 476+16. Macmillan & Co.,
New York. 1896.
. Sociology has had a checkered and disappoint-
ing career. Its study began not because there
was a body of men ready to devote their ener-
gies to its advancement, but because certain
system makers found what they supposed to be
a vacant field to which some attention must be
given. The men who have done the most from
this point of view are Comte and Spencer,
though the main interest of neither lay in the
development of this field. For these philoso-
phers ‘sociology’ became the depository of the
odds and ends of thought for which no other
convenient place could be found. It is needless
to say that such a method failed. The creators
of a science must live in it, and with this con-
dition these system-makers did not comply.
This new field, this land along the edge of
which Comte and Spencer sailed, supposing it
to be unoccupied, had residents and tillers. Its
aboriginal inhabitants were called economists
and, even though not recognized by the system-
makers, had really created ascience. It is not
to be claimed that the whole field was culti-
vated or even that the occupied portion was
cultivated to the best advantage. But work of
a permanent character had been done and, at
the same time, public opinion had been recon-
structed in many important respects. It is the
fulfilment of these conditions that justifies the
claim of any science.
The second attempt to found a sociology grew
out of the shortcomings of these economists.
Those who resisted the narrowing tendencies of
the definite creed formulated by the economists
SCIENCE.
709
found sociology a convenient name and took it to
designate their field. But the latter were moved
too largely by their sympathies to be scientific
workers, and their energies were spent more in
denouncing the hard-hearted economists than
in formulating better laws. Sociology with
them remained, as with the system-makers,
a dumping ground for the crude doctrines
and rubbish rejected by the economists. Such
work and such men could scarcely found a
science.
To neither of these causes is due the new -
American sociology. Professor Giddings is not
a wandering philosopher looking for a job, nor is
he an Outcast economist of the soft hearted
variety. Among economists no one has a bet-
ter reputation. By his good work he has earned
a place in their ranks and he leaves them with
their hearty good will. The cause of the new
movement lies not in personalities nor quarrels,
but in conditions—conditions that can be made
plain only by a restatement of the history of
economic thought.
The science of economics is a product of
EKighteenth Century rationalism. By the phil-
osophers of the last century it was assumed
that man was a reasonable being. Customs,
habits, national feelings and the like were
thought to be remnants of past conditions, due
to the oppression from which the race still suf-
fered. Conscious calculation should be the only
guide; expediency the only rule of action. Each
decision was to be made by a summing of utili-
ties. The free man should have only two mas-
ters, pleasure and pain.
With such premises the social sciences could
be divided into only two parts, economics and
utilitarianism. Economics treated of the ma-
terial sources of pleasure, the influence of the
environment on their production and the pains
which this production involved. The older
forms of ethics, politics and law were to be dis-
placed by utilitarianism, thus including within
its scope all decisions where the pleasures and
pains were immaterial. Welfare reckoned in
material goods was economics; welfare reckoned
in units of pleasure was utilitarianism. No
rational being should consider other motives,
and in time they would disappear through the
elevation of the race. While this distinction
710: SCIENCE. [N.S. Vou. III. No. 71.
between economics and utilitarianism seems utilities are made up of units of pleasure and
logical, it was obliterated by the subsequent
development of economics. In the newer
economic theories the measurement of welfare
in units of satisfaction has displaced the old
measurement of welfare in units of commodity.
Each material good is valued by the satisfac-
tion its consumption yields, and this satisfaction
depends upon the quantity of goods already
possessed. This is, in short, the theory of
marginal utility which has revolutionized
economic thought. It is of importance in the
present connection because it destroys the dif-
ference between utilitarianism and economics.
Utilitarian ethics is but a species of economics.
There can be but one science of conscious mo-
tives. Conscious calculation is confined to a
field where the influence of the environment is
direct and where the actions of men are deter-
mined by a few dominant motives prompted by
pleasure and pain. Perhaps the name econom-
ics is not a.good one to designate this field,
but it has been so monopolized by economists
that it will be hard to displace.
Nineteenth Century progress, however, has
not justified the hopes of the rationalists of the
last century by making economics the only
social science. Men have not become mere
calculating machines. On the contrary there
has been a revival of those modes of thought
which seemed moribund. Custom and habit
still hold their own; national spirit has shown
its vitality in a way that would have astonished
the cosmopolitan rationalist ; while in law the
old standards and customs have endured in
spite of the attacks of Bentham. In ethics and
religion the revival has been equally notable.
What rationalist would have thought that Nine-
teenth Century ethics would be transcendental,
or that its religion would be dominated by
Methodism instead of by Unitarianism ?
This failure of the utilitarian philosophy is too
apparent to be overlooked. It shows that there
was some defect in the analysis of its advocates.
They assumed that the influences of the physical
environment were greater, and the motives of
men simpler, than later reflection shows to be
‘the facts. The reasoning of the utilitarians
might be saved by admitting a difference be-
tween positive and absolute utilities. Positive
they can best be secured by conscious calcula-
tion. Absolute utilities are, however, necessi-
ties upon which life depends and they can best
be guarded by strong impulses which compel
each man to secure them. In biologic language
it might be said that each man and race has
certain requisites for survival and certain re-
quisites for welfare. The first group is secured
by mental modifications generating strong de-
sires and impulses acting too quickly to admit
of calculation. The realm of welfare alone re-
mains open to conscious motives and here the
rationalistic attitude is supreme.
It makes little difference what line of reason-
ing a person uses to convince himself of the in-
adequacy of the old rationalistic program.
The patent fact is that economic philosophy is
not the whole science of human nature. Eco-
nomics has succeeded by its emphasis of a par-
tial man, and to include a study of the whole
man in it, as some would have us do, would
vitiate its best results. A glance at the his-
tory of the other social sciences will show
that they have not filled the gap created by
the defects in the utilitarian philosophy.
Politics in the Aristotelian sense might have
been such a science. Its field, however, has
been narrowed until it is little more than a
history of parliamentary government. Pro-
fessor Freeman’s doctrine, ‘ history is past poli-
tics and politics is present history,’ shows how
the fields of history and politics have blended.
History has developed from a record of kings,
battles and dates into a study of institutions.
Utilitarian ethics has been absorbed in econom-
ics, just as politics has been absorbed in history,
while transcendental ethics is more a history
than a theory of ethical ideals. Law, like
politics, has become a branch of history; its
method is comparative and in it pure theory
has no place.
It is evident that history is the only branch
of the social sciences which has kept pace with
economics. These two subjects have been
vitalized by Nineteenth Century thought and
have grown until, between them, they have
absorbed all the social sciences. Only the
historical and economic methods of study have
been fruitful of results. Students of social
May 8, 1896,]
science are either historians or economists, and
what is not economics is history. This failure
of the other social sciences to develop a theory
corresponding to economics has given to sociol-
ogy its opportunity. Both economics and history
will be benefited by a new science including
the theoretic elements outside of economics and
foreign to history. History cannot become
theory without losing its intrinsic qualities, nor
can economics absorb social theories without
losing its purity and method. The only solu-
tion of the difficulty lies in a new theoretic
science doing for other portions of social science
what economics has done in its field. Hcono-
mics would then remain a study of the environ-
ment and of the simple motives upon which
conscious calculation depends. Sociology would
give us a theory of human impulses, tradition,
imitation and other forms of activity outside of
conscious calculation.
~ There is at present no good word to designate
the field outside of utilitarian calculation, and
this fact prevents us from seeing its extent and
importance. To it our institutions, national
life and party feelings belong, as do also the
moral, religious and esthetic ideals of the race
and the customs and habits of individuals.
These are means of eliminating conscious calcu-
lation and through them the promptness, effi-
ciency and regularity of actions are increased.
For want of a better term, I am inclined to call
all these extra economic elements the socialry
of the race. I would use this term in so broad
a@ sense as to include every device or habit or
motive by which men are united and their
activities harmonized. Together they make up
a subjective environment which influences the
conduct of men fully as much as does the physi-
cal environment upon which the economic mo-
tives depend. This socialry of men is the subject-
matter of sociology, just as their goods are the
subject-matter of economics.
treats of the conscious economies due to the
simple reactions between the environment of
men and their desires; the former treats of
the unconscious economies due to heredity and
to the psychologic motives which it creates.
The two theories supplement one another and
when properly harmonized with history would
complete the social sciences.
The latter science ~
SCIENCE. “11
The distinctive merit of Professor Giddings’
work is that it is neither economics nor history.
Tt might be denied that he has created a science,
but not that he has found a new field and de-
voted his energies to its exploitation. Too
much of the so-called sociology is really dis-
guised economics and elementary biology. The
economist recognizes old friends when the
sociologist talks of the sustaining system, the
circulatory system and the stratification of
society. The restatement of old doctrines and
ideas may revolutionize a science, but it does
not create a new one.
The chapters on Social Population and on
the Social Constitution are among the best in
the book. It is here that the method of Prof.
Giddings shows itself to the best advantage.
The problems of anthropology and ethnology
are also fully and ably handled. Of the other
parts I like best of all the discussion of tradi-
tion and of social choices; on these topics he
shows the greatest originality. I have not the
space to take up these or other doctrines in de-
tail, nor would such work be of much value. A
useful book must be read to be understood. A
critic can point out merely wherein its value
lies and save the student from the heavy burden
of reading everything. In this book much more
stress is laid on the harmonious relation of the
various parts than on particular discussions. Its
aim is to interest people in a new science, and
in this its success lies. Simon N. PATTEN,
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
Water Supply (considered principally from a san-
itary standpoint). By WiLi1Am P. MAson,
Professor of Chemistry, Rensselaer Polytech-
nie Institute. New York, John Wiley &
Sons. 1896. 504 pp., 8vo.
The subject of the water supply of communi-
ties has always been an interesting one, and it
has been known for more than two thousand
years that the character and amount of sickness
and death in a town or city is at times greatly
influenced by the quantity and quality of the
drinking water of its inhabitants; but it has
only been within the present century that any
precise and definite information upon this sub-
ject has been obtained.
Cholera and typhoid fever epidemics due toa
712
water supply contaminated with the discharge
of a person suffering from one of these diseases
have now been observed and recorded in suffi-
cient number, and with enough accuracy, to
have convinced both scientific men and the
public that this is the most common cause of
great outbreaks of these diseases, and that the
spread of the specific bacteria which produce
them is the means by which such impure waters
produce their destructive results. The work of
Professor Mason presents abundant evidence of
this in the form of statistics of different cities,
and of records of individual outbreaks, and
gives a fair summary of existing methods of
testing and of purifying water supplies. In the
chemical part of the book the writer gives his
own experience in water analysis, and the di-
rections are clear, concise and well up to date.
He confirms Dr. Smart’s remarks as to the im-
portance of the rate of evolution of the so-called
albuminoid ammonia, in the distillation process,
but it is curious that no allusion is made to the
fact that the prolonged giving off of albuminoid
ammonia indicates, in many cases, the presence
of urea, and, therefore, of sewage, in the water.
The chapter on the artificial purification of
water is a good summary for the general
reader, but it is not made as clear as it should
be that, in large sand filtration plants, no
single filter bed should exceed a certain size,
say one acre, and that the effluent from each
filter bed should be tested bacteriologically at
least once a week, and in many cases once a
day. In other words, a small bacteriological
laboratory and the services of a skilled bacteri-
ologist are essential features of such a system of
filtration.
Among other epidemics of typhoid fever de-
scribed is the well known one at Lausen, in
which the infected water passed through the
base of a mountain, and such passage was
demonstrated by adding salt to the water.
Flour was also added, and did not pass
through, but it is doubtful whether this is a sat-
isfactory proof that the water was really ‘ fil-
tered’ in its passage. (
Taking it altogether this is decidedly the
best book on water supplies that has yet been
produced for American readers and as such
it is cordially commended.
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 71.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
PSYCHE, MAY.
THE leading article by Prof. V. L. Kellogg
gives a general account of the Mallophaga,
with a key to the genera. W. S. Blatchley
continues his account of the winter Coleoptera
of Vigo Co,, Ill., and Mr. A. P. Morse his notes
on N. BE. Tryxaline. J. W. Folsom examines
the types of Packard’s Papirius texensis, and
finds two species among them, one a Papirius,
the other a new species of Smynthurus, which
he describes. H. G. Dyar describes the larva
of Cautethia grotei. T. D. A. Cockerell reviews
Dalla Torre’s recent catalogue of bees, and F.
C. Bowditch gives some notes on the habits of
two beetles. Miscellaneous notes complete the
number,
THE PSYCHOLOGICAL REVIEW.
THE articles in the May number are re-
searches from the psychological laboratories of
Chicago, Harvard and Wisconsin. From Chicago,
Prof. Angell and Dr. Moore report on reaction-
time experiments in which the attention was
alternately concentrated on the attention and
on the movement, the stimulus being a sound
or a light, and the movement being made with
the hand, foot or lips. The reaction-times
were on the whole shorter when the alteration
was motor, but not to the extent nor with
the regularity claimed by the Leipzig experi-
menters, and the distinction tends to be obliter-
ated or reduced by practice. The authors dis-
cuss their results in their relation to attention
and habit. In a second research from Chicago,
Mr. L. G. Whitehead communicates experiments
on visual and aural memory which show that
of the thirteen observors tested, ten were able
to memorize more rapidly when the series was
seen and two when it was heard, while in one
case the result was doubtful. Matter mem-
orized aurally appeared to be retained slightly
better than that memorized visually.
Dr. Edgar Pierce, now of the University of
Michigan, publishes experiments carried out in
the Harvard laboratory on the esthetics of sim-
ple forms with special reference to eye move-
ments. He determined the preferences of dif-
ferent observers for figures in different positions,
May 8, 1896.]
and concludes that an object satisfies esthetic
demands when the objective conditions fulfill
the suggestions aroused by it. Mr. Lough de-
scribes a new perimeter made for the Harvard
laboratory in which the stimulus is stationery
and the fixation point movable.
Mr. F. E. Bolton has repeated and varied,
with students at the University of Wisconsin,
the experiments on the accuracy of recollec-
tion and observation suggested by Prof. Cattell
and published in this JouRNAL (Dec. 6., 1895).
The scientific students showed greater accuracy
of observation and memory than the classical
students, and this held even in regard to literary
information. The average of the classical stu-
dents gave 1839 as the date of Victor Hugo’s
death!
Under Discussion and Reports are given the
discussion by Profs. Ladd and Baldwin on con-
sciousness and evolution before the American
Psychological Association ; Dr. Nichols claims
that the existence of specific nerves for pain has
been proved; Prof. Herrick writes from his
own experience on the testimony of heart
disease to the sensory facies of the emotion, and
Mr. G. M. Stratton discusses the relation be-
tween psychology and logic.
The number concludes with reviews of recent
psychological literature, contributed by sixteen
writers, and notes.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, 260TH
MEETING, SATURDAY, APRIL 18.
Wm. H. Dauuexhibited two skins of the Gla-
cier or St. Elias bear of Alaska (Ursus Emmonsi,
Dall), kindly lent for exhibition to the Society
by Mrs. Admiral Emmons. Hestated that the
skins from which the original description in
Science (N.S. II., p. 87, July 26, 1895) was
made, were probably summer skins, the hair
being shorter and darker than in those shown,
which appear to be winter skins, in which the
larger part of the hair is white and much thicker
and more woolly, the general tint being hardly
darker than in the gray wolf of Alaska. These
skins had been dressed and trimmed by a fur-
rier, so that the extremities of the head and
SCIENCE.
713
limbs were defective, but the peculiar breadth
of the head and the remarkable bluish gray col-
oration of the entire coat indicated an animal
specifically distinct from any American bear
hitherto known, but more nearly allied to the
black than to the brown bears. This opinion,
he'said, is shared by Dr. Merriam, Mr. True
and other students of mammals who have ex-
amined them. Earnest efforts are being made
to obtain a skull and skin suitable for mounting
during the present season.
Under the title Preliminary Notes on Middle
Cambrian Medusx, Chas. D. Walcott, of the U.
S. Geological Survey, briefly outlined the char-
acter and scope of an extended review of the fos-
sil medusz, prepared by him. He stated that
the preliminary announcement of a review of
the fossil medusze of the Middle Cambrian ter-
rane must be modified, as during the last two
months the scope of the work had been broad-
ened and a memoir including not only the
fossil forms of the Middle Cambrian, but also
those of the lower Cambrian and of the Jurassic
of Europe, had been practically completed.
A description was given of the mode of oc-
currence, conditions and manner of preserva-
tion, and the interrelations of the fossil and liv-
ing meduse, including an account of some in-
teresting experiments that he had made of the
phenomena attending the preservation of recent
or living forms.
The numerous plates with which the memoir
will be illustrated were shown, 45 being devoted
to fossil forms and 7 or 8 illustrating the
relationship to recent species.
B. E. Fernow described a Pine Coppice in New
Jersey, being a remarkable area known as the
East and West Plains of nearly 15,000 acres ex-
tent, covered with a growth of Pinus rigida,
sprouting from the stump.
In spite of the poor, shallow, sandy gravel
soil with an impenetrable subsoil, hardpan and
bog ore underlying it and a periodic recurrence
of fires, these pines maintain themselves in a
regular coppice. Among the specimens exhib-
ited there was a root bearing two sprouts which
had evidently been developed into trees one
after the other, the older burnt out, the younger
showing 83 years of growth, pointing to a per-
sistence of the root of probably over 150 years.
714
Since the sprouting from the stump of coni-
fers, especially pines, is most unusual and at least
the persistence of the sprouts has generally been
doubted, this exhibit under the specially un-
favorable conditions cited is of great interest.
The well-observed capacity of the species to
develop adventitious buds seems here to serve
for the purpose of maintaining the occupancy of
the soil. Cones develop on 8 to 5-years-old
sprouts, but germinative seeds are rarely found.
F. A. Lucas,
Secretary.
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
AT the 43d meeting, held in Washington, D.
C., April 22, 1896, communications were pre-
sented as follows: ‘A new Laccolite Locality
in Colorado and Its Rocks,’ by Mr. G. K. Gilbert
and Mr. Whitman Cross; ‘The Origin of some
Mountain Searps,’ by Mr. M. R. Campbell.
Mr. Gilbert described a laccolitic locality dis-
covered last summer in southern Colorado. Da-
kota and older rocks are bent into a dome with
a height of 1,000 feet and a width of 5 miles.
Many dikes traverse this and two laccolites are
exposed in partial section. The horizons of
intrusion are more than 600 feet below the base
of the Dakota. The date of intrusion is approx-
imately indicated as Eocene or late Cretaceous.
The intruded rock is more basic than is ordi-
narily found in laccolites and is much more
easily disintegrated by weathering. The neigh-
boring sandstones and those portions of neighbor-
ing shales which have been baked by the intru-
sions resist erosion better than the igneous rocks,
so that the laccolites find topographic expres-
sion in valleys instead of hills. A mass of al-
tered sandstone, protecting a pedestal of shale
and igneous rock, stands prominent above the
country, constituting the crest of Twin Butte,
the most conspicuous landmark of the region.
The rocks of the laccolite and dikes were
described by Mr. Whitman Cross. The rock of
- the laccolite and of most of the dikes is a basic
syenite porphyry, in which the ferromagnesian
silicates, augite, biotite and olivine, exceed
the feldspathic constituent. Augite is the pre-
dominant silicate. These rocks are allied to
a large series from the plains of Colorado
and New Mexico, to be described hereafter.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 71.
Mr. M. R. Campbell discussed the origin
of the eastward facing scarp of the Blue Ridge
throughout. North Carolina, which has been
attributed (1) to the action of sea waves on an
elevated coast, (2) to the normal erosion of a
broadly uplifted peneplain, and (3) to deforma-
tion produced by radial movements in the
crust of the earth. The first and second theo-
ries he regarded as obsolete or insufficient.
The third theory seems to offer the best expla-
nation, but deformation alone could hardly
produce the present scarp; there seems to have
been modifying conditions which have not
heretofore been formulated, but which were
probably the immediate cause of the scarp pro-
duction.
No radial movement is known to have oc-
curred in the Appalachians of sufficient inten-
sity to produce so steep a scarp, but if, during
a period of baseleveling, a slow monoclinal up-
lift occurs, the portion of the region which is
beyond the influence of the uplift will remain
at baselevel, whereas in that portion in which
the movement is at a maximum the process of
baseleveling will be interrupted producing a
very different succession of topographic forms.
There will be an intermediate zone in which the
forces of elevation and degradation will be
balanced against each other.
If the movement is relatively rapid the pene-
plain will encroach but slightly upon the uplift.
If the movement is slow the peneplain will en-
croach to a much greater extent not only along
the streams, but in the inter-stream areas also.
The result of this encroachment is to accentuate
the slope produced by the uplift, and if the
movement is extremely slow the slope will be-
come a scarp.
If this hypothesis is correct the peneplain
which caps the Blue Ridge is continuous with
the Piedmont plain at a very short distance
from the foot of the ridge, but the intermediate,
or sloping, portion of the old peneplain is almost
completely removed by more recent erosion
along the zone of tilting.
In the vicinity of Roanoke, Va., this uplift
turned toward the north and crossed the Appa-
lachian valley. In this portion of its course
similar -results were produced, but the rocks
are not hard enough to preserve the scarp as
May 8, 1896.]
they do further south. In crossing the Appa-
lachian valley this uplift protected the basin of
New River against the encroachment of the At-
lantic streams, which otherwise would, doubt-
less, have captured its headwaters. In this re-
gion also some of the tilted portion of the older
peneplain is probably preserved in an interme-
diate level which some observers have classed
is a distinct peneplain. :
It seems probable that in other regions local
uplifts have occurred during the continuance of
periods of extensive baseleveling, and if so
similar forms have probably been produced. |
W. F. MOoRsELL.
U. 8. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILADEL-
PHIA, APRIL 21.
Mr. Lewis WooumAn described the imbedded
trees in the cedar swamps of Cape May Co., N.
J., from which cedar shingles are manufactured.
The lumber men distinguish two kinds of logs:
those from ‘windfalls’ or trees overturned
with their roots and ‘breakdowns’ or those
broken off by the wind or other agency. The
wood of the former is always well preserved,
while that of the ‘breakdowns’ is not gener-
ally in as good condition. From asound trunk
32 feet long 4,000 cedar shingles have been cut.
The tree contained upwards of 800 rings of
growth, and the wood when cut emitted a dis-
tinct odor.
Mr. A. E. Brown stated that he had recently
had an opportunity of examining in the British
Museum a cast of the portion of a skull of Pithe-
canthropus erectus discovered by Dr. Dubois.
An examination of the cast supports the opinion
advanced by Cope and Allen before the Acad-
emy that the remains as described and figured
by Dubois present no characters separating the
species from Homo Neanderthalensis. The Java
skull is possibly a little flatter than the Nean-
derthal specimen, but this is purely individual
and is compensated for by a bump over the
coronal suture. It is also a little more inflated
postero-laterally, the supra-orbital ridges being
perhaps not quite so thick, although they project
as much, if not more. The Java skull is about
five-sixths or seven-eighths the length of the
other, the cubical capacity being somewhat less.
SCIENCE.
715
The phylogeny of man and the apes was con-
sidered by Messrs. Rothermell, Brown and
Chapman.
Anthropological Section, April 10. Charles
Morris, Recorder. Prof. Witmer made a com-
munication on the relations of modern psychol-
ogy to anthropology. Numerous examples
were adduced to illustrate the connection be-
tween psychic and physical action, modern
psychology beginning with a study of sensa-
tion rather than movement. The law of Fech-
ner and Weber, that if stimuli increase in
arithmetical proportion, sensation will increase
in geometrical proportion, was, although repu-
diated by physiologists generally, held by the
speaker as furnishing an index of discrimination
and indicating methods by which we can dis-
tinguish and measure individual responsiveness
to various stimuli. Devices for registering and
measuring psychical responsiveness were de-
scribed.
The subjects of psycho-neural tests, tempera-
ments and the effects of stimuli on unconscious
movement were discussed by Messrs. Kava-
naugh, Mills, Allen, Witmer and Reisman.
Botanical Section, April 138. Dr. Charles
Schaeffer, Recorder. Mr. Lippincott presented
a specimen of Grindelia squamosa, a Western
plant, collected at Swedesboro’, N. J. He also
read a paper on the propagation of orchids.
A paper on the varieties of bacteria, their
cultivation and their life history was read by
Dr. Rabinowitsch.
Dr. Ida Keller exhibited the effect of chlorine
in changing the blue color of a Cinneraria to
pink due to the formation of hydro-chloric
acid in the petals. The experiment was made
in connection with a consideration of the acid
or alkaline contents of vegetable cells.
Epw. J. NOLAN,
Recording Secretary.
GEOLOGICAL CONFERENCE OF HARVARD UNI-
VERSITY, APRIL 7, 1896.
Ice Phenomena in Green Bay, Lake Michigan.
By E. P. Carzy.
The Great Lakes offer an interesting field for
the study of ice action under the influence of
the wind, especially at the head of Lake Su-
perior in the vicinity of Duluth, and in Green
716
Bay, at the west of Lake Michigan, from which
it is almost entirely shut off except a very nar-
row strait called the ‘ door.’
At these two localities the effects are quite
different. Mr. D. J. Woolman, of Duluth,
states that at the head of Lake Superior the ice,
which has formed in early winter some distance
out from the shore, usually soon becomes
broken up by easterly or westerly winds and is
subsequently piled up by the wind in a ridge
several feet high along the shore. In later
winter the ice freezes more deeply and so be-
comes frozen to the bottom for some distance
out from the shore. Beyond this limit of
freezing the outer ice again becomes broken up
by the wind, and in a similar way another
ridge of ice is formed a few rods from the shore,
roughly parallel with the first ridge, and enclos-
ing a sheet of smooth ice. In this way two or
more ridges of ice are formed parallel with the
shore.
In Green Bay, however, the effect is quite
different. The Bay is almost entirely shut off
from Lake Michigan and in winter becomes en-
tirely frozen over, ‘and after once freezing over
the ice is rarely broken up to any extent by
the wind. On the other hand, a strong wind
from the west or northwest sometimes has
the effect of causing the ice to move shore-
ward in the direction of the wind, as a solid
sheet, thus piling it up along the shore to a
depth of sometimes sixty feet or more. A
movement of this kind generally occurs at least
once during a winter, and is fully accomplished
in from one to three minutes.
In this way considerable geological work is
done along the shore, and it is not uncommon
to see, after the ice melts in spring, a pile of
shore debris piled up in places to a height of
eight feet, and showing features characteristic
of moraines. The amount of geological work
done at different points along the shore differs
and at any point seems rather to depend on
the slope of the shore and conditions other
than the ice movement at that point, e. g.,
at the point where the maximum amount of ice
movement occurred the minimum amount of
work was done. Here the conditions were
these, viz: A steep slope just at the shore line,
which must have had the effect of causing the
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vor. III. No. 71.
ice to break almost as soon as it began to move,
Along the shore about eight feet from the
original ice front, stood a pile of slabs, piled
loosely to a height of ten feet, and parallel
with the shore so as to directly oppose the ad-
vance of theice. These slabs, however, though
completely buried for many feet by the ice
which pushed up over and beyond them, were
nevertheless scarcely disturbed. As the ice be-
came broken at the shore line the pieces filled
in between the shore and the slabs so that the
ice following pushed up over the ice already
deposited there, leaving the slabs practically
intact.
T. A. JAGGAR, JR.,
Recording Secretary.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB.
THE Club met on Tuesday evening, April 9,
1896, President Addison Brown in the chair,
and 30 persons present. Two new members
were elected.
Dr. Albert Schneider read a paper on ‘The
Uses of Lichens,’ giving an instructive account
of the past and present uses of these plants in
medicine and the arts. Mr. P. A. Rydberg
read his announced paper entitled ‘ Preliminary
Notes ona Revision of the North American
species of Potentilla and Related Genera.’ This
was accompanied by many herbarium speci-
mens and drawings, and drew forth remarks
from the President and Mrs. Britton.
The last paper was that of Mrs. E. G. Brit-
ton, on ‘Notes on Mexican Mosses.’ Mrs. Britton
gave a short historical account of the various
collections of mosses which have been made in
Mexico, stating that she had recently received,
for naming, the specimens gathered by Pringle,
as well as those collected in 1892 by Smith and
Brunner. Specimens from these two collec-
tions, as well as others from those of F. Muller,
C. Mohr, Hahn, etc., were exhibited, and a
comparison was made of the number of genera
and species which are common to Mexico and
the United States.
The President reminded the members of the
first Field Day of the season, April 25th, at
Prince’s Bay, S. I W. A. BASTEDO,
Secretary pro tem.
SCIENCE
NEw SERIES. Nila SINGLE CoPIEs, 15 cts.
Vou. III. No. 72. FRrpay, May 15, 1896. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, $5.00.
Macmillan & Co.’s New Publications
STOUT.—Analytic Psychology. By G. F. Srour, Fellow of St. John’s College, Cambridge, Univer
sity Lecturer in the Moral Sciences. In Two Volumes. 8vo, cloth, pp. (Vol. I.) xv +289, (Vol. II.)
pp. 314. Price, $5.50 net.
STARR.—Atlas of Nerve=Cells. By M. ALLEN STARR, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Diseases of the
Mind and Nervous system, College of Physicians’ and Surgeons’ Medical Department, Columbia Col-
lege ; Consulting Neurologist to the Presbyterian and Orthopedic Hospitals and to the New York Eye
and Ear Infirmary. With the codperation of OLIVER 8S. Srrone, A.M., Ph.D., Tutor in Biology,
Columbia College, and EDWARD LEAMING. Illustrated with 53 Albert-type plates and 13 Diagrams.
Royal 4to, cloth, pp. x + 78. Price, $10.00 net. ( Columbia University Press. )
WILSON (E. B.).—An Atlas of the Fertilization and Karyokinesis of the Ovum. By
EpMuND B. WItson, Ph.D., Professor in Invertebrate Zodlogy in Columbia College, with the codpera-
tion of EDWARD LEAMING, M.D., F.R.P.S., Instructor in Photography at the College of Physicians
and Surgeons, Columbia College. 4to, $4.00 net. (Columbia University Press. )
CAMBRIDGE NATURAL HISTORY (The). Edited by J. W. Char, M.A., S. F. Harmer, M.
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EDITORIAL CoMMITTEE: S. NEwcomB, Mathematics; R. S. WooDWARD, Mechanics; E. C. PICKERING,
Astronomy; T. C. MENDENHALL, Physics; R. H. Taurston, Engineering; IRA REMSEN, Chemistry;
J. Le Conte, Geology; W. M. Davis, Physiography; O. C. MARSH, Paleontology; W. K.
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CONTENTS :
Some Problems about to Confront Astronomers of the
Twentieth Century: J. K. REES............0.-0-.0++ 717
On a New Form of Radiation: W. K. RONTGEN..726
Behavior of Sugar towards Rontgen Rays: FERDI-
NAND G. WIECHMANN.. ......0.cccecescreecnseececees 729
The X-Rays in Medicine and Surgery: CHARLES
Ils INOEEOR ccocopanatecgoonateosonaosnqcocs5n0090005N0000K™ 730
Current Notes on Physiography :—
De Lapparent’s Lecons de géographie physique :
The Interior Plateau of British Columbia; The
Volcanic Group of Topographic Forms; Le tour
du monde; Thunder Storms at Sea are Nocturnal ;
Current Notes on Anthropology :-—
The Anthropological Institute of Great Britain ;
Canadian Archxology: D. G. BRINTON.......... 733
Scientific Notes and News :—
Batrachians and Crustaceans from the Subterranean
Waters of Texas; The Forest Resources of the
United States ; Cape Colony Geological Commission ;
The Metric System; General. ......sccececeecseeeeeeeees
University and Educational News
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Principles of Marine Zoogeography :
ARNOLD E.
ORTMANN. The Child and Childhood in Folk-
Thought: FRANZ Boas. The Discussion of In-
stinct: C. LitoypD MorGAn. The Subject of
Consciousness: JOHANNES REHMKE. The Pre-
rogatives of a State Geologist: ERASMUS HA-
wortH. A Correction: T. A. JAGGAR, JR.
The Absolute and the Relative: J. W. POWELL..739
Scientific Literature :-—
Marcows Life, Letters and Works of Louis
Agassiz. Mosso’s Fear: J. MCKEEN CATTELL.
Hueppe’s Bakteriologie: H. W. CONN..........+++ 745
Scientific Journals :—
The Astrophysical Journal; The American Geolo-
(HSE Gacd5bb0d0068c00d asc500 bod oSOdOADDOODOODICUBOIOOBCUCOCSOEE 748
Societies and Academies :—
The Academy of Science of St. Louis: WILLIAM
TRELEASE. New York Academy of Sciences, Sec-
tion of Anthropology, Psychology and Philology :
LIVINGSTON FARRAND. Torrey Botanical Club:
W. A. BASTEDO. Geological Conference of Har-
vard University: T. A. JAGGAR, JR. Philo-
sophical Society of Washington: BERNARD R.
SOME PROBLEMS ABOUT TO CONFRONT AS-
TRONOMERS OF THE TWENTIETH
CENTURY.
Members of the New York Academy of Sciences,
Ladies and Gentlemen: The nineteenth cen-
tury has shown vigorous development in all
branches of science, and in none more than in
astronomy. The effective work of numerous
observers and mathematicians has lifted us
to greater heights of knowledge, making
visible and clear many things previously
discerned dimly. But the elevation has also
extended our horizon, and the boundaries
of knowledge appear ‘infinitely infinite.’
This evening I shall not make any attempt
to sketch the details, or even the general
features of the view before us, as we stand
at the end of the century, looking down from
the elevated position the scientific workers
in astronomy enable us to occupy. I shall
content myself with a much narrower sur-
vey, selecting here and there some especial
part of the field before us, with the desire
of stating briefly what has been done in that
field and in what condition it now stands.
From the point of view of the practical
astronomer the stars are so many signal
lights marking the ‘ milestones on the great
celestial highway traversed by the planets,
as well as on the byways of space occasion-
ally pursued by comets.’ If we desire to
know the position of a planet or a comet on
* Address of the retiring President of the New York
Academy of Sciences, March 30, 1896.
718
the celestial vault, we must observe how
far such a body is separated in two direc-
tions from the neighboring stars, and evi-
dently we must know where these stars are
situated in the heavens. A few thousand
stars are sufficient for this purpose provided
they are determined in position with the
highest precision.
But the astronomer is also deeply inter-
ested in ‘thesublime problem of the construc-
tion of the heavens’ and many thousands of
stars must be exactly located to aid in soly-
ing this problem. Moreover, there is need
of a general rolleall of all the stars visible
in ordinary telescopes. Such a ‘rolleall’
or ‘index’ gives the positions of the stars
with an accuracy less than the highest pre-
cision requires, and is mainly useful as a
basis of work for the more accurate cata-
logues. The work of determining the
positions of stars on the sky-dome is the
most important and fundamental operation
in practical astronomy. During the present
century this foundation work of astronomy
has been carried on ‘with a zeal and suc-
cess by which all previous efforts are
dwarfed into insignificance.’
The great German astronomer ‘the un-
rivalled Bessel’ from 1821 to 1833 made
some 75,000 observations, by which the
number of fairly well determined stars was
increased to above 50,000. His assistant
and successor, Argelander, who gave up
finance for astronomy, using a glass only
two and a half inches in diameter, recorded
324,189 stars down to the 9} magnitude.
This number included all the stars of the
magnitude named, visible in the northern
hemisphere of the heavens, and in addition
a small zone about two degrees wide, south
of the celestial equator. Schénfeld con-
tinued the survey at Bonn, down to the
southern tropic.
In 1882 a photograph taken of the great
comet of that year, by Dr. Gill at the Royal
Observatory at the Cape of Good Hope,
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 72.
showed so many stars that it was deter-
mined to use photography in completing the
Bonn survey to the south pole. The expos-
ure of the plates in duplicate required four
years from 1885-89. But this was the least
laborious part of the great work. These
plates had to be measured and the meas-
urements reduced so as to obtain the proper
positions of the stars on the sky. Prof.
Kapteyn, of Groningen, lately completed
this task, and the catalogue from the plates
is now passing through the press. The
catalogue will contain about 350,000 stars
to the tenth magnitude. A considerable
part of the southern sky covered by the
surveys of Schonfeld and Gill was examined
also by Dr. Gould. Through ‘unceasing
labors during his fifteen years’ residence a
Cordoba,’ in the Argentine Republic, an ac-
quaintance of some 73,160 stars down to
the 94 magnitude was brought about. The
Argentine General Catalogue was published
in 1886 and contained the accurate places
of 32,448 southern stars. These and other
catalogues put us in possession of a list of
stars fairly well determined in position,
numbering nearly 700,000. Catalogues of
much greater precision, giving the positions
of a smaller number of stars with the high-
est accuracy, have been prepared after
many years of observation and calculation
by the noted observatories of the world.
As an example of cooperation in modern
science, I ought to mention that the first
organized effort for determining star posi-
tions with the highest precision was made
by the German Astronomical Society in
1865. The scheme, now practically fin-
ished, was to fix the positions accurately of
about 100,000 stars on Argelander’s list
and some 30,000 from Schonfeld’s. Thir-
teen observatories were interested in this
great work, each being assigned a ‘ zone;’
two in this country—Harvard College Ob-
servatory and the Dudley Observatory at
Albany.
May 15, 1896.]
The work of Lewis M. Rutherfurd, of this
city, an honored member of this Academy
for many years, in photographing stellar
clusters and in measuring the plates with a
machine of his own devising, was the first
serious attempt to use photography in get-
ting the exact relations of stars to each
other. The recent publications of the Co-
lumbia College Observatory show unmis-
takably that from these measures relative
positions of the highest precision are ob-
tainable. The invention of dry plate pho-
tography has made the photographic work
of the astronomer of to-day much more
expeditious, and enables him to secure
many more stars on his plates with a given
time of exposure. The last years of this
century witness the carrying out of a gi-
gantic plan for making an enormous cata-
logue of the highest precision by the aid of
photography and supplementing this cata-
logue by a series of charts.
On April 16, 1887, there met in Paris 56
delegates of 17 different countries, to dis-
cuss ways and means of carrying out this
grand photographic work. The final de-
cision was to construct a photographic
chart of the heavens of all the stars down
to the 14th magnitude. On these plates
will appear, it is estimated, some 20,000,000
stars. Methods are now being devised to
reproduce accurately these chart plates.
It was decided also to supplement these
chart plates, made with an exposure of 40
minutes, by plates of shorter exposures,
from measurements of which, with ma-
chines of the highest precision, a catalogue
is to be prepared. These catalogue plates
show the stars down to the 11th magnitude,
and the number of stars may reach two
millions. Twenty-two thousand plates (du-
plicated and overlapping) will be necessary
for the catalogue. The work has been
going on for several years at 18 observa-
tories throughout the world (except in the
United States) and the photographic part
SCIENCE. Tg
will soon be finished. The measurements
of the plates and the calculations based
thereon are also being carried on at Paris,
Potsdam, Greenwich and elsewhere. Judg-
ing from the work already done, we may
confidently expect that nearly all the re-
sults will be ready for printing in about ten
years. The astronomers of the 20th cen-
tury will then be in possession of material
which will aid them in studying the prob-
lems connected with the construction of the
universe of stars.
The number of stars around us increases
with every augmentation in telescopic
power, and in time of exposure of photo-
graphic plates. The largest telescopes will
show perhaps more than 60,000,000 stars.
The long exposure photographs (say 12
hours) would show many millions more.
M. Hermite has ‘computed the population
of the stellar universe from his valuation
of stellar light power and finds it, on the
assumption that the scattering of the stars
is everywhere just as it is in our own
neighborhood, to be sixty-six thousand mil-
lions!’ This result is ingenious and inter-
esting, but depends for its value on the
above assumption.
The task of sidereal astronomy—a stu-
pendous one—is this then: ‘to investigate
the nature, origin and relationships of mil-
lions of stars; to inquire into their move-
ments among themselves and that of our
sun among them,’ and ‘to assign to each
its place and rank in the universal order.’
Among the great number of interesting
problems in sidereal astronomy, let me select
two or three of the most important. The
catalogues of the highest precision enable
the astronomer to determine the positions
of various stars at widely different dates.
This requires that the catalogues used
should be made up from observations at
those dates. Now comparing the positions
of a star at any two dates a difference will
be found depending in amount on the lapse
720
of time. The star, therefore, has appar-
ently moved from the first to the second
position. But there are several things to be
taken into account before we can say how
much the star has moved. The effects of
precession and nutation and the aberration
of light must be eliminated. When this is
done it is found that only a very few stars
have an accurrately determined motion of
their own among their fellows. Schdnfeld,
of Bonn, has published a list of 83 stars that
have a proper motion in a year greater than
1” of are, 7. e., greater than the angle sub-
tended by three-tenths of an inch to the eye
placed one mile away. Only 83 of all the
hosts of stars are known to move at right
angles to our line of sight 1” of are or
more in one year.
The star which has the greatest proper
motion so far known is No. 1830 of Groom-
bridge’s Catalogue. This star moves 7’ of
are ina year. The star is so far away that
this small apparent motion across our line
of sight means, if the distance has been ac-
curately determined, a very startling linear
velocity of more than 230 miles in a second,
a speed ‘uncontrolable, according to New-
comb, by the combined attractive power of
the entire sidereal universe.’
Groombridge 1830 is not the only ‘ run-
away’ star in the list, there are several
others; Clerke remarks ‘‘the fact then
confronts us that not a few of the stars pos-
sess velocities transcending the power of
government of the visible sidereal system.
Is that system threatened with dissolution,
or must we suppose the chief part of its at-
tractive energy to reside in bodies unseen,
because destitute of the faculty of luminous
radiation? No answer is possible; conjec-
ture is futile. We are only sure that what
we can feebly trace is but a part of a mighty
whole, and that on every side our imperfect
knowledge is compassed about by the
mystery of the Infinite.”’
When we consider proper motions less in
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 72.
amount than 1’ a year the list swells in
number to over 3,000. The astronomer of
the XXth Century will be able to de-
termine the proper motions of thousands of
other stars, using the superb catalogues
constructed in this century. In studying
this problem the aid of the spectroscope
has been called in, and with that wonder-
ful instrument it has-been found possible
to measure the velocity of quite a number
of stars in the line of sight, either directly
from us or toward us. At Potsdam and at
Greenwich and elsewhere, by the use of
measurements or photographs of stellar
spectra or by visual observations, Aldeb-
aran, the brighest star in the constellation
of Taurus, has been found to be moving
from the earth at the rate of 30 miles a
second. The Greenwich observers tell us
that the North Star is moving toward us at
the rate of 16 milesa second. Vogel, at
Potsdam, places the motion of Arcturus at
45 miles a second from the earth. When
we combine the motion in the line of sight
with the motion at right angles to that line,
we can discover the real motion in space,
its amount and direction. At the Lick Ob-
servatory Mr. Campbell has proposed to de-
termine with the spectroscope in what
direction the solar system is moving among
the stars.
The motion of our solar system among
the stars has interested astronomers for
many years. Sir Wm. Herschel first in-
vestigated this problem a century ago. The
fundamental principle of the investigation
is this: Those stars which lie in the direc-
tion in which we are going will appear to
open out from each other, while those in
the part of the sky that we are leaving will
close up behind us. Since Herschel’s time
the materials for investigation have been
greatly augmented. An examination of the
stellar proper motions has been made by
many calculators, and especially recently
by Prof. Boss, of Albany, and by Mr. Oscar
May 15, 1896.]
Stumpe, of Bonn. The results agree as well
as we could expect at present in fixing
‘the brilliant Vega’ as ‘the center round
which the new determined apexes tend
loosely to group themselves.’ The general
direction of the solar motion is thus fairly
well determined. The velocity of this
motion has not yet been accurately worked
out. Sixteen miles a second is given by
some astronomers as a probable value.
The distances of the stars have always
excited the curiosity of man. During this
century the refined methods for obtaining
reliable values have been worked out. Only
within the last twenty years have the most
accurate values been determined. The
solar system to our finite minds seems iso-
lated in space, the nearest star being so far
away that light traveling at the rate of
186,330 miles in each second of time con-
sumes 4.35 years in reaching the earth.
The parallax of a Centauri is 0.75, 7. e.,
the distance separating the earth from the
sun, over 90,000,000 miles, would appear
to the eye of an observer on @ Centauri, as
small as =2, of an inch appears to our eyes
at a distance of one mile. This nearest
star, a Centauri, is at the head of a list of
less than 60 stars whose parallaxes have
been determined with all the accuracy,
very nearly, at present possible. But the
laborious search for measurable stellar par-
allaxes has not been extensive enough
among the millions of stars to make us feel
that astronomers have determined certainly
even the nearest star. Perhaps it will be
found among some of the fainter telescopic
stars, or even on the photographic plates,
that with long exposure show us stars so
faint that we can never expect to see them.
Photography has proved itself to be a most
valuable aid in this investigation, and from
the plates specially made much more is to
be expected in the future.
The telescope shows numerous cases in
which two stars are so close to each other
SCIENCE.
721
that they can be separated only by a high
magnifying power. These are ‘double
stars.’ The catalogues now enumerate more
than 10,000 such couples, and the number
known to us is increasing quite rapidly.
One of the chief pieces of work in which
the largest telescopes are used is in detect-
ing new cases of very faint and exceedingly
close doubles. A careful examination has
revealed the fact that some 200 or more
cases of double stars show that the com-
ponents are physically connected.
The components revolve about the com-
mon center of gravity of the system. When
one of the stars is much greater in mass
than the other, the second star, usually the
fainter, revolves about the larger one.
Many of these binary stars as they are
called are of great interest. Their times of
revolution range from 14 years to 1,500
years. The orbits are comparable with the
larger orbits of the solar system, some of
them being twice as large as that of the
planet Neptune, which, as you will remem-
ber, moves in an orbit having a radius of
about 2,800,000,000 of miles, and revolves
about our sun in 165 years nearly.
There are cases of multiple stars. Ep-
silon Lyrae is a beautiful quadruple star,
composed of two pairs. Each pair makes a
slow revolution in a period of over 200
years. It is thought that there is evidence
that the two pairs revolve about the com-
mon center of gravity of the four stars.
Peters found in 1851 that the apparent
irregularities in the movements of the bril-
liant Dog star Sirius could be fully ex-
plained by an orbital revolution in a period
of fifty years. Bessel had announced in
1844 that the two bright Dog stars Pro-
cyon and Sirius moved in seeming irregu-
lar paths, because of the presence of unseen
bodies near them. Peters thus vindicated
Bessel’s prediction. On the 31st of Jan-
uary, 1862, while testing the new 18-inch
object glass ordered by the late Pres. Barn-
722
ard for the University of Mississippi, Alvan
G. Clark discovered a faint companion to
Sirius. This proved to be in the exact
position required by Peters’ calculations.
Fer Procyon no companion has been found.
Recently there have been found evidences of
an unseen body in the system of 70 Ophi-
uchi, a wide double. These and similar
investigations indicate that there may be
myriads of systems in space similar to our
own. Painstaking observations and exact
calculations will, no doubt, reveal many
hundreds of these systems during the next
century, even before new inventions have
increased our seeing power.
The thoughtful observer is struck by the
fact that the light of most of the stars does
not appear to change ; they remain each of
them apparently of the same brightness
year after year, and so far as we can judge
from previous accounts, century after cen-
tury. The stars are so far away that
changes in their light-giving power are in
most cases invisible to us. There are,
however, now known nearly 400 stars which
show a variation in light. Some stars
change their brightness slowly and continu-
ously; others fluctuate irregularly, like the
wonderful star 7 Argus in the southern heay-
ens, which was nearly as bright as Sirius in
1843 and decreased in brightness down to
the 7th magnitude in 1865. It remained
at that magnitude until 1888 and has since
been increasing in brightness. Dr. Gill, at
the Cape of Good Hope, has been studying
the star by the aid of photography during
the past few years.
Then there is a class of variables called
‘temporary stars.’ These blaze out sud-
denly and then disappear. Such variables
are styled, sometimes, ‘new stars.’ Pick-
ering gives a list of 14 ‘new stars’ discov-
ered since the time of Tycho Brahe in 1572.
In this list all but four belong to this cen-
tury, no temporary star being recorded be-
tween 1670 and 1848. Six new stars are
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 72.
recorded as having been discovered since
1886. Two of these in 1895. There is no
doubt that a more careful study of the
heavens will reveal many more such cases.
Several of the stars of this class were
brightly visible to the naked eye. They
remained visible with fading light for dif-
ferent periods of time. Future investiga-
tion may show that these stars will appear
again, and thus indicate that they are vari-
ables of long period showing such light
changes as to place their minima beyond
the power of the telescope or even of the
photographic plate. Then there are known
to be a considerable number of variables
whose periods of light changes are well de-
termined. These are most interesting to
observe. One class has a period of several
months, another class a period which is
quite short, and still another class ‘in which
the variation is like what might be pro-
duced if the star were periodically eclipsed
by some intervening object.’ Great use is
now made of photography both of the stars
and of their spectra in studying variables.
At the Harvard College Observatory the
plates taken in Arequipa, Peru, have shown
on examination many variables. Pickering
states that in two photographs of the clus-
ter Messier 5 taken August 9, 1895, only
two hours apart, forty-six variables of short
periods were found! In the photographs
of stellar spectra the presence of bright
hydrogen lines in conjunction with dark
lines or dusky bands has led to the dis-
covery of numerous variables. The sub-
ject is of growing interest and the further
prosecution of the work will add, no doubt,
many thousands to the present list which
has recently been brought down to date by
Dr. 8. C. Chandler, of Cambridge.
The study of the sidereal systems presents
many problems forthe mathematical astrono-
mer, but let us consider some unsolved prob-
lems connected with our own system. ‘ The
profoundest question growing out of the the-
May 15, 1896.]
ory of gravitation is whether all the inequali-
ties in the motion of the moon and the
planets admit of being calculated from their
mutual attraction.”’ In order to answer the
question the astronomer must make the
calculations demanded by theory, giving
him the positions of the planets considered,
and then compare the calculated with the
observed place. No complete solution has
ever been found even in the case of three
bodies, and for the case of a larger number
of planets no approximation to an entire
solution has been made. The complexity
of the problem is due to the fact that ‘the
forces which act upon the planets are de-
pendent upon their motions, and these again
are determined by the forces which act on
them.”
Many great mathematicians from New-
ton’s time till now have given much of their
attention to the question of how to sur-
mount the difficulties. The success of the
partial solution is attested by the “‘ marvel-
lous accuracy with which sun, moon and
planets move in their prescribed orbits.”
Though the accuracy is marvellous, there
are two cases of greatest interest especially
demanding the attention of the mathemat-
ical astronomers. These two cases have to
do with the motions of the Moon and of
Mercury.
The ‘Tables of the Moon,’ caleulated by
Hansen and published in 1857 by the
British government, were supposed to pro-
vide the astronomer with the means of cal-
culating accurately the position of the
moon for a century or more. Prof. Grant,
in his ‘History of Physical Astronomy,’
published in 1852, remarked: ‘Thus the
clouds which for a moment obscured the
Newtonian theory of gravitation have been
effectually dissipated, and a fresh conquest
has been added to the long list of triumphs
which adorn its history.” The agreement
of observed and calculated position from
1750 to 1850 is all that could be desired,
SCIENCE.
723
but it has been found that previous to 1750
and after 1850 the calculations and observa-
tions do not agree closely enough to satisfy
the mathematical astronomer. Mr. Stone,
of Oxford, has published a table (M. N. R.
‘A. 8., LII., No. 7, p. 478) showing the
‘mean excess over observation of the
moon’s tabular place in longitude for the
years 1847 to 1891, as computed from Han-
sen’s tables.’ It is therein shown that from
1847 to 1863 the calculated longitude dif-
fered from the observed by a mean annual
value of —1”.85 and no law of regular
change is apparent. Since 1863 the mean
annual error has increased at an average
rate of 0’.75 per annum. The error now
amounts to about 20’, equal to about +}>
of the moon’s angular diameter.
The lunar tables have been empirically
corrected by Newcomb and also by Tisse-
rand and at present the results are satis-
factory. However, gravitation seems un-
able to explain theoretically the movement
of the moon’s perigee. The mathematical
astronomer will no doubt triumph over the
new obstacle which presents itself to-day,
but, as Tisserand says, a beautiful discov-
ery remains to be made.
Newcomb has stated that ‘another
change not entirely accounted for on the
theory of gravitation occurs in the motion
of the planet Mercury.’ Leverrier found
“that the motion of the perihelion of Mer-
cury is about 40” in a century greater than
that computed from the gravitation of the
other planets.” He attributed this to the
attraction of a ‘group of small planets be-
tween Mercury and the sun.’ Newcomb,
in his recent work on ‘ Astronomical Con-
stants,’ gives the result of an examination
of this hypothesis as well as of several
others. He concludes (1) “that there can
be no such non-symmetrical distribution of
matter in the interior of the sun as would
produce the observed effect.’’ (2) The hy-
pothesis of an intra-mercurial ring or group
724
of planetoids seems to be untenable. (3) The
hypothesis of an extended mass of diffused
matter like that which reflects the zodiacal
light has insurmountable difficulties. (4)
The hypothesis of a ring of planetoids be-
tween the orbits of Mercury and Venus is
very unsatisfactory. x
Newcomb finally regards Prof. Hall’s
hypothesis as not inadmissible. This hypo-
thesis is a startling one, no less than that
gravitation toward the sun is not exactly
as the inverse square of the distance. Prof.
Paul Harzer has recently published a
memoir dealing with this subject, which
obtained the prize of the Jablonowski
Society. Harzer is disposed to attribute
the greater motion of Mercury’s perihelion
to an irregular distribution of the sun’s
mass within its surface, admitted to be
spherical ; being denser in the parts near
the solar equator. He appears to think
the solar corona may have something to do
with it. Harzer’s theory seems to have the
advantage over Newcomb’s modification of
Newton’s law in that it leaves the latter
intact.
Newcomb considers that, with the ex-
ception of the motions of the moon and of
Mercury, ‘‘all the motions in the solar
system, as far as known, agree perfectly
with the results of the theory of gravitation.
The little imperfections which still exist in
the astronomical tables seem to proceed
mainly from errors in the data from which
the mathematicians must start in com-
puting the motion of any planet. The time
of revolution of a planet, the eccentricity of
its orbit, the position of its perihelion, and
its place in the orbit at a given time, can
none of them be computed from the theory
of gravitation, but must be derived from ob-
servations alone. If the observations were
absolutely perfect, results of any degree of
accuracy could be obtained from them ; but
the imperfections ofall instruments and even
of the human sight itself prevents obser-
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 72.
vations from attaining the degree of pre-
cision sought after by the theoretical as-
tronomer and make the consideration of
‘errors of observation’ as well as ‘ errors
of the tables’ constantly necessary.”’
One of the most important and interest-
ing investigations going on now deals with
the subject of variation of latitude. Certain
theoretical considerations led the astron-
omers fifty years ago to look for changes of
latitude which showed a period of 305
days. Maxwell and Bessel examined the
matter and Bessel found that his lati-
tude diminished 0’’.3 in two years (1842).
Other observations at various places
showed aparent changes of small amounts.
The results for several reasons that
then appeared sound were not regarded
as satisfactory, so that it was doubted
by many that any measurable vari-
ation of latitude would be found. The
problem assumed a new aspect, however,
when Dr. Kustner, of Berlin, published
the results of his observations made in
1884-85. These results showed unmistaka-
bly that a small but quite a rapid change
had occurred in the latitude of Berlin,
amounting to from 0.2 to 0.3. The ex-
amination of other observations showed
similar results.
A crucial test was made by sending an
expedition to the Sandwich Islands, which
is 180 degrees (nearly) in longitude from
Berlin. If, it was known, the latitude of
Berlin increased, then a point in the north-
ern hemisphere, 180 degrees away from
Berlin, should simultaneously show a de-
crease in latitude, for if the pole moves
toward Berlin it must move from the point
on the other side of the earth. Our own
government joined in the effort. Marcuse,
of Berlin, and Preston, of Washington,
spent more than a year on the Sandwich
Islands observing for latitude, while at the
same time observations were continued at
Berlin, Prague and Strasburg, in Europe,
May 15, 1896. ]
and at Bethlehem, Rockville and San Fran-
cisco, in the United States. The results of
all these observations have been published
and show, without a chance of error, that
the earth’s axis is moving, that the lati-
tudes at the Sandwich Islands increased
when the latitudes in Germany diminished
and vice versa.
The law of the change was eagerly and
industriously sought for by some of the
ablest mathematical astronomers of the
world. They first worked on the idea that
the changes must conform to the 305-day
period of Euler, combined with an annual
change due to causes set forth by Sir W.
Thompson. None of these investigations
gave any satisfactory formulas for the predic-
tion of the latitude of a place. In 1891 Dr.S.
’ C. Chandler of Cambridge, Mass., began his
investigations of the problem. He remarks:
“T deliberately put aside all teaching of
theory, because it seemed to me high time
that the facts should be examined by a
purely inductive process; that the nugatory
results of all attempts to detect the exis-
tence of the Eulerian period (of 305 days)
probably arose from a defect in the theory
itself; and that the entangled condition of
the whole subject required that it should be
examined afresh by processes unfettered by
any preconceived notions whatever. The
problem which I therefore proposed to my-
self was to see whether it would not be
possible to lay the numerous ghosts in the
shape of the various discordant, residual
phenomena pertaining to determinations of
aberration, parallaxes, latitudes and the like,
which have heretofore flitted elusively about
the astronomy of precision during the cen-
tury ; or to reduce them to some tangible
form by some simple, consistent hypothesis.
x x > Lt was thought that if this could be
done, a study of the nature of the forces are
thus indicated, by which the earth’s rota-
tion is influenced, might tend to a physical
explanation of them.”
SCIENCE.
725
Dr. Chandler examined a great mass of
observations, new and old, and from their
discussion has obtained a formula which at
the present time expresses very well the
changes of latitude at any place at any
epoch. For his excellent and laborious
work of several years, Dr. Chandler has re-
ceived medals from our National Academy
and the Royal Astronomical Society of
London.
The result of Dr. Chandler’s investiga-
tion show that the pole of the axis of rota-
tion of the earth may be considered as re-
volving from west to east in a circle with a
radius of about 14 feet, with an average
period of 428.6 days. The center of this
circle moves from west to east around the
circumference of an ellipse in about a year.
The pole of the axis of figure is at the cen-
ter of this ellipse. Evidences of still
greater complexity in the motion of the
pole seem to be exhibited by Dr. Chandler’s
analysis. These motions combining make
the actual path of the pole sometimes the
are of an ellipse, at times a circular are and
then again almost a straight line. At
times the various changes conspire to give
a maximum of 7.33, and at others the
minimum separation of few hundredths of a
second of the pole of rotation from the pole
of figure.
During the year 1895 Chandler’s formula
makes the pole move nearly parallel with
our meridian. This would produce observ-
able changes of latitude here, but none at.
places 90 degrees east (in Europe) or west
of us. To thoroughly test the formula ob-
servations must be kept up for many years
at various places on the earth’s surface.
The International Geodetic Association
propose the establishment of four observa-
tories on the same parallel of latitude: in
Japan, Sicily, Virginia and California. At
these places it is suggested that photo-
graphic observations be kept up for many
years, so that more exact data can be ob-
726
tained for calculating, if possible, a more ex-
act formula. No adequate theoretical ex-
planation has been found, as yet, of the ob-
served variations, though it is suspected that
the annual part of the variation is due to me-
teorological causes, and that the other part
may be caused by changes in the relative
positions of portions of the earth’s mass,
such as movements of great masses of
water and depositions of ice and snow.
A number of important problems are in-
volved in this question of latitude varia-
tion. All the determinations of astronomy
have been made on the assumption that our
latitudes do not change. When the as-
tronomer is supplied with sufficiently exact
data the determination of various constants
used in astronomy must be recalculated.
Dr. Chandler and others have already be-
gun the reinvestigation.
The problems so far discussed belong
to pure astronomy. In the past forty
years there has grown up, with a vigorous
growth, a new branch of astronomy styled
by some The New Astronomy. This branch
deals with the beautiful and interesting in-
vestigations of the heavenly bodies made by
the aid of that wonderful instrument of
modern research, the spectroscope. On
this occasion I will not trespass on your
patience by attempting to describe to you
the achievements of the new astronomy in
the examination of the sun and the planets,
the stars, nebule and comets. By the in-
vestigations of this young science of spec-
troscopy applied to the heavenly bodies, we
get our first and accurate ideas of their
constitution. On the spectroscopist we must
depend for our knowledge of the surround-
ings of the sun and planets—the materials
entering into the make-up of the stars,
comets and nebule. The study of the
stellar spectra brings wonderful informa-
tion in regard to variable stars and the
motions of stars.
The discoveries of argon and helium have
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 72.
unlocked some doors to knowledge previ-
ously closed tightly. On astrophysics the
astronomer of the 20th century must de-
pend for solving many problems. It is
likely that a study of planetary spectra
will give us the means of determining the
rotation times of the planets—Venus and
Mercury.
We have thus briefly and inadequately
mentioned some of the problems which the
astronomer of the next century must deal
with. When we consider the progress made
during the past twenty-years only, we are
led to believe that world-wide codperation
in astronomical work will be one of the
great features of the coming century. Only
by such cooperation, directed by the ablest
astronomers, can the most effective work be
done. With such cooperation many of the
troublesome problems will undoubtedly be
solved. J. K. REEs.
A NEW FORM OF RADIATION.*
As my investigations will have to be
interrupted for several weeks, I propose in
the following paper to communicate a few
new results.
§ 18. At the time of my first communica-
tionit was known to me that X-rays wereable
to discharge electrified bodies, and I sus-
pected that it was X-rays, not the unaltered
cathode rays, which got through his alumi-
num window, that Lenard had to do with in
connection with distant electrified bodies.
When I published my researches, however,
I decided to wait until I could communicate
unexceptionable results. Such are only ob-
tainable when one makes the observation in
a space which is not only completely pro-
tected against the electrostatic influences
of the vacuum tube, leading-in wires, in-
duction coil, ete., but which is also pro-
tected against the air coming from the
*Second communication to the Wiirzburg Physico-
Medical Society. Reprinted from the translation in
Electricity.
May 15, 1896.]
vicinity of the discharge apparatus. To
this end I made a box of soldered sheet
zine large enough to receive me and the
necessary apparatus, and which, even to
an opening which could be closed by a zinc
door, was quite air-tight. The wall oppo-
site the door was almost covered with lead.
Near one of the discharge apparatus placed
outside, the lead-covered zine wall was
provided with a slot 4 cm. wide, and the
opening was then hermetically closed with
a thin aluminum sheet. Through this
window the X-rays could come into the
observation box. I have observed the fol-
lowing phenomena:
(a) Positively or negatively electrified
bodies in air are discharged when placed
in the path of X-rays, and the more quickly
the more powerful the rays. The intensity
of the rays was estimated by their effect
on a fluorescent screen or on a photographic
plate. It is the same whether the elec-
trified bodies are conductors or insulators.
Up to the present I have discovered no
specific difference in the behavior of differ-
ent bodies with regard to the rate of dis-
charge, and the same remark applies to the
behavior of positive and negative electricity.
Nevertheless, it is not impossible that small
differences exist.
(6) If an electrical conductor is sur-
rounded by a solid insulator, such as par-
affin, instead of by air, the radiation acts as
if the insulating envelope were swept by a
flame connected to earth.
’ (c) If this insulating envelope is closely
surrounded by a conductor connected to
earth, which should like the insulator be
transparent to X-rays, the radiation, with
the means at my disposal, apparently no
longer acts on the inner electrified conductor.
(d) The observations described in a, 0
and ¢ tend to show that air traversed by
X-rays possesses the property of discharg-
ing electrified bodies with which it comes
in contact.
SCIENCE.
727
(e) If this be really the case, and if,further,
the air retains this property for some time
after the X-rays have been extinguished,
it must be possible to discharge electrified
bodies. by such air, although the bodies
themselves are not in the path of the rays..
It is possible to convince oneself in vari-
ous ways that this actually happens. I will
describe one arrangement, perhaps not the
simplest possible. I employed a brass tube
3 em. in diameter and 45 cm. long. A few
centimeters from one end a portion of the
tube was cut away and replaced by a thin
sheet of aluminum. At the other end an
insulated brass ball fastened to a metal rod
was led into the tube through an air-tight
gland. Between the ball and the closed
end of the tube a side tube was soldered on,
which could be placed in communication
with an aspirator. When the aspirator
was worked the brass ball was surrounded
by air, which on its way through the tube
went past the aluminum window. The
distance from the window to the ball was
over 20 cm. I arranged the tube in the
zine box in such a manner that the X-rays
passed through the aluminum window at
right angles to the axis of the tube, so that
the insulated ball was beyond the reach of
the rays in the shadow... The tube and the
zine box were connected together; the ball
was connected toa Hankel electroscope. It
was seen that a charge (positive or nega-
tive) communicated to the ball was not
affected by the X-rays so long as the air in
the tube was at rest, but that the charge
immediately diminished considerably when
the aspirator caused the air traversed by
the rays to stream past the ball. If the
ball by being connected to accumulators
was kept at a constant potential, and if air
which had been traversed by the rays was
sucked through the tube, an electric cur-
rent was started as if the ball had been
connected with the wall of the tube by a
bad conductor.
728
(f) It may be asked in what way the air
loses this property communicated to it by
the X-rays. Whether it loses it as time
goes on, without coming into contact with
other bodies, is still doubtful. It is quite
certain, on the other hand, that a short dis-
turbance of the air by a body of large sur-
face, which need not be electrified, can
render the air inoperative. If one pushes,
for example, a sufficiently thick plug of cot-
ton wool so far into the tube that the air
which has been traversed by the rays must
stream through the cotton wool before it
reaches the ball, the charge of the ball re-
mains unchanged when suction is com-
menced. If the plug is placed exactly in
front of the aluminum window the result is
the same as if there were no cotton wool,
a proof that dust particles are not the cause
of the observed discharge. Wire gauze acts
in the same way as cotton wool, but the
meshes must be very small and several lay-
ers must be placed one over the other if we
want the air to be active. If the nets are
not connected to earth, as heretofore, but
connected to a constant-potential source of
electricity, I have always observed what I
expected ; however, these investigations are
not concluded.
(q) If the electrified bodies are placed in
dry hydrogen instead of air they are equally
well discharged. The discharge in hy-
drogen seems to me somewhat slower.
This observation is not, however, very re-
liable, on account of the difficulty of secur-
ing equally powerful X-rays in successive
experiments. The method of filling the ap-
paratus with hydrogen precluded the possi-
bility of the thin layer of air which clings
to the surface of the bodies at the com-
mencement playing an appreciable part in
connection with the discharge.
(h) In highly-exhausted vessels the dis-
charge of a body in the path of the X-rays
takes place far more slowly—in one case it
was, for instance, 70 times more slowly—
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 72.
than in the same vessels when filled with
air or hydrogen at atmospheric pressure.
(i) Experiments on the behavior of a
mixture of chlorine and hydrogen, when
under the influence of the X-rays, have
been commenced.
(j) Finally, I should like to mention that
the results of the investigations on the dis-
charging property of the X-rays, in which
the influence of the surrounding gases was
not taken into account, should be for the
most part accepted with reserve.
§ 19. In many cases it is of advantage to
put in circuit between the X-ray producer
and the Ruhmkorff coil a Tesla condenser
and transformer. Thisarrangement has the
following advantages: Firstly, the dis-
charge apparatus gets less hot, and there is
less probability of its being pierced; sec-
ondly, the vacuum lasts longer, at least this
was the case with my apparatus; and
thirdly, the apparatus produces stronger
X-rays. In apparatus which was either not
sufficiently or too highly exhausted to allow
the Ruhmkorff coil alone to work well, the
use of a Tesla transformer was of great ad-
vantage.
The question now arises—and I may be
permitted to mention it here, though I am
at present not in a position to give answer
to it—whether it be possible to generate X-
rays by means of a continuous discharge at
a constant discharge potential, or whether
oscillations of the potential are invariably
necessary for their production.
§ 20. In § 13 of my first communication
it was stated that X-rays not only originate
in glass, but also in aluminum. Continu-
ing my researches in this direction, I have
found no solid bodies incapable of genera-
ting X-rays under the influence of cathode
rays. I know of no reason why liquids
and gases should not behave in the same
way.
Quantitative differences in the behavior
of different bodies have, however, revealed
May 15, 1896.]
themselves. If, for example, we let the
cathode rays fall on a plate, one-half con-
sisting of a 0.38 mm. sheet of platinum and
the other half of a 1 mm. sheet of aluminum,
a pin-hole photograph of this double plate
will show that the sheet of platinum emits
a far greater number of X-rays than does
the aluminum sheet, this remark applying
in either case to the side upon which the
cathode rays impinge. From the reverse
side of the platinum, however, practically
no X-rays are emitted, but from the reverse
side of the aluminum a relatively large
number are radiated. It is easy to con-
struct an explanation of this observation ;
still it is to be recommended that before so
doing we should learn a little more about
the characteristics of X-rays.
It must be mentioned, however, that this
fact has a practical bearing. Judging by
my experience up to now, platinum is the
best for generating the most powerful X-
rays. I used a few weeks ago, with excel-
lent results, a discharge apparatus in which
a concave mirror of aluminum acted as
cathode and a sheet of platinum as anode,
the platinum being at an angle of 45 deg.
to the axis of the mirror and at the center
of curvature.
§ 21. The X-rays in this apparatus start
from the anode. I conclude from experi-
ments with variously-shaped apparatus that
as regards the intensity of the X-rays it is
a matter of indifference whether or not the
spot at which these rays are generated be
the anode. With a special view to re-
searches with alternate currents from a
Tesla transformer, a discharge apparatus is
being made in which both electrodes are
concave aluminum mirrors, their axes be-
ing at right angles; at the common center
of curvature there is a ‘ cathode-ray catch-
ing’ sheet of platinum. As to the utility
of this apparatus I will report further at a
later date.
W. K. RONTGEN.
SCIENCE.
129
BEHAVIOR OF SUGAR TOWARDS RONTGEN
RAYS.
THE fact that sugar is transparent to
X-rays was ascertained at an early date
after Rontgen’s announcement of his mo-
mentous discovery. It seemed, however,
of interest to learn whether the structure
of the sugar traversed by the rays might
exercise any influence on the rays or modify
their action on photographic plates.
Through the courtesy of Prof. M. I.
Pupin, of Columbia University, who kindly
extended the privileges of his laboratory to
the writer, the following tests were made:
Two plates of sugar were selected. The
one was a disk 16 mm. thick, sawed from a
titlar; a titlar is made by pouring a magma
of best white refined sugar into a cone-
shaped mould, washing well with pure
white sugar liquor, and then baking the
mass perfectly dry and hard. This disk
was, therefore, practically a solid agglom-
eration of pure sucrose crystals. The other
disk was made by dissolving perfectly pure
white sugar in water, evaporating to a cer-
tain consistency, and then casting the mass
in a copper ring. This disk also measured
16 mm. in thickness; it was a perfectly
clear and transparent solid of a yellow
color, and consisted of amorphous sugar-
candy—so-called barley sugar.
A few preliminary trials were made by
photographing with X-rays through these
plates of sugar—with and without fluores-
cent screens—varying the time of exposure,
etc. Finally, the following experiment was
carried out.
A photographic plate was placed in a
box, on the outside of which six metal disks
were arranged in two groups of three each.
Each group consisted of a medal of alumin-
ium, provided with figures and inscrip-
tions in bas-relief, a plain disk of aluminium
and a silver quarter dollar.
One of these groups was covered with the
crystalline, the other with the amorphous
730 SCIENCE.
sugar plate. The Crookes tube was sus-
pended 61 inches above the plates and an
exposure of forty minutes was given.
The conditions under which the two
sugar plates were placed were therefore
identical and the results obtained compara-
ble. On developing the photographic plate
it was found that both sugar plates had
permitted the X-rays to pass through suffi-
ciently freely to form clear and well defined
pictures of the metallic disks.
The figures and inscriptions on the alu-
minium medals were discernible in both in-
stances, and the outlines of both the alumin-
ium disks and of the silver coins were also
well marked.
The negative, however, showed unmis-
takably that the amorphous sugar is more
transparent to the X-rays than the crystal-
line modification. In the former case the
background proved to have an even and
darker hue, showing that X-rays had passed
through freely and evenly. In the latter
case the background was less dark and of
a rather mottled appearance, in some places
exhibiting apparently a faint outline trac-
ing of the crystalline structure beneath
which it had rested. This fact may be of
interest in view of the mooted question con-
cerning the power of diffusion and refrac-
tion of the X-rays.
In this connection it may not be amiss
to also refer, briefly, to some tests made to
ascertain whether or no the X-rays exercise
any influence on polarized light. To this
end a tube was made of aluminium, 200
mm. in length and 31 mm. in diameter; the
walls were 2 mm. thick. This tube was
filled successively with solutions of sucrose,
dextrose, levulose and raffinose.
This tube with its contents was placed in
a sugar polariscope ; a ray of light was per-
mitted to pass through the tube and the
deviation of the polarized light produced
by the solutions was noted. The polari-
scope with the filled tube was then placed
LN. S. Vou. III. No. 72.
underneath a Crookes tube in such a man-
ner that the tube was directly in the path
of maximum intensity of the X-rays, 7. ¢., in
the path of the cathode rays, so that the
rays would pass through the tube practically
at right angles to the beam of polarized
light which traversed the tube longitu-
dinally.
The times of exposure given varied; seven
minutes for the sucrose solution, ten min-
utes for the levulose and the raffinose solu-
tion and fifteen minutes for the dextrose
solution, but in no instance was any de-
viation of the ray of polarized light notice-
able. The polarization of the solutions
were :
SIOROSE, adocnongascoooancdsodonce +49.9
TRENETINOSE5) copoocooscondancc0Gcnon +15.8
1 DYES. di 20)-(e Manpenicniabaaodsoodacdentco + 7.2
THe vulose, vac.csrenescceewerers — 8.8
Of course these tests alone are not suffi-
cient in number or kind to permit the draw-
ing of any conclusive inference as to whether
the X-rays influence the plane of polarized
light or not, but they do establish the fact
that, under the conditions under which these
tests were made, no such influence was
exerted. FERDINAND G. WIECHMANN.
THE X-RAYS IN MEDICINE AND SURGERY.
On April 22d I succeeded in applying the
X-rays to the diagnosis of disease in such a
manner as to make it seem that a very
wide field was open to medical as well as
to surgical investigations by means of the
X-ray.
Using a ‘focussing’ tube powerfully
driven, I found it quite possible to cause
calcium tungstate to fluoresce, even though
a human trunk or head be interposed be-
tween the tube and the fluorescing screen.
Further, it became evident that the back-
bone, the ribs, the bones of the members,
and the outline of the skull and of the up-
per portion, at least, of the pelvis could be
May 15, 1896. ]
plainly seen as shadows on the screen.
The cartilaginous lamin between the ver-
tebre could be distinguished. The heart
could be seen in faint outline, being slightly
more opaque than the lungs, which are
very transparent. The liver is very opaque,
and its rise and fall as the patient under
examination breathed was very easily seen.
I was able to make a diagnosis of cases
of tuberculosis, pneumonia, enlarged heart
and enlarged spleen without difficulty. The
outline of the heart was indicated by me
and by Mr. Lawrence, who is working with
me almost exactly as it had been mapped
out by percussion, our greatest disagree-
ment being about one-half an inch, the
diameter of the heart being seven inches.
An examination of some five seconds con-
vinced us that a tuberculous patient was
at least fairly sound on one side and very
bad on the other, and this again agreed
with the previous diagnosis at the hospital
of which we, of course, were ignorant. The
enlarged spleen could be outlined with great
clearnesss, it being rather transparent, while
the abdomen is ordinarily quite opaque.
A boy of three years, convalescent: after
an attack of pneumonia, was found to be
transparent in that part of the lungs which
had been diagnosed as ‘ clear,’ and opaque
in those portions which were shown by
percussion to be still more or less filled up.
A buckle or a small pellet of lead is
easily detected through any part of the
body, except the lower part of the abdomen,
and buttons and hooks and eyes are easily
seen through the more transparent parts.
A patient was brought to us whose arm
had been broken by a musket ball, and the
exact location of the bullet was desired.
After an examination of not more than a
minute the bullet could be plainly seen. It
had broken the ulna and then imbedded
itself on the inner side of the radius about
three inches nearer the shoulder. We
marked the location of the bullet in two
SCIENCE. Tol
planes, and when the surgeons made an
incision it was found that we were not in
error by more than an eighth of an inch.
We have taken photographs by means of
a Thomson high frequency coil in one-fifth
‘of a second, as it seemed to be desirable to
be able to work very rapidly to get photo-
graphs of such objects as do not remain
fixed in position for any length of time. -
The skull is not opaque, and the thicker
and thinner positions can be distinguished,
but of course no notion can be obtained of
the texture of the brain. The detail of the
lower jaw, its joint, the teeth, the filling in
the teeth, and so on, can be clearly made out.
The esophagus is very transparent, and a
foreign metallic body could hardly fail of
detection unless well down in the lower part.
The cartilaginous rings in the trachea, the
glottis and epiglottis can be seen in fair
outlines. Younger persons are more trans-
parent than older, but show less differenti-
ation, even the bones being quite transpar-
ent ina boy of ten. The brillianey of the
tube is increased many times by grounding
the cathode. Cuas. L. Norton.
Mass. INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY.
CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPHY.
DE LAPPARENT’S LEGONS DE GEOGRAPHIE
PHYSIQUE.
THERE is no European text-book that has
so fully caught what has come to be called
the American method in physical geog-
raphy or geomorphology, as de Lapparent’s
Lecons de géographie physique (Paris, Mas-
son, 1896, 590 p.). Omitting other divi-
sions of the subject, the whole volume is de-
voted to the physiography of the land.
The work of denuding forces, acting on
various initial land forms produced by up-
lift, deformation, volcanic accumulation or
otherwise, is deliberately followed through
the geographical cycle to its close in a
peneplain of faint relief. Modifications of
the general scheme of geographical devel-
732
opment, due to movements with respect to
baselevel, to glacial action, to wind action,
and to subterranean waters, are considered
in succession. These systematic chapters
are followed by others in which an excellent
outline of the physiography of Europe is
presented, with briefer treatment of the
other parts of the world. American read-
ers who desire to cite European physio-
graphic examples will find this book very
helpful. It is illustrated with many dia-
grams and a good number of maps and
views; its detailed table of contents hardly
compensates for the absence of an index.
THE INTERIOR PLATEAU OF BRITISH COLUMBIA.
A RECENT report by Dr. G. M. Dawson
on the area of the Kamloops map sheet in
the interior of Columbia (Geol. Surv. Can-
ada, Ann. Rept. vii., 1896) treats in more
detail a portion of the region that the same
author has previously described (Physiogr.
Geol. of the Rocky Mountain region in Can-
ada, Trans. Roy. Soc. Can., ili., 1890).
Considered in a broad way, and in contrast
to the mountains by which it is bordered,
the interior region may be regarded as a
plateau. Although deeply trenched by nu-
merous valleys of late Pliocene date, these
are lost to view when standing on the up-
lands, whose profiles run together to form
a nearly horizontal sky line. The plateau
is explained as a peneplain of subaérial de-
nudation. It is enclosed on the west by
the Coast range (not to be confused with
the Coast range or the Cascade mountains
of our Pacific slope), whose summits reach
remarkably uniform altitudes of about
8,000 or 9,000 feet. This equality is ex-
plained as the result of the rapid consump-
tion of any summits that may have for-
merly risen into greater altitudes, on the
assumption that the progress of denudation
in the partially snow-covered zone is several
or many times greater than below it. This
appears to be an interesting example of
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Von. II. No. 72.
Penck’s ‘ Oberes Denudationsniveau’ (Mor-
phologie der Erdoberflache, ii., 164). A
pronounced ‘rain shadow’ and chinook belt
occur on the plateau district in the lee of
these mountains. Interesting details are
given concerning glacial action, lake ba-
sins, alluvial fans and terraces, and other
features.
THE VOLCANIC GROUP OF TOPOGRAPHIC
FORMS.
Tue chapter devoted to voleancos in most
physical geographies is chiefly concerned
with volcanic cones, so young as to be little
worn. The more thorough study and clas-
sification of geographical forms, as primarily
determined by structures and secondarily
modified by sculpture, greatly extends the
list of features associated with volcanic ac-
tion, even including the products of those
abortive attempts at eruption which have
been blindly satisfied before reaching the
surface. The buttes formed when these
‘plutonic plugs’ are revealed by denuda-
tion occur in fine variety of development
and expression in the region of the Black
hills of Dakota, and are described in the
current number of the (Chicago) Journal of
Geology, by Russell, with his customary
appreciation of physiographic relations. A
number of excellent photographs are repro-
duced asillustrations. The series of forms be-
gins with Little Sun Dance dome, an arch of
limestone, stripped of a great thickness of
overlying weaker strata, but unbroken, even
uncracked ; the igneous rock not yet re-
vealed. Mato Teepee, Inyan Kara and other
imposing buttesare fully revealed plugs. The
surrounding rims of harder stratified rocks
offer interesting examples of outer slope and
inface,* with inner subsequent valleys, all
in concentric circular arrangement. One of
the illustrations is a view looking outward
* The invention of this excellent term, the abbreyvi-
ation of ‘inward facing escarpment,’ should be cre-
dited to Mr. L. C. Glenn, of Darlington, 8. C.
May 15, 1896.]
along a radial consequent valley through
a@ notch in a limestone rim.
LE TOUR DU MONDE.
Tue illustrated weekly, published by
Hachette & Co., Paris, under the above title
supplies so many excellent illustrations well
reproduced from photographs taken in va-
rious parts of the world, that it deserves
mention as a contributor to physiographic
knowledge. The volume for 1895 contains,
among many others, a number of admirable
pictures from the inner Sahara, portraying
the escarpments, dunes and wadies with re-
markable effect of glaring sunlight ; of the
Jakes of Bavaria, both within and without
the Alps; of tropical and polar scenes.
The text is generally narrative and de-
scriptive, with much about peoples and
their customs, entertaining rather than
strictly scientific; and some of the pictures
bear evidence of touching up or even of in-
vention by the too facile hand of the Paris-
jan artist; but the volume as a whole is as
instructive as it is attractive.
THUNDER STORMS AT SEA ARE NOCTURNAL.
Tue greater frequency of thunder storms
in the winter and at night around the coast
of Scotland has been shown by Buchan.
When thunder storms oceur in New Eng-
land in winter they are generally observed
along the coast and after nightfall, as has
been shown by records of the New Eng-
land Meteorological Society. Now Meinar-
dus, of the Deutsche Seewarte at Hamburg,
finds even the thunder storms of the Bay
of Bengal to have a distinct nocturnal maxi-
mum (Annalen der Hydrog., 1895, 506—
511). Ithas been suggested by Grossmann
and others that the cause of this contrast
with thunder storms on land probably arises
from the dependence of the maritime storms
on instability produced by radiation and
cooling of the upper surface of cloud sheets,
which proceeds best at night, especially in
winter nights; while local storms on the
SCIENCE.
733
land arise from the overheating of lower
layers of air close to the hot ground, and
this condition has its maximum on summer
afternoons.
. CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.
THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF GREAT
BRITAIN.
On January 21st this institution held its
annual meeting, when its President, Mr. E.
W. Brabrook, delivered the address of the
occasion, reviewing the work of the body
during the past year. It presents an en-
couraging list of papers on the leading
branches of anthropologic study, and notes
the advancements which have been made
in the popularity of this department of learn-
ing. The establishment of a professorship
of anthropology at Oxford proves that that
famous University is no longer the house of
refuge for effete ideas, as was once charged
against it. The speaker referred to the
Galley Hill skeleton (see Science, 1896, Jan.
17), and from a close personal inspection of
it declares that ‘‘ the balance of probability
lies in favor of its authenticity.” He adds
some strong words on the unity of the an-
thropologie sciences, refuting the narrow
views of Topinard, who, in direct conflict
with his great teacher, Broca, would confine
it to the study of physical types.
The address is one which will foster and
develop the study of man in its true sense.
CANADIAN ARCHAOLOGY.
A VALUABLE archeological report, pre-
pared by Mr. David Boyle, appears as an
Appendix to the Report of the Minister of
Education, of Canada (also printed sepa-
rately). It covers 79 pages, a number of
which are devoted to the exposition of
‘primitive industries and working meth-
ods.’ Several earthworks in the province
of Ontario are described, with illustrative
plans and surveys. Some rock paintings
are mentioned, especially one at Lake Mas-
734
sanog, the figures from which are repro-
duced, and the suggestion advanced that
they indicate Huron-Iroquois influence. A
number of pipes of clay and stone and
arrow heads of unusual shape are figured.
The timely warning is given that of late
years the manufacture of fraudulent speci-
mens of this character has notably in-
creased, and collectors should be on the
alert. To detect these ‘fakes,’ Mr. Boyle
recommends the use of a lens of low power
by which it is easy to distinguish where the
partination has been destroyed.
D. G. Brinton.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
BATRACHIANS AND CRUSTACEANS FROM THE
SUBTERRANEAN WATERS OF TEXAS,
In advanced sheets from the Proceedings of
the U. S. National Museum, Dr. Leonard Stej-
neger describes a new genus of batrachians
from an artesian well at San Marcos, Texas,
and Mr. James E. Benedict describes a new ge-
nus and three new species of crustaceans from
the same well. Dr. Stejneger gives some inter-
esting details regarding the new species of sal-
amander-like batrachians which he calls Typhlo-
molge Rathbuni. ‘‘ The animals, by their want of
external eyes and their white color, at once pro-
claimed themselves as cave-dwellers, but their
extraordinary proportions, absolutely unique
in the order to which they belong, suggest
unusual conditions of life, which alone can
have produced such profound differences. The
most startling external feature is the length
and slenderness of the legs, like which there is
nothing among the tailed batrachians thus far
known. While the normal number of fingers
and toes is present (4 and 5), it is worthy of
note that not only is there a great variation in
the relative length of these members, but even
the length of the legs in the same animal may
differ as much as two millimeters. Viewed in
connection with the well-developed, finned
swimming tail, it can be safely assumed that
these extraordinarily slender and elongated legs
are not used for locomotion, and the conviction
SCIENCE.
[N.§. Von. III. No. 72.
is irresistible that in the inky darkness of the
subterranean waters they serve the animal as
feelers, their development being thus parallel
to the excessive elongation of the antennee of
the crustaceans, of which I have been informed
by Mr. Benedict. The external gills at once
suggested that these animals might be only lar-
vee. The fact that one of them contained large
eggs, and that another expelled three eggs af-
ter being caught, was no positive proof to the
contrary, but in conjunction with the affinity of
the species to other forms known to have per-
sistent gills throughout life it makes it abso-
lutely certain that we have to do with an adult
and final animal.’’
THE FOREST RESOURCES OF THE UNITED STATES.
In a recent circular prepared by Dr. B. E.
Fernow for the Division of Forestry of the
U. S. Department of Agriculture it is stated
that the forest area of the United States (exclu-
sive of Alaska) may be placed at somewhat less.
than 500,000,000 acres. This does not include
much brush and waste land which is, and will
remain for a long time, without any economic
value. This area is very unevenly distributed ;
seyen-tenths are found on the Atlantic side of
the continent, only one-tenth on the Pacific
coast, another tenth on the Rocky Mountains,
the balance being scattered over the interior of
the Western States. Both the New England
States and the Southern States have still 50 per
cent. of their area, more or less, under forest
cover, but in the former the merchantable
timber has been largely removed. ‘The prairie
States, with an area in round numbers of 400,-
000 square miles, contain hardly 4 per cent. of
forest growth, and the 1,330,000 square miles—
more than one-third of the whole country—of
arid or semi-arid character in the interior con-
tain practically no forest growth, economically
speaking. The annual value of forest products
is estimated at over $1,000,000,000, which makes
the industry next in importance to agriculture,
exceeding in the value of its products the mining
industries by more than 50 per cent.
CAPE COLONY GEOLOGICAL COMMISSION.
WE haye already announced the appointment,
by the government of Cape Colony, of a Geo-
May 15, 1896.]
logical Commission, which is to report to the
Secretary for Agriculture. Natural Science in
its May number states that: ‘‘The Commis-
sion has now appointed the following gentle-
men to begin the work of surveying and mapping
the country: Geologist, G. S. Corstorphine,
B.Se. (Edin.), Ph.D. (Munich); Assistant Geo-
logists, A. W. Rogers, B.A. (Cantab.), and H.
H. L. Schwarz, A.R.C.S. The Commission also
intends to publish in June a bibliography of
South African geology, which has been compiled
by Mr. Harry Saunders, the Secretary to the
Commission. During the last ten years some
£35,000 has been spent by the government of
Cape Colony for geological purposes; but com-
plaints have been made that, although science
may have been advanced by the contribution
of a scattered paper or two to English publica-
tions, or by the enrichment of the British Mu-
seum with a skeleton of Pareiasaurus, still the
Colony itself has nothing tangible to show.
For the present Commission an appropriation
of £1,500 has been made for the months of De-
cember, 1895—June, 1896. It is hoped that
the future work of the Commission will be car-
ried on by annual grants of £2,000. Although
South Africa abounds in mining engineers, pros-
pectors and such-like practical geologists, of
more or less competence, still not much ad-
vance in our purely scientific knowledge of its
geology has been made since the days of A. G.
Bain. The Commission intends to devote its
energies purely to the scientific aspects of the
science and to steer as clear as possible of the
ordinary speculator. By this means a secure
foundation will be laid for the geology of Cape
Colony. The Commission will be glad to re-
ceive copies of any geological publications, in
return for which they offer to forward the re-
ports on the geology of the Colony.”’
THE METRIC SYSTEM.
AT the business meeting, held April 18, 1896,
the Engineers’ Club of Philadelphia discussed
certain preambles and resolution in regard to
the Metric System.
After a full debate it was decided that a let-
ter ballot be taken on the following preambles
and resolution :
WHEREAS, The adoption of an international
SCIENCE. 735
system of weights and measures is a subject of
great practical importance, and
WHEREAS, The Metric System is the most con-
venient general system now in use, and its con-
tinued extension indicates that it is the only
existing system of weights and measures that
bears a promise of universal adoption, and
WHEREAS, Itis believed that the difficulties in
the way of its adoption are far more than com-
pensated by the advantages to be gained by its
use, and
WHEREAS, The question of the establishment
of the Metric System is now under considera-
tion by Congress; therefore be it
Resolved, That the Engineers’ Club of Phila-
delphia respectfully urges its Representatives
at Washington to advocate the adoption of the
Metric System as the only legal standard in
the United States, and to promote such inter-
national codperation as will provide unity of
practice amongst commercial nations.
The result of this letter ballot has just been
announced and shows 100 to 60 in favor of the
preambles and resolution.
GENERAL.
THE second annual meeting of the Botanical
Society of America will be held in Buffalo, N.
Y., on Friday and Saturday, August 21 and 22,
1896. The Council will meet at 1:30 p. m. on
Friday, and the Society will be called to order
at 3p. m. by the retiring President, Dr. William
Trelease, Director of the Missouri Botanical
Garden. The President-elect, Dr. Charles E.
Bessey, professor of botany in the University of
Nebraska, will then take the chair. The after-
noon session will be devoted to business. At
the evening session the retiring President will
deliver a public address on ‘ Botanical Oppor-
tunity.’ The sessions for the reading of papers
will be held on Saturday at 10 a. m. and 2 p. m.
The Botanical Society of America is affiliated
with the American Association for the Advance-
of Science, whose sessions this year begin on
Monday, August 24th, in Buffalo.
THE dissolution of the New England Meteor-
ological Society was decided upon at a meeting
held April 25th in Boston. The various under-
takings of the Society have either been trans-
ferred to other organizations or discontinued
736
on account of the diversion of the interests of
several of the more active members into other
channels. The recent cessation of the Ameri-
can Meteorological Journal was finally the de-
termining step in the disbanding of the Society.
Mme. AUDIFFRED has given the French
Academy of Sciences the sum of 800,000 fr.,
the interest of which will be awarded, without
regard to nationality, for the discovery of a cure
for consumption.
M. A. Renter has bequeathed 2,000,000 fr.
for the establishment of a physiological labora-
tory in Brussels.
THE Scientific American, which for fifty years
has been an important factor in the diffusion
and advancement of technical and general sci-
ence, will publish an anniversary number on
July 25th. It offers a prize of $250 for the best
essay, not exceeding 2,500 words in length, on
‘The Progress of Invention During the Past
Fifty Years,’ which will be published in the an-
niversary number.
THE issue of Nature for May 7th will contain a
photograyure of Sir Joseph Lister, President of
the Royal Society, accompanied by a biograph-
ical sketch and an appreciation by Prof. Till-
manns, of Leipzig.
Messrs. PERSIFOR FRAZER, Angelo Heilprin,
Benjamin Smith Lyman and Theodore D. Rand
have been appointed by the Academy of Natu-
ral Sciences of Philadelphia as the Committee on
the Hayden Memorial Geological Award for
1896.
A NEW and thoroughly revised edition of
Lyell’s Student’s Elements of Geology is about
to be published by Murray. The work has
been carefully revised by Prof. J. W. Judd,
Dean of the Royal College and a former pupil
of Lyell’s.
A SPECIAL despatch to the New York Fven-
ing Post from New Haven states that on Janu-
ary 13, 1893, John E. Lewis, of Ansonia, while
photographing Holmes’ comet through a tele-
scope, caught upon the plate the path of a large
meteor showing its place among certain stars.
Prof. H. A. Newton, of Yale, made a very
careful computation showing that the meteorite
probably fell at a place about two miles north
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 72.
of Danbury, Conn., near Kohanza reservoir.
Prof. Newton has now received intelligence of
the finding of a meteorite at almost exactly the
computed point. It is described as an oval
specimen, fifteen and a-half inches long, and
seven and a-half inches in diameter, weighing
twenty-six pounds.
THE New York Medical Record states that an
offer has been made by an inventor to the mu-
nicipality of the city of Paris to sterilize five
thousand cubic meters daily of water for pub-
lic consumption at his own expense. After pre-
liminary inquiry the municipality has decided
to obtain an expert report upon the value of
the proposed measure, and if it is found to be
of practical utility the inventor’s offer will be
accepted as a preliminary to adopting the sys-
tem in case the experiment is satisfactory.
Nature states that the annual general meet-
ing of the British Ornithologists’ Union was
held at 8 Hanover Square on April 22d. In
the absence of Lord Lilford, the President, Mr.
P. L. Selater, F.R.S., took the chair. The re-
port of the Committee stated that The Ibis (the
journal of the Society) had been regularly pub-
lished during the preceding year, and that the
Union consisted of 269 ordinary members, be-
sides honorary and foreign members. Twenty-
nine new ordinary members and one new foreign
member were proposed and elected. Mr.
Selater brought forward a scheme for a new
synopsis of the described species of birds, to be
arranged in six yolumes, corresponding with
the six zoélogical regions of the earth’s surface.
This was referred to a committee to report
upon.
VoutumE I., of the University Geological Sur-
vey of Kansas, by Prof. Erasmus Haworth and
assistants, is now ready for distribution and
may be had free by recipient paying transporta-
tion, which is twenty-two cents if sent by mail.
All applications should be sent to Chancellor
F. H. Snow, University of Kansas, Lawrence,
Kansas.
Dr. Grorce A. Dorsry, who has been an in-
structor at the Peabody Museum during the last
five years, has accepted a call to the Field
Columbian Museum of Chicago, to take the
position of curator in the department of anthro-
May 15, 1896.]
pology. Mr. Frank Russell, of the graduate
school, has been appointed assistant in anthro-
pology to take Dr. Dorsey’s place as instructor
in the preliminary anthropological courses next
year.
THE State Fair Association of Rhode Island
offers $5,000 in prizes for the exhibition and
competition of horseless carriages at the State
Fair, Narragansett Park, in September.
THE Committee of the Massachusetts Legis-
lature has reported in favor of an appropriation
of $100,000 to be used for the extermination of
the gypsy moth. The Committee recommends
that one or two entomologists be sent abroad
to study the habits of the gypsy moth with a
view to introducing, if possible, some parasite
to prey upon the insect.
ANDREW 8S. FULLER, a writer on agricultural
and botanical subjects, died on May 4th, at
his home at Ridgewood, N. J., age 88 years.
The death is also announced of Alfred Debains,
professor at the agricultural college at Rennes.
Pror. ANGELO HEILPRIN has been appointed
to represent the Academy of Natural Sciences of
Philadelphia at the Mining and Geological Mil-
lennial Congress to be held at Budapest, Sep-
tember 25th and 26th, in connection with the
celebration of the founding of the Kingdom of
Hungary.
Mr. GILBERT BowicK has purchased for the
British Antarctic Expedition, which leaves Eng-
land in September, the survivors of the pack of
dogs acquired by Lieut. Peary_from the Esqui-
maux of North Greenland. They will be
brought from Christiania and placed for the
present in the London Zodlogical Garden.
AT a meeting of the Royal Geographical So-
ciety on April 27th the President announced
that the annual honors had been awarded by
the Council as follows: The Founders’ Medal
to Sir William Macgregor, K.C.M.G., for the
valuable geographical work he has done in New
Guinea during the years that he has acted as
Administrator and Lieutenant-Governor; the
Patrons’ Medal to Mr. St. George R. Littledale
for his important expeditions in the Pamirs and
Central Asia; the Murchison award has been
given to Khan Bahadur Yusuf Sharif, native
Indian surveyor; the Gill memorial to Mr. A.
SCIENCE.
737
P. Low, of the Canadian Survey, for his ex-
plorations in Labrador; the Black grant to Mr.
J. Burr Tyrrell for his expeditions to the Barren
Grounds of northwest Canada; and the Cuth-
bert Peek grant to Mr. Alfred Sharpe for his
many journeys in British Central Africa. The
following geographers have been made honorary
corresponding members of the Society: M. de
Semenoff, Vice-President of the Russian Geo-
graphical Society; Dr. Von den Steinen, Presi-
dent of the Berlin Geographical Society; Dr. G.
Neumayer, Director of the Naval Observatory,
Hamburg; M. de Lapparent, President of Coun-
cil of the Paris Geographical Society; Dr. Al-
brecht Penck, Professor of Geography, Vienna
University; Dr. Otto Petterson, the Swedish
oceanographer; Dr. Kan, President of the Dutch
Geographical Society ; Prof. H. Pittier, Director
of the National Physico-Geographical Institute
of Costa Rica.
STILL another welcome contribution to our
knowledge of the changes of plumage in birds
is a paper by Witmer Stone entitled The Molting
of Birds with Special Reference to the Plumages of
the Smaller Land Birds of Eastern North Amer-
ica. This appears as a separate from the Pro-
ceedings of the Natural Sciences of Philadelphia
and discusses in more or less detail the molt of
some 1380 species. A captious critic might, per-
haps, complain that in some cases the con-
clusions were based on an examination of
rather a small number of specimens, but only
one who has undertaken similar investigations
can appreciate the difficulty of obtaining proper
material and the labor involved in its study.
There is an introductory chapter treating of
molt in general, in which Mr. Stone briefly dis-
cusses the question of direct change in the color
of feathers and states that he cannot admit that
we have any proof of an actual change of color
in a feather apart from what may be produced
from abrasion or bleaching. The author, by in-
dependent investigation, reaches the same con-
clusion as Mr. Chapman in regard to the change
of color in the Dunlin and Snowflake. There
has been abundant testimony to change of color
in feathers without molt, and it is now in order
for some one to produce a little evidence.
Two interesting additions to the alums have
738
been recently made by Piccini and are de-
scribed in the Gazetta Chimica. By the reduc-
tion of a sulfurie acid solution of vanadium
dioxid in the electrolytic cell in the presence of
an alkali-sulfate an alum is formed. The am-
monium vanadium alum is very soluble, those
of rubidium and cesium much less so. By a
similar reaction Piccini has obtained the cesium
titanium alum, the first of the titanium sulfates
to be formed. These salts are the first repre-
sentatives of the alums among the elements of
the fourth and fifth groups of the periodic sys-
tem.
THE question as to the fusibility of platinum
in a carbon heated furnace seems at least to
have been definitely settled by Victor Meyer.
A sheet of platinum completely enclosed in a
mass of fire clay was fused to a globule in a
blast furnace heated with gas carbon. In this
case action of carbon or of furnace gases on the
platinum was absolutely excluded. Under sim-
ilar conditions an alloy of platinum with 25 %
iridium was unchanged.
In the Contemporary Review for May, Dr.
Alfred B. Wallace describes M. Elisée Reclus’
proposed gigantic model of the earth, already
noticed in this JOURNAL and argues that the
construction of such a globe would be feasibile
and desirable. But he thinks that the scale
proposed by M. Reclus, zos5a0 should be re-
duced by one-half. This would give an inter-
nal diameter of 167 feet, and a scale of almost
exactly a quarter of an inch to a mile. The
chief point made by Dr. Wallace is, however,
that the model should be placed on the inner
surface of the sphere.
ACCORDING to Nature, on July 2d the Second
International Congress of Applied Chemistry
will open in Paris. In addition to strictly tech-
nical questions, the Congress will discuss the an-
alytical processes needed for the guidance of
manufacturers and the benefit of the consumer.
The proceedings will be conducted in ten sec-
tions, and, judging from the number and inter-
est of the questions which will be brought up in
each, there will be no lack of work. The sec-
tions represent such diverse subjects as chemical
products, electro-chemistry, coloring matters,
and dyeing, pharmaceutical products, metal-
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 72.
lurgy and mining, surgar-refining, vintnery,
brewing, distilling, agricultural chemistry, pho-
tography, alimentation and milk supply. The
‘Association des Chemistes de Sucerie et de Dis-
tillerie,’ which is organizing the Congress, has
formed a committee, comprising several mem-
bers of the French Government, a large number
of members of the Institute, and many of the
feremost men in science and industry in France.
Further information with reference to the Con-
gress can be obtained from M. Dupont, 156
boulevard Magenta, Paris.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL. NEWS.
Mrs. STANFORD has transferred to the trustees
of Stanford University $2,500,000, the amount
of the bequest left by the late Senator Stanford.
Mr. Joun D. ROCKEFELLER has agreed to give
Vassar College $100,000 toward the erection of
a new dormitory or a recitation hall.
AT a meeting of the trustees of Columbia Uni-
versity, on May 4th, Mr. E. A. MacDowell was
appointed Professor of Music, and Dr. Franz
Boas lecturer on physical anthropology. The
name of the present faculty of the School of
Mines was changed to that of the Faculty of
Applied Science, which will be intrusted with
the care of the School of Mines, the School of
Chemistry, the School of Engineering and the
School of Architecture. The building for the
Department of Chemistry, to be erected as a
memorial to the late Frederick Christian Have-
meyer at a cost of about $450,000, by his sons
and daughters, F. C., Theodore A., Thomas J.,
and Henry O. Havemeyer, Mrs. Katherine B.
Belloni and Mrs. L. J. Louisa Jackson, and by
his nephew, Charles H. Senff, was formally ac-
cepted by the trustees.
THE sum of $100,000 has been given by
friends of Barnard College to pay the mortgage
on the grounds, and secure the gift of $100,000
for building purposes pledged on condition that
the mortgage should be paid by May 9th.
THE summer school of Union College will hold
a session of six weeks at Saratoga, from July
6th to August 14th. Thirty courses are offered.
The ninth annual session of the Wisconsin
summer school will be held at the University
for six weeks, from July 6th to August 14th,
May 15, 1896.]
1896. Thirty-seven courses of instruction will
be offered in fourteen departments.
THE announcement is issued of the Fifth An-
nual Summer School at the University of Min-
nesota for the four weeks between July 27th
and August 21st. The school is organized in
two sections: University and Elementary. The
University section offers 19 courses, of which
10 are in the Sciences, as follows :
Botany, Prof. MacMillan, ................ 2 Courses.
Chemistry, Prof. Frankforter,............ 2 Courses.
IZ\AWAIES, LEI, AOMNVES, cosoccacoonpoode0o095008 2 Courses.
Physiography, Mr. Goode,.... ...2 Courses.
Physiology, Prof. Nachtrieb,.............. 1 Course.
Physiological Psychology, Mr. Gale,...1 Course.
Special courses of lectures will be delivered
daily. Four Educational Congresses will hold
sessions during the month, viz.: Institute in-
structors ; State Normal School officers; City
Superintendents, and the Society for Child
Study. The School is authorized under the
anthority and supervision of the State Depart-
ment of Public Instruction. Tuition is free.
ProF. HAROLD B. SmiruH, at present pro-
fessor of electrical engineering in the Purdue
University, Lafayette, Ind., has been elected to
a new chair of electrical engineering, estab-
lished in the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
AMERICAN students going abroad for the
summer may be interested to know that there
will be held at Jena, from the 3d to the 15th of
August, a Ferienkurse, including lectures on
astronomy, botany, physics, zodlogy, hygiene,
physiology, psychology, philosophy, pedagogy,
modern languages, literature and history.
A COURSE of lectures on colonial botany is of-
fered during the present summer semester at
the Botanical Garden and Museum of Berlin,
by Profs. Engler, Schumann, Volkens and
Urban, and Drs. Warburg, Gilg, Lindau, Per-
ring, Dammer and Gtirke. The course occu-
pies two hours per week and is given without
charge.
We learn from the Academische Rundschau
that a regulation has been issued allowing
women to attend lectures at the University of
Berlin after securing permission from the Minis-
ter of Public Instruction and the instructor.
The University of Munich has given one woman
SCIENCE.
739
permission ‘experimentally’ to attend courses
in geolegy and paleontology. Special courses
for women, which include botany, physics and
chemistry, have been arranged at the Univer-
sity of Gottingen.
THE sum of 460,000 Marks has been appro-
priated by the government for the construction
of a library building for the University of Frei-
burg.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
PRINCIPLES OF MARINE ZOOGEOGRAPHY.
Pror. THEO. GILL* has given a very interest-
ing comparison of his own views of zodgeo-
graphical division of the earth’s surface, espe-
cially of the oceans, and those set forth by
myself in my ‘Grundziige der Marinen Tiergeo-
graphie.’ This comparison is the more inter-
esting since we agree in many points with each
other. Nevertheless, there are some differences
which, as Prof. Gill very properly states, are
chiefly due to the different starting points.
The discussion is consequently directed at once
in a particular direction, and upon this I wish
to lay the greatest stress: namely, upon the
difference between my method of investigation
and that generally employed hitherto. While
the method of Prof. Gill, and of almost all the
other students of zodgeography, is an inductive
one, 7. e., constructing zoogeographical divisions
according to the actual distribution of animals,
I make use of the deductive method, consider-
ing merely the physical laws that govern the
distribution of animals. In what follows I shall
state briefly the reasons which have induced me
to urge a change in the method of zodgeographi-
cal research.
1. Our knowledge of the actual distribution
of marine animals is extremely incomplete; we
do not know the exact limits of the range of
most of the species, so that it is impossible at
present to get a correct idea of the general
features of their distribution, and of the as-
semblage of the different forms of animals in
any particular locality.
2. We cannot derive any divisional limita-
tions of general value from a particular group
*Science N.S. III., No. 66, April 3, 1896, p. 514-
516. 5
740
of animals, since each group is subject to differ-
ent laws. Thus a division obtained by the
study of the prevailing conditions in one group
is often exactly the opposite of that found to
prevail in other groups. From this disagree-
ment arose the continuous dispute between dif-
ferent writers with regard to the number and
the limits of the zodgeographical divisions, each
wishing to transfer the results obtained in his
favorite group to other groups.
3. The actual distribution of animals is the
result of development during the course of the
geological history of the earth. While many
animals show a distribution which corresponds
to the physical conditions of recent times, many
others point clearly to conditions of former
periods, and their distribution is only intelligi-
ble under the supposition that formerly differ-
ent conditions prevailed on the earth.
Thus we should expect that investigations
founded on the actual distribution of animals
are in the first place incomplete, and in the
second the results obtained are contradictory
in many cases. In order to overcome the latter
difficulty, statistical lists of the distribution of
these animals have been prepared showing
which distributional features are most common.
But I object even to these statistics. My first
reason shows clearly that such statistics never
are complete, and it is very dangerous in science
to rely upon statistics deficient in the main
quality by means of which they are useful at
all.
From these considerations I am induced to
use the deductive method, and to construct z00-
geographical divisions according to the differ-
ences in the physical conditions influencing the
distribution of animals. But I remark ex-
pressly, I do not regard such a division of the
earth as the final aim that should be reached in
zoogeography, but only as a means which facili-
tates zodgeographical study. My divisions rép-
resent only a rough sketch of the distribution of the
different conditions of life in recent time. Of
course, these divisions do not agree with those
assigned to animals the range of which is due
to conditions belonging to former times; but
even in such cases my divisions have a decided
advantage. Ifthere are any exceptions in the ac-
tual distribution of certain forms we see at once
SCIENCH.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 72.
that these animals do not follow the general
rules according to which the divisions are con-
ceived, and the knowledge that certain laws do
not control particular cases is a considerable ad-
vantage in revealing the true causes of these
peculiarities. For the whole point or aim of
zoogeographical research is to find out the causes
of the distribution of each animal form.
The above reasons, I think, are sufficient to
demonstrate that my starting point has certain
advantages over that of other students in zo-
égeography. Notwithstanding the results of my
investigations are very similar to these obtained
by Prof. Gill. This is due, I believe, to the ex-
tensive and correct character of his preliminary
work, to the exact and fundamental study of
the actual distribution of certain groups of ani-
mals, and to the full use he has made of the
known facts. On the other hand, I think, Prof.
’ Gill’s method is not so fundamentally different
from mine as it seems to be perhaps according
to his own statement. It is true he ‘prefers
the inductive method’ (p. 515), and his divis-
ions are adapted in some degree to the actual
distribution of certain animals; nevertheless his
chief marine divisions are conceived according
to a physical principle, to the temperature of the
ocean waters, a principle which was first intro-
duced by Dana, and the importance of which is
recognized by Prof. Gill in the concise sentence:
‘Temperature is a prime factor, and land a sec-
ondary, in the distribution of marine animals.’’*
On this point our opinions agree completely,
and thus, I think, our starting points are notso
extremely different, since Prof. Gill in construct-
ing his zodgeographical divisions of the seas pays
due attention to temperature, which is at least
one, and indeed the most important, physical
factor.
With regard to the objections of Prof. Gill to
my life districts, I should like to add here that
I do not fully understand why he says they are
misconceived, since they are framed in contra-
vention of my own principle of continuity. If
all the life districts were continuous, any further
divisions would be impossible and needless, as
is the case in the abyssal (bassalian) district,
and even the discontinuity of the others obliges
*Presidential Address Biol. Soc. Washington, Jan.
19, 1883, p. 39.
May 15, 1896.]
us to make further divisions so as finally to
reach continuous and consistent areal units. I
formed my division into life districts according
to the primary conditions of life, and I never
claimed that all the localities on the earth show-
ing the same primary conditions of life should
be continuous ; I only claimed that the smallest
areal units of zodgeographical division should
be continuous. Different conditions of life have
existed since the beginning of the geological
history of the earth; the secondary divisions
into regions of the marine life districts, which
were formerly continuous in a greater or less
degree, are made according to the topographi-
cal continuity, which was interrupted by the
introduction of climatic differences in much
later times. The assigned districts of life are
old, and during a long time they were the only
zoogeographical divisions of the seas. The dif-
ferent regions of the life districts are of a com-
paratively recent date, and their existence did
not begin until a differentiation of climate took
place.
Prof. Gill further suggests that the life dis-
tricts themselves are of unequal value, and
they should be seggregated into two primary
categories, marine and inland. I agree per-
fectly with this view, as the same view is main-
tained in my book, the title of which reads:
‘Principles of marine zodgeography,’ thus leaving
out of view the consideration of inland districts.
Further, I expressly state (p. 18-20) that the
diagnostic value of my five life districts differs,
for if we were to establish a perfectly philo-
sophical division we should have to introduce
other districts, but only the five named are of
practical value. The fact that the marine life
districts are unequal as regards the number of
subdivisions I cannot consider as an objection
to their correctness. Indeed, in this respect
they are unequal, but if they are unequal in
nature why should we try to correct nature in
proposing a scheme on paper in which the
divisions would appear more equal than they
really are?
Iam glad that Prof. Gill by his remarks has
given me an occasion to state again in a concise
form my reasons for neglecting the inductive
or statistical method in zodgeography. I think
that practical results favor my method, es-
SCIENCE.
741
pecially since there is a remarkable parallelism
in both divisions, Prof. Gill’s and mine. This
fact suggests that an agreement of both is at
least possible, and then, perhaps, some of the
scientific terms of Prof. Gill would have the
priority and should be used, as most of the
‘terms used by me are certainly in that particu-
lar sense of more recent date.
ARNOLD KE. ORTMANN.
PRINCETON COLLEGE, May, 1896.
‘THE CHILD AND CHILDHOOD IN FOLK-
THOUGHT.’
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In the issue of
March 27th Dr. Brinton has dwelled on the lit-
erary merits of Dr. A. F. Chamberlain’s book
‘The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought.’
As, aside from its literary aspirations, the book
is intended as a contribution to Anthropological
Science, I may be permitted to add a few words
from this point of view.
Dr. Brinton has well said that the book rep-
resents a vast amount of compilatory work.
The author deserves our thanks for having
delved in numerous odd books in which we
should hardly expect to find information on the
subject of childhood, and for haying extricated
a considerable number of references from ethno-
logical literature. He has thus largely increased
the available material on studies of childhood.
These references he has conveniently arranged
in a bibliographical index.
While this preparatory work is very meri-
torious, particularly in so far as it refers to un-
common books, the attempt at a scientific ar-
rangement of the material thus obtained does
not appear successful. If scientific description
was the author’s aim it was incumbent upon
him to arrange his material from certain points
of view in a systematic way. If he desired by
inductive methods to investigate certain phe-
nomena it was his duty to array his facts for the
purpose of finding the elements common to all
of them. His book fills neither the one nor the
other requirement.
A characteristic instance of lack of organic
connection is the seventh chapter, ‘ Affection
for Children.’ The subject-matter treated is as
follows: Parental love, thedead child, mother-
hood and infanticide, the dead mother, fatherly
742
affection, kissing, tears, cradles, father and
child.
The sixth chapter, ‘ Primitive Child-Study’
or ‘The Child in the Primitive Laboratory,’ em-
braces the following headings: Licking into
shape, massage, face games, primitive weighing,
primitive measurements, measurements of limbs
and body, tests of efficiency, sleep, heroic treat-
ment.
I believe these two statements show that the
points of view, according to which the author
has codrdinated his material, are based entirely
on considerations foreign to it. This is particu-
larly clear in the sixth chapter. The various
customs collated there have hardly any psycho-
logical connection and can, therefore, not be
held to elucidate in any way the mode of
thought of primitive man. He neither thinks
of studying children—as we are just beginning
to do—nor does he subject them to tests. The
customs recorded by the author are practiced
for a variety of purposes, but, certainly, the
fact that they resemble in a general way tests
which we might apply does not give us a right
to consider them as psychically connected.
Almost the only chapters in which we can
find a connecting idea are the philological ones
with which the book opens. In these the author
makes a compilation of the uses to which the
terms ‘father’ and ‘mother’ have been put by
various people. But here another lack of
the whole work becomes particularly glaring.
The quotations are gleaned without any attempt
at criticism, and much of the material that is of-
ered is not a safe guide to follow, because the
observations and investigations of the writers
referred to were not sufficiently thorough.
The book is an illustration of the dangers
with which the comparative method of anthro-
pological investigation that has come into yogue
during the last quarter of a century is beset.
The fundamental idea of this method, as
outlined by Tylor and in the early writings of
Bastian, is the basis of modern anthropology,
and every anthropologist must acknowledge
its soundness.
But with its growth have sprung up many
collectors who believe that the mere accumula-
tion of more or less similar phenomena will
advance science. In every other science the
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 72.
material on which induction is based is scanned
and scrutinized in the most painstaking manner
before it is admitted as evidence. It is absurd
to believe that anthropology is entitled to dis-
regard this rule, which is acknowledged as
fundamental in all other inductive sciences.
Furthermore, the object of anthropological re-
search being to elucidate psychological laws on
the one hand and to investigate the history of
human culture on the other, we must consider
it a primary requirement that only such phe-
nomena are compared as are derived psycho-
logically or historically from common causes.
How this can be done has been shown by no
one better than by Tylor. Only the common
mistake of attributing any two phenomena that
are somewhat alike to a common cause can ex-
plain the reasoning that led the author to amass
and to place side by side entirely heterogeneous
material.
I believe anthropologists, by silently accept-
ing as a contribution to science a compilation
like the present made on unscientific principles,
will give countenance to the argument that has
been brought so often against anthropology as
a branch of science: namely, that it is lacking
in a well defined scientific method and that,
therefore, it is not equal in rank to other
sciences. FRANZ BOAs.
New York, May ist, 1896.
THE DISCUSSION OF INSTINCT.
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: I have been
much interested in the letters in your columns
on the instinctive activities of young birds. Cer-
tain opinions which I hold—and others that
the writers suppose that I hold—havye been
criticised. To explain my exact position, how-
ever, would occupy more space than I can rea-
sonably ask you to afford me. May I be al-
lowed, therefore, to content myself with stating
that I have in preparation a work on Habit and
Instinct which will, I hope, be published to-
wards the close of this year. There my own
observations will be described and reference
will be made to the work of other observers,
and there the provisional conclusions drawn
from such observations will be discussed. I
desire to make this statement, lest my silence
should be regarded as discourteous in the coun-
\
May 15, 1896.]
try where I met with so much kindness and
such uniform courtesy.
C. Luoyp MorGan.
UNIVERSITY COLLEGE, BRISTOL, ENGLAND.
THE SUBJECT OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
EDITOR ScIENCE: Referring to the review
of my ‘Lehrbuch der Allgemeinen Psychologie’
in your valuable magazine for September, 1895,
which has but recently come to my notice, I
sincerely regret that the reviewer should have
fallen into so manifest an error as to suppose
the ‘subject of consciousness’ of my ‘ Psycho-
logie’ to be equivalent to ‘self-consciousness;’
though he expresses himself with some hesi-
tancy when he says ‘it seems most nearly,’
etc. As I have pointed out in my work, the
misunderstanding is quite apt to arise,.from the
fact that the word ‘subject’ is often used in the
sense of the ‘Ego’ or ‘Self,’ as even shown by
the reviewer when he says, ‘the consciousness
of self or subject.’ But that is just the very
sense in which I do not use the word ‘subject.’
With me, the ‘subject of consciousness’ does
not designate the ‘Ego’ or the ‘conscious men-
tal individual,’ but only its fundamental unify-
ing general abstract element, which always ex-
ists in the closest union with the other element,
which I call attribute of consciousness, and with
which it constitutes the individual unit ‘con-
sciousness’ or ‘conscious individual.’ When
this is distinctly understood it will be impos-
sible to mistake the ‘ subject of consciousness,’
1. e., the psychological foundation of all men-
tality, for ‘self-consciousness,’ which is but a
later development of the individual mind, the
‘mental individual.’ Itis a source of great sat-
isfaction to me to have been the first to call at-
tention to this fundamental unifying element.
I call it ‘subject,’ though I shall gladly give up
the name if any one will suggest another that is
not so liable to be misunderstood. In my ‘ Psy-
chologie’ I lay particular stress upon the fact
that, if this ‘subject’ were not originally present
in mental life as the unifying element, together
with the attributes of consciousness (sensations,
feelings, etc.); if, therefore, as the associationists
think, mental life were possible without a sub-
ject of consciousness, it would be impossible to
explain ‘self-consciousness,’ which makes its
SCIENCE.
743
appearance later; for it is precisely this self-
consciousness, which is based primarily upon
the existence of the ‘subject’ as an element of
consciousness; but for that very reason it is far
from being identical with that ‘subject.’
JOHANNES REHMKE.
| GREIFSWALD, April 16, 1896.
THE PREROGATIVES OF A STATE GEOLOGIST.
Epiror ScrENcE: In connection with the
communication of Dr. Keyes, published in
ScrencE, April 24th, page 365, permit me to say
to any who may have a passing interest in the
subject that I sent the impression paper copy of
the original manuscript to the Editor of ScrencE
with a copy of the publication as it appeared,
with a request that he kept the two for some
months in order that any one wishing to look
into the matter might have an opportunity to
do so and judge for himself whether I wrong-
fully represented matters in my communication
published in Science of April 3d last. I might
also state that I sent Dr. Keyes a copy of the
letter nearly three months before it was pub-
lished, with a statement that I would publish
the same if he did not do something to give me
credit for that which was mine, but which had
been published under his name.
ERASMUS HAWORTH.
A CORRECTION.
Ir is unfortunate that although the figure
from Dr. Miigge’s paper which I reproduced in
SCIENCE last week (p. 698) was expressly marked
‘top’ on one side, it has been inserted upside
down by the compositor. In its present posi-
tion the figure is meaningless and even mislead-
ing. T. A. JAGGAR, JR.
THE ABSOLUTE AND THE RELATIVE.
To THE Epiror oF ScreNcE: Your corre-
spondent ‘M.,’ in the number of ScrENCE for
April 24th, raises a new issue with me; one
which has only an indirect bearing upon the
subject matter of my article on the ‘Illusion
Concerning Rest.’ In that article I attempted
to demonstrate that motion cannot be created
or destroyed by collision, but that the body in
motion can be only deflected thereby. Now
my friend abandons that demonstration and
744
raises another question about the nature of the
absolute and the relative in motion, and shows
that he entertains an illusion concerning rela-
tion. Of this illusion I shall treat hereafter in
another article.
If there was but one particle in the world
having motion it would change place. Sucha
particle does not exist alone, for there is a
multeity of particles; but one particle can be
considered as existing alone. The particle
then would change its place because it had
motion, and one place can be compared with
another; but as in fact there are a multeity of
particles there is also position which is a rela-
tion among particles and we may therefore
define motion as change of position, and as
other particles have motion it isa mutual change
of position. By comparing the one particle
with the many the demonstration of its motion
is perfected. By comparing the motion of a
molar body with the motion of its particles and
also with the motion of the earth it is seen that
molar motion may cease, but that this cessation
does not end its molecular nor its stellar mo-
tions. That a molar body may come to rest
only one of its modes of motion must be de-
stroyed, therefore, rest is not the end of all the
motion of any molar body but only the stoppage
of molar motion. I have pointed out that the
creation of molar motion is the deflection of the
other motions inhering in the body and also
that the destruction of molar motion is also the
deflection of other motions in the body, and no
scientific man will deny these propositions; but
scientific men have believed that the creation
and destruction of molar motion involves not
only deflection, but also under some circum-
stances, though not under all, creates and de-
stroys motion as speed. This I deny and chal-
lenge any scientific man to demonstrate any
creation or destruction of motion; and, more
than that, I claim that Newton’s law of motion
and the doctrine of the persistence of energy
both teach that motion cannot be created or
destroyed.
To define motion as change of position instead
of change of place is advantageous, for scientific
men desire to measure motion both as speed
and as path; but to measure a quantity and
express it, it must be measured in terms of an-
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 72.
other and expressed in terms of another. Thus
it is that science uses the best definitions for
its purposes. I would not write for a scientific
journal if I did not believe that I was making
a contribution to science. In the case of this
series of articles I confidently believe that L
shall make a contribution to psychology. I
desire to explain the nature of certitudes and
illusions by explaining specific certitudes and
illusions, and finally I wish to explain the law
of mental evolution which is the eliminating of
incongruous notions and the criterion for distin-
guishing certitudes from illusions. Now, my
friend need not fear that the bottom will drop
out of any real science.
The illusion concerning relation is a funda-
mental notion in idealism. Those who have
fully thought out idealism in all its conse-
quences, as Kant seems to have done and
Fichte and Hegel surely did, first attempt to
resolve all material phenomena into relations,
then affirm that the only absolute is found in
mind and that all actuality is mind and that
the material universe exists only in thought.
I shall attempt to show the certitudes and illu-
sions contained in this philosophy, and for this
purpose it becomes necessary for me to define,
illustrate and demonstrate the absolute, then
to define, illustrate and demonstrate the rela-
tive, and finally to point out the illusions con-
cerning the absolute and the relative which
have existed and which are especially charac-
teristic of metaphysic, but which sometimes
exist in science.
That which exists in one and is essential to
its existence is absolute, but as there is more
than one, that absolute necessarily becomes
relative because there is more than one. In
the world there is no such thing as a pure
absolute and there is no such thing as a pure
relative. If there is no absolute there is no
world; if there is no relative there is no world.
This is one of the fundamental propositions.
which I am seeking to demonstrate, and for
that purpose I am seeking to point out both
elements, that the phantasy of metaphysic may
be dispelled, and science may not be burdened
with illusions. In my article on rest I tried to
point out one of these illusions which inheres
in all metaphysical reasoning and which lingers.
May 15, 1896.]
in scientific reasoning in spite of the Newtonian
definition of motion and the definitions given to
momentum, energy, force and power. Curious-
ly, I find that even some physicists have not
mastered these definitions and still entertain
the historical illusion concerning the nature of
rest. Ifmy demonstration is studied it will be
accepted only in case it does not conflict with
some other notion, as that about the nature of
relation.
Finally, let me present three other proposi-
tions: First, to produce rest in one body it is
necessary to transmute one mode of motion
into another; second, to produce a new mode of
motion it is necessary to transmute a part or
the whole of some other mode of motion. Both
of these definitions are included in the axiom
which I have previously given, that motion
cannot be created or destroyed. Third, if mo-
tion is not both absolute and relative it does
not exist. J. W. POWELL.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
Life, Letters and Works of Louis Agassiz. By
JuLES MArcov. With Illustrations. Two
volumes. New York, Macmillan & Co. 1896.
Pp. 302, 318.
Mrs. Agassiz’s life of her illustrious husband
has always been considered a model of what
such a biography should be, full and minute
where the matters were important, brief where
they were trivial, and composed by elimination
rather than agglomeration, so that the effect is
massive and interesting from first to last. Mr.
Marcou seems to have aimed at muchness of
matter rather than excellence of form, and the
result is a very different sort of book, realistic
and abounding in traits vifs, but pervaded by a
curious commonness of tone, and by a lack of
style rather odd ina Frenchman. In his eager-
ness to supply every detail of date, place, per-
sons present etc., where events are recounted,
too many pages are filled with mere statistical
enumeration.
Too much is said of individuals who play
subordinate parts in the narrative, and who
ought either to have been subordinated still
more or made more interesting by becoming
more prominent. Any attempt on the part of
an outsider to give an in-door view, a view en
SCIENCE.
745
robe de chambre, so to speak, of a man whose
family is still living, savors ofa certain bad taste,
and the strained air of familiarity on Mr. Mar-
cow’s part ends by displeasing the reader the
more, as it frequently appears to be an appear-
ance of knowingness rather than a real knowl-
edge, where minor events and personages are
considered.
It offends most in the author’s handling of
certain persons who, having once been co-
workers with Agassiz, had in one way or an-
other ceased to be his friends. Human nature,
even when in the wrong, demands something
more than this off-hand contemptuous treat-
ment, or else Something less in the way of
space taken up. The book, moreover, is written
most disjointedly, is full of repetitions, and its
comments on Agassiz’s zoological philosophy
are sadly beneath the level of the subject. But
in spite of these defects—and they are truly
grave ones—Mr. Marcou has evidently taken
great pains with his volumes, and has achieved
a result which probably comes quite near that
at which he aims. In spite of his non-idealiz-
ing temperament, he genuinely admires his
hero; and what with his facts, his broader ap-
preciations, and all his little dabs and touches,
the reader gets at last a picture of Agassiz
which is both vivid and realistic, and awakens
sympathetic admiration far more than any
other kind of comment. Agassiz’s personality
was indeed so immense, his passions so over-
powering, his enthusiasms so magnificent, his
sociability and friendliness so great, that no
other result was possible. His life, in all its
phases, becomes inevitably a sort of heroic
romance. Never was there so glorious a youth.
At 20 he was a great collecting naturalist. At
22, whilst a student at Munich, he had pub-
lished his folio describing Spix’s collection of
Brazilian fishes. At 23 he had begun work on
his Histoire Naturelle des Poissons. At 26 his
Recherches sur les Poissons fossiles began to ap-
pear. At 30 he had proved the ‘ Glacial Epoch’
and received the Wollaston medal from the
Geological Society—a unique honor for so
youngaman. Mr. Marcou catalogues 43 pub-
lications from his pen, many of them of the
first order of magnitude, before his 31st year.
And all this with no basis of support but his
746
absolute devotion to natural history and faith
in his own powers. At Munich, with his
naturalist student friends, ‘‘ almost everything
was enjoyed in common; work, pleasure, jour-
neys, pipes, beer, purses, clothes, ideas, political
and philosophical, or poetical, and even liter-
ary. In fact, it was a constant, enthusiastic,
intellectual life, lived at high pressure, lacking
in nothing; not even student-duels, and esca-
pades of a more riotous nature after grand
“Kommers.’ Agassiz enjoyed, among the stu-
dents, the reputation of being the best fencer
in the various students’ clubs * * *. Strange
to say, with an allowance of only $250 a year,
[he] managed constantly to keep in his pay an
artist, Dinkel, to draw fossil and living fishes,
and occasionally a second artist, Weber, to
draw the Spix fishes and pieces of anatomy.
They formed a sort of fraternal association.
As Agassiz said, ‘They were even poorer than
I, and so we managed to get along together.’
Their fare was certainly very simple, bread,
cheese, beer and tobacco being the main articles.
Imagine Agassiz, with his scanty allowance,
providing for two artists, besides Carl Schimper
and his younger brother, William Schimper.
To be sure, Alexander Braun helped much
also. But if we suppose that Braun got $300 a
year from his father, six young men, between
the ages of twenty and twenty-five, had to live
upon less than $600 a year, out of which, also,
they had to pay for their studies at the Uni-
versity and provide themselves with instru-
ments and books and clothing. Agassiz got a
little money from the ‘Brazilian fishes’ and
some other writing, with which he purchased a
microscope—a rather expensive instrument—
and several books; and he received, as a gift,
from Prof. Dollinger, a copy of the finely illus-
trated work on living fishes by the great French
ichthyologist, Rondelet, of Montpelier. The
editor Cotta sent him also a considerable num-
ber of expensive natural history books. * * *
His room was used as lecture-room, assembly-
hall, laboratory and museum. Some one was
always coming or going. The half-dozen chairs
were covered with books, piled one upon an-
other, hardly one being left for use, and visitors
were frequently obliged to remove books and
put them on the floor; the bed also was used as
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 72.
a seat, and as a receptacle for specimens,-
drawings and papers. According to Agassiz,
the tobacco smoke was sometimes so thick that
it might have been cut with a knife. Agassiz
was the most prominent among the students.
His acquaintance was courted by all. * * *
He was considered a most amiable companion,
never losing his temper, always smiling and
apparently contented and happy. * * * *
There is no other example of such a rapid
rise to great scientific reputation as Agassiz en-
joyed in his thirtieth year. * * * His power of
classifying fossils and his success in reducing to
order thousands of specimens of fishes, a great
many of which were perfect puzzles to every-
one, were simply marvellous; and he worked
at his herculean task as no man but a man of
genius could have done.’’ (Vol. I., pp. 25, 113.)
Probably no one again will ever have as vast
an acquaintance with living things as Agassiz
possessed. No man will love Nature’s forms
more passionately. But biological science now
expects more help from what the pedagogues
call ‘intensive’ than from ‘extensive’ study,
and her progress will for the present probably
consist more in the unravelling of causes and
conditions than in the description of new sur-
face facts. Agassiz is the last of the type of
great naturalists who took the individual forms
of Nature at their simple surface value as living
wholes. Causal laws have their nobility of out-
look too, but it is of more abstract and sadder
sort. ‘Die Form ist zerbrochen, von Aussen
herein,’ we may say with the poet, when we
come to deal with recent speculative biology;
and those thoughts of God that Agassiz con-
ceived himself to read off so easily were no
doubt in form at least more like the real
thoughts of God, in being intuitions of fully
concrete facts, than are those poor naked forces
and processes and logical elements of things
with which our later science deals. Some day
our descendants may get round to that higher
way of looking at Nature again. Meanwhile
from this book, as from every possible book
about Agassiz, there floats up a breath as of the
morning of life, that makes defects of taste and
small in accuracies seem of little account. We
recommend it therefore to our readers cordially
enough.
May 15, 1896.]
Fear. ANGELO Mosso. Translated from the
fifth edition of the Italian by E. Lough and
F. Kiesow. London, New York and Bombay,
Longmans, Green & Co. 1896. Pp. 278.
Prof. Mosso is one of the most eminent of
modern physiologists, and he is an Italian.
This book bears ample witness to both facts.
It is largely occupied with descriptions of the
author’s ingenious experiments on the cerebral
blood-supply, and is written with naive open-
ness, eloquence and assurance that read more
oddly in the English translation than in the
original Italian. :
The book not only describes the emotions,
but also expresses them and appeals to them.
It contains graphic descriptions of convivial
feasts and death-bed scenes, even of a syphili-
tic woman and of a head cut off from the body.
We are told of the author’s feelings at his
mother’s grave and on which side of the face
his sister blushes. The book is expressly in-
tended for the general public, but will probably,
in the Anglo-Saxon race at least, contribute
less to its instruction than to the morbid appe-
tite already sufficiently fed by the daily news-
papers.
The first half of the book discusses chiefly the
functions of the brain and spinal cord, and
more especially the relation of the circulation
of the blood to emotional disturbances. It is
well known that we owe to Prof. Mosso the
method of measuring the decrease in the vol-
ume of the extremities of the body due to con-
gestion of the brain when it is excited by
mental activity, the balance showing the move-
ment of blood to the brain, and many other im-
portant investigations on cerebral circulation.
Mosso’s work in this field is of much value and
originality, and it is an advantage to have it ac-
cessible in English, even though the method of
presentation is not very systematic nor scien-
tific.
The second half of the book is concerned
chiefly with the expression of the emotions, not
being confined exclusively to fear. Mosso argues
against the view that the expression of the emo-
tions must of necessity be useful to the individ-
ual. As the translation makes him say ‘ Spencer
and Darwin were not physiologists enough.’
It is undoubtedly true that certain expressions
SCIENCE.
747
of the emotions are pathological. Trembling,
as an effect of fright, is probably no more useful
to the individual than paralysis agitans. There
are evident limits to the adaptability of the
organism. The nervous system best suited to
respond to ordinary stimuli may and does fail
in the presence of unusual conditions. Mosso
does not accept Mantegazza’s extraordinary
theory that a frightened animal trembles to keep
its blood warm, but he holds that this is the rea-
son why its hair stands on end!
The psychology in the book is not such as to
warrant serious criticism. Mosso writes:
“We imagine that the impressions of the external
world form a current which penetrates the nerves,
and without either abatement or check, diffuses and
transforms itself in the centers, finally reappearing in
the sublime form of the idea ; this is the notion of
the soul held by the philosophers of remote an-
tiquity ; this is the base of modern psychology.”’
Indeed, the book does not appear quite con-
temporary ; there is no discussion of the relation
between pain and sensation, nor of the James-
Lange theory of emotions, according to which
the expression is the cause of the emotion and
not conversely. The heredity of acquired
characters is taken as a matter of course. We
are told ‘‘ civilization has remodeled our nerve-
centers ; there is a culture which heredity trans-
mits to the brains of our children.”’
The reader who looks for an index will find
in its place a twenty-four page catalogue of
Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co.’s publications.
J. McKEEN CATTELL.
Naturwissenschaftliche Einfiihrung in die Bak-
teriologie: By FERDINAND HUEPPE, Univer-
sity of Prague. 268 pp. OC. W. Kheidel,
Wiesbaden, Pub.
Books upon bacteriological technique have
been somewhat common in recent years but
nothing has hitherto appeared, which, leaving
out laboratory methods and systematic details,
gives asummary of the important discoveries
of modern bacteriology. The reputation of the
author of the present work as one of the leaders
in modern bacteriology is a sufficient guarantee
of its value from a scientific standpoint, and the
subjects treated are a sufficient guarantee of its
interest. To one who wishes to know what
bacteriology has accomplished and what prob-
748
lems are still undergoing solution nothing can
serve better than this outline of Prof. Hueppe.
Beginning with a brief yet complete treat-
ment of the morphology of bacteria and their
relations to other groups of plants, the author
passes to a consideration of their relations to
their environment. Valuable sections are given
upon the effects of light, temperature, oxygen,
poisons, etc. He treats of the effect which
bacteria have upon the medium in which they
are growing, of the products to which they
give rise, as well those produced by the de-
composition of the culture medium as those pro-
duced by synthesis and as secretions. He deals
of the subject of the food necessary for the life
of the various organisms, and in this section, in
short, gives a general survey of the relations of
bacteria to the environment, thus indicating
how and why they may play an important part
in nature’s processes.
A summary of the relations of bacteria to
diseases follows. The different types of germ
diseases are distinguished and their relations
to micro-organisms. The discussion is more
than a simple collection of facts. It brings into
prominence the distinction between strictly
pathogenic bacteria and those which are patho-
genic only under special conditions, between
those which are always injurious and thus
strictly parasites, and those which are normal
harmless occupants of the human body, but
which occasionally produce trouble. It empha-
sizes the personal factor in the matter of infec-
tion or in preventing the invading organisms
from developing. The discussion can hardly
fail to clear our notions, since it gives a sharp
and happy summary of our present knowledge
of the relation of various diseases to parasites
and of the individual to the infecting bacteria.
The most novel and original part of the book
is the somewhat extended discussion of the
causes of disease and the methods which bac-
teriology is promising as a means of meeting
the various diseases. This subject is too com-
prehensive and too condensed for summary.
The author finds the potent cause of disease
rather in the organism itself, looking upon the
pathogenic organism simply asa stimulus. He
succeeds well in disentangling the miscellaneous
confusing facts which have accumulated in the
SOIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 72.
last few years upon the matter of toxines, anti-
toxines, protective and curative serums, immu-
nity, etc., reducing the subject to something
like logical completeness. In this section we
see much more than simple compilation of facts
and can recognize the author’s personality in the
method of treatment. Even Prof. Hueppe,
however, is not able to reduce this matter to
anything like clear logic, since our present
knowledge is so largely filled with lacune.
At best, the matter of immunity and toxines
must be left with many questions. It is impos-
sible to read this discussion of toxines and anti-
toxines, nucleins, phagocytosis, active and pas-
Sive immunity, ete., without having a better
notion of the proper bearing of the different
phases of the subject. ;
This work of Prof. Hueppe is useful to two
classes of readers. Those who are not bacteri-
ologists, but who desire to learn the general
facts which the last quarter of a century has
discovered, will find here a brief but intelligible
summary. Those who are already familiar
with the general facts will, perhaps, find the
book of even more value in giving a clear and
simplified conception of the various confusing
facts which have so rapidly accumulated in re-
cent years. H. W. Conn.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
THE ASTROPHYSICAL JOURNAL, APRIL.
THE opening article, by Prof. J. Wilsing, con-
tains a short discussion of previous papers on
the law of the sun’s rotation. The differential
currents on the sun’s surface are shown to be
results of earlier conditions of motion, and can
be destroyed by internal friction only. The
least time in which changes of the surface cur-
rents would become perceptible is calculated to
be millions of years.
In a report on solar observations for the
second half of 1895, by Prof. Tacchini, there is
shown a continued decrease in the number of
spots, with a secondary minimum in November.
_ There was a disproportionate decrease in
prominences with a minimum in October.
In discussing the spectrum of Mars, Prof.
Lewis E. Jewell contends that spectroscopic
proof of the presence or absence of water in the
May 15, 1896.}
atmosphere of Mars must be regarded as unat-
tainable. With reference to oxygen, its presence
might possibly be detected: if present to the
amount of a quarter that in the earth’s atmo-
sphere.
In an article on A New Form of Refractom-
eter, Mr. C. Pulfrich describes one with a
scope of application including almost all quan-
titative investigations on refraction and dis-
persions at varying temperatures. Its essential
features consist ofa 90° prism, one face of which,
turned upward and made horizontal, is brought
in contact with the object to be investigated,
while through the vertical face is observed the
boundary line limiting the light which, after
passing through the object, enters the prism
under grazing incidence.
The latest article in the series on the ‘ Modern
Spectroscope’ is by Professor Newall. It is a
description of the new Bruce spectroscope con-
stituted for the Cambridge observatory. The
instrument is unique in being designed solely
for photographing spectra of the fainter stars
and in haying no provision made for visual mi-
crometric measurements. A single white-flint
prism is used, giving a spectrum of 20mm. in
length between Hf and K, or, with a telephoto-
combination, a spectrum of about 44mm.
Other articles are, ‘Light Curves of Variable
Stars Determined Photometically,’ by Edward
C. Pickering; ‘The Are Spectra of Rhodium
Ruthenium and Palladium,’ by Henry A. Row-
land and Robert R. Tatnall.
Among the minor contributions is found a con-
cise summary of the properties of the X-rays
and a comparison of them with those of light
and cathode rays; and a recommendation that,
in place of mercury as a reflecting surface for
sextant and other work, a dark cylinder oil be
used, such as may be procured of any locomotive
engineer. It is freer from vibration, cheaper,
lighter to carry, and easier to obtain in out-of-
the-way places.
THE AMERICAN GEOLOGIST, MAY.
The Genus Temnocyon and a New Species thereof
and the New Genus Hypotemnodon, from the John
Day Miocene of Oregon: By JOHN EYERMAN.
The new species described is Temnocyon ferox,
of which a very complete and detailed descrip-
SCIENCE. 749
tion is given. The new genus Hypotemnodon is
proposed for the reception of Cope’s Temnocyon
corypheeus.
Early Pleistocene Deposits of Northern Illinois :
By O. H. HersHEy. The author discusses the
glacial geology of a part of northern Illinois, es-
pecially the Pecatonica valley, in which was
formed a glacial lake named Lake Pecatonica.
Ona Supposed Discovery of the Antenne of Tribo-
lites by Linneus in 1759: By C. EB. BEECHER.
In the Geological Magazine for March, Térnquist
calls attention to a discovery, by Linnzeus, of the
antennee of Parabolina spinulosa, which has ap-
parently been overlooked by later workers.
Dr. Beecher not only shows that this discovery
has not only been overlooked, but also that
what Linnzeus considered as antennee are not
antennee at all.
The Deposition of Gold in South Africa: By S.
CzyszkowskI. (Translated by H. V. WIN-
CHELL.) The theories advanced by de Launay,
Jules Garnier and others to explain the origin
of the auriferous beds of South Africa are not
in all respects acceptable. Instead of the con-
temporaneous deposition of gold and mechanical
sediments of conglomeratic nature it is held by
M. Czyszkowski that the gold was introduced
by mineral waters circulating through the po-
rous strata subsequent to their consolidation, and
as an accompaniment of a period of general
earth movements and eruptive phenomena. The
auriferous strata are believed to occupy syn-
clinal basins in which the gold ores have been
developed in favorable situations. Summarized
descriptions of the geology of South Africa are
given, and several comparisons are made be-
tween these ore deposits and those of Spain.
The introduction of the gold is believed to have
been of Carboniferous age, and prior to the for-
mation of the Cape diamonds. From a more
detailed discussion of the geological structure of
the several Transvaal districts it is inferred, on
the one hand, that the ore deposits may be far
from inexhaustible ; while, on the other hand,
it is shown that there are many more geological
conditions and other horizons which appear to
be favorable for the concentration of gold ores,
and where explorations may be conducted with
profit.
Minerals and the Rontgen Rays: By W.G. Mr1i-
700
LER. Theauthor presents some notes on X-ray
photographs of minerals and thin sections of
rocks ; the article is accompanied by an illus-
tration.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS.
AT a meeting of the Academy on May 4th
Prof. Nipher read a preliminary paper on A
Rotational Motion of the Cathode Disc of the
Crookes Tube.
He had been studying the change in the char-
acter of the Crookes effects due to long contin-
ued operation. It was observed that the cath-
ode disc of aluminum was slightly loose, and
that it was rocking to and fro in rotary motion
on the aluminum wire. It finally became loos-
ened and started into a slow rotation. The
motion was a halting one, as the disc was out
of balance and the bearings were rough. When
stopped by pinching in the bearing, it began to
struggle and rock against the restraint and
would finally become loosened again and con-
tinue its motion.
It was impossible to either accelerate or re-
tard the motion by powerful bar magnets, ap-
plied as in Barlow’s wheel. Change in position
with respect to the earth’s field or the induc-
tion coil produced no effect on the rotation.
Looking at the disc from the point where the
cathode wire enters the tube, the disc rotates
counter clockwise. The brush discharge of a
Holtz machine yielded even better results than
the induction coil when the leading conductors
were separated by spark intervals.
The rotation has not yet been obtained be-
tween spark terminals in air of ordinary pres-
sure nor when the movable disc forms the
anode, but work on these points is not yet con-
cluded.
Prof. Nipher stated that the experimental
evidence thus far indicates that the effect is due
to action and reaction between the cathode
plate and the radiant matter. If so, the radiant
matter starts from the disc in a vortex, whose
axis passes through the dark spots opposite the
dise faces. It may also be due to direct action
and reaction between the dise and the surround-
ing field due to the current. He is now haying
apparatus constructed which will determine be-
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 72.
tween the possible explanations. Prof. Nipher
stated that he had long sought some experi-
mental basis for imposing a condition of rota-
tion upon the equations for force and potential
within a wire conductor. Without such term
the equations lead to absurd results.
Dr. E. C. Runge described an interesting case
of insanity, unrecognized for twenty-eight years.
WILLIAM TRELEASE,
Recording Secretary.
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.—SECTION OF
ANTHROPOLOGY, PSYCHOLOGY AND
PHILOLOGY.
Tue Academy met on April 27th, with Presi-
dent Stevenson in the chair, and proceeded to
organize the new Sectionin Anthropology, Psy-
chology and Philology. Prof. N. M Butler was
chosen temporary chairman.
Prof. F. H. Giddings was nominated and
elected Permanent Chairman of the section; Dr.
Livingston Farrand, Secretary of the sub-sec-
tion of Anthropology and Psychology, and Prof.
A. Y. Williams Jackson, Secretary of the sub-
section of Philology. The officers were elected
for a term that will end at the annual meeting
of the Academy, and it was resolved that the
two sub-sections meet in alternate months.
Prof. F. H. Giddings read a paper on A Plan
for the Systematic Study of tribally organized So-
cieties, which will be printed in SCIENCE.
Prof. J. McKeen Cattell described a Method
for Determining Photometric Differences by the
Time of Perception. A series of gray surfaces
was exhibited making over 200 nearly equal
shades between black and white. The shades
are so nearly alike that they cannot be distin-
guished with certainty, and when the observer
attempts to sort them out in order an error of
displacement occurs which measures his accur-
acy of discrimination. With nine observers the
error varied from 6.04 to 11.05, the average
being 8.1, from which it follows that about 25
shades can be distinguished between black and
white. The relation of the error of observation
to the brightness of the light was shown. The
speaker further described experiments now be-
ing carried out with the same gray surfaces, in
which the time it takes to distinguish the differ-
ence between two sensations is used to measure
May 15, 1€96.]
the amount of difference in intensity between
the sensations.
Dr. Livingston Farrand, in a paper on Primi-
tive Education, discussed methods of training
and general education among primitive peoples
in their bearings on primitive conceptions of
morality, taking up the general condition of the
child in the savage community and more par-
ticularly the relations of the child and parent.
The question of education was discussed
under three heads: (1) the natural training
which the child obtains by natural reaction on
his environment and without definite instruction
by his elders; (2) the practical education where
the child is definitely instructed in the arts
which will be of use to him in his later, life and
(3) his ethical education. Attention was called
to certain phases of the subject where observa-
tions are particularly faulty or altogether want-
ing.
Dr. Franz Boas spoke on the Correlations of
Anthropometric Measurements. He pointed out
that when any two biological measurements are
considered as correlated, and individuals show-
ing a certain value of the first measurement
are grouped together, then the average of the
values of the second measurement for the
group of individuals will also be changed, but
to a less degree than the first. When, how-
ever, the grouping of individuals is made ac-
cording to social aspects, then all the measure-
ments change either proportionately or according
to laws differing from the one quoted before, the
reason being that in the second grouping a cer-
tain set of causes influence all the measurements
inthe same manner. By applying this principle
it is possible inversely to determine social
causes that produce certain anthropometric pe-
culiarities, as in groupings which are made ac-
cording to the proportions and to the absolute
values of measurements combined, the social
classes will be represented in varying propor-
tions. LIVINGSTON FARRAND,
Secretary of Sub-section.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB
WEDNESDAY EVENING, APRIL 29, 1896.
THE Club met as usual in Hamilton Hall,
with President Brown in thechair. There were
present 64 persons.
SCIENCE.
751
Dr. Britton reported a successful field meet-
ing at Prince’s Bay, 8. I., on April 25th, it
being the first of the season.
Major Timothy E. Wilcox’s paper, ‘ Botaniz-
ing in Arizona,’ was then read. It was drawn
from experience during four years residence at
Fort Huachuca and was devoted to climate, sea-
sons and topography, as well as descriptions of
some of the little known plants of that locality.
Botany was treated from an economic stand-
point as well as otherwise. Lantern slides from
original photographs were exhibited. Also
slides showing other scenes were introduced.
Mr. Cornelius Van Brunt then rapidly showed
a number of colored lantern slides of plants
growing in Central Park, accompanying them
with short descriptions and anecdotes. Most
of these slides had not been exhibited before.
Mr. Van Brunt described the method of coloring
these slides by the use of aniline colors applied
by hand. W. A. BASTEDO,
Secretary pro. tem.
GEOLOGICAL CONFERENCE OF HARVARD UNI—
VERSITY, APRIL 14, 1896.
On the Function and Systematic Importance of the
Aptychus in Ammonites. By C. R. EASTMAN.
The speaker described the nature and mode
of occurrence of the aptychus, and exhibited
several specimens with the aptychus preserved
in the so-called ‘normal position’ and also di-
rectly at the aperture. The numerous theories
regarding its function were discussed, principal
attention being paid to the nidamental and
operculate theories. The Dundry, Crimean
and Solenhofen specimens described by Owen,
Retowski and Michael, respectively, were next
discussed, and these were shown to prove, be-
yond all doubt, the operculate function of the
aptychus. The fact that aptychi do not repre-
sent the calcified head cartilage of Dibran-
chiates was used as an argument against Iher-
ing’s proposition for associating Ammonites
with the latter group. The viviparous habit of
Ammonites, as indicated by the discovery of a
number of minute aptychi and shells within the
living chamber of Oppelia steraspis was com-
mented upon, and attention called to the fact
that in the Upper Jurassic Ammonites, which
were then entering upon their decline, the de-
velopment of the aptychus was initiated in the
earliest shelled condition. The affinities be-
tween the Ammonites and Dibranchiates were
shown to be on the whole very close, yet the
evidence furnished by their internal structure
and shell development is so strongly in favor of
the Tetrabranchiate character of Ammonites
that their separation from the Nautiloids seems
at present unwarranted.
The Quartz Porphyry and Associated Rocks of
Pequawket Mountain (the eastern ‘ Kearsarge’
of New Hampshire). By R. A. Daty.
Both of the geological surveys of New Hamp-
shire noted the presence of the remarkable flow
breccia outcropping on what was long called
‘Pequawket Mountain.’ The second survey
placed it in their table of formations under the
name of the ‘ Pequawket Breccia.’ The moun-
tain is chiefly composed ofa typical quartz por-
phyry in which inclusions of various rocks lie
embedded. The object of this paper was pri-
marily to present the results of an examination
of a large number of microscopic slides prepared
with the purpose of tracing the extent to which
the inclusions had suffered from the metamor-
phism of the igneous body. The great slate
mass on the south side of Kearsarge, is a gi-
gantic horse in the poryhyry. It is about four
hundred yards long from east to west and one
hundred and fifty wide and lies close against
the contact of the older ‘Albany Granite.’ On
the border of the slate, severe breceiation has
been produced, some phases being composed
entirely of aggregated slate fragments, others
with a variable proportion of quartz porphyry
cement. Throughout the mountain small in-
clusions of the same phyllitic slate, from two
feet to a fraction of an inch in diameter, are ex-
ceedingly numerous. Now, the striking fact in
connection with them is the almost absolute
lack of metamorphic change which has affected
these fragments. The great horse of the south
side does not betray any marginal alteration,
except in the physical way already noted. This
is a marked exception to the general conclusion
of Lacroix that chemical rearrangement is usual
in bodies enclosed within volcanic rocks of his
‘trachytoide’ type. (Mem. de I institut de
France t. XX XI., 1894, p. 81.) Itisall the more
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 72.
remarkable on account of the fact that the field-
evidence shows the porphyry to be not a
surface flow, but the filling of a neck where we
should expect high temperatures and pressures
and the presence of mineralizers to have pro-
duced extensive alteration.
The contemporaneous porphyry of Moat.
Mountain is in a similar tectonic relation and is
likewise filled with inclusions of the same gen-
eral nature as those of Kearsarge. Here also
the metamorphism is almost nil. It is of inter-
est to note that the base is not vitro-phyric as
in the Kearsarge rock, but granophyric with
accessory crystalline ingredients. Besides the
phenocrystic quartzes and microperthitic feld-
spars, the rock is composed of a dense micro-
granitic matrix of quartz and feldspar, with
abundant minute grains of hornblende, titanite,
zircon, apatite and primary fluorite. This com-
position allies the rock closely to the ‘ Albany
Granite,’ which is, in part, the country rock of
these porphyries.
The eruptions occurred after the last im-
portant White Mountain uplift. The eruptives
are not squeezed, and their inclusions are, in
part, derived from the crystalline schists, of
the Montalban terranes. The slates, sand-
stones and phyllites probably represent masses
which have sunk to their present level in the
vent from the superficial zone of minimum
metamorphism during the mountain building.
It is, however, conceivable that they might
have been carried up from a zone which lay be-
low the level of no strain at the time of plica-
tion.
T. A. JAGGAR, JR.,
Recording Secretary.
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Av the regular meeting, on April 25th, the
following papers were presented, both being ex-
tensively illustrated with photographs of build-
ings in various parts of the world and plans and
designs for the Capitol and Executive Mansion
in Washington, the one by Wm. Martin Aiken
on the ‘Influence of Climate on Architecture,’
and the other by Mr. Glenn Brown on ‘ Early
Government Architecture.’
BERNARD R. GREEN,
Secretary.
g
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Fripay, May 22, 1896.
CONTENTS :
A Successful Trial of the Aerodrome: S. P. LANG-
iiopy, JN, (Gary ATE CNT IBIDIOIIh oogesqnocdxocnap9bHpE000D005000 753
The Development of Exogenous Structure in the Paleo-
Williamson and Renault: DAVID WHITE......... 754
The Embankments of the River Poe: FRANK D.
JNDASIBS ooococpso0sqs0onsass0s0qn0s000nGdoEoDEdEBDG9G0n00R 90
Measuring Hallucinations: E. W. SCRIPTURE......
Habits of Phrynosoma........c..0..006
Lord Kelvin on the Metric System.....
Notes on Agriculture and Horticulture :—
The Prevention of Smut in Oats; Bacteriosis of
Carnations: BYRON D. HALSTED .............0500. 767
Current Notes on Anthropology :—
Race and Disease; Buddha-like Figures in Amer-
ica and Elsewhere: D. G. BRINTON........2.2.0065 767
Current Notes on Meteorology :—
Hurricanes in Jamaica ; The Climate of Venezuela ;
A Quick Voyage across the Pacific; A Tornado in
New Jersey: R. DEC. WARD.............0eseceeeeee 768
Scientifie Notes and News :—
Annual Report of the Geological Survey ; Fish
Culture ; Recent Chemical Progress; The Marine
Biological Laboratory ; The Zoological Society of
JbeMnChoD§ GCXAWEREs00000000800000000000000000000090900000000 770
University and Educational News...........:0..ceeeeeeee 776
Discussion and Correspondence :—
The Significance of Anomalies : THOMAS DWIGHT.
‘Progress in American Ornithology, 1886-95? J.
A. ALLEN. ‘What is Truth?’ W. K. BROOKS.
Three Subcutaneous Glandular Areas of Blarina
Brevicauda: Ewuiorr Cours. Instinct: WES-
LEY MILs. Notes on the Perception of Distance :
H. M. Stanuey. Zhe Mammoth Bed at Morea,
Pa.: E. H. WILLIAMS, JR. A Meteor: T. L.
CASEY. X-Ray Photography by Means of the
Camera, The Rotating Cathode: F. E. NIPHER...776
Scientific Literature :-—
Goode’s Principles of Museum Administration : W.
N. Rice. Landauer’s Spectrum Analysis : C.E.M.783
Scientifie Journals :—
The Journal of Gleology.....s.c.ceseceesssecescnverecssene 785
Societies and Academies :—
Geological Conference of Harvard University: T.
A. JAGGAR, JR. New York Academy of Sciences,
Section of Astronomy and Physics: W.HALLOCK.
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia:
Epw. J. NOLAN. Northwestern University Science
(Off1b 8 IN Tis (CHEQYONS GosdaoboosonnppdepoD9oDDoDD00000000 786
INGWHBOOKS Menereneacr eee cee cececcoeece erseectcecsceveceemecs 788
MSS. intended for publication and books etc., intended
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
A SUCCESSFUL TRIAL OF THE AERODROME.
Tur editor of Science has received the
following letters containing an announce-
ment of great scientific and practical im-
portance:
Tuer Eprror or Scrence—Dear Sir: After
having published some investigations in
aerodynamics (‘Experiments in Aerody-
namics’ and ‘The Internal Work of the
Wind’), I have made further experiments
on the practical application of these conclu-
sions, in the construction of an actual
aerodrome or flying machine, upon a scale
sufficient to admit of the employment of a
steam engine of between one and two-horse
power. I have never given any account of
these experiments, as I have wished first
to attain such a complete control of
the flight as would insure its being auto-
matically directed in a horizontal course,
in any desired azimuth ; but in view of the.
demands upon my time, which render it
uncertain how far I can continue my per-~
sonal attention to the completion of this
object, I have yielded to the request of my
754
valued friend, Mr. Graham Bell, to author-
ize the publication of a general statement
of the results thus far obtained.
Let me add, in explanation, that the scale
of the construction did not admit of any
apparatus for condensing the steam or
economizing the water, which, therefore,
could only be carried in sufficient quantity
for a very short flight. This difficulty is
peculiar to the scale on which the experi-
ment is conducted, and does not present
itself in a larger construction.
Professor Bell has shown me his letter,
which follows.
Very respectfully yours,
8. P. Lanetery.
WASHINGTON, D. C., May 12, 1896.
THE Epiror or ScrencE—Dear Sir: Last
Wednesday, May 6th, I witnessed a very
remarkable experiment with Prof. Lang-
ley’s aerodrome on the Potomac River; in-
deed, it seemed to me that the experiment
was of such historical importance that it
should be made public.
Iam not at liberty to give an account of
all the details, but the main facts I have
Professor Langley’s consent for giving you,
and they are as follows: ;
The aerodrome or ‘flying machine’ in
question, was of steel, driven by a steam
engine. It resembled an enormous bird,
soaring in the air with extreme regularity
in large curves, sweeping steadily upward
in a spiral path, the spirals with a diameter
of perhaps 100 yards, until it reached a
height of about 100 feet in the air at the
end of a course of about half a mile, when
the steam gave out, the propellors which
had moved it stopped, and then, to my
further surprise, the whole, instead of
tumbling down, settled as slowly and grace-
fully as it is possible for any bird to do,
touched the water without any damage,
and was immediately picked out and ready
to be tried again.
SCIENCH.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 73.
A second trial was like the first, except
that the machine went in a different direc-
tion, moving in one continuous gentle as-
cent as it swung around in circles, like a
great soaring bird. At one time it seemed
to be in danger as its course carried it over
a neighboring wooded promontory, but ap-
prehension was immediately allayed as it
passed 25 or 30 feet above the tops of the
highest trees there, and ascending still fur-
ther its steam finally gave out again, and
it settled into the waters of the river, not
quite a quarter of a mile from the point at
which it arose.
No one could have witnessed these ex-
periments without being convinced that the
practicability of mechanical flight had been
demonstrated.
Yours very truly,
ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL.
1331 CoNNECTICUT AVENUE,
WASHINGTON, D. C., May 12, 1896.
THE DEVELOPMENT OF EXOGENOUS STRUC-
TURE IN THE PALEOZOIC LYCOPODS—A
SUMMARY OF THE RESEARCHES OF
WILLIAMSON AND RENAULT.
Tue fact of the occurrence of exogenous
structure in the Lycopodinex, Equisetinese
and some of the ferns of the Carboniferous
age is in itself hardly less remarkable and
interesting than is the variety of phases un-
der which this structure makes its appear-
ance. It would seem that during the rapid
differentiation and modification of vascular
plants at the time of the great coal forma-
tion, plants of these lower classes played
fast and loose with exogeny, shaping in fan-
tastic and capricious designs a structure
that is now the garb of the most exalted
classes. Even within the boundaries of the
Lepidodendra and the Sigillarie the diversity
is so great that while some species show no
secondary growth at all, others, especially
among the Sigillariv, are so highly organ-
ized that the followers of the Brongniartian
May 22, 1896.]
school still range them by the side of the
Gymnosperms.
As representing the latest stage in the
progress of knowledge concerning exogen-
ous development in the Paleozoic Lyco-
pods, as well as expressing the views of the
foremost authorities in Paleozoic plant his-
tology in both the Brongniartian and the
English schools, I venture to summarize,
in brief, without pretense of adding any-
thing original to the subject myself, the
contents of two lately published papers.
The first, by the late Prof. W. C. Wil-
liamson, of Owens College, England, his
last independent publication, I believe, is
entitled, On the light thrown upon the question
of the Growth and Development of the Carbon-
iferous Arborescent Lepidodendra by a study of
the details of their Organization.*
At the outset it may be well, and of in-
terest to the reader, to briefly review the gen-
eral structural characters of the Lepidoden-
dron type, in describing which I shall quote
in part from Prof. Williamson’s own publi-
cations: ‘In the youngest Lepidodendroid
twigs the conspicuous central tissue is a
small vascular bundle known as the pri-
mary xylem strand. It extends, under
varied modifications of form and size, from
near the apex of the youngest twig to the
base of the oldest stem. In its downward
course it gives off a large number of small
vascular bundles, known as leaf traces,
each one of which passes outwards to a leaf,
supplying it with its vascular tissues. In
many cases we discover a few cells in the
center of its component tracheids, which,
on passing downward towards the lower
members of the tree, enlarge into a more
or less conspicuous medulla. In a few cases
the smaller shoots exhibit no traces of these
cells, which are only discoverable in
branches of somewhat larger size; but in
all, the larger the twig, the larger, also, is
*Mem. Proc. Manchester Lit. and Phil. Soc.,
1894-95, pp. 31-65, 1895.
SCIENCE.
705
the central cellular tissue in varying de-
grees and in different types. This isa true
medulla, which generally exhibits its maxi-
mum diameter only at the base of the oldest
stems.”
‘In the closest external contact to this
primary xylem system is a second vascular
zone, the ‘secondary xylem,’ which is de-
veloped from a peripheral cambium layer
much like the growth of ordinary trees.
This secondary xylem is composed of ver-
tically prolonged radiating vascular lam-
ine, which are separated by intervening
medullary rays. These two systems form
the ‘stele,’ and the Carboniferous Lycopods
are ‘monostelic.’? The remaining external
zones of tissue constitute the leaf-bearing
cortex. ‘In its youngest state this tissue
consists almost wholly either of rounded
cells, parenchyma, or vertically elongated
ones with pointed ends, prosenchyma.”’ At
a later period of growth, varying in differ-
ent types, a thin meristemic zone appears in
the outermost parenchyma of the cortex. A
ring of its rounded cells, as seen in trans-
verse section, undergoes divisions, the more
internal developing into prosenchymatous
ones to form a layer of periderm. This per-
iderm constantly thickens by similarly pro-
duced exterior additions so long as the
plant lives, constituting the great bulk of
the tree trunks, which may attain a diam-
eter of four feet or more. The outermost
cells resulting from the above-described
meristemic action experience a succession
of similar metamorphoses, always preserv-
ing a thin layer of parenchyma between the
surface of the periderm and the bases of the
leaves. The leaves, which are variable in
form and size, are attached by rhomboidal
bases to the bolsters or leaf cushions, which,
though square and hardly larger than the
leaf base when young, continue to grow
after the true leaf falls off, and their dia-
mond-shaped, often fusiform protuberant
bolsters, arranged in quincunx, form the
756
usual netted impressions characteristic
and familiar in the fossil remains. The
leaf scar bears three well-marked points.
The Lepidodendra always branch dichoto-
mously.
Concerning the mode of development of
the primary xylem or central part of the
stele there has been lack of evidence and
consequent radical difference of opinion.
To the solution of this problem Prof. Wil-
liamson devoted the six summer months
of 1894 examining the slides in his ex-
traordinary collection numbering several
thousand specimens, and counting or cal-
culating with great precision the number of
cells in the primary and secondary xylem
systems.
The study of the dichotomies of the
branches has thrown great light upon this
important question, for “It is to the as-
cending series of these dichotomies that
the Lepidodendra owe their characteristic
structure and modes of development.”’
The first change in the normally cylin-
drical ordinary branch is the splitting of
the central vascular cylinder of primary
xylem and its contained cellular medulla.
The cylinder splits vertically for a short
distance into two crescentic, diverging
halves, while the external form of the
branch becomes oval, the difference between
the longer and shorter axes being greater
as we ascend to the dichotomy. Before
reaching this the two horns of each cres-
cent of primary xylem approach each
other. At this stage the cells of the two
medulle are in direct contact with those of
the inner cortex. Several of Prof. Wil-
liamson’s sections show that the crescentic
condition is permanent for a short space at
least, approximating what DuBary calls
the ‘foliar gap’ in ferns. Higher in the
dichotomy, however, the horns of each
crescent rapidly converge to form two new
cylinders, ‘ differing in no respects, save
size and number of internal parts, from
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 73.
that of the parent stem.’ The same phe-
nomena occur with each successive dicho-
tomy, each pair of resulting branches,
though diminished in diameter, having
exactly the same type of organization as the
one from which they sprang. Thus, how-
ever numerous the dichotomies they are all
produced alike and no structural changes
are introduced ‘from the base of the
parent branch up to the smallest twig
of the full-grown tree,’ save certain second-
ary ones produced by growth processes
which begin to manifest themselves at
the base of that trunk. It will at once
be seen that the number of cells and
vessels of the cortex, primary xylem and
medulla is one-half as great in each of the
two branches as in the parent below the
bifurcation. A similar ratio obtains in the
number of leaves. Such dichotomies occur
only when the twigs are terminal with a
growing point.
Besides these equal dichotomies there are
two sorts of unequal dichotomies different
in structure and purpose. In the first only
a small segment is cut out of the primary
xylem cylinder and passes outward, carry-
ing with it a small portion of the medulla
to form a branch. This unsymmetrical
segment becomes a solid strand with or
without any trace of a medulla, though
usually on reaching the axis of the cone,
which it usually supports, a central medulla
is shown. In the second form of unequal
dichotomy the medulla is unaffected, a
limited number of tracheids being detached
from the periphery of the primary xylem
cylinder. These strands may also go to
reproductive organs.
In answer to the hitherto open problem
as to how far the ordinary growth of a
branch has exerted any influence upon or
borne any relation to the varying dimen-
sions of the primary xylem cylinder of the
stele and upon the number of its com-
ponent tracheids, the author’s examination
May 22, 1896.]
leads to this conclusion: ‘Unlike what
occurs amongst the living lLycopods,
amongst the Carboniferous Lepidodendra
we find as we descend from the uppermost
and youngest shoots, that there is a regular
progressive enlargement of the branches
below each succeeding dichotomy; * * *
and these enlargements are accompanied
by a similar though less conspicuous en-
largement of the cylinder of the primary
xylem, and also in the number of its com-
ponent tracheids.”
Prof. Williamson’s examinations relate
in particular to seven species of Lepidoden-
dron.* Of these LZ. Selaginoides differs from
other studied Lepidodendra in having the
tracheids of the primary xylem, which are
crowded at the outer periphery, more open
and fewer in approaching the center of the
system, where they often mingle with a pe-
culiar barred parenchyma that occupies the
place of the medullary cells in other species.
In one specimen of this species the primary
xylem has reached a diameter of nearly
3 mm., the cortical diameter being nearly
17 mm. before a small crescent of secondary
xylem is discerned. At a more advanced
stage the diameter of the primary xylem
cylinder is 6 mm., the secondary xylem
14.5 mm., while the cortical is 92 mm.
Of L. brevifolium, which is remarkable for
its frequent dichotomies, of both the equal
and unequal types, Prof. Williamson ob-
tained a section, below a dichotomy, in
which a secondary xylem of a maximum
thickness of 5 mm., invested the two
tracheal crescents of primary xylem, the
secondary xylem tissue being seen to grow
around the horns of each of the primary
* We can refer to but a few of the author’s observa-
tions. Those who wish further data will find such
tabulated in the present paper and illustrated in the
magnificent series of memoirs ‘On the Organization
ot the Fossil Plants of the Coal Measures,’ pub-
lished by Prof. Williamson during the last twenty-
five years in the Transactions of the Royal Society of
London.
SCIENCE.
ToT
xylem crescents and to push its way into
the interior of their contained medulle.
Exceptionally favorable conditions of pre-
servation have made it possible to trace the
development of the tissue in LZ. Wunschianum
from the youngest twigs down to stems six
feet in circumference. In this plant speci-
mens in which the primary xylem is 4mm.
in diameter show no medulla, though on
reaching a diameter of 5.5 mm. a medulla
nearly 2.5 mm. in diameter appears. But
the remarkable fact that the smallest stem
in which a trace of secondary xylem was
found showed the diameter of the cortex,
primary xylem and of the medulla to be
23 em., 36.5 mm. and 24 mm., respectively,
while the very thin ring of secondary xylem
is but 4 mm. thick on one side and 1 mm.
thick on the other, demonstrates that the
branches of this species attained a relatively
large size before the growth of secondary
xylem began.
In L. Harcourtii, the study of a section of
which led Brongniart astray and began the
conflict between the English and the French
paleobotanists, the author elucidates several
minor disputed points. It is noteworthy
that no exogenous or secondary growth has
yet been found by any of the investigators of
this species, for the possible reason, as Wil-
liamson suggests, that the secondary xylem
does not appear until a stage more ad-
vanced than that represented in any speci-
mens yet examined.
Two of the sections of L. fuliginosum give
the following diameters: 1st—cortex, 19
mm.; primary xylem, 3.5 mm.; medulla, 2
mm. 2d—cortex, 60 mm.; primary xylem,
7 mm.; medulla,6 mm. At an advanced
stage of growth, among the radial lines or
cells of the innermost cortex, are found par-
allel lines of true tracheids, ‘rudimentary re-
presentatives of the secondary xylem zone.’
These cells pursue an irregular course longi-
tudinally, and are unequally distributed in
the cortical ring in which they occur.
758
The examination of numerous sections,
including one only, 1 mm. in cortical diam-
eter, of L. mundum, a low species, shows
the same habit of development, and, in
the descending from the smallest twigs
to larger and lower branches, the same
enlargement of the primary stele as a
whole and of the number of its com-
ponent tracheids as in the other arbore-
scent forms.
The painstaking and exhaustive study of
his remarkable series of sections led Prof.
Williamson to abandon his earlier views,
while approaching in the main to those set
forth by Solms-Laubach in his Fossil
Botany. The impossibility of intercala-
ting leaves and leaf traces among the pre-
arranged geometrically disposed spirals and
the observed numerical progression of the
volume of tracheids in passing downward
lead to the inevitable conclusion that, un-
like any living type of growth, these enor-
mous developments of primary tissue origi-
nate at the base of the primary stem close
to a growing point.
Here the chain of corroborative observa-
tion ends and the difficulties and further
unsettled problems begin. Prof. William-
son adds: “As to the magnitude of the
primary xylem strand and the enormous
number of tracheids which compose it,
these equally reached their largest propor-
tion at the base of each solitary aérial stem.
How such numbers of tracheids, varying in
the type of L. Wunschianwm from 4,000 to
15,000, could be produced in that position
is difficult to understand. The young sporo-
phyte could not possibly have contained
them; hence some process of growth, of the
nature of which we have as yet no knowl-
edge, but which was capable of producing
these marvelous results, must have suc-
ceeded, if not been developed out of the
sporophyte.”’
The second paper, entitled Sur l’ utilité de
Vétude des plantes fossiles au point de vue de
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 73.
Vévolution des organes, is by M. B. Renault,
the leader of the French paleobotanical
histologists.
M. Renault draws a very suggestive
contrast between the present general group-
ing of living plants and what would be ex-
pected if the manifest relations of the fossil
species were taken into consideration ; for
vegetable paleontology shows the existence
of vast numbers of individuals presenting
in different degrees characters intermediate
to those which obtain among the living
plants. If the fossils are included in the
same classification with the living plants
it will be difficult in many cases to estab-
lish perceptible demarcations between, and
preserve intact the living groups.
As to the appearance of secondary growth
and its use as a basis of classification, the
author points out that such growth is seen
first in the rhizomes, then in the stems,
branches, leaves and fructifications respec-
tively. Thus the subterranean stems of the
living Helminthostachys and Botrychium show
the secondary xylem while the aerial por-
tions have the structure of the Cryptograms.
Lepidodendron Harcowrtii ( mentioned in
Williamson’s paper), L. rhodumnense and L.
esnotense are cited as simple arborescent Ly-
copods, the trunks of which are without
trace of secondary growth. JL. vasculare and
L. selaginoides show a secondary xylem
cylinder of varying thickness in the stems.
The Stigmarie he considers more highly
organized than the Stgillarice which, accord-
ing to the Brongniartian School, they bore.
Diploxylon, regarded by some as a Lepido-
dendroid stage, by others asa Sigillaria, has
a thick primary xylem surrounded by a bed
of secondary xylem, the latter growth being
found in not only the roots and stems, but
in the foliar bundles also, as far as the base
of the leaf.
The smooth Sigillarias, differing from Di-
* Bull. Soc, d’Hist. Nat. d’Autun, VI., 1893, Pp.
499-504.
May 22, 1896.]
ploxylon, especially by the marked diminu-
tion in the diameter of the primary xylem,
exhibit the secondary growth in roots,
stems and leaf bases, but only as an elemen-
tary stage in the leaf itself.
Representing the present Brongniartian
School, M. Renault cites the somewhat
anomalous Poroxylon group (‘although be-
longing rather to another series leading to
the Conifera’) as examples showing the
double growth in roots, stems and leaves,
predicting that their still unknown fruits
will probably be found to be small seeds con-
structed on the plan already observed in
the contemporaneous Gymnosperms. If so,
the Poroxylon will be especially exemplary
in combining the characters of Phanerogams
and Cryptogams. The ‘ libero-ligneous’
bundle of the leaf has the double structure
in Colpoxylon, while the structure is simple
in Medullosa, a genus allied to the Cycads,
though both have lost all traces of their
centripetal wood, except some vascular
bundles scattered through the pith, the
woody element of the stem being composed
of tracheids punctate in many rows and
medullary rays organized like those of the
Cycads. He concludes that the Phanero-
gamic characters became gradually associ-
ated with the Cryptogamic, increasing little
by little to preponderancy and finally ex-
terminating the latter ; that these changes
are successively accomplished in the prin-
cipal organs of the plant and in a definite
order, the fruits being last to change. In
effect, M. Renault suggests that the differ-
ence between the Paleozoic Lycopod group
and the living Cycad is hardly more than
that between the living Cycad and the
typical Phanerogam. Davip WHITE.
THE EMBANKMENTS OF THE RIVER PO.
THERE is probably no part of the world
in which the action of rivers in carrying
and depositing sediment can be better seen
and more readily studied than in the plains
SCIENCE.
709
of Lombardy and along the adjacent shores
of the Adriatic, and no district has con-
tributed more to our knowledge of the im-
portant subject of river action and delta
building than has this portion of Northern
Italy.
In this well settled country the very
rapid advance of the land upon the sea
everywhere has been especially remarked
and could not escape the attention of the
most unobservant, since, as is well known,
the very town of Adria, which gives its
name to the Adriatic Sea and which was a
sea port in the time of Augustus, now lies
14 miles inland.
One statement concerning the chief of
these Lombard Rivers, the Po, taken from
chapter eighteen of Lyell’s Principles of
Geology, has been copied and recopied in
one generation of text-books after another,
a statement so remarkable that wherever
met with it always arrests one’s attention.
It is that in which, after speaking of the
action of the dykes, between which these
Lombard rivers are confined in causing
a portion of the sediment, which would
otherwise be spread over the plains by the
annual inundations, to settle in the bottom
of the river channel, with the consequent
necessity of from time to time increasing
the height of the dykes, he says, ‘‘ Hence it
happens that these streams now traverse
the plains on the top of high mounds, like
the water of aqueducts, and at Ferrara the
surface of the Po has become more elevated
than the roofs of the houses.”
On reading this passage one cannot but
tremble for the fate of the city should the
river break through its dykes, as it has al-
ready done on several occasions, and, being
precipitated into the city, tear its way
headlong to the sea.
A visit to Ferrara toward the end of May
last served, however, to show that this
danger is less imminent than might be sup-
posed from Lyell’s description.
760
The city of Ferrara has seen its best days;
its population once numbering 100,000 has
now dwindled away to less than 30,000,
while great stretches of land within the
walls are now quite deserted or used as
kitchen gardens. The broad and ample
streets and fine squares, as well as the noble
cathedral, the numerous palaces and the
great castle of the House of Este, however,
serve to remind us of the former greatness
of the city, with which are so intimately as-
sociated a number of the most distinguished
names in Italian history, Savonarola,
Ariosto and Tasso among the number.
The city is situated in the middle of the
great plain of lower Lombardy, which so
far as the eye can judge, is absolutely flat
and which here is only six and a-half feet
above sea level. The walls of the city,
built of brick—for no good building stone is
to be had in the alluvial plains in this vici-
nity—rise abruptly from the plain and are
of no great height.
The plain all about Ferrara is very fertile,
well cultivated and of extreme beauty, being
intersected at regular intervals by long
lines of poplars and pollarded elms fes-
tooned with vines, which also border the
roads and separate the meadows and great
fields of grain and hemp. The roads cross-
ing the plains are well made and are raised
considerably above its general surface, thus
keeping them dry and in good condition.
The river Po, however, does not pass
through the city of Ferrara, although it
formerly passed near the city and in this
vicinity branched, forming the Po Primario,
whose mouth was at Ravenna, and the Po
Volano, which debouched into the northern
portion of lagoon of Comacchio. In the
year 1152, however, the river broke through
its dykes at Stellata, twelve miles and a
half northeast of Ferrara and took a new
course in the direction of the Venetian la-
goons, which course, with some minor modi-
fications, it has retained to the present time.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 73.
By this change the Po Primario and the Po
Volano were deprived of a great portion of
their water, and the main stream now
passes three miles and a half to the north
of Ferrara, where it is crossed by the rail-
way to Padua, at the little town of Ponte
Lago Scuro, a busy little place, which is the
chief port on the lower reaches of Po and
which is connected by a bridge of boats with
S. M. Maddelena, a village on the opposite
bank of the river.
On approaching Ponte Lago Scuro from
Ferrara the dykes which confine the river
are first seen, crossing the flat country like
a wall. The road at Ponte Lago Scuro is
carried by a long incline nearly to the top
of the dyke, the upper portion of which is
cut through to allow the road to pass, and
then by a steep descent on the inner side of
the dyke the bridge of boats is reached,
after crossing, which, by a steep rise and
then a gentle descent, the plain beyond the
river is once more gained.
The Po at this point is 285 yards wide,
with a swift current sweeping rapidly by
the boats, and the water at the time of my
visit was very turbid from suspended mud,
although it did not appear so turbid as the
Arno at Florence or Pisa, and certainly not
so muddy as the Missouri at Bismarck.
Watching it from the bridge as it sweeps
by already near the sea and far from its
source on Monte Viso, carrying great quan-
tities of leaves, masses of weeds and branches
of trees floating on its surface, a very vivid
impression of the work which is being ac-
complished by the river is obtained. Al-
though nothing in the way of actual erosion
can be seen, no mountains or rising ground
anywhere breaking the monotony of the
plains. The long sand bars, seen from the
top of the dykes, in the wider stretches of
the river just above Ponte Lago Scuro,
show that in flood time a large quantity of
material too heavy to be carried in suspen-
sion is swept along.
May 22, 1896.]
The dykes or embankments which con-
fine the river on either side are about 25
yards wide and rise in two, or sometimes
three, terraces as approached either from
the plain or from the river, as if a wide
dyke of moderate height had just been
made, along the summit of which a nar-
rower dyke had subsequently been raised.
The height of the dykes was estimated to
be about 26 feet, and being well grassed
over they do not present that strikingly
artificial character which might be ex-
pected. An excellent road runs along the
summit of the southern dyke. The dykes
thus, although not so high as the majority
of the houses in the villages on either side,
overtop the smaller houses and outbuild-
ings, while, standing on the bridge at the
middle of the river, seven feet above the
level of the stream, only the roofs and
upper stories of the buildings on either side
of the river can be seen.
With regard to the level of the waters of
the Po as compared with that of the ad-
jacent plains many contradictory state-
ments have been made. The statement of
Lyell that at Ferrara it was as high as the
roofs of the houses was derived from
Cuvier’s ‘ Discours sur les Révolutions de
la Surface du Globe,’ although not quoted
quite correctly, where the statement is
made on the authority of M. de Prony, an
Inspector-General of Bridges and Roads,who
had been directed by the goverment to in-
vestigate the means of preventing the dis-
astrous floods caused from time to time by
the Po overflowing its banks.
These very old observations were subse-
quently shown by Lombardini in 1847 to
be erroneous. This observer proved by
accurate measurements that, at the time
these were carried out, the mean height of
the Po only here and there rose above the
level of the plains and was generally con-
siderably below it, and that even during
the great flood in 1830 the surface of the
SCIENCE.
761
river was scarcely ten feet above the pave-
ment in front of the Palace at Ferrara
(Geikie, Text-book of Geology, p. 368).
Since this time, however, these conditions
have altered in a marked manner, the
more recent investigations of Zollikofer
having shown that in the normal condition
of the river the surface of the water in the
neighborhood of Ferrara is somewhat over
8 feet above the surrounding plains, while
in flood time the water in some places rises
from 16 to nearly 20 feet above the plain on
either side (Kovatsch—‘ Die Versandung
von Venedig ’—Leipzig, 1882, p. 35).
At the time of my visit the surface of the
water was certainly higher than the level
of the plains, and the deep furrows in the
dyke on the left bank of the river showed
that in flood time the river now rises at
least as high as the top of the first terrace
of the embankment, which would be equiva-
lent to the height given above by Zollikofer.
That the river at times threatens to rise
even higher is shown by the fact that where
the upper terrace of the dyke is cut through
to allow the passage of the road from
Ferrara a brick wall has been constructed,
so arranged that by the insertion of planks
the highest level of the dyke may be main-
tained.
The city of Ferrara, therefore, although
it might be subjected to disastrous in-
undation should the dyke on the right bank
of the river break, is not so seriously
threatened as might be inferred from Lyell’s
statement, and the Po, which in flood time
“hangs suspended, so to speak, over the sur-
rounding plains,’ is now much-less dreaded
than in times past, owing to the irrigating
channels which tap it, as well as to a
secondary series of lateral embankments
which, placed at a considerable distance
from the dykes on either side, border the
whole course of the river below Cremona.
Frank D. ADAMS.
McGixtu University, April, 1896.
762
MEASURING HALLUCINATIONS.
In Science, 1893, XXII, 353, attention
was called to a method of measuring the
intensities of hallucinations. The method
is, in brief, as follows:
In an unsuspecting subject the stimulus
F under the condition P is used to produce
a sensation S. The sensation is a function
of the stimulus, S=f (#), and is measured
by means of it. By means of appropriate
adjustment of the conditions P the sensa-
tion can be made to appear just the same
whether is present or not.
When F is not present, the sensation is
called a hallucination ; let it be denoted by
the H, although the person experimented
upon does not distinguish sensation from
hallucination. We have thus in such cases
H=S, and likewise S=f(), with R used
measure the intensity of the hallucination.
It is also evident that H=F' (P), and like-
wise (a fact seldom fully regarded in psy-
chology) S=F'(P).
With this method Dr. C. E. Seashore has,
under my guidance, carried out measure-
ments of hallucinations and has just pub-
lished the results in the Studies from the Yale
Psychological Laboratory for 1895. As the
fundamental idea may interest others than
those reached by the Studies, I will state it
briefly here.
It was at first intended to end every ex-
periment in a measurement according to an
absolute scale of units of energy, e. g., light
by reference to a standard source of illumi-
nation or to a bolometer-reaction (LANGLEY,
Mem. Nat. Acad. Sci., 1891, V, 7), sound in
units of atmospheric displacement (WIEN,
Wied. Ann., 1889, XXXVI, 834), etc.;
but it was soon decided that it was prefer-
able to first explore the region of suggestion
and hallucination with convenient arbitrary
scales without waiting to reduce these scales
to standards. This course has been amply
justified by the results; the proper methods
of producing hallucinations have been found
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 73.
for all the senses and the arbitrary scales
have been so arranged that future investi-
gators can repeat the experiments under
exactly the same conditions, merely chang-
ing the scale. To be sure, this latter step
is generally very expensive in many ways;
in our case width of exploration was pre-
ferable to minuteness.
A typical case of the application of the
method is found in measuring hallucina-
tions of sound. The person experimented
upon was placed in a quiet room and was
told that when a telegraph sounder clicked,
a very faint tone would be turned on, and
that this tone would be slowly increased in
intensity. As soon as he heard it, he was
to press a telegraph key. The experi-
menter in a distant room had a means of
producing a tone of any intensity in the
quiet room. The apparatus for producing
the tone consisted in an electric fork inter-
rupting the primary circuit of an in-
ductorium in the experiment room and a
telephone in the quiet room (unknown to
the subject), which wasin connection with
the secondary coil of the inductorium. The
intensity of the tone depended on the dis-
tance between the two coils of the in-
ductorium ; this distance was recorded in
millimeters.
In the first few experiments a tone would
be actually produced every time the sounder
clicked, but after that the tone was not
necessary. It was sufficient to click the
sounder in order to produce a pure hallu-
cination.
The persons experimented on did not:
know they were deceived, and said that
all tones were of the same intensity. The
real tone could be measured in its intensity,
and since the hallucination was of the
same intensity it was also indirectly meas-
ured.
Similar experiments were made on other
senses. For example, in regard to touch,
a light pith ball would be dropped regularly
MAy 22, 1896. ]
on the back of the hand to the sound of the
metronome. After a few times it was not
necessary to drop the ball. The person
would feel the touch by pure hallucination.
Similar experiments were made on taste.
Of six bottles two contained pure water and
the other four a series of solutions of pure
cane sugar—the first one-half per cent., the
second ten per cent, the third two per cent.
and the fourth four per cent. sugar, accord-
ing to weight. A block was placed in front
of them so that the observer could not see
them, although he was aware that they
stood near him, because he saw them when
he received his instructions. It was re-
quired of him to tell how weak a solution
of sugar he could positively detect.
The experimenter took a glass dropper
and deposited drops on his tongue, drawing
first from the two water bottles, and then
from the sugar solutions, in order of in-
creasing strength. The sugar in the solu-
tions was detected in the first trial. Pro-
posing to repeat the test, the experimenter
proceeded as before, but drew from the
first water bottle every time. The result
was that when the pure water had been
tasted from two to ten times the observer
almost without exception thought he de-
tected sugar.
A test on olfactory hallucinations was
conducted similarly, with the result that
about three-fourths of the persons experi-
mented upon perceived the smell of oil of
cloves from a pure water bottle.
In another set of experiments the subject
was told to walk slowly forward till he
could detect a spot within a white ring.
As soon as he did so, he read off the dis-
tance on a tape measure at his side. The
spot was a small blue bead. The experi-
ment was repeated a number of times.
Thereafter the bead was removed, but the
suggestion of having previously traversed a
cartain distance was sufficient to produce a
hallucination of the bead.
SCIENCE.
763
The investigation was carried out in va-
rious problems of hallucination and sugges-
tion ; in each problem the work was kept
up till the appropriate method of producing
hallucinations was found. JI cannot here
go into the details of Dr. Seashore’s experi-
‘ments, but the fundamental idea is, I hope,
clear.
The surrounding and internal conditions
P were of a given character in the first ex-
periment, namely, definite place, apparatus,
expectation, etc. The sensation S resulted
from #&. Each repetition of the experiment
produced a change in the attitude of expec-
tation ; Pwas consequently changing. Fi-
nally, the production of a given value of P
was sufficient to entirely replace & in pro-
ducing the sensation.
It is to be clearly understood that the
persons experimented upon were perfectly
sane and normal. They were friends or
students, generally in total ignorance of the
subject, who supposed themselves to be
undergoing some tests for sensation. One
case was found, however, of a suspicious
observer who expected deception and who
declared that he had waited every time till
he was sure of the sensations; the results
were just as hallucinatory as usual.
The value of the method and the experi-
ments lies mainly, I think, 1, in pointing out
a method of determining the portion of a
sensation due to the suggestion of circum-
stances rather than to the stimulus; 2, in ap-
plication to mental pathology ; 3, in begin-
ning a scientific treatment of hypnotism and
suggestion. E. W. Scripture.
YALE UNIVERSITY.
LIFE HABITS OF PHRYNOSOMA.
In a recent number of the ‘ Zodlogischen
Anzeiger’ Prof. Charles L. Edwards, of the
University of Cincinnati, gives the follow-
ing interesting notes upon the habits of the
horned lizard of Texas:
While living in Austin, Texas, from
764
May, 1892, to July, 1894, I had abundant
opportunity of verifying previous observa-
tions upon the life of Phrynosoma, and of
adding some notes that, so far as I can find,
have not been given before this paper.
Phrynosoma cornutum Harlan, in Texan
parlance the ‘horny frog,’ is easily ap-
proached under the natural conditions of
its habitat, and with a plentiful supply of
live flies I have had no difficulty in keep-
ing from fifty to one hundred of them con-
fined in vivaria for many weeks at a time.
Six months of the hot, dry, Texas summer,
with long days under the glaring sun, and
the ground covered with a layer of fine,
limestone dust, gives this species of Phiy-
nosoma an ideal environment.
A review of the principal points con-
cerning the biology of this familiar genus
as brought out in the literature appended,
and confirmed by myself, may be first pre-
sented. Not to go back to the original sys-
tematic descriptions of Wiegmann, Girard,
Harlan, Hallowell, Bell, Gray and Blain-
ville, or to mention the synonymy from the
various catalogues of reptiles, the taxonomic
needs of this paper may be served by refer-
ence to Gentry’s review of the genus Phry-
NOSOMa.
This cunning little Iguanid is harmless,
never biting its captor, and soon becoming
so tame that it may be trained to work in
harness pulling a toy wagon, or to eat in-
sects from one’s hand.
rubbed it puffs itself out, but when in fear
it becomes flattened to the ground. Phry-
nosoma chiefly enjoys a dust heap, where
with tail and feet flirting the warm calcare-
ous powder over its body, or with alternate
sawing motions of its sides, it quickly bu-
ries all of itself save the head, and some-
times even this part, in the dirt. While
built after an awkward pattern for a lizard,
and generally moving slowly, yet it can,
when alarmed, run rapidly. It is very
clever at ‘playing possum’ and, aided by
SCIENCE.
When gently j
[N. 8S. Vot. III. No. 73.
its protective coloring, often escapes from
an enemy.
The food of Phrynosoma always consists of
live animals—spiders, flies and especially -
ants. In Texas the agricultural ant (Po-
gonomyrmex barbatus) furnishes almost ex-
clusively the diet of the horned frog. If,
however, a quantity of ants are placed with
the latter in a vivarium, they soon find thin
places on the apparently tough, horny ar-
mor of their enemies, and by stinging they
drive the horned frogs crazy and frequently
to death. While having an abundant sup-
ply of water in the vivarium, I have never
seen these lizards drink, although they are
said to lap up drops of dew when in natural
environment. The molting and the curi-
ous habit of ejecting blood from the eyes.
are phenomena often observed. The state-
ment of Béttger that a voice is absent in
Phrynosoma must be modified, for under cer-
tain conditions of excitement it utters a
sharp squeak.
This lizard has always been given as.
viviparous. On the contrary, it builds a
nest and lays eggs therein. The only time
I observed the nest-building was on June
25,1894. The location was on a stony clay
bank at the side of an Austin street. When
first seen, 6 p. m., the female was excava-
ting a tunnel at an angle of about 75° to the
surface of the ground, and wide and high
enough to comfortably work in. She dug
with her front feet, pushing back the loose.
earth and bits of stone with her hind feet
until this débris was quite clear of the en-
trance. So absorbed was she in her work
that my presence did not cause any alarm.
The next morning I found the tunnel neatly
filled again and the lizard gone.
After carefully removing the replaced
débris, the tunnel was found to be seven
inches deep. At the bottom, forming an L
with this tunnel, was a narrow entrance
leading into a chamber three and one-half
inches in diameter and two inches high,
MAY 22, 1896. ]
which was quite round, except for two pro-
jecting stones. Here perfectly packed in
with loose earth were twenty-five eggs,
while again in a hole one and one-half
inches deep, at the bottom of the tunnel,
were fifteen more. Since the embryos of
one of these sets were at a considerably
more advanced stage, this female must
have taken advantage of the excavation of
another. At the time of ovulation the em-
bryo, while at an advanced stage, is still not
ready to hatch by probably some days or
even weeks. This stage will be considered
in detail in a later paper on the embryology
of Phrynosoma.
Authors give the period of gestation
as high as one hundred days in females
kept in confinement, but while I have not
complete data from coition to ovulation IT
believe that under natural conditions the
time of carrying the eggs is much shorter.
A female which had laid eggs in captivity
in August, 1864, became very restless after
the eggs were taken away. She tried con-
stantly for two or three days to get out of
the vivarium at the place where the wire
screen had been raised to remove the eggs.
Lockwood gives an instance of this ma-
ternal anxiety where a female attempts to
distract the attention of an observor from
her young.
LORD KELVIN ON THE METRIC SYSTEM.
TuE chief objection urged in the recent de-
bates in Congress against the adoption of the
metric system in the United States was the
fact that Great Britain, with whom our
commerce is the largest, does not use the
system. It seems, however, certain that
the adoption of the system by both nations
is only a matter of time, and as the question
is now being considered, both by the British
Parliament and our Congress, it would be
highly desireable if an International Com-
mission could be arranged so that unity of
action could be secured by the two nations.
SCIENCE.
765
The London Times, whose influence has
been said to be as great as that of Parlia-
ment, has recently given much space to dis-
cussion of the metric system. Of the large
number of letters addressed to the editor
“we quote the following from Lord Kelvin
as of special interest :
“Tn your very interesting leading article
on the metric system in The Times of yes-
terday you treat, in what seems to me a
thoroughly clear and fair manner, the ques-
tion at issue in respect to the demand for
legislation on the subject.
‘‘While not ignoring the preference or
merchants and manufacturers and scientific
men for the metric system, you rightly give
prominence to consideration for the conve-
nience of the poorer classes, ‘who have no
great power to make their voices heard—
at least in such discussions as these.’ If it
were true that the adoption of the metric
system would be hurtful, or even seriously
inconvenient, to them, that would be a
strong reason against its being adopted in
England. But in this respect we have,
happily, a very large experience, and I be-
lieve it is quite certain that among the Ger-
mans, Italians, Portuguese, and other Eu-
ropean peoples who have had the practical
wisdom to follow the French in the metric
system, all classes are thoroughly contented
with it, and find it much more convenient
for every-day use than the systems which
they abandoned in adopting it.
“You rightly brush aside the duodecimal
system as ‘an ingenious mathematical ex-
ercise, but one whose figures must be read
back into a decimal system before they can
convey any meaning.’ Itseems to me, how-
ever, that you are quite right in maintain-
ing that in ordinary every-day reckonings
the shopkeeper and his customers must
have halves and quarters; but I cannot go
so far with you as to say ‘ halves, quarters
and thirds.’ Was any poor child ever sent
to buy a third of a pound of tea? Did any
766
thirsty traveller, other than a mathema-
tician, ever ask for a third of a quart of beer ?
It may be taken asa practical result of nat-
ural selection, permanent through thous-
ands of years, that halves and quarters of
the ordinary unit for any class of measure-
ment are natural and convenient.
“Tn the metric system we find the kilo-
gramme, half-kilogramme and quarter-kilo-
gramme continually used in weighing.
There is no obligation to always call the
half-kilogramme 500 grammes, or the quar-
ter-kilogramme 250 grammes. For smaller
quantities the gramme is a thoroughly con-
venient measure. For distances travelled
we have the kilométre, half-kilométre and
quarter-kilométre. For measuring cloths,
ribands and tapes, in retail shops, we have
the métre and centimétre, which are thor-
oughly convenient and popular for all or-
dinary use. The centimétre (about four-
tenths of an inch) is a thoroughly con-
venient smallest unit for most practical pur-
poses; and for finer measurements the
workman under the metric system has a
great advantage in the millimétre and half
or quarter millimétre over the British work-
man with his troublesome and fatiguing
eighths, sixteenths, thirty-seconds and six-
ty-fourths of an inch.
“The great advantage of the metric sys-
tem is its uniform simplicity, all measure-
iments of length, area, volume and weight
being founded primarily on the kilométre.
The kilométre is very convenient for meas-
uring great distances on the earth’s surface,
because a journey a quarter round the world
is nearly enough 10,000 kilométres for al-
most all practical purposes. If our travel-
ling was habitually, not on the earth’s sur-
face, but along diameters through the cen-
tre, there would be some practical value in
the merit discovered for the British inch by
Sir John Herschel that it is approximately
one one-hundred-millionth of a diameter of
the earth.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Von. Il. No. 73.
“The thousandth of the French ton is
the kilogramme ; and the cubic decimétre,
or the thousandth of the cubic métre, is the
litre, which is the common popular unit for
liquid measure; so that any one who has
correct weights can. verify for himself his
litres or other measures for liquid. This
particular merit of the metricsystem, which,
so far as I know, has not been much, if at
all, noticed by your correspondents, is of
very great importance in mechanics and
engineering. In virtue of it the weight of
any quantity of material is found in tons, or
in kilogrammes, or in grammes, simply by
multiplying its volume in cubic métres, or
in cubic decimétres, or in cubic centimétres,
by its specific gravity; and thus a very
great deal of labor which is entailed upon
mechanical engineers, civil engineers and
surveyors in England under the present
system will be done away with when the
metric system comes into use.
“ But now, considering the wants and the
convenience of the whole population, think
of the vast contrast between the practically
valuable simplicity of the metric system and
the truly monstrous complexity of British
measurements in miles, furlongs, chains,
poles, yards, feet, inches; square miles,
acres, square yards, square feet, square
inches; cubic yards, gallons, quarts, pints,
gills; tons, hundredweights, quarters,
stones, pounds, avoirdupois (7,000 grains),
ounces avoirdupois (437°5 grains), drams
avoirdupois (27°34875 grains), pounds troy
(5,760 grains), ounces troy (480 grains),
drams apothecaries’ (60 grains), &e. Look-
ing at the question from all sides, and con-
sidering all the circumstances, I believe it
will be found that the thorough introduc-
tion of the metric system, for general use
in Great Britain, will be beneficial to all
classes; and that the benefit will, in the
course of a few weeks, be found to more
than compensate any trouble involved in
making the change.”
MAY 22, 1896.]
NOTES ON AGRICULTURE AND HORTICUL-
TURE.
PREVENTION OF SMUT IN OATS.
THERE is a large loss annually from smut
in various crops and oats especially suf-
fers. It was about twenty per cent. at
the farm of the Ohio Station, and a fair
estimate of loss for the whole United States
is more than eighteen millions of dollars
annually.
This smutting of the grain, as has long
been known, is due to an invading fungus
that produces vast multitudes of spores in
the grains; in short, the grains are trans-
formed or replaced by the fungus which in
its final condition is mostly spores usually
dark and dusty.
Prof. Selby shows by his experiments that
the smut enters the seedling oat plant by
spores adhering to the seed grain and may
be prevented by the destruction of the
spores attached to the oats before sowing.
This may be done by immersing the oats in
hot water at a temperature of 133° F. for
fifteen minutes. This treatment likewise
increases the vigor of the seed. It was
also found that ‘soaking the seed for
twenty-four hours in a solution of a ? per
cent. solution of potassium sulphide made
by dissolving 14 pounds of the salt in 25
gallons of water is equally efficient in smut
prevention.”” Both the above methods of
treatment apply to wheat, barley and other
grains, with certain modifications to suit the
particular cases.
BACTERIOSIS OF CARNATIONS.
BAcTERIosIs is a term now growing into
general use for the disease in plants due to
bacteria. There are several of these trou-
bles caused by micro-organisms, but none
more interesting to the mycologist than
that of the carnation. Dr. Arthur and
Prof. Bolley conjointly have issued the re-
sults of their studies in a neat bulletin (No.
59) from the Indiana Experiment Station.
SCIENCE.
767
This bacteriosis is widespread among
carnations and while seated in the leaves
checks the growth of the whole plant. The
disease germs enter the plant through the
stomates, punctures of insects or by dissol-
‘ving a passageway in the cellulose through
the action of an enzym. The methods
of isolating the germs of the Bacterium Di-
anthit Arth. & Boll. n. sp. are given. A full
page heliotype plate is presented of gelatine
tubes and another of the appearance of a
portion ofa diseased plant. It is found that
any variety of carnation may be affected,
but weak and old plants are most suscep-
tible. Other than members of the pink fam-
ily of plants are exempt from this trouble.
Valuable practical methods of culture to
prevent the bacteriosis have been found,
the chief ones residing in the fact that the
disease is favored by moisture. By keeping
the foliage dry, by watering the soil between
rows of wire netting arranged to support
the plants the disease is largely prevented.
The aphis should be kept off.
Byron D. Hatstep.
NEW BRUNSWICK, N. J.
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.
RACE AND DISEASE.
Some interesting studies on the relations
of these factors in sociology have recently
appeared from the pen of Dr. William Z.
Ripley, who lectures on anthropo-geography
in Columbia College. One is upon the prob-
lems of acclimatization, and may be found
in the Marchand April numbers of the Popu-
lar Science Monthly It displays a thorough
acquaintance with the literature of the sub-
ject, and is marked by a careful weighing of
the numerous discordant opinions. It can-
not be said that he reaches a satisfactory de-
cision in favor of the possibility of acclima-
tizing the white race in the tropics, which is
the chief practical interest of the inquiry.
Another of Dr. Ripley’s papers appears
768
in the March number of the quarterly pub-
lications of the American Statistical Asso-
ciation. It is upon ethnic influences in vital
statistics, illustrated by a comparison of the
Walloon and Flemish inhabitants of Bel-
gium. The facts presented are interesting
and from the best obtainable sources ; but
the complexity of the problem is enormous,
and after one has excluded all other possi-
ble or probable explanations for the diver-
sity discovered, very little is left which can
be strictly called ethnic. For instance, the
birth rates, the excess of male infants and
the infant mortality may have quite other
explanations than those connected with eth-
nic contrasts.
BUDDHA-LIKE FIGURES IN AMERICA AND
ELSEWHERE.
In Egypt, in Greece and abundantly in
France, representations of deities seated
cross-legged have been found, and fre-
quently by archzeologists have been referred
to as Buddhistic or Buddha-like figures.
In the museum of the Trocadero, Paris,
there are a number of such in terra cotta
from Chiapas ; and at Palenque the cross-
legged divinity has been pictured by
Stephens (Travels, vol. II, p. 318) and
others. Of course, these have been utilized
as evidence of Buddhistic influence in North
America and Europe.
A severe blow at such illusions is dealt
by M. H. Galiment in the Revue de l’Ecole
d’ Anthropologie (Feb. 15), in an article on
‘the oriental attitude of divinities.’ By
this he means merely the ordinary oriental
method of sitting which is common also to
our tailors and to many non-oriental na-
tions. This he sharply distinguishes from
the religious attitude assigned to the Bud-
dhas. In the latter the legs are crossed, and
each foot rests on the thigh of the opposite
leg, with the sole turned upward and in full
view. This is quite different from the atti-
tude in any of the American specimens
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 73.
known to me, either by observation or by
copies. They are seated with the legs
crossed beneath the thighs, in the ordinary
sartorial position. Thus does another prop
fall from the weak structure of the builders
of American aboriginal culture on Asiatic
foundations.
CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY.
HURRICANES IN JAMAICA.
A cHRONOLOGICAL list of hurricanes,
earthquakes, and other physical occur-
rences noted in Jamaica between 1504 and
1880, is given by Maxwell Hall in Vol. IT.
of the Jamaica Meteorological Observations
(1896). The first great hurricane experi-
enced by the English in Jamaica was on
August 28, 1712, and on August 28, 1722,
another very violent one occurred, which
resulted in the loss of about 400 lives and
the wrecking of forty-four vessels in the
harbor of Port Royal. In order that these
two visitations might be remembered by the
inhabitants, August 28th was appointed to
be kept as a perpetual fast by the Act 9 Geo.
I., ch. I., passed in 1722. On June 3, 1770,
there was a smart shock of earthquake,
which was immediately preceded at Cape
Francois by a fall of 2.5 in. in the water
barometer, corresponding to a fall of 0.2 in.
in the mercurial barometer. Small oscilla-
tions of this character have since been
noticed at Kingston as accompanying
earthquake shocks.
Previous to the hurricane of October 3,
1770, a noise resembling the roar of distant
thunder was heard to issue from the bot-
tom of all the wells in the neighborhood of
Kingston, twenty hours before the com-
mencement of the storm. <A ship captain
who noted this fact, and who was informed
that it was a prognostic of an approaching
hurricane, managed to get his ship into the
inner harbor in time to save her from de-
struction.
May 22, 1896.]
THE CLIMATE OF VENEZUELA.
Some notes on the Venezuelan climate are
quite in place at the present time. Three
climatic zones are recognized: The tierra
caliente, extending from sea level to about
1,800 feet, with a mean temperature of
77° to 86° F.; the tierra templada, reaching
up to about 7,200 feet, with a mean tem-
perature of 60° to 77° F., and the terra fria,
above 7,200 feet, with a mean temperature
below 60° F. The heat on the northern
coast is excessive, owing to the trade wind,
which blows on shore there after crossing
the hot Caribbean Sea. Maracaibo, which
has the reputation of being the hottest
place in the world, is on this northern coast,
while Caracas, at an elevation of 3,000 feet
above sea level, is in the tierra templada and
enjoys a cooler and more agreeable climate.
The maximum temperature is between 68°
and 82° in the hot months, and 52° and 71°
in the cool months. In Acarigua, south of
the Portuguesa range, a temperature of
125.5° has been reached in the sun and
89.5° in the shade. The climate is, as a
whole, healthy. Yellow fever prevails near
the coast and in the Llanos and forests of
the lowlands, and sometimes visits towns
in the tierra templada. The higher moun-
tains are free from it and have a very
healthy climate. The foregoing facts are
taken from a paper on Venezuela in the
Scottish Geographical Magazine for April,
1896.
A QUICK VOYAGE ACROSS THE PACIFIC.
Tur May Pilot Chart of the North Pacific
Ocean contains mention of a remarkable
passage recently made from Shanghai to
Port Townsend by the American schooner
‘Aida,’ the time from port to port being
only 27 days. During the greater part of
the voyage the wind was between north and
west, and on three days blew with the
force of a whole gale. The ‘Aida’ started
SCIENCE.
769
in the western half of a cyclonic depression
central over Japan, and hence experienced
northwesterly winds for several days.
These were followed by southerly winds of
considerable force, due to the approach
from the west of another cyclonic storm.
The last few days she had southwesterly
winds from an anti-cyclone central in Lat.
40° N., Long. 135° W., this high pressure
area diverting the preceding cyclone to the
northward and thus preventing the ‘Aida’
from experiencing the northwest gales on
its rear. This passage of the ‘Aida’ may
be regarded as an excellent example of
what may be accomplished by a well-found
sailing vessel whose master makes the most
of the meteorological conditions prevailing
over the ocean, and of the information now
available concerning them.
A TORNADO IN NEW JERSEY.
Tornapors are of such infrequent oc-
currence in the eastern United States that
accounts of them, when they do occur, are
of special interest. On July 18, 1895, a
distinct tornado developed near Cherry
Hill, N. J., causing the death of three per-
sons, injuring about twenty others and en-
tailing a loss to property, livestock, etc., of
about $60,000 (6th Annual Report, New
Jersey weather service, 1895, 203-208). It
appears that while the general character-
istics of tornado action were present, such
as the funnel cloud, the whirling, the roar
and the thunderstorm, the usual atmos-
pheric conditions which precede such storms
were lacking. A number of curious tricks
were performed by the tornado, after the
usual fashion of these disturbances. In
the Dutch Reformed Church, whose sides
and windows were punctured with holes,
a large beam was found lying across the
pews, it having been blown there from out-
side. A splinter of wood, 15 inches long,
2 inches square at one end, and tapering to
a point at the other, was found firmly stuck
770
into a fence post. A number of excellent
photographic views accompany this report.
R. DEC. Warp.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
ANNUAL REPORT OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.
THE Fifteenth Annual Report of the United
States Geological Survey has just been delivered
by the Public Printer. It is a handsome volume
of 755 pages and 48 plates, and contains, be-
sides the administrative reports of the Director
himself and of chiefs in charge of work, the fol-
lowing special papers :
‘Preliminary Report on the Geology. of the
Common Roads of the United States,’ by Prof.
N. S. Shaler; ‘The Potomac Formation,’ by
Prof. L. F. Ward; ‘Sketch of the Geology of
the San Francisco Peninsula,’ by Andrew C.
Lawson ; ‘ Preliminary Report on the Marquette
Tron-bearing District of Michigan,’ by Prof. C.
R. Van Hise, W. 8. Bayley and H. L. Smyth;
and ‘The Origin and Relation of Central Mary-
land Granites,’ by C. R. Keyes, with an ‘In-
troduction on the General Relations of the
Granitic Rocks in the Middle Atlantic Pied-
mont Plateau,’ by the late Prof. G. H. Wil-
liams.
From these titles it is evident that the paper
of most popular interest is the first one, on
roads, by the versatile Harvard professor. He
treats of the history of American roads, the
methods of using stone in road-building, the
relative value of road stones, their distribution,
sources of supply, etc.; and thus makes a
timely contribution to a subject which is re-
ceiving special attention in all parts of the
country.
This is the last report made by Major J. W.
Powell as Director of the Survey, who until re-
cently has had charge of the work, under dif-
ferent organizations, for twenty-five years. —
FISH CULTURE.
In a lecture on fish culture before the Royal
Institution of Great Britain, Mr. J. J. Armi-
stead, of the Royal Commission on Tweed and
Solway Fisheries, thus compares the methods
used in Great Britain and the United States :
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. II. No. 73.
The hatching apparatus which is now chiefly
used in England consists of a long box, the
water flowing in at one end protected by a
water board or break water, which is simply to
break the current and prevent it from washing
away the eggs which are placed in the box.
It also diverts the current and sends it down
to the bottom of the box. The water pas-
ses underneath and passes out at a higher
level, where we have a screen of perforated
metal to prevent the escape of the little fish,
and in this box is placed the hatching ap-
paratus proper, that is, the trays or grilles upon
which the ova are deposited. The grilles now
in use are made of glass. We found, after try-
ing a variety of substances, that glass is the
best of anything. It gives off nothing. Wood
and metal we know corrode in water, and in
some waters some metals corrode very much,
and a great deal of loss has been suffered by
some who have used metallic trays for the pur-
poses of incubation. The Americans like to do
things, as we know, on a wholesale scale, and,
not content with putting a layer of eggs upon
the apparatus, they fill a basket, as they call it,
half full of eggs. Then they send a current of
water welling up from underneath, and of
course the effect is that it flows through
amongst the eggs, and they find that in due
time they hatch. I have made very careful in-
quiries with regard to the result of the hatching
of ova in this way, and I have found that the
Americans are quite prepared to admit that
they had a larger percentage of mortality in their
metal baskets or trays than they had when they
used glass grilles. They said, ‘‘ We have dis-
carded glass grilles long ago. They are too
expensive.’’ And they made use of other ex-
cuses. But, however, we find in practice that
we can get far better results from these glass
grilles, because, as I have said, there is nothing
to contaminate the ova or do them injury. The
trout eggs absorb any metallic matter which may
be in the water, and become so saturated with
it in course of time as to be very seriously in-
jured. They may not be absolutely killed at
the time, but it has been found that, although
there is only a slightly increased mortality in
hatching upon the metal, there is a greater
mortality amongst the fish afterwards. They
May 22, 1896.]
do not live to grow up in the same way as they
do when they are hatched on the glass.
RECENT CHEMICAL PROGRESS.
Pror. DEwaAr lectured before the Royal In-
stitution on April 16th, on Recent Chemical
Progress. According to the report in the Lon-
don Times Prof. Dewar dwelt especially on the
great future opened out to synthetical chemis-
try by the employment of the temperature of
the electric arc. Some of the most interesting
results had been obtained from the electric fur-
nace by the French chemist, M. Moissan, in the
shape of carbides, stable bodies produced by the
combination at high temperatures of carbon
with various metals. Many of the carbides
were decomposed by water, the hydrogen of the
water combining with the carbon to form hy-
drocarbons. Thus with water some carbides,
such as that of calcium, gave acetylene ;
others, like that of aluminium, gave marsh
gas, while others again gave these and
other gases, and what was most wonderful,
liquid petroleums. It was a curions fact that
many years ago Professor Mendeleef speculated
that the only reason for the immense localiza-
tion of petroleum at Baku was that it was being
generated there by the action of water on
carbides. His idea was rather smiled at then,
but now itis his turn to smile. When acety-
lene was heated to a dull red heat it was
polymerized to benzene. Benzene was the
basis of all the new modern colors, and thus
by three direct stages we were able to reach
the nucleus of all the colors hitherto manufac-
tured from coal-tar products. First there was
the combination of lime and coke in the electric
furnace; second, the decomposition of the car-
bide thus formed by water; and third, the
transformation into benzene of the resulting
acetylene by means of heat. Professor Dewar
concluded by briefly discussing some of the
properties of acetylene, explaining, among
other things, the cause of its extraordinarily
great luminosity as due to its peculiar endo-
thermic structure.
THE MARINE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY.
THE announcement of the Laboratory of
Woodsholl for 1896 shows that several changes
SCIENCE.
Cll
have been made. Prof. Bumpus has resigned
the position of assistant director, which has
been filled by the appointment of Prof. James
I. Peck, of Williams College, who also has
charge of the instruction in zodlogy. Dr.
Setchell, owing to his removal to the University
of California, has given up charge of the botan-
ical department, which has been undertaken by
Prof. Macfarlane, of the University of Penn-
sylvania. The officers having charge of original
research in zoology include Profs. Howard
Ayers, University of the State of Missouri; E.
G. Conklin, University of Pennsylvania; W.
A. Locy, Northwestern University; and M. M.
Metcalf, the Woman’s College of Baltimore.
Prof. Whitman has charge of the work in em-
bryology with the assistance of Dr. Lillie, of
the University of Michigan, and Dr. Strong, of
Columbia College.
The session of 1895 was unusually successful,
the membership of the laboratory being 199,
which was 65 in excess of the number in 1894,
a regular increase having been maintained
since the foundation of the laboratory in 1888.
In 1895 there were 42 independent investiga-
tors at work and 21 carrying on research under
supervision. In addition to the regular courses
nineteen public lectures were given in 1895.
The Marine Biological Laboratory is perhaps
open to the criticism that the work is too
much that of the laboratory and too little that
of the naturalist, but this is only following the
trend of biological science throughout the
world. It is certain that nowhere else in Amer-
ica can biological research be undertaken with
such pleasant and stimulating surroundings.
THE ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF LONDON.
ACCORDING to the London Times, the sixty-
seventh anniversary meeting of the Society was
held on April 29th. The report of the Council
stated that the number of Fellows on January
1, 1896, was 3,027, showing a net increase
of 55 members during the year. The num-
ber of new Fellows that joined the Society
in 1895 was 197, which was the largest num-
ber of elections that had taken place in any
year since 1877. The total receipts of the
Society for 1895 amounted to £26,958 9s. 1d.,
showing an increase of £1,851 8s. 6d., as com-
T712
pared with the previous year. The ordinary
expenditure in 1895 had amounted to £23,460
16s. 10d., being £155 6s. 9d. less than that of
the previous year. Besides this a sum of £1,649
19s. 1d. had been charged to extraordinary ex-
penditure. Of this sum £1,149 19s. 1d. had
been devoted to the new scheme of drainage
for the society’s gardens, and £500 to the
special acquisition of a giraffe for the menagerie.
Besides this expenditure, £1,000 had been do-
voted to paying off the last remaining portion
of the mortgage debt on the Society’s freehold
premises, which were now valued at £25,000
and were absolutely free and unencumbered.
A second sum of £1,000 had been transferred to
a deposit account. After these payments a bal-
ance £1,391 1s. 2d. had been carried forward to
the credit of the present year. A new edition
_of the list of animals in the Society’s collection,
of which the last (the 8th) was published in
1883, had been prepared under the direction of
the Secretary. It would, it was hoped, be
ready for issue before the close of the present
year. A large number of accessions to the
library were reported. The number of visitors
to the gardens in 1895 had been 665,326, which
was greater than it had been in any year dur-
ing the past ten years. The number of animals
in the Society’s collection on December 31st last
was 2,369, of which 768 were mammals, 1,267
birds and 334 reptiles. About 23 species of
mammals, 22 of birds and one of reptiles had
bred in the gardens during the summer of 1895.
General the Hon. Sir. Perey Fielding, Prof.
Alfred Newton, Sir Thomas Paine, Mr. E. Lort
Phillips and Lord Walsingham were elected
into the Council in the place of the retiring
members. Sir William H. Fowler was reélected
President; Mr. Charles Drummond, Treasurer,
and Mr. Philip Lutley Sclater, Secretary for the
ensuing year.
GENERAL.
Dr. N. L. Brirron has been elected director
of the New York Botanical Gardens and will
resign the chair of botany in Columbia Uni-
versity, though he will probably remain con-
nected with the University as professor emer-
itus. Prof. Lucien M. Underwood will be
called to the chair of botany in Columbia Uni-
versity.
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 73.
THE Smithsonian Institution has received
from the State Department notification that the
Fourth Congress of Criminal Anthropology is
to be held at Geneva, Switzerland, under the
auspices of the Swiss government, from Au-
gust 24th to 29th of the present year. The gov-
ernment of Switzerland has, through its minister
in Washington, invited the United States to
send a representative to the Congress. Dr.
Thomas Wilson, curator of the Department of
Pre-historic Anthropology in the National
Museum, has attended two of these Congresses,
and prepared an elaborate report on the Second
Congress, held at Paris in August, 1889. This
was published in the Smithsonian report for
1890. It has not yet been decided whether or
not the United States will send a delegate this
year to Geneva.
AN effort is now under way in connection
with the National Educational Association to
bring about greater interest in the teaching of
science than has hitherto been shown by Ameri-
can botanists, zodlogists, chemists, physicists,
etc. The new Department of Natural Science
Instruction is intended to bring together the
teachers of the natural sciences who are in-
terested in science as a means of culture and to
stimulate thought and discussion as to how this
end may best be obtained. What role should
botany, zodlogy, chemistry, physics, etc., play
in the mental development of man? In what
way may the study of plants, animals, chemical
compounds and physical forces be made an ef-
ficient factor in a man’s mental training?
When and how shall such study be made
a part of a man’s training? These are
some of the questions which will be dis-
cussed in the Department of Natural Science
Instruction in the Buffalo meeting of the
National Educational Association on Thursday
and Friday afternoons (July 9 and 10), led by
Profs. Carhart (University of Michigan), Freer
(University of Michigan), Coulter (University
of Chicago), and President Jordan (Leland Stan-
ford University). Prof. Charles E. Bessey, of
the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, is Presi-
dent of the department, and Prof. Charles 8.
Palmer, of the University of Colorado, Boulder,
is the Secretary.
MAY 22, 1896. ]
THE Flower Astronomical Observatory of the
University of Pennsylvania is now completed
and preparations are being made for its dedica-
tion. Prof. Charles L. Doolittle now occupies
the director’s residence and with the instructor
in astronomy, Mr. H. B. Evans, has commenced
preliminary work. In addition to the Flower
Observatory, it is proposed to erect a small
working observatory on the University grounds
in West Philadelphia. The building will be
equipped with a transit instrument, zenith tele-
scope and a 4-inch equatorial, which have been
presented to the University by Mr. Horace
Howard Furness, Jr, ;
THE University of Buda-Pesth in connection
with its millenium celebration will confer the
honorary degree of doctor of medicine on Dr.
John §. Billings.
AT a recent meeting of the Board of Man-
agers of the New York Botanical Garden, Judge
Addison Brown submitted a report from the
committee on plans which stated that plans for
the museum building are being prepared by ten
competing firms of New York architects. Two
hundred and fifty-three persons, paying $10 a
year each, have qualified for annual member-
ship.
Mr. T. D. A. CocKERELL, Las Cruces, New
Mexico, proposes to found a biological station,
and a beginning will be made this summer, if
students can be found. There isin New Mexico
a great abundance of new and interesting forms
of life, especially among the insects, and many
general problems, such as those of the life
zones, can also be studied to great advan-
tage. 3
THE Metric System, will be discussed by Her-
bert Spencer in a series of letters to appear
in Appletons’ Popular Science Monthly for
June. Mr. Spencer opposes the further spread
of the system, and points out the advantages of
a duodecimal over a decimal system.
WE learn from the English papers that the
following fifteen candidates have been recom-
mended by the Council for election to the Royal
Society : Sir George Sydenham Clarke, known
for his publications on projectiles and fortifica-
tions; Dr. J. Norman Collie, Assistant Pro-
SCIENCE.
773
fessor of Chemistry; in University College,
London; Arthur Matthew Weld Downing,
Superintendent of the Nautical Almanac ; Francis
Elgar, Professor of Naval Architecture and
Marine Engineering in the University of Glas-
gow; Andrew Gray, Professor of Physics in
University College of North Wales; Dr. George
Jennings Hinde, geologist and paleontologist ;
Henry Alexander Miers, known for his re-
searches in- mineralogy; Frederick Walker
Mott, Lecturer in Physiology in Charing Cross
Hospital; Dr. John Murray, editor of the Chal-
lenger publications ; Karl Pearson, Professor of
Mathematics and Mechanics at University Col-
lege, London; Thomas Roscoe Rede Stebbing,
known for his researches in natural history ;
Charles Stewart, Hunterian Professor of Hu-
man and Comparative Anatomy in the Royal
College of Surgeons; William E. Wilson,
astronomer; Horace Bolingbroke Woodward,
of the Geological Survey of England and
Wales, and William Palmer Wynne, Assistant
Professor of Chemistry in the Royal College of
Science, South Kensington.
THE first of the two annual Converzationes of
the Royal Society was held on May 6th. The ex-
hibits included X-ray photographs by Messrs.
Swinton, Jackson and Sydney Rowland. Mr.
F. E. Ives exhibited his method of color pho-
tography and Prof. Mendola gave a demonstra-
tion by means of the electric lantern of Prof.
Lippmann’s color photographs by the in-
ferential method. Prof. Worthington showed
photographs of the splashes produced by a
falling drop of water taken with the electric
spark, the exposure being less than three mil-
lionths of a second. A method was shown by
which two or three thousand copies of a photo-
graph can be printed, developed and fixed in an
hour. The exhibits seem to have been largely
in photography, but in addition Prof. Dewar
repeated his experiments with liquid air, and
the new binocular field glasses and stereo-tele-
scopes of Mr. Carl Zeiss were exhibited.
AT the recent annual meeting of the members
of the Royal Institution of Great Britain, the
report of the committee stated that the property
of the Institution now amounts to more than
£100,000. 63 lectures and 19 evening discourses
774
were given in 1895. The Duke of Norfolk was
elected president for the ensuing year.
D. APPLETON & Co. will publish shortly, as a
new volume in the International Scientific
Series, Ice Work, Present and Past, by Dr. T. G.
Bonney, professor in University College, Lon-
don. Itis said that in his work Prof. Bonney
will give special prominence to those facts of
glacial geology on which all inferences must be
founded. After setting forth the facts shown
in various regions, he will give the various in-
terpretations which have been proposed, adding
his comments and criticisms. He will also ex-
plain a method by which he believes we can
approximate to the temperature at various
places during the Glacial epoch, and the differ-
ent explanations of this general refrigeration
will be stated and briefly discussed.
Ir is reported in the daily papers that in
order to carry out still further certain recom-
mendations of the recent committee on prisons,
the directors of convict prisons in Great Britain
have decided that, with a view to raise the
moral tone and relieve the monotony of the
life of convicts undergoing long sentences of
penal servitude, lectures on scientific and in-
teresting subjects shall be periodically given,
and arrangements are in progress for giving
early effect to this innovation.
Ir is stated in the New York Evening Post
that the British Government has determined to
send two naturalists to Alaska to make a study
of the causes of the mortality of the seals. Thirty
thousand pups were found dead on the Pribylof
Islands last year, due, it is said, to starvation
following pelagic sealing. That the report of
these naturalists may not be ew parte, and
therefore inconclusive to the minds of the
American people, it is desired that at least one
thoroughly qualified American shall accompany
them.
Tue Astor Library will hereafter be open
till 6 o’clock p. m. Electric light is being
introduced into the library in order that the
alcoves may be better lighted, and this will
probably lead to the opening of the library in
the evening. When the new consolidated
library on Bryant Park Square has been built,
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou, III. No. 73.
it is intended to open the library on Sundays
as well as in the evenings, and part of the books
will be allowed to be taken from the build-
ing.
THE death is announced of Dr. Adelbert
Kriger, director of the observatory at Kiel and
editor of Astronomische Nachrichten. Kriger
was born in 1832 and studied under and acted
as assistant to Argelander, whose daughter he
married. In 1862 Kriger was made director
of the Observatory at Helsingfors ; in 1875 he
removed to Gotha and in 1879 succeeded Peters
at Kiel.
THE annual field meeting of the National
Geographic Society was held at Charlottesville,
Virginia, on Saturday, May 16. The principal
exercises of the day were held at Monticello,
the home of Jefferson. This was followed bya
visit to the University of Virginia and other
points of interest in Charlottesville. Accord-
ing to the program an address of welcome
was made by Mayor Patton, of Charlottesville,
and responded to by President Hubbard. An
address by Dr. Randolf, rector of the Uni-
versity of Virginia, was responded to by Gen-
eral A. W. Greely. Addresses were also made
by Postmaster-General Wilson, on ‘Jefferson at
Home’; by Dr. McGee, on the ‘ Physiography
of the Charlottesville Region’; by Dr. Goode,
on ‘Old Albemarle in the Revolutionary
Period,’ and by Prof. Thornton on ‘Spottis-
wood’s Journey Across the Blue Ridge.’
THE civil service examinations in New York
and elsewhere are, it seems, often passed by
proxy, and the Civil Service Commission follow-
ing Mr. Francis Galton’s recommendation,
which they seem to have learned through a
story of ‘Mark Twain,’ have resolved that, for
the purpose of identification, candidates in ex-
amination for the position of fireman and po-
liceman be required to make an imprint of their
right and left thumbs upon paper.
MM. AvcGustE GERARDIN and Maurice
Nicloux report to the Paris Academy a method
for measuring smells in the air due to organic
vapors. By means of incandescent platinum
they burn out the organic vapors and determine
the decrease in volume. They have thus been
able to find, for example, that the smell of
May 22, 1896.] ;
violets occupies twice as much volume as the
smell of camphor. They think the method can
be employed to test the hygienic condition of
the air of cities.
At the annual business meeting of the Na-
tional Geographic Society the following six
members of the Board of Managers were elected
for the next three years: Charles J. Bell, G.
K. Gilbert, D. T. Day, W. H. Dall, H. G.
Ogden and C. W. Dabney.
Ir is announced that the Toronto meeting of
the British Association in 1897 will be opened
on August 18th. ;
In a letter to the Secretary of the American
Metrological Society, Mr. Horace Andrews,
City Engineer of Albany, states that while a
change to the metric system would probably
occasion more awkardness in an engineer’s
office than anywhere else, yet he is in favor of
change. He calls attention to the fact that in
many old deeds and old maps the ‘ Ryland’
foot and rod were used; this was probably a
‘Rhineland’ foot, its length being 1.0345 Eng-
lish feet.
It is stated in New York Evening Post that
Dr. William W. Jacques, an electrician of Bos-
ton, claims to have solved the problem of ob-
taining electrical energy from coal direct. As
described by himself, in his application for a
patent, he has discovered that ‘‘if oxygen,
whether pure or diluted as in air, be caused to
combine with carbon or carbonaceous materials,
not directly, as in combustion, but through an
intervening electrolyte, the potential energy of
the carbon may be converted directly into
electrical energy instead of into heat.’’ His
electrolyte is fused caustic soda, into which he
places a stick of carbon, the oxygen being sup-
plied by pumping in the air.
AccorDING to Nature, a fine series of pho-
tographs of flying bullets, both in free air
and in different stages of penetrating through
a pane of glass, have been taken in Italy
by Dr. Q. Majorana Calatabiano and Dr.
A. Fontana, of the Italian Artillery. The
apparatus described isa modification of that
employed by Prof. C. V. Boys, and these
photographs might, perhaps, more correctly
SCIENCE. 775
be described as skiagraphs, since they are
shadow-pictures produced on the photographic
plate by the light from an electric spark pro-
duced by the discharge of a condenser. The
chief peculiarity of the present figures is that, in
addition to the anterior wave produced by the
‘advance of the aérial disturbance, they exhibit
dark striz just in front of the projectile—a re-
sult not previously observed, and which the
authors account for by supposing that the sud-
den compression of the air causes condensation
of moisture producing an opaque cloud. In sup-
port of this theory, it is stated that the experi-
ments were performed in a moist atmosphere.
This blurred appearance is very similar to that
which would be produced by the sparks arising
from an oscillatory discharge of the condenser,
put the careful precautions adopted by the ex-
perimenters to prevent any secondary discharge
negative this explanation.
Dr. CHARLES H. Jupp, who has recently
been appointed instructor in psychology in
Wesleyan University, is engaged in translating
Prof. Wundt’s recently issued Grundriss der
Psychologie with the cooperation and under the
direction of the author.
WE take the following items from the May
number of Natural Science: ‘‘ Dr. K. Lauter-
bach, Mr. Tappenbeck and Dr. Kirsting are
leading an expedition to the Hinterland of New
Guinea.’”’ ‘‘ Dr. Nils Holst, the Swedish geolo-
gist, is to travel for a year in West Australia
under the auspices of the Anglo-Scandinavian
Exploration Company.’’ ‘‘The ‘ Faraday’ has
returned from the Amazons, bringing with her
Messrs. Austen and Pickard Cambridge, who
haye amassed a fine collection, chiefly of
Arthropoda, and including several spiders’
nests. These will go to the British Museum
(Natural History). Some interesting bionomic
observations haye been made.’’ ‘‘In connec-
tion with Andrée’s balloon exhibition to the
North Pole, it is hoped to send a zodlogical ex-
pedition, under the direction of G. Gronberg,
lecturer at Stockholm University, to the Norsk-
dar, near Spitzbergen, from which islands the
ascent is to be made. These islands have long
been known as one of the richest zoological
localities in this region. A Polish contingent
776
to the expedition is being planned by Dr. Rosz-
kowski and Prince O. Hajdukievicz, who are
both studying at Stockholm. If thirteen volun-
teers come forward, it is proposed to hire a
steamer to accompany the ‘ Virgo,’ which leaves
Gothenburg with Andrée on May 1. After
visiting Spitzbergen and the Norsk-6ar, this
steamer will return to the north of Norway to
observe the solar eclipse.”’
AN editorial article in the London Journal of
Education calls attention to the lack of psycho-
logical laboratories in England as compared
with America, and emphasizes the fact by spell-
ing ‘psychological’ ‘ pyschological’ through-
out.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
Mr. THomAs McKeEAN has offered to give
$100,000 to the University of Pennsylvania
upon condition that $1,000,000 be collected.
Mr. McKean, who is a trustee and an alumnus
of the University, gave $50,000 about a year
ago.
Mr. CHartes M. Datron has given the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology $5,000
for a scholarship in chemistry for graduate
students. Preference will be given to those
undertaking chemical research applicable to tex-
tile fabrics.
REAL estate and securities valued at $215,-
000 have been presented to the Northwestern
University by William Deering, of Evanston,
who had previously given the University about
$200,000.
Mr. AND Miss HouGHrTon, son and daughter
of the late William 8S. Houghton, of Boston,
trustee of Wellesley College, have given $100,-
000 for a chapel to be erected in memory of
their father.
THE fourth summer meeting, conducted by
the American Society for the Extension of Uni-
versity Teaching, will be held in the buildings
of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadel-
phia, July 6-31, 1896. Botany, chemistry and
psychology are especially well represented, five
courses being offered in botany and four each
in chemistry and in psychology. The lecturers
include Dr. B. L. Robinson, Dr. John M. Mac-
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. II. No. 73
farlane, Dr. J. W. Harshberger, Prof. W. P.
Wilson, Prof. Byron D. Halsted, Dr. M. E.
Pennington, Prof. William Freer, Prof. W. O.
Atwater, Dr. F. G. Benedict and Prof. Light-
ner Witmer.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
THE SIGNIFICANCE OF ANOMALIES.
AT a recent meeting of the Boston Society of
Natural History I remarked on the want of a
satisfactory explanation of certain anomalies.
that it is the fashion to crudely class as rever-
sions. I referred to the occasional appearance
in man of some peculiarity of a lower form,
which is in no conceivable line of human descent.
I pointed out further that these anomalies were
not only very numerous, but included features.
of the most diverse groups. To account for
them by inheritance we must assume that they _
existed in a common ancestor of man and of the
animal in which they are normal, with the
astounding consequence that this primitive
form, instead of being comparatively simple,
must have been a perfect museum of anatomical
curios, which is directly contrary to the prin-
ciple of evolution. I failed to receive any in-
formation, and indeed did not expect any, for I
have talked on this question with many, and
have written and spoken publicly on it before.
Testut’s great work on muscular anomalies is a
case in point; the author seems to be perfectly
satisfied that he has accounted for a variation if
he has shown it to be normal in some animal,
no matter which. If I remember rightly,
Gegenbaur, at the time, commented on this
point, hinting that Testut’s explanation needed
to be explained. Within a few years the diffi-
culty has been more frankly acknowledged.
Thus in the Robert Boyle lecture delivered two
years ago, Prof. Macalister said: ‘‘I cannot see
that when one finds in the limb of a kangaroo
or of a sloth, or in the face of a horse, a certain
form of muscle like one which occurs as an
anomaly in man, we must therefore conclude
that its human occurrence must necessarily be
due to atavism. Indeed the more I survey the
catalogue of such parts the more I am impressed
with the failure of the method as a scientific
mode of accounting for these anomalies, while at
the same time I am filled with admiration at
May 22, 1896.]
the industry and ingenuity with which the pro-
cess of matching has been carried on.’’ Prof.
George S. Huntington also recognizes the diffi-
culty in his admirable paper on certain muscu-
lar variations in the Transactions of the New
York Academy of Sciences. ‘‘I believe that we
are right,’’? he says, ‘‘in referring such varia-
tions * * * to the development of an inherent
constructive type, abnormal for the species in
question, but revealing its morphological signifi-
cance and value by appearing as the normal
condition of other vertebrates.’’ But if so are
we justified in calling them ‘reversions?’
Dr. Huntington’s views do not seem to differ
widely from those that I expressed in a paper
on this subject in the Naturalist, of February,
1895. ‘‘Those very irregularities, which we
call abnormal, point to a law in accordance with
which very diverse animals have a tendency to
develop according to a common plan.’’ I do
not need to be told that even to establish a law
(and I have only hinted at one) is not in the
least to show how it acts. All that I claim is
that some other principle than atavism must be
invoked. The pitiable abuse of it is shown in
a book that I met the other day on the vermi-
form appendix. After stating that this is to be
considered as the end of the czecum, the author
went on to remark that the rare cases of a
double appendix, which are said to have oc-
curred, are presumably to be explained by the
double czeca found in many birds. Dr. Frank
Baker, in the April number of the Anthropol-
ogist, severely criticises similar abuses.
The question is associated with another of
very general importance, namely, whether simi-
larity of structure is necessarily evidence of de-
scent or even of relationship. One would think
from certain writings that it is conclusive; but,
of course, every anatomist knows that it is not.
It seems that similar special organs, or arrange-
ments of structures, occur in widely different
orders in species of similar habits or surround-
ings. Mr. Dobson* instances a South American
rodent with the habits of moles in which the
-arrangement of the muscles of the leg is the
same as that of the true moles. This clearly
points to a law which, it seems to me, the oc-
currence of anomalies tends to confirm. It is
* Jour. Anat. and Phys., Vol. XIX.
SCIENCE.
UL.
in the hope of having this discussed that I lay
it before the readers of SCIENCE.
THOMAS DWIGHT.
‘PROGRESS IN AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY. 1886-95.’
, In the American Naturalist for May (Vol.
XXX., pp. 357-372) Dr. R. W. Shufeldt gives,
under the above title, a statistical summary of
the new American Ornithologists’ Union
‘Check-List of North American Birds,’ with
criticisms passim on various points, followed by
an arraignment of the Committee which pre-
pared it for ignoring all recent work on the
classification of birds, there being no change in
this respect from the 1886 edition. He pro-
ceeds to enumerate, for the benefit of this Com-
mittee and others, the various ‘ elaborate classi-
fications of birds’ and the various authors who
have written on the taxonomy of birds, not
omitting to mention, of course, those of Dr.
Shufeldt. No doubt great advances have been
made in the last ten years in the knowledge of
the structure and relationships of various
groups of birds; and while many moot ques-
tions remain, and authorities still differ respect-
ing the propriety of many of the recently pro-
posed changes, a few points may be considered
as having been practically settled. While it
might have been well enough for the Commit-
tee to have expressed its opinion on some of the
questions thus raised, such a procedure, in
view of the still very unsettled state of the sub-
ject, seemed not particularly called for; especi-
ally as there were practical difficulties in the
way of introducing any change in the order or
succession of the higher groups.
Dr. Shufeldt strangely overlooks the main
purpose of the new Check List, which was not,
as he seems to think, the incorporation of the
various species and subspecies added during the
last ten years, and the changes of nomenclature
introduced during the same period, scattered
through half a dozen supplements to the origi-
nal list; while this was important, its main
purpose was the revision of the matter relating
to the geographical distribution of the species
and subspecies, which the interval of ten years
had rendered, in many instances, not merely im-
perfect, but absolutely erroneous and archaic.
Yet this feature of the new edition seems to
778
have escaped Dr. Shufeldt’s notice, so greatly
is he shocked by the lack of taxonomic revis-
ion,
Tn all Check Lists of North American Birds,
from Baird’s, published in 1858, down to Ridg-
way’s and Coues’ lists of 1880 and 1882, the
species are numbered in an orderly sequence ;
and the numbers serve an important function,
they being often used in the place of the names,
not only in labeling specimens, particularly
eges, but extensively in correspondence be-
tween collectors, the number serving as a con-
venient symbol for the name. Hence it is im-
portant that they be given the greatest possible
permanency. The A. O. U. Committee recog-
nized this fact in preparing the Check List, and
devised a scheme whereby any number of in-
terpolations could be made without disturbing
the notation of species already in the list. Of
course, a transposition of groups would necessi-
tate a new notation and create endless confu-
sion and inconvenience, for which the Commit-
tee would receive condemnation compared with
which Dr. Shufeldt’s strictures can be easily
borne, particularly since his views on several
points are not extensively shared by other
equally competent taxonomers.
The greater part of Dr. Shufeldt’s paper con-
sists of a detailed comparison of the two edi-
tions of the check list, with an analysis, taking
the birds by ordinal or family groups, of the
changes introduced in the 1895 edition. This
is a useful statistical résumé for those interested
in the subject.
It is, however, not free from typographical
errors, nor from others that by no stretch of
courtesy can be placed-in that category. For
example, Megascops flammeola idahoensis is re-
corded (p. 361) as M. a[sio]. idahoensis; the
subgenus Burrica is mentioned (p. 865) as Bar-
rica; it is said (p. 866), ‘subgenus Parus in-
serted’ in the 1895 edition, whereas it is given
in the 1886 edition as well; on p. 368 the state-
ment about the Swallow-tailed Gull is the
exact reverse of the truth. His method of
noting changes in the status of species or sub-
species tends to a wrong conception of the facts
in the case. Under ‘species omitted’ and
‘species added,’ etc., he places not only species
omitted or added, as the case may be, but forms
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 73.
whose status has merely been changed from
species to subspecies, or the reverse. Thus,
as in the case of Zonotrichia intermedia, for ex-
ample, where the change is from specific to
subspecific rank, the change could have been
easily and correctly indicated by a formula like
the following: Zonotrichia intermedia (1886) =
Z. leucophrys intermedia (1895). In place of this
Z. intermedia is placed under ‘species omitted’
and Z. leucophrys intermedia in the list of ‘ sub-
species added ;’ whereas, so far as the number
of forms is concerned, there is neither omission
nor addition.
In a footnote to p. 364 we find the following:
“The Starling (Stwrnus vulgaris) essentially
gained a place and recognition in the A. O. U.
‘List’ from the fact that it has been success-
fully ‘introduced’ from abroad. If this be
granted, the Committee were guilty of very un-
scientific practice when they omitted the English
Sparrow (Passer domesticus) from the ‘List’
(also Passer montanus), and it can only stand as
an example of how far men will allow their
prejudices to carry them and blind their scien-
tific instincts.’’ If the critic of the A. O. U.
Committee had taken the trouble to refer to the
1886 edition he would have found that the
Starling was introduced in the first edition of
the ‘Check List’ on the basis of its occurrence
in Greenland, and that his presumptuous criti-
cism and moralizing about ‘prejudices’ were
wholly without cause. Since the publication
of the first edition the species has been ‘intro-
~ duced, by importation in numbers from Europe,
and appears to have obtained a permanent foot-
hold here—a fact it seemed worth while to
mention in the second edition of the ‘Check
List.’ No ‘introduced’ species has been intro-
duced in the Check List, which is intended to
be what its name purports—a list of North
American birds. Of late years many species of
foreign birds have been ‘turned out’ in various
parts of the United States and Canada, but with
what results it is impossible as yet to deter-
mine. Dr. Shufeldt will find, however, in the
‘Abridged Edition’ of the ‘Check List,’ pub-
lished in 1889, a list of ‘Introduced Species,”’
ten in number, which at that time were known
to breed in this country in a wild state. But
this list forms no part of the Check List proper.
May 22, 1896.]
The above reference to the Starling in Dr.
Shufeldt’s paper, taken with other passages in
the same article, clearly reveals the animus
of his critique.
J. A. ALLEN.
‘WHAT IS TRUTH?’
In all owr speculations concerning nature what we have
to consider is the generalrule. For that is natural which
holds good.
Aristotle, Parts of Animals ITI., II., 16.
Knowledge is a double of that which is.
Mr. Bacon in Praise of Knowledge.
Nature means neither more nor less than that which is.
Huxley, VII., p. 154.
If the author of the letter on ‘The Material
and the Efficient Causes of Evolution’ (ScIENCE,
p. 668), will refer to an article which the Editor
asked me to give him, and printed in ScrENcE
in February, 1895 (Vol. I., No5, p. 125), I think
he must admit that I, at least, have not commit-
ted the blunder which he lays to the charge of
certain unspecified ‘ Neo-Darwinians’ and ‘Neo-
Lamarckians,’ and that there is no just cause or
reason why my name should be dragged into
print in this connection.
However, I heartily agree with him that rig-
orous exactness is necessary in the use of philo-
sophical language; and I also agree with him
that, when no qualification is used, or implied,
the English word cause should mean ‘that which
produces a thing and makes it what it is;’ al-
though it is one thing to define a word and
quite another thing to show the existence of
any corresponding reality.
AsI am advised by this writer to consider
Aristotle and be wise, I refer the reader to the
passage I have put at the top of this letter, for
it shows that this great naturalist is in accord
with Bacon and Huxley in the opinion that our
business in this world is to learn all we can of
the order of nature, leaving to more lofty minds
the attempt to find out what itis that ‘ produces
a thing and makes it what it is,’ and every
other ‘necessary condition of truth ’ except
evidence.
This correspondent says the word conceive
is not used with precision in my assertion that,
evidence seeming adequate, I believe things
which I cannot conceive. As Huxley has never
SCIENCE.
779
been accused of inexactness in the use of
words I call attention to the following passages
which show that this cautious thinker also be-
lieved what he could not conceive.
““T cannot conceive how the phenomena of con-
sciousness are to be brought within the bounds
of physical science,” IX., III., 122.
‘*T believe that we shall, sooner or later, ar-
rive at a mechanical equivalent of conscious-
ness, just as we have arrived ata mechanical
equivalent of heat,’’ I., VI., 191.
W. K. Brooks.
May 4th, 1896.
THREE SUBCUTANEOUS GLANDULAR AREAS OF
BLARINA BREVICAUDA.
To THE EpiIToR oF SCIENCE: Though the
subcutaneous glands in Soricide have received
much attention, these structures are not so well
known in all details that further observations
on the subject can be considered superfluous.
In examining perfectly fresh individuals of the
common short-tailed shrew, Blarina brevicauda,
taken in midwinter, when glandular develop-
ment or activity is presumably less evident than
it becomes during the rut, I find three large
glandular areas—a lateral pair and one infero-
median.
On each side of the body, midway between
the fore and hind limbs, may easily be recog-
nized a glandular area, half an inch long and
one-half as wide, in part overlying the posterior
border of the thorax, and thence extending
over the abdomen. This is observable without
dissection ; for, on blowing aside the long hairs
which cover it, the space appears to be naked,
though it is in fact clothed with short adpressed
colorless pelage, like that on the dorsum of the
manus. Small flakes of the inspissated secre-
tion may be noticed ; but the glandular orifices
are too minute to be made out, even with a
hand lens, though these may become more
readily discernible at another season. Nor is
any musky odor perceptible in the present
specimens.
The third glandular area of this shrew is
larger than the lateral ones, and this is the fact
to which I may direct particular attention.
This additional patch is situated on the median
line of the belly, opposite the lateral tracts, and
780
extends three-fourths of an inch caudad from
the end of the sternum. In outward aspect
this tract is identical with the others. On rais-
ing the skin the glandular structure is very evi-
dent; it isthe same in appearance, under the
lens, as that of the lateral tracts, but thicker as
well as more extensive.
All three tracts are strictly subcutaneous, and
come away from the subjacent parts when the
skin is raised. They are supplied by large cu-
taneous vessels, the ramifications of which are
conspicuous beneath the integument. This vas-
cularity reddens the minutely granular texture
of the glands, which a low magnifying power
discloses. ‘The three areas appear alike in both
sexes. ELLIOTT COUES.
WASHINGTON, D. C., May 7, 1896.
INSTINCT.
EDITOR SCIENCE: It seems to me that it
would be well to keep the issue with which this
discussion started in view, and then the di-
rection in which the truth lies will be clearer.
Nothing could be more explicit that the state-
ment by ‘The Writer of the Note’ in SCIENCE of
February 14th, which was this: ‘‘A chick will
peck instinctively, but must be taught to drink.
Chicks have learned to drink for countless gen-
erations, but the acquired action has not become
instinctive.”’
In other words, the view that eating is in-
stinctive and drinking is not, was that taught
by Prof. Morgan and endorsed by ‘The Writer
of the Note’ in a subsequent communication.
Feeling that an important truth was being
imperilled, I advanced facts to show that such
a view was untenable. This was followed by
the recital of additional facts by others, so that
it was plain to myself—more so than ever—that
such a theory as that first advanced was not
sound. Iwasaware that all three of the writers
supporting this view were in accord, constitu-
ting a sort of trinity in unity ; there was, never-
theless, a great lack of harmony which seemed
to be owing to the somewhat important defect
that their views were not endorsed by Nature.
Now, to my surprise, Prof. Baldwin claims
that I have missed the real point which he
takes to be that an instinct may be only ‘half
congenital,’ and cites this drinking of chicks;
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 73.
but according to the above quotation drinking
is not instinctive at all, so that it looks as if the
shoe was on the other foot.
In 1894, in a paper read before the Roy. Soe.
Can. on ‘The Psychic Development of Young
Animals,’ published in the Proceedings of the
Society for 1895 and a copy of which was for-
warded to Prof. Baldwin, I emphasized the
conception that instinctive acts are never perfect.
at first, or, as Prof. Baldwin would prefer to say,
are only partially congenital, though whether
such an expression as ‘half congenital’ is a
valuable addition to the English language, I
doubt. Now it would be strange that I should
alter my own views without noting the change,
and miss the point in a matter which I was, I
think, the first to emphasize ; in fact, I have in
this very correspondence in SCIENCE urged this
view— the imperfection of instincts. If Prof.
Baldwin and those he professes to interpret will
grant that eating and drinking in chicks are in-
stinctive ; that both alike are imperfect at birth ;
that congenitally the chick is in the same con-
dition to all intents and purposes as regards
eating and drinking, he will, I believe, be in
accord with the facts, and we shall all agree that
the much overlooked imperfection of instincts
is well illustrated by the subjects under dis-
cussion, but I should like to add, universal in
its application, though in varying degree, the
imperfection being in some cases not very ob-
vious to our inadequate observation.
But in discussing evolution I feel that we
are on a different plane. Here the appeal to
facts is of a much less decisive character.
I have been trying since reading Prof. Bald-
win’s letter in ScIENCE of May 1st, in reply
to my own, to ascertain his real views in regard
to evolution, and have some hesitation in de-
ciding whether I really grasp his meaning or
not. However a few concrete cases may make
matters plainer. A and B are, let us suppose,
two individuals that survive because they can
and do adapt to the environment ; X and Y die
because they cannot; or in Prof. Baldwin’s
terminology, A and B adapt to their ‘Social
Heredity’ constituting ‘ organic selection ’ which
is ontogenetic or affects the individual. But
the survival of individuals specially adapted af-
fects the race or phylum. But surely an indi-
May 22, 1£96.]
vidual adapts to an environment (‘ social hered-
ity’) because of what he is congenitally. In the
language of evolutionists this is survival of the
fittest or natural selection, though Prof. Bald-
win seems to think he has introduced a new
factorin his ‘ social heredity.’ The name is new
and to my mind objectionable, as there is no
real heredity ; the idea is not.
Ordinary people express themselves by say-
ing that we become what we are because of
‘education,’ ‘ circumstances,’ etc. We say,
‘The man is the product of his age.”’
People tend to believe too much in the power
of education, circumstances, ete., and too. little
in heredity ; hence all sorts of cures for deep-
rooted evils are ever welcome. But we find
that the changes wrought by ‘social heredity’
are very much on the surface, and in conse-
quence there may be but little outcome from
these effects, possibly none in some cases, in
heredity, as ordinarily understood, which does
not, however, contravene the Lamarckian or
any other well recognized principle of hered-
ity or evolution. To return to the con-
erete: A and B have offspring, differing slightly
from themselves. The ‘social heredity’ has
had little effect, therefore, on the race; in the
case of the lower animals, much less than in
the case of man, possibly, and if the offspring
Cand D be placed in widely different environ-
ments. the slight extent to which they have
varied (congenitally) will be all the more eyvi-
dent. ,
A Lamarckian explains these variations, such
as they may.be, by the influence of the use and
disuse of parts, and evolutionists of other schools
in other ways. Prof. Baldwin misapprehends,
I take it, the sense in which I employed the term
‘use’ in the phrase which he quotes from my
last letter. The Lamarckian sense was that in-
tended. :
I must repeat that, after reading a good deal
of what Prof. Baldwin has written on this as-
pect of evolution, it still seems to me that while
he has with new terminology set forth old views
in a new dress that there is really no new prin-
ciple or factor involved. I do not, of course,
consider such writing without special value,
though it may sometimes be provokingly diffi-
cult to understand from the new technicalities
SCIENCE.
‘perience.
781
employed, for the relative parts played by
heredity and environment in the make-up of
each individual is an interesting and practically
very important problem.
If I have failed to understand Prof. Baldwin
fully and so to appreciate his views at their full
value on the score of originality, I regret it.
However, it is likely that others are in the
same case, and I venture to suggest that the
remedy for our denseness, if such it be, is to be
found in a specific and concrete treatment of
the subject. WESLEY MILLs.
McGint UNIVERSITY, MONTREAL.
NOTES ON PERCEPTION OF DISTANCE.
It appears to me that the best data for de-
termining the psychological elements in the
perception of distance, as I suggested some time
since in SCIENCE apropos of mountain climbers,
is to be derived from those men of mature and
reflective mind who, finding themselves in very
strange surroundings, are compelled to learn a
new language of distance. From them we can
obtain direct evidence of what passed in their
consciousness, an evidence thus far superior in
value to the indirect judging from the action of
infants or young animals, or even the meager
and few reports of the blind who have suddenly
received sight. Even supposing a blind genius
for psychological analysis to be suddenly given
sight, the fact that an absolutely novel and
complex experience was produced which in-
cluded much else than mere perception of dis-
tance, as light, color, form, would tend to
make his evidence to some extent unsatisfactory.
For the best results in the study of perception
of distance we must then find it in course of
formation with individuals sufficiently educated
and reflective to give some account of their ex-
Even then the forming perception
may be so instinctive a process that the ele-
ments may not be clearly discernible. For in-
stance, Mr. Casper Whitney in the strange
surroundings of the Barren Grounds had to
learn a new form of distance which he thus
describes in Harper’s Magazine for April, 1896,
(p. 724): “T began my first lessons in Barren
Ground distance-gauging by guessing the yards
to a stone and then pacing them off. I was
not only astonished at the discrepancy between
782
my guess and the actual distance, but often-
times by the size of the rock when I reached it.
A stone which looked as large as a cabin at four
or five hundred yards would turn out to be
about as big as a bushel basket. I found much
difficulty in overcoming the tendency to exag-
gerate distance, though the Indians apparently
were not so troubled.’’ In response to my in-
quiry, he further writes: ‘‘ When I got sol
could judge the distance with comparative ac-
curacy, it was simply that I had to accommodate
myself to the new (to me) size of rocks at
those distaneces.’’ From which it is plain that
the newly determined distance by pacing did
not alter the apparent size of rock, the apparent
size is simply interpreted for a new distance
value. He says to himself, ‘‘ that appearance
means not as I might before have judged, but
so much more or less distance.’’ In other words
there is here no judging from sense of accom-
modation or muscular sense of any kind, because
that is unaltered, the image of the thing seen be-
ing constant as to size and appearance. Distance
for Mr. Whitney seems to be purely a judgment,
more or less revised by actual pacings, of fixed
visual appearances.
Another point on the perception of distance
was suggested by James ( Psychology, II., 218):
“‘T cannot help thinking that anyone who can
explain the exaggeration of the depth sensation
in this case (inverted vision ) will at the same
time throw much light on its normal constitu-
tion.’’ This suggests whether bats which hab-
itually hang head downwards would not have
distance lengthened by erect vision. I do not
know whether this could be tested by bringing
certain foods to the attention of such animals
at varying distances for inverted and erect vis-
ion. I found by some simple experiments upon
myself and also upon a friend that lying down,
with the head in horizontal position, distance
was shortened, but I was not able to test at
what angle toward inverted vision distance
first began to lengthen. If not already tried, it
might be useful for some of our psychological
laboratories to set up a tackle, so that a person
might be revolved through the whole circle,
and the effect on perception of distance noted
at all angles, It would also be well to test
whether inverting the object looked at dis-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 73,
turbed the sense of distance. I got no result
in this matter by looking at objects at the end
of a long hall. Hiram M,. STANLEY,
LAKE Forest, Itu., April 27.
THE MAMMOTH BED AT MOREA, PA.
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: The following
interesting section was found on the glaciated
outcrop of the Mammoth (E) bed at Morea, Pa.,
within one mile of the farthest southern limit of
glaciation, and from 20 to 25 miles south of the
moraine of Lewis and Wright. The measures
are nearly vertical and form a narrow and deep
basin. A section taken on the bed gave:
(a) Till of sandy, clayey nature, with burden
of Pottsville conglomerate and varying sand-
stones, and with irregular lenticular patches of
clean reddish clay of small extent. The solid
burden is angular and sub-angular, and not
polished nor striated. In some cases boulders
5 feet thick occur. Total thickness, 6 to 10 feet.
(b) Crushed anthracite, bright and firm,
shipped to market. This is readily scraped up
with the fingers. In places to the north hun-
dreds of tons of this crushed coal have been sold.
When we realize that this is under a sandy till
we can estimate the comparative recency of
glaciation. In some places this layer will reach
18 inches in thickness.
(c) Rotten anthracite with angular specks of
firm slate from coal. Thickness } inches.
(d) Sandy clay, usually grayish, but some-
times clear red or yellow. It bears rolled and
angular quartz and slate pebbles, pieces of an-
thracite, but little anthracite dust. Thickness
1 inch.
(e) Crushed anthracite, firm and bright, like
(b). Thickness } to ? inches,
(f) The glaciated surface of the outcrop of
the bed. Soft and fully rotted so as to be dull,
like black chalk, and easily cut by the finger-
nail. Thickness 3 of an inch.
(g) Solid and bright anthracite of the bed.
On comparing unglaciated or protected out-
crops we find (f) measuring many feet in depth.
We find here that the amount of decomposi-
tion of solid coal since glaciation is 3 of an inch,
The presence of the layer (d) is peculiar be-
tween two layers of crushed anthracite which
are bright and fresh.
May 22, 1896.]
The solid state of the coal is analogous to the
similar state of the slate in the small quarry
near Siegfried, where workable slate is quarried
immediately under glacial gravel. Both are on
the line of farthest ice extension—of earliest
extension—and speak of its recency.
EpwaArp H. WILLIAMS, JR.
LEHIGH UNIVERSITY,
May 11, 1896.
A METEOR.
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: <A few days
ago I observed a meteor of such size as ap-
parently tomerit record. At 7:30 p.m. of May
9th the object was first seen in the twilight
descending in a straight course toward the
northwest at an angle of about 20° with the
plane of the horizon, moying rather slowly and
shining brilliantly with a greenish light. It
very soon after burst into numerous fragments,
the position at rupture bearing about 30° west
of south from the end of the Norfolk and Wash-
ington steamboat pier at Alexandria, Va., and
being at an elevation of about 10° above the
horizon.
Tuos. L. CASEY.
X-RAY PHOTOGRAPHY BY MEANS OF THE
CAMERA.
I HAVE recently succeeded in producing X-
ray pictures, reducing them in their linear di-
mensions to one-fifth the size of the object.
The method used was to produce on a tungstate
of calcium screen the shadows of the object, the
screen with its contents being then photo-
graphed by means of the camera in the ordi-
nary way.
The photographs thus obtained reveal the
details more clearly than the eye can see them
on the screen, and, in fact, reveal details not
visible to the eye.
There is some advantage in this method
over that usually employed. The photographic
plates may be made of reasonable size for large
objects. The pictures gain somewhat in defi-
nition, as penumbral effects are reduced. The
disadvantages are the difficulty of accurately
focussing the faint images on the ground glass
of the camera, and the longer time of exposure
needed to bring out the picture. I think it
SCIENCE.
783
probable that these difficulties may not be very
serious to those possessing the best facilities for
making further study in this direction.
FRANCIS HE. NIPHER.
WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY,
Sr. Louis, May 11, 1896.
THE ROTATING CATHODE.
SINCE writing an account of my observation on
the rotation of the cathode dise (p. 750) it has
occurred to me that a circular or elliptical vibra-
tion of the cathode wire might possibly account
for the observed effect. The tube on which the
observation was made has been cracked, and
now ceases to give the result, nor am I able to
impart rotation in one direction only to the
dise by familiar mechanical means that could
have existed in the tube. The observation is
one of such great interest that I think I should
suggest the above possible explanation, which
had not sooner occurred to me, in order to pre-
vent experimenters from going on what may be
a wild-goose chase. FrANcIs E. NIPHER.
May 13.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
The Principles of Museum Administration. By
G. Brown GoopE, LL. D. (Reprinted from
the Annual Report of the Museum Associa-
tion, 1895.) York, 1895. Pp. 73.
“The degree of civilization to which any
nation, city, or province has attained, is best
shown by the character of its public museums
and the liberality with which they are main-
tained.’? The above sentence—the concluding
sentence of the paper before us—sets forth in
striking phrase the importance of the subject
with which the paper deals. Superlatives are
in general things which a cautious man views
with suspicion, and it may well be doubted
whether any one index of the state of civiliza-
tion can be said to be the best. But that mu-
seums afford one of the most trustworthy indices
of the progress of civilization cannot be doubted.
The indication which they afford is decidedly
flattering to our generation; for this is certainly
preéminently the age of museums. In the
number of museums, large and small, general
and special, in the munificence with which they
are sustained and endowed, in the knowledge,
784
taste and skill displayed in their housing and
installation, the latter half, and especially the
last quarter, of our century marks a prodigious
advance.
It is rather remarkable that, while so much
of thought and labor has been expended upon
museums, and so much has been written upon
various special questions connected with their
administration, hitherto no attempt has been
made to give a compact, systematic and com-
prehensive formulation of the principles of mu-
seum administration. That desideratum is ad-
mirably supplied by Dr. Goode’s little treatise.
No more competent hand could have essayed
the task. Graduated from Wesleyan University
a quarter of a century ago, Dr. Goode served
an apprenticeship of a few yearsin the adminis-
tration of the little museum of that institution,
and displayed from the beginning the scientific
and administrative ability which was soon to
find an adequate field in the National Museum.
To his genius is largely due the rapid advance
in methods of installation, labeling and general
administration, which has given the United
States National Museum a rank among the
foremost, not only in the wealth of its material,
but also in the excellence of its arrangement.
In the study of museum administration, Dr.
Goode has made himself familiar with most of
the great museums of the world, and with many
of the most important of the great expositions
of the last quarter-century. On this subject,
therefore, he speaks ‘as one having authority.’
Within the compass of about three score and
ten pages he has formulated the general prin-
ciples of the relation of the museum to other in-
stitutions and to the community, the classifica-
tion of museums, the preservation, preparation,
installation, labeling and use of the materials of
which the museum is the custodian. These
principles are often stated in the sententious
form of aphorisms, many of which deserve to
become maxims for the guidance of museum
workers. The author finds room, however, to
illustrate the subject by brief but exceedingly
interesting notes on many of the leading mu-
seums.
The sections of the paper treating of the gen-
eral relations and classification of museums have
been published in ScrENcE, August 23, 1895,
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 73.
and January 31, 1896. It is therefore super-
fluous to give any criticism on those portions of
the work. The more technical parts of the
work, referring to the treatment of specimens,
labeling, and installation in general, are of spe-
cial interest to museum workers.
In the section on specimens, emphasis is
placed on the idea of the limitation of every
museum to a definite plan and scope. The
authorities of a museum, instead of collecting
with a dragnet all objects that may be of inter-
est to anyone, should decline to receive speci-
mens or collections of specimens not germane to*
their plan. In the interest of this limitation and
specialization, the policy is advocated of exten-
sive transfers of material from one museum to
another by exchange or gift. The doctrine is
undoubtedly a sound one, though it is easy to
see that, in the case of small museums with
limited endowments, dependent for their main-
tenance and progress on the good will of vari-
ous benefactors, the doctrine cannot be rigor-
ously put in practice. In the same spirit it is
urged that not all the specimens belonging to
any museum should be exhibited. The exhibi-
tion series especially should be made to conform
to a definite plan. The series should be sym-
metrical, and superfluities should be rigorously
excluded. This rule, unquestionably sound in
principle, will naturally be subject to some
modification in practice. The distinction in
purpose and in administration between the ex-
hibition series and the study series is admirably
formulated.
The subject of labels is treated very fully and
satisfactorily. Emphasis is placed on the value,
in the exhibition series, of somewhat elaborate
descriptive labels—a means of popular instruc-
tion which is admirably exemplified in the
National Museum.
We are tempted to copy a few of the pithy
aphorisms in which the paper abounds.
“A finished museum is a dead museum.”’
“Tt is the duty of every museum to be pre-
eminent in at least one specialty.”’
“A museum officer or employé should neyer
be the possessor of a private collection.’’
‘An efficient educational museum may be
described as a collection of instructive labels,
each illustrated by a well-selected specimen.’’
May 22, 1896.}
‘“¢To complete a series, any specimen is better
than none.”’
‘¢ A copy, model or picture of a good thing is
often more useful than an actual specimen of a
poor one.”’
“Restorations made in sucha manner that the
part restored is not at once distinguishable are
unpardonable.”’
‘¢ A Jabel (in the exhibition series) should an-
swer all the questions which are likely to arise
in the minds of the persons examining the ob-
ject to which it is attached.”’
Dr. Goode’s critical notes on various mu-
seums, introduced as illustrations of the princi-
ples discussed, are so interesting as to suggest
that the author would render the scientific pub-
lic a further service, if he could find time to
expand this little pamphlet into a moderate-
sized treatise on the museums of the world and
their administration.
Wm. Norra RIceE.
Spectrum Analysis. DR. JOHN LANDAUER.
Brunswick, Fred. Vieweg & Sohn. 1896.
This handbook of some 175 pages is sub-
stantially a reprint of the author’s article upon
Spectrum Analysis, which appeared in the
“Handbook of Chemistry’ of Drs. Fehling and
Hell. Though now somewhat enlarged, it still
treats more particuiarly of the chemical appli-
cations of the subject. A brief historical intro-
duction, covering the time from Melville to the
present day, is followed by tolerably complete
descriptions of instruments for obtaining and
examining the various spectra. No attempt is
made to develop the theory of any of the in-
struments considered. The conditions affecting
the character of emission and absorption spectra,
and the empirical formule which have been
suggested to express the relation between the
lines and groups in the spectra of different ele-
ments are also touched upon, and then follow
tables of wave-lengths of various metalic spectra.
These embody the recent work of Kayser &
Runge, Rowland and others, and all wave-
lengths are expressed in Rowland’s scale.
Rowland’s (1892) table of solar wave-lengths is
also given, and the principal astronomical ap-
plications of spectroscopy are briefly treated in
some fifteen pages at their end. Throughout
SCIENCE.
785
the book copious references are given to origi-
nal papers, etc., the whole forming a fairly com-
plete resumé. The English student will find the
German unusually clear and concise.
Cc. EB. M.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY, APRIL-MAY.
The Magmatic Alteration of Hornblende and Bio-
tite: By Henry S. WASHINGTON.
It is well known to petrographers that these
minerals, under some conditions, tend to alter
into a granular mass of augite and magnetite.
The causes of this alteration are here discussed.
After reviewing current theories, including that
of Zirkel, the author proceeds to develop his
own views. He finds that this alteration is
most common in the intermediate group of vol-
eanic rocks. He also finds it rare in the plu-
tonic rocks. From the latter fact he infers that
conditions of slight pressure are favorable to
the changes. The theory proposed is that
hornblende and biotite crystals are formed at
an early (intratelluric) stage of eruption under
conditions of great pressure, and probably in
presence of mineralizers. As they approach
the surface in the course of an eruption the
pressure diminishes, leaving the temperature
still high until a point is reached where the sub-
stance is no longer stable. Here a molecular
change is begun which induces a molar change,
so that the chemically and physically homoge-
neous hornblende or biotite becomes the hetero-
geneous granular aggregate of augite and mag-
netite. The origin of the augite andesites is
then discussed in the light of this theory.
On the Origin of the Chouteau Fauna: BY HENRY
SHALER WILLIAMS.
In a former number of the Journal of Geology
the origin of this fauna was discussed by Stuart
Weller. Inthe present paper the author dis-
sents from two opinions therein expressed (1)
that the Chouteau fauna was contemporaneous
with the Chemung fauna of New York, and (2)
that it arose by the mingling of a fauna which
in the Devonian was represented by the Hamil-
ton in New York and the general Devonian
fauna of Europe represented by the Middle
Devonian of Iowa and British America. Three
786
reasons are given (based on the study of the
faunas themselves) for thinking the Chouteau
was later than the Chemung. From a similar
study, the author concludes that there is not at
hand sufficient evidence of the composite origin
of the fauna in question.
North American Graptolites: By R. R. GURLEY.
The present paper is a continuation of one
in the January-February number of the Journal.
The vertical range of graptolites is quite fully
discussed and tables are given showing the hori-
zon and geological range of each species so far
as the facts are known. The value of these
tables is much enhanced by references to the
original sources of information in a large num-
ber of cases. The author finds that graptolites
may be clearly traced to the beginning of the
Carboniferous period, and he thinks it likely
that allied genera lived through the Paleozoic.
Deformation of Rocks, II., An Analysis of Folds:
By C. R. VAN HIseE.
Folds are divided into simple, composite and
complex. The author compares a rock fold to
a wave of the sea, each large wave having super-
posed on it waves of the second order, these
having waves of the third order, etc. Thus
while the forces producing them are different,
the complexity of the two are comparable.
Various forms of folds are figured, and the rela-
tion between them clearly stated. Simple
folds may be united to produce a great variety
of composite structures, anticlinoria and syn-
clinoria. These may be normal or abnormal
and upright, inclined or overturned. As to
abnormal composite folds, several factors modify
the result. (1) Readjustment between the
beds; (2) the great strength of the older rocks;
(8) decreasing lateral stress with depth; (4) the
position of the fold in the group of rocks folded.
Complex folds are folds considered in three di-
mensions. This complexity may be due to dif-
ferences in thickness and strength of beds in
different places, unequal thrust on different
parts of the border of an area, and to the fact
that thrust may be in two or more directions.
A number of practical directions are given for
discovering and interpreting in the field the
structure of complex folds.
C. R. Van Hise continues the ‘Summary of
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. Ill. No. 73.
Current Pre-Cambrian North American Litera-
ture.’ S. Weller contributes a review of Wil-
liams’ ‘Geological Biology.’ A long list of the
publications recently received closes the number.
ID 124 IN,
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
GEOLOGICAL CONFERENCE OF HARVARD UNIVER-
SITY, APRIL 28, 1896.
(1) April recess excursion to the Middle Susque-
hanna, Pa: By W. M. Davis. ;
The special object of this excursion was to
study on the ground the deflected tributaries of
the Susquehanna in Union and Snyder counties,
Pa., and to determine their bearing on the hy-
pothesis that the Susquehanna was superposed
by flood plaining on the two synclines of Pocono
sandstone in Dauphin county at a late stage in
the Cretaceous cycle of denudation. (See Rivers
and Valleys of Penna., Nat. Geogr. Mag., I,
1889, 241.) Spruce run and Buffalo creek,
Penn’s creek and Middle creek were examined ;
Penn’s creek being the most significent, as it
abandons a well-defined limestone and shale
valley and turns south through ridges that sur-
mount by a moderate measure the Tertiary
peneplain of the region. These various streams
cannot be regarded as antecedent to the time
of mountain folding, for they are systematically
placed with respect to the Susquehanna; they
cannot be regarded as adjusted to the structures
of the region, for they stand in most diverse
relation to resistant and weak strata and to an-
ticlines and synclines ; their systematic south-
ward deflection suggests the influence of an
ancient flood plain of the Susquehanna that was
formed on a peneplain of the past, of just the
same kind as the influence exerted by the grow-
ing flood plain of to-day at Selin’s Grove, where
Penn’s creek, after approaching within half a
mile of the main river, has to flow four miles
southward along the inner border of the plain be-
fore mouthing. Admitting that the deflection of
the several streams was caused by flood plaining,
this is shown to have been ancient, not only by
the relation of Penn’s creek to the low ridges
that surmount the dissected Tertiary peneplain,
but also by the imminent readjustment of some
of the deflected streams by longitudinal subse-
quent streams that are growing along weak
MAY 22, 1896.]
strata from the main river; thus Penn’s creek is
almost captured by a longitudinal subsequent
stream that enters the Susquehanna at Win-
field; North Mahantango creek is likewise
nearly diverted by a longitudinal subsequent
branch of Middle creek that flows by Freeburg;
and perhaps the direct longitudinal course of
White Deer creek, further north, may be ex-
plained as a return to its normal attitude ; its
former southward deflection being suggested by
the occurrence of a large number of Medina
boulders on the col by which it is now divided
from a south-flowing, transverse branch of
Buffalo creek.
Among numerous points of interest noted
during the trip may be mentioned: The superb
view of the Delaware watergap, deep cut in
level-crested Kittatinny mountain, as seen from
the edge of Pocono plateau; the monotonous
surface of this plateau, over 2,000 feet above
tide, nearly stripped of its timber, almost unin-
habited, and yielding little more than the win-
ter ice crop of its numerous ponds; the alluvial
fans, locally known as ‘bulges,’ formed on the
low valley floors beneath various notches in the
Medina ridges of the Seven mountains, one fan
at Glen Iron having a radius of half a mile and
a height of about three hundred feet, now some-
what trenched by its stream; the Pocono syn-
clinal coves west of the Susquehanna, opposite
Millersburg and Dauphin; the long straight
boulder-strewn valley floor of Stony creek,
east of the Susquehanna between Second and
Third mountain, the boulders haying crept
down from the crests of Pocono and Pottsville
sandstone and conglomerate, producing an irre-
deemable veneer over the otherwise fertile
Mauch Chunk red shales; and the immediate
transition from this uninhabitable valley to
fertile fields on passing through Fishing creek
gap to the more open country between First
(Blue) and Second mountain.
(2) April recess excursion to Gay Head, Martha’s
Vineyard: By J.B. Woopwarp.
T. A. JAGGAR, JR.,
Recording Secretary.
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES.
AT the meeting of the Section of Astronomy
and Physics on May 4th Prof. A. M. Mayer
SCIENCE.
787
presented a paper on a heliostat with smal]
mirrors, giving an intense beam of light and
forming an image at its focus. It consists in
mounting a convex lens so as to concentrate
the beam of sunlight upon one surface of a
total reflection prism, the lens being mounted
to rotate upon a polar axis so as to keep the
sunbeam continually upon the mirror. A neg-
ative lens near the prism renders the beam
parallel again. A second total reflection prism
sends the beam in any desired direction. The
advantages of this heliostat are a very power-
ful beam of light which can be made to emanate
practically from a point, and from which the
heat rays have been almost entirely absorbed
by its passage through the various pieces of
glass. It is especially adapted to work with
the solar microscope and experiments on the in-
terference of light. The paper was discussed
by Prof. R. 8. Woodward.
The following notes were presented by Mr.
Wallace Goold Levison. (1) On photographs
of Geissler and Crookes’ radiant matter tubes.
Mr. Levison presented a very interesting
series of photographs of Geissler and Crookes’
tubes taken by their own light. Many of these
showed very beautifully the stratification in the
Geissler tubes and the difference between the
phenomena at the anode and at the cathode.
He also showed a series illustrating the disturb-
ances in the stratification produced by plung-
ing the cathode to various depths in water.
The photographs of the Crookes’ tubes showed
not only the fluorescent spot opposite the ca-
thode, but also very distinctly the pale bundle
of cathode rays which are almost invisible to
the unaided eye. (2) In this connection Mr.
Levison pointed out the resemblance between
the succession of colors with varying pressure
in Geissler tubes and the color variation in the
aurora, and suggested that the experiments de-
scribed bore out the idea that the aurora is an
electric discharge through the atmosphere at
various heights and pressures. A possible con-
nection between these phenomena and the
solar corona and comets was also pointed out.
The third note was the description of simple
apparatus for obtaining X-ray photographs by
long exposure with small (6-inch) induction
coil and four Bunsen cells. The fourth note
788
was descriptive of certain plates which were
exhibited appearing to indicate a magnetic ac-
tion on photographic plates. These are called
magnetographs and were made by placing vari-
ous objects directly on the photographic film
and suspending a magnet in front of them. No
satisfactory explanation or theory of the results
has been given. Fifth note: In conclusion,
Mr. Leviston pointed out certain causes which,
in his opinion, might account for the deteriora-
tion of photographic plates, suggesting among
other things X-rays from unexpected sources, _
terrestrial magnetism, plant or fungus organ-
isms, and gases, such as sulphuretted hydrogen,
penetrating the boxes and injuring the plates.
He suggested that the test should be made by
enclosing the plates in soldered metal boxes.
These notes were discussed by Profs. Mayer,
Hallock, Van Nardroff, and others.
By permission of the Section Mr. C. C. Trow-
bridge read a paper entitled ‘The Use of the
Hair Hygrometer,’ which will be published in
this JOURNAL. W. HALLOCK,
Secretary of Section.
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILA-
DELPHIA, APRIL 14.
In connection with the presentation of a col-
lection of recent and fossil Strombide Mr. H.
A. Pilsbry discussed the ancestry of Strombus
Costata and Melongena subcoronata, their rela-
tions, fossil species being illustrated by large
suites of intermediate forms.
Mr. Jos. Willcox commented on the influence
of environment on the species as illustrated by
specimens presented. It was apparent that
those from the southern coasts of Florida swept
by the Gulf Stream were all of a dwarfed type.
Mr. Benj. Sharp related the plentiful occur-
rence of a tetenophore, Mneopsis Ludyi in a
fresh water pond near Nantucket. The em-
bryos had been swept in by an accession of salt
water and had accustomed themselves to their
new environment. The species did not, how-
ever, persist in the pond in consequence prob-
ably of the severity of the winter. Speci-
mens of the species referred to were beautifully
preserved in a two per cent. solution of forma-
line.
Mr. Pilsbry announced the finding, by Mr.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 73.
Chas. Johnson, for the first time, in the Eocene
of Texas, of a representative of the genus scalpil-
lum. It is a new species for which the name
Chamberlaini was proposed, in recognition of
the services of the Rev. Dr. L. T. Chamber-
lain to paleontological science.
Epw. J. NoLAn,
Recording Secretary.
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY SCIENCE CLUB,
APRIL 3.
Dr. MArcy in chair. Prof. G. W. Hough pre-
sented the topic, ‘Instruments for Recording
the Time of Astronomical Observations.’ He
described various steps in the use of electric
clock signals and the methods of mechanical re-
cord of such signals. After explaining a num-
ber of contrivances for securing uniform circular
motion he described his printing chronograph,
which prints with type the minutes, seconds,
and hundredths of seconds of the time of the
observation. The instrument has been in use
since 1871, is easily kept in order, and has a
great advantage over the recording chrono-
graph in saving labor in meridian observations.
In the discussion Prof. Crew described de-
vices used in securing uniform circular motion for
chronographs at Johns Hopkins and at Lick
Observatory. A. R. CROOK,
Secretary.
EVANSTON, ILL.
NEW BOOKS.
Electric Lighting. Volume I. The Generating
Plant: FRANcIs B. CrockER. New York,
D. Van Nostrand Co.; London, HE. and F.
N. Spon. 1896. Pp. viii+-444.
Mathematical Papers read at the International
- Mathematical Congress. Edited by E. HAst-
tyes Moorn, Oskar BouzaA, HEINRICH
Mascuke, Henry S. Wuire. New York,
Maemillan & Co., for the American Mathe-
matical Society. 1896. Pp. xvit+411. $4.00.
Wages and Capital. F. W. Taussic. New
York, D. Appleton & Co. 1896. Pp. xviii
+325.
Ruhmkorff Induction-Coils. H.S. Morriz. New
York, Spon and Chamberlain. 1896. Pp.
xvili+183.
SCIENCE
NEw SERIEs.
Vou. III. No. 74.
Fripay, May 29, 1896.
SINGLE CoPIEs, 15 cTs.
ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, $5.00.
The Child and Childhood in Folk-Thought.
(THE CHILD IN PRIMITIVE CULTURE.)
By ALEXANDER FRANCIS CHAMBERLAIN, M.A., Ph.D.,
Lecturer on Anthropology in Clark University; sometime Fellow in Modern Languages in University College,
Toronto ; Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, etc., ete.
8Svo, CLOTH, $3.00 NET.
OPINIONS OF THE PRESS.
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the child has done or said to have done in all the ages and
among all races of men. The book is one of the most re-
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the attention of folk-lore students, but of the general public
as well.”—Boston Advertiser.
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-drop into it at any place, and for that matter any number
of times, and always bring up something quaint, instruc-
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or of primitive life. In a word, Professor Chamberlain
has met with the most complete success in his endeavor, as
the says in his preface, to present ‘the child, what he has
done or is said to have done, in all ages and among all
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SCIENCE
EDITORIAL COMMITTEE: S. NEwcoms, Mathematics; R. S. WooDWARD, Mechanics; E. C. PICKERING,
Astronomy; T. C. MENDENHALL, Physics; R. H. THURSTON, Engineering; IRA REMSEN, Chemistry;
J. LE ContTE, Geology; W. M. DAvIs, Physiography; O. C. MARSH, Paleontology; W. K.
Brooks, C. HART MERRIAM, Zodlogy; 8. H. SCUDDER, Bntomolozy; N. L. BRITTON,
Botany; HENRY F. OSBORN, General Biology; H. P. BowpitTcH, Physiology;
J. 8S. BILLINGS, Hygiene ; J. McKEEN CATTELL, Psychology ;
DANIEL G. BRINTON, J. W. POWELL, Anthropology ;
G. BROWN GOODE, Scientific Organization.
Fripay, May 29, 1896.
CONTENTS :
The Ape-man from the Tertiary of Java:
IMUATREISE Gascon nosanssopoenbcq0nDes soSoaDp0D9G0NDo90050aH0u0N00
The Metric System: W. LE CONTE STEVENS
Two Erosion Epochs—Another Suggestion :
W. Ji
MCGEE ............. Rd dodCORHBSS BE CaOOAHSbooUReneEuaeUe Tees 796
“Ourrent Notes on Physiography :—
Geographical Description of the British Islands ;
Recent Sheets of owr National Map; A Short His-
tory of the Great Lakes: W.M. DAVIS............ 799
Current Notes on Meteorology :—
Weather Bureau Kite-flying ; Baloons and Kites in
Cloud Observations; Blue Hill Kite-flying: R.
IDB) (5, \RYATED acon con acnascodanann.b0spes6oso0o00noH00000e0 801
Scientific Notes and News .........ccecsceseeesecersncoeeeees 802
University and Educational News. ..........sscsceeceeeees 807
Discussion and Correspondence :-—
A Review of Bigelow’s Papers on Meteorology and
Solar Physics: W.S. FRANKLIN. Dr. Brinton
on Keane’s ‘ Ethnology:’ A. H. KEANE, D. G.
BRINTON. To Prevent the Growth of Beard: L.
O. HowarvD. The Child and Childhood in Folk-
thought: ALEX. F. CHAMBERLAIN. ‘That Great
Law of Logic:’? J. MCKEEN CATTELL. ......... 807
Scientific Literature :-—
Hornby’s Text-book of Gas Manufacture for Stu-
dents: FRANK H. THORP. Arnold’s Repitorium
GKGiP (CHATIEG § TShrcpooocbecossnocnocb00000b4020b.cqBEEEOdeCONG 815
Scientific Journals :—
The American Journal of Science. The American
Chemical Journal: J. ELLIOTT GILPIN............ 816
Societies and Academies :—
New York Academy of Sciences, Section of Geology
and Mineralogy: J. F. Kemp. Meeting of the
New York Section of the American Chemical Soci-
ety: Wm. McMurtrRig. The Chemical Society
of Washington: A. C. PEALE. Biological
Society of Washington: F. A. Lucas. Geolog-
ical Society of Washington: W. F. MORSELL.
Academy of Natwral Sciences of Philadelphia:
Epw. J. NoLAN. Northwestern University Science
Club: A. R. Crook. The Academy of Science
of St. Lowis: WM. TRELEASE...........0000eeeeeee 818
THE APE-MAN FROM THE TERTIARY OF
JAVA.*
Near the beginning of last year, a discov-
ery was announced that excited great in-
terest throughout the scientific world, es-
pecially among those interested in the origin
and antiquity of man. The announcement
first made was that remains of a veritable
missing link between man and the higher
apes had been found in Java, in strata of
Pleistocene age. The discovery was made by
Dr. Eugene Dubois, a surgeon in the Dutch
army, who had been stationed in Java for
several years and had devoted much time
to the vertebrate fossils of that island.
The first definite information received in
this country was in December, 1894, when
Dubois’s memoir on Pithecanthropus ar-
rived.+ One of the first copies reached the
late Prof. Dana, and at his request I wrote
a review of it, which appeared, with illus-
trations, in the American Journal of Science
for February, 1895.
The memoir of Dr. Dubois was an ad-
mirable one, and, although written in Java,
with only limited facilities for consulting
the literature on the subject, and for com-
paring the remains described with living
* Abstract of communication made to the National
Academy of Sciences at Washington, April 24, 1896.
+ Pithecanthropus erectus. Eine menschenaehnliche
Uebergangsform aus Java. Von Eug. Dubois, Mili-
tairarzt der niederlaendish-indischen Armee. . Mit
zwei Tafeln und drei in den Text gedruckten Fig-
uren. 4to, Batavia, 1894.
790
and extinct forms to which they were re-
lated, the author showed himself to be an
anatomist of more than usual attainments
and fully qualified to record the important
discovery he had made. In my review,
therefore, of this important memoir I en-
deavored to-state fairly the essential facts
of the discovery, as well as the main results
reached by Dr. Dubois after a careful study
of the remains. My own conclusions in
regard to this discovery, briefly stated in
my review, were as follows :
“Tt is only justice to Dr. Dubois and his
admirable memoir to say here that he has
proved to science the existence of a new
prehistoric anthropoid form, not human in-
deed, but in size, brain power and erect
posture much nearer man than any animal
hitherto discovered, living or extinct. ** * *
Whatever light future researches may
throw upon the affinities of this new form
that left its remains in the volcanic de-
posits of Java during later Tertiary time,
there can be no doubt that the discovery
itself is an event equal in interest to that
of the Neanderthal skull.
“The man of the Neander valley re-
mained without honor, even in his own
country, for more than a quarter of a cen-
tury, and was still doubted and reviled
when his kinsmen, the men of Spy, came
to his defense, and a new chapter was added
to the early history of the human race.
The ape-man of Java comes to light at a
more fortunate time, when zeal for explora-
tion is so great that the discovery of addi-
tional remains may be expected at no dis-
tant day. That still other intermediate
forms will eventually be brought to light
no one familiar with the subject can doubt.’’
In most scientific quarters, however, both
in this country and in Europe, Dr. Dubois’s
discovery was not received with great favor
and the facts and conclusions stated in his
memoir were much criticised. The early
conclusions seemed to be that the various
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 74.
remains discovered were human and of no
great age; that they did not belong to the
same individual ; that the skull apparently
pertained to an idiot, and that both the
skull and femur showed pathological fea-
tures. In fact, the old story of the distrust
aroused by the discovery of the Neander-
thal skull, nearly forty years before, was
repeated, although in milder form.
It was a fortunate thing for science that
the Dutch government appreciated the im-
portance of the discovery made in its Jay-
anese province by Dr. Dubois, and last sum-
mer allowed him to return to Holland and
bring with him the precious remains he had
found and so well described. Not only
this, but he was also permitted to bring the
extensive collections of other vertebrate
fossils which he had secured from the same
horizon and in the same locality where the
Pithecanthropus was discovered. All these
were shown at the International Congress
of Zodlogists, held at Leyden, in September
last, and on the 21st of that month Dr.
Dubois read an elaborate paper on his ori-
ginal discovery and on his later explora-
tions in the same region. This communi-
cation was in many respects the most im-
portant one of the session, and its presenta-
tion with the specimens themselves was a
rare treat to the large audience present, es-
pecially to those fitted to appreciate the
evidence laid before them.*
Prof. Virchow, of Berlin, was _presi-
dent of the meeting on that day, and had
brought various specimens to illustrate the
remarks he was to make in the discussion.
The famous Leyden museum was also
drawn upon for an extensive series of speci-
mens of man and the higher apes, so that,
if possible, the true position of Pithecanthro-
* Compte-Rendu des Séances du Troisiéme Congrés
International de Zoologie, Leyden, September, 1895,
pp. 251-271, 1896. See also Transactions Royal
Dublin Society, Vol. VI., pp. 1-18, February, 1896;
and Anatomischer Anzeiger, Bd. XII., pp. 1-22, 1896.
May 29, idyv.,
pus might then be determined once for all.
Dr. Dubois, moreover, kindly invited Prof.
Virchow, Sir William Flower and myself
to come an hour before the meeting and
personally examine the remains he was to
discuss, and this invitation was most gladly
accepted.
The first sight of the osc « was a sur-
prise, as they were evidently much older
than appeared from the descriptions. - All
were dark in color, thoroughly petrified,
and the matrix was solid rock, difficult to
remove. The skull-cap of Pithecanthropus
was filled with the hard matrix, firmly ce-
mented to it. The roughness of the supe-
rior surface, especially in the frontal re-
gion, was apparently due to corrosion after
entombment, and not to disease, as had -
been suggested by some anatomists. The
femur was free from matrix, but very
heavy in consequence of the infiltration of
mineral matter. The exostosis on its upper
portion was a conspicuous feature, but of
course is pathological. This feature is of
little consequence, as very similar out-
growths occur on fossil bones of even Eocene
age. The two teeth showed no characters
that indicated their interment under cir-
cumstances different from that of the skull
or femur. All the physical characters im-
pressed me strongly with the idea that
these various remains were of Tertiary age,
and not Post-Tertiary, as has been sup-
posed. The description of the locality and
the account of the series of strata there ex-
posed, as given by Dr. Dubois in his com-
munication, confirmed this opinion, and a
later examination of accompanying verte-
brate fossils placed the Pliocene age of all
beyond reasonable doubt.
The facts relating to the discovery itself,
and the position in which the remains were
found, as stated by Dubois in his paper, to-
gether with some additional details given to
me personally, convinced me that, in all
probability, the various remains attributed
SCIENCE.
791
to Pithecanthropus pertained to one indi-
vidual. Under the circumstances, no pale-
ontologist who has had experience in col-
lecting vertebrate fossils would hesitate to
place them together.
..The three specimens originally described,
tHe tooth, skull and femur, were found at
different times in the same horizon, all im-
bedded in the same volcanic tufa, in the
bank of the river Bengawan, near Trinil, in
central Java. The tooth was found first,
in September, 1891, in the left bank of the
river, about a meter below the water level
during the dry season, and twelve or fifteen
“mmeters below the plain in which the river
had cut its bed. A month later, the skull
was discovered, only a meter distant from
the place where the tooth lay. In August,
1892, the femur also was found, about fif-
teen meters distant from the locality where
the other specimens were imbedded. Later,
in October of the same year, a second molar
was obtained at a distance of not more than
three meters, from where the skull-cap was
found, and in the direction of the place
where the femur was dug out.
The fossils thus secured were all carefully
investigated by Dubois, who regards them
as representing a distinct species and genus,
and also a new family, which he has named
the Pithecanthropide, and distinguished
mainly by the following characters :
Brain cavity absolutely larger, and, in
proportion to the size of the body, much
more capacious than in the Simiide, yet
less so than in the Hominide. Capacity of
the skull about two-thirds the average of
that of man. Inclination of the nuchal
surface of the occiput considerably greater
than in the Simiide. Dentition, although
retrogressive, still of the simian type.
Femur equal in its dimensions to that of
man, and like that adapted for walking in
an upright position.
Of this skull, the upper portion alone is
preserved, the line of fracture extending
792
from the glabella backward irregularly to
the occiput, which it divides somewhat be-
low the upper nuchal line. The cranium
seen from above is an elongated oval in
Hy
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 74.
guished from that of other anthropoid apes
by its large size and its higher arching in
the coronal region, as shown below in figures
adult, but not very old, animal. The crown
Fic. 1.—Longitudinal outlines of crania.
1 and 2. The greatest length from the
glabella to the posterior projection of the
occiput is 185™. The greatest breadth is
130™, and the smallest, behind the orbit,
is 90™. The cranium in its original con-
dition must have been of somewhat larger
dimensions. The upper surface of the skull
is without ridges, and the sutures all ap-
pear to be obliterated.
This dolicocephalic skull, with an index
of 70°, is readily distinguished from that of
the Orang-utan, which is decidedly brachy-
cephalic. The absence of the characteristic
cranial crests will separate it from the skull
of the adult Gorilla. - In its smooth upper
surface and general form, it shows a re-
semblance to the skull of the Chimpanzee,
and still closer to that of the Gibbons
(Hylobates).
A figure of the present specimen and
the skull of a Gibbon for comparison are
shown in figures 2 and 3, below, reproduced
from illustrations in Dr. Dubois’s memoir.
The tooth, the first specimen found, is
represented in figure 4, below. It is the
last upper molar of the right side, and is in
good preservation. It indicates a fully
outline, dolichocephalic; and is distin-
H. European man ; P. Pithecanthropus ; Ha. Hylobates
agilis ; A. Chimpanzee ; Hs. Hylo- bates syndactflus.
(After Dubois. )
is subtriangular in form, with the corners
rounded, and the narrowest portion behind.
The anteroposterior diameter of the crown
Fic. 2.—Cranium of Pithecanthropus erectus, ¢.
Fic. 3.—Skull of Hylobates syndactylus, 4
3. (After
Dubois. )
is 11:3"", and the transverse diameter
15:3. The grinding surface of the crown
is concave and less rugose than in existing
anthropoid apes. The diverging roots are
a simian feature.
The femur, which is from the left side, is
in fair preservation, although it was some-
what injured in removing it from the sur-
rounding rock. It belonged to a fully adult
individual. In form and dimensions it
resembles so strongly a human femur that
May 29, 1896.]
only a eareful comparison would distinguish
one from the other.
These various remains of Pithecanthropus
were again described in detail and com-
pared with allied forms by Dr. Dubois in
his paper at Leyden, and in the discussion
that followed the whole subject was once
more gone over by anthropologists, zodlo-
gists and geologists in a most thorough
and judicial manner. To attempt to weigh
impartially the evidence as to the nature of
Pithecanthropus, presented by Dr. Dubois in
his paper and by those who took part in
the critical discussion that followed its
reading, would lead far beyond the limits
Fie. 4.—Third right upper molar of Pithecanthro-
pus erectus, #. (After Dubois. )
a, back view; b, top view.
of the present communication. JI can only
say that this evidence was strongly in favor
of the view that the skull of Pithecanthropus
is not human, as the orbital and nuchal
regions show, while at the same time it indi-
cates an animal much above any anthro-
poid ape now known, living or extinct.
Opinions differed as to whether the various
remains pertained to the same individual,
but no one doubted their importance.
The varied opinions expressed in regard
to the anatomical characters of each of the
specimens have already been published, and
need not be repeated here. Dr. Dubois, in
his papers above cited, has met all the
principal objections made to his views since
he announced his discovery. He has also
given full reference to the literature, which
promises to be voluminous as the impor-
tance of the subject becomes better known.
After a careful study of all the Pithecan-
SCIENCE.
793
thropus remains and of the evidence pre-
sented as to the original discovery, the po-
sition in which the remains were found,
and the associated fossils, my own conclu-
sions may be briefly stated as follows:
1 (1) The remains of Pithecanthropus at
present known are of Pliocene age, and the
associated vertebrate fauna resembles that
of the Siwalik Hills of India.
(2) The various specimens of Pithecanthro-
pus apparently belonged to one individual.
(38) This individual was not human, but
represented a form intermediate between
man and the higher apes.
If it be true, as some have contended,
that the different remains had no connec-
tion with each other, this simply proves
that Dr. Dubois has made several impor-
tant discoveries instead of one. All the re-
mains are certainly anthropoid, and if any
of them are human the antiquity of man
extends back into the Tertiary, and his af-
finities with the higher apes become much
nearer than has hitherto been supposed.
One thing is certain: the discovery of Pithe-
canthropus is an event of the first impor-
tance to the scientific world.
O. C. MarsH.
THE METRIC SYSTEM.
THE issue of Scrence for May 15th con-
tains the report of a meeting of the Engi-
neers’ Club of Philadelphia, at which, by a
vote of 100 to 60, the Club urges upon Con-
gress the adoption of the metric system as
the only legal standard in the United States,
and the promotion of such international
cooperation as will provide unity of prac-
tice among commercial nations.
In connection with this it may be of in-
terest to note the issue of a circular entitled
‘Should the metric weights and measures
be made compulsory?’ It is signed by J.
Emerson Dowson, of London, who is a
member of the Institute of Civil Engineers
and Chairman of the Executive Committee
794
of the New Decimal Association in England.
This circular has been sent to various
members of the American Society of Civil
Engineers.
Mr. Dowson begins by quoting the now
well-known recommendations of the Select
Committee of the House of Commons, re-
ported last July, in which it was urged that
the metric system be at once legalized in
England ; that it be taught in all public ele-
mentary schools, and that it be rendered
compulsory by act of Parliament after a
lapse of two years. He discusses the reply
of Mr. Balfour to the deputation of the
Chamber of Commerce, who had urged upon
him the need of giving effect to the recom-
mendations of the Select Committee. Mr.
Balfour expressed his high opinion of the
merits of the metric system, but was unwill-
ing that this should be made compulsory in
the near future, because he feared the effect
on the small retail dealers and those who
buy their goods from such dealers, and
thought that so important a change could
not be well undertaken until public opinion
is better prepared for it than at present.
The metric system was legalized in Amer-
ica nearly twenty years ago, but in England
its use is forbidden, under penalty, for pur-
poses of trade. With us the pound and
yard are defined as certain decimal frac-
tions of the kilogram and meter, respec-
tively, but neither legalization nor defini-
tions are sufficient to secure general adop-
tion until the people feel the need of dis-
carding the inconsistencies and inconven-
iences to which they have become accus-
tomed in the use of English weights and
measures. Mr. Dowson’s circular shows
that among the plain business people of
England there is an unexpectedly wide-
spread demand for the change, in relation to
which Mr. Balfour has shown himself so
conservative. Soon after Mr. Balfour’s reply
had been given to the Deputation, the
Metropolitan Grocers’ and Provision Deal-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 74.
ers’ Association, a body composed chiefly
of retailers, had a general meeting, dis-
cussed the metric system fully and critic-
ally, and passed a resolution, amidst ap-
plause, ‘That after due notice the system
be made compulsory after two years.”’ The
Trades Councils throughout England seem
to have taken a lively interest in the ques-
tion. ‘At several of their meetings it had
been discussed in a practical way ; and ata.
Congress held in Glasgow, where there
were 495 delegates, representing about a
million and a quarter members and 418
different trades, a resolution in favor of the.
proposed change was carried unanimously,
and the Parliamentary Committee was in-
structed to give it active support. These
Trade Councils represented bargemen and
watermen, dockers, street masons and
pavers, gas workers and laborers, boot and
shoe workers, lithographic printers, carmen,
shop assistants, railway servants and many
provincial trades.” ‘The Incorporated
Society of Inspectors of Weights and Meas-
ures have passed a strong resolution in
favor of the proposed change. This Society
represents the inspectors from all parts of
the Kingdom and they have an intimate
knowledge of what is best for the retail
trades.”’ “The County Council of Durham,
representing a population of 750,000, voted
unanimously in favor of the change; and
one notable feature is that on this Council
there are twenty working miners.’”’
Mr. Dowson’s circular is accompanied by
a list of public bodies, associations, etc.,
which have approved the adoption of the
metric system in England. This listis sur-
prisingly large, and represents an amount
of strength in behalf of progress much be-
yond what most of us Americans have
credited to the copservative English. There
are 20 town councils; 40 trade councils,
including the London Association for the
Protection of Trade, consisting of 4,000
members, the Edinburgh Merchants’ Asso-
May 29, 1896.]
ciation, the Association of Trade Protection
Societies, the Liverpool Cotton Association,
Corn Trade Association, etc.; 29 School
Boards, including those of London, Man-
chester and Birmingham ; 39 Chambers of
Commerce, including those of London, Edin-
burgh, Liverpool, Birmingham and Belfast;
and 15 other influential bodies not easily
classified, such as the National Union of
Teachers, the Scottish Chamber of Agricul-
ture, the Institution of Engineers and Ship-
builders, ete. Approval of the compulsory
adoption of the metric system was carried
at the Congress of Chambers of Commerce
of the Empire, and at the recent annual
meeting of the Association of Chambers of
Commerce (March 25, 1896), when the
Earl of Dudley assured the meeting that
the London Board of Trade, of which he is
Parliamentary Secretary, ‘‘ realized the im-
portance of the question and was deter-
mined to press it to an issue as soon as
possible.”
Apart from the inconvenience involved
in change of any kind, the only really seri-
ous objection to the general adoption of the
metric system is found in the great expense
that is brought into large manufacturing
establishments by a change of standards.
The Engtish are beginning to appreciate the
loss they are suffering by lack of harmony
with most other European nations, and loss
of trade soon teaches what expense may
be afforded in changing standards. The
facts brought out in Mr. Dowson’s circular
seem to show that in England at present
the popular demand for the metric system
is greater than it is in America, although
as a people we are less conservative than
the English. Despite the temporary dis-
couragement lately suffered by the advo-
cates of progress in metrology, the outlook
among English-speaking peoples is, on the
whole, far better than it has ever been in
previous years ; and without being unreas-
onably sanguine there is yet good ground
SCIENCE.
795
for the expectation that in both England
and America the metric system will have
been adopted by popular demand with the
opening of the twentieth century.
Lord Kelvin’s letter to the London Times,
quoted in the last issue of ScrENcE, deals
with this subject in a spirit eminently char-
acteristic of its author and worthy of special
commendation to American legislators. It
thoroughly disposes of Mr. Balfour’s con-
sideration that the introduction of the met-
rie system would bring hardship upon the
poorer classes, ‘‘who have no great power
to make their voices heard, at least in such
discussions as these.”’ Any argument based
on the interests of these classes in England
is equally applicable in America or in Ger-
many. Those of us who have dwelt some
time in Germany have noticed how thor-
oughly the poorer classes have adapted
themselves to the metric system. There is
certainly no record of their having suffered
any unreasonable hardship. Indeed this is
the old argument against the introduction
of all labor-saving devices. If it had pre-
vailed we should not to-day be using the
power loom, the cotton gin, the steam en-
gine or the printing press, because each of
these threw some of the poorer classes out
of employment, or necessitated inconveni-
ent change of employment for them.
In the present case, moreover, there is no
special need that the poorer classes should
‘make their voices heard.’ To form any
opinion upon the merits of the metric sys-
tem it is necessary to have some knowledge
of it practically. Any one who has such
knowledge, if he belongs to the poorer
classes, should be accorded the opportunity
to be heard. In America every one, how-
ever poor he may be, has access to the pub-
lic ear through the daily press if he has the
ability to write intelligibly. But the poor
and the uneducated cannot be expected to
take any active part in discussions of this
kind, any more than in the founding of
796
universities or the establishment of mone-
tary systems. If we wait for them to speak
out we must wait indefinitely. If the in-
troduction of the metric system be accom-
plished in America we must act in the
light of experience already acquired in Eu-
rope, which is far more valuable than any
amount of theorizing about the apprehended
effect upon poorer, classes who have not yet
tried it.
The suggestion that an International Com-
mission should be appointed to secure unity
of action between the United States and
Great Britain is eminently worthy of adop-
tion. Any system of metrology adopted
by one of these two nations must necessarily
be adopted nearly, if not quite, simultan-
eously by the other. It is very much to be
desired that this proposition shall be
brought before Congress as soon as the
Committee on Coinage, Weights and Meas-
ures is again ready to act.
W. Le Conte STEVENS.
TWO EROSION EPOCHS—ANOTHER SUG-
GESTION.
HersHey’s recent suggestion (ScrENCE,
Vol. III., pp. 620-622) that a specific desig-
nation be given to the epoch of post-Lafay-
ette erosion in the eastern United States is
an excellent one. The epoch is one of the
most clearly defined in the physical history
of the continent; its record has already
been interpreted over a vast area, and a
specific designation will tend at once to erys-
tallize knowledge and to aid in its diffusion.
So the suggestion marks an advance in sys-
tematizing American geology.
To the writer the name selected seems
hardly a happy one, partly because ‘ Ozark’
is already in so general use in geologic no-
menclatureas perhaps to occasion confusion,
partly because there is a certain incongru-
ity in applying the name of a mountain
region to a degradation period; but this
question of fitness in name gives no occa-
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. II. No. 74.
sion for hesitating to adopt the suggestion.
There is a graver question concerning
the age of the epoch. Hershey intimates,
without argument, that there is ‘ general
agreement * * ** that the post-Lafayette
period of erosion is early Quaternary in
age ;’ but, so far as the writer is aware,
most students have connected the degrada-
tion period with the preceding aggradation
period—those geologists who have exam-
ined the formation and its degradation
record (with perhaps two exceptions) re-
garding both as pre-Quaternary, and those
who have written voluminously on the
formation without seeing it regarding it as
Quaternary. It seems worth while to di-
rect attention to this question of age, partly
for the purpose of pointing out that there is
no less need for the term even if the epoch
does not belong to the Pleistocene, and thus
to the period so well classified by Cham-
berlin; it is not absolutely necessary to
decide whether the Ozarkian epoch be classi-
fied as Pleistocene or Neocene, since each
student can arrange his pigeon holes and
their contents as he pleases, and since in-
creasing knowledge is constantly making
toward better arrangements; but it is im-
portant that this well-marked erosion epoch
should bear a denotive label. It is also im-
portant to remember that, if erosion be re-
garded as yielding a time measure, the ref-
erence of the Ozarkian to the Pleistocene
multiplies many times the commonly recog-
nized duration of that period.
Hershey adequately recognizes the extent
of the erosion affected during the Ozarkian
epoch in (a) the Coastal plain of the Atlan-
ticand Gulf, and (b) the broad area extend-
ing thence to the glacial margin; but it
seems desirable to recognize (hypothetically
perhaps, but with constantly increasing evi-
dence), the record of the epoch in (¢) the
glaciated region: In the Coastal plain this
epoch of profound erosion is recorded in es-
tuaries hundreds of miles in length and
May 29, 1896.]
scores in breadth, and scores or hundreds
of feet in depth to the bottom of later lin-
ings, excavated chiefly in nonlithified de-
posits; in the interior area it is recorded in
steep-bluffed canyons carrying all the rivers
and all but the smallest streamlets, exca-
vated in hard rocks; and the two records
are not only consistent in kind and amount,
but intergrade in such manner as to estab-
lish substantial identity. In the glaciated
area the drift mantles a surface, which, so
far as outcrops and borings indicate, is the
counterpart of that found in the extra-gla-
cialregion, e.g., in Ohio and western Penn-
sylvania numerous ancient drift-filled chan-
nels have long been known; in Indiana and
Tilinois many such canyons have been re-
vealed by borings; in Iowa several have
been recognized for years and others have
recently been brought to light through the
researches of the State Survey; indeed
throughout most of the glaciated region
such buried canyons are known. Now it
is noteworthy that all of these drift-filled
gorges thus far brought to light are consis-
tent in depth and width among each other,
and also with the gorges of the Mississippi,
Missouri and Ohio, not only inside the gla-
cial boundary, but outside that limit where
they form trustworthy records of the Ozar-
kian epoch. It is no less noteworthy that
Salisbury and others have detected remnant
gravel deposits, presumptively represent-
ing the Lafayette, far within the glacial
boundary; and the combined records of ag-
gradation and degradation indicate with con-
siderable clearness that the continental os-
cillations of the Lafayette-Ozarkian time
affected most or all of what is now the east-
ern half of the United States. This corre-
lation of degradation records without and
within the glacial boundary explains simply
and readily the peculiar configuration of the
pre-glacial surface which has puzzled many
students; and at the same time it empha-
sizes the strong distinction between agen-
SCIENCE.
197
cies and conditions of the two periods—the
Ozarkian epoch of high level and rapid deg-
radation, and the Kansan and succeeding
epochs of low altitude and aggradation or
feeble degradation.
' In considering the physical history of the
southeastern quarter of the continent during
neozoic time it should be borne in mind
that there were two and only two great
eons or cycles of earth movement. The
first eon began with the profound oscillia-
tions attending the deposition and subse-
quent degradation of the Potomac forma-
tion, continued with ever-lessening ampli-
tude of oscillation nearly to the end of the
Tertiary, and closed with the remarkable
epoch of stability in the earth crust ante-
dating the Lafayette; the second eon be-
gan with the profound oscillation by which
the deposition and subsequent degradation
of the Lafayette were produced, continued
with diminishing vigor and amplitude of
movement to the end of glacial time, and is
apparently not yet closed, 7. e., each cycle
began with strong movement which gradu-
ally declined and died away, the first in a
long epoch of quiescence, the second in the
gentle oscillation apparently in progress
to-day. It may be noted in passing that
there is a certain logical symmetry and
completeness in correlating these eons or
cycles with the stratigraphic and paleonto-
logic series, and thereby in referring the
second wholly to Pleistocene ; but it should
not be forgotten that there is no indubitable
evidence connecting the Lafayette with
glacial action, and a vast body of trust-
worthy evidence pointing in the opposite
direction, so that the logic of fact runs
counter to the logic of idea ; moreover such
a correlation tends to deepen the slough of
baseless speculation concerning the cause of
glaciation which alone seems to connect the
Lafayette with the glacial deposits. Now
on considering in detail the oscillations of
the two eons, it is found that they run in
798
pairs, each subsidence being followed by
elevation of proportionate amount; * e. .,
the strong subsidence of the Potomac epoch
was followed by a strong uplift, the slight
subsidence of the Pamunkey by a slight up-
lift, and in the Lafayette and again in the
Columbia epoch the same relation held,
while the values of subsidence and eleva-
tion varied together in different latitudes,
yet remained essentially equal at each. So
uniform and so constant is this relation
that it seems fitting to couple each deg-
radation period with the immediately
preceding aggradation period rather than
with that which followed ; in other words,
each unconformity seems more closely re-
lated to the formation in which it is carved,
than to the newer, perhaps much newer,
formation overlying it. These consider-
ations indicate the conditions of the ero-
sion epochs preceding and succeeding the
Lafayette; and incidentally they seem to
afford additional grounds for classing the
Ozarkian epoch with the Neocene rather
than with the Pleistocene.
There is satisfactory evidence} that as
the oscillating earth crust came to approxi-
mate rest in the earlier physical eon, the
land surface throughout the Piedmont, Ap-
palachian, Cumberland and _ contiguous
provinces was extensively baseleveled and
so far degraded that mechanical agency be-
came feeble; this was the epoch of wide-
spread planation by which character was
given to the inter-stream surface outside
the glacial margin, and presumptively to
the inter-canyon surface in the glaciated
area. As mechanical activity decreased
chemical activity increased, and the less
* The characteristics of the movements have been
noted in the Compte Rendu de la Congress Géo-
logique International, 5me. Session, Washington,
1891, p. 165.
+ Noted in part in Twelfth Ann. Rep. U. 8. Geol.
Survey, 1891, pp. 494-6, 508; also in descriptive
text of the Nomini Atlas-folio (now in press) of the
Geologic Atlas of the United States.
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 74.
obdurate rocks were decomposed into a thick
mantle of residua, interrupted by occa-
sional siliceous ledges and bodies, which
were afterward gathered by the revived
streams to form the Lafayette deposit. This
epoch of baseleveling and-rock decomposi-
tion was of exceeding importance in the
geologic history of the southeastern part of
the continent, since it was during its course
that the chief topographic features of the
provinces—the broad plateaus and inter-
stream plains—were developed. Its earlier
limit is indeed somewhat vague ; the char-
acteristic processes began with the waning
post-Potomac oscillation, and were meas-
urably interrupted by each throe of the
earth crust up to and including the Chesa-
peake, in the middle Atlantic slope; butits
later limit is clearly fixed by the Lafayette.
It seems desirable that this important
degradation epoch should receive a distine-
tive appellation. The association of Her-
shey’s designation would suggest Appala-
chian, or Piedmont, or Cumberland as a suit-
able term, since the configuration of these
provinces was shaped during the epoch;
but it would seem to the writer more fitting
to borrow a name from one of the principal
agents in the work of the epoch, viz: Ten-
nessee river—a great waterway which then
drained a large section of the Cumberland
and Appalachian provinces directly into the
Mississippi, which was of much greater im-
portance in the earlier neozoic epochs than
at present, and which assumed a new course
in its lower part and lost much of its drain-
age area as the epoch ended.
So it may be suggested that Tennessee (or
Tennesseean) epoch be added to the time no-
menclature of American geology as a desig-
nation for the long period of planation and
rock decomposition immediately preceding
the Lafayette. Thus may we have con-
venient designations for the two chief
erosion periods by which the lands of a vast
area of our continent were finally shaped.
May 29, 1896.]
The relations of the epochs, as conceived
by the writer, are shown in the following
scheme :
Period. Epoch. Process.
Wisconsin. ...Glaciation.
Toronto ?..... Aqueous erosion, etc.
Pleistocene Towan........ Glaciation. —
| Aftonian..... Aqueous erosion, forest
H growth, etc.
| Kansan..... Glaciation.
{ Ozarkian..... Canyon cutting.
Neocene Lafayette..... Sedimentation.
Tennessee. ...Planation.
Save occasionally in the Appalachian and
Piedmont provinces, where the normal
land forms are locally dominated by struc-
tural mountains, monadnocks and catoctins,
the topographic record of the two Neocene
-erosion epochs stands out in every typical
landscape from the fall-line to the drift
margin; for the characteristic tabular or
-gently-rounded, residuum-mantled divides
represent the earlier, and the no less char-
acteristic steep-bluffed labyrinthine gorges
represent the later epoch. The even-topped
ranges and outlying monadocks record
earlier episodes in continental development,
as Davis, Hayes, Campbell and others have
‘shown; but the record found in the rela-
tively modern plateaus and gorges is many
times the more extensive and impressive.
Howsoever the Ozarkian be classified, it
‘is evident that the erosion epochs of the
Pleistocene and Neocene were long, espe-
cially in the earlier time. Recent re-
‘searches, notably by Chamberlin and others
in the interior and by Salisbury in New
Jersey, indicate that the Toronto epoch was
much longer than the post-glacial epoch;
and it has for some time been recognized
by a number of glacialists that the inter-
glacial epoch called Aftonian was much
longer, as measured by erosion, than all
those that have followed—or, at any rate,
that the Kansan was many times more re-
mote than the Wisconsin. Yet the erosion
of the Toronto and Aftonian together is
‘trifling in comparison with the profound and
SCIENCE.
799
widespread canyon-cutting of the Ozark-
ian, during which the streams and larger
rivers of the southeastern sub-continent
cut gorges averaging 250 feet in depth and
ranging from a few rods to several miles in
width ; and even this enormous erosion is
slight in comparison with the widespread
wasting of the Tennessee epoch.
W J MoGer.
CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPHY.
GEOGRAPHICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE
BRITISH ISLANDS.
Dr. H. R. Mii gives in the April Geo-
graphical Journal an account of his plan for
a series of memoirs, one for each sheet of
the one-inch ordnance survey, describing
the geography of the British Islands in a
most comprehensive manner. Index of
names and locations, mean elevations, hyp-
sographical description, physiographical ex-
planation, areas of woodland, moorland,
cultivated land, etc., political and histori-
cal boundaries and events, geographical de-
scription proper, and bibliography, are to be
duly considered. The plan was favorably
commented on at a meeting of the Royal
Geographical Society, and it does not seem
impossible that it may be carried into exe-
cution.
The remark made under ‘historical infor-
mation’ might be applied to all parts of the
plan: It ‘would be very stringently edited,
so as to confine it strictly to those features
and events of direct geographical impor-
tance,’ for an inspection of current geograph-
ical literature shows how vague is the prev-
alent conception as to the essential quality
of geographical discipline. Local floras
and faunas, one of the proposed topics, are
distinctly not geographical, but biological
subjects. Treated with relation to the con-
trols of their distribution, they gain geo-
graphical flavor. Treated as exhibiting
geographical controls, they become as dis-
tinctly geographical as are any other means
800
of impressing the facts concerning the
earth’s surface. It may be questioned
whether the ‘mean elevation of areas be-
tween successive contour lines’ is a worthy
object of geographical as contrasted with
arithmetical study. It only produces con-
fusion to tabulate under one heading a
steep and a flat slope of the same limiting
altitudes; but it is quite otherwise with
the summation of steep and of flat areas,
under appropriate but not arbitrary limits
of height. A remark under this heading
also might be generally applied to the
whole project: ‘‘ It would be very suitable
as an exercise and training for students, if
any institution existed in this country
where students would be induced to study
geography seriously.” The geographical
description ‘“ would be the most important
part of the memoir, and must be the work of
a trained geographer. * * * It would deal di-
rectly with the relation of the people to the
land, showing the control exerted by geo-
graphical conditions on the sites of towns,
on dwellings, occupations, the distribution
of the people, the lines of communication.”
Let us hope that Dr. Mill’s excellent pro-
ject need not wait until that distant time
when trained geographers are found, ready
made; but that the Royal Geographical Soci-
ety will at once announce that it is ready to
publish chapters of these memoirs, by whom-
soever prepared, but accordant with a sys-
tematic and comprehensive plan, and ap-
proved by a committee of editors. Almost
any one of the chapters might be chosen as
the subject for a candidate’s thesis for his
doctorate, and this kind of encouragement of
serious geographical study might well serve
as the thin end of the wedge that shall farther
open up the proper development of geo-
graphy in the English universities.
RECENT SHEETS OF OUR NATIONAL MAP.
Tuirty odd sheets of the topographical
map, in preparation for our national geo-
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 74.
logical atlas, are lately added to the grow-
ing list of surveyed areas. The limestone
country of Florida is revealed as showing
typical ‘ Karst’ forms, without continuous
valleys, but discharging its surface waters
by underground channels, entered through
sinkholes. Although a faint relief, it rivals
in perfection of this kind of form the more
famous Karst district of Carniola. King-
fisher sheet, Oklahoma, exhibits a peculiar
relation between Cimarron river, on the
north, and the North fork of Canadian river,
lying twenty miles further south and 300
feet higher; the branches of the former
river heading within two or three miles of
the latter and bidding fair to capture and
divert it at various points. The down-
stream deflection of tributary streams is
well illustrated in the case of Bird creek,
which, when less than half a mile from the
Cimarron, turns and flows six miles south-
east along the margin of the flood plain be-
fore entering the main river, and indeed
then enters it only because the river crosses
to the southern side of its flood plain and
picks the tributary up; thus repeating on a
small scale the much larger example of the
Yazoo and the Mississippi. The Oneida
and Oriskany sheets, N. Y., might be com-
mended to the author of the statement that
“three distinct mountain masses enter New
York from the south and extend across it
in a general northeast direction.”’ These
sheets show in part the definite northern
termination of the Alleghany plateau south
of the Mohawk valley, in bluffs that as-
cend six orseven hundred feet. The second
sheet includes the greater part of the ‘long
level’ in the Mohawk valley, below Rome ; of
particular interest as the outlet of the expan-
ded Lake Ontario in late glacial times. Many
other sheets equally deserve comment.
A SHORT HISTORY OF THE GREAT LAKES.
Unver the above title, F. B. Taylor is
contributing several articles to the Inland
May 29, 1896.]
Educator (Terre Haute, Ind.) in the hope
of cultivating an appreciative study of local
physiography in the Indianaschools. Inthe
April number, two outline maps exhibit
hypothetical restorations of several stages
of the glacial lakes in relation to the mo-
raines, the retreating ice front and the tem-
porary outlets. As several of the terminal
moraines constitute the most important
local reliefs of the level prairies of Indiana,
and as one of the earlier lakes overflowed
across northern Indiana to the Wabash and
thence to the Ohio, passing the site of Fort
Wayne, the subject is a pertinent one for an
educational journal, and deserves more em-
phasis than it commonly receives in the
schools. The Science department of the
Educator, conducted by Prof. C. R. Dryer,
of the State Normal School at Terre Haute,
_ proposes to follow Taylor’s essay with
others of local physiographic bearing pre-
pared by investigators of acknowledged
competence, and in this plan they set a
good example that deserves imitation.
W. M. Davis.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY.
WEATHER BUREAU KITE-FLYING.
THE past year has witnessed a very no-
table development in scientific kite-flying in
this country. In Washington the Weather
Bureau has, under the direction of Prof.
Willis L. Moore, Chief of the Bureau, been
carrying on an extended investigation into
the best kinds of kites for use in sending up
meteorological instruments. Prof. C. F.
Marvin has recently minutely described the
kind of kite now in use by the Bureau (Mo.
Weather Rev., Noy., 1895). This kite is
a modification of those used by Hargrave
in Australia, and is not at all like the ordi-
nary kite. Instead of being flat, and taper-
ing at the lower end, as in the usual form,
these kites are box-shaped, with their ends
open and their sides partly covered with
SCIENCE.
801
cloth or silk. This style of kite, which has
also been in use at Blue Hill forsome months,
is found to be admirably adapted to the
purpose for which it is intended, and when
fine piano wire is used to hold it, instead of
twine, is a splendid flyer. The next few
years will undoubtedly witness many im-
provements in kites used for meteorological
purposes, and the United States seems to be
distinetly in the lead in this work at the
present time.
BALLOONS AND KITES IN CLOUD
OBSERVATIONS.
In connection with the cloud observa-
tions to be made during the International
Cloud Year (see Science, May 1, 1896, 661)
the suggestion is made by Kremser (Me-
teorologische Zeitschrift, April, 1896, 143-
144) that the extended use of small pilot
balloons would result in giving us much
valuable information as to the air currents
in and around clouds. These balloons,
which can be made at slight expense, reach
considerable altitudes, and are especially
useful in indicating the drift of the air cur-
rents when there are no clouds in the sky,
the direction of the lower currents when
only upper clouds are visible, ete. Clay-
ton, of the Blue Hill Observatory, has for
some time been using kites to help in de-
termining the altitudes of the base of stratus
and nimbus. ‘These clouds, which so often
cover the whole sky with a uniform sheet,
can only have their heights determined
under the most favorable circumstances if
the ordinary theodolite is used.
BLUE HILL KITE-FLYING.
TueE work done at Blue Hill Observatory
with kites was outlined by Clayton before
the Boston Scientific Society at a recent
meeting (Boston Commonwealth, May 9,
1896, 12-13). The kites at present in use
are the Eddy, or tailless, and the Hargrave,
or box kite. Continued experiments at
Blue Hill have resulted in the development
802
of scientific kite-flying on a remarkable
scale. Recent ascents have reached alti-
tudes but little short of a mile above sea
level, and excellent records have been ob-
tained by means of a self-recording instru-
ment made by Fergusson, of the Blue Hill
staff, which gives automatic readings of
temperature, pressure, humidity and wind
velocity. Mr. Rotch, the proprietor of the
Observatory, has now had constructed for
him by Richard Freres, of Paris, an alumi-
num instrument weighing less than three
pounds, which records pressure, tempera-
ture and humidity. The meteorological re-
sults already obtained are of great value,
and the full discussion of them is awaited
with interest. Among the most important
matters that have been noted is the pres-
ence of cold waves and warm waves at con-
siderable elevations some hours before the
temperature changes are noted at the earth’s
surface. The prospect of improving our
weather forecasts by such soundings of the
free air is very encouraging, and it is more
than likely that before long some practical
use will be made of these discoveries.
R. DEC. Warp.
I{ARVARD UNIVERSITY.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
THE fifth session of the Hopkins Seaside
Laboratory, of Stanford University, will open
on June 15th. It will continue for six weeks,
but investigators may remain in residence
throughout the summer. The laboratory,
which includes two buildings well equipped for
instruction and research, is located at Pacific
Grove, on the Southern shore of Monterey Bay,
about four hours’ distant from San Francisco.
To investigators prepared to carry on original
work the use of the Laboratory and its equip-
ment is tendered free of charge, and its location
offers unusual advantages to students from the
Eastern States wishing to become acquainted
with the fauna and flora of the Pacific. The lab-
oratory is under the direction of Professor O.
P. Jenkins and C. H. Gilbert, with the assistance
of other instructors from Stanford University.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 74.
' Mr. GrirritH, Secretary of the British Asso-
ciation for the Advancement of Science, is now
in America to make arrangements for the meet-
ing of the British Association in Toronto in
1897. On May 19th he was the guest of Prof.
Putnam, Permanent Secretary of the American
Association for the Advancement of Science.
The two Secretaries passed the morning in dis-
cussing various matters relating to their respec-
tive Associations. It is the intention of the
American Association to arrange the time and
place of its meeting next year so that members
of the American and British Associations can
attend both meetings, and as the British Asso-
ciation will probably hold its meeting on August
18-25 it is suggested that the American Asso-
ciation hold its meeting August 30 to Septem-
ber 4. <A few Harvard professors, prominent
in the Association, met Mr. Griffith at the
Colonial Club, and the afternoon was spent in
visiting several departments of Harvard Uni-
versity. On Wednesday Mr. Griffith visited
the Harvard Medical School and other places
© interest in Boston, and in the evening he left
for Ottawa in order to meet the members of the
Royal Society of Canada before their adjourn-
ment on Friday. From there he goes to
Toronto to arrange with the local committee
for the meeting of the British Association.
THE Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution
has leased for another term of three years, for
the benefit of American students, one of the
tables at the Naples Zodlogical Station. This
was done in response to requests from a large
number of colleges and universities, and to res-
olutions from the principal natural history so-
cieties in the country, and a petition signed by
over four hundred biologists. During the last
three years the following universities and col-
leges have been represented; that is to say,
the occupants of the Smithsonian table have
been either graduates of those universities or
professors in their faculties :
Clark University, Worcester; University of Chi-
cago; Brown University; University of Michigan;
Kentucky State College; John Hopkins University;
Kansas Agricultural College; Bryn Mawr College;
Wesleyan University; Iowa Agricultural College;
Leland Stanford Junior University; Olivet C llege,
Michigan.
May 29, 1896.]
The candidates for the privileges of the
Smithsonian table are recommended by a com-
mittee composed of representatives of the Na-
tional Academy of Sciences, American Morpholo-
gists, Society of American Naturalists and the
Association of American Anatomists.
Mr. HERBET SPENCER has recently communi-
cated to the London Times a series of letters op-
posing the adoption of the metric system and
advocating a reorganization of the present
duodecimal system in preference to a change
which would adjust our weights and measures
upon a decimal system. i
WE noted last week that in the occasion of
its millenial celebration the University of Buda-
Pesth will confer an honorary degree upon Dr.
John 8. Billings. It is said that degrees will
not be conferred on any other Americans and
only on four Englishmen: Lord Kelvin, Mr.
Herbert Spencer, Prof. Max Miller and Mr.
James Bryce.
'Pror. W. K. Brooks has been elected Fellow
of the Royal Microscopical Society.
A TELEGRAM to the New York Evening Post
states that there has been a volcanic eruption
on the island of Socorro, off the Mexican coast.
Two months ago, which is the latest date of
news received, lava was running down the
mountain sides, overflowing the lowlands and
moving towards the sea.
Goy. Morton has signed the bill authorizing
the use of the land now occupied by the old
reservoir at Forty-second street and Fifth
avenue in New York City for a free public
library and reading room, to be erected under
the supervision of the New York Public Library,
the combination of the Astor, Lenox and Tilden
foundations.
A NEW law authorizes the Brooklyn board of
estimate and apportionment to grant $100,000
payable on the Mayor’s order, to any corpora-
tion depositing an equal amount with the City
Treasurer for the purpose of a free public
library.
Pror. Kemp and Prof. Peale, of Columbia
University, will conduct the summer work in
geology and mining of the School of Mines at
Butte, Montana. Prof. Scott, of Princeton
University, will conduct a geological expedition
SCIENCE.
803
which will have its headquarters at Flagstaff,
Arizona.
Pror. D’ARcy THOMPSON and Mr. Barrett
Hamilton have been appointed by the British
government as the naturalists to investigate the
seals in Behring Sea. They are now on their
way to the United States.
THE British Government, in recently distri-
buting a number of sets of the Challenger Re-
ports to scientific institutions, selected on the
advice of the council of the Royal Society, sent
five of the sets to the United States. The
Institutions which receive them are the Uni-
versities of California, Tulane and Colorado,
the Woods Holl Laboratory and the Hydro-
graphic Bureau of the United States Navy.
THE Museum of Practical Geology, London,
will be opened on Sunday, from 2 p.m. to 7
p. m., as an experiment, the continuance of
which will depend on the attendance of visitors.
AN International Congress of Agriculture will
be held at Buda-Pesth in connection with the
Millenial Exposition. An International Horti-
cultural Exposition will be held at Hamburg
from May to October, 1897. The sum of
$100,000 has been appropriated for the purpose
by the city.
THE publication is announced of a journal in
Milan devoted to acetylene and its applications.
THE British Medical Journal states that the
Koch Institute is not to be transferred to Dah-
lem after all. The Prussian government has
decided to buy a plot of land close to the ground
on which the new fourth municipal hospital is
to be erected—in the See Strasse—and to build
an enlarged and improved Koch institute upon
it. The decision, simple as it seems, has been
arrived at only after long and wearisome nego-
tiations. Now it is hoped that, this knotty
point once solved, the rebuilding and enlarge-
ment of the Charité Hospital will be attacked
in earnest. The ground at present occupied
by the Koch Institute is required for the hos-
pital, but of course, until the future of the in-
stitute itself had been definitely settled, it was
impossible to begin work. A new museum for
the pathological collections is urgently needed,
as Virchow is terribly cramped in the Pathologi-
cal Institute. It is said that 1896 is to see this
804
building begun; but delays have been so fre-
quent that it is best not to prophesy.
Nature states that M. Moisson is reported
(Centr. Zeit. fiir Opt. u. Mech. xvii. 6) to have
discovered a substance harder than the diamond
in the form of a compound of carbon and boron,
produced by heating boracic acid and carbon in
an electric furnace at a temperature of 5,000°.
This compound is black and not unlike graphite
in appearance, and it appears likely to super-
sede diamonds for boring rocks, cutting glass
and other industrial purposes. It will even cut
diamonds without difficulty, and it can be pro-
duced in pieces of any required size.
Ir is reported that the metric system has been
legally introduced into Turkey, and that the
Russian Minister of Commerce recommended
its consideration at the recent Industrial Con-
gress.
Ir appears from La Vie Scientifique that ‘ La
société francaise de physique’ has recently held
in Paris an exhibition similar to the recent Con-
verzatione of the Royal Society and the exhibi-
tion of the New York Academy of Sciences.
Rontgen photographs, the manufacture of acety-
lene, applications of aluminum and other re-
cent advances in scientific apparatus were
exhibited.
Natural Science states that a summer meeting
of the Anatomical Society of Great Britain and
Ireland will be held at Oxford on Saturday,
July 4th. This Society, which was founded in
1887, meets, as a rule, four times a year, three
of the meetings being held at the London med-
ical schools in rotation, and the other at one of
the provincial universities or schools.
MAcMILLAN & Co. announce ‘An Interme-
diate Course of Practical Physics,’ by Prof.
Arthur Schuster, F.R.S., and Dr. C. H. Lees.
THE death is announced of the Abbé Delaney,
a missionary in China, who discovered and in-
troduced into Europe a large number of unde-
scribed species of plants.
M. GERMAIN SEE, the eminent French patho-
logist, has died at Paris at the age of 77.
Lieut. Peary will embark from Cape Breton
in July, in a steamship under the command of
Captain John Bartlett, which will proceed to
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 74.
Cape York, where Lieutenent Peary last year
discovered a meteorite said to be the largest in
the world. If the conditions are favorable he
may go further north to his former headquarters
on Inglefield Gulf. Prof. Ralph $8. Tarr with
a party from Cornell University will be taken
. by the steamship to some point in Greenland,
where they will remain while the steamship
goes further north.
Dr. WASHBURN writes to the London Times
from Constantinople that on Saturday evening,
April 18th, at 7 o’clock, as the M. M. steamer
Sindh was passing to the south of the island of
Cyprus, a brilliant meteor was seen, which ap-
peared to burst just over theisland. It seemed
to be in all respects an exact duplicate of the
meteor which was seen at Madrid several
months since. It started about 30° from the
zenith, took a direction of about 80° from
the horizon, and burst when about 20° from
the horizon. For 15 minutes, three zigzag lines
of silver light marked its course, and the fiery
cloud when it burst did not disappear for half
an hour. This appeared to be about 2° in
diameter, was very brilliant for some minutes,
and then slowly faded. The sight was so
startling that those who saw the meteor did not
notice the sound of the explosion, but several
persons noticed the explosion who did not see
the meteor.
THE Hydrographic Office has issued a chart
of the Arctic regions prepared under the direc-
tion of Commander C. D. Sigsbee. It extends
to about 4° south of the Arctic circle, show-
ing the tracts of seventy-six expeditions, and
indicating forty-eight explorations of coasts.
A SUMMER session of the New York State
Library School, which will take up the elemen-
tary principles of library economy, will begin
on July 7th and last five weeks.
Sir WILLIAM PRIESTLEY, a well-known phy-
sician and writer on medicine, has been elected
a member of the British Parliament represent-
ing the universities of Edinburgh and St.
Andrew.
THE Duke of York has been elected president
of the Royal Agricultural Society of Great
Britain. The Society has received a bequest
of $50,000 by the will of the late Mr. E. H.
May 29, 1896. ]
Mills. At the country meeting to be held at
Manchester prizes are oftered by the Society for
self-moving vehicles.
AT a meeting of the Philosophical Society of
Washington on May 23d the following biographi-
eal notices of deceased members were expected:
Thomas Antisell, by H. W. Seaman; Stephen
Vincent Benet, by Rogers Birnie; J. Mills
Browne, by Robert Fletcher; Thomas Lincoln
Casey, by B. R. Green; Robert Edward Earll, by
G. Brown Goode; William Lee, by D. Webster
Prentiss; Walter Lamb Nicholson, by Edward
‘Goodfellow; Orlando Metcalfe Poe, by O. H.
Tittman; Charles Valentine Riley, by L. O. How-
ard; William Bower Taylor, by W. J. Rhees.
THE attention of those who are interested in
the history of human progress (it is a pity that
we lack the German word Culturgeschichte), in
its forward and backward currents, should be
called to a book of absorbing interest, Woman
Under Monasticism, by Lina Eckenstein (Mac-
millan). It gives a vivid picture of the convent
life of women during the period between 500
and 1500 A. D., in Germany and England, with
special biographies of those nuns and abbesses
who exerted an important influence upon the
life of their times; but its chief value is in
showing that the present effort of women to
obtain a greater share of social responsibility is
a return to conditions which were the estab-
lished state of things a thousand years ago.
The convent afforded a career for those who
felt themselves capable of wider activities than
were involved in the care of the household, and
a career of greater influence and power than
has been open to women, of other than royal
descent, under any other circumstances. The
closing of the monasteries, by compelling all
women to marry, acted injuriously upon hu-
man development in more ways than one, even
though its effect may have been on the whole
desirable. That there is an historical basis for
the present movement toward greater inde-
pendence on the part of women is a matter of
much importance.
AT a recent meeting of the Anthropological
Institute of Great Britain, Professor E. B.
Tyler commented upon Mr. Howarth’s paper
on ‘The Asiatic Element of the Tribes of
SCIENCE.
805
Southern Mexico,’ drawing attention to the
difficulty of defining the meaning of the word
‘prehistoric’ in America. He remarked that
the picture writings exhibited by Mr. Howarth
were wonderful examples of the authentic
Aztec, side by side with the imported Spanish
element, the exact proportion of which was, how-
ever, exceedingly hard to distinguish. In the
United States, he continued, many anthropolo-
gists, headed by Dr. Brinton, support a kind of
‘Anthropological Monroe Doctrine,’ according
to which America admitted no extraneous con-
tributions to her culture. The conflict of this
theory with the older doctrine gives promise of
a good fight in the future, should he still re-
main constant to the older theory. He found
it very difficult, on the new Monroe doctrine, to
account for such things as the astronomical
calendar. He, nevertheless, favored dropping,
for the present, such questions as Egyptian
derivation, in favor of the investigation of
nearer links in the chain. :
Ir is stated in the daily papers that Profs.
Cox and Calendar, of the McGill University
have reported to the Canadian Royal Society
that they have made experiments showing that
the X-rays are deflected by magnetic influence.
It is also said that Prof. Dorn and Dr. Brandes,
of the University of Halle, have proved that
the X-rays affect the retina, it having been
demonstrated in the first instance in the case of
a patient the lenses of whose eyes had been re-
moved. Later it is said that they were them-
selves able to see the rays, looking at their
source through an aluminum plate.
A COMPLETE edition of the works of Descartes
will be published by the French Ministry of
Public Instruction, under the auspices of the
‘Revue de Métaphysique et de Morale’ 5 rue de
Méziéres, Paris. Five volumes will be devoted
to the correspondence, including letters ad-
dressed to Descartes as well as those written by
him, and five volumes will be devoted to his
published works. The publication will be be-
gun this year and will be completed in 1900.
A deduction of 40 per cent. in the price will be
made to those who send subscriptions in ad-
vance to the above address.
WE learn from the American Geologist that the
806
question as to the desirability of retaining the
museum of the London Geological Society has
formed the subject of long deliberations by the
Council of the Society. It was announced at
the recent annual meeting that, in accordance
with the report of a speciah committee, the
trustees of the British Museum had been asked
whether they would undertake to house and
care for the collections, keeping type-specimens
and specimens illustrative of papers read before
the Society distinct, and defraying also the ex-
pense of transference. To these conditions the
trustees have assented, and the matter will
before long be submitted to the Fellows for
their decision at a special general meeting.
Mr. S. E. DUERDEN contributes to the May
number of Natural Science an article on
‘Museum work in Jamaica,’ in the course of
which he says that the museum in Jamaica is one
of the components of the Institute of Jamaica,
an organization existing for the advancement of
Literature, Science and Art in the island; and
embracing also a well-established public li-
brary and reading room and an embryonic art
gallery. It is managed by a Board of Govy-
ernors, and practically the whole support is
derived from the Legislature. Members are
elected with certain privileges, and members’
meetings are held. A journal devoted to the
special objects of the institute is published at
intervals. Courses of public lectures on science
and literature, on the lines of the University
Extension courses in England, are arranged
from time to time. In almost every depart-
ment of biological enquiry Jamaica and the
West Indies generally offer a very rich but
only partially investigated field for research.
A vigorous attempt was made a few years ago
to form a marine laboratory upon a large scale,
with the special object of affording facilities to
foreign biologists in studying tropical life, but
unfortunately the scheme fell through, largely
because of its too ambitious nature. However,
a biological laboratory with most modern ap-
pliances for carrying on scientific research, and
a dark room for photography, have lately been
fitted up in connection with the Museum.
THE Congress of Criminal Anthropology to be
held at Geneva from the 24th to the 29th of
August will meet in five divisions entitled (1)
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 74.
criminal biology, (2) criminal sociology, (8)
criminal psychology, (4) legal applications of
criminal anthropology, (5) administrative ap-
plications of criminal anthropology. A large
number of interesting papers have already been
promised, including communications from Mr.
Galton, M. Tarde, Prof. Kurella, M. Bertillon,
Dr. Brockway and others.
ACCORDING to the authorized announcements:
of the University of the State of New York in
1888 only five states in the Union exacted an
examination for license to practise medicine,
and the laws of these States were crude and
imperfect and for the most part inoperative.
A licensing examination is now required in 22
States. In fact, if we count Texas, whose laws.
conflict, the roll includes 23. Of these exami-
nations, 16 are before a single board; 4 before.
2 boards, allopathic, homeopathic ; 3 before 3
boards, allopathic, homeopathic and eclectic.
In 11 of these States candidates for examina-
tion must be graduates of medical schools; in
3 of these 11 States they must have studied
medicine for 4 years; in 2 States they must:
have attended at least three courses of medical
lectures, though a diploma is not required.
One of these two States, Minnesota, will require
four courses of lectures, but not a diploma after
January 1, 1899. In 6 States applicants must
have a competent preliminary education, though
the provision is indefinite except in the New
York law. The laws in 13 States and 3 Ter-
ritories demand either approval of medical
diploma or examination by State or other duly
qualified boards. This leaves only New Hamp-
shire, in which not even registration is required,
and 8 States and 38 Territories in which it is
necessary merely to present the diploma or
other certificate of qualification to unqualified
local officers. Of the 12 medical schools in
New York State, 4 adopted a 4-year graded
course in 1894 and 5 in 1895 and 1896. For
matriculants after January 1, 1898, four years.
study of at least nine months each, including
four satisfactory courses of at least six months.
each in four different calendar years must be
required for degrees by all medical schools in
New York State. This minimum standard for
the degrees of M. D. is equal to that prescribed
in Austro-Hungary, France and Germany.
May 29, 1896.]
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
THE Woman’s Educational Association of
Boston proposes to institute scholarships in
summer schools for Boston school teachers,
and urges women’s clubs and other organiza-
tions of women interested in public-school work
to establish similar scholarships, or to select at
least one of their young teachers who shall be
sent toa summer course. A list of eight of the
chief colleges and universities offering such
courses is added. During the summer of 1896
the scholarships of the Boston Association will
be chiefly offered for the course in physical
geography at Harvard University. The amount
of money now at the disposal of the Association
being small, the committee asks that contribu-
tions toward this object be sent to Mrs. R. H.
Richards, Institute of Technology, Boston.
THE board of regents of the University of
Wisconsin has recently made the following
promotions in the faculty of that institution :
Louis W. Austin, Ph. D., from instructor in
| physics to assistant professor in physics ; Lellen
S. Cheney, B. §., from instructor in general
and pharmaceutical botany to assistant profes-
sor of pharmaceutical botany; Wm. 8S. Marshall,
Ph. D., from instructor in biology to assistant
professor of zoology; Wm. A. Scott, Ph. D.,
from associate professor of political economy
to professor of economic history and theory.
Frank C. Sharp, Ph. D., from instructor in phil-
osophy to assistant professor of philosophy; Rod-
ney H. True, Ph. D., from instructor in pharm-
acognosy to assistant professor of pharmacog-
nosy.
THE Connecticut Dental Association has voted
to petition the Yale corporation for the estab-
lishment of a dental school at Yale University.
Dr. ROBERT G. REMSEN, JR., of the Class of
73, has given the New York University $3,000
toward the endowment of scholarships.
THE University of Glasgow has received
£8,000 by the will of the late Dr. John Grieve,
the money to be used for the foundation of a
lectureship or fellowship.
THE following foreign appointments are an-
nounced : Dr. Ludwig Katheriner, professor of
zoology and comparative anatomy in Frei-
SCIENCE.
807
burg, Switzerland; Mr. James G. Lawn, pro-
fessor of mining at the South African School of
Mines, Cape Town and Dr. Otto Fischer, asso-
ciate professor of physiological physics at
Leipzig.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
A REVIEW OF BIGELOW’S PAPERS ON METEOR-
OLOGY AND SOLAR PHYSICS.
ABOUT a year ago the writer was so struck
upon reading a paper* on the ‘Inversion of
Temperatures in the 26.28 Day Solar Magnetic
Period’ that he was led to look a second time
at a previous paper by the same author, viz., a.
‘Report on the Relations of Solar Magnetism to
Terrestrial Magnetism and Meteorology.’+ A
severe estimate of these papers induced the
writer to study carefully such others { of Prof.
Bigelow’s papers as have been accessible. The
result is that the writer has reached a trenchant
conviction that Prof. Bigelow’s theories are
peculiarly and wildly vagarious and that his re-
sults are meaningless. A more recent paper 2
* By Frank H. Bigelow, Professor of Meteorology,
U. S. Weather Bureau. Am. Jour. Sci. (3),48, p-
435.
t+ Report for 1891-2 of the Chief of the U. S.
Weather Bureau, p. 519.
t Notes on a new method for the discussion of magnetic
observations. By FRANKH. BiGcELow. Bulletin No.
2, U. S. Weather Bureau.
The polar radiation from the sun. By FRANK H.
BIGELow. Astron: and Astro-Physics. 13. p. 26.
The two magnetic fields surrounding the sun. By
By FRANK H. BIGELOW. Astron. and Astro-Physics.
October, 1893.
Further study of the corona. By FRANK H. BIGE-
Low. Am. Jour. Sci. 3, 40. p. 343.
The Solar corona, an instance of the Newtonian poten-
tial function in the case of repulsion. By FRANK H.
BigELow. Am. Jour. Sci. 3, 42. p.1.
Note on the causes of the variations of the magnetic
needle. By FRANK H. BigELow. Am. Jour. Sci.
3, 42. p. 253.
The solar corona discussed by spherical harmonics.
By FRANK H. BicELow. Smithsonian Institution,
1889.
Bulletin No. 18, of the U. S. Scientific Expedition
to West Africa, May, 1890.
@The Earth as a magnetic shell. By FRANK H.
BigELow. Am. Jour. Sci. 3,50. p. 81.
808
proves, upon examination, to be, again, mere
iterate nonsense.
The writer is old-fashioned enough to believe
that a plain person can, with some pains at
least, understand the writing even of a special-
ist, and he is driven by a sense of sheer outrage
to criticise these writings of Prof. Bigelow ; not,
indeed, without peculiar hesitation, for to criti-
cise is to point out fallacy, but there is nothing
such in these papers; they are too inane to be
fallacious! Let the reader bear in mind that
the writer’s estimate of these papers has been
reached only after studious and repeated read-
ing of more than one hundred thousand such
words as are sampled in the following quo-
tations.
Speaking of the previous efforts in systematic
meteorology Prof. Bigelow says: ‘‘The best
efforts have been made along the lines of Ther-
modynamics as the moving cause and dynam-
ical mechanics as the procession of effects ;
much talent, if not genius, having been ex-
pended on these mathematical and physical re-
lations.’’*
Prof. Bigelow has devised a method for de-
termining the synodic period of rotation of the
sun. This method, so far as the writer can
understand it, is Gauss’s well-known method,
in which a time interval is determined during
which an unknown whole number and a known
fraction of periods have elapsed; the whole
number is found by dividing the interval by a
known approximate value of the period; the
exact period is then easily calculated. To
obtain the data for this determination Prof.
Bigelow claims definitely + to have made use of
the aspects of the solar corona as photographed
during several total eclipses, the corona being
assumed to rotate with the sun and to present
persistent peculiarities of form.
He goes on to say: ‘‘It is impossible to re-
produce fully the process of obtaining this pe-
riod, because the work is extensive ; but it is so
important, being the key to my development of
the subject, that I will briefly indicate the
method. If the sun is a magnetic sphere in
* Report for 1891-2 of the Chief of the U. S.
Weather Bureau, p. 519.
+ See p. 521 report for 1891-2 of the Chief of the U.
S. Weather Bureau.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 74.
which the magnetism is distributed with irregu-
lar intensity throughout the mass, in the same
way that the permanent magnetism of the earth
deviates from the simple law of the uniform
spherical magnet, then in the field outside the
sun, as far as its strength reaches into space,
the lines of force being propagated through the
ether, these variations of intensity will be found
by an observer passing along it from point to
point.’’* He adds that if this field reaches the
earth it will change as the sun rotates and can be
‘measured with almost incredible accuracy ; ’
but we gain no clue to the method which must
be some other than Gauss’s method, after all,
unless indeed the terrestrial magnetic elements
have such a distinct fluctuation in the solar-ro-
tation period as to enable an observer to infer
the recurrence of solar rotations thereby, which
Prof. Bigelow does not state explicitly ; but the
26-day variation of the terrestrial magnetic ele-
ments is only brought out by averaging mag-
netic data at corresponding epochs in a large
number of successive solar-rotation periods,
and then only with great uncertainty. Prof.
Bigelow does not seem to bear it clearly in
mind that he has used the corona in determin-
ing this period.
Prof. Bigelow imagines three cosmical mag-
netic fields at the earth, viz: the ‘coronal
field,’ perpendicular to the ecliptic due to the
action of the sun as a great magnet; the ‘radiant
field,’ in the direction of the sun’s rays, and the
‘orbital field,’ in the direction of the earth’s
motion in its orbit. Speaking of the coronal
field Prof. Bigelow says: ‘‘ This field enters the
northern hemisphere nearly parallel to the
earth’s axis of rotation, having been diverted
from the direction perpendicular to the plane of
the ecliptic by the rotation of the earth on its
axis, the other component having been screened
off or used up in connection with the earth’s
permanent magnetism, which may be the true
origin of the force which gives it a slow secular
variation.+ At this place we interpose the re-
mark that the position is regarded as proven
that the sun and the moon do not continuously
* Report for 1892-2 of the Chief of the U. S.
Weather Bureau, p. 521.
+ Report for 1891-92, of the Chief of the U. S.
Weather Bureau, p. 522.
May 28, 1896.]
influence the terrestrial field by direct action as
magnets.’’*
The coronal field 7s referred by Prof. Bigelow
to the action of the sun as a great magnet ; at
least, while convincing himself of its existence
in his earlier papers, he assumes it to be due
to this action; but after reaching this conviction!
he appears to think it no longer necessary for
the field to have a physical cause.
“The solar magnetic field represents a type of radi-
ant energy, probably circular or spiral rotation of the
ether which surrounds the sun on all sides, but of
variable strength in certain solar longitudes. In
other words, the earth passes through a series of hot-
ter and cooler regions as the sun turns on its axis.
One day is the equivalent of about 10,000,000 miles.
Since the form of energy is magnetic, which, of
course, means a special form of ether motion, this en-
ergy approaching the earth, itself a magnetic body
capable of conducting the lines of force better in some
directions than in others, is concentrated or focussed
in the magnetic ovals surrounding the magnetic and
geographical poles. The form of the regions of con-
centration came out fully in my study of the equa-
torial radiant field. Thus the atmosphere around the
polar regions is intermittently heated or cooled, ac-
cording as more or less of this polar energy falls upon
it, the temperature being a direct function of the radi-
ant energy.’’f
The idea that vortex motion of the ether con-
stitutes magnetic field is, as yet, mere specula-
tive theory{ intensely interesting, coming from
such masters as Lord Kelvin and Clerk Max-
well; supremely foolish, coming from one who,
for example, uses the word ‘spiral’ in speaking
of it, or from one who thinks a magnetic field
to be a stream of energy !
“As already described, besides the coronal field
perpendicular to the plane of the ecliptic near the
earth, there is another field, in the plane of the eclip-
tic, called the radiant field, agreeing with the direc-
tion of the ether energy of light and heat emitted
from the sun. It originates in the electric discharges
between the atoms of the photosphere, is electro-mag-
netic, is propagated with the velocity of light, and in
the atmosphere of the earth and in the earth itself
undergoes a complex series of transformations of en-
ergy, by which the short, rapid waves are lengthened
* Bulletin No. 2, U.S. Weather Bureau, pp. 7-8.
t Astron. and Astro-Phys., 13, p. 37.
{ Compare Prof. Oliver Lodge, London Electrician,
Jan. 18, 1895, p. 332.
SCIENCE.
809
or destroyed, the work thus used up appearing in
transformations of physical phenomena,’’*
“The finally constructed field surrounding the
earth is exceedingly complex, and a description of it
here is quite impossible, though some of the leading
features of it may be mentioned. The fundamental
law of the entry and departure of the forces from the
earth conforms to the tangent law of magnetic re-
fraction, the index being about 1.25. In the northern
hemisphere the field (Radiant Field) points towards
the sun, in the southern away from the sun, so that
‘the earth is in a magnetic couple, the radiant field
showing a potential fall from the sun outwards. The
plane of symmetry of the field is not on the meridian
of the sun, but is thrown westward by the rotation
of the earth, through an angle of about 23° in the
northern and 15° in the southern hemisphere. The
field shows a series of five parts, gradually changing
within their areas, but discontinuous as to each
other. These are the polar field, the north mid-
latitude field, the equatorial field, the south midlati-
tude field, and the south polar field. The polar field
is three or four times as strong as the others, in
which the forces concentrate in two polar points and
act along the meridians; the northern field’ points
across the meridians, the discontinuity being along
the belt of the auroral maximum of frequency; the
equatorial field points north or south, and the south-
ern field across the meridians, away from the sun.
The strength of the radiant field is about 0.000135 c.
g. s., being a little greater than the coronal field. A
complete discussion of the numerous physical prob-
lems arising from these facts cannot now be attempted,
but great light is thrown upon many of the observed
physical phenomena that have been perplexing to
scientific research. It seems especially to confirm in
a marked degree the theory of Maxwell regarding
the electro-magnetic constitution of the radiant ether
waves.”’?{ ‘‘The surprising identification of mag-
netic and light action of the radiations of the sun in
direction will be recognized as harmonizing with the
conclusions arrived at by Maxwell and Hertz in their
investigations.’ {
Now, the magnetic field in light and heat
waves is at right angles to the ray and is re-
versed in direction millions of millions of times
per second! It is to be noticed that Prof. Bige-
* Report for 1891-92, of Chief of Weather Bureau, p.
254.
f Report for 1891-92, of the Chief of the Weather
Bureau, pp. 524-525.
{ This is verbatim quotation. The reference has
been lost among the mass of the writer’s notes, and
cannot be recovered with reasonable labor.
810
low considers the ‘coronal’ field to be a stream
of energy. If such is the case it is of course
not a magnetic field, but he surely so considers
it and has determined its strength C. G. S! as
he has also determined the strength of the
‘Radiant’ field and of the ‘ Orbital’ field!
Forgetting the essential character of his cor-
ona Prof. Bigelow, in a recent paper,* ‘adopt-
ing J. J. Thomson’s language,’ scrambles
wildly after a conception of the sun’s corona as a
stream of matter.
“‘Tt should be noticed that there may be found in
this polar radiation the true cause of the great changes
of temperature in the polar regions, known in the
glacial epoch.’”’+ ‘‘It is hoped that the develop-
ments of the case may not lead to any permanent
difficulties that cannot be overcome, for the following
reason: Ina final analysis it appears that all these
phenomena are to be referred to Newton’s Law.”’ ¢
The passages here quoted from Prof. Bige-
low’s papers do not suffer by extraction from
the context.. Very few passages are specific
enough to be quoted to any purpose whatever,
and it is this fact which has governed the pres-
ent choice. The paragraph referring to ‘a dia-
gram of magnetic centers,’ page 523 of the Re-
port for 1881-2 of the Chief of the United States
Weather Bureau, is a fair sample of the in-
volved vacancy of Prof. Bigelow’s style. Yet
curiously enough, being entirely devoid of con-
ceptions, it at first strikes one merely as some-
thing one does not understand.
“In two papers @ already published, a brief state-
ment has been presented of the lines of evidence that
tend to prove the following facts: 1. That the sun
emits two distinct types of radiant energy into the
space outside of its surface. 2. That the first is propa-
gated radially in all directions, the part falling upon
the earth, especially on its equatorial belt, being an
electro-magnetic wave, whose electro-motive force
f (Xu + Yo+ Zw)dr,|
* See Am. Jour. Sci., 3, 50, p. 83.
} Astron. and Astro-Phys., 13, p. 39.
t Bulletin No. 2, U. S. Weather Bureau, p. 9.
2 American Meteorological Journal, Sept., 1893,
Astron. and Astro-Phys., Oct., 1893 (Prof. Bigelow’s
Reference).
|| No reference whatever to the significance of the
symbols nor to the source of the expressions.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 74.
by the law of the conservation of energy, breaks up
into the dynamic wave
di Gaede N
S(« mo ay Oe Je
partly inductive and partly magnetic in its instanta-
neous state, plus the static or potential stress.
ay, db, av
aC da + ay 3 mar
plus the irreversible energy of Joules’ (sic. ) heat
pe 0? + ww? dr *
Cc
The mathematical discussion in this paper
(Astron. and Astro-Phys. 18, p. 26) begins and
ends with this quotation. It isin no way a con-
clusion to anything gone before, nor the begin-
ning of anything to be finished afterwards. As.
to what it really is, the writer’s opinion is al-
ready sufficiently expressed. Those who can
recognize the bricks in it will have no difficulty
in judging for themselves. A passage of the
same character occurs pp. 95-96, Vol. 50, Am.
Jour. Sci. :
‘The real order of events in Nature may, however,
be summarized as follows: The Equatorial Field
generates a tropical high pressure, and a sub-polar low
pressure belt, by its distribution of temperature. The
continents rearrange these belts so that in winter the
small polar circuit surrounding the Icelandic perma-
nent low supersedes and predominates, while in
summer the great midlatitude circuit regains its su-
premacy. Therefore in winter the circulation of the
polar circuit is more rapid ; being smaller in diam-
eter, the supply comes across the North American
polar regions, and but little from the Pacific; in
summer the slower eastward march in the wider
circuit sets in, with the supply from the Pacific. In
both cases the movement of the air masses is dom-
inated by the varying intensities of the polar mag-
netic field from the sun, by which the densities of the
contents of the unit volume is changed. High pres-
sure areas are the primary products of these sources of
energy, being in part whirled up by the general cir-
culation, and in part the result of reducing the polar
absorption by diminution of the cosmical energy on
certain dates. t
This is not so distinctly articulate nonsense,
by far, as are the more theoretical parts of
Prof. Bigelow’s papers, for there is such a thing
*Astron. and Astro-Phys. 13, p. 26.
+ Am. Jour. Sci., 348, p. 449.
MAy 29, 1€96.]
as a high or a low pressure area, such a place
as the North American polar region and a
Pacific Ocean.
The reader will find sets of curves* showing
such coincidences as Prof. Bigelow thinks to
have discovered between certain periodic phe-
nomena of terrestrial magnetism and certain
periodic meteorological phenomena. The writer
is unable to give any definite help towards a
clear understanding of these curves, indeed,
‘*A complete exposition of the data is impos-
sible in this connection, and therefore no values
are assigned to the ordinates of the several
curves.’ +
In conclusion, let it be said that the writer
has had occasion to examine irrational writing
before, but he has never encountered such froth
till now. The more excusable nonsense, and
often the more evident, is that which is built,
it may be with care, upon false conceptions ;
but these papers of Prof. Bigelow’s are devoid
of all conceptions, and at best they are mere
pretension.
The writer begs the reader’s indulgence
in what may seem to be undue severity in
this, to the writer, questionable business ;
but having been vexed with it for more
than a year, between the difficulty of bring-
ing it to an end, on the one hand, and the
impossibility of putting it aside, on the other,
he is now chiefly anxious to be done with it,
and is inclined to give, with a minimum of
argument and example, the plainest and stern-
est statement of fact.
W.S. FRANKLIN.
IowA STATE COLLEGE.
DR. BRINTON ON KEANRE’S ‘ETHNOLOGY.’
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In SCIENCE,
March 20th, Dr. Brinton has a notice of my
Ethnology, which is so manifestly unfair that I
will ask you to allow me a little space fora brief
reply. The ‘title is an error,’ because I take
ethnology to be ‘nearly synonymous with an-
thropology as employed in modern science.’
On the contrary, I carefully distinguish between
* Report for 1891-2, of the Chief of the Weather
Bureau, plate IV., Am. Jour. Sci., 3, 48, p. 448.
{ Report for 1891-92, of Chief of the Weather
Bureau, p. 525.
SCIENCE.
811
general anthropology, which, of course, covers
“all branches of knowledge whose subject is
man,’ and special anthropology, to which ethnol-
ogy is ‘complimentary ’ (pp. 1-2). Dr. Brinton
does not call attention to these distinctions, thus
leaving himself convenient scope to quibble and
misrepresent.
My theory of races ‘is a modern recast of that
of Blumenbach.’ Not so; on-this point I reject
Blumenbach and state in the clearest language
that ‘ Linné’s original fourfold division must be
upheld’ (p. 222). Blumenbach’s Malayan race
is ‘explained away as partly Ethiopic, partly
Caucasic.’’ Rejecting Blumenbach’s five divi-
sions, I had no occasion to ‘explain away’ his
‘Malayan race.’ Nor doI represent this race
as ‘partly Ethiopic, partly Caucasic,’ but ‘ dis-
tinctly Mongoloid, one might almost say Mon-
golic without reservation’ (830).
I refer to opponents as ‘ eccentric or reckless
or extravagant.’ These epithets are used spar-
ingly and never personally, but only in refer-
ence to strange or impossible theories, such as:
“evolution with a jump’ (p. 235), and the like.
I ‘do not hesitate to strain a point to defend
his [my] opinion,’ and Virchow on the Neander-
thal skull is given asa proof. Here the point
is strained, not by me, but by Dr. Brinton, who
omits Virchow’s last word on the subject, which -
is that he never maintained ‘the absolutely
pathological character of the skull’ (p. 424).
This, no doubt, leaves Dr. Brinton im Stiche, but
that is no reason why he should bring false
charges against me.
I claim ‘as original’ to myself, amongst other
theories, ‘the relationship of Basques and Ber-
bers.’ No! what I claim as original is my ‘ gen-
eral treatment of » . , the Ibero-Berber ques-
tion’ (xy.), which Dr. Brinton knows is quite a
different thing.
‘The relationship of the members of the vari-
ous races is shown by ‘ family trees,’ an ancient
and misleading device.’’ These trees are not
“ancient;’ they are mine; or will Dr. Brinton
tell us where else he has seen them? But they
are ‘necessarily misleading ;’ yes, if the ac-
companying text be overlooked, and the bran-
ches wilfully entangled, and then notes of excla-
mationaddedasthus: ‘‘The Teutons and Slavs
are on a different branch! ’’ The Teutons and
812
Slavs are on two different branches!! Again,
‘““The Kolosch and Selish are depicted as pro-
ceeding from the Eskimo!’’ I write Kolushan
Salishan, plainly showing, as explained in the
text (p. 360) that I mean these to be taken as
stocks (notsecondary groups), in accordance with
Mr. Powell’s ‘convenient plan.’ But Dr. Brin-
ton suppresses the final an and is thus able to
hold me up to ridicule by the long discredited
suppressio-veri-et-suggestio-falsi argument,
‘¢The chapter on the American race is replete
with positive assertions, nearly always unsup-
ported; for instance, ‘the alleged impassiveness
of the native character.’ ’’ Well, I devote
five pages (353-357) to that subject, and sup-
port my contention by the authority of Pastor
Egede, Reclus, Catlin, J. P. Dunn, Jr., Hum-
boldt, E. F. Knight, E. im Thurn and Darwin!!
So it is Dr. Brinton’s charge that is ‘unsup-
ported.’
I refer to ‘a highly respected American
writer, as Mr. Thomas Cyrus (p. 370).’ Yes,
but Dr. Brinton forgot to tell his readers that
this was the merest slip, as clearly shown by
the correct references to that excellent author-
ity at p. 107, p. 343 and in the index.
But ‘it is obvious that the author has not
consulted the best and most recent studies in
American aboriginal ethnography.’’ How can
this be when Dr. Brinton tells another circle of
readers (Dr. Brinton spreads himself consider-
ably) that my work is ‘‘scarcely more than an
expansion of the one referred to, pursuing the
same plan, treating the same subjects in nearly
the same order, and in various portions adyanc-
ing as his own the opinions set forth by that
referred to, to wit: ‘Races and Peoples, Lec-
tures on the Science of Ethnography, by D. G.
Brinton, New York, 1890’ (American Anthro-
pologist, March, 1896, p. 100). If, I say, my
ethnology is scarcely more than an expansion
of a book by Dr. Brinton, how can he now
truthfully say that I have ‘not consulted the
best, ete.,’ on the subject? Or has the sage of
Philadelphia such a poor opinion of his own
compilations as to regard them as ‘the worst,
etc?’ I may incidentally add that this dis-
graceful charge of wholesale plagiarism is as
baseless as all of Dr. Brinton’s other charges.
His Races and Peoples was never once consulted
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 74.
by me on any single point, and at the present
moment I haye but the haziest recollection of
its contents, even giving it an incorrect title in
the reference made to it from a treacherous
memory in the preface, p. vii.
Dr. Brinton again refers to my ‘theory of the
Malayan race,’ which should be my theory of
the ‘Interoceanic Races,’ of which the Malayan
is but one. This theory, he writes, ‘‘we may
allow is at present, and is likely to be his [my]
own peculiar property.’’ This is hitting me
below the belt with a vengeance, for Dr. Brin-
ton, who knows everything, knows quite well
that the theory in question, first brought by me
before the British Association in 1879, has since
been accepted in its essential features both by
Dr. Hamy and de Quatrefages, two of the most
distinguished French anthropologists of our
times.
Dr. Brinton, however, is gracious enough to
make one concession. He is willing to allow
that one particular chapter ‘might have been
much more uninstructive.’ To be sure, this
may be ‘meant sarcastic,’ or may even be re-
garded by some as a choice specimen of concen-
trated malevolence. In any case, it is not much
for a book which I am able to inform Dr. Brin-
ton has been received with acclamation in Eng-
land, which has been spoken well of in the far
West (American Journal of Sociology, Chicago,
March, 1896),and which has been accepted on
the continent as le meilleur traité d ethnologie que
nous possédions jus qua présent (Rev. Biblio-
graphie, Feb., 1896, p. 100).
With this I may confidently leave ‘this fel-
low here with envious carping tongue’ (Shake-
speare) to the judgment of your American
readers. A, H. KEANE.
ARAM GAH, 79 BROADHURST GARDENS,
Lonpon, N. W., April 22, 1896.
I CLOSED my notice in the American Anthro-
pologist of Mr. Keane’s work with an expres-
sion of regret at the discourteous language he
uses toward those with whom he disagrees. If
other evidence were lacking to prove the justice
of my remark, it would be supplied by the
above letter. So abusive was that sent by Mr.
Keane to the Anthropologist, in reference to my
notice, that the editor felt constrained to omit
May 29, 1896.]
some of its adjectives, and supply their position
by blank spaces!
In the Anthropologist I asserted that in his so-
called ‘Ethnology’ Mr. Keane ‘pursues the
same plan, treating the same subjects in nearly
the same order’ as I did in my ‘Races and
Peoples,’ published six years ago. Mr. Keane
now professes to have ‘but the haziest recol-
lection’ of the contents of that book (though
in his note in the Anthropologist he acknowl-
edges to have read it). Its very title he had
quite forgotten! His ‘treacherous memory’
led him to mention it under quite a difterent
name from the one it bears! How, then, Sean
he truthfully say’ (to quote his words) that
the scheme of his book has not the singular
similarity I noted to that of my own? He is
convicted out of his own mouth of denying the
charge I made, without pretending to ascertain
whether it is true! I challenge comparison of
the books by readers not disabled by a morbid
self-esteem from deciding correctly. I chal-
lenge the production of any other work on this
science, published in any language, since 1889,
so obviously akin in plan and treatment to my
“Races and Peoples,’ as is Keane’s ‘ Ethnology.’
Iam quite willing to allow Mr. Keane the plea
of ‘unconscious memory ;’ but the facts speak
for themselves.
Mr. Keane makes the assertion that I
brought a ‘false charge’ against him in refer-
ence to Virchow’s opinion about the Neander-
thal skull. He quoted Virchow as stating that
the skull was ‘ possibly pathological.’ I quoted
Virchow’s own words, giving them in the origi-
nal German, that he had offered ‘the positive
proof’ that it was pathological. The ‘false’
statement is unquestionably Mr. Keane’s; but
then he suffers from such a ‘ treacherous mem-
ory !’
Mr. Keane seems much disturbed at my state-
ment that he had not consulted the best and
most recent studies.on American aboriginal
ethnography. In reply, he makes no pretence
that he did so, but follows the legal precept,
‘When you have no defence, abuse the opposite
counsel.’ I turn to his index and look in vain
for the names of Adam, Bandelier, Ehrenreich,
Leon, Middendorf, Quevedo, Seler, Steinen and
many others, without a knowledge of whose
SCIENCE.
813
excellent labors it is presumptuous in a writer
to pretend to any but a second-hand and super-
ficial knowledge of American ethnography.
It is needless to occupy more space with such
a discussion. I reiterate the justice of my
criticisms on Mr. Keane’s book; and as a set
off to his report of the ‘acclamation’ with
which, he informs us, it has been accepted
in England, I add that I have received let-
ters from several prominent anthropologists in
the United States telling me that I had dealt
with its errors and crudities much too leniently.
D. G. BRINTON.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
TO PREVENT THE GROWTH OF BEARD.
In March last, Dr. B. F. Egeling, of Mon-
terey, Mexico, sent to the Department of Agri-
culture several specimens of the cocoons of a
large Bombycid moth, with the statement that
these cocoons are worn by the natives around
the neck and are believed to prevent the growth
of beard on the chin. Dr. Egeling wished to
know the name of the species. Specific deter-
mination was impossible from the cocoons alone,
but on May 18th a fine female specimen of one
of the handsomest of the Central American
Attacine moths issued and proved to be Attacus
jorella, of Westwood, described in the Proceed-
ings of the Zodélogical Society of London, 1853,
pp. 150-160, and figured at Plate XXXII,
Fig. 1. The locality given by Westwood is.
Cuantla, Mexico, and the statement is made
that the type specimens were reared in August
from cocoons spun the previous October. The
use to which the cocoons are said to be put by
the natives is new to the writer. Perhaps it
has been recorded by some collector of facts of
this nature. L. O. Howarp.
THE CHILD AND CHILDHOOD IN FOLK-THOUGHT.
To THE EpriTor oF SCIENCE: The author of
‘The Child and Childhood in Folk-thought’
has no desire to enter the lists on behalf of his
book, being willing to have its fate decided by
those to whom it has appealed and for whom it
was written. But against the general dogmatic
tone of the reviewer (SCIENCE, N.S. Vol. IIIL.,
No. 72) he ventures a mild protest. Hardly
does the present state of the science justify the
814
cocksureness there displayed, nor is the re-
viewer vindicated in his certainty that the au-
thor intended to force a ‘ psychological connec-
tion’ here, or ought to have made out one
there. If Dr. Boas, remembering that all
writers have not reached that eminence of
synthesis and systematization on which he so
conspicuously dwells, will once more peruse the
the volume he will discover that neither in its
claims nor in its execution does it traverse those
sound principles of the comparative method of
which a peculiar interpretation belongs to him.
In these the writer believes as thoroughly as
does the reviewer. But, as to the exact man-
ner and method of determining where a ‘ psy-
chological connection’ exists, or what pheno-
mena are ‘derived psychologically or his-
torically from common causes,’ a great deal of
reasonable difference in opinion exists, and this
the author has not ignored. The reviewer has
throughout attributed to the writer a much
more ambitious thesis than he really attempted,
and has apparently seen efforts at connection
and comparison where none such existed or
were thought of. That the author has com-
pleted the task he set himself, other reviewers
have perceived and acknowledged; to have ac-
complished the task the reviewer sets him, he
had needs be the reviewer himself.
ALEX. F. CHAMBERLAIN.
WORCESTER, Mass., May 15, 1896.
‘THAT GREAT LAW OF LOGIC.’
In a recent number of this JOURNAL (p. 668
above) I ventured to criticise Professor Brooks
for using ambiguously the phrase ‘test of
truth,’ and for not appreciating the force of a
letter by M. M., calling attention to this. I
then pointed out what seemed to me an analo-
gous confusion in regard to the material and the
efficient causes of evolution, saying that I did
this at the risk of being accused of irrelevancy
by Professor Brooks. I did not at all intend to
include Professor Brooks with those who have
confused material and efficient causes, and his
reply (p. 779 above) should have been directed
to Professor Cunningham who in the May num-
ber of Natural Science makes, I think incor-
rectly, this charge. -
Professor Brooks is mistaken in saying that I
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 74.
did not specify anyone who seems to me to use
the word ‘ cause’ ambiguously. It is, indeed,
easy to adduce other eminent naturalists in ad-
dition to the one to whom I referred. Thus Pro-
fessor Weismann writes in his most recent paper
(On Germinal Selection, authorized translation :
Chicago, 1896): ‘‘The~ protective coloring
* * * * arose not because it was a constitu-
tional necessity of the animal’s organism that
here a red and there a white, black, or yellow
spot should be produced, but because it was ad-
vantageous, because it was necessary for the
animal.’’ Weismann’s state of mind seems to
be similar to that of the little boy who was
watching at a hole for a woodchuck to come
out, and when asked how he knew there was a
woodchuck in the hole said ‘‘ because we have
company for dinner and there is no meat in the
house.”’
While Professor Brooks replies to a question in
which we agree he neither defends nor re-
tracts the statement which I think is guilty of
an analogous blunder, and it seems as though
he does not appreciate the point raised by M.
M. It is, perhaps, merely a matter of words,
but when words are used ambiguously. argu-
ments become fallacious. When Professor Brooks
writes advocating ‘‘that great law of logic,
‘the test of truth is evidence and not conceiv-
ability,’’’ does he mean to deny that conceiy-
ability is a sufficient proof of truth or to deny
that conceivability is a necessary condition of
truth, and what does he mean by conceiy-
ability ?
In the curious history of thought we have
had inconceivability urged as a proof of truth,
but not, so far as Iam aware, conceivability ;
no one holds that the situations in the mod-
ern realistic novel have occurred because they
are conceivable. It has, however, been claimed
that conceivability is a necessary condition of
truth, and by one who holds this position (as Mr.
Herbert Spencer) Professor Brooks’ statement
could neither be affirmed nor denied any more
than he could answer yes or no to the question
“Did you hold the lantern when your father
robbed the stagecoach ?”’
Then Professor Brooks’ ‘great law of logic’
is doubly illogical because he also uses the word
‘conceivability ’’ ambiguously. When he writes
May 29, 1896. ]
that he ‘cannot conceive of the antipodes’ he
uses the word differently from Huxley in the
sentences he quotes, for Huxley only says that
he believes that something will be accomplished,
though he cannot conceive how. It happens
that J. S. Mill uses Professor Brooks’ example
to explain the proper use of the word, writing
(Logic, II., p. 321): ‘‘Antipodes were really,
not ficticiously, inconceivable to our ancestors :
they are, indeed, conceivable to us.’’ Every-
one will agree that conceivability in Professor
Brooks’ sense is not a necessary condition of
truth, but this does not concern his subsequent
argument. q
Professor Brooks states in his last letter that
Aristotle held ‘‘ that our business in this world is
to learn all we can of the order of nature, leay-
ing to more lofty minds the attempt to find out
what it is that ‘ produces anything and makes it
what it is.’’’ Yet very curiously in his pre-
vious article to which he refers (SCIENCE N. S.,
Vol. I., p. 126) he wrote: ‘‘I should like to
see hung on the walls of every laboratory * * *
the older teaching of the Father of Zodlogy
[Aristotle] that the essence of a living thing
is not what it is made of, nor what it does,
but why it does it.’’? Professor Brooks seems to
have proceeded from the ignoramus of his pre-
ceding paper to ignorabimus now, but he is not
justified in taking Aristotle with him.
J. McKEEN CATTELL.
CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
A Text-book of Gas Manufacture for Students:
By JoHN Horney, F. S.C. 12mo, pp. 261;
6 plates. London, 1896, Bell & Sons. New
York, Macmillan & Co., 66 Fifth Ave. $1.50.
A concise little book setting forth the chief
points in gas manufacture in a manner that
students can readily grasp has been a desidera-
tum. The manufacture of coal gas, with its at-
tendant by-products, is very extensively de-
veloped in England; hence to that country we
look for excellent treatises on this subject, and
this ‘Text-book’ meets the requirements.
After a short consideration of the properties
and value of various coals for gas making, the
author discusses carbonization ; the construction
SCIENCE.
815
and setting of retorts and furnaces ; the various
appliances usually found in the retort house;
the effect of temperature on the quantity and
quality of the gas and on the by-products; con-
densation of tar; removal of ammonia and the
elimination of other impurities; methods of
testing purity and illuminating power; the
various problems incidental to the distribution
of gas to the consumers, and the construction
of meters and burners. In Chap. XX., on the
Composition of Coal Gas, is shown the effect of
the various components of gas on its illumina-
ting power.
The American reader will notice the slight
attention given to water gas. Very little of
this is used in England, it having been de-
veloped within the last fifteen years, while in
most cases the English coal-gas works, with
their plants for saving by-products, have been
established much longer. A short description
of the Lowe process, together with a plate, is
given.
The author divides the water-gas process into
‘continuous,’ in which the reaction between
carbon and steam takes place in an externally
heated retort, and ‘intermittent,’ in which the
carbon is raised to incandescence by an air
blast, and then steam is blown into the hot
mass. He adds that the continuous process has
not proved a success. But in this country the
term ‘continuous’ is applied to those processes
in which a non-luminous water gas is made in
a generator and stored in a gasometer, being
afterwards carburetted in externally heated
retorts. Processes of this character, notably
that of Wilkinson, have proved very successful
here for large works.
A short description of Peeble’s gas-enriching
process is followed by a chapter on sulphate
of ammonia, which closes the book.
The print and plates are excellent and the
illustrations are generally good, excepting two
indistinct views of mechanical charging and
drawing apparatus. FRANK H. THORP.
Repetitorium der Chemie: Dr. CARL ARNOLD,
Professor der Chemie an der Kongl. Tier-
arzlichen Hochschule zu Hannover. Siebente
Auflage, Verlag von Leopold Voss, Hamburg
und Leipzig. 1896.
816
This octayo-volume contains six hundred
and six pages, of which three hundred and forty-
six are devoted to organic chemistry and the re-
mainder to inorganic chemistry. Concise and
correct statements regarding the more important
data of the various elements and their derivatives
are given. No fault can be found with the
matter presented. One is impressed with the
fact that the most recent chemical literature has
been carefully gleaned. It is stated in the pref-
ace that when preparing this book the author
had mainly in view the needs of medical and
pharmaceutial students, and the impression
made upon the reviewer, after careful exami-
ination of the text, inclines him to the opinion
that Prof. Arnold has truly succeeded in mak-
ing a valuable ‘quiz compend’ for a class of
students who study chemistry chiefly as a side
issue. The typography and binding are well
executed. Ss.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SCIENCE.
THE June number opens with an article by
M. Carey Lea, ‘On the Color Relations of
Atoms, Ions and Molecules.’ This is the sec-
ond part of an investigation, the earlier results
of which were published in the Journal for May,
1895. In the present paper the author dis-
cusses first the interaction of ions. It is shown
that if a colored substance be formed by the
union of a colorless kation with a colorless
anion, the color belongs to the molecule only.
The colorless ions have so modified each other’s
vibration periods that selective absorption is ex-
ercised. As soon, therefore, as the molecule is
divided into ions the color must disappear.
Consequently a solvent which is capable of
separating the ions gives a solution, which
when dilute must be colorless, no matter how
intense the color of the compound. This is il-
lustrated by the case of the highly colored
Sb,8,, which forms colorless. solutions because
the ions, antimony and sulphur are color-
less.
Furthermore, in regard to the combination of
ions, it is shown that two or more similar color-
less ions may unite to form colored elementary
molecules; on the other hand, if colored, they
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 74.
may unite to form a colorless or white mole-
cure or polymer; or to form a molecule of a
wholly different color, as when blue copper
ions unite to form red copper. Still, again,
two or more dissimilar colorless ions may
unite to form a colored molecule, as sul-
phur and silver to form black silver sulphide.
The use of acid indicators, for example, of lit-
mus, is discussed, and it is shown that the
change of color on contact with an alkali in no
way depends upon dissociation.
The relation of the subject in general to the
classification of the elements is taken up and
extended beyond the point where it was carried
in the earlier memoir. The failure in certain
cases of Mendeléef’s periodic law is remarked
upon and it is shown that the relation of ions to
the visual rays leads to a classification which is
in complete harmony with the chemical char-
acteristics of the elements.
C. C. Hutchins and F. C. Robinson have a
paper on the making and use of Crookes tubes
to be employed in studying the phenomena con-
nected with the Réntgen rays. The authors
show that, with suitable choice of material and
some skill in glass-blowing, tubes of the most
favorable form may be made and exhausted in
the laboratory. They have repeatedly made
one, exhausted it and used it, all within an
hour’s time. The particular form of the tube,
and the shape and distribution of the electrodes
which are most favorable for producing a rapid
result are discussed. It is stated that excel-
lent impressions of the bones of the hand
through thin sheet zine have been obtained in
two minutes. Incidentally some suggestions
are given in regard to the best method of pump-
ing in order to produce the high degree of ex-
haustion called for.
A. M. Mayer gives the results of researches
on the Rontgen rays. He shows, in the first
place, that they cannot be polarized by being
passed through herapathite, or the iodo-sul-
phate of quinine, discovered by Herapath.
The details of the experiments leading to these
results are given, and incidentally the density
ofthe material was found tobe1.557. Instudy-
ing the transmission of the rays through certain
materials the following results have been ob-
tained, taking the amount of transmission
May 29, 1896.]
through aluminum of one-tenth of a millimeter
and one millimeter respectively, as unity :
f= jm fem,
ANEEETO DTN 4 Go960n000092000000 1. aL,
(CRESS) cdasodsesucosogocepeonadag 1.016 1.180
Green tourmaline.......... 1.016 1.180
Herapathite ................- 1.036 1.435
IDEA MUOYEDEN o9G5000a 400005000000 0.000696
Finally, it is shown that the actinic effect of
the Rontgen rays varies inversely as the square
of the distance of the sensitive plate from the
radiant source.
George I. Adams gives an extended memoir
on the ‘Extinct Felide of North America.’
In this the literature of the subject is summar-
ized; new points are added in regard to the
family in general, with the description of cer-
tain typical species, particularly of Hoplopho-
neus primevus, and finally the paper closes with
a new classification intended to avoid the diffi-
culties involved in those given hitherto. The
paper is accompanied by three plates.
‘Arnold Hague discusses the age of the Igne-
ous rocks of the Yellowstone National Park,
the study by Knowlton of the flora found in a
number of localities having made it possible to
arrive at definite conclusions. The author re-
marks that ‘‘the facts brought together here
clearly demonstrate that the pouring out of ig-
neous rocks began with the post-Laramie uplift
or closely followed, and from the time of the
first appearance of these rocks voleanic erup-
tions continued with greater or less energy
throughout Tertiary time. It is evident that
from the time of the post-Laramie uplift there
was, aS shown in the geological history of the
region, a succession of events of great impor-
tance in the development of the Rocky Moun-
tains, and that each period of this history was
characterized by distinct phases of volcanic
phenomena.”’
The occurrence of several rare species of min-
erals, namely, pollucite, mangano-columbite
and microlite, of Rumford, Maine, is described
by H. W. Foote, with analyses and crystallo-
graphic details. A. J. Moses describes a sim-
ple method of plotting the axial cross for the
crystals of any species. A. W. Pierce discusses
the gravimetric determination of selenium by
the use of potassium iodide,
SCIENCE.
817
AMERICAN CHEMICAL JOURNAL, MAY.
Transformations of Parasulphamine-benzoic Acid
under the influence of heat: By IRA REMSEN
and A. M. MucHENFuss. When parasulpham-
ine-benzoic acid is heated to 285° a remarkable
change takes place, consisting of the inter-
charge of the amide and hydroxyl groups:
Cog wi Cee colo
At lower temperatures other products are
formed, among them being a diamide and a
parasulphamine-benzoic acid different from the
ordinary variety. The method of preparation
and properties of these substances have been
studied; but their structures are as yet un-
known.
The heat of Electrolytic Dissociation of some acids:
By F. L. Kortricut; The author has studied
the effect of difference of constitution on the
heat of electrolytic dissociation and finds
that certain groups produce definite thermal
changes, which are however dependents on the
relative position of the groups in the molecule.
On the existence of Pentaethyl Nitrogen: By
A. LAcHMAN. Although a number of meth-
ods were tried which it was expected would
produce this substance, no evidence of its for-
mation could be obtained.
The Conductivity of Solutions of Acetylene in
water: By H. C. Jones and C. R. ALLEN.
The authors show that some dissociation takes
place in solutions of acetylene in water, as
would be expected from its weak acid nature.
The use of Phenolphthalein in illustrating the
Dissociation of Water : By H. C. Jones and
C. R. AtteEN. A solution of ammonia in alco-
hol produces no color with phenolphthalein, as
the ammonia is not dissociated by alcohol.
When, however, water is added to this solution
the color appears, its intensity being propor-
tional to the amount of water added and, there-
fore, to the amount of dissociation caused by
the water. Sodium and potassium hydroxides,
however, are dissociated in alcohol and there-
fore produce the color in this solvent.
The action of Acid Chlorides on the Silver Salts
of the Anilides: By N. L. WHEELER and B. B.
BoLtwoop. When silver formanilide is treated
with benzoylchloride a diacidanilide is obtained
818
as the final product. In the present paper it is
shown that an intermediate addition product is
formed, which then breaks down into silver
chloride and the diacidanilide. The reaction is
similar to many studied by Nef.
On the existence of two Orthophthalic Acids: By
W. T. H. Howe. In this paper the cause of
the difference in the melting point of orthoph-
thalic acid as observed by a number of investi-
gators is explained. The observations have
been made probably with two different acids or
mixtures of the two. Two have been isolated,
which are alike in composition, molecular
weight, and molecular refraction ; but different
in melting point, electrical conductivity, solu-
bility, formation of salts with bases and re-
duction products. The author explains this
case of isomerism by the difference in the
arrangement of the double bonds of the Kekulé
formula.
The Reduction of Permanganic Acid by Man-
ganese Superowide; By H. N. Morse, A. J.
Hopkins and M.8. WALKER. The reduction
which takes place in solutions of potassium
permanganate and permanganic acid is shown
to be due to the action of manganese superoxide.
If the solutions, after standing a short time,
are thoroughly filtered, they can be kept un-
changed.
This number contains also a review of recent
improvements in chemical industries, with spe-
cial reference to sulphur, pyrites, sulphuric,
hydrochloric and nitric acids, and reviews of
Ostwald’s Klassiker; Review of American
Chemical Research, A. A. Noyes; Organic
Chemistry, R. L. Whiteley; The Chemistry of
Pottery, K. Langenbeck.
J. ELLIOTT GILPIN.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, MAY 18, 1896.
THE Academy met with President Stevenson
in the chair.
The Section of Geology and Mineralogy at
once organized.
The first paper of the evening was by Mr.
Heinrich Ries entitled ‘ Notes of a trip through
the Marble Quarries of Western New England
SCIENCE.
LN. S. Vou. IIL. No. 74.
and Eastern New York.’ Mr. Ries sketched
out the geology and geographic distribution of
limestone quarries along the Hudson and Lake
Champlain Valleys passing north and the
marble quarries in the Green Mountains and
Berkshire hills coming south. His remarks
were copiously illustrated by the lantern and
by many beautiful specimens. The paper was
discussed by Messrs. Martin, Dodge and Kemp,
to whose remarks the speaker replied.
The second paper of the evening was by J.
F. Kemp on ‘The great Quartz Vein at Lan-
tern Hill, near Mystic, Conn.’ The speaker
described the vein as about 400 feet in width
and at least 1,200 feet in length. Its northern
- extremity forms the summit of Lantern Hill
about 500 feet above sea level.
of hard milky white quartz. The southern ex-
tension of the vein forms Long Hill. It is
lower in altitude and largely composed of loose
pulverulent quartz, which, however, perfectly
preserves the comby structure of the quartz
vein. It consists of innumerable interlocking
masses of quartz crystals. It is but slightly
iron stained in a few spots. It is so soft that it
can be crumbled between the fingers and is
easily dug with pick and shovel without any
blasting. The vein strikes north about 15
degrees east and cuts squarely across the lami-
nations of the gneiss. It is one of the largest
quartz veins known in the East and is of very
pure silica. Samples from the crumbly portion
range from 98 to 99.4 SiO,. A few rare scales
of some micaceous or chloritic mineral are
practically the only other ones present. Under
the microscope the powdered quartz appears
quite fresh and exercises a vigorous influence
on polarized light. Some prism faces of quartz
crystals show etched figures, but in general the
evidence of corroding alkaline solutions is hard
to find. The speaker was therefore led to re-
fer the pulverulent character of the vein to the
effects of a faulting or crushing movement, al-
though he inferred on the spot the action of
This portion is
- some corroding alkaline solution, presumably
magnesian. The paper was discussed by Messrs.
Dodge and Hovey. ;
The third paper of the evening was by J. F.
Kemp and was entitled ‘The Pre-Cambrian
Topography of the Adirondacks,’ The speaker
May 29, 1896.]
mentioned the curious outliers of Cambrian and
Ordovician strata that have been discovered
far up in the mountains from the main outcrops
that skirt them. They lie in valleys in meta-
morphosed crystalline rocks, which valleys rep-
resent beyond question the old pre-Cambrian
river valleys and which were filled with sedi-
ment by the encroaching sea of Cambrian and
Ordovician time. Lake George is the largest
example of this kind and contains remnants of
Potsdam sandstone and Trenton limestone in
its southern portion. The valley of Trout
Brook, which lies just west of Rogers’ Rock, at
the north end of Lake George and that is sepa-
rated from it by a high intervening ridge of
gneiss, contains two outliers of Potsdam sand-
stone of a few acres inextent. In the valley of
Putnam’s Pond, in the western part of Ticon-
deroga township, there is another outlier of
Potsdam sandstone. Both of these are shown
on the map of Ticonderoga which accompanies
the speaker’s report to Prof. James Hall on
this region, and which was published in 1895.
Another isolated area of calciferous limestone
is found on Schroon Lake, under Schroon
Lake post office. It is a few acres in extent
and the exposed rock is about 75 feet thick.
It is about 350 feet above tide at its upper
point. Down the lake and river valley it is
nearly forty miles to the next Cambrian out-
crop, which is below Hadley. The speaker
also cited the little outlier of Trenton limestone
near Wells, on the Sacondaga River, and the
fact that the Cambrian and Ordovician sedi-
ments on the west side reach short distances
into the areas of crystalline rocks and along
the river valleys. He stated that all the out-
liers on the east side had a uniform north-
easterly strike and a dip of 10 to 20 degrees to
the northwest. He remarked that they oc-
curred in the valleys of streams which are
notably sluggish, explaining their slow move-
ment by the fact that they flow in pre-Cam-
brian valleys, already nearly reduced to a base
level. He referred their parallel strike and
dip to the general warping of the surface in
thisregion. Remarking the undoubted presence
of faults in the later development of the topog-
raphy he emphasized the evidence of this early
erosion long before the time of fossiliferous
SCIENCE.
819
sediments. He added that the old river valleys
had in part been determined by the presence of
crystalline limestones. The paper was discussed
by Messrs. Dodge and Hovey.
The last paper of the evening was by L. M.
Luquer and H. Ries, and described an area of
Augen-gneiss near Bedford, N. Y. It was read
by Mr. Luquer, and will appear in full in the
Transactions .The gneiss appears to have been
originally a granitic rock that has been exten-
sively crushed and sheared out into the augen
structure. The original quartz has been mostly
comminuted, but the Carlsbad twins of ortho-
clase have remained as augen.
The paper was discussed by Dr. E. O. Hovey,
who cited the case of the sheared Eisenach
quartz-porphyry in which the feldspars have
been crushed, but the quartzes have been drawn
out.
Mr. G. F. Kunz mentioned the following
items as the meeting closed :
A meteoric stone weighing 31 ounces was
seen to fall by Mr. J. F. Black, April 9, 1896,
at 6:15 P. M., on his farm 9 miles east and one
north of Ottawa, Kansas. This meteorite con-
tains iron particles throughout and is of the
characteristic stony variety.
A remarkable nugget of native silver weigh
ing 448 ounces troy, was lately found five miles
from Globe City, Pinal county, Arizona. The
mass is a water-worn nugget, slightly oval, very
compact, and on its surface is bright silver-
white, showing that it is made up of strings of
crystallized silver, whereas the interior of the
entire mass contains more or less cerargyrite.
It has been presented to the Lea Collection of
American Minerals of the United States Na-
tional Museum.
New Zealand promises, mineralogically, to
be a country of surprises, and many interesting
things are gradually being brought to light by
the agate hunters from Oberstein, Germany,
who are visiting it. Recently they have dis-
covered some immense masses of rolled,
rutilated quartz, weighing from 10 to 30 pounds
each. The masses are penetrated by crystals
of rutile, red, brown and yellow, many inches
in length and of the fineness of hair. Occa-
sionally the rutiles occur very sparingly ; then
again they are in such profusion as to give the
820
entire mass the appearance of being a matted
mass of hair. One mass of 80 pounds was en-
tirely of this character. A fifteen-pound mass
contained a dozen or more crystals of rutile 45
cm. in length and from one-half to two mm.
in diameter. Magnificent crystals of amethyst
have also been found, one of which is entirely
of gem-cutting material and weighs 550 penny-
weights or 273 ounces troy. Topaz, blue and
white is found in the same localities.
J. F. Kemp,
Secretary.
THE NEW YORK SECTION OF THE AMERICAN
CHEMICAL SOCIETY.
THE New York Section of the American
‘Chemical Society held its usual monthly meet-
ing in the chemical lecture room of the College
of the City of New York on Friday evening, May
8th, with about fifty members present, Dr. Peter
T. Austen presiding. In response to inquiries
regarding the progress made by the committee
appointed to canvass the matter of the organiza-
tion of a chemical club, Prof. Austen stated
that, in accordance with.the instructions given,
it had increased its numbers to fifteen and had
held several meetings, to one of which the
members of the New York sections of the
American Chemical Society and of the Society
of Chemical Industry, as well as manufacturers
and gentlemen interested in the science and art
of chemistry, business men and friends of chem-
istry were invited. The meeting was full and
enthusiastic. The committee was instructed
to increase its number to fifty or more and to
push the organization of the club as rapidly as
possible. It appears that there is not in exist-
ence in this or any foreign country any real
chemical club, as differentiated from a chemical
society. It is believed that the science and art
of chemistry furnish so much that is character-
istic that a chemical club may easily be made a
unique organization.
Dr. A. R. Leeds, of Stevens Institute, read a
paper on the ‘Bacteria of Milk Sugar.’ The
author finds that the morphology, classification,
physiology and botany of bacteria are so rudi-
mentary and unsatisfactory that the most valu-
able methods of bacteriological investigation are
still of a chemical nature, and the advances to
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. IIT. No. 74.
be made in the near future are to be looked for
mainly on the chemical sides of the subject.
The author was interested to note in the
progress of his work that precipitated zinc hy-
droxide, which is generally considered amor-
phous or gelatinous, is really crystalline.
Dr. H. W. Wiley, of the United States De-
partment of Agriculture in Washington, offered
a paper entitled, ‘Recent Advances in Milk
Investigations.’ It treated of the bacterial
theory of milk decomposition, the composition
of woman’s milk as compared with cows milk
and the relative value of the two for infant food,
and of the commercial standards which should
be fixed for the milks sent to the city markets.
Investigations of the composition of milk, in
its relations to the welfare of the human race,
are largely confined to the determination of its
value as a nutrient. From an economic point
of view, the content of fat and other food con-
stituents is of paramount importance, while
from a purely chemical point of view the most
important are perhaps the composition of the
different proteid bodies and the changes which
they undergo, spontaneously or under the in-
fluence of bacterial life.
The author reviewed the works of Soldner
regarding the proteid content of human milk,
and quoted the figures given by that authority
for the average composition of human milk as
follows :
IBTOLELOS. 0+ voce ccnnciiceincieccesenescerce es 1.52 per cent.
on000 3.28 per cent.
ISIBIET Bonacaccapucosoos000N0900008 ...-- 6.50 per cent.
JNM spegoeqnodd +. 0.27 per cent.
Citric acid ......... .. 0.05 per cent.
WWmdetermined te recsssssesecceentcneseetetesers 0.78 per cent.
Total dry substance.............cceeeeeeeee 12.40 per cent.
The undetermined substance, 0.78 per cent.,
are mostly nitrogenous bodies not generally
found in cow’s milk and for this reason cow’s
milk can never be so diluted or altered as to
properly supply the natural nutriment of the
infant.
The nitrogenous decomposition products of
the blood, chief of which are urea, hypoxanthin,
kreatinin, sulfocyanic acid and lecithin, are
uniformly found in milk.
Mr. Marston Bogert, of Columbia University,
read a paper on ‘ Normal Heptyl Sulphocyanid.’
He offered a brief sketch of the series of alkyl
May 29, 1896.]
sulphocyanides, giving the results of the investi-
gations of Liebig, Lowig, Cahours, Medlock,
Henry, Pelouze, Schmidt, Reimer and Upper-
kamp. The last work on the series was done
twenty-one years ago.
Normal heptyl sulphocyanid is a colorless,
mobile liquid, having a slightly alliaceous but
rather pleasant odor and a specific gravity of
0.931 at 15 degrees C.
Dr. Austen exhibited an apparatus for lecture
demonstration of the properties of the heavier
gases. ;
Won. McMurtTRrRIE,
Secretary pro tem.
CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
THE eighty-seventh regular meeting was held
Thursday, March 12, 1896, with the Presi-
dent, Dr. de Schweinitz, in the chair. There
were 35 members present, and Dr. Andrew
Stewart was elected tomembership. Mr. F. P.
Dewey read a paper on ‘The Refining of Lixi-
vating Sulphides.’ Dr. Dewey’s paper re-
viewed the leaching process and the treatment
of the sulphide precipitates produced. He de-
scribed the sulphuric acid process of treating
the sulphides, in which they are treated in
strong sulphuric acid to convert the sulphides
into sulphates, after which the charge is treated
with water, the silver precipitated by copper
and melted, and the copper sulphate crystal-
lized.
Prof. H. W. Wiley and E. E. Ewell read
a paper on ‘The Determination of Lactose in
Milks by Double Dilution and Polarization.’
They called attention to the arbitrary correction
proposed by Wiley in the determination of lac-
tose in milk in a paper published in Vol. 6,
page 289, of the American Chemical Journal.
This arbitrary factor had been found too small,
and the object of the present investigation was
to eliminate it altogether, and to determine the
degree of the correction to be made for the
volume of the precipitate in each case by
double dilution and polarization. The method
was worked out carefully on whole milk,
skimmed milk and cream, and it was found
that the correction for the volume of the pre-
cipitate should be determined in each particular
instance, as it varied from less than three cubic
SCIENCE. 821
centimeters in skim milk to more than seven-
teen cubic centimeters in cream for 100 cubic
centimeter flask. Citations were given to
other papers in which objection was made to
the optical method of determining lactose by
reason of the fact that a dextrinoid body was
sometimes found in milk, but the danger of
error arising from this source is not great.
Prof. H. Carrington Bolton read a paper on
‘Berthelot’s Contributions to the History of
Chemistry.’ He reviewed his ‘Collection des
Alchimistes Grecs’ (Paris, 1887; 3 Vols. 4to),
and his ‘La Chimie an Moyen Age’ (Paris,
1893; 3 Vols. 4to), showing their scope, analyz-
ing their contents, and indicating the important
changes in chemical history resulting from
Berthelot’s studies. He also described briefly
the character of the Greek papyri of Leyden,
as well as the Arabic, Syriac and early Latin
manuscripts. The origin of alchemical ideas
concerning the transmutation of metals is at-
tributed by Berthelot to attempts of Egyptian
goldsmiths to make alloys which fraudulently
imitated the precious metals. The Latin works
said to be translated from the Arabic of Geber
are shown to be fictitious, yet genuine writings
of Geber are extant. The technology of the
writers of the third to the twelfth century is
disclosed in the volumes received.
The topic of discussion for the evening was
‘Style in Chemical Books and Papers.’ Dr.
Wiley opened the discussion and was fol-
lowed by Prof. Bolton, Prof. Seaman, Prof.
Clarke, Prof. Munroe, Mr. Fireman and Dr. de
Schweinitz.
A. C. PEALE,
Secretary.
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, 261ST
MEETING, SATURDAY, MAY 2.
L. O. Howarp exhibited a picture of three
young ladies, triplets, giving statistics on the
subject of triplets and stating that it was very
rare for all three to reach maturity. Frederick
V. Coville exhibited a ball 8} inches in di-
ameter, taken from the intestine of a horse.
It was of a light brown color and felt-like con-
sistency and was composed of the barbed hairs
of the crimson clover, Trifolium incarnatum.
When over-ripe crimson clover hay is fed to
822
horses the hairs, which up to the time of flow-
ering are soft and flexible, but afterwards be-
come stiff and needle-like, gather into balls,
sometimes becoming large enough, as in the
present instance, to clog the intestine and
cause death through peritonitis or some related
ailment.
Erwin F. Smith exhibited a photograph made
from a poured gelatine plate, showing the bac-
tericidal effect of direct sunlight. He stated
that many parasitic bacteria are killed by light
and remarked on the hygienic importance of
flooding sick rooms and all living rooms with
sunshine. This experiment was made with
Bacillus tracheiphilus, the exposure being only
three hours. The part of the gelatine plate
which was covered from the light developed
from 6,000 to 12,000 small colonies in each
field of the microscope, so that the gelatine be-
came grayish white. The part of the plate
which was exposed to the direct rays of the
sun, a middle star-shaped portion, was easily
distinguishable from the rest of the plate on
the second day, and appeared throughout the
experiment (8 days) to be entirely free from
colonies, but a careful microscopic examination
at several different times showed that about
one bacillus ina thousand had escaped. These
are supposed to have been partially or wholly
protected from the direct action of the light by
germs lying above them. With longer expo-
sures or thinner sowings all would undoubtedly
have been destroyed.
D. LeRoy Topping stated that Mr. Pollard
and himself had found Ranunculus ficaria, at
the original locality on Rock Creek, below
Pierce’s Mill, where it had first been noticed
twelve years before.
A. F. Woods showed a tomato plant which
had been exposed to hydro-cyanic acid. The
stems, petioles and midribs of the leaves were
killed by the gas, but the softer tissues were
not injured and were able to obtain all the
water they required through the dead dissue.
L. H Dewey spoke of the tumbling mustard,
Sisymbrium altissimum, stating that it had been
introduced into North America from Europe
during the past 20 years, and during the past
15 years it has developed into a very trouble-
some weed in Assiniboia and Manitoba, N. W.
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 74,
Canada. It combines the productiveness and
hardiness of the mustard with the distributing
habit of the tumbleweed and threatens to be-
come a most dangerous weed in the northern
plains where tumbleweed and mustard thrive
at their best. Prof. James Fletcher, of Ottawa,
Canada, carefully estimated the number of seeds
borne by asingle well developed tumbling mus-
tard at 1,500,000. This plant has been reported
from nine localities in Minnesota, Iowa, Mis-
souri and South Dakota, and from ballast.
ground at Philadelphia, and freight yards at
Weehawken, New Jersey.
T. W. Stanton presented a communication on
the Genus Remondia Gabb, stating that this
molluscan genus from the Lower Cretaceous of
Arivechi, Sonora, Mexico, which has hitherto
been placed in the Trigonide, belongs to the
Crassatellide and includes the later described
genus Stearnsia White, from the Cretaceous of
Texas.
B. T. Galloway read a paper on Recent Ad-
vances in our Knowledge of the Plant Cell briefly
reviewing the early discoveries and giving in
some detail the most recent contributions to the
subject. A paper by C. L. Pollard on the Pur-
ple-Flowered Stemless Violets of the Atlantic Coast
was read, in the absence of Mr. Pollard, by
David White. Seven species were enumerated
in addition to the Linnzean V. pedata, the author
stating that botanists have differed remarkably
in their conceptions of specific relationships in
this genus ; yet while there is much individual
variation, the species do not intergrade to the
extent usually supposed. The Viola dentata of
Birch, V. septemloba of Le Conte, and JV. ovata
of Nuttall, were restored to specific rank.
F. A. Lucas,
Secretary.
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
AT the 49th meeting, held on May 13th,
papers were presented as follows:
The Faunal Relations of the Eocene and.
Upper Cretaceous on the Pacific Coast: By
T. W. Stanton. The Chico-Tejon series has
been described as a continuous series, show-
ing a gradual transition both faunally and
stratigraphically from the Cretaceous into the
Eocene, the close faunal connection being
May 29, 1896.]
found especially in the ‘Martinez group’ (an
upper sub-division of the Chico), and in ‘in-
termediate beds.’ A study of the faunas and
stratigraphy, especially in middle California,
has proved that the intermediate beds
and the upper part of the Martinez group
are identical and that they form a lower
zone of the Tejon, or Eocene. When the
line between the two formations is thus lo-
eated their faunas are but little more closely
related than the Upper Cretaceous and Lower
Eocene faunas of other parts of the world.
With the exception of an Ammonite, of which
a few specimens were reported from the Tejon
in early collections, the few species that seem
to be identical in the two formations are per-
sistent types that have come down to the
present day with little change.
The Structure and Age of the Cascade Range:
By J. S. Dizter. The two sections of the
Cascade Range afforded by the Klamath and
Columbia Rivers expose volcanic rocks only
and indicate that the range where most typi-
cally developed is composed essentially of lava
from top to bottom. As far as yet known, it
has no core of older metamorphic rocks on
which the line of volcanoes developed.
He described the position and relations of the
auriferous slate series.
At Ashland, in southern Oregon, the relations
of the Cascade Range to the Klamaths is better
exposed. They are separated by Rogue River
Valley, which is cut chiefly in Cretaceous strata.
Overlying these with apparent conformity, and
dipping gently to the eastward beneath the Cas-
cades are similar sedimentary rocks containing
silicified wood, referred by Knowlton to a
period certainly later than the Cretaceous.
Above these and conformable with them on the
western slope of the Cascades are numerous
sheets of lava and tuff. One sheet of tuff near
the base of the series contains Miocene leaves.
Although the voleanic activity of the Cascade
Range may have been initiated in earlier times,
the period of greatest eruption and the upbuild-
ing of the range occurred in the Neocene.
An Early Date for Glaciation in the Sierra
Nevada: By WILLARD D. JoHNSON. The author
described the occurrence of striated pebbles, of
foreign material, in the extensive andesite-tuff
SCIENCE.
823
flows, or volcanic mud flows of the Sierra, and
gave reasons for regarding the striation of these
included pebbles as probably glacial. He then
called attention to a certain anomalous topog-
raphy of the summit region of the range, and
offered for it an interpretation which, together
with the presence of the presumably glacial
pebbles in the deeply canyoned lavas, appeared
to warrant the inference that glaciation here
had a beginning coincident with the erection of
the Sierra Nevada into a high range.
W. F. MorRseE.t.
U. 8. GEOL. SURVEY.
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF
PHILADELPHIA.
May 5, 1896.—Dr. F. P. HENRY made a com-
munication on Filaria sanguinis hominis noc-
turna specimens of which had been obtained
from the blood of a patient suffering from chy-
luria due to clogging of the lymphatics by the
ova of the parasite. The various forms of the
worm and their life history as given by Dr.
Patrick Manson were dwelt on. The parasite
secretes no toxine and its presence in man is
usually not productive of bad effects. The
speaker stated his belief that the excretory
products of parasites are hurtful to man in pro-
portion to the lowness of their organization.
The nocturnal Filarize appear in the superficial
vessels about sunset and disappear about the
time of rising. In patients induced to sleep
during the day the periodicity is reversed. The
only treatment is prophylactic as a drug which
would kill the mature worm would, in all prob-
ability, be hurtful to the host by causing ab-
sesses around the dead product.
-Dr. Leonard, in continuation, dwelt on the
morphology of the worm, illustrating his re-
marks by means of fine micro-photographs of
the specimens described by Dr. Henry.
May 12.—DR. CHARLESS. DoLLeEy described a
centrifugal apparatus for the quantitative deter-
mination of the food supply of oysters and
other aquatic animals which he called a Plank-
tonokrit. By means of its use he is enabled
to make a large number of plankton estimates
in a day and thus judge of the characters of
given areas of water in connection with fish
and oyster culture at different times of the day,
states of the tide, varying depths, ete.
824
The method employed is that of the centri-
fuge, an apparatus which consists of a series of
geared wheels driven by hand or belt, and so
arranged as to cause an upright shaft to revolve
up to a speed of 8,000 revolutions per minute,
corresponding to 50 revolutions per minute of
the crank or pulley wheel. To this upright
shaft is fastened an attachment by means of
which two funnel-shaped receptacles of one
litre capacity each may be secured and made to
revolve with the shaft. The main portion of
each of these receptacles is constructed of spun
copper, tinned. When caused to revolve for
one or two minutes the entire content of sus-
pended matter in the contained water is thrown
to the bottom of tubes properly placed, from
which the amount may be read off by means of
a graduated scale. Epw. J. NOLAN,
Recording Secretary.
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY SCIENCE CLUB,
MAY 1.
Pror. HouG#H in the chair and thirty-eight
persons present. Prof. Crew and Mr. Basquin
presented the topic, ‘ The Identity of Light and
Electricity.’ ‘‘Kelvin’s prediction that the
discharge of the Leyden jar was (under certain
conditions) oscillatory and Maxwell’s equations
for the propagation of electro-magnetic disturb-
ances were derived and explained. The sub-
ject was illustrated by Faraday’s experiment
showing rotation of plan of polarization in a
magnetic field. The nature of wave motion
was shown by the Melde experiment, Kundt’s
tube and Weber’s wave trough. The equiva-
lence of capacity and self induction was illus-
trated by Lodge’s experiment showing reso-
nance between ten Leyden jars. The Lecher
modification of the Hertz experiment was shown
in various forms, the nodes of the electric waves
being detected by vacuum tubes and bridges.”’
A. R. CRroox,
Secretary.
EVANSTON, ILL.
THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS.
AT the meeting of the Academy of Science of
St. Louis of May 18, 1896, Professor C. M. Wood-
ward presented a critical examination of some
of the mathematical formule employed by Her-
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Voz. III. No. 74.
bart to represent mental phenomena, in which
these formule were criticised as inadequate.
Though not considering any formule likely to
be adequate, from the nature of the case, the
speaker offered a substitute for the Herbart
formule pertaining to the bringing into con-
sciousness of a sublatent concept through the
suggestion afforded by another concept similar
in some respects while differing in others.
Dr. A. N. Ravold made a report on the
use in St. Louis of diphtheria anti-toxine, pre-
pared by the health department of the city.
During the past winter 342 cases of diphtheria
had been treated with this serum by 93 physi-
cians. Doses of from 2.5 to 100 ec. had been
administered. Asa rule, the recovery was far
slower when the quantity used was small than
when a larger quantity was employed. Usually
the serum was administered only once. In
about half the cases a decided change for the
better was noticeable within 24 hours, and
these cases were practically cured within 48
hours, although attention was called to the fact
that for some weeks the throat of a conyales-
cent is a breeding place for the diphtheritic
bacilli, the virulence of which did not seem to
be diminished by the serum treatment. Of the
cases reported on, 9.06 per cent. only died, and
as a considerable number of cases were hope-
less when treatment was administered, the
patients dying within 24 hours thereafter, it
was considered fair to deduct these deaths from
the total, which reduced the mortality to 4.6
per cent. when the serum was administered in
the earlier stages of the disease. The injurious
consequences of administering the serum were
fully considered, but held to be practically in-
significant. It was also stated that when used
on persons who had been exposed to, but had
not manifested the disease, the serum proved
an unfailing means of conferring immunity for
a certain period of time. Among the advan-
tages in the use of this serum was mentioned
that of lessening the chances of secondary in-
fection, so frequent after an attack of diphtheria.
A committee presented resolutions on the
death of Dr. Charles O. Curtman, for many
years a member of the Academy.
WM. TRELEASE,
Recording Secretary.
SCIENCE
NEW SERIES. SINGLE COPIES, 15 CTs.
Vou. III. No. 75. FRIDAY, JUNE! 5, 1896. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, $5.00.
AN IMPORTANT NEW BOOK OF TRAVEL AND EXPLORATION.
THROUGH JUNGLE AND DESERT:
Travels in Eastern Africa.
By WILLIAM AsTOR CHANLER, A. M. (Hary.), F. R.G. S.; Honorary Member of the Imperial and Royal Geographical Society
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*,* Mr. WILLIAM ASTOR CHANLER’S description of his travels and explorations in Eastern Africa forms one of the most
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BIRDCRAFT.
A Field-Book of Two Hundred Song, Game, and Water Birds. By MABEL OsGoOD WRIGHT, author of ‘‘ The Friendship of
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Small quarto, cloth, $3.00 net.
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Fripay, June 5, 1896.
CONTENTS :
On the Untechnical Terminology of the Sex-relation
im Plants: Li. H. BAILBY.........0....0cceeeeenseenes 8
25
On the Diffusion of Metals : W.C. ROBERTS-AUSTIN..827
On the Detection of Glacial Striz in Heed Light:
BOSCH RIAD ER Sere cese nee nee ee nee eiosess 830
Occurrence of Uintaite in Utah: GEORGE H. EL-
TD) BI0 DYE) DL ooocao cos po coopeccobososnobsooasoSqeDCoRDcoReR0ac0eR" 830
JOHN R. CHANDLER........... 832
Current Notes on Anthropology :—
Primitive Ethnology of France: Palzoliths from
Somaliland ; Comparative Ethnic Anatomy: D.
Grp. IBIRIGNIION fs ceococosodoocoqpbendoboHdoocuocaHseobdoosbOEAE 833
Notes upon Agriculture and Horticulture :—
The American Persimmon ; Plum-leaf Spot ; Fungi-
cides Increase the Growth of Plants ; Vegetable Cul-
ture: BYRON D. HALSTED............0...000coeeeees 834
Scientific Notes and News :—
The Metric System; The Rontgen Rays ; The Storage
of Water ; Crater Lake ; General .........csceceeeeees 836
University and Educational News.........0.ce.ccseeeeeees 840
Discussion and Correspondence : ——
‘Progress in American Ornithology, 188695 :? R.
W. SHUFELDT, J. A. ALLEN. The Polar Hares
of Eastern North America: SAMUEL N. RHOADS.
American Polar Hares: C. H. M. The Subject
of Consciousness: J. W. POWELL............000008 B41
Scientific Literature :—
Lang’s Text-book of Comparative Anatomy: W.
H. DAL. Naue’s Die Bronzezeit in Oberbayern ;
Bergen’s Current Superstitions: D. G. BRINTON..847
Ruins of Quirigua :
Societies and Academies :—
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia:
Epw. J. NoLAN. Proceedings of the Torrey Bo-
tanical Club: W.A.BAsTEDO. Alabama Indus-
trial and Scientifie Society: TEUGENE A. SMITH..850
INE WBOOKSa am citeiesese dees toneane osc cedseescenesecuceewaces 852
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J,
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
ON THE UNTECHNICAL TERMINOLOGY OF
THE SEX-RELATION IN PLANTS.
THE modern conception of the sex-rela-
tion and the alternation of generations in
plants has so changed our point of view
respecting the morphologies of various mem-
bers that an entirely new terminology has
recently come into use to express the new-
found homologies. At the same time, there
is an attempt to restrict or to specialize the
use of such age-long words as male and
female, sex and the like, when applying
them to plants. This part of the new
terminology which touches common langu-
age is not above criticism, and I wish
briefly to advert to it.
It should be said, in the first place, that
the original conceptions of sexuality in
plants, from Camerarius down to the middle
of this century, were borrowed and adapted
very largely from analogy with the animal
kingdom. The stamens were considered to
be male organs of sex and the pistils to be
female organs, the idea of the necessity of
a conformed sex-member being evidently
borrowed from a knowledge of animal
morphology. At the present time, however,
our conception of the sex-relation of the
higher plants is borrowed from a study of
the flowerless plants, which, with every
reason, are believed to represent a more
primitive stage of evolution than the flower-
ing plants. The true significance of the sex-
process in plants was first clearly conceived
826
by Hofmeister in 1849, when he propounded
the hypothesis that_certain great groups
of plants undergo an alternation of genera-
tions, a sex-bearing generation being fol-
lowed by a sexless generation. In certain
plants, as the ferns, the sex-generation soon
disappears and the sexless generation leads
a wholly independent life; this sex-genera-
tion is the prothallus of the fern, and the
sexless generation is the foliaceous fern-
plant. But in certain other plants, as the
mosses, the sexless generation remains at-
tached to or incorporated with the sex-gen-
eration. Many of these flowerless plants pro-
duce a prothallus from the spore, and upon
this prothallus are two minute unlike organs,
one female in function because it develops
the succeeding generation, and the other
male in function because it produces the cells
which fertilize the female cells. Recent
morphological studies have shown that in
the flowering plants the asexual generation
is enormously developed and is ‘ the plant,’
whilst the sex-generation is reduced to the
minimum and is represented by a female
organ developed within the ovule and a male
organ developed in the pollen grain. The
prothallus within the ovule encloses the
germ of the asexual generation in its ferti-
lized sexual cell, and this germ becomes the
embryo of the seed; and the prothallus is
absorbed, or else it remains as the albumen
—or endosperm or perisperm—of the seed.
This very brief and imperfect outline is
sufficient to bring the point which I have
in mind before the reader, namely, how far
can we use the terms ‘male’ and ‘ female,’
and what must be the common language of
the sex-relation in plants? Some morphol-
ogists now object to calling a stamen a
male organ, or a pistil a female organ ; and
they base their reform upon the undisputed
morphological fact that the male sex-phase
of the plant is comprised within the short
span and function of the generative cell
developing from the pollen grain, and that
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 75.
the female phase is associated only with the
development of the prothallus in the ovule.
It should be pointed out, however, that the
discovery of these morphological facts does
not in the least shift the old-time attribute
of maleness as applied to the stamen or of
femaleness as applied to the pistil; for
whether the pollen grain is sperm, as older
naturalists supposed, or whether it is a
spore and gives rise to a secondary genera-
tion which discharges the office of sperm,
it is still all contained in the stamen; and
the stamen is, in the broad sense of common
language, a sexual member because its
entire office is the discharge of the paternal
relation. It is as much a member or organ
of sex as the root-is an organ of nutrition.
The meaning of the sex-process has not
been materially changed by the recent
studies. ‘Male’ and ‘female’ never did
and never can be made to express strict
morphological homologies. An organ of
an animal or a plant is male if it exercises
the functions of paternity and not of ma-
ternity. The stamen is such an organ.
Its entire office is that of maleness. The
attempt to restrict the terms male and fe-
male to the ultimate sexual process seems
to me to be unwarranted and hypercritical.
It is interesting to observe that the mor-
phologists fall into the very pit which they
have digged, when they talk of male and
female prothalli. Surely the prothallus is
no more sexual than a stamen or a leaf.
The egg cell and the male cell are the sex-
ual organs, unless we choose to carry the
purism to the physiological units; and since
these organs soon disappear, as such, it
follows that we cannot apply the terms
‘male,’ ‘female,’ ‘sex,’ and the like, to
plants, save in the very brief period during
which impregnation is taking place. This
practically means that we must eliminate
any reference to sexuality in all untechnical
speech about plants, and the result would
contribute to anything but clearness.
JUNE 5, 1896. ]
The common language of sex has always
dealt in analogies. There are perfectly
good and sufficient technical terms to
designate the homologies and the ultimate
physiological processes. If the hypercriti-
cism of the plant morphologists were to be
accepted for the animal creation, pande-
monium would come of it. One could not
speak of the members of generation as sex
organs, nor of any animal as male or fe-
male. I insist that it is perfectly proper to
speak of a staminate willow as male, be-
cause its ultimate function is paternity ; if
I cannot speak of it as a male plant, then
I cannot call a bull a male animal.
L. H. Barney.
ON THE DIFFUSION OF METALS.*
PART I.—DIFFUSION OF MOLTEN METALS.
In the first part of the paper the author
alludes to some earlier experiments he made
in 1883 on the diffusion of gold, silver and
platinum in molten led. He points out that,
although the action of osmotic pressure in
lowering the freezing point of metals has
been carefully examined, very little atten-
tion has been devoted to the measurement,
or even to the consideration, of the molec-
ular movements which enable two or more
metals to form a truly homogeneous fluid
mass. The absence of direct experi-
ments on the diffusion of molten metals is
probably explained by the want of a suffi-
ciently accurate method. Ostwald had
stated, moreover, with reference to the dif-
fusion of salts, that ‘‘to make accurate ex-
periments in diffusion is one of the most dif-
ficult problems in practical physics,” and
the difficulties are obviously increased when
molten metals diffusing into each other take
the place of salts diffusing into water.
The continuation of the research was
mainly due to the interest Lord Kelvin had
* Abstract of the Bakerian lecture given by Pro-
fessor W. C. Roberts-Austen before the Royal Society
and printed in the Proceedings of the Society.
SCIENCE. 827
always taken in these experiments. The
want of a ready method for the measure-
ment of comparatively high temperatures,
which led to the abandonment of the earlier
work, was overcome when the author ar-
ranged his recording pyrometer, and the
use of thermo-junctions in connection with
this instrument rendered it possible to
measure and record the temperature at
which diffusion occurred. Thermo-junc-
tions were placed in three or more positions
in either a bath of fluid metal or an oven
carefully kept hotter at the top than at the
bottom. In the bath or oven, tubes filled
with lead were placed, and in this lead,
gold, or a rich alloy of gold, or of the metal
under examination, was allowed to diffuse
upwards against gravity. The amount of
metal diffusing in a given time was ascer-
tained by allowing the lead in the tubes to
solidify ; the solid metal was then cut into
sections, and the amount of metal in the re-
spective sections determined by analysis.
The movement in linear diffusion is ex-
pressed, in accordance with Fick’s law, by
the differential equation
CD 7
dt dx?
In this equation x represents distance in
the direction in which diffusion takes place ;
v is the degree of concentration of the dif-
fusing metal, and ¢ is the time; & is the dif-
fusion constant, that is, the number which
expresses the quantity of the metal in
grams diffusing through unit area (1 sq.
cm.) in unit time (one day) when unit dif-
ference of concentration (in grams per ¢. ¢. )
is maintained between the two sides of a
layer 1 cm. thick. The author’s experi-
ments have shown that metals diffuse in one
another just as salts do in water, and the
results were ultimately calculated by the aid
of tables prepared by Stefan for the calcula-
tion of Graham’s experiments on the dif-
fusion of salts.
The necessary precautions to be observed
828
and the corrections to be made are described
at length, and the values of the diffusivity
of various metals in lead are then given.
The values for k, the diffusivity, given in
sq. cm. per day, are as follows :
k
Goldbintleadise ste vestcesesescnoves 3°19 at 500°.
coe DISDUUbM ie sescecccereesces Her) 0G), G6
COE DEEN Pentaee taco stats asics ALG ine cmmice
Silivierainebimercccseccieecicercecicsns Gey |dl GES Ge
Wuead sin’ Gin. .csacscss-cesceusseasessss Sis} G3 Os
Rhodium pine ea deceseeseceess cose ss BH NO Cs
Platinum in lead .................- 1°69 ‘* 490°.
Goldéintleadeeceneseeetceseecacccecs SUE Oo
Gold in mercury...........-.....00- OR 2:
In order to afford a term of comparison,
it may be stated that the diffusivity of
chloride of sodium in water at 18° is 1.04.
The author at present refrains from draw-
ing any conclusion as to the evidence which
the results afford respecting the molecular
constitution of metals. It is, however, evi-
dent that they will be of value in this con-
nection, because, with the exception of the
gases, they present the simplest possible
case of diffusion which can occur—the diffu-
sion of one element into another.
Thus the relatively slow rate of diffusion
of platinum, as compared with gold, points
to its having a more complex molecule than
the latter.
PART II.—DIFFUSION OF SOLID METALS.
The second part of the paper is devoted
to the consideration of the diffusion of solid
metals. Much of the evidence is historical,
for there has long been a prevalent belief
that diffusion can take place in solids, and
the practice in conducting important in-
dustrial operations supports this view. In
this connection the author cites two truly
venerable ‘cementation ’ processes. The ob-
ject in the first of these is the removal of
silver from a solid gold-silver alloy; while
the second is employed in steel-making by
the carburisation of solid iron. In both or
these processes, however, a gas may inter-
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Von. III. No. 75.
vene, though the carburisation of iron by
the diamond, which had been effected in
vacuo by the author, suggests that if a gas
does intervene in the latter case, its quan-
tity must be very minute. In connection
with the mobility of various elements in
iron, the work of Colson, of Osmond and of
Moissan is especially referred to.
The author points out that in 1820 Fara-
day and Stodart showed that platinum will
alloy with steel at a temperature at which
even the steel is not melted, and they ex-
press their interest in the formation of al-
loys by cementation, that is, by the union of
solid metals.
The remarkable view expressed by Gra-
ham in 1863, that the “ three conditions of
matter (liquid, solid, gaseous) probably
always exist in every liquid or solid sub-
stance, but that one predominates over the
other,’ is shown to have afforded ground
for the anticipation that metals would dif-
fuse into each other at’ temperatures far be-
low their melting points. Reference is then
made to the important work by Spring in
1886 on the lead-tin alloys, which retained
a certain amount of molecular activity after.
they had become solid, and special impor-
tance is attached to the proof afforded by
Spring, that alloys may be formed either by
the strong compression of the finely divided
constituent metals at the ordinary tempera-
ture (1882) or (1894) by the union of solid
masses of metal compressed together at tem-
peratures which varied from 180° in the
case of lead and tin to 400° in the case of
copper and zinc; tin melting at 227° and
zine at 415°.
The evidence as to the volatilization of
solid metals is then traced, and allusion is
made to the expression of Robert Boyle’s
belief, that even such solid bodies as glass
and gold might respectively ‘ have their lit-
tle atmospheres and might in time lose
their weight.’
Merget’s experiment on the evaporation
JUNE 5, 1896. ]
of frozen mercury is quoted in relation to
Gay-Lussac’s well-known discovery that
the vapors emitted by ice and water both
at 0° C are of exactly equal tension.
Demarc¢ay’s experiments on the volatiliza-
tion of metals in vacuo at comparatively low
temperatures is connected with the evidence
afforded by Spring (1894), that the interpen-
etration of the two metals at a temperature
below the melting point of the more fusible
of the two is preceded by volatilization.
The author then points out that, interest-
ing as the results of the earlier experiments
are, as affording evidence of molecular in-
terpenetration, they do not, for the purpose
of measuring diffusivity, come within the
prevailing conditions in the ordinary dif-
fusion of liquids, in which the diffusing sub-
stance is usually in the presence of a large
excess of the solvent, a condition which has
been fully maintained in the experiments
on the diffusion of liquid metals described
in the first part of the paper. Van’t Hoff
has made it highly probable that the
osmotic pressure of substances existing in
a solid solution is analogous to that in liquid
solutions and obeys the same laws ; and it
is probable that the behavior of a solid
mixture, like that of a liquid mixture,
would be greatly simplified if the solid solu-
tion were very dilute.
The author proceeds to describe his own
experiments on the diffusion of solid metals.
They are of the same nature as in the case
of fluid metals, except that the gold, which
is the metal chosen for examination, was
placed at the bottom of a solid cylinder of
lead instead of a fluid one.
In the first series of experiments, cylin-
ders of lead, 70 mm. long, with either gold,
or a rich alloy of gold and lead at their
base, were maintained at a temperature of
251° (which is 75° below the melting point
of lead) for thirty-one days. At the end
of this period the solid lead was cut into
sections, and the amount of gold which had
SCIENCE. 829
diffused into each of them was determined
in the usual way. Other experiments fol-
low, in which the lead was maintained at
200° and at various lower temperatures
down to that of the laboratory. The fol-
lowing are the results :
k.
Diffusivity of gold in fluid lead at 550°...... 3.19
of SOM amine colores 0.03
sf if ee 200 ca ees 0.007
re He eh al COG etes 0.004
The experiments at the ordinary temper-
ature are still in progress, but there is evi-
dence that slow diffusion of gold in lead
occurs at the ordinary temperature. The
author points out that if clean surfaces of
lead and gold are held together in vacuo at
a temperature of only 40° for four days
they will unite firmly, and can only be sep-
arated by the application of a load equal to
one-third of the breaking strain of lead it-
self.
The author thinks it will be considered
remarkable that gold placed at the bottom
of a cylinder of lead, 70 mm. long (which
is to all appearance solid), will have dif-
fused to the tip in notable quantities at the
end of three days. He points out that at
100° the diffusivity of gold in solid lead can
be readily measured, though its diffusivity is
only zyyy00 Of that in fluid lead at a tem-
perature of 500°. He also states that ex-
periments which are still in progress show
that the diffusivity of solid gold in solid
silver or copper at 800° is of the same
order as that of gold in solid lead at 100°.
He concludes by warmly thanking Mr.
A. Stansfield, B.Se., who assisted him in all
but the earlier portion of the work, and by
expressing the hope that the experiments
described in the paper will show that the
diffusion can readily be measured in solid
metals, and that they will carry one step
further the work of Graham.
830
ON THE DETECTION OF GLACIAL STRILX IN
REFLECTED LIGHT.
Ir is known that in many regions of gla-
ciation, owing to the softness or attitude of
the country, particularly in the case of
schists, all traces of bed-rock strive have
seemingly been effaced by post-glacial
weathering. The country about Orange, a
little west of the north central part of Mas-
sachusetts, affords a good example of the
case in point. The rocks are soft gneisses
and hornblende schists. They strike nearly
north and south and dip about vertically, or,
in other words, stand on edge. Their very
attitude, combined with the local variation
in mineralogical composition and texture,
due to the banding in the gneiss, has en-
abled the process of weathering to work at
its maximum rate. As a result, the sur-
face of the rock, wherever exposed, is cor-
roded to extreme roughness, and often lon-
gitudinally pitted, so that on the rock it-
self about all trace of strie has vanished.
Also the approximate coincidence of direc-
tion between the strisve: and the strike or
banding in the gneiss renders any trace of
weathered striee which may remain not
only difficult of detection, but unsatisfactory
to the geologist, even when found.
There is, however, a means of determin-
ing the direction of ice-movement in this
region. Happily the rocks are traversed
here and there by quartz veins of moderate
size. These veins being more resistant, of-
ten stand out in bold relief above the en-
closing rocks now weathered down at their
sides. They have retained not only their
ice-polished surface, but this surface is of-
ten found to be well marked by sharply de-
fined striz and very fine parallel scratches,
concerning whose origin the lens leaves no
doubt.
These scratches sometimes occur in such
delicacy as to render detection by the
unaided eye difficult in ordinary light. By
chance it was observed that in reflected
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Von. III. No. 75.
sunlight the most delicate become readily
visible, even at several yards distant. The
distinctness with which the strie are
brought out is due to the marked contrast
produced by difference of reflection between
the unstriated part of the ice-polished sur-»
face, which strongly reflects the light, and
the striz themselves, which do not reflect,
but appear as opaque or dark lines in a
bright shining background.
Further observation seems to show that
this means of detecting striz can in many
cases be used to advantage, especially where
the surface to be examined is of considera-
ble extent, the task of observation being
materially facilitated without impairment
of reliability. The strize show best when
observed in the direction of their drift
trend, and with the angle of reflection large,
forty-five or more degrees.
The above observations were made early
in April in connection with a visit to Mount
Monadnock, in New Hampshire; a covering
of snow and ice preventing the taking of
similar observations on the mountain at the
time. It has since been learned, however,
from Mr. C. L. Whittle, who has made a
specialty of ice-movement over this moun-
tain, that, as in the region of Orange, the
strize are now chiefly limited to the exposed
edges of quartz veins traversing the gran-
itic gneisses and other rocks which consti-
tute the mountain. F.C. ScHRADER.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass., May 2, 1896.
OCCURRENCE OF UINTAITE IN UTAH.*
THE name Uintaite was given to the hard
asphaltic substance to be discussed, by
Prof. W. P. Blake in 1885. Subsequently
it acquired the name Gilsonite, after‘a Mr.
S. W. Gilson, of Salt Lake.
In appearance Uintaite is jet black, of
* Read by Mr. George H. Eldridge before the Ge-
ological Society of Washington, January 8, 1896, and
reported with the author’s approval by Dr. W. F.
Morsell.
JUNE 5, 1€96.]
brilliant lustre, with powder and streak
chocolate brown. It is brittle, with frac-
ture conchoidal and hardness between 2
and 3; specific gravity, 1.07. The min-
eral is, like many others of the asphalt se-
ries, undoubtedly composed of a number of
hydrocarbon compounds. Its position, from
a physical standpoint, is at one end of the
hydrocarbon series, petroleum, naphtha,
and the gaseous substances being at the
other, with the viscous malthas between.
Deposits of this hydrocarbon compound
_are,so far as present known, confined to
the Uncompahgre Indian Reservation and
its immediate vicinity in eastern Utah.
The allied compound, Grahamite, occurs in
West Virginia, and again in the Huasteca
in the northwest part of the State of Vera
Cruz, Mexico. Albertite, another near
relation, has long been known in New
Brunswick. It is quite possible also that
many of the solid asphalts of other areas
will, upon a more extended knowledge of
their composition, be found to belong to one
or another of these species.
The largest deposits of Uintaite are lo-
cated along the Colorado-Utah line, 30 to
50 miles north of the Rio Grande Western
Railway; others of workable width lie 40
to 50 miles west near the western edge of
the Uncompahgre Reserve.
The deposits lie in the Uinta Basin, origi-
nally a structural basin, bordered by the
Uinta Mountains and the Yampa Plateau
on the north, the Wasatch Range on the
west, the White River Plateau on the east,
and the Roan or Book Plateau on the south.
Hrosion has greatly modified the surface ap-
pearance of the basin, the streams having
cut cafions in some instances 3,000 feet in
‘depth.
The geological formations of the basin
proper are of Eocene Tertiary age and in-
clude the Laramie, Wasatch, Green River,
Bridger, Washakie (?) and Uinta, the
whole constituting a grand terrane of sand-
SCIENCE.
831
stones, shales and thin inconspicuous lime-
stones.
The Uintaite is confined to no particular
formation. It occurs as veins filling vertical
cracks from 4 inch to 18 ft. wide and from a
few hundred feet to 5 or 10 miles in length.
They have a general northwest-southeast
trend. They cut shales, sandstones and
limestones alike, and no displacement of
the strata on either side of these cracks has
ever been observed. The veins themselves,
however, are faulted from 2 or 3 inches to 2
ft. Lateral cracks of wafer thinness are, in
some instances, given off from the main
vein, all filled with the asphaltic substance.
The strata for a foot or two from the vein are
often strongly impregnated with the Uinta-
ite. Horses of the wall rock also occur,
completely enveloped in Uintaite. The es-
timated contents of the veins to a depth of
1000 ft. is 20,000,000 tons.
Dr. Wm. C. Day (Journ. Franklin In-
stitute, Sept., 95) has found Uintaite to
consist of 56.46 % volatile matter, which is
nearly or quite all condensable, 43.43 %
fixed residue and 0.10 % ash; and that its
percentage composition is
Wanb Omran wecaacceatchionussenisees 88.30
Ja byolrorexei ml oococcenoesedsaqdacosacs 9.96
[SiUllplaNw HP cocecpegonascaoasqsqcnoda0 1.32
PNG eerie 5 aiits dtl isrdomeina tetas 0.10
Oxygen and Nitrogen unde-
termined 0.32
100.00
He speaks of it as comprising a number
of radically different series of hydrocarbons,
among which the paraffin series is one, and
probably also the naphthene. No aromatic
hydrocarbon appears to be present, or at
most only in small quantity.
Uintaite is used in the manufacture of
the cheaper black varnishes ($1.25 and
down) and of japans, being especially prized
on account of its elastic properties. Itis in
common use throughout the United States.
Within a region of 150x 50 miles, in which
the Uintaite all occurs in the eastern part,
is found nearly all of the native asphalt
series. The nearest neighbor is the Mineral
Caoutchouce, Elaterite, or Wurtzilite, which
in turn has at no great distance from it a
substance with which it is said to have
most intimate relations, Ozocerite, or
Mineral Wax, and but a short distance
from the latter is probably the highest grade
asphaltic limestone in the United States.
Maltha also occurs in the region ; petroleum —
springs are also known, and the shales and
limestones of the Green River formation
are frequently found heavily impregnated
with bitumen.
The region as a whole, therefore, offers a
most advantageous opportunity for the
study of the field relations of hydrocarbons.
RUINS OF QUIRIGUA.
Tue village of Quirigua is about 20 miles
to the west of Izabal, in Lat. N. 15° 15’
and W. Long. 89°. Nine miles away are
the ruins situated on the left bank of the
Motagua. Dense tropical forests cover the
hills and valleys for miles around, and the
only means of approach is through narrow
mule paths till within some two miles from
the ruins, when a passageway has to be
cut by the ‘mozos,’ or Indian guides, with
their machetes. The trees are of immense
size, mahogany, ebony and lignum-vite be-
ing plentiful. Creepers and vines of all
kinds hang down from these trees, making
travel both dangerous and difficult in a
tropical region where venomous insects and
reptiles abound.
The first one sees on reaching the ruins
is a small lake which the Indians have
named ‘ Lake of the Idols.’ An artificial
mound built of small stones is within
a stone’s throw of the lake. As many of
these rocks are of very fine marble, they
probably came from the bed of the Monta-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 75.
gua river, two or three miles away. At the
base of this mound there are three obelisks
16 to 18 feet high. Each has a human face
sculptured on its south side. The features
of these faces are generally flattened about
the forehead, the under lip large and hang-
ing, the upper quite short, flat nosed and
very large eyes with a staring look. The
mouth is open in most cases and there ap-
pears to be a slight growth of beard. The
other sides of these obelisks are covered
with hieroglyphics enclosed in squares,
many representing animals, trees, etc.
In a southerly direction we find the
largest of the six obelisks, this one being
26 feet high, 5 feet wide and 4 feet thick.
It is 124 feet out of the perpendicular. It
is quite probable that fully 6 or 8 feet of
these shafts are buried in the soil. All the
sculptured parts of the inclined obelisk of
Quiriguaé are certainly finer and more
elaborate than on the others, the features
are more regular; the nose, which is a foot
long, is much sharper and the lips are not
so full. The mouth is eight inches wide
and the left side is broader than the right.
The ears are square and are adorned with
rings. The head is covered with a species
of helmet shaped like a human face; the
south side is similar to the north side
already described, whilst the east and west
have each a double row of squares contain-
ing hieroglyphics to the number of forty.
A few feet away lies an obelisk which
was standing a very few years ago, accord-
ing to the guides. The face on this one is
different from the others; for instance, the
ears are round instead of square and are
formed of three concentric circles. This
shaft is 18 feet high, 4 feet wide and 3 feet
thick. The present condition of the sixth
obelisk is not as good as some of the others.
The face, which is 2 feet long by 14 feet,
has lost the nose, and the mouth is almost
obliterated also; the ears are square and
have no rings. Diagonally across the
JUNE 5, 1896.]
breast of the idol lies a child which is
partly reclining on one hand. The quality
of this work would seem to prove that the
same artist made both this and the in-
clined shaft. The only difference in the
face on the south side is that the ears are
ornamented with rings. The east and west
sides have each 34 rectangles arranged in
pairs and all containing hieroglyphics.
As the land hereabouts is but slightly
above the general level of the river, there is
no doubt that the frequent inundations have
buried many other monuments.
The idols of Quirigué have no altars like
those of Copan, but within the space occu-
pied by the afore-mentioned, there are two
immense stones which very probably served
as such. The first one is nearly round,
some 12 feet in diameter, and is situated a
few feet from the first obelisk. The upper
portion is painted red and a sculptured
tiger’s head can be made out, having a
human head under it. A line of finely
sculptured glyphs covers the back. What
looks like a seat occupies the center,
around which there are several grooves
which run toward the floor. All this would
seem to indicate the use of this stone as a
sacrificial altar.
The second stone, which is between the
fourth and fifth obelisks and to the east of
them, is long and oval, being 6 feet high
and 25 feet in circumference. The whole
surface is covered with figures in semi-re-
lief, which are in a much better state of
preservation than those seen on the other
monuments. One of these figures repre-
sents a woman without hands or legs, but
with the arms extending to the floor.
The forehead is narrow. Another figure is
that of a turtle whose eyes are one foot
across; representations of many fruits and
flowers now found in the surrounding
mountains, covered the rest of this stone.
This fact seems to explode the idea of many
regarding a change of climate, since the
SCIENCE. 833
Central American cities, monuments, etc.,
were built.
There are several sculptured stones which
are completely covered with moss and
tropical vegetation and deeply imbedded in
the soft humus. On one of them a tiger’s
head could be made out and wherever the
moss could be scraped away hieroglyphics
appeared.
The truncated pyramid of Quirigué is
some 28 feet high. Oblong blocks of sand-
stone have been used in constructing it, but
the whole is a mass of broken rock to-day.
There are two platforms on the pyramid,
the second one having a series of circular
niches, usually two feet in diameter and
fairly well preserved.
Although the monuments of Quirigua
are larger than those of Copan, they are
inferior in sculpture and their extremely
weathered and ruined condition would
prove them to be much older also.
Some historians have stated that Quirigué
was a large city, destroyed by the Aztecs
when at the height of their power, on the
plain of Anahuac. The site is indeed pic-
turesque. To-day it is the abode of the
denizens of the forest, reptiles seeming to
have taken to it with special gusto.
Joun R. CHANDLER.
GUATEMALA, CENTRAL AMERICA, April, 1896.
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.
PRIMITIVE ETHNOLOGY OF FRANCE.
Basing his researches on the measure-
ments of nearly 700 skulls and an exami-
nation of abundant artefacts of the paleeo-
lithic and neolithic periods, M. P. Salmon
has constructed a map showing the ethnol-
ogy of France in the stoneage. The results
arrived at may be briefly stated to be that
the whole of the territory was down to
neolithic times occupied by a people dis-
tinetly long-skulled, though probably of
two different types. These were not vio-
lently dispossessed or exterminated, but
834
more or less absorbed by two streams of
short-skulled tribes, one from the northeast
across the lower Rhine, the other apparently
from Switzerland and beyond, down the
Rhone. Later than these, at about the
middle of the neolithic period, a long-skulled
stock entered from the northeast or east,
the shape of whose heads in other respects
differed materially from the original inhabi-
tants of Gaul.
It would be tempting to undertake the
identification of these various peoples on
the one hand with the protohistoric tribes
whose names are mentioned by Cesar and
other early chroniclers, and on the other
with types of the existing population. Some
ethnologists have attempted this, but M.
Salmon prefers to avoid such uncertain
though alluring fields.
PALMOLITHS FROM SOMALILAND.
Tuer ‘paleolithic’ implements - from
South Africa have long been known; but
it is quite lately that specimens from Hast
Africa, from the territory of the Somalis in
the ‘horn’ of Africa, have been exhibited.
Mr. Seton-Karr figures a number of them
in the journal of the Anthropological Insti-
tute for February. In size and form they
resemble the so-called paleeolithic types.
But we know that these types survived in
neolithic ages, in many localities. We turn,
therefore, to the evidence of their discovery
in ancient strata. This proves not very
satisfactory. They were found on or near
the surface, and the only evidences adduced
as to their alleged antiquity were their form
and their weathering (patine). ‘‘ Different
ages and styles were found mixed together,
some not much weathered, others extraordi-
narily so.” This is surely far from conclu-
sive as to their antiquity, and certainly
would not satisfy an intelligent American
collector.
COMPARATIVE ETHNIC ANATOMY.
THE anatomical differences between the
SCLEN CE.
[N.S. Vou. Ill. No. 75.
so-called races or varieties of the human
species have been examined with consider-
able attention but without satisfactory re-
sults. This has largely been owing to the
personal bias of observers. Hither, like
Nott and Gliddon, they were determined
polygenists, and were bound to elevate
racial into specific differences; or they held
the opposite views, and worked with an aim
to efface apparent distinctions ; or, especi-
ally of late years (e. g. Dr. Hervé, of Paris),
they were so bent on seeing simian and
pithecoid analogies that they lost sight of
racial traits in atavistic reversions.
The vague resultant of such biased stud-
ies is seen in a discussion before the An-
thropological Society of Washington, re-
ported in the American Anthropologist for
April. It was agreed that the term
‘atavism’ has been much abused by natu-
ralists. Dr. Baker pointed out that food
habits have a marked effect on osseous
structures; he denied that the racial pecu-
liarities of the negro are remarkably simian;
many supposed racial criteria are merely
the result of conditions which would pro-
duce them in any race ; and he considered
that anthropometry as at present taught is
inadequate to define true morphological
characters. These opinions are unques-
tionably well-founded, and they illustrate
why so little is positively established in
comparative racial anatomy after so much
labor has been expended upon it.
D. G. Brinton.
NOTES UPON AGRICULTURE AND HORTI-
. CULTURE.
THE AMERICAN PERSIMMON.
A sratron bulletin (No. 60, Indiana) has
been issued upon the persimmon, and with
several full-page plates of the tree and its
fruit the subject is given a most favorable
introduction. Prof. Troop shows that on
account of the astringent principle in the
unripe fruit, the tendency of the plant to
JUNE, 5 1896.]
sucker, and the. long time before the tree
comes into bearing, the plant has been ne-
glected. By new methods of cultivation
trees may begin to bear ‘in three to five
years from the bud or graft,’ and the fruit
is capable of much improvement and very
likely will equal the Japanese sorts which
are considered choice delicacies by many.
Under methods of propagation it is stated
that, like the apple and many other stand-
ard fruits, the persimmon does not come
true by seed, and therefore a variety needs
to be continued by the ordinary methods,
namely, by budding or grafting either of
the stem or root. A plate is given show-
ing a ‘ top-worked’ old tree, and by graft-
ing the comparatively worthless tree was
made to bear a fine variety of persimmon.
When we bear in mind the revolution in
grape culture in this country due to thor-
ough work upon our native members of the
genus Vitis, any similar study of another
fruit group is welcome, fraught as it is with
the possibility of adding a new fruit of no
doubtful merit to our lengthening list.
PLUM-LEAF SPOT.
THE camera and photo-engraving process
are doing wonders for the Experiment Sta-
tion bulletins. Number 98 of the New
(Geneva) Station comes to us this week
with five full-page process plates upon the
plum-leaf spot. The results of a compara-
tive study of the value of Bordeaux mixture
and Eau celeste soap mixture are given.
The Bordeaux is preferable and the first
spraying should be made soon after the
bloom falls. The same treatment also les-
sens the attack of fruit rot. The reader
needs to see the plates to be impressed with
the efficiency of the sprayings, for the loss
is reduced from 86.5 per cent. to 17 per
cent.
In similar spraying for the leaf spot of
cherry no good results were obtained. But
one swallow does not make a summer and
SCIENCE. 835
one trial is not sufficient to condemn any
spraying mixture.
FUNGICIDES INCREASE THE GROWTH OF
PLANTS.
THE use of fungicides is being looked at
from various standpoints. Professor Gal-
loway and Mr. Woods in a recent report
from the Proceedings of the American
Association for the Advancement of Sci-
ence show from experiments and a collec-
tion of facts that the Bordeaux mixture has
a marked physiological effect upon nursery
stock, ete. Dr. Cuboni, of Italy, found milk
of lime an advantage to grape vines. Dr.
Rumm observed that Bordeaux gave better
grape foliage even when no fungi were
present. Dr. Frank and F. Kruger,
also in Germany, found that chlorophyll is
greater in sprayed foliage and all the vital
processes increased, even to a lengthening
of the life of the leaf. Professor Galloway
has demonstrated that Bordeaux when
added to the soil only has a stimulating ef-
fect upon the growth of the plants. The
paper concludes as follows: ‘‘ Whether the
beneficial effect of spraying is wholly due to
the presence of the mixture on the leaves,
as concluded by Rumm, Frank and Kruger,
or whether the presence of the mixture in
the soil, as shown by the work of the divi-
sion, may not, in part at least, account for
the beneficial effect is still an open ques-
tion.”
VEGETABLE CULTURE.
TuHE above is the title of a small work by
Alexander Dean, F. R. H.S., of 136 pages,
with 38 illustrations fresh from the press of
Macmillan & Co. It covers the whole subject
from the treatment of the soil, its prepara-
tion, ete., to allotment gardening. Under
the latter the author writes: ‘The land
hunger of the masses seems to be fairly sat-
isfied where garden plots of from 20 to 40
rods in area are furnished, and rarely is it
the case that these plots are not admirably
836
cultivated.”” This method of garden cul-
ture is stimulated by societies which furnish
lectures to the masses, publications in the
shape of primers, etc. This portion of Mr.
Dean’s work will be particularly appreciated
by those who are interested in a similar
work for the city poor in this country.
The work before us is interesting in its
classification of the products, or rather the
crops of the garden. The first group is the
tap and bulbous-rooted vegetables, including
beets, carrots, onions, celeriac, turnip, etc.,
followed by tuberous-rooted vegetables, of
which the potato is the leading example.
Under pod-bearing vegetables are peas and
beans, and the fruit-bearing vegetables in-
clude squashes, cucumbers, tomatoes. Cab-
bage and spinach are under green vegeta-
bles, while of edible stemmed plants, as
asparagus, rhubarb and celery and repre-
sentatives, and also the mushroom.
The handbook is quite English in the
varieties it recommends, and the calendar
for operations does not coincide with the
one for our climate and seasons.
Byron D. Hatsrep.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
THE METRIC SYSTEM.
Appleton’s Popular Science Monthly for June
reprints the letters contributed anonymously
by Mr. Herbert Spencer to the London Times,
and endorses their point of view in an editorial
article. The Monthly cannot but be admired
for its allegiance to Mr. Spencer even in his
vagaries, but it must be regarded as unfortunate
that a journal whose readers will expect to find
it represent the consensus of opinion of men of
science should advocate the prejudices of the
uninformed. We are not surprised to find that
part of Mr. Spencer’s contribution was written
fifty years ago, and that the authorities he
quotes are Sir John Herschel’s article of 1863
and Prof. H. A. Hazen. But it was not to be
expected that Mr. Spencer would confuse the
metric and a decimal system, and argue that
the former should not be adopted because the
calendar cannot conveniently be divided deci-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 75.
mally. Can the week be divided into quarters,
eights and thirds, which Mr. Spencer rightly
regards as desirable? If our ancestors had had
twelve fingers in place of ten we should now
have a better system of numeration, but the
ideal and distant day, when we shall all do
what is most reasonable, can be brought nearer
by acting reasonably in the present and adopt-
ing the admirable system so rapidly becoming
universal. For as Sir John Herschel wrote in
1863, ‘‘ Were the question an open one what
standard a new nation, unprovided with one
and unfettered by usages of any sort should
select, there could be no hesitation.’’
THE RONTGEN RAYS.
Nature gives an account of early experiments
on the Rontgen rays by Prof. A Battelli and Dr.
A. Garbasso, of Pisa. Referring to the dis-
covery that the time of exposure required for
taking photographs with these rays can be
greatly shortened by placing certain fluorescent
substances behind the photographic plate, the
authors point out that they described a method
of doing this in the January number of I Nuovo
Cimento. In some cases Prof. Battelli and Dr.
Garbasso obtained good photographs with an ex-
posure of only two seconds. In their paper
experiments were also described proving that
Rontgen rays can be reflected (or at any rate
scattered) from surfaces, but indicating an
absence of refraction. Since the appearance of
the above paper Prof. Battelli has communi-
cated two further papers to the same journal.
In the first the author arrives at the conclusion
that Rontgen rays behave as if they emanate
from the base of the vacuum tube rather than
from the anode or cathode, also that they are
emitted even after the discharge in the tube has
ceased (as proved by the discharge of an elec-
trified disc in the neighborhood of the tube).
In the second paper Prof. Battelli deduces that
the rays which emanate from the cathode in a
vacuum tube possess photographic properties ;
that their action increases as the rarefraction
increases (at least up to sj5 mm. of pressure);
and that some of the rays are deflected by a
magnet, while others arenot. It is hence quite
permissible to maintain that Rontgen rays exist
in the interior of the tube.
JUNE 5, 1896.]
THE STORAGE OF WATER.
In a lecture delivered before the Royal in-
stitution and printed in Science Progress, Prof.
KE. Frankland states that storage has an excel-
lent effect upon the chemical and especially
upon the bacterial quality of water. Thus the
storage of Thames water by the Chelsea Com-
pany for only thirteen days reduces the number
of microbes to one-fifth the original amount,
and the storage of the river Lea water for fif-
teen days, by the East London Company, re-
duces the number on the average from 9,240 to
1,860 per cubic centimetre or to one-fifth ; and
lastly, the water of the New River Cut, con-
taining on the average 4,270 microbes per cubic
centimetre contains, after storage for less than
five days, only 1,810, the reduction here being
not so great, partly on account of the shorter
storage, but chiefly because the New River Cut
above the point at which the samples were
taken is itself a storage reservoir containing
many days’ supply after filtration. Indeed,
quietness in a subsidence reservoir is, very
curiously, far more fatal to bacterial life than
the most violent agitation in contact with
atmospheric air; for the microbes which are
sent into the river above the falls of Niagara,
by the City of Buffalo, seem to take little or no
harm from that tremendous leap and turmoil of
waters, whilst they subsequently, very soon,
almost entirely disappear in Lake Ontario.
Prof. Franklin holds that if the water of the
Thames basin were properly collected and
stored it would furnish London with an ample
supply of excellent water for fifty years to
come. :
CRATER LAKE.
THE U. 8S. Geological Survey has issued a
special map showing Crater Lake, Oregon.
In the accompanying description Mr. J. §.
Diller states that the lake is approximately
circular and averages a little over 5 miles in
diameter. It is reputed to be the deepest fresh
water in America, having the remarkable depth
of 2,000 feet. The steep slopes of the escarp-
ment rise from 500 to 2,200 feet above the water,
forming a remarkable pit. The average diam-
eter at the top of the pit is 5.7 miles, and its
depth is 4,000 feet. Nearly one third of its
SCIENCE. 837
bottom is over one hundred feet below the level
of Klamath marsh, at the eastern foot of the
Cascade Range.
‘The problem at once arises, How was this
vast mountain, nearly six miles in diameter and
possibly 5,000 feet or more in height above the
present rim of the lake, removed, and the stu-
pendous pit now occupied by Crater Lake pro-
duced? Did it go up or down? If it was
blown out by an explosion we should find an
enormous rim of fragmental material commen-
surate with the basin ; but if it sank by escape
of its molten interior through a lower outlet
the rim would be small and composed of imbri-
cated and overlapping sheets of lava and frag-
mental material. In fact, the rim is small and
composed in large measure of solid lava sheets.
It is evidently the peripheral part of the origi-
nal mountain’s base, and not due to accumula-
tion at the time the basin originated. Maj. C.
E. Dutton, who made a special survey of Crater
Lake, compares it to Kilauea, of Hawaii, whose
origin he attributes to subsidence of the material
in a molten state owing to its escape at some
lower level. The pumice upon the surface
for many miles around Crater Lake was proba-
bly blown out at Crater Lake before the pit de-
veloped, and the volcano of Wizard Island was
active at a much later stage upon the bottom of
the pit. It was the scene of the last eruption
about the lake, and, although recent in appear-
ance, must have occurred centuries ago.’’
GENERAL.
THE New York Academy of Sciences has
appointed a committee consisting of Prof. Wil-
liam Stratford, Mr. C. F. Cox, Prof. E. B.
Wilson and Prof. G. S. Huntington, to solicit
subscriptions on behalf of the Huxley Memorial
Fund. As has been already stated in this JouR-
NAL, the fund will be used to erect in South
Kensington Museum a memorial statue similar
to those of Darwin and Owen, and secondly, if
a sufficient amount of money be raised, to
establish scholarships or a fund for original re-
search. Contributions should be sent to Mr.
Cox, Grand Central Station, New York.
Durine the Buffalo meeting of the A. A. A.
S., Section H, anthropology will observe, as far
as practicable, the following order of program:
838
Monday, address of the Vice-President, Miss
Alice C. Fletcher; Tuesday, archeology; Wed-
nesday, ethnology; Thursday, somatology and
psychology; Friday, general anthropology.
AN International Congress of Hydrology,
Climatology and Geology, will be held at
Clermont-Ferrand, France,from September 28th
to October 6th. The Minister of the Interior of
the Republic has accepted the honorary presi-
dency, and the government of the United
States has been invited to appoint delegates.
Dr. J. WALTER FEWKES will again conduct
explorations for the Smithsonian Institution
among the Pueblos of Arizona. He left Wash-
ington for a three months’ expedition, on Sat-
urday, May 30th, accompanied by Dr. Walter
Hough, of the National Museum.
Tue section of agriculture of the Paris
Academy has nominated the following candi-
dates, one of whom will be selected to fill the
vacancy caused by the death of M. Reiset.
In the first class, Mr. Mintz; second, M. Risler;
third, MM. Laboulbéne, Maquenne and Th.
Schloesing, fils.
THE first number of Kantstudien, a new
‘ Archiv.’, edited by Prof. Hans Vaihinger of
Halle, and published by Leopold Voss, Ham-
burg and Leipzig, was issued on April 25th, A
special magazine devoted to Kent bears witness
to the vitality of the critical philosophy in
Germany, but will perhaps lead men of science
to reflect that it is fortunate that they do not
need to go back one hundred years and begin
over again, as required by the philosophical
program. The first number of the Kantstudien
extends to 160 pages, and contains, in addition
to an introduction by the editor, articles by Profs.
Adickes, Vorlander, Stadler and Pinloche (the
last in French), reviews and ‘ Kantiana.’
Pror. RONTGEN has been made a correspond-
ing member of the Berlin Academy of Science.
Welearn from the Naturwissenschaftliche Rund-
schau that the mathematician, Prof. Ernest Pa-
dova died at Pisa on March 9th, and that Prof.
Liebscher, director of the Agricultural Institute
of Gottingen, died on May 9th.
THE New York Medical Record states that
Prof. Ehrlich has been appointed director of the
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 75.
new State institute in Berlin for the testing of
therapeutic serum and of the laboratory at-
tached thereto.
THE Senate Committee has unanimously re-
ported in favor of the bill restricting vivisection
in the District of Columbia. The bill provides,
first, for the use of anesthetics in all painful ex-
periments on living vertebrate animals, inocu-
lation experiments, tests of drugs and medicines
and cases of recovery from surgical procedure
being exempted from this requirement ; second,
for the licensing of all experimenters by the
District Commissioners, except those who are
duly authorized officers of the government of
the United States or of that of the District of
Columbia ; third, for the prohibition of vivisec-
tion in the public schools and in exhibitions for
the general public; fourth, for the inspection of
all places of experiment by inspectors to be ap-
pointed by the President of the United States.
It has not been shown that any case of cruelty
to animals by men of science has ever occurred
in the District of Columbia, and the proposed
legislation seems entirely useless.
WE learn from Nature that the Swedish Tour-
ists’ Club has organized an expedition to the
Great Lake Falls next August. The object of
the expedition is to give those who join it an
opportunity of seeing the total eclipse of the sun
on August 9th, on becoming acquainted with
Lapland, and at the same time to see two of the
waterfalls in Europe—the Great Lake Falls
(Stora Sjofallet) and Harspranget. The party
will start from Gellivare on August 3d. Further
information with reference to the journey can
be obtained at the Tourists’ Club, No. 28 Freds-
gaten, Stockholm.
ACCORDING to the New York Medical Record
the Wistar Institute of the University of Penn-
sylvania will receive, through the generosity
of Gen. Isaac J. Wistar, a number of new
buildings. The Institute was founded in 1892
for the preservation of the Wistar and Horner
collections and for the promotion of study and
advanced research in anatomy and biology.
The most important of the new buildings will
adjoin the present one, and will be used chiefly
for the accommodation of the large number of
specimens that have been contributed to the
JUNE 5, 1896. ]
Wistar and Horner collections during the past
three or four years. A second building is de-
signed to furnish heat and light to the Institute.
When the Institute was established General
Wistar endowed it sufficiently to provide for
beginning the advanced and original work for
which it was intended. Every facility will
now be provided for the work of original in-
vestigators under the supervision of a compe-
tent director and skilled assistants. The gra-
ding of the ground previous to the erection of
the new buildings has already been begun, and
it is expected that the work will be completed
by the beginning of the fall term.
THE managers of the Department of Natural
Science Instruction in the National Educational
Association are putting forth strenous efforts to
make the first meeting of the new department
a most successful one. Many scientific men
have already signified their intention to be
present to take part in the meetings. The
_ Scientific men of Buffalo have taken hold of the
matter, also, and are now proposing to organize
a New York State Association of Natural
Science Teachers. The movement for better
science teaching thus promises to spread
rapidly, and it appears that there will now be
afforded such an opportunity for the effective
urging of better methods and better aims as
has never before occurred. This movement
should be of especial interest to college and
university men, since it will deal largely at
first with secondary instruction, or, in other
words, with preparation for college, and it is
hoped that many college men will be in at-
tendance. The local Science Committee in
Buffalo has designated the Genesee Hotel as
headquarters. This is now the Y. M. C. A.
Building, where so many of the meetings will be
held. The officers of the department will be in
attendance at headquarters early in the week
to confer with teachers and all interested in
science as a factor in education.
THE United States Civil Service Commission
will hold an examination on June 9th to fill two
vacancies in the position of Assitant Geologist
in the United States Geological Survey. The
competitors must possess certain linguistic ac-
complishments, but the examination will relate
SCIENCE.
839
in the main to general geology and petrography,
and one of the two appointed will be required
to have a special training in economic geology.
All competitors must show that they have had
practical experience in the field under an expert
geologist. The examination will be held in
Washington and in other large cities where
there are applicants. The number of com-
petitors will be large. Persons desiring to
compete should write to the United States
Civil Service Commission, Washington, D. C.
This is the first Civil Service Examination
for the geologic force since the Survey was
placed in the classified service, which covers
all the scientific and technical places. Vacan-
cies in other branches of the work have long
been filled in this way.
Ir has been reported to the State Department
by the United States Consul at Aden that
Prof. Daniel C. Elliot, of the Field Columbian
Museum of Chicago, with Mr. C. H. Akeley
and Mr. Dodson, who accompanied Dr. Donald-
son Smith on his recent expedition to Lake Ru-
dolph, in Central Africa, arrived at Aden, at the
mouth of the Red Sea, on April 14th, and after
a stay at that point of a week, securing men,
camels and stores, proceeded on their scientific
exploration into Central Africa, the main pur-
pose of which is to collect specimens of the ani-
mals which are rapidly disappearing.
THE death is announced of Dr. Carleton
Pennington Frost, Dean of Dartmouth Medical
College and professor of medicine, who died on
May 24th at the age of sixty-six; also of Mr.
Thomas Maine, a mechanical engineer and the
author of a work on the history of the steam
engine.
THE Philadelphia Bulletin announces that
work will probably soon begin on the Museum -
of Art and Science of the University of Penn-
sylvania, for which the city has turned over to
the institution twelve acres of ground adjoining
the site of the Philadelphia Museum. Plans
have been completed for the building, which
will be an imposing structure, costing upwards
of $1,000,000. A portion of the appropriation
from the State in 1895 was for the purpose of
erecting the museum building. This appropri--
ation, together with the private subscriptions,
840
has raised the building fund to over $300,000,
and it is probable that work will be begun on
one wing of the structure this summer.
AT the recent Conversazione of the Royal
Society, according to the report in the London
Times, Prof. Roberts-Austen showed several
curious experiments, which are modifications
of one recently described by Margot, of Geneva.
A fine wire of aluminium is heated to no less
than 400 degrees above its melting point, but
the wire, nevertheless, remains intact. This is
owing to the formation of a fine film of alumina
on the surface of the wire, and the metal, being
very light, does not run into globules, as it
might be expected to do. The molten wire
has, moreover, a current passing through it and
will, if approached by a similar wire or by a
magnet, enable all the effects of mobile con-
ductors carrying currents to be illustrated.
One experiment showed that the molten wire
can even be twisted on itself without rupture,
and the effects of a tenacious thread of molten
metal moving in response to electrical influ-
ences are very singular.
M. MELINE, who is Minister of Agriculture
as well as Premier of France, has directed the
professors of agriculture to suspend their lec-
tures and to go through the rural districts in
order to advise farmers to meet the failure of
the hay crop by sowing vetches, maize and
other fodder, as also by utilizing oilcake, straw,
bran and corn.
AT a recent meeting of the British Astronom-
ical Association, Dr. Gill, astronomer in charge
of the Royal Observatory at the Cape of Good
Hope, according to the report in the London
Times, gaye an account of the work in
which he had been engaged. He mentioned
first the completion of his investigation on the
solar parallax and the mass of the moon, de-
rived from observation of minor planets on a
programme which he had prepared and which
had been carried out at Newhaven, Leipsig,
Gottingen and Bamberg, as well as at the Cape.
The details of these results would be presented
to the Congress of Directors of Nautical Ephem-
erides, which would assemble in Paris in May,
and he would urge at that meeting the adoption
of these constants for general use by astrono-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 75.
mers. Dr. Gill also stated that the work of the
geodetic survey of South Africa, which he had
directed since 1885, was completed and printed,
and that the report would be presented to the
Cape Parliament in May. The first volume of
the Cape Durchmusterung had been passed
through the press. The whole of the latter
work would consist of three volumes containing
the places and magnitudes of 450,000 stars be-
tween latitude 18 deg. south and South Pole; it
would be complete as far as magnitude 9.3 or
9.4, and would contain most of the stars as far
as the 10th magnitude. A fundamental star
catalogue for the equinox, 1890, containing the
results of the Cape transit circle observations
during the past ten years, was far advanced to-
wards completion. Dr. Gill also mentioned
that Mr. M’Clean’s splendid gift of a powerful
equatorial would now divert his efforts more to
the field of astrophysics.
THE Washington Star states that a large in-
voice of plants for the department of botany has
just been received at the Catholic University
from Rev. Father Langlois, of Louisiana. This
is the third donation of the kind Father Lang-
lois has made to the University this year. Dr.
Greene will leave for California shortly to collect
specimens for his herbarium.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
THE United States Senate has passed the bill
to charter the National University.
THE trustees of the College of New Jersey
at Princeton, commonly called Princeton Col-
lege, have filed in the County Clerk’s office a cer-
tificate changing the name of the institution to
Princeton University.
AT a meeting of about fifty friends of the
Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, on
May 26th, the sum of $138,750 was subscribed
toward meeting the deficit caused by the fail-
ure of the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad to pay
dividends onits stock. It is hoped that $50,000
a year for five years may be subscribed.
Mr. Hotyoxkr Couuece has received $7,000
by the will of Miss Hitchcock, of Springfield.
THE twenty-fifth anniversary of President
Angell’s administration will be celebrated at the
JUNE 5, 1896.]
University of Michigan on June 24th. Ad-
dresses will be made by Dr. W. T. Harris, U.
S. Commissioner of Education, and Prof. J. O.
Murray, of Princeton University.
THE University of Nebraska holds a summer
school at Lincoln, from June 8th to July 3d, in-
tended especially for teachers, principals and
superintendents of the State. The courses of
special interest to students of science are those
offered in botany by Prof. Bessey and in physics
by Prof. Brace. It is the intention of the Uni-
versity to offer next year courses in those subjects
omitted this year. Thus, in 1897 zodlogy and
chemistry will probably be offered in the place
of botany and physics.
THE Board of Overseers of Harvard Univer-
sity have elected Theobald Smith, M. D., pro-
fessor of comparative pathology; Charles Hu-
bert Moore, A. M., professor of arts and di-
rector of the Fogg Art Museum; Lewis Jerome
Johnson, A. B., C. E., assistant professor of civil
engineering, and Comfort Avery Adams, Jr., S.
B., assistant professor of electrical engineering.
OF the ten fellows nominated by the faculty
of the University of Wisconsin only one is in
the pure sciences—C. H. Bunting in biology.
Pror. W. WHITMAN BAILEY, of Brown Uni-
versity, has been appointed by President Cleve-
land, a member of the Board of Visitors to the
United States Military Academy at West Point,
where, it will be remembered, his father was
many years professor, and where he himself
was born February 22, 1848.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
“PROGRESS IN AMERICAN ORNITHOLOGY,
1886-95.’
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In the Ameri-
can Naturalist for May, of the present year,
there appeared a contribution of mine entitled
‘Progress in American Ornithology, 1886-95,’
and in a recent issue of SCIENCE (No. 73, pp.
777-779) Dr. J. A. Allen has undertaken to re-
ply to such parts of that article as he considers
to be of a critical nature as applying to the
Committee of the American Ornithologist’s
Union, which prepared the last edition of the
‘Check List of North American Birds.’ In the
SCIENCE.
841
present rejoinder I beg to assure my distin-
guished reviewer, at the outstart, that my
article in the American Naturalist was not
prompted through a spirit of ‘animus,’ as he
seems to think, and that my ‘reference to the
starling clearly reveals that animus’ is, surely,
too ridiculous to be entertained even for a
moment. Dr. Allen charges me with having
overlooked ‘the main purpose of the new
Check List, which was the revision of the
matter relating to the geographical distribution
of the species and subspecies.’ This omission
was entirely intentional upon my part, and I
preferred to leave it to other and more com-
petent reviewers who have kept pace with that
division of the subject during the last ten years,
and who are for that reason far better prepared
to deal with it than I am, who have not made
any special attempt in that direction. That I
did not refer to the matter of geographical dis-
tribution is any evidence that I underated its
value is, to say the least, a curious inference.
Upon similar grounds I might have been
charged with underating the value of certain
technicalities in scientific nomenclature, and of
the necessity of typographical precision in the
new ‘Check List,’ for I had nothing to say
about them, and intentionally so. Other review-
ers will doubtless turn their attention to such
matters, and for the enlightenment of the A.
O. U. Committee, and the consequent progress
of American ornithology, point out the short-
comings in these premises likewise. Indeed,
in The Nidologist for April of this year, a very
good step has been taken in this direction.
Through the assistance of the review to which
I refer, Iam prepared to say that I feel I have
quite as much right to allow Burrica to appear in
my article as Barrica, to which Dr. Allen has
invited my attention, as he and the A. O. U.
Committee have to spell ‘probably’ ‘ prop-
ably,’ or Greenland with three e’s, as they have
in the new Check List (pp.221 and 321).
Dr. Allen has at last given to avian tax-
onomers a reason, the reason perhaps, why the
A. O. U. Committee adhere so persistently to
the superantiquated classification of birds to be
found in the last Check List. It is because ‘ the
species are numbered in an orderly sequence’
and ‘of the still very unsettled state of the sub-
842
ject of the relationships of various groups of
birds.’ If it is to be inferred from this that the
Committee propose to adopt and print the classi-
fication of American birds in the various issues
of the future Check Lists, that has just appeared
in the last edition of that work, until such time
as the relationship of the various groups of
birds is settled, then I would most emphatically
suggest that the idea of presenting a classifica-
tion at all be at once abandoned and, for the
‘convenience of correspondence between col-
lectors,’ simply print a ‘list’ of American birds,
duly numbered in orderly sequence.
We might even carry the matter still further,
and, as the scientific names of the birds are an
abomination to the vast majority of ‘ collectors,’
a ‘list’ of the vernacular names alone might be
given, and these made alphabetical and duly
‘numbered in orderly sequence.’ What a sim-
ple science ornithology would become, and how
convenient for the collector !
Now that Dr. Allen has had so much to say
in his review about my ‘presumptuous critic-
ism,’ and has totally ignored all the main
points of my article in The American Naturalist,
I should like to propose to him and to the A. O.
U. Committee a few questions in reference to
what we find in the new check list. I very
much doubt their ability to answer them.
1. Upon what grounds are the Great Auk
(Plautus impennis) and the Labrador Duck
(Camptolaimus labradorius), both now admitted
by the Committee to be extinct, retained in a list
of existing North American birds ?
2. Upon what grounds is Crecoides osbornii
omitted from the List of Fossil Birds? (See
Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., v. xxx., p. 125.)
3. What consistency is there in admitting
Piranga rubiceps to the list, and excluding (for
one example among many) Gubernatrix crista-
tellus? [As the normal habitat of P. rubiceps
is certain high altitudes of a few localities
in Colombia and Ecuador (the species not
even occurring upon the Isthmus of Pan-
ama, it would seem that Dr. Allen’s com-
ments on Gubernatrix cristatellus might, with
equal consistency, be applied to it. Of the lat-
ter species he has said, ‘‘Its habitat being
Brazil, it seems beyond probability that it could
have reached the locality of its capture with-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 75.
out human aid.”’
p. 240.)].
4. Upon what grounds are the Grebes (Podi-
cipide) made to occupy a sub-order by them-
selves, and the Loons (Urinatoride) and Auks.
(Alcidz) another and separate sub-order ?
5. What have the Goat-suckers (Caprimulgi).
and the Humming-birds (Trochili) in common,
that they should be placed in the same order?
When Dr. Allen answers these questions sat-
isfactorily to the many inquiring ornithologists.
the world over, and can prove consistency in
their premises, then I shall believe my article
in Fhe American Naturalist to have been ‘pre-
sumptuous,’ but not before.
R. W. SHUFELDT.
(Bull. N. O. C., Vol. V.,
The foregoing rejoinder by Dr. Shufeldt to-
my review of his paper on the A. O. U. Check-
List of North American Birds requires no com-
ment from me as regards his article in general,
as Ido not recognize that he has scored any
points worthy of notice; the series of four ques-
tions he asks at its close may be considered as.
demanding some attention. In regard to the
article referred to by Dr. Shufeldt in The Ni-
dologist, the leading points made by the writer
thereof are not well taken, as will doubtless
be shown in a future number of that journal.
To place emphasis on the presence of two typo-
graphical errors—the extent apparently of
their discoveries in this direction—as both
writers have done, is rather a compliment than
otherwise to the Committee.
1. The Great Auk and the Labrador Duck.
Dr. Shufeldt raised the same issue in his orig-
inal paper, but it did not seem necessary to
take up the space of SCIENCE to discuss it.
Both species are practically members of the
present fauna, as distinguished from ‘fossil
birds,’ commonly so called, the former living
till about the middle of the present century
(specimens were taken as late at least as 1844),
and the latter till at least 1875, or till within
twenty years, and not a few ornithologists be-
lieve that some may still exist. Both species
are still retained in all recent manuals and
general works on North American birds as
properly ‘North American Birds’ in the sense
of the Check List.
JUNE 5, 1896.]
2. Crecoides osbornti Shufeldt. This was
omitted simply because it was accidentally
overlooked.
3. Piranga ‘rubiceps’ = rubriceps. If Dr.
Shufeldt makes no protest against Icterus icterus
and Spinus notatus, admitted to the list on
Audubon’s authority, he should not object to
the case of Piranga rubriceps, the geographical
conditions being similar. Sofaras known, P.
rubriceps is not kept as a cage bird ; certainly it
is not one of the commoner cage birds of our
bird stores, as is Gubernatrix cristatellus. Many
of the common cage birds escape from confine-
ment and are afterwards captured, perhaps
after a considerable interval of freedom, and
showing very few, if any, traces of previous
confinement. Among them are finches, par-
rots, and parrakeets from Africa, India,
Australia and tropical America. Their cap-
ture may be recorded as a matter of interest,
but no one considers it admissible to include
such species in the list of North American birds.
On the other hand, wild birds either wander or
are carried by storms hundreds and even thous-
ands of miles beyond their usual range, and are
captured under circumstances which preclude
the supposition of their being escaped cage
birds, as in the case of many European strag-
glers that have occurred once, or a few times in
North America. To this class of waifs belongs
Piranga rubriceps.
4 and 5. Regarding the relationships of the
Grebes, Loons, Auks, ete., probably if the A.
O. U. Committee were to revise its classifica-
tion they would make some changes in respect
to the position of these groups; but, for reasons
given in my former letter (ScrENCcE, N. S., No.
73, May 22, 1896), the Committee did not con-
sider it advisable to transpose any of the higher
groups. But the Committee doubtless would
not follow Dr. Shufeldt in removing the Owls
from the Acciptires to place them with or near
the Goatsuckers. J. A. ALLEN.
‘THE POLAR HARES OF EASTERN NORTH
AMERICA.’—AN ANSWER TO DR. C. H.
MERRIAM’S CRITICISMS.
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: Dr. C. Hart
Merriam has seen fit to devote nearly two pages
SCIENCE.
843
of SCIENCE* to my preliminary paper on the
‘Polar Hares of Eastern North America.’
It is difficult to ascertain the motive which
prompted this review of my preliminary work
on the Polar Hares, the mature results of which
I expressly stated in the American Naturalist,+
‘would soon be published in the form of a com-
pendious revision of the New World represen-
tatives of the Lepus timidus group. The im-
portance which Dr. Merriam seems to attach to
the paper in question, by devoting thereto three
times the space taken by his succeeding review
of Sclater and Thomas’ new ‘Book of Ante-
lopes,’ together with the suprising attitude
taken on certain questions of nomenclature and
diagnostic technique, demand a rejoinder.
Waiving the objections made to my reéstab-
lishment of the specific distinction of the Amer-
ican from the European Polar Hare, and my re-
restriction of the type locality of the latter to
southern Sweden, let us consider Dr. Merriam’s
position regarding my adoption of the name
arcticus of Ross for the Baffin Land Hare instead
of glacialis of Leach, which comes nineteen pages
later in the same book. In the absence of any
statement to the contrary, I proceed on the
supposition that Dr. Merriam still agrees with
me in taking the Code of Nomenclature of the
American Ornithologists’ Union for authority in
a case of this kind.
His main objections to the use of the name
Lepus arcticus ‘ Leach,’ Ross, are:
(1) ‘‘Capt. Ross was not a naturalist and
made no claim to technical knowledge of zool-
ogy.”?
(2) ‘‘ All that he [Ross] knew of the animal
came from Leach.’’
(8) ‘‘ Ten persons have used the name arcticus,
while thirty-six have used the name glacialis.”’
(4) ‘‘Irrespective of the merits of the two
names, glacialis would have to be taken if we
accept the rule that in cases of names of equal
pertinency, the first reviser of the group has the
privilege of fixing the name.’’
The first objection only begs the question.
The rules of nomenclature no longer attempt to
define what should constitute the standard of
authorship, contenting themselves in such a
* Friday, April 10, 1896, pp. 564, 565.
+ March, 1896, p. 256.
844
case as this to the definition of what constitutes
a valid naming and description of genera or
species. Would Dr. Merriam have us estimate
the personal equation in the authorship of
names proposed by such a man as Rafinesque
because he fell so far below the scientific stand-
ards of a Leidy? Livingstone was ‘only a
missionary’ and Krider a ‘gunmaker,’ but
science is willing to say ‘‘ ‘A man’s a man’ and
priority is priority ‘for a’ that.’ ”’
The second objection made by Dr. Merriam
is not only as irrelevant as the first, but is based
on an incorrect statement. Ross knew more
about the specimen than Leach did, and the
latter was more indebted to Ross for points as
to the animal than Ross was to Leach. They
described the same specimen, and, besides giv-
ing all the diagnostic characters described by
Leach, Ross adds two important ones and gives
the collector, locality and date of capture of the
specimen, which Leach omitted entirely. In
short, Ross’ description is the better of the
two.
As to objection number three, the inconsis-
tency of the numerical argument thus advanced
by a member of the A. O. U. Committee on
Classification and Nomenclature* favoring the —
old standard of ‘time-honored’ custom, and
consensus of opinion in a question of ‘equal
pertinency ’ in specific names, strikes me as no
less lamentable than subversive of the best in-
terests of that department of American science
which aims at canonical permanency in the
rules of nomenclature.
The fourth objection is based on a private
interpolation into the canonical code even more
obviously heterodox than objection number
three. I would ask Dr. Merriam where he
finds the ‘rule that in cases of equal pertinency
the first reviser of the group has the privilege
of fixing the name?’ I do find in the A. O. U.
Code of Nomenclature, on which Dr. Merriam
has frequently had occasion to publicly pledge
his faith, under Canon XVII., relating to ‘ Pre-
ference between competitive specific names pub-
lished simultaneously in the same work * * *,’
a section 3 which reads, ‘Of names of undoubt-
* Dr. Merriam was recently appointed on this Com-
mittee in place of Mr. Henshaw. See Check List N.
A. Birds, 2d ed., 1895, p. vi., foot-note 1.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 75.
edly equal pertinency and founded upon the
same condition of sex, age or season, that is to
be preferred which stands first in the book.’
To my mind this completely covers the matter
at issue and justifies my course in adopting
Lepus arcticus as the proper name of the Baffin
Land Hare.*
Regarding his criticism of my use of the Scan-
dinavian L. timidus as the basis of comparison
in a paper on American Polar Hares, I need
make no apology. Dr. J. A. Allen’s mono-
graph of the American Hares was taken as the
last authoritative declaration of an American
mammalogist on the relations of these animals,
and, as he failed to recognize the distinctions
which I found to exist, it was reasonable that
they should be demonstrated by the plan of
comparison adopted in my paper.
Instead of outlining the scope and aim of my.
paper and stating that I had endeavored to
show the close affinity, but specific distinction
of the Baffin Land and Scandinavian Hares,
and their great differences from the Hare of
Greenland, which previous authors have more
or less confounded with L. arcticus of Ross,
my critic chiefly devotes himself to a justifica-
tion of his own peculiar views on the subject of
names, methods and forms of expression.
Dr. Merriam ventures no opinion as to the
status of what he spells ‘LZ. greenlandicus’ in
his critique, and from his own admissions he
evidently knows less about the animal than
many of the authors whom he cites to support
his ‘time honored’ but mistaken opinions.
To cap the climax of unjust sarcasm, the
chief apostle of generic, specific and subspecific
subdivision in this country draws a parallel be-
tween my naming of the Labrador and New-
foundland subspecies, L. a. bangsii, to the sepa-
ration of ‘weasels that turn white in winter
from specimens of the same species that remain
brown the year around!’ Shall I answer such
logic? Not until I have more time and
SCIENCE more space for unscientific contro-
* Since these remarks were written, I find that Dr.
J. A. Allen fully endorses the position I have taken,
in his answer to an inquiry made by Mr. Witmer
Stone, on this and kindred subjects, treated in the
‘Correspondence’ of the April issue of the Auk for
1896.
JUNE 5, 1896. ]
versy. Then, perhaps, Dr. Merriam will tell us
whether he continues to recognize Lepus ameri-
canus and its subspecies L. a. virginianus.
SAMUEL N. RHOADs.
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES,
PHILADELPHIA, April 17, 1896.
AMERICAN POLAR HARES: A REPLY TO
MR. RHOADS.
THE above wail from Mr. Rhoads respecting
my review of his paper on the Polar Hares
calls for a brief reply. It was not the impor-
tance of Mr. Rhoads’ paper, as he seems to
suppose, but the importance of certain princi-
ples involved in his methods of treatment, that
led to the length of my review. My criticisms
were aimed mainly at two matters : one, a mat-
ter of description; the other a matter of no-
menclature. In describing the new American
hares, Mr. Rhoads contrasted them with a Euro-
pean species (Lepus timidus) instead of with their
American relative (Lepus glacialis). This struck
me as bad systematic zodlogy. In treating the
Polar hare of Baffinland he adopted the specific
name arcticus instead of glacialis, though both
names appeared simultaneously in the same
book. This struck me as bad nomenclature.
The reasons for retaining glacialis as the
proper name of the animal were stated at
length in my review and need not be repeated
here. But in his reply Mr. Rhoads implies
that I have subordinated priority to the scien-
tific standing of an author. This I deny,
Priority of publication is the cardinal principle
of nomenclature—the foundation of all modern
codes ; without it, stability in nomenclature is
impossible. But priority of publication and
priority of pagination are two widely different
things, and I deny that priority of pagination
constitutes priority of publication. It can
hardly be gainsaid that the different pages of a
book appear simultaneously ; hence names on
different pages of the same book should be
treated in the same way as names appearing
simultaneously in different books. Sequence
of pagination is a trivial circumstance, not to
be considered in fixing specific names except in
cases where no other reason for a choice can be
found. Even the A. O. U. Code quoted by
Mr. Rhoads concedes this, and goes so far as to
SCIENCE.
845
accord greater weight to sex, age and season of
the type specimen than to priority of pagina-
tion. In other words, in choosing between
names of even date, sequence of pagination is
a last resort.
It is useless to enter into a controversy with
Mr. Rhoads over his astonishing statement that
of the descriptions of the American Polar hare:
given by Ross and Leach, ‘‘ Ross’ description:
is the better of the two.’’ Reference to the
work in which both appeared will settle this
point. ‘
In reply to Mr. Rhoads’ inquiry as to the
source of the rule that ‘in cases of equal per-
tinency the first reviser of the group has the
privilege of fixing the name,’ it may be stated
that said rule expresses the practice of most
systematic zodlogists—and I think botanists as.
well—and is in complete accord with the spirit
of the A. O. U. Code, though not there formu-
lated asa distinct canon. In closing, I must
thank Mr. Rhoads for calling my attention to
what he considers would have been a proper
review of his paper. Cc. H. M.
THE SUBJECT OF CONSCIOUSNESS.
To THE EDITOR oF ScIENCE: In the number
of ScIENCE for May 15th there is a letter from
Johannes Rehmke on the subject of ‘ conscious-
ness,’ about which I beg leave to be indulged
in a brief statement.
Take two equal weights with handles, one
weight being several times the bulk of the
other. Ask a blindfolded man to tell which is
the heavier, being careful not to let him touch
either weight, but only the handle, and he will
not judge of a difference. Now let the same
man, seeing the weights, but not knowing them
to be the same, decide which is the heavier ; he
will affirm that the smaller is the heavier
weight. This is a common experiment in
psycho-physics. There are on record a vast
number of similar experiments which have been
abundantly verified, all leading to the con-
clusion that there are two elements in sensa-
tion, the one of consciousness of the effect upon
self and the other an inference relating to the
thing observed by any one of the senses, All
of these experiments, and a vast body of ex-
periences which every individual undergoes,
846
testify to these two elements. At the last
meeting of the National Academy I presented a
paper on this subject, from which I extract the
opening paragraphs, as follows:
All operations of the mind are judgments. On ex-
amining the nature of the judgments we discover two
elements or functions, consciousness and inference.
Consciousness is awareness of self and change in self,
and inference is a guess at the cause of the change.
We can discover these functions or elements in all of
the judgments of mind. I am conscious of a sound; I
infer that it is the voice of a friend. Iam conscious
of an odor, and infer that it is caused by a rose. I
am conscious of a flavor, and I infer thatit is the taste
of an apple. Iam conscious of a sense impression of
color, and I infer that it is caused by a tree. These
judgments may be erroneous and I may believe in il-
lusions, but in every case a judgment is formed,
whether correct or incorrect. The condition under
which judgments produce illusions or certitudes will
hereafter be set forth. That which we have to con-
sider now is that in every mentation, whether true or
false, as in the perceptions mentioned, there is a con-
sciousness and an inference. It will be noticed that
we have defined the term consciousness as awareness
of change in self, and to this definition we shall ad-
here. The word is used in many other senses, but in
science it becomes necessary to use words with a
single meaning. For example, we might use the
term consciousness to mean also the cognition of self
or another, and it is often used in this manner as a
general synonym for cognition, but we must have
some term to designate awareness of the change in
self and select the word consciousness for that pur-
pose, as that seems to be its fundamental meaning.
A consciousness is awareness of change in self, so
inference is the interpretation of the meaning of
that change. A change has been effected upon my
organ of hearing, and I am conscious of a sound and
interpret it as a voice; this interpretation is inference.
It is not a random guess, but a guess dictated by
experience or some collateral circumstance which
suggests this guess. Consciousness, therefore, is not
only independent, but it is also absolute in the sense
that it must have reality as a change in self; the in-
ference is not only dependent, but it is also subject to
error. It may be a certitude or it may be an illusion.
Thus, there is either a certitude or an illusion pro-
duced by an inference. How then does the mind dis-
tinguish between certitudes and illusions? Here we
have to consider cognition.
Verification is the proof of the inference by expe-
rience. Cognition is composed of three functions:
consciousness, inference, and verification. That
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 75.
which is produced by cognition is certitude. A
judgment is composed of two functions—consciousness
and inference; if. verification is added by experience
it becomes a certitude; if itis not verified by experi-
ence it is proved to be an illusion. These may seem
very simple propositions and self evident, as they are,
yet they are fundamental and must be clearly under-
stood in order that proper progress may be made in
the study of cognition.
What I have designated as consciousness and
so defined the term Rehmke designates as sub-
ject of consciousness ; what I have defined as
inference he calls attribute of consciousness.
But I go on to use judgment in a restricted
sense as based on a consciousness and an infer-
ence, and then use cognition as a mentation of
three elements—consciousness, inference and
verification. As I understand Rehmke’s
method of defining the two terms of conscious-
ness, he makes a valid distinction which is
fundamental in psychology and if properly and
rigidly observed dispells many illusions in psy-
chology, and experimental psychology has abun-
dantly demonstrated Rehmke’s position.
I regret that I have not seen Rehmke’s book,
and on consulting the four papers of SCIENCE
for last September I do not discover that it was
reviewed therein as indicated by his remarks.
In the judgments formed in the experiment
with the two weights the blindfolded man
makes a judgment of relative weights; the see-
ing man makes a judgment of relative specific
weights. Having in advance seen the weights,
he has already formed a judgment and uses this
judgment of sight in interpreting the conscious-
ness experienced through the sense of muscular
strain. The psychology of sensation and per-
ception cannot be understood or explained
without using distinct, definite and understood
terms for what I have called consciousness, in-
ference, judgment, verification and cognition. ©
What terms shall be used matters little; it may
be that Prof. Rehmke’s use of subject of con-
sciousness and attribute of consciousness is
wise, but I fear that it will make still greater
confusion in a subject which is already burdened
with terms, and it seems to me better to follow
the example of the physicists in giving re-
stricted meanings.to words already in use, as in
the case of momentum, energy, force and
JUNE 5, 1896. ]
power, and then rely upon the acceptance of
the terms with the restricted meanings.
J. W. POWELL.
WASHINGTON, D. C., May 16, 1896.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
Text-book of Comparative Anatomy. By ARNOLD
LANG. Translated by H. M. and M. Brr-
NARD. Part II. London and New York,
Macmillan & Co. 1896. 8°.
with many illustrations.
The second part of this well-known text-
book has been impatiently awaited by teachers
of invertebrate anatomy and those who desired
a convenient work of reference summarizing
the essential facts of the science. Among the
numerous text-books of this sort which have
appeared of late years, each of which has had
its especial merits, that of Lang has reached an
easy preéminence, on account of the wide eru-
dition and judicial temper with which the dif-
ferent topics are treated. It is, of necessity, in
one sense, a compilation and the chief criti-
cism which has been made upon the German
edition is that the authorities for the facts used
are cited in mass as literature and not in con-
nection with the particular data due to each.
Prof. Lang explains that considerations of space
made this obligatory, though, naturally, the
work, as a book of reference, would have
gained in value as well as size by specific cita-
tions. The translation, on the whole, is easy
and idiomatic, only occasional Teutonicisms are
noted, though it would seem as if some more
apposite term than ‘Appendage’ might have
been used for the supplementary chapters on
Rhodope and Rhabdopleura. The typography of
the English edition is much more tasteful than
that of the original; the illustrations are well
printed, and the work will doubtless receive a
wide and merited acceptance as a text-book. The
present volume includes Mollusca, Echinodermata
and Enteropneusta, but the special criticism on
this occasion will be confined to the mollusks.
It would be superfluous, perhaps, to criticise
in this place the general plan upon which such
text-books are constructed, but it cannot be de-
nied that the comparison, organ by organ of a
multitude of animals, leaves a somewhat in-
coherent impression upon the mind. As things
Pp. xvi+ 618,
‘
SCIENCE.
847
are constituted, anatomists are rarely systema-
tists and the systematic part of any of the
manuals leayes much to be desired by the
specialist. The ideal comparative anatomy
would relegate the specific facts to eminent
specialists and the comparisons to a systematic
genius as editor, a state of beatitude which we
are far from approaching.
Prof. Lang is not an eminent specialist in
mollusks, but he has a wide knowledge of the
literature, and his remarks on mooted points
are generally characterized by good sense and
sound judgment. The compendium may be
said to be, as a whole, representative of the date
of 1889, though, in some instances, the text
shows later references.
In selecting an architypal mollusk with which
to compare his actual animals, the author has
followed Lankester’s hypothesis of 1884. The
architype is regarded as an animal somewhat
between Fissurella and Chiton, bilaterally sym-
metrical with a posterior vent and straight ali-
mentary canal. We are of opinion that Prof.
Verrill’s suggestion that the architypal mol-
lusk in the main conformed to the type of the
molluscan veliger, with a bent intestine and
anterior vent, is much more in harmony with
our knowledge of the facts ; but space forbids a
discussion of the question here. The classifi-
cation of the Pelecypods is adopted from Pel-
seneer, whose method has been of late pretty
thoroughly tested and found wanting, though
at the time this text-book was in the making, it
was the newest and presumably the most satis-
factory. On the whole, however, Prof. Lang
has succeeded in bringing together the data in
an excellent manner, and the cordial reception
of the German edition is sufficient evidence of
the estimation in which his work is held by his
scientific colleagues.
Since this work will undoubtedly take a
prominent place among the text-books used by
teachers, it will not be regarded as hypercriti-
cism to use the remainder of our space in point-
ing out such items as, on a general perusal, have
appeared contestable, erroneous or obsolete.
Any work of this kind necessarily contains a
certain percentage of such slips, and their pres-
ence cannot justly be regarded as condemning
it above its fellows. Their correction, therefore,
848
is not to be taken as diminishing the high
opinion of the merits of Prof. Lang’s work
which we have already expressed.
The bloodvascular system of mollusks (p. 1)
is not ‘open’ in the ordinary sense of that
word, but closed, though partly lacunary.
In the true Diotocardia an intromittent male
organ is absent chiefly in the littoral species,
having been shown to exist in many deep water
forms such as Cocculina, Addisonia, Fissurella,
Solariella, many Puncturellide, etc., and it
‘should not, therefore (p. 4), be predicated of the
entire group. The arrangement of the Tenio-
glossa is imperfect (p. 6); the Capulide have a
retractile proboscis and are therefore not ‘ Ros-
trifera.’? The Columbellidx are not Tznioglossa.
Janthina can hardly be called siphoniferous.
The nudibranchiata are not all destitute of a
mantlefold (p. 10), at least if that fold be de-
fined with any consistency, e. g., Pleurophyllidia.
The gymnosomatous pteropods (p. 11) do
not feed chiefly on Thecosomata, but on hydro-
zoa. The absence of a mantle is merely nomi-
nal, that organ being coincident with the integ-
ument, in any practical view. The arrangement
of the Decacerate cephalopods is antiquated
(p. 24); Spirula is undoubtedly Oigopsid.
Throughout the work (cf. p. 26) conchioline
is more or less confused with chitine. The
periostracum of bivalves is referred to as chiti-
nous, by the majority of writers, as well as
Lang, but long ago Loew showed that the chitine
of mollusks (jaws and radula) does not give a
saccharine reaction with sulphuric acid, and is
not therefore identical with ordinary chitine,
while the conchioline of the periostracum and
test is purely horny, dissolving with ease in
liquor potassee and in no respect chitinous.
The spines of Amphineura are homologized
with the shell of Chiton (p. 29) and later the
tegmentum of the chiton and its ‘ aesthetes’ are
correctly homologized with the corium of the
girdle and its spines; it seems surprising, there-
fore, especially when the embryology of
Dondersia and Chiton is considered, to find (p.
40) an attempt at homologizing these cuticular
structures not only with the true shell (articu-
lamentum) of Chiton, but even with the shell of
mollusks in general. The shell of Argonauta
(p. 38) is a product of secretion from the cuticle,
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 75.
serving the purpose of an odphore, and should
not be homologized with the protoconch and
concha of other cephalopods. The figure of
Chitonellus (more properly Cryptoplax) is taken
from a very contracted spirit specimen and
fails to show the proper proportions of the foot.
Speaking of the concrescence of the mantle
margin in Pelecypoda (p. 51), it should be
stated that several superanal foramina occur in
Naiades occasionally, and the fourth ventral
orifice in Pholadomya, etc., is with little doubt
correlated with the opisthopodium and not with
the byssus. We find no reference to the opistho-
podium in the book. The extensive concres-
cence of the mantle edges (p. 52) isnot ‘always’
accompanied by ‘ well developed siphons,’ e. g.,
Tridacna, Chama; and the same examples show
that the statement that in sessile forms the —
mantle is found completely open is far from
being generally true.
In discriminating the ligament and resilium
the latter is said (p. 61) to be elastic and the
former not so; in fact, both are elastic and the
resilium adds resiliency to its tensional elas-
ticity. Paleontology shows the error of the
statement (p. 63) that the Pectinide are pro-
bably derived from sessile forms. The gape in
many bivalves is accounted for (p. 64) by ‘the
greater development of siphons and foot’ which
is merely an incident of the gaping; the true
reason is to be sought in the less need of shelly
protection among deep burrowers; Pholads (p.
65) are said to rasp the stone by the edges of
the valves. While this is true of certain forms
like Teredo, in many others, including most
Pholads, the rasping is done by the surface of
the foot. The snout in Capulus (p. 102) is er-
roneously stated to be not invaginable. It is
really invaginable from the base, much as in
Dolium. The filamentous ‘tentacles’ (= cap-
tacula) of Scaphopods are not homologous with
the tentacles of Gastropoda. In treating of the
epipodium, mention might have been made of
its modification to serve as a seminal conduit in
certain Trochids. The Unionide (p. 115) are
not, as arule, mud dwellers. The musculation
of Chiton (p. 120) has recently been fully de-
scribed by Lillian Sampson. The statement
that the muscles of mollusks are never striated
(p. 119) is not true literally (p. 124), but the
JUNE 5, 1896. ]
differences between their striation and that of
vertebrates should have been explained. Burne
has recently shown that a supracesophageal
commissure exists in Hanleyia abyssorwm and
probably in other chitons, as well as one (p. 129)
below the cesophagus. Cassidaria (p. 163) does
not belong to the Toxiglossa. The jaw, fre-
quently, and the radular teeth always are not, as
stated (p. 177), composed of conchioline, but of
a special sort of chitine. The basal membrane
of the radula (p. 181) is not ‘rough’ and not
formed of conchioline. The transverse rows of
the teeth (p. 182) properly counted invariably
resemble one another; an alternation of dis-
¢crepant rows is unknown, except as a blunder
in defining the row. The accepted name of the
central teeth is rhachidian, and not rhachial.
In certain Toxiglossa the basal membrane of
the radula is represented by two separated
very narrow strips. The sucker-like organ
on the proboscis of Natica is probably an
organ of prehension; there is no evidence that
it has anything to ‘do with the borin g by which
the animal penetrates bivalve shells. In the
naiades (p. 262) the young are not always de-
veloped in the outer gill, but also in the inner
or in both, in some cases. The marine Philo-
brya also has a glochidium, while the whole
family of Mutelidx are without this commensal
“stage.
The above inaccuracies are due largely to the
habit of anatomists of generalizing too widely
on a too slender basis of observation. This
might once have been excusable, but fortunately
is rapidly becoming no longer so.
W. H. DALL.
Die Bronzezeit in Oberbayern. By Von Dr.
Junius NAvUE. 4°, pp. 292.- With album of
fifty plates. Piloty & Lohle, Munich.
Southwest of Munich, amid the lovely scenery
which surrounds the Ammer and Staffel Lakes,
a number of sepulchral tumuli were discovered
some years ago, which on investigation dated
back to the age of bronze, ranging in time
from its earlier toitslater periods. Fortunately
for prehistoric science, they attracted the at-
tention of Dr. Julius Naue, of Munich, and he
set about their thorough and accurate examina-
tion. For fifteen years he has personally ex-
SCIENCE.
849
plored them, spade in hand, surrounding his
digging with those numerous precautions which
the field archeologist should always respect.
Before his researches, practically nothing was
known of the conditions of the peoples of the
bronze age in the region indicated. By the
opening of more than three hundred burial
mounds and the sedulous study of their con-
tents, he is able in the handsome volume named
above to offer an almost complete restoration
of the culture of that remote epoch.
In the older graves there are abundant uten-
sils, weapons and ornaments of bronze; bowls,
jars and plates in earthenware, frequently in
artistic forms and decorated externally in lines
and spirals; and a quantity of amber. No
other metal was exhumed. Only in the later
graves very small objects in gold and pearls of
glass appear, but iron and silver continue un-
known.
The text presents first the notes of each ex-
cavation. Then follow detailed descriptions of
the weapons exhumed, the tools and utensils,
articles of ornament and pottery. Special
studies are appended on the material and tech-
nique of the objects, their form, style and
ornamentation, and the inferences which they
enable the student to draw regarding the people
who left these memorials of their presence.
The conclusions on the last topic are unex-
pected. We find ourselves in the presence of
an industrious and peaceable community, de-
pending on agriculture almost exclusively, cul-
tivating the soil diligently and raising herds of
cattle. They wore woolen clothing, with orna-
mented leather belts and decorated with bronze
plates. They were of good stature, the men
1.65-70, the women 1.60-65. They were firm
believers in a life after death, and surrounded
the corpse with such objects as it was supposed
to require in its wanderings in spirit land.
Women took a high rank in the community as
queens and priestesses. Some of the most
elaborate of the interments preserved their re-
mains only.
The culture was a progressive one. It can
be traced from the neolithic time through the
whole of the bronze age down to the epoch
when the Roman forays destroyed it. Slowly
but steadily it had increased, and for centuries
850
a state of comparative peace must have pre-
vailed to permit this uninterrupted growth.
The numerous illustrations in the text and
the admirable album of fifty-full page plates
present in the most satisfactory manner the re-
sults of these important and suggestive excava-
tions. D. G. BRINTON.
Current Superstitions Collected From the Oral
Tradition of English-Speaking Folk. Edited
by Fanny D. BERGEN, with Notes and an
Introduction by WILLIAM WELLS NEWELL.
Pp. 161. Price, $3.50. Boston, Houghton,
Mifflin & Co.
The strange persistency of ancient supersti-
tions in conditions of modern civilization is well
illustrated in this volume. Its peculiar value
consists in its presentation of beliefs and prac-
tices widely prevalent in our own day and
country, most of them having been obtained by
private correspondence with persons in various
parts of the United States.
They are arranged under nineteen headings,
such as love, marriage, dreams, luck, money,
weather, warts, moon, sun, death omens, and
‘projects.’ The last mentioned is the term ap-
plied among girls in the United States to the
ceremonies of divination by which they learn
about the man they are to marry. The editor,
Mr. Newell, says he cannot offer any explana-
tion of this signification attached to the word.
Is it not a direct descendant of the Latin pro-
jicere sortes, divination by casting on the ground
the divining sticks? This seems borne out by
the fact that the most widely extended of these
‘projects’ is to throw a whole apple paring on
the floor, where it forms your true love’s initial
letter.
The introduction and notes, prepared by Mr.
Newell with his customary thoroughness and
precision, add much to the value of Mrs.
Bergen’s collection by bringing out the analogies
of the customs mentioned with the folk-lore and
mythologies of other times and nations.
Among other noteworthy facts thus elicited
is the vitality and number of formulas and be-
liefs still current in reference to the moon. So
extended are these that Mr. Newell says they
must be regarded as ‘ Nothing else than a con-
tinued worship of the orb, still connected with
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 75.
material blessings expected from its bounty.’
The sun is decidedly less important in popular
belief.
Folk medicine is represented by the wearing
of amulets and charms, the magical cure of
warts, hiccough, toothache, nose bleed and
other common ailments. Attention is called by
the editor to the fact that in some of these the
ancient ‘doctrine of signatures’ still survives.
Of the incidents of life, the two around which
is associated the largest body of living super-
stition are marriage and death. Mr. Newell
explains the latter by the suggestion that ‘‘ The
disinclination to exercise independent thought
on a subject so serious leaves the field open for
the continuance of ancestral notions,’’ which
seems an appropriate solution. He adds some
pointed observations on the value of folk-lore to
history, comparative mythology and arche-
ology.
The volume is a member of the series issued
under the auspicies of the American Folk-lore
Society. It is to be regretted that it is not fur-
nished with an index, an omission scarcely ex-
cusable in a work of the kind.
D. G. BRINTON.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILA—
DELPHIA, MAY 19, 1896.
THE collections made by Dr. A. Donaldson
Smith in Western Somali Land and the Galla
Country, northeastern Africa, in 1894, were
presented to the Academy, their value and ex-
tent being commented on by Mr. Arthur Erwin
Brown on behalf of the curators.
Dr. Donaldson Smith spoke of the physical
features of the regions from which the speci-
mens had been collected and gave briefly some
facts regarding the habits of the animals ob-
served by him. Somali Land is very arid and
barren, yet a greater variety of specimens and
more new forms had been secured there and
from the 200 miles beyond than from all the
rest of the 4,000 miles traversed by him. . In
illustration it was stated that twenty-three new
species of birds had been obtained from the dis-
trict specially referred to, while but one had
been secured elsewhere. Scattered over the
JUNE 5, 1896. ]
barren plains were little pyramids from which
the sand was thrown up in jets by a hairless
mole, which was only observed 200 miles from
the coast. The hairlessness of this animal,
Heterocephalus glaber Ripp, is a unique fea-
ture among the rodentia. The specimen pre-
sented by Dr. Smith to the Academy is the only
alcoholic preparation of the species known to
exist and the second one on record in any form,
the type being in the Senckenburg Museum.
Another specimen of unusual interest and
variety is one of Trilophomys imhausi Milne
Edw.—a maned rat covered with long, stiff
hair, arranged in three longitudinal divisions.
Its nearest affinities in externals and habits are
to our marmots.
A Colobus or horse-tailed monkey occurred
in troups of 500 or 600 and formed a very
peculiar feature of the landscape. The skins
are used by the natives to form bands for the
ankles and knees. The species is the guereza
of Ruppell. Guinea fowls were found plenti-
fully wherever there was water, a beautiful
vulturine form being of special interest. An
infinite number of bee eaters were observed,
especially about Lake Rudolf, where they were
active in catching the insects driven up by the
volcanic smoke.
The entire collection of mammals, which was
commented on in detail by Mr. Samuel N.
Rhoads, includes fifty genera and about seventy
species represented by 200 specimens. Seven
genera and twelve species are new to Ameri-
can museums. This portion of Dr. Smith’s
gift is of special interest and value, as the mam-
mals alone have not been examined and de-
scribed by specialists elsewhere. Mr. Rhoads
also spoke of the fishes and reptiles. The
batrachia embrace 40 species of 18 genera,
mostly new to the Academy.
Mr. Witmer Stone spoke of the collection of
birds which had been determined by Mr.
Bowdler Sharp, of the British Museum. The
portion presented to the Academy consists
of 150 specimens of about 100 species, fully
one-half new to the museum. A new species
of Turacus was found in the darkest portion of
the inland forest and had been named in recog-
nition,of the discoverer’s distinguished services
to science.
’
SCIENCE.
851
Dr. Henry Skinner stated that the insects
included 871 specimens ; the distribution in the
several groups was noted. A report on the
diptera was made by Mr. Chas. W. Johnson,
and Mr. Wm. J. Fox spoke of the collection of
hymenoptera consisting of 160 specimens, all
of ‘which were new to the Academy’s cabinet,
eight being of undescribed species.
There were but few mollusks, but on those
which were presented, Mr. Henry A. Pilsbry
based some remarks on the molluscan fauna of
Africa and its geographical distribution.
The entire collection is probably the most
extensive and important yet brought from
Africa by an individual explorer, and the por-
tions so generously given to the Academy by
Dr. Smith form a valuable addition to its re-
sources.
Mr. Henry A. Pilsbry spoke of the geology of
the deposit containing fossil Unionide at Fish
House, New Jersey. The mussels, some twelve
species of Unio and Anodonta, occur in a thick
black clay stratum used for brick and tile mak-
ing. Below this is a stratum of red clay, gravel
and ‘ironstone’ (bog iron), about two feet
thick, which rests on a bed of sand of unknown
depth. This sand shows the stratification and
oblique lamination characteristic of arenaceous
deposits in running water. The speaker con-
sidered that the hypothesis of an ancient ‘ ox-
bow’ of the Delaware river explained the
phenomena presented, the underlying sand
having been deposited in the bed of the river;
the channel was then abandoned for a new one,
leaving a lagoon or ‘slough,’ in which the
layer of yellow material was deposited at sub-
sequent times of freshet, and after the up-stream
end of the lagoon was entirely filled up, the
black clay was formed in idle water, largely by
the decay of organic matter, molluscan and
other life flourshing in lagoons of this nature.
Mr. Pilsbry held that the black clay and under-
lying sand was a deposit wholly different in
genesis and earlier in time than the gravel
which overlies the clay bed, this last gravel be-
ing referred by Prof. Salisbury to the Pensauken
formation. Besides the mussels, fossil wood
occurs in the black clay, as well as remains of
the pleistocene horse, Equus major Leidy, deter-
mined by Prof. Cope.
852
The latter, as well as the Unionidse (some of
which are recent species), prove the deposit to
be of post-pliocene age, instead of cretaceous,
as claimed by Dr. Lea, Prof. Whitfield and
some others. The character and age of these
deposits were further considered by Messrs.
Woolman and Heilprin.
A paper entitled ‘The Planktonokrit, a cen-
trifugal apparatus for the volumetric estimation
of the food supply of oysters and other aquatic
animals,’ by Chas. 8. Dolley, M. D., was pre-
sented for publication.
EpWARD J. NOLAN,
Recording Secretary.
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TORREY BOTANICAL
CLUB, MAY 12, 1396.
At the regular meeting, owing to the absence
of the President and both Vice-Presidents, Dr.
N. L. Britton and afterwards Mr. L. G. Fay
occupied the chair. Dr. A. Schneider acted as
Secretary.
One nomination for membership was received
and the following communication was read and
recommended to be placed on the minutes:
Secretary Torrey Botanical Club:
DEAR SiR: I have the honor to inform you that
Mr. Edward Berry has presented the Torrey Club with
fifty fine specimens of plants from the country about
Passaic, N. J., and other counties of the same State.
They will be mounted and placed among the other
specimens in the herbarium as soon as opportunity
offers. I remain, sir.
Very respectfully yours,
HELEN INGERSOLL,
Curator.
Mr. A. A. Tyler read his paper on ‘ A histori-
cal Review of the Study of Stipules.’ He pre-
sented briefly the older opinions in regard to the
morphology and modification of stipules. The
paper was discussed by Dr. Britton and others.
Mr. Tyler subsequently made further remarks
on the origin and development of stipules.
The paper entitled ‘Appendages to the
Petioles of Liriodendra’ by Mr. Arthur Hollick
was read by title, owing to the absence of the
author.
Meeting adjourned.
W. A. BASTEDO,
Secretary pro tem.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 75.
ALABAMA INDUSTRIAL AND SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY.
THE sixth annual meeting of the Alabama In-
dustrial and Scientific Society was held in Bir-
mingham, Ala., on May 13th; eighteen members
present. On account of the death of the Presi-
dent, Mr. Thos. Seddon, the Vice-President,
Mr. F. M. Jackson, presided. Papers were read
before the Society, as follows:
‘On the Manufacture of Steel in the Birming-
ham District,’ by Paschal G. Shook; ‘On the
Grading of Coke Iron, with special reference
to the Birmingham District,’ by W. H. Bran-
non; ‘On the Grading of Coke Iron,’ by Dr.
Wm. B. Phillips; ‘On Gold Mining in Alabama,’
by Wm. M. Brewer; ‘On the Coal Washer used
at Brookwood, Ala.,’ by F. M. Jackson. A
paper by Jno. 8. Kennedy, of Chambersburg,
Pa., on ‘Blast Furnace Flue Dust,’ was read
by title in the absence of the author.
Steps were taken to provide for the collection
and publication, monthly, by the Society, of
the statistics of coal and iron production in
Alabama. Twelve new members and the offi-
cers for the current year were elected. These
officers are: President, F. M. Jackson; Vice-
Presidents, Jas. H. Fitts and Jos. Squire. The
Society then adjourned to meet again in No-
vember. EUGENE A. SMITH,
Secretary.
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Fripay, JUNE 12, 1896.
CONTENTS :
E. G. CONKLIN..853
J. S. DILLER..857
Weismann on Germinal Selection :
The Smeeth Separatiny Apparatus :
Current Notes on Physiography :—
Valleys of the Ozark Plateau ; Coastal Desert of
Peru ; Lakes in the Sahara near Timbuktu ; Physi-
ography of Montenegro: W. M. DAVIS............ 858
Current Notes on Meteorology :—
International Cloud Stations ; lilustrations of Cloud
Types ; The St. Louis, Mo., Tornado of May 27th ;
Climate of the Falkland Islands: R. DEC. WARD..860
Current Notes on Anthropology :—
Racial Elements in Assam; The Tupi Linguistic
iages 1D) Cro 1BIRIONIWOR cocosooosonoantanoosSa9EeesonoOM 861
Scientific Notes and News :—
The Colors Named in Literature; General........... 861
University and Educational News.............eceeeeeeeees 865
Discussion and Correspondence :—
Professor Bigelow’s Solar Magnetic Work: M.
Variation of Glaciers: HARRY FIELDING REID.
Life Habits of Phrynosoma: R. W. SHUFELDT.
Bows and Arrows of Central Brazil: O. T. MASON..866
Scientific Literature :-—
Fossil Plants of the Wealden: LESTER F, WARD.
Lesley’s Summary Description of the Geology of
Pennsylvania: JOHN J. STEVENSON. Meteoro-
logical Reprints: R. DE C. WARD...............06 869
Scientific Journals :—
JEETTARO ccocconpacccuanaancsabboaccadoouecoaqbO ede codOGneGOaee 78
Societies and Academies :—
Biological Society of Washington: F. A. LUCAS.
Geological Society of Washington: W. F. Mor-
SELL. Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel-
Diiat ED Warde NOLANEscsececossee-sccceecsecoreces 878
New Books.
MSS. intended for publication and books, ete., intended
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
WEISMANN ON GERMINAL SELECTION.
Tuts last contribution of Prof. Weismann
to his system of inheritance and evolution
hypotheses was presented to the Interna-
tional Congress of Zodlogists at Leyden last
September. It was published in German
at the beginning of the current year, and
has just appeared in English as No. 19 of
the Religion of Science Series (Open Court
Publishing Co., Chicago).
It is evident from many expressions
throughout the paper that Prof. Weismann
considers this one of the most important of
all his contributions on the evolution prob-
lem, and even those who cannot accept this
most advanced and in some respects most
speculative of all his hypotheses will never-
theless be inclined to regard the paper as
important in marking some fundamental
changes in Weismann’s position.
During the long continued discussion be-
tween Weismann, Spencer and others there
was a feeling in certain quarters that some-
thing was wrong with the methods em-
ployed and that the deadlock of opinion
could not be broken by inductive reason-
ingalone. Weismann’s present paper, how-
ever, gives evidence that many of the ob-
jections raised by his opponents have taken
deep hold upon him, and have, in fact, con-
vineed him that his former position was
untenable. ‘The real aim of the present
essay,” says Weismann, ‘‘is to rehabilitate
the principle of selection. If I should suc-
854
ceed in reinstating this principle in its em-
perilled rights it would be a source of ex-
treme satisfaction to me.” To hear the
author of ‘Die Allmacht der Naturztch-
tung’ speak of ‘rehabilitating’ and ‘rein-
stating’ the principle of selection betokens
a revolution of opinion scarcely less sudden
and wonderful than that manifested in a
certain historic conversion on the way to
Damascus.
In this paper Weismann expressly makes
the following concessions: 1. “The princi-
ple of panmyxia is not alone sufficient for a
full explanation of the phenomena (of degen-
eration). My opponents in advancing this
objection are right to the extent indicated
and as I expressly acknowledge.” 2. ‘The
Lamarckians were right when they main-
tained that the factor for which hitherto
the name of natural selection had been ex-
clusively reserved, viz., personal selection,
was insufficient for the explanation of the
phenomena”’ (of the disappearance of use-
less parts). 3. “‘ The fact of a simultaneous,
functionally concordant yet essentially
diversified modification of numerous parts
points conclusively to the circumstance that
something is still wanting to the selection of Dar-
win and Wallace which it is obligatory on us to
discover if we possibly can, and without which
selection as yet offers no complete explana-
tion of the phyletic processes of transforma-
tion. There is a hidden secret to be unrid-
dled here before we can obtain a satisfactory
insight into the phenomena in question.
We must seek to discover why it happens that the
useful variations are always present.”
These are most fundamental concessions,
yet it must not be supposed that they
necessarily lead to the Lamarckian position.
The insufficiency of natural selection to ex-
plain all the phenomena of phyletie trans-
formation Weismann attributes to the fact
that this principle has been unduly limited
in its field of operation ; it has heretofore
been regarded as applicable only to persons;
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. IIL. No. 76.
it should be considered as applicable to
every organic unit, whether visible or in-
visible, even down to the hypothetical
biophores.
Natural selection occurs among all orders
of individuality, colonies, persons, organs
and tissues, determinants and biophores,
and corresponding to these different units
Weismann recognizes “three principal
stages of selection : That of personal selection
as it was ennunciated by Darwin and Wal-
lace; that of histonal selection as it was es-
tablished by Wilhelm Roux in the form of
a ‘struggle of the parts,’ and finally that of
germinal selection whose existence and effi- —
cacy,” he says, ‘‘I have endeavored to sub-
stantiate in this article—these are the fac-
tors which have cooperated to maintain the
forms of life in a constant state of varia-
bility and to adapt them to their conditions
of life.” In brief, natural selection is still
omnipotent if only it be regarded as omni-
present.
Germinal selection consists in an exten-
sion of this principle of selection to the de-
terminants and biophores and it may Le re-
duced to the following propositions :
1. ‘“‘ Every independently and heredita-
rily variable part is represented in the germ
by a determinative group of vital units,
whose size and power of assimilation cor-
respond to the size and vigor of the part.”
2. Variations in the size of determinants
(some being larger, some smaller and some
the same size as the maternal determinants )
are caused by ‘the inevitable fluctuations
of the nutritient supply.’ The ultimate cause
of all inherited variations in size is, therefore, to
be found in the influence of nutrition on the de-
terminants.
3. The quality of a determinant depends
upon the numerical proportion of the bio-
phores which it contains. If that propor-
tion is altered so also is the character of the
determinant. The struggle for nutriment,
with its subsequent preference of the strong-
JUNE 12, 1896.]
est, must take place between the various
species of biophores as well as between the
species of determinants. By the continued
weakening of a biophore until it ultimately
disappeared the quality of the determinant
to which it belonged would be changed.
The ultimate cause of all variations in kind is,
therefore, due to the varying amount of nutri-
ment supplied to the biophores.
4. “Every determinant battles stoutly
with its neighbors for food.”
5. The weaker determinant ‘ will be un-
able to obtain the full quantum of food * *
* *§ and the result will be that its progeny
will be weakened still more * * * and in-
evitably the average strength of this deter-
minant must slowly but constantly dimin-
ish.”
6. The stronger determinants ‘‘ oppose a
relatively more powerful front to their
neighbors, that is, actively absorb more
nutriment, and upon the whole increase in
vigor and produce more robust descend-
ants.”
7. The plus and minus variations may go
on simultaneously and independently in
many groups of determinants. When in
any case they have reached selection value
they may be checked or increased by per-
sonal selection. ‘‘In this manner it be-
comes intelligible how a large number of
modifications, varying in kind and far more
so in degree, can be guided simultaneously by
personal selection.”
The possible application of some of these
principles is illustrated by cases of mimicry
shown in the wings of butterflies, and the
necessity of retaining the principle of natu-
ral selection to explain mimicry and adap-
tations in general is ably shown. In con-
clusion the author says: ‘‘ We had applied
the principle of natural selection to a part
of the natural units engaged in struggle. If
we apply the principle throughout we reach
a satisfactory explanation. Selection of
persons alone is not sufficient to explain the
SCIENCE.
855
phenomena; germinal selection must be
added. Germinal selection is the last con-
sequence of the application of the principle
of Malthus to living nature.” yy» » ‘This
proposition seems to me to round off the
whole theory of selection and to give it that
degree of inner perfection and completeness
which is necessary to protect it against the
many doubts which have gathered around
it on all sides like so many lowering thunder
clouds.”
Regarding Weismann’s recent conces-
sions to his opponents, it should be observed
that he does not make them until having
gotten a new foothold on the principle of
germinal selection he can afford to yield
these points. He nowhere makes adequate
acknowledgment of the force of the facts
urged against natural selection, nor the in-
sufficiency of the latter until he feels sure _
that he can save his pet theory by another
theory. In short, it would appear that with
him the all-sufficiency of natural selection
is a foregone conclusion, and however
weighty the arguments may be which are
brought against his position he disregards
them until he is able to explain them in con-
formity with his theory.
This new hypothesis of germinal selection
is a bold attempt to explain the causes of all
variations and the usefulness, or adaptive
character, of many variations upon the se-
lection principle. With such high aims it
is an extremely important contribution,
whatever may be thought of its probability.
To the writer it seems that Weismann fails
to recognize that the ‘selection’ which he
predicates of determinants and biophores is
a wholly different principle from the natu-
ral selection of Darwin and Wallace. Both
natural and artificial selection signify that
in the struggle for existence certain indi-
viduals and races are selected and others re-
jected. If the unfit should survive and leave
as many offspring as the fit there would cer-
tainly be no such thing as natural selec-
856
tion. Germinal selection, however, signi-
fies that certain germinal units grow larger
through increased nutrition; that this
purely acquired character is transmitted to
their descendants, and that these stronger
determinants leave no more progeny, but
simply stronger progeny ; the weaker deter-
minants leave no fewer, but simply weaker
descendants. In short, the process is wholly
and simply the continued inheritance of an
acquired character. In the whole process
there is no selection or rejection, but merely a
continuance of individual determinants with
the transmission of characters acquired by
them to their descendants. How very dif-
ferent this is from the usual meaning of the
term selection Professor Weismann, perhaps
better than any other, could explain.
As to the evidence for germinal selection
Weismann frankly avows that he “ can ad-
duce nothing except that it is at present
the only explanation that can be given,”
and in this regard it should be observed
that it stands upon a distinctly different
basis from personal selection or histonal se-
lection, each of which is directly supported
by a very large number of observations
and is a legitimate deduction from the
facts, whereas germinal selection is confess-
edly merely an inductive speculation.
Evidence should be the crucial test for
this as for any theory, and yet it is at this
very point that it is weakest. Nota parti-
cle of evidence is adduced in proof of a
single proposition named. Apart from the
fundamental conception of determinants,
which is still a mere matter of speculation
and upon which the gravest doubts exist in
the minds of many eminent men, some
evidence may be adduced against certain
of the propositions named:
1. The idea that the size of a determi-
nant corresponds to the size and vigor of
the part to which it gives rise, or the de-
terminate as Weismann calls it, is neither a
necessary conclusion nor indeed a highly
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 76.
probable one. If space permitted, much
evidence might be brought forward, based
on a study of precocious development and
larval organs, to show that the size of the
cell or region of the egg which gives rise to
acertain part does not generally correspond
to the size of the part, but rather to the
time of its formation. To be sure cells and
regions of the egg are not determinants in
Weismann’s sense, but they are frequently
the Anlagen of organs, and as such are the
nearest approach to the determinants of
Weismann which may be recognized by ob-
servation. Judging the unseen therefore
by the seen, there is a certain amount of
evidence that the longevity of a determi-
nant and the rapidity of the transformations
which it is able to undergo, rather than its
size, stands in direct relation to the size and
vigor of the determinate, and it may well
be that the simpler and smaller determi-
nants, and not the larger ones, possess the
greatest stability and longevity.
2. “Every determinant battles stoutly
with its neighbors for food.” I suppose
Professor Weismann must regard this as a
mere figure of speech, in fact not only the
battle and the means of warfare, but the
combatants and the cause of battle must
all be figurative, as they are all imaginary.
But what evidence or probability is there
that there is not food enough for every de-
terminant to live on and grow fat? Do
the determinants increase in geometrical
ratio; does each species require a different
kind of food, and must we after all suppose
that with divine prescience nature has
taken care to supply less food to the deter-
minants than they need in order that they
may battle with each other? Such ques-
tions are asked in good faith, though one
shrinks from asking them lest he may be
classed by Weismann. with ‘the hotspurs
of biology, who clamor to know forth-
with how the molecules behave, * *
Ey 7 hte UTES forgetful that all our
JUNE 12, 1896.]
knowledge is and remains throughout pro-
visional.’ But inasmuch as Weismann has
undertaken to teach us ‘just how the mole-
cules behave,’ and since this is the only aim
of his essay, it would seem that all such
clamorings are entitled to some recognition.
Unless the food of determinants is ‘ Hin
ganz besonderes Saft,’ one would think that
the soma might be able to supply it in
quantities large enough to cause the hungry
determinants and biophores to stop their
fighting. In all seriousness, it seems to me
that to class such a purely figurative and
imaginary ‘struggle’ along with Darwin’s
principle, as Weismann does, is to wholly
disregard the importance of evidence.
3. The greatest objection to the all-suffi-
ciency of natural selection, which Weis-
mann, along with many others, recognizes,
is ‘the fact of a simultaneous, functionally
concordant yet essentially diversified modi-
fication of numerous parts.’ This objection
Weismann thinks he has removed by as-
suming that the determinants may vary
simultaneously and independently, and may
- increase or decrease in size through ger-
minal selection. This does remove some of
the difficulties; it furnishes, ea hypotheso,
the individual variations for personal selec-
tion, but the one great difficulty remains
untouched, viz., the combination of these in-
dividual variations into a functionally con-
cordant system. This difficulty, which is
really the only important one in this con-
nection, remains just where it was before
Weismann proposed his doctrine of ger-
minal selection.
Weismann ably argues that there is in
certain quarters an evident tendency to
under-estimate the relative importance of
theories as compared with facts, and he
points out the great value of having sym-
bols or mental images of natural processes,
even though these symbols may not corre-
spond to reality. » Whether there are any
such things as biophores, determinant,
SCIENCE.
857
germinal selection and the like, or not, it
is at least evident that a mental symbol is
better than mental vacuity, and that to
have conceived a process by which the de-
tails of evolution and inheritance can be
explained, even if it be a false conception,
is better than no conception at all. Prof.
Weismann is right when he says that there
is no just cause for criticism of his system
on the ground that it is purely imaginary,
provided it is always so treated and understood.
It is only when he says that certain imagi-
nary processes must be so, as he does in this
as well as in former essays, that it is per-
tinent to remind him that we are dealing,
not with a system of necessities, but only
with a series of mental images, each one
of which may or may not correspond to
reality.
I think it may well be doubted whether
such speculations are at present the most
profitable method of approaching the pro-
blems under discussion. Induction and
the test of conceivability are distinctly in-
ferior as scientific instruments to observa-
tion, experiment and deduction. Specula-
tion is valuable only as it is verified by ob-
servation and experiment and while the
solution of such recondite problems must be
approached from all possible sides, yet it
may be doubted whether it is more profita-
ble for one to continue to start more specu-
lations than a whole generation can run
down rather than to take part in hunting
down and verifying or rejecting his own
speculations.
E. G. Conky.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
THE SMEETH SEPARATING APPARATUS.
Tue tube devised by Harada for using
heavy liquids in separating the mineral
constituents of rocks has been modified by
Broegger, so as to obviate difficulties aris-
ing from the adherence of light and heavy
particles desired to be separated. This ap-
858
paratus is more or less cumbersome and
fragile on account of the stop-cocks it con-
tains.
It appears to me that the separating tube
proposed by Smeeth (Proceedings of the
Royal Dublin Society, May, 1888, p. 58)
has not been fully appreciated. The prin-
ciple involved seems to be an excellent one,
and by modifying the shape somewhat it
can be much improved. With this end in
view, several of the tubes were made by
Eimer & Amend, of New York, after the
design indicated in the accompanying fig-
ure. The apparatus consists of a cup-
‘shaped base, A, with a hollow standard,
pe
0
iy
¢
SRSEEEES SS
the tube B, to contain the heavy liquid in
which the separation takes place, the stop-
pers C and D to close respectively the upper
and lower ends of this tube. All of these
separate parts have ground fittings, so as
to be water-tight. The tube is so simple
that no special explanation of the method
of using it is needed. It will be seen that
when the two stoppers, C and D, are out,
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 76.
it affords an opportunity to stir both the
material which has sunk to the bottom of
the tube of the standard A, as well as that
which floats upon the top of the heavy
liquid in B, and by repeating the process |
several times it is possible to easily secure
a complete separation.
It will be readily seen, also, that by in-
serting the stopper D, the tube B, with its
contents of heavy liquid and light material
floating on its top, can be removed. The
heavy material can then be washed out of
A, leaving this heavy material entirely sep-
arated in the standard A.
This apparatus, besides the advantage
already enumerated, is especially stable and
portable, and all the material during the
separation is free from exposure to the air,
features which give its great advantage in
laboratory work. J. S. Drier.
U. S. GEOLOGICAL SURVEY.
CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRAPHY.
VALLEYS OF THE OZARK PLATEAU.
Tur account of the Ozark mountains re-
cently published by Keyes (see Science,
Feb. 21, 1896) is followed by a valuable es-
say from O. F. Hershey on the valleys of
the same region (Amer. Geol., xvi, 1895,
338-357); the conclusions of the two ob-
servers agreeing in general as to processes
of land sculpture, but differing somewhat as
to geological dates at which various stages
of the work of denudation were reached.
A lowland peneplain has been uplifted to
form the Ozark plateau; it is deeply dis-
sected around the margin, so that the dis-
severed hills are not inappropriately called
‘mountains.’ The ancient lowland is called
a Tertiary peneplain by Keyes, and a Jura-
Cretaceous peneplain by Hershey. The lat-
ter describes certain broad and shallow
valley-troughs, slightly depressed beneath
the general upland, as the work of Tertiary
time in the gently uplifted Cretaceous pene-
plain. He concludes that the meandering
JUNE 12, 1896. ]
courses of the narrow young Pleistocene
valleys are inherited from similarly curved
courses onthe flat floors of the old Tertiary
valley-troughs in which the young valleys
are incised; while the relative straight-
ness of the Missouri is ingeniously explained
as a consequence of its comparatively re-
cent entrance into this region, after uplift
in the region of the great plains.
COASTAL DESERT OF PERU.
Mavsor A. F. Sears describes the coastal
desert of Peru ina recent Bulletin of the
American Geographical Society (xxvii.,
1895, 256-271). The desert belt has its
greatest width near latitude 5° S., where
it measures about 120 miles to its inner
margin, 1,000 feet high along the base of the
western Cordillera; thence narrowing south-
ward but extending about 2,000 miles along
the oblique part of the South American
coast. The surface is barren, except along
the few river courses; crescentic dunes, or
médanos, frequently occur; the drifting sand
produces a sighing sound, like that from a
forest under the wind. From December to
March winds set on shore and give some
rain to the Cordillera (apparently ‘subequa-
torial rains’); then the rivers flow again,
after having withered in the dry season. A
graphic description is given of the ‘ coming
of the river’ in the case of the Piura. In
February or March, when it is expected,
travelers from up the valley are anxiously
asked about its advance. When it is near
the town of Piura, parties go out to wel-
come it with music and fireworks, return-
ing with its trickling advance over the dry
sandy bed. Thousands greet its arrival at
the city. Excellent cotton is produced in
the valley, and the crop might be much ex-
tended by systematic irrigation; but most
of the water in the rising river is allowed to
waste itselfin the sea. Once in from five to
seven years rain falls on the plain; then it
is soon covered with grass and flowers, and
SCIENCE.
859
cattle wander out of the valleys for a time;
but in a few weeks all is barren again.
LAKES IN THE SAHARA NEAR TIMBUKTU.
THE great northward curve of the Niger
carries its fertile flood plain into the border
of the Sahara, where Timbuktu stands near
the margin of the upland in a region of sand
dunes alternating with stunted forests. The
wet season comes with the equatorial rains
from June to August; but high water in
the river is delayed until January, as if de-
termined by rains about the more southern
head branches. The river then overflows
its broad flood plain, above which the vil-
lages stand on sand dunes. French occu-
pation has brought to light several lakes
that occupy depressions between spurs of
the desert upland, which rises in abrupt
rocky slopes a hundred meters above their
waters. The largest, Faguibine, is about
60 kilometers north of the river and west of
Timbuktu; it is 110 kilometers in length
and over 30 meters deep ; almost compar-
able, therefore, with Lake Chad. It is fed
by a flooded distributary of the Niger dur-
ing high water; in the dry season a current
sets back again from the lake to the river.
Debo is a somewhat smaller lake, appa-
rently lying on the flat flood plain of the
ereat river, 120 kilometers southwest of
Timbuktu (Bluszet, La région de Tombouc-
tou, Bull. Soc. géogr. Paris, xvi., 1895, 375—
388).
Unless gratuitously explained by local
subsidence, Faguibene may perhaps be re-
garded as one of those lakes that stand ina
lateral valley near its junction with a main
valley along which a great river has been
actively building up a heavy flood plain.
PHYSIOGRAPHY OF MONTENEGRO.
A RECENT supplement to Petermann’s Mit-
teilungen consists of ‘ Beitrage zur phys-
ischen Geographie von Montenegro,’ by K.
Hassert, privatdocent in Leipzig, giving a
very serviceable account of this rugged and
860
out-of-the-way country. Successive chap-
ters treat the previous studies, geological
structure, surface form, landscape, springs
and rivers, lakes, climate and plants. Spe-
cial attention is given to the karst district
of limestone understructure and subterra-
nean drainage; the peculiar topography
thus controlled being so fully developed
that a considerable series of special terms
is required to name its various features.
Although having a plentiful rainfall, the
karst surface suggests aridity by reason of
the scantiness of soil and the frequent ex-
posure of bare rock; and the loose-lying
limestone blocks have not been without in-
fluence on the course of local history in
furnishing ammunition for the ‘stone bat-
teries’ with which Montenegrins on the
valley sides have harrassed the Turkish in-
vaders in the defiles below. The uplands
are frequently dissected by deep canyons,
which greatly impede travel and trade ; but
the people have by long practice become
expert in shouting across the chasms, thus
sending both public and private messages.
Scutari lake, seldom over twenty feet
deep, is explained as a limestone lowland, or
polje, whose outward drainage is obstructed
by the alluvial deposits of the river Drin.
As is often the case, the treatment of the
different chapters is uneven. Careful dis-
cussion of origin is given to the forms of
the limestone region ; much less attention
is given to such problems as the location of
stream courses and the attitude of divides;
an inward migration of the latter is strongly
suggested by the short course of the Bojana
system to the Adriatic and the long course
of the Danube branches to the Black sea.
W. M. Davis.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY.
INTERNATIONAL CLOUD STATIONS.
TueE following is a complete list of the
stations which are now taking cloud obser-
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 76.
vations with photogrammeters, and theod-
olites, in connection with the scheme to
be followed throughout the International
Cloud Year, which has been extended until
August 1, 1897. Paris; Upsala; Potsdam;
Braunschweig; Danzig; St. Petersburg;
Nijni-Novgorod (in summer); Batavia,
Manila, and Sydney, N.S. W. The follow-
ing stations are taking observations with
theodolites: Washington, D. C.; Blue Hill
Observatory, Readville, Mass.; Bossekop
(in summer); Dorpat; Tiflis; Ekatherinen-
burg; Irkutsk. There will probably also
be a second station in Australia, one in In-
dia and one at Lisbon.
ILLUSTRATIONS OF CLOUD TYPES.
In connection with its work on clouds
already referred to in Science, the Weather
Bureau has issued a sheet giving illustra-
tions of the typical cloud forms. The ac-
companying text contains descriptions of
the clouds, and also data as to their mean
heights and velocities. The sheet was pre-
pared as an aid to observers in their cloud
work. Most of the types selected are good,
and the reproductions excellent as a whole.
The alto-stratus and stratus are, however,
unsatisfactory. The International Cloud
Atlas, which has just been issued, gives us
the cloud types selected by the Interna-
tional Cloud Committee, and these will, of
course, now be the standard for the world.
THE ST. LOUIS, MO., TORNADO OF MAY 27.
Wire commendable promptness the
Weather Bureau issued on May 29, a
special Storm Bulletin (No. 4 of 1896),
showing the weather conditions over the
United States on May 26-28, in connection
with which the severe tornado of May 27th
occurred at St. Louis. The Chicago8 A. M.
forecast on May 27th predicted severe thun-
der storms for Illinois, Indiana and Mis-
souri during the afternoon and night, and a.
special warning was sent out from Wash-
ington at 10:10 A. M.
JUNE 12, 1896.]
CLIMATE OF THE FALKLAND ISLANDS.
In a recent account of the Falkland Is-
lands (Scot. Geogr. Mag., May, 1896, 241—
252) mention is made of a striking effect of
the high winds which are characteristic of
the higher latitudes of the South Temperate
Zone and are a marked feature of the cli-
mate of the Falklands. Owing to their be-
ing obliged constantly to beat against these
violent winds, the inhabitants have ac-
quired a peculiar gait that is so noticeable
as to have gained for them the name of
‘kelpers,’ which is sometimes used as syn-
onymous with ‘natives.’ R. Dr C. Warp.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.
RACIAL ELEMENTS IN ASSAM.
In the Times of Assam, February 8, 1896,
Mr. 8. R. Peal gives the results of his ex-
tensive studies of the racial constitution of
the Assamese people. The aboriginal in-
habitants he believes to have been Dravid-
ian, though at present he would not assign
more than five per cent. to that element.
They were overlaid by the intrusive Mon
from the east, a monosyllabic stock, who in
time were followed by a small invasion of
Tibetans. All of these were weak and of
low culture. The Hindu religions, the
Aryan physique and the prevailing tongue
were introduced by the immigration of
Sanskrit-speaking conquerors at a remote
epoch. They left such a profound impress
on the earlier population and the existing
Assamese language that Mr. Peal says of
it: ‘‘ With the exception of the Bengali,
there is probably no derivative from the
Sanskrit that bears a closer affinity to its
parent.’’ This was the extreme limit of
the wave of Aryan migration which swept
eastward across Bengal. The conquering
Ahoms, from Siam, who in later centuries
gained temporary control of Assam, exerted
little permanent influence on its civilization
or language.
SCIENCE.
861
THE TUPI LINGUISTIC STOCK.
Tue eighteenth volume of the Biblio-
théque Linguistique Américaine (Maison-
neuve, Paris), which has just appeared, is a
valuable member of the series. It presents
thé elements of a comparative grammar
of the dialects of the Tupi linguistic stock
of South America, prepared by the able
pen of M. Lucien Adam, to whom we owe
so many analyses of American tongues.
The southern Tupiis known as the Guarani;
and the ‘ Lingoa Geral,’ spoken throughout
Brazil, is a corrupt form of the same idiom.
The stock is widely diffused, extending
from Paraguay to Guiana, and for thou-
sands of miles along the Amazon and its
tributaries. Its literature is quite extended,
the bibliography of it published in 1880 by
Valle Cabral, numbering over three hun-
dred titles.
M. Adam presents an analysis, carried
through the principal dialects, of the pho-
netic laws of the stock, the expressions of
the relations of possession and _ action
(genitive and nominative), the pronouns,
and an elaborate study of the conjugation.
A comparative vocabulary with 358 titles
is an extremely useful appendage.
The collation of the literature which he
has utilized includes most of the best works,
but I regret not to see included the excel-
lent studies on the Neengatu of the late Mr.
C. F. Hartt.
D. G. BRINTON.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
THE COLORS NAMED IN LITERATURE.
Mr. Havetock Exuis has made (Contempo-
rary Review, May) an interesting study of the
color terms used by imaginative writers, which
is a real contribution to scientific sesthetics.
The fact that the Greeks did not name green
and blue does not, of course, indicate (as Mr.
Gladstone and others have alleged) that they
could not see the more refrangible rays of the
spectrum, but it does show a lack of interest in
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 76.
|
White. | Yellow. |
Black.
Red. | Green. | Blue. PREDOMINANT.
|
Mountain Chant............... 28 13 3 19 37 Black, white.
Wooing of Emer.............++ | 34 | 3 48 000 14 Red, white.
Volsunga Saga.........-scceeeee seer See mera tices (7! LA ace Red.
dese Job, Song of Songs.. 18 | a 2 | 33 | | 2 Green) rea ;
OANEI cosonpodaoupOoboscaK00800%}| 4 | 2 2 500 | ack, white-yellow.
Catullus | 40 21 17 9 4 8 White, yellow.
(C)ORTIOS tesscacosdoacdonsadccartees pe eae te al) 28 14 | i) ls} White, red.
Mianlow ereeeeeenessceseesean eee: fr 1 On 19 6 @ | 23 Black, yellow.
Shakespeare. alo | 17 30 "i 4 20 Red, white.
Thomson..... | in| 30 18 27 9 36 Black, green.
Blake....... cool) dbdhs fhe wales & | 3 16 Z 29 | Black, white-yellow.
Coleridge.. cde eae yaa? 17 25 14 16 | Green, white.
Shelley... boll dee 19 11 21 21 11 | Green-blue.
Keats.......... | 44 23, 9) 924 29 8 1 | Green, red.
Wordsworth. cof. ale! ites p<} al@ 39 11 12 | Green, yellow.
IEW Ekssagan090000 poe| 8 Sy | BO 12 4 24 Yellow, black.
Baudelaire .. eof]. ~ Jal 9 19 10 16 34 Black, red.
Tennyson.... Nip ee 15 27 15 10 11 | Red, white.
Rossetti ........ 30. | 22 | op 9 7 10 | White, yellow.
Swinburne ......... 2s) |) alls) 28 16 | 4 | Red, white.
Whitman....... 25 10 26 qa | 8 | 16 | Red, white.
jeer Soe oe 43 19 11 11 9 7 | White, yellow.
Wierlaineirctercsecce cece 20 a6) 24 9 14 | 18 Red, white.
Olive Schreiner........... 38 12 25 Bul ag) 2 White, red.
DYAMMUMNZ LOM sisrrecerrisleseeecies alts 11> | 46 7 | 14 6 Red, white.
|
Mr.
in the above table, the number of times each
of the colors is used by the author in selected
passages being reduced to percentages.
these colors. Ellis’s statistics are given
Mr. Ellis makes a number of acute psycho-
logical and literary suggestions and concludes
that a numerical study of color vision ‘‘ pos-
sesses at least two uses in the precise study of
literature. It is, first, an instrument for in-
vestigating a writer’s personal psychology, by
defining the nature of his eesthetic color vision.
When we have ascertained a writer’s color
formula and his colors of prediction we can
tell at a glance, simply and reliably, some-
thing about his view of the world which pages
of description could only tell us with uncer-
tainty. In the second place, it enables us to
take a definite step in the attainment of a sci-
entific aesthetic, by furnishing a means of com-
parative study. By its help we can trace the
colors of the world as mirrored in literature
from age to age, from country to country, and
in finer shades among the writers of a single
group. At least one broad and unexpected
conclusion may be gathered from the tables
here presented. Many foolish things have been
written about the ‘degeneration’ of latter-day
art. It is easier to dogmatize when you think
that you are safe from the evidence of precise
tests. But here is a reasonably precise test.
And the evidence of this test, at all events, by
no means furnishes support for the theory of
decadence. On the contrary, it shows that the
decadence, if anywhere, was at the end of the
last century, and that our own vision of the
world is fairly one with that of classic times,
with Chaucer’s and with Shakespeare’s. At
the end of the nineteenth century we can say
this for the first time since Shakespeare died.”
GENERAL.
Pror. E. D. CopE has been elected an hon-
orary member of the Academy of Sciences of
Belgium.
Nature gives the following details regarding
the approaching celebration of Lord Kelvin’s
jubilee as professor of natural philosophy in
the University of Glasgow: On the evening
of Monday, June 15th, at 8:30 p. m., the
University will give a conversazione, when
there will be an exhibit of Lord Kelvin’s
inventions. On Tuesday, June 16th, ad-
dresses will be presented to Lord Kelvin by
delegates from home and foreign university
JUNE 12, 1896. ]
bodies, from several of the learned Societies of
which he is a member, from student delegates
from other universities, and from the students
and graduates of the University of Glasgow.
It is expected that the honorary degree of LL.D.
will be conferred on the same day on several
of the distinguished foreign visitors. On Tues-
day evening, June 16th, the City will give a
banquet to Lord Kelvin, to which the visitors
who have come to do him honor have been
invited. On Wednesday, June 27th, the Senate
of the University will invite the visitors of the
University staff to sail down the Clyde. The
students of the University also invite the stu-
dents’ delegates from other universities to a
similar trip. Representative scientific men—
about fifty in number—from America and the
British colonies, and from all the European
countries, and about 150 from the United King-
dom, have signified their intention to be present.
In addition to the expeditions from Amherst
College and from the Lick Observatory, Univer-
sity of California, parties are on their way from
London and Paris to observe the eclipse of the
sun from Japan. The English party includes
the Astronomer Royal, Prof. Christie, Prof.
Turner, of Oxford, and Captain Hills, of the
Royal Engineers. M. Deslandres has charge of
the French expedition.
THE Mayor of Bristol, at the instance of a
deputation representing University College,
Bristol, and other scientific institutions of the
city, has invited the British Association to meet
at Bristol in 1898. The Association met at
Bristol in 1836 and in 1875.
THE Executive Committee of the New York’
Zoological Society has decided to send Mr. Hor-
naday to Europe to inspect the zoological gar-
dens of Germany, Belgium, Holland, France
and England. A Scientific Council has been
appointed consisting of the following members:
William T. Hornaday, Chairman, Director New
York Zoological Park ; Madison Grant, Secre-
tary New York Zoological Society ; Prof. J. A.
Allen, curator of mammalogy and ornithology.
American Museum of Natural History ; Frank
M. Chapman, assistant curator; Prof. Henry
F. Osborn, Da Costa professor of zodlogy, Co-
lumbia University ; Prof. Gilman Thompson,
SCIENCE.
863,
University of New York; Dr. Tarleton H.
Bean, Superintendent New York Aquarium ;
Dr. George Bird, Grinnell, editor Forest and
Stream ; and William A. Stiles, Park Commis-
sioner and editor of Garden and Forest. The
Sinking Fund Commission of New York, au-
thorized by the Legislature to set aside land for
the Gardens of the Society, has postponed action
on the application of the Society for the use of
261 acres of land in Bronx Park. Mayor
Strong, it appears, is opposed to granting the
land.
Pror. R. S. Woopwarp, Prof. R. H. Thurs-
ton and Judge Arthur P. Greely have con-
sented to act as judges in the competition for
prize essays on ‘ The Progress of Invention dur-
ing the past fifty years,’ proposed by the Scien-
tific American. i
WE learn from Natural Science that the fol-
lowing changes have recently been made on the
staff of the British Geological Survey: A. Stra-
han, to be geologist on the English branch, in
place of J. R. Dakyns, who has retired after 34
years’ service ; C. T. Clough, to be geologist on
the Scottish branch, in place of the late Hugh
Miller. The gentlemen are succeeded as assist-
ant geologists by Mr. T. Crosbee Cantrill, B.
Se., and Mr. HE. H. Cunningham-Craig, in Eng-
land and Scotland respectively. Dr. Molen-
graaf, of Amsterdam, whose work in South
African geology is well known, has been ap-
pointed State Geologist by the Transvaal Goy-
ernment.
THE British Medical Journal for May 23d is
a special number commemorating the Jenner
Centennial, being entirely filled with interest-
ing accounts of Jenner and the subsequent prog-
ress of vaccination.
Dr. BASHFORD DrAN, Messrs. Calkins, Har-
rington, Griffin and a number of students from
Columbia University are about to start for
Port Townsend, Washington, and will spend
the summer in study and research on Puget
Sound.
THE Brooklyn Institute has undertaken to
collect $3,000 for the purchase of the William
Wallace Tooker collection of Indian relics.
THE New York University has conferred the
degree of LL.D. on Prof. I. C. Russell, of the
864
elass of 1872, professor of geology in the Uni-
versity of Michigan.
Pror. ALBERTS. BICKMORE, of the American
Museum of Natural History, has gone to the
West Indies to collect materials for a course of
lectures for teachers, to be delivered in the
Museum in the autumn. Mr. Dwight L. El-
mendorf is already in the Windward Islands,
taking photographs for the illustrations of the
lectures. The expenses of the trip will be paid
by the State, and copies of these lectures will be
furnished to the public schools in the seventy
principal cities and villages of the State.
Pror. MAx MULLER was made a Privy Coun-
cillor on the Queen’s birthday. It is said that
Huxley is the only man of science previously
admitted to the Council in recognition of scien-
tific work.
SENATOR MOoRRILL, from the Committee on
Finance, made on June 4th a favorable report on
the joint resolution authorizing the Secretary
of the Treasury to have made a scientific in-
vestigation of the fur-seal fisheries.
GERHARD Rouurs, traveller and explorer,
died on June 3d, at Godesberg, Prussia, aged
62.
THE daughters of Carl Marx are collecting
material for a biography of their father.
On the evening of May 19th Prince Henry of
Orleans delivered a lecture before the Royal
Geographical Society, on his journey between
Talifu (Yun-nan) and Sadiya (Assam). This is
the shortest and most direct route from China
toIndia. It was, however, traversed with great
difficulty and is not practicable for trade.
Pror. L. L. Dycue, of the University of
Kansas, has gone to Alaska with a view to Arc-
tic exploration.
AT a meeting of the Royal College of Sur-
geons, England, on May 14th the Walker prize
was conferred on Mr. H. J. Stiles and the Jack-
sonian prize on Dr. A. A. Kanthack.
On May 26th Prof. T. G. Bonney began a
course of two lectures at the Royal Institution
on ‘The Building and Sculpture of Western
Europe’ (the Tyndall lectures), On 28th Mr.
Robert Munro, Secretary of the Society of An-
tiquaries of Scotland, gave the first of two lec-
SCIENCE
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 76.
tures on ‘Lake Dwellings,’ and on Saturday,
May 30th Dr. E. A. Wallis Budge, keeper of
the Egyptian and Assyrian antiquities, British
Museum, began a course of two lectures on
“The Moral and Religious Literature of Ancient
Egypt.’ Prof. J. A. Fleming lectured on ‘ Elec-
tric and Magnetic Research on Low Tempera-
tures.’
WE are glad to learn that the editor of Ap-
pleton’s Popular Science Monthly has invited
President Mendenhall to reply to the article in
the June number by Mr. Herbert Spencer criti-
cising the metric system.
THE Washington Star states that Major Pow-
ell, Engineer Commissioner of the District of
Columbia, has applied to the President, through
Gen. Craighill, Chief of Engineers, for the detail
of an officer of the engineer corps for duty with
the District government as an assistant to the
Engineer Commissioner, to fill the vacancy
caused by the detachment of Captain Gustav J.
Fiebeger, recently appointed professor of mili-
tary and civil engineering at the Military Acad-
emy.
Dr. WILLIAM COLLINGRIDGE, medical officer
of the port of London, has been appointed as
the Milroy lecturer for 1897, before the Royal
College of Physicians, of London.
Dr. A. GUNTHER has been elected President
of the London Linnean Society. The gold
medal of the Society has this year been awarded
to Prof. George James Allman.
Pror. DArcy W. THompson, of the Univer-
sity of Dundee, who has been sent by the
British government to investigate the condition
of the fur seals on the Prybilov Islands, left
Washington for Alaska on the 3d of June. He
will be accompanied by a Canadian naturalist,
Dr. Macoun. They will go to the Islands on
the ‘ Albatross,’ which leaves San Francisco
about the middle of the month.
Mr. CLARENCE B. Moore, who may be ad-
dressed at 1321 Locust street, Philadelphia, has
kindly offered to present to any incorporated
historical or archeological society applying to
him, his works on ‘Certain Sand Mounds of
Dual County, Florida;? ‘Two Mounds on
Murphy Island, Florida,’ and ‘Certain Sand
Mounds of the Ocklawaha River, Florida.’
JUNE 12, 1896.]
Pror. C. JoRDAN, author of ‘Traité des Sub-
stitutions,’ ‘Cours d’ Analyse,’ etc., expects to
visit America the latter part of June. He in-
tends to spend about three months in America,
visiting mines and universities.
THE twenty-second annual meeting of the
American Neurological Association was held at
the College of Physicians, Philadelphia, on
June 3d, 4th and 5th, under the Presidency of
Dr. F. X. Dercum. The next meeting will be
held at Washington, D. C.
THE party from Cornell University which
will embark with Lieutenant Peary on the
Kite is as follows: R. S. Tarr, professor of
dynamic geology and physical geography; A.
C.Gill, professor of mineralogy and petrography;
J. A. Bonstell, assistant in geology; T. L.
Watson, fellow in geology; E. M. Kindle,
scholar in paleontology, and J. O. Martin,
special student in entomology. It is the pur-
pose of the party to make as thorough a geo-
logical study as is possible in five or six weeks,
of the region near the Devil’s Thumb, at the
south end of Melville Bay and in addition to
this to make collections of flora and fauna.
Another party will also sail with Lieutenant
Peary, under the leadership of A. E. Burton,
professor of civil engineering, in the Massa-
chusetts Institute of Technology. This party
will land at the great Umanak Fiord. They
will make pendulum observations, natural his-
tory collections and study the glacial phenom-
ena. Lieutenant Peary himself will proceed
north as far as Cape Sabine at the entrance of
Smith Sound. He will also endeavor to ex-
plore Jones sound. He will be accompanied
by Mr. Albert Operti, the artist, who will take
casts of the Cape York natives for the purpose
of making models for the American Museum of
Natural History, New York.
In connection with the the Millenial Cele-
bration at Buda-Pesth the University conferred
the following honorary degrees on May 13th:
The degree of Doctor of Medicine on Prof. J. 8.
Billings, of New York; Sir. Joseph Lister,
London; Prof. R. Virchow, Berlin; Prof. Than,
Buda-Pesth; Prof. Anders-Retzuis, Stockholm;
Prof. Guido Baccelli, Rome; Prof. Eduard Roux,
Paris: The degree of Doctor of Philosophy, on
SCIENCE.
865
Prof. P. Berthelot, Paris; Mr. Herbert Spencer,
London; Lord Kelvin, Glasgow; Prof. W.
Wundt, Leipzig; Prof. Max Miller, Oxford;
Prof. Grimm, Berlin; Prof. Lajos Léezy, Buda-
Pesth; Prof. R. W. Bunsen, Heidelberg; Prof.
J. Bryce, Oxford; Prof. W. R. v. Hartel,
Vienna; Prof. Hugo Schuchardt, Graz.
In the last part issued of Engle und Prantl’s
Natiirliche Pflanzenfamilien, Prof. Britton has
been honored by the dedication to him of
another genus, Brittonastrum, Briquet, in the
Family Labiatz. There are six or seven species
in the group, natives of the southwestern United
States and Mexico.
Pror. J. J. THOMPSON was announced to
give the Reade lecture at Cambridge Univer-
sity on June 10th, the subject being the Rontgen
rays.
AT a meeting of the Paris Academy, on May
4th, M. Guinkoff stated that he had succeeded
in photographing the retina. The experiments
were made on himself, and he had obtained a
photograph of the retina of his left eye with an
exposure of two seconds. The process is not
more trying to the patient than the ordinary ex-
amination with the ophthalmoscope and leaves
a permanent record.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
THE University of Pennsylvania has received
$100,000 from Mr. Alfred C. Harrison, and
$10,000 each from Mr. John H. Converse, Mr.
William P. Henszey and an anonymous donor.
AT a recent meeting of the Board of Regents
of the University of Michigan reductions were
made in some of the salaries, and several in-
structors were dismissed. A resolution was
adopted that where any department has two or
more full professors, only the senior by date of
appointment shall at any time receive a salary
of more than $2,500. Law and medical pro-
fessors, if they practice their respective profes-
sions, are to receive $2,000, and if they do not,
$2,500. The psychological laboratory has been
discontinued for one year.
Iv is expected that Rev. George L. Perin will
succeed Rey. Orello Cone as President of Buch-
tel College. Dr. John Clarence Lee has been
866
elected President of St. Lawrence University at
Canton, N. Y.
FRANK L. McVey, Ph. D., has been ap-
pointed instructor in economies at the Univer-
sity of Minnesota.
Mr. F. P. SHEeLpoN, for the past six years in-
structor in plant taxonomy at the University
of Minnesota, has tendered his resignation in
order to devote his energies to the management
of his private business affairs and the profession
of the law. Mr. A. A. Heller, late fellow of Co-
lumbia College and well known for his exploring
trips in South Carolina, Texas, Idaho and the
Sandwich Islands, will succeed Mr. Sheldon
and will act as curator of the growing herbarium
of the University.
Tue following fellows in the sciences have
been appointed at Cornell University: Ento-
mology, James G. Needham, now instructor in
Knox College, Illinois; mathematics (traveling
fellowship), sProf. Paul Arnold, University of
California ; geology, Thomas L. Watson ; agri-
culture, Leroy Anderson ; mechanical engineer-
ing, W. O. Amsler; electrical engineering, L.
A. Murray.
THE incomes of most of the colleges of Cam-
bridge and Oxford have been greatly reduced
by the agricultural depression. During the
last university year the sum of only £72,948
was divided among the heads and fellows of the
various colleges, as compared with £111,000 in
1882. The amounts contributed by the colleges
for university purposes has been again de-
creased.
Dr. DoNALD MACALISTER has compiled, at
the request of Syndics of the University Press, a
guide entitled: Advanced Study and Research in
the University of Cambridge, giving a clear ac-
count of the admirable opportunities offered for
advanced study and research at Cambridge.
As has already been stated in this JouRNAL,
students holding degrees from other universities
or having an equivalent training may pursue
studies at the university and after two years of
residence are admissable to the regular degrees.
The facilities for study and research at Cam-
bridge and Oxford are equal to those of German
universities, and should attract an equal num-
ber of American students.
SCIENCE.
LN. S. Vou. III. No. 76.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
PROF. BIGELOW’S SOLAR-MAGNETIC WORK.
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: Prof. W. 8.
Franklin, in his review of Prof. Bigelow’s so-
lar-magnetic work (this JOURNAL, Vol. III., No.
74), has performed a duty for which all meteor-
ologists and physicists must thank him; but the
question may fairly be raised as to whether the
tone and temper of the performance were such
as ought to characterize a report of an examina-
tion of even alleged scientific work. As one of
many who have been more or less familiar with
Prof. Bigelow’s work during the past five or six
years, I have all along been puzzled by the ob-
scurity of his statements and the fact that I was
unable to gain any intelligent idea of his meth-
ods. There was a certain satisfaction in find-
ing that others met with no better success, al-
though no one could deny the tremendous im-
portance of the results which he thought he had
reached. For most people life is too short for
going over all the details of work which is
being done by others, and usually a complicated
scientific hypothesis receives its confirmation
from verified prediction rather than from an
analysis of methods and material. But while
others have been waitiug for Prof. Bigelow’s
work to prove itself by the practical application
of which it was alleged to be capable, it is grati-
fying to know that some one was overhauling it
and endeavoring to ascertain the foundation
principles upon which it rests. It is quite
proper that this should be done, and Prof. Big-
elow or his friends can object only to the man-
ner in which the reviewer has expressed him-
self. It will be admitted that there is a chance
that Prof. Bigelow knows what he is doing,
difficult as it seems to be for him to show other
people, and it is to be hoped that he will not
find in the unnecessarily harsh language of the
review an excuse for ignoring it, but rather
that he will not further delay an exposition,
couched in simple and intelligible language, of
the elementary and fundamental notions, defi-
nitions and principles on which his work rests.
This might enable his friends to determine
whether his theories ‘are peculiarly wild and
vagarious’ or his results ‘meaningless.’ And
he must not forget that their judgment has been
in suspension for a long time. M.
JUNE 12, 1896.]
VARIATIONS OF GLACIERS.
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: At the Inter-
national Congress of Geologists at Zurich in
1894 a committee, with members representing
various countries, was appointed to collect and
make observations on the changes which are
continually occurring in the length and thick-
ness of glaciers. Much information bearing
on the variations of the Alpine glaciers has al-
ready been collected, and it is now desirable to
know something of the variations of glaciers in
other parts of the world, to determine whether
these variations are synchronous on different
continents and on opposite sides of the equator.
To what extent the variations of glaciers are
dependent on meteorological changes, and to
what extent on the size and shape of reservoirs,
ete., is a problem whose solution is hoped for.
Many of your readers will doubtless visit
American glaciers this summer, either on the
Pacifie Coast, in Canada or in Alaska; and I
hope they will take sufficient interest in the sub-
ject to make observations which will be of value.
The information most desired regarding any
glacier is whether it is advancing or retreating.
In a memorandum issued by the Alpine Club
the following criteria are given:
‘When the ice is advancing the glaciers generally
haye a more convex outline, * * * and piles of fresh
rubbish are found shot over the grass of the lower mo-
raines. Moraines which have been comparatively re-
cently deposited * * * are disturbed, show cracks,
and are obviously heing pushed forward or aside by
the glacier.
“When the ice is in retreat the marks of its fur-
ther recent extension are seen fringing the glacier
both at the end and sides * * * ; the glacier fails to
fill its former bed and bare stony tracts, often inter-
spersed with pools or lakelets, lie between the end of
the glacier and the mounds of recent terminal mo-
raines. ”’
For recording the extent of a glacier at the
time of one’s visit, many methods bave been
given. Among the simplest is to measure (or
pace) the distance from the end of the glacier
to some prominent rock, or to the line connect-
ing two easily recognizable points on opposite
sides of the valley. All photographs of the end
of a glacier are useful, especially those taken
from a station easily accessible and easily de-
SCIENCE.
867
scribed; photographs taken from the same
station at a future date will show what changes
have taken place in the interval.
Excellent results can be obtained from the
following method: Select two stations on op-
posite sides of the valley a little below the
glacier’s end; mark and describe them; esti-
mate their distance apart ifno more accurate
determination can be made; take a photograph
of the glacier’s end from each of these stations,
and determine by compass the angle between
the other station and two or three prominent
peaks or other features that appear in each
photograph. The photographs, the angles and
the distance between the stations will be suf-
ficient data to make a rough map of the
glacier’s end.* All photographs and observa-
tions sent to me will be carefully preserved as a
part of a permanent record of American glaciers.
Muir glacier, Alaska, is so frequently visited
that we should obtain a pretty complete history
of its changes. A photograph of the north-
western corner of the inlet, taken from the ship
when at anchor, or, better still, from the pro-
jecting bluff on the eastern side of the inlet, will
greatly help in making the record.
The few observations which have already
reached me show that the glaciers about Glacier
Bay, Alaska, the Illecellewaet, in the Selkirks,
and those on Mt. Rainier, Washington, are re-
treating. HARRY FIELDING REID.
JOHNS HopkINS UNIVERSITY,
BALTIMORE, Mp., May 23, 1896.
LIFE HABITS OF PHRYNOSOMA.
Pror. CHAs. L. E>wArpDs’s article on the re-
production of Phrynosoma cornutwm (SCIENCE,
May 22, 1896) interested me very much, in-
deed; but in some respects the article is mis-
leading, as one might suppose from reading it,
that Prof. Edwards believes that all the species
of lizards of the genus Phrynosoma are oviparous,
as he found P. cornutum to be. This is, how-
ever, by no means the case, for, as I have pointed
out in SCIENCE over ten years ago (September
4, 1885, pp. 185-186), Phrynosoma douglassii is
strictly viviparous, and its period of gestation
*A fuller account of the desired observations is
given in the Journal of Geology, Chicago, Vol. III.,
1895, pp. 284-288.
868
is probably about one hundred days. At the
present writing I have alcoholic specimens of
the young of this species that were given birth
to in my presence by a specimen of P. doug-
lassti, kept by me in captivity in New Mexico
in 1885, : R. W. SHUFELDT.
May 27, 1896.
BOWS AND ARROWS OF CENTRAL BRAZIL.
Epiror OF SCIENCE: [have just finished read-
ing Dr. Hermann Meyer’s ‘ Bogen und Pfeil in
Central Brasilien’ (Leipzig, 53 pp., 4 pl.’of 67
figs., map), and find it good for sore eyes. His
purpose to prepare a much larger work is de-
clared at the outset, and his confession that the
shortcomings and sins of collectors and labelers
are at the bottom of the ethnographer’s disap-
pointments and errors will find an echo in many
hearts. Indeed, Dr. Meyer has actually gone
to the Mato Grosso to ascertain whether these
things that were on his labels are really so.
All bows in South America are self bows.
There is not now, and does not seem ever to
have been, a made-up bow south of the Carib-
bean Sea. For the most part, these southern
bows are very large, only in Guiana and the
northwestern lands, as well as in the far south,
in the Gran Chaco, on the Pampas and in Tierra
del Fuego, are smaller forms in use. Quite con-
trary to Ratzel’s observations on Africa, the
powerful bows are to be found in forest regions,
while the smaller ones are in the open.
In the central region studied by Meyer there
are five types of bow, to wit:
1. The Peruvian, with rectangular long ellip-
tical cross-section. The material is the heavy,
black Chonta palm wood.
2. The North Brazilian, with semi-circular
cross-section and made of a reddish brown
leguminous wood.
3. The small Guiana bow, with parabolic
cross-section, and often with a channel down
the back. They are made of a dark brown
wood. There are intermediate forms between
2 and 3.
4. The small Chaco bow, with circular cross-
section and beautifully smoothed. Made from
the red wood of the Curepay acacia.
5. East Brazilian bows of a variety of woods.
There are two varieties, the eastern and the
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Von. IIL. No. 76.
western; the northern, or Shingu, and the
southern, or Kameh, form connecting links be-
tween them. The western variety has circular
cross-section, is made of strong wood and
wrapped with ‘Cipo’ a Liana bast, used by the
Bororo (Tupi). The eastern variety is of black
Airi palm wood, in use among the Puri (Tapu-
ya, or Géz) and Botocudo (Tapuya, or Géz).
Of arrows, Meyer characterizes six types, all
having two feathers instead of three. In North
America the Eskimo and several west coast
tribes employed two feathers laid on flat, one
above, one below. All the interior and eastern
tribes seem to have had the rounded or cylin-
drical nock and three radiating arrows. The
South American types are:
1. The East Brazilian or Géz, Tupi feather-
ing, occupying all east Brazil to the Paraguay
andthe Shingu. Two, whole, or seldom halved,
feathers are laid on to the shaft flat, one above,
one below, and seized with thread, filament or
Cipo bast. These wrappings are frequently done
in beautiful patterns and pretty tufts of feathers
are inserted.
2. Guiana feathering, delicate and carefully
laid on. Two short, half feathers are laid on
and held fast by wrappings of threads here and
there. Once in a while a North American
arrow has the feathers thus made fast.
A bit of wood is inserted at the butt end for
a nock piece.
3. The Shingu sewed feathering. Two half
feathers are sewed on to the shaftment through
little holes bored through on either side.
4, Arara feathering, two long half feathers
held on by narrow bands of thread wrapping.
At the butt end the wrapping is in beautiful
patterns.
5. Mauhé feathering, like the East Brazilian,
two whole feathers are bound on above and
below. A neck piece is inserted at the butt
end.
6. The Peruvian cemented feathering. The
half feathers are first laid on and held in place
by a coil of thread or bast from end to end and
then covered with some sort of dark cement.
This is subdivided into minor groups.
The shaft, the fore shaft, the barbs, the
points of bamboo blades, of monkey bones or of
wood, all receive minute attention. The most
JUNE 12, 1896.]
of the treatise is devoted to the tracing of tribes
(Stamme) by means of their bows and arrows.
Meyer’s map will be a revelation to any stu-
dent of South American ethnology. Brinton
has traced the Arawak from the Paraguay river
to the Bahama Islands. Long ago I was struck
with South American characteristics upon wood
carvings from Turk’s Island and among tribes
of the Southern States. Holmes draws atten-
tion to peculiar pottery marks from the South
in the Gulf States, and Meyer shows that the
region of the Matto Grosso northward was a
cloaca gentium, especially the common sources
of the Paraguay, the Shingu and the Tapajos
and the lower courses of the Tapajos, the Ma-
deira and the Negro. The Negro is joined to
the Orinoco by the Cassiquiare, and from the
mouth of the Orinoco to Florida is an unbroken
chain of inviting islands. Dr. Brinton denies
that the Carib stock passed far north into the
Antilles, but there seems to have been an easy
and much-frequented highway from the Para-
guay as well as from Yucatan to Florida for
peoples. In this connection von den Steinen,
Ehrenreich and Im Thurn must not be neg-
lected. O. T. MAson.
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
FOSSIL PLANTS OF THE WEALDEN.
The Wealden Flora. By A.C. SEwArpD, M. A.,
F. G. 8. Part I.—Thallophyta- Pteridophyta,
London, 1894. Part II1.—Gymnospermx, Lon-
don, 1895. Catalogue of the Mesozoic Plants
in the Department of Geology, British Mus-
eum (Natural History). Parts I., II.
The second part of this important work has
come to hand. The first part appeared in
June, 1894, but as Part II. was expected even
earlier than it arrived no review has appeared
in America of Part I., and the whole work may
now be treated together. An additional part
is promised, which will embody certain critical
discussions, but as no plants have been found
in the English Wealden of higher rank than the
Gymnosperms these two parts must contain an
enumeration of the entire flora so far as known.
At the time of receiving the first part I was
about starting for Europe, and while there I
made some investigations in the Wealden with
SCIENCE.
869
a view to comparing that formation with the
Potomac of the United States. I was therefore
able to make excellent use of the information it
contained when preparing a paper on ‘Some
Analogies in the Lower Cretaceous of Europe
and America’ for the Sixteenth Annual Report
of the U. S. Geological Survey (pp. 463-542),
chiefly growing out of the observations I had
made. That paper is now in press, but it might
have been made much more complete if I had
received Part II. of this work in time to make
use of it. As I have expressed in that paper
my appreciation of the important information
contained in Part I., and have embodied a con-
siderable part of it in the comparisons there in-
stituted between the Wealden flora and that of
the Potomac formation, it is not necessary to
go into detail relative to this portion of Mr.
Seward’s work. Its title sufficiently indicates
its scope ; thirty distinct forms are treated, the
greater number of which are ferns. There are
two alge, one Chara, one hepatic and three
species referred to Equisetites. Nine of the
forms have more or less geographical distribu-
tion outside of England, and a table is given
showing this.
It may be said of the whole work that, al-
though constituting, as the title page indicates,
the beginning of a catalogue of the Mesozoic
plants in the British Museum, it is much more
than a catalogue. All the material in the
Museum has been carefully revised, and though
treated somewhat by number it is dealt with in
a systematic way, and there are many refer-
ences to similar material in other museums.
The literature of the subject is also fully given,
and all new material is described and named.
There is a large amount of this latter, the
greater part of which has been collected by Mr.
P. Rufford, of Hastings, for whom many species
and one genus have been named. Many of the
old specimens collected by Mantell and the
early geologists have been thoroughly worked
over and referred to modern genera, so that we-
now have some idea of the real nature of such
objects as Endogenites erosa, which is shown to
be a fern (Tempskya Schimperi Corda), while the ~
old genera Pecopteris, Alethopteris, Lonchop-
teris, and most of Sphenopteris have been
brought within the Mesozoic genera, Matonid-
870
ium, Cladophlebis, Weichselia and Ruffordia.
Anyone who has had to deal with these old
names can realize the importance of Mr.
Seward’s work.
In Part II., so recently published and to
which it is proposed chiefly to draw attention,
Mr. Seward has taken up the Gymnosperms,
which, as already remarked, are the only Sper-
maphytic or Phanerogamie plants which have,
as yet, been found in the Wealden. These all
belong to the two orders Cycadaceze and Coni-
ferze, unless we suppose, as Mr. Seward seems
to do, in common with most other authors who
have studied that group, that the Bennettiteze
constitute an order distinct from and interme-
diate between the Cycadacez and the Coniferz.
Mr. Seward has devoted considerably more
than half his space to the Cycadacez in the
wider sense, and, although the number of forms
is not large, still the great difficulty that at-
tends the study of this class of material, as well
as the importance that such a study has, both
for biology and geology, fully justifies the
thoroughness of his treatment. In view of the
recent importance which the subject of cyeadean
vegetation has assumed in America, this able
and excellent review of it by so competent an
authority as Mr. Seward is in a high degree
timely and valuable.
Although he gives the opinion of the leading
investigators, Carruthers, Solms-Laubach, ete.,
to the effect that the Bennettiteze cannot be
placed in the Cycadace:e, still he does not him-
self make this distinction in the work before us,
and treats all the forms that have been com-
monly referred to the Cycadacez under that
ordinal name. His subdivision is mainly into
Frondes, Trunct and Flores, and in addition to
these he deals with several doubtful organs and
with numerous seeds (Carpolithes).
One of the most valuable parts of the work is an
extended discussion of the fossil Cycadacez, oc-
cupying twenty pages. He first goes over the evi-
dence for the existence of this family in Paleozoic
beds, and the conclusion is decidedly in favor of
such a view, with, however, the qualification that
the Paleozoic Cycadaceze are more or less syn-
thetic in their nature and possess marked re-
lationships with less highly developed groups
and especially with ferns. I know of no other
SCIENCE. [N. s.
Vou. III. No. 76.
place in which the proof of the Pteridophytic
ancestry of the Cycadacez in particular and of
the Gymnosperms in general has been so ably
marshaled. It constitutes another step in the
general march of botanical science towards the
breaking down of the barriers which formerly
so completely separated the Cryptogams from
the Phanerogams. Only those narrow system-
atists who are chiefly in search of differences,
and who so dread to encounter resemblances,
can regard this in any other light than that of
true scientific progress.
Of the forms which are known only by their
fronds Mr. Seward recognizes six genera and
fourteen species in the English Wealden. The
genera are: Cycadites, Dioonites, Nilssonia,
Otozamites, Zamites and Anomozamites. Of
these Otozamites is represented by six species
and varieties, Cycadites, Dioonites and Zamites
by two each, while of Nilssonia and Anomo-
zamites only one species of each has been found
thus far. Four of these forms are described as
new, two of which, Cycadites Saportee and Zam-
ites Carruthersi, have the rank of species, the
other two new forms being varieties of the old
species Otozamites Klipsteinii Dunk., of the Ger-
man Wealden. The remainder of the fronds
are identified with species long since recognized
either by the earlier English or by Continental
authorities.
Each of these genera and many of the species
are carefully discussed and a somewhat ex-
tended synonymy is appended. Numerous
changes are also made, of which only one need
be mentioned, viz., the adoption of Schenk’s
view of the form which has so long gone by the
name of Dioonites Buchianus (Ett.) Born., and
its reference to the genus Zamites. This has.
special interest for the American paleobotanist,
because it is one of the most abundant forms in
the oldest beds of the Potomac formation. This.
form was first supposed (Goppert, 1847) to be-
long to Pterophyllum, and its provisional refer-
ence to Dioonites by Bornemann in 1856 would
have received little attention had it not been
adopted by Schimper in his Traité de Paléon-
tologie Végétale, and its reference to Miquel’s
genus Dioonites has always been doubted by
some authors. The last change was that of
Nathorst, who, recognizing its affinities with
JUNE 12, 1€96.]
Zamia rather than with Dioon, proposed in 1890
to call it Zamiophyllum. This is in harmony
with Nathorst’s fundamental principle of
nomenclature to make all doubtful genera
founded on leaves terminate in -phyllwn. Ob-
jectionable as this rule is in the case of dicoty-
ledonous leaves (see Amer. Journ. Sci., 3d Ser.,
Vol. XXXI., May, 1886, pp. 370-375), it is
still more so for plants of lower rank, as
monocotyledons, while in families in which the
appendicular organs are not true leaves, but
fronds, as in the case of cycads and ferns, this
practice is highly objectionable, and it is matter
for congratulation that Mr. Seward, in recogniz-
ing the same truth perceived by Nathorst, has
restored Schenk’s name. Apropos of this form
it is to be noted that Mr. Seward declines to
recognize Prof. Fontaine’s two varieties from
the Potomac formation and Nathorst’s variety
from Japan, and that he also includes in this
species the other Japanese form to which
Nathorst gave the name Zamiophyllum Nau-
manni.
Passing over many other interesting features
of this portion of the work and also his treat-
ment of flowers and fruits, we come to the sec-
tion which, just at present, has the greatest in-
terest for the student of American paleobotany,
viz., that which treats of the cycadean trunks.
It is no secret that a monograph on the Cy-
eadean Trunks of North America is in prepara-
tion at the U. S. National Museum, and that a
large amount of material, especially from the
Potomac of Maryland and the Lower Cretaceous
of the Black Hills, has been brought together
as a basis for this study. Several preliminary
notes and papers have already appeared,* bear-
ing on this subject, but unavoidable delays have
prevented the progress of the work, and it will
be some time before its completion. This much
is said because Mr. Seward has several times
referred to the probable early appearance of
this monograph (see Pt. II., pp. 120-121 of the
work under review). One of the causes of
delay was the necessity which was felt of visit-
*See ScrENCE, Vol. XXI., June 30, 1893, p. 355 ;
Proc. Biol. Soc. Washington, Vol. 1X., April 9, 1894,
pp. 75-88 ; Journ. Geol., Vol. II., April-May, 1894,
pp. 250-266 ; Bull. Torr. Bot. Club, Vol. XXI., July
20, 1894, pp. 291-299.
SCIENCE.
871
ing the European museums and examining the
great collections of cyeadean trunks in England,
France and Italy. The paper above referred
to* gives a somewhat full account of the in-
vestigation of this nature which was made in
1894. i
‘In restricting the Wealden to the beds that
lie between the Purbeck and the Atherfield
beds (he seems to include the Lower Greensand)
Mr. Seward has excluded from the consideration
of cyecadean trunks the oldest and best known
forms, viz., those from the ‘dirt beds’ (Pur-
beck) of the Portland quarries, first described by
Buckland in 1828 under the name of Cycadeo-
idea. The number of distinct forms confined
to the true Wealden is not large and Mr.
Seward has treated them under the generic
names Bucklandia, Fittonia, Bennettites and
Yatesia. Bucklandia includes certain cylindri-
cal trunks of considerable height in proportion
to the diameter, the most important being B.
anomala (Stokes & Webb) Carr., first described
in 1824 as Clathraria anomala Stokes & Webb,
though previously collected and subsequently
treated by Mantell under the name Clathraria
Lyelliti. A large number of specimens of this
are in the British Museum, all of which have
been examined by Mr. Seward and separately
described. There are also some forms exhibit-
ing only the medulla or pith, which Mr. Seward
thinks may belong to Bucklandia, but which
come under Saporta’s designation Cycadeo-
myelon. Two species of Yatesia, one of which
is the Y. Morristi of Carruthers, are also enu-
merated, but Mr. Seward seems to have grave
doubts as to whether this genus can properly
be separated from Bucklandia. A new species
of Fittonia from Mr. Rufford’s collection is
described, but scarcely any mention is made of
the original species F. squamata Carr., because
it is in the Geological Museum on Jermyn
street. It isa pity that this work should not
have sufficiently expanded to include all the
material from the Wealden, seeing that so
nearly all is actually in the British Museum.
We come now to that form which is certainly
of the greatest interest from whatever point of
view, viz., the genus Bennettites of Carruthers,
*Sixteenth Annual Report U. S. Geol. Surv.,
1894-95, pp. 463-542, pl. xevii-cvil.
872
upon which has been founded a distinct order
Bennettiteze. This is not the place to go intoa
full discussion of the important characters
which distinguish this form. They have been
fully considered by Carruthers, Solms-Laubach,
Saporta and Lignier. Mr. Seward sums them
up with characteristic conciseness and refers to
this genus six or seven distinct forms including
the B. Saxbyanus and B. Gibsonianus of Car-
ruthers. Solms-Laubach, it will be remem-
bered, confined the genus to the latter of these
species solely on the ground that the remark-
able trunk found on the Isle of Wight and so
fully illustrated by Carruthers is the only one
in which the included seeds are clearly shown.
The remaining species he preferred to place in
Buckland’s old genus Cycadeoidea. Since the
publication of Lignier’s interesting researches
upon the structure of B. Morierci, the opinion
has gained recognition that there is a close re-
lationship between the genus Williamsonia and
Bennettites. Mr. Seward fully discusses this
in an extended introduction to a new species
collected by Mr. Rufford in the Fairlight clays
near Hastings, which he names Bennettites (Wil-
liamsonia) Carruthersi. This species is repre-
sented by no less than seventeen specimens, and
in addition to this there is a variety (latifolius)
of which some dozen specimens occur. These
all come under the head of Flores or floral
organs, which are carefully illustrated in two
plates and one text figure. Some of these
forms certainly resemble those referred to Wil-
liamsonia from the Potomac formation ; others,
it must be admitted, can scarcely be separated
from the specimens so fully illustrated by
Lignier, while still others seem to be sub-
stantially identical with those figured so long
ago by Young and Bird from the Yorkshire
Odlite and subsequently treated by Williamson
under the name of Zamia gigas. Carruthers re-
cognized the undesirability of referring such
forms to the genus Zamia, and therefore
founded the genus Williamsonia. *
So far as known at the present writing, none
of the cycadean trunks of America reveal the
presence of the included fruits characteristic of
Bennettites Gibsonianus, but in all other impor-
*See ScleNCE, N. S., Vol. II, No. 32, August 9,
1895, p. 147.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 76.
tant respects these trunks resemble those which
Mr. Seward refers to this genus, and also all
those which Count Solms-Laubach would in-
clude under the name Cycadeoidea. So far as
their general appearance is concerned, both the
American and the Italian forms depart from the
original type of Buckland more widely than
from the Bennettitean trunks of the Wealden.
The fact that Count Solms appears to have found
included anthers in the great Italian trunk Cyca-
deoidea etrusca seems to indicate that through-
out this great group of closely similar forms the
reproductive organs were the same, and that.
the failure to find fully developed seeds in the
interior of most of these trunks is due to de-
fective preservation. It is not probable that.
these seeds could long remain thus imbedded in
the cortex; they must have possessed some
mode of extrusion, and it. must have been a rare
accident that a trunk should be entombed at
the precise time when its mature seeds were
still included. This seems to have been the
ease with B. Gibsonianus—a most happy acci-
dent for science. But in most other specimens,
and especially in many of the American, there
are indications within the floral axis of the re-
mains of former organs that have disappeared.
In some specimens these flowers closely re-
semble the one studied by Lignier, and the en-
veloping bracts are either still preserved or else
are indicated by definite cavities having the
same form. It therefore seems at least a reason-
able conclusion that most or all of the trunks
referred to Cycadeoidea by Solms-Laubach are
of practically the same nature as Bennettites
Gibsonianus. Further investigations now in
progress are likely to throw additional light
upon this subject.
One other supposed cycadean trunk described
by Mr. Seward is of special interest because it
is that upon which was formally founded the
Dracena Benstedi Koenig, which occurs so often
in the books. We have here at last the history
of this problematical form, first mentioned by
Mantell as having been discovered by Bensted
at Maidstone and supposed by him to be re-
lated to Yucca or Dracrena. Koenig, who was
keeper of the Mineralogical Department of the
British Museum where the specimens were,
seems to have labelled them by this name, and
JUNE 12, 1896.]
Morris in his Catalogue of British Fossils,
perpetuated it. Mr. Seward has examined the
specimens and finds them to be in all prob-
ability cycadaceous, but he unfortunately de-
clines to apply to them either a generic or
specific name. This disposes of the last claim
of the British Wealden to any monocotyledon-
ous vegetation, the old Endogenites erosa hay-
' ing been long since referred to the ferns.
The coniferous vegetation of the Wealden is
only second in importance to its cycadean vege-
tation. It isnot as well preserved and there is
no doubt much truth in Mr. Seward’s remark
that ‘‘asa general rule, fossil conifers are per-
haps the most unsatisfactory plants with which
the paleobotanist has to deal; structureless
and imperfectly preserved fragments of broken
twigs, isolated cones, leaves or seeds, have
usually to be determined separately, and it is
only in comparatively rare instances that we
are in a position to connect cones and vegeta-
tive branches.”’
Sixteen distinct forms are enumerated in this
catalogue. They are all referred to the genera
Araucarites, Pinites, Sphenolepidium, Thuites,
Nageiopsis, Pagiophyllum and Brachyphyllum.
The largest number of species belongs to Pinites,
viz., five, while of Sphenolepidium there are
three, and of Araucarites, Pagiophyllum and
Brachyphyllum, two each. It is interesting to
note that three of the specimens in the Rufford
collection are referred to Prof. Fontaine’s
Potomac genus, Nageiopsis, and Mr. Seward
regards them as probably the same as N.
heterophylla Font. Pinites is represented chiefly
by cones, which somewhat resemble those of
Abies, and this is perhaps the most unsatisfactory
group of the conifers. The two widely distri-
buted species of Sphenolepidium, S. Kurrianuin
and S. Sternbergianum, both originally from the
Wealden of Germany, and both of which occur
in the Potomac formation, are also found in the
Wealden of England. -Mr. Seward is disposed
to include Prof. Fontaine’s S. virginicum and
also his Athrotaxopsis expansa under Spheno-
lepidium Kurrianum. Another species is either
the same as or closely related to the Sequoia
subulata of Heer, also found in the Potomac
formation. It would perhaps not be wholly un-
true to regard the genus Sphenolepidium as a
SCIENCE.
873:
sort of connecting link between the Araucarian.
and the Sequoian types of coniferous vegetation.
A very brief space is devoted to the coniferous.
wood of the Wealden, and it would seem from
the specimens enumerated that there is in the-
British Museum no material whatever from the-
celebrated ‘pine raft’ of Brook Point, on the
Isle of Wight. This seems surprising, in view
of the great prominence and wide fame of these
petrified remains. Only a macroscopic exami-
nation seems to have been made of the few
specimens from Hastings and Ecclesbourne.
This is very disappointing to those who would
be glad to avail themselves of the knowledge-
that could be so easily acquired from this im-
portant class of material. If we knew the-
structure of all the fossil wood of the Wealden
of England we should doubtless have a good
basis upon which to judge of much of the other
material that is so largely in doubt.
The great botanist, Robert Brown, in the
early years of the century, examined the in-
ternal structure of this fossil wood of the Isle
of Wight and reported that it agreed with that
of the Norfolk Island pine (Araucaria excelsa).
No figures were ever published that I can.
learn. On my brief visit to the island I col-
lected a few specimens, and these have been
prepared and slides mounted by Dr. Knowlton.
His report upon them is contained in the paper
above referred to.*
The Araucarian type of structure is not found
in any of the fossil wood of the Potomac forma-
tion, but has been found in that of the Lower
Cretaceous of the Black Hills. It is the com-
mon type of the Older Mesozoic (Upper Tri-
assic) deposits of the Eastern United States.
The Potomac wood is all of the Sequoian type,
although it has been called Curpressinoxylon.
Hitherto no plants of that class have been
found in the Wealden, but the occurrence of”
Sequoia subulata, or a species closely allied to
it, together with the forms of Sphenolepidium,
seem to mark a transition from the Araucarian
to the Sequoian conifers. It may be that the
numerous imperfectly preserved cones that
have been referred to Pinites belong to the-
same plants whose wood is preserved in the-
*Sixteenth Ann. Rept. U. S. Geol. Surv., p. 496,.
pl. cii., figs. 5, 6 (in press).
874
Wealden, and this is almost certainly the case
with the specimen referred to Araucarites
(Conites elegans Carr. and Kaidacarpum minus
Carr.). The difference, therefore, in this respect
between the Potomac formation and the Weal-
den may not be as great as was supposed.
My principal object in visiting the Wealden
was to see what could be learned of its relation-
ship with the Lower Cretaceous of the United
States, and in the paper already twice referred
to I have pointed out all such relationships,
both stratigraphical and paleontological, that I
was able to detect on that brief visit. The gen-
eral result seems to be that there are marked
similarities in both these respects, and that the
Wealden formation is like the Potomac, not
only in its flora, but also in the manner in
which it was laid down. The two seem to
form a special epoch in the history of geology,
and it may well be that the events which their
strata record were in large part taking place at
the same time on both sides of the Atlantic.
In reviewing such an important and able
work as the one before us, it is greatly to be
regretted that there should be anything in it
to which a hearty assent can not be given, and
it is fortunate that the only part of the book
from which anyone could dissent is that which
relates to so unimportant a matter as nomencla-
ture, which is regarded by many as of no con-
sequence at all in comparison with the scien-
tific problems that are demanding solution.
And yet we can no more dispense with a nomen-
clature than we can dispense with language.
It is in a certain sense the language of science,
and as such it should possess all the precision
that science requires in all departments. Those
who regard it as of no value should not forget
that the great Darwin, whom no one can accuse
of being a systematist in any sense of the word,
considered the subject of nomenclature of such
paramount importance that he actually be-
queathed a sum of money to be devoted thereto ;
and all scientific workers, I think, no matter
what branch of science they pursue, feel the
same need that the language of science and the
nomenclature of its innumerable facts, especially
in the organic world, be reduced to the most
perfect form for their use.
In what I shall say relative to the nomencla-
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 76.
ture employed in this book, I do not wish to be
understood as specially criticising its author,
but rather as characterizing, in the most gen-
eral way, what I regard as a defective system.
This peculiar nomenclature is, so far as I am
aware, confined to the botanists and paleo-
botanists of Great Britain and of one or two
botanical centers in the United States. In all
other branches of science and among botanists
of all other parts of the world, no such system is
employed, and it is not tolerated except by this
restricted class. It is based on the assumption
that the author of a name has no more title to
that name than anyone else, and that any sub-
sequent author is at liberty to change any name
that he regards as ‘ objectionable.’ Of course
there is no agreement whatever as to what
makes a name objectionable, and therefore in
practise it amounts to the right of any author
to change any name at will. It is this principle,
or, rather want of principle, that has thrown
the nomenclature of botany into such inextrica-
ble confusion and renders it next to impossible
for any writer who has not all the botanical
literature of the world before him to decide
what is the true name of any genus or species.
I will cite only three cases in the present work
as fairly illustrative of this point. ,
On page 173, Mr. Seward creates a new genus
Withamia, as a ‘substitute’ for Saporta’s genus
Cycadorachis, given by the latter to forms found
in the lower Kimmeridgian, which he believed
to represent the rachis of a cycad frond. In
making this change Mr. Seward remarks:
“ Although it is held by some a wrong course
to adopt, I propose to substitute, in the case of
Cycadorachis armata Sap., and the almost iden-
tical fossils from the English Wealden, a new
generic name in place of that instituted by
Saporta. To retain Saporta’s genus, with the
recently discovered specimens before us, would
be practically equivalent to assigning the plant
to a position which appears to be entirely at
variance with the facts. I propose, therefore, to
institute the new genus Withamia for these spiny
axes with leaf-like appendages, and in doing so
to place on record some slight recognition of
the immensely important service which Witham
of Lartingdon rendered to paleobotanical sci-
ence.”’
June 12, 1896.]
- I cite this case as an exceedingly moderate
one. Probably no better reason could be as-
signed for changing a name. But what will be
the result? Some later author, with better
specimens at hand, will think he discovers the
relation of these forms with some genus or
family, and will therefore again change the
name so as to indicate this determination; or
he may have no better reason than the
laudable wish to do honor to some other
eminent predecessor whom he regards as hay-
ing been neglected, and then we shall have
three names for the same thing, and so on in-
definitely.
I will cite in the next place, the case of
Yatesia Morrisii Carr., described on page 166.
Here a short synonymy is given with the date
of each change placed conspicuously at the left,
and the first entry in this synonymy is:
1867. Cycadeoidea Morrisii, Carruthers,
Geol. Mag., Vol. IV., p. 199.
If the reader turns to the reference given in
the Geological Magazine he will find a paper by
Mr. Carruthers entitled ‘ On cycadeoidea Yatesii,
a fossil cycadean stem from the Potton Sands,
Bedfordshire.’ If I had not happened to have
worked up this synonymy I should of course
have accepted Mr. Seward’s statement, but
haying done so and arrived at the conclusion
that the true name must now be Yatesia Yatesii
Carr., I was, of course, struck by the discrep-
ancy. Itis true that Mr. Carruthers in his subse-
quent larger paper in the Linnzan Transactions,
three years later, at the time that he founded
the genus Yatesia, had called this from YVatesia
Morrisii, evidently because he considered that
to give Yates’s name to both genus and species
was ‘objectionable.’ But why, in giving the
synonymy, should not the actual facts be stated,
so that the responsibility should rest where it
belongs? The entry Cycadeoidea Morrisii,
Geol. Mag., 1867, is simply a falsification of the
record. Although Mr. Seward’s synonymy ap-
pears upon the face to be carefully prepared,
yet such facts as these show that it is not to be
trusted, and the reader is compelled in every
ease to go back to the original and find out
whether the entry is correct or not. Clearly
such synonymy is far worse than none.
The third and only other case that I shall
SCIENCE.
875
cite is that of Bennettites Gibsonianus Carr., on
page 142. Here ten references are given in the
synonymy under the name, representing three
changes. Mantell’s Clatharia Lyellii has, of
course, been set aside for proper reasons, and
the earliest entry by Carruthers is that of Ben-
nettites Gibsonianus in Trans. Linn. Soc., Vol.
XXVI., p. 700, 1870. The last entry in Mr.
Seward’s synonymy is as follows:
1894. Cycadeoidea Gibsoni, Ward, Biol. Soc.
Washington, Vol. IX., p. 80.
From this the reader will, of course, suppose
that the last named author deliberately changed
the specific name from Gibsonianus to Gibsoni,
and will hold him responsible therefor. Very
few will have before them the little paper
quoted, but those who chance to have it will
find on the page cited that the first entry under
the synonymy is as follows:
1867. Bennettites Gibsoni Carr., Brit. Assoc.
Rep., 37th meeting, Pt. IT., p. 80.
This entry is correct, but is conveniently
omitted in Mr. Seward’s synonymy. This
spelling of the specific name, therefore, has
three years priority over the other, and if there
were any other test of the propriety of a name
than that it is the first one given, the earlier
one in this case is the better, because the speci-
men was collected by Gibson, and the general
practice is to employ the genitive form for
names of persons who have some immediate
connection with the specimen, usually as col-
lector, and the adjective form for those whose
connection is remote, and especially where the
purpose is merely to honor one who may not be
related to the existing case at all. But two
reasons are no better than one. The reference
to Mr. Carruther’s earliest name should, of
course, have been given under its proper date,
and the last entry should have been:
1894. Cycadeoidea Gibsoni (Carr.) Ward.
This would have completed the record and
satisfied the ethics of the case.
Of course, it may be objected that the name
Bennettites Gibsoni Carr. was a nomen nudum, as
no description or figure accompanied it in the
note referred to, but the school of botanists to
which reference has been made have never
troubled themselves with any such refinements
in nomenclature as this. Mr. Carruthers pre-
876
ferred Brongniart’s nomen nudum Mantellia nidi-
formis to Buckland’s Cycadeoidea megalophylla,
although the latter was thoroughly described
and illustrated and also had priority, as he,
himself, admits. In the example before us the
last author named is, of course, responsible for
referring Bennettites to Cycadeoidea, which,
whether correct or not, was a legitimate change
and the reasons were given in the paper re-
ferred to.
These three cases will suffice to furnish the
standard by which the whole is to be judged,
and it is obvious that the system of citation
adopted in this work, which is simply repre-
sentative of the whole class of writers referred
to, and for which its author should not be held
personally responsible, involves both the sup-
pressio veri and the suggestio falsi. That this
should be tolerated in any department of
science, the essence of which is truth, is surely
beyond the ordinary comprehension.
LESTER F. WARD.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
A Summary Description of the Geology of Penn-
sylvania. J.P. LESLEY, Harrisburg. Vols.
I. and II., 1892; Vol. III. in 2 parts, 1895.
pp. 2688 and 611 pl., with an index volume
of pp. 98 and xxx.
These volumes, completing the series of Penn-
sylvania reports, are offered as a digest of about
one hundred volumes, averaging not far from
two hundred pages each. A review, even a
synopsis, is impossible; space admits merely of
a notice.
Prof. Lesley’s contribution covers the col-
umn from the base to the Mauch Chunk of
the Lower Carboniferous; failing health com-
pelled cessation of work at that point, and the
compilation had to be completed by others.
The portion described by Prof. Lesley is
found in the most complicated part of the State,
and the problems with which he had to deal
were numerous and perplexing. The conclu-
sions offered by geologists in adjoining districts
were often discordant, and the termination of
the survey came too soon to admit of careful
re-study of doubtful areas. As a result, the
first two volumes of this report contain many
defective spots, which the author does not at-
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 76.
tempt to conceal. The Cambrian and Ordovi-
cian, studied chiefly during the early years of
the survey, need thorough revision, and the re-
lations of the Pennsylvania Silurian to that of
other States are still somewhat obscure. The
discussion of the Devonian is careful and as ac-
ceptable as any discussion of the Pennsylvania
Devonian can be at this time. The numerous
deep oil borings in southwest Pennsylvania
and West Virginia will afford new material
for study of the problems involved. Prof.
Lesley’s industry is simply appalling; he has
mastered the details of the reports in such way
as to make them his own, and his portion of
these volumes bears his own stamp on every
page, so that we have not a mere compilation
but a real presentation of the geology as far as
the condition of our knowledge warrants. His
anxiety to escape the ‘error’ of the director of
the First Geological Survey of the State is
shown in the effort to fasten every geologist’s
name to his work, even, at times, to the extent
of crediting to the geologist in charge of a dis-
trict observations which were only confirmatory
of his own made many years before. His read-
iness to give a hearing to both sides is evi-
denced not merely by the insertion of an argu-
ment, by another, of thirty pages contro-
verting a position strenuously defended by him
for more than twelve years, but also by his rel-
egation to the doubtful column of opinions
long regarded by him as proved.
The Mauch Chunk west from the Anthracite
fields and the Pottsville conglomerate through-
out the State are described by Mr. d’Invilliers
in Vol. 8, pp. 1883-1915. The synopsis of the
labors of Prof. White and others is given
clearly and compactly and with a reasonable
effort to assign to each author proper credit *
for his work.
The Anthracite fields are described by Mr.
A. D. W. Smith on pp. 1916-2152; this sum-
mary appears to be in large part supplementary
to the reports and work of Messrs. Ashburner
and Hill.
The Bituminous coal fields are described by
Mr. E. V. d’Invilliers, on pp. 2153-2588,
this description forming the greater part of
Vol. IIl., Pt. I. Mr. d’Invillier’s work has
been conscientious and successful, so that his
JUNE 12, 1896. ]
synopsis cannot fail to be useful to geologists
as well as satisfactory to the citizens of Penn-
sylvania, the features of the beds being givenin
great detail. This synopsis cannot fail to be
gratifying, in one sense, to Mr. d’Invillier’s
predecessors in the bituminous fields, for he
has made excellent use of their work. But an
oversight, doubtless unintentional on Mr. d’In-
villier’s part, cannot fail to detract from the
pleasure with which his predecessors should
read his synopsis; he has failed to give credit
to them in the proper places to such an extent
that those who use his work hereafter will be
-apt to regard him as author rather than as
compiler.
The report closes with a review of the New
Red, by Mr. Benjamin Smith Lyman, which is
a synopsis of his own work and a valuable
contribution to the literature of the subject.
The index is quite a marvel in its way. If
the purpose of its maker had been to conceal
the names of the geologists on whose observa-
‘tions the report is based it could hardly have
been more successful along that line. Of the
geologists in charge of districts, Dewees, W. G.
Platt, Carll and Prime are not mentioned ;
McCreath, whose chemical work made the sur-
vey celebrated, is ignored in the same way.
No notice is taken of the work of F. and W.
‘G. Platt, Stevenson and White in the bitumi-
nous fields; even Lesley himself is alluded to
but once, while the work of one of the com-
pilers requires twenty-six references, that of
another five, and that of a third none. The
list of publications following the index is even
more successful than the index itself, for all of
the volumes appear to be anonymous except
‘the two publications by Dr. Genth.
JoHN J. STEVENSON.
Neudrucke von Schriften und Karten iiber Meteoro-
logie und Erdmagnetismus, herausgegeben von
Pror. Dr. G. HELLMANN:
No. 5. Die Bauern-Praktik.
83.
No. 6. Concerning the Cause of the General Trade
Winds. By GEORGE HADLEY. London, 1735.
1508. 4°. Pp.
4°, Pp. 21.
Facsimiledrucke, mit Einleitungen. Berlin, A.
Asher & Co. 1896.
SCIENCE.
877
One of the signs that meteorology is now
rapidly advancing as a science is the fact that
more and more attention is being directed to
the ancient writings which marked the first
steps in its development. As new discoveries
are being made, and as the modern literature
of the subject is increasing, we appreciate more
fully what the early students and writers did
for us, and we are glad to become familiar with
their work. The return to the older authors
has brought out, during the past two or three
years, some interesting translations and re-
prints of ancient writings on meteorology. The
most notable set of such publications is the
series of Neudrucke von Schriften und Karten
uber Meteorologie und Erdmagnetismus, edited
by Dr. Hellmann, of Berlin, a very devoted
student of meteorology. These reprints are
attractively gotten up in rough, white paper
covers, and are facsimile reproductions of the
originals. Each number contains bibliographi-
cal and historical notes prepared by Dr. Hell-
mann, which is equivalent to saying that they
are full, accurate and interesting.
The series of Neudrucke, which already in-
cluded four reprints of old and rare publica-
tions, has lately been enlarged by the addition
of two more volumes, Nos. 5 and 6. The first,
No. 5, is a reprint of Die Bauern-Praktik, origi-
nally published in 1508 and undoubtedly the
most widely known of all meteorological books.
The original went through sixty editions in
Germany, and was translated into French,
English, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, etc.
The weather prognostics and rules of Die
Bauern-Praktik may be found in the manu-
scripts of the 10th to 15th centuries, and, in
their beginnings, may be traced back much
further, even to the days of the Indo-Germanic
tribes and to the ancient Chinese. The princi-
pal part of the original publication deals with
the forecasting of the weather for the whole
year on the basis of the weather observed on
Christmas and on the twelve days following it.
Although, of course, of no practical use to us
at the present day, this reprint is of much in-
terest historically to antiquarians and those in-
terested in folk-lore, as well as to meteorolo-
gists.
No. 6, of the series, is a facsimile reprint of
878
Hadley’s Concerning the Cause of the General
Trade Winds, originally published in the Philo-
sophical Transactions in 1735. This paper, al-
though very short, was one of very great im-
portance in relation to the theory of the trade
winds. Hadley’s explanation of the direction
of these winds, which he rightly ascribed to the
deflective effect of the earth’s rotation, was not
complete or accurate, yet his theory is com-
monly found given in many books of the pres-
ent day. The paper .was distinctly epoch-
making, and, as such, is well deserving of a
place in Dr. Hellmann’s admirable series. The
notes in the Hadley reprint are as full and as
suggestive as in the other numbers.
The publishers of the Neudrucke are Asher
& Co., of Berlin, but we are informed that Dr.
Hellmann has sent over several copies of each
of the last two volumes to Mr. A. Lawrence
Rotch, Readville, Mass., in order that Ameri-
cans may be saved the trouble of writing to
Europe for them. The reprints may be ob-
tained at cost price on application to Mr.
Rotch, the price of Die Bauern-Praktik being
$1.75, and that of the Hadley reprint 50 cents.
R. DEC. Warp.
SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS.
PSYCHE, JUNE.
THE body of the number contains but a
single short article, in which J. W. Folsom de-
scribes and figures a new Thysanuran which he
regards as representing a new genus and family,
Neelide. Two supplements are added, in one
of which T. D. A. Cockerell continues his de-
scriptions of new species of bees of the genus
Prosapis, mostly from Colorado and Nevada;
in the other F. C. Bowditch gives a list of 674
Coleoptera found on Mt. Washington, N. H.,
both above and below the timber line, with
brief notes.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON,
MEETING, SATURDAY, MAY 16.
262D
THE evening was devoted to the discussion
of The Fauna and Flora of the Islands off the
Coast of Southern and Lower California, Including
the Gulf of California.
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 76.
Dr. E. L. Greene discussed in brief the flora.’
of the islands. The entire group, from Guada-
lupe, off the coast of Mexico, lying a hundred
miles or more distant from the mainland, to
those forming the channel of Santa Barbara and
holding distances of only thirty and forty miles
from the Californian shore, isa remarkable group
among continental islands, as presenting in its
flora so many points of divergence from that of
the adjacent mainland. The islands of the At-
lantic seaboard, even those lying farther out at
sea than do any of those of the Cailfornian coast,
yield only such genera and species as are com-
mon on the continent. But in the case of the
Mexico-Californian group there are not less than
fifty good species already known which are
absolutely peculiar to the islands ; some of them
representing even generic types, like Lyono-
thamnus, consisting of two very distinct species.
—one a large shrub, the other a small tree—
with no very near relatives in any other part of
the world. Crossosoma, another genus of shrubs,
has one fine species indigenous to several
islands, with none on the immediately neigh-
boring mainland, though a second small and in-
significant member of the genus occurs away
beyond the continental mountain ranges, on the
verge of the deserts of the distant interior.
And this insular genus Crossosoma is almost
more than a genus. It probably represents a
natural order, some authors referring it to the
Dilleniacze, the genera of which are all Aus-
tralian and South American, others placing it
provisionally in the Papaveracez, while in char-
acter it is different from either family. The
most surprising case of entire divergence from
continental flora is that of four very strongly
marked species of Lavatera, which are scattered
up and down the archipelago, while not a
single species is indigenous to the American
continent, either North or South, all the gen-
eric allies of these fine shrubs being of the flora
of the Mediterranean region, with the exception
of three or four, which are confined to remote
and truly oceanic islands.
Another and negative point of divergence
between the insular and mainland floras is the
almost or quite total absence from the island
of representatives of certain of the most prev-
alent mainland genera, such as Ribes Lu-
JUNE 12, 1896 j
pinus Astragalus Potentilla Horkelia and many
more. Equally remarkable and interestingly
suggestive is the fact that certain trees, shrubs
and herbaceous plants, long known as ex-
tremely rare, or quite local, on the mainland
shores—such as Pinus Torreyana, Malacothrix
incana and Leptosyne gigantea—have more re-
cently been found to occur in the most luxuri-
ant abundance on these outlying islands. Their
rare occurrence on the continental shore is at
just those points where their seeds would natur-
ally land if drifted across from the islands. The
conclusion is unavoidable that, in so far as
these belong to the continental flora, they have
been given to it from the islands, these latter
being their original habitat. In a word, the
character of this insular flora departs from al-
most all known rules, and in so far that, viewed
as to their flora, the whole group seem like
oceanic islands crowed over against the border
of a continent.
The land mammals of the islands were dis-
cussed by Dr. Edgar A. Mearns, who enumer-
ated, in addition to the genus Homo, twelve
genera and upwards of twenty species of native
terrestrial mammals which are at present known
to inhabit the islands off the coasts of southern
and Lower California, and alluded to others
remaining to be described by the energetic and
adventurous naturalist, Mr. Walter Bryant,
whose explorations of Guadalupe, Cedros, Es-
perito-Santo and the other islands off the Pa-
cific and Gulf coasts of Lower California are
so well known to naturalists.
Dr. Mearns described and exhibited speci-
mens of a new mouse (Peromyscus) and a new
kangaroo rat (Dipodomys) recently collected on
Tiburon Island, in the Gulf of California, by
Mr. J. W. Mitchell, who accompanied Prof.
McGee on his latest expedition. He also re-
marked upon the close relationship existing be-
tween the island mammals as a whole and those
of the neighboring mainland, insomuch that
their origin from the latter could be readily
traced in each instance, though none are actu-
ally identical, thus furnishing a plain and strik-
ing illustration of the evolution of species.
Of domestic animals, the goat, sheep, cow,
donkey, dog, cat and house rat have been in-
troduced on one or more of the islands, and, in
SCIENCE.
879
several instances, some of them bid fair to de-
stroy the native fauna or flora of certain
islands.
In the discussion which followed this paper,
Dr. C. Hart Merriam added a genus to the
known mammal fauna of these islands, a
spécies of the little spotted skunk (Spilogale)
having been taken on Santa Catalina Island,
one of the Santa Barbara group.
A skin of the Western Desert mule deer,
(called ‘ Burro’), was sent to the Society for ex-
amination by Prof. W J McGee, who obtained
the specimen in the Sierra Seri Sonora. Dr.
Mearns had also found this deer on the Western
desert tract, both east and west of the Colorado
river.
Mr. Harry C. Oberholser spoke briefly of
the birds of the island, calling attention to the
number of subspecies which were evidently
descended from continental forms.
F. A. Lucas,
Secretary.
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
Ar the 50th meeting of this Society held May
27th, the last meeting until next fall, the fol-
lowing papers were read and discussed:
Texture and Structure of Soils: By Pror.
Mitton Wuitney, of U. 8. Department of
Agriculture. The following forces are usually
spoken of as the principal ones in the disintegra-
tion of rocks and the formation of soils. 1.
Changes of temperature. 2. Moving water or
ice. 3. Influence of vegetable or animal life
(shades the land; admits air; solvent action of
the roots; chemical action of decaying organic
matter, earthworms and bacteria). 4. Chemi-
cal action of air and water. 5. Oxidation and
hydration. Attention was called to the fact
that all of these forces, excépt the solvent action
of water and hydration, are largely superficial
and would not act at any considerable depth.
They certainly can not explain the disintegra-
tion of rocks to a depth of 50 or 75 feet as is
seen in the crystalline areas at the south.
If the solvent action of water has been the
main cause of the disintegration of rocks,
then 50 per cent. of the rock must have
been dissolved and carried away. If the
880
rock has been split up by mechanical means
into the minute grains of sand and clay then
the resulting material must have swelled to
twice its original volume. Lantern slides were
exhibited showing the shape of soil grains and
the relative size and surface area, and to illus-
trate some of the physical properties of sand
and clay. Slides were also shown illustrating
the texture of soils, and the economical impor-
tance of this subject in the distribution of crops
was pointed out, the texture of soils adapted to
many of the principal crops being shown.
By the structure of soils is meant the arrange-
ment of the soil grains. This has an important
geological bearing and a very important eco-
nomic side. Slides were used to show grains
of soil unflocculated as they exist in a puddled
clay and flocculated as they exist in a loam soil.
The effect of this on the relation of soils to rain-
fall was explained and the economic importance
of the difference in the conditions maintained
by the soils owing to the difference in the struc-
ture was pointed out.
Topographic Nomenclature of Spanish America.
Mr. Rob’t T. Hill, of the U. S. Geological Sur-
vey, read a paper upon the names given by the
Spanish people to the topographic features of the
United States, illustrating by appropriate lan-
tern slides. It was held that with one or two
exceptions, Spanish words could be found upon
the published maps for nearly all topographic
forms. Over fifty of these terms were defined
and illustrated, and Mr. Hill proposed that
many of them be adopted into the English lan-
guage and used for forms for which the latter
possess no appropriate terms. The paper will
be published in full. W. F. Morse.
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILA-
DELPHIA, MAY 26, 1896.
A PAPER entitled ‘Catalogue of the Species
of Cerion, with Descriptions of New Forms,’ by
Henry A. Pilsbry and E. G. Vanatta, was pre-
sented for publication.
Mr. Edw. Goldsmith reported that a speci-
men of supposed Geyserite from Hawaii had
been found by him to be an amorphous, soluble
sulphate of lime. The substance was found on
the edge of the crater of Kilauea, associated
with sulphur deposits,
SCIENCE.
LN. S. Vou. III. No. 76.
Prof. Edw. D. Cope exhibited the skull of a
whale from the Miocene of the Yorktown epoch.
It adds another species to the whalebone
whales, and establishes their direct relations to
the Zeuglodonts. The elongation of the parie-
tal and frontal bones is characteristic. The
form is allied to the genus Cetotherium, and is
described under the name Cephalotropis coro-
natus.
Dr. M. VY. Ball described a human exance-
phalic monster born in about the seventh month.
The brain, although extruded, is well developed.
There are six digits on one hand. No reason
could be suggested for the occurrence, the par-
ents, grandparents and a number of brothers
and sisters being normal.
Botanical Section, May 11, 1896, Dr. Chas.
Schaeffer, Recorder.—Mr. Thomas Meehan
stated that he had observed that the flowers of
Draba verna are often self-fertilized by the two
long arcuate stamens, while in Capsella, of the
same order, this is not the case. He believes
Draba to be both protandrous and protero-
genous.
Mr. Beringer exhibited a very tomentose
specimen of Quercus alba, and gave new locali-
ties for Carex baratii.
A committee, consisting of Edw. D. Cope,
Benjamin Sharp and H. Frank Moore, was ap-
pointed to draft resolutions for presentation to
the next meeting expressive of the Academy’s
opinion on the subject of the anti-vivisection
bill now before Congress.
Epw. J. NoLAN,
Recording Secretary.
NEW BOOKS.
Miscellaneous Papers by Heinrich Hertz, with an
introduction by PRor. PHILIP LENARD, trans-
lated by D. E. Jones and G. A. ScHorr.
London and New York, Macmillan & Co.,
Ltd. 1896. Pp. xxvi+840. $3.25.
The Gypsy Moth. Epwarp M. ForsusH and
CHARLES M. FERNALD. Boston, Wright & Pot-
ter Printing Co. 1896. Pp. xii+495+C = 100.
Biological Experimentation, its Functions and
Limits. Sir BENJAMIN WARD RICHARDSON.
London, George Bell & Sons; New York,
The Macmillan Co. 1896. $1.00.
SCIENCE
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Botany; HENRY F. OsBoRN, General Biology; H. P. BowpitcuH, Physiology ;
J. S. BILLines, Hygiene ; J. MCKEEN CATTELL, Psychology ;
DANIEL G. BRINTON, J. W. POWELL, Anthropology ;
G. BROWN GOODE, Scientific Organization.
FRIDAY, JUNE 19, 1896.
CONTENTS :
Address of the President before the Society for Psy-
chical Research: WILLIAM JAMES............0.0665 881
The Form of the Head as Influenced by Growth: W.
Yi>-VRIRESGISNY cono0a00009900qs0absaq90d0000n.UDRUODHoUNDaedEeOEE 888
Is the Pumpkin an American Plant? J. W. HARSH-
THIDIRETIIE, s9500000005000000000060000000000000000000000000000000 889
Award and Presentation of the Rumford Premium ...891
The American Association. for the Advancement of
ISLC 2occcqgeccbonbccecdo00050d0d 0000 DOONOCBOSECEOROA EERE 893
Current Notes on Anthropology :—
The Bull-Roarer, or Buzz; Geographical Markings
on Native Utensils: D. G. BRINTON.............. ..895
Scientific Notes and News :—
Astronomy: H.J. The Missouri Botanical Gar-
den; Agriculture in Great Britain; General....... 896
University and Educational News.........00..cs0e+e000+e 899
Discussion and Correspondence :—
The Habit of Drinking in Young Birds: C.
Lioyp MoreGan. A Suggested Experiment on
Heredity: HtrRAmM M. STANLEY. Darkening of
the Cathode in a Crookes Tube: FLORIAN CA-
DOWIE, \KATEIETCANTE [SIM BED} EN%6 So¢cosonoeonobonnooEKoDB BNE 900
Scientific Literature :—
Curtis on Voice Building and Tone Placing: W.
HALLOocK. Linck’s Grundriss der Krstallographie :
W.S. B. Italian Coceide: L. O. Howarp.
Hart’s Hypnotism, Mesmerism and the New Witch-
craft: JOSEPH: JASTROW:....0.:-steseecsscssssccesees 901
Societies and Academies :-—
Entomological Society of Washington: L. O.
Howarp. Chemical Society of Washington: <A.
C. PEALE. Academy of Natural Sciences of Phila-
delphia: TEDW. J. NOLAN ..0.2...0..ccesessesccesrees 905
PNG WMBOOKSE en condestencnedesare ntsc ck veak ae bcos ak ie estou asacs 908
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT BEFORE THE
SOCIETY FOR PSYCHICAL RESEARCH.*
TuE Presidency of the Society for Psychical
Research resembles a mousetrap. Broad
is the path and wide the way that leadeth
thereinto. Flattering bait is spread before
the entrance: The distinguished names of
one’s predecessors in the office; the absence
of any active duties; England and America
symbolically made one in that higher re-
public where no disputed frontiers or for-
eign offices exist; and all the rest of it.
But when the moment comes to retrace
one’s steps and go back to private life, like
Cincinnatus to his plough, then comes the
sorrow, then the penalty for greatness. The
careless presidential mouse finds the wires
all pointing against him, and to get out
there is no chance, unless he leave some
portion of his fur. So in resigning my of-
fice to my worthier successor, I send this
address to be read across the ocean as my
ransom, not unaware, as I write it, that the
few things I can say may well fall short of
the dignity of the occasion and the needs
of the cause for which our Society exists.
Were psychical research as well organized
as the other sciences are, the plan of a presi-
dential address would be mapped out in
advance. It could be nothing but a report
*Read at the Annual Meeting of the Society in
London on January 31st, 1896, and also at meetings of
the American Branch in Boston on January 31st and
New York on February 1st, 1896.
882
of progress, an account of such new obser-
vations and new conceptions as the interim
might have brought forth. But our active
workers are so few compared with those
engaged in more familiar departments of
natural learning, and the phenomena we
study so fortuitous and occasional, that two
years must, as a rule, prove too short an
interval for regular accounts of stock to be
taken. Looking back, however, on our
whole dozen years or more of existence,
one can appreciate what solid progress we
have made. Disappointing as our career
has doubtless been to those of our early
members who expected definite corrobora-
tion or the final coup de grace to be given in
a few short months to such baffling ques-
tions a$ that of physical mediumship, to
soberer and less enthusiastic minds the
long array of our volumes of Proceedings
must suggest a feeling of anything but dis-
couragement. For here, for the first time
in the history of these perplexing subjects,
we find a large collection of records, to each
of which the editors and reporters have
striven to attach its own precise coefficient
of evidential value, great or small, by get-
ting at every item of first-hand evidence
that could be attained, and by systematic-
ally pointing out the gaps. Only those
who have tried to reach conclusions of their
own by consulting the previous literature
of the occult, as vague and useless, for
the most part, as it is voluminous, can
fully appreciate the immense importance
of the new method which we have in-
troduced. Little by little, through con-
sistently following this plan, our Proceed-
ings are extorting respect from the most
unwilling lookers-on; and I should like
emphatically to express my hope that the
impartiality and completeness of record
which has been their distinguishing char-
acter in the past will be held to even more
rigorously in the future. It is not as a
vehicle of conclusions of our own, but as a
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. Ill. No. 77.
collection of documents that may hereafter
be resorted to for testing the conclusions
and hypotheses of anybody, that they will
be permanently important. Candor must
be their very essence, and all the hesita-
tions and contradictions that the phenomena
involve must appear unmitigatedly in their
pages. Collections of this sort are usually
best appreciated by the rising generation.
The young anthropologists and psycholo-
gists who will soon have full occupancy of
the stage will feel, as we have felt, how
great a scientific scandal it has been to
leave a great mass of human experience to
take its chances between vague tradition
and creduilty on the one hand and dogmatic
denial at long range on the other, with no
body of persons extant who are willing and
competent to study the matter with both
patience and rigor. There have been iso-
lated experts, it is true, before now. But
our Society has for the first time made their
abilities mutually helpful.
If I were asked to give some sort of dra-
matic unity to our history, I should say
first that we started with high hopes that
the hypnotic field would yield an important
harvest, and that these hopes have subsided
with the general subsidence of what may
be called the hypnotic wave. Secondly, I
should say that experimental thought-trans-
ference has yielded a less abundant return
than that which in the first year or two
seemed not unlikely to come in. Professor
Richet’s supposition that if the unexplained
thing called thought-transference be ever
real, its causes must, to some degree, work
in everybody at all times (so that in any
long series of card-guessings, for example,
there ought always to be some excess of
right answers above the chance number) is,
I am inclined to think, not very well sub-
stantiated. Thought-transference may in-
volve a critical point, as the physicists call
it, which is passed only when certain psy-
chie conditions are realized, and otherwise
JUNE 19, 1896.]
not reached at all—just as a big conflagra-
tion will break out at a certain tempera-
ture, below which no conflagration what-
ever, whether big or little, can occur. We
have published records of experiments on
at least thirty subjects, roughly speaking,
and many of these were strikingly success-
ful. But their types are heterogeneous ;
in some cases the conditions were not fault-
less; in others the observations were not
prolonged; and generally speaking, we
must all share in a regret that the evidence,
since it has reached the point it has reached,
should not grow more voluminous still.
For whilst it eannot be ignored by the can-
did mind, it yet, as it now stands, may fail
to convince coercively the skeptic. Any
day, of course, may bring in fresh experi-
ments-in successful picture guessing. But
meanwhile, and lacking that, we can only
point out that our present data are strength-
ened in the flank, so to speak, by all obser-
vations that tend to corroborate the possi-
bility of other kindred phenomena, such as
telepathic impression, clairvoyance, or what
is called ‘test-mediumship.’ The wider
genus will naturally cover the narrower
species with its credit.
Now, as regards the work of the Society
in these latter regards, we can point to
solid progress. First of all we have that
masterpiece of intelligent and thorough
scientific work—I use my words advisedly
—the Sidgwick Report on the Census of
Hallucinations. Against the conclusion of
this report, that death apparitions are 440
times more numerous than they should be
according to chance, the only rational an-
swer that I can see is that the data are
still too few, that the net was not cast wide
enough, and that we need, to get fair aver-
ages, far more than 17,000 answers to the
Census question. This may, of course, be
true, though it seem exceedingly unlikely,
and in our own 17,000 answers veridical
cases may have heaped themselves unduly.
SCIENCE.
883
So neither by this report then, taken alone,
is it absolutely necessary that the skeptic
be definitely convinced. But then we have,
to strengthen 7ts flank in turn, the carefully
studied cases of ‘Miss X.’ and Mrs. Piper,
two persons of the constitution now coming
to be nicknamed ‘psychic’ (a bad term,
but a handy one), each person of a different
psychic type, and each presenting phenom-
ena so chronic and abundant that, to ex-
plain away the supernormal knowledge
displayed, the disbeliever will certainly
rather call the subjects deceivers, and their
believers dupes, than resort to the theory
of chance-coincidence. The same remark
holds true of the extraordinary case of
Stainton Moses, concerning which Mr.
Myers has recently given us such interest-
ing documents. In all these cases (as Mr.
Lang has well said of the latter one) we
are, it seems to me, fairly forced to choose
between a physical and a moral miracle.
The physical miracle is that knowledge may
come to a person otherwise than by the
usual use of eyes and ears. The moral
miracle is a kind of deceit so perverse and
successful as to find no parallel in usual
experience. But the limits of possible per-
versity and success in deceit are hard to
draw; so here again the skeptic may fall
back on his general non possumus, and with-
out pretending to explain the facts in de-
tail, say the presumption from the ordinary
course of Nature holds good against their
supernormal interpretation. But the of-
tener one is forced to reject an alleged sort
of fact, by the method of falling back on
the mere presumption that it can’t be true
because, so far as we know Nature, Nature
runs altogether the other way, the weaker
does the presumption itself get to be; and
one might in course of time use up one’s
presumptive privileges in this way, even
though one started (as our anti-telepath-
ists do) with as good a case as the great
induction of psychology that all our knowl-
884
edge comes by the use of our eyes and ears
and other senses. And we must remember
also that this undermining of the strength
of a presumption by reiterated report of
facts to the contrary does not logically re-
quire that the facts in question should all
be well proved. A lot of rumors in the air
against a business man’s credit, though
they might all be vague, and no one of
them amount to proof that he is unsound,
would certainly weaken the presumption of
his soundness. And all the more would
they have this effect if they formed what
our lamented Gurney called a faggot and
not a chain, that is, if they were independ-
ent of each other, and came from different
quarters. Now our evidence for telepathy,
weak and strong, taken just as it comes,
forms a faggot and not a chain. No one
item cites the content of another item as
part of its own proof. But, taken together,
the items have a certain general consistency ;
there is a method in their madness, so to
speak. So each of them adds presumptive
value to the lot; and cumulatively, as no
candid mind ean fail to see, they subtract
presumptive force from the orthodox belief
that there can be nothing in any one’s in-
tellect that has not come in through ordi-
nary experiences of sense.
But it is a miserable thing for a question
of truth to be confined to mere presumption
and counter-presumption, with no decisive
thunderbolt of fact to clear the baffling
darkness. And sooth to say, in talking so
much of the merely presumption-weakening
value of our records, I have been wilfully
taking the point of view of the so-called
‘ rigorously scientific ’ disbeliever, and mak-
ing an ad hominem plea. My own point of
view is different. For me the thunderbolt
has fallen, and the orthodox belief has not
merely had its presumption weakened, but
the truth itself of the belief is decisively
overthrown. If you will let me use the
language of the professional logic shop, a
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 77.
universal proposition can be made untrue
by a particular instance. If you wish to
upset the law that all crows are black, you
mustn’t seek to show that no crows are ; it
is enough if you prove one single crow to be
white. My own white crow is Mrs. Piper.
In the trances of this medium, I cannot re-
sist the conviction that knowledge appears
which she has never gained by the ordinary
waking use of her eyes and ears and wits.
What the source of this knowledge may be
I know not, and have not the glimmer of an
explanatory suggestion to make; but from
admitting the fact of such knowledge, I can
see no escape. So when I turn to the rest
of our evidence, ghosts and all, I cannot
carry with me the irreversibly negative bias
of the rigorously scientific mind, with its
presumption as to what the true order of
nature ought to be. I feel as if, though the
evidence be flimsy in spots, it may never-
theless collectively carry heavy weight.
The rigorously scientific mind may, in
truth, easily overreach itself. Science
means, first of all, a certain dispassionate
method. To suppose that it means a cer-
tain set of results that one should pin one’s
faith upon and hug forever is sadly to mis-
take its genius, and degrades the scientific
body to the status of a sect.
But I am devoting too many words to
scientific logic, and too few to my review of
our career. In the question of physical
mediumship, we have left matters as baffling
as we found them, neither more nor less.
For if, on the one hand, we have brought
out new documents concerning the physical
miracles of Stainton Moses, on the other
hand we have, by the Hodgson-Davey ex-
periments, and the Paladino episode, very
largely increased the probability that testi-
mony based on certain sorts of observation
may be quite valueless as proof. Husapia.
Paladino has been to us botha warning and
an encouragement: an encouragement to
pursue unwaveringly the rigorous method
JUNE 19, 1896.]
in such matters from which our Proceedings
have never departed, and a warning against
drawing any prompt inference whatever from
things that happen in the dark. The conclu-
sions to which some of us had been hastily
led on ‘the Island,’ melted away when, in
Cambridge, the opportunity for longer and
more cunning observation was afforded.
Some day, it is to be hoped, our Proceedings
may be enabled to publish a complete study
of this woman’s life. Whatever the upshot
of such astudy, few documents could be more
instructive in all ways for psychical research.
It is pleasant to turn from phenomena of
dark-sitting and rathole type (with their
tragi-comic suggestion that the whole order
of nature might possibly be overturned in
one’s own head, by the way in which one
imagined oneself, on a certain occasion, to
be holding a tricky peasant woman’s feet)
to the ‘calm air of delightful studies.’ And
on the credit side of our Society’s account
a heavy entry must next be made in favor
of that immense and patient collecting of
miscellaneous first-hand documents that
alone has enabled Mr. Myers to develop his
ideas about automatism and the subliminal
self. In Mr. Myers’ papers on these subjects
we see, for the first time in the history of
men’s dealings with occult matters, the
whole range of them brought together, il-
lustrated copiously with unpublished con-
temporary data, and treated in a thoroughly
scientific way. All constructions in this
field must be provisional, and it is as some-
thing provisional that Mr. Myers offers us
his attempt to put order into the tangle.
But, thanks to his genius, we begin to see
for the first time what a vast interlocked
and graded system these phenomena, from
the rudest motor automatisms to the most
startling sensory apparition, form. Mr.
Myers’ methodical treatment of them by
classes and series is the first great step
towards overcoming the distaste of orthodox
science to look at them at all.
SCIENCE.
885:
But our Proceedings contain still other
veins of ore for future working. Ghosts,
for example, and disturbances in haunted
houses. These, whatever else may be said
of them at present, are not without bearing
on the common scientific presumption of
which I have already perhaps said too
much. Of course, one is impressed by such
narratives after the mode in which one’s
impressibility is fashioned. I am _ not
ashamed to confess that in my own case,
although my judgment remains deliberately
suspended, my feeling towards the way in
which the phenomena of physical medium-
ship should be approached has received
from ghost and disturbance stories a dis-
tinctly charitable lurch. Science may keep
saying: “such things are simply impos-
sible ;”’ yet, so long as the stories multiply
in different lands, and so few are positively
explained away, it is bad method to ignore
them. They should at least accrete for fu-
ture use. As I glance back at my reading
of the past few years (reading accidental so
far as these stories go, since I have never
followed up the subject) ten cases im-
mediately rise to my mind. The Phelps
ease at Andover, recorded by one of the
family, in MeClure’s Magazine for this month;
a case in China, in Nevius’s Demon Posses-
sion, published last year; the case in John
Wesley’s life; the ‘Amherst Mystery’ in
Nova Scotia (New York, 1888); the case
in Mr. Willis’s house at Fitchburg, re-
corded in The Atlantic Monthly for August,
1868 (XXII., 129); the Telfair-Mackie
case, in Sharpe’s History of Witcheraft in
Scotland; the Morse case, in Upham’s Salem
Witchcraft; the case recounted in the intro-
duction of W. v. Humboldt’s Brief an eine
Freundin ; a case in the Annales des Sciences
Psychiques for last year (p. 86); the case of
the carpenter’s shop at Swanland, near
Hull, in our Proceedings, Vol. VII., Part XX.,
pp. 383-394. In all of these, if memory
doesn’t deceive me, material objects are
886
said to have been witnessed by many per-
sons moving through the air in broad day-
light. Often the objects were multitudi-
nous; in some cases they were stones show-
ered through windows and down-chimney.
More than once it was noted that they fell
gently and touched the ground without
shock. Apart from the exceptionality of
the reputed occurrences, their mutual re-
semblances suggest a natural type, and I
confess that until these records, or others
like them, are positively explained away,
I cannot feel (in spite of such vast amounts
of detected fraud) as if the case against
physical mediumship itself as a freak of
nature were definitively closed. But I ad-
mit that one man’s psychological reaction
cannot here be like unto another’s; and one
great duty of our Society will be to pounce
upon any future case of this ‘disturbance’
type, catch it while red-handed and nail it
fast, whatever its quality be.
We must accustom ourselves more and
more to playing the réle of a meteorological
bureau, be satisfied for many a year to go
without definitive conclusions, confident
that if we only keep alive and heap up data,
the natural types of them (if there are any)
will surely crystallize out; whilst old ma-
terial that is baffling will get settled as we
proceed, through its analogy with new ma-
terial that will come with the baffling char-
acter removed.
But I must not weary your patience
with the length of my discourse. One gen-
eral reflection, however, I cannot help ask-
ing you to let me indulge in before I close.
It is relative to the influence of psychical
research upon our attitude towards human
history. Although, as I said before, Science
taken in its essence should stand only for a
method, and not for any special beliefs, yet,
as habitually taken by its votaries, Science
has come to be identified with a certain
fixed general belief, the belief that the
deeper order of Nature is mechanical ex-
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 77.
elusively, and that non-mechanical cate-
gories are irrational ways of conceiving
and explaining even such a thing as human
life. Now this mechanical rationalism, as
one may call it, makes, if it becomes one’s
only way of thinking, a violent breach with
the ways of thinking that have, until our
own time, played the greatest part in human
history. Religious thinking, ethical think-
ing, poetical thinking, teleological, emo-
tional, sentimental thinking, what one
might call the personal view of life to dis-
tinguish it from the impersonal and me-
chanical, and the romantic view of life to
distinguish it from the rationalistic view,
have been, and even still are, outside of well-
drilled scientific circles, the dominant forms
of thought. But for mechanical rational-
ism, personality is an insubstantial illusion;
the chronic belief of mankind, that events
may happen for the sake of their personal
significance, is an abomination; and the no-
tions of our grandfathers about oracles and
omens, divinations and apparitions, miracu-
lous changes of heart and wonders worked
by inspired persons, answers to prayer
and providential leadings, are a fabric abso-
lutely baseless, a mass of sheer untruth.
Now, of course, we must all admit that the
excesses to which the romantic and personal
view of Nature may lead, if wholly un-
checked by impersonal rationalism, are
direful. Central African Mumbo-jumboism
in fact is one of unchecked romanticism’s
fruits. One ought accordingly to sympa-
thize with that abhorrance of romanticism
as a sufficient world theory ; one ought to
understand that lively intolerance of the
least grain of romanticism in the views of
life of other people, which are such char-
acteristic marks of those who follow the
scientific professions to-day. Our debt to
Science is literally boundless, and our
gratitude for what is positive in her teach-
ings must be correspondingly immense.
But our own Proceedings and Journals have,
JUNE 19, 1896. ]
it seems to me, conclusively proved one
thing to the candid reader, and that is that
the verdict of pure insanity, gratuitous of
preference for error, of superstition with-
out an excuse, which the scientists of our
day are led by their intellectual training to
pronounce upon the entire thought of the
past, is a most shallow verdict. The per-
sonal and romantic view of life has other
roots besides wanton exuberance of imagi-
nation and perversity of heart. It is per-
enially fed by facts of experience, whatever
the ulterior interpretation of those facts may
prove to be; and at no time in human his-
tory would it have been less easy than now,
at most times it would have been much
more easy, for advocates with a little in-
dustry to collect in its favor an array of
contemporary documents as good as those
which our publications present. These
documents all relate to real experiences of
persons. These experiences have three
characters in common: They are capricious,
discontinuous and not easily controlled;
they require peculiar persons for their pro-
duction; their significance seems to be
wholly for personal life. Those who pre-
ferentially attend to them, and still more
those who are individually subject to them,
not only easily may find, but are logically
bound to find, in them valid arguments for
their romantic and personal conception of
the world’s course. Through my slight
participation in the investigations of the
Society for Physical Research, I have be-
come acquainted with numbers of persons
of this sort, for whom the very word Science
_ has become a name of reproach, for reasons
that I now both understand and respect.
It is the intolerance of Science for such
phenomena as we are studying, her peremp-
tory denial either of their existence, or of
their significance except as proofs of man’s
absolute innate folly, that has set Science
so apart from the common sympathies of
the race. I confess that it is on this, its
SCIENCE.
887
humanizing mission, that our Society’s best
claim to the gratitude of our generation
seems to me to depend. We have restored
continuity to history. We have shown
some reasonable basis for the most super-
stitious abberations of the foretime. We
have bridged the chasm, healed the hideous
rift that Science, taken in a certain narrow
way, has shot into the human world.
I will even go one step further. When
from our present advanced standpoint we
look back upon the past stages of human
thought, whether it be scientific thought or
theological thought, we are amazed that a
Universe which appears to us of so vast
and mysterious a complication should ever
have seemed to any one so little and plain
a thing. Whether it be Descartes’ world
or Newton’s; whether it be that of the ma-
terialists of the last century or that of the
Bridgewater treatises of our own; it always
looks the same to us—incredibly perspec-
tiveless and short. Even Lyell’s, Fara-
day’s, Mill’s and Darwin’s consciousness
of their respective subjects are already
beginning to put on an infantile and inno-
cent look. Is it then likely that the Science
of our own day will escape the common
doom, that the minds of its votaries will
never look old-fashioned to the grandchil-
dren of the latter? It would be folly to
suppose so. Yet, if we are to judge by the
analogy of the past, when our Science once
becomes old-fashioned, it will be more for
its omissions of fact, for its ignorance of
whole ranges and orders of complexity in
the phenomena to be explained, than for
any fatal lack in its spirit and principles.
The spirit and principles of Science are mere
affairs of method; there is nothing in them
that need hinder Science from dealing suc-
cessfully with a world in which personal
forces are the starting-point of new effects.
The only form of thing that we directly
encounter, the only experience that we
concretely have, is our own personal life.
888
The only complete category of our thinking,
our professors of philosophy tell us, is the
category of personality, every other cate-
gory being one of the abstract elements of
that. And this systematic denial, on Sci-
ence’s part, of personality as a condition of
events, this rigorous belief that in its own
essential and innermost nature our world is
a strictly impersonal world, may, conceiv-
ably, as the whirligig of time goes round,
prove to be the very defect that our de-
scendants will be most surprised at in our
own boasted Science, the omission that, to
their eyes, will most tend to make 7 look
perspectiveless and short.
But these things lie upon the knees of
the gods. I must leave them there, and
close now this discourse, which I regret that
I could not make more short. If it has
made you feel that (however it turn out
with modern Science) our own Society, at
any rate, is not ‘perspectiveless,’ it will
have amply served its purpose; and the
next President’s address may have more
definite conquests to record.
WILLIAM JAMES.
THE FORM OF THE HEAD AS INFLUENCED
BY GROWTH.
Tue change in the shape of the head which
accompanies growth has been but very
slightly investigated either in this country
orabroad. The meagreness of results may
be indicated by the fact that Topinard’s
Elements d’ Anthropologie contains only a
note upon the subject, with no data.* A
recent investigation upon the students of the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology may
be of interest as bearing upon this question.
The measurements covered 485 students,
grouped as follows: 215 in the first-year
class ; 69 in the second ; 66 in the third, and
136 in the graduating class.
From the comparison of the measure-
ments of the length and breadth of the heads
* Page 374.
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. IIL. No. 77.
of these students so divided into classes, it
appears that between the period of entrance
and of graduation, that is to say from the
ages of 18-19 to 23-24 years, the develop-
ment of the head is almost entirely in respect
of its length. The average breadth of the
head remaining constant at or near 152 mm.,
the length varies from an average of 195.13
mm. in the first-year to 196.35 in the fourth-
year class. The intermediate classes occupy
a position midway between the two, indicat-
ing that this is not a result of chance. If
this tendency be a general one, it means
that the cephalic index in our American
population of this class tends to decrease at
this particular time of life. The cephalic
index, for example, of the first-year stu-
dents averages 78.6 and that of the fourth-
year averages 77.2, the second and third
years being 77.7. This is rendered specially
significant by the fact that Drs. West and
Porter have shown a slight decrease of
cephalic index in American school children
between the ages of 5 and 18; at Worces-
ter, for example, the average index falling
between 79 and 78.* If we assume that in
both cases we are dealing with similar
populations the hypothesis of a progressive
decrease of cephalic index, with growth,
of our American people would seem to be
well founded.
In Europe, Zuckerhandl, comparing the
index of 156 children and 197 adults of the
same (Austrian) race, found that the chil-
dren were narrower-headed than adults as
a rule; and Holl confirms this result.f Dr.
Meis declares that from his experience the
children among the Germans are more do-
licho-cephalic than the adults.{ Schaaf-
hausen finds that in many cases the length
* Archiv ftir Anthropologie, X-XII., pp. 19 and 34 ;
and Report of Anthropological Congress at Chicago,
p. 57.
+ Mitt. der Anth. Gesell. in Wien. XIV., 1884., p.
127; and bid XVIIL., p. 4.
tIbid, XX., 1890, p. 39 seq.
JUNE 19, 1896.]
of the head is attained before the full
breadth.* In Italy, Dr. Livi has brought
together the results of a number of ob-
servers from both northern and southern
Europe, but all of them from the broad-
headed races.| The difference of cephalic
index on the average among 447 cases here
amounts to one unit in favor of broad-
headedness of the adult, the contrary ten-
dency to that noted for the Americans.
That age brings a relative increase in the
breadth of the head was also apparently in-
dicated by the few measurements made by
Welcker.{ For Bohemia, Dr. Matiegka,
from measurements on 400 children, as-
serted that there is no tendency toward a
change in the relative length and breadth
in the cases observed by him.§ Dr. Boas
finds that in the North American Indians
age is characterized by a relative increase
in the length.||
On the whole, summarizing the results
and opinions of these various writers, whose
conclusions are, on the whole, contrary to our
American ones, it appears that no universal
rule can be established with respect to the
effect of age upon the proportions of the
head. The only hypothesis which seems to
be confirmed by all this evidence is that
development brings an approximation to
the racial type most clearly marked in the
adult. In other words, in the narrow-
headed races, like our own, the children are
broader-headed than the adults. Among
the brachy-cephalic races, such as those in-
stanced by Dr. Livi and most of the others
cited, the children exhibit the race pecu-
liarity in a less marked degree, that is,
they are relatively narrower headed than
*Uber die Urform des Menschlichen Schidels, in
report of Congres Int. d’Anth. et d’Archeologie,
Paris, 1867. :
t‘L ‘Indice Cefalico degli Italiani,’ Florence,
1886, p. 15.
{ Archiy. ftir Anthropologie, I., p. 151.
@ Mitt. der Anth. Gesell. in Wien, XXII., 1892,
Sitzungsberichten, p. 81.
|| Verh. der Berliner Gesell. fur Anth., Sitz ber.
May 18, 1895, p. 392.
SCIENCE.
889
at maturity. Finally the change from
childhood to maturity becomes nil where
the adults themselves belong to a group
with a cephalic index near the mean
for the entire European race. No rela-
tion can be established between the intelli-
gence and the proportions of the head so far
as the experience of European study goes,
although Krause and Virchow declare in fa-
vor of the broad-headed type. If this hy-
pothesis be true that age brings the fuller
development of the race type, it may be
possible in the future to apply a correction
to the comparative results obtained by stu-
dents of anthropology whose results are
drawn from the study of children. But
until that time the inferences to be drawn
from such study are as likely to be errone-
ous as are conclusions drawn from the
study of the color of the hair and eyes of
school children, since in both cases matur-
ity brings a change which has not as yet
been statistically measured. Itis earnestly
hoped that further study along this line
may be undertaken. ‘The testimony of ex-
pert psychologists would be also of interest
as bearing upon this point. In the hope of
stimulating some such investigations, the
modest results obtained from this study at
the Institute of Technology are submitted.
W. Z. Ripley.
IS THE PUMPKIN AN AMERICAN PLANT ?*
In the Index Kewensis seventeen species
of the genus Cucurbita are recognized and
their distribution given as follows :
C. bononiensis. Hab.? | C. mawima. As. trop. Orb.
C. californica. Am.bor.oce trop. cult.
C. ciceraria. Chili. | C. medullaris. Hab.
C. digitata. N. Mexic. | C. melaneformis. Japon.
C. ficifolia. As. or. | C. moschata. As. trop.
C. feetidissima. Mexic. | C. palmata. Calif.
C. Galeottii. Mexic. | C. Pepo. Oriens. Afr. trop.
C. hieroglyphica. Hab.? | C. purpurea. Java.
C. lignosa. Am. autr. | C. radicans. Mexic.
* Substance of a lecture before University Archeo-
logical Association, Feb. 19, 1896.
890
According to the Index the two most
important cultivated forms, Cucurbita Pepo
and C. mawima, are looked upon as being
natives of the eastern hemisphere and not
of the western. Naudin, who made a care-
ful and painstaking study of the cucurbits,
is not so dogmatic. He says:* ‘De ces
six espéces, trois sont alimentaires et
cultivées depuis longtemps en Europe: ce
sont C. maxima, Pepo et moschata, dont
la patrie premiére est inconnue L’une
d’entre elles, le C. Pepo, a peut-étre été
connue des Romains et des Grecs.’”’ De
Candolle says} in relation to the original
home of Cucurbita maxima: ‘ Finally, with-
out placing implicit faith in the indigenous
character of the plant on the banks of the
Niger, based upon the assertion of a single
traveller, I still believe that the species is a
native of the Old World and introduced
into America by Europeans.”’ In connec-
tion with this statement, the French bot-
anist reviews the paper of Gray and Trum-
bull} and dissents from their views, because
they were not based upon the observations
of Naudin concerning the distinction exist-
ing between C. maxima and C. Pepo. The
original home of Cucurbita maxima and C.
Pepo, as far as I can discover from a cur-
sory examination of the literature, is still
doubtful, the Index Kewensis, however,
throwing the weight of its influence towards
an eastern origin. De Candolle* believes
that Cucurbita Pepo is an American plant.
He says: ‘‘ Botanical indications are, there-
fore, in favor of a Mexican or Texan ori-
“Thus historical data do not gain-
say the opinion of an American origin, but
neither do they adduce anything in support
of it.”
7 ”
gin.
* NAUDIN, Annales des Sciences
Wale) Lowtt.
71885, DE CANDOLLE, Origin of Cultivated Plants,
p. 253.
viturelles, 4 Ser.
$1883. GRAY AND TRUMBULL, American Journal of
Seience, p. 372.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 77.
According to Nuttall,* the Indians along
the whole upper Missouri half a century
ago were cultivating C. verrucosa. This
common squash is according to Naudin a
variety of C. Pepo, as is also C. aurantia
(the C. Texana or C. ovifera of Gray), which
has every appearance of being indigenous
in the western part of Texas, on the Rio
Colorado and upper tributaries. At least,
this is the opinion of Mr. Lindheimer and
Mr. Charles Wright, two good judges.
In looking over the plant materials col-
lected in the undoubted prehistoric cliff
dwellings of the Mancos Cafion, Colorado,
and in identifying the vegetal specimens, as
far as the material permitted, I became
much interested in the seeds of some
cucurbitaceous plant, which looked famil-
iarly like those of the pumpkin. I was not
satisfied, however, of this until I had made
a somewhat detailed histological study.
This was the more necessary, because the
utmost confusion seems to reign as to the
specific limits of several of the more inter-
esting cultivated forms. There is not a
group of plants the synonymy of which is
more confused than that of the Cucurbits.
Harz+ and Borbas } give somewhat detailed
descriptions of the anatomy of the seeds of
Cucurbita maxima and Pepo, the former from
an agricultural standpoint, the latter from
a botanical. On comparing the seeds found
in the cliff dwelling exhibit with the
descriptions of both investigators, it was
found that in every respect the seeds were
those of the pumpkin Cucurbita Pepo.
Space will not permit a detailed account
of this investigation, but the results ob-
tained indisputably prove that the pump-
kin is a native of America. It is fortunate
that the seeds were obtained from the ruins
*GRAY, Scientifie Papers, I., p. 85.
+1885, HARZ, Landwirthschafiliche Samenkunde, p.
795, 811.
$1880, BorBAS VINCZE, Foldmiivelesi Erde Keink,
No. 52, quoted in Botanische Centralblatt, VIII. (?) ~
JUNE 19, 1896. ]
of a people who had no contact with Euro-
peans, but who were undoubtedly pre-
Columbian. Nor does the evidence of the
American origin of the pumpkin solely rest
upon the seeds discovered. A whole fruit
with the stem intact is incorporated in the
collection. Beside the fruit, we have the
strongly ribbed stems of the fruit used by
the cliff dwellers as stoppers for bottles.
According to the distinction made by Nau-
din, the stem of C. maxima is smooth; that
of C. Pepo is strongly fluted and roughly
corrugated. So much for botanical evi-
dence.
That the pumpkin is indigenous is shown
also. by the descriptions of the early ex-
plorers and settlers, and by the fact that
gourds and pumpkins were used for a
great many different purposes in America.
This argues for an American origin, be-
cause it takes time for a people to learn
new uses of a plant, which formerly may
have served only one or two purposes.
For example, among the cliff-dwelling
Indians gourds, using the word in a gen-
eral sense, were used for bottles, as recep-
tacles to hold feathers and cotton down
used in spinning. The stems were pre-
served and used as stoppers. The narrow
neck of the gourd dipper, if accidentally
broken off, was saved and used to hold the
ceremonial pollen of maize or of the tule.
The larger fruits were first dried, the in-
{erior cleaned out, and were then used as
water pails or as receptacles in which to
store corn (Zea mays), beans (Phaseolus vul-
guris) and grass seeds. Mr. Cushing de-
seribes* the gourd water bucket of the
Zuni as supported by wicker work com-
posed of fibrous yucca leaves. These are a
few of the many uses to which gourds were
put before the advent of the white man.
J. W. HARSHBERGER.
UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA.
* 1882-83, CUSHING, Report Bureau of Ethnology,
p. 483.
SCIENCE.
891
AWARD AND PRESENTATION OF THE RUM-
FORD PREMIUM.
In conformity with the terms of the gift
of Benjamin, Count Rumford, granting a
certain fund to the American Academy of
Arts and Sciences, the Academy is em-
powered to make, at any annual meeting,
an award of a gold and silver medal, being
together of the intrinsic value of three
hundred dollars, as. a premium to the
author of an important discovery or useful
improvement in light or in heat, which
shall have been made and published by
printing, or in any way made known to the
public, in any part of the continent of
America, or any of the American Islands:
preference being always given to such dis-
coveries as shall, in the opinion of the
Academy, tend most to promote the good
of mankind.
At the annual meeting of 1895 the
Academy awarded the premium to Thomas
Alva Edison for his investigations in
electric lighting, and the presentation of the
medals took place at the meeting of the
13th of May, 1896.
Vice-President Goodale, in presenting the
medals, made the following remarks:
Tt would be highly presumptuous for one
whose knowledge of physics is of the most
elementary character to occupy the time of
the Academy by any statement of his own
in conveying these medals. Happily such
a course is unnecessary. The Chairman of
the Rumford Committee has placed at our
command a brief statement which makes
clear the ground of the award :
“The Rumford Committee voted, June
22, 1893, that it is desirable to award the
Rumford medal to Thomas Alva Edison in
recognition of his investigation in the field
of electric lighting, and they confirmed this
vote on October 9, 1893, in the following
words: ‘Voted for the second time to
recommend to the Academy that the Rum-
ford medal be awarded to Thomas Alva
892
Edison for his investigations in electric
lighting.’
“The Committee reached the conclusion
expressed by these votes after long deliber-
ation and after careful sifting of all the evi-
dence which was at their disposal in regard
to Mr. Edison’s claim for priority in the
construction of the incandescent lamp, the
conception of the central lighting station,
together with the multitude of devices, such
as the three-wire circuit, the disposition of
the electric current feeders, and the neces-
sary methods for maintaining the electric
potential constant.
“The Committee felt that they could not
decide upon Mr. Edison’s claims for priority
in any particular invention in this new in-
dustry. Indeed, courts of law after pro-
longed litigation have found it difficult to
decide how far Mr. Edison was in advance
of contemporary workers. The task given
to the Rumford Committee to decide who is
the most worthy of the Rumford medal,
especially in the field of the application of
electricity for the production of light and
heat, is not an easy one. The number of
investigators is now so large that it is no
longer possible in general for one man to
claim to be the first to apply electricity to
a new field. The successful application is
the result of many minds working on the
same problem. Although the Committee
did not feel justified in expressing the
opinion that Mr. Edison invented the in-
candescent carbon filament lamp, or that
he was the first to arrange such lamp in
multiple on the circuit, thus producing
what is popularly termed a subdivision of
the electric ght, or that the Edison
dynamo had greater merits than the ma-
chine of Gramme and Siemens and others;
still they are convinced that Mr. Edison
gave a great impulse to the new industry
and that he was the first to successfully in-
stalla central electric lighting plant with the
multitude of practical devices which are
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. III. No. 77.
necessary. They believe that this impulse
was due to his indefatigable application, to
his remarkable instinct in whatever relates
to the practical application of electric cir-
cuits, and to his inventive genius. They,
therefore, have unanimously recommended
to the Academy to bestow the Rumford
medals upon him, feeling that the work of
Mr. Edison would especially appeal to the
great founder of the medals, Count Rum-
ford, if he were living.”’
The Academy has accepted the report of
the Rumford Committee and has voted to
confer the gold and the silver medal upon
Mr. Edison. The recipient finds it impos-
sible to be present at this meeting of the
Academy and has requested Prof. Trow-
bridge to act as his proxy and to receive
the medals for him.
In the name of the Academy I beg you,
Prof. Trowbridge, to accept the charge of
conveying these medals to Mr. Edison’s
hands. It would be most ungracious for
us who are assembled in this room, which
is flooded by this steady and brilliant elec-
tric light, to withold our personal thanks
for what Mr. Edison’s investigations and
practical activities have done for us all.
And, hence, I may venture to say that our
thanks and all good wishes are to be con-
veyed with the Rumford medals.
Prof. Trowbridge replied as follows :
Mr. President and Gentlemen of the Acad-
emy: I accept the medals for Mr. Edison,
and at his request I wish to express his
deep sense of the great honor the Academy
has conferred upon him. His work in the
field of electric lighting has been the sub-
ject of prolonged litigation and at times he
has had doubts in reading the opinions of
learned experts whether this work has been
original or whether he had really contri-
buted anything to the world’s progress.
The recognition of his labors by the Ameri-
can Academy of Arts and Sciences, regarded
by Count Rumford in his gifts as the
JUNE 19, 1896. ]
coequal of the Royal Society of London, is
therefore especially grateful to him. Act-
ing as his proxy I thank the members of the
Academy for the distinction which they
have by their votes conferred upon him.
THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE.
THE preliminary announcement of the
45th meeting, to be held in Buffalo, August
22d to August 29th, calls attention to the
fact that the Association met at Buffalo in
1866, 1876 and 1886, and to the special ad-
vantages of Buffalo as a place of meeting.
Most of the meetings will be held in the
Buffalo High School buildings,and the Hotel
Iroquois has been designated as headquar-
ters. The first meeting of the Council will
be at noon on Saturday, August 22d, and
the first General Session will be held
on Monday morning, August 24th. This
will give Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday
and Friday as the four days entirely de-
voted to the reading of papers in the sec-
tions. Saturday will be given to excur-
sions.
The meeting will be called to order by
the retiring President, Prof. Edward W.
Morley, Adelbert College, who will in-
troduce the President-elect Prof. E. D.
Cope, University of Pennsylvania. An Ad-
dress of Welcome will be delivered by Ed-
gar B. Jewett, Mayor of Buffalo, Chairman
of the Local Committee, who will be replied
to by President Cope. The address of the
retiring President will be given in the
evening, and in the afternoon the addresses
of the Vice-Presidents, as follows:
President Carl Leo Mees, of the Rose Poly-
technic Institute, before the Section of Phys-
ics, on ‘ Electrolysis and some outstanding
problems in Molecular Dynamics.’ Miss
Alice C. Fletcher, Washington, before the
Section of Anthropology, on the ‘ Emblem-
atic Use of the Tree in the Dakotan Group.’
Prof. B. K. Emerson, Amherst College,
SCIENCE.
893
before the Section of Geology and Geog-
raphy, on ‘Geological Myths.’ Prof. W.
E. Story, Clark University, before the
Section of Mathematics and Astronomy,
on ‘Intuitive Methods in Mathematics.’
Prof. William R. Lazenby, Ohio State Uni-
versity, before the Section of Social and
Economic Science, on ‘ Horticulture and
Health.’ Dr. Theo. Gill, before the Section
of Zoology, on ‘Animals as Chronometers
for Geology.’ Prof. William A. Noyes,
before the Section of Chemistry, on ‘The
Achievements of Physical Chemistry.’
Prof. N. L. Britton, before the Section of
Botany, on ‘Botanical Gardens.’ Prof.
Frank O. Marvin, University of Kansas,
before the Section of Mechanical Science
and Engineering, on ‘ The Artistic Element
in Engineering.’
It being designed to make of the Buffalo
meeting practically a week of solid work,
the Local Committees must, as far as possi-
ble, arrange the entertainment so as not to
break in upon the business of Sections.
Probably upon the evening of the first
working day, Monday, August 24th, will be
given the reception by the ladies of Buffalo,
and a gentlemen’s reception is to be ap-
pointed for some evening at the Buffalo Club.
On another evening there will be a carriage
drive or a moonlight ride upon Lake Erie,
and the public lectures will fill out the
complement of entertainment prior to the
special trip of the session, which will be a
general complimentary excursion for the
Association to Niagara Falls, on Saturday,
August 29th.
In addition to the magnificent natural
scenery and its scientific aspects the power
house of the Cataract Construction Com-
pany will be visited.
Several special excursions will be under-
taken by the separate sections, and during
the week preceding the meeting, parties
will be conducted through western New
York under the auspices of the Geological
894
Society of America. These excursions will
be as follows:
Stratigraphy and Paleontology : Conductor,
Prof. Charles $8. Prosser, Union College.
The purpose of this excursion will be to
examine the several rock formations in
western New York, with their characteris-
tic fossils. The party will probably gather
at Syracuse on Monday, August 17th, where
the Salina, Helderberg, Oriskany and Onon-
daga strata are well shown. The Genesee
ravine at Rochester, the streams entering
the Genesee, and the gorge of the Genesee
at Mt. Morris, will be especially studied.
Petrography: Conductors, Prof. James
F. Kemp, Columbia University, and Prof.
Charles H. Smyth, Jr., Hamilton College.
| Ting party will meet at Port Henry on
Lake Champlain, on Monday, August
17th, and spend two or three days under
the guidance of Prof. Kemp, in the Lake
Champlain valley and the eastern Adiron-
dacks, visiting the quarries, iron mines,
crystalline limestones, gabbros, anortho-
sites, bostonites and camptonites, and inci-
dentally the Paleozoic exposures. They
will then go by stage through the moun-
tains to Lake Placid, where they will pro-
ceed by rail to Gouverneur. Prof. Smyth
will conduct them to the tale mines, red
hematite mines, contacts of gabbro and
limestone, gneiss and other rocks of this
vicinity.
Economie Geology: Conductor, Dr. F. J.
H. Merrill, State Museum.
The excursion will meet at Syracuse and
Rochester on Monday or Tuesday, and
spend the week in a study of the mineral
resources of the western part of the State.
The subjects of study will be as follows:
The salt fields at Syracuse and either Le-
Roy or Warsaw ; the salt mines at Lehigh,
Livonia or Retsof; the gypsum mines at
Garbutt ; the Medina sandstone quarries at
Brockport, Albion or Medina; the ‘ marble’
quarries at Lockport, the marl beds and
SCIENCE.
LN. S. Vou. III. No. 77.
cement works at Wayland; the waterlime
cement works at Akron or Buffalo.
Pleistocene Geology. Conductors, Mr. G.
K. Gilbert, United States Geological Sur-
vey, Mr. Frank Leverett, United States
Geological Survey, and Prof. H. L. Fair-
child, University of Rochester.
The area of western New York is an
exceptionally interesting field for the study
of glacial and glacio-lacustrine phenomena.
The party will gather at Rochester on Mon-
day, August 17th, and spend two days in
that neighborhood in observation of the
drumloids, kames and moraines, and the
lacustrine phenomena of the glacial lakes
Warren and Iroquois. Southwest of Bata-
via, Mr. Leverett will take the party over
the Warren beaches and their correlating
moraines. The study of Niagara gorge
and related features will be left until the
close of the Association meeting, when Mr.
Gilbert will take charge of the party.
The affiliated societies meeting at Buffalo
are as follows :
The Geological Society of America will hold
its eighth summer meeting on Saturday
evening, August 22d, at 8 o’clock, in the
Lecture Hall of the Buffalo Society of Nat-
ural Sciences, basement of the Library
Building. This meeting will be for admin-
istrative business and reading of papers by
title. The papers will be presented and
discussed in Section E during the following
week. Joseph LeConte, Berkeley, Cal.,
President; H. Li. Fairchild, Rochester, N.
Y., Secretary.
The American Mathematical Society will hold
its summer meeting in the Lecture Hall of
the Society of Natural Sciences, Buffalo, on
August 31st and September Ist. F.N. Cole,
Columbia University, New York, Secretary.
The American Chemical Society will hold its
thirteenth general meeting in Buffalo, on
Friday and Saturday, August 21st and 22d,
in room on the first floor of the High
School. Dr. Charles B. Dudley Altoona,
JUNE 19, 1896. ]
Pa., President; Dr. Albert C. Hale, Brook-
lyn, N. Y., Secretary.
The Society for the Promotion of Agricultural
Science will hold its meetings in the Library
Building, August 21st and 22d. Prof. Wm.
R. Lazenby, Columbus, Ohio, President; F.
M. Webster, Wooster, Ohio, and Herbert Os-
borne, Ames, Iowa, Vice-Presidents; Prof.
Charles S. Plumb, Lafayette, Indiana, Secre-
tary.
The Association of Economic Entomologists
will hold its eighth annual meeting in the
Library Building, August2I1stand 22d. C.
H. Fernald, Amherst, Mass., President; C.
L. Marlatt, Washington, D. C., Secretary.
The Botanical Society of America will hold
its second annual meeting in Buffalo High
School, on Friday and Saturday, August
21st and 22d.
The Society will be called to order by the
retiring President, William Trelease, of St.
Louis, on Friday, at 3 P.M. The Presi-
dent-elect, Charles E. Bessey, of Lincoln,
will then take the chair. The afternoon
session will be devoted to business. At 8
P. M. the retiring President will deliver an
address in the High School chapel; subject,
‘ Botanical Opportunity.’ The sessions of
the Society for the reading of papers will be
held on Saturday, at10 A. M. and 2 P.M.,
in room 16, High School. Prof. C. R.
Barnes, Madison, Wisconsin, Secretary.
The Botanical Club of the Association will
meet at 9 o’clock, Tuesday morning, August
25th, in the rooms assigned for the use of
Section G (Botany). Frederick V. Coville,
President ; Prof. Conway MacMillan, Vice-
President ; J. F. Cowell, See’y. and Treas.
The Society for the Promotion of Engineering
Education will meet in the rooms of the
Ingineers’ Society of Western New York,
Library Building, on Thursday, Friday and
Saturday, August 20th, 21st, 22d. Prof.
Mansfield Merriman, Lehigh University,
President; Prof. C. Frank Allen, Massachu-
setts Institute of Technology, Treasurer.
SCIENCE.
895
CURRENT NOTES ON ANTHROPOLOGY.
THE BULL-ROARER, OR BUZZ.
THE value of the study of games and
gaming implements to ethnology is well il-
lustrated by a monograph which is printed
in the last (ninth) volume of the Transac-
tions of the ‘ Verein fiir naturw. Unterhalt-
ung,’ of Hamburg, by Prof. J. D. E.
Schmeltz, the genial editor of the ‘ Interna-
tional. Archiv. ftir Ethnographie.’ His sub-
ject is the familiar humming toy called by
our boys the buzz (German, Schwirrholz or
Waldteufel). Taking it up in the true
scientific spirit, he sets about to study the
various forms in which it has been made,
the materials selected for its construction,
the geographical localities in which its use
has been reported, and the purposes for
which it has been employed by various peo-
ples. A plate is appended showing the va-
rious shapes which have been devised for it
by different tribes. The result is that
which is practically invariable when we ex-
amine with entire thoroughness any of these
survivals from remote ancestral conditions:
“We discover that one and the same im-
plement was manufactured and connected
with the same associations among tribes of
the most widely different races. Does not
this add another to the remarkable proofs
that whether men have straight or crum-
pled hair, white or black skins, they are
mentally so allied that their thoughts and
even their follies are over and over again
identically repeated ?”’
GEOGRAPHICAL MARKINGS ON NATIVE
UTENSILS.
Tur Brazilian explorer, Dr. Karl von den
Steinen, calls attention in the Ethnologisches
Notizblatt, No. 3, to a series of figures
burned or scratched on the gourds used by
the Lenguas Indians on the Paraguay river.
They represent a number of circles con-
nected by crooked lines. Their meaning
would scarcely be guessed by an observer,
896
but a native explained them as cartograph-
ical delineations, intended to indicate the
locality where the utensil was manufac-
tured, and the position and relative dis-
tances from it of the other villages occupied
by the tribe.
This explanation seems to have valuable
bearings in the interpretation of petro-
glyphs, and also of some of the curious
markings on aboriginal pottery. It is likely
that the same idea would be carried out on
the soft surface of the pottery jar as on the
exterior of the gourd. Some similar draw-
ings of a topographic nature have been
briefly discussed by Col. Garrick Mallery in
his ‘ Picture Writings of the American In-
dians,’ p. 341. D. G. Brinton.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
ASTRONOMY.
THE international committee having in
charge the work of the Astrophotographic
Chart of the Heavens met in Paris on May
11th and the following days. The proceedings
of the committee related principally to the
technical details of the work, The reports of
the directors of the various observatories tak-
ing part in the photographic work were, how-
ever, of considerable public interest. It ap-
pears from these reports that the series of plates
from the measurement of which a catalogue of
all the stars down to the eleventh magnitude is
to be constructed have been practically com-
pleted at nearly all the participating observa-
tories. The second series of plates, which are
to be used simply as a chart, and which will in-
clude stars several magnitudes fainter than the
smallest ones admitted to the great catalogue,
is also well advanced. These chart plates re-
quire a much longer exposure than the cata-
logue plates, and for this reason it is not possi-
ble to finish them as quickly as the others.
The measurement of the catalogue plates has
progressed with satisfactory rapidity at several
of the observatories, so that we may expect the
first instalment of the catalogue within a very
few years. The final completion of it will per-
haps require twenty-five or thirty years. The
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. IIL. No. 77.
probable error of the final catalogue positions
will be about one-tenth of a second of are in
either codrdinate. H. J.
THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN.
THE seventh annual report of the Missouri
Botanical Garden, recently issued, contains, in
addition to the scientific papers, which we hope
to notice later, the administrative reports for
the year 1895. From these it appears that dur-
ing the past year the maintenance revenue of
the institution was $100,042.65, of which $86,-
698.09 was expended for the maintenance of
the revenue property, taxes (amounting to
nearly $25,000.00), and the maintenance and
extension of the Garden.
It is stated that about one-third more people
visited the Garden than during the previous
year, on one day over 30,000 persons haying
been counted. Asin the two preceding seasons,
the growth of the Victoria Regia was made a
prominent feature, and excited much interest.
One of the most practical and direct benefits
conferred by the Garden is indicated by the
statement that, as in previous years, a consider-
able number of bedding plants were removed
from the ground and potted on the approach of
cold weather, and about 800 of these were dis-
tributed to hospitals, mission schools and simi-
lar charities, about half of the number going to
the kindergartens of the public-school system.
The provision for experimental work in horti-
culture and for the adequate instruction of
pupils in gardening has been increased by the
planting of a carefully selected orchard and the
erection of a vegetable forcing house, built on
the approved commercial models.
The herbarium has been increased by the in-
corporation of over ten thousand sheets of speci-
mens, and now comprises some 242,000 speci-
mens, besides over 4,000 slides, wood specimens,
ete. During the past year, $3,764.00 was spent
for purchases and binding for the library, which
has been increased by 3,036 books and pamph-
lets during the year, so that, as now constituted,
it consists of 10,030 pamphlets and 9,619 vol-
umes. These facilities have been placed freely
at the service of competent investigators, in a
circular similar to one that was printed in this
JOURNAL a year since, and they have been used,
JUNE 19, 1896. ]
%
as far as possible, in the botanical instruction of
students in the School of Botany, of Washing-
ton University.
AGRICULTURE IN GREAT BRITAIN.
THE report of the British Board of Agricul-
ture for 1895 is summarized in a recent issue of
the New York Evening Post. It appears that
the extent of woodlands in Great Britain is
2,726,000 acres, of which 132,000 acres have
been planted in the last fifteen years. During
the last year there has been a gain of about 30,
000 acres. The most striking figures relate to
the shrinkage in the amount of land under the
plough, which was increased by the unpro-
pitious character of the autumn seed time of
1894 and early spring of 1895. More than 510,
000 acres less of wheat were grown, and 57,000
acres less of minor grain crops, rye, beans and
peas. One-fifth part of the surface withdrawn
from these crops or from wheat was devoted to
barley and oats; but the corn land of 1895 was
less by nearly 455,000 acres than that of 1894,
while weather conditions, checking the prepara-
tion of the customary area for turnips and other
green crops, caused a further reduction of 112,
000 acres under this cultivation. The surface
under potatoes, small fruit, lucerene and flax
was larger by 45,000 acres, and the acreage left
under bare fallow was extended by nearly 100,
000 acres. The net reduction of arable land
was 197,000 acres, and the net addition to the
permanent pasture a little over 145,000 acres.
The actual loss of arable area in the last two
decades is 2,137,000 acres. The reduction of
wheat-growing alone accounts for most of this
loss. Under this head there was a total dim-
inution of more than 1,900,000 acres between
1875 and 1895. More than a third of the de-
cline in the arable area, and more than half of
this reduction in wheat acreage, occurred in the
last five years of the twenty. Statistics are
given also of the imports of agricultural produce
during the last twenty years. In value, the
totals for 1895 exhibit increased imports of
dead meat, poultry, eggs and lard. Live ani-
mals and dairy produce show slightly lower
total values. Wheat and flour importations
during the year amounted to more than £30,
000,000, as against £26,755,000 in 1894, while
SCIENCE.
897
other grain imports were reduced. The value
of live animals imported represented £8,966,
000, as against a total of £9,090,000 in 1894.
The average animal importations has been
more than £8,500,000 for the last ten years.
GENERAL.
Dr. DAvid STARR JORDAN, President of
Stanford University, has been appointed Presi-
dent of the Sealing Commission, which will go
to Alaska on the steamer Albatross to study the
sealing question. Drs. Leonhard Stegneger
and F. A. Lucas, of the Smithsonian Institu-
tion, will accompany him. On the part of the
government of the Dominion of Canada Mr.
Andrew Hackett of the Fisheries Department,
Professor MacGoun of the Geological Survey,
and Professor Darcy Thompson, of Dundee,
have left for British Columbia, on the way to
Bering Sea.
THE expedition of M. Andrée embarked on
June 6th from Gothenburg for Spitzbergen,
from which place the expedition will proceed
in the balloon.
LIEUTENANT PEARY, before starting on his
expedition to the north coast of Greenland, has
gone to England, his main purpose being to
present an account of his important explora-
tions in northern Greenland to the Royol Geo-
graphical Society.
MLLeE. KLUMPKE, known for her work at the
Paris Observatory, has been elected a member
of the British Astronomical Association.
Dr. LEOPOLD DipPEL, director of the Botani-
cal Gardens at Darmstadt, and professor of bot-
any in the Technical High School, has retired.
A VALUABLE collection of animals and birds
of Palestine, and of Roman coins, is offered for
sale by Dr. Selah Merrill, of Andover (for many
years United States Consul at Jerusalem).
THE Council of the British Medical Associa-
tion has received an invitation to meet at Mon-
treal in 1897.
THE Lancet states that a surgeon in the
United States navy reports that in Japan among
1200 soldiers 1.58 per cent. were red blind, and
0.883 per cent. green blind. Among 373 boys
1 per cent. were red blind, and among 270 girls
0.4 per cent. Among 596 men in Kyoto 5.45
898
showed defective color sense. Dr. Fielde, of
Swatow, China, examined 1200 Chinese of both
sexes, using Thompson’s wool tests. Among
the 600 men were 19 who were color-blind, and
among 600 women only 1. The percentage of
color-blindness among Chinamen is then about
3 per cent., and does not vary greatly from that
in Europeans. Dr. Fielde, however, found that
fully half of those tested mixed up blue and
green, and this investigator thinks that many
of the race are quite blind to the violet colors.
THE thirty-first field meeting of the Appa-
lachian Mountain Club will be held from July
3 to July 11, 1896, in the Crawford House, N.
H. Sessions for the reading of papers and
discussions will be arranged for evenings and
for stormy days. Excursions will be made
to the summit of Mount Washington and to
Carrigain, Webster, Willard, Willey, Avalon,
and other mountains, and possibly up the Mt.
Washington river valley.
Mr. E. WALTER MAUNDER, the astronomical
editor of Knowledge, has arranged to visit Nor-
way on board the steamship ‘ Norse King,’ to
observe the total eclipse of the sun on the 9th
of August next.
THE recent tornado in St. Louis destroyed
or seriously injured over 400 trees in the Mis-
souri Botanical Garden, and several of the build-
ings were damaged; fortunately no harm was
done to the herbarium and library. Shortly
before the tornado 6,000 panes of glass were
broken by a hail storm.
A PRIZE of 350 is offered by the editor of
the Bulletins of American Paleontology, Prof.
G. D. Harris, of Cornell University, for a mono-
graph suitable for publication in the bulletins;
it must be presented before May 1, 1897.
THE Société helvétique des sciences naturelle
and the affiliated societies will meet at Zurich,
from August 2d to 5th.
A BI-MONTHLY mathematical jounal to be
edited by Prof. W. E. Storey, Clark University,
is announced. The first number is now in the
press and is expected to appear at once.
THE collection of American historical docu-
ments and other Americana made by Mr. T. A.
Emmet has been presented to the New York
Public Library; it is stated that the collection
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 77.
cost Mr. Emmet $300,000 and that Mr. J. S. Ken-
nedy paid the collector $150,000. A friend of
Yale University has purchased for the library a
collection of 6,000 volumes and 19,000 pam-
phlets relating to Scandinavia.
A SIXTEENTH section, treating alcoholism, has
been added to the Moscow International Medi-
cal Congress.
ACCORDING to The British Medical Journal the
new physiological and pathological laboratories
just opened at Queen’s College, Belfast, are in
every way excellent, and form a valuable ad-
dition to the resources of the Belfast Medical
School. Dr. Lorrain Smith, lecturer on path-
ology, is conducting a post-graduate course on
bactericlogy, which is being largely attended
and highly appreciated. The Council of the
College, in accordance with the new regulations
of the Royal University, have founded a new
lectureship in public health. Dr. Whitaker,
the General Superintendent Officer of Health
for Belfast, has been appointed to the post.
The lectures will be extended over three months.
Durine the spring term the class in field
geology in Union College, accompanied by Prof.
Prosser, has spent every Saturday in studying
the different formations and interesting geolo-
gical structure found within a radius of fifty
miles from Schenectady. The formations
studied range from the Laurentian up to the
Hamilton of the Devonian. Some of the locali-
ties examined are the region of Saratoga
Springs, and in the Mohawk Valley, Hoffman’s,
Amsterdam, Tribes Hill and ‘the Noses’ near
Spraker’s. At Saratoga, Hoffman’s and ‘the
Noses’ are excellent examples of fault strue-
ture, the latter place showing the Laurentian,
Calciferous, Trenton and Utica formations. To
the south of the Mohawk Valley, the eastern
and northern flanks of the Helderberg Moun-
tains and Howe’s Cave were visited. This re-
gion gives an admirable section of the forma-
tions represented in eastern New York from the
Hudson to near the summit of the Hamilton,
and is also the typical locality for a number of
them. Asa result of this and earlier work of
the department, valuable material and data
have been obtained that will be used in prepar-
ing a report, revising the geology of this region.
JUNE 19, 1896 |
SINCE our last issue news has reached us of
the death of the eminent English physician, Sir
Russell Reynolds, who died at London on May
29th at the age of 68. He was the President of
the British Medical Association, and until
lately President of the Royal College of Physi-
cians and Professor of the Principles and Prac-
tice of Medicine in University College. He
made important contributions to the scientific
study of diseases of the nervous system, being
one of the first to apply the statistical method.
He was also the editor of the first ‘ English
System of Medicine,’ which appeared in five
large volumes between 1866 and 1878.
CAPTAIN JOHN G. BouRKE, United States
army, died in Philadelphia on June 8th. He
had a brilliant record as a soldier, but deserves
mention in this place owing to his contributions
to anthropology and folk-lore. He was this
year President of the Folk-lore Society. It is
also proper to record in this JouRNAL the death
of Mr. George Munroe, the New York pub-
lisher, not only on account of his generous gifts,
which included $500,000 to Dalhousie College,
Hallifax, but because he was from 1850 to 1856
instructor in mathematics in the Free Church
College, Halifax.
M. DAvuBREE, the eminent geologist, has died
at the age of 82. He was from 1839 to 1855 a
professor at Strasburg University, whence he
was called to a chair at the School of Mines and
the Natural History Museum, Paris.
WE regret that we must record in this issue
an unusually large number of deaths of men of
science. Theseinclude Dr. Finkelnburg, of Bonn,
author of important works on hygiene; M.
Raulin, professor of industrial and agricultural
chemistry in the University of Lyons; Mr.
Richard Sims, the antiquarian; Dr. Joseph
Alexis Stolz, at the advanced age of 92, a
native of Alsace, who was a professor at the
-Strasburg Faculty of Medicine till 1871, re-
moved with the faculty to Nancy, and retired
in 1880; Sir George Johnson, F. R. S., an emi-
nent physician and professor of clinical medi-
cine in King’s College, at the age of 78 ; Dr.
Hosius, of Minster, professor of mineralogy, at
the age of 70; Professor Schickendantz, the
chemist, at Buenos Ayres; Dr. Ludwig Mark, as-
SCIENCE.
899
sociate professor of agriculture at Konigsburg, at
the age of 56, and Dr. Wilhelm Hanke, some-
time professor of anatomy at Tubingen, at the
age of 62.
Natural Science notes that Mr. G. A. Bou-
lenger is one of the first to use X-rays for pur-
poses of systematic zoology, having used a skia-
gram to determine the more important points
in the skeleton of the rare toad Pelodytes cau-
casicus, the second known species of the genus
represented by a single specimen. The skia-
gram showed the junction of the astragalus and
calcaneum, the form and extent of the fronto-
parietal fontanelle, the shape of the widely-ex-
panded sacral transverse processes and the di-
rection of those of the lumbars.
THE Lancet states that an effort is at present
being made to establish a museum in the his-
toric city of Derry, Londonderry, and it is sug-
gested that Gynn’s Institution might be let for
purpose of a museum at anominal rent. There
is a nucleus of a museum, which was some time
ago handed over to My. Bernard, and at pres-
ent the articles are being arranged in suitable
eases. They are chiefly minerals. Moreover,
several local gentlemen have private collections
which would probably be forthcoming if a
suitable habitation were obtained. Mr. Bernard,
whose stock of relics and curios is a most valu-
able one, has expressed his willingness to give
them to a local museum, and Sir J. A. Mac-
Cullagh has also a series of relics specially as-
sociated with the past history of Derry. It is
hoped a building will soon be set apart for the
museum,
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
Ir is announced in the daily papers that Sir
Donald Smith will build in Montreal a Royal
College for women, at a cost of $2,000,000.
Miss HELEN CULVER has added $25,000 to
the $1,000,000 she had already given to the
University of Chicago. This sum is to be added
to the $300,000 set apart for the erection of
four biological buildings.
THE class of 1876 of Princeton University has
subscribed $15,000 towards the endowment of a
McCosh professorship of philosophy.
900
THE scientific school of Harvard University
will offer, during the summer, courses in survey-
ing in Martha’s Vineyard.
Linut. Murray, ofthe First Artillery, United
States Army, has been appointed to succeed
Capt. Pettit as professor of military tactics at
Yale University.
In addition to the fellowships in the scientific
departments of Cornell University, announced in
the last number of this JouRNAL, the following
appointments have been made: In civil en-
gineering, Stephen Gregory, C.E. (University of
Texas); chemistry, Hector R. Carveth, A.B.
(University of Toronto); physics, Arthur L.
Foley, A.B., A.M. (University of Indiana).
Twenty-two fellowships and sixteen scholar-
ships are awarded annually at Cornell Uni-
versity.
Dr. ARTHUR ALLIN has been appointed pro-
fessor of psychology and pedagogy in the Ohio
University at Athens.
THE Naturwissenschaftliche Rundschau an-
nounces the following appointments: Dr. Otto
Fischer, associate professor in the University
of Leipzig; Dr. Paul Hisler, full professor of
anatomy in the University of Halle; Dr. L.
Joubin, professor of zodlogy in the Faculty of
Science at Rennes; Dr. H. Prous, professor of
zoology in the Faculty of Science in Lille; Dr.
J. A. Wislicenus, professor at the School of
Forestry at Tarandt; Dr. G. Frege, full pro-
fessor of mathematics at the University of
Jena; Dr. H. Klinger, full professor of pharma-
ceutical chemistry in the University of Konigs-
berg, and Dr. Scholl, assistant professor of
chemistry at Karlsruhe.
THE following docents have recently been
recognized in German Universities: Dr. v.
Geitler, at Prague, for physics; Dr. Hans Bat-
terman, at Berlin, for astronomy ; Dr. Wagner,
of Strasbourg, at Giessen, for zodlogy; Dr. J.
Hofer, at the technical high school at Munich,
for electrolysis, and Dr. Scholl, at Leipzig,
for physics.
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
THE HABIT OF DRINKING IN YOUNG BIRDS.
To THE EDITOR OF SCIENCE: In response
to a request that has just reached me, may I
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 77.
ask for space in your columns to say that the
statement I made with regard to the habit of
drinking in young birds was to the following
effect? The chicks that I have observed pick
instinctively at any small objects at suitable
distance. If a small drop of water be such an
object they will peck at that. But if a shallow
tin of water be placed in their run the stimulus
of the sight of still water does not evoke any
instinctive drinking response. If there be
grains of sand or food, or other objects at the
bottom of the tin, they will peck at these and
incidentally find the water. Sometimes they
will peck at a bubble on the brim. Sometimes
when one is thus led to drink others will follow
by imitation. No sooner does the beak touch
the water than, in the domestic chick, up goes
the head and the instinctive drinking response
is shown. I have seen ducklings waddle
through the tin repeatedly and not stop to drink,
though JI had reasons for believing that they
were thirsty; for when I dipped the beak of
one of them beneath the water he drank eagerly
and continued to do so for some time. On the
other hand a little Moor hen or water hen,
when I quickly lowered it at about 16 hours
old into water, drank so soon as its breast
touched the surface. It then swam off with in-
stinctive definiteness of codrdinated leg-move-
ments.
The statement of fact (so far as my observa-
tions go) that I made was this: that the sight
of still water evoked no instinctive response ;
but that the touch of water in the bill at once
evoked the characteristic instinctive behavior.
C. Lioyp MoreGaAn.
A SUGGESTED EXPERIMENT ON HEREDITY.
As far as I have learned, there has been as
yet no series of direct experiments on natural
selection and heredity of acquired characters
with adult animals. The success of Mr. Waller,
President Cleveland’s sporting friend, in bait-
ing wild mallards with grain on platforms at
different depths, so that the ordinary mallard
is forced at length to dive six feet for its food,
suggests that if such ducks were carefully thus
trained, segregated and bred under scientific
supervision, there might come some important
results as bearing on the modification of struc-
JUNE 19, 1896. ]
ture by environment and on heredity. Fo
example, we might expect increased webbing
of the feet, and this might become hereditary.
Hiram M. STANLEY.
LAKE FOREST, ILL., June.
DARKENING OF THE CATHODE IN A
CROOKES TUBE.
A PEAR-SHAPED Crookes tube with a cathode
disc in its narrow end has been used extensively
by us during the past ten weeks in private ex-
perimentation and in public lectures on Rontgen
rays. In common with many other experi-
menters, we have observed that after much
usage the glass opposite the cathode disc and
the glass about the anode became darkened.
But we do not recall having seen any statement
recorded regarding the darkening of the ca-
thode disc. When we began using the tube
the surface of the aluminium disc was uni-
formly bright throughout; now there is on the
surface facing the broad end of the tube a dark
brown ring concentric with the disc. This ring
has an internal diameter of about 6 mm., and
is darkest near its inner edge, the densest por-
tion being, perhaps, 1 mm. across. Outside of
this darkest portion the ring fades off gradually
toward the outer edge of the disc. Taken asa
whole, the internal and external diameters of
the ring are about 5 mm. and 11 mm. respec-
tively. The circular area inside of the dark
ving is the brightest part of the disc. The
diameter of the dise is about 17 mm.
During the discharge through the tube we
now observe what we did not notice before,
viz., a pencil of faint bluish light emanating
from the circular area of the disc inside the dark
ying. The pencil is normal to the disc. The
light resembles the blue or purplish light about
the anode. The cylindrical pencil is most dis-
tinct at the disc and gradually fades away and
becomes invisible at a distance from it of about
2 or 3cm. If, by reversal of the current, the
dise is made the anode, then the pencil of blue
light cannot be seen, but almost the entire tube
is filled with the same purplish light. Some-
times this purplish light fills the tube also when
the disc is used as a cathode. In such cases
the discharge at the spark gap (placed in series
with the tube) is fat and noisy ; the tube shows
SCIENCE.
901
very little fluorescence and the radiation of
Rontgen rays is greatly diminished.
FLORIAN CAJORI,
WILLIAM STRIEBY,
COLORADO COLLEGE, COLORADO SPRINGS.
' SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
Voice Building and Tone Placing, showing »
method of relieving injured vocal cords by
tone exercises. By H. HOLBROOK CURTIS,
Pu. B., M. D. D. Appleton and Company.
1896.
This latest claimant for favor in the difficult:
field of voice production will be found to con-
tain much that is old to those familiar with the:
subject of acoustics and some that is as unex-
pected as itisnew. The struggling pupil will
find it difficult to extract the pearl of good ad-
vice from the shell of lengthy discussion.
From the preface one can see that the author
realizes at once the difficulty of the problem and
what its solution should be, but it is doubtful:
if he has fulfilled the promise.
The author begins with a brief outline of the:
history of music, which is followed by a de-
scription of the anatomy of the larynx which is
naturally all right, until he begins to discuss.
the operation of the various parts, and here cer-
tain discrepancies arise. For example, we are
told that there is but one register, or rather
that registers are ‘ fallacies,’ and yet in attempt-
ing to discuss our control of pitch he refers to
reaching a ‘stage in the production of the
lower register,’ where, ‘for any other further
elevation of pitch, a complete rearrangement of
the vocal apparatus is necessary.’ Just exactly
what the devotees of registers claim. In point of
fact, however, if one has the proper use of the
voice, the same muscles control the pitch from
lowest to highest, without break or interruption.
The above is an example of the uncertainty
in which the reader is left; registers are called
fallacies, and yet they are discussed at length ;
they are assumed to exist and their fundamen-
tal differences in mechanism pointed out.
Another statement which is very misleading, to
say the least, is that air pressure in the lungs
affects the pitch of the tone; ‘‘the pitch of the
tone depends upon the strength of the expira-
tory pressure.’’ How can we then take a tone
902
piano, swell it to forte and diminish it again,
without getting off the pitch ?
In regard to respiration an elaborate discus-
sion leaves one in doubt as to what method to
use, unless it be a slightly amplified natural
breathing, which is, of course, correct. The
author seems an advocate of ‘chest resonance’
as being very efficacious, whereas, in fact, it is
extremely difficult to see how vibrations in a
closed cavity of constantly changing volume
can be called resonance or can reinforce a
tone. A cavity to reinforce a tone must have a
definite volume and opening; it must be open
to the air, else how could its resonance increase
the intensity of the tone outside ?
Vocal resonators and their importance are
well emphasized and treated, except for the in-
clusion of the sinuses, antra and chest among
the reinforcing cavities. The latter part of this
chapter is especially good.
Under ‘tones and overtones’ a deal of acous-
tics is introduced which ought to be free from
such ideas as that ‘‘a simple fundamental tone
is not known in music,”’ or that ‘‘ there are also
lower partials or undertones.’’
The chapter on registers is very peculiar and
inconsistent, and some remarkable ideas as to
the mutual action of the vocal cords and res-
onant cavities are put forward which will
scarcely receive the approval of physicists, even
though supported by a mass of supposed eyi-
dence furnished by the stroboscope. The author
is continually referring to the voice as if it
were the result of reeds or membranes. The
voice has a mechanism to control the length,
tension and weight of the vocal cords; these are
the factors which control the pitch of a string.
The overtones in the voice belong to the series
in which the first overtone is twice the rate of
the fundamental, the second three and so on.
This is the series of string overtones. The pitch
of a reed depends upon its length, thickness and
elasticity ; the larynx has no means of varying
such factors. The series of overtones given by
a reed is different from that experimentally
found in the voice.
We are thus forced to consider the vocal ap-
paratus as a stringed instrument. Under tone
placing we find Dr. Curtis’ specialty, ‘nodules of
attrition’ and their cure. His idea is that the
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. Ill. No. 77.
cords rub together, irritating each other, tearing
each other, and even forming callous nodules.
These he removes in a few hours by simple ex-
ercises. Other throat specialists have not ob-
served these phenomena’; and indeed how shall
we believe a ragged or callous vocal cord could
be cured by any exercises in a few hours.
These ideas are fortified with numerous cuts of
photographs of the vocal cords that associate
none too well with the author’s caustic remarks
about touching up photographs to meet ‘ pre-
conceived requirements.’ Some of the advice
given in this chapter is, however, worthy of
approval.
It is rather remarkable that, after an elaborate
discussion of the larynx, and breathing and the
rest, the author should quote with evident
approval Jean de Reske’s epigrammatic state-
ment that, ‘la grande question du chant devient
une question du nez.’ All we can do with the
nose is te leave it open.
The chapter on voice building doubtless con-
tains many good exercises and much good ad-
vice, inspired as it was by such a master of
tone production as Madame Melba. The con-
cluding chapter on voice figures contains numer-
ous pretty pictures and interesting matter which
is, however, foreign to the subject of the book.
There is much that is good in the book, but
a desire to give a full discussion often leaves
one in serious doubt as to the correct conclu-
sions and renders it difficult for a novice to dis-
criminate between the good and the bad.
W. HALLOocK.
Grundriss der Krystallographie fiir Studirende und
zum Selbstunterricht. By DR. GOTTLOB LINCK,
Professor of Mineralogy at the University in
Jena. Jena, Gustay Fischer. 1896. 8°. VI.
and 255 pp. 2 colored plates and 482 figs.
Although the best treatises in crystallography
are to be found in the German language,
elementary text-books on the subject are as
rare in Germany asin England or America. It
is true that in nearly all books on mineralogy
the principles of crystallography are discussed
to some extent; and that occasionally the dis-
cussion is of value to the student. But in the
great majority of cases it serves merely to
bother him and to give him a distaste for that
JUNE 19, 1896.]
most beautiful of all geometrical sciences—the
study of the exact forms assumed by crystalliz-
ing substances. .
In the little volume before us the author has
endeavored to give the beginner in crystallog-
raphy an insight into the subject in its various
branches. The book occupies the same place
in German scientific literature as does Dr.
Williams’s Elements of Crystallography (Holt &
Co.) in English literature. It goes further
than the Jatter book, however, in that it treats
of the physical as well as of the geometrical
properties of crystals.
The order of treatment in the volume is not
quite as logical and consecutive as one would
wish it to be in an elementary text-book. It
opens with an ‘Introduction’ in which the gen-
eral principles of geometrical crystallography
are described (rather than discussed). In this
portion of the book such subjects as codrdinated
axes, symmetry, zonal equations, parallel
growths, twinned erystals and pseudomorphs
are explained, some of which, it would seem,
might better have been left unexplained until
the student had mastered the characteristics
of simple crystals.
The discussion of the six crystal systems
occupies 132 pages—about one-half the volume.
The discussion of each begins with a brief study
of the symmetry of the holohedral forms; then
follow the descriptions of the individual forms
and of their simple combinations; and in con-
clusion the description of the hemihedral and
tetartohedral forms. The derivation of the
partial forms from the holohedral ones is not
emphasized as it isin Williams’s book. They
are treated rather as forms in which certain
planes of symmetry have disappeared.
The last 100 pages are devoted to an outline
treatment of physical crystallography. - The
figures used here are well chosen to illustrate the
text. All ofthem are fresh and some are en-
tirely original. This portion of the volume de-
serves more extended notice than can be given
it in this place, not because the subject-matter
is startling in its novelty, but because the sub-
ject of which it treats is made so little of in
this country, whereas, in reality, familiarity with
it is indispensable to a true knowledge of the
properties of crystals.
SCIENCE.
903
The chapters on hardness, etching and optical
properties are especially interesting. Here
more particularly than elsewhere will the
student wish that the author had explained
the logic of the conclusions reached through
the study of the phenomena described. The
chapter on the optical properties of crys-
tals covers this difficult branch of crystal-
lography in a very satisfactory general man-
ner. The treatment is not full enough to
enable the student to understand the optical
methods of studying crystals, but it is sufficiently
thorough to enable him to understand the prin-
ciples upon which the methods are based.
The magnetic, electrical and thermal proper-
ties of er, stals are next briefly referred to, and
the volume closes with a condensed statement
of the relations existing between crystals and
their chemical composition. :
On the whole, the book is an excellent
introduction to modern crystallography; it
is certainly the best book of its kind pub-
lished in any language, and yet one can-
not help feeling that the author has not pro-
duced a book that will serve ‘ fir Studirende
und zum Selbstunterricht.’ In the hands of an
instructor it should unquestionably serve a use-
ful purpose and should make an excellent text-
book.
The colored plates illustrate the appearance
of the axial figures of crystals, the dichroism of
tourmaline, etc., and the pyro-electrical proper-
ties of quartz, boracite and struvite.
W.S. B.
Chermotheca Italica Continens Exsiccato, in Situ,
Coccidarum Plantis, Precipue Cultis, in Italia
Occurrentibus, Obnoxiarum. Cocciniglie rac-
colte in Italia. Fascicolo I. Pror. ANTONIO
BERLESE e Dr. LEONARDI GUSTAVO. Por-
tici. 1896. Lire 10.
For a number of years sets of dried fungi
have been published by mycologists in this
country and abroad. The earliest works of
this description were issued in Europe. The
first distinctively American effort in this direc-
tion, as Iam informed by Mr. B. T. Galloway,
was made by H. W. Ravenel, of South Caro- ~
lina, who published his Fungi Caroliani Exsic-
cati from 1852 to 1860. Other writers, especi-
904
ally Mr. J. B. Ellis, Messrs. Seymour & Earle,
and, in Italy, Briosi and Cavara, have carried
forward this excellent work.
Nothing of the kind has heretofore been done
in entomology, and, in fact, it is only in the
case of scale insects that this method of publi-
cation is possible. Quite recently Dr. A. Ber-
lese and Dr. G. Leonardi, of the Superior School
of Agriculture in Portici, have begun the publi-
cation of aseries of Coccidee based upon the
mycological method. The first number, which
has just been issued, contains ina large octavo
volume, 25 species of Italian Coccide of eco-
nomic importance. The form of the work is
exceptionally pleasing. The printed matter
comprises title page, index and the full synon-
omy and bibliography of each species. An en-
tire sheet is given to each species and a sufficient
number of specimens in situ on the leaf or bark,
as the case may be, are folded into a commodi-
ous pocket. This publication, for certainly it
must be called a publication, will be greeted
with great pleasure by all economic and system-
atic entomologists. Nothing could be done
which would better facilitate the labors of both
classes of workers. A number of the synonyms
appear surprising, but there is at present no
reason to doubt their correctness. For example,
Parlatoria pergandei Comstock, a well known
enemy of citrus trees in Florida and Louisiana,
is according to the authors, identical with the
European Parlotoria proteus of Curtis ; Mytilas-
pis citricola Comstock, nec Packard, becomes a
synonym of Mytilaspis fulva Targioni Tozzetti;
and for the California red scale of the orange
the authors have erected a new genus, Aonidi-
ella, the full description of which appears in
Berlese’s ‘Italian Coccidse living upon Citrus
Plants,’ Part III. L. O. Howarp.
Hypnotism, Mesmerism and the New Witcheraft.
By Ernest Hart. New Edition. New
York, D. Appleton & Co. 1896. Pp. 212.
Sie
The demand for a second edition of Mr.
Hart’s book within three years after its first ap-
pearance is a welcome indication that although,
as Mr. Hart strikingly illustrates, ‘Populus vult
decipi,’ a small portion of the public at least is
willing to be undeceived. The main object of
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 77.
the volume is to inspire a reaction against the
current uncritical and pernicious devotion to
a certain obscure and semi-morbid portion of
psychic phenomena. Hypnotism and _ faith-
cure and telepathy and ‘ Psychic Research’
have been seized upon by men and women
without special fitness or training for such
study, and have become to these well-meaning
but misguided adepts a form of new witchcraft.
Not only they, but men of scientific training
and wide reputation, have contributed to the
general mass of error by carelessness in experi-
mentation, and by a lack of a realization of the
vast possibilities of intentional deception and
unconscious self-deception inherent in such in-
vestigations. The sensational and extravagant.
experiments of Dr. Luys, in which he claimed
to have demonstrated the action of a magnet
upon hypnotized subjects, the transference of
sensations from a doll to a subject, the mys-
terious influence of sealed drugs acting at a dis-
tance, and the like, are particularly well ‘ex-
posed’ by Dr. Hart. Wooden magnets and ‘ un-
magnetized dolls’ and drugs called by false
names were found to be equally effective if
only the subject believed them to be what they
purported to be.
The main addition to the present edition of
this series of essays is the one entitled ‘The
Eternal Gullible,’ which contains a very re-
markable account of the methods pursued by
by public ‘hypnotists,’ in London, for obtain-
ing bogus subjects. There seems to be a train-
ing school where young men with dull moral
and physical sensibilities are taught to endure
the pain of needles thrust through the cheek and
fingers, to drink paraffin mixture, to sing a
comic song, act any part assigned by the
hypnotist, ’do catalepsy,’ and the like. Mr.
Hart’s evidence is complete and convincing, but
it seems rather strange that such methods
should be resorted to when the training of
genuine hypnotic subjects to do these things is
so simple a matter.
While the general trend of Mr. Hart’s volume
is to be warmly commended, it will probably
weaken its own cause by its slight but ap-
preciable overstatement. Mr. Hart records his.
belief in the reality of the hypnotie state and
in the existence of valid and scientific in-
JUNE 19, 1896.]
vestigation of. such states, but the admission
is hardly prominent enough to prevent the
reader from forming the notion that all hyp-
notice research is humbug and deception. In-
deed, in the preface to the second edition,
Mr. Hart goes so far as to say ‘‘Hypnotism,
when it is not a pernicious fraud, is a mere
futility which should have no place in the life
of those who have work to do in the world.”’
Such a statement entirely overlooks the large
number of critically authenticated cases of the
therapeutic application of hypnotism; it ignores
the significant and important contributions to
the understanding of psychological principles
that have sprung from this study. Asa popular
fad or amusement such topics are certainly per-
nicious in the extreme; but it will hardly do to
associate with this the painstaking and scientific
investigations of able and discerning experts.
JOSEPH JASTROW.
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
ENTOMOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON,
JUNE 4, 18968.
Mr. ASHMEAD exhibited a specimen of the
genus Cardiochiles, of Nees, and announced its
identity with Say’s genus Toxoneura. It has
priority and forms the type of a subfamily dis-
tinct from the Microgasterine.
Mr. Howard exhibited specimens of an adult
and cocoon of Attacus jorulla Westwood, to
which he had referred in a note in SCIENCE, of
May 29th.
Mr. Schwarz exhibited specimens of Atimia
confusw Say, a Longicorn beetle previously
taken in the Lake Superior region, District of
Columbia and northern Texas, the food habits
of which were unknown until recently. He had
found it attacking Juniper in the District of
Columbia. He also exhibited specimens of
Lachnosterna cribrosa from Texas.
Mr. Marlatt presented a paper entitled ‘ Notes
on Texas Insects,’ relating to. some of the com-
mon insects of southwestern Texas which he
had collected in April and May of the present
year. The collecting had proved to be poor,
owing to a severe protracted drought, and was
only fair in such of the arroyos as had not
been pastured by stock.
SCIENCE.
905
Mr. Schwarz presented for publication a
paper entitled ‘Notes from Southwestern
Texas, No. IV; Food-plants and habits of
some Texan Coleoptera,’ in which he particu-
larly described the coleopterous fauna of the
Mesquite and Cactus. In discussing this paper
Mr! Marlatt referred to the flowering Opuntias
of the dry plains of Colorado and Kansas as
affording extremely rich collecting fields, while
the same plants in southern Texas did not offer
the same opportunity to collectors. This was
explained by Mr. Schwarz as due to the fact
that the Mesquite and Opuntia flower simul-
taneously in Texas, and the former proves more
attractive to the insects and draws them away
from the Cactus. Some discussion ensued upon
the superstitions regarding various insects per-
vading southwestern Texas, some of which
were said by Mr. Schwarz to be probably of
very ancient origin. Both thespeaker and Mr.
Marlatt referred to the dread of the inhabitants
of the common Pasimachus californicus and P.
duplicatus. These harmless ground beetles are
known to the Mexicans as the ‘ cucurazza’ and
are supposed to be extremely poisonous, while
in certain localities the English-speaking
people know the Pasimachus as the ‘shear-
bug’ and state that it is very injurious to grape-
vines and vegetables by cutting young plants,
a statement which is fully as erroneous as the
one made by the Mexicans.
L. O. Howarp,
Secretary.
CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON,
THE eighty-eighth regular meeting was held
Thursday, April 9, 1896. The Society was
called to order at 8 p. m. by the President, Dr.
A. E. de Schweinitz, with thirty members and
ten guests present. The first paper was by Mr.
VY. K. Chestnut upon ‘Some Vegetable Skin Irri-
tants and their Chemical Composition.’ The
paper consisted of a review of the work of
Dunstan and Miss Boole on croton oil, and of
Pfaff on Toxicodendrol—a new oil-like body
from the poison ivy, Rhus radicans; together
with an account of some vesicating plants which
have been but little studied. Specimens of this
plant were exhibited, and the effect of an alco-
holic solution of lead acetate as an antidote to
906
Rhus poisoning was illustrated by experiments
carried out by the writer on himself. These
experiments also showed conclusively that
toxicodendrol was the vesicating principle of
the poisonous species of Rhus.
Mr. Ewell read the second paper of the even-
ing on ‘The Effect of Acidity on the Develop-
ment of the Nitrifying Organs,’ by E. E. Ewell
and H. W. Wiley. While it has been known
for many years that active nitrification occurs
only in the presence of some basic substance
capable of neutralizing the free acid as fast as
‘it can be formed, very little time has been de-
voted to the study of the exact degree of acidity
that the nitrifying organisms can endure. As
the authors had some forty samples of soil at
their disposal during the last year for other
purposes, it seemed wise to improve the oppor-
tunity to test the influence of acidity on the
nitrifying organisms contained in the soils from
various parts of the country. Tests were made
with forty-four different soils, from twenty-two
States and Territories. The results showed
great uniformity in the relation to acidity of
the organisms contained in the various soils.
Excluding five tests in which no nitrification,
and five tests in which it was excessive be-
cause of the calcareous nature of the soils used
for the seeding of the cultures, the average
amount of nitrogen nitrified was twenty parts
per million; the minimum result of the thirty-
four tests included in this average was eleven,
and the maximum twenty-five parts per million.
The tests are to be repeated with pure cultures
of the nitrifying organisms of the same soils.
This series of experiments was made as a study
of the nitrous organisms only, but the results
show that the organisms are not more sensitive
to acidity than the nitrous organisms, the final
product being nitrate in nearly every case.
The third paper was on ‘The Chemistry of
the Cactacez,’ by E. E. Ewell. Until very
recently other species of cacti than Cereus
grandiflorus and a few related species have gen-
erally been regarded as devoid of constituents
of pharmacological value. These and other
species have been used in medical practice in
the countries in which they grow, but their use
has rarely extended to the more civilized
nations. Species of the genus Anhalonium
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 77.
have long been used for curative and cere-
monial purposes by the Indians of Mexico and
the southwestern parts of our own country.
They found place in the Mexican pharmacopeia
of 1842, under the name of ‘pellote,’ or
“Peyotl,’ but have been omitted from the later
editions. The dried aérial portions of species
of Anhalonium figure in the commerce of our
southwestern border under the name of
‘mescal buttons.’ The species of this genus
have been the subject of scientific investigation
by at least three groups of persons during re-
cent years: First, a group of persons at Berlin,
where the work was begun by Dr. L. Lewin,
the crude material being supplied to him
by Messrs. Parke, Davis & Co., of Detroit;
second, agroup of persons at the Pharmacolo-
gical Institue at Leipzic, where the work has
been conducted by Dr. Arthur Heffter ; third, a
group of persons in this country, centering in
the Bureau of American Ethnology and includ-
ing as associates the Division of Chemistry of
the United States Department of Agriculture
for chemical studies, Drs. Prentiss and Morgan
for a study of physiological properties, and. the
Botanical Division of the United States De-
partment of Agriculture for the settlement
of botanical questions.
In this country the separation of the constit-
uents of these plants, and the study of the ac-
tion of the substances thus obtained, as well as
of the crude materials, upon men and the lower
animals, were begun in the autumn of 1894, but
before receiving the paper of Heffter. A. lew-
inii, in the form of ‘mescal buttons,’ has served
as the material for these studies. Anhalonin
and a second alkaloid have been separated in
considerable quantity. A complete chemical
study of the constituents of the plant is in pro-
cess, including those substances of interest to the
vegetable physiologist as well as those of interest
to the therapeutist. The paper was illustrated
with specimens of the cactus of different vari-
eties from the Botanical Gardens and the De-
partment of Agriculture.
Mr. Mooney followed with a paper on ‘ The
Mescal Ceremony among the Indians.’ The
mescal plant is a small variety of cactus, native
to the lower Rio Grande region and about the
Pecos River in eastern New Mexico. The
JUNE 19, 1896.]
botanical name has finally been fixed by Prof.
Coulter as Lophophora Williamsit. Mescal is the
name by which it is known to the Indian trad-
ers, but it is not to be confounded with the
other mescal (Maguey) of Arizona. The local
Mexican name is peyote, a corruption of the
original Aztec name, from which it would seem
that the plant and ceremony were known as
far south as the valley of Mexico, at a period
antedating the Spanish conquest. Several
closely related species are described by Lum-
holtz as being used with ceremonial rites among
the tribes of the Sierra Madre. The dried tops,
when eaten, produce such marked stimulating
and medicinal results and such wonderfully
beautiful psychologic effects, without any in-
jurious reaction, that the tribes of the region
regard the plant as the vegetable incarnation of
the Deity, and eat it at regular intervals with
solemn religious ceremony of song, prayer and
ritual. The ceremonial and medicinal use of
the plant was first brought to public notice by
James Mooney, in a lecture delivered before
the Anthropological Society of Washington in
1891, as a result of studies made among the
Kiowas and associated tribes of western Okla-
homa. As the ceremony is forbidden, and the
trade in the plant made contraband upon the
reservations, the investigation was a matter of
some difficulty. In 1894 Mr. Mooney brought
back a large quantity of the dried mescal,
which was turned over to the chemists of the
the Agricultural Department for analysis, and
to Drs. W. F. Prentiss and F. P. Morgan, of
Washington, for medical experimentation. The
results thus far would seem to indicate that the
Indians are right in asserting that they have
discovered in the mescal a valuable medicine
entirely unknown to science, and which will
probably take its place in our pharmacopeia
along with those other Indian remedies, qui-
nine and coca. The ceremony and songs were
briefly described by Dr. Mooney, whose full in-
vestigation of the subject will ultimately appear
in one of the publications of the Bureau of
American Ethnology.
Dr. Francis P. Morgan followed with a paper
on the ‘‘ Physiological Action and Medicinal
Value of Anhalonium lewinii (‘Mescal But-
tons’).’’ Dr. Morgan stated that the investiga-
SCIENCE.
907
tion had been intrusted to Dr. D. W. Prentiss,
with whom he was associated. Experiments.
were tried and observations taken at regular
intervals to determine the action of the entire
button on the system. The most striking re-
sult was the production of visions of the most
remarkable kind with the eyes elosed, and
especially so in the dark. Changes of color
were characteristics; tubes of shining light,
figures, cubes, balls, faces, landscapes, dances
and designs of changing colors were among the
most persistent visions. They were hardly
seen with the eyes open ; in full dose no effect
- on the reason or will is noticed in most cases.
There was direct stimulation of the centers of
vision and dilatation of the pupils. About one
quarter of the quantity, or three buttons, are
sufficient to give the visions in the case of white
men. Dr. Morgan detailed the experiences of
different persons who had tried the experi-
ments. In some cases there was slowing of the
heart, from 75 to 45 beats, followed by a rise
to normal; there is also inability to sleep, and
a loss of the sense of time, hours seem to inter-
vene between words. The physiological action
is not identical with that of any known drug;
it is unlike cannabis indica, cocaine, etc. ‘The
constituents of the mescal buttons are being
experimented with, but the investigations are
still incomplete. Anhalonine causes increased
reflex irritability and convulsions, like strych-
nine. It is, however, evidently not the active
principle. Another constituent has been isolated
whose action is widely different. It does not
cause opisthotonos nor tetanus, and has no ac-
tion like that of strychnine. A third principle
has also been isolated. The resin is supposed
to be the active principle and will probably be
of use in medicine. The experiments are still
being conducted and will be detailed later on..
A. C. PEALE,
Secretary.
CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON.
THE eighty-ninth regular meeting was held
Thursday, May 14, 1896. President Dr.
de Schweinitz in the chair ; twenty-three mem-
bers present. Messrs. Mayville W. Twitchell
and Charles N. Forrest were elected to mem-
bership. The Society adopted an address to the
908
Senate of the United States, protesting against
the enactment of any legislation upon the sub-
ject of vivisection. The following papers were
read: ‘Practical Analytical Accuracy,’ by
Frederic P. Dewey; ‘A new Mode of
Formation of Tertiary and Quaternary Phos-
phines,’ by P. Fireman; ‘ Metaphosphimic
Acids,’ by H. N. Stokes.
The Society adjourned until November.
A. C. PEALE,
Secretary.
ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILA-
DELPHIA, JUNE 2.
Pror. EDWARD D. CoPpE made a second re-
port on his study of the remains of extinct
animals found in the Port Kennedy Bone-Fis-
sure. Five species of reptiles and three of
birds had been found while forty species of
mammals, the distribution of which was given,
had been determined. Megalonyx Wheatley is
represented by at least fifty-five individuals,
the cave bear being of the next most frequent
occurrence, remains of twenty-five individuals
having been collected and twelve of the masto-
don, the latter mostly young. Mylodon is not
included in- the list, although a trace of its
presence was found on the occasion of an earlier
exploration. Evidence was at hand that Mega-
lonyx dissimilis had been founded on the lower
teeth of M. Jeffersonii. An evolutionary series
of the teeth of Phenacodus, Fiber, Isodelta and
Microtus was described. A porcupine formerly
regarded as distinct may belong to an existing
species. Four species of skunks of two distinct
genera, one of them new, Osmotherium, rectangu-
lare, were described. A tooth formerly described
as belonging to a hyzena must be referred to
Uncia Mercert. The horse of the collection is
Equus complicatus. Other species indicated by the
remains were described and classified. Only
seven of the forty-eight species determined can
be said to be the same as existing forms. The
opossum and raccoon are entirely absent, al-
though abundantly present in the Post-Cham-
plain caves. A Tennessee cave had recently
been proven by Mr. Mercer to be intermediate
between that at Port Kennedy and those of
more recent date. It contained no remains of
man.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 77.
The age of the Port Kennedy Fissure was
debated by Messrs. Heilprin and Cope.
Dr. Harrison Allen described an interesting
skull of a young Sandwich Islander from which
some of the teeth on the left side had been
knocked out at maturity, probably in commem-
oration of the death of a chief. The superior
maxilla of the edentulous side exhibits osteo-
porosis and the temporal muscle was evidently
weakened. Other evidences of the effect of dis-
use even after maturity had been attained
were pointed out, furnishing an important illus-
tration of the effect of nutrition and external
agencies on structure. j
Mr. F. J. Keeley exhibited microscopic prep-
arations of a fragment of supposed jade taken
from a carved Mexican figure in the Museum of
the Academy and others of genuine jade for
comparison. The Mexican mineral was found
to possess none of the characters of true jade.
The subject is of importance from an ethnologi-
cal point of view. Epw. J. NOLAN,
Recording Secretary.
NEW BOOKS.
Elementarcurs der Zootomie in fiinfzehn Vorlesun-
gen. Dr. B. HATSCHEK and Dr. C. J. Cort.
Jena, Gustav Fischer. 1896. Pp. vili+-103.
M. 6. Pp. 50.
Sporozoenkunde Hin Leitfaden fir Aerzte und Zo-
ologen. DR. VON WASJELEWSKI. Jena, Gus-
tav Fischer. 1896. Pp. vii+162. M. 4.
Lehrbuch der okologischen Pflanzengeographie.
Dr. EUGEN WARMING. Berlin, Gebrider
Borntraeger. 1896. Pp. xii+412.
The Magnetic Circuit in Theory and Practice.
Dr. M. pu Bots, translated by Dr. ATKIN-
son. Longmans, Green & Co., London, New
York and Bombay. 1896. Pp. xviii+9866.
The Gypsy Moth, Epwarp M. ForsusH and
CHARLES H. FERNALD. Boston, Wright &
Potter Printing Co. 1896. Pp. xii+495--e.
Indiana, Department of Geology and Natural Re-
sources. W. S. BLATCHLEY. Indianapolis,
State Printer. 1896. Pp. vi+520.
Missouri Botanical Garden. Seventh Annual
Report. St. Louis Mo., Published by the
Board of Trustees. 1896. Octavo pages
1-209, plates 1-66, and 6 unnumbered plates.
Se IENCE
NEw SERIES. SINGLE CoPIEs, 15 cTs
ni D 0
Vou. III. No. 78. FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 1896. ANNUAL SUBSCRIPTION, $5.00
The Macmillan Company’s New Books.
NEARLY READY.
THE PRINCIPLES OF THE TRANSFORMER.
By DR. FREDERICK BEDELL, of Cornell University.
8vo, CLOTH.
This book will contain an extensive treatmont of the laws and principles governing the operation of the
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illustrations.
SHORTLY.
THE SCENERY OF SWITZERLAND,
And the Causes to which it is due.
By the Right Hon. Sir JOHN LUBBOCK, Bart, M.P., F.R.S., D.C.L., LL.D.,
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IN PREPARATION.
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FRIDAY, JUNE 26, 1896.
CONTENTS :
Fishes, Living and Fossil: THEO. GILL ............+. 909
Food of the European Rook (Corvus frugilegus) :
IRL 135 JDp) IBIRANE09000) onecounanbandd00soHsocqonCoaceDenEEG 918
An Investigation with Réntgen Rays on Germinating
JRCHUSS Lely do NA/TOIBISIOND..ocooopeono2 Goccoq9000000000004 919
Current Notes on Physiography :—
Great Valley of California; Norwegian Coast Plain ;
Equatorial Counter Currents ; Planetary and Ter-
mesirial Currents); Wi. Mi. D/AWAS..........-.:-.------ 920
Current Notes on Meteorology :— -
The Climatology of Maryland ; Meteorological Ob-
servations in Schools ; Other Noteworthy Publica-
WAGE Vis, IDIKOL VVAGEAD) coacsacoodnadbosundosouardooogce 922
Scientific Notes and News :—
Astronomy: H. J. Honey Ants: L. O. H.
Contributions from the Missouri Botanical Garden ;
E/GAGR TH x3.900600000000020000009080008 ADOGCUODUCOROUCHEERCEOOOE 922
University and Educational News. .......s.cceceeeeesevees 927
Discussion and Correspondence :—
The Application of Sex Terms to Plants: CHARLES
HE Gees SAVING Wes cmecteteneeisea cciscrcee est enssecseeccrsscse sve 928
Scientific Literature :— :
Livis Antropometria Militare; FRANZ Boas.
Crocker’s Electric Lighting: A. S. KIMBALL.
Nehrling’s Native Birds of Song and Beauty ;
Hahn's Die Haustiere: C. H. M. The Gypsy
MWGHES Mee Oe TION), g5 coccesseno3ocecan0ccRHOBBOLEE 929
Societies and Academies :—
Biological Society of Washington: F. A. Lucas.
Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia:
Epw. J. NoLAN. The New York Section of the
American Chemical Society: DURAND Woop-
MAN. The Torrey Botanical Club: W. A. BaAs-
TEDO. Kansas University Science Club
SN GWIPBOOKSyaedcovcs Sistas taceesce esac see cedesinces
MSS. intended for publication and books, ete., intended
for review should be sent to the responsible editor, Prof. J.
McKeen Cattell, Garrison-on-Hudson, N. Y.
FISHES, LIVING AND FOSSIL.
A TEXT-B0OK of Ichthyology embodying
the results of recent investigation and tak-
ing cognizance of both living and extinct
forms has long been a desideratum. Dr.
Ginther’s ‘Introduction to the Study of
Fishes’ (1880) did not at all represent the
condition of ichthyology even at the time
of its original publication, and the German
translation (1886) was scarcely more than a
reproduction, in another language, of the
original work and retained almost all its
numerous defects and errors. Those de-
fects and errors were especially manifest
in the treatment of the extinct forms. The
increase in our knowledge of past types,
too, has been very great within the last
decade, owing to the labors of Mr. Smith
Woodward, Prof. Cope and others. The
desideratum indicated, to a certain limited
extent, has been supplied so far as the ‘ fos-
sil’ fishes are concerned, in a recent work,
by Dr. Dean, of New York, entitled ‘ Fishes,
Living and Fossil.’* But it is not, as the
author confesses, an elaborate introduction
to ichthyology ; its ‘ object is to enable the
reader to obtain a convenient review of the
most important forms of fishes and of their
structural and developmental characters ’
* Fishes, Living and Fossil. An outline of their
forms and probable relationships. By Bashford Dean,
Ph. D., Instructor in Biology, Columbia College,
New York City.—New York: Macmillan & Co. 1895.
(Columbia University Biological Series III.—8vyo,
xiv, 300 pp.)
910
(p. ix). A brief summary of the chapters
will enable the student to judge of the ex-
tent and scope of the work.
In the first chapter, after the ‘ introduc-
tory, the form and movement of fishes,
their classification, geological distribution,
mode of evolution, [and] the! survival of
generalized forms’ are considered (pp.
1-13).
In the second chapter, ‘the evolution of
structures characteristic of fishes, e. g. (1)
gills, (2) skin defences, (8) fins, and (4)
sense organs’ are discussed (pp. 14-56).
In the third chapter, ‘the Lampreys and
their allies,’ including ‘the Ostracoderms
and Paleospondylus,’ are described (pp.
57-71).
In the fourth chapter (pp. 72-98), ‘the
Sharks,’ in the fifth (pp. 99-115) ‘the Chi-
meroids,’ in the sixth (pp. 116-138) ‘the
Lung-fishes’ or Dipnoans, and in the sev-
enth (pp. 139-178) ‘the Teleostomes (7. e.,
Ganoids and Teleosts)’ are briefly noticed.
In the eighth chapter (pp. 179-226) we
are presented with sketches of ‘ the groups of
fishes contrasted from the standpoint of em-
bryology, their eggs and breeding habits,
outlines of the development of Lamprey,
Shark, Lung-fish, Ganoidand Teleost, [and]
their larval development.’
Next are furnished unnumbered sections,
giving ‘derivation of names’ (p. 227-230),
‘bibliography’ (p. 231-251), and ‘ explana-
tory tables’ (V.-XIX.) continued (p. 252-
283) from others given elsewhere (p. 8, 9,
98, 166) in the volume, which is capped
with a full index (p. 285-300).
Fish is a word of diversiform meanings;
it is the expression of a concrete notion and
it is the symbol of an abstract concept; in
the former sense it brings before the mind
a vertebrate inhabitant of the water with a
subfusiform body, and in the latter sense
any inhabitant of the water as contrasted
with one of the air or of the land; when it
is used in such compounds as fish-form,
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 78.
fish-like, fish-shaped, fish-backed and fish-
bellied, it is the typical fusiform fish that is
meant; when shell-fish, star-fish and jelly-
fish are named it is the abstract concept of
inhabitants of the water that is imagined.
In the latter sense it is a reminiscence of
the time when men believed in the ‘ele-
ments’ of earth, water and air, and appor-
tioned to each their inhabitants. Those
inhabitants were designated by Plato as
Enpotpogiza, Sypotpoema, and Eqpovoytza. In
the cosmological dreams of elders of our
‘Aryan’ stock as well as the Semitic they
were created specially for the elements in
question; so imagined the Hebrew histo-
rians, and to like purpose did Ovid sing.
Dr. Dean well remarks that ‘it would be
unreasonable to doubt that the fish form is
adapted to the mechanical needs of its en-
vironment” (p.6). Such adaptation is
evident. Nature has evolved and devel-
oped the form ; man has copied. The ‘fish
form,’ in its perfection, is realized in the tun-
nies and other wanderers of the high seas.
The forms whose movements are delineated
(p. 2) after Marey are not of this class, but
a stage or more removed from it. The
typical fish can only describe simple curves;
the shark with its sigmoid curve and the eel
with its multiplex curve introduce other
conditions. On the other hand, it is the
typical and sub-typical fish forms that have
been the subjects of Mr. Parson’s memoir
on ‘the displacement and the area curves
of fish ** and have furnished the four out-
lines copied by Dr. Dean (p. 5).
The typical fish form, as exemplified in
the tunnies, is especially adapted for rapid-
ity of locomotion, and all the fishes in which
it is developed are preeminently coursers
of the sea. But it is not alone by coursing
that fishes obtain their daily food. To ob-
tain that food, to secure safety and conceal-
ment, Nature has provided many devices
* Trans. Am. Soc. Mech. Engineers Vol. IX., pp.
679-695, with 7 pl. incl. 21 contours.
JUNE 26, 1896. ]
and innumerable deviations from the typi-
cal fish form are developed.
But, as Dr. Dean well observes, the fish
form ‘is a factor in the evolution of fishes
which appears in [almost] every [large]
group and subgroup. And it has ever
stood in the way of classifying them satis-
factorily according to their kinships’ (p. 7).
Still more aggressive as obstacles have been
certain deviations from that form and especi-
ally the eel-like form. The anguilliform
modification, resulting from elongation of
the body and concomitant adjustments,
such as union of the vertical fins, loss of
the ventrals, and restriction of the bran-
chial apertures, is apt to recur in various
groups, and does occur in the plectospondy-
lous ‘eels’ (‘electrical eel,’ etc.) and the
symbranchoid to such a degree that it has
been difficult even for ichthyologists to con-
vince themselves that the likeness was de-
ceptive as indication of affinity.
The progress of ichthyology has been in a
ratio inverse to the influence on the mind
of this ancient concept of the importance of
adaptation of the organization for aquatic
life. Many are still influenced by it. As
a consequence all the branchiferous verte-
brates are confounded in one class—the
Fishes or Pisces. By most morphologists,
however, that physiological group is sub-
divided into three or more classes. Three
are admitted by Dr. Dean—the Leptocar-
dians, the Marsipobranchs, and the true
Fishes or Pisces. The last two are arran-
ged in the following table (p. 8):
A CLASSIFICATION OF FISHES.
Type: CHORDATA (VERTEBRATES).
Class : MARSIPOBRANCHIT, Lampreys, Paleeospon-
dylus, Hag, Lamprey, Ostracoderms.
Class : PISCES (TRUE FISHES).
I. Sub-class: ELASMOBRANCHII, Sharks and
Rays.
Order: Pleuropterpgii (Dean),
(Dean).
Ichthyotomi (Cope), Plewracanthids.
‘“¢ Selachii, Sharks and Rays.
Cladoselachids
3
SCIENCE.
911
II. Sub-class : HoLOcEPH ALI, Chimroids,
Spook-fishes.
Order: Chimeeroidei, Squaloraiids, Myriacan-
thids, Chimeerids.
III. Sub-class : Drpnor, Lung-fishes.
Order : Sirenoidei, Dipterids, Phaneropleurids,
Ctenodonts, Lepidosirenids.
? Arthrodira, Coccosteids, Mylostomids.
IVY. Sub-class: TELEOsSTOMI, Ganoids and Bony
Fishes (Teleosts).
Order : Crossopterygii, Holoptychiids, Osteole-
pids, Onychodonts, Colacanthids.
Actinopterygii.
Sub-order : Chondrostei (Ganoids), Paleonis-
coids, Sturgeons, Garpikes, Ami-
oids.
Teleocephali, recent Bony Fishes
(Teleosts).
i} oe
ins
ce
In this table Dr. Dean claims to have
‘retained in the main the classification of
Smith Woodward,’ but he has adopted the
most prominent features from Prof. Cope.
It expresses, too, the ideas of most mor-
phologists, but it is questionable whether
Dr. Dean has gone far enough in the valua-
tion ofsome groups. The reviewer would be
inclined to admit four classes exclusive of
the Leptocardians.
The ‘ Marsipobranchii’ might be split into
two classes—the Marsipobranchii (properly
classed) and the Ostracophori or ‘Ostra-
coderms’ as Dr. Dean calls them. The
latter are very imperfectly unknown, and
only by Prof. Cope had they been previously
associated in the same class as the Marsipo-
branchs. By Woodward they were ranked
as a special subclass of true fishes. The
evidence for any allocation is defective but
for the present the group may be given
class rank and retain thename Ostracophori.
It was originally named Ostracodermi, but
that name having been preoccupied Gn
1872) by Gill for the Ostraciids, the new
name was later given by Cope. But
although first distinguished as a subclass
under the name Ostracodermi, the dif-
ferences between the representatives of that
subelass and the Arthrodira had been to a
912
considerable degree appreciated twenty
years ago. The reviewer, in the article
‘Tehthyology’ in Johnson’s Universal Cy-
clopedia (II., 1876) then gave the following
arrangement of the extinct types:
‘Super-order Dipnoi.
‘Order Sirenoidei. ,
‘(?) Order Placoganoidei* (extinct).
‘Super-order (?) Aspidoganoidei (ex-
tinct).
‘Order Cephalaspidoidea (extinct).’
The ‘ Elasmobranchs’ of Dean and Chi-
meeroids have been segregated in another
class named Selachians or Elasmobranchs,
and the two main groups have been regar-
ded as sub-classes—Plagiostomes and Ho-
locephals.
The Dipnoans and the Teleostomes are
scarcely separable as classes, although often
kept apart as such. The Dipnoans and
Crossopterygians lose some of their salient
characters, as we follow them back in time,
and have evidently diverged from a com-
mon stock. For the united group the class
name Pisces, or Teleostomi, can be used.
Such are the opinions of the reviewer, but
perhaps Dr. Dean acted wisely in accepting
the classification adopted. The succeeding
pages teem with statements challenging at-
tention and often perhaps dissent. In al-
most all cases, however, weighty evidence
could be urged in favor of the views
adopted. There are few cases where we
feel disposed to bring forward objections,
but a comparison of ideas on some mooted
questions may be of interest and use.
The ‘explanatory tables’ towards the
end of the volume give facts respect-
ing the ‘skeletons of fishes’ (pp. 252,
253), ‘relations of the jaws and branchial
arches of fishes’ (pp. 256, 257), ‘the heart
of fishes* (260), ‘a comparison of gills,
spiracle, gill-rakers and opercula’ (260,
261), ‘ digestive tract’ (263), ‘swim-blad-
* Placoganoidei was an ordinal name for the Placo-
dermi with dipnoan dentition.
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vox. III. No. 78.
der’ (264), ‘genital system’ (266), ‘ cir-
culation of fishes’ (269), ‘exeretory sys-
tem and urinogenital ducts’ (270, 271),
“abdominal pores’ (271), ‘the central ner-
vous system of fishes’ (274, 275), ‘the
sense organs’ (276, 277), etc.
These tables give a large amount of use-
ful and tolerably well digested information
illustrated by apt figures and arranged
under the main groups of fish-like verte-
brates, as Cyclostomes, Sharks, Chimeer-
oids, Lung-fishes, Ganoids and Teleosts.
But useful as the tables are, the ordinary
reader will be liable to fall often into error
if he allows himself to trust them too im-
plicitly. The exceptions to the general
propositions are very numerous. Examples
of such are ‘tail heterocercal’ (p. 252) in
Selachians, or ‘Sharks’ and Rays, ‘ oper-
culum, pre-, sub- and inter-opercula,’ in Tel-
eosts, etc. (261), ‘many pyloric ceca’ in
Teleosts (263), and air bladder in Teleosts
as in Sturgeon (264) but ‘may be absent
(Pleuronectids).’ Hosts of the fishes re-
specting which the characters in question
are predicated differ from the majority in
wanting them. The remarkably aberrant
Lyomeres, indeed, want all.
The anatomical portion is generally satis-
factory, so far as it goes, and, although we
may sometimes differ from the author as to
homologies, he seldom falls into absolute
error, as he does, for example, in calling
the ventral fins of Ophidium ‘barbels’ (p.
47). He may be congratulated on having
divested himself of ‘his former view that
the pineal foramen of Dinichthys contained
a specialized optic capsule’ (55) and of a
corresponding view respecting the ‘ pineal
foramen’ of Siluroids. Apropos of the Silu-
roids, we feel disposed to dissent from Dr.
Dean’s statement respecting ‘ the most com-
plete encasement of a fish’s body dermal
plates’ as manifest in callichthyids. He
thinks that the two lateral rows of plates
are the result of ‘extended fusions, a single
JUNE 26, 1896. ]
dermal plate enclosing the upper or lower
division of the muscle plate of either side’
(p. 26). It is not evident what reason he
has for such a belief, and why the extension
of single plates is not more probable; equally
improbable is the explanation of the size of
the ‘dermal plates of the Seahorse’ result-
ing from ‘fusions’ (p. 26). Asa rule, en-
larged scales result from individual exten-
sion, and not general aggregation. The
mode is suggested by the varieties of carp
alluded to by Dr. Dean (p. 26).
A short chapter on ‘the development of
fishes’ is given, and, on the whole, the sub-
ject is well brought up to date. Dr. Dean
thinks that the data of embryology are
‘very inconclusive’ with reference to the
successively increasing complication of
structure, if at present in any way suggest-
ive (p. 180). This is certainly the case if
reference is had only to external features.
‘Adaptive characters have entered so
largely into the plan of the development of
fishes that they obscure many of the features
which might otherwise be made of value for
comparison’ (p. 180). Such being the case,
we have no right to expect very much from
superficial characters. It is the study of
the anatomy, and especially of the develop-
ing bones, that will ultimately give useful
hints. Indeed, only from a survey of the
detailed comparative anatomy of the suc-
cessive stages of the developing fishes have
we aright to look for light on some ques-
tions of relationship and phylogeny. For
instance, we should not expect much more
guidance from mere externals of the various
stages of ‘ Ceratodus’ than the illustrations
actually give. Here it may be added that
we are indebted to Dr. Dean for giving the
results of such very recent work as that of
Semon. i
The nomenclature of Dr. Dean’s work is
mostly in accord with current American
usage, so far as the American species at
least are concerned, but sometimes that cur-
SCIENCE.
915
rent in Europe is adapted, as Bdellostoma
(61) instead of Heptatrema, Cestracion (85),
for Heterodontus, Lemargus (91) for Som-
niosus, Rhina (91) for Squatina, ‘ Butrinus’
(258, 260, Butirinus) for Albula, ete. Some-
times there is a discrepancy resulting, per-
haps, from the fact that the author may not
have been fully aware that his names re-
ferred to the same form as Squalus (89) and
Acanthias (216).
The numerous (344) figures are generally
well selected and illustrate morphological
and other data. Some, however, as most
derived from Agassiz’s and Pander’s works
and that of Pleuracanthus (90), might have
been supplanted by later and better ones.
A few, also, have been misplaced or mis-
named, as 29, which really represents
Aetobatus and not Trygon; 172 depicting
Bathyonus compressus; 173 representing Nota-
canthus seaspinis; 174 representing Parali-
paris bathybius, and 182 illustrating Micro-
gadus tomeodus and not Gadus morrhua.
The most serious omission in the ‘ Fishes,
living and fossil,’ is of most of the living
forms. Somewhere near 10,000 of those
are Teleosts, and only about 350 living
species belong to the other divisions. Nev-
ertheless the systematic consideration of
the Teleosts is condensed within 15 pages
(165-178), and no idea is given of the range
of variation and the diversity of that large
group. The Cyprinoideans, the Characinoi-
deans, the Cichloideans and the Percoi-
deans, which constitute so large an element
of fresh-water fishes, are not even mentioned
as such. In the tables of ‘classification ’
and ‘distribution * * * in geological time’
(pp. 8,9) only six groups (Teleocephali,
Clupeoids, Salmonids, Perches and Berycids,
Siluroids, and ‘ Gadoids and other Teleosts’)
are named. Surely the student would rea-
sonably expect to find more in a work en-
titled as it is.
Mention having been made of the ‘ Teleo- —
cephali,’ it may be added that the group
914
so called is by no means identical with the
Teleosts, as stated (pp. 8, 165). The
Teleocephali are an order of the sub-class
of Teleosts restricted to such as have typic-
ally complete intermaxillary and maxillary
bones and cranial in number exemplified
or closely approximated by the Perch ; it
thus contrasts with the Nematognathi, the
Apodes, and others.
The Nematognaths are considered by Dr.
Dean, as by most old authors, to be ‘ closely
akin to the Sturgeon’ (p. 147), and, indeed,
it is claimed that the Catfish ‘is, perhaps, a
direct descendant of some early type of
Mesozoic Paleoniscoid’ (p. 171). The
same idea is also expressed in the exhibit
of ‘the phylogeny of the Teleostomes’ (p.
166), where the ‘ Siluroid’ branch is inter-
posed between the ‘Sturgeon’ and ‘ Amia’
and well separated from the ‘ Physostome.’
It is likewise declared that ‘their armour-
ing is metameral and archaic, their sensory
canals primitive in structure and arrange-
ment’ (p. 172). All this may be quite in
accord with what has been believed by the
most learned ichthyologists of old, but can
be now known to be baseless. The Silu-
roids have no direct relations with the
Sturgeons, the Coccosteids, or any of the
extinct ganoid fishes, and are undoubtedly
derivatives from the same stock as the
Characinids and the Cyprinids. The arma-
ture, instead of being archaic, is of secon-
dary development. The fishes themselves
are more specialized and therefore more
distant from the Ganoids than the Characi-
nids and various other forms. The entire
structure, including brain, vascular system,
skeleton, weberian ossicles, air bladder,
and morphological development generally,
proves this and in turn is illustrated by this
conception of their relationship. The sim-
ilarity in appearance of Loricariids and
Acipenserids, great as it is, is entirely super-
ficial and illusive and should no longer be
allowed to mislead. While referring to
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 78.
the Siluroids, it may be added that there is
more than a ‘single European species, Silurus
glanis’ (p.171). There is another concern-
ing which many data were published over
2200 years ago—the true Glanis of the
Greeks and of Aristotle especially, the
Silurus, or Parasilurus Aristotelis. Although
this Greek fish has generally been supposed
to be identical with ‘the gigantic Wels of
of the Danube,’ it was, as declared by
Agassiz 40 years ago, and demonstrated
lately by Mr. Garman, a very different
species.
Dr. Dean’s misconceptions respecting the
Siluroids are those of others. He declines to
go to the extremes of some others, and very
properly notes (p. 64) disbelief in the ‘cir-
rhostomial origin [ascribed] to the mouth
parts of a Teleostome (catfish).’
Some of the statements as to distribution
and extent of groups may mislead. Of the
Mormyrids, or genus DMormyrus as Dr.
Dean calls the group, it is said, ‘its species
are restricted to the Nile’ (p. 172), whereas
species occur in all the rivers of tropical
Africa. Of the Anacanthini, it is claimed
‘that as many, perhaps, as one-quarter of the
existing genera of fishes may be assigned to
this type’ (p. 174): in fact, the Anacanthini
are comparatively few in number, especi-
ally if properly restricted. Itis also said
that ‘of existing fishes about one-half are
essentially percoid’ (p. 174) and this also
is a very much exaggerated statement.
The care which Dr. Dean has taken to
bring his work up to date has already been
adverted to in connection with Semon’s re-
searches on the embryology of Neoceratodus.
Another example is found in the incorpo-
ration of the latest news about the earliest
‘eyclostome.’ References to recent memoirs
(1890-92) on that interesting form are given
(p. 238), and an illustration is reproduced
(p. 65). We can scarcely agree with Dr.
Dean, however, that it ‘seems undoubtedly
a lamprey;’ apparently it represents not
JUNE 26, 1896. ]
only a peculiar family (Paleospondylide),
but a distinct order which may be called
CYcLiz.
Only one other feature of Dr. Dean’s
work can be noticed. The volume is grace-
fully introduced and its scope indicated in
the words of Aristotle—‘‘ Tay C2b0pwy Sdwy r6
cov (yUbwy yévos Ey dxd tOy Ghhwy agoptatar”? *
—and it is supplemented with a ‘list of
derivations of proper names.’ There is,
however, evidence of misconception of
many etymologies, and corrected forms are
here given of some of the names, leaving
aside those that are substantially correct.
Nevertheless it may be well to remark that
the author need not have added ad-
jective terminations for such words as ‘ fin-
(med),’ ‘tail(ed),’ ‘tooth(ed),’ ‘ bone(d),’
‘spine(d),’ and the like; they were correct
without those endings and perfectly in har-
mony with such English words as Redfin,
Hardtail, Fantail, Dogtooth (Dentaliwm),
Greenbone, Porcupine and Spineback and
such ancient Greek names as dacdzovs,
TEPAYORTEPOS, tzrovpos, pehdvovpos, and owdduy.
It is in this way that men naturally frame
new names for such subjects.
The means for ascertaining or confirming
the etymologies of many scientific names are,
perhaps, not available for all who might de-
sire to ascertain them, and they are often
wrongly analyzed. To aid such inquirers
is the aim of the following lines. If a
scholarly man like Dr. Dean has found so
many obstacles to correct information, less
accomplished men must find the way still
more difficult.
Acipenser is not from ‘ dzz7joros, classic
name of Sturgeon,’ but is the old Latin name
itself; both names were in use. According
to Athenzeus (VII., 44), “the accipesius,
the same as the acipenser, or sturio, is but
a small fish in comparison, and has a longer
¢
*The quotation from Aristotle occurs in the first
paragraph of the ninth chapter of the second book
of most editions of the Heot Cawy icropia.
SCIENCE.
915
nose, and is more triangular than the galeos
in his shape.”
Alopias is not, of course, a transliteration
of ‘ dlwzexéas, classic name of the fox shark,’
and the name has been replaced with Alo-
pecias by many zodlogists( Muller and Henle,
1838,* Richardson, Gunther, and various
text-books). There is, however, no reason
why the veriest purists should not accept
Alopias. Rafinesque might have preferred
to make the name directly from diozds
=d)or7>) and the terminal element ‘as (in
analogy with diwzdzpoos, fox-colored) and
had a perfect right to do so.
Amia, it is too true, was misnamed after
‘dpta, classic name of tunny (?),’ but, al-
though a tunny, the ¢y/a was not the tunny.
There can be no doubt as to what the an-
cients meant by du/c, and the old name was
correctly referred nearly three centuries and
a-half ago by Rondelet, while the correct-
ness of the identification was confirmed by
the most scholarly of later ichthyologists
(Cuvier). Nevertheless, the fact appears
to have been frequently forgotten of late
and, therefore, reiteration with additional
evidence will not be superfluous. The
duta was unquestionably the bonito of
the books at least—the Sarda sarda of
scientific nomenclature. Only this could
have been the tunny-like form which had
strong teeth which it could use successfully
against sharks and in cutting the ropes of
nets,; and which had a gall bladder
stretched out upon the intestines and equal
to them in length.}
It was the bonito which, according to
Archestratus.
““Towards the end of autumn, when the
Pleiad :
“ Has hidden its light Y
Was in season ; :
it then dress the amice
* Miiller and Henle subsequently adopted Alopias.
f Aristotle, IX., xxv., 5.
{ Aristotle, II., xi., 7.
916
“Whatever way you please———”’
“For then you cannot spoil it if you
wish.”
It was the bonito which Epicharmus
sang when he provided for the festive board
‘“___ large plump amize
‘“‘A noble pair i’ the middle of the table:”’
The etymology of dy/a itself was given by
Aristotle, according to Athenzus; the spe-
cies was called Amia from its going in shoals
with companions of the same kind.*
Amiurus is from 4, privative, and pefovpos,
curtailed, and not from ‘“ dy/c, Amia, odpa
tail(ed).”’
Ammocetes is not derived from ‘ dyyos,
sand, zo/r7 (a bed),’ which would mean
sand bed, but from dyyos, sand, and xottos
[xozy does not have the double meaning
‘(a bed) abider.”] What might have been
intended, was sand abider—dypos and
oty774s—which should have been rendered
ammeecetes, and ammocetes would then have
been a simple case of metathesis. (The
same lapsus, but in an aggravated form,
is seen in the case of two well-known
genera of birds—Pediocetes and Poocetes.)
But unfortunately for the hypothesis Du-
méril sanctioned and adopted the name
Ammocetus and the etymology from éyyos and
zoitos, ‘ séjour, cubile.’
Arthrodira is composed of dpépov, joint
and decoy, neck (not ‘4s, double’), and
is so called on account of the joint-like con-
nections between the head and body arma-
ture.
Belonorhynchus is framed directly from
feovyn, & point or needle (not ‘ classic name
of garfish’), and psyyos snout. The ancient
greek /2iéyy was undoubtedly the pipefish,
but the name in recent time has been per-
verted to the garfish.
Calamoichthys is from zédapos (rather than
lat. ‘ecalamus’), reed, and fish ;
Calanichthys would have been preferable
“oos,
* rapa 70 apa livat Taig TaparAnoiace.
VIL, 6.
Athenzeus,
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 78.
because shorter, and accord with classic
words, such as zaap—addys, ete.
Carassius is a latinized form of Karass, or
' Karausche, the German name of the C. car-
assius; not from ‘ydpa&, classic name of
(sea ) fish.’
Cestracion is not from ‘xéotpa,* classic
name of (pavement-toothed) sea fish,’ but
from z¢orpa, a broad-headed poleax (or
‘malleus, malleator,’ according to Klein).
Klein applied the name to the hammer-
headed sharks, and it was first misapplied
by Cuvier to the genus previously named
Heterodontus by de Blainville. The fish
named zéotpa by the Greeks was better
known as the Sphyrena.
Chlamydoselachus was the original and
proper form of the genus called Chlamydose-
lache. +:iéyq is the plural form and therefore
improper; oédazos is the singular. Prob-
ably Dr. Dean was misled by Dr. Gunther,
who changed it to Chlamydoselache, and he
was probably misled by Cuvier, who gave
the name Selache to the basking shark.
Cladoselache should have been called Cla-
doselachus.
Coccosteus is from zézz0s, berry (not
‘x0ze0s, rough like a berry’) and <cazéov,
bone.
Cyclostomata is a compound of ‘ xzdz2os,?
circle, (not ‘cireular’), and the plural of
‘ortdya, mouth.’
Dipnoi is not from double
breathing,’ but o/zvoos, with two breathing
apertures. The word occurs in Galen.
Erythrinus is not directly from
red-colored,’ but from épvépives, the old
Greek name of the Pagellus erythrinus, and
was misapplied to the American genus in
sequence of a vicious habit which Linneus
‘ Otzvoos,
62 he
Epv0pos,
*«éoTpa, in the old editions of Liddell and Scott’s
“Greek-English Lexicon’ (e. g., 1864, p. 755), is de-
fined ‘a fish held in esteem among the Greeks, doubt-
ful whether a pike or a conger, Epich. p. 36, Ar. Nub.
339;’ it is properly defined in later editions (e. g.,
1883).
JUNE 26, 1896. ]
and some others cultivated of using classical
names for forms entirely unlike those for
which the names were originally used.
Fierasfer, according to Cuvier, was the name
current at Marseilles of the type species;
therefore the ‘derivation of Cuvier [was not]
uncertain, perhaps, from proper name. ’
radus is not ‘the classic name of the
cod,’ which was practically unknown to
the Greeks and Romans. The name does
not occur in Aristotle, but in Athenzeus
(VIL., 99), the words ‘ the cvos, which some
call yddos,’ are quoted from Dorion. The
name Onos seems to have been used in an-
cient Greece for the Micromesistius poutassou
(Gadus poutassow of Risso), which now is
called, in Greece, Gaidouropsaron (donkey-
fish), or Tsiplaki. Gadus was first used as
a generic name for the Gadids by Artedi,
and subsequently limited, by exclusion of
others and by definition, to the common
cod and its congeners.
Ganoid is from ;dvos, brightness, lustre,
and <Zdos, appearance; not ‘dvos, enamelled.’
Hyperotreta (not Hyperotretia) is the bet-
ter name of the order in question.
Ichthyotomi refers not ‘to the distinctness
of this group,’ but to the alleged segmenta-
tion of the skull.
Lemargus was not the ‘classic name of a
shark,’ but derived from Aaiuapyos, glutton-
ous. The name was applied by Muller and
Henle to the genus previously called Som-
niosus on account of the character given by
Scorseby to the type species.
Lepidosiren is from iezts, scale, and Siren,
the name given by Linnzeus to an eel-shaped
amphibian, not a ‘ salamandevr.’
Ophidium is the Linnzean improvement of
Ophidion of Pliny (XX-XIT., 35, 53) ; not
ogthoy, a snake.
Ostracoderm is simply the English form
of éotpaxddzpyos, hard skinned, from ¢ozpaxzov
(not éoztpdzov), shell, and ogeya, skin.
Protopterus is from zp@zos, first or primi-
tive (not ‘ ancient’), and zrepdy, fin.
SCIENCE.
917
Scomberomorus is from ozoy/eos, mackerel,
and épopos, neighbor, and not ‘ pépwy, part.’
Selachii is a new Latin equivalent of
(plural of céiayos), cartilaginous
fishes generally,* and not ‘ ceAdyy, shark.’
Teleocephali is from téseos, complete, and
zegady, head; not ‘rédevs, entirely, datgov,
bone, z-¢e/7, head.’ The cephalic bones are
not reduced in number or proportions as in
the Nematognaths and Apodals.
Teleostomi from z¢ie0s, complete, and stéya,
mouth ; not ‘zéieos, entirely, ¢éazgov, bone,
océva, mouth.’ Intermaxillaries and supra-
maxillaries are normally developed.
Other names whose etymologies require
more or less emendation or explanation are
Ammocetes, Anacanthini, Anguilla, Callichthys,
Callorhynchus, Chimera, Climatius, Crossop-
terygii, Dipterus, Elonichthys, Gyroptychius,
Harriotta, Hemitripterus, Heptanchus, Hippo-
campus, Holoptychius, Ischyodus, Lamna, Mor-
myrus, Myliobatis, Mylostoma, Myriacanthus,
Myxine, Palceoniscus, Parexus, Perca, Petro-
myzon, Phaneroplewron, Plectognathi, Pleura-
canthus, Pogonias, Pristiophorus, Pristis, Pro-
topterus, Pseudopleuronectes, Pterichthys, Raja,
Fthabdolepis, Rhina, Rhinobatus, Scaphirhyn-
chus, Scyllium, Silurus, Sirenoidet, Squalus,
Squatina, Torpedo, Trachosteus and Trygon.
Interesting questions are involved in some
of these names, but our already over-
crowded space forbids lingering over any
one of them.
The length to which this review has ex-
tended must be evidence of the importance
of Dr. Dean’s work. The suggestions here
offered may be of use for another edition.
That another may be called for,we may hope.
For the work as it is and for the care and
thought bestowed on it our thanks are due.
THEO. GILL.
oehdyn
*The ZeAayy are those which have been mentioned
[Baroc, tpvytv, pin]; and the Bovc, Adwa, aletéc, vapin,
Barpayoc, andall the ya/eéd7’ (Aristotle, V., iv, 2.)
In other words, the Selache include all the Sharks, all
the Rays, and the acanthopterygian Lophius.
918
FOOD OF THE EUROPEAN ROOK (CORVUS
‘FRUGILEGUS).
An interesting paper upon the food of the
Rook, by Dr. Hollrung, appears in the
Seventh Annual Report of the Experiment
Station at Halle,* and furnishes some points
for comparison with the food of our allied
species of American birds.
The following is a list of the principal
contents of 131 stomachs of rooks killed in
April, May and June:
48 larvee of Zabras 22 Tanymecus.
(Weevils).
gibbus. Snails.
20 wire worms Mice.
(Elaterid larve).
253 grub worms.
160 May beetles.
1688 Otiorynchus
(Weevils).
From this Dr. Hollrung arrives at the
following conclusions :
‘“1. The rooks examined have proved on
the whole neither exclusively useful nor ex-
clusively injurious. While 25 per cent. of
the rooks’ stomachs contained no vegetable
matter, there were only two cases in 131
where no animal matter was found.
‘2. Their food consisted for the most
part (about 66 per cent.) of animal matter,
such as mice, larvee of the grain-eating Cara-
bid (Zabrus gibbus), grub worms (Melolontha
vulgaris), dung beetles (Aphodius spec.), and
clover weevils ( Otiorynchus ligustici). The
vegetable food was made up of wheat, oats
and barley and cherries.
‘*3.-The harm done by the rooks on the
one hand was perfectly balanced, and even
considerably outweighed on the other hand
by the useful services rendered.
“4, The rooks feed principally on slowly
moving insects.”
The common crow (Corvus americanus)
420 wheat grains.
471 barley grains.
190 oat grains.
22 cherries.
*Siebenter Jahresbericht ueber die Thitigkeit der
Versuchs-station fiir Pflanzen schutz zu Halle a. S.
1895, Dr. M. Hollrung.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 78-
represents, perhaps, in this country, as
nearly as may be, the economic position
occupied by the rook in Enrope, and a
few points of comparison in their food may
not be without interest. The writer has
examined about 900 stomachs of the Ameri-
can crow, taken at all times of the year
and representing a considerable portion of
the United States. Unfortunately Dr. Holl-
rung’s rooks were all taken in the months
of April, May and June, and within a re-
stricted area of country, so that the stom-
achs probably show a larger percentage of
animal food than the average for the whole
year. The food of the crow for the same
three months contains about the same pro-
portion of animal and vegetable matter.
In the first four items of the above list
the crow and the rook present a great simi-
larity of taste, the Lachnosterna of this
country replacing the Melolontha of Europe.
It is in the next two items, the weevils,
that the rook shines resplendent. An ayer-
age of over thirteen specimens of those
small but very harmful beetles in each of
the 131 stomachs is certainly a splendid
showing. The only American bird whose
stomach the present writer has examined
that can approach this record is the red-
winged blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus),
which shows a very decided taste for the
snout beetle.
While many of these beetles were eaten
by the crow, they did not constitute so con-
stant and important an item as in the case
of the rook. The crow eats a considerable
number of Carabid beetles, most of which
are of the more predaceous species, while
those eaten by the rook are for the chief
part the larvee of Zabrus gibbus, a very de-
structive grain-eating species. Grasshop-
pers, which are extensively taken by the
crow, are conspicuously absent from the
food of the rook.
In the varieties of vertebrate food the
rook is far behind the crow. Only seven-’
JUNE 26, 1896. ]
teen mice were found in the 131 stomachs,
and in no case did any stomach contain the
remains of more than one. The crow, on
the other hand, not only preys upon mice
and other small mammals, but even cap-
tures young rabbits and eats many snakes,
young turtles, salamanders, frogs, toads and
fish. The crow also eats many crayfish and
other smaller crustaceans which do not ap-
pear in the rook’s bill of fare.
In the matter of vegetable food the rook
does not seem to indulge in any great
variety in April, May and June, but prob-
ably the other months would show many
additions to the list. The crow eats about
every kind of grain that the country pro-
duces, besides fruit and acorns or other
mast. The crow appears to be far more
omniverous than the rook ; in fact, it seems
doubtful if there is anything eatable that
a crow will not eat, while, as far as shown,
the rook seems quite exclusive.
In the comparison of these two birds the
evidence appears to be in favor of the rook,
although the economic difference is not
great.
The proportion of harmful insects is some-
what greater with the rook, and its vege-
table food does not include so many items
of useful grains as with the crow. It is not
possible, however, to come to any very
definite conclusion until more stomachs of
the rook shall have been examined, cover-
ing the other months of the year.
F. E. L. Brat.
WASHINGTON, D. C.
AN INVESTIGATION WITH RONTGEN RAYS,
ON GERMINATING PLANTS.
THE marked attention which the Rént-
gen or X-rays are receiving from investi-
gators of this and other countries, and the
popular excitement felt in the investigations,
render all papers on this subject of partic-
ular interest.
The first record of experiments with
SCIENCE.
919
these rays in their effect on plants known
to the writer is a recent article by Alfred
Schober presented to the German Botanical
Society.« Schober was. led to the investi-
gation by the similarity between X-rays
and ultra violet light, which was pointed
out by Roéntgen in his first paper. The
subject appeared particularly worthy of in-
vestigation, as Sachs had shown that helio-
tropic curving is incited in plants by blue,
violet and invisible ultra violet rays in
about an equal degree with full white light ;
while the red, yellow and green parts of
the spectrum are apparently inactive.
Rothert, in his very extensive work on
heliotropism, found the cotyledo} of ger-
minating oat plants to be particularly sen-
sitive to the action of light, and these were
thus selected for the experiment. Vigorous
plants germinated in full light, with coty-
ledos from 1 to 2 centimeters long, were
selected and set in damp sand in a dark
box, the walls of which were about 1 centi-
meter thick and blackened on both sides.
A Hittorf’s tube was placed at one end of
this box at the height of the seedlings and
about one centimeter distant from the box.
The seedlings were arranged at one end of
the box so that they were about 2 centi-
meters distant from the tube. The inductor
had a spark length of about 12 centimeters,
and was kept at its highest capacity during
the experiment. A photograph of a hand
could have been taken under the same con-
ditions at a distance of 30 centimeters in
five minutes.
The plants were first exposed to the ac-
tion of the rays for 30 minutes, after
which an examination showed that no ap-
*Schober, Alfred, ‘Ein Versuch mit Réntgenschen
Strahlen auf Keimpflanzen.’ Berichte d. Deut. Bot.
Gesellsch. Bd. 14, Heft 3 (April, 1896), p. 108.
ft Cotyledo is a term introduced by Rothert (Cohns’
Beitrage zur Biol. der Pflanzen, Bd. 7, p. 25) to des-
ignate the leaf-like organ of the form of an almost
cylindrical closed sheath which appears first after the
roots in the germination of grass seeds.
920
parent effect had been produced. The box
was then closed and the exposure contin-
ued for another half hour. A careful ex-
amination at the end of this time led to the
conclusion that no visible effect had been
produced. It was found impracticable to
continue the experiment longer, as the
tube in this time had become excessively
heated.
After the experiment was concluded the
plants used were proved to be normally
sensitive, aS an exposure of one hour to
diffused daylight, passed through a small
horizontal slit, resulted in a_ noticeable
curvature which in four hours had reached
60° from the vertical.
As the inductor was excited to its great-
est capacity during the experiment, the
plant being placed in as close proximity to
the light as possible—and as after the ex-
periment the plants were found to be nor-
mally sensitive, showing noticeable curva-
ture on an equal exposure to diffuse white
light—the author concludes that the new
rays appear to differ from light in that they
do not stimulate heliotropic curvature.
This contribution to our understanding
of the action of the X-rays on plants is
very interesting, but it is not thoroughly
satisfactory. While light induces a notice-
able curvature on certain plants in one
hour, the X-rays may not be so active.
Until it is possible to expose the plant to
the action of the X-rays for a longer time
we are not justified in concluding that they
have no power to induce heliotropic curva-
ture. H. J. WEBBER.
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE.
CURRENT NOTES ON PHYSIOGRA PHY.
GREAT VALLEY OF CALIFORNIA.
F. L. Ransome discusses the heavy cover
of fluviatile sediments, at least 2000 or 3000
feet thick, that form the floor of the Great
Valley of California, in their bearing on the
theory of isostacy (Bull. Dept. Geol., Univ.
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 78.
Cala., i, 1896, 371). Although chiefly con-
cerned with geological problems, the essay
gives a good general description of this
typical fluviatile plain, dividing it into
three sections, two of which are drained by
the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers,
while the third sheds its waters into Tulare
lake, of intermittent overflow. The great
flat fans built forward by the larger streams
from the Sierra are recognized as control-
ling the unsymmetrical position of the main
rivers, The Sacramento and Feather rivers
are said to ‘pursue a winding course on
low ridges ;’ this unsatisfactory and exag-
gerative term, ‘low ridges,’ being quoted
from the Marysville folio, U.S. Geol. Atlas,
to name the very faintly convex flood
plains built by the rivers themselves. The
smaller streams from the mountains ‘‘sel-
dom reach the Sacramento directly, but are
lost in the intricate plexus of sloughs which
meander through the tule (reed) lands bor-
dering the main river.’”’ A similar study
of the Po in its relation to the Alps and
Apennines would probably bring out many
resemblances between these great fluviatile
depositories of mountain waste.
NORWEGIAN COAST PLAIN.
AN instructive account, by Richter, of his
studies last summer concerns the Norwe-
gian coast plain (Globus, Ixix., 1896, 313),
on which Reusch has already given a brief
report ( Norg. geol. Undersog., 1894, with
map; Chicago Journ. Geol., ii., 1894, 347).
The coast plain, not to be confused with
ordinary coastal plains of uplifted marine
sediments, is wave cut in solid rock with
little regard to structure, and is terminated
landward by an abrupt ascent to the high-
lands. The visible breadth of the plain
varies greatly, depending first on its origi-
nal exposure to the waves, and hence hay-
ing greater expansion on the ocean front
and weakening to a mere strandline or
disappearing entirely in the fiords ; second,
JUNE 26, 1896. j
on its present attitude with respect to
sea level, some broader parts rising 100
meters, others being entirely submerged.
The open valleys of the interior, which
are abruptly cut by the steep fiord walls,
are referred to the same epoch and base-
level as the coast plain. The plain was
was made in preglacial time, and its uplifted
surface is now much dissected. Richter
emphasizes what Reusch said as to the im-
portant control exerted by the plain on the
distribution of population and adds: “I re-
gard this Norwegian coast plain as the
greatest known example of well-proved
marine erosion; perhaps the only one of
so great dimensions in the world.” The
account is illustrated by four good views.
EQUATORIAL COUNTER CURRENTS.
A LARGE atlas issued last year by the
Dutch Meteorological Institute at Utrecht,
entitled ‘ De Guinea en Equatoriaal Stroo-
men,’ clearly exhibits the periodic expan-
sion of the Atlantic counter current in the
northern summer; but unfortunately the
area charted does not reach west far enough
to take in the head of the current. From
January to March, when the monsoon-like
extension of the southeast trade across the
equator as a south or southwest wind is prac-
tically wanting, the counter current is weak,
irregular, and of small area. From July to
September, when the southwest monsoon ex-
tends to 10° N. Lat. in mid-ocean, and even
further north near the African coast, the
counter current becomes definitely estab-
lished between 4° and 9° or 11° N. Lat., with
normal westward currents on either side.
The strong temperature gradient on the
northern border of the counter current near
the African coast shows that it is not fed
there by the North Atlantic eddy, as is
represented on certain charts.
The January and July current charts in
the atlas of the Pacific ocean lately issued
by the Deutsche Seewarte (following sim-
SCIENCE.
921
ilar atlases of theA tlantic andIndian oceans,
with their sailing hand-books already pub-
lished) gives additional confirmation of the
control of equatorial counter currents by the
monsoon-like extension of a trade wind
across the equator into the summer hemis-
phere; first, by showing a great increase in
the breadth of the counter current north of
the equator in the chart for July, this being
the only counter current ordinarily shown in
the Pacific; second, by exhibiting in the
chart for January a distinct counter current
south of the equator in the western part of
the ocean, about the Solomon islands, where
alone in the Pacific the northeast trades
cross the line into the southern hemisphere
and blow for a time as north or northwest
winds.
PLANETARY AND TERRESTRIAL CURRENTS.
THE current charts above referred to con-
firm the association of the general oceanic
surface eddies with the change from day to
night, the belt-like arrangement of the
zones, the general circulation of the at-
mosphere, and the systematic deflections of
the annual isotherms, as correlated features
of a rotating, sun-lit, ocean- and air-bear-
ing planet. Further, they confirm the asso-
ciation of faster currents (in temperate
latitudes at least) in the winter hemisphere
as well as of equatorial counter currents in
the summer hemisphere, with the seasons
and the migration of the isotherms, as well
as marked characteristics of our own tilted-
axis planet. Finally, they confirm the asso-
ciation of the irregular development of
oceanic eddies and counter currents with
the irregular outlines of the continents and
oceans, and the various exaggerated deflec-
tions of the isotherms, as individual, non-
geometrical features of the irregularly
wrinkled earth. All this suggests a natural
order of classification and presentation of
these varied but related facts. It is the in-
dividual peculiarities of the lands and
922
waters that produce a broader counter cur-
rent north than south of the equator in the
Indian ocean, that limit the south counter
of the Pacific to the western part of that
ocean, and that exclude a south counter
current entirely from the Atlantic.
W. M. Davis.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY.
THE CLIMATOLOGY OF MARYLAND.
A sreconp edition of the Climatology of
Maryland, originally published in 1894,
has been issued as the Sccond Biennial Re-
port of the Maryland State Weather Service.
The data used in this compilation are the
observations of the years 1892 to 1895, in-
clusive, and five charts accompany the re-
port, showing the mean seasonal and mean
annual precipitation and temperature. The
Maryland Weather Service, organized in
1891, under the joint auspices of the Johns
Hopkins University, the Maryland Agri-
cultural College and the U. S. Weather
Bureau—a very happy combination of ele-
ments— deserves great credit for the work
it is doing for meteorology in the United
States.
METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS IN SCHOOLS.
THE Connecticut State Board of Educa-
tion has issued a pamphlet on Meteorological
Observations in Schools (Conn. School Doe.
No. 10, 1896), which is intended to serve as
an outline for the use of teachers who wish
to give their scholars some practice in tak-
ing systematic meteorological observations
of the simplest character. The time has
come when some beginning in the teaching
of meteorology in our schools should be
made, and in order that such instruction
may be systematic, and may serve as a
basis for more advanced work in the later
school years, an outline such as the present
one is necessary. Teachers who are giving
any attention to meteorology will find the
"pamphlet useful.
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 78.
OTHER NOTEWORTHY PUBLICATIONS.
Tue following recent publications are
worthy of note:
H. ©. Russern: <A Map Showing the
Average Monthly Rainfall in New South Wales.
(Read betore the Royal Society of New
South Wales, November 7, 1894.) The
map shows, for each square degree of the
Colony, the mean rainfall for every month.
String unp Berson: Die XV. Fahrt des
Ballons ‘ Phinix’? am 1 July, 1894. (Zeitschr.
f. Luftschiffahrt, February-March, 1896,
29-58.) An account of a balloon ascent to
an altitude of 17,226 feet. Full meteor-
ological observations were taken.
R. DE C. Warp.
HARVARD UNIVERSITY.
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS.
ASTRONOMY.
THE Saxon Academy has recently published
a paper by Dr. Bruno Peter, containing the
results of his observations with the new Rep-
sold heliometer of the Leipzig observatory.
The paper contains an extensive investigation
of the instrument and a determination of the
parallaxes of three stars whose parallaxes had
not previously been measured. The most in-
teresting thing brought out in the investigation
of the instrument is an experimental verifica-
tion of the possibility of eliminating entirely
the effects of a varying focal adjustment of the
eye-piece by the use of certain peculiarly shaped
diaphragms in front of the object glass. That
this is possible had been previously suggested
from theoretical considerations by Dr. Abbe, of
Jena. The only point in which Dr. Peter’s
method of observation differs materially from
that usually employed is in the determination
of the error of runs separately for each obser-
vation, instead of employing a constant value
for the night.
The parallax observations have been effected
very nearly according to the program used by
-
Gill. The results obtained are as follows :
Parallax.
Bradley 3077, +0/7.13 +0/7.012
Arg.-Oeltz. 10603, +0.17 +0/7.013 .
31 Aquile, +0/.06 +0/7.015
JUNE 26, 1896. ]
It is to be regretted that Dr. Peter has not
yet published the results of his observations of
other stars. One would have supposed that the
first publication of observations made with a
new instrument would include the results ob-
tained for stars observed elsewhere. Thus a
comparison with the work of other observers
would have furnished a certain check upon Dr.
Peter’s own work. The stars whose parallaxes
have been observed by Dr. Peter, but still re-
main unpublished, are:
Theta Ursae Majoris.
Beta Coma Berenicis.
Lal. 18115.
Eta Cassiopeize,
Mu Cassiopeize,
Lal. 15290,
THE Astronomical Journal of June 4th con-
tains a determination, by Mr. Eric Doolittle, of
the secular perturbations of Mercury by the
Earth. The computations were made accord-
ing to the method of Gauss. There is also an
orbit of Gamma Coronae Borealis by Dr. See.
Prof. Comstock calls attention to the fact that
his observations for the determination of the
constant of aberration by Loewy’s method show
evidence of the existence of systematic error
depending on magnitude in the observation of
the right ascensions of the fundamental stars
with the meridian circle. lef, da
HONEY ANTS.
AN interesting paper by Mr. W. W. Frog-
gatt, of the Australian Museum, on Australian
honey ants, has just been reprinted from the
‘Report of the Horn Expedition to Central Aus-
tralia; Part II ., Zodlogy.’
Camponotus inflatus, Lubbock, has long been
known (since 1880) to possess an inflated form
of worker which the other ants in the colony
use as store houses for the preservation of sac-
charine substance, just as is the case with the
honey ants of Mexico, Colorado and Sarawak.
The present paper describes two new species,
Camponotus cowlet and C. midas, both congeneric
with Lubbock’s species and both possessing the
honey-storing habit, though in less marked de-
gree than C. inflatus. In fact, C. cowlei seems
to be, to a certain extent, a transition form, or
a form in which the differentiation into the
honey-bearing workers has not proceeded to its
fullest extent. Even in ©. inflatus there is
little or no structural difference between the
SCIENCE. 923
honey-bearing workers and the ordinary worker,
but the honey bearers are quite incapable of
movement and must be fed by the ordinary
workers. With C. cowlei, however, the honey
bearers, although considerably swollen, seem to
be able to move about slowly. It is possible
that the only colony observed was a young
colony and that the ‘rotund’ had not reached
its full individual development. There is no
hint by the writer that with the Camponotus
honey ants there is any tendency towards the
change to honey bearers on the part of certain
of the workers by reason of any peculiar struc-
ture or form of intestine or abdominal walls, as
has been suggested by Dr. McCook in the case
of our Colorado Myrmecocystus. The develop-
ment of this extraordinary habit in certain
species which are perfectly congeneric with many
other species in other parts of the world in
which there is no tendency in this direction is
not the least interesting phenomenon connected
with this extraordinary subject. Ip Oz Jel,
SCIENTIFIC CONTRIBUTIONS FROM THE MISSOURI
BOTANICAL GARDEN.
The American Walnuts and Hickories.* The
present paper, which in the main accepts the
specific limitations and nomenclature of Prof.
Sargent’s Silva of North America, is devoted
mainly to an analysis of the characters by
which the hickories and walnuts and butternut
may be distinguished in their winter condition,
it being claimed that the characters afforded
during that season are even more satisfactory
than those obtainable during the earlier period
of growth. The twig and bud characters and
the characters of a great variety of fruits are
illustrated in detail, and reproductions are
given, direct from photographs, of the bark of
a number of the species. Several interesting
hybrids are also discussed in detail.
The Agaves of the United States., About
* Juglandacexe of the United States. By William
Trelease. Issued May 26, 1896. Reprinted from
the Seventh Annual Report of the Missouri Botanical
Garden. Pages 25-46, plates 1-24.
{The Agaves of the United States. By A. Isabel
Mulford. Issued May 26, 1896. Reprinted from.
the Seventh Annual Report of the Missouri Botanical
Garden. Pages 47-100, plates 26-63.
924
twenty years ago the late Dr. Engelmann made
an attempt to classify and describe the species
of Agave of the United States, the genus to
which the Century plant and Maguay belong.
Since that time much information and material
have been accumulating, and in St. Louis,
where Engelmann’s notes and specimens are
preserved, the study of this difficult genus has
been again undertaken. Miss Mulford, whose
work was the basis of a thesis for which she ob-
tained the degree of Doctor of Philosophy from
Washington University in 1895, has brought
together in a carefully arranged synoptical
form the technical descriptions of all of those
species which are now recognized as occurring
within the limits of the United States, and has
added much information of a popular character
concerning their economic uses. The paper is
supplemented by reproductions of habit photo-
graphs and a large series of accurate detail il-
lustrations from drawings by Miss Johnson.
Two Interesting and Rare Water Plants.* Mr.
Thompson gives an exhaustive account of the
structure, and, so far as known, the biology, of
two very rare duckweeds, Wolffia gladiata, var.
Floridana, and W. lingulata, the former hereto-
fore known only from Florida, but collected
last year in the swamps of southern Missouri,
where it occurs associated with other pecul-
jarly Floridan plants, such as Leitneria; the
other heretofore known only from the Méxican
tablelands, but detected by Mr. Thompson in
Kern County, California, last year.
GENERAL.
THE associated press sends news of a terrible
earthquake disaster in the Island of Yesso,
Japan. It is stated that there were as many as
150 shocks lasting in all about 20 hours. The
earthquake and the accompaning tidal wave
caused great loss of life and property.
THE library building presented to the town
of Branford, Conn., by Mr. Timothy Black-
stone at a cost of about $300,000 was dedicated
on June 17th.
*The Ligulate Wolffias of the United States. By
Charles Henry Thompson. Issued May 26, 1896.
Reprinted from the Seventh Annual Report of the
Missouri Botanical Garden. Pages 101-111, plates
64-66.
SCIENCE.
[N. 8S. Vou. ILI. No. 78.
THE Scientific American states that the Egyp-
tian government has determined to commence
a geological survey. The work will be begun
this year, and will take about three years for
its completion. The estimated cost is $125,000.
Capt. H. G. Lyons, R. E., who is at present en-
gaged under the Public Works Department of
the Egyptian government in superintending the
excavation of the ruined temples of Philze, will
have charge of the survey.
Firry photographs from the recent exhibi-
tion at the Cosmos Club, Washington, have
been selected for purchase by the U. S. National
Museum. There will be held next year at
Washington a second exhibition of art photog-
raphy under the name of ‘ The National Photo-
graphic Salon of 1897.’
THE Romanes Lecture for 1896 was deliy-
ered by the Right Rev. the Lord Bishop of Pe-
terborough, on June 17, his subject being:
‘English National Character.’
WE learn from Nature that Sir George Stokes
and Dr. Carl L. Griesbach, Director of the
Geological Survey of India, have been elected
honorary members of the Austrian Academy of
Sciences. Dr. Roux has been elected Associate
of the Academy of Medicine in the room of the
late M. Pasteur.
Pror. F. A. Marcu, of Lafayette College,
the eminent philologist, will receive during the
present month the degree of Lit. D. from Cam-
bridge University, and the degree of D. C. L.
from Oxford University.
Miss L. BRucE has given to the University
of Heidelberg a photographic telescope said to
be even larger than the one she gave to Har-
vard University.
THE Mississippi Valley Medical Association
will meet at St. Paul, Minn., under the presi-
dency of Dr. H. O. Walker, from October 20th
to 23d.
At a meeting of the board of managers of the
New York Botanical Garden on June 17th the
Committee on Plans reported favorable progress,
and the report of the Committee on Annual
Members, Fellows and Patrons stated that a
large number of annual members had been re-
cently added to the rolls, and that President
JUNE 26, 1896. ]
Seth Low and F. F. Thompson had qualified as
fellows by the payment of $1,000 each. The
Director-in-Chief, Dr. Britton, was authorized to
secure the assistance of engineers, landscape
architects and gardeners in preparing the plans
for the development of the Bronx Park: site.
Several gifts were announced, including the
herbarium of the late Harry Edwards, from
Mrs. Esther Herrman.
Garden and Forest states that a preliminary
meeting of citizens of New York interested in
tree-planting in the residence portions of the
city was held May 22d, and it was proposed to
regularly organize the association and elect offi-
cers on Thursday, June 25th, at 3:30 p. m., in
the rooms of the Wool Club. Mayor Strong
has consented to the use of his name for Presi-
dent, and many well-know citizens have signi-
fied their intention to become members. The
annual dues of the society will not exceed’$5.00,
and the receipts will be used to publish pam-
phlets and in disseminating information to the
public on the best methods of planting shade
trees on streets, the best sorts for this purpose,
ete. Application for membership may be made
to Cornelius B. Mitchell, 64 and 66 White street,
New York. We also learn from the same journal
that seven hundred and seventy-five members
have already enrolled themselves in the Audu-
bon Society, established a few weeks ago in Bos-
ton. The object of the Society is to preserve our
native birds by discouraging the use of their
feathers in personal decoration. Among the
Vice-Presidents of the Society are the senior
Senator of Massachusetts, the President of the
Massachusetts Historical Society, the President
of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting
Agriculture, and many other well-known citi-
zens and a number of women distinguished for
their artistic and social attainments. Any one
can become a member of the Society by agree-
ing not to purchase or wear the feathers of wild
birds and paying $1.00. The Secretary, to
whom all communications should be addressed,
is Miss Harriet E. Richards, Boston Society of
Natural History, Boston. There are no annual
dues.
A NEW monthly journal, devoted especially
to the study of children, edited by Prof. Earl
SCIENCE.
925
Barnes, will hereafter be published from Stan-
ford University.
AN X-ray studio has been opened by Mr. M.
F. Martin, at 110 East 26th street, New York.
In a paper first presented before the Michigan
Academy of Science, and now priuted in The
Inlander, Mr. Harlan I. Smith urges the im-
portance of making a systematic archeological
survey of the State of Michigan, with the Uni-
versity as headquarters. It would be a great
advantage to have recorded on a map the posi-
tion of pre-historic remains, in order that per-
mission might be obtained to make scientific
excavations when opportunity offered, and in
order that preference might be given to those
remains least likely to remain intact.
THE degree of D. C. L. will be conferred by
Oxford University. on Sir Archibald Geikie,
K. C. B., F. R.S., Director-General of the Geo-
logical Survey of the United Kingdom.
Miss HELEN KELLAR, who, deaf and blind,
has displayed unusual ability, will be placed,
next autumn, in the Gilman training school,
with a view to preparation for Radcliffe College.
The education and mental attainments of Helen
Kellar are even more interesting than in the
ease of Laura Bridgeman. Those who are in-
terested will find an account by her able teacher,
Miss Sullivan, in a publication from the Volta
Bureau, 1892, and in an article by Prof. Jas-
trow in The Psychological Review for 1894.
In a recent number of SCIENCE we called at-
tention to the international membership of the
German Chemical Society. A striking contrast
is found in the recently published list of mem-
bers of the Chemical Society (London). Out of
2,067 members, over eighty-five per cent. are
residents of the United Kingdom, and more
than half the remainder of British colonies. Of
the 140 foreign members 92 are American, 16
German, 7 Japanese, and the remaining 25 from
eighteen different countries. Considering the
Journal of the Chemical Society and its invalu-
able abstracts, it is rather surprising that the
Society should have so few members outside of
the British Empire.
THE first part of a very important work by
Drs. D. S. Jordan and B. W. Evermann, en-
926
titled ‘The Fishes of North and Middle Amer-
ica,’ has been for some time in type and will be
published shortly by the Smithsonian Institu-
tion. This part will be a volume of over 1,250
pages and will embrace descriptions of 1,28
species under 522 genera. According to the
preface, ‘‘the classification and sequence of
groups * * * adopted is essentially that of
Dr. Theodore Gill,’’ and the part in press covers
the families from Branchiostomide to Priacan-
thidee, including 148 families. The second part,
which may be even larger than the first, it is
expected, will appear early next winter.
ACCORDING to the British Medical Journal a
society has recently been formed entitled ‘L’ Al-
liance Nationale pour le Relévement de la Pop-
ulation Francaise par l Egalité des Familles de-
vant les Impéts.’ M. Bertillon, the Director
of the city of Paris statistics, is the founder
of the Society. A committee has been formed
composed of M. Bertillon; Prof. Richet, of
the Paris Medical Faculty ; Dr. Jayal, mem-
ber of the Academy of Medicine and of the
Chamber of Deputies; M. Honnorat and M.
Cheysson. The first meeting of the Society
was held on May 16th, and was attended by
about a hundred people.
THE daily papers contain several communica-
tions regarding reputed anticipations of the
X-rays sufficiently curious to deserve repetition.
Dr. G. A. Brown is stated, by the Grand Rapids
Herald, to have in his possession a magazine
entitled the Mechanics’ Mirror, which, in 1846,
is said to contain this announcement: ‘The
following communication was made to the
Academie Royale des Sciences de Paris at its
last meeting by a Greek physiologist, A. M.
Esseltja, who asserts that by the assistance of
electric light he has been enabled to see through
the human body, and thus to detect the exist-
ence of deep-seated disease. He has followed
the operations of digestion and of circulation.
He has seen the nerves inmotion. M. Esseltja
has imposed the name of ‘Anthroposcope’ on
his extraordinary discovery (?). According to
the Scientific American, Mr. John P. Moss writes
to the Daily News under the heading ‘ Nothing
New under the Sun,’ quoting the following
paragraph from Dr. Priestley’s Electricity,
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 78.
1769. It describes an experiment made by Mr.
Hawkesbee in 1709. ‘‘He (Mr. Hawkesbee)
lined more than the half of the inside of a glass
globe with sealing wax, and having exhausted
the globe, he put it in motion; when, applying
his hand to excite it, he saw the shape and
figure of all the parts of his hand distinctly and
perfectly on the concave superficies of the wax
within. It was as if there had only been pure
glass and no wax interposed between his eye
and his hand.’’ Baron Reichenbach claimed
that his light from the poles of a magnet would
pass through the fingers.
Mr. G. C. Bourne has contributed to Science
Progress two interesting articles on the present
position of the cell theory. After reviewing re-
cent work and theories he concludes that life is
possible only when two (or more) substances of
complex chemical constitution are brought to-
gether, and that when these two (or more) sub-
stances are brought together we have before us
a cell. The cell, therefore, is the vital unit
kav’ é£oyyv. The component parts of the cell are
not vital units, for by themselves they are inca-
pable of life; they are the auxiliaries, the in-
dispensable auxiliaries of life, but they are not
themselves living. If this be true it is entirely
inconsistent with the whole group of theories
based upon hypothetical biophors, gemmules,
plasomes, physiological units, plastidules et hoe
genus omne. The cell theory is the only theory
which our knowledge of structure and of life
processes permits us to adopt, at least if we con-
fine ourselves to that part of it which is essential,
namely, that there is one general principle for
the formation ofall tissues, animal and vegetable,
and that principle is the formation of cells.
Cells are the ultimate vital units, though they
are not the ultimate structural units; they are
the ‘Lebenstrager’ or biophors, and there are
no living individuals lower than cells.
PRESIDENT JORDAN, in his Fishes of Sinaloa,
has recently published the first bulletin of The
Hopkins’ Biological Laboratory, the recently
founded dependence of the Leland Stanford, Jr.,
University, and it will be received with a great
deal of interest by the students of fishes gen-
erally. The paper, continuing the well-known
work in this region of Dr. Gilbert, consists of a
JUNE 26, 1£96.]
systematic review of the fishes of the eastern
shore of the Californian Gulf, in the Mexican
province of Sinaloa. Twenty-nine new species
are recorded, many of which are here figured,
including a new Saw-fish and several new Sting-
rays. The present work, however, can be re-
garded only as the result of a reconnaissance,
although it is clearly of great value. Except
in the case of Chanos, it deals with no osteol-
ogical characters ; and from the nature of the
Hopkins expedition, one can hardly expect
that any definite information could have been
obtained as to the larval characters of these
fishes, or as to the ranges of sexual variation..
ACCORDING to the London Times, the British
Consul at Pirzeus mentions in his last report
that a Pasteur Institute for the treatment of
hydrophobia by inoculation has now been in
existence in Athens for some time. During the
first 16 months of its existence 201 cases were
treated, of which 176 were from Greece, 21
from Egypt, and 4 from Asia Minor. There
was only one death, and in this case the patient
had delayed going for treatment until 15 days
after being bitten. The whole credit of found-
ing the institution belongs to Dr. Pampoukis,
the director, who was sent to study under M.
Pasteur in Paris in 1886, and who, on his re-
turn, started a microbiological institute at his
own expense and conducted a series of valuable
experiments for the government. He opened
the Pasteur Institute in August, 1894, at his
own expense; small allowances have since
been made to him by the municipality and the
government. It is practically impossible to
overestimate the value of such an establishment
in the Levant, and its existence ought to be
widely known. Not only does the curse of
masterless dogs exist in Greece, but even more so
in the neighboring countries. A muzzling or-
der does exist in Attica, but it is not enforced,
and the strewing of poisoned meat in the streets
of Athens and Pirzeus is apparently the only
attempt made by the authorities to deal with
an, increasing amount of rabies. The lack of
water and the prevailing disregard of all forms of
animal'suffering largely contribute to this result.
THE N. Y. Evening Post states that the agricul-
tural extension work carried on by Cornell pro-
SCIENCE.
927
fessors under the provisions of the Nixon fund i
being yearly extended. Originally confined to
the Chautauqua grape belt, it was last year
extended to Genesee. This year Prof. Bailey
has organized work in Oswego county, where
experiments in strawberry culture are to be
made, and in Onondaga and Oneida counties.
The work in each county partakes of the pre-
vailing local farm industry.
THE School of Applied Ethics, which for the
past four years has held sessions at Plymouth,
will omit the session this year.
UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS.
Dr. B. I. WHEELER, of Cornell University,
has been elected president of the University of
Rochester.
Pror. GRAveEs, of Tufts College, has been
elected president of the University of Wyoming.
Mrs. §. W. Bocock has given $5,000 to Yale
University for the purchase of books in social
science.
Av Cornell University an appropriation of
$15,000 has been made for constructing a hy-
draulic laboratory for the College of Civil Engi-
neering, and $30,000 has been appropriated for
an addition to Lincoln Hall, for the acecommo-
dation of the College of Architecture.
THE present and past students of Radcliffe
College and the Cambridge School are uniting
to found a scholarship at Radcliffe College to be
known as the Arthur Gilman Scholarship in
recognition of the services of Mr. Gilman, who
is about to resign his office of Regent.
AT Smith College Miss G. A. Smith has been
appointed assistant in botany, Miss H. W.
Bigelow, assistant in astronomy; Miss L. D.
Wallace, assistant in zodlogy, and Miss E. §S.
Mason, instructor is chemistry.
Dr. WESTERMAIER has been called to a pro-
fessorship of botany in the University of Frei-
burg, Switzerland; Dr. Peltz to the chair of
mathematics in the Technical High School at
Prague, and Dr. Went to the professorship of
botany in the University of Utrecht in the place
of Prof. Rauwenhoff, who has retired.
AT the commencement exercises of Cornell
University, President Schurman made an ad-
928
dress on Liberal Culture and Professional Educa-
tion, in the course of which he justified the re-
cent action of the University in offering the B.
A. degree in place of the degrees of Bachelor of
Philosophy, Science and Law. He held that lib-
eral culture does not come alone from the study
of classics. ‘‘If it be said that the action of
Cornell University destroys the conception of
liberal culture, I reply that, far from destroying
the conception, it enlarges and revivifies it and
brings it into living relation with all the intel-
lectual and esthetic elements of our modern
complex civilization. It is folly to suppose
that some parts of human knowledge are liber-
alizing, and others neutral or negative; or that
some institutions yield culture, and others
merely science.’’
DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE.
THE APPLICATION OF SEX TERMS TO PLANTS.
To THE EpiITor oF SciENcE: If I do not
mistake Prof. Bailey’s meaning in his article
‘On the untechnical terminology of the sex-re-
lation in plants’ (SciENCcE, N. S. III., 825), he
advocates a use of the terms male and female
in semi-popular language which he acknowl-
edges to be in reality incorrect, since he accepts
as true the present view of the morphology of
the members involved. It should be re-
membered that this usage arose when the
morphology of the stamen and pistil was not
understood, and when the ovule in the pistil
was really believed to be an egg within an
ovary and the pollen grain in the anther, the
sperm within a spermary. The question to be
discussed is ‘‘Shall this usage be continued in
‘common’ language ?’’
It may be conceded at once that it is of no
practical importance to a horticulturist (whose
interests Prof. Bailey clearly has at heart)
whether he is taught to apply sex terms to
flowers and their members or not. Seed time
and harvest will not fail because he does not
know the plants he deals with. But suppose a
student whom Prof. Bailey has inspired with a
desire for more extended study goes to another
teacher for a course in morphology. He has
been taught to calla stamena ‘male organ.’
He is given a staminate flower of a pine. He
is permitted to call its members stamens, and
SCIENC&.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 78.
in their ‘maleness’ his professor of horticulture
has led him to believe. Very good. He is
then given a shoot of Equisetum, bearing what
the Manual is pleased to call a ‘fertile spike.’
He discovers its close resemblance to the former
specimen, and perhaps thinks to call it a ‘male
flower’ and its members ‘male organs.’ But
as he studies the life history and seeks to dis-
cover the ‘function of paternity,’ in some unac-
countable way the maleness vanishes, and in-
stead he finds an organ exhibiting at the same
time both ‘maleness’ and ‘femaleness’—dis-
charging at the same moment ‘the function of
paternity’ and ‘the function of maternity ’—
quite as truly, at least, as the stamens ‘ dis-
charge the paternal relation.’
Will Prof. Bailey hold that the stamen-like
sporophylls of Equisetum should, therefore, ‘in
the broad sense of common lauguage,’ be called
hemaphrodite organs? If so, what will he say
to the sporophyll of Botrychium or Onoclea,
whose spores produce a bisexual plant? By
what sex term will he designate untechnically
the office of such sporophylls? I do not take
him here beyond the plants with which the
florist deals and about which he may rightly de-
mand instruction. Surely, in this day, Prof.
Bailey would not desire to perpetuate, even
among amateurs, the fiction that between the
ferns and the flowering plants there is a great
gulf fixed? Yet the loose use of language
which he advocates would seem to require an
affirmative answer. Into what hopeless con-
fusion this would plunge the poor student, only
he can imagine who has seen the difficulty with
which one eradicates from his thought and lan-
guage the misleading analogies which he has
merely acquired accidentally. How much more
difficulty would they give were they inculcated
by a trusted teacher !
Although Prof. Bailey enunciates briefly in
his introduction the doctrine of the alternation
of the sexual and non-sexual phases in plants,
he seems to haye failed to grasp its significance
when he writes: ‘‘Surely the prothallus is no
more sexual than a stamen or a leaf.’’ The
essential character of the sexual phase is that it
produces gametangia, 7. e., sexual organs, in
which the sex cells are differentiated. The es-
sential character of the non-sexual phase is that
JUNE 26, 1896. ]
it produces sporangia, 7. e., non-sexual organs,
in which spores are differentiated. All that
morphologists ask of Prof. Bailey is that he use
the same criterion with plants as with animals,
applying, by a common grammatical figure, sex
terms to the organs that produce sex cells, and
to the plants that carry the sex organs. It is
for this reason that it is proper to call a bull a
male animal and a cow a female animal. But
if the embryo produced by the union of their
sex cells grew into an animal 1,000,000 times
the size of the bull or the cow, and one of its
giant cells formed within itself a bull and an-
other within itself a cow, we should certainly
not be justified in applying sex terms either to
the monster or to any of its organs.
When Prof. Bailey asks to have the figura-
tive use of the sex terms extended so as to ob-
scure the distinction between the sexual and non-
sexual phases of the plant, he asks us to return
to a confusion from which botanical language
has been happily delivered, and from which it
is the duty of botanists to deliver ‘common lan-
guage.’ This deliverance can be brought about
simply by using untechnical terms already
coined and by avoiding the use of sex terms for
a purely vegetative organism. ‘Staminate
flowers’ and ‘pistillate flowers’ are phrases
quite as untechnical as ‘male flowers’ and ‘ fe-
male flowers,’ and they have the advantage of
avoiding the perpetuation of obsolete ideas.
Were the question merely one of morpho-
logical consistency it would be of compara-
tively little moment. But it is a question of
clearness or confusion of ideas. If the mental
eye, as it looks upon plants, be not single, the
the whole mind will be full of darkness; and
if the morphological light that is in the student
be darkness, how great is that darkness! To
advocate one set of ideas for common language
and another for technical is to advocate a re-
turn to that chaos of which the professional
botanist himself was scarcely conscious until
the light of the doctrine of the alternation of
generations broke forth. In its light it be-
hooves us to order our use of language that ap-
plied botany will be helped toward a clearer
view of plant life.
CHARLES R. BARNES.
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN.
SCIENCE.
929
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.
By Dr. Rrpouro Livr.
Roma. 190+
Antropometria Militare.
Parte I. Text and Atlas.
419 pp; 23 plates.
The first part of Dr. Livi’s great work on the
anthropometry of Italy has recently been issued
by the Director of the Italian Army Medical
Journal. The work ranks easily among the
most important contributions to anthropology.
The fact that in past years Dr. Livi has con-
tributed some of the most fundamental results
of his extended and careful investigations to
the Archivio per l’antropologia e la etnologia
and presented others that are not less interest-
ing to the Roman Anthropological Society and
to the Eleventh International Medical Congress.
(Rome, 1894) has made the complete presenta-
tion of his data only the more eagerly expected.
The present part contains the purely anthropo-
logical results of his investigations, while the
second part will be taken up by hygienic and
in a more general way sociological statistics.
The investigations are based on measure-
ments and observations upon men born in the
years 1859-63 and enlisted in the Italian army.
The anthropometrical data that were collected
are the following: Stature, circumference of
chest, weight, length and breadth of head. Be
sides these a number of descriptive features
were observed: Color of eyes and hair, com-
plexion, character of teeth, form of forehead, of
nose, of mouth, chinand face. These data have
been worked up in the following detailed tables :
For each military district (Mandamento) :
1. The frequency of statures in groups of
from 5 to 5 em.
2. The frequency of the various colors of the
hair and of the eyes and that of the pure blonde
and of the pure dark type.
3. The average cephalic index and its distri-
bution in groups from 5 to 5%.
For the larger districts (Circondario) the pre-
ceding data are summarized and the following
are added :
1. The relation between stature and color of
hair.
2. The relation between stature and color of
the eyes.
3. The relation between color of hair and
color of eyes.
930
4. The relation between stature and cephalic
index.
5. The relation between the cephalic index
and color of hair.
6. The distribution of the cephalic index for
each per cent.
For the provinces the previous data are sum-
marized and the following are given in addition:
1. The distribution of the circumference
of the chest in groups of 5 cm.
2. The relation between stature and circum-
ference of chest.
3. The distribution of statures for each cm.
4, The frequency of the principal descriptive
-characters, form of hair, complexion, nose,
face and chin.
These results are presented in a most attrac-
tive manner, on an atlas which brings home
some of the salient results of Dr. Livi’s exten-
sive work at a single glance.
Tt is not possible to enter into all the impor-
tant results which the author by the judicious
use of good statistical methods has reached.
From a general point of view the most impor-
tant is perhaps the final proof of the fallacy of
the theories of Dr. Ammon in regard to the
effect of natural selection upon the develop-
ment of the type of civilized man. A number
of years ago Tonnies pointed out the weakness
of his arguments (Ztschr. fiir Psychol. u. Phys.
der Sinnesorgane), but it remained to Dr. Livi to
finally prove the real cause of the phenomena
which Dr. Ammon had observed, namely, that
the inhabitants of the towns of Baden are more
dolichocephalic than those of the country. Dr.
Livi has shown that everywhere the cephalic
index of the town population is nearer the
average than that of the country population.
Consequently in a brachycephalic region, such
as Baden, the people of the towns are more
dolichocephalic, while in dolichocephalic re-
gions the reverse is the case (p. 86 ff.). The
satisfactory explanation of this fact is that the
town population are more mixed than the
country population is. The author has proved
that the same facts may be observed in regard
to the distribution of color of hair and eyes and
of statures, and I think that in this observation
he has given a very strong proof of the heredity
of stature.
SCIENCE.
[N. S. Vou. III. No. 78.
Among other points of biological interest I
mention the detailed investigation of the influ-
ence of the altitude of habitat upon the vari-
ous measurements. The clearest and best pro-
nounced example of such an influence that the
author has found is that upon the circumference
of the chest which increases with increasing al-
titude. The stature decreases quite consider-
ably in the mountainous districts. The color
is lighter than in the plains. The two last phe-
nomena the author is inclined to attribute to an
earlier arrest of development due to more un-
favorable social conditions, but he does not deny
the possibility of other influences of altitude
upon the development of the human body.
The observation that among the primitive
Americans the stature also decreases with alti-
tude seems to me to indicate that social con-
ditions alone do not sufficiently account for the
phenomenon.
Of special interest are also the detailed in-
vestigations on the correlations of the various
observations, for instance, of the proportions of
the head and the color of the hair which show
clearly that the dark people are the more doli-
chocephalic ones, and that tall people have
more frequently wayy hair than short people.
Most of the relations of measurements or
observations treated by Dr. Livi are based on
stature, i. e., the individuals are grouped ac-
cording to stature and the correlated changes
of the other measurements have been.recorded.
While the results thus obtained are of great
value it would probably have been better to
treat them as correlations, that is to investigate
also the reverse relation. The undue weight
which is thus given to stature as compared to
all other measurements would have been obvi-
ated by this means. This mode of treat-
ment would have been the more desirable,
as stature is one of the measurements which
depend to a considerable extent upon the
influence of environment. Besides this the
distribution of stature as recorded by Dr.
Livi is, as he himself points out, not that
of the total population, as all those individuals
who are unfit for military service are not in-
cluded inthe records. Thus all of less than 154
cm. stature are excluded, and among the others
who were rejected for other reasons the lower
JUNE 26, 1896. ]
statures probably prevail. For this reason his
average statures are all too high, and the distri-
butions of statures appear more assymetrical
than they would be if the total population were
considered.
The remaining portion of the volume is taken
up with a detailed discussion of the geographical
distribution of the various anthropometric types.
It is not possible to enter into this interesting
subject at this place, and it may suffice to call
attention to the important results that the
author has reached. Historical events relating
to the settling of certain portions of Italy are
reflected with remarkable accuracy in the charts
showing the distribution of types. I mention,
for instance, the occurence of a tall dolichoce-
phalic type near Lucca, and the peculiarities of
the type inhabiting Carloforte as compared to
the rest of the inhabitants of Sardinia.
This exhaustive work will always remain the
basis of all studies on the anthropometry of the
people of the Italian Peninsula.
FRANZ BOAs.
Electric Lighting, a Practical Exposition of the
Art for the Use of Engineers, Students and
Others interested in the Installation or Operation
of Electrical Plants. Vol. I. The Generating
Plant. By FRANcIS B. Crocker, E.M., Ph.
D., Professor of Electrical Engineering in Co-
lumbia University. 8vo. VIII. 444 pp. New
York, D. Van Nostrand Company.
In the preface the author states his belief—
and he is undoubtedly correct—‘‘ that electric
lighting has reached a sufficiently perfected and
established state to allow of its being treated in
a fairly satisfactory and permanent manner.’’
According to the plan adopted by the author,
the subjects treated in this volume are taken up
in the following order: Two chapters are de-
voted to the introduction and historical matter;
the third discusses units and measures, and the
fourth treats of the classification and selection of
electric lighting systems. The clear and candid
statement of reasons which should influence
the selection of asystem makes the fourth chap-
ter of great practical value.
It is evident, however, that Prof. Crocker ad-
vocates the use of the direct current where
many engineers would prefer to use an alter-
SCIENUVE.
931
nating system; and while he very properly
quotes the value of human life as one of the
factors which should influence a decision, he
seems to neglect the fact that good work and
materials will render any current in commercial
use practically safe, while want of care in wir-
ing and poor insulation will, through the fire
risks involved, make either system an indirect
menace to human life, far more serious in its
nature than the direct danger threatened by
the employment of high voltage alternating
currents.
Two chapters follow which consider location
and buildings, and then the author proceeds to
the consideration of sources of energy, prime
motors,and the mechanical connections between
engines and dynamos. The chapters devoted
to these subjects filltwo hundred pages, or
nearly one half of the volume.
After these come two chapters in which the
design and construction of electrical machines
is briefly treated. There is no lumber in this
part of the work, and the reader will miss the
time-honored descriptions and _ illustrations
which have been so prominent in electrical text-
books for the last fifteen years.
The next chapter is one of the most valuable
in the book; it is largely taken from a work by
Prof. Crocker and Dr. 8. 8. Wheeler, and con-
tains more direct and practical instruction as to
the care and use of electrical machinery than
can be found in the same number of pages else-
where.
The author knows his subject and knows
how to tell what he knows, a rare combination
one is sometimes tempted to believe.
The remainder of the work, about sixty
pages, is devoted to accumulators, switch-boards
and apparatus, and electrical measuring instru-
ments.
The distribution and utilization of electricity
for the purpose of illumination are subjects re-
served for a second volume.
A very valuable feature of the book is found
in the abundant reference made to books and
papers treating single topics more fully than
the limits of this work will allow.
It is practically impossible to give in a treat-
ise of moderate size more than a small part of
the matter absolutely necessary for the use of
932
the student when the subject treated is a
branch of pure or applied science. And the au-
thor who neglects to avail himself of this simple
method of enormously increasing the value of
his book does grievous injustice to his subject,
his readers and himself. No engineer can be a
man of one book. The profession needs a broad
and deep foundation. Outline treatises, sched-
ules, abstracts from lecture courses and pocket
manuals are valuable in their way, but they
should be used only as guides to a systematic
course of reading or as memoranda in which
are collected the results of previous study.
No one probably knows the truth of these
statements better than Prof. Crocker, and with-
out doubt itis his recognition of the impossi-
bility of making a complete presentation of his
subject which has inclined him to supplement
his text with so many valuable references. It
is in this connection that the chief criticism
upon this work is to be made. The sub-title,
‘A Practical Exposition of the Art for the Use
of Engineers, Students and Others interested
in the Installation or Operation of Electrical
Plants,’ might fairly lead one to look for an
encyclopedia or library even. The book is
rather overloaded by its title.
The author has made excellent choice of his
matter. The book is remarkably free from
‘padding’ and as we should expect in a work by
Prof. Crocker, the form in which the topics are
presented is direct and clear.
Like Oliver Twist, however, the reader is
often inclined to ask for more of the same sort.
The student or engineer will find it helpful,
if not complete. And we venture the assertion
that the general reader and the ‘‘ Others inter-
ested in the Installation and Operation of Elec-
trical Plants’ will find this on the whole the
most satisfactory work published.
A. S. KIMBALL.
WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE.
Our Native Birds of Song and Beauty. By H.
NEHRLING. 4°. George Brumder, Milwau-
kee. Part XIV. June, 1896.
Again it is our pleasant duty to announce the
appearance of another part of Nehrling’s meri-
torious work on North American Birds.
It opens with an excellent colored plate of
SCIENCE.
[N.S. Vou. III. No. 78.
the Dickcissel by R. Ridgway. The male is
singing in a field of red clover, with the mother
on her nest below. Another plate by Goering
shows the meadow lark and the bobolink, and
also the yellow-headed and red-winged black-
birds. The text treats of these species and also
of several of the true orioles—Audubon’s,
Scott’s, the hooded, orchard and Baltimore.
The biographies, as in previous parts, take one
into the woods and fields and marshes, where
the birds live, and introduce him to the sur-
roundings before bringing in the subject of the
sketch. The matter on geographic distribution
has received a little more attention than usual,
and considerable information is given on food
habits.
The announcement is made that two more
parts will complete the present (2d) volume.
This is good news, and we heartily commend
the book to those who wish to procure, at a
reasonable price, a reliable work, with colored
plates, on the haunts and habits of North
American birds. Cc. H. M.
Die Haustiere und ihre Bezeihungen zur Wirt-
schaft des Menschen. Eine geographische studie,
von Epuarp Haun. Leipzig, Duncker &
Humblot, 1896. 8°, pp. 581.
In this work the author has brought together
in convenient form a large mass of facts con-
cerning domesticated animals. He begins with
the dog and ends with fish. Besides the ordi-
nary domesticated mammals, he includes the
yak, buffalo, deer, camel, lama, rabbit, cavy,
and ferret. The number of birds treated is
also considerable.
In dealing with the origin of the various
breeds, the author usually quotes eminent au-
thorities, rarely advancing views of his own.
Footnote references are given in profusion, so
that those interested in following up the sub-
ject shall not want for material.
The systematic part of the work, in which
each animal is discussed at length, is followed
by a geographical study, in which the several
countries are discussed with respect to their do-
mesticated animals. Op Jet, Wt
The Gypsy Moth. A Report of the Work of
Destroying the Insect in the Commonwealth
JUNE 26, 1896.]
of Massachusetts, together with an account
of History and Habits, both in Massachusetts.
and Europe. By E. H. Forsusn, Field
Director, and C. H. FERNALD, Entomologist
to the State Board of Agriculture. Boston.
1896.
The successive steps in the great experiment
in economic entomology which has been car-
ried on by the State of Massachusetts during
the last five years are admirably portrayed in
this volume. Never in the history of this
country has so much money been spent by a
State or by the General Government in fighting
insects as has been used by Massachusetts
against this one species, and it is most fortunate
that the work has been in efficient hands and
that no political jobbery has been connected with
it since its start. Whatever the ultimate result
of the experiment may be, it cannot fail to have
been most instructive as bearing upon future
work. The report is an admirable summary of
the entire investigation. Mr. Forbush takes
up the first half of the volume, some 250 pages,
with a history of the gypsy moth in America,
carefully detailing year by year the work of the
State Commission down to and including the
year 1895, following with a chapter on the in-
crease and distribution of the insect, another on
the methods used for destroying it, another on
the influence of birds in the destruction of the
species, and a final chapter on the progress of
extermination. He treats fairly the obstacles
to extermination, the principal ones being the
enormous reproductive capacity of the moth, its
very numerous food plants and the dense popu-
lation of the infested region, which increases
the danger of local distribution and reinfesta-
tion by the constant passing and repassing of
infested centers by men and animals. In spite
of these obstacles, however, Mr. Forbush shows
that the insect has been locally exterminated,
and argues that with sufficient appropriations it
may be generally exterminated. He thinks
that the policy of control or extermination of
insect pests by government commissions, which
has been so successful in certain European
countries, might be applied in this case by the
government of the United States.
The greatest scientific interest attaches to the
second part of the report, which has been pre-
SCIENCE.
933
pared by Prof. Fernald. It includes a full biblio-
graphy and consideration of the distribution of
the species in other countries, the methods used
to destroy it abroad, an elaborate account of
its life history, based upon the most careful orig-
inal observations, a list of the plants upon
which the insect has been known to feed in
Massachusetts, another list upon which it has
been known to feed in Europe, and, by com-
parison with these, a very small list of the
plants upon which it will not feed. There is
further a section on the anatomy of the adult
insect and a full consideration of the natural
enemies which affect the species both in Europe
and in Massachusetts, and the part concludes
with an elaborate account of the experiments
which have been made with insecticides.
The portion of the report dealing with the
biology of the species contains many sections of
muchimportance. The exact experiments upon
the amount of food, on the effects of tempera-
ture, on hermaphroditism, on polygamy, on as-
sembling and on parthenogenesis are of par-
ticular interest. The experiments with insecti-
cides show many results which are most sur-
prising, and none more so than the feeding of
caterpillars, for from five to ten days before
causing death, upon leaves treated with strong
arsenical solutions. In an interesting by-sub-
ject—the dying out of the species in England—
Prof. Fernald advances a new theory. It has
been stated by no less an authority than J.
Jenner Weir that the gypsy moth has been ex-
terminated in England simply by collectors.
Prof. Fernald, however, is inclined to think
that the darker color of the foliage and other
surroundings in England have made the female
moths more conspicuous objects to their ene-
mies than they are on the continent of Kurope,
so that in the struggle for existence the species
was exterminated before it had time to take on
the darker color which would have protected it.
The argument is a somewhat elaborate one, and
this is simply the conclusion.
The volume is illustrated with a wealth of
text figures and plates, and will forever stand
as a monument to the enlightened energy of the
State of Massachusetts and the practical and
scientific ability of its authors.
L. O. Howarp.
934
SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES.
BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON, 263D
MEETING, MAY 30, 1896.
THEO. GILL spoke of The Characteristics of the
Families Salmonide and Thymallide, saying that
in 1894 he had given definitions of the two
based on modifications of the cranium, the
presence or absence of epipleurals, and the
development of the dorsal fin. The Salmonidx
were supposed to have the ‘ parietal bones sep-
arated at middle by the intervention of the
supraoccipital,’ while the Thymallidx had ‘ pari-
etal bones meeting at middle.’ Mr. Boulenger
has denied the existence or value of these dif-
ferential characters. As to the relations of the
parietal and supraoccipital bones he was fully
justified. The Coregonines generally have the
parietals contiguous, and therefore the dis-
tinction of the Salmonids from the Thymallids
on that basis must be abandoned. But there
appears to be no reason for further abandon-
ment. The epipleurals are well developed in
Thymallus, while none could be found in Salmo,
Salvelinus, Argyrosomus and Coregonus. It was
suggested that Mr. Boulenger might have con-
sidered the epicentrals, which are common to
both the Salmonids and Thymallids, to be what
was meant by epipleurals. At any rate, Prof.
Eyermann and Mr. Lucas had both reéx-
amined the question on specimens prepared by
themselves and had reached the same conclu-
sions as the speaker. There is no question
about the difference between the dorsal fins of
the two types. They may, therefore, be main-
tained as families differentiated by the combina-
tion of epipleurals and peculiar dorsal in
the Thymallids and no epipleurals and normally
constructed dorsal in the Salmonids.
Barton W. Evermann spoke of The Fishes and
Fisheries of Indian River, Florida. Indian River
is not ariver atall, buta long, shallow salt-water
lagoon shut off from the sea by a series of low
and narrow islands.
The depth is usually not greater than 6 to 10
feet, and the density of the water varies from
1.018 to 1.019.
The total number of species of fishes now
known from the river is 105, though further in-
vestigation will doubtless add many to the list.
Indian River is remarkable for the large num-
SCIENCE.
(N.S. Vou. III. No. 78.
ber of important food fishes which it contains,
no fewer than 25 species being handled by the
fishermen. Among the most important may be
named the following: Common mullet (Mugil
cephalus), pompano (Trachinotus carolinus), blue-
fish (Pomatomus saltatrix), red drum (Scienops
ocellatus), spotted squeteague, or sea trout (Cyno-
scion nebulosus), and the mangrove snapper (Neo-
menis griseus). The mullet is by far the most
abundant of the food fishes.
The fisheries of this river have developed
along with the completion of the Florida Hast
Coast Railroad, which now furnishes excellent
facilities for the shipping of fish to Northern
cities. At first Titusville was the only im-
portant fishing center, but now several points
further south are equally important. The se-
vere cold in the winter of 1894—95 caused a con-
siderable increase in the number of fishing
firms. Several growers of oranges and pine-
apples, finding their orchards ruined, have
turned their attention, temporarily at least, to
fishing. F. A. Lucas, Secretary.
THE ACADEMY OF NATURAL SCIENCES OF PHILA-
DELPHIA, JUNE 9, 1896.
PAPERS under the following titles were pre-
sented for publication :
‘Contributions to a Knowledge of the Hy-
menoptera of Brazil; No. 1, Scoliidee,’ by Wm.
J. Fox.
‘The Correct Position of the Aperature of
Planorbis,’ by Frank C. Baker.
‘The Mesenteries of the Lacertilia,’ by E. D.
Cope.
‘Revision of the Slugs of North America,
Ariolimax and Aphallarion,’ by Henry A. Pils-
bry and E. G. Vanatta.
Dr. Harrison Allen made a communication
on forms considered specific, but which were
merely instances of arrested development. He
referred in illustration to certain species of
Vespertilio, claiming that lucifugus is merely an
arrested form of gryphus, the species albescens
also being based on similar characters. He
had applied the term pzedomorphism to the
condition which had been worked out, he be-
lieved, only among the bats and by himself.
He held that the specific names of such forms
were not valid and should be dropped.
JUNE 26, 1896. ]
Dr. Horn stated that many such instances of
arrested developments were found among in-
sects. He referred to the dimorphic males of
Eupsalis minuta, a rhyncophorous beetle, on
which a French writer had founded three
species. The egg-depositing habits of the fe-
male and the assistance occasionally rendered
by the male were commented on.
Botanical Section, June 8, 1896. Dr. Chas.
Schaeffer, Recorder. A paper was read from
Mr. Thos. Meehan on Erigeron strigosus. A
tendency of the ray florets to become discoidal,
together with an acceleration from the lingulate _
The her-
to the discoid condition, was noted.
maphrodite state of the flower is not established
until the tubular condition becomes permanent.
Dr. Ida A. Keller recorded the fact that if a
cold alcoholic solution of chlorophyl] be treated
with benzol,the chlorophy] will be extracted and
float as a green film on the surface of the liquid.
Records were made by Mr. Stevenson Brown,
Mr. Crawford and Mr. Williamson, of unusual
distribution of species. Epw. J. NoLAN,
Recording Secretary.
MEETING OF THE NEW YORK SECTION OF THE
AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY.
THE June meeting of the New York Section
of the American Chemical Society was held on
Friday evening, the 5th inst., at the College of
the City of New York, Prof. A. A. Breneman
presiding.
After the reading of the minutes the chair-
man of the Committee on Organization of the
Chemical Club reported that at a recent meet-
ing of the committee, held at the Board of
Trade, much enthusiasm was shown, and
the movement was making good progress.
A communication from the Joint Commission
of the Scientific Societies of Washington in re-
gard to the Senate bill 1552, intended to re-
strict, if not prohibit, vivisection, was taken up
and acted upon.
The sentiment of the meeting was unanimous
in the direction of preventing affirmative action
by Congress on the said bill; and the following
resolutions were unanimously adopted, after a
full discussion, in which Profs. Sabin, Brene-
man, Doremus, Hale and McMurtrie partici-
pated.
SCIENCE. 935
Resolved, That the New York Section of the
American Chemical Society most earnestly op-
poses the legislation proposed by Senate bill
1552, entitled ‘ A bill for the further prevention
of Cruelty to animals in the Dristrict of Colum-
bia.’
Resolved, That the proposed legislation is un-
necessary and would seriously interfere with
the advancement of biological science in that
District ; that it would be especially harmful in
its restriction of experiments relating to the
cause, prevention and cure of the infectious
diseases of man and of the lower animals; that
the researches made in this department of bio-
logical and medical science have been of im-
mense benefit to the human race ; and that, in
general, our knowledge of physiology, of toxi-
cology and of pathology, forming the basis of
scientific medicine, has been largely obtained
by experiments upon living animals, and could
have been obtained in no other way.
Resolved, That physicians and others who are
engaged in research work haying for its object
the extension of human knowledge and the pre-
vention and cure of disease are the best judges
of the character of the experiments required
and of the necessity of using anesthetics, and
that in our judgment they may be trusted to
conduct such experiments in a humane manner,
and to give anesthetics when required to pre-
vent pain. To subject them to penalties and
to espionage, as is proposed by the bill under
consideration, would, we think, be an unjust
and unmerited reflection upon a class of men
who are entitled to our highest consideration.
Dr. C. A. Doremus read a ‘ Note on Presence
of Oil in Boiler Scale.’
Mr. J. A. Matthews described
Method of Preparing Phthalimid.’
The chair announced this as the last meeting
of the season, and stated that the fall and win-
ter meetings would probably be held in the
same rooms. DURAND WoopMAN,
Secretary.
‘A New
PROCEEDINGS OF THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB,
MAY 27, 1896.
THE last regular meeting of the season was
held in Hamilton Hall, Dr. Schneider occupy-
ing the chair. One new member was elected.
936
Dr. John K. Small read his announced paper :
‘Notes on the Flora of Yadkin Valley, N. C.’
He spoke of the character of the Yadkin River
and the geology between Salisbury, N. C., and
the district where the Yadkin becomes the great
Pedee. He discussed the great similarity of
Dunn’s Mountain, N. C., and Stone Mountain,
Ga., the fact strongly emphasized by the local
species common to both localities. He then
gave a running account of the general floral
features of the Yadkin Valley and summarized
the phenomena as follows:
I. Several new species have lately been dis-
covered in that region, viz: Acer leucoderma.
Solidago Yadkinensis and Quercus Phellos x=Q.
digitata.
II. Several typical members of the prairie or
plains flora are perfectly at home there, as
Scutellaria campestris and Solidago radula.
TII. Plants thought to be confined to the
granite outcrop of Georgia are common, viz:
Arenaria brevifolia and Diamorpha pusilla.
TV. Alleghenian or subalpine species as /Vald-
steinia fragarioides and Anemone trifolia occur
there.
VY. One species, Lotus Helleri, is endemic.
VI. A typically northern and very local
species Solidago Purshii reaches a greater de-
velopment, and is more abundant than else-
where.
VII. A normally tropical species Portulaca
pilosa abounds in certain places. .
VIII. Generally local plants are represented
by Clematis ochroleuca, Verbena riparia, Oxalis
recurva and Aster ptarmicoides Georgianus.
Remarks were made anda discussion followed
on the growth of plants in regions which for
long periods at a time are devoid of rain.
A number of cut flowers of Arethusa bulbosa
were presented to the members by Miss. Rachel
Farrington, of Lakewood, N. J.
W. A. BASTEDO,
Secretary pro tem.
KANSAS UNIVERSITY SCIENCE CLUB.
Art the twelfth annual meeting, held at Snow
Hall on June 4th, the following program was
presented :
On Hesperornis, S. W. Williston; The Groups of
SCIENCE.
[N. 8. Vou. III. No. 78.
Motive in the Plane, H. B. Newson; The Motion of
a Semispherical Shell on a Horizontal Plane, A.
Emch; New Methods of Demonstration in Botany,
M. A. Barber; Theory of the Satellites of the Earth
and Mars, E. Miller; Stratigraphy of the Fort Ben-
ton, W. N. Logan; Construction and Use of an Inter-
ference Refractometer, M. E. Rice; A New Species of
Sabre-toothed Cat, E. S. Riggs; On Double Sulfates,
H. P. Cady; Further Investigations regarding the
Constituents of the Dandelion Root, L. E. Sayre;
Analysis of a Gypsum from Marshall County, L.
Page; Analysis of House Paints, W. R. Mason and
E. L. McCoy; Certain Principles in the Construction
of Disruptive Discharge Coils, A. St.C. Dunstan;
Some Conditions Governing the Deposition of the
Lead and Zine Ores in Southeast Kansas, E. Ha-
worth; Variable Constitution of a Fresh Egg, James
Lear and L. E. Sayre; Comparative Chaetotaxy of
Diptera, H. W. Menke; Analysis of ‘Natural Plas-
ter’ from Reno County, L. Page.
NEW BOOKS.
Thirteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of Eth-
nology. J. W. PowELu. 1891-2. Washing-
ton, Government Printing Office. 1896. Pp.
lix+462.
Year Book of the United States Department of
Agriculture, 1895. Washington, Government
Printing Office. 1896. Pp. 656.
Report of Work of Agricultural Experiment Sta-
tions of the University of California for the Year
1894-95. Sacramento. 1896. Pp. xii+481.
Lehrbuch der vergleichenden
Anatomie der Wirbeltiere.
Erster Teil. Der Magen.
Fischer. 1896.
Mikroskopischen
ALBERT OPPEL.
Jena, Gustav
Pp. viii +543.
Anleitung zur Microchemischen Analyse. H. BEH-
RENS. Heft III. Hamburg and Leipzig,
Leopold Voss. 1896. Pp. vii+-185.
Official Year Book of the Scientific and Learned
Societies of Great Britain and Ireland. Lon-
don, Charles Griffin & Co., Lit’d. 1896. Pp.
iv+262. 7s. 2d.
Long Life. Volume III. C. A. STEPHENS.
The Laboratory, Norway Lake, Maine.
1896. Pp. 218.
The Oswego Normal Method of Teaching Geog-
raphy. Amos W. FARNHAM. Syracuse, N.
Y., C. W. Bardeen. 1896. Pp, 127. 50 cts.
SCIENCE.— ADVERTISEMENTS. il
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iv SOIENCE—ADVERTISEMENTS.
Nearly all the leading men of science in America have consented to contrib-
ute to the New Series of Sciznce. The contributors include :
H. P. Bowprtce, W. M. Davis, G. L. GoopALE, W. JAMmEs, T. A. JAGGAR, JR., C.S. Minot, Huco
MUNSTERBERG, F. W. PUDNAM, A. LAWRENCE Rorcen, J. B. WoopworrH, J. McM. WoopwortH
—Harvard University.
3. A. GouLp, S. H. ScuppER—Cambridge. HENRY W. HAyNES—Boston.
AuPpaHEus Hyatt—Boston University SAMUEL HENSHAW—Boston Society of Natural History.
N. L. Brirron, J. McK. CArrent, F. B. CROCKER, WILLIAM HALLOcK, ARTHUR HOLLICK, GILBERT
VAN INGEN, H. Jacopy, J. F. Kemp, FREDERICK S. Ler, LEA I. LuquEerr, A. J. Mosss,H. F. Os-
BORN, M. I. Purr, J. K. Rees, H. A. Topp, R. 8. WoopwARrp—Columbia College.
DANIEL W. Herine, Morris Lors—University of the City of New York.
J. A. ALLEN, FRANZ Boas, A. P. Bostwick, H. CARRINGTON Bouton, E. G. BRITTON, CHARLES L. DANA,
Emory McCrrintock, H. H. Ruspy, DURAND WoonpmMAN—WNew York. E. L. GREGORY—Barnard Col-
lege. PererR T. AUSTEN, H. H. FIELD, WILLIAM MCMURTRIE— Brooklyn, N. Y.
HARRISON ALLEN, J. S. BrnLines, D. G. Brinton, E. D. Copr, JooN HARSHBERGER, JOHN RYDER, ED-
GAR F. Smirn, W. P. WiLson— University of Pe ennsylvania.
R. Meave Bacne, Ropert H. BRADBURY, CHARLES 8. DOLLEY, PERSIFOR FRAZER, GUY HINSDALE, S.
WetRk MircHELL, G. M. GOULD, WITMER StonE—Philadelphia.
E. A. ANDREWS, W. K. Brooks, W. B. CLARK, D. C. GILMAN, ELLIoTT J. GILPIN, W. W. RANDALL,
Ika Remson, E. RENour—Johns Hopkins University.
W..H. Datt, G. Brown Gooner, THEO. GinL, F. A. Lucas, O. T. Mason, C. V. Riuzy, F. H. TRuE—
‘Smithsonian Institution. GEORGE M. STERNBERG—U. S. Army.
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H. W. TURNER, H. N. SroKEs, CHaAs. D. WALCOr?, LESTER F. "WaRD—JU. S. Geological Survey.
A. HALL, WILLIAM HARKNESS—U. S. Naval Observatory.
ALBERTS. GATSCHET, W J McGEE, J. W. POWELL—Bwreaw of Hihnology.
Simon S. Newcomp—JU. S. Nautical Almanac Office.
E. B. Fernow, B. T. GALLowAy, L. O. Howarp, F. H. KNownton, C. HART MERRIAM, T. S. PALMER,
F. LAMSON SCRIBNER, ERWIN F. Smits, C. W. Stites, M. B. Warrr, H. W. WILEY—Depurtment
of Agriculture. J. A. FLEMER, H. G. OGDEN—Coast and Geodetic Survey.
CLEVELAND ABBE, FRANK H. BIGELOW, ALEXANDER MCADIE, E. L. MooRE— Weather Bureau.
ELLiotr Cours, GARDINER G. HuBBARD, J. W. SPENCER—Washington. Rost. B. WARDER—Howard
University.
C. E. BEECHER, G. T. LADD, 8. L. PENFIELD, E. W. ScRIPTURE— Yale University.
L. H. Bartuey, 8. H. GAGE, H. N. Oapren, E. B. TircHenrr, R. H. THuRston, BuRT G. WILDER—
Cornell Uni versi ty.
HoRATIO HALE—Clinton, Ontario. HENRY MONTGOMERY—Trinity University.
ALEX, F, CHAMBERLAIN, G. STANLEY Haun, E. C. SANFORD, A. G. WEBSTER—Clark University.
J. MARK BALDWIN, WILLI AM LIBBEY, G: MAcnoskrE, W. B. Scorr, C. A. YouNe—Princeton College.
Byron D. Hatstep, J. B. Smita—wv. TR Agricultural Exper iment Station. WILLIAM Kent—Passaic, N. J.
W. LE Cop STEVENS—Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute.
Sirk WILLIAM WsoNn, WESLEY Mi~is—MeGill University.
T. C. MENDENH ALL— Worcester Polytechnic Institute. S. 1. PEcK— Williams College.
g doin College. H. L. FarrcHtLp— University of Rochester. C. W. HArecirr—Syra-
C. S. PRosseER—Union College.
plas “Dertmouth College. A. C. ARMSTRONG, JR., H. W. ConN— Wesleyan University.
H. C. Bumpps, EL . DELABARRE, A. 8S. PACKARD—Brown University. Davip P. Topp—Amherst College.
EDWARD "KEISER, T. H. Morcan—Bry yn Mawr College. W. F. GANONG—Smith College.
MANSFIELD MERRIMAN—Lehigh University. EpwaArbD Hart, J. W. MoorE—Lafayette College.
Hy F. H. Herrick—adAdelbert College. JAs. LEwis HowE— Washington and Lee University.
4, WWM. M. FonraInE—University of Virginia. JAMES E. KEELER—Allegheny Observatory.
Re, fk A. ForBes— University of Illinois. CHARLES RoBERTSON—Carlinville, Ill. ?
A. BAUER, JosrpH P. IppINGs, FELIX LENGFELD, ROLLIN D. SALISBURY, FREDERICK STrARR—Uni-
versity of Chicago.
fe oth, HENRY 8. CARWART, ASAPH HALL, JR., WARREN P. LOMBARD, J. PLAYFAIR McMuURRICK, S. F. PECK-
2 “i. HAM, I. C. RUSSELD,.. ALEXANDER ZiwEt—University of Michigan.
WrnrrAM TRELEASE—Sf Louis, Mo. Oscar HprsHpy—Galena, Mo.
E. 8S. WHEELER—Sault Ste Marie, Mich. CoNnwAy MAcMILLAN, E. W. HaLtL—University of Minnesota.
U. S. GRANT—Tfinnesota Geological Survey. WARREN UPHAM—Minneapolis.
H. L. Bottey—W. Dak. Agricultural College. J. ©. ARTHUR—Purdue University.
»C. R. BARNzEs, G. C. Comstock, H. L. RusseLL—Universily of Wisconsin. G. T. WRigHT—Oberlin College.
THOMAS GRAY, Wm. A. Novrs—Rose Polytechnic Institute. C.J. HERRICK—Denison University.
Grorar Bruce H ALSTED, E. T. DUMBLE—Universily of Teas. EuGEne A. Smira—University of Alabama.
F. H. Snow, E. 8. WILLIStoN— University of Kansas. Pror. C. 8. KNiguHt—University of Wyoming.
DAVID sre ore AN, J. C. BRANNER—Stanford University. E. S. HonpEN—Lick Observatory.
Joserr LE ContE, W. A. SETCHELL— University of California.
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